defeats my creation…” the evil doctor murmured, “…defeats my monster… my work… and he becomes a hero… a superhero… and I’m left a disgrace…”
The thought was boiling him up inside. Here he was trying to create inventions to amaze the world and some snot-nose little punk goes and makes a laughing stock out of it! Bad enough that no one appreciated his genius but now somebody had the gall to mock his most impressive creation!
Well, he’d teach them to laugh at him! He’d show them what he could really do!
He paused and looked up, an evil little smile curling slowly on his lips.
“We’ll see who’s laughing when I’m done with their little superhero,” he said as he marched to his worktable. “We shall see very soon! And when they do, they will TREMBLE before me! Me, Doctor Red, the supervillain! The Really Evil Doctor! They will ALL learn to respect me!” And he topped off that diabolical rant with a very bone-chilling evil laugh.
Back in Poolington, everyone was blissfully unaware of the trouble brewing on the horizon. Although “blissful” was a rather strong word to describe Superkid’s predicament. He was actually dormant. Mrs. Purn was taking extreme measures to keep this other person under control and one of these measures was to ground her son, Aaron, from hanging out with his friends.
…Hey, I said extreme measures not reasonable ones.
His friends weren’t too thrilled at the news.
“She grounded you?!” Derrick’s eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets.
Aaron nodded glumly. “I’m not allowed to talk to you anymore.”
Darrin raised his upturned hands. “Why?”
Aaron shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t dare to ask her.”
Derrick was indignant. “That’s not fair! She can’t do that! She can’t ground you just because you turn into…” He gulped when he realized what he had been about to say.
Aaron stared at him. “What? What were you about to say? What do I turn into?”
Derrick and Darrin exchanged glances. Darrin opened his mouth to answer…
…just as the bell rang.
“Ah shoot,” Derrick said glumly. “See you, Aaron.”
“Bye guys,” Aaron said sadly.
“Now, let’s see if it works,” said Dr. Red. He cradled in his hands a small pistol fitted with odd little colored buttons and a barrel composed of various metals like copper, tin, aluminum, and steel. He turned to a hand-drawn target hanging on the tin wall of his laboratory.
“Laser pistol, Trial One,” he announced and then fired.
The pistol gave a small pop. Immediately the target erupted with electricity that spread out in waves like ripples in a pond. When the electricity vanished, the evil doctor was astounded at the results. The target was shredded but that was due to the jagged metal shards thrust through it. The tin wall surrounding the target was also shredded, the metal twisted and jutting.
The evil doctor inspected his invention bemusedly. “Hmm. That’s interesting.” He placed it down on the worktable and picked up a bigger gun with even stranger doodads than the previous. He took aim at the decimated target, announced, “Vaporizer, Trial One,” and fired.
A beam of blue light shot from it with a high-pitched buzz. It hit the target, which turned purple and buzzed louder and louder. Then suddenly the target was ripped into pieces and hurled back at the bad doctor as though some ghostly pitcher was throwing him a fastball. He stepped swiftly aside just in time. The fastball hit the opposite wall and exploded with a loud CRACK!
“Whoa!” Dr. Red exclaimed. “I’ve got to be cautious with this one! This could be really dangerous!” Looking down at his weapon, he grinned.
A week had passed and Darrin and Derrick were wondering if Aaron’s punishment had ended yet. It had been dull without their favorite scaredy-cat and they were debating whether or not to ask his mom if she would allow him to hang out with them again.
“I don’t think she ever liked me,” Derrick said, “so I think you should ask her.”
“I’m not going to ask her!” Darrin protested. “I’m too young to die!”
“And I’m not?”
“Better you than me!”
In the end, they decided not to risk their physical and mental being to Mrs. Purn’s wrath. Which was just as well: she wouldn’t have told them anyways. She hadn’t even told her own son how long he was being punished. When he had asked, her only response was, “When I feel you’ve been punished long enough.”
I’ll need a cane by that time, Aaron had thought miserably and continued to scrub the wall.
Meanwhile, while our hero suffered under the questionable parenting of his mother, the villain was out on the town, painting it red… well purple actually—just before it was launched at him.
“Whoo! This is fun!” he whooped as he aimed his big gun at a delivery truck. He pulled the trigger and watched as the truck turned purple, came apart with a ghastly screech, and then shot toward him like a homing missile. He had gotten skilled at dodging these attacks, so he was having fun playing chicken with himself—waiting for the missiles to get close before he moved. And it was oh so satisfying to hear the crashes, the tinkling glass, the pattering rubble, and, of course, the terrified screams.
He laughed heartily as he whirled around and fired his pistol at a lamppost. It erupted into crackling electricity that quickly left it looking like the scratching post of a very large and very violent kitty.
Suddenly a commanding voice bellowed out, “FREEZE!”
Dr. Red turned to face a line of cops all pointing pistols at him. Calmly and deftly he fired his pistol at their firearms, quickly reducing them into ribbons of twisted metal. The officers promptly dropped them in surprise.
The doctor, seeing their weapons lying useless on the ground, grinned at them and asked in a pleasant voice one might use to comment on the weather, “So, any of you know where I might find Superkid?”
They all looked at one another. One of them finally replied, “Uh, we don’t know.”
“Oh really?” The evil doctor gave them a politely curious look. “But you have heard of him?”
“Well, yeah, who hasn’t?” another joined in. “But we don’t think he’s here. I remember reading the paper and noting that the incident with him wasn’t in our town.”
“Oh.” The doctor relaxed his grip on his guns. “It wasn’t this town the giant spider attacked?”
The cops all glanced at each other. Then one of them said, “Nope.”
“Ah.” Dr. Red nodded. “Sorry then.” He motioned with his pistol at the rubble and fire surrounding them. Then with a cheerful, “See ya!” he waded through the mess and went on his way.
The policemen exchanged yet another round of looks with each other as the evil doctor retreated, his coat fluttering behind him. One finally piped up, “Are we just going to let him go?”
“You want to get blown up by that weird gun of his?” another countered.
“But we can’t just let him go blow up that kid!” the first officer cried, “even if he is a super kid.”
“He did manage to take down a giant spider,” another officer pointed out. “I’ll put my money on that kid.”
“But that guy’s got a gun,” yet another cop argued. “And he’s a sharp shooter.”
The cop who had put his money on Superkid asked him, “So how much are you going to bet?”
“Twenty bucks sound good to you?”
“Oh, you know you’re going to lose, don’t you?” one of the officers teased.
“I’m not exactly rolling in dough,” the other said irritably.
“Fine,” said the betting cop, “twenty it is.”
“I’ll put thirty on the kid,” said another policeman.
“Hey!” said the poor cop, “I’ve only bet twenty!”
“You cheapskate.”
They continued to argue about their bets as Dr. Red disappeared into the horizon in search of the town that held Superkid.
The
next day, there was an article on the attack:
Evil Doctor’s Diagnosis for Piner City: Destruction
Piner City was attacked yesterday by a mysterious man wearing a doctor’s lab coat and wielding two unusual guns that created unusual effects in its targets. Officer Marshall was quoted today, “he had one that shredded our guns with some sort of electricity and another that turned things purple and then blew them up.” He further stated that after learning that Piner City did not hold the legendary “Superkid,” this madman turned right around and walked off.
When asked why the officers didn’t apprehend this obviously dangerous man, Officer Marshall replied, “Our valiant officers were lucky to escape with their lives. They were knocked unconscious by shrapnel from his explosive weapon. By the time they came to, this crazed lunatic had gone. But rest assured we have every able-bodied man and woman on this case and we’ll stop at nothing to see this man safely locked away."
Nonetheless, many express concerns that the doctor will find the Superkid and pray that he can triumph over the trials that will undoubtedly come.
“Are they talking about that evil doctor or Superkid?” Derrick asked.
Darrin folded the newspaper. “I don’t know, but this is a problem.”
“Yeah,” Derrick agreed. “They need to say who exactly they hope can triumph over the trials.”
“No, you blockhead!” Darrin said in irritation. “I mean the part about that guy looking for Aaron.”
“You mean Superkid.”
“Either one!” Darrin snapped. “They’re both the same person! The point is we need to figure out