I grabbed the surprised monkey and lifted him off the ground. “Okay, buddy! You asked for it!” I said, making a fist.
“Look please don’t hit me. I’m just a poor defenseless little monkey!”
“One that has electrocuted me, sent kangaroos after me and tried to trap me in a metal cage!” I pointed out.
He shrugged. “You must give me credit for being persistent… I also sent the pooping birds…”
“Good point,” I told him. I dropped him back to the ground.
“Phew thanks!” he grinned.
“MACS! Deactivate the under arm shielding in my uniform!” I ordered.
“But Miss Lia, without that… you’re…. Oh right I get it!”
The monkey waved his arms frantically. “Wait, wait! Stop, stop! What’s going on?”
I aimed my armpit at the chump monkey. “He just basically deactivated my deodorant,” I told him.
The monkey fell over holding his throat. He was stiff as a board.
“I hope you have nightmares!” I told him.
Dear Diary: I learned I do have a bit of a nasty side when I get angry. But man, that monkey deserved that.
With Friends Like These…
With the monkeys and kangaroos out of the way or out cold on the ground, I started looking the place over. I now knew Doctor Stone was at least partially behind this. After all, she did give Greta this address. But had Doctor Stone acted alone or was she ordered to do this by Doctor Dangerfield? After all, Stone did work for Dangerfield.
Searching through one of the draws of the lab table, I found a notebook. I opened it and read the words. It was handwritten…
I can’t believe those jerks at the hospital and at the University and everywhere else are so in love with Donna Dangerfield. Yeah, sure she was my mentor in med school, and the first person to give me a job, but she’s never thought big enough. She’s always taken the safe and cautious road. We could have been so much further ahead with our cybernetics. We could have had our devices all over the world by now. We could have made people and animals more intelligent and more powerful. But no, she couldn’t see it. She thought we needed more fail-safes. More ways to protect our patients. She didn’t see that by giving them more power, it would give us the power to control them. To make the world in our image. A place where science and justice could thrive.
So I did my own research on the side. Everything was progressing nicely but now my mentor comes to my hospital and takes over the lead on my program!! I can’t let her slow me down!
Yikes! That seemed scary! I had to face facts. Wendi’s aunt wasn’t an evil scientist. The evil scientist was Doctor Stone.
“Girl, don’t you know it’s impolite to read somebody else’s diary?” the now familiar voice of Doctor Stone said to me.
I turned to see Doctor Stone standing there, flanked by Lori and Marie. Marie looked at me. “Sorry about this Super Teen, but Doctor Gem is making us do this!”
“Making you do what?” I asked.
Lori smiled. She stomped her foot on the ground, sending a shock through the floor. The floor actually shifted like a wave in the water coming at me. The force knocked me down. Lori leaped across the room on top of me. She drew back her fists. “I don’t want to do this but it feels so great!”
Lori fired a punch at my head. I darted my head to the side. The punch left a huge hole in the floor.
“Careful!” Doctor Stone shouted. “You super brats are ruining my lab! I know it’s not much, but it’s all I could afford!”
Lori turned to look at her. “Ah, sorry….”
I lifted my leg up and flipped Lori off me.
I jumped back to my feet.
I heard Doctor Stone tell Marie. “Get into this fight!”
Marie lowered her head. “Super Teen, you have to stop.” She pointed at the disks on her temple. “These things have enhanced my brain so much I can see sense and change the structure of things….”
“Which means?”
Marie touched an old lab table. The table turned to gold.
“What the?”
Marie shrugged. “When Doctor Stone did this to me, I was thinking man, I could use some money for college. Then poof. My touch turns things to gold…” She paused. “Please don’t make me touch you. I’m not sure I can reverse it. Just give up.”
“You know I’m pretty fast. I can be hard to touch,” I told her.
“I don’t have to touch, touch you,” Marie said.
“Now what exactly does THAT mean?” I asked.
A couple of flies flew past Marie. She blew a little puff of breath on them. The flies fell to the ground and turned to solid gold.
Lori stood up behind me and locked me in a bear hug. Lori’s grip was hard but I knew I could break it. “Good, I hate flies!” Lori laughed.
Marie walked towards me slowly. I knew she didn’t want to hurt me, but somehow Doctor Stone had control of her and Lori. I had to time this right or I could end up golden and not in a good way. I didn’t know if Marie’s power would work on me but I had to assume it would. I had no interest in being a gold statue.
I grabbed Lori’s arm and threw her over my shoulder into Marie. When the two made contact, Lori turned into a solid gold statue that pinned Marie to the ground.
“Oh no!” Marie cried. “This is bad! Our team really needs Lori!”
I ran up to Marie. “Don’t worry. If you can see the structure of things like you say, I know you can reverse this!” I bent down and touched her gently on the shoulder.
Marie smiled at me. She took my hand. Much to my relief, I didn’t turn to gold. “Thanks, Super Teen! Sorry I tried to turn you into gold! It was like I was in a dream. Luckily I seem to be me again.”
“Good!” I said. I took another chance. I lifted the golden Lori off Marie. I pointed at the statue. “You turn her back while I deal with her!” I stared angrily at Doctor Gem.
Gem screamed at Marie, “I made you! Now I want you to make her into gold!”
Marie shook her head. “Sorry lady, no can do….”
Gem grit her teeth. “Fine, I’ll do this myself!”
Gem squeezed her fists together and grunted. It looked like she had a bad case of constipation. Suddenly Gem started to grow and grow and grow. She crashed through the ceiling of the building, sending roofing material spiraling to the ground. I leaped back and shielded Marie and Lori.
“Thanks,” Marie said.
Doctor Gem Stone now towered over us. Oh man. This was bad.
I turned to Marie. “I know you can undo what you did to Lori!”
Marie trembled. “You sure?”
I put my hands on her shoulders, “Yes, I am. Look, you broke Doctor Crazy Ladies’ control on you. Now you’re touching me and I didn’t turn to gold. You can turn Lori back!”
“How do you know that? You don’t even know me!”
Oh right, I was still in my suit. “MACS blink off the mask….” I ordered.
“But Ms. Lia, then she will know who you are!” MACS said in my head.
“Exactly….” I said.
Maria looked at me and smiled. “I thought your voice was familiar! I told Lori you sounded like Lia and she said that I was crazy; either that or had been sniffing my socks for too long!” She gave me a quick hug. “I knew I was right!”
I looked at her. “And I know you can fix this!”
Marie nodded. “I can do it! I can do it!”
“Great! While you’re doing that, I’ll find a way to stop a super-powered cybernetic giant mad scientist!”
“Be careful! She put those cybernetic disks behind her neck and all the way down her back!”
Dear Diary: I was so glad I was able to snap Marie out of being mind controlled, by showing her I trusted her. I knew the power of kindness would come through. Yeah, it’s corny but it’s true.
The Not So Good Doctor…
Doctor Gem bent down, her hand engulfed me. She lifted me off the ground. She stomped over the building
into the street. Man, it seems like I always end up fighting giants in the street. I guess it’s my thing, my niche. Problem was, last time I fought something this big it was a non-living robot that I beat by throwing out into space. I couldn’t do that to Doctor Gem. After all, she was a living breathing person.
“So you’re Doctor Strong’s little brat, Lia!” she cackled.
“I am her daughter, yes,” I said.
“I’m activating your mask again!” MACS told me.
“Sweet outfit!” she said.
“Thanks!”
“Hey, how did your clothing grow with you?” I asked. Yeah, I probably should have been worrying about other things at that moment, but I was curious.
“I stole some of the technology from BM Science!” Doctor Gem said. She glared down at me. “Your mom helped bring Dangerfield here!”
Doctor Gem squeezed me harder. I pushed back with my arms, trying to squeeze out, but being a super cybernetic giant person she squeezed with an amazing amount of force. Since I’m also a living breathing person, I wasn’t sure how long I could keep this up.
“Put the girl down or you are fired!” I heard from below.
Looking down, I saw Jason had led Mom, Jess, and Tanya here.
“I order you to put her down!” Jess said, in her commanding hypnotic voice.
Doctor Gem smiled. “Sorry kid, my many cybernetic implants make my mind very strong!”
Tanya smirked. “You forced me to use my time powers on you!”
Doctor Gem laughed. She popped her foot out of her shoe. She waved her foot over my mom and friends.
Tanya’s eyes rolled to the back of her head. “Man, I really have to learn not to tell the bad guys what I’m about to do…” Tanya gasped with her last breath.
They all fell to the ground.
“You’re not the only one with a foot odor problem!”
“It’s not a problem!” I said defensively. “My feet sweat. I’m human, just superhuman.”
Doctor Gem looked down her now giant nose at me. “Okay, now can we get to our battle? Though so far, there hasn’t been much of a fight.”
I looked up at her. “Look Doctor Gem, I don’t think you’ve actually really hurt anybody. If you give up now I’m sure they will go easy on you….”
Doctor Gem squeezed me. “So now you are a super lawyer?”
“No, I’m just saying, nothing you’ve done can’t be undone. In fact, I think I stopped all the robberies your controlled people attempted.”
She glared at me. “Thank you very much BTW. Do you have any idea how much this research costs? I was able to siphon budget money from the hospital as I’m also a computer genius. But I needed some quick cash and you got in the way.”
I shrugged. “I’m a hero. It’s what I do.” I accented my words with action. I zapped her hand with heat vision.
She screamed and loosened her grip. I dropped slowly to the ground. I pointed up at her. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way!”
Doctor Stone lifted a foot and tried to stomp me. I caught her foot over my head. “Figures you’d pick the hard way!”
I leaped upwards forcing her foot to go flying backward. Doctor Stone crashed to the ground with a huge thud. In the background, I heard police sirens.
“Your father has alerted the police and also sent BMS security copters!” MACS texted me in my mind, which was kind of freaky. But when you’re fighting a fifty-foot mad scientist, you get used to freaky really fast.
Doctor Stone rolled over on her stomach. She started to push herself up. I blasted her in the butt with heat vision. I got a kick out of that.
The not so good doctor pushed to her feet. She turned and started blowing on her now smoking buns.
“Nice to see you have hot buns!” I told her.
Doctor Stone pointed at me. “You really have to work on your banter!”
I put my hands on my hips. “Yeah, people keep telling me that. It’s hard being witty under pressure.”
“You want pressure! I’ll show you pressure!”
Doctor Stone bent down then leaped at me. She landed on me with a decided thud! Now I found myself squished by those same giant buns I had just burned. She twisted her butt, trying to ground me into the ground. “Can you tell I do a lot of Pilates!” she laughed. She bounced up and down on me. “Man, I so wish I could fart now.” She grinned. “Ah, here it comes…”
She let out the nastiest fart. PPPPPFFFFFFFRRRRRAPPP!
She laughed. “Wow, all those years of grad school and med school and I still find a fart to be hilarious!”
It did stink like about a million skunks who had eaten stinking cheese and rolled in garbage for a week. Yet it didn’t knock me out, though I kind of wish it did. Still, I went limp. My hope being, she’d get her big butt off me.
Doctor Stone stood up. She laughed. “Ha! Not so tough now are you?”
I jumped up into the air, spun around and gave her a punch to the jaw! The punch sent her reeling backward. I dropped back to the ground.
“Listen, Doc, I don’t want to hurt you!” I said.
The police sirens drew closer.
The doctor shook her head. “Fine. If I can’t finish you off I’ll deal with the police first.”
I ran past her at super speed. I jumped up and hovered above her. “Doc, stop! You’re a doctor, you heal people, not hurt people…” I told her.
She paused. “Yes, that’s true, but sometimes you have to hurt a few people to help a world of people. I know some people will think I’m jealous of Doctor Dangerfield because she’s so smart and so pretty and so good at sports….”
I nodded. “I can relate…”
Doctor Stone went on, “But that’s not the case. My research was at least as good as hers if not better. But she was the big famous doctor, so she got all the big bucks and the top job. I should be her boss!”
“Ah, wasn’t she your teacher?” I asked.
Doctor Stone smiled. “Yes, of course, but even a silly kid like you must have heard the saying, the student surpasses the teacher.”
I nodded.
Doctor Stone rambled on. “So now I’m like way smarter. And she won’t listen to me. She wants to go slow with our research. I wanted to go fast. Look what I’ve accomplished….”
“Yep, you turned yourself into a giant cybernetic mad scientist!”
She shook a finger at me. “No! No! No! Not a mad scientist, an angry one. She got the breaks just because she’s prettier and better with people than I am!”
Doctor Stone swatted at me like a fly. I dodged it. She swatted me again and this time she hit me, knocking me to the ground. Now that hurt. I pushed myself up off the ground. I spit dirt out of my mouth. “Oh gross.”
I heard a familiar voice behind me. “Hey, Doc, crazy lady!” Lori shouted. “Stop now, or else you’ll force me to stop you!”
Doctor Stone did stop for a moment. She turned to Lori and laughed. “Ha, your cybernetics are good but not nearly enough to stop me.”
Lori smiled. “Yeah, I was kind of hoping you’d say that.” Lori turned to Marie. “You ready teammate.”
Marie nodded. “I’m ready….”
Lori picked Marie up over her head. Lori flung Marie, arms extended out, at Doctor Stone. Marie flew through the air and touched Doctor Stone on her knee. Marie started to fall. I jumped over and caught Marie before she hit the ground.
Doctor Stone looked down at her knee. It had turned golden.
“How dare you!” she shouted. “I made you special!”
“I didn’t ask for this,” Marie told her. “You told Lori and I these were dummy test devices!”
“Yeah. I tested them on two dummies….” Stone smirked.
Marie pointed to Stone’s knee. “Who’s the dummy now?”
Doctor Stone watched in horror as the gold slowly started to creep up her leg. She lifted up her still non-golden leg. “I’m taking you down with me!”
I thought cold freezing thoughts: ru
nning outside in the winter without shoes and coat, eating ice, jumping in an ice bath. I exhaled super cold breath at Doctor Stone. Her leg froze above us. In fact, the upper half of her body froze and turned golden at the same time. The golden, frozen statue started to tip over towards Oscar Organa and his film crew, who must have just arrived on the spot.
I flew up behind the falling statue and caught it. I guided it down slowly to a safe open spot.
Chief Michaels and my father rushed up to me. “Are you okay Super Teen?” my father asked.
“I’m fine sir…”
Chief Michaels looked at the frozen golden statue that was a scientist. “Man, I’m getting too old for this job!”
Mom, Jess, Tanya, and Jason had all snapped out of their foot odor-induced state. Dad and Mom, along with Chief Michaels, stood there trying to decide what to do with a giant golden statue.
Oscar Oranga walked up to me and flashed his mic in my face. “So, Super Teen, can you turn people into gold?”
I didn’t know how to answer that. I certainly didn’t want the world to know that Marie could do this and that she and Lori were cybernetic. But I didn’t need the world extra scared of me either.
Doctor Dangerfield stepped forward and smiled. “Hi, I’m Doctor Donna Dangerfield I was one of Doctor Stones’ bosses. Doctor Stone turned to gold as a side effect of using too many cybernetic improvement disks. These things are only in their early stages. I’m afraid this was an unfortunate side effect. We will find a way to cure her.”
Jess walked up to Oscar and his crew. “Now get out of here!” Jess said in her command voice.
Oscar and his crew bowed, packed up their stuff and walked away.
“And cluck like chickens!” Jess ordered.
The Power of Teamwork! Page 8