by Chris Harvey
Super Lizard Begins
by Chris Harvey
Copyright 2012 Chris Harvey
Why did I write this story?
My name is Chris Harvey and I am a teacher currently teaching ICT in England. I have always loved reading and when my friend James Camp decided to become an author I was inspired to start writing a novel I had had in my head for a while. Whilst at school I was asked to promote National Short Story Week 2012 to enable the kids I teach to get more out of books and literacy. Considering I am writing as a hobby, I thought the best way would be by writing a short story. I used a plot generator from https://www.springhole.net/writing_roleplaying_randomators/plototron.htm to make things a little harder and a little sillier (also so it was more interesting to the pupils). It came up with the plot of a lizard who steals a bag of crisps by gaining superpowers (a screenshot of this can be seen below). So, there it is, I hope you enjoy it and I thank you for downloading it. I actually quite like the main character and am writing more with him in so stay posted and I will try to upload more. You can also find my free work at https://www.wattpad.com/user/TheDuckA.
Super Lizard Begins
Ropo is a young Nigerian who lives in a small town in rural Yorkshire. With his name meaning ‘come to save’ in the Yoruba language, spoken widely in Nigeria, it would appear that destiny has much in store for him. Well it would have if he wasn’t an African Fat Tailed Gecko (you’ve just Googled that haven’t you?). He did, however, have a chip on his shoulder. It was not fat, it was big boned! This is the start of his story, the first steps in moving from a small cog in the world to something more than he thought he would ever be.
As with many superhero stories, Ropo was walking through a toxic dump in-between large drums painted bright red, each full of hazardous liquid. As with many superhero stories no-one knew why he was there, a few hours ago he had been sitting in his dimly lit glass tank nibbling on his favourite treat of wax worm. As with many superhero stories no-one knew how he had even got there, Ropo thought he must have eaten a bad cricket or something. The thing about these stories is not to think, let them happen, stop thinking the events could never be and get into the story. Basically put, Ropo was in a toxic dump and how he got there is of no concern.
As he waddled along his dark and light brown banded body and fat….I mean big boned….tail swung from left to right. At that moment, deliberately for plot device and in keeping with most major superhero stories, a forklift truck accidently hit one of the drums just in front of Ropo knocking it over. Now in real life the drum would have crashed to the floor, rolled a bit and then been picked back up, Ropo would have simply walked round it or if he was feeling a little on the wild side, over it. But in all good superhero stories people working at toxic dumps seem to have the inability to put lids on drums correctly and this tends to lead to spillage, which tends to lead to people getting covered in toxic waste, which tends to burn and do generally not nice things to your skin. In real life this is flaking, boiling, bubbling and all manner of pain which ouch doesn’t quite cover. However in a superhero story the person covered in toxic waste tends to just go home and have a shower, thinking nothing of it. They get up in the next morning and loads of strange things start happening, like they go to wash their hands and accidently rip the whole sink off the wall. From here it is a slow realisation that they can use their powers for good and decide the best way to do this is dress head to toe in spandex. There are three issues with this in terms of this story; firstly, Ropo had no idea how he got there so it is likely he would have trouble getting home, secondly, this is a short story and we don’t have time for the going home and having a shower routine, and finally, have you ever seen an African Fat Tailed Gecko in spandex?
No, to save time, as soon as the toxic waste touched Ropo he began to grow. It is customary in superhero stories for the clothes of the hero to rip as they enlarge but manage to still cover all the ruder parts of the body so the story is kept decent. Ropo wasn’t wearing clothes and luckily for the story when you see a ten foot lizard the last thing you are going to think of when you have screamed your head off and charged round the nearest corner is ‘wait a minute, he was naked!’ So basically Ropo was now a much larger lizard.
Ropo stood, he felt a little uneasy on two legs but this seemed to be the right way to stand now. Shock ran through his body, someone had shrunk the toxic waste drums, and the fork lift truck, and the floor, and the sky, and the sun, and that tiny man screaming at the top of his voice. Ropo was seriously hoping that someone would shut him up. Instinctively Ropo’s arms, he had some of them now where his front legs should have been, shot to his ears and his eyes closed. He screwed up his face. The sound stopped. He removed his hands from his ears, the sound started again. He placed his hands back on his ears, the sound stopped. He removed them, the sound started again. This continued for a few seconds until Ropo realised it was him shutting the sound out by covering his ears.
The strange thing about humans is their need to breath, screaming stops this from happening. The man, now just below Ropo’s eye level, suddenly collapsed. Ropo looked left and right, his sense of embarrassment growing. Lizards don’t really smirk but for some reason Ropo found the ability, maybe it was the toxic waste again. As he shifted nervously from side to side his face seemed to say, I didn’t do that.
The next stage of any super hero story is the tendency for the hero to wander. Dazed and confused they tend to meander home for the aforementioned shower. As stated earlier, this story is too short for the shower self-realisation bit thus Ropo simply had a wonder into town. It is always a concern of mine that small towns are placed so close to toxic waste dumps in both super hero and horror movies but I would hate to be the one that did not follow this despite their being no toxic dumps near villages in Yorkshire. Just think of it being there for storytelling purposes. If you have a problem with this then just think we are in an alternate dimension or something. To be honest I would be more concerned that you’re going with a random African lizard in a toxic dump being turned into a humanoid ten foot super hero but your decisions on where to question this tale are up to you.
Right, where were we, oh yes, Ropo left the toxic dump. On exiting the area he met two men in bright orange jackets, the sort that work at rubbish dumps but give facial expressions that say ‘I’d rather be down the pub’. Animals seem to have two responses when faced with danger, the flight or fight situation. Both were evident here. One man ran the other acted the hero. It was clear he had watched too many super hero films when he shouted ‘Halt foul beast!’
Ropo just looked at him. It was in that instance he noted his next super power as a pair of shoes, in classic comic fashion, smoked due to the sudden disappearance of a body. Laser beams had shot from his eyes and vaporised the poor man. Ropo made a mental note to not do that again. He presumed it must be a defence reflex and the best option was to avoid eye contact with anyone. He thus ambled down the road with eyes only half open and a hand covering the side of his face. This effectively blocked out the road meaning Ropo’s only knowledge of what was happening was the screeching of car tyres as people panicked or the sound of engines as cars sped up to get out of there as quickly as possible.
Soon enough he reached the town, missing the name on the sign by walking into a wall having not realised the road had stopped because he still had his hand up to his face. As he sat on the cold stone floor with his fat….I mean big boned….tail squashed underneath him he looked up and read the sign, he found this surprisingly easy despite being a lizard and therefore not understanding English and never having needed to, or been able to, read in his life.
The sign read ‘Walkworth General Stores’. Animals are no different to humans when they see a general store, they have
the immediate need for one of three things; a chocolate bar, bag of crisps or a drink. After a few seconds thought Ropo decide on the crisps, little did he know the biggest decision of his life was about to happen. Cheese and Onion or Salt and Vinegar? Well, he is a lizard!
Ropo got up and walked through the door, a little bell rang, he smiled to himself. Looking back on the situation later, Ropo decided that walking into the shop was not the wisest of things to do. He quickly realised that humans tended to react badly to a ten foot lizard disturbing them whilst they looked for bread and milk. Within a second Ropo’s hands were