Revenge of the Roach!
Page 4
Eugene boasted, “Because not even the Ultimo 6-9000 (an invention worthy of every possible legal protection) could make you smart enough to beat the super-sly Super Fly!”
Crazy Cockroach laughed. “I’m 9,000 times the bug you’ll ever be!”
“In about six seconds you’ll be history,” Eugene blustered. “And not the kind of history that inspires books, movies, monuments, and collectibles. I mean the kind of dusty old history that everyone forgets.”
Cornelius replied, “Do you really think no one will recall my attempt to take over the world with giant robots?” Then he handed Eugene a cup as he smirked, “Can I offer you a Crazy Cockroach calendar, T-shirt, key chain, or coffee mug?”
“No thanks! I’m too young to drink coffee.” Eugene continued, “Besides, it’s not like you really accomplished anything.”
Super Fly continued taunting the villain to give Elle time to change from her Insect Scout clothes into her Fly Girl outfit and to reprogram the game on Crazy Cockroach’s computer. Before they’d left, Eugene had figured out which keys to tap to reverse the game’s hypnotic effect.
Fly Girl quickly performed the complex sequence of keystrokes. Super Fly felt very proud of her.
Meanwhile, Crazy Cockroach became more annoyed with his enemy’s pointless banter. “I never should’ve left you to die in that deathtrap,” Cornelius moaned. “I should’ve learned from all those TV shows. Why does the villain leave the hero to escape? Lazy, careless . . . Why can’t I be more thorough?”
Fly Girl gave her brother the OK signal. Eugene shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe villains are just born slackers.”
Before Cornelius could reply, all three bugs reacted to a scuffle coming from the back part of the diaper.
“What’re you doing here?” Number 1 shouted.
“Get that stupid flea!” Number 2 exclaimed.
“I’m not stupid; I’m Fred!”
BAM! SLAM! BOOM! The two hench-bugs and Fred continued fighting.
Elle grinned. All three had stopped playing Butterfly Bombers. That meant the reversal had worked!
Cornelius rushed to see what was happening. “Who are you?” he asked as his eyes fell on the nicely dressed new superhero.
“I’m Fly Girl, and your plan is foiled,” Elle announced.
“Ridiculous!” Crazy Cockroach asserted. But it was true!
Not only had his henchbugs and Fred emerged from their trance, but all over Earth, bugs had stopped playing the roach’s game. No longer hypnotized, they’d gone back to their normal lives.
Crazy Cockroach still could not accept his defeat. “Lick my shoes!” he commanded.
The Dung twins and Fred stared at the roach.
“Lick your own shoes,” Dee replied.
“I’m not hungry,” Doo added.
“Fleas don’t lick shoes,” Fred said.
Crazy Cockroach became even more furious than usual. He pressed a button on his remote control that locked his lair with giant steel bolts. The flies and flea were trapped.
Three on Three
Crazy Cockroach and his henchbugs attacked! Super Fly and Fly Girl struggled to fend them off. Then suddenly the heroes and villains heard a knock at the door.
Cornelius wondered who it could be. The diaper wasn’t usually this busy.
He unlocked the steel bolts and flung the door open wide, but no one was there.
Under the table, Fred chuckled to himself. He’d been knocking on the under-side of the table to fool the fiend! The 9,000-times-smarter roach had just fallen for the oldest trick in the book.
As Crazy Cockroach came back inside to resume fighting, Fred bounced out the door over the roach’s head. He ran to the Fortress of Doody to transform into Fantastic Flea.
With Fred now in his super suit, even though he technically didn’t have super-powers, the fight became a fair three against three.
But Cornelius wasn’t happy. He moaned, “You’re destroying my lair!”
No one cared. They were too busy throwing punches and dodging kicks. With a mighty grunt, Number 2 tossed Fred through the wall into the other side of the diaper.
Now it was Super Fly’s turn to fuss. “Oh no! You’re wrecking our Fortress of Doody!”
But still the fighting went on and on for hours, until both sides were exhausted and both lairs ruined. The only thing that remained intact was the Ping-Pong table. And that gave Super Fly an idea.
“Let’s settle this over a game of Ping-Pong,” he suggested. “If I win, Crazy Cockroach will stop trying to take over the world. And if you win, I agree not to stop your evil plans.”
Cornelius cackled. “Ping-Pong? I will destroy you in Ping-Pong. I’ve never lost a game.”
“First to twenty-one wins,” Super Fly said.
The two bugs shook on it, and the game began.
Since both bugs were 9,000 times faster than ordinary insects, the ball flew across the table so fast it became almost invisible. Crazy Cockroach won the first point, but Super Fly took the second.
And so it went. Crazy Cockroach seized the lead, then Super Fly, then Crazy Cockroach again, and so on, until suspense hung like a fart inside the diaper and the score was twenty to twenty.
“Come on, Eugene!” Elle cheered.
Super Fly hit the tiny white ball so fast Fantastic Flea almost didn’t see it. Had the hero missed? No! Crazy Cockroach had swung his paddle but . . . the ball flew past it!
Super Fly jumped up and screamed, “I WON!”
Fantastic Flea and Fly Girl rushed up to him. Fred waved one of his forelegs and exclaimed, “High flyve!” Eugene was happy to return their special salute.
Crazy Cockroach threw his paddle on the floor. But thanks to its soft, absorbent padding, the paddle just bounced. So the furious bully smashed it over his henchbugs’ heads.
Number 1 protested, “Hey, what did we do?” Number 2 added, “You’re the one who lost!”
That only made Cornelius angrier, so the smashing continued, and the losing team proceeded to beat each other up.
Super Fly suggested, “Let’s go home.”
Fly Girl agreed.
Fantastic Flea added, “Maybe we can start looking for a bigger lair now that our team has three members, not just two.”
Elle grinned.
Super Fly looked thoughtful. “I wonder who we’ll be fighting now that Crazy Cockroach has promised to stop trying to take over the world.”
Later that night, Eugene heard a knock on his window. When he went to open it, no one was there. But he found a strange note left behind.
Dear Eugene—I mean, Super Fly:
Sucker! I had my fingers crossed the whole time!
You didn’t really think I was going to stop trying to take over the world, did you? I’m going to destroy the world with even more vengeance now!
Sincerely,
Cornelius—I mean, Crazy Cockroach
P.S. I want a rematch!
Todd H. Doodler is the author and illustrator of the Super Fly series, Rawr! and the Bear in Underwear series, as well as many other fun books for young readers. He is also the founder of David & Goliath, a humorous T-shirt company, and Tighty Whitey Toys, which makes plush animals in underwear. He, too, is a part-time superhero and lives in Los Angeles with his daughter, Elle, and their two labradoodles, Muppet and Pickleberry.
The Super Fly series
The World’s Smallest Superhero!
Revenge of the Roach!
Super Fly vs. Furious Flea!
(coming soon)
Copyright © 2016 by Todd Goldman
All rights reserved
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l prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This electronic edition published in 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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First published in the United States of America in June 2016
by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Doodler, Todd H., author, illustrator.
Title: Super Fly! : revenge of the roach! / by Todd H. Doodler.
Other titles: Revenge of the roach
Description: New York : Bloomsbury, 2016. | Series: Super Fly
Summary: When Crazy Cockroach and two dung beetle henchmen try to brainwash the children of Stinkopolis using video games, only Super Fly and his sidekick, Fantastic Flea, can stop them.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015037950
ISBN 978-1-61963-381-0 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-61963-382-7 (HB)
ISBN 978-1-61963-383-4 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Superheroes—Fiction. | Flies—Fiction. | Insects—Fiction. | Video games—Fiction. | Brainwashing—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION/Humorous Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION/Action & Adventure/General. | JUVENILE FICTION/
Comics & Graphic Novels/ Superheroes.
Classification: LCC PZ7.D7247 Sr 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2015037950
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