The Expanding World

by Katrina Kahler

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  Diary

  of a

  SUPER GIRL

  John Zakour & Katrina Kahler

  Copyright © KC Global Enterprises Pty Ltd

  All rights reserved

  Book 4

  The Expanding World

  Table of Contents

  Road Trip

  Rhinos

  The Plane

  Back in the USA

  Schooling

  Packed

  Practice makes Better

  Angry Witch = Big Trouble

  Planning for Action

  Date

  My Other Arch Enemy

  W for the Win

  The Pits

  Cat’s Out

  New Friend

  Can They be trusted?

  Hard Knocks

  Speech Morning

  Speech Time

  Speech Wrapped

  Road Trip

  I sat in the high-speed hover plane that belongs to my dad’s company, pondering over how much my life has changed this year. When the year started, I was a normal everyday kid living with her mom. I hadn’t seen my dad in years. I had learned to deal with that by mostly not thinking about it. Plus, Mom and I had a good life together, and we were a team.

  Then I hit the big one-three, thirteen, the teen years. Little did I know at the time that meant I had absorbed enough energy from the sun to become Super Teen. Yep, me…nice normal, Lia Strong, suddenly became a superhero. I’m so strong that a whiff of my feet can knock out a mall. I can lift a building without breaking a sweat. I can jump super high and far. I’ve been practicing hovering, and I have heat vision and super breath. I can, with practice, even use my scent to make people do what I want them to do. Pretty much, I am a one girl army. Yet the thing that is most different in my life, is that my dad is back.

  Turns out, my dad is the head man of BM Science. It’s a huge company that invents all sorts of nifty inventions, like this hover plane I’m flying in. Now that I’m super, my dad wants to help me use my powers for good deeds. He and my mom have been great trainers for me. Mom teaches me how to act like a super person, while Dad uses his company to help me use my powers where they are really needed.

  That’s why right now we hovered over Africa. Until today I had never been more than 100 miles away from my hometown of Star Light City. And I now found myself sitting in the passenger seat of a really sweet plane next to my best buddy Jason.

  Jason knows everything about superheroes, so he has become my official consultant.

  In front of us sat Dad and his beautiful assistant, Hana. From the way Dad looked at Hana, I could tell he thought of her as more than an assistant. I could almost see the hearts in his eyes. I tried not to think about the fact that Hana was an android Dad had made. Yep, my dad had made his own beautiful assistant who he now had a crush on.

  “Doctor Strong, we will be over the drop site in two minutes,” one of the pilots informed my father.

  Dad swiveled his chair to face me. “You’ve got this, honey!”

  Jason could barely sit still. “Your first mission outside of the country! I’m so excited, Lia!!”

  I smiled at him. “I just hope I can handle this.”

  Jason patted me on the shoulder. “You’ve so got this, girl! Fifty rhino poachers don’t have a chance against Super Teen!”

  “I hope so…” I said.

  Jason looked me in the eyes. “I know so! I may not be super like you, but I do know super when I see it!” His eyes popped open. “You know, I’ve been thinking about another defensive ability for you. I’m betting you could hypnotize people.”

  “I have the pheromone thing going on with my sweat that can make people do what I want, kind of,” I said slowly.

  Jason grinned. “Yeah, I know, but that’s almost impossible for you to control.”

  “I’m working on it!” I said defensively.

  Jason leaned back and held up a hand. “Yes, I understand, but even at best, that’s a power that will blast everybody. I think you can do a more controlled one. What about getting a person or animal to focus on your finger moving really fast while using a commanding super voice.”

  I looked at him. “That sounds pretty comic-book-like…”

  “You do have super farts, and you've knocked people and animals out with morning breath…” Jason laughed.

  “Good point,” I sighed. I lifted up a finger and put it in front of Jason’s eyes. I moved my finger rapidly back and forth and said in my most commanding voice, “Follow my finger.”

  Jason’s eyes locked on my finger, following right and left, left and right. I saw Jason’s eyelids start to droop. “You will cluck like a chicken!” I ordered.

  “Cluck! Cluck!” Jason said, even using his arms for wings.

  He squatted down.

  “You’re Jason again!” I said quickly before he tried to lay an egg.

  Jason shook his head. His eyes popped open. “Did it work?”

  I smirked.

  Dad came over to me. “Okay, honey, we’re almost over the drop site.”

  “Tell me again why we’re doing this,” I said to Dad.

  Hana smiled. “The government of this country wants to stop these poachers, but they don’t have the resources. Your father volunteered our services. Once you take out the small army of bad guys, the government will come in and take them away.”

  “We’re over the drop site, sir!” one of the pilots announced.

  I stood up. “MAC, activate my suit!” I told my computer assistant that Dad had built for me. I think of MAC as a really smart watch.

  “Roger!” MAC said. “I am so excited.”

  I saw my holographic mask appear in front of my face. My nano clothing morphed into a really pretty light green, sleeveless body suit. The side door to the hover plane popped open. I leaped out and started falling to the ground.

  “Since you are immune to sunburn, I thought the sleeveless look would be a nice touch!” MAC said as I fell through the air.

  “It is,” I agreed.

  I took a deep breath. I held out my arms and my legs. My fall slowed to a glide. I smiled. My body rippled with joy! I felt amazing as I slowly descended towards the ground with the wind in my face.

  All of a sudden, I spotted my target. It was a campsite of canvas tents surrounding a bunch of men with big guns and bigger trucks, sitting and standing around a table. They looked like they were getting ready to move. To the north, I spotted a majestic herd of rhinos. No way would I allow those men to hurt the rhinos.

  I steered myself towards the camp. I kicked my legs. I'm not really sure why, but it seemed to help. My super hearing picked up the voices of the men making plans.

  “Okay we will circle the rhinos and then open fire on my count,” one of them said.

  I had heard enough. I straightened my arms and legs into the diving position. I dove into the ground and landed right in the midst of the group. I hit the hard surface with concussion force that sent the men sprawling. Leaping to a standing position, I quickly dusted myself off.

  Pointing at the men, I announced firmly. “I’ll give you guys one chance to surrender!”

  They drew their weapons.

  “Why should we surrender? We have you outnumbered 50 to one!” a man holding a pa
ir of binoculars smirked.

  I took a deep breath to clear my head and calm my nerves. I knew I had this, but that still didn’t stop me from being nervous. After all, I had never done anything like this before. I pointed up to the sky. “Look, dudes, I just dropped from the sky.” I pointed to the crater caused by my landing. “The ground took way more of a beating than I did.” I paused to let that sink in. “Now, unless you guys want me to do to you what I did to the ground, you’ll just give up.”

  The lead man shrugged. “We have weapons.”

  I shrugged back. “I am not impressed. But in the interest of fair play, I will give you guys first shot.”

  I stared down the barrels of the biggest guns I had ever seen. I had done the practice simulations in dad’s lab. I felt pretty certain these guns couldn’t hurt me. Dad says I am pretty close to being completely invulnerable. I'm not quite sure if that meant I could deflect bullets from 50 guns. Pretty sure it did.

  The boss poacher, who looked more like a soldier than a hunter, smiled. “You’re nervous, I can tell.”

  I nodded. “Yep, I’m nervous about hurting you all too much.”

  The boss shrugged. “Look, we don’t want to fight you. Leave now and we’ll let you go!”

  I shook my head. “Not going to happen!” I stomped my foot on the ground.

  The force of my stomped ripped through the ground and sent them all reeling backward.

  “Tell you, what, I’ll make you guys the same offer. Swear you’ll never hurt rhinos and run away now. Then I’ll let you go!”

  A couple of the smarter guys tossed down their guns and ran away. But most of them stumbled back to their feet and stood their ground. The boss glared at me. “Neat trick. Let’s see if you’re bulletproof!” he said. “Fire!” he shouted.

  I heard the sound of about forty high-powered weapons firing at me. I saw the bullets coming towards me. I could trace the path of each one and dodge them if I wanted. While that would certainly be impressive, I figured it would be more sensational to let the bullets bounce off me instead.

  I held my breath. I stood there as each bullet hit me then fell harmlessly to the ground. Truthfully, I kind of impressed myself with that.

  I rubbed my hands together. “O-kay, you can’t say I didn’t give you jerks a chance!”

  I shot forward at super speed. I decided to save the boss for last. I grabbed the second nearest bad guy’s gun. I bent it in half. Then I tapped him on the forehead. He fell over, out cold before he even knew what had hit him. I grabbed the two guys next to him. I smashed them together like cymbals, and let them drop to the ground. I raced at the next four or five men at super speed. Each time I took their guns, tied them in knots, then tapped each man on the forehead, knocking each one out. After dealing with the first ten or so, I stopped for a moment, just to take in how the other bad guys were reacting.

  They all started to panic and aimed their weapons aimlessly. If I had let them fire, they would have all shot each other. Instead, I inhaled then exhaled, hitting them all with super breath. I hadn’t eaten for a while so I figured my breath probably wasn’t very pleasant. The force of my breath knocked them over and the less than pleasant smell knocked them all out.

  “Sorry, I forgot my breath mints,” I told their unconscious bodies.

  Turning my attention to the boss, I smiled as I walked towards him. “I thought I’d save the worst for last.”

  He instantly dropped to his knees, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a wad of money that was thicker than a deck of cards. He then waved it at me. “Look, I have a lot of money! It’s all yours if you just fly away now!”

  I placed one finger under his chin and lifted him off the ground. “That’s the problem with people like you, all you care about is money! I don’t want your stinking money! I want to do the right thing!” Then I smiled. “And I think I can help you do the right thing!”

  The man shrugged and shook his head. “Nah, kid, I’m a pretty bad dude. I don’t think there’s anything you can do to change that. Just knock me out and turn me over to the authorities, then be done with it.”

  “I appreciate your honesty!” I told him.

  He pulled a knife from his sleeve and plunged it into my neck. The knife snapped. I shook my head. “If bullets don’t hurt me, why do you think a knife would work?”

  He shrugged. “Like I said, I’m a bad guy. Didn’t say I was overly bright. Just brighter than my men…”

  I shook my finger in front of his eyes. I noticed how he followed my finger and waved it in front of his eyes very quickly. “Follow my finger,” I ordered in my most commanding voice.

  The man did as he was asked. His eyes darted back and forth, all the while locked on my finger.

  “You are getting sleepy!” I ordered.

  “I am getting sleepy…” he repeated slowly.

  “Sleep!” I ordered.

  His eyes shut and his head dropped forward. I smiled.

  “When you wake up you will become a rhino activist. You will do whatever you can to help rhinos,” I ordered.

  “But I’ll be in jail…” the man muttered.

  “Well, you can work over the internet while you’re in jail!” I replied.

  “I obey!” the man said.

  I let him drop.

  “Man, that felt good!” I said to MAC.

  “Yes, nice use of super-hypnosis,” MAC said. “You did such a good job that I’m almost afraid to mention this.”

  “Ah, MAC! Mention what?” I said, looking at my watch interface.

  “All those bullets spooked that heard of rhinos. They are now charging a nearby village.”

  “Oh, that is so not good…” I gulped.

  “Agreed! I estimate they will reach the village in three minutes.”

  “Which way are they going?” I asked frantically.

  “East!” he said.

  “I’m going to need more help than that.” A little arrow pointing left appeared in the watch face and I leaped up into the air.

  Dear Diary: Why is it that even when I do something right, I do something wrong? You would think being super would be easier than this!

  Rhinos

  I jumped into the air towards the charging heard of rhinos. My super-vision locked in on the pack. I saw a dozen large gray rhinos running in fear, their stomping caused a giant dust cloud. I could have spotted them even without super-vision. Further in the distance, I saw the little town that was directly in the path of the stampeding rhinos. The homes were small wooden shacks and there was no way that those homes could stand up to a rhino.

  “Okay MAC, any suggestions on how I can stop a herd of charging rhinos?” I asked.

  “I’m calculating right now,” MAC replied.

  “Well,” he continued slowly. “You could release a super fart over them. That will stop them cold in their tracks. The trick is calculating wind direction and speed. You will also drop the town you are trying to protect. But knocking them all out is better than having the villagers stomped on.”

  MAC was right. I had to use one of my super farts. I squinted my eyes and tried to force my butt cheeks to let one rip. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Of course, it was one of the few times in my life that I actually wanted to fart in public and I wasn’t able to.

  “Anytime now…” MAC instructed impatiently.

  I squinted harder, pushed harder and squeezed my fists. Not sure why I thought that would help.

  I shook my head. “I don’t have it in me,” I sighed for a moment, then crashed to the ground just a few yards in front of the charging pack.

  Shooting back up to my feet, I lifted my arm up in the air to halt the rhinos. With nothing better to do, I shouted, “Stop!”

  Yeah, I knew rhinos couldn’t understand English, but I thought maybe the force of my voice would have an impact.

  The lead rhino stopped in its tracks. Could my voice have worked? The rhino abruptly turned blue.

  Then, without warning, it rolled over wit
h its legs up in the air. And one by one, each rhino stopped, gasped, and then flipped over.

  “That works too,” MAC said.

  It took me a moment to figure out what happened. I sniffed my raised underarm. Woo, that had a kick to it. I think it even made my eyes spin. Yep, the pressure of fighting fifty armed bad guys and then stopping a charging herd of rhinos had burnt through my deodorant.

  “I suggest you put your arm down unless you want these poor rhinos to wilt and never recover,” MAC added.

  I quickly thrust down my arm and walked towards the lead rhino. His stoMACh was rising and falling and I breathed a sigh of relief. I was fairly certain he and the others would wake up in a few hours.

  “Do you think I need to drag them all away from the village?” I asked MAC.

  “I don’t believe so,” MAC told me. “When these rhinos regain consciousness, they won’t have the energy to do much except wander back to their field. You did it, Lia! You saved the day!”

  I smiled weakly. “Yep, I guess so.”

  “Your dad says…great job! Now report to the hovercraft so that he can get you home in time for dinner. After all, tomorrow is the first day of school!” MAC stated firmly.

  “Oh great,” I said. “I can hardly wait!”

  Dear Diary: Wow, my first road trip mission was a pretty big success. I’m amazed by how much my power is growing. A whiff of my underarm stress sweat can drop a heard of rhinos. Part of me thinks, 'WOW, that’s so cool'. Another part thinks, 'YIKES! I could be really dangerous.'

  The Plane

  With the job done and both the poachers and the rhinos dealt with, I figured it was time to get home. I leaped up towards the plane, keeping my right arm extended to steer me into the open door. I knew I’d have to lock my arm to my side the moment I entered, or else my scent would quickly overpower everybody on the plane.