A long lake ran across one side of the tree house and from that Carly emerged looking as grand as ever. She smiled and waved. Then Darryl emerged on a motorcycle. My jaw dropped open. I knew Darryl could invent stuff but wow! And then almost as if determined to make a grand entrance Harrison floated down from the sky, straining to keep himself from grinning.
“Wow” I heard Carly whisper softly.
“Let the meeting begin!” Harrison announced when we were all seated around the table with snacks. Harrison held a little hammer that I think was called a gavel, as if he were the judge and we the jury.
“Well Darryl and I have come to an agreement.” I started, pausing for dramatic effect. “It was the soda!”
At the time I didn’t realize how ridiculous that sounded. Even Darryl struggled to keep a straight face.
“No it was the chips!” Carly said, going into a helpless fit of giggles.
Finally, I grabbed the gavel and banged it on the table three times. That got their attention.
“I liked that gavel.” Harrison said.
All of a sudden, a small bolt of lightning came from Carly to Harrison. Somehow Harrison had disappeared. We looked around but all we saw was a reddish puddle.
Then Harrison appeared from the puddle, “Cool” he grinned.
“Oh my gosh!” Carly’s hands covered her mouth. “I’m so sorry, Harrison! I don’t know how that happened! I was probably really excited, maybe spar-”
Harrison interrupted her apology ramble. “It’s fine. Besides, I discovered that I have this awesome liquefying power!”
He smiled excitably. Then he whispered something to Carly a mischievous look crossed her face. Almost immediately a small blast of water came my way.
As if on cue, a sky blue bubble appeared in front of me, deflecting the water and drenching Carly instead.
Carly
III
We all stared open mouthed at Jake.
“Well,” he announced, “I guess I have another power: Bubble stuff.”
“Force field” Darryl corrected almost immediately. “It’s a force field.”
I stared at Jake and he grinned cheekily at me.
“Well,” I began, “Let’s hope that’s the last of many surprises.” We all nodded heartily, but Jake looked kind of disappointed.
“Hey,” he began. “Let’s have like superhero names. Ooh and costumes.” That wasn’t a bad idea and looking at the others faces I could tell they felt the same.
“So,” Darryl asked. “What are our names?” We thought about names for several minutes.
Finally, Harrison said, “Hey, remember those soda cans?” We all nodded. “Do you remember the names written on them? Like mine said ‘Magma’ and yours said something else. What about that for our names?” We all agreed.
After all, the names made sense. A bullet was super fast and barely anything can penetrate it, so Jake became Bullet. According to Darryl ‘tritor’ meant rubber in Latin. And since Darryl could stretch and was super smart, he became Dr Tritor. Harrison’s fire, flight and melting sort of powers gave him the name Magma. Personally I think my name is the coolest. Electric Eel.
Eels are water creatures and I can control and manipulate water. The electric parts makes you know I can do the same with electricity as I can with water; an overall awesome name.
The costume part was tricky, because everyone wanted to make different costumes. In the end we decided to create an identical costume for everyone. I was elected, along with Darryl to design the costumes. Darryl was chosen because he can make awesome things and can add additional touches. Like fireproof material for Harrison, waterproof material for me, and long-lasting material for Jake. I was chosen because I can make it look nice.
After one excruciating hour of work, Darryl and I entered the living room where Harrison and Jake were seated watching last night’s match.
“Hey, guys,” I said. They turned. “The costumes are ready.”
We spent the next few minutes looking at our costumes and admiring our handiwork. Then Harrison whispered something unintelligibly in Darryl’s ear. Darryl nodded and the two of them walked out of the room.
A few minutes later they returned holding four amulets. “They have speaking devices implanted in them,” Harrison informed us, holding out the amulets for us to examine. “That way we can always track the other.”
On each amulet was a different symbol. One had fire, the other had a picture of an electric eel, the other had a hammer and the last one had three lines of different sizes in a circle. Harrison handed out the amulets to us. It was no surprise that I got the electric eel. Obviously Harrison got the fire and Darryl got the hammer. But I was a little surprised by Jake’s amulet.
“The circle was supposed to represent the force field and the lines were supposed to represent speed, like in the cartoons.” Harrison explained.
“Oh.” said Jake. “ I knew that”
“Of course you did.” We all muttered under our breaths.
That night I reached out and pulled a thin pink book from under my mattress. That book held all my dearest secrets in it and I guarded it with my life.
I opened it to a fresh page and wrote:
Dear Diary,
Today has been an interesting turn of events. And it all started with Jake. There we were taking the usual route through the woods home. Jake was in the middle describing a fascinating scene of last weeks match. I listened eagerly even though; being the head cheerleader I was there and already knew what had happened. Nevertheless I listened, because Jake took after his two parents and tended to over-exaggerate a lot. In his version he was on national TV and the world was screaming for the quarterback. I kind of tuned out after that thinking about something else. I guess somewhere along that lonely road we must have taken the wrong turn because half an hour later the trail ended abruptly and there was still no sign of civilization. A look of realization crossed over our faces. We were lost. I thought everything was hopeless, but then Harrison yelled out, pointing at something. We all followed his gaze. There was an abandoned building lying in the middle of the wilderness. We all ran towards the building. Harrison opened the door and we slowly crept inside. My mouth opened with shock. Inside was a glorious sight. Row after row of vending machines. I raced to one covered with blue and yellow. I took three drinks and drank them on the spot. When I put the drink down I noticed a name written on its side: Electric Eel. “That’s strange,” I thought. “ Who would write such a weird name?” Little did I know that that can of soda was about to turn my world around-
“Carly.” Papa called. “Go to bed it’s late!”
I sighed. Stupid curfew.
“Alright.” I responded. I shut my diary just as papa was coming upstairs.
“Night darling.” he said leaning forward to kiss my forehead. Papa had shocking red hair and fierce blue eyes that reminded me of the ocean.
“Night.” I told him. I shut my eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.
I was surfing. I had never surfed in my life but somehow I was the best in the world. I was riding a wave in the Atlantic Ocean in a surfing competition. Then I spotted a fin sticking out of the water. Everyone else panicked, but I stayed calm. I made a giant fist out of water, grabbed the shark and threw him all way out into the depths of the ocean. I jumped of my board and started paddling towards shore. Everyone was chanting my name and boy did it feel good.
“CARLY! CARLY! CARLY!”
I awoke with papa screaming my name. “Carly! Wake up! It’s time for school!” I hopped out of bed and started getting ready for the day. All the time a big fat smile was stuck on my face. Those sharks better beware. A new superhero was in town. And she was called Electric Eel.
Darryl
IV
I knew the others were using the powers for fun, but I had a job to do. Dad died when I was five, so Mum was the only family I had (not that she was a good relative, and my mother no less!). We were never rich even when Dad was around. But know we were alm
ost bankrupt. Luckily I gained a scholarship in D.C. so we packed up sold our house and flew here. We didn’t get a lot for our house, but it got us enough money for a two-bedroom apartment and a small car. I was never what you could call popular, but I was smart. It didn’t win me any friends, but it did make school easier.
I had a love for books. Any book. Encyclopedias, fantasy, myth, legend, adventure. I loved them all. But for a reason I never understood most people hated books and thought reading was labor.
I hated that.
Being born in the twenty-first century I didn’t experience labor like my grandmother and mean mother did. Being an African-American was a terrible thing to be back then. There were all kinds of horrid laws, which stated a black couldn’t do things a white can.
Sure those rules were banished, but some humans just never change. I still get dirty looks wherever I go for daring to be an African.
My hair and complexion was not far off from the color of a roasted coffee bean. But my eyes were the color of gold. Okay maybe they’re not gold, but hey a guy got to dream.
Anyway, everyone in my family has those eyes, but the gift seemed to be limited to only my family. That really boosted my self-confidence. But not enough to make me immune to the teasing of bullies.
I’ve had my share of bullies over the year, but know bullies are the least things on my mind now that I have my powers.
My elastic powers really help with studying so that’s a bonus. For example if I’m sitting on my bed and I want to get a book on the other side of the room I can simply stretch my arm and pick it up instead of having to get all the way up from my bed and walking all the way to my desk, just so I can read my favorite book: Moby Dick.
Also my ability to invent things so quickly and with such ease would make science projects so much easier. Now I wouldn’t have to spend weeks studying magnets just to figure out how to levitate a can of coke for more than thirty seconds.
My powers came right in time for the annual science fair. This time I used my powers to invent a super magnet that could allow a dozen cans of coke to hover for more than an hour. No research needed. I wondered if the others had thought of that. Using the powers to win the competition. I mean Carly could use her powers to cause a blackout and say it was all because of her “machine”. Jake could also make a force field and say his machine had made it. Harrison could make a fire and make shapes out of it, but never letting it harm anyone.
I realized all the others could use their powers to win and it wouldn’t be fair. But life isn’t fair. I decided it would be fine for me to use something I had been given. On top of that I didn’t have a rich daddy like the rest of them ready to import any machine they wanted from halfway across the globe!
I didn’t even have a daddy.
I woke up the next morning eager for the Science Fair to start. I walked to school with my project in hand. I set it down in the science lab and went to Math. I waited impatiently for the day to end. The way my school does it is during the day some teachers examine all the projects and try them out. In the end the best one or the clearest one wins. Usually I win but this time I was especially anxious to find out if my winning streak had continued.
When the day finally ended I rushed out of class to the science lab. Sure enough my project had a big blue ribbon attached to the side, but my name. Which I had boldly printed onto the side off my project, had been replaced by an even larger name. Margaret Garvey.
Margaret Garvey was my sworn enemy ever since she had dumped her thick protein shake on my head. I couldn’t get the smell of broccoli out of my hair for weeks!
And now she had tortured me again. Stealing my five minutes of easy work! She stood next to my project, smiling with all of her shining white teeth. Her face was dotted with a mixture of pimples and freckles. Her greasy, brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her bushy unibrow lay low above her bright green eyes.
In short she was ugly.
And yet she had stolen my project behind my back. Something had to be done. I opened my mouth,
“Margaret stole my project!” A hurricane of mutters greeted me.
I was certain everyone would agree with me, after all Margaret had a lower IQ than me. But instead people started calling me jealous. At the time I couldn’t help but think of how ridiculous that sounded. Me, with an IQ of 154, now 428, jealous of Margaret, with an IQ of 137. But looking back I realized that it made sense. I had won the Science Fair four times in a row. Of course I would say that I was supposed to win.
But I still couldn’t believe that they believed. After all Margaret hadn’t won a single Science Fair in her life. Or at least up until now.
So I guess that didn’t really end my winning streak, it only ended what everyone else thought of my winning streak.
And in case you’re wondering Margaret did enter a project under my name. It was a paper airplane.
At that point I decided to make the best of what I had.
“Hey, Ms. Brumars,” I said, “Here’s my real project.” Everyone turned. I started spouting facts about the Wrong Brothers and every invention of an airplane I ever read about. Then for good measure I threw the plane. Everyone watched as it sailed across the room. They clapped politely. Then I pulled out the plastic plane model I had been working on while I was talking.
“Here is the model of the Wrong brothers’ plane.” I said loudly. I threw the plane it did loads of loops and spins before returning to me like a boomerang.
Ms Brumars got up, applauding, and announced. “We have a tie!” She pulled out a second ribbon and placed it on my plastic model.
I flashed a winning smile at Margaret. She looked like she wanted to strangle me, which she probably did.
But I felt good. Even with my project stolen from me I still won and maintained my profile as the first student to ever win the Science Fair five times in a row.
After my glorious victory, the others came over. Carly was the first to say,
“Well done. The look on Margaret’s face was priceless.” I remembered how Margaret had sabotaged the girls’ locker room to get back at Coach Irene for not letting her on the team. Honestly it was no surprise.
However, rigging up the shaving cream so that it would spray anyone unlucky enough to open the locker was quite ingenious. I felt a surge of emotions run through my head, but I quickly discarded them. I had found myself not completely revolted at the weird emotions I felt for her. I shivered.
Harrison must’ve noticed because he asked what’s wrong with a handful of fire. I wondered how he could ever think I was cold on the last day of April. Hasn’t he ever heard of the phrase: ‘in like a lion, out like a lamb’? I thought. Aloud I said “Nothing.” There was no reason for me to humiliate myself in front of them. They were my only friends.
Harrison shrugged. “Oh.” He extinguished his flame. I let out an inward sigh of relief. On the outside I tried to remain calm. “So… what are we going to do now?”
“Have a battle…. with our super powers!” Jake grinned like an evil clown.
“That sounds fun!” Carly remarked.
“Oh...yeah. Fun.” I said, trying to keep myself from gulping.
We headed off to the tree house. Which we decided should be called our HQ. When we arrived we silently split of into teams. Harrison and I against Carly and Jake.
“Okay,” Harrison announced. “3...2...1.Go!” Harrison and Carly each sent a wave of fire and water, which met in the middle and disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Harrison then disappeared from sight. He had melted and was using the smoke as a cover.
A couple of minutes later Carly and Jake were both on the floor with Harrison standing on Jake’s chest. A flaming sword was inches away from Jake’s chest.
Harrison grinned up at me. “Well that was easy!” I tried not to look disappointed at the fact that I hadn’t participated in the short fight.
“So… what do we do now?” I asked. They shrugged.
“Go home?” Carly suggested.
“Play again?” Jake said, his voice dripping with anger.
“Sure.” Harrison said attempting his best innocent face. He looked at me. “What d’ya say?”
“Why not?”
Five minutes later the game had started. This time I made my body expand to cover Jake and Curly. Harrison fell about laughing, while Carly and Jake thrashed around. I released them smiling. Ah victory is sweet .
“I’m going home!” Jake said and he raced off. The rest of us attempted not to laugh. Then Carly laughed, and the next thing I know we’re all giggling and rolling on the ground.
When we had finally calmed down it was around six.
“Well I’m going.” Carly said.
“Me too.” Harrison said. “What ‘bout you?”
“Sure,” I told him. “I wouldn’t want to be the only one left!”
We exchanged goodbyes and headed our various ways.
When I got home I went straight to my room and read a chapter of my Moby Dick.
Herman Melville is one amazing author.
I started thinking about animals after that. I wondered if I could stretch my body and shape it to make a whale. I tried that. It didn’t work. I tried again. Still no success. Fourteen tries later I finally got the hang of it. After that making animals was easy. I made lions, tigers, elephants and even a huge mouse.
Then I moved on to something I once saw in a superhero movie. I made a parachute with my body. Then, a raft and then, for good measure, a car. After a while I got bored and decided to type out all of our weaknesses onto a piece of paper.
Darryl’s weakness: Cannot be exposed to extremely hot or cold conditions. Results in either melting or freezing.
Jake’s weakness: Force field does not last long. Therefore defense is not very good.
Carly’s weakness: Fire and rubber. Fire turns her water to steam and rubber absorbs her electrical charge.
Harrison’s weakness: Water. Water extinguishes flame and spreads liquid form.
The Super 4 : Dark Death Page 2