The Super 4 : Dark Death

by Harrison Wallace

  I looked over my work. Not bad. The hardest one was Jake. But I noticed his force field lasts only for a couple of minutes, which makes it not very stable.

  I glanced at my own handiwork once more before falling asleep on my bed.

  Harrison

  V

  I tried all weekend creating lava unsuccessfully. Finally on Friday I made a feeble ball of lava, about the size of a golf ball. After several more attempts I eventually made a lava ball the size of a hockey stick.

  I went to bed smiling at my miniature triumph. I pulled the covers up to my chin and fell asleep.

  I thought the world had ended when my alarm went off, all high-pitched and crazy. I moaned while getting out of bed. I hate having to wake up so early in the morning. Plus it was Saturday.

  I slapped myself for forgetting to switch my alarm off yesterday.

  I crawled into bed trying to get back to sleep.

  However try as I might I simply couldn’t re-enter the world of dreams.

  Still moaning and groaning I stomped towards the elevator. That’s one advantage of being the son of the most important person in the world. You don’t have to take the stairs. I reached the ground floor and continued to march my way miserably to the kitchen.

  “Yo, Grumpy-poof!” I turned around to see my sister walking towards me. “What happened to my pillow?”

  “What pillow?” I asked innocently.

  “The one I..” her voice trailing off.

  The one you what?” Keeping up my phony innocence I opened the fridge and took out a pack of microwavable pancakes.

  “Never mind. Just make me some breakfast!”

  “And what did your last slave die of?” I asked.

  “I killed him for not making me breakfast!” She smiled what she thought was an evil smile, but it looked like a puppy’s first attempt at growling: just wrong!

  “Fine.” I muttered incomprehensibly. I tore open the pack of pancakes and put five individual ones on each side, then placed them in the microwave.

  While we were waiting for the pancakes, my sister started singing ‘Do you wanna build a snowman’ really loud and really terrible. I groaned and close my eyes with my hands over my ears. Ding!

  Relieved that my sister’s racket was finally over I cautiously opened the microwave and waved away some of the steam that billowed out of the microwave. I lifted the plates out of the microwave without my hands getting even a little hot. I placed one in front of Tessa. I placed the other one on the table and added some strawberries and chocolate sauce to my pancakes. I wolfed mine down in record time, while my sister was still only quarter-way through to finishing her first pancakes. I laughed at her and immediately started choking. I poured some juice in a glass and downed it quickly enough. Then I continued laughing at Tessa all the way to the front door.

  I had taken only three steps until I remembered that it was Saturday and I was still in my pajamas. With my face burning I walked back towards my house. Luckily my mansion is right behind the White House, so nobody saw my burning face in Captain America pajamas.

  I went back upstairs to wash out the flames from the fire burning on my cheeks. Once the fire was out I walked back downstairs to the kitchen. I heard Mum and Dad talking quietly to each other. I decided to give them some privacy and walked into the living room where my sister sat on the sofa her pancakes on her lap and a TV remote next to her. She was watching some stupid fashion show. I rolled my eyes as I silently crept towards her. I slowly slid my hand over the remote and removed it from the sofa into my hand.

  “Put it back Harrison!” Tessa yelled, scaring the living daylights out of me. Tessa laughed cruelly. “You should’ve seen the look on your face!” She continued laughing her horrible hyena-like laugh.

  Mum soon came rushing in to see what the yelling was all about.

  She attempted to calm Tessa down but couldn’t stop the smile that slowly spread across her face as she heard how her eldest child had made a fool out of himself. Soon, Dad came in to see what all the fuss was about and broke off in deep laughter.

  Whereas my sister is pretty much identical to me, except for her hair, eyes and height, you would never guess that my parents were my parents just by looking at them.

  Dad is a pretty muscular, tanned guy from Texas and has light brown hair and hazel eyes.

  Mum however is the same complexion as Darryl, but has black hair just over shoulder-length height, with eyes so dark you can barely tell whether her eyes were black or brown.

  Mum likes swimming and running so she’s pretty fit. She’s also addicted to this sport called squash. I’ve played it a couple of times and loved every minute of it. Mum is from two small cities in Ghana, so you can bet it was a big surprise for them to discover that she’s the wife of a president!

  When my simply ‘hilarious’ family calmed down, Mum announced that she was making breakfast. This was great news because Mum was even better at cooking than our private chef from France. We all stomped to the kitchen, even Tessa came along, though she was still finishing her pancakes, where Mum started frying bacon, scrambling eggs and toasting bread. In other words she did her magic. By the time breakfast was ready I was practically drooling. I was starving even after five pancakes and a handful of strawberries. I gobbled down six pieces of toast, three helpings of scrambled egg, eight pieces of crispy, fried bacon and several cups of hot chocolate.

  All in all, my breakfast that day was pretty good.

  I leaped up the stairs, taking them three at a time, and crawled up the attic ladder to get to my room. I silently wondered why my family had been moving so slowly after only two helpings. I also started wondering whether my powers meant I could burn calories.

  Literally.

  I wasn’t dumb enough to give it a go. However I did think that after that breakfast I would need some serious exercise.

  So I hopped in the shower, put on some clothes and called Jake, Carly and Darryl. I had skillfully avoided calling them ‘the gang’ out of fear of being called Freddie from my second favorite cartoon ‘Scooby-doo’.

  They picked up on the sixth ring. “What’s up?” Carly asked.

  “Nothing much, but do you guys want to go to the tree house to train again?” I asked.

  “YES!” I heard Jake scream.

  “Sure, I’ll come.” was Darryl’s feebler reply.

  “I guess.” replied Carly.

  “Okay meet you there.” I said.

  “Already there!” said Jake, as he disconnected the call.

  “I’m on my way.” said Carly, as she too ended the call.

  “Well see you there Darryl.”

  “Okay.” He hung up.

  I pulled on my trainers and headed downstairs to tell Mum I was leaving.

  “See you later, mum!” I yelled as I walked out of the house.

  “See you, have fun.” Mum replied, “ and be back by lunchtime. I have a surprise for you!”

  “Okay.”

  I headed out and set off towards the woods. While I was walking I saw a trail of t water, which was a sure sign that Carly had been there. I also saw a couple of screws and bolts, which informed me of Darryl’s presence.

  As I neared the tree house, I decided it would be hilarious to sneak up on them and scare them. Plus it would mean I wouldn’t be the only one embarrassed. I melted when I caught a glimpse of Jake talking to Carly. I decided to sneak up Jake’s back and turn part of my face to solid form. That way Carly would hopefully think that Jake had sprouted another head. Chuckling softly I crawled up Jake’s back and completed my mission.

  Carly totally freaked when she realized that Jake had two heads and jumped backwards into the lake. Unfortunately for her she didn’t have time to activate her power, so when she finally dragged herself out of the lake she was dripping from head to toe. Everyone but Jake laughed, even Carly laughed a bit before using her powers to get rid of all the water on her. She was completely dry in a matter of seconds. However Jake looked as if he wanted
to kill me.

  “Harrison, please come.” He said in a flat tone.

  I followed him slowly as he led me out of earshot of the other two. “Hey what’s up?”

  “What was that all about?” He asked

  “Oh, it was just a joke.”

  “A joke? A joke? You literally just ruined my life!”

  As he spoke I suddenly realized that his normal Red Sox jersey and shorts with a pair of muddy sneakers were replaced with chinos and a fitted polo shirt and Vans.

  “Oh.” I said finally understanding. “Jake, I’m sorry I didn’t realize you were like you know going to ask her out.”

  Jake practically had steam coming out of his ears. “Sorry? Sorry?”

  “Wow!” I said. “Relax. Calm down a bit just ask her now!”

  “I can’t just ask her now! My brain is as alive as a rock right now! I’ve no idea what to say thanks to you! How am I supposed to RELAX!”

  “Hey, guys! What you talking ‘bout?” Carly asked. We realized Jake had been shouting.

  “Nothing, I’m just teaching Jake how to...uh...Relax!” I responded hurriedly.

  “Oh...uh...Carry on then.” She gave Jake and I a weird look before turning back to Darryl.

  “Thanks a lot. Now she thinks I’m a weirdo!” Jake spat. He walked back towards Carly. After a few moments, so did I.

  “Well let’s start the match” I said half-heartedly. I paired off with Darryl again, as the game started.

  This time they were way better prepared and Jake immediately started running circles around us at 150 mph. A cloud of dust circled us and I immediately flew away. But Jake seemed to have thought of that to and I flew head-first into a force-field. The last thing I remembered was someone screaming my name as I slipped out of consciousness.

  Jake

  VI

  I won’t deny it gave me a bit of pleasure to of hurt Harrison like that. I probably should've been worried, but he was only unconscious for about five seconds, before he melted into the earth. Plus he was a huge jerk!

  The next thing I knew Harrison had lifted me into the sky. I hated the thought of being alone with my new nemesis, but luckily Carly had been watching the whole thing and assaulted Harrison with a vicious army of water balls.

  Harrison evaporated all the water, but not before dropping me on the ground on my rear end.

  Luckily we were only a few feet up, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

  As I howled silently, I lost control of my force field and Darryl extended an arm and latched his hand onto a tree branch and swung away.

  I sped after him but he was perched on top of a tall tree and I didn’t fancy heights that much, so I simply used my force field to push me up of the ground to the top of the tree.

  I was still scared of heights but at least I was safer than I would’ve been surrounded by my light blue force field.

  As I approached him I started wondering whether I could shoot mini force fields at him that would push him backwards and possibly seek refuge on the solid ground.

  I had only shot a few mini force fields at him that pushed him back a lot, before I felt something wrap around my waist. I wasn’t sure whether I could shoot force fields while in the safety of my own, but I decided not to try in case I made some noise to give away my position.

  Harrison grabbed hold of me and started flying. Up there I had a panic attack and my mind went blank. I started screaming like a little girl. Harrison found that absolutely hilarious and doubled over laughing. I used that as an opportunity to get away and untangled myself from Harrison’s loosening grip. I fell towards the earth in my force field which I had artistically shaped to look like a rocket.

  As soon as I had planted my foot on the ground I was gone.

  I knew I could go even faster than that. I didn’t know how I knew. I just did.

  I raced to my house and didn’t slow down until I had reached my doorstep. I casually walked in, said hi to Mum and walked quickly down the steps to my basement room.

  Like I said, I don’t like heights.

  I collapsed as soon as I made sure my door was locked. I hated my life! And I hated Harrison even more!

  I awoke roughly two hours later, with a loud pounding noise coming from upstairs. “What?” I said groggily, as I attempted to remove the sleep from my eyes.

  “Jake! Dinner’s ready!” The sound of my sister’s voice immediately woke me up. And it made me annoyed at her.

  Groaning I stepped out of my bed, “Coming!” I yelled. Suddenly the events that had happened in the past few hours came rushing back to me. The last thing I remembered was lying on my bed, screaming in fury.

  I wanted to be angry, but I was just too tired.

  I slowly made my way to the dining room. At the head of the long, highly polished glass table, my appalling nurse sat.

  She, or as I call her, the beast, was wrongly named Madame Blaise, instead of Madame Brute, which meant beast.

  I choked back a choke of disgust, as I saw her huge mole, looking bigger than ever, on the bridge of her nose.

  “Good evening, Beast- err… Madame Blaise.” I said dramatically, biting back the urge to bow. “What’s for dinner?”

  “Pea soup!”

  I bit back the vomit that I felt rising up my throat, as Madame Blaise ladled some of the horrible vomit-looking concoction into a bowl, before placing it in front of me with a two slices of bread.

  My sister immediately scooped up some of the vile soup with her bread and placed it inside her mouth.

  “Yum!” She said dramatically.

  I choked and examined the thick, goopy liquid. I then went into hyper-speed mode and raced outside to dump the entire contents into the Dumpster. By the time I got back into my seat it seemed like everyone was frozen in time. I waited for my body to settle into normal time again.

  I then spread butter on my bread and made a big show of swiping it along the bottom of my bowl, before masking the smirk that appeared on my face into a look of absolute surprise. “Oh!” I said loudly, “It’s all gone! What a shame! Now may I be excused?”

  Hours later I came out of my room at the sound of footsteps. I opened the door and walked into the sitting room. My parents were sitting on the couch with a big bag of chips and a bowl of salsa.

  I was starving so I walked into the room and announced my presence.

  “Hey Mom, hey Dad! Wassup?”

  “Hey son!” Dad boomed.

  “Hey Jake.” was the feebler response that was emitted from my mother.

  “So,” I said, eyeing the bag of chips. “You gonna finish those chips?

  Mom said, “They’re all yours!”

  Those were the words I was waiting for. I pounced on the chips and salsa. “So.” I said between munches, “How was your day? Great salsa by the way!”

  “It was fine.” Mom said, her eyes on the large screen T.V. that was showing a program about top models.

  Now you see, my parents aren’t really your normal Bob and Kate kind of people. Mom was a former model and actress who owns the largest fashion whatever in the world. With her long blond hair and blue-grey eyes, she sure made heads turn. Dad on the other hand was a world-known soccer player with light brown hair and green eyes. They met at this celebrity party thingy-majig. I don’t know all the details or maybe I do, but the main idea was mushy mushy, kissy kissy kind of stuff. And I’m not that big on all that lovey-dovey nonsense. Anyway one thing led to another and here we are.

  At that point Jane barged into the room. Can you believe it? Jake and Jane? Double J’s. I don’t know what my parents were thinking when they decided my sister and I should have the same sounding name. We were identical in every way. Same blond hair, same nose, even the same ears! Everything about us was identical except that, while my eyes were a dark emerald, hers were sky blue. That, and her being just a tiny bit taller than me.

  “Mom!” She complained. “You promised I could go swimming!”

  You see, while I’m great
at basketball and football, my sister excels at swimming and soccer.

  Both our rooms are equally decorated in a myriad of first and second-place trophies, certificates, medals and ribbons. The only difference is that in addition to all her sports trophies she also had plaques and awards of academic achievement. That makes my bratty, little sister a little perfect angel. Ugh!

  “Okay honey let me just rest for five minutes.” was mom’s tired response.

  “Fine!” called Jane loudly as she stormed up the stairs, a scowl fixed on her face.

  Meanwhile, I sneaked out of the room, with the salsa and chips in hand, and headed to my bedroom. I silently thanked God for helping me convince my parents that a soundproof door would help with studying. This meant that I wouldn’t hear them yelling and they couldn’t blame me.

  Now you may be wondering how come I heard footsteps and my sister’s voice. Well wonder no more! It appeared that I had gained a super hearing and vision! Either that or my room isn’t as soundproof as I thought!

  But one thing I knew for sure was that everything was louder and brighter.

  I could hear my sister on the phone complaining to her best friend Rachel, a gossipy slob. I hated her.

  I could even make out the individual strands of hair on my comb.

  I lay on my bed pondering these new powers. Unconsciously I ran my hand through my mop of hair. I wished I could talk to someone about these newfound powers. But since even the thought of Harrison brought bile to my throat I didn’t exactly have a lot of options.

  I narrowed the list down to those who had and knew about powers. That left Darryl and Carly. I decided against Darryl as the kid kind of freaked me out with his big brain. And that was before he got super smart. That left Carly. At first I was like no! Not her! You just tried to ask her out you idiot! Then I realized that she never knew that I’d been about to ask her out. I tenderly grabbed my phone and called Carly. After a long time she picked up. “Hey Jake!’ She said. I let go of the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.