by Lee Bacon
“Or a world-famous celebrity.”
The two of them exchanged a glance. I noticed the hint of a smile at the corner of my mom’s mouth.
“But I suppose it is a special occasion,” she said.
“So we’re going to allow it,” Dad went on. “This time.”
A huge smile stretched across my face. “Thanks, guys!”
I jogged out of the room before they could change their minds.
35
Sophie was the first to show up. I felt a squirm of embarrassment as she walked into our house. Sophie and Captain Justice lived in a mansion with more rooms than you could count. Everything was state-of-the-art and glistening. And they had a robot butler to bring us whatever we wanted.
My house was another story. The rooms felt crammed with my dad’s half-finished inventions and my mom’s experiments. And thanks to Elliot’s “cleaning,” it looked like a tornado had recently swept through the place. Holes in the walls. Three-legged chairs. Busted lamps.
“Sorry it’s such a mess,” I muttered, showing Sophie into the living room.
“Are you kidding?” Sophie looked around, wide-eyed. “I love it! Your house actually looks like a house. Like someone really lives here.”
“Um … yeah. I guess.”
“Every house I’ve ever lived in has felt like a hotel. Like a really big hotel and we’re the first guests who’ve ever stayed there. The furniture all goes unused. Half the rooms are empty. And my dad’s never around anyway.”
Sophie wandered from the living room to the dining room. A broken circuit board was lying on the table, surrounded by a bunch of my dad’s tools. In the corner was Micus—
“And you have houseplants!” Sophie gushed, her eyes landing on the mutant ficus.
“Actually,” I warned, “that particular houseplant—”
“I’ve always wanted plants,” Sophie interrupted, too caught up to listen. “But my dad says he’s allergic. Is that even a thing? Can someone be allergic to houseplants?”
Sophie took a step toward the mutant ficus. Alarm bells went off in my head. I’d been attacked by Micus so often that I avoided this entire side of the dining room. And why was Micus just sitting there? It made me think of a predator waiting for the right moment to strike.…
“Uh … Sophie.” I rushed forward. “That’s not a normal plant! You should probably—”
Too late. When Sophie reached out to touch one of Micus’s leaves, the mutant made its move.
And started doing tricks for her.
Sophie clapped in amazement as the ficus began dancing—its branches flailing from side to side. Afterward, it picked up a few clods of soil and juggled them.
“I see you’ve met Micus,” Mom said, entering the room.
Sophie turned to my mom, smiling. “Did you create that?”
“I did indeed. The world’s first plant that can control its own movements, understand human speech—”
“And attack people,” I murmured.
“What are you talking about?” Sophie petted one of Micus’s leaves. “It looks gentle to me.”
“Maybe now, but I’m telling you, that plant’s dangerous. He’s tried to kill me. Multiple times.”
Sophie gave me a look like she was trying to decide whether I was kidding or not.
“If you’d like, I can show you a few other plants I’m working on,” Mom said.
Sophie eagerly followed my mom out of the room. As soon as they turned their backs, a big clump of soil smacked me right in the face.
Miranda and Milton arrived a little later. As we all settled in the living room, I could tell that I wasn’t the only one who was nervous having guests over. Mom and Dad weren’t used to being hosts either.
“Does everyone have everything they need?” Dad asked.
“We’re fine,” I said.
“If you’d like to sit closer to the television, I upgraded the sofas so they’re remote-control-operated—”
“Seriously, we’re fine, Dad!”
Mom poked her head through the doorway. “How about some drinks, kids? We have water, caffeinated cola, non-caffeinated cola, lemonade, fruit juice, homemade condensed vegetable blend.…”
Meanwhile, Elliot was wandering through the room. A serving tray wobbled in his hands.
“I have cooked snaaaaacks!”
“Sure, I’ll take some,” Milton said.
Elliot handed Milton a plate. “Buffalo wiiiiiings!”
Milton stared down at the plate. The buffalo wings looked more like deep-fried worms. “Uh … thanks,” he said, setting the plate down as far away as possible.
Miranda leaned toward me. “Thanks for having me over.”
“I’m just glad you can stay in Sheepsdale,” I said. “It’ll be fun having one more Gyfted kid around school.”
“By the way, you might want to move to another seat.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just trust me.”
Taking her word for it, I switched over to the recliner. And I was just in time too. A second later, Elliot tripped over the rug and the serving tray flipped out of his grip. A pile of fried blobs landed right where I’d just been sitting.
We were still figuring out refreshments and living room configuration when the show started. Hangin’ with Justice followed Captain Justice through his everyday life—eating breakfast, exercising at the gym, getting a haircut. Scenes of him appearing on other TV shows. Business meetings. Photo shoots.
“People think superheroes are constantly battling supervillains, but there’s a lot more to it than that,” Captain Justice said while getting a manicure.
Sophie groaned.
We also got to see Captain Justice’s response to Multiplier’s pranks. He joined efforts to clear all the purple Jell-O out of the Grand Canyon and scrub the graffiti off Mount Rushmore.
“The authorities are still looking for the other letters of the Hollywood sign,” Captain Justice said to the camera. “So at the moment, it still reads ‘LOL.’ Which I assume is some kind of devious code to other supervillains of the world.”
Scarlett Flame showed up a few times in the show, her long red hair flowing halfway down her back and her golden body armor fitting her like a one-piece swimsuit. Since she was the most famous female superhero in the country, I’d seen her plenty of times before. But never like this. Whenever she got around Captain Justice, the two of them flirted like a couple of teenagers. Captain Justice usually acted so authoritative and bombastic, but as soon as Scarlett Flame was nearby, he suddenly became nervous, mixing up his words and fiddling with his armor-plated wristbands.
“They totally like each other!” Milton exclaimed, scooting forward on the couch.
Sophie covered her eyes, as if she were watching a horror movie, not a reality show.
And then I showed up on-screen, dressed as the Nameless Hero. Sophie, Milton, and Miranda were nearby in the shot.
It was like returning to the scene of a nightmare. All of a sudden, I was back in the corridor. Seeing nFinity’s icy gaze, as he waited for us to die. And Vex looming over everyone else in his bionic suit.
Only after Captain Justice rescued us could I relax and feel embarrassed about how sweaty and nervous I looked whenever the cameras got close.
As I watched my friends and me standing around in our uniforms, I thought maybe it hadn’t been such a bad start to the summer after all. Sure, we nearly got killed a bunch of times. And becoming famous hadn’t been quite as great as I’d thought it would be. But we all made it out alive, and the Nameless Hero had gone into early retirement.
I looked at the others sitting around me. We weren’t superheroes any longer, but at least we were still friends.
Once the show was over, Miranda’s mom came by to drive Sophie and Miranda home. Meanwhile, Milton was putting all his effort into convincing my parents to let him spend the night.
“After being banned from coming over for the past three years, we have lots of catching up
to do,” Milton explained. “I was thinking, five slumber parties a week for the rest of the summer.”
My parents gave Milton their most supervillainous glares.
“Uh … on—on second thought,” Milton spluttered. “How about just tonight?”
“Very well,” Dad agreed. “You can stay over tonight.”
“Wahooooooo!”
Milton ran home to get his things. When he got back to my room, he was lugging a Captain Justice—themed duffel bag stuffed with junk food, sodas, and video games.
“And look what else I brought.” Milton reached into the duffel and removed a lump of spandex material, along with a mask and a pair of bulky red jet-boots. “My uniform!”
“I thought we were done with all that,” I said.
“Aw, come on! It’s not like we’re gonna go out and fight crime. I just thought we could take a little spin around Sheepsdale. Didn’t you keep your uniform?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Awesome! This is gonna be so much fun!”
I glanced toward my closet, where my uniform was folded next to the laundry hamper. Maybe the Nameless Hero wasn’t quite as retired as I’d thought.
After changing into our uniforms, Milton and I tiptoed downstairs, carrying our boots to make less noise. We made our way through the living room, into the dining room (luckily, Micus was sleeping), and then the kitchen. After opening the door to the garage, I flipped on the light. There in the corner were the hover scooters.
“Ahem!”
Clutching my chest, I spun around as if I expected to see Multiplier behind me. But it was even worse than that. It was my mom. She was standing in the middle of the kitchen, her arms crossed sternly.
We were so busted. Sneaking out at night was bad enough. But when the Nameless Hero and Supersonic were the ones to blame—that only made things worse.
Dad appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. He didn’t look any happier to see two superheroes lurking around his garage.
Then something surprising happened. A slight smile formed on my mom’s face.
“Here are the rules,” she said. “You both wear helmets. You remain far enough off the ground that nobody spots you. And if you’re not back home by ten-thirty, we’re coming after you.”
“And we’ll bring our plasma pistols with us,” Dad warned.
“You mean you’re actually okay with this?” I asked disbelievingly. “Uh … thanks!”
Dad stepped forward, slinging an arm over Mom’s shoulder. “Have fun.”
Five minutes later, we were in the air. Milton soared ahead of me, jets of fire streaming from the soles of his boots. I eased forward on the scooter’s handlebars, accelerating to catch up with him.
“Your parents are the coolest supervillains I know!” Milton hollered to me.
“Yeah, I guess they are!”
Giving the handlebars another nudge, I shot forward. Milton surged to keep up. The warm wind rushed over me like a wave. Below us, the lights of Sheepsdale blurred together. Summer was just getting started.
GREETINGS, READER!
Superheroes are everywhere. Leaping across cinema screens, appearing in commercials, and starring in novels like JOSHUA DREAD by Lee Bacon.
Okay, fine—I’m not technically the star. That would be Joshua Dread, the twelve-year-old son of my archnemeses, the Dread Duo. Joshua just wants to be normal, but it’s tough to do when your parents are involved in an evil scheme to destroy the world. Especially now that Joshua is developing a strange power of his own.
If you haven’t read JOSHUA DREAD already—read it now! Because let’s not forget, JOSHUA DREAD features a celebrity guest star—me!
Superheroically yours,
Captain Justice,
Internationally Famous Superhero,
Defender of Justice
LEE BACON grew up in Texas with parents who never once tried to destroy the world (at least, not that he knew of). He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit him at leebaconbooks.com.