Captain Awesome Takes a Dive

by Stan Kirby

  SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER

  Eugene McGillicudy heads to

  the Sunnyview Community Center pool

  for swimming lessons, but it doesn’t

  take long for Eugene’s superhero alter ego

  CAPTAIN AWESOME

  to discover that “bad guys” aren’t

  afraid of the water.

  Mi-Tee!

  With Captain Awesome, Nacho Cheese Man, and sidekick Turbo busy keeping the pool safe from evil, will Eugene find time to dive into the deep end before summer ends?

  With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Captain Awesome chapter books are perfect for beginning readers.

  Meet the author and illustrator and

  get activities at

  KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com

  LITTLE SIMON

  Simon & Schuster, New York

  Cover design by Laura Roode

  Ages 5-7

  0612

  CaptainAwesomeBooks.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  LITTLE SIMON

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 • www.SimonandSchuster.com • Copyright © 2012 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. LITTLE SIMON is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and associated colophon is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. 0412 FFG • Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kirby, Stan. Captain Awesome takes a dive / by Stan Kirby; illustrated by George O’Connor. —1st ed. p. cm. —(Captain Awesome; 4) Summary: To finish summer swimming lessons, Eugene brings out his superhero alter ego, Captain Awesome, to confront the “Blobby Blob-Blob” at the deep end of the pool. [etc.] [1. Superheroes—Fiction. 2. Swimming—Fiction. 3. Summer—Fiction.] I. O’Connor, George, ill. II. Title. PZ7.K633529Can 2012 [Fic]—dc23 2011023401

  ISBN 978-1-4424-4202-3 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-4203-0 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-4204-7 (eBook)

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: School’s Out, Twist and Shout!

  Chapter 2: Danger Is a Wet and Stinky Diaper Queen

  Chapter 3: Don’t Trust a Dude with a Whistle

  Chapter 4: Mr. Drools Drools Again (and Again)

  Chapter 5: Everybody into the Pool!

  Chapter 6: The Blob-Blob of Blobbiness

  Chapter 7: Welcome to Stinkopia

  Chapter 8: Turbo to the Rescue!

  Chapter 9: Grab! Squish! Blob!

  Chapter 10: Badness Always Loses

  Could time go any s-l-o-w-e-r? When would summer vacation ever get here!?

  Eugene McGillicudy sat at his desk in Ms. Beasley’s class. His Super Dude Digital Command Watch counted down the remaining minutes.

  What’s that?!

  You’ve never heard of Super Dude, the greatest, most powerful superhero on several planets? The superhero who once defeated Mower Mouth, the big, mean-mouth Martian that devoured yards and soccer fields with its Mower Martian Mouth?

  Without Super Dude’s comic books, Eugene would never have become Captain Awesome or formed the Sunnyview Superhero Squad with his best friend, Charlie Thomas Jones, also known as . . . Nacho Cheese Man!

  Only six more minutes—three hundred sixty seconds!—stood between Eugene and Charlie’s seventy-one super summer days of fighting evil in Sunnyview. Not once would he have to hear things like his teacher saying, “Please take your seats.”

  Eugene had even made a list of his summer plans:

  DING-DING-ABING-BING!

  THAT WAS THE BELL!

  FINALLY! SUMMER! VACATION! HAD! OFFICIALLY! BEGUN!

  Eugene rocketed to his cubby. “Let’s go, Charlie!”

  Aside from putting evil on an asteroid prison orbiting the twin moons of See Ya Later, is there anything better than summer vacation? Eugene sure didn’t think so.

  Charlie packed up his cheese containers from his cubby and stuffed them in his backpack. Nacho Cheese Man’s Dairy Defense couldn’t be left at school for the entire summer. There’s no telling what bad guys would do if they got their evil hands on the cheesy goodness of Hot Jalapeño Surprise or Titanic Taco Blast.

  Plus the expiration dates were in July.

  “See ya later, My! Me! Mine! Mere-DITH!” Eugene said and waved to Meredith Mooney.

  Meredith stuck up her nose and stomped out of the class.

  “No school, no homework, and no Meredith for a whole summer!” Charlie cheered. “I don’t know which one I’ll miss the least.”

  Eugene picked up Turbo’s ball. After all, superheroes can’t go on patrol without their trusty hamster sidekicks. All three left the classroom.

  It was time for one last school patrol!

  Eugene and Charlie headed down the hall. Lockers were open, papers were scattered everywhere. It looked like Messypotamian, the slobby villain who never cleaned his room, had returned to mess up the school.

  “Evil sounds from the cafeteria!” Charlie gasped.

  The boys raced to the lunchroom, flung open the doors, and saw true evil.

  The two boys dove for cover.

  “It’s our old enemy, Dr. Yuck Spinach!” Eugene whispered.

  “He must’ve escaped from Asteroid Prison and returned to continue his evil vegetable plans!”

  “There’s only one way out of this veggie trap—” Eugene said. “A direct charge through Dr. Spinach’s Cafeteria Lair.”

  “That’s insane!” Charlie gasped. “We will never make it! He’ll use his Okra Bombs and Asparagus Spears!”

  “Yes. And his Parsnips of Doom, too,” Eugene replied. “But Super Dude never says never!”

  It’s time for action!

  “CHAAAAARGE!” he shouted and raced into the cafeteria!

  Oops!

  Eugene tripped over the doorway and flopped to the floor.

  Turbo’s plastic ball flew from Eugene’s hands and rolled across the cafeteria floor . . . stopping at Dr. Spinach’s feet.

  “EEEPS!” Charlie gasped in horror as Dr. Spinach turned to pick up Turbo.

  “What have we here?” the evil chef of leafy green yuckiness growled.

  Eugene and Charlie yanked their costumes from their backpacks.

  “Don’t touch my sidekick!” Captain Awesome yelled in his evil-fighting voice.

  “You shall not harm Turbo on this day, Dr. Yuck Spinach! Not if Captain Awesome and I, Nacho Cheese Man, have anything to say about it!” Nacho Cheese Man shouted in his evil-fighting voice as well. Then, the superhero friends leaped into action.

  “Marco!” Eugene closed his eyes and called out across the pool, looking for Charlie.

  “Polo!” Charlie called back. He floated like the Super Silent Crocodilios from Super Dude’s Holiday Special No. 2.

  It was Saturday, the first day of summer vacation, and Eugene and Charlie were splashing and swimming at the Sunnyview Community Center swimming pool. The sun was high in the sky and that made the water feel like a bath without soap.

  The boys had been playing Marco Polo for only a few minutes when Charlie felt inspired. “Let’s play Super Dude Polo!”

  The rules of Super Dude Polo we
re from the Super Dude Summer Vacation Special No. 3. That comic was so rare, the only known copy was in the Super Dude Museum in Blacksburg, Virginia. Fortunately, the rules were posted online!

  Charlie had them memorized:

  “The rules of Super Dude Polo are very simple. Player one closes his eyes and calls out the first half of a Super Dude villain’s name. Player two, whose eyes are not closed, responds by saying the second half of the name, then tries to get away before player one can find him.”

  Eugene eagerly agreed and closed his eyes.

  “Sir Stinky . . . !” Eugene called out.

  “Stinkopotomus!” Charlie called back.

  Eugene dove for the sound of Charlie’s voice, but Charlie swam away laughing.

  “Commander Barf . . . !” Eugene yelled.

  “Pudding!!” Charlie replied, clapping his hands.

  Eugene jumped to the right, but Charlie wasn’t there.

  “Mr. Mad . . . !” Eugene called out once more.

  “Haturday!”

  Eugene was locked on to Charlie this time, but before Eugene could grab him, something brushed against his back.

  BRUSH!

  Was that Charlie horsing around, or was it something worse?

  Eugene opened his eyes. It was worse.

  Their most worstest enemy, Queen Stinkypants from the Planet Baby, bobbed up and down in her evil Giraffe Floatie! She unleashed the kicking power of her terrible Surprise Splash Attack!

  “Look out!” Eugene pushed Charlie out of the way of incoming danger.

  The water splashed in Eugene’s face. “My eyes!” he yelped. “I’m soaked with watery evil!”

  While Eugene rubbed the evil from his eyes, Charlie leaped into action.

  “I’ll put an end to this!” Charlie reached for a can of his powerful squirt cheese—but where was it?

  Then he remembered! He’d left his cans on the side of the pool.

  OOPS!

  “Grble-drble! Grble-drble-drble!” Queen Stinkypants cackled and then unleashed the annoying power of her Baby Laugh. Eugene and Charlie covered each other’s ears, then realized that wouldn’t work and covered their own.

  The Queen’s Baby Laugh was much more than just annoying. It was a call that unleashed her wild pack of hungry superhero-eating Electric Piranha Sharks!

  CHOMP!

  “Time to give those sharks a superhero meal with a side order of butt-kicking!” Captain Awesome announced.

  He and Nacho Cheese Man took a deep breath and started to swim toward the chomping electric fish . . . .

  BREET-TWEET-TWEET!

  Eugene heard the whistle first. Was it an alarm? A secret signal? Was Queen Chlorina about to turn everyone’s eyes red and make their skin itch?

  “Hey, little dudes!”

  Eugene looked up. It wasn’t Queen Chlorina after all. It was Ted, the teenage lifeguard. His long blond hair reflected the sun like aluminum foil. He wore a green Westville Swim Team tank top.

  “There’s no running around my pool.” Lifeguard Ted pointed out the dangers of running: slipping, sliding, falling, bumping your head, breaking an arm or leg, chipping a tooth, stubbing a toe, falling into the pool, . . . and a whole lot more.

  “And can you dudes be careful in the shallow end ’cause there are even littler dudes in the little dude part.”

  Clearly Ted had no idea about the evils of Scuba-Doobot. If he knew the truth about what was at the bottom of the pool, he’d be running too, thought Eugene.

  “Eugene!” Eugene’s mother called him from the pool steps. The danger had not passed, for Eugene now faced the most awesome enemy of all time: Getting in Trouble with Mom!

  “I thought I told you boys to behave at the pool!” Eugene’s mom said. “Horsing around like that is dangerous!”

  Eugene knew what that meant: no Super Dude Ice Poptacular to eat on the way home.

  In a matter of minutes, the two dripping wet boys were semidry and sitting in the backseat of the car. It was a long, silent ride home. But it gave Eugene plenty of time to think.

  That explains that lifeguard’s Westville Swim Team tank top. Lifeguard Ted must really be the Double-Dipper, a secret, spying double agent. That’s just like a guy from Westville, thought Eugene.

  That was when Eugene heard the blast of the Giant Whistle of Doom.

  BREET-TWEET-TWEET!

  Eugene and Charlie looked out the window. It was the sneaky Double-Dipper himself—half boy, half grown-up, all bad!

  The Double-Dipper’s greatest and sneakiest superpower was getting superheroes in trouble using his Tattletale Attack!

  “You tattletaled on the wrong good guys, villain . . . ,” Eugene said quietly.

  “Chocolate chip cookies are the greatest thing since Super Dude No. 243!” Eugene said. His mouth was so stuffed, it really sounded like: “Chclt ch coos arf fee glate thin imf supf duf two fotty.”

  Charlie understood every word and said “Yeah!,” but it sounded like “Ehhh” because his mouth was full of chocolate chip cookies too.

  Eugene swallowed. “Your mom makes the best Cosmic Chip Cookies in the universe!”

  “Only the best for the Superhero Squad’s Weekly Sleepover Meeting!” Charlie stated, grabbing another cookie.

  Stuffed full of cosmic goodness, Eugene and Charlie plotted out tomorrow’s adventure. They were going back to the community pool to start swimming lessons.

  “After we learn to dive like fish, evil won’t be able to run, fly, or swim from the Sunnyview Superhero Squad!” Eugene said.

  Charlie’s dad entered the bedroom carrying the Turbomobile with him. “Hi, boys. I mean, excuse the intrusion, heroes of Sunnyview,” he said. Turbo was pressed against the plastic ball, squeaking at Charlie and Eugene. “Turbo rolled all the way to the TV room.”

  “Sorry, Dad,” Charlie said.

  “He might’ve heard some evil outside.”

  “No problem. Your mom wanted me to remind you that you left your swimsuits outside.”

  SWIMSUITS!

  “Only one more day until swimming lessons begin!” Charlie shouted.

  “MI-TEE!” Eugene shouted so loudly that Mr. Jones decided it was time to return to the TV room. He was getting used to hearing “MI-TEE!” around the house whenever Eugene was around.

  Once Mr. Jones was gone, Eugene thought he heard a growl. Maybe Charlie’s dad was playing a trick on them?

  GRRR!

  There it was again! Eugene knew that was no playful Dad-growl—it was the horrible, slobbery growl of—

  “Mr. Drools!” Eugene shouted.

  “He’s back!” cried Charlie.

  The swimsuits! Eugene thought immediately. My Captain Awesome Swimming Battlesuit is hanging outside with Nacho Cheese Man’s Cheddartrunks!

  Sometimes superheroes protected whole towns. Other times they protected people, but sometimes superheroes needed to protect their Swimming Battlesuits from the terrible slobber of Mr. Drools. No evil dog from the Howling Paw Nebula would ruin their swimming lessons!

  “Why look, it’s Puke-Gene and his friend Barfy Jones.”

  UGH.

  Eugene knew that voice could only belong to one person on the planet: Meredith Mooney.

  So much for our Meredith-free summer, thought Eugene.

  “Hello, My! Me! Mine! Mere-DITH!!” Eugene said, rolling his eyes.

  Being Meredith, she was of course wearing a bright pink swimsuit and matching pink goggles.

  “She probably has barfy pink flippers and a matching barfy pink kickboard in her mom’s car,” Charlie whispered to Eugene.

  It was the first day of swimming lessons and Meredith wasn’t the only person from Eugene and Charlie’s class who was learning to swim.

  Sally Williams was there, too. And Bernie Melnik and Evan Mason. It was like a regular school day, except instead of homework there was water. And no desks because . . . they’d sink.

  BREET-TWEET-TWEET!

  Eugene knew that sound! It was the whistle o
f his old enemy Ted the Lifeguard, back to tattle a tale once more and make sure another kid wouldn’t get his Super Dude Ice Poptacular!

  “What ho, little dudes,” he said. “Welcome to my swim class.”

  SHOCK!

  GASP!

  SHOCK AGAIN!

  The Double-Dipper is our swim teacher?

  Charlie nudged Eugene. This was badness without any goodness. “We’re really going to have to watch this guy,” Charlie whispered.

  TWEET!

  “Into the pool, swimmer dudes,” Ted said.

  SPLASH!

  Once in the water the class hung on to the side of the pool and started kicking.

  “That’s the way, dudes,” Ted said. “You’re doing awesome.” He even had a compliment for Mere-DITH. “Gnarly kick, dudette!”

  Gnarly kick? Does the Double-Dipper not know that Meredith Mooney is secretly Little Miss Stinky Pinky, the grossest, pinkest villain in all the school systems in the universe and the galaxy?

  The forces of good could never let stinky pink villains do better—even when it came to poolside kicking! On land, superheroes were fantastic, but in the water, they must be splashtastic!

  Little Miss Stinky Pinky had to be splashed before her show-offyness took total control of the swim class and turned everyone into stinky pink brain zombies.

  PLUS! The Double-Dipper needed to know that Captain Awesome and Nacho Cheese Man were wise to his double agent ways.

  Eugene and Charlie counted, “One, two, three . . . MI-TEE!” The boys kicked their feet like they were chasing Mr. Drools. Water splashed everywhere! They kicked faster!

  SPLISH!

  And faster!

  SPLASH!

  And faster!

  SPLISH! SPLASH! SPLOSH!