The Battle

by Katrina Kahler

  “Well, you already fought a killer T-Rex,” Jeanie said. “We thought it would be nice for you to have back up.”

  “That’s nice,” I told them, “but….”

  The back door to the house exploded into bits of flying wood. A large stocky pink teddy bear strolled into the house. “Honey-bunnies, I’m home!” he shouted.

  “Mr. Snuggles! You’re back!” Ellie Mae shrieked with delight. She stared at him. “Oh wait, this is bad.”

  “You bet its bad, honey bunnies!” Mr. Snuggles shouted. He pushed a button on his tummy. He grew to until his head touched the ceiling. One of his paws turned into a chainsaw, the other turned into a missile launcher. His eyes glowed red.

  “Ellie Mae, get your mom and dad out of here!” I shouted.

  “But I can help you!” she insisted.

  A laser beam fired from Mr. Snuggles’ eyes towards Ellie Mae. Diving in front of the beam, I soaked up the energy from the blast. It stung! This teddy bear was serious.

  “Get out of here now! Please!” I shouted to Ellie Mae.

  Ellie Mae teleported over to her parents. She grabbed them and teleported away, a split second before Mr. Snuggles fired another laser shot at them. His shot hit an empty seat. “Drat!” he said, stomping his hairy pink foot on the floor. “I so wanted to play with them.”

  “Looks like I’m your playmate!” I told him.

  Mr. Snuggles spun his head towards me without turning his body. His eyes lit up. He blasted me with shots of laser vision from each eye.

  I blocked his blasts with my hands. The blasts burnt but it was still nothing I couldn’t handle.

  “Look Snuggles…”

  “That’s Mr. Snuggles to you!” he shouted.

  “Look Mr. Snuggles, I understand that you might have issues. But the Opal family and I are not your enemies. In fact, Doctor E. Vile stole you from them. He is the one you should be mad at.”

  The laser blasts stopped. Mr. Snuggles began to scratch his head with his hand; the hand that was a saw.

  “Careful your hand is a saw!” I shouted to him.

  “Oh, right you are,” he chuckled. He stopped the saw from buzzing and scratched his head.” He looked at me without blasting me with lasers. “Thanks. You’re right, my fight isn’t with you, friend.”

  “It’s not with my family either,” I insisted. “You were stolen from them. Ellie Mae loved you.”

  Mr. Snuggles nodded. “Yes, once again, a very good point. I never asked to be turned into this furry machine of destruction…” he said.

  “See,” I said pointing at him. “Your real issue is with the bad doctor for doing this to you.” I let my words sink into his furry head. “You were just a cute adorable little bear without a brain or any weapons.”

  “True!” he agreed. “You make a good point.”

  He blasted me with five missiles from his fingers. The missiles hit me, exploded, and sent me flying through the kitchen wall into the living room. I hit the living room wall and crumbled to the ground. Ouch, that really hurt!

  I jumped back to my feet and shook off the plaster from the walls. “Okay, I’m getting the feeling that we’re not going to be able to talk this out.”

  QUAZAR NOTE: WHEN THE BAD GUY OR TEDDY BEAR BLASTS YOU WITH MISSILES, THEY ARE NOT IN A TALKING MOOD.

  Mr. Snuggles stomped into the living room. He had new missiles on his fingers and his chainsaw hand was buzzing away. “See kid, what you don’t get is that the bad doctor made me come alive. I love it! I went from a kid’s comfort toy to a toy of destruction, raining fear on all who oppose me. It’s so rewarding. I guess I’d much rather bring fear to many than comfort to one.” He shrugged. “When you think about it, fear and comfort are both emotions so they are pretty much the same thing.”

  Yep, this teddy bear was out of whack. “No, I don’t think they are the same thing,” I said. “They are pretty much the opposite of each other,” I told him.

  “But you do agree they are emotions!” he said.

  My Q-vision zoomed in on his finger missiles. I saw he had a charging gauge turning from red to green. This nasty bear was just trying to get me to talk so he could blast me again. Alright now, that made me mad. Thinking about the salad Jeanie had made, I knew it was loaded with onions. I remember Ellie Mae complaining that she didn’t like onions or pickles. Which I found a little odd since I love onions and pickles and there were no pickles on the salad. I guess that was for future reference. The thing was that now I had onions in my stomach. And onions combined with Q-breath could be a very nasty weapon.

  “I agree!” I said. I inhaled then exhaled on the pink bear. The force of my breath sent him flying backward out of the living room. He crashed into the far kitchen wall. A bunch of pots and pans fell from the shelf onto his head.

  He stood up and shook his head. “Impressive force. And my stench meters register massive amounts of stench. The good news for me is that as an animated stuffed animal, I have no need to breathe.” He pointed out the window. “The bad news for you is that your backup team do need to breathe.”

  Using my Q-Vision, I scanned the yard outside the kitchen. Sure enough, there laying on the ground holding their throats, were a dozen well-armed Future Now security agents.

  “Oops,” I said. “Sorry about that guys and gals!” I shouted to them. Though none of them would be hearing anything for a few hours at least.

  The big stuffed bear of destruction stood up. He glared at me. “See kid, it takes more than that to stop me! Once I take you out, I get rid of those stupid people who didn’t protect me enough and allowed me to be stolen!” He leaned forward blasting me with his eye beams.

  I flew at him, my arms extended, absorbing the energy from his beams of destruction. The pure heat sent pain throughout my body but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop me. No way I would let this demented teddy bear hurt my family!

  The bear kept his energy beams trained on me. He didn’t budge an inch. Although, I’m not sure he could have since his back was to the wall. I reached his head and put my hands over his eyes. The beams burnt his eyes. He threw his chainsaw hand and his missile hand over his head. “Ah, the pain!” he shouted. “Make it stop! Make it stop!”

  The chainsaw and the missiles activated. I was thrown across the room in a massive explosion. Bear stuffing rained down gently on what was left of the room. I shook my head. I stood up.

  Don, Jeanie, and Ellie Mae appeared through one of Ellie’s teleportation bubbles. Jeanie put a hand on my smoldering shoulder. “You okay?” she asked.

  “I’m doing much better than that stuffed bear and the kitchen and the guards…” I said. “Sorry about wrecking the kitchen!”

  Don looked at me and smiled. “Don’t be ridiculous! You saved our lives. Kitchens can be rebuilt. Our repair team will have this place like new by tomorrow. Plus, you’ve taken out two of Dr. Vile’s inventions. I’m guessing he will lay low for a while; try to figure out the best way to combat you.

  Ellie Mae hugged me. “Don’t worry, Adam. I’m sure you’ll take whatever mean old uncle Eddie throws at you.”

  I am so glad to be part of such an understanding family. Still, I wish I had taken the bear out without destroying the kitchen. But I am still learning about this entire superhero thing. It had been quite the day, fighting a giant T-rex and a teddy bear of destruction.

  I like being a superhero. Sure, an evil mad genius now wants to destroy me. But I figure that you need to take the bad with the good. And to me, nothing is better than having a family who cares about me!

  Chapter 3

  My New Super Special School

  I always enjoy going to school at Future Now. The company has given us a huge creative and study workspace. My class is small and made up of a bunch of kids who are all different ages. Some of them have superpowers like me. Others have super brains. We certainly aren’t a normal class, but things don’t always have to be normal to be good.

  Both Ellie Mae and I really love interacting wit
h the other students. For me, interacting takes as much practice as being super. Three of the students have moved from Starlight City, the town my very good friend, Lia Strong (aka Super Teen) patrols. The students from Starlight City are Jess, Tomas, and Felipe. Jess is a pretty teenage witch who has red and black hair. Jess is usually aloof but she does have a temper. Tomas is a vampire and Jess’s boyfriend. Tomas is short and kind of pale (I guess from avoiding the sun and all). But don’t let his small stature fool you, he is way strong. His farts can knock out a city block. Then there is Felipe who is Tomas’s cousin. Felipe is a half vamp and a really fun kid to be around. We also have the brother and sister team of Max and Toni Lopez. They are twin nine-year-olds. Max is a speedster. I don’t think he can do anything slowly. Toni is a shape-shifter with hypnotic blue eyes. They are both great kids.

  As well, we have another super-powered classmate, my best buddy, Zeke. Zeke has green skin. His superpower is that he doesn’t age or die after he is killed. Yep, Zeke is a zombie. Even though Zeke is at least two hundred years old, he still looks like a thirteen-year-old. That was his age when he fell into a well and should have died. He did kind of die; he just didn’t stay dead. Zombies are freaky and weird at the same time, but they can be nice.

  As for the non-super powered kids, we have Lenny and Jimmy Brown. They are bros who can fix anything mechanical. We have the red-headed, tech genius, Aaron Swimmer. Jem Jacobs is a girl who seems to eat and breathe chemistry. Gracie Parr is a super creative girl. Then there is robotics expert, Paula White. She is 14 years old, super smart and loves to dye her hair different colors and dress up in crazy outfits.

  She actually says her goal is to be an evil genius. I hope she is kidding!

  Our teacher is Ms. Nancy, Felipe’s mom. She is a fully-fledged royal vampire which means you really shouldn’t make her mad. She teaches us a lot of very cool things. Like last week, we learned about generating electricity with water and salt. I found that to be quite interesting, especially with me being a super clone human who can generate electricity myself.

  Our teacher’s assistant is the very hairy Mr. Mookie, who is a werewolf; a werewolf with a bit of skin problem. He is always scratching behind his ears with his feet and dropping a trail of dandruff everywhere.

  Today, we were working on a team project, building a robot. Not a very fun robot, just a cleaning robot. My team consisted of me, Zeke and Paula. Paula, of course, took the lead.

  “Okay, you two, I’m the super brain here. So just follow my lead and we will make the best dusting vacuum cleaner in history.”

  “Yum brains,” Zeke said with a smile, his arms extended stiffly towards her.

  Paula put her hands on top of her head. “Don't you dare touch my amazing brain!” She lowered her hands. “Besides, if you eat my brain, you’ll get really fat because my brain is so big and full of knowledge. I am one of the greatest minds on Earth!”

  Lenny and Jimmy overheard what Paula was saying. “Oh please,” Lenny said. He pointed at her. “You’re wearing a skull t-shirt with a frilly, pink ballet skirt and long socks!”

  Jimmy chuckled. “Yeah, how super clever can you be if you wear weird combos like that!”

  My little foster-sister, Ellie Mae was working with the twins. “I think your outfit looks nice!” she told Paula.

  Paula smiled at Ellie Mae. Ellie Mae was just about the only one Paula ever smiled at. “That’s cause you, too, have good taste!” she told Ellie Mae. Paula turned to Lenny and Jimmy, “You see, I am a trend-setter.”

  Actually, I knew that Paula liked wearing “alternative” type clothes. She told Ellie Mae that her favorite stores were the charity stores because she could find all kinds of weird and wonderful outfits. And I liked the fact that she was an individual and didn’t really care what everyone else thought.

  She reached into the bag at her feet and pulled out a long metal wand. She pointed the wand at Jimmy and Lenny. She pressed the button on the wand. She turned back to Zeke and I. “Now, we can work without being interrupted.”

  “What did you do to them?” I asked. Lenny and Jimmy both looked fine but she had obviously done something.

  “Ask them!” Paula said.

  “So guys, what did she do to you?” Zeke asked.

  Both Lenny and Jimmy moved their mouths but no sound came out. They turned to each other and mouthed some words.

  “Sorry guys, I can’t even hear you with Q-hearing!” I said.

  Zeke turned to Paula. “Can you use that thing on yourself?”

  Paula sneered at him. She pointed her silence wand at Zeke. She pushed the button.

  Zeke laughed. We could all hear him. “Ha! It’s great having a brain that’s mostly dead! Your technology thingy wand can’t affect me! Ha!”

  “Dude, I wouldn’t brag about having a dead brain,” Ellie Mae told him.

  Zeke turned to her. “Look, when you’re mostly dead, you take whatever you can get,” he said.

  QUAZAR NOTE: APPARENTLY BEING MOSTLY DEAD HAS ADVANTAGES.

  Our teacher, Ms. Nancy glided over to us, her arms crossed. She looked at Paula. “Paula, what have I told you about using your inventions on classmates?”

  Paula held the wand behind her back. “Ah, let me see, you told me, it would be less than ideal…”

  Ms. Nancy gave her a mild glare. We all shuddered. Ms. Nancy could stop a heard of berserk, charging, elephants with her glare. Ms. Nancy glanced at each of us and held out a hand. “Hand it over. Now!” she ordered.

  “I don’t have anything to give you!” I said, scared.

  Ms. Nancy smiled. “Not you, Adam.” She concentrated on Paula. “Paula!”

  Paula leaned forward. She placed her wand into Ms. Nancy’s hand. “Sorry, but they deserved it.” She insisted. “Plus, I didn’t set it to totally stupefy!” Paula added.

  Ms. Nancy took the wand. “Yes, that is good,” she told Paula. Ms. Nancy adjusted a knob on the end of the wand. She pointed the wand at Lenny and James. She pressed a button.

  “Can you two talk?” Ms. Nancy asked them.

  They both gulped and nodded their heads. For two super smart guys, they could be a little slow.

  “Then talk,” Ms. Nancy ordered.

  “Doe ray me far so la tee doe!” Jimmy sang.

  “Yes, I can hear myself talking!” Lenny said.

  “Good, now get to work,” Ms. Nancy ordered. She turned to walk away.

  “Ah, what about my silence device?” Paula asked.

  Ms. Nancy stopped walking. She turned her head towards Paula. We all took a step back. “I will put it in my desk drawer with your other inventions…the cluck like a chicken ray, the talk like a baby ray, and the uncontrollable burp ray.”

  “Right! As long as it’s safe!” Paula said.

  We all returned to work on our dusting robot. Paula did most of the thinking and directing. She loved ordering Zeke and me around. We let her because she needed to feel useful. And Paula felt useful when telling people what to do. Plus, if we were building the robot, Paula wouldn’t be able to turn our dusting bot into a bot of total destruction. I mean, Zeke and I might not be as smart as Paula, but even we knew enough not to let her put laser beams or heat-seeking missiles on our duster robot.

  As we worked, Ms. Nancy read us a book called, The Count of Monte Cristo. She said it was a classic story suitable for any age as it taught the value of persistence and never giving up. I found it to be an interesting story. Paula liked how the Count learned to build up his resistance to some poisons. Yeah, at times I worried about Paula.

  After a couple of hours of tinkering, I leaned back and stretched my arms. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a red glob of slime on the ceiling in the corner of the room.

  “Now that’s weird,” I said.

  “What’s weird?” Zeke asked.

  I pointed to the slime. “That!”

  Zeke leaned towards where I was pointing and squinted. “I just see the ceiling and some LED lights.”

&nbs
p; Paula snapped her fingers. “Guys, what are you looking at? I want to finish this robot!”

  “Slime!” I said, pointing at the slime.

  Zeke squinted harder. “I just don’t see it, bud. But my eyes are undead,” he said.

  Paula glanced towards the corner. “I don’t see anything either.”

  The problem was that I could see the slime. It was definitely there. I walked towards the corner with the slime.

  Mookie, the werewolf, hopped over to me. “What’s up kid?” he said.

  I pointed up.

  “Ha Ha, funny kid,” he said. “New kids always have to be comedians….”

  I shook my head. “No, I mean look up. There’s a glob of red slime up there!” I said.

  Mookie looked up. He shook his hairy head. “Nope, not even dust up there.”

  “But I see it….” I said.

  Mookie sniffed. “Nope, I don’t smell nothing either…” he said.

  “Ah, being the teacher’s assistant, you probably shouldn’t use double negatives,” I told him.

  Mookie snarled at me. “Look, kid, it got the point across. I’m not an English major. I majored in gym, acting, howling and sniffing.” He pointed to his nose. “And this nose doesn’t miss a scent.” He pointed a claw at my face. “Now get back to work!”

  I looked up at the slime. It sunk back into the ceiling. Had I imagined it? Okay, for now, I would get back to work. But I would keep an eye out for more slime.

  QUAZAR NOTE: SEEING SLIME MIGHT NOT BE A GOOD SIGN!

  Chapter 4

  My New Super Fun Job

  After classes, most of the kids went home. Except for me and Zeke. I stayed for more superhero training. Zeke stayed because he lived there. When you are a zombie, I guess a normal home life is out of the question. I guess that’s why Zeke and I were drawn to each other. He’s lived a long time and has no real family. I was born in a lab and I have no real family. Though the Opal family is truly becoming my family. You don’t need to be born into a family to be a part of that family.