“We don’t have time for any plans or arguments right now, you two. I hear your mom pulling into the driveway now, Kevin.”
A smile replaced the frown on his face. My mom had made the right call. Sometimes even superheroes needed to hug their mothers.
Four hours later, the three of us were on a ferry boat, crossing the bay towards the evil island of an unknown drug lord. As we sailed in silence, two things became apparent to me. The first was that Kevin’s mom is an amazing cook and I had eaten way too much. As the boat pitched and rolled, I desperately hoped I wasn’t about to give that mound of catfish I ate back to the sea. The second was that I was in way over my head. A squad of police officers in full riot gear sat riding in stoic silence to the left of me, and Kevin and Starkeisha stood apart to the right of me, watching the dark shape of the island loom up on the horizon. A lump rose in my throat and I couldn’t stop the small whimper that escaped from between my dry lips.
Cousin Soartastic put a comforting arm around my shoulders. “Just do what we talked about. All the guards are right along the shore of the island. I’ve tried this run several times and I’ve never seen another soul anywhere inland. You won’t see anyone else on the path and if you do, they will not be interested in fighting you.” He paused and looked me up and down for a few moments. “Do you have everything you need?”
I patted the pockets of my tan cargo pants. I preferred cargo pants because they had lots of pockets which were handy for carrying gardening supplies. I felt the familiar lump of my pocket knife. There was a second lump in the pocket as well. Momma had insisted I take her pepper spray with me. The small canister was nearly as old as I was and it was just as likely to explode in my face as it was to blind my enemy. I had no intention of using it, but it made her feel better to give it to me, so I had it. I had my trowel and hand rake too, both excellent weapons in the right hands. Unfortunately, my hands were not the right hands. The other pockets were still filled with the seeds that I had planned to use in my own garden earlier in the day until the city called. I just hadn’t bothered to empty my pockets before we left. “Yes, I think I’m ready.”
He nodded. “Okay, have them lower the row boat. You two sit tight and wait for my signal.”
Starkeisha had brought a polished wood stick with a handle. It looked like a police billy club. She pulled it out and swung it through a few very impressive martial arts moves, then she looked at Soartastic and nodded. “We’ll be here waiting.” I was suddenly very glad to have her with me.
The crew lowered the rowboat into the water and helped us climb in. We each sat next to a pair of oars and watched the shoreline. As soon as we were seated, my big cousin, the amazing Super Soartastic, waved to us both, then before our eyes could register him leaving, he leaped high into the air and spread his cape out behind him to glide through the air toward the island. The world grew silent then. The only sound we heard was water lapping against the sides of the boat. It seemed like an eternity before I saw the light on shore. We turned in our seats and started rowing.
I was winded and breathing heavy by the time we reached the shore. “Whew,” I said breathlessly, “if I’m going to get into this superhero business, I need to get up off the couch once in awhile. I don’t want to have a heart attack before I even get started.”
I recovered quickly when I saw the dazed looking guards, tied up and sitting in the sand next to my cousin. “I did a sweep of the island perimeter. These were the only guards here. You should have a clear path to the caves now. Good luck, Super Corey.” In my dragon t-shirt and khaki cargo pants, I didn’t feel very super, but I nodded anyway. He pointed towards a light on a wooden post. “That’s the beginning of the path to the caves. Follow that and stay in the light and you should be fine.” He turned to my friend. “Starkeisha, you’re only going to make it about halfway up that path. There are cones and flashing lights on the side of the path to mark the halfway point. You will know when it’s time to turn back.”
She nodded, then turned to me. “Imma have your back for as long as I can, Corey. It might not be any people out there, but who knows what kind of wild animals is in these trees.” My stomach dropped. I hadn’t even thought about wild animals. I swallowed hard and grabbed her free hand. She looked tough and ready for action and that made me feel a lot better.
The path was narrow but well lit. There may not have been any people on the island, but the place was far from silent. The air was filled with the screeches of night creatures, fighting for territory or mates or whatever animals chatter about when the sun goes down. When we started down the path, I had my hand in my pocket clutching my knife and Starkeisha held her truncheon at the ready, but with each step along the empty path, we relaxed a bit more. We really were alone. This really was going to be as easy as advertised. I had just turned to say as much to Starkeisha when the other shoe dropped. “Hey! What the hell are you kids doing here!”
A massive man appeared and blocked our way to the cave. He was as big as Soartastic and his voice rumbled out of his chest like pure menace when he spoke. “I asked you two a question. What the hell are you doing here?”
Terror paralyzed my tongue and I couldn’t have spoken to save my life. Luckily, Starkeisha had no such trouble. She let out a high-pitched giggle. “We heard this is the place to get Psycho Silly. Please, Mister. We just need a little bit!”
He rolled his eyes. “Great, more fuckin’ junkies. I spend half my nights dragging dead morons just like you back down this path because they didn’t get the memo about pure uncut Psycho.” He pulled out a very large gun. “It’ll just be easier if I just walk you back to the beach and shoot you there. It’ll save some wear and tear on my back.”
“P-Please, sir. I swear to God and the GRASS you’re standing on that we will leave now and we won’t say nothing. We won’t let any GRASS GROW under us!”
She was subtle as a hammer, but I knew what she wanted me to do. It was a little trick we used to trip bullies at school when they teased her about her eyes or me about, well, everything. Her words were exactly what I needed to unfreeze my terror locked mind. I reached out to the life energy in the trees surrounding us on the path and pushed that life into the grass at his feet. I guided the grass’s growth so the lengthening blades wound themselves around his ankles and up his shins. He was so shocked, he nearly dropped his gun. We stepped back and he tried to take a step forward but the plants held his legs fast and he tripped and fell to the ground. I seized the opportunity and forced growth into the plants around his chest and his arms. He roared with fury and confusion, but he was unable to move. Starkeisha seized the opportunity and ran towards him, grabbing the gun and smashing her huge heavy stick into the base of his skull, knocking him out cold.
“Yes! Did you see that shit we just did there, Corey? We are a badass team!” She kicked the big man’s side for good measure. “That’s for pulling a gun on me, asshole!”
“Starkeisha, you have to go back to the beach and get Kevin.” I was too keyed up to remember secret identities. “That guy isn’t going to be unconscious long and this grass isn’t going to hold forever.
She shook her head. “No way! What if there’s more of them on the path?”
I looked at her. “I know how to handle them now, thanks to you,” I smiled at her. “Go on, I’ll be fine.” For the first time since I agreed to do this mission, I actually believed what I was saying.
About twenty feet further up the path, I saw flashing warning lights and smelled a strange earthy and herbal aroma. I knew it was the spores from the cave because I could see its dark shape looming in the distance. The scent was very pleasant and I could definitely understand the appeal. I wasn’t feeling high, my immunity held for designer drugs too it seemed. I was glad I’d sent Starkeisha back when I did because the smell became stronger with every step and she could easily have come too far.
After a further 50 feet, the light posts stopped. Luckily the moon was full and the path was still clear and easy to
follow. I continued, praying there wouldn’t be any wolves or bears or other beasts with a taste for my tender, well-marbled flesh. Luckily, nothing but bugs appeared.
It wasn’t much further until I reached the mouth of the cave, but I was nearly on top of the opening before I spotted it because it was so dark. I reached into the very bottom pocket of my cargo pants and pulled out the flashlight I’d stashed in there for just such an occasion. It was a small light with a very bright beam but it was barely enough to cut the gloom in the pure darkness. A few bats flew over my head as they exited the cave and I did my best not to shame myself with high pitched toddler screams as I moved in deeper. The floor of the cave sloped down slightly as I went, but without any visual reference, it was hard to tell how deep or far it went. The tunnel made several twists and turn as it descended, but luckily the path was straightforward and easy to follow.
After about 20 minutes of slow walking, a faint blue glow appeared in front of me. I could hear a faint scraping sound in the relative silence. I turned off and pocketed my flashlight, then continued down the path, my body pressed up against the cave wall. Hugging the wall didn’t make me invisible. Anyone who walked by would clearly see me in my bright red shirt, but they always stayed close to the wall in movies so it seemed like as good a plan as any for me. The blue light did not grow brighter as I got closer, but the size of the lighted area became clearer. The tunnel led to a chamber that was the size of a football field. I couldn’t even see the top of the cavern, it rose so high into utter blackness. I quickly slipped into the entrance and stepped into a darkened crevice a few feet from the door. The cavern was filled with rows of ten-foot shelving units, each filled, from top to bottom, with trays of innocuous looking, pale green mushrooms.
The cavern was not unoccupied like Kevin had predicted. I could clearly see someone down at the far end of the aisle directly in front of me and I doubted he was here alone. He wore what looked like a bright yellow biohazard suit and he was picking mushrooms with his stiff, heavily gloved hands and placing them into a white canvas bag slung over his shoulder. He was intent on his work and still quite far from me in my dark corner so he hadn’t seen me. I stood watching the man work, picking and choosing the mushrooms that were ready for harvest. For several minutes, he seemed unaffected by the chemicals in the air but then he swooned and had to grab the lip of the nearest shelf for support. He pushed a big red panic button on the chest of his suit and a loud siren began wailing, echoing off the stone walls.
“We need a shot on aisle 37!” The shouts rang out from somewhere to my left and several workers clad in blue hazard suits ran down the aisle towards the worker, who was now on his knees. One of the blue suits drew a vial and a clean syringe from the medical bag he carried. He drew some of the liquid from the vial into the syringe, then lifted up the flap of fabric draped over the downed man’s shoulders and plunged the needle right into his jugular. Seconds later, they helped the worker to his feet and he retrieved his bag and went back to work. “We need to stay on top of this, people. The serum is wearing off faster lately. Let’s get the shot to 23 and 42 now before they hit crisis point.” Thankfully they moved off to the other side of the cavern.
I knew I couldn’t stand in the shadows all night. I needed to act. It was time for me to save the day. I took in the size of the room and tried not the think of the enormity of the task ahead of me. I had never tried to channel this much energy, and though theoretically, it wouldn’t be any different than removing the life energy from a patch of weeds, it was still a pretty daunting task. My powers depend on a transfer of energy. Taking the energy out of the mushrooms meant I’d have to put it into some other form of plant life and there wasn’t much else growing in the cave. I reached out and found the thriving life energy of the mushrooms and I took it and channeled it into the moss and lichens on the cave walls until they looked like forests of ferns, but there was still so much more energy to channel and I was quickly running out of places to send it.
“What the hell?” The worker in the aisle in front of me looked up after the mushroom in his hand died and crumbled to inert dust. He turned in my direction and saw me for the first time. “Who the hell are you?”
I looked down at myself and saw that my bare skin was glowing with a faint light that was just enough to make me stand out in the gloom. He pushed the panic button on his chest once again and lumbered toward me. There was no plant growth at his feet, so I couldn’t subdue him as I had the man on the path, and for a moment, I panicked. Then I remembered the seeds in the pockets of my cargo pants. I undid the snap on pocket number two and pulled out a handful of wisteria seed pods just as more men in hazard suits came running up the aisles and headed toward me. I scattered the seeds at the feet of the first five that approached me. I pulled hard on the life force of the mushrooms in the room, pouring the energy into the sprouting vines. The vines grew fast and thick and wound themselves around the legs and torsos of the work crew. I threw seed pods to the left and right of me to trap the workers emerging from other aisles. Soon I had the whole crew trapped and struggling and still there were more mushrooms to kill.
I pushed the energy up the tunnel leading out of the cave, sending it through all the moss along the way and out the entrance of the cave to a stand of tree seedlings which instantly added years of growth. The dying mushrooms began to release spores and I absorbed the nearly microscopic specks of life into me and felt the deadly cloud die along with the bodies of the fungi. So much life energy flowed through me, I could no longer tell where it landed. It was all I could do to make sure it was moving out of the mushrooms. I focused all my effort on making sure that every bit of fungal life in the cavern died.
The sun was just starting to lighten the horizon when I emerged from the cave. I’d been down there for hours, but I didn’t feel tired. I felt strangely light and energized as I made my way back down the path. The walk back to the beach was slower going than the walk up to the cave had been. Branches and weeds had grown over the path and I had to push my way through the brush.
Starkeisha nearly bowled me over with the force of her embrace the minute I stepped onto the beach. “I was about two seconds from going back in there and dragging you out myself, then I seen how everything was growin’ and I knew you had to be causin’ it. I knew you was alright.” She threw her arms around me again. “Don’t you ever worry me like that again! You hear me?”
I hugged her back and spoke to my cousin over her shoulder. “It’s time to radio the officers and tell them it’s safe to come ashore. The wind is picking up so any stray spores that might be floating around in the air out here will probably be blown away soon and it will be safe to go up to the caves. All the Psychocybin is dead but there are workers tied up down there. They will need to be taken in for questioning. They were being injected with some sort of serum which gave them immunity. There should still be samples in the cave.” I turned to Starkeisha. “I couldn’t have done this without your cool head and fast thinking. We make a great team. Are you ready to go home now?”
Soartastic looked puzzled. “Go home? Cousin, you have just pulled off the largest drug bust in this state’s history, possibly the biggest bust in the country. Every news outlet in the world is going to want to talk to you. You need to get ready to accept the praise of your adoring public. Welcome to the life of a real superhero.”
“The only thing I need to get ready for is my calculus test on Monday. Right now, the only thing I want a welcome from is my own bed. I’ll deal with everything else later. Right now, I’m going home.”
Epilogue
Momma held up the bright green spandex body suit and looked at me hopefully. “What about this one?”
I sighed. “Momma, for the last time, no. I am not wearing spandex!”
“Oh, but Baby, all the other superheroes wear these and this green would bring out the color of your eyes so perfectly!”
In the week since I’d destroyed the city’s supply of Psychocybin, life had mo
stly gone back to normal. I was still short, fat, unpopular and behind on my homework; but a few things had changed. The color of my eyes for one thing. They’d gone from swamp water brown to bright leaf green. No one could explain why. Starkeisha told me the color looked striking against my dark brown skin. That made me smile. I figure the color change must be some sort of superhero evolution thing because my powers had changed too. I still only had the one talent, but now it was a lot easier to use. I also had the feeling that my abilities might be growing, though I couldn’t say why or how. I just decided not to worry about it until the next freaky thing happened.
“Look at me, Momma. We both know I’m not built for spandex. I would look ridiculous. Besides, I refuse to call myself Green Thumb. It’s way too obvious for my taste.”
“But your Auntie Floretta did this pretty emblem all in puffy paints just for you!” She pointed to the extended “thumb” emblem on the chest of the ridiculous bodysuit.
“Momma, it looks like a giant green toe. I am not wearing that thing on my chest.”
Momma leaned in and whispered, “You know her eyes ain’t what they used to be, but we don’t want to hurt her feelings. She worked so hard!”
“We don’t have to hurt her feelings. We’ll just tell her I decided to go a different direction. I want to be called The Cultivator.” I had looked it up on Thesaurus.com and thought it sounded pretty bad ass.
Momma raised one eyebrow. “Alright then, if you want to go around confusing people, go right ahead.” I looked down at my new black cargo pants and the sturdy black combat boots that I’d bought at the army surplus, I was wearing a bright green t-shirt with a black ammo harness that I’d adapted to carry some of the supplies that I needed to dispense my special brand of justice. I looked cool, or at least as cool as a guy like me could look.
Black Power- The Superhero Anthology Page 37