Ben Braver and the Incredible Exploding Kid

by Marcus Emerson

  I had been avoiding Coach since getting scolded tag team–style in the headmaster’s office.

  ‘Sure,’ Penny said. ‘I need to check my mail anyway.’

  Noah and Jordan loaded my things onto the dolly and headed inside with Penny.

  Coach sat next to me, and we both looked at the cloudy sky.

  ‘Jennifer says hi,’ Coach said, handing me a hefty red envelope. ‘She wanted me to give you that.’

  The last time I had seen Jennifer was on Christmas Eve.

  I took the envelope. ‘Is she okay? Is she still in the city?’

  He chuckled. ‘Yes, she’s okay, and yes, she’s still there.’

  It was the first bit of joy I felt that day.

  ‘She was heartbroken when I told her what happened to you,’ Coach said. ‘I think she feels partially responsible. Anyway, she gave me that and said it was for your eyes only.’

  I set the envelope next to me.

  ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t out there yesterday,’ Coach said. ‘It’s a rotten thing that happened to you. Stat cards or not. Powers or not.’

  ‘… But I deserved it.’

  ‘Nah. You made a mistake. I look at you, and all I see is a kid trying to keep up with everyone else, trying to fit in.’

  Coach got me.

  ‘The only boy at the academy without a power. What was Donald thinking?’

  I shrugged.

  Coach took a deep breath. ‘I’ve been here a long time, son. Seen a lot of kids come and go. Some good. Some bad. The students here – they’re born with powers, so they don’t get it.’

  He stood, putting his hand on my shoulder, and looked me right in the eye.

  ‘But I genuinely believe you’re the first person who actually deserves one. You’ve earned the right.’

  Coach nodded once and went on his way.

  I opened Jennifer’s envelope.

  A package of peanut butter cups slid out. I stuffed them into my back pocket, saving them for later. I don’t know – I just wasn’t in the mood for peanut butter cups.

  She also included a card, and what she wrote got my hands shaking.

  Project Blackwood was the Magic Lamp?

  I knew exactly where that was!

  I had even held it in my hands!

  ‘Brock, old buddy?’ I said. ‘I think I know how to fix all this.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  My Act 3 started with an incredibly thrilling search-and-recovery mission.

  A mission so intense that it would give you nightmares during the day – daymares!

  My own mother’s child would weep if he heard the story of – wait, I’m my own mother’s child.

  Never mind.

  It was way easier to get into Duncan’s lab than I thought it’d be. He had never deleted my biometric data, probably because he wasn’t able to touch anything.

  It was, in fact, the easiest thing in the history of all things ever. I literally walked in, stole borrowed the capsule, and left.

  You’d think something as important as Project Blackwood would be way harder to get.

  That sounds like a bad-guy thing to do, but the good intentions balance it out. And if it didn’t work out, I wouldn’t remember any of it at the end of the year anyway.

  I booked it back to my room and slammed the door shut, thinking I’d be alone, but I was wrong.

  Noah, Penny and Jordan were there, hanging pictures on the wall.

  ‘What’re you guys doing here?’ I asked, leaning against the door, feeling the weight of the Magic Lamp in my backpack.

  They all looked at me funny.

  ‘Where else are we supposed to be?’ Jordan said. ‘It’s, like, nine-thirty at night.’

  ‘Plus, I got those pictures in the mail,’ Penny said, excited.

  ‘What pictures?’

  Glossy photos hung on the walls, pieced together like a giant puzzle. They were the pictures from Penny’s phone. Our room had been eerily transformed into the Kepler Cave.

  ‘Oh, those pictures,’ I said, feeling woozy all of a sudden.

  I wasn’t sure if it was because of what I had in my bag or the wall of photos in front of me.

  Whatever it was, I knew I had to get outta that room. The lamp felt like it was getting heavier in my backpack, and I didn’t think my buddies would be on board with the fact that I had it.

  I turned the handle and pulled the door open, but only had a foot out before Noah called out.

  ‘Dude, wait!’ he said with a laugh. ‘Is that … Elvis Presley?’

  ‘It is!’ Penny said. ‘Or at least a kid wearing an Elvis mask!’

  ‘Well, it could just be a really short dude,’ Jordan said.

  I stopped in my tracks.

  Were they being serious?

  My curiosity got the better of me, and I stepped back into my dorm. When I looked at the photos on the wall, my jaw dropped.

  ‘… What?’ I whispered.

  They were right.

  Dozens of Elvis Polaroids were pinned together in rows, each one a different selfie taken by the same dude in the mask.

  Kepler had them strung up in his creeper cave.

  Every selfie had a date written on it starting from 1963.

  Each photo jumped forward a few years with the same dude in the same mask in the same outfit, all the way up to 2018. Like he didn’t grow or change clothes at all for over fifty years.

  And if the Kepler Cave were still standing, I knew there’d be another photo with the current year, too.

  I saw it in Kepler’s tenth-floor apartment.

  I was there when the Polaroid was taken.

  ‘I know him …’ I said.

  ‘Uh, say what?’ Penny said.

  ‘I mean, not personally, but I saw him at the beginning of the year. On the way to school, I saw him with that mask outside a cafe.’

  My friends looked at me like I was a wack job.

  ‘You saw this guy – the guy Crazy Kepler has a hundred pictures of, wearing an Elvis mask – at the beginning of the year,’ Noah said. ‘And you didn’t tell us?’

  ‘It was no bigs at the time!’ I said. ‘He was just a random dude hangin’ out in front of a cafe!’

  ‘Holy buckets!’ Penny said, holding the class photo with Fifteen next to the photos of Elvis. ‘They’re wearing the same outfit. These are all Fifteen!’

  ‘Wait, Elvis Presley was a descendant?’ Jordan asked. ‘This is getting hard to follow!’

  ‘No! It’s just a mask!’ Penny said. ‘The kid in the Elvis mask is Fifteen – that’s all you need to know!’

  ‘But what’s that mean?’ Noah asked. ‘Like, if it’s the same kid … He doesn’t age? So that’s definitely his superpower, but why isn’t he in the yearbooks? Who is he?’

  ‘Man, I didn’t believe you guys before,’ Jordan said, ‘but this … This is a full-on crazy train that I don’t wanna get off of.’

  ‘All these pictures, and still no name,’ Penny said. ‘The school tried so hard to make it like this kid never even existed.’

  Like he never existed – Headmaster Archer had threatened me with that exact same thing.

  Was I gonna be someone’s great mystery someday? Who’s the weird, chubby kid in the background? They’ll be bummed to find out it was a nobody.

  Just then my eyes landed on the articles about the Reaper and the world ending, and I imagined the worst of the worst – a thought so vile that it made me feel like I was gonna cry.

  ‘What if these articles aren’t fake?’ I said quietly, as if we were being listened to. ‘What if they actually happened, and the world forgot?’

  Noah looked at me like I was crazy. So did Jordan. Penny, too. Okay, all three of them looked at me like that.

  ‘What’re you talking about?’ Penny asked.

  ‘What if Headmaster Kepler’s nephew became a straight-up evil supervillain, and what if he destroyed these cities?’

  My friends stared at me wide-eyed.

  I tapped the
article about the Reaper. ‘What if this is Headmaster Kepler’s nephew? And what if … What if the world ended?’

  Nobody said a word, because at that exact moment, the school’s red alert went off.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  The hallway was crowded with students confused by the strange wailing sound coming from the PA system.

  The alert wasn’t a bell like the fire alarm. It was darker and creepier – like some kind of foghorn from an ancient security system. It also had an announcement telling everyone to stay inside rather than go outside.

  Penny pointed down the hallway. ‘Is that Kepler?’

  ‘Uh-oh …’ I said.

  The old man weaved through students while shouting at them to get out of his way.

  And he wasn’t wearing his hat.

  ‘Don’t you dare make another move!’ he yelled, pointing his creepy long finger at me.

  ‘He already knows we know?’ I said.

  ‘That’s impossible!’ Noah said.

  ‘Why else are the alarms going off?’

  I ran into my dorm and stuffed Penny’s photos into my bag. As many as I could in ten seconds.

  It was the only evidence we had that Fifteen was the Reaper and Headmaster Kepler’s nephew. Throw in the fact that the Magic Lamp was in my bag, and we had a pretty solid case for criminal activity.

  ‘Now what?’ Noah asked.

  ‘Now we need to get into Lost Nation and catch the Reaper,’ I said.

  ‘How do you know where he is?’ Penny said.

  ‘I don’t,’ I said. ‘But we can start at the cafe! Jennifer’s still in town, so if we find her, she can help!’

  ‘So you wanna catch the kid who killed millions of people?’ Penny said. ‘Are you crazy?’

  ‘We can’t just stay here!’

  ‘What if he’s not there?’

  ‘What if he is?’

  Penny hesitated.

  ‘Pen, if he’s there, then he doesn’t know we’re coming if we go right now,’ I said. ‘This is a cover-up of one of the worst crimes in history. We can’t just let them get away with it! We gotta do something, and we gotta do it fast!’

  She looked scared, but she agreed. ‘Okay.’

  I stepped back into the hallway.

  Kids were starting to panic.

  You ever see a hallway full of panicked students?

  It’s not pretty.

  The crowd was so thick that Kepler was still several doors down. We could try to make a break for it in the opposite direction, but that side was packed with students, too.

  ‘What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?’ I repeated, but then I realised my blond-haired answer was standing right next to me.

  ‘What?’ Joel said, annoyed.

  I grabbed his shirt and dragged him back into my room.

  ‘Open a portal into the city!’ I said, hoisting my backpack over my shoulders.

  ‘Are you kidding me?’ Joel said. ‘You’re the one he’s shouting at out there! I’m not gonna help you escape!’

  ‘There’s no time for this!’ Penny said, grabbing his collar.

  I pointed at Jordan. ‘Find Coach Lindsay – tell him what we know and where we went!’

  ‘On it,’ Jordan said, tearing his clothes off so he’d be completely invisible.

  Penny took her uke. ‘I’ll hold Headmaster Kepler back so you can get away.’

  Joel stretched a portal open over my bed. Noah and Joel jumped through first.

  I glanced at Penny.

  She strummed her uke furiously as a river of mice flooded the hallway full of shrieking children.

  I grabbed my Braverboy cape and raced through the portal. We were in the Kepler garage. Still too far from where we needed to be.

  ‘Can you open another portal to Campion’s Cafe?’ I asked. ‘It’s, like, six kilometres from here. I remember the Kepler car’s GPS saying that when I first drove into town!’

  Joel shook his head. ‘I can only open portals to places I see in my head, and I don’t remember that cafe.’

  I huffed, but it didn’t matter, because there wasn’t any time to waste.

  The three of us started running like we’d never run before.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  About six kilometres (and the worst side cramp I’ve ever had) later, the three of us were catching our breath in the alley next to the cafe.

  Project Blackwood, aka the Magic Lamp, was small, but it made my backpack weigh a tonne!

  The Reaper had been standing on the staircase next to the cafe when I saw him take the selfie. I figured the best place to start looking for him would be in the apartment at the top of the steps.

  ‘Hang on,’ I said, tying my cape around my neck.

  ‘What’s the plan?’ Noah asked, frantically chewing a wad of jerky.

  I shrugged nervously. ‘I don’t know yet. Trying to focus on makin’ a knot right now.’

  ‘Uh, we’re going up against someone who murdered millions of people,’ Noah whispered. ‘We should have a plan.’

  ‘Whaaaaaaat are you talking about?’ Joel said. ‘What’s that even mean? Someone here murdered millions of people? And you’re just gonna go knock on his door?’

  ‘Yep!’ I said, running up the stairs.

  Noah and Joel followed.

  I leaned against the railing, trying to figure out the best angle for me to kick in the door.

  Do I kick the centre? Or the handle?

  Noah was ready with the fireballs.

  Joel was freaking out.

  Suddenly, a Vespa skidded to a wonky stop at the foot of the steps. It was Jennifer. I didn’t know how she found us so fast, but I was happy she did.

  ‘We know the headmaster’s secret!’ I shouted down to her. ‘He’s hiding the Reaper, and we’re gonna catch him!’

  ‘Say it louder, dude,’ Noah said sarcastically.

  Tyres screeched from down the street. The headlights of the oncoming car lit up half of Jennifer’s face.

  ‘Did you hear me? I have proof that Donald Kepler is the bad guy!’

  ‘I heard you!’ she shouted impatiently as the car sped closer, engine revving. ‘Get down here!’

  Jennifer wasn’t being as cool as she should’ve been. She’d understand as soon as we had the Reaper in our hands.

  I kicked in the door, shattering the wood at the hinges. It fell with a thump onto shag carpeting.

  Noah ran in first, fireballs blazing.

  I stood in the doorway, staring through floating dust at the empty living room in front of me.

  Elvis had left the building.

  The oncoming car’s engine roared like a lion.

  It was coming right towards us, and it wasn’t slowing down.

  ‘Ben, give me Project Blackwood!’ Jennifer’s shrill voice commanded.

  I looked down at her rage-filled face. Her crystal blue eyes zeroed in on me like lasers.

  I paused, confused. ‘How did you know I have it?’

  At that moment, Totes’s ice-cream truck ploughed into Jennifer, smashing her through the wall of Campion’s Cafe.

  As bricks exploded and metal screamed, the staircase collapsed under Joel and me, sending the two of us tumbling into the dark alley.

  When I opened my eyes, everything was an agonisingly painful blur of muddy colours. A high-pitched ringing scraped my eardrums behind the muffled music of an ice-cream truck.

  Noah was helping Joel up from the ground.

  Good. They weren’t badly hurt.

  But Jennifer …

  I stood, wobbly from the crash, my mouth tasting like dirt and blood. I hoisted my backpack over my shoulders. Couldn’t lose the evidence.

  Totes’s ice-cream truck was smashed into the side of the cafe, music still playing. What the heck was it doing in the city?

  The Vespa was surprisingly untouched and still sputtering.

  But all I could see of Jennifer were her legs sticking out beneath the truck like she was the Wicked Witch of the East.
>
  It was like waking up to a nightmare.

  I wished it were only a nightmare.

  And then Jennifer’s foot twitched.

  She might still be alive!

  Through the music and the haze, I hobbled over and pulled on her legs. She was impossibly heavy, but that could’ve been because she was pinned by the truck.

  I reached under the vehicle and got a better grip, pulling as hard as I could, but her pants tore at the knees and I fell back.

  I stretched my hand out again, gingerly touching Jennifer’s leg, hoping it wasn’t too battered and bloodied.

  I stopped, confused at what I saw.

  Her leg wasn’t bloody at all.

  In fact, her leg wasn’t even skin.

  It was shiny black metal.

  The same wet-looking metal from Duncan’s lab.

  ‘Trutanium?’ I whispered.

  The passenger door of the ice-cream truck slid open, and Penny stumbled out. She reached back inside to help Jordan get to his feet.

  Except it wasn’t Jordan. It was Arnold.

  Penny brought Arnold with her?

  And then it got worse!

  The music cut out, and the driver’s door flopped open, but instead of Coach Lindsay – Headmaster Kepler fell out!

  The old man landed on his hands and knees, barfing all over the concrete.

  ‘I can’t believe he crashed the truck,’ Arnold said.

  ‘He told us he was going to!’ Penny said. ‘What part of, “Buckle up! I’m going to ram her,” didn’t you understand?’

  Penny saw me kneeling by Jennifer’s feet. ‘Ben! OMG, are you okay?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘B-but Jennifer’s hurt! We need to get her to a hospital!’

  ‘Heck to the no, dude!’ Penny said.

  ‘What do you mean, no? She could be dying right now!’

  ‘She’s not dying!’ Penny said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me back.

  ‘Pen, what’s your problem? Jennifer needs our help!’ I said, struggling to break free from Penny’s surprisingly monster grip.

  ‘Her name’s not Jennifer!’

  ‘What do you mean, her name’s not Jennifer?’