Nikki Powergloves- A Hero is Born

by David Estes

  Chapter Twelve: Destroying things is fun

  Jimmy looked at the crumpled up gorilla suit and laughed. No wonder he had been given special powers. He was way smarter than most kids. Not only had he protected his identity and had a little fun, but he had gathered enough information to track down the girl who could fly. Nikki Nickerson, what a name, he thought. He couldn’t wait for her to respond to his e-mail, so that they could become friends and start having fun together.

  Destroying things was fun. At first he had tried to use his powers to do good things, like the superheroes in comic books. One of Jimmy’s powers was finding people. One time, he tried to use his power to help an adopted boy at school find his real parents. He found them, but they didn’t even want to talk to the kid. They yelled at Jimmy for contacting them. When he told the boy that his parents didn’t want to see him, the boy flipped out and yelled at Jimmy, too!

  Eventually he had grown tired of being underappreciated and decided that if people were going to be mad at him anyway, he might as well have some fun with it. That’s when he started destroying things. He started small, using his ability to move things with his mind to remove satellite dishes from houses and bushes from people’s yards. But eventually he grew tired of that too, so he started using his computer-hacking skills to hack into secure websites and break computer systems. All made possible by the boots he had found.

  At night he used to cry himself to sleep because he had no friends, but destroying things always made him feel better. But now, finally, he had found someone who was like him. Someone who had powers. They would surely become best friends. And then they could destroy stuff together. He smiled at the thought and checked his e-mail one more time before going to sleep.