Nikki Powergloves- A Hero is Born

by David Estes

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Getting hit in the head by a lightning bolt hurts

  As she flew toward the Miller’s, Nikki thought about what Jimmy might be planning. He could burn their house down, or plant another bomb. Destroying their crops was another option, but she was less worried about that, since she had the ability to regrow them. She thought back to the last time she had seen the Millers. They had been so welcoming, sharing fresh warm apple pie and cider. She had to save them. The scariest of the possibilities was that he might do something to hurt one of them. She tried not to think about it. Whatever he tried, she was going to stop him.

  When she arrived at the farm, she circled the perimeter four or five times before feeling comfortable that Jimmy wasn’t there yet. Being invisible had its perks: she didn’t have to worry about being spotted while she conducted her surveillance. She landed without a sound on the roof of the main house, from where she felt she would best be able to watch the entire farm. Every few minutes, she would scan a different direction to ensure she saw him coming from a long way off. First north…then south…east…west. Repeat.

  There is no way he will be able to sneak up on me, Nikki thought, as she looked toward the back of the house. Just then, a boy materialized out of thin air about halfway across the backyard. One moment the yard was empty, and the next he was there.

  He was wearing a black costume, complete with a gray belt, black mask, and black cape. On his chest were two letters that Nikki wasn’t quite able to see, but knew what they were: JP. It was him.

  However, out of everything he was wearing, his mismatched boots stood out the most. On one foot he was wearing a brown boot and on the other he had on a bright yellow boot that looked like the galoshes that Nikki sometimes wore in the rain. Nikki thought about how she was currently wearing a different colored glove on each hand. It is too similar to be just a coincidence, she thought. His powers came from his boots! JP stood for Jimmy Powerboots!

  She watched him, ready to spring into action at the slightest sign of trouble. Instead, Jimmy crouched low to the ground and remained completely still. Nikki stretched one of her legs to try to get more comfortable while she waited. As she repositioned herself, her foot gently scraped the roof, making a soft scratching noise.

  Jimmy’s ears perked up, his head popped up, and he stared directly at the spot where she was sitting. Has my invisibility stopped working? she wondered. She looked at her arm, but even she couldn’t see it. Feeling uncomfortable under the piercing eyes of Jimmy’s stare, Nikki remained frozen. After several minutes, he looked away from her and leaned down again, like an animal listening for any signs of danger. That was when Nikki realized that one of the boots he was wearing must give him super-hearing ability.

  She decided to test her theory by, ever so slightly, scraping her toe on the roof again. The sound that she made was barely even loud enough for her to hear, but sure enough, Jimmy’s head jolted up and his eyes locked in on her exact position. Again, after a few minutes, Jimmy returned to all fours. After waiting patiently for ten minutes or so, he finally seemed satisfied that he wasn’t in any danger and stood up.

  To Nikki’s surprise, he reached in his pocket and dug out a tiny object, which he set down on the ground. After taking a few steps back, he gave an invisible string a familiar tug, like Nikki had done so many times before, and the tiny object grew into a large treasure chest. Jimmy removed both of his boots and tossed them in the box. He reached inside the chest and extracted two different boots—one was fire-engine red and the other neon orange—and promptly put them on. Nikki wondered what terrible powers those boots would give him.

  She figured she was about to find out as Jimmy raised his arm. He pointed his index finger directly toward the farmhouse, like a sniper aiming at his target. Nikki leapt off the roof and shot toward Jimmy, colliding with him seconds later. He tumbled backwards for several yards, coming to a stop after four or five somersaults.

  Nikki winced, pain shooting through her shoulder from the impact. Jimmy recovered and jumped to his feet, flames bursting from the soles of his boots. The eruption of fire propelled him away from the ground. Ignoring the pain, Nikki gave chase.

  It became a game of aerial follow-the-leader, as Jimmy did everything he could to throw her off his trail. Even though he couldn’t see her, some sixth sense seemed to be telling him where Nikki was, as he rolled and ducked, changing direction every couple of seconds. Easily able to match his speed, Nikki stayed with him despite all of his efforts.

  As she followed him, Nikki wondered what power the second boot gave him. One boot allowed him to rocket through the air like a missile, but what was he trying to do when he pointed his finger at the house?

  As she was thinking this, Jimmy dove sharply toward the ground, skimming along the surrounding fields. She saw him stretch his arm to the side and point a single finger at a bale of hay when they passed it. He whipped his arm backwards and behind him, in the general direction that Nikki was chasing him from. In a flash, the hay bale shot through the air and collided with the side of Nikki’s head, knocking her off of her trajectory.

  She fell toward the earth, but managed to catch herself in mid-fall and land in a half run, like a seasoned sky-diver. Spitting out pieces of straw from her mouth, she looked up to see where Jimmy was. He had stopped in midflight and was looking directly at her. But how can he see me? she wondered. Looking down at where her arm should be, Nikki saw that there were clumps of hay floating in the air. In reality, the hay was stuck to her, but because she was invisible, all that Jimmy could see was the hay-outline of Nikki.

  Knowing that she needed to switch her invisibility glove for another one that would be more useful, she opened her own treasure chest on the lawn. Throwing her gray glove inside, she rummaged through the remaining gloves, frantically trying to decide which one to use. “Which one, which one, which one?” she mumbled to herself. Before she had a chance to decide, she heard a sharp cracking sound behind her.

  She whirled around to see the house shaking, as if a supernatural force was trying to pluck it from its moorings. A large crack appeared at the base of the house and the ground was rumbling from the tension. It felt like the house was built on a fault line, and the plates had shifted, causing an earthquake under her feet. Jimmy was levitating above the house like a god on Mount Olympus, his finger pointed at the roof. He was straining under the pressure, his body shaking, but ever so slowly, the house was obeying his command and rising from its foundation.

  Her bracelet pulsed with light and Nikki looked into the crystal. It displayed both a purple glove and a black-and-yellow glove. It was time for super-strength and thunder and lightning! She located the required gloves and put them on.

  The house had now pulled completely from the ground and was rising into the sky. Splinters of wood and cracked stone crumbled from its base as it rose. Water burst from broken pipes and electricity crackled along severed wires. But none of that mattered now. She had to stop him before the house rose too high.

  Nikki sprinted for the floating house and just before reaching it, saw the front door open, and a terrified Mrs. Miller look out in horror. When Nikki reached the house, it was already ten feet in the air, which was well out of her normal jumping range, but with her leg muscles bulging with super-strength, she planted her left foot and pushed off with her right, leaping high into the air.

  She grabbed onto the first of three steps that rose to the doorway, and using every ounce of her super-strength, pulled downwards with a powerful thrust. The house shuddered under the strain as Nikki tried to counteract the force that was pulling it in the opposite direction. Tiny cracks began to form on the outer walls and, for a second, Nikki thought that she and Jimmy might tear the house into two pieces.

  With a mournful groan, the house slowly began to descend back toward the earth. Nikki wasn’t sure whether she was winning the battle until she felt her dangling feet touch the ground. With all her might, she dug her feet into the di
rt and drove the house downwards. The house smashed into its original location with a thundering crash, the impact sending vibrations through the earth.

  Afraid that Jimmy might try to raise it again, Nikki pressed the lightning bolt symbol on her black-and-yellow glove and imagined a concentrated storm forming over the spot where a very surprised Jimmy Powerboots was still hovering. A black cloud appeared over him. A bolt of lightning seared through the air, connecting with Jimmy’s skull and showering him with sparks.

  His lifeless body dropped from the sky, as gravity regained its hold on him. Instinctively, Nikki ran the ten or so steps that she needed, and caught him before he could plow into the earth. Mrs. Miller stumbled out of the damaged, but intact house, and fell to her knees in gratitude. As sirens sounded in the distance, Nikki knew that the farmer’s wife must have called 9-1-1 when the house first started to lift off. That was Nikki’s cue to exit.

  Still holding Jimmy in one arm, she replaced the lids on each treasure chest and pocketed them. Nikki ran as fast and as far away as she could, until she was well out of sight of the farmhouse. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she lowered Jimmy to the ground and pulled his boots off—his face was pale and he looked like he might be dead. She needed to get help fast, so she replaced her weather-controlling glove with her flying one, scooped him up, and launched herself into the sky.