The Power of Teamwork!

by Katrina Kahler

  “She doesn’t seem evil to me!” Jason replied.

  The thing was, she didn’t seem evil to me either.

  Dear Diary: Man, I don’t know what’s more annoying, the fact that Doctor Donna Dangerfield is Wendi’s aunt or that she appears to be so nice. I mean I really should like this woman, she’s smart and strong and everything I strive for. Yet I can’t help thinking about what somebody did to that poor sweet gorilla, Jodi. If that was done by Doctor Donna, then she truly isn’t a good person. I mean can you do something like that and still be good?

  Senior Heist…

  Not sure why but I always loved going to Mr. T’s after the game with our kids and their parents. Sure, chaos reigned when we were there. Instead of herding cats, it became herding cats on sugar. But I loved it. Christa says it’s because I love punishment. I enjoyed the bonding of team and family and food. Jason says it’s because I’m a leader but also a team player. Not sure if he’s right about the leader part.

  Today as an extra treat, Tanya and Kayla joined us. Sure Kayla wasn’t on our team but she knew every kid from school. That’s one of the smallish town advantages, everybody knows everybody. Of course, that could also be a disadvantage at times. But like Grandma Betsy says, you take the good with not so good and the bad and the terrible. It all evens out.

  We pretty much took over Mr. T’s. But Mr. T and Mrs. T didn’t seem to mind. In fact, they enjoyed this mixed crowd even more than I did. Of course, they were making money out of us, so obviously that helped.

  We sat at a coach’s table. The parents sat at a couple of parent’s tables next to us. And the kids pretty much just ran around stopping by their parents’ tables to snack now and then.

  I sat and munched. I soaked in the atmosphere. Jason must have seen me smiling. He nudged me. “Wow, you seem happy.”

  I nodded. “I am. It’s been a good day. “

  Just as those words left my mouth, we heard police sirens. Lots and lots of police sirens. Darn, I shouldn’t have mentioned the words, ‘good day.’

  Jason looked at his phone. He turned to me and whispered, “This might be a good time to test your new uniform.”

  I stood up. “I’m going to go check out those sirens.”

  Of course, the entire restaurant had already headed out the door to see what was going on. There’s something about sirens and possible danger that gets people so excited.

  Jason walked out with me. He showed me his phone. It read: Bank robbery in progress Star City National Bank.

  Since the bank was located right across from Mr. T’s, we had a bird’s eye view. Four police cars had pulled up in front of the bank. Four policemen took position behind their cars. Four other officers carefully approached the bank, their guns were drawn. The four officers, three men, and a woman entered the bank.

  “Looks like the police have this under control!” I said.

  The three policemen came flying out of the bank. They crashed to the ground – out cold.

  “Okay, maybe not…” I groaned.

  An old looking bald man in shorts and a white t-shirt walked out of the bank holding two big bags of money. His white shirt had an orange ink stain on it but he didn’t seem to care.

  “Ha! Nothing can stop me!” the man shouted.

  The policewoman darted out of the bank. She aimed her gun. “Halt!”

  The old man bent down and wiggled his butt in her general direction. The police lady dropped her gun, grabbed her throat and fell over, blue. The old man laughed. “Ha! Silent but deadly!”

  The police all looked at Captain Michaels for direction. Captain Michaels aimed his weapon. “Last chance! Hands up or we shoot!”

  The old man grinned. “You got me. Nobody ever says that Grandpa John is a dummy.” He lifted his arms up. His smile grew.

  The police in front of Grandpa John grabbed their throats and mumbled, “Oh the stench…” and fell over.

  The cloud of old man underarm odor crept across the street. Everybody on the street dropped at once. I actually felt a little dizzy but fine, I fell over, pretending to be affected. I wanted to catch the old guy off guard.

  Grandpa John sniffed his armpits, “You wimps! They don’t smell THAT bad!” He started laughing and walking down the street.

  I pushed the button on my watch to activate my new uniform and got to my feet. I had to admit that it was handy to have this uniform. “Excuse me, it’s wrong to fart and use super BO without saying excuse me!” I shouted. Okay, not the best and wittiest comeback but I was still new to this.

  I raced down the street at super speed. I moved in front of Grandpa John. I held out my hand. “You’re lucky you didn’t kill anybody. Give up the money now and I’m sure the courts will go easy on you.” I noticed he had two electronic disks attached to the side of his forehead near his temples. The disks were pulsating.

  Grandpa John looked at the bags of money. He looked at me. He shook his head. “I need this money. I might want to go to an old folk’s home someday and those things are expensive. Actually, they are a rip off! Heck, I don’t need an old folk’s home. I need this money for a nice tropical vacation. Maybe I’ll go with some beautiful swimsuit models. That Christy Brinkley is still very beautiful and only about 20 years younger than me. She’ll come!”

  I shook my head. “I really doubt you’ll get her or any other model to go with you!”

  “But I’m rich now!” he shrugged.

  “It’s not your money,” I told him.

  He shook his head. “Possession is 99 percent of the law.”

  Now I shook my head. “Nope, that’s not how it works.”

  He dropped his bags of money and made a fist at me. “What do you know, you’re just a kid!” He shouted like I had been standing on his lawn.

  “His name is John Johnson,” MACS said to me from my watch.

  That caught me off guard.

  “I am constantly monitoring your situation,” MACS told me.

  I put my watch close to my face. “How can you see him?”

  “I got his image from the bank’s security camera,” MACS informed me.

  Grandpa John moved towards me. “You young kids, ya can’t go three minutes without looking at your fancy dancy technology.” He showed me his muscles. “Back in my day, our muscles were our technology.”

  “Okay, you know that makes no sense. Right, Grandpa?”

  “It makes sense in its own way!” he insisted.

  I shook my head. “Nope, it doesn’t!”

  He curled his hands into fists. “Young lady, I boxed in the army!”

  He threw a punch at me. I caught his hand. I hit him with an open palm to his chest. He went flying backward and fell over.

  “Okay, I never claimed I was a good boxer,” he groaned from the ground.

  He jumped back up to his feet. He turned and aimed his butt at me. “I hate to do this to such a pretty young thing but you asked for it!” He let out what had to be the loudest fart I’ve ever heard: PPRRRTTTTP!!!!!!!!!

  “Oops that may have been a wet one!” he laughed.

  I staggered back a step or two. “Is that all you got?”

  He dropped his head. “Actually it is…those big ones take the wind out of me.”

  “Now are you going to give up nice and quietly?” I asked moving towards him.

  He pulled out a pair of glasses from his shorts. He popped his glasses on his nose. “Look you can’t hit a man with glasses!” he told me.

  “Fine, have it your way!” I told him.

  “You’re letting me go?” He asked.

  “Oh no, giving you a taste of your own bad medicine,” I told him.

  “Say what?” he said.

  I turned and hit him with one of my own farts. A quiet ladylike pft…

  I heard him drop to the ground before I even turned around. Yep, I had out-farted a pumped-up old man. But I still wasn’t sure if I should be proud or ashamed.

  “Your father would like pictures of the cybernetic disks h
e’s wearing,” MACS told me.

  I bent down next to the out cold Grandpa John. The disks on his forehead melted away. “I so hope my fart didn’t do that!” I said.

  Dear Diary: First super gorillas, now super senior citizens. I need to get to the bottom of this and fast. Good news was, my new uniform worked great. Plus, having MACS as my contact “machine” would probably be useful. Maybe even get me closer to my dad! I’m glad Dad’s back in my life.

  Evening with Mom

  Luckily the people on the street all recovered quickly. Since they were all out cold I didn’t have to explain why Super Teen showed up while I was missing.

  That night, Jason and I talked about the situation with my mom and grandma Betsy. Turns out Grandma knew this John Johnson guy.

  “John Johnson is a good man,” Grandma told us as we sat around the dining room table. “A bit on the crazy side, but I like that in a man.”

  On the TV we saw Oscar Oranga doing an exposé on whether super people were dangerous and what we could do to protect ourselves. Checking my social media, people seemed split as they pretty much always were. Some of the people pointed out that Super Teen showed up to save the day. Others, like Wendi, claimed that no super people popped up until Super Teen showed up. Others blamed BM Science. BM Science’s online rep assured people they had nothing to do with this, or with Super Teen who was a treasure. I smiled at that.

  “Lia, put your phone down and pay attention,” Mom told me.

  “Sorry,” I groaned. “It’s just good to know what people are saying. Lots of them are on my side which is good. I still think this is that Doctor Donna’s fault. And I’m not just saying that because she’s related to Wendi.”

  Grandma nodded. “Your dad did say the tech used on the gorilla and John seemed to resemble the tech that Dangerfield has experimented with!”

  Mom shook her head. “The woman is brilliant, she has an M.D. and Ph.D. in physics and she’s a Vet and I believe she’s a lawyer as well. Her and her junior associate, Doctor Gem Stone even make house calls!”

  “Doesn’t mean she can’t be evil,” I said.

  “She’s also a world-class athlete and pretty good looking,” Jason added.

  I shot him a look.

  Jason held his ground. “She is!”

  “The boy’s right honey, she is a hotty,” Grandma told me.

  I heard a knock at the door. “Who could that be?” I asked.

  Mom pointed to the door. “I suggest you check!”

  I opened the door to see Janitor Jan standing on my porch. “Ah, hi…” I said.

  Jan walked past me. “I think you ladies need to hear what’s going on….”

  I staggered. “Wait? What?”

  I grabbed Jan by the arm. “What are you talking about?”

  Jan looked at me like I was a child, a very dim child. “Oh, so your mom hasn’t told you yet?”

  “Told me what?” I said with a tap of my foot.

  Jan reached into her purse and pulled out a card. She showed it to me.

  “Ah, Jan that’s a coupon for odor eaters,” I said.

  Jan put a finger up. “Right, very important item.” She put the coupon back and pulled out another card.

  I read the card. “This is a gift certificate to MacDonalds,” I sighed.

  “So it seems!” Jan said holding up the card with far more pride than I thought she should have. She shook the card and shouted, “WAMMO: card be true!” The letters on the card started moving around and reforming until they read: Sorceress Supreme.

  I looked at the card and wiggled my head. I blinked my eyes.

  “You’re seeing it right! I’m Sorceress Supreme!” she said proudly.

  “But you clean our school!” I exclaimed.

  Jan started towards the dining room table to join the group. “Who says a lady can’t have two jobs? The school gives me health insurance and dental. Plus, I keep an eye on you!”

  Jan looked at my mom. “I thought you told her Isabelle?”

  “I was waiting for the proper time,” Mom said.

  Jason stood up, “Do you want me to get you a seat?”

  Jan grinned. “Sorry kiddo, I like you, but this conversation is just for us ladies,” She pointed at Jason, “WAMMO! You’re a stool!”

  In a flash of bright energy, Jason glowed. Shrank. And became a stool. Jan walked over and sat on him.

  “Ah, I’d like to point out you just did that to my BFF!” I told Jan.

  Jan laughed. “Don’t worry it’s not permanent, and I probably won’t fart.”

  Mom leaned on the table. “Jan, what do you have to tell us?”

  Jan crossed her arms and adjusted her butt on Jason. Now that was another phrase I never thought I’d say. “Yesterday, when I was cleaning the hospital, I saw that John Johnson guy visit Doctor Dangerfield’s office.”

  “Wait, you work at the hospital now?”

  “Big picture, honey,” Mom told me.

  “Right,” I looked at Mom. “So Jan’s at my school to keep watch on me?”

  “And to clean,” Jan said. “I love cleaning things!”

  “It was her idea,” Mom told me. “And when Jan gets an idea in her head, you don’t get in her way, unless you want to spend a few days as her shoe insoles,” Mom said, as if she had been talking from experience.

  “Darn straight!” Jan said. “Can we get back to the business of who the bad guy or gal is before I turn you all into shoe insoles!”

  “Right,” I said. I set my gaze on Jan. “What did you learn at the hospital?”

  Jan rolled her eyes. “I just told you! I saw that John Johnson talking to Doctor Dangerfield and her people. That can’t be a coincidence.”

  “See Mom!” I said.

  Mom put her head in her hand and leaned on the table. “I admit it looks bad. Let’s just not focus on her though. It could be a setup.”

  “Well at least there will be three of us in the hospital, starting tomorrow,” Jan stood up. “I gotta be at work early tomorrow, so I’d better get rolling.”

  Jan stood up and looked at the Jason stool. “He’ll turn back in a bit.”

  “Hey, why’d you zap him? You didn’t tell us anything he couldn’t have heard?”

  Jan walked by me and smiled. “I know. He just dropped some paper on the floor. He didn’t mean to, but littering really makes me mad.”

  Jason popped back into himself. “Wait? What did I miss? Why does my back hurt? Why do I smell a butt smell?”

  I patted him on the shoulder. “From now on be sure to keep the school as clean as possible!”

  That night, getting ready for bed, I put on a pair of clean pink PJs. MACS sent me a text (which was weird BTW) saying that after the day I’d had, it would be good if I removed the suit so the nanobots had an easier time keeping it fresh. I would have taken it off anyhow. There are times when you want to wear your usual comfort clothing and tonight I wanted a bit of comfort sameness.

  Out of curiosity, I sniffed the armpit area of the nano suit. It smelled a little but not THAT bad. I picked up one of my nano shoes and sniffed it. It had a little kick to it, but I was pretty sure they weren’t lethal. I guessed the suit and even the shoes could keep up with me as long as I wasn’t overstressed. The good news was…I could lift my arms up without having to worry about knocking everybody out. The not so good news was that I’d lost a potential weapon. But I figured if I got nervous or angry enough I could sweat through those nanobots. 

  Shep popped into my room. He loved sleeping by my side and I loved having him with me. Shep, as always, just couldn’t resist sniffing my shoes. I’m not sure why. I guess he wasn’t as smart as he seemed. Shep walked over to the shoes beside my bed and took a whiff of them. He didn’t drop over stiff, instead, he laid down and went to sleep. He started dog snoring and sounded so cute. So yeah, my shoes still had some punch, just not an instantly drop everything in their tracks punch.

  MACS sent me another text from the nightstand I had put
him on.

  MACS: Okay, even the latest tech can’t quite keep up with your feet.

  For some strange reason that made me feel good.

  Dear Diary: Wow busy day today. I got a new uniform. I met an android. I met some siblings who can slow time, and I learned our school janitor is also a sorceress. Who would have thought that out-farting a super senior citizen wouldn’t be the strangest thing that happened in my day?

  Doctor Stone…

  The next day, on the drive to the hospital, Jason and I went over our plan with Mom. “Now remember,” Mom said from the driver’s seat. “You have no actual proof Doctor Dangerfield is behind this!”

  “True,” Jason chimed in from the back. “My dad interviewed her and she seemed very honest. She admits that the technology used on the gorilla and the old guy, John, was very similar to hers, but not hers.”

  “She talked to John at the hospital!” I insisted. Yeah I know I was being a bit stubborn and pigheaded here, but this woman was related to Wendi.

  “She showed my dad the video,” Jason said. “They talked about John’s poor health problems and his frequent farting and burping. Doctor Dangerfield told him her work wouldn’t help him with any of those! At least not yet.”

  I looked across the seat at Jason. “I’m just glad you’ll be working in her lab so you can keep an eye on her!”

  Jason nodded. “Oh I plan to… she’s so smart and strong and pretty,” he sighed, a dreamy look on his face.

  “Lia, just make sure you’re not biased just because she’s related to Wendi!” Mom warned me. “Our hospital administrator, Mr. Thom, spent a lot of time and money recruiting Doctor Dangerfield. Plus, she’s working with the University and with your dad’s company.”

  “I’ll try,” I said, shaking my head in frustration.

  We pulled into the hospital parking lot. The hospital was an impressive brick building with large windows that looked out onto the well-groomed patio that led into the main building. The original building had to be one of the oldest structures in Star Light City but it had been updated many times. According to Mom, we now offered all the latest services and some cutting-edge technology that wasn’t available anywhere else. Mom insisted we were lucky to add Donna Dangerfield to the list of talented staff who worked there. I still wasn’t sure.