by Ade Adepitan
They both looked at me, but I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to use a wheelchair, but not for the same reasons as my dad. I wasn’t sure how my friends would react, but I was pretty sure I knew how Spencer and his mates would. Then there was school. I definitely didn’t want to go to a “special’ school. But there was no way they’d let me go on any trips if I was in a wheelchair. And what about my super powers? Would I still be Cyborg Cat if I was in a wheelchair? The Night Spider’s graffiti might trap me in a wall forever.
In the end I just said, “I don’t know, it would be a bit strange.”
“Okay,” said Mum, composing herself and starting to take control of the situation. “Let me speak to my husband. I’m sure your father just needs time to get used to the idea, don’t you think, Doyin?”
I nodded, still not sure what to say.
“Good, good. It’s a shock for a lot of people at first, but I’m sure Mr Adepitan will come round once he’s had a chance to think about it a little more,” the doctor said. “I can arrange the wheelchair for you now.”
Before I had a chance to think about it, Dr Shah made a phone call and a few minutes later a nurse came in with a wheelchair.
Only it wasn’t a wheelchair, it was a horrible brown ugly monster. It was nothing like Salim’s really cool chair, this thing was about as cool as a curry in the Sahara desert.
“Oh, what a lovely wheelchair,” said Mum, bringing me back down to earth with a very big bump. I knew she was only trying to be kind to Dr Shah because she was still embarrassed by Dad walking out, but surely even she could see how grotesque it was.
“Come on, Doyin, you can start getting used to it on the way home.”
Noooooooooooooooooo!
There was no way anyone was ever going to see me in that.
“Mum, please don’t make me. I can walk, this is near our house.”
As we got off the bus I was practically begging Mum not to make me go in the chair again. If anyone saw me that would be the end. I’d have to move to Australia and never come back.
It had been bad enough going to the bus stop outside the hospital. I kept seeing kids that I was convinced were Spencer. I was wrong, but each time I curled myself into a ball to make myself as small as possible.
“Ahh! Ahh!” said Mum. “Remember what Dr Shah said. You have to look after your leg. Now get in, please.”
That ‘please’ was her special ‘please’. The way she said it wasn’t to be polite. It was to say, no argument, you’re doing this.
I got into the wheelchair and tried to scrunch myself up into an even smaller ball, while keeping a keen eye out for anyone who might know me.
It was all going fine until I spotted some people who knew me very well. Thankfully, it wasn’t Spencer or any of his lot, it was the Parsons Road Gang. But I really, really didn’t want them to see me like this.
“Mum, my friends are over there. Can I get out and see them? I’ve been in the chair most of the way home. Please, please, please.”
“Go on then, Doyin, you’ve been very good this morning. I will put the wheelchair in the shed until I have had a chance to talk to your father again. It’s probably best he doesn’t see it at first.”
Hiding the chair was completely fine by me. Relieved, I got to my feet. Even though I hadn’t been in the wheelchair long, standing up felt strange. I tried to ignore the feeling.
“Thanks, Mum.”
Mum smiled as I raced over to see my friends.
“Hey, I’m back,” I shouted. “What are you do—”
They didn’t need to answer me. I could see exactly what they were doing.
There were staring at some new graffiti.
This one showed a group of children inside a safari park. They were all laughing at another child who was outside, crying and looking in through the bars of the park gates. On top of the crying child, in capital letters, was the word, ‘LOSER’.
But there was something else.
The child outside the park looked an awful lot like me.
I couldn’t quite believe it, and as I stared at it in astonishment, I forgot to concentrate on not getting sucked in. I felt my mind drifting. My body started floating. Suddenly I could hear laughing that was getting louder and louder and I felt myself getting closer to the bars on the park gates. There was no way I could fit through them! I was going to be sliced into pieces!
That’s you, Cyborg Cat, the voice said in its whispery, sneery way and it laughed again.
The bars on the gates got closer and closer.
That’s you … yooouuuuuuu … you’re outside … not inside … outsiiiiiidddddeeeee … alone … alllllll alone … yoooouuuuuu …
“That’s you, Ade, isn’t it? I can’t believe this,” said Dexter.
“Wh-what?” Dexter’s voice had brought me back, but I was still not too sure where I was.
“The kid outside the safari park, crying,” said Melody. “It’s meant to be you.”
Suddenly I was completely back. I turned away from the graffiti.
“Yeah, I suppose it does look like me.”
“But why?” said Shed. “What has the Night Spider got against you?”
“Maybe,” mused Brian, “Night Spider is Cyborg Cat’s nemesis.”
“Nem-mer-whatsis?” said the rest of us together.
“Arch-enemy. Every superhero has one. Maybe Night Spider is Cyborg Cat’s nemesis.”
I didn’t mention the weird voice I’d heard, or how the graffiti had made me feel like I was floating. I had enough problems without them all thinking I was going mad.
“Maybe,” said Shed. “But maybe it’s someone closer to home. Maybe it’s someone we all know. Maybe …”
“Yeah, get on with it, Shed,” interrupted Melody. “Who do you think it is?”
“Spencer,” said a slightly miffed Shed. He never liked being cut off when he was on a roll, building up suspense.
“Spencer?” said Dexter. “How do you work that one out?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” said Shed. “The N and the S of Night Spider are always bigger. N-S, N-S …
Spencer’s real name is Neville. Neville Spencer Frogley.
N. S. Frogley!”
“Wow,” said Brian as Shed beamed. “That’s got to be it! Spencer is the Night Spider.”
“Yeah, could be,” said Melody. “Makes more sense than a superhero arch-enemy, anyway.”
I had to admit it did make sense. But somehow, I wasn’t totally convinced.
“And I’ll bet it was Spencer’s parents who complained and got you banned from the trip,” chipped in Dexter. “That’s why he’s done this graffiti. He’s taunting you, Ade.”
Maybe. But I knew something my friends didn’t about the graffiti and the strange effect it had on me. Could it be draining my powers, so I would fail on the obstacle course? Would Spencer really be able to do that?
“Well, I don’t care who it is,” I said defiantly, banishing my thoughts to the back of my mind. “I’m going to show everyone that nothing and no one can stop Cyborg Cat!”
6
Sweats, Stumbles and Smells
“AND stretch, 2, 3, 4. And twist, 2, 3, 4, and swing it out. And in. And out, 6, 7, 8.”
We were at Melody’s house doing a fitness video so I could get into shape for the obstacle course, but the others were joining in as well. As my mum had rightly said, the Parsons Road Gang always stick together. Melody had seen her mum doing the video loads of times before, so she was at the front taking us through all the moves. She was working us pretty hard and making sure there was absolutely no slacking.
“This is sweaty work,” said Dexter, bending sideways with one arm over his head.
He was still wearing a headband, but this time we all were, though the rest of us had chosen ones that were white instead of bright orange.
“Perspiration is a perfectly normal response to exercise,” responded Brian. “It’s just …”
“Weakness leavin
g the body,” interrupted Shed, grinning maniacally and with an air of confidence. “Sweat is just weakness leaving the body.”
“Err, that’s actually incorrect. I think you’ll find it’s your body trying to thermo-regulate,” said Brian, attempting the splits, but only succeeding in going splat, as he fell forward onto his face.
“Oi, less talking you lot,” commanded Melody. “Ade needs to be in peak physical condition by Friday, so concentrate.”
“But you’re going to be, aren’t you, Ade?” said Shed over the shouts of, ‘Move those hips, back, 2, 3, 4, front, 2, 3, 4,’ coming from the television. “You’re going to show them.”
“Course I am,” I said, breathing heavily as I hopped awkwardly from foot to foot. “I’m the … Cyborg … Caaaaaaaaaaaaaatttt.”
Clonk.
“Ade, you all right?” asked Shed, a concerned look on his face. “You fell over. Is your headband too heavy?”
“I, er, I must have put my foot on something,” I said, picking myself up. “I’ll just go and get a drink.”
I could see my friends looking at each other as I left the room. They knew I hadn’t stepped on anything. I was worried. The achy feelings had started to come back and I had pains in my legs. On top of that I also felt really tired. The exercise video was hard, but it wasn’t that hard. Not really. And this was only the first time we’d done it. Were Mum and the doctor right?
No. I have to fight this.
Five minutes later, after a glass of water and a sit down, I was feeling better. Well, until I went back into the living room.
“Pooooaaaaarrrrgggghhhh! What is that smell?”
“I think it’s weakness leaking out of Brian’s bottom,” said Dexter, chuckling.
“It’s a Brian bomb, one of his worst,” said Shed.
“It’s not ONE of his worst,” I said, in a nasal drawl as I was holding my nose. “It’s THE worst.”
“I couldn’t help it,” spluttered Brian. “It’s the exercise.”
“Or perhaps it could be all those beans and eggs you had for lunch,” suggested Shed.
“No, no,” countered Brian. “It’s the stretching, isn’t it? It’s made me, erm, looser and erm …”
“Eeerrggghhh! Shut up, Brian!” shouted Melody. “You’re making me feel sick.”
“Yeah, and I’m not feeling too clever myself,” I added. “Let’s get outside before we all pass out.”
“But what about my obstacle course?” Brian said. “We can’t go outside, it’s all set up properly in here.”
But the smell was so bad we just grabbed what we could and ran out of the front door. Thankfully, Brian’s bomb hadn’t managed to escape from Melody’s front room and the air outside was a lot less rancid.
As it turned out, we hadn’t done too badly on our grab-and-run. We had some chairs, a blanket, some hula hoops and a few of Melody’s brother’s toy cars. Even though we didn’t know exactly what Mr Munroe’s obstacle course was going to be like, we reckoned what we put together was pretty good.
The first obstacle was two chairs pushed together, which I had to jump over. Then I had to crawl under the blanket, jump through two hoops held by Dexter and Brian, zig-zag round the toy cars, get up onto a third chair and jump from it to another one, before finishing with a back flip through another hoop, which was being held by Melody. Shed, who was the only one with a watch, was timing the whole thing.
“Thirty-eight seconds,” he said, after my first attempt. “Not bad, if you don’t count the back flip, which was more of a front flop.”
“Yeah, not my strong point,” I said. “Let’s hope Mr Munroe doesn’t want us to do one on his obstacle course.”
“Not bad is not good enough, though,” said Brian.
“Well, it’s not bad,” said Dexter.
“Exactly,” said Brian, a little confused, as we all were. “Ready to go again, Ade?”
“Yeah, let’s do this,” I said.
After another three attempts I’d got my time down to 27.38 seconds, though as Shed’s watch wasn’t a digital one no one was quite sure how he was able to be so accurate. I was moving in the right direction, definitely, and I was feeling pretty good. Dad was right, I just needed to rest when I feel achy and tired.
“What do you think, Ade?” said Melody. “Can you give it one more go?”
“Course he can,” shouted Dexter. “He’s CC!”
“He’s a sissy?” said Shed.
“No, you silly sausage,” replied Brian, who’d got it. “CC. Cyborg Cat.”
“Ohhh,” said Shed, as the penny dropped.
“Yeah, I’m good to go again,” I said. “And I’m going to totally smash that record!”
I punched the air and they all cheered as I made my way to the start, but just as I was about to launch myself over the chairs again, we were rudely interrupted. Actually, scratch that. We were VERY rudely interrupted.
“Hey, look at this weirdo convention. Ade’s playing with his toys and his blankie while the other idiots and creeps babysit him. Ha ha ha ha.”
“Shut up, Spencer!” shouted Melody. “Haven’t you and your stupid friends got anything better to do?”
“What could be better than watching you lot make fools of yourselves?” he retorted, and his mates started laughing again.
“We’ll be the ones laughing on Friday,” I said, eyeballing him. “When I destroy you and your evil alter-ego forever.”
“Whatever. I don’t know what you’re talking about and I don’t care. You’re losers,” Spencer said and they all headed off chanting, “Losers, losers, losers, losers!”
As the chanting faded into the distance, it was obvious that we were all thinking the same thing.
‘Loser’ was the word on top of the cage in the new piece of graffiti. Spencer had to be the Night Spider.
7
Collision Course
“COME on, let’s get straight to the gym and warm up,” shouted Dexter as we excitedly jog-walked to school on the day of the obstacle course PE lesson.
The gang were feeling confident about my chances of impressing Mr Munroe that morning and so was I.
We’d built a variety of different courses for me to practise on and my times had kept improving and I hadn’t felt achy or too tired. We had got into a bit of trouble with Brian’s mum – using sofa cushions as stepping stones in the muddy back garden didn’t go down too well – but apart from that it was all looking good. I’d even managed to ignore the new Night Spider graffiti Salim had told us about – a picture of a kid who looked a lot like me melting into a puddle.
Mr Munroe was already setting up the equipment when we got to the gym and was impressed that we’d arrived early.
“Well, well, well,” he said. “I hope you’re this enthusiastic about all your subjects.”
I wasn’t too sure about that, but it was a good start.
A few minutes later the rest of the class filed in, and sure enough, one voice stood out above the rest.
“Oi, you lot, you’re in the wrong room,” said Spencer. “The losers class is next door, ha ha ha ha.”
We all looked at each other and raised our eyebrows, which seemed to annoy Spencer, so we shook our heads as well, which annoyed him more.
“Hmm,” said Mr Munroe, scratching his chin and looking at his handiwork. He went over to a big bag and took out a basketball, which he put on the floor in front of a hoop.
“Hmm,” he said again, this time scratching his head. Then he laid out all the same equipment again next to the first lot he’d put out.
“Right,” he said. “Listen up. I’ve decided that you’re going to do the obstacle course as a relay race, so get yourselves into teams of five, please.”
Perfect. The Parsons Road Gang were a team of five and we couldn’t have been more ready for this.
“It’s pretty straightforward,” explained Mr Munroe. “Vault the vaulting horse, jump over three of the benches, then hop along the fourth one. Forward roll on the mat, cra
wl under the net, then hop between the hoops on the floor. When you get to the basketball, you have to get it into the basket before running backwards to your team and tagging the next person. Soooo, we’ll start with this team against that team –” he pointed as he spoke – “then you five against this lot and then, finally, you against you. Okay?”
“Oh no,” said Dexter, gulping.
We’d been paired with Spencer’s team. Now this race was going to be about more than just impressing Mr Munroe. It wasn’t just the Parsons Road Gang against Spencer’s crew, either. If we were right about our theory, the final leg of the race was going to be Cyborg Cat versus the Night Spider.
“Get going!” shouted Brian, looking over his shoulder as he hurtled backwards towards our team and tagged Dexter.
Dexter set off like a firecracker, haring towards the vaulting horse with a look of grim determination on his face. He’d already seen Melody, Shed and Brian get over it, so he knew exactly the right spot to take off from. Easy! At least, it would have been if he’d got to the right spot. Unfortunately, Dexter tripped over his own feet and went flying, landing with a bump at the bottom of the horse.
“Ha ha ha ha!” shriek-laughed Spencer as his teammate glided over the vaulting horse.
It was a bitter blow. Until that point it had been pretty neck and neck. Melody had set off first and finished ahead. Shed had gone next and even though he was powerful, he wasn’t a fast runner … or hopper … or crawler. So Spencer’s team had gone into the lead. Brian had levelled things up, but now Dexter had put us way behind.
“Get up, Dex!” we all shouted.
For a moment it looked as if Dexter had forgotten where he was, as well as what he was doing and what day it was, but then he picked himself up, shook his head, blinked a couple of times and hurled himself over the vaulting horse for all he was worth.
Considering the start he’d made, Dexter did really well, but by the time he was running back to hand over to me for the last leg, Spencer was already hopping along the bench and heading towards the mat for his forward roll.
