The Ups and Downs of Being Super

by Katrina Kahler

  “That’s what you get for messing with me!” I told the fly. Looking down at Shep who was now sleeping, I thought, Oops! Lucky he didn’t get a direct hit!

  I stood up, picked up the fly off the floor and headed to a window. Mom’s plants on the window ledge had wilted. One of them was a cactus. Oh my gosh, I thought as I opened the window and tossed the fly out. My smelly feet can wilt a cactus! I knew three things: this was going to get me a speech from Mom about using my power wisely. I needed a shower badly. And lastly, it was definitely a good thing I hadn’t taken my shoes off in public.

  Heading up the stairs, I decided I should take a very long shower.

  Shower Interrupted…

  When the water from the shower hit me, somehow it felt better than any shower I had ever taken. I finally understood what Mom meant when she talked about water washing away any tension. I made a concerted effort to make sure I really scrubbed my underarms, feet, and toes, and between each toe. If it could smell, I washed it thoroughly. From now on that would be my motto:

  If it can smell, wash it well….

  Okay, it wasn't as good as "Up, up and away!" or "To infinity and beyond!” This would be more of a private motto. I’d work on the flashier one later.

  I heard a weird ringing sound coming from the sink outside the shower. I kind of recognized that ring. Moving the shower curtain aside, I glanced across the steaming room to see my phone flashing. Somebody was actually calling me! Not texting, not snap chatting, not tweeting me. Somebody wanted to talk to me the old-fashioned way. This had to be important.

  I jumped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around myself and grabbed the phone. When I saw Jason’s name and image with the wording, incoming call, I hit the speaker button.

  “Jason, what’s up?” I asked.

  “Turn on your TV, put it on channel 13 news!” Jason had a sense of urgency in his voice. He was usually calm and relaxed. (Except of course when talking about comics.) So this had to be important.

  Walking into my room, I grabbed the remote and flipped my TV on. I punched in channel 13. A local reporter appeared on the screen. She was at the Starlight City City Zoo. Yeah, the name was a bit silly, but that wasn't what mattered right then.

  “Breaking news from Starlight City City Zoo! There is a seven-year-old boy who has somehow fallen into the gorilla pit. The boy has been approached by the zoo’s pride and joy, a 20-year-old male gorilla name Henry. Zoo officials and police are trying to determine the best way to handle the situation. They can’t tranquilize the gorilla because the sedative will anger him before it relaxes him. They are afraid to shoot Henry because he has the young boy in his arms.”

  The camera zoomed in. There was my neighbor, sweet little Felipe in the arms of a massive gorilla.

  “Oh, this is so bad!” I said to Jason over the phone.

  “You gotta get him out of there!” Jason pleaded. "My dad and his men are there, but I'm afraid they could do more harm than good. I'm betting you could free Felipe from Henry without Henry or Felipe getting hurt.”

  I thought for a split second while looking at the screen. Felipe was staying surprisingly calm. It looked like he was talking to Henry. Henry, for his part, seemed fascinated by Felipe. I knew that Henry could crush Felipe by accident. Gorillas had to be extra careful around humans. I could relate, but I was pretty sure Henry didn't quite grasp that concept.

  “Okay, I’ll put on a disguise and get there asap!” I told Jason.

  “Thanks, Lia!” Jason said, sounding relieved. “I’ll bike there.”

  “Jason…”

  “Don’t worry, Lia, I’m not going to try to be a superhero, I’ll be there so I can run interference for you if you need it!”

  “Thank you, Jason!” he indeed was a sweet, great friend.

  I spun around really fast to spin dry myself. It worked really well. But I needed some sort of costume. I went into my closet and pulled out a red pair of tights that I’d worn to a dance recital the previous year. When I tried them on, I found that they still fitted. Ripping through my drawers, I found an old pink mask that I’d used when trick or treating as a kid. I popped it on. It also still fitted. I then tossed on an oversized white t-shirt that came almost to my knees, and a pair of white canvas sneakers. Costume complete. It wasn’t fancy, but it worked.

  I needed a way to get to the zoo without anybody seeing me. The good news was…our house was centrally located, so nothing in this city was far away. The tricky news was…I couldn’t just walk or run or jump there without attracting attention. I went to my window and looked out at the neat houses lining our street. I had it!

  I pried open my window and jumped from the window to our neighbor’s roof. From there on, I climbed onto the next roof and then the next and the next, until I came to the end of the street. Luckily, I had a good sense of direction. Even from the rooftops, I knew where the zoo was and what my next jump should be. On the roof of the house at the end of the block, I needed to leap across the street so I could head off in the other direction. It would be a tricky leap. I needed to jump far, and land without doing damage to the house.

  Bending my knees, I pushed forward and leaped up into the air higher than I thought I ever could. I flapped my arms a bit, not really sure why I did that. In mid-flap, I figured I had a better chance to glide than to fly. Duh. I held my arms out straight. I overshot one house but landed face first on the house after my target. The distance was impressive, even if the landing wasn’t. I stood and leaped again and again from roof to roof.

  The zoo soon came into sight. I had to say that was quite an amazing way to travel. Of course, now came the tricky part, getting into the gorilla pit unnoticed and without scaring Henry. I was not an expert on gorillas. In fact, all I knew was from a TV show I’d watched while back. But I did know that scaring a big 400-pound gorilla wouldn’t be a good thing at all.

  I jumped into the zoo’s parking lot. From there I could hear all the commotion coming from the pit. I coiled and jumped over the zoo’s fence. I then landed on the ground right near the gorilla pit and leaped again. This time, I landed at the back end of the pit and had a clear view of Henry. He had put Felipe down but still had one giant hairy hand wrapped around Felipe’s arm.

  Felipe remained quite calm as he spoke to the ape. “Ah, Mr. Henry the ape, I didn’t mean to come down here. Sorry. Some big ugly guy pushed me. Now if you let me go, I’ll leave…” I could sense Felipe fighting back the tears.

  Slowly, I made my way towards Henry and Felipe. I had hoped Henry would be able to sense my power like other animals.

  Felipe noticed me before Henry did. “Are you here to help me?” Felipe asked.

  I nodded.

  He smiled happily. “Wow, Super Teen is here to save me!”

  Okay, news of my name sure traveled fast.

  “How did you know that?” I asked Felipe. “This is my new outfit. You couldn’t have recognized me.”

  He smiled. “Who else would come down into a gorilla house to save me?”

  “Great point,” I replied, slowly walking towards Henry.

  Henry let go of Felipe and turned his massive hairy head towards me.

  He, like most of the human onlookers above us, really had no idea what to make of me. I showed Henry my open hands.

  “Henry, I am here to help,” I said slowly and surely. “I know you only want to take care of Felipe since he fell into your home. That’s very nice of you. But I am here to take Felipe back to his mother and father so they can take care of him.” I used my most calming soothing voice.

  “I don’t think he speaks English,” Felipe told me.

  “Yep, I know that, but I’m hoping he can feel my emotions and feelings,” I told Felipe.

  “You big kids can be weird sometimes,” Felipe said with a shrug.

  I drew to within an arm’s reach of Henry. Henry pulled back and put both arms around Felipe possessively. The crowd above gasped.

  My super hearing picked up Chief Mich
aels’ voice. “Great! We finally had a shot, but now we’ve lost it. This is what happens when amateurs take matters into their own hands.”

  I also heard Jason defend me by saying, “Give her a chance, Dad, I know she can save Felipe without hurting the gorilla.”

  “Come on, Henry,” I said slowly. “Let the boy go. His mom and dad need him.” I held open my arms. “You can take me instead. I could use a big gorilla hug.”

  Henry looked over his shoulder at me, his thick bushy eyebrows raised. He seemed to be taking in my words. Well, if not my words, then my sentiments.

  “Let the little boy go, Henry.” I coaxed with my words and my eyes.

  Henry released Felipe from his grip. I jumped forward and hugged Henry tightly. I needed to make sure he didn’t grab Felipe again, so I tightened the bear hug I had locked on him.

  “You okay?” I asked Felipe, turning towards him.

  He nodded. “Yes. Thank you, Super Teen!” He gave me a huge grateful grin. Now that was sweet.

  I lifted Henry off the ground. “I’ll take him back to his home area now. You wait here for the people to come and get you.”

  “Okay!” Felipe agreed, the smile on his face faltering as he watched me begin to move away.

  Then something Felipe had said to Henry jumped into my mind. “You said you were pushed in here?” I asked.

  Felipe nodded. “Yeah, by a couple of huge men. One was talking to my mom, and the other pushed me in. I heard them say they needed a distraction.”

  OMG! It had to be the Hansons. They were going to rob the zoo. Listening with my super hearing, I somehow managed to pick two far-off voices out of the crowd. They were talking about getting to their car and making a smooth getaway.

  First things first though. I needed to get Henry safely into his cage. I patted him on the back and started carrying him slowly to the end of the pit area. There were a couple of handlers in the enclosure. They’d been unsuccessfully trying to coax Henry back.

  Henry started to fight me, but I tightened my grip. “Just relax Henry!" I ordered. "You may be strong, but you're going to lose this if you fight me."

  Henry instinctively became calm. I guess he finally felt my power. I carried him over to his handler and put him down gently in the enclosure. The people above clapped.

  Through the noise, I heard Jason say, “See Dad, I told you she could do it!”

  “You were right, son!” he replied.

  It made me so happy to hear their words. Still, there was no time to bask in the glory. I had two Hansons to catch. And I was angry. How dare they risk a young boy’s life so they could rob a zoo!

  I leaped out of the pit over the crowd. I realized that this was just like the dream I’d had. One super leap and I was in the parking lot. I saw a black van starting to speed away. Nope, not going to happen. Those nasty Hansons had gone way too far. Time for me to put a stop to them, once and for all!

  The Bad Guys…

  Using my supervision, I spotted two men in the front seat of the black van, racing out of the parking lot. They were laughing and seemed quite proud of themselves. Only total jerks would be pleased about putting a young boy in an enclosure with a real-life gorilla just so that they could make a few bucks.

  I leaped across the parking lot. I dropped in front of the speeding van and held out both arms. “You bad boys better stop if you know what’s good for you!”

  “Hit her!” the Hanson in the passenger’s seat ordered.

  The driver slammed the brakes. “No! We’re thieves, not killers!”

  Hitting the brake had slowed the van down some but not much. It still slammed into my outstretched arms. The van crashed to a stop and the hood crinkled up like tin foil.

  The two brothers popped open their doors and headed off in different directions. I sighed and pushed the broken van away from my body. It went tumbling across the parking lot towards a bunch of parked cars. Oh, rats! I didn’t take into account how strong I really was, especially when angry. Not wanting to let the flying van damage innocent peoples’ cars, I jumped back into the air and over the ruined van. Landing, I caught the van a mere few inches before it hit the row of parked cars.

  Just then, I heard something behind me. I turned to see one of the Hansons charging at me with a big lead pipe. I shook my head as he rushed at me screaming, “ARRRG!” at the top of his lungs.

  He smashed the pipe down on my head. When he pulled it back, it had a head shaped dent in it. He looked at the pipe then he looked back at me. Tossing the pipe over his shoulder, he took a boxing position.

  “You really aren’t smart at all. Are you?” I said to him.

  I held out my jaw, and as I expected, he foolishly punched me in the chin with an uppercut. When he pulled back his hand, it was throbbing red.

  “You broke my hand!” he shouted at me.

  Shaking my head, I told him. “No, YOU broke your hand, you twit!”

  He pointed at me with his good hand. “I’m going to sue!”

  I shook my head. “No, you’re not! First of all, you’re a mean, nasty crook. Second, I hate to break this to you, but you have no idea who I am."I tapped him on the head with my pinky, and he crumbled to the ground. Looking down at him, I added. “Third, when you’re conscious again, you might not even remember what hit you!”

  I turned my attention towards the last Hanson brother as he ran out of the zoo. Pulling off my left shoe, I tossed it across the parking lot. It flew through the zoo entranceway and hit the fleeing Hanson in the back of the neck. He fell to the ground face first. I couldn’t help but smile as I leaped across the parking lot towards him. It was essential to make sure he'd stay down, and I also needed to get my shoe back. That shoe could be a public hazard. Even before I was super, those shoes could stink up a room.

  In a couple of bounds, I was behind the last of the Hansons. My shoe hitting him in the back of his head had stunned him, but it hadn’t knocked him out. I bent down and picked it up. He was a big burly bear of a man. He was unshaven and had to weigh over 300 pounds. I walked up to him. “Stay down, and be nice and quiet for the police.”

  He started to push himself up off the ground.

  “I figured you wouldn’t be smart enough to do as you were told!” I shook my head at him.

  “The police aren’t taking me!” he bellowed. “No…”

  I held my foot under his nose, and he instantly stopped talking. Wriggling my toes, I gave him a nice whiff of my foot. After a mere second of smelling my canvas shoes, it was enough to make his eyes roll to the back of his head.

  He turned blue, and I heard him mutter the words, “Wow, what power….” His head plopped straight down into the dirt. He’d be no problem for the police. It looked like he’d be out cold for days.

  I popped my shoe back onto my foot and leaped up into the air to bounce back home.

  A long day done…

  Climbing through my bedroom window, I found my mom sitting on my bed, watching TV. It was still tuned in to channel 13 news.

  “And there you have it, folks! Super Teen not only saved seven-year-old Felipe Moore from the zoo’s star attraction, Henry, the ape, she also carried Henry into his enclosure unharmed. Then Super Teen somehow figured out that the last of the Hanson brothers had robbed the zoo. This powerful teen easily overpowered two dangerous thugs. One of them is still unconscious, and as one of the medics put it, ‘he’s in dreamland.’ I for one, am happy we have this super teen looking out for our interests in Starlight City.”

  Mom flicked off the TV. “Busy first day!” She patted the bed.

  I sat down next to her. “You mad?” I asked her.

  She smiled and put her hand on my shoulder. “How could I be mad about you helping people and an ape?” She took a deep breath. “I’m proud and worried… mostly proud. It does seem like you’re doing a good job with your powers. I know it can be tricky!”

  I shook my head. “Tell me about it. I had some nervous sweat when Jason almost got run over by a c
ar. It burnt through my deodorant like nothing. Then I thought I’d killed him when I lifted my arms while he was testing me on his dad’s sports equipment.”

  “Wait, Jason knows you’re super?”

  I nodded anxiously, not sure how she was going to take that news. “Yeah, he figured it out, Mom. He’s so smart.” I tried to gauge her reaction before trying to explain further. “But I’m glad he knows! It gives me somebody to talk to who is my age. Plus, I hate keeping things from him. Plus, he’s the one who told me Felipe needed my help. Plus, he stood up for me when his dad was complaining about me. Plus, he knows a ton about comics and superheroes, so he's a great resource."

  Mom smiled weakly. “That’s a lot of pluses, Lia. It sounds like your powers are developing really quickly. But then I guess you are the 20th Strong woman to be born. Legend has it you could grow to be the strongest of us all.”

  “Wow!!” I exclaimed. “Really?”

  She nodded. "Not sure how true the legend is, but you are certainly off to a great start. We all get super strength and durability, but some of us develop other powers. Like my mom has heat vision, especially when she's angry. I have x-ray vision which comes in really handy as a doctor."

  “Okay, x-ray vision sounds weird but creepy,” I told her.

  She laughed, “It’s handy once you get used to it.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “How about super pheromones? Have those popped up yet?”

  “Not entirely sure what those are.”

  “Your scent has a way of making people like you a lot. It makes them more willing to do what you say. I don’t have that power, but your great grandma does.”

  “Ah, that’s why all the men are always giving her their jello.”

  Mom laughed. “Yes, she does love her jello.”

  I thought for a moment. “Jason did act weird after I accidentally knocked him out with underarm odor. Plus, the last Hanson mumbled some freaky stuff after I waved my stinky toes under his nose. So maybe…”