The next few days at Rosa Parks High School flew by. All our classes were held either in the cafeteria, gym or the auditorium. I actually saw a lot of Hoody, but we barely looked at each other.

School days were pretty uneventful. The real adventures came after school when we met up at Ronald’s house. After finishing our homework we listened to the 911 calls on the scanner, looking for a mission that I could take on that wasn’t too dangerous and didn’t involve rescuing kitty-cats from trees. Anything involving life and death situations were a no-no.

Then one afternoon there was an emergency call about a robbery at the Dollar Bill Bank on Main Street.

Ronald and I turned on the TV to watch it on the local news. The story was on nearly every channel. There were dozens of police cars and reporters in front of the bank. It looked like a scene right out of the movies. Ronald and I were glued to the TV.

‘This is Jimmy Hall reporting from Big City News, broadcasting live, here at the Dollar Bill Bank where a vicious standoff is occurring between the Littletown Police Department and a group of bank robbers. So far, it appears that no one has been hurt, but the situation seems to be escalating rapidly. Officer Taylor is currently negotiating with the leader of this band of thugs. So far the robbers have insisted that their demands be met, claiming that if they aren’t, the hostages will not get out alive.

“Ronald, I have to go in!”

“WHAT? No, this is far too dangerous.”

“We just can’t stand here and let innocent people get hurt. Not when we can do something about it.”

“And what exactly are we going to do about it?” Ronald asked a little sarcastically.

“I don’t know, but I have to do something,” I said. Suddenly, Ronald looked a little sheepish.

“Just be careful,” he said. “I don’t want any holes in that suit. It wasn’t cheap you know.”

“I don’t want any holes in the suit either…or me!” I responded.

“And you’d better take these,” he said, handing me two tiny devices.

“Ronald, what in the world are these?”

“They’re Ron-Coms. Our new communication devices developed by me. The previous ones were prototypes. These new babies have two-way, voice-activated speech amplifiers with noise reducers and ultra-sound microphones. Insert them in your ears, and we will be able to communicate as if we were standing right next to each other.”

“Are you serious? You made these?” I asked amazed.

“Yup. I also took the liberty of placing a tiny tracking device in the lightning bolt of your suit so I will know your location at all times. You know, just in case you’re kidnapped by an evil villain and held captive in his secret island lair, I will know where you are! I’m not saying I’ll come and rescue you, but I’ll know where you are. I’ve been working on these for years.”

“Ronald, I’ve always wondered what you were doing while I was playing baseball. You’re the man!”

“And don’t you forget it!” Ronald said proudly. “Now get outta here and be careful.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back in a supadupa minute.”

As I flew across the sky, I started to wonder if I had gotten in over my head. Getting cats out of trees is one thing, stopping criminals from robbing a bank is another.

 

Over the past few weeks I had gotten really good at flying. I snuck out of the house nearly every night to practice speed control, take-offs, landings, turns, twist, and dives. I had never been identified flying but there did seem to be a lot more calls about giant orange birds flying around the city. Thankfully none of the calls were taken seriously.

Now, here I was on my way to the bank, praying that nobody would spot me. As I approached the scene of the crime I was feeling a little nervous. I couldn’t believe how many people were there.

Police and fire fighters, paramedics, news crews, on-lookers—there were hundreds of people surrounding the bank. I wanted to land on the roof but the S.W.A.T. team had it on lock. I saw one of them point at me, but before the others could see me I flew into an open window on the second floor. It was a utility closet. Perfect.

“Ronald, I’m in the building,” I shouted.

“There is no need to shout, Javon. I can hear you perfectly, even if you whisper. By the way, you need to be a little more careful with your flying. There was a report of an unidentified flying object, and one of the news crews caught you on tape. Luckily you were moving too fast for them to get a good shot of you. Try to stay undercover from now on.”

“Oh no! I hope Mom and Dad aren’t watching the news right now, but I can’t be concerned about that. I’ve got a crime to foil!”

“Man, that was corny. You’ve got to work on your catch phrases.”

I opened the door and cautiously looked into the hallway. A bad guy carrying the biggest gun I’d ever seen was just a few feet away and I could hear others yelling on the floor below me.

My heart started pounding when he looked in my direction. I closed the door and stepped back, and banged into a shelf, knocking over a few bottles.

“What was that?” Ronald yelled in my ear as the doorknob began to turn.

“There’s a guy with a gun right outside the door, and he knows I’m here,” I whispered. Just as I feared: bad guy number one pushed the door slowly open. I was so scared I almost peed in my pants. Now how would that look? A superhero that needs training pants. I bet that never happens in the comic books.

When the bad guy stepped into the room, I stood up, put my fists on my hips and pushed out my chest as far as I could in what I thought was a really good superhero pose. The bad guy started laughing as soon as he got a look at me.

“Kid, what are you doing in there? Who do you think you are some kinda superhero? I didn’t know they made tights that small.” He chuckled.

“They’re NOT tights! And I am a superhero. I’m The Supadupa Kid!” I said in a voice so deep I almost hurt myself. He laughed even harder, then grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the closet.

“Hey, let go of me!” I shouted. Run, Javon, run! I heard Ronald shouting in my ear. I thought about running, but heroes don’t run, heroes fight!

“If you surrender now, I won’t hurt you,” I told him as I yanked my arm from his grasp.

“You hurt me? Kid, you couldn’t even hurt my feelings.” he grunted.

Javon, blast him. Think of something happy! Ronald shouted in my ear.

“I can’t. I’m too mad!”

“Who are you talking to kid?” The robber asked puzzled. I could feel the anger building up inside me, and was surprised when my fingertips began to crackle with electricity. Ronald was still screaming into my ear, but my attention was focused on the goon in front of me. I clapped my hands together and rubbed them back and forth to try to build up as much friction as I could. I could feel the energy getting stronger and stronger. The goon suddenly stopped laughing when he saw the glowing ball of electricity that was forming between my palms. I smiled when I saw the look of fear on his face as I created a perfectly round, glowing sphere the size of a baseball that was crackling loudly on my palm.

“Ka-Boom, Sucka!” I shouted and pitched the lightning ball right into his chest. It knocked him off his feet and he crashed into the wall with a big THUD. He was knocked out cold but my fingertips were still sparkling, and Ronald was still screaming in my ear.

“Take it easy, brain boy, calm down. I’m fine, but you’re not going to believe what I just did to bad guy number one! This is the coolest thing ever. I knocked that sucka out!”

“Whoa!” Ronald said, breathing heavily.

“Whoa is right! This is awesome, but I’ve got to calm down. It isn’t over yet, and I’m getting waaaay too excited.” I looked down at the gun he’d been carrying and noticed that it looked kind of strange. I picked it up and shook it. There was some kind of liquid in it. Although it looked like a real gun it wasn’t. It was a water gun. The robbers were sticking up the bank with water guns? These have to be the dumbest bad guys ever and it’s time for them to go down. I confidently flew down the stairs to the first floor where the hostages were being held. They were at the far end of the room but I could see them all, the hostages and the bad guys. They were carrying water guns too. Now that I’m sure I wouldn’t be getting any holes in Ronald’s expensive super-suit, I knew it was hero time! I swooped into the center of the room and landed in my hero pose. Everyone gasped with surprise.

“I’m the Supadupa Kid. Put down your (chuckle) weapons and you won’t get hurt,” I shouted.