Ben Braver and the Vortex of Doom Page 7

As I reached for the driver’s door, somebody grabbed the back of my pants, hoisted me into the air, and said, ‘I believe the local police department has a room with your name on it, criminal scum.’

  It was a big man.

  Big muscles. Big jaw. Big voice.

  Big everything.

  He had a mask over his face and a skin-tight black costume with a giant M on the chest along with a bright yellow utility belt around his waist.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes.

  I was staring at a real-life superhero.

  And he thought I was the bad guy.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The man’s voice boomed like Adam West’s Batman.

  From the way he was carrying me with one hand, I knew his power was superstrength. He had to be a descendant.

  ‘This guy is nothing compared to us. Beat him down, and let’s roll,’ Nix joked.

  At least I think it was a joke.

  ‘I’m not the bad guy!’ I said.

  The man cocked his head. ‘You aren’t aiding or abetting these criminals?’

  ‘No! I was trying to stop them!’ I said, freeing myself from his grip. I flexed my power by floating in the air in front of him.

  I heard a loud groan from inside the robbers’ car, which made my stomach churn. I might’ve seriously hurt them.

  The masked man laughed heartily as he patted his belly. ‘Well, good on you, chum! I can see by your power that you’re clearly a descendant of the Seven Keys, and you’ve chosen the side of good over evil!’

  I stared at him for a second.

  The man cocked an eye. ‘You think? You’re still undecided about which side you’ve chosen?’

  ‘No, that’s not—’ I said. I was gonna have to be a little more sneaky when I talked to Nix. ‘Never mind.’

  Standing in front of me was a legit superhero with real powers, which Kepler Academy strictly forbade (is that a word?) … So how’d this dude get a free pass?

  Sirens blared as police cars turned the corner.

  The man gasped and took off down an alley.

  He dived headfirst into a dumpster. Then he peeked over the top and waved for me to follow.

  Ah, okay.

  He didn’t get a free pass.

  He was just doing it on his own.

  I looked at the bad guys in the car. I didn’t hurt them on purpose, but I also didn’t want to go to jail, so I ran into the alley and hid behind the dumpster rather than inside it because I care about things like good hygiene.

  Cop cars and an ambulance pulled up, and within minutes, the robbers were hauled away to a hospital.

  Once the action died down, the masked man stood up, covered head to toe in dumpster juices. Banana skins and crumpled tissues stuck to his body. ‘Mmmm. Lady Justice has smiled upon us today, my new little friend.’

  As weird as he was, I was pumped about meeting this guy. He was a real-life superhero living my dream – costume, mask, chest logo – the whole shebang!

  I knew superheroes existed!

  And I just happened to run into one right after getting a power of my own?

  Come on.

  That’s not a coincidence.

  That’s fate.

  I held out my hand. ‘My name is Ben Braver, sir!’

  ‘Don’t say anything about me,’ Nix said.

  ‘Obvi,’ I said to Nix.

  ‘Names aren’t as obvious as you think,’ the man said as he shook my hand. ‘Pleased to meet you, Ben Braver! You can call me MAGNIFIC.’

  How cool was that name?

  Magnific sprung from the dumpster and took a bite of a half-eaten banana he’d peeled off his body, murmuring as he chewed. ‘Yum … this is delectable. Want some?’

  ‘Uh, thanks,’ I said, taking the banana and ignoring Nix, who was making barf noises in my head. When Magnific wasn’t looking, I tossed the half-eaten fruit back into the dumpster.

  I couldn’t have met a real superhero at a better time, especially because I was still a noob with my powers. He could teach me so much of what the academy never did.

  Magnific put his hands on his hips and posed majestically. ‘It’s been a pleasure, Ben Braver. And I wish you luck on your journey.’

  ‘Wait!’ I said. ‘Let me hang out with you! Just for the day! Like, let me be your sidekick!’

  Magnific scratched his chin as he studied me.

  ‘Come on!’ Nix shouted in my head. ‘Let’s ditch this guy! He’s only gonna hold you back!’

  I spun around so Magnific wouldn’t hear me. ‘No!’ I whispered. ‘I’m staying here! You have no idea how huge this is for me!’

  ‘Do you have any idea how huge it is for you that I’M here?’ Nix said, annoyed.

  He had a point.

  We both had points.

  But my point was more important than his point.

  ‘Being a do-gooder does get lonely, and no superhero should be a lone wolf!’ Magnific said. ‘I’ll take you under my wing, little bird, but only if you’re not skipping school! As George Washington Carver once said, education is the key to unlocking the golden door of freedom!’

  Yeah. He was pretty cheesy.

  ‘What time is it?’ I asked.

  Magnific looked at the sky instead of a clock. ‘A little past noon,’ he said, like some kind of master Boy Scout.

  The Abandoned Children weren’t going to attack the academy until eight p.m., which gave me a little less than eight hours to learn from Magnific and master my new powers. That was plenty of time and a very mature thing for me to do in the meantime.

  Noah would probably lecture me about it, because that’s all he does these days, but I’m pretty sure he’d get over it after he saw my new powers.

  ‘I’m good,’ I said.

  ‘Then come along, small child!’ Magnific said. ‘We have much work to do and less time to do it in.’

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  12:30 p.m.

  Seven and a half hours until the attack.

  Magnific and I sat on a bench along the street, watching people give us strange looks as they passed. He was nibbling on a second dumpster banana, trying to make it last as long as possible.

  ‘Welp, this sucks,’ Nix said in my brain. ‘I give you the power to enslave the entire human race, and you’re just gonna sit here?’

  I hoped he was being sarcastic.

  ‘Yup,’ I said.

  ‘Should I just go find someone else?’ Nix asked.

  I stood up from the bench and smiled at Magnific. ‘Excuse me a second.’

  I walked just out of earshot of the real-life superhero, then I quietly went off on Nix.

  ‘Look, man,’ I huffed. ‘You said you didn’t want to hurt anybody, but now it sounds like you’re super into it with all this talk about enslaving the human race!’

  ‘I’m just saying! Aren’t there better things to do?’

  ‘Not for me, no! And what do you care if I choose to sit here with Magnific as long as I help you find your ship afterwards?’

  ‘I don’t! As long as you help me later, you can nap all day for all I care!’

  ‘Good!’

  ‘Good!’

  I returned to Magnific with a smile still on my face. ‘Sorry about that … I, uh, had to fart.’

  Why would I say that??

  Luckily, Magnific didn’t hear it. He was too busy admiring the fruit in his hand. ‘I like bananas. They’re perfectly suited to fit the human hand. I also like lemons and pineapples – oh! Perhaps I just love the colour yellow! Cheese is yellow, and I like cheese!’

  ‘Yeah, no, it’s great,’ I said.

  Magnific turned to me. ‘You sound down in the dumps, little guy. You want adventure, don’t you? It’ll happen soon enough! Being a superhero is about patience.’

  ‘Can’t we just make the adventure?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Nix said in my head. ‘We can.’

  ‘That’s not how it works, my eager companion,’ Magnific said. ‘The adventure will find you.’<
br />
  ‘Just like with the bank robbery,’ I said.

  Magnific leaned back. ‘Ah, yes, that was an adventure, and a rare one at that.’

  I guess I knew bank robberies didn’t happen every day, but I couldn’t help but hope that maybe there was another one on the other side of town. And yes, I know how bad it sounds that I wanted someone to rob a bank, but only so I could stop them!

  ‘Maybe there’s a shop getting burgled,’ I said. ‘Or a mugging! Ohhh, a mugging would be perfect!’

  Magnific looked at me like I was crazy. ‘Those kinds of crimes don’t happen as often as you’d think, friend. You know how many bank robberies I’ve foiled in my twenty years of doing this?’

  ‘How many?’

  ‘Just one,’ he said. ‘And that was thirty minutes ago.’

  It took twenty years for Magnific to come across a bank robbery … But it had taken me only a few minutes. Hopefully, my luck was just better than his. Or wait, would that make it worse? Whatever. You get it.

  He suddenly sat up, snapping his head to the left like a dog that just saw a squirrel.

  ‘What is it?’ I said.

  He held his finger up to hush me and then narrowed his eyes, listening intently to something I couldn’t hear. After a moment, he nodded. Then he jumped up from the bench. ‘Quickly, Ben Braver, before it’s too late.’

  ‘Okay, but stop using my full name!’ I said.

  Finally!

  We were on our way to bust some criminals!

  Magnific tore down the footpath.

  I stayed close behind him, running instead of flying because I didn’t want to tip off the bad guys that some superheroes were coming to knock their heads around.

  At the stoplight, Magnific put his arm out and kept me from charging into the street. He jogged in place, staring at the stoplight.

  ‘What’re you waiting for?’ I said.

  ‘The crosswalk to change,’ he said.

  ‘Wait, are you serious?’

  The sign switched from STOP to GO, and Magnific dashed off again. I did my best to keep up, but he was fast.

  Like, crazy fast.

  And I was starting to lose him.

  He was half a block ahead of me when Nix said, ‘Why aren’t you flying? This would be a lot easier if you flew.’

  ‘I’m his sidekick!’ I said. ‘So I need to follow his lead!’

  ‘You lack ambition!’ Nix said as he used his invisible tentacles to slingshot me across the block.

  I landed perfectly next to Magnific, where he was stopped in front of some skaters chillin’ outside a shopping centre.

  ‘Don’t use my real name!’ I said.

  ‘Yes, of course, you’ll want to protect your identity!’ he said with a wink. He looked at the group of skaters. ‘What I meant to say was, excellent timing, Beanie Weenie!’

  Great.

  A sidekick’s hero name is just as important as the principles they stand for … And I had just been dubbed BEANIE WEENIE. At least the B matched my shirt.

  I looked around, trying to find the criminals Magnific was about to nab, but all I saw were the skaters on the footpath.

  I couldn’t believe it. I was out of breath and nursing a side cramp because some kids were skateboarding in a car park?

  Magnific sneered at the teenagers but didn’t say anything. He snatched a board from the leader of the gang, who didn’t fight back.

  Nobody said a thing. The skaters. Magnific. Me. We watched quietly to see what Magnific was gonna do with the board.

  Nix squirmed as he spoke in my brain. ‘Okay, let’s do this. Take out the leader – don’t KILL him – just horribly injure him. See? I’m learning.’

  ‘I’m not doing that,’ I whispered.

  ‘Of course you won’t, Beanie Weenie,’ Nix said. ‘Because you don’t do ANYTHING I tell you.’

  That squid was getting on my nerves.

  At last, Magnific spoke. ‘This is a nice board,’ he said. ‘Be a shame if something … bad happened to it.’

  The skater eyeballed Magnific. ‘Bad things happen to good boards all the time, brah. That’s life.’

  The two of them stared each other down. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but it was definitely weird.

  Then, out of nowhere, Magnific threw the skateboard under his feet and proceeded to absolutely kill it with his skills.

  Seriously.

  The jacked beast in the tights could shred.

  The teenagers chanted his name as he kicked some flips and popped some shove-its. It was pretty obvious that they all knew one another. Magnific wasn’t there to bust them – he was there to dazzle them.

  When he was done, he kicked the board up and caught it with his hand. Then he gave it to the leader of the skaters.

  ‘Sick moves, homie,’ the skater said.

  ‘Can’t knock the hustle,’ Magnific said with a smirk. ‘Now get movin’ before security comes.’

  The teenagers laughed but didn’t argue. They all hopped onto their boards and skated off, leaving behind some plastic water bottles.

  ‘Another job well done,’ Magnific said, dusting his hands off.

  ‘Wait, what just happened?’ I said. ‘I thought you were running to stop a crime!’

  ‘I never said that,’ Magnific said.

  ‘What was the point of this?’

  ‘Being a good role model was the point,’ Magnific said like it should’ve been obvious.

  He pulled a wrinkly grocery bag out of his utility belt, which BTW, now that I got a closer look, was just a fancy-looking bum bag. Then he collected the bottles the skaters left behind.

  ‘That, and they were loitering,’ Magnific added.

  ‘Great,’ I said. ‘The carpark is safe for all shoppers now.’

  Magnific pulled the lid off a nearby rubbish bin, but instead of putting his sack of bottles in it, he started taking bottles out, adding them to his collection.

  I watched as he did this to every rubbish bin he passed as we made our way down the footpath.

  At one point, he started humming different Disney songs to himself. He was obviously having a delightful time, but I, on the other hand, was beginning to wonder if Nix might’ve been right …

  Maybe trailing this dude wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  3 p.m.

  Five hours until the attack.

  We spent the next two and a half hours performing random acts of kindness – the kind of random acts that didn’t require powers to perform.

  I’m pretty sure Nix even fell asleep on my head for a bit. I heard him snoring in my brain, but maybe he was just being sarcastic.

  We helped some people cross a street, changed a flat tyre, complimented a street performer, listened to an old guy tell war stories while playing chess, fed some ducks, gave directions to a lost family, held a door open for somebody in a wheelchair, finished mowing some lady’s yard, helped a mum with her crying baby, and walked a dude’s dog at the park.

  Oh, and Magnific also filled two more bags with empty bottles. He never said what he was doing, but it was obvious his mission was to recycle all of it.

  It was a pretty full day of not fighting crime.

  I was starting to get antsy. I didn’t have all the time in the world, and I’d already wasted three hours of it. If Magnific wasn’t gonna bust some bad-guy bottoms soon, I was gonna have to bail on the dude.

  Outside the city library, Magnific stopped. He squinted and snarled like a growling lion. ‘There’s trouble brewing in the library …’

  Finally!

  Uh … a second finally.

  The first didn’t count because nothing happened.

  But, finally! Something cool was happening! What else can ‘There’s trouble brewing in the library …’ mean??

  ‘How do you know?’ I asked, peering through the tinted windows.

  ‘I can feel it,’ he said, setting his three grocery bags down by the entrance. He pushed his way throu
gh the revolving doors.

  I cracked my knuckles and followed his lead.

  ‘The library’s quiet,’ Nix said, all serious. ‘Too quiet.’

  People sat at desks, working on homework or business stuff or whatever people go to the library to work on. Others stood in aisles, looking for books or glancing our way.

  Nobody batted an eyelid that a huge dude wearing tights just strolled through the front doors.

  ‘Keep your eyes peeled,’ Magnific said. ‘I smell an ambush …’

  ‘For real?’ I said. ‘Is it a trap? Do they know you’re coming?’

  He nodded slowly, scanning the room. ‘Oh, they know.’

  ‘But why would they set a trap for you in the library?’ I asked.

  And then I got my answer.

  A swarm of little kids burst from one of the aisles and ran out to Magnific. They jumped all over him until he pretended to fall over, defeated. They were young, probably preschoolers. Their mums and dads hung back, watching with smiles.

  Magnific reached his arm up. ‘You’ve bested me, children! I give up! I give up!’

  The librarian smiled as she walked up to us. ‘Give Magnific some space, guys.’

  ‘It’s quite all right,’ he said, standing, doing that hands-on-his-hips pose again. And that’s when he started singing. ‘Who’s the man who’s ter-ri-fic?’

  All the kids, plus the librarian, responded by clapping their hands and singing. ‘Mag-ni-fic! Mag-nific!’

  They knew who he was.

  It wasn’t their first rodeo.

  Everyone cheered, including Nix.

  My mind was blown, but not in a whoa-I-just-learned-something-cool kind of way. It was more like a what-the-heck-am-I-watching-this-is-uncomfortable-I-want-to-go-home-now kind of way.

  Magnific led everyone to the children’s book section of the library. I passed a cardboard poster that had a picture of Magnific holding a book.

  Everyone settled in for story time as Magnific introduced himself, then he gave me a slap on the back and told the group I was his sidekick for the day.

  The librarian handed Magnific a book that had a bunch of cartoon lions on it. He held it in front of himself and read the title out loud.