Ben Braver and the Vortex of Doom Page 8

  ‘The Trouble with Lying Lions!’ he said, winking at me. ‘I told you there was trouble brewing here.’

  I groaned.

  But Nix laughed.

  For some reason, that little squid was suddenly interested in what was going on. He even got off my dome so he could hide on top of a bookshelf to get closer to Magnific – Nix wanted to hear the story! He didn’t bother camouflaging himself, but he still stayed in the shadows. He had a smile on his face and everything.

  I sat way in the back as Magnific read the dumb lion book out loud. He was super into it, too, using growly voices for different characters, acting out scenes, and jumping all over the place like some kind of clown.

  I mean, it was cool, don’t get me wrong.

  But it just wasn’t superhero cool, y’know?

  Anyone can read a book to a kid.

  About thirty minutes later, Magnific wrapped up his library visit with hugs and high fives.

  Nix returned to my head. ‘Wow, that was great!’

  ‘For real?’ I asked.

  ‘Yeah, for real!’

  I walked down one of the aisles so nobody would hear me talking to the squid. ‘I didn’t think you’d be a fan of story time,’ I said to him.

  ‘Why? Because I’m an alien? Because I’ve been stuck Outside for who knows how long and I miss my parents and that reminded me of when my dad used to read books to me before bed?’

  Was it possible that he was telling the truth?

  What if the guy who became a villain in an alternate timeline didn’t become a villain in mine?

  That might be too much for my tiny brain.

  Outside, Magnific grabbed his bags of bottles and continued down the footpath with a hop in his step.

  ‘The library poster said you do this every day,’ I said, following him.

  ‘That’s right,’ he said proudly.

  ‘So then … do you have a job?’

  ‘This is my job, chum.’

  I didn’t think he was getting my drift. ‘Okay, but what about when you’re not Magnific? Your alter ego?’

  My question didn’t make sense to him. ‘I never understood the point of having an alter ego. I am who I am, and I am Magnific.’

  ‘But what’s your real name?’ I asked, frustrated.

  ‘Magnific!’ he said, and then he quietly sang his theme song. ‘Who’s the man who’s ter-ri-fic?’

  Nix sang along in my head. ‘Mag-ni-fic! Mag-ni-fic!’ ‘Stop singing!’ I snipped at both of them. ‘What about before you were Magnific? What was your real name when you went to the academy?’

  ‘Ah,’ he said. ‘That wasn’t an alter ego. It was a former life that I’m no longer attached to.’

  ‘Whoa, wait. Are you saying you’re Magnific 24/7?’

  ‘As long as people are in need, Magnific will be there, and people are always in need.’

  I couldn’t believe my earballs.

  First, the supervillain alien symbiote turned out to be a homesick squid, and now a real-life superhero turns out to be a loony tune in tights. ‘And you’ve been doing this for twenty years?’ I asked.

  ‘Sure have,’ he said without missing a beat.

  ‘Then you’re loaded, right?’ I said. ‘There’s no way you can do this full-time without having tonnes of bread in the bank.’

  He laughed mightily. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint, but there’s not a penny to my name!’

  ‘But then where do you live? How do you eat?’

  ‘The streets are my home,’ he said. ‘The city takes care of me, feeds me when I’m hungry. She is my mother.’

  My jaw nearly hit the floor.

  I’d been job-shadowing a hobo for the past three hours!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  4 p.m.

  Four hours until the attack.

  I’m not sure why, but the thought of Magnific’s not having an alter ego made me sad. Maybe it was that I couldn’t imagine myself being one hundred per cent devoted to being a superhero.

  No breaks? No time for buddies? No time for video games, movies or comics?

  That sounded like the worst!

  ‘I thought you’d at least be a secret billionaire or something.’

  ‘That would be convenient, wouldn’t it? With billions of dollars, I could reshape this entire city by giving money to those in need!’

  ‘Uh, no, with billions of dollars, you could afford cool gadgets and tank-cars to help you beat up bad guys,’ I said. ‘Just like Batman.’

  ‘I never understood Batman,’ Magnific said. ‘With that much money, I’d build schools. Homeless shelters. Parks. He could help more people by donating money instead of buying bat-copters and shark repellent.’

  Auugh! Now Magnific was ruining Batman for me!

  Magnific was more real than I was comfortable with. He had his way of doing things, that’s for sure, but it wasn’t what I needed. The Abandoned Children were going to attack in about four hours. I had powers, and I had to practise using them.

  ‘Welp,’ I said with a stretch. ‘It’s been fun, but I should probably make like a banana and split.’

  Magnific laughed. ‘Bananas are delish, but the fun has just begun, my young friend!’

  I sighed again.

  Loudly.

  Because I was annoyed.

  ‘You’re perturbed,’ Magnific said sadly.

  ‘I just expected a little more …’ I paused, thinking of the right word to use so there wouldn’t be any confusion.

  ‘Combat?’ Nix suggested.

  ‘Combat,’ I repeated out loud.

  ‘Aha!’ Magnific snapped his fingers. ‘Then you’re in luck! If it’s combat you seek, then it’s combat you shall receive at our next location! Just stick with me a little longer and you’ll learn the real importance of being a superhero!’

  Okay. There was no way I could misinterpret that.

  ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘But if this isn’t combat, then I’m out.’

  Magnific smiled.

  We walked a few more blocks, sprinkling some kindness to anyone we could. I got into it, but only because I knew we were on our way to combat.

  When we turned a corner, I saw a line of people outside a building, waiting to get in. They looked pretty rough, with torn-up clothes, and nobody was smiling.

  At least not until they saw Magnific.

  Their faces lit up at the sight of him, and just like the kids at the library, they knew him by name.

  Some shook his hand. Some bumped his fist. Others high-fived. He even shared a secret handshake with one of them. I smiled politely and said hello to anyone who noticed me.

  Finally, Magnific waved and told everybody that he’d see them inside.

  ‘Inside?’ I repeated. ‘You said we were on our way to combat.’

  Magnific held the door open for me. ‘We are, Ben Braver! We’re here to combat homelessness.’

  O. M. G.

  That was it.

  I was done.

  Maybe Magnific’s superpower was that he could twist words.

  I was about to unleash a tantrum the likes of which the world had never seen before, but right at the last second, some woman popped up out of nowhere.

  ‘Magnific!’ she said as she danced her way to us. ‘What’s up?’

  Magnific shimmied a bit. ‘Livin’ the dream, Lydia!’

  ‘Who’s this guy?’ Lydia asked, pointing finger-guns at me. ‘Wait, let me guess! You’re the sidekick! Mini-Magnific!’

  Magnific let out a bold laugh. ‘Brilliant wordplay!’

  I hung my head sheepishly. ‘Uh, no, my name’s Ben Braver.’

  ‘He is my sidekick today,’ Magnific said.

  ‘Is that so?’ Lydia said, playfully eyeballing me. ‘You wanna be a superhero, too?’

  I don’t know why, but I was embarrassed. ‘Sort of.’

  ‘Then you’re with the right guy,’ Lydia said. ‘There’s no better teacher than Magnific. He spends more time volunteering here than all the other volun
teers combined.’ ‘That’s not true,’ Magnific said.

  Lydia smiled. ‘Don’t listen to him,’ she said to me. ‘He’s here every day at four forty-five on the dot! Like he’s a walking clock!’

  Magnific shrugged.

  Lydia took me behind a long table with trays of food on it. Then she told me what to do – not that I was looking for a job.

  ‘Just pour soup into the bowls and try not to fall behind,’ she said. Then she turned to Magnific. ‘You wanna be next to him?’

  ‘That sounds splendid,’ Magnific said, handing me an apron. He had his tied around his waist already.

  The day’s menu featured creamy pumpkin soup, along with a salad, a brownie square, and an apple. The smell made my mouth water.

  Lydia opened the doors and said hello to every person who walked through.

  Volunteering at a soup kitchen isn’t high on my list of cool stuff to do before I die. Actually, it wasn’t on it at all. My list had stuff like indoor skydiving, doing a flip on a trampoline, and riding an ostrich (yes, it’s a thing), but as I handed out food to all the hungry people who had no place to go, I realised something …

  I’ve never been hungry before.

  I mean, yeah, I’ve been hungry, but I could always eat something to fix that. I wasn’t sure any of the people there could just up and do something like that.

  I felt something, but I wasn’t sure what that something was, y’know what I mean? Like, suddenly I cared about people I’d never met before? Not just the people in front of me, but all the other people in the world who didn’t have food.

  People I’d never even meet.

  I felt sad for them.

  All of them.

  At the same freakin’ time.

  And even with my new abilities, I was powerless.

  It was a lot for a twelve-year-old to take in.

  Magnific nudged me with his elbow. ‘You okay, chum? You’ve stopped the soup.’

  He was right. All there was were empty bowls and a traffic jam in front of me. My existential crisis had glitched my brain for a minute.

  ‘Sorry,’ I said, holding a bowl out to the woman waiting in front of me.

  She smiled softly as she took it. ‘Thank you.’

  Magnific and I spent the next twenty minutes serving the rest of the line, but when we were done, I rushed out the doors to be alone. Or, as alone as I could be with the alien squid on my head.

  I had to get out of there, not because I hated it, but because it was too much. Too overwhelming. Too real.

  I climbed up to the roof and looked at the spot in the sky where the North Star would’ve been if it were dark out.

  Nix said he couldn’t read my mind, but I had my doubts, especially when he said, ‘The North Star. Your people call it Polaris. It’s the brightest star in the constellation of Ursa Minor and it’s about 433 light-years from here, unless you have a jump drive, which my ship does.’

  ‘How do you know so much about that star?’ I asked.

  ‘Because it’s my home,’ Nix said. ‘Well, it’s the star to my home. It’s my sun. My family is there, and they’re waiting for me.’

  How crazy was it that the star I’d been looking at every night for the past two years was the Reaper’s home?

  Fate.

  Not coincidence.

  ‘You don’t want to destroy our world?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I believe you,’ I said.

  ‘I know you do.’

  ‘I’ll help you find your ship. I’ll help you get home.’

  ‘I know you will.’

  Did the Reaper and I just become friends? Because it seemed like the Reaper and I just became friends.

  Magnific climbed the side of the building and joined me on the roof. He brought some bowls of creamy pumpkin soup for us, which I happily scarfed down.

  I was so hungry that Magnific let me eat his bowl too.

  It was about six p.m., and I had two hours before the Abandoned Children attacked. I should’ve been itching to get away to practise my powers, but to my surprise, I wasn’t. In fact, it was kind of the opposite – I didn’t want to leave.

  ‘You deserve a trophy,’ Magnific said. ‘Best. Sidekick. Ever.’

  ‘Uh, thanks,’ I said. ‘But I still wish I could’ve used my powers for something.’

  Magnific chuckled. ‘I used to be just like you,’ he said nostalgically. ‘I used to want to fight crime all night long.’

  ‘What stopped you?’ I asked.

  ‘I realised that’s what the police are for,’ Magnific said. ‘And it’s more important for me to help those in need. The people downstairs, they don’t need a strong guy; they need love.’

  ‘But what’s the point of having a superpower if you never use it?’

  Magnific stared at the sky. ‘Exactly.’

  ‘Don’t you ever have days when you just want to use your superstrength?’

  Magnific looked at me. ‘Superstrength?’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Your power.’

  He laughed abruptly. ‘I do not have superstrength, my funny friend!’

  ‘Wait, what? No,’ I said. ‘But what about your jacked muscles?’

  ‘I work out,’ Magnific said proudly.

  ‘But you picked me up like I was nothing!’

  ‘Because I work out,’ he said again.

  ‘If superstrength isn’t your power, then what is?’

  He leaned towards me and made sure nobody was looking. ‘I can turn into a shark,’ he whispered.

  Then he did just that.

  He turned into a giant shark.

  We sat on the roof for another hour, just talking about random things. Everything inside me that wanted a superhero adventure was gone. I knew I’d be back at the academy soon enough, but for that short time on the roof, all I wanted to do was hang out with my new friend.

  Nix loved it, too. He still kept himself invisible on my head, but I could tell he had become Magnific’s number one fan.

  When seven-thirty rolled around, Magnific was trying to pack as much juicy knowledge into my brain as possible before I had to leave.

  ‘Good grammar is essential,’ he said. ‘Never be late to anything, ever. Righty tighty, lefty loosey. Tostados are just lazy tacos – don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. And finally, don’t ever ask a woman if she’s pregnant, especially if she looks pregnant – they don’t like that.’

  ‘Got it,’ I said, tossing out a thumbs-up. ‘I hope I’ll see you again, someday.’

  ‘I’m sure our paths will cross again,’ he said, patting me on the back one last time, trying to keep himself from crying. It was a they-grow-up-so-fast Hallmark moment. ‘You’ll make a fine hero, Ben Braver. A fine one indeed.’

  ‘If I’m anything like you, then it’s pretty much guaranteed, right?’ I said.

  Magnific gasped, then bit his knuckle to keep his emotions in check. ‘Go, friend! Spread your wings and fly, little bird! Be the light in the dark!’

  I nodded at Magnific, and then I took to the skies, faster than a speeding bullet.

  I had a school to save.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  8 p.m.

  Minutes until the attack.

  I zoomed over the interstate, following road signs to Lost Nation, the town near Kepler Academy.

  I had flown from the moon to Earth in seconds, but in space there was nothing to crash into. I had to be a little more careful flying around on the planet.

  My trip from Portland to Lost Nation took about thirty minutes. That’s fast, but not fast enough – I was cutting it way too close.

  The Abandoned Children would attack a little after eight p.m., which meant it was gonna happen pretty much the second I got there.

  I saw the lights of Lost Nation, then looked up at the side of the mountain where Kepler Academy stood peacefully. It hadn’t started yet.

  Sailing silently through the night sky, I picked a spot in the forest, not too close, but not too far away, and
then I dived straight down, performing the coolest superhero landing in all history.

  As the dust settled, I scanned the area to make sure I was alone.

  I wondered if Penny, Noah and Donnie were nearby. They weren’t gonna be too happy that I’d disappeared on them for half the day.

  And how the heck was I gonna explain Nix to them? It’s not like I could say, ‘Oh, hey, the Reaper’s not who we thought, and he’s on my head right now. But he’s cool, guys. He’s cool.’

  No way! They’d think he’d taken control of my brain and was making me say all that!

  Suddenly, I heard footsteps crunching on dead leaves behind me. I spun around, but I was too late.

  Whoever it was punched me so hard that my body tore through tree trunks like they were paper. If I didn’t have Nix’s powers, that punch would’ve killed me for sure.

  It had to be that lizard-dude, Matthew. The Abandoned Children must’ve been hiding in the forest waiting, and now I’d messed up the timeline by getting into a fight with them before they hit the school!

  Matthew ran at me a second time. I got to my feet, ready for round two. If I could dodge his next punch, I could land one of my own, and then we’d see how strong I really was.

  I clenched my fists as the lizard got closer, but then I realised I was totally wrong. It wasn’t Matthew who was on me.

  It was Noah.

  He swung his fist and nailed me in the chest, a stream of fire behind his elbow turning his normal punch into a jet-packed punch.

  I flew back like a cannonball until I finally rolled to a stop.

  Everything was spinning when I saw Penny out of the corner of my eye. I tried telling her to stop but couldn’t get the words out because that’s when she smashed a log over my head.

  ‘Owwwww!’ Nix and I cried out together.

  With her skin glowing, she hoisted her log high above her for a second shot at me but stopped. ‘Ben?’

  Just then, Donnie appeared out of nowhere and smashed his own log over my head.

  ‘STOP THAT!’ I shouted, clutching my precious skull, wondering how many brain cells I had left. ‘It’s me! Ben!’