Chapter Ten: The powers of the Power Council
After leaving the bunk room, Samantha led Nikki and Spencer down three more halls. One was glass on all sides. Behind the glass was water with colorful fish swimming all over the place. It was called the aquarium tunnel. The second tunnel was covered in lush green grass and was appropriately named the grassy tunnel. The final tunnel was made from old car parts, like fenders, car doors, headlights, and exhaust pipes. Its name: the junkyard tunnel.
When they left the junkyard tunnel, they entered a large, colorful room. Lights of all colors brightened the space. Beautiful pictures of kids doing amazing things covered the walls. As Nikki scanned each image, she saw a picture of a boy who was made out of rubber, bouncing around. Another drawing showed a girl with six arms and four legs. She looked a lot like Samantha. The third picture Nikki noticed was a dark-skinned boy who was hovering in the air as if he could fly. Nikki wondered if he had her same flying ability.
As Nikki was pondering her question, Spencer said, “Check it out, Barnacle-Bill! You’re on the wall too!”
While pondering how Spencer thought of the name Barnacle-Bill, Nikki spun around and followed his gaze to another wall. Sure enough, there was a life-size painting of her flying through the air in full superhero costume. “But how?” Nikki said.
Samantha smiled and said, “As soon as we found out about you, we added your picture to our walls. It can stay there if you decide to become a member of our team.”
“What team?” Nikki asked, still gawking at her picture on the wall. She felt like a movie star.
“It’s time for you to meet the Power Council,” Samantha replied. “Come on in, guys.”
A door at the far end of the room opened and two boys marched in. The one in front had dark skin and short dark hair. He was chubby, his belly protruding well out in front of his feet. He had big cheeks and wore a huge smile. As he walked, his skin and clothing changed color rapidly, taking on the same color as whatever wall he was passing by. Nikki could barely see him as he blended in with the background.
Behind the color-changing boy was a skinny kid with pale white skin and loads of freckles. He was licking a chocolate ice cream cone. And then he was taking a bite from a hamburger. And then he was munching on a piece of pizza. But they were all the same thing, somehow. The ice cream had magically changed into a hamburger and then into pizza. Weird, Nikki thought.
As the boys approached, Samantha said, “Nikki, Spencer—meet Freddy Powersocks and Mike Powerscarves.”
“Hi, Nikki Powergloves,” Freddy said, his smile widening even further.
Nikki couldn’t help but to smile at the big jolly boy. “Hi,” she said, looking at his socks. One was camouflaged color, displaying various shades of green and brown, and the other was gold. The color of his skin and clothes had changed back to normal. “What do you call your color changing power?” she asked.
Freddy laughed. “I call the camouflaged sock my chameleon sock. I can look like anything I want to, so if I ever need to hide, no one will ever find me.”
“Cool,” Nikki said. “Very cool.”
Spencer approached Mike Powerscarves. Nikki noticed Mike was wearing a green scarf with a picture of an ice cream cone on it.
Spencer said, “Hi, I’m Spencer, but you can call me Spence.”
“Good to meet you,” Mike said.
“How did you make the food change like that?” Spencer asked. He was eyeing the slice of pizza Mike was holding. Nikki’s stomach growled. Seeing the food was making her hungry, too.
“This one is my food scarf,” Mike replied, touching the fringe of his green scarf. “I can make any kind of food appear from thin air. It’s not that useful against the bad guys, but it is pretty cool for parties! Do you want something to eat?”
“Oh yeah! I’ll take some of that pepperoni pizza, it looks scrumdiddlyumptious!” Spencer exclaimed.
Mike’s eyes widened in surprise at Spencer’s reaction. Samantha laughed and said, “Meet Spencer. He’s a goofball but I’m sure he’ll fit in really well here. We should all have some lunch while we talk. Mike—can you whip us up a few pizzas? A mushroom, a pepperoni, and a cheese?”
Mike grinned. “No problem.” Two seconds later, he said, “Lunch is served.”
Next to them was a long table between two giant purple couches. The previously empty table was suddenly covered by three steaming pizzas. The air filled with the mouth-watering aroma of melted cheese, crispy crust, and cooked mushrooms and pepperoni.
Nikki gasped. “Amazing!” she said.
Spencer said, “Mike—I think you and I are going to become good friends.”
The five kids sat on the couches, Nikki and Spencer on one side, and Samantha, Freddy, and Mike on the other. Freddy immediately changed color, turning purple to match the couch.
As Nikki and Spencer reached for a slice of pizza, Samantha said, “Mike, Freddy and I are the Power Council. Our mission is to protect people from any power kids who try to use their powers for evil.”
“Like Jimmy and Peter?” Nikki asked.
“Exactly. Just like them. We know of one other power kid, a girl named Naomi Powerskirts, and we think she is going to be bad, too. We expect she will try to meet up with Jimmy and Peter. We want you to join the Power Council, that way we’ll have four power kids and they’ll only have three. With one more kid, we think we can defeat them.”
While chewing on a bit of crust, Freddy said, “You’ll join with us, won’t you?”
“Of course!” Spencer yelled. “Won’t we, Nikks?”
Nikki nodded. “Yes, of course we’ll join. We’ll do anything to stop those jerks.”
“Awesome!” Mike said. “So even if they get Naomi, we will get a bigger advantage because Nikki’s a 2X.”
Nikki frowned. “What do you mean?”
Samantha explained. “Because some power kids get their powers from items that come in pairs, they can use two powers at once. Like you can put a blue glove on one hand and a purple on the other.”
“Okay. So like I can fly while being super-strong at the same time?”
“Right. But someone like me, who gets their power from a single object, like my belts, can only use one power at a time. We call a kid like that a 1X.”
Spencer said, “Okay, so Freddy’s a 2X with his powersocks, and Mike’s a 1X with his scarves.”
Mike said, “Right. And Jimmy’s a 2X with his boots, while Naomi and Peter are 1Xs with their skirts and hats.”
“What about sidekicks?” Spencer asked.
“What do you want to know?” Samantha replied.
“I dunno. Do you all have them?”
“You can meet them later,” Samantha said. “But to answer your question, Freddy and I have sidekicks, but Mike hasn’t found one yet.”
The conversation slowed and then suddenly a big red light flashed in the corner of the room and a loud alarm shrieked. Nikki slapped her hands over her ears and squinted. “What is that?” she shouted above the noise.
The noise stopped and Samantha said, “One of the bad power kids just did something bad. We’ll get the report soon.” She pointed to the ceiling.
Nikki looked up, but didn’t see what Samantha was pointing at. Then a crack opened in the roof and a thin screen was lowered to eye level. On the screen were the words “Special Report”. They flashed once and then disappeared. A news reporter appeared on the screen and began speaking. She said:
“I’m here in downtown Cragglyville where an attack of epic proportions has been carried out on our small city. Less than thirty minutes ago, what appeared to be a cannonball blasted through the Main Street commercial district, damaging buildings and stores.”
With a wave of her arm, she motioned to the damage behind her. The camera panned across the street. A tree lay across the road, blocking hordes of angry drivers, who were honking their horns in annoyance. Bricks, wood, glass, and other rubble littered the streets. There were gaping holes in nearly every building. T
he reporter continued:
“The perpetrators have not been identified yet, but one witness claims she saw three kids hiding in an alley. One was wearing bright yellow boots. In the words of the witness, ‘they were up to no good.’ This is Channel 7 News bringing you up to the minute updates on the ongoing situation in Cragglyville.”
When the report was over, the screen went black. Nikki’s heart sank. She should have been there. She could have prevented it, could have helped to stop the bad power kids. “It’s all my fault,” she said, covering her face with her hands. Hot tears stung her cheeks. Spencer silently put an arm around her.
Samantha said, “Nikki, it’s not your fault. It’s Jimmy’s and Peter’s, and probably Naomi’s, too. The reporter said the witness saw three kids, so either one of them got a sidekick or Naomi is with them now. You can’t always stop them from doing bad things. We can only do our best. We are in this together, okay, Nikki?”
Nikki wiped the tears away with her hands. “I guess so. Can we go back to Cragglyville now?”
Samantha sighed. “I know you feel like you should go back right away, but I think we should wait. We still have a lot to show you, and remember, time moves faster here, so there will be plenty of time to get back and defeat them later.”
Nikki’s eyes locked with Spencer’s. Every instinct in her body was telling her to put on her blue gloves and fly back home. People were counting on her. Her family, her friends, her town. Everyone. She didn’t know what to say. Luckily, Spencer made the decision for her.
“I think she’s right, Hoppin’-Hamster,” he said. “We will defeat them, but first we need to prepare.”
“Hoppin’ Hamster?” Mike said.
Samantha laughed, breaking the tension. “Don’t try to make sense of it, Mike. It’s just something Spencer does.”
Mike shrugged.
After the news report, no one had an appetite, so the three power kids finished taking Nikki and Spencer on the tour. First they went to the training room, where members of the Power Council could practice using their powers without hurting anyone. Then they stopped by what Samantha called “the Lab”, a facility where the sidekicks could invent ways to help the power kids. Spencer was disappointed that none of the sidekicks were there today, but Samantha promised they would be back the following day.
As they walked to the last stop on the tour, Spencer asked a million questions about Samantha’s, Freddy’s, and Mike’s powers. “What’s your coolest power?” Spencer asked Freddy.
“Hmmm, it’s hard to pick just one,” he said. “I like my chameleon power, and this gold clock allows me to make time in one place move at a different speed than time in another place. That’s how I control the time in Power City to move faster than the rest of the world. But I also like my anti-gravity power and my ninja skills. But my favorite power of all is probably my ability to talk to animals.”
Nikki stopped walking, her eyes widening in amazement. “You can talk to animals?”
“Sure,” Freddy said, “but only when I’m wearing my white socks with black polka dots.
Nikki burst into a huge grin. “I love animals! I’ve always wanted to be able to speak to my dog.”
“Yeah, it’s a pretty cool power, but your ability to transform into animals is way cooler!”
“Thanks,” Nikki said, blushing.
They began walking again and Spencer continued asking his questions about powers. They learned that Samantha could make inanimate objects come to life, like toys and statues and things. She could also grow more arms and legs, like Nikki had seen in the picture in the room with the purple couches. From Mike, they found out that his scarves could turn his body into rubber and also give him the ability to build almost anything. He had built all of the robots and machines in the Power City, as well as much of the city itself.
They also learned that each of the power kids have twelve powers, each of which are very different. Nikki was relieved that Jimmy didn’t have more powers than she did.
When Spencer ran out of questions to ask about powers, Nikki said, “Where’s the last stop on the tour?” They had been walking down a straight and narrow path called the fire tunnel for at least 20 minutes. Fiery torches hung on the walls to light the way.
Samantha said, “The last stop on the tour is Weebleville.”