Chapter Two: Spencer wears his underwear on his head
There was still a full hour before dinner would be ready and Nikki planned to take full advantage of it. As she and Spencer stepped outside, Nikki sighed when she felt the warmth of the sunshine on her face. A light breeze wafted in from the north, gently cooling everything in its path. The weather was perfect, but Nikki was not surprised. After all, she had made it that way.
Nikki said, “Want to go for a ride?”
Spencer’s face lit up. “Do you really mean it? Yippee!”
“Is your mom home?” Nikki asked.
Spencer said, “No, she’s working a double shift.”
“Good. Let’s go to your place so we can put on our disguises.”
The pair walked down the block and entered Spencer’s house through the side door, for which he had a key. The door led into a small, dark basement, which was littered with cardboard boxes and smelled like dust and cleaning products. Spencer reached up and pulled a string, turning on a lonely light bulb.
“Okay, let’s hurry,” Nikki said. “We don’t have much time.”
Nikki quickly opened the magical powerchest and pulled out a light blue glove. It had a picture of a bird on it. She was still wearing one of her black and yellow gloves to make sure the sun would keep shining. Next she dug out two pairs of shoes and some clothing. She handed Spencer his black sweatpants and a black t-shirt that said “Certified Genius” on it. A few days earlier, Spencer had insisted on having a disguise, too.
“What about my glasses?” he said.
“Oh, sorry,” Nikki replied. Reaching back into the chest, she extracted a pair of dark sunglasses.
Spencer put them on first. “Thanks. Now close your eyes, Nikki.”
“You first,” she said.
Spencer clamped his eyes tightly shut beneath the sunglasses.
“No peeking,” Nikki said sharply.
With practiced precision, she changed out of her shorts and t-shirt into the clothing she got from the powerchest. The new blue shorts were rimmed by a white stripe, which matched her blue and white tennis shoes. Her shirt was yellow, with a light blue picture of a glove on it, beneath her superhero initials, NP. Covering the rest of the shirt were various colored symbols, each of which represented another one of her many powers. The t-shirt design had been Spencer’s idea. Lastly, she tied her brown ponytail around the front of her head, covering her eyes. She clipped the end of the ponytail behind her ear to hold it in place.
“Okay, you can open your eyes, Spence. Can you help me with my eye holes?”
She felt Spencer’s hand touch her face and then she could see again, through holes that Spencer had burrowed in her ponytail. In each hole he inserted a small plastic circle. Nikki felt like she was looking through funny goggles, but she didn’t mind. Sometimes superheroes had to make sacrifices to keep their identities a secret.
“Now your turn,” Nikki said, closing her eyes.
She heard scuffling and shuffling, and then a minute later Spencer said, “Presto chango!” It’s what he always said when he was finished putting on his costume.
Nikki opened her eyes and saw Spencer grinning at her, his mouth wide and full of teeth. His braces gleamed under the bright exposed light bulb. She grinned back at him. He looked funny wearing all black, especially because of the sunglasses. It was like he was a secret spy or something.
“Ready?” Nikki said, as she pushed her hand into the blue glove.
“I was born ready!” Spencer said.
They marched up the basement stairs and into the empty kitchen. As they passed through the tiled dining area, Nikki couldn’t help but to remember how Jimmy Powerboots had looked the last time she had seen him. At the time, Nikki had thought she might have killed him when she used her powers to hit him in the head with a lightning bolt. His face had been as pale as a ghost. Nikki had cried, because she didn’t want to hurt anyone, not even a villain. Eventually, however, Jimmy had woken up and Nikki had flown him far away, but only after taking his powerboots from him. Without them, he wouldn’t be able to cause any more trouble.
Then, just a few days ago, he had called her with some news. Jimmy had a new friend named Peter Powerhats, and one of his powers was the ability to find lost powerchests. When Nikki and Spencer were out playing, Jimmy and Peter had snuck behind Nikki’s house and retrieved Jimmy’s powerboots from where Nikki had hidden them in the backyard.
Nikki shivered as she opened the back door, even though the air outside was warm and humid. She knew Jimmy would be coming back to Cragglyville to get his revenge, and he would probably bring his friend Peter with him. Nikki tried not to think about it. Right now, she just wanted to fly!
Nikki kneeled in the grass in Spencer’s fenced-in backyard. “Hop on,” she said.
Luckily, Spencer was smaller than Nikki, and she could easily give him a piggyback ride. For some reason, it was even easier when she was flying. On her back, he felt as light as a feather. Once she felt Spencer’s legs around her waist and his arms around her neck, she yelled, “Lift off!” and sprang into the air.
Magically, gravity could not hold her, and instead of crashing back to the ground, her body continued upwards, as she rocketed through the air with Spencer hanging on tightly. “Wheeeee!” he screamed. Soon they were high above the earth, twisting and turning and flipping and spinning. After a few minutes of playing on the breeze, Nikki settled into a gentle cruise across the town. Far below them, Nikki spotted a little boy eating an ice cream cone. He saw them too and waved. Nikki waved back, but Spencer kept his hands tightly around her so he wouldn’t fall off.
Nikki loved flying and she was good at it. She could dive close to the ground and then rise back up rapidly. She could dart and cut and duck and dive around trees and houses and anything else that got in her way. She could land as softly as a butterfly and take off as powerfully as a rocket ship. She could spin and twirl and flip in the air like an Olympic gymnast. Nikki felt like she was born to fly.
Nikki cruised over some of the surrounding farmland and then turned and headed back toward town. As she was about to enter Cragglyville, her powerbracelet began to glow, turning from silver to bright white. Someone needed her help!
She flew over Cragglyville, scanning the streets.
The little boy who had been eating the ice cream was still there, but he was surrounded by two other boys. One of them had stolen his half-eaten ice cream cone and smashed it on the sidewalk. The other one was holding his arms and laughing. From high in the air, Nikki couldn’t see who they were.
“Bullies!” Spencer yelped. “We’ve got to help him!”
Nikki nodded and started to dive for the ground, but then stopped when she saw one of the local shop owners emerge from his store and start yelling at the two bullies. The man was tall and strong. Hovering in the air, Nikki watched to see whether the bullies would leave the boy alone now that an adult had gotten involved.
To her surprise, one of the boy’s suddenly began to grow bigger, until he was as tall and strong as the shop owner. If that wasn’t amazing enough, the boy then grew even bigger, becoming a giant in mere seconds. He towered over the shop owner, making him look like a midget in comparison. It was then that Nikki noticed he was wearing a mask.
Nikki swooped in to get a closer look and her breath caught in her throat when she saw who the other boy was. Wearing a black cape, black mask, and mismatched boots—one blue and one yellow—there was no mistaking the identity of the boy: Jimmy Powerboots was back in Cragglyville. And he had brought company. The hulking boy beside him had to be Peter Powerhats. The giant was wearing a neon-green baseball cap, which, based on his name, had to be the source of his power.
Before Nikki could get any closer, Peter the Giant had grabbed the shop owner with one big hand and was shaking him. The little boy had wisely run away and was cowering behind a nearby mailbox.
Peter carried the man over to a yellow fire hydrant on the sidewalk, setting him down on
to it. Next, Jimmy pointed a finger at the hydrant. Nikki could see him laughing as he did it. The hydrant burst open, sending a mountain of water high into the air. The shop owner went flying, carried upwards by the power of the water. Luckily, he was able to grab a tree branch as he flew past, clutching the bark like a lifeline. He hung on for dear life, his feet dangling helplessly in the empty air. Nikki knew she had to do something fast or he would fall and break his legs.
Staying out of Jimmy’s field of vision, Nikki flew over a building and into an alley, where she lowered Spencer onto his feet. “Stay here,” she said.
“No, I need to help you, I’m your sidekick,” Spencer said seriously.
“Spence, I don’t have time for this. It’s too dangerous for you.” Without another word, she jumped in the air and raced off. She whipped over the building and shot toward the tree, where the poor man was still hanging on for dear life.
As she passed by the leafy branches she grabbed the big man by the waist and pulled him free. Seconds later he was back on the ground, safe and sound but very scared. “Thank you, Nikki, thank you,” he said, while trying to catch his breath.
“No time to talk,” Nikki said. She turned around to see Jimmy and Peter staring at her, laughing.
“I knew you’d come,” Jimmy said. “You could never stay away from someone in trouble.” He started to walk toward her. Peter followed after him, his giant legs looking more like tree trunks than the stubby legs of a nine-year-old boy.
Nikki knew she was in trouble. She was outnumbered two to one, and she only had her flying glove and her weather glove. With Jimmy and Peter moving toward her, she didn’t have time to open her powerchest to access any of her other powers. She didn’t think being able to fly and control the weather would be enough to stop them. Her mind was racing as she tried to think what to do. “Think, think, think,” she said to herself. If only Spencer was here, she thought. He would know what to do.
That’s when she heard a crazy sound. “Boogey-woogey-woogey-woogey!” a voice yelled from around the corner. And then he was there, a black streak running toward Jimmy and Peter. It was Spencer. But his disguise looked different. There was something on his head. Something white. Something cotton.
Underwear.
Spencer was wearing white underwear on his head. Not boxers or briefs, but tighty-whities. His face looked crazy, his eyes bugged out and his mouth twisted like he was completely out of his mind. His tongue wagged from his lips like an old hound dog.
“Argabargargabargargabarga!” he roared.
Jimmy and Peter turned away from Nikki, their eyes wide with terror as the strange pipsqueak of a boy charged them, displaying his private clothing like a crown atop his head.
Nikki’s first instinct was to fly to Spencer and grab him before he got himself hurt. But then she realized what he was doing. He was distracting them. He had given her one chance to defeat them, and she couldn’t waste it.
While Jimmy and Peter were looking the other way, Nikki reached in her pocket and retrieved her powerchest. Moments later it was open and she was sifting through the rubbery powergloves, trying to decide which ones to use. Quickly making a decision, she ripped off her light blue and black/yellow gloves and threw them in the chest. Then she snatched two other gloves, one gray and one white. The white glove had a snowflake on it and the other had no picture at all. She put them on.
The moment the gray glove covered her hand, she disappeared. She wasn’t gone from Cragglyville, but she had become invisible.
A raindrop splashed onto her face. Nikki craned her head to look at the sky, which had darkened, as pregnant black rainclouds moved overhead. The sun, which was only able to shine on Cragglyville while Nikki was wearing her weather glove, was now hidden behind towers of stormy pillows. Another raindrop beat on Nikki’s cheek. And then another. And another. One dripped into her eye, temporarily blurring her vision. She was about to get very wet. But that didn’t matter—she needed to save Spencer.
Nikki surveyed the scene in front of her. Spencer had reached Peter Powerhats first and was swinging his small fists at him, trying to punch him in the knees, but Peter had extended one of his long arms and was holding Spencer’s head, keeping him far enough away that he couldn’t reach him. Jimmy was laughing and kept spraying Spencer with water from the fire hydrant, using only his finger to direct the water at her genius sidekick.
Nikki sprang into action just as the heavens exploded, cascading torrents of rain onto the streets. In seconds she was drenched, her invisible clothes sticking to her invisible skin as the rain lashed at her invisible arms and hands. But Nikki didn’t let it stop her. She raced toward where Spencer was being abused by Peter, splashing through puddles and soaking her socks and shoes. When she was ten steps away she aimed her white glove at him. A beam of whiteness spouted from her glove, coating the giant villain from head to toe in a block of ice.
Spencer gawked at the ice sculpture in front of him. “Great work, Nikks!” he yelled, whirling around to find her. Of course, he couldn’t see her. Because no one could see her. Because she was invisible.
Jimmy, who was dripping with water, ran over to Peter’s frozen body, and reached out to touch him. Nikki took aim with her finger again—she was going to freeze Jimmy, too. But right when the white laser shot from her glove, Jimmy and Peter disappeared. They were gone, like magic. It was as if they had never been there. The ice beam collided harmlessly with a mailbox, instantly turning it to ice. Nikki and Spencer were left alone in the street, as fat raindrops pelted them from above.
“Wowsers!” Spencer yelled. “If monkeys had wings it wouldn’t be cooler than what you just did! Where are you anyway?”
Remembering she was still invisible, Nikki pried off her gray glove. She appeared. “I’m here, Spence.”
Spencer walked to her, hopping over small puddles that got in his way. When he reached her, he put a wet arm around her and said, “Good job, Nikki. You did great.”
Nikki smiled. “Thanks, Spence. But I couldn’t have done it without you. That was some entrance!” She giggled when she looked at his head. A pair of sopping wet white underwear clung to his hair like a swim cap. “Where on earth did you get the underwear? You couldn’t possibly have had time to take them off and then put all your clothes back on.”
Spencer flashed a toothy smile. “I had them in my pocket, just in case. You never know when you are going to need a fresh pair!”
Nikki laughed and hugged her friend. “So much for our sunny day. Let’s get home and dry off.”