Nikki Powergloves- a Hero is Born, page 7
“Okay, I’m ready.” Nikki started to move toward the center of the clearing, but stopped when she noticed the statue again. “Uh, what should we do with that?”
“Nothing for now. If we take it back, Jimmy will just steal it again and destroy it more. Plus, it will need quite a bit of repair. Let’s just keep working on your powers and we can decide what to do with it later. Which power should we start with?”
Chapter Fourteen: Nikki licks Spencer’s face
“Why don’t we just start at the top of your list, which would be green,” Nikki suggested. Before Spencer had a chance to answer she grabbed the gloves with the leaf printed on them and slipped them over her hands. “What do you think the leaf means, Spence?”
“It’s gotta be the ability to grow things, but I’m not sure where that would really come in handy.”
“Okay, let me try.” After the storm incident, Nikki wanted to be very careful when trying out any new powers, so she scoured the ground for the smallest plant she could find, a tiny weed with a small yellow flower on it—a dandelion. Pointing her green finger at it, she imagined it growing into a good-sized flower.
To their astonishment, the plant sprouted up, high into the air above their heads. The thin stalk widened to a foot in diameter to support the sunflower-sized flower that now sprouted from its peak.
A look of excitement crossed Spencer’s face. “I know how we can use this one! Eek eek eek!” he exclaimed. Nikki waited for him to continue. “What are you most sad about?” Spencer asked cryptically.
Over the last couple of days Nikki had been most sad about the destruction she had accidentally caused to their small town, but she knew that Spencer was getting at something in particular. It hit her like a baseball bat to the side of the head: “The farmers’ crops getting destroyed,” she declared confidently. “I can use this power to help regrow their vegetables!”
“Bingo,” Spencer replied.
Nikki jumped up and down in excitement. “I have to do it now. I have to fix what I did.”
“Calm down, Eager-Beaver. It can wait another few hours. We should go through the rest of the gloves and see if there are any others that can help fix things.”
Trying to control her excitement, Nikki placed the “growing” gloves back in their spot and replaced them with the next pair on the list, the purple ones, next to which Spencer had written, “muscly arm making a fist.”
Nikki decided to take a guess at this power. “I think it must be super-strength,” she offered.
“Give it a try,” Spencer said.
Nikki looked around for a test subject, but finding none, she pictured herself picking up a certain friend of hers. She walked over to Spencer and lifted him up high above her head like he was made of cotton.
“Hey! Lemme down, Nikks! This isn’t funny! Whooooop!”
She lowered him gently to the ground and back onto his feet. He glared at her. “You could have picked up the treasure chest or the statue, you know,” he said.
“I totally forgot about them, I swear,” Nikki said, laughing. But just for good measure she trotted over to the chest and picked it up with one arm and curled it like a barbell, as if it were no heavier than a feather.
Ignoring Spencer, who was pouting because he’d just been picked up like he was a child, by a girl no less, Nikki snatched the orange gloves from the box and put them on. A crisp drawing of a pair of shoes made it clear what this power would be. Seconds later she was doing laps around Spencer—she was going so fast that the only evidence of her movement was a blur of color that passed by his field of vision every couple of seconds.
After about thirty seconds, Spencer called out, “Okay, Speed-Racer, I think we’ve figured this one out, too.”
As if emerging from a hole in time, Nikki appeared from the blur, her legs slowing to a jog, then to a walk, and finally to a full stop. “That was great, I’m not even tired!” she announced.
“Congratulations,” Spencer said. He was clearly beginning to tire of Nikki getting to have all the fun. He wrote something down on his inventory sheet. “Gray is next,” he said.
Nikki swapped her orange gloves for the gray ones, and turned her hands over and back a few times, so she could see all sides of them. “I don’t see a drawing on these,” she said.
“I don’t know,” Spencer replied, “maybe for these gloves you have to try and imagine a bunch of different things and try to figure it out by trial and error.”
“I don’t think so…” Nikki trailed off. She looked at the sky. Still looking up, she closed her eyes and tried to imagine nothing at all. Not sure if anything happened, she slowly opened her eyes. Everything appeared to be the same as it had been. Except for one thing. Spencer was looking at her with his mouth open, like he had just seen a ghost.
“Where’d you go, Nikki?” he asked.
Thinking he was playing a joke on her, Nikki replied, “What are you talking about? I’m right here.”
Spencer nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of her voice. “Can I touch your arm?” he asked. What a weird request, Nikki thought.
“No, you freak,” she said. She was about to hurl another insult at him when she noticed something that didn’t make any sense. Looking down, she couldn’t see her feet. In fact, she couldn’t see any part of herself! “What happened to me, Spence, I’m gone!” she yelled.
“That’s what I was trying to tell you, but instead of listening you called me a freak. You’ve just discovered the power of the gray gloves: invisibility.”
Coming to terms with the fact that she couldn’t see herself, she decided to have a little fun with it. She snuck around to the back of Spencer and yanked his shorts down to his ankles. Wearing only tighty-whities, Spencer’s legs looked even whiter and skinnier than usual, and Nikki let out a loud “Whoop!” and began laughing uncontrollably.
“Nikki!! I can’t believe you did that! Areeeebaaa!” Spencer screamed. He tugged his shorts back up and started running around with his arms out, trying to catch his invisible friend. She easily evaded him and soon he became tired and stopped. “Nikki, here I am trying to help you and you keep messing around with me. I seem to remember that just a few days ago you were on the verge of destroying the gloves until somebody talked you out of it.”
Feeling bad for what she had done to her friend, Nikki pulled off the gloves and reappeared. “I’m sorry, Spence. You’re right, you have been here for me and I should be nicer. Let’s get through the rest of them and then we can plan our next move.”
With both sides declaring a truce, Nikki turned back to the chest and extracted the brown gloves, the ones with the paw print on them. She was particularly interested to test her theory on this pair of gloves. Nikki had been a dog-lover since she was a little girl and having the chance to enter their world, if only for a short time, was more than she could ever hope for.
Concentrating hard, she pictured herself running free, not a care in the world, her floppy ears picking up every sound within a mile of where she was. When Nikki opened her eyes, everything looked different. Instead of looking into Spencer’s eyes, her vision fell upon his legs. She looked up to find his face. He seemed like a giant now and he had to reach down to pet her under her chin.
Talking in a baby voice he said, “Now, that’s a good girl. Can you do a trick for me, Floppy-Ears? If you’re good I’ll give you a biscuit!”
Nikki tried to say, “Be quiet, Spence! I’m still a human inside,” but all that came out was a low, guttural growl. Spencer jumped back.
“Whoa, Nikki. No need to get angry, I was just kidding around. Anyway, it’s hard to talk to you like a human when you look so much like a dog.” He looked closer at her paws. “Wow, cool! You still have the gloves on, but they look different, like doggie gloves. They fit you perfectly still. But your clothes disappeared. Hmmm, I wonder if you will be naked when you turn back into a human. I hope not!” Spencer chuckled to himself and Nikki growled again, but then waited for him to continue.
Thinking aloud, Spencer said, “Since you can’t ask me any questions, I wonder what I would want to know if I was a dog? Hmmm, I guess I would want to know a bit about my appearance.”
Spencer sauntered around her in a circle, like a horse buyer inspecting a prize breed. “Firstly, you seem to be a German shepherd and are quite big, probably about five times the size of Mr. Miyagi. You look almost like a small wolf and I suspect you can run pretty fast if you want to.”
Nikki tried to picture what she looked like as Spencer described her. He continued, “Oh, and your breath smells awful, like you’ve been chowing down on garlic and onions.” Spencer grinned his toothy grin.
With Spencer still laughing to himself, Nikki the dog leapt forward and tackled him to the ground, landing hard on top of his chest. She took her long tongue and lapped it across his face a few times, making sure that every bit of it was slimed by her doggie drool.
“Aww, c’mon, Slobber-Lips, I was just joking! Gross!” Spencer wailed, trying to wipe his face with the bottom of his shirt.
Using her paws, Nikki pushed the gloves off and magically morphed back into her natural, human form. She was laughing so hard she was nearly crying. “You should’ve seen your face, Spence, it was classic!”
When he finished drying his face, he looked at her deviously and said, “You know, Nikki, technically you just kissed me about eight times. I thought we were just friends!”
Before he could even laugh at his own joke, Nikki had slipped on the gloves and changed. But this time she wasn’t a dog.
Chapter Fifteen: Spencer pees his pants, nearly
With a loud roar, the lion pounced on Spencer and proceeded to hold him down with one powerful paw. Spencer let out a high-pitched scream, just like you would expect from a girl. As quickly as she had changed into a lion, Nikki changed back into a girl.
Spencer’s face was as white as a ghost and he looked so terrified that for a second Nikki was afraid he might have peed himself. Nikki started to apologize, expecting her friend to be angry with her. “Spence, I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”
She was surprised when he cut her off and said, “Awesome! I think you can change into any animal you want to! That’s even cooler than Dr. Dolittle being able to talk to animals!”
“Uhh, yeah, I think you’re right. Look, I’m sorry, Spence, I really didn’t know it would work. I expected to just turn into the dog again.”
“That’s okay. Of course it was really scary at the time, but I guess I should have known that you wouldn’t hurt me. How come your paws didn’t tear me to shreds anyway?”
“My claws were retractable,” Nikki explained. “I remember having the instinct to keep the claws tucked inside my paws since I knew I was just playing, not attacking.”
Spencer laughed. “It felt like an attack to me! Yikes!” They both laughed together and then Spencer said, “You should try turning into other animals so you know what you can and cannot do.”
Nikki liked this idea and so, for the next hour, Spencer used the back of the paper to list animals and she tried to transform into them. By the end of the hour, the list looked something like this:
Nikki’s Animal Powers
Dog---tiger---cheetah---lion---koala---antelope---bird---bear---dinosaur---chipmunk---shark---pig---fish---elephant---cow---horse---raccoon---panther---cat---turtle---giraffe---monkey---snake---fox
“Do you see any common themes?” Spencer asked.
“They all have four legs, although monkeys front legs are more like arms,” Nikki replied.
“What about warm-blooded? None of the cold-blooded animals like snakes or reptiles worked.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. Also, the animal has to have something that resembles a paw; the animals that have hooves like the horses and giraffes didn’t work either.”
Spencer summarized their findings: “So, it seems like you can basically change into any animal with warm-blood, four legs, and paws. Although I’m not sure it is necessarily defined that specifically, as the monkey seems a bit different.”
“Great,” Nikki said. “Can we take a break? It’s lunch time and I’m starving.”
“Sure, Yogi-Bear,” Spencer said, opening his bag. “I thought this might take a while so I had my mom pack us a picnic.”
A huge smile formed on Nikki’s face. “Thanks! I really didn’t feel like going all the way home.”
They enjoyed delicious peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, cut diagonally, just the way Nikki liked them. They washed them down with a can of Coke each and chatted as they relaxed in the shade.
Always thinking ahead, Spencer said, “After we’re done testing the gloves we have to work on a costume for you.”
“Yes, and it needs to hide my true identity. I don’t want my mom and dad finding out about any of this.”
“At least we have your name figured out. Nikki Powergloves to the rescue!” he shouted.
Nikki giggled. “I hope I’m a good superhero.”
“I know you will be. Especially with all the powers you have. I’ve never heard of a superhero with this many powers before.”
“What about a super-villain? Jimmy seems to have lots of powers, too. I mean, you saw the way he was able to fly and drop the statue on us. Plus, with his disappearing and smashing the steps, he seems invincible.”
“Don’t underestimate yourself, Wonder-Woman. Remember, we know that you have invisibility now, too, so you can sneak up on him. And we still have more gloves to test.”
“And I’ve got the best genius sidekick ever!” Nikki added.
“You mean, you really want me as your sidekick?” Spencer asked uncertainly.
“Of course! You’re my best friend and are smarter than anyone I know, even adults.”
“Thanks, Nikki.”
After finishing their sodas they got back to business. Next on the list were the pink gloves with the tarot card symbol that Nikki had been dying to try out. From her experience, a tarot card meant seeing the future. She pressed her thumb to the symbol and closed her eyes.
She wasn’t sure how to imagine herself seeing the future, so she just pictured herself in a dark room with a crystal ball. In her mind, she looked deeply into the glass orb. Visions flashed through her head. She saw she and Spencer starting fifth grade. There was a gang of bullies that were picking on a skinny, nerdy-looking kid. He was new at school. The movie continued and she saw herself spring into action, using her super-strength gloves to fight him.
Everything went dark as the scene changed, and then she saw the bully in the hospital with bandages on his head; she had hurt him pretty badly. The scene changed again and she was in the car with her parents. They pulled into a different school, the sign said: “St. Bernard’s Juvenile Academy.” Oh no, she thought, I was forced to go to a juvenile delinquent school because I beat up the bully! “No!” she yelled. “Don’t leave me here, I was only trying to help!” Her parents left her at the school and drove away.
Nikki opened her eyes. Spencer was staring at her. He looked alarmed. “What did you see?” he asked. “You were yelling.”
“I saw me defending a kid that was getting picked on at school. I used my powergloves. I beat up the bully and they kicked me out of school and sent me to juvie.” Nikki said all of this without emotion, in a monotone voice.
“But that can’t be true, can it?”
“It has to be, Spence, the gloves have worked so far, so why wouldn’t these ones be able to show me the future?”
“Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean the future can’t be changed. You probably just saw what can happen if you are not careful with the way you use the gloves. Like with what happened with the storm.”
Nikki’s face brightened. “Do you really think that the future can be changed? I don’t want to go to that school, Spence.”
“I don’t know, but I think there is a way we can test it. I bet you can see any future that you choose. Almost like seeing the trailer for a movie before you go to watch the whole thing. If I plan to do something in the next few minutes, I think you might be able to predict what I will do before I do it.”
“Okay, let’s try it. Plan to do something and I will try to stop you.”
Spencer thought for a minute and then said, “Okay, ready.”
Nikki closed her eyes and saw the crystal ball again, but this time, she focused on Spencer and what he might do in the next few minutes. Sure enough, she saw her and Spencer in The Clubhouse. He was standing across from her and they were looking at each other. Suddenly, he ran toward the magic chest and tried to stick his hand inside. Like before, there was an explosion of sparks and he was jolted backwards into the air, like a circus acrobat shot out of a cannon.
She opened her eyes and Spencer was staring at her, just like in her vision. She stared right back at him. As she expected, he tried to make a dash for the chest, but knowing what he would do, Nikki was able to run in front of him and block his way with her arms.
“Awesome! Hallelujah!” Spencer yelled. “That’s even cooler than the first time Anakin Skywalker went pod-racing in the new Star Wars! You can definitely change the future, Nikki. There’s no need to worry about what you saw. When the time comes, you just need to handle the situation differently. Maybe use your ability to change into a bear so you can scare the bully away. No one will even know it was you.”
Nikki was relieved to find out that she didn’t have to go to juvie. She had heard that only the toughest kids went to school there.
They moved on to the next pair of gloves—the gold ones with a clock on them. Spencer said, “You can probably stop or slow down time, or maybe both.”
