The Great Powers Outage (20 page)

“Maybe this meteorite isn't the source of everyone's power,” I suggested.

“Of course it is,” he shouted back. “I clearly just need more exposure to it to restore my ability. Besides, you kids confirmed that my plan to eliminate the powers of everyone else has already begun working.”

“I'm not so sure,” I said. “We also think that the Red Menace might be using his new potato chips to accomplish the same thing.”

“The Red Menace?!” Professor Brain-Drain reacted with alarm. “I drained the Red Menace of his intelligence ten years ago. He shouldn't be able even to tie his shoes.”

“Maybe your power worked as well on him as it did on me,” I proposed.

“You're in no position to be tweaking me, boy,” Professor Brain-Drain hissed menacingly. “If people are losing their powers, it's because of what I'm doing to this meteorite.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” I shrugged. “The Red Menace has used his power to convince everyone to switch to these bland Pseudo-Chips that the Amazing Indestructo is producing. And since everybody started eating them, powers have begun to vanish. Even AI has lost his power.”

“Really?” Professor Brain-Drain perked up warily. “The imbecile is no longer indestructible? What a delightful development! Who else has been affected?”

“You really need to get out and buy a newspaper,” I suggested. “It started with just a few people, but it appears to be spreading. Mayor Whitewash is calling for calm, but no one is listening to him anymore.”

“Indeed?” Professor Brain-Drain lit up even further at this comment. He was recovering rapidly from his earlier disappointment. “He's lost his power, too. That can't bode well for the buffoon with an election drawing near.”

“His only opponent is a pumpkin,” I informed him. “I think his job is safe.”

“Don't be so certain.” The Professor began to chuckle. “You've given me a marvelous idea.”

“Well, since your mood has improved so much, could it possibly involve letting us go?” I asked, not really expecting a yes to that question.

“Oh, definitely not,” he replied cheerfully. “You know far too much. And since I can't yet drain that knowledge from your brains, I'll have to find another way of silencing you.”

I don't know what Professor Brain-Drain's “another way” was going to be, since the very moment the words left his mouth, a tongue—a very long and unexpected tongue—lashed out, wrapped itself around one of the handles of his colander, and yanked it right off the Professor's head. The second his method for controlling the Crush-staceans was gone, the claws that held me and my teammates opened. We didn't waste the opportunity.

“Run for it!” I hollered as Professor Brain-Drain howled in frustration.

“Tadpole, you still have your power,” Plasma Girl said with an outpouring of relief as she watched him whip the stainless steel strainer at least fifty yards away.

“Yeah, and I'm glad I kept it a secret,” he responded as he reeled in his tongue. “Now let's get out of here.”

“But how?” Stench asked. “Brain-Drain will be back in control of those crab things before we can escape.”

“I have an idea,” I shouted. “Quick, over this way.”

I led my teammates toward one of the rowboats that the Crush-staceans were using to haul away the chunks of meteorite they chipped off. One of the small boats had just been unloaded and we all jumped into it.

“Stench, I hope you have enough strength left to row us out to the middle of this stream,” I said. “You need to get us there, and fast.”

Back on shore Professor Brain-Drain was rushing to retrieve his colander. Even as Stench picked up the speed of his stroke, I saw the Professor place his stainless steel headgear back atop his noggin. Seconds later, the Crush-staceans regained life. Just as they began to move toward us, I felt the strong central current grab hold of the boat, and we were soon rushing away from the cavern. There was no need to even row, and an exhausted Stench stopped trying.

Back on the shore, Professor Brain-Drain jumped up and down in a rage.

We didn't have long to savor our victory, however. The speed of the river was increasing dramatically, and we soon found ourselves being whisked toward a dark, low hanging cave that the entire river was rushing into.

“HELLLLP!!” Plasma Girl screamed. And then her voice dropped away dramatically, and I felt us plummet into nothingness. If only I could see!

As if in answer to my wish, our boat burst out of the darkness and into a different chamber that was bright with phosphorescent crystals. The river was so narrow now that it was moving at a frightening speed. The channel that the river had dug over millions of years twisted one way and then another; left to right; backward and forward.

“I think I'm gonna puuuuuke,” Tadpole wailed.

A moment later we shot out of the chamber and into a tunnel with concrete walls. We were now someplace man-made. The important thing was we had escaped the Carlsbark Caverns.

Our boat began to slow, and when I saw a stone ledge protruding slightly into the stream, I instructed Stench to take up the oars again and maneuver us toward it. He succeeded but not without difficulty.

“Where are we?” Plasma Girl asked nervously as we got out of the boat.

“My guess is that this is the Superopolis water supply,” I answered. “If we kept going, I'm sure we would end up in the Ornery Ocean.”

“No thanks,” Tadpole said with a snort. “But how do we get out of here?”

I figured this must be some sort of maintenance platform, which meant there had to be an exit nearby. I began feeling around and soon found the steel rung of a ladder.

“Here we go,” I said. “It's time for a climb.”

And climb we did. It felt like we scaled hundreds of feet before I finally bumped my head against a metal plate that I managed to budge free. We clambered up through a manhole and found ourselves in the middle of the Greenway.

I looked back at Crater Hill, now off in the distance. It was no longer a mystery to me how it had gotten its name. And then it hit me. How
did
it get its name? No one, at least until now, had had any idea that the hill was formed by a meteorite resting in a sixty-five- million-year-old crater. Or so I had assumed. But whoever had given the hill its name had obviously known as well. The question was already gnawing at me. Who could that person have been?

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Normalopolis

The moment I arrived at school on Monday, I knew that the powers outage had spread to nearly everyone. Even Tadpole had lost his power.

“I just woke up this morning like this,” he said panic-stricken as he kept trying to stick out his tongue. It went no farther than anybody else's.

“It has affected all of us,” Plasma Girl added with concern in her voice. “But why? We stopped eating AI's Pseudo-Chips days ago! Maybe Professor BrainDrain
is
behind everybody's power loss.”

“I just don't know,” I said, truly baffled. “We have two major supervillains, either of whom could be responsible for this catastrophe. But if it's the Red Menace, none of you should be affected. And if Professor Brain-Drain is correct, his power should be fully functional, yet it's not.”

“My head hurts just thinking about it,” Halogen Boy fretted.

“They can't both be right,” I whispered under my breath. “But on the other hand they may not both be wrong.”

I was still trying to put
that
idea together as we entered the classroom and found a scene I never would have thought possible.

It was a room full of completely
ordinary
kids. The Human Sponge's head was no longer porous—although the skin she had now looked like it was headed for trouble in the acne department. Somnia was fully awake. Cannonball kept bumping up against the Quake as if he was trying to knock her over. And she kept hitting him back, but with nothing even close to the bone-rattling power she used to be able to muster. It
was
sort of enjoyable watching the two creeps beating each other up.

Puddle Boy was no longer creating puddles under his desk. Instead, he was producing one on top of it. Only this time it was just ordinary tears as he bemoaned the loss of a power that, if I were him, I'd be happier without.

Lobster Boy actually seemed a little relieved, which I guess made sense now that he knew he had company. Even as Sparkplug tried in vain to poke him with an electrical charge, he just sat there unfazed.

“All the fizz has gone out of my life!” I heard Little Miss Bubbles complain to Plasma Girl as we took our seats. She did in fact look drab and dispirited, without a hint of bubbliness about her—assuming that's even a word.

“I feel the same,” Plasma Girl said as she sat down.

“Hey, who's the new kid?” Tadpole asked. A boy we had never seen before entered the room and walked over to the far row where he took a seat in front of a very unlimber-looking Limber Lass. “He's taking Foggybottom's seat.”

“I think that
is
Foggybottom,” I replied. “We've just never gotten a good look at him when he wasn't encased in a cloud.”

On his right sat Transparent Girl, who I could also see well for the very first time. She turned toward me and my eyes went wide. Despite the worry on her face, Transparent Girl was—surprisingly—pretty! Her behavior has always been so nasty that I just assumed she was as unattractive as her personality. I couldn't help but stare at this unexpected revelation.

“What are you gawking at?” I heard Plasma Girl's voice a fraction of a second before her hand smacked me alongside the head. “Just because you can see her now doesn't mean she won't still try every underhanded trick in the book to beat you in next week's election.”

Thankfully, Melonhead arrived just then causing a distraction. To my amazement, he didn't look the least bit different.

“Greethingth, voterth,” he said without enthusiasm. There was no spray of juice or seeds. Yet he was still shaped like a melon and had the markings of a watermelon running vertically up to the rounded point of his head. I guess that his appearance was just a natural part of who he was.

Miss Marble followed right behind him, looking grumpier than I had ever seen her. She took her seat and then something miraculous happened. We all became quiet, waiting for her to speak. She was as surprised as anyone.

“Well, something has finally occurred to leave you kids tongue-tied,” she said. The moment the words were out of her mouth, the spell was broken. Practically every student in class raised his or her hand and began shouting questions simultaneously.

“What happened to our powers?” shrieked Transparent Girl. “We've lost them just when we need them most to protect ourselves from all these crazy animals.”

“I don't feel right,” protested the Spore, who, for the first time ever, had a healthy pink glow to his skin.

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