Double Trouble 3 Part 2

Double Trouble 3
The Third Excursion
By Curious4ever
Based on illustrations by Barry Blair
Part Two



"What are you doing?" I shouted at Toby. "Get off of me!"

"I'm not going to let you go until you say uncle," he said as he started to giggle.

"What?" I said as I kicked my feet backwards up into the air.

"Just say uncle," he said as he kept giggling.

The whole thing was so silly that I started giggling along with him.

"Okay, uncle, uncle," I said.

He released his grip on me and I rolled over and sat facing him. It was about a minute or so before we both stopped giggling.

"What was that all about?"  I asked

He smiled. "Don't get mad at me. You did it to me first."

"I did?"

"Yeah last month. I told you that I would get you back and I did."

He giggled some more. "By the way, I really love your new uniform," he said. "It looks really good on you. It's so much better than your old one."

We both got to our feet.

"Thanks, uh, I like yours too," I said. "That's a nice shade of blue."

"Yeah, I just wish we didn't have to wear the boots that come with it," he said.

"Boots?"

"Yeah, they're so uncomfortable. I'm really glad that we can take them off when no one else is around."

"Uh, where's Mark?"

"Oh he's out and about," Toby said. "He gets bored when he's not on an assignment."

"Assignment?"

"And speaking of assignments I just got in the latest comic book about our last one together."

He picked up a comic book from the coffee table and on the cover was an illustration of me and Billy battling a pair of supervillains.

"That looks like me and Billy on the cover."

"I know," Toby said. "It's only fair since me and Mark got the cover last issue. But if you look inside you will see drawings of you and me."

I took the comic book from him and skimmed through the pages. Although I am unable to read I can still look at the pictures and figure out what is happening by the images. In page after page I saw panels with me and Billy in a brightly colored superhero costume chasing after a nasty looking group of villains. In several of the panels I saw some drawings of me and Toby fighting some bad guys."

"Of course they exaggerate a lot about us fighting the villains," Toby said.

I continued looking at the comic book and it ended with the three of us capturing the bad guys and bringing them to a building that I had never seen before.

"What is this place that we're taking them to?" I asked.

"That's the S.I.T.," Toby said. "It's our headquarters and it's also where Billy was taken so he could get better."

As I looked at the comic book and listened to what Toby was telling me I suddenly figured out what was happening. Just before I went to bed I had made the comment that I wished my life could be more like a superhero's and now it was. My world had been changed and both me and my brother and our two friends had become superheroes. At least that's what it all appeared to be but I still had to make sure.

"This might sound silly but the four of us have superpowers don't we?" I asked.

Toby gave me a puzzled look.

"Well yeah, duh, of course we do," he said. "Why else would we be out looking for bad guys? And by the way, you didn't happen to spot any on your way over here did you? You know that if we spot two more supervillains we'll beat the agency's record."

"No, I didn't see any. But do we actually fight them?"

Toby shook his head. "No, not normally. I can't wait until we're old enough to battle supervillains instead of looking for them for the grownups."

"Then how come this comic shows us fighting a couple of bad guys?"

"Because if they printed what we really do on a daily basis they wouldn't sell very many comic books," he said. "Why are you asking about things that you already know the answers to?"

"I woke up a little confused this morning. It might have something to do with what Billy's got."

"Gee, I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe we should bring you to the S.I.T. You're my best friend and I would hate to have anything bad happen to you."

"No, we don't need to go there, just tell me what's been going on around here lately."

"Okay, if that's what you want," he said. "Where do you want me to start?"

"Pretend that I don't know anything about being a superhero."

"Well let's see," he said. "Pretty much almost nobody is born with superpowers. The few that get powers acquire them when they are in grade school. You and Billy got your powers several years ago and me and Mark got ours a few months after that. Until we turn eighteen we are not allowed to fight any supervillains or bad guys."

"Then what do we do?"

"We train and prepare for the day that we turn eighteen," he said. "And we also patrol the streets and when we spot someone committing a crime we contact the S.I.T. and they send out an adult superhero."

"Both you and Mom keep mentioning the S.I. T. but what is it?"

"The S.I.T.? Everyone knows what that is, that stands for Superheroes In Training," he explained. "They oversee everything that we do and take care of us if we get sick or injured."

"That's amazing," I said. "Can we go there and see how Billy is doing?"

"Sure, but first we have to go on patrol," he replied.

"Patrol?"

"Yeah and I know the perfect place to do it in," he said. "Follow me."

We stepped out of the house and headed down the street. For the first few blocks it felt like we were heading to my house but then we took an abrupt turn and went in a different direction.

At one point I caught sight of a kid in a red and blue costume swinging from building to building on a thin cable that shot out of his hands. I pointed it out to Toby but he wasn't too impressed.

"Yeah, I've seen him around before," he said. "I hear that he's not much of a talker."

We continued on our way when suddenly there was a very loud explosion and it rocked the ground so much that Toby slipped and fell on his butt. He sat up and gave a look behind as I knelt down beside him and placed my arm on his shoulder. He was shaking slightly and I looked in front of us to see if I could spot anyone that could help us.

"What was that?" Toby cried out.

"I'm not sure. It felt like an earthquake. How do you feel? You took quite a fall."

"I'm okay, I guess," he said. "I never felt the ground shake so violently before."

"I guess it's a good thing you landed on your butt instead of your head."

I grabbed him by the arm and the two of us slowly got to our feet.

"It's too bad that these uniforms we're wearing aren't as thick as our unitards," I said. "It might have given you better protection when you fell."

"What's a unitard?" he asked.

I didn't feel like explaining to him what a unitard was. Based on his question it was obvious that unitards weren't the normal article of clothing in this world as they were in the real world. I began to wonder if the school we went to in this world was one for contortion.

"Never mind," I said. "Are you sure you're feeling okay? That was quite a fall you took. We could always skip patrol and just go to the S.I.T. They can check you out and make sure you didn't break anything."

"I'm fine and besides I really want you to see this spot I picked out."

We walked down the street and came to a stop in front of a large apartment house.

"This is it," he said.

When we got inside he went down the hall and entered a stairwell. I followed him up six flights of stairs. At the top of the stairs was a door and when he opened it we stepped out onto a rooftop.

"I found this place the other day," he said. "Isn't it awesome? We can see an awful lot from up here."

We walked past a large chimney sticking out of the rooftop. Suddenly there was another slight rumbling and I stretched out my arms and held onto the nearest walls. Toby knelt down and placed his hand on my thigh. Prior to looking down at Toby I spotted the kid in the red and blue outfit swinging by on a long rope.

"Don't go any further," Toby said. "I want you to look at that."

He pointed to a dark spot on the roof that was hidden in shadows.

"That's where I hid our boots," he added. "You left yours at my house the last time you stayed over. Since we are about to start patrol we have to put them on. I wish they weren't so uncomfortable."

"If they are so uncomfortable, then why do you wear them?"

"Because they are part of our uniform," he said. "And we lose points if we are not seen wearing them while on patrol."

"Oh yeah, that's right," I said trying to sound like I knew what I was talking about.

He reached over and pulled two pairs of metallic boots from the darkness. He sat on his butt and began to slip them onto his feet. I did the same to the other pair. They were very snug and also quite a bit painful.

"You're right, these boots aren't very comfortable," I said.

He laughed. "Yeah Mark is lucky that his uniform doesn't have boots like ours."

"I can't wait to see him," I said. "It feels like forever since I saw him last."

Toby laughed again. "You saw Mark yesterday. Now come over here there's something I want to show you."

He walked over to the edge of the roof and sat on the ledge. He pointed to something in the distance. I stepped over and stood beside him trying to see what he was pointing at. I rested one hand on the wall behind me and the other on my knee.

"Do you see that?" he asked.

"I see a lot of things, but what am I supposed to be seeing?" I asked.

"The end," he said mysteriously.

"The end? The end of what?"

"The end of our time together as a team," he said. "I'm not supposed to talk about this but tomorrow I'm supposed to go undercover in Ice Nul's gang and I'm afraid that I might not make it back alive."

"Ice Nul?" I said. "Who's that?"

"He's the leader of a group of young supervillains that have been terrorizing our town."

"Why do you say that you might not make it back alive?"

"Because he always seems to be one step ahead of us," he explained. "It's like he knows what we are going to do before we even do it."

"Then why go on the mission?"

"Because if I'm ever going to be a registered superhero when I get older then I have to follow orders and do what they tell me."

He got up and walked alongside the edge of the roof until he got to the other end of the building. Once again he sat down on the roof's edge. I sat down beside him and leaned back. He raised his arm and a small cloud began to form above his hand. A few seconds later the miniature cloud began to rain all over the palm of his hand.

"That's amazing," I said.

"Yeah, my power is getting a little stronger," he said. "I just did it for the first time this morning and I wanted you to be the first person that I showed it to."

I watched in awe as the small cloud continued to drench his hand with rain.

"That's so awesome," I said. "And I'm really thrilled that you wanted to show it to me first."

He closed his hand and the rain stopped and the cloud began to dissipate.

"We've been friends since we've been real little," he said. "Sometimes I feel like I have a closer bond with you than I do with my twin."

"Thanks, and you're my best friend too."

He got up and looked around.

"There's no reason for us to hang out here," he said. "I did what I came here to do and so let's go."

We left the roof and started our way downstairs. When we got to the main level we stepped outside and headed down the street. We continued walking until we came to a very tall metal and stone building with letters over the front door.

I followed him inside and we went through a series of doorways and down a flight of stairs until we were in a very long hallway with a series of flashing colored lights on the walls. We walked to the end of it and came to a stop in front of three elevators. He pressed the button and an elevator door slid open. We stepped inside and he pressed a button with strange symbol on it. Suddenly a man's voice came out of nowhere.

"You have selected a restricted area," the voice said. "Please identify yourselves."

"Agent Toby," Toby replied.

I didn't say anything until he nudged me with his elbow.

"Oh, and uh, Agent David," I said.

"Voice recognition confirmed," the voice said. "You may proceed."

The elevator started to descend. We traveled down in that elevator for a very long time. I had never been in an elevator for such a long time. We finally came to a stop and the symbol above the door showed a fist within a circle. The doors opened and we stepped out into a long metal corridor.

We stopped in front of a metal door with the symbol of the sun engraved on it.

"This is where they are keeping Billy," he said. "They say that he's feeling the aftereffects from his disastrous encounter with Ice Nul."

He pressed a button on the side of the wall and the door slid open and we stepped into a room that was pitch black. When we got inside the door closed behind us and it was so dark that I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.

"Are you in here Billy?" Toby called out.

"Yeah, I'm here," came a familiar voice from the darkness.

"Come on Billy, you can't hide in here for the rest of your life," Toby said.

"I'm not hiding," Billy said.

"Then turn on the lights so we don't have to talk in the dark," Toby said.

"Okay," he said begrudgingly.

A moment later there was a bright light in front of us and I was temporarily blinded. When my eyes had time to adjust I saw that the light didn't originate from a lightbulb but instead it was coming from the hand of a very young boy with short blond hair. He sat at the edge of a concrete table. He had his back to us and he was wearing a fluorescent yellow uniform that was as tight fitting as mine. It was very easy to see that he wasn't wearing any underwear under his uniform because his butt cheeks were so noticeable. I started to wonder if my butt cheeks were also that conspicuous in the uniform that I was wearing. The boy turned his head to the side and I saw that it was Billy, but he was a lot younger than he should have been.

"Hey, wait a minute," I said. "What's going on here? Billy looks like he did when we were five or six years old. We haven't had our hair that short in a long time."

Toby poked me very hard with his elbow.

"It all started a couple of days ago when he had that encounter with Ice Nul," Toby said. "During that skirmish Ice Nul shot Billy with one of his new weapons."

"Yeah and it had a delayed effect on me!" Billy said angrily. "I started to feel the effects of it last night. It not only made me a lot younger but it also amplified my powers, too! Now I have a hard time controlling them! They gave me this special costume that was supposed to keep my power under control but it's not working. I feel like such a freak!"

The light from his hands grew in intensity and it became so bright in the room that I had to close my eyes.

"Billy, can you turn down the lights a little?" I asked.

"I'm sorry David," Billy said. "Give me a few seconds. I'm trying."

Even with my eyes closed it wasn't enough to keep out the light and I had to hold my hands over them.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now," Billy said a minute later.

I removed my hands and opened my eyes and Billy was still sitting there and he was just gazing at his illuminated hand. With his blonde hair and yellow costume his body had such a golden aspect to it that he looked like a miniature sun lighting up the darkness.

"As long as I concentrate like this I can control it a little," he said.

"Well it's your own fault," Toby said. "You know that we're just junior superheroes and that we aren't old enough to battle supervillains yet."

"I wasn't planning on fighting him!" Billy said angrily. "He attacked me first!"

The light that he was emitting began to increase again in brightness. He banged his fist against the table.

"It wasn't my fault! It wasn't! It wasn't!"

I tried reaching out to him with our special think talk but I was getting no response. Not only was I not hearing his thoughts but I also wasn't able to feel his emotions. At this close range it should have been very easy for me to pick up on the anger that he was feeling. For some reason our psychic connection wasn't working.

I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him. I hugged him with all of my might and at first he fought me but then he relaxed and he started to calm down. A few minutes later he had calmed down completely and he was no longer tense or angry.

"Are you feeling better now?" I asked as I released my hold on him.

He nodded. "I'm not angry anymore, but I do feel a little bit dizzy," he said.

"Just lie down and relax for a minute," I said as I slowly backed up a few steps.

He walked over to a small bed and lay down. I stared at the light coming from Billy's hand and it was now at a very low intensity. I walked back to Toby.

"What was that all about?" he asked.

"It looks like he loses control of his power whenever he becomes afraid or angry," I explained. "I think he felt that everyone was blaming him for what happened and that nobody liked him anymore. So I just wanted him to know that we still love him. I figured that might help him control his power a little better, and it has."

Toby nodded. "That's a really good idea."

My stomach began to growl and I suddenly realized that it had been a long time since I had anything to eat.

"Is there a place where I can get something to eat?" I asked.

"Sure, the cafeteria is down at the end of the hall," Toby said.

At that moment Billy sat up and sprang out of bed.

"Can I go too?" he asked. "I want to visit with my big brother now that he's here."

"Big brother?" I said. "Billy, don't you remember that we are twins? We're the same age?"

He scratched the top of his head.

"We are?" he said. "Then why are you so much older than me?"

"Because you were affected by a strange weapon and it made you younger," I said. "Don't you remember?"

He shook his head.

"No, I don't think..., I, uh..., uh,  I can't remember," he said.

I turned to Toby.

"What's wrong? He was remembering fine just a few minutes ago."

"Your mom didn't tell you the full story about what happened because she was afraid that it would upset you too much," he said. "But she told me that the doctors feel that the rays of the youthanizing gun not only affected him physically but that they could also affect him mentally as well."

"So now he thinks that he is really five years old?"

Toby nodded.

"Can't they do anything about it?"

"They are still running some tests," he said. "The best way of finding a cure is if they can get their hands on the weapon that was used on him. But Ice Nul has that."

I started to head for the door.

"Then I've got to find him and get it from him," I said.

Billy started to hop up and down.

"I'm comin' too," he said.

"No Billy, you stay here," I said. "The doctors need to make you feel better."

"I feel real goods," he said. "I wanna go with you."

"Billy, I said no!"

He stomped his foot on the floor and when he did he started to shine a little brighter.

"I wanna go! I wanna go! Mommy! Davy's bein' mean to me!"

"Okay, okay, you can come. Just calm down."

He smiled and he returned to his normal brightness.

I turned to Toby as I took Billy by the hand.

"Go find a doctor or someone and tell them to contact our mom. Tell her that I'm taking Billy for a little walk."

Toby nodded and dashed out of the room.

I looked down at Billy. Now that there was such an age difference between us I was a good foot or more taller than him.

"Where are we going Davy?" he asked.

It had been years since he had called me Davy instead of David. I wondered what other mental changes were going on inside of him.

"We're going to get something to eat Billy. Would you like something to eat?"

"No, I wanna go out and play."

He pointed to his yellow costume.

"I gots real superhero clothes," he said. "And I gots a superpower. That makes me a superhero."

"Not yet," I said. "You're still in training, just like me."

"Can we go out and play?" he asked.

"Sure, but let's stop by the cafeteria and get something to drink. I'm thirsty."

"Me too," he said. "I wanna juice box."

As we walked out of the room Billy continued to glow. Fortunately his glow wasn't as bright as when we first saw him. We walked down the corridor and finally located the cafeteria. Stepping into the cafeteria the only person in there was Mark. He was seated at a table eating a plate full of spaghetti. The costume that he wore reminded me a little bit of the one worn by Peter Pan, one of my favorite storybook characters. He was dressed in green from head to toe. When he saw us he smiled and stood up.

"Hey you guys, it's great to see you," he said. "I was so worried about you."

Billy got very excited and he began to jump up and down in glee.

"Peter Pan! Peter Pan!" he exclaimed excitedly.

I placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down Billy," I said. "That's not Peter Pan. It's only Mark."

"But it looks like Peter Pan," Billy said. "Why's he not Peter Pan?"

"Because I told you, that's Mark, Toby's brother. You remember him don't you?"

He slowly nodded his head. "I think so. Him and his brother looks alike."

"That's because they are identical twins," I explained.

There was no way that I was going to explain to him that we had also been identical twins. Until the effects of the younthanizing ray were reversed I would have to keep treating him like a five-year-old child.

"I wishes he was Peter Pan," Billy said. "I wanna fly."

"Maybe some other time," I said. "Now why don't you sit down while Mark and I find us something to drink?"

"Okay Davy," he said as he sat down at a nearby table.

A few seconds later Mark and I were at the other side of the cafeteria.

"I'm sorry about that," I said. "In addition to him getting younger physically he now thinks like a five year old."

"I figured it was something like that," he said.

He then looked at me and smiled.

"That's a new uniform, isn't it?" he asked. "Looks nice. I've been asking for a new one for a while now."

"Why? Yours looks like it's in good shape."

"Because whenever I go out in public all the little kids think I'm Peter Pan," he said. "They all want to know where Tinkerbelle is."

I laughed. "Yeah, that can be a problem."

"I would have preferred a costume like Toby has but the agency said that I should be wearing green since my power has to do with plants."

He laughed.

"I guess I can't complain," he said. "At least it's not as bad as the tiny costumes that the girl superheroes have to wear. Their outfits are so small and skimpy."

I laughed. "Yeah, you would never find me wearing anything that revealing."

"Isn't this the night that you and Toby are supposed to be on lookout?" he asked.

I nodded. "We're on a break. We wanted to come and visit Billy. I think Toby should be back in Billy's room by now."

"Maybe I'll go there and check in on him," Mark said as he ran out of the room.

At that moment Billy came over and poked me on the butt.

"When are we goin' outside to play Davy?" he asked.

"In a few minutes and stop poking me on the butt."

"You gots a big butt," he said.

"Well so do you," I replied.

"I'm tellin' Mommy what you said," he said.

"If you do I won't take you out to play. You do want to play don't you?"

He nodded. "Let's go play."

"Okay, why don't we go to the roof?" I suggested. "There's nobody up there."

"But I'm hungry," he said. "I want somethin' to eat."

"Just a few seconds ago you were asking to go out and play," I said. "Now you want to eat. Which one do you want to do?"

"Both," he said. "I'm hungry and I wanna play."

Running over to a table I grabbed an apple from a bowl of fruit and brought it back to him.

"Here you can eat this," I said.

I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him into the hallway. As we waited for the elevator he started eating his apple.

"Thanks Davy. I really like apples. I gonna go to kindergarten soon. When I do Mommy says that I can have an apple every day for lunch. I love Mommy."

He dropped his apple on the floor and gave me a big hug.

"And I love you too Davy," he said. "You're the bestest big brother."

"And you're the best little brother."

He released his grip on me. Bending down he picked up the apple and continued eating it.

The elevator doors finally opened and we took the elevator to the roof. A cool breeze hit me in the face when the doors opened again. As we stepped out of the elevator onto the rooftop, Billy grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly.

"I'm afraid Davy," he said. "Really afraid."

He released my hand and then he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me so hard that it was becoming difficult to breathe.

"Not so tight Billy," I said.

He relaxed his grip a little and I was able to breathe normally again.

Billy was glowing so brightly that the entire rooftop was lit up even though it was night time out.

"Pick me up Davy," he said. "I'm afraid."

Bending down I grabbed him and lifted him up. He wrapped his arms around my neck and I could feel his little body trembling. I couldn't get over how small and light he was. I had no problem holding him, since he weighed hardly anything.

"How touching," a voice said behind me.

I turned around and saw a hooded figure standing a few feet away from me. He was dressed in a long black cape and his big dark hood covered so much of his head that it was impossible to see his face.

Billy loosened his grip from my neck and he pointed a tiny little finger at the stranger.

"Ice Nul!" Billy exclaimed.

"So nice to see you again Agent Billy," Ice Nul said. "Or should I say baby Billy."

"I'm not a baby!" he said. "I'm a big boy. I'm five."

"Really? How interesting. I thought I set my device at a lower setting. You were supposed to be a baby."

Billy scowled. "You're a bad man! A very bad man."

"Don't blame me kid. This is what happens when you go sticking your nose where it doesn't belong," Ice Nul said with an evil chuckle.

"You're a stupid dumb dumb head," Billy replied.

Billy was becoming a little agitated and I had to tighten my grip on him as he began to squirm around.

Ice Nul laughed.

"I'm a whole lot smarter than you are my young adversary," he said. "In fact I've always been smarter than you."

Billy began to cry and as he did he glowed a whole lot brighter. He was glowing so much that I had to get him away from my eyes so I carefully put him back down on the floor.

"Calm down Billy," I said. "You're so upset that you can't control your powers."

"That's right Billy," Ice Nul said in a condescending tone. "Listen to your big brother and be a good little boy."

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"That's for me to know and for you not to find out," Ice Nul replied.

"Shouldn't that be, that's for me to know and for you to find out?"  I asked.

Ice Nul shook his head. "No, because I don't want you to find out!"

"We need to get out of here Davy," Billy said. "I'm afraid. He's scary looking."

The hooded figure laughed again. "My appearance is the last thing that you should worry about. You have no idea what the true extent of my powers are."

Billy headed for the open elevator doors but just as he got there the doors slammed shut. Then Ice Nul pulled a small gun from his pocket and aimed it at the doorway. A laser beam shot out and the heat from the laser fused the elevator doors shut. Our only way of getting off the roof was gone. Billy banged his tiny fists against the doors but they wouldn't budge. He sat down and began to cry again. I started to walk towards him.

"Going somewhere Agent David?" Ice Nul asked. "Or should I call you Winnie?"

When I heard that name I stopped dead in my tracks and turned towards the evil villain.

"How do you know that name?" I asked.

"I should know it," he said. "It's my pet nickname for you."

He removed his hood and I finally got a good look at his face.

"Lucien!"

"Yes, it's me," he said. "I'm surprised that you didn't figure it out sooner."

"What do you mean?"

"My name, Ice Nul," he said. "If you rearrange the letters you come up with my real name, Lucien."

"I don't know how to read or write," I reminded him. "I didn't think that I would ever need to."

"That's always been your problem Winnie, you don't like to think," he said. "You like to let others do your thinking for you. That's why you need me."

"I thought I left you back in the real world," I said. "What are you doing here?

"I should be asking you that question," he said.  "It sounds like you and I are the only two people who know that this isn't the real world. And I'm very interested in finding out how you know this."

"And what are you going to do to me if I don't tell you?" I asked. "Do you plan on turning me into a baby? Or maybe you're thinking of killing me?"

He gave me a surprised look. "Why would I want to kill you? I've never done any harm to you in the past."

"Oh yeah? How about when you turned me and my friends into animals?"

"So you remember that?" he said. "I knew that there was something special and unique about you. I shall have to keep that secret from Mother."

"Is she here too?"

"Not yet," he said. "You and your friends are safe for now."

"What do you mean, for now? She's not going to change us back into animals again is she?"

"I can't control what Mother does. And why do you worry so much about it anyway? I kept very good care of all of them including you."

"I'd rather stay as a human."

"You seemed quite happy as a kitten. You loved your little catnip toys."

"That's not the point. I should be able to decide what happens to me. Not you."

"That's the exact same thing that I always say to Mother," he said. "She always tell me that I'm just a child and until I'm an adult that she will decide for me."

"I don't understand," I said. "How do you know all about this stuff before I do?"

"It's not too difficult when you're forced to be an eleven year old boy for more than a century," he said.

"Are you saying that you've been this age for a hundred years?" I asked in disbelief.

"About ten times longer than that," he said. "Mother placed a spell on me a long, long time ago and it prevents me from aging."

"Why would she do that?"

"She has her reasons," he replied.

"I get the feeling that you're not telling me everything," I said. "It's like you're hiding something else from me."

"You know enough," he said.  "I've already told you more than I'm supposed to."

"You would say that," I replied. "After all you're the villain in this story."

"I'm no more the villain than you are the hero," he said. "You don't get it do you? Of course not. You never see what's right in front of your face."

He started to pace back and forth.

"Well if you want me to play the part of the villain in this story then I will," he said.

He pulled a strange looking weapon from his coat pocket.

"Don't worry, this won't hurt... much," he said.

When I saw the odd device I became very afraid. If this really was a comic book adventure then any number of horrible things could happen to me from that device.

None of my friends were around to help me and worse than that I still didn't know what superpower I had. As I pondered my next move I could hear him muttering to himself as he fumbled around with the weapon.

"Stupid piece of crap!" he shouted. "Why don't these things come with instructions? I pressed these two buttons and pulled this switch and it's still not firing. What am I forgetting to do?"

As he toyed around with the dangerous device I could feel my body begin to tingle. Suddenly I started to shrink. Fortunately my uniform also shrank along with me as I began to get smaller at an alarming rate. I didn't stop until I was the size of a fly. By that time Lucien had discovered what he was doing wrong and he looked back in my direction.

"Hey where did you go?" he said. "Your little brother is still here so you couldn't have gone far. I know you wouldn't leave him by himself."

Now that I was too small for him to see I started to run towards Billy. But now that I was so small the distance between us now looked like miles instead of feet. I turned around and saw Lucien pull a comic book out of his coat pocket. It was the superhero one that I was now in.

"You think you can hide from me?" he shouted. "I'll just look through this comic book and it will show me where you went to. This is how I've been able to defeat your friends. All I have to do is look ahead in the book and I know what they're doing before they even think of doing it."

He laughed as he opened the comic book and slowly began to read through the pages.

I didn't know what to do and then at that moment I felt a strange tingling sensation on my neck. Placing my hand on that spot I felt a hard object lying just underneath my costume. That's when I suddenly remembered the ancient medallion that I had placed in there when I woke up in this strange world.

Reaching inside the hidden pocket I pulled out the medallion just as Lucien stopped reading the comic book.

"Ah ha!" he exclaimed. "So you've used your power and shrunk down in size. I will just skip ahead a few panels and see where you are."

As he continued reading the comic I looked down at the medallion. It was hard to tell for sure but it looked like the two faces on the coin were smiling.

"Okay medallion. I don't know how you work but I am going to give it a try. I wish that me and everyone else was back in the real world. I wish that this comic book adventure would come to an end."

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light and the next thing I knew I was stepping out of the shower in our bathroom. It was all so sudden and I was totally unprepared to be standing there naked and soaking wet.

"Wow! That was fast!" I said as I grabbed a towel from the rack and began to dry off.

I was so anxious to see if everything was back to normal that I didn't bother to finish drying off. I wrapped the towel around my waist and ran to our bedroom.

When I got there I was relieved to see Billy sitting on my bunk. I was also very happy to see that he was his normal age and no longer five years old.

He looked up from the bed and smiled when he saw me.

"So I'm not the only one who comes into the room still wet from the shower," he thought.

It was good to see that we had our special think talk back again.

"If Mom sees me I will just tell her that I'm you," I thought back.

He laughed.

"Maybe we could both pretend to be me," he thought. "That would really drive her crazy. Before I forget I've got a surprise for you."  

He dove under the bed and pulled out his secret box that was filled with all his treasured belongings. Opening it up he pulled out two unitards, one yellow and the other white and black. They were almost exact duplicates to the superhero uniforms we wore in the comic book world.

"Here put this on," he said as he handed me the white and black unitard.

"What are these for?" I asked. "Where did they come from?"

"I bought them a while ago," he said. "I was going to give it to you for a birthday present but I thought that maybe we could use them in the upcoming competition."

"Really? I thought you wanted to use the animal costumes from Lucien's party."

"I haven't totally decided about that yet," he said. "But it's always good to have a backup plan in mind. I really want to win that competition."

"Me too," I said. "And I'll wear any costume that you finally decide on."

"When you finish dressing there's something that I want to do," he said.

"Do you want to practice our contortion act some more?"

"No, I feel like going through the photo album," he said. "For some reason I feel like looking at our pictures from when we were in kindergarten."

"That's going back some time," I said. "We were only five."

"Yeah I know. Do you remember what I used to call you back then?"

"Sure I do. Do you?"

He nodded. "Davy. And you called me Billy."

"I still call you that."

"Yeah, I wonder how it would be if I had everyone call me William for a change?"

He scratched his ear for a few seconds and then he shook his head.

"No, I like Billy the best."

He suddenly snatched the towel that was wrapped around my waist.

"Hurry up and get dressed. I will see you downstairs."

He ran out of the room still holding the towel.

I quickly closed the door before anyone could walk past and see me naked.

Before getting dressed I looked all around the room trying to find the medallion. I searched everywhere for it. I even got on my hands and knees and looked under my bed but all I found there was the superhero comic book. I sat on the floor and scanned through some of the pages. The pictures all depicted things that recently happened to me but when I got to the last page I saw something very strange. In the last panel it showed Lucien holding the comic book and he was looking up from it and staring at me with a stern look. He wasn't looking at me in the comic book world, but me in this world. It felt like he was actually looking at me. It was very spooky and I felt a sudden chill. There was a word balloon and it was at that moment that I wished that I could read what it said. The next time that I saw Jenny I would have to ask her to read it for me.

I would have to deal with Lucien later but now I had to get dressed and go downstairs before Mom started to wonder what I was doing up here. For some reason the medallion had disappeared again from my life but I had a feeling that it would turn up again and when it did that there would be another exciting adventure in my life. I didn't know it at that time but our sister Jenny would play a very important role in our next adventure.


The End of the third chapter in young David's life