Chapter 3: Enter The Weather Warriors

The beginning of Adam and R.J's superhero careers.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 3: ENTER THE WEATHER WARRIORS

They headed home once more, except this time Adam flew and R.J made a long ice bridge, which he slid on to go fast. They began conversing about their superhero names and catchphrases. “Okay so I’ll just yell: freeze and then you come in and say: if you think you’re getting away with that you’re in for a real shock!” R.J suggested.

 

Adam agreed and added “and my name can be Shocker and yours can be Captain Cool, or Cool Kid!”

 

But R.J didn’t agree to use those “lame names”. “Captain Cool?” he rhetorically asked. “That’d be like Mega Moron or something! I’m not calling myself that or Cool Kid. I like…hmm…Zero.”

 

“Zero?” Adam inquired. “Why would you call yourself a zero?”

 

R.J gave a simple explanation. “It stands for absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible. And I’ll put a little degrees sign in front of a z for my symbol.”

 

Adam understood now. “And for mine I’ll put a lightning bolt shaped like an s. And my costume can be all black with my symbol on the front in yellow. Then I’ll have a black half-mask and a yellow cape. Of course I’ll have yellow gloves and boots and my symbol on my chest."

 

"Yeah and I'll do the same with mine except in blue and of course my little z degrees. Oh and instead of a mask I'll wear some snow goggles to show my power!"

 

"Now we just need a team name!"

 

"Yeah, something that represents both of us."

 

"It's got to show that we're tough fighters!"

 

"That we're a force to be reckoned with!"

 

"Something like..."

 

"Something like...no..."

 

"Oh I got it!"

 

"Go!"

 

"Nah, never mind..."

 

"How about..."

 

"Yeah..."

 

"How about..."

 

"Uh huh, how about what?"

 

"Nah...let's try...nah..."

 

"Oh I got the perfect idea!"

 

 

"Me too!"

 

"You first."

 

"No you."

 

In unison, the boys spoke. "Okay, here it is. THE WEATHER WARRIORS!"

R.J then spoke alone, " it's perfect, weather like snowstorms for me and thunderstorms for you!"

 

"Yeah!" Adam replied. So immediately they rushed home. They both ran this time and at a high speed of thirty-eight mph, and still going up. They ran on the filthy pavement and past the dirty graffiti ridden walls. They came to a street light and by reflex they both just flipped over all of the cars in the street and kept going.

 

They made it to R.J's house in great time seeing as they used their new powers. Once they arrived at the door R.J unlocked it and they ran inside. immediately R.J started looking through his clothes. "Help!" came a call from an alley nearby. "Help me someone!" an old man yelled.

 

"We got to help him!"

 

"Well duh, but first we'll need costumes" R.J said looking through his clothes. His room wasn't exactly clean, in fact it was a big mess! But he managed to find some black gloves and some ski masks. "Here, we'll use this stuff for now!" He threw Adam a mask and some gloves.

 

"What about my costume?" Adam said holding out his read tee shirt over his black jeans.

 

"You can borrow a black shirt of mines and then just paint your symbol on it and the mask."

 

"Alright" Adam said picking up a shirt out of the pile of clothes. " I hope this is clean."

 

"Just put it on!"

 

Adam took his tee shirt off to put on R.J's shirt. But as he removed his shirt he looked in the mirror and had a great surprise. "Whoa!" he said looking at his body. Not only had he developed powers but his body's physical form was also changed. His body was forming into a perfect soldiers body, which would certainly not thick, like he was before. Now his muscles had grown and were visible even without him flexing. "Dude I'm buff!" he shouted in excitement.

R.J jumped up and threw his shirt off to look at his self.

 

 

 

"Forget you, I'm so buff it's retarded!" Although he was exaggerating, his body was also changing. They were certainly in perfect shape to call themselves warriors.

 

"Help me someone please!" the old man called.

 

Immediately Adam and R.J put on the black shirts and gloves. They rushed into the family room an drew the symbols on their masks. "Shocker let's go!" R.J yelled.

 

"Got it zero!"

 

He and Shocker ran out the door and took off towards the direction of the cries. At the door a shadow appeared as a young man stepped out from the bushes. "Adam and R.J" he spoke. "Zero and Shocker."

 

The two "Weather Warriors" traveled to the alley with absolutely no human contact but each other. They landed and ran inside the alley. But almost as soon as they'd started running they stopped. It was pitch black and they couldn't see anything. The cold dark air sent a terrible chill down Shocker's spine.

 

Another sudden cry from the man scared Shocker and he jumped back charging his hands. The electricity illuminated the alley and Shocker felt silly for not thinking to do so earlier. In reaction to light, an alerted head looked up from behind a dumpster. It was a dog and it didn't seem too happy to see Shocker and Zero.

 

It backed out from behind the dumpster baring its menacing eight inch fangs. Its five inch claws dug into the ground as it bent its muscular legs. Its grayish-brown fur stood up on the top in the form of small spikes. Standing at a frightening eight feet, it shook the ground below with a thunderous bark.

Zero jumped forward to attack the dog but Shocker jumped and hit him to the side. The dog took a snap at their legs but missed. They hit the ground and Zero threw Shocker off of him. "Adam what the hell?" Zero whispered.

 

 

 

"You can't harm that dog Zero, and call me Shocker while we're in costume!"

"Yes I can, I'm plenty strong now!" Zero replied.

 

"No I don't mean that. The dog, it isn't a normal dog. I'm guessing it was exposed to the same gas we were."

 

"Yeah, so?"

"So it isn't the dog's fault it's gone crazy, it's those scientists!"

 

"Well we can't just let it go around hurting and killing people."

 

"I know, we'll need to make the scientist fix it, so we need to capture it!"

 

"Alright then, here goes!" Zero rushed forward and jumped up while blasting large ice spikes around the dog. Once the dog was surrounded Zero created a thick plate of ice to cover it. "That will hold him, for now."

 

Shocker walked over to the old man who was curled up to help him stand up. "Keep away from me!" the man shouted. "Take your monster mutt and go you freaks!"

 

"But we're the heroes," Shocker muttered.

 

"Leave him Shocker. Let's go, there's going to be more people like him."

Just as they headed out the alley they heard police sirens blaring. The police car whirled around the corner and almost crashed into the boys. Apparently someone had heard the man and called for help, it just happened to take the police while to get there because the police station was so far away.

 

A woman stepped out of the car and pointed a gun at the boys. "Put your hands in the air!" she commanded. Immediately Zero and Shocker both recognized her; she was the same police woman from earlier.

"Oh look, a giant dog," Zero said sarcastically.

 

The police woman looked behind Zero and Shocker and saw the caged dog. "What the hell?" She said frightened. "You two are those punks from earlier! Ha! I got you now!"

 

"Are you sure?" Zero said smirking. "Or do we have you?" he said looking down.

 

The police woman looked down and noticed ice creeping up her legs, she was stuck! "Lets move!" Zero said as he and Shocker took off. The police woman watched in shock as they took to the sky.

 

She turned her head back around and the dog was gone as well. "Damn!" she said too herself. "I'll get you two for this!" she shouted at the boys.

 

However they were unable to hear her because they were so far away. They were headed to R.J's house to change back. They rushed to the small, old house with great speed. Finally they made it to R.J's house. But this time there was a note on the door. R.J picked it up and read it. "It says: dear doofis," R.J began. "We're staying at uncle Williams house because you two idiots put Nana in the hospital! Get some clothes and come over to Matt's right now, and take Adam home, his mom is worried sick."

 

"Let me guess," Adam said after R.J finished reading. "That was Veronica right?"

 

"Yup, she's an idiot. I can't believe Nana's in the hospital."

 

"Nana?"

 

"Yeah, mines and Matt's grandma. We live with her because, well i don't like to talk about what happened to my mom and I don't know where my dad anymore, he left us here one day and told us we'd be living here until he could make some money to take care of us better."

 

"Oh, my bad. Well lets go inside!" Together they rushed inside and picked up their clothes. "Hey let's put our clothes over our costumes like on cartoons!" Adam suggested.

 

"Yeah so that we can be ready to fight whenever we need to!" R.J replied. Quickly they got dressed. R.J packed a bag of clothes and they were ready to leave. As they left Adam prepared to fly. But just as he left the ground Matt flipped off the roof. Adam landed just as he did.

 

"Hey doofis," Matt began. "Where the heck were you two dorks all day?"

Nowhere really," Adam replied. " And you?"

 

"I was out free-running, you should try it some time."

 

"That's not important!" R.J said cutting in. "What the hell were you doing on my roof?"

 

"I was waiting for you two idiots. I got sent out to look for you two after they all got tired. Nana's in the hospital after some creep made her faint so they're really worried about you two now. Oh by the way, told me to give you these." He pulled out two phones; one black with a yellow stripe and the other black with a blue stripe. He gave them to the other boys and they looked at them.

 

"Cool!" R.J said looking at his new phone."

 

"Yeah well we'd better start walking home." Matt said. "I told them I'd have you two clowns back in twenty minutes and I'm already at twelve." So they all began walking home, talking about their days. But of course, they excluded the part about their powers.

 

They decided since Adam was the youngest he should be home first. So they walked up his door and knocked on it. "As-salamu-alaikum" Ray said opening the door. This being a Muslim greeting simply means 'peace be upon you.' Matt, Ray, and Adam were all Muslims. R.J, on the other hand was a Jehovah's Witness. But not once did the boys argue over religion, after all, they were family.

 

They wiped their feet and stepped inside. Immediately Adam's mom rushed in from her room and gave Adam a big squeeze! "Oh my baby I thought I lost you!" She said sobbing and kissing him on the cheek. "We heard about happened at the science show and went out to search for you two. We were out searching all day and night and exhaustion caught up to us when R.J's grandmother passed out after a police woman told her she'd seen two boys who were mutated into freaks. She thought you two were mutants but thank goodness you're not!"

 

"Yeah, we're okay now mom" Adam said patting her back.

 

"Yeah but my mom is still worried about this idiot, I have to get him home." Matt and R.J shut the door and started for Matt's house. They ran across the wet grass fields and up the cold stairs. Matt opened the door and R.J received the same response that Adam received at his house. Matt's mom hugged R.J so tight that he couldn't breathe.

 

"R.J you better never scare us like that again!" she said. "We were all worried sick!"

 

"It's okay auntie" R.J reassured. "We weren't hurt. But we are tired, I just need to rest a while."

 

"Well since David's still at work, you can change his sheets and sleep in his bed. He'll just have to sleep on the couch."

 

"Okay," R.J replied. So he followed Matt into the back. They walked into Matt's room. It was a mess like his own, with clothes and paper on the floor. There was a broken light bulb on the window sill.

 

"I've been busy so it's a mess but whatever," Matt said flicking on the light.

"Well I'm going to go change," R.J said as he headed to the bathroom. After flexing in the mirror for a while R.J changed and walked into the bedroom. He changed the bedsheets and laid down. Peace had finally come for R.J and Adam.Their day of excitement and adventure was finally over.

 

Their troubles however were just beginning. That night they had created their first enemy. Police officer Terra Erif was in major trouble due to the escape of the boys. All around the city people were mutated and some weren't willing to go the hospital. Officer Erif was ordered to capture Adam and R.J and she failed to do so. Her job was on the line so as a final order she was commanded to bring the boys in dead or alive, and she hoped for the worst in their case.

 

And she would have her chance. As she walked to her car after recieving the command, she noticed a strange man in all black standing at her car. He wore a black hat and tipped it over to hide his face. "So," he said in a deep voice. "The two not only made a fool out of you but they are also costing you your job."

 

"Who are you?" she asked.

 

"A friend," he said reaching his hand out.

 

"Not of mine," she replied.

 

"That's cold Erif. Especially since after I help you take those biological blunders down, I'll be your best friend."

 

"I don't work with criminals."

 

"Erif?" her boss yelled out the door of the police department. "Are you still there? I told you to get your sorry a*s out there and find those troublesome kids. But I guess you're just like your brother, too incompetent to do anything right!"

 

"Shut the hell up!" she shouted back. "All your fat a*s does is give a orders and stuff your face while I go out there and work hard! And for what? So your lazy a*s can chew my head off over some science mishaps! I quit! I'm tired of this bullshit! " She threw her badge and gun and walked over to the mysterious man. "I'm in," she said. As she and her new partner walked off the chief whispered to himself "Son of a..."

 

Hours later the sun rose to start a new day in Badlands City. R.J awakened with the brilliant rays of the sun on his face. He sat up and saw Matt on the ground doing push-ups. Matt stood up and said "fifty more sit-ups and I'm done for now."

 

"What's up with you?" R.J asked. "You're not fat so why you working out?"

 

"I'm entering a martial arts fighting tournament. I was actually hoping you guys would enter with me."

 

"Why?"

 

"Because it's a four-on-four tournament. We can enter as a group and win that 250 dollar prize."

 

"That's cool, we'll split it sixty-two fifty." R.J replied while thinking to himself 'me and Adam can use our money to buy new costumes.'

 

While Matt and R.J were talking about the tournament across the yard Adam just got out of his bath. He was spiking his hair when he noticed electricity zipping from the electric plugs to his hands. He reached his hand forward and the electricity jumped out and covered his arm. His arm went into the plug as if it were electricity. "This is too cool!" he said turning his whole body into electricity.

 

He flew inside the plug and dashed around at the speed of light. He zoomed around until he found another opening. When he jumped through it he found that he was on top of a telephone wire on the streets. "No way!" he said looking below. He jumped back in and flew back to his house. He came out through the same plug he'd entered.

 

He opened the door and stepped outside into his room. "Mom me and R.J are going to go for a walk," he said.

 

"You guys better not pull a stunt like yesterday!" came a reply from his mother. "Be back by three or you're in trouble!"

 

"Kay," he said tying his shoes. He looked over to Ray's bunk which was above his own and noticed that it was empty. "Hm, must be out with Matt again." He rushed out the door and slammed it shut. After looking around he flew straight up into the air and towards Matt's house. He landed on the stairs and knocked on the door.

 

"Let's go!" R.J said stepping out. They took off to the sky together. Adam told R.J about his new power and demonstrated it by flying into a telephone wire. "That's cool but dude I got better news!" R.J said coming to a stop.

 

"What?" Adam inquired.

 

"Well there's a fighting tournament coming up and Matt, Ray, and I were going to join it as a group. We'll be sure to win because Matt and Ray are martial artists and you and I have powers! We'll just use our reflexes and strength to kick some a*s!"

 

"Yeah cool!" Adam excitedly relied.

 

"And with the sixty two dollars we'll make me and you can make some cool new costumes!"

 

"Yeah cause it's kind of annoying wearing these costumes under our clothes."

 

" Hey look there it is!" R.J said pointing out the training dojo. They landed behind the building and walked around to the front. They went inside and saw a stack of papers that read "tournament entries." They each grabbed one and signed it putting their other team members names on it. As they headed out Adam looked around at the beautiful red carpet and amazing dragon and tiger pictures on the walls.

 

When they stepped out the door a newspaper hit R.J in the face. He took it off and read the headline. "Freak accident cause city full of Biological blunders" he read. "Two unidentified boys were seen fleeing the scene. Doctor Terry Erif was mixed up in this and now rests in the hospital. Scientists search for a cure to heal all the freaks involved in this incident."

 

"Hm, so we're not the only people with supewrpowers?" Adam asked.

 

"No, but we are going to go visit professor Erif."

 

"And Nana right?"

 

"No, auntie Tuere and everybody else are going to visit her later, we'll go with them." The two walked to the hospital which was about a mile away. The streets were a mess, traffic was terrible. Cars were trying to get away from the hospital as quickly as possible. People were even running on the sidewalk; almost crashing into Adam and R.J. But the two managed to make their way into the hospital. However they were unable to visit professor Erif. "I can't tell you much but I'll tell you this" a nurse said to the boys. "All those people aren't running for their health, their trying to get as far away from him as possible. He's no longer here but even the thought of him scares me!"

 

Disappointed, Adam and R.J walked out of the hospital. As they stepped out they saw two mutant men across the street arguing. One of them looked like a dog with his long ears and long face. The other had enlarged hands and feet. "I told you to get me the money by today and instead you get us turned into monsters?" He pulled out a gun to the other mutant man's head.

 

"Uh-oh!" Adam said watching closely.

 

"Let's move!" R.J said running behind the building. He took off his street clothes to show his hero clothes. Adam soon followed. Together they headed out as Zero and Shocker! "Freeze!" Zero said standing above the men.

 

"You guys are in for a real shock!" Shocker said floating next to Zero.

 

"Who the hell are you?" the dog man said.

 

In a proud unison, Shocker and Zero replied "we're the WEATHER WARRIORS!"