Free The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy, Book One: The Hero Revealed by William Boniface Page A

newspapers he sells there. Today’s headlines weren’t all that earthshaking, though. The Hero Herald had a headline about an investigation into the unusually large number of solid gold thimbles that Mayor Whitewash recently received as gifts—“They’re only thimbles of appreciation” the headline quoted the mayor as saying. The Weekly Daily had a story about the enormous jackpot available in the Superopolis Lottery, which of course was pointless since the drawing had already happened three days ago, and The Superopolis Times had a piece on AI’s capture of the Multiplier. They reported the Multiplier’s dramatic increase in power, but there was no mention of the fact that my dad and the Big Bouncer had really brought him down.
    In addition to papers and magazines, the Inkblot’s stand also has a wide array of snack-size bags of potato chips, a selection of candy bars and breath mints, and, sure enough, a small assortment of card packs. Among them was a stack of Amazing Indestructo Collector Cards.
    “Hello, young uns,” the Inkblot greeted us as we made straight for the cards. “Can’t get enough of that AI stuff, can you? When I was just a sprout, I was the same way about Captain Radio. You kids probably don’t remember him, but he was the Amazing Indestructo of his day. He could ride the radio waves like one o’ them surfer dudes. Now that was a power! I still remember the day I met him. I must have been about the age you whippersnappers are now. I couldn’t wait to show him my power.”
    Hal illuminated his hand and I tried to both check out the cards and look like I was listening politely.
    “I was still young enough to think my power was pretty impressive,” the Inkblot continued. “I was in my brand-new costume. White as snow it was, except for the shape of a dark blot of ink smack in the middle of my chest. My boots, belt, and cape were the same dark color as the blot. I felt like I could take on every villain in Superopolis! That’s when I met the captain.”
    We were halfway through the cards at this point, but there was no sign of a Professor Brain-Drain card. The Inkblot kept rambling on, now seemingly telling his story to a pigeon that had landed on the far edge of his counter.
    “‘Well, sir,’ I said to him, ‘wait’ ’til you see this!’ Then I took out my bottle of ink and poured it into my hand. Of course, it didn’t land there, ya see, because that’s my power. I can repel ink from my body, ya know! So I held out my hand to Captain Radio and the blob of ink hovered in the air above my palm. I moved that blob from hand to hand, working up its speed, and then, wham! I sent that inkblot flying through the air until it went splat against a wall over ten feet away.”
    I only heard a portion of this. We were down to the last couple of packs, and there was still no sign of the card.
    “I turned to the captain,” the Inkblot continued, “sure that he would be as impressed with my power as I was. He stood there silently for a few moments as my heart beat with excitement. I figured my skill had left him speechless. Then he burst out laughing, hopped onto a radio wave, and surfed away without saying a word to me. I felt pretty lousy for a while, but I also grew up a little that day. It wasn’t long after that I got my first job selling newspapers. And in sixty years, I haven’t once gotten my hands dirty handling them.”
    The Inkblot finished his story and held out his ink-free hands for me to inspect. We had gone through all the packs, and none of them contained a Professor Brain-Drain card. Before I could ask him about it, though, an enormous rumble suddenly threw us all to the ground. Mount Reliable began to spit balls of fire into the sky. Tadpole shouted, “Hey, guys, look! It’s the Weatherman!”
    Sure enough, the Weatherman himself was taking on today’s volcano duty. Soaring to the top of the peak, he whipped up a blizzard over the mouth of the volcano, instantly