Adam Brodie and the monster from the dark planet

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

"Trouble with a bully?" said John Lennon.

Adam had returned to the vending node and got a fresh tray of food. The other tray sank into the floor where it and the crockery and utensils would be recycled and the food destroyed.

"Yeah," said Adam.

"I had problems with bullies at my school," said Lennon.

"How did you cope?"

"By having the last laugh. They left school and got crappy jobs, and I went on to be a rock legend."

"You know, you may be a hologram but to me you seem very real," said Adam,

"Ta very much," said Lennon.

Adam strode across the room to a table with his friends sitting around it. The other students applauded him as he strode past, those that were able to applaud.

At the table were Brigitte, Malcolm, George and the Bug. Adam lay down his tray and sat.

"You're popular," said Brigitte.

"I owe it to Malcolm, good on you big guy."

"Three against one," said Malcolm. "That's not right and they were all bigger than you." He looked at the Bug. "Are you a knight, good Sir Knight? If so you are very small."

"Is he taking the mick?" said the Bug.

"No he isn't," said Adam. He turned to Malcolm. "He's not a knight. He's a kid in armour."

"Hey, I'm more than that," said the Bug.

"How would you describe yourself then?"

"A super hero." He shrugged. "Sort of."

Adam turned to Malcom again. "He's a super hero." Adam shrugged. "Sort of."

Malcolm looked perplexed. Then he shook his head as if that would clear the confusion.

"Any news about Jake?" said Brigitte.

"He's still missing."

"I'll look for him," said the Bug. "I'll put the word out to the other students to look for Jake. If everyone searches he's bound to turn up."

"Thank you," said Adam though a mouthful of toast.

The Bug stood up. "I must bid you farewell for now. See you all in class."

The Bug strode away. As he had suckers on the soles of his boots, allowing him to walk up walls and stride across ceilings, his boots made loud sucking noises as he walked. George watched him go.

"He's my roommate. He's very careful to hide his secret identity. I don't know what it is."

"Doesn't he ever take that armour off?" said Brigitte.

George nodded. "He's made himself a kind of cocoon which is glued to the wall of our room. He goes inside and only then does he take his armour off. He showers, eats and sleeps in that cocoon. The cocoon is immense so it's fortunate for him that being two dimensional, I take up zero space."

"He lives in a cocoon?" said Adam.

"He is the son of a superhero based on an insect," said George. "He told me once his father has a super cocoon buried beneath a big city and it has every amenity, including a fully equipped crime laboratory."

"Why not?" said Adam. "This is the multiverse." The he became thoughtful. "Something weird happened when Clifford got whacked in the visor with the arrow. I saw this scene."

Adam related what he had seen to the assembled. Brigitte pursed her lips.

"It's a given Clifford projects his thoughts onto the visor. It could be he was taken by surprise, momentarily stunned and he let slip something he shouldn't, something that had maybe been playing on his mind."

"Hurled away by a dim figure," said George. "What could that be?"

"Open to suggestions," said Adam.

Since there were no suggestions, for the rest of the breakfast Malcolm showed Adam his arrows. First he showed him the ones with a stubby yet pointed iron head.

"This is called a bodkin," said Malcolm. "It's armour piercing, can go through chain mail. It packs a wallop."

He showed Adam the sharp edged arrow head.

"These are for killing big game. My dad uses these to hunt deer for the Merry Men to eat."

Brigitte could never keep her fingers still and had helped herself to some paper napkins and made animal shapes out of them through tearing and folding the paper. George watched her.

"I'm impressed," he said.

"We do this all the time at my place on the Christmas world. We always make things, toys mostly. I love to make things, anything."

Having used up all the napkins Brigitte sat back and looked proudly at them. When they left the table the table surface would absorb them and turn them into fresh napkins.

The first lesson of the day was Brigitte's favourite, machine shop. Malcolm set to work making replacement arrows and Brigitte donned a pair of special magnifying glasses and set about building a machine which could search for and find Jake. Adam made a coat-hanger. However, his mind was on his brother, and at the end of the lesson what he had turned out looked nothing like a coat hanger and he tossed it into a recycling bin.