The Superhuman Ego

John pranced along the streets while twirling his water bottle and humming melodiously. He was in a transport of delight on his way back home and for the first time, he was enjoying the heavy load of his school bag on his slender shoulders. Why was he drifting on cloud nine amid bouncing on the Bourbon Street in New Orleans? Well, his father would soon reward him with new copies of two books- the first one being ‘IRON MAN-Armor wars’ and the second one being ‘Amazing Spider-man Vol. 1: Back To Basics’. The D-day on which he would be gifted with this Double bonanza had arrived. Nevertheless, John scampered like a dog with two tails.

John’s father Daniel had promised to reward him with these action-packed and mystical books speaking volumes about the adventures of these two popular superheroes, only on the condition that John should secure an A grade in all his subjects with a Grade point Average (GPA) between 3 and 4. Ten year old John accepted this challenge and secured an A grade in all his subjects with a GPA ranging from 3.6 to 4 in each subject. After reaching home, John was prancing along his room ,waiting for the slow hands of the grandfather clock to reach the hour fixed for his father’s arrival from office. John’s mother Brenda bumped her shoulders with John, giving him an affectionate slap on his back, on seeing his crazy impatience for his father’s arrival.

Finally, Daniel arrived home and John darted towards his father who , although exhausted from the commute, thought of playing a prank on John, by making his own face straighter than a poker player. He deliberately avoided eye contact with John who would follow him wherever he would go. After a couple of minutes, a nervous John could not resist his urge to ask his father about his prizes, and finally asked with a tinge of anxiety in his tone,

“Daddy, would I get my prize today?”

Daniel who was scooping out his T-shirt and a pair of shorts, suddenly halted , turned around to face John and stared at him with a stern look. John winced while lowering his pouting face, but kept mum. On seeing John sulk, Daniel burst out laughing and scurried towards him.

“Don’t you know that your dad never breaks his promise?”

John’s face broke into a smile while his eyes sparkled with joy. He darted towards his dad and hugged him. His father then motioned to him to release him from his hug and darted towards his office bag. Daniel scooped out paperback versions of ‘IRON MAN-Armor wars’ and ‘AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 1: BACK TO BASICS’. John was thrilled on seeing these brand new books and clutched them tight to his chest.

“Thank you daddy and love you!”, saying this he planted a kiss on Daniel’s cheeks and scurried out of Daniel’s room to dart towards his own room since he could not wait any further to start reading these books.

After he reached his room, he began wondering about which book to read first, as he was desperate to read both of them with frantic eagerness. Unable to bear the confusion in his mind, he made up his mind to read the ‘AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 1: BACK TO BASICS’ book and immediately sat on his bed to read.

As soon as he started reading, his paperback copy of ‘IRON MAN-Armor wars’ began bouncing on the bed and soon fell on the floor. John gasped and pulled the Spiderman book tight against his chest. He squinted his eyes and soon rubbed them, his mouth pursed but slightly open and loose. The bouncing and sudden falling of his new book featuring Iron man, made him fall into a quagmire of confusion. While he bent downward to pick up this book, the book opened and John inhaled a sharp breath after seeing an Ironman-like creature spring up from the book on the floor. This Ironman-like creature which resembled Iron man as shown in comic books, made John’s blood run cold.

When a shocked John was just about to call his parents, the Ironman-like structure darted towards him and gagged his mouth with his hands. John developed cold feet and stared at him with his eyes frozen open.

“Don’t be afraid. I will not harm you. I am Iron man. Don’t shout and scare your parents!”, he assured John. He stopped gagging John’s mouth. John, however was slack-mouthed and he clasped his throat.

John who had beads of sweat on his face, stared with his eyes popping out, at this human-like creature who claimed to be Iron man. John’s hands were trembling and his knees were shaking. The human-like creature smiled at him and extended his muscular arm for a handshake. On seeing this, John’s level of fear plummeted to a good extent and he rose up from his bed. John observed the red suit that this creature wore, was similar to the Bleeding edge armor worn by Iron man. The high-yield arc reactor mounted in this creature’s chest, gradually strengthened John’s belief that this creature standing in front of him, was the real Iron man.

As soon as John touched the palm of this Ironman like creature with his hand, he could feel the red colored suit’s repulsors in this creature’s palms which made him believe firmly that the real Iron man has emerged before him.

 “How did you appear from nowhere?”, asked John with his tremulous voice cracking.

Ironman flinched on hearing John’s question, crossed his arms and bawled, “You began reading about Amazing Spider-man Vol. 1: Back To Basics, before reading my story about how I defeated Justin Hammer, who took control of my armor. Justin Hammer formed an army of superhuman criminals and stole the technology which I used for creating my armor, by giving it to them. I alone fought against them and prevented them from misusing my technology! And you like Spiderman more than me?”

John nodded his head in disagreement and explained, “I admire you as much as I admire Spiderman. If I would have the ability to read both of these books simultaneously, I would read both of them at the same time. But I am not a superhero to be able to do that!”

Ironman transformed himself into his original form of Tony Stark –the billionaire industrialist and John jumped out of his skin on seeing this transformation. Tony lurched towards John and asked him, “Don’t you think that I am stronger than Spiderman?”

John was about to answer, but was startled by a THUD noise and looked in the direction of this noise only to receive another deadly shock. When he scurried to pick up his new Spiderman book which just fell on the floor , the book opened and Spiderman sprung up from it with his fierce penetrating gaze probing Tony Stark.

Tony Stark suddenly transformed himself into his Ironman form by donning his red colored suit.

“What the hell did you say/? You are stronger than me!”, howled Spiderman.

John’s mother Brenda exploded out of her chair on which she was sitting to stitch buttons on John’s shirt. On hearing an unusual male voice which did not belong to her family, she threw the needle in her hand, darted towards the direction of the noise and called out John as well as Daniel.

Ironman hid himself in John’s cupboard while Spiderman hid himself under John’s bed before anyone else could see them. Brenda barged into John’s room, with her heart in her mouth. She hollered at John, but with her shoulders hunched and her eyes wandering around the room.

“Who was yelling? Who is there in your room?”, She asked John with her eyes wide open.

“Err…Err! Nobody mom. There is nobody else in my room, apart from me and you as of now.”, quipped John while swallowing a lump in his throat.

“I heard a man yelling and the noise came from your room.”, Brenda clarified, while expelling her breath in a whose.

“Mom, the noise was from outside…Maybe Mr. Braganza, who resides on the level below, was yelling…”, John replied while pressing his lips.

“Aah! Why does this Braganza scare the hell out of people!”, she groaned while exiting his room. She crossed paths with Daniel who was attending a call, while heading towards John’s room.

Spiderman could see a pair of male feet walking towards John’s room ,from under the bed and so he remained where he is. Ironman opened the cupboard assuming that John’s mother left the room and just when he was about to step out, his heart skipped a beat on hearing Daniel’s voice.

“Hey! I too heard someone yelling loudly and the noise came from here. What is the matter?”, Daniel asked John with his eyebrows knitted in a frown.

“Aah! Dad, the noise is from outside. You know that Mr. and Mrs. Braganza enjoy frequent quarrels with each other…”, wailed John while wringing his hands in despair.

Daniel smacked his palm on his forehead and exited John’s room, while still attending his phone call. John heaved a sigh of relief and latched the door of his room from inside. He then bent downward and motioned to Spiderman to come out from under the bed, without making noise. John then darted towards the open cupboard and suddenly appeared in front of Ironman who gasped and yelped on seeing him.

John was amused on seeing the otherwise fearless Ironman, so petrified. He motioned to the superheroes to sit quietly on his bed, without arguing or quarreling with each other. Each of them sat on two edges of the bed with arms crossed and nose pinched, deliberately avoiding eye contact with each other.

“I am a fan of both of you! I admire both of you, so please stop quarreling….”, pleaded John.

“But don’t you agree that I am more powerful than him?”, quipped Ironman thrusting his jaw forward while placing his hands on his hips.

Spiderman blew a fuse, sprang up from the bed with his veins throbbing in his neck and brandished his clenched fist aiming at Ironman. John gasped, stepped back and Ironman sprang up taking his position to fight.

“Can you shoot spider webs from your wrist? Do you have my speed ?”, howled Spiderman while pointing his finger at Ironman.

“I saved you from a Hammer drone when you were a kid. I was stopping Ivan Vanko from using hammer drone weapons to attack the people attending the Stark expo. A drone was trying to attack you. I swooped in and destroyed that hammer drone which was attacking you….”

John rolled his eyes upward and howled at them, “Why don’t you guys shut up? Why are you both fighting over trivial issues?"

Brenda who could hear John shouting, wondered whom was he shouting at. John and the two were startled by her knocking on the entry door. Both superheroes dashed each other while running around frantically to hide themselves. Brenda knocked the door with her eyebrows knitted in a frown and hollered, “John, why did you latch the door?”

John broke out in a cold sweat and the fact that he would have to open the door, gave him the heebie-jeebies. He bared his teeth, glared at the two superheroes and motioned them to hide fast. A suspicious Brenda howled, “John, why are you not answering me?”. John swallowed hard and began stammering while hollering from inside, “Yes Mom, Errr….Errr… give me a minute. I am opening the door!” This time, Spiderman and Ironman ended up hiding in the same cupboard and John darted towards the door to open it.

“Why did you take so much of time to open the door and in the first place why did you latch the door? Whom were you yelling at?”, Brenda fired a volley of questions at John who trembled with fear.

Brenda’s flurry of questions did not stop, “Why are you sweating so much, John? Are you fine?”,she asked in a shaky voice while placing her palm on his forehead to check if he had fever.

John’s face twisted into a Rictus grin and he replied, “Mom, I am fine and I was not yelling. I was just rehearsing for my school play for the Annual day.”

Brenda wailed, “But why do you have to close the door to rehearse? Last year, you never rehearsed with closed doors! And your Annual day is after 8 months, right?”

John flinched on hearing her latest set of questions and glanced away while biting his lip. He quipped, “School wanted us to rehearse from this month!” He suddenly changed the topic, “Mom, is dinner ready? I am very hungry!”

Brenda quipped, “Yes, my boy, dinner is ready. The Broccoli was piping hot until a few minutes ago, so did not call you. I will arrange the plates within five minutes and will call you and daddy.”

Brenda exited the room. John heaved a sigh of relief and darted towards his cupboard. He opened the cupboard, only to discover Ironman in one compartment and Spiderman in the adjacent compartment, both of whom gasped on seeing John in front of them.

“Both of you, please don’t start quarreling again! I would be having dinner, so please be quiet….”, John pleaded in a low voice.

Iron man and Spiderman nodded their head in agreement. Spiderman removed his mask and pleaded, “John, I am very hungry. Can you please get little food for me?”

“Aah! Peter Parker, you came here to eat for free. But I came to meet John, and not for eating!”, vociferated Ironman. An irritated Spiderman stomped out of the cupboard to attack Ironman. John blocked his way and gripped both his hands.

“Guys! Please don’t fight. I will get some food for the two of you….”, quipped John, who heard his mother calling him for dinner. Spiderman barged into the same compartment of the cupboard to hide. John closed the cupboard and scurried towards the kitchen. After a couple of minutes, John, Brenda and Daniel sat for dinner. They chatted as usual while having dinner.

As soon as Brenda and Daniel finished their dinner and left the dining hall, John scooped out sufficient quantity of grilled chicken, steamed broccoli, Hasty pudding and pork chops in two plates. He scurried towards his room with the plates and kept them on his study table. Brenda came at the dining table to clear the plates and noticed that John had left his dinner incomplete. Never did John leave dinner incomplete especially when his favorite grilled chicken and Hasty pudding would be made by his mother. Brenda hollered at John while scurrying towards his room to find out why he left his dinner plate incomplete. However, before she reached his room, John scurried out of his room and blocked her way.

“Why did you not finish your dinner? Did you not like the food?”, she asked with a frown.

“No mom! I loved the food. I had not switched off my laptop, so went to my room.The food is awesome and I will finish it…”, he quipped with a smile.

Brenda retreated to the kitchen, feeling strange about John’s behavior. John finished his dinner and cleared the table of all plates and containers. He darted towards his room, latched it from inside and quickly opened the cupboard. Daniel lumbered towards John’s room to chat with him and was surprised to see his door closed. He knocked the door and hollered out calling John’s name.

A startled John quickly handed over both dinner plates to Spiderman and Ironman and slammed the doors of the cupboard behind him. John responded to his father and opened the door of his room.

“Hey! Why did you close the door?”, Daniel asked with his head cocked.

“Dad, I was thinking of changing into my night suit”, quipped John.

“It is only 9:30 pm and you want to sleep?”,Daniel asked, with wrinkles across his forehead.

“No dad, we will talk. I will come into your room…”, John replied with a smile.

When it was time to sleep, John left his father’s room after wishing him ‘Good night’ and darted towards his room to know about the situation inside the cupboard.

When he entered his room, he found the cupboard doors open and his heart skipped a beat as he wondered if his mother had opened his cupboard. However, his mother seemed to be sleeping in her room, which was dark. John latched the door of his room and darted towards the cupboard.

Ironman and Spiderman were sitting on the base of the compartment, with plates kept beside and were smiling at him.

“Your mom cooks awesome food! Thanks John”, quipped Spiderman.

“I too agree. Loved the food ”, quipped Ironman.

“So finally, you both agree on this one topic”, John chuckled.

“Sit on my bed, but please don’t disturb my parents who are asleep, by quarreling. I want to know the cause of your dispute”, John whispered.

Iron man and Spiderman handed over the dinner plates to John. They sat apart from each other, with arms crossed.

“John, I am the most powerful superhuman on this planet. Don’t you agree?”,whispered Iron man.

Spiderman, who was unmasked at that moment, stamped his foot and glared at Iron man.

“You both are equally powerful. If you guys fight over superiority, how would you team up again and fight against evil in this world?”, John asked with his eyes bulging.

Ironman glanced away, with his shoulders slumped. Spiderman gazed downward and slouched.

John continued, “You both are youth icons. We all look up to you. If you both fight, everyone will emulate you and quarrel with each other.”

Iron man and Spiderman shook hands with each other, and zoomed inside their respective books.