CHAPTER 11. Other Animal Super-Heroes ©
Most of us have seen fictional human superheroes, but we don't often see animal super-heroes, so I was surprised to discover that since our organisation began, more than 350 different animals from across the world had been chosen and trained as superheroes over the years.
Most of us have seen fictional human superheroes, but we don't often see animal super-heroes, so I was surprised to discover that since our organisation began, more than 350 different animals from across the world had been chosen and trained as superheroes over the years.
Both Boss and Fred, my trainers used to tell me stories of other animal superheroes that they had worked with.
"One day," Boss said, "Harriet was helping to put out a fire out a large factory when a large explosion took the roof off the building and flung it into the air."
"Harriet flew up, stretch out her mane and tail and grabbed hold of the roof so that it wouldn't crash onto neighbouring homes. Unfortunately the contents of the factory had also flown up with the roof as well. The factory made glue!"
"Poor Harriet became stuck to the roof and only just managed to fly the roof upside-down to a nearby paddock before collapsing beneath the mess. There she was, upside down herself, covered in a mass of sticky, stretchy glue and unable to move."
Boss laughed at the memory, and in my imagination I could see the poor horse stuck upside down to the roof, whinnying for help.
"I had been assisting her in the disaster and was able to send for help. Headquarters sent someone in with special cutters to remove her from the sticky mess. Poor Harriet lost most of her mane and tail in the incident and had to wait for it to regrow before she could go back out into the field again."
"That's awful," I said giggling.
"I heard about Bob the rat back in the 1950s who could not live down the humiliation of being caught in an ordinary rat-trap. Having dashed from home before eating dinner, he spotted something tasty at the place where he was about to rescue a group of humans. His tummy grumbling, he reached in with his super-tail to grab hold of the tasty morsel, and the rat trap slammed shut on it."
"Bob's scream of alarm alerted Headquarters there was a problem and they quickly sent another superhero to help. Bob was in the process of removing his tail from the trap when his rescuer arrived in the form of Samuel the seal, who blabbed the details to everyone at Headquarters when they returned," Boss continued.
"Bob was embarrassed about it and was especially unhappy with Samuel for telling tales on him. Several months later, the rat was delighted at the chance of retaliation after he and the same seal both worked to save sailors on a stricken vessel. Samuel somehow managed to get his whiskers caught in a rope on board the ship as he rescued two sailors. Bob had to gnaw through the seal's whiskers on both sides of Sam's face to free him. On returning to Headquarters, there was much teasing about Samuel's lack of whiskers."
"Both superheros swore never to make fun of others again," Boss explained.
Fred the human relayed a story about when he was a young superhero and worked with Maude a rhinoceros.
"Maude was quite uncomfortable about her size because she felt ungraceful when she flew. The fact that she was one of the fastest superheroes in history, even breaking the sound barrier on three occasions made no difference to Maude. She simply felt like a great big lumbering lump as she flew."
"This probably resulted from a rescue attempt when Maude was sent out to help some humans on a collapsing bridge," Fred said.
"Several cars were still on the bridge so Maude flew in underneath it. With her super-strength she lifted it back into place until all of the vehicles had driven off safely."
"I was setting up warning signs on the roads to advise drivers that the bridge had collapsed when I heard Maude call out for help. As Maude released the bridge, she reversed herself out of its way and struck a drainpipe at the edge of the river-bank. One of her bottom cheeks then become wedged in the pipe."
"How embarrassing," I said.
"Yes," Fred continued. "Maude felt so humiliated by that incident that she never felt comfortable with her size again, which is rather silly because she was so strong and large that she was a tremendous help in many disasters."
"Have you ever made a fool of yourself Fred?" I asked.
"Never," Fred replied, but I could tell by the look on his face that he had lied.
"I wonder if I'll look like an idiot one day," I thought to myself.
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