Operation Ice Maker: Tales of the Super Sib Squad (Book 2)

By Tina Melanson

David Benson is an eleven year old super scientist and genius. After an experiment involving his pesky sister goes awry, he and his siblings, older brother Collin and little sister Kate, discover they have some new, unique super abilities. David can morph into any animal, Collin can levitate all objects, and Kate can fly. When their real certifi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: Apr 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781648950063

Book preview

Prologue

My family is weird. I don’t just mean like dorky either. I mean weird.

My name is David Benson. I’m the only eleven-year-old superhero in my class, as far as I know anyway. It’s not like we have a support group or sit around at school lunch sharing superhero stories or anything. I’m also probably the smartest person in my family. It’s kind of what got me in this predicament of superheroism anyway. My dad is a super genius, but I’m not sure he’s really discovered anything big yet, and also, he really is a dork.

It’s a long story really, but it also involves my twelve-year-old brother, Collin, and my seven-year-old sister, Kate. They would blame me, of course, but it’s not entirely my fault. Actually, I blame Kate mostly. She’s a pest. She’s four years younger than me, and she drives me crazy. Mom says it’s because we’re exactly alike: blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and we’re both the littlest kids in our class. Except I’m really a handsome little dude. Kate’s just okay. Mom says I can’t say I hate her, but I do have an extreme dislike for her. As far as brothers go, Collin’s okay, but he’s a lot different than me. Our birthdays are only separated by a year, but we’re nothing alike. He has brown hair, hazel eyes, and dark skin, and though he’s not very tall, he’s stocky and a lot stronger than anyone else in my house.

It’s not hard to recall the details of how Collin and Kate got involved in the weirdness exactly, but mostly it had something to do with them being unable to mind their own business. The details don’t matter really. We kids are all affected with super abilities, but we can’t tell Mom and Dad. We would be grounded for sure. And there’s nothing really cool about being a superhero who’s grounded.

Chapter

1

I’m crouched behind the fake ficus in the living room. I stifle a sneeze. Whew. Mom sure needs to dust. I’m secretly lying in wait for the subject of my latest experiment. Take the bait! Come on, take the bait! No, no, don’t smell it. Don’t smell it! Ooooohhhh! She smells it. Wait, she may be stupid enough to still eat it even though it smells like rotten eggs. Yes, she’s licking it!

She looks around to see who’s watching. Then she shoves the whole thing in her mouth. Yes! I yell and pump my fist in satisfaction.

Kate looks around for the source of the noise. Who’s there? she asks.

No one, I say, now diving down behind the couch.

She shrugs. Okay.

Too easy! I always knew she was a pushover.

She finishes the cupcake, including the crumbs, and licks the frosting off her fingers. She wipes her hands on her shirt—I’ll make sure to tell Mom later—and skips upstairs singing something that I am sure is Taylor Swift. She is obsessed.

I set the timer on my electronic magnified deluxe thermal tracking system. If my calculations are accurate, this should only take a minute.

I sneak quickly and quietly up the stairs behind her. She is skipping. I can never understand why she is so happy. I can still hear her around the corner, but the sounds aren’t coming from her bedroom; they’re coming from my room! At that moment, my tracking system starts to beep loudly. I bust around the corner and collide right into her as she tries to make her escape from my forbidden secret lab. Kate, get out of my hair! I yell.

I wasn’t in your hair!

I grab her by the shirt. I just saw you come out of there!

I still hear beeping as she tugs away from me. "I was in your bedroom, for your information. How could I ever be in your hair?" she scoffs. She runs into her room, slamming her door behind her.

I take a quick survey of my bedroom and lab to determine if anything has been compromised or stolen. Nothing seems out of place. My electronic magnified deluxe thermal tracking system is still beeping. Because of Kate, I had forgotten I was in the middle of a classified top secret experiment. If this works, Kate will never be able to sneak around again because I will know where she is at all times.

My subject is now in her own bedroom. I quietly crouch next to her door. I hear her moving around. She is talking to that stupid fluffy stuffed kitten of hers. Note to self: assemble plot for Operation: GROF (Get Rid Of Fluffy). My thermal tracking system is suddenly strangely quiet. I tap on the device strapped around my wrist. Nothing.

I back silently away from the door as I remove the magnified deluxe thermal tracking system from my arm. I check the batteries. Brand-new. I bang it on the desk once for good measure. Still nothing. Suddenly there’s a squeal of excitement coming from Kate’s room followed by a banging and crashing of toys. There’s a loud bump against her door, and then suddenly she crashes right through it, landing on the floor beside me.

Wow! That was great! she exclaims from the rubble of splintered wood on the floor.

You’re gonna be in so much trouble. You busted down the door! There’s no way Mom and Dad aren’t going to notice that! Look what you did! I say, pointing to the obvious.

She stands up and dusts herself off as she prepares herself to cry dramatically. But I didn’t mean to do it! I just flew right through the door!

Ha! I doubt Mom and Dad will believe that. At that moment, we both turn back to our rooms.

Kate squeals as she glides easily through her broken door. Except she’s not walking on the ground. She’s flying…in the air…through the hole in the top frame of the door. Uh-oh. Operation: PS (Pesky Sister) has run into some minor complications.

I hear her laughing on the other side of the door. I knock on the door remnant. Kate, are you all right?

She opens it and giggles loudly. That is so fun! Do it again!

Do what again? I ask, confused. You see, conversations with Kate usually are very confusing to me. She is a simple creature after all, and I am a brilliant mad scientist.

Make me fly again, David! This time warn me, and I’ll be ready! She stretches out her arms like Superman.

Kate, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And that’s not a lie. I didn’t make her fly. I might have covertly fed her something that accidentally made her fly, but the actual flying part, I have no idea how that happened. This was not part of my master plan. I certainly can’t explain to Mom and Dad that I tried to feed Kate some thermal tracking clusters carefully disguised in a yummy cupcake; and no worries, though I can’t track her every move, Kate can fly, surprise! I just don’t think they’ll understand.

I tell her very simply, You can’t fly, Kate. Only superheroes can fly. It’s a fact. I can’t muster much more to convince her because at this point, I’m not sure I even believe it myself. I leave her room as she spins in circles with her arms out. Note to self: it may be wise to pad Kate’s bedroom walls with Bubble Wrap.

I knock on Collin’s door. He’s supposed to be doing his homework, but I hear music blaring. Collin, open up!

He doesn’t answer, so I start kicking the door and jiggling the handle very annoyingly.

What do you want? Collin says as he jerks open the door. He’s a good four inches taller and a hefty thirty pounds bigger than me.

I think I’m in trouble, I confess.

He smirks. "Shocker. You’re always in trouble. Now what did you do?" He leans, pretending to be uninterested, against the door.

I sigh. Well, I might have fed Kate something in an experiment, but it’s not doing what it was supposed to do, so now I have a little problem. I point to Kate’s door.

Holy cow, what happened? Collin yells as he examines what used to be the upper half of Kate’s bedroom door.

Kate did it! I say.

I’d stick with that story too. You’re gonna be grounded for sure!

You think? I fire back.

With his knuckles, he knocks gently on my head. "Well, I think you have a big role in this mess."

I look at him as if I’m offended by this insinuation. Kate flew through her door, I say matter-of-factly.

Ha ha! Whatever. Good luck, Collin says, retreating.

I’m not joking. I saw it myself. She flew out, and then she flew back in. I examine the hole again, which is four feet off the ground, above Kate’s head. There is no way she walked through there, and even Collin can see this now.

David, what did you do to her? he says accusingly.

I lead Collin into my lab and show him the plans for Operation: Pesky Sister. Clearly something went wrong. There must be some unanticipated chemical reaction that has occurred involving an interaction of the cluster devices with Kate’s digestive juices. Instead of sending me a constant GPS of her whereabouts, she’s flying.

Do you have any more of those cluster devices? Collin asks.

Yes, why? I ask suspiciously.

Let’s see if it works again, Collin says enthusiastically.

No way, Collin. Who’s going to be our subject anyway? I ask because the fact is, I really am interested in trying the experiment again.

Let’s give some more to Kate. Maybe she’ll stop flying, he says.

Collin, that makes no scientific sense whatsoever. Ugh, he cannot help that he has such a tiny little brain in that very big head of his.

All right, Sherlock, then I’ll take some, he says.

First of all, Sherlock Holmes was a fictional detective. He had nothing to do with science and experimentation. Perhaps you meant to reference Albert Einstein, who—

Shut up. Give me the clusters. His arms are crossed. He’s doing his best to try and look like the boss of me.

Over there. I point.

He walks over to my desk and picks up a beaker. He smells it.

"No! I holler. Those aren’t thermal tracking clusters. Those are very clearly radioactive flux incinerator particles for my experiment on mind control. Can’t you read?" I walk over and hand him a petri dish. There are a dozen clusters left over from the batch I incubated over the weekend.

How many should I take? Collin asks.

Well, since this is an experiment, I can legitimately say, I don’t know. I scratch my head thoughtfully.

Well, how many did you give Kate? he asks again.

Three.

How did you arrive at that number?

It’s an experiment. I guessed. Frankly, there was nothing mathematical about it.

Collin takes six of them and throws them in his mouth. He swallows hard as he chokes on them. I remember I have left my electronic magnified deluxe thermal tracking system in the hallway. I run to grab it and hit the button for the timer. As I reenter my room, Collin is still trying to swallow the clusters.

How did you get Kate to just eat these things? Collin asks.

I stuck them in a cupcake with gooey frosting. Went down like a charm.

Thanks for telling me, he says. I need a drink of water. He heads for the bathroom sink.

No! I yell. If you drink water, you will short-circuit the clusters. They need time to get coated in your intrinsic mucus before you start putting liquids in your system! If they internally combust, you may…well, let’s just say, we don’t want internal combustion, all right. Amateurs!

Intrinsic mucus? How am I supposed to get them out of my throat then? They’re stuck right here! He points to his upper neck.

Well, eat something, I tell him.

What have you got in this dump? Collin asks. He strains and grunts as he lifts a huge heap of heavy science books off my desk as my timer beeps. We both freeze and look at each other.

After a few tense moments, it is silent again.

Now what? Collin asks.

I don’t know. This is just what happened last time. I was trying to figure out what went wrong, and without warning, Kate came crashing through the door.

Am I supposed to, like, spread my arms or get a cape or something? Yell ‘Up, up, and away’? Collin says sarcastically.

It’s not like I have a flight manual. I told you, I don’t know! I’m very frustrated. Such is the life of a super scientist.

After several more minutes, Collin gives a big yawn. Well, this is boring. I’m going to hang out in my room. It’s much more fun than doing ‘science’ in here with you. You better get to work on a good explanation for Mom and Dad, or else develop an operation to replace Kate’s broken door before they get home from the grocery store! He knocks me on the head again as he leaves.

I sit at my desk to review my calculations when I suddenly hear Collin screaming. Whoa, dude! Get in here fast!

I race across the hall to find Collin harmlessly sitting on his bed. His bed, however, is suddenly levitating two feet from the ceiling.

What the… I say.

This is so cool, dude! Collin yells.

Because it’s impossible for Kate to mind her own business, she flies through the hole in her door and finds Collin levitating on his bed. Yeah, Collin! You can fly too! she says.

He’s not flying, I point out. His bed is. Boy, I’m going to be in trouble with Mom and Dad for sure.

Chapter

2

Collin, get down from there! I yell. I need to know exactly what just happened in here. This is critical research. And I need to fix this before Mom and Dad get home!

I can’t! Collin says. And I don’t want to. Come on up!

I want to tell Collin that I’m in charge of the research here, but he’s usually kinda bossy, so instead I comply. I scoot up a chair, jump onto the dresser, and make a running leap onto the levitating bed. Well? I say to him.

Well, what? I’m sitting on my bed, which is somehow floating closer to the ceiling than the floor. Seems pretty obvious, he says.

"Brother, I can see that. Are you doing it?"

Doing what? Collin asks.

Ugh. I’m wasting time by having to spell everything out.

As we talk, Kate flies circles around Collin’s levitating bed. She’s gaining good control and is bumping into fewer things. She has only bounced her head off the ceiling twice in three laps now.

"Collin, are you making the bed levitate? Are you thinking about the bed levitating? Are you thinkin’ about the bed at all?" I press.

Nope, he says shortly as he lies back happily with his head resting in both hands.

I turn my attention to Kate. Kate, how are you doing that?

Now she is doing loop the loops and somersaults in the air. I try not to act impressed, but I am.

I don’t know! She giggles. But it’s fun!

Can you stop on your own? I ask.

Kate suddenly lands on the ground on her butt with a crash. Whoops, she says. I guess so. It would be nice to land on my feet though.

Kate, you’ve had your power for a little bit longer than Collin. You seem to be gaining more control. Maybe Collin will be able to do the same.

Collin doesn’t acknowledge me and is just lying back, enjoying counting the cracks in his ceiling.

I leave his room and reenter my lair. I can’t keep relying on these nonscientist subjects for their insight. As usual, Kate follows me. Leave me alone, I say.

I am, she says.

Get out of my room! I yell.

She waves at me from just out in the hallway. I’m not in your room.

Ugh, you’re so annoying! I yell at her as I slam the door in her face.

Within ten seconds, she knocks and yells through the door, David, you better find out how to fix this problem, or I’m going to tell Mom and Dad that you made me eat a poisonous cupcake.

I throw open the door. Get in here, I say. "First of all, it