Victor, Victorious

Chapter Twenty-One

Back in the safety of Sergio's bedroom, the boys read through Victor's comics. In Bart's neighborhood, drive-bys were always a danger.

"Man, I hate reading," Bart complained, putting aside an issue of The Incredible Hulk.

"Yeah, me too," said Victor. "Except for these things." He held an Ultimate Spider-Man.

Sergio said, "These are actually pretty interesting." He was focused on Batman and Robin.

Bart snorted. "The pictures are alright, I guess. The movies are better, though."

Victor rolled his eyes. "Spoken like a true hater."

"No offense," Bart said to Victor, "but I thought only like nerds and losers read this crap."

Sergio slowly shook his head. "Bart, why's everyone think you and I are so alike? You're dumb, man. For real."

Bart said, "I bet Colin's got a garage fulla these."

"I know what you could do, Victor," said Sergio.

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Challenge Colin to a comic book trivia contest. Drive him crazy with everything you know, and make his head explode."

Bart laughed. "Yes!"

Victor smiled. "I wish."

Things were quiet as Victor and Sergio read. Victor discovered that turning the thin pages of a comic book while wearing gloves was not an easy task.

Bart wasn't a big fan of quiet. He asked, "If I could have any superpower, you know what it would be?"

Sergio bit. "The ability to shut up every once in a while?"

"X-Ray vision."

Sergio snorted. "Lemme guess? So you could look through girls' clothes and into their locker room?"

"Hell, yeah! How'd you know?" The grin left Bart's face. "But I ain't talking 'bout Mikaela, alright, Victor?"

"Whatever."

Sergio said, "You're creepy, Bart. For real."

"You're telling me you wouldn't use X-Ray vision to do all that? Mentiroso."

"X-Ray vision's wack. I wanna fly."

"What's so cool 'bout that? You gotta worry about getting hit by planes and meteors."

Sergio explained, "If I could fly, I'd just go wherever I wanted to in the whole world, you know? I could see some cool stuff for once. This place is getting kinda old and boring, don't you think?"

"It ain't old and boring lately. How 'bout you, Victor? If you could choose any superpower, what would it be?"

"He's already got a good one."

"No," said Victor, "what I got is a weapon that could hurt people. I want something that could be more fun or useful."

Sergio nodded. "Like the power to fly."

"Yeah, but you already said that. I'd want something different. Like the power to put a smile on a person's face."

Victor's friends just stared at him. They didn't get it.

He'd been giving it a lot of thought lately. If he could choose, what superpower would he want to have? He didn't know if explaining it would make him sound lame or corny.

He said, "The power to put people in a good mood. Like, if someone's sad or angry, I could know just what to say to make that person happy."

Sergio said, "Victorious: turning frowns upside down."

Bart scratched his head. "You mean, like telling jokes or something?"

"Yeah," said Victor. "Jokes, or saying something that's just...kind."

Bart scoffed. "You getting soft, or what?"

Victor shrugged. "Just been thinking. What's the point of being mean all the time? What'd that ever get me? A buncha dirty looks and teachers yelling at me."

Sergio said, "I been sorta thinking that way, too."

"You always made us laugh, Victor. You weren't so bad."

Suddenly, rap music played. It grew louder by the second.

"Hold up!" said Bart. "My phone!" He removed the device from his pocket and answered. "Hello? Man, I thought you got locked up! Whose number is this? This ain't yours. What happ—Oh, okay. Yeah. I guess we can meet you?"

"Who's that?" Sergio asked.

Bart ignored him. He spoke into the phone: "Yeah, we'll be there. Don't worry, dawg! I said, we'll be there!" He hung up.

"Who was that?"

"Sway."

Victor asked, "I thought he and Panda got caught by the cops?"

"I guess not. He says we need to meet him."

"When? Where?"

"Right now," said Bart. "The alley, like last time. He sounded like he was in a hurry."

"We can't go now," said Sergio. "My mom's gonna have dinner ready soon."

Bart looked at him like he had a horn growing between his eyes. "You wanna make him wait? That ain't a good idea."

"Like I care. I don't wanna see that fool again."

To be honest, neither did Victor. But Bart was right. Sway seemed to be unpredictable. Make him wait too long, and who knew what he'd do?

Plus, Victor needed the rundown on what went down between Sway and Colin.

Victor put a gloved hand onto Sergio's shoulder. "Hey, man. 'Don't worry. Be happy.'"

"What?"

"It's from some old song my dad's played a couple of times. Not that he follows what it says or nothing."

Sergio sighed. "You gotta work on that putting-people-in-a-good-mood thing."

"Working on it every day." Victor stood, placing the comic he held atthe top of a teetering stack. "Let's go."