Knowing this fact, the then prevalent evil in the city decided that this was the best time to strike. Hence, during the monsoons we saw the evils of potholes, dirty clothes, leaky roofs, stolen umbrellas and not to forget the most feared of them all, wet underwear. But this monsoon was different. Apart from the water proof undies, we saw the return of Slimeball. Now for those of you who have not subscribed to the Know Your Villain weekly, here is a brief about him (nothing to do with the water proof undies).
Now getting back to the problem at hand, the city suffered from major traffic jams every time it rained. No, it was not your regular traffic jam. These jams were caused by a red substance. (No! it was not real jam) On closer inspection of the substance in question and days of analysis at the lab, it was determined that the substance was definitely slime. No one but the infamous Slimeball could be behind this. By some ingenious method, Slimeball was able to add gelatin to the rain which caused it to become slime once it hit the ground. This slime, due to its thickness, would not flow down the drains and would remain on the roads causing the traffic jams.
I had to catch this slimeball Slimeball and put him behind bars for good. The city could not afford to suffer any more traffic jams. I remembered I came across a fellow superhero a few days back and decided to give her a call. Let’s face it; we superheroes need to stick together. So drawing a plan with Double S, we set out to get our hands on that no good slimeball.
“How should we go about catching this fellow?” I asked. “May be we should follow the slime trail. It should lead us to Slime HQ,” replied Double S. Such brilliance from such a young superhero. I see good things in her future. Anyway, getting back to the topic, we started following the trail of slime. It lead us to a television studio. Now, being a little camera shy, I was hesitant going in at first, but I had to find this Slimeball. I stepped into the studio walking closely behind Double S. What I saw in there blew my mind. It was the studio in which the popular dance show ‘So you think you can dance’ was shot in. They were shooting a show as we entered. We followed the slime trail to one of the dancers changing room.
“That’s strange,” said Double S. “Could one of the dancers be Slimeball?” Being a huge fan of the show, I had not missed a single episode. It struck me, that a dancer named ‘Slides Alot’, one of the best dancers on the show, bore a striking resemblance to Slimeball. Even his dance involved a lot of quick yet smooth sliding on the floors. As we spoke, we heard the host announce his name “Give it up for Slides”, she said. We ran to the stage, but Slides, errr.. I mean Slimeball was on the other side of the stage. He recognized me from across the stage and made a run for it. Double S and I decided to give him the chase. Not realizing that we were running across the stage, we suddenly heard a roar from the audience. The judges looked as us and said “So you think you can dance?” My stage fright combined with my camera shyness was all of a sudden overcome and I yelled, “No! I don’t think I can dance!” Now it was difficult to lose Slimeball, thanks to his slimy tracks. We ran and were quickly behind him. But just at that moment, the rain started to pour and the slime started to build on the roads, making it nearly impossible to run. Slimeball lived to see another day.
Finally getting back home and into come clean clothes, Double S and I sat to rethink our plan. The weather report said we were in for some heavy showers the next morning. Knowing that the weather reports are always wrong, we decided to go after the slimeball in the morning. Rightly so, the sun was shining brightly, bright enough to have to apply sunscreen before going out in the sun. (Hey! A superhero also needs to take care of his looks ok!) Knowing his weakness for suffering snails, we decided to lure him with a ‘Snail sale’. I will not lie to you, business was slow but only till Slimeball visited our sale. After selling him every snail (and covering our costs), we decided to confront him. “So Slimeball, we meet again”. Slimeball replied in his shrill voice, “Oh no! It’s you again Double S.” “Ahem ahem,” I cleared my throat. “Oh SuperCraig, didn’t see you there,” he said.
He made a run for it. But within 2 minutes, the sun had dried him out. “That’s what happens when you don’t wear sunscreen,” I thought to myself. He was a wrinkled statue, and would remain that way till he got to soak up enough of water. We carried him to the nearest jail and locked him up in a room. Not taking any chances, we added a dehumidifier for good measure.Satisfied with a job well done, we decided to celebrate. However, it started raining once again. Slimeball had planted some gelatin just before coming to buy the snails. For the last time, the city was faced with slime on the roads. Just then an idea came to me. I made some quick calls and within a few minutes, a number of helicopters were hovering around the city dropping sugar and flavor on the roads. This mixed with the slime made a delicious jelly, which the citizens of the city enjoyed! The city was saved once again by SuperCraig. But of course, I wouldn’t have done it without Double S.
How did Slimeball manage to spread the gelatin across the city without anyone noticing you ask? Well, years later we discovered that he cleverly added gelatin to beetle leaves. Thanks to the number of people spitting out their paan on the roads the gelatin was spread all over the city. Kinda gross, now that you think about it.This is SuperCraig saying bye for now, reminding you that a donut without u is don’t.
