Future Villain Detention

Problem 2: Mall Ninja

Roscoe's personality didn't match his abilities. That was a big problem for a potential hero, because once you were out on the streets people tended to lump everything about you together. Heroes with ice powers were expected to be cold and distant, and heroes who could read minds were supposed to be lousy tippers.

On the first day of his detention Roscoe opened the door so hard that it slammed against the wall. Sam looked over, and I swore he was frowning deeper than usual.

Standing in the doorway was a shorter skinny boy wearing all black. His black sneakers were frayed and overworked. His pants and shirt were baggy, but not anywhere that might get caught on something. A matching red shuriken was embroidered on both his black baseball cap and surgical mask.

"Is this 403?" Roscoe asked me, loud enough that it felt like he was asking whoever was downstairs too.

"Yes, you must be Roscoe," I said.

"I don't go by that, we have an alias for a reason."

I sighed internally. "You'll be sharing detention with Sam so why don't you introduce yourselves to each other?"

Sam didn't even look at us; he was too busy staring out the window. "Why should I?"

It had already been two weeks of him half-assing answers. Every day after detention I shut and locked that window and he always found time to come in and open it again. If it kept up the colder months would be miserable.

I slammed open one of the desk drawers and pulled out its contents. Sam's eyes went wide as I held up his sword. The hilt and sheath were both black, but all the lacing work was done in white. The most intricate part was the metal guard which had a pair of fish chasing each other around the blade.

I grabbed one end of the string wrapped around the grip and began to untangle it. Sam stood up and fell forward off the desk he had been sitting on top of.

"What are you doing?" Sam shouted from the floor. "That's mine!"

"And the school confiscated it because they think you're a threat to public safety."

"That doesn't mean you can break it," Sam cried.

I'd never seen Sam so worked up, but I couldn't back down now. A new arrival was watching and it would set the tone for the rest of detention.

"If I decide you're a lost cause then you'll never get it back. Now tell Roscoe your fake superhero name!" I was panting from all the excitement.

Sam stood up and turned toward Roscoe. "I go by Suburban Samurai," he said with as much dignity as he could muster.

"I'm the Mall Ninja," Roscoe said.

The boys sat as far from each other as they could. Sam stared out the window like usual, but Roscoe was fiddling with something on his desk.

I pushed my swivel chair to the other end of my desk for a better look. The thing on Roscoe's desk was hard to describe. It had three parts that were connected to each other with pins so every part could swing like a lever.

Curiosity got the better of me. "Roscoe, what is that?" I asked.

Roscoe grinned and crossed his arms. "It's a butterfly knife. I bought it second hand from a guy who used to be in a gang."

I must have been missing something. "But there's no blade on it."

Roscoe rolled his eyes. "Of course there's no blade, the school would confiscate it otherwise."

Both of us looked over at Sam, who was pretending not to be listening. His posture had slouched when we mentioned confiscating weapons.

"Well put it away, you're not supposed to be playing during detention."