Playing Super Hero, A Gifted and Talented Anthology

Ricochet

"To finish our training session today, we are going to play dodge ball." Mr. Jacobsen said to the groans of the team. "The teams are Hot Shot against the rest of you. There are a few rule changes. In order for Hot Shot to eliminate members of the other team, he must hit three people with one throw. All powers are valid. To get Hot Shot out, he must be hit as many times as the other team has players. Let the games begin."

Hot Shot took his side of the gym. He wasn't worried. As everyone in school knew, Hot Shot loved dodge ball and he always hit where he aimed. He noticed that the other members of the team didn't look as worried as they usually did. Before taking position, they grouped together to plan. Hot Shot paced at the other six huddled. Impatient, Hot Shot looked over at Mr. Jacobsen and noticed a mysterious grin on his face. Looking back, he saw the other six taking their positions. Hot Shot chuckled. This was going to be a piece of cake.

At the sound of Mr. Jacobsen yelling to start the round, Dreamy suddenly caused hundreds of translucent butterflies to appear on their side of the field. Hot Shot snorted. Taking aim, he targeted Golden Girl and threw. Flying through the cloud of apparitions, he suddenly realized his aim was slightly off and the ball bounce off Golden Girl and hit the ground. Her Majesty grinned and glanced at Prince who caused the ball to float in the air and over to Heavyweight. Heavyweight took aim and threw it for a gym wall. Hot Shot snorted not bothering to pay attention to the balls trajectory until it took Hot Shot from behind. Hot Shot grunted, glad that he was hit with a ricochet as Heavyweight could really throw something hard. Retrieving the ball, he targeted Her Majesty this time. Once again, his aim was off due to the butterflies. His ball hit Her Majesty but just missed Dreamy. Prince sent the ball over to Golden Girl, who used her aura to launch the ball towards Hot Shot. Hot Shot chuckled as it passed way overhead, but once again was hit by its ricochet, this time having turned to watch its trajectory. He saw that Prince had adjusted the angle of the ricochet to hit him in the knees using his telekinesis.

The rest of the game continued in much the same vein. When the other students heard that Hot Shot was being beaten, it got worse. He got an audience to his humiliation. He got much better at dodging but even when he was able to line up a shot without having to deal with Dreamy's butterflies, he had difficulty hitting more than one at a time. He was a bit relieved when the other team won, just so he could get it over with.

John called them over. "Good job. There was some nice teamwork going on. I also wanted to compliment Hot Shot on the effort he put forward."

"I didn't manage to get a single person out though." Hot Shot grumbled.

"True, that wasn't the only point of the exercise though. Did you learn anything?" John Jacobsen asked.

"I learned I can't hit three people with one ball." Hot Shot looked at the ground.

"That is not true." John said. "I don't give impossible assignments. I want you to think about your challenges and try and come up with a way to deal with them. We will be playing dodge ball in this way twice a week until you master this skill. You can do this."

John Jacobsen discussed a few more things before dismissing the team. Hot Shot barely noticed that the crowd had cleared out leaving only one small girl who was wearing oversized glasses. As he walked by, she reached out and grabbed his arm.

"You did a great job." She said. "It can be hard to master the ricochet and get the right angles."

Hot Shot just nodded. Suddenly he realized what she said. "You seem to know a little about this. I'm Hot Shot by the way."