The Power Potion Read Free Page A

(and what those beans were that he didn’t dare spill to Lily Espinoza and her sassy, saucy friends), either read this chapter really fast (so you’re sure you’re not missing anything you might not know) or just go to the beginning of the next chapter.
    Really.
    Go ahead.
    You have my permission.
    Two:
Just forget about this story and get on with another one.
    (You may find, however, that on the way to doing this, you somehow stub your toe, or run into a doorway and give yourself a bloody nose. Or perhaps you’ll have some sort of freak falling incident and scrape up your knee. Then again, maybe none of these things will happen. I’m just saying. For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Make decisions in your life wisely.)
    Three:
Just give me the chance to get this out so we can get on with the story.
    So.
    You’re still with me?
    Then here we go with the third prong:
    Dave, you see, was much more than a dorky delivery boy.
    He was also much more than an all-knowingthirteen-year-old boy who lived on the seventh floor of a high-rise apartment in a poor neighborhood with one annoying sister and two loving parents.
    He was a superhero.
    Of sorts.
    He didn’t wear spandex pants or a fancy cape. What he wore was the ancient wristband of a once fearsome Aztec warrior. (A wristband that, on Dave, fit much better as an armband.)
    The wristband itself had no special powers, but when combined with the coin-shaped ingots that clicked into it, it gave the wearer
super
powers. There were ingots for super-strength, invisibility, flying—
    But let me stop right there, because the only ingot that matters here is the one Dave had in his possession, and that was Wall-Walker, which gave him the unnatural ability to walk on walls.
    Yes, Dave’s tippity tip-top secret was that
he
was the mysterious person known throughout the city as the Gecko.
    (As I said, he was a superhero…of sorts.)
    The other half of the third prong of our fork in the road (and the very tip of his tippity tip-top secret) involves Dave’s sidekick.
    Of course he has a sidekick. How could he not? It’s a well-known fact that
every
superhero has a sidekick. And Dave (or, more accurately, the Gecko) is no exception to this rule.
    But being a superhero
of sorts
requires only a sidekick
of sorts
, right?
    So perhaps you won’t be too surprised to learn that the Gecko’s sidekick happens to be…
a
gecko.
    As in a lizard.
    So what good is a lizard for a sidekick?
    Well, this isn’t just any sidekicking gecko lizard.
    This is a kleptomaniacal
talking
(sidekicking)gecko lizard (who, for the record, cannot explain why he can speak, or why no other animal on earth is able to do the same).
    A kleptomaniacal talking gecko lizard named Sticky who stole the ancient Aztec wristband (along with the Wall-Walker ingot) from an evil treasure hunter and gave it to Dave. (So, really, Dave wouldn’t be the Gecko were it not for Sticky.)
    Now, this treasure hunter did not like to be beaten at his own game, and he certainly didn’t like losing his most powerful treasure. This was a man who would never (trust me, ever) rest until he had the wristband back on his deadly, diabolical (and oh-so-dastardly) wrist.
    This despicably deceptive man lived high above the city in a monstrous mansion, and his name struck instant terror in the heart of Dave Sanchez.
    And his name was (as I’m sure you’ve already deduced) Damien Black.
    So!
    Now that we’ve reached the end of the third prong of the fork in our road, let’s get back to Dave and Sticky, shall we?
    After all, they have a package to deliver….

Chapter 5
A STICKY SITUATION
    Dave did not find Sticky basking in the flower box that hung outside his apartment’s kitchen window.
    Nor did he find him behind his bedroom bookcase (which was Sticky’s other usual spot).
    “Sticky!” Dave called again. “Where are you?”
    “Over here,
hombre
,” came the lizard’s sleepy voice.
    Dave spun in a circle, looking