52 The Cloaked Division

52 The Cloaked Division 'Table Guy! Am I glad to see you!' said Peanut, smiling at the superhero wearing the dark brown spandex bodystocking, and standing on the large coffee table floating a couple of metres above her and Jonathan Higginbottom. ' Yes! It is I!' he replied. Peanut remembered that he only spoke in sentences ending in an exclamation mark. 'Can you get us out of here?' said Peanut. 'Of course I can! But first we must attend to this!' Table Guy nodded towards Alan. 'CAST YOUR NETS, FISHER MAN!'

An equally muscular figure, wearing thigh-length yellow boots and a yellow cape with built-in sou'wester, was sitting in a flying rowing boat that had just appeared out of nowhere. He stood up, adopted a wide- legged, heroic stance, and started firing some sort of webbing from his fingertips. The webbing merged together to form huge nets that floated down through the air and completely covered Alan, the RAZERs and the Exocetia. 'CATCH OF THE DAY!' shouted Fisher Man, with a chuckle. 'Thank you, Fisher Man!' shouted Peanut, before turning to Table Guy and beaming. 'Shall we?' The superhero cleared his throat. ' BY THE WONDER OF WOOD!' he bellowed. Seconds after he shouted the words, a very long table that looked like it must have come from the boardroom in a fancy office somewhere flew around from behind the Spire and floated gently down to the ground. ' Climb aboard, Mr Higginbottom!' said Table Guy. The alligator kicked off his roller skates and did as he was told. Peanut, meanwhile, clambered up on to Table Guy's flying coffee table and adopted a surfing stance.

'OK! LET'S FLY!' commanded Table Guy, and the pieces of furniture, with their passengers safely on board, soared high into the air. 'Table Guy, won't they be able to get out of those nets pretty easily?' asked Peanut. 'Don't worry!' he replied, as they flew towards the battleground. 'Cheese Girl and Inferno have got it covered!' Peanut looked back to see yet another muscular superhero flying towards the Spire. She was wearing a pale-

yellow suit covered in an interesting, if slightly repulsive, blue veiny pattern, and she left a strong smell of Stilton in her wake. Flying just behind her was a man who appeared to be completely on fire. Peanut noticed that he was holding his nose as he flew. The two heroes stopped in mid-air when they reached the Spire, hovering directly above the writhing mass of robots struggling to free themselves from Fisher Man's nets. They looked down and exchanged a few words, before Cheese Girl

proceeded to hold her hands ten centimetres apart, palms facing inwards. She started muttering a strange incantation, and, as she did so, a small pale-yellow ball materialised between her palms. It grew bigger and bigger as she moved her hands further apart. She kept going until it was about a metre in diameter. She then lowered her hands, leaving the strange object floating in the air, and backed away. At this point, Inferno moved into position and squared up to the floating cheese ball. He opened his mouth and (there's no

other way to describe it) burped fire at it. A powerful blast of white-hot flame shot out and blasted the cheese, instantly melting it. The resulting thick, gloopy liquid rained down on the crowd below, totally covering them. Alan, the RAZERs and the Exocetia, who by this point were almost free from the netting, suddenly found themselves covered by a hot, stringy mess, and unable to move. 'I GUESS IT'S JUST NACHO DAY!' shouted Cheese Girl to the fromage-covered crowd. 'YEAH!' yelled Inferno. 'YOU GUYS NEED TO THINK CAERPHILLY ABOUT YOUR LIFE CHOICES!' Peanut smiled and shook her head. 'What is it with superheroes and puns?' she said.