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Slow Motion Man is a superhero with incredible powers. He’s stronger than an army. He can jump higher than an office block and further than a football field. His skin is tougher than metal. Not even laser beams can hurt him!
But there is one problem.
He can only do things in slow motion! As soon as Slow Motion Man puts on his Slow Motion Man suit, his whole body slows – right – down! All his powers only happen in slow motion. He walks in slow motion, he runs in slow motion, he picks up cars and he jumps across rivers…in slow motion!
So, basically, Slow Motion Man is not such a great superhero after all. He’s too slow to catch villains, and too slow to save people. It’s why no one knows about him.
When an emergency happens, there is always another superhero who’s faster than him and gets there first. Slow Motion Man runs as fast as he can go (slower than people walk) but only ever gets there when everything has been solved and everyone has gone off home!
It made Slow Motion Man really unhappy. “I have got amazing powers, but I can never use them,” he sighed. “They are useless!” He wished he could speed himself up. But as soon as he put on his Slow Motion Man suit, he was stuck in slow motion again.
He decided to forget about being a superhero. He would just live a normal life as a normal person. His normal name was Luke Lucas. Luke lived on his own in a small flat and went to an office every day where he did a pretty boring job to earn some money.
He worked for a big bank, but he wasn’t very important. Lots of people told him what to do. He wished they knew he was actually a superhero and had amazing powers – even if they were in slow motion!
So he lived his ordinary life and when he heard of an emergency, he ignored it. “Someone else will save the day,” he said to himself. “There are other superheroes who are much better than me. Who cares about a superhero who can only do things in slow motion!”
But then one day Luke Lucas was watching television at home and saw an emergency newsflash. “A giant evil snail is inching towards our city!” said the newsreader. “It’s bigger than a spaceship! It’s stronger than a tank! Its slime is burning up the grass, and it’s slowly eating everything in its path! It’s heading for a school!”
Luke Lucas jumped up from his chair. This was surely a job for Slow Motion Man! He ran into his bedroom and, spinning round, turned himself into Slow Motion Man. Then he ran – in slow motion of course - out of the apartment block and headed slowly down the street.
No one knew where the giant snail had come from. It was so big, it almost blotted out the sun. It had a fierce expression and was chewing its way angrily through everything before it. Its slime trail behind it was thick and bubbled like a witch’s potion, destroying everything it touched.
It was moving very slowly across a field and was approaching a school on the edge of the city. The kids and the teachers had evacuated the school and stood in a large crowd, watching as the shadow of the awful snail stretched gradually closer and closer to the school.
Many superheroes had tried to stop the snail. Lightning Man was first. He zapped the snail with his lightning bolt powers. But the bolt bounced right off the snail’s shell and zapped him instead. Then came Superfast Man. He looked at the snail and it was so slow and mean that it put him into a kind of hypnotic trance and he fell to the floor asleep!
Then came Muscle Man. He heaved at the snail to try to stop it. But the snail was so big and so strong that Muscle Man got worn out and fell aside like a twig. Tentacle Woman was next. She wrapped her tentacles around the snail and squeezed with all her might. But the snail’s slime burnt through her tentacles and sent her racing away. (It was OK though – her tentacles quickly grew themselves back.)
There seemed to be nothing for it. The snail was unstoppable! The kids were getting pretty scared (although some were actually kind of enjoying it). The snail was now only a few feet from the school gates!
But then, very slowly, Slow Motion Man came into view. Step - by slow step - he got nearer - to the snail - as inch - by inch - the snail got closer to the school!
Who would get there first? The whole crowd, and the TV reporters and the policemen and the ambulance men, held their breath…
Slow Motion Man gave a giant leap through the air and flew, further than a football field, longer than a street, in a slow and graceful arc, towards the giant evil snail. The snail saw him coming, and tried to increase his speed. It all happened, not in the blink of an eye but perhaps in a hundred blinks of a hundred eyes!
At last Slow Motion Man landed right in front of the snail and just a few inches from the edge of the school. Slow Motion Man looked at the giant snail, and the giant snail looked at Slow Motion Man, and they leaned slowly against each other - and pushed.
Slow Motion Man pushed, and the giant snail pushed. Nothing happened for a very long time. The snail covered Slow Motion Man with his horrible burning slime but Slow Motion Man’s skin was slime-proof and he didn’t even feel it.
Then slowly, very slowly, the snail began to lift backwards off the ground. Its huge shell rose, like a sun rising, and its enormous body began to unstick itself, blade by slow blade, from the grass. Slow Motion Man heaved, and heaved, and by almost invisible degrees lifted the snail up into the air!
The crowd clapped and cheered at the sight. Then Slow Motion Man gave a mighty leap and moved gradually up through the sky and with all his strength, that was greater than the strength of a million people, ejected the snail off and away!
The snail flew, over fields and cities and motorways, like a giant comet, casting a great shadow as it went, until it flew out over the sea and landed with an enormous splash in the middle of the ocean. And there it floated, bobbing gently up and down like a giant silent ship until finally it righted itself and swam slowly off to find a new place to live away from people and superheroes.
Slow Motion Man was now a true hero. All the TV reporters wanted to interview him. “It was nothing,” he said. “I’m just so pleased that my powers have proved useful after all. Finally I have been able to help other people!”
Everybody loved Slow Motion Man after that. But even so, it didn’t take long before people had forgotten him again. Because the world is so fast, it has a short memory.
But Slow Motion Man didn’t mind. He’d been able to help, and that made him happy. Everybody has special powers of their own, he decided, and sooner or later they will shine through.
And if the giant evil snail ever came back, then it would have to watch out for the one, the only…Slow Motion Man!
