In a small town in California, there was an evil man named Dr. Ricker. He looked just like a regular doctor, wearing an all-white outfit. He was making a potion to poison the drinking water of the town. This potion would make everyone very sick — they would throw up and grow weak. He always dreamed of ruling the world, so he started with this town. By making everyone weaker, he would grow stronger and be able to take over all of California. This was his first time trying out a plan like this because he didn’t want the townspeople to know his strengths and weaknesses and be able to defeat him. His biggest strength was how smart he was. His biggest weakness was that he couldn’t run fast, and he wasn’t very good at tricking people.

In his big lab at the town’s hospital, he finished mixing his last batch of the potion. He put paint, red pills, and purple liquid moss into a great mixing pot and mixed it for two hours.

“Okay! Let’s get this into the water supply!” He laughed.

Later, he went to the supermarket where they kept the canned goods that needed tap water to be made, like canned and frozen orange juice that needed hot water. He told everyone who walked by how canned goods were more nutritious these days because doctors had figured out a way to pack them with healthy ingredients. A gigantic crowd swarmed in front of the whole display and began buying all of the canned goods, completely wiping them out. When he came out of the market, he started laughing tremendous, evil laughs and walked back to his lab.

Meanwhile, a poor, homeless man named Chris decided to peek up and watch the television in the house he was hiding under. The little boy who lived there was in his wheelchair in front of the TV. He had big glasses, freckles, and straight, brown hair. Chris had always seen little kids teasing the boy, and Chris really wanted to show him that even with his disability, he could still be a hero. He saw a news reporter talking about this weird color in the water that had come out of nowhere and was harming the townspeople.

Even though Chris was just a poor townsperson, he wanted to destroy what was harming everyone and become known as a hero for the little boy. Because doctors usually gave the information to the scientists at the hospital, he knew he had to go there to begin searching for answers.

He walked down the block and turned right to arrive at a police station. He felt very brave, knowing he was on a mission to save his whole town, and he marched over to a police officer.

“Can you give me a ride to the hospital?” Chris asked.

“Why?” The police officer asked, confused.

Chris told him how he needed to find out more information about why everyone was getting sick, and the police officer agreed. They started driving toward the hospital, and whenever Chris looked out the window, he saw people throwing up and everyone growing weaker and weaker with every footstep. Chris felt sad and sorry for the people. He knew what it was like to feel sick.

Chris and the police officer stopped at the hospital and waved goodbye to each other. Chris walked into the hospital and asked the man at the front desk if he had any information about why everyone was sick.

“Follow me,” the man told him.

Chris followed him down to the basement. On his way, he saw a case full of sharp knives. The front door man led him into a dark, cell-like room with no windows.

“Stay here,” the man said calmly.

“Okay,” Chris agreed, uncertain.

The man shut the door and walked quickly up the stairs to a red button on the wall. He punched the button.

“Ahh!” screamed Chris, when he noticed that he was tied up. He was scared, but then, he realized it was the same type of rope he had used to tie up his belongings every night and every morning to make sure they weren’t stolen. The knots tied in the rope were usually very weak because it was such a cheap rope. Chris had a pocketknife in his pocket, but he couldn’t reach it. He noticed the blade was sticking out a bit. He scrunched himself into a little ball until the blade touched the rope. He squeezed a little bit more and cut the rope that was tying his hands. He cut the rest of the rope and quietly took off the sweaty blindfold. Then, he thought about the case of sharp knives, so he ran down the corridor and opened the glass case.

He thought to himself, Now, no one will overcome me. He took off, searching for someone else to help him. Then, he noticed that he hadn’t gone upstairs yet.

The first room he saw was Dr. Ricker’s lab, where the evil doctor was pouring his second-to-last batch of the potion. He walked into the room and knocked over a bottle of purple liquid by accident. There were bottles of purple liquid going up a tube and into the mixing bowl.

Dr. Ricker turned around. “Whaaat… are you doing here in my lab?“ Dr. Ricker said, hiding his potion behind his back, hoping Chris wouldn’t notice.

“Are you the one who’s been making this liquid that’s been harming the townspeople?” Chris asked him. Dr. Ricker knew this was going to happen, and he was prepared. He told him that no, he wasn’t, and he tried to change the topic.

“Have you heard about the scratch ticket that was worth three trillion dollars? I won! And I’ll give all the money to you.” Dr. Ricker knew Chris was homeless just by looking at his rags.

“Then, what is that purple liquid behind your back?” Chris asked.

“A drink I bought from the store,” Dr. Ricker casually replied.

Chris stuck the knife out from his belt and said, “Are you lying ?” The room seemed to get hotter every time they breathed in air.

Dr. Ricker said in his evil voice, “You really want to fight?” and stuck out a long dagger that glimmered under the light. They took two steps forward, and each started hitting the other’s knife, trying to hit it out of each other’s hand.

Clang! the swords went. One of the doctors outside heard the noise and told the other doctors. They followed the sound and reached Dr. Ricker’s lab. They saw the potion drop out of Dr. Ricker’s hand and decided to call the owner of the hospital.

The man from the front desk had also heard the noise, and he quickly ran up. He saw the fight and took the longest dagger from the case he had walked past earlier. He went back to the lab and started fighting on Dr. Ricker’s side. Chris was nervous, but he stayed brave because he was saving the whole town from the bad guys and their potion. He wouldn’t give up because he wanted to be known as a hero for the little boy and save everyone.

Just as Chris started losing grip on his dagger, the owner of the hospital ran in and yelled, “Stop!”

The other doctors told the chief all about how they saw the same liquid in the tap water. They tested it out on one of the unaffected, and he started throwing up and falling down. The owner of the hospital called the police to take Dr. Ricker and his sidekick to jail.

When the police came, Dr. Ricker shouted, “You’ll still see me here, but in another world.”

Everyone said, “Pff, who cares? You’re going to jail!”

The mayor of California and the President of the United States of America awarded Chris the medal of bravery and had a big celebration in the town square.

The little boy in the wheelchair came up to Chris and told him that he had really taught him a lesson because now he knew that even though he had a disability, he could still be a hero.

Chris said, “This all happened because I saw other kids bullying you. I decided to prove that even if you are different from regular people who have some money, you can still be a hero.”

As for the sick townspeople, the doctors examined the potion and started to think about a pill that could solve their sickness. Then, they finally got an idea for a pill. Finally, they told the messenger boy to bring the packets to all the houses in the town in California.