Kent Shakespeare sat on a park bench with Laurie Lemmon beneath a clear blue sky. School had let out about an hour earlier, so they had decided to stop by the park on their walk home to hang out for a bit. Both were new additions to Midvale, so they had been drawn together and became friends.



Of course, Laurie didn’t realize that she had already met Kent Before moving to Midvale in his other identity as Superboy. She had been going by another name, as well… Laurie Lemonelli . She chose to shorten it to Lemmon when she moved in with her aunt, as she had, to distance herself from her father’s mafia roots.



“It’s cool that Miss Velez is letting us read ‘Dracula’,” Kent said.



“Yeah, but I thought it would be scarier,” Laurie said. “The writer spends so much time describing the setting instead of scary stuff that I feel like I’m reading a travel guide!”



“I guess I hadn’t thought of it like that,” Kent laughed. His eyes drifted to a child that was playing with a pink stuffed rabbit. She was there every day with her baby sitter, a local college student who was now standing a few feet away talking to a few boys, flirting shamelessly. Nearby, a car appeared to be circling the park.





George McReady circled his car around the park, scanning the area for a sign of his daughter and that little bimbo his ex-wife had hired to watch her. He had been watching them for days to learn their routine. His wife would drop the kid off at school in the morning and then the sitter would pick her up in the early afternoon to bring her here to play until shortly before dinner.



As usual, the sitter seemed to be distracted by whatever male of similar age was in the area. Now was as good a time as any to make his move. It wasn’t so much that he even wanted custody of the kid. Truth be told, she was kind of a pain in the ass. His wife wanted her, though, and he didn’t want his wife to have what she wanted. Not after she had gotten everything else in the divorce.



McReady put his car in park and exited the car. “Hello, Punkin,” he said, walking towards his daughter.



His daughter stopped playing with her bunny and looked up with fear in her eyes. “You’re not s’posed to be here!” she exclaimed. “Mommy said!”



“Your mommy said a lot of things,” McReady said. “She always did love to hear herself talk.”



“You’re not supposed to be here,” the girl whined, visibly afraid. “Go away.”



“Don’t start sassing me, girl,” he said, grabbing her arm. “You’re coming with me!” he growled.





“What’s that man doing with that girl?” Laurie said.



Kent brought his hand up to his glasses as if he were trying to get a better look. “It looks like he’s trying to pull her to his car!”



“Is he her father?” Laurie asked anxiously.



“She’s here every day with that girl,” he said, pointing to the girl who was now running towards them..

The man suddenly backhanded the girl, knocking her down.



‘We’ve got to do something!” Laurie exclaimed. Kent was just about to say he was going to run get help so he could change to Superboy when his voice caught in his throat.



The girl’s stuffed rabbit suddenly swelled to the size of a silverback gorilla. With a feral growl, it shoved George McReady, sending him flying several feet. McReady crabwalked away from it, whimpering nervously as the enormous pink rabbit began to advance.



“Im…. Going to get some help,” Kent said, stunned by what he was seeing.



Laurie ran a few feet closer and then stopped, spellbound by the sight of the ape-like giant rabbit advancing on the cringing man. Kent used the distraction to run to a nearby group of trees and do a quick change at super speed.



Superboy flew towards the giant rabbit. He threw his arms around its arms, locking hands behind its head and grabbing it in a full nelson.



“Leave him alone!” the little girl screamed.



“I’ll make him leave him alone,” Superboy said.



“Leave Mr Flopsie alone!” the little girl screamed. “Daddy is mean to Mommy and me! He’s trying to protect us!”



Briefly distracted, the rabbit used the opportunity to flip Superboy, sending him flying into a nearby car. McReady used the skirmish as the opportunity to flee to his car. He reached for his keys with a shaking hand and put them into the ignition. Before he could start the car, the rabbit sunk his front teeth into the hood of the car and steam began to rise from underneath the hood.



McReady gave a startled scream as the rabbit hopped to the hood of the car. The giant rabbit placed both front paws on the roof of the car and with a quick tug, ripped the top of the car off. McReady screamed as he slipped to the floorboard of the car, covering his head with his hands, waiting for a pair of giant paws to rip him from the car.



Superboy slammed into the rabbit just as police cars began to show up, forming a half-circle around the area in the parking lot where they landed. A STAR labs van arrived, too, obviously drawn by the news of a giant pink rabbit.



Superboy tussled with the rabbit, trying to get a good hold on it. “Stop” he told it, grabbing it by the waist from behind and lifting it up. “If you were trying to protect her, you’ve done it! The cops are here and people saw what he was trying to do! You did it! You protected her! Killing her father won’t make things any better!”



The rabbit suddenly went limp in his arms. To his surprise, the rabbit began to shrink and was suddenly a small plush animal again. Superboy felt a tug on his cape and looked down to see the little girl looking up at him.



“Excuse me Mr. Superboy. Can I have my rabbit back?” the little girl asked him.



“Sure,” Superboy said, leaning down to hand it to her. “Here you go.”



“Actually, I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” a voice from behind him said.” Superboy turned to see a STAR labs representative looking at him. “We need to take that stuffed toy in and run tests on it. It did just attack a man and rip a car in half.”



“Whatever force was in it has left,” Superboy said. “It’s harmless.”



“You have no way of knowing that,” the STAR rep said.



“Actually, I can,” Superboy said. “It’s kind of my thing. I won’t tell you about test tubes and you don’t tell me about super villains and monsters, okay? The force inside the toy left it. It’s gone. I felt it leave.”



“Well, if it’s gone, where did it go?” the STAR rep asked impatiently.



“That I can’t tell you,” Superboy said.





From a nearby treetop there rested a kite with a cartoon face. Cartoon eyes watched the scene below. His intention had been to kill the man so he could grieve the girl and her family no further. The boy had managed to talk him out of it, though. He was so much like his old opponent, Superman. And despite their former conflicts, Superman had always proven trustworthy. If the boy should prove wrong, though, he would be back and nothing would stay his hand.



With a quick jerk, the kite wrested itself free of the branches holding it. The Toyman allowed the winds to carry him aloft, the lights of the police cars below reflecting off the plastic surface of the kite he inhabited.