Story 1
Once upon a time, “Man” was squashed by an alien. They got so bored of fixing half of the Earth.
God: “Aliens, how about you bring up a portal to bring…someone powerful. Someone brave and smart.”
Alien 2: “The Avengers.”
God: “No! They’re not real…Mystery Man and Captain Powers. (Dun…Dun…Dunnn).”
(Cut to Mystery Man and Captain Powers battling the Muffin Man)
Mystery Man: “Captain Powers, quickly eat the muffin before I die!”
Captain Powers: “Ok. Oomm…om…omm…oh blueberry…om and…cherry! Omm ooommm omm.”
(One month later)
Mystery Man: “Quick, we have to go destroy Darth Vader in a galaxy far, far away.”
(Portal appears and sends them to a half-destroyed Earth)
Mystery Man: “Where are we?”
Captain Powers: “Are we in Narnia?”
Mystery Man: “What does that mean?”
Captain Powers: “I don’t know (sad face).”
Mystery Man: “(sad face.)“
Alien 2: “You are here to save Earth.”
Mystery Man: “What was that?”
Captain Powers: “I think this will help.”
News reporter: “We are here to tell you that there is a portal here to suck people up. And worst of all, Mystery Man (MM) and Captain Powers (CP) have gone missing. Looks like this is a ‘mystery.’ Ha…ha. (cough, cough) Let’s see, what does the scientist have to say?”
Scientist 1: “I’ve done some research and there might be a 98 percent chance it could be a black hole. It was probably made by a mythical and very important person.”
News reporter: “Very well. Now, I recommend we follow the wise old man. Now, who likes salsa dancing?”
Captain Powers: “Alien 1, here is the galaxy with the naked eye.”
Mystery Man and Captain Powers: “What!!!????!??!!!”
Story 2:
Mystery Man: “What are we going to do?”
God: “Clean this place.”
Captain Powers: “Who did this?”
Alien 1: “The Man.”
Captain Powers: “The Man?”
Alien 1: “Yes, the Man. He was destroying everybody and everything.”
Mystery Man: “Cruel.”
Random Person: “Where are we?”
Mystery Man: “You do not want to know.”
Captain Powers: “Mystery Man, we have an emergency.”
Mystery Man: “What is it?”
Captain Powers: “Stikbots need our help from Vamprah.”
Mystery Man: “Screw it. Stryker can save them.”
Captain powers: “Pixel’s dead.”
Mystery Man: “Why!!!!!”
Story 3
Mystery Man: “I guess we have to clean this all up.”
(Three hours later)
Captain Powers: “We have cleaned a quarter of this Earth.”
(Another three hours later. The Earth is finally cleaned up.)
Story 4
God: “Ok, I will.”
Guards: “Trespasser, state your name.”
Mystery Man: “Mystery Man and I’m going to mind control.”
Guard: “Wait what? I will let you in and defeat myself.”
Vamprah: “Hello, looks like you’re the heroes from Earth.”
Mystery Man: “Where’s Stryker?”
Vamprah: “Oh…I don’t know…maybe trapped.”
Captain Powers: “Use the force.”
Captain Powers: “Oh no, there is trash coming towards us.”
Vamprah: “Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha…..wait that’s not our trash.”
Guard: “We have been copied. They’re trying to destroy us.”
Vamprah: “Well, let’s destroy them too. Release the garbage…what the? It destroyed our Man. Why am I the weakest villain?”
Captain Powers: “Oh, do you need this tape about how to be better a villain? I was about to give it to you….”
Mystery Man: “It’s the Man.”
Man: “Yes, I am alive. Yes, ouch, my back. I really need a massage, God.”
Mystery Man: “Oh, I’m a really good masseuse. Want one?”
Man: “Ok.”
(Mega punch, karate chop)
Man: “Oh, my back…it cracked. Oh, but that felt kinda good…now I will rule the world and nothing will stop me like the naked eye. Now Trash, wipe them like the…uuhh, well, wiped them. HaHaHaHaHaHa.”
Mystery Man: “C’mon, let’s get out of here…we need a plan.”
Captain Powers: “Oohh…I know that you know how Man is planning to fill this up with trash.”
Mystery Man: “Yeah.”
Captain Powers: “If we use our force to push some planets together, it would take some time to find out what is Man’s weakness and how to destroy the device that makes the trash keep on moving. Ok, let’s get moving.”
Mystery Man: “I know! If we bring the Earth to the Sun, the trash will burn and we’ll have plenty of time. Oh my god! I just remembered that a group of citizens is still in the naked eye and they can’t breathe.”
Captain Powers: “Vamprah, can you breathe in space?”
Vamprah: “Yes. Why?”
Mystery Man: “God is going to transport you there to save the people and bring them to safety.”
Vamprah: “Got it.”
Mystery Man: “Now let’s put all the planets together and one Sun but not too close.”
Narrator: While we wait for Mystery Man and Captain Powers to force planets together, we can name starter Pokemon! Froakle, Squirtle, Mudkip, Oshawatt, Totodile……
(Three hours later)
Captain Powers: “Let’s think of Man’s weakness.”
Mystery Man: “Ok, let’s go.”
Narrator: While we wait, let’s talk about Man’s weakness. It is candy and cats.
(Six hours later)
Mystery Man: “Ok, now all we need to do is trap as many cats as we can and get the most candy as we can.”
Captain Powers: “I’ll trap the cats and you will go get the candy from Walmart.”
Mystery Man: “What? No, they have the worst candy. I’ll go to Walgreens.”
Narrator: While we are waiting, let’s ask Edwin some questions: ‘What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?’
Edwin: Uuuhhh vanilla.
Narrator: How old are you?
Edwin: Nine.
Narrator: Great. Great. Now…
Mystery Man: “Ok, now let’s do what we need to do.”
Story 5
Mystery Man: “Ok, Man, time to end you.”
Man: “Noooo I feel so, so, so, so sick. I mean c’mon…I know this was a bad place to destroy. Oohh nooo.”
Captain Powers: “Yes, we have defeated Man.”
God: “Congratulations, but you have one thing to do.”
Captain Powers: “Let me guess. We have to clean up our mess.”
God: “Nope, the Aliens did that.”
Alien 1: “It was so tiring.”
God: “You still have to destroy Death Vader.”
Mystery Man: “Ok, let’s go.”
(He’s tired)
Have you ever wondered how mountains were formed? How stars got into the night sky? What the world looks like from the point of view of a coyote? Have you been dreaming about solutions to water pollution? Our After-School Tutoring students in Echo Park have answers to those questions in our newest publication, Sitting in a Donut Tree. Throughout the winter, our students learned about challenges to the natural and built environment, creation stories about the Earth from indigenous communities, and learned about the biodiversity of the desert ecosystems.
Cover Art: Megan Farrell
Pick it up at your local Time Travel Mart. Interested in helping students write stories like these? Become a volunteer.