A Day in Tommy's Life

''Whack! Pow! Zap!''

Tommy waved his Thunderfist action figure in the air and marched it across the carpet, mimicing the action flitting across the television screen in front of him. He wished he had more action figures so that Thunderfist would have some real bad guys to fight, instead of just an old beat-up teddy bear. Then he could get some real playing done.

As the adventure came to a close and the credits began to play, Tommy had a thought. He could just make some bad guys, couldn't he? It wouldn't be hard. Gripped with excitement at this possibility, he rushed upstairs without turning the tv off (Mommy sometimes scolded him for that). He tore into his room and pulled out his box of LEGO. He quickly set about building a Boilerman figure out of the tiny blocks. After a few minutes, he held out his creation and deemed it cool. It was pretty two-dimensional of course, but it would do.

Weary from his creative frenzy, Tommy ran back downstairs for a refreshing juice box. He took his Thunderfist figure with him but left Boilerman behind, for he was rather fragile. As he sat at the kitchen table and sipped at his juice, he glanced out the window and saw his dog Grover jumping through the sprinkler. That looked like fun! Tommy left his juice box half-finished on the table (Mommy didn't like that much either) and ran out the back door to join in. The boy and the dog chased each other back and forth through the sprinkler, laughing and barking.

Suddenly, Tommy slipped on the damp grass. The Thunderfist figure went flying out of his hand as he crashed to the ground. Tommy quickly looked over his bare arms, and lifted his overall legs to check his knees. No boo-boos? Good. Okay. Don't need to cry. Grover hopped over and licked him until he climbed back to his feet. Tommy's eyes cast about, looking for Thunderfist. He wasn't anywhere on the ground nearby. Then he looked up, and spied his favourite toy nestled out of reach in the branches of an oak tree. Now he cried.

He stumbled back into the kitchen. His cries has brought Daddy. "What's wrong, sport? Did you get a boo-boo?"

"I l-lost my Thunderf-f-fist in the treeeeee!" Tommy wailed.

Daddy patted Tommy's head and told him that everything would be fine, then headed outside to fetch the ladder. Tommy quickly began to calm down, for Daddy would set everything right. He spied his half-empty juicebox and picked it up. He tried to drink the rest, but he hiccuped suddenly and it came out his nose. He clenched his hands in surprise, spraying juice across the kitchen floor. Uh oh. Mommy DEFINITELY wouldn't like that.

Tommy decided to play things cool and returned to his room. He'd be safe there, surely. He saw his LEGO Boilerman and decided he didn't like the arms, so he spent a few minutes taking the creation apart and trying to make it look right. He achieved only mild success and soon grew tired. He climbed onto his bed and clutched his pillow in a tight embrace. He quickly drifted off into a pleasant dream-filled nap.

A few minutes later, Daddy peeked his head into Tommy's room. Seeing that the boy was asleep, he simply placed the Thunderfist toy on the dresser where it could easily be found later. He poked Tommy's nose gently, then left and closed the door behind him.

''Tommy has a dream of a calm, reassuring voice speaking to him. Much like Mommy or Daddy.''

''"Tommy," it tells him. "You're going to wake up soon. You might be scared, because your parents won't be there. But you will see them again. You have a very important job to do soon. It will be alright, and there will be others to help you.''"

A warm light washes over Tommy as he falls back into deep sleep.

---Prologues--&gt;

Chapter 1--&gt;