Super Ted and the Creepy Crawler As you might have guessed, Superheroes come in many forms and so do super villains. In fact, some of the super villains I have battled actually have pretty interesting backstories that explain why and how they became super villains. The Creepy Crawler is a super villain just like that. The Creepy Crawler was a villain who lived underneath the city in the subway tunnels. He got the name “Creepy Crawler” because he was obsessed with insects and happily lived among the cockroaches and spiders in the deepest depths of the underground tunnels. He even disguised himself as a huge insect and crawled around at night finding people to terrorize. Unlike most super villains, the Creepy Crawler wasn’t very interested in stealing or attaining power—he just wanted to frighten people. He loved seeing people scream and run away in disgust when he jumped out at them like a six foot tall roach. The problem was that, a lot of times, he managed to cause some serious accidents and injuries when he frightened his victims—some of them lost control of their cars and crashed, others ran out into the street and got hit by cars; once he even managed to cause a train to derail! It became very clear to me that the Creepy Crawler needed to be stopped and I was just the Superhero to stop him! The key to being a good superhero is to do a lot of research about your nemesis—that’s a fancy word for enemy—before you actually try to battle them. I wanted to know all about the Creepy Crawler. I wanted to know why he liked people more than bugs, willingly dressed like an insect, and chose to live his life in the dark and only come out of the shadows to frighten people. I soon learned that the Creepy Crawler had grown up in the city and he started out as a normal boy named Sid Farnan. Sid didn’t have any brothers or sisters or cousins. He was shy so he had trouble making friends and at schools kids picked on him and called him names. He became more and more sullen and withdrawn. He devoted his life to studying science, specifically the science of “Entomology” which is the study of bugs. Sid was an apt pupil and he got a scholarship to attend a highly respected college. While he was working toward his degree, Sid went to the Mediterranean in search of a rare scarab beetle, bugs that were once worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians. While there, Sid was bitten by a mysterious insect and he started to change in both appearance and personality. He began spending more and more time in the dark, eventually he completely avoided daylight. Within a few months he dropped out of college and seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth…and then the scares started. By the time I realized that something needed to be done about the villain that the newspapers had dubbed the “Creepy Crawler,” there was an even more disturbing trend: giant insects were being seen all over the city! Every day there were more and more reports about sightings of enormous bugs and I knew that the Creepy Crawler was behind it. As an entomologist he would surely know exactly what to feed insects to make them grow especially big and strong! Among my special superpowers are flying and being able to sense where the things I’m looking for are. For example, if I misplace my phone all I have to do is think about it and I will get a vision in my mind of where it is. I used this special power to psychically track where the Creepy Crawler was. Unsurprisingly, my senses told me that he was deep underground surrounded by other insects. And so I journeyed down into the underground subway layer of the Creepy Crawler. The city subway system has been in existence for a very long time and there are several lines that no longer support trains. It is on the paths of these abandoned tracks that the Creepy Crawler set up his layer. The further I descended into the depths the deeper it got, which made me glad that my eyes have special lenses that allow me to see much better in the dark than a non-Superhero would. The further down into the depths I got the more I saw insects creeping and crawling around me. They were large and aggressive and I had to use my laser vision to blast them out of the way. After I had zapped about six bugs I heard a low rumble behind me. I turned around just in time to see the Creepy Crawler himself flying straight towards me and he sure looked angry! I barely had time to put up my arms to shield myself before he flew into me and attempted to tackle me. The deflective material on my super suit caused him to rebound backwards and gave me the upper hand. I lunged at him and tackled him yet the Creepy Crawler was a worthy opponent. Every time I tried to tackle him he found a way to escape me—just like a real bug. Yet good is stronger than evil and so I was able to overpower him. In a last ditch effort to win the fight he started producing these awful high pitched noises and, in a matter of seconds, a number of insects were swarming around my head obviously trying to protect their master. It was dizzying to have so many bugs buzzing about me and crawling all over my cape! I knew just what I had to do though. Aside from my super powers I have a super suit that protects me and helps me do things that my super powers alone cannot. One of the features in my suit is that, when I shout “ILLUMINATE!” it glows in the dark. As soon as my suit started glowing, all the bugs scattered, startled by the sudden light. The change from dark to light also strained the Creepy Crawler’s eyes and he gave a scream of surprise. I took the opportunity to grab him. I used my super strength to fly with him through the tunnels, out of the subway station, and above ground to the top of the Central Train Station Building where our presence would not be noticed by average citizens. After I captured him and brought him above ground, I released the Creepy Crawler from my grip. He fell to the ground with a THUD and lay at my feet, covering his eyes and panting for breath. I gave him a long hard look and realized that he had actually become part insect, it wasn’t just a costume, but he also had some undeniably human features…and, even after everything he had done, he still resembled the lonely Sid Farnan he had started out life as. “I’m taking you down to the station, Sid.” I informed him. He seemed surprised that I knew his real name. I expected him to just make a high pitched squealing or clicking, like an actual bug, but to my surprise he could still speak like a human! “I can’t leave my family!” he half said, half hissed. “They need me. They accept me. They want me. I protect them. I am part of their colony!” With that said, Sid tried to get up and flee. Luckily, I always carry a rope with me and I used that to lasso Sid, or the Creepy Crawler as he preferred to be called, and brought him to the local police prescient. They were surprised to see him but grateful to me for subduing him. It took three police officers to drag him into a cell since he was shouting in protest about being separated from his roach family in the subways and sewers. “He’s actually more lonely than evil,” I told the police chief. “He needs to be taken off the streets but I think he could be very helpful to the world if he was put in the correct work program.” I later learned that the chief of police took my advice. Instead of simply throwing Sid in jail they allowed him access to the library where he spent hours reading about the kinds of medicines that can come from bugs. He spent his days researching such things and writing down his findings which greatly helped the local hospital come up with several “miracle cure” medicines. Even better, Sid was eventually allowed to live in the deep sub-basement under the library where he was happily surrounded by his insect family. And so, the villainous Creepy Crawler became a top respected and accepted researcher who found joy in helping people, not frightening them.