Nathaniel Kurtzberg / Super Nathan

Nathaniel approached the door cautiously. Due to the bad weather, he didn't expect anyone to arrive.

"Dad?"

The door opened to a strange figure. He had a wide-brimmed hat that obscured his face, and a black business suit that stretched to his knees. Nathaniel wondered what kind of figure would wear such a thing in this weather.

"Nathaniel Kurtzberg", said the figure in a low, emotionless voice.

Needless to say, he was freaked out. "Who are you? What do you want?"

An invisible force threw a package at the artist. "Open this when the time comes. When the cuckoo bird calls three times with the thunder, you shall be ready."

"Thank y-" Nathaniel looked back out the door, but the figure was gone.


Sitting in his room, Nathaniel couldn't help but wonder exactly what was inside the package. He thought it was some junk, but a part of him thought it was his heart's greatest desire - something to make him a rich, famous artist in the future. He was tempted to open it, but opted to wait; the figure's words - whatever they meant - could be a warning.

"When the cuckoo bird calls three times with the thunder"? What does that mean? He hasn't seen any cuckoos since he moved from Germany!

Suddenly, a flash of lightning erupted just outside the window.

Thunder then shook the room, dropping Nathaniel on the floor.

He could now see his father's cuckoo clock, perched high up the wall, strike three o'clock.

Okay... this is getting weird...

Without much thought, he tore open the package and received the shock of his life.

Inside was a rectangular, near-featureless box about sixteen inches diagonally. Its little labelling clearly indicated what it was: a drawing tablet, designed for professional illustrators, with a screen that allows you to see what you're drawing.

"B-b-but... how?!", he sputtered in disbelief. "This model was discontinued three years ago!"

His excitement quickly took over. He wanted this very tablet for the past six years, but his parents never bought him one. But now, on the most unforgiving of days, the biggest thing on his wishlist was crossed out and he was now one step closer to being Super Nathan.

With the efficiency of a robot, he plugged it into his laptop.

Then, another flash of light engulfed his room.

"Hello Super Nathan!"

Shocked, Nathaniel turned to the direction of the high-pitched girl's voice. "Hello? Who's there? And my name's Nathaniel!"

"Down here!"

He could only see his tablet.

"My name is Sketch! I'm your character!"

Chills ran down his spine. Sketch was indeed one of his characters. She was an AI living in Super Nathan's magical drawing tablet, and often inspired him to be a better artist.

"Sketch?! Is that you?! What are you doing here? And why are you alive?"

"Calm down, Nate! I'll explain everything!"

Nate. Now that's a name he hasn't heard in a long time. His Grandma used to call him that. At first he thought it was annoying, but now it felt nostalgic.

"You've always wanted your comics to be real, right?", Sketch asked.

Nathaniel nodded.

"That's why I'm here! I want you to become a real Super Nathan!"

"If you really wanted me to be Super Nathan, why didn't you come sooner?"

"I didn't think you would be ready yet. And besides, there's trouble in Paris! You must do something!"

"What should I do?"

A digital art program appeared on the tablet screen. "Draw yourself as Super Nathan!"

He picked up the tablet pen and sketched his favorite superhero.

In a flash of light, everything changed.

Instead of his Magma shirt and purple jeans, Nathaniel was now wearing a skin-tight, spandex suit that stretched from his neck to his toes. His hair became messy, like the bristles of a wet paintbrush, and he was now wearing a beret. The heavy tablet, which was on his desk just moments ago, was now as light as an iPad, stuck to his suit by some unknown force.

In the mirror, he admired most of his suit's details, especially the color wheel design on his shirt. "I look just like Super Nathan!", he remarked, with a now slightly deeper voice.

"You are Super Nathan!", replied Sketch.

Taken aback, he checked his tablet. It still worked, showing his drawing program.

"Come on, Sketch!"

With that, Super Nathan drew a jetpack, and blasted off.


At the Place des Vosges, the kids trapped at the merry-go-round were banging on the ice. "Help us!" "Get me out of here!" "I'm cold!"

"Don't worry, little ones," Super Nathan announced, coming in for a landing. "I'm gonna help you!"

He drew a heater and aimed it at the ice block. Within minutes, it melted into a giant puddle.

The kids cheered. "Yeah!"

Super Nathan walked up to them. "Thank you for saving us," said an older kid.

"My pleasure. Say, do you remember how you got trapped in the first place?"

"There was this girl flying in the air. She popped our balloons and froze us with her breath."

Sounds a lot like Stormy Weather, Nathan thought, recalling the weather-themed villain from his comics.

His eyes caught Aurore, sneaking along the guard rails, which turned into ice as she walked past. "Is that her?", he asked, pointing at her.

"Yes, that's her!", replied the kid.

"Got it. Stay right there!"

Super Nathan ran up to Aurore, blocking her path.

"Listen, uh... what's your name?", Super Nathan asked.

"Stormy Weather. Yeah, Stormy Weather." Aurore replied, thinking the villain name she just came up with was kinda cool.

"Stormy Weather, look. I don't know why you're doing this, but could you please stop? So many lives have been ruined already!"

She grew visibly annoyed.

"Please, just calm down and we'll get this over with, okay?"

Without saying a word, Stormy Weather blew at Super Nathan, sending him flying three blocks down the street.

He crashed into several cars along the way, their alarms sounding like pinball machines to his dazed mind.

As he came to, he saw Stormy Weather floating in his direction.

"Stormy Weather, please," he pleaded, "just stop and I won't hurt you!"

She didn't listen. "Expect lightning storms like... right now!"

She looked up, raised her arms, and made thunder-noises with her mouth.

Immediately, huge bolts of lightning crashed around the two, one nearly striking Super Nathan.

"Stormy, no!"

But it was too late. She had already drifted off.

Deciding the streets were too dangerous, he dove into an abandoned restaurant. He sat down at a bench and placed his tablet on the table.

"So, Sketch, what do you think I should do?"

"You must find Stormy Weather and convince her to stop raining on Paris!"

"I've been trying, Sketch, but she just won't listen!"

"Then we must stay here and catch her when she isn't looking!"

"How are we gonna do that?"

"Every supervillain has a lair of some kind. We must find Stormy's and infiltrate it!"

"Good idea, Sketch!"

Super Nathan decided to buy some time. He made himself comfortable on the bench and began sketching what a weather-themed supervillain's lair could look like. After all, since his tablet was magic, any of his wacky designs could come to life and stick out like a sore thumb against the monotonous city.

But before he could draw any more than a line, he got his answer.

The restaurant's TV turned on by itself, showing Stormy Weather in front of a weather map. "Listen up Parisians! You're in Stormy Weather's world now. And in Stormy Weather's world, it's winter wonderland forever!"

As soon as Stormy left the scene, Super Nathan recognized it instantly. It was the KIDZ+ TV studio!

And with that, he zipped away on his jetpack.


Super Nathan hid right beside the emergency door at the top of the TV1 building. He was confident that Stormy would walk out to recharge her storm anytime soon.

It was getting cold, so he drew himself a fluffy coat. Sketch loved it; it was really soft and warm.

Sure enough, when Stormy Weather opened the door, she was greeted by...

"Boo!"

Stormy was shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh, just wanted to talk to you", replied Super Nathan.

"I don't have any time for this." She tried to freeze Nathan, but he drew duct tape over her mouth. "Now don't say a word until I say so."


Nathan led Stormy to a dressing room.

He erased the tape, letting her cry, "What do you want with me?"

"I want you to answer honestly," replied Nathan. "Tell me, Stormy, why exactly are you doing this?"

She wanted to resist, but Nathan's calm expression and the sadness in his eyes couldn't help but soften her heart. "You see... there's this girl I know... her name is Mireille... we joined a contest... and she won..."

"So you're saying you did all of this just because you didn't win?"

"Actually... I never wanted to. In fact, I was fine with it. But, you see, I got stuck in the elevator, and I suddenly got weather powers. And every time I used them, I felt more and more jealous of Mireille."

"Are you still jealous of her now?"

"Nah... not really."

"I see. I'm glad you aren't."

Stormy smiled.

"So, do you wanna stop the storm now?", asked Nathan.

"I- I'll try..."


Back at the roof, Stormy Weather blew at the storm.

But it didn't go away. Instead, it just got a little colder.

"I'm sorry", she said, turning to Nathan, "but I think I can only create storms, not destroy them."

"Don't worry, Stormy," replied Nathan. "There's no problem that art couldn't fix."

Nathan looked at his tablet. Under the "layers" section, there was a number of unnamed layers. From the thumbnails, he could tell that they represented all the damage caused by Stormy - the ice, the storm, everything. With a few flicks of his finger, he deleted them all.

Immediately, Paris returned to its pre-supervillain state. The sun shone brightly, and Parisians were out and about enjoying the great outdoors.

Stormy turned to Nathan with tears in her eyes. "Thank you."

"My pleasure, Stormy."

"Please, call me Aurore. Aurore Beauréal."

"Say, Aurore, what are you gonna do with your new powers?"

"I know! What if we play Heroes and Villains? Having superpowers is fun, not gonna lie."

"Sure! Just make sure not to cause too much damage."

"I will!"

Suddenly, Nathan's tablet beeped. There was an alert.

"Oops, gotta go," said Nathan. "See ya soon, Aurore!"

"Bye!"


Super Nathan landed back in his bedroom, where he immediately detransformed into regular Nathaniel.

"Sketch, that was awesome!", he told his new friend.

"Sure was!", replied Sketch, as bubbly as ever. "I love how calm you were when you tried to reason with Aurore. I knew you'd be a great Super Nathan!"

"Gee, thanks."

Suddenly, his mother's voice pierced the air. "Nathaniel! Dinner time!"

"Coming, Mom!"


Nathaniel hurried to the table, where his father and mother were waiting for him.

"Mom! Dad!", he cried. "I missed you so much!"

The family got together for a group hug. "So, where have you been all afternoon?", asked Nathaniel.

"You won't believe it, Nathaniel," replied his father. "We were out shopping when all of a sudden this hailstorm struck! It took us two hours before it was safe enough to go home!"

"But we're glad it's finally over!", interjected his mother.

Nathaniel smiled. He was worried for them all afternoon.

"So, to celebrate our safe return, I've cooked our favorite.", announced his mother. "Roast chicken!"

The family screamed in delight as they rushed to the table.

As his parents dug in, Nathaniel found himself staring at the TV.

KIDZ+ was on, and it was almost time for the nightly weather report. But neither Aurore nor Mireille were on screen. Instead, it was Alec.

"Hello Plus Kidz, Alec here!", he announced. "You may have heard that Mireille Caquet won our KIDZ+ weather girl competition earlier this afternoon. However, we've later decided to have two weather girls on our network! So today, get ready to meet our first weather girl, Aurore Beauréal!"

Nathaniel gasped as Aurore entered the scene.

"Hi!", she introduced. "I'm Aurore Beauréal, and I'll be your weather girl tonight. All throughout the night, Paris will have clear skies with a constant temperature of fourteen degrees. For other départements, we bring you to Mireille Caquet."

Nathaniel smiled. I'm glad those two finally got together.