Captain Americrease: The First Fold

CAPTAIN AMERICREASE: THE FIRST FOLD
By SuperFolder Noah

Disclaimer: For this story in particular, we have tried to stay as true to the official events as possible. However, as must occur with fictional tales of this sort, many liberties have been taken, most notably in timeline alterations. So, bear with us in this, and enjoy the story. ~~SuperFolder Noah R.~~

 

*As collected from an old transcript held in the F.O.L.D. file room. Accessed by Agent Andrew Gardner for inspiration in his own heroics.*

True Believers, I now bring you a tale of great adventure, heroics, and excitement, all from the halls of Benjamin Kirby High School. Of heroes, villains, and an alarming amount of folded paper. Events occurred within these very walls surprising even I, your guide on this written journey.

To tell this story in its entirety, we must go back to the earliest of days. Now, the narrator, of course, was a student at Benjamin Kirby High. About that time, a war started. A Great War, even greater than the Great War prior.

Now, we Americans were staying out of it pretty well. We did a great job of making the problem seem like it wasn’t ours, and we did that for a very long time. However, there was a brave company, purveyor of illustrated stories called comic books; back in those days, it went by the name of Timely Comics. Run by my big uncle, Timely decided that the good ole’ USA needed to be involved. And what better way to establish their ever-popular stance than by writing a book about it?

And thus, the name ‘Captain America’ was thrown onto magazine racks, and youngsters like me immediately latched onto it like glue. The image on that colorful cover of our hero, Cap, slugging the big bad guy, Hitler, was an image burned into my brain and I would carry it with me forever. I still do, in fact. It was a thing of great beauty to a kid like me. It made me want to enlist in the Army as soon as I was able. Which I did. But, it also started giving me some thoughts of my own.

Why weren’t we fighting? Bullies like the Germans, they existed everywhere. They could infiltrate the firmest of fortresses and install ideals of indecency even in the minds of the most mighty. I would learn that lesson well in the coming days. And bullies like that; they needed to be shown who was boss.

I was about to learn that lesson in a way that could only be described as ginormous.

My friends and I all took to Captain America with a feverish passion. Before I get into any more of the unfolding tale, I must introduce you to my pals. There’s Nancy Jean, Johnny Richardson, Ray Joyce, and Norm Goss. They are the chums that I’ve gathered over the years, and we’ve stuck like glue through thick and thin. These four also love the escapades of the Star-Spangled Man, almost as much as me. That bonds us all.

Returning to the tales of our greatest escapades, our gang loved Captain America but had very little to apply that love to. We would doodle our hearts’ out, of course, but we wanted something to show our deep, deep passion.

Wouldn’t you know that for a semester, we got a new teacher; his name was Mr. Yang. He was a splendid fellow who had come over from Japan to escape from his country’s current malevolence. With him he brought a love and fascination with little pieces of folded paper; he called them ‘origami’.

The class was a spectacular success, and within days the halls of Kirby were covered in creases, bombasted by water-bombs, and swamped in shawl folds. Cranes, Planes, and even origami automobiles were everywhere. Some even folded origami likenesses mimicking the grinning mug of Kirby’s mascot, Sammy the Squirrel.

And with this new way of expressing ourselves, me and my gang decided to make folded versions of our collective hero, Captain America. I was the first to fold him, and while my creases were never the cleanest, soon my hero was staring back at me, ready to face evil in any of its many malicious forms.

At the same time as Captain America, the Super Soldier was in another book, where he was starring alongside other heroes of the time; they were Namor the Sub-Mariner, stoic king of the lost city of Atlantis; the Human Torch, a synthetic android with the ability to coat himself in a sheath of flame; the Whizzer, a super-speedster faster than the speed of sound; and finally, Miss America, stronger than a hundred men. They called themselves the “All-Winners,” and more often than not, that was a very accurate name! The All-Winners defeated the worst of the baddies, and me and the gang wanted to be just like them. So, Johnny, Ray, Norm and Nancy all took on their respective heroes and we became the All-Winners of Kirby High.

The last featuring character of this tale is our friend Gordie. He’d shown up when his father had gotten a job in the nearby factory. He didn’t know how long he’d be staying; his family moved around a lot. But, we were glad he was here in any case. He was a very kind, sweet boy with skin as dark as dark chocolate. Because of his skin color he wasn’t necessarily allowed to be a Kirby student, but he was an honorary one by anyone’s count. He never folded an origami character, as there was no one he ‘identified with.’ Oh well, he was still a member of our gang. Us six friends most of all hung around after school, read comics and created our own story scenario. Not to pat myself on the back, but even then I had a real knack for telling stories.  The problem; we didn’t have anything to always win against.

All that changed when, a couple blocks away, a new school started to go up during the fall, and it was completed right before the spring semester started. It called itself Wheeler Academy, and I was happy to have what I assumed would become a healthy academic rival. Competition is great for you, I always say.

That’s not what Wheeler turned out to be at all, but I’d find this out later.

 

“So, what do you think Wheeler will be like?” Nancy asked me one day during spring break.

“Better be good. I’d like some new friends and a change of pace. No offense to you,” I laughed.

“Of course not, you big lug.” She stopped, a thoughtful look on her face. “But what if they’re not like anything we’d like?”

“What do you mean?”

“What if these people are people who wouldn’t like us? We’re a pretty welcoming school. For instance, we’re all pals with Gordie. Some people wouldn’t like that, would they?”

I scoffed at the idea. Kirby was known for its reputation of being a very charming school, filled with pals and chums aplenty. If somebody didn’t like us, they must have a chip on their shoulder the size of Texas.

“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about this, Nancy,” I replied.

“Not everybody is as positive as you, buddy.”

We walked the rest of the way, discussing the newest issue of the All-Winners Squad.

 

It was the first day after Spring break. Wheeler was fully built, and it was near enough to Kirby that we could see it from the recess yard. Why it was built so close I’ll never know. To begin the festivities, the Kirby and Wheeler higher-ups decided to have a day of meeting and greeting the students of the opposite schools. I had been looking forward to this; I may not like meeting new people all that much, but this was a special occasion. Indeed, it was actually exciting about this exhilarating opportunity.

It started well, with kids from both schools greeting each other, shaking hands and being good chums. Ray was telling jokes to Nancy and the other girls, but mostly Nancy. Johnny was sampling some of the light munches that were arranged. I thought it was going very well!

It all ended as soon as Gordie walked over.

Like I said, he always came over and talked with us. We thought he was a pretty swell guy. So, he wanted to participate in the festivities. He’d even cleaned up a bit. He walked over, greeted Ray, talked with Nancy and Norm, and then came over to where me and Johnny, done with the snacks, were talking to some older, more muscular members of Wheeler.

“Morning fellas,” Gordie said.

I shook his hand. “Good to see you Gordie.”

The leader of the guys, a big, burly jock, looked astounded. “You actually talk with this guy?”

“Yeah, what’s it to you?” I answered. “This is Gordie. He’s a good man.”

“That’s my name, what’s yours?” Gordie held out his hand for the Jock to shake.

“How dare you!” the Jock shouted. “You don’t know your place here, boy.”

Gordie moved his hand back to his side.

“So, you actually let him be here?”

“Of course we do!” Johnny piped up. “We like him.”

This was too much. The Jock and his cronies started to chuckle. “You can’t like him! He doesn’t belong here! I can’t believe this school is one of those people!” He shoved Gordie to the ground. “You all are imbeciles!”

The rest of the kids had turned from their various activities and were now focusing on the occurring ordeal. Nancy, Ray and Norm all pushed their way to the front of the crowd to get a closer look at the goings-on. Nancy bent down and helped Gordie back to his feet.

“Well, you aren’t a nice guy at all,” Gordie mumbled.

“Your opinion doesn’t matter,” the Jock hissed. The rest of the Wheeler students had gathered behind the Jock and his cronies. They were all nodding their heads in agreement. I heard several ‘he’s right’ and ‘you tell ‘em!’

“We can’t have this going on with our new neighbors. You’ll regret ever messing with people like him,” the Jock threatened.

“We’ll beat you to the ground before that happens,” Ray replied, helpfully.

“I’m sure you will. It’s time to go, boys. We’ve seen enough.”

Wheeler left the field, muttering curses under their breath.

It seemed the All-Winners Squad finally had some villains to fight.

 

I stood agape, flabbergasted by the sight: Marvin was gone, and in his place was a note taped to the lockers declaring ‘Hi-de-ho, and Kirb-y your enthusiasm! We are the top dogs now. We got your leapin’ lemur and we aren’t giving him back. Best regards; Wheeler Academy.’

“They can’t do this! Marvin’s not even a lemur, he’s a monkey!” Norm shouted. His origami Whizzer waggled with indignation. “These jokers aren’t getting away with this,” the yellow puppet said.

Ray stamped out of the locker rooms. He was irate. “I’m stomping over there right now to get Marvin back. This is an act of war.”

“Now, now, Ray, let’s not be throwing out words like that,” Johnny squeaked.

“Johnny, I think he’s right on target.” I pulled Captain Americrease out of my pocket. His smiling visage was enough to inspire bravery, courage and patriotism in even the coldest of hearts. “If it’s a fight Wheeler wants, then it’s a fight they’re gonna get. Get Nancy. We’ve got a monkey to save.”

Our plan admittedly wasn’t much of a plan: We decided that we would go up to Wheeler and demand Marvin be returned. We didn’t want to resort to an ol’ bout of punch-em-up, but we were determined to complete our task at any cost. It’s what Captain America would have done, I decided.

As soon as the doors opened at the end of the day, me and the gang marched our way over to Wheeler’s front lawn. Gordie had followed us but wouldn’t actually walk onto Wheeler property.

“You don’t have to do this,” he told us. We all turned to look at him.

“Why not? They have our monkey,” Ray replied. He was itching for a fight, too. His fists were clenched pretty tightly.

“But violence breeds more violence,” he responded. Gordie was pretty wise beyond his years, I’d figured out.

“We’re not planning to start a fight,” Nancy responded, looking at Ray when she said this. Ray relaxed his fists. “We’re just hoping to have a peaceful conversation and get our mascot back.” Because of her way with words, Nancy was elected to be our negotiator; she was at the same time the easiest to talk to and the scariest out of all of us. We were hoping to use this to our advantage.

“And if that doesn’t work?”

Norm rolled his eyes. “Of course it’s not gonna work. You saw how they treated us, and him. Wheeler is the enemy now.”

“It’s okay, Gordie. We can take care of this lickety-split,” I reassured.

Gordie sat down on the sidewalk, annoyed. “You don’t have to avenge me,” he mumbled.

Huh. Avenge. I liked the sound of that.

As we walked into the school, a teacher, still packing up for the day, stepped out of her classroom to greet us. “Hello? Are you kids students here?” she asked.

“No, ma’am,” Nancy replied. “We’re here to get back our stolen mascot.”

“A mascot? Oh, dear, that sounds serious. I hope you don’t hold this against us…this is just a friendly school prank, of course!” She leaned down and whispered good-naturedly, “Some of these kids are real troublemakers!” She giggled. “Well, good luck!”

I had to admit, that was a first class subterfuge if I ever saw one. But I recognized that teacher; she had been one of the chaperones to the welcome group. If she let those thugs push us around like that, I doubt she’d do anything about a debacle like this.

Sure enough, our presence was alerted to the jocks of the school, and as we wandered the halls, trying to figure out where a giant monkey suit would be kept, a low, booming voice echoed down to us.

“You lost, nerds?”

Johnny gasped. I’d never heard that caliber of insult before. Standing before us was the same bully who’d shoved our agitated ally days before.

“We are exactly where we’re supposed to be, kid,” Nancy sneered. Miss America was already held proudly on her finger.

“Nice paper doll. Looks almost as pretty as you.” He swaggered closer, swelling up his already sizable muscles to either impress or intimidate us. He smirked at Nancy. “What say you and I ditch these posers and go out for milkshakes this afternoon?”

I noticed Ray clench his fists.

“I don’t date pond scum, sorry.” She smacked the Jock across the face. Johnny gasped again. Negotiation was obviously off the table.

“Give us back our monkey,” Johnny blurted.

“Oh, you want your bumbling baboon returned? Fat chance, tiny.” He picked the kid up by the collar. “You can’t do anything about it. You know why?”

“Why?” the victim squeaked.

“Kirby High is a disgrace. You’re all best pals with a kid who doesn’t belong there and should never belong there. You’ve got girls like that one thinking they know better. We can’t take that. It’s ‘cause of people like that that this war got started. If they were gone we’d not be in this mess in the first place. Maybe the bad guys have the right idea.”

The Sub-Mariner fell out of Johnny’s pocket and plunked to the ground. The Jock noticed and busted out laughing. “You’ve got the paper dolls too? That’s rich. Besides, the girl’s is much better.”

In support, Me, Norm and Ray all produced our puppets from our pockets; Norm held the Whizzer, Ray the Human Torch, and I, Captain Americrease. All of us were looking for a fight.

“Leave him alone,” I growled.

“Can we punch him yet?” Ray whispered to me.

“It’s four and half against one,” Norm added.

“Have at it,” I replied. I turned to the Jock. “You can’t beat us. We stand for truth, justice, and the American way!”

The Jock cackled again.

The two boys lunged at the Jock, causing him to drop Johnny. The small boy curled up into a ball and hid in a corner and Nancy ran to tend to his broken ego. The Jock knew how to fight; he must have been on the wrestling team. He threw a nasty right hook and knocked Norm to the floor. I jumped into the fight to take Norm’s place and immediately took a punch to the forehead. My teeth rattled and stars popped around my vision. I was down.

I couldn’t see it, and was told later that Ray held his own quite well. The boy was tall and lanky, but he could control all his movements. He got a few good punches in before the Jock charged and tackled him to the hard floor.

“I told you nerds,” he gloated, “Wheeler is the superior school now. Kirby should either shape up, get rid of the weak links and become an ally, or keep at what you’re doing and stay our enemy. It’s your choice.” He leaned down to look me directly in the face. “And kid, that quote you used; that’s Superman. Nobody at Timely Comics ever used that phrase.”

 

We walked out of Wheeler, dejected. We had been beaten by that dastardly dolt, and we didn’t even have the mascot to make up for our losses. Norm had a pretty sizable shiner. Johnny’s Sub-Mariner was a bit crumpled. I had a splitting headache.

Gordie was still sitting outside and noted our mournful mugs.

“I told you it wouldn’t work,” he chastised.

“Yeah, yeah, the ‘I told you so’ bit isn’t appreciated at the moment,” Ray snapped.

“We can’t let this get us down, guys!” I wasn’t at all ready to give up. And I formulated a new plan.

“The Wheeler thugs obviously got the mascot suit somehow, and it wasn’t by going through the front door. If we want our Marvin back, we’re gonna have to use the same tactics.”

Gordie groaned. “Don’t tell me you’re gonna try and get it back again!”

The rest of the crew was in. We were back in business.

The next day, we waited until we were sure everybody at Wheeler had gone home. That was when we walked into the school to start our rescue mission.

We split with Nancy and Ray, and I led Norm and Johnny into the Wheeler locker rooms. It was very similar to our own locker rooms. I don’t know why I would be expecting anything different; locker rooms are pretty universal in design.

“If anybody sees anything monkey-like in form, tell me,” I ordered.

“Yes, sir,” both boys replied.

We opened every locker in the place. We rifled through bags, looked in showers, checked under sinks, until there was only one locker left. We knew our pal Marvin had to be in there.

“Would you like to have the honor, Norman?” I asked.

“Of course.”

Norm yanked the door open, but instead of a monkey, we were met with the enormous pearly-whites of a giant, grinning rodent. I gasped. Maybe it wasn’t Marvin, but it was one better. This was the Wheeler mascot, Sammy the Squirrel.

“Oh my word…” Johnny said, breathlessly.

“Do unto others, right boys?” I grinned and began pulling it out of the locker. “Come on, guys. Let’s get this thing out of here.”

As we rustled around, Johnny squeaked. We heard footsteps coming. I realized in a split second that we’d forgotten something; we hadn’t accounted for sports practice after school.

We couldn’t be found here, so against better judgement we all piled into the open locker, one after another. The door closed none too soon.

“Nice scrimmage, team. Our first game against the enemy isn’t going to be a fair game at all.” It was the voice of The Jock.

“Oh, yeah, we’re way better,” a dumb voice replied.

“Head for the showers, and meet back here tomorrow morning,” The Jock ordered.

They obviously listened as a few minutes later I heard the hiss of a shower turning on.

“What are we going to do?” Johnny whimpered.

“We’re stuck here,” Norm whined.

“Maybe not,” I said thoughtfully. I looked at the face of the Wheeler squirrel and a plan formulated.

Moments later, the three of us boys were piled into the buck-toothed buddy, shambling through the halls of Wheeler. I was on the bottom, working the legs, Norm was sitting on my shoulders, controlling the arms, and Johnny, being the smallest, fit right into the head. Nobody questioned the squirrel wandering the school. Some even gave us a high-five. Sure, it must have looked a bit bumpy from the outside, but we were hoping nobody would notice.

We were home free, I knew it; until two bodies slammed into us, knocking us all to the ground.

It was Nancy and Ray, out of breath.

“Oh, sorry, uh, squirrel person,” Nancy apologized.

“Nancy, it’s us!” Norm whispered loudly from inside the squirrel’s stomach.

“What are you guys doing in there?” Ray questioned, flabbergasted.

“We’re stealing the Wheeler mascot.”

It was a difficult effort, but we were able to stand up again. We were ready to go back to Kirby.

“Why were you guys running?” Johnny asked.

“Oh, yeah, some of the cheerleaders saw Nancy in the locker room,” Ray started. “So…we have to go. Now.”

I rolled my eyes, and we exited Wheeler and started making our way back to Kirby. I heard Gordie, who had once again been waiting for us, stand up and start following us.

“What the heck are you doing with that, Nancy?” he asked.

“The rest of the squad is in here. We’re stealing up.

I heard him groan.

Suddenly, something smacked the squirrel’s head, knocking it loose. The head, with Johnny in it, toppled to the ground. Johnny moaned.

“Someone threw a football at you,” Ray informed.

“HEY! KIRBYS!” I heard a voice shout. And once again, it was the voice of our old friend, the Jock.

Me and Norm knew it was useless to pretend not to hear him, so we climbed out of the squirrel’s body.

“What do you think you’re doing?” the Jock shouted. He was very quickly approaching us.

I turned to Johnny and Nancy. I handed them the rest of the costume. “Get this back to Kirby’s lockers,” I ordered.

“But-” Johnny started to protest.

“Stop it, Johnny. Man up. Go.”

The two ran out, the squirrel’s tail trailing behind in the wind. It was quite a comical sight, to be honest with you.

Me, Norm and Ray turned to face the Jock. We all produced our puppets. Gordie groaned and tried to act as inconspicuous as possible.

“Give us the suit back, nerds,” the Jock ordered as he came to see us face-to-face. He seemed amused, actually, that we had at least succeeded this far into the heist. He still had a murderous look in his eyes, however.

“Captain America doesn’t stand for bullies like you, so we don’t either,” I responded. I was scared of whatever was going to happen next, but I also felt incredibly brave. I had never stood up to someone so big over something so big.

Gordie looked at me admirably, and decided to stand next to us as well. This was too much for the Jock to handle. No matter how brave I felt it didn’t change the fact that I was at least a hundred pounds lighter and several notches weaker than the Jock. He socked me in the face and I crumpled like a house of cards.

Ray jumped into the fight, once again getting several good punches in. Norm, finally making his favorite hero proud, zipped in and out of the Jock’s reach, but just like last time, they were both eventually defeated.

The Jock turned to follow Johnny and Nancy, when he was stopped by none other than Gordie.

“What are you gonna do, you freak?” The Jock sneered. “You don’t belong anywhere. Might as well just go on home.”

Gordie glared. “I’m fine with you messing with me. I’ve been messed with my whole life and I’ve never given it that much thought. But, when you mess with my friends, who were some of the only people to ever stand up for me, that’s when I’m not fine. This is for them.”

Gordie gave the Jock a wicked uppercut across the chin. The boy must’ve been stronger than he looked. The Jock staggered backwards, wobbled for a moment, and then fell to the ground, moaning.

“Come on, guys,” Gordie implored us. My face hurt like the dickens but I got up, Ray and Norm following, and we all booked it right on back to Kirby.

I was ecstatic. We had the mascot of our enemies, we had beaten the biggest bully I’d ever met, and I’d made Captain America proud.

 

The next day, Gordie told us he was leaving.

“What?!?!” we all asked. The news hit us like a gut punch. The news came right after our amazing victory, no less!

“My dad got a job at a big factory up in New York City,” he explained. “It’s not much, but it pays better than what he has here. We have to take all we can get. We’re leaving first thing tomorrow.” That made total sense, but the news was no harder to swallow.

“I just wanna thank you guys for being friends. I don’t have many of those here.”

“Of course,” Nancy replied. She gave him a hug, and tried to hide the fact that she was starting to cry.

“It won’t be the same without you,” Norm reassured. He gave Gordie a big pat on the back.

“I’ll miss you,” Johnny squeaked.

Ray gave him a handshake and turned aside. He was also trying to hide his watery eyes, especially from Nancy.

Gordie turned to me. “Good luck at graduation tomorrow,” he said. “Are you enlisting soon after?”

“Hopefully the next day,” I chuckled.

“Well, the Army will be lucky to have you. You’re a great leader.”

“I appreciate that a lot, buddy.”

We shook hands.

I never saw him again.

 

The next night, the graduation hall was open, and I and my fellow graduates stood awaiting our call. I was the only 16 year old graduating; there were a couple 17 year olds, but most were the normal 18. I was nervous and felt out of my league. But, I could feel Captain Americrease in my pocket under my robe, and remembering the support of my friends awaiting us, I knew I could do it.

I and my fellow graduates made our long trek down the ceremony’s hall, as the principal made his speech to the class. All about how great of a class we had been. I once again felt left off out of the group, as he was mostly addressing my superiors, the 18 year olds. Oh well.

We sat on the stage. The principal began to call names. I looked out into the crowd and found my chums waving to me, each with their respective origami characters just barely sticking out of their pockets.

My name was called, I went up to the man in charge and shook his hand. I held my diploma up high as I bounded off the stage.

 

“You’ve done it, old pal,” Ray laughed as he shook my hand.

“It ain’t fair. My mom won’t let me leave early,” Norm complained. “Ah well. Hopefully the war’ll be there for me when I leave!”

“Don’t wish that, Normy,” I replied. “This war has been terrible enough already.”

“You’ll be joining up immediately?” Johnny asked.

“‘Fraid so. Gonna do my duty for Uncle Sam.”

I turned to leave before I was tackled in a massive hug from Nancy. Of all the gang, I’d miss her the most. Nancy had been my best friend.

“I’ll miss you, you big lug,” she said as she ended the embrace.

“Of course you will,” I grinned.

I was going to be enlisted any day now, off to who knows where. I pulled Captain Americrease out of my pocket and looked at it. There wouldn’t be much time for superheroics in the army. I had an idea. I handed the puppet to Nancy.

“Carry on the battle, friend. Wheeler isn’t going to be defeated that easily. They’ll be back.”

“But…why me?”

“You’re the only one who can whip these dummies into shape,” I joked, pointing at the other three boys. “I need you to start something that could defend the school from Wheeler. Start the war. And…”

I glanced at my puppet one last time. “I need you to find someone who could wield Captain Americrease. He’ll be needed.”

“But…what do we do?” Johnny asked.

“She’ll need help. You’ll be the first line of defense, boys. And when you get too old for the job, pass your titles down. Keep them going. Think you can handle that?”

Ray nodded, Norm whooped, and Johnny shrugged. Nancy stepped back to the next to the rest of the boys, put Captain Americrease in her pocket next to Miss America, and started to cry. She laid her head on Ray’s shoulder. Ray grinned.

“Stanley, it’s time to go!”

I turned and saw my parents standing by the door. I shared one last hug with the group and started out the door.

“Are you ready, Stan?” my dad asked.

“Excelsior,” I replied.

-From the Journals of Stan Lee

Epilogue
By Tilly Waterson

Andy Gardner looked up from the very end of the story and gasped.

“Oh my gosh…you mean that…Stan Lee…”

“He went to this school, yeah! Isn’t that amazing!”

Andy suddenly looked quite serious. “But, why me? Wouldn’t anybody else do a better job than me?”

I smiled. “Andy, you’re one of the kindest, most caring members of F.O.L.D. Your leadership skills are growing every day. You’re likable, and quite good-looking too.” Admittedly, I blushed a bit after that last part. “You’re perfect for the puppet, and the role that comes with it.”

“But…this legacy…I’ll be the first one to have him since the 40’s! I’m not sure I can lead the OrigAvengers-”

“You can handle this, Andy. Come on.”

I handed him the shoebox. Inside was the original Captain Americrease puppet. It had held up surprisingly well, especially when considering the fact that it was seventy-seven years old. Nancy had never found somebody that could match Stan, but we had. Andy relented and carefully examined the puppet.

“If I do this, could I change one thing?”

“Of course. Make the role your own.”

Andy breathed. “Okay, I’ll take the role. But the name Americrease won’t really fit me. My name will be Captain Americut.”

“Seriously?”

Andy grinned, sheepishly. “Be quiet, I’m not that great with puns.”

 

 

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