‘Tryin’a steal my phone. And my money.’

I turned to stare at Scorpus. I was still holding his arm, and I squeezed it a bit tighter. Scorpus sucked in his breath and swore. He twisted and kneed me extremely hard in the privates. There was a painful-sounding thunk. Not painful to me, of course, because thanks to my super-powers my body had gone diamond-hard at the crucial moment.

Scorpus was like, ‘Aaaaghh!’ He reeled off a string of swear words. ‘My knee. I think it’s broke!’

‘It’s not broken at all, Scorpus! It’s just severely bruised. And serves you right anyway.’ I turned back to the kid. ‘Are you OK?’

The kid nodded.

‘Good. You can go then. Oh, just one thing – I wish all your spots were gone.’

All the angry, red spots on his cheeks and chin vanished, leaving his skin all smooth and fresh, like a baby’s bum. He put his hand up to his face and looked amazed. ‘Awesome!’

‘All part of the service. That’s why they call me . . . Awesome Man!’

The fresh-faced kid ran off down the alley.

‘Now, what am I gonna do with you, Scorpus? You gotta stop mugging people. Mugging is . . . well, it’s a mug’s game!’

‘Let . . . go . . . my arm.’ He spoke in little gasps, through gritted teeth.

I let go. His good arm rubbed the bad arm, while the bad arm massaged his knee.

‘Why do you do it, Scorpus?’

He swore at me again. ‘Mind your own business, or I’ll . . .’

‘You’ll never get anywhere being a mugger,’ I told him. ‘No one likes muggers. They never get rich. They never get OBEs or knighthoods. They don’t get streets or buildings named after them. We don’t put their pictures on ten-pound notes or anything.’

‘Who are you? I know that voice.’

‘It’s me.’ I pushed my mask back on to my head. ‘Sam Polkinghorne. I already battered you once, at school, remember?’

He narrowed his eyes and swore at me again.

‘Swearing’s the sign of a small vocabulary, Scorpus.’ (That’s what my dad says, anyway. I don’t know if it’s true but I thought it sounded good.) ‘Now let me ask you again. Why go round mugging people?’

‘Let me put it like this,’ Scorpus began, and then he suddenly jabbed me in the throat, with straight, stiff fingers. My diamond-hard powers kicked in automatically and he broke his fingernails. ‘Ow!’ he howled. ‘Oooooowwwww!’

I started to lose patience. I gripped Scorpus round the middle and rose up into the air, till we were level with the tops of the lamp posts.

‘Answer my question, Scorpus, or I’ll drop you!’

‘Help!’ shouted Scorpus.

‘You can help yourself, if you just answer me. Why do you do it?’

I felt Scorpus go limp. He stopped struggling, and gave a great big sigh, as if he’d just given up on everything.