The Origin of Thunder Jay

In a little town by a big blue lake lived a boy named Jaylen. He was six years old, he loved monster trucks, and he had the best dog in the whole wide world: a goofy golden pup named Biscuit.

Jaylen was fast. Fast to the bus stop. Fast to the dinner table. Fast to the bathtub? ...Not so much.

But there was one thing Jaylen did not like one bit: the dark. When the lights went out, the shadows in his room looked like they were watching.

One stormy night, a crack of thunder shook the whole house. Biscuit barked at the window. Out in the backyard, something was glowing.

It was a tiny star, fizzing and sparkling in the wet grass. "Are you lost?" Jaylen whispered. The star blinked twice... and hopped right into his hands.

ZZZAP! Lightning raced up his arms and all the way down to his toes. His hair stood straight up. So did Biscuit's ears.

The next morning, Jaylen tied his shoe and ZOOM! He was across the yard. He ran around the block before Biscuit finished his yawn. Jaylen had LIGHTNING SPEED!

Every hero needs a suit. Jaylen picked blue like the lake and gold like the lightning, with a bolt shaped like a J right on his chest. Biscuit already had a cape. Obviously.

And every hero needs a name. Jaylen thought hard. He thought fast. Then he shouted it to the sky: "I'm THUNDER JAY!"

That very night, the lights of the town began to flicker... and go out. One street. Then another. Something big and gloomy was swallowing the light. It was THE GLOOM!

The Gloom wasn't mean, exactly. It was just a big, grumpy cloud of dark that wanted everything to feel as gloomy as it did. And it was headed straight for the fall festival.

Jaylen's knees wobbled. The Gloom was dark. VERY dark. The kind of dark he didn't like at all. Maybe someone else should be the hero tonight.

Then he remembered what Mom always said: "Brave isn't not being scared. Brave is being scared and doing it anyway." Biscuit licked his hand. Jaylen took a deep breath.

THUNDER JAY ran faster than he had ever run, so fast his lightning lit up the whole sky! Around and around The Gloom he zoomed, until it glowed gold from the inside.

The Gloom stopped grumbling. It looked at all that light, and then... it smiled. "Oh," it said in a teeny voice. "I was just scared of the dark too." POOF! It floated away as a soft, sleepy cloud, and the town lights blinked back on.

The whole town cheered for THUNDER JAY. Back home, Jaylen climbed into bed, and when Mom turned off the light, he didn't mind one bit. Every hero has an origin story. This one was his.