Monsters Among Us!

by Mark Young

  “I hope it’s not another professor,” Theremin mumbled.

  Shelly took a deep breath, stopped, and looked at Newton and Theremin. “Stand back!”

  She opened the door to the trap and jumped aside.

  “Oh, uh, hi guys!”

  Higgy, without his usual clothes, oozed out of the monster trap.

  “Higgy?” Newton asked.

  “Hi, roomie,” Higgy said. “What are you doing here?”

  “No, no. What are you doing here?” Newton asked.

  “I was out on my nightly search for food when I came across a fresh batch of gummy cockroaches,” Higgy said. “They seemed to be free for the taking, but when I went to scoop them up, I became trapped in this contraption. I was about to try to ooze my way out.”

  “There isn’t a monster in there, is there?” Theremin asked.

  “Nope,” Higgy said. “Just what’s left of the sugary . . . burp . . . you know.”

  Shelly sighed. “I guess I’m no more of a monster trapper than Mimi is,” she said sadly. She turned and started to walk away. “Good night, guys. Maybe tomorrow we’ll have better luck.”

  “I’ll walk with you, Shelly!” Theremin said as he floated after her.

  Newton turned to Higgy. “We’ll take the tunnels back to our room,” Newton said.

  “Yes, that’s fine, I am quite satisfied with my nightly snack,” Higgy said to Newton as they made their way through the dark basement. “You haven’t been around much these days, roomie. Is our plan still on for tomorrow?”

  Newton had almost forgotten about their big plan. “Yes, sure . . . the plan! Everything’s ready. I can distract him, if you can set him up.”

  “I can’t wait,” Higgy replied as the two roommates crawled into a nearby vent and made their way back up to their dorm room.

  CHAPTER 10

  IT’S A ROOFTOP SHOWDOWN!

  The next day, Shelly kept running to the basement to check her monster trap between classes. Every time she returned, she looked disappointed.

  “Nothing yet,” she would report.

  When the last class bell rang, Shelly ran to check on her monster trap.

  Newton turned to Theremin. “We should go help Shelly.”

  “Actually, I was going to go back to my room,” Theremin said. “Last night I upgraded to a level seven warrior in Ultra-Mech Apocalyptic Showdown.”

  Newton’s eyes widened. “You’re a student, a robot, AND a soldier?”

  “Dude, it’s a computer game,” Theremin answered. “I guess you don’t remember anything about those either, huh?”

  Newton shook his head.

  “Then I’ll show you!” Theremin said, starting to zip away.

  “Wait! Let’s first check in with Shelly,” Newton said. “After all, if she did trap the monster, she’ll need our help.”

  “Okay, if we can make it fast,” Theremin relented.

  When they got to the basement, they found Shelly sitting inside the observation post.

  “Still nothing,” she said. “But I have a feeling it will happen soon.”

  “I didn’t hear about any more monster sightings, did you?” Newton asked.

  Shelly shook her head. “Nope. I bet the poor thing’s scared and hiding out.”

  “Well, it looks like you’ve got this under control,” Theremin said. “Later.”

  As he started to zoom away, Newton called after him. “Room for one more in that soldier game?”

  “Sure,” Theremin asked. “I can teach you how to play. You’ll have to start at level zero, though. You’ll lose lives a lot at first, but I’ll talk you through it.”

  “It sounds dangerous,” Newton said.

  “It’s not real, Newton. It’s all on the computer,” Theremin said. “It’s not dangerous at all.”

  They stepped outside, into the rain forest. Newton stopped.

  “You know, Theremin, there’s a lot I don’t know about this island,” Newton said. “Like this thing here. What is it?”

  “It’s a coconut palm,” Theremin replied.

  “And what about that thing there?” Newton asked, pointing to a multi-colored bird with purple-gold plumage.

  “That’s a bird—a crimson topaz,” Theremin said. “Can we do this lesson on island flora and fauna some other time? I can get to level eight before midnight if I start playing right now.”

  “Oh sure,” Newton said. He started walking again, but really slowly.

  “Newton, is something wrong with you?” Theremin asked. “You’re acting weird.”

  “That’s the story of my life. Acting weird, right?” Newton asked.

  Theremin shrugged. They entered the boys’ dorm and walked up the stairs to Theremin’s room. Newton stood back as Theremin opened the door.

  “I’ll set up the screen for two players and—what?”

  Theremin stopped short. Inside his dorm room, snow was falling from the ceiling! Piles of it already covered the floor.

  “Is this . . .” Theremin’s voice trailed off.

  “It’s real snow, Theremin,” Newton said. “Since your dad won’t let you off the island to see it, Higgy and I brought some to you.”

  Higgy’s face popped out from behind the door. He handed Theremin a knit cap, mittens, and a scarf to help keep his metal exterior safe and dry.

  “I got an A on my weather-machine projector last semester,” Higgy said as Theremin bundled up.

  “This is . . . awesome!” Theremin cried, floating around the room.

  Higgy reached down with a gloved hand and scooped up some snow. “I covered all your stuff with plastic before I turned on the machine,” he said.

  Theremin smiled, “I’ve gotta text Shelly about this!” he said as he extended his arm and began typing on a keyboard built into his wrist.

  Newton stepped inside the room and stared up at the falling snow. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “And I guess this is my first time seeing snow too. At least, the first that I remember.”

  “I’ve always wanted to build a snowman,” Theremin said.

  “I think we should definitely do that!” Newton agreed. “But first, put on Higgy’s coat so you don’t get snow on you.”

  The inside of Higgy’s coat was covered in green goo, so Theremin said, “No thanks. I’ll just be sure to dry off when we’re done so I don’t get rusty.”

  They were shaping the bottom of the snowman when Shelly walked in.

  “Theremin, what’s so—oh!” she exclaimed. “Snow!”

  “It’s a gift from Newton and Higgy,” Theremin said. “Since Father won’t let me use my portal pass.”

  “This is awesome!” Shelly said, smiling. “Can I help with the snowman?”

  “Sure,” Theremin replied, but before Shelly could take a step, a scream came from the hallway.

  Everyone turned to see dozens of students running down the hall and screaming, “Monster! Monster!”

  Newton and his friends quickly helped Theremin wipe snow off his metal body. Then they followed the others, who all ran downstairs and outside to the lawn.

  A crowd of students had gathered and were pointing to the top of the building. Newton looked up.

  “Whoa!” Newton cried.

  A truly terrible creature was snarling and snorting on top of the dorm roof. It had deep blue fur, four legs, six arms, three eyes, and sharp spikes running along the top of its head.

  Then it dropped its jaw and with an earth-shattering “Abbblrdrrrrpp!” it shot fire from its mouth.

  The crowd screamed and backed up.

  The only student who didn’t move was Shelly. She had a shocked look on her face. It was the shock of recognition. “I know that noise,” she said. “It’s Peewee!”

  “That thing’s not peewee at all,” Theremin said. “It’s as big as a house!”

  “No, its name is Peewee,” Shelly said. “At least, I think it is. It looks kind of like a monster I found last summer in Transylvania. It followed me to our hotel and wouldn’t
leave my side, so I took it home and named it Peewee. But when I started school, it was small, smaller than a kitten.”

  “Abbblrdrrrrpp!”

  The enormous creature spewed more fire, forcing everyone to step back even farther.

  “Somebody get Mr. Crouch!” a student yelled.

  “No!” Shelly cried. “I’ll save you, Peewee!”

  She ran into the building. Newton and Theremin looked at each other—and then ran after their friend.

  Shelly was fast. By the time Newton and Theremin got to the roof, she was already slowly advancing toward the monster.

  “Peewee, is that you? It’s me, Shelly!”

  The monster turned and focused its eyes on Shelly.

  “Abbblrdrrrrpp?”

  “Careful, Shelly!” Newton cried.

  The monster didn’t shoot fire this time. It reached out to Shelly, and then it wrapped one of its arms around her waist. She didn’t flinch.

  “That’s it, Peewee,” Shelly said soothingly. “I won’t hurt you.”

  The monster then lifted Shelly high over its head.

  “Hey, put her down, you big . . . BULLY!” Theremin yelled.

  The monster’s head snapped around and it fixed it eyes on Theremin.

  “Abbblrdrrrrpp!”

  Newton and Theremin jumped out of the way just as the stream of fire shot past them.

  “No, Peewee! Bad Peewee!” Shelly scolded.

  Then Newton heard pounding feet behind him and turned to see Headmistress Mumtaz and Custodian Crouch emerge from the staircase onto the rooftop. Crouch was steering his Monster-Neutralizer machine and aimed the fearsome-looking laser cannon at the monster.

  “Don’t do it!” Shelly cried. “Peewee’s not hurting me! He’s very affectionate!”

  “This monster is a danger to everyone at the school,” Crouch said. “Jump down, Shelly!”

  “I won’t!” Shelly replied. “I can’t, anyway, because Peewee won’t let go!”

  “I’ll try not to hit you, then,” Crouch said. He pressed a button on his machine, and it began to hum loudly as the laser chamber powered up.

  “Mr. Crouch,” Mumtaz leaned closer, “have you tested this thing?”

  “Of course not,” Crouch replied as he squinted and directed the laser at Peewee. “I didn’t have a dangerous monster to test it with until now.”

  “Shut it down, then!” she said. “You’ll hurt Shelly!”

  “Abbblrdrrrrpp!”

  The monster shot a stream of fire at Crouch that fell just short of hitting him. Angry at the close call, Crouch continued aiming the Monster Neutralizer at Peewee.

  “Nooooooooooo!” Shelly cried, waving her arms frantically.

  Instinct kicked in, and Newton leaped at Crouch, knocking him off his machine and onto the rooftop. The Monster Neutralizer fired, sending a powerful beam of pulsing energy harmlessly into the sky.

  An instant later . . . Poof! Professor Flubitus appeared on the roof, behind Peewee.

  The absentminded professor was looking around, checking in his pockets. “Oh dear. I seem to have misplaced my . . .” He reached up to his face. “Oh, here it is!” he muttered. Then he pulled a toothpick-size device from where it was resting in the hair above his ear. He aimed the device . . . a rainbow beam shot out and hit the monster. Peewee’s eyes rolled back and he slumped to the ground.

  “Noooo! What have you done?” Shelly screamed.

  CHAPTER 11

  THE HEARTSICK MONSTER

  “Don’t worry, I just zapped the beast with a somnio-sleep inducer.” Dr. Flubitus smiled. “But it won’t last for long. We need to get it somewhere safe before it starts attacking people again.”

  Mumtaz spoke into her wristwatch. “Get the detention room ready. We’ve got our mystery monster coming down.” Then the headmistress looked at Flubitus. “Would you please teleport the monster there, professor?”

  Flubitus didn’t reply. He had begun muttering to himself again.

  “Flubitus!” Mumtaz yelled.

  He raised his hand but still wasn’t paying attention. “Present! I mean . . . do you mean, me?”

  “Well, you’re the only one on this roof named Flubitus, and the only one with a pocket teleporter,” Mumtaz said, momentarily getting impatient with him. “Obviously, that’s how you got here. Can you please beam the monster down to the detention room?”

  “Without hesitation,” Flubitus replied. He grabbed hold of the sleeping monster’s fur with one hand, pulled the mini-teleporter from his pocket, and pressed the button.

  Streams of crackling electricity burst from the device, ran up the professor’s arm, and then expanded to surround him and Peewee and, poof! Flubitus and the monster dematerialized.

  Shelly turned to run for the stairs, but Mumtaz grabbed her by the shoulder. “Not so fast, Shelly. We’re going to my office. I need to know everything you know about this monster.”

  Shelly nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Crouch grunted as he got to his feet, then frowned at his broken Monster Neutralizer. “I could have stopped the monster, Headmistress,” he said. “The wind must have knocked me over.”

  This caught Newton’s attention. What a weird thing to say, he thought, since he was the one who had knocked Crouch off his machine.

  Shelly spoke up quickly. “Yes, of course, it must have been the wind!”

  “Hmm, that is odd,” Mumtaz said as she held her hand up in the air to check for a breeze. “There’s no wind up here at all now.”

  “Well, uh . . .” Shelly was thinking quickly. “That’s the wind for you. It comes and goes.” She turned and smiled at Ms. Mumtaz. “Can I meet you in your office in a few minutes? I dropped my phone when Peewee picked me up, and I need to find it.”

  “I’ll give you exactly one minute,” Mumtaz said sternly as she and Crouch left the roof.

  Shelly scoured the rooftop and said in an excited whisper, “They’re gone, Newton. You can show yourself now.”

  “What are you talking about?” Newton asked.

  Shelly turned in the direction of his voice. “Oh, there you are!” she said, looking down at the rooftop. “I can see the bar code on your foot. But the rest of you is camouflaged.”

  “Camouflage?” Newton asked.

  “You blend into your environment when you’re afraid, remember?”

  Newton looked down at himself. Shelly was right. He saw the bar code on his foot, but the rest of him looked like the rooftop.

  “Um, how do I become visible again?” he asked.

  “It’s already started,” Shelly told him. “I think you go back to normal once you feel safe.”

  “Whoa!” Theremin said in awe as Newton slowly materialized beside Shelly. “I sure wish I could do that!”

  Newton held his hands up. They had returned to normal.

  “I didn’t even realize I was doing that!” he remarked. “Good thing that Crouch couldn’t see me when I knocked him down. I would be in big trouble right now.”

  “It’s weird, though,” Theremin remarked. “Didn’t they notice that you suddenly disappeared?”

  “It was so crazy up here,” Shelly replied, “they probably just thought that Newton ran away. Anyway, my minute’s up. Gotta see Mumtaz. I was just lying about my phone so I could find you, Newton. And I really need permission to go see Peewee!”

  Newton and Theremin walked with Shelly to the headmistress’s office.

  “Well, you three are like three peas in a pod, aren’t you?” Mumtaz remarked when they came in.

  “We’re . . . ,” Newton said, confused, “green and edible?”

  “No, it means you stick together,” Mumtaz said patiently. “Now then, take a seat. Shelly, please tell me what you know about this mystery monster. Where did it come from? And more importantly, who created it?”

  “Well, last summer my parents and I were at our annual Ravenholt family reunion in Transylvania,” Shelly said slowly. “I got bored and was walking through the woods when thi
s teeny-tiny monster peeked out from behind a rock. I was really excited when it came right up to me and started making that cute ‘Abbblrdrrrrpp’ noise!”

  Newton and Theremin blinked then in unison. “You mean that tiny monster was . . . ?”

  Shelly nodded. “Yes, I think it was Peewee. Anyway, I took measurements, pictures, and made my field notes. Then I left the little guy in its natural environment, like any good monster naturalist would do.”

  “I wouldn’t expect anything less, Shelly,” Ms. Mumtaz said. “So, what happened?”

  “Well,” Shelly said with a sigh, “Peewee followed me all the way back to our hotel. And he wouldn’t leave my side. He had bonded with me. I figured he had lost his family somehow, and he needed me.”

  “And you took him home,” Mumtaz deduced.

  Shelly nodded. “But I have no idea how he got here!”

  Mumtaz frowned thoughtfully. “Okay, so if this is Peewee, and he’s been looking for you all this time . . . I thought you said he was small?”

  “Yeah, really small,” Shelly replied. “And he only had two arms and two eyes and he didn’t breathe fire . . .”

  Suddenly, the room rumbled as they heard a distant cry. “Abbblrdrrrrpp.”

  “Are you sure it’s the monster downstairs?” the headmistress asked.

  Shelly sighed. “Well, he kinda looks like Peewee. And he makes the same sound. Maybe he’s just grown-up? And you saw what happened on the roof. He picked me up gently. He didn’t hurt me. I think he wanted to protect me.”

  “I believe you, Shelly,” Theremin said. “Besides, it’s kind of weird that the monster just showed up here. Isn’t it logical that it was looking for Shelly?”

  Newton was still confused. “But how did it get here?” he asked. “I thought the only way to get onto Franken-Sci High Island and off again is by using a portal.”

  “That’s absolutely, one hundred percent true,” Ms. Mumtaz said, “for humans.”

  “And robots,” Theremin added.

  “I beg your pardon, Theremin,” Mumtaz smiled. “But for monsters, no matter what size and shape, the Bermuda Triangle is a very strong attractor for them. Peewee must have found a way in, especially if he was tracking Shelly.”