Fingers shaking, she turned Ollie’s door handle and slipped into the room. The smell of sweat and old sneakers hit her. Plastered over the pale blue walls were posters of comic book characters, and on the desk near the window a war game had been set up with small plastic aliens. Her eyes swept over the floor, which was covered with a clutter of clothes, toys, and gaming magazines. Where was the lamp? Her heart quickened as she caught a glimpse of gold beneath some old socks.
Jess flew across the room. “Got you!” she breathed, bending down to grab the lamp.
“What are you doing in my room?” An accusing voice made her jump. She swung around. Ollie was scowling in the doorway.
“Er…nothing!” Jess stammered. She felt a blush blaze over her face. “I…I was just trying to find the toilet.”
“No, you weren’t,” said Ollie. “You were after that lamp, weren’t you? You were about to pick it up when I came in.”
Then, with the worst timing in the world, Colette appeared in the doorway. “What’s going on?”
“I—I got the wrong door,” Jess stammered.
“Yeah, right!” Ollie jabbed a finger at her. “You were trying to nick that lamp. The one that was left on my windowsill.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Colette said witheringly to Ollie. “As if Jess would be after anything of yours.”
“Yeah.” Jess hastily joined Colette by the door. “As if I would!”
“Bet you were trying to get it.” Ollie picked up the lamp. “What is it with this thing?”
“It looks just like a magic lamp from a fairy story.” Colette smiled suddenly. “I’ve always wished I could find one of those.”
“Really?” Jess said in surprise.
Colette blushed. “Um…I mean I used to wish it. When I was a really little kid, of course.” She swung around, looking suddenly flustered. “Come on! What are we doing here, wasting our time in Ollie’s freak pit? Oh, yeah—you need the toilet. It’s next door.”
Slipping into the bathroom, Jess locked the door and groaned. Now Colette must think she was a total weirdo, too stupid to find her way past two doors to a bathroom, and she’d blown her only chance of getting to Michael. Things were not going well—they were not going well at all!
“Jess!” Michael shouted. “Is that you?” Surely he had heard her voice?
Suddenly the lamp rocked, and he was hurled all about it.
“I suppose I might get a few quid for this if I flogged it to a junk shop.” That was Ollie’s voice, loud and clear—he had to be looking at the lamp up close. “Mind you, needs a polish…”
“Yes!” Michael urged the boy, realizing this was his chance. “Yes, yes, yes, yes—WHOA!”
With a sudden, sooty whoosh of smelly air, Michael was catapulted out of the lamp. He gasped and collapsed in front of the door, clutching at his legs.
“Huh? Who—where—how…?” Ollie, a skinny streak of nothing with a pointy face, looked petrified. “What…?”
“Cramp,” groaned Michael. “I’ve been bunched up in there for—”
Ollie yelled at the top of his lungs.
“What’s up with you now, Ollie?” Michael heard a girl’s voice call. Must be Ollie’s sister, he realized. Guess that’s who I heard.
“Don’t tell her I’m here,” Michael warned Ollie, his genie voice rumbling up inside him. “Or you will regret it!”
“It’s n-n-n-nothing, Colette!” Ollie called, looking warily at Michael. Then he collapsed onto the bed. “This is just a dream, isn’t it? I mean, I saw you come out of that lamp….”
While Ollie babbled on, Michael looked around the room. There were some war-gaming figures of Slitherbots with slush guns, there were Manga pictures on the wall…and there were CDs strewn over the shelves, review copies and beta versions of all kinds of games. Michael forgot all about his hunger pains.
“Hey!” Ollie gasped. “Now I get it. You’re a genie!”
“What is your heart’s desire?” boomed Michael. “Mate,” he added.
“I…” Ollie frowned. “I dunno. This is like…a dream.”
How original, thought Michael. “Something to do with games, maybe?”
“I’m already bored with the Ultra….” Ollie looked suddenly thoughtful. “What I’d really like is a console that no one else has got. Something so cool it’ll prove I’m way better than everyone else.” His eyes gleamed. “Yeah, that’s my wish, Genie! I want to play a version of Maximum Carnage that’s super-real—as real as real life!”
You what? thought Michael. But already, flash-frames of Maximum Carnage game-play were zapping through his mind and big, booming words were rising up in his throat. “Your wish is my command!” he roared, loud enough to shake the windows.
Then there was silence.
Ollie looked around. “Well? Where is it then?”
Michael frowned. The wish had been a vague one, and he hadn’t been sure how to grant it. Had it come true?
“If you’ve messed up, I’ll—I’ll sue you,” snarled Ollie, hands on hips. “Hand it over!”
“Help!” came a shriek from outside the bedroom.
“That’s Jess!” Michael muttered. He threw open the bedroom door….
To find a huge, horrifying Slitherbot from Maximum Carnage blocking his way. It looked like a half-melted marrow on legs, glaring at him through oily red eyes. But this was no creature of pixels and imagination. It was a living, breathing, snarling, spitting, scaly, slimy real-life monster.
And it was pointing its slush gun straight at him….
Chapter Nineteen
Back outside, Milly jumped as The Genie Handbook started to shake in her hands.
“My tail!” squawked Skribble, squirming about inside the book. “Magic is being drawn into the house.”
“Then Michael’s out of the lamp!” Jason realized.
“Jess did it!” cried Milly with delight.
Then they heard the shouts for help, and a strange, gruff, grunting noise.
Jason gulped. “But what did she do?”
“Wow, that’s amazing!” breathed Ollie. Pushing Michael aside, he strode up to the Slitherbot and yanked away its weapon before it could react. “This slush gun is so detailed…. Impressive 3-D render, Genie!”
Michael gulped as the monster glared down at Ollie and took a squelching step toward him.
“It’s all so lifelike!” Ollie raised the gun and fired, and the monster suddenly splurged away into thick green dribbles. He grinned in delight. “Or do I mean, deathlike!”
Michael was already jumping across the molten remains of the monster and out into the corridor, his heart pounding. “Hey, Jess!” he shouted. “You okay?”
“No!” he heard Jess yell back. But he couldn’t see her for the two enormous Slitherbots advancing on the kitchen….
“Quick,” Michael gasped, terrified, “while those things have got their backs turned!” He grabbed the slush gun off Ollie. It felt very real and surprisingly light, just the way he’d always imagined it would if he’d been the hero in the game. He heard a girl scream. The monsters had reached the kitchen doorway!
Michael lifted the gun and took aim. Now!
As he pulled the trigger, a bolt of yellow light blasted out. With a wet thud, both monsters exploded into slush. Green goo splattered the pristine walls of the hallway.
Now that the monsters had gone, Michael could see Jess in the kitchen comforting a dark-haired girl who was sobbing against her shoulder.
“Hey, give me that slush gun!” Ollie dropped the lamp and yanked the weapon away from Michael. “You only grant the wishes; I’m the one who has all the fun!”
“You don’t get it, Ollie!” Michael swung around hotly. “I think I made this game too real—”
He broke off with a gasp as another Slitherbot marched out of the lounge. Before Michael could do anything to stop it, it had grabbed Ollie by the back of the neck and lifted him into the air. The boy cried out and struggled, dropped the gun, and the Slithe
rbot threw him against the wall.
“H-h-h-help!” squeaked Ollie as he landed in a sprawling heap.
“Wish them away!” Michael boomed. “Wish them away, you idiot, now!”
But Ollie was lost in a blind panic. Grabbing the fallen lamp, he struggled to his feet, raced to the front door, threw it open, and ran outside. Meanwhile, Michael lunged for the gun. If he could only slush the Slitherbot…
But just before he could reach it, his genie slippers began to glow—and suddenly he found himself being pulled toward the front door. He tried to stop and turn back for the slush gun, but it was no good.
It must be the lamp, he realized as he barged past the Slitherbot. There’s a link between genie and lamp—and after what happened in London, if the lamp’s going one way, I guess I have to follow….
The Slitherbot picked up the slush gun from the floor. Now it had one in each hand. It glowered at Michael, gave a deep roar, and aimed them both straight at him….
“Genie me again!” Michael shouted in terror, just in time. As the slush guns fired, he felt himself being whisked through the air after Ollie and spiraling back inside the lamp.
“Jess, hang in there,” Michael gasped. “I’ll sort it out. I’ll make everything okay….”
Yeah, sure you will, hero, he thought bitterly. But how?
Jason and Milly could hear all the commotion from outside the house.
“Oh, Skribble, what’s going on?” asked Milly.
“My dear child,” Skribble sighed, “I cannot see through walls!”
“You don’t have to,” said Jason. “Look!”
Ollie had burst out of the front door, clutching the lamp. He ran across the garden as if his life depended on it. A cloud of dark smoke suddenly spiraled after him, and vanished into the lamp’s spout.
“That was Michael!” Milly slammed the handbook shut, making Skribble yelp with fright, and pelted off down the path after the disappearing Ollie. “You check on Jess. Be careful!”
Jason nodded and ran inside the house. “Jess?” he called anxiously. “Jess, where are you? Are you—”
The door slammed shut behind him. He broke off and whirled around….
To find himself face-to-face with a big, green monster. He recognized it at once—a Slitherbot, brought to gruesome, full-size life. And that gun…Jason remembered Michael banging on about them in the den the night before. The rays turn anything they touch into wallpaper paste….
He opened his mouth to yell, but someone else beat him to it.
“Jason, get in here!” screamed Jess, sticking her head out of a room farther down the long hallway.
Jason didn’t stop to think twice. He ran toward her.
“We’re going to block ourselves in Colette’s bedroom!” She grabbed his arm and yanked him inside—just as the Slitherbot behind him opened fire. The blast went wide, hit a coat stand in the hall, and turned it into wood-textured trickles.
Colette slammed the door shut and started dragging her dressing table over to barricade it.
“Thanks,” squeaked Jason as he sank, shaking, to the floor.
“Where’s Milly?” demanded Jess. “Is she okay?”
“She’s gone after Ollie to get Michael and the lamp back.”
“What is it with this lamp?” Colette wailed. “What’s going on? Where did you spring from?”
“Uh…just called around to see Ollie,” said Jason, suddenly remembering their vow to keep everything secret, whatever happened. If Jess hadn’t told Colette what was going on, then neither could he.
“Come on, Jase,” said Jess, “help me move the bed in front of the door.” She lowered her voice. “Ollie must have wished these monsters could come out of his dumb video game. What an idiot!”
“The good news is they’ll vanish at sunset,” said Jason, straining to shift the bed.
“The bad news is, that’s still an hour away,” Jess pointed out. “You’ve seen what their guns can do and you know what Skribble said yesterday—‘the effects of the magic will remain.’”
Jason stared at her. “So whoever gets slushed, stays slushed?”
Jess felt sick. “Yes.”
“What are you two going on about?” Colette said, pushing her hands through her hair. “What’s going on?”
Before they could answer, the top of the bedroom door burst apart like a water bomb. Colette shrieked.
“We’ll never last till sunset!” cried Jason. “What are we going to do?”
Milly panted for breath as she ran after Ollie, forcing herself to keep going. But his legs were longer than hers, and her schoolbag slung over one shoulder was slowing her down.
“Retrieve the lamp, Milly!” she heard Skribble cry. “Free your bothersome brother from this odious Ollie’s control so he can put things right!”
But Ollie was getting away. I need to get his attention, Milly realized, staggering to a stop. Time for a bit of improvising…
“Oliver Jones!” she bellowed with the last of her breath.
Her shout echoed around the quiet street, so loudly that Ollie actually stopped running. Then he frowned and looked about. “Where…where did my genie go?”
“I’m glad you finally noticed,” said Milly, desperately trying not to seem out of breath as she walked toward him. “I am your genie’s personal assistant. He’s been called away by the, uh, League of Genies…on urgent magic business.”
“Hang on.” Ollie scowled. “I recognize you. You’re from my school.”
“Duh! I’m in disguise!” Milly rolled her eyes and walked right up to him, lowering her voice. “Now, hear my words, Oliver Jones. It is easy to get your genie to come back to you when he’s been tied up on magic business.” She smiled innocently. “You simply say, ‘Genie be free.’”
“I see….” Ollie nodded to himself. “Well, I want him here now—Genie be free!”
There was a squall of black smoke as Michael shot out of the lamp in his normal form. But before Ollie could see anything clearly, Milly belted him as hard as she could with her schoolbag. With a squawk of surprise, Ollie fell down in a heap on the pavement. Milly snatched the lamp from him, and then Michael grabbed her by the arm and they ran off back toward the house.
“Nice going, sis,” said Michael. “But now you’d better get into the lamp quick, in case Ollie comes after us and recognizes you. Besides, it’ll be the safest place.”
“What do you mean?” panted Milly.
“Jess and Colette are in big trouble. There are real Slitherbots in the house, with working slush guns!”
“What?” Milly gasped. “I sent Jason inside to check that Jess was okay!”
“Oh, fantastic. Come on!” As Milly sent herself into the lamp, Michael put on an extra burst of speed. But what am I going to do when I get there? he thought. What?
Chapter Twenty
Jason stared in horror as the Slitherbots blasted the door again. The wood burst into torrents of brown water. Now he could see the monsters’ hideous green faces, the crimson of their narrowed eyes.
“They’re going to get in!” he shouted, terrified. “There’s nothing we can do to stop them!”
The Slitherbots growled and prepared to fire at the dresser blocking their way. Colette shrieked. Jess jumped onto the big bed as she hurried to get away, and bumped her head on the fairy wind chimes. They clanged and tinkled around her ears.
In desperation, she tugged them down from the ceiling and hurled them at the nearest Slitherbot. They tangled around his head and he howled in anger. The more he shook his head, the more the chimes jangled, enraging and distracting both him and the monsters behind him. They clawed at the delicate glass fairies with their sticky, spongy hands.
“Come on,” gasped Colette. “The window—maybe we can get out in time.” She ran over to her bedroom window—just as Michael burst into view. With a scream of surprise she jumped back.
“Hey, I’m one of the good guys!” Michael protested, grabbing Colette’s hand. He helped
her clamber out into the garden.
“Good guy?” Jess snorted, helping Jason through, then scrambling after him. “This is all your fault, Michael!”
“Huh?” Colette stared between the two of them, confused. “What’s going on?”
“This is Michael, our stepbrother,” Jason explained.
“Everything’s always my fault around here,” said Michael sourly, leading the charge across the grass toward the wall, Milly’s schoolbag bouncing around on his back.
“Michael, how did you get out?” Jess hissed so Colette wouldn’t hear her.
“Milly got me out of Ollie’s control and now she’s in the lamp,” said Michael, patting his jacket pocket. “About the safest place right now.”
“Then let’s wish our way out of this!”
“Duh!” Michael retorted. “The book said we couldn’t grant each other’s wishes, remember? We’ll get disqualified—no more genie training.”
Jess buried her face in her hands. “No more anything if we don’t get rid of those things!”
“The house!” Colette shrieked, looking back over her shoulder. “Look!” Sections of the brickwork were starting to dissolve into water as the aliens attempted to blast their way out of her bedroom.
As they reached the garden wall, Jason turned to Michael. “Colette has to wish them away and put everything back as it was. It’s our only chance.”
“And, like, now,” Michael agreed, pulling the lamp from his pocket and shoving it into Colette’s hands. “Do it!”
The girl stared at the lamp, bewildered. “I’m asleep,” she murmured, falling to her knees on the grass. “That must be it. This is all a nightmare.”
Jess grabbed hold of Colette by the shoulders and spoke in a low, urgent voice. “Colette, listen. You know we were talking about magic before, and how we used to believe in it when we were little? Well, it really does exist!”
Colette stared at her.
“I know it seems crazy, like kid stuff,” Jess went on desperately. “I know everyone thinks magic is babyish but…this whole mess is because of magic. And only magic can put it right!”
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