Together, Kevin, Warner, TJ, Tara, and Mim ducked into the thicket of trees leading into the dark pine forest. They were each wearing backpacks carrying s’more supplies and Mim’s stash of alien defense gadgets, just in case he was right. Kevin was even feeling excited to show Mim one of the all-time best things about being human: melted chocolate and gooey marshmallows sandwiched between two graham crackers.
After TJ started up the fire in the pit, the red-and-orange glow of the flames flickered across their faces as they found suitable sticks and branches for roasting their marshmallows.
“I like mine burnt,” Kevin said, stabbing a marshmallow onto his roasting stick and holding it over the fire.
“Yuck, that’s nasty,” said Tara. “I like mine nice and golden brown.”
“Why do they call them s’mores?” Mim asked, adding two extra marshmallows to his stick.
“Because once you have a taste, you have to have some more,” Warner said.
They roasted the marshmallows over the flames and when they were done, Warner raised his marshmallow-roasting stick into the air. “To Mim,” Warner said, toasting their alien buddy. “If it weren’t for you, we never would have beaten Alexander.”
“Yee-yah,” said TJ, high-fiving Mim.
“Hear, hear,” said Kevin, finally getting into the spirit. He raised his charbroiled marshmallow out of the fire and into the air. “To Mim!”
Mim mimicked Kevin and toasted them all with his marshmallow stick. “To all of you. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here to celebrate today.”
“Cheers to that,” Tara said as they began to sandwich their marshmallows onto the graham crackers and chocolate.
“MMMMMM.” Mim chewed his first-ever bite of s’more. “This is the greatest thing I’ve ever tasted. Gimme some more s’more.” He gobbled the rest of it down and immediately started fixing more with all his arms, roasting four marshmallows at the same time.
Kevin stuffed a large hunk of chocolate marshmallowy goodness into his mouth and closed his eyes to savor the bite. He swallowed and opened his eyes, tilting his head back. He looked up to the sky and nearly choked at the sight overhead.
A large, triangular-shaped spacecraft hovered silently just above the treetops.
Then it disappeared as if cloaked with some kind of invisibility shield.
Kevin rubbed his eyes. “Did you guys just see that?” he asked.
“See what?” Tara murmured with a mouthful of chocolate marshmallow.
“I thought I just saw—”
“What’s that?” TJ said, turning his head toward the thicket of trees behind them. Kevin heard it too, the footsteps crunching and cracking.
“Aha!” Cody said as he, Nick, and Bailey stepped into the clearing. “Here they are!”
“What are you doing out here this late?” Bailey asked. “You guys had us worried sick!”
“What the heck is that thing?” Nick asked, pointing at Mim, who was scarfing down his fourth or fifth s’more.
Before they could answer, three large, bulky figures rappelled from the treetops. ZHWOOP! ZHWOOP! ZHWOOP! The trio of alien bonfire crashers hit the ground with a thunk that shook the earth and detached from their drop lines.
One of the aliens looked like a giant slug sitting on top of a set of six crab legs. Its mouth ran like a Mohawk over the top of its head, and its eyes were attached to long antennae sprouting off the side of its face. The nasty-looking alien had four arms with sharp claws jutting out from the wrists. The other two aliens were cast in the shadows, but the massive four-armed slug-crab moved forward into the flickering light of the bonfire.
Nick, Cody, and Bailey all dropped their jaws.
“Whoa,” Cody said.
“Sweet,” Nick echoed.
“Kevin,” said Bailey. “What’s going on?”
Kevin watched in horror as the slug alien pulled out a large plasma ray and aimed it at the counselors.
ZAP! ZAP! The alien unleashed two shots, and Nick and Cody froze, encased in some type of clear cocoon. ZAP! One more quick shot nailed Bailey with the same effect, immobilizing him as if he were trapped in a block of ice.
Mim’s eyes widened as he stopped gorging himself on the s’mores and jumped to his feet. “Run!”
Kevin, Warner, Tara, TJ, and Mim took off in different directions, sprinting for their lives as two more aliens dropped out of the sky.
THUMP-THUMP! ZAP! A bright-white blast of light shot out from the crab-legged slug beast’s plasma ray. ZAP! ZAP! Two more blasts followed and nearly struck Mim as he raced for cover in the forest.
Mim bounded up the side of a tree trunk and leaped to grab one of the low-hanging branches to dodge the double blob of paralyzing plasma heading right for him. ZAP! Mim swung and launched himself into the air as the fourth laser-ray blast whizzed past and singed off a patch of his purple fur.
A loaded silence suddenly fell over the woods. Kevin ducked behind a tree as Mim disappeared into the foliage, still swinging from branch to branch. Kevin looked around frantically, his head moving like it was on a swivel, but he had already lost track of his friends in the chaos, and his asthma was starting to act up in the panic. He tried to control his breathing, but he felt his lungs tighten with each and every breath. Kevin sucked back a puff of his inhaler and held it in for a two-count before exhaling slowly.
The sound of footsteps scuttled behind him, crunching and crackling through the bracken. Someone was on his tail. “Warner? Tara?” he called out in a strained whisper.
ZAP! ZAP! Two more alien laser blasts shattered a tree branch above Kevin’s head. He covered his face with both his arms and sprinted away in a shower of splintered bark.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! The alien footsteps picked up their pace. Kevin glanced over his shoulder. Big mistake! The alien hunter was even bigger than he thought. Just over seven feet tall, Kevin guesstimated.
Its bulbous eyes were set wide apart on either side of its head where its temples should have been. A wedge of tough-looking dinosaur-like flesh came down the middle of its forehead like a widow’s peak. Portions of its arms and legs seemed to be made entirely out of metal, as if the alien was hardwired with some kind of advanced biomechanics. Around its right shiny black eyeball, a patch of computerized circuitry was embedded and fused to the extraterrestrial’s skin. The giant half-cyborg space beast grunted once, then paused for a moment, breathing loudly through its wide mouth, which stretched across the entire lower part of its chinless face and was filled with jagged double rows of small, pointy teeth.
Thinking quickly, Kevin picked up a large rock off the ground. He looked down the narrow footpath leading through the woods back to camp and chucked the stone the opposite way. The stone ricocheted off a tree trunk with a hollow thunk. The humongous alien flipped its robotic gaze toward the noise, and Kevin took off running in the other direction.
He raced out of the dark woodland and sped across the campgrounds, making a beeline for the first building he saw: the field house.
At the door, Kevin unzipped his bag and pulled out the positron force-field gloves from underneath the shrink ray at the bottom of the backpack.
He looked back toward the forest as he put on the alien defense gloves. The half-cyborg ET tracker emerged from the woods. A hint of moonlight glinted off its metallic pieces as the space hunter walked briskly toward Kevin with purpose.
Kevin activated the positron force field, turning the power up full blast. He wasn’t about to get zapped by some half-robot alien freak.
He cranked his arm back and then heaved his gloved hand toward the door like a karate master punching from the hip. The lock on the door broke from the otherworldly force, and in a flash Kevin was inside the field house, running up the steps leading to the basketball court.
He hustled through the double doors to the gymnasium, passing by the wall lined with all the inventions from the convention that day. In the shadowy gym, Kevin stood up on his tippy toes and peered through the small squa
re window on one of the doors. He held his breath as he saw the enormous cyborg space poacher turn the corner of the hallway and pause for a moment, looking toward the gymnasium doors.
Kevin sank down quickly so as not to be seen. I’m too young to die, he thought. I haven’t even won the Nobel Prize yet! Kevin backed away from the entrance and crouched underneath a table to the left of the door.
The place was dark except for the faint light coming in through the windows, which illuminated Alexander’s hovercraft across from him.
Kevin removed his force-field gloves and took the shrink ray out from his backpack. He held the alien gadget in the palm of his hand and pressed the button to flip it open. The horseshoe-shaped touch screen elevated off the puck-sized disk as the shrink ray sparked to life, glowing in the darkness. The tripod legs unfolded automatically and hit the floor, stabilizing the device just under the tabletop.
From outside the doors, a loud clanking noise echoed down the halls. Kevin’s face turned almost blue in the long, breathless silence that followed. He wished he were wearing the telepathy helmet so he might know the alien’s next move, but they had left that back at the bunk.
BOOM! The double doors burst open with such a force that they flew off the hinges and slid to the center of the basketball court. Kevin froze, but his heart was still beating at sixty miles per hour as the massive space poacher stepped slowly into the gymnasium.
Although Kevin was safe beneath the table, he could see the cyborg alien’s weaponry on the shrink ray’s high-def video display. Kevin hit the same settings Mim had shown them in the forest the day before, making the extraterrestrial gemstone laser glow a dark red and then beam a thin, straight laser from the precious alien stone. Kevin trained the ray directly on the alien’s leg muscle and pressed the button.
The shrink ray flashed like a camera, but before the laser beam made it across the gym, the cyborg alien jumped out of its path. The shrink ray’s beam instead landed on Alexander’s hovercraft, shrinking it down to the size of a remote-controlled car.
Shoot, Kevin thought, focusing his attention back on the touch screen. He watched the alien’s reaction on the video interface.
The cyborg looked around for the source of the laser, its rock-solid arm held out, ready to aim right at Kevin.
Kevin hurriedly selected the alien’s figure on the screen again and hit the shrink button.
The red, glowing gemstone shot another laser beam, which landed this time on the alien cyborg’s hip.
Direct hit! In a flash the mammoth alien shrank to the size of a Barbie doll. Kevin let out a little whoop and stood up from under the table. He towered over the shrunken cyborg, which didn’t look as scary anymore. The little alien swiveled his head about, disoriented, pointing his ray-gun arm all over the place. Finally he caught his bearings and looked up to see Kevin, the giant thirteen-year-old. The dwarfed alien aimed his arm up and fired his phaser weapon, striking Kevin on the shin.
“Hey, stop that,” Kevin said. “That tickles!”
The miniaturized alien ceased fire and lowered his shooting arm. “What have you done to me?” The alien spoke in perfect English.
He must have one of those language chips, Kevin thought.
The mini cyborg continued, “How am I supposed to catch Mim now?”
“He’s an endangered species,” Kevin scolded him. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”
“You must be confused,” said the alien. “Who are you? Identify yourself.”
“You first, dude,” Kevin said. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Klyk,” the miniature alien said. “I work for the Interplanetary Peace Coalition.”
“What? So you’re like some kind of space cop?”
“More of a bounty hunter,” said Klyk. “I help them track down the galaxy’s most wanted criminals.”
“Huh?” Kevin said. “You think Mim’s a criminal?”
“See for yourself,” said Klyk as he pulled out a tiny device from his belt. He clicked a button, and a beam of light projected a holograph into the air. A 3D image of Mim’s mug shot appeared in front of Kevin. Lists of data streamed down on either side of his face, illustrating his entire criminal profile. Master of deception. Intergalactic tech thief. Known planet eater. A long list of Mim’s partners in crime followed, which read like an unsolved word jumble.
Kevin’s eyes went wide and unblinking as he examined the holographic rap sheet. “I don’t know what to say. . . . I mean, I thought he was our friend.”
“Just how well do you know this Mim?” asked Klyk.
“We only met him a few days ago,” said Kevin. “He told us you guys were space poachers trying to hunt him down for his fur.”
“And you believed that?” Klyk raised his eyebrows.
“Well, yeah!” said Kevin, looking a little crestfallen. “Aw, man, I feel like such an idiot!”
“Don’t feel too bad. Mim’s the galactic champion of liars,” said Klyk. “He’s wanted for the destruction of five entire planets across the galaxy. I’ve been ordered by the council to bring him in, dead or alive.”
Kevin could hardly believe what Klyk was saying. But then he thought of Mim’s eating habits, and it all made sense.
“Wait,” said Kevin. “We have to find Tara, Warner, and TJ before your partners hurt them! They still think Mim’s a good guy.”
Kevin scooped up the miniaturized alien, tossed him in his backpack, and bolted back into the night.
Kevin raced outside, looking around for his friends. His eyes darted from the lakeshore to the mess hall and back again. A series of bright, quick flashes caught his attention, and he turned his gaze toward the edge of the forest.
Kevin ran toward the spot and ducked into the pinewoods.
Two alien photon blasts shot through the darkness and whizzed past Kevin’s head. Sprinting with both arms shielding his skull, Kevin dove and slid like a base runner into a shallow ditch behind a few large evergreen trees.
He looked to his left and saw two of Klyk’s bounty hunter pals maneuvering cautiously through the forest. Kevin recognized one of them as the half-slug, half-crab alien centaur that had zapped the counselors. The extraterrestrial next to it was equally as revolting. Its face was like a giant squid, with squiggly tentacles wriggling off its chin like a beard made of snakes. It had no torso, just a long neck sprouting out of its waist. It stood on two legs with backward-bending knee joints, and three arms protruded from its waist, two off the hips and one out from the tailbone.
There were two more aliens on the prowl about twenty yards away from them. Kevin squinted his eyes through the darkness to catch a glimpse. Both alien bounty hunters were identical to each other: large insectoids that if Kevin wasn’t mistaken resembled assassin bugs. Except these assassin bugs were both about six feet tall and walked on their hind legs. Long snouts protruded like elephants’ trunks, and long antennae pointed up from the top of their heads.
Kevin was about to ask Klyk for help when he looked to the right and saw his friends jump out from behind a row of bushes.
Warner thrust his arm forward, wearing the wormhole generator. “Hah! Take that!”
The two alien assassin bugs spun around and were suddenly stunned, backlit in a bright, swirling green light. Within seconds, their silhouettes disappeared as if they’d been sucked into a point the size of a pinhole.
Warner whirled around and activated the wormhole generator again as the squid-faced alien and the crab-legged blobbermouth came bounding toward him down the footpath.
“Warner, no!” Kevin shouted, running toward his friends. “Don’t!”
But it was too late. The alien bounty-hunting duo had already vanished into the wormhole too.
“Boom! Did you see that?” Warner said, pumping his fist. “I just sent those suckers to another dimension. Four for the price of two! What!”
Kevin clutched his forehead and wiped the sweat gathering at his brow. “Oh man, this is so not good!”
&n
bsp; “You’re dang right it wasn’t good,” Warner said. “It was freakin’ unbelievable.”
“You guys,” said Tara. “Mim’s still out there. I think I saw them shoot him. He could be hurt!”
Before Kevin could respond, the zipper on his backpack seemed to open on its own and Klyk climbed out. He walked up Kevin’s arm and stood on his shoulder like a parrot. “We can only hope,” Klyk said from his perch.
Warner, Tara, and TJ simultaneously dropped their jaws at the sight of the toy-sized alien.
“Whoa,” said Warner. “Kevin, you shrank a space poacher!”
TJ ran his index finger along the top of Klyk’s head. “Hey, boy.”
“Hands off.” Klyk batted Warner’s finger away and looked up at Kevin.
“He’s not a space poacher, guys,” said Kevin. “Mim’s been lying to us the whole time.”
“What are you talking about?” Warner said.
“I can’t explain here,” Klyk spoke. “But Mim is not your friend. We need to get inside immediately. It’s not safe out here with Mim on the loose.”
Back at the boys’ bunk, the Extraordinary Terrestrials formed a circle around their new alien ally. They all listened intently as Klyk pulled out his miniaturized 3D hologram gadget and filled them in on the truth about Mim.
“You have no idea what Mim is capable of. If left to his own devices, Mim could destroy Earth in a matter of days. Maybe less. I’m the only one left who can capture him, and you’ve reduced me to this.”
“Man,” said Tara. “I really thought Mim was our buddy.”
“Why don’t you just call for some backup and we can all lie low for a hot second while we wait for the cavalry,” Warner said.
“I would, but my radio is now also shrunken and useless. No signal.”
“What do we do then?” Kevin asked. “There’s no one else coming?”
“No,” said Klyk. “The five of us were the only ones they sent. The best, supposedly.”
Galaxy's Most Wanted Page 7
