They Came From Planet Q

by Laura Dower

  “Whoa,” Damon shook his head. “You know what? There are a lot of magnetic B-Monsters.”

  “Excellent!” I said. “So let’s start there . . .”

  Brrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaw! Brrrrrrraaoooooo!

  All at once, a mall alarm went off. It sounded like a dying Brontosaurus. We covered our ears.

  “What is that?” Damon asked.

  “It’s coming from the lower level of the mall,” I said. “Let’s go look.”

  We left Wok N’ Roll, passed a dozen more food court stalls, and leaned over the railing to see what was going on down below.

  And there it was—unbelievable!

  Just outside the Toy Mania boutique was the strangest parade of toys. Playstations, Xboxes, remote controls, battery packs, race cars, handheld radios, and a whole slew of other junk had come to life and started walking in formation. Leading the way was a toy monkey with little, crashing cymbals and motorized wheels.

  And everything in the parade was metal. Maybe they were being pulled by a magnetic force?

  “Follow that monkey parade!” Damon cried.

  This was getting so weird. And we weren’t the only ones sensing B-Force. I could hear people downstairs freaking out a little, too.

  “This mall is cursed!”

  “Nah, haunted!”

  “Run away!”

  One woman in the crowd actually yelled, “It’s the end of the world!”

  “Let’s go down and get a closer look,” Jesse said, nudging me. “Maybe the parade will lead us to the B-Monster.”

  We made a fast break for the escalator.

  CHAPTER 2

  SOMEONE FLICKED A CRAZY SWITHCH!

  Naturally, the escalator was jammed with people. Everyone wanted out of the mall at the exact same time.

  I raised my new camera up over my head and began clicking random photos of the puzzled crowd. But as I snapped pictures, the camera snapped a fuse or something. It let out this blinding white flash and made a sizzle sound. Then it glowed hot. I nearly dropped it on the escalator step.

  Damon saw it glow, too. “Oooh,” he blurted. “That looks a lot like one of Leery’s cameras . . .”

  “Really?” I asked. I couldn’t remember ever seeing this before. “From where?”

  “One of the movies . . .”

  “Which one?”

  But Damon couldn’t remember which one. Even a B-Encyclopedia gets brain freeze once in a while. He pulled a crumpled list of Bs from his back pocket and scanned the movie titles. In the world of Leery’s Bs, there were so many monsters it was hard to keep track of them. We sometimes used this list to help ID our B-Monsters.

  “Look for movies with a magnetic B-Monster and a camera,” I said.

  “Okay.” Damon read the names: “There’s Robototron. That B-Monster was metal. He’s a possibility.”

  “I don’t recall a camera in Robototron,” Jesse said.

  “All right, well . . . there are other Bs on this list that fit our profile, too,” Damon said, scanning the paper.

  “What about Iron Dino?” Stella asked.

  “Not that B,” Damon frowned. “Iron Dino was just a fake, prehistoric B-Monster that looked like he was made of metal. Not magnetic at all.”

  “What about Dr. Disaster?” I asked. “He worked in a steel-encased lab. That had to be magnetic.”

  “Didn’t he have arms of steel, too?” Stella asked, high-fiving me.

  “Well, claws of steel,” Damon said, shaking his head. “But Dr. Disaster was only three feet tall, remember? He operated from inside a mechanical cow.”

  “Yeah,” Stella said, “but the cow was metal, too, right?”

  “Stella . . .” Damon said. “It wasn’t Dr. D.”

  “Oh, sure,” Stella said. “Just shoot down my answer just because—”

  “Guys.” I tapped my foot nervously. The whole mall was falling apart and Stella and Damon wanted to pick a fight with each other?

  Typical.

  “Hey, what about the robots from They Came from Planet Q?” Damon said, “Remember them? They were held together by magnetic force! When they came to Earth, they nearly destroyed the planet.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “They were powered by that crazy, red rock . . .”

  “Firequartz!” Jesse exclaimed. “It magnetized the robots!”

  The escalator arrived at the lower level and the four of us jumped off. It was hard not to get body-slammed, but we dove into the mob, anyway.

  People were really talking now. Apparently, the credit card machines were all still down. Jesse pointed out that credit cards can be erased by high levels of magnetism.

  Hmmmmmm.

  Up ahead of us, the metal toy parade continued, cymbals clanging. We followed it.

  “Leery says there’s safety in numbers,” Stella reminded us. “So we must stick together, no matter what.”

  We moved through the sea of frenzied people as quickly as possible, eyes fixed on the parade as best we could. After a few yards, when the toys switched direction, we did, too. I jumped onto a bench to see where the toys were headed. The others jumped onto the bench with me.

  “Look!” I cried, pointing. “The toys are headed toward the center of the mall. Why are they going to the center of the mall? What’s there?”

  “Something magnetic?” Stella asked.

  “Our B-Monster?” Jesse said.

  I snapped a photo and turned to Damon to find out what he thought.

  But he wasn’t there.

  “Damon?”

  I spun back around the other way.

  “DAMON?”

  I craned my neck to see where he’d gone and nearly tripped over a kid in the process. My camera fell to the floor and the flash went off. Snap! Snap! Snap!

  “DAMOOOOOOON!”

  “Anyone see where Damon went?” Jesse asked.

  “Green shirt! Twelve o’clock!” Stella howled, pointing over the heads of the crowd.

  Lucky for us, Damon’s neon “Tuff Guy” T-shirt made him easy to spot, even among all this chaos.

  We raced over and caught up to him in no time.

  “What are you doing, Damon?” Stella howled.

  “We do things together. We’re Monster Squad; not Chicken Squad.”

  “I’m not a chicken,” Damon said. “I was just getting a head start . . .”

  “Nice lie,” Stella huffed and assumed her Ninja pose. “I mean, nice try.”

  “Hey!” I yelled. “The toys are flying!”

  All those metal toys suddenly became airborne as if they were attached to some kind of invisible bungee cord. It was amazing to watch.

  Up, up, up . . .

  CRAAAAASSSSH!

  We stopped dead in our tracks. I grabbed Jesse’s arm so hard I probably twisted off all the freckles.

  Directly above us, the ceiling had ripped open. There was a gaping hole the size of a football field.

  “Wow,” I said. “It’s not every day that the ceiling of our local mall opens wide and says ahhhhh.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like this on the Science Man show,” Jesse said. He tried to look up into the hole, but there was dust and debris floating around in the air. It made it hard to see anything.

  “It’s like there’s a giant magnet in the sky pulling all the metal objects its way,” Damon noted.

  We all squinted and tried to see what might be hanging over the mall ceiling.

  And then, just like that, we felt a spray of water rain down on our heads.

  “What in the middle of Riddle was THAT?” I gulped.

  CHAPTER 3

  THOUSAND THOUSAND THREE^COINS IN A FOUNTAIN

  The center of the mall is all about the enormous Petroglyph fountain. People sit on the ledge to take a break from shopping. They toss in coins for luck. They make wishes.

  But at that very moment, that fountain was going bonkers. All the coins were spouting through the air!

  “This is just like those lawnmowers in Australia!” I said.<
br />
  All around us, the mall fountain gushed and sprayed. For a split second, I wondered if all those coins spewing into the air might just come crashing back down onto our heads. Talk about pennies from heaven!

  “So now that we know there is some magnetic B-Force up there, with the power to suck up all the toys and steel beams and coins from inside the mall, what can we do about it?” asked Stella.

  My body shook. I didn’t know anything right now except that the water was cold and I was a bundle of nerves. Watching all these metal objects get sucked into the sky really did make me wonder if the world was going to end. I could only imagine how scary all this B-Force (even just a little of it) must have looked to a non-Monster Squadder.

  “Should we get out of here like everyone else?” Jesse asked cautiously. I sensed a little fear in his voice.

  I knew Damon was ready to run. I was literally holding him back. I hooked my arms through his.

  But it was all for nothing. Because leaving now was definitely not an option.

  “I think we should go up and investigate,” I said. “There are all sorts of secret passages and places inside this mall. If there’s a big magnet out there, it must have left some clues on the roof, right?”

  “That hole is waaaaaay up high,” Damon said. “How do we get all the way up there?”

  “Well,” Jesse said thoughtfully. “We could all get dressed in metal suits and then the giant magnet will pull us up . . .”

  “JESSE!” Stella yelped. “Would you get serious?”

  “Look, there are all sorts of secret passages in the mall,” I said. “My dad has maps of the entire mall complex in his office. We could check out the maps and see what’s marked on the different levels. Maybe we’ll be able to locate our B-Monster that way.”

  As we stood there, the Toy Mania alarm finally stopped ringing and the fountain stopped running water. Everything stopped, actually . . . except the pounding of my chest.

  And then, like a cannon, a voice boomed behind me and I nearly fell over onto the ground.

  “Lindsey Monica Gomez! What are YOU doing here?!”

  CHAPTER 4

  TREMORS!

  I turned and saw Dad. I could tell he was mad because his neck was cherry Popsicle red.

  “Answer me. What are you doing here?”

  “Dad!” I said. “We were up at the food court when we heard noises and we—”

  “G-g-got scared,” Damon interrupted.

  “Correction. You got scared, Damon,” Stella said.

  “Scared?” Dad said, tugging on his shirt collar. “Well, I should say so! The entire mall is being evacuated. My guys are rounding up people in the mall. The fire and rescue team is coming in. Just look at this place! This is dangerous and intense . . .”

  Dad’s walkie-talkie crackled.

  “Whoa,” Damon said. “Your dad is the one that’s intense.”

  “Lindsey, I need you and your crew to vamoose . . . NOW!” Dad barked, checking his walkie-talkie again. “Evacuation orders mean everyone, young lady, even the daughter of the head of security.”

  Dad asked Big Wally, the biggest security guard on the team, to escort us all the way out of the mall.

  “Great,” Stella whispered to me as we moved toward the door. “We are just about to ID the B-Monster—and this happens.”

  “Wait! Dad!” I said, turning back. “I know we’re just kids, Dad, but I think you should know there’s something else going on . . . something magnetic is . . .”

  “LINDSEY!”

  The boys glared. I knew I shouldn’t have hinted at our mission, but I had to say something! We couldn’t just leave! We couldn’t just let ourselves be escorted from the scene of the B-Monster!

  “Go home, Lindsey,” Dad said sternly. Big Wally took me and the others by the arms.

  I wanted to tug myself loose and run back to make one final plea to Dad, but just then the building shuddered.

  Lights flickered.

  And the whole place went dark with a loud hisssssssss.

  “POWER! OUT!” someone yelled. I heard Dad yell, too. We were in a cave with voices shouting out in the darkness.

  Damon found me first. “W-w-what’s going on?” he squealed, clinging to my side like a vine. “Is this it? Is this the end of the world?”

  “WHERE IS EVERYONE?” Stella yelped. She was close by, but where?

  “I’m over here,” Big Wally boomed.

  “Me too,” Stella said.

  “Did the floor just move?” Jesse cried. “Because I felt the floor move.”

  “Oh noooooooo!” Damon wailed. I think he wanted to run away, but he couldn’t even see a foot in front of him.

  Once again, the building shimmied and shook.

  “Lindsey!”

  I heard Dad’s voice and then he was next to me. Just like that. Somehow, in the muddle of the darkness, he found me.

  “Lindsey, honey, are you okay?” Dad whispered softly. He’s just as good at being sweet as he is at being firm. “Look, I want you to stay calm. There have been these faint tremors all week at the mall and just a little while ago, security reported a crack in the atrium ceiling, but we have a backup . . .”

  Brrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm.

  Just like that, a motor surged and hummed and the overhead mall lights buzzed on. I could see again! What a relief! I never thought I would be glad to see Damon Molloy’s ugly face, but at that moment, few things could have made me happier.

  I glanced around. Most ordinary people in the mall had left or been escorted out. The place was crawling with security.

  “Is everyone okay?” Dad said. “I knew the backup power would kick on so we could see.”

  “Speaking of backing up . . . er . . .” Damon said. “I’d like to back up all the way to the mall exit.”

  “But we can’t go!” I said. “We haven’t found the—”

  I pressed my hand over my own mouth.

  Dad gave me this quizzical look. “Lindsey, is there something you’re not telling me?” he asked. “You and your friends are acting awfully . . .”

  “No, no, no,” Stella said. “We’re fine. And we’ll go. We’ll go right now, Mr. Gomez. Let’s shuffle, Big Wally!”

  None of us wanted to leave (well, except for Damon),

  but there was nothing any of us could say that would change my father’s mind. And before we knew it, Big Wally was leading us through the mall. And there was no arguing with Big Wally.

  By the time we got to the parking lot, the crowd was going crazy. People were pushing and shouting and crying—it was pretty scary.

  “Stay safe, kids!” Wally called out before turning back inside.

  Safe? I thought. Yeah, sure thing, Big Wally.

  We elbowed our way through the crowd to get to the mall entrance. But there was no way back in! Dad had security guards posted at every single entrance to the building. Our Monster Squad mission had reached its first major detour.

  Now what?

  “What now?” Stella whined. “Everything we desperately need is in there!”

  I glanced around and thought hard. I snapped a few photos and then smiled at my camera.

  If I’ve learned anything from being a photographer at large it’s this: A camera can sometimes see things the eye can’t.

  “Not everything.”

  CHAPTER 5

  LET’S SEE WHAT DEVELOPS

  “I guess it’s time to come up with another plan,” Jesse started to say.

  “You mean a plan B?” I cracked.

  “Oh, come on!” Stella cried. “This is really not a time for jokes, Lindsey!”

  “Do you three want to come over to my house for a little while?” I suggested. “It’s just up the street . . .”

  We headed around one parking lot and into another. I’d never seen this place so busy. And then we saw something even weirder than the spouting coin fountain or the hole in the ceiling.

  At least five sports cars had been stacked like blocks, one on top
of the other. The pile looked ready to topple over, but it didn’t. Something was keeping the cars stacked and stuck.

  “Extreme magnetic force!” Jesse cried.

  I snapped a few photos of the car pileup.

  Then Damon noticed there was another pile of metal objects . . . and another. Toys from Toy Mania, steel beams, chairs, and anything else that was metal and not nailed down headed up into the darkening sky. As we stood there, a small yellow car was sucked from its parking space and deposited with a loud smash onto one of the piles.

  Where was an air traffic controller when you needed one? The objects were in some kind of magnetic holding pattern right here in the parking lot.

  Now I’m not an A+ science student like Jesse, but I knew this much: Whatever B-Monster was on its way had a herculean magnetic force. I felt all twitchy just watching it. If we didn’t confirm this B-Monster soon and figure out a way to stop it, the entire town of Riddle would probably turn into one giant magnet.

  “We ruled out Robototron and Dr. Disaster already,” Stella said. “So what magnetic B-Monsters are left?”

  “Did anyone mention Escape to Skull Island?” I asked. “Wasn’t that island magnetic?”

  “Not really,” Jesse replied. “It was radioactive and I suppose it probably might have had increased levels of magnetism, but . . .”

  “Forget Skull Island, brainiac!” Damon blurted. “I swear our B-Monster is from They Came from Planet Q. Those robots came down to Earth from the sky.”

  “Right!” I said, looking up.

  “You are right, Damon,” Jesse said. “We know the B-Force is coming from the sky. Good work.”

  We left the parking lot together and walked down the street to my big, old Victorian house with blue shutters. Damon filled us in with the many things he remembered about the They Came from Planet Q flick. The detail that intrigued me the most was that the hero in the movie carried a simple-looking camera that had secret powers.

  Mom must have seen us race up the walkway. She greeted us with my usual snack, popcorn and juice, even though she didn’t really know who my Monster Squad friends were.

  She said she’d heard the sirens at the mall, but had no idea what was going on there. I guess Dad didn’t want Mom to freak out, so he hadn’t called to tell her about the mass evacuation of the mall or the ceiling that wasn’t. The whole crisis hadn’t been broadcast by the news yet, either. It was hard to believe she’d been missing all the action, but she had. And I wasn’t about to let on that I knew anything unusual.