Return of Mega Mantis

by Laura Dower

  Stella sped up to walk ahead of us. We followed her downstairs and into the video vault. I scanned the walls and shelves and bins and floor and . . .

  “Whoa,” I said, taking a step back. “Is this place organized?”

  Movie reels were now lined up alphabetically alongside old video cassettes, DVDs, and other discs.

  “Walter said he was going to straighten it out for us,” Lindsey said. “I guess he meant it.”

  “It looks like a real library now,” I said excitedly as I glanced over rows and rows of reels. I wondered which ones were originals and which ones were copies.

  “Found it!” Stella cried from across the room. Wow! She worked fast!

  In Stella’s hand was a reel marked Mega Mantis.

  Ranger noticed there was a sticker on the box, too.

  COPY.

  We groaned. Something marked COPY could not have let loose the giant mantis in Riddle. Only reels marked ORIGINAL could be destroyed to stop the monsters. I guess it made sense that Leery would have destroyed all of the originals he had.

  “I knew it wouldn’t be that easy,” Lindsey said. “But let’s watch it like we planned and look for some clues.”

  We popped the reel onto a projector and settled down to watch.

  Opening credits scrolled onto the screen. Creepy background music got louder as an ordinary looking praying mantis twitched on a leaf. The camera pulled back to reveal an oversized terrarium and a pair of scientists. They observed the bug through a pair of binoculars. One scientist shouted, “Sir, I think the subject’s forelegs are growing again!” The other scientist shouted, “Horrors, my good man!”

  These guys were dorkier than the biggest dorks at Riddle Elementary.

  All at once, the camera panned to the outside of the scientists’ lab. Before I could even think praying mantis, the whole building blew up. Just like that, the entire town was blanketed in radioactive isotopic experimental desert dust. Well, that’s what some guy in the movie called it.

  Leery must have filmed the scenes for Mantis out at the old Riddle Air Force hangar. I recognized the wire fence around its borders, the tumbleweeds, and the deserted hangar in the middle of it all. There were these big spotlights that lit everything up, too. What a perfect landing strip for Mega! Where better for a hundred-foot bug to spread its wings?

  There were other scenes filmed all over Riddle, too. I recognized the enormous cedar tree that was outside the Riddle Library. Mega snapped off some of its wide branches and chewed them right up. Once Mega Mantis had grown as tall as a skyscraper, it hissed its way through Main Street, stepping on people and animals and destroying every car in sight. The sound effects were incredible!

  Ranger and I disagree on many things about the Bs, but one thing we always agree on is that Oswald Leery knew his facts and he used them carefully. If Leery made a movie about bugs, his bugs were mostly anatomically correct and they did bug things. The only monsters with no rules or reality were B-Monsters like the Beast with 1,000 Eyes who could, by the way, blink people to death after putting them into zombie trances and making them do very weird things.

  But Mega was wild enough for today. We watched as the mantis chomped off someone’s head and chewed it like a piece of gum. Blecch! Then I noticed something about this B that I had never seen before now: Wherever Mega went, little bugs always surrounded it. Little swarms of bugs.

  Swarms like the ones that had been following us everywhere.

  Near the end of the film, Mega Mantis knocked down an army tank with its forelimbs. Then it scooped up a crowd of unsuspecting bystanders with its power-grip antennae. Nothing—not even a metal tank—was any match for this incredible B-Monster. The entire town was doomed.

  But just as Mega was about to crush the tank with a loud hiss, a laser beam shot down from space. Oswald Leery really outdid himself with this movie’s special effects. The beam shot down once, then twice, and then a third time.

  It was the third ray from space that ignited the top of Mega’s head. In a matter of minutes, the mantis was in full burn. Even its pincers were on fire! Mega Mantis looked more like a birthday candle on top of some cake than a bug. And as it burned, the bug let out this whistling wail. It sent shudders down my spine. Oswald Leery captured the moment perfectly! He shot an ultra-close-up on the mantis’s body. It crackled like a barbecued chicken leg on a grill.

  “So that’s that,” I said to the others. “All we need is a space laser.”

  “A space laser?” Lindsey asked.

  “Where are we supposed to get that? The space laser supermarket?” Stella said sarcastically.

  “Um . . . could your dad make a space laser?” I asked, turning to Ranger.

  “Yeah, Jesse,” Stella said. “Your dad can invent anything.”

  “Gee,” Ranger muttered, sounding concerned. “My dad’s a pretty busy guy . . .”

  “Too busy to save the world?” Lindsey asked.

  “Hold on. Maybe we could crisp the giant mantis with something besides a laser?” I suggested.

  “Like what? A bug-sized flamethrower?” Stella suggested.

  “Mega-microwave oven?” I said.

  “Mega-nuclear reactor?” Lindsey said.

  “How about a plain old pack of mega matchsticks?” Ranger quipped. “Add a gallon of gasoline and kaboom!”

  “Um, Damon,” Stella said with this intense look on her face, “I don’t want to freak you out or anything. But there’s something black crawling on your arm . . .”

  “Huh?” I jumped up.

  “GOTCHA!” Stella cried.

  Lindsey and Ranger both laughed.

  I gave them both the evil eyeball.

  “We need to find Walter and Leery,” I grumbled. “Now.”

  CHAPTER 6

  THE AMAZE-ING TRUTH

  We were all jumpy as we made our way through the castle looking for Walter. Stella kept trying to scare me just for fun. Lindsey kept taking pictures. Every flash made me see double. I had a fear headache. And I didn’t want to see another bug. Ever.

  So when something swooped down past my head, I lost it.

  “GIANT INSECT!” I wailed at the top of my lungs.

  Only that flying object was no insect. It was Poe the crow, official bird of Leery Castle. He landed on my shoulder. Even though he wasn’t nearly as scary as a gnat swarm, my knees were still shaking.

  “Hey, Poe. W-w-what’s up?” I stammered.

  Lindsey giggled. “Photo op!” She held up her camera for a picture. “Say gorgonzola!”

  I was ready to scream again, but thankfully Ranger spoke up first. That guy’s coolness surprises me sometimes.

  “Hey,” Ranger suggested. “Maybe Poe can lead us to Walter?”

  I looked at the bird. “Yo, Poe, where’s Walt?”

  Poe let out a caw and flew off my shoulder and into the air. We followed him into a long, skinny hallway.

  A row of oil paintings hung on the wallpapered walls. The faces all looked like Leery’s face, so we guessed these were portraits of Desmond and Lucas Leery, Oswald’s father and grandfather. I half expected the pictures to have eyeballs that moved and followed us down the hallway, like the lamest Scooby Doo episode ever.

  But the eyes didn’t move.

  Something else did.

  Each picture was framed in a gold leaf design that looked ordinary from a distance. But up close, I saw the frames were actually made from bugs.

  I jumped back.

  Then I realized the entire wall was crawling!

  I dug around in my pocket for my lucky keychain. It has a penlight on the end of it. I shined the light on to the crawling wall and shivered.

  This was so gross.

  But there was no time to be scared.

  As soon as the pen light hit them, most of the bugs scattered. I saw beetles, grubs, and other crawlies in all sizes. If only I were carrying a portable laser beam instead.

  “Geesh,” Stella exclaimed. “This place is even bugging me out!” />
  “Everyone run!” I cried, taking off down the hall.

  “Wait up!” Ranger called out to me. “Damon! We have to stick together!”

  But I sped around a dark corner. I nearly collided with a huge door. Then Stella nearly collided with me.

  “What’s in there?” Stella asked, reaching for the doorknob.

  I clicked my penlight on again. It cast an eerie light in the dark room.

  Lindsey and Ranger followed behind us. Lindsey flashed her camera so we could see more inside.

  Whoa.

  The room was windowless and empty. There wasn’t a chair, a table, or even a bulb in the ceiling socket. The floor was scratched and scuffed.

  “Creeptastic!” Lindsey said.

  “It looks like something was in here,” Ranger said, examining the floor. “Bugs?”

  “Hmmm . . .” I said.

  “Maybe it was something like the Claaaaaw Monster,” Stella joked, putting on an evil voice and waving her hand in my face. “I’m coming to claaaaaaw you—”

  “Don’t say it!” I cowered.

  I hate the Claw Monster almost as much as I hate bugs. The Claw only appeared in one Leery movie, but it was one of the scariest Leery films ever. In the movie, the Claw Monster goes from an ordinary hand to a five-fingered monster that no one can control. The Claw has hypnotic powers that convince otherwise ordinary hands to become crazy claws like it is! In the movie, all the hands turn on their humans.

  Stella was laughing at me. I’d lost my nerve again and that girl was never going to let me forget it.

  “We’d better move!” Ranger said.

  “We have a date with Mega!” Stella said. “While we’re in here poking around, that bug might be wreaking havoc on our entire town!”

  “Gee,” I said, “maybe Mega will step on Riddle Elementary and we won’t have school tomorrow.”

  “You say that because you haven’t studied for the vocabulary quiz,” Stella said.

  “I studied more than you did!” I snapped defensively. But that was a big, fat lie. Since the Monster Squad formed, I had barely done my homework. It was tough fighting monsters and cramming for tests at the same time.

  “Hey! Over here!” Ranger called out. He found another weird door. “Let’s go this way. Maybe we’ll find Walter.”

  The new door led outdoors. We entered a maze of bushes and trees that wound around itself like some kind of snake.

  “This is a-maze-ing!” Lindsey called out, chuckling at her own pun.

  I recognized a few of the shapes. Crabzilla, Slimo, and Chomp-O were all right here in green leaves.

  “Look!” Stella cried. “There’s Claw Monster!”

  We stopped and stared. The Claw’s fingers pointed in a single direction.

  Thataway.

  The maze path led us into a wide, open, and strangely peaceful space. And there was Walter! He stood at the top of a little ladder, trimming shears in hand.

  “We found you!” we all cried at the same time.

  “Oh. Hello, kids,” Walter said. “Was I lost?”

  “Holy guacamole!” Ranger said, pointing up.

  I could not believe my eyes. At the center of this enormous topiary maze was the biggest trimmed tree of all.

  Mega Mantis.

  “Dr. Leery and I have been following your every move,” Walter said. He climbed down the ladder.

  “You’re not the only one following us,” Lindsey said, pointing down at the ground.

  I froze when I saw what was coming.

  Trailing behind us were hundreds of carpenter ants.

  And they looked like a real army, ready to attack.

  CHAPTER 7

  IN DAMON’S ROOM

  “Quick, kids!” Walter said, hopping off his ladder. “Follow me.”

  “No! I’ll get ’em!” Stella cried. She started stomping like a maniac.

  “Stella, not even a ninja can stomp this many ants,” I said, grabbing her arm and pulling her after us.

  We retreated to the main part of the castle.

  “I can buy us some time,” Walter assured us. “Just wait here.”

  Wait here? Was he kidding?

  Ranger, Lindsey, Stella, and I freaked. The ants were marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah . . . The song from kindergarten played inside my head.

  Then the ants followed us inside.

  We hopped up onto a velvet sofa. As the ants surrounded the claw feet on the sofa, I tried not to panic. But it was impossible to tell where the rug stopped and the ants began.

  Then Walter raced back into the room. “Close your eyes!” he commanded.

  All at once, I saw a bright flash of green light. Walter held a black stick that looked like a flashlight. He aimed it at the ants.

  Zap! Flash! Zap! Flash!

  Like magic, the bugs lined up in neat rows.

  “How did you get the bugs to do that?” Ranger asked.

  “Wow,” I said. “Can I get a zapper for my little sister?”

  Stella shot me one of her serious stares.

  “We must contact Dr. Leery right away,” Walter went on. “The situation is worse than we anticipated. You need to get instructions directly from him.”

  I noticed the ant trance was beginning to wear off. The ants were twitching again.

  “Oh, dear,” Walter cried. “We have to hurry! Head for my limousine! Now!”

  The Monster Squad ran out to the car. We flung ourselves in and buckled up. We had to drive away before the ant trail caught up to us.

  As we sped away, Ranger leaned into the front seat. “Where is Leery right now?” he asked. I was wondering the same thing.

  “All over the world since last Thursday,” Walter explained.

  “How does he travel so far so fast?” Stella asked.

  “Private B-Jet,” Walter answered. “It takes him wherever he goes at a moment’s notice.”

  “So he’ll give us instructions from his plane phone?” Lindsey asked.

  “No, I just text-messaged him. Dr. Leery wants to stream video to us directly. He recorded a message a short time ago,” Walter explained. “Damon, your house is right up here on this road, correct? That is where you saw the insect activity?”

  “Sure,” I shrugged. “It’s a regular Gnat Central.”

  “Perfect! We’ll use your computer for the uplink,” Walter told us. “You four can get instructions from Dr. Leery while I investigate Damon’s backyard.”

  As Walter pulled the limo up to my parents’ house, I noticed that same empty-neighborhood feeling I’d had the other day. Once again, no one was home. Mom, Dad, and Rachel were probably over at the drive-in getting ready for tonight’s show.

  As we stepped out of the limo, I glanced up the road.

  “Do you see that?” I gushed.

  Lindsey screamed.

  On the road behind Walter’s limousine, where we had just been driving a few moments earlier, was a winding line of ants. The ants from the castle had trailed us from the top of Nerve Mountain!

  There was only one difference. The ants were now joined by a moving line of crickets, worms, and slithering slugs.

  “Get into the house!” Walter shouted.

  I got my key and we raced inside. Stella locked the door behind us.

  “Computer?” Walter asked.

  I pointed up the stairs. “Top floor.”

  Stella raced up behind Walter.

  I yelled after her. “Don’t touch my stuff!” But I knew she was already inside my room.

  “Daaaaamon! You have B-Monster posters on the ceiling?” she called out.

  “Yes!” I cried. “And on the door, too.” I went into the room and found Walter at my computer, punching a bunch of keys.

  Lindsey pulled out her camera. “Mind if I snap a few?” she asked me.

  I just shrugged. “I guess.”

  “Where did you get the original poster from the Crabzilla premiere?” Ranger asked. “There are only four of those in existence!”
/>   “Yeah,” I said. “I got special B souvenirs because of my parents’ drive-in. I’m lucky that way.”

  I quickly showed off all the other B stuff in the room. In addition to posters, I revealed my collection of B-Monster Plushies, trading cards, B-Monster Galaxy magazines, an ATTACK OF THE B-MONSTERS game in its original box, and the Slimo paper weight with the hand sticking out of the middle. That had been Leery’s too-cool gift for me from our first mission.

  Ranger was jealous; I could tell. He probably still thought he was the best B-collector in Riddle.

  My bedroom curtains were still closed from that morning. I pulled them open so everyone could see the field and forest and maybe even the shadow bug, if he showed up. Drive-O-Rama lights burned bright even though sunset was at least an hour away.

  “Okay, Monster Squad,” Walter said, getting up from my computer desk. “No time for playing around. I’ve inputted the link to Leery.”

  Stella squeezed in front of me so she could sit down at the desk.

  “Hey,” I said, holding back a scream. “That’s my computer—”

  “While you four chat with Leery,” Walter said, “I am going to check out the B-Force levels in your backyard.”

  “B-Force?” Lindsey asked. “What’s that?”

  Before we could ask, Walter disappeared downstairs.

  My computer hummed as a fuzzy screen came up. A man appeared, like a ghost, through the static.

  Oswald Leery!

  “My friends,” Leery said, clearing his throat. His voice faded in and out. “We meet again. I understand our situation is critical. Walter filled me in on the details. I know you are being swarmed. I also know that Damon has seen a strange and enormous bug in his backyard. I think I have some valuable information for you.”

  Stella gripped the chair arms. I guess even ninjas get tense, too.

  “A few weeks ago,” Leery went on, “I learned that the original Mega Mantis movie had been screened and a B-Monster had escaped. There were worldwide Mega Mantis sightings. I tracked Mega to Malaysia but then it slipped away!”