Monsters Unleashed

by John Kloepfer

  After a few torturous minutes, Mega-Q was starting to get antsy. Freddie looked up as he put pen to paper. “This might take a while.”

  Mega-Q didn’t like that one bit. He started pacing the classroom on his razor-sharp legs. Freddie could barely concentrate. Freddie turned to the monster. “Hey,” he said, “think I can get a bathroom break?”

  Mega-Q shook his head.

  “What about a snack?” he asked. “A big guy like me needs to eat. Can I go to the vending machine to get a snack? You could come with me.”

  Mega-Q scowled at him, and an angry blue-white squiggle of electricity zapped between the nodes on the monster’s head.

  Suddenly a distinct clattering sound echoed down the hall. The millimonster’s head whipped around, and he skittered out of the room to investigate the sound. The lock clicked shut on the door.

  Freddie was trapped. How was he supposed to lure Mega-Q anywhere when he was locked in the room?

  He looked around. There was no way he was fitting through the windows. He could break them if he had to, but that would only botch the plan.

  A shrill shriek rang out from the hallway. Freddie tensed up. It must be one of his friends. Friends? Freddie thought. Up to this point he had had only one friend, Manny. Were Jordan, Nina, and Quincy really his friends?

  Another scream sounded through the door.

  Whoever it was, Freddie had to help them. Mega-Q could be slicing and dicing them this very second.

  He started pounding on the door with both hands. “You guys, he’s coming for you! Look out, he’s coming for you!”

  Nothing.

  Freddie crouched down and inspected the little screws of the door lock.

  All he needed was a flat-head screwdriver. He riffled the room, searching through drawers and under cabinets until he found Snoozer’s toolbox.

  Quickly, Freddie crouched next to the door and used the screwdriver to dismantle the lock. He got the screws out, but the panel wouldn’t pop off. He found a paper clip on the floor and attempted to pick the lock.

  No luck.

  Freddie stood up. For the first time in his life he realized his size might be a good thing. Maybe he was a freak, but he was a freak with big legs and feet who could kick hard. How strong could the door lock really be?

  He lifted his leg high and brought the sole of his sneaker down on the door handle.

  BAM! BAM! KERWHAM!

  The door flew open.

  At the end of the hallway, Mega-Q snaked around the corner, chasing Manny and Quincy. Both boys looked completely ridiculous. They were carrying mops and sporting metal buckets on their heads like helmets.

  “This way!” Freddie yelled at his friends.

  The millipede monster scaled the walls and spiraled up onto the ceiling as he chased them.

  Freddie shoved Manny and Quincy into the art room.

  Mega-Q dropped off the ceiling and slammed into the classroom door, just as Freddie pulled it shut.

  Manny and Quincy gasped for breath, their backs to the door.

  “Sneak attack backup did not go as planned. . . .” Manny huffed and puffed.

  “That was not exactly a stealth mission, you guys,” Freddie said. “We could hear you clattering around all the way down the hall!”

  “It was his fault,” Quincy said. “He bumped into me!”

  “Did not!” Manny shouted.

  “Shhhhh!” Freddie said, holding his finger to his lips.

  Quincy pressed the orange button on his walkie-talkie. “Nina, Jordan, come in. . . . Over!”

  Nina’s voice came on the speaker. “What’s the dealio? Over.”

  “The dealio’s off,” said Quincy. “New dealio. We’re trapped in the art room! Come and get us. . . .”

  “We’re on the . . . come and getcha . . .” Nina’s voice crackled with static and cut off. “Over and out . . .”

  KACHUNK! One of Mega-Q’s katana-blade legs exploded through the door, right between Quincy and Manny. The two boys jumped out of the way. Manny jabbed his mop at the monster’s legs that were slashing through the wood. Quincy hid under a chair. Mega-Q’s body hammered into the door and the top hinge popped off the frame.

  “Please, oh please, just make it all stop. I’ll do anything. I’ll be good. I’ll never be mean to either of you ever again—just make it stop!” Quincy wailed like a baby.

  Mega-Q was slowly chipping away at the wood with his razor-sharp legs. Freddie pushed the art table across the floor and blocked the door with it.

  Quincy’s walkie-talkie buzzed. It was Nina, shouting on the other end.

  “Get out of the way,” she said, her voice slightly drowned out by the roar of an engine. “We’re coming through! This is plan B!”

  “Hurry!” Quincy wailed, sniveling.

  A school bus honked and Freddie spun around. He looked out the art room window. The bus was backing up, reversing at full speed right toward the outside wall of the building.

  Beep-boop-beep-boop!

  “Look out!” Freddie shouted as the bus slammed through the brick wall and stopped half in, half out of the classroom. CRASH!

  Scratch-scratch-crack-whack-kthunk! Mega-Q’s legs hacked through the classroom door.

  Freddie flung open the back exit of the school bus and hopped in.

  “Get in!” Freddie yelled, a hand outstretched to Quincy and Manny. “Come on, ooph . . . there we go, ooph . . . !” he grunted, pulling them both up onto the bus.

  Mega-Q burst through the classroom door and violently knocked the art table across the room.

  “Go!” Freddie yelled to the front of the bus. “Now!”

  The wheels on the bus spun round and round, kicking up debris. Freddie tried to close the bus door, but it was too late. Mega-Q skittered across the art room and leaped onto the back of the bus, clinging to the rear bumper.

  “Yo, yo, yo!” Manny shouted as the bus sped up. “Go, go, go!”

  Freddie, Manny, and Quincy hustled down the aisle, away from Mega-Q. The millipede monster squiggled his legs inside the bus and squirmed toward them.

  Jordan swerved the bus, and everyone jerked to the side.

  Freddie’s head slammed into the window. He grabbed his skull as the bus bounced over a bump.

  “Up there!” Manny shouted. There was a small emergency exit right above Freddie’s head!

  Quincy stood on the seat, trying to open it, but he couldn’t reach.

  Mega-Q lunged and thrashed at the kids. His sharp legs ripped and tore through the seats as he closed in on the boys.

  Freddie reached up and yanked on the lever. But it wouldn’t budge.

  “It’s stuck!” he called.

  Mega-Q let out an eardrum-rattling hiss.

  “Come on, Freddie!” Nina shouted.

  “Give it some elbow grease!” Jordan hollered from the driver’s seat.

  Freddie yanked the lever with all his might. Finally, the lever gave way and the hatch popped open with a clank.

  Freddie bent down to give the two smaller boys a boost. First Manny, then Quincy stepped into the cradle of Freddie’s interlocked fingers. Freddie flung them both up through the hatch as Mega-Q stretched his two front arms, grabbing for Freddie’s feet. Freddie jumped onto the seat and hoisted himself through the exit. He slammed it shut behind him.

  “Stop!” Manny screamed as the three boys clung to the roof of the moving bus. Jordan hit the brakes, and the bus jerked to a halt. Jordan and Nina leaped out of the front exit and slammed the door closed.

  “Gotcha sucker!” Manny hooted and hollered. “Woo-hoo!”

  Mega-Q was trapped.

  Freddie couldn’t believe it. They had actually won!

  14

  Freddie dropped down from the top of the bus. Mega-Q bashed and clashed and battered around inside. Then something wet landed on the tip of Freddie’s nose. Freddie stuck out his palm. “Do you feel that?”

  “Feel what?”

  “I felt it, too . . . ,” said Nina, holdi
ng out an upturned hand.

  “That’s no bueno,” Manny said.

  “It can’t be raining! These things grow in the water!” Quincy said. “We won’t stand a chance!”

  “I don’t know how much longer this bus is gonna hold Mega-Q either,” said Freddie. “If we’re going to take these monsters down for good, we’re going to have to fight fire with fire.”

  “Don’t you mean monsters with monsters?” Jordan said.

  “Exactly,” Freddie said. “The only way to get out of this mess is to make more monsters!”

  EEEEEEEEEEE! Yapzilla’s head-splitting screech carried on the warm desert wind and the bank of dark storm clouds that had gathered over their town.

  The five of them hurried back to the demolished art room, jumping through the giant hole in the wall they’d made with the school bus. Freddie took a seat at the big art table. He cleared off Mega-Q’s failed monster blobs and cracked his knuckles.

  “What kind of monster are we going to make?” Quincy asked.

  “We already made monsters for you three, so how about we make monsters for me and Freddie?” Manny asked.

  “Good idea,” Freddie agreed.

  “Awesome!” Manny smiled. “Can we make one for me that’s super huge?” Manny asked. “I’m going to name him Humongotron.”

  Freddie was feeling jittery. There was too much pressure. When he drew the monsters based on the bullies, he had been so mad they just came pouring out of him. Now, as he tried to design a hero monster, his hands were shaking and his palms were sweating. He thought about all the people who were scared to death right now. All he wanted was for things to go back to normal. Even if that meant he had to get bullied for the rest of his life, he didn’t care. He would do it in a heartbeat.

  And then, just like that, Freddie started to draw.

  He sketched as quickly as he could.

  Humongotron had two swoops of hair for ears that could double as extra arms to grab things. A little Mohawk of hair ran over his head and he stood on a pair of birdlike feet. His mouth was lined with rows of sharp little teeth. He had shiny smooth light-blue skin. The monster looked ferocious but kind of cute, Freddie thought.

  Manny booted up the 3D printing program, while Freddie racked his brain for his monster. But nothing came to mind; panic set in again.

  “What’s the matter?” Manny asked, getting ready to print Humongotron.

  “I can’t think of anything,” he said. “I have . . . artist’s block.”

  “Here.” Jordan brought over the canvas with Freddie’s monster self-portrait on it, the one Jordan had shot a spitball at earlier. “Use this dude . . .”

  “Oddo . . .” Freddie smiled and took the painting from his former nemesis. “Good thinking!”

  “Oddo and Humongotron,” Nina said with a smile. “I like it!”

  Freddie drew from the self-portrait he had done in class. Freddie’s monster, Oddo, had two eyes sticking out from a round furry face. There were two horns sticking out of his head and little tusks coming out of his fluffy muzzle. Its body was covered in green fire-resistant fur. He had three arms and two fat kangaroo legs that he bounced around on and he sometimes used his arms to walk. Freddie scribbled down the powers of his and Manny’s monsters.

  Just then, a crack of thunder rumbled and the sky opened up with a flash of lightning. Bullets of hard rain streaked down from the clouds. Of all the days this dry dustbowl of a town has a thunderstorm, Freddie thought, it had to be today.

  Another thundercrack rumbled in the distance. Way off, Yapzilla’s screech pierced the air.

  “She must’ve gotten loose,” Manny said, worry etched across his face.

  From the soccer field, Kraydon wailed at the sound of Yapzilla’s screech: roar, shriek, roar, shriek, almost like they were talking to each other.

  Outside, the rain was coming down harder now, pouring in through the hole in the wall, puddling up on the floor. And worse, from the sound of the screeches it felt like Yapzilla was getting closer.

  ROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRR! Kraydon’s bellow resounded through the school. Yapzilla’s piercing shriek whistled through the air.

  “Hurry up, Freddie!”

  “Okay, I’m done,” said Freddie. “Load up the printer!”

  Manny went over to the printer. “Hand me one of those cartridges,” he said to Quincy. The mega-nerd reached into one of the boxes on the shelving unit and pulled out one of the 3D printer cartridges. The pink goo inside looked like Silly Putty mixed with hair gel. “These the ones?”

  “That’s them,” Freddie confirmed.

  “Where does this stuff even come from?” Quincy asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Freddie. “I think Mr. Snoozer said he got it from the internet.”

  Manny turned on the 3D printer, and Quincy loaded the cartridges into it.

  Everyone watched in silence as Freddie hit print and the machine fired up. Yapzilla’s screech kept getting louder and louder as the storm raged.

  Their eyes were glued to the machine. The room was breathless. Freddie’s stomach felt fluttery.

  “Come on, come on,” Freddie said as the printer started spitting out the new monsters. Oddo printed out first, a fluff of green fur.

  “Aww,” Nina cooed, crouching next to Oddo. “You’re kinda cute, aren’t you? Weird lookin’, but kind of cute.”

  ROWR! Oddo let out an adorable roar and then nuzzled up to Nina like a purring kitten. Oddo closed his eyes and smiled as Nina stroked his fur.

  Quincy looked at the monster skeptically, then at Freddie. “That’s your ferocious secret weapon?”

  “What’s he going to do? Snuggle the other monsters to death?” Jordan said.

  “Don’t listen to them. I like him, Freddie,” Nina said. “He’s cute and cuddly even if he’s shaped a little weird.”

  “I told you I had to work quicker than normal,” Freddie said. “But maybe once he gets big he’ll be fine.”

  “If you say so, man,” said Manny.

  When Humongotron printed, Manny’s monster was the same size as Oddo. He had tiny little arms for his body and legs that coiled around like springs. He did not exactly look like a Humongotron. More like a minitron.

  The strange-looking monster climbed onto Manny’s lap.

  Freddie smiled as the little monster nuzzled into the crook of Manny’s arm. It was nice to have sweet monsters for a change. He wished he’d just made these little guys to begin with.

  But Freddie knew you couldn’t take back the past: all you could do was learn from your mistakes to make things better in the future. Freddie pulled out his original monster drawings and showed them to Oddo and Humongotron. The blueprints for Kraydon, Yapzilla, and Mega-Q stared back at them.

  “You good, them bad,” Freddie said, then repeated. “You good, them bad.”

  The monsters looked at him, blinking blankly. He had no clue if they actually understood what he was trying to say to them.

  Just then, Humongotron hopped over to the boxes on the shelf where the goo cartridges were stored. “Yum yums,” he said and started picking up the little silica packets labeled DO NOT EAT from the boxes of goo. Humongotron shoveled the little packets into his mouth and started gobbling them up.

  “No, no, no!” Manny said. “Spit that out!”

  “Yum yums.” Humongotron swallowed and then smiled at Manny. “Yum yums . . .”

  “Okay, you guys,” Freddie said. “We have to get these little dudes into some water so they can grow. We don’t have much time.”

  “Just put them outside in the rain,” Nina said.

  “Umm, I maybe wouldn’t do that . . . ,” Quincy said with a twinge of fright in his voice.

  “Why not?” Freddie asked, then turned his head as Quincy pointed toward the hole in the art room wall.

  Through the curtain of rain, they watched in horror as the thunderstorm doused the muddy soccer field with thick torrents of rain. Kraydon was growing even bigger. The stone cracked around his
feet.

  In a few seconds, he broke free.

  The monstrous maelstrom was fast upon them.

  15

  Freddie and the rest of the kids rushed the baby monsters to the locker rooms and turned the showers on full blast. They then wadded up handfuls of paper towels and stuffed them down the floor drains. “We need to flood this place so our monsters can grow,” Freddie explained.

  Oddo grew almost immediately. He was soon about the size of a sports mascot and getting bigger.

  But Humongotron wasn’t changing at all.

  Freddie crouched down. “What’s the matter with you, buddy? You don’t want to get big?”

  “Yum yums,” Humongotron said, because, well, that’s all Humongotron could say.

  “So I guess Humongotron’s a pretty stupid name for him now,” Manny mumbled.

  “Yeah, kinda . . . ” Freddie agreed with him.

  “That’s okay,” said Manny. “We can just shorten it to Mungo.”

  “Dang!” Freddie said, kicking the floor of the shower room with a splash.

  “We’ve got other problems right now, Freddie!” Nina yelped.

  She’d been keeping watch through a gaping hole in the wall of the locker room, Freddie could see the school bus flashing with Mega-Q’s angry blue sparks. Beyond the curtain of falling rain, he could just make out Kraydon’s and Yapzilla’s figures. The thunderous stomp of the two gigantic rain-soaked monsters was getting closer.

  Oddo was now almost too big for the shower room, but Mungo still wasn’t growing. “They need a little more time!”

  “We’re out of time!” Jordan yelled.

  Just as the words left his mouth, Kraydon and Yapzilla stomped up to the front of the school. The kids left their monsters in the flooded shower room and raced down the hall, to better see what they were dealing with.

  Freddie gazed upon the two mammoth monsters in horror. Yapzilla was absolutely enormous, at least twice the size of her previous two-headed self. Kraydon was twice his former size, too. He towered over the school yard.