by Brandon Mull
Kyle and Eric rushed at Summer. Electricity crackled between Kyle’s fingers, and Eric no longer looked like himself. Though he was still roughly the same size, his skin had coarsened into green scales, his eyes were yellow and reptilian, his nose and mouth had merged into a snout, and sharp claws tipped his fingers.
Summer started chewing her first stick of Peak Performance gum as she backed away from her attackers. Kyle lunged at her, but she spun nimbly away from his grasp. Eric sprang forward, swinging a clawed hand. Summer ducked the swipe and grabbed his scaly upper arm in one hand, his forearm in the other. Heaving and pivoting, she swung him into Kyle, releasing his arm just before a blaze of electricity launched Eric into a bookshelf.
While Summer was occupied with Kyle and Eric, Denny had raced around the altercation in pursuit of Nate. Pigeon charged forward, fingers sparking, and tried to touch Denny, but the overgrown bully dodged around him and continued after Nate, roaring savagely. Pigeon swapped targets, tagging Kyle on the elbow and sending him flying.
Summer saw Nate crash through the window, hang suspended for an instant, and then topple out of view. Denny froze, stunned by the sight, probably not understanding that Nate was uninjured. Without knowing about the Ironhide, anyone would have expected to find Nate bloodied and dying on the ground below.
Kyle, Eric, Summer, and Pigeon all watched Denny edge forward and hesitantly peer through the empty window. “He’s fine!” Denny growled. “He’s up and running! Get the ship!”
Denny sprinted away from the window, back toward Summer and the others. Eric raced for the stairs, moving with remarkable speed. Pigeon ate another handful of Shock Bits and moved to block Denny. Kyle put his hand to his mouth and sprang at Pigeon. When they touched, lightning stabbed from the floor to the ceiling, blasting Pigeon and Kyle away from each other with much greater force than any Shock Bits jolt Summer had witnessed. With them having shocked each other, the effect had evidently been multiplied.
Without breaking stride, Denny picked up a table and hurled it at Summer. She rolled out of the way and ended up back on her feet, but Denny was already past her. Her reactions felt razor sharp. She had been diving out of the way before the table had left Denny’s hands.
Pigeon sat up shakily, looking shell-shocked. “I’m going to help Nate,” Summer yelled at him, already running after Denny. He was big, but swift. Even though she was running faster than she had ever sprinted, by the time she was in the hall, he was already down the stairs.
Summer noticed a bookshelf near the top of the stairs. Without pausing to worry, she vaulted over the railing, landed gracefully on top of the bookshelf, crouched, dangled from the edge, and dropped to the floor. The actions felt as simple as skipping down a sidewalk.
Dashing after Denny, not too far behind him, Summer heard glass shatter. Ahead of both of them, Eric had taken an emergency fire extinguisher from its case and hurled it through a sizable window. Eric sprang through the window, followed by Denny. Summer stopped to study the situation.
A police car idled in the parking lot. The officer was on the radio, but was ignoring the lizardlike boy and the hulking figure beside him. Denny gestured for Eric to check around the other side of the library and then ran toward the barn. Realizing that the officer was probably blinded by white fudge, Summer climbed through the window and chased after Denny.
“He’s in here!” Denny bellowed upon reaching the door with the broken pane. He threw the door open and stormed inside.
Summer followed Denny into the dim barn, hearing him noisily blunder into old-fashioned farm machinery. Denny roared, and she heard metal squealing. Rushing around the edge of the room, Summer found the ladder and suspected that Nate might have headed that way. As she rapidly climbed, she heard Denny start scaling the ladder behind her. She hoped the unstable ladder might collapse under his weight, and took a Moon Rock from her pocket just in case.
When she reached the loft, Summer saw a suspicious pile of crates below a hatch in the ceiling and knew Nate had gone that way. She raced over to the crates and clambered up through the hatch. Nate stood across the roof, near the brink. “Nate!” she called in an urgent whisper.
“Summer? Where are they?”
“Right behind me,” she said, dashing over to him.
“If I spit out the Ironhide and jump with a Moon Rock, do you think the boat will drag me down too fast?”
“Don’t chance it,” she said.
“The ship is already in bad shape,” Nate said. “I don’t want to demolish it.”
“Aha!” boomed Denny from the hatch, boosting his bulky body through. “This is what they call a dead end.”
Summer pulled something from her pocket.
“No more tricks,” Denny warned. “Give me the boat.”
Summer charged him, shouting as loud as she could.
Denny smirked and let out a tremendous bellow, a mighty cry that mingled the roar of a lion with the shriek of an eagle. As Denny roared, Summer winged the Sun Stone at him sidearm, a perfect throw into the center of his gaping mouth.
The roar abruptly ceased. Denny’s hands went to his throat, and his knees began to wobble beneath the increased pull of gravity. His body snapped forward, slamming through the roof of the barn and then through the loft below, finally smashing the barn floor with a tremendous crunch.
“You threw a Sun Stone in his mouth?” Nate marveled.
“The gum really works,” Summer said. “It felt like I couldn’t miss. Let’s hope he broke some bones.”
“I hope you didn’t kill him,” Nate said.
The thought made Summer worried. That had not been her intent. Denny had seemed so big that nothing could hurt him, but she supposed a three-story fall propelled by increased gravity could potentially kill just about anything. “Mrs. White said the Sun Stones reinforce people so the extra gravity doesn’t harm them. I bet that will protect him.”
“Oh, no,” Nate said.
Scaly Eric scrambled through the hatch, along with a taller, thinner version of Kyle. The new Kyle had spindly arms and legs, a long, narrow nose, and bluish skin. He had to be almost seven feet tall. “Careful,” Eric hissed to Kyle. “The roof didn’t hold Denny.”
“What happened to you guys?” Nate asked.
“Creature Crackers,” Kyle bragged, his voice raspier. “You guys don’t stand a chance.”
Summer spit out her gum and stuck a Flame Out in her mouth, planning to intimidate them with a warning shot. Heat radiated through her mouth—not the spiciness of hot candy but real heat, as if her tongue were a fiery coal. The temperature rapidly increased until it felt like her mouth was about to combust.
Tilting her head back, Summer expelled the candy up into the air. It emerged as a raging ball of fire, illuminating the night, growing larger as it soared higher. “Back off!” Summer yelled, staring down Eric and Kyle while readying another Flame Out.
“Summer!” Nate cried.
A quick glance skyward revealed that the fireball was falling back toward the roof of the barn. She had inadvertently shot it almost straight up. Eric and Kyle dove through the hatch. Summer raced toward the edge of the roof, a Moon Rock in her hand. She slapped the candy into her mouth as she jumped. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Nate fling himself off the roof and plummet to the ground below.
Behind her, the fireball landed, spreading across half the roof, the dry shingles welcoming the searing flames. A scorching wave of heat washed over Summer as she glided away from the burning barn. By the time she reached the parking lot, Summer landed hard enough that she dropped to her knees, banging them against the asphalt. Rising, she leapt over to where Nate stood holding the Stargazer, which now had deep splits running through the gashed hull.
“I landed on my back,” he said. “It still got smashed up.”
Summer could see an imprint in the ground where he had landed. “At least it’s basically in one piece. Take the gum.” She handed him a stick. “Run to Mr. Stott’s. I’ll find Pig
eon.”
“You think Denny will be all right?” Nate asked.
Summer gazed up at the barn. “Only the roof is burning so far. Eric and Kyle aren’t chasing us yet. I’m sure they’re helping him.”
Nate spit out the jawbreaker and put the gum in his mouth. “Get away as fast as you can,” he warned. “This is out of control.”
Overhead, snapping and popping, the flames leapt higher, reflecting hellishly off the billowing smoke.
Chapter Fifteen
A Short-Lived Victory
Dizzy, dazed, ears ringing, Pigeon vaguely heard Summer shout something about Nate, and saw her running after Denny. Across the room, Kyle was sitting up, hands clamped to the sides of his face. The redhead tried to stand but sank back to his knees.
Pigeon knew exactly how he felt.
Closing his eyes, he seemed to feel the room slowly rotate. The blaring of the alarm competed with the internal ringing for the distinction of most annoying noise in the universe. As he bowed his head and focused on his breathing, the rotating slowed and the ringing diminished.
Pigeon opened his eyes in time to see Kyle leap from the window. By the drifting quality of the jump, he could tell Kyle must have eaten a Moon Rock. Pigeon took out a Moon Rock of his own and staggered to the window.
On the patio below, Kyle spit out the Moon Rock and stuck a small cookie in his mouth. He started shooting upward, growing taller and thinner, limbs stretching, nose elongating.
“He’s in here!” Denny cried from over beside the barn.
Pigeon saw Summer dashing into the barn after Denny. The new, taller, uglier Kyle ran over to the barn, where he was joined by the reptilian Eric.
Slipping his own Moon Rock into his mouth, Pigeon leapt from the window, soaring out over the patio and landing on the grass near the parking lot. The night air helped clear his head. Some distance away, a pair of horses watched the commotion from the pasture adjoining the barn. Pigeon started jumping in their direction, gliding across the field in long, gentle parabolas. One of the horses shied away at his approach; the other tossed its head and stamped a hoof.
Pigeon spit out the Moon Rock and dug some Brain Feed out of his pocket. The dappled gray horse was much bigger than it had appeared from a distance—Pigeon was nowhere near as tall as its back. He eased nearer to the horse, hand held out flat. The horse stepped toward him, lowering its head. The wet mouth brushed his palm as the horse ate the fragrant kibbles.
“You really aren’t supposed to come into the pasture,” the horse said in a friendly, masculine voice.
“It’s an emergency,” Pigeon said. “I need your help.”
“With what?”
“I was wondering if I could ride you to go help my friends.”
The horse chuckled. “Right. I get it. I’m a Percheron. Sure, they say we were bred to carry knights into battle, the tourists eat that up, but in real life, I pull the hay wagon, I make nice with the kids, I . . . whoa, check that out.”
Pigeon turned around and saw a blazing ball of fire rising up from the top of the barn, expanding as it ascended. The ball slowed, hung in the air, and then fell, holding its shape until unfurling wildly across the roof, setting the shingles ablaze.
“What kind of trouble did you say?” the horse said soberly.
“We’re trying to save the town from bad guys,” Pigeon said.
“Hop on.”
Pigeon stuck a Moon Rock into his mouth and lightly jumped up onto the broad back of the horse.
“You’re light!” the horse exclaimed. “No wonder you can bounce around like a grasshopper. You’ll want to grip with your knees. Go ahead and hang on to my mane.”
The horse started cantering across the pasture. “How do we get out?” Pigeon asked.
“I’ve noticed a flimsy spot over here,” the horse said, loping toward the library, then slowing at the fence. “Never thought I’d take advantage of it.” A front hoof lashed out, and Pigeon heard a fencepost splitting. The hoof shot out a few more times, and the fence clattered down. The horse walked over the fallen wood. “Where are we going?”
“To that girl,” Pigeon said, pointing at Summer. She was running toward him along the edge of the library parking lot. The horse trotted toward her.
“Pigeon!” Summer cried. “You’re okay!”
“I was coming to get you,” he said. “Need a lift?” He patted the horse’s neck. “Can you handle her?”
“Easy as pie,” the horse said.
“Use a Moon Rock,” Pigeon suggested.
Summer put the candy in her mouth and floated up to sit behind Pigeon. “Let’s get out of here,” she said.
“Where’s Nate?”
“Running the ship to Mr. Stott’s house. I gave him some gum.”
“What about our bikes?”
“Leave them,” Summer said. “Denny, Eric, and Kyle have all changed into monsters.”
“I saw,” Pigeon said.
“I need a destination,” the horse interrupted.
“Away from the library along that road,” Pigeon said. “Speed is important.”
“Off we go,” the horse said, breaking into a fast canter. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m hoping you can take us home,” Pigeon called, wind in his face. They passed a police officer standing outside his car, gazing up at the burning barn. It was the same officer who had spoken to Pigeon at the cemetery. He paid them no heed.
“You got it,” the horse said. “I’ve always wanted to see more of the town. I get to walk in the Fourth of July parade, but otherwise I never leave the farm.”
“We really appreciate this,” Summer said.
“Don’t mention it,” the horse laughed. “You’re as light as the other one. I can hardly feel either of you. What a night! This is great, like a jailbreak. Hear the sirens?”
“Turn right up here,” Pigeon instructed as they approached Mayflower, the whine of multiple sirens growing louder.
“Hang on,” the horse said, increasing his gait to a full gallop.
*****
Racing down a sidewalk on the far side of Mayflower, Nate could not believe how easy it was to maintain a full sprint. All his past experience combined to insist that his lungs should be burning, his legs should be aching, his side should be sore. Instead, he felt no more winded than he would on a leisurely stroll, leaving him free to enjoy the exhilaration of the night air in his face as he rushed along a side street in a dark neighborhood.
Before long the night came alive with the cry of sirens, but he doubted whether any of the emergency vehicles would travel the minor residential streets separating him from Mr. Stott’s house. Holding the ship in both hands, he tried to run smoothly enough to avoid making the splits in the hull any worse. The once-handsome ship had sustained some serious damage. Nate just hoped they had not messed up whatever map it contained. He worried about how Mr. Stott might react to the broken masts, tattered sails, crushed hull, and whatever little pieces had fallen off.
Nate turned down Clover Lane, crossed a few empty streets, and soon found himself on Limerick Court, still running at top speed. It was amazing how much ground you could cover with a tireless sprint!
The sirens were behind him now, their cries waning as they arrived at their destination. Ahead the street was still and dark, no lights in the windows, no cars on the road. Then a light came on as the door of a parked sedan opened down the street, not far from Mr. Stott’s house. Nate abandoned the sidewalk and spied on the car from behind a bush.
To his dismay, the big round guy from the candy shop got out. He appeared to converse with somebody before he ducked out of sight. Nate covered his mouth. They were planning to ambush him when he brought the map to Mr. Stott. He had almost sprinted into a trap.
Taking out his cell phone, Nate dialed Mr. Stott. The old magician picked up after a few rings. “Hello?”
“Mr. Stott?” Nate whispered. “Can you hear me?”
“Sure. What is it?”
&nb
sp; “Mrs. White has her goons guarding your house. I think they’re trying to ambush me.”
“Are you in immediate danger?”
“No.”
“You have the map?” Mr. Stott asked.
“It was rough, but yes, I think so. I have the Stargazer.”
“Excellent! Nate, just go home. You can bring me the ship in the morning.”
“Okay. Talk to you tomorrow.”
Nate hung up. Staying low, running across front yards instead of on the sidewalk, he hurried away from Mr. Stott’s. It made Nate glad to think of the big round guy waiting disappointedly for him to show up.
