Slurp Monster Showdown (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #9)

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Slurp Monster Showdown (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #9) Page 3

by Geronimo Stilton


  . “I have way too

  much

  laundry

  to do.” Then the aliens

  escorted him to an enormouse Laundromat,

  where he got busy

  washing

  more alien

  spacesuits.

  Poor Trap!

  The effects of the Hypnotizer still hadn’t

  worn off

  !

  A Party . . . with

  a Surprise!

  Um . . .

  Hooray!

  Hooray!

  Hooray!

  The party was

  very embarrassing

  for

  me. The cheesix put a mozzarella necklace

  around my neck and began to carry me

  around like a

  HERO

  .

  “Look, this is a

  mistake

  ,” I said. “I am

  not the Cheesemaster! I’m

  not a hero!”

  But nobody

  listened to me.

  As night fell,

  music

  began to

  play, and

  everyone

  Shuffle and

  shake!

  Go, Robo!

  Hee, hee!

  began to

  dance

  .

  Benjamin and Bugsy had a

  lot of fun, especially when

  Robotix tried to teach the aliens

  his favorite dance, the

  Robot

  Shuffle

  .

  The cheesix were

  confused

  at first, but

  they picked it up quickly.

  Dance with me!

  No, me first!

  Me too!

  Umm . . .

  Party on!

  As it turns out, the cheesix were very

  good dancers

  , and they could dance

  all night without stopping. And GUESS

  WHO they wanted to dance with? Me!

  I danced and danced until my fur was

  frazzled

  and my whiskers were

  DROOPING

  . The cheesix didn’t understand

  how

  tired

  I was.

  “Cheesemaster, don’t you like the music?”

  one asked me. “We can put on Taylor Swiss!

  Or do you like space rap? How about some

  Chee-Z

  ?”

  I couldn’t take it anymore!

  I marched up to King Spherus on my

  tired

  paws.

  “Your Majesty, when does the dancing

  end?” I asked. “My muscles are as

  wobbly

  as string cheese!”

  “You can go to sleep now, Cheesemaster,”

  the king replied. “Tomorrow you have a

  busy

  day!”

  “Busy?” I asked, suspicious.

  “Tomorrow you will complete the

  second part of the prophecy,” King

  Spherus answered, smiling. “That’s when

  the Cheesemaster challenges the

  Slurp

  Monster

  to a duel and frees our people!”

  Ooh, the

  horror!

  Duel? Slurp Monster?!

  I broke out into a cold sweat. My whiskers

  began to

  tremble

  in fright.

  “Slurp Monster?” I asked.

  “The Slurp Monster lives on the other

  side of our planet,” the king explained. “He

  is a

  horrible

  ,

  GIANT

  ,

  furry

  monster!”

  “

  M-m-monster?

  ” I stammered.

  King Spherus nodded. “The monster

  spends most of his time

  sleeping

  . But when

  he wakes up, he comes out of his cave and

  stomps on our

  mozzarella

  bushes — then

  slurps up way more mozzarella than he

  needs! He

  stomps

  and

  slurps

  until he’s

  exhausted, and then he goes back to sleep.”

  “And how exactly do you expect my

  brother to DUEL

  this monster?” Thea

  asked.

  “He’s the

  hero

  —

  he should know,” the

  king replied. “And when he wins, he can tell

  the monster not to bother us anymore.”

  Great galaxies, what a

  nightmare

  !

  I didn’t want to

  fight

  a monster. I wasn’t

  the Cheesemaster

  —

  but none of the aliens

  You’re not

  going anywhere!

  Umm. . .

  believed me. There was only one thing I

  could do:

  run

  !

  I didn’t get very far before the king’s

  guards

  surrounded me.

  “Take him to the

  luxury

  space cell!”

  King Spherus commanded. “We must treat

  the Cheesemaster well, but we must also

  make sure he doesn’t

  run

  off

  . We’ve waited

  two hundred years for him to arrive!”

  I’m Not a Warrior!

  I’m Not!

  That’s how I ended up in a luxury space

  apartment — one with

  bars

  on the

  door and windows!

  I huddled on my bed,

  SHAKING

  like a

  spacequake.

  “Oh, for a

  million

  moons

  ! How am I

  supposed to duel a giant monster? I’m not a

  warrior

  . I’m a space captain who would

  rather be a full-time

  writer

  !” I wailed.

  All I could think about was the horrible

  Slurp Monster, who would surely reduce me

  to space dust

  in an astrosecond!

  Suddenly, I heard a voice from the

  window

  .

  What will I do?

  “Geronimo! We’re here!”

  I turned and

  saw

  Thea with Benjamin,

  Bugsy, Sally, and Robotix!

  I

  jumped

  up. “How great to see you!”

  I exclaimed, relief washing over me. “How

  did you

  find

  me?”

  “It was easy,” Thea replied. “After all that

  dancing, the cheesix fell into a

  deep sleep

  .”

  Zzz

  “The whole city

  is

  snoring

  ,

  including the

  king!” Sally

  continued. “So it

  was simple to

  follow the

  guards without

  being noticed.”

  “And we

  found a way to

  help

  you, Uncle,” Benjamin added.

  I brightened up. “

  Really?

  You

  can

  get

  me

  out?

  ”

  “Well, not exactly . . . ” Thea replied, her

  voice trailing off.

  Sally nodded. “Actually, Captain, we don’t
/>   have the

  technology

  to deactivate the

  LASER

  bars in your cell.”

  It’s a

  flash drive!

  What is it?

  “

  So

  then

  how

  are

  you

  going

  to

  help

  me?

  ” I asked in a tiny voice.

  Benjamin pulled a small

  gadget

  from

  his pocket. It looked like a piece of cheese.

  He passed it to me through the bars.

  “We can help you

  defeat

  the monster,”

  he said.

  I turned as

  pale

  as

  mozzarella.

  “We contacted

  the

  MouseStar 1,”

  Benjamin went on. “Hologramix gathered all

  known data on the

  Slurp

  Monster

  and put it on this flash drive for you. If you

  connect it to your wrist computer, you can

  see all the information.”

  Bugsy nodded. “We discovered that the

  monster has a few

  weaknesses

  ,” she said.

  “You can

  STUDY

  them as you prepare for

  the duel.”

  I couldn’t believe it. “But I’m not a

  warrior

  ! What good will it do me to

  know my monster’s weaknesses if I

  faint

  as

  soon as I see him?”

  “You have no choice, Ger,” Thea said.

  I sighed. “All right. I promise I will

  do

  my best

  .”

  I needed to get to work. I didn’t have much

  time

  to learn all the secrets of the

  Slurp

  Monster

  !

  The Power of

  Tickling!

  Thea and the others left, and I

  inserted

  the flash drive into my wrist computer.

  Rays of light shot from

  the watch and quickly began

  to take shape. Blinking, I

  watched as two rodents whom

  I knew

  very well

  appeared

  before me.

  “Professor Greenfur?

  Grandfather? What

  are you doing here?”

  I asked.

  “I knew you

  would fall for it like

  You

  cheesehead!

  Grandfather?

  Professor?

  a

  cheesehead

  , Grandson!” Grandfather

  William replied in a booming voice. “We’re

  not real! What you are seeing is a

  three-

  dimensional

  image of us,

  PROJECTED

  from your wrist computer!”

  I reached out to touch them, but my

  paw passed right

  through

  them as though

  they were cosmic clouds. They were

  holograms

  , just like Hologramix back

  on the ship!

  “I’m

  confused

  ,”

  I said. “I thought the

  flash drive contained

  data

  about the Slurp

  Monster, not you!”

  “

  We’ve

  got the data for you,” Grandfather

  replied. “Thea tells me that you’re

  afraid

  to

  duel this monster. Is that right?”

  “Well, basically . . .” I began.

  “You’re as

  soft

  as cream cheese!”

  Grandfather barked. “You need to buck up

  and act like hard cheese, like a sharp

  cheddar!”

  “So you want me to act like cheese?” I

  asked, confused.

  At that point, an image of the Slurp

  Monster

  projected

  from my wrist. Professor

  Greenfur began to speak.

  “As you can see, the Slurp Monster has six

  arms and

  one big eye

  ,” he began.

  I gulped. “And one

  enormouse

  mouth!”

  “They are very

  rare

  creatures,”

  Professor Greenfur continued. “In fact, only

  one or two can be found in each galaxy.

  Despite their terrible appearance, they are

  not as

  tough

  as they look. They have a

  major

  weak spot.”

  Now I was curious. “What’s their weak

  spot?”

  “They are extremely

  ticklish

  !” the

  professor replied.

  Cosmic cheddar, those beasts were

  ticklish? I couldn’t believe it.

  “There is one way to

  defeat

  this monster,”

  Professor Greenfur went on. “Allow the

  creature to grab you. Just before you are

  swallowed up, tickle it with a feather.”

  “Did you say I should let it

  grab

  me

  ?” I asked nervously, but the professor

  ignored me.

  Then tickle

  it with a

  feather!

  Let it grab me?

  “If this maneuver is carried out correctly,

  the monster will start LAUGHING

  and give

  up the duel,” Professor Greenfur explained.

  “So

  listen

  up

  , Grandson!” Grandfather

  barked. “Tomorrow, when the duel begins,

  Thea will toss you a feather. The rest should

  be as

  easy

  as taking cheese nuggets from

  a baby rodent.”

  I frowned. Tickling a

  GIANT

  space

  monster didn’t sound easy to me!

  “Our time is up,” Grandfather said.

  “Hologram projection will drain the battery

  life of your wrist computer pretty quickly.

  Behave like a

  true captain

  tomorrow, you

  hear?!”

  The images

  faded

  , and I was alone in my

  cell. I tried to sleep, but images of the Slurp

  Monster

  danced

  in my worried mind . . .

  When I did fall asleep, I had terrible

  Grrrrrrr!

  Poor me!

  Grrrrrrr!

  nightmares

  that the Slurp Monster

  grabbed me and

  gobbled

  me down in

  one bite!

  Galactic Gorgonzola

  , how scary!

  Snore . . . Rumble!

  Yawn . . .

  Hey there!

  The next morning,

  King

  Spherus

  and

  a group of guards came to get me.

  “Cheesemaster, did you sleep well?” the

  king asked. “Are you ready for the

  big

  duel

  with the Slurp Monster?”

  “Actually, I

  tossed

  and

  turned

  all

 
; night,” I replied. “I was too

  afraid

  to sleep!”

  The king burst out

  laughing

  .

  “Ha! That’s

  a good one,

  Cheesemaster. I like a hero with a

  sense

  of humor

  .”

  I knew there was nothing I could say to

  convince him that I was not a

  HERO , so

  I didn’t say anything. The guards led me out

  of my cell and brought me to a small

  space

  shuttle

  . We departed for the other side of

  the planet, where the monster lived.

  During the trip I

  looked

  out the

  window and saw that a space shuttle from

  the

  MouseStar 1 was following us. I kept

  my snout shut, because I knew that my

  friends

  were behind me! That gave me

  a bit

  (but just a bit)

  of courage.

  When we landed, the ground began to

  shake

  . . .

  “Just what we need

  —

  a

  spacequake

  !” I

  yelled.

  “That’s not a spacequake, Cheesemaster,”

  Snore . . . Rumble

  King Spherus said, amused. “It’s just the

  Slurp Monster,

  snoring

  ! His snores are

  so strong they make the ground RUMBLE

  .”

  Shooting stars!

  The Slurp Monster was

  bigger

  than I’d realized!

  I thought maybe I could use the situation

  Spacequake!

  Snore . . . Rumble

  to my

  advantage

  . “If the monster is

  snoring so hard, maybe this isn’t the best

  time to wake him,” I suggested. “We might

  just make him angry.”

  “The Slurp Monster is

  always

  angry,”

  King Spherus replied. “Anyway, I know

  a trick that can help you

  defeat

  the

  monster.”

  “

  A trick?

  ” I asked hopefully. “Well, that

  changes everything. What is it?”

  King Spherus frowned. “You’re pretty

  impatient

  for a hero, Cheesemaster. I’ll tell

  you when the time is ready.”

  I sighed. The king just didn’t get it. I wasn’t

  impatient . . .

  I was frightened out of my fur!

  A Rude Awakening

  We stepped out of the shuttle in front of a

  large

  cave

  .

  “That is where the Slurp Monster

  sleeps

  ,” King Spherus explained.

 

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