Creature Keepers and the Perilous Pyro-Paws

by Peter Nelson

  Jordan turned to huddle with his friends and family as Chupacabra kept a sharp eye.

  38

  With Chupacabra looming close by and eager to get on with ruling the world, Jordan had very little time to explain his plan to Abbie, his parents, Buck, Harvey, and Alistair. He quickly ran down what he needed each of them to do before revealing the key to defeating Chupacabra, once and for all.

  “Grampa Grimsley’s special ring,” he whispered. “Eldon told me the secret to enhancing its powers. And I’ve seen it work. On our friend Morris the Japanese Kappa. He’d turned permanently to stone. But the ring brought him back to life.”

  Abbie’s eyes grew wide. “If that ring was powerful enough to bring Morris back, maybe it’s powerful enough to do the opposite and turn Chupacabra to stone. I’m in.”

  “Ooh . . . That I’d give anything to see,” Harvey said. “Count me in, too.”

  “Seems crazy to me,” Buck said. “Luckily, I love crazy. Let’s do this!”

  Alistair rested a hand on Jordan’s shoulder. “You know I’m with ya, lad. To the bitter end.”

  Jordan turned to his parents. Mrs. Grimsley looked worried. But through her worry, she was smiling. “We couldn’t be more proud of all you’ve done for these creatures,” she said. “You even gave that wretched beast a second chance. Of course, he then threw it back in your face. So I say we kick his scaly butt, Grimsley-style.”

  “Wow. Thanks, Mom.”

  “You both did what I wish I’d had the courage to do,” Mr. Grimsley said softly. “You believed in your grandfather. I can’t change the past, but I can do something now. I can believe in what he created, by believing in the two of you. Your grandfather sacrificed his entire life for these creatures. I only wish he could see how much the two of you are sacrificing for everything he believed in.”

  “Sacrifice is exactly what we need to empower Grampa Grimsley’s ring,” Jordan said. “Let’s just hope it’s enough to defeat his original enemy.”

  “Oh, you mean the one we’re about to hand over the power of the Perfect Storm?” Abbie took in everyone’s stares. “What? I’m still in, I’m just pointing out the brutally obvious in a super scary way. That’s kinda my thing.”

  “Y’know, sometimes sacrifice is all you can do,” Mrs. Grimsley said. “But if it’s for someone you love, it’s all you need.”

  “The biggest sacrifice needs to come from the ones we swore we’d protect,” Jordan said. “Let’s hope they feel the same way.”

  “Can we get on with it, please?” Chupacabra said. “I’d like their powers—now.”

  Jordan approached Nessie, Syd, and Wilford. “I know this goes against everything you’ve ever known or done,” Jordan said. “But I’m asking the three of you to trust me.”

  “To trust us,” Abbie said, stepping up beside her brother.

  “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve lost a Soil-Sole to you two,” Syd said with a shrug. “But I have to say, you did fight like a pair of Manitoban mountain muskrats trying to get ’em back. I figure this must be pretty important. It’s all yours.”

  The Sasquatch furrowed his unibrow in concentration. His Soil-Sole began to shift and loosen from his lower leg, peeling away from his thigh, down to his ankle. He opened his eyes and stepped out of it.

  Chupacabra could hardly contain himself. The cryptid giggled as Wilford glared back at him. “I don’t like this,” the Yeti said, stroking his thick, snowy half moustache as he contemplated. He took a deep breath. “But you two taught me how to trust others and work as a team. So I suppose in the spirit of teamwork and trust, I will—”

  “Cool!” Syd ripped Wilford’s Blizzard-Bristles off his face with one quick yank and dropped the half moustache beside his Soil-Sole.

  “OWW!” Wilford grabbed his upper lip and stared daggers at the Sasquatch.

  “What?” Syd said. “We’re on the same team, dude!”

  Chupacabra snickered as he watched Alistair cross over to join them with a worried expression. He put a hand on Nessie’s neck. “Well, old girl, it’s your turn.”

  Nessie snorted and turned away, dramatically crossing her flippers and fluttering the scales of her Hydro-Hide.

  “You drop the diva attitude this instant—and that Hydro-Hide of yers along with it!”

  She snorted again. “SKRONK!”

  “Whaddya mean, ‘Easy for me to say’? All right then, I’ll make it easier for ya!” In one quick motion, Alistair dropped his kilt and stood buck naked.

  “Old man butt,” Abbie said. “This had better count as a sacrifice, too.”

  A thin smile crept over Nessie’s face. Then she did something Jordan had never seen the Loch Ness Monster do before. She giggled. Her giggles morphed into big honking laughter. Alistair laughed along with her and patted her head.

  “It’ll be okay, girl,” he said. “I promise.”

  She lifted her head, then shook her great green body like a big wet poodle. Her scales flew off, scattering in a big pile at their feet, glistening in the sun. When she was done, the mighty cryptid looked naked, her flesh soft and vulnerable.

  “All right, now EVERYONE BACK!” Chupacabra approached the treasures laid out before him. The few dozen good scales that he had began to sparkle and flutter. As they did, Nessie’s discarded pile began vibrating on the pier. Her scales suddenly flew through the air, attaching themselves to Chupacabra, filling the empty spots, building in layers, restoring his thick, shimmering hide.

  Chupacabra leaned back on his bad leg in amazement and let out a laugh. “It’s healed! The Hydro-Hide healed my leg!”

  He stepped forward, placing his smaller foot into Syd’s Soil-Sole. It wrapped itself around his ankle, meshing with the scales that covered his lower leg. Chupacabra let out another awful laugh as he lifted one foot, then the other. He picked up Wilford’s whiskers and placed them beneath his snout beside the badly shorn half. The Blizzard-Bristles crackled and crystallized, the frozen tendrils reaching out and attaching themselves to his face, spreading evenly beneath both his nostrils. Then he stepped back.

  Chupacabra puffed himself out proudly. “Look at me,” he said. “At long last, the power of the Perfect Storm is mine!”

  39

  Chupacabra was so busy admiring himself, he didn’t notice Harvey and Alistair wheeling Buck’s stage toward him, across the pier. They positioned it in front of Chupacabra, then approached Jordan with the pink Face Chompers banner.

  “What is this?” the super-powered cryptid said. “What are you doing?”

  “You didn’t forget our deal, did you?” Jordan said. “This is for my extinction. I assume you’re still gonna kill me like you promised!”

  “Right. Of course. A deal is a deal. But why do we need all of this?”

  “Sorry, but are you not the world’s only special cryptid, about to kill George Grimsley, your archnemesis?”

  “No, no. I am. That’s all true.”

  “So what, you were just gonna kill him with no fanfare? No snazziness?”

  “Uh, snazziness?”

  “You’ve been after me for decades, dude!” Jordan said. “You owe it to yourself to make it a memorable murder.”

  Chupacabra glanced around, a bit confused. Wilford and Syd were comforting Nessie, who was not taking her new nakedness very well. He grinned at this, and regained his confidence in the task at hand. “There is no creature who can compare to my power or my beauty! I’m going to be ruling the world, or what’s left of it, very soon! I suppose I should do things with more, uh . . .”

  “Snazziness,” Abbie said.

  “Yes! Snazziness! I demand snazziness!”

  “That’s the spirit!” Jordan was relieved that Chupacabra hadn’t noticed, or if he did, hadn’t cared, that his parents had slipped away. “Well, we might as well get on with it. I know you have continents to smash together and stuff.”

  Buck draped the pink Face Chompers banner over Jordan’s shoulders and led him up to the small stage, where Ali
stair stood waiting.

  “Are you ready to meet yer maker, laddie?” the old Scot said.

  Jordan drew a deep breath. “Yes. Yes I am.”

  Chupacabra stepped closer, watching the spectacle carefully. Abbie suddenly burst into very un-Abbie-like drama. She threw herself at his Soil-Soles. “Please, your Destructor-ness! I beg you for your mercy! Spare him! Please!”

  “You’re wasting your breath,” Chupacabra said. “George Grimsley’s fate was determined the day he took my picture. Out of my way!” He turned back to face the stage just as Buck and Alistair finished draping the banner over the willing victim’s head.

  “What is this?” Chupacabra said. “Forget snazziness! I don’t care about your traditions. I’ve waited too long for this moment. I want to see the face of my enemy as I extinguish him.”

  Buck and Alistair froze. Chupacabra stepped past Abbie. “REMOVE THE VEIL!”

  “You’re the boss,” Alistair said.

  He and Buck yanked the pink banner. Standing there beneath it was Harvey Quisling. “But not a very good boss. And I should know, hee-hee.”

  Chupacabra’s eyes grew wide. His eyes darted around the pier. “WHAT IS THIS? WHERE IS GRIMSLEY?”

  “Sorry,” Alistair said. “But a true Creature Keeper never reveals the secret behind a good hoax.” He tossed the banner over Chupacabra’s head, then leaped off the stage along with Buck and Harvey.

  “AAAARRRRGGGGGH!” Chupacabra ripped the banner off and swung his Pyro-Paws like long flaming swords, slicing the tarp-curtains and the backdrop posts in half. Jordan was nowhere to be seen. “WHERE IS HE?” He leaped onto the stage, crushing it. Beneath his Soil-Soles, there was an opening in the stage. The trap door was open. Chupacabra kicked the wooden structure aside. There beneath the kindling was the hole he himself had bored through the concrete pier with his Pyro-Paw. And through the hole, in the water below, Jordan was swimming toward the waiting powerboat manned by his parents.

  “GRIMSLEY!”

  Chupacabra took a deep breath and flared his Pyro-Paws, just as something slammed into him, sending him tumbling into the pile of splintered wood.

  Nessie’s tail came swinging again, walloping him in the side of the head.

  “Abbie!” Jordan’s voice called from the speedboat below. She ran toward the hole. Jordan and the Grimsleys were waving up to her to jump.

  Chupacabra scrambled to his feet, only to be suddenly lifted up by Syd and thrown across the pier.

  “Jump, Abbie!” Wilford shouted to her. “We’ll slow him down! Go!”

  Abbie readied herself when a high-pitched hissing shriek she recognized stopped her cold.

  “Chunk?”

  Farther down the pier, lined up behind Chupacabra, were a dozen large iguanas. Standing in front of them was Chunk. He hissed again. The others hissed back in unison.

  Abbie yelled down to her family, “Go! It’s all right! Go without me! I have to get Chunk!” The speedboat roared off, and she ran to her former pet.

  Chupacabra pulled himself to his feet. His Pyro-Paws blazed, and he shot a fiery arm out at Wilford, Syd, and Nessie. The Yeti and the Sasquatch dived to avoid being hit, but the blast winged the Loch Ness Monster’s tender side. She moaned in pain.

  “No!” Abbie stopped running toward Chunk and turned toward Nessie. Chupacabra blew a quick blast of ice, knocking her down. Behind him, an angry hissing sound filled the air. Chupacabra spun around.

  “AAAAUUUUGGGGH!” A cluster of lizards leaped into the air and latched on to him from head to toe. They dug their sharp talons into his scales and nipped at his face, belly, arms, and anywhere they could dig in. “GET OFF ME, VILE SERPENTS!” He shook and fluttered his Hydro-Hide scales. One by one, the iguanas flew off him until there was a lone lizard left—Chunk—riding atop his head, his claws firmly sunk into the cryptid’s snout.

  “AIEEEE!” Chupacabra screamed in pain as he raised his Pyro-Paws toward his head.

  “Chunk! Down, boy!” The iguana obeyed his ex-owner and leaped off as Chupacabra’s blazing paws singed the top of his own head.

  “OWWWEEEE!” He shook the fire out and turned back, wild-eyed, to face his attackers. Buck, Harvey, Syd, and Wilford were tending to Nessie’s wound as Abbie stood defiantly, her devoted Chunk flopped in her arms.

  “I should slay you all where you stand, but I won’t waste my time! You will be thrust into extinction soon enough! But first, know this—I will crush your protector, George Grimsley, once and for all. And trust me, I’ll make sure he suffers!” Chupacabra took three great strides and leaped off the pier, diving into the Gulf of Mexico.

  Chunk purred in Abbie’s arms and licked her face. “You came back and saved me!”

  It wasn’t long before the Heli-Jet came floating over the Mayan Princess. Bernard set it down among the debris and destruction scattered about el Terminal Remota. The Skunk Ape hopped out. “Where is everyone? And what on earth happened here?”

  Abbie explained to Bernard all that had happened as Buck, Harvey, and Alistair used the Heli-Jet’s onboard first-aid kit to dress Nessie’s wound.

  “I didn’t see any sign of Chupacabra, or the speedboat,” Bernard said. “But I was flying pretty fast to get back here after dropping off the Face Chompers.”

  “You’re going to need to fly twice as fast back out.”

  Bernard saluted her. “I’m here to serve. We fly on your command.”

  “Give me just one second.” Abbie carried Chunk back to his iguana warriors and crouched down. “Chunk, you and your new friends did a great thing here. I’ll never forget you or your bravery. Take care of yourself.” She tried not to burst into tears as she hugged him one last time, set him down, then quickly turned to go. “Ouch!” Chunk was clinging to her leg. She peeled him off and picked him up. “No, Chunk, you’re a free creature now. An honorary Face Chomper!” The iguana’s long tongue shot out and licked her nose. She giggled. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay with them?” He blinked slowly, flopped back in her arms, and fell asleep.

  “I guess that’s iguana for ‘being free can also mean having the freedom to stay with someone you love,’” she said to the others. They answered by lying down where they were and sunning their bellies.

  Abbie crossed the pier to where Buck was talking animatedly to the gathering crowd. The locals and tourists had witnessed everything from a safe distance but were now cautiously approaching the Sasquatch, Yeti, and Loch Ness Monster. One of them was so taken with this incredible opportunity, he didn’t even notice that his speedboat had gone missing again.

  Abbie pulled Harvey and Alistair aside. “You two should stay here and take care of these three. Just don’t let Buck turn this into a television show.”

  Alistair nodded. “And you should go and make sure your family is safe—and take care of that bogus beastie, once and for all.”

  “Give him an extra kick in the tail, from his ol’ pal Quisling,” Harvey said.

  “There’s something else,” Alistair said. “I made one of these for your brother, and it helped him face down that creature once before.” He handed her the whittled slingshot. “Dunno if it’ll bring you luck or power, but I want you to have it.”

  “Thanks, Mac.” She hugged him, then ran to board the Heli-Jet. As she, Chunk, and Bernard lifted off the pier and rose above the Lido deck of the Mayan Princess, the last thing she saw below was the crowd of friendly humans surrounding the three most famous cryptids in the world.

  40

  Jordan stood facing backward as the speedboat zoomed across the Gulf of Mexico. As Mr. Grimsley kept them on course for southern Florida, Jordan kept his eyes on a strange wave in the distance. It was fatter and rounder than the chop his father was blasting through. The longer Jordan stared at it, the more his unsettling feeling grew that the wave was either following them . . . or chasing them.

  Either way, if it was Chupacabra, then things were going exactly to plan. So long as the cryptid didn’t reach them before they reache
d the Okeeyuckachokee Swamp.

  “Faster, Dad!” Jordan shouted over the roaring motor. “Mom, hold on tight and stay down!” He checked her life jacket, then turned his attention back to the water. The rogue wave was gone. Jordan frantically scanned the horizon behind them. Nothing. “Dad, faster!” he cried out again.

  The speedboat jolted as its engine growled so loudly, Jordan almost couldn’t make out what his mother suddenly screamed. “Roger, look!”

  Jordan spun around as the freak wave suddenly rose ahead of them. Balancing atop it was Chupacabra, his Hydro-Hide churning the water into a massive ramp, his Pyro-Paws blazing and spread wide to catch them.

  Mr. Grimsley veered the boat violently, but the wave moved with them, staying square in their path. “Mom! Dad! Abandon ship!” He grabbed his parents and pulled them to the back of the boat as it climbed the massive wave. They prepared to jump when suddenly the Heli-Jet came zooming in overhead. It slammed into Chupacabra, knocking him off the wave’s crest. The speedboat continued to climb at such an angle, even as the massive wave subsided, that it was about to capsize.

  “C’mon!” Abbie was in the open door of the Heli-Jet, which hovered before them. She gestured for them leap aboard. They launched themselves from the capsizing boat, tumbling into the open door of the Heli-Jet. Jordan slid across the floor, stopping when his face smushed against something soft and scaly—Chunk’s fat belly. The lazy iguana looked up at him, then went back to sleep. It was the first time Jordan had ever been happy to see his sister’s rude reptile.

  Abbie slammed the door shut and yelled to Bernard, who leveled the Heli-Jet, hit the thruster jets, and blasted them toward the Okeeyuckachokee Swamp.