“We have to move!” Maria hissed.
They dashed forward, going at speeds that were imprudent, considering the height at which they were perched and their unfamiliarity with the layout among the rafters.
But time was an absent luxury, and they embraced the risk without giving it a moment’s thought. They had seen what the saws of the mecha-monkeys could do, and it wouldn’t take long for one of them to cut through the rope.
“Careful!” Double H squeaked, as the girls quickly left her behind.
Maria and Sara leaped from the girder to a narrow catwalk that was encumbered with all kinds of lighting rigs and strange hardware. They took long strides and rapid steps, never looking down. Their eyes remained locked on their goal: the rope from which their father was suspended - and the saw-wielding gremlin who aimed to sever it.
As they approached in this hasty manner, they finally garnered the notice of the clamoring, raucous mecha-monkeys. With warbling noises that conveyed surprise, the robots turned their heads toward the girls.
There were a half dozen of the gremlins, and the girls caught the first two unprepared. Apparently, they had not yet recovered from their surprise that the humans had snuck right up on them.
Sara walloped one with her hammer and Maria clouted the other with her wrench. The gremlins went soaring from the rafters, flailing their mechanical arms as they plummeted to the stage, screeching in futile protest.
The remaining four mecha-monkeys turned toward them, shaking their small fists and howling with fury. Three of them scurried forward to confront Sara and Maria, while the fourth one (the one with the saw) remained on course for the rope and the captive Chief Fresco.
Making good use of their astounding agility, the mecha-monkeys moved to surround Maria and Sara on the catwalk, climbing over bars and girders and lights until they achieved their desired position. Two of them scrambled to the backside of the catwalk, while one remained in the front.
This crafty maneuver did not escape the notice of the sisters, and they quickly adjusted, facing away from one another so they could battle in a back-to-back formation on the narrow catwalk.
“Take them out quickly!” Sara shouted, as she wound up to take a swing at her attacker.
The mecha-monkey who faced Sara had a benefit in this environment, for it was small and nimble, and it had no fear whatsoever of falling. As Sara swung her hammer, the critter evaded, quickly scuttling beneath the catwalk and out of range.
Sara frantically scanned beneath her feet, searching for the gremlin. She could hear it as it moved underneath the catwalk, but she couldn’t see where exactly it was.
As Sara was leaning over in a precarious position, a metallic hand reached over the edge of the platform and seized her pant leg. She tried to pull away, but was surprised to find the mechanical critter had a strength that defied its compact size.
Struggling against her fiendish enemy, Sara lost her balance and fell to the catwalk, landing on her hip. Freeing up both hands in order to brace herself for the fall, she dropped the hammer, and it clattered upon some lighting before plummeting to the stage.
The mecha-monkey pulled at her with a terrible ferocity, trying to use its leverage to take her over the edge, hooting and screeching like an enraged primate.
“No you don’t!” Sara shouted, kicking her leg and struggling to break free.
Despite her efforts, she couldn’t lose the determined gremlin. To her horror, she found herself sliding along the catwalk, moving ever closer to falling over the edge. Both legs now dangled in open air, and the mecha-monkey pulled at her with renewed vigor, sensing that victory was near.
Just when it seemed Sara might be done in by this unfortunate creation of Jasper, a stroke of luck occurred. The mecha-monkey’s hand started shuddering, and its grip loosened. Having expended a considerable amount of energy in the frantic effort to defeat Sara, the robot had drained the last of its battery power.
With a final, weak warble, the gremlin powered down and released Sara. It fell like a rock, plummeting straight to the stage below, crashing into its metallic brethren with a tremendous discord of noise and commotion.
A deep sigh of relief passed from Sara’s lips, but there was no time to recover. She quickly scrambled to her feet and turned around, eager to help her sister, who had begun hollering in a most alarming fashion.
“Gah!” Maria shouted. “Get off of me, you little monster!”
One of the gremlins had managed to clamber onto Maria’s back and it was clutching at her shoulders, violently pushing and pulling at her, doing its best to force her to tumble. Maria was spinning around in circles, desperately trying to fling the dastardly mecha-monkey away, but it remained out of reach, holding fast to her back.
Meanwhile, the second robot that had scrambled to the backside of the catwalk seized its opportunity to attack. Seeing that Maria was wholly distracted with the process of trying to disengage the critter on her back, this mecha-monkey scampered to a high spot atop the lighting rigs. Crouching upon its strange, simian legs, it sized up Maria with its creepy eyes and prepared to leap.
“No,” Sara gasped, watching with horrified eyes as the attack upon her sister unfold.
Howling as its limbs unfurled in a surge of explosive power, the gremlin leaped from the rafters, aiming straight for Maria.
Distracted as she was, spinning about and under siege from the monkey on her back, the impact from the second critter would be more than enough to send her over the edge of the catwalk, where her balance was already severely impeded - Maria wouldn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Quit Monkeying Around
The Green Beans, Volume 5: The Phantom of the Auditorium Page 28
