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Authors: Laura Dower

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BOOK: Return of Mega Mantis
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Dad spotted the flies on the ceiling right away. Without missing a beat, he raised the swatter and—
THWACK!
One swat. Two flies.
Now that’s skill.
They dropped dead onto my bed.
“Come on, Damon.” Dad sighed as he picked up the flattened bugs between his fingertips. “Time for school.”
CHAPTER 1
TEAM SHMEEM
“Just serve the ball already!” someone called out to me from across the gym. I flashed a smile at Pat and Seamus, my two best buddies in class. Then I turned around and pretended to pull down my gym shorts.
“Hey, Mr. Molloy!” Coach Dunne barked. He blew his whistle hard. “I’m watching you. No funny stuff!”
I tossed the volleyball over my head and jumped up to slam my serve.
Swooosh!
My volleyball soared up and over the net, dropping straight to the floor right between two kids.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” I shouted. I went to high-five Pat, but then, at the last minute, I pulled my hand away.
“Ha!” I cried. He always fell for that one.
Pat grabbed my shirt hard like he wanted to wrestle me.
“Hey! Don’t touch the merchandise,” I said, brushing off my T-shirt. The front of today’s shirt read
Jokeman
.
I moved from serving position to the front of the court. On the opposite side, facing me, was Tate the Great, the biggest kid in our entire class. Tate eats three sandwiches and drinks five milks every day for lunch. But whenever we’re in gym class, I eat
him
for lunch on the court. I saw him staring at me. I stared right back, like a sumo.
“Mr. Molloy!” Coach called over. “I’d like you to step out of the game for a while, please. Tap Miss Min on your way in.”
I held up my hands. “Huh? What did I do?” I said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tate the Great. He grinned and waved at me.
“Buh-bye, Jokeman,” Tate said.
“I’ll be back,” I muttered under my breath. Then I headed for Stella. “Yo, Ninja,” I said and reached out to tap her shoulder. “Coach says it’s your turn.”
Stella growled at me. “Don’t even think about touching me, Molloy. I bite.”
“Yeah,” I growled back. “And you smell, too.” Then I tapped her on the shoulder anyway. She couldn’t do anything about it because Coach was watching.
From my seat on the sidelines, I watched Jesse Ranger and his friend Garth Gable goof around at the net. Those two try, but they couldn’t volley their way out of a duffel bag. They definitely couldn’t get Tate to go down.
A serve zipped over the net like a bullet. Someone from the other side whacked it back. It was headed for Garth!
Oh, great,
I thought. I buried my face in my hands. This would be too painful to watch. But the incredible happened. Garth set up the ball—
perfectly
. Ranger came down on it like a hammer. It spiked over the net, right into Tate’s face!
He didn’t see that coming.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!”
Everyone cheered, including me. Ever since this Monster Squad thing started, I’ve been trying to be more of a team player. It doesn’t come easy. But that cheer just flew right out of me.
“Hey, Damon,” Ranger said, running over. “Don’t forget the squad meeting right after school.”
“Right,” I said. He rushed away before I had a chance to tell him about the flies and the noises in my bedroom that morning. I’d save it for the meeting.
On the way to the playground that afternoon, Pat and Seamus saw me. Ever since this whole Monster Squad thing started, it’s been a little awkward with them.
“Yo!” I called out, waving. “What’s up?”
“What’s up with
you
, Damon?” Seamus cried. “We were looking for you! Can Pat and I come over and play Laser Bikes? You got it, right?”
“Yes!” I cried. My parents just bought me a Z-Pack with all these games, including Laser Bikes. Pat and Seamus hadn’t seen it yet.
“Come over!” I said. Then I caught myself. “Oh, wait. I can’t do it today. I have this . . .
thing
.”
“Thing?”
Pat said, mocking me.
“Then text us later,” Seamus said with a shrug.
“Later,” I grumbled. Once again I had to choose between Monster Squad and my buddies. Pat and Seamus walked away without me.
I swung my body up and over the monkey bars. When I hang by my knees and all the blood rushes to my head, I can think better. I hung there for a few minutes, watching the kids come out of school. Ranger, Stella, and Lindsey were nowhere to be seen.
Had I gotten the meeting place wrong?
BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT.
What was that?
I flipped off the bar and landed on all fours.
BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT.
Not ten feet from me was a swarm of black and yellow bees.
“Beeeeeeeees!”
I waved my arms all over the place and wailed. A couple of kids on the swings gave me dirty looks. Couldn’t they see the insect attack that was taking place?
Without the rest of the Monster Squad to back me up, all I could do was run.
I thought I could shake the bees with some fast footwork, but they shadowed me all the way home. Before I knew it, I was standing under the Cicada Lane sign at my corner.
It figures that I live on a street named after a bug.
For some reason, my neighborhood was a ghost town. Crusty old Mr. Wombat wasn’t mowing his lawn. The Parker twins weren’t on their swing set. Even Wacko, the neighborhood dog, was missing in action.
But the bees were still here!
BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT.
I raced up our driveway. Where was Mom’s car? I thought hard. She probably took Rachel to ballet class. And Dad was probably at the Drive-O-Rama, working as usual.
BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT.
I dug into my jeans’ pocket for my house key. The bugs began to buzz around my face and neck. It seemed like there were more of them by the second!
Finally, the key slid into the lock.
But it wouldn’t twist!
“GO AWAY, I DON’T LIKE YOU!” I yelled at the bees. I was nearly hysterical. Then I heard another noise!
Sqweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Come on key,
I thought.
Open! OPEN!
Sqweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Frantically, I pushed the house door open and threw my book bag onto our hall bench. The door slammed behind me. The bees were locked out—at least for now.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
I sprinted upstairs to my bedroom window for a better view. My eyes scanned the field.
Nothing to the right . . .
Nothing down the middle . . .
There!
I gasped at a broad shadow stretched across the left side of the field.
What
was
that?
The shadow was way too big for anything normal in my backyard. It was so tall it seemed to touch the sky. There were long black things sticking up into the air. There was a loud, awful crunch . . .
Hold on! Was that
chewing
? Were those
antennae
?
Suddenly the black thing moved closer and I could see exactly what it was.
Oh no!
Out there in my backyard was a living, breathing, giant BUG!
CHAPTER 2
AN ARMADA OF MINIATURE UFOs
“Heeeeelp!” I wailed and ran downstairs, all the way to the basement. On the way down, I grabbed our portable phone.
I called Ranger first, but the phone just rang. Of course he wasn’t home. The Monster Squad was at the playground for our meeting!
That meant there was a giant bug in my backyard and no one to help me.
“Get a grip, Damon,” I told myself. Was a real, live B-Monster in my yard? There was no other logical explanation.
“Damon!”
Mom?
My mother and sister were back home! I grabbed the phone and darted down the stairs to the living room. I had never been so excited to see them in my entire life, but I couldn’t let them see me this scared.
“Damon?” Mom gazed right into my pupils when she saw me. “Is everything okay, dear? Do you have a fever? You look pale.”
“Ha!” Rachel snorted. “You look
freaked out
.”
“No,” I groaned. “Just tired.”
“Well,” Mom said, tousling my hair. “Don’t you have studying to do? Isn’t your math test this week?”
“Yes,” I sighed. “Thanks for reminding me.”
Just talking about tests made my mouth go dry. Math tests are almost as scary as giant B-Monsters.
Almost.
“Well, get to it,” Mom said, giving me a goofy thumbs-up. She and Rachel walked out.
The moment they left, I ran to the window and scanned the back field. Soon the sky would darken and it would be harder to see. Was the shadow bug still out there? Or had my eyes been playing tricks on me?
I wanted so badly to tell Mom and Rachel the truth about the shadow bug and the gnats and all about Oswald Leery, too. But the squad made a promise to keep real B-Monsters a big secret.
And I don’t break promises.
I worked on my math for a little while, but I was having trouble concentrating. I couldn’t believe that Mom wanted me to study right now. How was I supposed to do math homework with that
thing
in our yard?
I went over to the window to check for the big bug again. It had gotten dark, but I could see something coming toward me. It was a row of itty, bitty lights illuminating everything below it. The lights looked just like these teeny spaceships I’d read about in one of Dr. Leery’s
B-Monster Galaxy
magazines.
But once the lights came closer, I realized I wasn’t watching spaceships. These were bugs. Lightning bugs! There must have been a thousand! They swooped in like an armada of miniature UFOs, but they were definitely bugs.
“Moooooom!” I screamed.
“Damon?” Mom asked, rushing back into the living room. “What is the matter?”
I pointed out the window. The bugs were multiplying by the second, just like the flies and bees. Their light was so bright it lit up the whole backyard.
“Damon! Let’s go!” Mom called from the kitchen.
“Just a sec!” I called back. Then I grabbed the phone. I speed-dialed Ranger again.
Hopefully he would be home by now.
CHAPTER 3
ANOTHER
BADVENTURE
This time Ranger picked up the phone. I told him everything.
After that, I called the girls. The four of us agreed to do a few things as soon as humanly possible:
1. ID the B (for sure).
2. Get to Leery Castle and tell Walter and Leery
everything
.
3. Whomp that B-Monster and save the world. The next morning, I was revved to go. Rachel stayed home sick so I went to school alone. Excellent! But just as I stepped onto our front porch, I heard something go
smoosh
under my sneaker. I lifted my shoe. It looked like gum. Green gum.
BOOK: Return of Mega Mantis
6.06Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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