Star League 5 (6 page)

Chu slowly looks down at the Super Transmitter in his hand and then back at me.

‘Leigh?'

My whole face breaks into a grin. ‘Yeah, Chu?'

‘Catch!' He throws the Super Transmitter to me, and I grab it through the bars of the cage.

‘What's going on?' screeches Aunt Petunia. ‘How dare you interrupt my plans!'

But I ignore her and concentrate on the Super Transmitter. I've got no idea how to turn it off since there's no switch, and I can't risk destroying it, even with Sam's help, in case it hurts the animals whose minds are being controlled. But there is one thing I can try. I close my eyes and send out my psychic animancer powers.

‘Animals everywhere! Stop doing the things you're doing! Stop attacking your owners and destroying things! They're not the ones to blame. Aunt Petunia is the real bad guy! She tried to control your minds and make you do things you'd never normally do. But you don't have to do what she says! The only voice you have to listen to is your own. That will tell you what you have to do!'

A silence settles around the studio, and I don't know if it worked or not. The first person to break the silence is Aunt Petunia.

‘Sweetpea, unlock their cage!' she orders. I watch nervously to see what the gorilla will do, and my heart sinks when I see he does exactly what she tells him to.

‘It didn't work,' I mutter. ‘My powers weren't strong enough.'

‘Beryl, rip these annoying kids to shreds. I don't want them meddling in any of my plans ever again!' Beryl the bear steps forward with a growl,
and I can't help but think we're all done for. But to my surprise I realise she's not growling at us, she's growling at Aunt Petunia and Sweetpea.

‘You can't tell us what to do any more, old lady!' she says in a gravelly voice. ‘I'm free of your signal now!'

‘All right! Leigh's plan worked!' yells Jay.

We all cheer, overjoyed not to be meeting our ends at some very sharp teeth. But it's not over yet. There's still Aunt Petunia to deal with and her pet gorilla.

‘You'd better apologise, Aunt Petunia,' I say. ‘Beryl is pretty mad. And I'm willing to bet there are animals all over the world who have a bone to pick with you!'

‘B-b-but it wasn't even my idea!' stammers Aunt Petunia. ‘It was Sweetpea' s!'

The gorilla spins around and glares at Aunt Petunia. ‘Shut up, old lady!' he growls.

The others gasp. ‘A talking gorilla?' exclaims
Roger. ‘Now I've seen everything!'

At first I wonder if somehow the others have developed animancer powers too, but then I realise that being able to understand Sweetpea has nothing to do with being an animancer. Sweetpea is talking out loud – in human speech!

Sweetpea turns to run, but Beryl is onto him quickly. She lumbers forward and latches her jaws around his leg. Sweetpea pulls away, and as he does a loud ripping sound fills the air. Beryl is left with scraps of gorilla fur hanging from her jaws, which confuses me at first until I see a pair of very human-looking legs in the place where Sweetpea's fur has been torn away.

‘It's a costume!' I yell. ‘Sweetpea's not a gorilla at all, he's a human wearing a gorilla suit!'

The others gape in astonishment, but the man just laughs under his gorilla mask.

‘Ha! You stupid kids, you were fooled all along! Though I suppose it is hard to spot the
difference between this costume and a real gorilla – my laboratories were able to create the best animatronic costume in the world!'

‘Anima-who?' asks Connor.

‘Animatronic,' repeats Sam. ‘It's a robotic costume, which explains why it was able to move its face and look so real.'

‘But why, Sweetpea?' asks Jay. ‘What did animals ever do to you?'

Sweetpea turns and something around his neck glints. His Le Nice Pets Collar. I freeze as the words on the tag flash in front of my eyes. Something finally dawns on me.

‘Le Nice Pets,' I say. ‘If you rearrange the letters you get …'

The gorilla mask's eyes narrow into a smirk.

‘Pestilence!' I gasp.

‘That's right!' crows Professor Pestilence under his gorilla mask. ‘Now I can finally stop answering to that stupid Sweetpea name!'

I can't believe it. Our arch-enemy has been here the whole time and we didn't even know it. We're all so stunned that for a moment we can't move. Professor Pestilence takes the opportunity to make a run for it.

‘Quick, after him!' I yell. Beryl lumbers after the fleeing man in the gorilla mask with the rest of us not far behind. He bursts through the back door of the house and up to the edge of the cliff that Aunt Petunia's house is built on. Beryl growls at him as he backs closer and closer to the edge.

‘There's nowhere left to run, Professor
Pestilence,' says Jay. ‘We've finally caught you!'

Professor Pestilence just laughs. ‘You're right about one thing – there's nowhere left to run. But I can still jump!'

With that, he leaps off the cliff.

‘No!' We all rush forward to peer over the edge. The ocean roars around the base of the cliff. Nobody could survive a drop like that. But then I realise the ocean isn't the only thing roaring. A loud sound pierces the night air, and a helicopter rises up from below with Professor Pestilence clinging to one of the landing skids.

‘Looks like you let me get away again!' He screams with laughter beneath his gorilla mask.

The helicopter zooms away, taking our archenemy with it.

‘I can't believe it. He got away again,' says Asuka softly.

‘How are we ever going to catch this guy?' asks Roger.

The others just shake their heads, and I can't help but feel as defeated as they do.

Finally Jay steps forward. ‘Don't feel like that, guys. We didn't catch him, but we did what was important. We stopped his plans and rescued the animals that were being controlled all over the world. Plus, we exposed Aunt Petunia for the fraud she is!'

I nod, knowing that Jay is right. But then something hits me.

‘Oh no!' I gasp. ‘We left Aunt Petunia alone back there! She'll have had plenty of time to get away!' I turn and race towards the mansion, the others close behind.

As we burst through the door the first face we see is Ben Beaumont's. He grins at us and steps aside to reveal Aunt Petunia being held in handcuffs by a police officer.

‘Don't worry, guys, she's going right where she belongs – to jail!' says Ben.

‘But how did you know where her secret mansion was?' asks Connor.

‘Are you kidding? That signal she put out was beamed around the world. It was pretty hard to miss, so we just tracked it back here.' He grins at us. ‘You all did a fantastic job.'

‘But Professor Pestilence got away again,' says Sam.

‘Yes and no,' says Ben. He holds up part of the ripped gorilla suit. ‘There are only a few places in the world where the kind of rubber used for the lining in this suit can be made. I'll send the sample off to GALACTIC labs, and we might be able to track him down based on the results. We're getting closer and closer to stopping him once and for all.'

I smile. ‘And at least all the animals are back to normal. I'm guessing a lot of people will want refunds for the Le Nice Pets Collars they bought.'

‘You bet!' says Ben. ‘Not to mention that
Le Nice Pets
will be needing a new host now that Aunt
Petunia is behind bars. What do you say, Leigh? With your powers I think you'd make the perfect host!'

I glance down at Chu and laugh. ‘Thanks, but no thanks. At the end of the day, after pretending to be a movie star and solving crimes, I just want to monkey around a bit!'

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