They Came From Planet Q (7 page)

I hated to think what would happen if we didn't figure out how to destroy the B-Monsters before it got pitch-black out here. I could just imagine those red robot lights coming after us in the dark, dark cornfields . . .

I jumped into the air. Scared myself.

“Look at all those security guards!” Jesse cried. “I bet your dad is over there, Lindsey.”

I squinted and I couldn't make out my dad, but I saw at least three times the number of guards stationed there since this morning. We'd only been away from the mall for a matter of hours! In that short time, the B-Force had escalated beyond any of our imaginations! They'd already brought in triple the reinforcements.

Cable news crews were setting up their satellite dishes, but Jesse said transmissions probably weren't even making it out of the parking lot. The B-Force was growing! Every metal object was becoming magnetized to every other metal object. That's why there had been no reports of this on the news! The news cameras had all stopped working.

As we drove, Walter struggled a little bit with the steering wheel. Something was pulling on the car! Fortunately, Oswald Leery's vehicles come equipped with anti-lock and anti-magnet brakes.

Leery always planned for every emergency.

“Is your skin tingling?” Stella asked. “Because it feels like my skin is tingling . . .”

“Me too,” I said.

“We all feel that,” Jesse said. “It's the B-Monsters. It's the B-Force. They're almost here.”

Indeed, that electric feeling in the air meant the Planet Q robots had to be only seconds away from entering Earth's atmosphere.

I held my breath and counted down to one.

We didn't have a final plan, but we were ready.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . .

“My stars!” Walter cried. “The mere presence of the B-Monster has turned the entire mall into an enormous magnetic field! Astounding! If only the crowds knew what was
really
going on. They think it's some kind of strange weather pattern.”

This B-Force was as uncontrollable as ever! Every time I went to take a new photograph, the magnetic pull threatened to rip my camera right out of my hands.

We looked over at one of the enormous, overflowing piles of metal objects growing higher than the tallest building in Riddle. Now there was actually a red sports car hanging off it, somehow suspended from a steel girder. In fact, every steel object imaginable, big and small, had made the pile taller and taller. There were horseshoes, hubcaps, power tools, metal fences, a hunk of the divider from the road outside the mall, and a whole bunch of major household appliances.

“This is what must have happened in Spain and in Australia!” I cried. “It's why the metal objects flew out of museums and lawnmowers shot through the sky! The bots must have flown through all those places . . .”

“Looking for their firequartz!” Jesse said.

“And magnetizing everything big and small!” I added.

The photographers were all around us, scrambling for the best picture and scoop they could get. I knew they couldn't see or photograph the robots (they weren't Monster Squad, after all), but there were plenty of other things to take pictures of. Even the sky made a good photograph right now: It was this deep scarlet red color, like it was on fire.

The magnetism was a problem for some cameramen, who struggled to hang onto cameras while they shot footage of the chaos. More often than not, the magnetism pulled
them
around in addition to their cameras. I saw one guy get lifted all the way up into the air and dropped into the same pile as the washing machines and garbage cans! Luckily, he appeared unhurt.

Walter had smartly bypassed a lot of this magnetic mess by driving as far away from the magnetic pile as he could. He dropped us off in the mall parking lot where no one was parked. While we investigated the B-Monster, he planned to wait with the limo.

We had to hike back to get near the mall, but at least we were safe. I was feeling tougher now. We all were. Stella kept muttering, “Kiiiiiya!” under her breath. We were finally ready for some real action.

“Good luck, Monster Squad,” Walter said as we walked away from the limousine. “May the force be . . .”

“With us!” I cheered.

At first we headed directly for chaos central—that is, the mall's front entrance. But then Stella realized that there was no way for us to get inside! Security had every entrance and exit in a major lockdown. I think I saw my dad right there in the middle of it all! If he saw me—or any of us—back here after the evacuation orders, he'd flip a wig.

“I know you don't want to,” Stella whispered, “but shouldn't we just ask your dad to let us in?”

“Are you kidding?” I said. “He kicked us out last time—when it wasn't even half as dangerous. There is no way Dad will let us go inside the mall now. Besides, Wally is probably over there, waiting to pounce.”

“Who needs Dad?” Damon said. “I have the map from the limousine!”

We all crowded around the map to check it out. There were plenty of entrances marked, but they were all out front.

“Except for here!” Jesse slammed his hand down on the paper. “A loading dock out back. Excellent.”

My eyes traced the map from the dock all the way through to a service elevator and downstairs to the mall's lowest level. I wanted to know what obstacles might be in our way. There were a bunch of stores and stalls, but best of all, this map showed fire exits and stairwells. If we were able to slip downstairs, we could bypass some of the main shops and find an entrance to what lay under the mall . . .

Was the mysterious firequartz down there? We hoped so!

The loading dock was located at the far end of Building G. That had to be our way in! The four of us scurried around the mall exterior to the opposite side.

As we walked around, I noticed the sky again. The scarlet red glow had all but turned to black.

“Up in the sky!” Stella cried. “Something is up there!”

“Our B-Monster!” I said. “It's finally here!”

“It's the UFOs from Planet Q!” Damon cried.

They were circling over the mall—dozens of metal B-Monsters—and I did not know what to say or do. The sound was deafening, like a swarm of the creepiest bats ever or a brigade of helicopters with nowhere to land. And the UFOs looked so fake, too, even from far away. It was hard to imagine that this mixed-up mess of bolts could transform into killer, driller robots!

But that's exactly what they were.

“We have to hurry!” Stella said. “We have to find the firequartz rock before they do!”

Stella got to the loading dock entryway first. She tried pressing the control panel for the loading dock door. Then I flipped another switch. Nothing happened.

“Wait! The power is all messed up!” Jesse shouted over the noise around us. “Electromagnetism, remember? It won't let us open the door.”

“Look! Over there! A manual lever,” Damon said. “Yes!”

We quickly dashed over to a large turning gear. I pulled the gear handle. Stella pulled me. Jesse pulled Stella. Damon pulled Jesse. It only took a few minutes before the door budged. We were able to open it just enough to slip inside.

As I rolled under the door, I glanced up once more at the sky. It was now black with flashes of silver metal. The last of the UFOs were coming in for a landing. Others were already transformed into standing robots with red glowing bulbs on their heads. I blinked hard.

Was this really happening?

“Lindsey! Inside! Quick!” Jesse yelled. Then Damon released the door and it slammed down, narrowly missing my head.

“Now where to?” Damon asked.

I shrugged. I didn't know how to get upstairs from here. We took out the map again and searched for something—anything—that might tell us where to go next. Lucky for us, Jesse had his nifty penlight keychain in his back pocket.

Considering all the crazy noises we'd left outside, this place was a total tomb. The loading dock doors must have been soundproof. And the trouble with scary quiet is that it only makes things that much . . . well,
scarier.
Damon was so jittery, I could barely get him to stop shaking.

Thankfully, we were able to read the map, work our way through the dock's darkness, and find a door marked MALL LOBBY, TWO FLIGHTS UP.

“Everyone ready?” I asked the group. “Because it's mall or nothing from this point on!”

“Ha!” Damon said, cracking a smile.

“All for pun and pun for all!” I joked.

We raised up our four right hands and did a Monster Squad high five . . .

And then we burst through the door like a bunch of TNT.

The B-Force inside that part of the building nearly knocked me flat.

The magnetism in the mall was so strong that it lifted me right off my feet for a split second and then deposited me with a swoosh against the window at Burger Stall. It was a good thing that glass didn't break! We grabbed onto poles and nailed down chairs so as not to get carried away. But the force kept pulling me from side to side to . . .

“It's your belt! Undo your belt, Lindsey! It's metal!” Stella shouted.

Quickly, I pulled the belt off and fell to the floor.

Drat that metal belt buckle
, I thought.

Everyone else took off lt off whatever they had on that might be magnetic, too. Stella took off her barrettes and earrings. Damon took off a chain from his neck. Jesse dumped a fistful of coins out of his pocket. I was very glad that my eyeglasses weren't metal. I wouldn't have been able to see a B-Monster without them!

We had to work overtime just to stay on our feet! One false move and we'd find ourselves on some scrap heap in the parking lot. Every second counted.

I pulled out the map again.

Stores with lower level access were marked with symbols, one for each level down. I wasn't sure I understood a lot of the words and symbols on the map, so I just guessed.