Monsters Unleashed Read online

  “Dude, put that thing away, will ya?” Freddie said, clasping his hands to his ears. “Are you trying to get us all killed?”

  “Okay, okay,” Jordan said. “Sorry. Chill out, Gigantor.”

  “Can you please not call me that?” Freddie asked timidly.

  “Whatever, Gigantor,” Jordan said. “Didn’t know you were so sensitive.”

  “Come on, you guys,” Quincy said. “Let’s get out of here before that thing figures out how to get down here.”

  Quickly, the five of them grabbed their gear and lugged it up the other stairwell toward the exit. Jordan opened the door slowly, and they stepped outside behind the school building. The coast seemed to be clear. Maybe Kraydon got bored and wandered off, Freddie thought. They strained to hear his booming footsteps, but the air was oddly silent.

  Then as they neared the soccer fields, they could hear Kraydon’s thumping on the other side of the school. They passed a parked car. Jordan dashed forward and kicked off the side view mirrors. “I always wanted to do that,” he said, and tossed one of the mirrors to Quincy.

  The nerd bully fumbled and nearly dropped it on the cement. “You almost just got me seven years’ bad luck!” He glowered at Jordan.

  “You caught it, didn’t you?” Jordan replied. “So what’s the big deal?”

  “Come on, guys,” Freddie said. “We have to focus.” He tried to sound like a leader, but his voice was meek.

  “If I’m not back with a monster in five minutes,” Jordan said, stretching out his legs in a runner’s lunge, “just wait a little longer.”

  The group nodded, and Jordan ran off to look for Kraydon. Freddie, Manny, Nina, and Quincy dragged the soccer nets out to the field. Freddie stepped into the muddy grass, and his feet sank into the soil past his ankles. If they could trick Kraydon into turning the mud into cement, the monster would be stuck tight.

  It wasn’t long before the four of them managed to set the trap.

  Now all they had to do was wait. They tromped back through the mud and hid behind a row of cars parked at the edge of the school’s lot.

  In the distance, they could hear Jordan yelling into the megaphone. “Hey, you! Yeah I’m talking to you, you big ugly ball of muscle!”

  Suddenly, Jordan came sprinting around the corner of the school, the monster fast on his heels. Kraydon gained on him, faster and faster. Jordan stopped on a dime and dove out of the way, right before he hit the soccer field. Kraydon was too big to slow down in time, and they all watched as the massive beast slipped and slid through the mud, right into the middle of the field. Brown muck sprayed everywhere as Kraydon’s tail hammered the muddy turf.

  “Get ready!” Freddie shouted.

  The monster growled in surprise as his feet tangled in the soccer nets and he sank deeper into the mud.

  It’s now or never, thought Freddie. He jumped out, waving the trophy in front of Kraydon’s scaly face. The monster looked down at him, his sharp teeth bared in a slimy grin. Freddie gulped nervously. He normally wasn’t this brave.

  Kraydon became angrier and angrier that he couldn’t reach the trophy, despite his strength. His eye started to pulse, getting ready to shoot out his stony gaze.

  With a roar, Kraydon shot a pulse from his swirling eye, aimed straight for Freddie.

  At that second, Manny sidled next to Freddie with the janitor’s mirror.

  “A little help, please!” Manny called out. The rest of the kids held up their mirrored objects like shields, too, inching closer to the mud-covered beast.

  “We’re doing it, buddy!” Manny shouted to Freddie.

  “Hold it steady, guys!” Freddie yelled as the monster’s pulsating gaze deflected off their mirrors. “Couple more seconds!”

  Freddie planted his feet in the mud and held up the trophy with all his strength. This time, the energy pulse from Kraydon’s eyeball was more powerful than Freddie expected. It was as if the angrier Kraydon was, the stronger his power became. Freddie struggled to hold on to the trophy, praying that the metal wouldn’t crack under the pressure.

  The mud hardened around Kraydon’s massive front paws, back legs, and tail, trapping the monster in place.

  Before Kraydon knew what had happened, he was stuck tight, like a toy soldier with his feet connected to a plastic stand. The monster’s eyeball stopped swirling.

  Kraydon strained with all his might, trying to break out of the stone slab around his tail and feet. Suddenly, the tail broke free and rose, swinging over their heads.

  “Look out!” Nina shouted.

  “Heads up!” Manny cried.

  They dove out of the way as the tail came crashing down. Kraydon kept swinging his tail, trying to crack the cement encasing his legs, but it was useless. The monster couldn’t smash himself free.

  Kraydon let out a defeated roar.

  “We did it!” Jordan, Nina, and Quincy all yelled out at the exact same time.

  “Ahem.” Manny cleared his throat. “I think you mean, he did it,” he said, pointing to Freddie.

  “I hate to admit it,” Quincy said, pointing to the cement holding Kraydon in place, “but it was a pretty solid plan . . . pun intended.”

  The kids gathered around Freddie, and Quincy gave him a high five. He felt ten feet tall. Normally, that would not be a good thing, but today it absolutely was. “It was a team effort . . . ,” Freddie said seriously.

  “Yeah, but if it weren’t for your plan, we might all be bits of rubble right now,” Nina said, patting him on the back. “Way to go.”

  “The plan wasn’t all his . . . ,” Jordan butted in. “I kinda helped a lot. . . .”

  “You were awesome, Jordan,” Freddie said. “The plan wouldn’t have worked without you.”

  Jordan looked up at Freddie. “You weren’t so bad yourself, Gigant—I mean, big guy. . . .” Jordan put his hand out for a high five. “Good work, man!”

  Freddie couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard those words, good work. And he’d never heard them from Jordan Cross.

  “You’re going to leave me hanging?” Jordan said, with his hand still in the air.

  “This is just the first time you’ve been nice to me . . . like ever,” Freddie said hesitantly as he slapped Jordan’s hand. “Any of you,” he said, looking at Nina and Quincy.

  “Well, you finally did something good,” Nina chimed in. “You keep doing stuff like this and I just might remember you when I get superfamous.”

  “We all did our part,” Manny said excitedly. “Maybe we’re going to be monster hunters after all.”

  Suddenly, a high-pitched screech howled through the air. The wail of fire truck sirens whooped in the distance. Yapzilla was out there somewhere, wreaking havoc with her shrieking and fire breath. They could hear the faint sounds of panicked yelling from their neighbors and the squeals and honks of cars as everyone rushed to get out of their monster-ridden town.

  Freddie thought about his dad and Manny’s mom and the rest of their classmates and teachers. He prayed they were okay. The kids had to take down Yapzilla and Mega-Q quickly, before things got even more out of control.

  “We’re not done yet. . . . We need a plan for the rest of these monsters,” Freddie continued.

  “I think it’s time to call in the big guns,” Manny said.

  “What do you mean, big guns?” Nina asked.

  “You know, like the military, marines, army, navy SEALs, the National Guard, everyone!” Manny said. “NATO, FBI, CIA, NSA, MIA . . .”

  “MIA?” Freddie asked.

  “Monster Intelligence Agency,” Manny joked.

  “Great idea,” Freddie said. “How do we do that?”

  Manny led them back through the school, heading for the principal’s office. The gymnasium walls were completely caved in. Student artwork, posters, and bulletin boards were scattered in the rubble. Kraydon’s arms had left giant dents in the lockers, and a huge claw mark scarred the walls. Gallup Middle School was completely destroyed.

 
They ducked into Principal Worst’s office at the front of the building.

  “There should be a hotline or something . . . ,” Quincy said.

  Nina pulled out her cell phone. “No service. . . .”

  “Try the landline,” Quincy ordered.

  Jordan picked up the phone and listened for a dial tone. “The phones are dead.”

  Freddie reached up to flip on the television that hung in the corner of the ceiling. “TV’s out, too.”

  “Mega-Q was clipping the wires,” Quincy said. “He must have been cutting off our communication.”

  Manny clacked the keyboard, trying to get online. “The internet’s down, you guys!”

  Nina pinched her chin in serious thought. “If we can’t get in touch with anyone else, it looks like we’re going to have to do this on our own. . . . After all, we do understand our monsters better than anyone.”

  Freddie looked at his three biggest enemies in the whole wide world. Except now they weren’t his enemies . . . they were his partners. He felt like he could trust them. It was kind of nice having them on his side for a change. Together, they had brought down Kraydon. They could definitely take out Yapzilla and Mega-Q.

  Couldn’t they?

  “Let’s do this thing,” Jordan shouted.

  “Let’s go kick some monster butt,” said Nina.

  “Technically speaking, I’m not sure your monster has a butt,” Quincy said.

  “You know what I mean,” Nina said.

  “Let’s go!” Manny shouted, leading the charge.

  And with that, they were off to save their town from the rampaging monsters they had created.

  10

  The sixth grade monster hunters left their half-demolished school and scanned the landscape. “Where are they?” Nina asked.

  The desert surrounding their town was mostly flat. There weren’t a whole lot of places for the monsters to hide. Except for the main strip, the place was nothing but chain-link fences and stretches of endless telephone wires. It wasn’t very pretty to most people, but Freddie wasn’t like most people. He could find something cool in what everyone else thought was ugly.

  Freddie refocused on the task at hand. He spotted two dark tendrils of smoke rising from the center of town. Yapzilla.

  “Check it out, over there!” Manny pointed west on the horizon. “Yapzilla must be setting the whole town on fire!”

  “That looks like it’s near the news station,” Nina said. “I bet that’s where she’s going!”

  “Why would she be going there?” Quincy asked, a bit snippily.

  “Because if she’s anything like me, she probably has a burning desire to be on TV,” Nina replied. “Yapzilla wants to be a monster star—like Godzilla!”

  The kids grabbed some abandoned bikes from the lot in front of their school and in less than ten minutes, they had reached Aztec Street in the center of town. The air smelled like burned rubber, and the street was completely deserted. A lone police cruiser sat silent on the corner. Its lights flashed, and its doors were wide open. Everyone must be hiding from the monsters.

  Even the cops, Freddie thought.

  It was all too quiet and eerie. The sky had grown heavy and dark. It looked like a rainstorm could be on the way. Things felt tense, like the moment before the big battle in a video game. Except this movie is real, Freddie reminded himself.

  They pedaled down an alley and passed a Dumpster. The heavy metal lid lifted and some guy’s head popped out.

  “Don’t go that way,” the man said, “unless you want to get flame broiled by a two-headed squawk monster.” He closed the lid back down over himself.

  “Wait!” Freddie said, looking at the end of the alley. “Which way is the TV station?”

  From inside the Dumpster, the man’s voice said, “Left, I think . . .”

  The kids reached the end of the alley and peered around the corner. They saw the TV station in the distance.

  “What else do we know about her?” Quincy asked.

  “She’s basically a two-headed beast that breathes fire out of one head and lets out a supersonic screech from the other,” said Freddie.

  “A screeching, fire-breathing monster?” Quincy said. “Are we sure we want to do this?” He slowed down on his bike.

  “Come on, guys. We just took down the biggest, baddest, and might I even say handsomest of the monsters,” said Jordan. “A two-headed fire breather shouldn’t be a problem. We just need our strength!” He pulled out a bag of beef jerky from his pocket and started to stuff his face with the freeze-dried meat.

  “Where’d you get that from?” Freddie asked.

  “At school,” Jordan said, talking with his mouth full. “They just started selling it in the vending machine. They have all three flavors. You want some?” he asked, offering the bag to Freddie.

  “Are you kidding?” Freddie said. “I’m practically made of the stuff.” Freddie’s mouth started to water as he reached for the jerky.

  “Psych . . . ,” Jordan said, pulling the bag away from him.

  Freddie hung his head.

  “I’m just messing with you,” Jordan said, and let Freddie grab a handful of the dry, salty beef.

  Freddie stuffed his mouth with the beef jerky. “Thanks . . . I’m starving. . . .”

  “Stop!” Jordan said, grabbing Freddie by the wrist. “Don’t eat that!”

  Freddie looked down, expecting Jordan to be pranking him again, but instead he saw a little packet of silica pellets mixed in with the beef jerky. Jordan plucked it out and threw it on the ground. “Dude, that stuff will mess you up.”

  “Okay, jerky boys,” Nina said, interrupting their beef jerky bonding as they arrived at the station. “We’re here. Time to rock and roll.” They ditched their bikes and headed inside.

  SCRRREEEEEEEECH!!!!

  Their eardrums rattled as they entered the TV station. The monster’s shriek carried through the hallways like a sonic wind.

  SCRRREEEEEEEECH!!!!

  The kids all covered their ears. Freddie plugged his fingers into his earholes as far as they would go.

  “You guys, we’re going to need some actual earplugs or something if we’re going to stop her,” Freddie yelled over the monster’s scream. The noise was unbearable.

  With their fingers jammed in their ears, they moved deeper into the empty TV station. The place looked like it had been abandoned in the middle of the news broadcast. Cameras were still pointed at the stage, ready to shoot, lights blaring on set.

  The two-headed monster came back into view and the kids ducked through a door marked with a sign: Goodie Room. They looked around and realized that this was where the TV station kept all their giveaway prizes. The kids dug around for anything that might help them against Yapzilla.

  “Got it!” Nina held up a box of brand-new noise-canceling headsets.

  “But if we’re all wearing these headphones, won’t it be hard to hear each other?” Freddie asked.

  “Yeah, how are we supposed to communicate?” Jordan asked. “My basketball coach always says good communication is the key to winning.”

  “I may have a solution,” Quincy said as he pulled out a box of walkie-talkies.

  They covered their ears with the headphones. Freddie cranked up the volume while Quincy tuned the walkie-talkies to the same channel.

  “The headsets are now connected to the walkies,” Quincy explained. “Now we can all hear each other while blocking out the screech.”

  Freddie was impressed. He could hardly hear Yapzilla’s screech anymore, but Quincy’s voice was crystal clear.

  “The glorious results of three summers at Northwest Horizons science camp.” Quincy smiled. “Man, you think monsters are weird, you should have seen what I saw there,” Quincy muttered under his breath.

  Looking around, Freddie couldn’t believe he was in this mess. But he wasn’t sure what was stranger—going into battle against some 3D-printed monsters or battling them with his worst enemies. Well, enemies w
as a strong word. But . . . friends? Were these bullies turning out to be his friends?

  “Okay, what’s the plan?” Freddie whispered, coming back to reality.

  Nina looked at him. “If Yapzilla wants to be famous, let’s make her think she’s famous.”

  “That doesn’t sound like much of a plan,” Manny said as they all moved slowly down the narrow corridor of the news station.

  “Trust me,” Nina said, walking in a crouch. “I got this.”

  They peered out the door and saw Yapzilla lurking on the stage. She wasn’t quite as huge as Kraydon was, but she was still fairly large. Her body was about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, and she stood on two enormous ostrich legs. Her twin necks protruded from her hair-covered body, and each one ended in a mouth, one for screeching and one for breathing fire. She had to duck her necks down so she wouldn’t knock her mouths on the ceiling.

  The monster stepped into the camera frame and saw her image on-screen. She yipped happily, then blasted the monitor with her fire breath.

  Nina backed up in fear and turned to the boys. “Maybe I don’t got this!”

  Manny grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You’re an actress, right? You just have to go out there and play the part. Don’t even think about it. Just improvise.”

  Nina paused, took a deep breath, cleared her throat, then conjured up a look of intense focus. “‘What a to-do to die today, at a minute or two to two’”; she spoke the words as fast as she could. “‘A thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do. We’ll beat a tattoo, at twenty to two, a rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat tat-tat-tattoo, and the dragon will come when he hears the drum at a minute or two to two today, at a minute or two to two.’”

  “What the heck was that?” Manny asked.

  “My vocal warm-up,” she said and picked up a microphone off the floor. She looked out at the she monster. “I’m ready for my close-up. . . .”

  “I think you may have just created a monster, little buddy,” Freddie said to Manny.