Monsters Unleashed #2 Page 8
“Hey, what are you doing?” Quincy said. “Turn it back, right now.”
Kraydon crossed his arms and shook his head.
“I’m serious. Turn it back, or else . . .”
“Or else what?” Jordan asked. “Don’t talk to my monster like that.”
“Yeah, Quincy,” Nina said. “Quit acting so bossy.”
“Fine, it can be made of stone, so no one can use it, but let’s not destroy it. Not yet.”
Kraydon nodded at Jordan. The minimonster pointed to his eyeball then shook his finger no at the 3D printer.
“I’m pretty sure he understands,” Jordan said.
Quincy placed the frozen-solid 3D printer on a shelf behind a bunch of board games and old science experiments. They all went back up to the first floor.
Freddie and Manny stood side by side at the sink and washed all the bug guts off their arms and legs. Manny didn’t look like someone who had just saved their town from total insect Armageddon. He looked more like a kid whose dog just died on Christmas.
“You okay, man?” Freddie asked.
Manny looked. “I’m all right,” he said. “Just a little tired. Long night.”
“Yeah,” Freddie replied quietly. “Long night.”
But that isn’t it, Freddie thought, and then it dawned on him. Actually, the realization punched him right in the gut.
Today is Manny’s birthday!
Right until this second, Freddie had completely forgotten. He felt terrible. Freddie had intended to plan Manny’s birthday celebration weeks in advance. It must have been bothering Manny for days that Freddie hadn’t told him the plan yet. There had been so much going on: new school, new friends, new monsters. It had simply slipped his mind.
Freddie finished washing up and left Manny at the sink. He quietly called Jordan, Nina, Quincy, and Trevor into the pantry off the kitchen. He took a deep breath and told them the deal.
“You forgot his b—?” Nina started to say way too loud, and Freddie clamped his hand over her mouth.
“Shhhhh!” Freddie said. “He doesn’t know I forgot yet.”
“We have to do something,” Trevor said.
“I have a couple boxes of cupcakes,” Quincy said. “They’re store-bought, but, my oh my, are they delicious.”
“What about decorations?” Nina asked.
“I think my mom keeps some streamers and party hats somewhere around here. I can ask her,” Quincy said. “Maybe some balloons, too.”
“What about candles?” Nina asked.
“Yep.” Quincy nodded. “We got candles.”
“Okay, awesome,” Freddie said. “Quincy, you and Jordan will get the food. Nina and I will take care of the decorations.”
“What do I do?” Trevor asked.
“You go keep Manny occupied,” Freddie said. “Make sure he doesn’t come in the living room.”
With that, Nina and Freddie went into the living room and hung the streamers. They showed Oddo and Kraydon how to blow up the balloons, and Mega-Q used some static electricity to make them cling all over the ceiling and the walls.
Jordan and Quincy came in holding a platter of cupcakes, one of them with a candle sticking out of the middle. “I can’t find any matches,” Quincy said.
Yapzilla scampered over and lit the candle with her torch breath.
“Okay, Trevor,” Freddie said. “We’re ready!”
A few seconds later, Trevor and Manny walked through the streamers hanging down in the doorway.
Mungo handed Manny a cupcake. “Yum yums,” he said.
Manny’s smile stretched ear to ear. “I thought you guys forgot,” he said, as they sang an out-of-tune rendition of the happy birthday song.
“Okay, okay, stop it!” Manny said. “You guys are terrible singers.”
“Except for me,” Nina said.
“Except for Nina,” Manny acknowledged, blowing out the candle. “Thanks, guys . . . this means a lot.” He looked at Freddie for a long moment. “Freddie, you’re my best friend in the whole wide world, but all of you are the best friends a guy could ask to go into battle with.” Then he stared down at their minimonsters. “And you dudes, too.”
For the first time since the entomons attacked, Freddie smiled.
“Let’s eat,” Manny said. “I’m starving!”
Freddie sank his teeth into the frosted cake and felt a loud crunch.
“Ugh! Gross!” Freddie said. An entomon leg stuck out of the cake.
“Hey, at least it’s dead, right?” Manny said. He handed Freddie a piece of his own cupcake.
“Aw, thanks, dude,” Freddie said to his best friend. It was the tastiest cupcake Freddie had ever eaten.
A few seconds later, he could hear the creak of footsteps coming down the staircase. The kids and monsters paused and turned toward the living room doorway. Quincy’s grandmother stood in her nightie and a pair of slippers, staring at them.
“Are you and your friends done with your science project, Quincy?” she asked, breaking the silence.
“Umm . . . yeah, Grandma,” Quincy said, waiting to see if she would notice the minimonsters who had all frozen in odd postures around the living room.
Grams did not notice. “Will you get an A?” she asked instead.
“We will,” Freddie spoke up with a mouthful of cupcake. “Actually I think we’re going to get an A plus.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” she said. “I’m going to go make myself a cup of tea.”
They held their breaths until she was out of the room.
Then the kids—and their monsters—let out a sigh of relief.
Freddie looked at his friends and smiled. They’d saved their town and probably the whole world. It wasn’t the first time, but he hoped it would be the last. He couldn’t know for sure.
In the meantime, Freddie went back to his cupcake.
Acknowledgments
Enormous thanks to everyone at Alloy and Harper for helping me shrink down this monster book to a tamable size. To my editors, Hayley and Alice, thank you for all your great ideas and helping me find the logic in 3D-printed self-replicating monster bugs; to Emilia, thanks for having faith that each draft will be bigger and better and more monstrous than the last; and to Josh and Sara and Les, thanks as always for brainstorming with me and getting this project on track. And thank you to my agent, Ryan, for all his help and guidance along the monster-ridden way. And most important, Jenny, my love, who’s always there, and who makes me a better writer. You are.
About the Author and Illustrator
JOHN KLOEPFER is also the author of the popular Zombie Chasers series and the out-of-this-world alien trilogy Galaxy’s Most Wanted. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Jenny, and their gigantic Newfie named Gemma.
MARK OLIVER likes being an illustrator because he gets to paint, draw, and use his creative genius in many different ways using a computer. Sometimes he does it so well, he wins awards for it (the Stockport Children’s Book Award in 2006 and 2011, among others). Mark’s very clever, but he never brags about how clever he is, just in case people ask him tricky questions about zombies, string theory, or moral relativism. Visit him at www.olly.net.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Copyright
MONSTERS UNLEASHED #2: BUGGING OUT. Copyright © 2018 by Alloy Entertainment and John Kloepfer. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Logo art by JASON COOK
Cover art by JONATAN
IVERSEN-EJVE
Cover design by AURORA PARLAGRECO
* * *
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017949547
Digital Edition APRIL 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-242755-7
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-242753-3 (trade bdg.)
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1819202122LSCH/CG10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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