Monsters Among Us!

by Mark Young

  Newton thought about this. Strange that Peewee had found his way to Franken-Sci High at the exact same time as . . .

  “Dr. Flubitus!” Newton yelled. “Ms. Mumtaz, the new professor must have brought Peewee here!” he said. “They both showed up around the same time. Besides, there’s something really, really weird about Flubitus. He’s been following me all over campus!”

  “Oh dear.” Mumtaz sighed. “Flubitus means well, but he can be very clumsy. I can assure you, he didn’t bring the monster to this school.”

  “But how do you know that?” Newton asked. “And what about him sneaking around following me?”

  “Professor Flubitus is harmless, trust me, Newton,” Mumtaz said. “He is looking out for the best interests of you . . . and Shelly.”

  Shelly looked surprised. “You mean he is following me, too?”

  “Hey!” Theremin said as he pushed his way between Newton and Shelly. “Why not me?”

  The headmistress looked at the robot kindly. “You don’t play a role in this situation right now, Theremin. But you can still help your friends.”

  “Help us with what?” Newton asked.

  “And what situation?” Shelly added.

  Mumtaz stood up. “All I can tell you is that there is nothing to worry about,” she said. “Dr. Flubitus is completely harmless. Now, Shelly, I’m sure you are anxious to see your monster. Professor Leviathan is examining him at the pool, and then we’ll probably keep Peewee there so he can swim.”

  Newton’s head began to fill with more and more questions, but the headmistress clearly had ended the discussion.

  “We’ll go with you, Shelly,” Newton said, and the three friends left the Headmistress’s office.

  “This is getting really weird,” Theremin said out in the hallway. “Flubitus is following you two on purpose? And Mumtaz knew about it?”

  “Definitely weird,” Shelly agreed. “And something we need to investigate. But first, I have to see Peewee.”

  They made their way up to the indoor swimming pool where a transparent hard-shell containment bubble had been placed over the whole thing. Peewee was inside, nervously pacing back and forth on the floor on the side of the pool. Professor Leviathan stood outside the bubble taking notes on her electronic tablet. Beside her was Tootie.

  “What are you doing here?” Shelly asked.

  “I was with Professor Leviathan when she got the message to examine the monster,” Tootie explained. “I just had to see it for myself. Isn’t it deliciously monstrous?”

  Suddenly, Peewee saw Shelly. The monster charged up to the side of the bubble and crashed into it.

  “Abbblrdrrrrpp!” it wailed. Fire shot from its mouth, but it fizzled harmlessly against the bubble.

  “Uh, Shelly,” Professor Leviathan observed. “This creature seems to know you.”

  Shelly nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure it’s Peewee,” she said, and then she launched into the story of how she found the monster at her family reunion.

  “Found it!” Leviathan said as she held up her tablet. “The best match for Peewee seems to be a Transylvanian baccatrei. Except this one is much, much bigger. And has four extra arms and an extra eye. And spikes on his head. And breathes fire.”

  The tablet had an illustration of the baccatrei in its usual tiny form.

  “That’s exactly what Peewee looked like when I found him,” Shelly said.

  Peewee began pounding his arms against the containment bubble. “Abbblrdrrrrpp!!!”

  Shelly continued, “But obviously he’s changed. Maybe this happens when they grow up.”

  Leviathan shook her head. “Not according to this documentation. They’re supposed to stay the same size and shape.”

  Tootie’s eyes widened. “Wait! In class we turned a butterfly into a giant monster with a nanochip. What if Peewee got ahold of a nanochip too?”

  Shelly slapped her forehead. “Of course! That’s it! But how did it—” Then she frowned as she leaned into Tootie. “Did you do this? Did you transmutate Peewee?”

  “No!” Tootie yelled. “I had nothing to do with this monster. Don’t you believe me?”

  “I don’t know. Only a member of the Monster Club would know about the nanochips,” Shelly shot back.

  Theremin interrupted. “I believe her, Shelly,” he said. “Why would she even suggest the nanochip if secretly she’s the one who used it?”

  “Don’t bother, Theremin,” Tootie said. “Shelly’s never gonna believe me.”

  Then she stomped off.

  Newton turned to Professor Leviathan. “If there’s a nanochip inside Peewee, can’t you deactivate it?”

  “It depends on how the chip was programmed,” the professor replied. “First, let’s determine if there really is a nanochip somewhere inside our friend here. I keep them locked up and catalogued in my lab.”

  Shelly smiled weakly as she approached the bubble and pressed her hand against it. Inside, the monster pressed one of his hands against hers as, one by one, Peewee’s giant eyes filled with tears.

  “We have to figure this out,” she said. “Poor Peewee!”

  The group left the gym and went to Professor Leviathan’s monster lab. The professor touched the wall. A panel slid open, revealing an old-fashioned banker’s safe. Leviathan opened it by twirling a combination lock and removed a metal tray filled with glass vials. She counted them, then frowned.

  “Hmm,” she said quietly, “strange.”

  Then she pressed a band on her wrist and activated a hologram catalog showing pictures of the vials to find the most recent one. Sure enough, there was an extra vial in the latest picture.

  “One vial is missing,” she reported.

  “I knew it!” Shelly said.

  Theremin floated over to the open safe. “Professor Leviathan, okay if I look for clues with my magni-vision opti-scope?”

  “Go for it,” the professor said.

  White beams shot from Theremin’s eyes as he scanned the open safe from top to bottom. Then he scanned the surrounding wall, the ceiling, and the floor.

  “Aha!” Theremin cried. He pivoted forward and picked something off the floor. Then he held up his find between his metal fingers. “A monster tooth!”

  Newton looked closer and gasped. Stuck to the tooth was a strand of bright green hair.

  “Flubitus!”

  CHAPTER 12

  CLUES AND CLONES

  “It was him!” Newton cried. “Flubitus stole the vial containing a nanochip and used it to turn Peewee into a monster.”

  Leviathan laughed nervously. “Not so fast, Newton, let’s not jump to conclusions,” she said. “Professor Flubitus is harmless, trust me.”

  “That’s exactly what Ms. Mumtaz said,” Newton told her. “But I don’t believe it. Newton held up the strand of green hair. “This is proof that he stole the nanochip!”

  “It’s only proof that he was in my office,” Leviathan said. “Now, why don’t you three run along.”

  “But what about Peewee?” Shelly asked. She wanted to make sure Peewee was safe, and even though she trusted Ms. Mumtaz, she wasn’t sure what some of the professors might do to him.

  “I’ll find a way to neutralize the nanochip,” the professor replied. “Don’t worry. Your monster will be fine until then.”

  Shelly started to argue, but Leviathan pushed them all out of the office and slammed the door behind her.

  “This is so wrong!” Shelly cried. “If Flubitus is the one who turned sweet, innocent Peewee into a giant monster, we’ve got to find a way to prove it.”

  Newton nodded. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s sneak into his office tonight and look for clues.”

  “But he’s almost always following you,” Theremin pointed out. “How can we do that without him knowing?”

  “I have an idea about that, too,” Newton said, and he explained it to Theremin and Shelly.

  “Brilliant!” Shelly cried. “We’ll meet in your room at eight oh-five on the dot.”

&
nbsp; “I’ll tell Higgy the plan,” Newton said.

  “Good,” Shelly said, then remembered something. “But first, I need to do something. Will you guys come with me?”

  Five minutes later they were in the girls’ dorm, knocking on Tootie’s door.

  “Who is it?” came a voice from inside.

  “Shelly!” Shelly said.

  “Go away!” Tootie replied.

  “And Theremin and Newton!” Theremin added.

  There was a pause.

  “Come in!”

  Shelly opened the door, and they stepped inside a room containing bunk beds and a wall lined with shelves filled with chrono-chess-ball trophies and monster action figures. Tootie was stretched out on the bottom bunk on her back, staring upward.

  “Tootie, I owe you a big apology,” Shelly said.

  “You sure do,” Tootie said.

  “I was so worried about Peewee I wasn’t thinking straight,” Shelly explained. “He’s more than a monster to me. He’s my friend.”

  “That makes two of us, Shell,” Tootie softened. “Some of my best friends are monsters too.”

  “That’s why I know you’ll forgive me. You’re the only one in the school who loves monsters as much as I do.”

  Tootie nodded.

  “Maybe I also felt a little bit like you were going to take my place, or make better monsters than me, or something,” Shelly confessed. “I didn’t realize it till now, but being related to the Frankensteins, I put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best at everything related to monsters. But now I want to put all that aside and just be friends, okay?”

  Tootie sat up in her bunk and extended a hand to Shelly. “I get it,” she said, pumping Shelly’s hand. “Friends it is! That’s what I wanted all along.”

  “Thank you, Tootie,” said Shelly.

  The two girls hugged for a moment, and then Theremin interrupted. He wanted to show off his new toy.

  “Hey, Tootie! Friends are cool, but snow is even cooler. Want to build a snowman in my room?”

  “Why not?” Tootie grinned. “I love snow.”

  As Theremin and Tootie left the room together, Theremin winked at Newton.

  “See you later, pal,” he said. “Eight oh-five on the dot.”

  “I’m going to check on Peewee again,” Shelly said.

  Newton nodded. “And I’m going to ask Higgy for a little favor.”

  At eight p.m., it appeared that Newton left his dorm room and made his way down the hall, but it was actually Higgy dressed in Newton’s clothes. As the disguised Higgy turned the corner, he noticed Professor Flubitus following some twenty feet behind him.

  At exactly 8:05 p.m., Shelly and Theremin knocked on Newton’s dorm door—and the real Newton let them in.

  “How long do you think Higgy can keep Flubitus occupied?” Shelly asked.

  “For as long as we need,” Newton replied. “Before he put on my clothes, Higgy slurped down a bucket of chocolate pudding. So he’s all fueled up.”

  Then Newton, Shelly, and Theremin wriggled under the bottom bunk bed and dropped through the secret trapdoor that led to the school’s underground tunnels. Higgy used the tunnels to scrounge for food from the cafeteria at night because he was always hungry. But the dark, dank passageways were also useful for sneaking around campus without being noticed.

  The three friends crept through the tunnels, not stopping until they stood beneath a specific vent. Newton easily jumped up and pushed open the vent, and then pulled himself up into Professor Flubitus’s classroom. Newton pulled Shelly up, then Theremin used his rocket boosters to shoot up through the vent.

  “So, what are we looking for again?” Theremin asked.

  “Anything that proves that nasty old Flubitus is here to cause trouble,” Shelly replied.

  “Yeah,” Newton agreed. “Look at everything that’s connected to the guy. He appeared on campus at the same time as Peewee and we know he stole the nanochip that turned Peewee into a monster!”

  “Poor little Peewee.” Shelly sighed.

  “Plus, he’s been following me,” Newton continued, “and Shelly too, according to Headmistress Mumtaz.”

  “What a mess,” Shelly said as she looked through a pile of papers on the professor’s desk. “Here’s a formula for growing ears on an orange, and a diagram for building battery-powered socks.”

  Newton and Theremin joined her.

  “And a crossword puzzle,” Theremin said as he held it up. “Hmm, what’s a ten-letter word that means dubious?”

  “I don’t know, but none of this is very exciting,” Newton sighed. “Just more papers with a bunch of numbers and this one with bar codes on it.”

  Shelly perked up. “Bar codes?” She grabbed the sheet from Newton.

  “Is that important?” Newton asked.

  “Maybe,” Shelly said as she touched the side of her glasses and took a picture of it. “Theremin can scan these bar codes when we have more time.”

  They searched through Flubitus’s desk drawers next, and while they found a rubber chicken, a multi-dimensional odor detector, and a bag of freeze-dried smog, nothing proved that Flubitus was anything but odd and probably harmless.

  “Nothing suspicious here at all,” Newton grunted. “Hey, that’s it! A ten-letter word for dubious is suspicious!”

  “Thanks, Newton!” Theremin said as he scribbled the answer on the crossword puzzle.

  “Come on, there’s nothing here,” Shelly said.

  A few minutes later they were back in Newton and Higgy’s room. Shelly sat on the floor and retrieved the photo she had taken. With the press of a button, her lens filled with the sheet of bar codes.

  “What’s the big deal about bar codes?” Newton asked. “We saw them the first day that Flubitus taught class.”

  “Well, it might be a big deal,” Shelly said, “because you have one on your foot, Newton, and Mumtaz did confirm that Flubitus is following you!”

  Newton removed his sneakers and socks and picked up his left foot to show the black bar code stamp.

  “Well, yeah, but it doesn’t mean anything,” Newton said. “Theremin can’t even scan it.”

  “True, but it’s not normal to have one,” Theremin said.

  “And remember when you went into camouflage mode on the roof? You totally blended in except for your bar code,” Shelly said. “It must be special, somehow.”

  Newton shrugged. “Maybe, but to help figure out what this has to do with Flubitus, how about we make a list of what we know about Flubitus so far?”

  “Sure,” Shelly said, and she took her tablet and stylus out of her backpack and began to write. Her notes were projected into the air in front of them:

  WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT PROFESSOR FLUBITUS:

  HE ARRIVED DAYS BEFORE PEEWEE APPEARED ON CAMPUS.

  HE’S BEEN FOLLOWING NEWTON.

  A STRAND OF HIS GREEN HAIR WAS FOUND ON A TOOTH.

  THE TOOTH WAS FOUND ON THE FLOOR IN THE ROOM WHERE LEVIATHAN KEEPS HER NANOCHIPS.

  PROFESSOR LEVIATHAN SAID HE WAS HARMLESS.

  HEADMISTRESS MUMTAZ ALSO SAID HE WAS HARMLESS.

  MUMTAZ SAID HE IS “LOOKING OUT FOR THE BEST INTERESTS” OF NEWTON AND SHELLY.

  “And Flubitus wants to buy a cloning device from Mimi’s family,” Theremin added.

  “Thanks, Theremin,” Shelly said. “I totally forgot that!” She added it to the list.

  “I’ve scanned my memory banks twice now,” the robot said. “And that’s all we know about Flubitus. Unless the rubber chicken is important.”

  “You never know.” Shelly shrugged. She added two more lines to the list.

  HE WANTED TO BUY A CLONING MACHINE FROM MIMI’S FAMILY.

  HE KEEPS A RUBBER CHICKEN IN HIS DESK.

  Then she tapped her stylus against her chin thoughtfully. “Cloning . . . cloning . . .”

  “Guys, what are bar codes used for, anyway?” Newton asked.

  “They’re placed on items for sale,” Shelly explained. “W
hen you scan the black lines, they give you information about the item. How much it costs, the product number, where it was made.”

  “So why do I have one?” Newton asked. “I’m not for sale.”

  “True,” Theremin agreed. “But bar codes are also used to differentiate one thing from another, right? So maybe . . .” the gears were turning inside Theremin’s head. “Just maybe your bar code is there . . .”

  “. . . so that someone can keep track of you!” Shelly completed.

  Newton blinked. “But other humans don’t have bar codes, right? I mean, you don’t need bar codes to tell humans apart?”

  “Nope,” Theremin said. “You humans usually can be differentiated by the way you look, your fingerprints, your DNA, and more.” Then Theremin stopped and chuckled. “I guess you’d only need a bar code if there were, like, a bunch of other Newtons.”

  Shelly jumped up. “Theremin! That’s it! A bunch of other Newtons!” she pointed to the list. “That’s what clones are! Genetically identical animals or people. You could use a bar code to tell them apart.”

  “Are you saying I’m a clone?” Newton gulped. “That’s too weird. Higgy pretending to be me is one thing, but I don’t like the idea of a bunch of other Newtons running around.”

  “You’re right,” Shelly admitted. “It’s too weird. Maybe the bar code is there so you can confirm your identity when you camouflage. Like, if you got stuck in camouflage mode or something.”

  Newton frowned, thinking. He didn’t know much about himself. And he liked the idea that he was special. But if he were a clone, well, what did that mean about where he came from? Were there five, or fifty, or even a thousand other Newtons that looked just like him out in the universe?

  Then Higgy burst into the dorm room.

  “Oh good, you guys are back,” he panted. “Flubitus is a good tracker. I led him all over the campus. He almost caught up to me, but he tripped over his feet a couple of times. I finally lost him when I turned to come back here and he went into the gym.”

  “The gym?” Shelly gasped. “That’s where Peewee is!”

  Without another word, she ran out of the room.