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The Galactic Goal (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #4)

Page 4

by Geronimo Stilton

ARRIVED, except for Lionel. Everyone

  had horrible headaches! We quietly ate

  breakfast together, but there was still no

  sign of Lionel.

  Oh, for all the lunar cheese, where had he

  gone?

  “Did he go back to the room? Maybe he

  had a headache, too,” Bugsy suggested.

  WORRIED

  , I accompanied her and Benjamin

  to check the hotel room. Lionel wasn’t there,

  but we did find his soccerix bag.

  I tried to call him again. I heard the

  sound of a wrist phone: Beep! Beeep!

  Beeeep!

  “It’s coming from over here,” said

  Benjamin, ducking down. “Lionel’s wrist

  phone is under the bed!”

  Bugsy added, “And look! Some of

  Squizzy’s dried algae is on the floor. It

  leads to the window!”

  We

  noticed

  that the window of the room

  was cracked open.

  “Maybe someone mousenapped him!”

  Bugsy exclaimed.

  Those words sent a CHILL down my

  back, all the way to the tip of my tail.

  Lionel was in danger —and it was all my

  fault! I should have been keeping a closer

  eye on him. I felt like the WORST soccerix

  captain in history!

  Just then, Sally arrived, and we filled her

  in. “Hmmm,” she said. “There’s even more

  algae outside. Maybe Lionel left it as a trail?”

  “Let’s follow it!” Benjamin proposed.

  At that moment, my phone rang.

  Leaping light-years, it was Grandfather

  William!

  “Grandson! You are late for practice!” he

  barked.

  I didn’t let him say anything

  else. “GRANDFATHER, WE

  HAVE AN EMERGENCY!

  Lionel is missing!”

  “What?! This is

  unacceptable!” he hollered. “Start

  searching for him immediately!”

  Grandfather was right. It was useless to

  stay where we were. We needed to hurry

  and find Lionel!

  I

  CRIED

  , “Trap, Sally, come with me!

  Let’s follow the algae trail!”

  “We want to come, too,” Benjamin and

  Bugsy pleaded.

  I shook my head. “No, it could be

  dangerous! There’s no telling what we’re

  dealing with. You stay here in case Lionel

  comes back, and we’ll keep in touch using

  our phones!”

  LOOKING FOR

  LIONEL

  The algae trail led into a forest of

  trees with violet-colored leaves.

  “Are we sure that this is really

  SQUIZZY’S algae?” I asked, picking up

  some of the algae with my paw.

  “Of course!” Trap looked at me,

  exasperated. “After eating this horrible stuff

  for two weeks, I would recognize it with

  my eyes closed!”

  Suddenly, the algae trail stopped.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  “We need to look for PRINTS,”

  responded Sally. “Like this one —LOOK!”

  We all crept closer to what looked like

  ZOMBORG footprints!

  We followed them

  silently, pushing

  leaves

  out of the way until

  we reached a clearing

  with a camper parked at the other end. Holey

  space cheese, could Lionel be in there?

  We ducked behind a rock and watched

  the entrance to the camper carefully.

  Suddenly, two zomborgs came out,

  SNICKERING.

  “We FOLLOWED those galactic goofs

  through the city for days, but it was worth

  it — we managed to

  capture

  that little

  rat before the final!” one of them said.

  “KNOCKING THEM OUT with our

  breath was almost too easy!” the other one

  added. “Without their star player, beating

  them will be simple!”

  His friend laughed. “HA, HA, HA! When

  we let him go, we will already be champions

  of the tournament!”

  I was squeakless— that’s why we all

  had headaches! The zomborgs had

  knocked us out with their toxic breath!

  I turned to Trap and Sally and whispered,

  “We need to free Lionel— and to do it, we

  need to get those awful zomborgs AWAY

  FROM THE CAMPER!”

  “Well, now that we don’t have Lionel on

  our team, they’ll be feeling stronger and

  tougher than us, right?” asked Trap. “So

  let’s challenge them to prove it! Sally, come

  with me.”

  My fur stood on end. What was my crazy

  cousin planning?

  I DIDN’T KNOW . ..but I had

  a feeling that it might cause even more

  trouble!

  *

  The term

  fair play

  means that all athletes should exhibit fair behavior

  and respect for their opponents.

  A FIGHT TO

  THE FINISH

  Whistling absentmindedly, Trap sauntered

  up to the two ZOMBORGS. Sally

  walked just behind him.

  “Hey there!” my cousin said with a friendly

  grin, waving to the aliens.

  “What are you SPACE RATS

  doing here?” one of the zomborgs snapped.

  “Oh, nothing!” Trap said innocently. “We

  were just taking a walk and thought, ‘Why

  don’t we go say hello to our opponents?’”

  “We believe in good manners and fair

  play,”

  *

  Sally added. “After all, winning isn’t

  as important as playing and having a good

  time, right?”

  The two zomborgs burst out laughing.

  “Ha, ha, ha! Good manners! Ho, ho, ho!

  Fair play! Hee, hee, hee! Funny!”

  Just then, Brax (captain of the zomborg

  team) came out of the camper to see what

  all the noise was about. “Why are you

  laughing?” he asked his teammates.

  Galactic Gouda! I thought. TROUBLE AHEAD!

  After the two ZOMBORGS explained,

  Brax walked up to Trap and breathed in

  his snout. “Rat, we’re

  only

  interested in

  winning — at all costs! Understand? Now

  get lost!”

  “Understood!” Trap responded, trying to

  hold his breath. “You’ll definitely

  win the cup tomorrow, anyway. Our star

  forward

  left, so we have no hope! Your

  team is too strong —”

  Brax interrupted, “Good! You understand.

  Now scram before I really get angry!”

  But of course Trap didn’t leave. I didn’t

  have a cosmic clue what he was doing!

  Trap continued, “Since you’re so much

  better than we are, how about you show us

  some of your skills?”

  Brax snorted. “Don’t worry! Tomorrow

  in the final you’ll have a show you’ll never

  forget! Ha, ha, ha!”

  “So you don’t want to show us now?” Trap

  said

  innocently

  . “Really? Or maybe

  it’s because .
.. you don’t have any skills!

  Can you do this?”

  Trap grabbed a nearby soccerix ball

  and began to dribble it between his

  feet

  ,

  then hit it with his head and his tail.

  “Of course we can do that, rat!” Brax spat.

  “Rufus, show them!”

  One zomborg copied Trap’s moves.

  Sally said indifferently, “Not bad . . . but

  can you do this?

  ” She grabbed the

  ball and did a step over.*

  *A step over is a trick where a player spins her feet around the ball in

  order to disorient her opponent.

  Brax was getting angry now. “Of

  course! Torx, show them! ”

  As one of the other zomborgs did the trick,

  more aliens came out of the camper, curious

  about the

  unexpected contest.

  “Oh, cool,” Trap said. “But let’s see if you

  can do this!”

  My cousin performed a sombrero*:

  He lifted the ball with his heel and kicked it

  over the head of one of the ZOMBORGS,

  then retrieved it from behind him.

  *A sombrero is a trick where a player pasees the ball to himself over

  the head of his opponent.

  All the aliens let out a gasp of

  admiration, but they were immediately

  silenced by their captain.

  “That’s easy!” Brax scoffed.

  As he tried to copy the tricky move, Sally

  turned toward me. She WINKED and

  pointed to the entrance of the camper.

  Mousey meteorites — now I

  understood! Trap and Sally had gotten all

  the zomborgs out of the camper with their

  silly soccer challenge, and the coast was

  clear for me to free Lionel!

  RescUe

  MIssIon

  I snuck out from behind the rock and slipped

  into the zomborgs’ camper. There was

  no sign of Lionel near the door. I didn’t see

  him in the main room, either.

  I searched all the different rooms, but

  found nothing. Where had they hidden him?

  I leaned against the wall to catch my

  breath. Suddenly, the wall moved, and

  I tumbled into a room of

  stinky

  space

  trash

  !

  Martian mozzarella! I’d fallen pretty hard,

  so I checked my head, my paws, and my tail

  to make sure nothing was broken. Luckily,

  everything seemed to be in one piece.

  Behind me, I heard a

  familiar voice. “Captain!”

  I turned and saw . ..

  Lionel

  ! Our

  star forward was

  imprisoned in a

  soccerix net

  made of lasers! He

  whooped with joy

  upon seeing me, as

  if he had scored an amazing goal.

  “I knew we would find you!” I exclaimed,

  turning the lasers off and freeing him. “Are

  you all right? Did they hurt you?”

  Lionel shook his snout. “No, they

  didn’t do anything to me!

  ”

  “Good!” I gave him a hug. That poor,

  brave mouselet had been through a lot.

  “Now let’s get out of here. Trap and Sally

  are keeping the ZOMBORGS busy,

  but I don’t know how much longer they can

  distract them.”

  We headed for the camper door

  — but

  then I heard a noise!

  Cosmic cheese chunks, was it the

  zomborgs?

  Then a familiar voice whispered, “Uncle,

  are you all right?”

  I breathed a

  SIGH

  of

  relief. It was

  Benjamin

  and Bugsy!

  “What are

  you two doing

  here?” I asked.

  “I told you to

  stay in your

  rooms!”

  Benjamin looked down at his paws.

  “I know, but we thought that you might

  need our help — and Grandfather said it

  was okay!”

  “Come here,” I said with a sigh, hugging

  them. “

  Now let’s get out of here!

  ”

  We snuck out of the camper and hid

  behind the rock again, where I could

  see Trap and Sally

  busy performing

  a

  tricky

  acrobatic pass.

  I got their

  attention

  by waving a tree

  branch. As soon

  as he spotted

  me, Trap lost his

  balance.

  He and Sally tumbled to the ground, and the

  zomborgs burst out laughing.

  “Well, you won!” Trap told them.

  “You’re just too good for us!”

  “It will be a pleasure for us to lose the final

  game against champions like you,” Sally

  added politely, waving and walking away.

  “I see that you rats finally understand,”

  Brax called after them with a sneer. “The

  pleasure will be all ours! Ha, ha, ha!”

  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

  GIVE IT

  YOUR ALL!

  A little while later, we arrived back at the

  hotel, where Grandfather William

  and the rest of the team was waiting. They

  were enormousely happy to see us!

  “Nice teamwork!” Grandfather said

  proudly, after we’d recapped our rescue

  mission.

  “I’d love to see the expression on Brax’s

  face when he discovers that Lionel isn’t

  there anymore,” said Trap, laughing.

  Grandfather clapped a paw on Trap’s

  shoulder. “Good job, Grandson. It was a

  great idea to challenge those zomborgs to a

  soccerix showdown!”

  Then he turned to me and said, “This

  time, I must admit, you were a little less of

  a cosmic cheesebrain than usual . . .”

  Was Grandfather actually giving me a

  compliment? I COULDN’T

  BELIEVE IT!

  He walked over to

  Lionel and patted

  him on the back.

  “Were you

  SCARED?”

  Lionel shook

  his head.

  “No — I knew

  that my teammates

  wouldn’t abandon me!”

  Grandfather smiled. “And good thing

  they found you

  right away

  ,

  otherwise your mother would have turned

  us all into meteoric meatballs!”

  We all burst out laughing!

  Suddenly, Robotix began ringing like an

  alarm clock. “It’s time for practice! To

  the field!

  To the field! To

  the fieeeeeeeld!

  ”

  Grandfather nodded firmly. “Robotix is

  right. Tomorrow is the final game, and we

  have to be our

  best

  against the zomborgs!”

  We all put our paws together and cheered,

  “Spacemice for one,

  spacemice for all!”

  A MoUserIfIc

  FInal

  The next day, I woke up with a fur-raising

  start! I’d had a nightmare that the

&nbs
p; zomborgs won the final game. As a prize,

  instead of the cup, they won the captain of

  the spacemice — me! So I had to live on the

  planet Penaltex, which was covered with

  clouds of the same noxious air

  that comes out of the zomborgs’

  mouths. Galactic Gouda,

  that would be awful!

  “Geronimo, what

  were you yelling

  about?” Trap asked,

  rolling out

  of bed.

  “Uh, nothing,” I mumbled.

  “I just had a nightmare!”

  Trap grinned. “Huh. I

  dreamed that

  WE WON

  the

  tournament, and that the

  cup was made of cheese!”

  I rolled my eyes. Trap was always

  dreaming about cheese!

  After breakfast and a warm-up practice,

  our whole team headed to the stadium. It

  was packed — there must have been

  thousands of spectators!

  As we entered, Robotix explained, “All the

  galaxies are tuned in to today’s game! It will

  be broadcast in Universalvision!”

  I gulped. We couldn’t afford to make fools

  of ourselves today!

  As we stepped onto the field, the zomborgs

  snarled at us.

  Brax’s eyes narrowed when he saw Lionel.

  He hissed, “Even if you’ve found your little

  rat, you have no chance against us.

  We’ll make you eat dust!”

  Trap responded pleasantly, “Parmesan

  dust? Delicious, though I prefer slices if

  possible!”

  Brax stomped away, snarling.

  Before long, the robot-ref blew the whistle

  to start the game! Sally, Benjamin, Bugsy,

  Trap, Lionel, Whiskerkicks, and I all took

  the field.

  For the first

  ten

  minutes

  , we

  could barely touch the ball — the zomborgs

  kept getting in our way, pushing and

  tripping

  us. But the robot-ref,

  with his infrared 360-degree vision, didn’t

  miss a single foul. Three of the zomborgs

  were penalized!

  Eventually, Sally got the ball and freed

  herself from the tight defense of a zomborg,

  slipping away quickly.

 

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