“Nice to see that at least two of you are keeping busy,” Billy said, looking at Archebold and Halifax out of the corner of his eye.
“Since you took down the Monarch it’s been really slow around here,” Archebold said, having some more beetles.
“Yeah,” Halifax agreed, staring with zombie eyes at the monitors. “Almost like you proved how tough you are. Nobody wants to mess with you now.”
“Hurmmm,” Billy said, pulling up a footstool to sit down.
He started to watch the monitors as well. Monstros City appeared to be doing just fine, not a thing out of whack.
They sat there in silence for a while, Ferdinand and Zis-Boom-Bah continuing with their chore of cleaning the monitor screens. After the bottom row of screens had been cleaned, Ferdinand picked up Zis-Boom-Bah by the shoulders with her back feet, flying him up to the dusty television screens he could not reach.
“Hey, how was your science fair?” Archebold asked with as much enthusiasm as a three- toed sloth with sleeping sickness.
Billy shrugged but then smiled, remembering the day and what had transpired.
“Our model of Pompeii was a big hit,” Billy said with a nod. “That is, until Randy activated the eruption of our model Vesuvius.”
“Didn’t work?” Halifax asked, sipping from his monkey skull.
“Oh, it worked,” Billy explained. “It worked too good. I think Randy might have read my notes wrong about how much liquid detergent, vinegar and baking soda to put in.”
“Sounds deadly,” Archebold said, picking a piece of beetle out from between his teeth with the nail of his little finger.
“Not deadly . . . messy,” Billy said with a laugh. “Fake lava covering everything and everybody. It was sort of like the real eruption of Vesuvius, only without the dying in agony part.”
“Sorry it didn’t go so great,” Archebold said, examining the piece of whatever it was that he had unwedged from between his teeth.
“Sorry for what?” Billy asked. “We came in second place. Probably would have come in first if the kids were voting . . . they loved it. The adults, well, they had some issues with staining.”
“Rub a little chupacabra blood on any stain and it’ll come right out,” Halifax said, looking away from the monitors momentarily. “It’s true, I swear.”
“Good to know,” Billy said.
His eyes wandered to a particular screen that had just been cleaned by Zis-Boom-Bah and Ferdinand. It showed the Groaning Acres and some of the residents sitting out on the front porch.
“Hey, look at that,” Billy said, pointing the screen out. “It’s Artemus, Saul, Percy and Morty,” he said, and then noticed that there was a human sitting among them.
“Is that Preston?” he asked.
“Yep,” Archebold said. “He’s living with my grand father and his gang at Groaning Acres,” the young goblin answered. “Seems to be getting along just fine and catching up on all the stuff he missed while he was evil.”
“He’s really good at line dancing,” Halifax pointed out.
“That’s great,” Billy said, watching as the former Owlboy set up a checkers game for himself and Artemus.
Billy continued to watch the monitors, looking for a sign of something that was amiss, but everything was perfectly fine.
Boringly, perfectly fine.
Billy must’ve stared at those television screens for hours before he finally decided he couldn’t stand it anymore. Usually Monstros was the most exciting place he could imagine, but tonight . . . being at home rearranging his underwear drawer would have been more exciting.
“All right, I’ve had just about enough of this,” Billy said, standing up and stretching his arms above his head. His back popped loudly. “Think I’m gonna call it a night.”
Archebold and Halifax barely responded.
“Take it easy, Billy,” Archebold said. Ferdinand was now lying in his lap, and the goblin was gently stroking the tiny dragon’s head.
Halifax had fallen asleep and was snoring. Zis-Boom-Bah had crawled up onto his chest and was pulling things from the front pocket of the troll’s overalls. The little monster had found half a donut and was now chomping on it eagerly.
“Maybe things will be more exciting tomorrow night,” Billy said, tiredly shuffling from the room.
“Who knows,” Archebold called after him. “This just might be how it is from now on. You might’ve done it, Billy. You might’ve finally driven evil from Monstros City.”
Billy turned to respond to the comment when the air became filled with a familiar sound.
“Hoot! Hoot! Hoot! Hoot! Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!”
It was the danger alarm.
Archebold leapt from the chair, Ferdinand taking flight with a ruffle of her leathery wings.
“What is it?” Billy asked, his heartbeat quickening.
Halifax woke with a snort, screaming out loud as he saw all the things Zis- Boom-Bah had taken from his front pocket.
“I’m not sure,” Archebold said, eyeing the various monitors, searching for a sign of danger.
“There!” the goblin exclaimed, pointing to a screen that showed an aerial view of all of Monstros. Odd clouds were roiling in the sky above the city, lights flashing within their cottony mass.
“What do you think?” Billy said, going to stand beside his friend.
Flying saucers emerged from the thick cloud cover, and thousands of gray metal spaceships started to descend upon the city of monsters.
“I think the city is in big trouble,” the goblin said, looking at Billy.
He couldn’t help smiling at the potential danger.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he said. “To the Owlmobile!”
THOMAS E. SNIEGOSKI is a novelist and comic book scripter who has worked for every major company in the comics industry.
He is also the author of the groundbreaking quartet of teen fantasy novels titled The Fallen, the first of which (Fallen) was produced as a television movie for the ABC Family Channel. He is also the author of Force Majeure and Sleeper Conspiracy, a new series published by Razorbill, and he has completed the first novel, A Kiss Before the Apocalypse, in a new super natural mystery series. His other novels include Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel: Monster Island and Angel: The Soul Trade, each based on a popular television series. With Christopher Golden, he is the coauthor of the dark fantasy series The Menagerie, as well as the young readers’ fantasy series OutCast, recently optioned by Universal Pictures.
Sniegoski was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his wife, LeeAnne, and their Labrador retriever, Mulder. Please visit the author at www.sniegoski.com.
ERIC POWELL is the writer and artist of the award-winning comic book series The Goon, from Dark Horse Comics. He has also contributed work to such comic titles as Arkham Asylum, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hell-boy: Weird Tales, Star Wars Tales, The Incredible Hulk, MAD Magazine, Swamp Thing, and The Simpsons.
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