by Tony Abbott
Zeek was right.
We were standing on the control bridge of the 25th-eentury galactic star cruiser Centauri Vulcan. Well, the movie set of it, anyway. Big cameras, ladders, electrical cables, spotlights, and tools were set up everywhere around the shiny stage.
“Noodle, this is incredible. Look!” Zeek pointed to the end of the set.
There, sparkling in the light, stood the famous transport pods. Each Vulcan movie ended with the crew beaming back into the pods.
“Unbelievable,” whispered Zeek. “I want to live here.” He pulled out his camera and started taping again.
“It’s pretty cool, all right,” I said. “But look at this.” I was standing at a table near the set. “There are tons of future props here. Space suits, communicators, scanners, fazer guns, flashlights …”
“Flashlights? Ennnh!” Zeek made a sound like a game show buzzer. “Wrong! We don’t use flashlights in the future. We wear personal ultra-laser-halo-visor things. Nobody uses flashlights anymore! Those are way—”
Ka-blam! More thunder blasted overhead.
The lights on the set flickered and went out. We were in the dark. Totally.
“Oh, man,” Zeek groaned. “We should be raccoons, we’re in the dark so often. I guess I’ll take one of those flashlights …”
I felt around in the dark and grabbed two of the flashlights from the table in front of me. I was about to turn one on. Then I heard something.
Tap-tap-tap.
I froze.
“Zeek? Was that you?” I whispered. “Say yes. Please.”
“I thought it was you.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It sounded like metal against metal.
Zeek stumbled over to me. “Just before the lights went out, I spotted a door across the room.”
“Someone’s trying to get in,” I whispered.
“Yeah, someone. Or something!”
“I’m going to open it, Zeek. Maybe they’ll show us a way out.” Zeek grabbed my arm. “No way, Nood.” He held me back. “Did you forget the movie we saw last summer?”
I thought for a minute. “We saw tons of movies last summer.”
“The one with the door. The kid opens it and—” Zeek slipped into his movie voice again. “They tried to destroy it. But it kept coming back! It’s—”
Blam! A glowing iron fist punched a hole in the door.
“It’s—”
Blam! Another fist blasted through.
“It’s—”
BLAM! The door blew off its hinges, and a seven-foot monster robot stepped into the room.
THREE
“It’s—Metalhead!”
Steel skull for a head. Blinking red eye. It was Metalhead, all right.
And right now that eyeball was scanning the room for human life.
“Hit the deck!” I yelled. We dove across the set and slid under a navigational scanner desk.
“Zeek!” I gasped. “I remember this dude. He’s from the future. He’s programmed to destroy. That’s all he does. I mean, this guy doesn’t pump iron. He is iron!”
Boom-boom-boom. Metalhead stomped to the center of the room. His eye panned from side to side. Then he started to speak.
“Two humans. Boys. Destroy them.”
“Hey,” Zeek whispered. “He can’t do that. He’s an actor!”
“Unh-uh, Zeek. A robot. Remember what the tour guide said. All their monsters are computerized.”
Suddenly—voom! The desk we were hiding under disappeared. And there was that ugly red eye pulsing down at us.
“Okay, Nood. Be cool. Don’t make him mad.”
But I had a feeling this dude was born mad.
A second later he proved it. He grabbed Zeek, lifted him off the floor, and shook him like a baby rattle.
“Noo-oo-oo-dle!”
“Let go of my pal, Bucket Brain!” I screamed.
I couldn’t believe what happened next.
Before I knew it, I jumped up, my leg flew out, and—wump!—I gave the big guy a perfect karate kick straight to his knee.
“Yeooow!” My whole body throbbed. But the creep dropped Zeek with a thud.
“Big mistake, human boy.” The iron jaw on Metalhead’s face grinned an ugly grin.
Suddenly, I realized what I was doing. I was fighting with a killing machine from the 21st century! I tried to be nice.
“Sorry, Metalhead. Mr. Metalhead. Sir—I—”
“Don’t stand there talking to him, Noodle. He’s a killer robot! Let’s move it!”
“Good call, Zeekie. To the transport deck!”
We sidestepped the big guy and blazed toward the deck at the end of the set. We were making pretty good time.
I was going to give Zeek the old thumbs-up sign. Then we slipped on something. It felt like a skateboard. It wasn’t a skateboard.
Whoa! We took off into the air.
“Jetboard!” shouted Zeek. “From Jump into Time, Part 2!”
“Part 3, you mean.”
“Whatever!”
Shooo-ooom! The jet-powered skateboard shot around the control bridge. I dumped the flashlights into Zeek’s pack and grabbed his jacket so I wouldn’t fall off.
Suddenly we changed direction and blasted off the set and down a dark hall.
“Hey, buddy,” I yelled. “I think I see a door at the end of this!”
Wrong. It just looked like a door. It was a wall.
Wham! The jetboard stopped dead. We didn’t.
Craaack! We crashed through the wall and tumbled outside into the rain.
I looked back.
There was a cutout in the wall where we had broken through. Two heads, four legs, four arms, and two backpacks. Just like in cartoons.
Stomp! Stomp!
“He’s still coming!” Zeek cried.
My brain worked lightning fast. A couple of feet away, there was a puddle of rainwater.
“Excellent,” I said. “I’ve got an idea!”
“Oh, I love when you say that,” said Zeek, smiling. Then he frowned. “But where do we hide?”
“We don’t. We stick out our feet and wait.”
“What?”
Crash! Metalhead blasted through the wall.
Umph! He tripped on our feet. Splash! His electric head hit the puddle.
Sssssss! Like a burger hitting a hot grill. He twitched a couple times, then stopped moving.
“Well,” I said, starting to smile. “I guess that takes care of—”
Blub. Blub. Bubbles came up out of the water.
Zeek stepped closer. “What did he say?”
I looked at my pal.
I gulped.
“He said—’I’ll be back!’”
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About the Author
Over the last two decades, Tony Abbott has written dozens of mysteries, comics, and adventure books for young readers aged six to fourteen, with series including Danger Guys, the Time Surfers, the Weird Zone, Underworlds, Goofballs, and the long-running fantasy series the Secrets of Droon. He is also the author of the fantasy epic Kringle and the realistic novels Firegirl (winner of the 2006 Golden Kite Award for Fiction), The Postcard (winner of the 2008 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery), and Lunch-Box Dream. Among his latest novels is The Forbidden Stone, the first installment of the twelve-book saga the Copernicus Legacy. Tony has taught on the faculty of Lesley University’s MFA program in creative writing, is a frequent conference speaker and visitor to schools, and presents workshops to creative writers of all ages. His websites include www.tonyabbottbooks.com, www.thecopernicuslegacy.com, and the literary blog www.fridaybookreport.com.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either
are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1994 by Robert Abbott
Illustrations Copyright © 1994 by Joanne L. Scribner
Cover design by Connie Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-4804-8634-8
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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New York, NY 10014
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