It was Trevor. And he was furious.
6
“What do you think you’re doing?!” Trevor cried as he got off the ground.
Freddie dusted himself off as he watched the swarm of entomons follow the parentomon bugs toward the plants at the edge of the yard. “What the heck was that for?”
“You never should have separated them from the brood!” Trevor whisper-shouted. “The offspring will do anything to stay with their parents. Now they’re out in the world, you idiots!”
“Us idiots?” Nina said, then pointed at Trevor. “You idiot!”
“At least I know you can’t just release a new species out into the wild all willy-nilly like!” Trevor said.
“I don’t know who Willy or Nilly are,” Jordan said, “but I’m pretty sure we’re nothing like them!”
“Why did you make a bug monster in the first place?” Manny asked.
“Insect monster,” Trevor corrected. “All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. But to answer your question, I wanted to make a monster like you guys had made for yourselves.”
“How did you know about our monsters?” Freddie asked in a panic.
Trevor looked shifty and didn’t answer.
“But why insects?” Jordan continued.
“I love all insects,” Trevor said. “They’re my true friends.”
“But why did you have to make two of them?” Freddie asked.
“I didn’t,” Trevor explained. “I only made the one, but then it turned into two.”
“It did what?” Quincy asked.
“You should have seen it replicate,” Trevor said. “It looked like something out of a horror movie . . . so awesome!”
“There’s a wild pack of bug monsters loose in our town,” Nina said. “And you think that’s awesome?”
“Newsflash, bro,” Jordan said. “Bugs that can reptile themselves are not in the awesome category.”
“Replicate,” Trevor corrected him.
“That’s what I said.” Jordan scowled. “Reptilicate themselves.”
“Wait, you guys,” said Freddie. “Something weird is happening!”
The entomons swarmed into a giant swirling mass, moving across the backyard, covering every surface like a thick black shadow. They clung to every last shred of vegetation, munching and crunching as they fed on the grass, trees, and any type of roughage they could sink their razor-sharp mandibles into.
The kids watched as the swarm of entomons spiraled up a forty-foot pine tree, covering every inch of bark.
After a few swirls around the trunk, the swarm descended, and all that was left of the tree were bare, dead branches.
“What the freak!” Freddie exclaimed. “They just ate all the pine needles off the tree!”
The bug swarm spiraled up the next tree and did the same thing.
The entomons grazed through the second evergreen like someone winning a corn-on-the-cob-eating contest.
“In case anyone was wondering,” whispered Manny as he clutched the straps of his backpack, “this is not good.”
Oddo and Mungo unzipped the zipper and peeked out their heads. They went wide-eyed as they took in the destruction. In a matter of minutes, every tree in sight was stripped bare by the swarm. And it wasn’t just the trees. As the swarm ascended and descended the last pine tree in the backyard, Freddie heard a funny sound.
Actually, it wasn’t funny at all.
Chicka-chicka-chicka . . . whoosh!
“Oh shoot!” Nina yelled. “The sprinklers!”
The Kelsos’ automatic sprinklers popped out of the ground and sprayed the lawn, drenching the kids and the swarm, and soaking Manny’s backpack.
“We have to get them out of here before they start growing!” Jordan said. “Charge!”
“Wait,” Trevor said too late. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
But Jordan was already running at the bug swarm, shooing them away from the sprinklers. The insects dispersed as he stomped toward them. The swarm converged back together and started to nip at Jordan’s ankles.
“Change of plans!” Jordan yelled, sprinting back toward Freddie and the gang with the swarm at his heels. “Retreat!”
“You ticked them off, dummy!” Manny yelled.
The entomon horde surged at their heels like ocean surf at high tide.
Trevor ran over to the door of his garage and they all followed. “Quick, everybody in here!” He held open the side door and Freddie hustled inside after Manny, Jordan, Nina, and Quincy.
The door clicked shut, keeping out the entomon swarm.
The garage smelled musty, like old stale wood. Trevor flicked a switch on the wall. They were lit with a dingy orange glow.
Freddie looked down at his feet. His bunny slippers were now soaking wet and covered in lime-green bug guts. Not only that, but they were shredded from the swarm of monstrous insects that had been clawing and nipping around his feet.
Outside, Freddie heard the pitter-patter of tiny entomon feet scrambling over the roof. He ran to the small window on the garage wall just in time to see the two glowing dots of the parentomons skittering off to find a new location and a new feast. Eventually, the monster bugs followed their parents and the infestation disappeared into the night.
They were safe . . . at least for a second.
“Are those things going to grow now?” Manny asked. “Please tell me they’re not going to grow.”
“The silica should have already kicked in on the parentomons,” said Nina.
“But not on their entospawn,” Quincy said. “Which begs the question: Why in the world did you let them reproduce?”
“I didn’t,” Trevor said. “I let them chill out in the closet while I did my homework. I didn’t think they were going to hatch a whole colony in the time it takes to do a few math problems.”
Just then Manny’s waterlogged backpack started rustling like crazy.
“Whoa!” Manny wriggled out of the shoulder straps and set the bag down. The fabric ripped as their minimonsters burst out and tumbled onto the floor.
Kraydon, Yapzilla, Mega-Q, Oddo, and Mungo looked exactly the same, but there was one major difference. The minimonsters weren’t so mini anymore.
They were about as big as five large stuffed animals. Kraydon and Oddo were the biggest. Yapzilla was bigger than Mega-Q and Mungo, who were about the same size, except Mega-Q had grown to about the length of a dachshund.
“Um, why are our monsters bigger?” Freddie asked. “We gave them silica!”
Manny turned to Quincy. “Yeah, Mr. Know-It-All, how did they grow?”
“I don’t know,” Quincy said sheepishly. “It must have worn off?”
Oddo burped and grew even larger, right before their eyes. He shook his fur like a dog after a swim and water sprayed everywhere.
“We gotta make them small again, ASAP!” Nina said. “Who has the silica?”
“We could try. . . .” Quincy pulled the silica slugs out of his pocket, ready to shrink them down.
“Hold up, guys!” Jordan, who had been nervously tugging at his thick dark hair, said. “What’s so bad about having big monsters if we also have big bugs?”
“Wait a minute,” Trevor said. “Are you saying the entomons are going to get as big as these guys, too?”
“It depends,” Nina said, “on how much water they absorbed.” Yapzilla stretched out her neck and it grew some more. “If it’s as much water as these guys, we could be in even bigger trouble.”
Trevor scratched his scalp, lost in thought. “I knew I shouldn’t have added in the locust with everything else. I just couldn’t resist,” Trevor said.
“What is it about the locusts?” Quincy asked.
Trevor glanced up. “The desert locust can consume its own weight in food every day.”
“Is that bad?” asked Nina.
“It’s not,” said Trevor, “when they weigh less than an ounce. . . .”
“But who knows how big these
bugs are gonna get now . . . ,” said Quincy. “This could mean an ecological collapse on a global scale.”
“You’re right!” Trevor said, turning to the rest of them. “He’s right.”
“Quincy’s well aware,” Nina said. “You don’t need to tell him.”
“Well, if they’re feeding, then now would be a good time for us to attack with our big monsters,” Trevor said.
“Come on, you guys,” Freddie said. “Let’s gear up. . . .”
They started to look around the garage, rummaging through everything.
The place was a real mess. There were piles upon piles of clutter and junk: boxes and clothes and tools and jars and nets and old moldy aquariums and terrariums and ant farms, an unopened economy pack of bug poison.
There were all kinds of sports equipment as well, practically brand-new. It was strange. Trevor didn’t strike Freddie as the athletic type.
“Why do you have all this stuff?” Manny asked.
“Before the bugs,” Trevor said, “my parents were trying to get me involved in activities. . . . Nothing really took.”
“Wait a second,” Quincy said, picking something out of a grungy old cardboard box. “I knew you looked familiar.” He held up a patch for Northwest Horizons science camp. “You went to my science camp two years ago!”
“I did! That place was rad!” Trevor said. “Did you hear the rumors about the aliens there?”
“Those are just rumors,” Quincy said confidently. “Nothing more than a hoax.”
“Guys, can we stay focused—” Freddie started to say when Jordan interrupted, holding up a practice jersey for a soccer team.
“And you tried out for my soccer team,” Jordan said. “You were awful!”
Trevor looked a little hurt. “You could have passed me the ball at least once. . . .”
“Why would I have done that? I was trying to win.”
Trevor ignored Jordan and turned to Nina. “And I tried out for a play you starred in.”
“I thought you looked familiar,” she said. “So you knew who we were?”
“When I saw you guys on the news after the monster attack, I recognized the three of you. I started to follow you. Freddie and Manny didn’t seem like the types you three would hang with, and you all had cool little monster friends, so I pieced it together. The monsters. The 3D printer. Freddie’s drawings. I heard everything. You know you should probably be more careful about making sure nobody’s spying on you.”
“So why didn’t you just ask us about it instead of sneaking around behind our backs?” Freddie asked.
“I didn’t think you’d hang out with me unless I had a monster of my own.” Trevor looked sad as he admitted the truth. “I’m sorry.”
“Well, we’re going to need you to solemnly pinky swear that you will never, ever tell anyone about the monsters.” Manny stuck out his pinky and Trevor hooked his finger. “And that you’ll help us stop these monster bugs, even if it means squishing every last one of them.”
Trevor let out a long sigh. “And I know these bugs need to be contained, but you have to understand, as scary as you guys think they are and as much destruction as they’ll cause, deep down, I love them. . . .”
Freddie crinkled his eyebrows, but he understood. He would feel the same way about his monsters. Even though Trevor’s monsters were way more disgusting and way less lovable than his.
“You have to pinky swear that you’re on our side,” Manny said.
“I swear it.”
“And promise that you’ll never tell anyone what you know.”
“Who would I tell?”
“Your friends.”
“I don’t have those.”
“Just swear you won’t tell anyone.”
“I pinky swear.”
“All right, Trevor, welcome to the team,” Freddie said. “Now let’s grab what we need and go get these suckers.”
Jordan tossed Freddie a lacrosse stick and kept one for himself. Manny found two cans of Raid bug killer and Nina unearthed the spray cans of bug repellent. Each of them grabbed a street hockey stick. Quincy picked up two tennis rackets, and Trevor snagged a double-sided oar from a camping trip. Freddie slipped off his disgusting slime-soaked slippers and borrowed a pair of work boots.
Manny found a gallon of bottled water and lugged it outside. He whistled and their not-so-mini monsters gathered around. Oddo and Kraydon had both grown past Manny’s hips. Yapzilla’s necks hit just under Manny’s chin, and Mungo and Mega-Q both came halfway up his shins. He was about to dump the gallon of water over the five of them when Freddie interrupted.
“Don’t make them too big,” he said. “After all, bigger isn’t always better.” He knew that better than anyone.
“Quit worrying, man,” Manny said. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course I trust you,” Freddie said.
“Then act like it.” Manny poured out the gallon jug and doused their monsters with water.
After a few moments, the monsters grew again. Kraydon’s body inflated to the size of a boulder as he grew to the height of Freddie’s shoulder. Mega-Q’s body thickened to the girth of a corgi and lengthened to the dimensions of a large snake. Oddo and Yapzilla tripled in size, and Mungo got about as big as a chimpanzee.
“Now they can do some serious damage,” Manny said with a grin, and patted Mungo on his head.
7
The kids crept into the night and sneaked down the side of the Kelsos’ garage. They followed Trevor through the neighbor’s yard, their freshly grown monsters in tow.
“Where are we going?” Freddie asked.
“We’re heading for the park,” Trevor said.
“How do we know they’re there?” asked Quincy.
“They’ll stick together in a pack, going after areas of heavy vegetation,” Trevor said. “That means they’re probably at the park now. It’s close—we’ll be there in a couple minutes.”
The town park didn’t look like the rest of their southwestern desert town. It had grass and trees and flowers and bushes. They slowed down as they approached the gate. A buzzing noise filled the air as the entomons chewed on the trees and munched on the grass. It was one of the creepiest sounds Freddie had ever heard.
Silently, they opened the gate and looked for a place to hide. Oddo and Kraydon barely fit behind a grazed-down tree, but the rest of them lurked in the shadows and gazed upon the swarm.
The average size of the entomons had doubled. The bug monsters now ranged from as small as a mouse to as big as a full-grown dog.
Freddie watched as one of the monstrous insects rippled and bulged in a frighteningly quick growth spurt. In a matter of seconds, the entomon bug went from the size of a guinea pig to that of a pit bull.
“That is so not freakin’ cool,” Jordan said.
“You guys,” Nina said. “I don’t know about this. . . .”
“They’re only going to get bigger. Let’s go!” Jordan said, crouching like a big cat ready to pounce. Kraydon smashed his giant claws together.
“We have to be smarter than them,” Manny said, holding Jordan back. “We can’t just charge in on them.”
“Why not?!” Jordan said, getting himself pumped up. “We got Raid and nets and weapons and bigger monsters. We’re rollin’ deep, baby! It’s battle time. Woo!”
“Shhhh!” They all shushed the gung ho superjock.
“Manny’s right,” said Nina. “We have to be strategic if we’re going to stand a chance.” Together, they laid out a plan. The monsters nodded along in agreement.
Including monsters, they were a team of eleven. If they all worked as a team, they just might be able to take the entomon swarm.
“Get as many as you can as fast as possible,” Trevor whispered. “As soon as they feel threatened, they’ll stop eating and protect their food supply. . . .”
Jordan crept out in front of them like a guerrilla warrior. The rest of them spread out to the edge of the infested park.
; “On the count of three,” Freddie whispered. “One, two—”
“Yum yums!” Mungo screamed as he ran toward the bugs. The rest of the big monsters raced after him.
“Three . . . ,” Freddie said, and looked at Manny, who shrugged.
“They’re monsters. What do you expect?”
“Go!” Nina yelled, and they charged into the bug-filled park.
The monsters galloped out in front of the kids.
Kraydon shot his giant eye beam, turning a slew of entomons to stone, then smashed them all with his spiked tail. Anything in the pulsating cylinder of Kraydon’s one-eyed gaze turned to stone. The muscle-bound brute could take out twenty or so entomons in one shot, but there were thousands upon thousands of these things covering the park.
Mega-Q shot electric blue sparks at the insects, like a real-life bug zapper.
Yapzilla spewed a humongous swath of fire, torching a giant bug that was even bigger than Kraydon.
Oddo jumped furiously from bug to bug, squishing as many of them as he could with all three arms and both his legs. The monster bugs made a sickening crunch as they exploded onto his fur. Bright green goo spurted from their ruptured guts.
Mungo zipped around, chowing down on a bug feast. “Yum yums!” he said happily between munches.
“Ewww, Mungo, stop that!” said Manny, as he hit a trio of jumbo entomons with a slap shot from his hockey stick.
Jordan scooped up a lacrosse stick full of smaller entomons and flung them against the cement walkway. Freddie stamped his boots and squashed them with squishy crunch after squishy crunch.
“Take that!” Nina brought her hockey stick over her head and swatted a bunch off the swing set.
Trevor delicately squished one bug at a time, a pained look on his face. “Sorry,” he whispered with each smush.
Even though they were crushing dozens at a time, the swarm seemed endless.
“How many of these things are there?” Quincy sighed, kicking slime off his cowboy boots and swatting at the bugs with his tennis rackets. “The more I squash, the more there are!”
Freddie swiped at a swarm of granola bar–size entomons with his lacrosse stick as they crawled up his legs, rising to his waist. He hit them off as fast as he could, but they kept coming and coming, one after another. There were so many he could barely see straight. “Keep fighting!” Freddie mumbled, trying not to get any bugs in his mouth.
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