The button bug popped out of Kelcius’s snout and swung onto Whinniston’s muzzle. “IT has the right idea. Whinniston can get us to where we have to go the fastest,” Kelcius said.
Whinniston arched to appear bigger. “Rescue is my middle name. Er ... it would be ‘Rescue.’ if I had one. ”
“Sir Kol, count me in,” Meowlen purred. “Playing the heroine is one of my favorite roles.”
“Can I come, too?” a little voice whispered out from the bushes. They all turned and saw Smelka come out from beneath the leaves. Everyone backed up.
“Well, look who’s here,” Mannie said. “So, smelly, you want to join the Mojo Team, do you? Show us your credentials.”
Woofster jumped in. “Do skunklens now have an official Alliance? You’re striped weaponry may be useful in a junk yard.”
“Actually, I don’t know if I do,” she said, wringing her tail. “I was an orphan. Rutty saved me from a ferocious dog in the alleyway. I don’t like being alone … it’s scary.”
“A ferocious dog, you say?” Mannie’s eyes lit up. “That was no ferocious dog, that was me! Maybe a little ferocious, I suppose. I tried to save you from that rat before you were taken under the sewer grate.” Smelka fluttered her eyelashes, remembering the fight between the two. “I still have the marks,” Mannie said, and showed her his battle scars.
“Give the girl a break,” Meowlen said. “Someone gave me a second chance in one of my earlier lives. I’ll never forget that slick cat in a bowtie. Oh, was he the charmer, but not smooth enough for Meowlen. It was a life I’d rather forget,” she sighed.
“A purebred skunklen or not, you’re with us now, sister. We need all the ammunition we can steam up, and besides you’re loaded. I’ve personally experienced you in battle. Apologizes accepted for the smothering stinky gunk all over my new coat ... if you were just about to say you were sorry. Oh, and by the way, sorry about the high-heeled kick I gave you in the study.”
“Come on, then,” Kelcius said. “We have to hurry.”
Meowlen leapt onto Whinniston, straightened her velvet cape and mask, and declared, “Everyone aboard. Prepare for battle!” She signaled Smelka to sit up front with her. “What a lovely stripped coat, but,” Meowlen said looking her over. “We must chat about those nails of yours.”
IT stretched into a rope and lowered itself to the ground, Kelcius grabbed hold and swung himself up onto the horse’s muzzle, and began the climb to his forehead.
“Sharp claws for such a little fellow with a big personality.” Whinniston shuddered and quickly regained composure. “Everyone is counting on me to get on with the rescue. Perhaps you’d like to sit beside the girls.”
The dogs jumped aboard next, Mannie on one side of the rump, and Woofster on the other. Whinniston broke into a gallop, and jumped over the hedge under Meowlen’s tight rein. Kelcius waved his crystal shard, and let out a boom.
“Onward,” Meowlen commanded, and they bounded off to rescue their heroes.
***
“Whoah! Woohoo!” Kelcius said, mimicking Woofster.
“A little louder, Sir Kol. He can’t hear you,” Meowlen said. “Try this.” She put two claws in her mouth and let out a sharp whistle. Whinniston came to an abrupt standstill, one hoof hovering over the hatch door entrance to the vanishing mountain. It was surrounded by faded flowers.
Kelcius grabbed onto the horse’s ear and swung around it, as he had seen often Rutty do on Letcho’s horn when the rat was out for victory. “There was a cave-in after we were rocketed out of the mountain,” he said.
“What about Rutty and the gang, especially the one with the fast tail?” Woofster asked.
“You must mean Letcho. The rest of Rutty’s gang don’t know it yet, but Rutty is also trapped in the chamber,” Kol said. “One of the spiderettes told us. Our insider. Seems like changing sides is becoming commonplace,” he said, giving Smelka a quick glance. He pointed at the hatch door. “This is still the access to our world. The entrance was just filled in with dirt and rocks, which I can easily remove with these claws,” he said, raising his other arm. “Not everything was disturbed, but Rutty’s castle and the watchtower we built for Clarenette vanished.”
Whinniston stomped on the hatch, splitting it open. Kelcius hooked a claw under the planks and began prying them up. “Easy does it. We’re not alone. Skilled miners are clearing a wide enough path for us now.” When all the planks were removed, they peered into the dark tunnel and saw the countless eyes of Treptalonians peering out at them.
“My, there are so many of them,” Meowlen said, her hair standing on end. “It appears they’ve cleared a path for us. How appropriate, and my own entourage.” She tied her hair back, put on mining goggles, and tossed skunklen a denim jacket. “Throw this on, girlfriend. It will come in handy – things can get pretty dirty in the tunnels, as you know. And try these goggles on for style.”
Smelka caught the coat and eyewear and quietly wiped away a tear. “No one has ever given me anything but stickbars,” she sniveled, zipping the jacket up to her chin.
“What an adventure! Feeling great!” Woofster howled. “I can hardly contain myself. That Mojo Effect is kicking in.”
Mannie looked around. “Yo! Kol, by any chance did you see a scorpiola hiding around these parts?”
The eldest Bender, now known as Miltonia, popped out of the hatch. “Keep it quiet. Voices travel far underground. We don’t want to disturb Letcho. He is wandering around lost now that his watch post is gone.”
The eldest Backer, Sutrina, jumped out, too. “Hey Kol, we’ve begun breaking through the outside wall of the chamber. We’d better get a move on. Time is running out for your friends.
The chamber is unstable. Something terrible must be going on in there.”
“Are you sure the captives are you know who?” Woofster couldn’t fathom the possibilities. “That never happened in any of the stories I read.”
“Widow Wynder and the spiderettes tricked them,” Smelka said. “That was part of the backup plan Rutty told us in the castle the night he planned to take Clarenette. Letcho and Scrapsie must be under the sewer grate now, waiting for Rutty’s orders, but this time I don’t think he is coming back for them. He started acting weird.”
Sutrina signaled a swarm of spark-flies to illuminate the tunnel for the Mojo Team, and waved everyone inside. Kelcius secured the bug in his ear and jumped in snout first.
“I’ll be right behind you, Kol-Boy. Keep up the good work!” Woofster did not want to be behind Smelka.
“Yo! Brother, wait!” Mannie yelped, and jumped in after Woofster, sniffer up. Whinniston followed, stretching his neck and crawling on his knees until the tunnel widened a ways in. Meowlen and Smelka entered last, having a girl talk about Rutty. As they descended into the steep path, the miners in front shoveled at remarkable speed, widening the sides and reinstalling the sapphire pillars for support. They expertly passed clawfuls of stone and dirt to the miners below them.
Deeper and deeper they went, the dirt and stones flying. Meowlen and Smelka couldn’t gossip over the noise of crashing rocks, so they just interlocked their nails and followed the Treptalonians deeper into the planet. In the distant shaft, the Mammolias heard the ruckus and began to shrill and rattle their chains.
“Hey, how many of you guys have been hidden under my sniffer?” Mannie said, “I patrolled the estate evening night and never heard anything beneath me.”
“Our whole race resides here,” Kelcius said. “Or at least we did until everything began to change in the underworld. But we are not staying here any longer than we need to in order to get your friends out. We are cracking an entrance open into the chamber where they are right now.”
“Zoooooooo!” The tunnel diggers happily began whistling the miner’s song, which made the Mammolias deep below shrill even louder. “This way,” Kelcius signaled, and they entered a freshly dug route that led them around the shaft to the other side of the chamber.
Kelcius tap
ped Sutrina on the shoulder. “When we are done rescuing Maximojo, we must come back here to free those other big ones in the shaft,” he said.
“Kazeees! So they can freely roam once again,” Sutrina agreed wholeheartedly. In a moment, they came into a clearing where only a giant rock dome stood.
“I never saw any junk that big in my yard,” Woofster said.
“There is a secret chamber under this dome. Your friends are trapped inside,” Kelcius said.
Just then, a miner scrambled up to them from around the other side of the dome. “Follow me. We’re almost broken through. Kelcius pointed at Whinniston. “You lead big guy,” he said.
“Excuse me,” Woofster said, “I am a seasoned guard dog and know how to ambush. I should go with the horse. Sometimes he spooks.” He turned to Smelka. “I think you are going to come in handy,” he said, pointing at her tail.
Smelka couldn’t help but smile, showing off her chipped teeth. They all moved to the other side of the dome, and watched as the miners hammered and chiseled, their claws and jaws working at top speed. The crashing noises they made rose through the underground tunnels to where Letcho and Scrapsie awaited Rutty beneath the sewer grate.
“That’s the last bang I can tolerate,” Letcho said. “We’ve waited long enough for Rutty, that traitor rat. We know who must be making all this racket. It’s that floppy-eared intruder. Let’s take care of this ourselves.” Letcho scrammed along the pipes with Scrapsie affixed to his horn. “We don’t need Rutty anymore, that betrayer, with his Clarenette. And as for that orphan ... She’ll regret the day she left us!”
Scrapsie jammed his pincers inside the lizzardo’s ear. “The moment has come at last!” he said.
Letcho stormed through the darkness towards the noise, Scrapsie hanging onto his ear yelling, "victory" as he snapped one pincher open and closed.
Chapter 23
McFee continued to watch the opening that had appeared in the chamber wall widen, as bits of rock and dust blew into the chamber. Meanwhile, the viewer-box on the table began to move. Clarenette turned back to peer inside at the floating Maximojo.
“I need to find Daltoid,” she whispered. As if the box knew her wish, a panoramic picture of waves crashing against Daltoid’s ship appeared behind Maximojo. The image zoomed in on Daltoid, and she could see her hairpin on the front of his jacket. She sighed a breath of relief, knowing that it wasn’t lost. “Without that pin, we could never leave here,” she thought.
Maximojo felt something brush his backside. He turned and was surprised to see the horned whale and the pod of dolphins – the very same ones that had appeared in the cornfield when the cosmic duo first arrived on Zalturn.
“Well, I didn’t expect to see you inside here,” Maximojo said. “And I didn’t know you could get this small!”
“We are also cosmic wonders, whether surfing the spaceways and at sea. We’ve been waiting a long time outside the Golden Gates for Glitta’s signal,” the whale said, his tail smashing against the inner walls.
“Glittols! she always knows who to call on. I’m glad to see you, but how are we going to get out of here?”
“Brace yourself! This won’t hurt a bit,” the whale bubbled, and began to expand.
Meanwhile, McFee rushed over to the growing crevice, and Rutty, who had been cowering in the corner, grew wide-eyed as he watched the chest and each of the statuettes, including his own, begin to dissolve into a puddle. He tugged hard on a whisker to make sure he was still there. “Ouch! Now that hurt. It wasn’t pleasant like it used to be.” He yanked on his nose. “I’m a real sensitive guy-rat!” He checked his reflection in the puddle the statuettes left. “Still somewhat respectable, and accomplished. And handsome!”
***
“Breakthrough!” Kelcius piped as he ripped the hole wide open. “Whinniston, charge! Distract the one in the cape. He’s the same one I saw in the shaft. Trample about, make noise. Take off as fast as you can when you have freed your friends. Smelka, you stand guard here.” He turned to Sutrina. “Go back with the others to our caves and get your families. Bring them up into the world of sunshine through the tunnel. Stay well hidden. I’ll catch up with you.”
Kazeees! Victory and a new life awaits us.” They cheered.
Smelka beamed. “Imagine. What an honor, a skunklen assigned to watch duty.” Still loaded from waiting in the gardens, she released a tiny bomb. “I will guard well,” she said.
You can rely on me. Call me ‘Rescue’ anytime,” Whinniston said, and everyone else jumped on his back. Atop his head, Meowlen said, “My Alliance couldn’t imagine this rescue without me in the front line.” She raised her sword.
Whinniston poked his head into the chamber and looked around. “Anyone home?”
He locked eyes with McFee, spooked and began to rear. His upper lip extended and quivered. “Er … excuse me. I seem to have entered the wrong cave, sorry to interrupt. Er … I was just looking for my space friend with a shiny button-nose. He’s wearing a flashy collar and has a wand with a snappy voice. By chance have you seen them around?”
Meowlen grabbed Whinniston’s ear with her nails. “Trample him, Whinn! Look,” she said, pointing with her tail. “Maximojo is in that box on the table. Quick! I grab it and you keep running!”
Woofster, Mannie, Kelcius and IT piled on top of him, shouted in unison, “Charge!”
“On it my fellow warriors!” Whinniston said, reassured by everyone’s support, and feeling his mojo surging, he bounded forward, tripped, and knocked over the table. Everyone and the box were thrown into the air, bulging now as the whale ballooned with all its strength.
“Catch that box Woofster!” Mannie said. “Maximojo is trapped inside.” Just then he caught a glimpse of Rutty, and took off after him.
Outside, Smelka heard the sound of Letcho’s distinctive hissing as he approached. She turned and readied her weaponry into position. Just as Letcho and Scrapsie barreled into the open space around the dome, she gave them every last drop. No longer immune, they never knew what hit them. She popped a few more berries she had stashed.
Smelka turned and stuck her head into the chamber. “Hey girlfriend,” she said when she saw Meowlen, “I got the Letch and Scraps. Knocked them out!” McFee, who had moved to the other side of the chamber when Whinniston came charging in, spotted her and started coming her way. With confidence, Smelka unzipped her coat and slipped it off, revealing her well earned stripe and turned her bottom up.
“Take cover, Meows! No one will ever strip me of my well-earned stripe.”
She let one fly right at McFee. Covered in smelly gunk then, McFee cried out, “This can’t be happening. That can’t be my timid Smelka Skunklen.” He looked at his hands, which had begun to melt. “What happened to my powers? Her bombs never affected me before. I’ve lost all control. How is this possible?” He looked at Rutty one last time. “I am not just a smuggler but also your Master, you irresponsible rat!” He said in disgust watching the chase. He covered his face with his cape, but he was already melting onto the chamber floor.
Rutty, with Mannie in hot pursuit, was running away as fast as he could. “I am a changed rat, honest,” he insisted, panting and dodging Mannie with sharp turns. “Just look at that skunklen get even. I hope I’m not next!” Finally tired of the chase, he stopped abruptly and did an about face. Mannie skidded to a stop and came nose-to-nose with Rutty.
“Okay, okay. Steady those jowls. Like that. Ratisico!” Rutty said. “I’m sure we can work this out. Let’s talk. After all,” he said, pointing to McFee’s liquid remains, “weren’t we being controlled by one and the same? And he doesn’t seem to be doing too well right now, does he? So I have an idea. What do you say we start over. Two handsome fellows who now have an understanding.” He stroked his whisker with waited for an answer.
Meanwhile, Woofster had ricocheted off a wall and tried to catch the box that was still in mid-air after Whinniston’s stumble. Too late. It crashed onto the floor and split open. Maxi
mojo and the rest of the box’s contents gushed out like a fountain. Water poured into the chamber, quickly rising and forming waves.
Glitta, whose strength had been so depleted, awoke floating in the electrically-charged water. She bobbed quietly as the water's energy slowly began to restore her. Soon, she shook her wings and soared over the water’s surface.
The mammoth whale, who was still growing, roared and dove under the water’s surface. When it emerged, it had a contented smile on its face. “Ah, I needed a good stretch after being boxed-in,” it said.
McFee’s remains, curled into a ball, swirled beneath the rising water. Smelka, his own weapon, used against him in the end, had diluted his powers. Never again would he manipulate the others. The waxy ball that was once the manipulator of so many now was caught in a whirlpool dragging him under.
Maximojo and the Wand of Light Page 20