The future of the galaxy was hanging in the balance. But one thing was for certain: Kevin and his friends weren’t going down without a fight.
Drooq and Phirf stood by the navigation controls, preparing their flight plan. “There’s less traffic on the southwest quadrant,” Drooq said. He pointed a claw at the radar screen.
“All hands on deck,” Phirf hollered. “We’re going in!”
Drooq turned to Kevin and his friends. “You guys ready?”
“We were born ready!” Warner said, steely-eyed. Kevin had only seen him this serious one other time—when he was going for the pinball record at the arcade.
Drooq flipped on the force field again, and the pulsating shield of energy encompassed their spaceship. Kevin felt a dull rumble as the craft charged up.
Klyk cracked his knuckles in the pilot seat.
Warner sidled up next to their cyborg friend and tapped him on the shoulder. Klyk turned around and gave Warner a puzzled look. “What?”
“Take a break, man. You owe it to yourself,” Warner said. “It’s my turn to fly this bad boy.”
“Nice try,” Klyk said. “You get to man the laser cannons.”
“Aw, come on!” Warner moaned. “That’s, like, kids’ stuff.”
“You are a kid,” Klyk said.
“But I’ve got mad skills, though. . . .” He made a pouty puppy-dog face.
“Go.” Klyk pointed to the artillery station across the ship’s cabin. “Put your skills to use over there.”
“Fine!” Warner said, and walked to his station.
Kevin took a seat in front of his own laser cannon. He buckled himself in and clicked on the radar monitor. Tara and TJ made sure they had their freeze ray and shrink ray ready to go. Then they sat down at their firing stations.
The engines at the back of the spaceship whooshed and shot them straight into the chaos of the battling starships. Kevin’s stomach dropped. His nerves were ripe with adrenaline as he gripped the controls, keeping his thumb on the trigger button.
He glanced down at his illuminated tummy. The light from the crystal blinked from orange to blue to orange and back again.
“Here we go!” Warner shouted as their ship zoomed into the fray of swirling spacecraft.
Kevin watched a Glommian cruiser streak across the screen in front of him, trailed by two of the Sfinks’ sleek black ships. Kevin hit the button and the double-barreled laser cannons fired. The twin photon blasts narrowly missed the back of the second Sfink ship and beamed off into infinity.
“Shoot!” Kevin pounded his fist on the control panel.
“Incoming!” Phirf shouted. “Eleven o’clock!”
Their spaceship banked right and pulled up, dodging a long stream of enemy fire. WHAM! A loud boom rocked the cabin and Kevin jostled in his seat.
“What the heck was that?” he yelled.
“Pulsatron bomb!” Drooq shouted back. “They knocked out our force field.”
“Two Sfinks heading your way, Kevin!” Tara shouted.
The enemy cruisers flew into view. He fired and nailed the back of the spacecraft with a double blast. The Sfinks’ engine thrusters burst into flames, and the battle cruiser went into a tailspin.
ZHYP! ZHYP! The second Sfink cruiser returned fire and pulled up out of view. Kevin flinched as the blasts streaked toward his firing station. Klyk pulled a slick maneuver, slipping into a corkscrew so the enemy shots narrowly missed their ship.
“How d’you like that, kid?” Klyk said to Warner.
“Pretty good,” Warner said. “Pretty good.”
In the background of Kevin’s monitor a flurry of photon beams hit a Glommian battle cruiser, ripping a gash of fire through the hull of the spaceship.
Klyk steered their ship under an attack of cannon fire, and scooted them around a friendly Glomm ship. They did a barrel roll and sped down into the atmosphere. They plunged through the stratosphere, leaving the dogfighting spaceships behind. Their ship leveled off and then headed toward the jungle, where the Glomms kept their military stronghold.
Kevin could spot the Glomms’ military headquarters, above the trees, where the forest terrain ended and the craggy, otherworldly mountains housed the crystal cave.
As they descended and got closer, Kevin could see that the command center had been destroyed. Klyk brought the ship down and hovered next to the demolished war room. What the heck happened while they were gone? Kevin wondered.
Phirf hit the release button on the exit hatch and it opened with a whoosh. Planet Glomm’s gross stink filled the cabin. Drooq jumped down first and then Klyk, both with ray guns drawn. Phirf pushed Max and the kids out next and then dropped down himself. Kevin’s feet hit the deck of the command center and he felt a squish.
“Blark-glark-glark-phlark,” a voice said from under the soles of his sneakers.
“Huh?”
“He’s telling you to get off him,” TJ said.
“Who is?” Kevin looked down. He was standing in a slimy blue-green puddle. There was an exploded Glomm splattered on the floor. The alien was slowly gathering back together. There were other puddles of Glomms splattered on the floor, struggling to regenerate back to form. At least they were still alive. . . .
“Sorry . . . ,” Kevin said, and backed away.
Kevin scanned the room and spotted another large puddle of Glomm on the ground. He could tell it was Narbok.
As he walked over to the Glommian general Tara and TJ peered into the main computer unit in the center of the room.
“The crystal’s gone!” Tara yelled and came over to Kevin.
Kevin stopped in front of Narbok. He could see his eyes and face in the puddle of alien goop. “Are you okay, man?” Kevin asked.
Slowly a finger rose out of the ooze. “You!” Narbok bellowed and pointed at Kevin’s glowing belly. “You are the chosen one!”
“No, no, no,” Kevin said, lifting the alien general back to his feet. “I’m not the chosen one. I just had to swallow one of the crystals so the Sfinks wouldn’t find it. . . .”
“How did you get a crystal?” Narbok’s eyebrows crunched into a V.
“Warner took it from the cave!” Tara and TJ jinxed each other.
“Thanks a lot, guys. . . .” Warner stood alone and gave Narbok a sheepish grin.
“It’s very bad to steal crystals from Glomm,” Narbok said. “Last time someone did that, they became the most wanted criminal in the galaxy!”
He must be talking about the alien who infused Max with the crystal, Kevin thought.
“Give it back!” Narbok demanded.
“What am I supposed to do?” Kevin said.
“This is the only crystal we have. The Sfinks have taken over the crystal cave. We tried to stop them, but their forces were too much for us to handle,” he said. “We need to see what the Sfinks are going to do, and we can’t very well do that while it’s in your stomach.”
“But I don’t have to go . . . you know . . . number two.”
“Ew, that’s disgusting!” Tara said.
“What? It’s just basic biology!”
“Here.” Drooq handed Kevin a bronze canister filled with liquid.
“What’s this?” Kevin asked.
“It’s a fizzer from the Mooymallo,” Drooq told him.
“No way!” said Kevin. “I’m not drinking another one of those things!”
“It’s not for your enjoyment,” Klyk said. “It’s to make you throw up.”
“Just make sure you’re in a really foul mood when you drink it,” Phirf said.
That would be easy, Kevin thought. His mind was a mix of rage, panic, and pure dread. He opened the alien fizzer drink and chugged back a big sip.
It tasted so bad he almost couldn’t swallow. It was as if he were licking the floor of a dirty public restroom.
“I’m going to puke!” Kevin announced as the rest of the sip dribbled out of his mouth and he heaved from the depths of his gut, vomiting profusely all over the ground. The
throw-up splattered on the ground and everyone jumped back in horror and disgust.
The crystal glistened on the ground and Drooq scooped it up and wiped it off.
“Dude!” Warner said. “Gross!”
“What’s the big deal?” Drooq said. “Just a little belly juice.”
Kevin spat, trying to get the foul taste of the fizzer out of his mouth.
“Let me see,” Narbok said.
Drooq bent down and held the crystal just above the puddle face.
Narbok attempted to view the crystal, but every ounce of energy he had was being used to restore his body back to normal.
“I can’t do it,” he said, giving up, exhausted.
Max said, “Maybe I can help.” He took the crystal from Drooq and held it flat in his palms. Max’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he described the vision.
“The Sfinks are everywhere. Launching attacks, taking over every planet in the galaxy, wiping out the Intragalactic Federation.” Max grabbed his head. He was in a lot of pain.
“You must get inside the cave and stop the Sfinks,” Narbok told them. “There’s a back way through a hidden passage on the west side of the mountains.”
What did they have? Kevin looked at his friends and counted their weapons. Two freeze rays. A shrink ray. A telepathy helmet. A transmitter. Three huge aliens armed to the teeth. One Glommian spaceship. And Max Greyson.
But seven of them against a vast army of Sfinks?
It was a tall order and easier said than done. Actually, it seemed like an impossible task, but Kevin knew there had to be a way. If science had taught him anything, it was this: if there was a way to get into a tricky situation, then there was almost definitely a way to get out of it.
“Get down!” Klyk shouted as a Sfink cruiser passed overhead.
They all ducked and hid out of sight as another Sfink cruiser buzzed past. The black ship unleashed a flurry of laser fire, and their Glomm ship exploded in a flash of fire and a burst of sparks as it fell out of the sky.
Quickly, TJ whipped out the shrink ray and aimed it up at the enemy ship. He hit the target button and the gadget zapped the flying cruiser. The shrink ray flashed and the spaceship morphed down to the size of a sofa cushion. The Sfink cruiser spun wildly and went crashing into the trees.
“Nice shot, Teej!” Kevin whooped and smacked his friend on the back.
TJ winced. “Thanks, Kev. But next time you want to congratulate me, can you not hit so hard?”
“Sure,” Kevin chuckled. “No problem, man.”
Warner gazed off to where the miniature Sfink cruiser had landed. “Let’s go see if we can find it.”
“Maybe we can squeeze some information out of them,” Tara said, and they all walked across the bombed-out command center, leaving General Narbok behind for the time being.
There was one hover pod left intact in the rear of the war room. Klyk, Max, Drooq, and Phirf, along with Kevin and the kids, all jumped in. It was a tight squeeze but they all managed to cram in. Drooq hit the throttle, speeding out of the rubble. He guided the hover pod down to the place where TJ had shrunk the enemy spacecraft.
Everyone hopped out of the pod and looked around. Up in space, the air battle still raged, but it looked as though the Sfinks were starting to win. Uh-oh.
“There’s no way we’re going to be able to take them all.” Phirf said what everyone else was thinking. There was a long pause while everyone racked their brains for a solution.
“This is stupid; they have a device that can see the future,” Drooq said. “They’re going to see us coming!”
“Well, they obviously haven’t gotten it to work yet,” Kevin said.
“How do you know?” Phirf asked.
“Because then why aren’t they coming for us?” Kevin asked. “Like right now.”
TJ shrugged. “Maybe they have bigger plans than taking out four seventh graders and a few alien bounty hunters.”
“Well, I’m not waiting for them to figure it out,” Kevin said. The gears were turning in his head. “What if we could use Max to jam up the crystals just like the Sfinks did?”
“It could work,” TJ said. “It’s basically just the same principle as EMI.”
“What’s EMI?” Drooq asked.
“Electromagnetic interference,” said Tara. “It’s like when a radio signal disturbs your TV, or your cell phone.”
“You can intentionally jam a signal if you have the right equipment,” said Warner.
“That’s basically what they were doing with Max,” Kevin agreed. “With his powers and the telepathy helmet hooked up to some kind of transmitter, they were able to jam the crystals’ future-telling powers in the cave while they beat the Glomms.”
“We’ll have to rig up the helmet somehow so Max can transmit his own signal,” Tara said.
“You think you can do that?” Klyk asked skeptically.
“We have a transmitter,” Warner said, producing the alien device they’d found at Max’s house the day before back on Earth. “If it can send us a comic book from outer space, then why can’t it transmit Max’s psychic brainwaves, too?”
“Even if we could, Max couldn’t handle that right now,” TJ said. “He’s in pretty rough shape. Do you think he’s up for it? Look at ’im!”
TJ was right. After his captivity with the Sfinks, Max wasn’t looking so good.
“He’ll be fine.” Klyk patted Max on the back. “Won’t you, old boy?”
“If this is the only way,” said Max, “then I will do what I must.”
“You guys, I really think this could work!” Kevin said enthusiastically.
“So what?” Drooq said. “That’s not a plan. Who cares if they can’t see the future if we don’t have any backup?”
“Drooq’s right,” said Phirf. “We’re going to need assistance no matter what happens.”
“What about the Sfinks’ communication blocker?” Kevin asked. “What if we blew that up? We could disable their communications and call the IF.”
“How are we supposed to do all that?” TJ asked.
“We could fly,” Kevin said, a sparkle in his eye.
“You can’t fly one of our craft through those corridors,” Phirf said. “It’s way too big. That’s silly.”
“Not if we use the miniature Sfink fighter craft that TJ shot down,” Tara said.
“I’ll totally fly that thing!” Warner shouted.
“Great,” said Kevin. “Let’s go get it. Tara and TJ, you guys get started on the telepathy helmet and transmitter.”
“I can draw you a map,” said Max. “So you can find their communications center.”
“We’ll watch the perimeter,” Klyk said, nodding to his partners. “Look out for the Sfinks.”
Without a second to spare, Tara sat down on the ground with the telepathy helmet in her lap. TJ held out the transmitter and handed it to her.
“It looks like if we connect these two wires to the two conductors on the transmitter, then maybe it’ll let us . . . ,” TJ said.
“Gimme the tool kit, Teej,” said Tara. “And let me do my thing.”
TJ quickly reached into the vintage fanny pack on his hip and handed Tara a small case that contained a small screwdriver, some copper wire, a few tiny screws, and a miniature pair of pliers. Tara picked up the pliers and went to work tinkering with the alien technology.
“Hey Kevin, do you still have that laser pointer?” Tara asked.
“Yep.” Kevin patted his pockets, pulled it out, and handed it over.
She leaned over the two devices, holding her mini pliers, and linking them together with parts from the laser pointer. She bit her tongue as she pried at one of the silvery metallic panels on the side of the helmet. She looked a bit insane, her tongue drooping out of the side of her mouth, her face scrunched and contorted, with one eye bulging out of its socket. She always looked like this when she was trying to solve a complicated problem.
“All right, Kev,” said Warner, wavin
g him over. “Let’s go find that Sfink battle cruiser that TJ shot down.”
Kevin followed Warner into the jungle.
It didn’t take long to find the cruiser crashed in the dirt. Warner ran over to the mini ship. They crouched down as two Sfink pilots hopped out, bewildered and confused at what had just happened. Warner lined up his index finger with one of the Sfinks and flicked the tiny alien into a patch of thick grass. He flicked the other one in the opposite direction.
“See ya,” he said. “Wouldn’t want to be ya!”
The boys returned to the group with the shrunken cruiser, and Tara was almost finished. The transmitter was secured to the top of the telepathy helmet.
Tara glanced up after another minute. “Here we go.”
“Hope this works.” Kevin crossed his fingers.
“But wait—his brain could short out,” Warner said. “And he needs his brain to make comics . . . for me.”
“Quit being selfish, Warner,” Kevin said. “This isn’t about comics; this is about saving the galaxy.”
Max turned to Warner. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take if it means saving us, saving everyone from those awful things.”
Tara walked over and placed the helmet on Max’s head. She flicked the switch and the helmet buzzed to life. Max focused his energy on the crystal, which Drooq held. The stone started to flicker, zapping back and forth from orange to blue.
“Okay, good,” Kevin directed the comic book author. “Now just start backing up.”
Max backed away from the crystal, and when he reached about ten yards away, the crystal stopped flickering and returned to its orangey glow.
“He’s only effective in close proximity,” TJ said. “That’s why we have to get him inside the cave. That’ll be up to you guys.” He pointed to Klyk, Phirf, and Drooq.
“So all we have to do is fly back into the Sfink mothership and blast the computer that controls their communications system?” said TJ.
“Yup.” Kevin raced over to the miniaturized spaceship. “Who’s coming with me?”
Starship Bloopers Page 8