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The Invisible Planet (Geronimo Stilton Spacemice #12)

Page 4

by Geronimo Stilton


  System broke. We refused to

  help fix it, so the deceptiods

  locked us in here.”

  Meteoric mozzarella, once the

  Eh-Hems got over their shyness

  they were really very courageous

  little aliens!

  Thea walked up next to me. “But why

  didn’t you ask for help from neighboring

  planets?” she asked Sam.

  Sam sighed. “We Eh-Hems are very

  reserved aliens, but we are also very

  proud. We have always managed to do

  everything on our own. We don’t know

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  anyone we can trust because our planet has

  been invisible for so long.”

  “So that’s why there’s no spaceport on

  Lockix,” Thea squeaked.

  “And there’s information about you

  missing from the Encyclopedia Galactica because you’ve been isolated for eons,” Sally added.

  Trap squeaked up. “Yeah, there aren’t

  even any recipe books from Lockix!”

  Sam nodded shyly. “Yes, in fact, we Eh-

  Hems have never really been interested in meeting other aliens. We invented the

  Planetary Invisibility System

  because we wanted to prevent anyone from

  landing on our planet. We have always

  been happy on our own — but now we

  understand that there are situations we cannot handle alone!”

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  My friends and I exchanged understanding

  looks. Then Thea declared, “You aren’t

  alone anymore — now we’re here, too!”

  Sam’s face lit up with a smile, and all the

  Eh-Hems behind him grinned at us, too.

  But now we’re

  here, too!

  We isolated

  ourselves . . .

  My friends and I exclaimed as one,

  “Spacemice for one,

  spacemice for all!

  We will help you!”

  Sam was clearly moved. “Thank you,

  spacemice! Maybe now, with your help, all is not lost . . .”

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  We Need a Plan!

  At that moment, we heard a strange

  CREEEAAAK

  and suddenly the stadium floor lit up! I nearly jumped out of my fur. Galactic globs of Gouda, what was going on?

  I was about to

  faint

  in fright when

  Benjamin and Bugsy Wugsy popped out of the megastadium’s athlete entrance!

  Benjamin cried, “Uncle, we need to tell

  you something!”

  I hugged him tight. “It’s marvemouse

  to see you, mouselets! But where were you hiding? Are you the ones who lit up the ground just now?”

  “After we snuck off, we

  followed

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  We need to tell

  you something!

  Uncle!

  Who are you?

  Mouselets!

  Where were

  you hiding?

  you from afar,” Benjamin explained. “When we saw that the Scaleers were bringing you into the megastadium, we looked for a service entrance. We hid down in the room reserved for the space referee.”

  Benjamin pointed to a small

  room shaped like a lock right above

  the athletes’ entrance.

  “Using the audio system, we could hear

  everything!” he went on. “Once we heard that you had befriended the Eh-Hems, we turned on the lights — and here we are!”

  Bugsy Wugsy tugged on my tail. “Uncle G,

  we have some bad news, too. We overheard that the Scaleers are preparing for another

  space raid!”

  I turned as white as Martian mozzarella.

  Green cheesy moons, we couldn’t catch a break!

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  Luckily, Sally squeaked up. “First, we need

  to get out of here. We can use the service

  door that the mouselets came through. It

  sounds like it’s unguarded.”

  Sam shook his head. “Once we’re outside,

  the Scaleers will simply capture us again!”

  Trap scratched his snout thoughtfully.

  “We need to stick together and defeat the Scaleers using our wits.”

  “I agree,” Thea said. “But HOW?”

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  An Irresistible

  Challenge!

  I sighed heavily. Rat-munching robots,

  we didn’t have any idea how to

  outsmart

  the Scaleers!

  Just then Sam Shyguy cried, “I’ve got it!

  While we were trapped in here, we heard the Scaleer guards chatting . . . and we

  discovered their weak spot.”

  “Tell us!” Thea said with a smile. “What

  is it?”

  “We noticed that the Scaleers like to

  snicker and sneer a lot,” Sam

  explained. “In fact, there is only one challenge they cannot resist: the Interspace Joke Challenge!”

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  The Interspace Joke Challenge?

  Cheesy comets, I had never even heard of it!

  My friends were surprised, too. “What

  is that?” they asked together.

  From the Encyclopedia Galactica

  THE INTERSPACE JOKE

  CHALLENGE

  The most famous team joke

  competition in the cosmos.

  Rules: Each team tells one joke per

  turn. If the other teams laugh,

  they pass the round; if not, they

  are eliminated. (You are not allowed to tickle your

  opponents!) The final team left after all other teams

  have been eliminated wins.

  Teams are eliminated if:

  1. The opposing team does not laugh.

  2. They run out of jokes.

  3. They don’t respect the rules.

  Reigning champions: The Scaleers!

  Sam explained, “It’s the most famous team

  joke competition in the cosmos! Whoever

  tells the

  funniest

  jokes wins. A team is

  eliminated when it runs out of jokes to tell or tells a joke that doesn’t make anyone

  laugh. If we challenge the Scaleers, they

  will surely accept — after all, they’re the

  reigning champions!”

  Squeeeak!

  A

  joke

  competition?

  Leaping light-years, I never would have thought of that!

  Sam added, “I’ve been thinking about this

  for a while, but I didn’t do anything about it

  because we Eh-Hems are too shy. But with

  the spacemice on our side, we can conquer

  our shyness!”

  Trap gave Sam a high five. “I’m in,

  friends!”

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  “It seems like our best chance to get out of

  here,” Thea added thoughtfully.

  “We’ll help you, too!” Benjamin exclaimed.

  “Bugsy Wugsy and I know a ton of fabumouse

  jokes from school!”

  My friends’ enthusiasm gave me courage.

  I shook Sam’s hand and said, “Of course

  We will

  challenge them!

  Thanks!

  93

  we’ll help you — let’s challenge the

  Scaleers!”

  With that, we called the guards. The

  Interspace Joke Challenge was about

  to begin!

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  A Daring Deal

  The guards led us to the main square of Lockix, where we found ourselves snout-

  to-trunk with Claw again. Solar smoked

  Gouda, he seemed even
more frightening,

  more wicked, and more stinky than ever!

  Next to our space shuttle was an

  enormouse spacecraft. The

  Scaleers were preparing for departure — we

  needed to hurry!

  I tried to stand tall as I squeaked,

  “W-well . . . we spacemice, along with the Eh-Hems, invite you to take part in an Interspace Joke Challenge!”

  The leader of the Scaleers snickered.

  “You will never beat us. We are the reigning

  galactic champions!”

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  My whiskers wobbled — I could sense

  some cosmic trouble approaching!

  Seeing that my fur was standing on end, Sam gathered his courage and said, “We’ll

  see about that! Here is our condition: If

  we win, you Scaleers need to leave our

  planet . . . for good.”

  Claw looked thoughtful for a moment.

  He turned and whispered something to

  the other Scaleers, who all nodded their

  approval back to him. “Interesting . . . All

  right, but if we win, you will all work for us

  forever!”

  Cosmic cheese rays! He couldn’t be

  serious — could he? I wanted to be a writer,

  not a space pirate!

  “So, do we have an agreement?” Claw

  hissed.

  I looked at Sam, who was trembling in

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  his space cape. I knew that we were all

  worried, but what choice did we have? This

  was the only way to free Lockix!

  Sam and I shook Claw’s hand and accepted

  his conditions.

  The deal was done — squeak!

  You’ll never win!

  We challenge you to

  a joke competition!

  Out-of-This-

  World Jokes!

  As we got ready to begin the competition, I

  couldn’t keep my knees from wobbling like

  cottage cheese all over again. On the other paw, the Scaleers were tremendmousely calm. They kept elbowing one another and

  SNICKERING.

  “Since you’re new at this, your team can

  go first,” Claw proposed.

  Trap began with a classic joke. “What

  is a cooking robot’s preferred condiment?

  Motor oil!”

  The Eh-Hems burst out laughing . . . and

  even the Scaleers couldn’t hold back their giggles!

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  One of the deceptiods was up next. “What’s a space pirate’s favorite food?

  Lunar barrrrrbecue!”

  Stellar Swiss balls, those Scaleers were

  really good!

  Bugsy Wugsy and Benjamin took a turn.

  “What did the spacemouse say the first time

  he tasted Plutonian provolone?

  That’s out

  of this world!”

  All of the aliens snickered. I was so

  proud of our mouselets!

  The competition continued

  for hours. It turned out that

  we all knew an enormouse

  number of jokes!

  Eventually, Sam

  Shyguy was up against

  Fang,

  a huge Scaleer.

  Sam timidly stepped

  Haw, haw, haw!

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  forward. “What’s . . . umm . . . the o-only thing a p-planet could a-ask for?”

  Then he stopped. Mousey meteorites! We

  had to do something, or this would be the

  end of Lockix!

  Come on!

  Fabumouse!

  You’ve got it,

  Sam!

  We all cheered, “You’re fabumouse, Sam!

  You’ve got it!”

  The supershy alien seemed to collect

  himself. He looked at us gratefully and

  repeated, “What is the only thing a PLANET

  Ha, ha, ha!

  Hee, hee, hee!

  Ho, ho, ho!

  could ask for? A little . . . space!”

  The Scaleers tried to keep their composure,

  but it was useless — they all burst out

  laughing.

  Swiss-munching spacemice, Sam had

  done it!

  But the competition wasn’t over yet. It

  was

  Fang’s

  turn. The other competitors

  had already told so many jokes, it was going

  to be hard to think of another one.

  We all stared silently at Fang as he cleared

  his throat.

  Then he

  SCRATCHED

  his head.

  Then he blew his nose.

  In the end, he took a deep breath and

  began to stutter, “T-two c-cosmobandits

  e-enter a r-room aaaand . . . aaaaand . . . aaaaand . . .”

  We all exclaimed, “And?”

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  Fang stayed silent.

  Claw stopped smiling,

  the Eh-Hems all held

  their breath. We spacemice

  looked at one another

  hopefully.

  Fang began to sweat

  and whispered in a tiny

  And . . . and . . . and . . .

  voice, “Uh . . . ummm,

  boss? Um, I’ve RUN OUT

  OF JOKES

  . . . I can’t even make anything

  up. Nothing is coming to mind!”

  The Eh-Hems exploded in shouts of

  joy as Claw glared at Fang.

  “We did it!” Trap squeaked.

  Bugsy Wugsy and Benjamin high-fived,

  and Sally cried, “Hooray for the spacemice!

  Hooray for the Eh-Hems!”

  Starry space dust! We had managed to

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  defeat those fur-raising space pirates!

  At that moment, Sam held up his hands

  for silence. “The Scaleers have lost the

  Interspace Joke Challenge. As promised,

  they must leave Planet Lockix at once!”

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  We’re free!

  Hooray!

  We won!

  Woo-hoo!

  Great job!

  True Friends!

  Once the Scaleers finally left the planet, it

  was time for us spacemice to head home,

  too.

  Sam shook my paw. “We can’t thank you

  enough for your help, spacemice. Without

  you, we would still be trapped back at the

  stadium!”

  Sally smiled. “Now don’t forget, always

  maintain your Planetary Invisibility System,

  otherwise you risk having it jam again

  and —”

  But Sam interrupted her. “Oh, there will

  be no need!”

  What in the galaxy was

  he talking about?

  “Why not?”

  I asked.

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  Sam smiled as he explained. “Thanks to

  you, we now understand that we shouldn’t

  stay so closed off. We need to learn to

  trust others — that’s the only way to

  meet new aliens who are as nice as you!

  So we no longer need the Planetary

  Invisibility System. We’re going to

  turn it off forever!”

  It’s been

  a real pleasure!

  Thanks!

  “That’s

  MOUSERIFIC

  news!” Thea cried.

  Sam continued. “That’s not all. We also

  decided to build a spaceport — that way, you

  can come back and visit us whenever you

  want!”

  We all hugged one another happily, then

  said good-bye to our new frie
nds and

  boarded our exploration space

  shuttle.

  Leaping lunar cheese balls, it was clear to

  me that the most important treasure in the

  whole cosmos is true friendship!

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  Friendship Is

  Fortune

  We returned to MouseStar 1, where

  Grandfather William and Professor Greenfur

  greeted us eagerly. They were curious to

  hear the details of our mission.

  When I’d finished telling them the story,

  Grandfather exclaimed, “Fabumouse job,

  Grandson!

  See? When you try hard, even

  you manage to do something

  good!”

  I felt my fur turn red,

  from the ends of my ears

  to the tip of my tail. I was

  HAPPY that Grandfather

  was pleased with me, but

  Well done,

  Grandson!

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  even happier that everything had turned

  out for the best on Planet Lockix.

  Just then Benjamin ran up and gave me

  an enormouse hug. “You’re a mouserific

  captain, Uncle!”

  Bugsy Wugsy, Trap, Thea, and Sally

  all squeezed me in a big group hug and

  squeaked,

  “Hooray for Captain Stiltonix!”

  Hooray!

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  It was wonderful to be surrounded by

  so

  many friends!

  “All’s well that ends well!” I said. “But

  now I must go change my

  spacesuit.

  I want to get comfortable and —”

  Trap interrupted me. “Just a whisker-loving

  minute! Aren’t you forgetting something,

  Cousin?”

  I tried to remember my urgent

  appointments. Oh, for all the planets out of

  orbit, nothing was coming to mind!

  My friends put their arms around me and

  led me along. As we walked, I kept thinking

  and thinking and thinking . . .

  What had I forgotten?

  Cosmic cheese rays, I was concentrating

  so hard that I didn’t even pay attention to

  where they were taking me!

  So, when I lifted my snout up . . .

 

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