“And I thought giants were supposed to be big and dumb. Clearly, the agency was wrong about you, weren’t they big guy? You’re not a brainless fridge after all, are you? No, you’re practically a genius.”
The giant’s wet, pink eyes gave no indication that it understood.
It stood about twelve feet high and was as large and thick as a redwood tree. A mass of wiry straw-colored hair decorated with jewels and precious stones fell from the top of his small, flat head. It looked like a very ugly Christmas tree. More jewels were tied around his muscular bare arms, and he wore thick rings around his three fingers and three toes. He was naked except for a kilt-like fur skirt. Skulls and bones hung from his belt, and his skin was dark green and rough like tree bark. If trees could have offspring, Zoey figured this giant would be a pretty close match.
“Me eat girl,” repeated the giant.
Zoey rolled her eyes. “I heard you the first time—”
“Zoey, seriously?”
Simon’s tousled blonde head appeared from behind a rock.
“We’re not here to chat, you know.”
Simon emerged clumsily from behind the large boulder. He wore a simple black jacket, a white t-shirt, and jeans. He looked even more lanky and goofy than usual because he had grown over the holidays and still wasn’t in total control of his limbs.
“How long are you going to stand here and wait for it to smash your brains in? They have a reputation for being ruthless and unpredictable . . . and they kill for fun. I’d also like to point out that these mystics are meat eaters . . . .”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Besides, the Mutes are starting to notice the giant. We have to hurry and get out of here. Let’s fry this birdbrain and split.”
Zoey narrowed her eyes. “I wonder how the Mutes see him? You think they see him as like a big tree?”
“Who cares? Zoey, come on! Enough small talk; we need to get a move on.”
“I know. I know,” muttered Zoey.
She looked out over the beaches of Houghton Bay, Wellington, New Zealand. The ocean breeze smelled like the fish market near one of her foster homes. But the spectacular view couldn’t lift her spirits.
Mrs. Dupont had successfully completed the Great Junction, and the Agencies around the world were in a panic. What was worse, Zoey’s mother was still imprisoned in the Nexus.
Zoey had tried to transport herself directly to her mother, but she couldn’t open a doorway to the Nexus. Other than the fact that Mrs. Dupont had used Zoey’s blood, Zoey didn’t know how the horrible Mrs. Dupont had opened the portal.
In the end, Zoey realized her only hope to reach her mother was to use the portal Mrs. Dupont had created. She thought of nothing else.
After Mrs. Dupont’s escape, the Operative programs had gone into overdrive, and the entire year’s schooling had been crammed into four excruciating weeks, without any breaks. Then Operatives had been sent on assignments on their own, without supervision. Things were that bad.
They had been elevated to OSC, Operative Special Clearance, and given a golden badge with the letters OSC embroidered in red thread to wear so that other agents would see that they were officially agents. And while Zoey did not wear the Shield of Valor she had been awarded, Simon wore his OSC badge proudly on his chest. The little piece of cloth gave him extra courage, like an adrenaline shot.
Zoey had been saddened when she was paired with Simon and not Tristan. Although Simon was her best friend, and she was glad to be paired with him—he wasn’t Tristan.
She did her best to hide her disappointment.
She smiled in spite of herself and turned her attention back to the giant.
“You’ve got two choices, Mr. Giant. You either come with us willingly, or we take you by force. Your choice. What’ll it be?”
The giant licked its lips, and strings of yellow spit flew from the corners of his mouth. “You red like tomato. I love tomato! Me eat tomato now!”
Zoey glowered and flattened her hair with her left hand. “Who you callin’ tomato, tree bark—”
“Move over tomato,” interrupted Simon, “I’ve got this.”
He stepped in beside Zoey and faced the giant. He puffed out his chest and said, “See this badge, giant? That’s OSC—Operative Special Clearance. You know what that means?”
He didn’t wait for the giant to answer and continued, “That means we, me and Zoey, have the authority to bring you in. By the Code, Section 3052.”
“There’s no such code,” whispered Zoey.
Simon leaned towards Zoey and whispered back, “But he doesn’t know that.”
He raised his voice. “Giants trespassing on Earth without letting us know first,” he tapped his badge, “and endangering the lives of the humans are breaking the code. Which means we’re here to arrest you, big guy. Hands up!”
Zoey lowered her voice. “Aren’t you supposed to say, you’re in violation of the Mystic Treaty first? It was the first thing Agent Vargas made us learn after we got our OSC badges. Remember, Simon?”
Simon shrugged. “Right, I forgot that part.”
He pointed to the giant, “Who cares, it’s not like he knows the rules.”
The giant bared its teeth and started to laugh a deep, guttural laugh.
“You funny. I eat you, too . . . after I eat tomato.”
The tomato references were really starting to annoy Zoey, but she kept her agent cool.
“This is your last warning giant,” she said confidently. “Come with us quietly, or we’ll have to use force, and that means things are going to get messy.”
The giant grinned and watched them like they were scrumptious cupcakes. A loud rumble came from his belly.
“I don’t think he intends to cooperate,” said Zoey.
“Nope,” agreed Simon. “Which leaves us with only one option.”
Zoey raised her boomerang again—
CRACK!
Wind buffeted Zoey’s back with a roar, like a bomb had just exploded beside her. She turned around and held her breath.
A twelve-foot blue hole had ripped through the atmosphere. It shimmered and churned like a ring of rolling water. Then a large green three-fingered hand decorated with rings reached out from the surface. Another giant climbed out of the portal.
“Great, now there are two of them,” whined Simon.
The new giant stumbled out from the portal stinking of rotten eggs. It seemed genuinely astonished to be here, almost as though stepping through the portal had been unintentional. But how could that be?
It had the same wet pink eyes, small flat head, and rough, forest-green skin as the first giant, but it was shorter and nearly twice as thick. It looked like it had just swallowed another giant. It wore a crown of human skulls on its head and had the same tangle of jewel-encrusted straw-like hair. A hand-stitched leather cape draped over its square shoulders, and a sharp spear hung by its side.
Although Zoey had seen mystics cross over into her world with the help of the interloper devices, she had never seen a mystic step from this small of a portal before. It was like it had just stepped out of a doorway. This portal was like the mirrors they used at the agency.
While the portal was open, she could see the world beyond the portal clearly. It was that same red world of deserts, smoke, and ash that she had seen twice before. It was the Nexus.
And then with another crack, the portal vanished.
Zoey sensed that something was off. Why did the giant look so surprised?
As the new giant looked around, it stared at Simon and Zoey, and then it finally noticed the other giant. The two mystics studied each other. The shorter, fat giant grabbed its oversized belly and bounced it up and down like a basketball.
It looked at Zoey and rasped, “Agent tasty. Me hungry now!”
It pointed its spear towards them.
One giant was a big enough challenge—two giants was a significant problem.
And then, without warning, the fat giant sprang towards
Zoey and Simon like an angry rhinoceros, roaring and snarling. Yellow spit flew from its mouth, and its pink eyes were wild as it swung its spear like a sword.
But Zoey was ready.
She hurled her boomerang as hard as she could. It sped in the air so fast it looked like gold pixie dust and hit the giant on the side of the head with a powerful thump.
But the giant didn’t even flinch. It charged at Zoey.
She hesitated for a moment, shocked that her boomerang had zero effect on the giant. The spear’s tip came towards her head—
“Zoey! Move!”
Simon pushed Zoey out of the way, and the spear missed her scalp by an inch. They rolled on the ground and came up facing both giants. Zoey spit the sand from her mouth and reached up to grab her returning weapon.
Simon saw the shock on her face and said, “I had a feeling this would happen.”
Zoey glared at the giants. It was clear by their laughs that they did not consider Zoey and Simon to be a serious threat. They were going to kill them easily and then eat them.
“What feeling?” she asked finally.
“. . . That your precious boomerang wouldn’t work on them,” Simon answered. “Giants have skin as tough as steel, and their heads are as thick as rocks. Your boomerang won’t even get their attention.”
Zoey clipped her weapon back onto her golden bracelet.
“Okay, so how do you plan on neutralizing them if our weapons don’t work? With your charming good looks?”
Simon smiled sheepishly. “I knew you’d come around one day.”
Another rumbling sound came from the bigger giant’s belly. “Hungry,” it said and pulled a curved blade smeared with maroon stains from its belt. It brought the knife to its face, licked the blade, and grinned at them like a mad butcher.
The other giant gave Zoey and Simon a toothy grin and raised its spear. It snarled and spat like a wild boar ready to charge.
Zoey shifted uneasily. The giants were ripped with muscles. She was sure they could crush their bones like eggshells. But then she remembered something.
“Didn’t the mystic manual say that giants could be neutralized if we knocked them out?” she said. “I think I remember reading something like that.”
“It did,” answered Simon, “But it would take all day for us to do it. I thought we’d try something new—”
The giants circled around them and started to jab at them with their weapons.
Quickly, Simon reached inside his jacket and pulled out two metal batons.
“Maybe we can get their attention with these babies.” He pressed on a knob, and the small baton extended to the size of a baseball bat.
He grinned when he saw Zoey’s expression.
“Here’s yours.”
He tossed a baton to Zoey. It was cool and surprisingly light. Following Simon’s lead, she found the button and pressed it. Immediately her baton extended. On the sides, written in bold red letters were the words:
Giant Pro Beater
Your One Hit Wonder!
(Batteries sold separately)
Zoey stifled a laugh. “Is this for real? Who’s in charge of naming our weapons?”
“Who do you think?” said Simon. “Agent Franken, who else?”
“Of course,” said Zoey smiling. “It all makes sense in some really strange way.”
She took a few swings with her right hand, getting a feel for its weight.
“I’ve already added the batteries, so we’re good to go,” said Simon happily. He gave a test swing of his bat like he was about to hit a homerun.
“So we just hit them with these, and it should knock them out—?”
Movement appeared in the corner of Zoey’s eye. She had been so preoccupied with her new giant beater that she had temporarily forgotten all about the giants. Big mistake.
The mystics launched their attack. With horrible rasping battle cries, they sprung at the young operatives and slashed their weapons like huntsmen about to butcher two small wild rabbits.
The giant with the spear came for Zoey. As it neared, she could distinctly see black and brown stains on its tip. Her instincts kicked in, and she ducked and spun just as the tip of the spear crashed into the ground where she had stood a second ago. The giant growled in displeasure and yanked its spear free. When it turned to face Zoey, she could see that its pink eyes had darkened and were almost red. It looked angrier than ever.
“You’ve got to hit it with the bat!” bellowed Simon as he dodged a massive fist from the other giant.
“Yeah, thanks for the tip,” said Zoey angrily.
Simon cursed as he whacked his Giant Pro Beater at the mystic’s legs, torso, and neck—but he missed with every strike, like an uncoordinated kid who could never quite hit the baseball. For creatures so thick and big, they moved with the suppleness of cats. It was almost as though the giants could anticipate their moves. Were these creatures mind readers as well?
“Where do we have to hit them? On their heads?” cried Zoey, but Simon was too busy trying to save his own skin to answer. She would just have to figure this one out fast, before she ended up as a splat of tomato juice.
The giant with the spear snarled furiously at Zoey. It leaned forward, brought its spear in front of its chest like a knight with a lance in a jousting tournament, and then charged at her. When the tip of the spear came close to her chest, she blocked it with a hit of her bat. But the force she needed to deflect the giants charge sent her to her knees. Her teeth clattered, and she was surprised to see she hadn’t broken any bones in her hand or arm. The giant’s strength was extraordinary. It was like hitting a mountain of rock. How would she ever get a clear shot? And where was she supposed to hit it?
Zoey heard a grunt and turned around—
She howled in pain as white exploded behind her eyes. For a second she felt her feet leave the ground, and then she crashed to the earth hard and her bat slipped from her grip. It was like she was pinned under a truck. She heard something crack inside her chest. She raised her head off the ground.
The giant sat on her, so close that she could smell the rancid vinegar and rotten meat on its breath. The last of her air escaped under the pressure of the creature’s weight on her chest. Then it leaned forward, wrapped its hands around her throat, and squeezed.
She blinked at the snarling mouth and the yellow spittle that flew into her face. The giant’s eyes burned red with hunger.
She couldn’t breathe. She was going to die.
Chapter 2
Portals
As the giant tried to squeeze the life out of her, Zoey could only think about what Tristan would say when he found out that a giant had killed her on her very first OSC job.
And then something inside her stirred.
She grabbed handfuls of sand and threw them in the giant’s face. The effect was instantaneous.
The mystic let go of her neck, and Zoey coughed and gagged for free air. She crawled away from the howling creature and began to search for the bat. She saw it in a soft clump of wispy grass ten feet away. Although every breath was like a thousand knives carving the inside of her chest and sweat trickled down her face, she struggled towards the bat.
Heavy footsteps shook the ground behind her.
She grabbed the bat and crept up onto a three-foot boulder.
She could almost feel the giant’s breathing on the back of her neck.
She waited until the very last moment, crouched, and spun. She leaped into the air and swung her bat as hard as she could.
CRUNCH!
The bat smashed into the giant’s head, but the mystic hardly even moved.
A series of strange silver bubbles circled the giant’s head for a moment, and then they popped and disappeared so fast that Zoey thought she must have imagined them.
She came back to her senses quickly and leaped off the boulder. It exploded in gray dust as the giant skewered it with its spear.
Zoey landed softly in the sand and watched the giant.
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She began to panic. She had only made the creature angrier when she had hit it across the head.
“Die!” It snarled. Thick droplets of yellow-green spit flew out of its mouth.
But then as the giant whirled towards her, it stopped. It looked confused, as though it had forgotten something important. It staggered forward and dropped its spear. Then the mystic’s eyes rolled into the back of its head, and it fell face first onto the ground like a dead tree.
Zoey couldn’t believe her luck. She walked over to the giant and kicked it. Nothing happened. She kicked it again, just to be safe. The giant didn’t respond.
She raised her bat and examined it more closely. “Not bad for just a bat. And all these years I sucked at softball . . . if they could see me now. Remind me to have a chat with Agent Franken later—”
“Zoey! A little help here!”
Zoey turned around. Simon dangled from the other giant’s grip like a child’s toy.
“Help me!” he screeched. His face was beet red, and his bat lay near the giant’s feet like a twig.
“It’s going to eat me! Help!” He punched at the giant’s hands with his fists.
Taking a deep breath, Zoey gripped her bat firmly and sprinted towards Simon.
“Hey ugly!” she bellowed between breaths. “Put my friend down, or you’ll end up like your friend over there. I said let him go!”
The giant ignored her and squeezed Simon’s throat.
“—ELP!” was all Simon could manage. Sweat covered his red face and his eyes watered. The mystic was crushing his throat.
With an angry swing, Zoey whacked her bat against the beast’s back so hard that the force sent a ripple through her fingers that went all the way up her arm.
But it was like hitting a brick wall. The giant took no notice of her or her bat.
Again, small silver bubbles emanated from the bat and then popped and disappeared.
In a rage, she rained blows on the mystic’s back, legs, and arms. But the giant only seemed vaguely aware of her.
She thought that the bat must be defective.
“One hit wonder, eh? Yeah right. I want a refund!”
Mystics 3-Book Collection Page 49