“Just talking about one of the nice things about Grover’s Mill,” Holly said more loudly. “For one thing, I mean, a lot of people come here for the water.”
“Water?” said the chubby Acme guy. His dome mouth fell open. It was dry.
Octa-Loona turned to Holly. A tentacle curled up to her face and rubbed her leathery lips.
“Now, Holly,” said Sean, turning to her. “Why do you think they call it Lake Lake?”
“Because it has so much water in it!” she said.
“Correct!” said Sean. “Boy, just the word water makes me thirsty. Aren’t you thirsty, Holly?”
Eeek! Eeek! Grover’s Mill swung back and forth on the cables.
“Very thirsty,” Holly said.
“I sure am thirsty, too,” Sean went on. “Gosh, I’d give anything for just a sip of that great Lake Lake water. It sure would quench my thirst. I wouldn’t be so thirsty. Thirsty, thirsty, thirsty.”
“Thirsty, thirsty, thirsty,” said Holly, watching on the Octo Screen as Grover’s Mill swung back and forth on the long wires, a gaping octopus-shaped hole in the ground below it. “Thirsty, thirs—”
“ENOUGH!” screamed Octa-Loona.
One by one, all the octo-creatures turned their domed heads to the queen. Their big red eyes were all sad. Their green lips were dry.
“Oh, okay!” cried Octa-Loona finally. She pushed some buttons on the control panel. “I’m putting the town down for a minute. One minute, that’s all! Then we go!”
RRRR! The giant ship descended.
THUD! Grover’s Mill was dropped back into place. The cables went slack and the ship hovered over the watery blue water of Lake Lake.
“Hurray!” shouted the octo-creatures. They clapped their tentacles and began to sing again.
Queen Octa-Loona!
She’s not a tuna!
She’s an octopus,
And she looks out for us,
’Cause she’s our queen!
In that instant of octopus joy, the two Acme guys loosened their hold on the two kids. It was then that Holly and Sean decided to make their move.
In a flash, the two kids dropped back down through the hatch to the mouth room.
“Hey!” yelled the chubby Acme guy. “The two kids—they’re gettin’ away!”
Too late! Holly jammed the hatch shut, then turned to Rob and Bob Dunk. “Hurry, we’re getting out of here!”
“Oh, have we landed?” asked Rob Dunk.
Holly looked at Sean, “Uh, not quite. But, um, can you swim?”
Rob looked at his brother. “We can float!”
“Yes, float,” said Bob.
“That’s good enough!” said Sean. “Let’s go!”
Holly opened the bottom hatch. Wind blew in from the outside. Lake Lake was rippling calmly right below them. It was like watching a movie.
“This is so weird,” she said, turning to Sean. “I mean, can we actually do this?”
Woop-woop! An alarm sounded.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” said Sean.
“They’re escaping!” shouted Octa-Loona. “Close the hatch!”
VRRRT! The mouth hatch began to close! The opening was getting smaller and smaller. Soon the two kids and the two twins would be trapped forever. They had to act swiftly!
Rob and Bob Dunk sat down next to the open hatch. Holly and Sean climbed on their backs.
“Here we go!” cried Holly. With one push, she and Sean pushed the twins out of the hatch.
“Agggghhh!” shrieked Rob Dunk.
“Ooooggghhh!” shrieked Bob Dunk.
The two kids held on to the two heavy men and fell like, well, like two kids holding on to two heavy men!
They fell fast, very fast.
Straight for Lake Lake.
10
Splash of the Titans!
Lake Lake.
A giant O of water sitting there like warm milk in the bottom of a cereal bowl. Only bluer.
To Holly it seemed as if the lake were rushing up at them at incredible speed.
“It’s going to be a short flight!” cried Sean.
“We’re gonna dunk!” screamed Holly.
“Our specialty!” yelled Rob and Bob.
SPLASH! They slammed into the water hard.
SPLOING! They bobbed back to the surface with incredible force. The waves they made drove the two kids and the Dunk twins right to shore.
Holly and Sean jumped off and sputtered up onto the beach at the foot of the Grover’s Mill beach clubhouse.
“We made it!” yelled Sean. “I can’t believe we’re actually back home!”
“But home may be moving to another galaxy unless we hurry!” cried Holly.
Rob and Bob Dunk hustled to their feet and began to run. Rob turned to Bob and said, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Yes!” cried Bob. “Octopus-shaped donuts!”
WOOOOM! The giant octopus-shaped spaceship was hovering over the lake and lowering a giant straw into the water.
“This is too weird for words!” gasped Holly. She scrambled up the beach toward town. “You know what we have to do, Sean. Come on!”
But even as she said that, Holly knew it was next to impossible to stop Octa-Loona. Everyone was probably still hiding underground in the school. Liz, Mike, and Jeff were who knows where. And her father …
This was one movie that didn’t look like it would have a happy ending.
Then, suddenly—Rrrr! Errch! Eeeeek! Rmmm!
And, just like in the movies, they were all there.
Liz, Mike, and Jeff were there, exactly where they needed to be. Riding in the Acme delivery truck, with a big covered shape on the back. It was being driven by none other than the moviemaker himself, Todd Vickers!
“Our friends!” yelped Sean.
“Woo-hoo!” shouted Jeff, jumping from the truck as it screeched to a stop on the beach.
“You guys are excellent!” cried Mike. “You’re saving our town!”
“Yessss!” Liz hissed, smiling big at her best friend, and giving Holly a double high five.
“We have no time to waste!” cried Mr. Vickers. “This lighting is perfect for the final battle scene. Let’s get to work!”
Holly glanced over at Sean and shook her head, smiling. That’s our dad, she thought.
Within minutes, the five kids had helped Mr. Vickers unload the giant shape from the truck and down to the water.
Mr. Vickers suddenly pulled the canvas off the shape. “Behold! Clawgantua, the Clawed Avenger!”
VRRR! The giant octopus-shaped spacecraft was pulling away from Lake Lake.
“Oh, no!” shouted Liz. “They’re leaving!”
“That’s not the way it goes!” Mr. Vickers said. “We’re doing the final battle between Clawgantua and Gigantopus!” He fiddled furiously with the claw controls inside the giant crablike monster. “Oh, I’ve waited a long time for this moment!”
“Hurry!” said Holly. “They’re getting away!”
Mr. Vickers stepped back. “It’s ready!”
Holly and Sean climbed into the mechanical body of the giant double-clawed creature and plunked down on kitchen chairs inside. All around them were dozens of electric controls.
Mike, Liz, and Jeff jumped in next to them.
“I hope this stuff works,” said Holly.
“Me, too,” said Liz. “Our town’s at stake.”
Mr. Vickers tapped the side of the lumpy prop. “Cameras are rolling! And … action!”
“Attack!” screamed Holly and Sean together, as they hit the start switch on the giant-clawed monster.
It was incredible. The scaly, big-clawed monster shot off the beach and into the water. In an instant it was roaring across the lake.
“Go, Claw, go!” cried Mike. “It’s snack time!”
The giant spiny shell sliced through the calm water just as Gigantopus began to rise.
Jeff hit the lever that said PINCH.
PINCH! Clawgantua went right for
one of Gigantopus’s tentacles and pinched the end!
“Yes!” cheered Sean, wheeling the big crab around for another charge. “Score one for the Clawed Avenger!”
Woooo-woooo! The octopus ship sounded its alarm. With one damaged tentacle, it leaned over toward the water. Sean steered the giant crab for another tentacle. Then another and another.
“Yessss!” cried Holly, controlling the claws.
PINCH! PINCH! (Eight pinches, actually) and within moments Mr. Vickers’s sea prop had snapped and clawed the ends off of all the cables connecting Grover’s Mill to the octo-ship.
Shaking and wobbly, Gigantopus rose slowly over the lake. It was defeated!
“We did it!” Holly cried out, as she and Sean, Liz, Mike, and Jeff drove Clawgantua up onto the beach. They climbed out and cheered.
Suddenly—VOOOOM! Gigantopus’s giant rocket engines howled and rumbled.
Then it dived full speed—right at the kids!
11
It’s a Weird World After All
The giant eight-pointed shape filled the sky!
“It’s coming for us!” cried Holly, racing across the sand. “To the clubhouse, hurry!”
Then—Errrrk! Gigantopus stopped just above the beach. It hovered there. Holly looked up to the mouth hatch under the ship. She saw her.
“It’s Octa-Loona!” said Sean. “She’s mad!”
The Queen of Planet X was shaking her eight tentacles at Holly and her friends! “I’ll be back!” she sputtered. “I’ll get your town some day!”
“Excellent!” exclaimed Mr. Vickers, his movie camera still on his shoulder. “The fifth Humongous law! Always Leave Room for a Sequel!”
An instant later, the eight-pointed octopus ship sped away into the sky and disappeared.
“Back to your own galaxy!” yelled Mike.
“Or, maybe,” said Sean, looking over at Holly, “to one of those really typical towns?”
Holly wondered about that. “Oh, well. I guess we’ll read about it someday.”
“Perfect final shot!” shouted Mr. Vickers, his camera still focused on the sky where the ship vanished. “Couldn’t be better! The spacecraft leaving. They might be back, we don’t know. The octopus lady vowing revenge. It’s perfect!”
Holly looked over at Sean and smiled. She turned to her father. “As long as you’re happy, Dad.”
Mr. Vickers was happy later that night, too. Back at Humongous Studios he showed the kids everything he had filmed that day. After it was done, he said, “Wasn’t that brilliant? It nearly moves me to tears. I have no doubt that soon the telephone will begin ringing with offers from Hollywood!”
Mr. Vickers stared at the phone.
He stared some more.
He sat down next to it and stared some more. He picked it up, listened, then put it down again.
“Dad?” said Holly.
“Shhh!” Mr. Vickers held up his hand.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrng!
Mr. Vickers leaped for the phone. “Yes, yes. Certainly. Uh-huh. Yes. Tomorrow is perfect! Yes!” He put the phone down. “Ah!”
“What is it, Dad?” asked Sean. “Next stop, Hollywood?”
“Not exactly,” said Mr. Vickers. “I just ordered a giant mechanical spider with fangs and—”
WHAM! The hangar door slammed and the five friends tore off toward Grover’s Mill.
Jeff turned to his friends. “You know the best part? Mr. Vickers said we could take out the Clawed Avenger whenever we want!”
“I wonder if it would fit in Beach Pool,” said Liz with a grin. “We could really have fun with it.”
Mike had a thoughtful look. “Who do you think would win in a fight? Clawgantua or the Baits Motel?”
Bong! The Double Dunk donut clock chimed.
Sssss! The Usher pancake pan hissed the hour.
Holly looked out over the town, already starting to rebuild.
Grover’s Mill.
Otherwise known as The Weird Zone.
Turn the page to continue reading from the Weird Zone series
1
Sounds of Weirdness!
Zwhrrrr—rrrrr!
Jeff Ryan walked slowly backward out his front door. The big white satellite dish on his roof was spinning like crazy.
“Something’s going on,” Jeff mumbled to himself. He shifted a brightly colored box that he was holding in his arms.
Errrkk! An army truck screeched to a stop in his driveway and a bunch of men in army uniforms jumped out. They carried a small wooden crate to the house.
“Something big is going on!” Jeff whispered.
Jeff’s mother, who was also dressed in an army uniform, and his father, who puffed on a pipe, met the soldiers in the doorway.
Jeff heard only a few words of what they were saying. “… Last night … fell from the sky … top secret … global invasion … like a cabbage.”
“Cabbage?” Jeff repeated to himself. “The army delivers vegetables now?”
A moment later, the soldiers climbed back into the truck and sped off. Jeff’s parents carried the small crate inside.
“Bye-bye, sweetheart!” Mrs. Ryan called from the doorway. She blew Jeff a kiss.
For years, his parents had told him that the top-secret, high-security, fenced-in area north of Grover’s Mill where his mother worked was really a shoe store.
But Jeff knew it wasn’t. It was an army base. His friends said the army captured alien junk and did things with it there. Jeff wasn’t sure if that was strange, or just normal everyday parent stuff.
Except that normal everyday stuff didn’t seem to happen in Grover’s Mill. That’s why his friends called their town The Weird Zone.
“The center of intergalactic weirdness,” Jeff mumbled, stepping to the sidewalk. “The Zone. A place where all the grown-ups are Zoners.”
Bong! The giant donut-shaped clock on top of the Double Dunk Donut Den chimed the hour.
Sssss! The oversized pancake pan on Usher’s House of Pancakes hissed out a cloud of smoke.
Jeff smiled. Those two restaurants had been bonging and hissing the hours for as long as he could remember.
Bweeeep! A high-pitched sound screeched through the air.
Jeff frowned. “That’s a new one.” He turned to see a man crouching in the bushes across the street. The man seemed to be holding a large leafy green thing in front of his face as a disguise. And he wore green shoes.
The instant he saw Jeff, the man slipped back between the bushes and disappeared.
“Well, okay. That’s a little strange.” Jeff shifted the box and walked to the center of Grover’s Mill. He stopped in front of the X-Rays Us Medical Clinic to wait for his best friend, Sean Vickers.
They walked to school together almost every day.
And today was special. The W. Reid Elementary School annual play tryouts were that morning. Jeff’s teacher, Mrs. Carbonese, was directing an outer-space version of The Wizard of Oz. Jeff and his friends were going to try out.
The box Jeff was bringing had part of the Wizard’s costume in it.
Jeff crouched and opened the box. It was his favorite toy a few years ago—a Cosmic Boy Space Helmet. It was based on the old TV show about a boy with incredible powers. Jeff was way beyond toys and shows like that now.
He pulled out the gray plastic bowl-shaped helmet with knobs on it. It had a row of tiny lights across the front and two antennas sticking up behind the ears.
“Pretty old, but still cool.” Jeff put the helmet on his head. It was tight. The helmet was made for a much smaller head. He turned to look at himself in the window of X-Rays Us.
Blink! Bzzz! Whrrr! The lights across the forehead blinked off and on, a little buzzer on top buzzed, and the antennas began to whirl slowly.
“Whoa!” Jeff exclaimed. “It still works!”
“So, Cosmic Boy, we meet again!” came a deep and gravelly voice.
Jeff whirled in fear. Then he laughed. “Sean!”
Sean Vickers trotted up t
o him. “Excellent helmet!” He tapped Jeff’s plastic head a couple of times. “I wonder who will get to play the Wiz—”
Zzzzzzt! A sudden buzzing sound came from inside the X-Rays Us Medical Clinic.
“The big machine!” said Sean. “They’re using it!”
The two friends looked through the window at a huge complicated machine with tubes and lights and wires and shiny metal parts. Bending over the controls was a man in a white lab coat.
“That X-ray machine has awesome power,” Sean whispered to Jeff. “It blasts nuclear energy right through people’s heads!”
“Are you sure?” Jeff wrinkled his nose. “X-ray machines don’t really work like that, do they?”
Sean shrugged. “That’s what I’ve heard.”
Jeff nodded. “It reminds me of the sounds coming from my dad’s office when he works at home.”
Sean turned to Jeff and frowned. “Have you ever actually seen that office, Jeff?”
“It’s in the attic. He doesn’t want me in there.”
“A secret room in your house that makes noises?” said Sean. “Pretty zoney, Jeff. Come on, let’s go. We just have one short class, then tryouts!”
It was then that Jeff noticed the sign in the X-Rays Us window. It said, CLOSED FOR VACATION. SEE-THROUGH YOU LATER!
“Wait a second,” Jeff said, grabbing Sean’s arm and pointing to the sign. “If the clinic is supposed to be closed, then who’s that guy using the machine?”
Sean’s eyes widened as the man in the white coat continued to press buttons on the machine. The man still had his back to the boys.
“Ah, a mystery!” Sean whispered. He put his finger to his lips and tiptoed into the clinic. Jeff was right behind him.
Suddenly—zzzzzt!—the X-ray machine buzzed loudly, exploding with large sparks.
The room flashed with bright light.
“Whoa!” Sean shouted. “He’s gonna zap us!” Sean turned to run just as the man in the white coat jumped away from the exploding sparks.
Bweeeep! came a screeching sound.
Jeff tried to move, but Sean slammed him hard and the man tumbled back into both of them.
WHAM—WHAM—WHAM!
The three people crashed into one another with the force of planets colliding!
“Whoooomph!” groaned Sean as he drove Jeff out through the door to the sidewalk.