Amid the tremendous amount of spaceship traffic entering Stupendia for the Sarah Daisy rally, no one seemed to notice a newly disguised Praiseworthy slip into the atmosphere. Jacob and Dexter had personally painted Praiseworthy black and taken down the flags and streamers for this important secret mission. Praiseworthy stayed as far away from other ships as possible, and Jacob made sure all incoming communications traffic was jammed.
“Master Wonderbar, this is terrifically exciting!” Praiseworthy shouted. “I feel I am a buccaneer ship all over again. Tally ho, dare I say!”
As they flew over the valley where the rally was being held, Jacob was stunned by the number of Astrals who had turned out to see Sarah Daisy. They stretched across the entire meadow, and he wasn’t sure he had ever seen so many people in one place. Many people held banners and posters with Sarah’s face. He knew she had become popular, but it was still awe-inspiring to see how excited the Astrals were to see her in person.
Catalina and Dexter emerged from their staterooms wearing their disguises, dressed in black from head to toe. Jacob was already dressed and ready to go, and pulled on a black backpack that held their essential supplies.
“Ready?”
“Ready.” They nodded.
Jacob was surprised that Dexter was not having a mild-to-severe panic attack, which was his usual mental state prior to pulling a prank. He seemed uncharacteristically giddy, and Jacob couldn’t tell if he was excited about facing certain danger or if he was completely terrified.
They slipped out into the Stupendia wilderness. The planet’s orange sun had set, and the twilight was bright enough that they could see where they were going, but was just dark enough that they could easily disguise themselves among the trees. Sarah’s voice echoed around the surrounding mountains, punctuated occasionally by cheering Astrals.
They ran along a small stream toward the massive lake behind Sarah’s rally platform. Dexter tripped a few times over rocks and boulders, but managed to keep up. Catalina grabbed Jacob’s hand for balance a few more times than he thought was probably necessary.
Finally they reached the shore of the lake. Jacob peered around until he spotted a black mass in a clearing between them and the rally platform.
“Jackpot,” he whispered.
He signaled Catalina and Dexter to follow him, and they crept along until they had reached a sleek black spaceship sitting completely alone and unguarded in a small clearing. Jacob couldn’t believe that Mick Cracken had left his ship defenseless.
Jacob set down the pack and divvied up its contents. Catalina and Dexter quietly took their supplies and slunk off into the forest. Jacob heard another wild cheer and he had a feeling the speech was nearing its end. Catalina and Dexter needed to hurry to time everything just right.
He took out a can of spray paint and walked over to Mick Jr. The ship’s hull gleamed even in the dim light, and Jacob almost felt bad about what he was about to do.
Almost.
Jacob started spraying. He worked quickly, moved over a bit, added a few more letters. He finished off with one long underline.
He stepped back and admired his handiwork. It was beautiful. The words “WONDERBAR RULES!” were painted in bright orange along the entire length of the ship. He only wished he could see the expression on Mick’s face when he saw it.
Jacob heard the loudest cheer yet, and when the applause kept going and going, he knew the speech was finished. He held his breath, waiting for Dexter and Catalina to complete their mission.
He heard a loud explosion. He laughed and pumped his fist and started running toward the sound.
As he ran, he looked up into the sky as gigantic fireworks lit up the valley with the words “CRACKEN STINKS!” A hush fell over the Astrals.
Jacob reached into his pocket and quickly pulled on his face mask, but he still caught a whiff of the horrible rotten egg stink bomb that lent the proper accompaniment to their message. He heard a second explosion and the sky lit up again, this time with “WONDERBAR FOR PRESIDENT!”
He reached the small clearing where Dexter and Catalina had set off the fireworks and they all high-fived. Dexter gave Jacob an awkward chest bump.
“That was awesome!” Dexter yelled.
“Shh!” Jacob whispered. “Come on, we need to get back to Praiseworthy.”
Dexter shook his head. “No. I want to chase this feeling. One more prank.”
Jacob’s heart raced. They needed to get back to Praiseworthy and blast off before they were caught by some of Mick’s Planet Valkyrie goons.
Jacob was too late. Dexter had already run off in the direction of Mick Jr.
“Dexter!” he whispered after him, but Dexter kept going.
He kicked a rock and whispered to Catalina, “Get back to the ship. I’ll go get Dexter and—”
Jacob heard a rustling sound. He turned in time to see Rufus bounding through the clearing. He screeched at Jacob and charged off in Dexter’s direction.
“Oh no,” Jacob said.
He started running after Rufus. Jacob could hear voices growing closer and knew that Mick’s men were probably closing in.
He had almost reached the clearing and still hadn’t seen any sign of Dexter when Jacob suddenly tripped and went sprawling onto the ground. Whatever had tripped him was soft and almost felt… human.
“Sorry,” Dexter whispered. He pressed his face back into the ground.
Jacob glanced around to see if anyone had spotted them. They were safe for now.
“What are you doing?” Jacob asked.
“I changed my mind,” Dexter whispered. “Being brave is scary.”
They heard a monkey’s screech and Rufus swung among the branches above them before scrambling down a tree and into the clearing toward Mick’s ship.
“Rufus, no!” Dexter whispered.
“Dexter, get him back!” Jacob whispered.
“I can’t,” Dexter said.
Rufus scrambled over to the ship and pounded on its side, creating a huge echoing racket. Jacob prepared to run away. He couldn’t risk his entire campaign to save a monkey.
Rufus bounded over to the silver “Mick Jr.” signature plate and stared at it for a moment. He reached out and touched the silver longingly with his fingers. Then, with a mighty heave, he pulled the plate straight off of the ship. He jumped up and down in triumph and ran over to Jacob and Dexter with his trophy.
Jacob laughed. “Nice one, Rufus!”
Just as he was about to turn to run away, Jacob saw Mick Cracken. He had reached the clearing. Mick stared at his defaced ship for a few seconds with his hands on his hips. Then he whipped his head around and looked into the forest. He spotted Jacob and they locked eyes.
Mick looked completely, utterly furious.
But Jacob knew he was impressed.