Melvin didn’t move a muscle. He peered out of the space-suit helmet, hoping Monkey Wrench wouldn’t look to the side, where Melvin was in plain view. So was James. Both superheroes stayed completely still.
Monkey Wrench stood in the room a few minutes, examining the damage of the torn-off hatch. He shook his head, muttered something to himself, then turned and went back into the hall. When he closed the door behind him, Melvin and James heard it lock.
They climbed out of the space suits. “Curses!” James said. “Now what?”
Melvin gave him a look. “Curses? Only the bad guys say curses.”
“I’m in outer space. I can’t think straight. What are we going to do? We’re locked in.”
“We’re superheroes,” Melvin said. “Since when is a locked door a problem?”
“Good point.”
Melvin put an ear to the door, listening for any sign of the alien. James put his nose to the door for the same reason. The Space Aliens were still rocking out. Good, thought Melvin. No one will hear me rip the door open. Ripping doors open was almost as much fun as kicking them in.
Almost.
Melvin and James tiptoed down the hall and looked around the corner. No sign of any nonhumans. There was also no sign of Candace and Margaret. The boys kept moving forward, checking doors. Most of them were locked. There was no sense in breaking them down—yet—not until they located the girls.
Melvin and James stopped suddenly. They heard voices.
They were coming from the flight deck up ahead, or whatever you call the control room of a spaceship. Hey, maybe control room! Melvin and James peered in and saw three aliens. They’d seen the one called Monkey Wrench before. He was obviously the leader. He was barking out commands—and meowing a few.
“Elbow, better go check on our captives,” he said. “Shoe, second star on the right, straight on till morning.”
“Ahem,” Shoe said. “Wrong story, Monkey Wrench.”
“Oops.”
Elbow crossed the flight deck to an open doorway and looked inside. He returned and nodded. “They’re fine,” he said.
Melvin pulled James back into the hallway. “I’m going to check on Candace and Margaret,” he whispered. “You stay and watch the aliens. Learn anything you can about how they fly this ship. We’ll have to find our way back to Earth eventually.”
James nodded. Back at the academy he had been a computer genius. And he was pretty decent at playing video games. If anyone could fly a spaceship, he could.
The three aliens were looking out into space through the huge window that spanned the room. Melvin crawled behind them, army-style. He went through the open door and found the girls. They were inside some kind of glass cage. It had no door at all, no easy way to get in or out, it seemed.
Melvin put a finger to his lips. He wondered why Candace hadn’t broken through yet. She was a master at kicking through walls. He placed his hands on the glass and felt around for a seam or a weak spot, but Candace shook her head and mouthed the words, Can’t break through.
Maybe two superheroes couldn’t break through, but how about four? They’d need James. Melvin turned around to go get him. But James was already there. One of the aliens had tossed him into the room. He lay on the ground, staring up at Melvin, only his eyelids moving.
ZAP!
A second later Melvin found himself lying next to James, looking up at the ceiling. All he could do was blink.