They had landed in some kind of alien school yard. There were alien basketball hoops, alien handball courts, alien jungle gyms. It was all very familiar and yet very strange at the same time.
“Get moving,” Monkey Wrench said. “And bring along that thing with the tail.”
“It’s a rat,” Shoe said with a little pride. He loved knowing something that Monkey Wrench didn’t. “Don’t touch it. It’s poisonous.”
Candace gave Melvin a “what do we do?” look.
Melvin shook his head. He’d come up with a plan eventually, but right now was not the time to do anything—not with those stun guns aimed at them.
They went inside the school, where there was an enormous room full of glass cages.
“More glass from planet Dork,” James whispered. There was nothing worse than glass from planet Dork.
This wasn’t going to be easy. But, then again, it never was when you’re dealing with sinister and devious bad guys, not to mention sinister and devious aliens.
Elbow and Shoe shoved Melvin and company into one of the glass cages. Once again, it was protected by a force field. “Lucky for you, science class does not begin for a couple of hours,” Monkey Wrench said. He looked at Elbow and Shoe. “Let’s go grab some breakfast.”
They left the room, closing the door behind them.
* * *
Melvin and his superhero companions suddenly realized they were not alone. Someone was in the cage next to them—a strange, nonhuman someone. Melvin looked at it and said, “Do you know English, by any chance?”
The alien captive shook its head. “No, but if you hum a few bars I think I can fake it.”
Just what Melvin needed, an alien with a sense of humor. But at least he had on clean underwear. Melvin turned his attention back to his own cage. How to break out of unbreakable glass? Wait a minute. Of course! X-ray vision!
“I’ve got it!”
The alien in the next cage said, “By Jove!”
Melvin pulled out a pen from his pocket and made a single dot on the wall of the cage. “Everyone, focus your x-ray vision of that. This glass can’t break, but maybe it can melt.” X-ray vision could do more than see through things; it could also be used as a laser.
“On three,” Melvin said. “THREE!”
The four superheroes aimed their x-ray vision on the dot, and sure enough it cut through the Dorkian glass. “Ha! Keep going,” Melvin said. “Make a square.”
It was the worst square this narrator has ever seen, but at least it had four sides. And it was big enough to crawl through.
“Let’s scram,” Candace said.
They did. They scrammed right through the new opening in the cage and headed for the door of the building.
“Ahem!”
Melvin and his companions stopped and turned. The caged alien was looking at them with that I’m-a-sorrowful-caged-alien look.
Melvin hesitated. What if he was one of them? What if he ate humans for a living? What if he smelled bad?
“I can fly that spaceship,” the alien said. “I can get you back to your planet.”
That was good enough for Melvin. He and his trio of superhero friends focused their x-ray power on the cage, forming another imperfect square. Once the alien was through, the five of them, plus Hugo, headed for the door.
“You got a name?” Melvin asked.
“Lester Vanderpeeb, but you can call me Ykrkvzz.”