Melvin and James arrived at Lair Hill. The girls were nowhere in sight.
They searched the area. There was no sign of Candace and Margaret. But something smelled terrible—worse than a rotting elephant on a hot day, worse than flaming cow poop, worse than school cafeteria food. Worse than—
James suddenly dropped from the sky, holding his stomach.
Melvin landed beside him. “What’s the matter with you?”
“That narrator is grossing me out.”
Melvin looked up and yelled, “Enough already!”
Sorry, boys.
“What should we do?” James asked.
“Follow that smell.”
James’s eyes began to water. “I was afraid you’d say that.”
It was a good thing they had super-senstive noses. Okay, maybe it was a bad thing. Still, it helped them stay on track. The your-nose-will-never-be-the-same smell seemed to be leading them to the beach, which was fine with Melvin and James. They had heard about the twenty-five-foot waves. They’d also heard about people taking off early from work—including a certain narrator!
* * *
Meanwhile, the bad guys … uh … aliens arrived at the beach. “Does anyone know where we left the spaceship?” Shoe asked.
“We’ll find it when we uncloak.” It was a rule on their planet that you had to uncloak before entering your vehicle. Actually, it wasn’t a rule; it just made it a lot easier to find the door.
Monkey Wrench pulled out a remote control device and pressed a button. At the end of the street, their spaceship suddenly appeared.
“There it is,” Elbow said. He and the others started in that direction.
They weren’t the only ones who saw it. A group of beachgoers gathered around.
“Holy spaceship-on-the-beach!” one man said. “This is awesome.” He was a surfer, and surfers always used words like “awesome.”
Holy spaceship-on-the-beach, indeed! But it wasn’t all that awesome. It was a spaceship version of an economy car—30 million miles to the gallon.
The aliens arrived, dragging the stunned superheroes. The onlookers were also stunned, but in a different way. “Hey, isn’t that Candace Brinkwater?” said the surfer. He’d seen her picture in the newspaper, along with Melvin Beederman’s photo.
Candace, of course, couldn’t answer. She was gagged with an alien sock and was practically unconscious from the smell—and the taste.
The aliens threw the girls inside. “Let’s get out of here,” said Monkey Wrench.
“Yes, let’s,” said Elbow. “Immediately.”
“Sooner if possible,” added Shoe. Earth was a nice place to visit, but he wouldn’t want to live there.
