Herbert and Sammi raced along Main Street armed with stacks of flyers showing a picture of GOR-DON. Printed beneath his grimacing face were the words, HAVE YOU SEEN ME? Since GOR-DON was someone most people in town did their best to avoid, the answer they kept getting was “no.”

“Where is that nasty little blob?” Sammi said. “We’re running out of time.”

“Even SarcasmaTron couldn’t get a lead on him,” Herbert added. “He must be pretty well hidden. If he’s even here.”

Herbert and Sammi shared a worried look. Then they glanced up at the sky, nervously scanning it for signs of an impending attack. They quickly returned to handing out their useless flyers.

A crowd of AlienSlayer fans had begun following them through town. While none of them had seen GOR-DON, they had lots of wild theories on where they might find the crackpot G’Dalien.

“I got a whiff of him once,” one man yelled out. “A mighty nasty stench, I can tell ya. My guess? He lives in the sewer!”

“No, no. He sleeps in the park—my dog peed on him once!” a G’Dalien mom yelled.

As they were steadily getting mobbed by more and more Merwinsvillians, Herbert grew more and more anxious.

“I hope Alex is okay, wherever he is,” he muttered. He noticed Sammi giving him a surprised look and quickly added, “Only because he’s wearing one of my N.E.D. suits. They don’t just sell those things at the Merwinsville Mall, y’know.”

“It’s okay,” Sammi said. “When we find Alex, I won’t tell him you were worried. And we will find him.”

Herbert gave her a smirk but said nothing.

A voice suddenly came blasting from the back of the crowd. “Outta my way! President of the M.A.S.F.C.—comin’ through!”

Herbert and Sammi looked over to see a large woman plowing through the crowd. She wore a hairnet and an I ALIENSLAYERS! T-shirt, and had a large bag slung over her shoulder. She reached Herbert and Sammi, stuck out her beefy paw, and introduced herself.

“What an honor to meet you guys! Marion Ploof, newest president of the Merwinsville AlienSlayer Fan Club. Such an honor. Really.”

“Uh, thanks,” Sammi said, shaking her hand.

“Okay, so what do you need? Crowd control? I can have this place cleared in ten seconds. Transportation? Warm towlette? Water? Mr. Slewg, I’ve memorized your bio. I know you prefer sparkling.”

As she began riffling through her bag, Sammi stopped her.

“That’s okay, Marion. We’re just looking for someone.”

“A G’Dalien of interest,” Herbert added officially.

Marion’s eyes grew wide.

“You’re on a real AlienSlaying case? Can I help? Oh, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease—let me help!”

Sammi handed Marion a flyer and pointed to GOR-DON. “The only way you could possibly help is if you knew where this character is.”

Marion looked at GOR-DON’s picture and burst out chuckling.

“Gordy?” she said.

“You know him?” Herbert asked.

“Know him? We used to date!” She began riffling through her bag again. “He gave me his card. I’ve got it here somewhere.”

Herbert stared at her. “Really? That’s great!”

Sammi stared too. “Really? You dated him?”

 

Although Sammi and Herbert had walked through the Merwinsville Museum of Human History hundreds of times before, they’d never been there after hours. Closed for the night, its dimly lit, empty hallways were surprisingly spooky, even to them. When they stepped off the employee elevator into the dark and gloomy bowels of the building’s basement, it was like stepping into another world. A very scary, slightly smelly other world.

They tiptoed around the huge Trash Disintegration Unit in the center of the room and found the door marked KEEP OUT! TOXIC CONTAMINANT CLOSET! Sammi checked the card Marion had given them. This was the place.

“Home Sweet Home,” she said.

“You go in,” Herbert said. “I’ll keep watch out here.”

“Uh, no,” Sammi said. “You want to enjoy the benefits of being an AlienSlayer, you gotta earn them. We go in together.”

She turned the knob. The door opened with a creeaak.

They stepped into the greenish-glowing, shadowy room and took in GOR-DON’s tiny, nasty, messy lair.

“I didn’t know Andretti’s delivered,” Herbert whispered, noticing the stacked pizza boxes.

“Shh!” Sammi peered into the dark room and stepped toward the green glow on the wall above the desk. They stopped and stared up at the holo-clipping display of AlienSlayer pictures, articles, and videos completely covering the wall.

“Wow,” Sammi said. “Obsess much?”

Click!

Herbert squealed as the door locked behind them. They spun around to see a large, blobby shadow approach.

It entered the green glow of the projections.

“Well, if it isn’t the famous AlienSlayers,” GOR-DON spat through a wide grin. “I’ve been hoping you’d drop by.”