Sammi was still in shock, thinking about Herbert even as GOR-DON dragged her up onto the TransPodium. It was parked in midair above the floor of the Flee-a-seum, facing the human crowd waiting in the stands for the big celebration to begin.

Mayor CROM-WELL waved and grinned his pearly square teeth at the crowd, soaking in their cheers as he prepared to kick off the festivities. Just outside, the G’Dalien population was waiting for his signal to begin their Great Flee enactment parade into the Flee-a-seum.

“Quick! Before that windbag starts blabbing!” GOR-DON shoved Sammi toward the mayor. “We had a deal—now tell them!”

Sammi was too upset to fight the evil G’Dalien. Alex was missing. Herbert was gone. She wanted more than anything to undo everything that had happened. Deep down, she wished with all her heart to just tell everyone the truth and get everything to go back to normal again. If it meant never going through the wormhole ever again, that would be fine with her.

“Excuse me, Mr. Mayor. May I please make an announcement?”

Mayor CROM-WELL frowned a bit and consulted a long schedule he carried with him. “It’s not on the Flee-Festival Program—”

“Please, sir. It’s important. I’ll be quick.”

Mayor CROM-WELL stepped aside and gave Sammi the stage. The crowd broke into a loud cheer as they recognized the AlienSlayer. Their reaction made her feel worse about what she was about to tell them. Her small voice echoed across the jam-packed arena.

“Um, I need to say something that should’ve been said a long time ago. This isn’t easy, but here goes. I’m sorry that my partners—my best friends—couldn’t be here today…”

Sammi felt a lump in her throat as she tried to hold back her tears. She couldn’t believe this was happening.

“Stupid sentimental humans!”

GOR-DON bumped her aside as he addressed the crowd. “What she’s pathetically failing to say is that I, GOR-DON, was right all along—the AlienSlayers are FAKES!”

There was a half second of silence. Then the crowd burst out laughing. GOR-DON was confused. He glanced down at himself.

He was still dressed as GOR-DONNA.

“Silence!” he yelled as he yanked off his wig. “Stop laughing! LISTEN TO ME!”

The crowd continued to laugh, boo, and taunt him—until a voice stopped them cold.

“He’s right.”

Sammi stepped beside the seething alien and looked out at the stunned crowd. “We’re not AlienSlayers. We never were. We’re just three normal, boring kids. We tricked you all and we’re—I’m—so sorry.”

Sammi hid her face in her hands and turned away. Rushing toward the back of the TransPodium, she bumped into Chicago. He put his arms around her and let her cry into his shoulder.

“That was good,” he said. “You did the right thing.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I heard about Alex and Herbert. I’m so sorry—about everything. C’mon. I’m getting you outta here.”

GOR-DON stood in front of the stunned crowd, his prickly bald head throbbing. Mayor CROM-WELL looked at the schedule for the fifth time in five minutes, then back to the G’Dalien in lipstick and lady clothes standing next to him.

“I don’t understand. None of this is on the program.”

GOR-DON slapped the schedule out of his hands. “This is my show now,” he hissed. He turned to the crowd of confused humans in the stands.

“HUMANS! You now know the truth! The AlienSlayers tricked you all! I am your hero! It is I who stopped an actual alien attack, scheduled between noon and four this very afternoon!”

As he spoke, the G’Daliens began pouring onto the floor of the Flee-a-seum. They were tired of waiting outside for their signal and wanted to know what all the shouting was about.

GOR-DON saw them and continued, pointing up at the blue sky.

“If not for my bravery and superior wisdom, all of you, humans and G’Daliens alike, would have been helpless against a deadly and destructive attack from above!”

Everyone looked up at the sky. At the same spot in the sky. Some pointed to the spot in the sky. The spot in the sky was getting larger. And closer.

“And now, thanks to me, your new leader, you’re safe from—”

The Lunar Shuttle suddenly slammed into the ground of the Flee-a-seum, sending the G’Daliens scrambling for cover. It skidded to a stop along the dirt floor, its nose half buried in the dirt and its rear end tilting up in the air. The screams of the crowd quieted into confused mumblings.

KUNGK! The back panel of the shuttle popped off.

The crowd fell silent—until Herbert and Alex popped their heads out. A burst of cheers filled the Flee-a-seum.

Mayor CROM-WELL picked up his Flee-Festival schedule and studied it again. GOR-DON stared out at the field in disbelief.

“Alien Slayers?!”

Sammi couldn’t believe her eyes. She laughed through her tears at the sight of Alex and Herbert—until she noticed they were ignoring the cheering crowd. They were frantically pulling passengers out of the back end of the shuttle. Something was wrong.

Sammi peered up and spotted it—a huge, winged, brownish blob diving toward them, coming in fast.

“Oh, no.” In an instant, she backflipped off the TransPodium and raced toward her friends in the center of the Flee-a-seum.

“Hurry!”

Inside the shuttle, Old Man Alex helped the last picnicker climb toward Herbert and Alex, who pulled him out to safety.

Alex and Herbert reached in and struggled to pull Old Man Alex’s heavy, pear-shaped body up and out of the back of the shuttle. Sammi jumped aboard and tugged with them. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the huge blob coming straight for them. It was so close she could see its sinkhole of a mouth, full of teeth, wide open and ready to devour them like a tube of Slayer-Snacks.

“Time’s up!”

She stopped tugging and suddenly shoved.

Sammi, Alex, and Herbert all fell into the shuttle. They slammed into Old Man Alex, and the four of them tumbled toward the grounded front of the small ship.

“Quick! Out the windows!”

“RRRRREEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOAAAARRRR!!” The gigantic winged worm bashed into the back of the shuttle like a roll of cookie dough being crammed into a toothpaste box.

The four of them swung themselves out the windows and onto the roof, just as Mr. Nibbles’ crashing momentum thrust the shuttle across the Flee-a-seum field. Herbert, Sammi, Alex, and Old Man Alex held on tightly as the slug-stuffed shuttle plowed past the stunned crowd. It careened toward the oblong-shaped building at the opposite end of the field. They ducked just in time as it blasted through the warehouse doors and disappeared inside.

KA-CHUNGK!

Mr. Nibbles’ head slammed into the heavy InflataTron. Attached to it was the fully inflated Death Slug parade floatie, bouncing gently and light as air.

Mr. Nibbles, the real Klapthorian Winged Death Slug, lay beneath it, wrapped tightly in the twisted metal Lunar Shuttle cocoon, knocked out cold. Herbert looked from the unconscious beast to his life-size floatie twin.

“Again, ironic.”