CHAPTER 7

Bite-Sized

Cyclops stared blankly at the TV as he reached for more dandelions. He was about to turn poor Squeak into lizard chow, and he hadn’t the foggiest idea.

“Cyclops might be the world’s smartest reptile,” Ellie said, “but when the TV is on, he has the IQ of a lima bean.”

The thick, sticky band of glue held Ellie in its clutches. She tried pulling herself out of the glue puddle, but she barely moved at all. Squeak had to be rescued before it was too late!

“C’mon, muscle power! Don’t fail me now!” Ellie cried, lunging forward with all the strength she could muster. Her legs wobbled. Her arms shook. Tiny beads of sweat gathered on her equally tiny forehead.

The glue slowly stretched to the limits of gooey stretchiness when her sneaker slipped out from under her. Suddenly — THWAP! — she flew back into the puddle like a slingshot.

“Bluck!” Ellie made a yuck face, covered in even more glue. “There has to be a way to get free.” Too bad Mom’s anti-stick formula was in her desk at school. It came in handy whenever she had to unstick herself from Dex’s gum sculptures, which he usually left on the floor.

The glue bottle was lying next to her, its contents still leaking out. Ellie saw some large lettering on the bottle that read WARNING: WILL MELT IN HEAT.

“Heat?” She smiled and rubbed her hands together. “It’s about to get hot in here!”

After sinking her hands into the puddle, Ellie activated her heating power. Her hands started glowing, growing hotter and hotter by the second. Soon bubbles formed on the surface as the glue rose to a blistering temperature.

“Melt, glue, melt!” Ellie cried.

She looked frantically between the glue and Cyclops’s dish, where only a few dandelions — and Squeak — remained. The iguana went to grab the last handful when the glue around Ellie’s fingers became thin and watery. In no time, the whole puddle lost its stickiness.

Whoosh! Ellie flew to her freedom. Like a shooting star, she soared straight to the iguana’s tank and landed next to Squeak.

Ellie picked up a dandelion and shook it in front of Squeak. “Here, Squeaky-Squeak!” she coaxed. “Come and get it!”

“Squeak, squeak!” The hamster eagerly followed Ellie away from the dish just as Cyclops grabbed the rest of the flowers. She led Squeak past the iguana’s crochet hook and stuffed owl.

A newly crocheted Christmas sweater was hanging over the tank. Ellie ran up the sweater with Squeak climbing behind her. When they reached the top, she hoisted him into her arms and took off.

They hadn’t traveled far before Squeak started wiggling again. Ellie fought to keep her grip, but it was impossible to keep holding him. She needed a spot to land — fast.

A desk appeared up ahead. Ellie floated over and plopped him next to a large, rolled-up blueprint.

“Whew!” she said with a sigh. “Squeak, you are as squirmy as a radioactive worm.”

In the distance, Mom and Dad were building a new Ultra Shrinker at their worktable. A round invention was leaning up against Dad’s stool.

“The Ultra Grower!” Ellie said.

Ellie needed to get over there, but she couldn’t leave Squeak behind to fly to the grower. He was so fast he’d disappear in an instant. And there was no telling what kind of trouble he’d get into in the lab.

But maybe her parents could help … if she could get their attention. Ellie ran to a cup holder and grabbed sparkly pom-poms off the ends of two pencils.

“Mom! Dad! Over here!” she cried, shaking the pom-poms overhead. “I’m the smallest superhero ever … well, if you don’t count Astro Ant from my comic book!”

Mom was twisting wires. Dad was drilling holes. It was as if they were in their own little tool-tinkering world. Ellie remembered they needed to finish the gadget for B.R.A.I.N. The chances of them looking up were slim.

Ellie lowered the pom-poms. Nothing could keep a scientist’s attention like a good, old-fashioned problem.

“I have my own problem to worry about. Don’t I, Squeak?” she said, trudging over to the hamster. “I tried to be the best Hamster Helper I could be. But so far, I left your habitat in Super Fluffy’s reach and shrunk myself. Not only that, but I’m no match for your wiggle power. I can’t hold you long enough to fly us both to the Ultra Grower!”

Frustrated, Ellie sat down and slumped against the blueprint. The paper unrolled across the desk, revealing a drawing of an airplane. It had aerodynamic angles that went this way and that.

Ellie’s parents always studied drawings of normal objects, like boats or toasters. It gave them ideas for objects that were not so normal, like the Ultra Float or the Ultra Popper.

This drawing gave Ellie an idea too. It reminded her of Dex’s paper plane.

If I had an airplane, I could fly us to the worktable, she thought. Wait a minute! That’s not a bad idea …

Ellie got right to work. She flew one side of the paper over to the other side, folding the blueprint. Then she stomped along the fold to crease it with her feet. All the while, she kept Squeak in her super sight. The lab’s rocket launcher was nearby. If he got too close, he could launch himself into orbit and become the first hamster in space.

After a few more folds and stomps, her paper plane was complete. Ellie stepped back and admired the aircraft.

“Well, look at that. Something good has come out of Dex’s evildoing,” she said to herself. “Maybe that villain isn’t so bad.”