Chapter 17

“I look totally awesome!”

It didn’t take long for Dez to revive. When his eerie eyes fluttered open, Spencer was sure he would attack. Instead, Dez rose slowly to his feet, examining his taloned fingers and flexing his huge bat wings.

Then he began to laugh.

“Boo-ya!” he shouted. “I look totally awesome!”

Spencer glanced at Daisy. “That’s not the word I would use,” he muttered.

Earl was holding onto his cowboy hat, as if he feared a gust of wind from Dez’s wings might blow it off. “So that’s a Sweeper?” he drawled.

Dez thrust a hooked finger in Walter’s direction. “Told you so, old man! I knew the potion would work on me!”

Walter was shaking his head, eyes unblinking. “I don’t understand . . . how did you survive?”

“I don’t care how,” Dez said. His transformation seemed to delight him. “I’m amazing! Next time those chumps at New Forest Academy mess with me, they’ll get the hook!” He swiped a sharp finger through the air.

Spencer suddenly had a thought that made everything fall into place. “Weren’t you in detention at the Academy?” he asked Dez.

“Does it matter?” he answered. “Nobody’s putting me in detention now!”

“It matters,” Spencer said. “Wasn’t Garcia making you clean the school at night?”

“Yeah,” Dez said. “I kept trying to get my name off the list, but Garcia wanted to punish me bad.”

“That’s why it worked,” Penny finished Spencer’s train of thought. “The Sweeper potion worked on Dez because, technically, he was a temporary janitor, cleaning New Forest Academy.”

“Shouldn’t we knock him out already?” Daisy asked. “You know, since he’s a bad guy now.”

“I’m not a bad guy,” said Dez. “I’m the same guy I always was.” Then he grinned. “But now I have wings.”

“We need to get him back to normal,” Walter muttered.

“Didn’t you just say that a fatal blow to a Sweeper will knock the Glop out of them?” Bernard said.

Walter nodded. “But it will also leave them blind.”

“Maybe I can de-Glopify him,” Spencer said, holding out his left hand. “With my Auran powers.”

“Nobody’s taking away my better half!” Dez yelled. He flapped his large wings, and his feet lifted from the floor for the first time. “Woo-hoo!” Dez touched the ceiling and coasted back to the floor.

Spencer could see that Walter was caught in a dilemma. The warlock rubbed a hand across his face. “We don’t know what side effects it will have on Dez if you de-Glopify him. He may still go blind from having the Glop withdrawn.”

“I agree that we need to get him back to normal,” Penny said. “But didn’t Agnes say that we’ll need a Sweeper once we get inside that Port-a-Potty?” She pointed at Dez, who was now doing a dance move that looked kind of like the Funky Rubbish. “Let’s use him while we’ve got him,” Penny said. “Turn him back after we steal Belzora.”

Spencer was shaking his head. That was exactly Dez’s plan. He wanted to make himself feel important and indispensable. Giving in to him would just fuel his selfishness.

But Walter nodded in agreement. It was decided.

“I’ll give Agnes a call,” Alan said, pulling a phone from his pocket. “Let’s get those portals open before Mr. Clean gets back to the lab.”

Spencer and Daisy followed the other Rebels back toward the janitorial closet.

“This is going to be bad,” Spencer whispered. “Dez can fly.”

“At least he’s a Rubbish, so his breath doesn’t affect us,” she said.

“I wish it would affect himself,” Spencer said. “He used to be vulnerable to big Rubbishes.”

“I think he’s immune now,” said Daisy. “It’s hard to smell your own breath.”

There was a rush of air overhead, and Dez suddenly landed between them, his big bat wings folding around Spencer and Daisy like an awkward group hug. “Isn’t this going to be fun?”

Spencer could think of a dozen words to describe what it would be like working with a Sweeper Dez. Fun was not one of them.