Chapter 39
Anything Boys Can Do . . .

As soon as Noah and Podgy disappeared through the waterfall toward the Secret Creepy Critters, Sam turned to the other Crossers and said, “The alligators—we have to stop them.” He became distracted in his own thoughts, then touched his ear, saying, “Charlie? You out there? We’re still waiting for backup!” He waited for a response, his eyes shifting over random spots. “Charlie, I repeat! We’re—”

Sam’s body lurched forward, his winged arms sailing out beside him. He clunked his head on the ground and lay perfectly still, his limp wings spread like a blanket across his back.

“Sam!” Solana cried.

For a second, Ella didn’t understand what had happened. Then she saw a sasquatch where Sam had been standing. It had knocked him down, the blow leaving him unconscious.

The sasquatches from down the hall were advancing on them, seeming to wade upstream in a nightmarish river of alligators. One reached the clearing and attacked Tameron, seizing his tail and yanking him off his feet. In an explosion of glass, the Descender slammed into one wall of aquariums. He dropped to the floor and lay perfectly still, bugs raining down on him like horrific confetti.

Into the clearing stepped the other sasquatches, one after another. At the edge of the alligators, they stood with their arms raised to their sides. One threw itself forward and struck its palms against Richie’s chest, hurling him backward. Richie thudded onto the floor and rolled to a stop at the end of the hallway against the outside wall, clutching his chest in pain.

“Richie!” Ella screamed.

As the four girls quickly came together in the middle of the open space, the sasquatches slunk along the walls, surrounding them.

Megan said, “What do we do?”

“The only thing we can do,” Hannah answered. She popped a small bubble, then crouched low. “We fight until it’s done.”

The Descender sprang forward and spun high in the air, kicking out her leg and the powerful weapon of her boot. When she connected with a sasquatch, it buckled sideways, flew into the wall of aquariums, and dropped to its knees in a shower of glass. Two others attacked, one on each side. Hannah crouched low and swept around her leg in a roundhouse kick, taking out their feet. Another dove at her, and she jumped all the way to the ceiling, her legs brought up in a spread-eagled stretch so that the beast stumbled beneath her. On her way down, she kicked one leg back, planting it squarely against the monster’s rump and sending it headfirst into the wall.

A sasquatch came up behind Hannah, seized her shoulders, and held her in the air away from its body. Hannah kicked back but couldn’t connect. Another sasquatch moved in, its claws pulled back to strike. Before it could, Megan and Ella jumped onto its arm, and the monster staggered and dropped to the floor.

Solana jumped in behind the sasquatch that was holding Hannah. She reached across her body and tore a handful of quills from her side. Then she swung her arm around and pitched the quills into the sasquatch’s back. The beast arched its shoulders, releasing Hannah.

Ella stood there, stunned. Prying her eyes from Solana, she looked around. Sasquatches were lying all over, some unconscious, others dazed. Somehow, the girls were winning.

Ella suddenly remembered Richie and turned toward the end of the hall. She shuddered. Richie was still lying on the ground. And two sasquatches were moving in on him.