"That reeks," Stench mumbled to himself as he dropped his ants into a box alongside the anthill. It spit [image]

out three tickets in exchange. "At this rate it will take forever to get the four hundred and sixty-eight tickets we need." Not to mention cost a fortune in the process, I thought.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Winner Takes None

It was a frustrated and irritated Stench who made his way back to where Tadpole and I were playing Bonk the Squirrels.

"Did you see how I got robbed?" he asked me. "I only managed to get three tickets off the Anthill of Terror."

"That stinks," Tadpole said. Cautiously, he sniffed the air to make sure nothing else stank. Then, winding up his arm, he pitched the large plastic acorn in his fist at a small circular opening. Inside was a flat metal plate that was painted to look like a taunting squirrel. The acorn hit the squirrel smack in the chest, knocking it flat on its back, and five tickets were spit out of a slot right next to where Tadpole was standing.

"Excellent," Stench said as the flattened squirrel sprang back up. "How many tickets do you have so far?"

"Only ten," Tadpole answered sadly. "That was my first five-pointer. The others have all been for only one or two tickets. O Boy's doing better."

He was right but only by a little. I had twelve tickets so far. Bonk the Squirrels was usually my best game, but not today. The game consists of a large wall with a tree painted on it and lots of openings cut into the bushy part. Within each circle is a squirrel. Some of the circles are large, making the squirrels easy to hit. The only problem is you don't get many tickets for hitting those. The circles get smaller as you go higher up the tree. They're harder to hit, but you can get a lot more points. Of course, up at the top is the smallest circle of all. It's worth five hundred tickets. n.o.body's ever managed to knock over that squirrel, though.

"I can usually do better," I explained as I put in a quarter and got three more plastic acorns to throw, "but they don't seem to be falling over as easily as they used to."

"Fly Guy probably tightened the springs," Stench suggested, "just like he removed half the ball bearings in the Anthill of Terror."

I pitched an acorn straight at a squirrel that was worth ten points. It came incredibly close but caught [image]

the edge of the opening and ricocheted off to the side.

"We're never going to get what we need at this rate," I said in frustration, "unless one of us can hit the five-hundred pointer."

"Give it a shot." Tadpole shrugged. "You might actually get it."

What the heck, I decided. I concentrated as hard as I could and wound up my pitch. With my eye glued to the spot, I threw the acorn, and it went sailing up toward its mark. To the complete surprise of all of us, it slipped perfectly through the tiny opening and hit the squirrel head-on.

"You hit it!" Tadpole and Stench both said in amazement.

But the squirrel didn't fall backward. As the acorn dropped away, the squirrel remained standing, its big buck teeth sticking out from its mocking grin.

"You totally had it, O Boy!" Tadpole complained. "What a rip-off."

"I'm beginning to think this whole place is a rip-off," Stench added, glancing accusingly over toward Fly Guy. He had his eyes all over us and a smirk on his face.

"You know what?" Tadpole whispered to us. "If there was a way to get all those eyes off us, I bet I could find out what's up with that squirrel."

"Good idea," I agreed. "Let's get Plasma Girl and Hal. I may have a plan."

Plasma Girl was playing a round of Earthquake in Doll Land, but her character, Princess Patty-Cake, had just fallen into a crevice.

"I only managed to save two of the princess's unicorns before the royal stables collapsed," she said glumly, showing me the two tickets she had won.

"Don't worry about that for now," I said. "We're changing strategies. Let's get Hal."

We expected to find Hal at his favorite game, Toss the Cookies, but instead he'd found a new game we hadn't seen before at Aunty Penny's Arcade. It was called the Amazing Indestructo Retirement Fund Game and it had lights and buzzers all over it. The only instructions were on a sign that read: HELP THE AMAZING INDESTRUCTO FEND OFF AN INSOLVENT FUTURE! (Insert 25 cents). As we approached, Hal put in a quarter. All the lights and buzzers began to sound, but that was it. There were no controls and no way that I could see to win any tickets. It didn't take Hal long to confirm this.

"That's the sixth quarter I've put in this thing and I still haven't won any tickets," he said glumly.

I probably would have stopped after the second quarter, but I didn't say that to Hal. I looked down at the manufacturing plaque on the base of the machine and wasn't the least bit surprised to see that it was made by Indestructo Industries. As soon as our current mission was resolved, I was determined to let AI know what the Tyc.o.o.n was doing to his good name.

"Don't worry about that now," I consoled Hal. "I've got a new plan. We need to create a diversion that will distract all the dozens of facets of Fly Guy's eyes. Stench, I want you to go over to the other side of the arcade and pretend to lose a quarter underneath the Hill o' Beans. Then start complaining as loudly as you can. When Fly Guy comes over to help Stench, that will be your sign, Hal."

"Sure, O Boy. Just tell me what to do."

"Run over and offer to provide some light. When you get there, illuminate yourself as brightly as possible. That will momentarily blind Fly Guy in all his eyes. Meanwhile, I'll let Tadpole know when it's safe for him to do his thing."

"What a great plan," Hal said as he brought his sippy cup to his lips and took a big gulp of apple juice. Then he and Stench moved off to take their positions.

When they were out of earshot, Plasma Girl turned to me.

"Is my job the usual one?" she asked, c.o.c.king an eyebrow.

"You got it," I replied. "Be ready to act as soon as Hal messes up his part of the plan."

"Roger." She saluted me and then turned to follow the other two.

Two minutes later, I heard Stench bellowing from across the arcade that he had lost his quarter. That was the only part of the plan that worked the way it was supposed to. Fly Guy immediately messed up everything by refusing to budge from his chair.

"Too bad, kid," I heard him say. "But thanks for the donation."

Unfortunately, Hal never thought to change his part of the plan and was soon running toward the Hill o' Beans. Thank goodness for Plasma Girl. She had turned herself into a pool of jelly on the floor right in Hal's path. Sure enough, he slipped on her and went sliding smack into the stack of bean cans that make up the Hill o' Beans. As they came crashing down around both him and Stench, it finally got Fly Guy to move.

"No powerzzz!" he buzzed angrily as he got up from his chair and ran toward the mess of bean cans.

Of course, he didn't notice Plasma Girl, either, so he, too, was soon sliding into the heap on the floor. Plasma Girl quickly returned to her normal shape.

"Hal," she shouted. "Lighten up."

Halogen Boy did as he was told, and soon the arcade was flooded with an intense light.

"Well, it wasn't exactly my plan," I said to Tadpole, "but it'll do. Go ahead."

Tadpole shot out his tongue and it snaked its way up to the top cutout in the tree, slipping behind the stubborn squirrel. It didn't take Tadpole long to figure out the problem.

"He'th got a peg thtuck behind the thquirrel," he informed me. "There'th no way to knock the thing over."

"Can you remove it?" I asked him.

"Let me thee," he answered.

I glanced around to make sure that no one was watching. All of a sudden, I could have sworn I saw someone moving about behind the counter where the prizes were kept. At first I thought it must be Fly Guy. I squinted through the brightness at the chaos over by the Hill o' Beans. But Fly Guy was still there, completely tangled in the mess. By the time I glanced back to the counter, whoever I had seen was gone. I didn't worry about it right then, though, because Tadpole yelled proudly, "I got it. The peg ith looth."

[image]

Wasting no time, he used his tongue to push the squirrel back onto its trigger and I soon heard five hundred tickets being spit out of the slot in front of me.

"We've got 'em," I told Tadpole as he put the peg back into place and pulled his tongue back into his mouth.

His timing was perfect. The second Hal's light began to fade, Fly Guy got up off the floor and most of his eyes were on us immediately. All he was able to see, however, was me folding up the wad of prize tickets. I took them straight over to the counter, but as I got there one thing was already clear-the box of card packs had been stolen.

[image]

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

Change Is Good

By the time we found ourselves being tossed out of the arcade, still clutching our five hundred prize tickets, it was nearly six o'clock, and we all had to be home for dinner. We agreed we would regroup tomorrow at school.

As I trudged up the sidewalk to my front door that evening, I felt frustrated and confused. First of all, who stole the box of card packs from Aunty Penny's Arcade? Three times today I thought I saw someone shadowing us. It had happened first at Indestructo Industries, again at Lava Park, and then again at the arcade. No one else had noticed anything, though, so I didn't tell the team.

Second, I was at a complete loss about the third type of rock, metamorphic. Then there was the problem of the Tyc.o.o.n. The fact that he was out there blackening the good name of the Amazing Indestructo was an issue that would have to be dealt with.

Finally, I was feeling a little bit useless. After all, it had been my friends' powers that got us anywhere today. Stench and Plasma Girl had gotten us into Indestructo Industries. Tadpole had solved our squirrel problem. Even Halogen Boy, in his own hapless way, had somehow managed to make our diversion work at the arcade this afternoon.

All in all, I was pretty depressed by the time I came through the door.

"You're just in time, OB," my mom called from the kitchen. "Your father and I are setting out dinner."

As I stepped into the kitchen I saw Dad holding a metal broiling pan in his hands. The steaks on top were nearly done grilling. To be honest, I'm not sure why we even have a stove in our kitchen. I don't think we've ever used it.

"Oh, my. You look so sad," my mother said as soon as she saw me. "What's the matter, dear?"

I paused for a second, not sure how to answer that question. Suddenly, I couldn't help it. It all came pouring out.

"The Junior Leaguers have spent all day trying to find the Professor Brain-Drain card, which is the only one we need to complete our AI Collector set, but we found out from this creep called the Tyc.o.o.n who's messing up AI's reputation with all the bad things he's doing in his name that they only made three of them and spread them all over Superopolis in places that have to do with the three types of rock, and we were able to find the card linked with igneous rocks, but this stupid kid ate it, and we found the one that had to do with sedimentary rock, but some creep who I think was following us stole it before we could get it, and now I don't have a clue what location metamorphic rock might be referring to and why does it even matter since I don't have any superpower anyway!"

At least I didn't start crying... .

All right. So I did start crying. Not very much or very long, mind you ... but enough that I couldn't pretend I only had something in my eye.

"OB." Mom knelt down in front of me, touching my tears with her fingertip. "Everything will be okay."

Each of my tears fell to the floor as a small crystal of ice. As I wrapped my arms around my mom and hugged her, Dad knelt down alongside us.

"Don't get down, hero," he said. "Let's just go over what happened today and we'll all put our noggins together and help you solve this."

[image]

I told them everything as we sat down to our dinner of steak and chips. We were having Dr.Telomere's Garlic-and-Onion-flavored chips and they went great with the steak. Oh, yeah, there was a salad, too, since Mom always insists that we have some sort of vegetable. Dad and I would have skipped that part if we could.

When I got to the part about the third type of rock, metamorphic, I was hoping they might have some ideas. Well, they had some ideas, all right. They just weren't "good" ideas.

"Honey, what do you know about metamorphic rock?" Mom asked Dad.

He sat there sort of blankly for a moment before he responded. "Well," he said tentatively, "I used to know a hero named the Metamorph."

Both Mom and I nodded expectantly.

"But he changed himself into a c.o.c.kroach and someone stepped on him."

"Well, that's not very helpful," my mother said, speaking for both of us. "But the word metamorphic metamorphic does refer to change." does refer to change."

My mom is a lot smarter than she lets on.

"That's true," I said. "Metamorphic rock is basically rock that was originally either igneous or sedimentary but changed because of conditions like high pressure or heat."

"I can show you heat!" my dad said in his booming voice, holding up his fork. Within seconds the metal fork melted and began to drip from his hand. Mom and I both watched politely.

"Do you know what the most common type of metamorphic rock is, OB?" my mother asked, turning back to me.

"I think it's slate," I answered.

"I think you're right," my mom said as she gave me a big smile. "And I don't think there are many heroes in this city who could have answered that question."

We both glanced over at my dad, who was wiping the last few molten drops of his fork onto his costume, while using his other hand to stuff a bunch of potato chips into his mouth.

"What?" he mumbled innocently.