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  Emily’s thoughts were interrupted when the door to Amanda’s bedroom creaked open. Poppy came into the room carrying a sewing basket. Emily tried not to move. She held tighter to the tree trunk and almost stopped breathing altogether.

  Poppy looked worried. He paced a little before sitting down beside Amanda. He reached a hand toward his granddaughter, pulled it back, and used it to cover his mouth. Then, wordlessly, he picked a piece of green fabric out of the sewing basket and began to stitch.

  HONEYBEE

  Fun Bug Fact: Honeybees sting only as an act of defense. They also can kill an intruder wasp by covering the wasp in a ball of bees, increasing carbon dioxide and raising body temperature to lethal levels. This is called balling.

  23

  Oyster Cove Day dawned crisp and bright.

  Nervous town dwellers everywhere turned on the news to see if the event of the year had been canceled and were quickly reassured that it would go on as scheduled. So, with trembling hands, people packed their picnic baskets and donned their shell-encrusted apparel.

  Emily shut off her television. The news was totally bumming her out. Instead, she chose an insane decibel level for the inane pop playlist on her stereo and blasted it in her bedroom, hoping to drown out her own thoughts.

  She’d been preparing for over an hour to tell Frida that there was NO WAY she was attending Oyster Cove Day—no matter how amazing the outfit she had selected was. She was “sick.” Very, very sick. (At least that was her story, and she was sticking to it.) But she kept hearing voices in her head.

  “You should be ashamed!” the voice scolded.

  “Seriously, how could you do that?” the voice lambasted her. Emily winced.

  The voice was not in her head.

  The voice was in her room.

  Pressing pause, Emily turned to see who had entered the sanctuary she’d ensconced herself in.

  What she saw was not what she’d expected. Amanda’s little friend was standing in the doorway of her bedroom. He was clad head to toe in lamé that was a dazzling shade of green and sporting a pair of mirrored goggles on top of a green leatherette aviator helmet.

  “Kermit?” Emily asked, incredulous.

  “Vincent!” Frida said loudly, stepping up behind the small boy with all the snappiness of a highly trained military officer. The faux housekeeper stood stone-still, flanking the Day-Glo boy and looking more than a little cranky. “This is Vincent, and he told me what you did,” Frida growled. There was fire in her eyes. Emily had never seen her this angry before. It was impressive. It was easy to believe Frida could stare down nations.

  But she was still in charge here, wasn’t she? Frida was supposed to be on her side! Emily stood up and swallowed hard. “You mean he told on me?” She looked from Frida to Vincent. “You told on me?” she repeated. It was unbelievable. First the little brain dared speak to her, to insult her, and now he had ratted her out. Emily felt her face grow hot. Wasn’t she having a bad enough week already?

  “Amanda isn’t getting any better,” Vincent said quietly. “How could you have left her like that?” he asked. His eyes were red, and Emily realized the delicate child had been crying. Oh no. Please don’t let him cry here, she silently begged, feeling her own eyelids grow warm.

  Looking down and squeezing her eyes shut, Emily channeled every ounce of the fear and worry she was experiencing into an emotion she could deal with. Her anger flared hotter as she added to the list of Vincent’s offenses: stood up to her, questioned her fashion and beauty choices, ratted her out, and blamed her for what had happened to Amanda. Emily opened her eyes and balled her hands into fists. This chartreuse munchkin couldn’t blame her any more than she was already blaming herself!

  “I didn’t do that,” Emily slowly enunciated.

  “No!” Vincent fired back with more animosity than Emily would have believed possible. “You didn’t do anything. You were too afraid of scuffing up last season’s kicks to even enter the dump—which is exactly where those ugly shoes belong!”

  Emily blinked. Her face felt like it was on fire. The mini frog kid must have been drawing some crazy courage from his costume to talk to her like that. He actually looked a little taller—perhaps there were lifts in his steel-toe boots.

  “You didn’t do anything then, but it’s time you did something now.” Vincent strode over to Emily’s vanity and plopped down his laptop computer, which he then opened. On the screen was a live streaming image of the mysterious goings-on at Armpit Acres. A large circular area near the spot where Amanda had fallen was twitching and shifting like quicksand.

  Suddenly, a tremendous boom shook the ground.

  Frida crossed her arms over her chest, looked at Emily, and tapped her foot impatiently. She raised an eyebrow like, Well?

  “See?” Vincent reproached Emily, too. He fixed her with a look.

  “But what am I supposed to do?” Emily demanded, hoping she was the only one who heard the slight whimper in her voice. She didn’t have antennae or armor or a withering gaze. All she had was good hair and teeth, a sick fashion sense, and an amazing outfit.

  Vincent and Frida continued to look at her expectantly.

  Emily felt helpless. Abandoned. Accused. And, and so, SO angry. “What am I supposed to do?!” she repeated in a furious shriek, squeezing her eyes shut.

  The scream reverberated around the room. Crumbs of plaster fell on her head, and when she opened her eyes again, she saw Vincent, Frida, and the laptop all smashed against the opposite wall. Emily gasped and covered her mouth with her hands as they regained their footing.

  “Something like that would be a good start,” Frida said, dusting herself off. A tiny smile tugged at one corner of her mouth.

  Vincent steadied himself and quickly checked that all his parts were intact. “But I think you need to direct that energy over, uh, there.” He gestured downwind, in the direction of Armpit Acres. “Now.”

  Emily took her hand off her mouth. “Did I just do that by—”

  “Screaming, yes.” Frida nodded and surveyed the mess. “Let’s take this outside.”

  Emily looked at the cracked wall. She looked down at her hands. Her feet. She felt anger still burning inside her. This was it! This was her power. She DID have power—fury! And she was so ready to unleash it.

  Well, almost ready. “One sec.” Emily held up a finger, darted into the powder room, and returned wearing a black mask that covered her eyes, her silver Lycra suit, and a pair of puffy eighties aerobic sneakers. “Now I’m ready.”

  Vincent nodded approvingly. “Sassy unitard,” he admitted.

  Moments later, Emily was seated on Frida’s aqua Vespa—Frida had insisted they take it and leave her to secure the house—speeding toward Armpit Acres with a Muppet of a boy clinging to her waist.

  The sonic booms continued and dust filled the air, casting an evil hue over everything. But as they approached Armpit Acres, Emily noticed through the dust a different otherworldly glow seeping up from the trembling ground.

  “That can’t be good,” she whispered to herself, slowing the scooter and waiting to see what would happen before getting any closer.

  The ground shook as more of the bright glow shone through the rubbish. Then, like a UFO breaking free of its underground hangar, the form pushed away from the earth. The unidentified object had eight anchor points—four on each side—that it was using to hoist itself upward. With a jolt, the massive whatever-it-was tore itself free of its subterranean dwelling. Rubble spilled off the slanted sides, creating great waterfalls of waste. Vincent and Emily covered their mouths to keep from breathing the stench and possibly screaming.

  Finally completely out of the ground, the giant glowing orb rested for a moment. Then, tentatively, it began to extend its mechanical legs to their full height and stood—a massive robotic arachnid—before them.

  Multiple eyes gazed black and cold onto the landscape as the mechanical monster surveyed its target. All of Oyster Cove lay at its feet. Then, slo
wly, it began to walk. The glowing legs moved methodically over giant mounds of refuse and out onto the highway, where the machine began its unhurried march toward the city.

  Emily felt like she was going to barf. She had no plan of action, really. She was just an angry kid in a figure-skating costume! What could she possibly do to this tank of a spider?

  She was scared beyond belief, but she also knew that without Amanda and their mothers, she was the only being standing between this thing and the complete devastation of her hometown. She tried to muster up some of the passion she’d felt when she shriek-blasted Vinnie and Frida back in her room. She hadn’t thought she was all that super then. Who knew what she might be able to muster up now that she was facing a real threat?

  If Amanda could jump into a stinking pit, she could try to shriek this baby out of commission.

  The enormous machine lumbered forward, ignoring the two defiant children racing after it on their scooter. The city streets were oddly quiet. Everyone was at Oyster Cove Day. As the robotic spider marched, its giant feet slammed down, leaving massive pockmarks in the street. The trail of terror resembled dots on a treasure map and led Emily and Vincent directly to the megabot’s destination—the Science League Building.

  The scooter slowed to a halt as the colossal spiderbot stopped, hovering over the alabaster dome of the huge building. Emily gulped. Breathing had become difficult.

  “Okay, Frogger. What now?”

  24

  “Throw something?” the kid in green suggested. “And get really mad!”

  Good idea. Emily stepped off the scooter and spotted a rock-garden labyrinth resembling a petite Stonehenge. Ammo. She thought about people who tucked their sweaters into their jeans and felt her temperature rise. Then, with a motion so fast that she couldn’t even process what her body was doing before she did it, she reached down to fling rock after rock at the giant metal spider.

  Vincent cowered on the scooter, occasionally shouting insults to fuel her fury.

  Emily narrowed in on a target—one of the spider’s “eyes”—and began pummeling it with her precision projectiles. The large rocks tore through the air at amazing speed and made almost instant contact. They beat against the ocular glass dome in rapid succession. Glass shattered. Lights flickered … the arachnid eye shot sparks and went dark. She had rendered it useless. Just like that.

  “Huh,” she said, as if she’d startled herself. She paused for a moment, making sure her unitard was unscathed, adjusted her bun, and stood up a little taller. “Not bad.”

  The demonstration of power made Emily feel a bit better. Even a bit special. In a good way. Her power was as real as Amanda’s! And she was about to show the world!

  “Um, Emily?” Vincent called out. He pointed at something over Emily’s head, interrupting her moment of glory. “You might want to focus?” he suggested.

  Emily jutted out a shiny hip and opened her mouth to tell Vincent not to tell her what she needed to do or not do. It was irritating. But she closed her mouth again when she looked in the direction he was pointing. The spider thingy was wheeling around to focus one of its still functioning “eyes” in her direction.

  Emily dived behind the scooter with Vincent—there was no telling what kind of firepower that thing had. “Thanks,” she said as they huddled together, then generously added, “Your outfit is totally cute, by the way.”

  Vincent blushed. Obviously he wasn’t used to compliments. Certainly not from the überpopular.

  The massive UFO-shaped spider dipped down as it swung back around, and Emily saw something inside one of the larger glowing eye domes she was not prepared for: Dragonfly and Megawoman!

  The pair of supermoms was bound into seats behind the massive lens. Before the imprisoned heroes could see Emily, the spider spun again and straightened, lifting the women out of view.

  “Vinnie, did you see that?” Emily choked out, clutching a handful of his synthetic suit. Every tiny hair on her body was standing at alert.

  Her mother was inside that … thing.

  Emily had been mad before. Plenty mad. But never had she felt as angry as she did now, seeing her mother frightened, defeated, and captive! Some old creep somewhere inside that contraption had kidnapped her mom—had taken from her the one person she was sure loved her no matter what—and was now torturing her by giving her a forced front-row seat to the destruction of the town she adored! That was not cool. That was not cool at all. Somebody was going down.

  But knowing her mother was trapped inside the mechaspider, Emily was at a loss about how to proceed.

  The spiderbot, which had been screeching terribly, suddenly went quiet. The silence was unnerving. Then Emily heard the crackle of a PA system followed by a hacking cough. Gross.

  “Hello, child,” a voice rasped.

  Emily looked around.

  “Yes, you in the silver suit,” the voice said. Emily scowled. She did not care to be called a child. Or addressed over a loudspeaker.

  “I should have known there would be two of you,” the voice complained. “And you are just as annoying as your pesky friend. You must be another obnoxious addition to a pathetic gaggle of absolutely wretched, terrible people inhabiting this cesspit. When will it end?”

  Emily’s scowl deepened. A week ago she would have been peeved that this loser had called Amanda her friend. Not to mention all those other words he had strung together. But she was madder that this menace was the reason Amanda was …

  Emily sucked in her breath. She could not think about that.

  She steeled herself and glared up at the hunk of metal. The eye Megawoman and Dragonfly were in was still too high for her to see.

  “You’d better watch what you say, Octobot!” Emily shouted. She didn’t think the guy in the spider tank would be able to hear her, but apparently he could.

  “Or what? You won’t ‘like’ me? You’ll throw rocks?” He chuckled. “Oh, boo hoo. By the way, who’s the leprechaun? Surely he’s not another member of the hero brood. He looks too … wan and feeble, as if the wind might carry him away.”

  Vincent scowled and tugged at his shimmery shirt.

  “Oh, I’m so glad you have revealed yourself, you little goiter,” the villain continued, turning back to his main target. “You’re amusing. And I wouldn’t want you to miss out on this little reunion I have planned. Or all of the fun!” The Exterminator released a sickening wheeze. “By the way, do you have a name for yourself yet? Tantrum Twerp, perhaps? The Silver Simpleton?” He paused to chuckle. “Oh, let’s just keep things simple. How about Oaf?”

  “Why don’t you stop babbling and crawl on out of there and face me, you coward?” Emily demanded.

  The laughing started again. “Not before I give your mommy her presents,” The Exterminator cackled.

  “Oh dear. This should be gruesome,” Vincent mumbled. He could barely look. “This is the scene of The Exterminator’s humiliation,” he explained, gesturing toward the science building. “I bet he’s set on wiping this place off the map.”

  Emily gazed up at the SLB, as people around town had taken to calling it. The landmark was constructed out of chiseled marble and was a famous destination for intellectual pilgrims.

  “And now here we are,” The Exterminator said through the loudspeaker so all could hear. “At the place where my reign of fabulousness was vanquished. If only you two gibbons had let my plan go into full effect, none of this preposterous business would ever have been necessary.” He had to be addressing the kidnapped Megawoman and Dragonfly.

  “I’d be ruling the planet, and you would … well, you wouldn’t be here getting on my nerves. Then again, you probably wouldn’t be anywhere, if you get my drift. But that will be taken care of soon enough, I assure you. Now watch this!” The Exterminator’s mic shut off with a fizzle and a pop.

  The spiderbot’s top whirred. Out of its sides slid two enormous metallic arms that looked like they belonged to one of Amanda’s praying mantis pets. Emily peered closely a
t the appendages and saw that tracing the interior of each claw were what appeared to be hooks. The tip of each arm was flattened into a giant sledgehammer head.

  Emily turned to Vincent, hoping for some sort of reassurance, but his face was frozen in fear.

  Then, with a jolt, the bot sprang into action, slamming the newly revealed weapons down onto the top of the old building with unimaginable force. Slabs of stone rained down everywhere. The great building cracked and crumbled, its pillars giving way and its supports toppling. Glass sprayed from broken windows as the building collapsed into rubble. The roof fell like a ten-ton soufflé, shooting dust and debris skyward. Priceless papers and documents drifted down to earth to rest with chunks of rock, destroyed furniture, and invaluable artworks that had been rendered valueless.

  Not satisfied that he had destroyed the building, The Exterminator kept smashing and smashing until there was little left but powder. He had turned his mic back on so the heroes could hear his infantile cackling. “Yes! Beautiful destruction!” he screamed as his machine finally halted its fatal thrashing.

  Emily and Vincent watched the spectacle from behind a large trash bin. Even with her new powers, Emily didn’t think she could survive a hail of boulders. She was sure Vincent couldn’t. As the dust settled, she peeked around the corner and saw the mantis arms retract back into their secret compartments. The spiderbot stood silently as if pondering the destruction that lay before it. Maybe The Exterminator just wanted to linger a bit to make sure Megawoman and Dragonfly had ample time to let what had just happened sink in. Emily couldn’t be sure. But before she could decide what to do next, the giant machine turned and began to lumber up the street toward the town square.

  The spider came to a standstill beside the courthouse. There was a noise like the flash warming up on an old camera, and then with a crack, a laser shot out of the spiderbot’s mouth, exploding the city building. Then it fired a second beam, taking out the neighboring Natural History Museum.