Bug Girl Page 13

  “Um, Emily?” Vincent whispered, tugging at her elbow. “Lasers are a very advanced technology. I’d say we’re pretty much outmatched at this point. We need to come up with an alternate plan of attack if we’re to survive this skirmish.”

  Emily was not having it. “He can shove his advancements,” she shouted, prancing forward. She would take this contraption out if it was the last thing she did.

  She focused her attention on the legs of the creepy mech, possibly the weakest points of the armored vehicle. Then she lifted her foot and brought it down hard. The reverberations made the bot stumble. The walking machine wavered momentarily and regained its balance.

  Emily stomped again. Cracks appeared in some of the nearby buildings, and the spiderbot struggled amid the tremors. The floundering robot began contracting its supports until the massive body was street level.

  Emily ran closer, trying to catch a glimpse of her mother. She spotted her at last, and Dragonfly, too. Both of them were staring out of the lenslike window, but they weren’t looking at Emily, or even the blasted buildings. Emily turned to see what could be more horrifying and let out a shriek.

  A half dozen oversize locusts with glowing green eyes were touching down on the capitol lawn, bearing a large lumpy package between them. The mutant bugs backed away from the weird white bundle. And through the lacy covering, Emily made out a familiar face.

  “Amanda!” Emily screamed. She charged toward the insects and her bound-up former friend. If those lame bugs had bothered to bring Amanda all the way out here, perhaps she was still alive … perhaps there was time to save her!

  Emily was halfway across the lawn when one of the spiderbot’s telescoping legs extended to reveal a pincer grip on the small end. Quick as a wink, the leg snatched Emily up and lifted her into the air.

  “Let me go!” Emily hollered.

  “Let her go!” Vinnie shrieked from the sidewalk.

  Their protests were useless. Both of them watched helplessly as a second large leg extended, pinning the wrapped-up Amanda to the dirt. The Exterminator had captured them both.

  25

  Emily was a captive. She had never been so embarrassed in her entire life.… Imagine being caught by that old man! She could barely bring herself to look at the hunched-over creep as he directed his troops to lock her up inside one of the eyeballs of his enormous spiderbot. Seriously, the withered windbag looked too weak to move, much less take over a town! But, duh, that was why he’d created an army.

  If it was just him, I could take him out, no problem, Emily consoled herself. But bound, gagged, and imprisoned in a ginormous spider tank, the spanking-new superhero could do nothing but stare out of her cell as The Exterminator maneuvered his great machine toward the edge of the Oyster Point cliffs.

  Emily was not sure what The Exterminator had in mind once he reached the drop-off. But as the mechanical behemoth came to a stop on the ridge, idling sinisterly, she realized that from this vantage point she could see everything.

  The Exterminator’s attack weapon was deliberately poised so that the prison eye beside hers, the one containing Dragonfly and Megawoman, offered the trapped superheroes an uninterrupted view of the approaching chaos. It was the moment The Exterminator had been waiting for. And a moment Emily would not have conjured in her wildest nightmares.

  Emily was separated from her mother and Mrs. Price, but she was not alone. The Exterminator had locked her in with Amanda—who had not so much as twitched since she was delivered to the big spider. The psycho scientist’s weird soldiers had dumped the pair in the lockup while he watched. He’d coughed and cackled as they were deposited, calling the girls “an added bonus.” Ugh. The last thing Emily wanted to be was the cherry on Craggy’s sundae of vengeance.

  That old crackpot was unbelievably creepy. Emily would have liked nothing more than to scream him out of existence, and she would have if he hadn’t sealed her mouth shut with some putrid arachno-goo to stop what he called her “entitled whining.” As if.

  Luckily, The Exterminator hadn’t captured Vincent. He’d sent one of his locusts to fetch him, but when Vinnie screamed and ran off squealing for “Poppy” and “Frida,” The Exterminator called the drone off. “Never mind the infant in the green pajamas,” he’d rasped. “Nothing to fear there. You two wretched little imps can just sit here and think about what you’ve done,” he had seethed as the girls were installed in their eye prison. “Or not think. Your little friend there, what did she call herself? Bug Girl? She doesn’t appear to be in a state that’s capable of cognition. More like Slug Girl…” With that, he had clapped his hands together and leered, delighted with his zinger. Then his expression had changed back to distaste. “Horrid little girls. Oh. Just awful,” he had muttered as one of his mutants spun a web of his world-famous unbreakable recipe tightly around Emily.

  Emily could not wait for the gasbag to be gone so she could break out. Unfortunately, it turned out that The Exterminator’s web was as strong as he’d bragged. Emily was completely immobile. Even though she knew she looked good in her fabulous hero costume and mask, she was helpless. And Amanda … Emily tried not to think about Amanda’s current state and was just a little bit glad that the other girl was lying behind her so she could not stare at her, searching for signs of life.

  Squirming was getting Emily nowhere, and in fact it seemed to be tightening the bindings. So she lay still instead and contemplated what her next move could possibly be. Beneath her, she felt the giant contraption move. She writhed again, contorting her body so that she could see out the lens of the eye prison. Oh. This was not good.

  The Exterminator’s spiderbot was perched on the edge of the cliff overlooking the town’s annual jamboree.

  Oyster Cove Day was a community celebration, a joyous occasion looked forward to by all. Usually. Today it looked more like a horror movie. Emily saw far below the terrified citizens of Oyster Cove shuffling around like paranoid zombies. Alas. No lawn darts were being tossed, no petting-zoo animals were being stroked and fed nubs of corn, no children were hyper on cotton candy, and no clams were being potted up for baking. It appeared that even the popular Hot Fudge Tidal Pool was empty.

  Squinting into the distance, Emily thought she recognized some of her classmates in the crowd. Lars Viddlehammer and Stacy Waxenblough were cowering against the entrance to the Horror House. Annie Mismeadows was curled in a ball, her eyes poking up above her knees, looking very much like one of the mollusks in the Crack-a-Clam game she was huddling against.

  Emily looked away from the celebration and sighed, realizing that her dream of debuting her new (and absolutely perfect) outfit would not come true. But her dramatic exhalation caught in her throat when she saw what was happening in the sky before her. It was something far more terrible than fashion woes. It was something that made Emily reel in horror.

  The spider was launching an army.

  Somewhere over Emily’s head, giant bay doors had opened, ejecting insect monstrosities. The same locusts that had dragged Amanda to The Exterminator’s mobile lair were now floating high above Oyster Point, carrying in their legs what looked like giant egg sacs. Ugh, bugs. Emily shuddered. Why is it always bugs?

  The beasts lingered at attention, their ranks stretching the length of the cliff, awaiting their creator’s commands.

  Below the wretched throng, Emily watched the Ferris wheel spinning lazily and the rickety roller coaster scuttling along its tracks. The muffled screams of shaken riders reminded her that citizens, terrified or not, were in fact at the festival, which meant there were more people in danger. And she was helpless to warn them.

  Emily cringed when the spiderbot issued a near-deafening hiss and crackle. The Exterminator was about to make another one of his psychotic proclamations.

  “Hear ye, hear ye!” the speaker burbled.

  All Oyster Cove Day action ceased, and people turned to gaze up. Not sure what to think, they just stood and stared. Frozen by fear.

  “Now that I�
��ve finally got your attention,” The Exterminator snarled, “I’ll tell you what’s about to happen. Oh, you drab, tiresome little people. You are in for such a spectacular treat! For you see, I, The Exterminator, am about to take all of you prisoner, make you my slaves, and throw you into servitude for the rest of your lives, where you will do my bidding or face extreme consequences!” He started to cackle but was interrupted by a combination of gas bubble and cough.

  Emily momentarily forgot her plight and rolled her eyes.

  “You people laughed at me. You stole my livelihood. You mocked me. You called me mad. Mad? I’ll show you mad! Now that I have the upper hand, I’m going to make you all pay for doubting my research! Ha!”

  The crowd continued to stare, unmoving, at the cliff and the mechanical horror perched on it surrounded by locusts hovering in place.

  “Oh, and by the way,” The Exterminator continued, “you needn’t bother attempting to contact the outside world for help, for you are quite literally trapped here and”—he paused for effect as a green burst pulsed from the spiderbot’s central eye through the crowd—“your cellular devices and modes of communication have just been disrupted. You are completely at my mercy!”

  The locusts buzzed closer to the fair. Emily watched the horrors zooming through the clouds, clutching egg sacs close to their abdomens. Once the mutant bugs were close enough to the carnival, they dropped their eggs like bombs, careening down into the masses. When the sacs landed, they burst open and unleashed scads of colossal hybrid centipedes, beetles, and scorpions. The creatures budded like flowers of doom, squirmed into consciousness, and began their rampage. The horrors scuttled throughout the fair wielding pincers and stingers, sending the townspeople screaming for their lives.

  Scared citizens grasped their children and fled, diving under tents, scurrying through fences, scrambling toward the water, and even hiding beneath animals in the petting zoo. One mother hurled her toddler directly into the Hot Fudge Tidal Pool before joining him. Covered in liquid chocolate, they hoped to be invisible.

  “Where is Dragonfly?” one man cried, barely avoiding being clamped in a bright green scorpion’s pincers. “We need help! Where is she?”

  “And where is Megawoman?”

  Others in the crowd soon joined in the cry, as if bemoaning their near-forgotten heroes’ absence would make them appear out of the ether.

  Emily struggled to speak. She wanted to scream, “They are right here, you sniveling wusses! And maybe this time it’s your turn to save them, and while you’re at it, save me!” But her fidgeting only caused the binds holding her to tighten. If they constricted much farther, she wouldn’t be able to breathe.

  Emily was tempted to close her eyes and block out the scene before her. But she could not tear herself away. All the while, The Exterminator cackled through the mic, enjoying the hysteria.

  “Dear fools,” he purred, “I am delighted to let you know that your precious heroes Dragonfly and Megawoman won’t save you this time. I’ve taken care of everything! My nightmare monsters lured them out of seclusion—and allowed me to capture them quite handily. You never even considered that it was I behind those delicious holographic attacks … and your ‘heroes’ didn’t, either—until it was too late! Simple, dim Dragonfly and her little fashion-forward partner fell for my plan like eager, senseless preschoolers,” he guffawed.

  “Well, now we’ve all had our fun on Oyster Cove Day, and the Final Phase of my plan shall go into effect. Your lives are all about to be changed … permanently.”

  Emily’s eyes were wide with terror. She saw that the centipedes had formed a ring around the entire basin. No one would be able to pass without getting bitten. The locusts still hovered over the crowd holding more egg sacs, should the need for backup arise.

  The spiderbot rose higher on its many legs and shone a red beam down on the fair. The beasts on the ground took in what must have been a silent command from their demented leader. Each creature, aside from the centipede guards, lifted up on its hind legs and snatched the human closest to it and held tight. The red beam continued to pulse until The Exterminator was sure that each Oyster Covian, right down to the youngest child, had been seized by one of his creations.

  “And now, my dear Oyster Cove,” The Exterminator blathered into his precious microphone, “you will take up your new duties in my mass-production facility. You will help me create a mega-army that will take over the country, and then … the world!”

  26

  Emily didn’t like this new icky feeling of defeat. Things always went her way, and if they didn’t, she’d had means of making things go her way. But in this situation, she was stumped.

  She wondered what her mother was going through in the next cell. Her frustration had to be worse. All those years of protecting Oyster Cove, only to be forced to witness the community being destroyed in front of her eyes. Emily felt terrible for her mother and Amanda’s as well. If they ever got out of this, Emily promised that she would thank them both for all they had done.

  Right now, though, escape was a very big if. And it seemed as if it was about to get bigger.

  A rumble shook the earth, and gargantuan beetles poured forth, revealing a cavernous pit. Emily shuddered.

  Near the yawning cavern, the other hybrid monsters had released their captives, forcing the Oyster Covians into a single-file line. It appeared the entire population of the town was about to be marched into this pit of misery.

  Watching the parade of shame, Emily had a brief glimmer of hope—with luck, it wouldn’t be too long before outside help came to save them. Another thought immediately followed: How would anyone know where to look for them if they were all underground? The situation was completely unacceptable and made Emily want to cry.

  The townspeople felt similarly. They stood with their heads down, defeated and sad. The children trembled as they clutched their parents’ legs or wrapped their arms around their guardians’ necks.

  A siren blasted. Not a good sign, and Emily surveyed the situation, bidding farewell to her last shred of hope. But wait. She saw something. Or thought she did.

  A flash of green behind the sno-cone vendor’s cart made her heart rate increase. Her gaze remained fixed on the spot until she saw a second verdant shimmer. Yes! Vincent and his nerds were down there, working desperately on their laptops. Somehow they had eluded capture and figured out a way to bypass The Exterminator’s device disruption! They were tapping away, their heads bobbing up every few seconds to check the situation.

  From her prone spot on the floor, Emily could see two of the science enthusiasts scampering away from their group holding what looked like makeshift receivers. They rushed around the perimeter of the centipedes, sneaking behind carnival tents, popcorn stands, and hay bales to reach their appointed locations. In position, they lifted their DIY contraptions into the air and waited.

  Behind the cone, Vincent raised his hand in a countdown so the other brains would know when to act. Five, four, three, two, ONE!

  Emily couldn’t see anything happening but heard a crackle like a transformer blowing out. And although she couldn’t understand exactly what the nerds had done, she saw the results. She had to give it to Vincent. He was a smarty.

  Whatever Vinnie and the Hack and Rolers engineered made the bug army shake their heads as if trying to rid themselves of bad memories, flailing and gyrating like modern dancers. And by the time they regained control, their prisoners had scrambled away.

  Emily wanted to cheer. Vincent and his cronies had given Oyster Cove a fighting chance! Except … the centipede things ringing the lot of them hadn’t been affected. The experiment had only worked on the mutant insects and arachnids. But she hoped it would be enough.

  The superhero was so absorbed with watching what was going on outside that at first she didn’t notice the faint glow coming from within her cell. It pulsated more and more brightly, filling the prison room with yellow light before fading back to darkness.

  When Em
ily finally noticed the shifting light, she was too terrified to guess what was happening behind her; she feared it was another monstrous bug sent to finish her off.

  The light grew in intensity. Soon it was accompanied by a scratching noise that sent chills down Emily’s spine. If she’d been able to turn her head to look, she wasn’t sure she would have had the courage.

  But finally she heard what sounded like a sheet being ripped in half and saw a puff of luminous, glittering dust filling the air around her. In the glow, it looked like New Year’s Eve.

  She heard loud breathing. Something behind her was gulping in massive amounts of air.

  And then a blur shot past her and burst right through the glass of the spiderbot’s eye.

  Bug Girl was back!

  27

  Amanda awoke from what must have been a really deep slumber to an urgent alarm buzzing in her head. Something of massive importance was going on, and she needed to help. But what was it, and where the heck was she? With a power and drive she had never felt before, she literally ripped off her covers and launched herself up without taking so much as a second to figure out what was happening. There was a crash. A scream. A thud. And …

  Amanda shook her head. This was not her bedroom! She stood still for a moment and looked around. She was standing on the beach. On what was obviously Oyster Cove Day … only, it was Oyster Cove Day gone horribly wrong!

  “What the heck?” Everywhere Amanda looked, she saw giant beetles and scorpions and centipedes rushing around acting kooky. It would have been her dream. (Bugs! Big, beautiful bugs!) Only these bugs were abnormal and not acting very nice at all.

  Amanda blinked and squeezed her eyes shut for a second. She fought to recall all that had transpired before her strange nap and realized in a rush who must be behind the mutant bugs: The Exterminator. Of course. The crazy things running amok were the hybrid experiments he’d created for his little takeover plot. And somehow she had woken up in the middle of a full-on attack.