ARRIVED, except for Lionel. Everyone
had horrible headaches! We quietly ate
breakfast together, but there was still no
sign of Lionel.
Oh, for all the lunar cheese, where had he
gone?
“Did he go back to the room? Maybe he
had a headache, too,” Bugsy suggested.
WORRIED
, I accompanied her and Benjamin
to check the hotel room. Lionel wasn’t there,
but we did find his soccerix bag.
I tried to call him again. I heard the
sound of a wrist phone: Beep! Beeep!
Beeeep!
“It’s coming from over here,” said
Benjamin, ducking down. “Lionel’s wrist
phone is under the bed!”
Bugsy added, “And look! Some of
Squizzy’s dried algae is on the floor. It
leads to the window!”
We
noticed
that the window of the room
was cracked open.
“Maybe someone mousenapped him!”
Bugsy exclaimed.
Those words sent a CHILL down my
back, all the way to the tip of my tail.
Lionel was in danger —and it was all my
fault! I should have been keeping a closer
eye on him. I felt like the WORST soccerix
captain in history!
Just then, Sally arrived, and we filled her
in. “Hmmm,” she said. “There’s even more
algae outside. Maybe Lionel left it as a trail?”
“Let’s follow it!” Benjamin proposed.
At that moment, my phone rang.
Leaping light-years, it was Grandfather
William!
“Grandson! You are late for practice!” he
barked.
I didn’t let him say anything
else. “GRANDFATHER, WE
HAVE AN EMERGENCY!
Lionel is missing!”
“What?! This is
unacceptable!” he hollered. “Start
searching for him immediately!”
Grandfather was right. It was useless to
stay where we were. We needed to hurry
and find Lionel!
I
CRIED
, “Trap, Sally, come with me!
Let’s follow the algae trail!”
“We want to come, too,” Benjamin and
Bugsy pleaded.
I shook my head. “No, it could be
dangerous! There’s no telling what we’re
dealing with. You stay here in case Lionel
comes back, and we’ll keep in touch using
our phones!”
LOOKING FOR
LIONEL
The algae trail led into a forest of
trees with violet-colored leaves.
“Are we sure that this is really
SQUIZZY’S algae?” I asked, picking up
some of the algae with my paw.
“Of course!” Trap looked at me,
exasperated. “After eating this horrible stuff
for two weeks, I would recognize it with
my eyes closed!”
Suddenly, the algae trail stopped.
“Now what?” I asked.
“We need to look for PRINTS,”
responded Sally. “Like this one —LOOK!”
We all crept closer to what looked like
ZOMBORG footprints!
We followed them
silently, pushing
leaves
out of the way until
we reached a clearing
with a camper parked at the other end. Holey
space cheese, could Lionel be in there?
We ducked behind a rock and watched
the entrance to the camper carefully.
Suddenly, two zomborgs came out,
SNICKERING.
“We FOLLOWED those galactic goofs
through the city for days, but it was worth
it — we managed to
capture
that little
rat before the final!” one of them said.
“KNOCKING THEM OUT with our
breath was almost too easy!” the other one
added. “Without their star player, beating
them will be simple!”
His friend laughed. “HA, HA, HA! When
we let him go, we will already be champions
of the tournament!”
I was squeakless— that’s why we all
had headaches! The zomborgs had
knocked us out with their toxic breath!
I turned to Trap and Sally and whispered,
“We need to free Lionel— and to do it, we
need to get those awful zomborgs AWAY
FROM THE CAMPER!”
“Well, now that we don’t have Lionel on
our team, they’ll be feeling stronger and
tougher than us, right?” asked Trap. “So
let’s challenge them to prove it! Sally, come
with me.”
My fur stood on end. What was my crazy
cousin planning?
I DIDN’T KNOW . ..but I had
a feeling that it might cause even more
trouble!
*
The term
fair play
means that all athletes should exhibit fair behavior
and respect for their opponents.
A FIGHT TO
THE FINISH
Whistling absentmindedly, Trap sauntered
up to the two ZOMBORGS. Sally
walked just behind him.
“Hey there!” my cousin said with a friendly
grin, waving to the aliens.
“What are you SPACE RATS
doing here?” one of the zomborgs snapped.
“Oh, nothing!” Trap said innocently. “We
were just taking a walk and thought, ‘Why
don’t we go say hello to our opponents?’”
“We believe in good manners and fair
play,”
*
Sally added. “After all, winning isn’t
as important as playing and having a good
time, right?”
The two zomborgs burst out laughing.
“Ha, ha, ha! Good manners! Ho, ho, ho!
Fair play! Hee, hee, hee! Funny!”
Just then, Brax (captain of the zomborg
team) came out of the camper to see what
all the noise was about. “Why are you
laughing?” he asked his teammates.
Galactic Gouda! I thought. TROUBLE AHEAD!
After the two ZOMBORGS explained,
Brax walked up to Trap and breathed in
his snout. “Rat, we’re
only
interested in
winning — at all costs! Understand? Now
get lost!”
“Understood!” Trap responded, trying to
hold his breath. “You’ll definitely
win the cup tomorrow, anyway. Our star
forward
left, so we have no hope! Your
team is too strong —”
Brax interrupted, “Good! You understand.
Now scram before I really get angry!”
But of course Trap didn’t leave. I didn’t
have a cosmic clue what he was doing!
Trap continued, “Since you’re so much
better than we are, how about you show us
some of your skills?”
Brax snorted. “Don’t worry! Tomorrow
in the final you’ll have a show you’ll never
forget! Ha, ha, ha!”
“So you don’t want to show us now?” Trap
said
innocently
. “Really? Or maybe
it’s because .
.. you don’t have any skills!
Can you do this?”
Trap grabbed a nearby soccerix ball
and began to dribble it between his
feet
,
then hit it with his head and his tail.
“Of course we can do that, rat!” Brax spat.
“Rufus, show them!”
One zomborg copied Trap’s moves.
Sally said indifferently, “Not bad . . . but
can you do this?
” She grabbed the
ball and did a step over.*
*A step over is a trick where a player spins her feet around the ball in
order to disorient her opponent.
Brax was getting angry now. “Of
course! Torx, show them! ”
As one of the other zomborgs did the trick,
more aliens came out of the camper, curious
about the
unexpected contest.
“Oh, cool,” Trap said. “But let’s see if you
can do this!”
My cousin performed a sombrero*:
He lifted the ball with his heel and kicked it
over the head of one of the ZOMBORGS,
then retrieved it from behind him.
*A sombrero is a trick where a player pasees the ball to himself over
the head of his opponent.
All the aliens let out a gasp of
admiration, but they were immediately
silenced by their captain.
“That’s easy!” Brax scoffed.
As he tried to copy the tricky move, Sally
turned toward me. She WINKED and
pointed to the entrance of the camper.
Mousey meteorites — now I
understood! Trap and Sally had gotten all
silly soccer challenge, and the coast was
clear for me to free Lionel!
RescUe
MIssIon
I snuck out from behind the rock and slipped
into the zomborgs’ camper. There was
no sign of Lionel near the door. I didn’t see
him in the main room, either.
I searched all the different rooms, but
found nothing. Where had they hidden him?
I leaned against the wall to catch my
breath. Suddenly, the wall moved, and
I tumbled into a room of
stinky
space
trash
!
Martian mozzarella! I’d fallen pretty hard,
so I checked my head, my paws, and my tail
to make sure nothing was broken. Luckily,
everything seemed to be in one piece.
Behind me, I heard a
familiar voice. “Captain!”
I turned and saw . ..
Lionel
! Our
star forward was
imprisoned in a
soccerix net
made of lasers! He
whooped with joy
upon seeing me, as
if he had scored an amazing goal.
“I knew we would find you!” I exclaimed,
turning the lasers off and freeing him. “Are
you all right? Did they hurt you?”
Lionel shook his snout. “No, they
didn’t do anything to me!
”
“Good!” I gave him a hug. That poor,
brave mouselet had been through a lot.
“Now let’s get out of here. Trap and Sally
are keeping the ZOMBORGS busy,
but I don’t know how much longer they can
distract them.”
We headed for the camper door
— but
then I heard a noise!
Cosmic cheese chunks, was it the
zomborgs?
Then a familiar voice whispered, “Uncle,
are you all right?”
I breathed a
SIGH
of
relief. It was
Benjamin
and Bugsy!
“What are
you two doing
here?” I asked.
“I told you to
stay in your
rooms!”
Benjamin looked down at his paws.
“I know, but we thought that you might
need our help — and Grandfather said it
was okay!”
“Come here,” I said with a sigh, hugging
them. “
Now let’s get out of here!
”
We snuck out of the camper and hid
behind the rock again, where I could
see Trap and Sally
busy performing
a
tricky
acrobatic pass.
I got their
attention
by waving a tree
branch. As soon
as he spotted
me, Trap lost his
balance.
He and Sally tumbled to the ground, and the
zomborgs burst out laughing.
“Well, you won!” Trap told them.
“You’re just too good for us!”
“It will be a pleasure for us to lose the final
game against champions like you,” Sally
added politely, waving and walking away.
“I see that you rats finally understand,”
Brax called after them with a sneer. “The
pleasure will be all ours! Ha, ha, ha!”
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
GIVE IT
YOUR ALL!
A little while later, we arrived back at the
hotel, where Grandfather William
and the rest of the team was waiting. They
were enormousely happy to see us!
“Nice teamwork!” Grandfather said
proudly, after we’d recapped our rescue
mission.
“I’d love to see the expression on Brax’s
face when he discovers that Lionel isn’t
Grandfather clapped a paw on Trap’s
shoulder. “Good job, Grandson. It was a
great idea to challenge those zomborgs to a
soccerix showdown!”
Then he turned to me and said, “This
time, I must admit, you were a little less of
a cosmic cheesebrain than usual . . .”
Was Grandfather actually giving me a
compliment? I COULDN’T
BELIEVE IT!
He walked over to
Lionel and patted
him on the back.
“Were you
SCARED?”
Lionel shook
his head.
“No — I knew
that my teammates
wouldn’t abandon me!”
Grandfather smiled. “And good thing
they found you
right away
,
otherwise your mother would have turned
us all into meteoric meatballs!”
We all burst out laughing!
Suddenly, Robotix began ringing like an
alarm clock. “It’s time for practice! To
the field!
To the field! To
the fieeeeeeeld!
”
Grandfather nodded firmly. “Robotix is
right. Tomorrow is the final game, and we
have to be our
best
against the zomborgs!”
We all put our paws together and cheered,
“Spacemice for one,
spacemice for all!”
A MoUserIfIc
FInal
The next day, I woke up with a fur-raising
start! I’d had a nightmare that the
&nbs
p; zomborgs won the final game. As a prize,
instead of the cup, they won the captain of
the spacemice — me! So I had to live on the
planet Penaltex, which was covered with
clouds of the same noxious air
that comes out of the zomborgs’
mouths. Galactic Gouda,
that would be awful!
“Geronimo, what
were you yelling
about?” Trap asked,
rolling out
of bed.
“Uh, nothing,” I mumbled.
“I just had a nightmare!”
Trap grinned. “Huh. I
dreamed that
WE WON
the
tournament, and that the
cup was made of cheese!”
I rolled my eyes. Trap was always
dreaming about cheese!
After breakfast and a warm-up practice,
our whole team headed to the stadium. It
was packed — there must have been
thousands of spectators!
As we entered, Robotix explained, “All the
galaxies are tuned in to today’s game! It will
be broadcast in Universalvision!”
I gulped. We couldn’t afford to make fools
of ourselves today!
As we stepped onto the field, the zomborgs
snarled at us.
Brax’s eyes narrowed when he saw Lionel.
He hissed, “Even if you’ve found your little
rat, you have no chance against us.
We’ll make you eat dust!”
Trap responded pleasantly, “Parmesan
dust? Delicious, though I prefer slices if
possible!”
Brax stomped away, snarling.
Before long, the robot-ref blew the whistle
to start the game! Sally, Benjamin, Bugsy,
Trap, Lionel, Whiskerkicks, and I all took
the field.
For the first
ten
minutes
, we
could barely touch the ball — the zomborgs
kept getting in our way, pushing and
tripping
us. But the robot-ref,
with his infrared 360-degree vision, didn’t
miss a single foul. Three of the zomborgs
were penalized!
Eventually, Sally got the ball and freed
herself from the tight defense of a zomborg,
slipping away quickly.