My whiskers were
trembling
with fright
as we stepped inside the dark cave. There,
snoring away, was the giant
Slurp
Monster
! He was even more
terrifying
in person.
The guards approached him and began
to
shake
him to wake him up. But the
monster kept snoring.
“Use a
long
stick
to pry open his eye!” the
king ordered.
The guards prodded the monster’s
Eye, but
he just started snoring
louder
than before.
“Maybe we should just leave,” I suggested.
The king ignored me. “Use the
space
resonator
!” he commanded.
The cheesix put a machine that looked
like an
enormouse trumpet
up
to the monster’s ear. Then . . .
The resonator let out a sound like a siren.
The monster opened his eye and let out a
terrible
ROAR
!
“Galactic Gorgonzola, I told you he would
get
angry
!” I squeaked, running out
of the cave.
The others followed me, and the
monster
stomped out behind us. He looked like he
was in a
terrible mood
.
The king and his guards
fled
, leaving me
Ooooooeeeeee!
Ooooooooeeeeee!
Zzzz!
Zzzz!
Zzzz!
Are you ready?
All set!
by myself. As I saw the king run away, I
remembered
something.
“Your Majesty,
wait
! You didn’t tell
me the
trick
to defeating
the monster!” I
yelled after him.
The king stopped. “Oh right, I forgot.
Legend
says that the monster will only be
Grrr!
Grrr!
Heeelp!
Good luck!
defeated when the hero yells, ‘
Give up,
you one-eyed fur ball!
’
Now excuse
me, Cheesemaster, but I must be
running
off!”
I couldn’t believe my ears. That was the
trick? Yelling an
insult
? That didn’t
sound like such a
good
idea to me.
The king and his guards boarded the space
shuttle and flew away.
Stinky
space
cheese
, they had left
me all alone!
I tried to remember what Professor
Greenfur had told me. And the king’s trick.
But my mind was as
BLANK as a slice
of provolone.
I was so
scared
I couldn’t think straight!
I was
done for . . .
finished . . .
hopeless!
I must go!
Hurry!
Let’s move!
Quick!
I was frozen
with fear. The Slurp Monster
grabbed
me with one hand and lifted
me into the air. The words the king had said
popped into my brain.
Grrr!
Grrr!
“Give up, you one-eyed fur ball!”
But the words only made the monster
angrier
! He growled and started to
squish
me like a mozzarella ball!
I needed another plan if I wanted to KEEP
MY FUR!
Shaken Like a
Swiss Cheese
Smoothie!
“Hang tight, Geronimo, we’re here!”
Hope
returned as I heard Thea’s voice.
She, Benjamin, Bugsy, Sally, and Robotix
came
RUNNING
toward me.
The Slurp Monster reached for them with
his other five hands. They all
him.
Thea jumped between two
furry
hands
and yelled, “Geronimo, this is for you! You
can do it!”
Then she threw me a colorful feather
.
I hesitated. The king’s trick hadn’t worked.
What if tickling made the monster even
angrier
?
I closed my eyes, imagining the monster
gobbling
me down like a jalapeño
popper. When I opened them, I saw that the
monster had
grabbed
everybody!
“
Help us
, Uncle Geronimo!” Benjamin
pleaded.
Seeing that the rodents (and robot) I
cared about most were in danger gave me
courage
. I grabbed the feather and yelled,
“
Let go of my friends
or you’ll have to deal
with me!”
Then I began to brush the
feather
against the monster’s head. He stopped
growling. His massive belly started to
shake
, and he closed his mouth to keep
himself from laughing. His one giant eye
started to tear up.
“Keep doing it, Geronimo.
It’s
working!
” Thea urged me.
Help us, Uncle!
Let them go!
Grrrr!
Hey!
Tickle, tickle,
tickle . . .
Mmmmmmfff!
“Yeah, he’s in
trouble
now!” Bugsy
cheered.
I waved the feather even
faster
and the
monster started to swell up as he tried
hard to hold back his laughter.
Holey craters, it looked like he was about
to
BURST
!
I thought I had
won
, but I was
wrong . . .
Unfortunately, he managed to hold back
his laughter. He
shook
me
like a Swiss
cheese smoothie! My insides were starting
to feel
scrambled
!
All that shaking
knocked
the feather
out of my paw. I watched it
float
slowly
to the ground.
Noooooooooo!
Is this it?
Grrrr!
Grrrr!
Then the monster lifted me above his
enormouse
mouth and opened it
wide. Believe me, friends, I have never been
so
afraid
in all my life . . .
Monstrous
Emotions
Stinky
space
cheese
, I had to try
something!
I gra
bbed the monster’s finger and started
shaking
my paw at him. “Let me go,
you big mound of fur!” I yelled.
The
SHAKING
activated my wrist
computer. It began to project the
3-D
images of the Slurp Monsters that Professor
Greenfur had sent me.
The monster’s eye grew
wide
when
he saw the other monsters. Then he let out
a big
sigh
and let go of me and the others!
We fell to the ground.
Thump!
Luckily, the surface of the planet
Aaaah!
Whoa!
Huh?
But . . .
what’s
happening?
Hey!!
Oops!
Mozzarellon is
soft
and
bouncy
, so we
didn’t get hurt. We looked at one another,
stunned
.
We couldn’t believe we were free!
“For all the short circuits, why did the
monster give up so suddenly?”
Robotix
asked.
“I have no idea!” I responded.
But Benjamin and Bugsy were both
smiling
—
they had figured it out.
“It’s obvious, Uncle G!” Benjamin said.
“Look at his face. That
giant furball
is
emotional!”
When I
looked
at the monster, I knew
Benjamin and Bugsy were right.
The monster’s
angry
expression had
completely changed. His face was
sweet
and
sad
.
“Of course!” Sally exclaimed. “The Slurp
Monster is all
alone
on this planet. Seeing
Emotional?
Is that possible?
the images of the other monsters is making
him feel
sad
. That’s why he let us go!”
“I don’t think he’s actually evil
at all. I just
think he’s
lonely
,” Bugsy said.
I understood what they meant.
Underneath
that
mountain
of
muscles,
the
monster
had
a
heart!
Galactic Gouda, who would have guessed?
I could have
escaped
then
with my
friends and never looked back. But the
monster was so sad. And the cheesix would
still have a monster
problem
. I couldn’t
just leave, could I?
Then an
idea
hit me.
“What if we help this monster find his
friends
?” I suggested. “If he were
happier, he might stop
terrorizing
the cheesix by stomping and slurping their
mozzarella bushes.”
How sad!
He’s
lonely . . .
Sniff!
Sniff!
Sniff!
Benjamin and Bugsy looked at each other.
“We have an idea,” Benjamin said.
“Follow us!”
And so we all boarded the space shuttle
and quickly returned to the MouseStar 1.
Ultragigatonic
Power!
When we reached the MouseStar 1
, Benjamin
and Bugsy
ran
to look for Professor
Greenfur. The rest of us followed them to
the professor’s lab.
“
Welcome back!
What can I do for you?”
he greeted us.
Bugsy had to catch her
breath
before
she could talk. “We need to know if you
can modify the
Teletransportix
to transport
something that is
very large
!” she
blurted out.
“And very FAR AWAY
!” Benjamin added.
Professor Greenfur frowned. “It depends
on what you have in mind,” he said.
“We think the
Slurp Monster
stomps
and slurps the mozzarella bushes because
he’s
ANGRY
that he’s all alone, and he’s
bored,” Benjamin explained. “So, if we
could transport
other
Slurp Monsters
to Mozzarellon, he might be
happier
and
stop destroying the mozzarella.”
“That’s a great idea, Benjamin!” I said.
But Professor Greenfur was still
frowning
.
“This can’t be done easily,” Professor
What do you
have
in mind?
We have
an idea!
Greenfur explained. “To
dematerialize
all the molecules of a Slurp Monster,
you would need
ultragigatonic
power
.
Our Teletransportix only has
regular
gigatonic power.”
The room went silent
as we looked at one
another,
disappointed
. Benjamin and
Bugsy’s plan was great
—
but how could we
make it happen?
“Wait, I have an idea!” Sally exclaimed
suddenly. “The
solution
might be right
under our snouts. The MouseStar 1 engine
has
ultragigatonic
power
! Working
together, Professor Greenfur and I could
temporarily transfer all of the
power
of
the spaceship to the Teletransportix.”
Bugsy grinned. “Then it would have
enough
energy
to transport a Slurp
Monster!”
Didn’t I tell you that
Sally
was brilliant?
“Excellent thinking, Sally!” Professor
Greenfur cried. “There is no time to lose.
Let’s get to work!
”
Sally and Professor Greenfur quickly
began to do calculations.
“We need to get to the
control
room
,”
Thea said. “We’ve got to locate other Slurp
Monsters in the universe!”
So Thea, Benjamin, Bugsy, Robotix, and I
hurried
to the control room, excited
about the new plan.
Harder,
Geronimo!
I
burst
into the control room first.
“Hologramix, locate all monsters similar
to the
Slurp Monster
that are present
in the universe!” I called out. “Get me their
; coordinates as quickly as possible so we
can teleport them. We are on an
urgent
mission to . . .”
That’s when I noticed that the control
room was
dark
. None of the machines
were humming. Then a
flashlight beam
appeared out of the darkness. It was my
grandfather!
“What are you
blabbering
on about,
Grandson?” Grandfather asked. “I don’t
know what
mess
you made in
the laboratory, but we’ve lost all
electricity
! Nothing works!”
“Of course!” Thea cried. “Professor
Greenfur and Sally have transferred all the
energy
from the MouseStar 1 to the
Teletransportix. But we should have asked
them to wait. We need
power
so we can
locate the
monsters
!”
What
have you
done?
Grandfather shook his head. “It’s the
same
old
story
. Once again, it’s up to me to
get you all out of
trouble
! Luckily, when
they built the MouseStar 1, I made them put
in an old
energy
generator
that will
always work in an emergency.”
“What kind of generator?” I asked.
Grandfather pulled a lever on a control
panel, and a
trapdoor
on the floor
opened up. Holey craters, I had no idea that
hiding place existed!
Then he pulled out a
strange
contraption.
It looked like a bicycle, with pedals and two
wheels
, linked by cables to a battery. He
set it up in front of me.
“Here you go, Geronimo!” he said. “Start
pedaling
!”
It looked like it would take a lot of pedaling
to generate enough
energy
to get the
control room operating.
“Maybe we should talk to Professor
Greenfur,” I suggested. “There must be
some
other
way
to —”
“There you go, Grandson, acting like
soft
cheese
again,” he scolded me.
“You said so yourself: All the ship’s energy
is needed to power the Teletransportix.
What, are you
afraid
of a little hard work?
A little