Star League 3 Page 2

  I hand him back his bag and Jay steps forward. ‘If you’re not really a mummy, why were you making all those moaning sounds?’ Jay asks.

  ‘Are you kidding? You try walking around all day with people tugging on your bandages, then tell me how your back feels! This job is killing me! And having weird kids steal your lunch doesn’t make it any easier.’ He peers at me closely. ‘Hey, what’s wrong with you anyway? Your skin’s all green. And I think your ear just fell off!’

  ‘Uh, happy Halloween!’ I say, reaching down to pick up my ear. ‘Trick or treat!’

  ‘But it’s June,’ says the mummy.

  The Loosifying Juice is wearing off more quickly than I thought it would. Parts of me are already starting to freeze up and crumble off. I pop another piece of Braynes Gum in my mouth and notice I only have two pieces left.

  ‘Hey guys, if I don’t get that book back soon I’m going to run out of Loosifying Juice. And if that happens, I’ll go permanently Humpty!’

  ‘Humpty?’ asks Leigh in confusion.

  ‘As in I’ll go to pieces and nobody will be able to put me back together again!’

  We race into the museum, leaving the mummy to eat his lentil pudding in peace.

  We race into the museum, leaving the mummy to eat his lentil pudding in peeace.

  After paying for our tickets we follow the signs to the Egyptian exhibition. We enter a large circular room decked out in all sorts of Egyptian artefacts, so I think we’re probably in the right place. Either that or we’ve walked into a travel agency with a special on Egypt.

  ‘It’s pretty quiet down here,’ says Connor.

  ‘Maybe a bit too quiet,’ whispers Asuka. ‘Isn’t this supposed to be their main attraction?’

  ‘Yeah, this place should be packed,’ says Leigh, and Chu chirps in agreement. ‘So where is everybody?’

  ‘Uh, I think we just got our answer,’ says Jay, looking over my shoulder.

  I turn to look but all I can see are six statues standing between us and the entrance. Funny, I definitely didn’t notice them when I walked in. It’s like they’ve appeared out of nowhere. They have human bodies but weird, dog-like heads and they’re wearing snake-shaped crowns.

  ‘What, these guys?’ I walk over to one and read the little plaque at its base. ‘Says here they’re called Anubites. The only thing that bites is the craftsmanship! They’re not even painted that well. They look pretty fake to me …’

  Then the statue growls, and I jump out of the way so fast I almost fall apart. They’re alive! The dog-headed statues surround us, growling and snapping at the air, their sharp white teeth glistening with saliva.

  ‘Quick! Everybody on your guard,’ says Jay. ‘There are six of them and six of us. Pick one and stay on it!’

  I reach into my satchel and pull out a potion. I don’t even look at the vial before throwing it, and as I see it leave my hand I realise it’s Zombification Potion.

  The vial sails over the head of the statue I threw it at and smashes into a display of stuffed birds. The birds slowly start to ruffle their feathers as they come back to life.

  ‘Thanks, Roger, great thinking!’ shouts Leigh.

  ‘Uh, sure,’ I say. ‘That was my plan all along. Yep!’

  She closes her eyes and uses her animancer powers on the birds. They fly up into the air and dive towards the statue closest to Leigh. The flock peck furiously at the Anubite’s head, squawking and scratching at it with their claws.

  I look around and the others are fast at work demolishing their own Anubites. Jay unleashes a barrage of punches on his, and backs it into a corner. Asuka is busy ducking her statue’s attacks, leading it around in a circle and confusing it. Connor has transformed into a werewolf and is locking arms with his Anubite, both of them snarling ferociously. Sam calmly leads his statue on a chase until it’s right where he wants it, then he places his hand on a security panel. One of the display cases slides open and the statue stumbles into it, trapped. It pounds on the unbreakable glass, trying to get out.

  I’m so busy standing around gawking that I don’t notice my own statue creeping up on me until it’s too late. Out of the corner of my eye I see a blur, and then a fist flies towards my face.

  I raise my potion satchel to protect myself and the statue’s rock-hard fist smashes into it. My hand pops off its wrist and flies across the room. I can’t do anything except watch as my left hand and my satchel full of potions spins through the air and lands with a thud in an ancient Egyptian burial urn. I try to call it back but the bag of potions is heavy and I don’t think my hand will make it back before I’m mincemeat.

  Uh-oh. How am I going to fight this guy now? I look around for help but everyone’s still busy with their own statues. Mine stalks towards me with an angry look in his eye, and I make a fist with my remaining right hand.

  ‘You wouldn’t hit a one-handed kid, would you?’ I ask.

  I’m ready to say goodbye to it all at the hands of an ancient dog-headed statue when I get an idea. I reach in to my pocket and pop a piece of Braynes Gum in my mouth.

  ‘You know, I find it hard to keep my head under pressure,’ I say, chewing quickly. The Anubite stares at me and keeps coming. Before he can pound me into zombie soup, I pop my head off my shoulders and throw it across the room. Everything spins in such a whirl that I feel like I’m going to puke. I close my eyes and cross my fingers (which are on the other side of the room) hoping that this plan works.

  Once I feel my head come to a stop I open my eyes. The Anubite has left my body alone to chase my head. Its doggy instincts must have kicked in – I knew a dog could never resist chasing a ball!

  Part one of my plan is complete, now I’ve just got to hope the rest of it goes smoothly. I quickly pop off my right hand, which leaves me with two stumps. Guess I won’t make much of a handyman in this state!

  The Anubite gets tired of playing chasey and growls down at me. I can feel its hot breath on my face, and strings of saliva drip from its jaws. Gross! If I don’t act quickly I’m going to be dog food!

  Then something drops onto the back of the Anubite’s neck. It yelps in surprise and spins around trying to dislodge it. I catch a glimpse of the thing on the back of its neck – my right hand!

  ‘Who needs a right-hand-man when you’ve got a right hand?’ I ask with a grin. The Anubite is so busy spinning around he doesn’t notice that my feet have also come to join the party. The statue trips over them and lands with a crash on the floor.

  ‘Looks like you’ve really fallen head over heels for me!’ Sometimes I crack myself up, which is what this statue is starting to do! Little pieces of stone begin to crumble off it as my feet give it the kicking of its life. But what are two feet against a dog-headed statue brought to life? It growls and throws them off, then gets to its feet.

  That’s when my left hand shows up carrying my satchel of potions. ‘Finally! Do you know what time it is? Oh, you’re not wearing a watch.’ I concentrate on directing my disembodied hand to dig around in the satchel, looking for the right potion. It pulls out a dark green potion and throws it.

  The glass vial smashes at the statue’s feet. There’s a loud rumbling, then a tangle of vines bursts through the floor of the museum and ensnares the Anubite. The vines hold it tight, squeezing it until the statue cracks loudly. Parts of the Anubite start to crumble off onto the ground – small bits at first, followed by larger chunks. Then the whole thing collapses into a heap of rubble and all that’s left is the snake-shaped crown it was wearing and a pile of pebbles.

  As I pull my body parts back together I look around and see that the others have finished with their statues too. Five other piles of rubble with snake-shaped crowns lie around the room, which is a total mess.

  ‘Uh, we might want to get out of here before somebody comes along and makes us clean this up,’ I say. ‘I’d rather face a hundred Anubites than a mop and bucket. I signed up to fight crime, not grime!’

  ‘Roger’s finally making sense,’
says Connor, ‘but where to next? These guys came out of nowhere. It’s almost like there’s a secret passageway in here or something.’

  A light switches on in my brain as I remember something from when my hand fell in the burial urn. I walk over to it and reach in, feeling around. I press a button hidden inside and a secret doorway slides open.

  ‘You mean something like this?’ I ask with a grin.

  We pass through the secret door and come out into a square chamber. As soon as we’re inside, the door slides shut behind us, locking us in. Sam tries to disable the locking mechanism, and when that doesn’t work Connor tries to knock the door down, but it seems like our only path of escape is blocked. We all jump as a voice echoes through the room.

  ‘What’s the matter, Star League, feeling a bit trapped?’

  ‘That’s Nefertina!’ I gasp, recognising the voice instantly. ‘Where are you?’ I look around and spot a speaker near the door.

  She cackles. ‘I think you’d do better to ask where you are. You see, this room may prove a rather crushing defeat for the six of you!’

  Uh-oh, I don’t like the sound of that!

  ‘I thought my Anubite statues would stop you, but they failed miserably. Still, I don’t see you getting out of this contraption alive. I hope you all enjoy getting a lot closer to each other!’

  As she says that the walls of the chamber start to move inward like a giant garbage compactor. My heart pounds – if we don’t get out of this room soon we’ll be crushed. I don’t think even my collapsible parts could survive something like that!

  ‘Anyway, I have important business to attend to, so I hope you don’t mind if I leave you to it,’ gloats Nefertina. ‘I’ll see you all later … on second thoughts, I probably won’t!’ She erupts into laughter and the speaker falls silent.

  We stare at each other. We can fight our way out of most things, no problem, but this? How are we supposed to fight a wall? That’s when I notice Jay’s look of concentration. There’s no fear in his eyes, just determination. He’s staring at something high above our heads. I look up and notice what he’s staring at.

  ‘There’s a viewing platform up there,’ he says. ‘It’s hard to see because it’s dark, but that must be where Nefertina was watching us from. And if that’s where she was watching us, then that’s where the controls are!’

  ‘So we’ve got to get up there, somehow. It’s pretty high,’ says Connor. ‘Asuka, do you think you could climb up there?’

  She leaps up and tries to grab onto part of the wall, but slides back down again.

  ‘There aren’t any handholds,’ she says with a shake of her head. She takes out a climbing spike and tries to drive it into the wall, but it bounces right off. ‘I think these walls are made of titanium or something.’

  Speaking of walls, it’s getting kind of cosy in here. The sides of the room are getting closer and closer, and I’d rather not spend my last moments with my nose wedged into a werewolf’s armpit.

  Leigh tries to send Chu up the walls, but it’s too slippery even for his monkey paws.

  ‘What about you, Sam? Can you shut off the controls from here?’ asks Jay. His voice is still calm, a lot calmer than I’m feeling!

  ‘Negative. I need to connect with the circuitry to do that.’

  Jay looks thoughtful for a moment, then straightens up. ‘I’ve got an idea!’ He turns to me. ‘Roger, you’ll need to give me a hand with this one.’

  Huh? Jay holds out his hand and it takes me a moment to realise he wants my hand – literally!

  I pop my last piece of Braynes Gum in my mouth, then when I’m all loosened up I pull my hand off my wrist and give it to Jay, hoping that he’s not going to use it to jam up the gears of the wall mechanism. He gives it to Connor.

  ‘Connor, you’re the strongest one here. Do you think you can throw Roger’s hand high enough to get it onto that platform?’

  Connor measures the distance and nods, taking my hand with a grossed-out expression on his face. I resist the urge to honk his nose and freak him out, because this is definitely no time for jokes.

  Connor draws his arm back as far as he can, which isn’t that far because it’s getting pretty cramped in here. Then he throws my hand with all his might. We all hold our breath as my hand flies up into the air and starts to fall back down to earth again. Then it lands with a thud … right on the platform!

  ‘Nice going, Connor,’ I say. ‘I’d shake your hand, but, well …’ I wave to my stump.

  ‘Okay, Roger, we need you to find those controls,’ says Jay.

  ‘How am I supposed to do that? I can’t see with my hand!’

  ‘We need you to try or we’re going to end up as pancakes. Come on, Roger, I know you can do it.’ Jay grins, and I try to swallow my doubt.

  I close my eyes and try not to focus on the walls that are getting closer with every second. I feel my hand twitching up on the platform, then I make it rise up on its fingers and start exploring. It’s a strange feeling, making my parts move by themselves. It feels like they’re still attached to my body, but very far away at the same time, as though there’s an invisible cord holding all my limbs together.

  My fingers scramble across the floor and bump up against the base of some kind of desk. I grip the leg of the desk and make my hand climb up.

  When it gets to the top I brush the surface, trying to find something that might be the controls. I’ve never done this without sight before, and it’s much harder. I feel a button and press it, but all that happens is the loudspeaker by the door crackles.

  ‘Wrong button,’ I mutter.

  By this point the walls are pressing firmly against my chest and back. The others are all lined up on either side of me in a row. I can hear Connor grunting, trying to push the walls back, but it’s too much even for his strength.

  ‘Maybe you could hurry it up a bit!’ says Connor.

  ‘Don’t rush me, I’ve got to concentrate!’

  But I know he’s right. My heart is pounding. What if I can’t find the controls in time? We’ll be crushed and it’ll be my fault! The walls get closer and closer until it’s hard to breathe, and I start to give up. After all the bad guys we’ve fought, I can’t believe it’s all going to end because of a stupid wall!

  I get so mad that I clench my fist up on the platform and slam it down on the surface top. And that’s when I feel something click beneath my fist. Slowly the walls groan to a stop, then reverse their direction.

  I’ve done it! I found the controls!

  ‘Great job, Roger!’ Jay slaps me on the back once the walls have moved back enough to give us room.

  ‘Yeah, for a while there I thought we were going to get turned into paste,’ says Asuka.

  I concentrate on guiding my disembodied hand over the edge of the platform. As it falls I catch it with my other hand and twist it back onto my wrist.

  ‘Hey! Is that what I think it is?’ asks Leigh. She points to a panel in the wall that has slid open to reveal an exit.

  ‘You must have released the panel mechanism when you deactivated the compactor,’ says Sam.

  ‘Yeah, either that or it’s a trap,’ mutters Connor.

  ‘Well, then, maybe you should go first!’ I say brightly. He frowns at me, then quickly exits through the panel.

  ‘Connor, wait!’ says Jay, ‘You shouldn’t rush into …’ but Jay is cut off by a loud gasp from Connor. We rush through the panel after him, but he’s fine, though he’s turned very pale.

  ‘What’s the matter, Connor?’ asks Asuka. He doesn’t say anything but points down in front of him. We follow his gaze and gasp.

  Set into the floor ahead of us is a deep pit. But it’s what is in the pit that makes me worried. Scorpions! Hundreds … thousands … of deadly scorpions! Yuck! I’d rather face an army of mummies than this many bugs. The thought of it makes my skin crawl.

  ‘Uh, maybe I don’t need that recipe book as much as I think I do,’ I shrug. As I do, the little finger on my left hand
falls off. I quickly reach down and put it in my pocket, hoping the others didn’t see, but I’m not fooling anyone.

  ‘Roger, if you don’t get that recipe book back soon you’re going to be missing more pieces than a second-hand jigsaw puzzle,’ says Jay. ‘And besides, we need to find out what Nefertina’s grand plan is and put a stop to it.’

  He turns back to the pit, which looks like a sea of very sharp stingers. ‘Maybe we could build some kind of bridge across …’

  ‘Negative, we have no materials,’ says Sam.

  ‘Well then, we’ll have to go through it.’ Jay turns to Leigh. ‘Can you talk to insects as well as animals?’

  She nods. ‘But I’ve never tried to talk to scorpions before. They’re pretty aggressive, I just hope they’ll listen to me.’ She walks up to the edge of the pit and starts talking to the scorpions. At the sound of her voice the scorpions stop moving and all turn towards her.

  ‘They say they’ll let us pass without stinging us.’

  ‘Are they telling the truth?’ asks Connor.

  Leigh shrugs. ‘It’s hard to tell. But I guess there’s one way to find out!’

  She lowers herself over the edge of the pit of scorpions like she’s getting into a pool and starts to wade through the mass of insect bodies. Then Jay follows with Connor, Asuka and Sam close behind him. I look around and realise I’m the only one left on dry land.

  ‘Come on, Roger,’ says Jay. ‘They seem to be behaving themselves.’

  I wonder if I can somehow take my body apart and throw myself across, piece by piece. But there are two problems with my plan: one, I’ll still have to guide my hand through the pit since there will be nothing left to throw it. And two, I’m all out of Braynes Gum. Without the Loosifying Juice it contains, the next time I take myself apart I might just stay that way for good!

  I guess there’s no other way. I take a deep breath and slide over the edge of the pit.

  Being in a pit full of scorpions is every bit as disgusting as it sounds. As I wade through their scratchy bodies I try not to think about them getting under my clothes and stinging me. Except the more I try not to think about it, the more I end up thinking about it!