The Attack of the Aqua Apes (4 page)

The crater at the bottom of the tank started pulsating and vibrating.

Scott's pulse began to race. What was happening now?

As Scott stared into the tank, the crater cracked right down the middle. Right in half.
And there was Mac. Standing between the broken halves.

“Wow!” Glen exclaimed. “It's Mac! And look at the size of him!”

“He's the size of a mouse now!” Scott exclaimed.

“Do you think he is going to grow any bigger?” Glen asked.

“How should I know?” Scott answered. “But this tank is too small for him now. We've got to find a bigger place for him.”

“How about that aquarium you used to keep turtles in? Do you still have it?”

Scott hurried over to the closet and checked the shelves. Yep. There it was! He brought it over to the desk.

Then Scott stretched out on the floor and felt around under the bed. He pulled out a bag of blue gravel, a little plastic treasure chest, a plastic skeleton, and a plastic palm tree.

Glen grabbed the gravel and poured it into the aquarium. Then he carefully arranged the toys, planting them firmly in the gravel.

“Don't be afraid,” Scott told Mac. He slowly poured the water from the tank into the aquarium.

Mac plopped into his new home and instantly began swimming around.

“Hey, great!” Glen cheered. “I think he likes it!”

“Let's go fill up one of the big pitchers my mom has in the kitchen,” Scott said. “Mac needs more water.”

They headed out of the room. “We'll be right back, Mac,” Scott called.

Scott led the way into the kitchen and found a pitcher.

“You know what Mac looks like?” Scott asked as he filled the pitcher with water. “He looks like one of those monkeys in
The Wizard of Oz.
He's even got little wings on his back.”

“Yeah, water wings,” Glen joked.

They hurried back to Scott's room. On the way in, Scott stopped so suddenly that Glen slammed right into him.

“Hey, watch where you're going,” Glen complained.

But Scott didn't reply.

He simply pointed.

And gasped.

S
cott and Glen stared in horror at the floor.

It was littered with blue gravel. The gravel that Glen had carefully poured into the aquarium.

And the little plastic treasure chest he had positioned so securely in the gravel sat upside down on Scott's desk.

Scott searched the room for the palm tree. There it was—in two pieces. Half on the dresser and half on the bed.

The bones of the pirate skeleton were scattered everywhere.

It looked as if someone had picked up the
aquarium and hurled its contents out. Except . . .

The carpet wasn't soaked.

And the aquarium still sat on Scott's desk.

And it still had the same amount of water in it.

And Mac—now the size of a gerbil!—was still happily swimming around inside it.

“Did you do this?” Scott asked Glen.

“Are you crazy?” Glen shouted. “How could I have done it? I was with you the whole time.”

“Well, it didn't just happen by itself.”

“Gee, Scott,” Glen mocked. “Really?”

Scott moved toward his desk. The gravel crunched under his feet.

He stooped down and peered closely into the aquarium.

“Hey! What's going on!” he cried.

On the bottom of the aquarium sat one of Scott's most prized possessions—a real silver dollar, dated 1879. And right next to it was his watch—the watch his parents had given him for his last birthday. Good thing it was waterproof.

Some pennies, a pencil sharpener, a pack of gum, and a glow-in-the-dark rubber ball were in there, too.

“I don't believe this!” Scott said, over and over again. “I just don't believe this!”

As Scott and Glen stared in amazement, Mac swam under the rubber ball. He pitched it right out of the water. The ball flew from the bowl, bounced once on the desk, then fell to the floor.

“Wow!” Glen exclaimed. “Mac must be really strong. Throwing that ball would be like us throwing an elephant!”

“Do you think
he
did all
this?”
Scott asked, motioning to the toys scattered around his room.

“No way!” Glen replied. “No way!”

“But you just said he was strong,” Scott reminded him.

“Well, maybe he did throw this stuff out,” Glen answered. “But he couldn't get the other stuff in there. There's got to be another explanation.”

“Yeah? Like what?” Scott asked.

“Kelly?” Glen suggested.

“Nope. Kelly went out. We're alone here.”

Glen couldn't come up with one explanation, Scott realized. And neither could he.

They both stared down at the aquarium.

“You know wh-what this means, don't you?” Scott stammered.

“No. What?”

“It means Mac can get out!”

S
cott grabbed the aqua ape instruction booklet off his desk and flipped through it.
Are aqua apes supposed to leave their tanks?
he wondered. He didn't think so.

“Does it have a section on what happens when idiots don't use distilled water?” Glen demanded.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“It means that we have no clue what Mac's going to turn into. All because
you
had to use water from Fear Lake.”

“Yeah, well Mac's way cooler than those little white specks!” Scott insisted. “And that's all we
would have had if we had followed the instructions the way
you
wanted to.”

Scott stared down at Mac, his eyes growing wider at what he saw.

The aqua ape was busy stacking all the pennies on top of the little pencil sharpener. “I can't believe what he's doing!” he cried. “But we've got to get my stuff out of this bowl.”

“You get it out,” Glen said. “It's your stuff!”

Scott didn't want to stick his fingers in the water. He didn't know what Mac would do. But he wanted his watch and his silver dollar out of there. So he had no choice.

He decided to go for the watch first. Mac wasn't too near it.

Scott took a deep breath and shot his hand down. He grabbed the watch and jerked his hand back.

Scott grinned and shook the watch in front of Glen. Drops of water splashed across Glen's face. “Your turn,” he said. “Unless you're too scared!”

Glen wiped the water off his face with his sleeve. “I'm not the one who wants the stuff, so why should I get it?” he asked.

Scott reached for the silver dollar, feeling a lot less nervous.

He dipped his hand into the water—and snap!

A sharp, fierce pain shot through his fingers as Mac clamped down on them. Hard.

Stabbing them.

Stabbing them with his razor-sharp teeth.

“H
elp! He's got me!” Scott screamed.

Mac clawed his way up Scott's hand. It felt like hot needles jabbing into his skin. Tiny drops of blood spurted out of his skin.

Scott shook his hand back and forth. Furiously. Trying to fling Mac off. But Mac just dug his teeth in deeper.

He slithered under the sleeve of Scott's sweatshirt. Scott could feel Mac moving. Moving up. Leaving a burning trail on his bare arm.

“Help! Get him out! Get him out!” Scott jumped up and down, whacking at Mac through his shirt. “I feel like I'm on fire!”

“What's wrong with you?” Glen shouted back.

“Mac!” Scott screamed. “He ran up my sleeve!”

“He ran up your sleeve?” Glen repeated in total disbelief. “Gross!”

“Get him out!” Scott yelled.

“Take your sweatshirt off,” Glen snapped back.

Scott yanked his sweatshirt up over his head.

He glanced down at his arm.

No Mac.

He figured that Mac had to be somewhere in his sweatshirt. But he was wrong.

“Don't move,” Glen instructed him. He stared at a spot on Scott's chest.

Scott looked down and saw Mac clinging to the front of his T-shirt. Mac stared straight up at him. “Get him off me!”

Glen moved closer. But only to get a better look. “Cool,” Glen said, inspecting Mac from safely behind Scott's shoulder. “Oh, wow. He's smiling at me!

“This is totally amazing,” Glen went on. “He sure has sharp teeth. They could do some real damage. I'm not touching him.”

Scott couldn't stand having Mac stuck to him
for one more second. It was like having a big creepy insect—like a tarantula—on him.

Scott inched his hand toward the aqua ape. Mac watched carefully, but remained still.

When Scott's fingertip finally touched Mac, he was surprised by what he felt. Mac's fur was just like any other animal's fur. Even though it was wet and matted from the water, it was still soft. And Scott could tell that if it were dry it would be fluffy, too.

Suddenly, Scott wasn't so grossed out anymore. He ran his finger gently down Mac's back, petting him. And Mac really seemed to like it. He leaned into Scott's finger and rubbed against it, making little squeaking noises.

“Let me pet him,” Glen butted in.

“Oh, sure. Now you want to touch him.”

Scott watched as Glen petted Mac.

“He's really neat,” Glen had to admit. “I never thought we'd get anything like this when we ordered the aqua apes kit.”

“You didn't think we'd get anything at all,” Scott reminded him.

“Are you sure he's okay out of the water like this?” Glen changed the subject.

Scott shrugged. “He seems okay. Besides, it's
not like we took him out. He came out all by himself.” With Mac still attached to his shirt, Scott gently lowered himself to the floor. He continued to stroke Mac's fur.

Glen sat opposite him. Mac jumped off Scott's shirt and stood on the floor between the two boys.

What is he going to do?
Scott wondered. But all Mac did was glance back and forth at the two of them, as if he expected them to do something first.

“Maybe he wants to play,” Glen suggested.

“How do you play with an aqua—?” But before Scott finished, he had an idea.

Scott spotted the glow-in-the-dark ball that Mac had tossed out of the tank earlier. He picked it up from the floor and rolled it gently toward Mac.

The ball came to a stop right in front of Mac. Mac stared at it for a second. Then he peered at Scott. Then he did just what Scott hoped he would—Mac picked up the ball and tossed it back.

Scott wasn't quick enough to catch it. The ball hit him in the chest with a thump and fell to the floor.

“I can't believe how strong he is.”

“Yeah,” Scott answered, rubbing his chest. “That hurt!”

“It was an accident,” Glen defended Mac.

“I know,” Scott said, “but it still hurt.”

Glen reached for the ball and rolled it back to Mac. Mac picked it up and tossed it back to Glen.

“This is great!” Scott exclaimed.