The Great Powers Outage (18 page)

Hal had doused his light under the mistaken assumption that the bats couldn't find him if it was dark. Ultimately it didn't matter. They had only one thought in mind and that was to escape the horrendous gas that had risen to their home in the ceiling.

Finally the shrieking, flapping noise ceased, and a few moments later Hal had regained enough nerve to brighten back up. Tadpole immediately turned and glared at Stench, who just shrugged in embarrassment.

“Hey, you guys,” Plasma Girl whispered as she slithered back through the crack between the boulders and took her normal shape. “You won't believe what's behind here. Stench, can you move these rocks?”

“Of course I can,” he said, eager to show the side of his power he was proud of. Effortlessly, he picked up one boulder after another and set them aside. But the more he moved the heavy stones the more difficult it appeared to be getting for him. Finally, with intense concentration on his face, he rolled the final boulder backward to reveal an entry into another dark chamber.

“How were you able to see in there?” I asked Plasma Girl. “It's completely dark.”

“Light was coming from somewhere,” she said with a shrug.

“Hal,” I said, “douse yourself.”

The moment Halogen Boy's light vanished, we were all able to see the same thing Plasma Girl had spotted. There was a faint glow coming through an opening set far across and lower down on the other side of this new chamber.

“Now light back up,” I instructed Hal, as I kept my eyes glued to the spot. I could no longer see the fainter light once Hal was aglow, but I knew the direction we should go.

Halogen Boy's luminosity revealed a long narrow ledge that sloped downward, always hugging the side of the cavern wall. I led the way forward as we moved in single file along the rocky path. We followed it down and down. Finally, after traveling for over a half hour, and hundreds of feet down, we arrived at the site that Plasma Girl had spotted from across the enormous cavern. The glow she had seen was now noticeable to all of us, and Hal had apparently been reducing his own illumination as this light got stronger.

“You can shut off altogether, Hal,” I told him. “The glow is bright enough by itself.”

“Huh?” he said in surprise. “Uh, okay, O Boy.”

I led us into a long, straight tunnel that went on for several hundred feet and kept getting brighter as I hurried through it. My teammates ran to catch up with me.

Reaching the end of the tunnel I saw that it opened up into a chamber even more enormous than the one we had just come from—only this one was filled with a brilliant radiance. My mouth dropped open in astonishment at the source of the light. Wedged into the center of the vast, sprawling chamber was a gigantic—and glowing—meteorite. It didn't look a day over sixty-five million years old.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Creepy Crawlies

The chamber in front of us stretched almost a mile across. From the floor of the cavern it was at least a two-hundred-foot rise to the stalactite-covered ceiling. But the immensity of the space itself seemed like nothing compared to the enormous glowing meteorite. The top of it was wedged into the ceiling far above and was no doubt what caused the large, rounded bulge of Crater Hill. I knew that it had to be directly below the water tower in the center of Telomere Park. The bottom portion of the meteorite was submerged in a wide stream that was gurgling its way through the middle of this vast chamber.

What shocked me more than anything else, though, was the meteorite itself. I had been hoping that it might be gold or platinum or maybe even encrusted with diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. But it was something far more valuable than that. It was, without a doubt, that rarest of all substances—prodigium.

As far as anyone was aware, there had only been one chunk of the element ever discovered. It had been on display in the Superopolis Museum until it was stolen on orders from Professor Brain-Drain. Because of the enormous amount of energy the substance contained, the professor had used it to power his Time Tipler. That original chunk of prodigium had been reduced to a small rock, which I then used to strand him one hundred and thirty million years in the past.

What would he have done if he had known that the very meteor that he was hoping to see destroy Superopolis was in fact a gigantic chunk of prodigium and a storehouse of unlimited power? Thankfully, it was safe from his evil clutches.

“Just look at that!” Tadpole said in amazement.

“It looks just like it did when we last saw it sixty-five million years ago,” Stench added. “Or ten days ago, depending on how you look at it.”

“It doesn't appear to have lost any of its size,” I agreed.

“How did it end up jammed into this huge cavern?” Plasma Girl asked.

“The meteorite itself hasn't budged,” I replied. “The space surrounding it, though, has formed over millions of years by water erosion. See that stream running around the base of the meteorite? Eventually it will wear away enough dirt to make it look like the meteorite is suspended above it.”

“The water is the cause and this cavern is the effect,” Hal said proudly. I noticed that he wasn't glowing at all despite his pride at mastering my lesson.

“You're right, Hal. And causes that go on for millions and millions of years can produce truly enormous effects like this.”

Even as I was saying it my eyes were focusing on something I had just noticed at the base of the meteorite. There was a boat moored in the stream, and it appeared to have a passenger. It was a strange crablike creature and it appeared to be picking away at the part of the meteorite that dipped into the water. Then I noticed there was another one. As my eyes focused, I realized there were dozens of them . . . or was it hundreds?

“What are those things?” Stench whispered from behind me, having just noticed them himself. “And look, there are a bunch of them on the shore, too.”

“Eeekk!!” Plasma Girl shrieked as she noticed the strange creatures. “They're disgusting!”

“Not so loud!” I hissed at her. But it was too late. A dozen or so of the things on shore had stopped what they were doing. They paused, as if waiting for instructions, and then began scurrying in our direction.

“Uh-oh,” said Stench. “This can't be good.”

“Let's get out of here,” I said as I began heading back down the tunnel that had led us into the cavernous chamber. No one was going to argue the point, and they fell in line right behind me.

As we ran, the illumination from the meteorite faded.

“Hal, we need some light,” I insisted.

“I'm trying,” he said, almost on the verge of tears.

I followed his voice and could vaguely see him fading dimly in and out of view. He had drunk enough apple juice that he should still have plenty of light available. Something was definitely wrong.

“We won't get anywhere in the dark,” Plasma Girl wailed. “We'll fall into a chasm and never be seen again.”

“What do we do, O Boy?” Stench said, trying to sound calm even though I knew he was worried, too. “I can hear those creatures getting closer.”

What
were
we going to do? We were trapped between a treacherous, unlit path ahead of us and some very scary crablike creatures behind us.

“Everybody be quiet,” I insisted. “Maybe if they can't hear us, they'll give up and go away.”

I knew it was a desperate ploy, but everyone followed my direction. The clicking and clacking of these creature's claws as they scrambled over the rocky floor was now echoing throughout the cave. What
were
these creatures? Their noise got louder and louder until suddenly the sound stopped. For a moment, there was complete silence, except for a slight whimpering right next to me. I knew it was Plasma Girl. I remained silent for over a minute, just listening to her, not knowing what to do.

“Use your power and escape,” I finally whispered to her.

“I can't,” she answered far too loudly. “It's not working.”

The moment she spoke, a cold, sharp claw latched onto my upper arm. I think I may have screamed, but there was no way to tell over the shrieks of my friends. Then another claw grabbed hold of my leg. Within seconds, each of my limbs was immobilized. From the shouts of my friends I could tell they were in the same position. I then felt myself hoisted into the air. A moment later we were moving back in the direction of the meteorite chamber.