They Came From Planet Q by Laura Dower Page B

.” I was thinking on my feet. “We could ask them nicely to leave Earth,” I offered.
    Damon cracked up. “Are you kidding me? Ask them nicely how ? With flowers and a box of candy?”
    â€œYeah,” Stella laughed. “After we sit down and have lunch together?”
    Damon piped up, “And do you speak robot, Lindsey?” “Um, I hadn’t considered the Planet Q language barrier, but—”
    â€œYou guys!” Jesse yelled loudly. “I know you’re nervous. So am I. But we have to stop talking and start moving. We don’t have any more time!”
    CCCCCCCCRASH!
    ZZZZZZZZZZZZPPT!
    BLOOOOOONK!
    â€œOh nooooo!” Stella yelped. “They’re all on the level just above us now! They’ll be down here soon! What are we going to do?”
    â€œWe need a zapper just like Roger Rogers used,” Jesse said. “And I have a good idea where we can find one. Grab the firequartz and follow me.”
    Damon and I took opposite ends of the slab and carried it out. “We can beat these bots,” I said with confidence. “Let’s go!”
    Then Jesse led us through the largest break in the rock wall, out into the loud, hot night.

CHAPTER 14
    MAKE IT ZAPPY
    When we got upstairs, we could hear the robots all around the mall, breaking up walls and crashing into cars and surrounding the area where we were. The magnetic field was so strong, it practically hummed. I felt it tug at me even though I wasn’t carrying or wearing anything metallic anymore.
    I imagined the news headline the next day:
    Through a set of windows in the mall, I saw a flash of light zapping in the distance. It looked a lot like the sunset earlier that day.
    But it wasn’t sun. It was lightning. And Damon pointed out the flash wasn’t white like normal lighting. It was red .
    This was B-Monster lightning.
    Between the robots and the sunset sky and all this firequartz dust all over my clothes, everything seemed reddish.
    I held my breath.
    Was the world coming to an end? Had that woman in the mall been right all along?
    I had a feeling we’d find our zapper outside. I was counting on Jesse to help pull it together. After all, he was the inventor of the group.
    â€œHurry!” I cried. “Let’s make a break for the front exit. We can get to the big pile faster from there.”
    â€œWait! Stop!” Jesse pointed over toward the mall. We could see the ceiling hole from here. It was bigger than ever and now a large, steely arm poked through. And I was terrified.
    More enormous robot arms appeared. Then we saw robot heads. Red bulbs on top glowed like fireballs and they moved a lot more quickly than I expected. Weren’t they supposed to be slow and running out of power, after all!?

    â€œStand here or hide?” Stella asked.
    â€œHide!” Damon said. He was probably plotting to run away again . . .
    â€œNo,” I said. “We need to stand up to them. All for one and one for mall!”
    From the middle of the bot swarm, one robot appeared that was even bigger than the rest. It had three bulbs on its head!
    â€œOh no! Who is that ?” Jesse asked.
    Damon looked at him funny. “I thought you knew everything, dude.”
    The supersized robot leaped toward us. All around it were the red laser beams, flashing like a portable electrical storm. But it looked a little sluggish. One thing was for sure: That bot had its eyes on me like I was dinner.
    All at once, as the leader bot approached, my head tingled and my hair started to stand up on end. I noticed Damon’s and Jesse’s hair, and Stella’s, too. With a last-minute surge of power, our hair went vertical—electrified!
    The moment to act was NOW.
    Without thinking, I snatched the slab out of Damon’s hand and rushed out in front of that giant bot all by myself. I don’t know where I got the strength to carry that slab on my own. You know that story about a