were set up everywhere around the shiny stage.
âNoodle, this is incredible. Look!â Zeek pointed to the end of the set.
There, sparkling in the light, stood the famous transport pods. Each Vulcan movie ended with the crew beaming back into the pods.
âUnbelievable,â whispered Zeek. âI want to live here.â He pulled out his camera and started taping again.
âItâs pretty cool, all right,â I said. âBut look at this.â I was standing at a table near the set. âThere are tons of future props here. Space suits, communicators, scanners, fazer guns, flashlights â¦â
âFlashlights? Ennnh! â Zeek made a sound like a game show buzzer. âWrong! We donât use flashlights in the future. We wear personal ultra-laser-halo-visor things. Nobody uses flashlights anymore! Those are wayââ
Ka-blam! More thunder blasted overhead.
The lights on the set flickered and went out. We were in the dark. Totally.
âOh, man,â Zeek groaned. âWe should be raccoons, weâre in the dark so often. I guess Iâll take one of those flashlights â¦â
I felt around in the dark and grabbed two of the flashlights from the table in front of me. I was about to turn one on. Then I heard something.
Tap-tap-tap.
I froze.
âZeek? Was that you?â I whispered. âSay yes. Please.â
âI thought it was you.â
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It sounded like metal against metal.
Zeek stumbled over to me. âJust before the lights went out, I spotted a door across the room.â
âSomeoneâs trying to get in,â I whispered.
âYeah, someone. Or some thing !â
âIâm going to open it, Zeek. Maybe theyâll show us a way out.â Zeek grabbed my arm. âNo way, Nood.â He held me back. âDid you forget the movie we saw last summer?â
I thought for a minute. âWe saw tons of movies last summer.â
âThe one with the door. The kid opens it andââ Zeek slipped into his movie voice again. â They tried to destroy it. But it kept coming back! Itâsâ â
Blam! A glowing iron fist punched a hole in the door.
â Itâsâ â
Blam! Another fist blasted through.
â Itâsâ â
BLAM! The door blew off its hinges, and a seven-foot monster robot stepped into the room.
THREE
â Itâs â Metalhead!â
Steel skull for a head. Blinking red eye. It was Metalhead, all right.
And right now that eyeball was scanning the room for human life.
âHit the deck!â I yelled. We dove across the set and slid under a navigational scanner desk.
âZeek!â I gasped. âI remember this dude. Heâs from the future. Heâs programmed to destroy. Thatâs all he does. I mean, this guy doesnât pump iron. He is iron!â
Boom-boom-boom. Metalhead stomped to the center of the room. His eye panned from side to side. Then he started to speak.
âTwo humans. Boys. Destroy them.â
âHey,â Zeek whispered. âHe canât do that. Heâs an actor!â
âUnh-uh, Zeek. A robot. Remember what the tour guide said. All their monsters are computerized.â
Suddenlyâ voom! The desk we were hiding under disappeared. And there was that ugly red eye pulsing down at us.
âOkay, Nood. Be cool. Donât make him mad.â
But I had a feeling this dude was born mad.
A second later he proved it. He grabbed Zeek, lifted him off the floor, and shook him like a baby rattle.
âNoo-oo-oo-dle!â
âLet go of my pal, Bucket Brain!â I screamed.
I couldnât believe what happened next.
Before I knew it, I jumped up, my leg flew out, andâ wump! âI gave the big guy a perfect karate kick straight to his knee.
âYeooow!â My whole body throbbed. But the creep dropped Zeek with a thud.
âBig mistake, human boy.â The iron jaw on
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