A Monster of a Mystery (3 page)

Chet nodded. “And the real Spork from the movie!” he added. He pulled his Morpho mask out of his jacket pocket and put it on. “Braaaaaains!” he moaned in his best Morpho voice.

Frank was looking around at the crowd. “There sure are lots of people here. Look, even Adam Ackerman came!”

Joe looked where his brother was pointing.

“Hey, how'd he get ahead of us in line?” he complained.

“Guess he got here sooner,” Iola said, peering forward. “Hey, Phil! Isn't that your friend Biff?”

Joe spotted a tall blond kid a few people ahead of Adam in line. Biff lived in Bayport, but he went to the other elementary school. Phil knew him from soccer camp.

“You're right,” Phil said. “Biff! Yo, Biff!”

They all called Biff's name. Finally he heard them and turned around and waved. Then he hurried toward them, along with a smaller kid who looked a year or two younger. The second kid was holding a Morpho mask.

“Hi,” Biff said. “Everyone, this is my cousin Colin from Northtown. He came for the Morpho event.”

“Yeah, I heard about it on MorphoNet. I'm the world's hugest Morpho fan!” Colin exclaimed, hopping up and down on one foot and twirling
his mask. “I saw the Morpho movie in the theater fifteen times, and I have three DVD copies, plus every comic ever printed and a life-size Morpho poster in my room. I'm probably the leading expert on Morpho in the entire universe!”

Frank laughed. “Uh-oh, Chet,” he joked. “Sounds like you have some competition!”

Colin looked at Chet. “Whoa! Is that the limited-edition Morpho mask with deluxe purple slime?” he asked.

Joe looked at Chet's mask, then at Colin's. They were almost identical. But Colin's only had green slime on the nose, and Chet's had green
and
purple slime.

“Yeah,” Chet said proudly. “I wore it for Halloween this year.”

“Awesome! Let me know if you ever want to sell it,” Colin said.

“No way, it's not for sale,” Chet said. “Sorry!”

“That's okay.” Colin shrugged and started hopping on the other foot. “I bet someone will put one up for sale on MorphoNet soon.”

He put on his mask. Then he started walking around with his arms out, just like Morpho.

Chet grinned. “That's pretty good. Can you do the Morpho roar?”

“Sure!” Colin took a deep breath. “ROAAAAAR!”

“ROAAAAAR!” Chet roared back.

“No!” Mimi shrieked, covering her ears. “Stop it!”

She hid behind Iola. Iola rolled her eyes. “It's just Chet,” she told her sister. “Besides, you were the one who wanted to come today!”

Mimi started crying. “It's too scary!” she sobbed. “I only wanted to see the Giggle Girlzies!”

Chet took off his mask, and he and Iola tried to calm Mimi down. But she wouldn't stop crying.

“We'd better get back to our place in line,” Biff said. “Come on, Colin.”

“See you guys inside,” Colin said. Then he and Biff hurried off.

“Are you happy now?” Chet asked Mimi. “You scared them away.”

Joe laughed. “Yeah. Mimi's way scarier than Morpho!”

Mimi stopped crying and scowled at Joe. “Am not!” she yelled. “I'm a Giggle Girlzie!”

Iola rolled her eyes. “Will you stop complaining if we play Giggle Girlzies with you while we wait?”

“Yes!” Mimi squealed. “Giggle Girlzies! Giggle Girlzies!”

Chet made her promise to be good for the whole rest of the day. Then they all started giggling loudly. The people in line nearby gave them funny looks. But Joe figured it would be worth it if it kept Mimi out of their hair once the Morpho event started.

Ten a.m. seemed to take forever to arrive. But finally there was a murmur from the front of the line. A second later the doors swung open.

“It's time!” Joe exclaimed.

He rushed forward with the others. As soon as he got a look at the inside of the comic book store, he grinned. The place was Morphoed to the max! There were several life-size cutouts of
Morpho standing here and there. Huge posters covered every inch of wall space. Stuffed Morpho toys, plastic Sporks, and all kinds of other Morpho merchandise were everywhere.

“This is awesome!” Chet cried.

“Yeah!” Frank exclaimed.

“No!” Mimi wailed. “It's too scary! I want to leave—
right now
!”

Meeting Morpho

I
ola groaned. “We can't leave, Mimi!” she said.

“You promised to be good,” Chet reminded her.

“I don't care!” Mimi sobbed. “I—” Suddenly she stopped crying. “Hey!” she exclaimed happily. “It's Janie!”

She waved across the store. A girl her age with bright red pigtails waved back. She was standing with a teenage girl.

“That's Janie's big sister,” Chet said. “Come on, Mimi, let's go talk to her.”

Moments later he returned—without Mimi. “Did Janie's sister say she'd watch her?” Iola asked.

“Uh-huh.” Chet looked happy. “They're back in the corner of the store with the girly books.”

Frank wasn't paying much attention to them. There was too much cool Morpho stuff to look at! Unfortunately, it was getting harder and harder to see it all as more people crowded into the store.

He looked toward the back wall. There was a door in the middle marked Employees Only. On the left side of the door was the kids' section of the store. On the other side there was a temporary wooden stage.

“What time does the show start?” he asked.

Joe stood on tiptoe to read the sign near the front door. “It says the special guests appear at ten thirty,” he said. “We have time to look around first.”

“Let's go check out the newest Morpho comic book,” Phil suggested.

Frank followed Phil toward a rack of comics nearby. When they got there, he looked back. He saw lots of people, but not Joe or Chet or Iola.

“Oops,” he said. “I think we lost the others.”

Phil shrugged and reached for a Morpho comic. “We'll find them when the show starts.”

“I hope so.” Frank glanced around. “This place is packed!”

He and Phil were still looking at the comics when Biff found them. “Hi,” he said. “This is cool, isn't it?”

“Yeah,” Frank agreed. “Where's your cousin?”

“I'm not sure. We got separated.” Biff looked around. He was taller than a lot of the kids in the store, so Frank guessed he had a pretty good view. “He's probably over by the stage staking out a front-row spot. He won't want to miss
getting a great view of his idol, Morpho!”

Phil laughed. “Yeah. He seemed pretty excited.”

“The rest of us might be Morpho fans,” Biff said with a grin, “but Colin's a Morpho
superfan
!”

The three of them were still hanging out near the comic rack when they heard a commotion from the back of the store. “Come on,” Biff said. “It must be starting!”

Frank dropped the comic book he was holding. Then he rushed toward the back of the store with the others. When they reached the crowd around the stage, Frank spotted Joe standing with Iola. He, Phil, and Biff joined them just as Morpho himself burst out from the Employees Only door.

“ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!” he yelled so loudly that Frank's ears hurt.

Most of the crowd roared back or yelled with excitement. But then Frank heard an even louder shriek of fear.

“Uh-oh,” he muttered.

Glancing to the left, he was just in time to see Mimi and her little friend race into the back through the Employees Only door, screaming with terror. Janie's sister rushed after them, looking worried.

Iola saw them, too. “Oh no,” she moaned. “Where's Chet? We should probably go after her.”

“Forget it,” Phil told her. “That older girl babysits Mimi sometimes, right? She'll be able to find them.”

Iola still looked worried. But she nodded. “I guess you're right.”

Up on the stage, the man in the Morpho costume reached up and lifted off his mask. Frank was surprised by what he looked like underneath. Morpho was big and beefy, like a superstrong bodybuilder. But the actor who played him looked like a normal guy. He was actually kind of wimpy-looking.

But when he spoke, he had a deep voice. “Thanks for coming, everyone,” he said. “My name's Jack, and I'm lucky to play Morpho in the movies. Now I'd like to introduce you to the guy who first brought him to life in the comics we all know and love. Come on out, Dave!”

The artist hurried out and said hello. He looked like a regular guy too.

“Neither of them looks much like the Morpho type,” Joe whispered to Frank.

“I know what you mean,” Frank murmured back. “But I guess that's what Morpho is all about, right? He can morph to look like anyone at all, like those guys. Or us. Or even Mimi.”

He shot another look toward the door. There was still no sign of the girls.

But he didn't worry about that for long. The actor and artist sat down on stools and started talking about the history of Morpho. It was really interesting. First the artist showed some sketches. Then an assistant brought out a few props from the movie.