14 BUBBLE TROUBLE

CHAPTER 14 BUBBLE TROUBLE Alexander, Rip, and Nikki backed away from the crinkling, snapping, one-handed bubble- wrap warrior.

Alexander shouted over the grinding clock gears. "So you sent us the striped boxes and stole our stuff!?" "Yes!" said the bubble-wrap warrior. "You humans are so annoying! You use bubble wrap to protect your shiny treasures. But then. when you no longer need us, you pop us! That hurts, you know?! I did it all for payback!" The monster's voice grew louder as it bounced closer to the three friends. "Instead of protecting your shiniest treasures, I stole them!" said The bubble-wrap warrior. "First I mailed my little helping hands to every house in town—" "The bubble wrap inside the striped boxes!" said Nikki.

"Exactly," said the monster. "But things like skates and trumpets weren't valuable enough. I needed bigger, shinier treasure! Then I heard your teacher talking about the Ruby Scorpion. So I built an awesome laser-bouncing machine from your junk!" But why are you pretending to be the Bumpy Mummy?" asked Rip. "To blend in!" said the bubble-wrap warrior. It's easy to hide in a museum when you look like a mummy! I kept lookout while my helping hand popped off to steal this— Stermont's greatest treasure!" The bubble-wrap warrior raised its handless arm toward the shadows above. Just then, the bubble-wrap hand dropped down from the gears. It was clutching the Ruby Scorpion!

It scampered up the bubble-wrap warrior's leg, and snapped itself to the end of the monster's arm. "At last, I am complete!" said the warrior. "Now that I have the ruby, there's just one thing left for me to wrap up. The monster puffed itself up. Then it lunged at Alexander.