6 Radioactive Mutant Ninja Frog

Radioactive Mutant Ninja Frog

The Slime rushed along the underground tunnel and oozed up through the manhole into the streets. Cars and cabs got smeared with slime. Buses and trains dripped with slime. Fire trucks and stop signs turned from red to green. The whole city was one big mess. Streets crawled with sewer rats. Swimming pools oozed with green gunk. This was a job for Stink Frog. He uncurled his mile-long tongue. But not even he could lick up all the— "Aagh!" Stink swiped at his left arm, waking up from his dream, where he was swimming in... cat slobber! "Mouse, stop licking. That tickles!" RIBBET! Stink opened one eye. It was not a cat licking his arm. It was not a dog. It was not a guinea pig. It was a... "Frog!" yelled Stink. He bolted awake. "Hey! How did you get—" The frog leaped. Stink glanced at the open backpack on his bed. The Spider-Man comic books spilled out of it.

Last night, Stink had been so tired, he did not have to count frogs-not-sheep to get to sleep. He fell asleep reading Amazing Spider-Man #414. Stink scooped up the frog. "Hey! Did you get into my backpack last night at the lake or something?" The frog blinked. Stink stared at the frog. Wait just a frog-hopping minute! Something was not right. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Stink rubbed his eyes. He shook his head. He pinched himself. Ouch! He was awake all right. This was no-way-no-how NOT a dream. The frog did not have three legs. The frog did not have five legs. The frog did not have an extra eye or a freaky tail.

The frog was blue. Blue like the sky-blue crayon. Blue like the skyblue sky. Blue as in NOT green. No lie! This frog was not normal. This frog was mutant. This frog was ninja. This frog was... radioactive! Was it? Could it be? No way. But it must be. How else do you explain a blue frog? And... the frog had licked Stink. Just like the spider that bit Peter Parker! Freaky frog freakout! A real-live radioactive mutant frog had licked him— right on the freckle on his left arm. Stink would never ever wash that spot again. This was the best day ever! And it was only 8:31 a.m. At 8:45 a.m., Stink set up an old fishbowl for the mutant frog— King Otto the Third. He hid it under his Spider-Man pajama shirt. He hid that under his desk. A blue frog! And this rarest of frogs, this radioactive mutant ninja frog, had licked him. Stink E. Moody. This was a thing so secret, Stink did not tell anybody. He kept the freaky frog all to himself—

for a little while. He would wait. Wait for something unusual to happen. Something Peter Parker–ish. At 9:03 a.m., Stink went downstairs for breakfast. At 9:05, Stink ate a bowl of cereal. At 9:06, Stink said, "Is it just me? Or do these raisins look like dead flies?" "You hate raisins," said Judy. Glup! "Not anymore," said Stink. "Here, you can have my dead flies, too," said Judy. She plopped three wrinkly dead-fly raisins into his bowl. "Stink. Milk. On your nose," said Mom, pointing to her own nose. Slurp! At 9:13, Stink touched the tip of his nose with his tongue. Holy cow! I didn't know I could do that, thought Stink. "Weird!" Judy wiggled her own tongue up toward her nose. "Not even close," said Stink. "Since when can you touch your nose with your tongue?" "Since eight thirty-one this morning," he told Judy. Since I got licked by a mutant frog! He didn't dare say it out loud. But wait... was it

true? For real? Stink stuck out his tongue and tried again. It worked! Amazing!