3 I’m Going to Need You to Spell That

Chapter Three I'm Going to Need You to Spell That "Foggy, up!" Abigail shouted. "Grab us and go!" Maybe Foggy only heard the first part. The stomping of the giant gray aliens was so loud Abigail could hardly hear herself. As soon as the aliens started charging the kids, Foggy activated the rocket boosters in his feet. He shot off directly toward the giants as Finn, Abigail, Elias, and Vale scattered behind him. To be fair to Foggy, he did catch the giants by surprise. They didn't know what to do with this strange metal creature flying straight at them. The giant in the middle stopped dead in its tracks and cocked its head to the side. Maybe it was the fire coming out of Foggy's feet. Maybe it was the fact that Foggy had been standing still a second ago

and was now shooting directly at it. Or maybe it was the big smile on Foggy's face as he flew straight at the giant's nose.

"Hallo, friend!" cried Foggy just before the middle giant swatted him away. Foggy bounced off the belly of the alien on the right, then off the belly of the alien on the left, and finally came to a clumsy halt on the floor. "Well, that was unpleasant," said the robot. "And I believe we have eleven minutes and forty-

two seconds now to solve your little—" Foggy held up his hand to the giants. "DON'T run around screaming or smack me again, big things," Foggy said. "I'm simply stating, we need to get to work." In the back of the courtyard, the four explorers were hiding behind a stem of giant berries that dangled off one of the plants. "Okay," Vale whispered to his friends. "Abigail and Finn, you two climb this plant. Elias and I will pass you this bunch of berries here. When you get to the top, throw them at the giants. See if you can splatter them on their faces so they can't see. Then Elias and I will run out of the garden and meet you two and Foggy back at the explorer pod. Got it?" "So your plan is that Abigail and I throw a bunch of fruit at three angry giants while you two slip away?" said Finn. He was starting to sweat from the heat of the gardens. The fact that his thick black hair had stuck to his forehead was only adding to his frustration. There's no good way to get sweaty hair out of your eyes with an eight-pound helmet on your head. "That sounds like a great plan if your name isn't Abigail or Finn."

"Yeah," said Abigail. "And there are only eight berries in this bunch, but there are three aliens with four eyes each, so that's twelve. Maybe while we're throwing berries at them, you two can run out and poke the other four eyes." "Ha-ha, very funny," said Vale. "Got any other ideas? Those three are going to blow up this planet in a couple minutes, so make it snappy." "STOP!" Another alien voice, louder than the other ones, rang out in the explorers' heads. "My guards are a little jumpy, but they would never harm this planet." "How about four kids and a tin can?" asked Vale. "They have any plans to harm us?" But the giant aliens were already shuffling back between the tall trees. Something had spooked them. A small alien walked out from the shadows. It looked like the smaller aliens that had met the explorers when they landed, only its tennis-ball brain shone bright red.

There was also something about the look on its face, the openness of its four eyes, that helped the explorers relax. They made their way out from under the leaves, embarrassed to have cowered in the corner. Finn helped Foggy off the ground. "You okay?" Finn whispered. "Never better," said Foggy. "You just got smacked by a giant and bounced off two bellies," said Finn. "You sure about that?" "Of course!" said Foggy. "I think the little red-brained guy is about to send us on our adventure." The explorers all felt the alien leader laugh.