11 A Handbook Never Lies

Chapter Eleven

A Handbook Never Lies Never take off your helmet on an unfamiliar planet. It says so right in the explorer handbook. Finn had read the section a hundred times. So many things could go wrong if someone tried to breathe alien air. They could choke. They could be poisoned. They could turn purple. They could turn orange. They could turn hairy. They could turn scaly. They could grow gills. They could turn into a cloud. They could turn into a puddle. They could turn into a frog. They could turn into a tadpole, which is a baby frog, which is weird. "Paige!" cried Finn. He was so scared for his sister. But before he could do anything, the Fuffles around everyone's heads zipped into her space suit.

Finn dove at Paige and slapped the button on the side of her helmet before she could take a breath. Her visor shut. Finn could barely see his sister's face. It was like she was under a bubbling ocean. "Paige!" yelled Finn. The giants bellowed at his cry, but he didn't care. "Paige! Can you hear me?" Paige opened her eyes. And Finn could just see through all the bubbles that she was smiling.

"I'm fine, Finn," she said. "You worry too much." Paige turned to the other explorers. "Is he always like this on your adventures?" "ALWAYS," said Voltronix. "First of all, you've never been on an exploration," Finn said to Voltronix. "And second of all. PAIGE! You're not supposed to be on this one, and you're not supposed to open your visor like that. You could have been poisoned! Or turned into a tadpole!" "I had to do something," said Paige. "And look, it worked." Paige was right. Even though the giants had roared, none of the Fuffles had popped. The glass of her helmet had absorbed the vibrations. The tiny aliens were safe. Click. "Sorry," said Foggy. "I just had to take a picture of this with my eye camera. Cute little Paige with all those cute little Fuffles. It's too much!"

ROOOARRRRR. The giants were getting closer. Luckily, it seemed no more were coming out of the volcano. For now. "This is a tricky situation," said Abigail. "It's not like the rock giants are bad, right? They just don't belong here. And they don't know they don't belong here." "Yeah, that's it!" said Elias. "They're like an invasive species. You know, like we were talking about in science class! It's when a plant or an

animal is brought to a different place. And that plant may not belong there, but it starts growing. And then it takes over the plants that were born there. The plant isn't evil. It's not the plant's fault it was brought into a new environment." Elias smiled at his friends. None of them smiled back. "Elias is totally right," Finn said. "They're like an invasive species." "Great," said Vale. "But Elias said, 'That's it,' in the middle of us being chased by giant rock monsters. You really should mean 'That's it, I have a plan to get us out of this.' Not 'That's it, this is like that one science homework.'" "Oh," said Elias. "I guess that's true. Well, the good news is that the rock monsters aren't technically chasing us yet." "Then, Elias, friend, I have bad news for you," said Foggy. "Because here they come." The explorers all turned and saw that about six of the rock monsters had turned around, abandoned the explorer pod, and were now running straight at them.