Free Brain That Wouldn't Obey! by Tony Abbott Page B

Holly?”
    The faces smiled. “Cool project, huh?” shouted Holly Vickers. “It’s a catapult!”
    â€œThanks a lot, friends!” Liz snarled. She got up and dusted herself off.
    Mr. Bell strode through the tables as Holly and her brother Sean popped out the top of the catapult and jumped down to the floor. “Ah, the glories of invention!” the principal boomed.
    â€œAnd all from spare parts,” said Holly.
    â€œIt can hurl objects hundreds of feet in the air,” added Sean. He looked at Mike, who was still on the floor. “Let’s try it with the potato that Mike’s got.” Sean reached for Potadio.
    â€œNo!” Mike cried. “That’s my project!”
    Sean raised his eyebrows. “Oh, sorry, Mike.” Then he grinned. “Enormous metal catapult versus dusty little potato. Hmm. I wonder who’ll win.”
    Mike glanced down at the small lump resting in his hand. Now that it was all clean, he noticed lots of scratches and scars all over it.
    The potato looked kind of sad.
    â€œSorry, little spud,” Mike whispered. “I guess you don’t stand a chance against that big thing.”
    â€œDad thinks our project is so good,” said Sean, “he’s going to make a movie with it. He’s going to call it Scary Evil Robot Ghost Gremlins from Another Scary Dimension!”
    â€œBecause plain old regular gremlins just aren’t scary enough,” said Holly, with a smile.
    Sean and Holly’s father was Todd Vickers, the not-so-famous movie director and owner of Humongous Horror Movie Studios. His movies were scary, but usually not very good.
    Suddenly, the doors of the gym flew open and in stepped a tall man. He had fluffy blond hair, a slim suit, and shiny black shoes.
    The crowd of kids and teachers grew hushed.
    â€œWho’s that?” whispered one kid.
    â€œYeah, who?” whispered another.
    The blond man stepped slowly to the center of the gym, holding up a microphone.
    He squinted out across the crowd. He began to curl his lips into a wide grin. He raised an eyebrow slowly. Very slowly.
    â€œStorm,” he announced. “Rock Storm. That’s my name and hosting is my game! I’ve come all the way from WYRD Radio to host your science awards show!” Then he looked around. “Hey, everybody—how’s my hair?”
    â€œAhem!” Principal Bell said, walking over from the other side of the gym and bending over the microphone. “We’re pleased to invite you to our display of junior scientific genius and—”
    â€œSure, sure, school-head-guy,” Rock Storm broke in. “But let me do the announcing, okay?”
    Rock Storm began by stepping over to Mike’s table. Sean, Holly, and Jeff came over and stood next to Mike and Liz.
    â€œHey, look at this,” said Rock, smirking down at the potato. “Is it lunchtime already? Ha-ha!”
    â€œActually, sir,” Mike began, “these green sprouts here are called the eyes. And these wires convert the acid in the potato to electricity. I cleaned everything, so it should work now.”
    Mike inserted the final wire and flipped the switch on the transistor radio. The tiny round speaker sputtered. Little blue lines of electricity seemed to flash from the wires. The brown lump with green sprouty eyes wobbled on the table.
    â€œIt’s gonna do it,” Mike cried out. “Everyone, prepare to hear radio!” The speaker hummed. It squealed.
    Eeeee! Everyone smacked their hands over their ears and winced at the high-pitched squeaking!
    Mike twisted the radio dials. “It’s coming!”
    Just then, Mrs. Carbonese shuffled over. She held a little camera in front of her face. “Everybody—smile!”
    FLASH!
    The burst of light from the flash seemed to shoot right at the potato, and for an instant the wires glowed white, then red, then blue!
    Mike blinked at the bright flash.
    â€œMy