Free The Power Potion by Wendelin Van Draanen Page A

up on their back legs and produce a hissing sound while showing their fangs.
    “Holy moly tacarole!” Sticky whimpered (as he peered at them between his legs).
    The situation was, in fact, so dire that Sticky had no time to open the treasure chest, even though he’d reached it. Instead, he escaped the hissing herd of hairy beasties by zippy-toeing around the (little fake) palm trees and scampering into the (little fake) ocean. “Get back, youfreaky
fieras
!” he cried, and began scooping water at them.
    Well! If you’re ever on a desert island (little fake or otherwise) and you’re being attacked by a hungry herd of tarantulas, just spray them with water. They will retreat, and you will find your uncovered treasure chest (at least temporarily) unguarded.
    Sticky could not believe his luck and wasted no time in getting back to the chest.
    His heart was clacking like castanets as he pulled open the lid.
    His hopes were sky-high.
    But as he peered inside the chest, he discovered that it held only one item:
    The 1728 Spanish gold doubloon.
    “
Ay caramba
, no!” Sticky cried, for regardless of how cool and shiny a 1728 Spanish gold doubloon might be, it was not worth facing hairy, scary spiders to get to.
    But then he noticed a glow coming from around the inside edges of the treasure chest lid.
    There was a panel across the lid, and when he released it, he found himself face to face with a single notched coin.
    One that glowed brighter than any doubloon.
    One that shimmered like a pool of sunshine.
    One that had designs on it that were both foreign and mysterious.
    It was a single, solitary power ingot, but oh, what a power ingot!
    “The Buzzy Bee!” Sticky cried, snatching it up.
    Right behind him, however, a hungry tarantula was preparing to pounce.
    “Ay caramba!”
Sticky cried, and did a three-legged dart away from the beast, leaping over another to get onto the glass side of the terrarium.
    All the spiders suddenly wanted in on the action, clamoring and climbing and (yes) clawing to get over one another to the lizard.

    But before they could reach him, Sticky clamped the ingot in his mouth and zippy-toed up the glass wall, across the mesh covering, and out the mesh window, escaping the terrifying tank of tarantulas.
    Unfortunately, before Sticky could spend even a moment catching his breath, he heard a sound more terrifying than the hiss of tarantulas.
    More frightening than the threat of fierce and fuzzy fangs.
    More horrific than a stampeding herd of hairy, scary spiders.
    It was the bone-chilling, heart-stopping, knee-knocking voice of Damien Black.

Chapter 19
THE INNER SANCTUM
    Sticky had no time to think, so he simply reacted. He dived from the terrarium lid to the bookcase, then turbo-toed inside a little tepee formed by a wooden box and a book.
    “You boneheaded bozos!” came Damien’s voice as he blasted into the room. “You meat-headed morons! You chowder-brained chumps! I can’t believe I’m having to do all this because you can’t read!”
    “Sorry, boss!” came Pablo’s crackly voice.
    Now, as you may have already deduced, the Bandito Brothers were not trailing along behind Damien.
    They (and their bucktoothed burro, Rosie)were waiting for him outside the mansion, near the bat cave (which was, in fact, a cave full of bats, as opposed to, say,
another
bat cave that might spring to mind). Damien Black was simply multi-tasking, retrieving some last-minute supplies as he continued his conversation with the Brothers through his walkie-talkie communicator. (The communicator was another Damien contraption, and it had, among other things, a long, spirally antenna, a grid-shaped doohickey, a fan-shaped thingamabob, lots of copper wires, glowing tubes, and
lips
.)
    It was because Damien was preoccupied with the communicator (and was in a frothy fury over the Brothers) that he stormed right past the (open) pirate chest and the (open) tarantula terrarium and (without even glancing over his shoulder)