While Summer was occupied with Kyle and Eric, Denny had raced around the altercation in pursuit of Nate. Pigeon charged forward, fingers sparking, and tried to touch Denny, but the overgrown bully dodged around him and continued after Nate, roaring savagely. Pigeon swapped targets, tagging Kyle on the elbow and sending him flying.

Summer saw Nate crash through the window, hang suspended for an instant, and then topple out of view. Denny froze, stunned by the sight, probably not understanding that Nate was uninjured. Without knowing about the Ironhide, anyone would have expected to find Nate bloodied and dying on the ground below.

Kyle, Eric, Summer, and Pigeon all watched Denny edge forward and hesitantly peer through the empty window. “He’s fine!” Denny growled. “He’s up and running! Get the ship!”

Denny sprinted away from the window, back toward Summer and the others. Eric raced for the stairs, moving with remarkable speed. Pigeon ate another handful of Shock Bits and moved to block Denny. Kyle put his hand to his mouth and sprang at Pigeon. When they touched, lightning stabbed from the floor to the ceiling, blasting Pigeon and Kyle away from each other with much greater force than any Shock Bits jolt Summer had witnessed. With them having shocked each other, the effect had evidently been multiplied.

Without breaking stride, Denny picked up a table and hurled it at Summer. She rolled out of the way and ended up back on her feet, but Denny was already past her. Her reactions felt razor sharp. She had been diving out of the way before the table had left Denny’s hands.

Pigeon sat up shakily, looking shell-shocked. “I’m going to help Nate,” Summer yelled at him, already running after Denny. He was big, but swift. Even though she was running faster than she had ever sprinted, by the time she was in the hall, he was already down the stairs.

Summer noticed a bookshelf near the top of the stairs. Without pausing to worry, she vaulted over the railing, landed gracefully on top of the bookshelf, crouched, dangled from the edge, and dropped to the floor. The actions felt as simple as skipping down a sidewalk.

Dashing after Denny, not too far behind him, Summer heard glass shatter. Ahead of both of them, Eric had taken an emergency fire extinguisher from its case and hurled it through a sizable window. Eric sprang through the window, followed by Denny. Summer stopped to study the situation.

A police car idled in the parking lot. The officer was on the radio, but was ignoring the lizardlike boy and the hulking figure beside him. Denny gestured for Eric to check around the other side of the library and then ran toward the barn. Realizing that the officer was probably blinded by white fudge, Summer climbed through the window and chased after Denny.

“He’s in here!” Denny bellowed upon reaching the door with the broken pane. He threw the door open and stormed inside.

Summer followed Denny into the dim barn, hearing him noisily blunder into old-fashioned farm machinery. Denny roared, and she heard metal squealing. Rushing around the edge of the room, Summer found the ladder and suspected that Nate might have headed that way. As she rapidly climbed, she heard Denny start scaling the ladder behind her. She hoped the unstable ladder might collapse under his weight, and took a Moon Rock from her pocket just in case.

When she reached the loft, Summer saw a suspicious pile of crates below a hatch in the ceiling and knew Nate had gone that way. She raced over to the crates and clambered up through the hatch. Nate stood across the roof, near the brink. “Nate!” she called in an urgent whisper.

“Summer? Where are they?”

“Right behind me,” she said, dashing over to him.

“If I spit out the Ironhide and jump with a Moon Rock, do you think the boat will drag me down too fast?”

“Don’t chance it,” she said.

“The ship is already in bad shape,” Nate said. “I don’t want to demolish it.”

“Aha!” boomed Denny from the hatch, boosting his bulky body through. “This is what they call a dead end.”

Summer pulled something from her pocket.

“No more tricks,” Denny warned. “Give me the boat.”

Summer charged him, shouting as loud as she could.

Denny smirked and let out a tremendous bellow, a mighty cry that mingled the roar of a lion with the shriek of an eagle. As Denny roared, Summer winged the Sun Stone at him sidearm, a perfect throw into the center of his gaping mouth.

The roar abruptly ceased. Denny’s hands went to his throat, and his knees began to wobble beneath the increased pull of gravity. His body snapped forward, slamming through the roof of the barn and then through the loft below, finally smashing the barn floor with a tremendous crunch.

“You threw a Sun Stone in his mouth?” Nate marveled.

“The gum really works,” Summer said. “It felt like I couldn’t miss. Let’s hope he broke some bones.”

“I hope you didn’t kill him,” Nate said.

The thought made Summer worried. That had not been her intent. Denny had seemed so big that nothing could hurt him, but she supposed a three-story fall propelled by increased gravity could potentially kill just about anything. “Mrs. White said the Sun Stones reinforce people so the extra gravity doesn’t harm them. I bet that will protect him.”

“Oh, no,” Nate said.

Scaly Eric scrambled through the hatch, along with a taller, thinner version of Kyle. The new Kyle had spindly arms and legs, a long, narrow nose, and bluish skin. He had to be almost seven feet tall. “Careful,” Eric hissed to Kyle. “The roof didn’t hold Denny.”

“What happened to you guys?” Nate asked.

“Creature Crackers,” Kyle bragged, his voice raspier. “You guys don’t stand a chance.”

Summer spit out her gum and stuck a Flame Out in her mouth, planning to intimidate them with a warning shot. Heat radiated through her mouth—not the spiciness of hot candy but real heat, as if her tongue were a fiery coal. The temperature rapidly increased until it felt like her mouth was about to combust.

Tilting her head back, Summer expelled the candy up into the air. It emerged as a raging ball of fire, illuminating the night, growing larger as it soared higher. “Back off!” Summer yelled, staring down Eric and Kyle while readying another Flame Out.

“Summer!” Nate cried.

A quick glance skyward revealed that the fireball was falling back toward the roof of the barn. She had inadvertently shot it almost straight up. Eric and Kyle dove through the hatch. Summer raced toward the edge of the roof, a Moon Rock in her hand. She slapped the candy into her mouth as she jumped. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Nate fling himself off the roof and plummet to the ground below.