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hanging wide open. Fangs dripped with blue drool.
    “Ready?” Stella howled at the top of her lungs.
    We steadied our cans and hoses.
    “Aim . . .”
    I held my breath and braced myself.
    “SPRAY!”
    Those B-Monster bugs didn’t know what hit them. The spray gushed out of all our hoses in a powerful burst. The formula seemed to sting the bugs. They made that noise like at the drive-in.
    Squeeeeeeeeeee.
    One hose worked fine. But when I went to reload, it jammed. I was stuck with a bad can. I reached around to my backpack to fix it, when I saw something incredible.
    The seven Mega Mantids began to shrink !
    They went from mega to mini in a matter of seconds.
    “How did that happen?” Lindsey asked. “I thought you said your dad’s invention didn’t shrink?”
    “It didn’t!” Ranger cried.
    “Something must have happened when the RID mixed in with the shrinking formula that was left in the cans,” I said.
    Down on the ground, the Mini Mantids began to wriggle away.
    “Hey!” Stella cried. “We can’t let them go!”
    Without thinking, I raised my foot and stomped. Hard. Bug guts splurted everywhere ! It was like when Dad swatted the two flies at once in my room. With only a few strategically placed steps, I got every single mantis under my treads.
    It was stomptacular!
    But we weren’t done with Mega Mantis yet.
    We still had to search the entire Air Force Base to make sure we got all of the mantids. Then there was the problem of that headless mantis at the edge of the field. What were we supposed to do about that? Plus, we needed to find the original Mega Mantis reel and make sure no one had watched it and released another B-Monster into the world.
    This was messier than my room at the end of the week.
    Ranger and Stella were arguing about what we should do first. They wanted to head back to Leery Castle to give Walter an update. But I nixed that idea.
    I had a much better plan.
    “Forget the castle,” I said. “We need to get the reel and I have a feeling I know where it is. Walter can meet us there.”

CHAPTER 15
    THE DOCTOR IS IN
    “Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!” I said. I liked being in charge. “We have to get to Dr. Von Rosenhof’s place fast!”
    I had a hunch that Dr. V’s place was where all the trouble started. I’m no genius when it comes to vocabulary, but I get pretty good hunches.
    Stella hated this hunch. She looked at me like Mega Mantis One looked at Mega Mantis Two before it chewed off its head.
    We still had the spray cans on our backs when we climbed aboard our bikes. We’d used Stella’s cell phone to call Walter. He said he would drive the limousine down to meet us right away.
    As we pedaled along, I felt tired. I couldn’t wait to get my huge pack off my back. Everyone else’s cans were drained from the mantis assault. I still had one full can of RID sloshing around inside mine.

    Stella had been right about one thing. Dr. V’s property was mysterious. We could hardly see the house from the road thanks to a giant fence. But I wasn’t scared. What could be scarier than being attacked by giant mantids who escaped from a B-Monster movie?
    We ditched our bikes and tiptoed behind a row of bushes toward an enormous bay window at the back. Inside was flickering blue. The four of us peered through the glass.
    “We could just ring the front doorbell,” Ranger said.
    “Nah,” Lindsey said, holding up her camera. “Sneaking is half the fun. Say parmesan, Jesse!”
    He smirked. She snapped. Some guy was asleep on a chair inside, but the camera flash didn’t make him move.
    Off to the side of the guy’s chair, I saw a television. I couldn’t hear, but movie credits scrolled down the screen.
    Directed by . . .
    “Nooooooooo!” I wailed and banged on the glass.
    “What are you doing?” Ranger said.
    “You’ll wake him up, dork!” Stella said, insulting me.
    “I know!” I cried. “That’s the idea. Look!”
    The scrolling credits were from none other than Mega Mantis.
    And