Chapter Sixteen: The monkey’s uncle
Nikki was excited. She had won the power games! After it was over, the Weebles had spilled from the bleachers, many of them approaching to congratulate her. One of them said, “You done good, kid,” to which Nikki replied, “Thank you, Mr. Weeble, sir.” Another one said, “Nikki Nikki, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind! Hey Nikki! Hey Nikki!” Nikki didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just laughed.
But the strangest remark came from a chalk-white Weeble with a small nose and deep blue eyes. She had yellow and blue ribbons in her bristles and spoke in a high voice. She said, “Based on your performance today, Nikki, I am moving you up two spots in the rankings, to number two.”
Nikki cocked her head to the side, trying to make sense of what the Weeble had said. “Rankings? What rankings?” she said.
Instead of answering, the Weeble just giggled and rolled away. Samantha had overheard the conversation. She said, “They are always talking about the rankings, but we don’t know what they mean. It’s probably just nonsense, most of what they say is.”
“I don’t know …” Nikki mused.
She felt a tap on her shoulder. When she turned, she saw a toothy grin flash just before a pair of arms wrapped her up in a hug. “You did it, Super-Star!” Spencer exclaimed. He lowered his voice and said, “Don’t tell the others I said this, but I think I am working for the best superhero.”
Nikki beamed. “Thanks, Spence. And I most definitely have the best sidekick. You’re inventions were amazing.”
Spencer blushed. “Uh, thanks. I hope they help.”
Changing the subject, Nikki said, “Can I talk to you in private, Spence?”
Spencer nodded and looked around, trying to find a place for them to go. There were Weebles everywhere. He pulled Nikki by the arm, away from the mass of fur and bristles. Ducking around a high wall, Spence said, “What’s up, Snicker-Doodle?”
Nikki told him what the odd, white Weeble had said to her. She also told him that Samantha thought it was probably just nonsense.
Spencer looked at the ceiling and began to hum a tune. After sixty seconds, he lowered his gaze and said, “I agree with you, I think there’s something to it. The Weebles are definitely strange, but we can’t forget that they’re the ones who gave the power kids their powers. They must work for someone, Nikki.”
“But who?” Nikki said.
“I dunno, but we need to find out if we are ever going to get to the bottom of this mystery.”
Just as Nikki nodded, an alarm shrieked and red lights began flashing throughout the training arena. Oh no! she thought. Immediately she knew something bad had happened in Cragglyville again.
Nikki and Spencer rushed out from their hiding spot and chased after the power kids, who were already crawling through the small door. Magically, the Weebles were gone. There had been more than a hundred there just a minute ago.
Minutes later, the Power Council spilled into the room with the purple couches and took their seats. The screen had already descended from the ceiling. The same reporter from Cragglyville appeared in color. She said:
“The strange events in Cragglyville have continued into the early afternoon, as a strange boy entered the disaster zone and, according to witnesses, started turning the citizens of our small town to stone. As remarkable as it sounds, we have camera footage that confirms the eye-witness accounts.”
The screen flashed to video of downtown Cragglyville. First the screen displayed the damage from earlier in the day by the cannonball, and then moved forward to the creation of the disaster zone and the repair effort. Finally, the screen switched to a shocking picture of a police officer. He was squirming and twisting and turning, trying to escape the rocky prison that held him to the ground. It was as if he had stepped into a block of wet cement and then let it dry around him.
“Oh my gosh,” Nikki whispered. “Poor guy.” Spencer looked at her and nodded, and then reached over and gently held her hand.
Nikki gasped as the camera panned to the side to reveal at least a dozen other people cemented to Main Street. She recognized a few faces. Ms. Waverley from the library. Mr. Phelps from the post office. But none of them were as frightening as the next face she saw.
She froze. “No, no, no, no, no!” she cried. “Oh, please, no!”
Her father gazed into the camera. He looked tired, but his face was free of stress. He even managed a slight smile before the camera moved on and away from him.
Nikki couldn’t stop the tears from coming. Damaging buildings and mailboxes was one thing, but attacking the people of Cragglyville, including her father? It was too much for her to handle. Spencer put an arm around her and squeezed. She allowed herself to be comforted, to be held by her friend.
Samantha was the first to speak. “I’m sorry, Nikki. So sorry. Don’t worry, we will go back to Cragglyville to rescue your father, to rescue everyone.”
Nikki looked at her new friend and then sat up, wiping the tears from her face. She knew that now was not the time to be a child. Now was the time to be a superhero. “Can we go right away?” Nikki asked.
Samantha said, “Yes, let’s go now.”
Freddy said, “There’s one more thing we should do first.”
Nikki frowned. She didn’t want to do anything else. Didn’t want to see any more Weebles, any more gadgets, any more tunnels. She just wanted to defeat Jimmy and the other villains. Be home with her family. Be a kid.
Samantha said, “Freddy’s right. There is someone who can help us. We should talk to him first. It will only take a couple of minutes.”
Nikki knew she had to trust her new friends. After all, it wasn’t just her and Spencer anymore. They were part of a team. Members of the Power Council. She nodded.
“Who are we going to talk to?” Spencer asked.
Freddy smiled. “The monkey’s uncle.”
Spencer laughed. “Come on, who are we really gonna talk to?”
“You’ll see,” Freddy said.
Freddy led them from the room and down three or four different tunnels. Nikki barely even noticed where they were going or what tunnels they were in. Maybe one had pine needles on the ground and pine cones on the walls. She couldn’t really remember. She was too worried about her dad.
Abruptly, they stopped in a very normal-looking tunnel with rocky walls and a high ceiling. Nikki didn’t think there was anything special about this tunnel. There were no diamonds, or flowers, or fiery torches. It was just a boring, old tunnel. Or so she thought.
Freddy rubbed his hand along the crumbly wall, like a blind man trying to feel his way along. Nikki had no idea what he was doing. There was no door, no opening, no gate: just a bare, rock wall.
But then something magical happened.
Freddy pulled the rock wall to the side, as if it was merely a piece of cloth, like drapes on a window. Behind it, Nikki saw a flickering light dancing and bobbing through the dark.
Spencer said what Nikki was thinking. “How’d you do that?”
“Magic,” Chilly said.
Spencer chuckled. “Leave it to the amateur magician to give that answer.”
Freddy said, “It was just an illusion. Most of the wall is rock, but there was a curtain covering a gap. Samantha used her painting skills to make it blend in.”
“Simple,” Spencer noted, “but very cool.”
Freddy slipped through the gap in the wall. The rest of the kids followed. When Nikki passed through the short tunnel, she saw that Samantha, Mike and Freddy were already sitting in a semi-circle, their sidekicks next to them. A small fire blazed in front of them, casting its warmth throughout the cave. Beyond the fire, was a large, stone slab. Nikki couldn’t believe what was sitting atop the slab. She rubbed her eyes, pinched herself, even lightly slapped her own face, but the thing was still sitting there, its legs crossed in front, its arms at its sides, meditation-style with its palms open. A monkey.
It was big, but not as large as a goril
la. More like the orangutans Nikki had seen at the zoo when her class went there on a science field trip. Both she and Spencer had thought Freddy was joking when he said they were going to see the monkey’s uncle, but now it appeared he was serious. And the monkey was supposed to help them? What could a monkey possibly be able to do for them? Peel a banana? Throw poop at them?
Nikki glanced at Freddy and saw that he was pulling on a pair of socks. They were white with black polka dots. At first Nikki thought his feet might just be cold, but then she remembered that Freddy got his powers from his socks. And when she had first met Freddy, he had told her that one of his favorite powers was his ability to talk to animals. That must be what the polka dot socks would allow him to do: talk to the monkey!
Samantha motioned to Nikki and Spencer to sit down. They sat cross-legged next to each other, knees touching. Never one to be subtle, Spencer said, “How do you know he’s the monkey’s uncle?”
Nikki slapped a hand to her mouth to muffle her laugh. She didn’t want the monkey to think she was laughing at him.
Smiling, Samantha said, “Because he told us when he arrived.” Spencer shrugged. Nikki could tell he wanted to ask about ten more questions, but he managed to hold his tongue.
Gazing across the fluttering tentacles of flame, Nikki looked at the monkey. He looked old, with wispy gray hair on his head and arms. He also looked wise, like he had lived a thousand lifetimes and was smarter because of it. And he was looking back at Nikki, observing her, too. She wondered what he was thinking about her.
She heard a monkey noise from her left: eee eee ooh ooh aah aah, it said. Another monkey! she thought. When she turned to see where the new monkey had come from, she realized that the high-pitched monkey sounds were coming from Freddy. The monkey’s uncle answered him with ooh uh oh, eee uh oh eee. They were talking to each other.
The monkey chatter continued for a few minutes and then Freddy spoke as a human. He said, “I told him about what is happening in Cragglyville and that we have come to seek his advice. I also told him who you are, Nikki, and that you are from Cragglyville. He wants to speak directly to you. He says he has some advice for you.”
Nikki cocked her head to the side, confused. Talk directly to the monkey? But she couldn’t speak monkey; it sounded like gibberish to her. She turned to face the monkey and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Monkey’s Uncle, but I’ll need Freddy to translate.”
Freddy made a couple of grunting noises and Nikki knew he was telling the monkey what she had said. The monkey responded with some grunts of his own, and Freddy said, “The monkey’s uncle says he thinks you’re mistaken and that the brown glove you’re wearing should be able to help you out.”
Nikki looked down at her hands. She didn’t even realize that she was still wearing the powergloves. The brown glove—of course! Using it, she could transform into various animals, including monkeys. Then she could speak like them, hear like them, understand them.
Suddenly Spencer started laughing and slapping his knees. He was pointing at her. She tried to ask him why he was laughing, but it came out as ooh ooh aah aah! She sounded…she sounded…well, she sounded like a monkey! Nikki looked down at her arms and gasped when she saw what they looked like. Her pink skin had become dark and leathery. Dark brown hair covered them. Her legs were covered in the dark fur, too. While she had been thinking about her brown powerglove, she had accidentally transformed into a monkey.
She looked at Spencer and made a face. A monkey face. He began laughing even harder, and then Nikki started laughing too, a high-pitched ee ee ee ee! Nikki felt full of energy, like she could run and jump and swing from the trees all day. And she had a sudden craving for bananas. She wished she could peel back the yellow skin of a banana and devour the soft fruit.
As if sensing her desire, the monkey’s uncle reached behind the rock he was sitting on and plucked out a banana he had been hiding. He tossed it over the fire. With incredible reflexes, Nikki’s leg leapt up and she caught it…with her foot! Nikki tittered in delight. She had never caught something with her toes before. As a human girl, her feet were good for walking, running and kicking, but not for catching. But as a monkey, her feet felt as dexterous as her hands, able to grasp objects with ease.
Using both her hands and feet, she made quick work of unpeeling the banana, and then gobbled it down in only three bites. Delicious! Never had a banana tasted so good to her. As a human she liked bananas, but never loved them. Not the way she loved chocolate cake or pizza, or any of her other favorite foods. But now the banana was tastier than anything she had ever eaten. Amazing!
Upon finishing the banana, she turned her attention back to the monkey’s uncle and said, “Thank you, Monkey’s Uncle.” It came out as ihh ihh ohh ohh oooooooh! but Nikki understood exactly what she was saying.
The wise, old monkey on the stone platform said, “You’re very welcome, Nikki Powergloves, I’ve been waiting for you to come to me.” Nikki could understand exactly what he was saying! She heard Freddy speaking human, translating the conversation for the rest of the power kids and sidekicks.
“But how do you know who I am?” Nikki asked.
The monkey’s uncle said, “I know many things, Nikki. Do not ask me such trivial questions, for they do not matter. Ask me what is in your heart.” He reached behind him again and Nikki’s heart leapt; she was hoping he was going to give her another banana. Instead he extracted a pair of glasses. The frames were dark and thick. He put them on. Nikki had never seen a monkey wear glasses, but clearly this was no ordinary monkey. The glasses made him look even wiser. Like her math teacher, Mr. Kennedy.
Nikki thought about what the monkey had just said. Ask me what is in your heart. While her body was here, in the Power City, she knew her heart was back in Cragglyville with her dad, who was stuck on Main Street. Nikki knew what she had to ask. “How do we defeat Jimmy and his gang?” she said.
The glasses-wearing monkey gazed at Nikki thoughtfully. “It is the question I knew you would ask me. I can tell you two things that might help. The first thing you don’t know. The second thing you already know, but you forget sometimes. Which would you like to hear first?”
Nikki thought for a minute and then said, “The second thing—the thing I already know.”
The monkey’s uncle nodded and said, “To defeat the villains and save Cragglyville, you must trust your new friends, trust your sidekick, Spencer, but most importantly, you must trust yourself. You are a superhero, Nikki! You don’t need my advice. You are capable of nearly anything.”
When she heard his words, Nikki’s heart soared! She could hear Freddy translating the monkey’s words for the others, but she was too excited to pay any attention. The wise, old monkey’s uncle thought she could beat the villains! All of her doubts and fears suddenly disappeared, and were replaced with confidence. Then she remembered that the monkey had something else to tell her.
Nikki said, “Thank you, Mr. Monkey’s Uncle, that really helped. What was the first thing you were going to tell me, the thing I don’t already know?”
The monkey said, “You asked how to defeat Jimmy’s gang. Well, I just wanted you to know that it’s not Jimmy’s gang anymore, it’s Naomi Powerskirts’s gang. She’s taken over as the leader. I don’t know what it means, but just thought you should know.”
Nikki’s eyes opened wide. What? Ever since she had met the Weeble, found her powerchest, and become Nikki Powergloves, Jimmy had been her arch nemesis. Now he was second best? But she knew the monkey’s uncle was right, that like the Weebles, he was incapable of telling a lie. And his words scared her a little. Because she had defeated Jimmy before and knew she could beat him again. But she had never defeated Naomi Powerskirts. In fact, she had never even met her. And that scared her.
As if sensing her fear, Spencer reached out and grasped her monkey hand. He squeezed her fingers tightly. She turned and looked at him. He was smiling at her. Freddy had already translated the monkey’s words for Spencer, and
yet he was smiling. He wasn’t scared. She knew he would be with her every step of the way. She turned to the left and saw that the rest of her friends were smiling at her, too. Samantha and Freddy and Mike—and Dexter and Chilly, too. Their smiles told her that they would be there with her, fighting against the villains. She was not alone. Would never be alone again. Her heart soared and she wasn’t scared anymore.
In a flash, she changed back into a human girl again. Back into Nikki Nickerson. No, back into Nikki Powergloves, the superhero!