The ship roared into space. Betty smiled, sitting poised in the captain's chair. It felt great to be back in her uniform, her boots, gloves and headgear, ready for action! Sparky and X-5 tore off their disguises.

"Thank goodness!" Sparky sputtered. "I was suffocating in that outfit!"

"I wouldn't have guessed," said X-5, "from the way you were talking."

"Hey, how else could I make myself heard over that racket? Speaking of which--" he turned to the prisoner, who was floating inside a shimmering spherical force field. "Shut up!"

Infantor was in full tantrum mode, face twisted and purple. He flipped and rolled and waved his fists. "It's not fair, it's not fair! But it don't matter. You'll never find the hideout!" Wild laughter.

"We'll see about that!" Betty leaned forward, eyes intent on the main viewscreen. She held out a sheet of notebook paper. On it, she had copied the circle structure from Infantor's Maximus drawings. "X-5. Run a data bank search for any structure with these dimensions. I'll bet that gets us where we need to go!"

Infantor, silent at last, gaped at the paper. "How did youse get that--I mean, that don't mean nothin'. Just a drawing!"

X-5 fed the sheet into the shipboard computer and watched the readout. "Yes, it's a unique structure. Readily recognizable..."

"It's a big ball with an antenna!" Sparky looked over X-5's shoulder. "Just find out where in the galaxy it is!"

X-5 waited while the computer whirred. "Here!" His claw thumped down on a star chart. "Planet San Crystalball, the biggest crystal formation in the galaxy. Like a big jewel."

"Good going! Get us there fast. That's where we rendez-vous with Mr. I.Q.!"

"Any restaurants along the way?" Sparky rubbed his stomach. "This is working up an appetite."

"Sparky!" Betty and X-5 cried. Infantor just floated inside the force field, pouting.

At his lair, Maximus I.Q. watched the multitudes of destroyer robots arrayed on his bank of monitors, and rubbed his hands. Through the windows, the San Crystalball landscape sparkled, spiked with formations that towered into the sky like skyscrapers of blue and green glass.

"At last, our day has come! Striking a deal with Infantor was the smartest thing I have ever done--a move so bold, so daring, so innovative, that only I could have made it!"

Minimus stood beside him. "Uh, 'scuse me, master? I thought it was Infantor's idea--"

Maximus cuffed him, and his head spun around so that his meek face flashed by, then his evil face, meek, evil, meek, evil. Finally the spinning stopped, both faces green with dizziness.

Maximus glared down at him. "You were saying?"

"Nuttin' your vileness, nothing master, nuttin'-reviledness, nothing!" both faces babbled at once.

Maximus, arrayed in red robe, lynx-ears jutting out, pointed to his control panel. "You see this button, Minimus?"

"Uh...no." Minimus was still green, and swaying as if about to fall.

"This crimson one, you dolt!" It was in the middle of the control panel, big as his hand. "When I push it..." His feline face lit up. "It will transmit the order to launch the final, most gigantic wave of destroyer robots! The enemy forces on every planet have been worn down by my previous waves. Just wait till this one hits them! It'll shatter everyone's remaining defenses like Byrellian crystal!" He raised his arms. "At last, I will have conquered the galaxy!"

Minimus' meek face spun to face its master. "Ingenius, your ingeniousness! How'd Infantor ever get you to--I mean, how did you get him to go along with it?"

"Why, simple. He shall receive ownership of every toy and candy shop on every planet in the entire galaxy. You've heard of the kid in the candy store, Minimus? How about the kid who owns all the candy stores?" Maximus clapped his hands, laughing. "Now what baby could ever resist that? Mu-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Minimus joined in the laughter. Then his evil face asked, "And what have you got planned for Atomic Betty, boss? I know you must have something planned!"

"Right you are, Minimus. I intend to present her with a broom, mop and bucket, and she can spend her whole life following Infantor from store to store, cleaning up all his messes! And he assures me he can make quite a mess!" They both burst out laughing again.

Suddenly there was an electronic whooping noise.

"What?" Maximus whipped his head around, toward the main display. "The proximity alarm? That's impossible! No one could possibly know--"

The ceiling exploded, throwing the villains to opposite ends of the room. When Maximus raised his head, squinting to see through the smoke, he saw--

"Atomic Betty." He sneered. "I might have known!"