Chapter 4

"How long till point zero?" Ryan asked Tech.

Tech checked their timer. "About 45 minutes. But with Slam's help, that's no problem. All we have to do is find a good dig site, burrow till we hit the core, plant the bomb, get back on the ship, take off, and boom! So we'd better get going before we end up as that thing's first victims."

Ace landed them on the meteor.

Rev's eyes glowed red. "Looks-like-your-standard-meteoroid-pretty-rocky-terrain-bit-we-can-probably-find-a-good-dig-site-at-least-I-hope-we-can-otherwise-we're-dead!" His eyes stopped glowing.

"Then I guess we better start looking for a dig site." Kelly hit a button to automatically give everyone their individual spacesuits. "There. Now let's get rid of this thing."

"Ahfgihfhfjos, yeah!" Slam agreed.

Everyone left the ship and went looking for a good dig site.

Rev was the one that finally found it. "Aha! Perfectly-flat-ground-good-for-walking-and-for-digging-a-hole-to-the-core-to-plant-a-bomb-to-blow-this-thing-up!" He turned off his intercom. "Guys! I-found-one!"

Everyone followed his intercom signal to the site he'd found.

"Nice work, Rev," Tech commented, "Now let's get to digging. Slam!"

His eyes glowing purple, Slam said something, nodding, and went to the middle of their little dig site. He turned on his tornado powers and started flinging rocks out of the way and digging down to the core.

While Slam dug, Ryan and Tech started setting up their bomb with Kelly's help. They finally got it set up to blow at an appropriated time and set the timer for 10 minutes.

"Just enough time to get back in the ship and out of here," Tech had said.

Slam finally stopped digging and called up to them.

They looked down the hole at him.

Rev checked his GPS. "That's-the-exact-core-we-just-have-to-plant-the-bomb-and-get-out."

Tech handed him the bomb.

Rev sped down the hole and carefully planted the bomb. He and Slam then raced out of the hole and met the others on the dig site. "Now-let's-get-out-of-here!"

"Rev, we're in no hurry," said Tech, "That thing still has 10 minutes on its timer."

"Which I'd better start." Ryan hit a button and the bomb started its countdown. "Now let's get out of here."

"Wait a minute," said Wendy.

"Sure, we have 9 to spare."

Wendy gave him a look. "Where's Jack?"

Everyone looked around. Jack wasn't there!

"Uh oh," said Daniella.

Ryan instantly started trying to pause the timer on the bomb. It wouldn't stop.

"Rye, that won't work!" Kelly stopped him, "Once its starts, only the explosion will put it out."

"But we have to get off this thing before the charge goes off and we can't just leave Jack behind wherever he is! …Even though I would like to."

"Ryan!" Wendy snapped.

"Well, we have to find him and get back to the ship before the bomb goes off and we're all going down with this thing!"

Everyone instantly started searching for Jack. Rev couldn't even sense him on his GPS.

Kelly finally stopped looking and sighed. "I must be crazy." She closed her eyes and followed the vibes, mixing them with her Witch's sense. "Where are you? Ow." She pulled up her hand. It'd been resting against a stalagmite and the tip of the rock had dug into her palm. She tried to restrict herself, but started licking off the blood. Then it hit her. "His blood. That's why I can't sense him with my vibes or Witch's sense, the Vampire in me is pushing them away. He's injured!" She started sniffing the air, ignoring the scent of her own bleeding hand. "I've got him!" She raced after the scent, the others following after her. She finally found him lying in a rock patch. "He wasn't even at the dig site. An asteroid drifted from its flight pattern and hit him." She raced over to him and helped him up. She found his injury and examined it. "It's not serious. Why is he unconscious?"

"Let me try." Robert bent down. "Kelly, bite him."

"I'm good!" Jack snapped up. He then groaned a little, clutching his injured stomach.

"Are you OK?" asked Wendy.

"Yeah, but my life flashed before my eyes…boy, I gotta get me a life! So I take it we're not dead yet?"

"No, but we're gonna be if we don't get back to the ship and out of here in the next 2 minutes." Kelly helped him stand up and they raced off to find the ship. By the time they got there…

"30 seconds!" Tech cried, checking the timer on his watch.

Ace started trying to start up the ship and get them off of the meteor before it blew. "The engines won't start!"

Daniella checked the gauge. "We're out of gas!"

Kelly groaned. "I can zap up some more!"

"Even magically, it takes time to load up a tank like this ship's!" Daniella corrected, "And we're out of time!"

Kelly sighed, desperately. She thought about Austin and Gabby and TJ and Polly and the others back on Acmetropolis. They'd be safe. But she wouldn't. They'd have to go on without her or her family. This was exactly what she'd been afraid of.

Ryan took her hand.

She smiled at him as Sarah joined in.

Eventually, the gang found themselves squeezed into a group hug, bracing themselves for the blast…