Chapter Eight: Amazing!

Sarah wandered, heartbroken, through the city streets, not thinking about where she was going or what she was going to do. The only thing she could think of was her conversation with Eric playing over and over in her head. She wiped the tears away from her eyes but they kept returning as she sobbed.

She soon found herself on the outskirts of Central Park; stepping over the wall she slowly wandered through the park, her legs brushing against the trees and snapping off branches as she passed. Soon she came to a clearing next to the lake and, with a sigh, sat down with her back against a tree; it creaked as it took her weight. She looked up at the clear sky, the stars shining brightly, the night lights reflecting in her eyes. She still couldn't believe that she and Eric were over.

A little while later the monsters found her all alone, hugging her knees and lost in thought. Dr. Sprocket decided to speak first.

"Well…err…I thought that went very well! Yeah, we got on with your folks like a house on fire!" he lied, trying to please Sarah. He nudged Fang to play along.

"What, oh yeah, those friends of yours were just all over me, and…er, and in no way did it all go horribly wrong!" Fang said unconvincingly.

T.O.M frowned at them, not catching their drift. "I might have been gone a few minutes but that was not how I saw it. I don't think your folks like us and I'm sure that ketchup used a fake name and address on me."

Sarah stared at the talking plant, confused at this statement. Dr Sprocket tried to look on the bright side, "Well, at least my invention only frazzled me this time and…"

"Face it, Doc," Fang cut in. "Who are we gonna kid? There could be a hundred robots all over the world and we could stop every single one of them and how would we be treated afterwards? The same way we've always been treated: as monsters!"

Sarah looked around her little group. "Right. Monsters." She muttered.

There was a short silence as they were all too depressed to talk. Rex however sensed there was something wrong with Sarah, walking over, he sat down next to her and put his chin on her lap, looking at her with sad eyes and let out quiet whimpers. Sarah knew he wanted to know what was making her upset; she gently stroked him on the head with a small smile on her face.

Fang then plucked up the courage to ask: "So, how was Eric?"

Sarah tried to put on a happy face and tell them that it all went okay, but failed and gave up. "Eric is a selfish jerk."

Rex lifted his head up with his ears low, the monsters straightened up at the news. "How can that be?" asked Dr Sprocket, "The way you spoke about Eric. The years you spent together, he sounded like a perfect gentlemen."

"It seems all this time he only 'cared' about me was because I went along with whatever he wanted," moaned Sarah, getting up and shaking her head in frustration, she turned towards the others. "Why did it have to take a meteorite for me to see that all Eric cared about was himself? Ugh, I'm such an idiot!" she shouted.

Her anger building inside her, she was on the verge of breaking something, the other monsters saw her fist shaking in anger and made a hasty retreat behind a tree. Eventually her rage reached the surface and she kicked the tree she had been leaning on, the tree erupted from the ground and flew into the air, landing somewhere in the distance. Sarah finally calmed down; having let all her anger out, the other monsters emerged from their places of safety to be with her again.

"Why did I even think that spending the rest of my life with Eric would be perfect anyway? If I was still with him I wouldn't have done all this cool stuff, saving people, fighting an alien robot and meeting you guys. All those things were amazing!" she said.

She knelt down in front of her friends so she could address each one individually, "Dr Sprocket! You can change your body into different objects and build a space shuttle engine out of a drain pipe, several cans of soda, a PS3 and…"

"…a lead pencil," he finished.

"Amazing!" Sarah turned to Fang. "And you. Who could ever forget the likes of the incredible Fang? You personally carried three air stewardesses into a cockpit with you whilst still fighting off Airport and National Security."

"Make that three stewardesses and one feisty blonde passenger!" Fang reminded her.

"Amazing!" Sarah echoed. She turned to Rex and tickled him behind the ear, making his leg go crazy. "And, of course, the most special dog in the world that can sniff out fire hydrants from 20 miles away!"

She finally turned to T.O.M, who was just sitting there, staring at her with a smile spread across his tomato face. "T.O.M! Who else can get pummelled by 100 tons of robotic foot and emerge without a mark on him?"

"Oh, oh, I know, I know!" called T.O.M., raising his hand in the air.

"It's you!" Sarah told him.

"It is? That's amazing!" T.O.M. said.

"Hey Sarah," Fang called out. "Don't short-change yourself."

"Oh, I'm not going to short-change myself," she declared, standing to her full height. "Ever again!"

The monsters all cheered as she looked down at her friends. Just then, a loud, low buzzing noise rung out, followed by a beam of light from the sky that came down and enveloped Sarah. She looked up to see it came from a huge spaceship, its body was egg shaped just like the robot, but it had four protruding sections that looked like water drops, making it look like a weird cross and it glowed in different coloured lights.

Sarah suddenly started to feel weightless, her golden hair started fluttering in the air like it was underwater, she looked down and saw her feet had left the ground; she was being pulled up to the ship by a mysterious force from the beam.

"Sarah!" the others cried.

Rex frantically leapt forward and grabbed on to Sarah's foot with his mouth, using all his strength to pull her down, he found a nearby tree and placed his leg on it to help him pull his friend back down. The others quickly grabbed Rex's tail and they to pulled with all their might. "Don't let go, boy!" Fang called.

Sarah though started to hear a new sound that was becoming more and more high pitched. She looked up and saw the alien ship was charging what looked like some kind of gun, and it was aiming at Rex!

"REX! GET OUT THE WAY!" she cried.

But it was too late. In a brief moment, the alien gun let out what looked like purple lightning and it struck the dino dog in the side, he yelped in pain and was sent flying, landing in the nearby lake just as Sarah disappeared into the alien ship. Fang jumped into the shallow lake and ran to his friend in a panic. Rex was on his side, his leg was badly burnt and bleeding into the water, he let out low whimpers of pain. Dr Sprocket swiftly used his in-built communicator to radio General Monger and T.O.M, with a distressed expression on his face, watched from the bank as Fang tried to comfort the wounded dog.

"It's gonna be alright, just stay with me! Please, you can't go like this, you can't!" said Fang frantically. He watched as his best pal let out another whine before his eye started to close.

So will Rex die like Insectosaurus? (Enter dramatic music!) Find out soon!