CHAPTER 1

 

  WELCOME, DEAR READER, TO—

  BANG! BANG! KERZAP!

  —the newest Junior Monster Scouts—

  BUZZ! BUZZ! KERZAP! CRACKLE!

  —story. This time we—

  BANG! BANG! VROOP! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

  What in the world is going on? I can hardly hear myself think, let alone finish a sentence! Perhaps we should take a look at what, or who, is making all this noise. It seems to be coming from the tallest tower in Castle Dracula: Doctor Frankenstein’s tower. Let’s see what’s going on.

  Wolfy, Vampyra, and Franky watched Doctor Frankenstein through their safety glasses. He tapped and banged the bolts of his newest invention. He hooked up crackling electrical cords and plugged in cables. He pulled levers and pushed buttons and spun dials. Finally, he turned around and clapped his hands.

  “Eureka!” he said. “I’ve done it!”

  “Done what, Grandpa?” Franky asked.

  “I’ve created a Resizer Ray,” said Doctor Frankenstein.

  “A what?” Wolfy asked.

   

  “A Resizer Ray,” said Doctor Frankenstein, as though it was an obvious and everyday invention. “It can shrink things down to the size of an ant, or make things grow as tall as… why, as tall as this tower!”

  “Why?” asked Vampyra.

  Doctor Frankenstein thought for a second and then shrugged.

  “Why not?” he said.

  The Resizer Ray was a large machine with lots of coils and bulbs and buttons and gauges. It had a long barrel like a cannon, which ended in a very fine point, no wider than a straw. That barrel was currently pointed out the tower window, for no reason other than that’s where it happened to rest while Doctor Frankenstein worked on it. I mean, it certainly was not purposely pointed out over the village. It was not intentionally aimed directly at Baron Von Grump’s windmill house all the way on the other side of the village. No, of course not. It was just where it was because that’s where it happened to be. What could possibly go wrong?

  I can hear you groaning already, dear reader. You know that when someone asks, “What could possibly go wrong?” that something always goes wrong! But let’s get back to our story.

  “Allow me to demonstrate,” said Doctor Frankenstein. “Franky, would you hand me that potato behind you?”

  Franky picked up the potato from the workbench and turned to hand it to his grandpa, but his legs got tangled together and he tripped. The potato flew from his hands, bounced off Vampyra’s head, tumbled through the air right past Wolfy, and landed directly on the big green button of the Resizer Ray.

   

  There was a loud VRAAAAAAZOOOOOKRAK! and a blue beam of light shot out the end of the Resizer Ray’s barrel. It went right over the village, past the Cheese Storage Pyramid, and directly into Baron Von Grump’s windmill.

  The windmill shimmered and glowed for a second, and then… it was gone.