Ms. Holiday directed the work and also double-checked the contents of four black packs that had been wheeled in on a cart. Satisfied, she dropped a homemade cookie into each one, then zipped them up. She then asked an assistant to place them aboard the ship. Agent Brand and the rest of the NERDS entered. Duncan couldn’t hear what was going on, but he could see Flinch had an identical pack in his hand. As discreetly as the hyper boy could, he handed the pack to the assistant, who placed it with the others. Duncan made a mental note to buy his friend a case of whoopie pies as a thank-you.

Duncan realized it was time to make his move. He crept along the wall behind the bleachers, then stepped into a crowd of busy scientists too preoccupied with tests to notice him. He waited patiently, then followed the assistant as he hefted the black packs up the ramp and through the ship’s door. When the assistant finished storing the bags and departed, Duncan jumped into the compartment where they had been placed and closed the door tight.

It wasn’t long before he could feel the engines rumbling and then the awesome blast as the ship exploded into the sky. He wished he had a more comfortable seat, but he was just happy to be on the mission, even as a stowaway.

He sat in the dark for a long time until the door opened. Luckily, Ms. Holiday didn’t even look inside the cabinet as she snatched up the packs and distributed them. Only when she realized there was a fifth pack did she look inside, but Duncan was already slipping it on and racing toward the open door of the rocket.

“Gluestick!” Agent Brand cried angrily.

“Duncan, what are you doing?” Ms. Holiday looked shocked.

Duncan reached into his pack and removed a black helmet. He slid it over his head and flipped up the visor so he could talk. “I’m sorry to disobey you and I know what I’m doing is putting you in a difficult position, but—”

“Duncan, you don’t have your upgrades!” Ms. Holiday cried.

“Simon and his gang attacked my family. I can’t wait for upgrades,” Duncan said. As he leaped out into the sky, he thought he saw a proud smile on Agent’s Brand’s face.

Duncan had no idea what was below him. As he plummeted through the misty clouds, all he could see was a chain of lush green islands that were getting bigger by the second. He counted eight in all and the largest seemed to be directly below him.

“Hello, everyone,” Duncan said.

“Gluestick!” Pufferfish cried. “Where are you?”

“Right above you, I think,” Duncan said.

“Does Brand know you’re with us?” Jackson asked.

“He does now.”

“Excellent!” Braceface laughed. “Glad to have you back.”

“Gluestick, I order you to stay where you are!” Pufferfish commanded.

“I’m not sure I can do that,” Duncan said. “I’m about a mile above the ground and falling fast.”

Pufferfish growled. “You are not a part of this team—”

“Oh, calm down, Pufferfish,” Wheezer said. “We wouldn’t be NERDS without Gluestick.”

“Thanks, guys. Now can anyone fill me in on what we’re doing six thousand feet above the Earth?” Duncan asked.

“Hope you like poi, big guy,” Flinch’s voice said. “We’re going to Hawaii.”

“What part?”

“The part with the big active volcano,” Matilda replied. “Simon stole a hoverplane from a base in California and he’s using it to suck something out of the lava. Intelligence has no clue what it could be.”

“He’s after arsenic,” Duncan said.

“To poison people?” Jackson asked.

“No, he’s building a bigger version of his machine hypnotizer and he needs lots of superprocessors to make it work,” Duncan said. “We use the same kind of chips in Benjamin, only a few of ours equal about ten thousand of what you can buy commercially. To make these chips he needs lots of arsenic, and active volcanoes contain some of the richest arsenic deposits in the world.”

“See, Pufferfish! Look what we learn when we bring Sticky with us!” Jackson laughed.

“Well, he better get down here and join us,” Pufferfish grumbled. “He’s not wearing a Wind Breaker. You think his dad was mad before, wait until he finds out his little boy hit the ground going a thousand miles an hour.”

Duncan spotted four black specs against the blue sky—his teammates below. “On my way!” He tilted his body so he was pointing straight down, and the world suddenly came toward him faster and faster. He was like a human bullet, and in no time was right above his friends. He leveled his body off to allow the wind to slow his descent, then searched for Flinch. The others could have easily helped him get to the ground, but to be on the safe side, he chose his friend with superstrength. Flinch reached out with a free hand and snatched him by the arm. His grip was like a vise.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Flinch said.

As they dove, Duncan looked out over the Kilauea crater— the site of one of the world’s most active volcanoes. It must have been several miles in diameter with a thick, black crust covering everything. It was awe-inspiring.

“I don’t see Simon or a hoverplane,” Duncan said.

“He’s not down there,” Matilda said. “He’s a few miles south at a place called Pulama Pali. The flow of lava from the volcano actually travels underground through tubes and comes out on the side of a cliff.”

“All right, people,” Ruby said. “Let’s activate our Wind Breakers.”

Flinch’s jacket billowed out, slowing their fall. The two boys drifted south with the wind and were soon floating over the rocky Hawaiian cliffs. There, Duncan saw a craft that looked like a combination of a plane and a helicopter. On each side was a huge barrel-like engine that blasted blue flames. A gigantic tube hung from the machine. It was sucking up the horrible ash that covered everything. The arsenic seemed to be sifted through a filter in the back of the ship, and the leftover ash was dumped into the ocean.

Flinch pulled the cord on his jacket, and the tether shot out of the bottom. He and Duncan slid down it to land on a nearby cliff.

“I don’t approve of this, Gluestick,” Ruby said once everyone had landed. “But if my family were attacked, I’d do the same thing.”

“Here’s the problem, dude. You’re powerless,” Jackson said as his braces started to swirl. “We all have the upgrades. We’re back online. Are you OK with being a normal kid? No gadgets? No powers?”

Duncan nodded his head. “I’m manning up. Are we going to talk all day, or are we going down into that volcano to kick some bad-guy butt?”

Matilda grinned. “You, my friend, are suddenly the coolest person I know.”

The children looked down the cliff face. The lava was flowing in a red, hot stream into the ocean, raising the temperature dramatically and turning the water into thick, muggy steam. It was going to be hot down there. Just above the lava flow, the hoverplane continued its work sucking up minerals off the rocky cliff. Duncan reached into his pack and found some rope, clips, a hammer, and a handful of pins. He pounded a pin into the hard, volcanic rock, then looped the rope around it. Within seconds he was ready to rappel down toward the hoverplane. The others shrugged their shoulders.

“Um, I guess we follow Gluestick,” Ruby said.

Matilda snatched Flinch around the waist and then fired her inhalers so the two soared over the edge. Jackson’s braces created four long, spindly legs. He took Ruby in his arms and the two crawled over the side.

Duncan struggled with his ropes but refused to ask for help. All of the team had been trained in rappelling, but he remembered not taking it too seriously. He remembered thinking that it was pointless to learn, as he could stick to any surface. If only he hadn’t taken the shortcuts. Was Brand right? Was he lazy?

Before he could get too frustrated, he stopped, took a deep breath, and focused on what he had been taught. Ms. Holiday had shown them all what to do. What had she said? Kick off the side of the cliff and ease the rope through your gloved hand. He took a deep breath and followed her instructions and it worked. In no time, he was out of rope. He tied himself off and then pounded another pin into the rock and attached a second rope from his pack.