The Swarm at the Edge of Space

**The Swarm at the Edge of Space** is the seventeenth chapter of Zak Saturday's Immortal Love Life. It was first published on January 17, 2016.

## Chapter

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**Zak's POV**
I swear, sometimes, Komodo is a dog.
I’m playing fetch with him in our airship with a rubber squeaky ball, and Sarah’s doing the same with her dog, Shillow. (Sometimes they got each other’s ball, which caused them to fight, so we had to make sure that we don’t throw it where they’ll cross paths.)
Sarah’s been quiet since she and her family came back a while ago, I asked her how it went with her dad yesterday, and she just said ok. I didn’t ask for details.
We all were in the control room on the airship, flying the clear night sky going no where specific. Komodo brought me back the ball.
“This is airship Saturday responding to unknown aircraft,” Mom said into the speaker. “Please repeat the nature of your emergency.”
We were following behind an aircraft, and Mom was trying to contact it.
“Something’s distorting the signal,” Dad said. “Any idea what’s causing it?”
I looked outside and noticed a lot of things passing by.
“Yeah,” I said, gesturing out the window.
“Atmospheric jellyfish,” Mom said.
Komodo was waiting for me to throw the ball.
“Fisk, take over,” I said, tossing the ball to him.
He caught it and Komodo jumped on him, knocking him to the ground.
Sarah and I gathered with the rest of our family.
“Strange,” Dad said. “They’re not suppose to be aggressive creatures.”
“Huh. Maybe they didn’t read their own entry in the data base,” I said.
The jellyfish climbed on the aircraft we were following and, somehow, destroyed the engine to it. I noticed something launch out of the aircraft and I knew what it was.
“Right there,” I said. “An escape pod.”
“I see it,” Dad said.
He steered the airship toward it and followed it. More jellyfish climbed onto it.
“We’re not gonna reach it,” Dad said.
We were far from it, and it was falling toward the ground, but I had an idea. I climbed down below, pressed some buttons, and sent our large crane down toward the pod. It grabbed it and stopped falling.
“Quick thinking, Zak,” Mom said. “See, that would be from my half of the DNA. Your dad’s chromosomes are the ones that just sit there and yell ‘We’re not gonna reach it.’”
Sarah and Raylee chuckled at that.
Then the airship suddenly dropped.
“Too much momentum,” Dad said, struggling to hold it up. “We’re going down.”
And we were too. We all held on for dear life.
“Drew, full reverse thrusters,” Dad said.
She did just that. Dad pulled back on the throttle and we stopped, leveling out. The crane lifted the escape pod into the airship.
“Nice flying, Dad,” I told him.
“Cost us ninety-three percent of reserved power,” he said. “But yes, it was nice flying.” He looked at Mom.
“Fine,” she conceded. “You’re a quick thinker too. Ok. Let’s go see the catch of the day.”
“Just let me get above this cloud cover for a solar recharge.”
He did that, then we all headed to the back of the airship.
The crane carried the pod to the platform in front of us and laid it down. The pod opened up and a man stepped out of it. My parents seemed to know who he was.
“Epsilon?” Dad called.
“A pleasure to see you again, Doctor Saturday,” he said. “But, technically, it’s *Agent* Epsilon again. My people talked me back into service.”
“We never even knew you’d retired,” Mom said. “You just disappeared for ten years. Not even a farewell party?”
“Yes, well, my people aren’t big on parties.” He turned toward me. “Zak Saturday. Fiskerton. And you call the komodo dragon Komodo. How . . . imaginative.”
That surprised me since we hadn’t even introduced ourselves yet.
“Wait,” I said. “How’d you know our names? I thought you hadn’t spoken to Mom and Dad for ten years.”
“I read your file,” he said simply.
“I—I’ve got a file?”
“Everyone has a file.”
“Huh. I’ve got a file.” I sounded proud about it.
Sarah glared at me.
“What?” I asked her.
She just rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Nothing.”
“I suppose you don’t know who I am, or do you?” Raylee asked Epsilon.
“Oh, I know who you are,” he replied. “Raylee Hollinger, the Protector of America. I admire your work for keeping that country safe from all crime.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ve also read your file. You’ve lived quite an interesting life.”
Raylee’s eyes widened. Something tells me that there’s something in her file that she doesn’t want anyone to know about.
“I wouldn’t say my life is interesting,” she said. “But you really shouldn’t be reading people’s files unless they give you permission to.”
“It’s what I do best,” he told her, which made her mad, then turned toward the twins. “So this is your family. Sarah and Zack Hollinger. Six pet cheetahs, Amber, Kimbia, Kika, Chewie, Toto, and Honey. Shillow, your pet wolf. And Pikachu your Pokémon. But this isn’t your entire family.”
Raylee still looked mad. Mom decided to change the subject.
“So what brings you back into service after ten years?” she asked Epsilon.
“Actually, it’s been eleven years,” he corrected. “And I did give my people one condition.” A boy about my age appeared from behind him. “Greet the Saturdays, Francis.”
“Greeted,” he said.
He had some kind of electronic game in his hands and he was fiddling with it. Mom and Dad were . . . shocked? Something like that.
“Single dad,” Epsilon said. “So hard to find good child care these days. If I was going to come back, I insisted Francis be allowed to come along.”
“Oh, well, that’s . . . congratulations,” Dad said, then placed a hand on my shoulder. “Play with the boy, Zak.”
“What?” I asked, surprised.
He pushed me and we walked over to them. Sarah and Zack walked with us.
“So you have no idea why the atmospheric jellyfish attacked your craft?” Dad asked Epsilon.
“Could I ever lie to you?” he replied.
They left us alone so that they could talk. I turned toward Francis and held out my hand.
“Hey, so, uh, I’m Zak, and—”
I took a step closer to him, and when I did, a sort of green force field formed around him, shocking my hand a little bit.
“No unauthorized access,” he said without looking up from his game. “Please stay back, sir.”
“Man, you gotta work on your first impressions,” I said.
“Really? You seem impressed.”
Sarah, Zack, and I looked at each other and I could tell the three of us were thinking the same thing: What’s this guy’s problem?
Fiskerton was standing next to us, and he still had Komodo’s ball in his hand. He squeaked it to get his attention, which he did, then dropped it above Francis. He caught it and Komodo jumped on top of him, knocking him to the ground, and caused the green force field to shock him. But he succeeded in getting his ball.
Sarah and Zack laughed.
“Fiskerton!” Mom scolded.
He said something in his defense, but then the airship started shaking and the alarms went off. We all ran toward the control room. Once we got there, Mom and Dad went to the controls.
“Visual inspection is clear,” Dad said.
“No damage showing,” Epsilon said.
“Well, something hit us,” Mom said.
“I sense those jellyfish,” Sarah said.
“Grab something,” Dad said. “We’re moving now.”
He moved the airship and we noticed the jellyfish. They climbed onto the airship.
“No,” Dad said. “They must be blocking the solar panels. We haven’t had time to recharge.”
The airship shook again. The jellyfish were now inside, and we began fighting them away.
“There’s too many of them,” Mom said.
Epsilon tapped something around his neck and caused a sonic sound that shocked the jellyfish and the animals (which they really did *not* like), but more kept coming.
“Fall back,” Dad said. “We have to focus on getting them off the solar collectors.”
We left the control room, and the jellyfish followed.
“Zak, try your cryptid powers,” Mom said.
I grabbed the claw hanging from my belt, held it toward them, and activated my powers. Some of them became under my control and they grabbed onto the others. I noticed Epsilon had a surprised look on his face.
“What?” I asked. “That wasn’t in my file?”
“It is now,” he replied.
I turned back toward the jellyfish. “You guys are just sick.”
“Still, you have to admire their determination,” Francis said.
“What? No, you don’t.”
I lost my connection with them and they started toward us again.
“Into the armory,” Dad said. “We can regroup in there.”
So that’s where we all headed. Dad and Raylee kept the jellyfish away from us all while on our way there. After everyone got inside, Mom closed the doors to keep the jellyfish out.
“So now what?” she asked.
Dad grabbed a couple cortex disruptors and gave one of them to Mom and another to Epsilon.
“If we reach an electrical access panel, I think we can shake them off with a reverse polarity jolt,” Dad said.
“Does the airship still have enough juice?” Mom asked.
Epsilon chuckled.
“Uh, what’s funny about that?”
“Only that you skipped right to the airship power levels,” he replied. “As if fighting through a swarm of angry jellyfish is the easy part.”
Mom unsheathed her fire sword. “Watch me.”
We all stood in front of the door, ready for a battle. The doors opened, but there wasn’t a single jellyfish in sight. We all were confused (except for Francis who wasn’t paying attention at all).
“Not even a sign of them,” Dad said.
“Moved on?” Epsilon suggested.
“To where?” Mom asked.
“No,” Sarah said. “I can sense them all around us.”
“Where around us?” Zack asked.
She shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
Fiskerton was freaking out and was pointing at the walls.
“There in the walls!” I said.
After I said that, the jellyfish broke through the ceiling and the walls. Mom used the fire from her sword to shoot at them, Dad and Epsilon used the cortex disruptors, and Raylee, Sarah, Zack, and Pikachu used their powers.
“They set a trap,” I said, completely stunned. “How are they even that smart?”
“Some animals are smart enough to set traps on their own,” Amber said, sounding offended.
“The closest electrical panel is on the level below,” Dad said. “Let’s clear a path to the stairwell and—”
He was interrupted when Fiskerton pulled up a floor board and threw it down, opening a way down to the next floor.
“Also good,” Dad admitted.
“Last one down there is a rotten egg,” Zack said, then jumped down the hole.
Raylee laughed. The animals went next, then Komodo.
“Francis, we have to move,” Epsilon said. “Now!”
“But Dad, I’m in the zone,” he complained, still playing with his game.
Epsilon was mad. “When I give you an order—”
He screamed in pain and collapsed on the ground. We noticed a jellyfish was on his back. That got Francis’s attention.
“Dad!” he said. “Dad? Wake up. Dad!”
“Fiskerton, grab Epsilon,” Dad said.
He tried to pick him up, but Francis stopped him.
“Don’t touch him,” he said.
“Zak?” Mom said.
I knew what she wanted me to do.
“I got it,” I replied.
I aimed the claw and slingshot it toward Francis. It wrapped around his wrist, then I jumped down the hole, pulling him down with me. Fiskerton followed behind while carrying Epsilon, then Raylee and Pikachu, and finally my parents.
Fiskerton picked up the board off the floor, and held it up in the hole, keeping the jellyfish from getting through. Mom unsheathed her fire sword and shot fire from it to seal the board back in place, the jellyfish pounding it. Then we all headed to the infirmary.
After we got there, Mom treated Epsilon, and Dad was at the electrical panel while the rest of us, except Francis, blocked the door to keep the jellyfish from coming in.
“Well, we’re lucky it was one sting,” Mom said, referring to Epsilon. “He’s out for a while, but he’ll recover.”
“Thank you,” Francis said, then he went and sat in the corner of the room and continued to play his game.
Most of us didn’t understand that, but Mom did.
“It’s a classic coping mechanism,” she explained. “That game is his safe place. It can’t be easy for a young boy living in Epsilon’s world.”
“Yeah,” I agreed with a little sarcasm. “I can’t imagine being eleven and dealing with secrets and cryptids and stuff.”
“You grew up this way, kiddo. He’s just getting started, and he could probably use a friend his own age to talk him through it.”
I realized she was talking about me, and I didn’t like it.
“What?” I protested. “No, Mom. I’m sure the game is much more comforting than—”
She pushed me over to him. I looked back at them, and they encouraged me to talk to him. I sighed and turned to him.
“Hey, uh, I just want you to know that I know what it’s like,” I began. “One time I zapped my mom unconscious when—”
I tried to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder when that force field appeared around him again.
“Can you please stop doing that?” I said in frustration.
“But then you might actually touch me,” he replied.
I sighed. Then everything went dark.
“Doc?” Mom asked.
“Saving power for the jolt,” he replied.
The emergency lights turned on.
“We’ll only have one chance at this,” Dad continued. “It’s ready. I still don’t believe these creatures are deliberately hostile. If we can scare them away with enough of a shock, they should leave us alone.”
“So we’re gonna scare the things that have us out numbered a hundred to one?” I asked.
He pressed the button on the panel and activated the shock.
“They’re off the solar collector,” Dad said after a moment. “We’re charging back up.”
“Then it’s working,” I said.
“Can’t be sure yet. We’re still burning more power than we’re getting back. Have to keep the whole charge as long as possible. Convince them not to come back.”
Red lights started blaring.
“No recharge,” Mom said. “They’re back.”
As soon as she said that, there was a lot of pounding on the door.
“I think they know we’re in here,” I said.
“They do,” Sarah confirmed.
“We need to send a distress signal of our own,” Dad said.
“With no power?” Mom asked.
“The external antenna. It has an independent power source.”
“We’re going from the bottom to the top of the ship? Fighting jellies the whole way? Carrying Epsilon?”
“The ventilation ducks go straight up to the engine room, then the antenna is only an exit hatch away.”
“There’s no way you and Fiskerton will fit. I don’t even know if I’d be able to—”
“I’ll fit,” I said.
“No,” Mom said. “New plan.”
“We don’t have time for that, Mom.”
“We’ll all make the break,” Dad decided. “With any luck, the jellyfish won’t even notice Zak slipping into the ducks.”
“Alone?” Mom said.
“No. Not alone,” Francis said all of a sudden. “I’d fit in there too.”
I didn’t like the idea of him being with me.
“Uh, thanks, Francis,” I said. “But I’m sure it sounds more dangerous than it is. I mean, how many of those things can there be? A thousand?”
“Those things hurt my father,” he said. “This is my fight too.”
I wanted to argue, but I looked at my parents, and they gave me encouraging looks.
“No, guys,” I protested. “Francis?”
“Zak,” Dad said, placing his hand on my shoulder. “Imagine me on that table.”
I did and started feeling sympathetic, but I didn’t like it.
I sighed, then looked at Francis. “Ok. But so help me if you shock me again—”
“Authorizing Zak Saturday,” he said into an intercom around his wrist, then held out his hand to me.
I shook it, and there was no shock.
“Uh, what are we, chop liver?” Zack asked.
“Yeah,” Sarah agreed. “If you two fit, so can we.”
I looked at them apologetically. “Sorry, guys. Kind of got distracted there for a moment.”
“Whatever. Can we come with you or not?”
I nodded. Then the jellyfish busted through the door. Our parents began blasting them.
“Into the passageway,” Dad said.
Fiskerton picked up Epsilon and we ran. After about thirty feet, I found a ventilation duck.
“This way,” I called. “Cover us.”
Our parents kept blasting at them, keeping them back. I used the claw to open the vent and I climbed in. Francis, Sarah, and Zack followed behind and closed the vent.
Our family ran by and the jellyfish followed them. One was suspicious of the vent and looked inside. Francis gasped and I covered his mouth. The jellyfish didn’t see any of us, and followed the others.
We started climbing up the shaft toward the engine room. Along the way, I decided that I would try to get along with Francis.
“Hey, uh, I’m sorry,” I told him.
“For what?” he asked.
“For treating you like a jerk. You know, making fun of you. Not wanting you to come along.”
“Oh. I am also sorry.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know. I just thought that’s what you wanted me to say.”
I groaned. “You shocked me. How ’bout that for one?”
“You entered my personal space. I take no blame. Your fault!”
“I can’t believe you. I want my apology back. I’m taking it back.”
“Oh my God,” Sarah groaned. “Will you guys please shut up and just climb before I make you. Jeez, why did we make you guys go first?”
“I know,” Zack agreed.
I was climbing up above them while they were below us. I was about to respond when something didn’t feel right.
“Wait,” I said. “Did you guys feel that?”
“The intelligence in here dropping?” Francis asked. “Yes, every time you open your mouth.”
Zack laughed. “Burn.”
Sarah kicked his head.
“Ow!”
“Shut up.” She looked up at me. “Zak, I can feel what you’re feeling too. The jellyfish. They know we’re in here.”
When she finished saying that, a jellyfish appeared below us. Francis freaked out (which I didn’t understand why since he wasn’t not the closest of us to it), then he climbed up faster, bumping into me and almost knocking us both down. Sarah and Zack laughed.
“Get out of my way!” Francis told me.
“Just calm down,” I told him, then I grabbed the claw. “I’ve got this one.”
I activated my powers, got control of the jellyfish, and sent it away.
“I thought your cryptid power didn’t work on them,” Francis said.
“On one? Sure,” I said. “The problem is when there’s—”
I didn’t get to finish because a lot more jellyfish appeared. I started freaking out too.
“Zak, go!” Sarah said.
She didn’t have to tell me twice. I grabbed Francis around the waist, slingshot the claw up the ventilation duck, it grabbed on to something, and pulled us up. Sarah and Zack followed close behind by flying.
“The engine room,” Francis said while I retracted the claw’s cable. “Then we’ve nearly reached the antenna.”
At the moment, I didn’t care. All I cared about was keeping the jellyfish away from us.
I grabbed the vent off the floor and put it back in place. We all tried to hold it down, but they pushed against it, knocking us away. The jellyfish came out of the vent, then they morphed together, which was quite a surprise to all of us.
“Did you know they could do that?” Francis asked.
I shook my head. The big jellyfish monster started tearing apart the engine room.
“But you know the good news?” I said. “Now there’s only one of them.”
I activated my powers again and got it under control. I sent it to the vent and it went down it. I looked back at everybody else and noticed Francis playing with his game again.
“Are you serious?” I asked him. “No. You are not fighting your happy-fun-time-play place now.”
I walked up to him and snatched his game from him. I looked at it and noticed something odd about it.
“What?” I asked.
There were jellyfish on the screen. Before I could register what was really going on, I heard a sound that made my ears hurt.
I screamed in pain, then I collapsed and slipped into unconsciousness.

I awoke to myself tied up and bound along with Sarah and Zack, who were also awake and struggling to get out. I looked around and realized we were on the roof of the airship.
“Whoa.”
“Ugh,” I heard Francis say. “Everything is so dramatic with you.”
He was at the antenna, trying to figure out the code to access it, and he had the claw too.
“Dramatic?” I asked. “You blasted me!”
“But I also carried you out here away from the big jelly monster. See? I’m not such a bad guy.”
“Not a good one, either,” I muttered.
“You’ve got that right,” Sarah agreed.
“Augh. All that shy-kid, worried-dad thing was an act the whole time.”
“Mostly,” Francis agreed. “But I really do dislike you.”
He tried another code to the antenna, but it didn’t work.
He turned toward me. “Help me work this antenna. I can’t hack your access codes.”
I frowned.
He walked over to me, holding the claw in his hand. “I’ll untie you if you agree. We do both need a rescue, don’t we?”
I nodded reluctantly. He used the claw to cut the ropes from around me, and as soon as he was done, I grabbed it, trying to pull it out of his hand.
“Only observing it,” Francis claimed. “I’m not a thief.”
I found that hard to believe. I moved over to Sarah and tried to cut her ropes.
“That’s ok,” she said. “I got it.”
She flexed her arms and broke the rope, then she ripped the ropes from around her ankles. Zack did the same thing.
“How’d you guys do that?” I asked them.
Sarah was about to answer, but Francis beat her to it.
“They have super strength,” he said. “Of course, you wouldn’t know that.”
I glared at him.
“Well, I actually have told him that a few times,” Sarah said. “But that was still rude for you to say to him.”
I stood up and went to the antenna and put the code in.
“So, your people,” I said to Francis. “They’re making an atmospheric jellyfish video game?”
He just stared at me.
“Hey, I can work fast or slow depending on whether I believe your story.”
He considered it. “You’ve seen what they can do to aircraft. What our people want is a living air defense system.” He pulled out the game from his bag and held it up. “This is the control device.”
“Control device?” I said, a realization hitting me. “That’s why they’ve been attacking, isn’t it? My dad said they weren’t an aggressive species. Your game thing must be driving them nuts.”
“It is,” Sarah confirmed.
“We’re working out the bugs,” Francis said defensively.
I shook my head and put in the rest of the code to the antenna and it accepted it.
“We’re up,” I said. “I’m calling in Dr. Beeman. He’s got a high atmosphere craft that’ll—”
I was interrupted when Francis pushed me away from the antenna.
“My people can handle the rescue,” he said.
I knocked him away. “Your people have done enough already.”
We began shoving each other. Sarah and Zack were laughing like they were really enjoying this.
“Step back,” Francis said. “You don’t know what you’re—”
Before he could finish, we felt the airship shake. We turned around and saw the jelly monster’s hand come out of the ventilation duck. It was feeling around like it was looking for something to grab. Maybe us.
It extended out and wrapped around the antenna.
“No!” I said.
It tore it off and threw it over the airship to the ground below. It’s hand was now searching for us. We had to dodge it a couple times. I noticed Francis was using the control device, and I knocked it out of his hand.
“Hey!” he protested.
“It’s not working, ok?” I said. “You’re just making it angrier.”
The jelly monster found the device. One of it’s tentacles touched it and seemed to suck if all the way to its head, and it went back in the air ducked.
“Maybe that was all it wanted?” Francis said.
We all went over to it and looked down it.
“That’s not what I’m feeling,” I said. “You know how that device was making them nuts? Well, now it’s stuck inside their brain.”
We noticed the jellyfish were coming up the duck and we moved away from it quickly. We all ran up the back of the airship, and the jellyfish followed.
“Time to abandon ship,” Francis said.
“Yeah? With what?” I asked him.
“What about your escape pod?” Sarah suggested.
“It won’t hold everyone,” Francis said.
“Oh, don’t worry,” I assured him. “We’ll come back for you. Probably.”
The jellyfish caught up to us. We started climbing down the airship. We lost our footing a couple times, but managed not to fall.
“Bet you wish you had a claw right now,” I told Francis.
I grabbed mine and slingshot it to the side of the airship. I wrapped my arm around Sarah’s waist and we went over the side together. Zack followed us by flying.
We noticed Francis walking below us, surprisingly keeping his balance.
“Bet you wish you had magnetic boots right now,” he said.
Zack laughed. “Another burn.”
Sarah glared at him.
I slingshot my claw to the part halfway to the bottom of the airship, and me and Sarah slid down to it and Zack followed. I used the claw to grab onto the side, then turned toward Sarah.
“Uh, do you want to fly with Zack or come with me?” I asked her.
“I want to fly, but I’ll come with you. ” she answered nervously. “I trust you.”
“Good to know. Ok, now wrap your arms around my back and don’t let go until I say so.”
“Oh, I won’t.”
She did what I told her and wrapped her arms around me, holding on really tight and crushing me.
“I’ll go down and get ready to catch you guys if you fall,” Zack said.
I nodded and he went down.
I moved to the edge, Sarah holding me tighter, then I jumped over, swinging and landing on the crane holding the escape pod.
Sarah let me go, shaking. “Oh, thank God, we made it.”
Me and Zack laughed. Then we noticed Francis was in trouble. The jellyfish were gaining on him, and he was using his sonic collar to keep them away, but it wasn’t working.
I knew I was going to hate what I was gonna do next, but I had to help him. Even Sarah and Zack knew we had to.
“Hang on!” I called to Francis.
I slingshot myself over to him and Sarah and Zack flew. Francis grabbed the cable of my claw and slid down it, landing on top of me. He pressed a button on the side of it, which caused the claw to retract, and we fell on to the platform down below. I was standing on the edge of it and fell over.
“Zak!” Sarah called.
Francis caught my wrist just in time, but I was now dangling over the side.
“You little freak!” I said to him. “I can’t believe I came back for you.”
“As I knew you would,” he replied. He had the claw again. “So brave. So predictable. Good guys, bad guys, you always know their next move. Victory goes to the grey men in the middle, because you never know how we’ll surprise you.”
“That sounds kind of racist,” Zack said.
“Pull him up, Francis,” Sarah threatened. “Before I make you.”
She had her sword unsheathed and was standing behind him.
“I will if he does something for me first,” he said. “I’ll even trade it with his claw.”
“What do you want, Francis?” I asked.
“I want a jellyfish. Your power can give me one.”
“No way.”
“You can’t bluff me, Zak. I’ve read your file. You’re not underhanded enough to beat me at my own game.”
He opened up his satchel and there was an air-tight cylinder in it. He opened the lid.
I sighed. I activated my powers, got control of one of the jellyfish, the one that had the control device in its brain, and sent it inside the cylinder. Francis closed the lid.
“I hope we can work together again soon,” he said, which sounded like sarcasm, and handed me the claw. Then he let me go, leaving me to fall to my death.
“Zak!” Sarah called.
I slingshot the claw. It grabbed onto the airship and pulled me up. Once I got back on the platform, I noticed Francis getting in his escape pod and he left.
“Ok,” Zack said. “So now what do we do?”
“We find our parents,” I replied.
They both nodded.
“We should probably follow Francis, because I’m pretty sure he won’t leave without his father,” Sarah suggested.
I nodded. And that’s exactly what we did.
Sarah had to carry me most of the way (which was really embarrassing, but it was better than Zack doing it), and we found Francis making a hole in the bottom of the airship, big enough for Epsilon to fit through, and they left.
I slingshot the claw through the hole, which led right into the room where our family was. Sarah and Zack flew in behind me.
“Zak,” Mom called, then gave me a hug.
“Sarah! Zack!” the animals called.
“Hey, guys,” Sarah said, then petted them on their heads.
Then the jellyfish came through the hole. They surrounded us.
“Form a circle,” Dad said. “We’ll hold them off as long as we can.”
Everyone did just that, except me.
“No, guys. It’s ok,” I said. “Uh, I’m pretty sure.”
One of the jellyfishes’ tentacles almost touched Mom, but they backed away and left out of the hole.
“Zak, what did you do?” Mom asked me, then ruffled my hair.
The lights turned on.
“The power’s back on,” Dad said. “We’re recharging.”
Our family looked at me, Sarah, and Zack gratefully.
“Actually, Francis is the one you should be thanking,” I said. “He’s not so bad when you know how to deal with him. I even got to play with his video game.”
Well, today was a crazy day, but it usually always is. That’s just the life of a Saturday.

I hope you guys liked this chapter. The next one is going to bring in a lot of new characters.
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## Character Appearances

### Main Characters

* Zak Saturday
* Drew Saturday
* Doc Saturday
* Sarah Hollinger
* Zack Hollinger
* Raylee Hollinger

### Minor Characters

* Epsilon
* Francis
* Arthur Beeman

### Pets

* Fiskerton Saturday
* Komodo Saturday
* Zon Saturday
* Pikachu Hollinger
* Shillow Hollinger
* Amber Hollinger
* Kimbia Hollinger
* Kika Hollinger
* Chewie Hollinger
* Toto Hollinger
* Honey Hollinger