MY BEST FRIEND IS A SECRET AGENT, Book 1: How Chip Became CHIP and Foiled the...

Chapter 12: "And Then There Were Three"

That night was like Christmas for almost every kid in town.

But not for me and Chip.

Kids like Stella were playing with their new Freaky Fuzzies, but Chip and I were holed up in the basement wondering what went wrong. Actually, Chip was playing the new Freaky Fuzzy video game while I did most of the worrying.

The good news, I guess, was that the new C.H.I.P. actually worked. C.H.I.P. did everything right – it's just that he did all the wrong things. And that was mainly my fault. I was in charge of a multi-skilled secret agent, but I was giving him bad information.

Yeah, it was really depressing.

My dad and his team were still out looking for Max Schleimer. I knew Dad might end up destroying half the town again trying to save the other half, but I didn't trust C.H.I.P. enough anymore to feel we could help. Chip and I were stuck – almost back where we started.

But then... things started to get really freaky. And I mean "Freaky Fuzzy" freaky.

Stella barged into the basement. She had her Freaky Fuzzy 2.0 with her, and it was even more annoying than her old one. While I was trying to keep Stella from snooping, the Freaky Fuzzy 2.0 was getting into everything! It was just a little weird.

But there was something weird about Stella too. She kept asking me why I didn't buy a Freaky Fuzzy of my own.

"Because I'm not a little kid, that's why!"

But she said Freaky Fuzzies weren't just for little kids. They were for all kids. What they definitely were not for was adults. I wondered where I fit into all this. I was ten years old, but I was smarter than most forty-year-olds.

Anyway, Stella kept going on about how all that adults want kids to do is stop playing with their toys and do their homework and chores and stuff. This was weird coming from her because she liked doing her homework and chores.

Then her new Fuzzy said...

That's when something occurred to me. I asked Stella, "Where's Mom?"

But Stella just said, "When a Freaky Fuzzy is your friend, you don't need mommies and daddies."

Then I heard this banging coming from upstairs... and I realized something was very wrong. Stella had locked Mom in her bedroom! And why?

Because Stella had been hypnotized by her Freaky Fuzzy!

I bolted for the stairs – but the Freaky Fuzzy tripped me! I landed flat on my face. Then I called out to Chip to help, but he didn't know what was going on or what to do. I yelled out, "The Freaky Fuzzies are taking over! Help me save Mom!"

Chip just said "Wow!" and ran to join me.

And that's when the Freaky Fuzzy laser-blasted Chip in the butt!

There we were, Chip and I, sitting on the basement floor watching Stella and her Freaky Fuzzy move in on us like two mind-controlling robots.

"Freaky Fuzzies are your friends!" the Freaky Fuzzy said. "Don't you want to get one of your own?"

"Do you want me to lock you in the bedroom with Mom?" Stella asked, sounding just as freaky as theFreaky Fuzzy. 

"With Freaky Fuzzies, you don't have to think anymore! Just leave the thinking to us!"

"Join us, Nort. Join us, Chip. Join us in our perfect world!"

Then the Freaky Fuzzy's eyes went all spinny, like it was trying to hypnotize us!

I looked over at Chip, and he was hooked. (He's kind of the suggestible type – which is why he's great at being C.H.I.P., I guess.) But then I started to get hooked too! I couldn't tear my eyes away from the freaky thing! So I realized what I had to do. With my last bit of free will, I pulled out my phone...

...and I activated C.H.I.P.!

Chip turned into C.H.I.P. and immediately snapped out of it. I made him a stuntman again, so he jumped up, but before he could go for the Freaky Fuzzy, it fired another laser blast at him! But he dove out of the way, doing this cool roll on the floor. But this Fuzzy must've gone into combat mode or something 'cause it started laser-blasting him like a machine gun!

C.H.I.P. was jumping all over the room as blasts were flying everywhere, taking chunks out of the wall and ceiling. One blast even hit my computer stuff!

But C.H.I.P. finally dove down and grabbed the Fuzzy from behind. Then he smashed it on the hard cement floor, and its pieces went flying everywhere.

PHEW!

I looked over at Stella, and she was rubbing her eyes like she'd just come out of a trance. She looked around at all the holes in the wall. "What's going on?" Then she saw her smashed Freaky Fuzzy. "YOU KILLED MY FREAKY FUZZY! You couldn't stand me having one and not you, so you killed it! I'm telling Mom!"

It was all I could do to calm her down and explain that her Freaky Fuzzy had taken over her brain and made her lock Mom upstairs. Then I realized... all over the city, Freaky Fuzzies were probably locking parents up and taking over kids' brains!

It looked like a devious plot by Seth Mindwarp to use Freaky Fuzzies to take over the world!

But Stella still didn't believe me... until she saw C.H.I.P. "Oh my gosh, it's the hero guy! Right here in my house! It's really you!" I realized that I hadn't deactivated him yet. And Stella didn't realize C.H.I.P. was actually Chip. She pointed at me, saying, "My brother smashed my Freaky Fuzzy! Arrest him!"

I realized that I had to tell Stella the truth. So I pulled out my phone and deactivated C.H.I.P. And right in front of us, C.H.I.P. the stuntman turned back into Chip the school goof.

Stella froze, stunned. She didn't say anything for at least a minute. (It was a nice break, actually.) I told her all about the microthingy on Chip's false tooth. I told her about all the things C.H.I.P. could do. And I told her that she couldn't tell anybody else, especially Dad.

Then Stella did something that surprised me. She didn't argue with me or say she didn't believe me.

She said she wanted to become part of our team!

She said that someone needed to stay at headquarters and man my superpowerful computer stuff while C.H.I.P. and I were out saving the city.

I was just about to totally say no... but then I thought about it. At the Freaky Fuzzy Con, C.H.I.P. had worked great, but we had bad information, so we blew it. What we needed was better intelligence – someone who could look up stuff while we were out chasing down the bad guys.

We needed Stella.

But first we needed to let Mom out of her bedroom. "Coming, Mom!"