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furniture, through plants, and across the TV she flew, knocking things over left and right. Andeven when she realized she had lost track of the lizard, Topaz continued tearing the place apart, upturning chairs, ripping through cupboards, tossing aside cushions like a fur-faced tornado.
    It was, I assure you, a frightening sight. And although Sticky had escaped the hissing hurricane for a moment, Topaz now spotted him on the family room ceiling.
    “RRRRREEEEEEERRRR!” she cried, charging up the wall, leaving scratch marks in her wake. And when she couldn’t reach Sticky that way, she launched herself skyward from furniture backs, clawing and hissing at her target as she sailed through the air.
    Try as she might (and she did, in fact, try mightily), she could not reach Sticky. (Although she did, at one point, manage to sink her claws into the ceiling a mere two feet from him and hang there for a solid minute before dropping to the floor.)
    And then, all at once, the power gates slammed shut.
    Topaz was back to being Topaz—an average, ill-tempered, squooshy-faced cat.
    Poor kitty-kitty.
    She was, of course, confused.
    After mewing pitifully from the floor beneath Sticky for almost an hour, she at last grew weary (and, undoubtedly, thirsty and hungry) and skulked out of the ravaged apartment, hopping flower boxes to return home.
    This was a great relief for Sticky. However, before he could scurry back to the kitchen to collect the Moongaze potion, a sound from outside stopped him in his tracks.
    “
Ay caramba
, no!” Sticky gasped. “Not him!”
    But it was, in fact, just who Sticky feared.

Chapter 10
A QUICK BACKTRACK
    Since Sticky has stopped in his tracks, perhaps this would be a good time for us to do the same. After all, I’m sure you’re wondering what happened to the monkey.
    And the Bandito Brothers.
    And, for that matter, Damien Black.
    Yes, of course you are.
    You’re probably also wondering if Damien Black was already trying to launch some deadly, diabolical plan with Dave’s substitute potion.
    These are, after all, perfectly legitimate things to be wondering.
    So let’s start with the monkey, shall we?
    Getting away from the bumbling BanditoBrothers was really quite easy for the rascally rhesus. The forest surrounding Damien’s mansion was dark, and dense, and (without question) dangerous. (Also, once inside, it was difficult to navigate, especially for the directionally impaired.)
    Monkeys, however, are right at home in forests, and (despite years in Damien’s captivity) this little monkey was very comfortable scampering and swinging from tree to tree with his satchel of stolen coffee. He simply led the Brothers deeper and deeper into the dark and dangerous forest, screeching, “Eeeeek! Reeeeeeek!” as he scurried from branch to branch above them.
    “There he goes!” Pablo cried (over and over again) as they tracked the monkey. “Get him!”
    “How am I supposed to get him?” Angelo snapped (over and over again) as he struggled to keep up. “He’s in a tree!”
    “Here, monkey-monkey-monkey!” Tito called, holding out an apple he’d had in his pocket.
    Now, while Tito (simpleminded as he was) was happy to be tracking a fuzzy-wuzzy monkey through the forest, Angelo and Pablo knew that returning to the mansion without the rhesus (or, at least, the coffee) would be a bad move.
    A
very
bad move.
    Damien, you see, was prone to bad moods, and bad
moves
(such as failing to catch a runaway rhesus) usually resulted in a lot of shouting and routing and accusations of flouting, and (after Damien had worked himself into a spitting, sputtering rage) threats of horrifying torture and death.
    And so the Brothers chased the monkey deeper and deeper into the dark and dangerous forest, until at last the monkey grew weary of the little game.
    “Eeeeeek! Rrrrreeeek!” he screeched from the branches of a gnarly pine tree. “Eeeeeeeek! Rrrrrrreeeeek!” Then he began pelting theBrothers with sharp, sticky