Chapter 4:

"Master Larry!" Archie said over the radio. "I have a plan!"

"Me too!" Larry-Boy said, but not loud so that the Fib could hear.

"You have a plan?" his butler questioned. "That wasn't what happened the last time we dealt with this monster."

"But this time is different," Larry-Boy explained. "I'm going to try to reach the tranquilizer from the LarryMobile."

"Wait a minute," Archie cut in. "You didn't take the tranquilizer with you when you were pursuing the monster?"

"Archie," Larry-Boy said, "I didn't think of that until just now. I know… I only have one shot to make this work."

"Larry-Boy!" Junior interrupted. "I want to go home! Please make Fib let me go!"

"I'm on it!" the superhero called back but felt himself be tightened by the monster's grip on him. He then let out a painful yelp.

"You two aren't going anywhere!" The Fib said as Larry-Boy's flashlight continued to shine in his face. "I'm going to eat both of you right now!"

Then the Fib turned to look at Junior in his left hand and hissed, "And this time… I'll start by eating you first!"

Now was the time for Larry-Boy to take action. So, while the monster continued to focus on Junior, the superhero turned his head and shot his right plunger towards the LarryMobile's open door. At that instant, his plunger caught the tranquilizer!

But as he started to reel back in his plunger ear, the Fib squeezed him tighter. Larry-Boy was now suffocating from the tightness of the monster's grip.

"Release that plunger, hero," the monster growled.

Junior now noticed what Larry was trying to do and yelled at the Fib, "Leave him alone! It's me you want, not him!"

The Fib turned and scolded at Junior. "Fine! I'll leave him alone! And I'll only deal with you!" With that said the monster stretched out his right arm and purposely dropped Larry-Boy.

The superhero fell hard on the cavern floor, but got up quickly to reel in his plunger to retrieve the tranquilizer. After grabbing hold of the weapon, he looked up and saw that the monster was fixing to place Junior into his mouth.

In the monster's grip, Junior whined, "I know I broke the plate. I didn't really mean to break my dad's plate. But then again, I wasn't much of an Art Bogoti fan like my dad was. I just wanted to use that plate for my tea party with Laura at that time…" The monster heard all this, but didn't show remorse. The Fib opened his mouth really wide and drew the boy near his face.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Larry-Boy was trying to work the tranquilizer.

"How do you work this thing?" he asked.

"Press the lavender-colored button on the left side of the weapon," Archie responded in his headset.

"I may not like Art Bogoti," Junior resumed, "but I would never hate him too much to break any of his limited edition collector's plates… now even my dad's…"

"What color is lavender?" Larry-Boy started to panic.

"It's kind of like a light purple, Master Larry!" Archie said. "Find that button quickly! You don't have much time!"

Larry-Boy noticed what his butler meant, because he now saw that Junior was coming dangerously closer and closer to the Fib's open mouth. Junior, on the other hand, had to close his eyes.

"If my dad was here right now…" Junior said.

Larry-Boy found the lavender button to the tranquilizer.

"I would tell him all this…"

The Fib chuckled as he started to put the boy into his mouth.

"I would tell him about my not liking Art Bogoti…"

Larry-Boy took careful aim at the Fib's side.

"…because this is the truth…"

"Shoot him!" Archie yelled in Larry-Boy's headset. "Shoot him now!"

"…the whole truth…"

The tip of the Fib's tongue touched Junior's cap.

"…and nothing but the truth!"

Larry-Boy pressed the tranquilizer's lavender button. That was when everything fell in slow motion.

The dart from the tranquilizer soared from the gun towards the monster's side. The dart sank deeply into his flesh, releasing its serum into his bloodstream. As the serum began to empty out of the dart, the Fib howled with agony and spat Junior out of his mouth.

Junior now found himself falling. Larry-Boy saw this happening and dropped the tranquilizer. He then fired his left plunger and caught the falling asparagus. Afterwards, he reeled Junior back safely to the ground.

As for the Fib: the monster fell under the spell of the tranquilizer and fell onto his back against the cavern wall. Rocks showered from the ceiling as the monster passed out from the serum.

"Come on!" Larry-Boy urged. "We gotta go!" Junior nodded and followed Larry-Boy back to the LarryMobile.

During the ride back to town, Junior asked, "Larry-Boy?"

"Yes, Junior?" the superhero responded.

"How were you able to find me?"

"I have a GPS in the LarryCave."

"Cool!"

But then, Junior frowned. "I wish my dad was there to hear the whole truth that I just said when the Fib was going to eat me."

"He did hear you, Junior," Larry-Boy said.

"Huh?" Junior was confused.

"Your dad was listening to us and watching us from the LarryCave with Archie. Your dad was getting worried about you, so he came over to see what was going on."

"You mean… they saw everything we did?"

"Yeah. So I'm pretty sure that he'll understand."

"I sure hope so," Junior said, "because I learned my lesson for real this time."

"You sure did," Larry-Boy agreed, "and as a superhero and friend, I'm very proud of you."

The superhero's speedster drew near town and everything was back to normal… thanks to… Larry-Boy!

"I AM THAT HERO!" Larry-Boy cheered.