Roxy hurried out of Mara's house.
"Listen, guys," she said.
"I have to—"
"Practice throwing a Frisbee?" said Terrell.
He tossed the Frisbee to Roxy again.
"Ha-ha!" Roxy pretended to laugh as the Frisbee dropped onto the grass.
"First I have to run home," she said.
"I forgot to, um, feed my goldfish!"
A minute later Roxy was soaring over downtown Metro City.
West Street was filled with smashed cars and buses.
Roxy saw enormous footprints in the street.
They pointed in every direction.
"It looks like a giant lizard made those footprints," thought Roxy.
Detective Smith stood near a huge pile of bricks.
There was a broken sign in the pile.
The sign read "Quick Mart."
Roxy smiled. "Why did you knock down Quick Mart, Detective?
Were they out of coffee?"
"Very funny, Rocket Girl."
Detective Smith frowned.
"I didn't knock down Quick Mart.
A huge monster stepped on it."
Roxy looked around.
"I see the monster's footprints.
But where is the monster now?"
The detective shrugged.
"I just got here.
The monster was already gone when I arrived."
A woman ran over.
"The monster went south."
She pointed down the street.
Then she looked across the street and sighed.
"I'm a gardener.
I was here to weed the public garden.
But it's ruined."
"And so is my car!" said an angry man.
He was walking over to Detective Smith and Roxy.
"The monster stepped on it!"
"The monster stepped on my bus!" said a bus driver.
Another man ran over.
"This is an outrage!
That monster tore the roof off my flower store.
Then it ate all my flowers!"
"The monster ate the flowers?" asked Detective Smith.
He took out his notepad and started writing.
The gardener blinked.
"I saw the monster eat all the flowers in the garden too!"
The man from the flower store was still angry.
He looked at Roxy.
"What are you going to do about this, Rocket Girl?"
Roxy held up her hands.
"Relax. I will find the monster and stop it."
She looked at the gardener.
"You said the monster went south, right?"
"Yes," said the gardener.
"That's where the Metro City Convention Center is.
I was actually going to go there later today because—" She gulped.
"What's wrong?" asked Roxy.
"I know why the monster went toward the convention center," said the gardener.
"There's a huge flower show today!"