She passed the ball to Bugsy, who
immediately spun around and passed to
Benjamin, successfully avoiding the alien
defenders! My nephew was right in front of
the ZOMBORG goal. Without pausing,
he gave the ball an amazing kick . . .
G o o o o o o o o a a a a a a a l!
1-0 for the spacemice!
After our goal, the zomborgs were even
more aggressive. Two of them began
to run in front of the robot-ref to keep it
from SEEING what was happening on the
field!
Immediately, Brax took advantage of the
situation and bolted up to me, then
pushed me down and stole the ball. He was
right in front of our goal — and Whiskerkicks
wasn’t ready for him!
Just as Brax was about to
kick
the ball
into the goal, the two zomborgs moved away
from the robot-ref. Now that the ref could
see again, it watched the ball sail into the
net. RATS! It was official — 1-1!
Trap was furious. He waved a paw in
Brax’s face and yelled, “That’s not fair!
You’re cheating!”
The alien began to laugh. “That’s right,
rat! This is how we have fun!”
The game started back up. We all played
hard, but no one scored again . . .
With just a minute to go before the end of
the game, Lionel got the ball from Trap.
He passed one zomborg, then a second one.
Right as he was about to take a shot that
would have been impossible to block . . .
BAM!
Brax tripped him, and Lionel fell flat on
his snout, twisting his leg on the way!
Tweeeeeeeeet
!
Brax was taken out of the
game — and we got to take a
penalty kick!*
This was our big
moment. We could win
the tournament, but our
best player was on the
ground with an injury!
The robot-medic examined Lionel and
carried him off the field. Luckily, his injury
was not serious. But we had a big problem:
Who would kick the penalty shot?!
*
A penalty kick is a direct free kick on the goal granted to a team
when a foul is committed against them in their own penalty area.
KICK IT,
GERONIMO!
Starry space dust, taking a PENALTY
SHOT in soccer during an intergalactic
championship is no joke. I certainly had no
intention of doing it!
But then Trap said, “You need to take it,
Geronimo!”
“
M-m-me?
” I stammered. “But it’s
too important! I couldn’t possibly —”
Sally jumped in, “You’re our captain! You
should take the penalty shot!”
Even Benjamin insisted, “Uncle, remember
what I explained in practice — if you kick
the
BALL
on the red dot, it’s impossible to
defend! You can do it!”
I didn’t know if I could do it
,
but I knew that a real captain had to be
able to take charge. I guessed this was my
moment to do that!
Gulp! I took a deep breath and stepped up
to the ball. My whiskers were wobbling!
I stared down at the red dot that I was
supposed to kick. Then I looked at the
ZOMBORG goalie. He stood right in
the center of the goal . . .
Tweeeeeeet!
Galactic Gouda! I had to
kick — and now! But I
hadn’t decided what
side of the goal to aim
for. THE RIGHT?
THE LEFT? OR
MAYBE THE
MIDDLE?
I tried not to think too much. Instead, I
ran up, closed my eyes, and kicked the
ball as hard as I could . . .
SWOOOOSH!
The ball transformed into a bright red
streak. Like a
missile
, it flew into
the goal! The zomborg goalie stood with his
mouth hanging open in shock.
It was a galactic goal!
I had done it! I had hit the red dot and
activated the super-turbo force!
We had won
the game!
The Winning Goal!
2. . . . kicked the
ball with my
eyes closed . . .
3. . . . and got a
galactic goal!
1. I ran up . . .
RAISE THE CUP,
CAPTAIN!
Not surprisingly, the ZOMBORGS
were terrible losers!
As we were leaving the field, Brax
blocked my path and hissed in my face,
“You won this time, rat, but we will meet
again!”
I held my breath
so I wouldn’t faint from
the pu t r i d stink.
Then I responded
cordially, “It will be
our pleasure to
play a rematch
one day!”
and we got ready to take the stage for the
Award Ceremony. Our snouts were projected
on mega-screens around the stadium:
spacemice in Universalvision!
Diego Goalor, president of the
Intergalactic Federation of Soccerix,
announced, “I declare the spacemice team
the intergalactic champions of soccerix!”
The spectators roared as Diego handed
me the Great Intergalactic Cup.
Everyone watched me as if I was supposed
to do something with it . . . but what?
Grandfather bellowed, “Hey, Cheesebrain,
LIFT IT UP OVER YOUR HEAD
!”
I grinned. “Oh, right!”
As soon as I lifted the cup,
fireworks
went off over the stadium! They made my
fur stand on end.
In my
fright
, I lost my balance. The
cup slipped from my paws and .. . oops!
It fell right on the president’s foot, making
everyone around the galaxies laugh!
My snout turned red with embarrassment.
Maybe it was time to return to
MouseStar 1 . . .
WELCOME BACK,
CHAMPIONS!
Thea came in her ship to transport us to
MOUSESTAR 1. As we were traveling,
she said, “I imagine you must be tired, so I
prepared your cabins for you and have given
the orders for you not to be disturbed once
you get home.”
But as she spoke, it almost seemed like she
was going to laugh. And was she winking
at Grandfather William?
I shrugged and thanked her. I really
couldn’t wait to have a nice long rest!
When we arrived at MouseStar 1, we
were ready to say good-bye to one another
and head to our cabins when . . . the hangar
door opened and a huge group of spacemice
and aliens greeted us with CHEERS and
applause!
Together, they all shouted, “Welcome
bac
k, Champions!”
I looked at Thea in shock. She winked.
She had prepared the surprise!
My rest and relaxation could wait. I
joined the festivities. After all, it isn’t
every day that you get to be a champion
captain
!
Don’t miss any
adventures of
the spacemice!
He is a cavemouse — Geronimo Stilton’s
ancient ancestor! He runs the stone
newspaper in the prehistoric village
of Old Mouse City. From dealing with
dinosaurs to dodging meteorites,
his life in the Stone Age is full
Meet
GERONIMO STILTONOOT
MouseStar 1
(exterior view)
1. Control room
2. Gigantic telescope
3.
Greenhouse to grow plants and flowers
4. Library and reading room
5. Astral
Park, an amousement park
6. Space
Yum Café
7. Kitchen
8.
Liftrix,
the special elevator that moves between
all floors of the spaceship
9. Computer
room
10.
Crew cabins
11. Theater for space shows
12. Warp-speed engines
13. Tennis court and swimming pool
14. Multipurpose technogym
15. Space pods for exploration
16. Cargo hold for food supply
17. Natural biosphere
Dear mouse friends,
thanks for reading,
and good-bye until the next book.
See you in outer space!
APPEALS TO
READING LEVEL
2
ND
-4
TH
GRADERS
GRADE 4
More leveling information for this book:
www.scholastic.com/readinglevel
www.scholastic.com/geronimostilton
www.geronimostilton.com
The spacemice have received an invitation to participate
in the intergalactic soccerix championship. It’s a
tournament for the most popular sport in space! But
Geronimo doesn’t even know how
to play soccerix, let alone lead
a team to victory against aliens
with bizarre skills (like flying)!
Can the spacemice team prevail?
He is a spacemouse — the Geronimo
Stilton of a parallel universe! He is
captain of the spaceship MouseStar 1.
While flying through the cosmos, he visits
distant planets and meets crazy aliens.
His adventures are out of this world!
Meet
Geronimo Stiltonix
The Galactic Goal