On May 14, 2005, it was a sunny but windy day. Commander Ben Zink and his 1st officer Joseph Tinch, boy geniuses, blasted off in their Hailey's shuttle to discover more about Jupiter. They were working for NASA and this was an important mission. Of course they weren't intending on landing on Jupiter because it's made of gas so they'd fall through it. They planned on using their ultra strong telescopes to see it more clearly. Little did they know they weren't going to Jupiter...

FOOOOOSH! Captain Zink and officer Tinch blasted off into space and soon, they were sailing through the cosmos, heading for Jupiter. Suddenly, when they were almost there, a comet whizzed past them. They started to observe it and soon they were so accustomed to it's icy surface they didn't see the chunks of rock and metal on the monitor. When they finally saw them it was too late. "Meteors at 12 0'clock!" Ben yelled. PING! BANG! CRASH! Meteors were pelting their ship! They lost control of the ship and the last thing the space kid geniuses heard was a noise that sounded like cars crashing in a demolition derby beneath them.

When the kids woke up, they were still in the ship. "Why didn't we change our mission?" Joseph said, "Instead we could've observed the redness of Mars." Strangely enough, the ship door was opened and there seemed to be land outside. The boys thought NASA had detected the danger on radar and used the warponoid to warp them back to Earth, but they were wrong. Outside there were small patches of grass, giant trees, and metallic walking boxes that were scared to their presence. "Uh, we come in peace?" Ben said. Suddenly, one of the boxes opened and started playing "Pop Goes the Weasel". The two kids soon realized they were on the planet of the music boxes!

The music box was named Poppy and he told the boys about the different tribes of music boxes that played different songs like "London Bridge is Falling Down" and how they could speak human as well and how there are 5 planets. The Music Box, Action Figure, Jack-in-box, Video game, and Clock planets. The kids told them about their solar system. They told them about the icy comets and meteor showers. They told the music boxes about their planets, blazing Mercury, danger-littered Venus, life-supporting Earth, red Mars, gassy Jupiter, ringed Saturn, twins Uranus and Neptune, freezing Pluto, and newly found Sedna. Ben then told them about how they were going to Jupiter when they saw the comet, and Joseph told them how they were so absorbed to it, that they didn't see the meteor shower coming and got pelted by it and ended up here.

Poppy told the boys about the music box's latest problem. There were polishing trees that grew shining rags on their planet. If a music box were not polished for 5 days, it would rust, and become a rustoid. Five days later, the music box would crumble, never to be seen again. The polishing trees had mysteriously stopped growing rags. The music boxes showed the kids the polishing forest and sure enough, there were no rags on the trees.

"How could this have happened?" Ben asked, "I don't see anything wrong with these trees." ""These trees" are as dry as bones." Joseph said, "Poppy told us they are supposed to be wet, right Poppy?" "That's right." Poppy said, "But for some strange reason, they're dry." "Why don't you water them?" Ben said. "We wish we could pay for it" Poppy said sadly, "but for three gallons, each gallon equaling twenty years, we would need twenty tunecoins." " What are tunecoins?" the boys asked. "Tunecoins are, as their name implies, coins shaped like musical notes and are the rarest way of paying on the planet." Poppy said." The only way to get them is to mine them at the dangerous, Tunecoin Valley."

"We have crystal-clear water,"Ben said, "would that work?" "Certainly not," Poppy said, "we need emerald-green water to make crystal-clear water. Watering the trees with crystal-clear water will give it the opposite effect." "Well that's logic for you." Joseph said. "Wait!" Ben exclaimed, "I have an emerald with me!" "What good would it do?" Poppy asked, "It's not water." "Wait, I'm not finished. Joseph, do you have your cellular combining unit?" "Right!" Joseph said happily, "combine the emerald with the water!"

Joseph got his machine and five jugs of water, while Ben got his emerald and five more jugs of water equaling ten jugs of water out of twenty jugs. They got a water jug they had on the way to Jupiter and placed it in the middle compartment. They placed the water and the emerald in the other compartments and turned the switch on. "I sure hope this works!" Joseph said hopefully, as the machine shook and buzzed and what came out was... emerald-green water!

The boys jumped for joy and the music boxes grabbed glasses and started watering the trees and polishing themselves. The boys were extremely happy when suddenly, Ben remembered something. "Oh no!" Ben exclaimed, "Our ship is wrecked! We can't get home!" "Hey, you're right!" Joseph remembered sadly. "Fear not my friends," Poppy said, "I ordered my assistants to repair your ship and they just finished developing a chip that when put in your disk drive you will warp back to Earth." The boys were grateful and thanked Poppy. Then they got into their ship, inserted the chip, and warped home.

When the boys got back to Earth, NASA wanted to know where they'd been. The boys told them about the meteor shower, the music boxes, the polishing forest, saving the music box's lives, and the chip to send them home. NASA was amazed and the boys became more famous then before. "Hey Ben," Joseph said "maybe next time we'll go to the action figure planet." Suddenly, a mysterious force shot them back in the ship, inserted the chip, and warped them into hyperspace. "You and your big mouth." Ben said sternly. "How was I supposed to know?!" Joseph shot back. They were so busy fighting that they didn't see a little girl who had snuck into the ship and was now curled up in a ball in a corner...

The

End,

For now...