by Jon Ireland
You can’t hide from me at this speed, thought Rocket.
First to the right, then to the left, Rocket checked behind every nearby bush and tree trunk, hunting for the mysterious snooper. It wasn’t long before he found the spy - 0.00001 milliseconds to be precise.
About twenty metres or so behind Liftoff, hiding in the shadows behind a large shrub, was a hovering dark grey disc about the diameter of Rocket’s outstretched arms and about as tall as Liftoff’s hand. It was covered in tiny camera lenses, like little glass beads, and it had several grey spinning antennae poking skywards from its central head.
‘Hello, what have we got here?’ said Rocket, examining the strange flying object. ‘Spying on us, are you?’
Rocket reached out a hand to grab the hovering disc when all of a sudden it dodged to one side. Then zipping backwards, the spying disc angled onto one side and shot up into the sky.
‘Woah,’ gasped Rocket, taken aback by the flying disc’s speed as it rose above the tree tops and flew away beyond his line of sight.
‘I’m back,’ said Rocket to Liftoff.
‘What do you mean you’re back,’ said Liftoff. ‘I didn’t even see you leave!’
‘I found what’s been following us,’ said Rocket. His legs and feet were changing back from glowing orange to their normal light brown. ‘It was some kind of flying machine. Very fast. Very quiet. I think someone’s been spying on us.’
‘Spying on us? Who’d want to spy on us?’
‘Who is the question,’ said Rocket thoughtfully.
‘Where is it now?’ asked Liftoff, spinning around to try and see it.
‘Gone. Up there,’ said Rocket, pointing to the sky.
Liftoff raised his eyebrows; ‘You couldn’t catch it?’
‘It took me by surprise, okay,’ said Rocket, turning a little red in the cheeks at the thought of being outrun. ‘I’ll get it next time. Someone is poking their nose where it doesn’t belong and we need to find out why.’
‘It’s all very strange,’ said Liftoff.
‘Right,’ said Rocket, nodding his head. ‘We need to get to the bottom of it before something worse happens.’
Under the shadow of a dandelion leaf, two red glowing eyes watched Rocket and Liftoff hike along the forest track. Several more red-eyed black beetles crawled out from their hiding places in the shrubs and scuttled quietly after them. Their strange red eyes glowed in the shadows as they quietly followed Rocket and Liftoff along the path.
Chapter 7 – The peculiar incident at the lake
Every time Rocket saw the fishing lake he couldn’t help but feel relaxed. Right in the centre of the Forever Forest, lay a most wonderful greenish-blue lake, with romantic waterfalls on the far side and a trickling stream on the other. Not the biggest of lakes, but big enough to home plenty of fish, ducks, frogs and other friendly wildlife.
‘Listen, we mustn’t stay here for long,’ Rocket said, more telling himself than Liftoff. ‘We catch a couple of fish and then we move on to the Tree House.’
‘No more than three or four,’ said Liftoff, nodding in agreement.
There was a fallen tree over by one of the lake’s grassy banks, and beside it a couple of homemade fishing rods left from their last visit.
The sun had come out and a deep blue sky dotted with white fluffy clouds reflected on the water’s surface.
Rocket turned over a couple of rocks by the bench and as he expected, it revealed a couple of fat wriggly worms, perfect for fishing bait.
‘We mustn’t stay too long,’ said Rocket unconvincingly as he took up a seat next to Liftoff. He passed out the worm bait. ‘Five or six fish maximum.’
Liftoff was first to get his line in the water. He yawned and stretched, relaxing into the moment. Rocket put his fishing line a bit to the left of Liftoff’s and they sat comfortably together waiting for the hungry fish to bite. Two ducks quacked and waddled over to see what was happening. After all the excitement of that morning, for Rocket and Liftoff, this felt like a small piece of heaven.
Within five or ten minutes, there were bubbles in the water and then a couple of little tugs on Rocket’s fishing line.
‘Ha!’ cheered Rocket. ‘I’ve got one! It feels like a big one too.’
Rocket tugged at the fishing rod and wound up some of the slack.
‘This is the life,’ he said grinning. There was a splash in the water. ‘It doesn’t get better than this, eh?’
‘Hey, looks like there’s a big shoal of fish coming,’ added Liftoff. ‘Look at all those bubbles in the water.’
Just as Liftoff had described, the water near their fishing lines was bubbling with activity.
‘I’ve never seen the water bubble as much as that before,’ said Rocket, furrowing his eyebrows. It was as though the water was starting to boil.
Suddenly, one giant bubble of air popped out in the middle of the lake followed by thousands of smaller air bubbles. There was a huge ‘glug, glug, glug’ sound and an unusual swirl appeared in the middle of the lake.
Several small fish leapt from the water.
Liftoff and Rocket stared wide-eyed.
‘What’s happening?’ said Liftoff, worriedly.
‘I honestly don’t know.’
Rocket’s mouth dropped wide open.
The swirl in the middle of the lake had grown and was transforming into a whirlpool.
‘Oh no,’ said Liftoff. ‘The water level is falling. And fast! Someone’s pulled the plug out of our lake!’
‘That’s impossible,’ said Rocket, not believing his eyes. He shook his head. ‘Lakes don’t have plugs ...’
The whirlpool was now some twenty metres wide and deep – very deep. Half the lake had disappeared. A green algae ringed the basin revealing how far the water had dropped. Tiny fish were leaping out the water, troubled by the turbulent waters beneath them. Frogs frantically hopped their way to the water’s edge and onto dry ground. It was as though a giant bathtub was draining everything down a plug hole.
Liftoff dropped his fishing rod to the floor – the end of the line wasn’t even touching the water anymore.
Neither of them could take their eyes of the receding water.
Rocket said what both of them were thinking, ‘This is a disaster ...’
Another minute passed, and it was obvious to the two friends that the lake they once knew was gone. All that remained was a few puddles, some flapping fish and lots and lots of sticky mud. At the centre of the lake was a wide open drain.
‘I told you,’ said Liftoff, ‘It’s a plug hole.’
‘Well I’m pretty certain lakes don’t usually have plug holes. Someone’s sabotaged our fishing spot and I want to know who.’
‘I think I’m going to cry,’ said Liftoff, wiping away tears from his blue eyes.
‘Hold on, big man,’ Rocket said, trying to hold back the tears himself. He put an arm around Liftoff. ‘We’re going to find out who did this and make sure they put every drop of water back where it came from. No one steals our fresh water lake and gets away with it.’
Liftoff bravely held back a sob, and gave a little sniffle instead.
‘Missiles and Fire-balls we can handle. But this! Taking away our fishing lake ... This is one step too far!’ Rocket looked Liftoff in the eyes and said with absolute determination: ‘I promise you this, Liftoff. I’ll get you our water back. And I’ll get our fish back too. And I won’t rest until it’s done!’
‘What about when it gets dark?’
‘Well, of course, we’ll rest then,’ Rocket conceded. ‘That’s night time. And other than breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea times and siestas – I totally won’t rest!’
‘Hooray!’ cheered Liftoff. ‘You’re the best friend ever.’
‘Come on, buddy. Let’s go get our lake back.’
Chapter 8 – We’ve got problems
About an hour later, Rocket and Liftoff arrived at Hoppy’s Tree House. It was fairly easy to spot as it was built on what was p
robably the biggest, widest, tallest tree on the east side of the forest. The tree was certainly old, with flaking bark, and a wide twisting, contorting trunk that rose up into three large offshoots, almost as though it were three trees in one. Each of the main three branches supported a raised wooden cabin roofed with straw.
‘Hoppy!’ Rocket shouted. ‘Are you up there?’
Hoppy suddenly appeared from behind the tree trunk.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘Geez, you made me jump,’ said Rocket. ‘How do you do that?’
Hoppy’s arms were crossed.
‘What do you want this time? I told you before I don’t have any chocolate buttons left. And you’re not having any more of my orange and mango juice.’
‘We’re not here for anything,’ said Rocket, his hands gesturing innocence.
‘But if you do have any spare iced-buns,’ added Liftoff, ‘I’d be very grateful.’
‘I don’t have time for this – we’ve got big problems.’
‘You’ve got problems? We’re the ones with the problems,’ Rocket said, gesturing wildly. ‘Someone’s drained our fishing lake of all the water. Literally pulled the plug on the whole thing. It’s a catastrophe of the highest proportions!’
‘That’s not a catastrophe. Me and Tinysaur were hunted down by giant spiders and Shelly was ambushed by Klump and his robot gang. I think that’s more important than you’re silly pond water.’
‘Silly pond water,’ Liftoff echoed, incredulous. ‘That’s one of our three best fishing spots you’re talking about there, missy. You tell her, Rocket.’
‘I think we’re under attack,’ said Rocket seriously. ‘Not only did we lose our fishing lake, we were hunted down by a missile and a fire-ball too. We actually came this way to warn you – see if you needed help.’
‘Oh,’ said Hoppy, placing her hands on her hips. ‘Well, we’re doing just fine on our own. We don’t need your help.’
‘Yap, yap, yap!’ Tinysaur emerged out of one of the cabins and onto a Tree House balcony.
‘Me and Tinysaur are perfectly able to look after ourselves.’
Rocket shrugged.
‘Fine. We’re off anyway to get our water back. I reckon it’s that barmy Doctor Mischief who’s taken it.’
Tinysaur slid down a rope ladder and excitedly bounded over to Hoppy, Rocket and Liftoff.
Liftoff bent down and petted Tinysaur on the head.
‘Who’s the loveliest little Tyrannosaurus Rex in the whole wide world,’ cooed Liftoff.
Tinysaur lay down on the floor and showed her tummy to Liftoff, who promptly gave it an affectionate scratch.
‘Tinysaur,’ scolded Hoppy. ‘Don’t be such a big softy!’
Tinysaur obediently jumped up and sat by Hoppy’s feet, panting.
‘I think we should all go and speak to Doctor Mischief,’ said Hoppy. ‘She needs to tell her robots to stay away from Shelly. I bet she was behind all these attacks today.’
‘That barmy old doctor is bonkers,’ said Liftoff.
‘You know she wants us all back in cages.’
‘Do you think it was Klump and the robots who sent the missile and fire-ball?’ asked Liftoff.
‘Hmm, it can’t have been them. They’ve been hunting down Shelly all day. Besides, I think they’re too dopey for something as clever as that.’
Liftoff shrugged. ‘They did once try to trap me in a giant net.’
‘It was a net made of liquorice! Don’t you remember? You ate your way out. Hardly torture.’
‘I did have a stomachache that night. That was pretty painful.’
Rocket shook his head.
‘Nah, Klump and his gang are idiots. But Doctor Mischief on the other hand - she’s smart and devious. She’s got to be behind it all. It is the sort of crazy thing she’d do.’
‘I hate going to her mountain,’ said Liftoff. ‘Gives me the creeps.’
‘Don’t worry, buddy,’ said Rocket reassuringly. ‘We won’t go inside. She can come out and meet us. You do want your fishing lake back, don’t you?’
Liftoff nodded.
‘What about Shelly?’ Rocket asked Hoppy.
‘He’s gone off on another one of his odd investigations. He’s got it in his head there’s some kind of new beetle on the island. You know him.’ Hoppy tapped the side of her head. ‘Once he gets an idea in that orange helmet of his he can’t drop it.’
‘There’s no point hanging around for Shelly,’ said Rocket. ‘The four of us should go now.’
‘As long as we’re home before it gets dark,’ said Liftoff, frowning. ‘And not in a million years am I going inside that mountain.’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Rocket. ‘We won’t go inside. Besides, the Doc’s a big coward. Once she see’s us face to face she’ll back down.’
‘He’s right,’ said Hoppy. ‘She’s a wimp in person.’
Liftoff reluctantly agreed and the four animals left the Tree House and made off in the direction of the mountain.
Just as they left, six giant spiders crawled up the trunk of the Tree House and into the log cabins.
Chapter 9 – An appointment with the Doctor
Hoppy, Tinysaur, Rocket and Liftoff neared the base of the mountain.
‘This is it,’ said Hoppy.
The trees were sparser here and the ground was mostly grey rock with a few clumps of grass. In front of the four animals was a huge round steel door, built securely into the side of the mountain. To the side of the entrance was a small keypad and screen.
‘I hate this place,’ said Liftoff, shuddering. ‘Gives me the heebie jeebies.’
‘Come on you big scardy bear,’ cajoled Rocket. ‘It’s not like we’re going inside. It’s just a quick “hello” and “give us back our lake and stop bothering us”. We’ll be off home for marshmallows and hot mango milk in no time.’
Hoppy shook her head.
‘You’ve got the strength of ten bears, Liftoff. Lighten up. She can’t hurt you.’
‘Let’s just get this over with,’ said Rocket. He went over to the entrance and pressed a green button.
He heard a buzzing noise followed by two clicks.
A voice came out of the speaker above the keypad – it was the voice of the robot leader, Klump.
‘Doctor Mischief’s residence. Klump speaking.’
‘Yo! Klump, it’s Rocket. Tell that green lizard boss of yours we want a word.’
‘Is Shelly there with you? Tell me you brought the orange tortoise.’
Hoppy answered this time: ‘No, you metal bully. Shelly’s not here. Get Doctor Mischief on the line now. She’s got some explaining to do.’
‘If you want to speak with the Doctor, you’ll have to make an appointment. She’s very busy.’
Another voice came out from the speaker: ‘Move out the way, Klump, you numbskull!’
It was a high pitched voice, and by the mean tone, they all knew it was Doctor Mischief.
‘Ah hello, it’s me, the Doctor. Ignore what you just heard. My assistant Klump has the brain the size of a small pea. I’ll be down in one minute. Don’t go anywhere ...’
The speaker clicked and went dead.
‘Do you think it’s a trap?’ asked Liftoff.
‘She couldn’t trap a beetle in a jar,’ said Rocket cooly.
‘I don’t trust her one bit,’ added Hoppy.
Two minutes later, a red light began flashing on and off and there were several warning beeps. The large steel entrance doors creaked and groaned, opening from the centre, widening like the pupil of an eye in the dark. There was a hissing sound and finally a deep thundering boom as the door disappeared into the surrounding rock wall revealing a cloud of smoke and a tunnel of bright light.
‘I’m scared,’ said Liftoff.
‘Ridiculous,’ said Hoppy. ‘All that smoke and light. Who on earth makes an entrance like that.’
Out of the rising smoke appeared the robots: Klump, Basher, Hover and Zo
om.
Klump coughed several times.
‘I’m sorry about all this smoke. We’re not trying to be dramatic. It’s just we’re having a few mechanical glitches. And we can’t get rid of all these fumes.’ He coughed several times again.
‘Out my way, out my way,’ came the voice of Doctor Mischief. ‘Move over, Basher, you oversized lump of metal.’
‘Sorry, Doctor Mischief,’ said the wrestler robot, Basher, carefully sidestepping out of the Doctor’s way.
Doctor Mischief was surprisingly small for someone with such a domineering voice. Standing only slightly taller than Klump and less than half the size of Basher. The most noticeable difference between the Doctor and her robot entourage was that she was a reptile rather than mechanical. Her face was pale green and underneath her long snout she had two protruding teeth. Dark green fins ran from the top of her head all the way down to her tail. The back fins stuck through her white lab coat which covered most of her body and legs.
‘Ghastly weather,’ declared the Doctor.
‘What?’ said Hoppy, ‘It’s bright blue skies.’
‘Exactly,’ said the Doctor. ‘Terrible for my skin. I can’t stay out here much longer. Why don’t you all come in and I’ll make you a lovely cup of stinging nettle tea.’
Liftoff grimaced at the thought.
‘No thanks,’ said Rocket, crossing his arms. ‘We know what you’ve been up to and we want you to stop.’
‘Whatever do you mean?’ said the Doctor.
‘Don’t pretend you don’t want us back in cages – trapped like lab rats.’
‘I only want what’s best for you. You’re too special to be out in this horrible wilderness.’
‘Hey, it’s not horrible,’ Rocket interrupted. ‘Some of us like it round here, eh, Liftoff?’
Liftoff gave a simple nod and looked at the floor. He didn’t like being by the mountain one bit.
‘Not saying anything today?’ said Doctor Mischief in a rather patronising voice. ‘Such a big bear and deep down such a big softy.’ She gave one of those fake expressions of sympathy.
‘Leave him alone,’ said Rocket.
Hoppy stepped forward and pointed her finger.
‘Leave us all alone. We know it’s you who sent the missile after Rocket, the fire ball after Liftoff, giant spiders after me and robots after Shelly. So don’t you deny it.’
‘Listen up, Miss Pussy Cat,’ replied the Doctor condescendingly. ‘I’ve not sent any missiles, fire balls, spiders or whatever else you’ve imagined. You’re blaming me for something I know absolutely nothing about.’