“Ha! That’s it!” I shouted, which actually woke up Twoee, and he barked excitedly outside the lab. “I have a theory. Lin, are you feeling brave?”
“Pshaw. Always,” she said as she stood up with a huge smile on her face.
“Okay. I need a new shirt. Professor, any chance I can borrow your grass pajama top?”
Penrod had already taken the thing off, and it was lying on a cluttered workbench.
“Certainly. I’ll start cutting it down to size,” he said.
“Awesome,” I said. I dug to the bottom of my backpack and found a pair of scissors, then I took a deep breath. “Sorry, Dad. But I’m doing this for science.” I chopped the right arm off my bright red SpyZoom T-shirt.
“What are you doing?” Lin asked.
“Hand me that wooden pole, would ya? The one propped up next to the filing cabinet,” I said, and Lin helped me out. She tossed me the stick, and I tied my cut-off sleeve to the top of it, turning it into a small flag.
Professor Penrod had used a pair of scissors of his own to cut the grass pajama shirt down to my size, and he brought it over. I slipped it on over my red shirt and I was shocked by how heavy it was.
“All right, what’s the plan, Dan?” Lin asked, and I handed her the flag.
“Hold this behind your back, and don’t show it to Bruno 2 until I say so. I’ll go out first, then you two come out after me,” I said.
“Are you sure, Danny? What if Twoee charges after you again?” Professor Penrod said.
“Well then, I guess I’ll need to run faster than last time. But I have a feeling he won’t,” I said. “Are you ready?” I asked Lin, and she nodded.
Stepping out of the Fruity Stars Lab and staring right into the face of a two-thousand-pound, three-horned Microsaur would make just about anybody nervous. My knees were wobbly and my head felt a bit dizzy as I remembered how it felt to have Bruno 2 shove me to the ground. I swallowed and tried to look as brave as Lin, but I’m pretty sure Bruno 2 didn’t buy it.
“Hey, Bruno 2. How you doing, big boy?” I said, and the big triceratops tilted his head at me and gave me a little smile. Which totally surprised me, because it was a kind smile, not anything like the one he’d showed me when he was towering over me in the mud. His tongue rolled out of his mouth and he started panting. “You guys can come out now, but keep that flag hidden, Lin,” I said as I held out my hand and started walking slowly toward Bruno 2.
Lin and Professor Penrod walked out of the Fruity Stars Lab and stood behind me.
“Hey, buddy, how you doing?” I asked, using my best puppy voice. “Can you sit for me?” I asked, and Bruno 2 plopped his rump in the dirt. His tail wagged, creating a dust cloud all around him.
“That’s a good boy,” I said as I got almost close enough to reach out and touch him. “Okay, Lin. Time to raise the flag, but be ready to throw it.”
“Why?” Lin asked.
“Oh, you’ll see,” I said.
Lin raised the flag and the calm look in Bruno 2’s eyes went all wonky. He jumped up, then began pawing the ground with his big flat foot. He made a chuffing, growling sound that I recognized from earlier, then he pounced toward the red flag that Lin held above her head.
“Throw it!” I said, but I didn’t really need to. Lin had already thrown the flag-stick, and Bruno 2 turned to chase after it. He smashed it into the ground, then fell on it and chewed the thing to bits.
The three of us watched Bruno 2 roll around on the shreds of my red shirtsleeve.
“Hmm,” Professor Penrod said. “Well, there goes my theory.”
“What was your theory, Penny?” Lin asked.
“I always thought Microsaurs were color-blind.”
CHAPTER 10
TAXI!
After solving the Bruno 2 problem, it was time to turn our attention to an even bigger issue. The issue of getting bigger.
Professor Penrod explained how the machine worked, and I really wished that my dad was there to help. He’d know just what to do in a pinch like this.
“A purple liquid, which is a compound mixture of Burbankian cactus root oil, hydrogenated phosphorus, pomegranate amalgamate, and a small amount of grape soda, shoots through this pipe here. Then the liquid is dispersed into the air with this mister right here.” He pointed to what looked like an old showerhead. “But none of that matters without the power. The real juice that makes this machine purr.”
“How much power are we talking about here? Twelve volts? A hundred? A thousand?” I asked, my eyes getting bigger with each suggestion.
“Oh no. Being the size we are now, a single volt would do the trick. The power source that Twoee destroyed was a nearly dead watch battery,” Professor Penrod said.
I pulled out my phone and launched the SpyZoom app. Sometimes it helped me to focus on something entirely new for a few minutes. I don’t know why it works, but it does. In fact, one time I figured out how to wire a lightbulb for my science project while mowing the lawn. It’s funny how the brain works. The clock in the weather section of my SpyZoom app said is was 2:48. Just 1 hour, 12 minutes, and 14 seconds until Ramp-O-Saurus time.
“Do you think we could have Bruno 2 run in a big hamster wheel or something? I bet that would generate a volt or two,” Lin suggested.
“That’s a really good idea, Lin. If only we had a triceratops-sized hamster wheel,” Professor Penrod said.
I was watching the GPS window in the SpyZoom app and noticed something odd. The beacon had stopped moving.
“Professor Penrod. Do you know where this is?” I showed him the little GPS map, and he studied it.
“If I’m reading this right, I’d say that it is somewhere just outside of the Microterium. Back on my lab table in my barn-lab, I’d guess,” he said. “What is it, Danny?”
“It’s one of my dad’s inventions. It’s a SpyZoom Micro-GPS Beacon. One of the pterodactyls actually brought it here. Ripped it right off Lin’s helmet. We followed it to the lab. It’s how we found you,” I explained.
“That’s right. We never found the little thief, did we, Danny?” Lin said.
“Well, we might need it now more than ever,” I said.
“Why is that?” Professor Penrod said.
“Because it generates its own power. And guess how much it needs to operate?” I said with a smile. I had that awesome feeling, one of my all-time favorite feelings, the feeling that I had just solved an unsolvable problem. “Point-nine volts. Do you think that will be enough?”
“It’ll have to be, won’t it?” Professor Penrod said.
“Now the question is, how do we get all the way to the barn-lab, find the beacon, return to the Fruity Stars Lab, and expand 86.274 times our size in less than one hour and twelve minutes?” I asked.
“Where’s a taxi when you need one?” Lin asked.
Professor Penrod raised his finger above his head and opened his eyes really wide. He was smiling as he ran to his cluttered work desk and started shuffling things around on the surface.
“What are you looking for, Professor?” Lin asked.
“This!” he said as he raised a shiny brass trumpet into the air. He ran out of the Fruity Stars Lab, leaving the cardboard door open behind him. He put his lips to the trumpet and gave it a great big BLAT!
We followed him outside. “What are you doing?” I asked.
Professor Penrod honked on the trumpet again, then smiled and looked at us.
“I’m calling us a taxi.”
CHAPTER 11
NEW FRIENDS
I’ve seen a lot of drawings and paintings of the duck-billed dinosaurs. There’s even a life-sized sculpture of one in the Museum of Natural History we visited on our field trip last year, but nothing prepared me for seeing the huge beast running toward Professor Penrod and his loud trumpet.
“That’s Honk-Honk. She’s never far away, and she’s perhaps the kindest creature I’ve ever met,” Professor Penrod said. I couldn’t believe how fast she made her way to us. One minut
e she was wading around in a green swampy pond below the Fruity Stars Lab, and the next she was skidding to a stop right next to Professor Penrod.
“What kind of Microsaur is she?” Lin asked.
“She’s a hadrosaur. Isn’t she magnificent?” Professor Penrod said.
She was taller than a basketball rim: eleven, maybe even twelve feet tall. A long, curved crest stretched out from the back of her head. Her smooth, pale green skin was covered in tiny scales that made you want to run your hand down her back, and she had the kindest eyes I’ve ever seen.
Bruno 2 was bored waiting around, so he started chasing his tail. Professor Penrod blatted two more out-of-tune notes on his trumpet. Honk-Honk joined him and I had to plug my ears. HuuuuOOOOONK! HuuuuuuuOOOOOOOOOOOONK!
As she honked, the big crest on her head vibrated and shimmered with bright patterns of purple and green. I’d read before about other animals that shift their colors. Chameleons can match their environments, and some squid flash colors in their bodies to communicate, but I wasn’t expecting something this amazing.
“Wow! That was so cool! What are we waiting for?” Lin asked. She looked like she was ready to climb onto Honk-Honk and take off without us if we didn’t hurry up.
“We’re waiting for him,” Professor Penrod said. He pointed to a dot zigzagging back and forth in the distance.
HuuuuuOOOONK! Honk, honk!
“Who is it?” I asked.
“His name is Zip-Zap.” The speedy Microsaur was moving so fast he looked like a purple blur. He was close enough that I could see he was covered in bright purplish feathers and he had long legs and a pointed beak.
“He’s so fast,” Lin said.
“Yes. Riding Zip-Zap takes a very special person. A person not afraid of ninety-degree turns, unpredictable hops and jumps, and a top speed of fifty-five miles per hour.”
Lin and I shared a look, then burst out laughing because we both knew that if Lin could design her own Microsaur she would make her very own Zip-Zap.
The Microsaur sprinted toward us, then glided in and stopped right next to Honk-Honk. It was easy to see that the two Microsaurs were good friends. They nuzzled together, Zip-Zap making soft cooing noises, and Honk-Honk honking quietly.
“He is the most beautiful creature I’ve seen in my whole life,” Lin said. “Zip-Zap is so cute I can’t unlook.” Then, without asking if it was safe, Lin ran to Zip-Zap and threw her arms around his fluffy neck. “Can I keep him?”
Professor Penrod laughed. “You can ride him. How about we start there?”
Lin jumped and yahooed so loud that even Honk-Honk looked impressed. In a single bound, Lin was on Zip-Zap’s back, ready to take off.
“To the POWER SOURCE!” Lin shouted, and Zip-Zap took off in the wrong direction. I could hear Lin laughing as the Microsaur ran around the place like a wild maniac.
“Um, should we tell her she went the wrong way?” I asked.
“Nah. Let her go for now. We’ll have Honk-Honk call her to us when we get there.” Honk-Honk raised a leg and Professor Penrod used it like a stepladder as he climbed on Honk-Honk’s shoulder. “Well, it looks like Twoee is ready for you,” he said.
Bruno 2 had crouched down in the grass. He barked and looked right at me. I double-checked to make sure my red shirt wasn’t poking out from beneath my resized grass pajama top. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Sure, I’d just seen Lin and Professor Penrod climb onto their Microsaurs, but now it was my turn. I’d never even ridden a horse before, and now I was seconds away from riding a real-life triceratops!
“I know we got off to a bad start, Bruno 2, but let’s put that behind us and go find that beacon,” I said, and he chuffed in agreement.
CHAPTER 12
A VIEW FROM ABOVE
For something that is roughly shaped like a boulder with horns, Bruno 2 surprised me by how smoothly he could run. However, considering how fast he’d charged after me in my red shirt, I was a little shocked at how slowly he moved when he didn’t have any red motivation. It was like riding a leather sofa, only slightly faster and a bit smellier.
We followed Professor Penrod and Honk-Honk up a big hill, and by the time we reached the top, Bruno 2 was ready for a break. I slipped off his back and stood by his side to look down at a valley filled with Microsaurs.
“Wow, this place is amazing,” I said to Bruno 2. I pulled out my smartphone and recorded a video of the inside of the Microterium. I guess on the way to the Fruity Stars Lab I was too busy asking questions to take a look around.
There was an area covered with rolling sand dunes, a swampy area with bubbling mud and odd trees, a pine forest mixed with tall grass and big flat boulders, and much more. Running in the deep grass was a herd of Microsaurs of every shape and size. There were stegosauri with plates running down their spines and spiked tails, dimetrodons with big scaly sails on their backs, and a bunch I didn’t quite recognize at first, but I planned on researching each one of them when I got home.
Honk-Honk honked, and Bruno 2 jerked forward.
“Whoa, buddy. Give me a warning next time,” I said as I grabbed on to his wide crest and climbed back on for the ride.
We ran down the hill and I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. I tried to take a selfie with my phone, but it was so jiggly riding down the other side of the big hill on Bruno 2 that it probably looked more like the ketchup-smeared pterodactyl from earlier. But I didn’t care because I had never been so happy in my entire life.
Bruno 2 sloshed through the little creek and stomped toward Professor Penrod and Honk-Honk, who were standing in the middle of the spilled desk supplies.
Honk-Honk honked and it echoed through the Microterium, and that helped. Bruno 2 picked up the speed a little.
We had almost joined Professor Penrod when a blur passed by my side, with a hollering Lin on its back. “Whoo-hooo!” she screamed, sounding like a cowgirl at the world’s first Microsaur rodeo.
I slipped off Bruno 2’s back, patted him on the nose, and thanked him for the ride. Then I checked my GPS tracker on the SpyZoom app. I had a pretty good idea of where the pterodactyl had taken the beacon, but I wanted a second opinion. I handed the smartphone to Professor Penrod.
“What do you think? Where should we start looking for the beacon?” I asked as I removed my backpack and dug in the bottom for a pair of binoculars.
“I believe I know two things. One, I know exactly who took your GPS beacon, and two, I know precisely where it is,” Professor Penrod said.
“Oh yeah? Well then, let’s go grab it and hurry back and Expand-O-Fy!” Lin said as she tried to feed Zip-Zap a fresh-picked handful of blue grass.
“Yeah. That sounds great,” I said.
“Well, it won’t be quite that simple. You see, the GPS beacon thief, as you call her, is none other than Twiggy. And while Twiggy is pretty good at taking directions, she does have quite a habit of stuffing shiny objects into her nest,” Professor Penrod explained. “Her nest is on the third shelf up on the left, above the fish tank. Getting up there will not be easy.”
“I bet Zip-Zap could get me up there. He’s a pretty good jumper,” Lin said, not ready to give up just yet.
Using my binoculars, I searched the area above the fish tank and found Twiggy’s nest. It was filled with little trinkets and shiny things, but right in the middle, next to three pink eggs, was my dad’s GPS beacon.
“Yup. I see it. But it’s way too high up there. Even for Zip-Zap,” I said.
“Well then, what are we going to do? We can make a rope out of the dental floss and climb up somehow,” Lin suggested. I was about to offer an idea involving making a massive slingshot out of the rubber bands and a couple of pencils, when a horrible noise interrupted my thoughts.
EEEEEEEP!
I looked up in the sky toward the sound and saw the bright orangish-red pterodactyl. Now that we had been Shrink-A-Fied down to his size, he looked as big as a hang glider. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched him glide thro
ugh the air.
Honk-Honk honked and the pterodactyl dove right toward us.
“There’s your answer right there,” Professor Penrod said. “Meet Twiggy. The shiny object–loving pterodactyl. And like I said, Twiggy takes directions quite well, for a Microsaur.”
“Can we ride her?” Lin asked.
“I’ve tried, but she’s not a big fan of giving rides. However, one time I did convince her to carry some supplies to the Fruity Stars Lab. All I had to do was promise her something shiny in return.”
Lin dropped her skateboard to the grass, then took her helmet in her hands. She inspected it, turning it around and around in the sun. It was bright blue and as glittery as the stars in a night sky.
“Would she like this?” Lin asked. She held up the helmet and Professor Penrod smiled.
“She would, but you’ll never get it back,” he said.
“That’s fine. If it’ll help us get big, I’d give her just about anything,” Lin said.
I was rubbing my chin, thinking real hard again, and Lin noticed.
“What are you thinking, Danny?” Lin asked.
“I’m thinking we need a plan, and I might have a wild idea,” I said. “Quick. Hand me that bottle cap, and, Professor, I hope you know how to tie good knots.”
CHAPTER 13
THE PLAN
Some people at my school have teased me for carrying so much stuff in my backpack, but it doesn’t worry me. I like being prepared for anything. I emptied my backpack out on the ground, and found my goggles, a pair of leather work gloves, a notebook, a calculator, and a couple of pencils and got to work.
“You see, it’s pretty simple if we can build it right. Professor Penrod, you are in charge of figuring out how to steer Twiggy, and Lin and I will start working on the bottle-cap basket and harness,” I said as I showed them the drawing of my plan.
Microsaurs--Follow that Tiny-Dactyl Page 4