by Jack Patton
“Come out, come out!” called a rasping voice from down below. “The Howling Cliffs are ours.”
Max looked down and saw one gecko, larger than the rest, grinning up at him.
“That’s not gonna happen,” Max said, folding his arms with determination.
The gecko leader laughed. “Have it your way! This miserable dunghill is now under siege. We’re hungry—and we want you for dinner!”
Max stood thinking for a moment, and then turned to Spike. “Spike, call Razorjaw and the other soldier termites. We need to hold a council of war.”
* * *
Down in the heart of the mound, the bugs gathered.
“What are we waiting for?” thundered Razorjaw. “The lizards attacked us, so we should attack them!”
“Fighting is all you soldiers understand,” one of the workers said, wearily.
Razorjaw snapped his mandibles, making the worker jump.
“I know you’re expert fighters, and brave, too,” Max said carefully. “I wish we had a thousand more like you. But there just aren’t enough of us.”
“We’re not scared of those lizards!” yelled a soldier termite. His fellow soldiers stomped and gnashed their jaws in agreement until Max signaled for silence.
Spike waved his pincer, and Max let him speak next.
“Let’s make a break for it,” the scorpion suggested. “Better to live to fight another day than get squashed.”
“We could sprint down to the beach camp,” agreed a soldier termite.
“Are you joking? Only a few of us would make it that far. We’d be eaten up!” argued the termite worker.
“Not if we fight our way out!”
“Most of us termites are builders, not fighters!”
Max struggled to think with the bugs arguing all around him. Obviously, they needed reinforcements. But Buzz wasn’t due for her flyby until later, and Barton didn’t even know the tower was under siege. Their best option was to try and escape.
“Wait!” he shouted. “I’ve got an idea.”
The bugs fell silent. Countless sets of beady black eyes watched Max.
“If we can’t fight our way out, maybe we can dig our way out,” Max said. “We’ve got the best builders in all of Bug Island right here.”
“That’s a great idea,” said Spike. Even the soldier termites nodded.
“Digging it is, then.” The lead termite worker ran forward to lead the way, followed by his horde of fellow bugs. “After me!”
Together, Max and the bugs made their way down the termite structure, through the tunnels and ventilation shafts. Max looked admiringly at the termites’ handiwork as they went. It was like being inside a bizarre alien planet from a science fiction movie.
As they drew closer to the base of the mound, a violent thump shook the walls.
“What was that?” Max wondered.
Before anyone could speak, another crash came, then another. Fragments of plant matter cracked and fell.
“It’s the lizards! They’re trying to get in,” cried one of the workers. “We’ve got to hurry!”
Max ran ahead down the tubular passageway—and came face-to-face with a gecko!
“Going somewhere?” it hissed.
Max turned on his heels and ran back to the group. “Everyone get back!” he yelled. “Find a different way down.”
“It’s no good,” came the muffled cry of a soldier termite. “The geckos are blocking all the downward tunnels!”
The dejected bugs had no alternative but to retreat. They made their way back to the central chamber and up toward the observation deck. Max sat in the middle while the termites went to work blocking off the lower tunnels, so the geckos couldn’t climb any farther in.
“Now what?” Spike asked him.
Max had no answer to give. There was no way up, no way down, and the tower was slowly being demolished around them. The bugs were trapped.
A gloom settled over the group. The soldier termites hung their heads, and even Spike’s mighty tail drooped in misery. The crash, boom, crash of geckos flinging themselves against the mound’s walls never stopped.
“What are we going to do?” squeaked a little termite worker. “We can’t go up, because we can’t fly, and we can’t go down, or the geckos will gobble us up.”
“Maybe we should rush them after all,” said Spike. “Go out in a blaze of glory.”
“Not on my watch,” said Max firmly. He stood up and dusted himself off.
“There’s got to be something we’re missing—some way out of here. Let’s go back up top; maybe we can figure something out.”
Max and the bugs made their way back to the upper deck of the mound and looked out from the observation deck. The sun had set and a bright moon now lit the landscape. Many of the geckos and chameleons had lain down to rest, but a determined handful of them were still battering away at the mound.
“Comfortable up there, are you?” mocked the gecko leader.
“Come up here and see for yourself,” Max shot back.
The gecko chuckled. “No need for that. Soon, you and all your friends will be brought down to earth with a bump. A very, very big bump.”
Max feared he was right. The mound wasn’t made to take this kind of punishment. It wasn’t even fully finished. If the geckos kept up their pounding, it would collapse, crumbling into ruin, right over the edge of the Howling Cliffs and into the sea.
If that happened, it was game over.
Suddenly, a droning noise in the distance made him snap out of his gloom. He knew that sound. He craned his head back, looking up into the dark skies, praying he’d see a familiar sight zooming down toward him.
Sure enough, he soon caught sight of the yellow-and-black stripes he knew so well. “Spike, it’s Buzz!” he shouted. “She’s here!”
Spike cheered.
Max made his way up through the topmost shelter tubes all the way to the roof of the mound. The termites had done their best to create a wide, flat area surrounded by a low, bumpy wall. It was uneven and had holes in it, but it was good enough for Buzz to land on. Spike burst out behind Max on top of the watchtower.
Buzz hovered in the air and then descended like a helicopter on the deck, coming to rest with perfect precision. Max waved to her. “Am I glad to see you!”
“I saw the lizards as I flew over,” Buzz reported. “Dozens of them. What on Bug Island is going on?”
“We’re under siege,” Spike cried. “Geckos came up the cliff and chameleons came from the jungle. They know how useful the watchtower would be to the Battle Bugs, and they want to destroy it before it’s finished.”
Max and Spike told Buzz all about the lizard attack, explaining how far inside the geckos had reached, while the hornet listened intently.
“We’ve got to break the siege,” Buzz said once they’d finished. “Let me fly back to the beach camp. I can muster a battalion of bugs and bring them up here.”
“No!” Max said quickly.
Buzz twitched one of her antennae. It looked just like a human raising an eyebrow in surprise. “No?”
“There are two reasons that’s a bad idea: One, it’ll take too long to bring them here, especially in the dark. Two, if you bring all the bugs up from the beach camp, you’ll leave it undefended. For all we know, that’s what Komodo wants us to do!”
“I see,” Buzz said slowly. “This attack may be a trick, to get us to split our forces. We can’t take the risk.”
Max nodded. “It would put Barton himself in danger. That’s not an option.”
“Agreed,” Spike said. “So what do we do?”
Max wracked his brains for an idea. Suddenly, looking down at his costume for Tyler’s birthday party, he had a brain wave. The man-faced stink bugs use their striking patterns to scare away predators—they don’t have to fight them off; they don’t even have to get close. If there was some way of scattering the lizards and confusing their ranks, maybe the bugs inside the watchtower would have a chance to f
ight back or escape.
Then it struck him—the creatures he’d seen in the forest earlier. “I’ve got it,” he called to Buzz. “I know the perfect bugs to help us out!”
* * *
The sun hadn’t risen yet, but a muggy light in the east promised that it soon would.
Around the termite mound, a few sleepy, lethargic lizards kept up their siege, thumping at the now-battered walls. The rest lay still, waiting for the sun’s warming rays to stir them to life.
Stealthily, Max, Buzz, and Spike clambered out onto the top of the termite mound. Max took a quick look over the edge to check on the lizards.
“What’s wrong with them?” Buzz wondered. “Why are they so sleepy?”
“They’re cold-blooded. Until the sun’s energy gets them going, they’re going to be slow and sluggish. That’s why I wanted to leave at dawn.”
“Good thinking!”
“Spike,” Max said, turning to the scorpion. “You stay here and make sure the soldier termites are ready when we get back.”
“Will do, Max,” Spike called.
Max climbed onto Buzz’s back and they took to the air. The geckos below them were so groggy they didn’t even look up. Max grinned. Perfect timing.
“Where are we headed?” Buzz asked.
“Into the jungle,” Max said. “I just hope there aren’t any more of those chameleons waiting in the branches.”
Buzz flew at breakneck speed, wind whistling through Max’s hair, down the slope of the cliff and into the dark labyrinth of the jungle. This early in the day, Max could hardly see a thing, just the dim shapes of trees looming out of the shadows. Buzz confidently dipped and zoomed around them.
They were deep in the jungle when Max spotted what he was looking for. “Up there, Buzz! Those green chrysalises hanging from the branch—see them?”
“Locking on!”
Buzz pulled into a steep climb that almost flung Max off her bristly back and came in to land on the branch, right alongside the chrysalises. Max’s heart sank. They were all empty. The butterflies he was counting on had already emerged and flown away.
“We’re too late,” he said. “That was my last idea.”
Just then, sunlight began to seep in through the trees, brightening the jungle. As he felt the warmth on his skin, Max looked up and saw a distant, colorful flurry of wings down an avenue of trees.
“There they are. Go, go, go!”
Buzz whirled through the trees to where the butterflies fluttered in a crowded mass. Suddenly, Max was among some of the most stunning creatures he’d ever met. The colors of the butterflies’ wings were like a pharaoh’s treasure box: deep velvety reds, sapphire blues, greens and yellows like the sun on a summery field. But most striking of all were their eyespots, which were huge, circular markings that looked like the eyes of a much bigger predator. Being surrounded by the butterflies was like being stared at by eerie masks.
“Good to see you again, Admiral Peacock!” said Buzz. “You’re not the caterpillar I used to know.”
Admiral Peacock showed off her glorious wings. “I used to envy you, Buzz, with your ability to fly. Now, at last, I can fly myself.”
“That’s good, because we need your help. The new watchtower on the Howling Cliffs is under siege—if we can’t repel the lizard forces, we’re finished,” Buzz continued.
“Butterfly squadron at your command,” the admiral said, proudly.
“It’s your eyespots, Admiral,” Max chipped in. “I’ve seen other bugs with them and they gave me an idea. They’re for scaring away predators, right?”
“Yes. And they work fantastically well.”
“So if the butterfly forces all swoop in and attack at the same time, we can scare away the geckos and reinforce the watchtower!”
Admiral Peacock hesitated. “It’s worth a try. I warn you, though, we don’t have stingers or pincers like the other fighters.”
“You don’t need them!” Buzz said. “We just need to panic them.”
“Very well. Count us in!”
Max clapped his hands together. “Let’s do this. Buzz, go get the rest of the hornet squadron. Admiral Peacock, arrange your troops into battle formation! Let’s fly!”
Max climbed onto Admiral Peacock’s back, and the colorful squad rose up as one, winging like shining kites through the morning air. The butterflies had barely hatched from their chrysalises, and already they were risking their lives for their fellow bugs.
Together, they flew through the jungle, making for the distant, dark shape of the termite mound.
As the butterflies raced through the jungle and out onto the open plain of the Howling Cliffs, Max saw that the geckos and chameleons were wide awake. Now that the sun had risen fully and spurred them into life, the lizards were hard at work, ripping and biting at the walls of the mound.
Max heard the gecko leader yell at them to work harder. Huge craters had already appeared in the mound, and more muddy chunks broke free every moment. Soon, the whole construction would topple, falling over the cliff and smashing to bits far below.
“Faster!” Max yelled. “We have to stop them!”
Suddenly, as one, the butterflies dived toward the lizards like a living waterfall.
As the huge mass of fluttering wings descended upon them, one of the geckos raised the alarm in panic. “Look out!”
“What?” snarled the leader. He turned to look up and recoiled in terror.
Max urged Admiral Peacock to go faster. He saw the glint of fear in the gecko’s eyes and hoped that his lizard blood was running even colder.
The huge butterfly squadron looked like a shapeless, hovering mass with hundreds of eyes appearing and disappearing all at the same time. Maddening colors danced all through it. The gecko forces looked like they’d never seen anything like it, and never wanted to ever again.
“Get back!” the gecko shrieked to his forces. “It’s some kind of bug monster! Retreat!”
Max, riding Admiral Peacock at the front of the “monster,” laughed. The plan was working. Hundreds of butterflies swarmed around the geckos, fluttering their wings and showing their distinctive eyespots. To the lizards, it must have looked like a single terrifying creature. He couldn’t blame them for running from a beast with a hundred staring eyes.
“Get closer,” he urged the admiral.
Max could see Spike and the soldier termites peering out of the mound’s upper spy holes. Max gave the sign to attack and Spike instantly obeyed, darting down into the termite mound, ready to lead the charge from the base of the structure.
The geckos and chameleons were scattered across the cliff top, thrown into complete disarray by the butterfly charge. But then, the young butterfly squadron began to separate and swoop down at the fleeing lizards without the protection of the group.
“No!” Admiral Peacock yelled. “We must stick together.”
It was too late: A chameleon lashed out at an oncoming butterfly with his long tongue. The frail butterfly was smacked out of the air and fell, lying in a dizzy heap with its wings twitching.
“Sir!” bellowed the chameleon. “It’s a trick!”
“What?” snarled the gecko leader, turning on his sticky heels.
“These bugs are as light as dandelion seeds. There’s nothing to them.”
Uh-oh, Max thought. They’re onto us …
“Get back, you fools!” the gecko leader screeched. “Stop running. Attack them!”
“What now, Max?” Admiral Peacock asked, wheeling through the air.
The game was up, but at least the butterfly squadron had bought the bugs some time. Most of the lizards were still fleeing, and nearly all of them were in chaos. Using the butterflies’ eyespots had evened up the numbers. Below, Spike was charging out of the mound, backed up by a mighty swarm of soldier termites. This might be a fight they could win after all!
“Admiral Peacock,” Max cried, the wind whistling through his hair. “Can you bring me in close to Spike?”
&nbs
p; “Consider it done.”
The butterfly swept down to the head of the bug forces. Max leaped off her back and landed firmly on Spike’s.
“Ready to rumble?” he asked the scorpion.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Spike said happily.
“CHARGE!”
Spike went galloping into battle on his eight powerful legs. He snatched at the confused geckos, crushing with his pincers and jabbing with his stinger.
All around, bugs and lizards clashed in fierce combat. Soldier termites swarmed over geckos, nipping with their strong jaws. Nimble butterflies darted in and out, distracting the lizards while other bugs struck at them. Max yelled orders from Spike’s back, sending the bug troops to strike at retreating targets.
We just need to break their determination, he thought. But how? The bugs were almost winning, but not quite. He needed something to tip the balance.
A buzzing, droning noise from above answered his question. “It’s Buzz!” he yelled. “And the hornet squadron!”
The geckos and chameleons were having a bad morning already. First, the butterflies had terrified them. Then the bugs, who were supposed to be terrified and hiding in their watchtower, had fought back. Now a whole squadron of angry hornets was power-diving at them. Their bad morning had just become a lot worse.
It was too much for the gecko leader. “Geckos and chameleons retreat,” he yelled. “If Komodo wants this watchtower so badly, he can come and take it himself.”
The humiliated lizards scrambled down the edge of the cliff or back into the jungle where they’d come from. Max patted Spike on his back, and the termite soldiers cheered. Some of the hornets got quick stings in for good measure.
“And stay out!” Buzz shouted to the last fleeing chameleon.
“You’ve done it, Max!” Razorjaw hopped up and down with joy. “The watchtower’s saved!”
Crowds of termite workers squeaked and ran around excitedly, cheering their victory. However, there wasn’t much time for celebrations—the bugs had a position to fortify. A platoon of soldier ants, the closest forces Buzz had been able to reach, came trooping up the slope to reinforce the tower. Termite workers made repairs.