by Jack Patton
The crocodile slid its gigantic bulk toward him. It was in no hurry. Its clawed feet gouged deep trenches in the mud as it went. There was no doubting what had made those tracks now.
“Stuck, are you?” The crocodile smirked. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Struggling isn’t going to do you any good.”
“I guess the volcano missed a few of you reptiles,” Max snapped back bravely.
He hoped talking tough would make him feel tough, because right now he was so terrified he could hardly think. The crocodile was the length of an express train to him, and its head the size of a bus. He’d never seen a monster like it.
The crocodile gave a throaty laugh. “I’d heard you were a gutsy one! Tell you what, I’ll finish you off really fast.” It snapped its jaws and slid a little closer. Max saw a jagged scar across its nose, where something must have hurt it badly long ago.
“You don’t scare me!” Max shouted, and tugged at his leg again.
Fresh hope gripped him as his ankle slid a little way out from under the rock.
“Why, I’m forgetting my manners,” leered the crocodile. “I haven’t introduced myself. I’m General Longtooth. I believe you ran into my troop up at the lagoon.”
“Those common lizards?” Max scoffed. “They didn’t give us any trouble.”
General Longtooth’s head loomed over him, blocking out the sky. Max heaved himself backward and dragged his foot out a little farther. Only the rubber sole of his sneaker was catching now.
“You’ll have plenty of trouble soon enough!” roared General Longtooth. “Once the crocodile fleet makes it over from Reptile Island, your bug friends will be antenna-deep in trouble! The reptiles are coming back, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop us!”
Max put two and two together in his mind, and suddenly he understood everything. Crocodiles were aquatic. And they were big enough to carry other reptiles. A lizard armada was coming, attacking by water this time, not by land. The crafty reptiles had found a way to reach Bug Island even without the lava bridge!
“We already stopped you. General Komodo and his troops were destroyed by the tsunami. The war is over and your side lost.” Max’s leg was almost free now. Just one more heave ought to do it …
Longtooth peered down the length of his scaly snout at Max. “Really, I should thank you. With Komodo gone, I finally get to be in charge!”
The massive jaws gaped wide. Longtooth lunged at Max.
Max scrabbled backward as far as he could. His foot was still stuck. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a stone. As the monstrous head plunged down to devour him, Max flung the stone squarely at Longtooth’s glaring eye.
The stone hit home. Longtooth reared up and cried out in pain. So, it was true—the crocodile’s eye really was its most vulnerable spot!
While the enormous reptile thrashed in agony, Max gave a final desperate heave and wrestled his trapped foot out from under the rock. It hurt like wildfire, but he forced himself to his feet and ran.
“Get back here!” roared Longtooth. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Max ran. Behind him, he heard the ghastly, slithering thumps of Longtooth’s feet slapping on the ground as the crocodile gave chase. The riverbank mud sucked at Max’s feet, slowing him down, and his ankle burned with pain.
A monster’s chasing me and I can’t run. It’s like being trapped in a nightmare!
His only chance was to run to a loose pile of rocks up ahead and try to hide among them. The crocodile’s vast size might work against it. But as he ran, with Longtooth’s jaws snapping behind him, he knew he’d never make it. He kept stumbling and tripping on his injured leg, and every time, the crocodile gained some ground. He could hear its wheezing breath over his shoulder.
Then, from high overhead, came a droning noise. It was getting louder. Hardly daring to hope, Max glanced up and saw a welcome flash of yellow.
“Spotter!”
“Coming in for immediate evac!” yelled Spotter.
Max kept running for the rock heap. Instead of diving in among the rocks as he’d planned to, he leaped up one rock after another until he was poised at the very top.
General Longtooth roared like a tyrannosaur and lunged again.
Max jumped at the very last moment. He caught hold of Spotter’s body with his outstretched arms, and though the dragonfly swerved and wobbled in the air, she stayed airborne.
“Hang on!” she yelled, her wings as loud as a propeller. “We’re getting out of here.”
As Spotter flew full tilt up and away, Longtooth heaved himself up onto the rock pile and aimed one last vicious snap at Max. The jaws clashed shut right under Max’s dangling laces. He could smell Longtooth’s foul breath, like something fishy and spoiled.
Then Spotter’s powerful wings were carrying them away, high into the air until the river was just a scribbling twist of water below them, and Longtooth himself looked no larger than a common lizard.
“I owe you one,” Max said to Spotter gratefully. “That was way too close!”
* * *
Soon after, Max stood in the courtyard of the bug fortress, reporting back to General Barton. The titan beetle listened gravely as Max told the bug commanders all about General Longtooth and the threat of the coming reptile armada.
“Longtooth,” Barton said thoughtfully. “I’m not surprised that evil old creature has stepped in to take Komodo’s throne. He tried to take power while Komodo was still alive, you know. But Komodo was too clever for him, and led him into a trap. Longtooth barely got out alive. That’s how he got that scar on his nose.”
“That’s right, General, but we have an invasion on our hands!” said Buzz, getting right to the point as usual. “Clearly the reptiles will try anything to get back onto Bug Island, even with the lava bridge destroyed.”
“Then we will fight!” bellowed Barton. “I’m ready. Let them come!”
Some of the bugs cheered, but Webster buried his head in the dirt and put his forelegs on top of it.
“What are we going to do?” came his muffled voice. “There’s a whole armada of crocodiles coming, with an army of lizards on their backs! How are we supposed to fight against a force like that?”
Max patted his spider friend comfortingly. “Don’t worry, Webster. I’ve got an idea.”
“Y-you do?”
Max nodded. “General Barton? It’s time to put your Goliath beetles to use.”
Twilight slowly fell across Bug Island. Shadows deepened and a chill crept into the air.
Down by Darkmist Lagoon everything was strangely quiet, as if the world was holding its breath. Even the constant roar of Eternity Falls had died down to a whispering gurgle.
Max and Spike crouched in the undergrowth near the water’s edge. All day long, the bugs had been hard at work. But there was no time to rest. Any moment now, the invaders would be here.
With a whir of wings, Spotter landed close by.
“Are the Goliath beetle divisions in position?” Max asked her.
“Yes!” Spotter said. “It’s all ready, just like you wanted. There’s one group up at the top of the waterfall, and another down the river, at its narrowest point.”
“Where’s Barton?”
“Leading the second group. He’s in a pretty good mood.”
“I bet he is.” Max grinned. “He’s finally got something to do. I just hope my plan works, because we’ve only got one shot at this.”
Max looked up at the waterfall. A hastily assembled dam of mud, stones, and thick twigs was blocking off the flow, reducing it to a mere trickle. All the pent-up water must be forming a new, second lagoon up at the top. Just so long as it stays there for as long as it needs to, Max thought, this plan might even work …
“Stay close,” he told her. “Is your flying squadron ready?”
“Ready and waiting—hold on, did you hear that?”
Max froze and listened hard. A chirrup noise came from the undergrowth, and another one seconds after.
> “That’s the grasshopper alarm,” he whispered. “Enemy inbound. Light them up!”
All across the lagoon, silently hovering fireflies suddenly lit up. Crimson light flooded across the water, clearly revealing the dark shapes of General Longtooth and his fellow crocodiles making their way upstream.
But the crocodile invaders were only half the story. Each one was carrying a whole battalion of common lizards, crowded onto the crocodiles’ backs like marauding pirates on a ship.
Just as Max had thought, the crocs were acting as troop transporters, ferrying lizard soldiers over from Reptile Island. This was a full-on river invasion!
Max rode out on Spike. He stood on the lagoon’s shore, watching the crocodiles drift closer and closer to land. The crocodiles’ eyes gleamed in the red light from the fireflies, as did the eyes of the hundreds of lizards perched on top of them.
“Well, hello again,” Longtooth boomed across the dark water. “I told you I’d be back, and I always keep my promises. Guess you’ve noticed there’s a couple more of us now.”
The lizard troops cackled with laughter.
“We don’t care how big your force is,” Max said. “So you have a few hundred lizards on your side? Big deal. We’ve got thousands of bugs on ours.”
Right on cue, more fireflies lit up their bodies. These were on the shores of the lagoon, and the wide ring of light revealed a gigantic army of shield bugs braced to fight, waiting in the undergrowth. More bugs stood alongside them: lean, eager mantises, hulking scorpions, and even the bizarre-looking ant lions.
“All the more for us to eat!” hissed one of the lizards on Longtooth’s back. “You thought we were gone for good. You thought you were safe. But you were wrong!”
“Enough talk. Get on that beach and fight!” snarled Longtooth.
The crocodiles splashed up into the shallows and dragged themselves onto the muddy shore. They lowered their heads like landing ramps. The lizards screeched war cries as they scuttled forward, heading for the bug ranks.
“Battle Bugs, attack!” Max yelled.
The bugs surged forward in a scuttling tide, trampling the undergrowth and flooding over the oncoming lizards. Strength in numbers was the bugs’ best hope. For every bug the lizards managed to claw off, a dozen took its place.
Longtooth and the other crocodiles slid back into the water and submerged their bodies. They watched the battle unfold, their eyes glittering above the surface.
Spike grabbed a lizard that was rushing at him and held it up. While the lizard kicked and struggled in Spike’s pincers, he marched it to the edge of the lagoon and flung it in.
Nearby, the other bugs were forcing the lizards back through sheer force of numbers. The lagoon began to fill with floundering, splashing lizards.
General Longtooth watched suspiciously. “The bugs don’t seem to be stinging or biting much,” he mused. “It seems like they just want to give the lizards a dunking in the lagoon. What’s that about?”
You’re about to find out, Max thought.
Overhead, the enormous form of Dobs the giant dobsonfly zoomed past, carrying an unlucky lizard in his pincers. “BOMBS AWAY!” he yelled, and dropped the lizard down into the water.
“That’s it! Push them into the lagoon!” Max ordered.
Spotter hovered just above him. “Ready, Max?”
“Not yet, Spotter. Just a few more …”
Soon, almost all the lizards were forced back into the shallow waters. They crouched there, eyeing the bugs nervously. They’d quickly learned that the bugs wouldn’t follow them into the water, so they were safe from further attack.
“Something’s up,” said General Longtooth. “Lizards, retake that beach. That’s an order!”
Max grinned. “Spotter, now! Execute battle plan Niagara!”
Longtooth looked puzzled. “Now what in the heck is a Niagara?”
Spotter zoomed up to the waterfall. “Okay, bugs,” she bellowed. “Hit it!”
On both sides of the dam, groups of Goliath beetles began to move. They heaved their huge bodies against sticks that Max had been very careful to position in just the right places.
There was a low grinding sound as the rocks inside the dam began to shift.
Max crossed his fingers. Building the dam had been a feat of bug engineering, but it was all for nothing if they couldn’t demolish it at exactly the right time.
Fresh streams of water burst from the dam. The whole mass sagged in the middle. Ripples spread out across the lagoon as the waterfall gathered force.
General Longtooth blinked. He’d just noticed he was beginning to drift away from the shore.
Up at the dam, the Goliath beetles were straining at one of the trigger sticks. More and more joined in, but it just wasn’t budging.
Spotter flew up high and came back down on a collision course. She yelled a wild, high whoop as she built up speed. In the next moment, she crashed right into the stick, giving it a final wallop and knocking it free.
A rock right at the heart of the dam gave way, and suddenly, the whole construction collapsed.
Max watched in awe. It was like a chain reaction. A thundering white column of water came down into the lagoon.
The lizards realized what was coming a second too late. They tried to fight their way back onto the shore, but the waves from the waterfall engulfed them.
Max and the Battle Bugs watched as the mighty lizard army was swept away down the river.
The bugs cheered as the common lizards were washed away in a foaming tide of river water. The once-proud army went coasting out of the lagoon and away down the river, toward the rapids.
Max could still hear the faint howls and cries of the lizard troops long after they had vanished from sight.
“Phase one complete,” he said.
“That’s those lizards dealt with,” Spike grunted, sounding satisfied. “But I think we’ve still got problems, little buddy!”
In the center of the lagoon, the crocodiles were still lurking. The water from the waterfall eddied and surged around them, but they were big, powerful reptiles, not like the little lizards. They were strong enough to swim against the flow.
“I should never have sent a bunch of pesky lizards to do a crocodile’s job,” snarled General Longtooth as the last of his shattered lizard army went tumbling past, legs and tails flailing. He glared at Max. “You led us into a trap.”
“I knew we could outsmart you,” Max said.
“What did you just say to me?” The crocodile swam furiously toward Max. “I’m gonna snap you up like a crawfish. Crocodiles, attack!”
The group of saltwater crocodiles waded into the shallows and trudged up the shore, plowing right into the bug forces. Max steered Spike out of Longtooth’s path.
The crocs laid into the bugs, gnashing their huge jaws and slamming with their clawed feet. The crocs were the biggest reptiles they’d ever faced, with armored skin that was all but impossible to penetrate.
Whole battalions of shield bugs were flung into the air and fell back down like rain. Scorpions jabbed with their stingers, only to have them glance off the thick crocodile hide. Hornets tried to jab at the crocs’ vulnerable eyes, but it was impossible to get near a creature that could snap you out of the air in a split second.
“Don’t bother trying to eat them!” Longtooth bellowed to his allies. “Just squish them like the bugs they are!”
The crocodiles laughed mockingly as they heaved themselves forward.
Max turned to look for the dragonfly commander. “It’s time for phase two of the plan,” he said. “Spotter, I need you!”
“On my way!” shouted the brave dragonfly. She dived down and hovered close, so that Max could climb off Spike’s back and onto hers.
With the other dragonflies following, the two of them flew over toward Longtooth, who glanced up at them angrily. He snapped his jaws at Spotter, but she danced easily out of his reach.
The other dragonflies buzzed around the crocodiles
’ heads, yelling insults and making rude noises. Annoyed, the crocodiles turned from attacking the ground bugs to snapping at the dragonflies, who easily dodged them.
“Nice scar you’ve got on your nose,” Max taunted Longtooth. “Got led into a trap, did you?”
“Get over here!” Again, Longtooth lunged at Max in irritation. Once more, Spotter swerved out of the way.
“If you want me, you’ll have to do better than that!” Max jeered.
Moving surprisingly fast for something so huge, Longtooth turned and gave chase. He swam through the water snapping at Spotter and Max, who rocketed away from him just above the surface.
Max glanced to his left and right and saw that the other dragonflies had baited the crocodiles into following them, too. The group rushed out of the lagoon and down the course of the river. Behind came the crocodiles, churning up the water like dark, scaly torpedoes.
“You’re going to wish you’d never crossed me!” Longtooth roared.
“Keep going!” Max urged Spotter, who was dipping down toward the water’s surface. One of Max’s sneakers caught the water.
Spotter put on a fresh burst of speed and veered up into the air again.
Ahead, the river narrowed and the rock walls of Flintfang Gorge loomed up. Max recognized the spot where he’d been trapped earlier.
He looked back and saw that the crocodiles had all splashed down the rapids and into the canyon. They wouldn’t be able to climb out quickly. Good.
“Spotter, take us up to Barton,” he ordered.
Spotter flew straight up, past the loose, crumbling rock of the canyon walls. She landed next to General Barton, who was peering over the edge of the clifftop.
Behind the general stood thousands of Goliath beetles, each one braced against a massive lump of jagged flint.
Max gave Barton a thumbs-up.
“There’s the signal,” Barton said with relish. “Goliath beetles, get to work. Shove those stones!”
The Goliath beetles, working together, began to roll the heavy stones to the edge of the cliffs. Down below, the crocodiles snapped and turned in circles, trying to catch the annoying dragonflies.