by Steve Cole
“Flap faster, fellas!” Teggs was almost directly above the athletes now …
Hank and Crank lowered their deadly heads. They were ready to charge …
“Right!” roared Teggs. “Put me down! Quick!”
But to his horror, the pterodactyls did exactly as he asked – and simply let go of him.
With a yell of surprise, Teggs began to plummet from the sky like a miniature meteor.
Beneath him, in the stadium, the stegoceras began to charge forwards.
“Stop!” Teggs cried desperately. “You mustn’t hit your heads!”
Perhaps Hank and Crank couldn’t hear him.
Perhaps they just weren’t listening.
They ran on, faster and faster, the gap between them closing, closing …
And then the skydiving Teggs finally hit the ground – right between Hank and Crank! He gasped as the air was bashed from his body.
The shocked crowd fell utterly silent.
Hank and Crank were running too fast to stop. They crashed into Teggs’s belly, then bounced backwards.
“Ooof!” grunted Teggs, as he screwed his eyes tightly shut. He waited for the inevitable blast of the bombs.
But nothing happened.
As he gingerly opened his eyes again, Teggs saw a worried hadrosaur bounding over to join him.
“Captain!” Gipsy cried. “Are you all right?”
“This must be how the meteor felt when it hit the Earth!” groaned Teggs weakly.
Gipsy hugged him. “I thought it was all over when Hank and Crank ran into you!”
“Must be that moss I scoffed before setting off,” said Teggs. “Made my stomach extra springy and squashy – so the bombs didn’t go off!”
As the coos and chatter of the startled crowd began again, Teggs heard two weak groans on either side of him.
“Hank!” he gasped. “Crank! Are you guys OK?”
“I never read anything about a flying stegosaurus in the rules,” Hank muttered. “But it’s a cool idea!”
“Yeah, awesome!” Crank agreed feebly. “But can someone please get this tail off my face?”
Teggs was about to oblige when a massive, menacing shadow fell over the stadium. It was pointed and curved like an enormous claw, scratching out the sun.
The crowd fell silent.
And Teggs and Gipsy found themselves staring up at the sinister shape of a massive raptor death ship.
Chapter Eleven
THE FINAL CHALLENGE
“This is General Loki,” an angry voice announced, booming out from the enormous spaceship. “I am Commander of the Seven Fleets of Death, ruler of the meat mines of Raptos, eater of— Well, you get the idea. Anyway – I bring an urgent message for Captain Teggs.”
“Uh-oh,” Teggs muttered. Gipsy tried to help him rise, but his legs were too bruised from the fall. He lay there helplessly, as if crushed into the ground by the weight of the ship’s shadow.
“You’ve spoiled our evil plans, Captain,” said Loki tetchily. “You’ve saved this entire, miserable planet from destruction.”
A giant gasp went up from the crowd.
“Yes, I said destruction! If I had my way, you would all be space dust by now! But this pea-brained fool has spoiled all my plans—”
The crowd cheered and whooped.
“But you shall not enjoy your victory for long!” Loki added in his most sinister voice. As the words echoed round the arena, a large cannon slid slowly out from underneath the raptor ship. It swivelled round until it was aimed directly at Teggs. He and Gipsy could only stare up at it helplessly.
But then another shadow fell. And when Teggs saw what was casting it, he grinned in amazement.
“This is the DSS Sauropod,” Arx’s voice boomed out from the ship’s speaker system. “Perhaps you didn’t hear, General Loki? The raptors are a noshow at this year’s games – so get lost!”
With that, a volley of laser fire tore loose from the Sauropod. As the red and white lightning burned and crackled around the raptor ship, the whole crowd heard General Loki s howl of rage.
Then, with an ear-splitting sonic boom, his death ship was sent spinning away from the stadium. Soon, it had vanished from view behind one of the six scarlet suns glowing in the sky.
“We did it!” cried Gipsy, her crest flushing bright red. “We saved the planet!”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” announced the bewildered commentator over the speakers, “it seems we owe a good deal today to Captain Teggs – a truly amazing astrosaur – and the crew of his fine ship, the DSS Sauropod!”
The crowd burst into thundering cheers and applause as the Sauropod flew slowly and gracefully off into orbit. Gipsy clapped too. Moments later, medics appeared. They swiftly tended to Teggs and the dazed athletes beside him.
As he was hefted away on a stretcher, Teggs smiled proudly up at the shrinking shape of his ship. He raised both his front legs in a dinosaur salute.
*
Some time later, Captain Teggs was back in his control pit, feasting on some of the finest ferns he had ever tasted. His legs felt much stronger, but he thought it best to take things easy for a while.
Beside him, Gipsy was busy reading aloud all the thank you messages they’d received.
“There’s one here from Hank and Crank,” she said happily. “The doctors have put their heads back to normal. But apparently they’re really disappointed.”
“Why?” wondered Teggs. “Because they couldn’t take part in the games?”
“No,” she chuckled. “Because they were hoping that exploding heads could become part of the sport!” She checked her read-out. “Hey, there’s even a note from King Carnotaurus here. He says he’s very sorry his stewards tried to eat you.”
“No harm done,” said Teggs briskly, turning to Arx. “Which I hope is more than can be said for General Loki?”
The triceratops smiled. “Iggy gave the lasers a power boost – enough to knock that raptor ship clear out of orbit! There’s no telling where they’ll end up!”
“Actually,” said Iggy slyly, “there is.” He gave Teggs a wicked grin. “I took a look with the long-range scanners, Captain. And guess what! Loki’s ship will be forced to land for repairs somewhere around here …”
Iggy turned on the scanner with his stiff little tail and soon Teggs was staring at the green disc of a very familiar planet.
“Planet Sixty!” he beamed. “Really?”
“Serves them right,” laughed Arx. “I wonder if that group of T. rexes is still there?”
Gipsy grinned. “They’ll certainly keep Loki busy for a while!”
“And what about us?” asked Iggy. “I like to be kept busy too!”
“Take it easy while you can,” came a booming voice. Everyone looked up to see a crusty old barosaurus on the scanner screen.
“Admiral Rosso!” gasped Gipsy.
“That’s right!” he beamed. “I just wanted to congratulate you all on a job well done.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Teggs.
“Thank you’’ the admiral nodded. “You’ve come through your first mission with flying colours.”
“And flying stegosaurs, too!” whispered Gipsy, nudging Teggs in the ribs.
“We couldn’t have done it without the Sauropod, sir,” Teggs told him, helping himself to an extra-big mouthful of delicious ferns. “She’s a fine ship.”
“And she has a fine crew,” said the admiral with a smile. “And you know what? I have a hunch that somewhere out there, a new adventure’s waiting … just around the corner.”
Admiral Rosso’s face faded from the screen.
Now the scanner showed the view outside the ship: the endless sparkle and darkness of deep space. Teggs stared at it dreamily. He couldn’t wait to explore it all.
“Well,” he said. “I think we should get going.”
Arx raised a bony eyebrow “Where to, Captain?”
“You heard the admiral – just around the corner!” Teggs winked at him.
“Don’t you know it’s rude to leave an adventure waiting?”
THE END
About the Author
Born in 1971, Steve Cole spent a happy childhood in rural Bedfordshire being loud and aspiring to amuse. He liked books, and so went to the University of East Anglia to read more of them. Later on he started writing them too, with titles ranging from pre-school poetry to Young Adult thrillers (with more TV and film tie-ins than he cares to admit to along the way). In other careers he has been the editor of Noddy magazine, the voice of a Dalek and an editor of fiction and nonfiction book titles for various publishers.
ALSO BY STEVE COLE:
Read all the adventures of Teggs, Gipsy, Arx and Iggy!
1 Riddle of the Raptors
2 The Hatching Horror
3 The Seas of Doom
4 The Mind-Swap Menace
5 The Skies of Fear
6 The Space Ghosts
7 Day of the Dino-Droids
8 The Terror-Bird Trap
9 The Planet of Peril
10 The Star Pirates
11 The Claws of Christmas
12 The Sun-Snatchers
13 Revenge of the Fang
14 The Carnivore Curse
15 The Dreams of Dread
16 The Robot Raiders
17 The Twist of Time
18 The Sabre-Tooth Secret
19 The Forest of Evil
20 Earth Attack!
21 The T. Rex Invasion
22 The Castle of Frankensaur
Read all the adventures of Teggs, Blink and Dutch at the Astrosaurs Academy!
1 Destination: Danger!
2 Contest Carnage!
3 Terror Underground!
4 Jungle Horror!
5 Deadly Drama!
6 Christmas Crisis!
7 Volcano Invaders!
8 Space Kidnap!
Meet the time-travelling cows!
1 The Ter-moo-nators
2 The Moo-my’s Curse
3 The Roman Moo-stery
4 The Wild West Moo-nster
5 World War Moo
6 The Battle for Christmoos
7 The Pirate Moo-tiny
8 The Moo-gic of Merlin
9 The Victorian Moo-ders
10 The Moo-lympic Games
11 First Cows on the Moon
12 The Viking Emoo-gency
If you can’t take the slime, don’t do the crime!
1 The Fearsome Fists
2 The Toxic Teeth
3 The Cyber-Poos
4 The Supernatural Squid
5 The Killer Socks
6 The Last-Chance Chicken
7 The Alligator Army
8 The Conquering Conks
Visit www.stevecolebooks.co.uk for fun, games, jokes, to meet the characters and much, much more!
RIDDLE OF THE RAPTORS
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 17346 4
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2013
Text copyright-space-after © Steve Cole, 2005
Cover illustration by Dynamo Design © Random House Children’s Books, 2010
Interior illustrations copyright-space-after © Charlie Fowkes, 2005
First Published in Great Britain
Red Fox 2005
The right of Steve Cole to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the copyright-space-after, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright-space-after material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright-space-after law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S PUBLISHERS UK
61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
www.randomhousechildrens.co.uk
www.randomhouse.co.uk
Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at:
www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm
THE RANDOM HOUSE GROUP Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.