by Steve Cole
Gipsy had been left on her own with the replicator. “Break it up, you two!” she shouted at Dasta and Ardul. “Those aren’t your bodies to bruise!”
“I’ll go and get her,” Teggs told Iggy. “You signal Arx. It’s time to put the plan into action – now!”
With that Teggs raced over the top of the dune. “Gipsy!” he cried. “Get out of there!”
Gipsy looked up, and gasped. It looked like a mean-looking coelophysis was rushing towards her, teeth bared! Her head-crest flushed red with anger, and she raised her fists, ready for a fight.
“It’s all right, Gipsy!” the creature cried. “It’s me, Teggs!”
“Teggs?” She peered closely at the scary animal. “Captain, is that really you?”
“Your favourite colour is orange, your mother’s name is Doris and you don’t like cabbage,” cried the coelophysis.
Gipsy grinned. “It is you!”
“It certainly is,” Teggs agreed. “Now, pick up that replicator and let’s get out of here. NOW!”
“Yes, sir,” she saluted.
Dasta and Ardul were blurs of speed now as the battle raged on. Tails thwacked. Heads clunked. Claws scraped and feet stomped.
Teggs winced. “If we ever do get back in our bodies, we’ll be aching for weeks!”
Gipsy staggered along beside him with the replicator. Then a dark shadow fell over them. “The Sauropod!” she cried.
Sure enough, the huge, egg-shaped ship was swooping down from the skies above.
“Speed up, Gipsy,” Teggs urged her. “We have to put as much distance between us and those carnivore crooks as we can!”
“Why?” panted Gipsy.
“Look out, you two!” cried Iggy. He dashed down and helped them up to the top of the sand dune. “Arx is ready for the big drop!”
“Iggy!” Gipsy dropped the replicator and gave him a massive hug. “Big drop? What do you mean?”
Teggs pointed. “He means that!”
The Sauropod stopped over the spot where Dasta and Ardul were still fighting. They were so busy bashing each other’s brains out, they didn’t notice a big pair of doors open above their heads. A second later, tons and tons of plants and seeds came tumbling out – completely burying the dinosaurs and everything around them!
“Direct hit!” cheered Teggs. “That should stop those stupid crooks fighting for a while!”
“And save our bodies from an even bigger battering!” laughed Iggy.
Dasta’s head appeared like a periscope through the sea of seeds. “I’m stuck!” he shouted.
“Me too!” spluttered Ardul, pushing his head out from a pile of plants.
“It’s those astrosaurs,” Dasta roared. “They’ve tricked us!”
“True,” Teggs agreed with a smile.
“Whatever body you’re in, it’s the mind that matters!”
The Sauropod landed at the bottom of the sand dune, and Arx came galloping out. Behind him, a flock of dimorphodon flapped about, holding the mind-swapper between them.
“That was a good plan, Captain,” Arx smiled. “Now let’s get mind-swapping before they dig themselves free!”
The astrosaurs waded through the scattered seeds and plants to reach Dasta and Ardul. “It’s over, you two,” said Teggs. “You’re going back to your old bodies – and back to prison!”
Dasta and Ardul struggled but the food held them firm. The dimorphodon dropped the helmets on their heads, while Gipsy looked after Teggs and Iggy.
“All set, Arx?” asked Teggs hopefully.
But Arx was still peering at the mind-swapper’s controls. “It’s more complicated than I thought it would be.”
“Of course it’s complicated! It takes a genius to work it,” said Dasta proudly. “You haven’t a hope!”
Iggy scowled at him. “Tell us how it works!”
“Only if you promise to let me go,” said Dasta slyly.
“We can’t,” Teggs told him. “You’re too great a menace. Arx, I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to work it out for yourself.”
Suddenly Ardul started wiggling about. “While you is doing that, I is going to dig myself free!”
“Quick, Arx,” cried Iggy.
“I think I can do it,” said Arx nervously.
“If you get it wrong, you could fry our minds!” cried Dasta.
“We trust you, Arx,” said Teggs. “Do it.”
Arx looked at Gipsy. She nodded.
“Very well,” he said, his horn hovering over a blue button.
“No!” gasped Dasta. “Not that one!”
“He’s trying to trick you, Arx,” said Teggs, gritting his teeth. “Do whatever you think is right. That’s an order!”
Arx closed his eyes, made a wish and hit the button.
Chapter Ten
WHO’S WHO?!
THE MIND-SWAPPER HUMMED and throbbed and crackled into life. Soon it was sucking up the dinosaurs’ minds like milkshake.
Teggs gasped. His head felt on fire again.
Iggy felt the world spinning round and round . . .
“I just hope I’ve got this machine working properly,” said Arx as it rattled and chugged behind him. “What if their minds end up in the wrong bodies? What if they get lost somewhere along the way?”
“You’ve done your best, Arx,” said Gipsy. “Now we just have to hope!”
The mind-swapper sucked harder and harder. The noises it made grew louder and louder.
And then it started to smoke. Pink sparks crackled all around it.
“I think it’s overloading!” cried Arx. “Get down, Gipsy!”
The two astrosaurs threw themselves to the ground. The dimorphodon flapped away into the sky.
The mind-swapper throbbed and spat and squelched and snorted . . . And then – Boom! It exploded in a blaze of light.
“That’s that, then,” said Arx, getting back up.
“What if it didn’t work?” asked Gipsy.
“Don’t even think that!” he said.
The two coelophysis were asleep on the sand. Teggs’ and Iggy’s bodies lay still, half-buried by weeds and seeds.
Then the stegosaurus stirred. The iguanodon awoke.
Gipsy crossed her hooves. “Teggs? Iggy? Is that you?”
They looked at each other, in a daze.
“I ache all over . . . but I’m back!” yelled Teggs, and he gave a whoop of joy.
“Me too!” cheered Iggy. “We’re back in our own bodies!”
“You did it, Arx!” Gipsy hugged him.
“I knew he wouldn’t let us down!” beamed Teggs, bounding free of the plants and seeds.
“You’re a hero, Arx!” said Iggy. “You deserve a medal!”
Arx blushed.
“Hold on a minute,” said Teggs. “What about Dasta and Ardul?”
“Of course!” cried Iggy. “If they’re back in their own bodies, there’s nothing to stop them sneaking off!”
But the astrosaurs were too late. The two coelophysis had already gone.
“If only I’d watched them,” moaned Gipsy.
The flock of dimorphodon flapped back down from the sky. One of them landed on Arx’s nose and gave a loud squawk.
“This one has spotted them,” said the triceratops. “He says they’ve sneaked off to your prison ship, Captain. They’ll get away now, for sure!”
Teggs looked at Iggy and smiled. “Don’t bet on it,” he said.
Iggy grinned back. “You see, we left our guard dog on board.”
“Guard dog?” Gipsy frowned.
Behind the big sand dune, a clanking, mechanical sound grew slowly louder. Arx and Gipsy cried out as a terrifying monster came into sight.
It was a robot T. rex!
It clutched Dasta in one mighty metal hand and Ardul in the other.
“Don’t worry, he’s a friend,” Iggy explained. “He used to guard the prison, but I rewired him. I needed someone tall to fix the top of the ship!”
“He’ll do anything we say,”
Teggs added. “And he’ll certainly hold onto these two until the nearest space prison can pick them up!”
“Curse you, Teggs!” snarled Dasta.
“You is rotten as a raptor!” added Ardul.
“That’s a point,” said Arx. “We had a run-in with raptors on the way here. What if we bump into them again on the way back?”
“Don’t worry,” said Teggs. “Once we’ve explained how we recaptured two of their most wanted criminals, they’ll have to let us leave in peace.”
“But what about the starving dinosaurs on Diplos?” asked Gipsy. “What are they going to do? We’ve dumped all their lovely food!”
“Simple,” said Iggy. “We give them the replicator!”
Teggs nodded. “Put a single plant into that thing, and ten seconds later . . . out pop a hundred more!”
Arx smiled. “That will solve their food shortage overnight.”
“And they’ll never be hungry again,” said Gipsy. “Brilliant!”
“So what are we waiting for?” said Iggy. “The sooner we deliver it, the better.”
He picked up the replicator and set off back to the Sauropod. Arx followed, the dimorphodon flapping all around him.
But Gipsy held back. She could see that Teggs was looking at Dasta, still struggling in the grip of the robot T. rex.
“What a waste,” he muttered.
Gipsy put a gentle hoof on his shoulder. “You mean . . . if only Dasta had used his brains to help people instead of making himself rich?”
He looked at her, puzzled. “No. I was just thinking – what a waist!” He smiled. “That sneaky coelophysis is a real skinny-ribs. It was quite nice to be slim and nimble for a change!”
Gipsy stared at him. “Don’t tell me you’d rather be him than yourself!”
“No way,” cried Teggs, striding off to the Sauropod after the others. “I’m the captain of the best ship in the Dinosaur Space Service, with the best crew in the universe. And I must be due another adventure any time now!” He looked back and gave Gipsy an enormous grin. “What could possibly be better than that?”
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, and an editor of fiction and nonfiction book titles for various publishers. He is the author of the hugely successful Astrosaurs, Cows in Action and Astrosaurs Academy series.
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!
THE MIND-SWAP MENACE
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 17349 5
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 © Steve Cole, 2005
Cover illustration by Dynamo Design © Random House Children’s Books, 2010
Map copyright © Charlie Fowkes, 2005
Interior illustrations by Woody Fox, © Random House Children’s Books 2005
First Published in Great Britain
Red Fox 9781849411523 2006
The right of Steve Cole to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.