by Steve Cole
Teggs nodded grimly. “It turned them from harmless insects into killers!”
“Looks like you were right all along, Leefer,” Iggy murmured. “It really is a forest of evil – and the meat-brain who made it that way is all set to get away scot free!”
Chapter Eight
FEAR-BOOM!
“Somehow, we’ve got to put things right and make this planet well again,” said Teggs. “Yokul, that yellow stuff a fearbloom leaves behind when it chomps someone – are you saying it actually cures the butterflies’ victims?”
Yokul nodded. “It seems that fearblooms are very tough – they are not affected by poison or pollution. They eat the butterflies with no ill effects and pass on their immunity through their spit – which is quickly absorbed by the skin.”
“It stops the infection and calms the victim,” Frisbee went on. “But recovery time depends on the victim’s physical fitness and how many stings they received.”
Arx nodded thoughtfully. “We were bitten soon after we were stung, and so we were cured before we noticed a thing. I suppose Gipsy wasn’t so lucky.”
“That’s right,” said Yokul. “The fearblooms take the sickest dinosaurs underground to keep them safe while they get better. Let me show you.”
Frisbee led the way along another tunnel. Teggs, Iggy, Arx and Leefer followed, trailed by Yokul and the fearblooms.
“How come I wasn’t bitten?” Leefer wondered.
“Perhaps the butterflies don’t like strong smells,” mused Iggy. “That would explain why they left Gucklock alone too.”
Leefer frowned. “Are you saying I smell?”
“You do smell,” said Frisbee bluntly. “‘Too-much-aftershave Leefer’, we call you.”
“Oh.” Leefer sniffed his armpits and nodded. “Fair enough.”
The passage widened into a muddy cavern, where three sleeping dinosaurs in dungarees lay on beds of leaves.
“Our friends were stung very badly,” said Yokul, “so it’s taking them longer to get better.”
But Teggs pushed past them. He’d spotted a familiar stripy shape in an adjoining cave . . . “Gipsy!” He grinned with delight and knelt beside her bed. “Are you all right?”
“Hello, Captain. I’m sorry for dozing off . . .” Gipsy yawned and stretched – and winced. “Ow! What happened? I’m sore all over . . .”
“The pain will soon pass,” Frisbee assured her. “Butterflies stung you.”
“But the fearblooms have made you well again,” Arx told her happily.
“And look!” Iggy had found yet another side-cave – one that reeked of old meat. “They’re even healing laughing boy here.”
Frisbee, Yokul and Leefer came over to see – then quickly ran away again. “Aaaagh!” yelped Yokul. “A meat-eater!”
“Meet Captain Krokk,” said Iggy, “the carnivore crumb who led the mission to spoil this world.”
Teggs glared at the curled-up carnivore. “Well, Gucklock might blast off from here with his sick crewmates, but at least his boss is our prisoner.”
“Wait!” Captain Krokk struggled up, looking cross-eyed. He was still plainly unwell. “Did you say . . . Gucklock is planning to blast off?”
“He’s dead set on it,” said Iggy.
“Dead is right.” Feebly, Krokk slumped back onto his leafy bed. “The Carnivore Space Force cannot allow top secret Solar-Storm technology to fall into enemy hands – so when I left the ship I set the burglar alarm.” He glared up at Teggs. “If anyone besides me tries to take off in that ship, it will blow up with the force of an exploding star.”
Leefer almost fainted, and Gipsy’s headcrest glowed so blue with alarm it brightened the cave. “We’ll all be killed!” she cried.
“Even if we could reach our shuttle in time,” said Iggy, “we could never fit everyone inside.”
“The blast will blow Noxia-4 apart,” Arx murmured. “And then the planet’s rocky remains will bombard the other farm planets in this sector – leaving them devastated.”
Frisbee gulped. “Millions of plant-eaters will starve!”
“Krokk, how do we turn off the alarm?” Teggs demanded.
“I . . . I can’t remember,” said Krokk weakly.
“He’s still in a daze,” Yokul noted. “He must’ve been stung a lot.”
“I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew,” Krokk rasped. “I’d rather die than become your prisoner!”
“Don’t be a fool!” Teggs shouted. “Think. You must remember!”
But Krokk was already asleep once more.
“What are we going to do?” said Gipsy.
“That warship hasn’t gone boom yet,” said Teggs. “We’ve still got a chance to switch off that burglar alarm.”
“But how are we going to reach the surface in time?” asked Frisbee.
Leefer nodded. “I’ve broken my superspade.”
“And we’ll never dig our own way up in time,” said Iggy.
“The dimorphodon will help us,” Teggs declared. “They can air-lift us out through the hole we made through the tunnel roof.”
Sprite nodded bravely – then some fearblooms shuffled forward. They quickly coiled their steely stalks around Iggy and raised him into the air. “Hey!” he protested. “What’s going on?”
“The fearblooms will help us as well!” Arx grinned. “They can drag dinosaurs down through the mud, and they can lift them up through it too!”
“Brilliant!” Gipsy stroked one of the fearbloom’s leaves and it nuzzled her. “They really are kindly plants.”
“And they’ll die with the rest of us if that warship explodes,” said Teggs. “Plants and plant-eaters, we must all fight together – in a battle to the end!”
Within minutes, the astrosaurs and their unusual allies were back breathing fresh air in the forest. The fearblooms had hauled Teggs, Arx, Frisbee and Yokul through the mud and mulch, while the dimorphodon dangled Iggy, Gipsy and Leefer from their beaks and claws. Everyone kept a sharp eye out for butterflies.
“There’s not a moment to lose,” said Teggs, wriggling free of a fearbloom. “Is everyone ready?”
The others nodded grimly, and Leefer wielded his bent super-spade like a club. “‘Born-ready Leefer’, they call me,” he said.
“Then – CHARGE!” yelled Teggs. Whirling his tail over his head like a spiky battle-axe he charged off along the well-trampled path back to the warship. Arx and the farmers ran along behind, while Iggy helped Gipsy keep up at the rear. Sprite and his full flight-crew flapped gamely overhead, and the fearblooms fanned out through the undergrowth like leafy shadows – all converging on the gigantosaurus ship.
“There it is!” Teggs cried, bursting through the bracken that ringed the rocket’s gloomy clearing. “Iggy, can you open it safely?”
“Safely?” Gipsy echoed. “With Gucklock the poisoner on board with his horrible crewmates?”
“I’ll have a go.” Iggy pulled out his astro-wrench – and the door slid open!
“Wow, you’re good,” said Leefer, impressed.
But then a gigantosaurus came pounding outside in a panic. It was Gucklock. He saw the crowd gathered around the ship and bared his teeth – but Teggs tripped him with a tail-swipe.
KER-THOMP! Gucklock turned a somersault and landed flat on his face.
Gipsy jumped on the carnivore’s back, pinning him to the ground. “Going somewhere, Gucklock?”
“Yes – to steal your shuttle and escape,” wheezed Gucklock. “I tried to leave in my own ship, but set off the burglar alarm. Now the Solar-Storm engines are going to self-destruct!”
“Just as Krokk said,” Iggy groaned. “Then we’re too late!”
Already, Teggs could feel a low, subsonic rumble building in the rocket beside them. “How long now before that ship explodes?”
“Not more than five minutes.” Gucklock struggled to get away. “Let me go! Let me go right now, or you’ll be sorry.”
“Oh yes, poisoner?” Frisbee sneered. “And why’s t
hat?”
Gucklock glared up at him. “Because when I was trying to turn off the burglar alarm, I accidentally turned loose my loopy crewmates. They’re running wild, out for blood – and chasing after me.”
Yokul looked pale. “They’ll be in the final, nastiest stages of butterfly poisoning.”
Leefer almost dropped his spade in terror. “They’ll eat us alive!”
Sure enough, over the rising thrum of the doomed ship’s defence system, Teggs could hear the clatter and stomp of footsteps rushing towards them. “Look out, everyone,” he cried. “Here they come!”
Chapter Nine
KILLER COUNTDOWN
Chaos broke out in the clearing!
Hordes of snarling gigantosaurus stormed outside and roared at their prey. The biggest of them loomed over Teggs.
“You have to let us pass!” Teggs cried.
“If you don’t, we’re all doomed!”
But the carnivore only bellowed “WIBBLE!” and slashed at him with killer claws. Teggs blocked the blow with his backplates and swung his tail, clubbing his attacker into a tree. A flock of dimorphodon descended at once, battering the beast with their wings and claws.
That same moment, Iggy came under attack. A gigantosaurus knocked him to the ground and flung itself at him – but Iggy rolled aside and the monster’s jaws closed on nothing but mud.
Arx made sure to trample the brute on his way to save Yokul and Frisbee from two more. He charged into the gigantosaurus, shoving them into nearby bushes.
The rocket’s rumbling was getting louder now, and smoke was starting to curl from its casing. “We’ve got to get inside,” Teggs cried.
“Easier said than done – I’m still feeling a bit dizzy!” Gipsy rolled off Gucklock as another gigantosaurus bounded out from the warship, stomping on the poisoner’s head as it came to get her. But Sprite came shooting to her aid with a half-dozen dimorphodon. They dive-bombed the meat-muncher, pecking and scratching. Roaring and wibbling with anger, the gigantosaurus sank to its knees – and Leefer whacked it round the head with his broken super-spade.
“Yahoo!” he cheered as it flopped to the forest floor. “Fighting-champ Leefer, they call me!”
Two fearblooms pushed past Teggs and grabbed hold of his gigantosaurus foe, chomping hard and precisely, trying to heal its madness. More and more of the plants were flocking to the glade. As fast as the astrosaurs and their friends could knock Krokk’s crew to the ground, the fearblooms seized them with stems, leaves and jaws, biting them better.
Gipsy used a tree branch to beat back the last wild carnivore – then Frisbee took it from her. “Go on inside, astrosaurs,” he cried. “The dimorphodon and the fearblooms will help us take charge of these dung-heads – while you stop the ship from self-destructing!”
Yokul nodded. “Go on, before it’s too late.”
Teggs nodded, snagged Gucklock’s belt with a tail spike and pulled him to his feet. “Wakey-wakey. We need you to take us to your control room.”
“It’s too late,” Gucklock gasped as smoke poured from the warship’s sides. “The miniature sun inside will erupt at any moment.”
“But it hasn’t yet,” Arx pointed out. “There’s still hope.”
Teggs shoved Gucklock into the shaking ship. “So, get going!”
The astrosaurs marched after him through the dark, smelly corridors of the top-secret warship. It was jungle-hot, and a scary sizzling sound was coming from the walls. Teggs felt faint explosions going off deep inside the ship, each one a little louder and harder than the last. We must be in time to stop it exploding, he told himself fiercely. We must!
At last they reached the control room – a vast, circular space, bathed in fierce red light. Posts and pillars coated with knobs and levers stuck out from the floor and walls, and a screen on the wall was counting down large crimson numbers: 79 . . . 78 . . . 77 . . .
“Quickly!” Teggs grabbed hold of Gucklock. “Where are the controls for the burglar alarm?”
Gucklock picked up a mangled scarlet lever from the floor, trailing wires. “Er . . . some of it’s here.” He shrugged and pointed to a hole in one of the posts. “When the alarm started I tried to turn it off again . . .”
Arx groaned. “You tried a bit too hard!”
Iggy reached into the hole in the post with his astro-wrench. “It’s no good,” he said. “I can’t reach the workings.”
Gipsy’s blue head-crest seemed purple in the red lights. “If only we had weapons we could try blasting it.”
“I tried that,” said Gucklock. “I’ve tried everything.”
The rocket shook harder. The ceiling was smoking.
Teggs looked up at the screen.
61 . . . 60 . . . 59 . . .
“Not fair!” Gucklock stamped a big, scaly foot against the steaming metal floor. “I am Gucklock, the master poisoner! I cannot die a prisoner of plant-eaters . . .” He grabbed a flask of white powder from this belt. “My final act will be to poison you all!”
Gipsy whopped his wrist with a dino-judo chop and caught the flask as he dropped it. “My final act will be to sock your lights out!” she snarled. “This is all your fault!”
“Wait, Gipsy!” Teggs snatched the flask from her. “Poison – maybe that’s the answer!”
Iggy looked blank. “The answer to what?”
Teggs grabbed more jars and tubs and capsules from Gucklock’s belt. “You can poison a planet – what about a computer?”
Gucklock stared at them. “Poison a machine? You’re out of your minds!”
“We’re almost out of time!” Gipsy hooted. 39 . . . 38 . . . 37 . . .
“Well, if Gucklock won’t even try, I will!” Arx grabbed the glass containers and lined them up on the floor. “Let me see . . . sonk drops and bertle-berry juice, tankpox and rash-bobbles . . .”
“Hurry, Arx,” Iggy urged him. “There’s just 29 seconds left!”
“If we mix them all together it should make a sort of acid,” said Arx. “Strong enough to melt wires and circuits.”
“Or it might blow us all to bits!” said Gucklock.
Another BANG rang through the rippling walls of the doomed rocket.
“What does it matter now?” asked Teggs grimly. “Let’s do it!”
Chapter Ten
POTION POWER
The lights were flickering. The heat was rising. Carefully, Teggs opened the jar of rash-bobbles. Arx added a few drops of bertle-berry juice and Gipsy poured in the tankpox and sonk drops.
Iggy stirred the mixture with the tip of his astro-wrench, which suddenly started to melt. “I think this stuff’s ready!” he shouted.
Gucklock sank to his knees. “Twenty seconds to go!” The whole rocket was rocking from side to side.
Teggs ran to the hole in the controls and poured in the poisonous concoction. Thick, black smoke rushed out from inside. He fell back reeling and choking. The smoke eclipsed the numbers on the screen . . .
But when it cleared, the numbers were still counting down! 13 . . . 12 . . . 11 . . .
“The acid didn’t work!” Gipsy wailed.
Arx shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid the mixture wasn’t quite toxic enough.”
Then Teggs sniffed and frowned. “Ugh! What’s that smell?”
“Um . . . it’s me.” Gucklock blushed red. “I’m so scared, I just pooped myself.”
“Well, thanks a lot!” Iggy held his snout. “Just what I want to sniff in my last moments.”
“Perhaps it is!” Teggs bounded over to the heap of slimy droppings. “You wanted toxic, Arx – it doesn’t get much nastier than Gucklock’s grotty gift here. I wonder . . .”
Gipsy’s gaze was gripped by the countdown on the screen. “Five seconds left!” she squealed.
Gritting his teeth, Teggs socked the pile of muck with his tail. It flew through the air . . .
“Four . . .” yelled Gipsy.
A big, sludgy splat burst over the controls.
“Three . . .”
“Cross your fingers!” Teggs yelled over the smouldering roar of the rising solar-storm. “Cross your tails, legs and anything else!”
“Two . . .!”
The astrosaurs clung together, eyes shut tight, braced for the final blistering bang . . .
But it never came. Instead, the ship stopped shaking, and the ominous rumbling began to die away.
Teggs opened his eyes to find the lights had changed from danger-red to welcoming white. Already the temperature was starting to drop.
“It worked!” Teggs breathed. “That toxic gunk took out the burglar alarm!”
“Gucklock started this mess,” said Arx, “and now his mess has finally stopped it!”
“So – goodbye, fools!” Gucklock turned to run. “No one makes a prisoner of me-ee – agghh!” He slipped on his own dung and conked his head on a control post – then flopped in a daze back to the messy floor.
“Ha!” said Iggy. “Back in the poo where he belongs!”
Teggs took hold of the dozing dinosaur’s tail. “Come on,” he told his friends. “We’ll take him outside and check on the others. I hope they’re all right!”
When the astrosaurs emerged from the warship carrying Gucklock between them, they saw that the answer was a definite YES. The forest floor was littered with gigantosaurus, all pinned to the ground by fearblooms and dimorphodon. Frisbee and Yokul were leaning on each other, scuffed and sweaty from their battle – while Leefer was performing a strange victory dance with another of the plants, swinging it round by the leaves while shaking his bottom.
“ ‘Disco-sensation Leefer’, they call me!” he panted proudly. “When they’re not calling me ‘Carnivore-kicker Leefer’ or ‘Punch-a-gigantosaurus Leefer’ or—”
“Well done, Leefer!” Teggs grinned. “Astrosaurs!” Frisbee and Yokul rushed over excitedly. “The rocket’s stopped rocking! You did it!” “With a little help from Gucklock, here,” Iggy agreed.
“But while the planet’s safe, our entire harvest is still ruined,” said Frisbee.