Microsaurs--Tiny-Raptor Pack Attack
Page 1
Begin Reading
Table of Contents
About the Author
Copyright Page
Thank you for buying this
Feiwel & Friends ebook.
To receive special offers, bonus content,
and info on new releases and other great reads,
sign up for our newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on the author, click here.
The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.
For Malorie, who shares my favorite Bs:
Broadway, board games, and, of course, books.
CHAPTER 1
THE BOLT!
“This is the last lap, Danny. We’ve got to catch up!” Lin shouted as she gripped the controller for The Bolt, our remote control car, in her hands. The little dune buggy launched off the Spin Cycle, a jump made out of an old washing machine in the middle of the world’s greatest dirt racing track.
“Wings engaged!” I pressed a button on the screen of my dad’s old smartphone. I had updated his SpyZoom app to operate the upgrades for The Bolt, our jet-fueled, electric-blue, highly modified, nitro-equipped, twelve-inch-long, remote control racer. We were in second place, but I could almost smell the victory, we were so close. Or maybe it was just the jet fuel.
A year ago some kids started racing RC cars in an abandoned dump, and it had really caught on. There wasn’t a prize or a trophy for the winner, but there were bragging rights, and for Lin and me, that was more than enough.
“How close are we to that orange hunk of junk?” Lin asked. She slammed on the brake button and The Bolt drifted around an old toilet bowl, half buried in the dirt.
We didn’t mess around with the normal races; we were in the Super Modified Team Class. A two-person race with one driver and one copilot. But the best thing about the modified team race was that you could upgrade your RC car in any way you could imagine. No rules. No regrets.
I checked my phone. A video streamed from a camera no bigger than an un-popped kernel of popcorn glued to the top of The Bolt. I had a perfect view of everything in front of our RC car. An orange truck with a homemade yellow flame job painted on the side filled the screen. It was twice as big as our car, spit glops of mud from its toothy tires, and it had a jar full of dangerous-looking green sludge bouncing around in its truck bed.
“I think we can catch him if we use Sonic-Earth Shake to boost us down the slide,” I said.
“All right. Bring on the noise,” Lin said.
Lin swerved around a bald tractor tire, then shot The Bolt over an old mattress. She aimed the nose of our car directly at a rusted-out slide that had once been the biggest thing in the Jefferson Elementary playground. The Bolt burst up the old slide, but before it reached the top a beetle-shaped car with eyelashes over its headlights blinked past us so fast it looked like a streak of sparkly purple fingernail polish.
“What was that?” Lin asked as the purple blur whizzed by and caught up to the orange truck.
“Do it again, Daddy!” said a high-pitched voice that we both recognized at once. “I’m winning, Daddy! Do it again!”
“Oh great, it’s Icky Vicky,” Lin said just loud enough for me to hear.
Somehow we hadn’t noticed her standing in the drivers’ area before the race started, but I glanced to my left and sure enough, it was her. Victoria Van-Varbles, the daughter of the mayor, Valerie Van-Varbles, and the richest kid in the entire county. Probably the entire STATE!
It wasn’t the first time I’d seen Vicky and her purple glitter-mobile at the races, but last time she couldn’t drive the car in a straight line, let alone pass Lin and me on the final lap. But one glance and it all made sense. She wasn’t driving the car at all. A guy dressed in a leather jacket covered in brightly colored logos was driving the car for her, and her dad was copiloting, working a large panel of trigger buttons to launch her store-bought, overpriced upgrades.
“She’s not even driving,” I said to Lin, but Lin didn’t care about that right then. She was too busy trying to win!
“Fire the Grappling-Grabber!” Lin said.
I tapped the grappling hook icon on my SpyZoom app and crosshairs raised up in front of the camera. I used the smartphone to line up a perfect shot, right at the back of Vicky’s purple RC car. “FIRE AWAY!” I shouted, then slammed a finger down on the launch button.
A small hook shot out of the side cannon glued to The Bolt. The hook buzzed through the air, then wrapped around the back bumper of Victoria Van-Varbles’s sparkly purple car.
“Direct hit! Crank it in,” Lin shouted. I swiped a command on my phone and a little motor inside The Bolt began to wind the dental floss back up onto the spool.
“Daddy, they are cheating! Do something,” Vicky said in a voice so high-pitched I thought it might crack the plastic windshield on The Bolt.
“Oh, I don’t think you can cheat in the Super Modified Team Class, darling. That is what makes it fun,” Vicky’s dad said, but that just made her mad.
“It’s not fun for me! Do something or I will!” Vicky said. She stomped her foot so hard I thought I felt the ground shake.
With the help of the hook, we quickly slipped right up behind Vicky’s car and the orange truck. The grappling hook was working perfectly, but I had one more trick to try and just enough time before we crossed the finish line.
“Ready for the Hammer of Doom?” I asked Lin.
“Oh yeah, bring it down HARD!”
“They have a doom hammer thingy, Daddy!” Vicky jumped up and down, and her black braids bounced higher with every shout. “Push a button or something! LIGHT THEM ON FIRE!” Vicky screamed.
“Get as close as you can,” I said to Lin. She bumped into the back of Vicky’s car, and it swerved over and buzzed against the wheels of the huge orange truck.
“Close enough?” she asked. But instead of answering I discharged the Hammer of Doom. The top of The Bolt split in two, and a big red hammer extended out. It was cocked back on a spring I had taken out of an old mini-trampoline. A second before it smashed down on Vicky’s car and the big orange truck, Vicky’s expert driver swerved and smashed into the orange truck. The Hammer of Doom missed them both, clobbering down in front of us, creating nothing more than a big splat of mud.
The jar of green goop in the back of the orange truck teetered and bobbled. Vicky’s dad grinned and pushed a button on his controller.
A poof of shiny purple glitter exploded from the rear of Vicky’s car just as the green goop tumbled from the back of the truck, and all I could see was green slime and purple sparkles. The camera was no use now.
With its engine full of glittery goop, The Bolt sputtered to a stop. The orange truck did about twelve somersaults, and then its race came to an end in a cloud of dust. But that wasn’t the worst part. Not by far.
“I won, I won! Did you see that, everyone? I totally won that race!” Victoria Van-Varbles shouted at the top of her voice, scaring every bird, squirrel, and human within ten miles.
Lin growled like a bear that had just lost its honey pot to a clever chipmunk. A bright purple, hair-bow-wearing, totally-annoying chipmunk.
Vicky spoke as she walked away. “It was fun winning, Daddy. But I want a grappling hook and a big hammer thingy on my car for next week. Oh, and a bottle of green goop, too. I’m never going to lose again!”
“Oh yeah?” Lin asked. “You’re never going to lose again? Want to make a bet?”
Vicky turned around and gave Lin a smile so sweet that I think I got a cavity by just looking at her. “Oh hi, Lin. I didn’t see you there,” she said, which was totally a lie. “Um, sorry. I don’t bet.”
“Well, that’s too bad because I’d bet The Bolt and all its upgrades, plus half a box of chocolate-covered raisins that you can’t beat me again right now,” Lin said.
“Oh, I don’t want that trashed-up car. Besides, I already beat you. Why would I want to do it again?” Vicky said.
“Come on, honey,” her dad said, putting his arm on her shoulder. “You’ve got ballet in fifteen minutes. We don’t want to be late.”
“It won’t take me fifteen minutes to beat you,” Lin said. “Or maybe you’re just scared.”
Victoria Van-Varbles put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the left. The sickly sweet look on her face swapped to serious in a flash. “Check my schedule, Daddy. I need fifteen minutes to teach Miss Lin Song a lesson.”
“Let’s just wait until next week, Victoria, darling,” her dad said.
“Um, no. I need to beat her as soon as possible. I’m not scared of anything,” Vicky said. “Let’s do it today.”
Vicky’s father didn’t argue, and I could tell she was very used to getting her way. “Oh, all right, sweetheart. Hang on.” Vicky’s dad pulled a tablet out of his jacket pocket and started scrolling through her calendar. “Ballet at eleven. Lunch at your mom’s office today at twelve thirty. Then there’s soccer practice, yoga, and swimming lessons. You’re booked until four thirty today, Victoria, darling.”
“Lemme check my schedule,” Lin said. She pulled an imaginary calendar out of her back pocket, licked her finger, then started turning through the pages. “Nothing. Watch some TV. Corn dogs for lunch. Oh, look at that. Four thirty—Beat Vicky at the Dump Track. You’re already in my schedule.”
“Better make it four forty-five. I’ll need to blow-dry my hair after swimming. I want to look good for my championship selfie at five,” Vicky said. She turned and started walking away with her dad and the professional driver. She stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Oh, and on second thought, I do want that car of yours. Even if it is a hunk of junk, it will look nice on my trophy shelf.” She waved, gave that sugary smile to Lin and me again, then skipped away with her pom-pom braids bouncing around her shoulders.
“She’s going down,” Lin said quietly to me.
“Like an old tree in a hurricane,” I agreed.
CHAPTER 2
SPRING CLEANING—LITERALLY
If your RC car is full of glitter and boogery slime, my house is probably the best place in our entire town to clean it up. Maybe even in the whole wide world.
My dad is an inventor for SpyZoom Technologies, and he works out of his home lab. He has everything from micro-welders to toxic cleaners in big blue barrels. He’s got high-speed testing cameras, lasers, microscopes, computers, and so many tools he needs an entire wall of toolboxes to hold them all. The lab is even equipped with a stereo system, a mini-fridge, a toaster oven that makes some pretty great crispy burritos, and a microwave for pizza and corn dogs.
In fact, next to the Microterium, Professor Penrod’s top secret barn packed with Microsaurs, it is probably my favorite place on earth.
Parts from The Bolt were spread out on the workbench, a neat stack of cleaned parts on the left, and a pile of mucky-mess on the right. Lin and I had cleaned all The Bolt’s upgrades, and we were testing to make sure they were in working order before putting them back on.
“You know how to put this all together again, right?” Lin asked.
I looked at her over the magnifying glass I’d been peering through while working on a release spring. “You know who you’re talking to, don’t ya?” I said.
“Yeah, yeah. I know, but that’s a lot of parts. Even for you, Danny,” she said. She put down the cotton swabs. She was done with the whole cleaning thing. “Hey. What is there to eat around here? I’m starving.”
“The fridge is full of good stuff. Want to heat up some pizza? There’s corn dogs in there, too,” I said.
“Sure. Can I use the Bunsen burner to toast the pizza again?” Lin asked as she skipped over to the mini-fridge.
“No. My dad said he cleaned mozzarella out of there for a week. Just nuke it in the microwave,” I said. I snapped the release spring onto the lever arm of the Slap-Clapper, tapped the button on my SpyZoom app to test it, and it smacked the table so hard it made a loud WHACK! “Well, they all still work. That purple bug is going to get squashed.”
Lin was crouched down, looking into the fridge. “Where’s your dad today?”
“He’s testing his new Whiff-O-Zapper device in the field. He said he’d be back before dinner,” I said as my phone started to buzz. “Hey. Maybe that’s him.” I de-gunked my hands on my shirt, then tapped a button to answer the phone and the screen filled with green grass and sunshine.
“Hey, Dad. Is that you?” I asked as Lin started piling frozen pizza and corn dogs on the workbench next to the RC car parts.
The grass started to rustle, then a man wearing a camouflage hat covered in ferns and weeds popped up from the grass. His face was streaked with mud, and there were sticks woven into his thick mustache.
“It’s me, Penrod!” the grass-covered man said.
Lin leaned in to see the phone screen. “Hey! How you been, Penny, old pal?”
“Prodigious. Perky! PERFECT, Lin, my young pal! And how have you two been lately?”
“We’re doing great. We’ve been checking in on the Microterium like you asked before you left for China,” I said. “Bruno is getting so big you won’t recognize him.”
Lin and I went to the Microterium two, sometimes three times a day. We couldn’t get enough of the place! We discovered the professor’s secret lab by following a GPS-stealing tiny-dactyl who led us on an adventure that ruined my favorite shirt, tested my fear of heights, and taught us that riding a Microsaur sure beats walking.
“And I’ve been teaching Zip-Zap how to do flips. He’s really good at it, too,” Lin said.
“With or without you on his back at the time?” Professor Penrod asked.
“With, of course. You’ll totally have to try it out. It makes your tummy go all swishy. I love it SO MUCH I can’t hardly stand it.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful. I knew the Microsaurs would be in good hands with you two,” Penrod said.
“How are things in China, Professor?” I asked.
“Well, funny you should ask. The food has been amazing, the people are super nice, but the satellite cell phone connection out here is horrible. So I better get down to business. I need to tell you that I’ve sent a very special package to the Microterium. It should be there now! It’s very important that you rush over and let the contents out immediately. Give them a little room to run, because after sitting in a crate for a couple of weeks, I’m sure they’ll need it,” he said.
I was so excited I wanted to sprint to the Microterium right away.
“So, what’s inside this package?” Lin asked as she stuffed frozen pizza and corn dogs into my backpack. I guess she was ready to go, too.
“Oh, you won’t believe it…” Penrod said. “… a pack of…” The video skipped for a moment and the audio fuzzed out.
“Uh-oh. I think we’re losing him,” Lin said.
“And there’s a secret compartment…” Penrod said. “And a wire mesh wall to keep them…” Another fuzz out. Another jumpy video screen.
“Penny! Can you hear us?” Lin said. She tapped the screen of my phone with a frozen corn dog.
“I don’t think hitting the phone with an ice-dog is going to improve his cell connection in China,” I said.
“It
might,” she said as she thunked it again.Penrod’s face started moving instantly.
“I hope the wall will hold. I’m pretty sure it will, but you’ve got to hurry. Oh, and be careful, you might want to bring a…” Penrod said, just before the screen froze one last time, then it went black.
“The power of corn dogs!” Lin said. She reached over me to try to whack my phone with the corn dog one more time. I pulled it away before she could crack the screen.
“What do you think he was going to say? Bring a what?”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine. The important part is that we get to the Microterium fast. You ready?” I took the last frozen corn dog from Lin’s hand, slipped it in my backpack, then started stuffing The Bolt’s upgrade parts into the pack as well.
“I’m ready, but why are you bringing all that stuff?” Lin asked.
“Well, you never know when a Sonic-Earth Shaker, a Goo-Cannon, Grappling-Grabber, a Hammer of Doom, or a Slap-Clapper will come in handy. Race you to the Microterium,” I said. I zipped up my backpack and we took off running.
CHAPTER 3
BACK IN THE MICROTERIUM
It’s a good thing we met Professor Penrod when we did, because he needed our help. His trip to China would have been impossible without us to stay behind and keep things in the Microterium running smoothly. And not just that—Lin and I are expert secret keepers, too, which comes in handy, because the Microterium is super top secret.
At first when I saw Professor Penrod’s house, it totally gave me the creeps. I actually thought it was a haunted mansion. His house is tucked away in the woods, surrounded by a tall iron gate and overgrown weeds, and snarling dinosaur gargoyles stare down at you from the corners of his roof to finish off the mood. But it didn’t worry me anymore. We’d been back every day since we first discovered the Microterium, and now when I saw the house I got all excited, because I knew there were adventures behind that iron gate.