by Jack Patton
With special thanks to Adrian Bott
Title Page
Dedication
Call for Help
Unwelcome Visitor
Defend the Human!
The Wall
Traitor?
The Invasion Begins
Back to the Beach
Barton vs. Komodo
Last Battle
Real Life Battle Bugs!
Sneak Peek
Copyright
Vacation was so close, Max Darwin could almost taste it. Soon, there would be no more classes and no more books! Now there was only one thing standing between him and bug-hunting fun in the sun: the school science fair.
The school gym was crowded with tables, each one showing off a different student’s project. Letters made of colored paper and foil spelled out their titles.
Max and his friend Steve wandered up and down the rows of tables, checking out the competition.
“That potato battery is so lame.” Steve laughed. “Come up with something original!”
“Like your soda volcano?” Max teased.
“Hey! The soda volcano is a classic. Like the Harley-Davidson.”
Max rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, Steve.”
Max didn’t think his friend had much chance of winning. He’d chosen his volcano project because it was easy and both his brothers had done it before him. Max, on the other hand, had worked hard on his own exhibit: a spectacular ant farm.
Max hoped he had a chance of making the top three. Although, he had to admit, some of the other projects were cool. One girl had made a rotating model of the solar system, and just across from his table, one boy had made a balloon-powered rocket.
The two boys crossed the gym and made it to Steve’s workstation just as Principal Marsh did. Principal Marsh was tall and dressed all in brown, reminding Max of a walking stick bug.
“What’s your project all about, Steven?” he asked.
Steve pointed proudly to the papier-mâché volcano he’d made. “I think it’s better if I just show you.”
The principal frowned, then shrugged. “Okay then.” He tapped his pen on his clipboard, ready to take notes.
The kids from Max’s class gathered around. They all seemed curious about what would happen.
“Whatever you have planned is certainly drawing a crowd,” the principal said.
Max winked and passed Steve the all-important roll of Mentos. The volcano hid a big bottle of soda, and the crater at the top was the hole in the bottle.
“In ancient Pompeii,” Steve began, “the citizens lived at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, going about their daily lives. Little did they know that the mountain held a secret. Vesuvius was no ordinary mountain: It was a volcano, and it was about to ERUPT . . .”
Steve reached across to the top of the model and dropped a whole fistful of Mentos into the crater. Max ducked for cover as the principal leaned in for a closer look.
WHOOMPSH! A foamy, brown geyser exploded out the top of the volcano. It blasted into the air, fizzing wildly, splashing the principal right in the face. His glasses flew off and he was drenched completely.
“Blarghhh!” he cried. Screams and squeals of surprise rang out, followed by laughter and cheers.
Steve grinned. “. . . And with that, Pompeii was buried for a thousand years.”
Max looked at what was left of Steve’s volcano. The force of the eruption had blown the mountain apart, cracking off a huge chunk of papier-mâché.
The principal picked up his glasses and wiped them with a handkerchief. “I should have known better than to get too close to the lava flow,” he said, drily.
“Sorry, Principal Marsh,” Steve said innocently. “I didn’t know it would work so well.”
“Let’s just move on to the next project,” Principal Marsh suggested. “Max. What did you make?”
Max led the principal across the gym to his table. The ant farm was a large glass-fronted box filled with dirt. Inside, ants happily tunneled around. Along the top of the box ran Max’s project heading: THE WORLD OF ANTS.
He grinned as he read the words. If I’d wanted to, I could have just paid a visit to Bug Island and visited the real World of Ants.
The principal seemed impressed. “Excellent! Tell me more about it.”
“I set the ants up with a lot of different foods to choose from, to see what they like best,” Max explained. “Every day I observed them for an hour and wrote down how many ants I saw eating each kind of food.” He pointed at the chart he’d prepared. He knew one thing for sure now: Ants were crazy about sweet things.
The principal made a mark on his clipboard. “Very good. Fascinating little creatures, ants. In fact, there goes one of them now. Can I have a closer look?”
“Sure! I’ve got a magnifying glass you can use, right here.”
Max reached into his pocket to pull out the magnifying glass, but instead he found the screwdriver he’d been using to build the ant farm. “Oops,” he said. “Must be in my bag. Hold on.”
He ducked under the table to grab his backpack and then reached into it, trying to find the magnifying glass.
“Ow!” he cried, leaping back from his bag. His hand had touched something hot.
The principal raised an eyebrow in his direction but Max coughed weakly, trying to hide his alarm. What was that?
Carefully, he opened up his bag and felt for the hot thing again. It was almost painful to the touch, like laying your hand on a radiator that’s been turned up too high. He felt the leathery cover and the rough edges of the pages, and that was when he knew.
It was The Complete Encyclopedia of Arthropods, the mysterious book that was the gateway to Bug Island. Every time the bugs needed help, the book glowed—but it had never been burning hot before.
There was only one explanation. This must be an emergency. The bugs were in real trouble.
Max snatched up his backpack and made his excuses. “Sorry, Principal Marsh, I guess I must have left my magnifying glass in the classroom. I’ll be right back.”
He stampeded through empty, echoing corridors, past the main office, and around the corner to his classroom. He poked his head in through the doorway.
It’s empty! he thought. Perfect!
Max carefully closed the door behind him and pulled out the encyclopedia. It even smelled hot now, and the pages were glowing red.
He opened the book and flicked through the pages until he found the map of Bug Island. He grabbed the magnifying glass that was embedded in the cover and held it up over the page. Suddenly, a powerful force whirled around him like a tornado. Before he knew it, he was wrenched off his feet and sent tumbling straight into the pages of the book.
“Bug Island, here I come!”
Max fell out of the sky and landed with a bump on soft sand. He got to his feet and saw he was standing on a dune, not far from the edge of the jungle. It was a bright, warm day, but there was no time to relax in the sun. He had to find his bug friends, and fast.
Max brushed himself off and scrambled to the top of the dune for a better view. He looked out across the beach and then over the bay toward Reptile Island, the home of the enemy.
In the distance, huge clouds of black smoke billowed out of the volcano at the heart of the island. The lizards called it the “Great Reptilicus,” as if it were some kind of powerful monster. Right now, Max could understand why. The sky over the lizards’ home was dark, menacing, and filled with smoke. The clouds directly above the volcano glowed red from the boiling lava inside.
It really is hot on the island this time, Max thought. Sweat ran down his face. No wonder the encyclopedia felt like it was burning up.
Suddenly, a buzzing noise overhead caught his attention. He lo
oked up and grinned to see a familiar black-and-yellow shape diving down toward him.
“Buzz!” he cried.
Buzz, the giant hornet flight commander, waved a foreleg to say hello. “Max! I was on patrol and saw you fall out of the sky,” she said. “You’re here not a moment too soon. You’d better climb on board right away.” Buzz’s voice sounded much graver than usual.
“What’s the hurry?” Max asked.
“General Barton has called a council meeting. He’ll explain everything. Hop on.”
Max clambered onto Buzz’s prickly back. He couldn’t believe his luck. For once, he’d crash-landed near the bugs, instead of miles away from them or stuck in a swamp somewhere.
Buzz flew over the sandy beach and through the jungle trees at breakneck speed. Max wanted to ask her what the big emergency was, but the roar of her wings was so loud he couldn’t hear himself speak.
Soon they’d dodged the bright jungle foliage and come out into a wide clearing. Before they’d even landed, Max spotted the huge shape of Barton the titan beetle, leader of the Battle Bugs. He was perched on top of a muddy hill in the middle of the bug camp, with the bug army surrounding him.
Buzz made a high-speed landing in front of Barton. Her legs skidded to a stop, churning up the mud.
“I found him, sir. Safe and sound.” She saluted Barton.
“Excellent,” Barton boomed in his deep, commanding voice. “Welcome back to Bug Island, Max.”
Spike the emperor scorpion and Webster the trap-door spider stood on either side of Barton. They looked at Max anxiously.
“We need you more than ever, buddy,” Spike said.
“Things have gotten real b-b-bad,” Webster stammered.
Seeing the bugs so worried made Max feel uneasy. “What’s General Komodo up to now?”
“It’s not just one thing, Max. That’s the problem,” Barton rumbled. “As you know, we’ve suffered from lizard attacks ever since the volcano erupted and created the lava bridge. But lately, the attacks have become worse. Day and night they hammer away at us. They just aren’t letting up!”
“What about your usual defenses?” Max asked. “You’ve always been able to slow the lizards down before.”
Barton lowered his voice to a whisper. “That’s the problem, Max. They don’t seem to be working. It’s as if the lizards know just what we’re going to do.”
“That is bad,” Max said, feeling a chill spread over him. He tried to think of some reptile ability he might have read about that could explain it, but nothing came to mind. It sounded as if General Komodo was one step ahead of the bugs’ forces.
“A-ha!” Barton boomed, seeing two other bugs approach. “Here come the new division commanders. Max, I’d like you to meet the head of offense, Jet. And this is Scuttler, head of defense.”
Both Jet and Scuttler were impressive to look at, but for very different reasons. Jet was a spindly-legged black widow spider, as black and shiny as the stone she was named after. Scuttler was a bright metallic scarab beetle. His wing case gleamed green and gold.
“It’s nice to meet you both.” Max said. “Do you know some people back in my world used to think scarab beetles were sacred?” he asked Scuttler.
“How strange,” the beetle said. “Over here in Barton’s army, I’m just a humble bug.”
Scuttler’s flashy wing case glinted in the sun. He didn’t strike Max as the most humble of bugs. However, Max soon pushed the thought to the back of his mind.
“Let’s get to work—” he began.
Suddenly, Jet scuttled forward blindingly fast, making Max yelp and leap backward in shock.
“You’re no bug,” she snapped, towering over him. Her legs looked like the sleek metal bars of a prison cage.
“No,” Max gasped. “I’m human.”
“Human? Never heard of it.” She peered closely at him, her many eyes glittering with suspicion. “Why are you so nervous? Do you have something to hide?”
Max tried to form an answer, but the venomous black widow was terrifying. He thought all the bugs were supposed to be on the same side.
Scuttler came to Max’s defense. “Jet, Max is General Barton’s special adviser.”
“Special adviser?” the spider sneered. “A likely story! He’s not a bug, and in my book, that makes him a threat to Bug Island!” She swiveled her eyes back to Max. “I’ve got my eyes on you,” she muttered, and backed away, still glaring at him.
“That will do, Jet!” Barton roared. “I trust him, and that will have to be enough for you!”
Max was almost as shaken by Barton’s anger as he had been by Jet’s suspicion. It wasn’t like Barton to lose his temper with one of his bug officers. Were the bugs really so frightened that they were turning on one another now? If so, Max thought, they needed him more than ever.
Barton called the meeting to order. “We need to decide what to do about the new lizard offensive. Max, any ideas?”
Max was still feeling uneasy after the confrontation with Jet, but he tried to calm down and think clearly.
“I guess the most important thing is to keep you safe, Barton,” he said. “You’re the leader, so you’ve got to be Komodo’s biggest target.”
“That makes sense,” Spike agreed.
“In fact, all the commanders should stay here in the camp for now. You should be safe here. We’ve got the trip wires to warn us if the lizards try an attack.” Max had set up an alarm system on one of his previous visits. It was made from spiderweb trip wires rigged to noisy, rattling acorn shells.
“You sound very confident,” Jet said. “Are you sure?”
“Trust me. I set the trip wires up myself. There’s no way any reptile could sneak through them . . .”
His voice died away. Suddenly, a shadowy form loomed at the far edge of the bugs’ camp.
Scuttler saw it, too. “Defense stations!” he yelled.
The oncoming creature came into full sight. It was a huge lizard, ten times the length of Barton, covered in black and orange scales like the camouflage on an army tank. It moved with a slow, lumbering swagger, showing no fear at all. It flicked its tongue out and sniffed the air, then looked right at Max.
“Uh-oh,” Max said. He knew exactly what the black-and-orange beast was. He also knew that it had venomous spit and an incredible sense of smell. If the lizard bit any of them, they were doomed.
“It’s a Gila monster!” he shouted.
“Thought you were safe here, did you?” the lizard said, its mouth twisting into an evil grin. “Apparently, you were wrong!”
The ground trembled beneath Max’s feet as the colossal reptile charged straight at him!
The Gila monster ignored all the beetles, mantises, and army ants that were surrounding the bug commanders. It stormed through them, scattering them to the left and right as if they were too small for it to bother with. The beast had Max in its sights, and Max knew it.
He knew one other thing, too. Gila monsters preferred to eat small animals rather than insects. Right now, he was a small animal. There was nothing left between him and it, apart from a low wall made from mud and fragments of vegetation.
“Close ranks!” Barton bellowed. “Defend the human!”
“Why is it coming for me?” Max yelled.
“I don’t know, but right now we’ve got to keep you safe!” Barton answered.
One of the beetles in the lizard’s way opened its wing case and flew out to meet the creature in battle. It buzzed up into the air just in front of the reptile’s face—a big mistake.
The Gila monster’s chomping jaws seized the helpless insect and flung it to one side.
Max stared at the fallen beetle. “Watch out! This reptile has venomous spit. Don’t get any on you!”
The huge lizard climbed up and over the mud wall and bore down on Max. Luckily, although it was big, it was quite slow moving for a reptile. Max dodged quickly out of its path. The Gila monster’s jaws slammed shut on thin air. Max ducked and rolled, car
eful to avoid any flying drops of poisonous spittle raining down around him.
Although they had at first been taken by surprise, the bugs were rallying. From all across the camp, warrior bugs piled in to assault the reptile. Sharp mandibles bit and claws snapped, gouging at the creature’s hide.
Max backed away and bumped into Scuttler. The insect looked like he was keeping well out of the way of the fighting.
“Aren’t you going to attack it?” Max demanded.
“They don’t need me at the front,” Scuttler said. “I’m much more useful strategizing behind the scenes. Excuse me, I need to go and advise the bombardier beetles!”
As Max watched Scuttler go, he reminded himself that defense was just as much about preparing traps and barricades as it was about fighting. Not that those defenses would do them any good right now. The Gila monster was right in the heart of the camp, crushing the bugs’ structures and collapsing burrows under its weight. What they needed was a swift counterattack.
“Spike!” he yelled to his scorpion pal. “Let’s show this lizard what real venom’s all about!”
“Now you’re talking,” Spike cheered.
The scorpion powered over to Max, who jumped swiftly onto his back. Together they charged forward. Spike clawed with his pincers and jabbed with his tail, while Max pointed out the soft parts of the Gila monster’s body, where a strike would hurt most.
“We have to stop it,” Max cried. “It’s destroying the camp!”
Spike landed some good hits, making the monster lizard roar and groan in pain. But no matter what they did, they couldn’t stop its rampage. The stockades and towers the termites had carefully built came crashing down around them. Bugs ran around buzzing and chirping in total panic.
Then, from out of the ranks, Jet the black widow came sprinting. “Enough of this!” she snarled. “Spider squadron, engage the enemy. Capture him alive!”
Max stared in amazement. In answer to Jet’s call, hundreds and hundreds of spiders came scuttling out of the undergrowth. They glided down from the trees on silk lines like paratroopers, and some even leaped from the undergrowth, as agile as grasshoppers.