Beetle Blast (3 page)

Petty stared at him and then at Josh, who had turned around too. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” she said, spotting the chocolate crumbs around their mouths.

“Okay, out with it. What
kind
of ‘oh dear'?” asked Josh, sounding a little bit squeaky.

“Ummm,” said Petty. She looked sheepishly at the little metal container of pellets in her hand and then at the empty plate on the picnic table. “Well …”

Then there were two small pops. No further point in explaining. Josh and Danny wouldn't have understood.

When the remaining Wild Things came around from the other side of the pond, they were surprised to see that Josh and his bored brother had disappeared. An old lady was peering anxiously into the pond, saying not very polite words.

“Don't tell me,” snapped Josh. “Just don't tell me!” He had his eyes screwed shut and refused to open them.

Danny waggled his feelers in annoyance. “All right. I won't tell you! You can guess!” He climbed up a thick green plant stem. He stared down into the mirror reflection of the water below.

“That was the food that Petty put the S.W.I.T.C.H. pellets into,
wasn't it
?” huffed Josh, still with his eyes shut. “She poked them into a chocolate muffin. Then you went and ate it! And fed it to me too!”

“Sorry,” said Danny. “But you should look now. This is pretty cool.” His six legs clung to the green blade, and he leaned over for a better look. A rather handsome face peered back up at him from his reflection. His eyes were wide apart and gray, like metal buttons, set into a smooth black face. He had a shiny gray mouth area with some delicate feelers around it. His body was smooth and gently striped with black and dark brown lines. His legs and underparts were a rather nice yellow.

“Check out these legs!” Danny raised up his chunky back pair. They were curved into thick furry segments and felt very powerful. He tried to get a better view of them in the water by leaning off the huge blade of grass a bit further. And then …

“Whoaah!”

SPLASH!

He was deep under the water.

And Danny couldn't swim.

The
SPLASH!
made Josh at last open his eyes. He stared in alarm down at the pond below him. He too had arrived in his new creepy-crawly form standing on a wide green leaf, just above the water. The world around him looked totally unlike the normal world. It was absolutely huge, for one thing. An alien spaceship suddenly swooped past him, making a deafening thrumming noise. Except it
wasn't
a spaceship. It was a dragonfly. It had a stunning blue-green body, sparkling wings, and a nasty killer instinct.

“Danny!” shouted out Josh, ducking under the leaf for safety. There was no reply. Just a widening ring across the water where something had fallen in. Something, Josh realized, that was almost certainly Danny.

“Oh no!” wailed Josh, wondering what to do. Then he caught sight of his reflection, wobbling below him. He found himself laughing. Actually laughing. For once—just for
once
—he and Danny didn't need to be scared! “It's OK, Danny! I'm coming!” chortled Josh. He dived into the water.

Danny held his breath for as long as he could. He tumbled slowly over and over, sinking down in the green soupy liquid. Fronds of weeds brushed against him. Wriggling see-through creatures scurried away into the gloom. The water was cool and somehow
thicker
than he remembered. It seemed to slide around him in an odd way. He could see in it perfectly well now that he was getting used to it. A forest of underwater trees and shrubs waved gently to and fro. A gigantic brown water snail ambled past him up a stem, blowing a large bubble in his face.

I've got to get to the surface!
said a panicky voice in his head. He wished he'd tried harder to learn to swim. He was quite an athletic boy but more of a soccer and baseball kind.

Suddenly there was a booming noise. All the watery trees and bushes waved extra fast as a body tumbled down from the surface. It spun around and began to row quickly toward Danny. Danny stared at it, scared. Meeting other creatures when you were S.W.I.T.C.H.ed was nearly always highly dangerous.

“Danny? Danny!” shouted the other creature. Danny heaved a huge sigh of relief as he recognized Josh shooting toward him. His voice was rather strange and musical through the water.

“Hang on!” said Danny out loud. “How can I breathe a huge sigh of relief? I'm underwater!”

“Yes—but you're a great diving beetle!” laughed Josh.

“Oh, thanks,” said Danny.

“No—I mean—that's what we're called,” explained Josh. “We're great diving beetles. We can breathe underwater. We carry our own air pocket with us—see.” He jabbed his front leg against his face. Danny saw a silvery line dimple in under it. Yes—it was as if they were traveling in little sacks of oxygen. “We have to go up to the surface every so often and get more air,” explained Josh. “We sort of suck it up with … well … with our butts.”

“OK. Whatever you say, you weirdo! But it's the last time you yell at me for farting!” said Danny. He turned in the water. He used his strong back legs like his brother was doing. They moved like oars on a rowboat. He scudded along through the water at great speed. Josh sped along beside him.

“OK—so what's going to eat us?” said Danny, nervously. Something
always
tried to eat them.

“That's the brilliant bit! Nothing!” Josh was grinning with his funny insect mouth and laughing so much there were tiny air bubbles streaming up from it. “For once,
we
are the predators!”

“You mean to tell me that there's no big ugly fish coming after us?” said Danny.

“Nope. Because this is a small pond. There aren't any big goldfish in it. Just little minnows and sticklebacks and frogs and stuff.
They
won't bother us. And even if they try…” He grinned again, which looked rather alarming on a beetle. “… we've got a secret weapon!”

“What's that?” asked Danny. “A sting? Nasty bite?” He'd noticed that Josh's jaws looked pretty fierce.

“You'll see,” said Josh. He spun around and rowed along again. Danny moved with him. Then he noticed something long and brownish-green scurrying along under a rock.

Danny screamed.

Because Josh was wrong. Josh had got it
badly
wrong.

Lurking under the rock, staring balefully right at Danny was a CROCODILE.

The crocodile loomed toward him. Its tail rippled in the water behind it. Its pale yellow belly shone through the green gloom.

Danny was terrified. “CROCODILE!” he screamed. Then he let off an absolutely rip-snorting fart that bubbled through the water like a mini volcano. “Eww!” Danny had never been affected by his own farts before. But
this
one was truly revolting and was spreading in an icky warm cloud all around him.

Josh doubled back to see what the rather musical bubbling noise was. “Ah,” he said. “You've found your secret weapon.”

“CROCODILE!” gurgled Danny. But the crocodile was swimming away. Fast.

“Yup,” said Josh. “When you think you're being attacked by a predator, you can let off a really evil wet one. Another reason the fish don't like you much.”