Lizard Loopy (3 page)

“We start gently,” Petty said. “You've never been a reptile before, and it may be a bit of a shock.”

Danny snorted. “What—like being turned into a spider wasn't a bit of a shock?”

“Oh, do stop harping on about that,” snapped Petty, shaking a small plastic spray bottle in each hand. “You know the first time was an accident. I never intended to involve two nosy boys from next door in any of my work. If you and your dog hadn't trespassed in my lab it never would have happened at all.” She beamed at them, and her gray eyes glittered behind her glasses. “And wouldn't that be a shame?”

“What kind of S.W.I.T.C.H. is in the bottles?” Josh asked, mesmerized by the green liquid sloshing around inside them.

“It's lizard,” Petty said. “Two different native types. Like I said, we start gently.”

“Lizard?” breathed Josh, awestruck. He adored lizards. He liked to creep up on them while they were basking in the sun and watch them for ages until they moved away like quicksilver into the grass.

“Yes,” Petty said. “Now—the first time you're just going to stay right here in my lab and we'll see how it goes. As usual, it's only temporary. None of the mice have stayed S.W.I.T.C.H.ed for longer than twenty or thirty minutes so far—as with BUGSWITCH and AMPHISWITCH, I still haven't worked out a way around that.”

“Just as well, probably,” muttered Danny. He'd been saved from squishy, burny, or chewy death more than once by S.W.I.T.C.H. spray wearing off in the nick of time. He glanced sympathetically at the six or seven mice Petty now kept in a large cage in the corner of her lab for her experiments. They looked cheerful enough, running around their wheel and scaling the bars.

“Oooh—can't we go out in your garden for a bit?” pleaded Josh. Although it could be very
scary, one of the best things for Josh about S.W.I.T.C.H.ing was the chance to see the natural world from a completely different point of view.

“No! You stay put,” insisted Petty. “Right—here goes!” And she hustled them both inside a plastic see-through tent, set up in a box shape in the middle of her lab. “Get ready!”

Retreating through the plastic curtain, she put her arm back in. She sprayed Josh first and then, with a second bottle, Danny. Three seconds later, both boys had vanished.

“Whoooo-hooo!” Josh yelled as the shimmery plastic tent suddenly shot up and out until it was the size of a sports hall. He stared down excitedly at his hands—they were long-fingered and brown and delicately scaled to the tips of their fine black claws. Josh ran fluidly to the shaving mirror that Petty had thoughtfully set up in the plastic tent, tilted at just the right angle. He stared in delight at his reflection. He was a handsome young common lizard, with warm brown scales. Dappled over his back was a pattern of dark brown and light green scales. A dark line ran along the ridge
of his spine, with two pale green lines on either side. His eyes were black and almond-shaped, and his snout was pointed like a snake's.

Josh opened his mouth and poked out a gray tongue with a notch in it. Check! He knew that it wouldn't be forked like a snake's tongue. Lizards' tongues were not usually forked . . . apart from some exotic ones like monitor lizards. He turned around, admiring his long, tapering tail, which ended in a sleek point. The toes on his back feet were much longer than on his front “hands.”

“I'm like a dragon!” he marveled, out loud.

“I think you'll find that I'm
more
like a dragon!” came a voice behind him, and Josh twisted around like lightning, his tail flickering behind him in an elegant S shape. He looked at Danny. There was only one reaction he could give.

“WOW!”

And then, as an afterthought . . .

“OH! WA-HA-HA-WOW!”

Danny was a thing of beauty! “You're a SAND lizard!” breathed Josh, raising his head for a better look.

Danny preened in front of the mirror. Even if he did say so himself, he was rather gorgeous—a little larger than Josh but a similar shape. What made him gleam like a jewel-encrusted treasure were the intense emerald green scales which shimmered as he moved—even as he breathed. He had a broad brown stripe down his spine scales, like Josh, but it had white diamonds running along it and a paler brown stripe on either side. He was chunkier than Josh too, and his eyes were golden with a round black pupil at the center.

“Now that,” Danny said, turning in front of the shaving mirror like Josh had, “is a serious dragon look!”

“OK—you win!” Josh grinned. “I'm jealous.”

“But you look cool too,” shrugged Danny, still staring at his own reflection.

“So you're a sand lizard,” Josh said. “And I'm a common lizard. You're rarer than I am—protected.”

“Why a sand lizard?” Danny wondered. “I'm not sandy-colored. Should be an emerald lizard.”

“Sand lizards leave their eggs in sand to get warmed up by the sun,” Josh said. “That's why.”

“Eggs,” Danny said, pausing in the middle of inspecting his long green fingers. “Josh . . . please tell me I'm not a girl again. If I have to lay eggs in our sandbox, I will be mentally scarred for life.”

Josh chortled. He and Danny had been S.W.I.T.C.H.ed into females twice before, once when they were ants and once when they were great diving beetles. “No—you're a guy, no question!” he assured his brother. “The females are much duller-looking. Brown—no shimmery green at all.”

“Yesss!” Danny lifted his green fingers and did a high five with Josh's brown ones. “Hey—but how about you? Are you a girl?”

Josh had a good look at himself in the mirror. “Nah . . . pretty sure I'm a guy. Girl common lizards are a bit more rounded in the middle—and more yellowy.”

Josh stood next to Danny, and they both peered in the mirror so intently they didn't notice a little light mist fall. “This is going to be SO cool!” grinned Danny. “And this is only the
start
! What about the BIG reptiles, eh?”

Josh opened his mouth to reply.

Then Danny suddenly head-butted him so hard he was nearly knocked out.

“A BIT of WARNING would be good!” Danny squawked as he tried to stop his nosebleed. Josh just lay on the floor, groaning and rubbing his forehead. The S.W.I.T.C.H. back had happened so fast that he and his twin had had no chance to back away from each other. They'd been smacked together at high velocity. It was like being in a minor car crash.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Petty hissed, and then Danny realized he could hear something unusual. Along with all the beeps, gurgles, and whirrs he could normally hear in Petty's lab, there was a strident beeping going on—and, somewhere outside, the shrill, nonstop clanging of a bell.

“Someone's trying to break in!” Petty said. “They've come into the house through the kitchen
window.” She was in her metal control booth in the corner of the lab, and as Danny and Josh staggered out of the plastic tent they could see her worried face, lit by the green glow of several computer monitors, as she hit assorted buttons and stared into various small screens.

“Should we call the police?” Josh asked. “Or . . .” He looked around him. “Maybe not . . .”

“In eight-year-old speak,” Petty snapped, “well . . . duh! No need, anyway. The tripwires have been triggered. Whoever's gotten in is not going anywhere.”

“Tripwires? Petty—what have you done? What have you set up with tripwires?” Josh asked, feeling very uneasy.

“Gas,” Petty said with a breezy punch of a few more buttons. “Fast-acting sedative delivered at high velocity in the event of a tripwire being triggered. I have explosive canisters set up in the walls and ceilings all around the house. Unless they thought to wear a gas mask, they'll be facedown on the floor by now . . . or in the kitchen sink. Hmmm . . .” She looked slightly concerned.
“Hope they haven't drowned in the dishes. I will need to tortu—I mean, talk to them. Find out who sent them . . .”

“Come on!” Danny said, looking as freaked out as Josh felt. They raced back up the lab steps, through the wooden shed that disguised the lab entrance, and across to the house.

“Wait!” called Petty, lumbering after them like a small rhino in a skirt. “You'll need these!” She was carrying three things on elastic straps that looked very much like World War II gas masks.