“Agreed,” Chris said, and hurried toward the tube.
Rocket barked and tried to run after him.
“Where are you going?” Carly yelled.
Chris quickly entered a destination and jumped in.
“Chris!”
“Fire up the hovercraft!” Dash shouted.
Gabriel backed quickly toward the craft while shining the light beam at the Raptogon.
The Raptogon was too enraged to care. The light was nothing more than an annoying mosquito buzzing around its head. It grabbed at the air chair that dangled from his tooth and pulled on it. All it managed to do was release the remaining length of rope so that the air chair now hung close to the ground, bouncing around its feet.
Dash ran for Piper and fell to his knees beside her.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“I don’t think so,” she replied, dazed.
Dash scooped her up and looked back to see the Raptogon was headed their way.
“Don’t trip,” Piper said with amazing cool.
Dash took off running, headed for the hovercraft.
The Raptogon stormed after them.
Gabriel was already on board and powered up.
“Move!” he screamed.
Dash made it to the craft and handed Piper up to Gabriel. Gabriel planted her in a seat and handed her the flashlight.
“Better than nothing,” he said.
Piper shone it back at the oncoming monster.
It didn’t slow the charge at all.
“Go!” Dash screamed as he climbed aboard.
Gabriel didn’t wait for him to be all the way in. He lifted the vehicle up off the grass, spun one hundred and eighty degrees, and hit the throttle. The round machine took off and flew quickly over the valley floor as Dash fell onto the deck.
“I need light!” Gabriel shouted. “I can’t see where we’re going.”
Piper spun around and directed the beam ahead…in time to light up a palm tree directly in their path.
“Yeow!” Gabriel screamed as he banked hard to the left, barely avoiding disaster.
Dash went for the energy cannon. He picked up the long silver device and fixed it on his shoulder.
“Take him down!” Gabriel shouted.
Dash fired and missed.
“Again!” Piper demanded.
Dash fired at the same instant Gabriel had to skirt another palm tree. It threw his aim off and another shot went wild.
The Raptogon kept coming.
“Shoot!” Piper yelled.
“I can’t,” Dash cried. “It takes time to recharge.”
“We’re going back to the shuttle,” Gabriel announced. “We’ll launch back to the Cloud Leopard and figure something else out.”
“Can you take off before that thing reaches us?” Dash asked.
“I think so. If I do a hot start from the hard drive, I can—”
Gabriel’s words caught in his throat when he saw that the Cloud Cat was powering up on its own. Lights shone below and the engines whined.
“Tell me you’re doing that,” Piper said.
“I…I…no,” Gabriel said, stammering.
The engine whine grew louder and the Cloud Cat lifted straight up off the valley floor.
Dash went right to his MTB and screamed, “Carly, what’s going on? The Cloud Cat just took off by itself!”
Carly replied, “I…I don’t know. Chris left me here alone. It must be him.”
“Chris,” Gabriel said, spitting out the word. “He’s saving his toy spaceship and hanging us out to dry.”
Dash looked back to see that the Raptogon was closing the distance between them.
The monster howled angrily, desperate for revenge.
“We can’t stay out in the open,” Dash said. “He’ll chase us down. Head back for the rain forest. Maybe we can lose it in there.”
“Seriously?” Gabriel said. “I can barely see anything out here. It’ll be zero visibility under those trees.”
“I’m open to better ideas,” Dash said.
Gabriel thought, then changed direction for the rain forest, pushing the hovercraft to the limit of its speed. Piper kept the powerful light beam focused ahead. It kept them from hitting any trees…
…and let the Raptogon know exactly where they were.
The boundary of trees that marked the beginning of the rain forest could barely be seen in the distance. Gabriel hit the throttle and blasted for it.
“Maybe when we get in there, it’ll give up,” Piper said hopefully.
“Maybe,” Dash said, though he didn’t believe it.
Gabriel throttled back and slipped past the first line of trees that marked the beginning of the dense jungle.
“I gotta slow down,” he said. “Or we’ll crash for sure.”
He flew the hovercraft as quickly as he felt was safe.
It wasn’t quick enough.
The Raptogon didn’t worry about dodging trees. It crushed them. The monster charged into the thick jungle, crunching vegetation under its huge, clawed feet.
“It’s not giving up,” Gabriel said.
“Let’s find a place to hide,” Dash commanded.
Gabriel maneuvered around a thick stand of gnarly trees, hoping it would put them out of sight. He hit the accelerator and sped ahead.
“There!” Piper called out.
Ahead was a mound of trees and vines that formed a large cave that was twice the size of the hovercraft. Gabriel sped toward it, staying low to the jungle floor.
“Kill the light,” he commanded.
Piper turned off the beam and Gabriel flew the last hundred yards from memory into the cave. They floated inside, turned back around to face out, and settled to the ground.
Dash quickly positioned himself in front of the hovercraft with the energy cannon while Gabriel shut down every light on board.
“Is the cannon recharged?” Piper whispered.
“I think so,” Dash whispered back.
The pounding footfalls could no longer be heard.
“It stopped,” Piper whispered.
“We must have lost it,” Gabriel said.
“But it’s still out there,” Dash cautioned.
The Raptogon was still moving, but more cautiously as it searched for its prey. The distant sound of less frantic footfalls were heard as it shuffled through the dense foliage.
A minute went by. Two minutes.
Then there was nothing.
No sound. No movement.
“Is it gone?” Piper asked.
“I just thought of something,” Gabriel whispered. “If its eyes are so sensitive to light, does that mean it can see in the dark?”
As if to answer, the Raptogon bellowed and charged for them. It was only fifty yards away.
“I guess it can see in the dark,” Dash exclaimed.
Piper screamed as its giant foot stomped down, thirty yards away.
Dash fumbled to aim the energy cannon as…
“Look out!” Gabriel screamed.
From behind them, a dark shape charged out from the depths of the cave. The shadow stampeded past and galloped directly for the Raptogon, bellowing and chuffing like an enraged rhino.
“What the heck is that?” Dash yelled.
“It’s the mother!” Piper exclaimed.
The moss creature hurled itself at the Raptogon’s leg, wrapped its thick arms around the ankle, and bit at its scaly flesh.
“Get us out of here!” Dash yelled to Gabriel.
Gabriel fired up the engines and sped out of the cave.
Piper flashed the beam of light onto the battle in time to see the Raptogon shaking its leg to try to get rid of the moss creature.
“She saved us,” Piper said.
The Raptogon gave a mighty flick of its leg and the moss mother went flying off into the dark jungle.
“I hope she’s okay,” Piper said.
“Seriously?” Gabriel shouted. “That’s what you’re worried about?�
�
Piper redirected the light ahead of them, lighting up the labyrinth of trees they had to fly through.
“It’s not gonna give up,” Dash said. “We can’t outrun it forever.”
“We can’t outrun it at all,” Gabriel announced. “Our batteries are nearly dead.”
“No!” Piper moaned.
The hovercraft bucked as its engine slowed. Gabriel pushed it until they cleared the trees on the far side of the rain forest. There was a thirty-yard stretch of grass from the edge of the trees to the cliff, and a half-mile fall to the jungle far below.
“It’s okay,” Dash declared. “We’re better off on foot. The hovercraft was too easy to follow.”
“You know my chair is gone, right?” Piper said.
“I’ll carry you,” Dash replied. “Hop on my back and—”
The Raptogon crashed out of the trees and onto the bluff, directly over them.
Dash looked around, desperate to find the energy cannon.
The Raptogon shook its head, making the air chair on the end of the long rope swing wildly.
Dash spotted the cannon and dove for it…
…as the air chair hit him in the back, knocking him over the rail and out of the hovercraft.
Gabriel leapt right out after him.
“I got you, man,” he said as he helped a stunned Dash to his feet.
Piper crawled for the cannon and lifted it toward the Raptogon. She swung it around, aimed, and pulled the trigger but the device wasn’t anchored and it knocked her back down onto the deck of the hovercraft.
The shot didn’t even come close to hitting the Raptogon.
Warm drool dripped on them from high above. The Raptogon was hungry—and angry. It lifted its heavy foot, ready to stomp the life out of its tormentors.
There was nothing they could do but cower.
“Man, I can’t believe it’s going to end like this,” Gabriel said.
Suddenly, a bright light shone down on them from the sky. The brilliant beam hit the face of the Raptogon, making it thrash its head back and forth to protect its eyes.
Their Mobile Tech Bands flashed to life.
“Get to the trees,” a voice said calmly.
The kids all looked at their wrists with dismay.
It was Chris.
Piper looked to the sky, shielding her eyes against the bright beam.
“It’s the Cloud Cat!” she exclaimed.
The beam of light blasted from the nose of the shuttle as it circled above the head of the monster.
“You have ten seconds to protect yourselves,” Chris said. “I’m going to fire on the Raptogon.”
“The Cat has weapons?” Gabriel asked in surprise.
“How did you get on board?” Dash yelled into his MTB.
“I am not on board,” Chris said. “I am controlling it from the Cloud Leopard.”
The Raptogon swung its head, fighting the pain-inducing beam of light.
Dash saw the air chair swinging near them. This time he was ready for it.
“Get Piper into the trees,” he commanded.
Gabriel scrambled to his feet and leaned into the hovercraft.
“Let’s go!” he yelled to Piper.
Piper crawled to him, dragging her legs. Gabriel grabbed her under the arms and pulled her out.
“Where’s Dash?” she asked.
“He’s coming.”
He wasn’t coming.
Dash crouched down next to the hovercraft for protection. His eyes were on the swinging air chair.
Suddenly, the moss creature once again leapt out from the trees.
The mother wasn’t giving up either. She grabbed the Raptogon’s leg and gnashed at its ankle. The Raptogon wailed and fell to one knee.
Dash dove out of the way and barely missed being crushed by the dinosaur’s knee as it crashed to the ground. He didn’t stop to think about how close he had come to being jelly. He looked around frantically until he saw what he hoped for: the air chair was on the ground. The rope was slack because the Raptogon was down on its knee.
“You need to move, Dash,” Chris said calmly.
“Give me ten more seconds,” Dash replied.
He scrambled to his feet and ran for the air chair. He was frighteningly close enough to the Raptogon to touch its scaly skin but he stayed focused. He got to the air chair, flipped it over, and hopped on.
“Please don’t be busted,” he said under his breath.
He pulled up on the joystick and the chair lifted off.
“Yes!”
He looked around quickly and saw a thick tree with a double-trunk that rose up in a V shape. Perfect. He flew the chair toward it, passed through the V shape, and circled through once again…wrapping the rope around one side of the tree.
“Get out of there, Dash,” Chris warned.
Dash jumped off the chair, letting it fall into the crook of the tree.
The moss creature was still clamped onto the Raptogon’s leg. The huge monster reached down and swatted it away, sending it careening back into the forest. The behemoth then rose back onto its feet and tried to stand straight, but the rope went taut, preventing it from standing to its full height.
Dash sprinted into the woods, jumped over a fallen log, and hid behind it.
“Let him have it!” he shouted into his MTB.
The Cloud Cat’s front cannons erupted, sending powerful blasts of energy toward the Raptogon. Each cannon was ten times more powerful than the device Dash had used to bring down the beast. But Chris wasn’t targeting the Raptogon. He was shooting at the ground between the giant and the trees.
Dash got up, ran to the others, and jumped down next to them.
“Nobody told me the Cat had claws,” Gabriel said.
“He’s not aiming at the Raptogon,” Piper said. “What is he doing?”
The pulverizing onslaught continued. Round after round of energy went into the ground, blasting geysers of dirt into the air that rained down on the others.
The Raptogon desperately tried to back away but the rope attached to the tree kept him from moving. It fought against the line but that only wedged the air chair tighter into the crook of the tree. The high beam of light continued to keep it off balance as the barrage of energy blasted away at its feet.
“Why doesn’t he just shoot it?” Gabriel asked.
The answer came a few seconds later.
The ground shook, but not from the Raptogon.
There was a low, wrenching rumble as the ground beneath the monster gave way. The cliff was collapsing. The Raptogon reached out to grab onto something. Too late. Most of the shelf that was the overlook gave way and the Raptogon fell. It clawed desperately at the disintegrating cliff but the loose dirt crumbled under its grasp.
With a gut-wrenching scream, the Raptogon fell.
The three kids sat huddled together, not moving until they heard the distant crash as the Raptogon landed in the jungle below. They sat that way for a solid minute, wanting to make sure that the beast was truly gone.
“Is it over?” Piper asked.
They saw movement off to their right and cowered in fear.
Standing over them with its front paws on the rocks they were hiding behind was the moss creature. It was out of breath and barely able to stand.
“There’s definitely intelligent life on J-16,” Dash said.
Piper raised her hand and waved as if to say “thank you.”
The mother got the message, turned away, and shuffled back into the jungle to find her children.
“Didn’t see that coming,” Gabriel said. “Didn’t see any of this coming.”
Dash crawled toward the cliff and stopped at the line of trees.
“You gotta see,” he called to the others.
Three-quarters of the land that had been the overlook was gone. The edge of the cliff had moved twenty yards closer. The hovercraft sat teetering on the edge.
From the valley far below, they heard the cry of the Raptogo
n. It was alive, but it was no longer a threat.
The Cloud Cat floated overhead, shining its beam of light down on the kids.
“Is everyone all right?” Chris asked through the MTB.
“We’re okay,” Dash said.
“I will find a safe place to land,” Chris said. “In the meantime, pull up the rope.”
The Cloud Cat flew off, hugging the cliff.
“Rope?” Gabriel asked. “What’s he talking about?”
Dash realized immediately.
“Help me,” he said as he crawled over some rocks to get to the tree that had the air chair wrapped around it.
Gabriel joined him and saw that the rope was still attached to the air chair, and dangled over the cliff.
“Is it possible?” Gabriel asked.
They both grabbed the rope and worked together to pull it up.
“It’s heavy,” Gabriel said.
They pulled for what felt like an eternity, their arms burning from the strain. Just before they had reached the limit of their endurance, they hoisted up the heavy object that was attached to the other end.
Piper crawled up to them and saw the gleaming metal frame that was wrapped around the heavy load.
“Guess he’ll be chewing on the other side of his mouth for a while,” Piper said.
Gabriel laughed.
Piper did too.
Dash laughed the hardest.
They had done it.
The three fell down on top of one another, giddy with relief and the knowledge that they had completed one-sixth of their mission.
The tooth was theirs.
The air-lock doors opened to reveal Dash, Piper, and Gabriel standing in the launch bay in front of the Cloud Cat. All three were covered in dirt and their clothes were torn and filthy. Dash was giving Piper a piggyback. They looked as though they had been through a war.
Because they had.
Waiting for them in the engine room were Carly, STEAM, and Chris.
“J-16,” Gabriel announced. “Nice place to visit. Wouldn’t want to live there.”
Carly ran up and pulled them into a group hug.
“I thought you were all done,” she said.
“We were,” Dash said. “About ten times over. We finally ran out of luck until Chris showed up.”
“You all performed in an exemplary manner,” Chris said with surprisingly little emotion. “From setting that trap and bringing down the Raptogon to Dash’s quick thinking in pulling the tooth. Congratulations.”
Project Alpha Page 16
