by Steve Cole
Tute and Iggy stared boggle-eyed at the scaly, scrunched-up monsters as they snuffled and snorted. “This is a total nightmare!” wailed Gipsy.
“So what are we waiting for?” said Tute. “I found the secret exit – let’s scram!”
“Scram where?” Gipsy shook her head. “We’ve lost your space-car, and Brigadier Skunch has got three T. rex warcraft parked outside. He’s bound to have left lookouts. We wouldn’t stand a chance!”
“But if we stay in here,” said Iggy, “we’re doomed for sure.”
“Maybe not,” said Teggs, thinking hard. “I’ve got a plan, guys. It’s incredibly risky – but I think it’s our only chance!”
Chapter Eleven
CRASHING DOWN
Minutes later, Gipsy and Tute were building a barrier across the doorway to Keprish’s lair, while Arx worked feverishly at the energy-screen controls in Keprish’s altar.
Exhausted, Tute leaned against the pile of treasures blocking the entrance and watched anxiously as Skunch’s T. rex army drew ever closer on the screen. The monsters were filling the narrow corridor beyond the bomb chamber like scaly rats in a drainpipe, scrabbling to break down the door. The sound of their fists and claws on the stone echoed eerily through the chamber.
“We can’t rest, Tute,” panted Gipsy, pointing to the hundreds of T. rexes still stirring opposite. “We’ve got to stop Ganster’s lot getting out too.”
“It’s hopeless,” sighed Tute, dragging Lord Ganster over to lie with his followers.
“Let’s hope the roast-rifle will hold them off,” said Gipsy, pointing to the weapon on the altar. “Hey, Arx, how are you getting on?”
“Almost there,” Arx muttered, barely visible behind a huge tangle of wires. “I’m working as fast as I can.”
“So’s Iggy!” Teggs came rushing out from inside Keprish’s rocket, covered in oil. “I can’t help him any more – I’m not good enough with engines.”
Tute grabbed hold of another heavy statue. “Then help me and Gipsy instead!”
Tense minutes dragged past as Teggs threw himself into the work with incredible energy, shoving every bit of furniture he could find up against the entrance to the awakening T. rexes’ cramped quarters.
“There!” Iggy staggered out of the white rocket-ship as it began to hum and shake with power. “The engines are working again, but there’s not much fuel left. I don’t even know if there’s enough for this nutty plan to work.”
“If it doesn’t, we’re finished.” Teggs looked hopefully at Arx. “Are you nearly ready?”
“Nearly.” Arx didn’t look up. “Or nearly-ish, anyway.”
A terrible crash sounded from the chamber outside, followed by the blood-chilling cheers of triumphant T. rexes.
“It’s Brigadier Skunch.” Gipsy had to raise her voice over the rising rumble of the rocket engines. “He’s broken through!”
Teggs looked at Iggy. “How long before the rocket’s ready?”
Iggy pulled a face. “Not yet. Power’s still building.”
The next second, baying like giant scaly hounds, Skunch and his slavering troops appeared at the barricade. “So, the plant-eating scum-suckers still live . . . But not for long!” He started kicking at the statues and bric-a-brac barring his way, and his eager soldiers joined in.
“You should leave now, Skunch!” Teggs shouted over the ever-rising hum of the engines. “If you come in here, you’ll regret it.”
“Not as much as YOU will,” Skunch yelled back.
“Look out,” screamed Tute, pointing the other way. Teggs spun round and saw that Ganster and many of his followers were now awake. Nostrils twitching and eyes narrowed, they started jostling to get out, shoving angrily at the furniture in their way.
“What happened?” Leading his mob, Ganster tore the Scarab robes from his body. “Why me wearing such dumb clothes?” He glowered at Teggs and his friends. “Why me not smashing YOU?”
“Arx,” Teggs cried, “how much longer?”
Arx bundled the wiring back inside the altar and started jabbing controls with his horns. “Thirty seconds!”
“That’s all you’ve got left to live,” roared Skunch as he and his troops broke through the barricade. At the same time, Ganster and his followers smashed their way out, yowling and howling over the angry whine of the rocket motors.
Gipsy fired the roast-rifle first one way, then another. A couple of T. rexes cried out or fell but the others kept on coming. “I can’t stop them,” she said helplessly. “There’s too many.”
“Power’s almost up to maximum,” Iggy reported.
“Finished!” Arx jumped up from the controls. “Get ready . . .”
“Stay close to the altar, everyone!” Teggs shouted as the raging ’rexes closed in, out for blood . . .
Then, suddenly, Teggs found himself flat on his back on the stone floor, pinned down by an invisible force. Gipsy, Arx, Iggy and Tute were there beside him, as if squashed by the air itself.
“You did it, Arx!” Teggs beamed. “You made Keprish’s energy-screen prison larger – big enough to hold us all!”
“It was a good plan of yours, Captain,” said Arx. “We can’t move – but at least now we can’t be got at, either!”
Baffled, Skunch tried to stomp on the astrosaurs – but his toes crackled with blue sparks and he was driven back. “OWW! My foot!”
“Hop it!” called Iggy.
Ganster’s followers tried to bite and claw at the plant-eaters on the ground – but they had no more success than Skunch, sparks crackling around their teeth and fingers.
Gipsy breathed a big sigh of relief. “I never thought I’d be happy inside an alien prison!”
“It’s definitely the best place to be right now,” said Tute as the white rocket began to rise into the air, belching thick yellow smoke. “This is going to get messy . . .”
“Come on, you beauty!” hollered Iggy. “Show us what happens when a supersonic rocket meets a super-shielded pyramid roof . . .!”
Keprish’s rocket suddenly shot upwards – and, with a deafening bang, crashed straight into the great stone ceiling. A massive explosion lit up the pyramid like a stolen sun as the shielding short-circuited, and the heavy bricks began to shatter in a rain of rubble.
“Woo-hoooo!” cheered Iggy as shards of stone bounced harmlessly off their invisible prison.
But the T. rexes were not so lucky. Yelling and shouting, they were pounded by falling rubble. Teggs didn’t think the deadly downpour would ever end . . .
But finally the smoke and dust cleared to reveal blue skies and sunshine.
“It worked,” said Teggs in amazement. “The pyramid has been destroyed.”
FF-ZZZZT! With a sizzling fizzle, the invisible prison cut out.
“Boosting the power like I did made the Scarab systems blow a fuse,” Arx explained, sitting up. “We can all move again.”
“Which is more than you can say for the T. rexes,” said Teggs, looking around. Skunch, Ganster and their terrible armies were squished, squashed and half-buried by the remains of the pyramid.
“Hey . . .” Keprish sat up on the altar, gazing around in wonder. “I can move again. I can actually move!” His one eye opened wider than ever, and his mouth stretched into a huge grin. “And my prison . . . it’s gone! I’m free, at last!”
“So you are,” said Gipsy, trotting over to join him. “And guess what, I’m free too – to do this!” WHAP! She slugged him so hard he went flying off the altar and landed in a three-legged heap in the rubble. Then she looked over at Teggs with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Captain. It’s been one of those days!”
“Keprish deserved it,” Teggs assured her. “Now, these T. rexes have taken some blows but they’re too tough to be killed by falling rocks. We’d better disarm Skunch and his troops before they recover . . .”
“No,” groaned Skunch weakly as Teggs took away his laser guns. “Puny plant-eaters, you can’t stop us. Us must avenge our defeat here so
long ago, and the T. rexes who fell that day.”
“But there’s no need,” Teggs told him. “We’ve already avenged that defeat for you! Look around.” He pointed to the other T. rexes, slowly coming to their senses. “Your missing comrades are all still here – even Lord Ganster.”
“Ganster?” Skunch stared in disbelief as the thousand-year-old T. rex struggled out from beneath a slab of stone. “Lord Ganster, be that you?”
“That be me,” Ganster mumbled. “What happened?” He frowned and picked up the Scarab from the rock beside him. “Ahh. Me starting to remember this one . . . Him hurt my brain. Him made me do stuff me not want to do.” As Keprish began to stir, Ganster squeezed the little alien tight. “Me teach him lesson he never forget!”
“That’s a very good idea!” said Arx. “Keprish’s prison here is finished – but for all the crimes he’s committed against the T. rex race, he deserves to go to jail on your planet.”
“And we caught him for you,” Teggs pointed out. “You owe us big time, Skunch!”
“Me suppose you all be right.” Skunch nodded slowly. “Us take him back to Teerex Major – right now.”
“Or even sooner, if you can manage it,” said Iggy, winking at Tute.
“And no trying to eat anyone or stealing treasure,” Teggs added. “This is a plant-eater planet now – so push off or else.”
Skunch looked around at his sorrowful troops with their lumps, bumps and bruises, and shrugged. “Yes. Us will push off. Us not need your dumb jewels. Finding lost T. rexes AND getting the scumbag what took them best treasure of all!”
“That’s the smartest thing I’ve ever heard a T. rex say,” Teggs declared as Skunch and Ganster led their limping followers back to their warcraft.
Gipsy noticed that Chef Sheff and his kitchen hands were back on their feet too. “Oi, Sheff!” shouted Skunch. “Us not eat plant-eaters this day, but need victory feast. What else you got?”
“Lots and lots of dung jelly!” said Chef Sheff happily. “With diplodocus toenails for pudding!”
Rubbing their tummies and saying, “Mmmmm!” the T. rexes staggered away.
“No! Help! Put me down!” Keprish had come round, struggling helplessly in Ganster’s claws. “I insist you release me. It’s not fair. I can’t go to prison again . . .”
Gipsy giggled. “Oh, I think he can!”
“He was a great admirer of T. rex power – now he’ll find out what it’s really like,” said Arx with satisfaction.
“And with that all taken care of,” said Gipsy, “what about our holiday?”
“Holiday!” Teggs looked shocked. “I forgot we were meant to be taking a break.”
Iggy sighed. “Starting with a hundred mile hike back to the resort!”
“Our crew mates will come looking and pick us up,” Arx assured him. “Though I’m not sure they’ll believe our story!”
“Not until we show them all these lovely jewels,” said Tute, peering about in the rubble for more. “It’s a shame to have trashed so many alien treasures – but at least we’re still in one piece!”
“I’m sure there are plenty more hidden tombs and temples to be found,” said Gipsy.
“And plenty more adventures too,” said Teggs. “I’m looking forward to getting back on board the Sauropod and searching for them in outer space. But I really must admit – this has been the best holiday I’ve ever had!”
THE END
ALSO BY STEVE COLE:
Read all the adventures of Teggs, Gipsy, Arx and Iggy!
1 Riddle of the Raptors
2 The Hatching Horror
3 The Seas of Doom
4 The Mind-Swap Menace
5 The Skies of Fear
6 The Space Ghosts
7 Day of the Dino-Droids
8 The Terror-Bird Trap
9 The Planet of Peril
10 The Star Pirates
11 The Claws of Christmas
12 The Sun-Snatchers
13 Revenge of the Fang
14 The Carnivore Curse
15 The Dreams of Dread
16 The Robot Raiders
17 The Twist of Time
18 The Sabre-Tooth Secret
19 The Forest of Evil
20 Earth Attack!
21 The T. Rex Invasion
22 The Castle of Frankensaur
Read all the adventures of Teggs, Blink and Dutch at the Astrosaurs Academy!
1 Destination: Danger!
2 Contest Carnage!
3 Terror Underground!
4 Jungle Horror!
5 Deadly Drama!
6 Christmas Crisis!
7 Volcano Invaders!
8 Space Kidnap!
Meet the time-travelling cows!
1 The Ter-moo-nators
2 The Moo-my’s Curse
3 The Roman Moo-stery
4 The Wild West Moo-nster
5 World War Moo
6 The Battle for Christmoos
7 The Pirate Moo-tiny
8 The Moo-gic of Merlin
9 The Victorian Moo-ders
10 The Moo-lympic Games
11 First Cows on the Moon
12 The Viking Emoo-gency
If you can’t take the slime, don’t do the crime!
1 The Fearsome Fists
2 The Toxic Teeth
3 The Cyber-Poos
4 The Supernatural Squid
5 The Killer Socks
6 The Last-Chance Chicken
7 The Alligator Army
8 The Conquering Conks
Visit www.stevecolebooks.co.uk for fun, games, jokes, to meet the characters and much, much more!
About the Author
Photo: RebeccaJudge.com
Born in 1971, Steve Cole spent a happy childhood in rural Bedfordshire being loud and aspiring to amuse. He liked books, and so went to the University of East Anglia to read more of them. Later on he started writing them too, with titles ranging from pre-school poetry to Young Adult thrillers (with more TV and film tie-ins than he cares to admit to along the way). In other careers he has been the editor of Noddy magazine, the voice of a Dalek and an editor of fiction and nonfiction book titles for various publishers.
THE T. REX INVASION
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 17365 5
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2013
Text copyright © Steve Cole, 2012
Cover illustration by Dynamo Design © Random House Children’s Books, 2012
Map copyright © Charlie Fowkes, 2005
Interior illustrations by Woody Fox © Random House Children’s Books, 2012
First Published in Great Britain
Red Fox 9781849414036 2012
The right of Steve Cole to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
sp; Steve Cole, Astrosaurs 21
