Gecko Gladiator Read online

  Books in the

  S.W.I.T.C.H. series

  #1 Spider Stampede

  #2 Fly Frenzy

  #3 Grasshopper Glitch

  #4 Ant Attack

  #5 Crane Fly Crash

  #6 Beetle Blast

  #7 Frog Freakout

  #8 Newt Nemesis

  #9 Lizard Loopy

  #10 Chameleon Chaos

  #11 Turtle Terror

  #12 Gecko Gladiator

  #13 Anaconda Adventure

  #14 Alligator Action

  Text © Ali Sparkes 2012

  Illustrations © Ross Collins 2012

  “SWITCH: Gecko Gladiator” was originally published in English in 2012. This edition is published by an arrangement with Oxford University Press.

  Copyright © 2014 by Darby Creek

  All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

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  A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

  241 First Avenue North

  Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.

  For reading levels and more invormation, look up this title at

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  Main body text set in ITC Goudy Sans Std. 14/19.

  Typeface provided by Monotype Typography.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Sparkes, Ali.

  Gecko gladiator / by Ali Sparkes ; illustrated by Ross Collins.

  pages cm. — (S.W.I.T.C.H. ; #12)

  “Originally published by Oxford University Press in 2011.”

  Summary: Twins Danny and Josh reveal to neighbor Petty Potts that they have been on a quest to find marbles containing secret code and soon find themselves—as geckos—in her new secret laboratory within the very pink Princessland.

  ISBN 978–1–4677–2115–8 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

  ISBN 978–1–4677–2418–0 (eBook)

  [1. Ciphers—Fiction. 2. Geckos—Fiction. 3. Brothers—Fiction.

  4. Twins—Fiction. 5. Science fiction.] I. Collins, Ross, illustrator. II. Title.

  PZ7.S73712Gec 2014

  [Fic]—dc23

  2013019715

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  1 – SB – 12/31/13

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-2418-0 (pdf)

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-4026-5 (ePub)

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-4025-8 (mobi)

  To Jacob James Harley Stewart

  (who keeps his socks on to read in bed)

  With grateful thanks to

  John Buckley and Tony Gent of

  Amphibian and Reptile Conservation

  for their hot-blooded guidance on

  S.W.I.T.C.H.’s cold-blooded reptile heroes

  A Poxy Situation

  Princessland

  Pretty in Pink

  Bang to Wrongs

  Desperate Diddlies

  Here Be Dragons

  To the Death!

  In the Bag

  Top Secret!

  Glossary

  Recommended Reading

  “Do you think she’s dead?”

  Danny, wobbling on Josh’s shoulders, peered through the dusty window into Petty Potts’s front room. He didn’t answer his twin brother but pressed his nose up hard against the glass, trying to see past the grimy net curtains and figure out whether the large blue shape on the sofa was moving.

  “Danny!” hissed Josh. “You’re breaking my back!” He was doubled up, supporting his brother’s weight. His forehead was grinding against the damp red brick under their neighbor’s windowsill. “Is she dead?!”

  “It’s hard to say,” muttered Danny. “I mean—she never looks all that healthy at the best of times, does she?”

  “No—but she doesn’t usually look like a corpse!” grunted Josh. “Is she moving?”

  Danny got up onto his feet, treading carefully on each of his brother’s shoulder blades, hanging on to Petty’s rather rotten window frame. The top panes didn’t have nets, so they’d be easier to see through.

  “I can’t hold you up any longer!” gurgled Josh, but he didn’t have to. Three seconds later, there was a creak and a crack and a crash. Danny had fallen through the window.

  “Gah!” remarked Josh, in surprise. He stood up and glanced all around, guiltily. Had anybody seen his brother accidentally breaking and entering? No … there was nobody around. “Danny! Are you OK!” he whispered. He peered inside through the broken glass and wood. Below he could make out Danny, struggling out of a dusty, gray net curtain, spluttering.

  “OK—I’m coming in!” Josh said, carefully climbing through. It was a good thing, really, that the wooden frame had been weak. Even if it meant that Petty’s window had been smashed. If they’d broken down her front door, they would probably be skewered on the ends of poison-dipped spears by now. Or reduced to a heap of ash and charred bones or something. Petty had put some formidable defenses in place in her house recently. But amazingly, she had failed to secure the window.

  Danny had escaped the dusty net curtain by the time Josh jumped down next to him—and he wasn’t cut by broken glass. That was good news. On the other hand, Petty was still motionless on the sofa. That was not so good. They looked at each other, gulping.

  From this angle, they could only see her gray mop of hair. It was hard to tell whether she was dead or alive. As he got closer, Danny could see one small patch of wrinkled cheek. He prodded it gingerly with one finger. “It’s warm!” he said, with relief. And then he shrieked as Petty’s hand suddenly swiped up and grabbed his wrist.

  There was a moment of silence during which Petty eased herself up on one elbow and peered at him. “Hello, Danny,” she croaked. “Hello, Josh. What, exactly, are you doing in my front parlor?”

  “We came to find out if you were still alive,” Danny said, panting with relief. “You haven’t been answering the door for days, and we thought you might have died.”

  “Oh really?” Petty raised an eyebrow behind her smeary spectacles.

  “Well, you know … you are quite old,” Danny said.

  “Danny!” Josh kicked his brother’s ankle. “Don’t be rude!”

  “No—not a bit of it!” Petty said, sitting up properly now. “After all, I am ancient. It’s a wonder I can even walk, talk, or safely visit the toilet. My heart could pop. I could just keel over at any time. Just one loud noise or a funny smell, and it could be curtains for Old Granny Potts. Better not stand too close to me when you’ve got an attack of flatulence, Danny. You could take us both out.”

  “So—why didn’t you answer our calls? Our knocks? Our doorbell ringing?” asked Josh.

  “I have had chicken pox,” Petty said. And now that they looked closely, they could see that she had a rash of rather nasty red pimples—many of them topped with a little yellow crust. “I’ve been dreadfully tired and sore. And I didn’t feel like talking to anyone—or infecting anyone!”

  Josh and Danny took a step back.

  “Oh don’t fret now!” Petty said. “I’m not infectious anymore. Once the spots get all scabby, you’re past the point of infecting anyone.”

  “Phew,” sighed Danny, sinking into a worn leather armchair. “We thought it was all over for the S.W.I.T.C.H. Project.”

  “I’m touched by your concern,” Petty said. “But now that you’re here, I might as well get out the chocolate cake. And then you can tell me about … this!” She dug in her pocket and held out something small, round, and shiny.

  “Our marb
le!” breathed Josh. “Yes—and—well, you might want to look at these too.” He dug in his own pocket and withdrew a small black drawstring bag. In it were two marbles. One blue and one red. “These two are like the green one you’ve got there. They have a code in them and a hologram—just like your BUGSWITCH and REPTOSWITCH cubes.”

  Petty stared at the marbles in Josh’s palm as if she was desperately trying to remember something. After thirty seconds, she got unsteadily to her feet. “No—no good!” she snapped. “Until I have chocolate cake and a large mug of tea, not a single synapse is going to fire!”

  “She means her brain isn’t working,” muttered Josh to Danny, following Petty into the kitchen. “Sit down, Petty. We’ll get it,” he said, feeling guilty because she really did look pretty bad. She was pale under the pox. He and Danny put the kettle on and got the cake out of a tin in the fridge. Petty sat at the table rolling the three coded marbles around in her hand.

  Soon they were all munching cake covered with thick chocolate icing and gulping down hot brown tea between bites. Petty’s color began to improve. The glimmer returned to her eyes as she continued to stare closely at the marbles.

  “So,” she said, eventually. “Where did these come from?”

  Josh and Danny looked at each other and then back at Petty. “We were hoping you could tell us,” Josh said. “They’ve been sent to us—by the Mystery Marble Sender. One at a time across the last three weeks or so. We thought maybe it was you.”

  “Why on earth would it be me?” Petty asked.

  “Well … because they’ve got a code in them. And a hologram,” explained Josh. “Just like in your S.W.I.T.C.H. cubes! We didn’t think anybody else could make Serum Which Instigates Total Cellular Hijack.”

  “And nobody else can!” agreed Petty. “I made these, yes—I told you! But I can’t remember when. Or why. Or what for. Remember that nasty bag of bones Victor Crouch burnt out my memory after he tried to steal my S.W.I.T.C.H. Project work and claim it as his own! There are big echoing chambers of my brain with VACANT signs hung over them, thanks to my backstabbing former best friend.”

  “Well … maybe Victor Crouch did manage to steal some of your formula after all—this bit,” Danny said.

  “It looks like a S.W.I.T.C.H. code for mammals,” Josh said. “We had a look with my microscope. There’s a bat shape in the blue one and a cat shape in the red one.”

  “There’s a wolf shape in the green one,” Petty said. “I started on insects with BUGSWITCH. Then rediscovered amphibians and reptiles after you helped me find the missing cubes containing the code to REPTOSWITCH. If I had been working in any kind of order, the next thing I would have created would certainly have been MAMMALSWITCH.” She smiled. “I really am fabulously good! Top-caliber genius!”

  “But who sent these to us?” insisted Josh. “If it wasn’t you.”

  “Well, why would it be me, you twaddlehead?” Petty said. “Why would I exclude you from a brand-new, exciting S.W.I.T.C.H. phase? And then send you vital parts of it anonymously? You and Danny are my assistants. I need your help. And when the S.W.I.T.C.H. formulas are all finally perfected, you will join me on the world’s stage as the assistants of the GREATEST GENIUS SCIENTIST IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND!!!” This last she said as an echoing shout, rising to her feet and raising her chocolatey hands as if she were already on a stage being cheered by thousands of other, less clever scientists.

  “She’s so modest,” muttered Danny.

  “Hmmm …” Petty sank back down onto her kitchen chair and cut herself a second slice of cake. “Did this Mystery Marble Sender include a note with the other marbles?”

  “Yes—a note always comes first,” Josh said. “With a clue to find the next marble.” He put several bits of paper with spiky handwriting on them into Petty’s hand. “So far we’ve found one marble in a barn owl’s nest, one up in a light in the school hall, and one—last week—in a ruined sea fort.”

  “Whoever it is,” Danny said, “they’re spying on us and following us around. They even followed us on holiday!”

  “Or they were following me,” Petty said, scanning the notes. “Remember I was at your holiday beach too. Far more likely, it’s all about me…”

  “Even though they were all addressed to us?” snorted Josh.

  “That’s just to throw me off the scent,” murmured Petty. “It’s all about me.”

  “So modest,” muttered Danny.

  “I’m going to have to pack up my lab and go even sooner than I thought,” Petty said, slapping the notes down on the table. “First, the attempted break-in—now notes to you which are clearly meant for ME! It’s getting more dangerous here by the minute!”

  “But—where will you go?” asked Josh, appalled. “And … what about the rest of the REPTOSWITCH project. You were going to S.W.I.T.C.H. us into snakes and—and—”

  “Alligators!” continued Danny, forlornly biting into his second slice of cake. “Fwee fwant koo be falligators!”

  “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” chided Petty. “And don’t be so selfish! Can’t you see? They’re closing in! If my lab gets discovered, I’ll be kidnapped and tortured for all my secrets! And so, very possibly, will you! I don’t think it’s safe for you to come around here and see me anymore.”

  “What?” Danny stood up. “After all we’ve done for you! You’re just going to chuck us off the S.W.I.T.C.H. Project?”

  “Don’t be so melodramatic, Danny!” Petty stood up too. “I mean, I think you’ll have to meet me somewhere else … in my new secret lab!”

  “Your new lab? Is it ready?” Josh asked.

  “Very nearly,” Petty said. “In fact … I will let you see it tomorrow. Take this.” She dug into her other pocket and then handed Josh a small, white spray bottle with a big G written on it in marker. “It will allow you to find your way in. Do NOT use it before you reach the new address. Josh—I’m trusting you not to let Danny persuade you before then.”

  “Hey!” Danny said, looking wounded.

  “Only when you get there!” went on Petty. “Or I won’t trust you again. And make sure you’re not followed.”

  Josh grabbed the S.W.I.T.C.H. spray bottle. A surge of deep excitement ran through him. “Which S.W.I.T.C.H. is it?” he breathed.

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” Petty said. “Meet me here …”—she handed Danny a scrap of paper with an address written on it—“… at 2 p.m. tomorrow.”

  “Here?” Danny said, puzzled.

  “All will become clear,” Petty said, making what she obviously thought was a mysterious expression but looking really more as if she had a bad case of gas. “Now—off you go. Unless you want to help me apply baking soda to my pustules …”

  “Oh no,” Danny said. “Oh no, oh no, oh no!”

  “Errm,” added Josh.

  This was worse than they had imagined. Far worse.

  The brothers stood, frozen, in front of a large warehouse-style shop. It was located in a strip mall about twenty minutes’ walk from their house. Mom and Dad thought they’d gone up to the park. They would be amazed if they saw where their sons really were at this moment. Standing outside PRINCESSLAND.

  “This has got to be a mistake!” Danny peered at the address on the note again. But no—the number above the door of Princessland was unmistakably 18. Danny had been surprised enough when Petty had written down Unit 18, RAINBOW BUSINESS PARK—but this? “This can’t be right,” he went on. “She’s a genius scientist! She should be building her lab in a hollowed-out extinct volcano!”

  “Not many of those around here,” pointed out Josh.

  “All right then—an old water tower. An abandoned nuclear waste dump—I don’t know. Anything but this!” Danny’s voice wobbled as he stared up again at Princessland. It was a shop filled with lovely things for lovely girls. Dresses and shoes and tiaras and tie-on fairy wings and dollies and little shiny handbags and strawberry-flavored lip gloss and …

  “Face it,” Josh said.
“Petty Potts has gone to Princessland.” It sounded a bit like a kind way of saying someone had died or gone mad … and as far as Danny was concerned, it was the same.

  “I’m not walking in there!” he said. “Let’s use the S.W.I.T.C.H. spray and go inside in disguise.”

  “No,” Josh said. “For one thing, we don’t know what we’re going to turn into, do we? G could stand for anything in the reptile world … It could be a Gila Monster. Half a meter long with a venomous bite. Or a Galápagos tortoise—way too slow to get away before the Humane Society shows up. And for another thing—read that!”

  There was a note at the bottom of the address. It read: “Go to the lobby at the back and S.W.I.T.C.H. to get in under the red door. BEWARE! NOBODY MUST SEE! Keep a low profile.”

  “Keep a low profile?” spluttered Danny. “In Princessland, when we’re boys? Is she nuts?”

  Josh shrugged. There was no need to answer that one. He grabbed Danny’s arm. “Come on. If we stand out here much longer, we’ll attract attention. Just walk in. We can pretend we’re buying a birthday present for our sister.”

  “Jenny’s fourteen. I think she’s grown out of fairy wings!” Danny hissed.

  “We can pretend she’s four,” Josh said.

  Inside Princessland, it was every bit as bad as Danny had feared. As soon as they stepped through the door, three sparkly fairies on springs bounced down into their faces, saying things like, “Hi there, best friend!” and “The fairies love YOU!” and “Let’s go shopping in the Fairyland mall!” Danny screamed and swatted them away as if he was being attacked by wasps. Wasps styled by Disney.

  Danny ducked away and nearly knocked into a big whiteboard with PARTY TIME! written on it in glittery purple pen. “Princessland welcomes Princess Megan and all her friends to a Damsels’ Party at 4 p.m. today!”

  “I mean—what does that even mean?” he found himself wondering. “Does anyone really know what a damsel is?”