Lizard Loopy 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: Lizard Loopy” 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.

  Darby Creek

  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

  www.lernerbooks.com

  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.

  Lizard loopy / by Ali Sparkes ; illustrated by Ross Collins.

  pages cm. — (S.W.I.T.C.H. ; #9)

  Summary: An intruder at mad scientist’s Petty Potts’ house interrupts her latest experiment, trying REPTOSWITCH on twins Josh and Danny, and when they return home they find a package that sends them on a mysterious quest.

  ISBN 978–1–4677–2112–7 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

  ISBN 978–1–4677–2419–7 (eBook)

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

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

  PZ7.S73712Liz 2014

  [Fic]—dc23

  2013019712

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  1 – SB – 12/31/13

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-2419-7 (pdf)

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-4020-3 (ePub)

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-4019-7 (mobi)

  For Layla

  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

  See Ya Later

  A Matter of Scale

  Rolling Riddle

  Trunk Call

  Wall to Wall Murder

  T-wit

  Stumped

  Micro Mystery

  My Spy

  Top Secret!

  Recommended Reading

  “ALLIGATOR!”

  The scream echoed across the hall, filled with blood-chilling terror. Claudia Petherwaite’s eyes were glassy with horror and her pink mouth was stretched wide as the scream poured out of it.

  The alligator swung its snout round and located Claudia’s scent. It grinned at her, taking a step closer, its dim swamp-green eyes fixing on the movement as she staggered backward toward the foldaway climbing bars. Her lunchbox fell to the floor, scattering sticks of celery and carrot across the scuffed wooden surface.

  The alligator was not distracted. It smelled meat. Not veg.

  “NO! NO! NO!!!” screamed Claudia Petherwaite, trying to scramble up the bars but failing because her shiny shoes were too slippery and her hands were slidey with fearful sweat.

  The alligator laughed—at least it looked that way. Its snaggletoothed snout lifted and its huge mouth opened wide, getting ready to snap down on a limb.

  “Shouldn’t we help her?” screamed another girl, cowering by the stack of gym mats. “She’s going to be eaten alive!”

  “It’s awful,” sobbed another, just behind her. “But she was so mean to Danny in biology this morning. Maybe it’s a bit harsh . . . but I—I suppose if anyone had to get eaten alive by an alligator . . .”

  The alligator’s mouth got wider still. Rows of vicious pointed teeth gleamed in the midday sun that shafted through the tall hall windows. Its stubby clawed feet dug into the wooden floor as it raised its scaly head on a thick, muscular neck. It roared and belched, and the stink of a recently dismembered gazelle wafted up toward Claudia, who was now babbling wildly, swinging on a gym rope just inches away from the ravening reptile’s gaping jaws.

  “I know—I know I was horrible to Danny,” she shrieked. “And it was so wrong of me to say he was stupid because he couldn’t spell “crysalis.” I never should have laughed at him. And now, as I’m about to be eaten alive, I just wish I could say sorry to him first . . . and tell him that he’s actually very clever and handsome and fabulous in e-every wa-a-ay . . . ayayaaaargh MY LEEEEEEG!”

  “And then I bite her leg off,” Danny said. He made a cracking and squelching noise and followed it with a gurgling scream. He rested his elbows on the gatepost and smiled happily.

  “You need help,” Josh said. “Professional mental help.”

  “What—just because I want to S.W.I.T.C.H. into an alligator and bite Claudia Petherwaite’s leg off?” Danny shrugged at his twin. “Oh, come on! She’s asking to have her leg bitten off. I bet you half the kids in school would agree with me. There was never a girl so obviously in need of losing a leg to a killer reptile. It would probably make her a much nicer person. SO—come on! Let’s GO! I WANT TO BE AN ALLIGATOR!”

  Josh just folded his arms and stared at him—so Danny jumped up and down and squeaked like an over-excited toddler. “Come ON! I WANT TO BE—”

  Josh thwacked him on the back of the head with his hand.

  “Get a grip,” Josh said. “You’re eight, not three!”

  “But I want to be an alligator,” whined Danny. “NOOOOOOOW!”

  “You’ve acting crazy again,” Josh said. “I’m taking you home.” He grabbed his twin brother by the arm and yanked him up the path, away from their neighbor’s scruffy old red brick house. Away from any chance of Danny becoming an alligator.

  “You can just pretend for now, like you do in those embarrassing dragony questy role-play games with Scott and Zac,” went on Josh, shoving Danny ahead of him down the side passage to the back garden. His twin was still so overexcited he was bouncing off the brick walls.

  “They’re not embarrassing. They’re a laugh,” chirruped Danny. “And last week I was the High Lord of Rifflescape and they were Elven Frogsprites—and I melted their heads.”

  Josh sighed and shook his head. “You’re beyond help,” he said. “There’s no way you’ll ever be safe as an alligator.”

  Back in their garden, Josh shoved Danny down by the jungle gym and called to Piddle, their dog. As Piddle (named after a habit he had when stressed) trotted over, Josh picked him up, plonked his small furry black and white body into Danny’s excitable lap and said, “SIT!”

  “Both of you!” he added, as Danny and Piddle tried to spring up again. They both sat, and one of them let his tongue hang out sideways.

  “I’m serious, Danny!” Josh went on. He gazed across the top of the fence toward Petty Potts’s back garden. Deep within its overgrown weeds and brambles stood a small, ordinary-looking wooden shed. And deep within the shed stood a small, ordinary looking door. And beyond the door nothing was ordinary ever again.

&nbs
p; “Let me just remind you of a few things,” Josh said, trying to sound like their dad. “Only a few weeks ago, we were shivering in terror about that place.” He jabbed his finger across the far side of the fence. “Since then we’ve been nearly eaten too many times to remember! And weren’t YOU the one who once said we would NEVER go back there again? Not EVER!”

  “Yeah, well,” Danny said, playing with Piddle’s floppy ears and looking just a little bit less excitable. “That was to start with. I was freaked out. I mean, it’s not every day your grumpy old next-door neighbor suddenly turns out to be a genius scientist and changes you into a spider.”

  Josh clambered up the climbing frame and perched on the top two bars. He stared at the roof of the ordinary shed and bit his lip. The truth was, he was very nearly as excited as Danny this time. He couldn’t wait to try out Petty Potts’s brand new S.W.I.T.C.H. spray. REPTOSWITCH! Even the name was exciting. And what it stood for. Reptile . . . Serum Which Instigates Total Cellular Hijack. He would LOVE to be a reptile for half an hour . . . BUT . . .

  Josh shook his head and took a deep breath. “Danny—let’s just do a checklist about how the other S.W.I.T.C.H.ings have worked out, shall we?” He counted across his fingers. “ONE. SpiderSWITCH. Nearly squished by Jenny’s sandal, washed down the drain, me nearly swallowed by a toad. TWO. HouseflySWITCH. Both of us nearly swatted into bluebottle jam, you wrapped up in a spider’s web, me trapped in a giant booger—”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” sighed Danny. And he did know. He was usually, in fact, the more likely of the two of them to say no to any dealings with Petty Potts. For a start, while Freaky Little Bug Geek Josh loved them, Danny HATED all kinds of creepy-crawlies. He had been terrified of his own legs the whole time he was a spider. But . . . BUT . . . now that Petty had the full secret formula to make REPTOSWITCH, things were different.

  There weren’t nearly as many predators after reptiles, were there? They were higher up the food chain!

  “THREE!” Josh went on. “GrasshopperSWITCH. Nearly splatted by a math book, nearly chewed up by a cat . . . FOUR! AntSWITCH. Turned into zombie Ant Queen-serving machines and nearly burnt alive. FIVE! Crane FlySWITCH. Almost eaten by Piddle! Nearly vacuumed to death . . . do I need to go on?”

  Danny shrugged. “No. You don’t. Being creepy-crawlies was 95 percent pure terror! Although the grasshopper jumping was pretty cool . . . and the housefly aerobatics . . .”

  “And the great diving beetle bit . . .” Josh couldn’t help smiling as he remembered. “Being able to swim under water and fly!”

  “Being a frog at summer camp was cool too . . . apart from you—” Danny stared into Piddle’s innocent fluffy face and narrowed his blue eyes accusingly—“trying to bite my legs off!”

  Piddle whined guiltily.

  “Point made!” Josh said.

  “But don’t you see? Yes—the main problem with being S.W.I.T.C.H.ed is the nearly getting eaten!” Danny said. “But nothing eats an alligator, does it? NOTHING!”

  “You’re right,” came a voice from the other side of the fence. They both jumped, and Josh could see the top of Petty Potts’s tweedy old hat, while Danny could make out one of her eyes behind its thick glass spectacle lens, peering through a knothole in the wood. “NOTHING eats an alligator,” went on Petty. “Don’t you two think it’s time you came back to my lab? REPTOSWITCH is waiting.”

  There was a long silence in the garden, broken only by a soft whimper from Piddle. He was scared of Petty. With good reason. He got up and ran back into the house.

  “Come on,” went on Petty. “We’re all in this together now. You are part of the S.W.I.T.C.H. Project. If you hadn’t found all my missing REPTOSWITCH cubes with the secret code in them, I never would have gotten past insects, beetles, and arachnids. We’ve already done amphibians—and now REPTOSWITCH is perfected! It’s what you’ve been waiting for all summer! It’s finished. It works! It’s time to have your reward and try it out!”

  Still Josh and Danny said nothing. Petty Potts was amazing. But dangerous. She really couldn’t be trusted.

  “Very well,” sighed Petty. “I wouldn’t dream of making you try it. Let’s just forget it. I’ll go back to my lab.” Her voice took on a tragic tone. “And go on with the S.W.I.T.C.H. Project alone. Don’t you worry your little heads about me ever again. Maybe I’ll see you at the post office someday . . . Goodbye.” Petty waded across her garden, waist deep in weeds, and went into her shed. Through the door at the back. Down the secret passageway. And into her underground lab.

  Danny joined Josh on the top of the jungle gym, and for a long time they stared across the fence. Danny ran his fingers through his messy blond hair and frowned. “We want to be alligators!” he whimpered. “Why aren’t we jumping over the fence?”

  “Because,” Josh said, scratching his own much shorter, neater blond hair. “Whenever Petty asks us into her lab, it’s like a spider inviting us into its web.”

  “So. We don’t go,” Danny said, a few seconds later. “We just . . . forget about it all.”

  “That would be the sensible thing,” Josh said.

  They stared over the fence some more.

  “Let’s go, then,” Danny said.

  They were in Petty’s lab fifty-seven seconds later.

  “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 w
arm 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.”