Beetle Power! Read online

  Zap flew round and round above the spiders. Silky strands shot towards him, but he quickly darted out of the way. As they fell to the ground, the webs tangled around the spiders. My plan’s working, he thought.

  Zap flew faster and faster as the spiders continued to fire their sticky strands. They were so busy trying to fire at him, the spiders didn’t realise they were tying themselves up in webs!

  “That’s one-nil to us,” said Zap, smiling.

  He flew over to join his friends. Crunch had taken the lead, waving his giant claws to clear a path through their attackers. Behind him, Lurch was lobbing dung balls at the advancing spiders.

  Buzz was sucking up grass seeds, then firing them out of his mouth at the spiders. Most of the smaller ones scuttled away, as the hard, round balls bounced off their bodies. Spinner hissed as his army backed off towards the wood, leaving a large gap in front of him.

  “Nice work!” said Zap, hovering above them. “We’ve cleared a path through to Spinner.”

  Buzz sucked up some more seeds and blew as hard as he could.

  “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!” cried Spinner, as five grass seeds hit his head, one after another.

  The giant spider fell over, looking dazed. Now’s our chance, thought Zap. He whizzed round to the back of Spinner and gave the spider’s body a nip.

  “That hurt, you sneaky bug,” cried Spinner.

  The huge spider kicked out a leg, but Zap easily dodged out of the way. Excitement made his wings flutter even faster. Spinner was down and his spider friends had retreated. It looked like the battle was going their way …

  “Help!”

  Zap whipped his head round to see Lurch stuck in the mud, surrounded by taunting spiders. Zap gasped – his friend was sinking! He zoomed across and grabbed one of Lurch’s legs. Zap pulled and pulled, but he wasn’t strong enough to free the dung beetle. What was he going to do?

  Crunch rushed over, elbowing the spiders out of the way. “Let me try,” he said, hooking his giant claws around the dung beetle’s body. He began to lift him, his body trembling with the effort.

  “Get off me, you sneaky beasts!” cried Buzz from the other side of the bog.

  Zap saw that a group of spiders were trying to pin Buzz down with their webs.

  Spinner got to his feet, laughing with delight. “It looks like the Bug Buddies are about to be defeated,” he said. “Say goodbye, Gonzo!”

  Was Spinner really going to win?

  “I’ll be OK, Zap,” Buzz called over, bravely fighting off the spiders. “Get Spinner!”

  Zap flew up into the air and headed straight for his giant enemy. “I’ll never let you take over the wood,” he shouted.

  Spinner smiled, venom dripping off his fangs. “How can one lone weevil possibly stop me?” he said.

  Zap gulped. What could he do?

  “The thing is,” cried a voice from above, “he’s not alone.”

  Zap looked up to see Crunch and Lurch in the branches of a horse chestnut tree. Lurch was covered in mud, but he was free again! Crunch was using his claws to cut loose a bunch of heavy tree buds. With one last snip, the buds were free. Zap gasped as they came hurtling towards him. He dodged out of the way as the buds skimmed past his wings and landed with a CRACK on Spinner’s head.

  “Bang … head … hurty,” said Spinner, dazed.

  Lurch threw a hail of dung balls at the stunned spider. “Take that!” he shouted. The stinky, brown poo splattered all over Spinner’s hairy legs.

  “Argh,” shouted Spinner, confused about where the volley of poo was coming from. “You little pests won’t give up!”

  “Never!” cried Zap.

  “Unlike your so-called friends,” shouted Buzz from the other side of the bog.

  The spiders that were surrounding Buzz had run away. All across the bog, frightened spiders were abandoning Spinner.

  “Come back!” shouted Spinner. “The fight’s not lost yet.”

  Zap smiled as Buzz flew up to join him.

  “I’m glad my friends would never desert me,” Zap said.

  “No way,” mumbled Buzz, his mouth full of grass seeds. He quickly fired the seeds at Spinner, hitting him square in the face.

  “Ouch!” yelled Spinner, crumpling to the ground.

  Right, thought Zap, now we’ll see him off for good. Zap dived towards Spinner and flew round his huge body, giving him nip after nip.

  “Will you – ow – stop – ow – biting me? I give in!” yelled Spinner.

  Buzz, Crunch and Lurch joined Zap, hovering side by side in front of the defeated spider.

  Spinner curled up on the ground covered in tree buds, grass seeds and poo.

  “You’ve lost,” said Zap. “Now you have to obey Gonzo’s rules and live in peace and harmony with all bugs.”

  Spinner laughed, louder than the Bug Buddies had ever heard him laugh before. “Me? Behave myself?” he said.

  “You promised,” said Zap, angrily.

  “When will you understand?” said Spinner. “Spiders are hunters. It’s what we were born to do. We don’t follow rules.”

  With a sudden effort, Spinner shook himself free of the sticky mess. “I’m going to find a new home. Some place where no little pests can foil my plans!”

  Zap watched as Spinner shot a strand of silk high up into the horse chestnut tree and flew into the air. A gust of wind blew him far away, past the trees of Spinner’s Wood and out into the world beyond.

  “We won! Spinner’s gone for good,” said Crunch.

  “And Gonzo doesn’t have to leave,” said Buzz.

  “Go Bug Buddies!” cried Lurch.

  Zap wing-slapped his Bug Buddies. The wood was safe at last.

  “Let’s go and tell Gonzo the good news,” said Zap.

  The Bug Buddies were just about to leave Stinking Bog when they heard a disgusting squelch. A huge slug emerged from the mud. Its thick, mucus-covered body slithered up to Zap, leaving a trail of slime. Zap shuddered – that was one ugly creature …

  “I sssaw what you and your friendsss did,” the slug said. “Very impressssive.”

  Even though the slug was congratulating them, it didn’t sound like he meant it.

  “Er, thanks,” Zap said. “My name’s Zap.”

  “Yesss,” replied the slug, menacingly, “I know.”

  “We’re going to celebrate our victory,” said Lurch. “Do you want to come?”

  “No, thanksss,” replied the slug. “I’m, er, busy … very busy.”

  Zap thought the slug’s excuse sounded like a fib. He was suddenly keen to get away from this slippery character.

  “OK,” Zap said hurriedly, “bye, then.”

  Zap flew out of the bog, followed by the rest of the Bug Buddies. As he led the way, he took one last look over his wings. The slug was still watching them …

  The insects of Spinner’s Wood cheered as Zap and his friends told everyone about their victory, on Gonzo’s Rock.

  “Spinner has left the wood forever!” Zap announced.

  “Well done, Bug Buddies,” said Gonzo.

  “It was a real team effort,” said Zap, looking at his friends with pride.

  “Hooray for the Bug Buddies!” the crowd cheered.

  Zap smiled as Buzz, Crunch and Lurch were lifted up by the bugs at the front of the crowd and carried around the clearing. But, before Zap could celebrate, there was something he needed to know.

  “Would you really have left Spinner’s Wood?” he asked Gonzo.

  “I knew that promising to leave was the only way Spinner would ever agree to a final showdown,” replied Gonzo. “But, I also knew that you wouldn’t let me down.”

  Zap almost burst with pride. Suddenly, he felt himself lifted into the air …

  “Don’t be shy,” said Snap, putting Zap on his shoulders. “You deserve a victory lap, too!”

  Zap laughed as the tiger beetle carried him around the clearing. It was almost as fun as flying!

  But his laughter paused whe
n he spotted the giant slug watching him from behind a muddy mound. What was he doing here? Didn’t he say he was busy?

  Zap wasn’t sure why, but something told him to keep an eye on that slug. He reminded Zap of Spinner in some way.

  “I don’t think our adventures are over yet,” he murmured to himself, as he joined in with the celebrations. “Not by a long way …”

  NAME: Sergeant Stealth

  FAMILY: Tettigoniidae

  (sub-family: Phaneropteridae)

  SIZE: Average 15mm

  HOME: Meadows, gardens and orchards

  LIKES: Eating leaves and flowers of plants such as dandelions.

  DISLIKES: Areas where they cannot be camouflaged!

  SERGEANT STEALTH

  Unlike many other species of cricket, the speckled bush cricket can’t fly. The female has no wings at all, while the male just has little flaps. It’s a good thing they have long legs to help them hop around!

  Acknowledgments

  With special thanks to Mariam Vossough

  To my bug buddies Lily and Sol

  Copyright

  First published in paperback in Great Britain by

  HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2009

  HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd,

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB.

  Visit our website at: www.harpercollins.co.uk

  BUG BUDDIES — BEETLE POWER!. Text copyright © Working Partners 2009. Illustrations copyright © Duncan Smith 2009. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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  EPub Edition © JULY 2012 ISBN: 9780007497249

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