Gecko Gladiator (4 page)

“Never mind,” breathed Josh, tugging Danny across to the lobby area. “We've made it.”

“Aaaargh!” shrieked Danny. Accidentally, he had snagged a pair of pink and gold fairy wings on his shoulder as he'd run through the dress-up aisle. “GETITOFFMEEE!” he wailed. And Josh, with a weary sigh, removed the wings as if they were a large moth. He ducked back into the aisle and hung them up on the fairy dress-up display. “Take home a Diddly DeeDee today,” urged the
Darcy Show
presenter from a nearby screen. “She's just like me … only Diddly Deeee!”

Josh ran away.

“Come on—look—there's the red door,” he said, as soon as he got back. And there it was, tucked out of sight around the corner from the shop floor. Next to it was a blue door with a PRIVATE sign on it. On the red door, there was just one small paper sign taped into place. It read MUTATIO INC.

“Mutatio?” Danny whispered. “What's that got to do with Petty Potts?”

“It's Latin,” Josh said. “I think it means ‘change' or …‘switch.'” Josh had picked up quite a bit of Latin because of all the Latin names of wildlife he'd read about.

He tried the door. It was locked. Of course, he'd known it would be. Why would they need to S.W.I.T.C.H. if they could just walk in? He got out the spray bottle and glanced around. Nobody was anywhere near them. They were tucked out of sight of the main store. Despite all the fuss Danny had made, there was no sign of any member of the staff coming. “Come on,” he said. “Let's S.W.I.T.C.H.”

He sprayed them both. A few seconds later, the red door shot up to the size of a house as he and Danny shrank down to their new shape and size. The crack under the door now looked like the gap you'd find beneath a bench. Easy to get under.

“Oh-ho-hoho!” marveled Danny, staring at his brother. “That is really cool!”

There was a metal kick plate at the bottom of the red door. Josh looked at his reflection to see what he had become. “Wow! I'm a gecko!” Josh breathed. He checked the underside of his feet. “A tokay gecko! WOW!”

He was a magnificent sight. A neat, sleek lizard covered in fabulous fine yellow scales with orange and blue spots. His belly was a pale milk white, and his face was lit up by two dark, glinting, orblike eyes. His snout was rounded, with a wide, smiling mouth. His feet were dainty. Their five toes had squishy pads on them, which made them look like the petals on a flower. Josh knew
these “petals” were one of the most amazing things about his new form—he couldn't wait to find out if they really worked. Turning, he checked out his tail. It was long and leaf-shaped, tapering to a neat point.

“Oh great,” Danny said, also staring into the metal mirror. “Oh—just great!”

Danny was much like Josh in shape and size, from his big eyes and petal-shaped toes to his tail.

But there were two differences.

He was stripy.

And he was pink.

Josh laughed so hard he thought his inner gecko workings might burst. “But, Danny …” he spluttered, between a series of high-pitched chirrups and clicks, “you're so pretty!”

Danny smacked Josh in the face with his tail and scurried under the door. On the other side, there was a cliff of concrete. Followed by another cliff of concrete. And then another. A staircase.

Josh arrived at his side, still shaking with laughter. He opened his mouth to say something, but Danny gave him a fierce stare. “DON'T!” was all he said, and Josh bit down on his next joke. After all Danny's freaking out about the pink and glittery stuff in the shop, he could have been designed by Princessland.

Of course, Josh was a very pretty gecko too—but the orange and blue spots weren't at all girly. Why they'd both S.W.I.T.C.H.ed with such different colors, Josh couldn't say. Maybe it was just Danny's inner pinkness coming out.

“So,” Danny said, pinkly. “What's going to eat us today?”

“We're not in much danger here,” grinned Josh. “Unless Petty's bought herself a cat. Come on—I've got something to show you!” And Josh ran up the step. Literally—up it. He didn't even have to try to work out how to reach the first ledge and haul himself up. He ran up the smooth concrete without any difficulty at all.

“Whoa! Let me try!” Danny said, following his brother. He'd been climbing as a lizard before. But that had been up a tree with lots of easy claw-holds to help. This surface was completely flat and smooth. As a sand lizard, he would have struggled—but as a gecko … no problem!

Ahead of him, Josh wasn't bothering with the stairs at all—he was just scampering up the wall of the stairwell, heading for the ceiling in
a straight line. He was letting out little squeaks and clicks of excitement that echoed off the hard, plastered walls. “You see these?” He lifted one foot and showed off its toes. Underneath each toe was a group of tiny white mushroom-like things. “They're called setae!” chirruped Josh. “They stick like glue every time we press them against the wall—they're incredibly strong! But then they just pop off again when we want to carry on. Scientists all over the world have been trying to make something that does what a gecko's foot does! I was reading about it just last week!”

Danny caught up with his brother. He'd forgotten his unfortunate color now and was hugely enjoying the climb. “We're like Spider-Man!” he marveled.

“Yeah—except that Spider-Man is pretend—and geckos do it for real!” Josh grinned at his brother in delight, revealing a row of small, sharp teeth. “Now watch this!” And he ran right up to the top of the wall and effortlessly flipped his lizardy body upside down before walking jauntily across the ceiling. “Whoooo-hooo! Look at meeee!” he called.

Danny wasted no time in following him. Walking upside down on the ceiling was amazing … although he and Josh had done it once before. “We did this when we were flies, remember?” he said.

“Yeah … and that was cool too,” Josh said. “But now we're doing it with style. We're not just about to go and vomit all over someone's cake mix, are we? This time, we're beautiful!”

“And we can't get eaten by a spider,” added Danny, happily.

“Nope … we eat the spider!” Josh said. “Fancy a snack?” And he ran toward the corner of the stairwell ceiling where a few spindly cellar spiders hung in fine strands of web. As soon as they saw him, they began to swing around wildly.
They hoped to put him off them by seeming bigger than they were through the wild, blurry movements. Josh was very tempted to snap one up—his lizard instinct was telling him to have some munchies right here, right now.

But he was soft-hearted. He remembered how it felt to be a spider about to be eaten. He couldn't do it. “Come on, Danny,” he said, turning away from the arachnid snack counter. “Let's go find Petty.”

“OK,” Danny said. Three legs were poking out of his mouth.

“You didn't!”

“Didn't what?” asked Danny, innocently, with a gulp.

“Never mind,” chuckled Josh. He knew Danny would have blocked out all memory of his little snack already. Josh ran back to the wall and down to another door. At the foot of the door, a greenish shaft of light shone through. He headed for it and slipped easily under the crack. Danny arrived beside him a few seconds later.