Sucked Under

By Zana Fraillon
Illustrations by Simon Swingler

Monstrum House: Sucked Under
published in 2010 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
85 High Street
Prahran, Victoria 3181, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.

Text copyright © 2010 Zana Fraillon
Illustration and design copyright © 2010 Hardie Grant Egmont

Design and illustration by Simon Swingler
Typeset by Ektavo

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Author dedication:
To Mum and Dad, for making me a writer

Table of Contents

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1

Jasper McPhee pulled himself over the top of the icy wall. He landed lightly on his bare feet and rolled across the snowy ground, just dodging the swinging blades that whooshed from the tree tops.
That was close,
he thought. He shot a quick look at his watch. He had two minutes left to finish the combat course. He might just make it.

Only one more stretch of ground to go, then he had to get past the mud and up the rope. He commando-crawled quickly through the snow, keeping his head down and eyes up, like he'd been taught. One minute left …

Jasper leapt over the seething pile of mud, trying not to think of all the things that could be in there. Their teacher Sir Tavish had told them that it was infested with Midgiemunches, but Jasper hoped he wasn't serious. After all, the venom in a Midgiemunch was strong enough to paralyse a small child.

Jasper sprang upwards to catch hold of the swinging rope. Twenty seconds to go …

I'm actually going to make it!
Jasper thought.
No penalty points!
He almost whooped with glee. The kids who didn't finish the course in time were given ten penalty points. Twenty penalty points meant getting a punishment, and in the last year Jasper had earnt himself enough punishments to last a lifetime.

Jasper swung confidently over the icy lake and landed firmly on the bank, just as Sir Tavish's bugle sounded. Time was up.

There was a groan from the students who were still doing the course. Jasper's friend Felix had only just reached the rope. Felix shook his head as he collected a penalty card from Sir Tavish, and made his way over to Jasper.

Saffy joined the boys, looking smug at having finished the course before both Felix and Jasper – again. It annoyed both boys that they were constantly being beaten through the combat course by a girl – even if she was a girl who could easily destroy both of them in a kickboxing contest.

Of all the classes at Monstrum House, Combative Calculations was Jasper's favourite.

Each class was a huge obstacle course, and the stunts they learnt were brilliant. The best one so far was learning how to flip off a high ledge and land so it didn't even hurt. It was just like being a stuntman in an action film. The only bad thing about Combative Calculations was that Sir Tavish always made them stand barefoot in the snow at the end of class while he told them how they could improve.

‘A'RIGH'! LEF' FEET! NOW!' Sir Tavish bellowed.

Everyone balanced on one bare foot on the icy ground. They had done this every day for almost a year now, so no-one thought it was unusual anymore. Freezing your feet in the snow was the only way to stop your brain from shrinking. The students at Monstrum House had been warned about brain shrinkage. According to their principal, most adults had brains the size of prunes. A shrunken brain meant that you couldn't see monsters anymore. And if you couldn't see monsters, you were in trouble.

‘Tha' was pathetic,' Sir Tavish yelled.

Jasper rolled his eyes. Sir Tavish gave this speech at the end of every class. It had taken the students a while to realise that if Sir Tavish
didn't
single you out, you were doing well.

‘Ye, McPhee,' Sir Tavish turned, ‘Din't ye even nootice the flyin' Scramblers when ye flipped o'er the wall?'

Jasper glanced at Felix.
There were flying
Scramblers?
‘Um, well ...' Jasper muttered.

‘PATHETIC! Ye need to watch for more than one monstar! Doon't ye know tha' monstars doon't always go it aloone? They can team oop and git ye twice as good! Change feet!'

The students dutifully swapped feet as Sir Tavish walked up and down the line, singling out students to yell at. Saffy, as usual, didn't get a mention.

‘Now, I want two lines nex' teh each other. Be quick aboot it,' Sir Tavish ordered.

Jasper looked curiously at Felix. This was new.

‘Look a' the person nex' teh ye,' Sir Tavish said.

Jasper made a stupid face at Felix, who choked back a laugh.

‘Somethin' teh say, Mr Brown?' Sir Tavish asked. ‘Or are ye just laughin' because ye're stuck with McPhee for yer nex' test?'

The students had never done a test in pairs before.
Cool,
Jasper thought. He glanced behind him. Saffy was paired with Callum, a small kid from their class. Saffy would be happy – Callum was easily the best student at Combative Calculations.

‘Sorry, mate,' Jasper whispered to Felix. ‘Let's just hope it's not an important test.'

Felix grinned in response. Jasper knew they would actually team up pretty well together.

‘Head back noow. Stenka is waitin' to show ye teh ye test rooms. It's a test on Morphers, so keep ye wits aboot ye. We don't have tha' much anti-venom on hand.'

Jasper hoped Sir Tavish was joking. ‘How can they be running out of anti-venom?' he whispered to Felix.

‘Um, let's see now …' said Felix. ‘Could it be because this is a monster-hunting school and kids get Monstered, like, every single day?'

‘Good point,' said Jasper. ‘But it's just a test, right? I reckon they'd stop it if you were in real trouble. That's what they always do in tests.'

Sir Tavish's voice boomed across their conversation. ‘Hurry up, ye two!' he yelled. ‘This test ain't like no other ye've doone!'

‘There goes that theory,' Felix grimaced.

2

The headphones in the test room were broken. Definitely broken. The high-pitched beeping was beginning to get annoying. Jasper gave the headphones one last tap before ripping them off his head.

He looked around the dark room for any sign of a monster. His eyes were stinging. His head was aching.
Maybe I'm getting a cold from standing
in the stupid snow so much,
he thought distractedly. He was finding it hard to concentrate.
Test. Think
about the test
, he reminded himself.

Jasper heard something shuffling around in the room. Something clumsy. It grunted as it walked right into a wall.

Silently, Jasper pulled the net from his hunt belt. He could just make out a figure in the far corner of the room. It was about the same size as him.
Too easy
, thought Jasper, raising the net.

A small doubt niggled at the back of Jasper's brain. The figure edged slightly to the right. Jasper knew that if he waited, it could all go wrong. He shook the doubt from his head, ran towards the figure and swung his net.

The next thing Jasper knew, his legs were kicked out from underneath him and he thumped onto the floor. Not
exactly
how monster-hunting was meant to go.
At least I've
got the monster,
thought Jasper. He grabbed the torch from his hunt belt and switched it on.

‘Felix?' Jasper whispered. His friend stood tangled in the net.

‘Where are we?' asked Felix.

Jasper shook his head. ‘We're in a test, aren't we? But what are you doing here? You're not meant to be here, are you?' He shivered and pulled his hood up. It was
cold
.

‘Why am I in a net?' Felix scratched his head.

Jasper shrugged and shone the torch around the room.
Where are we?

Jasper could feel an idea trying to burst through his skull, desperately wanting to be heard.

He shone the torch directly in Felix's eyes.

Felix blinked and looked around the room, as if trying to get his bearings. Jasper saw something purple flash inside Felix's ear, then disappear.

He felt a tingle of excitement in the tips of his fingers. Without really knowing why, he tackled Felix to the ground.

Felix struggled hopelessly in the net.

‘Stay still!' yelled Jasper.

He grabbed the ear plunger – which looked like a mini toilet-plunger – from his hunt belt and shoved it roughly over Felix's ear. He couldn't shake the feeling that if he kept going, something horrible was going to happen, but he forced his arms to pump the plunger up and down until …
SCHLOP!
He'd sucked a purple wormy thing right out of Felix's ear.