It stops at the bars. Tilly is almost invisible nestled inside the long pink hairs of its neck ruff, and laughs as it sticks a monstrous tongue through the bars, laden with spit. The tongue waves in the air and we all recoil, although Eric isn’t fast enough, his hair going from an orange Afro to a damp jellyfish in seconds.
‘Ugh!’
‘He’s a black Lab,’ says Tilly, happily shaking the giant puppy’s drool from her hair and persuading the creature to grab the gate in its vast jaws and drop it at the side of the tunnel.
‘Looks pink to me,’ says Jacob. ‘And glittery.’ He pushes his way past Tilly, avoiding the puppy’s mouth.
‘Yes,’ says Tilly, doubtfully. ‘I don’t understand that bit. I seem to be able to make things grow, but they don’t just get bigger. It’s kind of nice, but –’
‘Just try not to touch anything,’ I say, rubbing the lump on my head.
A smile flickers over Tilly’s lips. ‘Hmmm … ’ she says.
‘No – don’t be tempted,’ says Eric. ‘Think of the trouble we had with him when he was tiny.’ He nods towards Jacob. ‘He’s still not right. I don’t think you’d actually want your brother to be giant and pink for ever.’
‘But it fades,’ says Tilly, pushing the puppy’s enormous tongue out of her hair. ‘Look at Jupiter – it grew back.’
I help Eric past the puppy’s vast tail. ‘It doesn’t always grow back.’
‘I think you have to be careful,’ says Jacob.
We all stare at him.
‘Well, you do. I mean, with my powers I could set fire to something really precious.’
‘What? Like your mum?’ says Eric.
‘No – something more precious than that … something like my Game Cube.’
‘But you did,’ I say. ‘At Field Craft.’
Jacob’s brow furrows. ‘Oh, yeah,’ he says. ‘Anyway, if it doesn’t grow back or whatever, something else nasty might happen. My power makes my mouth burn – it’s horrible. I can’t eat chilli any more.’
‘All powers come with a downside,’ says Eric, quietly.
I look across at him, giving him the chance to tell me.
But Jacob wades in. ‘Crying,’ he says. ‘Haven’t you noticed? Snot Face can’t stop crying. Turned into a right wuss.’
Eric sighs, and Lily appears at the end of the tunnel. ‘He’s getting away. Quick, everybody, we’ve got to catch him!’
‘Who? What?’ asks Jacob.
We don’t bother to answer, just race past him into the light.
Tilly’s pretty good at riding the puppy. And the puppy’s pretty good at running but, like puppies do, it doesn’t run in a straight line, so while we pile up the road from the castle, Tilly canters all around the town and back to us again yelping and laughing.
It’s like we’re a real team of superheroes. Not quite like the ones from the comics – more Bywater-by-Sea than New York – but we are chasing an evil genius, after all, and no one else is going to stop him. The safety of the nation lies in our hands, although I think superheroes are supposed to be fitter and faster than us.
Lily’s at the front, Eric and Jacob are at the back. I’m struggling to keep ahead of them.
‘He’s driving a steamroller,’ she stutters. ‘He took it from the fair. It’s slow but it’s impossible to stop.’
‘But he’s your dad!’ pants Eric, trying desperately to keep up. ‘Why aren’t you helping him?’
Lily doesn’t say anything until we pass the model village.
‘Because he’s wrong,’ she says. ‘He’s never had anything as powerful as the dust that comes out of the castle; he’s drunk on the idea of it. He seems to think he can make his fortune and change the world. But he’s wrong and that dust’s dangerous – you two know that. Remember the snake?’
‘Certainly do,’ says Jacob, ‘I gave him what for!’
‘You got bitten,’ says Tilly.
‘You got wet,’ says Jacob. ‘And we had to save you.’
‘I could easily have got away from him,’ says Tilly.
‘Why didn’t you, then?’ I ask.
Tilly sticks her tongue out and leans forward into Revenge’s fur.
‘Anyway – why should we trust you?’ I ask Lily. ‘How do we know you’re not going to lead us into some cave and shut us in for a week, like you did to Eric’s dad?’
‘What!’ She stops. ‘I thought I’d made you forget.’
‘Time did something funny that afternoon, but I didn’t forget – did you?’ I say to Eric stumbling to a halt beside her.
Eric shakes his head and slumps forward, gasping for breath. ‘Probably because we were right next to the castle, covered in dust – powers short-circuited.’
‘I hid him,’ says Lily. ‘I hypnotised the whole audience and took him away. I knew the disappearing cabinet would really work, and I was worried it would send someone somewhere mad like another planet, so I stole your dad and hid him. I hope that was all right – I thought it was for the best.’
Eric’s far too nice to be cross with her, but I spot a flicker of irritation cross his lips, and he coughs into his hand to cover it.
‘You can hypnotise people?’ says Jacob, throwing himself on the ground beside us and panting.
‘And animals, although I’m not sure Revenge is really in my power,’ says Lily, pointing at the puppy now sniffing around a lamp post. ‘I caught a meteorite, when we first arrived. Only it took me a little while to work out what it did.’
‘That must have been the one we saw land at the same time as yours,’ I say to Jacob and Eric.
‘Respect,’ says Jacob.
‘Wow!’ says Eric. ‘So you’ve got a power too?’
‘We’re a team, we’re magical – we can save the world – we can do anything!’ shouts Jacob.
For once, I agree with him.
‘Yes,’ says Lily. ‘But if we don’t hurry up, even with all the powers we have between us, we won’t be able to stop Dad. He’ll have got away with it.’