“We’re doomed!” cried Crunch.

“There are enough of us to put up a fight,” said Zap, bravely. “Isn’t that right, Sergeant Stealth?”

Zap turned to the crickets, but was shocked to see that they were no longer there.

“Those cowardly crickets have crept off!” cried Buzz.

“They’ve done their job in helping us to find Spinner,” said Zap. “It’s our job to take him on.”

“But there’s only four of us. There are loads of them,” said Lurch. He pointed towards the swarm of spiders, flexing their legs.

“Yes,” said Zap, standing as tall as he could. “But we’re the Bug Buddies. We’ve defeated Spinner before – we can do it again!”

With Zap leading the way, the Bug Buddies crawled forward.

 

A group of small spiders shot out strands of silk to trip them up.

“Ouch!” cried Lurch, falling flat on his face.

Zap zoomed into the air. “I’ll see to this lot,” he shouted down to the others. “You battle your way to Spinner.”

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?