‘Assistant trainer,’ Jack corrected him.

  Lord Veto gave a sigh. ‘Yes, well, that may be true at the moment. But everyone knows that it is you, and not Milo, who has made Big Rock the great Wrestling Troll he is! Wherever I go, all the wrestling managers I meet talk about you, Jack, as the great trainer behind Big Rock, not Milo.’ He looked sad as he added, ‘I’m not saying that Milo is holding you back on purpose, because he’s jealous of you … ’

  ‘Good!’ snapped Jack.

  ‘ … but that’s what other people are saying. Other trainers.’

  ‘Well, they’re wrong!’ said Jack. ‘Milo is a good trainer and manager. He was taking care of Big Rock before I joined them.’

  ‘Yes, but since you’ve joined them look how much more famous Big Rock has become.’

  Jack shook his head. ‘No,’ he said.

  Lord Veto put on an appealing look. ‘Jack, I know you feel you have no reason to trust me, but I want to prove to you that I’ve changed. I will give you a written contract with everything in it that I’ve just said: the job of chief trainer with my team of wrestlers, top rate of pay, and the most luxurious apartment at Veto Castle.’

  Jack regarded Veto suspiciously.

  ‘What about my friends?’ he asked. ‘Where would they fit into this?’

  Lord Veto gave a sigh and shrugged. ‘I’m afraid they’re not included in my offer. It’s you that I want, Jack. Your skill.’

  Again, Jack shook his head. ‘We can’t be split up,’ he said. ‘We’re a family.’

  ‘Are you sure of that?’ murmured Lord Veto.

  Jack frowned. ‘What do you mean?’ he demanded.

  ‘Well, how much do you trust Milo?’ asked Veto.

  ‘Completely,’ said Jack firmly. ‘We all look after one another.’

  ‘Except for Milo, who looks after himself,’ said Lord Veto.

  ‘How dare you!’ snapped Jack.

  Lord Veto shook his head.

  ‘You are so gullible, Jack. You and Big Rock. And that stupid horse.’

  ‘We are friends! We trust one another. But someone like you wouldn’t understand that.’

  ‘On the contrary, Jack. I understand about “trust” only too well. For example, how much does Milo pay you?’

  ‘It doesn’t work like that,’ retorted Jack. ‘We share any money that comes in as a group, equally.’

  ‘And who collects the money after a tournament?’

  ‘Milo, of course. He’s the manager.’

  Lord Veto chuckled. ‘And I suppose Milo tells you all how much he’s collected.’ And he laughed again.

  ‘What’s so funny?’ demanded Jack.

  ‘I know for a fact that Milo has a secret account at a money-house where he keeps a lot of money. He’s been cheating you. All of you.’

  ‘That’s a lie!’

  ‘Perhaps you’d like to see the proof of Milo’s secret money account?’

  ‘No!’ Jack shouted angrily.

  ‘What’s going on?’ asked a voice.

  Jack and Lord Veto turned, and saw that Milo, Big Rock and Robin had appeared.

  ‘Nothing!’ snapped Jack, with a glare at Veto. ‘Lord Veto was just going.’

  ‘Yes, I am,’ said Veto, nodding. He turned back to Jack. ‘But bear in mind what I said. My offer still stands. I’ll leave you to think about it.’

  And with that, he walked off.

  Jack looked after him and scowled. ‘I don’t trust him,’ he said. ‘Where’s Blaze? We ought to get Blaze to change shape and follow him and find out what he’s up to.’

  ‘Blaze is with Ava and Meenu,’ said Milo. ‘Something to do with Lord Veto and his dirty tricks.’ He gestured after the departing Veto. ‘So what was all that about? You sounded really angry, shouting at him.’

  ‘I am angry,’ said Jack.

  ‘Why, what did he say?’ asked Robin.

  ‘He offered me a job,’ said Jack. ‘Chief trainer with his team of wrestlers, top rate of pay and the most luxurious apartment at Veto Castle.’

  ‘Yes,’ nodded Robin. ‘I can see how that sort of thing would make you angry.’ And he gave a snort of a laugh.

  ‘Good job offer,’ said Big Rock. ‘What you say?’

  ‘What do you think I said?’ demanded Jack indignantly. ‘No, of course!’

  ‘I also heard him say something about a secret money account,’ said Robin. ‘Just before you shouted at him.’

  ‘Yes, well, that was something else,’ said Jack awkwardly. He hesitated. ‘He said that Milo had a secret account at a money-house. He suggested that you were keeping money from us.’

  ‘What?’ exclaimed Milo. He glared in the direction Lord Veto had gone. ‘Why, the dirty, lying … ’

  ‘That’s what I told him,’ said Jack. ‘That’s why I shouted at him when he said he’d show me proof of your secret money-house account.’

  ‘What proof?’ asked Robin, intrigued.

  ‘I don’t know! I didn’t give him a chance to say any more. That’s when I shouted at him, and then you lot arrived.’

  ‘There isn’t any sort of proof because I haven’t got a secret money account!’ exploded Milo.

  ‘Don’t worry, we know that,’ said Jack. ‘He’s just being sneaky, because he wants me to leave Waldo’s Wrestling Trolls and join him. But it’s not going to happen!’

  CHAPTER 4

  Princess Ava, dressed in her Masked Avenger costume, entered her caravan. Behind her came a tiny grey mouse, which turned into Blaze the Phoenix as soon as the caravan door was shut.

  ‘I really don’t like being a mouse,’ complained Blaze. ‘There was a cat following me right across the field, and there was an owl in the tree outside which woke up just now and gave me a really nasty look.’

  ‘It won’t be for much longer,’ said Ava. ‘Just as soon as we’ve played this trick on Lord Veto. You’re sure he was following me?’

  Blaze nodded.

  ‘Yes, he was dodging from tree to tree, and hiding behind bushes. He should be arriving outside the caravan about now.’

  The door to the small toilet opened and out came Meenu, dressed in Princess Ava’s spare wrestling costume and wearing her spare mask.

  ‘How do I look?’ she asked.

  ‘Great!’ said Ava.

  ‘The problem will be getting rid of Lord Veto after he’s seen me,’ said Meenu. ‘We don’t want him hanging around watching through the window for too long. You’ve got another wrestling match coming up.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ grinned Ava. ‘Leave that to Blaze. He’s going to handle it.’

  And with that Ava stepped into the toilet and pulled the door shut.

  ‘The mouse again,’ groaned Blaze. And with a sigh the phoenix burst into a bright flame and disappeared, to be replaced by the small grey mouse, which scampered towards the door and out through a small crack.

  Outside the caravan, Lord Veto climbed up on one of the caravan wheels and clung onto a wooden ledge and peered in. Yes, there was the Masked Avenger!

  As Lord Veto watched, the Masked Avenger took off her cloak and hung it up, and then she reached behind her head and unclipped the straps that held her mask in place. Clip! Clip! The mask came off to reveal …

  ‘Meenu!’ breathed Lord Veto.

  He heard a squeak just below him, and looked down.

  A small grey mouse had climbed up the wheel and was sitting on the toe of his shoe.

  ‘Get off!’ growled Lord Veto, and went to kick the mouse away; but before he could, the mouse ran up the inside of his trouser leg.

  ‘Aaaargh!’ yelled Lord Veto, and he fell off the wheel and landed with a thud on the grass.

  ‘No!’ he moaned as he felt the mouse run up his leg, and then run around inside his clothes, moving all over, tickling him with its whiskers and scratching his skin with its tiny paws.

  ‘Get off!’ he howled, and he rolled over and over, trying to squash the mouse, but the mouse carried on darting around inside his clothes.

  Lord Veto leapt to his feet and ran, calling out, ‘Warg! Help! Warg! Save me!’

  The mouse slipped out of Lord Veto’s trousers back onto the grass, and watched Veto run across the field, slapping his clothes as he went.

  Lord Veto hid behind a bush in a state of undress, while Warg held up his trousers and shook them firmly.

  ‘There’s no mouse in here, my Lord,’ said the orc.

  ‘Are you sure?’ demanded Lord Veto. ‘It was only a small mouse. A sneaky one. It could be hiding in a fold or something.’

  ‘Definitely no mouse,’ said Warg.

  He handed the trousers back to Lord Veto, who pulled them on and then stepped out from the cover of the bush.

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Lord Veto triumphantly. ‘I saw enough. The Masked Avenger is Meenu!’

  Warg looked doubtful.

  ‘But that can’t be so, my Lord,’ he said.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because whenever the Masked Avenger wrestles, Meenu is in her corner. I’ve seen her.’

  ‘But I saw her face when she took her mask off! I tell you it was that girl, Meenu!’ And then a light seemed to click on behind his eyes. ‘Great shimmering toenails! I know how they do it!’ he said triumphantly.

  ‘How, my Lord?’ asked Warg.

  ‘Twins!’ exclaimed Veto.

  ‘Twins?’

  ‘Meenu obviously has a twin sister! And that’s why the Masked Avenger’s so good, because they take turns to be her. That way one of them is always fresh enough for the match.’ He shook his head in admiration. ‘It’s brilliant! It’s worthy of a criminal super-genius.’

  Warg looked doubtful. ‘Are you sure, my Lord? You don’t think it’s more likely that Princess Ava –’

  ‘Nonsense! Poppycock! Stuff and hoo-ha! This has to be the answer. Meenu and her mystery twin sister are the Masked Avenger. And I shall catch them out, and force them to do what I want if they don’t want the truth to come out.’ He rubbed his hands together in glee. ‘The Masked Avenger and Thud, added to my stable of wrestlers. This will be my biggest success!’

  CHAPTER 5

  ‘Trolls win! Orcs lose!’ sang Big Rock cheerfully, and he added a fart noise to make clear his feelings about orcs.

  Jack knelt beside the big troll in the caravan and finished sewing up one of the many holes in the troll’s wrestling costume.

  ‘You’re going to need a new costume soon, Big Rock,’ he said.

  ‘This one good,’ said Big Rock. ‘Just keep patching it.’

  ‘It’s already got loads of patches on,’ said Jack. ‘In fact, it’s got more patches than original costume.’

  ‘Make it look good!’ smiled Big Rock. ‘Lots of different colours!’

  ‘Right,’ said Jack. ‘Time to go and get the Masked Avenger and head for the Wrestling Hall. Here come the WWT Tag Team!’

  ‘Great fun!’ said Big Rock.

  He was just about to head to the door when he stopped and pointed at something half-hidden beneath one of the bunks.

  ‘What that?’ he asked.

  ‘What’s what?’ asked Jack.

  Big Rock lifted a small leather bag from beneath the bunk.

  ‘I’ve never seen it before,’ said Jack. ‘It’s not mine. Perhaps it’s Princess Ava’s? Or Meenu’s? They might have left it here and forgotten it.’

  ‘I check,’ said Big Rock.

  He opened the bag and looked in.

  ‘Not much here.’ He shook the bag, and they heard the clink of metal. Big Rock turned the bag upside down, and two gold coins fell out on the table, along with a piece of paper.

  Jack picked up the piece of paper and read out loud, ‘The Dragon Money-house. Savings Account. Name: Milo the WWT Manager. Balance: one hundred gold coins.’

  ‘Lot of money,’ said Big Rock.

  ‘It certainly is!’ said Jack.

  ‘Are you ready?’ called Milo.

  They looked around and saw that Milo and Princess Ava, wearing her Masked Avenger outfit, were peering into the caravan, with Meenu just behind them.

  ‘Hurry up, Big Rock!’ said Milo. ‘You’re due in the ring.’

  ‘We look at money,’ said Big Rock.

  ‘What money?’ asked Milo.

  Milo, Ava and Meenu came in and looked at the two gold coins and the piece of paper. Ava picked up the piece of paper, read it, and whistled appreciatively.

  ‘Wow, Milo!’ she said. ‘You’re rich! A hundred gold coins!’

  ‘What?’ Milo snatched the piece of paper from the Princess and read it, then shook his head. ‘This is rubbish!’ he said. ‘I don’t have a deposit account at the Dragon Money-house!’

  ‘Well, you do now,’ said Jack.

  ‘Jack’s right.’ Meenu nodded. ‘As long as you’ve got this piece of paper you can go into any money-house and take this money out.’

  ‘But it’s not mine!’ burst out Milo.

  ‘Well, it’s someone’s,’ said Jack thoughtfully.

  ‘Someone called Milo the WWT Manager,’ added Big Rock.

  ‘It’s not me!’ shouted Milo. ‘It’s a … frame-up of some sort! Someone is trying to make you think I’ve got a secret store of money.’ Then he glared angrily at Jack and added, ‘And it looks like they’ve succeeded!’

  ‘No!’ retorted Jack. ‘How can you say that?’

  ‘Because I can see it in your face,’ snapped Milo. ‘You think this money might really be mine.’

  ‘No – I didn’t think that!’ said Jack. ‘I was wondering whose it really was.’

  ‘Liar!’ shouted Milo.

  ‘Wait a minute … ’ appealed Ava.

  ‘No, I won’t wait!’ snapped Milo. ‘I thought Jack was my friend, but here he is, accusing me –’

  ‘I didn’t accuse you,’ snapped back Jack. ‘And don’t you dare say I did! And you can apologise to me for saying it!’

  ‘Me apologise!’ shouted Milo indignantly. ‘I’m the one who ought to get an apology.’

  ‘Guys, calm down,’ urged Ava.

  ‘Actually, Big Rock and Ava are due in the ring now,’ said Meenu, gesturing at the caravan door. ‘It’s about to start.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Big Rock. ‘Let’s go beat orcs.’

  And he headed out of the caravan, with Ava and Meenu following. Milo and Jack glared angrily at one another and then followed them. As they left the caravan, they met Robin, who asked, ‘What was all that shouting about? I heard something about money.’

  ‘Jack will tell you all about it,’ stormed Milo. ‘He thinks I’m a cheat and a crook who’s been keeping money hidden from you all.’ And he set off after Big Rock, Ava and Meenu.

  ‘I never said that,’ raged Jack. ‘And you owe me an apology!’

  Robin watched as Jack hurried to join the others.

  ‘Out of curiosity, how much money are we talking about?’ called the old horse.

  CHAPTER 6

  The Wrestling Hall was packed for the tag match: Big Rock and the Masked Avenger against two of Lord Veto’s Wrestling Orcs, Bash and Bop. The rules of tag wrestling were simple: one wrestler from each team in the ring, and the other outside the ropes. When the wrestler in the ring wanted to take a break, they touched hands with – or tagged – the wrestler outside the ring, and the two changed places. At least, that was how it was supposed to work.

  Both Big Rock and the Masked Avenger had wrestled orc tag teams before and knew that they often cheated, the one in the ring forcing their opponent towards their orc partner outside the ropes, and then both of them ganging up together, two against one.

  Big Rock was starting, and he stood inside the ring as the two orcs climbed up. Bash, the guy orc, strode to the centre of the ring and strutted around, waving at the crowd, who cheered or booed, depending on which team they supported. Bop, the girl orc, stood on the ring ropes, ready for action.

  Meenu stood in one corner just beneath the ring, holding the Masked Avenger’s cloak. Further back in the hall, Lord Veto and Warg watched.

  ‘See, my Lord,’ whispered Warg. ‘Meenu.’

  Lord Veto shook his head.

  ‘Her twin sister!’ he said, smirking. ‘The other one’s in the ring.’

  Jack and Milo stood by the exit, both glowering unhappily.

  ‘Well, are you going to apologise?’ demanded Milo.

  ‘No!’ snapped back Jack. ‘I’ve got nothing to apologise for! If there’s any apology to be made it should come from you for saying what you said about me.’

  ‘I only said what was true! You did look at me as if you didn’t believe me.’

  ‘That’s rubbish. And if that’s what you think of me, then I’m no longer your friend.’

  ‘Well, if you feel like that, then maybe it’s time we parted company!’ snorted Milo.

  Jack stopped and glared at Milo. Then he said, ‘Yes. Maybe it is.’ And he turned and walked out of the Wrestling Hall.

  Shocked by this action, Milo went to go after him, but then he stopped.

  No, he told himself. It’s up to Jack to say sorry.

  In the ring, the bell had gone for the start of the bout. Bash dropped into a crouch, arms and claws held out towards Big Rock, then he retreated towards the ropes where Bop waited.

  Big Rock advanced, but as he neared Bash, the orc suddenly dropped to the canvas and tripped him, at the same time grabbing him round the knees and pulling him forwards, off balance.

  Big Rock tumbled, his upper body landing on the ropes. Immediately, Bop went into action. She grabbed Big Rock’s arms and held him on the ropes, while Bash jumped on the troll’s back.

  ‘Referee!’ shouted the Masked Avenger in protest. ‘Foul!’

  The referee ran to where the two orcs were both attacking Big Rock.

  ‘Separate!’ he ordered. ‘Separate!’

  But the two orcs ignored him, and while Bop held grimly onto Big Rock’s arms, Bash lifted the troll’s feet into the air, ready to hurl him through the ropes and out of the ring.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7