Something mysterious has happened. Texas Pete and his friends haven't been heard for a long while. A hundred kids have disappeared. SuperTed and Spotty have been sent to investigate but, when they found out what was going on, they've been sent into the game and are now stuck in it.
"I can't believe I didn't seem this coming, Spotty," moaned SuperTed.
"Oh, don't give up now, SuperTed," said Spotty. "We'll come up with something."
"SuperTed!" cried one of the kids. "The ground."
SuperTed looked down to the ground and saw the bricks were falling down.
"What can we do?" spluttered Spotty. "I-I-I don't have my rock-rocket pack."
"And I can't say my magic word," said SuperTed. "It doesn't work on this game."
The last brick fell down and it hit something or rather someone. "Watch it, Bulk!" snapped Tex's voice.
"Sorry, Tex," said the voice of Bulk.
Then Texas Pete's head popped up.
"Come on, we haven't got much time," Tex said. He, Bulk and Skeleton went down through the tunnel, followed by the kids with SuperTed and Spotty following.
Later the group came up to the surface. They were inside a dark treasure room, filled with diamonds – large and small – and large torches.
"We need to find the right gem to get us out of this temple," SuperTed said.
"But just how do we know what is the right gem?" asked Spotty.
"How about looking on that wall over there?" suggested the heroic teddy bear.
They walked to the wall and saw a diamond mould on it.
"Everyone!" shouted SuperTed to the crowd. "Spread out and find a diamond that can fit in that diamond slot."
Everyone spread around and found lots of diamonds, but none of them fitted in the mould.
Spotty was searching through the pile of little diamonds, but he couldn't find any, so he got up and walked back to the main group. But then he slipped on a little diamond and fell off the edge!
"Help, SuperTed!" cried the spotted alien.
"Spotty!" SuperTed ran to see his best friend fall down into darkness. "Spotty! Can you hear me? Spotty!"
There was a long, silent pause as everyone gathered around him. There was nothing anyone could do. There was no red cape icon for SuperTed to get into, there was no rope or anything long like that and Skeleton didn't have enough bones to reach Spotty, even if they could see him. Everyone was about to give up when they heard rocket-pack noises shooting up.
They saw Spottyman, with his rocket-pack on, flying towards the gang.
"Spotty!" cried SuperTed happily. "Are you okay?"
"Okay?" scoffed Spotty. "I'm feeling great because I found this." He revealed in his hand a light blue crystal – the one that fits in the slot.
"Trespassers!" shouted a spooky voice. "Trespassers in the treasure room! The sentence for trespassing is this!"
Then the whole room shook and wobbled.
"Quick! Get that diamond in the slot!" ordered Tex.
The wobbling caused Spotty to drop on the ground and dropped the diamond, but SuperTed quickly caught it. He ran as fast as he could to get the diamond in the slot. The steps was breaking and the bricks were falling one by one. The group was trying to get to the slot themselves, but it was tricky and they were struggling to stay on the falling steps.
SuperTed finally put the diamond in and the slot withdrew and revealed the portal doorway to the next level. Everyone managed to get through to the portal before the room collapsed.
The group was on the next level, but there was no time for a breather. They were out on an empty wasteland and there was a big army coming towards them.
"Run!" shouted SuperTed. And everyone ran.
"SuperTed, where are we?" asked Spotty. "I would find out if only I had my rocket-pack."
"My guess is we are somewhere in a wasteland in Russia," SuperTed said.
"But I can't see any rubbish bags," panted Spotty.
"No, Spotty, we're in a part of Russia where there are no towns, no forests and nothing, except rocks," the teddy bear explained. "And I'm guessing that the army is under the leadership of no other than – " He turned around to see the first rider in front of the army and it was – "Genghis Khan!" And he was right.
"Boy, I can't keep running like this," panted Skeleton. "My bones are aching."
"Yeah, I don't think I can keep up with this, Tex", panted Bulk.
"Look, those kids are running much faster than you two grown men put together!" snapped Tex. "You guys need to do more exercise!"
SuperTed looked ahead. "Look! There's a village with a gate in there! Let's hide in there!"
When everyone caught their breath at the gate, SuperTed looked up. "Help!" he cried. "Help! We are not friends of Genghis Khan; we are being chased by him!"
The gates opened and everyone ran into the dusty city. The buildings were made out of woods that looked completely deserted. The gates closed behind them.
"Come on!" shouted the Captain of the Guards. "Everyone to the shelter!"
Everyone went down some steps that went to underground. The gang saw that the underground shelter was as big as a Romans Bath, with about a lot of village soldiers and ten more children, who were delighted to meet SuperTed.
"What do we do now, SuperTed?" asked Spotty.
"I don't know, Spotty," said SuperTed. Then he turned to the Captain of the Guards. "Captain, do you have a plan?"
"Well, the best plan we could come up with is either to let Genghis Khan past or, if he finds us, fight him," the Captain answered.
"I'm up for fighting him!" exclaimed Tex, as he drew out his guns.
SuperTed looked around the room and thought. "Genghis Khan will not pass. He will discover us. We need to get out, but we can't go out on the surface."
"Seems like we're stuck here, aren't we, Bulk?" Skeleton said.
"Yeah," agreed Bulk, as he put his big arms on the wall. He fell down and that made a big hole!
"Well done, Bulk!" smiled Tex. "You've done it again!" Then he put the guns back and turned to the rest of the crowd. "Listen, everyone. I need volunteers to dig a trench."
SuperTed, Spotty, Tex, Bulk, about a dozen twelve strong kids grabbed the spades and started digging.
"I think I'll just be on guard duty," said Skeleton. "Just check wherever the bad guys are coming or not." But he was pulled to the trench and given a spade by Tex.
"If we get to the waterfall, which is about five miles away, we could hide behind there and Genghis Khan will never find us," the Captain told SuperTed.
"Maybe that will also be the portal to the next level," SuperTed pointed out.
SuperTed and the diggers were working very hard and very fast as they could. They dug nearly five miles for nearly an hour.
"These tunnels are really easy to dig," panted Spotty.
"That's because in the game it's easier than in the real world," pointed out one of the kids. "That's why we spend a lot of time on the games to forget all the problems in the world and not worry about them."
"Well, worry about this one," cried the Captain. "Genghis Khan has found us!"
"Fast as we can now!" shouted SuperTed, as he and everyone dug as fast as they could.
It took no more than fifteen seconds to knock the door of the shelter down. Genghis pushed through his army and saw the room was empty and the long trench the guys have done.
"CHARGE!" he ordered. The rough and tough soldiers charge through the tunnel until they reached the end. They came out of the tunnel at the end. They were in a forest with green trees, green brushes and a giant waterfall.
"Spread out! Search everywhere!" Genghis ordered. The soldiers spread out.
The soldiers searched high and low and close and far with no results. By nightfall, Genghis ordered the soldiers to move onto the next village.
Behind the waterfall, SuperTed and the group with the village soldiers and the villagers themselves have been hiding. They were very pleased.
"I suppose violence doesn't solve anything at all," Tex admitted.
"And there are things that can be done without my magic word," SuperTed smiled.
"Or my cosmic dust!" Spotty joined in.
"But what about the other villages he'll conquer next?" asked Skeleton.
"Because you've helped us from him, we can now help the other villages from him," the Captain told him. "So, in other words, you saved every village from Genghis Khan."
"That's inaccurately true," thought SuperTed.
"Doesn't have to be in a video game," pointed out one of the video game nerds.
"Because of your selfless deed, here's the crystal for you to move on," smiled the Captain. He put it in the slot and the portal appeared. Everyone went through, as the villagers waved goodbye.
Where everyone was no one would have expected. They were in a Roman stable where the horses were chewing on the hay.
"Wow! A Roman stable!" exclaimed Tex. "Just look at those tall, strong critters!"
"What have horses to do with this level?" asked Spotty.
Then a big powerful man entered the stable. SuperTed recognized him. "It's Julius Caesar!" he cried. "Everyone, bow down before him!" Everyone did.
"Ah, good!" smiled Caesar. "Volunteers for the next chariot race! I'm afraid there are only two spaces left. Who shall I pick?"
Everyone put their hands up, because they wanted to be picked. The three exceptions were Bulk, Skeleton and Spotty, who were nervous or didn't have a clue. Caesar turned to them. "Three shy men who are scared to ride horses. Let me see." He looked at Skeleton. "You're too skinny. You don't have the strength to hold the reins of the horses." As insulting as it was, Skeleton was actually relived and happy that he didn't get chosen.
Then Caesar turned to Bulk and Spotty. "Come on, you two. Let's get you out of your shells."
"But I don't have a shell," said Spotty.
"But I haven't stolen any shells for a while," Bulk said.
"Then you have nothing to be worried about," smiled Caesar. "Come on."
Spotty and Bulk looked at SuperTed. "Go ahead, Spotty and Bulk," he said to them. "You two will be all right."
Soon SuperTed and the group were seated in the Circus Maximus with a lot of Roman citizens. They saw Spotty and Bulk each in a chariot cart. They were in a line with ten other chariot racers.
"Are you ready?" cried Caesar. "On your marks! Get set! Go!"
And they were off! Bulk and Spotty were struggling behind the other ten racers. The horses were moving, but they never been anywhere near horses so they don't know the first thing about horses.
"Come on, Spotty!" cried SuperTed, rising from his seat. "Use the reins to tell the horse to go faster!"
"But it's not raining!" Spotty cried back.
"No! The rope things between the horses and your cart!" his best friend told him. "Lift them up and down!"
"Bulk, do the same!" Tex ordered.
They did their best to whack the reins and the horses were picked up their speed. But they still had a lot to do. They were ten laps behind.
But there was trouble with the other ten riders. One by one, the chariot carts have been falling down, until there were only three riders left – Spotty, Bulk and a tough strong man in a black and white chariot.
"Look!" one of the nerds shouted, pointing to the black and white cart. "He's got saws on his wheels! That's why the other riders have been falling out."
SuperTed got up and looked closer. The kid was right! The black and white cart did have saws on the wheels and he saw the little levers on each side of the cart to operate the saws. Now he was heading for Spotty, who was on the side of the left wheel, and Bulk, who was on the side of the right wheel.
"Spotty! Bulk!" shouted SuperTed. "Behind you!"
Spotty and Bulk turned around. "Oh, hello," greeted Bulk. "Do you want to get past us?"
They slowed their horses down and the rider was about to get past.
"No!" cried SuperTed, as he and the group couldn't bear to look at what was happening.
The saws were getting closer to Spotty's cart and Bulk's cart. And closer... And closer...
To Be Continued...