9. Meanwhile,Seven Pages Ago

CHAPTER 9 MEANWHILE, SEVEN PAGES AGO... Sixty-five million years earlier, Big Tippy had chased our heroes to the jagged edge of a cliff overlooking a lake. Crackers grabbed George and Harold by their shirt collars, and they all sailed safely over the edge of the cliff to join Captain Underpants in the clouds.

Big Tippy's Tyrannosaurus rex screeched to a halt at the cliff's edge and roared ferociously at the five floating friends. "We won!" Captain Underpants laughed at Tippy. "Now it's our turn to chase you!" "This isn't a game," yelled Big Tippy. "This is serious!" He leaped off of the neck of the T. rex and grabbed Captain Underpants with his patented, robotic Extendo-Flex Mechani- Gripper. Together they fell a thousand feet into the lake below.

When they emerged from the depths of the lake, something had changed. Tippy was still just as mean and ornery as ever, but Captain Underpants looked different. "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?" yelled the angry-looking hero. "Oh, NO!" cried George. "Captain Underpants got water on his head! He changed back into Mr. Krupp!" "Quick, Crackers," called Harold. "Fly us down there as fast as you can!" Crackers glided down toward the tempestuous struggle below, and the boys snapped their fingers with all their might.

But it did no good. Mr. Krupp's head was still soaking wet, so he could not change back into Captain Underpants. "Well look what I just figured out!" cried Big Tippy. "Captain Underpants turns back into a crabby old elementary school principal whenever he gets wet!" "You leave him alone!" yelled George, still snapping his fingers in vain. "Yeah!" cried Harold. "It's not a fair fight anymore!" "Wow!" laughed Big Tippy incredulously. "He's gotto be the world's EASIEST superhero to defeat! I could've destroyed him with a SQUIRT GUN!!!"

Suddenly, a blinding flash lit up the world around them. Then came the footsteps. Terrible, deafening, tumultuous footsteps that shook the Earth with each thundering stomp. Finally, a massive shadow spread across the lake. Big Tippy looked up. It was Supa Mega Tippy. "Hey!" shouted Big Tippy. He quickly checked his jacket pocket and found it to be empty. "Where'd you come from? How'd you get so big? Where's the other one?" "None of that is important now," said Supa Mega Tippy. "What's important now is who's in charge!"

"Hey, you'll never believe this!" said Big Tippy, ignoring his diabolical double. "I just figured out that if you get Captain Underpants wet, he loses his super powers!" "His weakness is WATER?" said Supa Mega Tippy. "Wow. Really?" "I know!" said Big Tippy. "I couldn't believe it myself! Hey! I'm gonna destroy him real quick. Then we can get out of here and go rule the world and stuff!" "You're not going to destroy him," said Supa Mega Tippy. "I am!" "Now hold on, bub," said Big Tippy. "I caught him, so I'm gonna destroy him!" "Oh, yeah?" said Supa Mega Tippy, with a growl that made the surface of the lake tremble. "Well I'm bigger than you, so I'm gonna decide who destroys who!" He took a giant step toward Big Tippy and reached down with an Extendo-Flex Mechani-Gripper.