by Lee Kirby
CONTENTS
1 IS IT HOT IN HERE?
2 FISH OUT OF WATER!
3 THE SUPERPET SUPERHERO LEAGUE GOES GLOBAL!
4 FUN FACTS AND RAT PACKS
5 NIGHTTIME NOISES
6 AROUND THE WORLD IN TWENTY MINUTES
7 TODAY’S THE DAY!
8 PROTECTING THE SCHOOL—AND THE WORLD!
9 THE FANTASTICALLY FISHY PLAN!
10 SAFE AND SOUND
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wait, where are we? Are we even inside the walls of Sunnyview Elementary School?
Turbo the hamster, official pet of Classroom C, lay on his belly. Sweat dripped from his furry forehead. Heat beat down from above, and even seemed to be rising from the ground itself. Around him, all Turbo could see was yellow sand.
Turbo squinted in the bright light. Wavy images seemed to appear from thin air. He saw a . . . slice of pizza? And a . . . monster truck? And a . . . giant dragon? Suddenly, there was a voice.
Turbo blinked. Could it be? Was it really who he thought it was? “Leo?”
Leo helped Turbo up from the rock he had been lying on. “Are you okay?” Leo asked. “You sat down and . . . I don’t know . . . spaced out.”
“Yeah,” said Turbo, wiping his forehead with a paw. “It’s really hot here.”
Turbo looked around. Now he remembered! He had been visiting his friend Leo in Classroom A. But while Turbo’s home in Classroom C was a cozy cage filled with cedar chips and a water bottle, Leo’s was a desert-like terrarium.
Leo was an official classroom pet. But like Turbo, Leo was not just a classroom pet. Turbo and Leo were both secretly superheroes!
But more on that later.
“Maybe we should get you a drink,” said Leo.
Leo took Turbo to a small pool of water that looked like it had been carved out of rock. After a few gulps, Turbo felt much more like himself again.
“You have a really nice place, Leo,” he said. “But I’m not sure it’s quite right for me.”
“I’ll say.” Leo laughed. “You fuzzy guys can’t take the heat!”
Suddenly Leo leaped to his feet. “Did you hear that?”
“It’s the Superpet Superhero League alarm!” exclaimed Turbo. “And three taps means there’s a super emergency!”
Wait, what’s that you say? You’ve never heard of the Superpet Superhero League?! Why, the Superpet Superhero League is only the best team of superpets in Sunnyview Elementary history!
Turbo and Leo quickly sprang into action. Within moments, they had transformed into . . .
Super Turbo and the Great Gecko popped the cover off the vent in Classroom A. The vent system connected all the classrooms in Sunnyview Elementary.
The superpets listened closely to the sound of the taps.
Every member of the Superpet Superhero League used a different tool to tap for help. Turbo, for example, used a ruler. Since this pet was tapping with a pencil, that meant it was Clever!
Clever was a green parakeet, and she was the official pet of Classroom D. She was also a member of the Superpet Superhero League, where she fought evil as the Green Winger.
Super Turbo followed the Great Gecko down the vent system leading to Classroom D. As they rounded a corner, they bumped into the other members of the Superpet Superhero League.
The Superpet Superhero League burst out of the vent that led into Classroom D. And there was the Green Winger, perched in her cage. As expected, she was frantic.
“Guys! Thank goodness you’re here! Come quick!” she cried. She flew down to the floor of Classroom D and gestured for the other animals to follow her.
As Turbo scurried along, he nearly slipped in something slick.
“Why is the floor all wet?” he asked.
“That’s why!” the Green Winger said, and pointed at something flapping on the ground.
It was Nell!
Nell lay on her side. Next to her was an almost-totally-empty Turbomobile.
“Hi, guys,” Nell gasped. “A little help here?”
The Turbomobile had once been an ordinary hamster ball until the Superpet Superhero League had turned it into a way for Fantastic Fish to get around. It had allowed the fish to fight in many memorable battles with evil. But now it had apparently sprung a leak.
“Wonder Pig . . . ,” began Professor Turtle. “Can you help me take the Turbomobile . . . to my lab? I want to . . . go over it and . . . fix any leaks.”
“That’s a great idea, Professor Turtle,” said the Great Gecko. “With your scientific know-how, I’m sure you’ll have the Turbomobile in better shape than ever! In the meantime, tomorrow is our regularly scheduled Superpet Superhero League meeting. Let’s all get some well-earned rest before then.”
“It has been a long night!” agreed Super Turbo.
And he meant it. As he headed back to Classroom C, he could barely keep his eyes open. Once he was in his cage, Turbo tucked away his superhero gear and fell fast asleep.
Turbo woke up early the next morning. He had slept deeply after his adventure in the desert—or, well, in Leo’s terrarium—and after his hard work helping Nell.
RING-A-DING-DING!
The classroom bell! That meant school was starting. Since the students of Classroom C had no idea that their beloved class pet was actually a superhero, it was time for Turbo to act like a normal non-super hamster. The second-grade students and their teacher filed in.
Turbo ran a few laps on his wheel.
He ate a few hamster pellets.
He drank from his water bottle.
That should do it, thought Turbo, wiping his mouth with the back of his paw. Secret’s still safe!
Ms. Beasley, the teacher, began to address the class. Turbo settled into his favorite listening spot next to his food dish. He used to pay no attention to what the teacher told the students of Classroom C, but Turbo had recently discovered that if he did pay attention, he might actually learn something. As in: learn about something that might require a superhero to step in and save the day.
“Kids, I have exciting news,” said Ms. Beasley. “For the next couple of weeks, the whole school is going to be participating in a very special project!”
Turbo’s ears perked up. A special project sounded like superhero business.
“And that special project is . . . Celebrate the World Day!” Ms. Beasley announced.
“What’s Celebrate the World Day?” asked a student.
“Good question, Sally,” replied Ms. Beasley. “Leading up to the event, each class at Sunnyview Elementary will research and study one country. Then, the day of, the classes will celebrate the country they’ve studied! We’ll decorate our classrooms, dress in traditional clothing, and serve traditional food. We’ll travel around the world by going from class to class, and we’ll learn all about different countries!”
Wow, thought Turbo. That sounds pretty cool! Maybe we superpets don’t need to step in after all.
Ms. Beasley proceeded to announce which country each classroom would be celebrating.
Turbo listened excitedly. Wow! The whole Superpet Superhero league was involved. But something was missing. There was one pet left out. Turbo couldn’t think of who it was. But then . . .
Hey, that’s us! How exciting! thought Turbo. But . . . where’s Japan?
Oh well, he’d have a lot of time to learn. Turbo couldn’t wait until the pets’ team meeting tonight so they could gush over this exciting new project. The Superpet Superhero League was going global!
Meanwhile, through a small crack in the wall near Classroom C’s book nook, a pair of beady eyes were gleaming.
That night, all the animals were holding their
Superpet Superhero League meeting in the hallway of Sunnyview Elementary. This way, Nell could attend. Professor Turtle was still working on fixing the Turbomobile.
On the way to the meeting, Turbo and Angelina had stopped by the library to pick up some books, and the animals were eagerly reading up on their classrooms’ countries.
The upcoming Celebrate the World Day was very exciting. So exciting, in fact, that the superpets had pretty much forgotten to be super. Instead they just traded cool facts about their countries with one another.
The superpets were so wrapped up in all these cool new facts that they didn’t notice a couple of small fuzzy animals watching them from around the corner. The two animals whispered to each other and disappeared through a hole in the wall.
If the superpets had been paying attention, they might have seen these fuzzy creatures, followed them, and discovered that they went skittering through the walls, down the halls, and into the cafeteria, where they then joined a huge crowd of other fuzzy creatures. It was . . .
And in the middle of the pack, standing on a stale bagel, was . . .
Whiskerface was a tiny rat with huge ears who was just about as evil as they come.
“I need a report on our plans for sabotage!” he bellowed. “Starting with Classroom A!”
Two rats stepped forward. “The kindergarteners of Classroom A will be celebrating Brazil,” said one of them. “The most popular sport in Brazil is soccer.”
“Futbol,” corrected the other rat. “They call it futbol.”
“Yeah, yeah. They’re building a miniature futbol stadium. We’re going to chew through the supports of their tiny stands, and smash it all with a soccer ball attack!”
“Excellent!” said Whiskerface, rubbing his little paws together. “Classroom B! Report!”
Two more rats came forward. “The first-grade students of Classroom B are making their own Leaning Tower of Pisa,” said one rat. “We’re going to make sure the leaning tower leans over a liiiiiittle too far!”
“Then it will fall, smashing the classroom as flat as a pizza!” said the other.
Whiskerface laughed his squeaky high-pitched laugh. “Classroom C!”
“The highest point in Japan is Mount Fuji. It’s a volcano! The students are making a model,” said a rat.
“We’re going to make that volcano erupt!” cried his companion nastily.
“Yes! Yes!” shouted Whiskerface, clapping. “Classroom D!”
“Classroom D is Kenya!” another rat announced. “The Third graders are making giant models of safari animals. We will sneak our agents into the giraffe model. Bet those kids didn’t think a cardboard giraffe could actually walk!”
Whiskerface cackled with delight. “What else do we have?”
“The science lab is going to be Switzerland. They are recreating Lake Geneva. And we’re going to make sure that lake overflows!”
“The principal’s office will be Russia. They’re going to be making borscht.” The rat who spoke shuddered with disgust. “Borscht is a cold beet soup. And it’s gross. So we kind of figure that’s already ruined,” he said.
“And, finally,” said one rat, as he walked forward, “the hallways are China. In ancient times, China was connected to the rest of the world by trade routes called the Silk Road. The students are turning the hallways into a modern Silk Road.”
“But!” said another rat, smiling. “We’re going to block the hallways with our very own Great Wall of China! Everyone will be trapped in their classrooms!”
Turbo was snug as a bug in his hamster cage when he heard it. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he knew it was something. The last time Turbo woke up to a strange sound in the middle of the night, he ended up having to battle the evil Pencil Pointer.
He listened as hard as he could with his little hamster ears. He thought he could make out the sound of . . . squeaking?
“Hello? Is anyone there?” Turbo called out.
The squeaking stopped. Well, that was suspicious.
Using his superhamster agility, Super Turbo snuck out of his cage and quietly scampered across the classroom to Ms. Beasley’s desk. That’s where the squeaking seemed to be coming from.
Super Turbo discovered that the bottom desk drawer was wide open. Then he looked up and saw that the other desk drawers had been opened, too, but only partway.
Looks oddly like a staircase, Super Turbo thought. And what would Super Turbo do? He’d climb that staircase!
The only problem was . . . even Super Turbo was still pretty small. He took a running start and . . . SMACK! He bounced off the bottom drawer.
That was all the boost he needed. Super Turbo climbed up the drawer-stairs to the top of Ms. Beasley’s desk and was face-to-face with . . . no one.
Whoever had opened the drawers, whoever had been here, whoever had been squeaking, had left.
From where he now stood on top of Ms. Beasley’s desk, Super Turbo realized that he had a perfect view of the whole class and all its decorations!
Super Turbo admired all the hard work the kids of Classroom C had put into Celebrate the World Day. More than ever, he felt that he needed to keep a watchful eye over the classroom.
Suddenly, he heard another noise. But this time, it was different.
The Superpet Superhero Alarm! But which superpet was tapping? Super Turbo concentrated. The taps were sort of hard and sort of waxy? It was a crayon! That meant he needed to get to Classroom A immediately! The Great Gecko was in trouble!
All of the superpets had gathered in Classroom A, except for Fantastic Fish, who was still stuck in her tank.
“Just putting a few touches on the Turbomobile,” explained Professor Turtle.
The animals were huddled around the Great Gecko, who was staring at a giant piece of paper that lay on the floor. It was slightly torn and a little crumpled.
“Just look at it!” he said sadly. “It’s ruined!’
“I’ll say!” said Boss Bunny. “It looks like it was painted by a bunch of five-year-olds.”
“That’s because it was painted by a bunch of five-year-olds!” cried the Great Gecko. “This was the banner my kids made to celebrate their country, Brazil! They worked so hard on it. And now it’s destroyed!”
“Uh, guys,” said Wonder Pig. “If Whiskerface and his Rat Pack are still out there. And we’re all in here—”
“Then who’s protecting our classrooms?!” cried the Green Winger.
“I think . . . it will be faster . . . if we split up . . . and each go to . . . our own rooms,” said Professor Turtle, as quickly as he possibly could. He looked around. The other superpets had already run off. “Oh . . . never mind, then.”
The superpets raced through the vents and arrived at Classroom B, Wonder Pig’s home.
“Oh no!” Wonder Pig shouted. “The Leaning Tower of Pisa looks like it’s leaning a liiiittle too much!”
Boss Bunny sniffed the air. “I think they’ve already left! Let’s go to the next class!”
The superpets ran to Classroom D, home base of the Green Winger. Just as they arrived, a loud CRASH rang out.
“Oh no!” exclaimed the Green Winger. “They just spilled these beads all over the floor! My kids had been sorting these for days!”
The superpets ran back to the vent and hurried to the science lab. They arrived seconds after Professor Turtle, who had gone straight there at his usual turtle speed. Everything was covered in what looked like snow!
Boss Bunny sniffed the air. “It smells so clean!” he cried with delight.
“That’s because . . . these are flakes of . . . soap,” concluded Professor Turtle. “It’s a . . . soapy avalanche!” he said, looking around in horror.
Once again, the superpets were already racing out the door.
“Superpets!” shouted Nell from her aquarium in the hallway. “I just saw them! They ran under the door to the principal’s office! If you hurry, you can catch them!”
That did it for Boss Bunny.
; No one messed with Principal Brickford’s office!
With a mighty bunny hop, Boss Bunny hurled himself at the mail slot in the door of the principal’s office.
And the superpets did hurry, but by the time they got the door open, the Rat Pack was long gone.
Fortunately, it looked like they hadn’t done any damage there.
But they sure had done a lot to the rest of the school. And it was up to the superpets to fix this mess before the students and teachers arrived the next morning.
It was going to be a long, long night.
It had taken the superpets all night and even into the early morning to clean up the ugly worldwide mess. Then they had spent the rest of the week looking for the Rat Pack in the cafeteria, but Whiskerface and his evil minions were nowhere to be found.
Turbo was in his cage in Classroom C, pacing back and forth. Today was the big one. Today was Celebrate the World Day. If the Rat Pack was going to pull some dirty move, it was going to happen now.
Turbo was sure that they were planning something truly evil.
Suddenly Turbo noticed that one of his students was staring at him. Pacing back and forth wasn’t exactly normal hamster behavior, so he quickly ran over to his hamster wheel and began running on it.