by Lee Kirby
To be fair, Turbo wasn’t looking very normal right now anyway.
As part of Celebrate the World Day, some students had dressed Turbo in a hamster-sized traditional Japanese outfit. Turbo thought it looked pretty cool, though it didn’t really leave room for his cape.
Turbo glanced at the clock. Soon, the students of Classroom C, along with the rest of Sunnyview Elementary, would head to the school cafeteria. That was where they were having the great feast with food from around the world.
The Superpet Superhero League had decided that as soon as all the kids left their classrooms, the pets would gather for an emergency meeting.
It was risky business. They had never met during school hours before, but they had never faced such a threat before either! Whatever Whiskerface and his Rat Pack were up to, they had to be stopped!
And the Superpet Superhero League was the school’s only defense.
RING-A-DING-DING!
The lunch bell rang, and the students of Classroom C filed out of the classroom. Turbo slipped from his cage, crawled down the table, and made his way to the vent. He managed to awkwardly tuck his cape into his kimono.
He scurried through the vents to the meeting place: below the aquarium in the hallway. When Super Turbo arrived, he gasped.
Suddenly, a squeaky voice rang out behind the superpets. “Well, I think you look like a bunch of ninnies!”
It was Whiskerface! And his Rat Pack!
Whiskerface paced back and forth, gleefully rubbing his paws together. “Do you know why today is a great day? Not only am I going to defeat the superpests—I’m going to ruin Celebrate the World Day, and then I’m going to take over the actual world!” he cackled.
“We’re not going to let you ruin Celebrate the World Day!” cried Turbo.
“Oh really?” said Whiskerface with a sneer. “Well, guess what? You’re too late!”
Whiskerface snapped his fingers. On cue, the Rat Pack swarmed the hallway. They linked arms to form a rather disgusting-looking chain of rats, completely blocking the hall.
The Rat Pack advanced on the superpets. On the other side of the wall, Turbo saw that a second group of rats was creating a tower by standing on top of one another so that they could lock the cafeteria door. If they reached that lock, they really would trap the entire school!
“We’ve got to stop them!” cried Turbo. But how?!
Suddenly, a loud rumbling sound filled the hallway.
“I still say you left a few steps out of that plan of yours!” yelled Fantastic Fish. She was in the new-and-improved Turbomobile. And riding on top was Boss Bunny!
The Fantastic Fish Tank burst through the great wall of rats, scattering them like bowling pins. Boss Bunny hopped off the back, joining his friends.
“Sorry we’re late,” he apologized.
“Actually, I’d say you guys were right on time!” cried Super Turbo.
Meanwhile, Fantastic Fish spun down the hallway in her Fantastic Fish Tank. She smacked into the tower of rats.
“What are you doing?!” screamed Whiskerface to his Rat Pack. All the rats were walking around a bit dazed. “Get that talking fish!” he shrieked.
But Fantastic Fish was a few steps ahead of the evil rat. She steered the Fantastic Fish Tank at full speed right for her aquarium.
The Superpet Superhero League stared at her, afraid of what was about to happen.
At the last second, Fantastic Fish unlatched the top of the Fantastic Fish Tank. Then she leaped out. And just in the nick time!
Whiskerface and the Rat Packers were soaked. If there’s anything rats hate more than loud noises and superpets, it’s being wet. Crying like babies, Whiskerface and his Rat Pack scampered down the hallway.
The superpets ran over to Fantastic Fish, who lay flopping in a shallow puddle.
“Oh no!” cried the Green Winger. “Not again!”
“Get back to your classrooms,” gasped Fantastic Fish. “Turbo, hide the new Fantastic Fish Tank. Oh, I also renamed the Turbomobile. Is that okay?”
“Of course it is!” said Super Turbo. “But we can’t leave you here!”
“Listen, I’ll be fine,” Fantastic Fish said. “With the commotion we created, people are going to come running. Any second now, someone will help me.”
“Now, that’s what I call a hero!” said the Great Gecko.
“Guys . . . we’ve got . . . to go. I hear someone . . . coming,” said Professor Turtle.
The rest of the superpets heard it too. With a last glance at Fantastic Fish, Super Turbo and the others raced away just as Ms. Beasley and a crowd of students burst from the cafeteria.
A little while later, Turbo sat in his comfy cage, munching on some seaweed and edamame. What a day it had been! The Superpet Superhero League had faced perhaps their greatest challenge yet, and they had won! And to top it off, they had even kept their secret identities safe.
Turbo turned to look at the glass jar next to him on the shelf.
“Care for some edamame?” he asked Nell.
After the commotion in the hallway, Ms. Beasley had been the first to find Nell. She’d taken Nell back to Classroom C and put her safely inside a jar of water, just until her aquarium could be replaced.
“No, thanks,” Nell replied. “I’m more of a dried worm kind of gal.”
The students of Classroom C were busy presenting all they knew about Japan to students from other classes.
They would never know how close Celebrate the World Day had come to being ruined, but that didn’t matter. Turbo was just glad that Whiskerface had been stopped . . . this time. Surely there would be another time when the school—and the world—needed protecting. And when that time came . . .
About the Author
LEE KIRBY has the proportionate strength and abilities of a man-size hamster. He spends his days chewing up cardboard and running in giant plastic bubbles throughout his very own fortress of solitude in Brooklyn, New York. And, no, he is not related to world-famous Captain Awesome author Stan Kirby. Or is he?
GEORGE O’CONNOR is the creator of the New York Times bestselling graphic novel series Olympians, in addition to serving as the illustrator of the Captain Awesome series. He is also the author and illustrator of the picture books Kapow!, Ker-splash, and If I Had a Triceratops. He resides in his secret Brooklyn, New York, hideout, where he uses his amazing artistic powers to strike fear in the hearts of bad guys everywhere!
LITTLE SIMON
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division • 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020 • www.SimonandSchuster.com • First Little Simon paperback edition October 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. LITTLE SIMON is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and associated colophon is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected]. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com. Designed by Jay Colvin. The text of this book was set in Little Simon Gazette.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data for this title is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4814-9994-1 (hc)
ISBN 9
78-1-4814-9993-4 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4814-9995-8 (eBook)