by Obert Skye
DEDICATION
To my incredible sister, Julie,
who made sure our home was filled with animals
while growing up. Thanks for the memories and allergies.
—O.S.
To my parents, Ocelo and Eudete—thanks for the support
and patience. You’re my all-time favorite heroes!
—E.V.
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One: Brought Back to Talk Smack
Chapter Two: Under and Out
Chapter Three: Not Delighted to Be Invited
Chapter Four: Bad Smells and Bad Feelings
Chapter Five: Furassic Park
Chapter Six: Disgusting Is Served
Chapter Seven: Harenapped
Chapter Eight: Saved by the Tail
Chapter Nine: Frame Game
Chapter Ten: Hop Cops
Chapter Eleven: Secret Ingredient
Chapter Twelve: Passing Off the Cake
Chapter Thirteen: Heading Into Stranger
Chapter Fourteen: Unlocked and Unnerving
Chapter Fifteen: Hare Snare
Chapter Sixteen: Trapped Like Sardines
Chapter Seventeen: Tunnels Are No Funnel
Chapter Eighteen: A Harey Situation
Chapter Nineteen: Uneven Ground
Chapter Twenty: Carrot Con
About the Author
About the Artist
Books by Obert Skye
Back Ads
Copyright
About the Publisher
CHAPTER ONE
BROUGHT BACK TO TALK SMACK
My whole body bounced as we drove away from the Bunny Island airport. My butt ached from sitting on the plane, and my throat was as thirsty as a squid in the desert. The air felt hot and smelled like the ocean mixed with perfume.
In front of the airport there were signs and banners advertising Carrot Con—the three-day festival that started this afternoon. It was set up to celebrate bunnies and the food they ate: the almighty, supposedly healthy, and completely disgusting carrot. I had been invited back to the island to be on a panel with my friends and talk about what had happened the last time I was here. We were going to have a few minutes to tell people about me coming to the island to find my uncle, everyone being turned into mutant bunnies, and my friends and me saving everyone with some junk food.
We passed the big sign at the front of the airport. In the spirit of Carrot Con it had been temporarily changed to read: Bunny Island Hareport.
“It looks like everyone’s excited for the Con!” I yelled.
“Superexcited, Perry,” my uncle Zeke yelled back. “It’s a big deal.”
Zeke was driving me in a golf cart he had recently purchased. It was a four seater with a red base and white seats. He had painted a large purple squid on the top, and there were eight long foam tentacles hanging down from the roof. I held on to one of the tentacles as I sat in the front passenger seat and my uncle Zeke drove.
“So are you glad to be back, Perry?” he yelled as he swerved around hundreds of resting bunnies and then through some palm trees just south of the airport.
“Yes!” I yelled back as we bounced. “And a little sore.”
I had wanted to return to Bunny Island since I had left it two months ago. I mean, Ohio was okay-o, and I liked my dad and all, but I missed the island and my friends here. When the Carrot Con committee had invited me to come back and be part of the festivities, I was beyond happy. Butt pain aside, I was glad to be back here. I looked at my uncle, and he smiled at me. Zeke looked tan and in shape. He had on green shorts and a white T-shirt with an octopus on it. Beneath the octopus were the words Suction Power. And even though he looked like the spitting image of my father, his dark mustache and long brown hair made him appear much cooler than my dad.
“I’m just glad my dad let me come back so soon,” I said happily.
“Me, too.”
“I think he was sick of me moping around. Also, my allergies in Ohio were terrible. They don’t seem to bother me here.”
“That’s strange.”
“I know, it’s like bunny fur makes me immune!”
Zeke swerved around a herd of bunnies that were resting in the shade of a large palm tree and crowding the narrow cobblestone road. Even though my uncle laid on the horn, the rabbits made no effort to move. They were confident that like the tourists on Bunny Island we wouldn’t harm a single hair on these hares.
“When did you get this golf cart?”
“The Squidmobile? I bought it about a week after you left. I’ve made a few improvements to it since then.”
“It’s just like the vehicle Admiral Uli used in Issue #51: ‘All Cods Go to Heaven.’ The one where he couldn’t get that warehouse fire put out on time. Those poor cods.”
We bounced down the cobblestone path. I could see more banners hanging from some of the trees and big booths that were set up for Carrot Con. Ever since my friends and I stopped Mayor Lapin and his dastardly plot to turn everyone into rabbits, Bunny Island had become more popular than ever. The locals who had been turned into bunnies were semifamous. Everyone wanted to hear their stories and take pictures with them, and the island was trying to cash in on its newfound fame by holding the first-ever Carrot Con. People would be able to buy things like bunny ears and eat carrot cake and drink smoothies. Being turned into bunnies had been a horrible ordeal, but they were acting like it was all something exciting and fun. There were going to be bunny-themed talks and panels and even a huge color war where everyone was going to throw balls of colored orange dust at one another.
Part of the reason my dad had let me come back was because he knew I had played a key role in saving Bunny Island. Truth be told, I was kind of a hero. So, Dad knew that it was important I be here. He wanted to come with me, but unfortunately, due to his love of grains and growing things, he had some wheat-related meetings back in Ohio that he couldn’t miss.
“By the way,” Zeke said, “I like your new haircut.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “I cut it myself.”
I reached up and touched my now spiky, blond hair. Two days ago, when I knew for sure that I was coming back, I had given myself a new look. I wanted to do something special for my return trip, so I had attempted to duplicate the hairstyle of Admiral Uli’s starfish friend Barney. It didn’t come out quite right, so I just put a lot of gel in it to make it stick up and hide any bald spots.
Blocking the path ahead of us was a group of at least fifty locals and “Bunny Mooner” tourists.
“What’s happening?” I shouted to Zeke.
“I don’t know,” he replied as he stopped the Squid-mobile behind the crowd. Everyone had their cameras out and were snapping shots of the trees toward the north. We hopped off the cart and weaseled our way through the people.
“Something tore up the forest,” a lady with a large sun hat on told Zeke as he made his way to the front of the crowd.
I followed a step behind and was gobsmacked by what I saw. Even though this was only my second visit to the island, I knew the island well enough to know what certain parts should look like. And the part I was looking at now looked wrong. A row of trees was torn straight out of the ground, and the dirt was mounded like a snake made of soil.
“It was a storm or something,” one overly tan lady said. “Or maybe it has something to do with all this Carrot Con stuff.”
“Did anyone see anything?” Zeke asked the crowd.
“I saw something,” a short, sunburned man reported. “It tore across the path right in front of me. I was drinking a frozen smoothie, and I had to drop it so I could scream. Somebody owes me a new smoothie.”
“That’s not important. Do you know what it was?”
“Lime and toasted coconut.”
“Not the flavor of your smoothie,” Zeke said, frustrated. “The thing?”
“All I know is it was terrifying, like a small tornado, and now I’m smoothie-less.”
The short man walked off as the crowd continued to swell. One of the island’s police officers got out in front of the crowd and tried to keep the situation calm. His badge said Sheriff Rolly, and he had on green shorts and a green shirt and was uncomfortably tan. There was a whistle around his neck, and his head was completely bald.
“Nothing to see here,” Rolly said. “Everyone go on. It’s just some more strange weather. You all need to—” But his warnings were cut short when a small palm tree flew through the air in the distance. We all screamed as it slammed into the ground behind the sheriff. He flew forward, right into four women wearing identical orange T-shirts.
“Look!” Zeke hollered.
A big brown creature ripped through the trees in the distance, tossing up dirt and bushes in its wake as it moved away from us.
Now that we were reasonably safe, everybody began to oooh and ahhh and take pictures.
I looked at Zeke and he looked at me. Much like Admiral Uli communicated telepathically to his shrimp friends, I knew what my uncle was thinking. Thanks to Ocean Blasterzoids, we were pretty in sync. Sure, we could have stood around and screamed like the others, but as true squid cadets we were required to swim toward trouble.
Zeke took off after the mystery beast with me on his tail.
“I promised your dad I’d do a better job keeping you safe this time!” he yelled back at me as he ran.
“I won’t tell if you don’t.”
It wasn’t like me to be outside and running toward danger. Before my first visit to the island, I had been an indoor kind of squid, scared of just about every newt shadow I saw. But now, with what I had been through, it felt almost normal running after a strange creature not ten minutes after I’d landed.
It didn’t take long for it to be obvious that the beast was way too fast for us to catch up to.
My uncle stopped running when we got to a small stream. I was happy to do the same.
“That was incredible,” Zeke said, remarkably not huffing and puffing at all.
“What was it?” I asked, doing enough huffing for the both of us.
“I’m not sure, but it’s heading toward the west side of the island.”
“It sure wasn’t a tornado.”
“Definitely not. But whatever it was it might explain a few things. Last week someone’s house was torn apart and pushed into the ocean during the middle of the night. The week before that a huge sinkhole opened up under the library. The whole mystery section was swallowed up.”
“You think that thing did it?”
“Might be fun to find out.”
When we got back to the Squidmobile, the crowd was still there, looking confused and curious. Rolly was telling everyone to move on. He was also insisting that what we had just witnessed was just a freaky dust cloud. He ended his speech by reminding everyone to get their tickets for Carrot Con before it started in four hours.
“What do you think, Zeke?” he asked my uncle. “About that freaky dust cloud?”
“That was no cloud of dust.”
“People’s eyes can play tricks on them here on this island,” the sheriff said as if he was warning Zeke to keep quiet.
“My eyes are fine. And that was no trick,” my uncle insisted as we climbed back into the Squidmobile.
“That makes it a mystery, then,” I said.
Zeke smiled and nodded.
I love Bunny Island, and I was really excited to see my new best friend Juliet and get ready for the festivities, but to me it would be even better with a new mystery to solve. Uncle Zeke pulled away from the crowd and pressed down hard on the pedal. Instinctively, we both knew there was no time to waste.
CHAPTER TWO
UNDER AND OUT
A few blocks from Juliet’s house, Zeke pulled the Squidmobile over and turned it off. Hundreds of small bunnies began to circle around us as we sat parked.
“I have a surprise for you,” Zeke said.
“Really?”
My uncle reached behind him and yanked up the backseat to access a compartment beneath it. He pulled out a small plastic box and then shut the seat. The box was purple and had a yellow O and B on the front of it.
“Ocean Blasterzoids,” I whispered.
“I found these online. They might help us better communicate while you’re here.” He handed me the box, and I snapped open the plastic clasp and pulled the top off.
“Great floppy dorsal,” I whispered excitedly.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. In the box was a pair of Sharky-Barkys. They were a lot like walkie-talkies, but they came from the world of Ocean Blasterzoids. I had only seen them in the comics and had no idea they existed in real life. One was white and one was gray, but both of them were scaly looking and had dorsal fin antennas on top of them. On the front there was a shark-tooth-shaped knob that you could turn and a small speaker. There were two buttons on the sides and a small leather clip on the back of each of them.
I stared at them like they were long-lost treasure.
“Do they work?” I asked.
“Sure do.” My uncle smiled. “They only made a few hundred of them a number of years ago. I’ve wanted a pair forever, and I thought I’d never find any.”
He reached in the box and took out the gray Barky. I carefully retrieved the white one. We both clicked them on and a loud screech filled the air. All the bunnies that were gathered around the Squidmobile frantically hopped away.
“Perry, are you there?” my uncle said into his Sharky-Barky. “Under.”
With normal walkie-talkies, you’re supposed to say “over” when you’re done speaking, but since Sharky-Barkys are typically used underwater, the correct thing to say is “under.”
“I’m right here. Under.”
We both smiled at each other. They worked perfectly. I felt like Admiral Uli having one in my hand.
Zeke turned the Squidmobile back on and drove me the rest of the way to Juliet’s house.
“I’ll wait right out here. If you need to talk to me, just hit me up on your Barky.”
“I will.”
“It’s good to have you here, squid.”
“It’s better to be here.”
I got off the Squidmobile and walked up to Juliet’s house. Her home was small but well cared for. There were a lot of palm trees surrounding the front of her green house. The yard was filled with flowers of practically every color and home to about a billion bunnies.
I clipped the white Barky to my cargo shorts and walked to the front door. Juliet knew I was coming back, but she didn’t know when. I brushed my hair up and stood as tall as I could. Then, with the confidence of Uli, I knocked on her door.
When she opened it, her green eyes went wide and her mouth opened to a size just under jumbo. I had never seen anyone so happy to see me.
“Perry!”
She threw her arms around me and jumped up and down while holding me tight. I tried to speak.
“I . . . can . . . you . . . so tight!”
Juliet let go so that I could breathe again.
“I can’t believe you’re here!” she exclaimed loudly. “This is perfect. Carrot Con is going to be amazing. We get to be on a panel together, and I’m going to compete in the Junior Miss Carrot contest. In fact, will you help me get ready?”
“I guess, but—”
“Thank you, Perry. You don’t know how stressed I’ve been. The competition is pretty stiff.”
“Actually, I—”
“I know, I know, I’m crazy to think I’ll win, but my mom said that even if I fail I’ll learn something. I just don’t want to fail. Rain thinks I have a shot.”
“Rain does?”
Juliet was so exci
ted and she was talking superfast and loud. I kept trying to stop her, but she was like a game show contestant who’d just won the daily double.
“Hold on,” I said, putting my hands up to shush her. “I’m sure you’ll win the junior carrot thing, but there might be more important things going on.”
Juliet looked confused. “Are you talking about your hair?”
“No. Why?” I asked. “I cut it myself.”
“It looks, uh, awesome.”
I would have felt really good about the compliment, but Juliet had a backward sense of style. Having lived on the island her whole life, she didn’t exactly have her finger on the pulse of what’s totally geek and what’s totally chic.
“Is that how everyone is doing their hair now in the States?”
“No, it’s how certain starfish do.”
Juliet smiled sincerely, and it reminded me how kind she really was.
“So, okay, what’s this superimportant thing you want to talk about?”
“On the way over, we saw a a whole line of trees get torn up. Zeke thinks it’s mysterious.”
“Sounds like a little tornado? That’s what you’re freaking out about? That’s nothing.” Juliet seemed sad that it wasn’t a mystery nearly as cool as our last adventure, when the mayor tried to turn everyone on the island into rabbits. “Microstorms have been messing up parts of the island for days.”
“Really? I’ve never heard anyone talk about microstorms here before.”
“Well, you weren’t here for long. Now, come inside and help me work on my talent for the contest.”
“What’s your talent?”
“Ventriloquism.”
“That’s a talent?”
Juliet grabbed my right wrist and was attempting to drag me into her house when my Sharky-Barky crackled to life.
“Perry, are you there? Under.”
I took the white Barky off my pants and pressed the right button.
“Zeke, I’m here. Under.”
“Just making sure these still work. Under.”
“Okay. Under.”
Juliet stared at me. “What are you doing? And what is that?”
“It’s a Sharky-Barky. Zeke got them. They’re pretty amazing.”