Out of Remote Control Read online

  The emergency siren blared.

  Olive checked the controls. “Oh no! He has a tractor beam to capture us!”

  The ship lurched to a stop.

  “We’re trapped!” shouted Gabe. “What can we do?”

  “The only thing we can do,” said Olive. “Change the channel!”

  Cesar undid his seat belt and floated in the air to grab the remote. “I have an idea, but I don’t know if it will work.”

  “Anywhere is better than here!” Gabe cried.

  Cesar took a deep breath and pressed a button.

  Chapter 7

  Creatures of the Deep

  The kids landed with a SPLOOSH! as the glow disappeared. They each wore scuba suits and were surrounded by tropical fish in the ocean.

  “Cesar, what button did you press?” Gabe asked.

  “The home button,” Cesar said. “I thought it might take us back home.”

  Laura gazed at all the colorful fish. “Well, at least this channel seems safe.”

  A low voice echoed around them. “THE DATA SET SWAM DEEPER AND DEEPER.”

  “Who said that?” Cesar asked.

  “THE WATER TURNED DARK AS THE DATA SET TRAVELED FAR BENEATH THE OCEAN WAVES.”

  “Again! Who was that? And how does he know our name?” Cesar exclaimed.

  “I think we dove into a show about deep-sea diving,” Laura said.

  “Yeah, that voice is the narrator from . . .” Gabe paused. “Oh, what’s the name of that show? I can’t remember what it’s called.”

  Suddenly the fish all darted away in a swish of white bubbles. The friends looked around at the dark, empty sea.

  “Where do you think all the fish went?” Cesar said with a gulp.

  “LITTLE DID THE DATA SET KNOW, THE SHARKS HAD COME TO EAT,” announced the narrator.

  “Did he say sharks?!?” Cesar exclaimed.

  “I know this show!” said Gabe. “Each week the host films sharks hunting their prey. It’s great.”

  The kids saw two dark shadows swimming toward them quickly.

  “THE UNDERWATER HUNTERS ALWAYS CATCH THEIR PREY.”

  “Oh no! We’re the prey!” Gabe cried. He pointed to some rocks. “Quick! We need to hide!”

  The narrator laughed loudly. “SHARKS KNOW THAT THEIR PREY OFTEN HIDE BEHIND ROCKS.”

  “Um, okay. Let’s try that sea trench!” exclaimed Laura.

  The sharks moved closer and came into sight. Instead of the shark’s familiar fin, the DATA Set saw something even scarier.

  Each beast had fuzzy eyebrows and a mustache. They also wore goggles and lab coats.

  “They’re Bunsen sharks!” the DATA Set screeched as they swam to the sea trench.

  “A SEA TRENCH? REALLY? DOWN IN THE DEEP, THE SHARKS ARE THE MASTERS,” the narrator said.

  “How about you tell us where to hide?” Cesar yelled.

  “Hurry! Zap to a different channel before we become their dinner!” Olive yelled.

  “But each channel is worse than the last!” said Cesar. “Bandits? Aliens? Sharks? What’s next?”

  Gabe grabbed the remote and punched in a number. As the glow bubbled around them, the Bunsen sharks were scared away.

  “Where are we going?” asked Olive.

  Gabe smiled. “To the safest channel on TV!”

  Chapter 8

  Welcome to Wackytown!

  HONK! A cartoon goose blasted a horn in Cesar’s ear.

  “Gotcha! Ha-ha-ha!” the goose said as it waddled away.

  “What is this place?” Cesar looked at his hands. They were rounder than usual and a different color. “Are we . . . cartoons?”

  “Welcome to the wild world of Wackytown!” Gabe announced. “This has to be the absolute safest channel in the world. My baby sister watches it all the time and my parents never let her watch TV.”

  Birds whistled in the dancing trees as forest critters performed tricks like they were in a circus. Everything around the DATA Set was an illustrated cartoon. Then a dark shadow covered the land.

  “Hello, hello!” A fluffy monster squeezed them in a giant bear hug. He had purple fur with orange spots and wore Dr. Bunsen–style goggles. “Ready for sharing time?”

  “Great,” Cesar grumbled.

  A bunch of toddlers ran from out of nowhere yelling and whooping.

  The monster gathered everyone into a circle on the forest floor. “Welcome, friends. I’m Bunster, and today’s lesson is about sharing.”

  HONK! HONK! The goose blasted the horn in Cesar’s ear again.

  “This may be the safest place, but it’s not the quietest,” yelled Cesar.

  Gabe held the remote to check the guide, but Bunster took it. “Oh, thank you for sharing your toy!”

  “Hey! Give me that back right now!” cried Gabe. “It’s not a toy! And it’s not for sharing!”

  “Those aren’t the sharing words,” Bunster said. “I know! Let’s practice sharing in the Ball Pit of Feelings!”

  He tossed the remote into a lake filled with different color balls. The children all screamed and jumped in after it.

  “No! We have to stop them before they zap to another channel and leave us here forever!” cried Laura.

  A determined look crossed cartoon Cesar’s face. He leaped into the ball pit and found the remote.

  “You heard Bunster. It’s sharing time!” Quickly, he turned on the remote’s guide.

  “Select ‘The DATA Set Goes Back to Bunsen’s Lab,’” said Laura.

  Olive gasped. “That’s got to be our home!”

  Cesar selected the channel, and the DATA Set felt a familiar lurch.

  Chapter 9

  The Fabric of Reality

  “Is it Saturday yet?” Cesar asked. The DATA Set were on their way to Dr. Bunsen’s lab.

  The kids looked at one another. They were back to normal and on the sidewalk in Newtonburg.

  Olive giggled. “Stop it, Cesar. You’re giving me déjà vu!”

  “This actually looks like our neighborhood! Does this mean we’re home?” Gabe asked.

  Carefully, Cesar set his string cheese peanut butter granola bar on the ground. Out of nowhere, a dog leaped out and snatched the snack.

  “Huzzah!” cried Cesar. “I’ve never been so happy to lose food in my life!”

  “We need to find Dr. B.!” Laura said excitedly.

  Bunsen was still packing at the lab and waved to the kids. “Ah, my young DATA Set! I was beginning to wonder where you werrrrrrrrr . . . ouy erehw rednow . . .”

  Something wasn’t right. The doctor wasn’t making sense, and his mouth looked really funny when he talked.

  “Dr. B.?” Olive asked.

  All of a sudden, Dr. Bunsen started running around the lab in reverse!

  “Uh-oh,” said Gabe. “Guys . . . something’s gone out of control.”

  The kids watched as their world went from weird, to bad, to really bad. Everything in the lab started glitching. The TV came to life and the Bunsen Bandit reached out from the screen!

  Through the window, the kids watched the sun rise and set in rapid motion.

  “What’s going on?” Laura asked as they raced outside. The wind picked up, and leaves flew in weird zigzags. Even the clouds glitched, switching from puffy white to dark and stormy in seconds.

  “Can we stop it?” Olive asked desperately.

  Laura pressed the stop button on the remote control, but it didn’t work. None of the buttons did. The remote control was dead.

  “It’s not working!” Laura’s face dropped. “What do we do?”

  Right then a horrible tearing noise echoed above them.

  “Um, what was that?” Cesar asked. “Actually, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

  The DATA Set looked up and saw a giant gash in the sky.

  Then the narrator’s voice boomed. “THE DATA SET WATCHED AS THE WORLD AROUND THEM WAS TORN APART RIGHT BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES.”

  “Oh no!” Olive gasped. “We broke the world!�
��

  Gabe shook his head. “Not the world. We broke the universe.”

  Chapter 10

  Universal Reboot

  The wind picked up as the tear in the sky grew bigger. Everything around the DATA Set had begun to glitch. Houses, trees, and even cows floated upward.

  “It’s my fault,” Laura cried. “I made everyone use the remote.”

  “We went along with it,” said Gabe. “But now we have to fix the universe!”

  “Have you checked the batteries?” asked Olive.

  Laura opened the back side of the remote. The batteries were glowing.

  “I wouldn’t mess with those,” said Cesar. “You know, once, just once, I’d love for Dr. B. to include the directions for his inventions!”

  Laura started to put the back cover on the remote when she noticed some writing. “Wait! There’s something printed here.”

  She held the remote up to her face, trying to make out the tiny print. A tornado of dirt and leaves swirled around them.

  “Read faster! The hole is getting larger,” cried Cesar.

  “There are instructions on how to reboot the remote!” Laura said. “We can bring the universe back to normal!”

  Suddenly a big gust of wind came, lifting Gabe off the ground and into the air. He grabbed Cesar and yelled, “How?”

  Laura read the directions aloud. “Hold the power button for five seconds and the remote should reboot.”

  “Press it already!” yelled Gabe.

  Laura held the power button down. “One . . . two,” she counted.

  The ground under their feet rumbled and cracked. The wind picked up and jerked Gabe right out of Cesar’s hands.

  “THE DATA SET TRIED TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE . . . BUT WILL IT WORK?” boomed the narrator.

  The tear in the sky was glowing.

  “Three, four, five!” Laura shouted.

  Then, everything went black. It was as if the light of the universe had gone out.

  The next thing they knew, the DATA Set were lying on Dr. B.’s floor.

  “Is everyone okay?” Laura asked, alooking around at the messy lab.

  Through a window, the sun was shining brightly as birds chirped a sweet song.

  Dr. B. emerged from the storage closet. “DATA Set, what are you doing on the floor?”

  “Dr. B.! You’re alive and you’re not a shark!” Cesar said.

  “A shark?” The doctor scratched his head. “Hmm, you may need some rest, Cesar. But not on the lab floor. It’s bad for your back. Now maybe you can help me. I’m looking for a TV remote. It’s my new invention—”

  “Nope!” interrupted the kids all together. “We haven’t seen it!”

  “But I did see your invitation to the International Science Council on your desk!” said Gabe, winking at his friends.

  “Yeah, can you tell us about it?” asked Cesar.

  “We have all the time in the world!” added Olive.

  “Well, the life of a traveling scientist can get out of control sometimes,” began Dr. Bunsen. “Follow me. I am packing for a great trip.”

  As Bunsen left the room, Laura shoved the remote deep into the couch cushions where no one would ever find it.

  About the Author

  Ada Hopper has been extremely inventive ever since she was little. There was nothing that a rubber band and some tweezers couldn’t fix, no question that couldn’t be answered by scouring the library, and no way she wasn’t escaping over that backyard fence! Ada loves reading and writing because of all the fantastical worlds a good book can bring you to. When not working, Ada enjoys karaoke, spending time with her family, and going on the occasional adventure or two.

  Graham Ross has grand plans for world domination through his illustrations. He’s analyzed the “Data” and is all “Set” for this new adventure with the DATA Set crew—and that’s a fact! Graham lives with his inventive family in a wee log home nestled in the woods just outside of Merrickville, Canada.

  Little Simon

  Simon & Schuster, New York

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  simonandschuster.com/kids

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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.

  LITTLE SIMON

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  First Little Simon paperback edition November 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 John Daly. The text of this book was set in Serifa.

  Jacket design by John Daly

  Jacket illustrations by Graham Ross

  Jacket illustrations copyright © 2017 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data for this title is available from the Library of Congress.

  ISBN 978-1-4814-9192-1 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-9191-4 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-9193-8 (eBook)