You never get the chance to answer. Because suddenly there’s a deafening SPRRROINGGGG! Like a giant rubber band snapping.
And then the three of you are hurtling through the air!
Hurtle on to PAGE 85.
You decide to try the white switch. You love pinball! “Who wants to challenge the pinball wizard?” you call and flip the switch.
Nothing happens. The machine doesn’t light up. There’s no noise. No flashing lights, no KA-CHING! Nothing.
“I don’t believe it!” you grumble, smacking the machine. You’re about to hit it again when you see movement out of the corner of your eye. The green door! It’s opening!
Professor Shock! You can’t let him find you here!
“Back here!” Stacey whispers. She pulls you and Jason behind the pinball machine. You squeeze in between the machine and an old, dusty mirror lying against the wall.
Your elbow knocks against the mirror. Suddenly, lights begin to flash. Sirens go off. The mirror begins to vibrate.
Horrified, you run your hands over the mirror’s frame. How can you turn the thing off?
But soon you stop worrying about that. You’ve got bigger problems.
A weird, invisible force is sucking you into the mirror!
Turn to PAGE 63.
“Stacey’s right. We’re not going to find the mirror here in the entrance hall,” you announce.
“Hah!” Stacey looks triumphant. “Let’s go this way!”
She hurries out of the mirrored entrance hall and down a dark, chilly corridor. Jason’s right beside her, still arguing. You move fast, trying to keep up.
After a few moments you notice that the floor slants downward. The twins are several yards ahead of you. Putting on a burst of speed, you catch up with them.
“Guess what?” you begin.
“Who cares?” Jason grumbles. “All I want is to get —”
“Look!” Stacey interrupts. With a gasp, she stops walking. You peek past her shoulder. Then you stop and stare. You have never seen anything like this in your life!
Flip to PAGE 131.
The plane is aiming straight for your head. Eek! You stab your finger at the remote button that controls the plane.
The plane merely picks up speed!
“Duck!” you yell. You and the twins dive off the porch.
KAA-RUNCH! The model plane slams into the side of the house. It’s completely wrecked.
Jason turns to you angrily. “Why did you do that?”
“I didn’t,” you protest. “Really! It wasn’t me. It was the remote. I think maybe it has a short circuit.”
“You mean you broke it?” Jason shakes his head. “Professor Shock is going to be really mad.”
“Hey, I know!” Stacey breaks in. “Our uncle Jack has an electronics repair shop in the old mall. I bet he can fix it.”
“The old mall?” you repeat, a little nervously.
You’re not supposed to go there. After the new mall opened, most of the stores in the old mall went out of business. The whole building is going to be torn down next month. It’s a dangerous, deserted place.
Still, you’d really like to get the remote checked out before you return it to Professor Shock….
“Let’s go,” you say, and climb back on your bike.
Cycle to PAGE 39.
This is the easiest decision you’ve made all day.
Obviously, you’re going to ram Stacey. She’s much more fun to play bumper cars with than Jason!
You set the remote down on the dashboard. “Heads up!” you yell and steer straight at Stacey’s blue car.
A huge grin spreads across her face. “You asked for it,” she shouts. Hunching over the steering wheel, she speeds toward you.
WHAM! You slam into each other, head on. Stacey’s car bounces back and spins out of control. The impact makes your little car rock.
And the remote goes flying off the dashboard.
Your jaw drops. Time seems to slow down as the remote spins through the air, end over end. All you can do is stare in horror.
Pick your jaw up off the floor and turn to PAGE 37.
Stacey puts a hand on your shoulder. “Remember how Uncle Jack told you he built Red’s circuits?” she asks you.
You don’t like the way she’s looking at you. “So what?” you say and shrug her hand away.
Jason puts a hand on your other shoulder. “Well, that wasn’t quite true,” he tells you. “Actually, it’s the other way around. Uncle Red’s the one who built Uncle Jack.”
Uncle Red?
Stacey smiles. “And then Uncle Jack built Jason and me!”
You’re suddenly having trouble breathing. “You mean —”
“Yes.” Jason nods. “We’re cyborgs.”
“We used you to steal the remote from Professor Shock. We knew he’d come after it,” Uncle Jack explains. “We had to get him somewhere, away from all his gadgets, where we could neutralize him. You see, he’s the only person who could have stopped us.”
Your legs start to shake. You need to sit down. “You mean all this time, I’ve been hanging out with cyborgs?” you squeak. “Helping them?”
“Right,” Jason says. “As a reward, we’re willing to make you one of us. Isn’t that great?”
You? A cyborg? A mutant machine monster?
If you can’t beat them, join them. After all, they won, in
THE END.
Slowly, nervously, you and the twins step out of the elevator. The doors swish closed behind you.
You’re in a huge room. Steps lead down to a polished white floor. Staring around in wonder, you walk down them.
Giant red numbers are painted all over the floor, which slopes gently downward. Thick blue and yellow pillars sprout up everywhere. Here and there you see what look like archery targets, outlined in neon light. Odd, wedge-shaped swinging gates are also scattered around the room.
“Where are we?” Jason whispers.
“It looks like a fun house!” Stacey exclaims.
You glance up. Hey! The ceiling is made of glass! Through it, you can glimpse an even bigger room — so vast you can’t take it all in.
Then, you spot something else. Something unbelievable. Something so terrifying you can’t hold back a scream.
AAAAAAAAGHHH! Turn to PAGE 23!
You and the twins dash through the mall, past the abandoned Kiddie Karnival. You find the emergency fire station at the far end of the first level. But the hose is locked behind glass!
“Stand back!” Stacey shouts. Grabbing a loose tile from the floor, she heaves it at the glass. It shatters.
You seize the canvas fire hose and race back the way you came. “Turn on the water!” you shout over your shoulder.
You reach the parking lot just in time. The monster robot is after Professor Shock! It rolls after him, whacking at him with its giant bulldozer-shovel hands. Behind it, Red works the buttons on the remote control, laughing like a maniac.
The professor staggers around the parking lot, trying desperately to stay clear of the deadly shovels. He looks exhausted. You know he can’t keep running much longer.
Jason and Stacey come up behind you. “Oh, no! Poor Professor,” Stacey gasps.
“Hurry!” Professor Shock pants. “Turn the hose on the robot. Try to short-circuit it!”
The hose is too hard to hold alone. Jason and Stacey grab on with you. The three of you aim the water at the giant machine.
Will the professor’s plan work?
Who knows? Turn to PAGE 129.
In big, black letters, the sign says:
JUNKYARD
Huh? Isn’t that where people throw away old dishwashers and other appliances? Why would the bicycle bring you here?
The bike tears through the gate. Straight toward an enormous junk heap!
You squint. It’s hard to see, with the wind in your eyes, but it appears as if the junk heap is moving. Ugh! you think. It must be covered with rats or something!
Without
warning, the bike screeches to a stop.
You, however, keep going.
You sail over the handlebars and fly toward the junk heap. Now, at last, you can see it clearly.
It’s a squirming, heaving pile of … people!
That’s right. In this horrible machine world, human beings are useless. Garbage.
Your bike was simply taking out the trash!
THE END
“AAAAAAGHHH!” you scream.
A mountain-sized man is peering through the ceiling at you!
He has a long, white beard. Every hair of it is like a thick rope. The wrinkles on his face are so deep that you could get lost forever if you fell into one of them. Thick, black-framed glasses make his tremendous eyes look even more huge.
Wait a second! You recognize this giant! It’s …
“Professor Shock!” Stacey shrieks.
“Ooohh …” Jason murmurs. And faints.
Your heart races. What’s going on? Where are you? And how on earth did Professor Shock get to be so big?
The professor strokes his beard with his enormous hand. Then he reaches down. His hand disappears somewhere to the right of the glass-ceilinged room.
CLING! GA-ZURK! SPROINGGGGG!
You feel a chill. There’s something horribly familiar about those clanging noises….
What’s Professor Shock up to? Turn to PAGE 74 and see.
Stacey has grown! Her arms and legs are like pudgy balloons. But her head has shrunk to the size of an apple!
“What’s wrong with you?” you gasp.
“With me?” Stacey demands. Her voice is high and squeaky. She sounds like a talking gerbil. “I was about to ask you the same thing! Your head looks like a balloon!”
“You both look like weirdos!” Jason screams.
You glance at him. Then you stare at him. He’s become tall and skinny. Really, really skinny. His whole body is no thicker around than a broomstick. His arms and legs are like pieces of spaghetti. His eyes are two tiny dots in his long, thin head.
You can’t help laughing. The twins look so weird! But your laugh booms out as if it’s coming through a megaphone. You reach up and touch your face.
You could fit a basketball in your mouth! It’s huge! And your head is simply enormous!
It’s all too clear what happened. Going through the fun house mirror has somehow changed your bodies. Now you look like your fun house reflections!
At that moment a bank of lights flashes on, blinding you.
Blink and turn to PAGE 94.
The hideous Queen marches you to a mirrored, revolving door at the end of the room.
“Ow!” you exclaim. Her bony fingers are biting into your flesh!
The Queen positions you in front of the revolving door. Then she gives you a hard shove in the back. You stumble forward.
“Whoa!” you shout as you whirl around and around.
When the door finally stops revolving, you’re completely dizzy. You take a few weaving steps and then raise your head and gaze around.
Wow! You’re in a hall of mirrors! Everywhere you turn, you see reflections of yourself. You frown. Your hair looks messy.
No time to worry about that, though. You’ve got to get out of here and keep searching for the Queen’s mirror.
Now, where was that revolving door? You turn to the left.
Your face smiles back at you.
You go right.
There you are again.
Your heart thuds as you realize: You have no idea where the revolving door is. Among all these mirrors, it could take you years to find it again. You’re stuck. In a hall of mirrors.
And the worst part is, you’re having a bad hair day!
THE END
“I’m sorry,” you tell Professor Shock. “We didn’t mean to come in here. And we didn’t mean to make the robot go nuts. It was all an accident!”
“What about the damage?” the old man thunders. “You’ve caused thousands of dollars worth of damage!”
You gulp. “I’ll work to help pay for it,” you offer.
“You’ll pay, all right,” Professor Shock mutters. He glances around. “Where’s my remote control? I left it on my desk.”
“You mean this?” Guiltily, you pull the two pieces of the flat, black box from your pocket.
“You broke it!” the professor screams. “What will I do now?” Then his eyes narrow thoughtfully. “Never mind. I just figured out what you can do to pay me back. Follow me.”
Nervously, you follow the old man out of the garage and into his house. As soon as he opens the door, loud squawks fill your ears.
“In here,” Professor Shock shouts above the noise.
You stop and stare. The living room is even stranger than the garage.
See why on PAGE 72.
Screaming, you and the twins plunge downward.
THUMP! You land on something soft. You sit up and feel your arms and legs. Nothing broken. That’s a relief!
Faint light streams in from a window high above your head. You see that you’ve landed on a big couch. All around you are other couches, and chairs, and beds. All are covered with dust.
“Oh,” someone groans. It’s Stacey! She landed in one of the armchairs. “My ankle hurts,” she complains, rubbing it.
Across from you, Jason sits up in the middle of a king-sized bed. “Where are we?” he asks in a dazed voice.
“I think we’re in the storage basement for one of the mall furniture stores,” you say slowly.
You scramble to your feet and make your way to the door at one end of the basement. Locked. Of course. You pound on it. “Help!” you call. “Let us out of here!” But no one answers.
The window is too high to reach. Hmm. Looks as if you’ll have to wait until someone comes down here.
Someone will find us soon, you think. They have to move the furniture before they tear down the mall. You’ll be all right.
Then you hear a hideous moan.
See who — or what — is moaning on PAGE 41.
The twins are arguing loudly. It’s giving you a headache! All you want to do is go home.
“I’m going to try the mirror,” you call over their voices. Briskly, you thrust your foot through the glass.
CRACK! CRASH! SMASH! TINKLE! The mirror shatters.
Whoops! Well, at least you stopped the twins’ squabbling.
“Nice move!” Stacey laughs.
“It’s bad luck to break a mirror,” Jason adds.
Tiny bits of glass rain all around you. They land on your clothes … your hair…. You try to brush them away.
But they seem to be stuck. All over you.
“Help!” Jason cries. “I’m covered with glass!”
Pieces of mirror swirl around the three of you. The ones that land on the floor jump up and clump together.
“Hey!” Stacey shrieks, pointing. “Two pieces of glass just turned into one!”
In shock, you realize that the bits of mirror are rejoining themselves around you and the twins. Trapping you inside!
Then you notice something else. Something worse.
Go on to PAGE 78.
That yell sounded like Jason! You and Stacey dash after him into the back room.
He’s struggling in the grip of a tall, red-haired man with a beard. You stare. This guy is almost as big as Deep Voice!
“Leave my brother alone!” Stacey yells.
“What have you done with Uncle Jack?” Jason cries at the same time.
The red-haired man lets Jason go. “Sorry, kid,” he says. “I thought you were trying to steal something. Jack’s your uncle, huh? My name’s Red. I — uh — bought this shop from him.”
Jason scowls. “Why didn’t Uncle Jack tell us about you?”
Red shrugs. “Maybe he forgot.”
You’re in a hurry to leave this creepy mall before Deep Voice catches up to you. “Come on,” you say to your friends.
“Wait!” Red cries. “I didn’t mean to upset you kids. T
ell you what. Let me see your remote. I’ll fix it for free.”
You stare at him. You never mentioned the remote to him! How does he know you have it?
Oh, no! Is he after Professor Shock’s gadget, too?
Turn to PAGE 61.
You decide your best chance is to do as the Queen ordered. So you rub the carving of the turtles until it’s shiny and green. Sadly, you set it aside and continue with your work.
A few minutes later, you glance at the pile of carvings. Hey! It’s only half as big as it was before!
Afterward, you’re never sure if you really polished all those stone carvings yourself or if some hidden force helped you. All you know is, by the end of the second hour, every single one of the carvings has been buffed until it glows.
You’re hanging up the last one when the Queen returns.
“NO!” she screams. “THIS IS ALL WRONG! You did it! You polished all the carvings! Nobody’s ever done that before!”
Is she going back on your deal? The idea makes you so mad you forget to be scared. “Well, I did,” you declare. “And we made an agreement.”
“I know, I know,” the Queen grumbles. She sighs. “All right, I’ll stick to it. First, your friends.” She stabs a finger at the ceiling. The carving of the turtles begins to glow green.
POP! A moment later Stacey and Jason stand beside you. You stare at them and rub your eyes. You can barely recognize them!
What has happened to your friends?
Ask them on PAGE 79.
You snatch the remote off your bed and punch frantically at the buttons. Your finger lands on one of the black buttons.
A second later, the awful, blasting music stops.
Silence! You never knew how great it was!
For a while you simply sit there, shaking. Then you examine the player. It looks the same as it always did.