Awesome Dog 5000 Read online

Marty looked to Awesome Dog, then said, “I have a pretty good guess what the four numbers are.” He typed in 5-0-0-0. The keypad flipped open to reveal a glowing green button underneath it. “What do you think it does?” Marty asked.

  “Only one way to find out,” said Skyler. She slapped the button with the palm of her hand. A steel plate dropped over the doorway, locking the kids inside. Then a loud thud was heard in the walls, and the doghouse floor lowered. The entire doghouse was actually a secret elevator. It was going down.

  The doghouse elevator came to a stop in a small underground room with a wall of televisions.

  “Whoa! Can you imagine playing Sheriff Turbo-Karate on this thing!” exclaimed Ralph.

  Marty wasn’t thinking about video games. He was focused on the screens. Each TV was playing moments from their recent adventure. It showed them playing Sheriff Turbo-Karate in the living room. It showed the cafeteria food fight. It even showed their battle with the big-butt Dr. Crazybunny.

  “Someone’s been watching us this whole time?!” said Skyler in disbelief.

  Marty pointed to one of the screens. “Look! They’re still watching us!”

  The bottom-right screen showed Marty, Ralph, and Skyler looking at the wall of TVs. They were being recorded right now.

  The kids spun around and were shocked to see an odd little machine with a propeller on its head, two metal squid arms, and a single camera lens for an eye.

  The mysterious spybot hovered in the air, filming everything.

  WHEN THE KIDS spotted the spybot, it let out a surprised beep-boop noise. Its propeller sped up, and it started to fly away.

  “It’s a spy-camera-helicopter-robot thingamajig,” said Ralph. “We have to get it!”

  “BARK. BARK. ACTIVATE MEGA-CANNON!” said Awesome Dog.

  “No, no, no! He didn’t mean ‘get it’ like that!” Marty tried to stop the dog from firing, but it was too late. Awesome Dog shot his mega-cannon. The spybot exploded in a firework of burning scrap metal.

  “Well, that’s just great!” said Ralph. “Awesome Dog vaporized our only chance to figure out what this was all about.”

  “Maybe not,” Skyler said. Something caught her eye in the charred debris. She pushed aside some smoldering gears and pulled out a large metal shard. She examined it with a scowl.

  “What is it, Skyler?” asked Marty.

  Skyler tilted the chunk of iron toward the boys. There was a white #30 etched across the side. “This has to mean something, right?” asked Skyler.

  “Number thirty? Maybe he sits at an even worse table than us,” joked Marty.

  “Or he’s on a robot football team?” guessed Ralph.

  Behind Ralph, Marty noticed the wall of televisions. They were stacked five across and six high. He realized something. “Wait a second. No, it’s not football, Ralph, but it could be part of a team.” Marty pointed to the screen at the bottom right. It was rolling static. This wasn’t a joke. He said, “If there are thirty screens and we blew up robot number thirty, that means—”

  “There could be twenty-nine more spybots out there,” interjected Skyler.

  “Holy moon cheese,” said Marty. “We need to take a closer look at these videos. We might be able to figure out what these spybots are up to.”

  “Or, more important, where these spybots are hiding,” said Skyler.

  Ralph said, “Fun fact! Football was invented in the year—”

  Awesome Dog interrupted with a “BARK. BARK.” He was staring at one of the screens—it was a clue that would set the kids on their next awesome adventure….

  You can go back to the start of this story and find all the spybots secretly filming Marty, Ralph, and Skyler.

  There are thirty chapters and one spybot in each of them. These robotic sneaks are experts at blending in, so you have to look carefully. Spybots might be big or small, hiding in the shadows or flying in plain sight. Here’s a little hint to get you started in chapter 1: Spybots are part of the neighborhood watch!

  Think you can find all thirty spybots?

  MARTY, SKYLER, AND RALPH joined the crowd at the statue’s reveal. The monument was draped in a colossal sheet and wrapped in a red ribbon with a bow on the front.

  “Fun fact! Leonardo da Vinci designed a helicopter in 1480,” said Ralph.

  Ralph looked up at the helicopter flying overhead. It was from the popular magazine Epic Human Monthly. Each issue featured people who had done the world’s most epic things. This month there would be a cover story on the mayor. The helicopter was here for aerial photos of the event.

  Mayor Bossypants ran onto the stage in front of the statue. He gave a little wave up to the helicopter. Then he addressed the crowd. “Citizens of Townville—and more importantly, Epic Human Monthly, whose staff I personally invited—it is my honor to present the greatest achievement any city has ever seen: the Legendary Look-at-Me-No-Seriously-Look-at-Me Statue Extravaganza! You all will be amazed by how epic I am—I mean, it is!”

  Mayor Bossypants ordered Oversized-Scissors Teeny to cut the statue’s ribbon. The sheet dropped, revealing the monument. An electric-guitar chord played. The fountain jets spritzed some water. Then a T-shirt cannon fired a souvenir into the crowd. Red and blue lasers blinked once, and a single firework fizzled in the air. A group of the statue’s prerecorded holograms clapped and said, “Hooray!”

  And that was it.

  The crowd scowled up at the statue in silence. No one was impressed. The people of Townville thought the extravaganza was really an extrava-waste of time, space, and money.

  “I thought it would be bigger,” muttered some guy in the crowd.

  Mayor Bossypants was furious. He dashed over to the statue’s control panel and swatted away Stage-Manager Teeny. The mayor cranked the celebration dial to ultra-mode.

  Rock music blasted so loud that it blew people’s hair back. The fountain jets erupted into geysers before raining down on spectators. Hundreds of fireworks exploded in the sky like it was a war zone. The T-shirt cannon switched to rapid fire. It pelted the crowd with wadded-up shirts. The cheering holograms grew into scary, screaming giants.

  The crowd panicked. They took off running, but the wet pavement caused them to slip, slide, and crash into each other. The parking lot turned into human bumper cars.

  Safety Teeny, wearing an orange vest, hurried onto the stage. He shouted over the chaos: “PLEASE, MR. MAYOR! YOU HAVE TO STOP THIS! SOMEONE’S GOING TO GET HURT!”

  “I DON’T CARE ABOUT PEOPLE GETTING HURT!” the mayor yelled back. “THE WORLD HAS TO KNOW I’M EPIC!”

  Suddenly, the helicopter above was struck by a firework and burst into flames. The pilot jumped out just before the helicopter exploded. He landed on top of the statue’s hair and rolled down the forehead. He quickly grabbed the rim of the statue’s glasses. He held tight as his feet dangled.

  “Help me!” yelled the pilot. “My hands get really sweaty when I’m in dangerous situations or when I have to speak in public! Both of which I’m doing right now! Please hurry! I’m going to slip off!”

  If someone didn’t act quickly, the pilot would fall a hundred feet. Skyler turned to Marty and said, “We have to get Awesome Dog.”

  Fun fact! Justin Dean is an award-winning writer who’s made stuff for television, animation, video games, and now books. When he’s not coming up with funny stories, he teaches creative writing to kids. Justin lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two kids. Unfortunately, they don’t have any robot pets (yet). Awesome Dog 5000 is his first book.

  justinwritesbooks.com

  @jddean5000

  Awesome Draw 5000

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