Mr. Peabody & Sherman Junior Novelization (Mr. Peabody & Sherman) (7 page)

“Well, Mr. Peabody isn’t here,” Penny said, as if reading his thoughts.

Penny climbed into the pilot’s seat of the flying machine. She studied the row of levers in front of her and asked Sherman if he knew how they worked. Despite his growing enthusiasm, Sherman was reluctant to answer. He knew he could get into trouble for touching Leonardo’s invention without permission, but he quickly forgot all that once Penny smiled and batted her eyelashes at him.

“The thrust comes from this kinda crossbow-doohickey here,” Sherman explained, climbing onto the
edge of the platform. He walked Penny through the controls with brainy satisfaction. “Then it shoots along this track until the wind catches the wings.”

Penny nodded and listened attentively. “But how do you take off?” she asked innocently.

“You just pull that lever down,” Sherman answered.

“This one?” Penny asked, pointing to a foot pedal not far from the steering column. In answer to her question, Sherman stepped on the pedal and discovered that it wasn’t so much a pedal as it was a switch. And flipping the switch released the tension on the enormous rubber band attached to the glider. Suddenly, the band snapped forward, launching the flying machine into the air like a giant slingshot.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Sherman yelled, clinging to the side of the glider while Penny squealed in delight. The flying machine shot through an open window and out into the sky.

Sherman scrambled into the pilot’s seat beside Penny. “This is crazy!” he shouted.

“No, it’s not, Sherman. It’s fun!” she said, exhilarated.

Penny grabbed the controls and guided the plane over the treetops. From there they could see Leonardo’s entire village. As they flew over the town, colored
domes and tile roofs could be seen above the trees.

Sherman clapped his hands over his eyes. He could barely look. “We’re gonna die!” he wailed.

“Oh, stop being such a party pooper and enjoy it!” Penny said.

After a few moments, Sherman peeked through his fingers. The Italian countryside streaked past in a blur of rolling green hills. Fascinated, he moved his hands from his eyes and sneaked a glance at Penny. Her jaw was set with determination as she steered the flying machine in a wide arc that carried them toward the village square. The wind ruffled her hair, and her eyes were bright with excitement.

Sherman looked away, suddenly shy. It dawned on him that he was sitting very close to Penny, and he blushed to the roots of his hair.

Just then, Penny let go of the controls. “Here, Sherman,
you
fly it,” she said.

“What?” Sherman asked, alarmed. “I don’t want to fly!”

“Sure you do! It’ll be fun.” Penny smiled encouragingly.

With no one holding the controls, the flying machine dipped into a nosedive, spiraling toward the ground.

“Seriously, I don’t want to!” Sherman protested. He
made the mistake of looking down and saw the ground rushing up to meet them. “
AHHH!
Penny, fly the plane!”

Penny shook her head. “You’re going to have to save us!” she insisted.

Sherman gulped. He was scared, but deep down he knew he didn’t have a choice. He reached out, grabbed the controls, and pulled back hard on the steering stick. The flying machine lurched out of the dive, narrowly avoiding the ground.

Sherman and Penny sighed in relief, but they had no time to celebrate. Ahead, the tall stone steeple of a cathedral reared up in front of them. There was no avoiding it! Sherman glanced up at the flying machine’s canvas wings and noticed two small handles hanging down. Instinctively, he pulled the handles and the wings collapsed, allowing the glider to slip through the steeple’s open windows like a thread through the eye of a needle.

The flying machine sailed beneath the beams of the cathedral’s high ceilings and out a window on the other side. Sherman opened the wings and caught a draft of air that sent them soaring toward the nearby river.

“See? You got this!” Penny said brightly.

“You’re right. I
have
got this!” Sherman replied
happily. He was doing it! He was actually flying!

Sherman leaned forward in the pilot’s seat with a growing sense of confidence. He guided the plane through several loops, weaving in and out of the clouds, and then dipped low over the calm surface of the river.

Penny whooped, delighted, as she leaned down and trailed her fingers across the water. She smiled at Sherman, impressed with his newfound confidence, and splashed him playfully. Sherman beamed. He was having the time of his life.

Meanwhile, Leonardo and Mr. Peabody had just finished their repairs to the WABAC when they noticed an unusual shape streaking across the sky.

“Hey, look, Peabody, it’s my flying machine!” Leonardo said, surprised.

Mr. Peabody narrowed his eyes and peered up at the flier as it swooped in their direction. Shocked, he spotted Sherman at the controls!

“Sherman? What are you doing?” he called, exasperated.

“I’m flying!” Sherman shouted gleefully.

“But, Sherman, you don’t know how to fly!” Mr. Peabody called out.

“I don’t?” asked Sherman.

“No!” Mr. Peabody yelled emphatically.

Sherman’s eyes widened. He suddenly felt as if he had no idea what he was doing. It was enough to scare him out of his wits. Frightened, he lost control of the flying machine and it plummeted toward the ground.

“Turn, Sherman! Lean!” Mr. Peabody shouted. But it was too late for advice. The glider plunged downward and crashed in a tree outside Leonardo’s workshop. Mr. Peabody and Leonardo rushed over to the crash site in time to see Penny untangle herself from the broken branches and shimmy to the ground.

All three of them searched for Sherman in the snarl of twisted tree limbs.

“Sherman! Sherman! Are you okay?” called Penny anxiously.

There was no answer.

After a tense moment of silence, leaves rustled and Sherman’s head popped out from between the branches. His glasses sat crooked on his nose and his hair was a mess, but otherwise, he was unharmed. In fact, he was smiling.

“That was fantastic!” Sherman exclaimed. He was exhilarated.

Mr. Peabody was glad Sherman wasn’t hurt, but he wasn’t exactly happy with him. The boy had taken Leonardo’s flying machine and flown it without permission. He turned to Leonardo, expecting to find a frown on the inventor’s face, but instead he was smiling from ear to ear.

“Can you believe it? My flying machine, it’s-a work!” Leonardo said, thrilled. “Sherman, you are the first-a flying man!”

Sherman’s chest puffed up with pride. Maybe now Mr. Peabody would let him fly the WABAC. But one look at his father’s face told him that flying was out of the question. As Mr. Peabody ushered him on board the newly charged WABAC, he knew it was more likely that he was grounded.

W
ith the WABAC zooming through space on a course set for home, Mr. Peabody wasted no time in calling a family meeting. Penny wasn’t exactly family, but she insisted on being present. Mr. Peabody glared at her and then turned to Sherman. “Stop letting this girl get you into trouble!” he barked.

“What? Like this is all supposed to be my fault now?” Penny asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Yes!” Mr. Peabody shouted. “Ever since Sherman made your acquaintance, it has been one disaster after another!”

“What are you talking about? Sherman flew a plane! He was amazing!” Penny yelled.

Sherman’s eyes lit up. Penny was right! “Yeah, Mr. Peabody, I was amazing!”

Mr. Peabody gritted his teeth in frustration. He paced angrily in front of the WABAC’s window. Stars and planets whisked by behind him. Abruptly, he stopped pacing and pointed at Penny. “I have enough on my plate with Sherman to keep me busy for a hundred lifetimes without you turning him into a hooligan!”

“It’s not my fault he’s a hooligan!” Penny objected.

“Yeah, it’s not her fault I’m a hooligan!” Sherman echoed. He folded his arms across his chest stubbornly.

“Well, it certainly is not my fault!” Mr. Peabody protested. “I’ve spent the last seven years teaching Sherman good judgment!”

Penny harrumphed and placed her hands on her hips. “If you’re such a good parent, why is Miss Grunion trying to take Sherman away from you?”

Sherman froze. All the color drained from his face. “Is that true?” he asked.

“It’s … it’s complicated,” Mr. Peabody answered. It was hard for him to see the hurt look on Sherman’s face. He looked out the window into space and suddenly gasped in alarm.

“It’s a black hole!” Mr. Peabody shouted.

A swirling vortex of darkness hovered in front of the WABAC. It sucked the ship toward itself with the steady
pull of a tractor beam. Mr. Peabody raced to the controls with Sherman and Penny right behind him.

“What’s a black hole?” Penny asked nervously.

“A black hole is a region in space-time with such intense gravity that nothing—not even light—can escape!” Mr. Peabody explained. “If I can’t pull us out of here, we’re going to be smashed to smithereens!”

Mr. Peabody frantically flipped switches, cranked dials, and slapped levers on the WABAC’s control panel. The time machine groaned in protest, straining to pull out of the black hole’s gravitational field.

Sherman was too mad to be scared. “Why didn’t you tell me Miss Grunion was trying to take me away from you?” he yelled at Mr. Peabody over the roar of the ship’s engines.

“Because I didn’t want you to worry!” Mr. Peabody answered. Sherman gave him a look that said he didn’t believe it for one minute. “Okay, because I didn’t think you were capable of handling it!” Mr. Peabody admitted.

Sherman glowered. He was furious. “From now on you tell me what’s going on when it comes to me!” he demanded.

Mr. Peabody didn’t have time to argue. He could
discuss Miss Grunion with Sherman later. Right now he needed to figure out how to save the ship and everyone in it. Sherman’s anger would have to wait.

“Sit, Sherman!” Mr. Peabody barked.

“You can’t talk to me like that,” Sherman muttered angrily. “I’m not a dog.”

Mr. Peabody’s ears swiveled in Sherman’s direction. He turned away from the controls, momentarily forgetting the huge black hole that was just seconds away from engulfing them. “What did you say?”

“I SAID YOU CAN’T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT! I’M NOT A DOG!”
Sherman screamed.

Mr. Peabody could barely believe his ears. If it weren’t for his supersensitive canine hearing, he would have thought he’d heard wrong. But Sherman had in fact said the one thing that was guaranteed to make him lose his temper. “No, you’re not!” Mr. Peabody roared. “You’re just a
VERY BAD BOY
!”

Sherman’s face crumpled. His bottom lip quivered, and a tear rolled down his cheek. Mr. Peabody instantly regretted his words and wished he could take them back.

He never got the chance.

The WABAC’s engines shuddered and howled in protest. The ship’s
emergency thrusters kicked into high gear. The WABAC narrowly escaped the gaping maw of the black hole, but the backlash sent the ship and its crew hurtling into the time vortex with no end in sight!

T
he WABAC tumbled end over end, bouncing through time and space. After what seemed like an eternity, the time machine skidded to a halt. Inside the ship, Mr. Peabody was finally able to pull himself to his feet. He switched on a flashlight and immediately began looking for Sherman and Penny. He found Penny but discovered that Sherman had run off as soon as the WABAC had landed.

“I can’t believe he ran away,” Mr. Peabody said, frustrated. He raised his flashlight and peered into the night. He could just make out the silhouette of a walled city in the distance. In front of the city gates stood a familiar shape—a giant wooden horse on wheels.

“Where are we, anyway?” Penny asked, following him out of the WABAC.

Mr. Peabody sighed with worry as he realized where they were. “We’re on the brink of one of history’s most ferocious conflicts,” he explained. “The Trojan War.”