Mirror Mirror Read online

  First published in Great Britain 2011

  by Egmont UK Limited

  239 Kensington High Street

  London W8 6SA

  Cartoon Network, the logo, GENERATOR REX and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and

  © 2011 Cartoon Network.

  Written by Barry Hutchison

  ISBN 978 1 4052 6100 5

  eISBN 978 1 7803 1094 7

  Printed in Great Britain

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

  Table Of Contents

  Cover

  Title page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  TOTAL RECALL Quiz

  Sneak Preview

  CHAPTER 1

  ‘COME ON, REX, it’ll be awesome!’

  Rex shrugged and jabbed his thumbs against the video game controller in his hands. On screen, a zombie’s head exploded. ‘This is already awesome,’ he said. ‘It couldn’t be any … awesomer.’

  ‘That’s not even a word,’ Noah said. ‘And, seriously, sitting around playing video games all night? That’s your idea of fun?’

  ‘Yes,’ Rex nodded. He stuffed some popcorn into his mouth. ‘Yes, it is.’

  Noah leaned forward in his chair and tried to make his friend see sense. ‘I’m going to spell it out to you, Rex. It’s a fun … fair.’

  ‘That’s not spelling it out, that’s just saying it slowly,’ Rex mumbled, through a mouthful of popcorn kernels.

  ‘That’s not the point! The point is, it’s got fun right there in the title. Fun fair. Does “video game” have the word “fun” in the title?’ Noah asked.

  ‘Not the last time I checked,’ Rex replied. He shot a zombie through the knees and watched it fall, face-first, onto the ground.

  ‘Nice shot,’ Noah admitted, grudgingly.

  ‘Thanks. I’m all about the knee-shots.’

  An idea struck Noah. ‘There’ll be zombie-shooting at the fair,’ he said.

  Rex raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’

  Noah sighed. ‘No, not really. I made that up. But there’ll be other stuff. Better than zombie-killing.’

  ‘Nothing’s better than zombie-killing,’ Rex told him.

  ‘Oh yeah? What about roller-coasters? And chair-o-planes? And bungee drops? They’ve got something called the Wheel of Terror.’ Noah said it again for emphasis. ‘The Wheel of Terror, Rex! I don’t even know what that is, but I don’t think I can live another day without finding out.’

  The action on screen froze as Rex hit the pause button on the control pad. ‘You know I can turn whole parts of my body into machines, right?’

  Noah nodded. ‘Of course I know!’

  ‘I’ve got the Boogie Pack that lets me fly, the Rex Ride that lets me go faster than a racing car …’

  ‘Yeah, so?’

  ‘Then there’s the others, too. Punk Busters, Smackhands, a giant sword, a crazy-cool cannon that can shoot pretty much anything …’

  ‘I know all this!’ Noah said. ‘What’s your point?’

  ‘My point is, how is a roller-coaster supposed to compete with all that? Why would I bother going up and down and around on a metal track when I can do all that in mid-air, like, a thousand times faster, and without having to pay for it?’

  Noah looked annoyed. ‘Uh, well, maybe because some of us can’t do any of that stuff ? You might get to zip around the place going all high-tech all the time, but what about me?’

  Rex saw the hurt on his friend’s face. ‘Hey, Noah, I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I guess I didn’t think of it like that.’

  ‘Yeah, well, don’t worry about it,’ Noah said. He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. ‘Just forget it.’

  Rex looked at the motionless zombies on screen, then back to his friend. ‘You know, maybe the fair would be better than being stuck in here?’

  Noah’s face brightened. ‘So, what, you’ll come?’

  ‘We can try,’ Rex said. ‘Me and Bobo have been sneaking out a lot lately, so Six has got the place locked down pretty tight. It won’t be easy to get out. Bobo!’

  There was a grunt from Rex’s bed. Bobo, the talking Evo chimp, opened one eye. ‘What is it, kid? I’m trying to catch up on my beauty sleep here.’

  ‘Get your hat,’ Rex told him. ‘We’re stepping out for some fresh air.’

  Even as the hand clamped down on Rex’s shoulder, he knew it belonged to Agent Six.

  ‘And where do you think you’re going?’ Six asked.

  Rex stood up from the air duct he had been about to crawl inside. There were few windows in Providence base, and the doors were heavily guarded. Even the ventilation system was alarmed and magnetically sealed. This should have stopped anyone breaking in or out, but Rex wasn’t just anyone. His nanites had taken care of the security systems in a matter of seconds. Noah and Bobo had already clambered into the air duct. Rex could hear them thudding their way along the narrow passageway.

  ‘Hey, Six,’ Rex said, raising his voice to try to drown out the din his friends were making. He thought fast. ‘We, uh, I mean I was just… checking the air conditioning.’

  ‘And why were you doing that?’ asked Six.

  ‘Because,’ began Rex, ‘I’m thinking of becoming a… heating engineer.’ He replayed the excuse in his head. ‘Yeah, that works,’ he said.

  Six sighed. ‘Bobo. Noah. Get back here.’

  The thudding stopped. There was silence for a moment, and then Noah’s voice echoed out from within the duct. ‘Um, I don’t think I can turn round.’

  ‘Hey, get your butt out of my face, kid!’ Bobo said.

  ‘They’re checking the system for blockages,’ Rex explained, weakly.

  ‘You can cut the excuses,’ Six said. ‘You were trying to sneak out. Again.’

  Rex hung his head. ‘Yeah,’ he confessed. ‘There’s a fair in town and Noah thought it’d be cool if we went. But I know, too dangerous, I shouldn’t go wandering off, yadda, yadda, yadda.’

  He turned and spoke into the air duct. ‘Come on, guys,’ he said. ‘Six isn’t going to let us go.’

  ‘You can go.’

  ‘You don’t have to apologise, Six, I know it’s … Wait. Did you say I could go?’

  Six nodded. ‘I know being stuck in here isn’t much fun, Rex, and at least this way I’ll know where you are.’

  Rex grinned. ‘I always did like you, Six,’ he said.

  ‘But you keep your wits about you at all times,’ Six instructed. ‘And you’re back here for curfew.’

  ‘What time’s curfew?’ Rex asked.

  ‘When I call you and tell you it is,’ Agent Six said.

  With a shrug, Rex clambered through the window. ‘We’d better get moving, then. Thanks, Six.’ Rex knelt down by the open vent.

  ‘You know you’re free to use the door now, right?’ Six asked.

  ‘Yeah, but where’s the fun in that?’

  Six gave him a curt nod. ‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘Oh, but Rex?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Try not to get
into trouble.’

  ‘Hey,’ Rex replied, with a wink. ‘I’ll see what I can do!’

  CHAPTER 2

  ‘SO, THAT’S THE WHEEL OF TERROR, HUH?’

  Noah stared, open-mouthed, at the fairground ride in front of them. It was a normal, everyday merry-go-round. Instead of colourful, jolly-looking horses to ride on, though, this one had dark-coloured, mean-looking horses. And, Noah hated to admit, they didn’t even look all that mean.

  ‘Terrifying,’ Bobo snorted. His nose twitched. ‘Hey, I smell hot dogs. Does anyone else smell hot dogs?’ He locked onto the scent. On cue, his stomach began to rumble. ‘I’ll be right back.’

  ‘The flyer said it was one of the scariest rides in the whole country,’ Noah groaned, as Bobo headed for the hot dog stand.

  ‘For three-year-olds, maybe,’ Rex said. ‘Really nervous ones.’

  He turned and took in the rest of the fairground. They had billed the Wheel of Terror as one of the highlights, so Rex wasn’t holding out much hope for the rest of the place.

  He could tell, at first glance, that his expectations were right. The fairground was old and dirty, with paint peeling from most of the rides. A few dozen people wandered around. They all looked disappointed, but none of them quite as disappointed as Noah.

  ‘Hey, come on, it’s not that bad,’ Rex said. He gave Noah a friendly nudge. ‘They’ve still got the roller-coaster, right?’

  Both boys looked up at the large metal track that banked and curved around the whole fairground. The smile slowly returned to Noah’s face.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘They’ve still got the roller-coaster.’

  ‘Closed? What do you mean, it’s closed?’

  ‘I mean it ain’t open,’ growled the man running the roller-coaster. ‘The track’s broken and the motor’s fried. It ain’t goin’ nowhere.’

  Noah’s shoulders slumped. First the Wheel of Terror turned out to be a kiddie ride, and now the roller-coaster was out of action. Maybe Rex had been right. Maybe they should have stayed in and played video games.

  ‘Let’s just go home,’ Noah said. ‘I’m sorry I dragged you all the way out here.’

  Rex was determined to make his friend feel better. ‘Come on, it’s not all bad,’ he said.

  ‘Man, this place sucks,’ Bobo grunted, as he shuffled up to join them. ‘Can you believe they only had five hot dogs left? How’s a monkey supposed to get through the night on five hot dogs?’

  Rex glared at him. ‘What?’ Bobo asked. ‘You guys didn’t want any, did you?’

  ‘No,’ Rex said, through gritted teeth. ‘I was just saying to Noah how great this place is.’

  Bobo blinked. ‘You were?’ He finally grasped what Rex was doing. ‘Oh, I mean, you were, right. This place is great.’

  ‘Thanks for trying, guys,’ Noah said. ‘But it’s a washout.’

  ‘No it isn’t,’ Rex insisted. He put an arm round Noah’s shoulder. ‘It’s still got the bungee drop.’

  There was a loud twang of elastic, followed by a short scream.

  ‘You know what?’ Rex said, fixing his smile in place. ‘I think we’ll give the bungee drop a miss. But that still leaves the chair-o-planes and … and …’ His eyes frantically scanned the fairground. ‘Look! A test-your-strength machine!’

  Rex hurried over to the machine. It stood almost four metres tall, with a round red bell at the top. There was a pressure pad at the base of the contraption, and a large sledgehammer leaning against the side.

  ‘Step right up, put your strength to the test and win a prize of shimmering gold!’ cried a man in a bowler hat standing beside the machine.

  ‘Gold?’ Noah spluttered. ‘Seriously?’

  ‘You heard me correctly, friend, hit the pad and ring that bell and you’ll take home a golden prize.’

  Noah handed over his money, then rolled up his sleeves. He lifted the hammer, staggering a little under its weight. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Here goes!’

  THUD!

  Noah brought the hammer down hard on the pad. The man in the bowler hat stood with his hand behind the machine, watching the strength gauge race upwards.

  Up and up it went, and Noah’s eyes became wider and wider. He was going to do it. He was going to ring –

  The man’s arm gave a twitch and the gauge stopped just a few centimetres from the bell, then fell back down to the bottom. ‘Ah, bad luck, friend, you were so close!’

  ‘Hey, you cheated,’ protested Rex, who had seen the man’s arm move at exactly the same time the gauge had stopped rising. ‘You’ve got a switch back there that stops it.’

  ‘Of all the nerve!’ the man spluttered. ‘How dare you accuse me of cheating?’

  ‘We want the gold,’ Rex insisted. ‘He won it, fair and square.’

  ‘You want the prize?’ the man retorted. ‘Then you gotta ring the bell!’

  Rex stuffed a hand in his pocket and pulled out some coins. He tossed them to the man in the hat. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘I’ll ring the bell.’

  The man watched Rex take up position in front of the machine. ‘You’ll need the hammer,’ he snorted.

  ‘No thanks,’ said Rex. The nanites in his body surged, and two enormous metal fists formed around his hands. ‘I brought my own.’

  With a grunt, Rex brought one of the Smackhands down on the pressure pad. The gauge shot up like a rocket. There was a loud clang as the bell was torn free. They all watched it sail higher and higher into the air, until it was out of sight.

  ‘Now,’ said Rex, retracting the Smackhands back into his body, ‘about my friend’s gold?’

  The man in the bowler hat said nothing as he reached behind the machine and pulled out a small plastic bag full of water. Inside, swimming around, was a tiny goldfish.

  ‘Gold,’ the man said. He flashed them a nasty grin. ‘Enjoy.’

  Rex was about to pull out the Smackhands again, but the excited look on Noah’s face stopped him.

  ‘A goldfish,’ Noah laughed. ‘We won a goldfish. Maybe this place isn’t so bad, after all.’

  Rex and Bobo exchanged a look. ‘Don’t take much to please that guy,’ Bobo muttered.

  ‘Hey, look, there’s a Hall of Mirrors,’ said Noah, suddenly full of enthusiasm again. ‘Let’s check it out.’

  Rex laughed. It was good to see Noah happy again. ‘Lead the way,’ he said, and they made their way towards the Hall of Mirrors, completely unaware of the dangers that lurked within.

  CHAPTER 3

  REX LOOKED AT HIS LEGS. They were barely ten centimetres long. His forehead, however, more than made up for them. It stretched around a metre in height, from the top of his eyebrows to where his hair started.

  ‘Lookin’ good, kid,’ Bobo said.

  Rex looked at Bobo’s reflection in the mirror beside him and burst out laughing. The chimp’s arms were ridiculously short, and his head was the size of an orange.

  ‘Right back at ya,’ Rex grinned. ‘The Pinhead is a good look for you.’

  They had been in the Hall of Mirrors for ten minutes now, checking out their warped reflections in every mirror in the place. They had gone from looking like waddling penguins to towering like stick-thin giants. They’d had long legs, stubby arms, enormous feet and heads that came to a sharp point. And that was just the first mirror.

  ‘Check it out,’ Noah said. ‘I’m a human giraffe!’

  Rex leaned to the left and looked at Noah’s reflection. His friend’s neck was fifty or sixty centimetres long. From the top of the neck, Noah’s head smiled broadly. He lifted the little plastic bag up to shoulder-height, and suddenly the goldfish became the size of a small shark.

  ‘Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the fairground …’ Noah joked, turning the bag so it looked as if the giant fish were about to swim straight for Rex.

  A movement behind Noah’s narrow neck caught Rex’s eye. He turned to see what it was, but there was nothing behind him but shadows and mirrors. He shook his head. There were only the three of th
em in the mirror room. He must have just caught a glimpse of his own reflection or something.

  ‘This one makes me look three metres tall,’ Bobo said, admiring himself in a different mirror.

  ‘This one makes my legs bend backwards,’ Noah laughed, looking at himself in another.

  Rex moved to yet another mirror and peered into it. His jaw dropped open in amazement. This mirror was the best one yet.

  ‘Whoa,’ he cried. ‘This one makes it look like Biowulf’s standing right behind me!’

  A blast of warm breath hit Rex on the back of the neck. He let out a low groan. ‘Biowulf’s standing behind me, isn’t he?’

  Noah looked at his friend, then he looked at the hulking wolf-like Evo standing behind him. ‘Yeah,’ he squeaked. ‘Right behind you.’

  Rex spun on the spot and came face to muzzle with Biowulf. ‘You mind stepping back a little there?’ he asked, covering his mouth and nose with his hand. ‘Your breath is kinda ripe.’

  Biowulf bared his teeth and let out a low, threatening growl. ‘Don’t push me, runt,’ he snarled.

  ‘Seriously, dude,’ Rex coughed. ‘Have a breath mint.’

  Biowulf’s arms twitched. His clawed fingers bunched into fists. He was about to lunge when a voice stopped him.

  ‘That’s enough, Biowulf.’

  A man in a long, flowing coat stepped from the shadows. His long black hair hung down by his face, the streak of white clearly visible in the half-darkness.

  ‘Van Kleiss,’ Rex spat.

  ‘I didn’t realise this fairground had a freak show,’ Bobo sneered.

  Van Kleiss fixed Bobo with a withering look. ‘Cheeky monkey,’ he said, dryly.

  Two more shapes emerged from behind mirrors. Their warped reflections looked no stranger than the figures themselves. One was a giant lizard-like creature, with crystals growing from his shoulder and the end of one arm. The other was a girl. Her greasy black hair hung down over her face, hiding it from view. A pair of thick, muscular arms drooped from her sagging shoulders. Below those, sticking out from her ribcage, were another pair of much smaller arms.

  ‘Skalamander and Breach,’ Noah gasped.

  ‘The gang’s all here,’ Rex added. ‘What do you want, Van Kleiss?’