Desert Disaster Read Online Free

get their robots ready in time.
    “Looks like someone’s already told them about the desert!” Jimmy muttered to himself. He walked over to Grandpa, who was hopping and dancing around Cabbie like someone had dropped a lit firecracker down his trousers.
    “You’ve heard, then?” said Jimmy, ducking out of the way as Grandpa whizzed past him carrying a giant antenna. Grandpa turned to smile at him, his moustache bobbing up and down excitedly.
    “Of course I have! The word got around in seconds!” he beamed. “The Sahara desert! Just think of it, Jimmy!”
    “We’ve just been down to the observation deck to take a look, Grandpa. It’s so big !” Jimmy said. “It’s massive! Vast! Enormous!”
    “Brilliant!” said Cabbie, cheery as ever. “I love a bit of sand surfing. Bring it on!”
    Grandpa continued rushing around Cabbie, making last-minute checks. Jimmy kept getting in the way, so Grandpa chucked a parcel at him. “Here, open this. Came this morning on the post plane.”
    Jimmy recognized the address label. “Great! It must be my new race suit. That’s Shallot! promised me one ages ago.” It was the first good thing that his rubbish sponsors had done for him. While all the others had cool sponsors like Luke’s Lasers and Robotron Rocket Boots , the only people that had wanted to sponsor Jimmy and Cabbie when they started racing were a fruit and vegetable shop, That’s Shallot!. Jimmy struggled to unwrap the large box, and wondered why it was so bulky. The jumpsuit he had wanted was made of flame-retardant, heat-reflective foil microfibres. It was super-shiny and extra lightweight, but the suit that eventually popped out of the box wasn’t what he had been expecting.
    “What the...?” he muttered, mystified.
    “Try it on, then!” said Grandpa.
    Jimmy pulled on the suit, which was large and made of plastic. It was completely brown, with some black stripes and a small tag that said ‘pull here’. He tugged at the tag and a loud hissing sound came from somewhere inside the suit. It was expanding!
    By now everyone in the workshop had heard the strange noise. They had stopped work and were looking at Jimmy in his strange new suit, which was inflating by the second. It stopped, leaving a perfectly round suit with his legs, arms and head poking out.
    “It’s ... it’s ... an onion!” he said, baffled. The technicians around him gave a laugh and even Grandpa and Cabbie couldn’t stop their giggles. Grandpa reached into the box and pulled out a strange leafy green helmet, which he placed on Jimmy’s head. Jimmy wasn’t impressed.
    “Aw, come on Jimmy! It’s nothing to cry about!” said one of Horace’s NASA technicians through the laughter.
    “He’s not crying – that’s the onion making his eyes water!” joked another.
    Jimmy took off the suit, pulled out the stopper and chucked it into his locker in disgust. The onion deflated with a slow farting sound. “There’s no way I’m wearing that on TV,” he mumbled.
    A few minutes later, they landed in the heart of the desert. Jimmy could feel the heat rising already as he made his way to the exit hatch with the rest of the racers and their teams. He was glad to be back in just his everyday clothes – an old grey T-shirt, shorts and tatty trainers – rather than that horrible, hot vegetable suit. At this temperature, I’d have been a roasted onion! he thought to himself as the gigantic hangar doors began to inch their way open.
    “Everyone gather round!” Joshua Johnson, the robot co-ordinator yelled. “Lord Leadpipe has a special announcement to make.”
    “What does Loonpipe want now? Is it not enough that he steals us away from our homes—” Grandpa muttered.
    And makes us live in the lap of luxury , thought Jimmy.
    Jimmy knew Grandpa hated Lord Leadpipe. They had worked together as inventors when they were young men. But when Grandpa had invented the first-ever robot, his designs had been stolen and Leadpipe had set up his own