by Sean Gaffney
“Hey,” said Jesse. “The kid’s got a good point.”
“Stop him!” yelled the Emperor. “He’ll ruin everything!”
Frank, Jesse, and the Emperor ran toward Junior. The cub reporter spun around and darted the other way. But the potatoes and the Emperor were close behind.
“Help!” yelled Junior.
As they disappeared down the street, Larryboy was left alone with his thoughts.
Be content, eh? Happy with what I have? Well, it is true that I don’t have a cool shield. But I do have other nifty things, like super-suction ears. And I have Archie, who makes me cool stuff. And I get to live in Bumblyburg with some of the nicest vegetables you could ever hope to call friends. It is good to be Larryboy!
Larryboy stood up tall and proud. He flexed his cucumber muscles; and the ropes around him burst; and the really huge, super gigantic, massively gargantuan vise snapped in half!
“I AM THAT HERO!” Larryboy cried.
CHAPTER 18
TRY, TRY AGAIN
Down the street, Frank, Jesse, and the Emperor surrounded Junior.
“So,” taunted the Emperor. “You think a little kid like yourself is going to outwit the Emperor?”
“I’m not so little,” said Junior, defiantly. “I’m taller than you.”
“He has a point there,” agreed Jesse.
“Quiet!” shouted the Emperor. “Grab the kid, and let’s get back to squishing Larryboy!”
“Did somebody mention my name?” Larryboy leaped into the middle of the gang, landing next to Junior.
“How did you escape from the vise?” asked Frank.
“Never mind that,” said the Emperor. “It won’t take much to make him weak again.”
“Oh, yeah?” said Larryboy.
“Yeah,” the cherry tomato responded. “Think for a minute, Larryboy. Wouldn’t you like to have a nice shield?”
“Sure, who wouldn’t?” said the superhero. “But I am pretty happy with the stuff I do have, like these nifty super-suction ears.”
“Yeah, but other heroes can fly. Wouldn’t you like to be able to fly?”
“That would be fun. But you know what? I already fly with my Larry-Jet. So I’m okay with not being able to fly.”
“Drat!” mumbled the Emperor.
“You’ve defeated envy!” Junior shouted.
“That’s right, thanks to you,” said Larryboy.
“But you haven’t defeated me yet!” cried the Emperor. “Army, attack!”
“But, Emperor,” Jesse whined, “he isn’t weak anymore.”
“I’ve got an idea,” said Frank.
“What?” asked Jesse.
“Run!”
Frank and Jesse ran down the street. Larryboy aimed an ear towards them and POP! One of his super-suction ears flew down the street. The plunger zoomed past the two potatoes and landed on a billboard advertising Mister Slushee.
“Hah!” shouted Frank. “He missed!”
“You know,” said Jesse, “the last time we thought he missed, he didn’t really miss.”
“What are you trying to say?” asked Frank.
“I guess I’m trying to say, ‘Look out!’” hollered Jesse.
Larryboy reeled in his plunger, which uprooted the billboard and pulled it right toward the two henchmen.
WAP! The billboard and the henchmen collided. Frank and Jesse fell to the ground in a daze.
“That ought to keep them quiet for a little bit,” said Larryboy. “And now for the ringleader!”
“I still have an ace up my sleeve!” said the Emperor.
“Hah!” crowed Larryboy. “You don’t even have sleeves!”
“It’s just an expression,” said the Emperor. “Watch!”
The Emperor held his breath and nearly shrunk out of sight!
“Oh, no!” cried Junior. “He’ll get away!”
“Don’t worry,” said Larryboy. “Archie thought the Emperor might try to use his super-shrinking power. That’s why he packed this!”
Larryboy pulled a handheld Larry-Vacuum from his utility belt. He turned on the vacuum, which sucked dust and debris into its bag. After a minute, Larry turned the vacuum off.
“Now what?” asked Junior.
“Now we wait until the Emperor can’t hold his breath anymore.”
POOF!
Suddenly a bulge the size and shape of a cherry tomato appeared inside the vacuum bag.
“Looks like we caught the Emperor after all,” said Larryboy.
“Thank you for saving the day, Larryboy!” said Junior.
“Thank you, Junior, for showing me how to defeat envy.”
BRRRRRING!
“That would be for me,” said Larryboy. “Hello, Archie?”
“Larryboy! Are you okay?”
“Thanks to Junior and you, I’m fine.”
“And what about the Emperor?”
“Don’t worry, Archie. I’ve got that one in the bag!”
CHAPTER 19
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS
SKRITCH!
A really huge, super gigantic, massively gargantuan car jack was placed in the doorway of the Bank of Bumblyburg. Several citizens were working the lever, returning the height of the building to its normal size. Chief Croswell, Junior, and Larryboy watched from down the street.
“Soon all of the buildings will be back to their normal sizes,” said the chief. “And all of Bumblyburg’s citizens have been examined by the doctor. All traces of the Envy Formula are gone!”
“That is good news,” said Larryboy.
“We sure learned a good lesson, didn’t we?” asked Junior.
“That’s right,” said Larryboy. “Don’t mess with Larryboy!”
“Oh, I was thinking of a different lesson,” said Junior.
“I know just what you’re thinking,” said Larryboy. “Free Slushees aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”
“Uhm, that isn’t it, either” said Junior.
“Don’t throw a shield in a classroom?” suggested Larryboy.
“That’s good advice,” said Junior. “But still, it’s not what I was thinking. What is the big thing we learned in this adventure?”
“The prison cots are lumpy?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of being content with what we have,” sighed Junior.
“Right! That, too!” agreed the superhero, “Well, I must be off.”
Larryboy hopped into his waiting Larry-Mobile. He fired up the engine and drove down the street. Chief Croswell and Junior waved.
As Larryboy came to a stop at the traffic light, a hotrod painted with yellow and red flames pulled up alongside him. The light changed, and the hotrod took off.
“Boy, it sure would be nice to have a car like that,” Larryboy said to himself. “But then again, the car I’ve got isn’t too bad!”
Larryboy laughed as he pushed the special button on his dashboard. Suddenly, wings popped out of the side of the Larry-Mobile. The car lifted up into the air, and Larryboy zoomed off into the sky.
CHAPTER 1
THE GIANT SLIME MONSTER
It was an average day in Bumblyburg. The leaves were rustling on the trees, the birds were perched on the statues in the park, and Bumblyburg’s own superhero, Larryboy, was on patrol.
Larryboy was slowly driving the Larry-Mobile around the city, looking for signs of crime or other superhero-needing situations. Normally, Larryboy liked going on patrol. But today, he was bored.
“I am sooo bored!” he said. “There’s nothing happening today … except for the situation with the birds and the statues. But I’m not going to intervene in that! If I don’t see some sorta trouble soon, I’m gonna go home and make myself a big peanut-butter sandwi …”
The Larry-Mobile screeched to a halt. Larryboy saw something coming over the hill, and he couldn’t believe his eyes.
A great big slimy purple blob was creeping over the hill, wiggling menacingly as it came.
“Oh, peanut brittle!�
� said Larryboy. “It’s a giant purple slime monster!!”
Right then, Larryboy would have attacked the giant purple slime monster in an effort to save Bumblyburg from its vicious slimy attacks. He would have attacked, except for on thing: Larryboy was scared of giant purple slime monsters.
So instead, Larryboy parked the Larry-Mobile and jumped into the bushes to hide as the giant purple slime monster came over the hill.
“Bumblyburg is doomed!” Larryboy thought to himself. “We need a superhero or something to stop it!”
Then, with horror, Larryboy realized something. “Wait … I… am … that … hero. Drat.”
Even though he was afraid, he had to try to stop the giant purple slime monster. Bumblyburg depended on him!
So, as the giant purple slime monster passed the bushes where Larryboy was hiding, he closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and fired one of his plunger ears.
“Hey!” said the giant purple slime monster. “I’ve been plungerized!”
This startled Larryboy. He didn’t expect the giant purple slime monster to talk. Besides, it didn’t sound anything like a giant purple slime monster should sound.
“Help! Get this plunger off me! I can’t see!” it said.
Then Larryboy realized something: The giant purple slime monster didn’t sound like a giant purple slime monster. It sounded like Wally!
Larryboy looked up from behind the bushes, and this is what he saw: Herbert and Wally carrying the largest plate of grape-flavored gelatin he had ever seen.
Larryboy rushed from the bushes and released Wally from his plunger ear. Herbert and Wally explained that they had filled the city swimming pool with grape gelatin, and now they were taking the whole thing home to eat. They didn’t even seem to mind that there was a pair of swim fins and a life preserver suspended in the middle of the giant gelatin mold.
“Wow,” said Larryboy. “That’s a lot of gelatin!”
Also look for Larryboy and the Sinister Snow Day and Larryboy and the Yodelnapper coming spring 2003!
About the Author
SEAN GAFFNEY’S work with VeggieTales includes coming up with the idea for King George and the Ducky and writing a new Larryboy video. He has also written over a dozen plays that have received professional productions in this country and abroad, as well as 3 direct-to-video releases. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
A CONTENT HEART IS A
HEALTHY HEART.
A HEART AT PEACE
GIVES LIFE TO THE BODY,
BUT ENVY ROTS THE BONES.
—PROVERBS 14:30
ZONDERKIDZ
Larryboy and the Emperor of Envy
Copyright © 2002 Big Idea, Inc. VEGGIETALES®, character names, likenesses and other indicia are trademarks of Big Idea, Inc.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.
EPub Edition © AUGUST 2011 ISBN: 978-0-310-42427-7
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zonderkidz, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gaffney, Sean.
Larryboy and the Emperor of Envy / written by Sean Gaffney.
p. cm.
“Big idea.”
“Based on the hit video series: Larryboy. Created by Phil Vischer. Series Adapted by Tom Bancroft.”
Summary: Larryboy, a heroic cucmber with plunger ears, comes to the rescue when the vegetable residents of Bumblyburg come down with bad cases of envy from slurping Slushees tainted by the diabolical Emperor of Envy.
ISBN 978-0-310-70467-6
[1. Heroes—Fiction. 2. Cucumbers—Fiction. 3. Vegetables—Fiction. 4. Envy—Fiction.] I. Larryboy. II. Title.
PZ7.G1194Lar 2002
[Fic] — dc21 2002012696
* * *
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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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, photocopy, recording, or any other — except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Zonderkidz is a trademark of Zondervan.
Written by: Sean Gaffney
Editor: Cindy Kenney and Gwen Ellis
Cover and interior illustrations: Michael Moore
Cover design and art direction: Paul Conrad, Karen Poth, and Jody Langley
Interior design: Holli Leegwater, John Trent, and Karen Poth
* * *
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 /DCI/ 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17
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