Luckily, I spotted a big board with the names of all the companies on it. I ran over and read through the list. I quickly spotted Puppy Co., and saw where the Puppy Co. stage was on the map.
I turned around to tell Boss Baby. He had waddled over to a glittery cat toy display and was back in real baby mode, cooing and drooling.
“Not again!” I said, picking him up. Then I moved my backpack from my back to my front and stuffed him inside so he wouldn’t wander off again.
I spun around to head to the Puppy Co. stage—and I saw that man of disguise, Eugene, across the room! He was still dressed like Elvis.
Eugene started running toward me, so I ran into the cheering crowd. Francis Francis was up on stage. He began to speak as my parents brought out a giant heart-shaped box.
“Ladies and gentlemen, imagine a puppy that never grows up. Never gets old. A puppy that stays a puppy forever. I give you the only thing you’ll ever love—the Forever Puppy!”
Francis Francis opened a big heart-shaped present and a Forever Puppy looked out. The crowd went wild. Even I started to feel mesmerized by its cuteness.
“Avert your eyes, Templeton,” Boss Baby commanded. And that’s when Francis Francis noticed his brother in the back of the crowd.
“What are you doing here?” Francis Francis barked at Eugene.
Eugene simply pointed to us. I was calling to Mom and Dad.
“What are they doing here?” Francis Francis barked even louder.
“What are Tim and the baby doing here?” Dad asked, finally noticing us.
Francis Francis tried to play it cool for the crowd watching him. “What are any of us doing here, really?”
But Dad wasn’t buying it. “What’s going on here?” he demanded.
Francis Francis knew he had to do something, so he pushed my parents into the heart-shaped box!
“Get them!” Francis Francis ordered Eugene, and he started coming toward us.
Meanwhile, Francis Francis started pushing the box with my parents inside backstage.
“Tim, we’ve got to get backstage!” cried Boss Baby.
“In there!” I said, pointing to a giant hamster trail that led off the stage.
We crawled inside the tube. Eugene followed us, but he was too big. Soon, he was stuck in the tube.
Boss Baby and I crawled as quickly as we could.
Below us, through the clear tube, we could see a big platform. Regular puppies were being carried down a line that ran from the ceiling over a vat marked SUPER SECRET BABY FORMULA. Each puppy had a little parachute on. When they were above the vat, the puppies were sprayed with the formula, becoming Forever Puppies. Then a conveyor belt carried them into a huge rocket. Through the rocket windows, we could see thousands of Forever Puppies inside! Once the countdown was over, the rocket would launch into the sky. The plan was that Forever Puppies would parachute safely down all over the world.
“Now that’s how you launch a product,” Boss Baby quipped.
Then I spotted something else. Francis Francis had put the heart-shaped box under the rocket. My parents were still inside!
Suddenly the tube began to shake. I turned around and saw that Eugene was trying to break out of the tube.
Snap! He broke it, and we all started to fall.
“Aaaaaaahhhhhh!” Boss Baby and I both screamed.
Eugene landed in a giant kitty litter display filled with cats. The cats pounced on him immediately. That would occupy him for the time being. I grabbed on to another tube and stopped our fall. Then Boss Baby and I dropped onto a platform hanging down from the ceiling. The rocket was still far below us.
“Mom! Dad! I’m coming!” I yelled.
I ran across the platform to some metal stairs that went down to the rocket launching pad. But then Francis Francis was there and blocked the stairway!
“I’m launching that rocket and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Francis Francis threatened.
“No!” I yelled.
He kept coming toward me, and I backed up slowly. “Baby Corp. stole all the love from me, and now I’m going to take it back from them. You should understand what I’m talking about! You got replaced just like me!”
I stopped and looked right at him. “No, I’m nothing like you!”
“Let our parents go!” Boss Baby added. “His parents. The parents.”
“Yeah!” I shouted.
Francis Francis looked at me. “You could have had your parents’ love all to yourself again, but no, you blew it. You let that baby boss you around.”
Boss Baby wasn’t having any of this. “He doesn’t work for me. We’re partners!”
He noticed a pacifier cord dangling from Francis Francis’s pocket. He grabbed it and handed it to me. I knew just what to do with it. I shoved it into Francis Francis’s mouth. For the first time in many years, that big baby was back at Baby Corp. It was just what we needed to escape. I started running away, but Francis Francis wasn’t out for long.
The pacifier fell out of his mouth, and he threw it at my legs like a lasso. It hit me, and I slipped! I nearly fell off the platform, but I grabbed on to the railing just in time. With my other hand, I caught Boss Baby. My legs were dangling over the edge.
“Baby Corp. is through!” Francis Francis cheered. “I win! Ha!”
“Wrong!”
Boss Baby glared at Francis Francis. “You’re not supposed to say, ‘Ha!,’ ” he said. Boss Baby reached out with his pointer. It had turned into a pirate sword.
“You’re supposed to end with . . . ,” Boss Baby began.
“AAARRGGH!” we said together and jumped back up on the platform.
All three of us were suddenly wearing pirate outfits. I threw Boss Baby up on my shoulders and we started walking toward Francis Francis. This time he was the one backing up, afraid.
“You’re fired!” I shouted.
“And here’s your severance package!” added Boss Baby, and he grabbed Francis Francis by his tie. Then he tossed him off the platform.
Plop! He landed in the big vat of super secret baby formula.
“Take that, you scurvy scallywag!” I yelled down below.
And that’s when I heard Mom and Dad yell. They were still in the heart-shaped box underneath the rocket.
“Help!”
“Anybody!”
The launch countdown boomed over the speakers.
“One minute and counting . . .”
I looked at the long, long flight of stairs leading to the rocket. We’d never make it to my parents in time. Or would we?