We’d landed in an old-fashioned playground, a bit like the ones I used to go to with my mum and dad and little sister when I was Colin Lamppost.

There was a slide, a roundabout, two swings and a seesaw. All of them were rusty and paint-chipped and didn’t look like they were from the future at all.

In the corner of the playground stood a scuffed-up old vending machine, stacked full of mouldy-looking snacks.

‘Now what?’ said Splorg, standing up and dusting himself down. Not that there’s any dust in the future.

‘I’ve got to get my bin back!’ I cried, plonking my bum down on a swing and trying to come up with a plan.

‘What are you, CRAZY, Ratboy?’ said Twoface, climbing the ladder to the top of the slide and zooming down it head first. ‘Did you see what came out of that thing?’

Jamjar gave the roundabout a shove and jumped on. ‘Twoface is right, Ratboy – it’s too dangerous to go back to X BURGER,’ she said, the roundabout squeaking round and round.

‘Come on you lot, are you scaredy cats or something?’ I said. ‘Don’t you wanna find out what’s going on with Dr Smell?’

Splorg stroked the end of his nose where the Nom Nom had bitten it. ‘It WAS a bit . . . unusual . . . in there, wasn’t it,’ he said. His eyes had glazed over, the way mine do when I’m thinking about what I’m going to eat for tea.

‘I’ve been thinking about that too,’ said Jamjar, pushing her glasses up her nose.

‘Why in the keelness would Dr Smell want to eat a cardboard flavour burger when Bunny’s are so delishy-wishious? It doesn’t make any sense!’

‘Mr X is up to something, that’s for sure!’ said Twoface, as Not Bird sat on one end of the seesaw and it clunked to the ground from the weight of all the Nom Noms in his belly.

‘Erm, I don’t want to interfere or anything, but perhaps I could be of assistance?’ warbled a friendly old voice coming from the corner of the playground, and we all turned round to face it.