"When Patrick takes a trip alone in the Imagination Station for science project research, things get a little explosive. First, his cousin Beth gets angry that she was left behind. Second, Eugene Meltsner sees red when he realizes that Patrick went to Pompeii in 79 A.D. a day before Mount Vesuvius erupts! It doesn't help that the Imagination Station is on the blink and Whit has gone missing. As Beth and Eugene frantically try to find a way fix the machine, Patrick learns a few things about volcanoes: it's not the lava that comes first, it's poisonous gas. Will Eugene be able to reprogram the Imagination Station and send Beth to help Patrick? And what will happen to Patrick's new friends--a preacher, a looter, and a stray dog?"--Provided by publisher.