“NO!” Max and Min both shouted in unison. Pounce jumped between Beeps and Obi. “Not if the Feline Empire has anything to say about it!”
Beeps pulled back. “Oh really? Tell me, Pounce, what size is the fleet your empire sent along with you?”
Everybody looked at Beeps expectantly. Surely the Cats had the firepower to protect Earth? “Yeah, Pounce, let him have it!” Max said, but Pounce hesitated and the air left the room. Pounce was sure Beeps knew the truth, so he didn’t hide it.
“I am the fleet, I’m afraid,” Pounce said.
Obi looked around sadly. He saw the truth, that they were vastly outnumbered, and knew only one option remained.
“I will go with you,” Obi said bravely.
“But they’ll destroy you!” Mom said.
“Maybe, maybe not. But better me than all of you,” Obi replied. “I’m grateful for this tenth life, and for all of your help, but I see no other option.” Obi leaped gracefully down and walked toward the door.
Javi stopped pacing and sat down, defeated. “Obi is right.”
“WAIT!” Max screamed, but his mom held him back when she saw Beeps move between them and Obi, threatening. Stu and Scout had jumped on Javi’s lap and were mewling sadly.
“Don’t be afraid, children. I feel, somehow, that we will meet again, in a different time and a different place. This is not good-bye.” With that, Obi spun and jumped through the rain into the waiting ship.
“See you later, Obi. Again.” Max was completely crushed.
“Ha!” Beeps shouted as he spun around quickly, headed for his ship. As he entered the ship, over the roar of the storm, Beeps blared his parting shot . . .
“This isn’t the last you’ll hear of the Robot Federation! Our supreme leader will not rest until Robots rule the galaxy! SLAYAR will reign supreme, this I vow!”
Beeps, not waiting for a response, sped up the ramp into his ship and, as quickly as he arrived, shot up into the sky and disappeared in the clouds.
42
To Save a Friend, and the World
Back in the lab, Mom was at her computer, removing House’s software from the home servers. “I knew this was a mistake. Never trust someone else’s code.”
“Wise words, Dr. Wengrod,” Dad said. He was at his desk frantically sketching Beeps and his ship from every angle while the robot was still fresh in his mind.
Mom scrolled through code on her machine, shaking her head. “That program had full access to our network! Well, I’m reverse-engineering all of House’s systems. We’ll find out what’s going on at GloboTech.”
Dad looked at his sketches. “I’d like to reverse-engineer those darn Binars. The thought of what they’re going to do with Obi and the chip . . .”
“Oh dear,” Mom said, and sat back.
“What is it?” Dad jumped up.
“Before I shut it down, House completely erased our Singularity Chip research drive.”
“What? When?” Dad looked over Mom’s shoulder. “That’s a disaster! All our research, gone?”
“Well, not all of it,” Mom said, lifting the small memory card from around her neck. “I keep the most important code with me. House did a lot of damage, but we have enough here to keep going and build our next, improved version.”
“Well played, Dr. Wengrod.” Dad smiled, relieved. “And in the meantime, hopefully Javi and Pounce can figure out a plan to find Obi and deal with the rest of the galaxy’s problems.”
Mom turned to look at Dad with a sad smile. “After all our work, to see the look on Max’s face when Obi left was heartbreaking. We have to find him.”
“We will, and even though we can’t duplicate the chip, we can build a better one.”
“We can and we will, Dr. Wengrod,” Mom said, and both of them went to their desks and got to work.
In the living room, Javi and Pounce sat at the table, deep in conversation. Javi’s notebooks were spread out, and laptops and tablets showed images of galactic maps and research articles on hostage negotiation and peace treaties. Joan was perched on a pile of textbooks, listening. Pounce was giving Javi a crash-course on Feline-Binar history and relations, and Javi was greedily soaking it all in.
“It all feels so familiar. On Earth, at least most of it, we have divided ourselves into different countries, cultures. Even within families we split into two sides, male and female. We’ve convinced ourselves that men and women are different, can only be good at different things. People need to choose a side, and we’ve created a world where the teams don’t get along most of the time. But the truth is, most of it is completely made up!”
Javi stood up. “It’s the same with you guys. Sure, cats and robots are built differently, but that doesn’t mean all cats need to be lazy and disorganized, or all robots need to be bossy and strict. Who says robots need to be so . . . robotic?” They heard Tipsy singing and spinning in circles on the ground, playing with Stu and Scout. “Or that their programming can’t change?”
“And,” Pounce added, straightening his tie, “who says that a cat can’t be organized or goal oriented?”
Javi leaned over, hands on the table. “Boy, Girl, Cat, Robot—those are just labels. But people change. Labels can change. We can be whatever we want!”
“Cats and robots don’t have to be enemies,” Pounce said, considering.
On the other side of the room, Max and Min sat on the floor with the kittens, glum.
Min had recovered from her devastating loss earlier in the day. She had even, mostly, forgiven Max and the kittens. Of course, it helped when she saw the email from the Battle of the Bots organizers. The NASA representatives were so impressed by Min’s design that they were inviting her to NASA’s summer program even though she didn’t win. It felt great, but somehow it didn’t seem quite as important as it had a few hours ago.
Min sniffed and tossed a toy for the kittens to chase. “So House was evil. I can’t believe it betrayed us. What am I saying? I can totally believe it.”
“Yeah,” Max said, scratching Stu’s head sadly. “I can’t believe Obi’s gone. I lost him twice today.”
Min picked up Scout. “You know, Obi was all right. And his new body was bomb. He was the coolest cat I have ever seen.” Scout nipped Min’s hand, and she let him down.
Max laid back, thinking. “You think Mom and Dad are gonna let the Robots take over the Earth?”
“No way.” Min laid back next to Max. “Especially not with Pounce and Obi on our side.”
The kittens jumped over Max and Min, chasing each other. “Don’t forget Stu and Scout—except they might just as easily destroy the world themselves by accident, without the Robots even trying.” Min smiled.
“Why do people do that anyway?” Max stared at the ceiling.
“Destroy the world?”
“No, try to dominate the world. It seems pretty stressful to me.” To Max, it seemed like a lot of homework, and not much fun.
Min thought about it. “I don’t know.”
Max sat up with a sudden half smile, looking at Min as he gave Scout a scratch. “Hold on, are you a cat person now, or a robot person?”
Min looked at Scout, then at Javi, and smiled. “It’s not that simple. Not all robots are bad. Not all cats are good.
“Except . . . it seems like most cats are pretty good,” Min said, getting tackled by two kittens.
“I knew it! You are a cat person!” Max exclaimed.
They both sat for a while, listening to Javi scratching down notes, solving the problems of the galaxy.
Max asked, “Would you have thought you could be friends with a cat?”
“Not before I made friends with one.” Min was sure of that. “Would you have thought you’d be friends with a robot?”
Max laughed. “No way. Not before I saw Obi.”
Javi walked over and plopped down with them, scooping up the kittens from Max. “Looks like you guys have learned the most important lesson in resolving conflicts. If you know the other s
ide, a lot of times you end up liking the other side. And you know what they say about saving the world.”
“What?” Max and Min said.
“You can’t do it all by yourself. It’s all in the squad, baby. That’s what I learned from you guys, the cats, Joan, and everyone. It takes teamwork!”
Max nodded. “We need to save our friend first, right?”
“You know it.” Javi grinned. “Save your world. Save your friend. Save often, save always!”
The twins groaned, but Javi was right, even if their jokes were terrible. “At least we’re not alone,” Min said. “We’ve got Stu, Scout, the Protos, Mom, and Dad. We can get Obi back.”
“We have to,” said Max, turning to look up and out the window, toward the sky.
TO BE CONTINUED.
Acknowledgments
It seems appropriate for this book to thank all the animals who have loved and served our friends and family, including: Artica, Kitty Lynx, Robert Kennedy the Cat (Park City); Mr. Johnson (Richfield); Soupy, Clancy, and Nebo (Salt Lake); Mitty, Franklin, Pinky, Bentley, and Peaches, the Pride of Portofino Place (Bel Air); Nala (Beverly Park); Bear (the North Shore); Summer, Autumn, Buddha, Snowball, Kirby, and Zelda (Santa Monica); Beck and Holden (Sammamish); Panama, Shikai, Louis, and the lady hens Emily, Edie, Gloria, Selma Alice, Genny, Helen and Glenda (Ballard); Betty Davis, Big B Wolf and Amy Winehouse (Bellevue); Timbit, Sheldon, Zoe, Barney (Snoqualmie); April, Boise, and Nellie (Lacanada); Peaches Sethi, Buddy the Wizard, and Oscar (Los Angeles); Oliver, Lucky Blue, Yoshi, and Snowy (Summerlin); Coconut, Kiki, and of course, Peanut (New York City).
We would also like to thank the pets who keep our writer friends sane: Tennyson, Indy, Avi, Hammer, Spike, Angel, and Mimi.
We owe a great deal of thanks to many humans, as well.
You know who you are.
Meow! Beep! Boop! Woof!
XO Margie and Lewis (and Kay!)
About the Authors and Illustrator
Photo credit Joseph Moretti
MARGARET STOHL is the bestselling author of twelve books for children and teens, including coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestselling Beautiful Creatures series. She also cowrites The Mighty Captain Marvel for Marvel Comics. You can learn more about her at www.mstohl.com.
Photo credit Joseph Moretti
LEWIS PETERSON is a game developer and robot builder. When not writing books or making games or building robots, he spends his time reading books and playing games and chasing cats with robots.
Photo credit Johnson Hunt
KAY PETERSON is Margaret and Lewis’s youngest child and also their illustrator. The family shares a house in Santa Monica, California, with six animals, five humans, and a small army of robots.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Copyright
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
CATS VS. ROBOTS #1: THIS IS WAR. Copyright © 2018 by Margaret Stohl and Lewis Peterson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Front cover art by David Miles
Cover design by Andrea Vandergrift
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Stohl, Margaret, author. | Peterson, Lewis, author. | Peterson, Kay, illustrator.
Title: This is war / Margaret Stohl & Lewis Peterson ; illustrated by Kay Peterson.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Katherine Tegen Books, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2018] | Series: Cats vs. robots ; #1 | Summary: The longstanding and galaxy-spanning war between cats and robots escalates when each learns of inventions designed to extend their lives, and the potential of the devices is revealed when two kittens come into the lives of twin siblings on Earth.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017057241 | ISBN 9780062665706 (hardback)
Subjects: | CYAC: Cats—Fiction. | Robots—Fiction. | Twins—Fiction. | Brother and sisters—Fiction. | Inventions—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Robots. | JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / Cats. | JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General.
Classification: LCC PZ7.S86985 Th 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017057241
* * *
Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-266572-0
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-266570-6
1819202122PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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Cats vs. Robots, Volume 1 Page 18