Planet 99: Space Cats
"Betty!" Betty's mother called in that particular tone of voice that hinted the topic of conversation would be Sir Purrsefus.
"What is it mom?" Betty was already anticipating what her mother would ask. She thought she would ask her to do something for her so called little brother but she was pleasantly surprised to find out this time she didn't have to get involved.
"I'm going to take Purrsey to a new and exclusive luxury cat spa that recently opened. It's a three hour drive so I'll be gone for a while. Take care of the house for me!" Her mother was ready to leave with Purrsey in her arms. Betty heard of that spa from Penelope who was taking to her friends loudly enough for everyone else to hear, telling them about how her cats went to the spa on the day it opened. "There's food in kitchen in case I don't get back in time for lunch, bye Betty. Say good bye to your little brother!"
"Bye mom, bye Purrsey," Betty spoke her last goodbye to the cat with a hint of sarcasm present enough to satisfy her, yet hidden enough so that her mother didn't catch it. "Great, another Saturday all alone, not that mom did much except talk about Purrsey and attempt to experiment on my hair." Betty sat on the couch and thought about her options. She didn't even want to think about what her mother left for lunch. It had to be either cat food or barely edible old leftovers.
She could try to locate one of her Earth friends so they could go somewhere together, but they all had their plans. It was the consequences of constantly leaving them waiting. They started to assume she wasn't coming and stopped inviting her. She sighed and turned on the TV, changing the channels a few times before giving up and turning it back off again.
She lay on the couch staring at the ceiling for a moment. "I could go up there," she smiled at the thought. Sparky and X-5 were always willing to spend some time with her and she had fun. As if on cue, her bracelet chimed. "Atomic Betty reporting for duty!"
"Atomic Betty, I need to send you on a special mission," Admiral Degill informed. "This is an emergency. Maximus IQ recently stole a very powerful satellite laser weapon capable of destroying planets from a very large distance. That makes it extremely hard to know what planet will be attacked and gives us very little time to stop him or get the population to a safe place if he uses it. The weapon must be recovered and dismantled immediately."
As Admiral Degill explained, rain began to fall outside and two cats entered Betty's house by an open window. There was a male cat that was orange with black stripes and green eyes. The color of his fur had earned him the name 'Tiger'. Tiger was one of Purrsey's friends and the leader of a band of alley cats called the Lunar Felines. The Lunar Felines were very respected among the cats, both alley cats and house cats. He was chasing after a golden yellow female cat with blue eyes named Goldia. 'Goldia wait, you know I'm telling the truth!'
Goldia was a house cat that sometimes ran off to go on a few adventures with the Lunar Felines. That was one of the few alley cat gangs Purrsey associated with, but only because of their power and respect in the feline world. His only real friend from the gang was Tiger. Goldia ignored him and continued walking across the living room. 'Let's see what Purrsey has to say about it.'
'Purrsey's not here, that's why I had to give Princess his message," Tiger tried to explain. Purrsey was supposed to meet Princess, one of Penelope's cats whom he was dating that day. But his mother, who was actually Betty's mother, told him only an hour ago that they were going to the spa. So Purrsey asked his friend Tiger to give Princess a message explaining why he couldn't go visit her that day. Tiger gave Princess the message with all the nice things Purrsey said about her, but when Goldia overheard she thought Tiger was the one saying those things to Princess.
"I'm on my way!" Atomic Betty was beamed her up. The cats walked by at that precise moment and were beamed up with her. In her haste to recover the dangerous weapon Maximus stole, Betty didn't notice the two cats. "Set a course for Maximus' lair we have to recover that weapon!"
"What's the plan, chief?" Sparky piloted the Starcruiser full speed, while occasionally sneezing.
"We'll have to sneak in and take the weapon before he uses it," Betty did not sound as if she was looking forward to doing it.
"You don't mean we have to sneak in by the trash bin, do we?" Sparky had a look of fear in his face.
Atomic Betty nodded, "I'm afraid so."
"But it stinks in there," Sparky complained and sneezed.
"Too bad you can't simply disable your sense of smell," X-5 voiced.
"Very funny Mr. I can turn off my nose, then again you don't even have a nose!" Sparky pointed to the empty space on X-5's face where a nose would be located.
"My robotic sense of smell is very accurate and the sensors do not require a nasal structure," X-5 countered.
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They arrived at Maximus' lair and snuck in. Everything was going according to plan. "What is this place?" Goldia asked before remembering she wasn't talking to Tiger.
"I don't know, but it has a lot of trash," Tiger had followed Betty, Sparky and X-5 into the trash bin along with Goldia. "We came here in that strange transportation machine. Do you think this is that strange dimension Purrsey said he visited?"
Goldia didn't answer, she simply made her way out of the trash bin ignoring Tiger. "Achu!" Sparky sneezed loudly. "All this trash is giving me allergies!"
"You sneezed on the ship also, maybe you have contracted a space virus," X-5 theorized.
"No, I'm sure it's the smell of evil trash," Sparky insisted.
"I don't like this either, but it's the only way in unnoticed. We can't risk letting Maximus know we're here, he might try to use the weapon right now," Betty cautioned. They made it out of the trash and started searching the lair, staying hidden from the guards.
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The cats had also made it out of the trash unnoticed and Goldia was still ignoring Tiger. Deep down she knew he was telling the truth about delivering Purrsey's message, but she was unhappy with his alley cat ways. It was as if she was looking for any excuse to find out how much he really appreciated her. Goldia continued walking until she was standing right in front of Maximus. She stopped and stared in disbelief. That must be the big cat Purrsey told them about, so it was true after all.
Being a house cat Goldia was used to being around people so she was more trusting of strangers than an alley cat would be. Tiger didn't have very nice experiences with humans due to his stealing of food. Maximus wasn't a human but he walked and dressed like them even if he looked like a cat, so that was suspicious. "Hi," Goldia meowed.
Maximus looked down at the creature that meowed. It was a yellow pet specimen. "Hello, how did you get in here?" He picked up Goldia and petted her.
"Goldia, get away from him!" Tiger hissed from behind some furniture.
Maximus looked around, almost sensing the presence of someone else in the room, but before he could go check, Minimus came in. "Your evilness, are you going to try out your new weapon now?"
"Not right now," Maximus cuddled his new pet. "Look what I found!"
"Another one?" Minimus was disappointed. "Great, another one of those things to clean after," his angry face complained.
Goldia stuck her tongue out in Tiger's direction, then hugged Maximus and licked his face. "Shut up Minimus look how friendly she is. I'll give her a tour of the lair."
"Your evilness, what about the weapon?" Minimus asked once more.
"Not now!" Maximus yelled hitting Minimus on the head. "We can blow up the planets later they're not going anywhere. I want to play with my new pet and she needs a name."
"How about Cheese, they're both yellow," Minimus suggested.
"Cheese is not a name worthy of a pet worthy of me! Her name is Maxima." At that very moment Tiger jumped on Maximus. Goldia tried to stop him but Tiger was very fast. "Minimus, get it off!" Minimus backed away slowly, but Maximus managed to grab him by the tail and tried to hit Tiger with the sidekick, but missed and ended up banging Minimus against the wall several times. Maximus let out a loud half-hiss half-meow and Tiger retreated. Another meow came out and Maximus quickly dropped Minimus and covered his mouth. "I did not say that," he repeated over and over.
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Goldia used the distraction to go find Tiger and yell at him. "That's it? All those alley cat fights and that reputation for being unbeatable and you ran away?"
"He sounded like he was going to fight for real and he's so much bigger than me and... and... Alright Goldia, I lost, you can stay with him if you like him. I want you to know that I was telling the truth about Purrsey's message. I want you to be happy Goldia... I love you, good bye," before Goldia could say anything Tiger ran off.
Goldia knew it was useless to go after him, being Tiger the fastest cat in that area and possibly in their entire dimension. "Tiger, you do care..."
"There you are," Maximus found Goldia. "I wonder why that other one attacked me like that?" He asked no one in particular as he petted the yellow cat.
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Atomic Betty, Sparky and X-5 were still searching for the stolen weapon. As they walked, Sparky tripped on Minimus. "Look chief, it's a Minimus shaped carpet."
"That's the real Minimus," Betty corrected.
Sparky curiously poked him. "I don't think you should do that," X-5 warned.
"Ow," Minimus was half conscious, with his eyes closed. At least they knew he was alive.
"I told you so," X-5 voiced.
"Know it all," Sparky pouted.
"Let's go before he wakes up completely," Betty urged and they resumed their search.
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It didn't take too long for Maximus to locate Tiger, who had gotten lost in the confusing alien structure of the lair. "Stay here I'll go see if I can make peace with him," Maximus placed Goldia on the floor. "Hello specimen soon to be called Maxitwo," Maximus approached Tiger.
Goldia watched, wondering what will happen next. A robot came by and saw her. "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" The robot's mechanical voice screamed. The robot tried to hit Goldia with a hammer, but she jumped out of the way and it chased her. Tiger ran pass Maximus and tried to save her.
The robot cornered them but Tiger still tried to protect Goldia. The hammer was about to come down on them and there was noting they could do. "Goodbye Goldia," Tiger tried to cover her from the impact. Both cats closed their eyes but the hammer never came down.
Maximus had deactivated the robot and pushed it away just in time. "Are you two alright? Come here."
"He saved us," Tiger realized. "I guess you'll stay with him..."
"Don't be silly, Tiger. I believe you and besides, he only wanted to keep me as a pet. He's more like the humans than us," Goldia explained. "Let's go say good bye to him before we head back."
Both cats ran to Maximus and he hugged them. "That's better, I knew they had to like me. They'll both be my pets." However, Maximus couldn't get his wish because as soon as he was distracted both cats ran back to the Starcruiser and waited for it to transport them to their dimension.
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Atomic Betty, Sparky and X-5 recovered the stolen weapon and took it apart according to plan. Everything went smoothly save for a few sneezes by Sparky that he blamed on the scent of evil garbage on his uniform.
The cats jumped in the teleporter as Atomic Betty was beamed back to Earth. The cats jumped out the same open window now that the rain had stopped and the sun was shining.
Betty wondered what Maximus could possibly be doing that was more important to him than testing his new weapon; they didn't see him while they were at the lair. There was that time Sparky tripped over the unconscious Minimus, but obviously the sidekick wasn't able to do anything.
Somehow Betty felt like she was missing half the story thinking of those events. She decided it was okay as long as the mission was completed successfully and went to the kitchen to see what her mother left her for lunch. After throwing away the inedible disaster, she ordered a pizza.
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Maximus never figured out what happened to his new pets, but he concluded that they left in whatever way they came. "Minimus, Did you find the weapon?"
"No your evilness, I can't find it," Minimus replied. "Maybe if you were more organized things wouldn't get lost!" His angry face added still in disbelief the rather large weapon of mass destruction had been misplaced.
End of Planet 99
Disclaimer, I don't own Atomic Betty.