The Zillionaires XXI

(The Search For Missy)

"KEITH! LOOK OUT!" and with that, Ryan jumped into the street and tried to shove Keith out of the road, but Keith fell to the ground.

The eighteen wheeler ran over them both. It bent up Ryan’s metal body, and crushed Keith’s legs. Keith was unconscious.

Keith had been doing a thermodynamics experiment in the middle of a deserted road on Saturday. Cars and trucks rarely came on this road.

Before he had seen the truck, Ryan had heard it with his extra good hearing. He didn’t think the truck was coming until it was almost too late.

Keith woke up in Ryan’s lab, laying on a table. He couldn’t feel his legs. He lifted his head, and screamed. His legs were gone!

Ryan came over, "What’s wrong? Oh, I had to take your legs off."

Keith continued to scream. "MY LEGS! MY LEGS! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! WHERE ARE MY LEGS?!"

"I said, I had to take them off."

"WHAT!?"

"You would’ve died if I didn’t. I’m already busy making new legs for you. They’re just like mine. I’m going to teleport you to the hospital."

"WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?!" Keith screamed some more.

"You were hit by a truck and got crushed."

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

"Just calm down! You’re okay now. You’ll live."

"But, but, my legs! Where are they?!"

Ryan walked out of the room, and in a minute returned with Keith’s legs.

Keith promptly screamed and then fainted.

When Keith woke up, he thought about what had happened. He remembered his experiment and a big truck coming towards him. He couldn’t hear it because he had on his headphones and he was using the chainsaw to cut the wood. After he saw the truck, he couldn’t remember anything else.

Keith opened his eyes. His legs were still there. "Oh, yes! It was just a dream! YES!"

"Uh, Keith?"

Keith whipped his head around and saw Ryan. "Yes?"

"It wasn’t a dream."

"Huh? But I still have my legs."

"No, you’re legs are in the other room."

"Oh yeah? Well let me see them."

"No."

"Why not?" asked Keith.

"Because when I did, you screamed and fainted."

"I did?"

"Yes.""Then what are my legs still doing on my body?"

"Those aren’t your real legs."

"Then what are they?"

"Fake legs. Like mine. They are connected to you and work like regular legs, only better."

"Oh yeah? Well they look real to me."

"I made them look that way."

"Oh. Well then prove it to me."

"Okay." Ryan said. Then Ryan walked over and removed Keith’s legs.

"AAAAHHHHHHHH! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?"

"Relax. These are your new legs."

"You mean you were telling me the truth?!"

"Yes." Ryan said sadly. "I saved you. If I hadn’t of been around, you would have been killed."

"Oh my goodness."

"It’s okay though."

"How?"

"Well," started Ryan, "your legs won’t get tired, they’re very strong, You can kick down a building, they have rocket boosters like mine, and you can run 3000 miles-an-hour."

"Whoa!"

"Now I have to teleport you to the hospital so you can recover."

"Teleport?"

"Yeah, I just made a new teleporting device last night."

"Okay, but if it kills me, I’m going to have to kill you."

"You’ll be dead. Anyway, trust me. I already tried on Stinkeroo. He’s got all the necessary things on. I teleported him to Pluto. He should be back in ten minutes and thirty three point four seconds from now."

"You tried it on my cat?! I’ll kill you! Who said you could kidnap my pet and teleport him to Pluto?! Try it on your own animals! I can’t believe you broke into my house and stole my cat so you could-"

Ryan pushed a couple of buttons, and Keith was teleported to the hospital in mid-sentence.

Ryan went back to work on the new program he was going to put in Keith’s legs.

Ryan lost track of the time, and when Stinkeroo reappeared and scratched him, he messed up, and accidentally pushed the wrong buttons.

He threw Stinkeroo out of his lab, and looked at the computer screen again.

"That’s weird."

Ryan had accidentally logged on to the Internet and onto Keith’s secret home-page.

The screen flashed "User Name" and below it, "Password" over and over.

He typed in "Keith Matthew Carter" and then used a password cracker that he had invented. In just a few seconds, he had hacked into Keith’s secret home-page.

"What would you like to look at, Sir?" the computer speakers said.

Ryan used his "Voice-Disguiser" that he had invented and used Keith’s voice and said, "Any criminal records."

Ryan was just checking. Maybe Keith had some criminal records somewhere. He didn’t actually intend to find anything

The computer screen came up with a list of records. Ryan used a search string and found one criminal record.

He read it with lighting speed. The most important part he read was that Keith had worked for the bad-guys as a double-agent for three years. That was five years ago.

Ryan was surprised. Even as a robot he would never had thought that Keith was a badguy!

He then went onto the COA’s (Criminal Organization of America) homepage and used his password hacker again with Keith’s name.

The screen came up and said:

Valid User-Name and Password .

Please wait one minute.

"Ha! Now to find out what the badguys are up to this time."

Ryan then went to the "SECRET PROJECT" page.

A list of three things came up. The list read,

1: Bad-Guy-Made-Poisonous-Snake (Stupid)

2: Automatic Machine Gun (They’ve already been invented. Duh!)

3: Ninety-Million Mega-Ton Bomb (Whoa!)

Just then Keith came into the room on his new legs. "Hey Ryan. What are you doing?"

"Oh, Hi Keith. Uh- nothing. Nothing at all." Ryan frantically exited the program.

"Oh yeah?" Keith grabbed the mouse and brought the program back up. "You went to my secret homepage?"

"Uh- yeah."

"What for?"

"It was an accident. Stinkeroo reappeared and messed me up. Somehow I got onto your page."

"Find anything interesting?"

"Yeah. Why did you do it?"

"Do what?" Keith asked.

"You know. Work for the badguys."

"Huh? What are you talking about? I never worked for the badguys!"

"Well it says you did."

‘Well that’s a lie because I didn’t do it! Someone must have screwed up the files."

"Who could of done it then?"

"I don’t know." Ryan said, "How do I know that it wasn’t you?"

"Because it was me." said Stinkeroo.

"HUH??!!!!!!!" Keith and Ryan both shouted at the same time.

"You heard me. It was me." Stinkeroo said, then began to lick himself.

"You can talk?" asked Keith.

"Duh. All cats can talk. It’s just that none of them want to."

"Where did you learn to talk?" asked Ryan.

"God gave me the power of speech. Other cats have to learn it and that takes years. Most cats die before they can learn to talk fluently."

"Whoa." said Keith, "This is really weird."

"Not weird," Stinkeroo said, "unique."

"So why did you do it?" asked Keith.

"Because you don’t like me."

"Huh?"

"You don’t like me. You always force me to eat the same thing over and over again. And you don’t let me go outside."

"WHAT?! I always let you go out!" then he mumbled, "After you meow about a million times."

"And you, Ryan, I still have to do something to you."

"Me?!" Ryan said, "What did I ever do to you?"

Stinkeroo responded by saying, "You teleported me to Pluto, you threw me out of your lab, you stepped on me yesterday, you kicked me across the room because you found two cat hairs on the sofa, you dumped me in a bucket of water, and remember what you did to me that time when you where working on the television and I accidentally stepped on the remote and turned it on and then the electricity-"

"Okay, okay, okay. You can stop now. I’m sorry. All right?"

"After all that and all you can say is you’re sorry?"

"Well what do you want me to do then, Stinkeroo?"

"First you could feed me anything I want when ever I want. Even though I’m not you’re cat, you should let me in whenever I want. And you, Keith. I want you to change my name. Stinkeroo is such a spazzy name." said the cat.

"That can be arranged." said Keith, "What do you want to be named?"

"How about Socrates? I always like that name."

"I guess. Sure."

"And Ryan. Am I allowed in you house?"

"If you want to, but you have to use the cat door. And if you go to the bathroom outside of the litter boxes, I’ll kick you butt so hard you won’t know what happened till you’re well outta the state." said Ryan.

"And will you feed me?"

"Only leftovers."

Socrates thought for a minute then said, "O.K."

"Good. Let’s get on with the things we need to do now." said Socrates.

"What do we have to do, Socrates?" Keith said.

"You need to get me food. NOW!" Socrates screamed in reply.

"Okay." Keith replied. Then he got up from the chair he was sitting in and went to get Socrates some food.

After Keith left the room, Socrates said to Ryan, "Well, Ryan, since Keith is out of the room lets get talking. I know how good you are with almost everything. I need you to find someone for me. It’s another cat. She speaks too, just like me, so you will know her when you find her."

"What’s her name?" asked Ryan.

"Her name is Missy." Socrates replied, "I knew her from the beginning of our lives. We lived in the same litter. She was a stray, but my mother let her stay there with us. We got to know each other really well. So you can see why I want you to fin-"

Right then Keith walked into the room.

"What were you saying?" he demanded of Socrates.

"Nothing!" He replied. "Now go get me something to sleep on."

"Fine, your royal majesty." and Keith left the room.

"Now as I was saying before, you can see why I want you to find her. Please help me, Ryan. This is very important to me. I have nothing to live for except her. If I never am able to see her again, then my life isn’t worth living. Please Ryan, help me." Socrates said to Ryan.

"Okay, I’ll try to find her." Then Ryan got up and walked to the door. Right as he was pulling it open he turned and said, "Socrates, what does she look like, and are you coming, and can Keith come along with me too?"

"Well, she’s a calico cat, and she meows a lot. Last I ever heard from her, she was living in Italy with a very nice family, but they love her. It’ll be hard for you to get her out. Plus, she is the queen cat there, and there are many others which will try to kill you if you get near them. So be advised. If you must take Keith I guess you can, just don’t let him order you around. And last, I will go with you on one condition. You let me steer your new state-of-the-art Hovering Car that you built." Socrates replied.

"Well, I guess you can steer it for a few minutes, but if anything happens, you’ll never see your Missy again. Is that understood?" Ryan said firmly.

"Sure thing Ry. No problemo." Socrates replied cooly. Then he mumbled under his breath, "You stuck-up jerk."

"Then let’s go." Ryan turned to leave but said one more thing, without looking at Socrates. "Don’t call me ‘Ry’ again."

Then they walked out and ran right into Keith.

"Hey, where are you two going?" Keith asked.

"Well, we were going-" and Ryan punched him in the head to knock him out, "-to invite you along, but now we have no choice. I guess I’ll put him in the car. This way he won’t know where he is when he wakes up." then he turned to Socrates and said, "If he finds out what we’re doing from the very beginning we will never be able to pull it off. This way we’re a long way away from home, and when he wakes up, he won’t know a thing." Ryan then injected Keith with a tranquilizer to keep him asleep for a long time.

"Sure thing Ryan. Let’s go find Missy." Socrates said.

Then they were off to find Missy.

As soon as they started off, Socrates talked Ryan into letting him drive.

"Now listen Socrates." Ryan said, "You have to be very careful with this thing. Don’t crash it. I only have one more of these."

"Okay, okay. I’ll be very careful."

"Be sure that you do."

Socrates started up the vehicle and took off. They shot forward at 600 mph and leaped into the air.

"Holy cow!" Ryan exclaimed, "Slow down already! You’re going to kill us all like this!"

"Well sorry! I’ve never driven before in my life!"

"You’re not going have much more of a life if you keep driving like that!" Ryan shouted.

Socrates slowed down and flew down to the road and landed.

"Now remember," Ryan said, "take it easy this time."

"Okay, I’ll try."

Socrates drove slowly until another vehicle came up along side of them. The vehicle was a Porsche X-8900. The driver leaned out of the window and shouted, "That’s a nice car, but what do you have under the hood?"

"Care to find out?" Socrates shouted back.

From the other car it looked like Ryan was the one driving and Socrates couldn’t be seen.

"You’re on!" the driver shouted back.

Socrates put the petal to the metal and took off. The other driver did likewise. They came to the base of a mountain and raced up the road. The road was very curvy. It was also getting narrower. A sign up ahead read, BRIDGE OUT: 5 MILES.

"Socrates!" Ryan shouted, "Stop this car now!"

"No way! I gotta show this guy that we’re better than him! If I stop now, that guy’ll think that I’m a coward!"

"Better a coward than dead, Socrates!"

"Sorry Ryan, but this is something that I have to do."

Ryan mumbled under his breath.

Socrates zoomed ahead of the other guy but ran into a dirt pile and shot into the air. The car spun around a few times before landing on top of the other guy. The impact destroyed the guys steering controls and jammed the accelerator. They were riding along side of a cliff and getting dangerously close to the side. Then they saw the bridge up ahead with a road block in front of it.

"Oh no!" they all shouted at the same time.

The cars ran into the road block and onto the bridge. Right in the middle of the bridge was a 2 mile gap where the bridge had caved in. They were 3 miles up in the air. Both of the cars flew off of the bridge and started to fall.

"Socrates!" Ryan shouted.

Ryan took control of the vehicle and flew towards the other car. The driver was screaming inside.

Ryan got along side of it and opened the door by the other car. The wind tore at him and pulled Socrates straight out of the car! His mouth was wide open and his eyes were almost pulled out of his head.

"Socrates! No!" Ryan screamed.

Socrates meowed his head off. The wind pulled at his fur and his eyes and mouth. He began screeching.

The other guy in the Porsche frantically tried to open his door but the wind held in shut. Ryan pulled out his laser gun and burned off the door. It flew off behind them and almost hit Socrates. Socrates grabbed it and decided to ride it like a surf board.

The guy jumped out and was pulled back behind the car by the wind. He was screaming his head off. Ryan turned around and flew towards the guy and came along side of him. The man grabbed the car door and pulled himself into the vehicle. He put on the seat belt and slammed the door shut.

"Now what do we do?!" the man screamed.

"Now we fly around and try to find Socrates."

"Who?"

"My cat. He was the one driving this thing when we flew off of the cliff."

"This is no time for humor man! We are going to die!"

The man was right. They were within a mile of the ground and flying towards it and 900 mph. Ryan jerked the car horizontally and started looking for Socrates. When he saw him, he raced towards him and Socrates jumped in.

They were about to hit the ground when Ryan pulled the car back and put it in full reverse thrust. They stopped in the air only 4 feet from the ground! Ryan landed and they all got out. The owner of the Porsche started kissing the ground. Meanwhile, the Porsche was still falling. It hit the ground and created a huge crater. It caused an earthquake that shook the ground for miles. You could here it when it hit for miles. The car was totally destroyed and unrecognizable. It was buried somewhere in the middle of the crater. It had gone 300 feet into the ground.

Ryan gave the man 100,000 dollars for the damage to the car and drove the man to his home.

Ryan and Socrates went to the airfield.

"Where does Missy live?" asked Ryan to Socrates.

"Via Colombina 3, Ceparana, Italy." Socrates replied.

Keith was still in the back of the car and was unconscious through the entire thing!

When they got to the airfield, Ryan picked up Keith and put him in one of the planes. He and Socrates followed. Ryan got in the cockpit and Socrates became the new co-piolet.

"This plane in so cool." Socrates said.

"Thanks," Ryan said, "but you should be thanking Keith. He designed and built this super jet."

"I never thought he was that smart."

"There’s a lot you don’t know about Keith."

"Like what?"

"Well, I’ll tell you on the way to Italy."

"Okay." said Socrates.

"And Socrates?"

"Yeah?"

"There is no way whatsoever that I am letting you drive this thing."

"Okay. I understand. And I’m sorry for what happened. I was just showing off."

"Well, I guess I can forgive you. I guess this is why cats don’t get drivers licences."

"Probably."

Ryan started to fly the plane away from the airfield when a stolen pursuit helicopter piloted by a badguy took off and flew towards him.

Ryan didn’t see the helicopter, but Socrates did, and he shouted, "Ryan! Look out!"

Ryan turned his head and saw the helicopter. He tried to turn plane, but he couldn’t do it fast enough. The helicopter crashed right into the side of the plane’s wing and broke it.

"Mayday, Mayday! Ryan to command post, we’ve been hit and are going down. I repeat we are going down!" Ryan tried to land the airplane, but it nosedived right into the taxi strip. The front of the plane started smoking. Then it caught on fire.

"Run! Socrates! Run! Get to the cargo area. I’ll get Keith and take him there. We can get out through it. There’s a door there where we put the bags in. Go Socrates!" Ryan screamed.

Then Ryan ran into the compartment that Keith was so soundly sleeping in, and picked him up with his incredibly strong arms.

"Whoa Keith, I never knew you weighed so much. You must have a lot more muscles than I thought you had. No wonder you’re as strong as I am." Ryan said to the unconscious Keith. Ryan had sensors in his robotic arms to tell him how much something weighed. Keith weighed 285 pounds. His muscles bulged out through his shirt were it had been torn when they crashed.

Ryan took Keith to the cargo area and opened the cargo door by pulling the emergency cord. The door opened and Ryan and Socrates jumped out, just as the front of the plane exploded.

As Socrates and Ryan were running away from the plane, it blew up, and they were thrown through the air at least twenty feet, and Ryan skidded to a stop by two large double doors. Socrates landed on his feet and Keith landed on some luggage that cushioned his fall. Somehow, Keith was still unconscious during the ordeal.

"Killer Dismount!" Socrates groaned.

Ryan got up and dusted himself off. He didn’t get hurt because he was an android. "Uh oh, where’s Keith?" He looked all around for him. Then he spotted him on the luggage.

Ryan went over to Keith and picked him up, and put him over his shoulder. He then called Socrates, and they went to one of the club lounges in the huge ZillionAir Airport. Ryan put Keith on one of the couches and went over to order some food. Although he was an android, he still liked to eat. Food still tasted good to him. He ordered ten waffles, one triple-layered chocolate cake, a super large Dr. Pepper, and a newspaper. When he got all his food he went to sit down with Socrates at one of the tables near the bed where Keith was laying.

"Excuse me," Socrates said, "Where is my food?"

"Oh, I though I would let you order your own food. Just go up to the counter, jump on it, tell the lady what you want, and tell her to bring it over to this table."

Then Socrates went over to the counter and jumped on it. The waitress tried to push him off.

"Hey, don’t touch me babe. I’m Socrates, the greatest cat in the world, and I can talk."

"Awesome. Can I take your order, you cute little talking kitty cat?" the lady said.

"Yes. I want 20 cans of chicken and liver flavored cat food, a huge bowl of milk, and I want twenty eggs, with cheese and sausage, scrambled. Oh, and bring over to that table over there." Socrates replied, pointing a claw at Ryan’s table.

"Sure thing sir. I mean, cat. By the way, can I pet you please? I just love kitty cats."

"If you have to."

The lady, who looked about 18 years old, started petting him. Socrates started purring so loud that everyone heard him. The waitress picked him up and stroked his fur. Then she kissed him in front of everyone. Socrates started blushing.

"That’s very nice of you, but I already have a long lost love that I am in pursuit of."

"When can I see you again?" the lady asked.

"Let me think. Never. Sorry."

"That’s okay."

Then Socrates jumped off the counter and ran over to the table he and Ryan were staying at.

"Man, all this stuff that’s happening today is making me hungry." Socrates said.

"Yeah, you know, you’re right. It has been quite a day today." Ryan said, still reading the newspaper he had ordered.

"Ryan, is there a cat section in that newspaper?" Socrates asked.

"No, but here’s something about a cat named Missy."

"What’s it say? What’s it say? Tell me!!! Tell me!!!"

"Okay, okay. It says here that a cat named Missy, who is the greatest female cat alive, who lives in Italy, was kidnaped yesterday. The owners of her are two teenagers and it says that they aren’t offering a reward because they don’t have any money."

"Missy? My Missy?"

"I’m afraid so, Socrates."

"Oh man, we’ve gotta find her."

"I know, Socrates. I know."

"What about those teenagers, how come they don’t have any money?"

"Probably because their parents won’t give them an allowance." Ryan said.

"What?! That’s an outrage! Every parent should give their kids an allowance! I’m sure those kids are hard-working, mature young men and they deserve an allowance."

"I know, Socrates, but maybe we can give them some money."

"Yes," said Socrates, "Lets do that."

Ryan got up from the table and went to inject Keith with a reverse tranquilizer. Then he went straight to the phone. He dialed the number for airport security. They got there in what seemed like only seconds.

"Yes, sir. What do you need, sir?" One of the men said.

"I want to take my brother Keith over there laying on the bed to a private train going by his mansion, and take him into the mansion. Got it?" Ryan replied.

"Yes, sir. You heard him men, let’s move it now! Go, go, go!"

Then the men grabbed Keith and put him on a stretcher, and took him out of the room.

"Socrates," Ryan said, "I think it’s time to go find Missy."

"I agree Ryan. Let’s go." Socrates said.

They got in another plane and took off.

When Keith got home he was still groggy. He sat up and yawned. Then he rubbed his eyes and looked around. The last thing he remembered was Ryan punching him in the head.

"Ryan?" he called out, "Ryan, where are you?" He got off of his bed and went to his lab. After he turned on his computer, he turned on his tracker and tracked down Ryan. He discovered that he was in Italy. "What in the world is he doing in Italy?" Keith thought. Then Keith checked the coordinates again. He raced to his home and into his secret hanger under ground. He chose out his Motojet and took off. He flew through the air and headed towards Italy to find Ryan.

Meanwhile, Socrates and Ryan were driving on the Italian roads. They had taken the Roadjet off of the plane and went in the direction of Missy’s home. When the got to her house, they rang the bell outside of the gate. The gate opened up and they drove in. The driveway split off into two directions. Ryan went to the left. They drove up by the front door and went to it. Ryan let Socrates ring the bell. A woman came to the door.

"Yes?" she said.

"Hi." Said Ryan, "Are you Barbara Jenkins?"

"No, I’m Sally Field. Barbara Jenkins lives upstairs."

"Oh. Sorry. How do I get upstairs?"

"Just follow the driveway around the house."

"Okay. Thank you ma’am."

"You’re welcome."

Ryan got in his vehicle and drove around the other side of the house. The road went up a hill and was level with the second floor of the three story house. He got out and rang the door bell. He heard two people running and then it sounded like they jumped down some stairs. Then the door opened. There were the two teenage boys there."Hi." Ryan said, "Is this the Jenkins’ home?"

"Yes it is." said the oldest boy. "Hey wait a second! You’re Ryan Carter!"

"Yes, I am." Ryan said. "And who are you?"

The oldest boy answered, "I’m Jonathan Jenkins and this is my brother Michael. What are you doing here? You should be out fighting crime and stuff. And where’s your brother, Keith?" Jonathan said.

"Right here." Keith said. He walked out from around Ryan’s vehicle.

"Hey!" Jonathan said.

"What-how did you get here?!" Ryan demanded.

"I flew here."

"I mean how did you find me?"

"I tracked you down with my computer. What are you doing here in Italy?"

"I came here to find Missy." Ryan said.

"You did?!" Jonathan and Michael both said at the same time.

"You actually came here to look for our cat?!" Michael said, "I can’t believe it! Wait till Taylor hears about this!"

"And I have someone here who knows Missy." Ryan said.

"Hello Jonathan and Michael." said Socrates.

"A TALKING CAT!" Jonathan and Michael both shouted.

Jonathan then shouted, "Mom! Come here!"

Then she came into the room.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hello, ma’am." Ryan said.

"Hello." Keith stammered.

"Mom." Jonathan said, "This is Ryan and Keith Carter, the Zillionaires. And they have a talking cat with them."

The boys’ mom gasped. "Well hello! Come on in!"

Ryan and Keith accepted the invitation and she led the way to the kitchen.

"Have a seat." Michael said.

"Thank you." Ryan and Keith said as they sat down.

"You know Michael," Ryan said, "It seems as if I already know you."

"Maybe you do." Michael said, "After all, I am the one who has been sending you all those anonymous e-mails."

"So you’re the one."

"Yep. I am."

"Do you know that you’re the only person who actually found out my email address?"

"Really? Cool."

"Would you like something to drink?" Mrs. Jenkins asked.

"Just water is fine for me." Keith said.

"No thank you." Ryan said, "I don’t need anything right now. Androids don’t need to eat."

"Oh that’s right." Mrs. Jenkins said. "So. What brings you to Italy and how come you came here?"

"Well," Ryan said, "We came to find Missy. You see, Socrates here and Missy are in love with each other."

"Hello ma’am." Socrates said.

"See Mom?" Jonathan said. "It’s a talking cat."

Just then Max walked into the room.

"Max!" Socrates said, and jumped off of the table to see his cat friend. They started talking in cat language.

"Missy has been kidnaped though." Jonathan said.

"Excuse me a second. Ryan?" Keith asked.

"Yes?"

"Could I speak with you in private for a moment?"

"Uh, sure."

"Do you mind if we go on your balcony?" Keith asked Mrs. Jenkins.

"No, go ahead."

"Thanks."

Ryan and Keith went onto the balcony.

"All right." Keith said, "What’s going on here?"

"Well, it’s a long story."

"I have time. Spill it. Now!"

Then Ryan told him everything that had happened.

When they went back inside, they sat back down.

"Now," Ryan said, "Do you have any idea who took Missy?"

"Well, there are a few people around here who are jealous of Missy’s beauty, but they couldn’t have taken her. They aren’t smart enough. They’re Italian. The only other thing I can think of is that the night before last, we heard this cat fight, and we haven’t seen Missy since then." Michael said.

"What about that lady below you? Could she have done it?" Ryan asked.

"Well," Michael replied, "She loves cats, but I don’t see why she’d kidnap Missy. She has a ton of cats."

Jonathan said, "I don’t think that any one did it, I think the cats kidnaped Missy, and are keeping her somewhere."

"Why would cats kidnap another cat?" Keith asked.

"Isn’t it obvious? They are jealous of Missy and all the attention that she is getting." Jonathan replied.

"Does anyone live upstairs?" Keith asked.

"The Shannons do." Michael said. "But they wouldn’t have done it."

"Why not?" Ryan asked.

"Because Taylor is our best friend and Mrs. Shannon is allergic to cats."

"Well what about Mr. Shannon and Meahgan? Mr. Shannon doesn’t like us you know." Jonathan said.

"Yeah, I know. I don’t know why though."

"Whose Meahgan?" Asked Keith.

"Meahgan is Taylor’s sister." Michael said

"Well then, what about Meahgan?" Ryan asked.

"She’s only seven years old. And she likes Missy." Michael answered.

"Okay." said Keith. "We have only one suspect, no clues, and no leads."

"We need to get some because if we don’t find Missy, Socrates will be heart broken." Ryan said. "Hey wait a second! Doesn’t Missy meow a lot?"

"Sure." Said Michael, "Especially in the morning and when you hold her.

"Then she is probably meowing right now! And if she is, I can listen to her with my microphone sensors!"

"Cool!" Michael and Jonathan said simultaneously.

"Now everyone be quiet." Ryan said, "I’m going to try it now." He turned on the microphone sensors and tried to her meowing. He picked up nothing. "She’s not meowing now."

"Then she’s probably asleep. Let’s try it again in the morning. She’ll be meowing then for sure." Jonathan said.

"Okay." said Keith. "So. Jonathan and Michael. How would like to visit my house? You can bring Taylor with you and your parents can come along too."

"Really?!!! Wow! Yes! Definitely!" Jonathan shouted. Michael was shouting too.

"I don’t know if I want to go." Mrs. Jenkins said. "But you and Michael can go if you want too."

"All right!" Jonathan and Michael both said.

"Let’s go see if Taylor can come!" Jonathan said, "Hey Keith and Ryan, come with us so you can talk to his parents."

"Okay." Keith.

Keith, Jonathan, Ryan, and Michael all got up from the table and went outside.

"This is a nice yard ya’ll guys have here." Keith remarked.

"It belongs to the landlord of the house. He is very nice. About the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. And so is his wife. They are an elderly couple."

They walked up the stairs and rang the Shannons’ door bell. Taylor came to the door. "Hi Jonathan and Michael."

"Do you know who these two guys are?" Jonathan asked.

"No." Taylor said.

"Well, these two guys are Ryan and Keith Carter, the richest people in the world!"

"Oh wow!"

"And guess what?"

"What?!"

"Keith has invited us to go see his house! Would you like to come?"

"Yeah!"

"Go get your Mom and bring her here." Ryan said.

"Okay!" Taylor ran off and brought his mom back.

"Hello Mrs. Shannon." Keith said.

"Hello. Who are you?" Mrs. Shannon asked.

"We’re Ryan and Keith Carter, the Zillionaires." Keith said.

"Well, hello!" Mrs. Shannon said. "What are you doing here?!"

"Since Jonathan and Michael are going with us back to our house, we thought that maybe Taylor could come along if he’d like to."

"Please Mom!" Taylor begged. "Let me go."

"Yeah. Let him go with us." Jonathan asked.

"How long will ya’ll be gone?"

"We’ll be back tomorrow morning." Keith answered.

"Well, I guess so."

"YES!" Taylor screamed. "When can we leave?!"

"As soon as you get your stuff ready to go."

Taylor raced to get his stuff and so did Jonathan and Michael. They were ready in less than 5 minutes. Jonathan and Taylor got in with Keith in his vehicle. Michael got in with Ryan in his vehicle. Socrates stayed with Mrs. Jenkins so he could see his cat friends.

Ryan and Keith shot off into the air and combined their vehicles to create the SuperRoadJet. The flew as fast as they could to California. They all talked the entire way there.

Jonathan showed Keith some of the house plans he had designed and Michael helped Ryan fix a bug in his computer.

"This is a really cool computer, Ryan."

"Thanks Michael."

"What’s wrong with your computer Ryan?"

"Well, Keith tried to crack into my secret files but I’m better with computers that he is but he still cracked my codes and messed up the files."

"Can I try?"

"Well, I guess."

Michael tried one of his secret ways of finding passwords and actually cracked one of Ryan Carter’s passwords!

"I did it!"

"Good job. Actually, you did such a good job, you can have this laptop. But you’ll have to find and fix the bug."

"Well, I can just reformat the hard drive."

"That would work. Besides, there’s nothing really important on the computer anyway. Just passwords to criminal files. No big deal."

"Passwords to criminal files? Like who? Venucci? Max? Any of the other criminals you’ve guys captured?"

"Yeah, just those an a few others."

"Cool."

When they got back to Ryan and Keith’s Duplex-Mansion, they went inside, and introduced Michael, Jonathan, and Taylor, to their wives and kids.

Jonathan and Eric became good friends while Michael and Ryan Junior also became good friends. Ryan Junior and Michael ran off to a computer and started cracking into the government files.

Jonathan and Taylor went on the royal tour of the house led by Eric. Then they went outside and road dirt bikes around the yard for a while. After that, they all went flying in some helicopters that Keith let them use! They each had their own helicopter and they had fake wars with each other. They used fake laser-guided missiles.

After Ryan Jr. and Michael got tired of sending the president anonymous e-mails, cracking government files, erasing people’s tax debts, and downloading many of the files the government had to offer, they decided to have races on some SuperSafe ATV’s Ryan had made. There was a race course, so they raced across it. Halfway there, Michael ran up a dirt pile and flipped over many times, and finally landing right on top of Ryan Jr’s ATV. Ryan Jr. slammed on the brakes and Michael flew over the finish line and skidded to a stop.

Ryan Jr. came over as fast as he could and said to Michael, "You okay?"

"Yeah. Hey, at least I won." Michael replied.

Then they saw Beth coming over. She helped Michael up.

"You okay?" she said.

"Fine." He replied.

"What happened?"

"He flipped over that pile of dirt over there." Ryan Jr. said.

"Well. Thank goodness you’re not hurt." Beth said.

"Yeah." Michael said.

After that all of the kids went into the house to have a huge dinner with Ryan, Keith, and their wives. Ryan sat at the head of the table with his wife on his left side. Beside his wife was Beth, then Michael, then Ryan Jr., and then Keith’s wife. Keith sat directly in front of Ryan on the other side of the table. On Ryan’s right side was Sarah, Jonathan, Eric, and Taylor. They all had bacon, cheese and Ritz crackers for appetizer, huge T-Bone steaks for the pre-main course, stuffed chicken and pizza for the main course, and cake, ice cream, pie, and soda’s for dessert.

After dinner they sat down in the den and they all read from the Bible.When they were done with their devotions, they all went to bed. Sarah and Beth slept in their own rooms, and Eric, Jonathan, Taylor, Ryan Jr., and Michael slept outside in sleeping bags in a huge tent in a forest really far behind the house. They had a campfire, and each took turns telling ghost stories.

That night while the others were sleeping, Taylor gotten up and went outside the tent. He was wandering around when he heard this growl behind him. He turned his head slowly and found he wasn’t more than five feet from a Gorzak. Ryan Jr. had told him what had happened to Ryan on the fateful night with another Gorzak. Taylor screamed, turned around, and ran as fast as he could through the forest. When he couldn’t hear anything anymore he stopped and turned around to see if anything was there. He only saw Ryan Jr, Michael, Eric, and Jonathan standing there with solemn faces. Then they started laughing hysterically.

"You guys aren’t funny." he said to them.

"Yes we are." Ryan Jr. replied.

"You should’ve seen your face when you turned around." Jonathan said.

"Wanna see the pictures we got?" Michael said.

"Man. I can’t believe you ran. I could’ve taken that thing down with one hand." Eric said

"Oh yeah?" Ryan Jr. said. Then he jumped on him and they started fighting him. Michael and Jonathan joined in and they all, including Taylor, started fighting. It was 2:30 in the morning and they were making a lot of noise. In the end everyone was tired, but no-one was hurt. Some old guy started yelling at them from his house. Then they all shouted something back at him through the speaker phones that woke up most of the city except for the Carters in the house. The house was sound-proof.

Then they went back to the tent and they talked for a while before they went back to sleep.

Keith went outside in the morning and woke up the kids at 5:00. They had to get back to Italy soon if they were going to listen for Missy. Keith, Ryan, Eric, Ryan Jr., Jonathan, Michael, Taylor, Sarah, and Beth all got in the SuperRoadJet and went to Italy in a matter of minutes. When they got there, they went to Jonathan’s house. Ryan turned on his sound device and tried to listen for Missy’s meow. Then he caught it. He locked onto the signal.

"I know where she is." Ryan said.

"Where?" they all shouted back at him.

"Come with me."

They all got into the SuperRoadJet, including Mrs. Jenkins and Socrates. Ryan flew the helicopter to where the signal was coming from. It was down in the town where Jonathan and Michael lived. It was an old factory. Ryan, Keith, Jonathan, Eric, Ryan Jr., Michael, Taylor, Sarah, and Beth got out and tried to open all of the doors on the outside. They were all locked. Then Ryan and Keith flew up onto the roof of the three story building. Ryan stuck his head over the edge and looked inside through a window. He couldn’t see anything. Keith and Ryan jumped down and Keith knocked down a door with his new legs. The door flew through the air and knocked a guy with a gun unconscious. They all ran over to him. Jonathan grabbed the gun and Taylor found another one in the guy’s pocket. The guns were stun guns that could be set to stun, fry, electrocute, kill, or blow up. Jonathan set his on ‘blow up’ and fired at a rafter on the ceiling. There was an explosion and part of the ceiling came down. Daylight spilled in.

"Cool!" Jonathan exclaimed.

"Please don’t do that again." Keith asked, "And keep the gun on stun."

Ryan tied up the guy and gagged him. They proceeded on. They came to a flight of stairs going up. At the top it opened immediately into a room. There were two doors that they could take.

Keith, Jonathan, Eric, Sarah, and Taylor took the left one. Ryan, Ryan Jr., Michael, and Beth took the one on the right. Keith gave Eric and Sarah stun guns. Ryan gave Ryan Jr., Michael, and Beth stun guns too.

The two hallways eventually came back together again after they went up some stairs to the third floor. At the end was a door.

"Okay. Jonathan, blow that door away." Keith said.

"All right." Jonathan blew up the door with his gun.

Keith raced into the room and so did Ryan. Someone shot Keith with a stun gun and someone else shot Ryan with a laser gun. Ryan’s system got fried and he stared walking around sputtering sparks. He crashed through a wall and fell to the ground. He made a hole in the ground where he hit.

"No!" the girls screamed.

Jonathan ran back the way they had come and went around the corner to make sure that no-one was sneaking up behind them. While he was around the corner the others were captured and their guns were taken away. It was up to Jonathan to save them. Jonathan sneaked back outside and went around to the back. There was a fire escape there. It went up all the way to the third floor. The door from the third floor to the fire escape was locked. Jonathan was smart enough to know that if he just blew the door off he would get capture so he climbed up on a ledge three stories above the ground! He walked around it on the right side. He noticed that there was a small, portable gas container on the ledge. He went back the way he had come and went around the other way. He carefully came to a window to the room that the others were being held in. There were 6 guards in the room, as well as Missy! She was in a cage with a lock on it. Her cage was right under the window he was at and so were the others. Jonathan quickly thought up a plan. He very slowly began to open the window while no-one was looking. When the window was open, he got the others’ attention. He motioned them to try and get closer. When Eric got close enough, he told him his plan. Eric nodded in agreement. Eric whispered it to the others. They all got under the window and put their heads down.

Jonathan ran around to the other side as quick as he could. He moved the gas container to as close as he could to where the guards were. Then he got as far from it as he could. Jonathan took out the gun and aimed it at the gas can. When he pulled the trigger, he started to run back towards the window just as the container exploded. It blew out the wall, and knocked the guards out of through the window that ran the whole length of the wall. Part of the roof caved in and most of the floor was gone. It looked like a fighter jet had dropped a bomb on the building. Eric, Taylor, Michael, Missy, Keith, Sarah, and Beth were showered in debris but weren’t harmed. The six guards landed on the roof and were knocked out. All of them broke some bones when they landed. The kids and Keith had to climb out of the window. Keith carried Missy. He jumped off of the roof and gave Missy to Mrs. Jenkins, who was thrilled to see her. She opened up the cage and Socrates ran inside of it to see Missy. The began talking to each other in cat language and then they started kissing. Then the kids followed Jonathan around the ledge and down on the fire escape. The girls almost fainted from the height, but the guys didn’t. When they got on the ground, they ran around the building and Keith started working on Ryan with his electronics kit. Soon Ryan was up and running again, good as new. Ryan called the police through his cellular phone built into his robotic head. When the police came, Ryan used his universal translator to tell the police what had happened. The six badguys were arrested and taken to jail. It turned out that those six men were the only ones involved in the ‘catnaping’ and they were already wanted criminals. They all got life sentences.

Because he had saved them all, Keith gave Jonathan a load of gifts. Jonathan received two SuperSafe ATV’s, two GPS watches with cellular phones in them that would work anywhere in the world, a whole entertainment center with T.V.’s, DVD’s , video game systems and all the games to go with them. He also got two mind-controlled helicopter that couldn’t crash and two MRWR’s (Motor Road Wave Racers) that went super fast on land and even faster under water.

The Jenkins’s and the Carters became very good friends. Eric and Jonathan wrote e-mails to each other every day and camped out every weekend. They saw each other every day. The same was with Ryan Jr. and Michael. Missy and Socrates got married and lived with the Jenkins’s. Jonathan made a video game about the whole ordeal, with the help of Keith, of course.

Missy and Socrates had kittens after a while and they were are cute cats.

Jonathan learned everything about computers from Keith and designed a new Carter Mansion for Keith and his family. He also learned about hacking and hacked into all of the alcohol and tobacco companies and crashed their computers. They companies lost millions and had to close down, ending the world of tobacco and alcohol once and for all. The only problem though, was that Jonathan couldn’t take the credit or he could be put in jail.

Michael learned a lot about hacking and program designing from Ryan. He got so good that he actually crashed all of the computers in the Communist country and threatened to keep crashing them if they didn’t change the government to the type that America has.

Eric went to Italy often to see Jonathan and they went walking around town a lot and went exploring most of the time. They built a system of tunnels all under the city and could get into anyone’s house through them.

Ryan and Michael spent most of their time on the computer crashing bad Internet sites and sending viruses to bad people.

Keith and Ryan took a lot of their money and used it to build churches all over the world and financed missionaries.