THE MIDNIGHT SNEAKOUT
By Hannah Rothman
2/16/00
Chapter One
The Problem and the Plan
"How many times must I tell you!" Hannah yelled at her two brothers "Stop playing with those important papers!"
"But Sis!" Hannah's 9 1/2 robot brother Roboto complained, "We need those papers for…"
"We need those papers…" Hannah repeated sarcastically. "These are very impor… Uh oh." Their faces fell. They had realized their adult friend Kent had been watching them the whole time.
"What do you three think you're doing with those files?" he said sternly. "I need those for my next delivery." Just then their alien friend Reena walked downstairs and saw them.
"What on earth is going on down here?" she said. All of a sudden her eye fell upon the ruined files. "Oh, my gosh, did you three wreck those files for the one hundredth time?"
"We're doomed," said Hannah's 11 year old robot brother Gearum softly. (Kent knows he can trust Gearum because they're best friends.)
Hannah furiously looked at her two brothers. "I'VE WARNED YOU ABOUT THIS A MILLION TIMES!" she shouted angrily.
Hannah's 10 1/8 sister Polly walked into view. "If I were you, sis," she suggested, "I'd hide those files and set traps so if those two troublemakers try to come after them, they won't succeed. I'm sure Ken would say the same." Ken was the oldest (and smartest) of the Rothman/Justice sibling group of 5. He was currently sorting out an Israeli/Italian crises with his parents back at the E-Maxen palace. (He's 13).
"That's an excellent idea Polly," said Hannah. "Kent will handle it as they are his files." Roboto and Gearum groaned.
Chapter Two
Twilight Arrives
After everyone had gone to bed that night, Gearum still lay awake, thinking about what Polly had said earlier. Suddenly, he had an idea. He leaned over his bunk and woke Roboto up.
"Pssssst. Bro! Wake up! Wake up!"he whispered.
"Huh? Er what?" Roboto mumbled, confused.
"I know how we can find the files Kent hid," said Gearum. "Come with me to the bathroom for a moment. We'll need a few things."
"Okay, be right with you," said Roboto, a bit too loudly.
"Shhhh!" Gearum hissed. "We don't want to wake anybody else up!"
"Sorry," Roboto whispered.
Both of them crawled out of bed. Gearum got a piece of paper and a pencil and scribbled something down on it. He handed it to Roboto. At the bottom of the note, it said, "Get all these things, and come with me to the bathroom, I'll help."
The two of them gathered up everything they needed. They met at the middle of the room. "I think we've got everything. Let's head to the bathroom." Said Gearum.
They went into the bathroom and turned on the lights halfway. There were a few things they would need to wear. Pretty soon they were finished.
"For this mission," said Gearum quietly, "we will be known as 'The Black Figures.' Our code names: Figure One and Figure Two."
"Let me guess," Roboto groaned, "I'm figure two."
"Exactly," said Gearum. "Let's do the checklist. Two black masks."
"Check," said Roboto.
"Two hats."
"Check."
"Two black cloaks."
"Check."
"Two hooked ropes."
"Check."
"Two fake guns."
"Check."
"Two sacks."
"Check."
"Two flashlights."
"Check."
"Two lunchboxes."
"Two lunchboxes?" Roboto repeated, confused.
"We'll need them for emergency rations in case we get caught," Gearum answered. "We're going to have to search all over the house. I'll check the attic, you check downstairs. Then when we're finished, we'll check out this floor."
"And one thing we forgot for the checklist," Roboto reminded. "Our walkie-talkievisions, in case we find something. Like the files, something else important, if we get caught or if we find something we need to warn each other about."
"Good thinking, Bro," said Gearum. "We need our belts, too."
"I remembered those," said Roboto, holding up two belts. "Okay, big Bro. It's time to get out there and patrol the halls!"
Chapter Three
Time to split up
"Okay, Figure Two," said Gearum. "When the grandfather clock strikes midnight, we split up."
"Okay, Gear… I mean, Figure One," said Roboto. "According to my watch, we have approximately…" He paused and glanced at his watch. "…thirty seconds."
"Got it!" said Gearum. Thirty eventless seconds later, the grandfather clock struck midnight.
Roboto jumped suddenly and was about to scream, but Gearum covered his mouth quickly.
"Let's go!" Gearum whispered softly, both seriously and excited.
The two of them rushed out the door. "Remember," Gearum reminded, "I check the attic and you check downstairs. Then we check this floor."
After Gearum had disappeared into the attic, (using his hooked rope) Roboto turned on his flashlight. "Okay. I'm in the balcony corridor," he said, "and I need to go downstairs." He put his hooked rope on the edge of the balcony corridor and climbed downstairs.
Meanwhile, up in the attic where Gearum was looking, nothing much had been happening. He sighed. "Man," he said to himself. "Wherever Hannah hid those files, she sure hid them go-" Just then he aimed his flashlight at a very odd shadow. He seized his fake gun and aimed it at the shadow. "Halt!" he said aloud. "Who goes there?" The shadow moved away, then he found it again. "Alright, now I'm really going to find out who you are." He followed the shadow with his flashlight. "Oh," he said, "it's only Nibbles." (Nibbles is Reena's pet.) "Now for those files," he said and looked around some more.
Downstairs, Roboto had entered the front corridor. "Nothing ye…Woooooooohhhhhhaaaa!" next thing he knew, he was face-flat on the rug. After coming to his senses he saw why. The rug had been moved! Roboto removed the rug. He gasped. "A trap door! I must report this to Gearum immediately." He seized the walkie-talkievision out of his sack and typed in "Gearum."
Back in the attic, Gearum's walkie-talkievision beeped. He grabbed it out of his sack and turned it on.
"Figure One," Roboto whispered. "I found a trap door in the front corridor!"
"Open it and see what's inside," Gearum suggested.
Roboto opened up the trap door. It was a safe.
"It's a safe!" said Roboto.
"Open thatand see what's inside." said Gearum "It might be the files."
Roboto opened the safe. Nothing. He picked up the walkie-talkievision. "Red herring," he said, "The safe was empty."
"Well, keep looking," said Gearum. "I'll contact you if anything comes up here."
"Okay," said Roboto. He turned off his walkie-talkievision. But just as he was walking out of the trap door…
SNAP!
Roboto's sensor stood on end and he looked at his foot. There was a mousetrap out in the middle of the front corridor…that was now on his foot! Roboto knew why. "Boy, some day, er, night." he murmured as he pulled the mousetrap off his foot. He walked over to the door of the dining room. He couldn't open it. "Rats," he said. "Locked door. Now I can't get in. Wait a second. What was that creaking sound?"
Meanwhile, back in the attic, Gearum was still looking. He found the trunk where Kent kept his stuff. It was right next to Reena's. "Maybe the files are in here," he thought. He looked above the keyhole. It said "Combination." "Better contact Figure Two," he said.
Back downstairs, Roboto's walkie-talkievision beeped. He turned it on. "Figure Two!" said Gearum. "The trunk where the files might be hidden needs a combination. Where are we going to find the combina… wait a minute. I think I remember seeing a small piece of paper in the safe." Roboto went back in the trap door and opened up the safe. Indeed, there was a piece of paper inside. Roboto pulled it out. On it, it said, "31…23…48."
"A set of numbers," he said, "This must be the combination!"
"It has to be," said Gearum. "What else?"
"Don't know," said Roboto, "but we'd better continue the mission. It's almost 12:30."
Suddenly, Roboto turned off his walkie-talkievision. He heard the creaking sound again. He looked on the stairs and saw what it was. Gearum had let Nibbles out of the attic, and he was coming down the stairs. "Oh, Nibbles, it's just you," said Roboto.
"Now that I have the combination," said Gearum, who was still up in the attic, "I can open up Kent's trunk."
Chapter Four
Trouble Strikes
Gearum reached for the trunk but when he was about to put the combination in…
"OWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"It was Hannah's danger howl.
Gearum's face turned beet red. "Hannah's awake!" he said, perfectly terrorized.
He grabbed the walkie-talkievision out of his sack. "Figure two!" he said, "Sis is awake. We have got to get a move on!" Immediately he put the combination into the trunk and opened it. Then he saw the files! He picked them up . . . they weren't the files at all. They were just a big heap of delivery lists Kent had put in. "Groan," said Gearum.
Meanwhile, back downstairs, Roboto was in the kitchen. "I'm getting hungry," he moaned. He pulled his lunchbox out of his sack and opened it up. He looked inside. "Garbage!" he said happily. He stuffed a handful into his mouth, closed his lunchbox and continued looking. "This is getting way too scary," said Roboto, "I think I'm going to have to contact Figure One."
Back in the attic, Gearum was getting way too tired. "Man," he said sleepily, "I think I might . . ." Gearum began to snore.
Back downstairs, Roboto turned his walkie talkievision back on. "Figure One! Figure One!" he said frantically. No answer. "I think I'm going to have to go upstairs and check on him," he said putting his walkie talkievision back in his sack, scrambled upstairs and looked around.
"Gearum, Gearum . . ." he murmured. Before he knew it, he had found Gearum lying on the floor snoring loudly.
"Kill all the humans, kill all the humans," Gearum murmured in his sleep. Roboto walked over to him and woke him up unpleasantly. "Bro when will you quit sleeping on the job!" he said.
"Sorry!" said Gearum.
"Bro, er, Figure One," said Roboto. "I really don't like the looks of this."
"Just go back downstairs you little idiot," Gearum grumbled, angry that Roboto had woken him up.
"Okay, okay . . ." said Roboto he went back downstairs. He looked out the window, as it always had been this early in the morning, a familiar garbage truck was coming down the street. Roboto's eyes opened wide with horror. "IT is here!" he said terrorized. "Sure, maybe I've already had my daily garbage but . . ." Immediately, he heard screams coming from upstairs and Nibbles raced downstairs. He was screaming, "Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!" in his squeaky little voice. He raced right passed Roboto without even noticing him. Nibbles ran directly for the window. Right when he opened it to jump out he yelled, "Garbage ho!"
"Whew," said Roboto, watching Nibbles disappear down the road as he continued to chase the truck. "Now for those files."
Back in the attic, Gearum was thinking about all the possible places the files could be. Finally Gearum had come up with one. "In the filing cabinet!" he said. " That's practically the most likely place they could be. But wait that's not up here."
Back down stairs Roboto had managed to get into the dining room. "O.K." he said thinking to himself. "There are no monsters down here. There are no… What was that?" He looked ahead of him. A glowing gold figure was moving toward him in the dark. Roboto crouched down and turned the flashlight on aiming it at the gold figure. Right in front of him was a gigantic mouth! Roboto almost screamed when the mouth licked him. "Oh, Spike, it's just you!" said Roboto realizing that the gold figure was just Spikes' glow-in-the-dark flea collar (Spike is Kent's dog).
Spike barked.
"Shush!" Roboto hissed. "I'm on a secret mission here." He put Spike's leash on the loud dog. "Maybe you can help me." Spike began sniffing around. Immediately he ran away.
"Spike, come back" Roboto whispered. He followed Spike into the next room. It was the TV and computer room. Spike began sniffing the filing cabinet and growling. Just then, Roboto's walkie talkievision beeped. He pulled it out of his sack. "Now what, Figure One," he groaned.
"Figure Two," said Gearum, "have you looked in the filing cabinet yet? I have a feeling that's the most likely place the files are."
"I was just about to look there," said Roboto. He put the walkie talkievision back in his sack. He opened up a drawer. Nothing. He opened a second drawer. Nothing. He opened a third drawer. Nothing.
But when he opened the fourth and top drawer, again, nothing. But then he saw two pairs of bright green eyes. Roboto was again about to scream when two familiar cat's heads poked out of the drawer. On the left was Polly's cat, Fluffy and on the right was Hannah's cat, Chloe.
"And what, may I ask," said Chloe, sternly, "are you doing downstairs wearing that weird outfit at this hour?"
"Look Chloe," said Roboto, "I know you're a talking cat, but can you promise me whatever you do, don't wake anybody up?"
"Hannah's already up," Chloe reminded him.
"Oh, right. I forgot," said Roboto. "Oh well, got to continue the mission."
Back in the attic, Gearum was still looking around. "Man!" mumbled Gearum. "This is such a hard mission!" Just then, Gearum saw something or someone in front of him that made him so scared he couldn't even start to scream. Quickly he dove behind Reena's trunk. "Great ghostly goblins!" he thought. "It's the Master Robot Ghoul!"
Indeed, the Master Robot Ghoul was standing right in the middle of the attic. "I'll get those two sinners before their sister can say 'I'll get those two back if it's the last thing I'll ever do!'"
Now, the Master Robot Ghoul happened to be the only thing that Gearum was afraid of. As a matter of fact, he was so terrorized he completely forgot he wasn't supposed to be seen or heard. He let out a loud ear-piercing antenna-splitting screech.
The Master Robot Ghoul turned around. He managed to see a glimpse of Gearum's hat disappearing behind Reena's trunk.
Then, Gearum thought of something. He couldn't just be afraid of the Master Robot Ghoul forever. He leaped out from behind Reena's trunk and pulled his belt up. "So long, sucker," he said. He crouched down and ran towards the Master Robot Ghoul. To his surprise, Gearum went right through him! It wasn't the Master Robot Ghoul at all! It was just a hologram trick.
"Yeah, right," said Gearum. "Like you're actually going to fool me again."
Back downstairs, Roboto was back in the front corridor. He sighed. "Not one single clue!" he thought. He heard a funny creaking sound behind him. He stood perfectly still. But little did he know that Gearum's screech had activated another trap.
"Hiiiiii-YAH!" Reena charged at him from the top of the balcony corridor. Roboto dived for safety.
"Uh-oh, it's the Cyclops!" Roboto thought. He turned to Reena. "What do you want," he said sternly.
"To find out what you are doing up at this hour," Reena answered. "Hello, I just asked you a question."
Roboto aimed his fake gun at her. "Over my dead circuits," he said, trying to sound, look and act braver than he really was. He lunged for Reena. But instead of pinning her to the ground, he went right through her. "Grunt!" said Roboto. "It's a little hologram trick!" Roboto looked up. The creaking sound was just Nibbles…again.
Meanwhile, Gearum had made his decision. "Well," he said, with the Master Robot Ghoul hologram still watching him, ": I've searched over the whole attic. No sign of those stupid files. Guess I'd better go tell Figure Two that it's time to move on to the second floor."
Just then, he remembered. Hannah was awake and she could be watching him. She was one sneaky critter.
Chapter Five
Mission Accomplished
"Okay, Figure Two," said Gearum once they were on the second floor. "You check the room where the pets sleep. I'll check our room.
"Okay, Figure One," said Roboto.
After sneaking around the pet's room for a minute or two, Roboto began to murmur to himself. "So, Gearum thinks we look like black figures. I think we look like clones of the Masked Detective. Well, no files in here. Time to check the bathroom."
Gearum had been sneaking around his room for quite some time now. Instead of Hannah in her bed, Gearum found Chloe's six kittens: Rachel, Angelina, Sally, Nicholas, Bobby, and Tommy. Gearum wasn't surprised.
Meanwhile, in the bathroom…
"Still no sign of those precious files of ours," said Roboto. "I bet Gearum's already hunting around Kent's room."
Indeed, Gearum had been snooping Kent's room. "Hmmm," thought Gearum. "This mission is becoming really, really, really difficult."
Finishing the bathroom quickly, Roboto snuck into Reena's room. Quickly, he had covered the whole room. "Well, this is brilliant!" he said sarcastically. "We've practically covered the whole house!" He met Gearum back in the balcony corridor. " I don't think this has been a successful mission, Bro," said Roboto.
"I think you're right, Roboto," said Gearum.
"Yeah," said Roboto. "And the files couldn't be in the basement."
Gearum's eyes opened wide. "What - did - you - just - say?" he said thickly.
"I said," Roboto repeated, "the files couldn't be in the basement. It's too dirty."
Gearum grabbed Roboto by the shoulders. "You are a gen-i-us! The files must be…"
"…IN THE BASEMENT!" they said together.
Quickly, they raced down into the basement. Gearum raced forward. Just then…"HHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He fell into another trap!
"Are you alright?" said Roboto.
"I'm okay!" Gearum called out from below. He dusted himself off and looked around.
"Hey! There's a tunnel down here!" he said. "I'll go check it out."
Gearum crawled forward. He hadn't gotten far when…"MMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!" said a high voice.
A group of kittens were growling in front of him. They all had green collars on.
"Chloe's kittens! They must be guarding the files!" said Gearum.
Thinking quickly, he managed to dig under the kittens, grab the files and dig his way up again. (Severely scratched by the kittens.)
"Mission accomplished Bro," said Gearum. "Now let's go back to bed before I fall asleep again."
Chapter Six
Kent Finds Out
The next morning at breakfast, Hannah had been telling everybody that she believed that Roboto and Gearum had snuck out during the night. But the conversation had been interrupted when Polly said that she hadn't noticed a thing. Then the two of them began to argue in French. Ken was visiting them at their Earth house in Fruitville and was interested in this matter. "You know," he said, loud enough to stop the girl's argument, "if Roboto and Gearum did sneak out to get the files, they must've done it for a reason.
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Hey," she yelled. "Can't a cat eat in peace over here?"
"Sorry," said Hannah, and began to drink her orange juice.
The kittens were getting splattered by Nibbles's unpleasant table manners. (He was eating oatmeal with his tongue.) "Sheesh," said Reena. "Kent hid those files so good not even I could find them."
Just then, Hannah's eyes opened and, slamming her orange juice on the table, a strong blast of orange juice shot out of her nose. "WHAT?" she said.
Roboto and Gearum grinned at each other.
Just then, Kent stomped up from the basement, his face turning as red as his hair. He was so angry he could hardly speak. Pointing at Roboto and Gearum, he managed to say, "those…robots…got…files…thought…could…trust…Gearum" Then, angrily, he stomped over to Gearum.
"Why…you…little…" said Kent.
Gearum held his hand out. "Before you hit me, I think you should look at this first," he said.
He took out the files and turned 5 pages around. Kent's face fell.
"Oh, great." he said.
Hannah looked at the file page and then at Kent. "Double-oh-great." she said.
"On the backs of these file pages," said Roboto, "were the test results of an experiment we were doing last Sunday."
Polly looked at him. "Why didn't you tell us that before?" she asked.
The kittens looked at her. "Because you wouldn't give them a chance," they all said together. "Well," said Nibbles, "it looks like Kent learned his lesson."
"Well," said Kent, "I guess I did."
THE END
EPILOGUE
Kent apologized for not listening to Gearum and retyped the experiment results on some new sheets of paper for them. Chloe's kittens also apologized for not fully protecting the files. Both apologizes were accepted. Kent had indeed learned his lesson (To let people speak for their personal things.) and never did it again.
OFFICIALLY THE END
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