A Second Look

  CHAPTER 1:

  BACK AGAIN!

  One beautiful evening, in a peaceful meadow near a busy city, a cow chewed her cud.

  The cow’s name was Hillary. She was a lovely cow. But her cud was not lovely. Cud never is.

  In case you don’t know, cud is grass that a cow has chewed, swallowed, and then brought back up from its stomach to chew all over again. Disgusting? You bet.

  But Hillary wasn’t disgusted by her cud. She thought it was delightful. She was enjoying herself, standing in a meadow, chewing her delightful cud, when . . .

  VWOOOM! An intense white light shone down on Hillary from above. “Moo?” she wondered. Then the cow looked up and saw something very strange: a bright yellow spaceship, shaped like a submarine! It had two eyes and two big teeth painted on it.

  And it was coming down toward the meadow. Quickly.

  Hillary’s eyes bulged. She had no interest in sticking around to see who—or what—might come out of the spaceship. Quickly swallowing her cud (she could always bring it up again later), she ran out of the meadow to join her fellow cows. She decided to not tell them what she’d seen. She didn’t want them to think she was crazy.

  VWHOMP! The yellow spaceship landed on the grass. A door opened, and out ran . . . three Rabbids.

  The spaceship zoomed away, leaving the three Rabbids behind.

  Just in case you’re not familiar with Rabbids, they look a little like Earth rabbits. But they’re not rabbits, and they don’t come from Earth. Rabbids are bigger than rabbits. And much, much more destructive. Some say Rabbids are going to take over our planet. Others say they’re going to destroy our planet.

  One of the Rabbids turned to the other two Rabbids. Making a sharp gesture with his hand, he said, “Bwah bwah BWAH!” and ran out of the meadow. Since the other two Rabbids followed him, it’s possible he meant, “Follow me!” Or “Do what I do!” Or “I suggest we all run out of this meadow immediately!”

  They hadn’t run very far when they reached the edge of the brightly lit city. The front Rabbid saw something and stopped so suddenly that the other two Rabbids bumped into him. THUNK!

  “Bwoooooh!” he cooed, his voice full of wonder.

  He was staring at a fire hydrant.

  The leader Rabbid raised his hand in greeting and said, “Bwah bwoh bweeeeh bwoh bwah bwah.” Which might have meant “Take me to your leader.” Or “Pleased to meet you.” Or possibly, “Do you happen to speak Rabbid?”

  The fire hydrant said nothing. It did not speak Rabbid. Or French. Or any other language. This fire hydrant, like all fire hydrants, didn’t speak at all.

  The Rabbid started to get annoyed with the silent fire hydrant. He waved his hand in front of it. He tapped it. Thumped it. Slapped it. Ouch. That hurt.

  Finally the Rabbid grabbed the hydrant and gave a mighty twist. The other two Rabbids jumped in to help their leader. They twisted as hard as they could, until . . .

  WHOOSH!!!

  The hydrant shot a column of white water straight up into the sky.

  And on top of that geyser was the leader Rabbid. “BWAAAAAHHH!!!” he screamed as he rode the powerful jet of water.

  At first the other two Rabbids didn’t know where their leader had gone to. “Bwah?” they asked, looking around, puzzled.

  Then one of them thought to look up and spotted the leader on top of the water, tumbling and sputtering. He pointed and laughed. “BWAH HA HA!” When the third Rabbid saw what the second Rabbid was pointing at, he laughed hysterically too.

  While they were laughing, the leader fell off the tower of water, landing right on top of them. THWUMP!!!

  The three Rabbids stood up with their eyes rolling around. Then they shook themselves off and then started running toward the heart of the city.

  The fire hydrant just kept shooting water up into the sky. It didn’t care that the Rabbids were back.

  But soon, everyone else would. . . .

  CHAPTER 2:

  Catch a Rabbid . . . or Else!

  Agent Glyker sat in his crummy chair in his crummy office, staring at the dusty screen of his crummy computer.

  He felt discouraged.

  Sure, he loved being a secret agent, working at the SGAII-RD (the Secret Government Agency for the Investigation of Intruders-Rabbid Division). But if he didn’t catch a Rabbid soon, he’d never get promoted.

  In fact he was starting to think he might even get fired.

  When he first started working at the SGAII-RD, he figured his job was safe no matter what he did because his boss, Director Stern, was also his uncle. If Uncle Jim fired him, Glyker’s mom would be really mad at her brother. She might not even give him a birthday present. But Glyker was starting to worry. . . .

  Just then Director Stern bellowed from his office, “GLYKER! GET IN HERE! NOW!”

  Glyker ran down the hallway as fast as he could to the director’s office. It was much bigger and nicer than Glyker’s office. (But then, many boxes tossed in trash bins were nicer than Glyker’s office.) “Yes, Uncle Jim?” he asked, peeking his head in through the doorway.

  “DON’T CALL ME THAT!” roared Director Stern. “Now, tell me. What is our number one priority?”

  Agent Glyker knew the answer since his boss had told him about a million times. “To catch a Rabbid,” he said.

  “And what will happen if we don’t catch a Rabbid soon?” Director Stern asked.

  Glyker had heard this many times too. He shifted his feet nervously. “Our funding will be cut, so we’ll all be out of jobs.”

  The director nodded his head vigorously. “Exactly,” he agreed. “So I want to make this very clear: If you don’t catch a Rabbid within one week, you’re fired!”

  Glyker gulped. “But we haven’t gotten a call about Rabbids in days! And Mom’ll be so disappointed—”

  “Don’t try that ‘Mom’ stuff on me!” Director Stern yelled. “We’ll get a call soon. I can feel it in my bones. Plus, I’ve got an idea to bring in more calls.”

  He proudly held up a piece of paper. It said “WANTED” across the top. In the middle was a drawing of a Rabbid. (Not a very good drawing. Director Stern wasn’t much of an artist.) At the bottom was a phone number.

  “You’re putting our phone number on a poster?” Glyker asked, puzzled. “Aren’t we supposed to be a secret agency?”

  Stern frowned. “Never mind that. Here.” He handed the paper to Glyker. “Make a thousand copies of this poster. Then put them up all over the city.”

  Glyker took the poster and studied it. “But how am I supposed to catch a Rabbid if I’m busy putting up posters?”

  “That’s your problem,” Director Stern answered gruffly. “Remember: You’ve got one week to catch a Rabbid. Or you’re FIRED!”

  CHAPTER 3:

  Playing in Traffic

  On a beautiful, sunny afternoon, the three Rabbids were running through the city, cutting through backyards and stomping through flower beds. As they ran, they made noises, “Bwah bwah bwah bwaddlety bwah ha ha!” It was hard to tell if they were laughing or singing. Maybe they were doing both.

  They were dashing along a smooth cement sidewalk when they came upon an intersection near a school. A crossing guard (a nice elderly man named Mr. Twinpeppers) held out an orange flag as he helped two young students cross the street. Cars stopped when he held out his flag.

  “Bwah?” said the Rabbid who seemed to be the trio’s leader, confused by what he was seeing.

  “Bye, kids!” Mr. Twinpeppers said. “See you tomorrow!”

  “Bye, Mr. Twinpeppers!” said the two kids as they hurried home.

  The Rabbids watched all this, fascinated. They hurried over to Mr. Twinpeppers’s corner and stayed behind him so he wouldn’t notice them.

  �
��Well, that’s the last of ’em,” Mr. Twinpeppers said to himself. “Guess I’ll head home to feed Habanero.”

  He set down his flag, folded up his chair, and put it in the trunk of his car.

  When he turned around, his flag was gone.

  “Where’d my flag go?” he wondered. “It was here just a second ago . . .”

  Mr. Twinpeppers looked around, scratching his head. No flag.

  He was in a hurry to get home and feed his Chihuahua, Habanero, so he decided he’d just make another flag. He liked projects, anyway.

  Whistling, he got into his car and then drove off.

  Behind a nearby bush, there was a bullfight going on.

  Well, not a bullfight exactly. More of a Rabbid fight.

  The Rabbids weren’t mad at one another, though. They were having a great time. Their leader was holding the crossing guard’s flag out at his side and shaking it. Then one of the other two Rabbids would put his head down, snort, and charge at the flag like a raging bull. At the last second, the leader would whip the flag out of the way, and the bull-Rabbid would run past.

  Then all three would laugh: “BWAH HA HA HA HA!!!”

  Soon, though, one of the bull-Rabbids wanted to take a turn as the matador-Rabbid. He tried to grab the flag, but the leader ran away, waving the flag.

  The leader Rabbid ran right out into the street. And a car was headed straight toward him! He saw the car coming at him and froze, just staring at the car.

  EERRRRRRRGHK!

  The car slammed on its brakes and stopped just in time.

  “Bwhew!” The Rabbid sighed. Then he looked at his flag. Had this thing made the car stop?

  The Rabbid stepped aside and waved his orange flag as if to say, “Please go ahead.”

  And the car did!

  The Rabbid’s eyes widened. This thing (the flag, though he didn’t know that word) could control cars! (Actually, the Rabbid didn’t know the word “car,” either. He thought of them as big metal ground spaceships that never managed to take off and fly.)

  As his two fellow Rabbids joined him on the other side of the street, the leader smiled. Just think what they could do with this thing. . . .

  He waited for another car to come along. But the school was on a quiet street, so there weren’t a lot of cars. The leader grew impatient. They needed to go where there were lots of cars. . . .

  CHAPTER 4:

  Rabbid Crossing

  Agent Glyker was sweating. He’d spent the whole afternoon putting up posters. It was harder work than it looked.

  KA-CHUNK! He stapled yet another “WANTED” poster to yet another telephone pole. He sighed and looked at the poster. It was crooked. Oh well. At least he hadn’t gotten a splinter this time.

  “Is there a reward?”

  Glyker turned around. A kid was standing right behind him eating a candy bar. He had chocolate on his face.

  “What?” Glyker asked.

  “Is there a reward?” the kid repeated with his mouth full. “For spotting one of those Rabbids?”

  Glyker shook his head. Director Stern hadn’t said anything about a reward. “The only reward,” he explained, “is knowing you’ve done the right thing for planet Earth. After all, we’re under invasion here.”

  The kid frowned. “There should be a reward. Cash. A motorcycle. Or maybe a trip to Hawaii.”

  Glyker put away his stapler and then picked up his heavy backpack. “Look, kid, I’ve got a lot of posters to put up, so if you’ll excuse me—”

  “Don’t you want to know where I saw one?” the kid asked.

  Glyker paused. “Saw one what?”

  “Rabbid,” said the kid. “In fact, I saw three of ’em. Today.”

  Agent Glyker was excited. Maybe he wouldn’t be fired after all! “Where?” he asked eagerly. “Where’d you see the Rabbids?”

  The boy folded his arms across his chest stubbornly. “There oughta be a reward.”

  Glyker remembered something: a candy bar in his backpack! He’d been saving it for a late afternoon snack. He quickly dug through the backpack, pulled out the candy bar, and held it up. “Just tell me where you saw the Rabbids, and it’s all yours.”

  The kid squinted. “One lousy candy bar?” He considered it. “Okay. They’re downtown. At the corner of First and Main.”

  Glyker tossed the candy bar to the kid and jumped into his car. “Thanks!” he called as he sped off.

  The kid looked at his reward and shook his head. “I don’t even like this kind of candy bar,” he muttered to himself.

  As Glyker approached downtown in his beat-up old car, he started to hear honking and yelling. Soon all the cars came to a complete stop. There was a huge traffic jam. A helicopter from the local news station buzzed overhead.

  Could this have anything to do with the Rabbids? Glyker wondered.

  Yes. Yes, it could.

  Glyker pulled his car over to the curb and parked. Then he jumped out of his car and ran toward the corner of First and Main.

  From half a block away, he saw them.

  Three Rabbids were standing in the middle of the intersection. One of the Rabbids was waving a crossing guard’s orange flag, directing traffic. The other two were whistling and pointing at cars, telling them where to go.

  But the Rabbids were sending the cars in all the wrong directions. They sent them the wrong way down a one-way street. They sent them into a dead-end alley. They even sent them onto the sidewalk! Taxis and buses were blasting their horns, and pedestrians were running into stores to hide.

  The only ones having a great time were the Rabbids, who kept laughing hysterically. “BWHAH HA HA HA HA!!!”

  Agent Glyker wasted no time. Holding up his SGAII-RD badge, he ran toward the intersection, yelling, “STOP!”

  He really shouldn’t have yelled, because the Rabbids spotted him coming. They quickly started to leave, but first the leader couldn’t resist directing a couple more cars into the intersection.

  The cars headed straight at Glyker!

  At the last second, Glyker dove out of the way. The two drivers swerved their cars, narrowly missing a collision.

  When Glyker looked up, the Rabbids had disappeared.

  What are the Rabbids up to now? Glyker thought frantically. Are they trying to ruin our transportation system? Is this all part of their invasion? And where will the Rabbids strike next?

  CHAPTER 5:

  Where They Struck Next

  The Rabbids had run away from the intersection of First and Main as fast as their stumpy legs would carry them—which was surprisingly fast.

  But when they looked around, they didn’t see anyone chasing them, so they slowed down.

  And when they slowed down, they noticed a very interesting place.

  From inside the building in front of them came the sounds of babies playing. When the Rabbids looked through the windows, they saw lots of babies crawling around and playing with toys.

  It was a daycare center.

  But to the Rabbids, it just looked like fun!

  The three Rabbids hurried into the daycare center. The leader walked up to a baby playing with blocks on the floor.

  “Bwah bwoh bwah!” said the leader, raising his hand in greeting.

  “Goo goo gah!” said the baby. It reached out to grab the Rabbid, but the leader backed away quickly. He didn’t want to be grabbed.

  The baby crawled away. He lay down on a mat and soon fell asleep.

  It must have been nap time for everyone at the center, because the other babies were falling asleep too.

  But the Rabbids didn’t feel like taking a nap. They wanted to have fun!

  They messed around with the baby blocks for a while, but the blocks made terrible hats. And shoes. And chairs. Boring. . . .

  Poking around in a back room, one of the Rabbids found something very interesting: a bin full of used diapers!

  “Bwah ha!” he said, pulling one of the stinky diapers out of the bin.

  One of the other Rabb
ids was thinking about yelling at the babies to wake them up, when . . .

  THWAP!

  Something hit him in the back of the head. He whirled around and found a smelly, leaky used diaper on the floor.

  “BWAH HA HA HA HA!” The Rabbid who’d thrown the diaper laughed.

  The Rabbid who’d been hit with the diaper picked it up, and flung it back at his friend. Soon the three Rabbids were positioned around the daycare center whipping used diapers at one another.

  The adults in charge of watching the babies had settled into chairs with magazines as soon as the babies had fallen asleep. They loved nap time, since it gave them a little break. Concentrating on articles about pop stars and health tips, they hadn’t noticed the Rabbids.

  Until the diapers started flying.

  The adults looked up from their magazines. One of them said, “What the heck is going on?”

  A woman who’d been reading an article about Rabbids invading planet Earth immediately recognized the white creatures who were tossing diapers at one another. “WE’RE BEING INVADED!” she screamed.

  CHAPTER 6:

  A Deluge of Diapers

  Agent Glyker pulled up in front of the daycare center and jumped out of his car. Several daycare workers were standing in the front yard, holding babies in their arms.

  Glyker hurried up to the workers, flashing his badge to identify himself. “Thank goodness you’re here!” cried the woman who’d screamed about an invasion. “We got all the babies out safely, but those awful Rabbids are still inside.”

  “That’s great!” Glyker said, grinning. Maybe he wouldn’t be fired after all! That promotion was as good as his.

  Then he noticed all the workers frowning at him. They didn’t think it was “great” that their daycare center had been invaded by maniacal Rabbids.