The New Pet Force

The story so far…

There are a great many universes parallel to our own. Each of these universes is very much like ours, but each one differs in some ways. For example, in our universe Jon Arbuckle is a nice but dim-witted pet owner. In the particular parallel universe that concerns our story, Jon is a nice but dim-witted emperor. In our universe, Garfield, Odie, Nermal, and Arlene are pets, and Pooky is a teddy bear. When these five friends travel into the parallel universe ruled by Emperor Jon, they become superpowered heroes.

In each universe there is a dimensional portal, a doorway that connects one world to the other. When danger strikes in Emperor Jon's universe, the emperor summons Garfield, Odie, Nermal, Arlene, and Pooky, who pass through the dimensional doorway from our universe into that of Emperor Jon.

In our universe, the doorway is the cover of issue #100 of the Pet Force comic book. When that framed comic book cover—which hangs on the wall in Jon Arbuckle's living room—begins to glow, the doorway to the other universe opens and the pets are pulled into the cover. In Emperor Jon's universe, the doorway is a large magic cauldron that belongs to the emperor's trusted friend and adviser, Sorcerer Binky. When the five friends arrive in Emperor Jon's universe, they emerge from this magic cauldron, and they have been transformed into the superpowered heroes of Pet Force. The same thing is true in reverse: When it is time for the five to go home, they pass through the cauldron and come back out of the comic book cover into their own universe.

The five furry friends are never missed by Garfield and Odie's owner, Jon Arbuckle, while they are in Emperor Jon's universe. Because of the difference in the way time moves in the two universes, Garfield and his friends could be away having an adventure in the parallel universe for days or weeks, while only seconds pass in our universe. The fact that Jon Arbuckle's brain runs a few minutes behind the rest of the world doesn't hurt, either!

When trouble arises in Emperor Jon's universe, it usually is caused by Vetvix, an evil veterinarian. Using evil spells and dark magic, Vetvix has vowed to conquer the universe and replace good Emperor Jon as its ruler. To help achieve her goal, Vetvix has created an army of mutant animals to serve her. Through her experiments, she has turned each animal into an extra-powerful and extra-evil warrior.

Vetvix's schemes to conquer Emperor Jon's universe would succeed if it were not for the power of Pet Force—those five furry defenders of justice who have who have stopped her again and again.

After Pet Force stopped and captured a team of villains unassociated with Vetvix—the Lethal Lizards (see Book #5 for details)—Emperor Jon had sent our heroes back through the cauldron for home. However, the ship taking the Lethal Lizards went into light speed for the penal planet would be locked up. What the captain didn't know was that just as the ship went into light speed, it happened to be passing by the Floating Fortress of Fear, secret hideout of Vetvix. The ship created a spatial shock wave when it hit light speed. The force was like a giant wave of energy, and it collided with the Fortress. The huge space station rocked back and forth violently, shaking everything on board.

In her laboratory, deep in the fortress, Vetvix—whose head was attached to the body of a lizard (see Book #4 for details)—watched from her force field prison as the Fortress shook. Vetvix looked on wide-eyed with excitement as a large book of magical spells fell from a bookcase and landed on the control panel. The force field shut off, freeing Vetvix. She managed to herd the other animals that held her other body parts to the combination machine. Within minutes, her harms, legs, head and body were all reacquainted. Vetvix was reformed, and evil power rushed through every cell of her body again.

Once it was all said and done, she vowed revenge on Pet Force.

Currently, Garfield and the gang have remained in their own universe, and have been on their usual schedule. Garfield eaten lasagna and taken all his naps. Odie has drooled, slurped and stared at the corner everyday. Arlene has been doing nothing important except read her woman magazines. Nermal has continued to collecthis Pet Forcecomic books and annoy Garfield to a full extent, and Pooky has stayed faithfully by Garfield's side and shared his bed and food as usual. And of course Jon Arbuckle doesn't know a thing about their Pet Force adventures, and he continues to be his usual dorky self, wearing plaid shorts and floral shirts as usual, and of course, groveling fora date.

However, Garfield and Odie had just recently had an encounter with aloudmouth six year old boy with spiky hair and his best friend tiger. Garfield had manipulated the boy into taking him and Odie into a fancy resteraunt, and the four of them had held several extreme sports together in the resteraunt. However, Jon, accomanied by the boy's parents, came and busted them.However, Jon didn't hold a grudge (who was too big a whimp), especially when he believedthe boy when he saidthat he could read Garfield's mind. Sadly, his parents didn't believe him, and he was grounded. Garfield still heard from this boy and the tiger (although he didn't understand why the parents referred to the tiger as a stuffed tiger), but after they'd raided a bakery together, they got into a little bit of trouble. Thankfully, Garfield and Odie knew better than to devulge information about their Pet Force biz, mainly because this kid would have told everybody, and they'd lock him up in a mental institution.

However, all that would change in just a little while...

Our universe, Jon Arbuckle's living room…

Jon Arbuckle looked down at the five figures lying on the floor around him. It was no big surprise. In this house, everyone seemed to be exhausted. He didn't understand what it was with animals. They never really did anything, so what was their excuse?

"Come on, gang!" he said. "We need to get ready. We're going over to some friends of mine for dinner."

That was all it took to get Garfield standing up. He didn't care where he was. As long as it had food, he was content. He grabbed Pooky and ran around, shaking everyone.

"Come on, gang!" he said, not realizing he quoted Jon. "We're going for a ride to a friend for dinner! They might have lasagna and cookies and those little kitty treats that are shaped like running mailmen!"

However, Odie, Nermal and Arlene were way too tired to get up. They were tired from working all day. They had helped with the garden work, so they didn't want to move.

Garfield looked up at Jon, who was growing impatient.

"I'm going to get the car warmed up," he told Garfield. "Get them to at least stand up, okay?"

Garfield saluted. "It'll be a tough job, general, but I'll get these yellowbellies to get a move on."

Jon left his pets.

Garfield sighed as he returned to his friends.

"You guys are strange. Whenever I don't want to do anything, you're always hounding me to go somewhere. Whenever I have enough energy to run a marathon, you three just want to make fun of me by lying around all day."

"Go away," Arlene muttered.

Garfield slapped his forehead.

"Very well. I have given you all fair warning. Now prepare to feel the razor-sharpness of my right-hand claw."

One of his powers as Garzooka was his ability to slash with his super-sharp right-hand claw. It wasn't as sharp when he was himself, but it still stung when you touched it.

He dug his claws into Odie's rump. The poor pup yelled, "YIPE!" and jumped five feet into the air, only to crash on the couch with Arlene and Nermal, who were tossed off of the couch and onto their feet.

Garfield chuckled. "Now that I have your attention, we're due to go to a friend's house for dinner with Sir Dorks-A-Lot. Come to the Royal Idiot!"

He got behind them and pushed them into the car. He hopped into the front with Pooky at his side.