35 Warholia

Part Three ...in which Peanut is involved in an actual, real-life battle.

Chapter 35 Warholia Rockwell shut the door on New York City, and turned around to find himself standing in a vast, slightly scruffy warehouse. Eight concrete columns held up the high ceiling, which was crawling with exposed, snake-like pipework, huge sheets of silver foil, and photographic spotlights hanging from the rafters. Peanut and Little-Bit were standing at the far end of the room admiring several large canvases that were leaning up against the wall. They all featured the same screen-printed picture of

flowers, but each employed a different colourway. 'Hi, guys,' said Rockwell, walking up to them. 'Long time no see. I hate to ask again, but, er, where on God's green earth are we now?' 'Judging by these paintings, I'd say we're in Warholia,' replied Peanut. Little-Bit nodded her agreement. 'The district named after the famous American pop artist Andy Warhol.' 'Peanut, why does your sister know literally everything in the world?' said Rockwell, turning away from the painting. 'It's really weird and, frankly, quite annoy—' He froze mid-word, his mouth agape. 'What's wrong?' asked Peanut, turning to see what her friend was staring at. On the other side of the warehouse, blocking the large floor-to-ceiling doorway, were seven tall, silver robots. They were totally still, floating about thirty centimetres above the floor and staring menacingly back at the children. 'P-P-Peanut,' stammered a terrified Rockwell, who was frozen to the spot, 'R-R-RAZERs!' 'OK, be calm,' said Peanut, reaching for Little Tail and looking around the room for possible exits. 'I-I'll think of something.' Little-Bit, meanwhile, was looking at the RAZERs and frowning. She started walking towards them.

'LB, what are you doing? COME BACK HERE!' shouted Peanut. 'lt's OK,' said Little-Bit, approaching the RAZER with the number 105 stencilled on to its torso and staring up at its face. ' Yes. Just as I thought 'Wh-wh-wh-what?' shouted Rockwell, who was slowly backing away. 'Wh-what's just as you thought?' 'They're not working. Look. Their eyes aren't lit up.' She was right. Usually, the RAZERs' eyes glowed either red or green, but these ones were totally dark. 'It's like... they've been deactivated,' whispered Peanut, and she walked over and gently kicked the base of one with her boot. 'They're not getting any power. It's as if someone's turned them off. How strange. I wonder what's going on. Meanwhile, Rockwell had slowly made his way over to the warehouse door, careful to give the robots a wide berth. Something large and bright red had caught his eye just outside the doorway. 'What's this?' he said. 'It looks like a giant can of Coke.'

Sure enough, an enormous soft-drink can, about five metres tall, was standing on the pavement. It was perfectly detailed, right down to the great big price sticker near the top, and a small dent carefully sculpted into the side to make it look like the can had, at some point, been dropped. 'Wow!' said Peanut. 'It's some kind of art installation. Isn't it magnificent!' 'Look,' said Little-Bit. 'There are more of them.' It was true. A whole row of giant Coke cans lined the street. The effect was mesmerising. 'It feels like we've been shrunk and put on a supermarket shelf,' whispered Peanut. The second-to-last can had been made to look like it had fallen over and spilt its contents on to the pavement. It was so convincing that Peanut was surprised to see several children splashing around in the sticky spillage. But as they got closer, she realised that it was actually a paddling pool full of coloured water carefully made to look like a puddle of cola.