by Matt London
“How is that a compliment!?”
“Because it’s true. Evie the Eradicator. You melted the Condo Corp fleet. You sunk the Prison at the Pole. You took down the Big Whale. When I try to break things that big, I fail. Please, Evie. I need your help.”
It occurred to Evie that these were more words than the two girls had ever exchanged before. Vesuvia’s sway was powerful. At last, it began to make sense why so many people deferred to her at school, why she was so beloved and popular. When Vesuvia was focused and paying attention, she could make a girl feel like bubbles in a glass of soda. It was way better than Evie’s family made her feel. Rick and her parents never appreciated her contributions, and now here was her archnemesis begging for her help.
And everything Vesuvia said made so much sense. Evie couldn’t believe that their goals lined up so closely. Did that mean Vesuvia was good? Or did it mean the other thing?
Evie didn’t care anymore.
“All right,” she said at last. “I’ll do it.”
Rick thought progress on the settlement was going smoothly and speedily. The treescrapers, as the settlers had begun to call them, had grown to downright epic proportions, taller than any skyscraper he had ever seen.
“They’re called arcologies,” Professor Doran had explained one morning at breakfast. Rick listened intently while Sprout shoveled fried potatoes into his mouth. “Hyperstructures capable of sustaining every aspect of life. Once you and your father wire these trees with the necessary power and electronics, and your mother completes the sanitation pipelines, each arcology will house a hundred thousand people each. They’re a marvel of the marriage between botany and construction.”
Rick considered the magnitude of his success as he stood atop Spire One. Most of the trees still remained quite small, but Spire One and Spire Two had each grown a hundred stories tall. From up here, their tree town looked like a petrified forest, with the leafless trees posed like sentinels waiting for a storm.
Taking the grappling hook from his belt, Rick clipped into the glide wire. He raised his pocket tablet to his mouth and tapped it. “Sprout. Can you hear me?”
“Howdy, partner! You’re coming in loud and clear!” Across the way on Spire Two, Rick could see his friend clipped into another glide wire, waving his cowboy hat at him.
The glide wires were Rick’s invention, meant to serve as an easy way to travel between the spires. When Mom and Dad came home from one of their long excursions into the jungle looking for Evie, they would be super impressed with the work Rick had accomplished. Rick’s heart swelled when he thought of all the great work he had done.
Evie would have loved the glide wires and insisted they race on them, which Rick had to admit sounded pretty fun. Rick regretted giving Evie grief for her playfulness. In quieter moments, when he was alone with his thoughts, he wondered where she had gone and hoped that she was okay. He wished he had joined one of his parents’ search parties, but there was so much to do if they wanted to get that certificate of occupancy. He had to stay focused on his responsibilities, and those included inspecting the structural integrity of the spires.
Rick leaped from Spire One with a cheer, just as Sprout hollered and did the same from the other spire. The intense speed blew back Rick’s hair and made his cheeks jiggle. Both boys flew across the chasm between the massive hollow trees, high-fiving as they passed each other on the two glide wires.
As Rick neared Spire Two, he squeezed the brake and glided to a comfortable stop. He turned and looked back at how far he had come. Sprout, hooked into the other wire, came flying back at Rick. He was coming in too fast! Rick jumped out of the way, and Sprout detached, somersaulting onto the balcony and landing on his rump.
“Hoo-wee! That’s wilder than a bucking broccoli, Rick!”
“I bet it is, Sprout.” Rick smiled at his friend, trying to catch his breath. “Now come on, let’s check the rest of the spire.”
They hooked onto another wire and swung around Spire Two. Not only could they cross between the spires, but thanks to the guide poles Rick had set up around the trees, they could circle around the wide trunks of the trees, and even up and down like they were on a spiraling elevator.
Originally, these inspections were supposed to be Mom and Dad’s responsibility, but as the search for Evie fanned farther into the jungles of the eighth continent, Rick’s parents spent less time at the settlement. Rick had to step up and take on more work.
On the far side of Spire Two, they found Tristan Ruby. He had already taken over several floors of the spire—ignoring many unambiguous requests from Rick to leave the spire empty—and converted them into a giant Anytime Club.
“Don’t call it a nightclub,” he had cautioned Rick when asked about the name. “Why would someone only want to party during the nighttime?”
More than a hundred dancers were busting moves inside, even in the middle of the day. Tristan stood in the center of it all, jamming with his virtual instruments.
Rick had tried everything: establishing new rules, enforcing curfew, banning settlement workers from interacting with Tristan, but somehow the self-proclaimed party planner always managed to worm his way out of it. When Rick passed a new rule through the science committee, banning noise over a certain decibel level, Tristan filed an official complaint that Rick’s construction projects violated the new rule. Despite his protestations to the rest of the committee, Rick had to have his own law annulled. Whenever Rick tried to reason with Tristan, Tristan became more unmanageable, using his video-music machine to create a trumpet section of holographic elephants, or an enormous neon heart to thump along with the beat of a song, anything loud that would make it impossible for Rick to argue.
So he tried not to and instead focused on his work. They had built a police department, a fire department, hospitals, public parks. Rick had approached his school to set up a satellite campus on the eighth continent, to provide education to anyone who wanted it. Every requirement Winterpole put forth had been fulfilled. They were ready. The five days were up. But the certificate of occupancy was in reach.
Rick slid down a glide wire and landed on the ground. As cool as it was to fly around the spires, it felt good to touch the earth with his feet. Sprout landed beside him.
“When’s Winterpole coming?” the young cowboy asked.
“Not sure,” Rick said, checking the time on his pocket tablet. “Could be any minute.”
As he stared at the clock on the screen, his father’s face appeared. “Rick! We’re back. Come over to the lab; there’s a problem.”
Rick swallowed nervously. Problems should not have been on the menu. They hurried over to Spire One. Dad had tunneled into the root structure of the big tree to move his lab there, reclaiming the feel of Lane Mansion’s sub-sub-basement.
Rick burst into the lab with Sprout on his tail. “What is it? Is Winterpole here? Do you have news about Evie?”
Rick’s parents and Professor Doran stood in a corner of the lab, examining a bank of monitors.
“We’ve detected intruders approaching the settlement,” the professor said gravely.
“It’s probably just Winterpole, coming to do the inspection.” Rick navigated the cluttered lab and squeezed between his parents to look at the screens. “And if not, the force field will hold them.”
“Well, they’re at the force field,” Rick’s father said. “See for yourself.”
Security cameras had been set up all around the perimeter of the settlement, and the monitors showed what the cameras saw. On the western side of the force field a crowd of creatures had assembled, but beyond the range of the electromagnetic pulse.
“What is that?” Rick squinted at the screens. “Are those animals?”
“No, they’re robots.” His mother’s voice was filled with dread. “Pink robots.”
The bridge of Vesuvia’s giant robo-giraffe, Geri, was a f
lurry of activity. Evie watched from the command chair, which Vesuvia had willingly relinquished. The young CEO piloted the walker manually from the levers at the front of the bridge. Pink robots scurried underfoot, rushing from combat station to navigation console, ensuring everything was ready for the invasion.
Invasion. It was such a strange word, and it seemed crazy for Evie to be thinking about it that way. She was coming home. Heck, she was home. She could look out the front viewport and see the Lane settlement over the treetops. Giant trees had risen along the main street, dwarfing the old shelters. Now she saw what her family had been working on instead of rescuing her from Mastercorp. It was painful to see where their priorities were, but good to know that she had made the right choice to join forces with her old enemy.
She’d almost chickened out that morning, even after days of training with Vesuvia and Didi. She’d found the two robo-birds in one of the labs on the Mastercorp dreadnought.
“It was a most peculiar sensation,” 2-Tor said as Evie entered the room. “To feel protein traveling down my esophagus.”
“I can’t even imagine!” Didi replied.
“Like little fingers pulling the food down, but subtle. That’s the thing I miss most about being a real bird. Eating.”
Didi chirped and brushed his metal dome with her wing. “Oh, it must have been marvelous, Toots.”
“Toots?” Evie watched them from the doorway. “You call him Toots?”
“Why, yes,” Didi said. “It’s my sweet name for my sweet man.”
Evie stuck out her tongue. She had come looking for 2-Tor to confide in him, and instead she was just grossed out.
“Do you need something, Evelyn?” 2-Tor asked.
“Yes, but . . .” She looked at Didi. “I’d prefer to talk in private.”
“I completely understand!” For a moment he sounded enthusiastic, but then Didi made a grumbly noise, and her pink eyes smoldered. “I mean . . . anything you wish to say in front of me you can say in front of Didi.”
“Oh,” Evie said, suddenly fascinated with the floor. “I was just going to ask if you—if both of you—were going to come with us today.”
2-Tor opened his mouth to speak, but Didi answered for him. “No, no, that is quite all right. We will stay here, I think. We have a lot to prepare for once we acquire the certificate of occupancy.”
Evie’s hands were shaking. “2-Tor . . . do you think I’m making the right choice?”
The robot bird made no reply. He and Didi were nuzzling metal beaks and chirping at each other. He probably hadn’t even heard Evie’s question.
And that was that. So Vesuvia led the charge without robot supervision, and Evie was her reluctant cohort.
A digital display appeared on the viewscreen of the bridge, pulling Evie back from her thoughts. The Lane security system was trying to connect with Geri. Evie could tell right away that it was her family trying to communicate. The frame of the display was made up of bird feathers. It said:
WARNING—UNAUTHORIZED VISITOR DETECTED
PLEASE INPUT PASSWORD NOW
“All right, Evie.” Vesuvia glanced over her shoulder, looking like a motorcycle stunt jumper in her pink jumpsuit, her hair wild, like a stick of burning dynamite. “This is your big moment. The entire Piffle Pink Patrol is waiting on you. What is the password?”
Small images of the pink robots appeared on Geri’s scanners—a fighting force of gorillas, lions, hundreds of birds, and a few other giraffes. It seemed weird to Evie that Vesuvia had made cartoonish animal robots for her elite fighting force, but she didn’t envy anyone on the receiving end of the army of machines—in this case, Evie’s very own family.
She took a deep breath and exhaled, shuddering. Her palms were clammy. Her mouth was a desert.
“Evie . . .” Vesuvia sounded impatient. “It’s time.”
“Okay,” Evie said. “I’ll spell it out. Punch in these letters. F-L-O-C-K-T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R.”
Vesuvia tapped the letters into the console, and they appeared on the screen above. When she hit ENTER, the security window closed. Sensors indicated that the EMP force field had been powered down.
“YES!” Vesuvia threw Geri into high gear and began the attack. “I did it! At last, we’re inside!” The pink birds took flight, rushing ahead of Geri to begin the offensive. The big robo-giraffe lumbered through the jungle that encircled the settlement, knocking over trees with her plastic feet, which were the size of dump trucks.
The birds swarmed the settlement, smashing into the tree buildings, pecking at settlers as they ran for cover. Evie couldn’t bear to watch. The sight brought back bad memories of her run-ins with the robot army.
Vesuvia threw another lever. “Deploy wrecking tongue!”
A big pink wrecking ball dropped out of Geri’s mouth on a long chain. As the robo-giraffe swung its long neck back and forth, the destructive ball picked up speed. Evie toppled out of her chair as the giraffe violently shifted direction. She looked up just in time to see the wrecking ball connect with the biggest tree in the settlement. The ball smashed through the wood. Bark flew and walls splintered as the ball cut a huge gash into the tree. Vesuvia’s feet slipped out from under her, but she held on to the levers. Evie tumbled across the floor as Geri reversed direction for another pass.
“Evie, you have to try this!” Vesuvia squealed like she was on the world’s coolest roller coaster.
Shaking her head, Evie looked away, unable to watch and refusing to participate. There might have been people in those giant buildings. But you already have participated, she told herself. You let them in. This is happening because of you.
Vesuvia took aim at the biggest tree building and flung the controls. The wrecking ball broke the tree in half, tearing the roots out of the ground. The massive structure toppled in pieces, shattering on the ground.
Spire One hit the ground with such tremendous force that the shock waves ripped across the continent, shaking everyone to their knees. Sprout dove on top of Rick, shielding him from the hailstorm of splinters that fell like arrows. The boy grunted in pain as the sharp stakes pelted the earth.
As soon as there was a pause in the bombardment, Rick flipped over and grabbed his friend. “Sprout, are you all right?”
Wincing, Sprout plucked a sharp twig from his shoulder and covered the wound. Blood seeped around his fingers. “I’m fine, Rick,” he assured his friend. “A couple of popsicle sticks ain’t gonna stop me.”
Another deafening sound shook them. The huge pink giraffe was headed their way. WHAM! A foot fell, kicking up a plume of dirt. THOOM! The other foot crushed one of the portable shelters like an empty soda can. The other foot went up and started coming down on top of the boys.
“Run!” Rick screamed, pulling Sprout clear of the shadow the big foot had cast around them. The foot landed, smashing the place where they had been a second earlier.
“What the heck is going on?” Sprout screamed.
“It’s Vesuvia.” Rick ducked as a flock of pink robo-birds zoomed overhead. “Out to ruin everything, as usual.”
“Well, let’s go uproot her turnips,” Sprout said, swinging his fists in the air.
WHAM! The boy’s threat seemed quite idle when the giraffe was seconds away from turning them both into expectorated chewing gum.
“OOGA OOGA.” A few yards away, a big pink gorilla was hunched over, staring at the boys. The robot thumped its plastic chest with bulging fists.
“Get lost, banana brain!” Sprout threatened. “Or I’ll show you what a fist can do!”
“No, you crazy kid!” Rick tugged on Sprout’s arm. “Run!”
For a second, the gorilla looked puzzled, then pounced forward. Rick led Sprout across the settlement. He knew they couldn’t outrun the gorilla. Their only hope was to get out of its reach.
He made for the glide wire tower just
south of Spire Two. The gorilla was gaining on them, grunting and hooting, clapping its heavy jaws open and shut.
THOOM! A huge giraffe foot landed directly in front of Rick. He didn’t have time to stop, and he crashed into the foot, landing in a heap. Sprout picked him up as the giraffe foot rose again. It looked like it was aiming to step on them. And the gorilla was still on their tail.
“Going up!” Rick said as he pulled his grappling hook from his pocket and clipped it onto the glide wire. He wound up some tension in the hook and then released it. The hook sprang, catapulting Rick into the air. Sprout followed close behind.
It felt like flying. The wire shot them almost straight up, several dozen stories until they reached the wooden platform at the top of the tower. The boys detached and reconnected to the wire that would take them up and around Spire Two.
The tower shook as the gorilla headbutted its wooden base. Thud. Thok! Rick heard the tower crack under the strain.
“Let’s go!” The boys leaped into the air as the tower broke and fell to the ground. Without the tension, the glide wire flailed like a loose strand of spaghetti. But the grappling hooks did their job, pulling them up alongside the spire.
“What do we do now!?” Sprout called out, his voice barely audible over the roaring wind and sounds of destruction.
“We have to stop that giraffe! It’s going to level the whole settlement.”
A pink plastic flower popped out of the giraffe’s back, petals spinning like helicopter propellers. It zoomed toward the two boys. Rick squinted. Vesuvia was behind the controls of the personal flowercopter. She aimed the whirling blades at the glide wire.
“Oh, no!” Rick wailed helplessly.
Sprout pulled an avocado from his back pocket and flung it at Vesuvia. She dodged so it wouldn’t hit her head, but when the avocado hit the propellers, guacamole rained down on the girl’s face. She screamed miserably as she veered off course, careening toward Sprout. He jumped clear, releasing his grappling hook.