by Max Chase
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he bellowed, ‘what a wonderful spectacle we have for you this afternoon. Four criminals versus the Xio-Bot! How long will they last?’
The noise of the crowd was deafening as everyone answered at once.
The Xion on the trike smiled. ‘Place your bets on how long the criminals can stay alive in the ring with the terrifying Xio-Bot. We’re offering one minute at evens, two minutes at odds of five to one. Or there’s five minutes at a hundred to one. If you fancy a really long shot, we’re offering odds of fifty-three billion, four hundred and ninety-two million, six hundred and seventeen thousand, six hundred and twenty-eight to one on them actually beating the Xio-Bot! You’ll find official bookmakers to take bets in every row, easily recognisable by the windmills on their hats!’
There was a lot of toing and froing in the crowd as the spectators hurried to place bets.
‘Without further ado, let’s get on with the action!’ said the master of ceremonies. He raised his hands above his head and clapped. The crowd joined in. The clapping grew louder and faster.
‘We’ll shut that crowd up!’ growled Otto. ‘We’ll smash their precious Xio-Bot!’
‘We need a plan to fight it,’ Selene said.
‘We should split up,’ Diesel said. ‘So it can’t go for us all at once.’
‘And when it goes for one of us,’ Otto said, ‘the others attack from the sides and from behind.’
‘Good plan,’ Peri said. He held out his fist. Diesel, Selene and Otto did the same. They all bumped knuckles.
Two massive gates swung open. The crowd stopped clapping and roared instead. The master of ceremonies hastily pedalled to safety.
Peri felt his blood turn to iced water as a gigantic creature lumbered into the arena. It had to be six metres high. It looked something like a gigantic mutant grizzly bear from back home on planet Earth. It was covered in blue fur and had two robot arms and two robot legs. It had eyes on stalks which roved around, searching for prey. Two huge fangs, like giant walrus teeth, but made of metal, stuck out from its mouth.
The creature’s eyes swivelled in their direction. It took a lumbering step.
‘Split!’ Diesel yelled.
Each of the crew ran to a different corner of the arena. The creature hesitated, then lumbered towards Otto. The crowd howled.
Diesel ran up behind it and tugged at its fur. It couldn’t have hurt the beast, but it was enough to make it stop and turn. It lowered its massive head towards Diesel.
Peri picked up a handful of the pebbles that had been thrown and hurled them at the beast. One hit it in the eye, which retracted. The creature hissed. It lifted one of its huge metal feet. Peri dived to one side. The foot smashed down, making a massive dent in the ground where Peri had been standing just one second earlier.
The beast lifted its foot to try again. Peri saw the foot above him like a metal stamp about to descend. Selene caught his arm and pulled him clear.
At the same time, Otto sank his teeth into the Xio-Bot’s flesh just above the monster’s robotic leg. The Meigwor’s powerful death-bite venom quickly began to take effect. Diesel ran to join him. They pushed together.
The creature was already off balance. It swayed, tottered and crashed face first to the ground. Peri heard the thud even above the noise of the crowd. Sand flew up. So did the creature’s twin fangs, which had snapped off on impact.
But the beast was far from finished. It squealed with pain, and struggled to get to its feet, its robot legs kicking out wildly. Peri felt a pang of sympathy for it.
He snatched up one of the metal teeth and stood by its head. One of its eyes swivelled round and looked at him. It seemed to be pleading.
Peri stroked its fur. Poor creature, he thought. A misfit, put together in a laboratory. Like me. Sent into the arena to fight without even knowing why.
‘Get on with it, Peri!’ roared Otto.
‘I – I don’t think I can –’
The creature’s robot arm rose up and swiped quickly at Peri. He ducked. Before it could strike again, he plunged the metal fang deep into its neck.
The creature gurgled. Its life blood ran out on to the sand.
The crowd went quiet.
‘I’m sorry,’ Peri whispered, wiping a tear from his eye. He turned to the judges. His voice was not quite steady as he said; ‘Well – we fought and we won. Now you must keep your side of the bargain and let us go.’
The three judges stared back expressionlessly.
The crowd roared with laughter.
Hooters blared. Fireworks exploded. The master of ceremonies pedalled back in on his golden tricycle. ‘Great warm-up, guys! Fantastic! And now it’s time to face . . . the Xio-Bot!’
Chapter 9
‘Is this really happening?’ Peri said to Selene. ‘Or are we in a nightmare?’
Selene was dusty and out of breath. Her face was scraped and bruised. ‘I think it’s real,’ she said.
‘Hey!’ Diesel shouted to the judges. ‘This isn’t fair – we just beat the Xio-Bot!’
The master of ceremonies chuckled. ‘That wasn’t the Xio-Bot! That was the mini-Xio-Bot! Now, for the real Xio-Bot!’
Peri heard giant, crashing footsteps approaching the arena, just before the massive gates flew open.
The Xio-Bot appeared.
Peri gazed in disbelief.
‘How the prrrip’chiq are we supposed to defeat that?’ Diesel said.
It made the fallen creature look tiny in comparison. The real Xio-Bot was twenty metres high. It was so big it didn’t look like an animal. It was more like a moving, intelligent building.
Its roving eyes landed on the lifeless mini-bot.
The Xio-Bot let out a wail, the sound so furious and agonised that it made the hairs on the back of Peri’s neck stand on end.
The Xio-Bot rushed into the arena with amazing speed for such a huge creature. Its metal arm extended and grabbed Otto. The Meigwor howled as the Xio-Bot hurled him at the far wall.
Otto reacted fast. In midair he stretched out his double-jointed arm and grabbed a flagpole. He whizzed round it three times, then lost his grip and fell straight down into the royal box.
He crashed into Prince Onix, making one side of the royal box collapse. Otto and the prince fell sprawling on to the sand.
The Xio-Bot had already turned on the rest of the crew. It brought its giant metal foot crashing down on Diesel – or where Diesel would have been, if he hadn’t dived out of the way. Selene got behind the beast, grabbed a handful of fur and began to climb up. Peri was impressed by her daring – but what was she trying to do? He didn’t have time to wonder. The beast stooped and made a grab for him. He ducked beneath its clutching hand and flung himself to one side.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Otto and the prince had got to their feet. They were looking at each other. The prince was holding his head, which had a bump from his fall.
‘I remember!’ the prince shouted. ‘Stop the fight! These guys brought me home. They shouldn’t have been put on trial.’
The crowd hushed. Everyone turned to stare at the prince. Peri felt a stab of hope.
‘But they’ve been found guilty,’ the king said. ‘Justice must take its course.’
‘Think how disappointed the spectators would be if we called off the fight now,’ said the queen.
‘But it’s not fair!’ shouted Prince Onix.
Distracted by watching this, Peri hadn’t noticed the Xio-Bot come up behind him until its metal hand closed around his middle. The pressure would have killed a normal human; but Peri’s bionic inner shell held good.
For the moment.
The beast tightened its squeeze. Peri could hardly breathe. The Xio-Bot’s eyes goggled at him. Any second now, and Peri knew he would crack.
But then the pressure eased. The beast’s mouth dropped open. It gave a puzzled groan as Peri wriggled out of its grasp and dropped to the ground.
The Xio-Bot stood completely still.
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Then it raised its arm. It extended a metal finger inside its ear. The finger emerged again, crooked around a brown, sticky, wriggling object.
With amazement, Peri recognised the object – Selene. She had climbed inside the beast’s ear. She was covered in Xio-Bot earwax and held a twisted wire in her hand.
‘Hey, it’s all electrical circuitry inside there!’ she yelled. ‘If we could get in and –’
The beast held her at arm’s length. From a height of fifteen metres, it dropped her.
Selene managed to grab the fur on its belly. This broke her fall momentarily, but she couldn’t hang on.
Prince Onix sprinted forward from where he’d fallen from the royal box, throwing his body beneath Selene’s, just as she landed, knocking him flat to the ground.
‘Thanks,’ Selene said.
‘It’s . . . my . . . pleasure . . .’ gasped the prince, holding his ribs.
‘Look out!’ shouted Peri.
The Xio-Bot was charging towards them, squealing and roaring. It stamped straight past them, and kicked the arena wall. A benchful of spectators tumbled down into the arena. The Xio-Bot howled in triumph.
It’s out of control, Peri realised. Pulling that wire out of its ear has sent it completely crazy.
‘Stop the combat!’ shouted the king. ‘Enough!’
The master of ceremonies pedalled back into the arena. ‘Er – Xio-Bot . . . Game over.’ He pointed an oversized remote control at the beast and pressed the buttons frantically. Nothing happened.
The Xio-Bot put its foot against his tricycle and pushed, hard. The master of ceremonies whizzed across the sand and his trike smashed into pieces against the far wall.
‘Send in the guards!’ cried the king.
The Xio-Bot smashed another section of wall. A troop of guards, led by Captain Grinkox, ran in and fired their weapons at the Xio-Bot. But it was completely unaffected. It kicked out at the guards. They dodged, rolled and scattered.
‘Guys!’ called Peri. The Phoenix crew, and Prince Onix, ran towards him. ‘That thing will destroy everyone unless we stop it! If me and Selene climb up and get inside, we can maybe short-circuit it. You and Otto distract it.’
‘That’s not fair!’ Diesel said. ‘Why do we have to be the bait in the trap?’
‘I bet Otto’s not afraid,’ Peri said.
‘Of course I’m not afraid!’ boomed Otto.
‘I’m not afraid either!’ Diesel said angrily.
‘Bring it on!’ Prince Onix added, more quietly. He ran into the middle of the arena, clapping his hands. Otto and Diesel glanced at each other, then followed.
‘Stupid old Xio-Bot!’ shouted the prince. ‘Bet you can’t catch me!’
‘Onix! Come away, it’s too dangerous!’ shouted his mother from the royal box.
The Xio-Bot’s stalk-eyes settled on the prince, Otto and Diesel.
‘Now!’ Peri said to Selene. They grabbed the fur just above the creature’s foot, and began to climb up its leg.
It was just like trying to climb a mountain – if that mountain could jump around. The Xio-Bot was chasing the prince, Otto and Diesel around the arena, trying to squash them.
The guards were still blasting the beast, which had absolutely no effect.
Peri and Selene had almost reached the creature’s massive head.
‘Do we go in through the ear?’ Peri asked Selene.
‘No – it’s too narrow, and you can’t get in very far. The eye socket’s a better bet.’
Peri didn’t like the sound of that. But there was no choice. He grabbed a clump of fur on the Xio-Bot’s neck and hauled himself up so that he was level with its face. Selene pulled herself up beside him. The Xio-Bot was still too busy trying to stamp on their friends to notice them.
‘Ready?’ Peri said. ‘You take the left eye, I’ll take the right!’
The Xio-Bot’s eye-stalks emerged from metre-wide sockets. Peri squeezed his head in first, then his shoulders, then the rest of him inside. It felt cold and clammy, like the inside of an oyster. Darkness surrounded him as he clung on to a thick, gristly tendon. The creature’s optic nerve, he guessed.
‘Are you there, Selene?’
‘Yes,’ said a voice close by. ‘But I can’t see.’
‘Hang on.’ Peri flicked the illuminator switch on his helmet.
They were in a sort of cave, with wet red walls. The optic nerves he and Selene were holding on to were like thick cables leading down into a huge spongy mass. It looked a bit like a cauliflower, and smelt strongly of blue cheese.
‘Look back along the optic nerve!’ Selene said.
From their position, they could look right through the creature’s eyeballs. Peri saw their friends, looking tiny and vulnerable far below. They were running for their lives, keeping just ahead of the creature’s crashing feet. They looked exhausted.
‘What now?’ Selene said.
There were no bits of trailing wire or circuitry in this part of the head. Peri thought about trying to attack the optic nerve – but it was too thick to break, and even a blinded Xio-Bot could still do a lot of damage. There was only one thing for it. He looked down at the giant spongy mass below.
‘Wish me luck!’ he said – and dived right into the brain.
Chapter 10
Peri hit the brain with a splat, and sank straight in. It was like falling into a giant, sloppy cauliflower cheese. He couldn’t see anything. It was too dense for his illuminator to work. And he couldn’t breathe. How long could he hold his breath – a minute, two minutes? Longer than that and he’d drown in the Xio-Bot’s brain.
He floundered about in slow motion. He didn’t know even what he was looking for. He was too small to cause enough damage to stop the beast just by swimming around in its huge brain. He had to do something to its circuitry – rewire it, or power it down somehow. But could he do that before his lungs burst?
Suddenly, Peri felt a tingling in his limbs. Strength surged through him. His bionic powers were kicking in!
He pushed his way down into the heart of the brain. His bionic nature intuitively understood the workings of this giant cyborg. His hands grasped a knot of wires that pulsed with energy. He pulled, but they didn’t break. He was desperate to breathe; his chest felt as if it was on fire.
His hand followed the wires down. They ran into a metal box, hot to the touch. Peri ran his fingers along its sides. He located a plastic knob as thick and chunky as his own hand.
A lever? he thought. Surely it can’t be this easy?
But his bionic half told him that it was. Using both hands, he tugged at the lever. There was a loud, juddering sound. The darkness was broken by sparks and flashes. Then the blackness returned, blacker than before, and with it, an eerie silence.
Peri felt the Xio-Bot lurch sideways. He got his feet on the metal box and pushed upwards, swimming as hard as he could through the gloopy mass. His head broke the surface. He sucked in lungfuls of air. He had never felt such relief in his life.
Selene was perched above him, shining her illuminator down. ‘We have to get out,’ she said. ‘It’s going to fall!’
The optic nerve she was sitting on swayed dangerously. She reached down. Peri grabbed her hand. She pulled. He jumped.
For a moment he hung on the optic nerve, legs scrabbling, in danger of slipping back down into the brain. Then Selene hauled him up. They crawled up towards the eye socket, Selene first. Peri emerged after her, blinking in the light.
The Xio-Bot tottered like a struck skittle.
We have no time to climb back down, Peri realised. He saw one of the flagpoles, with its banner fluttering in the wind, about four metres away. Quite a leap – but it was their only chance.
‘Jump, Selene!’ he cried – and launched himself off the Xio-Bot’s face.
His fingertips touched the flagpole and curled round it. Yes!
A moment later, he felt a violent tug on the leg of his Expedition Wear. Selene had missed the flagpole but caught h
im instead. They began to slide slowly down.
The Xio-Bot’s legs buckled. It fell, slowly at first and then faster as gravity took hold. It hit the ground so hard it bounced up again, before settling down, face first on the sand, a cloud of dust hovering around it.
Peri couldn’t hold on any longer. Selene’s weight was too much. He let go of the flagpole and they fell backwards.
Peri landed on the Xio-Bot’s furry stomach. He bounced off like he had hit a trampoline, and landed feet first on the ground. Selene landed beside him.
The crowd cheered.
Diesel, the prince and even Otto ran up and high-fived them.
‘Well done, Selene!’ the prince said.
‘That was im-press-ive!’ Diesel said.
‘You did pretty good,’ Otto grunted, ‘for Earthlings.’
Still the crowd cheered.
Then Peri heard another sound.
It sounded like . . . a siren.
A loud, blaring siren. Then a distant explosion.
The crowd began hurriedly evacuating, just as another explosion hit – this one close enough to make the arena shake.
The king and queen left the royal box. Two guards came and took Prince Onix by the hand and led him away. ‘I’ll see you soon!’ he said, looking back at Selene.
‘Hurry, Your Highness!’ said one of the guards. ‘The Meigwors are attacking!’
‘We have to get out of here!’ Peri said.
Captain Grinkox and three guards strode towards them.
‘Can I have my egg back?’ Peri said. ‘We can’t leave without it.’
‘You’re not leaving,’ said the captain, pointing a scary-looking weapon at him.
‘But we’ve already beaten two generations of Xio-Bots,’ Selene said.
‘Yeah,’ said Diesel. ‘Who’s next, the grandad?’
‘Come with me,’ said the captain and pointed his weapon at each of them in turn.
There was no choice but to obey.
They were taken by hovercar to a grim, fortress-like building.