The Grabbem Getaway

by Adrian C. Bott

  OGRE was clearly a form built for heavy-duty work. Axel moved the arms and felt tremendous power in them. OGRE packed a punch, too! He could break holes in a wall with this form, and laugh at the bricks bouncing off his head. Gus Grabbem wouldn’t be able to shoot holes in BEAST now!

  Wait. Something else was different. Something very important. Axel couldn’t put his finger on quite what it was, but a feeling of horror was growing in his stomach.

  They fell down from the sky towards Junk City. BEAST was going fast. Perhaps too fast. Even with his thick armour, Axel didn’t want to crash-land BEAST if he could help it. He squeezed the thruster throttle.

  Nothing happened.

  And now he realised what was different. The roar of BEAST’s rocket thrusters had completely stopped.

  ‘BEAST, what are you doing? Fire thrusters!’

  ‘I CANNOT,’ BEAST said. ‘SORRY, AXEL. THE OGRE FORM CANNOT FLY.’

  The feeling of horror that had been growing in Axel’s stomach turned into a full-on panic attack. How could he have been so stupid? All of BEAST’s forms had disadvantages as well as new abilities. Obviously OGRE swapped the power of flight for immense strength and thick armour plating.

  Could he change back to SKYHAWK again? No. They were seconds from impact.

  Axel did the only thing he could think of. He curled BEAST up into a ball.

  Rusty Rosie sat on a deckchair outside her favourite caravan, reading last week’s newspaper and eating fistfuls of Choc Pops from the box.

  She glanced up. Something was hurtling out of the sky. Something green and roundish. She paused in mid-chew.

  ‘Meteorite?’ she said to herself. ‘Or aliens?’ She brushed some Choc Pops off her lap. ‘Better not be aliens. I ain’t havin’ no dealings with their kind. Don’t want nobody sticking probes up my butt.’

  The thing was coming in low under the clouds. Rosie pondered its flight path and raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Shoot. Whoever he is, he’s about to come down in my yard. I don’t recall giving him permission to do that.’

  She couldn’t hear Axel screaming as BEAST flipped over and over, completely out of control. Next second, BEAST crashed into a stack of six cars and sent them flying across the junkyard.

  Rosie sprang to her feet. She ran down the muddy paths that threaded their way through her kingdom, her bare feet splashing in oily puddles, and quickly found the spot where BEAST had landed.

  BEAST had hit an old cream-coloured delivery van, back first. He had hit so hard that the van was crumpled around him.

  Rosie stared as BEAST tried to stand up. When he finally did, the entire van came with him, rising up behind like the shell of a tortoise.

  ‘Ouch,’ said Axel. His voice emerged from BEAST’s head, amplified and metallic.

  ‘Axel? Axel Brayburn?’ Rosie put her hands on her hips and laughed. ‘Boy, I thought you was an alien! Did your mum build you that robot?’

  ‘I’ll explain later, I promise.’

  Axel took another step. BEAST seemed sluggish and heavy. Was it because he was in OGRE form? Oh, no – it was because BEAST had a van wedged on his back. He wriggled from side to side, trying to get the van off.

  ‘Allow me!’ Rosie grinned. She clambered across the mounds of junk and made for the yellow grab crane she used to pick up old cars. She climbed into the cabin and turned the key. The engine sputtered into life.

  Axel held still, bracing himself, as Rosie swung the grab over and expertly caught the mangled van in its jaws. A quick tug, and away it came.

  Axel flexed BEAST’s limbs. ‘Thanks!’ he called.

  ‘No problem, kid!’

  A scream of jet engines from overhead told Axel that the Grabbem crew had caught up with them.

  Next second, Gus Grabbem opened up with his fighter’s cannons. Bolts of energy sizzled through the air as he approached, tracking across the mud, the heaps of ruined cars and trucks, and hammering into BEAST.

  ‘Yowza!’ yelled Rosie, hunkering down in her crane’s cabin.

  But with BEAST in OGRE form, the cannon fire was about as dangerous as heavy rain. It zinged harmlessly off his thick armour plating.

  Gus came around for another run. Axel held up BEAST’s hand like a shield, and a fresh hail of cannon fire spanged off his palm.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked BEAST.

  ‘NO DAMAGE,’ BEAST said.

  In his cockpit, Gus Grabbem snarled with rage. Fine. So the idiot boy – whoever he was – had figured out how to use OGRE. Well, he was about to find out that even OGRE had its weaknesses.

  ‘You two, get your grabs ready,’ he told Alpha One and Alpha Gold. ‘Pick that thing up and bring it with us. We’ll cut it open back at my dad’s lab!’

  Alpha Gold and Alpha One slowed down until they were almost hovering on the spot. They approached BEAST from opposite sides, steadily closing in on him. They were only a few feet above the mounds of rusting metal that made up Junk City.

  From underneath their shells came grabbing pincers on long, flexible cables. They snapped in the air – snap-snap – in a way that made Axel feel queasy with fear.

  ‘Don’t worry, kid,’ said Alpha One. ‘We ain’t gonna hurt you. We just want that robot you stole.’

  ‘I won’t let them take you,’ Axel told BEAST.

  ‘BUT HOW WILL YOU STOP THEM?’ BEAST whispered.

  ‘We’re going to do what Agent Omega said. We’re going to fight.’

  Axel took a step forward and slammed BEAST’s foot down in an earth-shaking stomp. He raised BEAST’s hand and beckoned, a come-at-me-bro gesture.

  Alpha One snapped: ‘Fine. Let’s get this over with.’ He shoved a lever and both his ship’s grabbing pincers shot out. They caught BEAST under the arms and locked tight.

  Alpha One grinned. This was going to be even easier than he’d thought. Even better, he would get all the glory for capturing BEAST himself. Alpha Gold wouldn’t even get a look-in.

  ‘Target secure,’ he said. ‘Airlifting him out.’

  Alpha One fired his rockets, expecting to hoist BEAST into the air. But Axel had other ideas. He hooked one hand through the window of a wrecked school bus that lay on its side, anchoring BEAST in place. With the other, he took hold of the cables that the grabbers were attached to.

  He heaved with all of the strength BEAST’s OGRE form could muster, and to his amazement, Alpha One went sailing through the air. Axel swung him around and around in circles as if he were a plastic toy on a piece of string.

  ‘Hey, kid, cut that out!’ yelled Alpha One. ‘You’re making me feel sick!’

  ‘You need a hand, bro?’ said Alpha Gold, who was hovering nearby.

  ‘I got this,’ Alpha One shouted, trying to regain control of his ship. Axel kept on spinning him around by the crab-ship’s own long arms.

  ‘Only it looks kinda like the kid’s winning,’ said Alpha Gold.

  ‘Well, he ain’t!’

  Alpha One tried not to be sick inside his ship. He was whirling around and around like that time he’d been to the teacup ride at the fair and he’d thrown up on his date. This had all gone wrong extremely fast. He’d thought he had the robot, but now the robot had him, and he couldn’t just let go because the robot had grabbed hold of his arms.

  He clenched his teeth and struggled with his controls. ‘Listen, you little punk, you’re coming with me.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Axel said. ‘Does that ship of yours have an ejector seat?’

  ‘Uh … yeah, why?’

  ‘Because I’m giving you until the count of three, and then your ship’s going into that junk pile over there. If I were you, I wouldn’t be in it when it does.’

  Alpha Gold said, ‘Now do you want help?’

  ‘I’m fine!’ shrieked Alpha One. ‘He’s bluffing!’

  ‘One,’ said Axel, and swung the crab-ship even faster.

  ‘Do you even know how much this ship is worth?’ wailed Alpha One.

  ‘Two,’ said Axel. The wh
izzing cables made a thrum-thrum sound.

  ‘You’re not going to do it, you haven’t got the strength, you wouldn’t dare … ’

  ‘Three.’

  Axel slammed the ship down hard, as if he were cracking a nut.

  A fraction of a second before the ship smashed into the junk pile, its canopy flew off with a sproing and an ejector seat fired out. Alpha One flew through the air in a graceful arc. His parachute popped and he drifted gently down, only to get caught on one of the tall floodlights that marked the perimeter of Junk City.

  ‘Whoaaaaa,’ said Alpha Gold. ‘He did do it.’

  Axel unhooked his arm from the school bus and prised the limp grabbers off BEAST. He turned to face Alpha Gold. ‘Now it’s your turn. You going to threaten us, too?’

  ‘I’m just doing my job,’ said Alpha Gold. ‘Hold still!’ He lunged at BEAST with his own extending grabbers, but Axel lurched out of the way.

  Alpha Gold bit his lip nervously. Young Gus Grabbem was circling the junkyard above them, watching everything that was going on. If this robot wasn’t brought back to base like he wanted, Alpha Gold would be sacked on the spot.

  If he grabbed BEAST the same way Alpha One had, then he’d just get spun around and slammed into the junk pile, too. He had to do something clever. But what?

  In his OGRE form, BEAST was tall and top-heavy. Alpha Gold’s face broke into a slow grin. He knew just what to do.

  With his ship’s grabbers, he picked up a rusting car with no windows or wheels. He backed his ship up a little way, then charged at BEAST and threw the car at the same time.

  Axel yelled as the car hurtled towards him, flipping end over end. He flung BEAST’s huge arms up to protect himself.

  The car crashed into them and knocked BEAST over backwards. As Axel struggled to stand up again, flailing around on his back like a beetle, Alpha Gold quickly caught hold of BEAST’s feet.

  ‘That’s how you do it,’ he said to himself. ‘In your face, Alpha One. Watch and learn.’

  He reversed his ship. Poor BEAST was dragged across the bumpity junkyard on his back. His shiny green armour became filthy with mud, rust and old motor oil. He let out a low electronic moan.

  Inside BEAST’s cockpit, Axel was having trouble finding which way was up. He clutched at cars and objects as they went past, but couldn’t reach them. He couldn’t even fire the thrusters to get away, because the OGRE form didn’t have any. Strength and armour were all very well, but he badly needed some agility right now.

  Alpha Gold flew backwards through the yard, with BEAST dangling upside down below him. Axel tried to clutch at the annoying grabber-arms and pull them off, but BEAST couldn’t bend enough in the middle in this armoured form.

  A shout rang out across the junkyard: ‘Oh no you don’t!’ It was Rusty Rosie, swinging her crane around. She’d had a lot of practice. The claw at the end went right where she wanted it to go.

  With a deafening clang, Rosie’s yellow industrial grab crane caught hold of BEAST’s upper body. Rosie worked the controls of her crane and fought with Alpha Gold, pulling BEAST back and forth in a gigantic tug-of-war.

  ‘Let go of the boy, you freakin’ hired thug!’ she yelled.

  ‘Stay out of this, lady,’ bellowed Alpha Gold. He heaved back on his joystick and pulled BEAST as hard as he could. The steely cable of Rosie’s crane stretched taut. The metal arm groaned and gave a pop-pop-pop sound of rivets coming loose.

  Rosie bared her teeth. ‘You come to my yard, you better not start anything, because you know darn well I’m going to finish it.’

  Black smoke coughed from the crane’s engine plate and a nasty sound of grinding gears came from deep inside the works, but Rosie kept on struggling.

  ‘BEAST, we’ve got to do something,’ Axel gasped.

  ‘I AM ABOUT TO BECOME TWO HALVES,’ announced BEAST. ‘WHEN THIS OCCURS, I WILL NO LONGER FUNCTION.’

  Axel quickly glanced at what Alpha Gold was doing. The crab-ship was in full reverse, trying to reel BEAST in like a fisherman, while Rosie’s crane – which was beginning to buckle – held BEAST fast. Something had to give.

  If only there was some way to slip free of Alpha Gold’s grasp …

  The idea came to Axel in a flash. ‘BEAST, change back to your normal form!’

  With many whirs and thrums, BEAST’s armour plating folded away. His arms shrank back to normal size. And so did his feet. They slipped straight through Alpha Gold’s grabbers.

  Suddenly, Alpha Gold was hanging on to nothing – and he was still stuck in full reverse. As BEAST flew one way, Alpha Gold flew the other. He shot backwards at an impressive speed and crashed right into a teetering mountain of scrap.

  Rusty Rosie’s junkyard was a dangerous place at the best of times, with ancient rusty bits and bobs stacked high. More than once, some little impact – a junkyard rat leaping onto a car hood, a stray gust of wind, even a pigeon taking a poo from high above – had triggered a landslide, bringing tonnes of metal debris down.

  The junkyard was an accident waiting to happen, and now it had happened. Alpha Gold made a noise like a puppy’s squeaky-bone as the avalanche of scrap descended on him. Junk thundered down on his ship’s windshield: old microwave ovens, a chunky grey laptop from 1996, a toy pram, a half-squashed shopping trolley and finally a purple teddy bear with only one eye that had once been mounted on the front of a garbage truck.

  The teddy bear slid slowly down the armoured glass, leaving a greasy trail behind, and fell off with a plop. I know just how you feel, thought Alpha Gold.

  His radio crackled. ‘Nice going, idiot,’ said Gus Grabbem Junior.

  ‘I’m fired, aren’t I?’ said Alpha Gold.

  ‘Oh, you will be,’ said Gus, his voice rising to a scream. ‘From a cannon!’

  Meanwhile, on the other side of Junk City, Axel was carefully landing BEAST in front of Rosie’s crane, which was now bent out of shape.

  Rosie sighed. ‘Guess that last tussle was too much for her. Shame.’

  ‘We could straighten her back out for you,’ said Axel. ‘BEAST is pretty strong.’

  Rosie shook her head sadly. ‘Nah, son. Wouldn’t help. Her gears are shot. Listen, you’d better get out of here. There’s still one of those creeps about.’

  Gus Grabbem isn’t ever going to stop, Axel thought to himself. He’ll keep on coming until BEAST is destroyed. Agent Omega said there was a tracking device inside BEAST, but I don’t know how to get it out. Even if I had the tools, I don’t have the knowledge. What am I going to do?

  Then an idea came to him. ‘He’ll keep on coming until BEAST is destroyed,’ he repeated to himself. ‘Maybe that’s the answer … Rosie, I’m sorry to ask, but I need one more favour.’

  Rosie narrowed her eyes. ‘What’s on your mind?’

  Gus Grabbem Junior had never been in such a terrible mood in his entire life. Not even the legendary ten-hour tantrum he’d had when he was three years old, after his mum told him he couldn’t have another entire birthday cake to himself, had come close.

  ‘Useless agents!’ he screamed. ‘Stupid kid! Who even is he? What kind of boy takes another boy’s robot? If I knew who he was I’d smash his face in.’

  The trouble was, he didn’t really know what to do next. He’d expected Alpha One and Alpha Gold to fly back up with BEAST in tow. But that hadn’t happened.

  ‘Hey,’ said Axel over BEAST’s transmitter. ‘Gus, are you there? I need to talk to you.’

  ‘Go ahead, pus-bucket,’ said Gus.

  ‘I’m really sorry. Your robot’s broken. I think I’d better give it back to you.’

  ‘Broken?’ Gus screamed.

  Axel’s voice was a sad, raspy whisper. ‘Yeah. It … it got hurt pretty bad when your guy and the crane were pulling it from both ends. It’s not even walking properly now. But you can fix it up, right?’

  Gus reached up to the controls for his ship’s camera system. He zoomed in as far as he could.

  There was BEAST, climbing u
p on top of a mound of old sinks, baths and kitchen worktops.

  He looked terrible. One of his legs was dragging limply behind him. Torn cables trailed from his limb joints like spaghetti. Bits of broken machinery stuck out of the cracks in his body.

  ‘You stole my robot,’ said Gus through clenched teeth, ‘then you broke my robot, and now you want to give my robot back to me?’

  ‘Just come get it. I’m bored of it now, anyway,’ Axel said. ‘Turns out I don’t need expensive toys like you do, BAGGER_63. I’ve got actual skill.’

  Gus Grabbem Junior’s pupils shrank until they were tiny black pinpricks of pure fury. ‘YOU!’

  ‘AX-MAN, in the flesh. See you in the Tankinator Arena, loser.’

  Gus let out a scream. He put his sleek fighter into an attack run. With a single swipe of his hand he activated every single missile left in his stores.

  Then he thumbed the fire button again and again until his thumb ached. Missile after missile dropped down, flared into life and shot through the sky.

  Inside BEAST, Axel saw the missile warning light go on.

  ‘MULTIPLE WARHEADS INBOUND,’ warned BEAST. ‘WE ARE BOTH ABOUT TO BE DESTROYED.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said Axel.

  He popped open BEAST’s canopy, climbed out and ran for all he was worth.

  BEAST stood on top of the hill of junk, watching him go. He raised a hand as if to wave goodbye.

  Up in his fighter, Gus was panting hard. He watched the shaky video camera image of BEAST standing like an idiot and waving. The kid had climbed out – sensible – and was running away.

  Gus frowned as he got his first proper look at the boy who had led him on such a chase today. He couldn’t make out very much, but he could tell the kid had brown skin, dark hair and glasses.

  ‘If I ever meet you again, online or off, you’ll wish I hadn’t,’ Gus hissed. ‘Nobody messes with me. I’m the fastest and the richest and the best.’

  He folded his arms behind his head, put on a pair of sunglasses and sat back to watch what was coming next.