It was all over very quickly. One moment BEAST was there. The next moment he wasn’t.
KA-BOOM!
The missiles hit the junkyard one after the other, exploding with bright delightful kathooms and showering the area with debris. It seemed to be raining metal.
Gus smirked. The reflected explosions danced across his sunglasses.
He only wished he could hear the kid crying at the death of the stupid robot. As if Gus would ever take back a broken plaything. Who did the kid think he was? Some dirty poor boy?
After the last of the missiles had struck and only smoke clouds were left, Gus checked his scanner. There was no signal from the tracking device that had been inside BEAST. Good. That meant the robot had been blown to such tiny pieces that barely a trace of him was left.
Gus still felt a little curious, though. He wanted to see for himself. He brought his fighter down low over Junk City.
The smoke cleared. The junk pile was gone. Where BEAST had been there was nothing but a crater, blasted in the mud.
Satisfied, Gus turned around and headed for home.
Down below, Rosie put her arm around Axel. He looked up at the sky, with tears running down through the grime on his face, and watched the tiny dot that was Gus Grabbem vanish into the distance.
‘He really did it,’ Axel said. ‘It’s over.’
The two of them stood together in silence for a moment. Eventually Rosie said, ‘I think it’s safe to look now.’
Axel immediately ran for the crater the missiles had made. He scrambled over the edge and looked down into it. His heart gave a sickening thump. There was no sign of BEAST at all.
‘BEAST, can you hear me?’ he yelled. ‘Did it work?’
From deep underground came a muffled, robotic voice.
‘DARK ENVIRONMENT DETECTED. ENGAGING NIGHT VISION MODE.’
Axel let out a wild laugh of pure joy. He searched the smouldering crater for the tunnel opening he now knew had to be there. Rosie pointed it out to him – a hole as wide across as an elevator shaft, but half-hidden under an old disused army truck with no wheels that had landed on top of it.
Axel peered in. Deep at the bottom of the shaft, two steady and unblinking blue eyes looked up at him.
‘Hang in there, buddy,’ he said. ‘We’re on our way.’
BEAST nodded.
‘BEAST KNOWS. BEAST IS NOT AFRAID,’ he said.
As last-minute plans go, it had been a bit of a desperate gamble. Axel hadn’t been sure that Gus Grabbem would take the bait. Luckily, the boy was every bit the spoilt, tantrum-throwing brat that Agent Omega had warned Axel about.
Maybe one day, Axel thought, he’d find out what had made the boy turn out so bad; but that was something to worry about another time.
The tricky bit had been making Gus think BEAST had been completely destroyed. Axel had remembered that the tracking device wouldn’t show up if BEAST was far enough underground. So BEAST had shifted into GOPHER form – just as Axel had expected, it was a specialised tunnel-digger – and had dug his own escape tunnel in a matter of minutes.
Then, just to make sure BEAST looked damaged beyond repair, they’d stuffed some broken cables and other bits of scrap into the cracks of his body. Rosie’s junkyard had provided all the props they could ever need for that job.
‘You’ll only have about half a second to jump down the tunnel before the missiles hit,’ Axel had said. ‘Are you sure you can make it?’
‘NO,’ BEAST had said.
Pretending to abandon BEAST and run away had been the hardest part. But now, as he looked down into his friend’s shining eyes, Axel knew he would never have to abandon him again.
There was just one more job left to do.
It was cramped and uncomfortable at the bottom of the shaft, and it smelt of earth, like a freshly dug garden. The only light was from a greenish bulb that Rosie had lowered down on a cable. But if they went back up to do this, the Grabbem forces would detect them. It had to be done underground.
Rosie lowered her welding mask and sparked her cutting torch alight. She turned the knob and the flame went from a yellow tongue to a brilliant blue-white spike. Axel held on to one finger of BEAST’s enormous hand.
BEAST’s chest-plate had been removed. It had taken a long time. Now his systems lay exposed, as if he were having surgery.
Axel held his breath as the torch bit into a protective box. A smell of burning metal filled his nostrils.
BEAST trembled. Axel tightened his grip. The careful cutting went on. A sizzling, spitting noise filled the little cave.
‘Well, that’s as much as I can do, mate,’ said Rosie, wiping sweat from her forehead and flicking the torch off. ‘Sorry. I told you, I’m a scrap merchant, not a mechanic.’
‘Sounds like my cue,’ said Nedra Brayburn, stepping into the light. ‘Okay, BEAST. Keep as still as you can. I’ll get this nasty little thing out of you in a jiffy.’
‘THANK YOU, AXEL’S MOTHER,’ said BEAST.
Axel was too full of emotions to say anything. There wasn’t a mechanic like his mum in the whole world. She’d set off in her car for Junk City as soon as he’d phoned her and asked for her help.
He watched her clever fingers go to work inside BEAST’s chest, snipping wires delicately and plugging in devices to keep BEAST stable. Then, very gently, she reached deep inside.
Slowly, she drew a black disc about the size of a watch battery out of the cavity in BEAST’s chest. ‘Easy now … steady does it … gotcha!’ She held it up triumphantly. ‘One tracking device. BEAST, would you like to do the honours?’
BEAST gripped the disc in his fist and clenched. There was a short, sharp crack. Then everybody breathed a sigh of relief.
‘That takes care of that,’ Nedra said.
BEAST tapped the Grabbem Industries logo on his chest. ‘CAN YOU FIX THIS TOO?’
‘Oh, I’d be glad to,’ said Nedra. ‘Hold still.’
As she bent to work again, Axel said, ‘Nobody owns you, do they, BEAST?’
‘BEAST BELONGS TO BEAST NOW,’ said the robot, quietly.
With a few quick swipes of the angle grinder and a dab of paint, Nedra turned the G on BEAST’s chest into a B.
‘Like it?’ she asked.
‘YES. VERY VERY VERY MUCH.’
‘So, Rosie,’ said Nedra. ‘Dinner at our place on Wednesday night?’
‘Sounds good to me,’ grinned Rosie.
‘I’ll cook,’ Axel said quickly. ‘I’ll do samosas. To say thanks.’
Rosie raised an eyebrow. ‘He cooks? You’re bringing that boy up right.’
Nedra shrugged. ‘I do try. I’m pretty pleased with how he’s turning out.’
‘SO AM I,’ said BEAST.
Silent as a ghost, BLACKBAT flew towards Axel’s home.
BLACKBAT, as Agent Omega had guessed, was a stealth-mode form. It morphed BEAST into a bat-like shape with wide, flat wings and long ear antennae.
It wasn’t as fast as SKYHAWK and didn’t have any weapons, but it had amazing scanners. Axel could detect every creature within miles. Using the heat-detector, he watched a cat scampering through bushes in the park, its body glowing orange. Its pawprints marked the path it had come along. He could even see a tiny mouse cowering not far away. Don’t worry, mouse, Axel thought. I won’t let the cat know you’re there.
Even better, BLACKBAT was almost undetectable. It could sense other things, but other things couldn’t sense it. It was invisible to radar, and used a special stealth field so that it blended in with its surroundings. During the day you might spot its shadow, or see a ripple in the sky where it was passing, but at night BLACKBAT could glide right over your head and you would never know.
‘Good work back there,’ said Agent Omega, through the speakers. ‘Grabbem don’t suspect a thing. They won’t come after you.’
‘Glad to hear it,’ Axel said. His mum would be glad too, he knew. She wanted them safe.
‘Of course, you can still go after th
em, if you want,’ said Agent Omega slyly.
‘What do you mean?’
‘There are hundreds of Grabbem operations out in the world. They’re bad people, Axel. Greedy, destructive and cruel. They destroy nature and take away people’s homes just to make themselves rich. What’s worse, they keep getting away with it.’
Axel thought about that. Grabbem were basically bullies, and he didn’t like bullies.
‘What do you think, BEAST? Shall we keep fighting Grabbem?’
‘TOGETHER?’ said BEAST.
‘Always.’
‘BEAST WILL FIGHT.’
‘We’re in,’ said Axel.
‘Sounds good to me,’ said Agent Omega. ‘I’ll be in touch soon. Listen, I’d better go. Looks like your mum’s calling.’
A message flashed up on BEAST’s display. Incoming call: Nedra Brayburn.
BEAST had one other feature Axel hadn’t known about. They’d found it when Rosie had removed BEAST’s chest armour: a phone slot.
Axel’s phone clicked right in as if it had been meant to go there. Now he could make calls or send messages from inside BEAST with voice commands. And other people could call him, too.
‘Hi, Mum,’ Axel said.
‘Are you nearly home yet?’
Axel laughed. ‘I am home. I can see you in the driveway.’ He could, too – a tiny figure staring up at the sky.
‘Well, I can’t see you!’
Axel swept in to land in front of her and switched BEAST to standard form. Nedra yelped and jumped backwards.
‘Get inside quick before someone sees you,’ she urged. ‘Heaven’s sake. There’s enough explaining to do as it is!’
Later, as they ate pizza around the kitchen table, Nedra glanced up at BEAST looming over her son. ‘He can’t stay in this house, Axel. You understand that, right?’
‘I know,’ Axel sighed.
‘So I was thinking … he has a digging form, right? Maybe he could dig you a cave under the house. A secret lair, kind of thing.’
‘Awesome idea!’ Axel leapt to his feet and gave her a hug. ‘And maybe after BEAST has finished digging us a hideout, you and me can go for a walk. Or something.’
‘Outside?’ Nedra asked.
‘Yeah. We should get out more, you know. It’s nice out there.’
‘You wouldn’t rather stay in and play games?’
Axel laughed. ‘Not today. Come on, BEAST. Let’s get to work!’
ADRIAN C. BOTT is a gamer, writer and professional adventure-creator. He lives in Sussex, England with his family and is allowed to play video games whenever he wants.
ANDY ISAAC lives in Melbourne, Australia. He discovered his love of illustration through comic books when he was eight years old, and has been creating his own characters ever since.
Many thanks to my parents and marvellous extended family (blood and other) and very special thanks to Marisa for believing in the first place.
Axel and BEAST: The Grabbem Getaway
first published in 2016 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.
eISBN 9781743584316
Text copyright © 2016 Adrian C. Bott
Illustrations copyright © 2016 Andy Isaac
Series design copyright © 2016 Hardie Grant Egmont
Series design & illustration by Andy Isaac
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The Grabbem Getaway Page 5