The Case of the Battling Bots

by Liam O'Donnell

  With Az only a few demon steps away, the security bot let me go and hurried away to safety. The demon stomped closer. He raised one massive foot into the air above me. I scrambled away just as the foot smashed into the spot where I had stood only a second before. The ground exploded in a spray of rock and battle-bot pieces. I flew with them. For the second time in the longest day of my life, I crashed to the ground with a painful splat.

  Az might be a good smasher and stomper, but he had terrible eyesight. After crushing the ground into rock salad, the demon stomped around the arena looking for me. He tossed aside broken chunks of stadium and bent battle-bot pieces as he looked for his little goblin playmate.

  Az was playing the fist-smashing game, but I was playing hide-and-seek. And I was a good hider. When you’re the size of a toadstool and have a bully like Rizzo Rawlins for a classmate, hiding becomes one of those must-have skills. The dented chest piece of a battle bot kept me out of sight and gave me time to think.

  This was all Rizzo’s fault. If that stubborn kobold hadn’t argued with me, I would have had plenty of time to press the manual bot-compiler button before Sanzin’s security bots nabbed me.

  I wished Tank and Aleetha were with me. I hadn’t seen them since Az’s first fist-smash into the stadium seats. Were they under one of the piles of rubble? My scales tightened at the thought of them injured or worse. My whole body ached from my falls.

  It was over. I was alone, trapped and hunted by a near-sighted but big-fisted demon. It was no use. I might as well give myself up and hope that Sanzin would just let me go back home. He could destroy Slick City if he wanted to. What did I care? Without my friends, the city meant nothing to me.

  I peered out from under the dented chest piece. I couldn’t see Az, but I could see the Rawlins Reaper lying on the ground not too far away. The bot’s case had cracked open. The manual bot-compiler button was visible, screaming to be pushed.

  The button also screamed of hope. Hope that Rufus’s plan might work. Hope that Az could be stopped by the Codex’s Army.

  I shook aside my own misery and ran for Reaper.

  The ground flew under my feet. I had never moved so fast. Visions of me trying out for the track team ran through my head. Weird, I know. But I had been knocked around a lot, so I blamed it on that. The button was within reach. Maybe I could do this. I dove through the air, my arm outstretched, ready to hit the bot-compiler button.

  If I hadn’t actually been there, dangling by my tail above that no-good kobold, I wouldn’t have believed what I saw.

  Rizzo Rawlins ran through the legs of the startled demon and into the middle of the arena.

  “What are you doing?” I shouted.

  “The thing you couldn’t do, Fizzle!”

  The kobold dove onto his busted battle bot and slammed his paw down on the bot-compiler button.

  At first nothing happened. Then everything happened at once.

  Pieces of Rizzo’s broken battle bot began to glow bright purple. The glowing pieces floated into the air. So did the pieces of the Reaper’s former opponent, the snake-head bot. Energy pulsed between the pieces of the broken battle bots. They floated closer and snapped together with a satisfying click.

  More battle bot pieces floated into the arena, as if they were pulled by a powerful magnet. Each piece had the same purple glow and drifted toward the Reaper’s chest piece. I recognized part of the Troll Patrol’s Thrasher as it tumbled past and snapped onto the Reaper.

  Az the demon was as confused as I was. Even Sanzin, filled with bravado only seconds earlier, was stunned into silence. Battle bots from every competitor flew into the arena, all zooming to the same spot: the manual compiler button on Rizzo’s battle bot. The battle bot pieces locked together in a rumble of crackly code. Was this the Codex’s plan?

  I hid under a pile of rubble, glad to be free from the demonic grip of Azaralath. Rizzo scrambled into the hiding spot beside me, elbowing me to make space.

  “Out of the way, Fizzle!” he snarled.

  I had never been so happy to hear the nickname I hated.

  “Rizzo!” I said. “You saved me.”

  “Yeah, don’t let it get around,” he said. “I wasn’t going to let that demon trash the whole city! Saving you was just a side effect.”

  A thunderous crash boomed above us as the Codex’s Mega Battle Bot smashed the demon Az.

  Rizzo nearly jumped out of his fur.

  “That’s enough heroics for me. Time to save my own tail. Later, Fizzle!”

  Rizzo scrambled out from our hiding spot and ran across the arena on all fours. The battling titans were too busy locked in their struggle to notice the little kobold escape.

  My own claws itched to follow him. It would be easy to slip away from this mess. Let the Codex’s bot deal with Az the demon. That had been Rufus’s plan all along. I had been too busy trying to stop the Codex from destroying Slick City to realize he was our only hope to save it. Time to get out of the way and let the big boys get the job done. I dug my claws into the dirt, ready to run.

  A metallic crunch stopped me before I got started. The Codex’s Mega Bot was down. Az loomed over the battle bot, ready to move in for the kill. Rufus frantically punched the controls of his bot. Each hit from the Mega Bot bounced harmlessly off the demon.

  My tail corkscrewed with despair. Even the mighty Codex and his Mega Bot weren’t enough to destroy Az. If the biggest battle bot in Rockfall Mountain couldn’t win, what hope did the rest of us have?

  And that’s when I saw them.

  I scrambled up the beam as fast as my claws could take me. I had to snatch Sanzin’s flowstone before he grabbed it back. That stone let him control Az. If Sanzin didn’t have the stone, he didn’t have control.

  I grabbed the jewel just as Sanzin got his balance on the beam.

  “Hand it over, Fizz,” Sanzin said. He wobbled on the narrow beam. Below us the massive flowstone swirled with purple light, like a whirlpool churning to another world.

  The tiny flowstone felt heavy in my hand. It pulsed with ancient energy. A connection coursed through my body. A connection to a demon. I could feel Az’s power run through me. I was connected to his mind.

  I willed the demon to stop. And he did. I willed him to turn around. And he did.

  I was controlling a demon.

  Images of me showing up at school with old Az in tow ran through my brain. Rizzo’s fur would fall out with fear. Weaver would never drag me into her office again. I could rule the school. I could rule Slick City!

  Sanzin’s eyes glowed with knowledge.

  “You see what you are playing with, little goblin,” he said. “The flowstone is too great a burden for someone your size. Give it to me. We can rule Slick City together.”

  Sanzin held out his long-fingered hand. The flowstone felt as heavy as a million math books. Handing it over to the troll would be much easier.

  “Maybe you’re right,” I said. I didn’t need a demon to stand up to Rizzo and his goons. I just needed to be me.

  Sanzin smiled. “What a smart goblin you are.”

  “Smarter than you think
.”

  The best part about saving Slick City wasn’t the medal we got from the mayor. It wasn’t the big award ceremony at city hall, where my mom got to see me wear a tie. It wasn’t even the season tickets to the Battle Bot League in the newly rebuilt and renamed Slick Stadium.

  The best part of defeating a demon and saving the city was seeing Rizzo’s face at school later that week.

  LIAM O’DONNELL is an award-winning children’s author and educator. He’s created over thirty books for young readers, including the Max Finder Mystery and Graphic Guide Adventure series of graphic novels. Liam lives in Toronto, Ontario, where he divides his time between the computer and the coffeemaker. Visit him anytime at www.liamodonnell.com or follow him on Twitter @liamodonnell.

  MIKE DEAS is an author/illustrator of graphic novels, including Dalen and Gole and the Graphic Guide Adventure series. While he grew up with a love of illustrative storytelling, Capilano College’s Commercial Animation program helped Mike fine-tune his drawing skills and imagination. Mike and his wife, Nancy, currently live on Saltspring Island, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.deasillustration.com or follow him on Twitter @DeasIllos.