‘I said get off,’ he snarled.
He tilted GALAHAD’s head back and then slammed it suddenly into the attack bot’s own face, in a mighty headbutt.
The attack bot let go and went staggering back, stunned.
Axel smiled a grim little smile. Even when you had no weapons left to fight with, you still had yourself.
As the attack bot tottered unsteadily in front of him, Axel lifted the sword for a final finishing blow.
Then, before his astonished eyes, the attack bot began to shift, just like BEAST could. It hunched over, and from its back came thick armour plates that snapped into place. They formed a domed shell, covering its back and neck completely. The dinosaur-like head morphed into a stubby little head with a curved beak – like a turtle, Axel thought. Finally, the thin whip-like tail thickened into a heavy, club-tipped tail.
‘It’s not just a robot, it’s a shifter!’ Axel said in amazement.
His sword was still raised for the final blow. He brought the sword down on the turtle-robot as hard as he could.
With a deafening shrangggg that sent numbing vibrations up his arm, the crystal sword rebounded off the shell.
‘We didn’t even scratch it!’ Axel moaned.
The turtle-robot pawed at the ground with clawed feet that were now wide and flat. Next moment it lunged, gnashing at BEAST’s neck with its metal beak.
Axel swiped wildly at it, but the crystal blade hit the shell and bounced off once again.
The huge hooked jaws locked around BEAST’s neck, and steadily began to close …
At that very moment, a Grabbem sky-fighter was circling above Ghost Island.
The sky-fighter was ugly and roughly triangular. If you imagine a broad slice of pizza made from metal with a golf ball squished into the middle of it, only the golf ball is made of armoured glass, then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what it looked like.
Dangling from the underside of the sky-fighter was a lot of bombs. They were knobbly and spiky and had big clear warning labels on them, like DANGER! BOMB! and CONTENTS MAY EXPLODE! and DO NOT HIT WITH HAMMER!
If you were wondering what sort of person would be daft enough to look at a bomb and think Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I hit this bomb with a hammer in the first place, then you could have taken a look into the armoured glass ball and seen exactly that kind of person. Two of them, in fact.
They were Grabbem employees: brothers, codenamed Alpha One and Alpha Gold. For this mission, Alpha One had wanted to call himself Alpha Battle Werewolf Storm Titan Warrior God With A Bigger Gun Than You, but Grabbem Command had told him he had better stop with all the name change requests because he was on one formal warning already, and besides it wouldn’t fit on his name badge.
Alpha One was in the top half of the glass ball, working the flight controls. He had a huge grin on his face.
Alpha Gold was in the bottom half. He would have been working the fighter’s weapons if there had been anything to shoot at or blow up, but there wasn’t. He had his arms folded and his bottom lip stuck out.
‘It’s my turn to fly the ship,’ he whined. ‘You’ve been flying in circles for hours!’
‘Ah, shut up,’ snapped Alpha One. ‘I’m on controls; you’re on weapons. That was the deal.’
‘It ain’t fair. We’re meant to be keeping watch while the guys on the ground grab the reactor, but there’s been nobody to shoot at. I’m bored.’
‘Too bad! We made a deal. You can’t go back on it now.’ Alpha One weaved the ship in a quick S-bend just so Alpha Gold would get thrown about in his half of the bubble.
‘Hey! Knock it off! I’m gonna throw up!’
‘You can always hit that eee-ject button if you don’t like the ride,’ grinned Alpha One.
Alpha Gold stood up in his seat, reached through the hatch between the cockpits and tried to grab Alpha One’s leg so he could pull him out of his chair. Alpha One quickly put his feet up on his dashboard.
‘Too slow!’ he crowed.
Just as Alpha Gold was about to force his way into Alpha One’s cockpit and punch him in the face, an alert went off. He quickly dropped back down into his own cockpit and checked the screens.
‘Hostile targets ahead,’ he said, his eyes wide.
‘What?’ his brother boggled. ‘This place is meant to be dead. There ain’t any hostiles. You’re readin’ it wrong.’
‘See for yourself!’ yelled Alpha Gold.
Sure enough, there were two red glowing shapes on the console. The view auto-zoomed in to show they were BEAST, still in GALAHAD form, and the robotic turtle-monster, locked in a deadly grapple.
‘Well, I’ll be whang-doodled,’ gasped Alpha One, shaking his head. ‘It’s that kid who keeps on giving us the run-around. And some other robot critter, too.’
Alpha Gold rubbed his hands together. ‘Woo hoo! Bring us in close. I’m going to bomb the pair of them to kingdom come!’ He pressed a row of buttons. The clamps holding the bombs in place unlocked so they could be dropped.
‘No way,’ yelled Alpha One. He unfastened his safety harness and leant down through the hatch. ‘You fly the ship. It’s your turn. I’m gonna drop the bombs.’
‘Get back in that seat NOW!’ hollered Alpha Gold. ‘You said it yourself. We had a deal!’
‘You wanted to fly the ship, so YOU fly the darned ship!’ screamed Alpha One. He lowered himself into Alpha Gold’s half and landed on top of him.
The two of them fought over the weapons controls, elbowing each other and shouting and paying no attention to the way their craft was steadily dropping further and further down. The sky-fighter was plunging right towards the skyline of the city.
Meanwhile, down in the abandoned streets, Axel struggled with the turtle-robot. Its grip on BEAST’s neck was growing tighter. If he couldn’t stop it, it would bite right through. Somehow he doubted that the MOT-BOL could put BEAST’s head back on if it came off.
The turtle form seemed much stronger than the dinosaur-like one, though it was slower. It traded speed for strength, Axel thought giddily. It has to lose something to gain something. Just like BEAST does when he shifts form …
Just then, he caught sight of something like a huge slice of metallic pizza in the sky. It was hurtling towards them as if it meant to attack. From the G symbols on the wings, there was no doubt who it belonged to.
The turtle-robot saw it too. It hesitated for a second, then let go of BEAST. Its eyes flared a brilliant red. Two beams of dazzling light shot from them – right at the Grabbem ship!
The ship lurched to the side and the beams missed.
With a snarl, the attack bot turned back to Axel.
‘Wait, wait! You shot at them?’ Axel said, amazed. ‘I thought you were with Grabbem!’
A hesitant voice came from the turtle-robot’s chest. It said: ‘You mean … you’re not with Grabbem?’
‘Grabbem hates us. They’re hunting us. Because we keep spoiling their plans!’
‘Oh,’ said the voice. ‘I see.’
Just like that, the fight was over.
Axel and the turtle-robot stepped away from one another, completely confused, and more than a little awkward.
‘Why didn’t you say something sooner?’ Axel said.
‘You’re trespassing,’ said the turtle. ‘And you attacked me.’
‘You shot us!’
‘I shot your cable. I didn’t shoot you! But you … you swung that sword at me. You challenged me. You expect me to just stand there and take it?’
BEAST said, ‘I AM SORRY TO INTERRUPT, BUT I BELIEVE WE ARE ALL ABOUT TO DIE.’
‘What?’ gasped Axel.
‘MULTIPLE BOMBS INCOMING.’
Axel couldn’t have known it, but up in the Grabbem ship, Alpha One had accidentally stomped on all the bomb-dropping switches at once. Alpha One didn’t notice – he was too busy trying to bite Alpha Gold’s ear, while Alpha Gold pulled One’s underpants up and gave him a death wedgie.
As the two o
f them fought and the attack ship spun out of control, an entire payload of bombs went tumbling down towards the two robots.
The last thing Axel saw before the bombs hit was the turtle-robot leaping at him and grabbing hold of BEAST. Then there was a sound like the whole world shattering to pieces – and everything went dark.
At that very moment, in a cavern deep below the derelict city, a squad of ten hand-picked Grabbem combat operatives were aiming their rifles and holding their breath.
They were aiming at a circular steel vault door with the symbol of a phoenix on it.
A single Grabbem agent was cutting his way through it with a laser torch, very, very slowly.
Mr Grabbem hovered above them, sitting inside the giant detached eye of Tektonicus Max. ‘Can’t he cut any faster?’ he yelled at the men. ‘I want that reactor NOW!’
The men’s commander, Captain Weiss – who looked like he punched people in the face with his face – roared at the man with the laser torch: ‘Do you have a Code 9 booboo in your standard issue wumpus, soldier? Do you want to be busted back to Dixie Foxtrot Corndog?’
‘No sir!’ wailed the man. He had no clue what Captain Weiss was talking about, because Captain Weiss only ever yelled military-sounding gibberish. Everyone pretended to understand, but it sounded scary.
‘Then do your job, you chicken gizzard!’
Sweat ran from the man’s forehead. His hands shook as he tried to go faster.
Almost there …
Axel was falling.
He had only a moment to wonder how that could be, since he’d been standing on solid ground a moment ago. And then suddenly he wasn’t falling anymore.
CRASH! GALAHAD slammed down on a hard, rocky surface. There was a second CRASH as the other robot fell close by.
From overhead came the boom, boom, kaboom of the Grabbem bombs pounding the empty city.
Axel tried to sit up, but GALAHAD’s heavy armour made it difficult. He shifted BEAST back into his regular form. Somehow he didn’t think the other robot was much of a threat anymore.
They had fallen down into a darkened cavern. High above them was a jagged hole, where the bombs had blasted right through the footpath.
‘The bombs must have blown us right through into the mines under the island,’ he said. ‘Look at the size of the hole they made! I don’t understand why we’re still alive.’
BEAST said, ‘WE WERE SHIELDED FROM THE BLAST.’
Axel looked at the turtle-robot, who was struggling to stand, and he understood. He went and helped the robot to its feet.
Instantly it shifted. Its shell folded away, its limbs extended and its head took on a shape like a motorcycle helmet. Next second, a black-and-red robot was standing in front of them. It looked so much like BEAST that the two might have been cousins.
‘Thanks,’ said Axel. ‘You used your shell to protect us, didn’t you?’
The robot nodded.
‘I’m Axel,’ said Axel. ‘This is BEAST. Thank you for saving our lives.’
‘You needn’t thank me. It’s my job to protect stupid people from doing harm to themselves or others,’ said a voice from inside the robot.
Axel’s cheeks flushed hot.
The robot’s chest opened up. Inside, giving him a calculating look, was a girl. She climbed out of her robot and stood beside it. Axel wasn’t sure what to do, so he climbed out of BEAST too.
Axel swallowed. ‘I’m Axel,’ he said. ‘And, uh, this is BEAST.’
‘Yumi Minamoto,’ the girl said. ‘And my robot, who you have damaged, is REAVER.’
‘I AM VERY, VERY SORRY MY PILOT MADE ME HIT YOU, REAVER,’ said BEAST. ‘YOU ARE AN INCREDIBLE ROBOT. YOUR DESIGN IS AMAZING. YOUR SPEED IS PHENOMENAL. YOUR ABILITIES ARE –’
‘SHUT UP, IDIOT,’ said a deep, growling, electronic voice. Axel recognised it. It was the one that had said baka earlier on. It must be REAVER’S own voice.
‘REAVER!’ snapped Yumi. ‘Don’t be rude.’
‘APOLOGIES. I FIND IT HARD TO BE POLITE TO ONE SO … INFERIOR.’ The robot’s eyes flickered red as he spoke. Axel felt BEAST cringe.
‘Yumi-san,’ he said quickly, ‘I have a lot of questions.’
‘One moment. While we were busy fighting one another because we each thought the other was with Grabbem, the real Grabbem team must have snuck down here ahead of us.’
‘You’re right. They might even have found the reactor by now!’
‘REAVER? Go into RATATRON form. Dig us a passage down to the vault,’ said Yumi.
REAVER shifted into a new form, a sleek rat-like creature. Instead of whiskers, dim beams of laser light shone from its muzzle. He bounded off into the dark, leaving BEAST gazing after him.
‘SHALL I GO INTO GOPHER FORM?’ BEAST asked Axel eagerly.
‘It’s not loaded, but good idea. See if he needs any help anyway.’
REAVER’s voice grated out from the shadows: ‘I DO NOT NEED HELP!’ But BEAST was already lolloping after him.
‘I think your robot has a crush on my robot,’ murmured Yumi. ‘That’s adorable.’
Left alone with Yumi, Axel suddenly felt awkward and out of his depth. Fighting was easy compared to having to socialise.
Pull yourself together, he told himself. Agent Omega is counting on you. We need that reactor.
He coughed. ‘Did you say your family name was Minamoto?’
‘That’s right. And I bet I know what you’re going to say next.’
‘Let’s see if I can put this together,’ said Axel. ‘You’re the daughter of Doctor Minamoto, who designed the Phoenix Reactor.’
‘Correct.’
‘Which is buried somewhere underneath this island.’
‘Also correct. Sealed in a steel vault, to be precise.’
‘And you and REAVER have been guarding it. Putting out stories about how the place is haunted by a monster. I bet you even created the radiation somehow.’
‘Of course I did,’ said Yumi. ‘Anyone could have worked that out. Now I have a question for you. Think carefully. How come your robot can shift, like mine?’
Axel shook his head. ‘You’ve got it the wrong way round. Your robot can shift, like mine.’
Yumi laughed. ‘You think those lunkheads at Grabbem came up with shifter technology all by themselves? Think, Axel! Grabbem don’t create, they take. They stole the secrets to creating shifters from us. REAVER was the first shifter ever to be built! And he was designed by –’
‘Your mother,’ Axel interrupted. ‘Doctor Minamoto.’
Yumi gave him a searching look. ‘Good guess.’
‘I had a hunch.’
‘She built REAVER for me. The most advanced robot of his kind. Your BEAST is merely an imitation.’
‘I get it!’ Axel snapped. ‘REAVER’s cool. But BEAST’s cool, too. So what if he’s not the original? He can’t help how he was created, so leave him alone!’
‘Are you this fiercely loyal to all your friends?’ Yumi said with a grin. But her smile faded when she saw the look on Axel’s face. ‘Oh. You do have friends other than BEAST … right?’
‘A charming guy like me?’ said Axel sarcastically. ‘Oh, yeah. More friends than I can count. I mean, we’ve only just met, and look how well we’re getting on!’
From across the cavern came BEAST’s happy yell: ‘WE HAVE DUG YOU A PASSAGE!’
Axel and Yumi looked at each other. At exactly the same time, they both said, ‘Let’s go.’
Axel and Yumi clambered down the freshly dug tunnel. They were back inside their robots now. Both BEAST and REAVER were in their regular forms, so they could quickly shift into whatever new form might be needed.
Axel saw a flashing dot on his scanner.
‘The reactor’s only a few hundred metres in front of us,’ he whispered over the radio.
‘Yeah. Exactly where I left it,’ said Yumi. ‘That’s good news. It means Grabbem haven’t stolen it yet. We might still be in time to stop them.’
At its end,
the tunnel widened out into a cavern. Flickering light came from up ahead: the light of a laser-cutting torch in action.
Moving as quietly as they could, Axel and Yumi crept into the cavern.
They soon saw they were standing right behind a group of Grabbem soldiers. The detached eye of Tektonicus Max hovered above, shining a beam of light at the vault.
The soldiers hadn’t noticed Axel and Yumi. They were all facing the vault door, where one frightened Grabbem soldier was cutting his way through, watched over by a scowling Captain Weiss.
‘We got here just in time. Looks like they’re almost through,’ Yumi said.
‘And there’s Mr Grabbem himself, in that hovering eye thing!’ Axel glanced around in case his son, Gus Grabbem Junior, was lurking somewhere. No sign. Maybe the repulsive boy had been grounded for once.
‘We’ve got about sixty seconds to come up with a plan,’ said Yumi.
Axel swallowed and forced himself to think. ‘Okay. How about this? The moment they open the vault, I’ll use BEAST’s ELASTO form to stretch out and grab the reactor.’
Yumi nodded. ‘And I can use REAVER’s LIGHTRAZOR form to keep the guards off your back.’
‘LIGHTRAZOR?’
‘It’s his super-fast energy attack mode,’ said Yumi.
‘Cool. It’ll be like a combo blitz move.’
‘Totally.’
Axel laughed. ‘Did we just come up with a plan?’
‘Yup. With thirty seconds to spare, too.’
Axel held up BEAST’s fist. Yumi made REAVER give him a fist bump.
For the first time on this mission, Axel suddenly felt really deep-down good. He’d never guessed there were people other than him and Omega fighting Grabbem – people he could fight alongside, and even learn from. Maybe I’m not alone after all, he thought.
‘BEAST, go into ELASTO!’
BEAST changed shape into something like an orangutan with long, droopy, spring-like limbs. Across from them, REAVER had gone into LIGHTRAZOR, which looked like a sleek, athletic alien with softly glowing blades for arms. By comparison, BEAST looked ridiculous, but he clearly didn’t care. He was having the time of his life.
Robotic Rumble Page 3