Omega Operation

by Adrian C. Bott

Axel’s legs suddenly didn’t want to work.

  Keep walking, he told himself.

  But he could hardly stand upright. The words echoed in his mind. Mr Grabbem had said Neuron Institute. The pale, bald man was from the very same place where Axel’s father was being held prisoner! A place so mysterious that even Yumi’s family knew next to nothing about it.

  Now he had a chance. If he could follow them, listen to their conversations, he might learn where the Neuron Institute was based. Where his father was.

  Or he could tell BEAST to grab the Professor and make the man tell him what he needed to know.

  The tour group started to move away down the hall.

  Axel kept walking. He wanted to scream out loud.

  I have to keep going and rescue Agent Omega. He needs me. But my father needs me, too! And if I don’t take this chance, it won’t come again!

  He had to turn around. It was now or never.

  What am I going to do?

  His heart breaking, Axel made his decision ...

  Nobody spared Axel a glance as he pushed BEAST, still in FRIJ form, through the swinging doors of the medical wing. He was glad of that. There were tears in his eyes.

  I’m sorry, Dad, he thought. But Yumi was right when she said I always had to stick to the mission goal, instead of rushing off on wild goose chases. Right now, I need to focus on rescuing Agent Omega. He’s counting on me. But I promise when he’s safely out of here, I’ll find a way to come and save you, too.

  They passed hospital beds as they went. Pippa the Sausage Princess lay in one of them, howling as a doctor pulled the sticky Grabstic off her in long strips. He could still hear her yells as he pushed BEAST into the elevator at the end of the room.

  They rode down to the isolation ward. A little camera in the elevator watched them.

  The isolation ward turned out to be a row of glass-walled cells. It wasn’t a prison, but it was pretty close to one. Axel was glad to see there were no doctors or nurses here at all. Most of the cells were empty, but Axel caught sight of a familiar figure in the last cell on the right, sitting up in bed.

  ‘There he is! Agent Omega! It’s me, Axel!’

  He ran for the cell. BEAST, still in FRIJ form, tried to totter after him, fell over and went clang. ‘SHIFTING,’ BEAST said, sounding embarrassed. He turned back into his regular form.

  Agent Omega jumped out of bed. His face was covered with bright blue dots. ‘Oh, Axel. Oh, you poor brave boy. You came for me. I was hoping you wouldn’t, but you did. Of course you did.’

  Axel’s mouth fell open. ‘You were hoping I wouldn’t?’

  Agent Omega looked like the most miserable man on Earth. ‘I’m a fool. The MOT-BOL was set up to go and fetch you if I ever didn’t put the password in. Because I thought the only possible reason that could happen would be if they’d caught me.’

  For a moment, Axel fought against the truth. It was hammering its fists on his brain, but he didn’t want to let it in. Because if he did, it would mean that all of this had been for nothing.

  But he knew he had no choice. The spots on Agent Omega’s face, the secure medical room … they all added up to one conclusion.

  ‘They hadn’t caught you at all!’ Axel realised. ‘They were just keeping you locked up in here because you’ve got some kind of horrible illness. That’s why you couldn’t put your password in!’

  ‘Pixel pox,’ said Agent Omega gloomily. ‘It’s highly contagious. They had to keep me away from the other employees.’

  Axel sank against the glass wall. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ‘Do you have any idea what we went through to get here?’

  ‘Listen,’ Omega said. ‘The robo-doctor will be back any second. I need to tell you that this wasn’t a waste of time.’

  ‘Well, it sure feels like one!’ Axel wiped his nose.

  ‘No! Today is the Grabbems’ Big Tour. They’re taking a bunch of mega-rich people around the base, trying to impress them. And what have they seen? Chaos. I heard all the announcements on the loudspeakers.’ Omega counted off on his fingers: ‘Guests hospitalised. Robots blowing holes through the floor. Fire alarms going off. Machinery wrecked. His computer system broken into. You think any of them are going to give him money now?’

  ‘So that’s who those people were,’ Axel said.

  ‘You’ve hit Grabbem where he’ll feel it most. In his pocket!’

  ‘MOTION DETECTED,’ said BEAST. ‘IT IS THE ROBO-DOCTOR.’

  ‘Stall him,’ said Axel.

  ‘HOW?’

  ‘I don’t know. Make something up!’

  BEAST went stomping off around the corner while Axel told Agent Omega all about Yumi’s message and the Professor. When he heard the words ‘Neuron Institute’, Omega’s eyes brightened.

  ‘Axel, I know who they are,’ he said. ‘Better still, I know where they are. I’ve been researching them ever since I saw the Professor was one of Grabbem’s investors.’

  ‘You mean we can go get my dad?’ Axel yelled.

  ‘Yes! All the files are on my computer! The moment this Pixel Pox clears up, I’ll send you everything you need to know. But for now, you have to get out of here. Go home!’

  Axel didn’t need telling twice. He ran back down the hall and found BEAST talking to a slender silver figure with a lamp on its head. That must be the robot doctor.

  ‘And when did you first notice the symptoms of this … what did you call it … “punching sickness”?’ the robot doctor asked.

  ‘RIGHT NOW,’ said BEAST, and punched the robot doctor in the face.

  ‘Run!’ yelled Axel.

  They ran.

  They reached the elevator, but the doors were closed and the display said the elevator was on a floor below. Axel pressed the button. The elevator began to rise. Very slowly.

  ‘We haven’t got time for this. BEAST, pull the doors open.’

  BEAST hauled back the doors, bending and buckling them. Axel looked up the empty elevator shaft. Nothing in their way. Good. He climbed inside BEAST and shifted him into SKYHAWK form.

  ‘Always wondered what would happen if I tried to fly SKYHAWK indoors,’ he said. ‘Here goes ...’

  SKYHAWK flew forwards into the shaft and banked sharply up. Axel increased the power. They went flying up the smooth walls of the shaft like a bullet from a rifle barrel. Sparks raced from SKYHAWK’s wingtips as they brushed the metal.

  Axel could still make out the shaft’s end wall, rushing towards them faster than an oncoming train.

  In seconds they would run out of shaft. There was no room to turn, and no time to slow down.

  Axel shifted the thrusters to MAXIMUM, and prayed.

  Meanwhile, Mr Grabbem was escorting his guests towards the grand finale of the Big Tour. ‘Hurry to the Testing Zone, folks! We can’t be late! Tell the kiddies to meet us there.’

  ‘Is there some reason why we’re going to the Testing Zone early?’ demanded Professor Payne.

  ‘Oh, yes. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.’

  Mrs Grabbem listened to someone talking on her phone, nodded and gave her husband a cold grin. ‘Just got a sighting on level twenty-three. The boy and his robot are on the way. They don’t suspect a thing.’

  Axel piled on more power and they climbed faster and faster. The shaft was a blur now, going by too fast to see.

  ‘BEAST, go into PILLBUG form, now!’

  With less than a second to spare, BEAST shifted into his most armoured form and balled up.

  They didn’t have SKYHAWK’s engines to propel them anymore, but BEAST was already going faster than a rocket. They smashed through the end of the shaft like a cannonball and kept going. They punched through the concrete floor and erupted out the other side in a shower of masonry dust.

  When they had rolled to a stop, Axel cautiously unfolded PILLBUG.

  ‘I wasn’t sure that was going to work. BEAST, where are we?’

  ‘WE ARE NEAR THE MAIN ENTRANCE, IN THE TESTING ZONE.’

  A
xel had expected to come up in an open-air parking lot. Instead, they had burst through the floor of some sort of arena with rows of seats around it. There were pillars with spikes on them, nozzles that jetted fire every few seconds, and treacherous-looking poles leading out over open pits.

  ‘What are they testing here? On second thoughts, I don’t want to know. Let’s go.’

  There was a metal roller door at the end that must be the exit. Beyond lay freedom. Axel started for it, but a voice rang out over the loudspeakers:

  ‘Not leaving so soon, I hope?’

  It was Mr Grabbem.

  Above the rows of seats was a royal box. Axel looked on in horror as the Grabbem family sat down in it, along with their guests and the Toxic Tweens.

  ‘THIS IS BAD,’ said BEAST.

  ‘I think it’s worse than bad,’ stammered Axel.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen!’ bellowed Mr Grabbem. ‘Here before you is a certain annoying little brat who has been doing his level best to ruin this very special day.’

  ‘Boo!’ screamed the Toxic Tweens.

  ‘Shame!’ yelled Lady Porkington-Trotter.

  ‘Varmint!’ thundered Hengist Punkerdunk.

  Mr Grabbem gloated like a Roman emperor who was about to have a gladiator fight a pack of angry leopards – armed only with a spoon.

  ‘Did you think we wouldn’t spot you, boy? Don’t you know there are cameras all over this place?’

  Axel groaned. ‘We forgot to turn the cameras off when we hacked the terminal!’

  ‘I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO,’ sighed BEAST.

  ‘Since the little toe-rag has popped up in our Testing Zone,’ crowed Mr Grabbem, ‘I’d like to do some testing. Testing to destruction!’

  All the Toxic Tweens laughed and jeered. Mrs Grabbem stepped forward with an elegant swish.

  ‘I’d like to take this opportunity to show off one of our latest Grabbem creations, the remote-control Crusherbot. Ideal for demolishing other people’s homes from a safe distance.’

  ‘Nice sales pitch,’ grunted General Regan.

  ‘We’d like you all to join in with this demonstration. Reach under your chairs and you’ll find a controller each,’ Mrs Grabbem said. ‘Now bring on the Crusherbots!’

  Square holes slid open in the ground. Ten-foot robots came clambering up from them, each one carrying a round ball on the end of a chain.

  They looked like a cross between mediaeval knights and demolition cranes.

  ‘You get a Crusherbot,’ said Mrs Grabbem, ‘and you, and you! Crusherbots for everyone!’

  With squeals of glee, the Grabbems and their tour guests operated their controllers. The Crusherbots moved, obeying their commands. They marched stiffly towards BEAST, swinging their demolition balls menacingly.

  ‘This is fun,’ giggled Justin Smoothley. ‘Come on, Lysander, help me press the hitty button. Squash his silly head!’

  Axel and BEAST had been outnumbered before, but never like this. Axel couldn’t even count how many Crusherbots were coming at them. Ten? Twelve? How could they possibly fight that many?

  ‘AXEL, I THINK THIS IS THE END,’ said BEAST.

  ‘No!’ Axel yelled. ‘We have to get out of here. I have to save my dad!’

  He fired BEAST’s foot thrusters and flew for the exit.

  ‘No, you don’t,’ shouted Gus Grabbem Junior. He flung his Crusherbot’s demolition ball. It whizzed up, trailing its chain, and wrapped around BEAST’s leg. The Crusherbot yanked hard, and BEAST came crashing down.

  Gus Junior’s Crusherbot hauled the ball back and swung it around in a whizzing figure eight. ‘I’d finish you off now,’ Gus said, ‘but Dad says I need to let my friends have a go at beating you up first!’

  ‘I AM SORRY,’ BEAST said, sounding broken. ‘I WAS NOT STRONG ENOUGH.’

  ‘Shift to OGRE,’ Axel said. ‘We’ll show them who’s strong.’

  The nearest Crusherbots, controlled by Lady Porkington-Trotter and Hengist Punkerdunk, went on the attack. They clumsily swung their wrecking balls at BEAST, but they weren’t gamers like Axel was, and they weren’t used to using controllers. Axel dodged them easily, grabbed one Crusherbot by the leg and threw it at the other. There was a horrific crash, and both the bots went down in a mangled pile of metal.

  ‘Not fair!’ Lady Porkington-Trotter howled. She threw her controller away and went off to sulk.

  ‘Leave this to me,’ snapped General Regan. ‘Can’t expect a civilian like you to understand a war machine like this.’ Her eyes narrowed as she lined up her attack with military precision.

  Axel saw it coming, but he was too late. The wrecking ball slammed into OGRE’s body and knocked him backwards off his feet.

  General Regan grinned and went in for the kill.

  But as she swung at him, Axel caught hold of her wrecking ball’s chain and pulled with all of OGRE’s strength. Taken by surprise, her Crusherbot fell over and skidded to a halt in the sand. Axel made OGRE jump up in the air and come down with both feet on the fallen Crusherbot’s head. It lay still, jetting sparks into the sandy floor.

  ‘One at a time,’ he panted. ‘That’s how we do this. Take them down one at a time.’

  Belladonna sent her Crusherbot in next. Her fighting style was much more sneaky. She aimed fake blows at OGRE’s head, arms and legs, only to whip them away at the last moment. Axel could hardly keep up.

  ‘Are you going to hit me or not?’ he yelled.

  ‘When I feel like it.’ She smirked.

  Axel saw she wasn’t looking at him, but at the pillar behind him. It was one of the flame-jet ones. So that was her game – force him to retreat and let the fiery blast take him down by surprise! Well, two could play at that game.

  He let her push him back and back until he was almost up against the pillar. Then, when he knew the fire jet was coming, he ducked. Belladonna shrieked as the blast melted her Crusherbot’s head like a chocolate bunny on a heater.

  Professor Payne shook his head in disgust and put his controller down. ‘I refuse to play. This was an unwise game, Grabbem. I am not impressed. The boy is making you look like an amateur.’

  ‘Stop playing around and rush him!’ yelled Mr Grabbem.

  The guests weren’t having fun anymore. This was serious. They worked their controllers and the remaining Crusherbots closed ranks. They formed a circle around OGRE.

  Axel desperately looked for a way out. There wasn’t one. He couldn’t defend against all of them at once.

  ‘I WANT TO SHIFT INTO HECKFIRE,’ BEAST said quietly.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘BECAUSE IF THIS IS REALLY THE END, I WANT TO GO OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY.’

  ‘Do it,’ Axel said, his voice cracking.

  Then, in the distance, Axel heard an engine revving. The sound grew louder and louder.

  Gus Grabbem Junior said, ‘What on Earth ...’

  In a glorious blast of light, the metal doors blew apart.

  There, on the other side, was the death trike the twins had piloted earlier that day. Sitting at the laser turret and at the handlebars were Kelly and Tiago, the two technicians from the hangar.

  ‘Hey, kid!’ Tiago shouted. ‘Remember us?’

  ‘You guys? I thought you couldn’t see me!’ Axel said.

  ‘We’ve been watching you on the security cameras! Was it you who burst that kid’s bubble?’

  ‘Yes!’

  ‘Knew it. We dunno who you are, but you got guts. We couldn’t leave you with no backup, not after you saved our butts from those rotten kids,’ said Tiago.

  ‘Oh, and Mr Grabbem?’ called Kelly. ‘I got a message for you. Grabbem Industries stinks. I QUIT!’

  ‘Me too!’ said Tiago. ‘And speaking of butts, you can kiss this one!’ He pulled his pants down and waved his butt cheeks at the royal box.

  Pure chaos broke out then. General Regan pointed and yelled at the top of her voice. Mrs Grabbem turned pale under her fake tan. Mr Grabbem just stood and stared without blin
king, as if his brain had fallen out.

  Not one of them was paying attention to the robots they were meant to be controlling. ‘Now’s our chance, BEAST. Go, go, go!’

  Axel lowered HECKFIRE’s head and charged. He slammed through the Crusherbots like a rugby forward and kept going.

  Tiago cheered him on. ‘Run, kid! We’ve got your back!’

  Kelly backed him up with a fresh scatter-blast of laser fire. Brilliant bolts zinged around the arena, ricocheting off the walls and ceiling. The Grabbem party dived for cover.

  Only Gus Junior stayed standing. This game wasn’t over yet. He sent his Crusherbot charging after BEAST. But Axel lashed out with HECKFIRE’s tail and knocked the robot flying.

  ‘You hit me from behind once before, remember?’ Axel said. ‘The first time we ever fought. Think I’d let you get away with it again?’

  While Gus screamed and yelled about how it ‘wasn’t fair’, Axel dived out through the wrecked metal door and shifted BEAST into SKYHAWK.

  ‘You think Kelly and Tiago are going to be okay?’ he asked.

  ‘I THINK THEY WILL BE IN A LOT OF TROUBLE,’ said BEAST, ‘BUT I DO NOT THINK THEY WILL CARE.’

  Good luck, guys, Axel thought. He hit the thrusters, and SKYHAWK went soaring away. Platinum Acres retreated into the distance like a bad memory.

  Axel clung to the controls, breathing hard. He didn’t even want to think about slowing down until they were many, many miles away from the Grabbem mansion.

  Three nights later, Axel, his mum, Nedra, and their friend Rusty Rosie sat talking to Agent Omega on Skype. He was back in his secret closet, down in the depths of the Grabbem base. His calm face showed no trace of Pixel Pox.

  ‘For a mission that shouldn’t have happened in the first place, that was a major success,’ he said.

  ‘I still can’t believe you went!’ Nedra said.

  ‘I can’t believe they didn’t take me,’ Rosie pouted. ‘My boot has an appointment with Mr Grabbem’s backside. And I’d like to have some words with that slimy wife of his, too.’

  ‘I know everyone wants a piece of the action, but Axel and BEAST work best together,’ said Omega. ‘Just look at what they managed to do this time. None of the tour guests are investing another penny. Grabbem’s lost a fortune. His business partners are pulling out of deals. He’s even had to sell a whole bunch of his land so he can afford to repair his factories! I never thought I’d say this, but you’ve got them on the run.’