by Matt London
As the soldiers hoisted Diana to her feet, she caught a glimpse of a small blond girl hiding behind a docked hover-ship. Vesuvia watched silently, looking frightened and unsure, not at all like the confident brat Diana remembered.
Before she could think more on the subject, the soldiers dragged Diana through a door and deep into the dreadnought.
EVIE PACED NERVOUSLY AROUND THE CONFERENCE ROOM IN THE WINTERPOLE COMPLEX. HER father had worked with Winterpole to set up a bunch of surveillance monitors to keep tabs on the ongoing assault on Scifun and Diana’s mission.
Something was wrong. Diana was out of contact and they couldn’t get a read from any of the cameras on the hoverships that had gone to the dreadnought to arrest Viola Piffle. Evie and Rick had even tried to reach Diana on her private communicator, but without luck.
“I’m worried,” she told Rick and Sprout while the adults studied the other monitors. “Diana should have checked in by now. Maybe something bad has happened.”
Rick bit the inside of his cheek. “Mastercorp must have taken her. They’re holding Diana and the other agents captive.”
Evie didn’t want to admit it, but he was probably right. Her time on the dreadnought had shown her that Mastercorp would not go down easy. They would never turn their leader over to Winterpole without a fight. She didn’t want to think about what Diana was facing as a prisoner of Mastercorp.
“We have to rescue her,” Rick said.
“Agreed.” Evie nodded.
“I’m in,” Sprout added. He was always so reliable.
Evie and Rick felt bad about sneaking off without telling their parents, but Mom and Dad would never let them go on a dangerous mission right into the heart of Mastercorp. They needed to protect their friend and to complete Diana’s mission: stop Mastercorp and bring Viola Piffle to justice.
Evie, Sprout, and Rick went to where their beloved Roost was parked. The thought of taking on the dreadnought and a fleet of Mastercorp bugs with just the Roost made Evie feel like she was waiting in line for a roller coaster that had failed its safety inspection. Even so, she knew she couldn’t back down. Diana needed their help.
As they opened the access gate to enter their flying tree, Evie heard a familiar squawk behind her. “Children, I say! Wait for me!”
2-Tor’s metal joints squeaked as he waddled down the hall. He flapped his wings and clacked his beak. “I’m not going to let you rush off into danger unsupervised. This is outrageous! You spend a little time as governors of a new continent and everything goes up in feathers.”
Evie wrinkled her nose. “2-Tor, what are you talking about?”
“You are still children! You need a responsible bird to look after you.”
Rick laughed. “Well, come on then, 2-Tor. Let’s go.”
“Yes, Richard.” 2-Tor bowed. “Although I can’t say I missed these dangerous missions.”
They climbed through the tree’s catwalks, ladders, and corridors, reaching the bridge. 2-Tor settled into the co-pilot’s chair and Rick took the helm.
Evie grinned, watching them power up the Roost’s subsystems. “If you ask me, 2-Tor only wanted to come along because Didi might be on the dreadnought.”
“Ooooh!” Rick said. “Is that 2-Tor’s pink robot-bird girlfriend?”
“How dare you!” 2-Tor crowed. “That is a sensitive, private matter.”
“They were in love,” Evie sighed.
“Didi and I formed a thoughtful and platonic bond,” 2-Tor explained. “That’s all.”
“I don’t think that’s what Didi would say,” Evie pressed.
2-Tor flapped a wing at her. “You are a mockingbird of the worst order, Evelyn Lane, I say!”
Rick flung the thrusters and the Roost rocketed up the elevator tube shaft and into the air. For the moment, Winterpole had beaten back the Mastercorp bugs and the skies were clear. The flying tree veered over the jungle to the west side of the continent, where the dreadnought hovered menacingly.
A series of loud beeps drew their attention to the front of the cockpit.
“Something’s coming up on our scanners,” Rick said, flipping on the targeting computer. “Possible hostile objects.”
“Where?” Evie ran to the port window and looked outside.
“Everywhere!” Rick said as a punk-looking kid with a buzz cut and steel wings landed on the Roost’s windshield. Rick had told Evie all about Buzz and the rest of Benjamin Nagg’s Brat Brigade.
“Mrs. Piffle told us not to let you anywhere near the dreadnought!” Buzz said with a sneer. A six-inch metal spike emerged from his boot and he kicked the windshield, spiking a hole through it. Wind rushed through the cockpit.
“Look out!” Rick cried, flinging the flight stick hard to the right. The Roost spun on its vertical axis, spiraling through the air. Unrestrained, Evie did a backward somer-sault, crashing into the floor a second later. Buzz went careening off the windshield and out of sight.
Warning alarms beeped across the console. “I say!” 2-Tor squawked. “Are those incoming missiles?”
The vapor trails arcing through the air were unmistakable. Rick threw the Roost into a dive, trying to avoid the heat sensors on the missiles.
Boom! Blam! Evie clutched the back of 2-Tor’s chair as she heard two missiles explode behind them. Then there was a deafening crash and the whole Roost shook.
“We’re hit!” Rick said. “Damage report.”
Sprout crawled to the damage readout display. “Looks like hover engine two is offline. Aw, drat.”
“Double drat,” Rick agreed. “Let’s get out of this heat and then we’ll find a place to land for repairs. Maybe on top of Mount Inspiration. It’s not too far from—”
Boom! Another missile collided with the Roost. 2-Tor squawked in a loud panic.
Evie tried to control her breathing. The distant horizon rose and fell like they were on a violent sea.
“Hover engines one and two out now,” Sprout said, reading from the damage readout display.
“Rick . . .” Evie grabbed his shoulder.
“Hold on.” Rick tried to keep the Roost flying steady.
Something appeared in front of the Roost, like a silver bullet hovering in the sky.
“Rick!” Evie shouted. The bullet had blood-red eyes.
The gruesome mechanical face of Benjamin Nagg grew larger in the view screen as the Roost flew closer. Instead of flying out of the way of the hovership barreling toward him, Benjamin engaged his hoverboots and flew at the Roost.
“What is he doing?” Evie shouted.
“He’s crazy!” Rick exclaimed.
Benjamin extended a fist and grinned wickedly.
“Look out!” Sprout screamed.
Benjamin crashed through the front windshield of the Roost, shattering the durable glass. He cut a slash straight through the large tree, splintering it in half. Evie, Sprout, and 2-Tor fell to the starboard side of the severed cockpit. Rick fell to the other. He struggled to unbuckle his safety restraints, but his half of the Roost tumbled away before he could get free.
Without control or propulsion, the split tree tumbled through the air. Evie held on to 2-Tor. The metal bird scooped her and Sprout into his lap and shielded them with his wings. Evie hung on to Sprout, wincing as the devastated remains of her hovership crashed through the jungle canopy and exploded on impact with the ground.
IN THE DEEPEST CAVERNS OF THE MASTERCORP DREADNOUGHT, VESUVIA’S MOTHER KEPT A private laboratory. Here she conducted experiments in biology and robotics, creating new attack bots like her ravens, or new steps forward in cyborg technology. Vesuvia hated the place. It was more like a haunted house than a science lab, but when her mother demanded her presence, she had no choice but to go.
Vesuvia was still shaking sand out of her shoes, making each step she took to the lab unpleasant. When she arrived, the doors opened for
her automatically. She stepped into the dark, cavernous chamber.
The mangled skeletons of discarded robots hung from the walls like shackled prisoners that had been forgotten for a decade. Sparks burst from poorly insulated cables that ran in thick clumps across the ceiling.
A great vat of Anti-Eden Compound dominated the center of the room. Black metal catwalks surrounded the rim of the container, and dangling from a thick metal chain above the churning silver liquid was Vesuvia’s ex-best friend, Diana Maple.
Diana’s wrists were handcuffed to the chain. Her feet swung free below her. The sleeve of her Winterpole agent uniform had torn and the top button had ripped off. Her hair was a disheveled mess—an atrocious style, even for Diana—and she hung her head in defeat.
Vesuvia’s mother stood on a black metal catwalk on the rim of the vat, studying a computer terminal. A mechanical raven perched on her shoulder turned its head and glared at Vesuvia with its red, robotic eyes. It clacked its beak and cawed at her. Vesuvia shivered.
“Come in, daughter.” Her mother’s voice was as cold as the raven’s eyes. “You’re just in time to interrogate the prisoner.”
Raising her head, Diana looked fiercely between Vesuvia and her mother. “I’m not going to say one word. I don’t care if you torture me.”
“Torture you? Tsk tsk.” Viola shook her head. “I’m not going to torture you, Diana. I’m going to indoctrinate you. You’re about to become Mastercorp’s most important employee.”
“I’ll never work for you!” Diana shook a lock of hair out of her face. Vesuvia had never seen her friend speak so defiantly. It was impressive and kind of cool. She wanted to tell her it was good to see her. She missed Diana, but she knew if she said anything nice her mother would punish Diana more.
“Don’t be so quick to refuse me,” Viola cautioned. “I have been improving the Aniarmament procedure. When I founded the program, my goal was to create the perfect hybrid of human, animal, and machine. I forged perfect bodies for them, and now I will forge their minds. New inductees to the program will be my slaves due to my invention, the personality override. Members will obey my commands, without exception.”
Viola tapped a few buttons on the computer terminal and the floor began to rumble. Vesuvia fought to keep her balance. The vat of Anti-Eden Compound bubbled. Robotic arms reached down from the ceiling and clamped Diana from the sides in their steel grip.
Diana inhaled a deep shuddering breath. “Whatever you do to me, my friends won’t let you destroy the eighth continent.”
Vesuvia’s mother burst out laughing. Her dark cackle echoed throughout the laboratory. Vesuvia wanted to cover her ears. Instead she crept over to a tool cabinet and cowered behind it. Whatever was about to happen to Diana, it wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Destroy the continent?” Viola laughed even louder. “Destroying the eighth continent is the last thing I want to do. Oh, this is wonderful. After all this time, your idiot allies don’t know the first thing about our plans. I’m not going to destroy the eighth continent. I’m going to destroy the other seven continents.”
Diana’s eyes widened. So did Vesuvia’s. This was the first she had heard of this.
Viola’s voice filled the room. “The Anti-Eden Compound devastates organic matter, and I have produced it on a massive scale. Once we wipe out every last inch of dirt and tuft of grass on the planet, the only livable place on earth will be the eighth continent. Billions of refugees will need a place to live, to settle and rebuild the human race. And Mastercorp will sell it to them. Millions of dollars a foot. We can name our price and people will have to pay it because we’ll be the only game in town.
“But . . .” Diana said weakly, “. . . only rich people will be able to settle on your continent. The rest of the planet will die!”
Shaking her head in disappointment, Viola said, “Diana, we’re Mastercorp. Why would we care about that?”
Vesuvia shivered. Her mother’s words sounded so monstrous now, but Vesuvia had to admit she had thought the same way for so long.
“The time has come to urbanize the eighth continent. We need to mine the continent’s unnatural resources. We need power plants, weapons factories, industrial and commercial zones. Once Mastercorp is finished, this will be a continent of asphalt and steel, the face of the whole planet, a sigil representing industry and money; and you, Diana, you are going to help us.”
“Never,” Diana spat.
Viola waved a finger at her. “Can I quote you on that?” She punched a big button on the computer terminal, and the robotic arms clamping Diana engaged. Bands of metal wrapped around her arms and legs, encasing her in reflective pink material.
“Stop! Let me go!” Diana pleaded.
“Do you like the pink, Vesuvia?” Viola gave her daughter a sidelong glance. “That was a nod to you.”
The metal tightened, cocooning Diana as she struggled like a fly caught in a spiderweb.
“What are you doing to me?” Diana cried.
Viola turned up a dial on her terminal. “That discomfort you feel is the monofilament metal weaving through your cellular tissue. It will become excruciating in a moment.”
Diana begged, “Stop!”
Vesuvia winced at her friend’s pleas.
“Vesuvia, darling, why don’t you come up here and help Mommy complete the procedure?”
“Vesuvia, help me!” Diana screamed.
Vesuvia turned away. She didn’t want to see what was going to happen next.
“Vesuvia, don’t make me ask you twice.”
The light on Viola’s bracelet flashed, and her ravens swooped down, snatched Vesuvia by the shoulders, and pulled her up to the catwalk, depositing her beside her mother. Over the vat of Anti-Eden Compound, Diana looked at Vesuvia with glassy, helpless eyes as tendrils of pink metal wrapped around her face.
Viola threw a lever, and the chain lowered Diana toward the bubbling vat. The girl whispered, “Help . . . Help me.”
Vesuvia swallowed hard. She glanced at the computer terminal, then back to Diana. Viola wasn’t looking. Vesuvia had a few seconds to act.
“Please,” Diana said again.
Vesuvia’s eyes flicked toward the computer terminal. If she could get to it before Viola noticed, maybe she could throw the switch and save Diana from dropping into the Anti-Eden Compound.
But before Vesuvia could inch any closer, Viola turned and wrapped her daughter in a hug. “I’m so proud of you, honey.”
Vesuvia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. After all she had done to try and impress Viola, her mother was finally proud of her?
Vesuvia closed her eyes and smiled. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt her mother’s arms around her. All thoughts of reaching the circuit board faded away.
With a shriek, Diana plummeted into the Anti-Eden Compound, the silvery liquid surrounding her and soaking into her skin. The pink metal melted, coating her body with a hard metallic sheen.
Vesuvia looked up at her mother.
“What was it that finally made you proud of me?” Vesuvia asked. She tried not to think about what was happening in the vat below.
Her mother snorted and pushed Vesuvia away. “Oh, please, Vesuvia. You are a disappointment and an embarrassment. I will always be ashamed of you.”
“Wha- . . . What?” Vesuvia stumbled back.
“I saw you eyeing my computer terminal,” Viola said. “You think I’m going to let you ruin my plans, you little traitor? At least you’re so easily manipulated.”
Vesuvia bristled with shame and rage. “You used me! Get her out of there!” she screamed, reaching for the computer terminal.
Viola shoved Vesuvia and she sprawled across the catwalk. “You’re too late. The procedure is almost complete.”
Vesuvia watched helplessly as Diana’s body turned completely metallic. Viola flip
ped the lever and the chain pulled Diana out of the tank. The metal bands had sunk into her body, leaving her body bulbous and unnaturally pink.
Diana’s arms and legs separated into eight distinct appendages, with deep creases running the length of each limb. They continued to stretch and grow, her whole body expanding to hang over the edges of the tank. The chain broke under the weight. Diana’s giant metal body crashed to the ground, flattening the tank beneath her. Glass shattered, metal splintered. The catwalk started to collapse.
Viola raised her hand and two of her ravens snatched her up, carrying her clear of the destruction. Vesuvia scrambled back, her plastic shoes splashing through the spilled Anti-Eden Compound as she ran to the far side of the laboratory.
Diana’s head swelled into an enormous dome, threatening to break through the ceiling. Her tentacles flailed, swatting at Viola. Vesuvia saw her mother tap a button on her bracelet, and the flailing abruptly stopped. That must have been the personality override Viola had mentioned.
The transformation was complete. Diana was no longer a girl, or even human. She was a giant pink robotic octopus. And she was Viola’s to command.
EVIE WAS SURROUNDED BY THE VASTNESS OF SPACE. TRILLIONS OF STARS LIT UP THE COSMOS with their fiery, captivating light. Spinning moons, speeding comets, swirling black holes, pulsing quasars, roiling nebulae—all moving like cogs in the greatest machine in history, the universe.
Flying past uncountable galaxies, Evie saw something ahead. It was Vesuvia, floating through space, lost. Evie rushed to her, but before her hand could reach the other girl, Vesuvia transformed. Her body stretched and her face hardened. Her clothes turned the color of the night sky. Evie recoiled. Vesuvia had become her mother Viola. The woman smiled, revealing a mouth of grotesque shark teeth. Her mouth opened wider and wider until it was a hideous black maw that overtook her whole form, transforming her into the Mastercorp dreadnought. The robo-shark lunged at Evie. She flew away, her heart racing.
She rocketed to the center of a solar system, where Diana floated, shining bright as the sun. Evie’s friend reached out to her and tried to speak. But sound didn’t travel in space. Her mouth formed the words help me.