Tempesta

by Mac Park

  Lemonfizz Media

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  Scholastic Australia Pty Limited

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  Published by Pop &Fizz and Scholastic Aus Australia in 2010. www.paddlepoppress.com Text, design and illustrations copyright © Lemonfizz Media 2010. Cover illustration by Britt Martin. Internal illustrations by Lionel Portier, Melanie Matthews, Britt Martin, Steve Karp and James Hart.

  A CIP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, unless specifically permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 as amended.

  Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Back Cover Material

  Long ago beast and man shared one world. Then battles began between them.

  After many battles the world was split in two. Beasts were given Beastium. Man was given Earth.

  A border-wall was made. It closed the two worlds off.

  Border Guards were trained to defend the border-wall.

  The beasts tried to get through the border-wall many times. The Border Guards had to stop them. Battles won by beasts made them stronger. Battles won by guards earned them new battle gear. And they got new upgrades. Then their battle gear could do more.

  Five boys now defend the border-wall. They are in training to become Border Masters. Just like their dads.

  Their dads were also Border Guards once. Then they became Border Captains and then Border Knights. They kept learning until they became Border Masters. Now they make up the Bordaria Master Command. The BMC.

  The BMC helped the Border Guards during battle. They gave the Border Guards new battle gear.

  The boys had to earn new battle gear. They needed to learn from their battles. And from their mistakes.

  Kai Masters is a Border Guard. His work is top secret. The BMC watch Kai closely. Kai must not fail.

  The beasts of Beastium lived in four lands. There was a fire land. There was a rock land and a water land. And there was an air land.

  But over time, the edges of the lands mixed. That was how the border-lands were made.

  The edges of fire and rock mixed. That made a volcano land. The edges of rock and water mixed. There was a mud border-land.

  The edges of water and wind mixed. There was an ice border-land. The edges of wind and fire mixed. That made a storm border-land.

  But it was not just the edges of the worlds that mixed.

  The beasts from each of the worlds mixed too. And then a new kind of beast was made...

  The border-land beast.

  Kai Masters must think about his old battles. He must learn from them. If he does not, then he will fail.

  Kai must not lose.

  It was a dark and stormy night. Kai Masters was in bed. He was reading the latest Space Games book. Outside, bolts of lightning lit the sky. Thunder clapped and rumbled.

  Kai turned the page of his book.

  Suddenly all the lights went out. Kai’s room was dark. He looked out the window. It was dark there too. No lights on anywhere, thought Kai. There must be a power blackout.

  Kai grabbed his torch. He went up the ladder to the lighthouse deck.

  Kai lived in an old lighthouse. The outside looked very old.

  But the inside of the lighthouse was new. It had all the things a Border Guard needed. There was even a slide. It was a prize from the BMC. It took Kai from his bedroom to other rooms, like the lab, fast.

  Kai liked being a Border Guard. He was 12 years old and he got to battle beasts. Kai had to keep the beasts in their own lands. Away from the wall. And away from Earth.

  Kai stood on the deck. He looked up at the sky. It was filled with dark clouds. There was a lot of thunder and lightning. But there was no rain. That’s strange, thought Kai.

  Kai went over to the room where his dogbot slept. BC3 was a gift from the BMC. BC helped Kai in battles. And he was Kai’s buddy.

  Kai shone his torch into BC’s room. BC had been asleep on his charger-mat. The mat charged the dogbot with power. When BC woke up he was always fully charged. And ready for action.

  Kai looked at BC and laughed. The power black-out had given BC a super power-charge. BC had fake fur that he could wear outside.

  Kai could turn the fur on with a button. When he did, fur popped out from under BC’s metal body. But the power charge had made BC’s fur pop out by itself. And bits of fur were sticking out everywhere!

  BC pushed open his doggie door. The dogbot ran out onto the deck. ‘You look nutty,’ said Kai. ‘Are you okay?’

  BC’s tail wagged madly. ‘Okay, but storm is beastly,’ said BC.

  ‘Yes,’ said Kai. ‘And your tail is wagging. That always means trouble.’

  ‘No rain. It’s not right,’ said BC. ‘Too much lightning.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ said Kai. ‘This looks like the work of beasts. Let’s get your fur to the lab. It’s full of power charges. We need to test it. But first we have to turn the back-up power on.’

  Kai and BC went back into Kai’s bedroom. They took the secret slide all the way to the lab.

  Kai dropped down from the slide into his chair. BC dropped down from the slide onto his stool. Kai went over to the power box.

  There was a back-up power button. Kai pushed the button. All the lights came back on.

  ‘That’s better,’ said Kai. ‘Let’s turn the computer on.’

  The lab had two computers. Kai turned on the computer with all the Beastium things in it. Kai used it to find out where to battle. And about the Beastium beasts.

  Kai cut some fur from BC’s coat. He put it into the sample tester. Then the computer screen flashed.

  ‘Two Beastium lands,’ said Kai. ‘Fire and wind. I think it would be wind for a storm.’ But before he could say more the screen flashed again.

  ‘Tempesta? The border-land where the wind and fire lands meet?’ asked BC.

  ‘Yes,’ said Kai. ‘It is a storm land. But there are no beasts in the border-lands. Or are there?’ Kai hit the Tempesta button.

  The screen flashed again.

  ‘That looks a bit like the beast from the wind land,’ said Kai. ‘And a bit like the beast from the fire land.’

  ‘A combo beast?’ asked BC.

  ‘Maybe,’ said Kai. ‘A borderland beast made from wind and fire. This battle will be hard.’

  ‘Will BMC give us new battle gear?’ asked BC.

  ‘Yes,’ said Kai. ‘Let’s open the battle chamber and see.’

  The battle chamber was behind the lab.

&nbs
p; Kai took out his Border Guard Card. He put it into the computer slot. The bricks in the wall behind Kai moved.

  The bricks left a space to climb through. Inside were three walls with battle gear.

  Kai had used most of the gear on wall one. He had battled well.

  Kai was now able to get things from wall two.

  But Kai went to wall three. He went to take something.

  He heard a noise.

  Then a computer voice said

  ‘Back to wall two,’ said Kai. ‘What about this?’

  ‘Like the foam blaster that we took to Infernix,’ said BC.

  ‘Yes,’ said Kai. ‘But this is a new model. It doesn’t run out of foam. And it can spray in front of us and behind us.’

  ‘One more thing,’ said BC. ‘What about that sword?’

  Kai went to take it.

  Then he heard a noise

  And the computer voice said

  ‘Excellent!’ said Kai. ‘Transport. I can’t wait to see this room!’

  Kai and BC climbed the ladder to the slide. They took the slide to the transport chamber. The room was round. On one part of the wall was a huge computer screen.

  The words on it said

  ‘We make our own ride, BC!’ said Kai. He hit the start button. A side bar came up with three buttons. Land, air and water.

  Kai thought about a storm land. ‘I think we should fly,’ he said. Kai hit the air button.

  Then he hit the storm button.

  Then he hit striker.

  ‘Look at that jet, BC,’ said Kai. ‘The jet can change!’

  ‘One is like a robot,’ said BC.

  Then Kai and BC heard a noise behind them.

  They both turned and looked. Part of the floor was moving.

  It was the floor in the middle of the room. And it slid open like a big door.

  Out from the space rose Kai and BC’s ride. It was the jet that Kai had made.

  ‘Check this jet out, BC!’ said Kai. ‘It’s awesome!’ Kai and BC climbed into the cockpit.

  Just then Kai’s orbix beeped. The orb was a round hand-held computer.

  The BMC used it to talk with their Border Guards. The orb could be used for lots of other cool things as well.

  Kai looked at the dashboard. There was an orb-shaped space. Kai put his orb into the space. The dashboard lit up and the orb’s screen flashed.

  ‘Look at that charge mode,’ said Kai. ‘We have to get the bars filled. When they are full the jet can change.’

  ‘How do we fill bars?’ asked BC.

  ‘I think we have to win points in battle,’ said Kai. ‘These bars show us when we’ve won points.’

  ‘Time to go,’ said Kai. The lift began to move. It went up to the top of the lighthouse.

  Kai and BC sat in the jet on the take-off pad.

  Kai’s orb flashed again. ‘We got some upgrades,’ he said. ‘My clothes have rubber-all. Your metal body has it too. The rubber will stop lightning zaps hurting us.’

  Kai keyed in the codes for the storm border-land. Then he hit the light button on the orb. The roof of the lighthouse opened. The take-off pad filled with light. The light shot up into the sky.

  It took Kai and BC with it. To the border-land of Tempesta.

  The jet hit storm clouds as it flew into Tempesta. ‘We’re in the right place,’ said Kai. He hit the fly-safe button on the dash. The jet flew smoothly between the clouds.

  The black sky filled with lightning flashes. The thunder rumbled loudly.

  ‘Lightning is green and purple,’ said BC.

  ‘Yes,’ said Kai.

  ‘It must be coming from the beast. But where is the beast? It’s so hard to see inside these clouds. It’s hard to fly and miss the lightning.’

  Kai put the jet’s lights on high beam.

  ‘Trouble coming!’ said BC. His tail began to wag.

  Kai looked up. There were fire balls coming at them.

  ‘Are they fire flies?’ asked Kai.

  ‘Like in the fire land?’

  ‘Worse,’ said BC. ‘Bigger and faster. More fire!’

  Suddenly the jet rolled. ‘We’ve been hit!’ said Kai. He pulled the jet up quickly.

  ‘I’ll use the striker,’ said Kai. ‘Those aren’t just fire splats. They are big balls of fire.’

  ‘Too many hits will hurt the jet,’ said BC.

  Kai used the joystick to point the striker.

  Then he hit the button.

  ‘I got them!’ said Kai.

  ‘We won points, BC!’ said Kai. ‘And look at that big storm. That’s where our beast will be.’

  Suddenly there was a big flash of green light. Then the sky went dark. BC’s tail wagged. ‘Beast coming!’ said BC.

  A flash of lightning hit the jet. As it hit, it turned into a fire ball.

  ‘Lightning that turns to fire!’ said Kai. ‘Where did that come from?’

  A massive thunder clap shook the jet.

  Then the beast rose out of the darkness. And it was flying at Kai and BC.

  Kai looked at the beast. ‘That’s not the beast we saw in the lab,’ he said. ‘I think it’s changed.’

  The beast had big wings. Lightning shot out from its mouth. Then the lightning burst into flames. Kai used his orb to take a photo of it.

  A card popped up.

  ‘This beast is making its own thunder and lightning,’ said Kai. ‘And it’s shooting at the border-wall. We need to zap it,’ said Kai. ‘Before it zaps the wall.’ Kai hit the striker button. The beast fell back. ‘We won more points,’ said Kai.

  But the beast came right back. It lifted its wings. And clapped them together.

  A huge thunder clap filled the sky.

  ‘The beast is doing thunderclap attacks,’ said BC.

  Kai tried to control the jet. But it was hard. Then the beast attacked again.

  The jet was sent spinning. It went into a nose-dive. And it was headed straight for the border-wall.

  Kai pulled hard on the jet’s joystick. The jet rose up just in time.

  ‘That was too close,’ said Kai. ‘We nearly hit the wall.’

  ‘BMC won’t be happy if we put a hole in the wall,’ said BC.

  Suddenly lightning hit the border-wall.

  ‘Quick, BC,’ said Kai. ‘We must stop it. I’ll use the Foam-a-tron this time.’

  Kai and BC flew back up at the beast. Kai opened the cockpit. ‘You drive, I’ll foam the beast,’ said Kai.

  But the beast was ready for them. It did another thunderclap attack.

  All of Kai’s foam was blown back at him. The jet was covered in foam. And it stuck. Kai couldn’t see where they were going. And they had no way of getting rid of the foam.

  ‘Use your eye lasers, BC,’ said Kai. ‘I’ll use the striker. If we both hit it we can beat it.’ The beast was in front of them. They could tell from its noises.

  Kai and BC sent three zaps out.

  The beast roared.

  BC’s tail wagged. ‘Something bad is coming,’ he said.

  Suddenly the jet was hit by the biggest lightning attack of all. It went into a tail-spin. Kai and BC crashed onto the border-wall.

  Kai looked up. The beast had changed again. It was a maxi-beast. Bolts of lightning flew from its mouth. They hit the border-wall.

  Two Claw Suckers were on the beast. It was losing its power fast. But Kai was falling. He was headed for the border-wall.

  BC flew down below Kai. Kai landed on BC’s back.

  ‘Good landing!’ said BC.

  ‘You are a life saver, BC,’ said Kai. ‘Can you get us back into the cockpit?’

  BC looked up.

  The beast was trying to get free. The Claw Suckers were still gripping the beast. But the charge was hang
ing at the end of the claw’s cords.

  The beast was mad. It had just enough power left to shake the cords.

  ‘Have to hurry,’ said BC. ‘Cords will break!’ BC flew up to the cockpit.

  Kai and BC both climbed back inside.

  ‘We need to suck its power until there is nothing left,’ said Kai.

  ‘You use the Foam-a-tron, BC,’ said Kai. ‘I’ll drive.’

  BC shot foam at the beast’s mouth. The little lightning it had left went out.

  ‘Shoot at its feet too, BC,’ said Kai. ‘There are small bolts still coming from its claws.’