The Scavengers Strike Back

by Marcus Emerson

  First published by Allen & Unwin in 2017

  Copyright © Text, Marcus Emerson 2014

  Copyright © Illustrations, David Lee 2014

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

  Allen & Unwin

  83 Alexander Street

  Crows Nest NSW 2065

  Australia

  Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

  Email: info@allenandunwin.com

  Web: www.allenandunwin.com

  A Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from the National Library of Australia

  www.trove.nla.gov.au

  ISBN 978 1 76029 563 9

  eISBN 978 1 92557 643 6

  Cover design by Marcus Emerson and Sandra Nobes

  Text design by Sandra Nobes

  Cover and internal illustrations by David Lee

  www.marcusemerson.com

  This one’s for Finn…

  Contents

  The Scavengers Strike Back

  Monday. The cafeteria.

  Monday. The lobby.

  Monday. The student council headquarters.

  Monday. The lobby.

  Monday. Lunch.

  Monday. The cafeteria.

  Monday. The lobby.

  Tuesday. The lobby.

  Tuesday. The lunch line.

  Tuesday. Outside by the dumpsters.

  Tuesday. The second floor.

  Tuesday. Room 801.

  Tuesday. The lobby.

  Wednesday. Outside school.

  Wednesday. The cafeteria.

  Wednesday. Lunch.

  Thursday. Before school.

  Thursday. The cafeteria.

  Thursday. Lunch.

  Friday. The storage garage.

  Friday. The cafeteria.

  Friday. The lobby.

  Friday. Outside.

  Friday. The cafeteria.

  In outer space, no one can hear a ninja … but I guess if that ninja were any good, no one should hear him on Earth either.

  The space station’s alarm was blaring so loudly that I could hardly think. The second Naoki and I appeared in the corridor, the station’s security system was triggered, launching an attack of brightly coloured laser blasts.

  There was no time to find cover, so I shut my eyes and used my keen ninja senses to dodge the lasers. It worked, but I knew I couldn’t keep it up long. I had to shut off the security system if Naoki and I were gonna make it out alive.

  ‘Master!’ Naoki’s tiny voice said, cutting through the explosions. ‘The off switch! It’s there! Beneath your feet!’

  I looked down, surprised to see that my sidekick was right. What kind of security system had an off switch sitting out in the open? No wonder that place had problems.

  I thrust my foot down, stomping on the switch.

  It beeped twice, and then a robotic voice came from a hidden speaker. ‘Thank you for using Lancelot’s Laser Blast Security System. If ya can’t beat ’em, blast ’em.’

  ‘That was easy …’ I said. ‘Too easy.’

  ‘Do you have a plan, master?’ Naoki asked, his voice barely a whisper. ‘Or … a master plan?’ He giggled at his own joke.

  Naoki was my newest sidekick.

  After my old sidekick Bennie, the T-rex, quit to play ukulele in a street band in Hawaii, Naoki was quick to apply.

  Naoki’s resume was just a bunch of pictures of rubbish bins that he had kicked and punched. If he were anyone else, I would’ve tossed out his resume, but Naoki was a raccoon. A ninja raccoon! His ninja mask was grown right on his face! How sweet was that?

  ‘Yes, Naoki,’ I said, floating. ‘I’ve got a plan.’

  Naoki reached out his tiny raccoon hands, and pushed himself off the wall. ‘Are you gonna tell me the plan? Or is it some kind of super-secret thing that I’m just going to have to wait patiently for?’

  Naoki was an amazing sidekick, but sometimes that little guy could be pushy.

  I tried to play it cool, but the truth was even though I had a plan, it wasn’t much of a plan. ‘I figured we’d get into the space station, check out what’s up with the power being out, and then deal with any intruders. Sound good to you?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Naoki answered, but I could tell it didn’t sound good to him.

  My name is Chase Cooper, and I’m a sixth grade ninja … on a mission in deep space with a raccoon.

  Naoki and I had been sent to scope out EV07. It was a space station that humans put on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, in hopes of making contact with alien life. It bums me out to say that the space station hadn’t made contact with little green beings yet.

  About a week ago, all communication to and from the station had been mysteriously cut off.

  We hoped the station had just lost its primary communications system and needed an upgrade, but in the real world, things were never that easy.

  Naoki and I had just arrived by ninja teleportation. I’d totally tell you how to do it if I could, but you know … ninja secrets.

  The power was completely out, like someone had left and shut off all the lights. But there weren’t any humans aboard EV07. It was the first space station entirely run by androids.

  And because the power was out, the artificial gravity wasn’t working. Boxes of random spaceship parts floated weightlessly around us as well. If we were on Earth, those boxes would have easily weighed five hundred kilograms each, but since we were in space, they weighed nothing. I’d just have to remember to stay away from them when the artificial gravity came back online.

  ‘First, we’ll have to flip the switch to get some juice running through this ship’s veins again,’ I said. ‘After that, we’ll check out why the communication was cut off.’

  ‘Perhaps the communication was cut because the power went out?’ Naoki suggested.

  ‘I dunno,’ I said. ‘Maybe.’

  ‘You don’t sound convinced, master,’ Naoki said.

  ‘There’s just something odd about the whole thing,’ I said, running my fingers along the wall as I floated towards the end of the corridor. ‘This place is run by robots—’

  Naoki cut me off. ‘Androids, master. You know they hate being called robots.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ I groaned. ‘I’m sorry. Androids were supposed to be running this place. Their power source isn’t the same as EV07’s, so when the ship shut down, the androids should’ve kept going. I mean, they should be the ones trying to get EV07 up and runnin’ again, but … have you seen any androids since we got here?’

  Naoki shook his head, then said, ‘Well now I’m kinda freaked out.’

  ‘Naaah,’ I said, trying to sound like I wasn’t freaked out too. ‘We’re just at the edge of the galaxy, thousands of light-years away from a single other human being, floating down a dark hallway on an abandoned space station. It’s nothing!’

  ‘Except that sounds like a sci-fi horror movie,’ Naoki whispered, his voice trembling. ‘Like, where an abandoned space station comes back from a place of pure evil …with a stowaway.’

  Just then, a low groaning came from inside the walls. It was the same sound a house makes in the middle of the night, when everything is dead silent, and you hear a CREAAAAAAK
that comes from somewhere you can’t see, and then you look at your dad for comfort, but he’s just as wide-eyed as you are, and then you suddenly realise you have to go to the bathroom, but there’s no way you’re about to go all alone, and your dad shrugs and says something like, ‘Eh, it’s just the house settling …’

  Yeah, right, dad! I know what it sounds like when the house is settling! And a weird groaning sound isn’t that!

  Uh … Anyways …

  ‘That sounded spooky,’ I said.

  ‘Really? You think?’ Naoki said, rolling his eyes.

  The groan came again, but this time from the end of the dark hallway.

  Floating helplessly, I turned to the shadows only to see shadows moving in the shadows.

  ‘Master!’ Naoki cried. ‘Shadow ninjas! Throw me!’

  ‘On it!’ I said, grabbing one of his tiny paws.

  Without any gravity, Naoki was as light as a feather when I brought his body over my head, shooting him down the hallway.

  Naoki rolled himself into a tight ball, keeping his knees under his stomach. I could only just see the shadow ninjas jumping back and forth through the corridor.

  Zipping down the hall, Naoki shot through the shadow ninjas like a furry football, throwing his fists and feet out at the last second. But the attack didn’t faze any of the ninjas. Naoki’s raccoon body simply slipped through their black silhouettes like they were shadows because, well, that’s exactly what they were.

  Naoki slammed into the glass door at the end of the corridor and shouted a bunch of stuff in his native tongue that would probably be considered inappropriate if there were a translator nearby.

  ‘Master!’ Naoki said as he peered through the frosted glass door. ‘Quickly! The bridge is in the next room!’

  Drifting like lint in the breeze, I floated towards the end of the dark corridor, towards the shadow ninjas.

  ‘I see a red light!’ Naoki said. ‘There’s a computer panel at the front of the bridge! That has to be important, right? Like, it could start the whole station should back up?’

  ‘It sounds possible,’ I said, watching the shadow ninjas bounce off the walls. In the darkness, I couldn’t tell how many there were, but I was pretty sure there were more than Naoki and I could handle.

  I spun around and kicked the wall closest to me to get myself moving, and I was soon flying through the hall with immense speed.

  Suddenly several of the shadow ninjas came together, rising off the floor at the centre of the room, creating the shape of a person much larger than a sixth grader.

  ‘Master!’ Naoki’s strained voice said. ‘I’ve got the door open! Quick!’

  ‘Workin’ on it!’ I replied just as I got to the shadowy figure standing in my way.

  I shielded my face, expecting to go straight through the figure, but I guess it didn’t work like that.

  The shadow ninja grabbed my wrist and launched me towards the wall. Pain surged through my body as I hit it.

  The shadow ninja flew towards me. He raised his fist, somehow making it grow to twice the size of a normal fist.

  I couldn’t reach the walls, so I kicked my feet like a dog treading water.

  ‘Naoki!’ I screamed, bicycle-kicking my legs.

  If you’ve read anything about being in a zero-gravity environment, you know that it’s nearly impossible to make move in any direction unless you can push yourself off something. I could dog paddle until I puked, but I wasn’t going anywhere.

  All I could do was watch the shadow ninja as he delivered his finishing move.

  At that moment, there was a flash of light behind the shadow ninja, back at the bridge.

  That same instant, the lights above flickered to life. My body fell to the floor with a thud.

  The boxes that had been floating around Naoki and me when we first arrived crashed to the floor, shaking the walls like there was an earthquake.

  I jumped to my feet, ready to defend myself against the shadow ninja, but to my surprise, he wasn’t there anymore. Well he wasn’t standing anymore.

  Under one of the giant boxes was the arm of my attacker, slowly vanishing into thin air like steam above a boiling pot.

  ‘You dead?’ Naoki called from down the hall.

  ‘Just about,’ I replied. ‘I take it you found the lights then?’

  Naoki chuckled. ‘Yeah! Turns out the blinking red light was the right button.’

  ‘Nice,’ I said, dusting myself off as I stood up.

  I joined Naoki on the bridge of the space station and studied our surroundings. Except for a few notches on the floor, everything seemed to be in tiptop shape.

  EV07’s bridge was a giant circle that was completely empty. Along the outside of the bridge were blinking computer panels and screens for crewmembers to work on.

  In the middle of the floor was a blue glowing circle, pulsing slowly like it was breathing. The blue circle was the heart of the bridge, and created holograms of the rest of the ship’s control panels in the big empty space of the bridge.

  These holograms were the controls that kept EV07 running smoothly. Even though they were holograms, they felt solid. You could bump your knee on one if you weren’t careful.

  I walked out to the centre of the bridge, tapping my foot on the blue circle. ‘How do we get this thing to work, because I’d love to—’

  A powerful light switched on from the back of the bridge, shining so bright that it was impossible to see anything.

  ‘Naoki?’ I said, squeezing my eyes shut. ‘Can you see anything?’

  I moved forwards, but I bumped into an object that had appeared out of nowhere. The holograms on the bridge had switched on!

  ‘Master!’ Naoki’s voice said. ‘I’m stuck! Something’s … got me!’

  ‘Keep talking,’ I said. ‘I’ll follow your voice.’

  ‘And if I speak over your friend?’ another voice said from somewhere near the back of the room.

  ‘Uh, Naoki?’ I asked.

  ‘Still here,’ Naoki said. ‘And that wasn’t me.’

  The voice of the stranger belted out a laugh. ‘No, it was me!’

  ‘Who are you?’ I asked, trying to move forwards, but it was impossible. My legs were stuck on something solid, but I couldn’t feel anything wrapped around my body. I looked behind me at my shadow that was cast against the floor of the bridge. Holding onto the shadow of my ankles were the shadow ninjas. They were holding my own shadow down so I couldn’t move!

  ‘Someone you know very well … and someone you hardly know at all,’ said the stranger. I could hear them pacing slowly back and forth.

  ‘Yeah, okay,’ I said. ‘That makes sense.’

  The stranger stepped closer, but stayed hidden just outside the beam of light. He was only near enough that I could make out his shape. He was roughly the same size as me, and over his face … was a black ninja mask.

  ‘You know,’ the ninja said. ‘It’s almost disappointing how easy it was to lure you out here to the edge of the galaxy. I honestly thought I’d have to go through with this incredibly elaborate plan. I mean, I spent weeks on it! After the power went out, I was gonna go ahead and start flipping the power on and off, hoping to catch someone’s attention. Then I was gonna reprogram all these robots to send video waves back to Earth, and … yadda, yadda, yadda. I won’t bore you with the details.’

  ‘So you’ve got me here,’ I said. ‘What do you want?’

  The bright spotlight dimmed but didn’t fully shut off. The shadow ninjas holding my ankles needed that light to cast my shadow, otherwise I’d break free from them.

  The mystery ninja stepped around me, just out of my reach. I studied the bridge and saw the spotlight near the back. Along a row of the computer terminals were several porcelain cups that looked way too fancy for a bunch of androids.

  ‘Nice tea set,’ I said. ‘That’s a lot of pottery for a villain.’

  ‘What?’ the ninja asked. I could see his eyes through the holes in his mask, and I could t
ell he was smiling. ‘Villains can’t have nice things?’

  His voice was so familiar, but I just couldn’t place it. It was a boy’s voice, which meant that it wasn’t the vampire queen Naomi. It definitely wasn’t Wyatt either. I went through the list of kids who hated me – Jake? Nope. Sebastian? Nope. Carlyle? Nope. Mr A. Lien? Because he caught me making fun of his name one time … also nope.

  ‘I can see the confusion in your eyes,’ the ninja said, stepping towards me.

  I blinked. ‘Maybe because that’s all you can see of my face? Duh.’

  The ninja smiled. ‘You know me, Chase Cooper, but you can’t quite put your finger on who I am yet, can you? It’s right there, isn’t it? On the tip of your tongue, but you can’t even!’

  I said nothing, hating the fact that he could read my mind. I tried to keep my expression blank.

  ‘I’ll be honest with you,’ the ninja said. ‘You’ve looked me in the eye every single day, but you’ve never been able to see my actual eyes until now, in this space station.’

  ‘Okaaaaay?’ I said, pretty confused.

  ‘I’ve lived in darkness too long,’ the mystery ninja said, stepping even closer. His voice was maddeningly familiar. He reached out and pulled my mask off. ‘But I’m ready to step into the light … and go home to Earth.’

  ‘Who are you?’ I asked, feeling the cold air of EV07 on the bare skin of my face.

  ‘Out of all the enemies you’ve ever had,’ the ninja went on, ‘I’m by far your worst. Surprisingly, I’ve been your worst enemy since you first became a ninja all those thousands of years ago in the woods …’

  ‘Uh, no?’ I said, trying to shake my ankles free from the shadow ninjas at my feet. ‘Pretty sure Wyatt was the bad guy back then. If I had some sort of unofficial foe, I’d probably know about it, right?’

  ‘Wrong,’ the ninja said coldly.

  ‘And y’know what else? Even if you do make it back to Earth,’ I said, ‘they’ll lock you up the instant you get there! All I have to do is send one video wave back to my bosses, and they’ll put an alert out for you!’

  ‘But Chase,’ the ninja said, stepping so close that his face was only a foot away from mine. ‘How are they gonna lock me up…when I’m the one who sent the video wave in the first place?’