BEAST shifted into BLINKER, a small squat form with huge ears and something round like a satellite dish sticking out of its back.
As they began to drop out of the sky, Axel lined up their first – and possibly last – teleport jump. With any luck, they should appear right in the secret lair …
ZZZWHUMP.
Axel looked around at the familiar objects – computer, ping-pong table, couch – and sighed in relief. ‘We made it.’
Then he saw Amali sitting on the couch, looking at him.
Axel’s head went into a spin. He popped open BEAST’s canopy and climbed out. He coughed. ‘Um, this is, ah, how to explain? Maybe I should start at the beginning …’
‘Hi, Axel,’ said Amali. ‘Don’t worry, everything’s cool. I’ve prepped you a cover story. My mum thinks we’ve been down here for hours doing computer stuff.’
Axel gawped. ‘Seriously?’
‘No problem. I like your robot, by the way. Hello again, robot.’
‘HELLO,’ said BEAST.
‘Wait. You knew about all this?’ Axel said.
‘Came down here on day one, looking for a place to practise singing,’ Amali said. ‘The acoustics are pretty sick … what, you think I’d rat you out or something?’
Axel laughed and shook his head. ‘I remember when you used to play with little ponies, Amali. When did you get cool?’
She gave him a dark look. ‘Hey. Don’t disrespect the ponies, or there will be trouble.’
Later that night, long after all the cousins were in bed and BEAST had shut down to recharge, Axel was making a Skype call. As he clicked on Yumi Minamoto’s name, he thought back to how the day had begun, and how alone he’d felt in the world. A lot of things could change in only a day.
Yumi accepted the call. When Axel saw her serious face appear, he felt a lump of cold fear in his chest.
‘Is everything okay? Did the reactor …?’
‘The reactor’s safe. Don’t worry about that. Axel, we need to talk.’
‘Talk? About what?’
‘I told my mother all about you, and she was shocked when I said your last name. Brayburn. She’d heard that name before.’
A tingle was spreading up Axel’s body, as if he were being lowered slowly into icy water. His mouth had gone dry. He couldn’t speak. He already knew what Yumi was going to say next.
‘Axel … we think we know what happened to your dad.’
ADRIAN C. BOTT is a gamer, writer and professional adventure-creator. He lives in Sussex, England with his family and is allowed to play video games whenever he wants.
ANDY ISAAC lives in Melbourne, Australia. He discovered his love of illustration through comic books when he was eight years old, and has been creating his own characters ever since.
Axel & BEAST: Robotic Rumble
first published in 2017 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.
eISBN 9871743584781
Text copyright © 2017 Adrian C. Bott
Illustrations copyright © 2017 Andy Isaac
Series design copyright © 2017 Hardie Grant Egmont
Series design & illustration by Andy Isaac
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