Castle of Cyborgs

by Adrian C. Bott

  Axel didn’t have time to worry about those. He jabbed the door control with his thumb.

  The container slowly opened like a vampire’s coffin, releasing a cloud of white vapour. And Axel stared and stared at what lay there in front of him.

  ‘Dad! Wake up!’

  A memory flashed into Axel’s mind. Dad’s birthday. I was four. I went and jumped up and down on the bed to wake him up. It was still dark outside. But he wasn’t even angry. He laughed …

  His dad was lying there, still as a statue, his face peaceful. Thick cables were plugged into a socket in the back of his neck. Axel reached to pull them out, then hesitated. The Baron had said it was dangerous to disconnect him. What if something went wrong?

  As if that wasn’t bad enough, the fight down in the chamber below him was far from over. The emergency system had summoned backup – and now it was here.

  The main door opened and there stood two frightful figures, bulky as quarterbacks and ugly as burst bin bags. They were like men stuffed into oversized muscle suits made from steel and rubber. One was covered with crackling ice crystals that kept growing over his body and falling off. Pipes filled with swirling white gas stuck out from his back. The next warrior had two saw blades on his arms that looked like they’d been ripped off some piece of farming equipment. They glowed as red as swords in a blacksmith’s forge.

  ‘WarBorgs reporting in!’ they roared together.

  ‘IceBorg!’ yelled the first.

  ‘BlazeBorg!’ boomed the second.

  ‘And the two of us are gonna take you down!’ they finished.

  ‘AXEL?’ stammered BEAST.

  The two WarBorgs stomped forwards.

  The Baron put his arm around BEAST’s shoulder. ‘Come, my metal brother. Let us stand firm like a wall of iron, and protect young Axel together!’

  ‘BEAST IS READY,’ said BEAST, not sounding ready at all.

  Axel wanted to help BEAST, but he couldn’t do anything from up here on the platform. He touched his dad’s cool, calm face. ‘Wake up, Dad,’ he begged. ‘Please tell me what I need to do.’

  But his dad said nothing. He lay still and silent.

  The WarBorgs chose their targets. IceBorg growled low and faced the Baron. BlazeBorg scraped his blades together, sending hot sparks showering down, and advanced on BEAST.

  ‘Here they come,’ the Baron boomed. ‘Brace yourself!’

  IceBorg lowered his head. A sheet of ice began to spread out under his feet. He launched himself into a charge and went skidding across the room, gliding on the ice he created, picking up speed as he went, like a hockey player. He slammed into the Baron, nearly knocking him off his feet.

  ‘Oof!’ the Baron gasped.

  IceBorg’s thick arms locked around the Baron’s waist and they struggled together like wrestlers in a ring. Where IceBorg’s hands gripped the Baron’s body, patches of frost began to appear, turning his flesh blue-white.

  ‘Is that the best you can do?’ the Baron grunted.

  IceBorg laughed. ‘You’re just an old machine, not a slick new model like me! Old machines seize up in the cold. In a minute, you won’t be able to move!’

  Sure enough, the Baron was slowing down. He beat his fists on IceBorg’s back, but the WarBorg held on with grim strength. He just couldn’t break that grip.

  BEAST was having an even worse time. BlazeBorg lashed out at him, striking him with one blade after the other.

  BEAST couldn’t get a single attack in. He huddled behind the GALAHAD shield, doing his best to protect himself. The red-hot blades clanged and sizzled against the shield’s metal. It was like trying to fight a kitchen blender! BEAST parried the blades as best he could, but one of them struck his chest above the letter B and left a smoking black mark.

  ‘AXEL?’ he howled. ‘I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!’

  On a screen above Axel, Professor Payne’s gloating face appeared.

  ‘What a touching family reunion. It is a shame your father will never leave this building.’

  ‘I’ll unplug him right now!’ Axel yelled.

  ‘Will you? When the Living Computer is the only thing keeping him alive?’

  Axel didn’t know whether to believe the Professor or not. He could be lying. But what if he wasn’t?

  The Baron groaned. His limbs creaked in IceBorg’s grasp like an old battleship being battered by a storm. Half his body was covered in ice now, and one of his legs was frozen to the spot, but he was still standing.

  BEAST could do nothing but keep moving back, away from BlazeBorg’s whirling blades. The WarBorgs were going to win, and they knew it. It was just a matter of time before they wore the Baron and BEAST down.

  BEAST thought: I CANNOT WIN WITHOUT AXEL’S HELP!

  Then he thought: BUT I HAVE TO. I HAVE TO BE BRAVE. THINK! WHAT WOULD AXEL DO? AXEL IS A GAMER. IF THIS FIGHT WAS IN A GAME, HOW WOULD AXEL WIN?

  BEAST’s memory banks hastily shuffled through all the games he had seen Axel play.

  In multiplayer games, you could often choose a role. Tank classes were slow-moving and could take hits, but didn’t do major damage. Rogue classes were fast-moving and did heavy damage. The trick to winning a fight was to have a mix of classes on your team …

  The Baron was slow-moving and tough. In his GALAHAD form, BEAST was also slow-moving and tough.

  BEAST thought: WE HAVE BOTH PICKED TANK! I NEED TO BE A ROGUE!

  ‘SHIFTING FORM TO SHADO!’ he announced. SHADO was his panther-like stealth striker form, equipped with powerful claws and fast movement. It took only a second for BEAST’s form to change.

  ‘Shapeshifting? That trick won’t save you,’ snarled BlazeBorg.

  He swung at SHADO, but the transformed robot moved as quickly as a cat, leaping out of the blade’s path and bounding around to the side.

  Before BlazeBorg could work out where he had gone, SHADO had already prepared his next attack. The Baron and IceBorg were still locked in a grapple – and IceBorg’s back was exposed.

  SHADO pounced. IceBorg shrieked as SHADO’s claws sliced through the cables and pipes that protruded from his back. Freezing gas fountained out, and in seconds the mighty IceBorg was a crumpled heap on the floor. He looked like a dismal damp rag.

  ‘Bro,’ he gasped feebly. ‘Avenge me, bro!’

  BlazeBorg turned around. He saw that IceBorg had fallen, and howled, ‘Noooo!’

  The Baron shook fragments of ice from his body and beckoned BlazeBorg over. ‘What are you waiting for? Attack me, if you dare!’

  BlazeBorg let out a furious yell and charged, just as the Baron had meant him to. While he was paying attention to the Baron, he didn’t even notice SHADO had crept away into hiding, ready for another strike.

  BlazeBorg raised his mighty blades. ‘I’m gonna rip you to pieces!’ he roared.

  ‘Go ahead and try!’ the Baron roared back, and raised his fists.

  From the darkness at the edge of the room, SHADO pounced. He clung to BlazeBorg’s back just like the jungle cat he looked like. BlazeBorg shrieked and threw up his arms – and the Baron quickly knocked him sprawling with a single punch. He fell to the ground and didn’t get back up.

  ‘Good kitty,’ he chuckled, and gave SHADO a pat on the head. ‘Not very bright, these WarBorgs, eh?’

  Meanwhile Axel stood beside his dad, still wrestling with his impossible decision. If he didn’t unplug his dad, he would never be able to save him. But if he did, his dad might die.

  His hand hovered over the plug. He couldn’t risk it.

  Crying inside, Axel reached up to press the switch and close his father’s capsule again. At least this way he was safe.

  His thumb rested on the switch …

  And he stopped.

  ‘No, I’ll find a way,’ he said. ‘No matter what.’

  No more hesitation. Axel pulled the plugs out.

  His dad gave a sudden gasp. His body shook. And his eyes flew open.

  ‘Axel?’ The voice was hoarse, as if it hadn’
t been used in a long time. ‘I called to you. I thought it was a dream …’

  Axel fought back tears. ‘I’m here, Dad. It’s okay. You’re safe!’

  He held his dad in his arms. They hugged for a long time. Neither one wanted to let go.

  The Baron cheered. ‘Bravo, young man. Great deeds have been done here today!’

  His dad’s eyes widened. ‘Who’s that? And the robot?’

  ‘The Baron’s my friend,’ Axel said, ‘and BEAST’s my best friend. I’ve got so much to tell you. I can’t wait!’

  BEAST changed back into his regular form and clapped his metal hands. ‘BEAST IS SO HAPPY,’ he said. ‘CAN WE GO HOME NOW, AXEL?’

  But BlazeBorg had only been stunned, and had got to his feet again. Nobody saw him until it was too late. He thrust one of his blades right into BEAST’s body. It burst out the other side.

  BEAST fell to his knees and toppled slowly forwards.

  Axel screamed, ‘No!’

  ‘ POWER CORE DESTROYED, ’ whispered BEAST. ‘GOODBYE.’

  And his eyes went dark.

  Axel, his dad, and the Baron looked down at BEAST with horror. BlazeBorg looked up at them with a wide smirk of victory on his face.

  Axel’s dad stepped out of the capsule, pale and shaking. His legs buckled under him, weak from so many months in hibernation, and he grabbed the safety rail to steady himself.

  Axel just stared. It had happened so quickly.

  ‘He’s gone,’ he whispered. ‘I can’t believe it. How can BEAST be gone?’

  Next moment, the robotic angel with the demon face strode into the room.

  ‘Huh. Looks like I missed all the action. Too bad.’

  (Hundreds of miles away, in the tank of bubbly liquid where he hung, suspended, Gus Grabbem Junior was grinning. Axel was finally going to lose.)

  ‘Excellent,’ said Professor Payne from the screen. ‘BlazeBorg, return the test subject to his capsule immediately.’

  ‘And the boy?’ growled BlazeBorg.

  ‘Give him to our Grabbem friend. I believe there is a long-standing score to settle!’

  BlazeBorg started towards Axel and his dad, but the Baron moved to block his path. ‘Another step, and I’ll destroy you!’ he roared.

  The robotic angel stepped over BEAST, who lay motionless on the floor with smoke pouring out of him. It stood face-to-face with the Baron.

  ‘You fight pretty good for an old guy,’ it said. ‘But you’re still going down.’

  A blue field of energy fizzed around the angel’s fist. The angel struck the Baron one devastating blow under the chin. His head rocked back and he fell, collapsing in slow motion like a demolished factory chimney.

  ‘You’re all clear. Stuff that guy back in his freezer,’ the angel told BlazeBorg.

  BlazeBorg climbed up the ladder to where Axel and his father were, and the mean look on his face reminded Axel of the snarling cyberwolves in the forest.

  The whole mission had been for nothing. Axel felt like his heart had been ripped in half. He hugged his dad tight as BlazeBorg reached for him.

  ‘You lose,’ the angel said.

  Axel’s dad let go of Axel, stepped forward on unsteady legs and faced BlazeBorg. He raised his trembling fists. ‘No. I won’t let you.’

  ‘Dad!’ Axel screamed.

  ‘Axel, get behind me. I’ll stop them!’

  ‘You don’t stand a chance against me,’ BlazeBorg growled. ‘You’ve got no weapons!’

  Axel’s dad laughed. ‘I don’t care. I’ll still fight you with every breath in my body.’

  ‘Wait,’ interrupted the robotic angel. ‘You’d … you’d do that? Why?’

  ‘Don’t you get it? I’m his dad. That’s what dads do.’

  ‘Don’t lie!’ the angel rasped.

  The look Axel’s father gave the robotic angel was terrible. (It seemed to penetrate right into Gus’s soul. He shuddered in his tank.)

  Axel’s dad said, ‘Any man worth calling a man would do the same for his son. Does a metal creep like you even know what a father is?’

  ‘Shut up and come with us,’ grunted BlazeBorg. And he reached out to grab Axel’s dad.

  But something was happening just then. Something nobody could have predicted. Deep in the messed-up closet of Gus Grabbem Junior’s mind, a lightbulb had suddenly gone on.

  Any man worth calling a man would do the same for his son.

  For as long as Gus could remember, he had been angry. He loved to break things. All his life, there had been things to break. Because his dad had bought him things.

  A memory flashed into his mind. He saw his own father, the famous billionaire, sitting at his desk. I was only four years old.

  Dad? Play with me, Dad? Please?

  Can’t, son. Too busy. Tell you what. I’ll buy you the biggest train set any boy ever had. You can go play with that, eh? Good lad.

  The train set had filled a room of the house. Gus remembered standing there, all alone, surrounded by his expensive present. He had spent the afternoon running the trains into one another, stamping on them and throwing them at the wall.

  The next day, all the broken trains had been silently replaced.

  Too busy.

  Got business to do.

  Go play in your room.

  He remembered his mother saying, ‘Heaven knows your father and I buy you enough stuff.’

  They gave me THINGS. They expected me to be happy with THINGS. Because neither of them cared about ME! They never had the time for their own son! I was supposed to play with the stuff they bought me, by myself, like a good boy – but all I ever wanted was to play with THEM. My parents.

  No wonder he’d smashed the stuff they bought him. It meant nothing. But an hour of their time – just an hour – that would have meant everything.

  He looked at Axel’s father standing between his son and BlazeBorg. He saw something he had never had.

  And for the first time in his life, Gus understood where he had gone wrong.

  I never wanted things, he realised. I just wanted my dad.

  Axel watched the robotic angel raise its blaster arm and take careful aim. He braced himself for the end.

  But the angel didn’t blast him. It blasted BlazeBorg.

  A lance of brilliant light speared through the WarBorg’s arm, slicing his blade clean off. BlazeBorg held up the stump and looked at it stupidly.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Professor Payne screamed from the screen. ‘Your aim is off! You hit my WarBorg!’

  The angel said nothing. It dialled the power up to a higher setting, aimed and fired again.

  This time, BlazeBorg was blown clean through the wall. He fell with a sound like a bin full of scrap metal being emptied out of a window.

  ‘Imbecile!’ screeched the Professor. ‘Grabbem will answer for this! You will –’

  ‘Oh, shut up,’ the angel said, and shot the screen.

  There was silence for a moment.

  Axel couldn’t believe what he was seeing. ‘Did you do that on purpose?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘So … did you … did you just change sides?’

  The angel didn’t answer for a long time. Then it spread its shining silver wings. ‘There’s still eleven other people stuck in those capsules. Get them all out.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Axel. ‘But how are we going to fly them out of here? The turrets will shoot down anyone who comes close!’

  ‘I’ll take care of the turrets,’ the angel said.

  Then it flew out through the hole in the wall, leaving Axel speechless.

  Out in the forest of Eisenbern, Agent Omega had finished repairing the crashed MOT-BOL. Now he was watching the tower-tops of the castle in amazement. The robotic angel was destroying the Neuron Institute’s weapons.

  ‘I thought that angel was with Grabbem?’ he said aloud. ‘This doesn’t make any sense!’

  The angel had just flown straight through one of the gun turrets like a missile. It flew on to the next
without even slowing down. Fireballs blossomed in the sky, lighting up the castle like victory fireworks.

  One by one, the gun turrets were blown to bits. The angel soared above them like a rejoicing spirit, reborn in the fire.

  ‘Looks like I’m clear to go fetch Axel,’ Omega said. ‘Hey! Whoever’s flying that thing, thanks!’

  When Gus piloted the robotic angel back inside the Tower of the Living Computer, he found a crowd waiting for him. All the people who had been imprisoned inside their capsules were free. They were gathered in a circle around BEAST, who was lying still. The Baron, who had woken up, plugged a power cable into him.

  BEAST’s eyes lit up with a feeble glimmer. ‘AXEL. ARE YOU THERE?’

  Axel took his hand. ‘I’m here. You’re going to be fine.’

  ‘NO. BEAST IS FINISHED. THERE IS ONLY ONE THING LEFT TO DO.’

  ‘Don’t talk like that.’

  ‘THIS PLACE MUST BE DESTROYED.’

  ‘Stop it!’ Axel demanded.

  ‘ACTIVATING PHOENIX APP.’

  ‘Don’t. You’ll die!’

  ‘BEAST INITIATING SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE. OVERLOADING POWER CORE NOW …’

  BEAST beeped.

  ‘ERROR. POWER CORE NOT FOUND. PHOENIX APP HAS CRASHED.’

  ‘Crashed?’ Axel said. That had never happened before.

  The robotic angel laughed. ‘Dude. I don’t want to spoil your big moment, but how are you going to overload your power core when that WarBorg already destroyed it?’

  Axel looked at the hole in BEAST’s body, and almost wept with relief. ‘He’s right!’

  BEAST’s eyes turned bright pink.

  ‘BEAST IS VERY EMBARRASSED,’ he muttered.

  Axel hugged him. ‘Don’t be.’

  ‘BUT BEAST WAS GOING TO DO A BIG NOBLE SELF-SACRIFICE! AND YOU WOULD REMEMBER BEAST AND BE SAD BUT HAPPY BECAUSE WE HAD HAD ADVENTURES. AND YOU WOULD SAY “POOR OLD BEAST BUT NEVER MIND THE FAMILY IS BACK TOGETHER NOW AND WE DID NOT NEED HIM REALLY”.’