Axel’s dad knelt by BEAST’s side. ‘Is that what this is about?’
‘MAYBE.’
‘Don’t be silly, big guy. There’ll always be a place for Axel’s best friend in this family.’
Axel stood and looked up at the robotic angel. The face still looked terrifying, but something about the eyes seemed much more human now.
‘I was sure I knew who you were,’ he said. ‘But now I’m not so sure.’
‘Listen,’ said the angel, pointing to itself. ‘This thing’s going to shut down any moment. There’s a brand new, juiced-up Grabbem power core in it. Take it out and stick it in your robot.’ The angel wrenched open a panel in its chest, and pulled out a mass of cables.
Axel saw the power core, pulsing with light in the midst of them.
‘Thanks.’ He reached out to grasp it.
‘Any time … noob.’
Axel’s eyes widened. ‘Hey, wait a minute!’
But Axel could tell whoever was controlling the angel couldn’t hear him anymore. The connection was broken. It was a lifeless piece of machinery now.
He closed his fingers around the power core and pulled.
‘What in heck were you thinking, Gus?’
Two burly technicians hauled Gus Grabbem Junior out of the control tank. His mother stood by, wrestling with the cap on a bottle of migraine pills, while Mr Grabbem folded his arms and shouted at his son.
‘That project cost a fortune! I’ve got Professor Payne threatening to break off our partnership! You are in deep trouble this time, young man. Don’t expect any more presents!’
A doctor shone a torch into Gus’s eyes, prodded his arm and made notes on a tablet.
‘You were in there for a long time, sonny Jim. How do you feel?’
Gus thought about it.
‘I feel … good,’ he said.
Not long after, the MOT-BOL prepared to lift off from what was left of the Neuron Institute. The little craft had never felt so crowded. All the people who had been trapped inside the Living Computer were crammed inside, along with Axel, his dad and Agent Omega, who was handing out drinks for the journey.
‘Do you have a sick bag, please?’ asked Mr Paterson, who had been in the capsule next to Axel’s dad. ‘Air travel makes me queasy.’
‘Use the floor,’ snapped Agent Omega. ‘I was not cut out to be an air steward,’ he grumbled to himself. ‘Everyone, fasten your seatbelts. We are getting the heck out of here.’
‘And I think I speak for all of us when I say thanks for the ride!’ said Axel’s dad.
‘You’re very welcome,’ said Omega, sounding less grumpy.
BEAST hung in his special docking frame, deep in robot hibernation. His damaged systems were slowly repairing themselves, drawing on what little power the MOT-BOL could spare. Axel sat beside him, holding on his lap the power core they’d taken from the angel. It was surprisingly small, about the size of a grapefruit.
Like a heart, Axel thought. Who would have thought there was a good heart deep down inside something that seemed so evil?
‘He’s going to be okay, you know,’ Axel’s dad said.
‘I know,’ said Axel.
‘Your mum will help get that core installed, once he’s ready. She’s the best mechanic in the world.’
‘Here we go!’ Agent Omega said, and started the engines.
The MOT-BOL wobbled unsteadily up into the air. It kept climbing, and the castle below gradually shrank into the distance.
Axel’s dad hugged him tight. ‘I can’t believe it. I’m going home. And it’s all thanks to you. I couldn’t be more proud.’
It was a warm October evening, two weeks later.
Dinner was over, the plates cleared away, and the family sat in the back garden watching the stars. Matt Brayburn lay on the grass, and Nedra was curled up with her head on his chest. Axel sat nearby. This all felt perfectly normal, and yet too good to be true. Things were finally back the way they ought to be.
‘Welcome home, big fella,’ Nedra said, and smiled.
‘It’s never going to get old, is it?’ Matt said. ‘You saying that, and me hearing it?’
‘Never.’
Axel smiled to himself. He stood up and stretched. ‘I’m heading indoors for a bit.’
‘Don’t bother to do the dishes,’ Nedra said. ‘They can wait till morning.’
On his way into the house, Axel passed Rosie and Agent Omega, who were sitting on lawn chairs and inventing new constellations. The pair of them had been spending a lot of time together lately. Now that he didn’t have to work at Grabbem anymore, Omega had lightened up a lot.
‘That’s the toilet plunger,’ said Rosie. ‘See those three stars? They’re the handle.’
‘And that cluster, with the bright one right at the top? That’s the One-Legged Wombat,’ said Omega.
‘Blimey, so it is. But what are those stars next to him, then?’
‘He’s playing a saxophone, obviously,’ Omega said, deadly serious. Then they both cracked up.
Axel slipped into the darkened kitchen. He expected to find BEAST in there, being a fridge. After all the excitement of going on missions and shifting into different forms, BEAST sometimes liked to turn into a fridge and just – as Axel liked to say – chill out. After all he’d been through, nobody blamed him for wanting to take it easy for a while.
But BEAST wasn’t being a fridge tonight. He was looking out the window at the night sky, stargazing like everyone else in the family.
‘You okay?’ Axel asked.
‘OH, YES. BEAST IS FINE!’
‘How’s the new power core working out?’
BEAST sighed contentedly. ‘IT IS SO GOOD. I HAVE LOTS OF ENERGY, AXEL. IT IS MAKING ME A BIT FIDGETY. I THINK I SHOULD BE DOING MORE WITH IT.’
‘Don’t feel like being a fridge tonight, huh?’
‘THE MOON LOOKS NICE,’ said BEAST. ‘I WONDER IF I WILL EVER GO THERE.’
Axel laughed. ‘Maybe we will.’
He left BEAST to his daydreams of space travel and opened the door to his room.
He took his old game console from under the bed and started it up. For some reason, he had the urge to play Tankinator Arena. He hadn’t played it in months. As the screens flashed up, he saw everything was exactly as he’d left it. AX-MAN still had great scores, but none of the good Tankinators you had to pay real money for. Oh well, he’d always thought skill was more important than money anyway.
He put his headset on and got ready to find a match. ‘Let’s see. Who else is online …’
A message flashed up on his screen. INCOMING TEAM INVITE: BAGGER_63.
Axel looked at that name, and slowly grinned. Fighting on the same side? That wasn’t something he could ever have expected.
A familiar voice spoke in his headphones:
‘Well, noob? You wanna team up or what?’
Axel thought for a moment, then clicked on ACCEPT.
‘Let’s play,’ he said.
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.
Massive thanks to everyone at HGE, especially Penny, Haylee, Luna and of course the incomporable Marisa, who started it all. Cheers and fistbumps to Andy, companion on this adventure, who brought everything to such wonderful life. And all my love to Lucy and Sabrina for keeping me going from day to day.
Axel & BEAST: Castle of Cyborgs
first published in 2018 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com
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 9781743585221
Text copyright © 2018 Adrian C. Bott
Illustrations copyright © 2018 Andy Isaac
Series design copyright © 2018 Hardie Grant Egmont
Series design & illustration by Andy Isaac
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