Lethal Combat (8 page)

But then the pressure eased. The beast’s mouth dropped open. It gave a puzzled groan as Peri wriggled out of its grasp and dropped to the ground.

The Xio-Bot stood completely still.

Then it raised its arm. It extended a metal finger inside its ear. The finger emerged again, crooked around a brown, sticky, wriggling object.

With amazement, Peri recognised the object – Selene. She had climbed inside the beast’s ear. She was covered in Xio-Bot earwax and held a twisted wire in her hand.

‘Hey, it’s all electrical circuitry inside there!’ she yelled. ‘If we could get in and –’

The beast held her at arm’s length. From a height of fifteen metres, it dropped her.

Selene managed to grab the fur on its belly. This broke her fall momentarily, but she couldn’t hang on.

Prince Onix sprinted forward from where he’d fallen from the royal box, throwing his body beneath Selene’s, just as she landed, knocking him flat to the ground.

‘Thanks,’ Selene said.

‘It’s . . . my . . . pleasure . . .’ gasped the prince, holding his ribs.

‘Look out!’ shouted Peri.

The Xio-Bot was charging towards them, squealing and roaring. It stamped straight past them, and kicked the arena wall. A benchful of spectators tumbled down into the arena. The Xio-Bot howled in triumph.

It’s out of control
,
Peri realised.
Pulling that wire out of its ear has sent it completely crazy.

‘Stop the combat!’ shouted the king. ‘Enough!’

The master of ceremonies pedalled back into the arena. ‘Er – Xio-Bot . . . Game over.’ He pointed an oversized remote control at the beast and pressed the buttons frantically. Nothing happened.

The Xio-Bot put its foot against his tricycle and pushed, hard. The master of ceremonies whizzed across the sand and his trike smashed into pieces against the far wall.

‘Send in the guards!’ cried the king.

The Xio-Bot smashed another section of wall. A troop of guards, led by Captain Grinkox, ran in and fired their weapons at the Xio-Bot. But it was completely unaffected. It kicked out at the guards. They dodged, rolled and scattered.

‘Guys!’ called Peri. The
Phoenix
crew, and Prince Onix, ran towards him. ‘That thing will destroy everyone unless we stop it! If me and Selene climb up and get inside, we can maybe short-circuit it. You and Otto distract it.’

‘That’s not fair!’ Diesel said. ‘Why do we have to be the bait in the trap?’

‘I bet Otto’s not afraid,’ Peri said.

‘Of course I’m not afraid!’ boomed Otto.

‘I’m not afraid either!’ Diesel said angrily.

‘Bring it on!’ Prince Onix added, more quietly. He ran into the middle of the arena, clapping his hands. Otto and Diesel glanced at each other, then followed.

‘Stupid old Xio-Bot!’ shouted the prince. ‘Bet you can’t catch me!’

‘Onix! Come away, it’s too dangerous!’ shouted his mother from the royal box.

The Xio-Bot’s stalk-eyes settled on the prince, Otto and Diesel.

‘Now!’ Peri said to Selene. They grabbed the fur just above the creature’s foot, and began to climb up its leg.

It was just like trying to climb a mountain – if that mountain could jump around. The Xio-Bot was chasing the prince, Otto and Diesel around the arena, trying to squash them.

The guards were still blasting the beast, which had absolutely no effect.

Peri and Selene had almost reached the creature’s massive head.

‘Do we go in through the ear?’ Peri asked Selene.

‘No – it’s too narrow, and you can’t get in very far. The eye socket’s a better bet.’

Peri didn’t like the sound of that. But there was no choice. He grabbed a clump of fur on the Xio-Bot’s neck and hauled himself up so that he was level with its face. Selene pulled herself up beside him. The Xio-Bot was still too busy trying to stamp on their friends to notice them.

‘Ready?’ Peri said. ‘You take the left eye, I’ll take the right!’

The Xio-Bot’s eye-stalks emerged from metre-wide sockets. Peri squeezed his head in first, then his shoulders, then the rest of him inside. It felt cold and clammy, like the inside of an oyster. Darkness surrounded him as he clung on to a thick, gristly tendon. The creature’s optic nerve, he guessed.

‘Are you there, Selene?’

‘Yes,’ said a voice close by. ‘But I can’t see.’

‘Hang on.’ Peri flicked the illuminator switch on his helmet.

They were in a sort of cave, with wet red walls. The optic nerves he and Selene were holding on to were like thick cables leading down into a huge spongy mass. It looked a bit like a cauliflower, and smelt strongly of blue cheese.

‘Look back along the optic nerve!’ Selene said.

From their position, they could look right through the creature’s eyeballs. Peri saw their friends, looking tiny and vulnerable far below. They were running for their lives, keeping just ahead of the creature’s crashing feet. They looked exhausted.

‘What now?’ Selene said.

There were no bits of trailing wire or circuitry in this part of the head. Peri thought about trying to attack the optic nerve – but it was too thick to break, and even a blinded Xio-Bot could still do a lot of damage. There was only one thing for it. He looked down at the giant spongy mass below.

‘Wish me luck!’ he said – and dived right into the brain.

Chapter 10

Peri hit the brain with a splat, and sank straight in. It was like falling into a giant, sloppy cauliflower cheese. He couldn’t see anything. It was too dense for his illuminator to work. And he couldn’t breathe. How long could he hold his breath – a minute, two minutes? Longer than that and he’d drown in the Xio-Bot’s brain.

He floundered about in slow motion. He didn’t know even what he was looking for. He was too small to cause enough damage to stop the beast just by swimming around in its huge brain. He had to do something to its circuitry – rewire it, or power it down somehow. But could he do that before his lungs burst?

Suddenly, Peri felt a tingling in his limbs. Strength surged through him. His bionic powers were kicking in!

He pushed his way down into the heart of the brain. His bionic nature intuitively understood the workings of this giant cyborg. His hands grasped a knot of wires that pulsed with energy. He pulled, but they didn’t break. He was desperate to breathe; his chest felt as if it was on fire.

His hand followed the wires down. They ran into a metal box, hot to the touch. Peri ran his fingers along its sides. He located a plastic knob as thick and chunky as his own hand.

A lever?
he thought.
Surely it can’t be this easy?

But his bionic half told him that it was. Using both hands, he tugged at the lever. There was a loud, juddering sound. The darkness was broken by sparks and flashes. Then the blackness returned, blacker than before, and with it, an eerie silence.

Peri felt the Xio-Bot lurch sideways. He got his feet on the metal box and pushed upwards, swimming as hard as he could through the gloopy mass. His head broke the surface. He sucked in lungfuls of air. He had never felt such relief in his life.

Selene was perched above him, shining her illuminator down. ‘We have to get out,’ she said. ‘It’s going to fall!’

The optic nerve she was sitting on swayed dangerously. She reached down. Peri grabbed her hand. She pulled. He jumped.

For a moment he hung on the optic nerve, legs scrabbling, in danger of slipping back down into the brain. Then Selene hauled him up. They crawled up towards the eye socket, Selene first. Peri emerged after her, blinking in the light.

The Xio-Bot tottered like a struck skittle.

We have no time to climb back down
, Peri realised. He saw one of the flagpoles, with its banner fluttering in the wind, about four metres away. Quite a leap – but it was their only chance.

‘Jump, Selene!’ he cried – and launched himself off the Xio-Bot’s face.

His fingertips touched the flagpole and curled round it.
Yes!

A moment later, he felt a violent tug on the leg of his Expedition Wear. Selene had missed the flagpole but caught him instead. They began to slide slowly down.

The Xio-Bot’s legs buckled. It fell, slowly at first and then faster as gravity took hold. It hit the ground so hard it bounced up again, before settling down, face first on the sand, a cloud of dust hovering around it.

Peri couldn’t hold on any longer. Selene’s weight was too much. He let go of the flagpole and they fell backwards.

Peri landed on the Xio-Bot’s furry stomach. He bounced off like he had hit a trampoline, and landed feet first on the ground. Selene landed beside him.

The crowd cheered.

Diesel, the prince and even Otto ran up and high-fived them.

‘Well done, Selene!’ the prince said.

‘That was
im-press-ive
!
’ Diesel said.

‘You did pretty good,’ Otto grunted, ‘for Earthlings.’

Still the crowd cheered.

Then Peri heard another sound.

It sounded like . . . a siren.

A loud, blaring siren. Then a distant explosion.

The crowd began hurriedly evacuating, just as another explosion hit – this one close enough to make the arena shake.

The king and queen left the royal box. Two guards came and took Prince Onix by the hand and led him away. ‘I’ll see you soon!’ he said, looking back at Selene.