Chapter 4
The Blumebear Battle
"Gramps!" yelled Roll, rushing down Apple Market.
"Roll!" yelled Rock, dashing after her.
They arrived in the downtown area almost at the same time, but were blocked by two police officers. "Hey!" one of them said. "You can't go through! This area's closed off and everyone has evacuated to the Yass Plains!"
"Please, officer, let us through!" said Roll. "My grandfather's in there, and--"
"Yeah, well, so's the mayor," said the officer. "We're not letting either of you through!"
"What's happening?" said Rock.
"What!? Have you been paying any attention to the news!?" said the officer. "Those pirates have attacked the island, just like our information said."
"They're after the treasure that's supposed to be buried here and they've occupied the northern area," said the other officer. "They're too heavily-armed -- even we can't get near them!"
"Maybe I can do something..." said Rock.
"Then I'm going with you!" said Roll.
"No, it's too dangerous," said Rock. "Let me handle this."
For a second, Roll looked about to argue the point, but then said, "All right. You look for gramps, okay?"
"Right!" said Rock, and jogged off.
"Wait!! Are you crazy!?" yelled the first officer.
"What can a single boy possibly do?" muttered the second one.
Rock, however, was now out of their earshot and approaching the north gate. Three large robotic tanks stood there -- one yellow, one red, and one blue -- and two of the boxy aircraft hovered above them. At first the mechs looked identical, except for the color, but as he got nearer, Rock noticed that the yellow one was bulkier, the blue one had treads of a slightly different design --
-- and as the three mechs swiveled around to point their weaponry directly at his face, he saw that the machine guns on the red one were slightly larger.
The hatch popped open on top of the yellow one, and one a Servbot poked its head out. "We are Servbots of the Bonne Family Pirates!" it said. "You better watch out for us!"
The blue one opened up and another Servbot looked out. "We're not gonna let you through! So there!"
And finally, the red one revealed a Servbot. "We'll be in big trouble if we let anyone get the key," it said. "Miss Tron'll punish us. So this is just doing what we're told, 'kay?"
All three of them fired their weaponry at once. Rock barely managed to dodge to the side and got off a few shots from his Buster without getting perforated.
"Ouch! Damage report!" yelped one of the Servbots from inside its mech. "I knew we should've invested in plasma shielding!"
"Let's split up and get out of here!" said another one.
"You'll never get the key from us!" yelled a third. "Not as long as we're riding the Blumebears!"
The hatch on the red and blue ones opened -- Rock saw something tossed from the red one to the blue one -- and then the three Blumebear mechs ran off in different directions. Rock guessed that the blue one, which appeared to be the fastest, now had the key, so he chased after it. It shortly went around a corner and disappeared from sight.
Rock pulled a splash mine out of the baldric and ran down an alleyway to another street. Sure enough, there was the blue Blumebear, coming towards him. He dropped the splash mine and started to fire his Buster at the mech, racing in the opposite direction. It fired its machine guns at him, and he ran in a zig zag pattern; these Servbots seemed awful at hitting moving targets.
Then the mech ran over the splash mine, which exploded noisily. Smoke started coming from the wheels. Rock raised his Buster to fire ... and got knocked over by fire from behind.
Rock quickly got to his feet and dodged to the side; the red Blumebear had snuck up behind him while he was distracted by the blue one. He grimaced at the thought of what his armor probably looked like now, and decided that if he was going to live through this he'd have to keep track of all three if he could.
"Ha! Got him!" exclaimed a high-pitched voice over Servbot #26's radio.
"No, he's still running, 34," said a slightly different one. "Shucks, he put a dent in my armor."
"You think you can keep going, 12?" said #34's voice.
"Yeah, but you'd better take the key for now," replied #12.
"Okay, where are you two?" said #26. He was piloting the yellow Blumebear, and had lost track of the other two.
"We're on main street," said #34. "The blue boy just ducked in between an alley..."
"Looks like a job for us on the Draches," cut in a fourth voice -- that of Servbot #7, #26 recalled.
"Okay, go ahead," said #12. "But don't bite off more than you can chew."
"Roger!" said #7. "C'mon, 40, let's shoot this guy up a bit!"
"Yee-haw!" squealed #40 over the sound of gunfire. "We won't stop 'till there's a red stain where he used to be!"
#26 grimaced; Servbot #40 had a sick mind.
"Uh, cut the chatter, #40," said #12. "You don't need to spout your personal, uh, battle philosophy at us."
"Aw, gimme a break!" snapped #40. "This kid's gonna be an easy ... whoa! I'm hit!"
"Let me take over," said #7. "Just a little strafing across his backside and a surgically precise -- g'oh! Hey, he's giving me a hard -- WHOA!!" There was an abrupt crunch, a burst of static, and then silence.
"Number Seven!" barked #12. "What's happened!?"
"He went down," said #40 coldly. "He looks okay, but Drache R-15 ain't gonna fly no more! I'm gonna get 'im for that!"
"#26, go assist #7," ordered #12. "#34, let's double-team 'im."
"Roger!" said #34. "I have him in visual range now."
"Go get 'im, boys!" said #26. He brought his Blumebear into gear, and shortly thereafter he found #7 wandering around, looking alarmed.
He opened the hatch and leaned out. "Get on board, 7!" he called.
"Okay, here I am!" said #7. He dashed over and climbed onto the mech. "Man, that was tough."
"Tell me about it," said #26. "Remind me to tell you about the time Miss Tron brought me on the trip to find Diana's Tear ..."
"Gah!" exclaimed #12. "I'm getting a malfunction in my #2 generator --" There was a burst of static, and at the same time, #26 heard an explosion.
"Oh no!" said #34. "The blue boy blew up the blue Blumebear!"
"He's mine!" screamed #40.
Rock raced to avoid the machinegun fire from the aircraft. No point in sticking around; the blue mech obviously didn't have the key. Of course, there was the possibility that the key had been destroyed, but Rock was too busy dealing with the attack from above.
A few more hits and it crashlanded nearby. Rock examined the wreckage of the blue Blumebear again, and decided that its pilot must have passed the key to the red one while he wasn't looking.
He raced down the street and saw the remaining two mechs. The yellow one charged towards him, whilst the red one ran off around a corner. Rock smirked; it was a tactically obvious plan: have one of them distract you while the other either ran off with your prize or snuck around to attack you from behind. Either way, he knew, he wanted to get rid of the red one.
So instead of trying to counter a heavily-armored monstrosity like the yellow Blumebear, he went down another alley so he could deal with ... uh ... a slightly less-heavily-armored and better-armed monstrosity. Oh, well, you couldn't have everything.
He took out three splash mines and set them down. Then he raced into the view of the red Blumebear, waving and jumping. "Hey! Over here!" he called.
The hatch opened and the Servbot inside leaned out. "You don't honestly think we're that stupid, do you?" it said, and lobbed a bomb at him.
"Hey, it was worth a shot," said Rock, jumping out of the way of the bomb.
The red mech fired several shots from its main gun, charging towards him. Rock raced away, but got hit in the back. He stumbled forward -- saw that he had just avoided landing right on top of another trio of splash mines he'd set earlier -- kept going as the mech bore down on him --
-- and with a stunning display of pyrotechnics, the red Blumebear mech ran over the splash mines, fell over, and exploded.
Rock got up and saw that the red Blumebear didn't have the key either. Now all he had to destroy left was the yellow one.
It was easy to find, and even easier to catch up with. The yellow mech's sole advantage seemed to be its armor; it had neither superior speed nor superior weaponry. Of course, its guns could still do a considerable amount of harm, and he needed to be careful of them.
The Servbot piloting it obviously saw him coming, but for some reason it allowed him to get right up next to it. Its guns couldn't even aim at him now. Still, its armor was behaving stubbornly impenetrable.
There was only one thing to do; Rock took out five splash mines, jammed them into the wheel mechanisms, and raced away. The Blumebear got three-eighths of an inch before it exploded.
And in the middle of the wreckage was a single yellow key.
Less than twenty-five feet away on the other side of the wall was a much larger red robot. It somehow gave the impression of an octopus, despite having only four legs. The name Feldynaught was written in large letters on the back. Three somewhat scorched Servbots ran towards it.
"Miss Tronnn ...."
Tron Bonne swiveled the cockpit from looking at City Hall to the approaching Servbots, which she now saw on the robot's viewscreen.
"We're so sorry!" whimpered one of them.
"Oh, what is it this time!?" snarled Tron.
"We lost the key," said a Servbot timidly.
"WHAT!?" she yelled. The mission was already going downhill. "How did this happen!?"
"A blue boy attacked!" A slightly distorted image file of a boy in blue armor appeared on one monitor. "And then he took the key from us!"
Tron gave an exasperated sigh. "I can't take my eyes off you for a second, can I!? Just you wait till we get back -- you're in a lot of trouble!"
"Oh no!" said all three, spinning around in consternation.
Tron irritably flipped a switch, changing the main screen from the view the mech had to the image of the "blue boy" and considered things.
For one thing, who was that?? And how had he destroyed the Blumebear mechs?? Then Tron realized that she'd seen him before. He was the boy who she'd seen when he'd entered the downtown area and who had rescued -- er, the dog -- uh, right. Tron felt a strange tingling sensation she hadn't felt before until she first saw him ...
"What is that feeling?" she muttered, trying to pinpoint it. She gave up. "Oh, who cares what this feeling is??" she shouted at no one in particular. "It's all his fault! I'll teach him not to mess with me -- or my kids!" She flipped a switch on the control board. "Here we go! Feldynaught, engage!" The mech rocketed straight up over the wall.
Rock only had enough time to see the Feldynaught blocking the sun before it nearly flattened him. Fortunately, he jumped away in time. The hatch popped open and Tron climbed out. "Hey you! Thanks to you, everything's a mess now, isn't it??"
"Huh?" said Rock. "Aren't you the girl who was being chased by that dog?"
The girl didn't seem to appreciate this. "Shut up! I don't wanna hear about that! I have a name, you know!" she said. "I am Tron Bonne!"
"So you're one of the pirates!" said Rock, getting his Buster ready.
"Oh, so you can figure things out, like dropped names," said Tron. "Do you know what you've done!?"
"Huh?"
Tron blinked, and then smirked. "You're a lot dumber than you look," she chuckled. "Of course, that shoulda been self-evident from the fact you're picking a fight with the Bonnes." She put on what was just about her least-sweet smile that wasn't actually wicked. "Of course, if you agree to become one of my servants, I suppose I could forgive you! Whaddaya say? That way, my brother will never have to know about what you did to us."
"Join up with pirates??" said Rock. "I don't think so! Forget it!"
"All right, then! Forget you! Fine!" yelled Tron. "See if I care! I gave you a chance and you turned it down! Don't come back crying to me later!"
There was a slightly tense pause.
"Arrghh!! You're history!" yelled Tron, jumping back into the mech. And then she jumped back out again for a second and blew a raspberry at him.
Rock could not believe this kid. First she was mad at him for defeating the mechs, then she seemed to be about to forgive him, and now she apparently wanted to kill him from inside a fifteen-foot robot mech.