Chapter 19: Robots

THE MISSING LINK

"Hey, Link?" B.O.B. said confidentially.

"Yeah, buddy?"

"You ever feel like you're a motorcycle trapped in a woman's body?"

I blinked. "I can't honestly say I'm familiar with that feeling, no."

Insecto said something. I didn't get any words, only an image: a cloud of things flying toward the mansion. Metal robots shaped like wolves, covered in layers of skin and fur.

"Flyboys," I said.

"What?" B.O.B. said.

"Insecto sees something coming. I think it's Flyboys. I've seen 'em on the news."

B.O.B. and I looked out the window. There was something coming all right, but my eyes aren't as powerful as Insecto's.

"Come on," I said. "Let's check it out."

I pulled out two of Dr. Cockroach's homemade hovercrafts and tossed one to B.O.B. The two of us hopped onto Insecto's head and he flew toward the strange formation. Those were Flyboys, all right. Fang had described them as an older model in a line of robotic henchmen from the Itex company, the company that often attempted to kill or capture Max and the flock.

A tinny voice from one of the machines said, "Subdue monsters."

"Oh, subdue this," I muttered.

Insectosaurus threw out a sonic scream, which immediately shattered about half of the machines. B.O.B. and I hopped onto our hovercrafts and flew forward to wade into the oncoming horde. I threw some punches and kicks, knocked a few heads together. B.O.B. got in a few good whacks, occasionally throwing one Flyboy at another to take them both out. A few seconds later, Insecto prepared another scream; B.O.B. and I got out of his way and he blew the rest of the Flyboys clear out of the air.

"Nice one, pal," I told him. "That was easy. You know, they really ought to make some improvements to henchman technology, honestly. That wasn't even fun. It just made us have to rewind the movie."

We returned to the mansion. I heard an alert pop up on the computer. Insecto answered.

"Hey, it's Fang," I heard a voice say. "I happened to catch a live feed on the news there. Attacked by Flyboys!"

I paused the movie and hopped to the computer. Fang's face was there. "Hey, Fang," I said. "You have any idea why they came after us?"

"No," he admitted. "Maybe they know that we came to the monster convention? Itex is usually after us. They try to rid the world of recombinant life-forms. I don't know why they'd attack you."

"And what do you think we are, Muppets?" I challenged. "We're not recombinant, per se, but we are monsters. Maybe these big-time corporations decided that we're a bit more exciting than you."

Fang shrugged. "I don't know, man," he said. "Just keep your eyes open. We will too."