The Meta-Rise (Bot Wars) - Hardcover

Kade, J.V.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803738617 ISBN 13: 9780803738614

Verlag: Dial Books, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

The thrilling sequel to Bot Wars, perfect for fans of Skylanders!
 
Trout St. Kroix can't believe that his half-human/half-robot father is the leader of the Meta-Rise, the robot civil rights movement. Trout can’t even enjoy being a Bot Territory celebrity, because it also puts his whole family in danger. Ratch, a robot and former friend, has found a way to take control of robot Thinkchips, and under Ratch's control, all bots—including Trout's dad—would become Ratch's drones. CanTrout—and his friends Vee and Tellie Rix, along with brother Po—find a way to stop Ratch before Trout loses his father all over again?

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

J. V. Kade lives in Michigan with her husband and two children. She is the author of both Bot Wars and The Meta-Rise. Visit her online at www.jvkade.com.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

MY DAD IS half machine. My brother has a prosthetic leg. And one of my best friends here in Bot Territory is a robot.

I never thought I’d say this, but in just three months I’ve gone from thinking robots were the enemy to feeling like I need a robotic hand just to fit in.

When I tell my friend Vee this, she snorts and then starts gagging on the pizza pop she’s eating, which causes Merril, the giant, barrel-chested bot cook, to swoop in and give Vee the Heimlich. Overhead, our building’s new alarm system starts blaring through the speakers. “Human choking in dining room. Foreign object lodged in throat.”

Merril moves to wrap his arms around Vee, but she dodges him and says, “I’m fine, jam it!” before trailing off in another round of coughs.

“Human choking,” the alarm says again and I run to the control panel installed in the wall near the elevator. I punch in the code Scissor taught me and the system quiets.

When I come back into the dining room, Merril is still standing there staring at Vee like he’s prepared for her to spontaneously choke on her own spit. He’s worried, even though the chicken tenders he’s frying in the kitchen are burning.

Vee is more important. For most of the bots I’ve met, it’s the same thing. They care more about their human friends than they do anything else.

“I’m fine,” Vee says again, and Merril finally saunters off, his footsteps ting-ting-ing against the concrete floor. Scissor, our mechanic robot, has been bugging him to let her upgrade his feet, since a lot of bots are turning to silicone foot pads so their steps aren’t so loud. But Merril says he likes the sound.

“I hate that new alarm system,” Vee says.

Scissor installed the system a few weeks ago, after my dad requested it. It keeps constant watch over the entire building, and all of its inhabitants, robot and human, just in case something should go wrong.

It’s my dad’s way of being overprotective, which is nice and all, but also annoying.

Vee and I sit back down with our remaining pizza pops. We’re at the big dining room table in the middle of my dad’s building. Everyone calls the building the Fort. It has all these cool nooks and crevices. And there are rope bridges. It’s pretty much the best place ever. A lot better than the tiny house my older brother, Po, and I lived in, back before we moved to Bot Territory with Dad.

Even though I’ve only known Vee for a few months, I consider her my best human friend on this side of the border. Since moving to Bot Territory from the United Districts, my life has changed a space ton. LT, my bot friend, says my life is kinda like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar, because it starts out being ugly and lumpy and kinda hideous, and then it wraps itself in a cocoon and becomes a butterfly. He didn’t say it in those words, but I know that’s what he meant. And anyway, I don’t think he knows what he’s talking about. It’s Po who got the wings, if we’re continuing on with the whole metaphor business.

Which is even more obvious by the RIDER magazine sitting on the table in front of Vee. Po’s face is on the cover, and the animated image transitions from a smiling Po, to a smiling-bigger Po, to a serious-faced Po. The headline below him reads: “St. Kroix takes the world by storm, one freedom speech at a time.”

When RIDER magazine called to ask him for an interview, Po couldn’t stop talking about himself in the third person for weeks.

Like he’s so important.

Vee sets her elbows on the table and leans toward me. “Let’s go back to that thing you were saying. You know, that thing about how you wish you were part robot.”

“I was kidding!” But secretly I wasn’t. Fact is, lately it seems like everyone I pass in Line Zero, the town in Bot Territory where I live, has a robot part. It’s like the thing to do here. You go to the upgrade shop, you pick out what you want from the display, and a week later you’ve got a robot arm or a leg or an optical implant that can sync to your Link. I heard you can even make phone calls on the implant.

It’s pretty wrenched if you ask me.

But then you’re stuck with the upgrade for the rest of your life. It’s not like they can reattach the arm they took off. Which makes me wonder what they do with those arms.

“Think about it,” Vee says after taking a gulp of juice. “What if you were picking your nose and put too much force behind it and accidentally poked yourself in the brain?”

“Like that’s even possible.”

“It could be.”

“Theoretically, it is,” Merril says, and Vee gives me a smug grin, so I stick out my tongue at her.

“What’s the plan for today?” she asks a second later.

I chomp on my pizza pop. “I don’t know. We could harass Po and Marsi.”

Vee rolls her eyes. “I am so sick of those two slobbering all over each other.”

I grimace. “Using the words Po and slobbering in the same sentence gears me out.”

“It gears me out too.” Vee looks over her shoulder at Merril in the kitchen, then lowers her voice when she turns back to me. “Listen. I heard Po telling Marsi that he has a Meta-Rise meeting this afternoon in the old library downtown.”

At the mention of the Meta-Rise, I sit up straighter. “And you waited until now to tell me?”

Vee tilts her head, which makes her hair glow orange in the sunlight pouring through the window. She dyes her hair with special dye so that the color changes depending on the light that surrounds her. A few minutes ago, it almost looked green.

“The meeting isn’t until one o’clock,” she says. “I had plenty of time to tell you.”

My dad calls the Meta-Rise the bot/human alliance. It’s this group of people and bots who believe in living together peacefully, unlike the UD, which still believes robots are the enemy, that they’ve become too much like humans. Robots aren’t allowed in the UD. They’re terminated upon capture.

My dad, Robert St. Kroix, is the leader of the Meta-Rise. He’s the best man for the job, not only because he’s top gear, but also because he’s half man, half robot, and if anyone can understand both sides of the conflict, it’s him.

Vee and I want to be members of the Meta-Rise, but our dads think we’re too young.

It’s lame.

“So,” I whisper back to Vee, “are we going?”

“What do you think?”

“Yes.”

She nods, and her ponytail swings forward. “That’s the right answer, FishKid.”

I frown. “Why can’t you call me Trout like everyone else?”

“Because where’s the fun in being like everyone else?”

“I’ll tell you what’s not fun. Being called FishKid.”

“Oh, but it’s such a cracked name. Hey, what do you think they’d call you if you got a robot part? FishBot?” She bursts out laughing. “That’s even better. I fully support you upgrading.”

I grumble as we leave the kitchen.

 

THING ABOUT VEE is, she can get just about anywhere, but it doesn’t usually involve a door.

Thankfully, I’m good at climbing.

I find a foothold in the old pitted brick of the back of the library and push myself up. There’s a ladder—a rusted fire escape—but the bottom half rusted off probably a bazillion...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Dial Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0803738617
• ISBN 13: 9780803738614
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: DIAL; https://www.penguin.com/dial-overview/; ; Attn: Andrea T Sheridan 1745 BROADWAY, 14-1; NEW YORK; NY; 10019; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: Mayer, Paape, Voigt Kompakt Schallplatten GbR; https://www.kompakt.fm; ; Werder Str. 15-19; K�ln; 50672; Deutschland