Tunde and Artie stood in shock, staring at what was before them. Tunde looked around and saw everybody from school frozen still, in mid-conversation, their eyes looking upwards but unseeing. ‘What have you done to everyone?’

The ROBOT made a noise that sounded like somebody crushing razor blades in a food mixer. ‘I’ve shut them down for a little while. Did you know every living animal contains electricity? From humans to teeny-tiny birds. I can turn it on and off.’ He waved a shiny metallic hand, and everyone around them shook back to life.

Nev, Jiah, Dembe and Kylie fought their way forward and stood at Tunde’s back.

‘What’s going on, Tunde?’ Kylie asked. ‘How can we help?’

‘Yeah, what is this thing?’ Nev added.

‘Maybe we should wait for back-up,’ Jiah said. She got her mobile phone out and began calling Professor Krauss.

Dembe just looked at her. ‘Mate, we are the back-up.’

The ROBOT waved his hand once more and the entire student body, including teachers, froze again. Only Tunde and Artie could move and speak. Tunde spoke louder. ‘Who are you? What do you want?’

‘I am a Computerized Artificially Intelligent Novel Entity, but you can call me C.A.I.N.E.,’ the ROBOT boomed. ‘I came from The Facility just like the both of you.’

Tunde looked at Artie. ‘You came from The Facility?’

Before Artie could answer, C.A.I.N.E. continued: ‘I was assembled from the operating systems of two extra-dimensional ships stolen by The Facility and stripped for parts, and then they took something from me, and I would like it back.’ Tunde felt a magnetic pulse in the air, and Artie was suddenly lifted by an invisible force towards the creature.

Artie looked down at Tunde. ‘I’m so sorry. This should not have happened. It’s all my fault. I should have told you. I was programmed to protect you. They—’

And then C.A.I.N.E. grabbed Artie out of the sky. Suddenly the boy who had been tormenting Tunde started to glow a bit himself and turn almost translucent, his innards of wire and battery and motherboards were exposed for all to see. Artie was most certainly not a human being.

C.A.I.N.E. waved a hand and Artie Fisher was absorbed into him.

Tunde then understood everything.

Mum and Dad had been working on this

C.A.I.N.E.. thing at The Facility.

They’d been trying to make a living computer from parts of alien spaceships.

With anything left over, they invented Artie and made him super-annoying (OK, he didn’t quite understand that bit).

The living computer was angry they had done all these things without permission.

THUS: MAYHEM.

Thus also . . .Tunde sighed; Artie didn’t deserve to be swallowed up by an angry ROBOT on the rampage.

‘C.A.I.N.E.,’ Tunde blurted out hurriedly. ‘I’m sorry they did that to you. I can help you. I’m not just Tunde Wilkinson. My birth parents are – I’ve – I’m the Boy with Wings. If you let me help you – I can . . .’

C.A.I.N.E. rose several hundred feet in the air at that point and zoomed off into the near distance, towards The Facility.

Tunde now knew in his bones that his parents and everyone at The Facility and beyond were in great danger. Suddenly S.H.I.P.P.E. appeared above his head. Jiah must’ve been able to call for help before she was frozen!

Nev, Jiah, Kylie, Dembe and Tunde were tractor-beamed up to S.H.I.P.P.E.’s entrance and welcomed inside. As soon as they were safely in the spaceship, the gang unfroze.

Nev spoke first. ‘I knew there was something Freaky Deaky about Artie – the geezer’s got wires!’

‘Almost as good a football player as me,’ Dembe added. ‘I thought it was too good to be true.’

Tunde spoke to the group. ‘I know you’re annoyed with me. I’m sorry. But will you all help me sort this out? It’s big.’

There was silence while everyone looked at everyone else. Kylie spoke first. ‘You might be a totes div, Tunde, but you’re our div. We can talk about what to do about that later. In the meantime . . .’ And she put her hand out. Everyone then placed a hand, one on top of each other’s, until, finally, they were all united.

‘TEAM TUNDE!’ THEY CHANTED.

‘OK, the first thing you guys need to know is that there’s one more member of Team Tunde,’ he said. ‘We need to save Artie Fisher.’

Nev laughed. ‘’Bout time, Tunde. Of course we gots to save Artie!’

Jiah was trying to work it out. ‘If C.A.I.N.E. was constructed at The Facility and therefore uses the same operating system, then, computationally, we just might be able to hack into that thing.’

Dembe just looked at Tunde. ‘T, we’ve got this.’

They then went to work, and took their seats at S.H.I.P.P.E.’s consoles and made haste to the skies over The Facility.

Tunde called his mum and dad, and also Professor Krauss, on a team video call. They all answered immediately and Tunde explained what had just happened at school.

Tunde saw his mum was concerned – but not surprised. ‘Mum? Has this got anything to do with why your arm was going nuts this morning?’

‘Ahhh, the arm of wonder . . .’ Professor Krauss muttered to himself.

Dad exhaled and looked at the camera. ‘Bum,’ he said. ‘You know then . . .’

Mum looked guilty. She then told him about C.A.I.N.E.’s beginnings as spare parts from two extra-dimensional spaceships. They were piecing together a prime computer from which they could monitor the world’s defence systems. Artie was what was left afterwards, and so they made a mini A.I. to protect Tunde at school without him knowing.

Tunde raised an eyebrow. ‘WELL, THAT DIDN’T WORK AT ALL!’

Mum glared at the camera. ‘We don’t have time for your cheek. You need to listen very carefully.’

The team crowded in. What she told them could just well be the information they needed to defeat C.A.I.N.E. . . .

And it was a good job too, because C.A.I.N.E. was now new and improved. Lights glittered throughout its beautifully computerized body and, with a mere thought, it summoned from within itself giant cannons and aimed them at The Facility – with Mum, Dad and Professor Krauss all trapped inside.

C.A.I.N.E. laughed in a creepy, metallic, ROBOT way. ‘I had thought happiness was a human failing but, actually, it is a positive feeling – especially when you are about to destroy your enemies.’ His telephoto lens eyes blinked, and the quiet and purposeful noise of cannons gearing up to fire at will made itself heard.

‘I shall count down from twenty. Just for fun.’

He began the countdown to everyone’s destruction.

And riding into the path of that destruction was S.H.I.P.P.E.

‘You know,’ Nev said, ‘I really shouldn’t be in a spaceship about to be blown up by a ROBOT. I should be down the gym doin’ sit-ups an ting!’

‘Gods,’ Jiah prayed, ‘please forgive me for cheating last year on the Triple Advanced Mathematics module. I knew the answer, but I looked it up online. If you do forgive me, can you help us smash this ROBOT thing to bits with a giant lightning bolt?’

Kylie just hummed the word ‘OMMMMMMM’ repeatedly.

Dembe looked at her step-brother. ‘What’s the plan? Usually, in the films at this bit there’s a plan.’

Tunde looked at everyone freaking out. ‘S.H.I.P.P.E., can you play some ultra-relaxing music, please?’

The spacecraft did so and, after a few moments, everyone chilled as if they were on a spa holiday in Thailand.

Tunde turned to his friends. ‘I was so angry about what I wasn’t being allowed to do. But it turns out I can’t do this without all of you.’ He began flipping switches. ‘Jiah, can you open all frequencies – mega loud, please? We’re gonna try to talk to Artie. He’s still in there, inside C.A.I.N.E. somewhere – everyone talk to him and remind him of why you like him. Why he’s one of us.’

C.A.I.N.E. was slowing down the countdown deliberately, to be annoying (maybe Artie got it from somewhere, Tunde thought). ‘Twelve and three-quarters, twelve and a half . . .’

And then Kylie’s voice projected loud and clear from S.H.I.P.P.E.’s high-tech speaker system: ‘Hello? Is Artie there, please? We know you’re nothing to do with this. You’re a good . . . you’re a person, Artie, and you love people. Remember that.’

Nev was next. ‘Artie! Bruv, mate, cuz! If you’re in there, big up yourself, man. You’re amazing at footie.’

‘Agreed, bro,’ Dembe chimed in. ‘How we gonna beat them Dogwall chumps again next year without you?’

Jiah laughed and said, ‘Artie, no wonder you’re a don at problem solving. You are a maths problem!’

Tunde nodded; he could see something wriggling in C.A.I.N.E.’s chest area – like a squirrel under a T-shirt trying to squirm free. He spoke last. ‘Artie, I’m sorry I treated you so badly. It’s my own fault. I was sulking and not being very kind to anyone. If we ever get out of this, I promise I’ll be a better friend to you.’

The countdown stopped and C.A.I.N.E. looked down to watch the squirmy-wormy squigglywriggly activity happening in his chest. ‘WHAT IS THIS?? DO NOT SPEAK TO ARTIE - HE IS NO LONGER YOURS. HE IS MINE NOW!’

Tunde ignored C.A.I.N.E. ‘Artie, would you mind switching off for a minute please?’

And then Artie’s voice rang out as clear as a bell: ‘Initiate KILL SWITCH!’

There was a slight pause, and then Artie’s voice returned. ‘By the way, I’m sorry for not letting you all know what I was. The problem is, when they – hang on . . .’

C.A.I.N.E.’s robot cannons dropped abruptly, all of the lights went out across its entire framework, and the giant, angry ROBOT fell from the sky, KER-BLAMMing into Ron’s mutant garden.