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  PROLOGUE

  CHEATING DEATH

  This wasn’t the first time the universe mistook Foo-Foo the Destroyer for dead.

  No—long before the ambush at an intergalactic way station, the robotic, rabbitlike bounty hunter was a soldier-for-hire. Foo-Foo had been a rookie looking to make his mark, just like the powerful warriors he’d idolized since he was a kit. So, when the fearsome race known as the Kotok launched their invasion of planet Xerexes, Foo-Foo finally found his opportunity.

  After bombing the distant world from space, the Kotok sent in Foo-Foo and his fellow mercenaries to assist in the ground assault. And once their troop transports set down on Xerexes’s cratered surface, Foo-Foo understood why the planet was of such value to the brutal, saw-toothed Kotok. Despite the destruction their incursion had already wrought, it was still a beautiful world, brimming with natural resources. It was still—

  “Glorious!” boomed a muscular figure bounding across the battlefield.

  Foo-Foo’s large metal ears perked in amazement. His mechanical eyes dilated wider. And in a reverential hush, he said, “It’s him. It’s Commander Vex!”

  Varvatos Vex dialed his Serrator from blaster mode to spear mode. The handheld device formed a serrated staff of solid energy, which Vex used to bat away several incoming Kotoks. A fellow soldier of fortune had to yank the awestruck Foo-Foo into a trench before he was struck by the swatted creatures.

  “Yes, a glorious death indeed!” Vex cackled, his four eyes shining wildly. “Varvatos Vex can think of no greater honor than to die in noble battle against a worthy adversary!”

  Even more Kotoks advanced on Vex, but another figure dispatched them with her two-headed scythe. Foo-Foo instantly recognized her from the news feeds he’d rewatched over and over again in his childhood hutch. She was Zadra, Vex’s top lieutenant. Zadra pulled the protective face mask off her mouth and said, “Permission to speak freely, Commander?”

  “Granted.”

  “Death shall not come for you on this day.”

  “Then Varvatos Vex is both most thankful and deeply disappointed!” said Vex.

  As he and Zadra shared a private smile, the tips of Foo-Foo’s radar ears peeked out from behind the trench. He couldn’t believe his luck, even as he ducked laser crossfire in the middle of a war zone.

  I . . . I can’t believe this is happening, thought Foo-Foo. To be here, on the same planet, with Commander Vex and Lieutenant Zadra . . . This cannot be random. This . . . this must be fate.

  Yet Foo-Foo knew that Vex and Zadra were the vanguard of a much larger counterattack. Xerexes had benefited from the protection of the royal throne world, Akiridion-5, for hundreds of keltons. And now that the Kotok violated that protection, Foo-Foo figured it was only a matter of time before they drew the full wrath of Akiridion’s unparalleled military, the Taylon Phalanx.

  If I want to get their autographs, I’d better do it now, Foo-Foo thought.

  The gears in his bionic feet sprang into action. As he jumped out of the trench and soared toward Vex and Zadra, Foo-Foo unsheathed a brilliant orange blade from its scabbard. A master of close-quarter combat, he expertly twirled the knife in his armored fingers. Foo-Foo couldn’t wait to show his skills with a hard-light dagger to Commander Vex and Lieutenant Zadra—and then ask them to autograph it.

  “On your six!” shouted another voice.

  A clear, blue bubble-shield suddenly materialized between the two Akiridions’ exposed backs and the knife-wielding Foo-Foo. His metal body bounced off the round barrier and ricocheted out of sight before Vex or Zadra could spot him. Vex’s many eyes followed the beam that projected the bubble shield back to its point of origin.

  The acrid smoke from the battlefield parted, and Queen Coranda of Akiridion-5 emerged from the haze, flanked by members of the Taylon Phalanx. She constructed another shield with her Serrator to deflect Kotok sniper fire from the mountains.

  “Your Majesty!” cried Zadra. “We must get you to back to a secure location. I’ll send out an extraction alert on my Pingpod.”

  She was about to press an oval-shaped device clipped to her, but Coranda stayed Zadra’s arm with one of her own four hands. The queen then calmly said, “Stand down, Lieutenant. For far too long I have sent soldiers to put their cores on the line while I wait in the safety of a remote palace. I now fight by your side. Any injuries you suffer, I too shall suffer.”

  Coranda looked directly at Vex as she spoke those last words, causing Vex to avert his four eyes. At least that was how it looked to Foo-Foo as he clambered out of a crater several yards away.

  “Now, onward!” Coranda said, rallying her soldiers. “For Xerexes! For Akiridion-5!”

  “Wait!” Foo-Foo called after them. “That wasn’t what it looked like! I’m not trying to hurt you! I’m a huge admirer of yours!”

  But Vex and Zadra had already charged back into the fray with Coranda, their gleaming Serrators punching through wave after wave of Kotok invaders. They cleaved their way deep into enemy lines, avoiding photon blasts, land mines, and razor-sharp teeth. Explosions erupted around them, yet still the Akiridions fought.

  And Foo-Foo fought to keep up with them, even as the other mercenaries struggled to keep him on their side of the conflict. Foo-Foo kicked them away with his hydraulic legs, then spotted his idols across the field of battle.

  He watched Vex come to the aid of one of his own Taylon Phalanx commandos. The young recruit had gotten swept up in the frenzy of war, forgetting his training and firing his Serrator at anything that moved—even his own superior officers. The delirious cadet nearly shot Zadra before she flipped her lithe form out of the way.

  Sadly, Vex had seen this kind of bloodlust overtake other inexperienced troops throughout his long military career. The commander cupped his hands around his mouth and barked, “Soldier! Stand down!”

  Varvatos Vex shoved away another Kotok and wrestled the confused commando to the ground, prying the Serrator from his automatically twitching trigger finger. Vex pressed down with the full weight of his body and said, “Slow your breathing. Feel the ground under your back. Allow your heart to become so still, you doubt that it will ever beat again.”

  Foo-Foo watched as the overwhelmed Akiridion gradually stop struggling under Vex. Once he regained his faculties, the young soldier said, “F-forgive me, Commander Vex. I—I seem to have lost myself for a moment . . . until you brought me back.”

  “It was nothing,” Foo-Foo overheard Vex say. “Just an old soldier’s calming trick.”

  The metal-plated mercenary forgot all about the invasion and even the signatures he wanted on his dagger. More than anything, Foo-Foo desperately wanted to know more about this trick. But the screech of the Kotok hordes interrupted him before he could even approach Vex.

  Queen Coranda blasted with her Serrator, and Zadra swung her scythe as they fell back to Vex’s position. The trio became hopelessly outnumbered by a tightening ring of Kotoks.

  “Do you now wish you were back in your palace, My Royal?” Vex asked with an edge.

  “It is as I said before, Varvatos,” replied Coranda. “I fight by your side.”

  Foo-Foo watched the queen and Vex trade a look of final understanding before a large shadow eclipsed the lot of them. A Taylon Striker now hovered overhead. Translucent proton cannons manifested on the vehicle’s underside and fired upon the Kotoks and their mercenaries. The beastly invaders shrieked as the energy blasts sent them flying this way and that. A hatch on the Striker then opened and produced a series of floating circular panels that arranged itself into a set of stairs. King Fialkov descended halfway down the steps and said, “Honestly, Coranda. Sneaking off on your own? What kind of example will you set for our future children?”

  Cor
anda smiled at her husband and said, “A fiercely independent one?”

  Foo-Foo saw Fialkov motion with his four arms for Coranda, Vex, and Zadra to hurry up the stairs. The queen and king embraced, and Vex took another look at the field of battle. From this elevated vantage point, it seemed to Varvatos as if all Xerexes was now infested with Kotoks. Foo-Foo’s ears picked up Fialkov’s voice from afar. The king said to Vex, “Worry not, old friend. General Morando reports great success on the southern and western fronts. The Kotoks gather here since they have no place left to go. Victory will be ours by the end of the delson. And after this maelstrom on Xerexes, Akiridion-5 shall never participate in another war.”

  A nearby artillery assault made the Taylon Striker suddenly veer to the side. Turbulence rocked the staircase, and Foo-Foo watched as Vex and Zadra caught their king and queen before they fell over the side. Varvatos then activated the staircase controls, retracting the steps—even as more Taylon Phalanx soldiers remained behind, fighting back the Kotok on Xerexes.

  “Commander, we must go back!” Zadra cried. “We must rescue our comrades in arms!”

  Vex looked at Zadra with a heavy expression, then turned away. He saw the king and queen, the two royals he had sworn to protect above all others. Their ship took on more fire.

  “Varvatos Vex hears you, Zadra,” he said, his voice thick. “No commander ever wishes to leave a soldier behind. But tough choices must be made in times of war.”

  His words sank into Zadra’s mind, and the last of the stairs began disappearing inside their vessel. Confronted with the last chance to meet his heroes, Foo-Foo made another terrific, turbine-powered jump. He reached the lowest step and clung onto it for dear life as the Taylon Striker ascended. Foo-Foo imagined just how impressed Commander Vex and Lieutenant Zadra would be by his tenacity, not to mention his encyclopedic knowledge of their many exploits. The rabbitlike creature smiled under his helmet, mentally rehearsing all the charming, witty things he’d say to them—when the last stair evaporated in his grasp.

  Foo-Foo pawed at the air as he fell. Before he hit the ground, Foo-Foo saw the ship’s hatch close, sealing Vex and the conflicted Zadra inside with their king and queen. The Taylon Striker launched into the stars, and Foo-Foo’s reinforced armor collided with the terrain.

  His ears drooped in disappointment—then shot upright in fear. Legions of Kotok surrounded the lone soldier-of-fortune who had abandoned his post. Foo-Foo tightened his grip on the hard-light dagger. He counted the Kotoks sizing him up for the kill. There was no way he could fight his way free.

  Foo-Foo abruptly clutched at his heart and keeled over. His armored body hit the ground once more, twitched a couple of times, then stopped moving altogether. A pack of Kotoks looked at one another, their tails curling into question marks. They tentatively sniffed Foo-Foo’s still figure, then held their pointed heads to his chest. Hearing nothing, not even the faintest heartbeat, the Kotoks brayed in disappointment. The pack let the tiny corpse be, and it set off in search of live game. And one full minute after it’d left him, Foo-Foo forced his heart to beat once more. Varvatos Vex’s calming trick had worked again, and this became the first time the universe mistook Foo-Foo the Destroyer for dead. But it wasn’t the last.

  Foo-Foo shook the memories of cheating death from his head and took stock of his current predicament. He lay trapped behind the bar at an intergalactic way station, where one of the Zeron Brotherhood had tossed him—just as he’d hoped they would. Foo-Foo had marked the three other bounty hunters as soon as he walked into the nearly deserted bar. Of course the Zerons would be at this way station. They were after the same thing as Foo-Foo—the same thing everyone in the galaxy was talking about at the moment. The news feeds repeated the headline so much, he had it memorized by now.

  “On Akiridion-5, a Coup Has Overthrown House Tarron. The Royal Family Are Presumed Dead.”

  Only Foo-Foo knew better. King Fialkov and Queen Coranda were goners. But their children, Aja and Krel Tarron, were still very much alive, as was their bodyguard—the one and only Varvatos Vex—who had only grown more legendary in Foo-Foo’s mind since Xerexes’s Maelstrom. He knew Vex would have piloted the royals’ C-class mothership past this way station during their escape. If Foo-Foo could claim the reward on the young Tarrons’ heads, it would bring him one step closer to finally meeting Vex. First, though, Foo-Foo would have to outwit his rivals in the Zeron Brotherhood—and fast.

  “No witnesses,” said the Zerons’ leader.

  Moving quickly, Foo-Foo ejected out of his armor and tucked his real body under the bar, behind a crate of empty bottles. The pleas for mercy from the bar’s other two occupants—and the sound of the lasers that silenced them—masked most of Foo-Foo’s movements. His hidden body shivered in the cold, until he used Vex’s calming trick once more to lull his heart to stillness. Omega Zeron stepped behind the bar and blasted Foo-Foo’s vacant shell into oblivion. A quick sensor check then confirmed no signs of life in the vicinity. The members of the Zeron Brotherhood turned on their heels and wordlessly exited through the swinging doors.

  And just as he did on Xerexes, Foo-Foo willed himself alive again. He scampered out the bar and headed for the docking bay. Slipping past the many busy transit operators, Foo-Foo stuck to the shadows and finally boarded his ship—a T-2 transporter with twin black-market turbo thrusters. He powered up the engines, donned a replacement suit of armor, and consulted his onboard navigation systems. The flight computer tracked the Zerons’ path from the Oxiom galaxy to a remote planet designated as Earth.

  These Brotherhood fools will lead me right to the bounty, thought Foo-Foo. And my hero, Varvatos Vex.

  CHAPTER 1

  INVADING YOUR HOMETOWN

  “Great Galen!” roared Varvatos Vex. “Out of all the dark deeds Varvatos has carried out in his lifetime of brutal combat, this has to be the most core-crushing of all—clean-up duty!”

  He hefted a refrigerator over his shoulder and carried it out of the yard and back into the kitchen. Vex returned the fridge to its rightful place, then looked at the rest of his Earth home. Usually, it appeared like any other dwelling in Arcadia Oaks. Little did Vex’s foolish “who-man” neighbors suspected, an Akiridion mothership lay hidden beneath the façade of this midcentury modern.

  But these were not usual circumstances. Vex’s four eyes scanned the living room, still finding it in total disarray from the night before. Chairs remained overturned, shattered plates littered the counters, and several sharp knives stuck out from the floor—all courtesy of a recent attack from the bounty hunter, Halcon. Although the wall clock had been smashed during their tussle, Vex still felt time ticking away. Each new day in hiding on this mud-ball planet seemed to bring even more enemies after Varvatos Vex and the young royals under his care. Looking out a cracked window, he saw how the single sun was starting to set.

  “Where are Aja and Krel, anyway?” Vex asked. “They should’ve returned from their education barracks a horvath ago!”

  “You can ask them yourself,” responded the mothership, her cool voice coming from the ceiling. “Our royals are walking up to the porch right now.”

  The front door opened, and in skipped Aja and Krel Tarron. Each of the human-looking teens smiled at the small plastic card in their hands, ignoring the mess around them. Vex cocked a few eyebrows at them and said, “What kept you so long? The solar cycle is nearly at an end!”

  “Sorry, Varvatos,” said Krel. “Interim principal, Señor Uhl kept us after school.”

  “To give us these!” Aja said.

  She showed Vex the card in her hand, which featured a small photo of Aja and the words “Arcadia Oaks High.”

  “Official student IDs!” said Aja. “Aren’t they lively?”

  “ ‘Eye-dees’?” Vex repeated. “What do these badges have to do with your visual receptors? Did a teacher see your true eyes through your disguises? I will bash that Uhl like a skelteg—”

  “No, no, no!” Krel said. “It’
s short for ‘identification.’ It means our cover is working.”

  “We’re all passing as normal humans!” added Aja with a grin.

  No sooner did Aja and Krel finish speaking than their transduction effects wore off. Their human bodies fizzled away in a wash of blue energy, revealing their actual, four-armed Akiridion selves. Each royal glowed from within, the energies from their life-cores radiating outward through their pale blue skin and white hair. Frustrated, Krel threw his hands into the air and said, “As long as we come back here every twelve hours. Ay-yi-yi . . .”

  “Well, more arms mean more help,” said Vex. “Consider it the next step in your warrior training, Aja. These are for you.”

  He thrust several brooms and trash cans into Aja’s and Krel’s numerous hands and pointed to the debris around the home. The siblings shared a disappointed look before loud barks filled the air. They looked down and saw their purple pet running between their feet.

  “Luug!” Aja called over the barking. “How would you like to help us eliminate all traces of wreckage from our human household?”

  Luug cocked his head, lifted his leg above an overstuffed garbage bag, and vaporized it with a squirt of laser pee. Krel leaned passed behind Aja and said, “That works!”

  “Excellent,” Vex said, nodding approvingly at Luug.

  “What about the Blanks?” said Aja. “They are supposed to perform tasks like these.”

  “The Blank units masquerading as your who-man parents are otherwise indisposed,” Vex said with an annoyed shake of his head. “They have been adding new data to their memory banks. What should be a simple task has turned into a simple disaster.”

  He pointed across the living room, where Ricky and Lucy Blank sat on a couch in front of the TV. Rather than get up and greet Aja and Krel, the two “parents” merely turned their heads around 180 degrees and smiled over their backs.

  “Ahoy-hoy, kids!” said Ricky Blank. “How was school today?”

  Lucy smiled unnaturally and said, “Anyone ask you to the spring sock hop-op-op-op?”