Page 34 of Jinxed

‘We need a share of the points if we’re going to have any chance of winning the Baku Battles,’ saysTobias. ‘And that means, we have to fix Jupiter. I think Lacey here can do it.’

‘Uh, have you seen that baku? It’s scrap metal!’ cries Kai, picking up a piece of Jupiter that has dropped out of Ashley’s arms and on to the floor, wielding it as a prime example of what he means. ‘Not even the best Moncha companioneer could fix this pile of garbage. Look, Tobias, my man, we shouldn’t be worryingabout how to fix this,’ he gestures to the mess in Ashley’s arms, and she whimpers, ‘but planning our next round attack strategy. Like how that freaky dude,’ he points at River, ‘and I are going to stand a chance in the next round. Especially as Gemma is going to havethreebakus to our two, so we’ll still have that boar to contend with. That isnotthe kind of baku you expect a first year tohave.’

That’s right. I’d forgotten that since Carter survived this round of Baku Battles, that means Gemma’s team will have an additional advantage next time around. No wonder Tobias is desperate. I can see how the first win for Gemma could snowball until catching her up becomes an impossibility.

‘You and I should go in there together,’ says Kai to Tobias. ‘It could be a good strategy.’ Hishusky growls in hungry anticipation. ‘Oka will eat up that pig in one bite. Everyone else will be entering their next lowest level baku. We can knock them out, then send in the frog-man to take on the last level. With any luck, Oka and Aero will survive all the way to the end. Then...’ He flares out his hand like he’s dropping a bomb. ‘BOOM. Winners.’

‘Hell yeah!’ echoes River.

Tobias looksas if he’s about to reply, when a small voice makes everyone shut up.

‘You might be able to fix her?’ Ashley looks up at me, her blue eyes – made even paler by the sheen of tears – boring into mine. ‘Is that why we’re here?’ She stares around at all the mechanical paraphernalia on my walls, the machinery tucked away into corners, the broken bits of other bakus that I’ve found stuffed into boxes.

I shrug, not wanting to promise too much, but also itching to have a go.

Tobias answers for me. ‘Yes. That’s why we’re all here. Lacey is one of the most accomplished companioneers I’ve ever met – she was the one who brought Aero back from the brink. It wasn’t me.’ Bright spots of colour appear on the tops of his cheeks – it’s obviously something that is a struggle for him to admit. ‘If anyonecan do this, Lacey can.’

Kai stares at me, confusion warring on his face. ‘Whatever,’ he mutters. He folds his arms across his chest, then leans against the mesh of the locker, standing back. I forget about him, letting him and his doubt fade into the background. My focus is on Jupiter.

‘Let’s lay her out on the floor,’ I say. Ashley gently places the main part of the baku’s body on the ground,then we position what’s left of her pieces around in the rough position that they should be. There are two immediate problems: one that she is split in half, and the other is that her front right leg is totally mangled. ‘This can’t be repaired,’ I say, matter-of-factly, pointing at the leg.

‘See?’ says Kai, as Tobias groans and Ashley lets out a whimper. Only River is still looking at me.

‘Youdon’t seem to be fazed by that,’ he says.

‘Well, no,’ I reply. That shuts the others up. ‘We can print another one pretty easily.’

‘From where?’ asks Kai.

‘From where River is.’ Everyone’s heads turn to River who just so happens to be perched next to my 3D printer.

‘Oh, that’s awesome that you have one of these,’ says Tobias. ‘They’re super limited access at school. Where did you get this?’

I think about how I would even begin to describe Paul and the underground network of tinkers that collect, swap and bargain for exactly this sort of thing – and then I give up. ‘Oh, you know. I came across it in a junkyard and then I’ve been slowly repairing it over the years.’

‘And where do you get the material to feed into the machine? That gets expensive,’ says Kai, still sceptical.

‘That’sthe easy part,’ I say. ‘Look next to you.’ There’s a big drum next to him, and he lifts off the top (I can see that I’ve piqued his curiosity, no matter how aloof he is trying to appear). Inside are rolls of filament – from different plastics like PVA and nylon, to more sophisticated and fiddly metal spools – plus all the scrap bits of baku that I’ve found over the past few months, including theparts I found in the arena. ‘I can make my own filament using the scrap material if I need to make a more exact match to Ashley’s baku.’

‘Wow, this is so cool!’ says River.

‘I don’t have an oven here hot enough to melt it down,’ I continue. ‘But my friend Paul does. We’ll just figure out how much we need, then I’ll go get the material ready while you guys program the printer.’

‘You’re insane,’says River, a huge grin on his face.

‘Thanks, I think?’ I say, returning the smile.

Ashley, who has been silent throughout this whole conversation, suddenly throws her arms around me and plants a big kiss on my cheek. That I wasnotexpecting. ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you!’ she says, over and over.

‘Just wait a bit,’ I say. ‘I haven’t done anything yet.’ Then, I frown, and Jinx – readingmy thoughts as always – projects the time on to the wall in front of us. It’s going to be an all-nighter if we’re going to have any chance of getting this done on time.

‘Tell me what you need us to do,’ says Tobias. ‘Everyone on the team is yours for the night. Thewholenight – right, guys?’ He glares at the rest of his team members, and they all nod – even Kai – and then River claps his handstogether and fists pumps the air. ‘All right!’ he exclaims. ‘I love an underdog story. Or abrokendog story, in this case.’

His enthusiasm makes me laugh. I think I like the guy. ‘Okay,’ I say, uncomfortable with my new leadership position but also knowing it has to be all hands on deck if we have a robot’s chance in hell at getting this done on time. ‘First things first. No one’s getting hurtin my locker.’ I take my safety glasses out of my pocket and slip them on, then I point the others to where I keep my spares – along with gloves, aprons and any other safety paraphernalia we might end up needing. ‘I’m going to get the metal for this leg melted and spun out, then we can print it. Tobias and Kai – do you think you can handle the basic resoldering of the wires on her motherboard?I can leave the schematic...’

‘I’ve got a basic level 3 spaniel schematic,’ Kai says, rolling his eyes but coming forward to kneel down by the broken machine – at least he’s showingsomewillingness to work on this with me. ‘But some of these wires are totally shredded and unusable.’ He lifts up a handful of mangled red and yellow wire, splintered and fried at the ends. He’s right – they won’twork at all. Luckily, I have just the thing. I spin around, opening and closing drawers in the giant shelving unit behind me. I’ve been meaning to do a proper categorization of everything, but fixing Jinx took up so much of my summer that I totally forgot.

‘Aha – here we go.’ I pull out a roll of brand new wiring. There’d been an online sale and I’d bought a whole bunch in one go. You can neverhave too much wire. I toss it down on to the floor. ‘There should be whatever tools you need, including strippers, solder, the soldering iron, and whatever else over by the workbench. River, do you know how to use a hammer?’

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