She inspected the ball for damage And I didn’t tell you to nearly get stuck to the battle bot’s foot We’re trying to solve a case not turn you into goblin pancakes Solving a case was the reason I’d gotten into that battle in the first place No one ever said being a detective detective would be easy I just wished they would remind me to wear a helmet once in a while The whole mess had started two days earlier when the Troll Patrol cornered us on our way home from school Thankfully they didn’t patrol for unfinished homework or I would have been rounded up a lot earlier The three grade-eight trolls were Gravelmuck Elementary’s champion battle-bot team They were also our school’s best chance at winning this year’s Battle Bot Cup That is if everyone played fairly Rizzo Rawlins is a cheat said the tallest of the three trolls His name was Daztan He was the Troll Patrol captain And the Tuesday lunch special is a health hazard I said Tell us something we don’t know Daztan I’m normally not so snarky to older monsters But I had a serious video-game session and a fresh batch of choco-slug cookies waiting for me at home It’s never a good idea to get between me and my video games 4
Rizzo Rawlins has put together his own battle-bot team to compete in the school finals said Ryla the smallest of the three trolls She was the coder of the group It was her computer code that made the Troll Patrol’s battle bots the best in the school But Rizzo is only in fourth grade Tank said How can he compete with you older monsters Rizzo gets whatever Rizzo wants said Zarkof He was smaller than Daztan but larger than Ryla and had bright-orange hair spiked up to look like he’d been electrocuted Rizzo convinced Principal Weaver to let him compete and then he hired some of the other kids in our class to build him a battle bot Normally we would be able to defeat any bot they could scrape together Daztan said We’ve watched his bot in battle Zarkof said We think he is cheating Word on the playground is that you two are detectives detectives said Zarkof Best in the school Tank said with a smile Good Daztan said We want to hire you Thoughts of cookies and video games vanished from my detective brain I was always interested in a new case But still I had my doubts 5
Everyone knows Rizzo Rawlins is a cheat I said How can we prove he’s cheating in the battle-bot competition The flat piece of vizpaper in Zarkof s large hands sparked to life The paper’s surface glowed softly with the words Rockfall Battle Bot Association Rules and Regulations Zarkof thumbed through the manual He cleared his throat before speaking It states clearly in Section 12 Subsection D that all essential mainframe apparatuses and sub-linear underlying frameworks must be Um run that one by me again I said Certainly Zarkof smiled It states clearly in Section 12 Daztan stepped in to translate What he means is we have to build our battle bots using parts we make ourselves And run the bots using computer code that we write ourselves Ryla added That way participants can’t just buy the best equipment or hire some professional professional computer coder to make their battle bot And that’s what you think Rizzo has done Daztan nodded His bot moves too fast It’s too smart to have been created by a bunch of monsters 6
from elementary school We think he got his battle-bot battle-bot parts and code from a professional bot maker And we want you to prove it It is quite important that the truth be known Zarkof said The winner of our school battle-bot tournament will represent Gravelmuck in the Slick City Battle Bot Cup next week And you think Rizzo will win Tank asked If he does win he won’t deserve it Ryla said We just want things to be fair Daztan said All the other monsters have been working on their battle bots for a long time It’s not right for Rizzo to use his money to get an advantage over us If you can prove he bought his computer parts Principal Weaver will have to remove him from the tournament A chance to prove Rizzo Rawlins is a cheat I looked to my detective partner Tank’s ears stood at attention like a pair of hungry flame hounds She was in we'll take the case
