Description: Rise of the Robot Army CHAPTER 1 RRRRNNNG! Miles Taylor was a superhero, but he still had to wake up for school. Miles dropped his hand heavily onto his alarm clock. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, his mind filling with thoughts of what the new school year had in store for him. If eighth grade was anything like seventh, he wasn''t particularly excited. Rising with the sun. A slapdash breakfast of cereal or toast. Trudging downstairs to wait in front of Cedar Lake Apartments for the bus that was too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, and too smelly year-round. All for the privilege of spending the next nine months at Chapman Middle School, taking tests, getting homework, and dodging run-ins with local football god and scourge of nonathletic kids everywhere, Craig "the Jammer" Logg. Ugh. But at least he was a superhero. Hard as it was sometimes for Miles to believe, he really was. Not a dress-up-for-Halloween-and-pretend superhero. A living, breathing, pound-bad-guys-into-the-dirt superhero. He was the Golden Great. The Halcyon Hero. Atlanta''s Twenty-Four-Karat Champion. He was Gilded, the only for-real superhero the world had ever seen. Miles rolled out of bed and headed for the bathroom mirror. He frowned at his reflection. It''d be nice if looking back at him was Gilded, the barrel-chested, six-foot-plus exemplar of good. Instead, all he saw was an average eighth grader from suburban Atlanta who presently had a particularly painful zit asserting itself on his nose. Miles would''ve liked to tell the world that he was the hero who, for the past year, had kept Atlanta safe. It was Miles who''d foiled robberies, doused infernos, and even flown apart a tornado. It was he who''d saved the greater Atlanta area--and the rest of humanity--from planetary annihilation at the hands of Lord Commander Calamity and his horde of alien, lizard-monster warriors called the Unnd. (Seventh grade had been a busy year.) But Miles couldn''t let anyone know those things. Letting anyone know was the ultimate no-no. An old man--the man who''d clandestinely served as Gilded for decades; who''d captivated the minds of every man, woman, and child; who''d been the focus of newspaper articles, TV reports, and comic books beyond number--had told Miles so. He''d warned Miles with his dying breath, imparting that one piece of wisdom before giving Miles the golden cape and changing his life forever. The golden cape. The source of all of Miles''s powers. Miles smiled as he remembered the way he''d felt the first time he''d clasped the cape around his neck. It had transformed him from a nobody into the ultimate somebody. It allowed him to fly, run faster than the eye could see, and lift . . . Actually, he wasn''t sure how much weight he could lift. He''d hoisted a full water tower once, but he hadn''t been able to find anything heavier to test himself against. He''d definitely tested his toughness, though. He''d been punched, hit with a baseball bat, and shot by an alien death ray without shedding a single drop of blood. With the cape, Miles could do anything. Anything good, at least. Miles brushed his teeth and spat a glob of toothpaste into the sink. The Gilded cape came with a catch. A safety feature. It granted powers to him only if he used it for good. Simple enough. Like everyone else, Miles wanted to be a hero, didn''t he? Sure, but also like everyone else, Miles wanted to be rich, famous, and have a packed social calendar. Too bad the cape didn''t let him use it to acquire any of those things. Miles had learned that through trial and error (mostly error) and with the help of his best friend and confidant, Henry Matte. Miles walked to his dresser. He took socks from his sock drawer, jeans from his jeans drawer, and a T-shirt from his T-shirt drawer. (Collared shirts were hung in the closet, where they wouldn''t get creased from being folded. Like everything else in his life, Miles liked his clothes to be just so.) Whenever Miles saw his organized clothes, he was reminded of Henry. Probably because Henry had never organized anything in his life. Miles thought of how he''d tried to keep secret that he''d become the new Gilded. He''d almost made it one whole day. But he had figured out very quickly that he needed help. Henry, a super-genius Gilded fanatic whom Miles had crossed paths with in a school bathroom, turned out to be just the kid to give it to him. Together, they''d figured out how the cape worked, and they''d been a team ever since. It was because Miles understood what the cape would and wouldn''t allow him to do that he combed his mouse-brown hair and pulled on his socks, jeans, and T-shirt at the same speed as every other kid ever. It was also the reason he didn''t use the cape to dash to Vermont for a stack of those flapjacks with fresh maple syrup he''d heard about and was instead going to start the new school year with an ordinary breakfast of Cheerios and milk drunk from a glass. Because why bother with having to wash a spoon? Miles grabbed his backpack and opened his bedroom door. The glorious sounds and aromas that greeted him indicated this morning was going to be anything but ordinary. He heard the popping of bacon frying in a pan, accompanied by the cheery whopwhopwhop of eggs being whisked in a mixing bowl. And he''d eaten enough Southern breakfasts to recognize the scent of biscuits baking in an oven. These were things Miles hadn''t enjoyed since before his mom had traded in him and his dad for a moneyed accountant and moved to South Florida. After that, meals had been handled by Mr. Taylor, the innovative culinary mind who''d invented the concept of cereal served in a drinking glass. Not that Miles blamed him. A master electrician at Atlanta Voltco, Hollis Taylor worked long hours to keep the roof of their cramped, two-bedroom apartment over their heads. That left little opportunity for playing chef. Nevertheless, maybe he''d found time to up his game. Stomach growling, Miles bounded down the hall toward the kitchen. "Dad? Do I smell country ham?" When Miles saw who was doing the cooking, he stopped short. It wasn''t his dad at the stove. It was the next-door neighbor, Dawn Collins. "Good nose," Dawn said, beaming. "Big day today, Mr. Eighth Grader. I told your dad I thought you could stand to start your morning right." She tipped a mixing bowl full of beaten eggs into a frying pan coated with a rich sheen of melted butter. Mr. Taylor looked up from setting the table--Dixie plates and folded paper towels arranged with care. He rubbed a hand through his trimmed beard and shifted his feet. He seemed to get fidgety whenever Miles saw him and Dawn together, an increasingly common occurrence of late. "I finally took Dawn up on her offer to fix us a meal. Isn''t that neighborly of her?" Mr. Taylor locked eyes with Miles and nodded at Dawn, as if to prod Miles into giving a proper show of thanks. Miles didn''t need the prodding. "Absolutely." Even before Mr. Taylor had become friendly with Dawn, Miles had liked her. She had a generous smile and made the best sweet tea he''d ever tasted. She was also the only person who''d welcomed Miles and Mr. Taylor when they''d moved into Cedar Lake Apartments the summer before Miles started seventh grade. Up until a year ago, Dawn had been married to a no-account named Tom Collins. The last time Miles had seen him was the morning he''d overheard Mr. Collins berating Dawn for botching his breakfast. Worried for Dawn''s safety, Miles had put on the cape for the first time and burst into apartment 2G as Gilded. He''d explained to Mr. Collins in no uncertain terms that he wasn''t to be mean to Dawn ever again. Mr. Collins had lit out that afternoon, Dawn happily went from Mrs. to Ms., and Cedar Lake Apartments was all the better for it. Watching Dawn drain bacon, stir eggs, and pull biscuits from the oven with ease, Miles couldn''t help wondering if her treatment of Mr. Collins''s breakfast had been a show of defiance. She definitely knew how to drive a stove. "You two sit," Dawn said, turning off the burners. She carried the frying pan to the table and spooned eggs onto the plates. You didn''t have to tell a Taylor twice. Miles plopped his backpack on the floor and was reaching for his fork even before his butt hit the chair. "Everything looks great, Dawn." Mr. Taylor smiled hungrily, pushing bacon and two biscuits onto his plate. He raised his plastic cup of orange juice. "A toast. To a breakfast that isn''t toast." Miles clunked his cup against his dad''s. "I''ll drink to that." "Wait!" Dawn shrieked. Mr. Taylor jolted and dropped a forkful of eggs onto his lap. "I forgot the finishing touch." Dawn hurried to the freezer. She reached in and pulled out an ice cube tray. She cracked a pair of cubes shaped like peaches into each of their drinks. Dawn''s prized collection of novelty ice cube molds was ever growing, and she seemed to have one for every occasion. If she was keeping her trays in Mr. Taylor''s freezer, things were getting serious. "Peaches?" Mr. Taylor asked, plucking the eggs from his work pants. "August is National Peach Month," Dawn said with a grin. "We do live in the Peach S

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