The next day the sun hung high in the sky, reflecting bright golden light over large rolling hills of South Island. The island was peaceful. Palm trees fell gently in the breeze inshore, the ocean glinted along the serene coastline, the grassy fields grew infinitely far off in the distance.
A red blur raced across the landscape.
Nico was running.
Or more precisely, he was blowing across the island at speeds that most people might be unable to even imagine. He was nothing more than an unmerciful red streak glancing downslope of hills to the naked eye.
He skidded at a huge rock formation, grass scattering under his feet as he slowed down.
Nico shouted, proud and pumping his fist into the air, "Haha! New record! New record!"
"8.7 seconds!"
He stopped there after a moment to catch his breath but he barely appeared tired at all.
That was his fastest yet.
He spread his arms above his head and rolled his shoulders slightly.
Next time he would go 8.5 seconds!
Every morning Nico ran one hundred laps around South Island as a warm up. The island was gigantic, littered with hills, cliffs, forests and open fields. For most people running around it even once would take hours.
For Nico, it took seconds.
He started jogging again, much slower now, he enjoyed the warm sunlight and fresh ocean breeze.
Birds flew overhead.
Waves crashed far off along the shoreline.
Something like calm.
Then his eye caught something.
Nico slowed to a stop.
Near a patch of grass there was a pig.
But something about it looked strange.
It wasn't an ordinary pig.
Its entire body was covered in a thick black shadow that seemed to cling to its skin like liquid smoke. The shadow pulsed slightly, swirling across the animal's body in unnatural patterns. If its eyes couldn't move he would almost imagine it had no feelings.
Nico narrowed his eyes.
"Is that one of Dr. E's crazy shadow clones?" he murmured.
The pig snorted quietly as it walked across the grass.
By the dark aura around it, the air around it took on a somewhat colder feeling.
"Damn Dr. E…" Nico muttered under his breath.
He takes innocent animals out of their homes, and employs some type of technology to cover them up in the shadows and control their actions.
Nico clenched his fists.
"I better free that poor pig."
In a flash, he disappeared.
The grass behind him exploded outward as he took off.
He had already reached the pig in a fraction of a second.
He delivered a quick punch straight into the pig's stomach.
THUMP.
The impact made the grey shadow that clung to the pig's body ripple violently.
So the shadow started melting.
The thick black substance liquified and slid off the pig's skin like drips of ink, splattering harmlessly onto the ground before evaporating into thin air and becoming very oily.
The pig blinked a few times.
Its eyes returned to normal.
It gazed confused and happily scampered away across the grass.
"Thank me later!" Nico burst out.
He was already gone.
And the red blur continued racing over South Island, tearing through open fields and weaving between hills.
He ran and his mind started to wander during the run.
He couldn't help but think about Dr. E's strange shadow creatures.
Nico wondered how he would even do that.
Looking at humans not as normal, being turned into those horrid shadow monsters.
After seeing that, he sprinted up the side of a hill and launched himself off the top, he jumped across the whole side without stopping a move.
If only he could destroy whatever machine he uses to make them.
The thought hung in his mind.
Destroy the machine.
If that thing was gone, Dr. E wouldn't be able to keep corrupting animals anymore.
Then Nico heard something.
A slight humming sound.
He slowed slightly.
The noise was mechanical.
A low electrical hum emanated now and again across the hills.
Nico turned his head toward the source.
A large metallic structure was in sight in some rocky cliffs in the distance, somewhere below those rocky cliff edges.
Dr. E's laboratory.
The base was substantial, made entirely from steel and reinforced metallic plating. Several antennas extended from the roof and large vents emitted thin trails of steam into the sky.
Nico stopped running.
"Hm."
He stared at the building for a moment.
"If he has the machine in there…" Nico quietly said.
He grinned.
"Then I guess he should make a visit to him."
Nico leaned forward, and after another second of hesitation, blasted to the base.
The wind roared around him as he sped across the fields.
Within seconds he reached the outer walls of the laboratory.
But as he came by something felt… wrong.
Nico slowed down.
Air seemed heavier.
At the base of the island the cheerful appearance seemed to fade a bit.
He frowned.
"Man… why has he got this uneasy feeling?" Nico muttered.
Still, he kept moving.
He slipped through a partially open doorway and ran off toward the entrance.
The interior of the base was cold and metallic.
Dim lights decorated the walls and left long shadows on the floor.
Nico ran along a little metal corridor before reaching onto a wide metal bridge that extended outwards throughout an enormous interior chamber.
The bridge clanged beneath his feet as he ran.
Below him were rows of machinery, cables, and glowing control panels.
He slowed to a stop in the middle of the bridge.
The room was huge around him.
The entire chamber was steel. Tall metal walls rose high above him, lined with pipes and mechanical structures.
Then something moved.
Nico looked up.
Ten robots stood around him.
They had been waiting.
They were tall and heavily armored machines with glowing red sensors for eyes. Their metal limbs whirred quietly as they opened.
One robot came forward.
Another raised its weapon.
All ten machines locked their glowing eyes onto Nico at the same time.
Their metal bodies shifted into combat position.
They were ready to attack.
Nico cracked his knuckles slowly.
"Well," he said with a small grin.
"Guess he found the welcome party."
The robots began moving towards him.