The robots moved first.
Their metal feet slammed against the bridge as all ten rushed Nico at once.
Laser cannons fired up. Blades extended from their arms.
Nico cracked his neck.
"OK. We will make this as quick as we can."
The first robot swung a blade. Nico ducked, spun and drove his fist straight through its chest. The machine erupted in a burst of sparks.
He kicked the next robot off the bridge and smashed through two more with red noise.
A laser fired. Nico sidestepped and ripped the cannon off the robot that fired it, smashing it into another machine.
Metal exploded everywhere.
The bridge was covered with broken parts of the robot for seconds.
The last machine raised its weapon.
Nico kicked its head clean off.
Silence returned.
Nico brushed dust off of his hands.
"Alright," he said casually.
"Now where's that machine?"
He took off running again.
The base was enormous.
The hallway behind the bridge stretched far out both ways with steel walls and humming machinery. Red warning lights blazed slowly along the ceiling.
Nico sprinted down the corridor.
His footsteps rumbled through the metal halls all through the metal halls.
In another huge room he burst through a door with rows of strange equipment. Giant storage cans of black liquid stood against the walls and were equipped with tubes and wires flowing across the floor.
"Creepy," Nico muttered.
He ran past them quickly.
Everywhere he looked there were machines.
Control panels.
Power generators.
Mechanical arms assembling parts.
At this point, none of that looked like the shadow machine he was trying to hunt for.
"The whole place is huge," Nico said of it as he turned down another corridor.
He ran up and down the wall for a few seconds and launched himself off, then landed on a taller platform.
There are more hallways ahead.
Nico continued, "This guy really needs fewer rooms."
He kicked open another door.
Inside was a storage chamber consisting of metal crates.
No machine.
He ran out again.
Another hallway.
Another room.
Still nothing.
Nico wondered, where would he hide something like that?
As he came around another corner, though, he heard something.
THUD.
THUD.
Heavy footsteps.
Nico slowed.
And then someone stepped out from the other corridor.
A tall white figure with horns.
Nico blinked.
"Rex?"
Rex stopped too.
"Nico?"
For a moment the two gazed at each other.
Then Rex crossed his arms.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
Nico shrugged.
"Looking for the machine Dr. E uses in order to turn animals into shadow zombies."
Rex's eyes widened slightly.
"You too?"
Nico tilted his head.
"Wait. You're here for that as well?"
Rex nodded.
"Yeah. I followed one of those shadow animals earlier. It came from somewhere around this base."
Nico grinned.
"Well look at that. Guess we had the same idea."
Rex cracked his knuckles.
"Good thing too. This place is massive."
"No kidding," Nico said.
The two of them looked down the hallway next.
Rows of doors lined the walls.
The base was far deeper underground.
"Alright," Nico said. "You take that side, I'll take this side."
Rex shook his head.
"No way. This place is full of robots."
Nico smirked.
"Good point."
Rex pointed down the corridor.
"Let's search together."
"Works for me."
The two of them just began to move out of the base side by side.
They kicked open doors as they went.
One room was filled with inactive robots hanging from charging stations.
In another room there stood stacks of glowing energy batteries.
They went through a laboratory with computer screens and displays of odd charts and readings.
Yet no machine.
They just kept going deeper.
At one point in the sequence security drones flew out from the ceiling.
Rex punched one into the wall and Nico smashed two others together mid-air!
They continued running.
More hallways.
More rooms.
More machines.
A bit later the corridors became much wider.
The humming sound of heavy machinery hung from ahead.
Nico suddenly slowed down.
"You hear that?" he asked.
Rex nodded.
"Yeah."
The sound grew louder as they moved down to a big metal door at the end of the hallway.
It was easily three times larger than the others.
Warning lights flickered at its edges.
"This kind of looks promising," Nico said.
Rex stepped forward and grabbed the door handle.
"Ready?"
Nico grinned.
"Always."
Rex pulled the door open.
The room beyond was immense.
Both of them stepped inside.
In the center of the chamber there was a gigantic machine.
It was almost twenty meters tall.
Thick cables ran from its base into the floor. Massive generators surrounded it and fed power into the structure.
At the front of the machine was a huge cannon-like barrel.
The opening of the barrel was wide and dark.
At the same time a thick black liquid inside appeared to go into motion like solid smoke.
There were several conveyor platforms situated below the barrel.
Animal cages lined the walls of the room.
Inside them were terrified animals.
Pigs.
Birds.
Rabbits.
All waiting.
Nico clenched his fists.
"So that's it," he said softly.
Rex stepped up slowly.
"That thing shoots the shadows onto them…"
The black energy inside the barrel pulsed again.
The whole machine hummed with dark power.
Nico stared at it.
"Yeah," he said.
"That's the one."
Soon thereafter a slow clap echoed across the chamber.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
Both Nico and Rex turned.
There, behind them was a tall figure wearing a long dark coat standing in the doorway.
His glasses glinted in the dim light.
Dr. E.
"Well," he said calmly.
"This is unexpected."
His eyes scanned the room.
Then he smiled.
"It seems I have guests."
Nico cracked his knuckles.
Rex stepped forward beside him.
The enormous shadow machine came on with its humming.
Nico smirked.
"Guess we have to fight this fucker!"