Smoke drifted through the chamber.
The exosuit lay on its side, broken open.
Dr. E got out of the wreckage, one arm limp, glasses cracked.
He glared at them both.
"You fools," he hissed. "Do you have any idea how much work this took?"
Nico limped toward him.
"Yeah."
Rex stepped up beside him at once.
"We don't care."
Dr. E reached for a device on his belt.
Nico kicked it out of his hand.
It skidded across the floor and burst under Rex's heel.
Dr. E sagged.
For the first time, he looked really beaten.
Nico exhaled.
"Rex."
The goat looked toward the giant shadow machine.
"Yeah."
The last part took time.
They were both tired, bruised, and breathing hard, but they went to work anyway.
And the machine loomed over their heads, still humming, still throwing tall streams of synthetic shadow from the huge barrel at its front. The cages on the floor rattled as frightened animals moved inside them.
Nico ran up the machine's side at almost full speed, kicking open panel after panel. He ripped wires out, pushed through rotating stabilizers, and tore control clusters apart. Sparks blazed like fireworks around him.
Rex attacked the base.
He grabbed thick power cables in both hands and ripped them out of the floor. He tore off a generator housing, then threw it into another. Metal bent. Lights snapped all over the chamber.
The machine's pitch changed.
The hum turned into an angry shriek.
"Keep going!" Nico shouted from high up in the frame.
Rex slammed both fists into the main support column.
The whole structure shook.
The barrel at the front started twitching and swiveling wildly, spraying bits of leaking black shadow across the room. Where the liquid hit the floor, it smoked and wriggled like it was alive.
Nico found the central regulator near the top.
It was a thick cylinder of glass and steel filled with swirling dark fluid.
"There!"
He hammered it once.
Twice.
On the third hit, the glass cracked open.
Black energy burst out and slammed him forward.
"Nico!" Rex barked.
"I'm fine!" Nico yelled, barely.
The machine began to overload.
Panels flew off.
Bolts shot loose.
Then the reactor sound rose into a violent roar.
Rex ran to the cages and started tearing doors off so the trapped animals could escape. Rabbits, pigs, foxes, birds and other frightened creatures rushed out and scattered toward the exits.
Nico dropped back down on the floor next to him.
"Time to move."
They turned and sprinted.
The machine screamed a final metallic scream as they ran.
Then it exploded.
The blast lit the entire room white.
A torrent of black energy poured outwards, but with no machine to stabilize it the shadow rapidly broke apart, puffing as little smoke appeared in the air.
The explosion ripped the chamber apart. Bits of steel fell from the ceiling. The giant barrel split clean in half. The last remaining console went dark.
Nico and Rex burst through the hallway outside just ahead of the shockwave and kept running through corridor after corridor until they reached outside of the lab.
When they finally emerged back into daylight, both of them slowed to a stop on the grass outside.
Dr. E's base smoked heavily behind them.
Rex rolled his shoulders.
"That felt good."
Nico laughed tiredly.
"Yeah."
By the time they got back to Viper's workshop, the sun was already lowering.
Nico shoved the door open first.
Viper looked up from his workbench.
His eyes moved over Nico's bruised face, Rex's scorched fur, the torn clothes, the soot, and the general look of absolute chaos.
"...Rough day?"
Nico grinned.
"You should see the lab."
Rex walked in behind him.
"We beat Dr. E. Destroyed the machine too."
Viper straightened instantly.
"You destroyed it?"
"Yep," Nico said. "Big boom. Very dramatic."
For the first time all day, Viper smiled.
"Good."
In any case, he reached down and picked up something from the desk and dropped the device.
It was round, metallic, and about the size of a large plate. A crystal chamber sat at its center, and inside it two Phantom Rubies glowed softly. Around the outer ring were rotating needles, tiny lights, and a screen with a world map broken into grid parts.
Nico's eyes widened.
"No way."
Viper nodded proudly.
"I finished it."
Rex stepped closer.
"The tracker?"
Viper said, "The Phantom Ruby Tracker."
He dropped it on the table and tapped the screen. The two Rubies in the center brightened. Then a low hum filled the workshop. Some blinking signals appeared on the digital map.
Nico stared at the screen.
"So they're real."
Viper folded his arms.
"Very real."
Rex leaned in.
"How many are there?"
"Five in total. We have two," Viper said. "But now we can actually find them before someone else does."
Nico smirked despite the pain all over his body.
"Then I guess we're not done."
Viper looked between the two of them.
"Not even close."
And the tracker on the table continued to hum as its bright light pulsed along the surface of the map like it was beckoning them to their next fight.
And for the first time since Dr. E's entire shadow animal mess began, they finally had a way forward.