CYBERCHASE: THE ANDROIDIAN REVOLUTION

CHAPTER TWO

It was early morning when the man arrived back to his own lair, a rather large science lab next to an electrical factory that ran the entire area, which, considering the fact that the lab took up three fourths of the cybersite, wasn't that much. However, the lab ran on very advanced technology and needed a lot to fully power it; the people working at the plant were scientists as well and made sure that the power was kept running at all times.

Carefully steering the car past the large electric fence that guarded the lab, he slowly brought it to ground level and drove it through a tunnel in the side of the large white building that served as their laboratory. The tunnel led to a small docking area, where he gracefully landed the car, then opened the side door and got out, the blueprint folder still under his arm. Walking across the platform at the end of the tunnel, he stopped in front of a space-style door and, reaching his fingers out, pressed a button adjacent to it.

After a few silent moments, the door finally emitted a loud beeping sound, then slid open. The man tugged on the side of his coat with his free hand, then slowly and casually walked down a brightly lit, narrow hallway to a series of doors on either side. Choosing the third door from his left, he reached out and pressed yet another button, then waited for the door to slide open.

As soon as it did what the man had desired, the giddiness of a child instantly possessed him. He bolted through the doorway and ran down yet another plain-looking hall, until he finally came out of the area and found himself in a rather small room. It contained almost nothing inside it, if you didn't count the table, desk, and chairs that were positioned inside. The room itself was located right next to a balcony; if you looked below you could see the metal floor of the experimental laboratory. A group of four or five scientists were seated around the table, looking down at a pile of paperwork; they looked up as soon as the man entered.

"Well?" the nearest scientist, a woman, asked, leaning over on her seat. "How was the convention, John? Did you get any help with what you were looking for?"

"Oh, yes," the man (John) replied, his lips curling up into yet another smile. "Lots."

"Okay, spill it, John," the scientist seated next to the woman commanded. "What did you find? Are you eligible to show us?"

John nodded, the sly grin still on his face, then walked over to the table and took his seat at the head. He then brought the folder out from under his arm, whipped out the blueprints, and slammed them down on the table, provoking the surprise of everyone seated there. When the shock had cleared, the scientists curiously eyed the blueprints, looks of confusion, triumph, and surprise on their faces. The scientist seated nearest to John slowly reached out and picked up Digit's blueprint, then examined it and said, lowering the precious item and looking at him, "John, I've never seen these types before. They look almost like they were made by someone who didn't want to share his creations with the world…"

"He didn't," John replied, snatching the blueprint away from him and setting it next to Buzz and Delete's blueprints. "I managed to snatch these blueprints from one of the most evil geniuses in cyberspace…the Hacker. He's the role model of almost every evil cyberspace genius there is. I even got a look at his ready made creations, and I'm telling you they're perfect."

"You…you stole these from Hacker? The actual Hacker?" the next scientist, an elderly man, said in awe, pointing to the blueprints. John nodded; he seemed greatly pleased with himself for doing so.

"I'm telling you, with these things we can create the new age of battlers!" he exclaimed, clenching his hand into a tight fist to strengthen this remark. "We just need to put a few hours of work into it, and I'm sure that we'll finally triumph at long last!" He took a deep breath, then said, in a calmer tone, "So, do all of you agree upon this?"

The other scientists seated around the table merely stared at him, apparently lost for words, until finally the man next to him spoke up. "I suppose that we could give it a go, John. After all, these are only experimental, and we've got nothing left to lose considering our previous experiments..." He turned to the other scientists and said, placing his hands on top of each other, "What do you say we give it a go?"

The other scientists remained silent but responded either way by nodding their heads; they looked rather like a group of bobble-head dolls. John smiled, then picked up the blueprints and tapped the ends of the papers on the table to align them.

"Very well, then," he said, stuffing the blueprints back into the folder. "I shall start building the prototype tonight. In the meantime, I need all of you to help in the preparation for the testing of these new creations…cages, arenas, new combat enemies, the whole deal. And I want it done within a time period of two or three days."

"John, you can't be serious," the elderly scientist said to him, shaking his head in disbelief. "Two or three days? What makes you think that you can design a prototype that quickly? It took us weeks just to build our previous battler, and even then it failed to meet our standards…"

"You've forgotten, my good man, that I am a highly advanced robotics scientist," John pointed out. "In our quest to accomplish our goal, I have gained much experience with robotic technology and I can assure you that I can put together the actual creation within a week, maybe even earlier if I truly put my time and sweat into it." He paused, then said, standing up from the table, "Besides, I have seen the actual living creations and I can assure you as well that their designs were as simple as simple can get…no extra built in weaponry to slow things down or get in the way. I will, however, make a few adjustments to the original design, just to give an extra boost in their fighting abilities."

He then shifted the blueprint folder to his other arm and, pushing his leather swivel chair back in its proper place, quickly strode out of the room. The other scientists stared after him for a moment, then finally the elderly one seated near him got up from the table and walked off toward another area.

"Where are you going?" one of the others asked the old man. The elderly scientist made his response by simply turning around, gazing him directly in the eye, his hands crossed behind his back in an intelligent demeanor.

"I do believe that you heard the man quite well," the old man replied, walking over to the sliding door that John had come in earlier. "John has finally found what might solve all our problems in the field of robotics, and he needs us to assist. I don't believe that we're the ones building the actual creations now, are we?"

The others stared at him, then the woman scientist stood up and walked toward the door along with the old man. "I do believe that you're right," she told him as she stood beside him, "If John wants us to try this out, it can't hurt to take a few chances here and there." She then turned toward the remaining group of people still seated around the table. "Am I correct, my comrades?"

The others remained silent for a few more moments, then finally made their choice and stood up, walking toward the door to accompany the two. The two smiled, then the elderly man pressed the button near the side that opened the door. It slid open within time, and the group filed out to start in on what seemed like John's new triumph in robotics…

It was now late evening, and the woman scientist from earlier was walking down one of the hallways, a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. Being the head researcher in the area, it was her job to take notes on whatever the others came up with and show it to the head of the area immediately. She had already taken many notes on what the others were designing and had decided that she deserved a break, maybe get some coffee from the machine over near one of the research labs…

She was just about to turn the corner when John poked his head out of a nearby, ajar door in the area and said, rather loudly as so to catch her attention, "Maria!"

This worked fairly well—Maria was startled by the suddenness of it all and jumped backward slightly, nearly dropping her clipboard on the floor in the process. When she realized that it was only John and not anyone else, she sighed and, adjusting the clipboard so that it stood straight, said, rather blandly, "What do you want now, John? I was just about to call it a night…"

"You have to take a gander at this, Maria," John replied, ignoring the annoyance tone clearly within her voice. "Come on inside and I'll show you what I've got down so far." With that, he pulled his head back inside the door.

Maria sighed again, then brushed her short brown hair out of her face and walked through the still open door into a rather small room, paying some similarities to a normal operating room, if you didn't count the high-tech computers and machinery stationed every few feet within the perimeter. John was standing next to a large metal table; his body was hiding something sprawled out on top of it. As soon as Maria entered, he withdrew himself from the table and held his arms out in the direction of what he had been hiding at the time.

"My God, John," Maria exclaimed, her eyes slightly widening. "What in cyberspace is that thing?"

She was referring to, of course, the object stationed on top of the table, which had now turned out to be a replica of Delete—except that it wasn't entirely finished. The metallic skeleton was the only thing that John had constructed; thus, without the support of its extra coatings, it was slumped down on all fours, in an almost animalistic way. Bits and pieces of wiring stuck out from its joints, and its eyes, the only thing that told the viewer that it was Delete's skeleton, were locked directly on Maria, now. It flashed its skull-like teeth at her the moment that she made eye contact.

As Maria looked on in shock, John grinned and proudly crossed his arms over his chest. "That, my dear, is the skeleton outline for one of the blueprinted models I came across," he told her. "I'm planning on making several of each in order for reasons of testing."

"Yes, but John…" Maria stopped, then leaned over to look past John, toward one of the computer screens. She saw a model of the creature's full form; however, right next to it she could see the model of a different, rather destructive-looking robot. Between the two she could see another graphic that closely resembled a DNA strand; she would've confused it for one had it been spiraled together and not broken in some places. Biting her lip, she finally continued, pointing at the computer screen, "John, just what are you doing on that computer?"

John looked at her oddly for a moment, then finally turned around, receiving the full view of the screen behind him. "Oh, that," he laughed. "You have no need to worry about that, Maria. I'm merely using that computer to cross it with a different, more powerful robot."

"John, I thought that you said that you'd already found the perfect robot," Maria said, crossing her arms. "Why do you feel the need to cross its data with a different one, then?"

"I've already told you, I did find the perfect robot…physically," John informed her. "The original creations, however, were timid and did not look at all like they were fit to battle. Thus, I've decided to alter their personalities ever so slightly, crossing their data circuits with those of a different robot."

"And what robot might that be, dare I ask?"

John bit his lip, then nodded his head and finally said, looking at her, "A destroyer."

"A what!" Maria looked aghast.

"Listen, listen, it's not what you think," John said, waving his hands in an attempt to calm the sudden outburst of panic that had befallen the room. "I know very well that a destroyer is a full-gear destruction machine, but I'm not planning on letting it get to that point. I'm just going to cross them with each other so that they can be the best fighters possible."

"John, destroyers are insane!" Maria objected. "The last time a destroyer got loose, it nearly killed everyone within a two mile radius of itself! And that was just one! If you're planning on making an entire army of these, just imagine what could go wrong! You're putting all of our lives at stake!"

"Calm down, calm down," John ordered her. "I'm not planning to jump to that point. Besides, there's still a chance that a destroyer and…whatever type that this one may be, crossed, will not cause a mental blunder in their system operation."

"John, mental blunders have occurred in just destroyers alone," Maria informed him, shaking her head in disapproval. "There's a nine in ten chance that a destroyer—even when crossed—will have a disturbance in mind and malfunction."

"Listen, Maria," John snapped at her, putting his face quite close to hers as he spoke. "Our goal is to create the perfect fighting machine, and I don't see you giving any support as in what I'm doing. If you were more supportive, this might have a chance to work. Are you going to support me or are you going to back down before this is even through!"

Maria stared at him, then, knowing that it was hopeless to try to talk him out of this idea, shook her head again, then said, still sounding quite uneasy, "Very well, John. If you want support, I shall be glad in giving you a hand, but I still don't think that this is the best—"

"Very good, very good," John interrupted. He then walked over to the Delete skeleton, which was still slumped in its animalistic position in the center of the table, even though online. It fixed its gaze on John as he approached, then made a sound from within its voice chip that sounded very much like a growl as he stopped about five feet from where it was currently sitting. Maria watched as John held his hand out to the robot, then explained, "You see, Maria, when crossed with a destroyer it's not causing the robot's mind to blunder, but to make it stronger. As soon as the counterparts are built and crossed, they will be the fighter robot that all of us have dreamed about."

He took a step closer to the robot as he continued, "This model, for example, is only a shadow of what the others will represent when finished. Even though it's only a skeleton so far, it has tremendous strength, amazing agility, and every type of inner attack weapon that you may be able to think of." He cleared his throat, then added, "And there's one extra feature that I can show you in a hands-on demonstration, right here, right now. Please, hold your hand out, if you would be so kind…"

Maria looked at him, then looked over at the robot, which was slumped directly in front of her. Nervously, she lifted her hand and held it out, so that it was within inches of the robot's face. As soon as she had it within three inches of the mouth, the robot warningly growled, then its pupils narrowed and within a split second a white-hot laser had been released from its eyes. Maria yelled in surprise and jumped to the side as the laser grazed her shoulder and hit the wall behind her, causing a deafening noise. The stench of melting steel then filled their nostrils; looking behind her, Maria could see that the laser had burned a rather large hole in the wall, and the metal around it was starting to melt, making it larger. John smiled as Maria turned around, her hand to her heart.

"Lightening quick reflexes," he said, swiftly flicking his hand to represent what he was saying. "Lightening quick."

Maria rubbed her shoulder where the laser had grazed it, then shook her head and gasped, "That's not funny, John. It could've seriously hurt me."

"That's the idea, isn't it?" John said to her, glancing over at the robot, which had now lowered its head and was glaring fiercely at the floor below. "I told you that we were going to make the perfect fighting machine, and to do so you've gotta make a few deadly additions, don't you?"

"John, if the skeleton itself can generate enough power to burn a hole through the wall, just imagine what the full-bodied counterpart can do!" she objected, her hand still clamped tightly on her burnt shoulder. "How are we supposed to control these things in order for them to do our bidding?"

"That, my lady, is to be solved later on," John told her; then he turned around to face his creation. "In the meantime, however, I shall have to ask you to leave the room while I finish what I have been working on. You are free to go, Maria. If I need help I'll find you and ask you later on."

"Very well, sir," Maria said, standing up; then, taking one last look at the skeleton (which appeared to have been glaring at her), left the room and headed back down the hallway to return to what she had been doing earlier. I think I'd fancy a cup of coffee, she thought mentally as she turned a corner…

Two days had passed since John had first come back to the lab with the blueprints, and in those past days the scientists had made a lot of progress in their field. Due to their highly advanced system technology, they had constructed several cages in the main office, along with a few test sequences scattered throughout the lab building, in hardly any time at all. John, sure enough, had been working on building the actual counterparts themselves; hardly anyone had managed to catch a glimpse of him in the past few days. He seemed to be inside his lab every day, twenty-four hours, working. Now it was early morning, and the scientists were just putting the finishing touches on a new test trap. The elderly scientist watched from below, his hands clasped on either side of the railing.

Is this truly the right thing to be doing? He pondered to himself as he watched them test it. John said that he'd found the perfect robot, but I'm not so sure…

"Marshall!"

At hearing this the elderly scientist whipped around, only to find John standing behind him, his hands in his pockets. He had a look of great triumph on his face; the elderly man (Marshall) wondered why this was until John said excitedly, turning around to face the door, "I've done it, Marshall. Come this way. I want you to be the first to see."

With that, he quickly walked out of the room. Marshall stared after him for a moment, sighed, then followed him through the long, twisted hallways, until they finally came to a door. John, without pausing, pressed the button in the side of the door, and it slid open to reveal a rather large room. Squinting, Marshall could see that on either side of the room were rows of the creatures that he had seen on the blueprints, only they seemed to look more powerful and high-tech than the originals had been. Their eyes were closed, their heads were flopped to one side, and all of them, either way, were strapped down to their bases by tight metal binds.

John led the gaping Marshall down further into the room as he continued, looking at the lifeless creations, "In the past few days I've managed to successfully cross and build an entire army of these robots, all of them with a different function; no two the same. Of course, they're all offline for the time being; I want to only program three and see how they maneuver before testing all of them and eventually selling them to the cybersites that need them…therefore, I am going to show you the three creations that I am most proud of."

He then led Marshall to the very end of the room, which was nothing more than a large wall with several colored wires sticking out from a computer near the side. However, it was what was strapped to the wall that awed Marshall, of course. Held tight by iron binds were three different capsules, the very same type used for putting mortals in suspended animation. What was inside the capsules Marshall could not clearly make out, but he did see the shadowed head of one of the counterparts, the one in dead center. However, this did not help him much, until John said:

"Inside these three capsules are three of my finest creations. I've entitled them D-bird, 57, and Rakton, and their names will be known that way forever more. But I did not bring you here to simply tell you about them, Marshall; oh no, I've brought you here to show you them physically. Which means that you are about to witness the coming to life of my first three triumph creations."

He walked over to the machine in the corner, the one that the wires protruding from the capsule were connected to. Reaching up near the wall adjacent to it, he pulled down two pairs of goggles; one of these he tossed to Marshall. "Put this on," he commanded as he slipped his own pair over his eyes. "I'm using electrical currents to power them, and they've been known to blind people at high power."

Marshall slipped on his goggles without hesitating, then turned to look at John as he reached near a lever located in the side of the machine. "Keep them on at all costs," he warned Marshall, before he pulled the lever entirely down. "The first few seconds will not be pretty."

Marshall nodded, then both of them looked over at the capsules as a white-hot burst of electricity wound its way through the wires attached to the machine and reached the capsules, surrounding them with a white light. Marshall nearly shielded his eyes, but remembered that he was protected by the goggles, and instead watched in awe as the capsules glowed brighter. Looking over in John's direction, his gaze caught the screen that determined the creations' power levels, and his mouth dropped open.

"John!" he shouted, over the loud sounds of the electrical surge. John looked at him, but made no response; Marshall, even more determined to warn him, cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, even louder than before, "John!"

John continued to stare at him; Marshall grunted in frustration and ran over to him, taking care not to trip over any of the wires strewn about the ground. Clapping his hand down on John's shoulder, he put his face up to his ear and hissed, in a rather loud voice as so not to make himself unheard again, "John, shut the machine off! Now!"

"Why?" John asked him, looking confused.

"John, I'm serious," Marshall said, sounding worried. "Something's horribly wrong with the amount of current that's coming in through the wires. Their power levels are out of control! You have to shut the machine off!"

"What?" John said, still in his state of confusion; Marshall growled and was about to repeat what he had been saying when the two abruptly heard a loud slamming sound from within one of the capsules. Both men looked over toward the direction of the noise and saw, to their horror, several large dents embossed in one of the capsules.

"Good God!" John exclaimed; then he at once reached for the lever as the slamming sound came again. Grasping it tightly in one of his now sweaty hands, he gritted his teeth, then, taking one last look at the damaged capsules, shoved the lever back upward. Within a few seconds of this, the electrical current started to die out; then it finally stopped altogether. John harshly panted, glad that the main part was over, but that was the least of his problems.

At being shut off, the capsules immediately opened themselves, seeing that they had been programmed to do so for such purposes after powering. A thick cloud of mist and smoke rose from within the capsules as the silhouettes of three figures appeared within them, then stepped forward. The mist was the first to clear from the creation to the left, the one that had been making the dents in the capsule that it was placed in. Marshall's mouth dropped open again, while John weakly smiled and removed his goggles.

The first creation, now seen in full view, had been revealed to be Buzz's counterpart, no doubt. The stocky build and short appendages were a complete giveaway on this one's appearance. However, instead of being a light teal-ish color, as Buzz was, this one was jet black all over, except for the mask and the shoes, which had turned out to be the original teal. Its other facial features were gray, except for the eyes, which were a deep, blood-red color. It now looked up at its creator and bared its teeth, its head lowered.

Marshall was greatly surprised. "That thing was the one making all the dents?" he said, sounding awestruck as he pointed at the short robot counterpart. "But it's so small! How could it possibly have—"

Before Marshall could finish his sentence, however, the robot growled and held up its rather large knuckles, then completely uncurled its hands, revealing two sets of six-inch talons built in to either hand. Its gaze locked on Marshall, it snarled angrily, then with a loud roar leapt forward, its claws brandished in his direction.

Marshall screamed and shielded his eyes, but before the counterpart could have a chance to slice into him John whipped a remote-like device out of his pocket and pressed the button in the center. As if on demand, several coils of blue energy emitted from it wrapped their way around the creature's wrists and formed an electrical chain leading to the ground, binding it by force. It snarled at John, then snapped at Marshall and remained still.

John tossed the aghast Marshall the device he had used to bring the robot down and said, "Here, Marshall. You might need this if he tries to attack you again…he attacks anything that moves, so don't be too offended by his actions."

"Not at all," Marshall said quickly, shaking his head. He stuck the device into his pocket and removed his goggles. "So…this is…uh, Rakton, am I correct?"

John shook his head. "This is 57. Rakton and D-bird are standing over there."

Marshall's eyes widened, then he turned around to face the other two counterparts. The one on the left, now hovering in the air with the use of its tail, was a Digit counterpart, no doubt; none of the others looked that exact same way. However, it was missing its cap, had several pointed teeth protruding from its mouth, and, like 57, was entirely black save a few gray areas. It had a dark brown bow tie around its neck, and around each wing was a black, sharp studded dog collar bracelet.

The right one was a Delete counterpart, except it paid no striking resemblance to Delete, save the fact that the original structure looked almost exactly like its original. It was entirely black, like the other two, except for its collar, mask, shoes, and cord, which were tinted gray, yellow, and teal. Its eyes were an eerie yellow-green color, and in place of its right arm, which Marshall thought was the most stunning, was a metallic, high-tech robotic claw. Both counterparts stood beside each other, their forms unmoving, their mouths untwitching. John grinned as he eyed the two.

"Aren't they the most amazing things that you've ever seen?" John asked, rubbing his hands together. "Yes, I'm quite sure that we can take it to the limit with these three. If they succeed in every test that we give them, I'm sure that we can power up the other counterparts in time for us to finally achieve our goal."

"So, what are you planning on doing with them first?" Marshall asked casually, still nervously eyeing 57, who was giving him a threatening glare (that and the longing look in his eyes that showed Marshall clearly that he wanted to rip him apart). "Are you going to start running the tests tonight?"

"Wrong, my good man," John informed him. "We shall start the tests early afternoon. In the meantime, I want you to call the rest of the party together. Tell them that I've succeeded in programming three of the selected counterparts for testing."

Marshall looked at him, then at the counterparts, then finally sucked in a breath through his teeth and said, "Very well, John. I shall inform the others of the deed at once."

"Good, Marshall, good," John replied, nodding. Marshall turned around and was about to walk back to where he had been earlier when John held up his hand and halted him. "Not so fast. I want you to bind them for me before I make any further movements."

"Me? Why me?"

"You're the one with the device, Marshall. Or in case you haven't noticed."

Marshall growled; then, without hesitating to arouse an argument, whipped out the device and clicked it twice. In a few seconds, Rakton and D-bird had been bound by the energy wires that had held 57, in the exact same way. John smiled, then patted Rakton on the head and gripped the frontal wire binding them with a metal tongs that he had picked up from his experiment table.

"Let's go, Marshall," he ordered; then the two departed from the area, dragging the three robotic counterparts along with them.

"You've done it?"

"Yes, I have," John told the table of scientists, sounding quite pleased with himself. "I told you that I'd make the perfect fighting machines, and the most intelligent battlers to exist in the field of robotics. I believe that I've succeeded in both fields, my good men."

"John, I still don't trust those counterparts of yours," Maria, who had come back from her break earlier, said. "There's something about them—I just don't trust it. I really don't think that this was the best idea."

"Nonsense!" John replied stubbornly. "You don't know what you're saying, Maria. I can assure you that these robots will do us no harm in any way. 57 and D-bird have already been locked up in electrical cages in my office, I'm going to test them later this evening, and I'm going to show you just what Rakton can do in a few moments."

"And just what is Rakton going to do to prove himself, may I ask?"

"He just so happens to be doing head-on combat with one of our largest robot rejects," John replied, trying his hardest to ignore the dripping sarcasm in Maria's tone; then he turned in the direction of the balcony and called out, "Is Rakton at ready?"

There was a short moment of silence, then a man's voice called down from below, "Yes, sir! Rakton has been unbound and is ready to fight!"

"Very good," John muttered to himself; then he called down, "Very well, then. Exit the field and release the opposition!" He then turned to the table of scientists and said to them, "You might want to come closer to the balcony to witness this, my friends. And I do hope that you've brought goggles—it might get very messy out there."

The other scientists in the group uneasily shot each other nervous glances, then they came forward and leaned over the balcony in time to see Rakton standing in the center of the field, his eyes dangerously narrowed at the opposition, now noisily approaching the field. The opposing robot was much larger, about five or six times the little robot's size, and paid some striking resembalances to some type of beetle creature. It made clanking noises as it scuttled along; Rakton was unfazed by its appearance and size, even though it slightly frightened a few of the people on the field set to control the creature.

As soon as the beetle was within ten feet of Rakton, it stopped abruptly, steam hissing out of its joints. After a moment of tension, the beetle finally shattered it by raising its foreleg and bringing it down, aiming in Rakton's direction. The smaller robot, however, noticed that this was coming and coiled and sprung, the claw narrowly grazing his right leg as he did so.

As he landed, the beetle thundered toward him, then swiped again. Rakton dodged the blow for the most part by ducking under it, but it didn't seem to be a clean miss; as the claw swept by him it grazed his nasal area, not enough to seriously damage it but leaving a long, deep gash as a consequence. Rakton yelped, then brought his hand to his face, giving the beetle time to swipe at him again.

This time the aim was true—the claw stuck Rakton across the stomach and thew him backward, causing him to slam dead-on into the wall. Letting out a whimper of pain, he sank to the ground and brought his free hand up to his newly made wound, which was beginning to drip battery fluid, or "robotic" blood. The beetle, seeing its chance to finish him off, thundered forward, preparing to smash him further into the ground and eventually crush him in two.

Rakton remained motionless for the most part; he was either in too much pain or too stubborn with the principle to fight. John gritted his teeth and clasped his hands tightly together in tension; the others looked on nervously as the beetle creature drew closer…closer…

Then, at the last second, Rakton's eyes sprung open, he removed his hand from his stomach and got to his feet. As the beetle lifted up its claw to smash him as planned, Rakton sprung forward and grabbed the claw with both hands, then started to quickly climb his way up it toward the beetle's head. The creature had no idea what was going on; it was artificially programmed and thus did not have a brain or mind of any type; yet it could still sense Rakton's presence. Furied, it angrily swiped its claw up toward where Rakton was running…which was the wrong thing to do at a time such as this.

Rakton had been running near the head at the time, so it didn't take a genius to figure out what the robot had in mind. He bounced off the head just as the claw came down; the scientists watched in both amazement in horror as with a loud KA-CHUNK, the missed its target and sliced its head off in his place. It fell to the floor with a loud CLANG, sparks flying from its neck, as Rakton landed gracefully next to it, then without further ado reached for the head with both hands.

The scientists watched on in curiosity, wondering what Rakton was planning on doing, then suddenly noticed that the beetle had not been fully defeated. Even though headless, it was still able to function, and could still sense Rakton's presence. It was now preparing to swipe at him again; it had its now bloodied claw raised directly over his head. Still, Rakton refused to move, even though it was obvious that he sensed the creature's attack coming.

Just as the creature swiped its claw down, however, Rakton picked up the head and held it over his own, causing the claw to slice through the metallic skull. The head now fell to the ground in two halves; Rakton then darted off in the dumbfounded creature's direction and ran once more onto its back. Once directly on top, he then coiled, leapt up into the air, then remained still for a few moments, as if in meditation. The scientists were just about to comment on how he had managed to do this when he came down, landing hard on the creature's back. Rakton's strength and the combined force of the blow was too much for the creature to handle; it creaked, then broke in half entirely, along with the skull.

As it fell to the ground in a heap of wires, Rakton, now covered in the creature's blood, looked around hungrily, then, spotting the other two scientists, slowly started to advance on them. However, Marshall had been stationed down there as one of the scientists to do the job and bound him before he could do any further harm.

As Rakton was led off toward John's office to accompany the other two creations, John looked down from above; he was now grinning broadly as he looked at the other scientists.

"My God," he said, an almost laugh in his voice as he pointed to the battlefield below. "My God, did—did you see that? That's amazing—that right there—"

"I know, John," Maria said, looking up toward the ceiling and shaking her head. "You've done it. You've finally done it."