The guard robots started advancing toward Spiff. Suddenly, Spiff dashed out from behind the rock and ran around the robots. They turned immediately and started to follow him, firing their blasters.

Finally, Spiff fell down on the ground as if he was hit. The robots all resumed their previous positions, except for one. It came closer to him, still suspicious if he was alive.

As the robot came closer, Spiff quietly pulled his blaster from his pocket and fired once at the robot. The laser beam hit it right in the head' and it started to disintegrate.

The other robots noticed.

They started coming toward him again, their steel feet clanking on the ground. Spiff shot down all but one robot. Then he ran towards the laser wall that covered the entrance to the huge control building. He stood right in front of it, and the robot started dashing at him, shooting its laser gun. Spiff shot at its blaster. It clattered to the ground, but the robot still kept running at Spiff. When the robot was close enough, Spiff jumped to the side, and it crashed into the laser wall, turning into scrap metal immediately.

The laser in the laser wall concentrated on the robot as it melted its body, and a large gap formed right above the spot. Spiff cautiously jumped through the opening.

Spiff muttered. Some security system, Roz.

He looked around. He was in a large room. In one end of the room was a monitor which watched many of the rooms in the building. Spiff knew that he was being monitored.

In the other end of the room was an entrance to a long corridor which seemed to slope downwards, and another one which sloped upwards.

Spiff went into the one which led to the lower level. The corridor was long and dark. It was lit by eerie red lights that were embedded in the translucent floor. As Spiff went further into the corridor, it became steeper, and soon it was too steep that he could hardly walk. He slid down the long hallway. Finally he came to a stop. Now he was in a room that contained a map of the entire control center.

As he walked toward the map screen and tried to get a closer look, parts of the wall opened like a sliding panel and several guard robots on wheels rolled out.

They had red eyebeams which they shot directly at Spiff. Spiff ducked out of the way just in time.

There were seven guards in all. They were surrounding him, coming from all sides of the room.

Spiff shot his blaster at the robot that was closest. It exploded, scattering scraps of his material everywhere.

Ahother robot breathed poison at him. Spiff saw the green gas spurt out of its mouth and head in a straight line toward him. He quickly shot the poison robot down, but another was right behind him. Spiff dashed to the corner of the room.

Spiff thought furiously. There were still five guards left, and they were surrounding him, approaching from all sides. He was cornered. If he took the time to shoot at one robot, then the other four would quickly get rid of him. In desperation, he grabbed the Demise-o-Bomb he kept in his belt and hurled it at the approaching guards. Its srong force blasted away two of the robots which crashed against the other three.

Spiff heaved a sigh of relief. Then, to his horror, he noticed that the robots were starting to smoke. The black smoke started to fill the room. Spiff tried to find a way out, but the thick smoke made it impossible for him to see anything. He coughed and spat. His eyes smarted.

Spiff groped around the wall, looking for a way out. Finally, his hands touched the sliding panel which had been used by one of the robots. He slid it open and ran inside, shutting the panel behind him. For now, he was safe.

He was looking into another corridor which was shorter than the previous one. At the end of it was a chasm, and a platform floated over it that reached to the other side.

Suddenly, an alarm started sounding on the other side of the shut panel. Spiff heard robots clanking into the room. Maybe he wasn't safe after all. Spiff ran through the corridor and soon was standing at the edge of the cliff. Spiff looked at his portable radar. It looked like he was more than a mile's height from the energy generator.

He ran over the chasm and safely reached the other side.

Spiff thought he heard the panel open. The robots had figured out which way he had gone. He ran as fast as he could into the maze of corridors that awaited him.

________________________________________________________________

For a long time, Spiff wandered around the corridors, descended stairs, looked for more, went down to another floor...

One thing had been troubling him for a long time. It seemed that from the time he crossed that chasm, somebody or someTHING had been following him. Spiff figured that it was one of the robots.

It troubled him even more that the distance between him and his pursuer was slowly closing. He just hoped that he could reach the energy generator before it was too late and Poloa was destroyed.

He explored more and slowly made progress. Soon, he came across a large room. It had controls and buttons on the door which Spiff could not figure out.

He ignored them and went into the room. It was a huge room, and the roof was very high. He noticed that there was a platform floating at a very high level, connecting the two walls. This was the chasm that he had crossed before.

Suddenly, Spiff thought he heard some footsteps. He looked at the radar again, and that small red spot on the radar was closer than he had hoped.

Oh, great. That stupid guy is really getting on my nerves. Just like Hobbes.

But, of course, it wasn't Hobbes... and it was getting closer and closer by the second.


R&R!!!!
Sorry this chapter is kinda short, but I'll make up for it in the next chapter or the one after.