Cryptic Infiltration

Chapter Eight – Ulterior Motives

Rudy barely had time to complete a lopsided shield with a few strokes of his magic chalk before the robotic centipede struck down toward him. The force of the blow laid him flat on his back against the floor, nearly driving the wind from him. The feeble shield had almost been snapped in two by the creature's jaws, and he was helpless to resist as Shift jerked his head upwards, tearing the object from his hand before tossing it aside. Several of the robot's claws, from at least six pairs of legs, sliced down toward him, but Rudy was already using the still lit rockets on his shoes to propel himself away from the mechanical creature. However, he only succeeded in hitting the wall behind him; he hadn't been able to change his position or get to his feet before having to avoid the attack.

He stood up, still reeling from the impact, and used the rockets to dart to his right, hearing several dull thuds as many of Shift's claws embedded themselves into the dirt wall where he'd been only a moment before. He was now near some of the blinking machines lined up against the wall, and he scanned the room for Penny, Snap, and Lester – or an escape route – but before he could spot any of them, he was forced to make another quick escape as, seemingly out of nowhere, Shift struck at him again. He could hear the metallic claws slice through the air near his feet, and this time kept up his speed as he began to circle the room, hoping that at least, if he could distract the centipede, Penny and the others could run for one of the side tunnels.

His attempt didn't last long as he heard a scuttling sound above him, and remembered with a sense of horrified dread that Shift could use the walls and ceiling to move around the room as well as the floor. Hearing Penny shout some sort of warning from the other side of the room, he zipped to the left, realizing that the robotic creature was moving far too fast to allow him to draw. He dodged one slash of razor sharp claws, then another, too focused on Shift and his movements to accurately gauge where he was going, and could only hope he wouldn't stumble into any of the machines. Realizing that it was probably only a matter of time before he did, he tried to think of something he could draw quickly that could stop or slow down the beast, and what came to his mind first was some sort of lightning bolt. Not knowing if it would actually do much good against Shift, he tried to move far enough ahead to give him enough time to sketch it out, but Shift constantly forced him to make quick turns left and right. He was being backed up toward the other side of the room, and he quickly realized that there was no time to draw anything; it was all he could do to keep out of the mechanical monster's reach.

From the other end of the room, Penny watched the scene with a look of horror. She was all too aware that she did not have the means to help; Shift had crushed her piece of chalk. She glanced to Snap, who was still leaning against her shoulder. He looked a bit stunned, pain as well as terror showing clearly on his face. She wondered with a pang of concern how well he'd be able to make it into one of the near side tunnels, even with her support. There was no time to assess him for further injury, and though he looked alert enough at the moment, she knew his injured leg wouldn't allow him to move far or fast.

During the several rapid seconds that Shift had been attacking Rudy, she had been frozen to the ground in shock, unsure what to do and afraid to leave Snap's side. Now, she could realize that although Rudy was at least capable of keeping ahead of Shift, she didn't know how long that was going to last. She knew that if Rudy made one mistake, one slip up, the monster would catch him. At that thought, she desperately glanced around for anything that might help him.

Then, after quickly examining the machines along the room's wall, she noticed something. There, on the floor, hardly visible in the low lighting, was a fragment of her piece of chalk. Seizing her chance, she let go of Snap, pushing him toward the wall so that he would not stumble to the ground, and ignited her rocket shoes. She made a beeline for the small fragment, reaching it in mere seconds, grabbing the one piece that was big enough to use for a drawing, and turned to face Shift, who was now in the opposite corner of the room, still distracted by Rudy.

Rudy was quickly realizing how futile his attempts to keep Shift out of striking distance were. It was taking all his concentration just to evade him, and he constantly had to zip from side to side, often just barely avoiding serious injury. Pure terror was beginning to grip him more than ever before, and he felt like a trapped animal, being pursued by a predator that was inches away from tearing him to pieces. He could feel his heart thudding against his chest and, even though the rockets were doing most of the work, was gasping for breath as he heard, again and again, the slicing of metal through the air behind him. He couldn't even risk a glance toward where his friends were to see if they had escaped.

As he swerved away from the centipede's slashing jaws again, he felt his leg hit something hard and metal. A shockwave of pain shot up his leg, and his rocket shoes propelled him off course. He noticed a moment too late, and, before he could correct the error, he slammed sideways into the wall. A dull pain raced through his body at the moment of impact, but the damp dirt softened the blow. Ignoring the stinging pain in his leg, he kicked off the wall, and heard the snap of metal pincers right behind him as he did so.

Ignoring the aches and pains in his body, he immediately sped toward a wall lined with rusty-looking machinery, which lay across from the one he'd collided with. Rudy focused on it, frantically trying to listen for the sounds of Shift behind him. To his surprise, this time he only heard a frantic scratching sound, which seemed to be fading away, as if Shift were moving away from him rather than towards him. Raw terror seized his mind as he whirled around, realizing what that had to mean. The monster was going after Penny, Snap, and Lester.

Yet, what he saw as he turned around was something completely unexpected. Shift was on the floor, halfway between Rudy and the wall he'd fled from, but he was struggling, sliding backwards, as if pulled by an invisible force. As Rudy stared in a moment of shocked astonishment, he realized he could hear rattling and realized that several of the machines along the walls were shaking, slowly moving from their positions as if being pushed by an invisible Zoner.

He quickly realized the source of the disturbance – a gigantic magnet in the corner of the room near where his friends had been. He spotted Penny darting away from the newly drawn magnet and toward Snap, and Rudy wasted no time in zooming toward them. "Where did you find the chalk?" he shouted as he reached her side, both of them reaching down to help Snap up again.

"This was all that's left," she said breathlessly, looking at him with frightened eyes as she held up a tiny fragment. "Let's get out of here." She cast an anxious glance at Shift before giving Snap a reassuring look and putting her arm around him.

Rudy nodded, hooking Snap's good arm around his shoulder. He felt tiny paws scampering up his back and Lester soon rested on top of Snap's arm above Rudy's shoulder. Glancing around frantically, Rudy spotted a side tunnel not far from them, and he and Penny wasted no time in hurrying toward it as fast as Snap's injuries would allow.

As they fled, Snap turned his head to see Shift Struggling, several segments of his body attached to the large magnet Penny had drawn. He looked almost comical as he writhed furiously, unable to free himself from the magnet's pull, and Snap couldn't help but grin in spite of his pain. "So she's not a creator, huh?" he called back.

"Forget him, Snap!" Rudy cried as he peered into the tunnel ahead, cringing as he heard more pounding coming from the door they had barricaded. They hurried into the side tunnel opening, and Rudy stopped, allowing Penny to help Snap as he quickly drew a solid, metal wall blocking off the side tunnel from the main room. "There," he panted, drawing a flashlight to illuminate the passage. "I don't know how long that'll hold him, but we need to find a way out of here."

"Uh, Bucko?" came Snap's uncertain voice. "Looks like we've hit a dead end."

Turning around, Rudy could see that Snap was right. The tunnel was blocked by fallen debris, some of it looking like it had fallen in from the wrecked city above. He shined his light up toward the ceiling, and realized with an uncomfortable twinge of fear that it looked like it could collapse on them if he tried to draw anything that could dig a path through it. He whirled around, his flashlight illuminating the cramped area, until it stopped on a wall that looked more stable than the rest of it. He looked to Penny and Snap, both of whom looked exhausted and frightened in the darkness. "We'll go through here."

"Wait," Lester hissed from his position on Rudy's shoulder, his whiskers twitching, "we can't do that. There's bound to be dozens of those robots just waiting for us to-"

A sudden pounding on Rudy's makeshift wall made all four of them jump; Shift had obviously freed himself from the magnet. Rudy wasn't sure if Lester was merely speculating about the robots on the other side of the dirt wall or if he could actually tell they were there, but at the moment, he realized with a grim feeling, it didn't matter. "We don't have any choice!" he cried, rushing over to the wall. He lifted his hand, trying to hold his arm steady as his body shook with fear at the sound of Shift's frantic attempts to break through the wall. He was about to draw an opening, but stopped, casting a concerned look at Snap before stepping back.

"Rudy, we can't wait here!" Snap called, but Rudy ignored his shout, instead focusing his attention on a large object he was beginning to draw, holding the flashlight in his left hand.

Soon, a fairly small but streamlined looking vehicle formed in front of them, and Rudy gestured for the others to get inside. "We're going to need to keep ahead of them," he cried, making sure that Snap and Penny had gotten in the back seats before drawing a large opening in the side of the stable-looking wall and jumping in the front seat of the car himself.

Drawing a hole in the wall had connected the dead end tunnel to another one, and one much bigger and wider than Rudy had expected. He could see the lights of a car on the opposite side of it, and the glowing eyes of several robot Zoners had turned to see what the commotion was. Rudy wasted no time in stepping on the gas pedal and sending his tiny car shooting out of the opening and into the wider tunnel.

The car accelerated faster than he had anticipated, and he swerved, the car's wheels skidding as it moved in a wide arc around a few of the startled robots who had begun to approach Rudy's makeshift tunnel opening. Obviously taken by surprise, many of them simply stared in astonishment as Rudy's vehicle took off down the tunnel, leaving them in the dust.

Yet Rudy and his friends were well aware that the robots had vehicles of their own, and weren't about they to think they were in the clear yet. Rudy was now glad for the flashing red lights on the walls signaling the alert, as they illuminated the tunnels enough that there was no need for headlights or night vision goggles.

Swerving into another wide tunnel, Rudy nearly collided with another vehicle, swerving the car around it at the last moment. He heard a cry of fright from Penny and a whimper from Snap, after which Lester cried, "Do you have any idea where you're going?"

"Away from them!" Rudy shouted back, seeing a few of Shift's minions approaching in their vehicles out of the corner of his eye.

"Need I remind you that they know these tunnels and we don't?" the mouse squeaked fearfully.

Rudy realized that Lester was right; the robot and insect Zoners working for Shift could easily find a way to cut them off or surround them, and Rudy couldn't even tell where he was going. There would be no time for them to stop and draw a new escape route; he was stuck to using the tunnels already there.

And he didn't have a clue which one of them would lead to the surface.

ooo

The dingy opening into one of the abandoned termite tunnels looked desolate and abandoned, but Axxar knew otherwise. The wolf paused at the entrance to the underground network, peering deep into the blackness inside. The rough ground, strewn with debris, dropped off sharply into blackness. Surrounding it were fragments of yellow tape and a few signs warning any passing Zoners of the danger, though it looked like no one from the city had been there for weeks until someone, likely Rudy's group, had used it as an entrance and created a ramp, only barely visible, down to what Axxar presumed was the tunnel floor.

Knowing he couldn't afford to waste any time, the Zoner took a leap and dropped down into darkness, his shoes skidding against the rough surface of the ramp. He made a rapid descent down the steep slope and landed smoothly on the tunnel floor. His gaze darting around sharply and his eyes taking in every detail despite the darkness, he noticed a few discarded tranquilizer darts on the ground, but whoever had been attacked by them looked to have either escaped or woken up and left before he'd arrived.

He heard a voice, and he turned his head toward a tunnel opening further along the underground path ahead of him, his yellow-green eyes piercing the blackness. Far up ahead, he could see faint, flashing red light, but the area he was currently standing in had no illumination apart from the pale sunlight streaming in above the ramp. The voices of the Zoners got closer, but Axxar merely raced forward, knowing that at all costs, he needed to find and save Rudy.

Something zipped by his ear and he glanced to his right, seeing a small group of robots crouching in a dark side tunnel they obviously thought was disguising them. He came to a halt, and another dart thudded into the ground near his shoe. Axxar didn't flinch.

"Hey!" one of the voices shouted, and suddenly the robot, along with three others, approached from out of the darkness. The one who had spoken was holding the tranquilizer gun, which he kept raised, but didn't fire again. The others held different weapons. The one closest to Axxar pulled out a long metal device that spat sparks of electricity from its tip. "You! Tell us who infiltrated this place!" the robot with the tranquilizer demanded, and Axxar assumed he was talking about whoever, aside from Rudy, had entered the tunnels previously, "and Master Shift will-"

His speech was abruptly cut off as the wolf Zoner darted forward at a speed none of the robots had predicted, and knocked the tranquilizer gun clear out of his hand. Before the robot even had time to react, Axxar kicked him straight into one of his companions, knocking them both to the ground. Picking up the dropped weapon of the second robot, which appeared to be little more than a twisted hunk of metal, he raised his hand and slammed it into the head of one of the robots, who instantly fell limp, unconscious. The one with the electrocution device approached him from behind, but Axxar's ears picked up the sound and he whirled around, striking the robot across the face and causing him to stumble backward, dropping his weapon.

Of the two Axxar had first attacked, the robot who had possessed the tranquilizer still remained awake. Pushing away from his unconscious comrade, he stood up, shocked at the speed at which the attack had taken place. He watched as the fourth robot, the last of his companions to attack, slammed against the wall and slumped to the ground in an unmoving heap. Realizing that, without his weapon, he was no match for this Zoner, he lay still, hoping the wolf-like creature would mistake him for being unconscious as well and leave so that he could escape and find backup.

A low, enraged growl came from the one other robot still capable of fighting. The one who'd possessed the most advanced weapon, the electrocution device, had retrieved it and was taking a running leap toward the intruder.

To the watching robot's surprise, the wolf Zoner merely turned and gripped the robot's arm mid-leap. As the robot wasn't much smaller than the wolf himself, the infiltrator was thrown off balance as the robot landed, but he maintained his grip. The robot lying on the tunnel floor was shocked as the wolf tore the weapon from his comrade's hand, kicked him to the floor, and then plunged the device into the mechanical Zoner's chest.

Though the tip of the weapon did not penetrate the metal, the robot immediately began to scream as his body seized up, jerking uncontrollably in response to the electricity. The wolf did not move, nor let up when the robot's cries became increasingly more desperate. Instead, he pressed harder with the weapon, causing a shower of heated sparks to fly off the Zoner's chest panel. The one watching could only stare, horrified, until finally the screams ceased and his partner mercifully fell unconscious. The wolf then straightened up, examining the weapon in his hands for a few seconds, only to turn and stare at the last robot remaining awake.

The frightened machine scrambled backwards, quickly finding that he was only met with the rock wall of the tunnel he'd been hiding in. Something told him that if he got up to try to run, he would only end up like his companions.

Bending down, the wolf gripped the robot's right arm, pulling him forward until they were face to face. The metal Zoner stood in numb terror; even the look in the intruder's eyes had him desperately wishing that somehow, Shift would show up, even if that would likely mean being punished for his failure.

"Listen closely," the werewolf hissed, "I'm in a big hurry, and you're the one who knows these tunnels. Now, you're going to do exactly what I say." At this, he flipped the switch on the electrical device, sending it spitting sparks in the terrified robot's face.

"Y-yes…sir…" he stammered.

"Good," Axxar replied. "Find a vehicle, and show me your boss's headquarters."

ooo

Rudy could tell that he was going to run into serious problems very quickly if he could not find a quick way out of the tunnels soon. Already, several more cars were chasing them, as Penny and Snap confirmed while they watched from the back. Rudy had tried to follow the widest tunnels, thinking they were more likely to have a clear path to the surface, but all that met him was more and more of what seemed like a gigantic maze.

Turning around toward the front of the car, Penny peered into the red-tinted darkness as she examined the side tunnels. She couldn't recognize any of them, and they were going too fast for her to get a good look. She also realized that it was highly unlikely they would stumble on an unguarded way out. "They'd probably try to cut us off at the exits, Rudy," she called to him. "We're going to have to find a place where we can make our own path-RUDY!"

Hearing her cry, Rudy turned his head just in time to see a new vehicle, this one quite a bit larger than most of the others, powering toward them through one of the side tunnels to his left. Gripping the steering wheel harder, he swerved, turning into another tunnel he thought might be too small for the larger vehicle to fit through. He chanced a quick glance behind him, seeing that the machine hadn't followed, but two of the fastest cars were already at the entrance to the tunnel, and in the confined space of the narrow, twisting passage, Rudy wasn't certain he couldn't match their speed without risking crashing their own car. Glancing toward the piece of magic chalk he still held in his right hand, he quickly used it to draw a button on the front panel of the car, and, hearing the other vehicles approaching, hurriedly jammed it with his finger.

In the back, Snap watched as oil began to spill out from underneath their car, soaking the ground with it. The robots in the other two cars were forced to slow down as they encountered it, leaving Rudy's free to speed ahead of them.

"Ha! Look, Penny, they're fallin' behind!" Snap called, his voice triumphant in spite of his rather poor condition. He leaned over the back of his seat and watched as a few more cars approached behind the first two, only to be slowed down as well by the cars in front of them. "Let's see them try an'-"

A loud roar interrupted him, and Snap and Penny's eyes widened as a new car appeared. This one, unlike the others, wasn't confined to using the tunnel floor; instead, it travelled along the upper wall, zipping past the ones that were still struggling with the oil.

"Never mind!" Snap shouted in panic as Penny grabbed his good arm and pulled him down lower behind the seat.

"How are we supposed to lose them now?" Rudy cried, steering the car into a wider tunnel that branched off from the smaller one, immediately noting that more vehicles sped toward them once they appeared in the bigger area. Panicking, Rudy sped the vehicle into another narrow tunnel.

"Lester," Penny began, "do you have any idea which direction-"

The mouse shook his head as he clung tighter to Rudy's shoulder. "I find objects, not directions!" he shouted back at her. "And-and we're going too fast!" Trembling, he dug his tiny claws in harder, causing Rudy to wince.

However, Rudy's attention was quickly stolen by the fact that the tunnel had suddenly begun to take winding turns so sharp that he needed all his focus just to steer. Penny and Snap peered around the back, noting that the other vehicles, even the normal, slower ones, were gaining on them; the robots knew the tunnels well enough to navigate, and if they couldn't think of something, they would surely be caught.

The more high-tech car, the one that could use the tunnel walls and ceiling instead of just the floor, was nearly right over them when the tunnel suddenly took a turn to the right, and Rudy saw a burst of light as some sort of bright beam sliced through the air above his own vehicle and hit the wall to his left. As soon as he made the turn, he noticed that the tunnel split into two paths. Without time to think, he veered into the left one, hoping that the other car wouldn't try to strike them with that beam again.

Instantly, everything went black as they were plunged into darkness; there were not even red alarm lights along the walls. And Rudy and the others instantly noticed something else, too; the passage was sloping very sharply downward.

Rudy realized in a panic that not only could he not see where he was going, but the car had picked up speed. He tried to slow down, but the car's momentum still carried it far faster than was safe under normal circumstances, let alone near-complete darkness. The car's wheel struck a rock or some other large object, jolting the car and nearly throwing Rudy and the others out of their seats. Rudy felt the chalk slip out of his hand as he tried to regain control, but the car skidded sideways as it plummeted, and Rudy knew that he had lost all control as it continued to slide down at an alarming rate. Suddenly fearful that it would tip over, Rudy braced himself, fumbling around the bottom of the seat for the lost piece of chalk. To his great relief, his fingers closed on the object and he brought it to the car's dashboard, drawing a second button on it.

A mechanical clicking sound came from the front of the car, and in what little light reached down from the passage above, he could see clawed metal arms shoot out both the front and back of the vehicle, gripping the narrow walls of the tunnel. Once they made contact with the rock and dirt, the car slowed and skidded, the metal claws struggling to find purchase as they tore mud from the walls. Finally, one of the claws struck a large rock and held there, and the car came to a sudden stop, jarring Rudy and the others again.

"Is everyone all right?" Rudy panted, glancing toward Lester and then to the back seat where Penny and Snap were.

"I…think so…" Penny muttered uncertainly, looking to Snap, who merely cringed but nodded. Penny straightened her glasses before turning to look with alarm back up the slope they had tumbled down.

The others looked as well, but to their surprise, the high tech car had not followed them into the tunnel; by some miracle, it had not seen them go in quickly enough, and had chosen the wrong path. Penny suspected that the only reason it hadn't come back yet was that the other tunnel was even narrower, and it would be too hard for the car to turn around. Yet she knew that wouldn't stop it for long.

"We have to put up a barrier or something," she stated, glancing at Rudy, who nodded and climbed over the side of the car to begin drawing one.

He need the aid of his rocket shoes to reach the ceiling of the tunnel, and was painfully aware of the light they'd given off as he completed the drawing, sealing off the tunnel entrance to anyone who might follow.

"They'll probably find another way around," Lester muttered. "We'd better get out of here."

"Hey, guys," Snap began in a hushed whisper, and though the others couldn't see him in the darkness now that the barrier had blocked off the light and Rudy's rockets had faded out, they turned toward the sound of his voice. "Listen. Do ya hear that?"

Fearfully, the group waited in silence, and soon what Snap had picked up became apparent. From somewhere else in the tunnels, sounding as if it was very nearly right above them, came the sounds of some sort of struggle. As they waited, they could hear the distant sounds of shouting and some sort of crash. It didn't sound like the robots were arguing over who was chasing them, but rather that they were trying to fight something else.

"What's going on up there?" Lester muttered, sounding frightened and confused.

"I don't know," Rudy responded. "But you're right. We need to get out of here!"

Deciding that it was worth the risk, he doodled a flashlight and illuminated their tunnel. He knew there was no way he could draw anything that could dig their way out yet; unless he wanted to risk appearing right in the middle of the fray in the tunnel above, so they would have to keep following the tunnel downward for the time being. He didn't want to open any passageways to other tunnels, either, without knowing what would be waiting for him on the other side. At least this tunnel looked empty.

Turning to the car, he realized that the only thing keeping it from sliding down was the metal hook caught on the rock in the wall. He bent down toward the wheels, using the flashlight to illuminate his working space as he quickly made some modifications. After he was done with that side, he jumped back into the car and leaned over the edge on the downward-sloping side, doing the same to the wheels there. "Okay," he breathed, "that should do it." Pressing the newly-drawn button again, the metal claw retracted. Yet instead of skidding downwards, the car remained where it was.

"Nice chalkin', Bucko," Snap complimented as Rudy started the car up again, this time activating drawing headlights for it, and carried on down the passage.

The tunnel was turning out to be much deeper than any of the others Rudy had seen, and he was starting to grow worried. The slope steepened even farther, making it so that he and the others had to lean back in their seats. Luckily the car, with its modified wheels, did not lose its grip on the rough floor. He was about to suggest they try to go back and find a place where he could draw a side path, or even risk drawing attention with the noise of a drilling machine, when he saw the tunnel level out below him. As they approached, he could see that it turned into a smooth floor.

He sped up once they reached the bottom, unable to see much in the gloom beyond the car's headlights. However, he didn't get a chance for a good look before he heard the sounds of another vehicle approaching. Startled, he and the others looked all around, unable to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. It was then that they noticed, as they stared into the darkness, that there were several other tunnel entrances around the walls. They were in the perfect spot for an ambush.

Rudy glanced from one tunnel entrance to the next, afraid that, whichever one he chose, he'd run into another vehicle coming for them. Unable to turn off the headlights because doing so would plunge them into darkness again, Rudy quickly chose the first tunnel he saw that sloped upwards, and drove the car into it.

As soon as he did so, he realized he'd made a critical mistake. As he swerved around a corner with the turn of the tunnel, the dim headlamps of another car met his petrified gaze. "Hold on!" he cried to his friends as the other car, with too little distance between them to stop and nowhere to turn around, sped toward them on a collision course. Rudy turned the steering wheel sharply to the right, hoping that his only chance to avoid a crash wouldn't end up throwing them out of the vehicle anyway.

The other car sped past them as Rudy's moved up onto the wall, the strange car's roof clashing and scraping roughly against the side of Rudy's vehicle as it passed, tearing the door from Penny's side of the back seat. Luckily, she had been clinging to Snap in an effort to avoid falling over toward her door and the other vehicle, and she stared at the open space in shock, realizing how close she had come to great harm.

Rudy could feel the car's wheels slipping away from the wall; although he'd designed it to grip rough terrain, it couldn't stay moving along the walls like Shift's more advanced machines could. Quickly, he maneuvered it back down onto the flat ground of the tunnel, noticing that up ahead, an exit loomed up, red flashing lights telling him that they were likely about to enter another populated area.

Their car burst into a wider tunnel, that unlike the previous one was leveled out. To their surprise, there was no sign of any guards, though the alarms blared strongly. Rudy knew that the robot driving the car that they'd encountered in the tunnel was bound to tell any others in the lower passages where they'd gone, and quickly sped away from the side tunnel's opening. As he was thinking that it was odd that the one robot had followed them deeper underground, but no one else had been behind him in the larger tunnel, Rudy realized that he recognized the place.

They were back near where they'd found Snap…and Shift.

Looking around, Rudy could spot the tunnel with the heavy metal door that had led to where Snap had been held captive, and the camera on the wall that swiveled their way as they passed, making Rudy all the more determined to get them away from there.

"Rudy, this might be our only chance to draw a way out," Penny said quietly, and though Rudy's first instinct was to continue driving as fast as he could away from the place where Shift was waiting, he paused to listen to her, and she pointed toward a small tunnel he hadn't noticed. "In there," she stated, and Rudy drove toward it without hesitation. "Before they catch up to us, we can draw walls boxing us in, then you can come up with a machine to dig our way out. If there's a floor up above, we can move through the walls until we reach the surface."

"Good idea," Lester commented, before he turned his head around at the sound of approaching cars in the direction they had come from. "Just…keep in mind that we don't have much time."

ooo

Axxar listened to the confused shouts of the mechanical Zoners who manned Shift's vehicles still drifting toward him from some distance behind. He cast a glance backward and saw a flicker of light from one of the tunnels, and gave a small grin as he maneuvered his car sideways up onto the rock wall so that any approaching cars would zip right by him before they got a good look at who was operating the vehicle. This car was much, much more suitable than the old, clunky machine he'd been forced to use at first, and he was pleased that, in the scuffle he'd caused with Shift's minions, he had managed to swipe a more advanced car in the midst of the confusion. Having one that could speed along the walls and ceiling as well as the ground was certainly an advantage.

His reluctant passenger, the robot he had forced to lead him to Shift's whereabouts, sat, terrified, in the back seat. Axxar trusted that he was far too frightened to try to distract him or attack him from behind while he was driving, but he kept the possibility in mind. They were now, according to his hostage, on a straight course for Shift's quarters, the place the robot had confirmed was where the broadcast was being held. With the faster car, Axxar was sure they could get there fast, without any more trouble from Shift's lackeys.

How the centipede had managed to sabotage ChalkZone City's televisions was a mystery to him, and Axxar noted to himself that, if he could, he was going to find out how he'd done it. At the moment, however, only one thing stood out as important, and that was making sure that Rudy made it out of the tunnels alive. Axxar had no idea whether or not he was too late, and hoped the Great Creator had managed to hold his own. He sped up his vehicle, knowing that now, at least he had a means to get to him without wasting much more time.

A bright light illuminated the tunnel, and a car sped toward them from behind. Axxar let it catch up, then swerved his own vehicle down from the wall, knocking the smaller and lighter one off its wheels and sending it spinning toward the other side of the tunnels. Axxar grinned in satisfaction; if there was a chance it was heading for Rudy or one of his friends, he did not want to take a chance in it succeeding and finding them.

Pained shouts from the vehicle's occupants prompted the robot traveling with Axxar to turn around. "Why did you do that?" he cried, his voice taking on the same panicked tone he had spoken with ever since Axxar had encountered him, though this time there was a hint of new terror in it.

Axxar didn't reply, and instead, he was focused on the sight of flashing lights from other cars beyond the exit to the passage they were currently traveling through. "What is that?" he growled, pointing ahead.

"That would be the tunnel that leads to the room where Shift is…broadcasting from," the panicked robot replied, gripping his seat as the vehicle increased speed.

As they reached the end of the passage, which opened up into a much wider tunnel, they immediately noticed a large amount of Shift's workers. They were in their vehicles, or standing with weapons, all of them focused on or heading toward the same thing – a solid looking but out of place metal wall at the entrance to one of the side tunnels. From the sounds of some sort of machinery behind it, and the angry shouts of the Zoners around the area, Axxar realized what was happening; Rudy was escaping.

The tunnel walls began to shake, and a loud noise was coming from beyond Rudy's makeshift wall, steadily growing quieter. Axxar grinned as he realized that Rudy was drilling his way out. He backed his car into an unoccupied tunnel and waited, watching from the shadows. The drill seemed to pick up speed, and Axxar knew that it wouldn't be long until they reached the surface. He trusted Rudy to get his injured friend, if Snap was still alive, out of there as quickly as possible once they reached daylight.

"Wh-what do we do now?" his robot hostage stammered, sounding as if he hoped Axxar would simply let him go.

Axxar swung around, pointing the electrocution weapon in the robot's face. "We wait…" he hissed. "Until the sound…stops…" Without moving his hand, he turned his head toward the source of the drilling sound. When the robot tried to move to the side away from the weapon, Axxar merely pointed it at him again without turning around.

The robots in the main tunnel were too distracted by Rudy to even look in Axxar's direction, though the wolf Zoner knew that it wouldn't be long before the ones aware of his presence alerted the others. Still, he watched in silence as Shift's small force managed to break down Rudy's wall. Even from his position in the darkness, Axxar could clearly see the tunnel the boy had dug into the ceiling, sloping upward toward the surface. Some of the robots with the more advanced cars shouted at the others to move, readying themselves to follow the escapees. Just after that, the drilling stopped.

Axxar watched as the robots began to move toward the tunnel. He growled in frustration, but reminded himself that Rudy was certainly smart enough to draw something to take him and his friend into the air, where they could not be followed. From what he'd seen on the television before entering the tunnels, the kid already had rocket shoes strapped to his feet. If anything, he could use that as a quick escape. Rudy would be fine.

All that was left to do was ensure that Shift would not bother him again.

Jamming his foot on the gas pedal, Axxar swerved out of his hiding place, knowing that, for the moment, most of Shift's followers would be too preoccupied with Rudy to notice his one vehicle. He sped off, his eyes scanning the network of tunnels as his car zipped down the main one.

It was not long before he spotted what he wanted. He grinned to himself, stopping the car near a massive pillar of earth stretching from the floor to the ceiling of the tunnel. It was a support pillar, one of many in the vast underground space, but more importantly, it was thin enough to knock down.

Looking around, Axxar noticed with satisfaction that it was located in a place that spelled clear danger for anyone underground were it to collapse. The termite tunnels were interconnected in such a way that the destruction of an important support pillar would most likely cause a chain reaction of cave-ins. It was clear that Shift and his workers were already well aware of this; someone had already begun trying to reinforce the pillar with metal, and several barriers had been set up around it.

A shout from somewhere in the tunnels told Axxar that not all of Shift's minions were focused on Rudy. There were some still looking for him, and there was no time to search for another pillar, but no need; this one would work just fine.

Axxar stepped out of the car, pushing aside one of the barriers surrounding the pillar before grabbing a thin stick of metal out of a pile of discarded supplies. The robot he'd taken hostage stared at him, his eyes widening and glowing with a brighter light than usual. "Wh-what are you doing?" he stammered.

Axxar didn't answer as he grabbed the robot's arm and yanked him out of the car. The robot gave a panicked shriek as he was then pushed into the barrier, but Axxar paid him no attention. His ears flicking toward the sounds of the robots searching for him, growing ever closer, he jumped back into the car, positioning it so that it had a clear path to the base of the pillar. He turned off the car and stepped out, seeing the glimmering lights of enemy vehicles approaching from at least two other tunnels. Growling in irritation, he positioned the steering wheel and then jammed the stick of metal in between the front seat and the gas pedal of the car, then turned the machine back on.

As soon as he did so, he leapt clear, watching the high-tech vehicle race toward the pillar. The robots in the cars coming toward him immediately stopped or swerved around, well aware of what was about to happen. Axxar caught a glimpse of his former hostage scurrying away frantically, before he turned and darted away himself.

And then the car slammed into the pillar.

ooo

From their vantage point on the roof of one of ChalkZone City's buildings near the destroyed portion of the city they had just escaped from, Rudy, Penny, Snap and Lester had watched as several large sections of the torn up streets had caved in on themselves. The group had just landed on the building from the quickly sketched small helicopter Rudy had drawn them, and had sat down to rest before the ground began to collapse. First there was nothing but shaking, a few places where the ground began to sink inwards. Then came the frantic Zoners who fled out of the tunnels, seeming to have forgotten about Rudy and his friends, and the frightened police officers who backed away from the site and told everyone to stand clear. Then, all had been silent for what seemed like ages after the last Zoner had fled. Then, the ground started falling through, filling in the tunnels that had been dug out by Newland's termites a month ago. Rudy and his friends, safe on the building, could do nothing but watch.

Rudy had at first been horrified, worried that his drilling machine had been the cause of it, but Penny had quickly assured him that it was impossible for the machine to have triggered such a massive collapse. Something else had happened, but they were all too baffled and in shock from the recent events to try to figure out what that was. They could at least be relieved that the tunnels beneath the rebuilt portion of the city had already been filled in, so the inhabited buildings remained undamaged. In spite of what Shift's workers had done to them, or tried to do, Rudy felt grateful that they had all been near the exit he had created with the drilling machine when collapse started. In fact, most of them had been following him.

During the first few minutes after the incident, Rudy had been afraid Shift and his minions would launch an attack on the city. When no such attack came – only panicked, fleeing minions who had driven or climbed out of the tunnels by the dozens and either fled into the hands of one of the many ChalkZone City police officers waiting for them, or escaped beyond the city's rubble and out into the open. He could see several insect-like Zoners take flight after they clawed their way to the surface, but there was no sign of any such swarm like the dragonfireflies from a few days ago. He could also see several of the city's inhabitants, eager to protect their newly rebuilt city, running to help the police round up the fleeing Zoners, none of which were putting up a fight. Rudy was glad that they didn't need his help at the moment; he felt far too exhausted to be of any use.

The damaged portion of the city looked oddly surreal, with many of the tunnels collapsed in on themselves and a place where it looked like the ground had become one giant sinkhole. They were relieved to see that the officers who had obviously come toward the site while they were gone had sensed the danger and managed to get away during the collapse, for there was no one injured that he could see, no officers attempting any sort of rescue from the wreckage.

Rudy glanced toward a group of robotic Zoners who were making their way toward a husk of a building that had a missing wall, but was otherwise still standing. "Why are they all running away?" he wondered, watching as the fleeing minions were then cornered by a group of policemen. All of the enemy Zoners he could see looked panicked without their leader, and he thought he could see some of the insect ones looking relieved at the chance to flee; perhaps not all of them were happy to be working for Shift. There were enough police officers who had arrived at the site that very few escaped anyway, and already he could glimpse some of them, including Cerberus, tracking down the remaining ones.

"They can't hide in the tunnels anymore," Penny responded flatly, "at least not for long. And without their leader, or their machines…"

"They're just a bunch of cowards," Lester hissed from Rudy's shoulder.

Rudy, who was still in a state of shock over the whole ordeal, realized that they were probably right. A large portion of Shift's minions, it seemed, had followed them to the site of their makeshift escape route, and the ones who hadn't had fled out of nearby tunnels or, he thought, possibly gone further into the maze where the collapse wouldn't reach. The ones currently fleeing on the surface likely made up the majority of Shift's forces, barring the swarm he'd released on the city before, which Rudy was glad he now knew how to stop should the attack repeat itself. Though he still harbored a sense of fear about what else could be lurking in those dark spaces, something told him that, for now, at least, the danger had passed.

Yet he couldn't stop the nagging feeling that something was still wrong about the whole thing, something they were missing.

Shaking his head, he reminded himself that the city Zoners had it under control, as he could clearly see below. Once they found it was safe, they could search the tunnels still standing for any who had fled deeper underground. He thought back to the mechanical monster he'd briefly fought down in the tunnels. "How long has Shift being hiding out under the city?" he mused, staring to Penny in bafflement. "Where'd he get all those machines?"

"Maybe he looted them from the damaged buildings," she replied, "then modified them into his own devices. Or, he could have gathered it from other areas of ChalkZone…a few of those cars looked like they could have been modified from something belonging in the Dome of the Future. Maybe he brought all his devices here from somewhere else using a relatively hidden tunnel entrance." She glanced to the remains of the ruined city, noting that there were several large buildings and structures still standing that could easily be hiding termite holes. "He might have taken up residence there very recently, if that was the case. That would explain why no one-"

"Ahem," Lester interrupted, climbing down to Rudy's elbow and tugging on his sleeve. "I believe we've waited here long enough. The danger's gone and the Zoners have this under control. Are you going to draw me my new shop now?"

"Now?" he repeated, a bit astonished. After all they had been through, that was the first thing Lester thought of?

"I don't think that's a good idea," Penny interjected before Rudy could speak. "We should at least wait until the city officials have handled this before we try to add a new building to the city. They might need help to ensure there won't be another threat as well."

Lester gave a small growl. "They're doing a fine job already," he protested. "All of Shift's lackeys are running scared. And they've got the whole city on their side. It's not like any of the new city was damaged by the collapse. I don't see why I should have to wait."

Rudy realized that Lester was probably right, at least in the sense that Shift's makeshift army could no longer pose a threat if they had scattered. He'd feared, when first looking down on the collapsing tunnels after they'd escaped, that something terrible was going to come out of the ground after them, but he realized now that if Shift had any other sort of secret weapon, he would have used it while his prisoners were wandering loose in his lair. Without all of his machines, his followers, or his secrecy, Shift couldn't do much to threaten ChalkZone City anymore. Yet, there was still one thing left that he knew could.

The open portal.

He still wasn't entirely sure there was one, and that Shift had been telling the truth about it, but after dealing with the likes of Bob Newland, Terry Bouffant and Vinnie Raton, not to mention plenty of other threats from the Real World, the thought that there could actually be such potential for another disaster lurking somewhere in the depths of ChalkZone chilled him to the bone.

However, there was nothing he could do about that at the moment. He considered going to help the Zoners round up Shift's followers after all, but immediately realized upon struggling to his feet that he was far too dazed and weak after their exhausting escape to be of any use to them. He nearly fell over before he managed to steady himself by gripping the railing of the building's roof. No, he thought, he would be better off staying out of the Zoners' way. He didn't even have a lot of chalk left with him, either.

Another impatient noise from Lester prompted him to glance at the tiny mouse again, and he sighed. "I'll draw you the shop," Rudy sighed, "but I'll do it tomorrow." He stepped away from the railing, wincing. After being knocked around in the underground cavern by Shift, even if he hadn't hit the ground hard enough to cause any serious injury, he felt very battered. He cast a quick glance to his hand, seeing that the cut was still bleeding, though only a small amount compared to earlier.

"All right," Lester grumbled, leaving Rudy's side to scurry up the building's railing so he could stand at the boy's eye level. "But I'm going to hold you to that." Without another word, he jumped down to the roof again before vanishing over the edge, scaling the wall to the sidewalk below effortlessly.

Rudy looked down at his injured hand and sighed. "I'd better get to the Real World to clean this up," he said. "I'm just not sure what I'm going to tell my parents."

"Well," Penny began, seeming a little worried by the prospect as well, "you could just say that you crashed your bike or got hurt on the playground at school today."

"Yeah," Rudy said sadly, hoping that no one would ask him for any details. After everything that had happened, he really didn't feel like having to come up with an elaborate story about it. He knew the cut on his hand would be noticeable, and he didn't think he could hide his other injuries either.

"Don't worry," Penny reassured him, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "We'll be fine here. And we'll make sure the Zoners have done everything they can."

"Okay, thanks, Penny," Rudy said, smiling at her. "I'll try to come back to check on things later tonight." Then, leaving the helicopter on the rooftop for Penny to use, Rudy limped toward the edge of the building and ignited the flames on his rocket shoes, speeding off in the direction of his home chalkboard.

As he left, Penny turned to Snap, motioning for him to follow her inside the helicopter. As she did so, she suddenly realized that he'd been unusually quiet during their previous conversation. He hadn't said a word during the whole thing, which gave Penny a clear indication that something was wrong. At the moment, Snap was slumped against the railing, seeming exhausted, the expression on his face clearly giving away the fact he was in pain. "Snap?" she asked, walking over to him and putting an arm around his shoulders. "Are you okay? You don't…look okay."

Snap shook his head. "I don't think so," he said, and Penny noticed with alarm that he looked like he was about to collapse.

Penny was suddenly reminded that Snap's worst injuries were not his arm and leg, but the internal ones from the incident last month. He didn't look obviously badly injured, but she knew it was what she couldn't see that was causing Snap the most pain. She had no idea all that he had gone through during the kidnapping, but she knew that he could have easily been injured worse during that time. "The hospital is nearby," she said, wanting to make sure his injuries hadn't gotten more serious. "Let's go and get you checked out." She gave him another look of concern.

Snap nodded numbly. "Yeah…that's probably not a bad idea."

As Penny helped him up and over toward the helicopter, she couldn't help but briefly wonder what had happened to Shift himself. If he was still trapped down in the tunnels, he would be found soon, and that put her mind at ease. She would check back later to see if the Zoners had found out anything more about the possibility of an open portal, so she could tell Rudy about it if he couldn't get back into ChalkZone that day. At the moment, though, she needed to help Snap. Stepping into the helicopter with her friend, she told herself that, one way or another, they'd get to the bottom of this. At least for now, they could be sure that Shift would not be able to come up with any more sinister plans for ChalkZone City.

ooo

Beneath the rubble of the damaged city, several of the termite tunnels still stood. Most of them were empty, any inhabitants having fled to the exits when the collapse began. Most had been chasing Rudy, and wound up being near the worst of the destruction, so they had no way of knowing that there was still anything left of their former hideout.

Axxar had taken shelter in one of the tunnels still standing, having seen that it was quite a bit sturdier than most; it didn't have many other tunnels intersecting it like the rest of the termite passages. He had discovered that he had not been the only one with such an idea, though the Zoner who'd tried to flee to the very same tunnel had been just a bit too late.

As soon as the rumbling had stopped and Axxar deemed it safe enough to head for a discrete exit, he had stepped out of his safe tunnel to see the battered body of a gigantic mechanical centipede.

Seeing Shift in such a prone, helpless position shocked him; the robot was lying beneath a heavy chunk of rock that had caved in from the ceiling. When Axxar approached, Shift turned his head menacingly, his pincers clacking together, but for one reason or another, he did not speak. Perhaps he was too damaged.

The centipede was far too weak to pose much of a threat while trapped beneath the rock, and Axxar remained completely calm as he approached. "Well, I have to say," he began as he circled the robot, taking in every detail, "something like you could be quite useful, after some remodeling, that is." He took note of the damage Shift had sustained.

The robot's eyes brightened, and with a strength that surprised even Axxar, he lifted his head, managing to move the boulder that was lying on top of him by a few inches. He tried to lunge at the wolf standing in front of him, but it was still far too weak an effort, and Axxar merely stepped out of the way.

The wolf chuckled. "You've caused me all this trouble, now you can repay me as a useful piece of equipment." Turning away from the enraged centipede, he reached for the device he carried with him at all times, that allowed him to communicate with his own workers. He wanted some of them down in the tunnels as soon as possible, so they could remove Shift before the police officers searched the passages and found him. Ignoring the damaged robot's feeble scrabbling, he powered on the device.

ooo

Penny and Snap waited together in the hospital's crowded waiting room. They cast glances at the many other Zoners around them, most of which had bandaged wounds. They had been agitated at first, as if worried that another attack was going to befall the city, but seemed to believe Penny when she had tried to reassure them. All of them had cast surprised and relieved looks at Penny and Snap when they'd walked in, which made Penny glad that they had run into Spy Fly on the way, and she could spread the word to Snap's friends and anyone else she came across that he was safe.

Looking again at the Zoners around them, each one slumped against a chair, resting on the floor, or pacing agitatedly back and forth, Penny had the suspicion that a lot of them had been injured in the dragonfirefly attack a few days prior. She knew that she wouldn't have been surprised if many of the patient's bandaged injuries were burns. At least, she had thought, no one looked like they were in critical condition. Still, she could clearly see that Shift's actions had done quite a bit of damage to the Zoners of the city.

It was very strange, she thought, that the tunnels had collapsed exactly after they'd escaped. She knew that the passages had been dug out by Newland's termite monsters, so the construction certainly wasn't perfect, but surely Shift would have noticed if one of the tunnels was weakening. Perhaps all that had transpired down undergrounds had damaged the structures, though she couldn't think of how that alone would have been enough to cause such damage. Someone would have had to be very unlucky to knock down a support that could cause such a massive chain reaction; it didn't seem like something that would easily happen by accident.

She looked to Snap, and couldn't help feeling a bit of sadness again. Snap had been doing better lately, only for Shift's followers to cause him more pain. She couldn't understand what could be going through the minds of Zoners like that; Snap hadn't done anything to them, yet they wanted to use him to take what they wanted from ChalkZone City. As she pushed the thoughts aside and focused on Snap again, she was alarmed to see not only pain but fear in his eyes.

"Snap, what's wrong?"

Snap gave her a frightened glance. "You sure I'm safe, Buckette?" he asked. "They ain't gonna come back and try that again, right?"

"What? Of course not," Penny responded. "Shift's entire hideout was just uncovered. He wouldn't dare pull another stunt like that with all of ChalkZone City knowing where he and his robots are. Also, thanks to the collapse they no longer have access to their machines. Not that those would do them any good; they're being taken into custody as we speak."

"I dunno, Penny…" Snap said uncertainly, "he still might try somethin'."

"I'm certain the residents of ChalkZone City won't let that happen," Penny replied.

"But…but once you and Rudy go back, I might not be safe!"

Penny thought for a moment. She knew he had a good reason to be so frightened. "Perhaps having another Zoner over at your house would make you feel safe. Or maybe you could stay at one of our houses, though that might be a little risky…"

Hesitating, Snap replied, "Yeah, but then they might get both of us." His eyes darted around the room, focusing mostly on the door leading outside.

As irrationally as he was behaving, Penny knew that he had a very good reason to be acting that way. "Don't worry," she said, "everyone will make sure they are stopped. You'll be safe." Penny placed her hand reassuringly on Snap's shoulder, a look of care and concern on her face.

She saw Snap relax a little and give a sigh of relief. "I guess you're right," he said.

Penny could see that he seemed to have come to his senses and finally realized that the danger had already passed, though she could see that he was still nervous. As her mind ran through the events of the past hour or so, she thought back to the strange collapse once again. "Snap, I hate to bring this up now," she began, knowing that he was still frightened and in pain, "but what do you remember about your abduction, and did any of Shift's workers mention something about weakness in any of the tunnels? I'm only asking because I want to make sure that whatever caused the collapse won't happen again somewhere else while Zoners are still working to repair the city. If we knew what happened, I'm sure we could help them prevent it."

Snap took a deep breath and hesitated for a minute. He was clearly trying to clear his head as he tried to recall the details. "All I remember is that I was leavin' some shop an' these robots ganged up on me and then…I woke up in the room you found me in." Snap shivered as the memories resurfaced. "But no, they said nothin' about any weak tunnels!"

"Okay, thanks," Penny told him. Not wanting to press him further, she sat, deep in thought, her mind going over the recent events.

Both of them looked up as Snap's name was called, seeing one of the nurses enter the room from one of several doors leading from the waiting area.

Snap slowly got up to his feet and limped toward the door the nurse indicated, glancing back at Penny with a look of uncertainty on his face.

"It'll be alright, Snap," she said, and he gave her another worried look before he vanished into the next hallway.

Penny watched the door close before her thoughts began to wander again, first toward Snap. She hoped that he hadn't been injured much worse, and that there wasn't anything seriously wrong with him. She also thought about what he'd said, and about the mysterious collapse. Somehow, something about this didn't add up, and it wasn't simply the mystery behind the collapse itself.

She hadn't been waiting long when the door to the hospital slammed open, and nearly all the waiting patients turned in that direction. Penny stood up as two Zoners, both of them obviously medics, carried a third Zoner in on a stretcher. A few voices amongst the crowd of patients muttered angrily or worriedly under their breath, and, confused, Penny waited for the medics to pass so she could get a good look at whoever was on the stretcher. When she did, what she saw surprised her.

It was a robot, one that looked just like the ones in Shift's hideout. As soon as she spotted him, there was no doubt in her mind that he'd come from the tunnels. She figured that he had been hurt in the collapse, and the police had found him and told the medics to bring him to the hospital. When she got a closer look, as he was wheeled past her, she realized at once that she was wrong. The robot had no signs of the damage she would have suspected, such as that from fallen debris, and the damage he did have was strange. The metal on the front of his chest looked warped and singed, pieces of it having broken or melted off to reveal colorful wires underneath. He was muttering something, and Penny couldn't help but feel curious enough to lean forward and listen as he was taken toward one of the other doors.

"A-attacked me," the robot was saying, sounding if he was speaking to no one in particular, his small, lit-up eyes focused only on the ceiling. "No, no, not Shift. Wasn't Shift. I told you. Was a wolf…a wolf in a suit that wasn't supposed to be there…told you all I know…that's all I know…" His body gave a small spasm, and then nothing but garbled gibberish came from his mouth.

The robot's crazed muttering faded as he was taken through another set of doors toward where she presumed mechanical Zoners were brought in for repair. She stared at the doors in shock, long after the sounds of the wounded robot had faded away.

Her thoughts were brought back to the day Shift's dragonfireflies had attacked the city. She and her friends had been saved…by a Zoner that eerily matched the one in the rambling robot's description.

It was strange, she thought. If it really was the same Zoner, maybe he had been trying to help again. Maybe he'd found a way to distract some of Shift's minions, the way he had with the dragonfireflies. Still, if he really had been responsible for what happened to that robot, it did seem unnecessarily cruel. She had gotten a close look at the robot's wounds, and it certainly didn't seem like something the concerned, friendly wolf Zoner they had met earlier would have done.

She tried to put it out of her mind, thinking that, if it had been the same Zoner, he had probably been put in a position where he had been forced to defend himself. She supposed it wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that wolf could have been looking further into the incident after the dragonfly disaster, and run into the guards.

Yet, even though the oddly behaving robot had left the room, she still had a bad feeling about it. She had a bad feeling about everything that had happened since the day they went to visit Archie's palace, and she couldn't shake the fear that, one way or another, this was definitely not over yet…whatever "this" turned out to be.

ooo

That night, several hours after the humans had returned to the Real World, Axxar found himself staring at ChalkZone City from a distance, reflecting over the events of the day as he conversed with his accomplice on the communication device of his own invention. Things had worked out much better than he'd initially thought. Rudy was alive, and his workers had transported Shift to a secured location. They had both eliminated the threat and gained something potentially useful.

And that wasn't the best news. He listened through his worker's report, reveling in the fact that everything had worked out much better than he'd thought it could. "A job well done," Axxar complimented the Zoner on the other end of the line. "And you can tell everyone that we will need more Zoners to complete the construction. I want it done in a few weeks at most. And we're restarting the project. In a different location."

"But, sir-" the other Zoner began.

"I have a plan," Axxar told him. "Trust me on this." The Zoner on the other end was silent; he knew better than to doubt his words. "We'll need as many of our workers as we can spare. You see, I managed to get some information out of Shift before I had him taken back."

Axxar's accomplice drew an excited breath, certain he knew what the wolf was about to say.

"And what he said was correct," the wolf continued, a smile forming on his face. "I have found the portal." He listened to the excited murmuring of the other Zoner as the information sunk in. "This is it," he said.

"We're in."