Epilogue

He was examining the plans with great concentration, trying to decipher them once again. They had taken up all of his time, rendering him unable to lead any controlled attacks on those pesky Wild Rats. He even had to disable his Zachbots after they malfunctioned and attacked the Tortuga on their own because he had no time to find out what had caused them to go rogue in the first place. Plus they were disturbing him in his peace.

Letting out a sigh, he leaned back in his chair and stroked his black goatee, the street lights shining through a gap in the curtains and creating a yellow line on the floor. Was it already that late? He knew he had to go to sleep, the lack of rest he had suffered these last months making his eyelids feel as if they weighed tons. But he couldn't give up now! He sensed that he was close to solving the mystery, this code that felt like it was fighting him, repelling him every time he thought he finally had a firm grasp on it. Pinching himself to try and stay awake he went back to studying the sheets of paper, but after a few minutes the figures were dancing in front of his eyes. Cursing, he slapped himself, but he knew that it was to no avail. So he stood up, having to hold on to his desk at first while the feeling returned to his legs and feet. Working at a desk for hours on end had made his muscles grow even weaker, he probably had to start training soon. Perhaps it was a good idea to think about something else, he probably had a better chance at succeeding if he faced his problem with a clear mind.

He entered his bedroom, notes stuck everywhere to his walls. These plans were the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing he read at night. Carefully so as not to tear them apart he took all of them off the walls and gathered them inside a small metal case which he locked inside his safe. Then he undressed, his skin even paler than before. Doing this had completely drained him, mentally and physically. Ever since Yami left he had feared that she would come back to kill him, she destroyed every last bit of her technology before she disappeared but he had seen much of it, maybe too much. He didn't even know where she was right now.

"Zachbots, bring me my bathrobe!" he ordered, his voice weak, before remembering that he had deactivated every single one of them. Taking a deep breath he went to look for it himself. He had become lazy, relying on robots to fulfil his every wish. But it couldn't continue like this. If he really wanted to rule the world one day, he had to be able to take matters into his own hands. After a few seconds of looking through the pile of clothes on his chair he found his bathrobe, put it on and tightened the cloth strap around his waist before walking through the corridor. The sound of his naked feet on the floor echoed softly. He opened the bathroom door and locked it behind him before loosening the knot, letting the silken robe slide off his shoulders. After stepping into the shower he turned on the hot water and let it soak his hair and skin, closing his eyes. One after the other he touched the many bruises he had gotten while fighting his enemies, his dry skin unable to heal properly. Years of near-inactivity and lack of sunlight had made him go brittle, while working he had lost weight, his body was little more than skin and bones. This had to change. After the shower he dried himself off and went to his room before changing into his pyjamas and lying down, drifting into a dreamless sleep as soon as he closed his eyes.

The next morning he dressed into lighter clothing than his usual pair of smart trousers and turtle-neck sweater and went down to the basement. He knew that he had a treadmill there somewhere, even though he had never really used it himself. It took him some looking around and moving empty boxes but then, he finally found it. Plugging it in, he hesitated before picking the lowest speed. The machine came to life, sputtering at first, before changing to a smooth hum. Taking a deep breath he wiped his face and finally stepped onto the moving belt, instantly stumbling into an irregular jog.

He only managed to hold out for a few minutes before he had to switch it off and collapsed on the floor next to it, bathed in sweat and his lungs burning from short gasps for air. Curling into a ball he clenched his teeth, waiting for his racing heartbeat to calm down again before standing up and switching it back on. Once again he had to stop mere five minutes later, but he wouldn't give up, not this time.

A few weeks later his determination started bearing fruit. After he had forced himself to eat normally once again his body had begun to build up muscle mass which he had trained with weights. He was now able to run for an hour before taking a break, both his stamina and speed having increased to slightly above average levels. But training had had another effect on him. He had been able to completely clear his mind of every distraction every time he was running, so he decided to try and tackle the mysterious plans again. Scanning them in made it possible for him to download them onto his treadmill's display and thus read them while training. And finally, many days later, it paid off.

"Eureka!" he exclaimed, jumped off the treadmill and turned it off before running back upstairs into his office. The papers were still lying on his desk, untouched for weeks. He looked through them, finally having the final part of the puzzle in his head, and found the paper he had been reading. He had already translated most of the characters; they resembled ancient Sumerian writing; but when he tried to read them they made absolutely no sense. There had to be some sort of code that told him in which order he had to read them, and he had cracked it. On every paper there had been the same phrase: 'Long live the leader', written using the same code. It had been well hidden and hard to see, and he had never given it much thought before now.

"Let's see...I have to jump the lines here...go back one symbol here..." Writing frenetically, he translated paragraph for paragraph, the useless mess finally starting to come together, finally making sense.

It was way after midnight when he finished his work. Panting, he stood in front of his desk, stretching his paining fingers. But it had been worth it. Hundreds of instructions accompanying the blueprints were lying in front of him, their secrets revealed after all of these hours of frustration. There had been moments where he had thought that it was just a waste of time, stopped himself just in time from throwing it all away, but now it was over.

"No." he whispered, a sadistic grin spreading across his face. "It has only just begun."

He drove in the screw and made sure it was secured before getting his welder. It had taken him some time to get the metal alloy just right and working without the help of his Zachbots had been challenging, but he enjoyed it. It reminded him of the days when he first started to try and build robots out of animals. But what he had done then, the things he had built, they had been little more than toys. What he was constructing now was so much more than that.

Before him stood a humongous robot, more than thirty feet tall. It was covered in armour, its arms and legs were like massive tree-trunks and above its humanoid hands were laser-guns. Right now, he was standing on a wooden structure to be able to reach its shoulder where he tried to install missile launchers, but he needed two more things before his work was completed, and both of them had to do with the robot's power source.

"Yes, you're speaking to Donita Donata, what do you – " The brown-haired woman's eyes widened when she saw who had called her. "Zach! I haven't seen or heard of you in months! You even missed our meeting. Where have you been?!"

He scratched his chin, a hint of embarrassment appearing in his eyes, but it only lasted a moment. "I've been working on something. Something big. And I will need your help to complete it."

Having overcome her initial surprise, she had fallen back into her dismissive tone. "Really? And what is this 'something' you're talking about?"

"Something that will finally put an end to all of our troubles and secure world domination for us!" he said, earning only a pitiful smile.

"Oh, please." She had started filing her nails again, one of her habits which had started to annoy him. "That's what you say every single time you invent another one of your gadgets, but we've all seen how that turns out, haven't we. Plus, your stupid plans always end up getting foiled by those Kratt Brothers."

A frown appeared on his face. She wasn't taking him seriously, yet, but he was sure that his plan would change her mind. She hadn't seen what he had discovered. "I promise that this time, it will be worth it. Just trust me. Come here and I will show you."

"Fine." she said, exasperated, before ending her call.

A few hours later he took another break from building his new robot. His call to Gourmand had gone even better than the one with Donita, but the Chef had always a very ambitious side to him. A thought tried to get through to him, that Gourmand just hadn't seen him fail as many times, but he brushed it aside. These missiles had needed extreme focus; even after he had decoded the plans the instructions and results of the experiments were still incredibly complex. Whoever these plans belonged to they must have been working on them for years, they hadn't even managed to finish them. But he had. He had finished them, and even perfected them!

Shortly before he secured the last screw he heard two planes circling overhead and landing on the pad on top of his roof. A grin spread on his face as the knowledge that his masterpiece would soon be complete filled him with satisfaction. This was a plan he knew would work. He climbed down from the structure, made his way to his apartment and went to open the door.

"Welcome to my humble workshop, my dear colleagues." he exclaimed, pressing down the heavy handle. Both of them were standing in his hallway, looking around impatiently.

"Wow, you've changed!" The Fashionista's voice was just slightly showing her surprise, so did her raised eyebrow. And it was true, he had changed. He was no longer the weakling who had to depend on robots to do the field work, he had gained the strength and ice-cold determination to fight for his goals.

"So, Zach, what did you want to show us?" Donita asked as she walked through the door followed by Gourmand. He noticed that she hadn't brought her henchman Dabio along, but it didn't matter anyway, he didn't need him. Plus, the less people knew about this, the better.

"You will see in a minute. Just follow me, please." He lead them through a corridor which had started to incline downwards. Many stairs wound around an elevator shaft, but to normalise the energy consumption of his house which might be monitored he had redirected the electricity from the elevator to his devices. Additionally, to make sure that nobody was able to locate his robot before it was ready, he had constructed it inside his underground laboratory, shielding it from any satellites that might be observing his house.

Many feet beneath the surface they reached a solid door, the last obstacle separating them from his creation. After he had typed in a complicated code, let the door scan his retina and activated the voice recognition software. With an audible pressure release the hydraulics finally started moving the heavy metal plates aside, revealing the construction behind them.

"Behold, the Warrior-Bot!" His gesture wouldn't have been necessary. Donita's eyes widened and Gourmand was rooted to the spot, both filled with respect at the sight before them. Almost as if in a trance, the woman stepped forward and ran her hand over the robot's armoured foot, admiring the smoothness of the seams between the plates. They were overlapping to allow movement all while offering total protection of the mechanisms inside, but razor sharp to prevent anything from trying to squeeze between them.

"Impressionnant!" Gourmand yelled in french, breaking the silence. "But how does this thing move? Doesn't it consume huge amounts of energy?"

Zach crossed his arms. He had waited for this. "Good question, mon ami." he imitated the Chef who was still too stricken to protest. "And that is precisely why I called you here. You see, you two are able to provide what I need to complete them. Would you do it?"

Finally able to detach her eyes from the robot, Donita turned around. "On one condition."

The inventor furrowed his brow. "And what would that be?"

"Oh, you should know it." An otherwise charming smile appeared on her face, the only exception was that it was ice cold. "I want in on this. If this Warrior-Bot can do what you want it to, there's one place I'd like to send it to."

"Correction: them." Gourmand had approached both of them. "I want you to build more. One isn't enough."

Zach laughed. "Did you really think I would leave it here? I will construct an entire army of them!" He stopped as his gaze turned cold. "And the first thing I will do is reach our goal. So, do we have an agreement?" Holding out his hand, he looked at them, awaiting their response.

Donita was the first to take it. "This might finally be our chance."

Gourmand grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it in approval. "To destroy them once and for all."

The inventor's voice was but a whisper, but they heard it loud and clear, the words echoed by their own minds.

"The Wild Kratts!"

So, that was the last chapter of "A new enemy". I hope you enjoyed it even though it took me more than two years to complete it, sorry about that again. Planning for the sequel has already started, but since I don't know how long it will take I won't promise anything concerning dates.

If there is anything that doesn't make sense or if you have any questions, please tell me! I'd be happy to help out. Until then I hope that all of you are alright and that you had fun. See ya!