Arriving in Foggy Bottom was easy, Chase singled out the least-swampy clearing he could find and landed the Air Patroller, powering the airship down expertly. It wasn't the first time he'd been here, most missions were usually in-and-out. This would technically be the first time he stepped on the wet soil of the bog without any external obligation. It wasn't like all of Foggy Bottom to entirely be a swamp, there was a town there somewhere, but landing within the swamp regions was a deliberate choice.

Landing with a splash into the shallow water, Chase twisted his nose at the rot-stinking humidity already forming sweat in his fur. "There's a boathouse here somewhere, I figure that's where we start our investigation."

"Looking for the Nivallah?" Amata spoke up.

"Well.. it's a start."

Trudging through the knee-deep water, Chase begrudgingly pulled his limbs through the groping plants and curious mystery fish watching him pass. There was probably dry land somewhere he was missing, but the omnipresent fog that ruled the entire island made seeing anything in the distance nearly impossible. It took them an hour to find the boathouse, lit through the fog with two electric lamps buzzing with moths by the front door. No boats were in immediate sight, so Chase turned his investigations to the inside.

Climbing up on the pier, Chase shook the cold water off himself, approached the boathouse in mild apprehension and pushed the door open. He stopped in frozen disbelief as the room's contents revealed themselves; what was supposed to be boating equipment and tools was flattening under something disgustingly sinister.

Not a single inch of the floor was visible under the rotted corpses of wire and steel. Chase almost thought they were actual dead bodies, evident by his stiffened alarm and horror, only to dare himself into looking closer and catching sharper details.

"These... are Companion Canines," Chase took careful steps. "The exact ones Evcon Industries was making."

Dozens of them, mangled and abandoned, laid still in the room like a cybernetic body pit. Some were missing limbs, some lacked ears, eyes, or tails, and others were headless entirely. Their furry shells were torn and fractured, exposing the sharp endoskeletons beneath their skin. Despite their ruined, abandoned conditions, every last one still carried the permanent smile etched into their faces.

The first one Chase stepped over had completely exposed legs; gone was the soft fur wrapped around the limbs and paws, leaving it with rusted, ruined frames and gears. Idles wires hung loose, rust caked its robotic innards while mold slowly chewed away its furry shell. Chase knelt down at the rusted legs of one, looking into its gutted head. An entire half of its face was torn out, leaving a carved pit of wires, broken devices, and bent metal. "Amata, you were built around the same time as these things, right?"

"Ah... yes, I was, these aren't the Companion Canines you saw in the meeting with Justin. These are... old models, prototypes Mr. Martyr likely failed to finish or decided against."

"Anything I could get from them?"

"I don't believe so, their CPUs are likely wiped, I don't think turning them on will do much."

Mangled, withered bodies of metal littering the floor of Humdinger's boathouse? The mental image of that idiot in purple pulling around a bunch of ruined dog machines left Chase puzzled, what use could he have possibly had for them?

"Why would they be here, of all places?" he asked.

"Perhaps Humdinger was purchasing dead robots on the side?" Amata offered her opinion.

Chase twisted his nose at the sickeningly rich stench of rot and rusted metal, "Justin allows that?"

"I assume he doesn't want failed projects piling up..."

"But why are they..." the shepherd scanned the room, aghast at the sheer number of decimated machines. "Destroyed... like this?"

"Perhaps nature and animals have made their way with them, it's very simple," said Amata matter-of-factly. "They must've been here for a long time."

Dismissing the sorry state of the machines, Chase stepped over them all and crossed the room. Numerous questions plagued his mind, but a gut feeling told him none would be answered soon. He entered a small dimly lit office on the side that stank of seawater and rubber. Coming to a folded-out table with a computer set up, he stood on his hind legs and propped himself against the table. Shrugging to himself, the shepherd reached out his paw, expecting to meet another gateway, only to be met with nothing.

Not a single network answered his call, leaving the dog befuddled. "Is it broken? I should be reading its signal."

"That's a desktop computer, Chase. They don't have internal batteries and need to stay plugged into the wall; it won't function without external power."

"The rest of the bog had power," the shepherd said, flattening his ears in confusion. "Why doesn't the boathouse?" He trailed his vision to the wall, channeling his abilities to hunt for digital connection lines. "We literally passed two outdoor lamps coming in here, he probably has it shut down on purpose... another roadblock, typical." Not for him, however, he was already planning a course of action the moment the problem presented itself. Chase sat back and shut his eyes, letting his mind drift through any possible network frequencies in the area, and there were a great many. Infiltrating the WIFI was easy, looking for main computers took some time, but he narrowed in on a collection of signals across the island.

Oh, there it was, he caught sight of a server hub labeled "master control." Good enough for him, he thought, weaving his mind through the digital realm and toward his new target. Why it was powered to begin with left him puzzled, but there was no time to dwell on such things. Activate. Chase bridged his connection with the server controls, linking their threads and commanding life to surge within its network.

Nothing happened.

"The hell?" Chase said, scrunching his expression. "That should've worked, it's the main server."

"It probably works differently than simply turning it off or on. If it's the main server, the power should be definitely linked to it, so..."

"Shut up," the shepherd said abruptly, closing his eyes and focusing again. The answer was right there, what was he missing? The number of connections to this one operation was substantial, all Chase needed was to find the switches. Remaining linked to the file, he sat quietly to concentrate his abilities.

"Expose... all processes," he said to himself. The server file sprang to life in his mind, illuminating thousands of connection lines and glowing highways of networks. It formed a beautiful sun, shining brightly with shared information.

He let out an annoyed sigh, "that's not helpful. Uh... Amata, help me connect with all of these at once."

"Every... single one?" said his collar with slight hesitance

"Yes, can I?"

"I mean, sure, but what-"

"Just do it."

The AI seemed apprehensive but took remote control of Chase's powers and thrust his mind forward with a powerful throw. Like a single cable plugging directly into a master hub of extensions, Chase gripped his mind into the full server hub. He had no real idea if this would work, but his mind was too busy to think of other options.

"All processes," he gritted his teeth, straining slightly under the mass weight of data in his head. "True."

A mass-command of activation was sent through every network in Foggy Bottom, doing nothing to already-functioning networks but breathing life into stagnant ones. Distant noises of awakening engines met his ears, opening his eyes to see some lights turning back on in the boathouse.

"I think that did it," he looked back at the desktop computer, seeing its screen light up. "Ugh..." putting a paw to his head, he swayed slightly under a ringing dizziness that briefly blurred his vision. The headache was gone quickly; the shepherd shook away the fuzz in his brain and got to work.

Cornering the helpless computer, Chase held his paw and connected into its network. "Alright Humdinger... let's see what you're hiding. Amata, see if you can get a fix on his location while I'm at it."

He spent a while combing through the computer's hard drive, discarding anything not of use and eyeing the suspicious. Files came and went, until one caught his eye. "Transaction records," Chase said, reading over the little words and numbers. "So he did buy these from Evcon... wonder why? It doesn't say anywhere here. And... message logs from..." his teeth gritted, blood boiling over. "Ryder."

"I went through security camera feeds for you," Amata said, "I've caught sight of Humdinger, based on the description you gave me a while back. He's in the main city hall, second floor, third room from the left. Based on what I saw, I assume it's one of his offices."

"Hm, you work fast, I'll give you that," Chase lowered his paw, disconnecting from the computer. "We'll have to-"

Cold fingers suddenly grabbed him by the leg, yanking the shepherd by surprise. "Aaahh!" He whipped around as his body was pulled to the floor, dragged back by the dead hand's grip. Robotic gurgles screeched through the air, the bisected torso of a Companion Canine abruptly breathing life once more and crawling in for the ambush. Its rusted fingers clamped around Chase's leg, refusing to let go no matter how violently he struggled in panic.

It released a garbled roar of static and broken voices, raising its mangled head and staring into Chase's terrified expression with gutted, metal-clogged eyes. Grinning in rotted bloodlust, the machine reached out with its other arm, grabbing a bundle of Chase's fur in an iron grasp, pulling its body on top of him.

"Aaaahhh- ghk!" Chase's voice cut off as two cold hands clamped onto his throat, holding his windpipe down and squeezing the air from this throat. Blood raced to his head, clouding his vision as he flailed his arms in panic, swatting and clawing at the exposed frame of its head.

"You... sho- shouldn't be," came the robot's glitched, broken voice. "D-doing... tha- ..at." It grinned at its prey, strangling the puppy under its metal limbs. Chase beat relentlessly against its arms, unable to overpower the steel compressing the life of him, until his blows stuck through a rotted joint in its right arm. It fractured from the impact, destabilizing its weight and making the robot slip for just long enough to take an arm off Chase's neck. He seized his window immediately, kicking rapidly with his back legs into the dirty mess of the robot's stomach. With one solid kick, the machine was knocked off, sent crashing across the floor.

"Ghk- gaah.. ha..." Chase scuttled to his feet, holding his sore neck with a coughing fit beating his lungs.

The robot rolled onto its stomach, grinning maniacally with its moldy bare legs. Being without its lower half was no hindrance, it scratched its metal hands into the floor and began dragging itself toward its prey. "You're being... dramatic. C-come with- me."

Pressing himself against the wall in desperate retreat, Chase struggled for every amount of distance he could. "How is this thing functional!?"

"You sent a mass-activation command to every network in Foggy Bottom you- idiot!" Amata screamed through her collar, rage sharpening her usual mundane, digital voice.

The robot lunged for them, roaring through its broken jaw with an outstretched hand of twisted metal. Chase, still dazed from the brutal strangling, made a quick decision in his panic, jumping up on the computer table to evade the grab. "It- it's okay! It can't stand up... I should be safe-"

A distant chorus of mechanized growls and laughs circled the outside of the room, a massive number of voices and souls all spontaneously returned to life like the angels themselves bestowed it upon them. Chase's heart dropped, hearing a mass collection of gears and motors pressing against the floor, restarting old mechanisms and flexing their joints. The sounds stopped, quickly shifting into heavy footsteps, pounding like an advancing army at all angles.

"Oh no- oh no nono," Chase's tail ducked under his legs, squatting low on the table with shaking legs. The sounds were everywhere, approaching the room like a swarm. "Can't I shut them off!?"

"You're dead if you don't try!" came Amata's unnerved yell.

"I can't... concentrate!" the shepherd backed up against the wall, pulling close his legs in fear of the mangled robot trying to reach for him. "You can control my powers too, can't you do it for me!?"

"God, Chase, I'll try!"

Voices were getting ever closer, yet not a single other robot other than the current one visible. The heavy marching of the metal dead tore at the bog's flora, crushing through plants and twigs in their freedom. They hadn't yet wandered into the offices, but their lingering voices were actively drawing near.

"I can't turn them off!" Amata swiftly returned, "something else picked up control of them, it responded to the mass-activation!"

"What!? What else is-"

He was cut off as the left wall was punched inward, shredding through its hull as if it were made of paper. Wooden shrapnel and plaster peppered Chase with heavy debris, a cloud of dust blinding all eyes in the room. A tall shadow stood on the other side, its arm outstretched with a balled fist, thrust forward with enough strength to beat through a wall.

The dust settled, and a slender, expressionless machine encased in reflective black plating walked into the light.

Chase's eyes widened, recognizing the shape of Justin Martyr's prized pet. "Alpha!?"

The canine machine snapped its gaze to him, staring him down despite having no facial features etched into its black shell of a head. Dozens of eyes illuminated in the darkness behind it, an entire army of reanimated metal corpses following their new leader. It lunged like a cheetah, trampling the crawling robot on the floor and gunning for Chase with its front arms in a downward strike.

A near miss, but not without lasting damage. Chase narrowly dodged to the side, but the dark machine's arms slammed directly down into the table, snapping it entirely and smashing through the computer and technology sitting atop it. The desktop computer was left trashed, crumbling in pieces along with the shattered table. Landing on his side, Chase tumbled on the floor, looking up in a daze at the new threat. It turned to see him; Chase could see his own reflection in the creature's blank, shiny head. Immediately attacking again, the machine swung its arm in a driving blow, forcing the shepherd to flee for his life as the attack missed again, punching directly through the far wall and creating another gaping hole. The outside bog now exposed, the shepherd sprang up and fled through the new opening, escaping the boathouse and taking to the open wilds of Foggy Bottom.

"That's him, that's Alpha!" Chase cried in his fleeing, his breath pounding as he tore across the foggy marshes. "What's he doing here!? Why is he attacking me!?"

"It's not him... at least, not the one Justin has," Amata said. "I scanned him in the room, it's another prototype! Must be an old version of Alpha still being kept here. You must've awakened him just like the others!"

"Didn't Justin say Alpha was the first of his kind!?"

"Perhaps he meant Alpha was the first 'perfected' version of himself, who knows how many more he's-"

The prototype suddenly dropped from above, having jumped into the trees and sprinted off each branch, catching up to Chase in seconds. Its landing caused a splash of wet mud and water, painting a shimmer across the dark machine as it rose over the terrified puppy.

"Aaaahhh!" Chase skidded to halt and turned tail, running in a new direction. Weren't machines supposed to be weak to water? The prototype's shell was sealed tightly around its slender build, likely completely watertight. If a single drop could fry its circuits, all he needed was a single opening into its inner layer. How in the world would he manage that? What amount of damage could even dent that thing? The fog was blinding, tall reeds and marsh assaulting him in the face the faster he ran. Pushing through the thick plants, he came up upon the murky shoreline of the great swamps.

The actual ocean technically began here, marked by the presence of a boat, but the borders of Foggy Bottom were immensely swampy, giving a solid distance of murky seawater and marshes before any blue color could be seen. Why Foggy Bottom wasn't entirely surrounded by beaches like any normal island was a puzzling question. The boathouse and pier were nearby, along with a thick jungle of rocks and boulders just below the pier.

He was about to pass it up when a new idea suddenly clicked in his head. Jumping into the boat, Chase spotted an idle, handheld radio likely left behind by whoever owned the vehicle. Likely a recreational companion to pass the time for a lowly fisherman, but today, it was Chase's key.

"C-Chase this boat doesn't have compatible technology!" Amata said, panicking in her voice. "Your powers won't work, there's nothing to hack!"

"I'm not hacking it!" the shepherd gritted his teeth, grabbing the radio and holding it below the boat's ignition port. "If I can just... create a spark... it should-"

Nearby tall grass parted, the Alpha prototype emerged through the fog like a stalking predator coming upon crippled prey. It appeared straight ahead, walking toward Chase from afar with cold, calculated malice. It was only treading in paw-deep water, typical for a swampy area.

"Shit- come on!" his heart plunged upon seeing the threat, clenching all will and concentration he had through his paw. Just a spark, that's all he needed. The full, slamming impact of a speedboat should be more than enough to dent its armor, maybe even destroy it entirely. "Come on!" he put forward everything he could muster, the prototype lurking closer.

A compressed electric pulse emitted from the radio, a result of unstable interference from Chase's powers. Its lick connected with the ignition, providing the necessary kick to start the boat's engine. The water-bound vehicle roared into triumphant life; Chase gripped the wheel in one paw and the throttle in the other, locking eyes with the approaching machine just ahead.

"I'd like to see it walk off this!" he shoved the throttle as far as it would go, pumping the boat with explosive energy. Accelerating forward in rapidly increasing speed, the boat charged forward like a battering ram, aimed directly for the robotic threat. The distance closed between them; Chase flinched and shut his eyes, while the prototype stood on its hind legs and put both its arms up.

A slamming impact shocked the boat like a head-on collision, the speed immediately dropped to zero and painfully knocked Chase against the dashboard. The prototype caught the speeding boat, driving its back paws into the ground as it ferociously tried pushing it back. The deviant screech of the engine deafened them both, an extreme battle of strength at hand as Chase gunned it at full speed, driving all the force he could into the robot's push.

He was nearly thrown from the chair as the prototype slipped in the mud, the boat immediately recovering its speed and pinning the robot to its front. It tore with uncontrollable velocity across the swamp, barreling through plants and waves of water, blinding both riders in dirty water.

"Chase! Jump!" Amata yelled.

The puppy was unable to respond, being assaulted from the violent winds with only his claws in the seat keeping him from flying out. Flailing its arms, the prototype tried to reach for its prey even while caught on the boat's nose.

"Jump!" she cried again.

Interpreting her at the last second, Chase released his claws, praying for a soft landing as his body was flung out. He tumbled through the air before crashing into a wet stop, the splash of swamp water -although somewhat shallow- dense enough to break his fall. Even while underwater, Chase could hear the explosive impact of the boat crashing head-on into the rocks of the pier, followed by the bright flash of detonating fire and raining debris.

Peeling himself from the soggy mud, the shepherd stood on his weak legs, trudging through the swamp water with little strength left in his body for now. "Ugh... Amata... you alive?"

"I'm okay, Chase. My dog tag is waterproof."

"Of course it is..." said the drenched animal, trying to catch his breath.

He walked to the pier, thankful to leave the water as climbed weakly up its supports. Collapsing on the dry wood, he couldn't help looking over the edge at the wreckage a few feet away. The boat had collided into the rocks with such velocity it shoved the massive obstacle a few feet forward, crunching the entire vehicle like a tin can. Bits of metal and shrapnel floated aimlessly in the water, if the prototype was on the front, it no doubt absorbed the full power of the crash.

"Good," Chase said with a sigh. "I think that's it for now-"

A high-pitched squeal of metal sounded from the crash site, a flicker of movement in the narrow space between the rock and boat. Pushing the massive wreckage off itself, the prototype completely shoved the destroyed boat away, clinging to the rock's side just inches above the blackened water.

The shepherd bristled with alarm, "what!?"

Scampering like a rodent up the rocks, the prototype jumped across the stones and leapt for the pier, grabbing its edge and climbing up. It rose up like a snarling jaguar, trapping the puppy at the very edge of the pier. "N-no!" he tried to retreat, but there was no path left, only a cold drop into the deep ends of the swamp. The machine was unfathomable angry, shaking with a hunched posture and emitted a deep growl through unseen speakers. Its shiny outer shell was dented inward in multiple places, providing tiny holes in its defense. It lowered its haunches, preparing to spring for the killing blow, Chase looked behind him at the water, getting a final idea with what little he had left.

The robot lunged for the kill.

"Enjoy the water!" Chase shouted, flattening himself to the pier at the last second, seeking to use the size difference between him and the machine to his advantage. The prototype soared over his head, Chase felt the wind graze his back as it whizzed by, sailing directly at the edge toward the all-consuming water.

All went silent, Chase slowly uncovered his eyes. "Did... did it work?" He straightened up his body, turning around to see the result. His heart immediately plummeted at what he saw, his eyes widening in terror. "Oh... shit."

The prototype was perfectly balancing on the very edge of the docks, having stopped itself from a wet death in the nick of time. It was standing on the toes of its front legs, performing a flawless handstand like the most skilled ballerina in the world. Its back legs were suspended in the air, using its metal tail to maintain its weight distribution. Sharply turning its faceless, shiny head, it locked vision with the terrified shepherd.

"Yeah- no," Chase decided all bets were off, springing forward with all the final drips of strength he had. Crashing into the robot's shiny chest with all his body weight, the impact was just enough to send them both flying off the pier. A massive splash of murky water clouded their landing, the dark water swallowing them both. The creek fell still for a few moments, until a shepherd's body suddenly erupted through the water's surface. Biting cold squeezed him at all angles, soaking into the very layers of his fur.

"Ghhhg!" the shepherd audibly grunted, splashing for dear life in the water. "Gaahh!" he paddled his way to shore, dragging his shivering, soaked mess of fur to dry land. Coughing out dirty creek water, he promptly collapsed in the grass, letting the water drain from his fur.

The Alpha prototype finally floated to the surface, completely trashed from the filthy water flooding its circuits through the recently created holes in its shell. It was nothing more than a worthless pile of shiny black metal now, all its ability and strength rendered obsolete by a simple lake. Across Foggy Bottom, the reanimated machines all disengaged their attack, having lost connection to the central alpha wolf that picked up their allegiance. They continued to move, wandering to all four corners of Foggy Bottom, but at least their hostility was tempered for now.

"God," Chase let out a groan, pushing himself up. "That thing... was insane."

"Chase… that was a prototype," said his AI friend. "Its erratic behavior is likely a result of flawed programming."

"Programming is one thing," the shepherd looked feverishly at the waterlogged death machine. "But how do you explain everything we just witnessed it do? That's not programming, that's raw strength!" A note of fear rose in his voice. "Why the hell would Evcon make a robot that can do that!?"

"I'm sorry Chase, I don't have an answer to that question."

"Lord, I was standing right next to Alpha, back when we visited Justin Martyr," he realized with a jolt. "And so was Rocky and Ryder. If this one was 'imperfect,' what's a finished one capable of? Alpha could've killed all of us in seconds!"

"I don't believe Justin would create a machine intentionally designed to hurt people, if that's what you're implying."

"I don't know what to believe anymore, Amata," Chase said with a groan, holding his face in his paws. "Let's just... get to Humdinger and... hope we never run into one of these again."

Her voice lightened, "heh, what happened to your 'infinite possibilities,' Chase? I thought you were mighty and powerful now."

"I am," he argued, but still a faint shiver remained on his tongue. "But that thing... I just... really don't want to encounter one of those again. It nearly killed me, and my mental hacking didn't work on any of them."

Escaping the encounter by the skin of his teeth, Chase took a few deep breaths and departed the area for Humdinger.