The twins’ descent into the tunnel soon became dark, but Ricky pulled out his miner’s helmet and turned it on. Finally, the passage leveled out and they found themselves in a dimly lit concrete room furnished by a great mass of ventilation shafts and exposed pipes and filled with the dull roar of re-circulating air.

"Are you thinking what I’m thinking?" Ricky asked Krause.

"It depends."

"Okay, you could get into one of the larger shafts and see what’s in the area."

Krause looked at him like lobsters were crawling out of his ears. "I’m the one who goes first, bro, but I ain’t cannon fodder. We should just lie low and hopefully we won’t run into anything."

Ricky nodded and took note of the room while Krause led the way through the sleek metal door at the end of the room and into a hallway that slanted ever downwards into darkness. They walked along once again, but this time the passageway leveled out rather quickly and turned a corner, around which was the sound of dripping water and a mechanical hum. Krause peeked around the corner and beheld a natural cavern small in comparison to the ones in Cactus Desert, but there was much more water dripping from the ceilings. The mechanical hum came from a circular glowing gate at the opposite end that could be reached by a narrow causeway across the pool of water that took up much of the cavern. This gate was complete with a metal catwalk above it, something that looked like a futuristic turret gun and several guards clad in all black and wearing big, chrome-visor helmets on their heads. Krause described this sight to his brother.

"Oh crap. We’ve either hit the front or back gate of this place. We’re gonna have to find another way around."

Ricky looked around the corner in a search for a way that they could get across without being shot up and failed. In the end, they decided that the ventilation shafts would be a better option.

"Okay," Krause said with a cynical smile, "but if we get sucked into a furnace or a giant fan, the pigs will take over the world."

"You’re gonna wish for that death after we’re through with you," a gruff voice sounded. The twins jumped and saw not one, but six of the guards standing at the corner with big, shiny lasers drawn.

"Don’t get so worked up, Rambo," said another, "These may be the ones Boss is after. He wants them alive, if reasonably possible. Set your beams to stun."

The twins bolted around the corner while the guards fumbled with their laser beams. The guards followed right behind with lasers blasting. It’s a rule of thumb that all helmeted gunmen are rotten shots, so the twins managed to dodge them by zipping back and forth across the corridor until Krause’s arm was numbed and they found the door at the top of the passage not only closed, but locked tight.

"Son of a…" Ricky shouted as he kicked the door, "Krause! Your bad key machine! Get it out!"
"I ain’t even feeling my best arm, bro. You can’t expect me to sling off my pack, unzip it, take out the bad key machine, stick it into the lock and start it up with my left hand before the guards bust us up?"

"You had enough time to say that!" Ricky shouted as a laser bolt hit the door just inches away from him. Krause threw off his pack and began to struggle with it.

"Zipper’s stuck!" he reported.

Ricky made an angry noise. "Forget it!"

He almost involuntarily turned to the guards, held out his hand, and shouted, "PK Fire!" A line of red flames burst from his fingertips and spread out towards the fast-approaching guards. They just had enough time for muffled screams before they met the fire head-on and were either charred or forced backwards. The fire dissipated and Ricky slumped over, breathing heavily. His brain felt just as hot as the guards probably did while they were blasted.

"Ricky…?"

All Ricky could do was groan and grab his head. The hall was suddenly much brighter, because red lights were flashing and sirens were blaring. The three guards that had managed to escape must’ve sounded an alarm. Ricky pulled himself to his feet.

"You okay?" Krause said.

"Maybe."

Krause smiled and slapped his brother on the shoulder. He slowly approached one of the burnt-up guards, held his nose and pried the warm laser gun from his hand.

"C’mon. We gotta hide somewhere."

Ricky nodded and Krause examined his new weapon. His limited mechanical knowledge told him that the intensity of the gun was determined by how far one pulled a gauge on the side. With one hand, Krause managed to pull it to a high power and fire it at the latch, which blew a hole right through the door and knocked him off his feet with the backlash. Ricky pushed the door down and ran through, Krause following close behind with the gun.

"Give that gun here," Ricky said, and Krause obeyed. His brain was cooling down rapidly and he had enough brainpower to blast the largest air vent and duck inside, if not before blasting the heck out of the wall to fully fulfill his fantasy of having an adjustable laser gun. He didn’t have enough brainpower to realize that he was leaving a trail a blind idiot could follow.

The air vents were unpleasant. A wind was constantly blowing against the twins, Krause’s arm was still totally numb and Ricky could barely crawl through. Finally, Krause announced that there was a dim light up ahead and went to investigate. What he saw was something like this:

A mechanical spider-like figure floated apprehensively about two feet above the ground. The grotesque, bloated brain swimming in the juices all contained in a glass dome at the top was stressed out.

"Deactivate the alarms, but keep all personnel on high alert. That noise shall pay havoc on my audio sensors if I hear it again. Make a scan for all carbon-based life in the area and continue with the investigations in the northern sector. I have some reason to believe they have gotten into the ventilation. These human whelps are valuable to our mission."

The computer in front of the robot beeped and the juice surrounding the brain churned violently.

"Do not question my reasoning. There is no doubt about it. The sudden burst of psychic energy, the lingering presence…"

The computer whirred.

"Of course you fail to realize my reasoning. You are a simpleton executive computer. Hinder me not with your fourteen-kilobyte arguments and carry out your task, lest I see to it that you be broken into a rewired with a chain saw."

The computer made a blip and began making working noises.

"I am overseeing an operation on psychic energy spots for the Good Human and I am given a pocket calculator to work it. Alas! Had I still had my body, I would laugh at the irony. But ‘tis not the time for humor. The Chosen Ones’ whelps are within the compound and must be found, lest they once more interfere with the plans for Earth’s righteous order. But ‘tis no task for any incompetent animal, for although I could somewhat easily possess every one of them without so much as straining my mind, there is too little I can currently do to compensate for mortal weaknesses and lack of psionics. These whelps are not to be treated lightly… Yes…’tis a task I must undertake personally. When located, I shall lead them into a trap and then the Good Human shall have his whelps…Is my broadcaster still activated? No matter! Deactivate cranial broadcaster now."

And then it was silent. The robot floated out the door and it shut behind him with a hydraulic rush.

"So what are we gonna do?" Ricky asked.

"That’s my line! I think my arm’s working now and I’m sick of these shafts. Let’s get out of here before we fall down a chute like we almost did five minutes ago."

"You’re saying you want us to go into the computer room?"

"Do I need to repeat myself?"

A blast of air came from behind them.

"No," Ricky said over the noise, "A robot wants to get us and hand us over to some ‘Good Human’ whose probably in league with the Pigs and you want to go right into the central computer system? I think I’ll start making the decisions again…"

"It’s the last thing they’ll expect!"

"That’s because it’s completely stupid!"

There was a short pause.

"Where else are we gonna go? They’re probably investigating the vents right now thanks to you blasting up that room!"

"Okay…just this once."

Krause tried to carefully remove the vent cover with no success, so Ricky slid him the laser gun and Krause blasted the thing off. He lowered himself down onto a large piece of hardware, then helped Ricky do the same. No alarm that they could hear went off, so that was a good sign. Krause quietly considered trying to find their location and destination on the computer, but quickly realized that they were risking too much already. Ricky crept over to the door, opened it quietly and looked about. Beyond the little computer room was a natural passage lit by dim, crude lights. Two guards were walking their way, talking and laughing. Ricky shut the door but listened to their conversation.

"Boss says those kids we’re after have somehow infiltrated our security and are a threat to the operation."

There was more laughter.

"Yeah, and I also heard one of ‘em breathes fire and the other’s killed two hundred pigs with a donkey’s jawbone without breaking a sweat. I could take ‘em with one hand behind my back!"

Ricky raised an eyebrow as one said they needed to report to the Burning Spring immediately and that they were wasting time by talking. Krause stood beside him with a wide grin. The guard spoke again.

"No, the orders said for me to specifically come alone. It’s either something good or something bad. Wish me luck."

"Oh…uh…see you later then. Good luck!"

"Easier than falling out of bed, right?" Krause said.

"This is too good to be true…" Ricky replied. He opened the door cautiously and crept out, ducking into the shadows along the side with Krause close behind, laser gun drawn. They followed the lone guard through a series of turns that didn’t seem very well guarded. Finally the guard stopped at a door, took a deep breath, opened it and walked through.

"Come on!" Ricky said to Krause. They ran across the passageway and stopped before the door.

"Wait a minute…do you think this is a trap?" Ricky asked, "If I heard you right in that shaft, that robot wants to lead us into a trap and get us."

Krause stopped where he was and adjusted the setting on his laser gun. "Maybe it is. But we’ve gone this far. I’ll…go first, but if it turns out to be a trap, save my skin, okay?"

Ricky tried to smile as he nodded assent. Krause’s heart was in his throat as he turned the handle and stepped into a round metal room with only the guard he saw enter moments ago against one wall, typing something into a keypad.

"Freeze!" Krause shouted, holding out his gun. Ricky came into the room right behind his brother and shut the door. The guard slowly turned his helmeted head.

"Get against the wall and I won’t blow your brains out!" Krause continued. The guard suddenly flickered as if he were a fading mirage and a new image appeared that made the twins gasp. Before them floated the spider-like robot with the bloated brain.

"Easier than falling out of bed, right?" he perfectly imitated Krause’s voice.

"Shut up!" Krause shouted, and he fired a blast at the mechanical fiend. The beam exploded on an invisible barrier about a foot away from his target.

"Enough of this idiocy!" the robot scoffed. Krause’s gun flew from his hands, and in a dazzling light show released its ammunition while spinning in midair. The twins backed against the wall in a fearful silence as the robot drifted closer to them, waving its arachnid limbs mockingly.

"Perhaps the Good Human was correct in his assumptions that you really are just pathetic, minuscule whelps with powerful parents…but I do sense a degree of potential in one of you. It should be a favor to this world should I decide to kill you both right now, but I shall be court-martialed by my ‘superiors’ should I do so. However, it has come to my attention that one of you bears an artifact that piques my interests. Would you care to let me see it, Ricky?"

Ricky tried to back even further against the locked door when the robot floated closer to him, the vile juices its brain tank floating in churning and gurgling.

"Will the human whelp not speak? I am granting you an opportunity to willfully surrender your sound stone to me. You do not want me to control your mind and make you give it to me, do you?"

"You can pry it off of my cold, dead body, you creep," Ricky hissed. He held out his hand and said, "PK Fire!" A flash of flames roared from his outstretched fingers and engulfed the robot. The fiend let out a mechanical wail and was hurled to the ground. Krause grabbed the spent laser gun and dashed in to deliver a blow to the glass dome, but he was jerked off of his feet and sent flailing through the air and into the wall with a loud thud. The robot regained its composure, only slightly blackened and with a large crack in its brain tank where the now-steaming brain juices dripped out. Ricky drew his baseball bat, panting heavily and sweating.

"You…imbeciles! You shall meet your fates at my expense!"

Ricky was grimly ready to be torn into pieces or implode defending his quest, but instead his enemy flickered and vanished and there was an awkward silence for a moment. He walked over to Krause, who lolled his head when he asked him if he was okay.

"Nnuh…did you kill it?"

"I don’t know. But I have a feeling we’re gonna have to get out of here very quickly."

Suddenly the door flew open and in stormed a half a dozen guards with visors down and weapons set on eradication. They formed a circle around the twins.

"Don’t anybody move!" one said.

"We have orders to kill you two at the drop of a hat, so listen up!" another added.

Krause groaned, scratched his head and stood up. The guards moved a step closer, putting the barrels just inches away from the twins’ faces.

"What now?" Ricky whispered.

"Let me handle this," Krause whispered back.

"Come with us; and hurry! The Pigs are expecting a delivery."

Krause cleared his throat and lifted his head up. "Excuse me, mister, but do you really enjoy what you’re doing?"

There was a silence in which the guards looked towards their leader, who had lifted his visor up. He drew a deep breath before answering.

"I hope you’re not thinking that this is the only thing I ever do or that this makes me feel big or anything. I don’t bark orders to people, point guns at others, then brag about my exploits at the bar with my pals when I’m off-duty like some officers I could mention. No, I’m actually just doing this to support my family back in Fourside," his lower lip began to quiver, "I wasn’t any good as a businessman a bakery manager or any of those odd jobs I had for about four years. I decided I was a physical man, but I’m non-competitive and Eagleland hasn’t had an army in…twenty-eight years now? There weren’t any bodyguard positions, so I decided to leave my family for awhile to search for my true self and I got picked up by this seedy guy who offered me decent cash for a lower-level officer work," he seemed to be stifling a sniffle. "And now here I am a year later with a $3800-per-month paycheck and pointing a gun at two little kids. I’m…sorry about all of this. Men, you’re all dismissed. I think I need some time alone."

The officer lowered his visor and swiftly left the room. Ricky was staring at Krause with his jaw on the floor. The other guards slowly lowered their weapons and began to cautiously back away.

"How did you do that?" Ricky asked. A smug shrug was his answer.

Another guard stepped forward. "Now…come with us. We’re gonna shoot dead you if you don’t!"

The other guards didn’t seem to be at all into what they were doing. The truth was, Krause hit the weak point of one of the most brutal officers in the base and the rest of the guards were feeling rather shocked and demoralized by it all.

"You guys make me sad!" the guard said to the rest of the team, "You all don’t wanna be guinea pigs in Boss’s ‘researches’, do you?"

To this the guards hesitantly aimed their guns at the twins. Ricky glared at Krause as the second-in-command stepped forward and grabbed him by the arms and handcuffed him.

"What does that look mean?" Krause asked as another guard carefully handcuffed him. They were stripped of their packs and hustled out of the room and down the corridor, making several turns that the Ricky made not of while Krause seemed to look deep in some fiendish plot to get them free. Finally, as the plaques on the walls indicated, they were approaching the barracks and detention blocks.

"Excuse me," Krause said, "I’ve been having to pee all day and I haven’t gotten to because I’ve been infiltrating and saving my brother’s skin and that doesn’t leave much free time. So…"

"No!" the guard leading him barked.

"Okay then. I really have to go. So I could take off my shorts right here and pee on the floor or just go in my underwear. Either one would be disgusting and a mess to clean up. Besides, there’s a bathroom right over there. Why not?"

They came to a halt and the second-in-command nodded reluctantly behind his chrome visor.

"But somebody guard the stall door. If he takes too long, get him out of there. We’re on a tight schedule!"

Krause gave Ricky a wink that none of the guards caught and went inside. It was unlike any other public bathroom he had seen, mostly because it was clean due to the fact that minor mistakes were punished by cleaning the place with a toothbrush. Krause approached one of the stalls and went in, the guard right behind him with his back turned, but he was still handcuffed. Krause did his business, but while he did, he pulled out the bad key machine that he placed in his pocket and carefully began to activate it. He stalled for a few seconds and flushed the toilet to hide the click while he slipped off his handcuffs. Cautiously, he set the lid down and stood on top of it, ready to execute his plan. The guard flung the door open and unwittingly met Krause with arms free and flying towards him with a wicked grin. Krause executed a flying kick to the crotch and tackled his opponent with a thud and a high-pitched moan of agony that rang throughout the bathroom. Krause grabbed the laser gun and pointed it at the guard, who was trying to pull himself up.

"Don’t even think about it, or I’ll blast them off," he said casually. Suddenly the door behind him burst open and two guards came through with weapons pointed at Krause. He ran behind the open stall door to dodge two blasts that left little smoldering holes in the wall. Thinking quick, Krause ducked around the door and fired at the fluorescent light above the guards, creating an explosion of glass and electricity that made the guards shoot wild. He fired again, this time at one of the guards who was reeling around in the confusion, who fell back against the wall with a smoldering hole in his lower breastplate. Then he realized what he had done. He hadn’t ever killed another human being before, and before now the worst ethical thing he had done in terms of combat was knocking out a talking cobra with a frying pan. Krause had killed somebody, and he decided that he didn’t like it very much. He quickly set his gun to stun right before a laser beam that pierced the stall door grazed his arm. He peeked around the door once again and fired twice, each shot missing its mark. Three more blasts through the door were dangerously close to him, so he dropped to the floor for a new strategy.

"Give up your weapon now and come peacefully and we won’t turn you into Swiss cheese!" the officer’s voice barked. From his position in the gap under the stall door, all but one of the remaining three guards were in the room and beginning to approach him. Krause’s heart crawled even further up his throat when he realized his changes of survival in a shoot-out like this were slim to none, if he ran out of tricks in his sleeve.

"Come out now! You don’t want us to come back there, do you?"

"You won’t have to worry about that," Krause replied in the calmest voice he could manage. Then he took good aim and stunned the officer’s foot.

"Kill that little illegitimate!" he shouted. The laser blared again and Krause jumped back from his position. The laser impact sent the door flying shut and Krause wide open. He took another shot at the immobile officer as he ran for the door, casting a sorrowful glance at the dying guard before leaving. He ran right into the guard not only restraining, but holding a gun to, Ricky. Krause paused for a moment; then he shot a stun beam at the guard’s head and he fell limp.

"Krause!" Ricky exclaimed as he shook his stunned captor loose, "I was thinking you’d never get out there without being blasted out of orbit first!"
"Get them! Don’t worry about me!" the leader’s voice called from the bathroom. Krause quickly adjusted the gun and blew Ricky’s handcuffs apart.

"Let me handle this guy! He ruined my dignity!" Ricky told Krause. The last guard was behind the door. Ricky flung it open and slammed it against his foe, who staggered backwards. Ricky went in swinging and the guard finally fell.

"You…" the officer said. Ricky turned his head and the second-in-command was hopping away into a corner due to his lame foot. His gun made a strange noise when he tried firing it. His eyes grew wide with horror in realization that he was out of ammunition.

"I’ve got a few questions to ask," Ricky said. In response, the guard muttered something and reached for the side of his helmet.

"No, you’re not calling for help as long as I’m here. We need to know the way to the Burning Spring and a quick way out."

The second-in-command raised his visor and grinned. "Too late. There’s already at least fifty of us coming this way. It would be a waste to know that, because you won’t live to get there."

"Listen up!" Krause barked, who had just entered, "We need answers. I’d be happy to stun every part of you that you don’t need right now until I’m happy with what I hear."

The guard, humiliated at losing his nerve to a child, disclosed that to get to Burning Spring, they would have to go through the barracks and past another security gate. When at first he didn’t disclose a way around it, he got both of his legs zapped. He revealed that there was a maintenance hallway that had been closed off, but could be entered if they could climb over yellow tape. From Burning Spring, there was a natural shaft that went down and southwards that had a rumored connection to the old sewers in Fourside. Finally, when asked if he was telling the truth, he just smiled and Krause proceeded to shock his arms. He told them that it was the risk of interrogating somebody who hates your guts. Just for good measure, Krause shocked his head before they left the bathroom and reclaimed their packs to follow the information they had just received.

Meanwhile, the robot that had been defeated for the first time in nearly thirty Earth years brooded in his chambers, if they could be called chambers. It looked more to a human’s eye like a big metal tube with lots of wires and blinking lights. But he brooded nonetheless.

"I gave up my feeble mortal form two centuries ago to ascend to a level of near-divinity. Yet alas! I am dependent on such things as technology to support me. I let my defenses down for long enough for my systems to be damaged. The juices I depend on…how they sear my mind! I have totally lost focus of my psionic abilities for the moment. I have feared this many a time, but I cast it all aside as foolishness. Ascension to perfection never meets perfection as the end result. However, I shall not accept this. I am the greatest mind the galaxy has seen, immortalized to carry out destiny…sent into retreat by a human whelp! The fool inhabitants of this pathetic asteroid of a planet shall not live a day in light until I have full retribution against those whelps. This I swear to the Good Human and myself. Long live the Pigs."

Another electronic shock went into the bloated brain and numbed it so further surgeries could be done.