"This is it?" Brianna asked.
"This is it. This is the facility to which the purchases of Squirlium were traced," Leslie replied. The two of them were standing in front of a warehouse in Zerich's industrial sector, finding their entrance barred by a huge iron door. Tiberius and Mxy stood a few metres behind them.
"Squirlium?" Tiberius said.
"It's what Robo Squirrel's made of. It's nearly indestructible. And purchases of it; along with the electronic parts necessary to build Robo Squirrel; were sent here six months ago," Brianna explained.
Tiberius stepped forward to the locked door.
"Hmm..." He said, and placed a hand against it. He then stepped back, took a deep breath, and slammed his palm against the huge steel panel. The door buckled, and swung open.
"I could have opened it," Mxy said.
"If you just did everything for us, Mxy, life wouldn't be very interesting, now would it?" Leslie said, firing a glance at him over her shoulder.
"The building appears to be deserted," Tiberius shouted from his position a few metres ahead of him.
Brianna's mobile phone rang, and she quickly answered it.
"Is her ringtone 'I Just Called To Say I Love You'?" Leslie asked. Mxy begun to hum it as Brianna talked, then stopped when she hung up.
"Guys? That was Grissom. He says we should be on the lookout for other robotic animals, not just squirrels. Apparently there was some sort of ostrich incident in Melbourne."
"That is completely and utterly bizarre," Leslie said.
"Other animals? Such as what?" Tiberius asked.
Nobody had the chance to answer before a creature that looked suspiciously like a shiny metal boar dove out of the darkness and rammed into Tiberius' midsection, sending him sliding across the room and coming to a halt against a stone wall.
Behind them, a loud thump indicated the arrival of a robotic ocelot.
"This is stupid," Leslie said.
"Mxy! Leslie! The one outside!" Brianna yelled, before turning to face the boar that had attacked Tiberius.
Leslie and Mxy didn't miss a beat after Brianna spoke, both running through the door to confront their attacker. Leslie raised a gun and fired six rounds directly into the ocelot's hide, cursing as they bounced off it ineffectually.
Mxy waved a hand and the wires inside the robot's body were turned to pasta.
"You couldn't have done that first?"
"I wanted to see if bullets would work."
Inside, Brianna tried her scream against the robotic boar, to little effect. "Damn it," She said softly, and ran to help up Tiberius. As he rose to his feet, the boar sprinted towards them.
"Distract it," Tiberius suggested. Brianna waved her arms and flapped her wings, getting the robot's attention. She left Tiberius' side and ran across the room, the robot following her.
Tiberius took a few running steps and then jumped, coming down hard on top of the boar. He drove his knee into its back and forced his elbow into the join of its neck. It collapsed to the floor.
"So what do we think?" Leslie said, re-entering the room with Mxy behind her. Mxy was now humming 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' again, and somehow producing not just the vocal melody, but the sound of a full symphony orchestra with just his humming.
"Whoever is misusing the Robo Squirrel designs has adapted them to other animals, of course. But why?" Brianna said.
"It is difficult to say," Tiberius replied.
"We should check this place out," Brianna said. "You know. For clues."
"Right! Clues!" Mxy said, as a magnifying glass appeared in his hand and a lit pipe protruded from his mouth.
Brianna led the way. "And be careful. We don't know what other robot... things... could be here."
