"Just hold still will you!" The old scientist snarled as his eyes darted around the many screens that surrounded him.

It was a near endless onslaught. A flurry of hands trying to grab ahold of Nugget. She tried her usual tactics, but they didn't seem to work against this opponent. When she moved to try and get the hands to strike at each other, they always managed to change their trajectory. Some would even stop completely instead of hitting each other.

And, despite many attempts, her claws just couldn't seem to get through their armor. Every hit, scratch, and leap couldn't even leave a scuff on the metal covered arms as they extended out and bombarded her with attacks.

Nugget had to keep moving. Each step another attack reached out for her. Every jump, another would appear in the air heading right for her. No matter how many she managed to avoid, another would be right there waiting. Her only moments of relief were the brief seconds that the arms paused their attack to avoid hitting each other.

"No matter how I calculate it, that darn bird keeps changing what she should be doing next." the man grit his teeth. "None of her moves are the way they should be. They're all off somehow."

Then, he sat back as a jolt of electricity flew across the spikes on his helmet and over his face. The raw energy just missed the skin on his nose by a fraction of an inch. He smiled. "No matter. I'll build a model with your strange movements, and soon enough I'll have you pinned down completely."

"Warning, full startup sequence is indefinitely delayed due to an excess of processes currently running." The young girl's voice warned.

"It's fine," the man smirked. "I'll have all the time in the world once this pest is finished off for good."

Nugget's eyes kept moving around. From the shattered ground to the onslaught of the many arms to Bakade and the wolf who were still lying still on the ground, and finally to the glass dome where the scientist was.

To an untrained observer it would seem like she was effortlessly avoiding all of the grasping hands. But to anyone who had seen Nugget at her best, it was obvious that she was not just struggling, but that she was slowing down bit by bit. Every attack was avoided just a fraction of a second slower than the last.

It was only a matter of time.

"That's it!" he cackled as he input the custom model for Nugget. "Things will be easy now."

The effect was instantaneous. As soon as he made the change, the next hand slammed into Nugget's stomach.

Her eyes flew open in shock, and Nugget spat out a bit of blood from her beak. But that wasn't the end of it. As she tried to recover, another hand slammed into her back and knocked her towards the ground.

Before she could even land, a dozen more hands flew into her and slapped her around between them. Finally, one wrapped around her small body, and grasped her so tightly she couldn't help but cry out a pained, "Baaaww!"

As she was grasped in the hand, the onslaught stopped. The limbs retreated back to the main robot along with the one that held her firm. Inside the machine, the old man was smug as could be.

"It was always futile to oppose me," he boasted. "Especially such a pathetic creature. So weak. So insignificant. The only value you ever had was in your parts being recycled for human consumption."

"Worthless beast," he spat out.

Nugget struggled to keep her head up. Her body was tired and worn down. She was so close to giving up. It'd be easier. Yet, the small chicken continued to force herself to look up at the dome as she slowly approached.

The hand squeezed tighter, and her head flung back as she cried out again. "BBaaaaawwww!" she cried as blood slowly dripped out from the bottom of the hand that was crushing her.

Her aura began to wane as she finally closed her eyes.

The countless limbs retracted into the machine and slowly formed into two large, much more solid arms. But the one that held her stopped abruptly. It was a good hundred feet away from the main body as the scientist parted the screens on the inside of the dome to look out at her directly.

"I am not so foolish as to bring you any closer." he smirked. "Defeated or not, you've shown how creative you can be."

The hand holding her raised up higher into the air. "And so, I think I will finish you off out there." He mused cruelly. "Flattening you against the rocks below feels suitable for nothing but a pest as insignificant as a common housefly."

The hand refused to let go of her. It held its grip as it raised up, and then came crashing down towards the ground.

WHAM!

It slammed into the ground hard enough to knock away several small boulders. The force flattened the ground under the hand somewhat. While still down there, the hand began to press Nugget into the ground. It unwrapped its fingers one by one to expose her soft flesh to the hard ground below.

While it kept the pressure on her, it fully released her from its grip. But now she was between the armored palm and the hard ground below. Nugget's aura got smaller and smaller while her eyes were still shut.

Then, something seemed to stir within her. Nugget's eyelids trembled, as if she was having some sort of nightmare. Her spirit seemed to flare up and concentrate down around her.

"I do wish you could have been less of a disappointment, but what should I expect from such lesser beings," the old man gloated. "Now, goodbye once and for all."

The hand stopped slowly pressing down and changed to force itself down with all of its might. The ground crumbled around it, as the hand pushed into the earth itself, like it was pressing into a pool of jelly.

The scientist's smile turned to a frown as a red warning light began to flash. He turned to see a small screen that showed the heat of the hand increasing exponentially. He frowned angrily and turned to look out of the dome. Even from so far away, he could see the hand changing color.

But it wasn't turning red. No, the hand was turning bright blue.