"Impossible!" The scientist snarled as his giant robot stumbled backwards.

Blue fire burned on the ground as the metal arm that had held Nugget melted. The hand itself was nothing more than a metallic puddle that had burned into the ground, and slowly dripped down between the cracks.

Nugget hopped up to the top of a broken piece of the ground. She still looked like she was on the verge of collapsing from her wounds, but she stood firm. Atop her vantage point she looked at the retreating limb that was still dripping molten metal.

She stood calmly as her eyes focused in on the see-through dome. Then, she ran. As she kept her eyes focused on her goal, she ran forward over the uneven terrain towards it.

The old man ground his teeth together. Caution signs raised up all over the dome, but he ignored them. He made the broken arm raise up, and slam down towards Nugget to crush her.

"Stupid insect. Know your place beneath your better's boot!"

Nugget easily dodged out of the way of the single attack. But it didn't let up and smacked down against the ground over and over again like a whip as it tried to crush the lone chicken.

More caution signs popped up along with the custom program of Nugget's fighting style. The scientist snorted derisively. "Remove all warnings. What? Do you think I don't know what I'm doing?"

"Apologies. You were the one who programmed those warnings to go off if you acted irrationally."

The scientist ground his teeth in anger as he grumbled under his breath.

He removed all of the data screens from the dome. Then, put all new ones up with half of them being camera shots that focused on Nugget. The melting limb that was whipping at Nugget suddenly unraveled into nearly a hundred smaller strands of metal. Like a frayed rope.

The strands started to whip at Nugget. Nugget dodged around them, but as they started to speed up, and seemingly predict where she was going to be she changed. Nugget stopped dodging.

She planted her two talons on the ground and stared through them towards the larger dome. Steam began to pour off of her body, and as the metal strand tried to lash at her, they seemed to be repelled almost a full inch away from any part of her. Like they were running into a forcefield.

Then, Nugget spread her wings and cried out, "Bawk Bakaw!" as she leaped forward. Her body became engulfed in blue flames. It was nothing but a fireball at first, but soon the fire spread into a form vaguely resembling a bird with spread wings.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

In her fiery form, she moved right through the metal onslaught. Each of the strands melted almost instantly as she got close. As if the entire limb wasn't there, she moved forward at incredible speed.

A moment later, the fire faded from around her as she appeared to leap out from the flames. She landed on what was left of the metal arm and started to dash forward towards the main body.

The old man's eye twitched as he stared on in frustration. He let out a frustrated huff as his eyes darted around the screens. Readouts of what happened popped up around various camera shots of Nugget's transformation in slow motion.

Finally, he raised his hand and pushed it to the side. All the screens were tossed to the side with his motion. They were quickly replaced with new ones that showed the status of the robot. His eyes darted around with rapid speed.

Nugget was getting closer and closer. Her eyes were focused completely on the dome as she sprinted forward. Then, the limb she was running up was disconnected from the larger robot. As it fell, she continued to run along it.

The massive arms and legs of the robot pulled in towards its body. They began to spin around it faster and faster, as they got smaller with each pass. Round and round they went until the strange machine was nothing more than an armored ball.

No limbs, no bumps, just a completely smooth ball of metal with even the dome completely concealed. Inside, the scientist had no more visual cameras on the outside world. However, he had several different monitors that effectively gave him sight outside of the protective shell.

Infrared, thermal, heartbeat sensors, and several speculative screens based off of the information he had gathered on Nugget. He was in the dark except for the dull light of the screens that surrounded him.

"Try and beat this you dumb animal." he sneered.

Nugget made it to the armored ball but didn't stop moving. She took in a deep breath and steam began to pour off of her body again. As she leaped towards the robot-ball, her body erupted in blue flame again. With fiery wings spread, she crashed into the ball.

As she hit it, the ball began to spin. It threw Nugget off, as her fiery form slid off of the side of the machine and towards the ground. The flames around her dissipated before she landed firmly on the ground.

Nugget looked back up at the ball. There was a glowing red line along the middle that seemed even brighter as it spun around so quickly. Then, it stopped spinning completely, with nothing but a glowing red line to show that Nugget had approached it at all.

Nearby, the wolf was completely still. Then its eyelid squinted open as the rest of it didn't move an inch. It looked on at Nugget standing against the giant ball.

Nugget turned back towards the machine as he eyes focused on the center of mass. She burst into flames as she leaped towards it again.

This time, instead of just spinning, a spike shot out towards Nugget. As it got close, it started to melt. Nugget slammed into the ball again and the metal around her started to glow.

Then, it began to spin again. However, this time, the flaming bird turned towards the direction the ball was spinning. As it moved faster and faster, she somehow managed to stay in the same spot as the ball spun against her.

A strip around the ball glowed hotter and hotter, until it started to melt and drip down along the sides of the robot.

"Impossible!" he cried as Nugget melted through more and more of the machine.

The scientist panicked as his eyes darted around quicker and quicker. From screen to screen that he threw aside as quickly as they came up in front of him. The robot began to hum louder and louder, then electricity pulsed out from it wildly like a tesla coil.

Bolts of overcharged electricity struck at Nugget, but she kept pushing forward more and more. Wave after wave of energy pulses followed as they tried to dissuade her. But nothing seemed to work.

She got closer and closer, but as the dome came in view of her fiery form and started to melt, an extra strong pulse managed to push her back just slightly. An onslaught of electric bolts that followed managed to push her away and out of the groove she had dug into the machine.

CRASH!

Three green lines appeared along the unprotected dome, and then the strengthened glass around them shattered. One more green streak flew through the room, and across the scientist's chest. As his body started to split in half, a dagger with a green edge fell to the ground.

SNAP!

Powerful jaws closed around the scientist's throat. The wolf stood over his dead body for just a moment before it spat out his flesh and blood. Like it was a bitter poison only put in his mouth by necessity.

Nugget breathed in slowly as she prepared to jump back towards the machine. But she stopped herself as her head tilted to the side. A moment later, the wolf walked out to the edge of the still red-hot metal Nugget had burrowed through.

With a dagger in his mouth the wolf looked down at Nugget. Hatred and bloodlust poured off of him in waves. The two of them locked eyes and seemed to wait for the other to make the first move.