by I'm Not Mister M'xypltk
The desert:
The group had been walking in the sand under the hot sun for an hour. Mick Harrison finally decided to call M'xy. According to him, he did this to help make the journey more easy, but the truth was that Mick just wanted to skip the whole walking in the desert part.
M'xy provided a big floating umbrella that followed the group everywhere, but for some reason everyone was still hot. Later, M'xy provided water, which helped make the journey more easy... for the moment.
Behind them, a pair of electronic eyes watched the group. They were the eyes of one of the Mastiffs of War. It had followed their trail for some time, and now it had finally found them.
Before attacking them, the big mechanical Mastiff simulated the attack in its inner computer and decided which one of the endless possibilities to destroy them it will use. The Mastiffs were not entirely mechanical. No, there was a human brain inside their heads.
In order to make the Mastiffs more innovative, the scientists that created them took human brains, got rid of any traces of emotion in them, and took the potential each human has for evil and destruction to the limit. Then they inserted the purely evil human brains in the computer in the Mastiffs' heads to control and focus that evil. As a result, the Mastiffs could not only track down and destroy, they could also make the target suffer more than they have suffered in their entire lives.
"Where did you get that water from, M'xy?" Danny Hearn asked. "I'm feeling weird."
"Oh, you are sick all the time!" M'xy said.
"No, he's right. I feel like that, too," Sam Dawson said.
"I don't -- LOOK OUT!" M'xy said as the Mastiff of War jumped above the team and landed right in front of them.
Everyone took a fighting position, especially Marv Velo, who recognized the technology and knew what it was capable of.
"Don't stay close to each other!" Velo shouted. "It will be harder for him if he has no clear target!"
Danny morphed his hands into claws, Sonja Ljzavet prepared to attack, Tobias Christopher prepared to hit and run, Naecken prepared to smash, Sam "Shift" Dawson smiled and shaped his hands into weapons, Lance Lorenzo became immaterial, M'xy made a force field to protect Shirley Francis, and the big bad Mastiff of War... fell to the ground.
"The hell?" Lance yelled.
"Heeeey," protested Shift. "What happened to the dog? I thought we were going to kick his ass."
"Who did it?" Sonja asked.
"Don't look at me!" M'xy said.
Velo, as surprised as everyone else, went closer to the inactive metallic dog lying in the sand to examine it and find out what happened. As Velo opened the Mastiff's head, Naecken took his hand to his forehead and made a small noise.
"Mr. Naecken?" Shirley asked. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. I just had a sudden headache. Don't worry," Naecken answered.
"It's probably that damn water M'xy gave us!" Danny said.
"Interesting," Velo said. "At first I thought the inner computer of the Mastiff had failed, but it's intact."
"Then what happened?" Sonja asked.
"The failure came from the human brain inside the Mastiff's head. It's still active, but it doesn't produce any reactions," Velo answered.
"Just like that? What could be the reason?" Sonja said.
"I honestly have no idea. Mastiffs of War brains are pure evil, and with this one, it's almost like... the evil got sucked away."
The team members soon forgot this mystery and continued their journey through the desert.