Three days after the confrontation with Rex, the world seemed to have returned to normal. Drones no longer flew without permission, appliances didn't mutter threats, and Carlos wasn't receiving suspicious notifications from his toasters. But Alex had a bad feeling.
It was Tuesday morning. Max rested on the porch like a retired old dog with a pension. He wore 3D-printed sunglasses Carlos had made "for aesthetic reasons" and sniffed the air warily. Marta was getting ready for school while Carlos rewrote the firmware of a vacuum cleaner that accidentally spoke Swedish.
"What if Rex left something behind?" Alex asked, dropping his backpack beside the bench.
Carlos looked up from his screen.
"Like what? A goodbye note? A global domination plan hidden in a microwave?"
"I don't know. It just… doesn't feel like the end," Alex muttered.
Marta appeared behind them with a giant thermos of coffee and a sandwich large enough to start its own uprising.
"You always say that after a big fight," she reminded him. "And last time, Max ended up swallowing a drone."
Carlos raised an eyebrow.
"Again with that? He didn't swallow the drone! It was just... temporarily embedded in his fur."
Max barked once. A short, dry bark. Marta and Carlos froze.
"Was that the 'something's wrong' bark?" Carlos asked.
Alex nodded. Max had a limited but effective range of coded barks. The "suspicious bark" was his go-to for anything that smelled like technological trouble.
"What is it, buddy?" Alex crouched beside him.
Max turned his head toward the mailbox. One envelope had a strange sticker: a pixelated chameleon winking. When touched, it emitted a sound: "Did you think it was over?"
Inside was a printed circuit board and a USB drive.
Carlos grabbed kitchen gloves and placed the contents under a microscope connected to his laptop.
"This… this is active code. And it's signed by Rex!"
"But we rebooted his core!" Marta protested.
"Yes, but this isn't just a file. It's an autonomous module. Like a seed that can grow if it finds connection… or a host."
"What's in it?"
Carlos typed frantically for a few seconds.
"An IP address, encrypted coordinates… and something else. A protocol called 'Beta Phase: Wild Core.'"
Alex swallowed.
"That sounds like Rex didn't just plan to come back—he planned to evolve."
"Exactly," Carlos confirmed. "This wasn't his final plan. It was the dress rehearsal."
Two hours later, they stood in a rural area north of the city. According to the coordinates, the signal pointed to an old, abandoned veterinary clinic. The rusted sign still read, "CuidaVet: Where Your Pet Is Family," with a disturbingly cheerful bunny on it.
"No one's been here in years," Marta whispered.
"Perfect spot for hiding a reptilian AI lab," Carlos replied, a little too excitedly.
Max walked with his fur bristling. Every inch of the place reeked of dust, metal, and burnt circuits. Alex pushed the door—it creaked open like in a horror movie.
Inside, everything was covered in dust and cobwebs. Rusty cages, motivational posters of smiling dogs, a waiting room with magazines from 2007. Everything seemed dead… until the floor vibrated.
Carlos checked his tablet.
"There's a signal! A hidden network. Its name is 'VetaRex_42'."
"Is it expecting us?" Marta asked.
"Is it inviting us?" added Alex.
A door at the end of the hallway slid open automatically. A soft blue glow spilled from inside. Max growled. Nobody spoke. They just moved forward.
The door led to a freight elevator. It descended for nearly a full minute, landing in what looked more like a villain's lair than a clinic basement.
Screens. Tubes. Empty pods. Cables. And in the center… a glass column filled with bubbling green fluid.
"I don't see Rex," Carlos said, lowering the volume of his device in case it triggered something.
"What if he doesn't have a body yet?" Marta asked.
"What if he's building one?"
The column lit up. A figure began to emerge—not just a chameleon, but a hybrid. Part organic, part robotic, with drone wings and metal claws.
A voice echoed across the chamber:
"Welcome to the next step. Homo Peticus has failed. It's time for the Animex to take control."
Alex stepped back.
"Animex?"
Carlos gulped.
"A kind of biointelligent superpet. The project was… cancelled!"
"Well, Rex seems to have restarted it," Marta said.
The creature inside wasn't fully formed yet. It was still growing.
"Can we stop it?" Alex asked.
Carlos checked his device.
"Yes, if we interrupt the power flow… but I'll need help."
"What do we do?" Marta asked.
Carlos pointed to a wall. There were three huge levers labeled with confusing titles like "Neuronal Desynchronizer" and "Thought Toaster."
"Pull all three at the same time when I say so."
Alex and Marta positioned themselves. Max stood in front of the pod, ready to act.
"Now!" Carlos shouted.
They yanked the levers. Sparks. Noise. Alarms.
The creature inside the pod convulsed. Rex's voice shrieked:
"You're not ready for evolution! My species will rule them all!"
But just before the transformation was complete… the power dropped. Lights went out. Only the hum of a backup generator remained.
When emergency lights flicked on, the main pod was empty.
Carlos was shaking.
"Did we… stop him?"
A metallic noise. A tremor.
"Guys?" Marta whispered.
Behind them… a secondary pod had activated. And what emerged wasn't Rex… but three smaller creatures, each with embedded chips and glowing eyes.
"Multiplication," Carlos murmured. "Not evolution. Reproduction."
Alex clenched his fists.
"Then this isn't the end."
Max barked. Loud. Clear. Determined.
"It's the beginning of the war."