Chapter 11

"Wow, these are amazing," Vicki said, gaping at Furno and Nex. "Are these robots? Did Erez design them? Where did they even come from? I didn't see them at all, but then it was like, poof, they're here!"

Furno glanced at Vicki. "This is the friend you mentioned?" he asked Samantha.

Samantha nodded. "Look, Vicki, there's a lot to this story, and we're still trying to figure some things out. But these are two… Heroes, I guess, from someplace far away. Erez and I have actually already met Furno here. And, the truth it, this hike was all about finding this second Hero here."

"Amazing," Vicki said, but she frowned suddenly. "But hey, why didn't you just tell me about this earlier? Why'd you lie to me?"

Samantha smiled meekly. "Well, we just didn't know the best way to say that we were looking for a giant robot lost in the mountains. It's not exactly a believable story."

"But I would've believed you," Vicki said. "Did you not trust me to know about this?"

"Oh, for crying out loud," Erez grumbled. "We didn't tell you because we think the government might be after these guys, and the less you knew, the safer you were. At least, that was the theory before those drones showed up."

"Right, right, the drones," Vicki said. She turned and bowed to Furno. "Thank you again for saving me from those."

"You're welcome," Furno said, nodding smugly. "All in a day's work for a Hero!"

"And thank you too!" Vicki said to Nex. She held out her hand. "I'm Vicki, it's nice to meet you."

Nex hesitated, and then reached out to grab Vicki's hand. Furno elbowed her first, and whispered, "Careful, they are fragile creatures. Don't squeeze too hard."

Nex nodded, and gently took Vicki's hand and shook it. Vicki grinned widely. "Wow, this is awesome. Can you speak too, Nex?"

Nex hesitated, and glanced away. Samantha frowned, and asked, "Does Nex not have a language chip installed?"

Furno grinned. "Oh yes she does, and by now it should be working, but she's a bit shy for a Hero." He nudged Nex, and said, "Go ahead, introduce yourself."

Nex paused, and then said, "Greetings. My name is Jules Nex, but I normally go by the codename Nex. I am a Hero of Senses, and a proud member of Beta Team of the Hero Factory."

"Jules?" Erez repeated. "Wait, does that mean it identifies as a girl? But it's a robot."

"I do identify as a female," Nex said. "Just as Furno identifies as a male. Although we do not have organic features that differentiate us, it is a cultural attribute that Hero Factory continues to abide by."

"Wait, does that mean you're not purely robotic?" Samantha asked. "What I got from Furno was that everybody from your world was robots."

"There are generally a higher percentage of mechanical elements in the average being than organics," Nex admitted. "But our civilization once evolved from purely organic lifeforms, such as yourselves. We still retain minimal organic tissues, located primarily within our helmets and in our Hero Cores."

"Wait, how did you know they were organic?" Furno asked. "It took me a while to figure that out."

"It is obvious from analyzing their bodies," Nex explained. "I have determined the organic makeup of their cells, and have detected only minimal technological additions to them, thus inferring that they are at a much earlier stage in their development than our people."

"Wait, you can tell that much just by looking at us?" Samantha asked, frowning.

"Indeed," Nex said. "I can also tell that the two of you are female, based on the presence of eggs within your bodies. The third is a male, as he is in possession of sperm which will be used to fertilize the eggs. But it appears that your bodies are still only partially developed, leading to my assumption that you are adolescents within your species."

Vicki blushed. "Wow, you can tell quite a lot."

"Did I say something offensive?" Nex wondered.

"It's just that the topic of… fertilization… is considered impolite in our society," Samantha explained.

"But reproduction is an essential part of an organic species' existence," Nex stated, baffled. "If you shy away from the subject, then how can you be properly informed of how to proceed with it?"

"It's just the way we do things," Samantha said.

"They have quite a few dos and don'ts in their culture," Furno put in. "They do have an extensive information network, although their individual ports are painfully slow to upload from. Not all the information is genuine, but from it you can gleam some of how to interact with them."

"I do indeed have much to learn," Nex admitted.

"But I do have some questions for you," Furno said. "You were able to summon your ranged weapons, and your senses are still at full capacity. How is that?"

"I don't know," Nex said. "Everything appears to be operating normally."

"But half of my functions are unresponsive," Furno said.

"Is it because you are missing your elemental crystal?" Nex asked.

"His elemental what?" Erez repeated.

"His elemental crystal, which he uses to derive his elemental powers from," Nex explained. She gestured to the small orange crystal in the center of her Hero Core. "My element is Senses. It allows me to detect many things based on sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste, among others. That is what allowed me to quickly identify your organic makeup."

"Senses is not an element," Erez said. "Elements are the fundamental atoms that build up everything in the universe, like Hygrogram and Carbon and such."

"Ah, I understand," Nex said. "The word is the same, but the concepts are different. In our case, the 'elements' we speak of are the source of our unique powers. Mine allows me to pick up on things in my surroundings. Furno's is more useful in the heat of battle, as it were."

"I know Furno's mentioned something about his element, but he's never used it," Samantha said.

"That would be because his elemental crystal of fire is missing," Nex said, gesturing to the empty slot in Furno's Hero Core. "Perhaps it got separated from you in the earlier battle?"

"That might explain it," Furno mused. "I did take a hit in the chest before going through the portal."

"Wait, that means Furno's elemental crystal could be anywhere," Erez said. "Man, it was already tough enough trying to find the other Hero Cores, and now it turns out there's another piece we're missing."

"I am confused," Nex said. "Why are you searching for Hero Cores?"

"It's a long story," Samantha said. She started to explain everything she, Erez, and Furno had pieced together so far. Both Vicki and Nex listened intently, occasionally asking clarification questions.

"And based on Erez's estimations, we thought a core landed around here," Samantha continued. "So we tricked Vicki… again, sorry about that… into driving us up here, and then hiked in to find you. Then we got attacked by the drones. It was blind luck that I was able to find Nex's Hero Core, although I wasn't able to summon her at first. It must've been when Erez threw it that it activated."

"Wait, that means I'm the one who activated Nex first!" Erez said.

"Yeah, that's how it seems," Samantha said. "Although I don't know why it didn't work for me. Maybe it's because I'm already connected to Furno."

"That could indeed be the case," Nex said. "I am still greatly surprised to find out that the miniaturization project has been applied to us, but some modifications were used to the original code. These humans are not likely suspects; I fear this is Von Nebula's doing."

"Who is Von Nebula?" Vicki asked. "Is he some big programming scientist robot from your world?"

"Yeah, Furno has mentioned his name a few times, but hasn't explained exactly who he is," Samantha said.

"Von Nebula is one of the greatest enemies we at Hero Factory have ever faced," Furno said darkly. "It's not a pleasant story."

"It started long before I was constructed," Nex said. "Before even Furno was initiated as a Hero. Von Ness was in the original wave of Heroes created by Hero Factory. But although he acted gallantly, he was also selfish. Soon that selfishness started to turn into greed."

"And he went over to the Dark Side?" Vicki exclaimed.

Nex blinked. "I do not understand? His armor was already rather dark, although he did eventually make modifications to it."

"He betrayed all that Hero Factory holds dear," Furno put in. "That's reason enough."

"Is it quite the sore subject?" Samantha asked.

"Our leader and Furno's mentor, Stormer, was great friends with Von Ness," Nex continued. "He was there when Von Ness turned. They had just captured a villain in the middle of a heist. But then Von Ness decided that he would rather collect the treasure himself. Stormer was forced to fight his former friend, and it resulted in an explosion."

"So Von Ness was killed?" Erez asked.

"He was damaged, but not dead," Furno said. "He joined the criminal underworld, rebuilt himself, and became a notorious criminal under the name Von Nebula. Because of his time as a Hero, he knew our secrets, and was able to counter our attempts to recapture him."

"Furno and Stormer have fought Von Nebula many times, but never managed to subdue him completely," Nex said. "Meanwhile, Von Nebula continued to research into ways to control the fabrics of the universe. He knew ways to alter optical images and even break into the minds of others. His work on black holes was quite remarkable, to be honest, except he used his learnings for the wrong reasons."

"We feared that he was behind the destruction of Makuhero City, but we didn't know for sure until we found him in the midst of it all," Furno said. "He had used his power over black holes to destabilize the planet, and he had larger goals in mind too. We fought him, but before we could claim victory, he opened the portal that brought us here."

"Except we found him in a research facility," Nex pointed out. "He could've been downloading the information about the miniaturization project, and somehow used it on us. And I don't think it was just a random portal he created. Which means it could've been part of his plan to send us to this planet, so that we're far out of his way."

"I'm pretty sure he followed us in," Furno stated. "And there were villains who were sucked through too." He frowned. "That's all the more reason to find the rest of the Heroes. We have some estimated locations for their Hero Cores, and since we managed to locate you, I think their accuracy is pretty high."

"Did you not just do a radiation search?" Nex asked.

"Um, no, not really," Erez said. "You see, I logged all the meteorite sightings and calculated a rough trajectory and…"

"What do you mean by radiation?" Samantha asked.

Nex tapped her goggles, and a new lens flipped down. "Most bots from our world give off a particular radiation," she said. "We can use it to track them from a distance or determine how long ago they were in an area. From what I have experienced in your world so far, nothing here gives off the same kind of radiation, leading me to assume that the sources of it here would be the remaining Hero Cores.""

"Wait, you're radioactive?" Vicki exclaimed. "Doesn't that mean we're getting radiation poisoning from just being around you?"

"Not all radiation is harmful," Erez pointed out. "Living organisms give off radiation too, although in smaller amounts. And we get radiation from the sun and electronics and all sorts of things. Most of it is on a level that's relatively harmless. But that's why you wear some protective clothing when you get x-rayed, because that's subjecting you to a higher than normal dose of radiation. So the radiation from the Heroes shouldn't be dangerous… I hope," he added.

Nex chuckled. "That is a fairly accurate scientific statement. And you are correct; our radiation is not harmful to organic lifeforms. But it is merely on a spectrum that is not used much in your world."

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?" Samantha asked Furno.

"Because I didn't know," Furno said with a shrug. "I'm not exactly the scientist; that's Nex's specialty."

"Besides, Furno would not have a way to detect it, but I do," Nex said. "My visual spectrum allows me to see higher concentrations of the radiation. And I can use that to track down the other Hero Cores. Or, more specifically, Furno's elemental crystal."

"Wait, you know where my crystal is?" Furno asked.

"I believe I have detected its presence a short distance away," Nex said, pointing out over the hills.

Vicki glanced over and squinted. "But that's the direction of the forest fire. Even we can see the smoke from here." She gasped. "Oh no, is Furno's elemental crystal in the forest fire? It might get burned or damaged or something!"

"Furno's elemental crystal is not merely within the forest fire," Nex corrected. "Furno's crystal is the forest fire."