"Hey. Hey, Boomer. Hey. Hey, Boomer. Hey. Hey, Boom-"

"WHAT?"

"…Hi."

"For the thirty-seventh time, HI!"

Exor and Boomer had been at their post for hours, and it was getting irritating. Boomer ignored the Chandeli-hos that hung onto the chandeliers in the castle, and when Exor wasn't talking to Boomer, he was talking to Neosquid, the skull on his hit. There was no star in their area, so Boomer had no idea on what he was supposed to defend. He was about to offline from boredom, until the timely arrival of Bali snapped him out of it.

"Boomer!" Bali said, panting for breath due to flying that far to get here. "I…have…to tell…you something!"

"What?" Boomer asked, rolling his eyes behind his helmet. Was he the only serious one around here?

"You know your code of honor?" Bali asked, sitting down on the chandelier that Boomer stood on.

"Yeah…?" Boomer asked, taking notice when she mentioned this.

"Recite it."

"Seriously…?" This was it? This was so important to her?

"Do it." Bali bluntly said.

"Fine." Boomer huffily said. "'I shall protect my family.' Are you happy? I don't see why you'd care so much about-"

"I knew it!" Bali said, springing up. "You don't know the first part!"

"What are you talking about…?" Boomer asked, completely confused.

"My station was at the BeanBean Kingdom, which by the way is NOT full of evil creatures like father implied." Bali explained. "Anyways, I met a woman who owned a book all about Factory. It told us more than we ever learned. I read about your species. You're a Katana creature. They travel with their extended family."

"Right." Boomer said, irritated. "And YOU'RE not-"

"I am!" Bali interrupted. "We all are. You're extended family extends to more than our oil line. Your friends, your neighbors…your adopted family…we're all your family! Your full code of honor is actually 'My allies are my family. I shall protect my family'."

It suddenly dawned on Boomer. He remembered his blueprints. They were always slightly creased when he noticed Smithy take them out for operations. One time, he remembered seeing a slight amount of extra wording above the first half of his code of honor. He would question Smithy about this, but he would always claim he was just imagining things. He was being lied to…he wasn't an ally...

"…I will protect my family." Boomer finally said. "I'm not doing this for father's sake. It's for my real family. You guys. And for Factory. I will defend at all costs."

"I'm glad you see this through." Bali said, then grabbed onto something. "I have this for you."

She gave him a thermos. It was filled with what would be Boomer's first taste of organic food: hot green tea.

"Drink this if your asthma attacks start up."

"I will. I might not like it as much as oil, but I'll do it for you."


"Thanks. I have to go now. The others will really need my help."

"Cold…so cold…Pink, heal us…"

"I-I can't, Red…I can't even heal myself…"

"Guys! You gotta stay with me!"

The Axem Rangers slowly looked up with all the power they could muster. Right above them was Bali. They were lying on Blade's deck, which had crashed into a cliff. Thankfully, the battleship was still useable.

"Bali…you came for us…" Axem Green coughed, as warm medicine flowed through his mouth.

"I had to." Bali said, as she started feeding the medicine to the others. "You're my family."

"We…failed…" Axem Black admitted, as he let the medicine start to take effect. "We let the villains get the star…"

"No, you guys didn't." Bali reassured, as she started wrapping their wounds. "In fact, we were actually the villains. We've been guided on the wrong path…by our own father…but I don't think I can call him that anymore…

"What do you mean, Bali?" Axem Green asked, as he attempted to stand up.


"…I'll explain while we find the others…"

"I WANNA GO HOME! I WANT MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS! I'M SCARED!"

Mack's wails were heard throughout the kingdom. Shyster had left him due to fear. He went home to his mom when he was feeling too hurt to fight. Unfortunately, the citizens were too afraid to get near him. While they did pity him, they were still shell shocked from his attack. Mack didn't feel like a big boy anymore. He knew he was still the baby of the family. He still wanted to be the baby. But he didn't want to turn to his father. He saw the truth through Shyster. These citizens weren't the bad guys. He was…

"MACK!"

He slowly lifted his head when he heard his name called. When he saw his siblings eagerly awaiting him on Blade, his tears of fear and sadness turned into tears of joy. Instead of using his pogo knife to hop over to them, he ran. He ran straight into the arms of Bali, who hugged onto him. Normally, in his bratty behavior, he wouldn't hug back. But this time he did. He hugged as hard as he could.


"Worthless…I am…stuck here alone…that's what I will be"

Bowyer used up all his Flunkies. He didn't care. He was lost in the woods. He didn't care. He was all alone. He…did care. He understood that he made some bad choices that day. He wanted to say he was sorry. Not to the citizens, but to himself. He was a villain. He wanted to atone. But how could he apologize when he didn't even trust himself?

"Forgive myself, I can't." He said to what he thought was himself.

"But you can, Bowyer."

He suddenly felt a metallic hand on his wooden shoulder, as he slowly turned around, to see the hopeful eyes of some of his siblings.

"Father…you can't apologize for his actions." Bali explained, as Bowyer slowly followed her to Blade. "But you do have the power to apologize for yours."


"That citizen was right…I am a sickly freak…not in my health…but in my state of mind…I deserve to rust…"

Yaridovich was on the edge of the sea in the town. His façade had fallen. Not just his physical one, but his mental one. His faith was covered up by the promotion. He was horrible to believe Smithy.

"I guess this is the end of me…"

"It's not!" A voice called out from behind him.

"It's just the beginning!" Another added. Looking behind him, he saw nearly all his little siblings, staring with hopeful gazes.

"Yaridovich…" Bali started. "Our paths have been corrupted. But we can change them. We all can."


"Bali was right about me…I may not have been able to stop those guys…but now I see my true self…"

Boomer had lost a battle against the five heroes. To protect his honor, he severed the cord of his chandelier, and let himself plummet. While his metal body deflected the blow, his asthma attacks started to act up. Thankfully, the gift that Bali gave him gave him enough strength to carry on until his siblings came for his health.

"You did it, Boomer!" Bali said, as she flew in, and with the help of his other siblings, was supported enough to easily walk to Blade. "You protected us…you lost against those five, but you helped save us…


"Exor! Let us through!"

Bali was controlling Blade, and was now floating in front of Exor, who had been damaged from the fight.

"I don't have much power left…" Exor said. "And I'll be stuck here…"

"No you won't!" Bali called out. "I will get you home!"

Being able to trust his sister, he let Blade through, as they returned to Factory, with no clue of the big shock that would come in store for them…


"Our home! What happened to it? It's ruined!"

"Hey, there are some corpses over here!"

"They…look like us!"

"They're fakes…no, they're replacement clones…for Smithy's truth."

None of them could believe this: unpainted corpses were littered around a broken area of their home. They all looked like some of the members of the Smithy Gang. They weren't true machines: they were Machine Mades. They were empty clones. It dawned on them. Smithy was never a father to them. And they were never children to them. They were simply his tools.

"I…I have to go…" Bali said, choking up a little, and flying off to a less damaged room.


"Please work for me…"

Bali was working on a potion from Smithy's old book. It was able to reverse portal and growth spells. She mixed up the normal potion, and then added a scrap of metal. It was a scrap off of one of Exor's teeth, which was constantly being ground down in his sleep. Slowly, the potion turned from a liquid to a black, blue, and orange powder. She scattered the potion into the wind, where it swirled in a spiral…


…And traveled through the newly repaired Star Road, mixing with a little stardust, and coated Exor, bringing him back to Factory in his true size: still large, but much smaller than he was.

"You're back!" Bali said, trying to muster a smile.

"What happened here?" Exor asked, his voice no longer booming and echoing.

"It's best to start with the beginning. And we'll need the others to help, too…"


"…So everything we've known is a lie…" Exor said, realizing the truth.

"…We can never consider Smithy a father…" Boomer added.

"…We've become villains…I want to change…" Yaridovich said.

"Me too!" Mack said.

"So do us!" The Axem Rangers at the same time.

"Change, I do want!" Bowyer added.

"We all do." Bali said, as she grabbed onto bags and suitcases, and gave them to the other members.

"What's all this?" Axem Green asked, as he clutched onto his familiar green duffel bag. He opened it…all of his most important stuff was packed into it! The same went for the others, who were confused.

"Bali…what's going on?" Yaridovich asked, as she clutched her own items, and also what looked like a squirt gun.

"We all want to change." Bali said, as she squirted the gun, which was filled with the portal potion, causing a large and swirling portal to appear. "It's too hard to change here. We need to start somewhere new. Let's go."

Without saying anything else, Bali went into the portal, as the others followed…


"What are we doing back here?" Axem Red asked, as he looked around his surroundings. They were back in the Mushroom Kingdom.

"We're going to start life brand new." Bali exclaimed. "Guys, welcome home."