He looked over Leroy's body as energy collected above it. From the grass field, from the trees, from the air-it trickled over to Leroy and began to heal his wounds. Leroy cracked open his eyes as the energy consumed him, bringing him back to consciousness. He coughed hoarsely as Vecto stepped back, watching the miraculous feat. As the energy healed his wounds, Leroy sat up from the grass and shook his head. He grabbed his hat from his side and plopped the pieces of straw on his head.

"How is this possible?" Vecto asked, uncertain of this phenomenon.

Leroy slowly stood up and exercised his muscles. "I gotta say, that was a close shave, my boy. But there's another energy than zero and chi, called alphas, ya know."

Vecto paused. "Zero, the absence of matter; alphas, the energy of matter; and chi, which brings life to it. That is the theory, of course."

"It ain't no theory." Leroy dusted his tattered overalls. The straps were scorched off, as was the shirt beneath, revealing chiseled muscles. "It's truth."

Vecto paused again. "So why'd you let the blast hit you?"

"Ya know as well as I do that chi and zero don't mix," Leroy said, ruffling his hair. "If I hadn't of sent my chi away, they would'a collided and boom! We would'a been dead-this planet, too."

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Vecto did know this. So why had he shot the blast at Leroy, knowing the farmer had a concentration of chi around his fist. Did he not have control of his own mind? He shook the thought away as a malfunction in his thought processor.

"Where's Zendora?" he asked.

"Not yet, my boy," Leroy said, lifting his hand in the air. Without warning, he quickly channeled energy around Vecto's shield. He took him by surprise and lifted him in the air.

"Telekinesis?" Vecto struggled to free himself . . . in vain.

"Ya hadn't learned from last time, have ya?" Leroy asked, walking around the robot's suspended body. "I cain't move ya shield, but I sure as well can move what's around ya."

"So you blocked me with your chi," Vecto observed. "Even so, you'll get tired before I do."

"Tsk, tsk. Then how would those good ole shields breathe?" Leroy asked. "Cain't ya feel it? The pain, the suffocation, my boy. You'll drop your shields . . . and all that energy's comin' at ya!"

"That's why I keep graphite inside my shields," Vecto said, bluffing because he had used it all.

"Nice try, kiddo," Leroy said. "Ya stick out like a sore thumb. I could sense ya hadn't no energy when ya came here and was a machine instead of a human. And I got eyes to see ya ain't got no carbon slab."

"But did you see the transport disks around you?" Vecto asked.

Leroy glanced around to see dozens of quarter-sized disks in the grass-now hovering in the air. He looked back at Vecto.

"Make a step, and I'll fire," Vecto said, knowing that bullets and energy shells from the A.S. base would fire through a transportation device and emerge from those tiny disks.

Leroy laughed. "Smoke and mirrors, huh?" he said and lowered him to the ground, dissipating the energy around him. "It's a tie then! I'll tell ya about Zendora, and you'll eat some brunch with me."

Vecto levitated the disks to his gun. "Fair enough," he acknowledged.