I gasped as my eyes snapped open. Rolling over, I coughed blood onto the cold floor. Wiping my mouth and massaging my ribs did nothing to alleviate the searing pain. I could barely see my own hands—I mean, hand—in the darkness. My right arm had gone back to being a stump. I was used to it. I tapped the ground with my knuckles. The knock reverberated around me. Evidently, I was surrounded by metal. It didn’t take a set of brain-enhancing Implants to figure that out.

I was sitting inside the robot.

It must have tossed me into its built-in prison cell after I’d lost consciousness. I closed my eyes and sat perfectly still to test something. The floor rose by a centimeter and fell by the same distance over and over again. Walking. The robot was on the move. It was taking me somewhere.

If Alhabor had been on our side, he could have broken out with ease. He could have drained his captor dry and escaped. He could have saved us all instead of damning us to this fate in the first place! I should have known he was working with the bots. He was always a little too happy to be a soldier. He was probably the reason why the robots had found the Canis Major.

None of this was helping.

The only reason I’d woken up was the pain in my chest. Something had to be fractured or ruptured in there. The blood rising up my throat assured me of that. I needed medical attention, but my friends needed my help. If I was the only one awake, I was the only one who could get us out of there.

It was all on me.

Manning had said that I’d have to free myself from inside, and even Anderson had said I’d have to rely on the “other, less awesome thing.” I knew they had both meant my powers, but they weren’t working. I was too torn up by Epsilon to draw out any sort of power.

I leaned back against the wall and stared at my stump. My only option was to sit and wait for all this to blow over. I had no idea what would happen when the robot stopped marching. The bots could have been walking into a ship and blasting away for all I knew. Here I was, just waiting. I’d given up like the pathetic kid I was: the one who was always making decisions that endangered his friends. Like this one. If I didn’t do anything, Anderson and Manning would suffer like Laura…

Hadn’t I learned by now? Beating myself up was a waste of time. That time could be better spent figuring out how to get out of there. Who would save Sirius if we failed? Who’d save Laura?

My hand sparked with blue electricity, driving off the darkness. I grinned as I stared into the light. It wasn’t as bright with only one hand as it would have been with both hands, but it was something. Apparently, I’d turned the power back on…and my cheesy jokes were back too.

I placed my hand on the floor below me. Then I shut my eyes, willing my power to flow through the robot. My mind wandered into a stream of numbers and data. It was like trying to swim in dense water. There was something off about the robot’s “mind.” I felt a presence poking around it. Some sort of unseen intruder other than me. It was possible that things would get crazy if I messed with it, so it’d be better to ignore it.

I understood how to open the chest, but I didn’t want to. Not yet. If I freed myself and my friends, what would happen next? Even with my restored powers, I could only take so many robots before I suffered fatigue. Just using my powers while my ribs hurt so much was risky. I needed to work on these weaknesses before they killed me.

My actual plan was to see through the robot’s eyes and find out where they were taking us. Then I’d take it from there.

I groaned as I merged my sight with the robot’s. Since it didn’t have actual eyes, it was more like putting on an insanely heavy pair of goggles. I couldn’t even feel my own eyes anymore. I just felt like the top half of my head had turned into metal.

I blinked as a fuzzy bundle of trees materialized before me. Green clouded my vision, and I realized that it wasn’t one or two trees but an entire forest. I—I mean, the robot—walked into a low-hanging tree branch, which snapped against my metallic face. This wasn’t the swamp anymore, but out the corners of my eyes, I spotted a few mud puddles. The aliens were around.

I couldn’t look around because I couldn’t move the robot’s head. Maybe I could, but it’d take some effort. At least I could pretend that I was watching a movie and not being escorted to my possible death.

Walking in front of the robots was the latest person to join my list of secretly awful people: Alhabor. His confident stride told me that he wasn’t even thinking about his betrayal of us. He didn’t even care. I took a little breath to keep my anger under control. Otherwise, I would have accidentally caused the robot to blast him. As satisfying as that would have been, I couldn’t afford to blow my cover.

The foliage became scarce, revealing something huge behind all the green: a colossal navy-blue structure. It was our destination. I had so many questions, and I hoped that I’d get answers for once. We marched up to the building, at which point the robot raised a finger to a scanner beside the front door. A red beam shot out of the robot’s finger, changing the scanner from red to green. So that was how these guys unlocked stuff. The door slid aside, revealing a blue hallway. I gulped as we stepped inside.

Each step down the hallway filled me with unease. Where had this base come from? Did the creators of the robots live here? Did the rest of the robots live here with them? We couldn’t take a factory of these things. My mind raced with possible escape plans.

My heart skipped a beat when we stepped into a huge room. I saw a wallscreen in the far back, a few doors on the left and right walls, and…new robots. Two white robots stood as still as statues in front of the wallscreen. Red lines traced their way down their bodies, matching their red eyes. Their necks were black, and it seemed like they could actually move their heads unlike the Black Dwarfs.

The second presence in my robot’s mind faded away. That happened just as the white robots’ red eyes shifted to…purple. The lines on their bodies followed suit. The white robots must have been controlling the black ones. We hadn’t even been fighting the strongest robots this whole time.

“Hey fellas, how’s it going?” Alhabor greeted the white robots as he strolled past them. He approached a panel of buttons below the wallscreen. “I’m pleased to say that the mission was a success, but what’s the point in saying that to you puppets? I’m taking this all the way to the top.”

Alhabor hit the buttons until static consumed the screen and filled my ears. Everything flickered as my connection with the robot weakened. I couldn’t hold it for much longer. I begged the static to fade until it finally cleared up. However, the image it revealed turned my blood to ice.

“General? What are you doing in this facility?” asked President Margaret Frost as she inspected Alhabor. “Our last meeting was under vastly different circumstances. If you’ve come here, then…how goes the mission? The true mission?”

He crossed his arms. “It’s looking pretty accomplished. Your stupid Dwarfs finally found the ship, so I let them take the others. They’re in the bots behind me.”

Frost glanced directly at me even though she was really looking at the robot. “The Black Dwarfs captured them? Is Wander safe?”

“He’s missing an arm, and I shot him in the chest, but he was alive when we put him in the robot. No big deal. Now about my ride out of here—”

“Excuse me?! Mind repeating what you did to him?” Frost sighed and pinched her nose. “When you told me that you pushed Sirius into harm’s way, I thought you were perfect for this task. Unfortunately, I underestimated how brutal you were. I made it perfectly clear during our last encounter that Wander was not to be harmed.”

Alhabor scoffed. “So that reprimand was real? We’ve both been lying so much to those losers that I’ve lost track of the truth.”

“Of course it was real. You scanned the Dwarf’s material when you didn’t need to. Why go through that trouble?”

Alhabor chuckled. “Because it gave them hope, Madam President. They thought their mission was actually possible to complete until your robots proved them wrong an hour later. God, it was so satisfying watching them get backed into a corner and thrashed around. Speaking of corners, Sirius should stay in his little prison, right? My promotion is guaranteed?”

I could have stayed in the robot forever, just eavesdropping on all of Frost and Alhabor’s plans. Unfortunately, the little I’d heard was making my blood boil. I knew I’d have to confront Frost eventually, so why not now?

“Shut up!” I willed the robot’s torso to pop open. I jumped out, and stumbled because I only had one arm to steady myself. Yeah, I sure looked real threatening at that moment. I curled my hand into a fist as I looked up into Frost’s widened eyes. “So, you made the robots? You and your buddy made us fight enemies that you were controlling the whole time. Why?!”

Frost continued to eye me like I was a ghost. “Wander? How did—ugh! You must have used your grandfather’s abilities to escape. I’m not sure how electricity manipulation allows you to escape a robot, but of course you’d figure it out.”

My grandfather’s abilities? How did she know that?

“Hey, one-armed wonder, did you enjoy your nap?” Alhabor waved at me with the arm he’d stolen. “I hope so, ’cause you’re about to take another one.”

“No,” Frost said. “No more brutality. If he knows this much, he might as well know the rest.”

Alhabor sighed. “The whole point of this mission was to keep it from him. Whatever. As long as I still get what’s mine.”

I charged up my fingers with electricity and aimed at the robots. Two streams shot from my hand and latched on to the Black Dwarfs that were holding my friends. The blinding light forced their chests open. Manning and Anderson tumbled out like rocks rolling down a hill. They groaned as they stirred. There was nothing like plopping out of killer robots to start the morning…even though it was still nighttime.

Anderson looked up and yelped at Frost’s giant head on the screen. “Frost?! What the hell? Locke, what’s going on? Why’s Alhabor way over there? What’s up with the white robots?”

“Seems I was right to take that precaution,” Manning said as he rose to his feet. “I almost thought I was worried for nothing, but, no, Madam President truly has betrayed us.”

The black robots reached for us, no doubt aiming to recapture us. I didn’t think they could even move after what I had done, but then I noticed their white eyes. The white robots must have taken back control of them.

“Stop!” Frost commanded. Surprisingly, the robots did. The black ones put their arms down as the white ones looked up at her for guidance. The white ones could understand her? “Gentlemen, I’d like to properly introduce you to the Black Dwarfs and the White Dwarfs. They’re top-secret military robots that were created for a very common purpose: defeating the AI. You’re the only one in the universe who’s fought both my robots and the AI, Wander. Who do you think would win?”

Did she really think I was going to answer that? Hopefully the anger in my expression would tell her otherwise.

“So Frost screwed us over? Like we didn’t see that coming.” Anderson rose to his feet, frowning with such obvious disgust. “I just don’t get why. Why go through all this trouble to test out your new toys on us? And if you control these guys, then where’s Sirius? You’ve got to know, right?”

Frost smirked. “And here comes the unpleasant explanation. The Black Dwarfs are powerful, but they’re nothing more than grunts designed to be controlled by the White Dwarfs. The AI think they invented teamwork, so I’d like to see how well they do against one hundred White Dwarfs, each controlling one thousand black ones! However, White Dwarfs are more than machines with artificial intelligence. They can think, strategize, and act as well as if not better than humans. It’s all due to their special power source.” She pivoted her head toward the white robot on her left. “White Dwarf five-four-two, disassemble your faceplate. Show them who they’re dealing with.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The White Dwarf standing on the right of the screen hissed as steam shot out of its head. Its eyes dimmed, and the faceplate broke into four pieces that slid away from each other. A human face lay underneath. The dark eyes were blank; they were staring into nothing. Anderson screamed, but it wasn’t out of fear.

“Ben!” Anderson curled his hands into fists and charged at the screen. “What did you do to him, you bi—”

The White Dwarf fired a tiny purple blast at Anderson’s chest. It blew him across the room, flinging him against the Black Dwarf that had just incarcerated him. I ran to his side, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from…Ben. Frost had actually approved a series of robots that were powered by humans. Poor Ben was being used like a battery to power a robot that he’d been forced into. It was his brain that was powering the thing, but there was no way that thing was acting out his thoughts. He never would have consciously shot Anderson.

“What have you done?” Manning adjusted his glasses as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. “You were working on something as inhumane as this the entire time? My team and I trusted you. Michelangelo died believing in you!”

“Then he died a fool,” said Alhabor in an attempt to anger me with the fewest words possible. “Your leader died because he put you bozos over himself. That’s why I only look out for myself. That’s why it was easy to sacrifice Sirius for an elevated position. Why settle for being the leader of the Constellations when I can be the face of the army?”

“What do you know about my grandfather?” I demanded as my blood boiled. “He was a better man than you’ll ever be, just like Sirius. He never would have approved something like this, and neither can I.”

“That is exactly why I sent you on this mission!” Frost slammed her hands on her desk. “I knew you wouldn’t go along with my plans, so I devised a way to keep you out of the action. If you happened to be captured by ‘hostile robots’ while on a mission I tricked you into joining, you’d be unable to stop me. The only complication came in the form of the abilities that I gifted you with.”

She’d just confessed. That was a confession. Screw everything else, I was finally getting the answers I needed.

“So you are the one behind my Implants…how? How did you Implant me with AI technology?”

Alhabor’s sneer grew as Frost’s frown deepened. I didn’t care if a giant gremlin burst through the wall. I needed to know this. I’d been wondering for too long.

“When we retrieved your grandfather from Pluto, he was already dead. However, his autopsy revealed the AI technology inside his body, the technology my ancestor called ‘Implants.’ I ordered that the technology be extracted from him…and Implanted into you, the newest member of his family. That way, its potential wouldn’t be wasted. It was like you inherited the abilities directly from him.”

It felt like reality itself had just punched me in the gut. The Implants inside me had come out of my grandfather…after he’d already died. If my stomach wasn’t empty, I would have thrown up its contents right then and there. How could Frost stand doing something so cruel, especially to the infant that I had been at the time? Part of me had been hoping that we could talk it out, but now I understood. For the first time, I saw her true colors.

I charged up electricity as I eyed a Black Dwarf. It was time for Escape Plan D. I shot a stream of electricity into the robot and willed it to raise its arm to the ceiling. Then I forced it to pop out its arm barrel and charged it with energy. My own reserves were running low as its barrel pulsated with white light.

Frost’s eyes widened as she realized what I was doing. “Stop him!”

A Dwarf seized my arm, but it was too late. When my electricity faded, my victim’s barrel erupted with a white beam that drilled into the ceiling. Metal groaned as the plasma ripped through it. The beam shot into the sky, creating a beacon that could be seen for miles. Exactly what I wanted.

“I think you missed.” Alhabor sneered. “We’ve talked for long enough, Madam President. How about you send the kid to his room?”

“I suppose it’s time.” Frost sounded so sad when she said that. If only she’d said it before confessing that she’d stuffed part of a corpse into a child. “Escort them to the waiting room. All of them. Mr. Oak can be converted later, just like his big brother. Meanwhile, we need to decide what to do about those mysterious creatures that Wander saw.”

Frost was going to slaughter every last one of them.

I struggled against a Black Dwarf as it grabbed me. “Let go! You’re lucky I’m out of power. Look Frost, I don’t care how strong you and your robots are. After what you did, our so-called partnership is through. I’m coming after you, I’m taking you down, and I’m still going to save Sirius!”

Anderson grinned at me just before he was swooped up by a robot too. Manning didn’t fight his captor. He knew he couldn’t break free. Frost’s despondent face and Alhabor’s smug one were burned into my memory as we were carried out of the room.

Carrying us, the Dwarfs stomped down another navy hallway. Their thunderous steps couldn’t block out the profanity spewing from Anderson’s mouth. It didn’t sound like he was adjusting well to the “Brobot” situation.

The Black Dwarfs stepped into a gray room with a long table. It was what I imagined the teachers’ lounge in an elementary school to look like. Except it didn’t smell like donuts…just metal. The Black Dwarf chucked me into the air, and gravity smashed me down onto the table. My back ignited with pain, joining the rest of my injured body. Using my powers so much had stunted the healing process, which was bad for my damaged ribs. The Dwarfs tossed my friends too. Anderson landed beside me, and Manning fell on top of me. Cue even more pain.

Manning rolled off me so that I could sit up. A single Black Dwarf guarded the entrance. Its eyes were purple, so it wasn’t being controlled. They must have instructed it to watch over us. At least until it was time to stuff Anderson into one of those walking coffins they called a White Dwarf…

“This is just great.” I shoved a hand through my hair as I reviewed the situation. “We’re trapped with this robot security guard; Alhabor betrayed us—Frost did too, but who didn’t see that coming? What else? Uh, we know where Sirius is, but I don’t know how we’re going to rescue him.”

“We’ll find a way, that’s how!” Anderson struck the wall. It bent under the impact. Then he gripped his hand and sucked in air through his teeth. Punching walls was a dumb idea, even with a space suit. “Damn, that hurt. Although it’s nothing compared to what I’m gonna do to Frost.”

“I’m afraid anger won’t assist us here, Mr. Oak.” Manning gripped Anderson’s shoulder, which was his usual comforting tactic. I expected Anderson to shrug it off, but, instead, his shoulders relaxed. If I’d just dented a metal wall, I wouldn’t have the energy to resist comfort either. “Wander, can’t you just override the Dwarf with your abilities?”

“Yeah, I bet I could—wouldn’t be the first time I pushed my limits—but then what? This place is filled with robots just like this guy. Our best bet for fighting them was Alhabor’s drain tech, but—”

“I told you he was shady!” Anderson snapped. “I told you there was something weird about him, but did you listen? I thought so, but you sure didn’t do anything about it. It’s your fault we’re trapped. Everything is your fault!”

Anderson stomped toward me, but Manning cut him off with an outstretched arm. Anderson’s face twisted with rage, which slowly faded as he came to his senses. I understood where the anger was coming from, so I wasn’t upset.

Anderson cleared his throat as he turned away. “Sorry. I’m just used to…you know.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said and meant it. Anderson had spent his whole life hating me. I expected him to have relapses. “Let’s focus on getting out of here. Remember when I made that robot blast the sky? I did that to attract the gremlins. They’ll crawl toward the beacon and wreck this place with their tech-disabling mud.”

The gremlins had helped out before, and I was sure they’d do it again. They just needed the incentive.

“Interesting, but how did you account for the differences in location?” Manning asked. “We’ve never seen the aliens above ground. Do you think they saw the beacon underground?”

Huh. That was the one thing I hadn’t accounted for. It was a plan I’d come up with while struggling to accept being betrayed by two allies, not even to mention all of the Implant stuff.

I scrunched up my face. “I’m confident it’ll all work out.”

Manning chuckled. “That’s quite the positive attitude from a boy whose arm—bionic arm, I mean—is missing. Maybe it will work out. Perhaps your beacon even caught the attention of some passing ship.”

Anderson groaned. “What crew is strong enough to save us? We’re being held hostage by the freaking president!”

I hated it when he made sense. Unless Rebecca or all of the Oppressed showed up, our rescuers wouldn’t stand a chance. There would just be more blood on my hands.

A muffled boom went off in the building. It wasn’t enough to shake the floor, but it was suspicious. Were the robots sparring with each other? Another explosion went off, followed by energetic bursts of gunfire. That was a fight for sure. Had someone actually come for us?

“Do you guys hear that?” Anderson whipped his head around as he searched for the source of the noise.

“Yup. That’s my cue.” I pointed my crackling hand at the Dwarf.

It dodged before I fired, so my electricity struck the door panel instead. “Oh no! I messed up again!” is what I would have thought if that hadn’t been the plan. I willed the panel to open the door and grinned as it slid away. Heat flooded in from the hallway. It was like the room had become a sauna…

“Helmets on!” I shouted as I willed mine to appear. My visor barely shielded me from the fire that rushed in.

Red flames lapped me from all sides. Anderson screamed, but Manning didn’t. That told me who had heeded my advice in time. I wanted to help Anderson, but I couldn’t even think straight. The heat was pushing my pounding heart into my ears.

The intense heat dragged me back in time to the burning remains of my house. My hands had burned when I’d plunged them into the blaze and pushed aside the rubble. It had been all so that I could find my family, but it hadn’t even been enough. I had gotten burned for nothing. The firemen were the ones who found my parents. That day felt like a lifetime ago.

“Pull yourself together!” Manning commanded.

I flinched as I was pulled back to the current situation. I couldn’t ignore the fire, but I had to ignore my trauma if I was to get everyone out of this. Speaking of which, what had happened to the robot that had avoided my electricity? Why wasn’t it coming after us?

I looked up and saw that the Dwarf was shrouded in fire. Judging by its twitching, it wasn’t handling it well. Leave it to a machine to overheat. Unfortunately, it wasn’t twitching enough to break. It set its purple sights on us and took a menacing stomp forward. The hallway behind it was engulfed in flames. As a result, our towering foe was even more menacing. It also gave me an idea.

“Knock the robot outside!” I shouted between lungfuls of white-hot air. It burned my throat to inhale.

“On it!” Anderson wheezed as he stumbled toward the robot. His helmet was finally on, but he was hunched over. I feared what the fire had done to him before he’d got it on. “Manning, help me out!”

“Can do.” Manning walked up beside Anderson.

The two of them formed a wall between me and the Dwarf. They needed to hit it hard enough to knock it out of the room. I had no idea how they were going to do that without weapons. They needed to be fast too because, despite its twitches, the Dwarf was still coming.

“Our strength’s enhanced because of our suits, right?” Anderson asked in a strained voice. “There’s something I’ve always wanted to try. Have you ever done a dropkick?”

Manning sighed in deep disappointment. “Only once. On my mark: three…two…one!”

The two of them shouted as they sprinted toward the robot. The twitching Dwarf aimed its arm barrel at us. Manning and Anderson jumped up, twisted their bodies, and thrust their legs into the Dwarf’s head. Anderson’s feet barely made contact, but Manning’s kick was a direct hit. My jaw dropped as the robot actually stumbled from the hit. It backed into the hall, where a wall of fire swallowed it up.

Manning was already back on his feet, but Anderson lay spread-eagled on the ground. The flames in the room had died down, so he wasn’t in danger of burning to death. He was clutching his face, though.

“I swear I almost dislocated my leg.” Anderson sucked in air. “And I think my face is bleeding. Even if it isn’t…it hurts like hell.”

I checked his face. His left cheek was covered in red. I couldn’t tell if it was blood, but it was definitely a burn. If we didn’t get medical attention soon…

“Anderson—”

“Don’t worry about it, Locke. Let’s just figure out why the place is on fire. I swear those flames were alive; they were being directed by something, or someone.”

He wasn’t crazy. I’d also noticed that the fire seemed to be managed. It wasn’t spreading naturally; it was being controlled. Was it one of Frost’s experimental weapons that she had lost control of? I guess we were about to find out.

I grabbed Anderson’s arm and helped him to his feet. “I know what you mean. Are you okay, Manning?”

“I’m in agreement.” Manning stared into the hallway’s flames. “This isn’t a force of nature, it’s a weapon. We must discover its source as soon as possible.”

Manning met my gaze. His golden eyes flickered. Was he implying that these flames had come from a Hybrid? What would a Hybrid be doing here? Well, Frost did have a history of capturing them…

I looked at the ceiling as I trudged out of the room. I refused to look at the flames licking my legs. If I had looked at them, the flashbacks would have started up all over again. The harsh sounds of gunfire and explosions still filled the hall. They were originating from a room that was shrouded in red haze.

One peek into the room told me that it was the one with the giant screen: the one we had just been in. The smoke and haze had transformed it into a war zone. I could barely see the screen, and there was no sight of Alhabor. The room was full of plenty of twitching Black Dwarfs but no white ones. They were firing into the red, at something or someone I couldn’t see. This was like walking around indoors with sunglasses…at night.

I yelped when a Black Dwarf slammed into the wall beside me. It pivoted toward us and scanned me with its white eyes. Great! Now the White Dwarfs knew we were out. A blue explosion went off on its neck. A blue beam had been the cause, meaning that someone had shot it. The person in question sprinted out of the red haze and shoved a blade into the Dwarf’s neck. Its eyes flickered before dimming. Then the person yanked a…riflesword out and examined it. Their advanced space suit looked like it was made for war rather than survival. The red flames rising behind them illuminated them. My heart sunk as I recognized them.

Not only did I know this person, but I also hated her.

“Stay back, guys!” I shouted to Anderson and Manning as I backed away. I glared at our guest, assuming she was returning the gesture under the helmet that hid her face. “It’s Beth.”

“Nice to see you too, Alpha.” Beth glanced at the flames. “If you haven’t noticed, this facility is overridden with robots. Mind lending me a hand?”