Chapter 1

Furno glanced out the window as their drop ship descended through the atmosphere. He could make out the distinct skyline of Makuhero City, which looked both familiar and different at the same time. It was a common sight for him since Furno had traveled through the city countless times on his way to the Hero Factory headquarters. Now, however, some of the towers were missing and others were leaning at odd angles. The city Furno knew was crumbling away.

It had started weeks ago. First, there were just some mild trembles, but then the earthquakes grew in size and frequency. Damage was widespread throughout the city and across the planet, and eventually it became too dangerous. The civilian bots had to evacuate, and even the Hero Factory headquarters was abandoned.

William Furno was a second generation Hero bot, constructed from the finest quality material by Hero Factory. Hero Factory had been the brainchild of Mr. Makuro. He had watched as crime grew rapidly across the galaxy, and seen selfless bots try to rise up and fail. So he had taken it upon himself to establish a new faction that built top of the line bots who would serve functions of law enforcement and civilian aid in times of need. Or, as his slogan read, "We build Heroes." The initial wave of Heroes had spent years establishing Hero Factory as the greatest protection service in the known galaxy. The second wave of Heroes, of which Furno was a part of, had been brought in to supplement their forces as they faced greater threats. Furno and his team helped raise public awareness and approval thanks to their various missions, and now Hero Factory was a well renowned name known to every bot in the connected universe.

Today, the number of Heroes had grown substantially. They all had unique training, powers, and abilities, and used their skills on all sorts of worlds. Often, they would conduct rescue missions into dangerous regions, or else provide aid in disaster area to help the local bots rebuild. Other times, they would fight and arrest villainous bot whose goals were to steal or destroy. Hero Factory had inspired countless villains to resist them, and so Furno and his team had to train hard to always be one step of the evil bots. And their success rate showed that their training paid off.

Previously, Hero Factory had been run out of their headquarters located in Makuhero City. The city spanned the majority of the small planet, and was a galactic center of trade, research, and social entertainment. The Hero Factory headquarters consisted of a massive tower with various structures spread out below it. This is where they constructed the Heroes, as well as where they made repairs and provided enhancements. There were also various training areas, where the Heroes could test out their equipment and vehicles to ensure they were always in top shape. But most importantly of all, their headquarters was where they gathered all requests for Heroes and coordinated their missions from. Furno was used to seeing the iconic tower every time he returned from a successful mission.

But that was no longer the case. With the damage to Makuhero City, the old headquarters had to be abandoned. Hero Factory has resourceful enough that they quickly got a new setup on a different planet, but Furno was still sentimental.

He turned his head as he heard another Hero speak up. It was Preston Stormer, a veteran Hero who was running their current operation, and had also been Furno's mentor. As the dropship landed, Stormer gathered all the Heroes on his team for one last mission briefing. Furno looked around at his teammates; they were the finest bots selected from the Alpha and Beta teams, all of whom Furno had worked with before. In one corner, Breez, Bulk, and Rocka waited patiently for Stormer to begin. In another, Evo, Nex, and Surge were chatting together, while Stringer sat next to them, silently meditating.

"We're about to land," Stormer said, getting everybody's attention. "Now, I don't need to remind you how dangerous it is out there. Makuhero City is still beset by earthquakes and gravitational anomalies. Based on our readings, they have settled down at the moment, but they could occur again without notice. Luckily, all the civilian bots have been evacuated and accounted for, so this is not a rescue mission." He paused. "Instead, this is likely to be more of a salvage mission."

"A salvage mission?" Evo chimed in. "Sir, are we really going to give up hope on Makuhero City? There may be something we can yet do?"

Stormer sighed. "I'm not any happier about this than you, Evo. For so long now, Makuhero City has been my home. But we still do not know the cause of this planet-wide destabilization, so we have to come to terms with the fact that it may be too late." Regaining his composure, he continued with the mission briefing. "We will be splitting into three teams to try and salvage as much as we can. Stringer, Bulk, you will head to the weapons depot. If there's anything we can move from it in a timely manner, I want it identified. Anything that cannot be moved but could be dangerous I want destroyed. Breez, Rocka, Evo, you will head towards the transportation hanger. If we can get any more drop ships up in the air, we'll need to make use of them, as well as anything else we can get moved. Meanwhile, Furno, Surge, Nex, and myself will be heading to the main control room."

"The control room?" Surge repeated. "What could we hope to salvage from there that we didn't already get when we first evacuated?"

"We won't be salvaging anything in particular," Stormer said. "But we could get a look at the whole facility from there, and determine our next moves from there. Additionally, there are some sensors that Nex could make use of, so that perhaps we can solve the mystery of this planet's destruction before we leave. Now, any further questions?"

The Heroes shook their heads, just as the drop ship landed. As they exited the ship and headed to their assigned locations, Stormer called out one last time. "We have three hours before the next fleet of drop ships arrives, and that's when we'll start offloading what we can. Stay in touch over the coms, and stay on high alert."

The control room was in the center of the central tower, and as Furno and his team approached, they could see that the main entrance was blocked by debris. However, the Heroes were well equipped to travel across rough terrane, so Stormer led the way up the side of the building, until they found a suitable crack in the walls to slip through. Once inside, they had to maneuver around destroyed hallways and more rubble, but even with that it still took them only a short time to arrive in the control room. Furno glanced sadly at the various computer screens, which were usually in use by their support staff. Now, the room was empty and the screens were dark.

"Power's been cut," Stormer noted. "Okay, Surge, let's power this place back up."

Surge hesitated. "Are you sure that's a good idea, sir? If I put in too much, I could blow the circuits and burn out everything here for good."

"This is no time to worry about preservation," Stormer said. "We'll be losing this room soon enough, so if you can get us one last use of these machines, that would be great. If not, it's not a complete loss."

"Understood," Surge said. He closed his eyes and summoned his elemental powers. All Heroes had some form of elemental powers that they could call upon. Furno himself was the Hero of Fire, and could control flames and head. Stormer, inversely, was the Hero of Ice, and could fire cold blasts of ices from his blaster. Surge was the Hero of Electricity, but he was always hesitant to use his powers, because they could easily get out of control and harm him and his allies. This time, he found the power cables for the control room and focuses his powers on recharging the line. After a few moments, there was a hum throughout the room, and the computer screens lit up.

"Excellent," Stormer said. "Well done, Surge. Now, Nex, it's your turn."

Nex, the orange Hero of Senses, sat down behind one of the monitors and started typing. She was more studious than Furno and had learned how to use the various systems that were normally reserved for the support staff. "I'm getting readings from other parts of the building, but not all," she reported. "Just because we have power here doesn't mean everyplace else is up, so we won't be able to get intel from some regions. But there should be enough here for us to make some plans on."

"Good to know," Stormer said, glancing over her shoulder. "But you said you needed to run some scans from here. Can you do that now?"

"Sure thing," Nex replied. "The sensors here are second to none, and we're going to get better readings here than off planet anyway."

"You continue to look into that," Stormer said. "Furno, Surge, start figuring out where our next target is. We want to prioritize undamaged regions with valuable material in them."

Furno and Surge seated behind more counsels and got to work. Furno was a bit clumsy with the interface, but he knew enough of it to make it work. He started scanning regions of the headquarters for damage, and tried to think of the best areas to salvage from. He checked the Hero living quarters, but found that the levels had collapsed, making them difficult to access. Next he looked up the repair facilities. Some of them were not functioning, but others still seemed to be in good shape, and could offer decent machinery to save.

"Got it," Nex said suddenly, but she frowned. "Oh, this isn't looking good."

"What are the details?" Stormer asked.

"We're seeing an increasing number of gravity waves from across the planet," Nex said, pulling them up on a three dimensional map projection in the center of the room. "I've mapped them out, and they're consistent with what we'd expect from a black hole. Only, based on where these are angling… that black hole is located in the center of the planet."

"There's a black hole in the center of the planet?" Surge yelped. "And that's what's causing these quakes?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Nex said. "The black hole itself is probably not large enough to consume the planet, but its location has destabilized the core, and it's causing the planet to fracture. In time, the whole planet will shatter into pieces and become no more than a dust cloud. Makuhero City doesn't stand a chance."

"How long do we have?" Stormer asked.

"There's no real need for urgency," Nex said. "This process will take weeks to complete, and we're still near the start of it. We should have plenty of time to salvage what we can. But this process is irreversible; nothing we have in our arsenal could stabilize the core. This planet is a total loss."

"But there's one question we're not answering yet," Furno said. "How in the blazes did a black hole form in the planet's core?"

"I'm detecting readings of dark matter," Nex said. "This black hole is not naturally occurring. Somebody created it."

Stormer narrowed his eyes. "Von Nebula."

Furno looked up in alarm. "You think he's behind this?"

"I don't know anybody else who can summon a black hole," Stormer said. "And now he's grown powerful enough that he can use it to destabilize an entire planet!"

"But that doesn't make any sense," Nex said. "Based off his known power levels, he shouldn't be able to create this large of a black hole, and he shouldn't have a way to summon it far below the surface. At best, he's only ever been able to make small, localized black holes, which usually don't last very long either. They're still a local threat, but nothing on a planet ending scale."

"With Von Nebula, you can't underestimate his powers," Stormer said darkly. "If he really is behind this, then it is a game changer. If he can destroy whole worlds on a whim, he could leverage that against Hero Factory, and civilian planets would be forced to bow to his will."

"I hate to interrupt, but I'm seeing something funny," Surge said. "The research facility is using power. Like, a lot of power, more than would be standard even during usual business hours."

"Did somebody forget to turn off a generator?" Furno asked.

"I don't think so," Surge said. "And I'm getting readings; there are other bots active in this location. And there are a lot of them."

"Could it be some civilian bots who missed the evacuation?" Furno wondered.

"Unlikely," Stormer said, as he looked over Surge's shoulder at the data. "It's a shame we don't have visual surveillance working," he muttered. "But looking at these location makings… some of these bots are working on something. But the others are on guard duty." He paused again, and then asked, "Nex, can you triangulate the origin of that dark matter you discovered?"

Nex typed in some commands and frowned. "Some of it is coming from the research facility. But there's nothing there that should be doing that. At least, nothing we were working on."

"This doesn't look right," Stormer said. "Makuhero City is in ruins, and the Hero Factory headquarters was abandoned. That could give some villains the chance they need to get access to our equipment while we're not around and before it gets destroyed by the shattering planet." Stormer activated the com to reach the other Heroes. "Change of plans. Everybody, head towards the research facility, and prepare to engage."