Hero takes her hand and lifts her chin.  “I am grateful.  Had you not come to visit me and my master, I would not have been able to do my duty alone.  Master Jack was quite happy to have Lady Gold by his side, I might add.”

    Sarah laughs.  “How absurd that I should fall for the droid that belongs to my master’s beloved.”

    Kammy disagrees.  “It makes sense.  If you two have personalities influenced by your creators, then you shouldn’t find it odd to be interested in one another, given the circumstances of your masters.”

    The other girls nod, as if experts in robotic technology.

    Hero takes control of the conversation.  “With the other nations gradually joining the war, we were able to gain the momentum we needed in pushing the enemy out of our land.  However, this momentum was lost when the news arrived.”

    The two droids pause for a moment.  Sarah asks, “Shall I tell them?”

    Hero shakes his head.  “I will.  The king, Richard of Ruyngard, had been slain.  Our morale ceased.  The enemy numbers were lower, but our strength was gone.  And yet, though we did lose ground, we were still able to hold our own long enough for our allies to begin freeing up our borders.  Eventually, intel had narrowed the cause of the invasion to a machine designated Kinjo.  This android and his ally Boruno were leading the charge to ‘overthrow the humans.’  It was typical robot rhetoric, and yet here we were, slaughtering one another for the sake of our own kind.”

    Sarah now must speak.  “I made sure to do everything I could to personally make those beasts suffer for the pain they caused.  Hero tried to stand in my way, but I am a machine, built for destruction.  It is my duty to protect the humans, even at the cost of my own safety.  We met the machines on the battlefield, and though it took time to find them, we located the two monsters behind this.  Boruno was the most terrifying android I’ve ever faced, grabbing droids by the hair and using them as whips against the others.  His unmatched strength gave me a sensation in my core unit that I never wish to experience again.  With this demonic structure on the battlefield, we had yet to even bother with the real threat, Kinjo.”

    Duplica whispers to Jo via nano-chat, “I’ve got to admit, Sarah’s a pretty good storyteller, even if it is an emotional testimony.”

    “Totally,” Jo agrees, “we should invite her over in the future.”

    Sarah goes on.  “Kinjo is not nearly as big or as brutish as Boruno, but he is just as powerful, and even more dangerous due to his sharp mind and quickdraw skills.  Those dual hand daggers of his also fire the keys of death in the form of lasers at a speed that’s unnatural, even for a machine.  Whereas Boruno is a big, gray humanoid brute, Kinjo’s helmet leaves the eyes of the executioner out of view.  You never know what he’s thinking, if he’s smiling at your torment under that helmet.  He’s so quiet…so cruel.”

    Faye laughs a little, but more out of horrified disbelief rather than entertainment.  “Sounds like he could win the war all by himself.  He can’t fool with our time manipulation, can he?”

    Duplica hears this and responds, “No, baby, he doesn’t even know we exist.  We basically pull these people out of time for a second, so we’re safe.  Well, that’s basically what we do.  Let’s talk about the science later.”

    Hero smiles at Faye.  “You think that’s crazy.  You should hear who fought him.  My master.  My master and his brother fought Kinjo while Sarah and I fought Boruno.  It was a glorious day as the four of us would go back and forth between fighting the two monsters.  The other humans and droids on our side did their part as well, but we four stayed the course with the leaders.  It was then, in the heat of the greatest battle of my existence, that a missile shot from the heavens.  It raced straight for Kinjo, and before any of us could react, or believe it, King Richie, saved by the power of cybernetics, was now able to rejoin us upon the battlefield, and his enhancements rivaled my own and Kinjo’s.  With this miracle in our midst, our zeal was overwhelming, and Boruno found that he could no longer follow along with our might.  Boruno was destroyed, once and for all.”

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