“WHAT THE—” the three of them shouted in unison.

  They came across a peculiar object… a blue metal “box” with several wires and buttons.

  “WHAT THE HECK IS THIS? IT LOOKS LIKE A GAME CONSOLE THAT DRAINS THE ELECTRICITY OF THE ENTIRE COUNTRY!” Hot Head exclaimed.

  “Hmmm… drains the electricity of the entire country… now that I think about it, all those wires are definitely sucking energy from somewhere,” Triff said, as if he had just discovered something extremely important.

  “You have a point, Triff, maybe that electricity has something to do with Garlon,” Berto said, defending Triff’s idea.

  “YOU KNOW NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE RELATED TO GARLON, RIGHT?! SOMEONE COULD’VE JUST FORGOTTEN THEIR CAR BATTERY HERE!” Hot Head said, since he didn’t understand what a battery had to do with all this.

  “Calm down… this is a 40,000-watt battery, it’s very unlikely that it belongs to a car. Only a machine that consumes a lot of energy would need a battery like this,” Triff suggested.

  “So you’re saying we’re near a gigantic machine?” Berto asked.

  “Maybe… but I’m not sure…” Triff said, doubtful.

  “THEN LET’S FOLLOW THE DANG WIRES, RIGHT? OR DO YOU WANT TO STAND AROUND DOING NOTHING?!” Hot Head said, excited.

  “Okay, then it’s decided… let’s follow these wires and see where they lead, maybe we can get more answers there,” Berto said.

  The group began their journey, following the wires until they led to a sewer cover with holes, through which the wires passed.

  Hot Head removed the cover and threw it far away.

  They went down to see where it led, but to no one’s surprise, they ended up in the sewers.

  “EEEWWW, THAT’S DISGUSTING!!! I HATE SEWERS,” Berto complained, feeling nauseous.

  The sewers smelled VERY bad, there were robo-rats everywhere, they even saw some wrapping their tails around each other in a spiral.

  But Triff saw something that Hot Head and Berto didn’t… yellow eyes… and many of them… watching them from the depths of the sewers, but he assumed they were just more robo-rats and ignored them.

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  They kept walking through the dark sewer corridors until they heard footsteps…

  The sound grew louder and louder, until they turned around and came face to face with several crocobots, starving.

  “We’re completely screwed!!!” Triff said desperately.

  The crocobots started attacking. Hot Head tried to knock them down and Berto, with his spiked gloves, punched the crocobots, while Triff bounced around with his springs.

  Suddenly…

  *whistle*

  All the crocobots stopped….

  “Boys, come back now, I’ve got lunch for you…” a mysterious voice said from afar.

  A robot approached, a bit old, with cracked glasses, a white mustache, and a cowboy hat.

  “HEY! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO EAT THE VISITORS,” he said, irritated.

  *cough*

  “Good afternoon, my friends, and welcome to the sewers of Robtopia. I am Marcus, but you can also call me Marc. So… what brings you here?” Marc said in a welcoming manner.

  “Well… before being attacked by… your little friends… we were following those blue wires,” Triff replied, still suspicious of that guy.

  “Blue wires?… AH! THOSE blue wires… why do you want to follow those little wires?” Marc said, curious.

  “We’re looking for… something…” Berto said, trying not to reveal what they were looking for, but Marc immediately understood what they wanted.

  “Hmm *sigh* come with me to my lair, there I’ll tell you more about where those wires lead.”

  Triff, Berto, and Hot Head followed Marc to his lair. There were empty pizza boxes, newspapers scattered on the floor, and some old sofas.

  They sat on the sofas, and Marc said:

  “Well… those wires… they lead to a… special place… if you want to find Garlon’s secrets, you’ll get many answers there… but it won’t be easy. That place is guarded by Megatrons, strong soldiers who serve Garlon, they are big, muscular, and very aggressive, but not very intelligent… and if somehow you manage to get past those guards, you’ll need a code to enter, which only those who work for Garlon know… but if you manage to get through, you will discover EVERYTHING… dramatic pause DO YOU WANT A SLICE OF PIZZA?”

  “No thanks,” Berto said. “We’re heading out.”

  “Okay… but be careful,” Marc warned.

  After thanking Marc for the stay, they followed the wires until they spotted a place guarded by two Megatrons, and behind them was the place where the wires led.

  “Okay, obviously we can’t win against them… we need to think of a plan,” Triff suggested.

  Meanwhile, Hot Head saw a banana peel and decided to throw it at the Megatrons.

  “Hey! Why did you hit me, idiot?!” said Megatron 1, irritated.

  “What? I didn’t throw anything at you, you idiot!” said Megatron 2.

  Quickly, the situation escalated and they started fighting, until both fell to the ground, deactivated.

  “You idiot! That could’ve cost us our lives,” Berto said, irritated.

  “HEY! I CLEARED THE WAY! YOU SHOULD THANK ME, YOU UNGRATEFUL PIECE OF CRAP!” Hot Head exclaimed.

  “Stop arguing and let’s go open that door!” Triff said.

  When they got there, they found a keypad next to the door and a screen that said: “hint: a duty of all citizens.”

  Quickly, Berto pulled out his tablet, and in a process that seemed extremely complex, he obtained the code.

  “Okay… the code is… Glorify Garlon,” Berto revealed.

  “Wow… he really is narcissistic,” Triff said, irritated.

  After entering the code, the door opened and revealed something that left them completely perplexed and confused.

  Meanwhile, in the city of Robtopia

  The Rob HQ screen lit up and Garlon, wearing a stylish black cape, appeared. Everyone stopped and he said:

  “Good morning, dear citizens of Robtopia, it is I… Garlon, and I am here to tell you what to do… do you see this beautiful fiber cape? It’s the new fashion of the week… buy it if you want to stay in this society! And by the way, yesterday I ran 20KM, so I order everyone to run 20KM in 15 minutes, or else you are failures.”

  A robot in the crowd said:

  “But I have a lot of work, and I don’t have the ability to do that!”

  Suddenly, that robot deactivated and fell.

  Another robot in the crowd said, “His laziness made him fall asleep, hahaha!!!”

  Everyone started laughing.

  The screen turns off and everyone begins chanting:

  “Long live Garlon, Long live Garlon, Long live Garlon.”

  While Garlon watches from the top of Rob HQ.

  Then he received a phone call:

  “Hmmm what do you need?… Okay… I’ve already sent it to you….”