I knowwwww, I haven't updated this in like two months, and I don't even have an excuse-

Sky Blobs is fun to write okay TvT

Anyway, have major lore drop :D

—————————————————————————————————————

[Sabre's POV]

We teleport into the edge of a forest with a plains in the distance, and Orange immediately has to use his other hand to hold me up as I start to lurch forward.

"We really need to work on that nausea problem..." Orange says as we wait for it to pass.

As soon as it does, Orange puts his arm back down and I lean against him while he carries me with the other. I hear internal systems whirring and sometimes beeping from inside his metal casing.

"Sorry, Orange." I say, feeling a bit bad that he has to keep helping me with that.

"It's alright Sabre, I just don't know why it happens." Orange smiles. "Teleportation isn't really that far off from just walking as far as motion goes, so I don't know what internal systems of yours it's messing with. Especially since humans in this world were so used to it. I wonder if your teleportation works differently than ours..."

"...Humans don't teleport?" I say, a bit confused as to why he thought we did.

"They don't?" Orange asks, surprised. "I thought they did because of records from facilities around the place."

"No. They were probably using a machine or something. I always feel sick after teleporting because it's..." I have to think for a minute. What was the word- oh right. "Disorienting."

"...Oh." Orange says, after a minute. "I... didn't know that. I'm gonna have to explain that to everyone else later..."

I look around the steel landscape for a sign of the new friend Orange was talking about. A bit of a chilly breeze whooshes past the sharp-angled foliage of the place, making the smaller and weaker metal plants like the grass shiver. The sound of whistling wind surrounds us because of the sturdier plants not giving way to the moving air as it rushes past the edges of steel leaves.

I'm already starting to drift off again, but Orange wakes me up and shifts his hold on me so that he's now carrying me with both hands.

"Nope, sorry buddy, but remember that I said you need to stay awake." Orange says. "As I mentioned before, Blue Steve has some more information on the prophecy and things about the Hero he wants to tell us."

"Your friend is a Blue Steve?" I ask, surprised.

"Yep, met him while at Indigo's tower one day and he came to visit him while I was still there." Orange smiles. "He's really nice."

Orange then glances around the area as well, maybe looking for Blue Steve too.

"Hm... I guess he might take a bit longer than I expected." Orange sighs. "I mean, understandable, he had to go and get something from the World Beyond when I left to get you."

"He's not gonna just bring a whole bulletin-board thing like Indigo did, is he?" I ask. "Also, what's the 'World Beyond'?"

Orange laughs for a minute.

"No, no he's not. It's a small item, don't worry." Orange says. "And the World Beyond... I'll explain that to you later. It's... a bit of a long story."

"Okay...?" I say, a bit confused about his hesitance when talking about the 'World Beyond', whatever that is. Sounds kinda like some sort of religion thing.

Just then, lightning strikes nearby. I flinch, but Orange stays calm and just looks towards the area it came from. A second later, we hear footsteps approaching.

Out walks someone that looks pretty much exactly like the robots I've seen so far, obviously except for the fact that he's blue. A few notable differences are his eyes and some extra features the other robots don't have. His eyes' sclera (if that's what the thing behind the robots' pupils are called) aren't dark like the other robots, they're a really light icy blue. There's also a hologram around the top of his head that looks like a pair of halos, and small vents on his shoulders and probably his back are emitting small blue flames that make the shape of wings... at least, I think that's fire. It could be some kind of weird smoke since it's not burning anything. Or maybe more holograms. I dunno.

"Hello again, Orange." The Blue Steve says to Orange, smiling, his voice a bit more echoey than the other robots I've met. He then looks at me, and his expression lights up even more.

"And greetings to you as well, little human."

"I'm Sabre. Nice to meet you." I greet him, ignoring the 'little' remark. What is it with these guys and calling me small?

"Oh, Orange Steve already told me your name. He told me a bit about you, actually." Blue Steve says. "You're quite the special one, hm? Coming from another world and all."

"I mean... I guess?" I shrug. "There wasn't really anything special about my old world. Terrifying, on the other hand, absolutely."

"Blue, you said that you have some more information on the Prophecy that we don't know about." Orange says. "You mind explaining? Also, what'd you have to go and grab so quickly once I left?"

"Oh, yes. About what we're here for." Blue Steve says, getting on track. "Well, since my people have jobs of watching over the Overworld, I noticed that some parts of the Prophecy were lost in the story you've heard from the Temple."

"Wait, really?" Orange asks. "How could information be missing from the Temple? It's where the Prophecy was created."

"After it was, as time passed, the writings on the lower parts of the scripture wall faded away because of rain flooding into the Temple, and since the Temple was built partway into the ground... you get what happened." Blue explains. "However, my people archived the entire prophecy before that happened. I was actually rereading those specific parts before Indigo said you wanted to meet with me, heh..."

"Well, what is it then?" I ask. "What are we missing?"

"The writing of the prophecy was done a bit out-of-order, and the entire scripture actually tells of the time before the Fall." Blue Steve says. "That missing part is very important to a rather unknown section."

"Wait, really? There was writings of before the Fall?" Orange asks. "Somebody was able to find information about that?! How?!"

"What's... 'the Fall'?" I ask, confused.

Orange and Blue look at me for a moment, silent, their expressions surprised. It's a little bit before one of them says something.

"You... you don't know what the Fall was?" Blue asks me.

"No? But it sounds important?" I say.

Orange and Blue glance at each other, a bit of awkwardness now on their faces. It's like when someone doesn't want to tell you something but they know they have to. Which is probably what's happening right now.

"The Fall was, uhm... how the humans went extinct." Orange starts. "And how everything is how it is now, right down to us Steves taking over from what remained."

"It's not said how exactly, but a sort of 'virus' came into the world." Blue continues. "Instead of making things sick though, it started turning everything to metal, and for some reason it didn't affect the humans. But it affected everything else... humans quickly died out within a few months, both because all of the food sources they had were mechanized and because they didn't have access to their medicines and everyone was getting sick due to things that broke out or stopped working when everything went down."

I start to nod off again, but Orange nudges me a little as he continues the story.

"For a long time, the world was unlivable for most things, even us." Orange explains. "Mutants and entirely new species of creatures started to rise because of humans suddenly being absent. Eventually after a few thousand years, the first robot of our kind released us from being in a stasis and let us out into the world, doing so because it was his (and our) creator's final wish to help us become what the humans used to be."

Okay, that last part is cool. I guess those 'Mutilator' things are one if the mutants, based off what Orange said.

"Who was the creator?" I ask. "Do you know?"

"Unfortunately the Creator's name was lost to the passage of time, and only the first few of us were able to talk to the first of our kind and learn it." Blue says. "However, the Second Hero was able to find some new information on him; After discovering what seemed like an ancient tomb, the Second Hero learned that the original purpose of us was to help humans in their everyday lives, and that the first of us was specifically engineered for the Creator's son, who was very sick. He also learned that the Creator's initials were 'A. Y.', so that's a start of knowing his name."

Blue Steve then reaches into his pocket.

"Speaking of the Second Hero, that's what I've come to tell you about." He says.

Blue then shows us a slate as big as my head, with writing scribbled all over it in... binary? Whoever wrote this had to write really small, I almost can't see the ones and zeroes. Also, that fit in his pocket? I am seriously dwarfed next to these guys.

"This is one of those 'missing pieces' I talked about." Blue explains, Orange looking curiously at the slate. "I could only bring one, as I'm not really supposed to be here and taking all of them would've made Elder Ceru suspicious, but maybe at some point I could show you all of them."

"This explains the creation of the Crystals and the rise and fall of both previous Heroes..." Orange gasps. "Sabre, are you seeing this?"

"Uh, I can't read that...?" I answer. "That's numbers, not letters. And only two of them."

"Binary is a basic language, what do you-?" Orange asks, but Blue quickly interrupts.

"Orange, Sabre's a human. Humans can't read binary on their own." Blue says.

"...Oh." Orange says, looking embarrassed. "I really need to read up more on those books then... looks like there's a lot I still don't know."

"Eh, books aren't always gonna cut it. Some things are just going to be trial and error." Blue says. "No need to beat yourself up about it."

"Wait, really?" Orange asks, surprised. "Is that what the Leader meant when he said 'try whatever and see what works'...?"

"Likely." Blue chuckles. "But that also doesn't mean that you should just disregard the books, they have useful information on things like their health, needs, and internal systems. Behaviors and learning things will just have to be something you work with him on your own."

"Ohhhh."

"You guys are making it sound like I'm a pet or something." I say, kinda peeved and crossing my arms.

Orange and Blue almost laugh, but compose themselves... almost. Orange is still laughing a bit while Blue is flustered.

"Uh- right, sorry- you're there-" Blue says. "Sorry."

I just stare at him for a little bit while Orange stops laughing. Blue looks... very awkward. I think he's embarrassed.

"Anyway..." Blue says after Orange pulls himself together. "I need to go back now. I can't stay for much longer or Elder Ceru will notice I'm gone. I'll see you two later?"

"Sure, Blue." Orange says, smiling. "Seeya later."

Blue smiles back and walks off, placing the slate back into his pocket, and he disappears into the foliage he first exited from. A minute later we hear lighting, and then Orange turns to me.

"Alright, our turn. Brace yourself, okay?" Orange says.

"I'll try." I say.

Orange shifts his hold on me again, now holding me with one arm on my back as he holds me close to him. I climb onto his shirt so I don't start to slip.

"Here we go!" Orange says.

Lightning strikes around us, and I close my eyes from the bright light.

—————————————————————————————————————

We land back in the Hub, inside the gazebo.

This time, as I open my eyes, I don't feel like I just got punched in the stomach. Still feel a little disoriented, though. Orange sets me down, and starts to walk towards the house with Gerald waiting outside the door. I follow after him, but he's quickly way ahead of me.

"Hey, wait up-!" I call out, and Orange turns around.

"Oh, okay! Sorry buddy, forgot you have little legs." Orange smiles as I catch up to him.

"Heeeyyy!" I say, glaring as Orange laughs again.

"What? You're little. It's a fact." Orange says as we walk towards the house together. "You usually catch up anyway, but I guess not today."

"We just teleported, it's still disorienting. And I'm not that little, you guys are just really tall." I huff.

"Suuure. Same argument every time." Orange says.

Orange and I enter the house, with Gerald following behind us. While Orange already starts to play with Gerald I go to head upstairs to grab my storybook, but then I see that the storage room was left open. Maybe-

"Hey, nope." Orange says as he picks me up, noticing me head to the storage room. "Not even two hours ago you were still asleep after Happy and Funny let you in there. You've had enough for now."

"Aw, but-!" I protest.

"Nope. It's not healthy for you." Orange says. "How about we play hide-and seek instead? Without going into the storage room."

"Ooh, okay!" I say, excited as Orange sets me down.

I quickly head upstairs, knowing it's my turn to hide. I'm not really bothered by him stopping me anyway, I know I can just sneak down while he's outside later tonig-

"I need to start locking up the storage room if he keeps doing that..." I hear Orange say. "Where's that extra padlock I had?"

...

Drat.