Family of Steel - Man on Fire

[Proto Man]

The Ashen Plains was an abysmal place. For all its crime, malice, and lack of liberty, Coruscant was still a more hospitable verse. Overhead, the skies were a menacing shade of red that was unlike anything Proto Man had ever seen. Even the clouds, where they were present, were black and ominous. All the nearby landmarks were dark mountains of some sort, whether they were active volcanoes, calderas, or natural formations. Far to the northeast, one mountain jutted far above its peers. Based on information pulled from the Dataverse, he could wager a guess he was looking at Death Mountain, which was home to the verse’ population of dragons.

With the gate a few miles behind him, the slightly sloping ground gave way to rough, uneven terrain. He was happy he hadn’t bothered with boots or other wrappings for his feet, because the ground would have ruined them in short order.

Before he knew it, the clock on his internal display was telling him he’d been walking for a little over three hours. The robot paused and glanced back over his shoulder to see that he’d gained a few thousand feet in elevation within realizing it. Behind him were the smallest peaks of a mountain range, and up ahead, his somewhat leisurely stroll would eventually become a vertical ascent up a few jagged black mountains. Somewhere to the android’s left, a magma vent released a screaming hiss of vapor before spewing up an eight foot column of lava. Was this the extent of this verse? A lot of rock and heat with the occasional appearance of some lava?

***

The Prodigal…

What brings you to this neck of the woods, Proto Man? Heat Man scowled as he watched the android pull himself up to the top of a short incline. In his last conference with Quick Man, there had been no new information about the Prodigal’s whereabouts. Did my boomerang-loving brother fail at his one job? The fire-themed machine scowled as he lowered himself down to a cave entrance.

Over the last couple of weeks, the cavern, like many in the region, had served as an auxiliary base. Walking over to the corner, Heat Man pulled away a stone to reveal a vein of steaming magma. Dipping his hand inside, he fished out the small device that he kept stored in caves like this and pressed it between his palms. Each heat-resistant hard drive stored all the information he’d acquired pertaining to a ten mile radius--temperature averages, weather patterns, volcanism, and any suitable pathways for humanoids.

The device told him that, given his current location, the Prodigal would have to take one of two particular pathways if he planned to get around the active volcanic mountain that dominated this region. Of more keen interest to the fire-themed machine, however, was the fact that said volcano was due to erupt sometime within the next twenty-four hours. If he could intercept Proto Man, he might just be able to solve his and his brothers’ problems once and for all.

With that in mind, Heat Man initiated a sequence within the hard drive and dropped it back into the magma vein. Once it was hidden, he smiled as he exited the tiny cave. If he hurried up the back route he had mapped a few days ago, he could intercept the Prodigal somewhere near the rim of the volcano.