Secret Mission 5: Mirror World

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"A sabotaged experiment threatens to destroy all of Hero Factory. Stormer, Bulk, Furno, and Breez expect to give up their lives, but instead they wake up in another world - a world without Hero Factory.
In this dark, mirror world, they find there are no Heroes, and any act of heroism is against the law. This terrifying new world is ruled by Von Nebula, Speeda Demon, and more villains than the Heroes can count. Worse still, this universe also has swarms of robot-controlling brains . . . but these have a thirst for destruction. Now, it's up to a handful of Heroes and a world of villains to stop the brains before they destroy both worlds."
― Back Cover

Parent Page: Media

Secret Mission 5: Mirror World
Media
Type Secret Mission Book Year(s) released 2013

Secret Mission #5: Mirror World is the last installment in the Secret Mission series. It was released by Scholastic on May 1, 2013.

Synopsis

In an alternate universe, William Furno attempts to escape custody by evil robot guards/bounty hunters called the Jolters from an evil organization from a building called the Citadel. Using apparently corrupt guards, he makes his way to a purported safe house, but is captured by Voltix, who had engineered the entire ruse and threatens to break Furno's will.

Meanwhile, in the prime universe, Nathan Evo does security check on Dunkan Bulk at a security checkpoint to make sure there is nothing wrong with Bulk, despite Evo feeling uncomfortable in doing the tasks, and much to Bulk's annoyance because Bulk wants to go to a meeting. After Evo finishes the task, he lets Bulk go to the meeting. Bulk meets with his three fellow Alpha 1 Team members, Preston Stormer, William Furno, and Natalie Breez, at the briefing room while Jimi Stringer is busy being debriefed on Mission: Robot Rampage. Stormer tells his fellow Heroes about a new energy source for the Hero Factory technology, which Nathaniel Zib ran calculations on for days, and Stormer's plan to have the other Heroes and himself test the energy source with a generator in the next day.

Karter, who is a member of the Galactic Conspiracy and imprisoned by the Hero Factory corporation for his crimes in Tranquis VII weeks ago, has his bosses send his nervous old contact and fellow member of the conspiracy, Perjast, to come meet Karter at the Hero Factory building's prison's visiting area. When Perjast visits Karter, the Heroes are watching the two and want to hear their conversation. Perjast gives Karter a scrambler unit to hide their conversation. Karter tells him to smuggle in a device to help Karter with his plan to destroy the Hero Factory. The conspiracy remotely disables Perjast, making him mostly inactive, and then the Hero Factory retrieves him. While the Hero Factory's technicians are examining Perjast's body and he is slowly powering up because his condition is temporary, the technicians unintentionally expose a solid-light hologram generator hidden in his circuitry. This gives Karter an opportunity to secretly and quickly recover the device from Perjast's body before he goes back to his cell since security in the prison became tighter after the Breakout, which happened months ago. Karter uses the hologram generator to rearrange the Heroes' power generator's beta and zed circuits in the Hero Factory's testing chamber, sabotaging the power generator without making it look sabotaged.

On the next day, the four Heroes go to guard and test the power generator, which looks fine to them, and Stormer activates it to test the new energy source. However, due to Karter's sabotage, it rapidly goes out of control. Furno tries to stop the energy from overloading, but the sabotage prevents him from doing it. Stormer has everyone in the Hero Factory building evacuate it. He then tells his teammates to keep the testing chamber closed to prevent the generator's energy from possibly spreading across the Hero Factory, so the Heroes are forced to sacrifice themselves to do so. A beam of blinding light from the generator knocks them unconscious.

The Heroes wake up in a deserted warehouse, in a deserted warehouse district, that night. After Breez realizes she and her fellow Heroes had been spatially displaced, the Heroes get out of the warehouse and notice the warehouse district. They then notice a robot attacker robbing a robot person of a box of tools. After the Heroes stop the robber, the robber and the victim look at the Heroes as lawbreakers, confusing them. Bulk realizes they are at the same coordinates as they were before, as they believe they are in Makuhero City because of its constellations. The four Heroes want to learn about the strange new changes in the city, so they go to Makuhero University, which is mysteriously renamed "Von Nebula University." The Heroes ask a female small, thin, clerk robot called L-22 from the university to help them learn about the city's history, and she suggests using a device called a Histotron to do so. When Stormer uses the device, which looks different from the one the Heroes know, and gets his answers from it, he tells his fellow Heroes to leave the university. Stormer then tells them that they are in the alternate universe, where there is no Hero Factory, and Makuhero City was renamed "Von Nebula City." Stormer tells the Heroes that they have to find a way back to their universe.

L-22 reads the Histotron and learns from it that one of the Heroes who used it is Preston Stormer and was looking for Hero Factory. She calls a member of the Citadel's inner circle, Speeda Demon, and reports this to him, but Speeda Demon believes that she is misusing the call, so he orders her to leave the university and go to a destruction booth to get destroyed, and he tells her that L-23 will take her job. After L-22 leaves, the report makes Speeda Demon remember the time when Akiyama Makuro founded the Hero Factory, Von Ness betraying Hero Factory to Black Phantom in Hero Factory's early days by giving him the Hero Factory plans, and Black Phantom and the Legion of Darkness destroying the Hero Factory. Von Ness became a villain called Von Nebula and took over the gangs. Speeda Demon told people for years that he had deactivated Makuro and Makuro disappeared since. Now, Speeda Demon gets so curious about the report that he gives it to Von Nebula, who is in the darkness of his room. This makes Von Nebula order him to get L-22 and give her to him. Speeda Demon saves L-22 from her destruction in a destruction booth near the university. Von Nebula remembers how he became the leader of the Citadel, a vast empire of villainous planets in much of the galaxy, and Makuhero City, and changed the city's name to Von Nebula City. He created laws where heroism is punished, and crime and power are honored. After Speeda Demon gives L-22 to Von Nebula, L-22 tells Von Nebula the report and describes the Heroes. Von Nebula feels so angry to hear about Stormer that he shows himself in the light, revealing his distorted body. His body got distorted when he tried to combine it with his staff called the Black Hole Orb Staff's gravity power, making him look grotesque. L-22 asks Von Nebula about what happened, and Von Nebula replies that "Stormer happened."

Meanwhile, the prime reality Alpha 1 Team Heroes, who are using an abandoned building near the Citadel as a temporary base, come up with a plan to meet Von Nebula and see if the universe has its own version of the generator, as they theorize that the Citadel may have it. On the next night, after a Citadel inner circle member, Splitface, and his henchbots, rob the Von Nebula Stadium of a security pouch of money, the Heroes attack the villains by defeating Splitface's gang and stealing the pouch from Splitface while the Heroes are pretending to be a new gang of villains. The Heroes get away. Then, when another Citadel inner circle member, Jawblade, is about to rob a pleasure cruise, the Heroes attack and capture him, stopping him from robbing a cruise by lying to him that they already robbed it. The Heroes get away again and leave Jawblade behind. On the next two days, when the Heroes attack more villains, thwart their crimes, and get away from the villains, this gets the Citadel's attention, angering them. Von Nebula learns that these robots are the ones that L-22 saw, sparing her life and giving her a job as promised, and remembers his Stormer causing Von Nebula's distortion and his own, and then Stormer disappearing since. Von Nebula becomes curious about the prime reality Heroes, so he wants negotiations with them. He sends a member of the Citadel's inner circle, XT4, to find them and deliver the message. In the afternoon, XT4 steals a shipment of protean space gems in the center of Von Nebula City, which gets the four Heroes' attention. XT4 tells them the message, and then Stormer tells him to tell Von Nebula that he and his team want a meeting with him and the Citadel's inner circle inside there. XT4 leaves.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the galaxy, not in Von Nebula City's sensor array's range, the Brains, who are flying in outer space, sense the presence of the prime reality Heroes. They learn who they are, so they start to investigate in order to find a way to conquer the Heroes' galaxy.

Thirty-six hours later, in Von Nebula City, the Heroes notice Jawblade, bound in chains in a large water tank, showing that the Citadel wishes to meet the Heroes at their place. The Heroes go to the Citadel while a group of Jolters is shocked to see Furno as his alternate reality counterpart is still in prison. The Heroes meet six members of the Citadel's inner circle, who are Von Nebula, Speeda Demon, XT4, Black Phantom, Toxic Reapa, and Core Hunter. Stormer lies to the villains that he demands Von Nebula to hand the Citadel to the Heroes. During the two groups' conversation, Von Nebula is shocked to see Stormer, so he ends the conversation and has a small group of Jolters imprison the Heroes, so he will interrogate them. However, the Heroes defeat the Jolters. They plan a breakout for the Heroes in the Citadel's prison. They first free the alternate reality William, who does not trust the prime realty Heroes at first, but Furno frustratingly convinces him to be free from the prison and help them free the other prisoners. William accepts his counterpart's words and starts helping him and his fellow prime reality Heroes. The five Heroes free all of the prisoners. Meanwhile, Voltix, who is a member of the inner circle, notices the breakout and is about to summon all reserve guards to stop the prisoners and their liberators when he gets notified by one of the Citadel's technicians about the Brains coming.

Meanwhile, Stormer convinces the former prisoners to fight the Citadel. The prime reality Heroes hear Voltix announcing to the Citadel about the invasion of the Brains on the city. The Heroes use security cameras to see what is going on outside of the prison. The Brains reveal to be different from the ones in the prime reality by being larger, having wings, and being able to shoot devastating mental blasts. The alternate reality Brains attack and knock Splitface and a fellow member of the inner circle, Thornraxx, unconscious to get them out of the way. While the prisoners are fighting the Jolters, Breez notices that the Brains are not focused on controlling the city's residents. Two of the Brains meet Von Nebula. The Brains have the ability to communicate telepathically, so Von Nebula asks them what do they want in order to convince them to stop the invasion. The Brains tell him that they seek the prime reality Heroes and information from them. Von Nebula makes a deal with them where he wants information from one of the Heroes as well. So, the Brains and Von Nebula ally with each other. The invasion stops. Alpha Team goes to the upper floors to see why. They notice the Brains having allied with Von Nebula. The Brains sense, find, and knock the Heroes unconscious. They want to cancel their bargain with Von Nebula since they have the Heroes, but he forcefully convinces the Brains to keep it. One of the Brains tells Von Nebula that when it is done getting the information from one of the Heroes, there may be a little left in the Hero's mind.

Von Nebula takes away the Heroes' equipment and has them imprisoned. He then has one of the Brains read Stormer's mind. While the Brain is reading his mind, Stormer learns about what the Brains are. The Brains are radically different from the ones from the main universe. Instead of being created, they evolved naturally. They are nomadic warriors who conquered several worlds, and are interested in causing destruction in wherever they go rather than ruling over others. They cannot control beings' minds for an indefinite time, as their hosts burn out quickly. The Brains search for technology to manufacture robotic bodies that do not have minds of their own and they would use as new bodies and to eliminate their weakness of being organic. The Brains would then use the robotic bodies to make and use battle machines. However, the technology was not present in their universe. The Brains learn of Hero Factory, which they see as a way to become unstoppable. They plan to use the alternate reality's generator to get to the prime reality to conquer Stormer's galaxy. After Stormer's Brain read his mind, Stormer's mind is intact, and he tricks the Brains and Von Nebula into thinking that the Brain that read his mind made him mindless. The Brain tells Von Nebula about who the prime reality Stormer really is and his Von Nebula not being a ruler or distorted like the alternate reality Von Nebula. The alternate reality Von Nebula becomes worried about the possibility of the counterpart following his Stormer in the alternate universe and overthrowing the alternate reality Von Nebula. The Brains tell the alternate reality Von Nebula to lead them to the generator, which he and his fellow inner circle members are using to test their power source, making Von Nebula deduce that the prime reality's generator is how the prime reality Heroes got in his universe. Von Nebula tells the Brains that he will have to complete his generator first and warns them that using it now could mean their destruction if it is not completed. The Brains know that Stormer does not know how to use the generator for trans-dimensional travel, so they agree to let Von Nebula complete the generator, so he can make it work.

Von Nebula has the Jolters deliver Stormer back to his fellow prime reality Heroes. The Heroes are shocked to see Stormer being mindless, so they get angry and want to avenge their friend. They are about to free themselves when Stormer reveals that his mind is intact, helps them free themselves, and frees himself. Stormer tells the Heroes that the alternate reality does have its own generator, but he wants to stay in the alternate reality to prevent the Brains from using the generator, much to the Heroes' worries. The Heroes find Core Hunter, who is arguing with two Brains for barring him from entering the testing laboratory, where the Heroes believe the generator is. The Heroes secretly capture and forcefully convince him to help them fight the Brains because the Brains cannot be trusted when they get what they want, as the Brains will destroy the Citadel. Core Hunter helps the Heroes get their stolen equipment back. He distracts the two Brains guarding the door to the laboratory by convincing them to leave it, so Stormer defeats and makes them unconscious. Furno then knocks Core Hunter unconscious. The Heroes steal Core Hunter's lab pass and uses it to enter the laboratory.

The Heroes find the generator, but they discover that half of an Amelium cylinder, which is needed for the generator to work, is missing. Von Nebula shows up, shows the Heroes the missing half in his possession, and threatens to destroy it if the Heroes fight him. He proposes an alliance with the Heroes against the Brains because he does not want his prime reality counterpart to win, and his fellow Citadel villains are barred from entry. Von Nebula also does not want the Citadel to be destroyed if the Brains learn that he betrays them. When he gives the Heroes the missing half, he also reveals that he actually imprisoned Makuro, who made the cylinder three years ago, while Von Nebula made the Histotron misinform people about Makuro disappearing and probably being deactivated, so Stormer was misinformed by the Histotron about Makuro. Von Nebula escorts Stormer to Makuro's cell while the other Heroes guard the laboratory. Makuro at first does not trust Stormer, but Stormer tells him that he is from a different universe where Makuro's dream of running the Hero Factory came true and created the second wave of Heroes. This gives Makuro hope and makes him want to help Stormer and Von Nebula.

Meanwhile, the Brains get impatient, so they send one of their own to investigate the testing laboratory. When the Brain sees Stormer's fellow Heroes occupying it, it discovers that it and its kind have been betrayed by the Citadel, so it goes to warn its leaders. Meanwhile, William, Jimi Stringer, and the other former prisoners, who took some Jolters' gear, are hiding in the Citadel's waterfront while the Brains are heading to the Citadel and Jolters patrolling the waterfront going to defend the Cotadel building from them. William wants to go back to the Citadel to help the prime reality Heroes, despite Stringer and one of the former prisoners' protests. Stringer gives William a small, black device, which is a communicator that their Alpha 1 Team used to use before the Hero Factory was destroyed and Stringer salvaged since his imprisonment. William uses it to contact the alternate reality Stormer, shocking William and the other Heroes. Preston tells William that he and his fellows will come to their location and defeat the Citadel finally.

Meanwhile, Makuro is in the Citadel's auxiliary laboratory for more than 15 minutes, creating a low-emission beta wave weapon that can put a few Brains at a time to sleep. The Brains resume their attack on the prime reality Heroes and the Citadel. Makuro suggests the prime reality Stormer and Von Nebula to divert the Brains' attention, so Stormer and Von Nebula can pick them off. The Heroes and the Citadel fight the Brains while Stormer uses the jammer to defeat six of the Brains, as the device can defeat six Brains at a time. Von Nebula and the Heroes head to the Citadel's roof to make the fight easier for them. When Von Nebula notices a unit of Jolters getting defeated by the Brains, this worries him, so he impatiently takes the jammer from Stormer and uses it to defeat some more Brains aggressively. However, this gets the other Brains' attention, so the Brains start to overwhelm the Heroes and Von Nebula. However, the alternate reality versions of the Alpha 1 Team, including Preston, William, and Stringer, the former prisoners, and the alternate reality Preston's group of fellow Heroes come to help the Heroes defeat the Brains. Stormer's body got alternated thanks to Makuro, who taught him how to make flying vehicles called "Sky Sleds", which all of the alternate reality Heroes are using in the battle. Von Nebula gets surprised to see his Stormer, allowing Breez to make him let go of the jammer, and then Furno takes it. The Heroes split the Brains into smaller groups, so Furno can use the jammer to take down one of the groups at a time. Von Nebula gets so angry to see his Stormer that he tries to use the Black Hole Hole Staff to destroy him, but when the staff is generating its energies, both Stormers shoot at the energies at the same time, causing it to cause Von Nebula's body to fold onto itself and vanish, finally ending his reign. The Heroes from both universes defeat the Brains. They celebrate their victory while peace is finally restored.

The prime reality Furno and prime reality Bulk make the generator work and able to do trans-dimensional travel. Preston, William, and Makuro tell them and the other two prime reality Heroes that with Von Nebula gone, and the inner circle and the Jolters destroyed by the Brains, they will get rid of the rest of the Citadel and re-create the Hero Factory. They also plan to destroy the generator to prevent any invaders from coming to the prime reality after the prime reality Heroes use the generator to go back to their universe. Bulk says that he and his fellow prime reality Heroes would like to come visit them someday and somehow. The two groups say their goodbyes to each other. After the alternate reality Heroes and Makuro leave the laboratory, the prime reality Heroes use the generator to return home.

Back in the prime reality, after Perjast fully recovered and reawakens himself, he finds himself strapped down to a cot in the repair bay. The prime reality Heroes, who returned from their adventure in the alternate reality and learned from Zib that everyone who evacuated Hero Factory went back inside, find and capture Perjast. They interrogate him and make him confess that it was Karter who sabotaged the prime reality's generator. The Heroes plan to find and catch Karter. Meanwhile, an alarm the Hero Factory's prison is sounded, and Karter, who thinks that the four Heroes got killed by the generator, notices Zib running. Zib says that the generator is causing a second explosion before he continues running. This shocks Karter, so he uses his communicator to call the Galactic Conspiracy's leader. Karter pleads with his contact to save him, but the contact refuses to avoid exposure. The Heroes appear, revealing that the second explosion is a ruse that they created to catch Karter. Stormer steals the communicator and threatens the contact. However, the contact says that the Heroes need Karter to find him and the Conspiracy, and then he kills Karter from afar to prevent the Heroes from finding the contact.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Galactic Conspiracy, who is in a temporary base in a far-off frontier world with acid seas, regrets killing Karter. He theorizes that the Stormer and his team might track the Conspiracy down, so he is thinking about moving the Conspiracy to another location, probably somewhere in the heart of the galaxy. He is also now thinking about making the whole Conspiracy come out of hiding and go destroy the Hero Factory soon. Meanwhile, back at the Hero Factory, in a viewport, Stormer is thinking about his alternate reality counterpart. After Breez comes to the viewport, she and Stormer talk about Von Nebula City's history and the possible future of their alternate reality counterparts, where they will finally get the same things the prime reality Stormer and prime reality Breez have. After Breez leaves the viewport, Stormer is also thinking about the Galactic Conspiracy coming closer in their plan to fight the Hero Factory. He also thinks about Von Nebula City's history, and wishes that his alternate reality counterpart will have a better life after the Brain invasion in the city.

Characters

Prime Reality

Heroes

• Preston Stormer
• William Furno
• Dunkan Bulk
• Natalie Breez
• Nathan Evo

Galactic Conspiracy

• Karter
• Perjast
• The unnamed leader of the Galactic Conspiracy

Others

• Nathaniel Zib
• Hero Factory technicians

Alternate Reality

Heroes

• Preston Stormer
• William Furno
• Jimi Stringer
• Dunkan Bulk
• Thresher
• Many Heroes in the Citadel
• Stormer's allies

Villains

• The Citadel villains
  • The inner circle
    • Von Ness/Von Nebula
    • Legion of Darkness
    • XT4
    • Core Hunter
  • The Jolters
• The Brains

Others

• Akiyama Makuro
• L-22

Trivia

• Some sources state that the chapter book came out a day earlier, April 30, 2013.
• The preceding chapter book, Secret Mission 4: Robot Rampage, shows a preview to Mirror World, showing its premise and prologue.
• This chapter book is a more minor part of Hero Factory's 2013 story arc than Secret Mission 3: Collision Course and Robot Rampage because it does not have the prime reality's Brains, despite the Brains being mentioned.
• The book implies that everyone in Tranquis VII that the Brains possessed in Robot Rampage is freed from the Brains since the prime reality's heroes know how to remove the Brains from their hosts.
• In HeroFactory.com's Media Center in 2010, the Hero Factory was created and inspired the creation of Makuhero City more than a century ago, but in the book, when Stormer used the alternate universe's Histotron to try to learn about the universe's Makuhero City, he said that he got information from a thousand years ago.
• In page 57, the alternate Von Nebula remembers his Stormer led Alpha Team rather than Thresher doing it. Reason for this is unknown, but it is possible that Von Nebula knows that Stormer can act like a leader of the team, as evidenced in Secret Mission 2: Legion of Darkness.
• There is an error in the book where Stormer was wondering about the alternate reality having its own Stormer and "Furno". However, in the prime reality, long after the Alpha 1 Team saved the Hero Factory from being destroyed by the Legion of Darkness in the Hero Factory's early days in Legion of Darkness, Furno was recently created, according to a News story from HeroFactory.com in 2010.^{[Hero Fabrication Update (June 7, 2010)]} If the Hero Factory were to be destroyed during its early days, Furno would not have existed. In the alternate universe, Furno was created during the early days for some reason. Thus, the book probably meant to say that Stormer was wondering about the alternate reality having its own Stormer and "Bulk" because the prime reality Bulk was created during the early days, and Bulk is the only Hero with such history to be with the prime reality Stormer in the alternate reality.
• In Secret Mission 1: The Doom Box, the energy from the Doom Box made the prime reality Core Hunter's body fold onto itself and disappear. It was unknown what happened to him, but this book reveals that he is still alive. He is seen in a cameo, where he is re-imprisoned along with Speeda Demon in the Hero Factory's prison and when Karter was meeting Perjast at the prison's visiting area. How Core Hunter is re-imprisoned is revealed in Face Off: Makuro's Secret Guidebook.
• Strangely, Julius Nex is the only main Alpha 1 Team member to not be mentioned or appeared at all in the book. It is most likely an error. It is possible that his alternate reality counterpart did not exist due to the Legion of Darkness having destroyed the Hero Factory in its early days, but after the inner circle is defeated, he would likely be finally created, like the other new Heroes.
• Like Collision Course and Robot Rampage, this story does not act like Furno is in his XL form or the Heroes in their Brain Attack forms, as the story does not act like they have their Hero Core Locking Clamps and visors. Stormer carried in his Plasma Gun, which he also did in his XL Breakout form.
• In the book, the alternate versions of Furno and Stormer are addressed by their first names to distinguish them from their main reality counterparts whenever they meet them.
• It is said that Kelly McKiernan, known as "Binkmeister" in BZPower and who worked on BIONICLE and Hero Factory's websites, said that this chapter book and the four other Secret Mission books are not canon, but the guidebook and Dangerous Dimensions reference to them, which makes this fact disputable, so it can be assumed that the books are semi-canon.^{[Hero Factory 2014 Dissussion]}
• The book introduces many things in the alternate universe, including the Histotron and Amelium. Since the alternate universe's Makuhero City and its society are very much like the prime universe's, it is possible that most of the things from there exist in the prime universe:
  • The alternate universe's Akiyama Makuro wanted to use his money to create the Hero Factory. His prime universe counterpart had the same reason in Face Off: Makuro's Secret Guidebook.
  • The prime universe of the Histotron, one of the objects seen in the alternate universe, first appeared in Face Off: Makuro's Secret Guidebook.
  • The prime universe Heroes imply that there is Amelium in their universe.

See also

• Dangerous Dimensions - takes place after the events of the book.
• Saga Guides/Brain Attack