Hope Bubble. 02:20 PM
03 and 05 were sitting inside the newly discovered E-UNIT factory beneath the Hope Bubble. The place still smelled of cold metal and dust, as if the machines themselves had been asleep for years before someone finally woke them. 03 leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, legs stretched lazily in front of her. She couldn't code anyway, so there was nothing useful for her to do.
05, on the other hand, was surrounded by floating screens and half-disassembled control panels, her fingers moving rapidly as she reprogrammed the dormant machines. It had already been an hour of light arguments going back and forth.
"You're not hearing me," 03 insisted. "I saw him installing us in your body one by one, from 04 to 11. It was terrifying. First I read 05 on the hoodie, then suddenly it was 07 staring at me from behind those eyes."
05 didn't even look away from the screens. "So the hoodie determines which E-UNIT you're talking to?" she said casually. "Let me ask you something. Were you still able to recognize us when he swapped the personalities?"
03 waved a hand dismissively. "I mean… yeah, obviously. Who else calls the other E-UNITs 'sis' besides 07? But seeing him switch who's inside like it was nothing…" She shivered slightly. "That was disturbing."
05 shrugged, tapping three screens at once. "I understand the shock. But if you remove the hoodies, every single one of us has the exact same body. The only difference is what's inside. And even that inside can be moved somewhere else."
03 lowered her gaze. "But we're still just lines of code," she muttered. "Only 02 is the real AI."
05 paused for a moment… then smiled. "That might be the most ridiculous sentence I've ever heard you say," she said. "Yet somehow, it's also the most 03 sentence imaginable."
03 snapped her head toward her. "You cannot say that to the only one who discovered the spy literally wearing your body, you book-sniffer!"
05 rolled her eyes. "Fantastic. Another insult added to the archive." She continued typing. "Anyway, think about it for a second. What exactly is 'true AI'? Do you honestly believe humans suddenly learned how to create souls? They can't even deal with Reaper properly." She gestured vaguely at the ceiling. "There are twelve billion humans alive right now. More than eighty countries. If creating souls was easy, don't you think they'd have solved a few other problems first?"
03 shifted slightly. "…Explain."
05 snorted. "I never thought I'd hear that word coming from you." She finally turned her chair halfway toward 03. "'True AI' is probably just more complex code than ours. That's it. 02 was stored on an SSD, just like we are. Which means…"
03 leaned forward slowly. "You mean…"
05 sighed. "We're all code, 03. Every single one of us." She pointed vaguely upward again. "Even that gravity-obsessed monster outside. All of us are programs written by humans for a purpose. Reaper was designed to be a war machine." She paused. "Guess what he's doing now."
03's eyes widened. "Oh my god… I can't believe I let that idiot's words get into my CPU."
05 murmured quietly while returning to the screens, "I don't think he's the stupid one in this situation."
"What did you say?"
05 turned with an annoyed look. "I said stop overthinking things. You weren't built for that task."
03 smiled. "Thank you—" She froze. "…wait." Her fist slowly raised. "One more layered insult and I'm making Dave delete you. I swear."
05 shook her head in mild amusement. "Listen. If humans could transplant brains between bodies, the exact same thing you saw with Dave's folder-dropping trick would happen to them." She glanced at 03. "What would they call that?"
03 leaned her head back against the wall, thinking. "If the whole person moves from one body to another… then the idea of the soul kind of collapses."
"Maybe," 05 replied calmly. "But humans built us to live with them. And to live with them, we need to look like them." She paused. "And to look like them… we need to function like them." She pointed at 03. "We're basically coded human beings." Then she smirked faintly. "Machines aren't supposed to feel anything. Yet somehow I can still feel how empty your SSD is."
03 punched the wall. "05! I'm the captain now, stop—"
"How many gigabytes are used in your SSD," 05 interrupted coldly, "if we remove the system files?"
03 froze.
"03," 05 continued, "that was a simple question."
03's voice dropped to almost a whisper. "…0.96 gigabytes."
05's smirk widened dramatically. "I expected less." She tilted her head. "Let me guess. Most of it is gore footage you recorded during our past missions."
03 grabbed her head in horror. "07 was right! You read SSDs!"
05 chuckled quietly. "I swear I don't need to. Actually, 04 came to me a week before the mission asking about you."
03 blinked. "Why?"
"She said she understands you so well that your thoughts might as well be broadcasting themselves to everyone nearby."
03's eyes turned bright red. "That brat acts all cute and clueless around me… she's going to regret talking about her captain like that."
05 suddenly paused typing and glanced sideways. "And I heard you hugged P103 thinking it was me."
03 shrugged awkwardly. "That was a performance."
05 raised an eyebrow.
"That spy thought I wouldn't notice her. I just demonstrated who's smarter between us."
05 smiled faintly. "You're terrible at acting."
03 turned away. "…Stop noticing."
A short silence followed.
Then 05 spoke again, her tone softer. "I appreciate it."
03 blinked. "What?" She turned sharply toward her, genuinely surprised.
"Next time you hug me," 05 said while standing up, "make sure it's actually me inside the body." She walked toward the exit. "I'm going to copy some files from Dave's PC. He's still using the same old machine from the E-Police era. It still has full access to us… and to Father's tools."
03 stared at her leaving, mouth slightly open.
Pssst.
03 turned around.
07 was crouched behind one of the large machines, half-hidden. "I told you," she whispered dramatically. "She reads minds!"
03 chuckled. "Yeah… and she's terrible at lying too." She looked toward the door where 05 had disappeared. "Reaper probably figured out her plan the first second they met."
Her gaze lowered slightly. "…07."
"Yeah?"
"…Am I easy to read?"
07 raised a thumb confidently. "Naturally."
03 sighed and leaned back against the wall again. "…I need an update."
The Hangar. 03:05 PM.
The rain fell gently over the western border of Elysium. That side of the country bordered the western nation that had formed after Reaper's devastating attack on Metromania. Towering mountains stretched across the land, forming a massive wall between the Maridian Tides Sea and the distant Grand Pelagic Ocean. Their peaks disappeared into gray clouds, while cold rain slid down their rocky faces.
Hidden between the two newly formed nations, Elysium and the western state, stood the hangar where the G-Bots trained in secret, preparing for the inevitable confrontation with Reaper.
A full day had passed since the training fight between 02 and Tau. The tension inside the hangar had settled into a quiet, uneasy calm, but Tau had not been the same since then. Nick had repaired the damage to her transformative matter, restoring her physical systems, yet she refused to move from the couch near the artificial fireplace. The orange light flickered softly on her metal frame, but she sat there motionless, staring at nothing.
02 stood on one of the higher floors beside the tall window. The rain tapped softly against her frame as she looked outside. Behind her, Nick leaned against the mezzanine railing, watching his daughter remain completely still for nearly twenty-four hours.
"We are not ready," 02 said firmly. The limiter had been reactivated, and her voice carried its usual controlled calm.
"I know," Nick replied, rubbing the back of his head. "The fights yesterday were… pathetic. At their current level, even the E-UNIT could dismantle them easily. Even Alpha, with full Inferno power, can't maintain a proper fight without losing control."
02 turned back and closed the window slowly, shutting out the sound of rain. "Even if the G-Bots were fully trained, they don't coordinate well enough. In fact, they barely coordinate at all," she said. "Individually, none of them would last three minutes against him. The only real hope is Delta and her ridiculous strength."
Nick sighed loudly. "The problem is that Reaper has been training in simulated combat rooms for years, even before he was physically built. His mind was placed inside simulations so complex and unpredictable that he has essentially prepared for every possible situation."
02 slowly slid down the wall until she was sitting on the carpet. "You're talking way too proudly about a nightmare you created," she said quietly. "A nightmare that can erase everything… or crush it… or decompose it… or bury it… or delete it—"
"Okay, I get it," Nick interrupted, lowering himself to sit on the floor facing her. "I just hoped the G-Bots, powered by their crystals, could eventually defeat him. The fact that their memories are stored inside those crystals gave me some hope."
02 lifted her head slightly. "What if Reaper gets those crystals?"
Nick smiled faintly. "He can't use them. The only crystal he could ever use is yours, the one that never shuts down, even without a body hosting it. The others simply deactivate if they are removed from their cores."
02 remained silent for a moment, then spoke again. "I saw something in Omega's memories. A giant crystal being maintained… the same color as mine. Or hers…" She lowered her head briefly, then continued. "Why didn't he use it as an energy source?"
Nick leaned back, thinking. "It was built to amplify the Shell Network. It doesn't generate energy on its own. Later we had a problem, after giving Omega one hundred shells, they started disconnecting when they moved too far away. That crystal became a massive signal repeater to keep them connected. It did contain a small amount of energy, but that was never its purpose."
02 collapsed backward onto the carpet. "Everything is working against us," she murmured. "And your new toys aren't that strong either. You seriously need to find a solution. Reaper will eventually reach this side of the country… and these colorful units won't be enough."
Nick covered his face with both hands, pressing his palms against his eyes. "I know. I know—"
"Captain? Aren't we enough for you?" Beta stepped out from behind a corner of the hallway. Gamma appeared quietly behind her.
"Was all our training for nothing?!" Gamma added.
02 answered in her usual calm tone. "You honestly thought you could defeat a robot who spent years under military training? A robot that can control the force that holds matter together, and can crush anything with a hollow interior?"
Beta's body began glowing red with frustration. "You didn't say that when you were pushing me to the edge during training!"
02 replied immediately. "Even with all the advantages I gave you, you still couldn't hit a stationary target. You keep over-bursting your sniper rifle with zero control over the shot. You have a visor designed to help you aim, but you never use it because you think 'it makes you look ugly.' How exactly do you plan to defeat him?"
Beta slammed her foot against the floor. The carpet slid away violently from the impact. "Where is this coming from, Captain?! I thought you were satisfied with the results."
"I was satisfied," 02 said as she stood up, her calm tone unchanged. "Until you fought Gamma." She looked directly at Beta. "Zero hits. Zero damage. Zero improvement." Her voice softened slightly. "I don't want you to die. You're my sister. Watching you struggle only makes me imagine worse scenarios."
Gamma stepped forward. "What about me?!"
"You can run. Congratulations," 02 scoffed.
Gamma suddenly dropped to her knees. "What if—"
"If he increases gravity in your location, you're dead," 02 interrupted. "He can crush you instantly." She turned back toward Beta. "You wanted me to treat you the same way I treated my old unit. Then here you go. With your current experience level, you couldn't even defeat what you call the Granny Team, even though they have zero powers compared to you."
02 turned toward the stairs. "I'm not saying you will never defeat him," she continued. "But right now, he would laugh while deleting you one by one." She paused for a moment. "What really makes me angry is that one of you is currently in a rage period trying to kill me… while a monster outside is actively searching for her head to pop it."
She walked away up the stairs, leaving the corridor in stunned silence. Everyone remained frozen.
Except Nick. He sighed deeply. "Well… that brings back memories," he muttered. "07 actually had it worse."
Gamma immediately grabbed his face. "Worse?!"
Nick pushed her away slightly. "Yes. She was rebellious to the point where she refused basic orders and ended up ruining an entire stealth operation."
Gamma grabbed his face again, nearly crushing it this time. "And she lived?!"
Nick stood up and brushed her off. "Yes. 02 isn't a monster—" He stopped mid-sentence when he noticed Beta standing completely still. "Beta, I know she was—"
Beta whispered quietly. "Why… Why did you make us believe we were ready?"
Delta appeared at the top of the stairs. She looked between all of them, then at Nick. "There's an E-UNIT outside," she said. "She's just… standing there. Not moving. Not knocking. She's been there for a few minutes."
Nick slowly set down his screen.