Kitsune
,
Long
and
Senshi
stood in a tight circle as a large group of Enforcer Machin surrounded them. Kitsune held her sword tight while Long and Senshi stood in firm battle stances. The Machin were unphased and marched forward with a monolithic sense of purpose. The ground beneath them shook as more Machin arrived and came closer and closer. There was no weakness to be found in their pixelated eyes - only an unfeeling sense of inevitability.
“I don’t suppose you could punch them all.”
Senshi
murmured to
Long
.
“No. We need another plan.”
Long
answered. “I was ready to go down with him. You didn’t have to come back for me.”
“For an opening?”
Long
interrupted.
“Exactly.”
Kitsune
answered as the circle of Machin closed in around them.
“By your lead.”
Senshi
replied.
Superior
walked steadily up the path. The dirt shifted beneath his shoes while the leaves rustled as he sifted between a pair of trees. As he carefully stepped on unfamiliar ground, he turned his head up to look at the leaves overhead. Watching them softly shift against the breeze, shining against the sunlight, it occurred to him how long it had been since he’d walked among the trees.
The old man
in front of him was clearly no stranger to the forest. He stepped forward with deliberate purpose, like every rock and tree was exactly where he’d expected. He was clearly comfortable here, and moved briskly for a man of his age.
“So who are you anyway?”
Superior
grumbled.
The old man
turned and looked downhill at Superior, “I’m just an old man.” he smiled. “Who are you?”
“A younger one.”
Superior
retorted.
The old man
chuckled, “I used to hike this trail with my sons every week in the summer. Walking here reminds me of those days.”
“You grew up near the facility?”
Superior
asked with gruff interest.
“I didn’t, but my sons did.” the old man stared forwards. “You remind me of my oldest.”
“Why’s that?”
“He used to always wear suits like yours, and hated our hikes together. We don’t talk anymore.”
“I don’t know if I hate it.”
Superior
stated as he looked up at the sunshine pouring through the gaps in the treeline. “It reminds me of my childhood too.” he finished in a deep tone.
The old man
stared back at him and towards the eyes on
Superior
’s screen. He looked over his demeanor, mannerisms and smiled at the ground for a mere moment before turning and facing back up the mountain.
“Then we keep moving.” the old man said.
“
Itamae
,”
Noir
started, “You’re back from work early.”
“There are robots-”
Itamae
blurted, “robots everywhere. They work for Takahashi. He’s back! And they’re bringing people back to the facility.”
“
Takahashi
’s here?”
Noir
beamed, “I shouldn’t have doubted he’d have a plan for this. I’ll head back to the facility. I’m sure Takahashi would enjoy seeing me.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Itamae
said. “With a robot army, it looks like he has things under control.”
“How many robots are left?”
Noir
asked.
Itamae
paused and narrowed his gaze. “What do you mean ‘how many robots are left’?”
“See for yourself.”
Noir
answered. He then walked towards the far side of the alley and gestured to Itamae to follow.
Itamae
walked closely behind until the alley opened up to a city square. Across the dented pavement were the scattered remains of about twenty Machin. From the torsos Itamae could tell that they were over six feet tall and had large muscular arms.
Itamae
solemnly walked towards their remains. He knelt down to take a closer look.
“They’re different than the ones I saw at the cafe,”
Itamae
beckoned
Noir
. “Someone managed to take them down.” Itamae leaned closer and observed scattered robotic arms and legs spread across the ground. “It was a blade.” he observed, “A long one, to make cuts this deep. And the way the parts are spread, it’s clear the attacker was surrounded. They took on all these robots at once.”
“What are you going to do?”
Noir
asked him.
“You go back to the facility. Tell
Takahashi
I say hello. In the meantime,..” Itamae glanced down at a deep cut across a Machin’s chest. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his throwing knives. The knife was long and had a sharp edge that glistened in the sunlight. “It looks like I have a new target.”
Order
stood across from the squadron of Machin. He observed their curved shiny metal and their pixelated screens.
Order
preferred to square up his opponents before fighting, to look them in the eyes and predict how they’d move. But the Machin eyes were cold and unemotional. They were only pixels on the screen that could not be examined or read. He shifted his stance slightly, and noticed them responding in kind.
“They’re shifting positions!”
Order
shouted nearby.
“What?”
Chaos
barked back. He stood with his knife in hand ready to charge into war.
“They know my stances and are shifting in kind. These robots are trained fighters.”
Order
answered.
“Trained being the operative word for sure..”
Math
interrupted.
“What do you mean?”
Order
asked.
“Hardware and data.”
Chem
trailed off, “The Triangle Company has had a monopoly on that for years.”
“Not to mention the time we were asleep.”
Order
corrected.
“So what do you suppose we do now?”
Chem
directed at
Math
, “you seem to be the expert here.”
“Oh, well it’s not really my field.”
Math
stammered, then looked at the squadron of Machin before him. “But they’re only as good as their training data. If you show them something they’ve seen before, they’ll beat you every time. If you do something different however…”
“I get it.”
Chaos
smiled, “It’s all randomness - chaos” he turned his head and chuckled at
Order
. “It’s like I told you before, street fights have no rules.”
Chaos
turned back towards the Machin and charged forward in a fit of blind rage with his blade in hand. The tide of Machin collapsed in around him.
Chaos
thrust his arm forward and shoved his blade through a screen. “Is that a picture of a stoplight, you tin can?!” he shouted.
After a moment,
Fear
rushed forward, and
Heart
soon after, thrusting their fists and arms against the line of Machin. Their breaths were quick and their arms were thrown about haphazardly.
Chem
and
Order
stood motionless however. They froze at the sight of the many Machin standing before them. How could they hope to defeat them - an army of machines that were smarter and stronger? Even
Chaos
, with all his bravado, began to struggle against the iron tide.
Chem
began to glance at
Order
, his eyes were ablaze with fear and hesitancy. Then, before he could let out a word, he was startled by the sound of clashing steel over his shoulder.
Chem
saw
Chaos
,
Heart
, and
Fear
struggling against seven Machin huddled around them, but the sound of violent clashing could be heard further back. The sounds of metal hitting the ground repeated moment after moment. As Chem’s sharp eyes spotted the tip of a blade through the cluster of Machin, he sighed with recognition. As more of the Machin collapsed and their line began to thin,
Chaos
saw
Kitsune
,
Long
, and
Senshi
emerge from the crowd with only a few Machin remaining. Senshi thrust his arms forward and took out one Machin by hitting his joints until it collapsed. Long took out two more with spirited punches to their chests. Then only one Machin was left standing.
Kitsune
slashed forward with her sword, but it parried her blow to the side. She thrust forward several more times and it managed to block each of her attacks. Kitsune breathed a quick breath and readied to attack again, but
Long
elbowed it from the left, and
Senshi
chopped across its right side, and the broken husk collapsed to the ground.
"What do you know about these robots?”
Chem
asked. "They knew my real name. I haven’t told anyone my name since I got here."
"Ours called themselves 'The Enforcer Machin'."
Kitsune
answered, "They were very tall and strong. These were different."
"There’s something going on here."
Chem
insisted. "Something about this doesn’t add up."
Hero
threw a firm punch and knocked a Machin to the side.
Kasumi
and
Birdcage
stood behind him and shoved away the five Machin that swarmed around them. They each managed to hold one off, but the three that pulled against their sides were pulling them off balance.
Vine
, who stood beside
Hero
, punted back her fist and knocked two Machin down with one punch.
Vine
knocked down two more, then grabbed her knees and took a deep breath.
“You need to get out of here.”
Hero
said, “I can take them. Just go.”
“That’s because-”
Vine
breathed, “I’m here.” she breathed again. “You need me.” Vine paused. “Wraaaaugh” Vine bellowed at the Machin and punched down two more, then paused again.
Hero
punched forward with long thrusts at the remaining Machin. He aimed to keep them at a distance, but they were beginning to surround them fast.
Around the corner of the building,
Key
and
Hero
peeked around the corner of the hotel. They saw
Kasumi
,
Birdcage
and
Vine
from Team Chaos fighting alongside Hero from Team Order. A large group of robots, not much bigger than Kasumi, surrounded them.
“We need to get you back inside.”
Key
said to her.
A moment later,
Jiro
stepped outside of the hotel and yelled towards the fighters, “What’s going on? Is
Vault
with you? I don’t know where she is!”
“Get back inside!”
Hero
shouted back.
“Uncle!”
Vault
yelled, and dashed towards the door.
Suddenly all of the Machin froze in place. They pivoted their heads towards
Vault
and followed her intently.
Hero
knocked out one more Machin, then froze, bewildered by what was happening.
“Priority target.” he heard one Machin utter.
Each and every Machin sprinted towards
Vault
, completely dismissing everyone else around them. The tight perimeter they formed around the fighters evaporated as they sprinted towards the girl who froze in fear.
Vault
’s scream was muffled behind the storm of Machin grabbing her arms and legs, then rushing to carry her away from the hotel. They formed a tight perimeter around her about four Machin deep. They rushed away quickly and for a moment,
Hero
considered pursuing them. But a second later, they were several yards away running faster than any of them could run.
“
Vault
!”
Jiro
yelled after her. If she heard him, he couldn’t tell.
Vine
sat on the ground and began gasping for air again.
“We have to go after her!”
Key
insisted.
“Not with
Vine
we can’t.”
Kasumi
insisted. “We need to take care of her.”
“We can’t not rescue
Vault
. She’s too important.”
Key
argued, careful not to say too much.
They began to see a man come up over a hill. As they each began to recognize his face, each person turned down their head and shook their head in dismay.
“It looks like you met the Machin.”
Gang
said, breaking the silence.
“Go away.”
Hero
said back. “We don’t need you here.”
“Actually, I need you. Nozomi needs you.”
“I’ve heard that from you before.”
Hero
stated. He walked up to
Gang
with his chest out, standing almost a foot above him. “I’m tired of your schemes and your tricks. I don’t want any part in them.”
“I get it.”
Gang
shook his head, “You all have plenty reason to hate me. Fine. Cuss me out if you want, but hear this. I was just … with
Coder
at the facility.
Takahashi
himself is there. These ‘Machin’ are his, and he’s trying to plug everybody back in again. And
Coder
- he made these things. He’s the only person who can turn these things off.”
“I wouldn’t mind introducing
Takahashi
to my fist.”
Birdcage
said, “But why should we trust you?”
“Because I’m telling the truth…”
Gang
shrugged, “I have nowhere else to go. And for some reason,” he sighed, looking at the ground. “I really need your help here. I wish someone cuddly and likable was here to back me up, but it’s not. It’s just me. And I need your help. We need to save
Coder
. This is the only way this ends.”
Hero
took a breath and shook his head.
Kasumi
glanced up at
Gang
and remembered the brief conversation they had. “I think he’s telling the truth.” Kasumi said. “I feel it.”
“Is
Coder
with
Takahashi
?”
Jiro
asked.
“He is.”
Gang
answered.
“Then I’m coming with you.”
“It’ll be too dangerous.”
Hero
said, “And honestly, I don’t think you’d be much help.”
“My name is Jiro
Takahashi
.”
Jiro
stated. Everyone around him paused and held their breath at the weight of that statement. “
Vault
is his daughter, my niece. He’s a terrible father and I don’t want him anywhere near her. We need to get her out.” he turned to Hero. “Let me talk to my brother. I have some choice words to say to him.”
Hero
nodded, then turned back to
Gang
. “If this is a trap, I’ll do to you what I did to Stonks.”
“Who else is coming?”
Hero
asked.
“I’m coming!”
Key
said right away.
“We need to get
Vine
somewhere safe.”
Kasumi
said to
Hero
. “She needs to rest. I grew up on a farm nearby. I think that’ll be a safe place for her to rest.”
Hero
nodded sympathetically at
Vine
. “I think that’s for the best.” he turned back to
Gang
. “Lets move.” he said.
Gang
took his first steps back towards the facility while
Hero
,
Key
and
Jiro
followed closely behind.
Takahashi
smiled watching the screen of the Prime Machin standing in front of him as hit projected footage of
Kitsune
slashing forward with a sword and breaking the connection.
“She was always a tough fighter.”
Takahashi
observed, “It wouldn’t be a fair fight without her here.”
The sound of marching could be heard from outside the facility, and
Coder
felt a spark of hope, then realized no Tamashi would march that loudly.
“Ah”
Takahashi
smiled at
Coder
, “The Androids are back! You’re about to meet someone very important”
As a group of Androids marched through the entrance, with marks and dents from a recent battle, they began to spread apart and reveal the small girl crowded at its center.
She looked towards the tall man in a dark suit, with a television screen of dark obsidian obscuring his face. Although she did not see his face, no one could match the dark imperious tone he inflicted on the space around him.
“Father.”
Vault
whispered.