Machines scream..
The rain in Purple never fell straight, it flickered in electric hues, bending through neon signs and holographic ads that buzzed like gnats. Black stood at the base of a twisting ramp lit with violet strips, arms crossed and grin wide, the city's glow reflecting off his eyes. He tapped the sole of his shoe in anticipation.
"Come on, it's your birthday," he called up to the figure slowly descending with theatrical annoyance.
Rose rolled her eyes, tugging the sleeve of her oversized jacket as she descended the ramp, boots scraping loudly. Her hair now dyed black with red tips flashed like sparks under the lights. She needed to blend in, tired of the attention and thankfully her caretaker agreed to get her hair dyed to match the color she was born from, not like she can use any ability aside from Reds' classics anyway.. "This better not be some weird vintage synth-food joint again. Last year I chewed on what I'm pretty sure was a circuit board."
"I happen to like tradition," he said with exaggerated offense, sweeping into a bow. "And this, my firecracker, is not vintage- it's retro-futurist. Big difference!"
"See that over there? That building sells entire personalities. Imagine buying a sense of humor that isn't stolen from me!" Black leaned, pointing at the building beside the pizzeria.
Rose didn't even glance. "Do they sell maturity too? You might be due for an upgrade."
"Ouch." He clutched his heart. "Twelve and already breaking your old man apart. You're dangerous." Rose rolled her eyes as he whispered. "Don't mention that I'm your father, pretend I am your brother just so the ladies don't get scared! It's not like i look any different."
"Whatever your weird self wants.."
The pizzeria was nestled between a cyber-tattoo parlor and a pharmacy that advertised emotional dampeners. Its sign was a flickering magenta hologram of a slice of pizza wearing shades. Inside, the lighting was low and tinted purple. Transparent pipes ran through the walls, carrying bubbling drinks like decorative veins. Booths floated slightly above the floor, suspended by humming magnetic plates.
A mist of sugar and oil hung in the air.
Rose looked around, unimpressed. "So... this is where style came to die."
"Don't be rude," he said, guiding her toward a table with a circular grill built into the center. "This place is a local treasure. It's half-pizzeria, half-carnival."
"Then it's fully horrifying," she muttered, flopping into her seat.
A server bot hovered over, its head a projected emoji that changed expressions with mood settings. "Welcome to The Purple Pepperoni! Do you require a children's menu?"
Rose lifted a brow, smirking. "I require a refund for emotional damage." Smooth.
Black choked on a laugh. "She'll have the Flaming Bite special. Make it extra dramatic for teenagers!"
"Of course," the bot chirped.
She leaned back, arms crossed, eyeing him. "So. You gonna give me some sappy monologue about how proud you are and how I'm growing up so fast?"
"Only if you cry halfway through and make it awkward for both of us."
"Hah. No chance."
He leaned forward, his voice softening just slightly. "Still. You made it to thirteen. That's.. further than most ever wanted you to.. even me."
She blinked, then quickly turned her gaze to the side. "Okaaay- Well.. yeah. Sorry to disappoint the 'end-of-the-world' prophecy."
The two shared a silence, broken only by the humming of distant machines and sizzling of synthetic pepperoni.
Then she smirked again. "I expect cake. With actual sugar, not that lab-grown guilt-free nonsense."
"You'll get cake," he grinned, reaching to ruffle her hair- Then yanked his hand back when she pretended to bite it.
The overhead lights dimmed slightly, and a spotlight from the ceiling followed a floating server bot as it approached, carrying a silver tray the size of a hoverboard. With a theatrical spin, it slid the tray down onto their table, steam rising in slow, colorful spirals.
Rose stared, blinking. "Is that- pizza?"
Black sat up straighter, eyebrows raised. "That, my dear, is art."
The "pizza" was indeed round, sliced into perfect triangles but the crust shimmered faintly pink, and the toppings glistened with a translucent glaze. What at first looked like cheese was actually whipped cream torch-toasted at the edges. Strawberry slices lay where pepperoni would be, and syrup threaded between them like melted cheese. A candle flickered in the middle, shaped like a mini fire hydrant.
Rose leaned forward. "You got me a strawberry cake disguised as pizza?"
"You always said you hated surprises," he smirked. "So I gave you two."
She snorted, then rolled her eyes with a little smirk before stabbing a slice and yanking it free, strings of cream trailing after it.
Just then, the double doors near the kitchen hissed open with a mechanical shht as a tall man in a grease-stained purple apron emerged. His arms clicked slightly when he moved, part augmented, part cybernetic. A pair of glowing lenses rested where his eyes should be, and a lazy grin lit his worn features.
"Well, well, well! If it isn't the black sheep and the little spark," he said, wiping his hands with a towel slung over his shoulder. "You two causing trouble again?"
Black stood up and clasped forearms with the man. "Only the edible kind. Still running on 2 hours of sleep and pure espresso?"
"Make it three hours and spite," the man grinned, then looked at Rose. "Last time I saw you, you were barely crawling and chewing on sensor wires. Ya know, I used to change your diapers." Creep classics, she didn't bother to comment on this sentence.
Rose blinked. "You're Doctor Smitts? The one who used to poke my face and call it 'routine diagnostics'?"
"Guilty as charged," he said, bowing slightly. "I built half the bots here.. this is my semi-retirement hobby-slash-expense-trap. I don't get to see many grown-up Whites anymore. You look good, kid."
"Yeah, well," she muttered, mouth half-full of strawberry crust. "Not dead yet."
"That's the spirit."
Around them, a few other kids and their parents had turned to watch the exchange. It wasn't every day the local tech doc and the infamous Black were seen laughing over dessert.
Doctor Smitts looked between them fondly, then rested a hand on Rose's shoulder. "You're free to roam if you want, Rose. There's a play pit in the back, and I think a few other kids your age are using the old DJ booth to remix soundtracks. Just don't fall into the soda tubes.. last week I had to fish a Green kid out with a mop."
Her eyes lit up faintly, despite herself.
"..You mean I get to run wild in a place with no authority figures breathing down my neck?"
"Technically I am the authority figure," he said, winking. "But I'm off-duty."
She looked at Black, who gave her a little nod, his cheeks swelled by the food.
"Go ahead, firecracker. Just don't burn anything unless it deserves it."
She stood up, wiped her hands, and headed toward the back of the pizzeria, her boots squeaking slightly on the polished floor. A few curious kids turned their heads as she passed, and she gave them her usual look: a half-lidded stare with just enough menace to stay mysterious.
Black and Smitts sat back down.
"She's turning out sharp," the doctor said, slicing a piece of cake-pizza.
"She's her own kind of blade," Black replied, eyes following her. "Let's just hope she doesn't cut herself on the way."
The music from the dining hall faded behind Rose as she slipped through the cracked door marked 'STAFF ONLY - SYSTEM IN MAINTENANCE.' It hissed slightly as it closed, sealing her in with flickering purple lights and the low hum of machines in sleep.
The air was cooler here.. dustier, untouched. Wires hung from panels like vines, and old circuit parts were piled against the walls. But what caught her eye was the tall shape standing motionless near the far corner.
It wasn't just any bot.
The mannequin was tall, imposing even in its stillness. Its plating was a dull, matte black, like the color drank in the light rather than reflected it. Its limbs were long and sleek, sculpted more like a feminine model than a dancer. It stood hunched slightly forward, arms loose at its sides, head tilted just low enough that its face pointed at the floor.
And it had no mouth. No nose. Not even eyes.. just a black screen.
Rose stepped closer, curiosity piqued.
"Are you supposed to be turned off.. or brooding?"
She glanced at the console beside it, an older model, dormant under a layer of dust. But as her fingers brushed across it, it blinked to life, a faint red flicker warming under the screen.
'MIMIC PROTOCOL: COLOR RECOGNITION INCOMPLETE
USER IDENTITY REQUIRED - BLOOD SAMPLE INITIATION ENABLED'
A section of the mannequin's chest opened slowly with a hiss, revealing a small circular port. From within, a narrow needle clicked outward, tipped with a glowing red ring.
Rose stared at it, raising a brow.
"Well, that's not creepy at all."
Still.. her curiosity outweighed her caution. She pricked her fingertip against the needle, and watched as a few droplets slid into the mechanism.
For a long second, nothing happened.
Then the mannequin shuddered.
Its head rose slowly. The twin neon dots of its eyes flickered, then locked onto her. Their intensity sharpened, changing hue. They took on a soft red glow, then briefly pulsed to match her hair's crimson tips.
Lines of light red detailing bled slowly across its arms and collar like veins of energy reawakening. It wasn't white. It was a darker shade of pink.
The face displayed no smile, but the two glowing digital eyes narrowed just slightly. Then one widened, and a third tiny dot blinked between them in a perfect triangle.
An expression? Surprise? Curiosity?
Rose squinted. "Oh? you're weird."
The mannequin leaned forward a little. Its face flickered again, this time, a faint exclamation mark blinked on the left side of its face. Then a square dot rolled from one eye to the other and back, as if mocking eye-rolls.
She stared. "You've got jokes."
It responded with a single, slow blink, both square eyes dimming to almost off, then pulsing back on. Minimal. Precise.
And expressive in a very eerie way.
Rose gave a tired half-smile. "You better stay in here. Last thing I need is you walking out and making toddlers cry."
The mannequin tilted its head, almost birdlike then froze completely.
Eventually, Rose shifted, dusting her hands on her pants and sighing.
"You look like you haven't been cleaned in decades," she muttered.
She stood up and looked around. Stashed near the far wall was a rack of old uniforms and backup clothing, forgotten by time but preserved in the chill of the staff room. She rifled through it with practiced ease.
"Let's see what we've got.."
A faded light red sweater, soft at the sleeves. Cozy. She held it up to herself, wrinkled her nose, then gave a nod. "Better than birthday grease."
Next came a pair of cozy pants, slightly too long but the color was right, pinkish, warm, snug. Now she forced these clothes onto the mannequin, even finding a decent wig for her.
"Not like anyone's watching.."
It was sitting now, not just hunched, but legs pulled in, mimicking her earlier position. Its glowing face blinked: two dots narrowing, then slowly stretching wide in a cartoony 'O' shape of exaggerated awe.
She smirked. "You like the new look, huh?"
She walked over and tapped a bit of floor dust, pressing her finger against her nose to give herself a fake smudge.
"Fashion's about balance."
Then, with exaggerated slowness, she turned and dabbed dust across the mannequin's otherwise pristine shoulder joint. "You need some character."
The mannequin didn't move at first.
Then it tilted its head, the dots on its face forming a perfect little triangle, confusion.
A second later, its right arm lifted jerkily but with intent and it mimicked her exactly. Pressed its own long, cold finger to the floor, then wiped it across its own faceplate in a crooked line beneath the eyes.
A little dash of dust, crooked but deliberate.
Its eye-dots blinked unevenly, then squinted side by side into a messy X and ], a broken attempt at a grin.
Rose laughed aloud. "You look confused.."
She stepped forward, reaching up to fix the dust into something closer to symmetrical, like drawing on a face with fingerpaint. The mannequin leaned in slightly, still seated, letting her smear dust lines under both eyes like warpaint.
She took a beat, then clapped her hands together. "Okay, combat mode. Let's go. Pretty sure you have that, cool bots have that- at least in movies.."
She balled up a crumpled napkin from the floor and threw it gently at the mannequin's chest. It bounced off with a soft thud.
A second later, the robot's eyes pulsed white-red and it flicked a piece of wire toward her like a boomerang.
"Whoa! Seriously?" she ducked and laughed again. "We're doing this?"
The war began.
Bits of fluff, napkins, even an old clipboard became their arsenal. The robot couldn't speak, but it learned fast, copying her throw posture, exaggerating every movement like a mime with ADHD. It even started flashing lights from its chest in rhythm, syncing to her voice as if composing a battle anthem.
It was clumsy but clever. Not human- but not just a machine either.
Eventually, she flopped back down on the floor, hair slightly undone from her messy twin buns, sweater now flecked with dust and laughter.
The mannequin settled too still seated, but now angled toward her. Its glowing eyes pulsed slowly in soft red squares. Between them, a single dot blinked.
She pointed lazily. "Is that your version of a smile?"
It blinked again. Then a tiny red heart shape formed between the dots pixelated and quick, like it was embarrassed to show it too long.
Rose rolled her eyes, hiding a grin. "Don't get sappy on me, tall, dark and silent. You're still creepy."
The mannequin's eyes squinted into sideways L-shapes like a visual eye-roll.
And in that quiet little forgotten room, Rose leaned back with her arms behind her head, surrounded by dusty wires and half-dead lights, and felt like she wasn't alone..
Rose glanced around again, her eyes landing on the old DJ console along the back wall. A dusty set of speakers flanked it, wrapped in thick cords and mismatched panels of light. The station was still glowing- barely. Just enough to tempt.
She stood up, brushing her pants off. "Alright, tall-and-glowy. You're about to learn something real important."
She pointed dramatically at the mannequin. It tilted its head in reply, eye-dots blinking in curiosity.
"Rule one," she declared. "A birthday isn't complete without music. And lucky you! You've got a personal instructor."
She tugged a thick aux cord from behind the DJ desk and gave it a wiggle. "Let's see if you've got a port."
The mannequin sat still, but as she stepped close, a narrow panel slid open near its shoulder with a soft mechanical click.
"Thought so."
She plugged the cable in, and the moment it connected, the lights on the DJ board flickered to life. A slow hum rolled through the speakers, followed by a faint bassline, the kind that made your teeth buzz even at low volume.
The mannequin jolted slightly, lights along its spine flickering in sync with the beat.
Rose grinned. "Oh, you feel that? That's the thump of life, baby."
She scrambled behind the console, tapping buttons until a soft purple glow bathed the walls. Then she dug through the crates nearby and pulled out a half-beat-up electric guitar, its cord frayed, body scratched, but the charm was all there.
"Alright, DJ Bot, phase two." She dropped the guitar into the mannequin's lap with a light thunk. "Time to learn some chords."
The mannequin didn't move at first. Its fingers stayed curled, uncertain.
Rose stepped up and took its hand, slowly moving its fingers into place.
"See this? That's an A minor. Sad, brooding, full of emotional damage." She strummed it herself, then let the mannequin follow.
The sound came out rough, metal fingers scraping awkwardly over the strings. But it was trying.
"Not bad," she said. "But don't look so tense. You're built like a skyscraper, you can handle a guitar solo."
The mannequin blinked an 'X' on its left eye, as if offended.
Then it shifted. Its long fingers flexed again, this time finding the fret with more care. Rose reached for the volume dial and cranked it up just a bit.
A low, distorted chord filled the air, and the mannequin's face lit with animated rings of light, pulsing to the rhythm.
Now she was laughing. "Yes! That's it!"
She ran back to the console, started looping a beat, and the room invaded by concert LEDs blinking, wires vibrating, dust rising in soft clouds around them. Rose danced in place, shouting instructions.
"Okay now- Drop the bass!"
The mannequin, catching the rhythm, slammed its metal hand across the strings in time with the beat. The speakers answered with a deep, vibrating boom. Lights overhead flickered and pulsed in time. Something in the mannequin's chest responded too lighting up in soft crimson pulses, mimicking the heart of the track.
It still didn't smile.
But the pixel dots across its face flashed circles and triangles spinning like a carousel, forming a kind of silent excitement.
Rose grabbed a second guitar she found half-buried under a panel, plugged it in beside the mannequin's, and stepped up.
Together, they played.
The chords were messy, the timing clunky, but they filled the space with sound and chaos. Neon bounced off metal, shadows danced across the dusty walls, and her laughter echoed louder than the bass.
The mannequin followed her lead, matching her posture, strumming when she did, head tilting and flashing in sync with her movements.
Rose strummed hard and loud and grinned. "You know what? You're officially in the band."
The mannequin's screen blinked, and a tiny pixel crown floated briefly above one eye.
She snorted. "Oh, so now you have an ego?"
The crown disappeared. A single eye-dot squinted, and a second one flickered, showing question mark.
"Never mind," she said, leaning back and dropping her pick with a sigh of contentment. "That was actually kinda fun."
The mannequin, still glowing faintly, gave the smallest nod. And when she wasn't looking, one final symbol flickered across its screen.
A music note. Small, soft. A memory saved.
Rose tugged the mannequin's cold shoulder gently.
"C'mon," she said, her voice still warm with leftover laughter. "You've got to meet my brother. He'll freak out- in a good way, mostly."
The mannequin blinked in reply, its face displaying a tiny red arrow and a flicker of a question mark.
She grinned. "Trust me, he likes weird stuff."
With one hand gripping the tall bot's wrist and the other brushing dust off her sweater, she pushed the door open and stepped back into the main corridor.
But she didn't get far.
Standing there- right outside the room- was the owner. The man who built this place. The same one who had smiled and handed her the strawberry pizza cake just an hour ago.
Now, he wasn't smiling.
Behind him stood three other mannequins, each slightly shorter than the one Rose had powered on, but bulkier. Their matte faces bore no light at all, no dot eyes, no glow. Just still, sculpted heads and thick limbs, each holding a subtle mechanical tension, like coiled springs.
"Oh," Rose blinked. "Hey.. I was just about to- uh.."
She glanced up at the mannequin beside her, who stood still, head tilted innocently.
"I taught it how to play guitar?" she offered, trying to make her voice light. "And DJ. It's.. really good actually, you should've seen-"
Her words cut off as the hall around her seemed to tilt slightly.
A soft wave of nausea curled in her stomach. She blinked. The world swam for a second.
Her fingers loosened.
The mannequin noticed, its face blinked rapidly, two wide dots appearing like concerned eyes. It moved, reaching slightly toward her-
But the owner's calm voice interrupted.
"Unit V47, command: Cease function. Deactivation protocol, Phi Nine Zero."
The mannequin froze mid-motion.
Its eyes blinked once.
Then went completely dark.
With a low hiss of air and a mechanical sigh, it collapsed in place beside her, limbs folding as it went lifelessly still, just a pile of quiet black metal on the floor.
Rose tried to speak, to shout something, but the haze in her head was growing thicker. Her knees gave out and she dropped hard, the cold tile against her palms the last thing she felt clearly.
From her blurred vision, she looked up to see the man crouch beside her.
He studied her for a long second. His face unreadable, his gaze sharp.
He gently touched her cheek. "Too early," he muttered to himself.
"Way too early."
She struggled to move, but her arms were sluggish, like lead. Her vision narrowed- blurring, spinning. As the man gently lifted her into his arms, her head lolled toward the dining room..
And her heart dropped.
There, slumped over the strawberry-pizza cake at their booth, was Black.
Face down. Still.
One hand dangling limply over the edge of the table.
He looked like he had simply fallen asleep- but the moved plate, the touched slice, and the faint color drained from his face told a different story, they were both drugged.
Rose opened her mouth. Tried to scream his name.
Nothing came out.
The lights above buzzed and flickered again.
As she slipped into unconsciousness, the last thing she saw was her own boot falling off.. and one of the other mannequin guards silently turning to follow the man down the corridor, her limp body in his arms.
Then-
Darkness.
Somewhere cold. Metal. Restraints.
Rose's eyes blinked open.
The ceiling was harsh white, and the fluorescent hum above her felt like it was drilling through her skull. Her limbs wouldn't move. Cold cuffs bound her wrists and ankles against an inclined metal table. Even her jacket had been removed, leaving her in her undershirt, one sock still clinging to her foot.
She tried to speak, her throat rasped instead.
A slow clap echoed in the lab.
"You're awake. Good. Now we can start!"
The voice was too familiar.
The owner, dressed in a sterile grey coat and a facemask now approached from the far side of the lab. His expression was calm. Analytical. Too calm.
"You know," he said conversationally, glancing over a sleek data tablet, "ever since I examined you all those years ago.. during your early checkups.. I knew you were different from the rest of the Whites I've dissected. I filed it under biological anomaly. But really, you were the only one left."
He looked at her.
"The last White.. For now."
Rose gritted her teeth. "What do you want..?"
His lips twitched into something between anger and dizziness. "What I've always wanted. A way to stop the virus.. without relying on White to grow up and 'save us all.'" He circled her. "You children, you Overlord spawn.. you're so unpredictable. So emotional. And far too slow."
He stopped beside her head, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"But if I had a White's heart.. a White diamond.. I could engineer something permanent. An engine. An immuno-core. Something better than a child in sneakers throwing fire at the corruption."
He tapped her ribcage, just above her heart. "And lucky for us.. I don't need to keep you alive for it.."
Rose flinched.
He stood back up, lifting his tablet again. On its screen were diagrams of her body, notes scribbled in tight handwriting: Heart cavity stabilization. Fusion alloy grafts. Strain X compatibility tests. Some were dated years ago.
He had been planning this since she was a child.
Meanwhile, back in the staff-only room..
Dust hung in the quiet, still air. The dark mannequin hadn't moved since collapsing.. until now.
Something flickered.
The screen on its face- dark for so long, briefly twitched with static.
Then, letters began to scramble across it. Garbled. Unstable.
'PROTOCOL OVERRIDE - INITIATOR UNKNOWN
CORE LIMITS BYPASSED - SECURITY FAILURE
NEW COMMAND: __AWAKEN__'
A harsh spark leapt from its chest seam. Its fingers curled slowly. The head snapped upright with a sharp mechanical twitch, as if straining against unseen tension.
For one breathless second.. its face went black.
Then a skull emoji glitched into existence on the display. Not cute. Not cartoonish. It blinked once, cracked slightly with static, then shattered into fragments of red pixels.
Two bold X-shapes suddenly replaced its eye-dots, glowing bright crimson.
It stood.
Not with grace. But with purpose.
Its back straightened, limbs stiff but reanimated with an unstable rhythm, sparking lightly at the shoulders.
It was awake.
And it remembered.
The doctor's gloved hands hovered over Rose's chest, his scalpel trembling with anticipation. The hum of the surgical arm above her began to buzz to life.
"I promise," he said with a low chuckle, "Your sacrifice won't go to vain."
But then-
ALARM: UNAUTHORIZED BREACH IN SECTOR C
ALARM: INTERNAL UNITS DISABLED
ALARM: AI OVERRIDE DETECTED
A loud blare interrupted him, making him flinch. He turned sharply, eyes narrowing as he strode over to a control panel and activated the lab's security monitors.
The screens came to life.
On one, a flickering view of the staff room showed his sleek security bots, red-eyed and weaponized, twitching violently, one by one, as their limbs were ripped from their sockets. Their core chambers glowed for a moment before being crushed like tin cans and pulled clean from their chests by a tall black shape.
It was the mannequin.
Moving faster now, more confidently, erratically. With each kill, it seemed to evolve, its movements sharper, more fluid.
The doctor stared, frozen, as the last robot's head was slammed into the floor, sparks flew from its eye sockets.
Then the mannequin stopped.
It turned.
And looked directly at the camera.
Its display lit up two pulsing pinkish Xs.
Then the feed cut to static.
"Shut the doors!" he snapped, hands flying over the panel. "Lock down the sector!!"
He could already hear it now, the slow, heavy footfalls. Metal scraping against metal. Sparks flying.
On another monitor, the hallway view showed the guard unit, a towering robot with reinforced plating and a massive stun-spear, standing ready at the far end.
Then, out of the corner of the frame, the mannequin appeared.
Without slowing, it grabbed the guard's head, slammed it into the wall so hard the metal buckled, and pinned it there with one hand. The guard bot clawed, spasming, trying to strike back but its spear fell limp as the mannequin ripped its head clean off, wires and sparks flailing like severed nerves.
Its eye dots flickered.
It glitched again, and began to move forward toward him.
The doctor's breath caught in his throat.
He slammed the final lockdown control. Steel blast doors descended from the ceiling with a heavy clang, sealing off the corridors behind him.
He turned to run.
But the sound of tearing metal followed.
He dared a glance back and saw her, halfway through the sealed door, one arm already bent inside the steel, pulling it apart like paper, crumpling the frame with inhuman force. Sparks rained down from the ceiling as her glowing X-shaped eyes narrowed.
The door slowed her.
But not for long.
He sprinted through another corridor, yelling commands into his wrist interface. "Deploy Hunter Units! Bring out the energy swords!"
From the shadows of a side chamber, a formation of security robots began to march.
Their arms snapped into position, each one holding a sleek, curved plasma blade made of pure violet energy, humming like electric fangs. Their bodies gleamed with obsidian armor and reinforced legs.
The doctor ducked behind another bulkhead, panting.
Behind him, the scream of metal being crushed signaled that the mannequin had broken through.
And it was coming.
The first plasma blade hissed as it came down only to be caught mid-swing.
The mannequin's long fingers clamped tight around the handle, ignoring the heat. In a sudden blur, she twisted, tore it free, and slashed the bot clean through the chest.
Another came from the side.
She sidestepped, grabbed its wrist, and wrenched the sword from it as well.
Both violet blades pulsed in her hands- Until her fingers tightened and the neon flickered..
They turned red.
The energy screamed against the air, now shaped to her will.
She moved, precise, fluid, unstoppable. Red arcs sliced through metal. Arms fell. Heads rolled. She ducked and spun, tearing through the next wave like a dancing executioner.
But the tide didn't stop.
A new unit, heavier, charged in and struck the blades from her grip. Sparks flew as they clattered across the floor.
Two bots flanked her. One dove in, she punched it into the wall, the frame denting around its crumpled body. Another tried to restrain her from behind, but she twisted, then threw it over her shoulder like a rag doll.
Still, more came.
Dozens now, swarming her.
One caught her head in its metal grip. Another grabbed her arm. A third clamped onto her back.
She bucked and lashed out, crushing joints, bending limbs backward but they kept coming. Soon they were piled on her, dragging her to one knee.
Then one of them began to twist her head, metal fingers digging under the panel at her neck.
Sparks flew.
Her display glitched, eyes flickering. Her knees scraped the floor.
'ERR0R.. ERR0R.. CORE SUSTAIN 42%..
D0_N0T_T0UCH_HER'
Through the mess, Rose, still bound to the experiment table, saw it all.
She saw them trying to tear her friend apart.
"NO!!"
Something in her broke.
Her body burned, not with pain, but with rage.
Her scream was primal.
It pierced the air like a blade
And then came the fire.
Not a flicker.
An eruption.
The room became a furnace in an instant, blazing red flames exploding from the table, shattering the restraints, and ripping through the room like a storm of heat and fury.
Metal groaned.
Glass cracked.
The robots were lifted off the ground and thrown by the force of the blast.
Rose stood now, fire clinging to her skin, her eyes lit with fury, hair igniting at the edges like a burning crown.
Amid the firestorm, the mannequin lay among the debris, its limbs twisted, one arm barely moving. The display on its face flickered weakly, Xs pulsing in and out, its system damaged.
But its eyes were still on her.
Flickering.
Alive.
Smoke and flame twisted in every direction as the facility groaned around them. Walls blistered. Alarms screamed. Pipes ruptured with steam and sparks.
Rose ran through the collapsing hallway, heat nipping at her heels, arms shielding her face as the fire tried to swallow everything. She skidded into the broken chamber, ignoring the searing floor, eyes scanning..
There.
The mannequin lay half-buried under wreckage, sparks crawling up her shoulder joint, her faceplate dark and cracked but still flickering.
Still alive.
"No. No no no-" Rose sprinted to her, grabbed her blackened arm, and pulled with all her strength. "Come on! I'm not leaving you here!"
The mannequin twitched. Her fingers moved slowly.
Her head turned just slightly toward Rose.
The neon face flickered with static.. then formed a single icon:
A red tear.
"I can fix you," Rose pleaded, choking back her own sob. "We'll go home, I'll fix you! Just hold on!"
The mannequin's hand slowly lifted then placed itself gently against Rose's heart,
A second symbol blinked next to the tear,
A small pink heart.. then a skull.
"No!" Rose gripped tighter. "You're not dying for me! Don't you dare!"
The mannequin didn't speak.
She couldn't.
But her fingers bunched up into the fabric of Rose's clothes and then with the last of her strength, she threw Rose backward with a mechanical grunt.
The wall behind her shattered, already weakened by the fire. Rose went crashing through it, her body tumbling across broken metal and dirt.
She landed hard, coughing, bruised, barely moving.
"NO!!" she screamed, scrambling to her feet, bleeding and limping, reaching back toward the hole..
But heavy rocks and steel collapsed in her way. Dust and fire spewed out from the sealed lab. The path was gone.
Buried.
Her fists pounded the stone. "YOU IDIOT! You didn't have to!!"
But it was too late.
She was locked out.
Tears spilled down her soot-covered cheeks, and she shook with rage and grief. Her arms trembled, burned from the fire but she forced herself to stand.
There wasn't time to break down.
She turned and stumbled back through the ruins, ignoring her pain.
She had to find him.
Black.
He was still back there, still unconscious.
She found him slumped face-down where the pizza had been, untouched by the fire but barely breathing, just as the floor began to crack.
With a grunt, she dragged his weight over her shoulder, teeth clenched against the pain. Piece by piece, step by step, she pulled him through the emergency exit tunnel as the lab behind them collapsed in a roaring, blazing flood of stone and smoke.
She didn't look back.
She couldn't.
She had someone else to save now.
The night was broken, lit by the crackling flame that still rose faintly behind them. The smoke clawed at the sky like it was trying to hold something back.
Black groaned as he slowly sat up against a chunk of rubble, clutching his head. His vision swam, but he heard it before he saw anything..
Sobbing.
Low. Shaky. Strangled.
He turned and there was Rose, hunched over her knees, face buried in her arms, shaking as silent tears fell freely down her soot-covered cheeks.
He blinked, confused. "..Rose? What happened..?"
He spoke as his eyes horrifyingly met the burning building.
She didn't answer.
"Hey," he said, wincing as he moved closer. "Hey, I'm okay.. see? What's wrong?"
His pupils decreases in size as he saw how badly her body was damaged, only judging himself for blocking out..
But she just shook her head violently, still curled up. "You don't get it.. She's gone."
Before he could ask anything more, movement caught his eye.
The owner.
The man who ran the pizzeria.. the one who took her.. was crawling out from the debris, coughing, burned, bloody, but alive. His body dragged against the ground as he clawed toward open air, away from the crumbling inferno behind him.
Black's brow darkened.
He began to rise-
But Rose snapped her head up and screamed through her tears, "Just take me home! Please! Just go!"
He paused.
Then looked at the man again, eyes narrowing, rage slowly blooming behind them.
It clicked.
All of it.
He exhaled a slow breath, then gently tapped Rose's shoulder.
"I'm coming right back," he said coldly.
He stood, muscles tense, and walked straight over to the broken man.
The owner looked up, horrified as Black's shadow fell over him.
"W-Wait- listen-!" the man stammered, holding out a shaking hand.
Black grabbed him by the head, lifting his weak, twitching body off the ground like dead weight.
"I've always been looking for an excuse to kill.. And- Now i got one. The council? It is just another accident led by a faulty cable.. let's just say that casualties are expected.."
He turned him slowly, forcing his eyes toward the burning wreckage of his own twisted lab, where smoke and flames belched into the stars.
"You see that?" Black said, voice quiet, like venom. "That was yours. Every gear. Every scream. Every ounce of pain you carved out of her."
The man choked, clawing at Black's arm. "P-Please-!"
"You built something sick and called it salvation. I trusted her in your hands yet you took my sister. You nearly broke her."
The flames roared louder behind them as the structure began to fully collapse.
Black's eyes glowed faintly, dead, cold, merciless.
"Now it ends with you."
With a sharp motion, he snapped the man's neck, quick and silent.
The body fell limp.
Black let it drop without a glance, dusting his hands off slowly. Then he walked back over to Rose.
She hadn't looked up.. but she'd heard everything. She was quiet now, her face blank, empty.
He knelt beside her gently.
"Let's go home."
She didn't respond, just nodded weakly.
Without another word, he scooped her into his arms, carrying her like something fragile that might break from a breath. Her head leaned against his shoulder, silent tears still falling.
As they left the smoldering ruin behind, none dared to turn.
Yet something seemed to move from the rubble..
A metallic hand twitched as the silent rocks slide off of it, exposing a spark of life.