Underground laboratory

They go into the safety of the tunnels once more; with the map, it wasn't much of an issue after all.

Both of them start to walk straight, not turning like they would for their original way out, leading out three passages that stretch out in three different directions. The choice was unclear for the normal person; somehow the barkeeper discovered this lab among all people.

"Hino, are you sure you can read that thing?" K4 starts to chuckle.

Hino glancing up doesn't let her rage bait him. "Maybe it's a skill that I have over you for once." He was quite harsh in his statement.

He leads the way towards the left passage where the ends don't meet; he starts scanning the wall for an out-of-place brick anywhere in its construction; he could scan the wall so fast.

"Found it!" K4 calls out, looking at Hino. The moment she said that, like planned, Hino looked back at her, and K4 gave a smirk.

"Fine, your lens are somewhat useful, I suppose." He lets K4 go past him towards the wall.

Noticing K4 is going to a pretty normal brick, it didn't seem out of place from his view at all. His jaw opens slightly at the advanced lens K4 was built with, and K4 presses the brick down, and the wall starts shifting and moving around like an unravelling of the truth.

The walls bricks start to widen out and stretch in weird ways, forming a metal door to appear, that grey shade giving them a sense of déjà vu just like in the Ara Sands; it has been months at this point, but it still gives a chill.

"At least this time we don't need to squeeze in, huh?" K4 starts moving to the left of the door where a keypad lies. She starts to enter her mindspace, momentarily reconstructing the same keycard from the Ara sands, and she starts putting in Natalia's numbers in a grateful motion.

zzt

the card declines "What is this?" K4 calls back to Hino quickly, pointing at the keypad.

"Did you put it in right?" He doesn't seem to believe K4's remembering ability.

Her mouth closes and shivers. "Yes, I did!" Trying once more, she starts tapping in the code once more; the same error comes up, that zzt sound entering their ears.

"Guess we don't have a chance." K4 gets her railgun out, making sure the output is lowered substantially. She charges up with that white feeble glow coming from her white right hand, and she prepares her legs for the impact.

boom

The door blasts open, creating a mini explosion to echo throughout the tunnels. Hino instantly uncovers his eyes from getting dust and looks at the door completely being blown off.

"That's one way to solve it..." His tone was dissatisfied with this quick fix, but he couldn't blame K4 for wanting to get this over with after this whole two-week travel.

Entering the lab, it was in a good condition, with no bodies or blood at all on their site; nothing had been ripped or torn. It was functional, besides the electricity, which left them in a dark situation.

The silence mixed with the darkness gave a sense of horror to the place, like they shouldn't be there, and it was obvious they weren't.

A turret drops from the ceiling; it has twin machine guns attached to it and a laser eye showing its might. It locks onto the pair and fires its ammunition. Both Hino and K4 retreat back behind the wall's cover, leaving the lab open with the turret on standby, aiming at the door.

"Hino, could you hit that robot with your bow from here?" K4 glances over at the gasping Hino; he wasn't anticipating this.

He takes out an arrow and puts it into his bow; he pulls back the string. "I will try." He takes a quick peek before getting fired a couple of rounds of ammunition upon; he hides back behind the wall, making sure not to peek even a bit.

"Didn't work well" – K4 gives a snappy remark.

"That aim is dangerous, beyond a death-level threat." Hino's comment really shook K4 a bit in her core; was this turret really that good?

"How about I run in and use it as a way to hit me instead of you? You hit with your bow." Hino nods, approving of the plan.

K4 rushes ahead into the door; the darkness meets her lens as she runs past the barrage of bullets behind the turret. Its rotating speed was extraordinarily fast as it started to lock on to K4 in a blink.

"Hino!" K4 screams out for Hino to help her with the turret while she was about to get shot; his arrow penetrates the air, the wind forming behind the arrow which speeds across the laboratory hall, and it fades into the darkness, only giving a whistle for its position.

The laced arrow with its advanced trap seizes its chance to hit the turret; it shatters the turret all over, giving a sense of discomfort to the laboratory defence systems.

K4, regaining her footing back in the dark hallway, looks towards the emitting light of the tunnels. Hino, surrounded in a shadowy light, stands on the doorway with his bow in hand in relief of his shot.

"You have quick reactions after all..." K4 points out the unexpected.

Hino looks into the darkness, getting out his flashlight from the bag, shining a bright light on K4, her dark green lens shimmering in the darkness. "Don't get used to it."

Closing the gap between them, Hino leads the way this time; it was a nice change of pace for K4, who always went ahead. They stretch towards the hallway exit, which leads them to a singular room – nothing more and nothing less. The room was massive, the size of a hangar bay, except filled with machinery and files.

Hino tries lighting the place up further but can only get a narrow view of everything; K4, without wasting time, decides on a plan.

"Since the structure seems to be working, let's turn on the electricity first." K4 starts walking off from Hino while he flashes the flashlight ahead of her; this room had some sort of mechanism for the light hidden.

K4 metallic limbs brush off of the surrounding machinery; computers and screens fill the room. The technology is ancient, comparable to the 1990s.

Hino shouts down, "What are all these machines?" K4 turns her head towards him.

"I don't know; they seem to be old and dusty but seem structurally safe." She examines the computers which don't turn on; this base was definitely unique.

She clicks the keyboards and clicks the mice; they give off a clicking noise. With the future being all touchscreens, it felt weird, to say the least.

"There should be some sort of electricity somewhere." Her search leads her to the middle of the room, where a desk resides. It has a computer and scattered files all around it in a language that she couldn't even understand. K4 puts her hand on the screen, trying to connect herself to the working equipment.

It was a hard feat without her system, but if the system could break through defences and it was a part of her, she should be able to do so too.

'This is...'

. . .

She enters her mind space; this time it turned white. It was unusual for her. There was a TV in the middle of the white world, the loneliness being whitered away by a man looking towards her from the TV.

"Dear ladies and gentlemen, there has been a revolt; the robotic machines have taken control of themselves and plan to end us all and use this planet as their own." The man in the broadcast then turns down to the very same desk without saying a word.

He slowly looks back up, contemplating what to do. "Humanity will cease to exist in exactly a year; they have taken control of our missiles and bombs; a timer is set; enjoy the rest of your lives." The broadcast shut off forever after that; the signal around ended, and humanity was left in despair.

The TV starts to fade; the only thing left in this space now was being taken from her again. Her lens refocuses, she closes them, her breath pants, and her body freezes. She opens her eyes; a young Black-haired kid appears before her who has tears rolling down after the announcement of his death.

"Are you ready to die?" K4 stares down at the kid.

His eyes full of innocence, he answers back, "No, I'm scared."

She turns herself away. 'I'm scared too, but it's no use at this point to try and stop.'

Hino looked up at her. "Will you protect me?"

The white space turned silent, the light beams down between them severing the connection. K4 starts falling without a whisper; without any weight, she floats but falls in this whitespace into nothingness.