Chapter 08: They Don’t Know

Metromania. 08:45 AM.

It was a cool morning. The cold winds of autumn had finally breached the city walls. The streets were covered in orange and brown leaves, crunching under every step. Kids rushed to school, students to universities, workers to their soul-sucking jobs. The usual Metromania chaos.

At the edge of the Police HQ, the old garage—once a graveyard for wrecked cruisers—had been transformed. It was now the E-UNIT Launch & Landing Bay.

A high-speed platform with mechanical boosters, built to launch and stop the E-UNITs without tearing the streets apart. Father hadn’t approved of super-speed at first. But when they tried stopping from Mach 1 on asphalt... well, the Mayor didn't like the repair bills.

Now, with the new launch system, the E-UNITs could go full power without draining energy or cracking the city foundation.

Four units stood in their pods. Glowing lines ran along their armor. The garage lights flickered as the launch engines charged.

Dr. Nick stood with his tablet, slightly nervous but excited. “So... with that last-minute fix, I think we’re ready!”

02 scoffed. “It won’t explode like yesterday, right?”

04 sighed. “It will. But this time, we won’t survive to tell the story.”

05 added, “Oh my god, our father is trying to betray us!”

01 shook her head. “Dr. Nick’s final act: destroying his own creations.”

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry!” Nick shouted, waving his hands. “But you launched before the signal!”

“Correction,” 05 said flatly. “It was your slow reaction time. You can’t even press the release button on time. Mikael told you to stop gaming late at night.”

“For the last time, I wasn’t gaming!” Nick groaned. “[Sigh] I can’t believe little girls are bullying me. My father would be disappointed.” He wiped his face, then grinned. “Anyway. Fixed the error. Doesn't matter when I press the button now. You don’t even have to get ready.”

The girls took position. A HUD countdown appeared in their vision. 5… 4… 3… 2…

“If it doesn’t work…” 02 muttered.

1 — LAUNCH.

The garage shook. Four energy rings expanded outward as the E-UNITs blasted off like bolts of lightning.

The city blurred below. Lights, cars, people—all flashing past in seconds. 05 split off for patrol duty. 02, 01, and 04 headed toward the mech storage site—a known hotspot, packed with pilots and heavy units.

“Captain, arriving in two minutes!” 01 reported.

“Briefing,” 02 said over the comms. “We come in. Try to talk first. First fire from their side, we release our new weapon. If we get overwhelmed, no retreat—we call for 05.”

“05 will feel lonely for a while,” 01 joked.

“I just hope we don’t have to call her.”

Metro Robotics’ Storage Facility. 8:48 AM.

The target was an abandoned warehouse district. Broken walls, cracked roads, quiet alleys. “Do they love this rundown aesthetic or what?” 01 asked.

“Everyone’s got a kink, 01,” 04 replied.

“It’s better for them,” 02 said. “No one suspects abandoned places. Mechs come and go unnoticed.”

They took formation—02 front, 01 left, 04 right.

Screech. The sliding door opened. A guard inside froze, then whispered something into his radio. “How can I help you… uhm, ladies?”

“We have an order to verify illegal storage of high-threat military weapons,” 02 stated. “Mechs, guns, and more.”

“Everything’s legal here.”

“So you don’t mind showing us the paperwork?” 04 asked sweetly.

“Let me talk to my superiors fir—”

“No,” 02 cut him off. “It’s now or never.”

The guard sighed. “Okay fine! Come in.”

Inside, the warehouse stretched far and high—rows of inactive mechs, crates, maintenance bots rushing around. The air smelled of oil and metal dust. Workers scattered the moment they saw the E-UNITs.

“04, scan the area,” 02 ordered. “Find out why they’re running.”

“Already on it.”

They reached a small management room upstairs. “Manager’s not here, but his assistant’s waiting,” the guard said.

They entered. Papers everywhere. Screens flickering. Data half-deleted. “What’s going on here?” 02 asked.

The Assistant smiled nervously. “As you see, nothing to see here. Just ignore the mess, Captain.”

“So you know who we are…”

02 and 01 started scanning the documents. The assistant moved slowly toward the door. “So… how were your first two weeks in the real world?”

“A lot of people take us lightly,” 02 said, not looking up.

He took another step closer. “...People don’t understand how different we are.”

Closer. “They think they’re smarter, because they’ve been in this world longer.”

Closer. “They can’t see how much we process in one second. How much we think.”

Closer. “Always.”

Closer. “And they can’t imagine something they created can be superior to them.”

He grabbed the door handle— SLAM! It swung open. 04 was standing there, visor glowing red.

“What!!” the Assistant yelped.

02 turned her head slightly. “...Even you, Mr. McRibber.”

He froze. “I never said my name…”

“The only one who really knows us is our Father,” 02 said coldly. “Mr. McRibber, you’re under arrest. All of these documents are fake. You’re charged with altering official paperwork.”

They raised their fists.

McRibber sighed. “...I see. You came prepared. We did too.”

CRASH! The ceiling tore open. A massive mech dropped from above, metal screeching and smoke filling the room. The floor gave way, throwing everyone down to the lower level.

The E-UNITs landed on their feet. All around them, twenty high-threat advanced mechs powered up—double pilots, heavy armor, glowing cores.

“You thought you could walk in and win?” McRibber shouted from the catwalk. “We studied you, E-UNIT! No flaws! So we’ll crush you with brute force!”

02 smirked. “As I said… you really underestimate us, McRibber.”

They reached for their backs. They pulled their lightning-blades free. Energy sparked across the steel. "Let's see how you handle lightning."

Her voice sharpened through the comms. “E-UNIT: Code Red — Initiated!”

And everything went red. Their eyes turned completely crimson—not the usual iris glow, but fully red, pulsing with electric current. Their blades, once bright blue, now shined blood-red. Even their shields became faster, flickering in and out—offense to defense in less than a blink.

“What the—?!” McRibber yelled. He turned toward one of the mechs. “Did anyone know about that!?”

02 spoke. Her voice was cold. Terrifying. “E-UNIT... show them why we are Father’s best creation. SLICE... THEM... UP.”

The pilots froze. One second, the E-UNITs stood there. Then the air shivered. They vanished. Only dust and electricity floated where they’d been.

A pilot screamed, “Where did they—”

SLEEK! The head of a mech was sliced clean off. Each mech had two seats: one in the head, one in the torso. Blood sprayed from both sections like fountains.

SLEEK! SLEEK!

02 appeared out of nowhere. In a flash, she drew an X across a mech—it fell apart before anyone could react. The pilots panicked, firing blindly into the air. Boom! Boom! Boom!

Then 01 appeared—SLEEK! Another head rolled. The sound of screaming mixed with metal cracking, gunfire, and terror.

04 jumped from the wall—SLEEK! Another mech down. One second. Maybe less. Blood splashed on her armor.

McRibber stood frozen, trembling. He could hear them moving—quick, soft steps, the sound of wind cutting. But he couldn’t see them. “W-What... what are you...?”

“That’s the trick, Mr. McRibber,” 02 whispered. “You don’t know.” Her voice came from everywhere, echoing through the comms, the walls, even the pilots’ helmets.

SLEEK! Another mech down.

“Your arrogance... is our secret weapon.”

SLEEK! Another scream.

“You always think the good side loses because they’re scared to kill.”

SLEEK! The leg of a mech flew off.

“I don’t blame you. Every story I read in your fairy tales...”

SLEEK! A mech exploded—a rain of molten metal and blood.

“...the good ones never kill. They wait for ‘luck’ to save them. For miracles.”

SLEEK! SLEEK! Two mechs split in half.

“We’re not like that. We make our luck. We’re not scared to paint the world red, Mr. McRibber.”

SLEEK!

Silence. The gunfire stopped. The only sound left was their mechanical footsteps, slow and steady, echoing in the ruined storage. The E-UNITs stood tall among the wreckage, walking toward the shaking man.

“I-Is this... hell?” McRibber whispered.

“No,” 02 said. “But you’re about to experience it.”

She vanished and reappeared right in front of him—blade at his face. “I’d let you live... just to tell your CEO what fear feels like. But—”

SLEEK!

“—I can’t stand your face.”

She stood still, then turned to 01 and 04. “That was fun!” 01 cheered.

05 groaned over the comms: “Oh great. You two get the fun jobs while I clean up the streets!”

“We need more manpower,” 02 said, ignoring the banter. “I found some documents... legit ones. They mention dangerous prototype weapons. We need to talk to the Police Head.”

02 flicked her blade. Blood scattered across the floor like crimson rain.

The Observation Room. 09:05AM.

The feed split a dozen ways. Security cams, cockpit logs—everything streamed until the hangar looked like a broken mirror of the fight. Everyone watching had the same drawn look on their faces.

Dr. Nick stared first. His tablet trembled in his hands. He had built the weapon three days ago in a mad patchwork of code and solder—no time for proper tests, no time to sleep. He hadn’t even seen them move like that: the girls didn’t run. They vanished and reappeared, slicing through half-ton machines as if those mechs were paper.

He whispered, half to himself, half a prayer: “How… how did this work?” Pride and fear mixed in his chest. Not fear for his daughters, but fear that he would be the one to end the world with these recklessly made weapons.

William Redwood had not given Nick extra money. He had given him something else—quiet permission. A paper trail that looked like bureaucracy and not theft. It was a shortcut around the cuts: use these cores, make them count.

The cores—illegal Metro Robotics cores—hummed their old war-song inside the blades. Nick knew why. Those cores were built to bind machines together. The blades that the E-UNITs used weren't just regular energy swords. They were powered by Metro Robotics' own high-threat illegal cores. That justified why they could cut through the heavy armor. They were killing the mechs with their own hearts.

Mikael sat with Jacob Marine. He looked like a child who had found a firework in his palm. His jaw hung open. “YEEEES!” he screamed, jumping, spinning, nearly overturning his chair. “Thank you! You’re a genius, Redwood!” He slapped Jacob’s shoulder. “Schedule a press conference. Leak this. National news. Raw E-UNIT footage—now! We need this blow!”

Jacob rubbed his eyes until his face went raw. “How… how? I can’t—” he stammered.

“You can’t,” Mikael said, grinning. “But the E-UNIT can.”

Across town, Shikimori’s office became a shrine to broken pride. The coffee cup slipped from his fingers and shattered. He stood frozen, mouth open, watching the live security feed. The machines he helped design—the heavy frames his engineers had built with hours and money and arrogance—were falling like toys.

An engineer barged in, breathless. “Did you see that, Mr. Shikimori? Our mechs… they just—”

The assistant slammed the door behind them. “I told you to call the meeting first!”

“We don’t have time!” the engineer snapped back. “If those E-UNITs go on a run, they’ll hit every production site. We—we’re done. Dr. Nick just won this round.”

Shikimori’s face drained. He forced a voice, small and ragged. “Is a billion dollars enough to stop one of those things?”

The engineer swallowed. “We have some unused prototypes, but we need time. At least a month.”

Shikimori’s hands found the edge of the desk. “You have it,” he croaked. “Please. Make it.”

He collapsed into his chair—the long, slow fall of a man who realized he’d lost.

Back with the watchers, Mikael’s grin didn’t fade. “Press conference. Now. Leak the raw feed. Let them see. And this way... we will lure the wolf from his den!”

The city had changed by a single morning. A line had been crossed. And somewhere, under chandeliers and behind closed doors, men who sold the city were counting losses they’d never get back.