Chapter 15: Two Heads, One Fire.

Mil's Investments' Storage Facility. 09:15 PM.

Delta Team was watching from afar with eyes locked on the massive resource storage facility.

This place sat on the far southern edge of Metromania way out from civilization. It used to be part of the inner city but ever since the company MIL Investments got caught in the corruption storm the facility was relocated here deep in isolation.

Now that Internal Affairs was about to arrive for an official seizure the remaining crew was packing up their stolen assets before the hammer dropped.
Darkness had eaten everything.
The city lights didn't reach this far. Only the moonlight brushed over the endless fields of tall grass.

That worked perfectly for our two E-UNIT girls.
Behind a pile of scrap metal 06 crouched low. Her eyes glowed faint blue as she quietly scanned the field. Her fingers tapped nervously on her gun handle.
Next to her 07 leaned forward. Impatience was written all over her face.

"Why do not we just go in and blast the place?" 07 whispered with gleaming eyes.

06 sighed. "We need to wait for the manager to come back. He is the main target. The Captain ordered we bring him alive."

07 scoffed. "Why do we even need him alive? 05 already piled up what... 700 gigs of evidence? That is enough to fry everyone from here to the president's desk."

06 replied. "I do not know. Orders are orders."

07 smirked. "Orders are just laws for the brainless. People who can not think for themselves."

06's voice went cold. "And your way of thinking is why they put you with me. Congratulations now I am stuck with a bored whining kid who can not follow basic commands."

07 grinned. "Keep talking. If we follow orders like machines they will just treat us like tools. Robots waiting for someone to push buttons."

06 warned her. "Better that than getting sent to train with the Captain again..."

07 froze. "Wait. You are right. That is the worst punishment."

06 cut her off. "Then follow the damn orders!"

07 rolled her eyes. "Wait... I sense movement to the east!"

06 leaned forward. "You are right... It is the manager! Wait what the..."

07 peeked over the rock. "Oh fuck..."

A black 4x4 truck rolled in slowly through the mud.
Hovering above it was a massive twin-headed mech with its engines howling in the rain.
The glowing eyes of both heads scanned the horizon like beasts sniffing prey.

07 whispered. "They did not tell us we would be fighting a metallic monster!"

06 sighed. "You are right. But we adapt remember? Is not making our own orders your big idea? Well here is your chance."

07 muttered. "This world is a joke..."

They both slipped into the tall grass. The sound of distant thunder echoed above.

06 whispered. "Be careful there are alarms..."

Click.

07 froze. A tiny red light blinked beneath her boot.

"..."

The alarm roared through the fields.

06 turned sharply her voice breaking through her comms.
"Oh my god... can you please do one thing right!?"

The two-headed mech instantly lifted from the ground. Its searchlights pierced the dark scanning wildly.
"Stay hidden..." 06 tried to whisper.

But 07 stood up and yelled. "HEY! Metal head!"

06 facepalmed. "Whyyyyyy..."

The pilots locked eyes on her immediately.

"Wait she is alone?" asked the first pilot.

07 smirked. "Yeah what will you do about it?"

The second pilot replied. "Be careful they are lethal. But this one looks... glitched. Take advantage of that."

07 twitched. "Hey!!!"

Her eyes flared crimson. Energy surged through her body. In a blink her entire silhouette glowed bright blue with energy crackling around her armor.
"Never. EVER..."
The mech lunged. One massive arm crashed down toward her.
She caught it with one hand. Metal groaned.
07 growled. "...interrupt me too you dead bolt!"

She threw the entire arm upward flipping the mech onto its back.
The ground quaked as it slammed down. Before the pilots even screamed she vanished.

"Where...?!"

A blue streak tore through the night sky then fell like a meteor.
07 came down screaming.
"DIE MOTHERFUCKER!!!"

A shockwave ripped through the grasslands incinerating everything nearby. Fire, dust, and metal shards rained down as the explosion consumed the field.

Through the inferno 07 rose with her armor steaming. She exhaled slowly lifting her chin with pure pride.
06 just stared. Speechless.

07 dusted her shoulders. "What? No time for appreciation? Let us clear out the storage!"
And she dashed toward the facility alarms blaring rain falling harder.

06 sighed and muttered to herself.
"She is a literal firework."

Metromania Center. Kiwi Apartment Complex. 10:27 PM.

Click.

...today we will cook a whole turkey...

Click.

...all I can say is the rain is being controlled...

Click.

...the earth is a cube! You heard me...

Click.

...in tonight's late news a recap of the past week. This morning the E-UNIT 05, 04, and 01, destroyed three gang dens freeing more than a hundred streets that had been terrorized for a long time. As 02 told us on TV the captain of the Emergency Unit: 'Taking people's safety is our highest priority. Noone, and I mean no one, will ever touch another civilian without a metal fist touching his face back before he even thinks of running away. We will expand our forces next month hoping for more coverage even for small violence cases.'

When asked whether they will replace human police she said: 'I cannot say for sure but if the incompetence of the human side of the police continues, I feel like the police head will be more than happy to remove any obstacles that do not follow his vision for the future.' And later this day we saw a dancing...

Click.

He turned off the TV mid-word.

He snapped the remote down and stood up from the slick-looking sofa. "THIS IS ABSURD!" he screamed into the dim room.

He grabbed a cold-water bottle from a giant five-thousand-dollar fridge and walked to the window. Below the city shimmered in rain and neon. Glass towers and rivers of light. He leaned on the office chair lit a cigarette and exhaled slow smoke into the dark.

A white wall opposite the window showed two framed PhDs neat and clinical under dim lighting. He glanced at them. A little smile passed over his face. Half pride. Half irritation.

He muttered to no one. "I have one last surprise for you. Let us see how hard you made this girl Dr. Nick."

The phone on his desk buzzed. He answered calmly. "Hello? This is Ethan Wallmore."
The voice on the line did a practiced respect.

"Oh, that is you boss. Yes, the design is ready and it is being produced. Yes, the owner himself gave me the check. He looked so happy with the prototype. Do not worry I will prove once again two things: human and machine is the best combo and that I am the engineer in my field. Yeah, see you tomorrow."

He closed the call turned back to the desktop and opened a photo. It was him with Dr. Nick a selfie from some recent meeting. He tapped it scowling.

"Why did not you join me idiot?" he said to the frozen smile on the screen. "A brilliant mind like yours and perfect engineering like mine. We would step on everything in our way. But here you are building girls that have hard fists. What a waste."

He took a last drag from the cigarette watched the city breathe in the rain and smiled thinly at the quiet hum of the night.

Back at the Storage Facility. 10:30 PM.

The explosion tore through the dark. 07 blasted the exterior wall surrounding the facility into dust.
06 walked behind her through the smoke. Her voice was flat, bored, and unfazed.
"You know we can fly right..."

07 ignored her. She was already a bullet of red light shooting straight toward the main building.
The armed guards opened fire. Their ARs lit the night like static lightning.
She deployed her shields mid-run. Bullets pinged off the red barrier like rain on glass. Eyes closed she exhaled. Then slowly raised her head.
Her voice came out low and almost ritualistic.

"Code Red. Initiated."

Two glowing crimson blades slid out of her arms.
The men froze. One whispered while shaking. "That is her... that is what the boss warned us about!"

Too late.

07 vanished. For them it was teleportation.
Then she slammed straight down on the center soldier. Bones cracked under the impact.

Eight left.

She flung one blade. It speared the farthest man in the chest pinning him to the wall.
She leapt onto another's shoulders twisted mid-air bicycle-kicked his head and launched him skyward. A split-second later her returning blade burst through his back.
He dropped like a stone. Blood sprayed across her face.

Six left.

Two panicked and ran but she was already in front of them.

Sleek.

Two heads rolled onto the floor.

Four left.

Then four soft sounds echoed.
Four bodies dropped. All headshots.
06 stood in the doorway with her pistol lowered and expression deadpan. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

"You are no fun!!"

"They were not even in suits! Why the extra drama?"

"Just having fun!"

"Slicing heads is fun to you?"

"I mean... I played Ninja Fruit on my father's phone..."

"Ninja Fruit...?!"

Before 06 could finish the ground trembled. Three massive mechs dropped from above with their eyes blazing.

"Please do not go gung-ho and..."
She was already gone.

"AAAH WHY ARE YOU THIS DUMB!" 06 screamed charging after her.

07 faced the mechs spinning her blades. "Alright! Looks like prey came to the lion!"
One pilot's voice cracked through the comms.

"Cringe."

They aimed. Laser cannons locked.
07 teleported but 360-degree turrets tracked her every move beams tearing through the floor and walls. Her shields flickered red draining.

"Oh things serious!"

06 stepped forward.

"Where were you! My shields are at the limit!"

Then everything went dark. Power cut. 07 froze.
06's blades slid out. Twin blue lights in the pitch black. You could hear the hissing of metal as the blades slowly got exposed.

"Enough... messing around."

A flash.

Then the entire room lit blue.

She became a storm. A blur circling the hall at supersonic speed slicing through steel, armor, and flesh alike.

Sleek.

Sleek.

Sleek.

Non-stop.

The emergency red lights flickered on again. Only corpses and scrap remained. The mechs were gone. The pilots were gone.
The whole room was silent.
06 stood in the center flicking blood off her blades.

"That was the last defense line. Usually there is more but I think most of the backup was sent to the Core Manufacturing Facility."

07's eyes widened. "That is Team Omega... we need to help them!"
06 turned away.

"You stay here. Collect the target and return to base. I will go."

"But..."

"Do not respond to direct orders 07!"

07 froze.
Without another word she turned and ran toward the inner storage while 06 launched herself into the night sky chasing the distant flashes of war.