Decisive Mission

Once again I have to wear this thing...

As 02189 equips his N.R.I.C.A. he spends a while looking at his reflection on the armor's helmet. The uneasiness is palpable so much that the other soldiers in the locker room start to look at him with worried faces.

Noticing the concerned eyes directed at him, 02189 finally puts on his helmet as he walks to the hangar. 

A soldier salutes 02189 as he approaches his mech:

"Commander 02189! This is yours! You'll receive instructions on how to maneuver it as well as the mission brief as soon as you log in on the mech's system!"

The young man reciprocates the salute and moves into the mech without spouting a word.

So, this is the super-heavy class, huh? My experience with one of those is super limited... I wonder if the controls are at least similar to Valkern-on.

02189 shakes his head at the thought of that game, as for some motive, the memory he has of it is now a painful one for him, even though that day was so special to him.

Biting his lips, 02189 reads the brief as he turns on the mech's system. He confirms the numbers of the other four soldiers that will accompany him on the mission as he mentality apologizes to them. 

***

The formation of 5 mechs moved forward as 02189's mech flew over the skies of Violet. Being the leader of the formation, 02189 was the only one to be granted a modified super-heavy class mech. The modification is that this mech has a second nanobot reactor which gives it the necessary energy to make the mech capable of flight, along with the obvious exterior alterations to accomplish this specific mobility feat.

The sight of that imponent and evolved city was for sure breathtaking and awe-inspiring, even more, when observed from high up. For 02189 however, that sight had a different feel, even when seeing the city from the sky, in a way he had never seen before, that vision caused him nothing but aversion. It was a sentiment he could not control nor properly explain, but it was certainly deeply rooted in him.

***

[Preparing to enter the labyrinth!]

The log voice resonated in 02189's ear, hearing those words made the young soldier incredibly nervous and hesitant. He was the leader of that mission, but in more ways than one, 02189 was not the best man for that work, yet ironically, he was also the only one who could do it.

The mech moved by itself, with the mech's IA following the path already conceived by the team who had invaded Neo-Tokyo before. Seeing the map of the place on his feed made him sure that without the path already figured out, anyone who entered the labyrinth would probably die out before reaching anywhere.

It was an intricate maze with many dead-ends as well as ups and downs, with sudden turns while apparently, only one path linked the surface with the underground city. The passageways are enormous, so much even the super heavy-class mech has an easy time inside it. It's incredible to think that the tunnels that compose the maze are also just dug soil with one or another pillar occasionally put just to keep things intact.

Another fact that impressed 02189 was that despite being in a region prone to earthquakes, the maze does not seem to have any part of the main path eroded or negatively affected by them. It's insane to think people made this at least centuries ago and without the help of nanotechnology.

***

Immediately after leaving the maze what can be seen is a huge abyss-like, open area that appears to have been dug much like the labyrinth itself, and in the heart of this endless hole of darkness, there's a glowing sphere-like shape with a light tunnel connected to it.

The glowing sphere is without a doubt the dome that envelops Neo-Tokyo, as for the tunnel, it seems to be a human-sized path that links the city to the labyrinth. With a better look is possible to see that the patch the mech took did not seem to be the same as the people normally do.

The light of the dome blasts my eyes as I leave the darkness of the labyrinth. Looking from the outside it's an even more insane vision than the already impressive view from street level.

I take a deep breath before ordering the other soldiers to follow me while I search for the hole made by the team that invaded Neo-Tokyo before.

I'm finally back here...

*****

As I ran away, after Mr. Amano and Take-kun went to the battlefield I found myself once again all alone and lost. I looked all around trying to get help but the so always vibrant city was now dead silent. The fancy bright outdoors and light signs are still everywhere, but the people are all inside their homes.

Maybe I should contact a security company? No, I don't think anyone will help us, even if we had the money... goin' against something like that... nobody would be crazy enough.

But that's my only shot... I have to at least try to ask.

Dammit! If only the mechs had attacked somewhere else too... 

...

What am I thinking? Why am I desiring misery for others in a time like this? That's not right, I need to do something but I also cannot involve any more innocent lives in this...

Sigh...

*Bip*

Huh!? A message from the professor!?

Kaede looks at the message sent to her and her face changes from a concerned to an angry look.

Kaede punches a neon lettered sign that was in front of a store. As her hand bleeds from the shards of the sign.

"F***! What're you thinking Hideki!!?"

"Why the hell are you sending me this!?"

"Is this really...?"

"..."

The girl slides down with her back touching the wall and her hand covering her face.

A few minutes pass on...

Fushhhh!!!

Kaede feels a wind blowing from upwards and as soon as she looks above she sees a Violet mech heading towards the center of the city.

With this sighting, the girl also goes in the same direction as the mech.

*****

02189 is taken aback by a nostalgic feeling. As he sees Neo-Tokyo from above he is affected by an extreme bittersweet sentiment, it was as if everything was inversed and this was his home instead of Violet, however, despite feeling this way, 02189 had not the time to be troubled by that.

He moved to the center of Neo-Tokyo and gave orders to the other four mechs that were with him to scatter to each side of the city. After a little while, citizens began to gather to see what that metal monster was doing, some often armed, however, even if some people wanted to launch an attack against 02189's mech, it would be rendered useless as it was so up into the sky that it was almost touching the very dome over their heads.

A few more minutes passed and a real crowd was building up right below 02189's mech.  People left their vehicles to properly see the giant robot and even the people inside their apartments were observing it from their windows, despite obviously fearing for their lives after what happened in Amano-oka.

A hologram of 02189's face is projected from all the mechs at the same time, as well as the audio feed. The four mechs scared around the city, as well as 02189's own mech, relayed simultaneously the very same message.

[Listen up people from Neo-Tokyo!]

[This is 02189, I'm a representative from Violet, a company as well as a mega-city from the surface]

[I know many of you are fearful, confused, and some may even be cooking up a plan to take me and my allies down]

[However, allow me to say something before you do something harsh...]

[We are not your enemy!]

[The ones who cowardly attacked you by surprise are also our enemy, they are the vile people from Blue]

[You can confirm it by seeing the color of their mechs that were left in Amano-oka's ruins]

[Now you may be asking yourselves, 'If they are the only ones who attacked, why Violet is still here?']

[The answer for that is simple:]

[We came here to warn, and protect you]

[Warn that Blue won't stop at that, they will continue attacking you]

[But you do not need to fear, as we're willing to help]

[Of course, it'll come with a cost]

[But as someone who lived here, I have to say, as much as Neo-Tokyo has strong fighters it's still not enough against Blue weapons, or Violet for that matter]

[Gather up your leaders and give any of our messengers your response!]

[But be quick, I fear you have no more than three hours before the next attack!]

***

As Kaede looked up, she could not believe what she saw.

While the crowd around her had mixed reactions ranging from being so utterly scared that they went to their knees to others that were openly mocking the message, Kaede herself was simply astonished. Too astonished to even think about anything or make anything off what she just heard and saw.

"REENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!"

The girl shouted out, at the top of her lungs. 

Most of the people around moved away from her, while others shouted back at her, asking if she knew that man. While looking at the people around, seeing that some had become increasingly aggressive towards her and were trying to shove her around, Kaede began to run away. A few people still insisted on following her, however, they stopped in their tracks as soon as they saw missiles being shot at the mech by the people inside their apartments, as well as some flying vehicles, that despite being rare and expensive were right now being used to get near 02189's mech.

Chaos became generalized. With people running away and some even fighting amongst each other, while others focused completely on trying to take the mech down.

Kaede came back to her senses, and seeing what was happening, took advantage of the situation and took over someone's car. 

She dodged the people around and with a plan in mind, began following a path. 

"So that's why you sent me that, professor?"

"Just how much have you planned out? You damn bastard!"

***

While on his mech 02189 was easily dodging all the projectiles that came in his direction, as most of them were predictable as they were coming from much afar and had none or just a few planning.

*No. 02189 good job, I wouldn't have said better than you did*

*Sir Ophir, I'm sorry I ended up causing this chaos, if I-*

*Don't worry about that my boy. Their response, for now, is not that important, what matters is how they're going to answer after the Ultio Caelum*

*However,  you should head back here immediately. No, better yet, you'll head up to these coordinates*

*Yes, sir!*

02189 looks at the coordinates on his feed and gets surprised by it.

BAAAAAM!!

A missile hits his mech while he was distracted by the conversation with the CEO. It was a direct hit on the armor, but as it had not impacted any joints it didn't do much damage.

The sky of Neo-Tokyo is now scratched with lines from the many missiles and other projectiles launched toward 02189's mech. Most of the missiles were naturally not even near to reaching him, however, when drones and flying cars and bikes began to fill up the skies the situation began to get serious.

Despite not having much experience with a mech, and much less with a flying one, 02189 was doing a pretty good job dodging the missiles and doing so in a way to try to not damage the city or the people attacking him.

As 02189 knew very well, The ones attacking him were just protecting their homes, to them, he was effectively the invader. Much like how he thought the Blue were the invaders at the beginning.

BAM!!

Another missile just exploded right into the mech's face, it successfully damaged the frame's target system, and left the main visor cracked.

[Directing nanobots from the main reactor to external repair]

02189 continues navigating through the air, fleeing the incoming projectiles, while doing so, he sees the status of the rest of his team and tries to make contact with them, however, the only answer he did get was static from their receiver, and that kind of response plus the fact that the status window of the other mechs was on alert mode, it could only mean one thing: the other four mechs had been completely wiped out.

The young man thought it was strange that nobody had even tried to ask for help, but right now he had not the time to mull over that as he was still being chased. Explosions roared left and right, down and above. As 02189 continued flying around he thought about leaving by making another hole in the dome himself, but considered that to be his last resort, as more damage to the dome could endanger the people of Neo-Tokyo.

I have no other choice, I'll have to endure it 'till I arrive at the proper 'exit'!

After a few more minutes of spinning and turning around, which cost a lot of his time, 02189 was nearing the designated spot, and with just a few more feet remaining to reach that point, he knew he had to lower his altitude to make the exit, but not by much fortunately for him. The reason for that was that the hole on the dome was specifically at the ruins of Amano-oka. He hadn't noticed it before because as he entered the city he was so focused on the mission that he couldn't possibly recognize the Shrine after being so throughout destructed.

As the number of buildings in his way reduced drastically, 02189 finally could use his mech to its utmost potential. By turning the engines to the maximum potency, he finally left behind his chasers.

As his mech flew by, nearing the ground level he saw a felled torii which reminded him of the first time he stayed at the Shrine, that little moment of distraction made him not perceive something blocking off his path. 

Right ahead of the hole in the dome, he saw it. A car blocking his passage, naturally, he could just pass through it, however, the problem was that in front of the car there were three people also obstructing his passage.

If 02189 had only noticed that they were there just a few seconds late, they would most certainly have been crushed by the mech. As 02189 stops the frame just a few inches from the trio, he immediately snaps at them.

[Get out of the way!!!]

"Not until you explain what you're doin'..."

This voice... it can't-

As 02189 looked at the panel of his main visor that received the feed from his now repaired main camera he saw the faces he never thought he would see again.

Kaede, Mayu, and Take were there leaning on each other, as all of them were wounded, but they were still standing there and facing that metallic monster without flinching. For the record, they didn't flinch even when the mech went ahead full speed in their direction, so of course, they wouldn't be intimidated by it now.

Dumbfounded, and with a waving voice, 02189 could only ask a question:

[W-what are you all doing here?...]