Chapter 01: Smile

Beneath the remnants of the world, a trio of explorers on a mission to find the ruins of an old military installation, come across an entrance to a banker, unsure of how to proceed, one of them takes the lead.

— Rebecca, are you sure we can go deeper? There are some boxes here that might have some material. — asked a young man who was behind the other two.

The woman leading the group had a tired look on her face. Her curly brown hair fell over her face, and her clothes were slightly worn and dirty, thanks to the wear and tear of the journey.
 With a gentle gesture, she pushed the lock of hair aside as she turned to the young man — “There might be something useful down there,” Rebecca replied, as she pointed a dim flashlight into the underground entrance. 

Another man, with a large scar on his cheek, shaved hair and an imposing stature, approached Rebecca and the young man. He carried a large rucksack on his back, with a shotgun attached. — "William is right, Rebecca. We know it's safe here; we can't risk facing an A.R.M.A now, even more so without knowing what awaits us down there".

Rebecca sighed, taking a step forward. — "All right, you cowards. You can stay up here; I'll see what's there. If I don't come back, you don't have to look for me". — "Are you crazy? It's not just me and Nathan who need you; the whole settlement is counting on our return!" William exclaimed.

—"Don't give me that, newbie! I'm just a mechanic, and that's why I'm sent on these expeditions. Nobody needs my work! I'm going". Rebecca took hold of the ladder fixed to the wall and began to descend slowly.

William remained quiet. — "You help the people in the settlement a lot".—Nathan said. Then they both climbed down after her. Rebecca held the weak flashlight with her mouth as she descended the ladder. Now she could see the ground, and in a few seconds she was on solid ground. —"Really? When was the last time you saw me repair any equipment?", she answered,

glancing at William and Nathan as they descended the stairs. 

Nathan pulled out his shotgun and took the lead down the dark corridor ahead of them. — "Stay alert. If we go through that door and come across an A.R.M.A., we'll turn back without hesitation". —"Yes, sir!" — Rebecca replied, as a joke, but without being disrespectful to Nathan.

The group arrived in front of the door, which was ajar, as if someone had forgotten it. Cautiously, they opened the door and the dim lanterns illuminated the vast dark hall.

 With no apparent signs of danger, the trio entered the space very carefully. —" It's very dark; I don't know if our flashlights will do the trick,” Rebecca said quietly. However, their eyes soon met the power box. — Let's see what this little beauty is still hiding.

William and Nathan were startled when the lights came on, but soon the laboratory was completely visible, the place was a huge underground shed, there were platforms and scaffolding around a large structure.

— "A... A... An A.R.M.A.!" — exclaimed William, startled, as he pointed at the huge mechanical construct. It was an A.R.M.A. similar to a giant crow. Nathan, with his shotgun ready, relaxed when he realized that the creature was neither moving nor attacking them.

— "Rebecca? Did you turn on the lights?" — he asked a little annoyed. Rebecca approached, apologizing to her companion. She seemed fascinated by the creature, while her mind was filled with fear at the thought of approaching it.

— "Its core must be defective, or maybe, because it's down here, it hasn't been affected by Armageddon's control" — she sighed, turning her back on A.R.M.A. —  "Let's look inside; we can probably find some good tools."

—  "Are you sure he won't attack us by surprise? — William asked, as Rebecca tried to open an old metal door." — "I can't be sure. Hey, help me out here."

William and Nathan promptly helped Rebecca open the old passage, which gave access to another large part of the facility: workshops, laboratories, dormitories and cafeterias. The trio quickly looted useful objects for the journey, such as tools, food and medicine.

—  "You see? It would have been a waste not to have come here!" — Rebecca bragged about her loot as she explored the rooms. But something caught her eye: in one of the rooms, which seemed to contain some kind of cooling system, there were capsules. In her mind, Rebecca wondered what kind of experiments had been carried out in this place, until her attention was drawn to some hospital devices that were monitoring the information from an already opened capsule, and at it feet a young girl kneeling as if she had just come out of it. Her hair was brown and straight, but short down to her neck, with a fringe that covered almost half her eyes. She wore only hospital clothes, but clung to an old gray sweatshirt that lay on the floor.

Noticing the presence at the door, the young woman stood up, and Rebecca quickly drew her pistol when she noticed the main characteristic of the A.R.M.A. in the girl's eyes: her intense orange iris, and in the center of her pupil a small light blue ring, with mechanical reflections in the background.

— "What... an A.R.M.A in human form?" — thought Rebecca, as her hand trembled, it was a very confusing situation for her.

—"H..i!" — A weak voice came from the girl, who took a small step forward.

— "S..STAY AWAY!" — shouted Rebecca, desperately firing at the girl's belly. The girl fell to the ground, while Rebecca, panting and panicked, dropped the gun and stepped back. William and Nathan, on hearing the shot, ran over to her.
— Rebecca! What happened? — Nathan asked. 

Sitting on the ground, Rebecca, with a trembling hand, pointed at the fallen girl, who was now lying in a pool of blood. — "T... that... that's an A.R.M.A!" — whispered Rebecca, still in shock.

Nathan stood up with a serious look on his face and entered the room with his shotgun in hand. Analyzing the bizarre surroundings, he slowly approached the young woman, who, with some difficulty, was starting to stand up, leaning on her knees. — Don't move, let's not make this harder,” Nathan stared into the girl's eyes. — "Are you really an A.R.M.A?" — He asked fearfully.

“I'm Smile,” she replied as she looked at her bloody hand after touching the wound. — "William, let's give her some first aid." — William, who was calming Rebecca down, quickly ran to Nathan's side, his face quickly taking on a look of fear when he saw Smile's eyes — "Nathan, are you serious?? she's an A.R.M.A., there's no way she's a person!” — exclaimed William in despair.

— "Forgive me, he said it wasn't for show..." — Smile murmured, covering part of her eyes with her bangs. William, still hesitating, looked at Nathan before going to do first aid.
— "I'll cover you". — Nathan said as William approached the girl, — "Can I see that?" — Willian asked. Smile promptly takes her hand away from the wound where the shot hit her. — Hey, be quiet or I'll make it hurt even more! — William exclaimed with a small first aid kit in hand.
— "I don't feel any pain..." — replied Smile with a certain calmness. William begins to treat the wounds in her belly — "Damn, the bullet didn't come out, this is going to be a bit more difficult." With care and precision William successfully removes the bullet while treating her wound, he is surprised that the girl didn't even move during the process.

— "What a strange thing, your body is made of flesh and bones just like us, but you didn't even show a reaction to the treatment" — William pondered as he put the equipment together. Smile only responded with a sincere smile and a certain gleam of gratitude in her eyes.

Rebecca walked slowly with Nathan's help into the room — "She must be pretending... I know the American A.R.M.As well, and those eyes are exactly like theirs!" — Rebecca said angrily.— "Don't get ahead of yourself". — Nathan said, holding Rebecca, “the fact that in six years we've never seen a human A.R.M.A. like this could mean something important".

— "Hey, is that why the Captain sent us here?" — William pondered as he walked away from Smile.

— "You said your name was Smile, didn't you? What's your purpose? — Nathan asked her with a serious look.

—  "To destroy the Weapon-Zenith unit"—  she answered in an almost artificial way, looking at the group. Nathan looked at Rebecca, with a slightly confused look on his face.

— "Weapon Zenith? What's that?" — He asked. —  "Armageddon..." — Supposed Rebecca with a weight in her voice. — "My goal is to find someone called Hanna."— Smile added, her voice returning to normal as she picked herself up off the floor — "Hanna? Who's that?" — William asked.

—" I don't know... I just remember that someone asked me to find her". —  She replied with a sincere smile, as she slowly walked towards the door. 

William and the others looked at each other as Smile walked towards the exit. — "What are we going to do with her? We can't take an A.R.M.A to the settlement, even if she is part human."
 BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. The trio, who were talking about how to proceed, were startled when, after Smile passed through the door, a loud alarm went off throughout the settlement.

— Hey, what did you do?" — Nathan shouted at Smile, who denied it with her head — "I didn't do anything, I swear!" — Smile answered, startled. The conversation was interrupted by a loud crash coming from the main shed.

—"Tha... tha... that A.R.M.A..." — William muttered, startled, as he took a few short steps backwards.— "William, don't despair! We'll stick together and find another escape route, and you, you come with us..."— Before Nathan could finish his sentence, the group realized that Smile had disappeared.

With absurd speed, Smile ran through the numerous sections of the bunker, her face empty, her eyes now reflecting a red color and the ring of her pupil turning black and blending in with it. Passing through the old door, Smile came across a large opening in the roof of the shed. From her left arm, a grappling hook was fired as she pointed it upwards, thus steadying Smile, who began to climb and was soon on the surface.

In the middle of the ruins of a building, the A.R.M.A., which resembled a crow, spread its mechanical wings as it noticed Smile. She readied herself for battle, her left forearm opening in half to reveal a Weapon, which began to accumulate energy at its tip as the robot approached her, flying rapidly.

Smile fired her concentrated energy, and like a violent golden bolt of lightning, she tore off A.R.M.A.'s lower left side, destroying one of its legs and part of its front, but before Smile could recharge, the crow gained distance, and a gun emerged from its mouth, firing frantically at her. 

Smile began to run around to dodge the bullets as the shots raised a huge curtain of dust as they hit the ground. The trio inside the laboratory finally reached the main shed, where they were able to confirm that the sound they had heard earlier was A.R.M.A. waking up. Soon the sounds of the clash outside caught the trio's attention.

—" Wait... Is she really facing the A.R.M.A alone?" — Rebecca asked, startled. — "I'll go help her,” said Nathan, heading for the ladder. —"Hey! What do you think you're doing? If you go outside you'll die!" — William exclaimed.
Above the dust, it was possible to see the creature's glowing orange eyes searching for Smile. The sound of its mechanical wings was chilling, and when a new laser shot narrowly missed it, the robot quickly fired another sequence of shots in the direction of the attack.

Smile, who was moving at high speed through the dust, easily dodged the machine's frenzied attacks, until her attention was taken by Nathan, who had fired at the A.R.MA. Using this advantage to her advantage, Smile leapt into the air from the wreckage of the former military installation and used the grappling hook to close the distance to the machine.
For its part, after being hit by the hook, the creature began to increase its altitude, flying upwards. With the creature's high speed, Smile was unable to aim her attack accurately and her hook was not yet close enough for a close-range attack.

The A.R.M.A suddenly broke its movement, plummeting through the air, Smile was thrown upwards, and without the ability to dodge, she saw the machine preparing for a new sequence of shots.

Smile began to rewind the rope on her hook, to the point where the pulley inside her arm began to smoke, pulling Smile quickly towards the A.R.M.A. Now stepping against the machine, Smile fired her laser bolt through the creature's body, destroying its core. The now immobile A.R.M.A. began to fall with Smile to the ground.

The trio soon ran towards the cloud of dust that rose after the impact. In the middle of the cloud, they stopped, alert when they saw the red reflection of Smile's eyes. After the dust cleared, her eyes returned to their normal color. She was smiling and made a somewhat awkward victory sign to them.

Nathan and the others began to approach Smile and the fallen A.R.M.A.,—"She really destroyed the core..."— Rebecca commented, completely dumbfounded.PIIIIIIIIIIIIIII — A thin whistle was heard in the distance, and Nathan with a look of despair pulled Smile by the arm and ran off with the others. "Hm? Sir? What's going on?" — Smile asked confused.