sinovels Chapter 144: Garden’s Massacre (Part 1).
Chapter 144: Garden’s Massacre (Part 1).
V O L U M E . S I X : C O D E_R E S E T
Chapter 144: Garden's Massacre (Part 1)Infinity, 11, 24, and Esoptron had been sitting in the grass for two days.
Infinity had already moved through the facility quietly and mapped a plan for how Esoptron could retrieve the crystals when the moment came. 11 had spent the time training with the red crystal, trying to find angles that would actually land against 02 when it mattered. 24 had kept her distance from the group for both days, sitting apart without explaining why.
"So what you're telling me," 11 said, lying back in the grass, "is that after going through all the footage I sent you, there's no realistic path to winning this?"
"Precisely." Esoptron nodded. "The comparison between the two sides is so unfavorable the way my analytical system finds it almost comedic."
"You're overstating it." 11's tone had an edge. "I landed actual damage on 02 in our last fight using the purple crystal on its own."
"Which my calculations identify as the second strongest crystal after the green one," Esoptron replied. "The way the previous purple crystal holder, Delta, managed to damage Lord Reaper's arm directly. The purple crystal is not a weak foundation." He paused. "My suggestion: let Infinity take 02. You take Delta, which is the dynamic you've always operated within."
11 frowned at him. "Why do you keep phrasing things that way?"
"I'm not sure I follow."
Infinity tilted her head. "The 'the way' construction. You use it constantly."
Esoptron ran a quick scan through his recent output. "That's accurate. I used it ten times already the way—" He stopped. "I'll work on it."
"I didn't know robots could develop verbal tics," Infinity said, amused. "I thought we'd never resemble humans and yet here we are, inheriting their patterns the way—"
"Please don't," Esoptron said flatly.
"I couldn't resist." She smiled.
"Don't use your position as the one who noticed it to make it worse, wait." He went completely still.
"What?"
"My sensors are picking up a significant power source moving through the sewage tunnels ahead." He turned toward the tunnel connection at the garden's far edge. "Should we activate the plan?"
"Yes." Infinity got to her feet. 11 followed. "And your pairing suggestion has merit, I'll take 02. 11, you take Delta."
11 rolled her eyes. "Why would I—"
Clang.
02's fist landed on 11's face.
The impact produced a sound that the garden had no business hearing, dense, metallic, absolute. The shockwave from it moved through the grass.
11 went sideways at speed, clearing a path through trees and walls, cutting through the garden's far side in a straight line before she stopped.
Infinity stood completely still for a moment. She turned toward 02.
The blue was deep, burning from her frame, small arcs of electricity flickering at the edges of her eyes. Infinity's predictive system ran the calculation and returned the warning a full second after 02 had already moved.
She jumped on instinct.
Clack.
Delta landed exactly where Infinity had been standing. The ground spiderwebbed outward from the impact point.
"How did you—" Infinity couldn't get the thought to complete. She glanced left. Esoptron had vanished from her peripheral range entirely.
02 straightened, facing the garden. She turned toward 24, standing at the far end. 24 took two steps back. 02 looked at her for a moment, then turned back and lowered her voice toward Delta. "Don't engage 24. She's standing down."
"Understood." Delta began moving toward 11.
02 looked at Infinity.
The captain's gaze, that specific, still, cold attention, settled on her. 02 drew one blade, unhurried, and began moving around Infinity in a slow arc, the blade's tip drawing blue lines of energy across the white floor and grass. Not random. Deliberate, patterned, geometric.
"Hitting 11 on approach tells me you deactivated the anti-violence system that would normally shut down any robot attacking another inside this facility." 02 didn't break the pattern, didn't break eye contact.
Infinity focused on keeping her frame from visibly shaking. "I understand now why father needed more data on you. I couldn't detect you until I saw the blue blur connect with 11." She held onto her composure. "So you're the captain they talk about."
"I'm curious what made you arrive at that conclusion now, specifically." 02 finished the last line of the pattern, a complex ornament spreading across the floor in blue light, surrounding Infinity in different shapes and interlocking angles. She stepped back and tilted her head. "Analysis complete." She put the blade away. "I won't need it. It's predictable in your hands."
"You reviewed the fight with my sisters." Infinity studied the shapes beneath her feet.
"Yes. 07 was the only one who actually landed a hit on me." 02 stopped moving. "Was."
She accelerated.
The thrusters erupted.
Infinity threw her shields up.
Crash.
They broke like glass against stone. 02 didn't pause, a heel-kick from behind the impact, sharp and precise —
Clang.
Infinity sailed backward across the garden at terrifying speed.
Her predictive system screamed a collision warning a fraction of a second too late.
02 raised a single finger. The geometric pattern she had drawn on the floor erupted upward into a solid wall of blue energy directly in Infinity's path.
CRASH.
Infinity hit the barrier at full velocity. Her face plating cracked, her left arm cracked, her HUD glitched and started recalibrating in fragments.
She got upright. Head down. She stopped relying on the automatic system and started calculating the prediction herself, it was too slow, too reactive. "A dirty approach. And why can't my system anticipate a single move you make?"
"Delta was right." 02 walked toward her in measured steps. "Pi said it herself, I'm a—"
She disappeared.
Infinity's head snapped left, right, back. A shadow fell on her from above. She looked up.
"—wild variable."
02 came down before Infinity had time to process it.
Clang.
The plating across Infinity's frame dented inward in several places at once. She was pinned to the ground under 02's weight.
02 took her by the collar and pulled her face close. "You made jokes with the one you call father after killing my sisters. 'Death is mercy,' you said." Her voice was completely flat. "You don't get the easy exit until I decide you do."
She released her and stepped back.
The toss was almost gentle.
Clang.
The punch that followed it was not. It connected with Infinity's midsection and launched what remained of her across the garden, the shockwave pulling white floor plates loose and tearing grass from the soil in a ring.
Infinity crossed the facility fast, tearing through everything in her path, then a blue trail passed her, faster.
‘Oh no.’
02 was ahead of her, arm extended.
CRASH.
Infinity's head stopped against 02's palm. The impact dented it in multiple directions simultaneously. Her legs separated from the momentum, the break clean, the sound wrong. Sparks rained from her lower body.
02 tossed her again.
The next hit took her chest, sending the wreckage of her frame back across the garden toward the energy pattern. The lines obeyed 02 and raised a wall in her path.
She hit it head first. Her system glitched deeper. Legless now, face past the point of recognition, components raining from her frame at irregular intervals. She saw 02 approach through the failing optic, a dark shape wrapped in blue fire, unhurried, the eyes burning.
Infinity dragged her broken hands to her face and pressed them there. "P-Please." Her voice system was glitching on the syllables. "Take the crystal. I give up. Please."
"You don't get the easy exit." 02's voice hadn't changed at all.
Infinity pressed her hands harder against her face. The sound that came out was muffled. "Please."
24 landed between them.
"Captain." Her voice was steady but something underneath it was working hard to stay that way. "She gave up. End it. That's not how you trained us."
02 looked at 24 for a long moment. Reading her.
"Give me one reason not to continue. She killed your sisters. She held the people in that building as leverage. She walked away with your army." A pause. "She walked away with you."
24 went quiet. "I… don't have one."
02 exhaled. The blue aura dissolved. "You're more hopeless than 03."
24 sat down on the grass, the tension leaving her frame all at once. "You've changed, Captain."
"Long story." 02 looked at her for another moment. Then her eyes sharpened. "I need to test where your loyalty actually sits. I don't want more people in the team who'll turn at the wrong moment." She crossed to Infinity, took her by the hood, and turned her to face 24. "Draw your blade across her neck. End it."
"What."
"Was I unclear?" 02 held Infinity in place. "Do it here," 02 ordered, holding Infinity's broken frame in place. "You chose to leave, and you chose to come back. If you are going to stand with my team, I need to know exactly where your loyalties lie. I need to know what I'm working with."
24 swallowed, drew her blade, and placed it at Infinity's shoulder.
"Thank… you..." Infinity smiled with what remained of her face.
24 closed her eyes.
Her expression went to something that had no single name.
Sleek.
Infinity's head fell in one motion. 02 set the body down beside it.
24 dropped to her knees and looked at the eyes going dark.
"You were different from the others." She spoke to the head quietly. "They have a backup of you. Please don't come back to this. If I hesitate now, I’ll always be split." She rose and looked at 02. "How is Delta doing?"
"Still at it."