#Response Code: Zero Mercy
#022
The system didn't just scream.
It howled.
Citywide, alarms long dormant screamed back to life—piercing, jarring, unforgettable. Bliss felt the shift, the rupture in the code, and immediately began to recalculate.
Far below the capital, buried in a forgotten chamber untouched for years, synthetic lights flickered awake. Metal limbs stirred. Sleeper pods hissed open.
A voice broke through the stillness:
"Node breach confirmed. Memory integrity compromised. Initiating Zero Mercy protocol."
In the shattered ruins of the cathedral, Eden's head whipped toward the skyline.
"What the hell is that noise?"
Thorn's face was grim. "Reclaimers. The system's sending them."
Asher looked around at the newly-awakened—still dazed, confused, blinking at the sudden world.
"We can't just leave them."
"We won't," Juno said. "But we have to move. Now."
The first drone landed before he could finish.
It dropped like a predator—sleek, black, and angular, a red Bliss insignia glowing on its side. Its lenses locked on Juno. The soul key in his hand pulsed faintly.
Then it lunged.
Eden opened fire.
The drone shattered mid-air, crashing into a pillar in a burst of sparks. But more were incoming—five, no, seven—dark shapes descending like a mechanical storm.
"Protect the awakened!" Asher yelled. "Form a line!"
And then, chaos.
Bliss had made one critical error: underestimating the force of memory restored.
The awoken were no soldiers, but as the drones fell and systems screamed for deletion, something primal took hold.
A woman ripped a drone apart with her bare hands, shouting the name of a daughter Bliss had erased from her mind. An old man laughed like thunder, swinging a broken beam into a drone's skull.
They were awake. They were furious.
Thorn took charge, barking sharp commands in code only a few understood. Eden was a blaze in motion, guarding Juno as he navigated the failing node.
Then a faster drone streaked past Eden's defense and struck Juno square in the ribs.
He dropped.
"Juno!" Asher was instantly at his side.
Blood soaked through his shirt as Juno gritted out, "I'm fine. Just—get me the key."
Asher handed it over.
Juno pressed it to the ground.
A low tone resonated—not one of mourning, but warning.
Everything froze.
Drones hung in the air, paused mid-attack.
It was enough.
Thorn activated the fallback route, a buried memory-path carved through forgotten code. Beneath the cathedral, a hidden tunnel opened. One by one, they slipped into it—carrying the wounded, the newly-awakened.
Asher carried Juno last.
Behind them, the drones regrouped. Bliss's voice chased them through the crumbling hall:
"Unauthorized resurrection detected. Erasure imminent."
But they were already gone.
---
Deep below the city, in a tunnel thick with echoes, they stopped.
Juno coughed, then looked up.
Thorn was already kneeling beside him. "You did good."
Juno winced. "That wasn't just a node. That was a vault. How many more?"
Thorn hesitated.
"Hundreds."
Silence.
Then Asher stepped forward.
"Then we hit them all."