The Enforcer hit like a train rusted steel slamming Nolan back, boots skidding on slick concrete. The Gauntlet caught the blow, its dead circuits cracking, but he swung anyway, rage flaring, smashing through its glowing red eye. Sparks burst. The machine reeled, gears whining, then lunged again, claws raking.
Rhea was already moving. Blade flashing, she severed another's arm hydraulic fluid spraying black.
"Stay up, glitch!" she shouted, voice hoarse, rolling clear as a metal fist missed by inches. Blood streaked her face not hers yet but her eyes burned, fierce and alive.
Riven roared behind her. Red eyes blazing, fists hammering an Enforcer's chest until metal buckled. His knuckles split, blood slicking rusted armor.
"Old junk!" he barked, wrenching a limb and snapping it like brittle wood. He kicked the wreck into a wall. "Come on! You want more?!"
Mira glided through the chaos small, fast, her glow flaring bright. With a flick of her fingers, static erupted one Enforcer convulsed, smoking, then dropped.
"Too many," she said quietly, eyes scanning the dark. "More waking."
The chamber trembled—AURA-Prime's hum peaking, lights pulsing blinding white. Cables overhead twitched like nerves.
Nolan's neural web screamed:
AURA-Prime: Activation 27% Complete.
His vision fractured dark liquid rising, Dr. Vale's voice whispering "Resets all."—then back to the chaos, blood pounding in his ears.
He ducked a claw, breath ragged, and drove the Gauntlet into an Enforcer's knee metal shrieked, joints snapping. He shouldered it hard, toppling it with a grunt.
"Prime's running them," he gasped. "Kill it, they fall."
Rhea spun past him blade burying into a machine's throat. Sparks flew.
"Then kill faster!" she barked. "These bastards don't stop!"
More red eyes lit up hulking Enforcers tearing free from walls like resurrected corpses. Ten. Twelve. Too many.
The hum roared louder.
Activation: 30% Complete.
Nolan's head throbbed static screaming rage boiling up again. Despair clawed from behind.
And underneath it defiance.
"Riven!" he yelled, boots slipping in blood. "The cables cut their feed!"
Riven didn't wait. With a bloody grin, he barreled toward the central machine fists smashing into a thick conduit. Sparks flew.
"Come on!" he shouted, slamming again. "Bleed for me!"
Rhea grabbed Nolan's arm dragging him out of reach of another claw.
"You're fading," she said, voice raw. "Don't you dare."
"Not yet," he growled, ripping free lunging forward, Gauntlet cracking an Enforcer's skull in half. Metal groaned. Red died.
His chest screamed. His ribs burned. But he moved.
Mira flared her hands again static surging two more Enforcers fried, dropping twitching.
"They're adapting," she warned, glow dimming. "Learning."
The ground shook Prime's hum hitting a new pitch. Lights stuttered, pulsed erratically.
Activation: 35% Complete.
Nolan staggered knees buckling, vision flashing
Dr. Vale's voice: "I didn't know."
Then steel. Screams. Rhea slashing, Riven tearing, Mira sparking.
Deletion Protocol: 92% Complete.
The Gauntlet slipped from his hand. He hit the ground hard. Concrete screamed under him, wet with what was left.
An Enforcer loomed claw raised
Rhea took its head off.
She hauled him to his feet, her grip steel, her eyes on fire.
"Not yet," she hissed. "You don't get to quit."
Riven shouted, ripping a cable loose Prime's lights sputtered. The hum faltered.
But then it recovered. Louder. Stronger.
"It's not enough!" Riven snarled. "It's wired deeper than we thought!"
Mira pointed. Her glow flickered.
"There."
Past the machine, a hatch glowed in the floor pale white, pulsing.
"That's its heart."
Nolan felt rage and defiance clawing back. The hollow is shrinking.
He wiped blood from his eyes, picked up the Gauntlet.
"We go down," he rasped. "We finished it."
Rhea nodded, blade slick, face fierce.
"Together."
Riven kicked aside another Enforcer, panting.
"Let's crack this god's skull."
Mira moved to the hatch, glow steady.
The hum screamed behind them Prime raging, red eyes swarming.
Activation: 38% Complete.
Nolan didn't feel empty anymore. He felt driven.
The hatch hissed open light bleeding up.
Stairs descended into shadow.
Prime's true core waited below. The reboot ends there—or we do.