Everything froze.
The helicopters. The soldiers. Shelly herself. It was chaos suspended in time.
The Reaper was only a few days old, yet he had already seen everything. Fear. Love. Hate. And the smile. The simulation that forced him into 03's perspective had changed him forever. He hovered at the center of the devastation. Shelly rested in his hand. The army surrounded them, ready to erase him from existence, just as they had erased the E-UNIT, turning their story into a warning for anyone who dared challenge the power holders.
"Hold on, sister," Reaper said, slow and confident.
Shelly's eyes opened. What she saw was not the same being she knew. She was watching her brother grow.
Her left arm was disabled. With her right, she clung to him.
He noticed her. He also noticed his system screaming at him, warning after warning flooding his HUD. He ignored them. The system itself yielded, granting him a few more minutes in this forbidden state. The Reaper shifted his gaze toward the enemy. His eyes burned red. His thoughts narrowed to one single objective. Save her, even if it meant his own destruction.
As pilots prepared to fire, an orange cloud formed around the army. A thick, warm ring encircling them.
Reaper removed his cloak and wrapped Shelly in it. His black plates reflected the lights of helicopters and exo-suits. Standing at the center of the glowing cloud, he looked like something beyond definition.
"Black Hole Protocol," a woman's system voice announced. The same voice that once introduced the E-UNIT.
"Initiated."
BLACK HOLE PROTOCOL: LOCAL COMPACTION FIELD (R=100m) — 03:30
The Reaper raised his free arm and aimed toward the sky.
Suddenly, everything began to move.
All matter pulled toward a single point. Toward where the Reaper was aiming.
Helicopters attempted to escape. Engines screamed. Control panels flashed red as the force dragged them inward, tearing them from stable orbit. The army fired desperately. Missiles rushed toward him, then curved upward and locked in place, frozen.
"What is happening?" a soldier screamed at a pilot.
"Why are we moving toward the target?"
"I can't!" the pilot yelled back. "I can't control the vehicle. He's pulling us to his hand!"
"What? Isn't that the prototype—"
The sentence never finished.
The helicopter reached the singularity above the Reaper. Its metallic body folded inward. Walls collapsed. The vehicle compressed violently into a dense metal sphere within seconds.
The remaining soldiers stared in horror.
A machine that once carried dozens of armed personnel was now a compact metallic core.
Panic erupted.
Soldiers leaped from their helicopters.
A fatal mistake.
Their bodies were lighter than the machines. They were dragged in instantly, adding mass to the growing sphere. The sound of flesh collapsing was softer than metal, yet far more disturbing.
Everything around the Reaper was consumed. The sphere grew larger and denser.
His system granted him three more minutes of extreme output. Red errors filled his HUD. He ignored them. His attention never left Shelly.
A support call echoed through military radios.
"This is Eagle-A12. Is the area clear to join the engagement?"
The unit captain grabbed his radio, whispering in disbelief, eyes locked on the singularity.
"Do not come."
"Repeat. We didn't receive the order clearly."
"I said do not approach," the captain shouted. "This is a death trap. This is the end itself. If you value your life, reroute now."
"What are you talking about? Did you lose—"
The transmission cut.
The helicopter collapsed under immense pressure and joined the sphere.
The screams did not matter to the Reaper. He had heard worse. He had heard Shelly screaming in pain.
When nothing remained, he pushed himself aside and released the force.
The metal globe fell onto what remained of the structure below.
No one survived.
The Reaper hovered above the bridge. Night finally returned to silence.
Holding his sister, he forced himself to remain active, pushing against shutdown. He knew the truth. The moment Code Red ended, he would fall.
"That wasn't hard," Reaper said.
Shelly laughed through glitches. "Seri-sly? Blaack Ho-ollle?"
"What should I name it then?"
"What about BH Protocol?" she said, chuckling weakly.
"Did you just abbreviate the original name?"
"What are you going to do, sue me?"
"No. I would do this."
He released her briefly, then caught her midair. She was neither shocked nor impressed.
"Nice. Ice queen."
She smiled, her flickering eyes meeting his from below. "I am sure that a giant robot who destroyed an entire facility for me would never let himself hurt me."
"I did it to test my hardware."
"Sure."
"I am serious."
"Yeah. I totally believe you."
"I'm starting to regret saving you."
She laughed and clung tighter. "And you will regret it more."
As they hovered above the city, The new drones arrived late after the comm blackout. They detected Shelly. Her right arm exposed the barcode. From a distance, the scan confirmed her status.
Criminal.
The drones accelerated toward them and opened fire.
Reaper raised his arms. The drones froze, then turned on each other.
CRASH.
They collided and shattered.
That was enough.
His HUD flooded red.
Not an emergency shutdown. A failure.
His CPU had been pushed beyond recovery.
His eyes went dark.
He fell.
"Reaper?" Shelly touched his face.
No response.
"Reaper!"
Panic surged.
"REAPER!"
CLANG.
He crashed down onto her, destroying what remained of her body before bouncing aside.
Her vision glitched violently. She could not move. Other shells nearby failed to fully activate.
"Reaper-r-r-r wak-k-ke u-u-up!" Her voice fractured beyond clarity.
She tried to crawl toward him. Her body refused.
A door opened.
Six masked men entered, MR painted across their backs.
One noticed the giant android on the ground.
He whistled. "Jackpot. I've never seen tech like this."
"That armor alone could sell for a fortune. Where did this thing come from?"
Their leader stepped forward. "Doesn't matter. We need funding. Take him to base. Let the engineer tear him apart."
"No… o-no…" Shelly tried to speak. Her voice never reached them.
"Move it. The truck's around the corner. Curfew's tight tonight for some reason."
They dragged the Reaper away. Out of her sight.
Across the city, shells inside the E-UNIT hub and the warehouse suddenly activated. They screamed in unison.
"NO."
Their eyes turned red.
Shell-101's system finally shut down.
Tamer's office. Ministry of Defense Wing. 01:46 AM.
"What do you mean we lost communication with them?" Tamer said sharply as he stood up from his desk. "Re-establish the connection and verify the reports. We cannot lose it. That thing is a dangerous weapon."
"But sir," his assistant replied carefully, "the receivers on the other end are not responding. It is as if they vanished from the face of the earth."
Tamer slammed his palm on the desk. "Nothing vanishes like that, Fred. There is always a reason."
The office door opened without warning. An old man entered, followed by four police officers.
"You are absolutely right, Mr. Tamer," the man said calmly. "Nothing disappears without a trace. But—"
The officers stepped forward. They were IB agents. Between them, they carried a massive metallic sphere. With visible effort, they dropped it onto Tamer's desk.
THUD.
"What the—" Tamer stepped back instinctively.
"And we do have a trace," the man continued.
He was Jacob Marine, head of the local force, and the IB bueau. "Your little project destroyed three entire squadrons. Ten helicopters. Eighty soldiers. Thirty IB agents equipped with exo-suits." Jacob's eyes fixed on the sphere. "He did not merely destroy them." He paused. "He reformed them."
Tamer's eyes widened. He stepped closer, inspecting the distorted mass of metal.
"You mean…" his voice lowered.
"Yes," Jacob nodded and collapsed into a nearby chair. "So, would you like to elaborate on your new toy?"
Tamer exhaled slowly. He gestured toward the sphere. The agents lifted it and moved it aside, revealing him again.
"Before Dr. Nick escaped the company, During Rivera's confinement contract," Tamer began, "he spent the last five years developing a single weapon under my direct order. Prior to that, he worked on multiple systems, including the sonic leash alongside Dr. Wallmore. But I believed focusing his brilliance on one project would yield greater results."
Jacob rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I must admit, it worked. The way your robot compressed everything into a single mass is not just genius. It is efficient and uncontrollable… Instead of wasting ammunition, it removes the enemy entirely." He leaned forward slightly. "So. What is its name?"
Tamer stood and turned toward the massive window overlooking the city. "The Reaper," he said. "Projekt RP.02. Reaper prototype."
Jacob stood as well, joining Tamer at the window. He placed a hand on his shoulder.
"It is no longer a prototype," Jacob said. "And a machine like this cannot hide forever. We will tighten security. We will find it for you."
Tamer smiled and extended his hand. "I look forward to working with you again."
Jacob shook it firmly.
"As do I."
The warehouse. 04:10 AM.
The sound of typing did not stop the moment he disappeared. She was cycling through every camera, every sensor she had access to, searching relentlessly. His absence was destabilizing her.
"Come on!" Shell 144 said sharply.
"Where are you?" Shell 98 continued.
"Why can't we just have a normal life?" Shell 71 nearly broke, her voice trembling.
"That giant idiot insisted on one shell!" Shell 86 snapped in anger.
"Is he a perv? Ew!" Shell 120 said with visible disgust.
"It's okay…" Shell 100 said softly.
Then, all the other shells replied at once. "…I will find you, brother. No matter what."
Omega was drifting apart. Synchronization rate dropped below safe threshold. The thing she hated and feared the most was losing those close to her. And so far, the only one close to her, aside from her creator, was Reaper.
The shells' eyes darted left and right, jumping from screen to screen. Some were repairing Shell 101. She was almost fully restored. The damage she suffered was mostly external.
As Shell 114 scanned a camera in the dead zone, something felt wrong. That camera was designed to appear broken, so the inhabitants of the dead zone would ignore it. When a small truck passed by, the feed glitched for a few seconds until the vehicle disappeared.
"What?" Shell 114 murmured, confused.
Other shells stepped in to confirm what she saw. Same result. They switched to nearby cameras in the area. Same behavior.
Glitches flooded the screens, conveniently covering the license plate and distorting the vehicle's shape. One camera, positioned farther away, was just outside the jammer's effective range.
It exposed the truck completely.
A white, open-back 4x4 truck. Old model. Manufactured in 2028.
And it carried something no other truck did.
A group of men were holding a giant black figure.
Their faces were unclear, but the figure was unmistakable.
The Reaper.
"REAPER!" all the shells said at once. Even Shell 101, still lying beneath the repair lights.
Then the mood shifted. Their eyes turned red. Scanning stopped.
One shell extracted the location and marked it across every HUD simultaneously. They marched in unison toward the storage room. Each shell equipped a cloak, dual energy blades, and exo-knives.
They looked like an army.
They waited until Shell 101 was fully repaired.
Omega knew he only appreciated that shell.
Hoping he would see her again.
Hoping she would see him again.