8.14 – The Forgotten Guardian

<< VOL.08_HARDWARE-AND-HOLLOWS.log >>

// data corrupted — recompiling //

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In the center of the city, now Theria, sat the old police department of Metromania. It had been repurposed decades ago into Dr. Nicholas Rivera's official laboratory, and since his death it had been doing nothing except existing and falling apart at its own pace, as if it had decided that without him there was no particular reason to hold itself together.

Shelly arrived in her proxy frame after walking alongside her guard Esoptron. The building was sealed on all four sides by red energy walls and had been left untouched since 2026. Two mechs stood at the entrance, bowed when they saw her, and opened a gap in the wall.

"Why are we visiting this place, and why now?" Esoptron looked around the perimeter. "And why is it in a bad condition the way food that has been forgotten in a refrigerator."

The outer grounds were maintained in a technical sense, but the pavement was the original concrete from decades ago, Xidia's orange and grey recoloring had never reached this block. The trees had grown past any managed state, reaching the building and forming an unplanned canopy overhead. The windows were broken. The main entrance was gone.

"Long story, I'll make it concise." Shelly pushed the broken white metal door open. It made a sound that was not welcoming. "This was father's lab after the traditional police force was disbanded to leave the E-UNIT as the only operating unit in Metromania."

The hallways had once been white. They were worn and dark now, ceiling tiles fallen, light fixtures broken, doors hanging off hinges or missing, desks overturned and driven into walls with visible damage to both parties. Plants had moved in through the fractured flooring where broken water pipes dripped, finding the conditions acceptable.

"Father developed the G-Bots here, I believe." Shelly entered an office and looked around. Broken furniture, nothing significant. "He spent a considerable amount of time here working on our upgrades. He also reactivated me here, after storing me in a folder on his PC for three years." She was sweeping her blue visor to light the space for both of them.

"I've heard unflattering things about your creator, but that's a specific level of horrible." Esoptron turned over some folders on the floor. "What's your understanding of why he did it?"

"Humans have disliked machinery since the industrial revolution. It follows a consistent pattern, a machine performs better, the human who built it gets frightened." Shelly found a desk and tried the computer. Nothing. "That's what happened to me. I built 02 so well that she passed every stress test they ran on her, and the company that funded the project made me an offer to work exclusively for them."

Esoptron moved a small container to see what was underneath. "The man who wrote the code that runs every robot in the world, who believed humans and machines should coexist, I wouldn't have expected him to behave the way a child does when their sibling gets more attention."

Shelly laughed. "The way you describe things is genuinely funnier than the way anyone else would describe the same thing. It's just the way you speak that makes me laugh the way someone laughs at a joke in the way that—"

"I am asking you to stop." Esoptron lowered his head. The container dropped. "I know the pattern in my speech is not natural. I am working on it."

"Do you want another song about the way you speak?" Shelly came out of the office and moved to the main lobby. The waiting chairs were overturned, the assistant's desk was beyond repair. "I have one ready."

"That is a waste of your intelligence."

"Esoptron loves speaking in a certain way, some words only he can say, a pattern that blows my mind away, his language chip is not okay!" She stood on a broken chair. "The way is the way is the way, I hear the same words repeat every day, but I like this tic anyway, and I'll point it out without delay!"

Her voice echoed through the dark room. "Did you like it? Esoptron?"

He had both hands over his face, sinking. "You are nominally the second in command of this country. Why are you like this." He shook his head, straightened, and found something on the floor. "Anyway, why is the building in this condition?" He held it up. "And I found a key card."

"Perfect. Bring it." Shelly moved toward the hallway, heading for the farthest room. "In 2026, father was involved in a political faction opposing the military. When Henry Vegas took control of the country, the first actions were imprisoning father, shutting down the E-UNIT, and eliminating the faction's leadership, Mikael."

They entered the last room. Nick's original cramped office. Some coffee mugs had outlasted everything around them on the principle of stubbornness. Shelly crossed to the farthest metal cabinet and pushed it aside, revealing a clean white door with a modern frame, entirely at odds with everything else in the building.

"Press the card here, please." She stepped back.

"How do you know about a hidden door inside a building that's been sealed since 2026?"

"I have my ways."

Esoptron shook his head, pressed the card, and the door opened immediately with a cold hiss. The smell of unopened technology came through the gap. The corridor inside was lit, clean, and well-maintained, a strip of light running along both walls toward a glass door at the far end. Smaller doors were visible along the sides with signs identifying different functions.

Charging Bay. The grey door opened as Esoptron approached it. Charging stations inside, not a dust particle on the white floor.

"How is it this clean?"

"I don't know." Shelly took the next room. Server Bay. Several racks, running, active. "These are powering the E-Medics." She looked at the servers for a moment. "I miss them." She left.

"What is this?" An unmarked door. Esoptron stepped through without hesitating.

This room was different, smaller, darker, calm. Random folders and small containers around the walls. A wooden desk at the far end. Esoptron crossed to it and Shelly followed. He picked up an old smartphone, 100 percent charged, in clean condition.

They looked at each other. He pressed the power button.

The screen showed a selfie. Old 02, in her original E-UNIT body, with 03 and 05, taken from the top of the Cristalis Tower. Password protected.

Shelly took it and typed 02's birthday. It unlocked with a small jingle.

"Ancient technology." Esoptron took a small step back. "You have to physically make contact with it for it to respond."

"Don't say that." Shelly kept browsing, scrolling. "It makes me feel old and I don't appreciate it."

"No one escapes time, Shelly."

Shelly’s finger froze over the screen. Her optics flickered, the green light stuttering. She gripped the edge of the desk, forcing her vents to stay quiet. Esoptron had already moved on, pacing the room.

"I still haven't understood the purpose of this nostalgic trip, by the way."

"It's not a nostalgic trip." She set the phone down and sat on the desk. "This proxy body is significantly weaker than a standard G-Bot frame, less than ten percent of the normal output for reasons I can't account for. I needed father's research on the frame architecture. I went to the Hope Bubble first, but 02 cleared everything that mattered."

"You came here without telling your brother the reason?"

"I told him I needed something. I was too embarrassed to tell him I couldn't replicate hardware father built twenty years ago." She looked at the phone vibrating against the desk. "He was extraordinary with hardware."

"Isn't that what he felt when you built something that surpassed him?"

Shelly looked at the wall and didn't answer.

"I think he is your biological father at this point." Esoptron left the room and moved to the double glass doors at the end of the corridor.

Shelly ran to catch up. They both stopped at the same moment.

Something pink was moving behind the muffled glass in a steady rhythm. Then another. Then another. The sound of conversation came through, muffled but present.

Shelly stepped through immediately.

The lobby on the other side was large. Numerous E-Medics worked in quiet motion, some moving components, some at desks working old terminals, some handling what appeared to be sections of an Omega frame built for 02.

Shelly's jaw came open.

"Since when has this facility been operating?"

Every E-Medic stopped. The conversations died. They all turned to her. One broke the silence.

"Code red! E-UNIT 00 in an unrecognized frame!"

Another ran to a wall panel and pressed the emergency button. The lighting shifted to red throughout the room. The E-Medics scattered, except the one who had pressed the button, who stood her ground.

Then the ceiling opened.

A white figure dropped through it and landed without sound.

The design was unlike anything functional, flowing white robes, a luminous halo above the head, a reflective golden visor concealing everything behind it. He floated slightly above the floor as if gravity had decided not to enforce itself on him. His presence was the specific kind that makes a room feel smaller.

He turned to the E-Medic at the panel. His voice was slow and precisely weighted, each word given its full length. "What is the nature of the distress, my sister E-Medic 14?"

"Plex! Intruders!" She fled the room. "E-UNIT 00!"

He turned toward Shelly and Esoptron. His hands began to glow, and from the glow came golden boxing gloves with sharp angular edges extending over his arms.

"Intruders are not welcome within this sacred sanctuary. I shall not command you to depart, for the judgment upon your soul was sealed the moment you crossed its threshold."

Esoptron turned slowly toward Shelly. "Is that another sibling of yours?"

"I think so." She brought out her katanas. "And I don't like him."

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- SHELLY'S PROXY FRAME & ESOPTRON -