E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death.

Chapter 152: New Uniforms, Old Habits.

V O L U M E . S I X : C O D E_R E S E T

Chapter 152: New Uniforms, Old Habits"I like the new uniforms," 03 said, pulling the hem of her hoodie down and examining it.

The new design was a black soft-fabric hoodie, the number running large from top to bottom, a blue horizontal line above it and a red one below. E-UNIT printed across the back in bold. The old cargo pants had been replaced with black sport pants, and the shoes were new, white, built around the thruster output points.

"What I don't like," 03 continued, "is that yours is white. And the gold Omega symbol, you really reached there."

"It's to honor the original host of the body," 02 said, eyes moving across the streets of Bijou as they walked. People were stopping everywhere around them, screens out, the images already flooding the internet under one consistent heading: The E-UNIT is back.

"Tau told me a great deal about her. I feel something for her, some version of sorry that I can't quite name. The gold symbol is the least I can do." 02 looked ahead. "Gamma and Delta never met her. I'll explain the whole thing to them soon."

Delta moved beside them, eyes scanning the city methodically, building to building, rooftop to street level. "The old blue and white suit was honestly better on you. It looked built for what you are. But honoring Omega isn't a bad reason to change." She paused. "How did Tau even know her?"

"Long story. I'll tell you and gamma—"

A yellow streak blew past them at a speed that made the people nearby cover their faces from the displaced air. It ran across the face of the connected buildings and was gone before anyone had fully registered it.

"—very soon." 02 shook her head.

03 stared at the empty space Gamma had occupied for approximately one second. "How fast does she actually go?"

Delta pulled up her HUD. "That pass was around 550 kilometers per hour. She's hit higher, during the training sessions at the hangar before the fight with Reaper, she reached 1000. If she's running the walls at that speed, she's probably doing what the captain asked and actually mapping the city."

"I want to spend time with her," 02 said quietly. "She seems like someone worth knowing."

"You want to map her behavioral patterns and find the pressure points," 03 said, completely level, still reviewing her own HUD. "The same thing you're doing with the rest of us."

02 opened her mouth.

05's voice came through before she could respond. "Captain. Building 4, the Firefly, is under active attack by Mecha-Terrorists. Armed, and they've already killed civilians. The situation needs a plan before entry."

"Received." 02 looked at the other two. "Delta, you're on the streets, you're not built for the speed this needs, but get to us fast. 03, with me."

She bent backward slightly, then launched herself up. Then went in a straight line toward the location, sharp 90° angle.

The air cracked behind her as she went straight and fast across the rooftops. 03 followed a beat later in the same motion, quieter but matching the angle. Delta dropped into the street below and ran between the crowds, every phone in her wake angled upward at the two blue streaks cutting across Bijou's low, even skyline.

02's HUD marked the location and she adjusted mid-flight. The city made it easier than Theria, everything the same modest height, no towers to navigate around.

"03." Her voice was level in the comm. "Cover the civilians with your shields on entry. I've called more units, when they arrive, move to offense alongside me."

"I missed that tone," 03 said, smiling in the air.

"What's happening with you today?"

Clang.

They landed simultaneously, the pavement cracking under the impact of both sets of knees. They rose and walked in. Someone on a balcony, elderly, not moving to film, watched 02 and 03 land on the pavement and said something to the person beside them that neither E-UNIT caught. The person beside them nodded slowly.

The Firefly was a post office, large, multi-level, the main floor open and circular with mezzanine galleries running around the upper ring. The mailboxes lined the outer walls of the ground floor. The workers were gone. The people still inside were pressed against the walls with robots pointing weapons at them.

The moment 02 and 03 appeared in the entrance, civilians began pushing toward the exits in a wave.

02 knelt slightly and kept her voice low. "03, forget the shields, there aren't enough of them and they're moving. I've accessed the camera system. The majority of the terrorists are holding in the rear of the building, waiting for us to lower our guard. Take 09 and 06 when they land. Hold the outside."

"Roger." 03 turned and left through the side entrance.

The building cleared. 02 looked at the robot standing in front of her. He looked at the others around him. They opened fire before the hesitation finished.

Clang.

She covered the distance before he had time to register movement. His back found the mailboxes behind him at speed, her knees driving into his chest on contact.

She stepped back in one motion and came around in a complete loop.

Sssst.

Both blades came out in the same arc. The loop completed with her blade dragging across his neck and her body already facing the room. Before anyone else could track what had happened, she was gone, a blue trace running the perimeter walls.

She came off the wall at two robots near the center and passed through both of them in a single motion, the blades cutting through the joins in their necks without slowing, friction refused to stop her plasma blade from passing through the metallic necks.

Landing, she was already moving toward the next. He got his weapon up and tried to find her in his targeting system. She was moving too fast to hold.

Sleek.

By the time his HUD locked, her face was in front of his. He tried to fire. His body gave him nothing. He looked down as his vision began to fail, a clean blue line had passed through his midsection. The top half shifted and came away.

Two remained. She walked toward them.

They fired, old bullet-based weapons, rounds coming in without pause. Each bullet met a small hexagonal shield at the exact point of contact, absorbing the impact and dropping the flattened round to the floor like a coin. They kept firing, burning through the magazine in the hope that something would get through.

Click.

Empty.

One of them broke for the main entrance. A wall of blue energy rose from the floor and sealed it completely. He hit it and stayed there, hitting it again, getting nowhere.

02 shifted her attention to the second robot. No face, but the frame was shaking. He threw a punch.

She caught it.

Before the second arm came up,

Clang.

Her fist hit his chest and caved it inward, launching him up through the floor levels, past the mezzanine galleries, rising toward the ceiling.

The civilians on the upper levels, who had ignored the evacuation instinct entirely just to keep their cameras rolling, watched the broken robot rise to meet them.

02 launched after him before he peaked.

Crash.

She drove him into the ceiling. What came back down was not recognizable as a frame anymore.

She landed on the ground floor, stood, and brushed the dust from her white hoodie. "03 was right for the wrong reason," she said. "This thing is impractical to keep clean."

Clap.

She turned. A single clap from one of the mezzanines. Then another from the opposite side. Then more, one after the next, then overlapping, then filling the whole interior of the building with sound. Whistles. Voices. People leaning over the railings trying to get the angle for a photo, flashes going off in clusters.

A holographic screen extended toward her from the upper level, a young man leaning out over the rail. "Please, sign this!"

02 pushed the screen away. Instead, flew up to him. She pulled her hoodie off and handed it to him, the blue and white Omega bodysuit beneath it catching the light. She'd never taken it off underneath.

The man held the hoodie against his chest for a moment like it was something fragile, then bolted, pushing through everyone around him, the hoodie clutched in both hands, disappearing into the crowd with more determination than the situation technically called for.

02 watched the faces below, waving, smiling, still filming, some of them visibly moved in ways they hadn't expected to be.

She opened her HUD and found the notes application the old 02 had kept. She scrolled to one she'd noticed before but hadn't fully understood until now.

[Do it for the faces to stay smiling.]

Then, she shifted her gaze toward the last robot hitting the energy wall. He gave up knowing his fate already.