The prototype mecha lay in pieces across the reinforced hangar floor, its once-gleaming armor now dull and scarred. Elion ran a hand along its exposed flank, feeling the pitted metal beneath his fingers. Up close, the damage was even worse than he'd feared.
The machine was a Celestial Phoenix-class, one of the original Forge prototypes from before the Collapse. Its design language spoke of an era when mechas weren't just weapons, but works of art:
Armor: Interlocking plates of iridescent alloy that shifted between gunmetal gray and deep cobalt depending on the light
Joint Systems: Exposed musculature of liquid metal fibers that mimicked human tendons
Cockpit: A teardrop-shaped canopy of self-repairing smart glass, now spiderwebbed with cracks
Weapon Hardpoints: Empty now, but the mounting brackets suggested it once carried Forge-tech beam emitters
Charlotte's Louboutins clicked against the metal grating as she approached. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
Elion snorted. "Beautiful like a corpse is beautiful. You can tell it was something once." He tapped a fractured coolant line. "Whoever worked on this should be shot."
"Kuroda engineers," Charlotte said, wrinkling her nose. "They tried to reverse-engineer it for six months before giving up."
THE AUTOPSY
Elion activated his Celestial Lenses. The world fractured into layers of diagnostic data:
Structural Integrity: 32%
Core Stability: Critical
System Corruption: 89%
"Christ," he muttered. "This isn't repair work. This is archaeology."
The Obvious Atrocities
Power Distribution:
The main conduits had been crudely rerouted with what looked like paperclips
Someone had used literal chewing gum to patch a plasma leak (still minty fresh)
Control Systems:
The neural interface had been rewritten in what appeared to be haiku form
Safety limiters disabled with a crude "DON'T WORRY" scrawled in permanent marker
Armor Plating:
Several sections replaced with inferior Kuroda alloys
One shoulder pauldron was just... missing
Jade Lion #3 lumbered over, its tuxedo-clad form incongruous in the workshop. "You missed the inertial dampeners."
Elion blinked. "What about them?"
The dad mecha pointed to a component installed upside-down. "That's why it kept vomiting lubricant during testing."
Charlotte facepalmed.
THE RESURRECTION
Physical Repairs
Elion rolled up his sleeves, the tattoos on his forearms flexing as he grabbed his wrench. The first touch of Qi-mending sent blue energy crackling across the prototype's hull.
Structural Reinforcement:
His hands glowed as he worked, convincing the metal to remember its original shape
Fractures sealed themselves with faint golden traceries
Core Stabilization:
The cracked reactor hissed like an angry cat when he approached
Solution: A firm grip and a muttered "Work with me here"
System Purge:
The haiku interface was replaced with proper Forge command protocols
Safety systems came back online with an audible sigh of relief
The Vision
When Elion touched the primary neural link, his lenses overloaded.
Memory One: The original pilot—a woman in jade-black Forge armor—fighting something massive in the ruins of old Earth.
Memory Two: Kuroda engineers screaming as the prototype rejected their modifications, systems locking them out.
Memory Three: A shadow in the machine's code, watching from the fractures.
He jerked back, nose bleeding. "Okay. New problem."
THE APPRENTICE
Charlotte, to her credit, didn't just watch. She learned.
Qi-Infusion 101
"Don't push," Elion guided her hands over a damaged circuit. "It's not brute force. It's... convincing."
Her first attempt made a hydrospanner float.
"I meant ask the metal," Elion sighed, "not the laws of physics."
The Breakthrough
Charlotte spotted what he'd missed—a misaligned regulator in the secondary power flow.
"Told you I wasn't just a pretty face," she smirked, wiping grease on her ruined dress.
Elion's laugh was cut short as the prototype recognized them.
THE AWAKENING
The mecha came alive with a sound like a deep breath after centuries of sleep.
Armor Plates: Rippled and realigned, scratches healing like living skin
Power Core: Pulsed with steady golden light
Cockpit: Hissed open, revealing a seat for two
HUD Display:
» WELCOME BACK, PILOTS
» SYSTEMS AT 78%
» SUGGESTED COURSE: KICK SOME ASS
Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "Is this your idea of a date?"
Elion grinned. "Worse. It's a field test."