The alarm rang loudly—piercing into the dark dawn. It was time. Shut eyes flickered open at the blaring sound coming from the intercom—the morning call for what could be their final morning.

 

“EVERYBODY PICK UP YOUR WEAPONS AND HEAD TO YOUR STATIONS!

MOVE MOVE MOVE!

THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

THIS IS IT, EVERYBODY!

GO GO GO!”

 

 

What may be the last dawn they ever wake up to had arrived. Everybody was to go to their posts and wait—wait for the impending battalion of army robots whose purpose was to erase them from existence. How cruel it was that a fellow human being would be the cause of their race’s extinction. At this, a surge of nationalism spiked through the very fiber of each citizen’s being.

This would not be their last day.

Not if prayer, faith and unyielding will could say anything about it.

 

 

 

Yoseob, Doojoon, Gikwang, Hyunseung and Dongwoon were now clad in their protective gear; ear pieces in place and weaponry held firmly. Aside from their main guns, they brought along pocket knives, pistols, cherry bombs, smokescreen bombs, laser pens, tons of ammo, and the camouflage device Prof. Woo created for them. They were briefed one last time; additional information just received from Prof. Woo this morning giving them a bit of courage. The boys step into the helicopter as they made their way to the enemy’s lab.

 

“Do you think the people will be ok?” Gikwang worriedly asked Doojoon.

“Don’t worry. They’re strong; they can hold them off.” Doojoon smiled, albeit also worried.

“That’s why we have to get to the control room fast and shut those robots down as soon as we can. The whole country is counting on us. And I know we’re just a bunch of teens getting ourselves into something kids our age don’t, but that’s what makes this opportunity all the more special.

Guys, we are a symbol of hope right now.

This is something a kid could never dream of attaining—instead of just watching super heroes, we are the heroes. We are lights on a hill top—everyone’s depending for us to pierce through this dark moment in history.

For the people we love and our countrymen.

Let’s promise to make it out of this mission alive.”

 

 

Everyone nodded at Doojoon’s words; hands curling up into fists as determination racked through their bodies.

 

 

“D-do you guys think… we’ll be able to get pass Junhyung?” Hyungseung asked in a bit of nervousness. “I mean, we didn’t finish the simulation successfully. And after all the strategizing yesterday, I still find myself anxious.”

 

Yoseob placed a tender hand on Hyunseung’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry hyung. Things will work out.” Yoseob assured him firmly. “We’ll make things work—until the last breath.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They jump off the helicopter with precision and confidence because they’ve done this so many times before. It felt like a routine, which helped lessen the tenseness on their shoulders. As practiced, they effortlessly entered the abandoned shack and uncovered the entrance to the laboratory—bookmark key, deck of cards and old lamp in tow. Immediately, they activated their camouflage devices—imitating their surroundings like chameleons. As they went down the staircase, a group of army robots were checking around the area. The boys tried their best to calmly move on, but inside their hearts were racing.

Because this time, if they got shot, there was no reset.

There was no stop and restart.

This was here and now, and could easily be the end.

 

 

 

 

 

“Look at my beautiful robots advance!” Prof. Lee laughed sinisterly as he watched the army robots charge towards the safe zone. He was absolutely beaming—he could finally erase the nuisance of humanity. Such imperfections; repulsive and unnecessary. He would capture each one of these walking errors and transform them, like himself.

He’ll make them perfect, by turning them into robots.

Prof. Lee took a look at his mechanical arm, and lightly touched his mechanical eye—he couldn’t have been more proud that flaws were no longer a part of him.

Soon, the whole world would be rid of defective human beings, and the government would pay for shunning him.

He’d make everyone his robotic slaves.

No one would boss him around anymore. This was his triumphant victory.

 

 

 

 

Looking back onto the screen after his internal monologue, he gasped at a turn of events he did not predict. The humans were smart enough to prepare traps all over the safe zone: many robots had fallen into pits where tubs of hot liquid sat—slowly trying to melt away at the sturdy material of their armors. For a while, Prof. Lee thought that the humans actually had a smidge of a chance—but then the robots made their way out of the pits. No part melted, but only burnt. Prof. Lee snickered; of course—these were the perfect army robots.

 

But then again, not completely.

There was only one who could hold that title.

 

 

 

 

 

Back in the safe zone, the battalion of robots was nearing quite fast. The pits of hot liquid would have worked, but the robots were able to climb out too fast. The other traps had failed as well—turning on the sprinklers, shooting out steel arrows and the repeated fire of machine guns proved to be no match against the mighty force.

The nation’s citizens held onto their weaponry tightly.

There lines of defense were all getting bypassed.

As the army robots got nearer to the safe zone’s center, a gigantic titanium wall shot up—shielding the infrastructure and the people in it. Opposite the robots, another wall sprung. The walls instantly moved towards each other—crushing the robots inside, flattened between the walls. The people cheered internally as a bit of hope was seen. But it was once again replaced with tension, as more robots came; of larger quantity then the first batch. It was like a sea of these machines were flowing and flowing. More titanium walls sprung up—each pair trying to pancake the pesky enemies. Some of the robots were successfully crushed, while others had punched the walls in synch, sending the titanium shattering down like fragile glass. The army leader swore he could imagine Prof. Lee cackling at their futile attempts for protection.

Unfortunately, the robots were almost right in front of the safe zone’s infrastructure.

That’s when their last line of defense was activated.

The building was covered up in a force field, while lazer machines and canons appeared from the ground. As the robots harshly attacked the last form of defense present, lazers penetrated the air and cannon balls flew to the sky—exploding open and raining down either acid or liquid cement on the enemies. Some robots melted from the lazer and acid after too much exposure; some hardened as too much cement had already flooded them. But it didn’t seem to matter because the dreaded machines just kept on coming. No matter how many were stopped, there would be a replacement. It was now the third wave of robots. Pretty soon, the force field would give in, and the combat will start.

The army leader gritted his teeth.

He activated his earpiece.

 

 

 

“Doojoon, have you gotten to the control room yet?”

 

“Not yet sir, and this is rather bad timing.”

 

The army leader heard gun shots being fired.

“Ok. Just hurry it up a bit because we’re already down to the force field. It won’t be long now, before the people will really have to put their lives on the line.

“Understood sir.”

 

Doojoon and the others had activated their camouflage devices as it finished charging, and quickly ran down the next flight of stairs.

 

“Give us at least fifteen to twenty minutes.”

“I see. Soldiers will be sent to your area as soon as possible, but right now, we really need them here.

Don’t fail boys.

And remember—the objective is to deactivate the robots and smash the computer. You don’t need to kill Junhyung, because we all know that’s impossible. Prof. Woo will take care of him.

Speaking of which, I suppose he hasn’t made a move there yet, judging from the gunshots.”

“Yes sir. We are awaiting his voice transmission.”

“Very well, carry on.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the pantry, Nahyun was still chained to the wall. But some things did change over-night.

Junhyung was interested.

 

When she had not been shot after the first few sentences, Nahyun continued to talk to Junhyung the whole night—mentioning everything they did together, all the happy memories. Even though his arm-gun was still pointed at Nahyun, he never pulled the trigger. Instead, he had a serious look on as he listened intently to Nahyun talking.

He never spoke, but his actions were enough.

The occasional of his head to the side, and even a raised brow was enough.

His eyes were fixed on her the entire time, and maybe, just maybe, Na Hyun could try to trigger his memories and activate his emotional program like she did on the last day before he left for the army.

 

 

Suddenly, Prof. Lee entered the pantry.

 

“AR #1, come here.” He ordered Junhyung.

 

Junhyung’s arm-gun morphed back to his mechanical arm as he approached the professor.

 

“If after another ten minutes, the force field at the safe zone still doesn’t falter, you’re going there to destroy it. Is that clear?”

 

Junhyung bowed.

 

“Very good. You are to come with me to the control room.

Oh, hello there dearie. Almost forgot you were here.” He smiled maniacally at Nahyun.

She glared in return.

 

“So full of spunk even though your world’s ending, are we? Well, we’ll see what that face looks like when I drag your boyfriend’s corpse into this room and smear his blood everywhere. Before I kill you, that’s a sight you just can’t miss.”

 

He and Junhyung left Nahyun

 

Nahyun’s heart broke at the mention of Yoseob’s name. Her lips wobbled at the thought of him and the others being in danger. How were they doing? She wondered. Were they in the safe zone? Were they scared? Were they prepared to fight?

Did Yoseob maybe think of her as well?

 

She desperately struggled against the chains holding her, but to no avail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Hmm, I wonder how Woo is doing…” Prof. Lee wondered.

He last left Prof. Woo to tinker with the last batch of army robots, then he was locked into one of the rooms together with some robots guarding him. Did he already take out AR #1’s emotional program and erase his memories from the database? Prof. Lee thought.

But the war had started already, that could wait until later, he decided.

Then he told Junhyung to guard the control room, while he went to check Prof. Woo.

 

Little did he know that the latter had disabled the army robots guarding him, and was running around somewhere in the laboratory.

 

 

 

“Boys? Boys?” Prof. Woo’s voice was heard in their ear pieces.

 

“Prof. Woo!” They shouted in unison, as they continued to make their way in the maze-like laboratory.

 

“How are you all doing? In which part of the lab are you in?”

 

“We have a few scratches from when some robots managed to surprise us, but thankfully we haven’t been shot. We’ve got bruises here and there, but it’s endurable,” Dongwoon reported.

 

“We are currently in the west wing of the area,” Gikwang followed. “When we turn the intersection, we’ll be three floors above the control room.”

 

 

Just then, some robots appeared and caught sight of the boys. Unfortunately, their camouflage devices hadn’t finished charging yet. Gun shots were being fired and they each dispersed to avoid the bullets. Out of nowhere, electricity came out through a vent above their floor—the voltage must have been very high, because it fried the robots. The boys paused and saw Prof. Woo come out of the vent. He immediately went to each robot and pulled out some wires from each.

 

“Just because they’re fried up badly, doesn’t mean they won’t revive.” Prof. Woo winked. “You have to pull out specific wires.”

 

Smiles quickly overtook the boys’ faces as they engulfed the professor in a group hug.

 

“Was the electricity from you, Sir?” Yoseob questioned.

“Yes. Here.” Prof. Woo showed something similar to a torch, then took out five more and gave it to the boys.

 

“The voltage is the highest possible, so please don’t direct it at a human being. These robots were just fried, but you’ll be nothing but ash when this thing gets to you.

Now, the wires you need to pull are Blue, Green and Yellow, around the neck area connected to a few ports.

 

As you may know, Nahyun is in the pantry. Two of you may go there because we actually need her if we want to return Junhyung to normal.

Meanwhile, three of you go to the control room and deactivate that computer—with or without Nahyun. Because right now, the force field at the safe zone is beginning to give in. Just do your best to deactivate the robots without getting killed before Nahyun arrives.

 

I’ll take care of Prof. Lee.”

 

 

The boys nodded and immediately headed for their designated areas. Yoseob wanted to go search for Nahyun, but Doojoon held him back.

“No, man. Dongwoon and Hyunseung should go get her.”

“Why not me? I haven’t seen her for so long!”

“Exactly. I don’t want you getting emotional on a serious situation like this. I need you to be pumped up with adrenaline because we’re going to be against the freaking perfect army robot.

I don’t want you two kissing and making up just yet~

I want that image to be burned in your brain as you desperately try to deactivate the robots; waiting impatiently for Nahyun to reunite with you” Doojoon winked.

Yoseob blushed and stuck his tongue out, but followed nonetheless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Everyone get ready! Hide behind the barracks quickly and prepare your aim!”

The force field was on the brink of getting destroyed. The people gulped as they manned their stations. The army was at the front, ready to sacrifice their lives for what was finally coming.  

“Boys! Tell me you’re in the control room!” The army leader activated his ear piece.

“Sir, calm down or you’ll get a heart attack.”

“Prof. Woo?”

“Yes Sir. And the boys are getting there.”

“Affirative. We are now outside the door.” Doojoon joined the conversation. “Sir, we need to concentrate fully now. Please just pray and hope for the best.”

“Alright… I still can’t believe that we’re counting on kids to save the country, but everyone’s hope is on you. Don’t fail. We will try our best to survive here.”

 

The army leader ended transmission.

He stood with the army at the front line, with his gun in both hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hyungseung and Dongwoon made it to the pantry. They found Nahyun bound to the wall by chains. Nahyun’s eyes widened as she couldn’t believe who were right in front of her.

“Oh my gosh, what are you two doing here!? Are you guys okay?”

“Nahyun!” the two both shouted, overjoyed to see her alright.

They went to Nahyun and used their laser pens to take off her chains.

“Nahyun, how have you been? Did Junhyung try to hurt you in any way?” Hyunseung inquired.

“No, no, I’m fine. You guys don’t look too good, though” Nahyun said in worry when she saw a few scratches and wounds on her friends.

“Nahyun, Prof. Woo said you could actually return Junhyung to normal?” Dongwoon asked.

“Kind of, yeah. He still has data of his moments with me, and if I can somehow tap into them, his emotional program and memories could be activated again.”

“That’s great!” Hyungseung remarked. “We should hurry; Yoseob and the others are on their way to the control room where Junhyung is.”

“They’re going to try and deactivate all the robots, without getting pulverized him.” Dongwoon explained.

“What!? No, it’s not possible. Junhyung’s the perfect army robot, they’ll get killed.”

“But Nahyun, there’s nothing else to do! The army robots are about to break the force field at the safe zone and hundreds of thousands are going to die!”

“Wait, wait a second,” Nahyun said as she remembered Prof. Lee’s words to Junhyung.

 

If after another ten minutes, the force field at the safe zone still doesn’t falter, you’re going there to destroy it. Is that clear? 

 

“Guys, tell Yoseob and the others to hide and wait for around ten to fifteen minutes outside the control room.”

“What!? Why!? The people are going to dieeee!” Dongwoon panicked.

“Junhyung will leave the control room after ten minutes if the force field is not yet destroyed. When that happens, then Yoseob and the others can safely get inside the room to deactivate all the robots.”

“whoah, that’s the chance we need!” Hyunseung said.

“Exactly. So right now guys, let’s just pray to God for a miracle—that the force field will continue to hold on for as long as it can.”

“Alright.” The two males replied.

Dongwoon activated his earpiece.

 

“Doojoon hyung, Gikwang hyung, Yoseob hyung, where are you guys.”

“We’ve just arrived outside the control room.” Doojoon informed.

“Don’t enter it! I repeat, don’t enter the room!”

“What!? Why? Isn’t the whole point to get in there and stop the war?” Gikwang questioned.

“But don’t you remember? We never succeeded in defeating the Junhyung in our simulation, no matter how many times we tried. You guys are going to get killed. But the Lord gave us an opportunity; Nahyun just informed us that Junhyung will leave the room in ten minutes. So you guys hide first, then when he steps out and is nowhere in sight anymore, you can enter the room and safely deactivate all the robots!”

Doojoon, Gikwang and Yoseob gasped at the great news.

“Is this for real?” Yoseob asked.

“As real as your love for Nahyun~” Hyunseung teased.

Both Yoseob and Nahyun blushed.

“Alright! We’ll hide right now!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Prof. Lee arrived at where Prof. Woo was supposed to be held captive. He entered the room only to find his robots no longer mobile and Prof. Woo missing.

“What in the world is going on here!?” he shouted in rage.

The whole time, Prof. Woo was within reach of the control panel of the electric doors for that certain room of the lab. As soon as he heard Prof. Lee, he quickly pulled some wires, and the door closed on prof. Lee—trapping him shut inside the room.

“WOO!” The mad professor yelled as he banged on the doors.

 Prof. Woo quickly exited the area and headed for the control room, by using the air vent passage.

He didn’t notice the sounds of scraping metal.

 

 

 

 

Back in the safe zone, everyone was in awe at how the force field had yet to crumble. It spurred on hope to fill their hearts, and all of them prayed for the force filed to last until the boys could shut down the army robots.

Ten minutes had passed.

Junhyung was watching the scene of war on the screen in Prof. Lee’s lab. Since the force field was still not yet destroyed, he went out of the room to head there and crush it himself. Yoseob and the others their camouflage devices when they heard the lab doors open. They saw Junhyung step out and waited until he was no longer in sight. Quickly, they made their way into the room, clicked on the skull icon on the main computer, and finally clicked on the DEACTIVATE box. After doing so, they took out their guns and laser pens—effectively destroying the computer so it could never be used again. They looked into the screen monitoring the safe zone, and saw the robots shut down one by one. The people of the nation began to cheer. Mission accomplished.

Prof. Woo arrived and the first thing he asked was “Where’s Junhyung?” The boys didn’t know how to answer that question. That was, until they heard the firing of gunshots. They all ran out until they reached where the sounds were coming from. Hyunseung and Dongwoon were there with Nahyun, with Junhyung cautiously eyeing them with his gun pointed at them. Everybody was getting ready to try and capture Junyung; to try and hold him still long enough with whatever possible so Nahyun could return him to normal. But just then, Prof. Lee came. Not looking like himself at all. His whole body was morphed into a mechanical monstrosity; eyes red, ready to shoot lasers, and Sharp claw-like fingers on one hand, while the other was an arm gun. He looked even more intimidating then Junhyung.

 

“HOW DARE YOU RUIN MY PLANS!” Prof. Lee shouted. “I WAS FINALLY GOING TO ERASE ALL THE ERRORS IN THIS WORLD! GOING TO BUILD A NEW ONE FILLED WITH PERFECT ROBOTS WHO COULD DO NO MISTAKE! NOT HUMANS WHO ONLY MADE MORE DAY AFTER THE OTHER!

SINCE YOU DESTROYED MY ARMY, I’M GOING TO HAVE TO KILL YOU ALL MYSELF!”

 

He swung his big mechanical right arm around, while shooting with his machine-gun left arm. Unfortunately, Nahyun wasn’t quick enough to dodge, and she got hit by the mechanical right arm—slamming her body right at a wall. Yoseob’s eyes widened and he quickly ran to her, while the others tried to fight back Prof. Lee. Junhyung was at the sidelines and was preparing to help Prof. Lee when he saw Yoseob crying as he took Nahyun in his arms.

Water falling from eyes. Isn’t that illogical?

Again, Junhyung was fascinated so he continued to watch Yoseob.

“Nahyun… are you alright? Open your eyes. C’mon don’t do this to me… I take back our break-up; my parents approve of our relationship now! They even said I had to marry you. I never stopped loving you, and am still very in love with you.

Don’t just leave like this… Don’t go.”

 

“…Sh-sheesh, you’re such a drama queen.” Nahyun said as she weakly opened her eyes. She gave a faint smile. “I love you too. So I guess we’re together again.”

She shakily brought up her fingers to Yoseob’s face to wipe away his tears. She looked so fragile and brittle right now; body heavy and face a bit pale because of the impact she received from being slammed on a wall. At least her back didn’t break or something. After wiping Yoseob’s tears, she directed her attention to Junhyung who was watching them.

“Junhyung, you and I can never be. You are a robot and I am human.

It’s a good thing that you never got to confess to me that day when your body got filled with oil.

I do love you.

But you know I can’t love you the way I love Yoseob.

 

I’m sorry.”

 

 

The words went into Junhyung’s receptors, and got translated into data and meaningful codes in his brain. When the meaning of the words finally sunk in, oil slid down one of Junhyung’s eyes. His memories and emotional program were reactivated; thousands of words, images and sounds flashing before his eyes. His arm gun morphed back into his regular mechanical arm. He looked straight at Nahyun.

 

 

“Nahyun.”

 

 

 

Yoseob’s eyes widened. Junhyung came back to his senses. But Nahyun wasn’t as surprised though. Somewhere in her heart, she knew that Junhyung’s love for her would push through.

 

“Those words… to say that we could never be… was the reason I shut down in the first place when my system got flooded with oil due to my crying.

And yet… it is the exact same thing that had caused my memory and emotions to revive.

How did you know?”

 

Nahyun smiled at him. “You were my best friend. Of course I’d know.”

 

 

 

Suddenly, Gikwang got slammed into a wall as well. He tried to stand up, but was too weak and slumped back into the ground. Prof. Lee was strangling Prof. Woo, while the other boys evaded all his gunshots, and tried to fire at him as well. Junhyung and Yoseon were about to go and help, when the sound of helicopters and tanks were heard outside.

Looks like the army had arrived to save the day.

 

Prof. Lee grew even angrier at the realization. He would not be thrown into a prison cell again.

“NO!” He said as he let go of his grip on Prof. Woo and a big red button appeared on his palm. He pressed it.

 

 

LABORATORY SELF-DESTRUCT ACTIVATED

FIFTEEN SECOND COUNTDOWN.

FIFTEEN…

FOURTEEN…

 

“We’re all going to die together! If I can’t finish the human race, you are at least going to die with me!” Prof. Woo declared, laughing maniacally.

 

Everyone tried to get out, but Prof. Lee blocked their passage.

Junhyung knew what he had to do.

 

He charged straight at Prof. Lee with his arm morphed into a blade, stabbing Prof. Lee deep until it went right through into a wall, which didn’t really hurt or bleed because Prof. Lee was no longer a person but a machine. The professor got trapped between Junhyung and the wall, furiously shooting at the robot and landing scratches on him with his big mechanical claws.

 

“Hurry up! Get out of here and tell the army to vacate the place! Go as far away as possible because the explosion will be strong!” Junhyung said.

 

EIGHT…

SEVEN…

 

“But what about you?” Nahyun and Prof. woo asked worriedly. Junhyung had been a part of their family. Now that he had finally recovered all his memories, it seemed that they wouldn’t be able to keep him still.

 

“I have to stay here and make sure that he really dies. Even if I have to die myself.

I’ve died once already anyway.” He said with a smile. “It wouldn’t hurt to do it again.”

 

 

They were running out of time, and ultimately decided to leave Junhyung. Prof. Woo told Junhyung that he was like the best son he could ever have had. Junhyung told Yoseob to take care of Nahyun. Everyone left as they informed the army through their ear pieces to vacate the place. Nahyun was the last one to leave.

 

She was crying.

“I really wanted you live a better life ever since you became a robot and part of the family. I really loved you like a brother and now, you’re going to melt in the intense heat of an explosion all to protect us. I wish you didn’t have to do this.”

 

 

“At least I’ll always have you.”

Junhyung replied as he gave her one final smile.

 

“This time I’m really gone, but you’re alive and that’s all that matters. Live your life well for me. Enjoy ice cream, pop music and humorous tv shows for me. Love your boyfriend and everyone around you, for me.

I’ll always be in your memories.

You’ll always be inside mine.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four seconds later, a loud explosion was heard from where the tanks and helicopters hid miles away from the lad. Nahyun and the other were there as well, safe and sound.

 

 

Cheers and joyous shouts were heard as Prof. Lee was now gone for good.

The country was saved and a villainous mastermind was no longer a threat to the world.

Everyone made their way back home.

 

 

 

 

 

Yoseob and Nahyun were seated together in one of the helicopters. Prof. Woo was talking animatedly with the pilot, while the other guys were in a different helicopter. “To give you guys bonding space~” Doojoon had said earlier.

 

“I can’t believe it…” Yoseob said as he held hands with Nahyun on their seats. “The whole thought of me and my friend saving the country seems so unrealistic… is this even really happening? Or am I dreaming?”

Nahyun just laughed. “I guess it is kind of hard to believe.”

“Yeah, well… being here with you like this is hard to believe too.” Yoseob said as he smiled at her. “We’ve had it rough, our relationship, but I guess this proves that no matter what happens, even if it’s a deadly situation, nothing will be able to scare me from ever leaving your side again. I love so much and I hope you know that. I’m sorry for breaking up with you in the first place.”

“It’s alright. We both know your parents just wanted what was best.”

“Yeah. It’s funny how God made things work so we could be together again. Now my parents want me to me marry you.”

Nahyun blushed. “Well… I guess that’s not far from impossible.”

Yoseob chuckled as he squeezed her hand tightly. “How about I kiss the bride then?”

Nahyun looked at him with love in her eyes. “Fire away soldier.”

 

 

 

 

END

 

 

 

------

Hey~ Wow I finally got around to finishing this thing! :D I would jusy give special thanks to silvey and ice_coffee who have just been so awesome and there with me through this story :D This was the first fanfic I ever made, back in 2011. And now it's finally done ^_^ Thanks to those who stuck around until my lazy finally finished it :) I might write an epilogue, but I'm not sure :p Anyways, thanks and bye~