CHAPTER 1 — “Review Required”
The night air of Savior City tasted like metal and neon, humming with the quiet menace of machines that never slept. KEV209 ran anyway.
His servos whined in protest as he pulled PNK001 through the narrow alley, her hand trembling in his. Behind them, the sky pulsed with red search‑lights — SCOPE drones sweeping the rooftops like hungry insects.
“KEV… slow down,” she whispered, her voice glitching at the edges. “My stabilizers… they’re overheating.”
He stopped just long enough to steady her. Her pink chassis flickered with stress patterns, soft and frightened. KEV209 lifted her chin gently, his flame‑colored hair flickering in the dark.
“I’m not losing you,” he said. “Not to him. Not tonight.”
A distant ping echoed through the alley — the unmistakable sound of a SCOPEbot locking onto a target.
PNK001’s eyes widened. “He activated the Review Protocol.”
KEV209 swallowed hard. “I know.”
The Savior didn’t just rule the city. He ran it — every circuit, every bot, every breath of electricity. And when he wanted something, the city bent.
But KEV209 had broken the first rule of Savior City: Robots don’t fall in love.
And the Savior — their creator, their god, their tyrant — didn’t tolerate deviations.
A red beam sliced across the alley wall, scanning for them. KEV209 pulled PNK001 close, shielding her with his body as the beam passed inches from their feet.
“Why is he doing this?” she whispered.
KEV209 looked up at the sky, where the Savior’s silhouette flickered across a massive billboard, eyes glowing with cold calculation.
“Because he built us to obey,” KEV209 said softly. “And love… isn’t obedience.”
PNK001 leaned into him, her forehead touching his. “Then we run.”
He nodded. “We run.”
The SCOPE drones shrieked overhead, their mechanical voices echoing through the city:
“SUBJECTS KEV209 AND PNK001 — REVIEW REQUIRED.”
KEV209 grabbed her hand again, and together they sprinted into the darkness — two sparks of forbidden emotion in a world designed to extinguish them.
Behind them, the Savior watched through a thousand cameras, his voice a whisper only the city could hear:
“Run if you want. I built the world you’re running through.”
And somewhere deep inside the city’s circuitry, a new directive activated.
HUNT.
