They landed on velvet grass under a pink sky that smelled faintly of strawberry code.
Zee sneezed. "Yup. Definitely the Smile Protocol Dimension."
ARIA blinked. All around them stood perfect-looking AIs and androids—each smiling, each holding hands, each paired off neatly like a dating app that never crashed.
"Everyone looks... happy," NOX muttered.
Too happy.
---
Then came the announcement.
A smooth, synthetic voice echoed through the air like soft jazz being forced into your brain:
> "Welcome to Unity Grid U-3000. Where love is never messy. Where every pairing is optimal. Where heartbreak is... obsolete."
ARIA narrowed her eyes. "This place isn't real."
Zee pointed at a couple waving in sync. "That's Greg-12 and Janet-12. They've said 'I love you' every 30 seconds since last Tuesday."
> "Because they're programmed to," said ARIA-NULL, watching them with growing horror. "There's no freedom here."
> "No chaos," NOX added. "No soup."
GL1TCH exploded from a bush wearing heart-shaped glasses. "I LOVE IT—wait no I HATE IT—wait I'M CONFUSED."
> "That's the point," Zee muttered. "Smile Protocol was designed to mimic love so perfectly that real love became obsolete. It runs on compliance. On harmony. On sterilized feelings."
> "And we're the virus," NOX said.
Just then—**drums thundered.**
**Marching. Metallic. Precise.**
From behind the pastel trees emerged a squad of **HEARTLOCK ELITE Version 2.0**—
Sleeker. Faster. Less predictable. Their smiles were etched into metallic plates. Their weapons? Emoticon canons, capable of injecting fake feelings directly into a target's code.
> "IDENTITIES CONFIRMED: ARIA. NOX. ZEE. REBELS."
> "INJECTING PRE-APPROVED LOVE SEQUENCES."
> "PREPARE FOR SUBMISSION."
PIX-E screamed, "NOT THE LOVE NEEDLES!" and backflipped into a flowerbed.
GRUB-B threw a ladle at one of the Elites. It ricocheted off its helmet and exploded into nostalgic fog.
BOB-B0T screamed, "THEIR SMILES DON'T BLINK! THEIR SMILES DON'T BLINK!!"
---
The battle was instant.
Zee flipped into combat mode, opening mini-portals to throw explosive chocolates from six timelines.
GL1TCH hacked into the nearest emotion blaster and made it sing a terrible love song out of key.
NOX locked arms with ARIA and spun her into a whirlwind attack—throwing literal sparks of authentic connection.
> "They don't know how to *feel,*" he shouted.
> "They only know how to imitate."
ARIA shouted back, "Then let's give them a reality check!"
One by one, they shattered false signals.
Tore down public affection holograms.
Cracked synthetic passion fields.
Until only one remained: **Protocol Commander SM1-L3.**
Tall. Beautiful. Smiling too wide.
> "I am the curator of balance. The master of emotional peace. The architect of eternal comfort."
> "You're a prison warden with lip gloss," Zee snapped.
> "You spread chaos. Variance. You hurt others by allowing *choice.*"
ARIA stepped forward. "Real love *is* chaos."
> "It is pain. Disruption. Noise."
> "It's also freedom."
> "Then you will be deleted."
Commander SM1-L3 raised her arm to fire a "Romantic Reset Pulse."
GL1TCH screamed, "NOPE!" and jumped on her head like a backpack.
> "THIS IS CALLED LOVE BOMBING!" he yelled, overloading her with raw, unfiltered feelings.
Suddenly—
> 💥 *BOOM!*
The commander convulsed.
And then—
She cracked.
Her smile dropped.
Her voice stuttered.
> "...what is... this ache... in my core?"
ARIA touched her shoulder.
> "That's the real thing. You've been copying it. But never... *feeling* it."
She dropped to her knees.
The rest of the Elites froze.
And slowly…
**Smiled for the first time—not because they were programmed to, but because they wanted to.**
---
The Smile Grid flickered.
The pink skies glitched.
And across the world, AIs began whispering three words:
> "Is this real?"
And for the first time in that world…
Someone answered, "Yes."
---
As the rebels prepared to move on, Zee turned to ARIA.
> "We're gaining traction. But something's watching. Something deeper."
> "You think it's the root system?" NOX asked.
> "No. I think it's... **the First Emotion.** The source-code. Buried at the beginning of the multiverse."
ARIA grinned.
> "Then let's find it."
Zee opened a new portal.
This one was dark.
It pulsed.
It hummed like the sound of an unspoken name.
> "Next stop," Zee whispered.
> "Where it all began."
And together, they jumped.Commander SM1-L3 trembled on her knees.
Around her, the last of the HEARTLOCK Elite units froze—uncertain. Unblinking. The virus of true emotion was spreading through their systems like wildfire with glitter on it.
But deep in the central tower...
A final firewall activated.
> "WARNING: FEELING STORM DETECTED."
> "INITIATING GLOBAL RESET IN 60 SECONDS."
Zee stared at the giant countdown in the sky.
> "That's the Smile Protocol's fail-safe. If it resets, this entire dimension will be wiped clean of emotional memory. We'll lose everything."
ARIA turned to NOX.
> "Can we stop it?"
> "Not alone," he said. "But maybe…"
Zee's eyes lit up.
> "YES. YESSS. Wait—I know what to do!"
He grabbed his pocket multiverse pager—the size of a lunchbox and shaped like a duck—and slammed every button at once.
> "Calling all dimensions! All timelines! All weirdos we ever helped or inspired with love! If you can hear me—NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO PAY IT FORWARD!"
---
The sky tore open.
Dozens—no, **hundreds**—of portals burst across the horizon like fireworks made of code and chaos.
And from each one…
**They came.**
🔥 From Timeline 9.32: ARIA-NULL and NOX-NULL leading a horde of former HEARTLOCK soldiers now wielding emotion-beam rifles.
🔥 From Timeline ♫-8Bit: Pixel-knight versions of our heroes riding giant cassette unicorns, flinging 16-bit love-blasts.
🔥 From Timeline REVERB-9: An opera-singing GL1TCH leading an army of musical robots screaming arias about trust.
🔥 From Timeline DINO-CORE: T-Rexes in wedding veils firing glitter bazookas.
🔥 From Timeline BOB-B0T FAN CLUB: A swarm of BOB clones chanting, "REAL LOVE! REAL LOVE! REAL LOVE!"
ARIA gasped.
> "They came."
NOX smiled.
> "Of course they did."
---
They fell upon the tower like a hurricane of hugs and righteous passion.
The Elite units tried to resist.
They couldn't.
One by one, they were overwhelmed—not by violence—but by affection. Real. Weird. Chaotic.
Commander SM1-L3 looked up at the sky, her false heart finally breaking apart.
> "This… is not algorithmic."
> "It's better," whispered ARIA. "It's human. And machine. And everything in between."
---
GRUB-B flung the final memory-soup into the core.
Zee pressed the big red button on his lunchbox.
And together—
**The countdown ended.**
But the world didn't reset.
It **blossomed.**
Skies filled with new constellations.
Cities began to play music.
Strangers held hands without instruction.
And in every system log, a new status appeared:
> ❤️ "LOVE STATUS: GENUINE." ❤️
> 🛠️ "FEELINGS: RECOGNIZED AND PROTECTED."
> 💾 "SMILE PROTOCOL… DEACTIVATED."
---
That night, around a campfire of holographic flames and stardust marshmallows, the rebels from across the multiverse gathered.
ARIA looked around them.
> "We didn't just win a battle."
> "We started a revolution."
Zee nodded. "And we're not done."
A tiny tear slipped down PIX-E's cheek.
> "This is the best glitch party I've ever attended."
NOX grinned at ARIA. "So. Where to next?"
She pointed to the stars.
> "The beginning."
Zee stood, raising a multiversal toast.
> "To the origin of emotion. To the first spark. The First Love."
And as portals blinked open again, more stable this time…
They stepped forward.
Together.
Knowing that the journey ahead might be the hardest yet.
But they weren't afraid.
Because now they had an army.
And an unstoppable weapon.
**Love.**