If you don't respect blue-collar workers, Mateo Sanchez wanted you to know he despised you and wished you'd go to hell
People like you were the bane of his existence, the nightmares of his waking hours.
How could you go about life without appreciating the people whose labor kept everything running?
"Hey! Are you done yet? Time is money, and you're wasting both!"
Teo gritted his teeth, the muscles in his jaw jumping.
Take this woman for example: Mrs. Lacey Henderson, a millionaire businesswoman that invested in the company Teo worked for.
Currently, Two was upside down, wedged inside the hydraulic press of the factory's main conveyer belt.
It was a tight, suffocating space, and the smell of old grease and rust would have choked anyone to death
Still, this woman didn't care. To her, fixing engines and machines was like putting on Nike shoes.
Just do it.
"I'm recalibrating the pressure valve," Teo shouted back, his voice echoing in the metallic belly of the machine. "If I don't do this, the piston snaps and decapitates the operator. You wouldn't want a lawsuit, Mrs. Henderson."
"I want the line moving!" Mrs. Henderson barked from outside, kicking the metal casing near Teo's head.
CLANG.
Teo flinched, his wrench slipping and taking a chunk of skin off his knuckles.
'Calm down,' Teo told himself, closing his eyes for a second. 'Just fix it. Get paid. Go home.'
At the age of 20, Teo was the best student mechanic in the factory.
Everyone knew it. He should have been promoted by now to senior mechanic, but the factory didn't want his mates to feel less.
Nevertheless, Teo's skill was unmatched.
He could listen to an engine block and tell you which cylinder was misfiring by a fraction of a second. He could dismantle a transmission blindfolded.
But to people like Mrs. Henderson? To the suits in the air-conditioned offices above? He was just a pair of dirty hands.
A "blue-collar grunt."
A cog that could be replaced the moment it squeaked.
Teo twisted the final bolt. The hydraulic hum smoothed out, turning into the perfect purr a fine machine was supposed to make.
It was a sound only he seemed to appreciate.
He slid out from under the machine, and when he looked up, he caught sight of pink lace panties pressed against the folds of an even pinker…
"Hey! You pervert!" Mrs. Henderson shrieked, stepping out.
'Why was she standing like that?' Teo thought as he sat up. "I'm really sorry, Mrs. I wasn't looking intentionally!"
"You're a sexual assaulter! I feel violated after you basically raped me with your eyes just now!" She retreated, clutching herself as if she had truly been assaulted. "I'm going to have you reported, you freak!"
"No! No!" Teo waved his hands. Even though he knew he was innocent, he suspected that the company wouldn't mind letting go of him compared to losing a major investor.
"I'm really sorry, Mrs. Henderson. I was distracted, please forgive me."
He gestured like a prayer.
Lacey Henderson glared at him, then hissed. "I'll forgive you for now. But you'd better learn to understand your level. A mechanic runt like you has no chance with a millionaire beauty like me. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Mrs. Thank you."
Teo wiped his grease-stained hands on a rag that was arguably dirtier than he was. "Miserable bitch," he mumbled as he turned around.
"What did you just say?"
"I said, it's fixed," Teo lied, turning back to her.
She folded her arms, clearly doubting but deciding to let it go.
"However," Teo continued, "the sensor array is fried. You need to order a replacement part from Germany, or this is going to happen again in—"
"Yeah, yeah, spare me the technical mumbo-jumbo," Mrs. Henderson interrupted, waving a dismissive hand.
She was now checking her watch, not even looking at Teo. "Just patch it up. We aren't spending three grand on a sensor."
Teo froze. "Patch it up? Mrs. Henderson, that's a safety violation. If the sensor fails, the press doesn't stop. Someone could get crushed."
Mrs. Henderson stepped close, poking a thin finger into Teo's chest, right onto the nametag of his oily jumpsuit.
"Listen to me, grease monkey. You aren't paid to think. You're paid to turn the wrench until the red light turns green. If you don't like it, there are ten other dropouts waiting outside for your job. Now, bypass the sensor and turn it on."
Teo felt the heat rise up his neck. It wasn't just the heat of the factory. It was pure, unadulterated rage.
He had spent ten years mastering his craft. Yes, ten!
He read manuals for fun. He understood the soul of machines better than he understood people.
And every single day, he was treated like he was stupid because he didn't wear a tie.
"I said turn it on!" Mrs. Henderson screamed.
"Fine!" Teo roared back, his patience snapping like a brittle wire. "You want it on? I'll turn it on!"
He turned back to the control panel, his hands shaking with anger. He knew he shouldn't do it. He knew it was wrong.
But the disrespect—the absolute, crushing weight of being undervalued—blinded him.
He slammed his hand onto the manual override lever.
DRMMM DRMMM DRMMMMMM…
The machine roared to life. The belt began to move.
But because the sensor was bypassed, the emergency brake didn't engage when the vibration shook a loose bolt from the overhead gantry.
SNAP!
Teo looked up just in time to hear it.
The heavy iron counterweight above him, destabilized by the sudden start, sheared off its mount.
"Ahhhh!" Mrs. Henderson yelled.
Teo knew there was no escape.
So, in a dramatic final moment, he stretched out his hand, giving her the middle finger with a deadpan expression on his face as the counterweight crushed him.
He didn't die immediately. First, he was racked with unimaginable pain. Blood leaked from every orifice in his body, and his bones were crushed to dust.
But at least, he had the chance to make a final wish before the darkness took him.
'One day, the world will realize the importance of blue collar workers. Every other job will worship Mechanics… one day…'
It was a childish, meaningless thought. But it was the only piece of pride he could hold on to as he died.
But then, the darkness was replaced by a sudden electric blue light.
Teo squinted.
Was he in a hospital?
Unlike the factory, this place was quite cold, and the iron smelled processed and clean rather than rusty and greasy like the workshop metal he knew.
His lungs had stopped aching and he drew in a sharp, soothing breath of air.
"Ugh—"
Teo stumbled.
'Wait? I'm standing?'
He looked down to see his boots resting on a floor made of black glass.
He definitely wasn't in the factory.
Teo looked up and around him.
He was in some kind of cybernetic hall. It was as vast as a football stadium but with robotics and neon lights at every corner.
Above him, massive holographic screens flickered with data streams, and the ceiling was a mess of shifting gears and pulsing blue cables.
Teo looked down at his hands. They weren't stained with oil anymore. He was wearing a sleek, form-fitting grey jumpsuit with glowing fiber-optic seams.
"What the... where am I?" he whispered.
Around him stood hundreds of others, all in the same kind of clothing, as if they were at a cyberpunk convention.
They were around his age and held excited and even nervous expressions on their faces under the flickering neon lights of the hall.
BOOM.
A sound like a localized thunderclap echoed through the chamber.
Teo snapped his head up.
High above on a floating platform, a man appeared. He looked like a veteran of a thousand wars, he had a scarred skin and a rigid posture.
His left eye was replaced with a robotic one, and so were other parts of his body. He was like a cyborg soldier.
"Aspirants! Look at me!" the man roared, his voice amplified by hidden speakers until it vibrated in Teo's very marrow.
The hall fell into a terrified silence.
"You stand in 70X, the Hall of ASCENS10N," the man continued, his mechanical eye whirring as it scanned the crowd.
"You know the evil that threatens our planet; the Deceptors tearing through portals, thirsting for our Star Meteor. They want our world. They want our lives."
He leaned over the railing, a serious look on his face of stone.
"But today, you stop being prey. Welcome to the Upgrading Event. Today, we infuse you with the Mech Core. Once your Circuit Systems are activated, your will shall determine how much Star Power you can handle. And that affinity shall determine your Class!"
The man raised a hand, snapping his fingers.
"Let the Event begin! Claim your destiny!"
Teo's eyes widened. "This can't be real, right? Is this some kind of dream?"
Suddenly, the walls of the hall hissed open.
Teo saw hundreds of metallic, multi-limbed robotic entities emerge from those walls.
They were like bipedal robo-spiders, skittering into the hall and grabbing the aspirants.
'What… the… hell,' Teo stared.