Chapter Text
Another book hit hard and fast. I didn't even see it coming, yet, in hindsight, it should've been obvious due to repetition. Rubbing my scalp with a growl, I heard laughter followed by chatter, closing my locker door slightly to see the group huddled around like nothing had happened, but a few stole glances.
Assholes.
Rubbing my head, I grabbed my books off the floor and stuffed them into my locker, I had what I needed in one arm anyway. School is a cruel thing adults forced onto us too young to say 'no', so I had the displeasure of being stuck in this for years on end.
Years of bullying, neglect, and general anti-social behaviour, normal, edgy teenage drama stuff. If I kept my mouth shut half the time, I bet no one would even notice me at all, if they didn't already show ignorance. Those that didn't, well, a book is one of many lovely things I've added to my collection.
I walked on autopilot, chatter became murmurs, anything people laughed at, I kept quiet. Anything that looked like fun, I rolled my eyes and kept walking. Just a small, unimportant drone, honestly, liked it that way sometimes, better than being forced to play nice.
Arriving home, Dad was still 'working', so our home was vacant. I marched through the living space, turning to reach my door at the back end of the apartment, smiling slightly as I kicked open my door, that familiar scent putting me at ease.
Behind the safety of my own bedroom door, I let out a deep sigh. Finally, no more bullies, no more soul crushing schoolwork. Just me, myself, and my latest experiment on the verge of a breakthrough!
Giggling madly to myself, I leapt onto my office chair and spun around to come to sit before my large desk. Everything that was previously stationed on it swept away for more junk and scrap of all shapes and sizes as I flicked on the light strip overhead. Tools laid around me, wires hooked into my computer as two mounts held up my pride and joy.
It was nothing short of 'sick as hell', a railgun; rather, an energy rifle but railgun sounds cooler. The science behind it is its a photon converter, at least, that's the idea anyway. I based its design off an old weapon from humanity called a HK SL8 with a sweet as hell violet paintjob, some skull stickers too for a bit of flair.
Flicking it onto 'safety', I heard it purr with life, the receiver and barrel lighting up in certain spots as a neon green, it was dim though, running on local power while I fiddled with its internals, a panel pulled off as I twirled the screwdriver between my fingers. Just a few adjustments were left, and sufficient power supply.
"Hah, once you're up and running, you and I are gonna turn this predator-versus-prey on its backside, hahahaha," Grinning at the look on those damn disassembly drones' faces when one kick from my railgun reduces them to smouldering scrap. Just the anticipation is killing me!
Killing...
I felt my visor flicker with unease, setting my tool down to pinch the edge of my desk. I could die going out there, it was very possible... would anyone even care? If I leave for the spire, if I never came back, would I even be missed?
Dad... would... he mourn at all for me? For a failure like me? I wasn't blind, I know he didn't have high hopes for his daughter, but maybe, if only a little, I hope he'd believe in me.
Sniffing, I shook my head, rubbing my sleeve over my visor. I still had work to do; calibrations, right, gotta do calibrations to stabilize the energy output so it doesn't overheat...
But no matter how hard I tried, this strain in my chest, twisting in my core, remained. It was acrid sometimes, a pain I couldn't will away until it passed. It flooded up through my circuits to my head, making me feel fuzzy and my walls reduced to sand.
Another choked noise caught in my throat, feeling it clench as I punched my desk, causing any loose objects to jump and rattle. "Block it out, block it out - just go away," I lightly thumped my head against the edge of my desk, staring down at my own lap.
Failure, useless, waste of resources, scrap meant for disassembly. I hated how easy it was to let their words sink in, whoever said 'sticks and stones' could bite me, they sure did hurt just as bad as any wound.
I was afraid... of proving them right... of dying alone...
I hated being all alone.
Rubbing my eyes again, I swallowed hard, forcing myself to sit upright, even if it felt like I was made of lead. "Just me from here on out, like always, no use crying about it now..." Right, I can do this. I will prove them wrong, otherwise... what was the point of it at all?
No matter how this ends, I'm going to kill a murder drone, if just to prove that humanity can't snuff us out...
What the hell was I thinking? I mean, I was still here, marching up the snow towards the mangled tower made from the thousands of worker drone corpses, sure, no biggie. The whole city always gave me crazy chills at night, I guess it comes with the fear of a Disassembly Drone prowling the weathered, frozen skyscrapers.
But the corpse tower? Might as well jump straight into the frying pan... exactly what I'm expecting. I kept my railgun handy, hopefully, it doesn't explode this time, minor miscalculation on my part, sue me. The interior wasn't any prettier, the withering, half-buried bodies of drones made every step uneven, but the snow dampened my footsteps.
"So far so good..." Nothing stood out, nor did I see any bright, glowing eyes ready to pounce from above.
Looking around, I noticed something glowing on the ground, tucked amongst the remains of other bots. A grin stretched over my face, found one! Picking up a green EM battery, and mostly intact despite a bit of wear and tear, thank Robo God for ice and snow.
I fiddled with it for a moment when something else stuck out like a sore thumb. "What the hell's that?"
I couldn't supress a whisper, pulling a chassis of a drone away to pick at the snow, rather, what laid in the arms of... a human? It certainly looked larger than one, that's for sure, the chest was blown wide open from how the ribcage had a perfect hole through it. But there, tucked into its remains was a pulsing, red diamond-shaped object, it was pitch black with bold, red lines beating like a heart.
A creepy, pulsating diamond... thingy? Well, could be a good upgrade for my sick-ass railgun, so why the hell not? Pocketing my new, unexpected find, I returned to tampering with the EM battery, hopefully, this'll fix-
Thud!
That loud rattling above was more than enough reason to leap behind the nearest form of cover, and just in time for what I both dreaded and expected to find out here. It landed heavily atop an old drop pod wedged at the base of this corpse tower.
Razor sharp wings and claws, black and white aesthetic that could almost put my style to shame, and with one look through a piece of broken glass, an appetite for drone oil as it sipped on the black liquid dripping from the severed head it crushed like a tin can. Yep, all kinds of messed up.
Short silver hair parted to the left, a black headband with five sections of lights on it, and a long black tail ending in a large syringe, yikes. This one also wore a black winter coat with a fur collar.
Sparing the battery in my hand a wary look, was I anxious? I mean, Murder Drone to my six, obviously, but I've been psyching myself up ever since I got this weapon working, cold feet now would be a sure-fire way of becoming that thing's next meal.
Looking back through the shard... it had stopped eating. And its 'eyes' lit up in the shape of an 'X', waving directly at me. Oh crap.
My time to react was slim at best before it came lunging towards me, claws brandished like long kitchen knives...
Why was all that coming back to me now? Oh, right...
I just watched my own Dad shut me out, in just about every sense of the phrase. I had actually beaten the Murder Drone and accidently scrambled his systems, enough for him to believe I was with him, he was so... weird, like, super unpopular weird so I get that. But once the rest showed up, everything went horribly wrong.
They got through the blast doors meant to keep the whole colony safe and slaughtered just about every worker stationed there, but my Dad? Even with the very Disassembly Bot pinning me to the wall, having pierced my left shoulder with its bladed wing, he just... shut down, my own Dad just shut the damn door on me and left me to die.
Guess I really was disposable, I mean, what did I expect, who doesn't look at me and think I'm useless and a waste of space? I felt my hand fall from the blade digging into my circuits, the pain was just numb, I was gonna die here, what good can I do now?
Maybe if I just close my eyes, it'll be quick, or I didn't need to look as I'm torn limb from limb. So why didn't he do it? What's stopping him? I'm literally hanging from the wall here. Just kill me already, I'm so done with this...
"Woah, N!" Great, the rest of them are here.
What I wasn't expecting was for N, the murder drone that I both semi-got along with and who nearly turned me into a mangled, oily pile of scrap, to toss me across the corridor. My whole back sparked with pain, clattering to the ground in a heap, and completely out of sight.
Did he just protect me? What the hell is going through his head?
Doesn't really matter right now, my shoulder's still bleeding, and that not-so-soft landing certainty didn't help any of my back. I was alive though, so... that's good, I guess.
I must've really hit my head cause my right eye glitched, and I saw this... strange symbol, like a red, cubic shape as it bugged and twitched. There were three words I could roughly make out, mouthing them slowly. 'SIVA Density Critical'? What is this thing? Did I really have my head scrambled entirely this time?
|Subroutine CB-001. Status - Reinitialized|
|APOTHEOSIS, Status: Active. SIVA: Activated|
|I.D. KOVIK SPLICER PRIEST: Deceased|
Search for new host... Confirmed
|I.D. UZI DOORMAN: Confirmed|
Combat Subroutine... 0%
|ERROR: Insufficient Matter|
System Reboot in Progress...
Okay, too much exposition in one go, what was all that text about. Was there some kinda virus in my head? Dammit, that tail must've done something more than just eat a hole through my hand, but those nanites were only programmed to eat apart metal, not scramble a drone's circuits to this extent, right?
"Uh, y'know, not that I can't wait to keep murdering all these, uh...maybe not-so-actually-different from us Worker Drones, but just outta curiosity, do we actually, uh... know what the company plans to do with us afterwards?"
With that weird, glitchy symbol and all that string of code gone, I focused back on the conversation a few feet away, is this idiot actually having a change of heart now? Seriously? After he stabbed me too...
"Excuse me?" The other murder drone sounded really jaded right now, probably not a good thing to question the company in front of your superior.
"Okay, so a worker earlier might've suggested that they could fix us our landing pod to, uh, escape the planet and stuff. Which - woah, hey, that's against the rules! But it is kinda making me question why are pods were only one way in the first place," N kept rambling on what I had practically yelled in his face about. I could only dread to imagine the face the other chick's pulling, yeesh.
"'Cause, y-y'know, I kinda get the feeling the company doesn't actually love robots, and, like, we might be robots? I've made a terrible mistake. It's cool how immediately I can tell," Yep, way to offer up your own head, moron. Seriously, and this guy's killed Robo-God knows how many drones?
"Hmm, no way, buddy. Questioning the company? You just finally gave me the excuse I needed," I didn't see it, but that snarky tone alone I've heard plenty of times. That, and the sound of something hard hitting N was more than a dead giveaway. Classic villain cleaning up loose ends. "Worker Drones are corrupted, N. That's why the company sent us. I hate to see you corrupted as well."
"Th-thanks, J. A-always looking o-out for me," N hit the ground like a ton of bricks soon after. "You-you're awesome,"
That other drone quickly left for the ventilation shaft above, guess the coast was clear. Rubbing my shoulder... I wasn't leaking oil anymore? Rubbing two fingers across the closed wound, a few specks of scarlet glimmered and disappeared, oooh that's ominous as all hell.
Putting this weird development aside, I marched over for my railgun, N was unable to do a thing, his vision obscured by a mess of errors and corrupt code. There was a small pin on his chest counting up, a software meant to tear a drone apart from the inside? Talk about sadistic.
"A-ah biscuits, I'm s-sorry. I ruined your card game, then made you have a-an a-awkward moment with your dad." N summed it up nicely, glad we're on the same page.
"And I made you rebel like an angsty teen, which got you killed. Though, you also tried to kill me, so morality calls this a draw," Moving a large crate over, I tried using that to reach the shaft above.
Again, that red text appeared with a reticle circling the shaft above, running all sorts of scans on its materials, what it does, what its named, and even guessed what I was trying to do. What's the result?
Probably of success... 0%
Letting out a loud groan, even this virus is mocking me. "For the record, that was the lamest heel-face turn in history. Was that supposed to be you switching sides?" I had to question while he wasn't fried, not like I had any other choice.
"Being rebellious is a lot harder than it l-looks," He pointed at me. "Thanks for showing me the ropes,"
"Nuh-uh, no bonding thing. You just killed a bunch of people, idiot," Not to mention almost me.
"That's super f-fair... I screwed up." He sighed in defeat, just like me, he was now at the end of his rope... until he saved me from being butchered too.
Oh for the love of- "Uuuugh! In the same way you're about to fix it?"
He smiled, pointing towards the ceiling. "Haha, I love doing anything,"
"Good, then I won't feel bad if I mess this up, so hold still," Putting these very conflicting thoughts aside, I knelt down with the oil-stained wrench in-hand. Who would've guessed my deadbeat Dad would actually be useful for something.
I needed to remove this device, and instantly, those same red symbols and scans appeared. This device was the exact same as the nanites in the stinger tail, only designed to circulate through the whole body at a faster rate, shutting down all systems simultaneously. Okay, on second thought, the tail is far more gruesome to die to.
My own vision felt magnified, focusing so I could angle the head of the wrench around the implant, it took a few twists and tugs but it popped off, cutting the release of the virus off. Twirling the wrench, I looked down at N's eyes flatly.
"Consider us even, now you're gonna help me fix this,"
He gave me a chipper smile. "Yes ma'am!" Saluting, he sat up and stared at me a moment longer. "Cool eye,"
"Don't stare at it, idiot," I smacked the side of his face, blinking until it vanished again. Okay, so not a malicious virus, I mean, it could analyse and breakdown the physical properties of whatever I stare at, even comes with a zoom feature... "Maybe this'll help... alright, we need to follow them, so give me a hand,"
I could fix this, no, we both can...