Chapter Text
“Bite me,” Uzi glared at the Murder Drone before pulling the trigger, unleashing the beam of green energy directly into her target’s head.
Four months ago
“So how are you adjusting to this body?” Veronica - V she told him to call her - asked, her voice crackling over the whistling wind. She flipped a strand of platinum hair from her visor as she waited for his answer.
“It’s…uh, I’m adjusting,” he smiled at her with this fake mouth. And it was an adjustment, he was still able to feel things, the snow underfoot crunching like broken glass, the cold in general, his clothes, he noticed it all but it was all muted.
He never realized just how wonderful the sense of touch and being able to properly feel temperature - even if they were uncomfortable temperatures - was. And that is before focusing in on his inability and lack of need to breath in this body.
But that was another feeling of wrong he was desperate not to focus on right now.
Thankfully when these bodies entered recharge mode, his consciousness snapped back into his real, flesh-and-blood frame. Until then, he was trapped in this tall, lethal simulacrum of metal and plastic.
One of Veronica’s talons clicked against the ground twice before she spoke. “Look, Nol-N,” Veronica said firmly, planting her hands on her hips. “We’re here on a job, and while these bodies aren’t meant to last too long, we still need to eat.” She cut him off when he opened his mouth. “And don’t ask me how that works, I don’t get the science behind it.” She smirked, “So, I say the first thing to learn is how to fly. Pop your wings and let’s see if you crash or soar!”
Before he could react, a thunderous whoosh tore through the air. Someone dropped beside them, kicking up a swirl of snow around them.
“Oh, hey boss,” Veronica greeted, voice deceptively casual.
Nolan spun around to see her, the first time he’d be seeing Jessica - the woman in charge of the entire cell! - in this body and the first time he would speak to her.
“Hi there, my name is Nolan and-ARG!”
His back hit the ground with her clawed foot on his neck, “Listen up, idiot,” she growled, clearly annoyed. “I already know who you are and in these bodies we call each other by a letter, the letter of our first names, got it? If someone somehow gets a recording of what’s going on here, then it’ll be with as little info on us as possible, got it?” She rolled her eyes and removed her foot from his throat. “I get you might think I’m a bit harsh, but I’m in charge, so I will do everything to keep you all safe, whether you’re happy about that or not.” She glared down at him, “Got it?”
Nolan’s armored form trembled. He staggered to his feet, plating scraping against steel. “Yes, ma’am.”
She turned away, scanning the snowdrifts. “Good. Now get to work. The sooner these half-wired toasters are dust, the sooner we’re done.”
“Oh, uh, what if they uh, fight back?” He shrunk back from the look Jessica - J, she wanted to be called - shot him.
She whirled on him. “Urg, then kill them, idiot,” she muttered that last word before looking at Veronica. “You said he’d be an asset to our company, if he isn’t, then you’ll be held responsible for any synergistic liabilities.”
And with that, she flew off.
Veronica shot him a look, “I’m making bank from this job, don’t mess it up for me.”
Present
You’re dead.
[Idiot]
Nolan saw the words, it was the only thing he could take in, along with the biggest migraine he had ever experienced. His processors screamed with feedback, circuits burning like someone had jammed a white-hot poker through his temple and out the other side.
The pain of it was all consuming, it was almost like his head exploded.
‘What happened?’ He wondered before the words vanished.
[REBOOTING...]
Something hard cracked against his faceplate.
His optical sensors flickered online. A blurry silhouette wavered before him, pixels struggling to resolve. Someone holding an arm? “Did you just slap me with that arm?” The shape moved. Wait, no, he realized that it wasn’t an arm he saw, but a tail.
This had to be another Disassembler then.
“Holy crap, it talks,” the Disassembler - sounded female - said.
“Yeah, sorry,” he squinted, partly in an attempt to get a better look at her, which did nothing to help due to his sensors still being messed up, and to distract from his lingering migraine - which still hurt like a biscuit. “it's just, my, uh, head kinda hurts.” He tried to focus on her more, but she remained blurry. “Hey, are you new to our squad? You're a little, uh...short for a Disassembly Drone.”
A moment of silence before he chuckled, “They run low on resources for you, heh. Call me Serial Designation N! Or just N for short. Nice to meet you!”
He held out his hand, “I guess you could say I’m the leader here right now.” He pulled his hand back and started pacing back and forth, wrangling his hands
“Ah, That's not true. I’m still pretty low-ranked. Wait, I-I shouldn’t have told you that part!” He shut his eyes, but the sensors on his head still transmitted what was going around him as best as they were able. “Biscuits.” He chuckled awkwardly, “Well, honesty is the best policy.” He winced, “And sorry if you need a report, I have a killer migraine right now and for some reason, I can’t really remember a lot of stuff too well right now. But that’ll work itself out, I’m sure!”
The Disassembler he didn’t get the name of seemed to be frozen for a moment until she said, “Uh-huh. I, uh, have to... go.” She used her weirdly shaped tail to point away - or maybe it was normal, but his sensors really were that damaged, which would be concerning and perhaps get him a pay cut for this, which would be really bad.
He noticed her hissing and clutching her hand. “Oof, stuck yourself?” He walked up to her with a smile. “Just pop it in your mouth. Our saliva neutralizes the nanites. Otherwise, I'd be constantly disassembling myself.” His tail swung close to his head, only for him to catch it before it hit his head. “Heh!”
“And by ‘our saliva,’ you mean...” she paused for a moment
“Disassembly Drone?” They finished at the same time, two different tones.
She paused for another moment, “Riiiight. Hey, let's go in that landing pod over there.”
Nolan smiled, “Sure! I love doing anything!”
‘Ok, this is…weird,’ he’d never had someone’s hand in his mouth before. It was…something.
“Bleh,” the noise came from his mouth as she pulled her hand away. “Sweet. Uh...” He chuckled awkwardly. “I'm open to new things, I guess.”
“We are never talking about this,” she spoke in a firm tone.
“Talking about what?” He laughed, still in an awkward manner. “Consider it, uh, repressed.”
“Uh, you mentioned other members of your squad? Are they coming back soon?” The words came from her blurry form.
“Oh, yeah, two others. Uh, they're out hunting for a bit, but you'll love them. First, there’s V.” He smiled, “V’s…violent. Just the other day, she found a few Workers, she tore out their insides and force fed them to each other. And then she made sure I was ready to defend myself by challenging me to a fight! Err, it was a surprise challenge, but still! Lot of mutual respect there. Also…we used to date. You’re not…you’re not going to get us in trouble for that, right?” He had a sudden thought of Veronica and himself losing these jobs because he said that.
“Uhh, chill out, dude. Not in trouble for that.”
He grinned, “Thanks! Oh, and then there’s J, she…she’s big on discipline. Uh, really big on it,” he rubbed his throat before he smiled. “She’s awesome! Hey, let me give you the tour! Outside of the corpse...wall thingies. In here are the buttons!” He spun around to press the buttons while making amused beeping noises.
Their newest squad mate, or perhaps some sort of performance review specialist, walked over to him, “This…isn't just a landing pod. This is a spaceship, this could get us off the planet.”
Nolan chuckled, “Heh, not likely. This thing has been completely busted since it landed here twenty years ago. The ones that come by to drop us off when we need to be replaced.”
Well, the uh…uh, the Worker Drones-we could work with them to fix-wait, you mean there are more ships?”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” he smiled. “I think the last one was a few months ago. At least, in this region. You know how it is.”
“Uh, yeah, ‘course I do.”
They fell into something that was either an awkward or a peaceful silence, Nolan couldn’t really tell.
“So, why do we do all the, you know, murdering?” She asked pointedly, quite literally in this case as she did point at him while asking. At least, he’s pretty sure she did.
“Well, besides it being our job, I just want to be useful, helpful, and always try my best.” He was positive this was some sort of evaluation now, so best to sell it by being a happy employee. “Plus, ingesting that warm, sweet oil is surprisingly nice! Oh, and the whole thing about it stopping these bodies from overheating and melting in what I assume is particularly painful way to go. Heh heh.”
“And look at all the respect it's gotten you, N,” she yelled. “You really think the company isn't going to dispose of you once all the workers are dead?”
Nolan blinked, not expecting this, “Oh, my! You sure are rebellious.” He swallowed, “It's kind of exciting.” He mentally slapped himself, he had to stay focused on not losing this job, “U-Uh, but not as fun as, uh, following the rules.”
He ended that with finger guns, trying to come off as cool and suave.
Two loud bang were heard, Nolan perked up. “Hey, they're back! You'll- U-Uh…”
She was gone, he was alone.
“Idiot, get out here!” He heard J shout for him.
Jessica was glaring at him.
“Did you actually find a way to damage company property?” She slapped him.
Nolan’s eyes went wide as that caused his malfunctioning sensor to properly reboot and his memories began to play out in front of him with greater clarity.
“Moron? Hello?” Jessica tried getting his attention, but he was too focused on realizing that person he was talking to a few minutes ago was a drone.
“Oh.”
That was unexpected in more ways than one.
“Ohhhhh!”
And then it hit him, he looked out, seeing the footprints, his vision highlighting the footprints with the words [TARGET ESCAPED] in big letters, he swallowed, “You know, I-I-I left an e-extremely dangerous weapo-uh, an excuse o-outside.”
Without waiting for their response, not noticing Veronica’s concerned gaze and Jessica’s increasingly annoyed gaze as he ran off.
“Hey! Close that door!” Cards flew to the ground from the storm that came with Uzi as the doors opened for her.
“Bite me!” She ran to the scanner, keycard already in hand and slamming it against the scanner, the doors began to obey the command and moved to close.
This was almost over, she reassured herself.
CLANG
Then the sound of metal clashing on metal pierced her microphones.
She turned her head, horror displayed plainly on her visor as she saw the claws peeking through the barely open door.
And slowly, the door began to open up more, the protesting screech of metal, something that would have had them wincing at the sound if not outright panicking, had gone ignored by all in the face of the twin glowing, yellow X’s that was staring at them from the darkness, storm, and near certain, now certain, death from beyond the bunker.
Almost as one, the WDF members and Uzi shivered in fear, the cold forgotten in the presence of the embodiment of death and destruction before them, wondering just how strong the Murder Drone was to be able to hold this much weight pressing down on him.
Then, the yellow X’s flickered out of existence, replaced by normal eye lights, “Heya, fellas.”
The eye lights flickered down at the table for a quick second before they blinked in surprise, “Is that…rummy? I love that game, I didn’t know you…wait, I have to murder everyone...rain check!”
His tail snaked through the air towards Uzi before it leapt forward, piercing the card reader.
As the doors began to open, Uzi remembered what her dad had taught her - they used electromagnetic doors to keep the Murder Drones out. Utilizing powerful magnets to force the doors to stay closed and generating a level of pressure that no drone should be able to withstand, let alone force open.
Well, at least one of those things seemed to be true…
‘But the big problem with them,’ she remembered as she felt her oil pump work overtime to keep her body temperature cool. ‘Is that once the power if cut, the magnetic field is gone and the doors just open up.’
And, as if responding to her thoughts, the doors did just that, Uzi took half a step back, wanting to run, but too scared to turn her back on him.
The Murder Drone's footsteps echoed against metal flooring, each talon twitching in anticipation of what was to come. Thick, viscous fluid dripped from between razor fangs. His tail, serrated metal that ended with a canister of nanite acid with a needle and a spray tool caught the lighting as it swept left, right, and left again. The yellow X's of his eyes flickered as they locked onto the nearest drone.
A blur of movement. Metal tore through metal.
“James!” Braxton's voice cracked. Oil sprayed across his face as James's torso slid from his legs, the two halves hitting the floor with hollow clangs three seconds apart.
“Run!” Silo, a pink haired member of the WDF, cried out, short pink hair whipped across his face as he spun, cyan eyelights wide in terror.
The Murder Drone's right hand reconfigured with a series of clicks and whirs. The barrel glinted once before flashing three times.
Thunk.
Thunk.
Thunk.
Bodies collapsed like puppets with cut strings, black oil pooling around them. The Murder Drone's arm shifted again, the gun retracted and in its place there were five razor sharp claws extended. His feet barely touched the ground as he glided forward, and the sound that followed was like scissors through wet paper.
Uzi didn't look back at the gruesome slaughter behind her, she didn’t have to, N targeted and shot a few of the people ahead of her as if to reinforce to her that people were being murdered.
She vented in panic before checking the timer on her railgun.
30 seconds left.
She kept running.
“Hey Uzi,” she glanced over at Silo as he continued. “Just in case everyone here dies, but you live, I just wanted to say-”
A laser sliced between them.
Silo let out a vent, “Wow, that almost killed me! That would have been bad - who would have taken care of-”
The sound of a gunshot went off and he fell down this time.
Uzi watched in horror as he fell over and finally looked back to see N biting into a dead worker’s neck, living up to the stereotype of a vampire if not for the gun that was aimed in her direction.
She gulped as she realized that N took that shot without even looking in this direction. She kept running away from him.
Then he looked at her, dropped the body, the X’s on his eyes flickered.
At that second, she saw that her railgun was ready to go again. She raised the weapon but he jumped into the vents before she could aim.
She took a few calming vents as she felt her oil pump still working fast.
“Where are you?” She whispered to herself, taking a few steps back towards the door leading deeper into the bunker.
Then N dropped out of the vent right in front of her, his wing sliced forward, but Uzi managed to step back just fast enough.
Uzi glared at him and N stared back, saliva and oil dripping from his mouth before his tongue captured all the oil around his mouth.
She shuddered at the sight, but it helped erase the earlier image of him when he thought she was a new teammate, of when he treated her with kindness, and cement it as a monster.
Focused on N, she said, “I won’t miss this time.”
N’s eyelights flickered, one of his eyes was an oval again, the other was an X, his shoulders sagged, “I'm sorry. I really am. I really enjoyed our time together,” he sounded despondent and curled in on himself a little. “And you…you’re different than I thought,” he tensed and stood straighter. “But I can't have you shooting V with that thing.”
“Bite me,” Uzi growled, shoving what he said away, refusing to give up any focus, to show any hesitation right now.
The door opened.
“Pretty nice hydraulics, huh?” Khan asked cheerfully before he took in the sight. “...What-what happened?” He stared at Uzi, horrified, “You…you’re alive!” Some of the tension bled out of him, not much, but enough that Uzi was able to see it.
N saw she had a moment of weakness and wasted no time; one of his wings moved fast and pierced her shoulder. As her optical sensors went temporarily offline from the pain, N grabbed the gun from her hands and tossed it aside, away from all of them.
Uzi managed to overcome her pain and looked at her father, “Dad...” Tears appeared in her visor. “Close the door…hurry!” She choked out a sob, “I…I’m not going to make it…”
Khan stared at the scene in front of him in horror, wishing this was all some bad dream.
The drone was pinned to the wall, screaming as the Sky Demon’s tail had pierced her stomach.
The purple-haired drone screamed as the acid ate at her midsection and the Sky Demon laughed its horrible laugh.
“H-Hey,” she stuttered out, defiantly. “B-Bite m-m-me-e-e!”
The Sky Demon looked away from its incapacitated prey to stare directly at Khan.
Khan gasped in fear and horror.
Old memories he tried to bury were forcing their way back up, his CPU processing them at the same time as he took in the scene in front of him.
“K-Khan,” Nori said. “R-Run! D-Don’t let them inside!”
Purple eye-lights stared right at him, scared and questioning, “D-Dad?”
Khan looked away, in pain of this happening again or not he couldn’t say.
He had to keep them safe, he had to keep everyone safe - and while it was only one right now, more would be here soon, more always came and then-
Images of what the Sky Demon would do to the others, his friends, his colleagues…Uzi…
If his body was capable of it, he would have vomited at the thought.
In one hand, her fingers sparked with a purple light, and with the other, she reached up and grabbed the end of its tail and started to pull it out of her, the monster looked back at her, its head snapping back to face her so quickly that Khan was almost surprised he didn’t hear something break.
“G-GET T-THOSE D-DAMN DOORS S-SHUT!”
Nori looked at him with pain clear on her face, desperation as she stared at him, desperately wanting him to do something.
So he did.
But not this time.
Khan pushed back the memories of Nori, as painful as it was, and focused on the present. He already let Nori die - he killed her, even if it was a mercy kill - but Uzi would not die.
Not now.
Not today.
Not to some damn Murder Drone.
And so, in an act that he never would have considered in any other state of mind, he leapt at the murder drone, latching onto him, “Get away from my daughter!”
Uzi stared, her jaw dropped at the sight, and then N leaned back, less out of being pulled away, more out of surprise that a worker jumped on him.
“Oof,” She fell down as N’s wings slid out of her shoulder, letting her fall to the ground.
And then it was over, N grabbed her dad and threw him over some crates.
“Dad!” She cried out, she forced herself to stand up and ran over to him.
“Urg,” One of Khan’s eyelights flickered on. “Uzi…are you all right?”
She stared at him, at a loss of words, not expecting him to care about her enough to do something crazy like jumping on a Murder Drone.
Then a shadow fell over them. She turned around, shaking as she stared at N. “Haven’t you killed enough of us? Do you like being a monster?”
N flinched and she blinked, not expecting that.
And they all fell silent, no one knowing what to say despite having so much both Uzi and N wanted to communicate to each other in that moment.
“Whoa, N! Am I dreaming, or did you do something not useless for once?” J’s voice sliced through the silence. N looked over to see her and V crawling along the ceiling before they dropped down, looking unexpectedly pleased at him.
He shoved Uzi down and faced them.