|| Chapter 8: The Devil's Game ||
Blaring alarms started to echo throughout the entire facility, alerting everyone that there was an invasion. Uzi was speechless, heartbroken at what her father did to her - her fingers slowly let go of the blade, and her arm hung limp next to her side. Her gaze never left the closed door as her lips trembled from anger and despair. Worried, N's eyes returned to normal and frowned with sympathy. He flinched when he heard distant voices approaching them, making him panic. He looked down the hallway and spotted both of his teammates crawling on the ceiling towards him.
Without thinking, he flung Uzi to a storage crate that was on his far right side and dropped the ravenette's corpse to the floor. His wings got tucked into his shoulder blades as he folded his hands behind his back, nervously smiling. Soon, J and V landed in front of N with vicious smiles, giggling to themselves. "Am I dreaming or did you do something not useless for once?" J mocked with a scoff, walking past him with her hands on her hips. "I've been trying to get past those doors for months," V admitted with a creepy smile and winked at N, "Nice work, N."
The said drone seemed to be caught off guard when she remembered his name. "Y-You... me... name... remember?" He stuttered out, pointing to himself with a flustered expression. V ignored him and approached the vents next to him, mentioning with a wicked glint in her eyes, "These ventilation shafts can easily get us around this last door." Her gaze flickered between J and V before taunting them, "Lowest body count eats a missile!"
Her wings and claws appeared and she leapt into the vents, cackling as she started crawling through them. N awkwardly chuckled at her behaviour and glanced at J with a gulp. She was staring at the ravenette's corpse with furrowed brows, frowning in displeasure. Harshly, she flipped his corpse onto his back with her heel. Immediately, his ghostly pale face came into view; his eyes were closed while blood dripped down his lips.
His neck was bent in an awkward yet horrid manner. "Now that I got a closer look at him..." She started with a smirk and pressed the bottom of her heel against his forehead, "...He's got a pretty face."
A chuckle escaped her as she took her foot off him and turned around to face N again. "Way to go, stud," She praised him, giving his shoulder a few harsh slaps, "The company's gonna love this." She glanced at the ravenette's awkwardly bent neck, noticing the signs of strangulation on his skin. "With capturing that human and this colony wiped, we'll make top team quarter for sure," She added with a triumph expression.
"You know what that means?" She asked N, casually taking out a ballpoint pen from her pocket and clicking it as she revealed in a sing-song manner, "Branded pens~!" A sound of awe escaped N when he started imagining having branded pens from the company. With a scoff, she turned around and tossed the pen at him while moving her pigtail out of her face.
Clumsily, he caught the pen and stared at it for a few seconds. J stood under the open vents, fixing her uniform with a frown. She squatted slightly as her wings sprouted from her backside. A complicated yet hesitant glint appeared in N's eyes, frowning. N's gaze flickered from Uzi's hiding spot and the ravenette's corpse. He seemed to be contemplating whether he should do something or not - maybe it's because he felt a bit guilty.
"...Uh, you know, not that I can't wait to keep murdering all these, uh..." N nervously started with a chuckle and scratched the back of his head before making up and down hand gestures, "...haha... maybe not so actually different from us, Worker Drones..." He paused for a second, pursing his lips as he tried to decide whether it was a good idea to continue or not, "...But, just out of curiosity, so we actually... uhh... know what the company plans to do with us afterwards?"
At that moment, Uzi regained consciousness and glanced at N with surprise written across her face. Her attention landed on the ravenette's corpse, which seemed to twitch for a split second. "Excuse me...?" J sneered with a suspicious scowl, turning around with her hands on her hips as her wings retreated into her backside.
"Okay, so..." N realized that he surprised her with his sudden rebellious question and tried to explain in a hurried yet confident tone, "...A Worker earlier might have suggested that they could fix up our landing pod to... uhh..." He paused for a second, feeling a bead of sweat drip down his cheek before continuing, "...Escape the planet and stuff, which... Whoa, hey! That's against the rules!"
He lowered his gaze to the floor for a second before looking at J again, "But it is kinda making me question why our pods were only one way in the first place?" He awkwardly chuckled as he trailed off, oblivious to how J was glaring at him, "Cause you know... I get the feeling that the company doesn't actually love robots and like we might be robots..." When he noticed the furious expression on her face, he immediately added with a nervous tone, "...I made a terrible mistake."
His hands trembled slightly over his chest as he sent her a crooked smile, "It's cool how immediately I could tell." At his words, J slowly approached him in a friendly manner and swung her arm around his shoulder, forcing him to hunch over. "No way, buddy," She reassured him with a grin before a malicious smirk appeared on her face, "Questioning the company? You just finally gave me the excuse I needed." Not a second later, a choking sound escaped N and he shakily looked downwards at his chest. He spotted J's hand against it - her hand was a gun-like machine.
Slowly, she pulled the machine away, revealing a hexagon-shaped medal that read 'Virus' which was rapidly beeping. Warning signs appeared in N's irises when his systems started to get corrupted by the virus. "Worker Drones are corrupted, N," J told him with a smirk, approaching the vents as he collapsed to his knees with a groan, "That's why the company sent us."
She paused for a moment and turned around to face him, placing her hands on top of her knees as if she were talking to a misbehaved child. "I hate to see you corrupted as well," She added with a baby voice, cooing mockingly. "T-Thanks, J..." N thanked her with a permanent smile on his face, ignoring how he was dying from the virus she gave him, "A-Always-s looking o-out for-r me... Y-You're awesome..."
As he collapsed onto his back, a scoff of disbelief left her and she mockingly saluted him before leaping into the vents. Once she was gone, Uzi peeked out of her hiding spot. She flinched when the ravenette's neck suddenly cracked back into place, causing the rest of his body to twitch. She grimaced at the sight of his flesh, bones, and muscles regenerating themselves.
Suddenly, he pushed himself into a sitting position. "Hmm..." A low yet animalistic groan escaped his parted lips as his hand pushed his bloodied bangs out of his face. "Fixer?" She hesitantly called out to him, leaving her hiding spot with a frown. However, she froze in her spot when he looked at her over his shoulder - his once charcoal-coloured irises were now a bright sunset colour.
His gaze flickered over her figure, tilting his head at her with furrowed brows. He seemed uninterested in her since he looked away from her. "Urgh..." He grunted in annoyance, his eye twitching at how dry and bruised his throat felt. Cautiously, she picked her railgun up and glanced at N with slight sympathy. "A-Ah, b-biscuits," N said in a glitchy voice while lifting his hand in the air, waving it around as he apologized, "I-I'm sorry... I ruined your card game and made you have an awkward moment with your dad." Uzi rolled her eyes at him.
Before she could say anything, the ravenette's unusually cold yet thick accented voice interrupted her, "And she made you rebel like an angsty teen which got you killed." The ravenette steadily got to his feet, stretching his limbs. "...Though you also tried to kill us," Uzi added with an unnerved frown, gripping her railgun tighter, "So morality calls this a draw." She approached the storage crate and started to drag it, however, she was struggling. "Move," The ravenette's voice startled her when he was suddenly behind her, "I'll do it."
She sweatdropped as she glanced at him over her shoulder, tensing up when he loomed over her with those unusual sunset-coloured eyes of his. "Uh... okay..." She mumbled, awkwardly stepping to the side. Leisurely, he pushed the crate with one hand until it was under the vents. Her jaw hung open in astonishment and disbelief; it was now clear that this wasn't normal.
Unnerved by his weird behaviour, she climbed on top of the container and jumped a few times, attempting to reach the vents. Meanwhile, the ravenette stared at his forearm, observing how the veins under his skin glowed in a faint orange colour. "Hey..." Uzi called out to him with a frown before avoiding his curious yet blank gaze, "Never mind." He tilted his head at her before touching his abdomen, examining it with a dazed look. Uzi peeped at N's body with displeasure in her eyes.
"For the record," She started, sighing as she recalled what he said to J earlier, "That was the lamest heel-face turn in history. Was that supposed to be you switching sides?" Helplessly, N turned his head to look in her direction with his hand drooping in the air, admitting, "Being rebellious is a lot harder than it looks. Thanks for showing me the ropes." Immediately, she got flustered at his compliment and waved her hand around in dismissal, "Nah uh! No bonding thing! You just killed a bunch of people, idiot."
"That's fair," N agreed with a frown and sighed, "I screwed up." She groaned when he used the same words she said when he captured her, feeling embarrassed. "In the same way, you're about to fix it?" She asked, holding a familiar wench up in the air. Weakly, N chuckled and gave her a thumbs up as a popup message - 'I'm literally about to die' - flashed in his eyes, "I love doing anything."
Quickly, Uzi jumped off the crate and approached him. Carefully, she peered the virus off N's chest. Meanwhile, the ravenette stared at the vents above him, tilting his head with a stoic expression. Suddenly, he squatted a bit before leaping into the vents with cat-like reflexes. Uzi was startled when she heard the sudden ruckus behind her and placed her attention on the vents.
"I'm leaving first," The ravenette blurted out as he hung upside down with his head peeking out of the vent. She sent him a creeped-out expression and didn't respond to him. He raised a brow at her expression before popping back into the vent and crawling away. "Notice: User has entered 'Hibernation Mode' for the following 168 hours," A mixture of a robotic voice and his voice escaped his lips while his eyes glowed inside the dark vents.
"Protection will be required by the Absolute Ellipse XX program during this process," The voice added with narrowed eyes, "If this requirement is not met - the User will perish." Meanwhile, Uzi successfully got the virus off N and was helped into the vents by the said drone. Both of them crawled through the vents for a few minutes before they got out at a broken vent.
Uzi grimaced when she saw the gory sight of dozens of drone corpses littering the hallways and corridors. She spotted the ravenette's figure a few meters in front of them and silently gestured to N that they needed to get moving. Swiftly, both of them dashed past the ravenette, who was taking his time heading to the evacuation area - it was obvious why they were heading there.
The moment N and Uzi arrived at the evacuation area, V was about to kill a familiar drone dressed as a jock. "Hey!" Uzi yelled at her, catching her attention almost instantly. "Put that conventionally attractive male down," She demanded with a smug smirk. N cutely waved at his former team before Uzi jabbed him in the side with a glare of disbelief.
"Oh J, you're sometimes kind of meant to me and I wish you weren't," N said with a pout, staring at J and V, "Just some constructive criticism." Uzi gave him a fist bump as she mused with a proud smile, "Nice." Meanwhile, V tossed the blonde-haired drone to the side with a scowl. "Noted, traitor," J sneered with her hands on her hips, glaring at them with pure hatred, "We'll circle back after I right-size your existence!"
"Which one do you want?" Uzi impatiently asked with eyes shining in excitement, a mischievous smirk appeared on her lips. "J, please," N answered in a pleading tone. "Too bad," She retorted in a teasing tone and clicked the ballpoint pen in her hand, "Good luck~" Not even a second later, she hurled the pen towards J's head. The pen reached its target with a terrifying speed; the lights on J's headband. The moment it penetrated one of the lights, neon yellow liquid gushed from it, successfully blinding her vision. She hollered in pain and surprise, clutching her eyes as they burnt from the liquid. When Uzi realized that she was distracted, she dashed towards her.
Alas, J wouldn't allow her to approach her so easily, so, she recklessly started swinging her automatic rifle around. Uzi's eyes widened when the bullets were mere inches from touching her face. Suddenly, a familiar figure's chest entered her peripheral view. Her breath hitched when the sound of the bullets bounced off a metal surface. "Huh?!" J screeched in surprise with one eye peered open, completely flabbergasted at what she was looking at. "Fixer?" Uzi uttered out in bewilderment, staring at him with wide eyes. His sunset irises peered down at her with no signs of worry or concern - there was only boredom.
Her gaze landed on the pair of gigantic black blade-like wings that sprouted from his upper back. The wings' blades seemed to be sharper and longer than the murder drones' design. It looked rougher and unpolished since there was ink-like liquid dripping down from its joints. An extremely long stinger - which resembled a sword-whip's blade - nonchalantly flicked around behind his ankles.
Uzi got goosebumps when she spotted the demonic blade-like claws that sprouted from his knuckles. "Warning: Detecting rising levels of mutation in the thoracic and lumbar spine," He warned in that mixed voice that sounded robotic and he placed his hands on her shoulder, squeezing it tightly, "Dangerous levels of mutation will permanently affect the User's human aspects."
During all that, J harshly pulled the pen out of her head and roared, holding the pen into the air, "Damn the well-made quality assured durability of JC Jensen products!" She noticed a shadow above her and looked up, "Huh?" The shadow belonged to Uzi - who got flung at an inhumane speed by the ravenette's actions. Smirking, the purple-haired drone slammed the pen back into her eye, kicking herself off her and landing back next to her railgun with ease. They quickly ducked when a blade-like beam swung in their direction, slicing everything in half. They were caught off guard when an electric surge flooded the room, causing Uzi to malfunction. A heavy net captured the ravenette, forcing him to collapse to his knees from its weight.
Annoyed, he started to struggle and wiggle under the net, oblivious to how J approached them with a wicked grin. He only noticed her when she stood in front of him. He raised a brow when she tilted his chin upwards with her heel. He didn't even flinch when she kicked him in the face, causing his head to turn to the side. A thin trail of crimson blood dripped down his nostrils as he looked back at her, narrowing his cold eyes.
"If only you weren't a human..." She sighed with disappointment before smiling in amusement, "You would've been the perfect Disassembly Drone for the company..." She froze when something wet hit her cheek, dripping down to the floor. Her face contorted with wrath when she realized that he spat at her. He sent her a triumphant smirk, feeling proud of his act.
Furious, she grabbed the net and flung him to the opposite side of the room, completely unaware of Uzi regaining consciousness. With a huff, J kicked the railgun away and stared down at the unconscious drone with a smirk, chuckling. "You've got a lot of guts for a barely sentient toaster," J mockingly praised her as a 'villain monologue' popup message appeared in her eyes. "I've had prey fight back before..." She revealed with a chuckle, "...But your edgy spirit is just so... painful?" Her eyes widened when she felt a prickling pain in her left ankle, causing her to look down in confusion. "Aah!" She shrieked in surprise and pain when she spotted her syringe impaling her ankle. In a panic, she hopped on one leg as she tried to pull the syringe out of her ankle, cursing, "Ah, god! Fourth quarter profits! Mother of company leadership retreats!"
She tripped over the small rubble behind her on the floor, landing on her backside with a painful groan. She tensed up when Uzi loomed over her, aiming her railgun directly at her head. "One more buzzword and I'll do it," Uzi threatened with a sickly sweet smile, narrowing her sadistic eyes at her. Quickly, J glanced around in panic when the railgun started to whirl up with energy, showing that Uzi wasn't joking.
Nervously, she looked at Uzi with a crooked grin and trailed off, testing her, "Equity partnership...?" Immediately, Uzi pulled the trigger, causing a large neon-green beam of light to erupt from it. After a few seconds, the beam vanished and the railgun beeped, alerting that it was recharging again. With a scowl, Uzi spat on J's completely mutilated corpse.
"That's for saying that he should've been like you guys," She sneered in a venomous tone, stomping on her corpse as revenge. She was oblivious about N tying V up. After she was securely tied up, N quickly helped the ravenette from the net. Uzi flinched in surprise when the surviving worker drones creeped out of their hiding spots and started to cheer for her.
A small electric surge passed through her body for a second from earlier. An error message flashed through her eyes as she stumbled a bit, almost collapsing to the floor. Fortunately, N caught her and picked her up from behind, putting her on his shoulders. Next to them, the ravenette carried V like a sack of potatoes. She glared at him with furious eyes, cursing him under the tape that was over her mouth.
"Holy hell, Uzi," The blonde-haired drone - Thad - stuttered out with his jaw hanging open, "That was insane!" He looked at N to compliment him, awkwardly smiling, "And you too... uh..." Taken aback, N flinched and stuttered out with a sheepish expression, "Huh? Oh, uhh... N." He made a smug expression as he added, "I'm an angsty rebellious Disassembly Drone now."
Uncomfortably, Thad rubbed his nape with a nod and glanced past N's head. He made direct eye contact with the ravenette's cold sunset irises staring at him as if he were a mere bug. Suddenly, a familiar voice cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention, "Ahem..." V raised a brow when she felt the ravenette's grip around her body tighten and she glanced up at him.
She blinked owlishly when she saw the veins popping out of his clenched jaw as a ferocious glare appeared on his face. Curious of the reason for his sudden agitation, she glanced around until her gaze fell onto a drone stepping out from behind everyone. A path was created for Khan, who felt ashamed and heartbroken when Uzi tossed the wench to his feet.
"I brought the Murder Drones here accidentally," She admitted with a sour tone before yelling at him, "You chose to leave me for dead instead of just freaking believing in me!" Khan couldn't meet her gaze and bit his bottom lip when it trembled. "And that's not even an edgy teen hyperbole like when I said it last week," She added, pointing at him with her lips trembling ever so slightly.
Unconsciously, a sob escaped her throat and she scowled at herself. She slapped herself to keep her emotions in control. "I'll save you the trouble, Dad," She told him with a fierce glare, "I banish myself." Khan flinched at her declaration and stared at her in shock. He wasn't the only one - everyone looked at her in disbelief.
They glanced at Khan, anticipating what he would say or do after hearing that. Alas, he couldn't say a word back as a response, pursing his lips in a thin line. Uzi felt her heart squeeze at his behaviour. "Let's go, N," She sniffled, wiping her nose as she tried to hide the fact that tears were prickling her eyes. "Everyone here can bite me," She added, glaring at the rest of the colony.
Awkwardly, N turned around and greeted Khan in a friendly manner, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Uzi." Uzi smacked him against the head, firmly snapping at him, "Shut it." N and the ravenette walked a few meters before stopping in front of the entrance. N squatted slightly with his wings spread out and leapt through the ceiling, causing Uzi to grunt from how fast he was going.
The ravenette sent Khan and the colony one final glance, fixing his grip on V's body under his arm. "Fixer-" Khan called out to him, however, he got interrupted when the ravenette leapt into the air. He flew through the hole that N created. When they reached the surface, it was already dawn outside. He flew towards the corpse tower, ignoring how V was wiggling around in his grasp.
Once they were at the tower, he steadily handed on a broken street lamp. He tossed V to N when he reassured them that he would make sure that she wouldn't escape. Silently, he watched how N dashed to the tower in panic when the sun started to rise over the horizon. Meanwhile, Uzi was sitting on the hood of a car and stared at the rising sun. "I would join you two if the sun didn't kill me!" N exclaimed, peeking out from the tower's entrance, "Hope you're having important character growth or something though!" With a smirk, Uzi stood on the car hood and turned to look at N, answering him in a dark tone, "Just can't wait to murder all humans. Classic robot stuff."
She glanced at the ravenette, who was sitting in a crouching position on the streetlamp with his claws between his legs. He was observing her like a hawk, tilting his head at her. "Warning: Absolute Ellipse XX will not allow Worker Drone Uzi Doorman to harm User," He warned her with a crackling voice as his eyes glitched into '⪤' shapes for a split second. "I hope they're sitting pretty there on earth because we're coming for them," She scoffed at him, shoving her hands into her pockets. Intrigued by her, the ravenette's stinger whipped around in a cat-like manner. He noticed that her purple eyes flickered into a golden colour for a quick second.