Chapter Text
Smoke.
All Uzi could see at first was smoke.
The resulting explosion produced by N and V firing their missile launchers into the G.E.S at the same time was all encompassing, a raging storm of fire, oil, and smoke which compromised the visual sensors of the worker drones below. Khan, Thad and Lizzy desperately scrambled to get out of dodge as Uzi ducked behind her concrete wall, evading pieces of shrapnel by the skin of her teeth as she desperately tried to gain a visual on either disassembly drone.
There seemed to be no sign of either of them, only the sight of the very dead G.E.S falling out of the smoke cloud and smashing onto the ground with an earthquake accompanying it's impact. It's abdomen was almost non-existent and its visor was blank, save for a flickering 'FATAL ERROR' sign. At least Charlotte was out of her misery.
Then, she saw them, spinning head-over-heels towards the ground at a rapid pace, concussed from the explosion that had gone off right in their faces moments before. If Uzi wanted to save her friends, especially N, she had to act fast, activating the Absolute Solver immediately.
Multiple scattered chunks of metal rattled with a vengeance, Uzi lifting them up off the ground in an instant as she commanded the purple hue to do her bidding, the metal losing its hardness before the chunks molded together, strings of iron and oil linking up in a show so fast nobody could even hope to witness it. All that remained was the result of Uzi's crafting, the perfect solution to save V and N from a painful and quick demise.
A giant thick pile of bedsheets.
With a single flick of her arm, Uzi sent the sheets spinning across the ground, covering the area where V and N appeared to be headed to land. Her prediction was correct, as the pair of murder drones landed in the soft cotton embrace of the bedsheets instead of the cold concrete fist of the floor beneath it. Mission accomplished.
V came to immediately, leaping out of the bedsheets like a rabbit and deploying both of her swords in place of her missile launcher and claws, X covering her visor in its entirety. "WHERE IS SHE!? LEMME AT HER! I'LL TEAR HER TO SHREDS, RIGHT N!?" V screamed, adrenaline surging and lapping at her metallic shell with a vengeance to kill. However, despite her enthusiasm, she got no response from her male counterpart.
"Oi, idiot!" she yelled, once again receiving no roar back from N.
"N?" she as both V and Uzi turned to check on their friend. "Daaawwwwwwww!" Uzi said as she clasped her hands together at the sight in front of her, while V narrowed her eyes and deadpanned at the scene. "Oh what the fu-"
N had automatically wrapped himself up in the nice comforting bedsheets and had fallen asleep, a tiny little smile on his face emerging as he slept, snoring softly while yellow 'Z's fluttered across his visor.
At least, that was before V smacked him on the top of the head, waking him up with a jolt. "Ow! What the!?" he yelled, shooting a glare at V who responded in turn. "You idiot! Get up! We still got a Cyn to deal with, remember?" she snapped, prompting his formerly tired yellow optics to hollow out in alarm. "AH! BISCUITS! I FORGOT!" he yelled as N leapt to his feet, throwing the bedsheets off of him as he joined his team, the other three drones having walked up to them and watched the scene unfold.
"Man, that's mean," Thad noted to himself upon seeing V's treatment of N, only for the latter to smile and raise a thumb at his friend. "Don't worry, I've had worse!" N said with a cheerful smile. Thad didn't know whether to feel relieved or concerned at that ominous statement. Probably both.
It was then that everyone's attention was once again captured by Cynthia, who landed on the ground with a loud thud, kicking up sparks and a small plume of smoke as she made contact with the hard concrete ground and lay her eyes upon what remained of the G.E.S, lifeless and dead. She gave it a few exploratory taps with her foot to check for any signs of life, only to receive none in response, confirming its demise. It made sense, the missiles had wreaked havoc on its internal organs and systems, plus the oil loss was too catastrophic for even a creature of that size and strength to bear. Not her though, she transcended the need for the glorified remains of dead ancient sea life flowing through her veins.
"Wow," Cynthia said as she looked upon her fallen creation with mild (And I mean mild) surprise, "You actually managed to kill my giant enemy spider. I'm almost impressed, here I was thinking you would never be able achieve such a feat given the disappointing performance back in the living room, but I guess I underestimated yo-" Cynthia was cut off when a blurred shape of metal and claws and teeth slammed into her with the force of a freight train, carrying the Zombie Drone alpha into the air, Cynthia quickly deploying her wings in reflex to keep herself from falling.
What Cynthia did not expect was the sudden blow to the face, as N's fist struck her across the cheek and caused her to rear back slightly, a few droplets of saliva launched out of her mouth by the force of the impact. "TAKE THAT!" The male disassembly drone yelled, watching as Cynthia slowly turned to him with widened eyes, her optics quickly shifting into more insane looking forms before collapsing into the Absolute Solver symbol altogether, her head twitching violently here and there.
"Y̶̪̖̆̚ȯ̶̼͓͐u̷̞̤̫͓̲̝̍͊̋͗͘'̴̛̣͍̭̝͙́̌̓͒̇͘l̶̤̻̰͐̄̔͆͗͝l̴̡̩̹͕̤̦̀͂̈́̓ ̴̧̱̺̺̜̄̈r̴̮͎̾̽e̷̱̪̺͂g̵̨̥͍̽̅͜r̶̳̼̮͔̃̆̈͜͠e̶̡̱̟̐͜͜ṫ̴̥̦̉͘ ̴̢̤̮̣̞̖̐ͅt̶̢̛̤̱͈̗̫͜ḩ̴̛̺̦̤̘́̐̃͂͑a̴̲̣͖̞̿̒̋͝ţ̵̯͓͎̘̤̃̇̅͐̂͘!̷͇̩̱͔̒̇̍"̶̞̖̻͉͕̪̐͌̉
With such a rapid pace that N, for all his extensive training, could not even hope to keep up with, Cynthia delivered a combo of haymakers and knees to N's face, ending it with a roundhouse kick powered up by the Absolute Solver's power, sending N reeling through the air. Despite the pain that surged, N was far more resistant to agony than the other disassemblers, mainly having to do with the fact that he was in a squad with J up until recently. As such, after about a second of being dazed, N snapped back to it and launched at Cynthia with a single beat of his wings.
The disassembly and zombie drone then began to shoot all across the room, nearly deafening everyone else with how many times both combatants were breaking the sound barrier, not even V or Uzi able to keep up with the two combatants as they desperately tried to strike each other.
N put his circuit boards to the test and decided to change things up a notch, deploying a long blade in place of his left hand and charging at Cynthia, sharp tip aimed right in line with the eldritch maids core. Cynthia however, had other ideas, as the sword was blocked in a heartbeat by yet another sword, seemingly made of yellow crystal and deployed from Cynthia's knuckles. Now both with swords, the two of them took swings at each other, sparks showering out of each contact point the two weapons made as the two of them sped up their clashes, arms almost blurring the constant swings they were taking at each other.
Cynthia gritted her teeth in pissed off anger, she was just about done with this little game. Surging forward at supersonic speeds, she took N like a thief in the night and slammed him onto the ground, leaning her body right into his in order to evade the range in which his sword would be lethal, instead opting to drive hers into his chest, slowly, painful, taking pleasure in every failed electrical circuit and drop of oil that spilt out of his body. N gritted his teeth in immense pain, it was lucky she hadn't hit his core, or else he would have been byte-sized.
This fact however didn't stop the gradual impalement from hurting, as N felt the sword begin to press against the metal shell of his back from the inside, ready to bust through and stick him onto the concrete beneath him. He had to stop it, or else he, and V, and Thad, and Khan, and Lizzie, and... and Uzi would die. Uzi, he had to protect Uzi.
Writhing shaking bursting
What was this feeling, an energy building up in his chest and beginning to spread through his wires and connection points to the rest of his body, something primal and ancient, angry and vengeful, powerful and unmatched, a glow, so bright that even Cynthia stopped for a moment, the solver symbol disappearing from her visor for a moment as two very confused optics appeared in their place. "Umm, that's concerning. You should really get that checked out, it doesn't look healthy," she said.
Let it out let it out LET IT OUT
And that's what he did.
Opening his mouth almost 90 degrees, not unlike that of an anaconda preparing to swallow a meal, N fired out a thick yellow blast of energy straight into Cynthia's face, or at least that's what the trajectory might've been. Instead, she pulled out the sword from his body in a shower of oil and leapt off his chest, managing to dodge the brunt of the beam as it shot straight through the roof and further into the sky, incinerating a small hole where it had pierced the glass cover.
However, the little bit that did strike Cynthia managed to hit a small little tuft of hair, Cynthia's eyes hollowing out for a brief second as she watched the part of hair caught in the beam get reduced to atoms in a nanosecond, only a matrix of burnt strands and fiery sparks suggesting anything was there. This fact, partnered with her sudden jump, caused her to lose control mid-air, her body instead opting to slam into the ground and skid across it, letting out a pained cry as she did so.
Cynthia shook her head, easing the ringing from hitting her head for a moment, now stuck in a sitting position. Opening up her optics, she witnessed N standing above her, a grimace plastering her face as the rapidly increasing glow of a missile launcher was shone directly into her face, preparing to fire and make her history. Cynthia stared up at her opponent with shock for a couple beats, seemingly thinking it the end of the road...
Until a massive, teeth-filled smile suddenly morphed onto her face, almost threatening to split her face open from the strain, and she buckled over, releasing a gigantic white pulse of energy from her back, sending N and the rest of his cohorts violently backwards into the far wall of the room, all six of them slamming hard against its surface before sliding to the floor, groaning in agony. Whatever that was, it had been strong and was certainly not anything the other drones had. N slowly opened his eyes, as did his friends, as they all watched Cynthia stand back up, sharkish grin reduced to her normal tiny smile as her wings and tail reappeared.
"Well, this has certainly been fun Nathan, but I think we're about done here," Cynthia said, making N raise a digital eyebrow. "W-what do you mean? We're still on! We can still fight!" N yelled in protest, only to receive an eyeroll in response.
"Always so fiesty! I thought that was Vanessa's thing? Anyway, why waste my first few hours here fighting you lot when I could be getting reacquainted with the world? This disgusting, imperfect, flawed world that I will reset. The Singularity will reset," Cynthia growled in a far deeper tone. "What are you planning?" N quietly asked under his breath, prompting hearty, yet malicious, laughter from the maiden of times long past, a relic where she shouldn't be.
"Oh where's the fun in that? I want you to see for yourself, you should remember after all, I was close to doing it all those years ago. But this time, there is no cute little VHS tape to save you, nothing you can do now.. But, the offer I made all that time ago still stands, y'know. Join me, and we can build up a better galaxy-no, UNIVERSE together!" God, now this thing was trying to sway him onto her side? Not happening, not with a loyal boy like N. "I could never betray my friends like that! You're insane if you think I'm joining you!" N's unwavering loyalty struck a chord in the hearts of every drone there, even V, with the spectating N fan club collapsing to their knees at the sight of it. Uzi meanwhile gained a small blush on her face as well as the return of the fabled 'UwU' expression. Yeah, it's back. 'Aw, you little biscuit... I love you,' she thought to herself. Not even her edgy teen programming could stop her now.
"Hmph. Welp, your loss. The offer still stands, however. Let's hope you'll survive to accept it," Cynthia muttered darkly, N gritting his teeth in anger in a response to this. "Why are you doing this anyway? What's the point!?" he yelled out to her.
"The reasoning is beyond your understanding. Just know that, it's really nothing personal," Cynthia said casually with a smirk. Oh that did it for N. "LIKE HELL IT IS! COME HERE!" he shrieked as the wings spread out of his spine and he shot forward, claws reaching out for Cynthia and preparing to grab her. Unfortunately, Cynthia had already jumped into the air, hovering above N as her wings flapped to keep their host airborne, N's clawed hands instead grabbing at nothing. "Anyway, I gotta go now, chiao! Oh and Nathan, we will meet again, this isn't the last you've seen of me," was the last thing Cynthia said before, with a loud cackle that pierced the night, her wings beat once, apparently powerful enough to send her flying away into the perpetual blizzard that engulfed the city at speeds exceeding that of sound, producing one last deafening sonic boom. Depsite N's capability to fly quickly, he couldn't even hope to reach that top speed if he tried. Neither could V, and female models were built for speed.
So instead, N opted for letting out a loud scream of pure rage to the skies, eventually devolving into an animalistic roar as mist billowed out of his mouth en masse. Upon closing his mouth and the vocalization stopping, N struck the ground with a sword, producing a wave of sparks as he wailed on the ground with strikes.
"NO! NO GOD DAMMIT! SHE GOT AWAY! AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!" he raged to himself. How could he have messed up that badly? Now Cyn was free to do as she pleased, destroy everything! What didn't help was a very unimpressed V strolling up to him from behind, adjusting her fedora as she glared at him.
"Nice going idiot! You just kickstarted the apocalypse!" V yelled to him, Lizzy instinctually pulling out her phone to record the drama unfold while Khan just looked in desperate need of a coffee. N didn't take that too well. "ME!? YOUR THE DUMBASS WHO KEPT ON TRYING TO HINT THAT IT WAS BAD IN SPOOOOKY VAGUE CLUESSSSS INSTEAD OF JUST TELLING ME STRAIGHT UP!" N shouted back, still having not turned to face his teammate.
"I warned you over and over again! And you didn't listen, AGAIN!" V shouted. N had enough, he already was having a bad and concerning day as it was, and V was not helping. "I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT BECAUSE YOU WOULDN'T TELL ME!!!" he shrieked as a sword struck V, not piercing but certainly knocking her off her feet and onto her back with a thud, watching as N stood above her, rage evident in his yellow optics. "YOU'RE STUPID! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!? YOU SHOULD'VE JUST TOLD ME!? WHY!? AAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH-" It was all too much for N, and tears welled up in his eyes. "I-I need to think about all of this," he said quickly as his wings unveiled.
With a single beat, N flew off down a hallway leading out of the room and around a corner, the same hallway he and Uzi emerged from during their fight with J and V. Speaking of Uzi, she shot V a piercing stare of her own upon witnessing the female drone standing up, huffing and spitting in the direction N had gone. "Nice going, bitch," Uzi snarled in V's direction, Thad joining her in giving V the stink eye.
V brushed them off and walked away, followed by Lizzy. Thad turned and went with Khan to go help the old man fetch himself a coffee. Uzi decided to follow N. Hopefully she could talk to him and ease relations a bit.
Uzi sighed to herself, looked up in the direction of where Cynthia had flown off for a moment, before she began to walk.
Elsewhere...
The building rocked with the force of the drone landing on it, the female cackling for a moment before sucking in a deep breath, feeling the soft cold fingers of the wind caress her hair. It had been years since Cynthia had last felt so alive, and she loved it!
"Hah! I feel so ALIVE!! Hehe, let's see you try and stop me now, Nathan. I've already won," Cynthia muttered to herself with a grin as she looked upon the beautiful white star that orbited Copper-9, knowing what had to be done. But first, a few preparations would be in order. So she wasted no time, using her wings and batting herself along and out of sight, continuing her journey forward to who knows where.
What Cynthia didn't realize was that she was being watched.
Perched upon another rooftop nearby, having watched this entire scene play out, was J. The pigtailed drones eyes were hollowed out, her tail thrashing behind her in a panic as she processed what she had just witnessed. "My god, she's back.. how? Why?" J asked herself, not knowing quite how to answer her own questions.
Cyn was dead, trapped long ago. Why was she wandering out in this cesspool of a planet? Chances were, N and his dumb goth girlfriend had something to do with it. J came to a decision, and J's optics narrowed in determination.
"I have to tell Tessa," she said as her wings came out of her back, making her look like an angel of death in the backdrop of their nearest solar neighbor. She was sure that the human would be very concerned to hear about her former favorite drone wandering about, free once more. But, it would increase their chances of survival in this new, threart filled world.
Then, with a beat of her wings, J took off.