Chapter Text
It had been a couple of days since K moved into the worker drone bunker, and he was getting accustomed to living in an actual house instead of spending half of his time hunting and the other half resting in a tiny, cramped pod. Aurora had told him that they'd be leaving today, so he was going to spend these last few hours in his new home with the few friends he'd actually made, the small group of worker drones who hadn't been afraid of him gutting them at the slightest hint of irritation.
Such ideas were quickly shut down, however, by a knocking at his door followed by the voice of the one who saved him from a much crueler life.
"K, we gotta go, you ready?" Aurora asked from the other side of the door.
"This early?" K said without checking his internal clock.
Aurora paused for a second before realizing that her new companion was a bit of a dumbass. "It's almost midnight, we've wasted enough time."
"Wait what?" Came the response, shortly followed by a gasp after K saw what time it was.
K stumbled out of bed and hastily put on his T-shirt and zipper hoodie, not wanting to make the woman who'd practically handed his ass to him wait around any longer. He walked to the door and opened it with his hair clearly ruffled from lying in bed, Aurora taking notice but not mentioning it. She motioned for him to follow and he complied as they walked through the hallway, stepping over a worker drone that was just lying down on the floor for seemingly no reason. They continued throughout the bunker, doing one last oil refill before their departure. Aurora quickly checked up on Callum and the prototype, finding out that it was still nowhere close to being finished and he still didn't want her going out without it. She surprisingly shrugged off his concerns for her wellbeing and returned to K, who was patiently waiting at the entrance after fixing his hair.
"You ready?" K asked while lifting up a small satchel containing a few bottles of oil.
"Yeah, i'm good to go." Aurora replied as she walked to the door and looked at the guard leaning against the wall.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the keycard, calmly putting it up to the reader and opening the door. The freezing wind blew into the bunker, making the three drones' hair and clothes flow with it for a moment as two of them stepped outside. They looked around for a bit before deploying their wings and flying off to the east of the bunker in search for anyone in need within Sector-3.
<+++>
The teacher's office in Outpost 3 was certainly nothing to look at. The students' random scribbles along with pretentiously positive messages that were all but common knowledge had been placed over the various blackboards covering the walls, not to mention the posters of Khan Doorman, the famous inventor of modern door technology. A row of six chairs had been placed up against the wall, one of which was being occupied by Uzi Doorman, currently in detention for blowing up half of her classroom due to her prototype 'sick-as-hell railgun' malfunctioning. She sat there in silence for a short while before hearing a pair of footsteps and some mumbling, to which she lifted her head to look into the hallway and silently groaned upon seeing that it was none other than Lizzy at the doorstep, the one classmate she hated most out of all of them. Behind her, leaning on the wall was someone else, and though Uzi couldn't quite make out who it was from the little bit she saw, she could make a pretty good guess that it was Doll, Lizzy's self-proclaimed bestie.
"Eww, it didn't kill her." Lizzy spoke in that infuriating popular girl accent, prompting Doll to chuckle from behind her.
Uzi took in a breath before speaking up. "What do you want?"
"I'm bored, and since Doll here is busy being all mysterious about some other colony she found, I thought I'd spend some time picking on you." She replied.
"Whatever, just get it over with." Uzi said in the most nonchalant way she could muster.
Lizzy paused for a second before speaking. "...Oh come on, at least give me something to work with."
Uzi had already grown tired of talking to her, but kept going in the hopes that Lizzy would just give up eventually. "Do you think I want to be bullied?"
Lizzy rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to say something snarky before she noticed Thad walking into the room while saying something about toxic masculinity to one of his friends in the hallway. He briefly motions finger guns at Lizzy and Doll before noticing Uzi in the office.
"Oh wow, Uzi? I heard you, uh..." He started while walking to the room and sitting a chair away from Uzi.
Uzi quickly interrupted. "Blew up a classroom? Yeah, bite me. Also, how do you know my name? People willingly talk to you."
"Why are you even trying to talk to her, Thad?" Lizzy chimed in.
"Why wouldn't I?" Thad responded simply, prompting Lizzy to sigh. "Anyway, I'd say everyone knows Khan's daughter, but then you might blow the other half of your face off."
As the two kept talking, Lizzy stood at the doorway observing the conversation with nothing better to do. She mostly focused on Thad because Uzi's just a weirdo, but even with her divided attention she noticed something odd. Uzi hadn't completely weirded her out throughout the conversation. I mean, she was still waving her 'railgun' around and shoving it in people's faces while muttering something about saving the world, but Lizzy hadn't felt compelled to get as far away from her as possible. That usually happens within seconds whenever Uzi opens her mouth.
"No more feedback on my repression today!" Uzi shouted at the mention of her dad and his doors while pointing the 'railgun' directly at Thad's face.
"Ah, there it is." Lizzy thought as the unmistakeable feeling of keeping her distance from that freak crept in.
Uzi quickly got up off of the chair with no regard for the fact that her detention was far from over and stormed away, Lizzy stepping aside so as to not accidentally make physical contact with her. Uzi popped her head back into the room for a moment to clarify that she was not mad at Thad and was "just generally hormonal", before giving a thumbs up and actually walking away this time, not forgetting to give the two girls at the entrance particularly mean glances as she left their proximity.
"Seriously though, what do you have against Uzi?" Thad spoke up after a moment of silence.
"Are you kidding me? She's a complete freak." Lizzy replied, walking away from the doorstep and closer to Thad.
"Whaaaat? She's not that bad."
"She literally shoved a gun in your face because you brought up how useless her attempts at 'saving the world' are. Which are totally gonna get her killed, by the way."
"Come on, Lizzy, she's just working towards her dreams and I think that's pre-"
Crunch
The two drones stop their arguing to look over at the hallway where the ominous sound came from, only to find nothing out of the ordinary. It was just Doll in the hallway, still leaning against the wall. Lizzy seemingly didn't notice anything, but Thad could've sworn he saw her put away a small photograph or something. Lizzy slowly turns back to Thad, who looks even more confused than she is. They stare at each other for a second before continuing to debate about the weirdness of their classmate.
<+++>
Aurora and K had ceased their flight only minutes after it began, the snowstorm being too harsh even for them and their metallic wings. Walking was much slower, but at least they weren't crashing into buildings and struggling to stay in the air. It was peaceful, if you ignored the fact that they could barely hear each other over the harsh winds of Copper-9. Their walk through the snowy wasteland continued until K caught a glimpse of yellow atop a roof as the storm cleared up.
"Hey, we've got company." K tried to say quietly enough so the unknown DD wouldn't notice them.
Aurora looked up at where her teammate was pointing and crouched down. The two of them took a quick sip of oil from their bottles before following the figure who leaped off of the roof and darted away, having chosen its destination. The chase continued for a while, the DD flying high up in the sky while Aurora and K passed through buildings and under various other infrastructure to stay out of sight in case it looked back at any point. Eventually, though, the storm kicked back up and forced them to land, the two losing sight of their target.
"Damn it, where'd it go?" Aurora exclaimed.
K's eye twitched slightly at her calling his brethren an 'it' but didn't mention it. "They were heading north, let's just keep going that way and we'll probably find their spire."
"Spire?"
"Oh, right, each squad was ordered to build a spire out of worker drone corpses around our pods. Really morbid stuff, in hindsight." K explained with a somewhat nervous chuckle at the end.
Aurora processed the information for a moment. "Why would they make you do that? To incite fear or something? Surely there'd be better material if it was for defensive purposes."
"No idea, but we should probably keep moving before that DD gets too far away." K pointed out.
"You're right, we should get going. North, right?"
After a quick nod from K, the two continued on their journey, this time sprinting through the snow to catch up.
<+++>
Uzi woke up from her alarm after a short nap, smacking herself in the visor to turn it off. She looked around at the incredibly messy state of her room before picking up her 'railgun', almost dropping it on the floor while trying to look cool and fixing her clothes as she got up off her bed. She sneaked over to her dad's room, pushed the door open ever so slightly and yoinked the door master keycard that was hanging next to the entrance before walking off to sneak outside.
Her stroll through the bunker was rather calm. Most of the colony had gone to sleep mode, and the ones who were still out of their rooms were either guards or too stoned to even notice Uzi. She made her way to the three giant doors that protect the bunker from the outside, the fans in the ceiling creating a quiet whirring sound in the otherwise silent hallway. As she walked up to the console that operated Door 3 and held the keycard up against the reader, she began to wonder where her father was. He didn't seem to be in his room and he was nowhere to be seen on the way to the entrance, couple that with his infatuation with doors and the only place he could be is...
Before she could finish that thought, the door sprung open revealing none other than Khan Doorman right behind it, with his signature Model 2900 Luger at his belt.
"Oh, robo-Jesus!" She exclaimed.
Khan looked at her for a moment with a hint of disappointment at his daughter's attempt to sneak out. "And where might you be off to?"
"Mm, sneaking out to make out with my boyfriend that I definetely have?" Uzi's quickly thought-up excuse echoed.
He laughs for a moment at the idea before going back to his previous demeanor. "Seriously, though."
Uzi thought up a different excuse, one that her dad would more easily believe. Exterior hydraulics of Door 1... for a school project. It might not have worked on a regular person, but Khan's obsession with doors would get him ecstatic at just the thought of his daughter sharing the same passion. And he took the bait without question, even giving her his old wrench. After his dad gave her the go-to, Uzi walked by the table of WDF workers playing cards and out through the now-opened Door 1, beginning her trip through the freezing wasteland of Copper-9.
The moonlight illuminated the frozen and torn city, making the snow glisten lightly as the small drone trudged through it. Uzi had left just after the storm calmed down, and was silently praying that it didn't kick back up. She walked in the direction she remembered the Murder Drones' lair being before stopping at the sound of a crack beneath her foot. She lifted her leg and looked down to see a head and a hand sticking out of the snow in a small pool of oil. Her eyes turned hollow as she gazed up towards the moon, noticing the silhouette of a spire of mutilated corpses that bent left and right as it climbed higher and higher beyond the rooftops. Uzi started to reconsider her plan, but steeled her nerves and continued into the metaphorical lion's den.
The inside of the spire was littered with all kinds of scraps. Tires, springs, screws and metal sheets of all shapes and sizes had been left on the ground to gather rust, no longer being of any use to the planet's inhabitants. In the middle of all the miscellaneous mechanical pieces was a pod with four spider-like legs, sitting idly in the snow. Uzi began digging through the piles of scrap, looking for the power cell she needed to complete her 'railgun'. After a few minutes of searching, she noticed a faint green glow underneath a dismembered arm. She walked over to it and carefully moved the arm out of the way so as to not disrespect the poor drone's corpse any more than it already had been, and uncovered the last missing piece of her ultimate weapon.
While inspecting the power cell's condition, however, she heard the rattling of something crawling along the spire's walls.
A Murder Drone.
Uzi scurried away from the open, hiding behind a large engine right before the DD launched itself from the entrance to the pod in the blink of an eye. Its wings spread out as the circular lights on them glowed like a giant pair of eyes and its nanite acid tail lashed around, seemingly ready to strike at any moment. It reached into the pod, pulling out a dismembered head with its claws and draining it of its leftover oil before crushing it effortlessly and tossing it away. Uzi picked up a shard of glass and watched it from the reflection, unsure of how to escape. She looked at the power cell with doubt in her eyes. Could she kill it now? What if she missed? She probably wouldn't be able to outrun it until the 'railgun' recharged. Her train of thought was cut off by another look at the glass shard, reflecting the bright light of the DD's crossed out visor directed right at her.
Uzi jumped out of cover as the mechanical beast leaped into the air. She backed away while grabbing her 'railgun' off her back and replacing the power cell before looking around to find the DD nowhere to be seen. She questioned what she had witnessed, only for the DD to land in front of her with a thud, cracking the ground beneath it, knocking Uzi backwards and the 'railgun' out of her hands with a shockwave. Using reflexes from pirating hundreds of anime, she backflipped mid-air and stuck the landing, striking a combat pose. She looked somewhat surprised at her own agility before diving behind a sheet of metal, barely dodging the volley of bullets flying her way from the DD's SMG. She frantically looked around for anything that could help her as the winged menace switched its hands and began slowly walking towards her, each footstep becoming ever so slightly louder than the last as it brandished its claws in anticipation for any pathetic attempt at fighting back. Uzi saw the 'railgun' just out of reach, unsure if she could make it in time, but it seemed like that was her only hope. She picked up a dismembered arm before throwing it at the DD and lunging for her savior. It caught the arm in its mouth and chewed a piece of it off as Uzi picked up the 'railgun' and aimed it at the DD, it not recognizing the imminent danger staring it in the face. The DD whipped its tail towards Uzi, stabbing her left hand and making her hiss in pain.
"Bite me!" Uzi shouted through gritted teeth as she pulled the trigger, the 'railgun' whirring before using up all of its power with a direct hit to the DD's head, vaporizing it in an instant and putting the 'railgun' out of commission for a while.
Uzi stared blankly at the DD body as it flopped to the ground, not expecting the blast to be that destructive even as the weapon's creator. She snapped out of her shock after a moment, getting to celebrate her victory for a few seconds before the would-be dead DD rose to its feet as its head regenerated. Uzi looked up in disbelief, beginning to panic again as her only means of actually harming it was now on cooldown. She scrambled to her feet and went for the exit, trying to get out of sight before the DD rebooted. Right before she reached the opening in the spire of corpses, however, the dim moonlight was cut off by a pair of wings and a slender yet terrifying figure landing in front of her and staring down at her with... normal worker drone eyes?
"Uhh, have we met before? Sorry, it's just my head... kinda hurts." He spoke.
Uzi looked back at where the DD was just to confirm that this was the same drone before speaking up. "Holy crap, it talks."
"Oh, are you new to our squad? You're a little... short, for a Disassembly Drone..." He said as he squinted his eyes, almost like he was trying to see better. He suddenly sprung up and saluted as he continued, introducing himself as Serial Designation N and saying something about not remembering the past few hours of his life.
<+++>
(Ok i'm getting tired of copying the show's whole flow word-for-word, bar-for-bar and i can't think of any good way to change this scene so just imagine the scene from ep 1 where they go into the pod up until the moment N starts talking about V and J. Also in general sorry this has just been a lot of ep 1, i really can't think of many things to change about the earlier portions but i can't exactly just skip over it all, anyway back to this mess :P)
<+++>
Oil splattered over the otherwise clean snow as a bisected worker drone body joined the small pile, its final pleas for mercy drowned out by the eerie giggling of a DD slightly smaller than N in stature. The last remaining worker merely stared in terror as her companions were all sliced apart in a matter of seconds, unable to speak or run as she knew it was no use. She dropped to her knees, artificial tears swelling in her eyes as she accepted her fate. A downwards swipe of the DD's arm was all it took for the blade to cut clean through the poor worker's body, splitting it in two. The giggling continued until after the DD had drained enough oil from the corpses to fill up her reserves.
N scratched the back of his head as he watched his coworker do her job with efficiency he couldn't hope to pull off himself. "So, V, I hear this planet-wide toxic death storm is supposed to be especially inhospitable tonight." He spoke, trying to start up a conversation.
"Huh?" V simply replied.
"I was just thinking, since J would want us back at the pod soon anyway, we could maybe... fly back together?"
"No thanks." V said monotonely as she sat down on a rock to look at the clearly-visible stars in the night sky, a somewhat rare occurrence with the constant storms of Copper-9 blocking the view.
N's face drooped at the rejection, though he was somewhat used to it. "Oh, okay... see you at the pod, then."
"Bye."
As N flew away, V kept staring off into outer space, somewhere far, far away from Copper-9.
<+++>
"Yeah, I don't think she likes me very much, but secretly... I actually kinda have a crush on her- you can't tell her, okay?" N tried to play it off as a joke, but the hollow eyes and sweat drop gave away his true thoughts.
Uzi sat in silence after hearing about N's callous and psychopathic coworker, it just felt like there was something strange about that story. Regardless, she made a zipping motion on her mouth to signify to N that his secret was safe.
<+++>
The oil-stained snow crunched underneath the two drones' feet as they kept running, the storm still too intense to use their wings. Eventually, Aurora spotted the massive spire of corpses they'd been searching for and ran ahead at full speed, leaving K behind. She ignored the snow blowing into her visor and kept moving, jumping over piles of scrap and broken-down infrastructure. She hopped on top of a car and used it to boost herself even higher, partially curling up in the air to lessen the effects of the wind as she analyzed what was going on. A shorter-than-average worker drone was running away from the spire with what looked to be some kind of rifle in her arms, with a DD preparing to lunge at them from the entrance of the spire. Aurora readjusted her flight path to intercept the attack, launching herself forward to protect the worker's back as the DD dashed for his target. She reached the worker drone just in time to swat away the blade aimed at her head, starting the battle off at close range. The worker drone looked back in confusion but kept running for her life.
Aurora started off with a two-kick combo to N's side and head, the second one being too fast to block after the whiplash from the first. She followed up with a punch to the chest that sent N sliding backwards as he swapped one of his hands and fired a missile at her. She hopped over the missile with a front flip and was about to follow up with another punch, but had to back away by pushing off of the ground with one of her wings, twirling away as N tried to slice her leg off with a laser cutter. He kept up the pressure with a hail of bullets that made her back up further to dodge around them, giving him some confidence in the fight's outcome as the storm cleared. That confidence disappeared quickly, however, as Aurora threw a decent-sized piece of a wall at N, forcing him to blow it up with a missile. The smoke from the explosion was all Aurora needed as she charged in through it with a flying kick, crashing into N and dragging him across the ground. Aurora was about to keep attacking, but upon getting a good look at her opponent for the first time, something within her refused. She stared at him in confusion, the memory files of an innocent little butler popping up in her head.
"...N?" She asked in disbelief.
He recovered from the kick and looked up at her. "Uh... sorry, do I know you?"
Before Aurora could speak again, a bullet hit her square in the head from behind as a second DD swooped in and sliced her head off in one clean motion.
V licked the oil off of her claws and inspected the unconscious DD-like body before turning to N. "So... what is this?"
"...No idea, she just attacked me out of nowhere when I was about to catch that worker." He responded. "Speaking of which, we should keep tailing her- I mean it. It might lead us to their bunker."
"And who exactly was it that let that toaster go in the first place?" A third murder bot entered the conversation from the spire's direction.
A few digital sweat droplets ran down N's face as J walked up to the two of them. "J, I know that was my fault, b-but I can fix it now if you let me-"
"Just don't disappoint me again." J spoke with a hint of a multitude of negative emotions before N bolted away to catch up to Uzi.
"So, what do we do about her?" V asked while poking the still headless body of Aurora.
A barrage of missiles from above suddenly surrounded them, creating a large enough smokescreen for K to swoop by and grab Aurora's body before the two DDs can attack him. He flew out of sight and further away to give her time to regenerate and to formulate some kind of plan to fight 3 DDs at once while protecting however many workers are inside the bunker.
<+++>
Uzi ran as fast as her tiny legs would allow, almost tripping over at one point but using her 'railgun' as a crutch to steady herself for a moment. She looked back and saw nothing chasing her, but it barely did anything to ease her mind. She'd seen those things up close and even briefly fought one, but the dread of knowing she was their target ceased to escape her mind. Those razor-sharp fangs and the glooming X on their visors that she had been taught since her first years of existence to view as a sign of certain death couldn't be forgotten so easily. Eventually, she reached the bunker doors and hastily opened them with the keycard, blasting the WDF employees playing cards inside with the cold winds of Copper-9. Uzi ignored the complaints of the workers and accidentally smacked the reader inside with the card, earning a petty comment from the semi-sentient door system. As the doors finally started closing, Uzi closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief despite not needing to breathe. Those same eyes snapped open in an instant, though, as she heard the distinct sound of metal bending and breaking.
She turned around to see two clawed hands in the opening between the doors holding them in place and that signature bright yellow X staring directly at her. Fear enveloped her and the WDF workers' minds as N began slowly lifting the upper door while pushing down on the lower one. She tried to get the doors to shut with the keycard but they wouldn't budge, the situation only made worse by the nanite stinger that whipped from behind N and into the keycard in the blink of an eye, piercing through it and breaking the reader as well. With nothing to defend herself with, Uzi picked the safer option of running away while the workers were still paralyzed in fear. She tried to ignore the agonizing screams behind her as the DD she had almost began to like having around leaped into the outpost and began cutting down her father's colleagues. Oil splattered across the walls as the workers were put out of their misery one by one. Uzi checked her 'railgun' to see that it had just finished recharging, giving her enough confidence to turn around and face... nothing? All she saw were the mutilated corpses of the WDF employees spread out across the hallway.
"Pretty nice hydraulics, hu-" Khan's voice echoed before he continued upon seeing the remains of his coworkers behind Uzi. "Uzi, w-what happened here?"
"No time dad, just get ou-"
N bursted through the vents and inbetween the two, creating a shockwave as he landed. Khan was knocked off his feet, but Uzi braced herself ahead of time and took aim.
"This time I won't miss." She said proudly.
N turned around to face Uzi, one of his eyes an X but the other normal. "I'm sorry, I really enjoyed our time together, but I can't let you shoot V with that thing."
"Uzi, you... you led a Murder Drone here?" Khan spoke, his voice shaking at every word as he slowly got up.
"I know I messed up, but I can fix it! Move, dad!"
But he wouldn't.
Before Uzi could properly react, one of the blades from N's wing extended out as he jabbed it into her chest, just barely missing her core. The sheer force of the attack pinned Uzi to the wall as she coughed up oil before throwing her 'railgun' towards Khan.
"Dad, point and shoot, trust me!" She yelled out with clear strain.
But he couldn't.
Images of his wife being slaughtered filled his processors, and all he could think about was running away, just as he did back then. He didn't have the strength to even reach for his own gun, not that it would be of any use with how shaky his hands were. To Uzi's dismay, Khan took a step back, then another. He gazed down, unable to look at his daughter as he was about to break every promise he had made to Nori about their child. Remote in hand, he shamefully pressed down on one of the buttons, shutting the last door and effectively leaving Uzi for dead. Her arm fell down from the blade lodged into her chest as the room lit up with red alert lights, all attempts at resisting long gone. N couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards her. To have your own parent run away instead of at least trying to defend you must feel like the ultimate betrayal of trust.
"Woah, N?" The usually harsh voice of J came off much nicer as N tossed Uzi behind some boxes, knocking her unconscious and retracting his wings. "Am I dreaming or did you do something not useless for once?"
"Nice work, N." V said casually, prompting N to try to hide the slight blush appearing on his face. "These vents can easily get us around this last door." She continued before waving to her coworkers and jumping into the vents.
<+++>
A tap on Aurora's regenerated visor woke her up to see K crouching over her. "You alright?" He asked.
She replied while getting up. "Ugh... yeah, my head just hurts a little. What happened exactly? Last thing I remember is I was fighting a DD."
He took a sip of oil before responding. "Well, you **were** winning pretty handily against that one, but then two others showed up, you got sneak attacked and I managed to get you outta there. So, how do we take care of 3 DDs at once?"
"Hmm... normally, I'd try to separate them and deal with them one-by-one, but they've most likely reached the bunker that worker was headed for by now, so that's not gonna work..." Aurora took her turn to fill up on oil.
"Speaking of that kid, she had a really big gun of some sort, right? You think that could be useful?"
"Could be, that gun's probably why she was still alive when we stepped in... urgh, we should just get a move on. Who cares about plans, there are lives on the line here!"
"It's better if at least we make it out of this, odds are most of that bunker's reside-"
Before K could finish his sentence, Aurora spread her wings and dashed full speed for Outpost 3.
"Oh goddammit." He muttered before following suit.
<+++>
Uzi woke up to an empty hallway, all three DDs having crawled through the vents and began their massacre. She shook her head, and, after noticing the distinct lack of pain, felt around her chest for the stab wound but found only a tear in her hoodie where the blade had pierced her. Odd, but far from her first priority. She walked towards the middle of the room to pick up her 'railgun', but was interrupted by another DD picking it up and holding it out. In surprise, she lashed out at the newcomer with a high kick, who deflected it and lightly pushed her leg down. Looking closer, however, she noticed some differences from a regular DD, such as the darker hair and orange eyes.
"Easy, we're not here to hurt you. I'm K." He tried to calm the angsty teen from slightly behind Aurora. "Sorry about that, she's more of a... proactive kind." The sly insult earned him a smack to the arm, which he shrugged off with a slight grin.
"I'm Aurora, and yeah, sorry about that. I didn't mean to scare you." She said while handing over the 'railgun'.
"W-What do you mean you're not here to hurt me? You're DDs, aren't you?" Uzi questioned.
K explained. "It's a bit of a long story, but the important part is we're here to help."
"First, though, what's with that gun?" Aurora asked.
"Oh, you mean my sick-as-hell railgun!? Yeah, it can blast straight through a DD if I can line up the shot right. I'm Uzi, by the way."
"Sounds useful. We'll take you with us, but stay at a distance. Just wait until one of us gives you a good shot." K said.
"Ugh, fine, I get it, I'm just a weak little worker drone who can't fight for herself."
"That's... not what I said, but okay then. Ready?"
After both companions affirmed, K and Aurora spread their wings in preparation, the latter picking Uzi up so she could follow them into the vents.
<+++>
At the same time, outside a different bunker, security cameras picked up flashes of red before the feed was cut out following a cracking sound.
<+++>
"DOLL! Where are you!?" Thad yelled down the hallways. He had run off towards the entrance after agreeing with Lizzy to search for Doll when the alarm sounded, who had gone the opposite way. He kept checking every room on the way until the screams of his worker drone colleagues led him to a warehouse where some WDF members had grouped together, hoping that they'd be able to do something when the DDs arrived. They were proven terribly wrong by the fact that none of them were able to fight back as soon as they stared into the bright yellow Xs of the three menaces, including the head of the WDF, Khan Doorman. They just stood back in horror and watched as their friends were butchered one by one, the two shorter DDs deciding to see if N's hunting skills had improved at all. V had initially wanted to participate, but J had stopped her from intervening, saying it was a good chance to test N.
Thad picked up a pipe off of the ground and stepped up to fight back, giving V and J a small laugh. They weren't entirely unjustified in their mockery, seeing as DDs were much tougher than worker drones apart from their second set of eyes. Regardless, Thad ran up to N and desperately swung the pipe, creating a loud clang against the taller drone's face as his head merely tilted sideways in response. N looked down upon the brave worker with slight pity before kicking him to the ground and swapping his hand for an SMG, aiming directly for the head. But, thanks to his recent experience with a worker drone showing that they weren't so different from him or his coworkers, he hesitated to pull the trigger.
"What's the matter?" J questioned after seeing N not do his job for several seconds.
N looked towards J before turning his gaze back to Thad's fearful eyes as he slowly began standing up. "N-Nothing, it's just..."
V suddenly dropped down from the ceiling inbetween Thad and N, slashing the former across the chest and sending him tumbling on the floor. "You were taking too long."
"Sorry..." N looked down at his feet.
A missile just barely flying past the two interrupted whatever V was about to say as they, along with J, turned to see where it came from. Standing in the hallway were three drones, the two that had attacked them earlier and the small worker drone N had been chasing. J expressed some disappointment at seeing the purple-haired teen alive and well, just another showing of N's incompetence.
"You again? I should've just aimed for the core." V remarked.
"Let's see how well you do without any sneak attacks." Aurora taunted while taking up a defensive stance.
"So I'm supposed to take on both of the other two?" K whispered to Aurora with a hint of worry in his voice.
Aurora patted him on the back while replying. "Come on, you got this. Just get one of them in a good position for Uzi and you'll be fine." She walked a small distance away from the other two
Uzi tried to look cool next to the two, but there's naturally some difficulty in that when you're half the size of your teammates. Something on the floor caught her eye, and she picked it up before going back to being an angsty teen.
"Alright, moron bot, looks like you've got one more chance to prove yourself. Just finish off that worker drone while I take care of the traitor from another squad." J planned.
K took one final sip of oil before the bottle emptied, then threw it towards J. He quickly closed the distance behind the bottle and swung a blade upwards at J, who blocked it with her own but ended up launched into the air by the force of the blow. K spun around and went for a kick to N's face that had similar results, showing that he was going to fight the both of them instead of letting Uzi be any of their target. He dashed into the air at his two opponents who met him midway, clashing blades as Uzi watched intently for the right moment.
V rushed towards Aurora at a speed that she almost couldn't react to, swiping her blades at the neck, chest and limbs of her opponent. Aurora tried to dodge and duck under each swing, taking a few shallow cuts from the barrage. Eventually, she saw an opening and kicked V's ankle, knocking her off-balance and giving Aurora the opportunity to uppercut her and continue the combo. She flipped off of the ground and went for a double kick to her opponent's chest, but V dodged to the side with the help of her wings and grabbed onto Aurora's legs, swinging her around before throwing her into the ground. Aurora rolled off of the ground before V could stomp on her and sweeped her legs, then grabbed her by the head and slammed her into the floor.
"Why are you three doing all this!? What happened to you, V?" Aurora revealed her familiarity with them.
She seemed speechless for a moment before responding. "What the hell are you talking about!?"
V kicked Aurora off of her and grabbed her by the arm, throwing her away before swapping her hand and firing a missile at Aurora. In response, she flew around the missile and dived at V with a kick, backflipping off of her hands after being blocked and narrowly dodging her slashes.
K's fighting style was a bit more defensive in comparison, focusing on keeping one of his opponents at a distance at all times as he couldn't keep up with both in close combat for long. His plan was essentially to stall until one of them left a big enough opening for Uzi to take advantage of, after which he could deal with the one that was left. This proved to be a little more difficult that he'd hoped, though, as Uzi could just barely keep up with the fight (which, credit where credit is due, was impressive for a worker) and K could barely catch a break between the two DDs' relentless attacks. N had been the easier target by far, whether that was because of his general lack of skill or some other factor was unclear.
K backflipped over a slash from J while dodging N's laser, then kicked down at J and sent her flying into the ground. He followed her down, aiming to cut her in half before N forced him to duck under a kick and start deflecting his attacks while backing away as J recovered. K parried the swings as N went for a low slice, only for his opponent to roll over him and send him away with a heel kick. J rejoined the fight and traded attacks with K until N came back, aiming at K's head while J went for his legs. K jumped slightly off of the ground and twisted in the air, intercepting both of their attacks with his claws.
"Really got my work cut out for me here, huh?" K said playfully while he had a chance to breathe.
"Why are you even fighting us!? What's got you so intent on protecting these... toasters?" J decided to keep the conversation going while she could.
"Well, to be frank, they and Aurora are much better company than my squad was. Plus, she's really passionate about this, so I might as well help."
"They don't have emotions! They're just pre-programmed personalities with the IQ of a hamster!"
By this point, Lizzy had completed her search of the other side of the outpost and rushed back over to Thad. She helped him up, putting his arm around her shoulder and steadily rising up before beginning to walk off to the emergency room, being careful with her steps so as to not risk the wound getting any worse.
As they kept talking, N started feeling more and more uneasy about J insulting the workers. Clearly there are things going on they don't know much about, so why is she acting so high and mighty? All they were told by the company was to kill as many workers as possible and that they had gone rogue and corrupt and they weren't even sentient, but what he had seen just today from a couple of drones was challenging those views. If they really are nothing but rogue AI, how did they get not just one but two DDs to protect them? If they're corrupted, why are they just living seemingly normal lives? If they aren't even sentient, how were these couple of workers he only had a few interactions with so... human? This whole thing seemed like a massive waste of resources, now that N thought about it from the company's perspecti-
His train of thought was cut off by K adjusting his grip on the two's blades and tossing them away before either of them could try anything.
"Just try to keep up this time and he's good as dead." J spoke with irritation while preparing to charge back in.
N stood still while J took the first few steps before stopping to look back at her teammate.
"What? Come on, be useful for once." She reprimanded.
He looked back at Uzi, then at his teammate and his opponent. But which of them was the teammate and which the opponent?
J's irritation only grew at N's continued refusal to say anything. She thought for a moment before turning her hand into an SMG and firing a shot at Uzi, which only ricocheted right past her from N's now-extended sword. Before she could get another word out, the same bullet ricocheted again from K's blade this time, not going through her due to the lost momentum but still causing some damage to her back.
"After everything I did to keep us safe..." J looked up at N with disappointment. "...well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You always were-"
K had heard enough of J's voice and took the opportunity to attack her. She barely managed to turn around and block his overhead swing in time, but her guard was easily broken by a knee followed up by a slash across her chest and a kick that sent her flying right to Uzi's feet.
"Good enough of an opening for you?" K said somewhat mockingly.
Uzi stepped onto J's stomach and pointed the 'railgun' at her. "Oh, shut up."
"Well, I tried..." J said her final words before Uzi pulled the trigger and caused half of the bunker to shake from the impact as a bright green flash illuminated the entire room.
"Holy..." K couldn't say any other words to describe the sheer power of Uzi's 'railgun'.
Both V and Aurora were caught off-guard by the blast, stopping their fight momentarily. But while V was still in slight shock from seeing the lack of upper half on her coworker, Aurora snapped out of it and took her chance to deliver an axe kick right to V's head, crashing her into the ground and knocking her out. Aurora looked back at the other squad to make sure everything was okay, and after being a little confused at N just standing there alongside the two, tied V up with her own tail.
"Yeah, I kinda realized that we might've been the bad guys here, sorry about that." N broke the silence.
"It's fiiine, we've already got a former mass murderer on our team and Uzi's probably killed someone before too." Aurora teased.
"Have not! Though I'd certainly like to sometimes..." Came Uzi's response, receiving a quiet chuckle or two.
The group walks closer together as they continue their banter before being interrupted by someone clearing his throat. The gathering of WDF workers and Thad moved aside so Khan could be in clear view.
"U-Uzi, I..."
(This would just be me reciting the show word for word again so we're gonna skip ahead to when they're outside)
"You really think it was necessary to banish yourself?" Aurora asked.
"I've teamed up with the things that have murdered my people in cold blood for decades, I think that classifies as too rogue to re-enter society." Uzi responded edgily.
"Whatever you say..."
"So, what's the plan now? I feel like there's something more going on behind the scenes than just JCJenson, so we should probably look into that. On top of that, we don't have any leads on other DD squads, so it wouldn't be very efficient to just look around for them." K planned.
"We murder all humans, hehehehehe."
"You didn't listen to a word I said, did you?"
"The sun's coming up, we should find shelter." N chimed in.
While the four continue on their way and a strange symbol flashes on Uzi's visor for a split second, three pods containing two lifeforms close in on Copper-9.