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Uzi wakes to the rumbling and shaking of the bus as it pulls into the hangar of her colony. She blinks her optics open blearily and the beating of her core skyrockets as she realizes she had fallen asleep on N’s shoulder. She huffed softly and winced as the bright lights of the hangar flashed through the bus’s windows. It whined and she could vaguely hear their driver cooing softly at it to keep it calm. Exhausted she shakes N’s shoulder,
“Wake up, dude. We’re here.”
N doesn’t respond. Which she finds odd and vaguely concerning. She turns to him, optics searching his face. She thinks she sees something weird glitch across his faceplate before he’s suddenly tumbling off their seat and into the aisle. Uzi panics,
“V!”
She vaguely sees V glance up tiredly from her position at the front of the bus as she kneels next to N. Then the other murder drone is next to her, her eyes hollowed out in fear and concern.
“What happened!” she hissed.
“I don’t know!” Uzi hissed back, distressed, “I tried to wake him up and he just…fell over!”
V bit her lip and reached down to try and shake N’s shoulder. But she didn’t get a response from him either. The other drones were filling from the bus, except Thad and Lizzy who stayed behind and shuffled on their feet. Watching nervously. Something else glitched across N’s screen but this time V caught it and her core stopped a moment when she saw the error code at the bottom of it. She quickly flipped him onto his back where she could clearly read: Error 606 in bright yellow lettering under what was his usual hunting screen. She let out a relieved simulated breath, it wasn’t a fatal error. But what was error 606 and why did it look so familiar to her?
“Hey.” She called out to Uzi.
The purple drone turned, a strange vhs video in her hand and her optics hollowed at the error code on N’s display. She brushed some of the fringe away from his face,
“What does that mean?” she asked
V shrugged and scooped the taller drone into her arms, intent on taking him somewhere. Whether to the spire or elsewhere Uzi wasn’t sure but whatever plagued N seemed to transfer to her the moment his face brushed against hers’. A wave of yellow static shot down V’s spine and she staggered. Lizzy rushed forward to stabilize her but it was already too late. Her face plate went dark, the same error as N’s popping up, as she collapsed forward. Luckily Thad seemed to realize what was happening the same time Lizzy did so he rushed to help as well and the two managed to keep V from face-planting.
“Yo, Uzi, I think our murder friends may be in trouble!” Thad called out, voice strained.
“Girl, wake up! This is so not the time!” Lizzy whined
Uzi quickly made her way to them, eyes darting between N and V. Was something going on with their CPU’s? Their programming even? There was only one way for her to find out. Carefully she pried N from V’s grasp and cradled him against her. Sure he was kind of unwieldy especially with their height difference. She can imagine how ridiculous she looks right now but the important thing was getting these two back to her room. Careful to keep N’s nanite tail from swinging into her leg she called out to her classmates,
“Think you two can carry V? I need to get these guys back to my room.”
Thad nodded in determination.
Lizzy just huffed, “Who do you take me for? Some loser who abandons her bestie?”
Uzi snorts in response but leads the way as they precariously make their way off the bus and into the colony proper. It was gonna be a long trek from the hangar bay to her home but if her hunch was right she needed to get into these two’s minds sooner rather than later. They have to walk slowly. Especially so Thad and Lizzy don’t accidentally drop V along the way. When they finally reach their destination Uzi boots open the entrance to her home. Luckily her dad is out for the moment so she doesn’t have to explain anything to him right now. She leads her classmates into her bedroom and carefully lays in N against the foot of her bed. She motions for the other two to set V down next to him and goes over to her desk, rummaging through the drawers there.
“What now?” Thad asks, weirdly timid.
“Now, you leave.” Uzi told him, trying to keep her voice calm, “No offense but I need to concentrate.”
She clicks her tongue as she finds what she was looking for. Two, flat white disks and a joystick. She sets the joystick carefully up on her computer desk then walks over to her friends and, after a beat of hesitation, gently sticks the disks to their temples. She heard one of her classmates shuffle behind her before Lizzy spoke up,
“Isn’t that, uh, the same thing you used on Braidon?”
Uzi flinched at the name. One of her victims at the camp…she let out a heavy, simulated exhale then nodded,
“Yeah…it is. Hopefully it’ll help me figure out what’s wrong with them. Then I can fix it.”
She feels a hand take her own and is slightly shocked to see Thad smiling warmly at her,
“Hey, if anyone can do it it’s you ‘Zi.”
Uzi blinked several times then she smiled in return,
“Thanks, Thad. Now, really you all should go.” upon seeing Lizzy’s distressed glance toward V, her voice softened, “I promise I’ll take care of them.”
Lizzy’s optics met hers and she gave a stiff nod. She grabbed Thad’s hand and led him from Uzi’s room, “You better not let my bestie die!” she called over her shoulder.
Uzi chuckled to herself. She had no intention of letting anything happen to V. As much as the two butted heads she knew N would be devastated if something happened to the female murder drone. She would do anything to make sure he and who he loved were safe. It was time to get to work. She sat in her computer chair, hand on the joystick and slapped a third white disk to her temple.