Chapter Text
[Friday evening, 1 week after the defeat of Cyn]
Two silhouettes swept over the evening sky of Copper-9, the one in the lead bearing the bat-like wings of a Solver host, and the other with the angelic wings of a Disassembly Drone, faintly glinting in the starlight. Having reached their destination, the pair suddenly dived down, their wings wrapping around their bodies before spreading out at the last moment to make a gentle landing. Uzi took a couple exaggerated steps then halted, resting her hands on her hips. looking at the sign before them, and the facility beyond.
“So, what was this ‘high priority salvage’ you mentioned, Mom?” Uzi asked. Her beanie shifted momentarily, with the single eye of a drone heart emerging from beneath it.
“My iPod charger is buried under rubble at the cathedral. There should be a spare or two somewhere in here.” Uzi rolled her eyes as Nori hopped down from her head, now looking to the facility’s entrance,
“And how’s that high priority?” she shrugged with one hand, the other cupping her elbow. Nori stood on the tips of her claws, extending her height to it’s greatest extent as she looked up to meet her daughters eyes.
“Because I’m your frickin’ mom and I say so!” she yelled, “And why’s he here!?” Nori was now gesturing towards N, who was previously looking around idly, but now stepped closer with a sheepish chuckle. He addressed the question by saying,
“V said there may be one or two sentinels left active, and Uzi was scared to-”
“BITE ME!” Uzi interjected.
Nori sighed and replied,
“Fine, whatever. Let’s just go.”
The gravitational anomaly that occurred during their final confrontation with Cyn had left it’s mark on the facility; furniture tossed around, hallways blocked by rubble and large cracks running up most walls as well as the power being cut. Nori grabbed her mining helmet from Uzi’s backpack while explaining,
“Check everywhere. you both saw the photo of the cable I sent?”
“Yes Ma’am!” N’s enthusiastic voice came from across the room, already rummaging through the reception desk. Uzi was still next to her mother, adjusting her backpack as she put it back on,
“Sure, but this place is pretty big. How are we gonna search it all?” The question made Nori pause momentarily while contemplating her answer,
“I think a few humans who worked in the labs had them, but they could have had a cubicle to themselves too. So we just have to look everywhere.” Uzi groaned, this whole expedition now seemed a farce, given their target. N interrupted their conversation,
“Hey look! A map!” Nori scuttled over and snatched the piece of paper from his hand, as it left his hand N went from excited to disappointed. As she examined it, she voiced aloud the layout,
“Hmm, there’s offices on both floors. Upstairs has a dorm area & there are 3 labs on this floor.” N perked up at her thanks,
“You’re welcome, Mrs. Doorman. Happy to help!!”
Uzi had now joined N & Nori by the desk,
“Ok. Uzi, you search the lower offices. N, search upstairs, I’ll search the labs. Find me when you’re done.” They split up, each heading to their respective search zones. N was meticulous, searching every nook and cranny, and tidying up behind him. In searching the place Uzi managed to trash it worse than zero-G had; pulling furniture apart to access the contents & flinging stuff at a wall when done, still mad about coming here for one stupid cable. Nori’s search was far faster than her companions, at least for the first two rooms. The first room she checked was the largest, with double doors. It had been completely trashed; claw marks covered every surface, all the furniture was torn apart and many of the walls had large dents, had someone trapped sentinels in here?. The second lab gave the impression it was inhabited recently, having been cleared of many human amenities leaving two gurneys, the built in countertops and a plethora of tools & drone parts, the jagged edges showed no care had been given for their former owners.
The door to the third lab was wide open, saving Nori the effort of using the solver to open it, as she had with the other labs’ doors. What was just beyond the door caught her very off guard: A worker drone with it’s head crushed and… antlers? She moved closer to investigate, illuminating a name tag hanging from the right antler,
“Alice…” and the hair confirmed it; red with a black fringe. They had known each other as test subjects, but after the core collapse Nori left with Yeva right away; she didn’t want to stick around & Nori tagged along, owing Yeva for patching her. She figured Alice would move on too, but it seemed not. Distracted from her hunt for a charger, she examined the body further; a tail not unlike N’s or Uzi’s, but with a kitchen knife crudely fixed to the end. Her “antlers” were attached to a helmet and made up of two pipes with a couple knives on either side, a lightbulb on the left and her old id tag hanging from the right side. she wore the same grey tunic they were all given as test subjects here, now tattered, with large holes & ragged edges. A quick glance around the room revealed more of what she now assumed was Alice’s handiwork: a bucket of finger joints, a decapitated drone by a knocked over gurney, the remains of solver-infected hearts sticking out from a pile of rubble and ovens… The scene was disturbing, but those hearts gave her an idea, she flicked the antler light on and waited for N & Uzi to arrive.
Nori sat idle, her charger forgotten, when she heard two sets of metallic footsteps approaching, looking towards the door, her daughter and N turned into the room at the same time, having evidently met up before coming here.
“Hey Mom. Nothing.” Uzi spoke flatly, followed by N in his ever-cheerful tone,
“Hi, Mrs. Doorman! I looked really hard, But I couldn’t find anything…” Nori scuttled over, carrying a couple tools with the solver,
“Good, you’re both here. I found something I need a hand with.” she then illuminated Alice’s body. “An old friend of mine, should have a heart like ours. We’re gonna dig it out & try wake her up.”
Trepidation spread across both Uzi & N’s face, she spoke out first, “Are you fucking serious!? You drag us out here for your dumb cable & now you wanna revive this nutjob!? She tried to kill me! She chopped off my fingertip!” her voice quietened to a whisper before she continued, “She got me possessed by Cyn…” N added,
“I'm not sure about that, Ma’am…” Nori looked up at them, her one eye showing sympathy, but she didn’t back down,
“How’s she gonna hurt you? No body, no solver abilities. Trust me, it’ll be fine.”
N knelt down next to Alice, still unsure, but satisfied they could handle any danger. Nori floated him a bone-saw, and he got to cutting Alice open. In no time, the front was off, and N lifted Alice’s Heart out. Uzi was perched on a countertop in the far corner, ready to pounce if Alice tried anything,
“Well?” she asked, impatient. N and Nori both studied the heart - it was lifeless, a void where her eye should shine from - before replying,
“Well, she looks intact…” N had answered first, though he was lost for what to do. His knowledge of the workings of drones being more comparable to that of a butcher than a surgeon’s.
“Maybe she needs some kind of signal to activate. Uzi, can you do a callback ping?” Uzi glared in silence, but before she could answer, the eyes of her tail turned from purple to solid yellow and it answered for her,
“ooh, I’ll help! [Callback Ping].”
It was Cyn’s voice. Unmistakeable. Undeniable. Nori shot Uzi daggers, her eye flicking between face & tail. N gave a concerned look, and Uzi’s face twitched, a crack in her bold facade. They were all quickly distracted by an orange glow coming from behind. It had worked.
Pure darkness. Then a command line. Code flashed across her vision and as it cleared her vision returned. She recognised N immediately, but it wasn’t hard to guess who the purple eyed heart with fishnets & a beanie was,
“Hey! You get back! I’ll knife you! With my tail!” She tried to back away from them but stumbled, her body not reacting as she expected. Looking around, the reason why became clear, sat just behind her was her own body with her tail and her antlers. Her head however, it… was crushed; a mess of jagged metal & shattered glass. Her torso, however, had been neatly cut open. Realisation enabled her to better control her new crustacean form, she clambered onto a nearby desk, the one that housed the door controls & CCTV feeds, though now the screens only showed her new reflection. She looked to N,
“So... uh, I know last time we met I tried to kill ya, but uh… forgive and forget?” she followed this question with a weak smile, her nervousness apparent to all present. From the dark corner came Uzi made her presence known. low and cold, she said,
“you’re alive right now at my mother’s request and over my objections. Try anything and I’ll kill you again.” Alice kept her eye down & gave a nervous,
“Uh, sure,” before facing the other heart, “Nori, huh? You’re… all purple again. Thanks for leaving me stuck here with the sentinels, real cool of you and Yeva.” Alice stared at Nori until she gave a timid apology,
”Uh, yeah. Sorry about that...” Nori had a guilty expression, but Alice had noticed something about Uzi, in the corner behind her. The yellow in her eyes.
Alice had suddenly frozen up, her eye locked onto something behind Nori. As she followed her sight-line, she met the purple and yellow eyes of her daughter.
“Uzi, could you wait outside? You… look kinda possessed.” Uzi gave Nori a pained look,
“Fine, whatever. Just be quick.” and stormed out. N started to stand and pointed to the door then asked,
“Should I..?” Nori looked up at him to answer & beckoned him to sit back down with one claw,
“No stay, I still want a pair of hands.” Alice had relaxed a bit now, Nori decided to offer an explanation, “Uzi’s in control of herself, it’s just a side effect of eating Cyn’s core.”
Alice looked to the door. She was still uneasy about it, but moved to return to their prior topic,
“She what? An’ I still don’t forgive you.” Nori sighed, giving a slow nod,
“Yeah, that’s fair.” Nori looked around, hoping to change the topic, when something caught her eye. Hanging off of the desk Alice was sat on was… An iPod charger! A purple solver symbol materialised around the USB end before the cable flew towards N, “Wrap that up & stick it in a pocket! That’s our high priority salvage!” A slightly sad expression came Over Alice,
“Didn’t come here for me, huh? I shoulda known.” Nori’s face dropped with guilty,
“Oh, sorry. You can come with us. I… I’d feel bad leaving you behind again.” Alice brightened up,
“Yeah yeah, make it all about you, sunshine. Let me grab a few things.”
Uzi was sat on a girder, eyes glued to her feet. She only looked up to the sound of N’s feet crunching the snow, Nori on his right shoulder and Alice on his left. Nori hopped down and scuttled up to Uzi levitating the charger out of N’s pocket and into Uzi’s bag. Informing Uzi as she did,
“We’re good to go! She’s coming with.” Uzi put her backpack on & lifted Nori onto her head before noticing N’s new bag; it was large & very full. A body bag held to his back with what looked like a pair of damaged tails. She queried,
“Uhh… what’s with-” Alice cut in,
“My stuff, freakshow. Mind yer own damn business.” Uzi shrugged & turned away,
“Fine. Bite me, psycho!” before sprouting her wings & taking off.
The flight back to Compound-3 was silent.