Chapter 1 Adoption

Soon the blast door slammed down, and the regular lights shut off; the corridor quickly filled with the dim red glow of the emergency lights. N looked at Uzi with pity and equal disbelief to her own; he couldn't believe her father would shut her out like that. " In a way, it is my fault, though, huh? I could have made some excuse or let her escape instead. I..."

N was conflicted; he was made by the company and was given a job to complete. On the other hand, it wasn't like he didn't have questions like why the company cared about one exoplanet out of dozens, why destroy all of the drones without assessing if they needed to in the first place, and so many more.

Uzi also made good points, and it helped she was refreshing to talk to; she gave him a normal conversation, something he hadn't had in what felt like years. Back then, it was either V's complete ignorance of his existence or verbal/physical abuse on J's part. And now, despite what she had done for him, he'd nearly managed to kill her at every turn. N didn't register his teammates approaching him or what they said as he shook his head, narrowing his eyes." Don't worry, Uzi I...I won't let you get hurt like this anymore."

"Helloooo! Earth to N, are you going to finish off that drone or what?" V growled, slightly annoyed at how the aforementioned boy seemingly ignored her praise of him. What surprised her and J was when N pulled back his wing and caught the drone in his arms. J rolled her eyelights, complaining to him, "Seriously N, what have I said about being merci..."

She was cut off in shock at the darkened eyelights aimed at her; N was wearing a severe expression that just seemed disturbingly foreign to them, "I...it isn't just me being merciful J" N took a few steps back while stuttering those words out, eyes darting to Uzi who had seemingly shut off at some point accepting whatever fate her father left her too.

The helpless display tightened his eyelights, and the desire to butcher her father burned brighter in his servos but one step at a time. Finally, he turned all those feelings to pushing up his resolve and burying his stutter, continuing with, "I'm taking her back to the pod with me; you guys can finish up things here." While V scoffed at the relatively poor attempt to take charge of the situation, J sighed, " N you diluted moron, do you even hear yourself right now?" she took a few steps towards him, brandishing one of her claws out at Uzi "Just hand her over and, we can forget this...!"

"No!" N yelled out, jumping back and kicking off the blast door, leaving an apparent dent in the metal while leaping over his teammates. Then, with eyelights narrowed, he looked at their surprised faces, "You're not taking her from me; I'm adopting her! If you want to argue, you can meet me in the po..po..pod!" He quickly bolted for the open air leaving his teammates utterly confused in the corridor.

V sighed while nodding, looking down, "I can't believe that idiot; it's like he just wants to be decommissioned." she then looked at J, who had a hand clenched and was glaring in N's direction. Then, trying to redirect J's rage, V said, "Well, let's head into the colony and wipe them out then; we can deal with him, right J?" There was a moment of silence, and V crossed her arms, rolling her eyelights repeating, "Right J?"

"No, we have to go after the useless bucket of bolts and ensure things get done by company policy." Despite the venom leaking from every word J spoke, she was just as impressed as she was ready to stick a virus injector on N. He had managed to say just the right thing to save himself and that drone brat he was seemingly attached to thinking, "Who would have thought that spineless wimp would have the guts to use the policies I love to hold over his head against me, clever N very clever."

V looked at her like she was insane, "What do you mean by "getting things done by company policy"?" she used air quotes in her words. J turned to her, saying, "One of the subsections of the drone elimination order, to be exact, column x paragraph 8, a droll to read for the most part but states clearly that if we encounter a drone with above average qualifications, as a pill baby or in a state of abandonment where converting them back to willing company assets is a possibility we can file for an adoption/conversion order for that drone specifically."

V blinked before her eyelights flattened and replied, "J, you need more hobbies." J scoffed in response to that, thinking, "As if you have any room to say anything, bubble-loving brat." The two then started to head out of the corridor, aiming to try and catch up with N.

{With N}

After making it outside, he immediately shot into the air with his wings; he needed to get to the pod quickly. He looked at Uzi with worry thinking, "Great job, me, you probably are going to end up getting both you and Uzi killed now." not that it entirely bothered him; he at least put up an attempt, right? The only thing he couldn't come to terms with would be not getting to torture Uzi's father to death slowly for abandoning her in the first place.

"No, now isn't the time to think like that; I...I have to get back and figure out an argument to convince them Uzi's worth keeping alive." He narrowed his eyelights while dipping past some street signs, going to use a shortcut through a building he explored some time ago. Landing in a shattered window, he sprinted through the broken walls, aiming to leap out the opposite window when he ground to a halt with wide eyelights, thinking in a panic, "Oh biscuits, her open wound!"

He couldn't believe he had forgotten about it; leaning the still powered-down Uzi against a wall, he knelt before her. "What?" he thought in surprise, sliding his fingers against the tear in her clothes to find..." There's no open wound...how I pinned her to the wall...maybe I held back more than I thought and was hanging her by clothes, but..."N was lost in thought before again shaking his head to regain focus, thinking, "Stop overthinking things, N. Make sure she isn't your teammate's dinner first."

"C'mon, I got this..." he thought while taking off again, carrying Uzi in his arms, looking down at her while thinking more firmly, "For her sake, I have to..." After returning to the corpse pile, he quickly climbed in from above, dropping from the hole near the top with a hard crash, scattering rocks and drone remains. Then, heading into the pod, he laid Uzi in his chair, gently looking at her with a guilty expression waiting for his teammates to return.

{Several Minutes Pass}

Hearing his teammates land, N swallowed some spit, anticipating the chaos that would ensue when they returned to the pod. V entered the landing pod. First, her eyelights narrowed into a glare at him, still not over that she had to give up easy prey, while J landed into it with a firm look of neutrality which he found worse than any glare she could give him.

V looked at Uzi, asking while picking her teeth in irritation, "Soooo, is your purple carry-on dead or what?" N quickly got between his teammates and Uzi, responding with a loud, "She isn't dead, V!" his eyelights widened and darkened while continuing in a quieter tone, "She's just powered off, " he then gave Uzi a sad look, "not that it isn't a good thing really, she's been through a very awkward moment because of me..."

"Tch, drop its emotional baggage on us later and answer these questions so we don't waste any more time on this moron." J spat out while pulling out a clipboard; N focused in on her. "Right, so I just need you to answer some questions for me; nothing too tricky even for a useless moron like you, N." J leaned against the wall before saying, "First off, does the err purple thing have any actual skills that put it above the usual workers we've dealt with thus far?"

N sighed before replying, "One, her name is Uzi J" he got a roll of the eyelights in return before continuing with, "Two, uh, well, ya know when you and V reset my sensors, well, that's cause Uzi blew my head off with this cool railgun she had with her hehe..." V gave a slight snicker while J looked a bit surprised, commenting, " She was armed? From the briefing we were left with, the worker drones shouldn't be able to arm themselves. On-world weapons were destroyed in the core failure or fell too far into disrepair to be of any use. Any remaining useable weapons would be in deep storage at military encampments which workers couldn't access."

N thought back quickly to when he first noticed Uzi and went on the attack, "She had something green in her hand, and she seemed to fiddle with the railgun itself too..." N then said carefully, "Well, I think she built it herself; I mean, she picked up some sort of green thing off the ground and did like mid-combat adjustments to the railgun before she used it to, well...uh, kill me."

"I see... means she's more intelligent than the usual worker, maybe even has some code fragments from when the walking oil cans used to be allowed to work on weapons." J commented before looking back up to N, asking, "Anything else you can add?"

N thought momentarily, "Besides the fact she's given me the nicest conversation I've had since, uh, ever?" J and V both gave him unamused looks, and he continued, " Ehehe, uh, well, we could use Uzi to bait other drones and break back into the colony if we don't get to hit it before the doors are repaired?"

"That's better, idiot; this should be enough to file the conversion order with the company." J grumbled, making N look surprised, thinking, "Wait, there's an actual adoption thing we're doing right now?!" he looked at Uzi with a smile, thinking, "Thank robo-god I did it, Uzi, your saved!" That's when J went to leave the pod to call their CO about N's "acquisition" for the company.

V looked at Uzi while saying, "So about the pur..." V scowled when N refused to look at her, growling, "So about Uzi's situation there, what baggage were you about to drop on us? " N's reply was flat, "Uh, no offense, V, but why do you even care?"

"Simple idiot, I want something to laugh at, and whatever nonsense she dealt with to get you all sympathetic will probably make my day." V replied before tacking on with a digital clock showing the time appearing on her visor, "Or well, maybe the next hour depends on how funny I find it."

N grumbled, "It's not funny, V. I'm not going to tell you so you can laugh at her about it."V rolled her eyes while crossing her arms in annoyance, mumbling, "Your no fun."

(With J)

J was sitting on the top of the spire of corpses, using her personal comms unit to attempt to contact Tessa. "Ah, hello there, J. It's been a good minute, hasn't it?" J's eyelights darkened with a panicked look, nearly falling from the pile, thinking, "What in the 2nd quarter is the company CEO doing on the line!?"

"Ah, uh, um...it's a pleasure to speak to you, sir, excuse me, but I was trying to reach Tessa about..." As J spoke, the CEO interrupted her, "Ah, yes, she's busy planet side with A, E, and O right now, so I took it upon myself to answer her calls so she can work peacefully."

J replied, stifling the nervous stutter, "I see how generous of you, sir." She could almost feel how the CEO nodded his head to her words, saying, "So J, what is that you need, don't be shy about requesting any sort of supplies or even oil if you've managed to hunt yourselves dry for a while."

Despite the man's kind words, J couldn't help but freeze momentarily, thinking, "What happens if I made a mistake with the policies or...or.." However, J repressed her doubts for now, resolving she would kill N if this made a fool of her, "You see, sir, N has grown attached to a worker. More specifically, he's decided she's worth filing a conversion order with the company."

"And here I thought the adoption clause would be for naught." The CEO chuckled to himself before replying to J, "I see; well, what's its name for starters?" J would then relay a more official-sounding explanation of Uzi's supposed weapon crafting skills, name, and other uses she could have for the team, namely being bait. "Well, this Uzi is a fine addition to the work on copper 9, I'd say, so I'll have the order officiated in the next hour and a targeting update sent to all teams to make sure they understand that worker drone is a friend, not food, hehe."

J blinked, the joke falling flat for her before saying, "Um, thank you, sir. I will make sure to let N and V know immediately." When the line went dead, J had to take a moment to process the conversation she had just had.

{In a few minutes}

Entering the pod, she came into the least surprising thing she had seen all night. V was sitting in her chair, alternating from spinning with a bored look and blowing bubbles with her left hand deployed as a bubble wand. N had moved to his corner of the pod, next to Uzi's still powered-down body, her head resting on his legs.

"Ah J, how did the call go?!" N barely stopped himself from shouting in anticipation while V looked at J with the hope she was about to be told to pop the worker's head off. But instead, J sighed, saying, "The CEO approved the conversion order, meaning Uzi is officially our brat now." If Uzi weren't lying in N's lap, he would have jumped for joy while V let out a disappointed whine. Unfortunately, today just wasn't her day.

Chapter end