"Are you sure about this..?"

Aiden frowned, but then smirked slightly, "Are you getting scared, Chad? I thought you came here to protect me."

The other drone scoffed, "I am not scared!" he shot back, before mumbling, "I'm just saying... maybe nobody ever goes outside for a freakin' reason..."

Aiden rolled their eyes, "And maybe the murder drones moved on because clearly this place is abandoned and everyone's just being paranoid. Now, c'mon, I think I see something over there."

Reluctantly, Chad followed behind.

The older teen couldn't help but cringe at the sounds of glass being crushed beneath him and his friend's boots. Aiden, however, seemed deaf to the noise as he dug through the piles of trash and remains around them.

He looked up at the boarded up store beside them, frowning at the illegible words written above the door. He squinted, looking up further, until he spotted something crouching on the roof far above.

Chad hesitated— it could quite easily just be another human skeleton, frozen in place.

Suddenly, the thing faced him, a bright yellow X across its face.

"Bro, bro, we need to leave," he sprinted over to shake Aiden's shoulder, not letting the murder drone leave his sight. It didn't move, simply staring at the two.

Aiden frowned, turning around as they put a beat up camera in their coat, "What? Why? This place has so much useful stuff! If we came back with a bag, we could probably get enough to—"

Chad cut them off, finally looking them in the eye, "No, you don't understand: We. Need. To. Go."

It took a moment until Aiden finally got the hint, sucking in a sharp breath. Slowly, they nodded, looking around for a quick exit. Chad looked up at where he last saw the murder drone, only to be met with an empty space.

"Robo-Christ— GO!" he grabbed his friend's arm and sprinted towards a narrow alleyway.

Them, as worker drones, could probably barely fit in there— who's to say something as big as a murder drone could follow?

Before they could reach it, the drone dropped in front of them, the impact making them fly back slightly. It stalked toward them on all fours as they attempted to recover, a wide grin full of sharp, sharp teeth across its face. A tail flicked behind it, an ominous syringe full of glowing yellow liquid at the end of it.

Chad tried to reach for his friend, but ended up grasping on air. He whipped around, noting that there was nothing but a patch of flattened snow, looked back at the approaching drone, and gulped.

"Oh no."

The worker drone braced for impact— he wondered who would miss him; his parents were workaholics, he didn't talk to his siblings often, maybe his friends? At least, the ones that would most likely survive this event, as they weren't the ones here. —as the murder drone moved to pounce, until—

"TAKE THIS!!"

There was a loud clang in front of him, and he flinched as a massive-clawed hand landed on his shoe.

Chad hesitated, waiting for the drone to move again and drag him to his death. When nothing happened for a few more moments, he squinted an eye open to see the murder drone laying face down, two of its yellow lights on one side red, and Aiden standing behind it with a.. steel chair in hand?

They panted loudly, mostly out of a simulation of adrenaline, eyes hollow with fear.

They let out a hesitant laugh.

"That worked..." Aiden breathed out, "I can't believe that actually worked..." They suddenly jumped with joy, tossing the fold-up chair to the side, before rushing up to the murder drone's side.

Chad hesitantly joined them as they rolled the drone onto its back, finally giving them both a clear view on what it looked like.

It had silvery hair that seemed to stick up against the wind, a headband with five lights— three bright yellow, two red on the side that Aiden hit —and wore a grey sweater, a glossy, black waist belt, and an unzipped black, cropped winter coat with the hood put up. Its razor-sharp wings lay splayed out at its sides, seeming to be unable to fold back in.

There was an error message on its partially cracked visor, but it was backwards, so neither teen could read it.

Chad frowned as Aiden pulled down its hood.

"Nerd, what the hell are you doing?!" the former hissed out quietly, taking a moment to look around, "It could've sent out a signal to its buddies, and I don't think you can take out two more of them."

Aiden rolled their eyes, before letting out a soft cheer, "These things have USB ports on their heads, too!" They gestured to the side of the murder drone's head, two ports just under its hair, before pulling something out from their coat.

"What's that?"

"It's a hard drive," Aiden explained, "I put an experimental program in it. If it works, we won't ever have to worry about this murder drone again— maybe not even any others! If it doesn't..." They made a vague gesture with their free hand, "I'm guessing lethal virus."

Chad grimaced, before sighing, "Well, get it over with then. We need to get home soon."

A message popped up after Aiden plugged the USB in, and they read it out loud.

"'New directive detected. Would you like to download it?'" Aiden grinned, "Yes I do, ominous pop-up!"