Murder Drones:Tencell the Technician
Chapter 1 :Prologue Part 1
Author Note: This chapter takes place way, way before the Episode 1 of Murder Drones
I also allow constructive criticism.
Nightmares..
Those are all he dreams about.
Do you know what all his nightmares are all about? Well, it is self-explanatory. Also, his dreams are actually memories.
…
A pair of neon, white eyes replaced "10:30 AM" on his visor as the Worker Drone sits on his purple bed. His name is Tencell Xanderson, he is wearing a black night robe with purple details, a white messy hair and no shoes at all, which revealed his Worker Drone feet for the reader to see.
Tencell stood up from his bed and looked at his reflection in the mirror, on the right side of his bedroom. "Not looking like Gohan anymore, ehh Tencell?" He said to himself, before hearing a shout outside his bedroom.
(Note: Tencell's height is 4'5" feet)
"TENCELL!"
'Great! Just great..' He thought, before going into it. First, he grabbed a new set of clothes from his nearly empty wardrobe. Said clothes are black winter hoodie with a white shirt underneath, and black pants. It cuts to him, now wearing the black hoodie with white shirt underneath and pants, adjusting his hairstyle to look like Ultimate Gohan. And finally, Tencell turns the swivel chair he is sitting on around and puts on his shoes. These are not your everyday shoes, as they are gray roller skates with retractable wheels.
All of this tailoring he made on himself only happened in under 20 seconds. However, someone shouted again, in which he rolled his eyes as a reaction.
"COME ON! YOUR BROTHERS ALWAYS WAKE UP EARLIER THAN YOU!"
"FINE DAD!"
Tencell responded as he opened the door that leads him outside his bedroom. He looks outside his bedroom, in his right side is a door a few centimetres away leading to another bedroom, possibly for his siblings and parents. There's nothing but a wall in his right side, and ahead of him are stairs leading to the ground floor.
He prepares to go downstairs, but it was a dumb decision. He falls down the stairs only because the wheels on his roller skates are out. Eventually he stopped falling and landed in a sitting position with his legs extended at their longest with his arms on his sides, and his head bowing down. Despite falling down the stairs, he only suffered small, obscure dents on his body and a small crack on his visor.
A sound akin to a clearing throat snapped Tencell from his stunned state as he looked up, and saw his dad. His dad's name is Saffron, a Worker Drone with neon orange eyes, messy reddish-brown hair, a red night robe, and he is also 5'2" feet tall. What his dad was wearing made him confused.
"Come on, boy. You're the last one to get up." Tencell's father sighed, and then walked away. Saffron walking away revealed Tencell's 2 siblings; Arcwise and Exile.
Arcwise, as the older brother of Tencell, is slightly taller than him and is 4'7" feet tall despite Worker Drones being relative in terms of height. Arcwise has neon orange eyes like Saffron, light blue hair that looks similar to Gohan from Dragon Ball Super, orange zippered hoodie and pants. He also wears red shoes with yellow stripes that look like Tencell's, minus the wheels.
Exile is a Worker Drone with a height of 4'2" with neon red eyes, vermillion shaggy hair, red jacket and pants, with the former having white shirt underneath. He also wears black martial arts slippers.
And the 2 of them are sitting on their respective chairs, Arcwise on the left and Exile on the right, with a rectangular table between the chairs.
"Sup Ten!" Arcwise waved at the mentioned Worker Drone. And Exile did the same, "Should have woken up earlier, but that doesn't matter. Anyways, you should call Duck and Crow so that we can talk about something."
"And that 'something' is…?"
"Classified, no spoiling the surprise." Exile bluntly replies to the white-haired Worker Drone as he taps his left index finger on the table, with his right hand on his cheek.
"Fine, bro." Tencell replied, before walking in the left direction and picked up a black fedora with white ribbon on it and a black headphones from the hatstand near the TV of the house's living room. He walks back to his siblings as he puts on his headphones on his neck and shoulders, and then puts on the black and white fedora.
"So.. Tencell and his siblings called us out for something." A Worker Drone said, followed by another one. Today, they are walking aimlessly to try and find where Tencell and his family live.
Actually, these 2 are none other than Duck and Crow.
Duck, like everyone else, is a Worker Drone with a height of 4'5" and neon green eyes. He wears a yellow jacket with green details, a yellow duck cap with forest green messy hair, orange boots with yellow toe cap, and a green armband on his right upper arm. Unlike Tencell, Arcwise and Exile, he doesn't wear pants.
Crow is also a Worker Drone. His height is 4'6" with neon blue eyes, azure curtained hair, cobalt blue hoodie, a black plague doctor mask, red shoes with a white stripe in the middle and a golden buckle on each side. One of his noticeable features is his right hand having bandages on it, and like Duck, he doesn't wear pants as well.
"Yeah, why complain?" Crow asked.
"No I do not." His friend answered. "Anyways, care to share your experience with nearly getting killed by a Murder Drone?"
"Well…"
Flashback
Crow was pinned down to the ground by a female Murder Drone. Don't ask why he is still alive. Anyways, Crow was about to be stabbed by her, but he chose the hard way and got stabbed in his right hand trying to delay the inevitable.
"Really?" The Murder Drone's visor then showed yellow normal eyes with a blush now, and Crow used this as an opportunity to bite back. He kicked her on the visor using both of his legs, and combined with the fact that his body is robotic, allows the Worker Drone to shatter her visor. This caused the Murder Drone to collapse and hold her face in pain, allowing Crow to go back behind the doors while carrying a large black bag.
Present
"So that's why you have a bandaged hand now?" Crow nodded at his friend's question. "Now what about yours?"
"Sure, here you go…" It is now Duck's turn to tell how he did the impossible.
Flashback… again
"Chance of surviving them.. 1 in 250,000 chance!" Duck quickly covered his mouth upon unintentionally shouting the last part. What was he doing? He was crawling through a tunnel full of wires and a few moments ago, he grabbed some spare parts from dead Workers! And here he is, waiting if the Murder Drones heard his shout..
He shrugged off the thought of a Murder Drone knowing his current location and continued crawling through the tunnel, but then something unexpected happened minutes later.
A Murder Drone's claw scraped against the metal floor metres away from Duck. Looking back and seeing the Murder Drone pressured him to crawl faster in an erratic way.
Duck got an idea as he saw the wires around him. This gave him the opportunity to use it against the Murder Drone to escape. Just when its claw was about to reach him, he grabbed the wire infront of him and redirected the exposed part of it to the Murder Drone's face, it electrocuted the one thing that could kill him. While it was distracted, Duck continued crawling in a fast pace forward.
Duck, after crawling a few seconds later, emerged from the tunnel and headed for the metal door awaiting his return…
Present
"You smartass!"
Crow chuckled as he lightly hit Duck in the back of his head, who also laughed for a bit. "Yeah"
Both of the Worker Drones stopped walking.
"Anyways, we should reach our destination by now, are we?" Duck said, and as they both look in front of them. They were shocked by how much time passed, and ahead of them is the door leading to Tencell's home less than 2 metres away.
"Well.. This is unexpected.." Duck muttered. "Guess we should knock first."
He approaches the door and knocks 3 times, and a few seconds later, it slides open revealing not Tencell, but his dad Saffron instead.
"I'm guessing these are Tencell's close friends?" He spoke.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Xanderson." Both Duck and Crow(who said the sentence 8 words ago) bowed down. This earned a slight chuckle from the Worker Drone in question as he gestures for them to enter, "Why don't you go inside? I hope you and my children have a good time."
"Y-yeah, sure thing." Duck replied, the 3 of them entering one by one.
Inside, Tencell, Arcwise and Exile are talking. All three of them are sitting on their respective chairs while a table in front of them all.
"You know, it would be better if we fight them now… Y'know, before more of our fellow Workers die.." Tencell said with a slightly irritated expression, slamming his hands on the table.
"But Ten, we are not ready yet! We don't have weapons yet, and all we have are 2 things; physical strength and skill!"
Arcwise said.
"Well, let's just say I'm gonna test myself this time… "
Before he could say more, Duck and Crow joined. "What's up? Ten!" Crow said.
"I heard you wanna talk about something…" Duck followed.
"Yes, but long story; I am planning to do my first move now! I am gonna prove that not all Worker Drones are weak, and I need your help guys!"
Arcwise, Exile, Duck and Crow looked at Tencell blankly. Arcwise sighed, "How are you going to do it then…"
Tencell holds his chin for a moment before he got an idea, a lightbulb appearing above his head for a second.
"I'll go out first!"
The expressions of his 4 friends froze, with Exile's mouth opening wide in shock. Tencell's father Saffron looked at them with amusement.
"Well, what do you expect from him? He wants to achieve his dream…"
Saffron was currently holding a staff. It is dark pink in colour while having a metallic texture. Saffron's reflection was seen on it as well. What he was doing with the staff was that he was cleaning it with a white towel, stained with dirt from cleaning many things already.
Tencell stood up from his chair and then walked away, heading to a door next to the stairs. He opened the door, revealing stairs leading to some sort of a basement as he goes downstairs.
"Ten! No!" Arcwise tried to prevent Tencell from doing it, but it was too late. Tencell was already heading downstairs in the basement. Saffron chuckles, before shaking his head and then continued cleaning his dark pink staff.
Opening the second door after heading downstairs, Tencell finally gets to go inside the basement. It is more than just a basement…
The "basement" that Tencell entered was actually a combination of a Research Room, an Experiment Room, and a Storage Room. There's hundreds of drawers arranged like bookshelves here, with scientific equipments as well as containers.
However, in the middle of the "basement" is a large, cube-shaped room with a large door that can slide open. The walls are see-through, with the inside of the room being white. The last feature is a control panel in front of the sliding door, with the functions yet to be known.
"Alright! Alright, Ten! You need to start with Extended first! You really need it to get the other upgrades much easier!" Tencell talked to himself, and did a "Strikethrough" on the word Extended on the paper he was holding, like this…
Extended
Swapper
Acid
Stun
Bull
…
Then, he puts the ballpen he was holding on his right hand back in the pocket of his black pants. Right before he puts it inside his pocket, the ballpen was revealed to be a JcJenson pen.
Tencell said, "I wonder if father Saffron still kept more arms.."
He walked towards one of the containers and opened it. However, the only things inside it are 3 Worker Drone arms. "And he wasted the rest…"
Tencell checks 5 more drawers that are supposed to contain Worker Drone limbs, but all he found on each of them are just oil splatters. "Oh no!" He realised that the only way is…
"Well then… I guess I should do it. The inevitable!" He looked at the door on the opposite side of the basement, with a metal bridge that is as long as 10 meters and 4 meters wide that separates the door and the basement. Also, there's walls as well as railings on the bridge to keep Worker Drones/Humans from falling into the black abyss below.
Tencell looked down on the ground for a moment and took a deep breath, before looking up as his white spiky hair moved a bit. With that, he finally opened the door leading to an alternative exit, and stepped out of the basement.
The first thing that greeted Tencell after going out of the door from the basement, was nothing but a blizzard. His front body was getting covered by snow, although he brushes them off. He took a few more steps forward, and his current location revealed that he is inside an ice cave now.
"Oh man…"
Despite wearing black skating shoes, he was walking with near-perfect balance. However, he decided to skate forward, going up as he goes out of the ice cave that acts as a secret entrance to the Outpost 3.
He looked up in the night sky with wonder, seeing a moon and a planet looking like Saturn up there. However, he looked around his surroundings a second later, worrying about the so-called "Murder Drones" because they could come here any second. Tencell's visor then showed the current time, being 2:00 AM right now.
He smiled, and picked up a Worker Drone arm in front of him. Then, he saw a large black bag and puts the arm inside.
"I need more than 20 of these… I just hope I get lucky." He stared at the Worker Drone arm for a few seconds before walking away, holding the black bag on his right shoulder. For the following 2 minutes, Tencell was just picking up Worker Drone limbs and placing them inside the large black bag he carried on his right shoulder.
However, when he was about to pick up the 23th Worker Drone limb in front of him, he also saw a palm-sized battery besides it, which glows blue with energy. Tencell smiled and picked up the blue glowing battery as well. "Fascinating!"
He quickly covered his mouth and looked around, but saw nothing but more snows, ruined buildings and dead Worker Drones. He calmed down, because he thought his shout of amazement alerted the Murder Drones. Then, Tencell just skates back to the same ice cave he came from, now dragging the black bag with his right hand, which has dozens of Worker Drone limbs and a single blue battery inside.
A shadow above passes by Tencell's moving form, and this prompts him to skate faster, getting inside the ice cave and then going inside the secret door he came from in just under 10 seconds, before closing the metal door and then locking it. After getting inside his home's basement again, he sighed in relief as he collapsed on the metal floor, letting go of the black bag he was previously carrying.
"Hah… hah… that was close.."
He stood up and with that, he drags the black bag towards the centre of his basement, before unzipping it to reveal all the Worker Drone limbs he got outside, with the blue battery accompanying them. Tencell took out the battery and placed it on the edge of the table in front of him. Now, he grabbed one of the arms and pulls it out of the black bag, before placing it down on the center of the table.
"Now, let's see…"
Tencell fails to realise someone is watching him from the door leading to the ground floor, and it is none other than his mother Lilac Xanderson. She then closed the door and Tencell looked there, only to not see her. But he didn't mind it and continued doing some upgrades.
While walking upstairs to go back to the ground floor, we can now see what Lilac Xanderson looks like. She is a female Worker Drone with pale purple hair reaching her waist, with her eyes being neon purple. For her attire, she wears an indigo blouse, purple pleated skirt going past her knees, lavender socks reaching her knees and purple slippers. Not only that, she also stood at 5'1" feet tall, around the height of the "Murder Drones" despite not being like them.
Lilac opened the door and came out from the door of the basement, and she greeted Arcwise, Exile, Duck and Crow.
"Hey, boys! You good?"
Arcwise and Exile looked at each other for a second, before both of them looked at their mother and then nodded. Duck and Crow both did a thumbs up at her.
"Seems like your friends are here again. Would you two like to eat something? I can give you!" Lilac said to Duck and Crow.
"Ummmm.. no thanks. I already ate Luminescent Foods while on the way here with Crow." Duck rubs the back of his head and then glanced at Crow, who said..
"Well, why don't we eat a bit more, though?"
Arcwise chuckled at what Crow said, and looked back at Lilac.
"Just welcome 2 of my friends, mom. Father Saffron already did…"
As Arcwise said that, both Duck and Crow sat down on their respective chairs, facing each other.
Duck then said, "I'm gonna expect the food to be 9/10 on average!"
"Well, let's see how good Ten's mother cooks.. and maybe, just maybe.. I have another chief that will teach me more about cooking!" Crow said, before staring at the plate in front of him. Besides the plate are spoon, fork and knife which are made of silver.
Lilac giggled, before going to the kitchen area and then preparing some foods despite all of them being Worker Drones. She opened a cabinet and grabbed a carrot that glows orange, glowing green broccoli, a drumstick that glows red-orange, and many more foods that glow. Then she proceeds to cut them into pieces and then cook them on a pan.
Saffron finally finished cleaning his dark pink staff, and put the stained white towel on a hanging shelf before walking upstairs. He looked back at the basement door, before looking forward again. 'Whatever it is, I just hope you don't screw it up…' Saffron thought, a frown on his face as he was thinking about Tencell.
Back to the basement, Tencell stretches his right arm forward and grabs some metal components from an opened drawer. Then, he retracted his right arm and proceeds to stretch his left arm to grab the blue glowing battery that was 10 meters away from him.
"Extended unlocked… next is Swapper!"
Little did he know, a pair of yellow eyes were staring at him from the dark corner of the room before it disappeared.