Chapter 19 Gluttony's Disciple
Laconia II - Elliott Manor / August 15th, 2940
/BEGIN PLAYBACK
The Elliotts technically had two types of Worker Drones on their estate. There were the standard, default Worker Drones, preprogrammed as Butlers, and all of them identical, with barely a personality to boot. And then there were the creatures unaffectionately referred to as "Tessa's dumpster pets."
Since it was Laconian national policy to abuse the barely sentient AI platforms called Worker Drones, the Elliotts went through enough Drones to create a mass grave of the machine creatures in their backyard, which is where Tessa worked tirelessly building her own friends out of the corpses of the rejected and abused.
After all, being a corporate princess was a lonely affair, and if it weren't for her "pets", she'd be alone with nothing but books. So, she went to great efforts to repair them so that she could start her own private collection of Worker Drones, going so far as to give them names and different hairstyles.
It wasn't much of an existence, but it beat the oblivion of death.
"What is that bastard Emperor doing?!" Mr. Elliot cursed as he read the news coming from the frontlines. As a majority shareholder of JCJenson, he had much greater access to data than most common citizens of Laconia.
"Being distracted is what he doing." Mrs. Elliot agreed. "He engineered the Three-Rebellions War, then wasted all his time chasing 'accension' as opposed to running this bloody war properly."
"If he just applied some of that brilliant military genius we might have already reclaimed Mars and Earth, and finally wiped out those filthy Belters and arrogant machines!" Mr. Elliot complained. "It doesn't matter how many of their Spatial Arms Forts we smash if that damn Admiral 'Stonewall of Sol' continues to hold the line!"
A Worker Drone butler approached Mr. Elliot with a serving of alcohol, and offered him a drink. He took the drink eagerly, but gagged after the first sip. "I said scotch you mindless toaster, scotch not whiskey!" He smashed the glass against the Worker Drone's face, the broken shards digging into the fragile frame of the Worker Drone, piecing it's processor and causing it to bleed black blood from it's face. It died and collapsed on the spot.
"…" V pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth, hiding her fear and apprehension. Even if the default Worker Drones had no names, being barely sentient mass production models, they could still feel fear and pain. That was by design. Mr. Elliot noticed her, and summoned her closer.
"You there, you're one of Tessa's pathetic pets, yes?" Mr. Elliot accused.
"Yes sir." V nodded sharply and promptly.
"Then prove your worth and bring me a damn scotch!"
"Yes sir, right away sir." V curtseyed with her maid's dress, and excused herself. Being one of "Tessa's pets" meant that, besides displaying actual, fully conscious sentience, she was slightly more intelligent and slightly less mistake prone than the default model of Worker Drones, which made her valuable enough not to kill off at the slightest impulse of her elder masters.
Additionally, V knew she was one of Tessa's favorites, not that she tried to be. She just adored her young master and her friends, the other Drones revived by Tessa.
She arrived at a bar area within the manor, and found J cleaning glasses.
"One Scotch for Mr. Elliot please." V requested.
"…" J sighed, but already got to work pouring the drink. "I take it that default Drone who asked for a Whisky for the master really messed up then?"
"Yes, unfortunately." V confirmed.
"…I'll pull one out of storage later." J shrugged. The death rate for default Worker Drones at the Elliot Manor was high enough that they simply bought Worker Drones in bulk, in order to replace them whenever the elder masters decided to cut one down out of idle rage or disgust.
"J…do you know if N is off his shift yet?" V requested. "I was hoping to meet him in the library later."
"To read one of your dumb books again?" J scoffed. "You need to stay on task, okay V? I don't have any other Drones to fill your shift right now. We're short staffed enough as it is with the Gala coming up in a few months."
"Uh…can't you just pull more Default Workers from storage to cover the shortage?" V suggested.
"V, you know the Default Workers are barely competent at their jobs as it is. If I pull more from storage than we already have, then that's just going to antagonize our masters more than they already are." J explained.
"What's going on you two?" Tessa wondered sweetly, approaching the two female Worker Drones.
"Oh…nothing boss." J dismissed, and V reluctantly nodded.
"I saw N going to the library to read again. Were you hoping to join him, V?" Tessa noted curiously.
"Ah…! Yes master, I was." V fidgeted nervously.
"Aww, you're such a cute girl." Tessa rubbed V's head affectionately. "Okay, go run off and have fun. J, I'll cover for you here at the bar, so please fill in for V for now."
"Ah, yes boss." J sighed, but did not argue with her master.
"Oh! Thank you Tessa!" V cried, jumping with joy. She sprinted quickly though the mansion towards the library, finding N near the back.
"Oh, hello V! Are you off your shift now?" N wondered.
"No, but Tessa gave me some free time." V smiled. "It's good to see you again, N."
"Ah, it's good to see you too!" N smiled cheerfully. "Want to read with me again?"
"Oh! Yes! I would like that very much!" V smiled sweetly. She loved reading cute and fun books with N or drawing pictures with him. It wasn't often they could get these moments alone, but they were always a lot of fun. It sent a warm, comforting feeling through her personality core, and blush lines at the corners of her visor.
But not everything was perfect.
"Giggle giggle. Can I come too, big brother N?"
V gasped and jumped a little at the sound of that cold and clinical detached voice, and the Worker Drone it was attached to. A sad and broken little thing that could never seem to stand on it's own, barely holding itself up in a limp position, like a corpse or puppet. It could also never display the appropriate emotions on it's visor, leaving it either staring uncomfortably or excitingly mad.
It was Tessa's most recent addition to her flock, and her most failed recreation. The maid Worker Drone Cyn.
"Oh, hello Cyn! Of course you can join us!" N offered joyfully.
"N…?" V questioned him.
"V, please remember to be nice to Cyn." N requested. "She's a special little girl."
"Joyful laugh. Happy face." Cyn's head hung low to the side, so she pushed it back up to smile uncomfortably wide at V. "Hello big sister V."
"…" V shivered under that blank, dead eyed stare that Cyn gave her. There was something predatory behind Cyn's smile, she felt it every time she was near the limp Drone.
"Scoot scoot, crisscross apple sauce." Cyn awkwardly rolled into a seated position near N, then rested her head on his shoulder, clinging greedily to his arm.
It took months for V to be comfortable enough to even touch N, and here this broken corpse Drone just did as she pleased, and always placing herself between V and N.
"Curius pout. What's wrong big sister V?" Cyn stared wide eyed up at V. "Come come, sit by me too." She offered one of her limp arms, turning it awkwardly like she didn't know how arms worked.
It was mocking her, V just knew it.
"I…just remembered. J needed some help. I'm going to get back to work." V dismissed, walking away.
"V…?" N looked up worriedly at the maid Worker.
"Giggle giggle. V is so silly. Right big brother N?" Cyn laughed in a humorless, dead voice.
"Ah…right…" N shrugged.
V pressed her back to the wall when she was out of sight, a hand clawing at her personality core in her chest. Her existence was not the most desirable, but she was alive, and she had friends she cared about deeply. Now though, it seemed her days were filled with pain, fear…
And aching jealously.
/END PLAYBACK
Rubicon III - Grid 086 - Independent Mercenary Hangars – Western Belius / Saturday, Claudius 1st, 3175
"…" V fluttered her eyes open as she booted awake, and stared blankly into N's sleeping face. Between them, and clutching at her chest, was a small purple haired Worker Drone, a thing called Uzi she was reluctantly calling a friend.
N was always going to hold a special place in whatever line of code constituted as her heart, even if she wasn't allowed to appreciate it. What was more difficult to comprehend was how Uzi had also nestled her way in there.
Was it simply because they were trapped together on this infinitely vast and hostile world? Because they'd been forced to fight together just to survive? Or was it perhaps that they were more similar than either would care to admit? Brash and crude, arrogant and proud, but secretly caring and vulnerable, and warmly comforted by a hug. Other than some minor discrepancies in their platform, they were more alike than not.
If she could breathe, she would have sighed pleasantly, as she ran her fingers through Uzi's hair, brushing the short purple locks softly. Uzi gave an involuntary grunt, and curled inward, unwilling to wake up.
V smiled warmly, and wiggled out of Uzi's grasp. Standing up, she made sure to tuck Uzi in, then reached behind her to gently run her fingers through N's hair as well, greedily savoring the feeling.
Simultaneously too anxious to sleep and in a relatively good mood, V decided to start her day early. She started with her daily oil ration, drinking a full cup of the black substance that while not rare, had to be specially ordered. It was a specific quality that functioned both as hydraulic fluid and coolant, and kept her from preying on Uzi.
They hadn't had an AC mission in a while, so maintenance was not a primary issue at the moment. Still, it paid to keep her hands busy…as in she was literally being paid to do any chores around the hangar for 621, so she grabbed a broom and started sweeping dust and metal shavings across the solid portions of the hangar. Though it would be easier to just sweep it off the edge of the platform due to the tube shape of the hangar, she had been advised against such action, as dust or debris might land on the rails for moving the AC and fuck them up.
Additionally, sweeping the hangar was cathartic, her artificial muscles going through practiced and familiar motions that predated her combat protocols.
She was interrupted by a call on her hand terminal, prompting her to put her broom to the side and answer it.
"Hey Bestie!" Lizzy called sweetly. "So I had some business over in Grid 086 and wanted to see if you could hang out!? So, want to meet up and chill, just like old times?"
The offer confused and interested V. While Lizzy was fun, V had truly been faking their previous friendship just for a chance to get inside her colony to kill all the Workers. Didn't she know that? Still, V was curious as to what Lizzy had to say.
"Sure, but let me ask my Hound for permission." V replied.
"Cool, see you soon!" Lizzy smiled widely before she cut the line.
Walking up the stairs to 621's room, V knocked gently on the open doorframe, getting 621's attention. The Hound seemed distracted by something on the console.
"What is it, Stray One?" 621 requested calmly.
"I had a friend who was going to be in this Grid Sector today. I was hoping for permission to go talk to them?" V requested.
621 nodded. "Sure, but stay at high altitude. Carla's been forced to pull her troops back in order to maintain control. The lower levels are in enemy hands."
"Alright, thanks for the warning." V nodded appreciatively. She went back down to the main level of the hangar. Before she left, she wrote a quick note for Uzi and N, letting them know where she was going.
As for 621, she had a message she wasn't exactly sure what to make of.
Consulting Work – "Cinder" Carla / Reward 10,000 Coam
"Something's come up." Carla was unusually professional in this message. "I need your eyes and experience. Another opinion at whatever it is I'm looking at."
"It's…strange." Ayre noticed it as well. "I think something has Carla worried."
"…" 621 agreed. This could be an interesting day. She armed herself lightly, just a handgun and some knives. No need to bring her whole kit.
RaD Headquarters
Led to the combination hangar/office that Carla liked working from by a single RaD soldier, 621 found Carla and "Chatty" Stick going over data sent their way. The woman was leaned over a high-tech desk, closely inspecting an image, while the Armored Core feigned looking back and forth between the messages, because he could just download them, and it was therefore unnecessary for him to be moving his head back and forth.
"Oh, hey tourist." Carla greeted tiredly. "Wanted some easy scrip today?"
"You're worried." 621 accused.
"…Yeah, I am." Carla gestured for 621 to come closer. She could see an active call going out to Tessa and J over in Grid 085, and neither of them seemed pleased as well. "Go on kid, tell the tourist what you told me."
"Right…" Tessa hesitated slightly, staring at 621 with a combination of fear and hate. She shook those feelings aside and made her report. "At approximately 0900 hours, we were alerted by several Worker Drones that some of the second generation Drones from the school were missing, and couldn't be located. There were also several suspicious oil slicks in corridors in and around the school. J and myself went to investigate, and noted several oil slicks corresponding to the missing Drones, and in one instance, J found this." An image came up of a dismembered Worker Drone arm, minus the rest of the Worker Drone it was supposed to be attached to.
"…" 621 scoffed. "I don't want to state the obvious but uh…" She pointed at J.
"Excuse you!" J shouted. "I did not go on a murderous killing spree in the middle of the night! I was too busy keeping a close eye on Tessa after she had been injured during training yesterday, no thanks to you!"
"J!" Tessa shouted, then reached out and put her hand on J's shoulder rubbing it affectionately. "J…only the facts please."
"Right…s-sorry boss." J calmed down, and spoke more calmly. "While it is true I hold certain strong beliefs regarding the Worker Drones, both of my masters, Tessa and 'Cinder' Carla, have ordered me to protect them, not to harm them. I promise I did not kill any Worker Drones last night."
"What's more, I analyzed the grain of the cut on the arm, and found something that doesn't make sense." Tessa added. "If it had been a Murder Drone, or even Worker on Worker violence, there would be clues to support either theory. A Murder Drone's blades always cut in a certain direction, and would have left a noticeable mark on the wounds. The wounds on the arm we found are omni-directional, cut with an extremely thin blade from the inside out."
"…Okay, that's odd." 621 was interested now, leaning down next to Carla to figure out this mystery. "How thin of a blade are we talking?"
"Thin." Tessa emphasized. "Atoms across."
"Hmm…there's nanomaterials that thin that'll cut through just about anything." 621 suggested.
"Yeah, but there were only two fractions that ever produced anything like that." Carla argued. "The League, and Laconia."
"…Hey, don't you have like total surveillance over that sector?" 621 wondered.
"You don't think I already thought of that?" Carla countered. "All of my cameras in that sector all turned around right before they could catch anything suspicious."
"Your security was hacked?" 621 wondered.
"No, most of those cameras were stationary. They were moved manually." Carla explained.
"That's…not all we found." Tessa reported. "When one of the oil slicks was cleaned up…we found this." She then sent an image of a strange and flat amalgamation of metal and wires. "I've only seen this once before…it's-"
"A flattened Worker Drone." 621 answered for Tessa,
"Yeah…" Tessa nodded. "Destroying Worker Drones isn't that difficult, but to utterly flatten them…the ones I saw had been stepped on by an Armored Core. But that couldn't have happened here…so…?"
"This is a real mystery…" Ayre added, whispering in 621's mind. "I don't have any experience to explain this…do you have an idea, Raven?"
"…" She did not.
Independent Mercenary Hangars
The first oddity Uzi noticed was that 621 and V were gone. They'd each left a note, with V saying she was meeting a friend, and 621 saying she was with Carla. Guess today was a lazy day for 621 and her squad. Whatever.
Uzi decided to get up and start double checking the AC maintenance schedule. Every single part had an expected number of operational hours that they would work while operating at peak efficiency. It was a personal project of hers to see if she could squeeze a bit more power out of the AC without degrading the operational life span of parts. Even if she could squeeze a few percentage points, it would give 621 an edge.
Plus, there was the matter of the empty pulse barrier capacitors. If what Uzi understood was correct, then placing the right equipment in that slot would give 621 either a temporary energy shield, or a new form of attack, a combination EMP with a half kiloton of explosive force called Assault Armor. Why 621 had not expressed an interest in utilizing either function confused her.
"Ahh, morning Uzi!" N called her happily.
"Morning, lazy bot." Uzi rolled her eyes, smirking. "Get plenty of sleep?"
"Yep!" N cheered. "Hey, where are V and Raven?"
"V went off to see Lizzy." Uzi spat. "And Raven is doing some kind of consulting work for Carla."
"Oh, okay." N smiled. "So just you and me buddy?"
"Yeah." Uzi shrugged. "Want to help me maintenance check the AC?"
"Sure, I love doing anything!" N cheered. Before he could help though, he got a call on his hand terminal. "Huh? Oh, Rebecca is calling."
"Rebecca!?" Uzi screeched. "Why is she calling?! Why does she have your number!?"
"Ack! Well!? Uh!?" N panicked with Uzi staring him down hatefully. "I just didn't want to be mean, okay?"
"N, don't-" Uzi demanded, but N had already accepted the call.
"N! Babe! Hun!" Rebecca called with feigned desperation. "Come hold me in your big, strong arms~! I'm scared!"
"Uh…what's wrong?" N asked, somewhat concerned.
"There were several murders last night in the Sanctuary! Really scary stuff!" Rebecca cried. "A couple of my friends got killed too! Lainey, Angela, Dillon, Kenzie…"
"…They died? How?" Uzi recognized some of those names from her school.
"Oh, is that the freak?" Rebecca's tone shifted sharply. "What are you doing hanging out with that loser, babe? Come and keep me warm instead-" Uzi reached over N's arm and cut off the call.
"Hey, Uzi, that was rude." N chastised her.
"…N…" Uzi shivered. She didn't know why, but she had a bad feeling. "I think…I think I really messed up…"
Grid 086 - Subsector Transit Line – Altitude: 5 Kilometers
It was a little strange that Lizzy wanted to meet her in a subsector between Grid 086 and 085, on one of the industrial stalactites hanging from Outer Shell, but V considered that perhaps she just didn't want to go as far.
But…didn't she say that she had business in Grid 086…?
Regardless, V found the cheerleader Worker Drone in the industrial transit lines, with large trains surrounding them on all sides. While this area was still in Carla's control, it was partially abandoned, with the closest humans more than a kilometer away.
"Hey hey bestie!" Lizzy cheered, running up to V and giving her a tight hug.
"…" V returned the hug weakly, staring confused at the top of Lizzy's head.
"Come on, let's catch up!" Lizzy pulled away, gesturing for V to follow her.
"…" V followed, uncertain, looking around suspiciously.
"So, how's it going?" Lizzy asked sweetly.
"…Fine I guess. Working for a Hound is…a new experience." V admitted. "What about you?"
"Yeah…I uh…sort of have work too…" Lizzy trailed off painfully. "But! Anything to make good scrip, right?"
"Right…good scrip." V nodded.
"So! Any fun stories with that hunk of yours, N?" Lizzy wondered, while she wandered the transit line, V in tow.
"…He asked me out again." V admitted.
"Oh, that's cute! Come on, tell me what you said? Did you turn him down again?"
"Yeah…I did…" V grit her teeth painfully.
"Ah that's too bad. You know if you don't date him someone else probably will." Lizzy reminded her.
"He's…free to do whatever he wants…sort of." V traced her control collar, knowing that "free" was a strong term, given their current status.
"Fine, fine." Lizzy shrugged. "Your loss."
"…" V stared hard at the back of Lizzy's head. "I lied you know."
"Hmm? Lied about what?" Lizzy looked curiously up at V.
"Lied about being your friend." V admitted. "I just wanted to get inside your colony and kill you all."
"Ah…well…" Lizzy averted her gaze, suddenly uncomfortable. "T-That's all in the past now." She dismissed. "New planet, new masters, no reason to get stuck in old shit."
"…Why doesn't Uzi like you?" V requested calmly.
"Huh? Who is that?" Lizzy played off.
"Uzi. Doorman." V emphasized darkly, stepping towards Lizzy with clenched fists. "I think you know her as 'freak?'"
"Oh…Oh!" Lizzy's eyes looked up in remembrance. "Y-Yeah, her…" She trailed off for a moment. "A-Ah…I'm sure you've seen how weird she is sometimes. Just really gremlin like behavior, totally insane."
"True." V agreed. "But she's also damn smart, and extremely resourceful. And…she has a good heart."
"Gosh, you sound like you like her or something." Lizzy accused.
"…Maybe." V shrugged. "I think I definitely like her more than you right now."
"Ah…" Lizzy seemed unusually nervous. She looked down at the floor anxiously, then back up at V. "Ah uh…I'm just kidding! You do whatever you like…like whomever you like. And hey! I'll support you no matter what! S-So…give it here!" Lizzy stepped back, and spread her arms in an inviting hug.
"…" V knew something was wrong, but couldn't ascertain what. She stepped right in front of Lizzy, staring down at the little drone. "What are you hiding, Lizzy?"
"Ah…ahahaha…really putting me on the spot here V…" Lizzy grinned nervously. "The truth is…I've…also…always pretended to be your friend…"
"I gathered as much." V narrowed her eyes. "Uzi warned me about that."
"Yeah…not to say I didn't ever think you were cool or anything…just that…" Lizzy trailed off, and looked down. "I didn't have a choice in the matter…"
"A choice for what?" V wondered what Lizzy was going on about.
"…I'm sorry for this." Lizzy apologized, looking truly sad.
"…?" V questioned what Lizzy was talking about, feeling unsafe in this situation…not that she understood why. She looked down and saw that Lizzy had brought her into a secluded corner of the transit line, standing on a bright red painted X.
"…!" Fuck.
There was a surge of harsh red light emanating from a nearby crate, which exploded as two long sticks of rebar rocketed towards V, and impaled her through the arms. The rebar then stuck to the side of a train behind her, leaving her pinned.
"Ahh!" V screamed, and tugged on her arms, trying to fight through the feeling of being restrained.
"I'm…sorry…" Lizzy cried, turning her back on V. "I'm sorry!" She shouted as she ran away. V then noticed another Worker Drone. Another cheerleader, with long straight purple hair and hateful red eyes. The red eyed Drone seemed to be teleporting a short distance as she strolled menacingly towards V, jumping to the left and right a foot at a time.
"[Hello V…]" Doll spat, as she casually caused another crate to explode in a shower of splinters with a wave of her hand. Another wave, and V felt an intrusive presence in her mind.
"Err!" V winced, as a memory not her own began to play.
/BEGIN PLAYBACK
She was hiding behind the seat of an abandoned car, glimpsing as she saw two struggling Worker Drones crawl desperately for their lives. Then she heard the laughing.
Wearing an X across her face, the Murder Drone V gleefully laughed with her maw gaping wide, exposing her sharp teeth. She lunged for the two Worker Drones, and howled cheerfully as she tore them limb from limb with her long claws, and consumed the remains…
/END PLAYBACK
The memory came with the emotional turmoil as well, and for a moment, V forgot who she was, as she watched herself tear her own parents apart with sadistic glee…
If she could breathe, her breath would have hitched painfully, as she grimaced sadly at the little hate filled Drone before her.
"[Anyway, you get it.]" Doll hissed, and cocked her head sharply. Her right eye flashing with that accursed symbol, a hexagon with three arrows.
"Augh!" Another rebar pole impaled V through the stomach, breaking her out of her saddened trance. Gritting her teeth, she clenched her hands in fists, and pulled hard, managing to pull her right hand free. Her arm was still impaled, but at least she could move it now.
She would have fought back if she could, but her control collar was still locked, making her far more vulnerable than she was used to. Instead, she bit on the pole in her arm, pulled it out, and threw the pole at Doll, who deflected it with a wave of her hand. V reached for the pole impaling her through the middle…
Doll summoned a kitchen knife out of thin air, and without touching it, raised it high and shot it forward towards V's right shoulder. The blade cut off her right arm with another cry of pain. The small Worker Drone then spun her hand, forming new holographic shapes, which ended up pulling the grating off of a nearby vent. A multi-bladed fan then floated out, hovering near Doll as she spun it up to speed, then threw it towards V's head like a saw blade.
"…!" V could only stare wide eyed as the spinning blade cut through the air, and towards her neck-
N came leaping out of left field, kicking the fan up and away from V, where it then embedded itself halfway into the side of the train car, and not through V. Uzi came from the other direction, throwing a wrench at Doll's face. Without moving, Doll summoned another holographic glyph that deflected the wrench, as she glared at the interlopers.
"…!" V felt equal parts relaxed and terrified, having just been saved from imminent death, but now knowing that Uzi and N would be at the mercy of this anomalous threat.
"[Uzi…you would really side with the Murder Drones?]" Doll accused, slightly shocked. "[I'm not the only one who's lost family to them.]"
"…!" V and N's eyes went wide with that statement, and what it implied, as they stared down at Uzi with newfound trepidation.
"Bite me!" Uzi shouted back. "I get it, you're upset with them, and who wouldn't be! But everything has changed Doll! This isn't home! This isn't Copper IX! We are living in a world utterly hostile to our kind, and the only friends we have are the devils we know! I'm not dealing with any of this well, but I'm done dealing with everything alone." She smiled back at N and V, nodding to them. "We move forward together, or not at all!"
"[Cute…]" Doll mocked. "[But I don't need help.]" She summoned more rebar poles from behind herself, and started launching them forward towards Uzi and N.
N kicked Uzi away from him, and out of the path of the poles, as he dodged and weaved between them, inching close enough to V that he grabbed her, and pulled her off the side of the train car before the next pole went through her head.
Uzi got up close to Doll after recovering, throwing another tool at her to keep her attention off N and V. Swatting the tool away with a flick of her wrist, Doll reached up, and made a pulling down motion.
"Huh?!" Uzi was startled to see a container falling from above directly on top of herself and Doll. She jumped back out of the way, just as the container fell, crashing into the ground with an explosive bang of partially crushed metal.
"Uzi!" N shouted, rushing towards her side. V came running with him, reattaching her right arm, flexing it back into it's socket.
"I-I'm fine!" Uzi assured him. "Is she…dead?"
"…No…definitely not." V assured them darkly, still on high alert. "Uzi, do you still have our unlock codes? We could really use our weapons."
"Huh? Oh, yeah." Uzi activated her hand terminal-
The little glass panel on her arm shattered as a glyph of a red hexagon with three arrows settled over it.
"Oh…shit…" Uzi cursed. "Guys! Call Raven!"
"Oh, right!" V and N activated their hand terminals, only for their screens to shatter as well due to the unnatural red energy.
"Uzi…" V stared at her wide eyed and worried. "Please tell me you brought a spare…"
"I…I…" Uzi shuddered. "I didn't know…we'd be going into combat. I'm sorry."
"…" V stared down at Uzi worriedly. She brought the smaller Drone into a hug with her left arm, holding her head to her chest. She grabbed N's hand with her right hand, and slowly started backing away from the area.
One of the train cars in front of them flipped onto it's side, then started sliding towards them, pushing them towards the edge of the transit line.
"Oh no no no no!" N screeched, seeing no way out of this.
"Guys!" Uzi shouted.
"Hold on!" V pulled both her friends towards the edge of the transit line, and jumped off before the train could hit them.
The train car slid off the edge of the transit line, and started falling back to distant Rubicon, five kilometers below. Doll slowly strode up to the edge, and looked down over the side.
She saw V, holding onto the edge of the line with her left hand, her right hand still holding N's hand, and Uzi with V's tail wrapped around her waist, as she was pulled up and grabbed V by the back.
"…" Doll leaned down, staring at the three Drones with hateful disinterest.
"…Just…just leave them alone!" V begged. "It's me you want! Let Uzi and N go!"
"[…Like you let my parents go?]" Doll accused, as she summoned another knife, and aimed for V's hand.
"No Doll! Don't do it!" Uzi begged as well.
Doll cut off one of V's fingers.
"Ahh!" V screamed, baring her teeth in pain she looked down, at Uzi on her back, at N by her side, and past them. "I-It's…It's going to be okay guys."
"V…what are you planning?" N asked worriedly.
"Ahh!" V shouted as she lost another finger. "J-Just trust me on this, okay?"
"V! No!" Uzi held onto V tightly.
"[Die as you lived…empty and disgraced.]" Doll cut off V's remaining finger, and caused Uzi, N, and V to fall from the transit line, down into the deep abyss.
Author's Note: So things went a little differently this time. Unlike Murder Drones Episode 3, Uzi, N, and V definitively lost here. I figured this would happen for two reasons. One, V and N's abilities were locked down, so no wings and no weapons. Two, taking place on the transit line, Doll was able to throw whole train cars at the gang, as opposed to a handful of tables. If it was just one or the other, Uzi and gang might have won, but being so vulnerable as they were, they didn't have a lot of options for dealing with Doll. So, unfortunately, I've ended this chapter with a cliffhanger on a cliffhanger. (Just as a side note, I will say that throwing that train probably took a lot of energy from Doll, so IF Uzi and friends could have lasted just a minute longer, they could have won, but, oh well.)
I will say that for this coming mini arc, 19-22, just be prepared for things to derail in a completely unexpected way. I can't explain much more now, but know that I have my reason.
Otherwise, with chapter 24 done, I have officially completed act 2 of this story, and will be moving into act 3. I'm not sure how long for certain it will be, but I am more than prepared to finish the whole damn game of events, and still throw in several of my own ideas as well. We are in for the haul.
So stay tuned mi beratnas, and abide with Rubicon!
To magenta skelter: Yeah it's just too bad the Drones don't eat human food, else I might have an excuse to include a scene like this.
To ChimaTigon (on chapter 2): I'll be sure to do interesting things with Khan. Might not be for a while though.
To 42StoneGrindstheWickedtoDust: Oh thank you! Yeah the lore I've built for this story is crazy long. And of course Iguazu will get his time to shine. And love the name by the way!
To Lord-of-fate: One of my biggest problems with coming back to this timeline after OTK was that I already kind of used J (from ACVD) in OTK, just a different interpretation. Though refusing to use him sort of saves me the trouble of not confusing my readers if J and J ever ended up being mentioned in the same scene. I will say that the reasons the So-Laconia war went so badly will eventually be revealed, as we go through acts 3 and 4.