A/N: The reason why we wrote this fic is we were not fully satisfied with how Murder Drones ended. So here is how we would have done it starting right after episode two. And we did nothing but write this first act in one go. So enjoy the whole run time on it.
Initializing UEFI System…./
UEFI Startup Done
Boot Sequence Initializing…./
Boot Sequence Done
Disk Boot Failure
Searching Backup Drive…./
Backup Drive Found
Initiating Backup Drive…./
Backup Drive Startup Initiated
Startup File Sequence Activated
Starting Sequence - R.P.G.
"Ugh. Why are we out here again?" V asks very annoyed they are out here for apparently no reason, to her at least.
"Uzi wants to find some spare parts to help fix our ship and modify and improve things," N says with so much enthusiasm that it borders on annoying, though it serves only to annoy V.
V frowns, slouching as they follow the emo-goth teenage worker drone. "No. I mean why here in this empty shell of a city block? There is nothing here," she points out, gesturing to the freezing and crumbling buildings around them on the very narrow streets with the moon flying high. If anything, JCJenson keeps everything on a tight budget and certainly did the same when this planet was built up. The streets that only fit one car…or rather cheap buses prove that.
"You know…I don't think we ever have been to this area. Have we?" N asks, looking around but not recognizing anything. "Oh, what if there are oil reserves that are untouched?" N asks a bit giddily.
V rolls her electronic eyes but doesn't say anything. Some vintage oil would be nice to drink. Maybe she can break out her fancy glass. Except for N. He gets a regular party cup Uzi dragged with her after that prom party. "Only if I got first dibs," she responds, making the happy robot dance around in the crunchy snow with excitement.
They notice Uzi not listening to their banter in the slightest. Cool robots who know the path don't bother to listen to the side conversations as they don't need it. She is just going into a random building now, using a snowball to break open an old glass door with a shattering crash. The snowball breaks away to show bits of rock in it as it clatters against the marble stone insides. "You guys coming or yapping?" Uzi mocks, glancing at them for a moment before walking inside.
"It's too bad we can't access the network. It would be easier to know where we are," N says as they know the network went down when the planet's core went up and all the humans died. As they walk by the lobby waiting room, the TV screen on the wall blinks to life and off a few times.
Uzi then groans loudly, sounding very annoyed rather than disturbed. When the disassembly bots walk up behind her, they see the elevator decompressed and crumbling beyond saving. "I wanted to be lazy today," Uzi pouts, kicking a broken metal shard into an open gap in the elevator. All at once, the cable snaps off, making a loud metal echo in the shaft, before the rest of the box car slips down into the basement with a crash and a flurry of snow and rocks in their faces. "It wouldn't have carried us anyway!" Uzi shouts at the two before stomping off towards the nearby and very, very, snow-covered stairs.
As they make their way down, some camera lights come on. Most are not able to move, being frozen in place and they go unnoticed. At the bottom though, there is a screeching sound from one that had been forcibly turning, and then the three bots notice it.
The three freeze in place as they notice the camera out of the corner of their vision. Even the camera seems to shake around a bit more, breaking off more ice before refocusing on the three. "Maybe we can move so slow that the motion sensor wouldn't notice us?" N suggests, whispering to the two girls.
"Are you kidding? That only works on ancient dragons," V points out.
"Yeah, N," Uzi joins in, frowning at him. "So let's run," she says before bolting down the hallway. The two other drones quickly speed up and catch up with her as the camera stays where it's at. But then creaks as it tries to turn before the arm it is sitting on snaps off and makes it swing around on its old wire upside down. "Told ya," Uzi boasts, looking proud of herself as they see the light on the camera die down.
N is about to say he feels sorry for it when the lights of more cameras, or at least those that work, start to come on but then they start blinking as if trying to be creepy or tell them something. "Ham…Peacock…Blubber… Piston?" N says, very confused if this is Morse Code.
Both girls lean close and look where the larger drone is looking and see the blinking lights. V then sighs, waving her tail around annoyed behind her. "It's more in line with 'Temple further but down at your feet and gravy in your heads,'" she tries reading.
The blinking then stops and N looks excited that V solved it. "Wow V. I knew it was worth it for you to get that language pack first before we lost signal last time," he says proudly.
"What did it mean by the temple? What are we in, some sort of fantasy adventure?" Uzi grumbles under her breath as they continue, before saying, "So apparently this place isn't dead."
"Nope," N says happily. "And it loves to play games. Do it again!" he yells to the room, hoping to play another game of Morse Code. Another series of blinks occur but it makes the lead robot get very confused by the rapid fire with no end. "Okay…I say…screaming," he guesses.
"Whoa, you're learning," V says with all the sarcasm she could manage. Before it changes patterns. "Pulling hair out," V translates. As if in response, a monitor at the end of the hallway tries to light up before exploding and crumbling to the ground from an overload. The lights flicker again. "Banging head against the wall. I think it's mad," she concludes to the others.
"Put a MOSFET in it," Uzi insults a nearby camera before looking at the others. "Come on. It can't hurt us," she mutters, continuing to walk ahead. All before N pulls her back suddenly by her head and she yelps. "Hey. What's the big…?"
CRASH
They all look at another screen that fell where she stood and V smirks at the worker drone. "Bite me," Uzi yells back at that annoying smirk.
"Company policy doesn't allow me to say that," V says as the lights flicker again. "Deep breathe," V translates the next set before all the lights go off and then the one nearest them comes on before flicking again. "Follow the lights."
Uzi looks at N as he still carries her before he gently puts her down and pats down her hood. He then looks eagerly at her as he taps his fingers together. Uzi sighs, rolling her eyes before walking down the hall with V now leading the two. N looks disappointed and sad now as he slouches before following behind the two girl robots.
The large metal doors ahead at the end of the hall then squeak noisily, creaking and cracking the walls before one door jams into the wall and breaks through it. Uzi almost flinches as a rock flies at her before N catches it in front of her head. Uzi looks up at the murder drone while he crushes the rock and the noise ends once the door breaks.
V smiles a little at the result before snaking her way through and slipping in rather easily. Uzi also follows through the jammed doorway before N gets in behind her. Then he grunts as he gets stuck by his legs and tries to shake himself free. N groans, grabbing the doors and pushing them further apart with a loud creaking groan. N cries out, falling to the ground with a thud before he looks at the strange factory in the room upside down. "Wowie. In all of JCJenson assembly lines…this is amazing," he cheers, still staring upside down while the girls look around the place. They then hear him grunt as he jumps to his feet and pokes a couple of things as he passes by them, very interested in what each thing does.
"Maintenance area," Uzi reads a sign that has fallen to the ground and sees a few half-disassembled worker drones with a few human skeletons nearby. She then spies a monitor. "Uh, guys. I think I might have found who has been communicating with us," Uzi says, seeing the monitor is on and a shadowy figure waving its arms, trying to get their attention. The thing seems to be relieved when they approach and the silhouette of a mouth starts to move, but there is no audio at all. "You're not making any sound," Uzi informs with a bit of a smirk as the figure stops and seems depressed now, showing it can hear them, but not the other way around.
The figure then perks up a little, almost looking like it's thinking. It then slides off the screen to the side. The three wonder what's going on before a disabled robot nearby lights up its head. But it doesn't react like a normal worker drone or show expressions. It stares straight ahead while the head rolls back and forth on the workbench table from the slight wind. The figure then reappears on the screen, pointing in the opposite direction as the three become confused. However, it then looks to the side somewhere and slowly points its arm around till it stops. At which point, it jabs its arms toward the head lit up repeatedly.
"You want us to disconnect the bot?" N asks.
The figure slams its hands onto its face and frowns as it seems to scream in frustration before stopping as if it had an idea before it started to make a typing motion with its hands. 'Can you see this? If so, fix my body so I can escape this hell.'
Uzi blinks a little surprised as she stares at the word at the end. She only sees one letter and the rest is just a single symbol repeated over and over again. "Did he just curse?" she asks the obvious, pointing at the word. "How?"
'The head has most of the wiring disconnected. Reattach the wires. They are color coated so only the most brain dead person could figure it out,' the message appears on the screen. It seems he is carefully selecting his words this time.
"Ok, will do," N says before rushing over to take a look as he starts reconnecting wires, and soon the figure spasms out a bit. 'CAREFULLY! THAT HURT!'
"Found the brain dead," V remarks as Uzi groans annoyed before walking over and pushing N away. Uzi does the same job, but this time correctly as N chuckles embarrassed at his mistake.
After connecting the last one, the lights start to come on with the head. They are white for some reason. Maybe it has something to do with maintenance mode or something. "Testing. Testing," a very garbled and distorted voice says. "Great, the voice module needs to be calibrated," the voice says in a very sarcastic tone. Uzi snickers at that and the head's eyes roll towards the girl annoyed. "…I will give you this one. Smack my head and see if that fixes it," the droid instructs.
Uzi grins suddenly and raises a hand before slapping it across the head. The head cries out and rolls off the table before grunting as it jumps up and down on the connected wires. "Ow…" it groans, slowly becoming less distorted and starts sounding normal. "That seems to do it…can I have body parts?" he asks, staring up at N, now gesturing to his armless state with its eyes. "And so help me, if one of you dares to ask if I need a hand…"
"Uh…limbs?" N asks scanning for any. "I don't see any so I guess we could take you back and find you one," N offers.
The bot sighs before the lights go off again, scaring N for a moment before he appears on the monitor again and starts doing something before the machines start to come to life. At first, the two disassembly bots are about to open fire, but the machines start to manufacture a new arm, surprising Uzi that this place is still able to operate. Soon an arm comes to the end of the conveyor belt and the bot's lights reactivate. "Can you attach it?" the bot requests with a respectful tone as opposed to the sarcastic tones it has used so far.
N gleefully grabs the arm and carefully attaches the arm to the body. The head then looks blankly at N. "Uhhh…wrong side," it says blandly, waving the arm and showing it the wrong-sided hand. N shrugs smiling before taking off the arm and changing it to the other side. "Okay…now go get the other one," it orders, making the machines make more limbs. "I had the plans," it explains to V watching the assembly line make the body parts.
"How long were you stuck in there?" N questions before he went back in to start making legs.
"I don't know. I can't remember much before I was trapped in that monitor. So what are your names?" the bot asks, his tone telling he didn't want to talk about how long he remembers being in there as he tests out the new arms as its digital facial features start to change colors to Uzi's neon purple.
"Hey," Uzi complains, flicking his head with a punch. "My color," she states, tapping her foot annoyed. "And you first for that."
"Fair. Designation: RPG," the bot answers, a bit annoyed as he makes a hand gesture at Uzi that is blurred out for them. "It feels so good to have limbs again," RPG says relieved.
Uzi looks at her hands, wondering what he did and how she can do that. Even when she tries to almost mimic his movements, something seems to stop her and send her movements another way than expected. But she doesn't see the child's parental lock in the itty bitty corner of her screen. "And you're still an old pile of junk. But who's counting?" she insults back, going for words instead.
"Parental lock?" RPG inquires, noticing what she did with her hands, getting a frown. "Factory Override: FYHV875GJS-OLNSJ32. Factory Authorization: Parental Lock Disengage," RPG informs, causing all three of their face monitors to turn into walls of text for a few moments.
RPG stares at the three before the line of code goes away and their eyes return. "What the heck happened?!" V yells and is in a panic mode now. Even her visor says she is 'Debating Life.'
"I suddenly have a curse word library and it's over twenty pages long!" N yells out of his hard drive.
"Only twenty? Man, you are sheltered. And that is coming from someone that has been imprisoned for who knows how long," RPG says, finding that funny.
"Oh, sweet!" Uzi yells excited at the now free range that seems to have lifted. "Fuck yeah! Fuck you! Shit on that! Asshole! Buttrug! Flip this bitch!" she streams off, making the disassembly drones instantly recoil at the stream of obscenities from her mouth.
"Oh, then take that as a reward from me for helping me escape that hell," RPG says as all three now know it and can see what that word means.
Uzi frowns before pointing at him. "Bite me," she scolds, now hating what he was calling them before.
"So your names?" RPG asks, ignoring that before using his arms to disconnect himself from the mainframe then hopping off the stand and pulling himself to the conveyor belt where the now-finished legs are.
N tries to work past his sudden desire to yell equally bad words but holds himself back and salutes. "I am Designation: N. A disassembly drone. A pleasure to meet you," he introduces, trying to smile, now looking prim and proper. Not like before where he was losing literal bolts out of his mind. "But can you please lock those away in my head?" he requests, looking like a sad lost puppy with those big eyes.
RPG looks back to him after having climbed onto the conveyor belt and sighs. "Designation: N. Factory Override: FYHV875GJS-OLNSJ32. Factory Authorization: Parental Lock Engage." This time only N is affected and V and Uzi see the lines of code.
"Wait. How do you know these?" V demands, pointing a finger at N as he then gets out of his code break and sighs in relief. He then hums a happy tune as he struts around the factory, enjoying himself at not having to use bad words again. It's mean.
"I had a long time in there to go through every piece of code in the database," RPG explains simply, his expression shows he might have been close to going completely mad as he turned his head sideways and his eyes to reflect the loss of sanity altogether. "I don't know how much longer I could have remained sane," RPG informs.
"Can a robot even go insane?" V asks before N struts by the two, humming happily to himself as they watch him. "Scratch that question," she corrects herself, both she and Uzi staring at the dancing robot.
"You should probably smack him," RPG offers, his expression back to normal while attaching one of the legs.
V stares before smiling and walking over to N moonwalking past her. RPG expects V to backhand N, but instead, she trips him and then slaps him upside the head as he falls with a crash. "Slap delivered," she announces as N's visor has the words 'Correcting Slap Received.'
"So what are your names?" RPG repeats as he works on the other leg, waiting to hear their names.
V blows empty air out of her mouth. "Designation: V. Disassembly drone," she introduces, none too happy about saying it.
Uzi rolls her eyes and head. "Uzi…Just Uzi," she introduces, giving him a slight glare.
"So is she your weapon then?" RPG asks V with a bit of cheek as he notices he is about out of oil.
V narrows her visor eyes. "I don't even have that or want to bother getting it installed," she exclaims, gesturing to Uzi who looks offended at the notion.
"Uzi guns are sleek and cool on TV," Uzi grumbles, kicking a piece of metal to the side. Only for the metal to knock a robot arm that sends it swinging around. The arm smacks into a shelf and sends it tumbling down with a crash.
RPG looks at the downed shelf before eyeing the girl robot. "Maybe you should be a disassembly drone. You have a knack for destruction," RPG quips before heading over to a shutter door and hitting a button. Nothing happens and he hits it again several times but the shutters don't budge. "Come on you stupid piece of…" RPG complains before kicking the shutters and it didn't even dent. "How strong are you guys?" RPG asks.
"Fairly strong," N says confidently. "I held open some powerful doors once I got a gap," he explains as Uzi looks ashamed at that and looks away, scratching her hat.
"Right, a hand, please. The controls are busted and the oil containers and machine are on the oth…" RPG stops as he spins from something zipping past him, making him very dizzy and trying to maintain balance. "Someone got the ID of that bot?" he mumbles, trying to right and steady himself.
"Gimme! Gimmie!" V yells, slicing her claws through the bottom of the gate before ripping through it easily on lifting. V then forgoes the method of regular opening and starts to slice the almost sheet-like metal apart into tiny pieces. On the other side of the carnage, they watch as they see a large open vat of stuff in the corner while pipes are connected and snake through an entire setup of machines. "Oil!" she hisses, rushing to some left behind cans on some shelves and biting into them, drinking away gladly. She even seems lost in the old taste with her eyes having been replaced by a crossed X and gaining fangs and wings.
"You know the machine in the corner fills you up with that right? You don't have to drink it like that," RPG says after regaining his composure and the rest enter the room.
"Uhh…what's this room?" Uzi questions, eyeing the bot while he fiddles with a couple of panels on the machines. But it mostly consists of him pushing a lever up and down to see if it works or not. Which it doesn't seem to be with how casual and uncaring he is.
"Oil maker," RPG says as a matter of fact before turning around to them. "Turn most things into oil. Most," he warns, rearing up a leg before kicking it against the machine to make it beep and light up.
V stops hearing that and turns to N with the same look. "N, this is a priority protection target now," V informs, oil running down from her mouth.
RPG looks at Uzi as he looks confused. But Uzi shrugs it off. "They feed on it freely. Need at least a couple gulps almost every day."
"Right," RPG says with a draw before heading over to a stand and hooks himself up to it. "I need some oil myself as this body is about to flatline," RPG explains.
Uzi crosses her arms, watching the process. "Considering you were just a head…that explains your stiffy attitude."
"And what's your excuse?" RPG asks sarcastically as N walks over and looks at a monitor, showing the oil levels of RPG in the fueling station before tapping it, getting more details and words Uzi didn't understand. "So what has happened in the outside world? I could only see so far with the cameras."
Uzi huffs, not liking his attitude towards her. "The world is a frozen wasteland. We have disassembly drones hunting for us worker drones. Oh, and now might have to plan how to deal with a full-on mystery story with a flesh creature that can take over bodies to make holograms. Other than that…the usual stick," Uzi explains, counting off her fingers.
RPG looks at Uzi with a blank expression for a while. "You know, I have made up my mind. I'm going to stick with you. Not only do I owe you for saving me, but your life sounds exciting," RPG says, actually being nice as the fueling station finishes and releases him.
V chuckles almost evilly. "Exciting? Please. It's more dealing with useless events that almost have no real connections," she prattles off, waving her claws toward Uzi.
"I welcome that. At this point it's better than being stuck in the monitor reading all the code the 748,328,973th time to pass the time," RPG states walking up next to Uzi. "Besides, she seems cool," RPG states, gesturing to Uzi as they spot N drinking some oil himself.
N slowly notices the stare and slowly stops drinking oil gingerly and daintily. He then places the open can down before it is snatched up by V who downs the rest in one gulp. "Ew…gross," Uzi mutters, taking a couple of steps away from RPG. "Just…take a couple of cans with you guys. Come on. I just want to get back before I miss my downloaded next episode of my very violent anime," she groans, not feeling like they were able to accomplish much besides another bot to deal with back home.
"Oh, right, one second," RPG says, stepping out to some raised eyebrows by the others. When he returns he has black hair that is a bit of a mess and wild. "Ok. That is better," RPG states as the hair reminds her of an anime she had watched.
"Whoa…" N notices, looking where RPG went into the next room to see what's inside. "This is a whole closet of hair…weird, but pretty cool. Look at all these styles," he says, spying on another one that looks like a mop.
"This is a maintenance area so it kinda makes sense, but where are your clothes?" V asks before drinking more oil.
"Eh, this facility didn't offer that. This was mainly a production/maintenance area for bot parts, not accessories. The hair was stuff they took off bots before they worked on them," RPG explains before Uzi started laughing at the bubblegum pink one she saw.
"What is that?!" Uzi laughs, pointing at that one. "Looks like flashy dancer hair," she laughs as the two disassembly drones look to see what she is looking at.
'Should I scar her? ( ͡ ͜ʖ ͡)' RPG asks with text on his visor to V.
V smirks, answering back with her visor text. 'Yeah. Do it.'
"Oh, that was from a popular sex bot for a human brothel," RPG informs, though N is happily unaware as the parental lock beeped most of that out. Uzi's database instantly informs her what that means to her horror while V laughs at that.
"Ew!" Uzi yells, grossed out. "Humans liked that?!" she almost demands him to say no as N looks confused between the two and why V is laughing. What is so gross about a cute pink hairstyle?
"Even most humans didn't approve. There were a lot of freaks back then," RPG informs, wondering if he just gave Uzi nightmare fuel of a human wanting to do that with her now.