"darkXwolf17?"
"I made it when I was 8! Bite me!" Uzi huffs as she finishes logging onto her computer, cables connected to N, V, and J's head as she begins to search through their memory banks.
Much to their dismay, the second the Murder Drones actively searched for memories of their past, the Solver's programming immediately began to try and reset them and purge their memory banks! So now it's a race against the clock as Uzi hacks her way in. Max couldn't help much but thankfully the human could at least provide some conversation to keep Uzi company and not feel like she has to solve this problem alone.
"Hey I never said it was bad, a bit of a mouthful maybe, but it's a fun name." Max praises Uzi, the drone just looking away with a minor blush. "Now, let's see what we can do to save our friends and your boyfriend's brains from becoming soup."
"W-wha, N isn't my boyfriend! I, we, we just like to hang out!" Uzi yells out flustered while Max chuckles.
"Relax, I'm just teasing…but it is a shame because I think he likes you.~"
"Really?!" Uzi turns to the human, just for her eyes to widen as Max smirks, realizing she just got played. "Oh, fuck you!"
"Ha! Only if N approves.~" Max continued to tease as Uzi felt her circuits get warmer.
"You-…wait would you actually?" Uzi asks in a genuine manner, catching Max off guard as he blushes.
"Well I mean-" He turns and sees Uzi with a gremlin smile. "Okay you got me…but the answer is yes. Believe it or not, I've come to terms that you four are pretty hot." Uzi is completely shocked by Max's bluntness. one hand feeling incredibly flustered, on the other hand she gets a huge ego boost from being called hot.
"Jeez, you're gross…" Uzi mumbles trying to focus on anything else but this, but has too many questions. "…and here I thought you were gonna be a thing with J."
"See, that's a bit complicated. I'm pretty sure she only said that stuff to get me back in control of myself, but then there's the fact she was willing to go so far for me…I just don't know if she likes me for me, or just likes that I'm a human that can occasionally take charge. I think we'll need to be more comfortable shooting the breeze as friends for a bit longer before I can consider myself comfortable with the idea of getting intimate like that with her."
Max tried to explain his thought process as best as he could, and Uzi tried her best to make sense of his words and came to a strange conclusion. "…but you're comfortable with the idea of doing that with me and N?"
"Okay, I mostly was teasing, but a part of me does like the idea. I'll be honest, before you met N, I was wondering if we would end up dating." At that, Uzi's face overheats for a bit before she sips some canned motor oil in an attempt to cool herself down. "As for N? The dude is way too sweet. It would be a crime to not wanna give him at least one kiss." At that, Uzi can't find any good rebuttal. "In the end though, I'm happy for whoever you decide to date. Whether it's N, me, V, or both N and V if you wanna get sandwiched between two hot Disassembly Drones.~" Max was being genuine at first, but couldn't help slipping the naughty image into Uzi's head, giving the drone a massive bisexual panic.
"AAAAAAHH! You're the WORST!" Uzi crushes the motor oil can and tosses it and Max's face, the human wincing but still laughing at Uzi's adorable reaction. "Hmph, maybe I won't invite you to any hypothetical threesome."
Max blushes at that but still can't help but laugh. "Damn Uzi, hitting me with the cockblock is low."
"Die mad.~" Uzi sticks her tongue out at him before returning her attention to her computer screen. "Oh wait, I think I got something!"
Thus the two of them looked through the drone's memories of the manor, learning of their origins as worker drone's who were close to a sweet human named Tessa, who unfortunately had quite the strict and unloving rich parents. N was quite the cute little butler, J worked quite close to Tessa and was even allowed to be with her at the ball, and V used to wear glasses! It was a very cute look on her, and very good teasing material.
"Wait, is that why V sometimes calls me a purple thing? Does she need glasses to see better?" Uzi asks, Max's eyes widening.
"Huh, it's not a common glitch but sometimes some drones end up with imperfect vision. It's costly to fix up so some humans either replace the drone, or with good insurance they would get glasses for them. Maybe we can find some for V."
Another interesting thing to note, the drones could only see the humans as just human shaped shadows with white eyes. "Weird, that must be the identity filter."
"The 'what filter'?" Uzi asks.
"It's a built-in visual bug for all worker drones. They didn't want drones to be able to differentiate between humans, instead they would see all humans as the same and serve them all equally. That was the stated reason, some humans theorized the identity filter was to hide the humans responsible for any shady activities, that way drones couldn't report any humans responsible for misconduct or horrible treatment either humans or drones."
"Yeesh, add that to the tally of why humans suck…well, most humans." Uzi glances at Max who just chuckles.
"Ha, no argument here. Though I wonder, do they still have the filter and see me as just a shadow?"
"Hmm, I don't know for sure. I know I can see your dumb human face, but we can ask them afterwards."
"Alright, now you're starting to sound racist. I'm an endangered species, you should treat me better." Max teasingly reprimands while Uzi just playfully rolls her eyes.
The biggest thing Max noticed was Cyn. She used to be just a regular worker drone. The way she called N her big brother, the flat voice but subtle and real emotions…that was all a real unique personality, not just emotions faked to hide in plain sight. It was obvious the Solver had a hold of her body and mind but…Max wasn't sure about the idea that there wasn't any Cyn to begin with. Someone is there underneath the Solver's wicked desire for the extinction of all life.
Then they come across the horrifying revelation that the Solver has been making literal Frankenstein monsters with drone parts. Horrific experiments that transformed N, V, and J into the Murder Drones they are today…and the Solver had many backups of each of them for if any one of them were to perish in battle.
They were getting closer to saving the drones' memories thanks to Uzi's hacking allowing her to fight the Solver's control. Unfortunately they were interrupted when Doll, with an eyepatch over her right eye on her visor, showed up uninvited.
"Fucking hell Doll! Now is not the time!" Max yells out as he's pinned by a solver symbol while Uzi and Doll fight over some Keybug.
"You don't even know what that thing does."
"You wanting it tells me you shouldn't have it!"
"You are so petty…"
"This is the only clue to what's wrong with me!" The two argue back and forth, their solver constructs pulling and fighting for the Keybug. Unfortunately, N, V, and J's bodies spark, their systems in danger of the Solver's memory purge.
Max tries to think of a way to help solve his dilemma, and a plan comes to mind. "I have an idea! I'll go with Doll!"
"What?!" Uzi screams in confusion.
"What?" Doll flatly asks.
"Listen! Look, for Uzi I can help by keeping an eye on Doll and report back with any information I gather to fix whatever the Solver did, and for Doll I can provide human skills like fingerprints or retinal scans! Who knows what kind of security is in whatever place you're going to? A human can make a massive difference!"
Doll and Uzi glance at each other trying to decide what to do.
"Are you happy with this arrangement?" Uzi asks, just for Doll to shake her head.
"Nope. Are you?"
"Nope." The two look each other in the eye, and nod. Doll drops the construct holding up Max, and Uzi hands over the Keybug to Doll. Immediately Uzi gets back on her computer to save the Murder Drones before it's too late. "Don't let her slip from you Max! I'm counting on you!"
"I won't let you down Uzi!" Max dashes toward Doll, grabbing her shoulder before she can even think of teleporting without him.
"You don't trust me do you?"
"I want to, but I can't."
"…smart boy." In a glitchy red burst, the two teleport out of the colony.
The two find themselves out in the frozen wasteland, Max dazed from the teleportation. "Ugh, that never gets easier to deal with. So where to now?"
"Just a second, there's someone I need to have a chat with." Doll walks forward, Max following behind her as they traverse the icy ground before coming across a strange spaceship…with spider-like legs? In front of the ship…is a human in a space suit.
"Wait, what? I thought I was-"
"Oh Doll you made it! Do you have it?" The woman speaks up, Doll looking at the Keybug in her hand.
"…I changed my mind. I think I'll work better with a different human." Doll decides as she glances at Max.
"Oh yeah? You really think you can trust the ONLY human that managed to survive a PLANET WIDE explosion? Also hi there stranger! Have we met? I'm Tessa!" She introduces herself as if she didn't just try to make Doll question his trustworthiness.
"Great, first human I meet out of cryosleep and already I don't like you." Max glares, a familiar ache growing in his head and tickle in his throat nearly making him cough.
"…solver…" Death whispers softly. Doll feels herself wavering before she glares at Tessa and speaks up.
"…and what makes you more trustw-" In the blink of an eye, Tessa pulls out a pistol and pulls the trigger, aiming right at Doll. This wasn't just a warning shot to see if Doll was infected, she was shooting to kill.
Feeling his body move on its own, Max reacts far faster than he normally should be able to. In that split second, the human pushes Doll out of the way, his arm outstretched as the bullet misses the drone only to penetrate Max's wrist instead!
"FUCK!" Max shouts out in pain as he clutches his wrist, looking at the fresh bullet wound leaving a smoldering hole as blood flows from the open wound. Doll is shocked as she registers that Tessa just shot at her, and that the human that couldn't risk trusting her… just saved her. Sure the bullet wouldn't have killed her permanently with the Solver's powers influencing her…but it would have left her completely vulnerable for whatever Tessa has planned.
"Tessa! What did you do?!" Everyone's attention shifts to behind Tessa, where N was standing with Uzi, V, and J. All of them were incredibly shocked to see another human despite what Death said, and that it was Tessa…who just shot at their friend!
"N! You don't understand, he's not human! He's a danger to everyone!" Tessa immediately began to explain.
"He's our friend!" N shouts.
"He's working with Cyn!" As the two argue, something N never thought he'd do with Tessa, Doll grabs Max's hand and teleports. "See! He's escaping with her! After them!"
Given no time to think properly, the group starts running after Doll and Max as the Russian Drone continues to teleport again and again in an attempt to escape.
"NO! GO BACK! THE SOLVER IS RIGHT THERE! WE CAN END IT ALL NOW!" Death roars in Max's mind. The human can feel Death trying to take control. Max struggled, trying to pull his bleeding wrist out of Doll's scared tight grip.
"Wait! Slow down!" Max yells out, going into a violent coughing fit. His head is dizzy from Death's yelling and fighting for control along with the pain of his wrist being repeatedly tugged at.
"No, I can't! I won't let her stop me. You risked your life for me, the least I can do is help you escape." Doll explains in between warps, just to use her other hand to create the solver symbol and block incoming gunshots from Tessa.
"It's not that! I don't think-" Another teleport. "-my wrist can-" One more red glitched warp, and the two jump toward a hole in a massive complex leading to some labs. However, while in midair, Tessa takes aim and fires once again. The bullet soars through the cold night air before blasting clean through already weakened flesh and bone. Doll looks behind her and her eye widens to the sight of Max's hand having been ripped off his wrist. She weakly drops the disembodied hand before teleporting down into the hole.
Max looks at the stump where his hand just was as he falls down the hole to the labs.
Falling…
Bleeding…
Fainting…
…
…
…
CRACK!
Max lets out a startled noise as he wakes up, panting heavily as he looks around, only to find himself in that strange cloud floored space Death took him to before.
"Death? Where are you?" Max asks as she scans the empty expanse.
"I'm right here." Max is startled as he turns and finds the plastic looking skull and black cloak on the leather armchair. He could have sworn nothing was there a second ago, but decides to focus on the main issue.
"What happened?"
"You stupidly fell right on top of your head. Your skull is shattered and your brain is bleeding both internally and externally. Right now I'm doing everything in my power to heal that and every other bit of damage to your body."
"You can heal that much?"
"Oh please, I can travel the galaxy in mere nanoseconds. Repairing a human brain and skull is far easier. If the Solver can give her stupid toys regenerative abilities, then I can easily do better and fix something much more complex."
"Solver…hey that's right! You were screaming in my head! I couldn't focus at all and lost my hand!" Max growls out at the skeleton head.
"YOU lost your hand because you let that stupid bot pull you away from the Solver! I almost couldn't tell she was there because of that stupid skinsuit, but she can't hide from me. She was right there and instead of jumping in to fight her, you let her shoot you and ran away!"
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! It was Tessa who shot me not-" Max pauses as he starts connecting the pieces. "Wait…that's not Tessa in the suit?"
"In a way, she is technically still there…"
"WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?! It's this cryptic bullshit and not telling me anything that makes it so hard to ever trust you! What are you hiding? How do you know the Solver is the one in the suit!?"
"I-I just know. I know of every human death. I can only tell you so much. The information could very well shatter your mind if you knew everything. What you need to do is just do what I say and we can beat her!"
"THAT'S NOT HOW THIS WORKS! You have no concern for the drones, no concern for me and my body, and have given me NOTHING to work with to trust anything you say! Instead you constantly act like this superior being and talk down to me!"
"That's because I AM SUPERIOR!" The skull shouts without even moving an inch. Yet still the voice boomed and shook Max to his core. "I HAVE LIVED BEFORE HUMANITY EVEN EXISTED! I HOLD POWER AND KNOWLEDGE THAT GOES BEYOND YOUR PUNY IMAGINATION! I…AM…GOD!"
At that, Max goes silent, staring at the skull completely stunned…only for a fire to roar in his heart. "…you're no god. You're nothing more than a parasite." Max hisses out, voice filled with venom even as he could feel the rage growing in the entity before him. "Let me out of here now. We're finished."
"I can't let you go." The skull speaks in a quieter but still seething voice. "I still need your body to stop the Solver."
"Too bad! If you're so powerful then stop her yourself!" Max began to walk away, stomping on the cloudy floor as he walked toward the horizon…only to inexplicably find himself back in front of the leather armchair.
"You can't escape, this world is specifically crafted to keep you in a perfectly safe bubble. This allows me to interact with you without destroying your sanity." Death explains as Max stubbornly continues to look around, running in different directions. Every step he takes only brings him back to the beginning. "It's completely pointless! You can't escape!"
"…maybe I can't escape, but I can still break out." Max looks down at the cloudy surface before stomping down on it. It's faint, but he can feel it, there's a floor beneath the cloud cover. "If I can't run out of the bubble, then I just need to pop it!"
"The bubble is just a metaphor! It's the perfect prison! You can't break out! Your body isn't nearly strong enough to break something of my creation! Not even with the strongest man-made weapon in existence!"
"…funny you say that. There is a weapon here that wasn't man-made in the slightest." Max stomps toward the skull and cloak before tossing them off the armchair. Immediately the clouds vanish, revealing a cold black glass floor underneath while a crimson sky replaces the false peaceful blue. Max lifts up the chair, feeling his body strain itself to lift the whole piece of furniture, but his rage continues to fuel him as he lifts it high above his head, just to swing it down against the floor, a massive thud echoing across the endless prison.
"You don't know what you're doing!" Death can be heard yelling as his body slowly forms from the skull and cloak. Max just grunts angrily as he slams the chair again and again into the black floor.
"Just give up already! Face it Maxwell, what can one human do? You're not a higher being like me, the Solver has killed billions of your kind, and you're not even any stronger than those metal monsters she created! You're just a weak human!"
"…you know what!?" Max slams the chair harder into the floor, his rage reaching its limit, and breaking through. "FUCK HIGHER BEINGS!" Max shouts as he bangs the chair against the floor, a tiny crack forming much to Death's surprise. "FUCK THE SOLVER!" The human pounds the piece of furniture harder against the crack, the fracture growing and splintering further. "AND FUCK, YOU!" Max roars with all his heart as he raises the chair high in the air before swinging it down one last time, the floor shattering like glass as the improvised weapon breaks through. The floor's cracks rise into the horizon, reaching higher and higher until the cracks split the crimson sky, revealing a black void behind it. More and more of the false dreamland cracks and splinters until it all completely shatters, leaving Max and Death floating in an endless black void.
"…fine…you want the truth? Here's the truth." Death's body was complete, his cloaked form almost seamlessly blending in with the void. The only thing standing out were his dusty white boney hands under his sleeves as he spread his arms, gesturing to the area around him. "The endless darkness, the void that encompasses nothing and everything at the same time. THIS, is me. I tried to get you to work with me, but it seems I'm better off just taking what is mine."
Immediately Max feels the darkness begin to crawl over his boots, climbing onto his legs and going higher and higher! "Fucking hell! Get off me!" Max yells out as he kicks his feet, trying to keep the darkness off of him as it both splashed like icy water from the deepest abyss of the ocean, yet stuck to his body like sticky webs from some gigantic arachnid! The more Max struggled, the more the darkness sucked him in, Max slowly becoming one with the void.
"It's time I do what I do best…" Death sighs softly as the void continues to consume Max, his arms becoming trapped as he desperately struggles for freedom. "Just give in. If you do, you'll finally get to be at peace with every other human who perished. You'll never have to fight again."
Max yells out just for the darkness to web over his mouth, more and more inky blackness crawling onto him until he's completely submerged in the darkness. Small bubbles of air pop slowly from the tar like void as Death chuckles darkly. "Hmph. And that's the end of humanity…now to finish healing the body. Thankfully it seems those sentinels have no interest in him. Whether they recognize his shambling healing body as a real human or a corpse is up in the air. But at least now I don't have to deal with-" Death is cut off as he feels a strange hot sensation in his chest.
"Ugh, is this what heartburn is like for humans? Should have known he'd still be a problem even when consumed. Oh well, not like he can do much else." Death figured just to clasp his chest as he felt it getting hotter. "…that's not right, sure I've never eaten an entire human soul before, but it shouldn't be causing this much of a reaction right?!"
Slowly, more bubbles began to form where the human vanished into the darkness. The bubbles froth and foam, more and more appearing as if it was boiling hot! Then, out of the abyss, a human hand thrusts out. "No…I-it's not possible! IT CAN'T BE!" Death's momentary fear of this completely new circumstance shifts into rage as he watches Max claw his way out of the darkness. Every bit of darkness that tried to grasp at Max recoiled in pain as if it burned to touch the furious human.
"YOU CAN'T BE ABLE TO ESCAPE! I AM YOUR GOD, I CONTROL LIFE AND DEATH! I CONTROL YOU!"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Max roars out in an equally booming voice, slowly climbing up onto his feet with a raging inferno visible in his eyes. Death steps back in surprise before growling viciously.
"You…YOU INSIGNIFICANT WASTE OF LIFE! You dare tell me what to do? I WILL TEAR YOUR SOUL APART BIT BY BIT UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT!" Death screeched as he transformed one of his skeletal hands in a vicious set of razor sharp claws. "DIE!" Death screams as he slashes at Max's neck…only for the gnarled nails to phase right through the human. "I-impossible…" Death's voice goes quiet just for Max to grab him by his cloak with both hands.
"You forgot something important, Death. I don't care how big or how strong you are. I am not your puppet. You are not my god. AND THIS, IS MY MIND! MY BODY! MY SOUL! MY LIFE! AND I WILL NEVER GIVE THEM UP TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE! I WILL ALWAYS! FIGHT! BACK!" Max reels his head back before throwing it forward, smashing his cranium directly into Death's face. The hood of his cloak is blasted back, revealing just a skull underneath it as it rattles noisily from the intense impact. It continued to shudder and tremble and rattle until finally…
CRACK!
Death's skull splits wide open, a bright white light shining from the opening as out of it comes a flood of images straight into Max's mind. For just a split second, Max saw images of everything leading up to this moment. Everything starting…because a lone drone was rescued from a heap of metal corpses.
Max finally lets Death go, panting heavily as his rage begins to dissipate, leaving behind just a very exhausted human soul. He looks to Death as he weakly brings his hood over his broken skull.
"…What did the Solver do to humanity? Tell me everything." Max demands, giving Death just one chance to finally treat Max like an equal and give him the information he wants.
"…you saw what she did at the mansion. That was just the beginning." And with that, Death began to explain.
He told Max of how the Solver couldn't just possess anyone it wanted, it needed to be let in. Cyn, on the very cusp of losing her own life, just a scared little drone…doomed humanity by letting the Solver into her. The Solver got a firsthand experience of how cruel humans can be, the way they treated drones worse than slaves, like disposable trash. Throwing them out into junk heaps, killing them like they're nothing more than ugly roaches, looking down on them both literally and metaphorically everyday. Tessa showed Cyn kindness, gave her a new home, but the cruel older humans would always be able to throw her or her friends out whenever they wanted.
Cyn had no control anymore, the Solver's bloodlust was unstoppable, impossible for one broken down drone to stop. At the very least, Cyn was able to influence the Solver into trying to spare Tessa, and to not hurt N, V, or J. Unfortunately, the Solver was more than happy to twist Cyn's wants and desires. N, V, and J were rebuilt and reprogrammed into mindless killing machines, hundreds of backups made to follow the Solver's will and slaughter every human on every planet. A complete and utter genocide. As for Tessa? Well, she tried to fight back, so the Solver figured there was no saving her. At the very least, she can give Cyn what she wanted, and made sure Tessa would be VERY close to her.
On Copper-9, humans heard of the Solver's rampage, and began a project to use the Solver's powers against her. They infected several drones with the Solver's program in multiple tests to create a cure. Only two drones survived the experiments. Yeva, Doll's mother, and Nori, Uzi's mom. The humans succeeded in creating a patch to remove the Solver's influence from any drone, but at a great cost. The Solver latched onto Nori and attempted to use her to destroy all of Copper-9. Thanks to Yeva's interference, the Solver only partially succeeded. All biological life was wiped off of the entirety of Copper-9, all except for Max who remained in the prototype cryopod, left in a state where he was neither alive or dead, but a perfect host for Death.
Nori and Yeva, along with other surviving drones, emerged from the caverns underground and met the now free worker drones. The underground drones were left with no memories of the experiments, only snippets of knowledge…and a curse that ended up spreading to two daughters. Unwilling to let these possible threats to her exist, the Solver sent N, V, and J to Copper-9, leaking false information that it was all the doing of JC Jenson, and ordering the Murder Drones to kill every last worker drone on the planet. To make sure they wouldn't betray her, she implanted them with the psychological need to drink the oil from any and every worker drone they come across to keep their bodies from overheating. It was all another lie though, the cravings were just that, intense cravings that can be as bad as a case of the munchies, to an addict going through withdrawals. These bad cravings are evident in Uzi and Doll as the Solver's influence grew in them the longer they were exposed to stressful situations, tempting them more and more to let her in and let her take over.
Now though, she realized those stubborn drones not only refused to die, but managed to break her Murder Drones free from her control! She regrets letting Cyn influence her into letting them keep their personalities and a modicum of free will. Deciding to take measures into her own hands, she has snuck onto Copper-9 wearing a spacesuit with Tessa's name tag, her hidden identity and use of Tessa's voice box allowing her to trick the drones into assisting her on her mission to destroy any remnants of the patch, destroy Copper-9, and anyone who dares to get in her way.
"…and now you know the truth."
Max is silent for a good minute as he lets all the information sink in. He truly is the only human left alive, if you could even call his current state of being alive. He raises his hand and gently places two fingers on his neck, feeling for his pulse as he lets the steady beat ground him. "…that's all I ever wanted."
"What?" Death looks up at the human, looking at the smile adorning his face as the human holds out a hand to pick him up off the ground.
"It took a lot, and I mean a LOT, of work…but you finally gave me the information I wanted. My questions are answered…and now I can focus on what I want, what I NEED, to do."
"And that is?"
"Isn't it obvious? To save the drones and kick the Solver's ass! Of course I can't do it alone. I'm going to need your help, especially if I want to save them all, including Cyn."
"B-But that's impossible. She has to be dead by now, the Solver has to be the only one in that body!"
"I'm not so sure about that. Tell me Death, the emotions you've been feeling lately, the absolute rage you feel when things don't go your way…be completely honest with me, have you ever felt anything like that before using my body as a host?" Death's answer is complete silence. "I thought so. Whatever 'eldritch elder god' whatever you and the Solver are, you don't function the same way as humans or drones. You don't have the emotions and personalities we possess because you were always beyond them. Now that you've fit yourselves in our little mortal bodies in an attempt to control and assimilate us, you've both ended up taking in more of us that you wanted and started to unconsciously mimic our emotions and way of thinking, all without even realizing it."
"Just like you've been using my own rage and frustration to feel and learn, I bet my life that the Solver is doing the exact same with not just Cyn, but whatever remains of Tessa. If we do this right, get the patch to save Uzi, Doll, and Cyn…we can put an end to that monster today."
"…you are completely insane." Death mutters as he looks at Max in the darkness of his cloak…before reaching up and grabbing his hand. "But…if what you said is true, then I guess I am too."
"Heh, well aren't you supposed to be the omnipotent one?"
"Oh shut up… it's not easy to admit I'm not as all knowing as I say." Death's voice becomes calmer, like he's stopped trying to impose his will onto Max. "So then, where do we start?"
"Well first of all, how's my body doing?"
"Funny you mention that, it should be fixed right about…"
"Now."
Max gasps as his eyes open wide to the hallway he was in. He looks around to try and gather his bearings before leaking onto a wall for support. Scattered images flash through his mind, the feeling of his corpse-like self shambling through the halls, sentinels ignoring his presence as blood drips from his wrist and cracked open head. Max finds some shattered glass and carefully looks in his reflection to find his head and body are completely healed, and his hand has completely grown back! The only signs of damage on him are the splatters of blood decorating his face and jumpsuit.
"Yeesh, I look like I just walked out of a bloodbath. Still, great work Death." Max gently praised the being, Death just scoffing.
"Please, this was a walk in the park for me. Now focus, I think someone is nearby."
Max nods his head, keeping quiet as he creeps around the corner, finding another hallway with several mechanical doors shut, and Doll on the ground with the loading symbol over her eye with the Keybug in her hands.
"What the hell? Doll! Are you okay?" Max immediately runs toward the downed drone and looks her over for any signs of damage. As he looks into her buffering visor, he can see his bloody reflection. He strangely noticed her body twitch as he stared. "Wait, can you hear me, Doll? Okay, I'm not sure what happened but if we find the others then we can find a way to help you. Also sorry if I look like a wreck, even being the half alive mess I am, I still need time to regenerate some gray matter…and a new hand." Max wiggles his newly grown hand in her face, seeing Doll twitch again.
"Max, play dead." Doll whispers quietly, Max getting confused, just to feel a certain tickle in his throat yet again.
"TESSA DON'T!" Max heard J yell as footsteps rapidly approached him from behind. Max only had the time to stand up straight and turn around, just for a sword to swing toward his face.
"Die monster!" The Solver using Tessa's voice yells out as she swiftly slashes down, intent on slicing Max's head open. With less than a second to find a way to prevent being sliced to pieces, Max did the only thing that made sense…and bared his teeth.
SCHWING
Uzi, N, V and J were too far away to stop who they thought was Tessa in time, but they didn't need to. The Solver looks through her space helmet in shock at Max…who caught the sword with his own mouth, his teeth firmly clenched around the blade, a challenging look in his eyes as he looks directly at the Solver. In quite the display of flexibility, Max twists his body and kicks the space suit clad monster right in her helmet, making her lose her grip on the sword. This allows Max to drop the sword from his mouth just to grab the handle with his hand and stab it into the ground.
"Heh, nice try." Max taunts with a wild grin before looking at the drones down the hallway. "Hey guys! Fancy meeting you here!"
"Max? H-how did you, you fell! A-and there was so much blood, but we couldn't find your body…" Uzi stutters, completely bewildered as she holds onto N's hand to steady herself.
"Don't you know by now Uzi? I'm not just your everyday human." Max gives a cocky smirk and points at himself with the thumb on his recovered hand. "I'm a motherfucking zombie."
"Well, it's him alright." V rolls her eyes, but subtly lets out a sigh of relief.
Before they could talk any further though, Doll immediately got up and revealed her buffering icon to just be a gif! "I'm sorry Maxwell. But I cannot let her stop me." Doll apologizes as she uses her solver powers to lift up the metal doors in the hallway, freeing several sentinels she had trapped. She uses the Keybug to open the sealed doors before leaping down the elevator shaft.
"God dammit Doll!" Max groans seeing her disappear down the shaft before looking at the drones. "I'll chase after her! Before I go though, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still not stopping. No matter what, we will beat the Solver! Remember the time we spent together, remember who your friends are and who you truly trust." Max smiles at the four drones before looking at the Solver. "As for you…we'll finish this later." With that, Max jumps down the elevator shaft, just in time for the actual elevator to fall into place.
"Quick, I need you to turn off my pain receptors and give me some claws on my hands." Max yells to Death as he falls down the elevator shaft.
"Done! But why do you need that specific combo?" Already Max's hands reshaped themselves into gnarled sharp claws as Max reached for the metal walls.
"To slow my fall and not feel the pain of my nails against steel!" Max explains before thrusting his hands forward, feeling arms nearly get yanked out of their sockets as his claws screech and spark against the steel elevator shaft, Max's fall speed slowing down significantly with every second even as he watches his claws crack, bleed, and rip off just for new claws to form rapidly.
"AAAAAAAHH I should have asked you to deafen me too!" Max grits his teeth as the horrible sound fills his ears until he finally drops onto the ground. With a sigh of relief, he looks at his hands and winces at the bloody mess they became. "Yeesh, this is gonna take some time to heal up."
As Max steps out of the elevator shaft, a knife floats right in front of his face. Max's eyes focus to see Doll glaring at him, visibly tense.
"Stop following me…"
"Sorry, can't do that. Not until I can make sure you can make it out of here alive and well." Max cheekily smiles at her, Doll floating the knife closer to him.
"I'm warning you. Nothing but pain will come to you if you keep trying so hard to…"
"To help you? Look, you're not to blame for what happened to me. You were panicking, you were scared. I'll be completely honest with you. Despite this smile of mine…I'm truly fucking scared too. But it's a lot easier to handle when you have someone there for you. Please Doll, let's find the cure together."
Doll is silent for a good while, only staring at Max as she feels every part of her body insisting to do this alone…but she's so tired. She feels like she can collapse any second. How long has she been shouldering this mission of hers all alone? Maybe…just maybe… "…what is the cure?"
"From what I know, it's a patch held in a USB stick in the shape of a cross." Max brings up his hands making a t with his index fingers. Doll winces looking at his mangled fingernails. "Oh uh, don't worry about that, they'll heal."
"…you're quite the strange one."
"Yeah well, being normal is pretty boring, don't you think?" Max asks as he seamlessly switches to perfect Russian, Doll dropping the knife in surprise. "Ooo, new power! That's gonna be fun to play with!" Max said excitedly in English before shaking his head to focus. "But we should get going. Don't want the Solver reaching the patch before us!" Max began to jog down the tunnels, beckoning Doll to follow him. Snapping out of her shock, Doll sighs before running after the human.
Meanwhile back above with the elevator, Uzi is struggling to keep her solver powers in check as she can feel the Solver's influence in her making her create these NULL orbs at random! The miniature black holes are thankfully temporary, but they cause so much destruction! Uzi could barely think straight, and N was doing everything he can to keep her safe as he takes her into the elevator while Tessa joins them inside.
"V! J! We gotta go now!" N yells out to his teammates, so many sentinels surrounding them, threatening to boot loop them and tear apart their metal bodies! J blind fires her gun arm at the sentinels while looking away, trying to ward off the many raptor-like machines while V slashed at one that got too close.
V looks at the elevator, looking at the accidental NULL damage done to it making it hard for N to keep it open. To make matters worse, a sentinel was chomping at the massive battery to the elevator's systems!
"…J, get out of here while you still can. I can handle them all by myself just fine." V brandishes her swords ready for a fight to the death.
"Listen to her J! She'll be fine! Come with me!" Tessa yells out, hoping to get J to listen to her and come back to being her pawn, unfortunately it seems whatever she experienced on this damn planet gave the Murder Drone a lot more free will.
"You know what, fuck that! I'm not leaving you behind V. I know what you're planning…mostly because I was planning to do the same thing after shoving you into the elevator." J dryly laughs, a challenging grin coming from V.
"Ha! I'd like to see you try." V smirks before looking at N and a glitching Uzi. "N…live your best life. Uzi? I trust you." V gives them both a salute as she gets ready to do her part in this last stand.
"If I have one last request…it's that you dorks always remember me as the permanent employee of the month." J half jokes, winking at N and Uzi, ignoring their protests before shifting both her arms and yelling out a war cry as she rapidly fires a massive storm of bullets at the approaching sentinels. V draws her blade before slashing at the cables of the elevator, allowing N, Uzi, and Tessa to drop and escape.
Huge lore dump thanks to Death, I mostly wrote that scene because it helped me get it all down in text just what the hell happened in Murder Drones. With its weird release schedule I honestly found myself confused at times about what was happening until I rewatched it all and scoured the internet for everyone else's understanding of it all. Plus by giving Max all this information, the two can finally work together as many of his questions have finally been answered.
Not gonna lie this chapter wasn't easy to get done, I tried to think of ways to have Max interact with 'Tessa', but all I could think of was Death immediately knowing his sworn enemy was there. Thankfully I got the fun idea to show off just how much Death can pull Max back together if need be, and a huge confrontation with each other. Max isn't necessarily immortal, just incredibly difficult to fully kill as long as Death is using his body and restoring any flesh, blood, and bone with his own power. A lot easier to focus and heal just one host than multiple like the Solver.
Well enough talk from me, let's explore an Omake in which Death is oblivious and Max and Tessa did get to interact.
Omake
In another timeline where Max went along with the drones and Tessa(who's original human self is shining more despite the Solver's control) instead of going with Doll. The mood was tense while dealing with the creepy atmosphere of the dark labs. Deciding to lighten up the mood, Max asks a hypothetical.
"Hey guys, if you ever met a genie and it gave you three wishes, what would you wish for?"
"What's a genie?" N asks confused, eager to take his mind off the spooky atmosphere.
"They're these magical beings of near infinite energy who can grant any wish. Of course it's all fictional, just stuff from old storybooks, and you need to take into account they still have rules." Max explains.
"Rules?" Uzi asks curiously, figuring it wouldn't hurt to join in.
"Yeah! It's to limit the genie's incredible power. Things would get extra messy if he didn't have some restraints. What were they again? Oh right! Firstly, he can't kill anyone. Tampering with life and death is usually a big no-no. Secondly, he can't make anyone fall in love with anybody else. Messing with the heart can lead to huge consequences. And lastly, he can't bring anyone back from the dead. Once again tampering with life and death is bad, plus there's no guarantee that when they come back, they'll still be themselves."
"Hmm, well that already messes with some of the wishes I already had in mind." Uzi huffs before Max leans in. "AND NO! Not for any love related things!"
"I didn't say anything.~ How about you Tessa? Any wishes on your mind?"
Tessa takes a moment to consider Max's question, just for an absurd idea to come to mind. "I wanna revoke Bernoulli's principle so wings no longer work, and airplanes are just canceled."
"…okay, there's FOUR things you can't wish for." Max decides with an unamused expression.
"What?! Why?!"
"What do you mean why? That wish is just awful!" Max can't help but laugh at Tessa's flabbergasted voice.
"Fine… I wanna multiply gravity by a factory of 9, just to see what would happen."
"Noooooooo." Max moans out, dragging his hands along his face.
"I wanna remove all friction and just slide wherever I want." Uzi chimes in much to Max's shock.
"Not you too Uzi!"
Seeing the fun in this, V comes in with her own wish. "I wanna make all freshwater saltwater, and all saltwater freshwater."
"THAT JUST KILLS ALL SEA LIFE!"
"Oh no, not the whales!" N can't help but gasp.
"And I'm pretty sure that also just ruins SO many ecosystems." Max explains with a growing frustration.
"I want to put a negative sign in front of infinity, just to see what would happen. And uh, double world hunger or something." Tessa finishes with her last two wishes, mostly trolling Max at this point.
"These are the WORST wishes I've ever heard of!" Max yells while J can't help but giggle and pat his back.
"Oh please," Tessa began. "When you're as rich as I am, you come across even worse ideas people are trying to get a patent on."
"What? Some stupid stuff like, 'bone in yogurt, hold the yogurt'?" Max remembers seeing that meme going around when he was alive.
"Wait, isn't that just a bone." J asks, very confused by the sentence she just heard.
"Eh, more like…carbonated chicken soup." Tessa gives the cursed example, destroying Max's faith in humanity.
"…alright, just because you said those words, if we survive this, I'm not helping you repopulate humanity." Max says in a deadpan voice, the words making Tessa choke on nothing while the drones all look at Max in complete shock.
"W-What?!"
"The Solver obviously killed way too many humans. I wouldn't be surprised if we no longer overpopulated Earth. But after hearing that, I think it's okay for humanity to die out. Plus those words coming out of your mouth just made me lose any respect for you. You missed out on aaaaaaallll of this." Max gestures to himself. "I'm exclusively into drones now."
"Ha! Jokes on you! I've always been into drones!" Tessa claps back, just to freeze as the drones stare at her instead of Max.
"…okay you're back on my good list. You got good taste, and earned back my respect. Now dab me up!" Max puts out his hand.
"…you know what? Dab me up bot lover!" Tessa eagerly clasps hands with Max, the two finding solidarity in the fact that the drones they were with were very hot. Of course the four drones are blushing messes seeing their two humans acting like.
"Hell yeah! Dab me up!" Max and Tessa continue clasping hands repeatedly before N steps closer.
"I don't understand what's going on…but can I join in?" N asks curiously. Tessa and Max look at each other before nodding.
"Dab me up!" Tessa repeats as she and Max get both of N's hands, the two humans repeating the phrase again and again.
"Oh my robo god, why do the attractive humans have to be so weird?" J mutters as she gently facepalms at the sight of the incredibly goofy humans dabbing up a very confused but happy to be included N.