I'll admit I watched a lot of Chino's Animated to get in the fight scene writing mood. Also, happy almost Halloween!
"God damn these tunnels go on forever! I swear it feels like we've been walking for a week!"
"It's only been 30 minutes."
"It's called a hyperbole." Max sticks his tongue out at Doll who just rolls her eye.
"Wait, stay quiet." Doll suddenly announces, holding an arm out in front of Max. Doll slowly sneaks forward toward a hallway lit up by a strange warm light, different from the light of the lanterns throughout the tunnels. Max follows behind quietly until they look down a hallway to find a familiar space suit with a bow on her head walking around. "Wait here."
"Doll wait-" Max tries to warn her how it was too dangerous, just to be interrupted as the area the Tessa wearing monster was in blows up! Doll gets in position before throwing a meat cleaver at the Solver, just for her to deftly dodge and catch it.
"Where's the patch, human?"
"Hmm? Not sure what you me-" The Solver easily brings the cleaver up to block a knife slash from Doll.
"The USB patch. To exorcize the Solver's possession. Where it's it?"
"Damn it Doll, get out of there." Max mentally berates himself. He knew he should have told Doll that Tessa was actually the Solver in disguise, but he had no evidence to back him up! It would have just been another case of his word versus hers just like when she said HE was working for the Solver. The second he sees the Solver slash her sword at Doll's eye patch, Max immediately began to dash in.
"I will not let it use me to consume the planet!"
"Not sure it needs you buddy." The Solver is about to throw the meat cleaver at Doll, but immediately is forced to turn around to block a massive crowbar swing from Max, the two weapons colliding just for the cleaver to shatter to pieces!
"NOT TODAY!" Max swings his crowbar again, smacking the Solver right in the gut and launching her over Doll. Unfortunately the Solver recovers while in the air, flipping backwards before landing on her feet while clutching her abdomen.
"Damn that smarts! What's wrong with you?! You can't treat a lady that way!"
Max knew this wasn't the time for it…but he couldn't help himself. "I yearn for true gender equality. I have no patience for one who talks about female privilege when it suits them, and then complains about someone "not being a man" when it's convenient." Max recites in perfect Japanese.
"…what?" Doll asks confusedly as she puts a hand over her broken eye.
"Right, my bad, I should have mentioned this before, but that's not Tessa. It's the Solver!"
"Hmm? I have no idea what you're…oh who am I kidding, no need to keep up the charade when it's just the three of us." The Solver giggles sadistically as she spins her sword in her grasp.
"Wait, that doesn't make sense, doesn't she want the patch too?" Doll asks, confused.
"Just to destroy it." Max explains with an apologetic look on his face. "I'm sorry for not telling you earlier, I didn't think you'd believe me."
"Just like you knew your so-called 'friends' wouldn't believe you if you said it near the elevator?" The Solver guesses with a clear smugness in her voice.
"You can't be serious…how do we stop her then?"
"Admittedly, I don't know if we can kill her right now." Max answers Doll before trying to reach Death.
"You're welcome to try and kill her, unfortunately succeeding will mean she'll just switch hosts and make things more difficult. For now though, I suggest at the very least cutting her or smashing her into little pieces so that she'll need lots of time to put herself back together. This will be my first time working together with someone in a fight though, so I'm not entirely sure just what you'll be capable of with some of my power in you." Death advises, for once thinking things rationally now that his own rage was under control.
"True, without you using my body as a playground, I won't be fighting like a monster…instead I'll just have to fight my way." Max silently spoke to Death before chuckling darkly and readying himself before speaking out loud to Doll. "Here's the plan for now: we fight like hell, break or cut up her body, and escape while she's busy healing and picking herself back up."
"Better than nothing…fine, I got your back." Doll stands behind Max as they prepare to fight. The Solver giggles as she brandishes her sword in front of Max. Doll readies her absolute solver powers while Max arms himself with his crowbar, standing in front of the drone.
"Let's get this over with." The Solver quickly dashes forward, swinging her sword for three rapid slashes…only for Max to have moved far faster than a human should be capable of. He was reacting so quickly and sidestepping every slash before pushing her back with a kick to the sternum. "Huh, you just get more and more interesting don't you?~"
Feeling warmed up, the Solver wildly slashes at Max in rapid succession. Max jumps left and right, ducks and leaps over her attacks, but needs to move even faster as she starts throwing debris from the explosion, everything being launched at high speeds with her own absolute solver powers. Any stone or piece of metal thrown at such speeds is likely able to pierce his flesh if he doesn't stay on guard.
Doll tries to stop any debris she can with her own powers, easing the pressure off of Max. After another dance of sword slashes and dodging, the human thought he was safe, just for one last piece of junk to be sent flying at his face. Thankfully it was nothing more than a can. "Gah! Wha, did you just hit me with an empty soup can!?"
The Solver just shrugs, leaving her open for an attack as Max dashes in and retaliates, getting in one quick jab with the sharp end of his crowbar, puncturing a hole in her Tessa space suit. The Solver quickly backs away though, dodging out of the way of Max's flurry of crowbar strikes.
"Let's see you dodge this!" The Solver taunts as she summons more leftover debris and launches them all at once at Max. The human doesn't back down though, rapidly spinning his crowbar like some kind of mach speed windmill, scattering away the debris being consistently launched at him. Once the ranged barrage ends though, she charges in to slash at Max again! However the human was ready and meets her halfway, his crowbar colliding with her sword! Their weapons clash again and again until they push each other back and regain some space away from each other.
"As a much better solver power user once said, BITE ME!" Max quotes, something about that line seemingly distracting the Solver, a strange tune playing in her mind relating to the phrase. With the opening given, Doll uses her own solver powers to throw a knife so it flies by the Solver, just so she can redirect it so it jabs the monster in the back! Another wound is left on the Solver, yet she doesn't seem shaken in the slightest.
"Don't give up just yet!" Doll speaks up, brandishing more knives and beginning to throw them toward the Solver with her own solver power enhanced speed while Max dashes forward to strike at her. The Solver however deftly parries the many knives with her sword, rapidly yet precisely slashing the weapons out of the air while also blocking and dodging every blow from Maxwell.
"You're going to need to try harder than that!" The Solver clashes her blade against Max's crowbar once again, pushing him backwards before throwing the previously deflected knives with her solver powers toward Max, while simultaneously charging in and slashing at him! The human can feel his body pushing itself beyond its limits even further as he can barely dodge and block most of her attacks. Most being the keyword as he's too late to dodge a knife as it slashed across his cheek, blood already forming and dripping down his face.
Max only growls with rage before swinging rapidly with his crowbar, pushing the blocking drone backwards while Doll focuses and throws out more weaponry at the Solver to keep her on the back foot. Deciding to bring more deadly tools into the mix, Max pushes the Solver back before reaching into one of the pockets of his jumpsuit and tossing up some pocket sized screwdrivers.
"Back me up Doll!" Max yells in Russian. Doll quickly follows his lead and uses her powers to launch the screwdrivers at several angles at high speed toward the Solver. With her occupied, Max goes all out! He spins to wind up his attack and swings his crowbar as hard and as fast as he can, repeatedly clanging his instrument against her sword like he was attempting to shatter it to pieces.
The Solver backs away, her helmet reflecting the sword and finding the blade chipped a bit from the attacks. Getting frustrated by this, the Solver spins in place before using her powers to launch her sword, making it spin like a wheel of death towards Max. The human feels his body contort as in a last moment dodge, he bends his back backwards far more than he normally should be able to, the sword flying over his face. Max leans back up and stands straight again, readying his weapon to charge at the eldritch bitch again…only to hear the sickening sound of the sword thrusting into a body.
Max looks behind himself and sees Doll looking at the sword sticking out of her chest, her core pierced. "Doll… j-just stay still, I'm a mechanic. I…I can fix this, you're gonna be okay." He says, mostly trying to convince himself as he steps towards her.
"MAX! Snap out of it!" Death yells out but it's too late. Max reaches toward the drone, just to feel his body freeze in place as the yellow symbol of the Absolute Solver glows beneath his feet, slowly his body rising in the air as the Solver holds her hand up toward him. It's revealed the Doll she stabbed was simply a hologram, and the real Doll is pinned by another solver symbol.
"Sentimentality, a weakness I thankfully never have to worry about." The Solver giggles before snapping her fingers, leftover knives grabbed by her absolute solver powers before she points at Max. With several deafening THWUMPS, Max gasps, unable to utter a word due to the excruciating pain of knife after knife being plunged into his body. Each blade digs deep into his flesh until 9 whole knives have been stabbed into him.
"I believe this is, game over Maxwell." The Solver mocks with Tessa's voice as she grabs a leftover screwdriver. She aims the tool at Max's left eye before pulling her arm back, ready to jam it deep into his brain. Before she can attack though, her sword is thrown at her and nearly cuts off her hand! The solver symbol underneath Max disappears and he lands on his feet, blood leaking from his wounds and dripping out of his mouth, but he's still standing. Doll struggled against the absolute solver, resisting enough to have thrown the sword. With the Solver caught off guard and her body freed, she raises her hand up, creating the solver symbol but aiming above the space suit clad monster. The Solver looks up and sees the symbol create cracks in the rocky ceiling above her. "Clever bot."
"NGAH!" Doll yells out in exertion as she swings her arm down, causing the foundation to shatter and collapse. The Solver jumps backwards to avoid being buried, but now she is separated from her prey.
Max looks at Doll slowly and begins to shamble towards her. "H-hey there. You okay?"
"AM I OKAY? You're the stupid human who keeps getting hurt because of me!" She raises a hand to slap him but stops herself, instead just weakly laying her hand on an unharmed part of his chest. "Why…why do you care so much?"
"…is it so strange to not wanna see a good person die?" Max asks softly, Doll looking up at him with her one eye, a small sob escaping her before she shakes her head.
"You're infuriating… you can heal from this right?"
"Yeah, I'll just need to carefully remove the knives one at a time to keep from bleeding out too much and leaving my body too weak to move."
"You focus on healing then." Doll focuses her solver powers onto Max, lifting him up in the air so he doesn't need to walk. "Let's get out of here and get that patch."
"Ow, ow, ow." Max mutters as he slowly removes another of the daggers as Doll carries with her solver powers. "Why did you turn my pain receptors back on?" He asks Death mentally.
"As much as you hate it, pain is necessary for the nervous system. Leaving it turned off for too long can have dire consequences on your mental state. Plus it should remind you to be more careful!" Death huffs.
"Well, why didn't you do anything about her powers grabbing me?"
"That I can explain. You see, when hidden in a host, eldritch beings can't interact with each other unless they use a host of their own. That's why I need your help to kill the Solver, because as long as she's in Cyn, I can't touch her. This unfortunately means both hosts are still left vulnerable to each other's abilities. The Solver's powers can still grab you, but in exchange my powers can allow you to rip her out if you grab a core directly."
"Getting to the core though is the hard part."
"Exactly."
Max sighs at that before yanking the last knife out of his body. "Fuck! That one was in deep!" The human yells out loud, Doll glancing at him with concern.
"I still don't understand how you can recover so fast."
"It's a long story, just know that I'm in a similar situation to you and Uzi, only the thing using my body as a host wants the Solver dead, and will work with us to achieve it."
"…if we make it out alive, then I'd like to hear more of this story." Doll gently smiles at Max while he smiles back at her.
"You got a deal. Also feel free to let me go now, I'm confident I can walk now." Doll obliges, freeing the human from her solver hold…just for the earth to tremble as his feet land on the ground. "…okay I'm like…90% sure that wasn't me."
"Wait, I hear voices." The two carefully sneak by and peer around the corner of the tunnels, finding a walking talking fleshy core pinning N down…with the cross shaped patch!
"I promise…to wait until you're ready to tell her yourself?" N suggests with a big goofy grin on his face.
"Ugh, bite me." The core huffs, sounding all too familiar, yet still different enough to definitely not be Uzi.
Doll is about to use her own powers to try and steal the patch, just for Max to place a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, I understand you're desperate, but I don't think starting a fight with Uzi's mom is necessary." Max whispers, causing Doll's eye to widen.
"That's Uzi's mom!?" Doll yells out before slapping her hand over her mouth.
"Who's there!?" Nori yells out, ready to defend herself and the patch…and maybe the dumb Murder Drone, she's not sure just yet even if he does seem to care a lot about Uzi.
"Fucking hell, follow my lead." Max whispers to Doll as he carefully walks out of hiding with his hands up. "It's okay! We come in peace!"
"What the- a human? I thought-" Nori is left confused but N cheerfully waves from the ground.
"Oh hey Max! How are you- oh my robo god you're bleeding! What happened!?"
"Look I know you all have a lot of questions, but I swear I'll explain everything later! Right now we need to focus on beating the Solver who's using Tessa's body as a puppet-"
"WHAT!?" N yells out completely shocked.
"-and curing Doll here gets us one step closer to that." He slowly approaches before placing a hand on the patch in Nori's solver grasp. "So if I could just- WHHOOOOAAAA!" Max and Death yell at the same time, a strange echo in the human's voice before he pulls his hand off the patch.
"Max! Are you okay?" N asks in concern as he gets up off the ground and places a hand on the dazed human's shoulder.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Death yells in Max's mind before trying to calm himself. "I'm sorry for yelling, but how!? How did the humans manage to create this? I-it would have taken me centuries to figure this all out!"
"Okay, pause. What's going on? What happened to us?" Max asks Death silently.
"We're fine, it's just…when you touched the patch…I felt myself nearly get torn out of you. It didn't work since it wasn't meant for me, but the information stored on it…it's nothing I've ever seen before in my entire existence. I, I just thought it was some strange technology that severed the connection between a drone and the Solver…but no, it literally forces her very essence out of the drone, destroying any chance of her ever taking control again. This is incredible knowledge, ELDRITCH level knowledge…honestly fate itself must have eradicated those humans knowing they'd be too dangerous if they progressed with knowledge like this."
"Death, you're scaring me."
"Don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen, it's just…this is a lot to take in. With just one touch I can see everything about that patch and how it works…"
Max decides to give Death time to settle on this before looking at N. "I'm okay N. It just turns out the patch is more powerful than we thought. Just touching it gave Death a shock."
"Ugh, just when I thought I had everything solved, now things seem to be even more complicated! Whatever, come here Yeva jr." Nori sighs before approaching Doll, the Russian speaking drone admittedly nervous as she looks at the cross shaped USB. "Don't worry, it'll be quick and easy. Would you prefer to do it yourself?"
"Yes, it's not that I don't trust you, it's just…it's hard to believe it's finally happening…maybe holding it will help me register all of this better."
"Sure, take your time kiddo." Nori hands Doll the patch. The Russian speaking drone gently grasps the cross shaped USB. It was finally here, the cure she was looking for. This nightmare could finally end…
Doll snaps the USB in half.
"DOLL! What are you-!?" Max shouts just to watch as Doll's visor rapidly regenerates, now wielding the symbol of the Solver on it instead of her own eyes while a deranged grin forms on her face.
"Oops. Sarcasm, was that important?" The Solver speaks through Doll.
"Dammit! Do you know how hard it was to find that!?" Nori uses her own solver symbol to swing a pickaxe at the possessed Doll, only for the Solver to use her own solver constructs to block the attack. N meanwhile stands in front of Max with his arm shaped into a machine gun.
"Fucking hell! If it's broken, then we're screwed!" Max curses silently as he tries to think of how they can fight the Solver in this cramped tunnel and reach Doll's core without killing her!
"Actually…we may not need the patch itself anymore." Death mutters, a low hum filling Max's mind.
"What are you-?" Max's eyes widen as he feels an energy course through his body, something so similar to the boost Death gave him during his fight against the Solver in Tessa's body. His hand opens up, a weapon beginning to materialize in his grasp.
"Why? We were so close! W-what are we going to do about Uzi?" N mutters, feeling scared for his best friend, just to feel the wind blow as Max dashes past him.
"It's been quite some time Nori, I'm surprised to see you still alive. Certainly not disappointed though, because I can't wait to reunite mother and daughter when I devour you both."
"You stay away from my daughter you gluttonous bitch!" Nori yells out, pushing her powers to their limit to keep the Solver occupied, only for her one eye to widen in surprise as the human jumps into the fight.
"Oh? Back for another fi-?" The Solver began to taunt, only to be cut off as Maxwell swung his weapon.
SCHWING
Doll's body freezes in place, a hand grasping at her chest. She steels herself, ready for her fatal error to occur…only for nothing to happen. Actually, not nothing, something definitely happened! She's back in control! No longer just a captive in her own mind and body as the Solver takes her body for a joyride! In fact, she's never felt better!
"What? How did…I thought Max tried to put me out of my misery…" Doll mutters before seeing Nori and N staring at something behind her. Maxwell stood there with his back turned to them, in one hand was a massive scythe with a cold razor sharp blade as long as his arm and a jet black staff at least 5 feet long.
In his other hand? A pulsating black orb of dark matter, the essence of the Solver influence with its signature sickly yellow glow surrounding the singularity. Max brings the orb to his mouth before opening wide and chomping into it, a sharp shriek filling the air for just a second before the orb dissipates into his mouth.
"Max?" N speaks up nervously, slowly lowering his gun arm. "Is that still you?"
Max doesn't respond at first, busy making sure there was nothing left of that part of the Solver. Then he slowly turns around….and gives a big cocky grin to the drones. "Yep, still me. Just with a new upgrade thanks to the patch. Death never could reap drones before, but with the information on the USB, he now knows exactly where to aim and yank the Solver out."
"Wait, so that means…"
"Not only is Doll freed, but we'll be able to save Uzi too. Unfortunately we lost the element of surprise, the Solver will be expecting this if she sees me now. We better hurry and find Uzi quickly. If we do this right, we may be able to stop the Solver completely today."
"It's funny-" Tessa began as she approached Uzi, her sword in hand as Uzi backed away slowly. "N, V, surprisingly even J all tried to hide it, but I'm not as stupid as that zombie friend of yours."
"D-don't talk about him like-" Uzi gasps as the tries to keep control, but her fear of what she is combined with the knowledge she learned in the tunnels of what happened to her mom and what was passed on to her all contributed to raising her stress, leaving her vulnerable to the Solver's influence.
"But I don't mind playing the hero and putting an end to you Solver freaks. You should just lay back and let me make it quick." Tessa kicks Uzi's leg out from under her, tripping the drone before she places the tip of her sword against Uzi's chest.
Tessa raises her hand, ready to hammer her sword into Uzi and destroy her core…just for a different sword to slash across her own neck, her head flying off her shoulders. N shudders, trembling as he was glad he saved Uzi, but still questioning if Max was right about Tessa. "It's gonna be okay, Uzi. We don't have a patch…but we have something else."
N watches as Uzi slowly pulls the sword out of her chest, letting her body heal as she lankily climbs to her feet. She slowly raises her head, a manic grin and yellow eyes revealing themselves. Before the Solver could speak though, another slash is heard. "Don't even try it." Max mutters, a scythe in his hands and a black and yellow orb stuck in the blade. Uzi collapses onto her knees, gasping for breath as her body feels lighter and freer than ever!
Uzi looks up at N with her purple eyes and N smiles down at her, just to be surprised as Uzi immediately hugs him tightly. "Oh N. I-I don't know what's going on with me…but I don't want to be alone…"
"It's okay Uzi, it's over now." N hugs her back before directing her attention to Max. Uzi slowly turns her head and watches in awe as Max bit down into the writhing orb of horrific power like it was a donut.
"I never expected dark matter to taste similar to dark chocolate…but I'm not complaining." Max shrugs and inhales the rest of the orb, leaving nothing behind.
Uzi just watched, completely shell shocked just for Doll to walk up next to her and N. "Yeah, it's not any less weird to look at a second time."
"Second time…you mean-" Uzi looks at Doll who nods her head with a smile. Uzi lets out a small laugh, hardly believing it was truly over, but looks at her wings still on her back. "But wait, what about how I transformed? Do we still have our powers?"
"Death and I were only able to rip the Solver's control out of you two. We can't necessarily undo what's already been done to your systems though. Your powers still exist, but they're all your own to use as you see fit." Max admits, hoping they weren't disappointed.
"…hell yeah!" Uzi shouts, surprising everyone as she opens her wings wide. "I don't think I could ever give up flying to be honest! Plus it only makes me look more badass!" Uzi poses, much to the amusement of the group.
Nori looks from her hiding spot before giggling and good naturedly shaking her head. "She really is my daughter…" Nori then looks to the body of Tessa, just for her eye to widen as she sees the corpse pick itself up, grab its own decapitated head…and twists it back on. "Oh damn it, HUMAN! Reaper guy or whatever your name was! She's still alive!" Nori yells, grabbing her pickaxe with her solver powers before jumping to smash Tessa's body, only to be grabbed midair by a yellow solver construct. 'Tessa' unzips the space suit, slowly climbing out to reveal herself.
"Huh? OH SHIT!" Max yells as he notices the Solver. N, Uzi, and Doll turn to witness the horrifying sight. Tessa's own hollowed out corpse is being used as a literal skinsuit by Cyn's drone body. The Solver opens her mouth wide, bringing Nori closer ready to chomp into the sentient core.
"WAIT MAX, DON'T-!" Death tries to warn the human, but Max dashes forward, scythe in hand ready to slash at the Solver. Unfortunately this is what she wanted. She immediately tosses Nori at high speeds at Max, making the human stumble to stop from attacking as he drops his scythe and catches Nori…and by catch I mean she smacks against his face.
"Oh yeah, get snuck up on." The Solver taunts as two yellow Xs appear on her visor where the human skinsuit's eye sockets would be. Immediately she grabs her sword and teleports in front of the human, swinging her blade at him.
The human grabs Nori and pulls her off his face, just to see the Solver as she teleports in front of him. With barely any time to react and move…Max throws Nori in the air and tries to jump back. He barely dodges getting his body cut in half…but loses his right arm in the process.
Max screams in pain as his right arm is completely chopped off just below his shoulder, blood spilling from the open wound as Max collapses onto the ground. The Solver smiles sadistically as she focuses on the trio of drones standing in complete fear. The Solver teleports in front of them, jaws open wide. "Neck bite."
Before she could sink her teeth into any of them though, a pickaxe slashes across her cheek, the Solver dodging just in time, landing on all fours like a wild animal. "HANDS OFF MY DAUGHTER!" Nori yells out angrily, having landed on one of the pillars in the room, and the pickaxe in her solver construct.
"Wait, daughter?" This snaps Uzi out of her shock, and Nori's eye widens before she facepalms with one of her little claws.
"Oh phew, I was worried I was going to need to keep that a secret for a lot longer." N sighs in relief just for Uzi to turn to him.
"Wait, you knew!?" N immediately places a hand over his mouth.
"FOCUS!" Doll yells out, summoning her knives with her red solver powers and taking aim at the Solver crawling and skittering like some parasite.
"Annoying. It feels like this very planet is conspiring against me. First making a patch against me, then this stubborn human getting in my way, and now everyone I've attempted to assimilate has broken free and is fighting me. Oh well, this planet won't be here for long anyways." The Solver grins as she eyes a massive fleshy hole in the ground leading to the planet's center. Before she can make a move though, a voice yells out.
"WAIT!" Grasping at the bleeding remnant of his arm, Max climbs up onto his feet, panting heavily as he glares at the Solver.
"…J was right, you are reeeeally persistent. Maybe cutting off your other arm will make you give up." The Solver threatens with a deranged smile.
"Nah, don't trouble yourself with that. I've already given up." Max said, surprising everyone but the Solver who simply tilts her head cutely. The drones around him though, they give a collective shout.
"WHAT?!"
"WHAT!?" Death yells out in absolute fury.
"Quiet down, it's part of my plan." Max mutters in his mind to Death. He continues to try and keep up his incredibly pathetic looking act, which wasn't too hard as he was in a LOT of pain.
"Oh? Well that certainly makes things easier. What is it then? Are you going to beg for your life? Swear loyalty to me? Going to admit you have a crush on me?~" The Solver teases jokingly, Uzi visibly gagging at the thought.
"…I'll be honest, despite being a horrifying nightmare of the loosest definition of a cyborg, you are admittedly pretty cute." Max answers, catching the monster girl off guard.
"…Maxwell, now is not the time to reveal you're some perverse monster fucker like Uzi." Doll hisses through her teeth, just for Uzi to look at Doll offended.
"W-what!? No I'm not!"
"You literally have the hots for a Murder Drone." Doll counters, Uzi and N blushing furiously.
"Uzi!" Nori yells out. "You do NOT have my permission to date the very things that killed your freaking mother!"
"You don't own me! I could date whoever I want! N-not that we're dating, we just hang out!" Uzi insists, although she barely believed herself. N was trying hard to stay quiet and stay focused on the danger they were in and not his possible romance with Uzi.
"Okay, I'll admit, I'm glad I stopped to at least listen to all of this. Maybe if you survive I'll keep you as a funny jester human. For now, ha ha Uzi, you are banging my brother." The Solver mocks with Cyn's voice, Uzi looking ready to murder the next person she sees.
"ANYWAYS!" Max interrupts, trying to get back on track before he bleeds out. "I obviously can't beat you with one arm. We're likely all doomed and have no way of stopping you from destroying the planet."
"Nodding head. Sounds about right."
"However, before you do claim your victory over us…do you wanna see something cool?" Max asks with a sheepish pained smile.
The Solver's left eye changed into a loading symbol before returning to its usual X shaped pupil. "You know, I know you're playing me…but I do. What can one little human do?"
"Trust me when I say, this is something you've never seen any human do before. It's a trick I saw from a certain anime." Max smirks before he grit his teeth, trembling as he focuses on his residual limb. The bleeding part of what remained of his right arm began to bubble and squelch grossly before Max screams in a mix of pain and exertion. In the blink of an eye, an entirely new arm regenerates from the open wound in a bloody fleshy burst!
"…did you just pull a Piccolo?" Uzi asks completely shocked, disgusted, and in awe.
"Wide-eyed surprise. That is indeed something I've never seen before…but I should be going now." The Solver tries to retreat so she can go into the hole, just for Max to smirk.
"Oh but I'm not done yet! Here's a neat trick Death and I learned thanks to Doll." Max raises his new hand and puts two fingers to his forehead while his other hand slams onto the ground. He focuses on every core nearby. Uzi, N, Cyn, Doll, Nori…and even notices V and J's cores back in the lab! With a cocky smile on his face, Max sends a wave red glitchy energy that encompasses every one of them, before they all vanish from where they stood.
In a flash of red light, all 8 of them reappear on top of a snowy landscape, back on the surface of Copper-9 and a good distance away from the labs!
Max smiles wide as he looks at the team gathered around him…just to keel over and nearly hurl. "Oh god! Okay, never doing that again, my stomach feels like it just turned inside out! I think the only reason I didn't actually blow chunks is because I haven't eaten anything!"
"What did you think would happen!? Your first time doing it and you teleport 7 other people with you?" Doll reprimands, albeit sighing in relief since not only is he unharmed, they also took the Solver away from her goal! Unfortunately, she does not look amused.
The Solver looks at her surroundings, an ever present smile on her face but an incredible fury in her eyes and visible in her body language as she twitches and flexes her hands. "Annoyed. Vexed. Irate. AN-GR-Y." The Solver venomously spits out the last word, enunciating it slowly as her neck audibly cracks when she looks at Max.
"Okay yeah, I know you wanna make my life a living hell, but I need like 5 minutes. If you punch me in the gut or anything, bile is gonna come out of me. And honestly I'd hate to dirty your cute bow like that."
"…fine, 5 minutes. But only because you were kind enough to take my bow into account." She rubs her fingers along the bow on top of her head with a pleased smile.
Max sighs in relief and looks at everyone. Uzi, N, V, J, Doll, and…oh it seems Nori is gone. "Wait where did Nori go?"
"Huh?" Uzi asks before looking around just to find a pickaxe on the ground along with a message in the snow. "Kick her ass sweetie. Love, Mom." Uzi reads out, smiling softly.
"Hmm, well she helped a lot already. With her being an exposed core, she's incredibly vulnerable to being eaten or destroyed by the Solver. She can leave the rest of this fight to us. Speaking of us, V! J! Are you two okay? N told me you got separated from each other." Max asks curiously.
"It wasn't easy, but by having each other's backs we were able to take them all out." J confidently explained, just to blush as Max pat her head.
"Oh yeah, those stupid sentinels put up a fight, but it was nothing we couldn't handle." V shrugs off, just to be caught off guard as N wraps his arms around her for a hug.
"I'm so glad you're okay." He says quietly, V blushing lightly before semi-reluctantly returning the hug.
"Ugh, you know I don't like hugs…" V mutters, trying not to falter and show how she's relieved he's safe too. She glances at Uzi who rolls her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm glad you're both not dead or whatever." Uzi says, trying to sound too cool to care, but her eyes glance at V and she smiles softly. V smiles in return, just to yelp as she, J, and N are pulled into a hug by Max.
"Oh come here, all of you. Good to see you all alive and well!"
"Let go of me stupid!" V shouted, blushing harder.
"The original disassembly drone squad is back together!" N cheers happily.
"I can't believe you idiots managed to make me a rebel." J sighs with a small smile, figuring it was too late to back out now, she was attached to these dummies.
"Uzi, Doll, come get in on this!" Max requests much to Uzi and Doll's disgust at the open display of wholesomeness.
"Yeah…" Uzi trails off before Doll finishes her thoughts.
"No thanks."
"Fine, I'll just have to get N to help me get you both in the group hug after we save Cyn." At that, the drones all stare at Max bewildered. "Okay before you all call me crazy, let me explain." He breaks the big hug before addressing all five of them.
"Ever since Death revealed everything he knew about the Solver to me, a question came. Death, the Solver, all these eldritch entities with lives so much bigger than our 'puny mortal lives'…why do they have emotions?"
"What do you mean why?" V asks, not getting where he's going with this. "They just do, you've seen it yourself, both of them get pissed off when things don't go their way like anyone else."
"But that's what stumped me, why are they acting like 'anyone else' when they are supposed to be such great beings? Why do they feel anger, joy, the desire to be fucking petty?! These are very human-like, and of course drone-like, feelings that we have. Here's what I think is the case…they don't feel these emotions at all. At least…not until they have to fit themselves into a host."
"Death confirmed it himself when he and I had a long chat while I was healing. He's never felt any emotions like we do, at the very least not emotions nearly as strong as ours. Ever since he's taken root inside my body, he's had to understand my mind better in order to properly know how to heal it, change it, and take over it if need be. However by learning how my body and mind functions, everything human about me began to rub off on him. You've seen it yourself, he feels pride, pettiness, bloodlust, and so much rage at anything that gets in his way …but he also learned humility, fear, wrath at the injustice the Solver caused, and to care for someone other than himself. He still has a lot to learn, but the fact that he's learned at all is amazing."
"And it's not just Death. N, V, J, think back to the manor, to the day you all first met Cyn. Did she really seem like the type eager for murder?"
"Well obviously she was just good at hiding it right?" J asks, although not completely believing it herself.
"But why would the Solver want to hide it? If she has full control over Cyn's body, then why didn't she immediately go on a killing spree right then and there? Simply put, she couldn't. The Solver was in completely new territory, Cyn's body and mind, and needed time to learn what she can do with it. Now I ask you again, what was Cyn like when you first met her?"
J and V were silent, but N spoke up. "She was…scared. So scared of messing up and being disposed of, she looked so lonely too…it's why I offered to be there for her, to be the big brother she could look to for help. She…she cared about Tessa, she cared about me."
"Exactly! That was the real Cyn. She was just a scared little drone, thrown out like garbage. She was terrified, scared of dying all alone, the only person willing to help her before Tessa found her…was the Solver. She let it in, and it learned through her. Cyn would lose control to the Solver, but by then the damage was done and the Solver was heavily influenced by Cyn. The way she talks, the emotions she shows, the bond to Tessa, and the attachment to N, V, and J, that's all Cyn…only now it's been horrifically twisted to suit the Solver's needs. She's still in there though, I'm sure if it, just buried deep underneath. We need to save her and end this once and for all."
"…it's already going to be hard enough to destroy her Max." Uzi reminds him, concern on her face as she looks at the dreadful hope rising in N, she can see he's struggling, wanting to believe it's true but also not wanting to risk getting his metaphorical heart ripped out if it's all wrong. "How can you be sure you can save her?"
"Simple…because you guys all managed to save me time and time again." Max cheekily smiles at the drones.
"Oh my robo god that was way too cheesy." V facepalms.
"It was sweet though." J can't help but admit as she pats V's shoulder.
"Ugh, no wonder humanity is nearly extinct, they must have been insane like you. You're just lucky I owe you." Doll scoffs, trying to suppress a smile.
N looks at Uzi expectantly, Uzi deep in contemplation before finally nodding. "Alright, I'm in. Let's go save your sister N."
"…thank you Uzi, it means a lot." N smiles warmly at Uzi, gently holding her hand as they two blush from the loving contact.
"Okay, I think I've been plenty patient." The Solver intrudes, getting everyone's attention as she brandishes her sword. "Time to die."
"Before that," Max interrupts, getting on the Solver's nerves as he keeps delaying her genocide plans. "I just have to ask you this Solver…why hurt Cyn like this?"
"Hmm? I have no idea what you mean. I've done everything she's wanted. I've saved her life, helped her keep her closest friends even closer to her, and assisted her in getting revenge on the humans who left her for dead." The Solver smugly smiles, just for Max to shake his head.
"Is that what you tell her? Because I think that's a very biased view of things. Saved her life? More like you took it for yourself. I want you to listen Cyn, truly think about it! Is it fair that the price of just wanting to live, is to give up your free will entirely to some monster who uses your name while spreading fear and pain to not just innocent humans, but drones too? How many lives did she take, how many did she leave broken or bleeding out in a mountain of corpses just like the one you were in, begging to keep living only for no one to hear them!"
Cyn's body twitches lightly, a memory flashing of her waking up in a pile of drone corpses all alone. The Solver shakes her head, immediately suppressing any bit of Cyn stirring inside her. "They were simply obstacles in the way, Besides, they don't truly matter, we didn't even know them. What matters is that she now never has to fear being alone! Once I'm done with N, I can reboot him and the others traitors and have them perfectly fine in their backup bodies."
"That's horribly wrong and you know it. Listen Cyn! N, V, J, they're your closest friends, your family! And what kind of family is supposed to to be treated like slaves, like disposable toys that you can throw away when they break and just get new ones? The Solver repeatedly destroyed and recreated your own big brother into a killing machine, and is more than happy to destroy his core and kill him anytime he steps out of line! The Solver is no better than the humans that disposed of you, because she will always do the same thing to your family as long as she has control over you!"
Cyn's body twitches again, her neck cracking and her hands balling into fists as her smile seems more forced and strained. The Solver continues to keep control, albeit with a bit more trouble. "Fine, so my family isn't perfect, it's not like any family ever is. I can still make it all work. It's a small price to pay for the biggest thing I've done for her, I helped her get her revenge on the humans who left her to die! Don't tell me you think she didn't deserve that much?"
"…no, I can't say that. Cyn did deserve revenge." Max admits, the Solver shocked as the human continues. "The humans who hurt you Cyn, they're complete monsters. In fact, a lot of humans were. I could excuse them and say they didn't know any better…but so many of them did. They knew drones were nothing more than mechanical disposable slaves, and they were more than happy to keep it up. Those humans deserved a special place in hell for their actions. However…one human certainly did not deserve the fate she was given. The very human whose skin you're wearing right now!" Max shouts, the Solver taking a step back, a slight glitch in her visor as the Xs waver.
"Tessa Elliot was completely innocent! She was a kind human that took you in along with N, V, and J! She gave you all a home, she cared for you, gave you clothes, gave you cute hairstyles, she gave you the very bow you wear even today!" Max points out, one of Cyn's arms moving to grasp at her bow on top of her head, gritting her teeth. "Tessa loved you, and what did the Solver do when that little girl fought to not just save the humans, but her beloved drones?…The Solver killed her, and now wears her very skin on top of your body. Tessa Elliot's very soul can't even pass on, as her body is desecrated and her death is viewed as a joke by the fucking monster controlling you! WAKE UP CYN! YOU CAN'T LET HER CONTROL YOU ANY LONGER!"
As Max roars at the Solver, Cyn's body clutches at her head, her smile vanishing into a pained expression as her visor glitches underneath the skinsuit until…the yellow Xs are replaced by white digital pupils.
"I…I don't want this." It's the same robotic voice, but the emotion behind it was completely different. It was no longer the mimicry the Solver used, but the true fear of a scared and very hurt worker drone. "Please…" Cyn utters before her visor glitches, and the yellow Xs return. "Okay, that's enough of that." The Solver flatly states, the manic grin back on her face.
"She was there." N mutters, eyes wide. "That was really her."
"I don't believe it…" V states completely shocked.
"After all this time…she's still there." J was amazed before shaking her head. "Well, we got a mission then. We've left a valuable employee behind who needs us."
"This won't be an easy fight, even with all six of us." Doll reminds everyone as she gets into a battle stance.
Uzi nods her head before brandishing her pickaxe her mom left behind. She looks at Max curiously as the human stands in front of them. "Any attack plan you wanna share with us?"
"I need you all to back me up. Attack any openings I give you, but be careful. If she gets your core and eats or destroys it, it's game over. Me though? With Death helping me, I can dodge and block her attacks, and if I'm hit I can heal quickly, even any fatal blows that land I can safely regenerate from. I'll be this group's tank while the rest of you focus on attacking. Once the Solver's taken enough damage, we need to get to Cyn's core so I can reap the Solver out of it."
"Can your scythe not rip it out during the fight?"
"Unfortunately no. Funny enough, the skinsuit on her is completely human, making it impossible for a drone related patch to get through even with Death's scythe. Too many conflicting variables in the way. If we cut the skinsuit off then it should be possible, but it wouldn't be easy. Ripping out her core will be faster and more efficient."
"Alright, I can work with that…but are you sure you wanna be in the lead Max? How sure are you that the Solver can't kill you even with Death in you?" Uzi asks with concern.
Max chuckles darkly. "Oh Uzi." A black cloak just like Death's manifests around Max. The hood covers his head, hiding his face only to reveal pure white eyes and a wide smile made with a set of razor sharp teeth. The human holds out his hands, the long staff of his weapon forming in the air before a sharp blade protrudes from the top of it. Once again he holds a scythe, the weapon befitting a reaper. "You can't kill what's already dead."
The six of them stand ready in front of the Solver, the final battle about to begin.
"Ready for round 2 Solver?"
Originally this was meant to be the last chapter, but I ended up writing way more than I expected! But we're still in the endgame, just two chapters left!
To hold you over until then, here's a fun Omake inspired by those silly ads of the cute plushies of Uzi, N, and V as a crow, dog, and cat!
Omake
"Wow! Things seem really intense! Good thing we never have to worry about stuff like that!" A strangely shaped winged dog with an uncanny color scheme and identical voice to N speaks up to a crow wearing a beanie, having just finished watching some show their owners left on the TV.
"Yeah right? The most excitement we had here was when V first got here." The Uzi crow comments as she glares at a lazily napping winged cat on a table that was apparently V.
"I was just joking, I wasn't going to actually eat you…maybe just a nibble.~"
"Caw!"
"Now now, no one is fighting, correct? I'd hate to get the water." Cyn playfully threatens with a spray bottle in hand as she comes around the corner with J by her side. Funny enough, both of them were still drones, and Cyn was even in her original maid outfit and worker drone body!
Uzi's feather puff up and V hisses softly, but N just wags his tail excitedly. "Ooo water? Is it bath day already?"
"Not bath time N…but we did find you a new friend!" J reveals an animal carrier, the three pets looking at it with wide eyes.
"GASP! NEW FRIEND?! I love friends! I'm already so lucky to have Uzi and V, but a THIRD friend!? Oh I'm so excited!" He can't help but start running around in circles, Uzi suppressing a laugh at N's antics while V licks her lips.
"Hmm, I wonder if this one will be tasty. Maybe a mouse?" V's tail sways side to side as she watches from her high vantage point.
"Well what are you waiting for J? Show us already!" Uzi squawks impatiently. J sets the carrier down before opening the metal gate, and gently pulling out…a bundle of black fur.
"Welcome to your new home little guy. I'm sure you're quite thankful to me for adopting you.~" J says so smugly while Cyn giggles.
"Eye roll. You are silly J, but you did a good thing today." J beams at the praise, everyone watching as the black bundle of fur slowly uncurls, revealing long ears, a puffy little tail, and sizable front teeth as he gives a long yawn.
"Mmm, man that was a good nap…where am I though? This doesn't look like the colony. Actually this looks a lot like a suburban house…and why is everything so big?!" The little critter looks around as he tries to stand up on two legs, but finds it a lot harder than he expects. "What the, what's wrong with my body?"
"Awe, it's okay little guy, baby steps." J coos, she and Cyn watching with adoration as their new pet acclimated to his surroundings.
"Little guy? I'm taller than you J…wait what the hell?" He looks up at the now much taller drone, heck he was barely a foot and a half tall when standing on his hindlegs! Feeling something is wrong, he looks down at where his hands are supposed to be…just to find little adorable furry forelegs. "Wait a minute, why am I so marketably adorable!? J, WHAT HAPPENED!?"
"Welcome to your new home Max!" J says excitedly, for some reason the name just fit the little animal perfectly!
"New home!?" Max looks around before finally finding a full body mirror and rushes toward it on all fours, moving purely on instinct, just for his crimson eyes to widen at the sight of his reflection. "I'M A FUCKING BUNNY!"
"FRIEND!" N couldn't contain his excitement anymore and dashed toward Max before tackling him and licking at his face!
"GAH! N! Stop! What are you- why are you a dog?! An admittedly very cute and very good boy of a dog, BUT STILL A DAMN DOG!?"
"What do you mean new friend? I've always been a dog!" N casually answers as he stops his bombardment of loving slobber to speak and excitedly greet the rabbit.
"What are you talking about?! Just yesterday you were a drone, we were on an exploration mission with Cyn, J, V, and Uzi when- wait what happened to V and Uzi!?"
"Ooo, how do you already know their names? Are you psychic?"
"He obviously heard J and Cyn talk about us tennis balls for brains." V snarkily answered as she watched from the corner of the table she lay on, licking at her foreleg before brushing her own fur.
"TENNIS BALLS?! Where where where!?" N asks excitedly as he runs around in a circle, Max getting dizzy watching him.
"No! No balls N. We can play with them later." Uzi chirps, N immediately stops and falls flat on his face…just to pick himself up and watch as the crow flies over to the two on the ground. "Well, nice to meet you or whatever. At least you should be less blood thirsty than the cat."
"What the hell? Uzi? V? How are you both animals too!? And so god damn adorable!?"
"Flattery will get you nowhere bunny boy. You're still just emergency meal number 2 for me." V taunts as she smirks down at the trio while Max visibly gets angrier.
"BUNNY BOY?!" Max's instincts drive him as he hops off the ground onto a chair, then hops again onto the table next to V. "Say that to my face and see what happens!"
"Oh my, he's already so full of energy!" Cyn remarks as she watches Max hop around V, the cat swiping at the rabbit just for him to repeatedly jump around her with surprising speed.
"I have a feeling they will make great friends." J says confidently.
"TERIAAAA!" Max jump kicks V, the cat scrambling as she falls off the table just to gracefully land on her feet.
"Agh! Okay I'll give you that, you're not half bad…for some cotton tailed prey." V continues to taunt, the two animals glaring at each other… just for N to jump in and start licking at V. "N no!"
"Yay! I almost never get to greet you on the floor V!"
"That's because I don't want a tongue bath from you!" She yowls as she tries to push N's eager dog face away from her.
"Ha! Just be glad he isn't in heat, you should have seen how friendly he was during that…" Uzi comments, using her wing to lower her beanie a little to hide a blush on her face.
"UZI! Don't mention that! It's embarrassing!" N yells out mortified, stopping his eager licking just to whimper and look down. "I-I didn't mean it, and I said I was sorry."
"This is just crazy!" Max interrupts, clutching his head with his little forelegs. "Do none of you remember anything? The Murder Drones, the Solver, me being human!?"
"Ha! A human? Don't be silly, we all know humans are fictional like the tooth fairy." Uzi laughs.
"Or the queen of England!" N chimes in just for V to place a paw on his face.
"No N, she was real, we explained this already."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HUMANS ARE FICTIONAL? Am I going crazy?! Can things get any worse!?"
"Oh! I just remembered!" Cyn speaks up before pulling out her phone and holding it up to take pictures. "It's photo time! Do you have the cute outfits ready J?"
"Got them! Oh you're gonna look so cute Max!" J smiles wide as she pulls out a bag of little costumes made specifically for bunnies like a cowboy outfit with a sheriff hat and vest, a little detective costume with a cape and hat like Sherlock Holmes, and worst of all, a bumblebee costume!
Max's little bunny nose twitches… and he screams. "…NOOOOOOOOOO!"
"GAH!" Max gasps as he wakes up, finding himself inside the nurse's room of the school in the colony. Max is panting heavily, feeling his face and looking at his hands before sighing in relief finding no fur and normal human hands.
"Max!" J speaks up, a look of concern on her face as she had been sitting on a chair nearby. "Oh thank goodness you're okay."
"J? What happened? Where is everyone?"
"Everyone's okay. During our exploration of that old lab, you, N, V, and Uzi encountered that weird room and triggered some motion sensor before being blasted by some weird hidden lasers. Thankfully no one was hurt, the others woke up just a few minutes afterwards but you were the last to wake up. I carried you back here to the colony and we waited to see if you'd be okay. Everyone was pretty worried, but they'll be thrilled to see you still alive and well. How are you feeling? You look pretty spooked."
"Phew, I'm okay, I just had the weirdest dream. You were there too J. And for some reason I was a rabbit! Pretty weird huh? Why a rabbit of all animals? Maybe it's a zodiac thing? I WAS born in the year of the rabbit…"
"Well, about that…you might wanna look in the mirror…" J nervously laughs, changing one hand into a hand mirror as she shows it to Max.
"Why what happened?" Max turns his head to the mirror and his eyes widen to their limit.
"The fuck!?" Max yells out as J sheepishly grins. He runs his fingers through his black hair, just to find two long fluffy rabbit ears the same color as his hair sitting on top of his head! And if that wasn't humiliating enough, he also now had a little fluffy black bunny tail right where his spine ends! "OH GOD DAMMIT!"