Uzi was somewhat nervous.
She had just interrupted N in his vicious rage, having J pinned down and about to axe her off for a third time. As funny as that would be, she needed to make sure he was okay and that he knew that she was okay. Now, he was staring at her, a confused expression on his face.
"N? Hey, buddy, it's me! I'm okay! I kinda forgot to tell you but," Uzi chuckled nervously, "I may have developed regenerative abilities alongside my spooky zombie drone form, so I'm actually fine!" She finished her explanation, looking for any sort of response from her friend.
She got a response alright.
What she did not expect was for the response to be tears forming in his optics.
N's firestorm of anger had ceased, and was instead replaced by confusion and relief as his optics fully scanned over the drone in front of him, feeding the information to his CPU to process into visual feedback. He wondered if it was malfunctioning, or if it was some kind of cruel hologram, but no, his optics were working just fine. Uzi, his wif-I mean girlfrie-I MEAN friend who he thought had perished a fast and brutal death was right there, alive, already comforting him.
N felt tears begin to well up in his eyes, and his mind was then converted into a cooling rain of relief, and the desire to grab onto the worker in front of him and never let go. N pointed his head to the ground, sniffling becoming audible as Uzi's eyes widened in concern.
"N?" she said before placing a hand on his cheek, tilting his head up slightly to look her in the eyes, his mouth quivering as he barely held in his emotions.
Upon seeing her look of concern and care, N let it all out, but it wasn't rage this time. Instead, he leapt forward into warmth, into the loving, caring arms of his friend. Uzi stumbled as the wholesome killer boy barrelled into her, locking his arms and tail around her body as he let out all of his tears, crying into her chest in relief, feeling her lavender core humming with life, her metal heated instead of the dead cold that he had felt just before. Uzi's optics hollowed as she managed to keep her balance with N hugging her full force, and upon hearing his crying, wrapped her arms around him and began to trace circles into his back in order to comfort him.
"Hey hey! I'm okay, don't cry! It's okay..." Uzi whispered softly, N only crying harder as he tightened his grip around her waist. All the while, J lay weakly on the ground, watching his reunion with disgust. This moron had the audacity to just leave her like this, not even finishing her off and instead crying over the purple runt!? Her gaze fell onto V, who had managed to catch up to Uzi. She stood with her hands on her hips, a soft smile on her face as she watched the two of them hug it out.
V's gaze met J's, and the smile turned to a scowl, one that if looks could kill would've burned through J's chest entirely. All three girls' attention was turned to N, who finally began to mumble something into Uzi's jacket.
"I-I thought I h-had-d-d lost y-you fore-ever I- I-" N stuttered out between sobs, only for Uzi to tilt his head upward again to make him look her in the eyes again. "Hey, I'm not going anywhere, and I'm never leaving you," she assured him, N losing himself in her purple eyes. Throughout the course of this battle, he realized just how much he cared for Uzi, and he never wanted to be separated from her ever again.
The two drones began to lean towards each other, gradually closing the gap between their mouths...
Only for the sound of someone clearing their throat to ruin their moment.
"WHAT!?" they both shouted in unison as they faced V, yellow and purple blushes flushing on their respective visors as the psycho drone deadpanned at them. As adorable this was, they still had a J to deal with.
"Before you start making out, how about you focus on the actual threat here?" V asked as she pointed at the downed J. Note that V was using the term 'threat' lightly, as N had savaged her so badly that she could barely even move. Uzi immediately snarled at J, and the latter watched in terror as the worker drone lifted up her palm, the purple Absolute Solver symbol flickering into existence in a cloud of purple static, rotating faster and faster as the glow increased in brightness, lighting up the night around them.
J's eyes hollowed out, was she going to die, again, by this purple runt?
"Wait! Hold it!" N yelled, Uzi halting in her tracks and snapping her head toward N, the solver symbol flickering before vanishing entirely as Uzi closed her palm. "What?" she asked. N proceeded to slowly walk up to J, a piece of his anger remerging in his AI as he looked down upon the prone drone. J mustered whatever remained of her strength and snarled at him, N only giving her a strangely innocent smile in response.
"Aren't you g-gonna kill me?" J croaked out, sounding as if she had been without oil for a millennia.
"Oh J, I would've! But since Uzi isn't actually dead, I see no need. No harm, no foul, right?" N chuckled to himself, innocent as ever as V and Uzi looked at him in confusion from behind. J was also confused, all three of them knew something was wrong. N was acting too innocent for what had just transpired.
This was confirmed when, in a flash of movement, N was up in J's face, snarling at her more like some kind of bear or lion rather than a drone. "Mark my words, J," N began, voice deepened yet again, "You try and come into this territory again, try and hurt EITHER Uzi or V again, or, heh, god forbid, try and take my title from me again, I will make you wish you were never born. The beatdown you received tonight will feel like a pleasant dip in a warm bath of oil compared to what I will do to you." N took a step back, taking a moment to admire the smell of raw fear emanating off of her like the stink from a decaying corpse.
"Heh, but in saying that, I don't see the point in finishing you off. It's not worth it. I will simply leave you here with your dignity. Well, whatever's left of it," N said before tipping his cap at J and winking, making her snarl at him in annoyance.
N turned, and began to walk away, J coughing to clear stray oil out of her throat before piping up, grabbing N's attention.
"W-where are you going? You're sparing me?" she asked weakly, only watching as N stopped to listen, before bringing out his wings, preparing to take off and leave her. J grunted as she managed to lift herself up slightly with her tail, her only properly functioning appendage.
"Ghhhh... we're not finished yet..." J growled before slamming her right shoulder into the building beside her, the female letting out a loud cry of pain as a loud resonating pop became audible amongst the quiet city. It was painful, but she had managed to regain movement in her right arm.
"You really want to do this?" N asked as he turned to face her, only to see that she had swapped out her left hand for a slick black assault rifle that had come out of her forearm with a click and was already aiming it at him, a smile growing on her face.
"I DECIDE WHEN I'M DONE FIGHTING!" J shrieked before unleashing a torrent of bullets, all of them flying straight towards N's face. He wasn't concerned, and smiled at the incoming bits of glorified metal.
His smile increased a thousand-fold when all the bullets froze mid-air, wrapped in a purple hue just before they hit his visor.
J watched in awe as the bullets liquified before her eyes, the once solid metal losing its hardness and collapsing into puddles of a black, steaming liquid. Uzi stepped forward, this time wrapping the Absolute Solver around J's neck and lifting her off the ground, the assault rifle swapping back to a hand instantly as J tried to claw at the ring of purple code that was now choking her out, only for her fingers to pass right through it as if it didn't even exist.
"Haaah! Ghhh! Four quarter-eghh-profits! Company l-EUG-eadership retrea-AH!" J gurgled out as the Absolute Solver's grip tightened. "One more buzzword and I'll do it," Uzi warned, cracking the same smile as the one she had pulled back when it all began, with J pinned under her railgun. Just like then, J looked nervously from side to side, before,
"E-equity partnershi-" J was cut off when, with a single flick of her wrist, Uzi tore J's head off.
The Absolute Solver flickered away, allowing her now headless body to flop to the ground, a loud thump emanating from where she made contact with the snow, a softer impact being made by her head, now with all 5 of her bulbs blackened and a blank visor. Her body spilt out oil, as did the bottom of her head, further staining the already highly polluted snow. Uzi stood up to her full height, scoffed, then spat down at her body.
"Good riddance..." N muttered darkly.
"Well murder boy, quite the way to retake your title," V said as she walked up to him, placing a hand on her hip and smiling. N turned around, nodded, and saluted her with a big and derpy grin on his face, teeth still splattered with J's oil. Both Uzi and V chuckled in unison, the goofball they had grown to love was back. V then dropped her smile, remembering what she had to do next, to prove her loyalty to her new leader.
It is a disassembly drone custom that when a drone is crowned leader of a squad, the other two members must bow in order to pledge their allegiance to them. When J unofficially crowned herself leader, nobody, not even N, ever bowed to her. This only further cemented how much of a false prophet she was.
But just as V got on her knees and prepared to dip her head down in submission, she suddenly found herself being dragged back up to her feet, N looking her in the eyes with a soft expression. "At ease," he ordered, although there wasn't much force behind it, "Friends of mine don't have to bow. Besides, you have already proven your loyalty to me."
V was confused, for multiple reasons. "W-we're friends?" she half-whispered with a tint of hope in her voice. N grinned before wrapping her in a sudden and warm hug, surprising V. As he embraced her, he continued to talk.
"Of course we are," N took a step back while still holding her by the shoulders, "you proved it. You proved your friendship and loyalty the moment you willingly turned against J for me, despite me being in a compromised position and easy to kill. You fought J, despite her being an MK2 and you an MK1." He finished his speech, V looking at him with a bright smile. Finally, she had managed to rebuild some of the bridges she had burned with him after so long. Uzi also smiled, being there to witness N's rise to power. Even though V saw him as her superior and leader, N didn't really look down on either of them. They were equal.
With that, N let out a loud yawn, stretching out the cricks in his arms. Judging by his internal clock, they had about 30 minutes until sunrise, and they were a few hours out from the colony. So, they would have to take refuge in the reaching shadow of a skyscraper.
"Alright, we only have 30 minutes until sunrise. Let's go find a skyscraper to hide under to wait out the day. We keep moving once night hits," N ordered, Uzi nodding and V giving her own salute. "Yes sir!" she said back, now fully respecting him as her superior.
N pulled out his wings and allowed Uzi to climb on, the female worker wrapping her arms around N's neck. It was warm, and felt really nice. V also drew out her wings, she had healed enough to be able to fly.
With a single massive beat from either disassembly drone, they took off, leaving J's body lying there, helpless to avoid the incoming sunlight.
Two hours later...
N sat on the snowy blanket that permanently encased the ground in its ghostly embrace, basked within the shadow of the skyscraper he was leaning against, providing him with enough cover to survive the coming day. In his arms, Uzi lay, having dozed off shortly after arriving. She had her arms wrapped around N's waist, her head leaning against his chest with her mouth open, drooling a little bit as she softly snored. N found her snores quite cute to be honest.
She shifted slightly, and in her unconscious state, had unraveled one of arms from around N and intertwined her fingers with N's own. He blushed, this was the second time this had happened. The first time, back on the bus, he had panicked at the sudden intimacy and had pulled away, but now, after thinking he had lost her for good, he instead also intertwined his fingers with Uzi. It was clear what the duo thought of each other, they were just waiting for the other to confess first.
A soft thump next to him, and N turned to see that V had landed on the ground, having tired herself out. She had volunteered to keep an eye out, just in case J or Tessa came around. Once the sun was sufficiently up however, she had given up and come back down. Disassembly drones were notoriously light sleepers, and so if anyone tried to approach them, they would almost certainly hear it. She wrapped her arms around herself and prepared to sleep, only to feel something wrapping around her waist.
V opened her eyes, only to see that N had an arm around her, gently pulling her into the cuddle pile. "Hey, everyone's invited to cuddle," N said with a smile. V was never one for cuddling, but this? She couldn't resist.
He was her leader, after all.
N and V unfurled one of their wings in unison, and wrapped them around Uzi, putting the sleeping worker in a safe cocoon of warmth. V nuzzled her head into N's side and also quickly let sleep mode claim her. N finally felt happy, despite the previous events that had transpired. He felt like everything was going to be okay, and that they were going to figure this all out together.
As a squad.
Elsewhere...
The first thing J felt was pain, not just from the searing wounds from her previous bout, but also from the feeling of something or someone tampering with her back, moving things around inside her. It sent tingles through her system and J felt the urge to lift herself up, only to feel a paralyzing pain coarse through her upon attempting to do so, making her squeal in agony.
"Hold still dammit!" A familiar feminine voice with an Australian accent shouted, "The procedure will be easier if you just hold still!" The voice grunted in effort as it shifted another part of J's internal working back into place.
And that's what J did. Stay still, for the next half hour.
Once that time was up, she felt her back being sealed up again and the voice sigh in relief, leaning back in its chair. "Finally, it's done. You can get back up now, J." The murder drone lifted herself up with her one functioning arm, turning to face the space suit-clad human woman sitting in one of the landing pods chairs, sword resting in her lap.
It was Tessa.
"Tessa?" J said softly, not having the energy to speak with her usual volume. The technician raised up her hand and silenced J. "Don't speak too much, I managed to get your regeneration back online, but considering how nasty your wounds are, it'll take a while for you to fully heal," Tessa huffed, "It's a miracle I even found you in time before the sun came up. Cutting it close, I would say." J nodded silently, still looking to the ground in shame, remembering how N had so effortlessly defeated her.
"So, you wanna tell me what happened? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were mauled by a bear, but considering that there are no bears on this planet, something else must have happened," Tessa said, giving time for J to speak up. The latter thought for a fleeting moment that she should lie, say that she hit a building or something, to not admit what she knew was true. But in the face of Tessa, she knew not to lie.
"N.. it was N.." she mumbled, Tessa tilting her head at this.
"N?" she parroted, J nodding slowly in response.
"N. I managed to kill the worker drone he was with, subdued V and was about to take her down as well when he," J took a moment to take in a breath while shaking a little bit, "Attacked and nearly killed me, with little to no effort. I have never seen a drone so angry, so bloodthirsty than him. The worst part is that the worker regenerated its head!" Tessa nodded along, although inside, she did not expect to hear about the nicest drone from the mansion nearly taking down an MK2 disassembly drone. Funny how fate can be. And as for the worker regenerating its head, Tessa knew that it could only be one thing.
CYN.
"Interesting and concerning. If there is an Absolute Solver outbreak on this planet, this needs to be moved to maximum priority, right away. Until then, we try to find N and V, they're trapped in this city with us so it won't take long," Tessa said, getting to her feet and turning her back to J.
"NO!" J suddenly cried out, "You're wrong!"
"Excuse me?" Tessa said, turning around and putting her hands on her hips.
"He's not trapped here with us," J looked Tessa in the eyes with fear,
"We're trapped here with him."