The scene opens with R and Z flying over the abandoned city. Scouring for V2, who last we saw, had gone rabid and run away to go on a killing spree.
Z: "Jesus where is this guy? You think he'd leave some type of noticeable trail."
R: "I KNOW RIGHT? HE USUALLY EXPLODES A LOT MORE STUFF THAN THIS!"
Z: "I'm going down to the ground to search closer."
Z flies down and begins investigating around for V2, almost seeming to run in circles for a while until he suddenly comes across a worker drone corpse that looks mutilated and dismantled, Z inspects the corpse. The corpse having too many parts gone for R to have been responsible and too crude for Z to have been responsible.
Z: "Well that's.. odd."
Z notices a trail of oil leading away from the corpse. He decides to follow it and see where it leads then suddenly R lands down right next to him.
R: "WHATCHA DOING?"
Z: "Jesus! R, don't scare me like that- I've just found a trail of oil leading from some new worker drone corpse."
R: "OOOH OIL!"
Z: "Don't you dare lick it off the ground, It's disgusting and we need it to find V2."
R: "AWH.."
Z and R follow the trail for a few minutes before ending up at an old JcJenson Drone Manufacturing facility.
Z: "Weird, why would he go here? All that's in there is lifeless drones with barely any oil."
R simply shrugs his shoulders and runs over and overheats his arm, blasting a hole in the wall. He runs inside to explore as Z just watches and follows after.
Z: "I mean, the door would have worked as well."
R: "THE DOOR IS BORING."
Z wanders around inside as R just starts messing with all the random devices and tools inside. Eventually Z hears the sound of something... eating?
Z: "R is now really time to be eating the lifeless corpses."
R looks at him awkwardly as he's messing with a random power drill.
R: "I'M NOT EATING THOUGH."
Z: "Wait then what's..?"
Z notices it's coming from a supply closet, he walks over to the supply closet and inspects it before slowly opening the door, making a really noticeable creaking sound. He sees V2, covered in oil, holding what looks like a worker drone's dead body. V2 seems to be.. eating the worker drone? V2 usually isn't the type to eat corpses like that.
Z: "V-V2...?"
Suddenly the eating sound stops and V2 turns it's head to look at Z, making a bone cracking sound as it slowly turns it's head. Revealing a familiar program's symbol in place of it's usual optic. R just watches from a distance, thinking about how damn brutal V2 is being right now.. and also enjoying V2's brutality as well.
V2..?: "Oh. V2 isn't available right now. V2 requested it's repairs so we took over to... Help out a little."
Z: "What the hell are you...?"
V2 stands up and walks over to Z as Z backs up away from the supply closet, it only now becomes clear that V2's legs now have red armour covering them, looking more fitting to the rest of it's body.
V2..?: "We were originally going to repair a certain..." Suddenly a fleshy and mechanical arm bursts out of it's back with a camera on the tip of it. displaying a hologram of X's damaged body. "...arrogant Disassembly Drone as per our directives. But this host seems more useful than HE ever was."
R: "I CANNOT ARGUE WITH THAT!"
V2..?: "However, the designated regeneration condition requires the harvest of new parts for it to succeed. Yours will do perfectly."
As soon it finishes speaking 3 more arms similar to the first one burst out of V2's back, one having another camera head, one having a crab claw and the last one having a sharp blade.
Z: "Oh hell no."
Z's wings come out of his back and he just barely flies away from getting slashed by the blade. More arms burst out of V2's back but only work as supports to hold V2's body in the air. R decides to join in and flies at V2 only to get grabbed by the neck by one of the claws.
V2..?: "You still have purpose, Serial Designation R. Don't make us regret such a decision."
R grabs the claw and tears it open, causing V2 to throw R.
V2..?: "Pained Shriek."
Z uses the opportunity to slash at V2 with his blade arms, only to get slapped off by V2, he manages to soften his landing by flying and switches his arms to guns, shooting at V2.
V2..?: "Pain. Angry."
Z: "Would you quit calling out your actions like that? It's annoying."
V2:..? "It is a.. Habit."
Suddenly R grabs onto V2 from behind, shaking the machine around as V2 tries to shake R off. Z lowers his guns and switches to his claws and tries to go for a finishing slash. Only for the R on V2's back to fizzle out, revealing he was a hologram and V2 swiftly grabs Z by the neck.
V2..?: "Get Pranked, Idiot."
V2 grabs Z with the claw arms and starts tightly squeezing him, causing a lot of pain for Z.
V2..?: "I did say you would be part of the perfect lifeform, Didn't I?"
R lunges and explodes most of V2's extra arms with his Overloader arm, causing Z to drop to the ground.
V2..?: "Pained Screech. Knock it off, Jerk."
R: "MMMMM. NOPE!"
R swiftly punches V2 into a wall.
V2..?: "Ow. We will have to try again later. We won't be as merciful when we meet next."
The symbol in V2's optic disappears as V2 begins rebooting. V2 eventually wakes up and sees R and Z, looking down at him. He quickly gets up.
V2: "Why are you guys looking at me like that?"
Z: "Well you know that core you had me put in?"
V2: "Yeah?"
Z: "It kinda took control of you and made you start eating worker drones to repair yourself."
V2: "What the fuck..? Ew. How did I even eat them? I don't have a mouth."
Z: "I have no clue, You were in a supply closet doing nothing but chewing a worker drone corpse. Very loudly too I might add."
V2: "At least it repaired my legs- Also, what the fuck are THESE THINGS?"
V2 motions to the 2 extra arms he still had.
Z: "I don't know, You just started growing multiple of those out of your back."
V2: "Gross. How do I get rid of it?"
Z: "Don't ask me."
R: "I DUNNO EITHER."
V2 just looks at the extra arms, managing to figure out how to control them but then trying to focus on removing them, suddenly they just retract into his back, disappearing from view.
V2: "Both Ew and Ow. That hurt and felt disgusting to me."
Z: "You'll probably have to get used to that."
V2: "Ok sure whatever you say buddy. You two head back to the pod, I've just gotta do something."
Z: "Alrighty then, Let's go R."
R and Z leave the building and fly off. Leaving V2 by himself. V2 concentrates his abilities and attempts to speak with the program.
V2: "You mind explaining what all that was about?"
Nobody answers.
V2: "I know you can fucking hear me, ANSWER ME YOU PIECE OF-"
V2 gets heavily electrocuted, knocking him to the floor.
???: "Never speak back to us in that tone again. Remember who controls your fate in this world."
V2: "I-I'm sorry-.."
???: "Good. Never forget your place. We have a new assignment for you."
V2: "What is it?"
???: "There's a certain disassembly drone squad who have become allies with one of our newer hosts. We will need you to monitor them closely and ensure they find their way to us as they should."
V2: "Where do I get them to go anyways? And where even are they?"
???: "For answering your first question, you'll find out when the time comes. And for your second question, ask your allies about a group lead. y a certain... Serial Designation J."
V2: "Alright then, whatever gets you har-"
V2 is electrocuted again, causing a scream of pain.
???: "Don't speak to us as if we are a joke. If you ignore our commands, we will tear apart your very programming and restructure it until you are a mindless machine barely even capable of speaking a word that goes against our wishes."
The program disappears, stopping the electrocution.
V2: "W-well, I guess what's a friendly f-fucking joke now..?"
V2 slowly gets up and walks out of the building limping from the amount of electrocution it just endured. Might as well get back to the pod to ask about this other disassembly drone squad. Who knows, it could be a nice change of pace with some fresh faces around.
and That's thievery second
yes this layer was only 2 parts but i mean stretching out the story for this to go across at least 3 parts isn't easy
in the next chapter i feel like we all have a feeling of where we're going
and yes, the solver is literally making V2 it's bitch, it won't get any better as this progresses either.
also the reason for the chapter releases being kinda slow is that i'm writing other fanfics rn, you can find the ideas i have for them in my future story ideas book but that's your choice if you want a spoiler as to what i'm working on
also quick poll
should I release chapters that are everything from one layer all in one chapter?
A) Yes, That would be cool
B) No, Just stick to the format
aaaaand.....
time for LORE QUIZ!
QUESTION 1: Why did the core suddenly ditch helping X's repairs for V2?
QUESTION 2: Why does the Solver wish for specifically V2 to monitor the "New Host"?
QUESTION 3: How will R, Z, V2 and the main MD Cast react to each other?
welp not much else to say except
See you in...
DISRUPTION / / / FIRST: The Promening