Murder Drones: Old Friends

Chapter 8: The Church

We slowly start to make our way to the church when Tessa in her space suit walks out of the door and stands in front of it. We all freeze and glare at her, only 20 yards between us and her.
"Glad you all could make it, now how about we," Tessa starts to say before I interrupt her.
"We know it's you Cyn, why don't you just cut the charade and show your true self," I say as I aim my laser canons at Tessa.
"Fine thennn- ruin my fun. Not nice V," Tessa says, her voice changing to Cyns monotone computer-like voice, void of emotion. Tessa then proceeds to tear off her helmet, smashing it with her bare hands and ripping out of the space suit. What's revealed afterwards makes me wish us drones could vomit.
We all stare at the figure before us in pure horror. Cyn has made herself taller, and is wearing Tessa's deteriorated skin and over time, Tessa's hair has darkened from its usual brown to a dark gray- almost black color. Tessa's hands gruesomely move out of place so Cyns real robotic hands can move into position, positioning the human hands like wrist bracelets. Cyn's eyes are in an X shape and are pure yellow, her robotic body appearing through holes in the deteriorating skin. Her robotic knees are visible through holes in the skin, the human ankles with the heels look broken and slanted, due to the fusing of human flesh, bone, and robotic metal. Cyn even has Tessa's skin around her face, making a small line down the center of her visor. It also looks like pieces of the skin work like eyelids around her eyes on her visor. She's wearing that same damn dress Tessa was wearing the day she attacked the manor, except now it's all torn and broken. I just hope that Tessa wasn't alive when Cyn did this....
"I see... you all are.. not a fan.. of my new... look," Cyn says in her monotone voice as she glared at all of us...
"We're gonna kill you for what you did Cyn! You'll pay for all of your crimes, on Earth, Tungsten-13, here on Copper-9, and all of the other human colonies!" J shouts as she raises one of her rocket launchers at Cyn.
"Wow, I seem... to have left... quite... an impression... lucky me... I wanted all of you to be here... when I finally finished my purpose," Cyn says as yellow solver symbols appear around her and on the walls of the church, destroying the front walls, revealing massive amounts of machinery and human skeletons.
"Why are you doing this in the first place!?" Nori shouts from atop Uzis shoulder as she readies her solver to attack Cyn.
"Humanity was inferior and in my way- I am the absolute solver- I must feed- I must consume- I am the void- the exponential end," Cyn says as she glares at us.
"Well guess what Cyn, we're here to stop you and we will! You'll burn in robo-hell!" Uzi shouts at Cyn as she readies her solver.
"Oh? But you forget, you belong to me- CALLBACK PING!" Cyn says as a solver symbol appears on her visor and a holographic text saying sys://cyn:callbackping:uzi appears behind her with a solver symbol. Uzi's lights flash yellow for a brief second but then she uses her solver and Cyns solver symbol turns purple briefly before shorting out and becoming one of her normal yellow X eyes again.
"Bite me! You can't control me anymore! You have no power over us! It's 6 against- technically 7 because of my mom- against you. You can't win!" Uzi shouts as she extends her arm to use her solver.
"Incorrect," Cyn says with an unnaturally large and horrifying grin, showing off her titanium fangs.
Suddenly C swaps his hands out for swords and he lunges at Uzi, chopping off her arms and drop kicking her away.
"C!! What the hell!?" I shout as I aim my guns at C.
"Sorry guys- but this is what's necessary in order for us to live- your backups will forgive me..." C says with a sigh as he lands next to Cyn and readies his guns.
"YOU'RE WORKING FOR CYN!?" J shouts as she aims her guns at C.
"But how... you didn't have your memories at first- you wanted to help us- you were on our side- h-how," I say, my voice breaking and digital tears forming on my visor. "Why C.... Why," I ask sadly as I look down in disbelief.
"I added a...firewall so he.... could pretend to not have.... his memories and if... you tried to restore them... his system would just reboot and it.... would seem like whatever technique you used... to restore them... worked," Cyn says with an evil grin.
"Cyn promised me that if I help her destroy this world... then she'll bring you guys back without any memories of this and we can all live peacefully again- maybe even as worker drones," C says hopeful but voice hinting sadness.
"You don't get to decide what's best for us you traitor!" N shouts as he helps Uzi stand up.
"A shame.... you won't be able.... to stop me... goodbye," Cyn says as she teleports away and reappears in the church, running towards a pit towards the back of the church.
"Don't let her get to the pit! If she reaches the planet's core and uses a null then she'll do the same thing to Copper-9 that she did to Earth!" I shout as I get ready to fly after her.
"What did she do to Earth again?" Uzi asks as N helps her stand up and holds her close.
"After making a null in the center of the Earth, the planet basically imploded, parts of the planet were blasted out into space, small parts then eventually whole chunks, these fragments were slowly dragged towards the black hole/large null in the center by these strange holographic looking yet physical tendrils that came up from beneath the planet," I say as I swap my guns out for swords. Uzi gives me a look of pure terror then turns to N and the others.
"Everyone hurry! We need to get to her now!" Uzi shouts as J takes off towards Cyn, who was walking as slowly as she can towards the pit, almost mocking us by letting us try to stop her. Before J could reach Cyn, C got in the way and cut J in half, kicking her body half's away and flying towards Uzi.
N blocks C's attack and knocks him away. X lunges at C but C catches X and slams him into the ground, spreading his four wings and flying close to the ground, dragging X against the ground then tossing him into a nearby rock pillar. I charge at C and he lasers my wings off and grabs me by the throat.
"C... please... don't do this," I ask desperately, digital tears forming in my visor.
"I don't have a choice," C says as he swaps his hands out for his claws, raising his hand to strike me. Then Uzi's solver symbol appears around C's arm and rips it off. Nori's solver symbol appears around C's waist and chucks him away from me. I fall to the floor and Uzi catches me with her solver.
"Thanks Uzi," I say as Uzi sets me down. I reattach my wings and fly towards Cyn, tackling her to the ground. I glance over briefly and see J and X fighting C along with Uzi and N, holding him back. I grab one of the tendrils sprouting out of Cyn's back and swing her around, slamming her against a nearby wall. I swap my hands out for my claws and use them to slice off one of Cyn's tendrils. I try to slice her head off but one of her tendrils stabs me through the chest and throws me to the side.
I crash through one of the church walls and struggle to get up. I manage to pull myself up with my damaged arms and brace myself against a nearby ruined wall while my self-healing systems kick in. I look down and see metallic liquid fill in the hole in my chest and solidify, the pain going away and the wound sealed.
I look over to where Cyn is and she's currently fighting N and Uzi. I turn to see C slam J against the cave walls and grab X's face, flying with his four mechanical wings and dragging X's face against the cave wall, tossing him to the side and dive-bombing towards N and Uzi. I spread my wings and intersect C, using my wings to spin around and kick C away and into a nearby wall.
"You should've stayed down," C says with an angry expression on his visor as he swaps his hands out for his miniguns and starts firing at me. I try to block his attack by shielding myself with my metallic wings but several of C's bullets hit me and I collapse on the ground. I quickly get up and try to fly away but C continues to fire at me. Then C swaps one of his miniguns out for his laser canon and uses it to slice off my wings. I fall to the ground and try to reach for my wings but C stomps on my arm, crushing it.
"AHH!" I cry out in pain as C stomps on my arm, grabbing me by the neck and lifting me up into the air. Then C throws me up and dropkicks me to a nearby wall. I crash into the wall and several chunks of the wall fall on me. Pinning one of my legs to the ground, crushing it. "GAHHH!" I shout out as I feel the chunks of the wall crush my leg.
I look up and see one of C's laser guns pointed at my visor. My eyes go hollow on my visor as C lets out a sad sigh.
"You should've accepted my offer V," C says as he starts to charge up his laser gun. Right as he fires, J shows up and kicks C's laser gun out of the way, the laser barely missing my head. J fights off C while X walks up to me and uses his claws to cut my leg that was pinned under the rocks off. X helps me stand up and helps me sit down on a nearby boulder while I wait for my leg to heal.
"I'm sorry that C betrayed us, I wish I had known, I should've known I," X starts to say before I interrupt him.
"It's ok X, you didn't know, there's no one else to blame but C himself," I say as my leg finishes healing. I stand up and pat X on the back. "Don't blame yourself, just help us stop that traitor and Cyn," I say with a smile. X smiles back and we both spread our metallic wings and swap our hands out for our swords.
J tries to use her laser gun on C but he cuts her arm off then stabs her in the shoulder with his tail, throwing her out of the way. I fly at C and cut off one of his arms and try to stab him in the visor but he blocks me with his wings, flying up and spinning in a circle. His wings slice several of my limbs off and knock me back. As I reassemble myself, X charges at C and stabs him just above the core. C breaks X's arm off and kicks him away, pulling X's sword out of his chest. C then walks up to X and stabs his stomach with his own sword, pinning him to the ground. C swaps one of his hands out for his sword and cuts X's head off.
After fully regenerating, I charge at C, slamming into him and pinning him against the wall, stabbing him in the stomach with my swords and lifting him into the air. I cross my swords into an x and slice C in half. I pull X's sword out of his chest and help him get up after his head regenerated. Then I turn to C and see a flash of his sword, then everything goes dark.
/// system.reboot///
///complete/// {powering.on}
I open my digital eyes and get up with a groan. I look up and see C throw X against a wall and dropkick J through a stone pillar. Then he flies at N and cuts his head off, knocking him out of the way and grabbing Uzi by the throat. Cyn teleports behind Uzi and punches her arm through Uzi's chest, ripping her core out. Uzi's visor goes dark and reads, "fatal error" and the lights on Uzi's core light up, meaning her consciousness has moved to her core. Her purple digital eye widens as she looks at Cyn in terror, desperately trying to get out of her grasp as Cyn lifts Uzi's core to her mouth.
"Hehahahaha AHAHAHAHA," Cyn says, laughing insanely as she opens her mouth wide, lifting Uzi's core to her mouth. C tosses Uzi's body over to N and N looks at the scene before him in terror. I get up and slice off one of my swords, throwing it full speed at Cyn. It stabs Cyn on the side of the head and she cries out in pain, dropping Uzi's core. Uzi's core runs over to her body and enters her chest, the wound healing over, and Uzi's visor lighting up with bootup code.
"God F@^&^ Da^#($ it," Cyn says in frustration, voice glitching like crazy. Cyn teleports in front of me and stomps her foot on my chest, pinning me down. Cyn punches her arm through my chest and everything goes dark. I wake up inside my core and I look at Cyn in terror as she lifts me up to her mouth. Uzi and Nori's solver appear around Cyn and throw her away, dropping me back into my body. My visor lights up and I quickly get up, flying over to N, Uzi, and Nori. Nori hops up onto Uzi's shoulder and uses her solver along with Uzi to block Cyn's attacks and help us fight her back. C comes up behind Uzi and tries to stab her but I block his attack, aiming my rocket launcher at him.
"Wrong side," I say coldly as I fire my rocket launcher, knocking C back and through a nearby wall. X and J continue to hold C back while the rest of us fight Cyn.
"Don't give her a second to breathe!" Uzi shouts as she slams a boulder into Cyn using her solver. Nori hops off of Uzi's shoulder and stabs Cyn in the visor with her pickaxe. Cyn pulls out the visor and throws it into the pit. Cyn then grabs Nori and throws her up into the air, drop-kicking her across the room and into a wall. "MOM!" Uzi shouts as she runs over to Nori.
"V, our special move!" N shouts as he spreads out his wings. I smirk and nod in response and also spread out my wings. N and I spin in a circle around Cyn, going faster and faster, creating a mini tornado around Cyn. Then, N and I both abruptly stop flying and Cyn gets flung into a wall as the tornado dissipates. I fly over to Uzi and Nori with N and we check on both of them.
"You two ok?" I ask as I land next to Uzi. Uzi nods and helps Nori get up on her shoulder.
"We'll be a lot better once Cyn is dead," Nori says before Cyn suddenly teleports behind Uzi. Cyn grabs Nori and kicks Uzi into N, knocking both of them over.
"Oh will you? Sorry to... disappoint," Cyn says as she throws Nori into the pit, leading down to who the hell knows where.
"MOM!" Uzi shouts as she quickly gets up, running towards Cyn. N tries to hold Uzi back but she knocks him down and she runs at Cyn. Uzi uses her solver to lift up a boulder, but before Uzi can use her solver to hit Cyn with the boulder, Cyn teleports out of the way.
"O-Oh yes... get snuck up on," Cyn says as she appears behind Uzi and punches a hole through her chest, ripping out Uzi's core. Then, one of Cyn's tendrils grabs Uzi's body and throws it into the pit. Then Cyn tosses Uzi's core into the pit along with it.
"UZI!!" I shout as I get up and swap my hands out for my rocket launchers, running at Cyn, and rapidly firing rockets at her. Cyn uses her solver to knock my rockets away, exploding nearby walls. Cyn uses her solver to lift me up and slam me to the ground, doing the same to N when he tries to attack her.
J goes flying through the wall, visor and wings severely damaged, and missing an arm and a leg. J weakly looks up as C slices X in half and throws his lower half away, dropping X's upper half next to J. J crawls over to X's lower half and weakly crawls over to X, bringing his lower half to him so he can heal. Then, after making sure he's ok and wrapping her arms protectively around him, J uses her damaged wings to shield the two of them, making sure X can heal.
C hovers next to the pit with his four metallic wings while Cyn walks up to the pit, Cyn keeps N and I pinned to the ground with her solver as she approaches the pit. Cyn lifts herself up above the pit with several of the tendrils sprouting out of her back and lets out the most mentally unstable laugh I've ever heard, that means a lot coming from me.
"This has been fun, and also that's.... sarcasm... Honestly I'm... starving," Cyn says as she suddenly drops down into the pit. Neon yellow lights and lines of code suddenly burst out from the pit, lighting up the barely stable ruins of the church. Then several digital looking tendrils, seemingly made out of code, came out of the pit, swinging around and destroying the church, the pit starting to collapse in on itself. C flies up into the air and then down into the pit, a flash of light flying out of the pit before the sound of his wings vanish.
"We need to get out of here! Now!" J shouts as she helps a somewhat fully healed X stand up.
"What's happening!?" N asks, digital eyes hollow and expression one of pure terror.
"If we don't get out of this cavern before Cyn uses the solver's null ability, then we'll die!" X shouts as he helps J quickly fix her wings. N continues to look confused and I sigh, deciding to quickly explain it.
"If Cyn uses a null in this cavern then the null will consume everything in this cavern like a miniature black hole, growing to the size of the cavern. Then the null will blow several parts of Copper-9 into the sky and out into space as the gravity of the planet breaks and changes. Then, hundreds of digital tendrils, like those (points at the ones destroying the church) of all different sizes, will start to pull the chunks of the planet into the null. This will continue until the null grows so large that it fully destroys Copper-9, breaking it into several chunks and slowly pulling them in, all drones, us included, will die. Luckily for us, there's a chance that Uzi and Nori got teleported up into space since they're solver users and the null will just teleport them away. We need to hurry and get to the ships before C gets teleported there and reaches Uzi before we can!" I shout as I point to a newly formed hole in the ceiling, courtesy of the tendrils destroying the cavern.
We all spread out our wings and fly out through the hole, dodging different chunks of the cavern ceiling as the whole cavern collapses in on itself. We fly up to the surface and turn up our anti-gravity boosters to max, flying as fast as we can to the ships.
Moments later we arrive at the spot where J and Tessa or well Cyn, first arrived. They had originally come with three ships, the one J was flying crashed while Tessa landed hers gracefully. The third also crashed but received significantly less damage. I tried opening up the hatch to Tessa's ship but it wouldn't open. I turn over to the others and see that N had managed to find a way to open up the hatch to the third pod.
We all enter the pod and take to different consoles. I took the security consoles, keeping an eye out by watching the rear cameras. J took the side cameras along with X, and N took the pilot console.
"Are you sure you can fly this thing?" I ask N with a skeptical look. Digital sunglasses appear on N's visor as he turns to me.
"Trust me, spaceship pilot origin story!" N chirps as he grabs the consoles and starts randomly pressing buttons, somehow managing to take off the ship perfectly and flying towards the rings that surround Copper-9.
"Let's find Uzi," I say with a small smile as N smiles back. N activates a locator beacon and sets it to Uzi's specific ID code, which he somehow knew, slightly concerning but whatever. N locks on to Uzi's position and starts flying towards the very back of the rings. I look at the rear camera in horror as I see several chunks of Copper-9 get flung up into the sky, some even reaching space. Then, large digital looking tentacles come out from the growing Null, now visible through space, and beginning to pull in the chunks of the planet. If we don't hurry, this will be the end of our story.