Chapter 12: Absolute Demise

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"Everyone hang on!" N shouts as he quickly maneuvers the ship around several different asteroids, barely missing one of them.
"We're almost through the asteroid belt or well rings of Copper-9! Scanners say Uzi is at the very edge!" J shouts as she watches the monitors.
"I see them!" I shout as I spot Uzi and Nori on one of the monitors.
"Everyone grab onto something!" N shouts as he puts the thrusters to max, speeding towards Uzi and Nori's position.
"X! Get ready to grab them and pull them in! N, keep your eyes on the controls!" J shouts as she continues to watch the monitors. X does a salute and runs up to the hatch, readying to open it and pull Uzi and Nori in.
"Not yet, not yet! NOW!" J yells as X opens the hatch and reaches out, grabbing Uzi with his hands and Nori with his tail, quickly pulling them in and closing the hatch... and falling on the floor.
"Got em..." X says with a groan. He sits up and helps Uzi get up, Nori quickly hopping up onto Uzi's shoulder.
"Took you guys long enough," Uzi says as X helps her up, holding something close to her chest.
"Uhhh Uzi, what's that you got there?" J asks as she looks at Uzi skeptically. Uzi sighs and sets down another drone core, this one with red lights and the same usual mutated shape.
"Who the hell is that?" I ask as I look at the core confused. The core looks at me and its single digital eye narrows at me. "And what's its deal with me?" I ask as I look at it confused.
"ты убил моих родителей, ублюдок! (You killed my parents bastard!)," the drone core shouts at me and I instantly know who it is. I sigh and walk up to Doll, who has now taken a defensive stance. I crouch down in front of Doll and my expression softens.
"Doll...." I say, digital tears filling my visor as I grab Doll and pull her into a tight hug, the small drone core flailing its claw legs around in confusion. "Doll, I'M SO SORRY! I was so worried I'd never get to apologize for... for.... For EVERYTHING! I'm sorry I killed your parents, I'm sorry I tried to kill you, I-I- I'm so sorry! Everything I did, I did out of... out of fear! I killed worker drones because I didn't want to die. I put on a crazy personality because I didn't want to be seen as weak! I'm so sorry I killed your parents! I-I thought that if I just followed our orders then everything would turn out fine but it didn't! I was so scared when the Solver reemerged in you and Uzi! I wanted to get rid of you so I wouldn't have to worry about it but that only led to more problems! I just wanted to protect us from the Solver but all I did was make it worse! I know you can't forgive me but... just know that I'm.... I'm sorry," I say as I set Doll down and back up. Doll looks up at me in shock and lets out a sigh.
"Я понимаю, почему ты убил моих родителей. Я прощаю тебя и готов дружить. Просто будет тяжело дружить с убийцей моих родителей (I understand why you killed my parents, I do. I forgive you and I'm willing to be friends. It's just gonna be hard, being friends with my parents murderer.)" Doll says as she extends a claw leg.
I smile softly and shake Doll's claw leg and she hops up onto my shoulder and I smile at her softly.
"I promise, when this is all over, we'll fix you, put you back in your body. Same goes to you Mrs. Doorman," I say as I look over at Nori.
"Now that that's over we should probably get-" J starts to say before the pod starts to swerve and turn, throwing all of us around.
"N! Get a grip!" I shout as I get slammed into a wall. Meanwhile, N is rapidly pressing random buttons and swerving the controls in order to avoid asteroids.
"It's ok! I got this I- Everyone hang on!" N shouts as just barely misses an asteroid. N maneuvers the ship around several asteroids before finally slowing down once he exits the rings of Copper-9.
"Are we in the clear?" J asks as she stands back up and walks over to X, making sure he's ok.
"Yeah, I've brought us out of the line of fire from any asteroids, we're slowly drifting back towards Copper-9 now," N says as he sighs and turns away from the control to face us.
"N!" Uzi shouts as she runs up to N and hugs him tightly. A light yellow digital blush fills N's visor as he shyly hugs Uzi back.
"You can let go of him now," J says with a smirk after Uzi had been hugging N for around 5 minutes.
"Oh! Y-yeah..." Uzi says as her visor turns bright purple, quickly shoving off of N and crossing her arms. N shoots Uzi a soft smile and Uzi shyly smiles back before X suddenly backs up from the monitor he had been watching.
"Hey guys, what's that?" X says as he points to one of the monitors. The others and I look at the monitor X was pointing at and we see a flash of yellow code before one of the tendrils rips through the hull of the shuttle. The tendril then extends and bursts through several other sides of the shuttle before a holographic text appears on it saying, "Get snuck up on."
Suddenly the tendril yanks the shuttle in half, causing a massive explosion and sending all of us flying towards Copper-9, entering its orbit. J quickly grabs X and holds him close to her, him clinging to her for dear life, while I'm currently spinning out of control.
Before I can drift away from everyone else N manages to reach me and grabs my hand, gripping it tightly. I look over at N and he spreads out of wings, I nod and do the same. We use our wings to launch ourselves over to Uzi, and N grabs her hand with his other hand. I grab Uzi's other hand and we form a triangle, making sure to hold on tight as we start to enter the atmosphere. I look over to Nori and Doll and Nori waves while Doll continues to spin in circles.
"Well that's a serious issue," Uzi says as she glances down at the rapidly approaching surface of Copper-9.
"Yeah it is," I say with a laugh as Uzi and N turn to look at me. "But at least we have each other right?" I say with a soft smile. N smiles brightly at me, most likely glad I'm finally letting him in and all that mushy stupid stuff.
"Hey N, we're like... dating right?" Uzi asks sheepishly as she nervously looks at N, her visor turning purple with blush. N blushes bright yellow and stammers out a response.
"Oh? O-Oh! Y-yeah," N says as Uzi also starts nervously stammering.
"C-Cause I-I know I'm not always the g-greatest with..." Uzi says as N quickly responds.
"Y-yeah, t-that was always the plan, so.... Yeah?" N says with a soft smile as he looks at Uzi happily.
"..... yay," Uzi says with a small and happy smile. N and Uzi both let go of my hands, causing me to start spinning again, and pull each other into a tight hug. I manage to steady myself using my wings and cross my arms.
"If you two start kissing I'm gonna throw up," I say with a smirk as N and Uzi both start blushing brightly.
"Ew gross get away!" Uzi shouts as she quickly shoves N off of her and crosses her arms, embarrassed.
"Calm down, we have a job to do, remember," I say as I put on a serious expression and mentally prepare myself for the upcoming battle.
"Oh yeahhhhh! Time to murder a PLANET!" Uzi says as she starts maniacally laughing and spinning around in a circle while our descent to Copper-9's surface starts to speed up.
"You ready N?" I ask as we all huddle up again. N takes in a deep breath and nods, clearly still nervous.
"As ready as I can be," N says with a soft smile, looking over at Uzi and squeezing her hand tighter, making the smaller drone blush.
"M-Me too..." Uzi says as her visor lights up purple with blush, still clearly not used to affection.
"Ughhh! Get a room you two," I say with a smirk as I watch both drones blush furiously.
"A-Anyways, what's the plan?" N asks as he looks down at the rapidly approaching surface of Copper-9.
"Here's the plan, Uzi, use your solver to counteract the null Cyn made, then we'll use our wings to slow down and soften our landing, and then..... we fight like hell," I say with a grin as I deploy my wings. Uzi readies her solver and N deploys his wings.
"Swing in 3, 2, 1!!" N shouts as we quickly spin around and we launch Uzi towards the surface faster. N and I use our wings to quickly follow behind Uzi.
"HEY CYN! SUCK! ON! DIS!!!!" Uzi shouts as she launches one of her nulls towards the surface. The Null goes down into the pit where the chunks of the planet got blown out and a giant burst of energy blasts out of the planet. The tendrils stop pulling in the chunks and freeze, error lines of code appearing on them.
"QUICKLY SLOW OUR DECENT!" N shouts as we both grab Uzi and use the anti-gravity boosters in our wings to slow down our fall.
"Aim for that platform! We'll use it like a runway!" I shout as I point at one of the lab's high walkways, aiming us to land on it.
We land, hard, on the platform, using our wings to cling onto the sides and slow us down before we slide off the edge. N and Uzi hit a dramatic pose while I just rolled my eyes.
"Where are the others?" N asks as he looks around confused. I look and point upward and N follows my gesture, looking up as well. Uzi also looks up, confused at first, but then realization dawns on her face as she sees J and X rapidly approaching our location.
"They're not slowing down are they?" Uzi asks with a groan as she looks at me. I shake my head and let out an annoyed sigh.
"Guess we should save them," I say with a groan as N and I deploy our wings, flying up and towards J and X. We fly up to X and J and help them slow their descent, landing safely next to Uzi.
"Thanks guys," X says with a shy smile as he remains close to J, clearly shaken up after falling from the atmosphere.
"Anytime bud," N says as he playfully ruffles up X's hair, X giggling in response telling N to cut it out.
"Hey uh guys....." I say nervously as I point over at the crater Uzi had thrown the null into.
"What V..... oh...." J says as a look of doom falls upon her visor as she sees who's rising out of the crater.
Cyn rises up out of the crater, standing on top of one of the eldritch snake crab things, holding Uzi's null.
"Dropped this- Silly," Cyn says calmly as she plays around with the null before crushing it with her hands, sending out a massive surge of energy. All of the tendrils flash yellow again and start pulling the chunks of Copper-9s surface in again. Cyn steps off of the eldritch snake crab and onto the platform, slowly walking towards us, a sinister and disturbing grin on her face.
"Hello Uzi... Hi N!.... nice to see you too J, X, and especially you V," Cyn says with a sinister smile as she slowly approaches us. Uzi readies her solver and sticks close to N. J, X, and I spread out our wings and ready our weapons. I glance over at N and he looks horrified, limbs shaking and digital eyes wide in terror.
"STAY BACK!" I shout as Cyn continues to approach us.
"I see you are unhappy to see me... because I have hurt... your feelings," Cyn says with a playful grin as a cloud starts to set in at our location, making it hard to see Cyn clearly.
"Why all the playful banter huh?" J asks with a scoff as she keeps X close to her. I glance over at N again and he's squeezing Uzi's hand tightly while continuing a horrified look of eye contact with Cyn.
"Better to ASSIMILATE THEN EXPLAIN ANYWAY, CallbackPing!" Cyn says as she steps back into the fog, her appearance distorting as multiple clawed appendages and tendrils come out of her back, her X digital eyes glowing bright gold as the solver symbol appears on her visor, and another appearing above her in a form of code saying, "sys://Cyn:callbackping:Uzi" Uzi groans in pain and grips her visor tightly before flashing her own solver symbol, causing Cyn to shriek in pain and step back as one of her X digital eyes burns and turns purple briefly before turning back to gold.
"Bite me! You can't control me anymore Cyn! I think dumb things are cool and I. AM. FREE!" Uzi says as she suddenly catches a pickaxe that seemingly fell out of nowhere. I look up and see Nori and Doll falling into orbit, with Nori cheering for Uzi.
"Yeah, we're gonna end you, ONCE AND FOR ALL! We aren't scared of you anymore!" I shout as I swap my hands out for assault rifles and aim at Cyn.
"You should be," Cyn says as her sinister grin widens a disturbing amount. "And you are forgetting one thing," Cyn says as she holds up a solver symbol, another one appearing around a nearby ruined building, presumably one pulled in by the tendrils from elsewhere.
"And that is?" J asks with a digital raised eyebrow as she glares at Cyn, readying herself for battle.
"I have... assistance," Cyn says as she points up at the sky. I follow her gaze and a sense of dread dawns on me as a figure rapidly approaches us.... It's C...
C lands right next to Cyn and retracts his four wings, glaring at us coldly as he looks over at Cyn.
"What are your orders, boss?" C asks as he looks back at us, a look of sadness briefly appearing on his face as he sees me but disappearing just as quickly as it came.
"Kill them.... All of them," Cyn says with a sinister grin as she suddenly vanishes, appearing right behind Uzi and punching her core right of her chest, holding it tightly in her hand and grinning at Uzi through the hole as her consciousness transfers to the core.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" N shouts as he knocks Cyn away, quickly catching Uzi's core and putting it in her chest so she can heal. I turn back to C and before I can react he slams into me, crashing me against the wall of a nearby building. I quickly get up and fly over to him as he fights J and X. I jump onto his back and try to pull him down or stab him but C just grabs me and throws me off of him.
"C! Please don't do this!" I cry out desperately to him as I try to hold him back.
"I'm sorry.." C says as he kicks me away then right hooks X in the facial visor, who had been trying to sneak up on him.
"X! C, you little piece of-" J shouts as she charges at C, stabbing him with her wings and trying to tear off his head with her claws. C sighs and stabs J through the waist with both of his swords and slices her in half, kicking her body over to X, who quickly crawls over to J and helps her heal. I run up to C and tackle him to the ground, using my wings to fly up into the sky, flying over to one of the labs nearby towers and slamming him against it.
"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US!" I shout in anger as I drag C against the tower walls as I fly upward. I fly away from the tower and throw C as hard as I can to the ground, flying down towards him with my swords ready to stab him. Before I can reach him C moves out of the way and dropkicks me in my side, knocking me away. I crash into the wall of a nearby building and quickly pull myself up.
"You should've stayed down V," C says as he swaps one of his hands for a laser gun, aiming it at my facial visor. Suddenly, C quickly spreads his wings and flies back, dodging a barrage of laser fire. I look up in the direction it came from and see Khan, Lizzy, and Thad standing on top of one of the labs towers, each holding a seemingly modified and smaller version of Uzi's railgun. Standing near Thad is- ANOTHER FEMALE DISASSEMBLY DRONE?!
"C! We're not done with our fight yet!" Khan says as he uses a grappling hook to zipline down to us, landing a few feet away from near, Lizzy doing the same and Thad being carried down by the other disassembly drone.
"Fine, I'll just kill you all!" C shouts as he spreads his four wings, swaps his hands out for swords, and charges at us full speed.

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