Murder Drones: Old Friends

Chapter 14: This Ends NOW!

    "I am salvation, I am solution, I am... ABSOLUTE!" Cyn shouts as the eldritch snakes charge towards us.
    "Fight like hell!" I shout as I fly towards one of the eldritch snakes, dodging its tendrils and slicing off several of its limbs and hologram tendrils.
    "V look out!" X shouts as he slices off a metallic crab claw that was about to stab me from behind me.
    "Thanks X! Stay together everyone!" I shout as I stick with X and J, helping them slice off several of the eldritch snakes limbs and tendrils. I fly up and stab it through the visor, making it shriek in pain, one of its tendrils smacking me away. I crash into the ground and quickly get up, leaping out of the way of one of its tendrils. I fly up to its head and slice it off, stabbing it through the core with my other blade. The eldritch snake collapses to the ground, its body slowly dissolving into nothing.
    "Nice job V!" N shouts as he repeatedly stabs one of the eldritch worms in the back. N tries to slice its head off but one of the tendrils wraps around his leg and slams him against the ground. S flies over to N and helps him get back up, using her machine guns to keep any of the monster's tendrils from reaching them.
    "Lizzy look out!" I shout as I quickly slash a tendril that was about to strike her.
    "Thanks bestie!" Lizzy says as she takes a quick selfie before resuming fire on one of the monsters. I glance over at Uzi, J, and X and they're all keeping Cyn at bay. Cyn suddenly disappears from view and I feel a sharp pain in my throat.
    "Gah!" I cry out in strangled pain as oil fills my throat. I look down and see one of Cyn's tendrils stabbed through my throat. Another tendril stabs through my stomach and I can feel the sharp edge slash through a part of my core. I grasp my chest in pain and I'm spun around to face Cyn.
    "Should've... paid better.. Attention... buddy," Cyn says with a malicious grin as she grabs my visor with both hands, slowly increasing pressure on my head. I can't even scream, cry, or shout because my throat is filling with oil.
    "STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Uzi shouts as she uses her solver to cut the tendrils off with a pickaxe and dropkicks Cyn away, causing me to fall to the ground. I quickly clutch the wound in my stomach and the one on my throat.
    "Stay with us V!" J shouts as she runs up to me and catches me as I fall on my knees and towards the floor.
    "X! J! Hold Cyn back! I'll help V!" Uzi shouts as she runs up to me and quickly kneels down next to me.
    "On it!" J shouts as she quickly spreads her wings and follows X to go help fight off Cyn. My visor fills with more and more warning signs as my healing systems fail due to the wound on my core. I look up at Uzi weakly as she readies her solver, switching to the create symbol, slowly fixing my wounds. I gasp for air, my synthetic lungs filling with air as I cough out oil. I feel the wound on my core heal and the pain in my chest goes away as the hole in my stomach heals.
    "Thank you," I say weakly as I slowly sit up, taking Uzi's hand as she offers to help me stand up. I quickly spread my wings and flew towards one of the last eldritch snakes, dodging its tendrils and claws, flying straight towards its visor with both swords out. I stab the monster through the visor with both swords, pulling one out to stab it through the core, instantly killing the beast. As the last of the eldritch monsters falls, we all surround Cyn.
    "Sad Expression.... You killed my... pets... what a shame..." Cyn says with a malicious grin as we ready our weapons.
    "This ends now Cyn! Your reign of destruction and chaos ends today!" N shouts as he points one of his swords at Cyn.
    "Correction... This is only just beginning..." Cyn says with a sinister grin.   
    "And what makes you say that!?" Khan shouts out as he aims his railgun at Cyn, Lizzy and Thad quickly doing the same. Cyn looks up at the sky and smiles a wide and disturbing smile.
    "Because I have.... Friends," Cyn says as she leaps back towards an abandoned building. I look up at the sky in the same direction Cyn was looking and see something barreling towards us.
    "EVERYONE RUN!" I shout as I spread my wings and fly over to Lizzy, grabbing her and flying to safety, quickly landing on a collapsed building. N grabs Uzi and Khan and flies over to us. S grabs Thad, and X and J just fly over to join us. Right as we all land the object makes contact with the surface, sending a massive wave of energy everywhere and kicking up a large cloud of dust. As the dust starts to clear, blue lights shine through the cloud.
    "Time to finish what I started," C says darkly as he emerges from the dust, four wings spread wide and claws ready.
    "C...." I mutter, voice faltering as my wings shake with unease. Lizzy walks up next to me and readies her railgun, aiming at C.
    "Don't worry bestie, we'll take this traitor out!" Lizzy shouts as she, Thad, and Khan all open fire on C. C uses his wings to block the attacks and flies into the sky, barraling back down towards Khan and Thad. S quickly blocks the attack and knocks C back. I fly over and tackle C back to the ground.
    "I can't believe you! I loved you! AND YOU BETRAYED US!!!" I shout in anger as I repeatedly punch C in the visor, visor filled with tears as I laugh maniacally, C's oil covering my metallic hands. C catches both of my fists and one of his wing blades stabs me through the stomach.
    "I'm sorry V, I never deserved you, but don't worry, your backups won't remember any of this!" C says sadly as he tosses me to the side. I crash through the wall of a destroyed building and just lay there as my systems heal, sobbing quietly.
    "V!? V!? V where are you!?" I hear Lizzy shout as her voice grows near. Lizzy emerges from the hole in the wall, the one I made when C threw me threw it. "V!" Lizzy shouts as she quickly runs up to me and helps me get back up.
    "Thanks Lizzy," I say quietly as Lizzy walks me over to a nearby rock so I can sit on it. "I can stand," I say as I gently push her away and stand tall.
    "Are you sure you're up for this?" Lizzy asks as she climbs through the hole in the wall, waiting for me to follow.
    "Yeah, I guess I have to be," I say as I follow Lizzy and ready my weapons to fight C.
    "You didn't have to see this," Cyn says with a malicious grin as she stabs N through the visor with one of her tendrils and tosses him to the side, grabbing Uzi by the throat and slamming her against a wall.
    "Bite me!" Uzi shouts as she uses her solver to slam a boulder against Cyn, knocking her away.
    "Block this nerk!" I shout as I run up behind C and stab his wings repeatedly. C yelps in pain and tries to knock me off but I dodge his attacks and continue to tear into his wings.
    "GET OFF!" C shouts as his stinger tail stabs my shoulder and yanks me off of him. I quickly heal my wound and leap back, dodging another attack from C's tail.
    "Traitor!" J shouts as she tackles C to the ground, weighing down his left arm and wings. I quickly join J and hold down C's right arm and wings. X flies up and slices off C's tail and holds down his legs.
    "GET OFF! LET ME GO!" C shouts in anger as he squirms and struggles in our grasp.
    "Lizzy! Shoot him!" I shout as Lizzy runs up and aims her railgun at C. Lizzy looks behind us and at the ruined building. The building's lower supports are heavily damaged and it's leaning towards us.
    "When I fire, run like hell!" Lizzy shouts as she opens fire on the building right behind us. We all quickly spread our wings and flew away. C tries to do the same but the building collapses on top of him.
    "AGGHH!" C shouts in agony as the building crushes him, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. Once the dust settles, we fly back over to the rubble.
I spot C, only his upper half is exposed, his chest pierced by a metal bar and his legs and wings crushed and trapped under the rubble, bits and pieces of his wings visible from beneath the rubble, oil seeping into the rocks and metal of the ruins. C's visor is cracked and his body is covered in his own oil. I walk up to C and crouch down, making eye contact with him as he looks up at me weakly.
"You did this to yourself," I say as I glare at him. C just weakly looks back, his voice breaking and visor glitching.
"You'll never win, Cyn will kill all of you and when she's done destroying Copper-9, things will be better, none of us will remember any of our hardships and we'll live a peaceful life in the new world, Cyns world," C says with a weak laugh as his visor fills with more and more error codes.
"I'm sorry it came to this C, I know why you did this but you hurt so many people, broke my heart, tried to kill me so many times.... I guess we don't get our happy ending... do we..." I say sadly as I look at C.
"Yeah, you're right, we don't..." C says as his visor fades to black, his body going limp.
"I hope you find peace C.." I say as I stand up, holding back tears. I spread my wings and fly over to join the others in fighting Cyn.
"Angry expression... You killed my.... favorite toy.... YOU WILL DIE FOR THAT!!" Cyn says as she slams X against the ground and tosses him to the side. She then teleports behind J and punches J through the stomach, ripping her in half and tossing her to the side.
"JUST DIE!" I shout as I fly up and tackle Cyn to the ground, repeatedly punching her in the face as she just smiles maniacally at me. Cyn teleports out of my grasp and reappears next to me, kicking me to the side. N and Uzi charge at Cyn but her tendrils knock them both out of the way.
"Everyone! Attack her all at once!" J shouts as we all surround Cyn and charge at her.
"Amused Expression," Cyn says with a malicious smile as she jumps into the air, using her solver to summon several planet consumer tendrils out of the ground, the same ones dragging the chunks of the surface towards her planet destroying null at the Cabin Fever Labs. The tendrils grab all of us and pin us all to the ground. I quickly dodge the tendril that tried to grab me and I charged at Cyn.
"You'll pay for that monster!" I shout in anger as I charge full speed at Cyn. Cyn just turns and smiles, extending her arm and catching me by the throat, stopping me in my tracks, her tendrils wrapping around my body, their grip getting tighter and tighter by the second.
"Don't.... worry.... when I'm done... we all will have our... happy ending... sinister grin," Cyn says with a creepy wide smile as she raises one of her tendril claws, readying to strike me down. "Goodbye... buddy," Cyn says as her claw strikes. Suddenly, C appears out of nowhere and dropkicks Cyn away from me.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" C shouts as Cyn crashes against the ground, quickly recovering and glaring at C in anger.
"You dare betray me!?" Cyn shouts in anger as her solver symbols appear all over the darkened skies of Copper-9.
"I never should've taken your deal! I've done your dirty work for years, let you torture and experiment on me, and even hurt my friends for you! NO MORE! I'm finally making the right choice, standing by my friends!" C shouts as he crouches down to me and offers me a hand. I smile and take his hand, letting him help me stand up.
"And we'll stand with you C," J says as she and the others walk over to us and ready their weapons. I look into C's beautiful blue digital eyes as he gently cups my face, I instinctively lean into his touch and smile up at him.
"I'm sorry V, I never should've done any of this, I know that nothing I can say will make it right but I hope my actions will," C says with a soft smile as we gaze into each other's eyes.
"You saved my life C and you decided to finally stand up for yourself and us. Just that alone is enough for me," I say with a bright smile as I lean more into his touch.
"I don't deserve you," C says with a soft chuckle as he pulls me into a hug, wrapping his arms around my waist. I smile brightly and wrap my arms around his neck, nuzzling my visor into his shoulder.
"Too bad, cause you've got me," I say as I pull back just enough to kiss his cheek, making his visor turn blue with blush as he chuckles softly.
"Alright alright, let's do this," C says as he lets go of the hug and keeps me close to him, spreading his four wings as we ready our weapons.
    "Annoyed expression. Looks like I am outnumbered... good thing I have.... One last trick up my sleeve," Cyn says with a malicious smile as she snaps her fingers, nulls appearing all around us. As the nulls fade away, disfigured and modified clones of N, J, and I emerge, their visors showing that damn yellow solver symbol.
    "What the hell is this!?" Uzi shouts in confusion as she looks at all of the clones, Thad, Lizzy, and Khan readying their railguns and aiming at the clones.
    "These are my backups... I keep them as... spares..." Cyn says with a psychotic grin as the clones fully power on and charge at us.
    "Take them down!" X yells as he blocks an attack from one of the clones. Khan opens fire and Lizzy and Thad follow suite as their railguns rain destruction upon the clones.
    "Everyone! Fight together! Shall we dance V?" C asks me with a smirk as he offers me his hand. I giggle and nod, taking his hand and letting him spin me around. Four of the clones charge at us and I swap my hands out for my machine guns. C wraps his arms around my waist and lifts me up, spinning me around as I open fire upon the clones. I manage to disable three of the four clones and I quickly notice that the clones can't heal.
    "Everyone! The clones don't have our healing factors! Aim for their limbs then move on once they're immobilized!" I shout as C throws me at the last clone, swapping my hands out for my swords as I stab the clone in the visor, knocking it to the ground. I rip the clone in half and drop its lifeless body, running towards C as he flies up into the air, jumping up and catching hold of his hands as he flings me towards another group of clones.
    "Maintain fire! For the doors!" Khan yells as he laughs like a maniac while maintaining fire on several disfigured clones of N.
    "Stay close to me Thad!" S shouts as she maintains cover for Thad, using her wings to block the bullets from the clones as Thad shoots at them.
    "Thanks babe!" Thad says as he gives S a quick peck on the cheek before resuming fire on the clones. I look over at N and see him getting tossed around by Cyn.
    "Cyn!" I shout in anger as I fly straight at Cyn, catching her off guard and knocking her to the ground. I catch one of her tendrils before it can stab me and I stab her own visor with it. She shrieks in pain and lets out a huge surge of energy, sending me flying away from her. C catches me before I hit the ground and quickly sets me down.
    "You ok?" C asks as he checks me for any injuries. I feel my mechanical heart flutter at the sight of C being so gentle and caring for me. I grab C by the sides of his visor and pull him in for a quick kiss. C freezes at first, caught off guard, but he quickly reciprocates the kiss. I hold the kiss for a few seconds and quickly pull back, both of our visors bright with blush.
    "Sorry, I just.... I needed that," I say with a sheepish laugh as I shyly look away from C in embarrassment. C gently cups my face and pecks my cheek, making my visor turn an even brighter yellow with blush.
    "It's ok, I needed that too... Now let's end this," C says with a confident smile as he pulls back and spreads his four wings wide.
    "Last clone is dead!" J says as she lands next to us, quickly followed by X, N, and S. Thad, Uzi, Khan, and Lizzy all join us as well.
    "Our best bet is to charge her all at once, V, N, and I will go high, the rest of you go low, everyone agree?" C asks as he looks at everyone else. We all nod in agreement and charge towards Cyn. N, C, and I all fly up into the air and fly towards Cyn as J and S fly towards her on the ground, Khan, Lizzy, and Thad running towards Cyn and opening fire on her with their railguns. Uzi spreads her weird fleshy wings and she flies towards Cyn with J and S.
    "This will be fun," Cyn says with a sinister smile as she opens her arm wide, her solver symbols appearing in front of her, blocking the railgun fire. Cyn uses her solver to fling the worker drones away and she quickly uses her tendrils to bat J and S away.
    "Take this you monster!" N shouts as he flies straight down, attempting to dropkick Cyn. Cyn simply catches his leg with one of her tendrils and slams him against a wall, tossing him to the side and watching with a satisfied grin as N crashes through the wall of a ruined building.
    "Quickly before she- agh!" C shouts in pain as Cyn stabs him through the stomach with one of her tendrils before he could reach her. I speed up and swap my hands out for my claws, flying straight at Cyn.
    "Nice try... buddy," Cyn says with a malicious grin as she tosses C to the side, turning to intercept me before I could strike. She catches me by the throat and throws me through a wall.
    "V!" C shouts as he tries to escape Cyns grasp. Cyn throws C towards a ruined building and uses her solver to collapse it on top of him. C uses his minguns to blast out of the rubble but he quickly collapses shortly after.
    "C! LET ME GO CYN!" I shout in anger as Cyn smiles maniacally at me. Cyn tosses me to the side and I glance over at C after my legs get trapped under some rubble.
    "I'm low on power!" C shouts as he struggles to stand, oil leaking out of his left arm and right leg.
    "Time to end this. This was fun.... Just kidding... it wasn't... goodbye," Cyn says with a malicious smile as she turns around and catches Uzi by the throat. Uzi had tried to sneak up behind Cyn and failed.
    "BITE ME! LET ME GO!" Uzi shouts as she flails and kicks in Cyns grasp. Cyn's grip on Uzi's throat tightens and Uzi starts to struggle less and less.
    "UZI!" I shout as I try to pull myself out of the rubble. I swap my hands out for my guns and fire at Cyn, making Cyn use her solver to block my attacks. Cyn then uses her solver to break my machine guns, shattering them and parts of my arms to pieces. "AGHH!" I cry out in pain as my hands slowly heal themselves.
    "CYN!" C shouts as he stands tall, aiming his planetary railguns at Cyn. Cyn turns to him confused and her digital eyes go wide as she sees C's railguns.
    "You and I both know you don't have enough power to sustain those railguns... You'll die too," Cyn says as she lessens her grip on Uzi to stare at C. While Cyn is distracted I shoot her in the hand with my newly healed machine gun and she drops Uzi.
    "UZI RUN!" C shouts as he fires both of his railguns. Uzi quickly flies over to me and I shield us both with my wings. N, J, S, and X fly over to us, followed by the worker drones.
    "Don't get close! C's power core can't handle the energy of the railguns so if you get too close your systems will fry! N, J, X, S! Use your wings to shield everyone!" I shout as I gesture towards my wings. They follow my lead and I remain at the front with Uzi.
    "C! Don't do this!" Cyn shouts in anger as she struggles to block the blast with her solver.
    "JUST SHUT UP AND DIE!" C shouts as he starts to increase the intensity of the lasers. Cyn quickly uses her solver to break C's already damaged arm, causing the railgun to short circuit and his arm to blow off. "AGH!" C shouts in pain as he struggles to stand.
    "You can't beat me! Not without dying yourself!" Cyn shouts with a grin, one that quickly fades when she sees the look of determination and hatred on C's face.
    "You're right... and that's exactly what I'm gonna do! So do us all a favor Cyn and BITE ME!" C shouts as he sets the railgun intensity to max power, the laser turning from a light blue to an intense white, his body and systems starting to short circuit and his visor glitching.
    "C! DON'T I NEED YOU! PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!" I cry out, digital tears filling my visor as Uzi has to hold me back from running to C.
    "NOOOOOOOOO!" Cyn cries out in pain as the blast becomes too much, incinerating her into nothing. C's railgun stops firing but the lights turn red as more and more of his systems start to fail. Red colored electrical bolts start to shoot out of him as he slowly makes his way towards the small null that appeared after Cyn died.
    "C! PLEASE!" I cry out as I try to reach out for him, Uzi and the others holding me back. C grabs the null and absorbs it into his core, more and more of his systems failing. C slowly turns to us as his visor glitches out more and more, cracks filled with red electricity forming all over his chassis.
    "It'll take more than this to kill me," C says softly as he closes his digital eyes, his visor filling with fatal error codes. Right as C closes his eyes, a massive surge of energy releases from him, incinerating him instantly.
    "NOOOO!" I cry out as we're all blown back by the blast. The blast is so strong that everything goes white for a few moments before I crash against the wall of a ruined building. I just stare at the humongous crater that reveals itself as the dust clears.
    "V..." X says softly as he walks up to me and helps me stand up, my expression still blank and digital eyes wide in shock. I quickly shove X off and push past everyone, running into the pit and going down towards the center. I collapse to my knees at the very center, staring at a single strand of spiked synthetic silver hair, the only thing left of C.
    "Why did you have to die...."  I say softly as I gently pick up the strand, digital tears filling my visor as I burst into tears.
    "Why so sad V?" A familiar voice says as a small null appears at the center of the crater. I quickly jump back and ready myself for battle as something emerges from the null. A slightly more advanced than your usual disassembly drone emerges from the null, with spiked silver hair, a black leather jacket and ripped black jeans, and those same blue lights I always admired.
    "C...." I mutter silently in astonishment, my whole body shaking as I stare at C. C just softly smiles and opens his arms. He doesn't even have half a second to think before I tackle him to the ground and hug him. C chuckles and sits up as I hug him tightly. I pull back after a short while and lean into his touch as he gently cups my face.
    "I told you it would take more than that to kill me," C says with a smile as he kisses me softly. I reciprocate the kiss and we eventually pull back. We both stand up and everyone else arrives, hugging both of us in one big group hug.
    "We thought we lost you," S says softly as we all pull away from the hug.
    "Perks to being the new host of the solver," C says calmly as we all gasp in surprise. "Relax Relax, I'm fine, no need to worry, it's just me in here, I made sure of that," C says as he summons another null, tossing it to the center of the crater as two worker drones appear from it.
    "What are you doing?" I ask, confused as C finishes creating the two worker drones.
    "Just bringing back some old friends," C says with a soft smile as the two worker drones power on, both looking confused and disoriented. They both have hairstyles similar to Cyn and Tessa's, one with light blue lights and the other with dark green lights.
    "Wait... That's not... no way...." I say in disbelief as the two drones look around confused, the one with green lights walking up to me and looking at me in confusion.
    "Tessa...?"