"Please work, please work, please work..." Uzi mumbled to herself as her fingers danced over the keyboard of the laptop she had conjured up.
Alice had opened her eyes to the idea that the Solver's nanites could be controlled. The totality of that control may have been specific to her mutation, but maybe Uzi could at least direct and prioritize them?
She had to do something, before she starred in her own werewolf movie and woke up covered in blood and gnawing on an arm. Uzi took one more look at the command line she had written, and hit "Enter".
A beat of stillness, just long enough to make her wonder if something had gone wrong, then a cascade of code flooded the screen. Most of it was in a programming language she had never seen before, so she didn't know exactly what was happening, but the lack of errors was encouraging.
The barbed tendril that shot over her shoulder to impale the laptop screen was not at all encouraging.
"Get snuck up on!"
The Solver loomed over her from behind, the Xs of its eyes pulsing brighter and fanged stretching wider as it basked in its victory. Those features cocked to the side questioningly when Uzi turned around with her own toothy grin.
"You first!"
As the words left her lips, the Symbiote wannabe was blown apart by a beam of green plasma, along with the "Uzi" in front of it.
"Get bent, you Creepypasta reject!" Uzi called out as she hightailed it out of her hiding spot.
She'd figured directly interacting with the Solver's code would allow it to trace her, and planned accordingly. She had observed what she pegged as an overzealous nature in the Solver, as well as tunnel vision just like a Murder Drone with a target, and guessed/hoped her "mistake" wouldn't be questioned in the Solver's eagerness to capitalize on it.
"It won't be long now."
Had she not been flying, because this was HER head so she could do whatever she wanted, Uzi probably would've tripped over her own feet at the sudden voice. She looked down to see Nyx going full Sonic The Hedgehog beside her, arms back and legs nothing more than a black blur.
"Uh..."
"I was...a defective unit for a very long time. Walking was a chore. Running was out of the question. But in here, I don't have to be as I was. It is...liberating."
Uzi nodded. She could definitely relate to the feeling of finally breaking free from a lifetime of confinement, if only for a little while.
"It might have been too long already," Uzi grimaced.
"If it has, remember that it wasn't you."
"Saying that and feeling that are two VERY different things."
Nyx's eyes shifted downward for just a moment.
"...I know."
The two soon split off in different directions, with Nyx heading back the way they came to intercept the Solver, and Uzi ducking into a room that was then hidden by a section of wall sliding seamlessly into place over the entrance.
Safely tucked away and focused on being ready to take back control the moment she was able, Uzi would never know that Nyx wasn't "intercepting" anything.
"'Nyx', eh?" the Solver greeted the smaller void, teeth shining through a light smile instead of a wide, malicious grin.
Gone was the amorphous blob of digital cosmic horror. In its place, seated on a chair made of interwoven tentacles, the silhouette of a human woman.
