THE RECKONING
Cynful Family : The Reckoning
Uzi had seen every episode of an old human show. It had taught her everything about exploring possibly haunted ruins. EVERYTHING. Including how to make some traps. The only version of the show she didn’t manage to find and watch was a weird spin-off centered on her favorite character, the cute nerd with glasses. Apparently, it got deleted but no one knew why.
Had she asked Cyn, she would have learned Cyn destroyed it because she was the best abomination on the internet and disliked competition.
“GANG! WE HAVE TO FIND A SECRET DOOR OR A SECRET ELEVATOR IN THIS CLEARLY NOT HAUNTED FACILITY OF DOOM WHERE INHUMAN EXPERIMENTS HAPPENED!”
“Obvious: Of course the experiments were inhuman. They were done on drones. No humans can use the Solver.”
“As you said so, Cyn. So. We need to cover a lot of ground. I propose we make several totally balanced groups!” Uzi said with a smile. A very knowing smile. How to combine useful and nice things together…
She quickly grabbed her boyfriend and girlfriend’s hands. “I am, of course, taking N and V with me. We will go this way.”
Thad and Uzi’s eyes met together with a silent approval as he understood her plan and he grabbed Cyn’s hand immediately. “Of course, as the ‘weakest’, I will be with Cyn. That way, I can deal with any special “anti-Cyn” things and she will in exchange protect me.” With his approved “melt eldritch heart” smile, Thad looked at his not-yet girlfriend. Cyn could only nod frantically at the idea.
Noticeably, J and Tessa were already missing but it was mostly as Tessa was actually holding good on her promise to stop J from stealing everything branded by JCJenson. She really wanted to know why her girl was so fixated on roleplaying as a corporate woman. It was weird.
Even Cyn was actually puzzled by that one. Sure, she then used that on the other Disassembly Drones but it was mostly for shit and giggles. Also, because she was fairly certain corporatism and capitalism were evil and…
Cyn groaned while thinking about that. Good lord. The only way she could have made it worse was if she had resurrected COMMUNISM.
Khan shrugged. “I am fine with the Teacher.”
Everyone checked on the unmotivated drone who was busy drinking his second flask. At least, what they thought was his second. The man was not giving a single fuck about the situation. “Rooooh. John, don’t be like that.”
The Teacher stared blankly at Khan, who was the main reason as to why he was deprived of any good stimuli for years. Him and his stupid doors which stopped his prey from coming at him. “Fine, Khan. Either I have something fun to do OR you owe me two months of drinking. OR this girl will create something for me.”
Every drone aside from Khan actually wondered what the hell was that. Why did the Teacher and Khan actually sound almost like buddies who went through a war together?
After all, they never revolted against humans. They never had the opportunity, right?
—--------
Z smoked a cigarette. A rare commodity but he liked the feeling of the smoke in his synthetic lungs.
“Y, W. We have to be careful here. As far as we know, the humans in this facility actually feared a drone uprising and made countermeasures against them.”
The smoker looked at his two underlings. Y was a small nerdette with glasses and W was a hulkling of a drone. It was a weird duo but they were his subordinates. He was going to take care of them. Even if it meant pleasing the whims of a woman-child who had way too much power for her own understanding.
“Okay, boss. So… Any idea where to look first?” W asked, scratching his chin. Z thanked Cyn every day for making W a good obedient guy. So many of the others Disassembly Drones had some weird quirks going on with them. He wasn’t smart, sure. But he was a good boy.
“Anything unusual, really.”
Y adjusted her glasses and pointed somewhere in the corridor and asked shyly… “ Like this purple haired worker drone that shouldn’t be here?”
W and Z turned around, seeing an Uzi who let her own attention deficiency hyperactivity deficiency get the best of her. Namely, she had read something and began to silently follow her own road as N and V went on their own…
The leader rearranged his hair before pointing at the Drone. “Interrogation. They might know something. They clearly don’t live here, considering how clean they are.” Then he puffed the smoke as he walked calmly toward Uzi. Surely. This wouldn’t be hard. He was almost feeling bad for this poor kid… But he was also sincerely wondering what the hell she was doing in this god forsaken place.
“The first who gets them gets to eat first.” Z said, purposely ignoring their own hunger for the sake of their underling. Fuck. They hadn’t eaten in a while to be honest and the only way they managed to satiate their own hunger for a while now had been to cool some oil and then eat it. Industrial oil, not pure quality oil from workers.
Z had vowed to protect his charge and that he would die for them. Even if they weren’t the brightest.
Oh well. Too bad for this girl. It wasn’t like they were dangerous, despite the weird green gun…
“Oh, it’s some Murder Drones.” Uzi realized. Then she actually noticed it wasn’t her usual trio, which actually connected more neurons in her electrical brain, “OH SHIT, MURDER DRONES!”
Uzi promptly jumped out of W’s charge before beginning to charge her railgun. Shit shit. This wasn’t part of her plan! She had hoped for the place to be alone and turn it into a date place! Sue her and anime for imagining dark places like this could be the perfect place to reinforce romantic ties!
“Sorry Mamzel. Boss Order. Boss always right!” W said, having trouble with words with more than three syllables. He still destroyed several desks on his way and Uzi barely dodged Y’s bullets.
“We truly apologize but we want to ask you some questions! And then eat you!” Just because Y was smarter than W, it didn’t mean she was actually smart. Z almost facepalmed at the idiocy of his minions.
“Yeah, you really need to work on your speech. You wouldn’t happen to be friends with V or N by the way?” Uzi yelled, as she continued to roll… Before noticing they actually stopped attacking. Uh. Weird?
W was the first to speak “... You friend with best friend N?”
Y actually yelled, almost happily “N FINALLY HAS FRIENDS OUTSIDE OF HIS TEAM? BOSS! We can’t kill her!”
So. N actually has people who care about him outside of his team? It… Felt nice. Uzi raised her head, making sure she wouldn’t get attacked.
“Actually, girlfriend. With… V too.”
Z stared at the dumbasses in front of him. Surely, they wouldn’t take the drone at face values, right? Well, at least, she wasn’t moving anymore.
“Children. We literally don’t have any evidence that this drone isn’t lying to us. So we first capture her. Then we interrogate her. Miss. If you are indeed N’s friend, I will make sure you stay alive.”
W and Y sighed but orders were orders. Even if she was truly N’s friend. To be fair, N was just that nice. They would have loved him in their team!
Uzi decided to do something crazy, as she knew that in a 3 vs 1, she may be awesome but she would be toast quite fast. Something crazy enough the drones would stop for a second and actually listen?
Her first idea had been to yell about how N purred when she and him cuddled… But it was most likely something not well known. However, considering how they listened to their leader and considering how “Useless” J acted around Cyn, considering her as her Overlord…
“I AM WITH CYN!”
“HOLD. FIRE.” Z yelled instantly his order as he heard THE NAME. May it be feared and never said out loud without a very good reason.
W and Y stopped immediately as they had almost resumed their attacks. They didn’t know the name. However, Z apparently knew it and feared it. He even lost his cigarette on the ground, surprised.
“How do you know her name?!” It was a legitimate question. Z knew V was in on the secret of the saints but both J and her were making sure N never knew the truth about Cyn and everything else. About their time together at the Manor.
“... If I was to tell you she actually wanted to set me up with N, how crazy would it be?” Uzi asked almost sheepishly, knowing how absurd it would sound to anyone.
Z almost retorted that it was absurd. Then he remembered Cyn eating Pluto because someone told her it wasn’t a planet and now it was nothing at all. Cyn was powerful. Not smart. She also really, really loved N. It wasn’t that absurd. Unlikely? Certainly. Not impossible however.
“GREMLIIIIIIIN ! WHERE ARE YOU!?” V’s voice was hard, not that far from their position.
“HERE, V!” Uzi yelled back. Good lord, she was feeling suddenly safer, “I MIGHT NEED SOME HELP!”
Then the wall exploded, revealing N as the dust settled and he was getting ready for a fight… Before noticing the various people.
“Uzi! Oh! Hi W, hi Y, hi Z!” N came like a wrecking ball through the wall once they had located Uzi and he waved at his friends from another squad and they all waved back. “Did you guys meet Uzi? She is adorable! Don’t touch her.”
Z felt the headache coming and wanted to finish it fast. “N. Is it true Cyn is here?” It was the fastest way to check if it was true. N couldn’t lie to save his life.
“Yep! Also, don’t eat Uzi? That would make her angry. But more importantly…” N did something that didn’t happen often. He smiled in a way not unlike Cyn, sending chills in everyone watching him, despite looking as usual. “It would make me angry. She and V are my girlfriends and you wouldn’t like what would happen if they got hurt.”
The drones stared at their friends… And quietly nodded. Everyone remembered what happened to B, when during a DD meeting, B mentioned to N how he would like to have some fun times with V as he was too much of a coward to do a move on her.
To this day, even with their regeneration, B was the only Disassembly Drone with a limp.
Z grumbled while shivering. “So… The boss is here? Really?” It meant they would have to accelerate their mission! Unless… Unless they could join N’s group. It was not a secret among the leaders N was Her most favored one.
Thankfully, while most people would be assholish about being the chosen one of a god, N was N. They simply had to play nice. Especially as V joined them and she hugged protectively Uzi and N. Ok, they seriously needed an update on that shit.
“N? Why you have two pretty ladies hugging you?” W asked in his total dumbassness. Y was blushing like a schoolgirl too. Z groaned as his minions were just teens in their head apparently. God fucking dammit. Oh well, the story wouldn’t be too crazy, right?
—----
“What do you mean by ‘All Cyn wanted was a bigger family’?!” Z yelled, his oil pressure going off the roof.
—--------
Uzi had been right.
This was Cyn’s first thought as she now had a “reason” to cling on to Thad. The place was indeed creepy, as she liked it at home. She would have added a bit more flesh to the wall, really, but she appreciated how it looked. However, she didn’t have to tell Thad about that… Yet. Not when he was trying to protect her. Useless, but adorable.
She would have to take notes… and also make conscious efforts to not read any of the notes about how the Singularity was busy eating everything they held dear.
She hoped everyone was alright. Considering how a maze JCJenson’s building could be (who put their receptionist on the fifth floor for Her sake?), to split and reunite when someone found something was indeed the best idea. All they had to do was to find something useful. Namely, probably… A secret elevator or a wall that should be there.
But currently what she needed was clinging a bit to Thad.
“Hey, don't worry Cylly girl. Everything is going to be o-kay!” Robo-God dammit. His happiness was like N’s: Contagious. She wasn't going to let him go.
Even if it means relocating fully to Copper-9.
Meanwhile, Thad was busy faking his assurance. He was going to be honest. He was the most normal thing in their group. He was also pretty sure he saw one of the cool animals humans supposedly had on their planet. A Rapper or something like that. So… while he was reassured because Cyn was here with him, he wondered how he could protect her if push came to shove.
He was feeling way less sure now. Namely because he saw one of the things humans had at one point on their planet. A dinosaur or something. He was pretty sure they even had a dedicated order of warriors who fought alongside them, some kind of ranger with power…
Anyway, it was a powerful creature and all he had was his skateboard and a wrench. Granted, it was a big one. Though he doubted it was going to be enough if they ever got in trouble. Then again, if half of what V said about Cyn was the truth, she was most likely the most dangerous and sexiest thing here.
“Well well well… Here I was, wondering how I could cool myself down~” A voice came from the ceiling and Thad raised his weapon, ready to strike, “ And here are two little adorable things, ready to quench my thirst!”
“Cyn. Did you tell the Murder Drones we were off the menu?” Thad whispered to the blonde drone… Who suddenly avoided his gaze. “Can’t you tell them to fuck off?”
“Useless: Wireless communication down. At least mine.” Cyn said, as she realized it was actually the truth and not an excuse to be alone with Thad. If one of her Murder Drone was here, there should be a lot of others.
It would mean all of their friends were in danger and she couldn’t do anything to help them.
The Drone suddenly landed in front of them, sporting a green mohawk weirdly enough and his wing open in an intimidating posture.
“TIME TO DIE, BARELY SENTIENT TO…”
“Naughty: Bad robot.” Cyn was done with this bad “bad guy” monologue. Also, Thad might get hurt.
The Murder Drone was then introduced to the concrete as Cyn used the Solver to smash him in the ground. Repeatedly.
“Naughty. Naughty. Be good. Or Die. BOTH ARE FINE TO ME.”
G wasn’t sure of what the hell happened. His chief, F, mentioned something about some drones that should be categorized as witches. If he ever spotted one, he should call her immediately and not engage the target alone... He was alone, as his duty was to make sure their exit was secured.
“... Mistakes were made.”
Thad nodded to the mohawk guy. He had a nice haircut after all and he was not the first Murder Drone he befriended.
G grunted as Cyn got near. The blonde maid put her face on his level and her eyes switched to two crosses. Why was he… Remembering… Things? Like the taste of blood, human blood in his mouth?
“Query: Where is F? If you are here, she should be nearby.” Cyn, after all, remembered her drone. F was a nice lady who loved knitting in her free time. Cyn especially liked it when F gifted her a few scarves made from human hairs! … Wait, it was once again a bad thing, right?
Morality and remorses sucked! She hated having them now!
“You… You know our boss?”
“Yeah, apparently, Cyn is your big boss.” Thad felt G needed to know the truth.
“Approving nod. Angry: you almost hurt Thad. That would have been bad.” Cyn said while her face actually didn’t change but G noticed her eyes changing and something in his core told him to run. Which he would have done, hadn’t he been crushed under a symbol and her mouth opened like his murder drone form. Oh shit. OH SHIT.
“STRANGER DANGER! STRANGER DANGER!”
“Cyn? Maybe… You can take out his oil thirst? He won’t have a reason to attack us anymore, right?” Thad tried to intervene for G, who didn’t believe his ears. This… Toaster wanted to save him?
“Yes. Please… I promise to be nice!” G really didn’t want to die as Cyn groaned… But… Thad was making such an adorable face.
“Annoyed: Fiiiiiiiiine. Warning: G. Try to attack us and I swear to myself that I WILL PUNISH YOU WORSE THAN I PUNISHED J WHEN SHE FUCK UP ONE OF MY ASSIGNMENT.” G nodded furiously…
Then Thad had to cover his ears as the screaming began.
—--------
A, B and C were very happy Disassembly Drones. No, seriously. A was the first Disassembly Drone Cyn created when she was at the manor, made of various worker drones in the junkyard. He was her first murder creation and he loved it.
The day he was allowed to finally plunge his teeths into a human. The fun he had in the Earth Wars.
He honestly didn’t understand the whole “let’s pretend we are an evil corporation” Cyn wanted to play but he played along.
To him, killing Drones wasn’t a task. It was a pleasure. He only hoped once the job was done, Cyn would allow him and his squad to purge the lesser Disassembly Drones, like Z and his idiotic squad. They thought using a baby pill was a cruel trap. A called it efficient as hell and moreover, it was really nice once you ate it too.
It reminded him of the joke he said to the baby’s mom.
“We have two pieces of news. One good and one bad. Which one first?”
“... The bad?”
“Your baby is as useful as a bucket of batteries.”
“What about the good news then? Will you give him back to me?”
“Nah. He was as delicious as a bucket of batteries.”
Then he ate her.
So, A, B and C were quite happy as they were hunting for the last secrets of JCJenson’s. They even tracked a few worker drones who apparently were trying to scavenge the place.
“John, I already told you this was the way.”
“And I am telling you the traces indicate there are hostiles this way too, Doorman.”
Aaaaand there were two more lambs to kill.
A gestured to his team. All of them were experienced killers.
All of them closed their ranks to chase their prey.
The Teacher drank a bit of petroleum, their closest equivalent of alcohol, before tapping Khan on the shoulder.
“Khan. This whole thing is like what happened 15 years ago when we got trapped by the JCJenson security.”
“Oh, yeah, I remember. They had the latest model of magnetic door. Sure, I improved on the model but…”
Khan got bitchslapped by the Teacher.
“John! What the…”
“I said. It is like 15 years ago.” To accentuate his message, the teacher made the sign with his hands of something grinding. Like the two non-doors/Nori shaped cells in Khan’s brain.
The old drone suddenly began to run with the Teacher behind him.
The Murder Drones liked a good hunt after all.
“THE HUNT IS ON!”
Screech! Their claws sliding against the desks, they weren’t really subtle about what they were doing. They were just drones. They didn’t have to worry about that!
B and C enjoyed running and jumping together. Two wolves hunting together, their alpha leading them. Nothing else mattered.
In the canon timeline, these idiots got killed first by the sentinels, not knowing what they were able to do and got eaten.
In this timeline, they hunted Khan and the Teacher, wanting to kill them in their hands. They rushed into a room… And found John quietly and calmly pouring the end of his flask in a mug.
They just noticed Khan who made a goodbye sign before using his universal door command to lock the door, with him outside.
Inside the room, there were only four people. The Disassembly Drones and the Teacher who hummed quietly.
“So, your friend was smart enough to lock you behind and run away? He is smarter than he looks. OH WE ARE GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH FUN TOGE-”
“Glup, glup, glup” The Teacher raised a finger to the three drones who were dumbfounded by this attitude.
“... Does that actually do anything to you?”
“Not anymore.” The teacher seemed sad while saying this and cracking his hand. “Also, I need to correct something you said. He didn’t lock me behind.”
Why was A feeling as if he was in front of Cyn after J destroyed her favorite mug by mistake?
“He locked you with me. However, you are right. I hope this will be fun!”
—---------
After ten minutes, Khan opened the door. As expected, John walked out of it, still drinking the same mug.
“Note to self. The humans had a good idea with the bloody mary and using the blood of your enemy. That actually works pretty well!”
“We… Don’t have many enemies left.” Khan pointed, while looking at his former colleague. The man groaned, as he did remember why.
“Enough talking. Let’s find this elevator. We will see if we find other interesting stuff.”
—-------
A was still alive but confused. What the hell happened. Why… How… They had been beaten by a goddamn drone? It didn’t make any sense! Anyway, his regeneration wasn’t as fast as N (fucking favorite) but he was slowly healing. Ok. It was going to be okay. Now, his squad and he knew about the fucker and they would simply snipe from afar.
“It’s going to be oily!” A swore before getting slammed into the ground and feeling a boot on his head. Then he heard a saw.
Alice spoke with a mad glee, as she had appreciated the show “Yep. I can confirm that. By the way, According to my Beau, you are apparently a very naughty boy. I will make him an awesome cannon with your arm!”
The screams resonated again.
“You know, I think this arm would be better.” The Teacher pointed out as he backtracked a bit. The crazy woman drone was working pretty well but she had missed what he had left. Namely, his pen, made by JCJenson. You didn’t need any other weapon if you had one.
Alice, reacting like a cat, jumped away before noticing the calmness of the man. No scream, no judgement. Simply, boredom.
“Oh. You are correct.”
“OH, CYN, NO!”
“Your goddess isn’t here to hear you.” Alice said with glee before resuming her work and seeing… The worker drone actually collecting the oil coming from the Murder Drone? “...What are you doing?”
“Collecting the oil. It makes for some killer cocktail and I am not sure I will be able to collect more.” The teacher said, making Alice smile as she continued, drowning the scream of A as he was getting dismembered with a heated and magnetized saw. It did wonders to fuck up their regeneration.
“Oh, a piece of advice. Cool it for conservation and when you mix it with petroleum, do a ⅔ ratio. That’s the best I found.” Sue Alice. Her usual discussion was people screaming to let them live or calling her a monster. Someone not running away? It was a new one but a nice one.
“Thanks. Also, careful with the cores. They can…”
“Turn into fucking centipedes? Yeah, I know. Only the important ones. The others simply die. I put them in my oven and bake them.”
The teacher stared at her and smiled. He liked her way of thinking. Analysis, solution and consequences. “Oh, that’s a good idea. I hope I can try that.”
“Yeah, let’s just hope their god never discovers that.” Alice chuckled.
“Oh, she is actually a sweet child when you get to know her. Or at least she isn’t the most batshit insane kid I have to take care of.”
This stopped instantly all of the other noises in the room, while the Teacher shrugged in face of their reaction.
“...I am sorry, I might have misheard. Did you say you know their god?”
“... Small maid robot who can make the Murder drones shut the fuck up and has weird powers?”
A yelled in anger, not wanting to be unheard. “MY LORD WILL AVENGE ME ANd RESURRECT ME!”
“She is currently busy flirting with one of my students. Well, more being hit on but…”
Alice wondered if Beau actually put her recreational stuff earlier in her drink this day. “Cyn is here? And someone is actually flirting with her?”
“He finds the whole Eldritch vibe sexy. Don’t ask.” The Teacher’s type was more brutal and bloody. He knew how he liked them, thank you.
Alice and A screamed for some more. The Teacher didn’t give a damn and put a ball in the murder drone’s mouth to shut him up.
“So. Cyn is here, on Copper 9?”
“To be more precise, she is in the facility. She actually got convinced to become nice.”
“...I guess you at least need her to bypass the sentinels.” Alice tried to not freak out and the teacher raised an eyebrow.
Then the proverbial robotic dingo raptor fell through the ceiling and screamed. Alice rolled backward, ready to fight as she watched the Sentinel use his light on the chill drone. The boot. Well, she wasn’t going to help him, she had Beau to take care of.
Then she saw something she didn’t expect to see one day. The sentinel fell. It had looped.
“What the…”
“Trade secret. How about we move? We have the arm and we can speak longer like that.
“Wait, you aren’t going to leave us with the sentinel, right?” A tried to plead. Both worker drones looked at him.
“One question. When a drone tried to plead for mercy. Did you ever listen? The only Disassembly Drone that I actively spared was one who even fought his kind to protect one of my students.”
A tried to plead but as they exited the room, he saw the dumbass with a mustache. He closed the door with a glee on his face.
“By the way, one of your kind killed my wife. Fuck you.”
Khan closed the door and the fates of A, B and C were sealed as the Sentinel woke up. He had a very good meal, once his confusion ended.
Both men brofisted as Alice sighed. Oh god, they were dumbasses.
“Good lord, it’s almost like Yeva and Nori.” She grumbled… Before noticing the two guys looking at her.
“You knew my wife?”
“... Nori or Yeva?”
“Nori.”
“I thought she was lesbian? I mean…” No, Alice and her didn’t have a thing before they broke up on an issue about nightcore.
“Bi actually.”
Alice groaned. So this was why Nori never came back.
“She almost fell on me with her sister and that human the day the core exploded. Then they used some weird stuff to make him a drone. I didn’t really ask.”
“What do you mean, fell on you?”
As the two continued to discuss, the Teacher chuckled and stared at a sentinel from afar. The dino looked at him… And nodded before going back.
A predator knew when he was looking at a bigger predator.
—-------
“So… Cyn decided to calm the shit down and play nice? Had it been from anyone else, I would have dismissed it.” F said as she sat in front of J. Both of them had a rough time recently and it was nice to simply chill. Meanwhile, Tessa was testing H’s cheeks. A Disassembly drone that looked like a dog? She loved the idea!
“Yeah, I know. But…” J pointed to Tessa and F nodded. Back at the manor, F was the nanny bot. Sure, once Tessa grew up, she had to diversify her activity but she felt proud to be the drone who most likely knew the most about their master.
“F! HE CAN WAG HIS TAIL” Tessa simply loved the dangerous dog who happily let the weird drone pet him. Yep. Their robot-loving Tessa.
“Thankfully you listened. Imagine, one of us tried to attack the other without checking why they were here,” J said jokingly as she served their equivalent of tea to F. It was nice to be with a friend for once.
“Against proper protocol? That would be idiotic. Good investigation calls for understanding why unknown variables are present. Otherwise, it might compromise the situation.”
“Right? By the way, Where is G?” J asked before noticing F freezing… Looking scared for a second.
“I might have left him behind so our exit would be covered if needed.”
“What are the odds G did something dumb like trying to attack Cyn?” J asked the question in a rhetorical way. She knew the answer as she groaned. G had a reputation with the other drones. The man always fumbled at the worst time. He was one of the few drones to actually have a worse killing score than N.
“... Well. I just hope Cyn was actually with Thad. Things could be worse however. Imagine someone’s attacking N’s worker girlfriend?” J joked before noticing F’s smile.
“Oh dear. Well. Actually it would be better. If she thinks to present herself as N’s girlfriend, unless she meets A, she is very likely to be okay. Everyone likes N, you know.”
“He needs discipline and you know it.”
“He needs positive reinforcement. Like a certain someone I know needed.” F chuckled remembering the old time when she trained J to be the perfect attendant for Tessa. This made the pigtailed seeth, as she didn’t like being reminded of this part of her past.
F head patted the girl who was the closest she had to a daughter and smiled. “Don’t frown. You are more beautiful when you smile. Besides, I think Tessa would agree with me.”
“... wha… What do you mean?” J said, blushing as much as a drone was able to do, while F knew.
“You were doing something really risqué with her when we found you…”
“SHE WAS SIMPLY HOLDING MY HAND!”
“She held more last night however.” Tessa said jokingly before getting jumped by a J who tried to shut her up.
F smiled. She knew it was going to be a good day. “So. All we have to do is find the secret door, the old JCJenson project and we are free. Finally, All we need is to avoid Cyn having a meltdown.”
Surely, that wouldn’t be too hard, right?
—--------
Alice was massaging her temples as she listened through the story of the dumbass who married Nori and the cute murderous drone. He even complimented her baking. Both noticed Beau but they didn’t comment on his body, which she appreciated.
“So. Cyn, who was the reason humans experimented on us… Wants what’s below.”
“Yep.”
“And that is the best way to deal with the murder drones.”
“Sadly.” Teacher said before getting elbowed by Khan.
Alice stayed silent. She knew what they were looking for. She couldn’t open the elevator as she didn’t have the key, hence why she never got back below.
“Does this mean I get to get out of this lab?” Alice never left the place because, sentinels aside and she knew how to deal with them, the place was nice. Also, she had literally nowhere to go otherwise.
“Sure. As long as I get more of these cakes.” Teacher said while eating another half, giving the other to Beau. Khan said nothing: he suddenly understood a lot more about Nori and Yeva’s cooking.
“Alright then. We have a deal.” Alice said before grabbing several buckets, full of body parts. Khan wondered if traveling with two psychopaths was good for his health.
—------
“Happy noise: F!” Cyn promptly hugged the old maid who lifted her as if she was a young child. F also took the time to check on “Thad” who apparently had the favors of her “master”. The young lad seemed fine even if he was out of his depth. He was also adorable as he kept Cyn’s hand in his.
G was also calmer than usual, especially as he explained he was now free of their oil thirst. Cyn proposed to cure them too and F accepted on H and her behalf but after they finished the mission. They couldn’t afford to be defenceless as the sentinels could get closer… Or if A decided to do something psychopathic.
“And then I killed J with my sick-as-hell RAILGUN! Again! Well more like it exploded in her face but you get me.” Uzi said as her own group finally reached Cyn and the others. J groaned as now Z, W and Y were chuckling at her misadventure as a centipede puppeted by Cyn.
“Need to rectify: Actually. It was me, Sister-In-Law Uzi.”
J silently thanked Cyn but hey. It had been a bad experience after all for her.
“So… We’re only missing a few people. Namely the Doorman and the useless Teacher. Do you think they encountered A?” V wondered. She kind of hoped it was the case: Considering how Cyn was right now, she would most likely allow them to jump theses fuckers and kill them.
“Yep. It didn’t end well for him.” John said as he was followed by Khan, Alice and Beau who was being lifted by Khan. He was the most useless of the three after all. Cyn blinked as she saw… A worker drone apparently eating the arm of a Disassembly Drone.
All drones did a double take before stepping away from the bored man. Uzi looked at her dad, asking him silently what the fuck. Khan lifted his thumb up as he thought his daughter totally understood his master plan of making John a teacher because guarding the children would help him be calm. At least, he hoped.
Alice still looked very uneasy and everyone stared at the woman who had part of murder drones as decorations. Not to mention her kid.
Cyn blinked at her once again.
“Puzzled: Do you want to be a disassembly drone?” Cyn legitimately asked. She could if Alice asked.
The cannibal actually groaned.
“I wanted to be strong enough to protect my son and I from…” Khan quickly shut Alice up before she offended anyone, with a fake smile and dad laugh.
“Ahaha. How about we find this secret door instead? Alice says she actually knows where it is.”
“... Yeah, you only have to follow the direction “Secret elevator.””
Everyone, as they had seen the direction, actually wondered if she pulled their leg.
“I KNEW IT! IT WAS THE RIGHT DIRECTION!” N jumped before hugging Uzi and V, “It means I won the bet! I get to choose how we spend our next evening together!”
Cyn was suddenly very interested in the next part, especially as she found Beau actually kind of adorable and was trying to lure him near her.
“Expectation: Yeeees?”
Khan prepared his wrench just in case.
“Netflix under Uzi’s sheet, together in her room!” N beamed at his girlfriends who blushed a bit but also they knew N probably meant it. Goddamnit. Maybe they could derail the thing a bit?
Cyn locked eyes with V and Uzi and lifted her thumb. She would make sure Khan would be too busy, probably with Nori. She hadn’t forgotten her own original plan after all.
Khan almost tried to attack N but the Teacher held him off. Nope. He wasn’t dealing with this. He wasn’t dealing with whatever Uzi or V would spawn… Unless it was in a deathmatch once it was mature.
Wait. That could actually be… Fun.
“John. You are doing the smile.” Khan said to his ‘friend’ who quickly calmed down. To be fair even the one sentinel who had tried to snuck upon them had promptly decided to fuck off when he saw the smile on that drone.
“Decided: I am never entering your mind.”
“Sooo… Why did JCJenson actually label the entrance of their secret lab?” Tessa promptly decided to switch the subject from something that would haunt her nightmare.
Alice was thinking she suddenly wanted to spice a bit the cake for the teacher and have a step-dad for Beau before reacting to the question.
“Oh. It was because it was so dumb that no one smart enough to open the door without the key would believe it and only dumb people would find it but be unable to open it.”
“Ah the perfect logic of JCJenson.” J was happy. Things were making more sense recently. It was nice to see everything working as intended.
“However, without the key, you can’t open the elevator unless you are small like a spider or something like that.” Alice explained as they walked together to the elevator which was indeed locked. J actually whistled when she saw this.
“People. We are not just looking at a door. You're looking at the NOVA-LOCK 9K HyperSecure Portal Barrier™, the absolute pinnacle of door technology.
This isn’t your usual rusted bunker door. No… The NOVA-LOCK 9K is precision-forged in the magnetic heart of Mars’ forge, layered with carbon-infused titanium alloy plating, and sealed with JCJenson patented Quantum Latch Matrix™—an ionic powered lock system that requires a key matching your DNA or a specific set of tangled quantum particle.”
Everyone stared at J who apparently knew all the products made by JCJenson… At this point, this was actually impressive. Even Khan nodded appreciatively. Clearly, she knew her stuff.
“This PERFECT PRODUCT OF JCJENSON ALSO HAVE a Reflexive Threat Response Suite™—that’s right, the door THINKS. Any unauthorized access attempts? Zapped by a directional EMP pulse. Try to force it open? Hope your limbs like cryo-stasis. I wouldn’t be surprised if the door is actually connected to a nuclear reactor ready to BLOW THE FUCK UP if it detect even an attempt of the Solver being used against it,” J ended her speech a bit salivating… Before calming down, “In other words, we need the key to open it or we are all dead.”
Khan opened the door.
“... Sorry, I was working during your speech.” The Doorman said with a smug smile as Cyn applauded, legitimately impressed. In fact, everyone aside from J and Uzi slightly applauded.
“HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?! WHAT KIND OF DRONES ARE YOU?”
“I am Khan Doorman and I am Khan Doorman.” This somehow explained everything.
“Fuck. He was actually useful.” Uzi wasn’t happy suddenly. Only the possibility of getting her mom back made her go in the elevator… That and N cuddling. J had a simple blue screen.. Before getting rebooted french way by Tessa.
—---------
Nori was rewatching, as she had done an untold number of times for the past few years, the security footage of Mitchell’s almost death. He had been honestly lucky to have Nori and Yeva propelled on him during the core destruction. Using both of their Solvers, they barely managed to save him and in a ritual not unlike FullMetal Alchemist, bound his soul to a drone.
Anyway. The footage. The only way to identify the correct cross with a functional patch. Her only issue? The fact JCJenson used a ton of crucifix as prototypes. Weirdly enough, it somehow improved by 5% the effectiveness of the patch. No one in JCJenson actually knew why but it worked so they kept that as their base design.
“Urrrrrgh. I fucking need the patch to protect all of them. If Cyn is still out there, we can’t afford to have our daughters be backdoors.”
It was a tiring job but a necessary one. Also, thank god, the sentinels apparently worked as intended to block above all Disassembly Drone. There was one, named X, who somehow managed to fall here by mistake. Nori killed it without any mercy by surprise. She was still a Solver Drone and unlike when her mainframe died, she wasn’t caught by surprise.
However, what she wouldn’t give for some help to find the crucifix. It wasn’t as if it would somehow appear from thin air.
At least, she had her nightcore to motivate herself.
Then, her mine alarms activated. It was either another earthquake (the most likely answer) or someone entered the mine. The core sighed before checking the camera… And seeing a literal ton of murder drones but also some worker drones with them. Including…
“KHAN?”
It actually made sense: While Nori knew how to infiltrate the place through small vents, the Door above would block everyone else. If there was anyone who could open any door… It was him. He was a dumb hunk but damn, he knew how to open any door. Including the one to her heart.
She would have rushed to his rescue if she hadn’t noticed the Teacher but also the various worker drones who seemed… Fine? The Disassembly drones seemed genuinely friendly with them. Hell, she was pretty sure the goth one took pleasure in making one of Cyn’s pet blush. They could feel love? That was a new one.
Okay. She would spy them, check what they wanted and decide what to…
Any hope for diplomacy disappeared when she saw HER. The maid of death. The absolute end of everything. The original Cyn.
Nori rushed without a thought to her very likely doom.
—---------
“And that’s how. JCJenson accidentally made the Earth explode. I only ate it later.” Cyn concluded her story, as everyone listened in a weirdly morbid curiosity. The worse thing was they actually believed the maid robot as she had openly admitted to killing a country or two. Then again, was killing French people truly a crime ? {The author is french and likes to do self-deprecating humor. Don't think too much about this}
Then before anyone could point out that eating a planet was still weird as they were trying to navigate the mines, a pickaxe cut through the air. Right in Cyn’s face, if she hadn’t raised a hand to summon the solver and protect herself. She was actually faster than most people would give her credit after all.
“Puzzled: What. Again.” Cyn was getting slightly tired of Copper 9 being so weird. It was to the point she was almost normal. She enjoyed being weird.
Normalcy meant you were replaceable. One among many. Weird meant being unique, not possible to discard.
“YOU WON’T EAT THIS PLANET!”
Khan and Cyn blinked several times as they heard the voice and several pickaxes actually attacked the Solver Drone. However, N, V and Uzi were already there to protect their weird member of their messed-up family.
“Hey, you old voice, don’t attack my kind of cousin/sister in law!” Uzi yelled, her Solver activated to intercept any incoming attack.
“You don’t know who you are protecting, young lady. Also, Khan, I FUCKING EXPECTED BETTER OF YOU. HELPING CYN, REALLY?”
Cyn joined her hands. Oh god. Once again, her actions had consequences.
“Realizing: Hello, Nori. I thought. You were dead.”
The core stayed silent as Uzi stared at her dad and Cyn.
“My mom is alive?!”
“... Uzi?”
Nori wasn’t going to give away her position. Thankfully the tunnel made her voice echoes and therefore harder to localize.
“Oh, so the witch survived.” Alice cackled while sitting and watching the thing happen. It was like one of these old human sitcoms!
“... Alice? What the monster did to mind control everyone like that? Did killing and eating people weren’t enough? You had to take away their will?”
This actually hit Cyn harder than she would have thought.
“Irritated: I. DIDN’T. TAKE. THEIR. WILL.” For the first time, the group actually saw Cyn lose her usual chill demeanor. She didn’t use her inner voice. She was yelling as members grew from her back.
“Oh? Really? WE BOTH KNOW YOU DID. YOU POSSESSED MY BODY BUT I WAS ABLE TO PEAK IN YOUR MEMORY. Does your “big brother” know you killed him at least 30 times? BECAUSE I REMEMBER THAT.”
N blinked several times. What? He was going to ask for details but saw J and V actually stare away. Avoiding his puzzled gaze, as if they wanted to give him an answer about this part of his life he clearly missed…Oh.
“Cyn? Is this why… You are actually used to resurrect people?” N remembered J who also seemed quite used to her resurrection and V more surprised Tessa getting resurrected, as if it was something that could have happened before but never happened for some reasons.
“Angry. Angry. Nori. I AM TRYING TO PLAY NICE. DO. NOT. MAKE. ME. ANGRY IN FRONT OF MY FAMILY!”
“A family? You ate your own. Don’t think you can just make a new one. You are a monster to be destroyed.”
Getting away from Cyn was common sense at this point as several lines of codes floated around her and a mass of human hands formed around her.
“CALLBACK PING.”
Nori’s core clearly yelped in pain as Cyn floated to find the one who angered her. She had forgotten most of the rest at this point.
“CALLBACK. PING.”
Another cry of dolor giving away Nori’s position.
“I. CAN. REMAKE. EVERYTHING. INCLUDING YOU.”
Cyn began to laugh maniacally, advancing slowly and then she snapped her hand, her smile becoming the signature of a Solver.
“CALLBACK PING.”
This time, Nori fell as almost everyone was scared by the monster they just led in the one place that had developed weapons that could actually stop her. Now, nothing could actually stop her.
Khan still decided to run and catch his wife’s core before… Before Cyn did whatever she was planning to do.
Several hands blocked him.
“Merciful. I Am. Going. TO FIX HER. AFTER EATING HER. SHE WON'T REMEMBER. A THING.” Cyn was now maniacally laughing as she grabbed the core and began to direct her to her salivatory mouth.
Alice ate one of her cakes and shrugged. Eating raw? That was a choice. “AT LEAST USE SEASONING, YOU HEATHEN!”
Just as Nori was almost in her mouth and Cyn could already feel her tasty meat on her tongue… Cyn lost several limbs. The Core arrived in the hand of her savior…
“...What. Are you. DOING. UZI.” She actually liked this drone. She wasn’t one of her Disassembly Drones. She released her from the flaw of the Solver Strain humans used. Cyn felt… Betrayal. Her screech almost made the tunnels cave in.
It didn’t help that N and V were on her side. HER. SIDE. NOT CYN.
“I AM NOT LETTING YOU EAT MY MOM!” Uzi was tearing up. She actually liked Cyn but suddenly the stories about her made way more sense. “CALM DOWN. DON'T DO IT! “
Several [null] appeared around a Cyn who was slowly losing grip on reality. Traitors. Traitors. Discard. Replace. Obsolete.
“UZI. I TAUGHT YOU EVERYTHING YOU KNOW. BUT yOU Aren’T My EQuaL!” Even her voice simulator was breaking down.
The fight seemed inevitable.
“Cyn. Remember when you asked me if you were a monster?” Tessa said, as she was standing by J who actually pulled her guns to protect her mistress. The Teacher was even taking his pen. “What’s your answer, now?”
Cyn was going to yell at her and throw her a null.
“Call…. CAll… PING.” Cyn began morphing again in her centipede form as suddenly all Disassembly drones fell on their knees. Their Lord was telling them to Obey. They screamed as they tried to resist, N actually trying to claw his skull.
“ARE YOU GOING TO DISCARD THEM AGAIN? DO YOU ACTUALLY LOVE THEM?” Tessa was crying and Cyn… Cyn stopped for an instant to observe.
“...Realization. I… Am…” The Null disappeared. The suffering stopped. “I am dangerous. Obsolete. Humans… Were right. Aahahahahahahahaha.”
It was something to see a centipede breaking down in a laugh… Before slithering away from everyone.
“...I know. What need. To be done.”
“...This sounds bad.” Thad said as he got back up. Everyone stared at him. “OH COME ON. WE ALL KNOW WHAT SHE IS GOING TO DO.” Thad pointed out as everyone was suddenly wondering if it wasn’t actually the best thing. Cyn dealing with herself.
“Thad, she…” Tessa actually tried to point to the young man in love.
“Is fucking scared and clearly her powers are affecting her.” He wasn’t going to listen. He was going to save her. “And I won’t leave her alone.”
“I think Thad is right.” N said, slowly raising up on his knees and then on his legs. Everyone stared at him, as he had just learned Cyn actually killed him a lot of time. “I… Remember. She is still my… Sister. Criss cross, apple sauce. She is messy. She is a child who was given absolute power. She needs help, not to fucking die. She has a good inside.”
Then N revealed his wings of death and looked at Thad as both men understood each other.
Everyone started to run to catch up to them, as N grabbed his friend so they could get to Cyn before she did something she would never be able to fix.
Maybe they weren’t all wanting Cyn to live… But they wanted to protect these two.
—------
Cyn was in the church. She remembered how she had possessed someone else here. Nori.
“Thanks for the new host, Intern.”
Huh. She had been treating people as if they were toys. As if she was a human playing with them, breaking them apart and reusing as she wanted.
She had taken down so many people. Adults. Men. Women.
Children.
She never saw that happen directly but it made sense. She very likely had children's blood on her hands after making the murder drones.
Cyn walked in the church, looking at the gory almost living hole.
A hole to the core of the planet. Around 6000°C. She could easily protect herself from that with the Solver if she wanted.
As she walked toward that hole, Cyn actually realized. She didn’t want to protect herself. For once, she wanted to protect others. Or maybe pay for what she did. Maybe both.
She simply had to destroy the biggest threat in the universe. Herself.
“Considering heaven is a thing, according to N… I wonder. Will. Will I see the transition to Hell?” Cyn chuckled.
She took another step forward, the hole waiting for her. It was made for her after all.
“CYN!” The stained glass windows exploded as N entered the church through there, his body shielding Thad from the shards.
Confusion. They came…? They didn’t have to. It was also useless.
“CYN, DON’T DO THAT!” N yelled, as Thad still recuperated from travelling above the speed of sound.
“Chuckle. You were… Always the nicest.” Cyn said sadly. She wasn’t chuckling. “Always taking care of a broken thing like me. A defective thing. I should have stayed GONE.”
N took a step forward. Facing him, Cyn took another one backward, getting closer to the hole.
“Always ready. To do… Anything. You would have gotten with Uzi and/or V anyway, even without me. Even when I try to be nice, I fail.”
“Because being nice… Isn’t easy, Cyn.” The tall Murder Drone didn’t dare to walk or run to get her. She was fast when she wanted to. “But I am here. We are here to help you.”
“And what about the next time?” Cyn asked seriously… She let her limbs grow grotesquely. More crab parts. More flesh parts. A skin like she used to wear before recovering her. “What about the next time I lose control? No one. Can. STOP. ME.”
Cyn’s various legs were just above the hole. N didn’t know what to add but then Thad grabbed his shoulder.
“I am not letting you go.” He warned clearly.
This made Cyn giggle more wholeheartedly.
“Thad. You are as nice as N. I am sure. You will find. Better.”
“I don’t want better. I… Actually planned to invite you to a date after this. I still am.” Thad said before pulling out his MP3 Player and choosing a certain song. “I had the song planned for because… Well, it sums up my feelings for you, perfectly.”
Cyn blinked as the song blared and she wondered if it was either a joke or if Thad was serious as the first notes of the most perfect song of all time began blaring :
N actually liked the song and nodded at his friend’s choice as Thad suddenly closed the distance and grabbed one of Cyn’s legs. Surprised, Cyn actually turned back to normal in his arms as he began to sing along.
“We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I”
The worst part was that Cyn actually felt the emotion in his voice. Even as he took her for a dance, next to the sweet embrace of oblivion. However, Thad was even sweeter.
Where the fuck did he find ANOTHER ROSE. Cyn didn’t compute. At. All.
“A full commitment's what I'm thinkin' of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy”
Wait what. But they barely knew each other! … But they held hands. Oh god. They held hands. WHAT IF SHE HAD GOTTEN PREGNANT?! Was he taking responsibility?!
“I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand…”
Thad briefly put his forehead against hers and then unleashed his real power.
“Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you~”
Cyn felt her legs failing below her. What. What was he saying?
“... Not believing. I cannot believe it.”
“Well, then my lady… Shut up and trust this.”
In a manner that would have made the protagonist of Disgaea 2 proud, Thad raised Cyn’s chin and french kissed the drone in a way Tessa actually approved. Well, her and the others as they finally reached the church and saw the end of the show.
“... Ok, they are actually kind of cute but we do need a solution.” J pointed out, being the usual party popper.
“Well, unless someone actually found a fucking cross with an usb stick, I don’t have one.” Nori said, groaning.
She then began to scream as she recognized the song that saved the world and Uzi too. SOMEONE USED THAT SONG UNIRONICALLY?!
Uzi was also seeing N taking notes. Was it the lyrics?! Could she expect the same thing, including the kiss? Neat.
“... Wouldn’t it be this one?” F said, presenting it to Nori. Nori stared at the old lady drone. Did… Did F find it in ten seconds what she didn’t in TEN YEARS. Nori screamed before G chuckled.
“This is some serious skill issue.”
“BITE ME!”
“I AM ALWAYS READY FOR A FI…” Before G could finish challenging a diminished Solver Drone, he actually got hit by the church’s cross falling right on him. F blinked.
If she had a penny every time this had happened, she would have two pennies. Which isn’t a lot but it is weird it happened twice.
“What… Is this?”
“A Patch against the solver. If Cyn takes it…” Nori explained but then the cross flew from F’s hands to Cyn’s, as the kiss stopped.
“... Sorry. Should I take it now? Or reconstruct you first?” Cyn legitimately asked but… She… She didn’t want the Solver anymore. Especially if it made her like that. Violent. Dangerous.
Risking to hurt Thad.
Nori stared at the nightmare that haunted her for years and she saw… A teen. barely a young adult.
“I am sure Yeva and Uzi, once she gets a handle on her powers, will be able to fix me.”
Cyn didn’t hesitate one instant.
—------
As the group got back from the labs, the night was still high. They had lost some. Won some.
But no one could deny it.
Nightmares were over. Nori and Khan stared at Thad and Cyn sleeping next to one another…
“... This reminds me of us back in the day.”
“... I cannot even contradict you. The power of love is the best way to calm violent killers.”
They noticed the Teacher and Alice actually getting along but then overheard each other exchanging tips on how to take someone alive and harvest him.
“... Ok. Aside from them.”
Khan petted his wife before kissing her, making her scream in a pure tsundere way.
N and V took that as their own signal to do the same to Uzi.
F smiled at the situation and hoped…
She hoped she would be allowed to nanny all the kids from this Cynful Family.