Living Corpse

"Alright spill it, what do you know?" Uzi angrily interrogates the upper torso of J. Ever since she returned to the Murder Drone's lair, she found some interesting clues. For one, N was apparently the pilot of the ship that crashed. And two, whoever was behind the Murder Drones completely messed with N and V's memories! Well, she at the very least knew N was honest in not remembering anything before crash landing on Copper-9. As for V...she was busy entertaining herself blowing bubbles out of a bubble wand that was apparently included in her arsenal, and occasionally getting on Uzi's nerves.

That leaves only J who...was completely delirious. "Preeeetty bubbles." J giggles as she opens her mouth and catches a bubble inside it. "I'm glad I don't have taste buds."

"Knock it off with the air head persona! You can't fool me! You were getting orders from someone, now talk! I need to know which humans are responsible so I can decide whether or not I should invade Earth and kill every human for sending you mother killing freaks, or maybe just only murder JC Jenson and conquer Earth instead."

"Okay, loving the big goals, but are you sure you wanna kill every human?" N asks a bit concerned.

"It's just a little murder, besides I'm gonna spare Max of course, maybe I'll help him become king or something and he can make them less tempting to destroy..."

"A king? Does that mean he gets a crown? Aw, why does Max get a crown? I want a crown too! I wanna be a pretty princess!" J giggles in a loopy manner.

"...any chance you two can keep her further away from me?" V asks, giving a disturbed glance at J.

"Oh come on J, there's gotta be something you can tell us." N asks as he leans closer to J. The dazed drone looks at N with a smile and gently raises her only hand to poke him where his nose would be if he had one.

"You got real beautiful eyes N..." J mumbles before laying her head back seemingly falling asleep.

"...she's lost her mind." N states, completely serious.

"Uh, I think she lost more than that." Uzi beckons N to get closer as she was looking into J's broken upper body and noticed something missing. "Where's her core?"

———

A repair drone named Frank was sent to work on the hole in the evacuation zone's roof. He switched on his flashlight ready to get to work in ynr dark room, only to hear some concerning noises and flashing yellow lights. Morbid curiosity fills him as he walks closer and closer, only to find a pair of legs posed rather saucily leaning into view around the corner.

"Whoa..." It's all he can say, but his distracted state leaves him vulnerable as a disembodied right arm grasps his throat, the drone choking as he collapses onto the ground, a skittering crawling creature making its way toward the fallen drone before he screams in terror.

———

"Wait, run that by me again?" Max asks Thad with concern.

"Yeah I grabbed Uzi's sweet railgun," He presents the green glowing rifle before returning his focus on Max. "I thought it'd be a small thing I can do in return for her saving our lives. But I kind of noticed something...crawling? It was near where that one Murder Drone got her legs blown off."

"...Thad, tell me. Were any of her parts still there?"

"Well, no actually. They couldn't have walked off on their own right?" Thad jokes with a smile, only for his smile to drop seeing the pensive look on Max's face.

"...go find Uzi and N please. I think things are about to get dangerous here again." Thad nods his head, quickly leaving as Max gets his crowbar and makes his way to the evacuation zone.

Things definitely were weird. He heard news of missing drones, but he thought maybe it was just a problem finding bodies the Murder Drones likely left around in their killing spree. But no, these are much more recent disappearances.

Soon enough the human finds himself in the evacuation zone, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a solar powered flashlight he thankfully got to charge up. Turning it on, he explores the dark room. Confirming his worries, he found trails of oil leading towards a busted wide open vent.

"Fucking hell, there's no way humanity advanced drone engineering this much while I was gone, right?" Max mutters to himself before his eyes notice a strange symbol imprinted on the wall. "Absolute Solver?"

The second he utters those words, Max finds himself falling into another violent coughing fit. "NOT AGAIN!" He yells out angrily as he hacks and wheezes. He thought it was getting better! Ever since his oxygen tanks were cut open, he funnily enough had no coughing problems at all! But now it was back and it felt worse than ever before!

"AGH!" Max grunts in pain, dropping his flashlight to the ground, slamming his fist against one of the solver symbols. He finds himself punching it again and again, his fist slowly denting the metal deeper and deeper as his coughing gets more violent until he lets out a guttural roar filled with rage.

"SOLVER!!!"

———

"That girl is...GORGEOUS, right? I'm gonna let her in." The popular high school drone named Lizzy decides, having been fooled by a strange hologram...of herself. Her Russian speaking friend Doll was preparing herself to try and stop her, just for the lights to flicker in the room. Strangely, even the hologram looked around, like this wasn't her doing.

"SOLVER!!!" The loud roar echoed throughout the colony, causing the Lizzy hologram's eyes to hollow and widen. The lights flicker more before she vanishes from view.

"Hmm? Aw, she's gone." Lizzy said disappointed, Doll meanwhile releasing a sigh of relief.

———

Crawling through the vents, it searches high and low for any sign of its prey. The smell of oil was so strong, it only made it easier to track down its next meal, and it was HUNGRY.

It took more time than it would have liked, but it soon heard some familiar voices and went to investigate. Looking down the ceiling it climbed on, it spots Uzi and N running. With a hungry gleam in its eye, it began to hunt.

"I'm Thad at the dentist's office! Come over here for your...teeth!" The incredibly bad acting Thad hologram spoke in an attempt to lure in Uzi and N. Not humoring it, Uzi turns off the safety of her railgun and takes aim.

"Predictably terrible work J. I still can't believe you fooled me with some fake upper body while you've been here this whole time! And why do you look so-"

"Great!" N quickly interrupts. "You look great, J." N and Uzi look at each other while the hologram panics.

"No, no. Wait, guys. It's really me!" The hologram and its voice began to glitch and distort in bewilderment as it sees what N has in his hand. "Is that a freakin' ninja star?"

In an impressive display of teamwork, N throws the ninja star just for Uzi to kick it hard while it was still mid air, causing it to fly though the hologram and arc upwards, cutting the real Thad free from his confinements and dropping him on the ground.

"Phew! Lifesavers again! Thanks! SUPER invited to my shindig next weekend." Thad happily invites Uzi and N before looking at the strange video camera eye that was projecting his bad acting hologram earlier. "Cool kids only." Not so subtly telling the metal creature that it wasn't invited. As one of its claws reach for Thad, he balls up a fist like he's ready to punch it, and the claw flinches backwards, giving Thad the time he needed to escape.

"Solver..." A voice whispers quietly, looking at its prey as it reveals itself to Uzi and N. It hates having to wait, but it needs the perfect opportunity to strike.

"Fair, but poor choice. Now we will have to do something shocking." Out of the darkness, a newly forming J head with jagged teeth appears, along south a captive struggling Khan.

"Whoa, hey!" Uzi calls out in shock, reaching for her father.

"There..." The creature readies itself to pounce.

"Goodbye, Dad." The Solver mockingly says, ready to traumatize Uzi further, just to suddenly seize up as the sound of metal bending and warping is heard. The hologram of Khan vanishes, Uzi's eyes widening and a breath she didn't know she was holding unintentionally comes out as a sigh of relief.

"Ow, what was that?" The Solver asks as it finds one of its claws missing, completely snapped off. In the darkness something dashes in the air, grabbing the J head with two hands with gnarled sharp claws. The hands lock the head in a crushing grip before it squeezes down mercilessly. The visor cracks and shatters before the entire head is flattened into a useless piece of scrap. The Solver's multiple camera eyes focus their lights on the beast, revealing it to Uzi and N as well.

Lit up by the Solver's yellow light, the back of a humanoid creature is seen in a familiar blue-gray jumpsuit, its spine was visibly bulging outwards as it hunched over, its shoulders disproportionately wide like its arms were used to travel on all fours, and its skin sickeningly pale like there was no blood running in its veins. Then it turned its head, and it was completely wrong.

It was a human's head, Max's head, but so wrongly stretched upward. His eyes were pitch black and lifeless. Once spotted, his jaw unhinged, revealing razor sharp teeth while his mouth was stretched wide open by two crimson skeletal hands coming out of his throat and grabbing onto his upper and bottom lip. With the light focused on his face, inside his mouth beyond the skeletal hands, a deep red skull can be seen hiding in Max's throat. And then it screamed.

"SOLVEEEERRRR!!!!" The skull's jaw moved, unmistakably being the one roaring so hatefully. With inhuman speed, the strange Max-like creature pounces, ripping and tearing at the metal monstrosity that was the Solver.

"Ouch, this is certainly new." The Solver comments, completely unfazed as it slashed at Max with its unharmed claw, repeatedly trying to pin down and kill the fleshy beast like it was just an annoying cockroach.

"Uzi! Are you okay?!" N asks, concern for his friend rising as Uzi stood still, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.

"...no." Uzi answers, nearly dropping to her knees. N has to roughly pull her away from the fight, Uzi dropping her railgun as Max lands in front of them, accidentally stomping on the railgun and making it unstable. The misshapen human jumps and runs on all fours like an animal, pouncing from the ground, to the wall, to the ceiling, just to launch himself at the Solver and snatch another eye before crushing it in his grasp.

"You are trying my patience." The Solver states unamused as this current body was too unwieldy to catch such an agile beast running on pure instinct and rage. However her focus on her new foe proves to be her undoing as the railgun further destabilizes, nearing a catastrophic failure.

The skull in Max's mouth somehow snarls before his entire head turns and notices thr about to blow railgun. With a sadistic deep chuckle, the beastly human jumps back into the darkness. "Oh? Is the fun over?" The Solver asks before the green glow of the railgun turns a hot magma red. "...you sneaky little-" She's cut off as the railgun explodes, like a miniature nuclear bomb it eradicates the majority of the solver's body, N meanwhile has safely shielded Uzi from the explosion with his metal wings, the two thankfully unharmed.

"W-what was- which parts of that were real?" Uzi asks, completely horrified by the whole ordeal. Unfortunately it wasn't over yet as metal clanks, and out of some debris comes J's core, with the Solver still speaking through it.

"Sneaky, sneaky. Sneaking away. Get snuck up on." N was ready to jab the skittering creature with his nanite acid tail, just for a human hand to grab it instead. N and Uzi look up to see the strange Max monster was still here. N readies himself, changing his arm into a rocket launcher ready to fire and protect Uzi.

"Solver..." The creature hisses softly. Max's mouth somehow opens wider, allowing the crimson skull to lean out of the human's open maw, just to open his own jaw. The core shudders and shakes violently, its claws scratching at Max's hands and tearing flesh trying to escape, but it eventually goes limp as a black orb floats out of the core toward the skull's open jaw. The skull closes its teeth around the orb and visibly swallows it. It wasn't enough though. While its influence was ripped out of the core, the beast knew the Solver was still out there, waiting inside another host.

"What have you done to Max!?" Uzi finally speaks up, wanting this horror show to end. The skull turns to look at Uzi and N curiously.

"...He...is...safe." The skull ominously whispers, its pronunciation perfect despite its lack of lips and tongue. "Won't...remember."

"He...he won't remember any of this?" Uzi asks cautiously, and the skull nods. It then tosses the core towards them, N quickly transforming his arm from a rocket launcher to a net, catching the fleshy yet mechanical core but being very disgusted by it.

" Drone...will...survive."

"Oh...great." Uzi is a bit disappointed, but at least a little glad she may get her answers from J. For now though she focuses on the skull disfiguring her friend. "What are you, what do you want, and how do I get rid of you?"

"I am...what haunts...life." It answers the first question ominously and unsatisfactorily. "Want...Absolute Solver." It hisses with venom in its voice before answering her last question. "You can't...be rid of me. If you take me...this human will...DIE!!!" The skull shouts the last word, Uzi and N flinching before the skull cackles and retreats back into Max's body.

The skull and hands seemingly disappear down Max's throat, his skin mending any scars and bones snapping and cracking as they return to their natural state. Max's eyes slowly return to their normal coloration before the human collapses on the ground, completely passing out.

———

Hours later Max woke up in his room, completely exhausted and his body very sore like he did a full body workout routine for hours straight. With some trouble he climbs out of his bed and tries to look for clues about what happened. Unfortunately, things don't necessarily seem better. He talked with Thad and apparently Uzi and N stopped some eldritch abomination that looked like J, questions to ask the Murder Drones for sure. He went to Uzi looking for more answers, but it seemed like every time he tried to talk to her, she would immediately walk the other direction looking...scared. And just to make matters worse, there were strangely still drones going missing! With no other leads, Max leaves the colony to have a nice long conversation with N, V, and especially J.

"So N...you wouldn't happen to know what happened to me while I was unconscious right? I tried asking Uzi, but whenever she saw me, she kind of just...looked completely spooked. It was like, she didn't see me anymore...kind of like the way you're looking at ME RIGHT NOW!" Max yells out frustrated at N as he looks away embarrassed.

"Hey! Enough with the lip flapping, and focus more on repairing me!" J yells at Max, having recovered a bit thanks to getting her core back, but her regeneration was very slow going without any worker drone oil to drink up. Max though refused to let her do any murdering and instead did his best to repair some of her body with what scraps he can get from the massive spire of drone corpses. He figured maybe doing this favor for her could make her more willing to talk.

"Oh don't get me started on you J! I spoke with Thad and apparently your core was going nuts! It was running on some strange program called the Absolute Solver." N winces, expecting something to happen to Max, but he looks and the human seems completely fine, still focused on fixing J while he rants. "It was literally trying to make an entirely new J out of the worker drones, but while it was at it, decided to also make itself some creepy crawly monster! What do you have to say about that?" Max questions, just for J to look away, seemingly nervous about talking about it.

"...god, whoever or whatever is in charge knows how to keep you three tight lipped." Max sighs, glancing at V too who refuses to look at Max. "...THEN CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHY THERE ARE TWO FUCKING HUMAN SKELETONS IN THE CORNER!?" Max yells out frustrated, pointing at two skeletons, one in a handsome dapper looking suit and the other in a hot red dress.

"Isn't it obvious? It's for the prom they're having at the worker drone colony." V answers in a smug manner.

"Ooo, I do want to look dapper...but no! We can't interact with the workers anymore, we're far too dangerous." N solemnly states.

"Oh what are you talking abo- ...what happened between you and Uzi, N?" Max asked just for N to sadly look away.

"Aw, did you and your worker drone pet have a fight? Did she realize she doesn't need someone as pathetic as you-" CLANK. Max bonked the top of J's head with a pocket wrench. "OW! What the-?!"

"Shut your fucking mouth J! Do not speak unless it has anything to do with answering my god damn questions! Like for one, WHAT ARE YOU!?" Max yells out angrily in J's face, the drone wide eyed and going silent once again. Max glances at V, N looking at her too in concern.

"Why can't you two and that purple thing just stop prying into that stuff?" V asks, for once her voice sounding vulnerable, catching Max and N off guard.

"...I'm out of parts for J. I'm gonna see what I can scavenge from the corpse spire outside. And I can't believe those words left my mouth so casually. If one of you can please be ready to tell me ANYTHING, whether it's your origins, what happened to J, whatever the hell happened to make my friends look at me like I'm some kind of monster...anything at all, I'd really appreciate it." With that, Max leaves the ship, stepping out and taking in the cold outside air.

He tries to take a deep breath, just to pause as he places a hand on his throat. He doesn't feel the cold sting of the air in his throat like he expected. Hell, sometimes it feels like his body forgets just what the cold air feels like, almost like its sensations are flickering on and off. Nervously placing two fingers on his neck, he closes his eyes, searching for a pulse.

...ba-bum...

With a sigh of relief, Max shakes his head. "I still have a pulse, I'm still alive. Whatever else is happening, there's gotta be a logical explanation for it all." Calming himself with those words, he gets to work scavenging pieces he can use from the long dead drone corpses...at least not before completely shutting off their systems so they no longer had the fatal error message on their visors. There was no need to leave them like that for so long. As he worked, his back was turned to the ship, leaving him oblivious to the fact that someone just silently flew out of the ship with a red dress.

Max returns to the ship, a lot calmer now and willing to try a gentler approach. "Okay I got some new parts and-" Max looks to see a decapitated N. "WHAT THE FUCK!? I was gone for like 2 minutes!?"

"V splattered the moron's head. Apparently her chains were broken long ago and no one noticed. Dirty little traitor didn't even help me out of here..." J huffs angrily just for Max to grab her by the shoulders.

"Where did she go!?"

"She left for the worker drones' colony!"

"Why would she..." Max's eyes widen as he looks at the missing red dress. "Oh no..."

N suddenly shouts and springs back up, Max jumping in surprise as he sees his head grew back.

"Fuck's sake N! Nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"What happened, where's V?" N asks before looking at dress, coming to the same conclusion as Max.

"We gotta stop her before it's too late!" Max states, looking at N as he contemplates putting on the suit in front of him. "God damnit N...FINE! You can put it on!"

"...dapper N.~" N's eyes narrow as he whispers to himself.

"I don't get why you're so set on stopping her." J rolls her eyes, looking away as N begins to get dressed. Max at the very least grabs her body and helps turn her away so it's easier to give him some decency.

"The problem is that she's taking innocent lives, for no good reason!"

"We need oil to not overheat and die!" J shouts before immediately seeming to regret it and shrinking back.

"...N, when was the last time you drank the oil from a worker drone?" Max asks curiously, while also wondering why J was being a lot more cooperative.

"Uh...not since I turned rebel and worked with Uzi I guess." N answers as he wiggles his legs into the pants of the suit.

"That was nearly a week ago. Have you felt like you're overheating? Any signs of withdrawal or intense cravings?"

"...not really, no. I-I never noticed anything like that, I've just kind of been busy thinking."

"Oh I'm sure it takes a lot out of you to think." J snarks just for Max to smack the top of her head. "Ow! Hey!"

"Don't you get it!? You were programmed into THINKING you need it to survive. I've yet to see any withdrawal signs from any of you. That includes you J! You haven't had any oil to drink but your body is still recovering!" He points to her torso, her lower body reforming little by little. No legs yet, but her right arm was almost done repairing itself, still missing a hand and her weapons though.

"Whatever sick bastards sent you here fucked you up more than you realize! Even V is actively fighting against trying to remember her past, not wanting us to look more into it. Whatever happened to the three of you is something I intend to get to the bottom of."

"How are you gonna do that! We obviously haven't been much help..." J says the last part with a hint of disappointment strangely enough.

"We're gonna start by going after V. And you're gonna help us!" Max decides, lifting up J's body.

"Wait, what?!" J asks as Max hooks her arms around his neck, using some wires from the scraps he gathered to create a makeshift harness so she can stay on his back. "T-this is crazy! How can you trust me to help you out?"

Max doesn't answer just yet, turning to look at N as he finishes buttoning up his suit. "So, not all that important since we have a dangerous mission ahead of us but...how do I look?" N asks curiously.

"You look handsome dude." Max compliments with a smile, said smile shifting to be less genuine and more smug as he glances at J over his shoulder. "J...don't you think you should tell N he looks handsome?"

J's eyes widen, a blush creeping on her face as she looks at N and sighs. "Yes...you look very handsome and very dapper." J forces out.

"...dapper N!~" N can't help but pose, making Max chuckle and J groan like it was painful to watch.

The three of them leave the ship and rush toward the colony. N flies ahead before swooping down in front of a familiar worker drone.

"N?!"

"Uzi?!" The two see each other for the first time since the incident with the eldritch J. Uzi was in a black dress looking quite pretty.

Max finally catches up with J on his back, seeing the two struggle to speak with each other.

"I could help." N offers but immediately feels the need to take it back. "But you probably don't want me to..."

"No, I-I could use the help...of you...being there...with me." Uzi awkwardly says as if she was trying to ask N to the prom with her...then again their current mission did need them to go to prom.

N certainly doesn't mind though as he quickly closes the distance between him and Uzi! "Dapper buddies!" N excitedly named them, Uzi playfully hitting him for the silly name, but visibly blushing and smiling, even having a little cat-like smile.

"Well hooray! Good to know you two are on good terms now." Max pipes in with a smile of his own, J though fake gagging at the sweetness of the situation.

"Max!? How long have you- why do you have J on your back?" Uzi asks surprised and embarrassed.

"I'm here with N, and J is here to help us stop V!"

"V? That's right! I just escaped to find you guys to tell you that a worker drone is letting her in, inviting her to prom!" Uzi explains.

"What? Okay it seems we both have information to trade, let's walk and talk." Max decides, N and Uzi nodding their heads as they get ready to head for the colony. "Real quick though..." Max spoke up, his tone making Uzi and N freeze. "...look, I don't know what happened while I was unconscious, but it obviously isn't anything good. I want to trust you both as my friends..." Max trails off, causing the two drones to feel guilty. "So I will!"

"Huh?" N and Uzi ask at the same time.

"Wait, for once I'm with them, huh?" J questions.

"There's no point in trying to pressure you two into telling me what happened right now. As my friends, I'll trust you to tell me when you're good and ready." Max smiles at the two of them, getting an appreciative smile in return. "Besides, we have bigger things to worry about. We got a prom to save!...Then you two can have your slow dance.~" Max can't help but tease.

"Slow dance?" N asks with a creeping blush on his face.

"W-wha, shut up! No we're not!" Uzi yells out at Max, grabbing N's arm and stomping away as Max has a good hearty laugh.

"God I missed teasing her like that." Max chuckles while J sticks her tongue out.

"Ugh, gag me."

"I will if you keep up that attitude." Max nonchalantly threatens, keeping his eyes forward as they walk to the colony, completely missing J's massive blush on her visor.

———

The 4 of them crash into the prom through the vents, Uzi insisting they drop in dramatically like some edgy caped crusader.

"Unhand them, you fie-eeeeeend?" Uzi's heroic command falters into a questioning tone as they find no bloodshed has occurred and...V has been declared as prom queen?

"Huh, good for V I guess..." Max comments as he looks around the room for any signs of a trap.

"I'm confused." Uzi admits to N, both caught off guard by how peaceful everything seems.

Said peace was immediately destroyed as the Russian speaking drone known as Doll creates a red holographic symbol of the absolute solver.

"On second thought, you're way hotter than Doll. Run, idiot!" Lizzy yells at V before Doll unleashes her attack. The other high schooler drones run in a panic as some are randomly slaughtered by the vengeful worker drone. Her absolute solver summons rebars from under the school stage to stab at V's arms and hold her in place.

"Holy crap, what is she doing?" Uzi asks, completely bewildered as Doll prepares to kill V.

"This isn't what I expected at all! I guess we should..." N trails off looking at Uzi and Max.

"Save her even though she's been a bitch? Yep. That's one of the downsides to being a hero." Max shrugs and Uzi groans in displeasure.

Uzi and N intercept Doll as she throws a high velocity spinning fan at V, stopping the weapon in its tracks and standing on stage with V. With her focus taken, the doors to the exit are unlocked. "Quick! Everyone get out!" Max yells out, the students coming out of their stupor and running out of the massacre of a prom, Max doing his best to guide them all toward the exit and help anyone who trips over in their rush.

"Uzi, you would really side with the Murder Drones? I'm not the only one who's lost family to them." Doll reveals, trying to talk sense into Uzi.

"Bite me!" Uzi refutes. "Whoever started this wants us to fight. I'm not dealing with anything well, but I'm done dealing with everything alone." She looks at N, the two sharing a little moment of understanding before she speaks again. "We move forward together, or not at all."

Even V and J felt something in their mechanical hearts at those words, but Doll seemed unimpressed. "Cute, but I don't need help." With those words, she attacks. Sending high speed daggers to slash at the three of them, just for N to push Uzi out of the way, causing only him and V to end up taking heavy damage and get thrown backstage in pieces.

"Oh you punk bitch!" Max snarls as he pulls out his crowbar, ready to strike Doll from behind, only for Doll's head to turn 180 degrees. Thr freaky display makes Max freeze in place and hold up his crowbar to block any attack, but she instead locks the doors so no one like the chaperone Khan can interfere. "What are you?" Max asks, just for Doll to send out another solver symbol and toss him across the room like a stuffed animal!

"Fuck!" Max cries out as his back smacks against the wall, J crying out in pain as well.

"Ow! Hey! Remember that I'm back here!" J yells out, giving Max an idea.

"That's right! J, are your weapons online?" Max asks, J actually wonders herself before she shifts her arm into a machine gun. "Perfect, let's try to only incapacitate her though. She could be hiding some info we need too!"

Max runs back into the fight, watching as Uzi is struggling against Doll, just for a healed N to swoop in and assist her! Taking the opportunity, Max rushes toward Doll while J fires her machine gun arm at Doll. Predictably she uses her strange powers to deflect the bullets, but that gives Max the opening he needs to thrust his crowbar forward. At first it looks like it wildly misses as Doll barely has to sidestep it, but Max just grins as he pulls the crowbar back, the hooked end grabbing the back of Doll's leg and tripping her off her feet.

"Not so tough now, are you Raggedy Ann?" Max quips, just for both J and Doll to look at him strangely. "...you know, Raggedy Ann? The popular stuffed doll?" Neither of them seemed to recognize the name. "She had books, movies, musicals...oh forget it!"

Doll just growls before launching several knives towards Max. "Hoo! Hah! Yahoo!" Max hollers as he crouches, dives, and jumps over the deadly projectiles. "Easy peasy- oh god not the table! GAH!" Max yells as he table is thrown at him, his hands up to try and catch it as it pushes him toward the wall, nearly flattening him if J didn't shift her arm into a claw and slash the table apart. Max's boots skid on the gym floor before their momentum ends and they finally stop.

"Phew, nice work J!" Max praises appreciatively before jumping back into the fray, J's hand having turned into a fan to try and cool her face, feeling like it heated up after that compliment.

Thrown into the air by N to dodge incoming flying tables, Uzi uses some of the tables as telling stones before kicking away a thrown knife, the knife ricocheting back towards Doll and cutting off a strange bracelet similar to Uzi's choker. Uzi uses her momentum in the air for a powerful spin kick to the face, knocking Doll backwards and tumbling onto the ground.

Doll slowly gets back up, ready to continue the fight, just to be caught off guard as a surge of electricity runs through her body, courtesy of J and her arm shifted into the emp blaster. "There, she should be down for a while, then we can- V stop!" Max yells as he grabs V's gun arm and points the gun up at the ceiling instead so her shot misses wildly!

"Hey! What gives, she tried to kill us anyways!" V argues, trying to push Max away.

"No, Max is right! We need her for answers!" Uzi defends the human.

"It was just one bullet, she would have been fine." V huffs, shifting the gun away and reverting her arm back to normal.

"V is doing it on purpose! She's hiding mystery stuff and being over-dramatic about it!" N quickly snitched, much to V's annoyance.

"N! You suck!" She yells out before punching him in the arm.

"That's all I needed to hear. C'mere J." Max slowly removed the harness with J still attached to it, before putting it on V.

"What the hell? What is this!?" V asks, struggling to get the harness off.

"J, if V tries anything funny that could mess with our mission to get answers, you have my permission to stop her in any non-lethal manner. Fucking bite her if you have to!" Max orders, smirking a bit since now J can keep on eye on V.

"Yes sir." J responds, saluting Max seriously before immediately placing her saluting hand over her mouth.

"Wait, sir?" Max asks, confused. Meanwhile V immediately gags.

"Oh gross J! Are you using him for your weird "being ordered around" thing?" V asks, sticking her tongue out disgusted.

"WHAT!?" Max screams out looking at an incredibly flustered J. "That's why you've been doing as I say!? To get your rocks off!?"

"Why else would she do what you want?" V asks, crossing her arms.

"I thought it was her programming or something, like a directive saying she won't cooperate unless a superior officer commands her to. I didn't think I was fulfilling some kind of fantasy! God I feel gross!" Max shudders before glaring at J. "And you didn't even take me out to dinner first!"

"I-it's not a kink thing, I swear! It's just that I-"

"Silence bottom!" Max commanded, pointing at J, the drone blushing but keeping quiet. "Not gonna lie, I always wanted to say that, but god this feels weird now, you made it weird J."

"You're all weird!" Uzi yells out, getting everyone's attention. "We're not done yet by the way..." She says before presenting the bracelet cut off of Doll's wrist during the fight. Said bracelet is revealed to have a key attached to it.

———

The five of them made their way to Doll's room, Max even carrying the knocked out Doll with him to make sure she doesn't start any trouble. Uzi uses the key to unlock a locked hidden door, revealing a room filled to the brim with worker drones corpses.

"Oh this is just sick." Max mutters as they all let it sink in...except for V who grabbed a spare limb and was about to munch on it just for J to grab it and throw it away from her.

"Hey that was mine! Finders keepers!" V huffs just for Max to groan.

"You don't need it okay! Going cold turkey ain't easy, but if N can go this whole time without needing to eat drone corpses, then so can you. Unless you wanna say you got a weaker will than N of course." It was a low blow from Max, but it gets V to realize her pride is at stake, so she just crosses her arms and grumbles.

"Speaking of eating, there's no way Doll was doing that here...right?" Uzi asks concerned as she looks around the room, the various oil smears and pots of the liquid catching her attention.

N meanwhile pulls a sheet, revealing the dead corpses of Doll's own parents. "I think we found her folks..."

"Literally didn't even taste that good." V comments, just to yelp as J tugs on her hair. "Ow! When are your legs gonna grow back already!" She snaps at J.

"V, you kinda suck." N admits with his hands on his hips.

This just gets a morbid giggle out of V. "Yeah, I'm not doing okay."

"Honestly, I'm starting to think no one here is okay..." Max mutters as he looks at the still knocked out Doll he was giving a piggyback ride. As Uzi approaches the dead parents, she finds an ID card showing Doll's mother's name, Yeva. "Just why did this all have to happen?" Max asks, just to choke as Doll wakes up and has her arm around his throat. The others gasp as Doll raises her free arm, aiming a knife at Uzi before firing it faster than the speed of sound...only for another solver symbol to appear and catch it.

Everyone in the room looks in awe at the sight of the purple solver symbol, unmistakably being activated by Uzi herself. In complete shock, Doll releases her hold on Max, the human gasping for air as the worker drone backs away. "I...I'm sorry for you..."

The solver symbol vanished, and the knife dropped in the air, clattering onto the table. Max grabs at his neck, coughing harshly before looking at Doll. "Just wait, we can help each other. We're trying to find answers too, answers you can help us with!"

Doll looks at the human, seeing the sincerity and desperation in his eyes and sighs. "If I find what I'm looking for, I'll help you too." She directs her gaze to Uzi. "I'm sorry."

"What? Wait don't-!" Uzi yells out reaching for Doll. Max jumps toward Doll in an attempt to catch her. His arms wrap around the drone, and the two vanish in a flash of red light. "...Max?" Uzi asks, she and the Murder Drones look around only to find no sight of the human.

———

So it looks like Max has disappeared with Doll. I'm sure there are questions concerning what is going on with Max and how it will affect the canon storyline. All I can say is that you'll just need to wait and see in the next chapters. Sorry if it feels like episode 2 doesn't get a lot of time to shine, but it's mostly because a lot of scenes haven't really changed, and it would have just been unnecessary padding to add the exact same scenes of the worker drones getting tricked and killed or Khan at the parent teacher conference doesn't change in any significant way.

I apologize for that, and hope what the story is so far still has you having fun and eager for what comes next. Because I can assure you that some answers will come to light next time.

Oh and if you're still here, then please enjoy this Omake inspired from a silly amazing digital circus animatic I saw around a year ago.

———

Omake

Before the events of the day, Max had gotten started on fixing up J while N was currently out on an errand for V, something about looking nice for prom?

"So you used to be a repairman?" V asks in a bored manner, not really caring but just wanting to break the silence as Max continues to work on repairing J's body, the Murder Drone fast asleep as her body was getting used to getting her core back.

"Yep, still am technically. No one signed me off for the cryosleep experiment and I was never formally given the pink slip. So in a way, you could say there's a robot doctor in the house." Max cheekily smiles before getting a contemplative look on face. "I mean, like a doctor that works on robots, not a doctor that happens to be a robot and-"

"I got it!" V interrupts annoyed. "Stupid ancient human."

"Ancient? I was only in cryosleep for around 20 years. For all you know, I could be younger than you." Max huffs before trying to return to his work. "Would that even count as my current age? I never physically aged..."

"Wait, how old are you?" V curiously asks, not entirely sure how human aging works.

"Hmm....guess!" Max requests with a curious grin as he pauses his work.

"36..." V answers before falling into a fit of laughter the second she sees Max's offended face.

"Wwwwhat!?" Max clutches his chest like he was reaching for some nonexistent pearls, completely caught off guard by that estimate.

"Y-you said guess!" V defends herself in between some more maniacal laughter.

"That was so far off!" Max yells out in V's face, the drone only laughing more as she struggles to speak.

"Why are you yelling at me?" V manages to ask in between a couple wheezy laughs.

"Like, normally when people play that game, they usually guess a little bit younger. Was that your younger guess?!"

"Yeah, are you like 39?" V guesses again.

"WHAAA!?" Just to fall into another almost painful fit of laughter at Max higher pitched scream of bewilderment.

Only once she manages to gain control of her laughter does she speak again. "So, so was I right?" V questions, clearing her throat a little and trying to return to her usual calm and collected killer persona.

"No! I'm not even in my thirties." Max answers with a bit of a smile as he figures he can't judge her too harshly since maybe human age is hard to figure out for drones.

"Oh...really?" V asked with a small tilt of her head.

"I'm in my forties." Max jokes with a chuckle of his own just for V to speak up.

"Oh I knew it! I was just trying to be nice and see if I could get you to drop your guard." V reveals, figuring her plan failed already, just to jump as Max shouts again.

"NO I'M NOT IN MY FORTIES! WHAT DO YOU MEAN "I KNEW IT?!?!"" Max screamed in V's cackling face, his hands clutching his head before he pointed at himself. "I'M 22! What the fuck!?"

"Oh, robo god damn you're old!" V was definitely joking this time, but she was having too much fun pushing this human's buttons.

"....WHAT!?!?!?" Max yells one more time in the highest pitch voice he's ever reached.