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The situation was beyond tense as Uzi stood her ground in front of the incapacitated V on the prom stage, N at her side as they stared Doll down, that strange symbol on her screen flickering in crimson red as the Russian drone glared at them all. "Uzi, you'd side with the murder drones? I'm not the only one who's lost family to them," Doll pointed her cleaver at the angsty drone with a softer glare, "you should be standing here with me against them, not defending these monsters." Her statement seemed to startle both murder drones, their focus shifting to Uzi who was still standing her ground, if anything the attempt to appeal to her seemed to only make her angrier at her classmate.
"Bite me! I am going through a lot, but this," Uzi motioned around her at the chaos and oil-stained floor beneath Doll, "this isn't the answer, more senseless killing doesn't solve anything!" The angsty drone stepped forward, keeping herself between V and the murderous Russian drone, a move that earned the ire of said drone, pointing accusingly at Doll as the music continued to echo through the panicked noise of the rest of the trapped workers. Her hand was shaking slightly as the question bit deeper than she cared to admit, struggling to hold in the emotional venom threatening to bubble up, only quelled from the comforting presence N made known at her side. "I am not doing ok, but at least I am not going at it alone, we move forward together or not at all," she declared with a firm stance, "so either you can stand with us, or this ends badly for you."
There was a bitter silence in the wake of her ultimatum, the entire room focused on Uzi as she stood boldly on stage, conflict flickering across Dolls face as she seemed to weigh the choice, but resolve replaced it just as quickly. "Cute, but I don't need any help," with a flick of her wrist another set of rebar poles shot up out of the stage floor, stabbing into N's leg and nearly skewering Uzi, both drones caught off guard as the whistle of spinning blades filled the air. It was like time slowed down as N shoved his hand out, pushing Uzi away as more and more rebar stabbed up before the fans sliced through the pair of murder drones with an oily impact, the angsty worker tumbling along the floor with a grunt of pain.
Pushing herself up Uzi shuddered as pain wracked across her body, a bile of oil working its way to her mouth as she coughed it out, painting the floor beneath her black while she tried to shakily return to her feet. Barely on her knees before she caught a glimmer of silver directed her way, looking up just in time to see the kitchen knife flying straight for her face, in a split second decision moving her hand to take the hit. The impact was loud, and the oil pouring out of her hand concerning but a manic giggle rose up from the angsty drone as she finally returned to her feet, eyes locked on a now startled Doll who was backing up. "You know of all the things you could do in this situation, giving a knife to the emo drone was probably the worst you could do," Uzi grinned as she began slowly approaching the Russian drone, twirling the blade.
A scowl crossed Dolls face as she flicked another knife at the angsty drone, who easily parried it aside without breaking her stride, something that wasn't expected but both knew this wasn't going to be a pretty fight. Drawing both their attention was a growing yell as they both turned to the side, just in time to see a gaggle of their classmates rushing back into the room, armed with impromptu weapons and keen on 'helping' out. "Cute, but also far too little to stop me," with practiced ease Doll sidestepped every attack sent her way, an evil shimmer filling her eye, "actually this gives me a wonderful idea, sit tight cousin while I 'thin out' the herd." Uzi tried to rush forward with a yell at the comment, only to find herself launched backwards by a piece of rebar wrapping around her waist, pinning her to the ground as Doll cracked her knuckles, the glyph replacing one of her eyes once again.
The uncoordinated attacks by her classmates were cute, swinging bats and pipes to try and whack her as she glided through and around their attacks with concerning ease, finally catching the opening she was waiting for. With no hesitation she shot her hand forward into the chest of a particularly vocal jock, a look of shock crossing his screen before she twisted her wrist and pried his core out, tossing it aside as his whole body was engulfed in a red, glitchy glow. The rest of her attackers froze as they witnessed their former friends corpse twitch and convulse, the blaring 'Fatal Error' on his screen warping and glitching out before filling with the same red glyph that decorated Dolls own screen. "Why should I fight this battle on my own, it's only fair I get some 'friends' to help as well," Doll grinned evilly as the former worker snapped upright, "let's level the playing field a little shall we?"
It was terrifying enough to witness how easily she ended a workers life, but it was quickly dwarfed as the former drone lunged at his nearest former friend with a guttural growl, his hands dragging the drone down to the floor. As the rest of the workers were in stunned shock Doll struck once more, her hand smashing through one of her fellow cheerleaders chests and ripping their oily core free, the red glow lighting up her screen. It was quickly turning into a massacre that Uzi could only watch on with horror, struggling to pry the rebar holding her down, witnessing as the shock wore off into terror as several classmates tried to flee the room once more. The doors slamming shut was a horrific sound, only made worse as Doll and five of her new 'friends' bore down on the rest of the impromptu rebellion against her, which only furthered her numbers, screams and cries of panic overpowering the music.
As the quiet background music once more dominated the atmosphere Uzi stared with hollowed eyes as Doll returned her attention to the angsty drone, screen completely filled with the red glyph, and her new 'friends' around her. Every drone's screen was matching Doll, their chests ripped open and oil still dripping out of the gaping hole where their cores had been, hands and outfits stained in oil as they silently twitched in anticipation. "Well look at that, guess it isn't a fair fight anymore, but I suppose it was never going to be," Doll smirked as she pointed at Uzi, "guess you lose after all, but I will be moving on together, with my new army to kill those murder drones." With a tilt of her head the Russian drone snapped her fingers, and the small hoard of former worker drones surged forward at Uzi, hands outstretched and teeth gnashing as they stumbled over each other to rush her.
Horror etched itself onto Uzi's face as time once more seemed to slow down watching the mob of undead drones scrambling towards her, likely to rip her to pieces in her vulnerable position still pinned to the floor. Not one to accept fate her struggle to free herself only grew stronger, giving up on prying the rebar off and instead focusing on squirming free of it, eye lights void as the first of the drones was all but upon her. It was a flicker of movement, barely registering as outstretched hands aimed for her face clattered to the floor, and a spray of oil painted her face before the drone was sending flying backwards into his fellow hoard. Staring up she found N above her, one hand exchanged for a sword as the other reached down and ripped the rebar holding her down clean out of the floor, slinging it into the mob of undead drones. "Gah, quit saving me-" Uzi tried to quip before yelping as N wrapped his arm around her and unfurled his wings, launching the pair into the rafters as the hoard surged forward once more, barely missing them. "Robo-jesus, ok keep saving me, this is even more than I was not expecting what the actual..."
Below the pair the undead drones were literally clambering over each other to try and reach up to them, making concerning headway in a squirming pile of growls and gnashing teeth, a undead pillar of violent intent. "So how exactly do we beat this, because I have zero experience dealing with this kinda thing," N nervously laughed as he kicked a hand away from the increasingly growing pile of drones, "open to suggestions though." His attempt at a chipper attitude was met with a guttural cry from below as the mass of undead drones collapsed down to the floor, a bellowing smoke cloud obscuring the floor as V darted up to the pair, a hand exchanged for a rocket launcher.
"How about less talk more doing what we were built for," V's screen flickered to a golden X as a manic grin filled her face, "dismantling malfunctioning toasters and painting the halls with oil, I want that robo-witch for myself!" Diving back down V manically laughed as she fired a barrage of rockets into the mob of undead drones, yelping as several detonated early, and even more being flung right back at her engulfed in a digital red glow. In the midst of the mob Doll stood, hand outstretched and the digital glyph lit up between her fingers, making V growl as she zipped around the room continuing her barrage to even less success. "First you skewer me like some kind of easy mark, now you're nullifying my best attacks," V hissed as she barely avoided one of her own rockets, "I am going to enjoy ripping you to pieces!"
"Cute you think I will give you the chance V," Doll's grin seemed to grow wider as she flicked her wrist, "but the only one who is going to get ripped apart here, is you." With a snap of her fingers the floor erupted in spikes, rebar and wood stabbing skyward as V and N dodged and weaved around the sudden attack, Uzi letting out a panicked yelp as one spike ripped her dress. More concerningly than the spikes themselves was the sudden rushing of the undead drones to them, those with limbs still intact starting to scale up towards the airborne drones, even the ones incapable helping as living ladders. "You can't just hide away out of reach, revenge has a way of always finding a path to you," Doll let out a deranged laugh as her face nearly split open from how wide her grin had grown, fangs glistening in the multi-colored lights.
Swiping at the undead drones trying to grab her V glanced around the room wildly, trying to figure out how to handle the threat before a weight landed on her back, struggling as one of the corpse workers clung to her wings. "Gah! Get off you malfunctioning little- Ow!" V hissed as the drone began trying to rip one of her wings off, "knock that off- Augh!" Another managed to grab onto her legs, prompting her to drive her pegged foot through its screen, eye lights going void as it continued to try and crawl up her legs despite the damage. Struggling to stay in the air now V found herself with more and more of the mob of drones grabbing onto and trying to pry her apart, her claws swiping wildly as she sank lower and lower to the floor beneath the weight of the corpse drones dragging her down. "N a little- Ow! -help here, I am not exactly winning this fight," V called out, slashing another drones arms off sending it falling to the floor, "if it isn't too much trouble!"
Unfortunately for V it was too much trouble as N dived past her, four or so undead workers ripping his wings apart as he protectively wrapped himself around Uzi before slamming into the ground kicking up a cloud of dust. There was a beat of silence before he flared his wings out, sending the drones clinging to them flying with some of his bladed feathers still in their grasp, prompting a pained cry from him as he stood up. "This isn't working we can't beat her like this," Uzi stood up beside him, picking up a discarded knife and holding it defensively, "we need to either separate her from the hoard, or cut their numbers down to get an opening." Even as she said it both options seemed unlikely as she slashed an undead workers neck, the body continuing to lunge for her prompting a labored struggle, only ending with N batting the body away. Despite how few workers had actually returned to join the fight it felt like the number of undead drones was larger than that, and Uzi was quick to notice many not wearing prom outfits, as she had a horrific realization. "N we need to grab V and get out of here, she has a whole stock of corpses, every missing person poster was probably her," she pointed towards the doors, "if we blast our way out we can fight them in a choke point like the halls."
It wasn't an ideal plan but the open space of the gym was proving to be Doll's advantage as the mob of undead drones surged towards them, only broken up from V bursting through the crowd looking worse for wear. Her dress was all but torn to pieces, bits of her casing peeled back and one wing ripped completely off, but the look on her face screamed anger as she charged towards the exit, unleashing a storm of rockets against it. With several echoing blasts the doors were easily removed from their hinges, and existence, as V smashed her way out into the hallway, followed in short by N who was carrying Uzi with a panicked cry. "V how did you know the plan was to break out and fight them in the halls?"
"We have a plan?!?" V bit back as she cycled her rocket launcher for a rifle and began spraying bullets behind her, hissing in frustration at the red glowing barrier that caught every round, and the hoard of undead drones behind it. It was like a tidal wave of undead drones rushing into the hall, but in the midst of them all Doll was calmly walking forward, looking more and more like a monster as black tendrils seemed to sprout from her back and flick about. "What the hell is this ones problem, I killed hundreds of thousands of families but none of them turned into a freaking necromancing witch!" Continuing to limp/run from the wave of undead drones the trio found themselves skittering past lockers and notice boards filled with missing persons posters, only stopping as they came to a four-way intersection.
"Our best bet is to funnel them here, ranged attacks are pretty useless so we just have to beat the melee," Uzi squirmed out of N's grasp as she held her knife at the ready, "they don't die properly so just focus on taking limbs off...And try not to die." It felt like an obvious goal but it was more for herself than her neigh-immortal combat buddies to remember, as the hoard of undead drones rounded the corner and charged their way, arms outstretched and eager to rip into them. N brandished both his hands into swords as V flexed her claws, crouching low as Uzi stood between the two, unwavering in her position as digital sweat ran down her screen. "If we don't survive this, I just want to tell both of you," Uzi took a deep vent before focusing on the threat bearing down on them, "you both are stupid hot and I hate humans for designing you that way."
Potential last words said and with nothing else between them the trio braced as the first of the undead drones slammed into them, the poor former worker quickly losing both hands and a leg as it hit the floor. The fight only grew more chaotic from the first one dealt with as they were mobbed, N barely bracing in time to not be pushed back as he slashed wildly at the wall of drones grabbing at him, tearing the sleeves of his suit. Uzi and V fared less well as both were knocked back, the angsty worker slashing and cutting at every hand that got too close to her, stomping down on the hands trying to pull her legs out from under her. V on the other hand was clawing her way forward through the hoard, oil painting her entire body as she viciously hacked at everything in her path, every hand that grasped her damaged form being removed with extreme prejudice. it was not going great for any of the three, but it wasn't going terrible as they held off from being torn to pieces, at least fatally so as V found one of her arms trapped in a tight grip of several undead drones, before it was ripped clean off.
"Gah! What is it with you and cutting my freaking arms off you demented robo-witch!" V did her best to try and retrieve her arm, only giving it up as her other arm was caught, barely avoiding losing it as well thanks to N intervening. Unlike V though Uzi wasn't losing limbs but her footing, as a hand wrapped around her ankle and pulled her to the ground, her screen glitching out briefly from hitting her head on the floor, and the stabbing pain in her ankle. Looking down she found an undead drone biting onto her leg, a mixture of anger and fear filling her as she slammed her boot into its face, shattering their screen and freeing her from its bite.
"Robo-god help me," Uzi scrambled backwards as the undead hoard surged forward again, the ones the trio had managed to disarm and knock down being trampled by the more capable as they latched onto whatever they could. It was a losing fight despite the advantage of two disassembly drones on her side, and Uzi saw it as V once more got swarmed, her angry screaming punctuated with splatters of oil from her attackers ripping into her. Even N was getting overwhelmed as he was pressed against the wall, one of his swords lodged into an undead workers head as the other was pinned beside him, the panic in his eyes vanishing as he was drowned in the sea of undead bodies piling onto him. Through it all Uzi crawled backwards, her knife still clutched tightly in hand as the hoard seemed to part, and walking towards her was Doll, or rather what Doll had become as it sure wasn't the same drone she knew.
Her face was split in half with a great number of sharp teeth decorating the much wider mouth, black tendrils stretched out from her back and writhed around her while her screen was completely filled with that same, deep red glyph. "Oh, how unfortunate cousin, seems you really did stand no chance, but I suppose that was expected," Doll's tongue flicked out of her mouth licking a splash of oil off her cheek, "I would say I am sorry for what I am about to do, but then again you decided to side with the monsters that killed so many of us, so really...You deserve this." Despite everything, witnessing N and V get completely overwhelmed, the countless deaths in front of her, Uzi could only feel a deep sense of anger bubbling up as she gritted her teeth and pushed herself to her feet. She was tired, lost a lot of oil, and probably about to die, but spite and rage pushed the angsty drone to keep fighting as she pointed the knife at her former classmate, venting hard as she stood ready to fight.
Doll seemed less interested in such an engagement as she simply held her hand forward, the glyph lighting up in her fingers as she clenched her fist closed, the red glow briefly illuminating Uzi before it shattered. Both drones were startled by this, as a purple glow seemed to surround the angsty worker and the undead drones around them froze to stare at the pair, silence dominating the hall aside from the pained and labored vents of N and V. Looking down at her hands Uzi flexed her fingers with the feeling of power surging through her body, the previous fatigue and pain faded as she looked back up at a visibly uneasy Doll, tendrils wilting back from her. "What was that you were saying?" A grin flashed on Uzi's face before she snapped her fingers, the purple glow around her bursting from her form in reaching tendrils of its own, stabbing into several of the undead drones around her, their screen going dark.
Several tense moments later the screens of the stabbed undead drones returned to life, the same glyph burning on them but now a deep purple as they turned their attention towards the remaining hoard. "Bite me," Uzi watched with a mixture of glee, and subtle horror, as the undead drones launched at their former hoard with a symphony of cracking casings and splatters of oil as they tore into each other, finally snapping Doll out of her shock. The Russian drone tried to step back, only to find herself being tackled by two very bitey corpses, her tendrils lashing out to protect her only to find them being ripped into as oil dripped from her attackers mouths. In all the chaos V managed to burst out of the pile holding her down, taking advantage of their undead confusion to slash them to pieces, panting heavily as she was barely held together, already nanites starting to work on her damage. N similarly broke free of his confinement with a burst of energy, rushing to Uzi's side as the undead hoard thinned more and more due to them tearing each other apart, a horrifying but hypnotic sight.
"Oh biscuits what did- how are- this is something else," N panted as he watched the chaos unfolding, ducking as Doll flung an undead drone over his head, "should we get back in there or...?" His question was answered when Doll let an ear-piercing screech out and lunged forward, tackling Uzi from his side as the two tumbled down the hall, locked in a struggle as the hoards continued to rip each other apart. Despite her seemingly horrific transformation Doll was not the one dominating the struggle, finding herself unable to keep the angsty drone down even with her tendrils and enhanced power, if anything she was feeling weaker the longer she was holding onto Uzi. And it wasn't too far from the truth as the pair were consumed in a bright glow of red and purple, the latter of which seemed to only grow brighter the longer they tussled, which reflected in the undead drones behind them.
At a rapid pace more and more of the undead drones were dropping to the floor, the glyph's on their screens flickering out as they finally got to rest from the un-life they'd been dragged into, something that didn't go unnoticed. "NO! This can't be happening, I had everything planned out, even a backup plan raising the dead, how are you doing this?!?" Doll yelled up at Uzi as her face returned to its former worker design, "everything was perfect, I was going to have my revenge, but you had to go and ruin everything!" With one final great effort she managed to push the angsty drone off her and stagger to her feet, glaring as N was quick to rush to Uzi's side swords at the ready, and it filled the Russian drone with an even deeper rage. Reaching her hand out the glyph lit up between her fingers, hatred and anger burning on her screen as she prepared to fight this to the very end, intent on her revenge no matter the cost.
At least she was prepared to do so, until a gunshot echoed out and a hole found purchase in the center of her screen, her eyes flickering momentarily before she collapsed down, behind her V stood with a manic grin. All at once everything ceased as Uzi rushed forward, looking Doll over before turning back to the female disassembly drone ready to lecture her before really taking in the damage that had been done to her. Gone was her beautiful red dress, now more of a tattered tube top if even, the plating of her body was still pried up in spots and the stump where her wing had been was glowing as nanites tried to replace the whole limb. Turning back to N yielded a similar state, his suit was ruined along with deep bite marks peppering his whole body along with two of the sensors on his headband being shattered, and yet he was still trying to offer a reassuring thumbs up to her.
Looking down at herself Uzi frowned as her dress was ruined beyond recovery as well, torn and stained in oil as she flexed her hand, finding the hole from the knife stabbing through it closed, but still visibly worse off. "Ugh, this was so freaking awful, so much for a peaceful and relaxing prom," Uzi glared down at Dolls body as she crouched and began to search the cadaver, "don't think this means I am forgetting how you were probably going to massacre the place either V, but given...recent revelations I think we need to put aside any differences to sort this out." The mentioned drone could only nod as she licked at her wounded arms, curiously watching the angsty drone loot the dead robo-witch, sighing as she stood up with a set of keys in hand attached to a bracelet. Looking between themselves the trio were more than prepared to go investigate, before Uzi stumbled backwards and was caught by N, shaking her head as she clenched the keys tightly. "Actually, first rest and recovery, then investigating mysterious circumstances," she shivered as she glanced at the pile of mutilated drone bodies decorating the floor, "and maybe getting someone to handle...that."
With that decided, and a bit of snack looting on V's part, the trio stumbled away from the scene leaving it to some poor WDF crew to clean up, not interested in dealing with that headache. As they did go N had a thought, and helping support both V and Uzi he let out a thoughtful hum before snapping his fingers, grabbing both of their attention. "I got it, zombie flash mob, that was the theme right?" he beamed as if he'd just solved a great mystery, to the confused stares of both girls, "like...the theme of the prom right? I mean all it was missing was someone playing thriller-" The light smack he received to the back of the head was well earned, but his idea wasn't completely wrong, and it'd end up being the theme of next years prom, along with an uptick in therapy appointments.