Chapter 11: Roasted Eel, just like an Unadon. Part - 1/2 (Mole Arc Epilogue)
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Chapter 11 : Roasted Eel, just like an Unadon. Part - 1/2 (Mole Arc Epilogue)
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Leaves and branches rustled against his metallic frame, he continued running, willing his legs to move faster just to get away from that, it looked like some kind of black hole.
He needed to get to Outpost Alpha, his outpost, or rather his previous home, Outpost 11 was gone, there's no one left alive, only him.
His family had died horribly, his friends torn to shreds, everyone he knew died a gruesome death, the only reason he survived was because he was a coward.
His 'breath' started getting raspier and worn down, he'd been running for more than an hour now, and yet that thing , this unexplainable horror kept playing around with him, purposely injuring him with light scratches and catching him on multiple corners of the forest he was running.
All hope was nearly lost for him, since Outpost 3 and Alpha were four miles away from Outpost 11, he can't run that far!
He can't even run fast enough to get away from whatever this thing was, he was starting to lose his will to live. As if to laugh at his misery, a giant shadow loomed above him, he felt massive wings fluttering fast as gusts of air that threatened to knock him off his feet hit him.
He fell down on his rear and saw a giant Eldritch, it was ridiculously huge, nearly as large as an apartment complex. He didn't need to figure out what it was as it was obvious, another one of these monsters. One that looked like a giant Mosquito.
This is it, he's dead, he's gone.
Not only was there some weird indescribable bullshit half-mist half-shadow thing that resembled a black hole with tendrils playing with him, then lastly a huge-ass mosquito monster suddenly appeared out of nowhere!
"Haha.. Are you fucking kidding me..?" He couldn't help but laugh at his misery, the world itself was literally fucking with him at this point, why not add another horrifying being to his misery after seeing everyone he knew die, as well as a fucking black hole itself chasing him, hell, he could have sworn he heard it 'Giggle', not in the way as giggling itself but rather it literally said "Giggle."
He tried to move his fear stricken legs. No movement, all of his fear has gone to his legs.
Suddenly, he heard the whistling sound of wings cutting through air, he didn't even care anymore at this point, it was probably another fuckery waiting for him, the Mosquito Eldritch was already preparing its needle to eat him in one go.
When all hope was lost, multiple explosions suddenly erupted from the Mosquito's back, prompting it to shriek and fly away.
He looked up and saw an angel , hot damn.. If he was a hormonal teenager he would have had the whole 'love at first sight' shtick going on...
Oh wait, he was.
A female disassembler slowly floated down to him, her braided hair flowing down smoothly, she had loose robes for clothes, exposing her shoulder and thighs.
She was like a goddess...
She smiled at him reassuringly, she was damn beautiful, she raised her hand and held it out for him.
"Hey there, are you okay?" Even her voice was soothing.
"Y-Yeah.." he stuttered, he tried to reach out but saw that his arms were shaking like hell. "A-Ah damn, t-this is embarrassing."
She giggled a little bit, it felt like all the terror he was feeling minutes ago had disappeared, hope was literally shining on him and he was fucking in love now. She landed in front of him and grabbed his shaking arm. "Don't worry, it's fine now." She assured him.
"H-Hope s-so." His voice continued to shake, with one pull, she forced him to stand up and caught him by the shoulders to prevent him from falling.
"Serial Designation M, you can call me Lea, what's your name?" Her soft voice echoed in his audio receptors, he really wanted to say 'I love you' at this moment, but that would be creepy since she didn't know him and they'd literally just met, but robo-goddamn! She's beautiful.
"P-Paul." He answered.
She nodded. "Alright, Paul, I'm gonna need you to explain things to me about what happened here, where's the rest of Outpost 11?" She asked.
"Gone.. they're all dead." He said sadly.
She grimaced. "Damn it, we were too late."
They heard the sounds of another wing humming, they both looked up and saw another female disassembler, this one had short hair with a red scarf covering her neck.
"Lea, what happened?"
"V! Outpost 11 is gone, we were too late." The now named female disassembler burrowed her eyebrows.
"Tch, Uzi was right." She scoffed bitterly, they were too late again, she looked "Who's the hormone ridden teenager looking at you like a piece of candy?" She asked.
Wait, did she just call him 'Hormone-Ridden'.. He didn't have any defense to that, she was right.
"His name is Paul, he was being chased by one of those things, probably one of those 'high-class' category you and Uzi were talking about."
"Ugh, I didn't come up with the name, Purple-gremlin took inspiration from one of her cartoons, Jujut-something-something whatever it was."
"I'm sure Uzi meant well! Her ideas are quite top-notch and helpful after all."
"Don't say that when she's close, her ego involving those so called 'anime' will grow bigger, I swear, she's an adult already, why does she still watch those-"
She was suddenly cut off as something suddenly impacted Paul's chest, he was blown away through multiple trees causing them to fall down, neither of the Disassemblers noticed it, nor were they able to react on time. It was way too fast even for them.
' F-For fuck sake, I get rescued by what might be the most beautiful drone i've ever seen, there was even a hot girl next to her only for me to get fucked over by some weird black thing..', He truly felt as if the world was fucking with him .
He felt immense pain sprouting from his chest, he was surprised he wasn't torn to shreds at the acceleration he was blown, he couldn't utter a single sound or move a single limb apart from his head, he was currently stuck on a tree right now.
He looked down on his chest when he felt the pain, that.. Same black hole thing was now embedded on his chest, it disappeared soon afterwards.
Suddenly, a blob of flesh grew on his chest, it made a beat, continuing for a few seconds before expanding and exploding, it attached itself onto him, growing a cocoon of some sorts, everything was too fast. In a few seconds he felt something trying to tear itself from his back.
Ever so muffled, he could hear the voices of V and Lea from inside the cocoon.
"Lea! Where's the brat!?"
"I don't know! He suddenly disappeared- WATCH OUT!"
He could hear a massive section of the forest being destroyed by something huge, it was probably that Mosquito thing.
He wanted to scream in pain, but was unable to as his body was literally being deformed by flesh, electricity started to spasm from him, he could see four extra limbs now settling down in front of him that was awfully similar to a spider.
' S-Someone h-help. ' he wanted to call out for help, to call for L-L..Le? Laya? Leia?
W-What was the.. Beautiful woman's name again..? No, he could feel things that belonged to him starting to disappear..
His name.. His name! What was it!? Why was he forgetting things..? Why was he feeling important parts of his life slowly being eaten away..
E-Eaten.. Away..
Eat.
Eat .
...
...
...
Hungry, must hunt.
Electricity cackled violently as it broke out of the cocoon, it saw its fellow Eldritch, the Mosquito giant being torn to shreds by two preys, one of them was currently being eaten alive by its fellow kin.
It could faintly hear the cries of the other prey desperately trying to help its friend.
"Lea! LEA!"
"L-Leave me! Get away from here V!"
The beautiful one was torn to shreds mercilessly, her screams filling the forest as the other one flew away missing an arm.
It ignored everything in the world other than its hunger.
It felt hungry, hungry for oil..
IT NEEDS TO FEED, AND IT WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO SATIATE ITS HUNGER.
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The sharp edges of swords met with metallic gigantic sharp spider-appendages, the two continued to scrape off one another showering the room with sparks of metal everywhere, violet torrents of electricity started spewing out like a plague and making Uzi let go of her twin disassemble swords.
She just barely managed to lean back in time to dodge the claw of a spider that would have impaled her visor, she flipped away on one-hand and unclasped a small canister from the table near her.
She threw it towards Electrocosis, the small canister sailing through the air with definite smoothness, the humanoid Eldritch used its four spider-like limbs sprouting from its back.
Uzi vaulted across the table and flipped it, turning it into a pseudo-cover.
The canister was immediately skewered in pieces for it suddenly exploded, the Eldritch shrieked in pain and was blown away, launching it through the wall and into another room.
Uzi looked out from the table, and frowned.
Static electricity started to dance around from the room it had been flung to.
"Tch, I had hoped it would end in an instant, but then I remembered. You're just as tenacious as the bastard that impaled my daughter." She cursed, Clawdreroff was one thing, she had enough encounters with that Mole Eldritch to know it was meant to be incredibly durable, this one on the other hand..
True to her words, a stream of static electricity traveled through the carpet-like floor of the building they were in, Uzi vaulted upwards and balanced herself on the edges of the table she'd previously flipped down.
Seeing her unfavorable footing, she jumped on top of a workbench that had a rubber footing, preventing the extreme outburst of electricity from reaching her.
Not wasting any time, she grabbed her duffle bag that had been clinging onto her back, she pulled out a submachine gun that was nearly identical to the ones that Murder drones usually had, albeit with a drum-like magazine and more compact handle that makes it look like it was made to be held with one hand despite how heavy it looks.
She had modeled this after the Calico M950, seeing that the model and design of the gun fit as a perfect one-handed automatic gun.
She aimed towards where the Eldritch was, and without hesitation she held the trigger and fired at it.
Electrocosis broke down a piece of the wall and used it to protect itself, to no success as each bullet simply pierced through it.
Dozens of bullets embedded themselves at the Eldritch causing it to shriek in pain, Using paid no attention and kept firing at it.
Its instincts for survival kicked in when the Eldritch exploded a shockwave of Electromagnetic pulse, Uzi's Eyes widened.
"Shit!" Without thinking she kicked off the workbench and pulled out a small device reminiscent of a Skull hairpin and stuck it onto the side of her head.
The blast of EMP reached her, which would have undoubtedly knocked her unconscious if not for the protective device she had, once again, made by her during the war with rogue disassemblers.
Fighting drones that can fly with the ability equivalents of literal arsenals inside their small arms without making a protection against EMP would have been a stupid gamble on Uzi's side especially when they can just bust out an EMP blast on a whim.
Her processors became rattled even for just a moment, she momentarily closed her eyes and held a hand on her head.
Even if it stopped her from falling unconscious, the aftereffects were still there.
She opened her eyes only to be greeted by a long mutated spider limb coming for her face.
Uzi bit down furiously, weaving her head to the side as hard as she could.
The sharp spiked edge of the limb missed her by a thread as Electrocosis prepared to use its other three spider limbs.
"Bite me!" She scowled.
She brought her gun to its stomach and fired at point blank before it could do so, it wriggled away in pain and to try and take cover from her gunfire.
Uzi narrowed her eyes.
She dropped the drum-like magazine of her one-handed submachine gun, she dug her arm back into her bag and grabbed another and reloaded, she also took out a small recognizable canister on her left hand, contently gripping it.
'Just the same as before, this one is unusually nimble and slippery.' She analyzed, she half-closed her optics, thinking of her next few steps to take.
'But incredibly soft to the attacks it takes, in other words, a glass cannon. ' she aimed towards the wall the eldritch had been taking cover in and fired again, each bullet chipping parts of the wall away. A blur suddenly shot past the wall as the Eldritch jumped and stuck to the ceiling, crawling at a rapid rate towards her.
Uzi brought her gun up and started firing a swirl of bullets once more, suddenly a click repeatedly sounded off from her gun as it ran out of bullets.
She twitched alertingly, shuffling to her bag to grab another magazine.
Unfortunately, the eldritch catapulted itself towards her, spider-like limbs ready to impale her four times over.
Instead of panicking in distress, she grew a wry smirk.
"Gotcha bitch." She said smugly.
Electrocosis briefly had a look of confusion, as if it understood her, what it didn't realize was the small canister falling off from Uzi's left hand.
A Flashbang.
BANG
A painful blinding light obstructed it's entire vision, it collided with the floor violently, crashing through multiple office furniture, going even past through another wall to the next to the room they were in.
It howled aggressively as it held its multiple eyed visors.
Taking this opportunity, Uzi grabbed both of her swords back and sheathed them.
Seeing that the Eldritch was still staggered and blinded, she looked around the room for anything to take advantage of. She looked next to her right and saw the room where the Eldritch had previously been blown to, she smirked and took out a few more canisters.
By the time the Eldritch had regained its composure, Uzi was already gone from sight, it could feel something currently sticking onto its back, but it was ignored as Electrocosis immediately started looking everywhere, its vision already marred by the blinding light as well as its hearing nearly busted.
Having eight individual eyes blinded by a Flashbang was obviously more deterrent than having two eyes, the Eldritch already had poor eyesight which was why it relied on vibrations, sounds and scent.
Feeling a small movement in the room next to it, the Eldritch climbed back up on the ceiling and crawled towards the hole in the wall.
Its eight eyes darted around the room, it caught the faint vibration of small objects being moved around, it turned to see Uzi sitting down on an office chair across the room.
She was completely relaxed and had a smirk on her face.
"What's wrong? I thought you 'Apex Predators' were supposed to be feared, I don't feel scared at all, even Five nights at freddy's does that more to me!" She mocked, spending a good amount of time on the surface and surviving had given her a lot of knowledge about Eldritches, including the fact that stronger Eldritch had a semblance of sentience to them, capable of growing a pseudo-personality.
Including but not limited to..
Electrocosis roared furiously and crawled towards Uzi on all of its limbs.
Pride.
Insulting an Alpha or these so called "Apex" Eldritch was one good way to make them lose their composure, rendering them into a raging bull for only a few seconds.
'They can be smart, but a foolish monster will always stay foolish, and these apex eldritch are just bigger fools than the rest .'
Ting
The sounds of multiple strings being pulled entered Uzi's audio receptors, she smiled even more after hearing them and turned her chair around, uncaring of the rapidly approaching Eldritch.
Electrocosis stopped ever so slightly to see where the sound had come from, it looked down on its limbs currently covered in strings.
Suddenly, multiple flashbangs swung through the gaps of multiple metal bars and office desks, all with strings connected to their pins.. Which were all now removed as the Eldritch had violently pulled them.
Its eight eyes widened.
Uzi closed her eyes and smiled.
"Like I said, a fool."
BANG !
Electrocosis screamed, more so agonized than before as its eyes were assaulted by the blinding white light, its senses were dulled so badly it couldn't feel vibrations or movements anymore. It thrashed around the room violently, throwing objects and impaling them as it tried to claw the pain away.
Screaming in pain, a humming sound energy building up started to come from the Eldritch.
Uzi's eyes quickly widened, she was damn familiar with what this was, having fought the Spider-Eel before.
"R̸̡̗̓A̸̛͇̼̺͎̮͑̈͛͠A̵̬̰͕̐̀͝A̸͉͌Ā̶̲̰̤A̸̼͆̈́͊̋Ä̸͍́̈͒̈A̸̡̧̖̳͍͌͂͝A̶̛͙͐́̄̽À̷̱͍̗Ằ̵͉̹Ã̸̛̜̝͙̘Ā̷̢̘͈̻͝ͅA̵̻͝Ḫ̶̼̙̜͎̀́̏͘ "
The faint sound of glass breaking came from somewhere.
Electricity started aggressively pouring everywhere, from its body to the entire room, the floor they were currently at exploded in a burst of light, electricity flying everywhere. The sudden burst of explosion blew nearly everything inside the floor to smithereens or had been blown away outside, support walls and office desks that had been attached to the walls stayed however, and a few tables and chairs sprawled everywhere, even the other rooms were not spared of the slaughter.
Its instincts finally settling down, it took a few minutes to hold its eyes, the aftereffects of the multiple consecutive Flashbangs still numbing its sight and other senses.
When it had finally recovered, it looked around for its purple-themed enemy, it grew a metaphorical smile when it saw she was no longer here, other than the same weapon she had used to rain bullets at it.
It screeched victoriously, its spider-like limbs from its back twitching from joy.
It had finally avenged its fellow Eldritch kind that had been killed by this damned female prey.
It made several growling sounds akin to the sound of someone laughing.
Electrocosis, unlike Clawdreroff was more intelligent and more prone to ambushing its enemies, despite being of the same category and level, it had grown enough sentience to be able to possess traits like being 'Prideful', Clawdreroff did have of his own however it was no to the same level of intellect to Electrocosis.
Traits and personalities such as 'Pride' can only be seen with 'Apex Eldritches', in contrast to their lower and weaker kin that does possess intellect and yet runs on mostly instincts.
If an Eldritch was able to form thoughts, even as a high-class, that means they were on the verge of becoming the same as these humanoid Eldritches.
Such as now, the combination of Spider and Eel flesh abomination continued to laugh-
"I'd ask you about what's funny, but we both know that'd be really stupid of me." A familiar, but albeit distorted female voice mocked.
Only for someone to be besides it, feral animalistic instincts kicked in for the half-flesh half-machine creature, it lashed out with all of its claws, intent on slicing-
Its claws swiped through nothing but air?
The sound of static radio caught its attention, it looked down to see a walkie-talkie just above where its claws had swiped.
It would have immediately known if someone else was here if not for the fact it's tactile senses were still numb, it didn't smell anyone either.
Suddenly pain erupted from its back, its four arachnid limbs cleanly blown off as an explosion had placed itself in its back, the Eldritch screamed in pain. Electricity traveled throughout its body, forcing itself to turn around.
But soon it found itself falling to the floor, Electrocosis gave out a confused yelp, it immediately tried to stand up only for it to feel something missing .
It tilted its head over its shoulders, taking a peek, it saw its legs still standing, seperated from it.
It screeched in horror and anger, it attempted to crawl away with its remaining arms, its mouth opened and spewed a disgustingly malformed poor excuse of a web, it was akin to a real spider web, however it was replaced with literal fleshy goo.
Crawling on the edge of the building floor it was in, it saw how deep of a fall it'll take if it fails to come down gently, before it could jump down it felt the vibrations of someone walking behind it, its enhanced sense for feeling vibrations coming back.
It didn't need to turn to know who it was, instinctively, It knew it was in danger .
Strutting slowly, reinforced combat boots walking in a symphonic pattern.
Sword in hand.
Uzi smirked.
Let it be known that while Uzi is a Worker Drone, there are a few things that set her apart from the average drone, even Disassemblers – AbsoluteSolver not included – such as her legs being more defined and armored, having spring like contraptions on some parts of her legs that allows for safe landings from high places and moving at a burst of speed.
It is to be noted that she can only safely land from about 30 meters or less as gravity is still a thing
This would be the reason she was capable of keeping up with Electrocosis despite it being faster, Uzi had modified legs for faster and more agile movements, nearly matching Disassembly Drones.
But that was not what set her apart from them.
It was her practicality.
Being a Worker drone without the Solver anymore, it meant that she was defenseless, especially during the war with those Rogue Disassembly Drones. Uzi, ever the angsty rebellious drone she was even at adulthood, made up for her weaknesses.
An enemy got too close for comfort? Have N or V give her swords so she can upgrade them to her own.
Enemies too fast for her to keep up? Have Tessa help her in upgrading her legs as well as her processors.
Can't kill enemies in one go? Make an actual Railgun, this time it's based off a Thompson contender, they always underestimated it for how small of a gun it was after all, then one pull of the trigger, a projectile faster than they could see is already on them.
A simple worker drone would have died against this spider-like Eldritch, a murder drone would have had trouble as seen with Len and Meili.
And yet she was able to take it down with just her equipment. Uzi made use of everything including her environment and surroundings, using tactics such as blinding and ambushing her enemies, as well as setting traps to be sprung.
She was known to be an angsty drone, but if you take away all her shortcomings, Uzi was easily one of the smartest drones there ever was, being the first drone to have ever made a railgun from BOXES and scraps 11 years ago.
That intellect also translated her ability to think of quick and practical ways of taking down enemies as she got older.
Uzi walked towards the Eldritch who was attempting to jump off the building, she took out something from her pocket, an object that looked to be a trigger.
Electrocosis gripped tightly on the ledge of the building floor and threw itself outside, its fleshy web dangling from the building.
Its eight eyes looked at Uzi from above, she didn't need to know that it was giving her a smug look.
But instead of being angry or panicking that her enemy had somewhat escaped, Uzi smiled maliciously much to the confusion of the Eldritch.
It had created another web, connecting to another tall building swinging from it.
It looked at Uzi once more, confusion overtaking it, its eight eyes observing her as it swung away.
She mouthed something, the Eldritch's audio receptors had finally recovered enough to hear her from a long distance.
"I'd say 'see you' later, but that would mean I'm letting you get away alive.
Instead, I'll just say 'see four', cringe as it may be. " Her smile became even more Intimading, seeing that the Eldritch eas looking in her direction.
The Eldritch's barely coherent thoughts paused, past memories and knowledge from its own time as a Worker resurfaced for a moment.
What did the female mean by "See four?" Who would include that in a.. Sentence...
See four...
See... four..?
C.. C..?!
The purple female was already gone from sight, it could feel something currently sticking onto its back-
Fear immediately creeped up and brought shivers to its body as it finally remembered something sticking to its back earlier into the fight.
Half of what was stuck behind its back disappeared when its arachnid limbs were blown off, but there were still a few sticking to its back.
It finally knew what she was referring to as 'See four', it had finally made sense, two letters that brought fear to its corrupted core, a word that it knew from its time as a worker.
C4 .
Uzi clicked the trigger she was holding.
"Bite me.",Smugly saying her catchphrase., even at her adulthood. There were still traces of her 'edgy angst' from her teenage years.
The Eldritch SCREAMED for its life, screeching for its dear life as it realized too late.
BOOM!
A large explosion erupted at the side of the building next to the IDM, glasses broke as a shockwave traveled through both buildings.
J massaged her still injured shoulder as she ordered the rest of the available JSD Members to start surrounding the parameters again, while giving aid to those who were caught in the destructive fight that took place.
They'd taken shelter at the side of the mall that was left undamaged by the fight, since most of them were still injured, only a few were able to help out. Most civilians had already been evacuated to a safer part of the Outpost, they'd already announced a lockdown while at it.
She looked up at the giant hole on the underground ceiling made by Luzi, the more business woman side of her wanted to scold Luzi for recklessly using a dangerous weapon inside the Outpost, seeing that the damage was quite literally destructive, more so than Uzi's so called "sick-as-hell-railgun".
However her 'Auntie' side had won more, being more relieved that her niece somehow survived the ordeal of being quite literally impaled and being left with a football sized hole in her stomach, it was out of sheer luck that her core wasn't damaged that time.
Rest could wait however, they didn't have time to sit around and do nothing, Meili had told her beforehand about the humanoid Eldritch they fought at Outpost 3, their situation here might have been secured. But that didn't mean much on the Outpost that was on the surface, if the Eldritch dubbed 'Spider-Eel' – By Meili, since she had no other way to describe it – was still on the loose, then it could wreak havoc in Outpost Alpha, if it hadn't already destroyed Outpost 3.
Not to mention, it could be more dangerous than the Mole Eldritch they'd fought. She and Meili were skeptical at Len's odds of survival against a humanoid Eldritch. If it took three disassemblers and one worker with special skills(Doll), then his chances were shit. Hell, everyone in Outpost 3 could be dead by now, even if Thad and Khan were there.
Khan's doors were incredibly well-built, but that didn't matter much if what it was meant to keep out was already inside, Thad might have combat experience but he wasn't on the same level as Doll and Uzi.
J was currently writing something on a clipboard, in front of her was a JESSA Employee who had been dispatched here, what was an office worker doing in the frontlines? She needed her company to start pushing out an announcement for these Eldritches.
V and the others had agreed that these were probably the first cases of 'Special-Category' Class. V herself was quite surprised that she was able to take down one on her own, granted she was quite literally dominating it with pure rage, the only reason she was able to take it down was because she managed to land heavy blows to it before the fight could be prolonged, had it gone longer, she would have lost, V herself said so. Even if she dominated the fight, and was clearly faster, there was no doubt she wouldn't have lasted long if she took a few more hits.
Finally finishing a quick report and paperwork, she gave it to the JESSA Employee and ordered him to go back and publish the announcement.
She heard the engine of a heavy-load truck coming by and parking itself in one of the parking spots, near where the JSD had made a small supply area, multiple JSD members started to gather around as the backdoor of the truck opened, revealing a somewhat advanced technology – Once again, Robo-god bless you Tessa for being a wonderful woman enough to make these for them – that had multiple sections, it resembled one of those separatable toys children would play. Its appearance was that of a flat square that could be separated in four, its gaps were glowing with a blue light.
This was a precursive protocol device, a plan made beforehand by Tessa and Uzi in case a hole was suddenly punched through the Underground ceiling, said device was made to temporarily patch and cover it by surrounding the hole with four of its separated sections, attaching the four sections around it. Something akin to a net or a blanket.
But this thing wasn't light, obviously only disassemblers could attach them to patch the hole since they were the only ones capable of flight, the other option was covering it from the surface, which would have been less favorable as the separated sections would literally be exposed to Eldritches, if they destroyed it the barrier would be gone.
Meili was growing restless as they've wasted enough time here, Len and the rest of Outpost 3 could be dead by the time they arrived there if this took longer. However they needed to make sure the general populace was safe first, to ensure that no more Eldritches would just pour out from the hole.
Well... Most Eldritch anyways, not that there are actually many of them contrary to belief, most of them would die if they actually went through because of how high the fall was, but there were exceptions to the ones that were capable of surviving through it or flying.
J watched as the JSD members prepared the humongous device, Meili took that time to walk beside her.
"Mistress, this is taking too long." Meili frowned, she was worried about Len and the rest of Outpost 3, Len since he was her squad member despite his.. Personality he was a good person, the people of Outpost 3's protection on the other hand was her responsibility, and she'd left them to help down here.
J frowned, they were indeed taking too long, but they still needed to patch the hole with the device, she looked at the hole, and to Meili.
She sighed.
"Take command here, I want you and V to attach the barrier since I can't fly yet." She started walking towards the JSD members.
Meili looked at her confusingly, "Okay..? But what are you going to do?"
J looked at her, "I'm heading first to Outpost 3, better to get some help there as soon as possible."
Meili's widened a little, she wanted to object with her going by herself, but she knew they needed as much help as they could in the surface.
Meili then turned to V who was sitting with Luzi in one of the corners, the mother was still clinging onto her daughter, much to the purple-haired's embarrassment.
She turned to J and nodded hesitantly, J smiled.
"We'll get there as soon as possible, Ma'am."
"I know."
They both nodded at each other, J turned to leave and walked towards the JSD for transportation. However both girls halted in their movements when an explosion suddenly rang out throughout the city, they both immediately turned to see visible smoke coming from the side of the IDM Tower and the building near it.
Even V stopped hugging her daughter and turned to look at the explosion, Doll and Lizzy stopped what they were previously doing – Lizzy patching up Doll's injuries – and also turned to look.
Almost instantly, V and J sharpened their optics, enhancing them to see further details, Meili did the same but her optic range wasn't just the same as the Mark II and Mark III drones.
Both V and J could make out the small detail of something coming out of the smoke, a rather burned and destroyed body of a.. Humanoid Eldritch, albeit only its upper body since everything below it is just gone, they could tell it wasn't just a random drone because of its spider-like face.
J slack jawed, was this the one Meili was
The corpse continued to fall down, disappearing from view.
"Wait, that's the one I was talking about!" Meili claimed loudly from behind J, the business woman looked at her skeptically and turned back to where the Explosion came from, Meili had confirmed her suspicion.
It was here and somehow dead, what did that say about everyone on Outpost 3...?
It was a thought not lost to V, but her attention was on someone else.
"J." She called out to her friend.
J looked at her, she wanted to ask why she called out to her but stopped, she saw that V was staring unusually focused on something, she followed where her sight was currently placed, someone was standing on one of the higher floors on the IDM Tower, a floor that was damaged as all the glasses around it were broken or cracked.
She gasped when she saw who it was.
She slowly turned to look at V.
'Oh fuck, this is going to be awkward .' J frowned internally, there was going to be some family drama in the next few minutes and she knew it, she looked at Luzi who was also staring at where the explosion came from.
Fortunately the Hybrid did not have the same level of sight disassembly drones possessed, otherwise the teenager would have seen her oil-blooded mother.
Well, if there was going to be some drama, she didn't mind it since the last enemy had somehow been taken care of by Uzi.
All that's left was to patch the hole..
V stood up from where she was sitting, removing her arms wrapped around her daughter, her gaze furious.
"Mom..?" Luzi asked from beside her.
"Stay here, Mommy's gotta talk with a certain someone." She hissed, but not at Luzi.
She knew Luzi would realize who she meant, her daughter was smart enough to know about that.
She didn't give her a chance to say anything else when she unfurled her wings and sprung to the air and flew in Uzi's direction.
They needed to talk.
++--------------------++
Uzi watched the Eldritch explode like a firework, the city had probably heard the loud explosion.
"I'm gonna have to restock on equipment, those hard-shelled C4's are difficult to find." She had used one of her valuable and stronger explosives, each of those C4's were incredibly hard on the outside, allowing for it to take explosions point blank, she used two of them in this fight alone, the first to blow up the limbs on its back, then the last to kill it.
She cursed silently, she started tightening the straps to her bag, she needed to go to her daughter now. The fight had taken way too long for her taste.
She took out her binoculars, she aimed to look to where she had last seen her daughter.
She sawthat there was no one in there anymore apart from the JSD members surrounding the area alongside a dead body.. The Mole Eldritch's dead body, that is, the feeling of dread that was creeping up inside her slowly waned when she couldn't find her daughter's.. Dead body.
But that didn't mean she wasn't worried about the whereabouts of her daughter.
She readjusted her view and looked somewhere else, zooming from place to place, eventually she noticed the truck that parked itself on the side of the Mall, alongside a population of drones around it. JSD members, she guessed, all of them were looking in her general direction, probably because of the explosion.
Eventually she found her daughter who was also looking in her general direction, even if she knew that her daughter did not have the same long-distance optic calibration as V and J, relief came flooding it when she saw she was okay.. She wanted to take a better look at her daughter when she suddenly met V's gaze.
Her core froze.
She wasn't looking in her general direction, she was looking at her directly.
Suddenly V sprung up into the air and flew in her direction.
She knew this wasn't going to be pretty, she knew it personally.
Uzi sighed heavily, the lines on her eyes increasing a little, stress was going to eat her like a buffet after this.
Deep down, she knew what needed to happen.
"I guess there's no avoiding this.. Let's talk, V." She said as V flew closer.
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