#bro drone visor

[notmuchtoconceal]

Scene: Echoing through the lower strata of civilization, the influence of the guardsmen reverberates through every soul, carving them as totems to their effigies. Their manner too, flows in accordance with the influence from above, so that by the legion, men behave in miniature as those whom they have seen and taken in command. In caves, cafes, forums, symposia, automats, laundromats and psychomats, the seven who are one spiral out in uniform, manifold in overlapping constellations, the same handful of voices drowning out all in white noise.

-- their banter strikes me as eerily familiar, psychorrhax.

-- a cat and a mirror i said i'd pay, now i have, to see it all painted black.

you had only wanted to slip away. there was no need for a procession.

-- y'know, mates. it don't strike me as peculiar at all, y'know, ya got like -- me on the big antennie erryday always flappin my gummies and spreadin pollin like butterfly wings, makes perfect sense it's allergy season every month and no one can see or breathe with eyes all watery and nostrils all shut and it's loike -- why'd they even want to anyway, when they open em up and all they see's joey and the big man blowin smoke up each other's asses or in our faces, just like dad ... and anyway dad's still a fuckin joke, loike -- why don't i just switch him to hospice already, and loike -- why don't big yummy brother jacek just get his cute lil ass over here and rail my even cuter little ass like a japanese magnet line ;-- blow so much cum up in me i bust it out the nose like milk duds -- aw, yeah. brux got that unsexy. brux gets in his big ol' joey chair erry day and spreads his insecure neurotic ramblins to erry open ear like a sweet honey combed and spooted loogie ill-suited as the lozenge ya shoved up yer arsehole!

-- insecure!? who's sayin i'm insecure! i am so secure in myself, i never wear a seatbelt and i got the dents and the grit-paps to prove it!

cpt. haruspex jolted up in the hothouse. over the counter and across the floor. you saw it happening. backlit by the green velvet arabesque. cpts. schreibermachen and psychorrhax had been there listening.

-- do you suppose they can see us sitting here, psychorrhax?

the voice came so close, you could feel the heat on your ear.

-- i can say with certainty that it's always absolutely intentional.

peering through the windowless frame, no glass to bend light nor ripple, the conversation paid them no mind. the enlisted men and the goons were synonymous in description and form. their canvass, their khaki and pleather shone with the gloss of any black regalia we could skin by our own. through the air, rending the currents, a boot twirled as an axe-head to bash cpt. haruspex, gesticulating wildly, back into his seat.

so close, it tickled your neck.

-- they know not that it's us, cpt. schreibermachen.

-- we are anonymous amongst ourselves, for living in our way, so splendid and so open, we have invited others to do likewise.

-- do you suppose we ought have them executed, cpt. schreibermachen?

-- we'd hurt none but ourselves, laik.

while reviewing the footage captured by the sentry drone, cpt. schreibermachen drained himself of a liter of blood as he stood crumbling before the wall which was his brother clinging to him.

this set of men -- observing the other set of men.

their resemblance was indeed uncanny as stated.

-- those men who went down there... they look exactly as us!

-- their names too ... are schreibermachen, psychorrhax and haruspex.

-- they... must be our conscious duplicates!

brux cleared his throat. with the screech of a PA, he whirred.

-- naw, mate. sure it ain't helpin, our evident and irrefutable popularity, what with the lil monopoly we got goin (brux is the winner -- none of you are beatin brux. brux is gonna take all the property, all the money, all your dignity, free time, love, hate and capacity to think original thought) but i consulted the officer's records at the archive of officer viewin (never a finer collection of squeezable asses!) and they are officers -- of equal rank with us -- sharin our surnames by sheer coincidence since shared birth. makes ya wonder, though -- how long they've all known each other?

laika's eyes lingered within a bound document he let hang open.

-- this man you are looking at, sir. he is the cpt. joey schreibermachen who continuously supplies the "forgeries" you have violently expelled and defiled from the orthodox library of all published arts. he has amassed a considerable following as a renegade, outsider and sensual man of the people, despite his prodigious learning and pompous manner.

-- he is a him, psychorrhax? great gehenna, his prose style is ghastly!

(his strange and oscillating manner, to say nothing of the other chimerical assemblages made me suspect it was a collective or historical golem!)

-- he is a man writing in a manner after his own heart. you would appreciate him surely more as an original than as an imitation.

-- he takes my body, my name, my soul, but then he thinks he can have his own prose style? what sense does that make you, psychorrhax?

(bro, i think you should like... totally hang out with the other joey, bro.)

-- to whom is the shade most loyal, the eyes or to the light?

(two pack a broeys. clink and froth, bro. clink and froth.)

-- the eclipse we view only by its shadow.

(what could he give to you and through you, bro?

what could you give and be through him?)

joey needed to take some time. to process, in the lukewarm bitterness of his day old coffee -- that he wasn't the only joey in the world anymore.

-- if our influence is to remain this sharp and persistent, psychorrhax, we can have no hope if we are to run from it. to attempt to remain ignorant of what we now know is simple cowardice, and cowards are now and forever denied the gift which is the dignity of life.

-- to refuse to act is simply to die.

-- we must act, then. act with what certainties we allow ourselves, and remain affirmative within uncertainty, for eyes pressed forward to the sky which is our only horizon, we may reach peak speed, fortified in body and purified of spirit, so the only filth we shall accrue will be the debris and the droplets, the splattering of insects, upon the visors which too conceal our sight with the necessary data we cannot navigate without!

sprawled before the wall of electric eyes, cpt. jacek powdered as a donut hole in the pinstripes of his fine tailoring, began to get to work.

[bigwishes]

I always see the guys with the big muscles riding motorbikes.. wish I could meet one, put his helmet on and take his place. Becoming a biker..

You were watching a guy pull into the service station in the middle of the day, not for gas though, he parked in a regular parking spot with a large bike trailer attached to the back. The guy got off and went inside the service station. You awed at the bikes and helmets on the trailer, surely, one quick look wouldn't hurt.

You climbed up on the trailed and began to run your fingers over the bikes. You threw your leg over the top and sat on it, putting your hands on the bars pretending to steer.

You quickly look around to see if the owner is coming back but can see him through the windows way at the back of the station browsing the drinks. You open the helmet trunk and pull out a sleek black helmet. Taking another quick look around you see the coast is clear and you put the helmet on smiling.

*CLICK* suddenly you hear something in the helmet click and it feels like it tightened around your neck and jar. You try to pull it off but it was stuck on your head, you feel your body start to swell. You pants getting thicker in your pants, filling them out with muscle. You arms inflating tearing the sleeves to shreds, but you were too focused on trying to get the helmet off, suddenly the visor flipped down covering your eyes and your world view became dark and tinted. Green digital words flash on the inside of the visor in front of your eyes.

Host Transformation Accepted and Complete Preparing Drone Adaptation

You continued to try and use the new strength in your arms to pull the helmet off as you hear a buzzing begin to get louder and louder until finally **ZAP** you feel a powerful jolt of electricity blast into your head, your arms fell limp to your side and your slouched forward. Words appeared on the inside of the visor once again..

Host Transformation Complete Mental Deletion Complete Drone Creation Complete

You sat there almost lifeless on the bike when you heard a voice from behind you.

"well fuck me bro, here I was trying to trap some guy from grinder to put on the helmet and you just went and did it for me"

You continued to sit there, unable to move, you didn't even feel the want or need to move.

"well, guess I finally got my drone, you'll make me a tonne of money dude"

The question on how you were gonna make him money didn't cross your mind, you didn't even remember what money was.

"alright, aaaand, sold, a bloke just sent me a request, advertised and taken within minutes. You'll get your instructions drone"

Words appeared on the inside of the visor in front of your eyes

Address: ## ### ### Instructions: Weekend Rental - Obey Temporary Master Body Modification Request: Weekend Dick Shrinkage As Temporary Master's Request

You mindlessly walked the bike backwards down the trailer ramp, turned it to the street and effortlessly started the bike and rode off to the programmed location to follow out your instructions.

[ammonitetheartist]

SolvoreaN-o-clock now WEEEEE- >:D

[Image ID: Two drawings depicting a catified design of N from Murder Drones. Both have slate-gray backgrounds. In the first drawing, the top-left sketch depicts a bust of N, colored in pale yellow, shaded in dark red and highlighted in pale blue. He holds up a pale blue AbsoluteSolver symbol with one paw, as well as having the symbol in his right eye. The bottom-right sketch depicts N in full color, wearing a hooded cloak over his face and back. Directly above, it’s labeled ‘does best to hide identity in past/future/other timelines to lessen time shenanigans’.

In the second drawing, there’s a 4-part sketch series on the top-left. The first sketch shows N sitting and holding up a pale blue Solver symbol, saying ‘Huh…’. In the second, he looks up and smiles slightly as he continues ‘…that… wasn’t so-’. In the third sketch, an explosion erupts behind him in a mushroom cloud, startling him and backlighting him. In the fourth, the blue Solver speaks, remarking ‘IN WORDS: YIKES, BRO.’

The sketch on the bottom-left depicts a front view of N holding up a paw with knife claws, laughing unhingedly with a pale blue X over his visor. To the right is a note reading ‘can you tell I love drawing feral N-‘. The sketch on the bottom-right depicts N hunching over tiredly and slightly disheveled. The blue Solver comments ‘RETREATING IS STILL RECOMMENDED.’ to which N deadpans ‘Yeah, well- shutting up is still recommended too.’ All the sketches of N in this drawing are colored in pale yellow. End ID]

[swrawberrysvuccvbvs]

Uzi x Sweet semi-emotionless-mute Steampunk DD reader

{ This involes a little of my AU and a mention of a couple ocs of mine one of them is put with V if you have one of your own you can put it there it will also reference my other Murder drones x reader fic or story please enjoy :D}

···

: We know the beginning with Uzi but what about you

: lets just say most of the group was....lets say curious about who you were well except for N with his bubbly nature he became friends with you off the bat

: But it wasn't due too how you acted

: J liked it thought it was fit for what they were made to do

: V couldn't care less

: N thought it made you more badass than you already were

: But mainly to the way you look you looked like a normal Disassembly drone from a far but once some one got close if they were dumb enough too

: Well that was a different story. You had gears smoke and weird aura to you. You had the normal slim-pen type legs, you could switch between weapon types with your hands.but it was the way you talked it's like you were an old soul in a new body. They couldn't explain why but it just made sense ya'know

:another reason they expect that is you don't show emotion too often like you didn't have any at all

: That wasn't true at all you were a very joyful person under that cold mask of yours.

:and the exception for that being N and when your after workers for there oil

: Like bro stop laughing lol

: but that kinda changed when Uzi came in the picture she had shot N with that weird gun of hers, which kinda surprised you he may be this sweet guy but he was pretty good when it came to killing the drones

: You being the way you are just deiced go up to her and just stare and follow her around with a blade hand like one idk which

:you saw her blush for a second. It confused you a little but ya paid no mind to it

: When N woke up he automatically said hi to you then his new "friend"

: Tbh you kinda hand hide a snicker when he said " Did you just hit me with that arm :]"

:Friend you always found it as such a weird word someone that cares for you

: When she ran away you kinda felt a little weird when she did like you had lost something you didn't know why either

: Later on after J and V came back and their judging stares you and N went after her

: once you did you kinda just stared at the door before N stopped it from closing it kind of felt wrong to you this time

: Once you got in you and N went after a couple bots here and there and then spotting Uzi

: For some reason you felt bad for going after the workers it was a new feeling to you.....Guilt.

: You had always thought it was something that made you seem weak it was something you never felt till now...

:When N stabbed her with his wing something clicked you wanted to hurt him back and when i say hurt I mean HURT

:You didn't due to you being good friends with him and you didn't want Uzi to deal with any more violence

:When he put her down off of his wing He looked at you for help but he didn't get what he expected to.

: You just stared

:No expression

: You visor didn't even blink till you stopped

: Once you did you just glared. He was always scared when you glared at him you didn't know why either he knew you wouldn't hurt him like J would. He was too nice to deserve that type of treatment from you. But you were kind of fearful of him he was pretty scary when went hunting with you but you never told him

: And you son't really plan to tell him.

:He told you to hide with Uzi and make sure she stays fine

: You saw what J did. And you got pretty pissed ( that's still an understatement)

: You went into the vents but before you were fully out of range to hear you heard Uzi say how "cool and anime" you were you didn't know what anime was but guessed by how she said it. That it was a good thing.

:It made you feel better than what you had before leaving them so she could fix N ( Which you totally didn't just stare like you were something from a horror game or movie till she did)

: That let you know you can show your feelings around her

:After everything that happened in that storage unit

: You kinda just stole her from N

: Not really leaving where she was

: she also showed you what this "anime" was. You liked it a little more then her

: only a little

: You both talk about the company and anime a lot

: you also like to listen to her ramble about her plans on taking out the human race

: "I must say you have really gotten close to that worker Y/N~" V always would tease you about it

: of course all she got was a glare than got back to whatever you was doing or some threat to tell Designation Nymph about her little crush on her since there was typically no one to hide emotion from any more. ( Besides the colony)

You just did whatever around the group like little rambles about how gears or what the steampunk style is. since the things you wore was a choice not what you looked like really

: Trust me you tried to get Uzi to make you look like a "normal" Disassembly drone and found out you were meant to look like that it was your design

: It didn't happen after the crash like what you thought had happened

(a little of Uzi's point of view :D)

( I have a headcanon tha Uzi sleep talks cuz why not :D )

: " Hey Uzi I heard from a little bit of you sleep talking and heard you like Y/N ^^" N said it with a playful tone and for some reason sounded really happy about it

:"HUH?! N-no I DON'T B-Bite ME!"

: Nymph in the corner off in lala land " GLADLY!"

: "NOT LITERALLY!" >:/ Nymph always gave her an answer when she said that no one really knows why except you and her.

:Just like how V teases Y/N over being close friends with her

: N found out and does the same

: Uzi always threatened to tell V about the fan club him and Nymph have. (which always works)

: or to get you on his ass about something dumb ( she has done multiple times💅)

: After all you may not be able to take him in a fight but he is still a little scared of you and it's easy to see too

: One day you decided you were done with staying "really close friends" and decided it was time to ask her out

: Once you did you found out within a millisecond she was a major tsundere.

: She hit you with the " I'm only saying yes because I feel bad for you" but we all knew the truth. You found it pretty cute ^^

: You started smiling you @ss of with how happy you were you jumped around

: You even picked up Uzi and flew around with her in your arms

: And cue N saying he has a twin now ^^

: You totally didn't punch him for saying that✨

This Fic took me a good little while but it was fun writing Uzi isn't the best character for me to write on not really having much interest with her for a while but after The Prom episode I think my interest in her has shot up!

[kkrazy256]

Title:  Pretend It’s Not Forever 

Prompt(s): Day 4 Bonding | Laughter

Warnings: None

Characters: Boba Fett, Commander Fox, Bossk 

Additional Tags: Deception Arc, Missing Scene, Canon-Compliant, Fox Helps Boba Escape Prison, Dialogue-heavy, Just Two Bros Having A Serious Chat While Breaking The Law

Word Count: 4130

Summary:  Boba gets separated from Bossk during the prison escape and runs into a familiar face

[On Ao3]

@loving-fox-hours

It’s really no different than all those lockdown drills back on Kamino.

At least that’s what Boba keeps telling himself as he presses up against another wall to let a wave of prisoners run past without trampling him. 

“Bossk?” He shouts over the noise, walking with his hands splayed against the metal of the corridor. He had lost the Trandoshan about two levels back. They hadn’t exactly been very good at making friends. Boba couldn’t just let himself look soft . He had already gotten laughed at enough for not being able to kill a Jedi, he wasn’t about to let them think he was an easy target. Never show weakness. 

Bossk has gotten into enough fights on his behalf to run into a few assholes looking to get a final punch or two in. 

“Boba, just go! I’ll catch up.” Bossk hisses, throwing one over his shoulder and baring his teeth at another. Two clones run into the hallway, shouting orders and raising their blasters. Bossk bowls them over with a snarl, and then Boba’s scrambling out of the area without looking back.  

A Weequay skids around the corner, shoving Boba’s shoulder hard in his mad dash for freedom. He hisses, rotating his arm with a scowl. That Hardeen bastard’s grip had been tight, and the condescending air around him still stung deep within Boba’s chest. 

You don’t want to do this.

Get him, Hardeen!

Kill that brat!

Show him how a real Jedi Killer does things.

He wishes Bossk would’ve let him try and kill the asshole after the fighting started in the mess hall. The guy hadn’t been anything special; Boba could’ve definitely taken him down if they went for a Round 2. The handful of credits from Bane would have to do for now. It should be enough to catch a ride to the lower levels. Maybe even a nerfburger to share with Bossk. He’s not going to miss the prison slop any time soon.

He flinches when another loud crack echoes down the halls. The drills on Kamino were never so chaotic. Here, there is yelling and the sound of blaster fire, both live and stun rounds. Some yells become shrill and just a touch too scared. Too hurt. It makes Boba feel cold. The monotone overhead speaker drones on, its facility on lockdown warning barely audible over everything else. 

The passageways in the prison are darker than the blinding white of Kamino. They’re more narrow, with sharper turns that have Boba’s heart in his throat every time he peeks into a different hallway and waits for the inevitable blaster bolt to the face. It never comes, so he keeps moving. 

He avoids running into any more prisoners, and the new area he’s in is relatively void of activity now. There’s an occasional squad of clones that hurries by, shouting orders into their communicators. It sounds like a majority of the riot has been contained. Boba hopes he’s going in the right direction. 

Back on Kamino, everyone moved at a brisk but controlled pace. There had been rules on where everyone had to go and stand before the lockdown ended. There were protocols that told everyone which group they belonged with. 

But Boba didn’t remember any of those; he never had to go with any of the others. All he had to do was find dad.  

But there’s no dad here to look for. Boba swallows, standing straighter. There’s no dad anywhere. Not anymore. There are only others with his face and his voice. But it’s not the same. It’s not the same helmet, not the same tone. They’re all younger. Younger than dad, and in some screwed up way, younger than Boba too. 

It’s not the same. 

And dad hadn’t always been on Kamino. There were times where he’d be off-world for a job that he couldn’t take Boba along for. That left Boba wandering the halls, doing his best to look like he knew where he was heading. 

If dad’s ever not on Kamino and there’s an emergency, he was supposed to find—

You go find Wolffe and the others in that group. You stick with them until I come home. 

And you’ll come home soon, buir? 

Of course, ad’ika. You’re here, so that’s where I’ll come home to. 

That doesn’t mean osik now. 

Wolffe is working with the Kel Dor Jedi that had brought him here in the first place. Boba had kept his head down when the Jedi met up with Wolffe on the trip to Coruscant ( how long has it been since then? He doesn’t even know anymore) . He hadn’t wanted to see the disgust that was probably obvious in Wolffe’s face. 

Cody is working with that Kenobi bastard, but Hardeen had apparently taken care of him. Guess that guy isn’t half bad for a jerk.

He has no idea where Bly and Fox went after their deployment nearly two years ago. 

And Ponds—

He slams a fist against the wall and the hollow ring lingers for several seconds. The clattering of plastoid in the adjacent corridor stops at the sound before coming closer. Boba lets out a soft gasp and barely manages to press himself into a small crevice in the wall just as three clones run by. He doesn’t breathe until the footsteps grow faint again.

And he had kil— Aurra had killed Ponds. 

Aurra had. 

But does it even matter? Ponds had been dead the moment Boba and his group boarded the Endurance . He had just been too dumb to see it at the time. Aurra is probably dead too. He remembers the other Jedi mentioning her crashing the Slave I in a fiery explosion.

His dad’s Slave I . Up in flames.

His dad’s buy’ce , in pieces back on the Endurance . 

His father’s belongings, gone and with nothing to show for it. It’s just Boba, wandering the hallway of a prison trying to make his escape. 

Some legacy he turned out to be. 

Dad is gone, and Boba can’t go to Wolffe and the others. Especially not any other clone. He doesn’t have allies here, only enemies. He can’t trust any of them. No clone would come across him and see him as a friend. Not after what he’s done. 

They’d come across him, stressed and with their blasters raised. And then…

Would they hesitate? Like Boba had? 

Or maybe after all that he’s done, he doesn’t even deserve that? 

He turns the corner without checking and hits against something solid, stumbling back onto his ass. 

Plastoid. 

Boba looks up and all he sees is red, white, and the black of two gun barrels aimed at his face. 

He counts silently in his head, the tightness in his shoulders leaving as he relaxes. There’s nothing more he could do here. 

He wonders how many seconds of hesitation he’s worth. 

The hands holding the blasters lower. 

“...Boba?” 

He tenses, looking the clone over. Their armor is different from the typical guard’s. The colors are all the opposite. Most of them knew who he was, it isn’t like there are many like him being held here. But something tells him there is more going on than just that. 

“Why don’t you just get it over with?” Boba juts his chin out, looking straight into the dark visor. The clone seems shocked that he had managed to meet eyes through the helmet, but Boba’s had enough practice to do it easily. 

The gloved hands move purposely slow and Boba can’t blink. 

They holster both blasters, and one reaches out to —

To him.

Boba can only stare, jaw dropping. What in the Stars does this mean?

“Boba, it’s Fox.” 

Fox. 

If there’s an emergency, you go find Wolffe, Ponds, Bly, Cody, or —

“Fox?” He whispers, taking the offered hand automatically and letting Fox haul him to his feet, “wh-you ended up being sent here?” He considers the kama and extra embellishments on the armor, “you’re a commander?” 

“Even better, a Marshal Commander.” 

The present situation comes rushing back, and Boba yanks his hand back the moment he’s steady. This isn’t Kamino. Fox isn’t just another clone being asked to watch over Boba while Jango’s out.

This is Coruscant. This is a maximum security prison. Boba is a prisoner during a riot. Fox is the Marshal Commander of the Guard. 

There are no friends. Only enemies. Trust no one. Never seek out help. 

He’s learned that the hard way. And he’s not about to fall for it again. He’s smarter than that, he’ll do better. 

“Come on.” Fox says, jerking his head towards the end of the hallway.

As if. 

Boba shifts his weight to the balls of his feet. It would take a second for Fox to unholster his blasters again. He has a chance.

Fox grabs him by his jumper, shoving him around the corner.

“hEY—”

“Shh!” The sound is hissed out, barely audible through the helmet’s speakers.

“Commander!” 

Boba shuts his mouth and shifts just out of sight. Fox goes still, shoulders squared and back straight as he turns to regard someone.

“Report, lieutenant?” His voice is a lot more steely. 

“The riot’s been contained. We’re mainly chasing stragglers now.” 

“Casualties?” 

“Over a dozen prisoners and eight troopers. Live and stun rounds were used.” 

Boba’s heart skips and he breathes out through his nose. Bossk is strong. Bossk is okay. He has to be okay.

“Prioritize the critically wounded. We can’t have another medbay overflow. And the instigators?”

“We think we’ve got three that escaped via the crematorium.” 

“Through the morgue?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“The spaceport in sector 8 is the only route they can reach from there. Have Thorn’s team cut them off.”

“Yes, sir. General Yoda and General Windu are on the line. They want a status update.” 

Boba hears Fox’s muffled curse.

“I’ll be with them after I finish clearing this level. Head back to Command and oversee until I return.”

“Yes, sir!” 

The footsteps grow faint, and Fox prods him again, “lets go.” 

Boba shuffles his way down the corridor with Fox at his heels. 

Every so often, Fox would place a hand on his shoulder and steer him in a different direction. Moments later, a trooper would pass by the way they had just been headed. 

He resists the urge to rub his shoulders. Fox is helping him. And Boba doesn’t understand why. 

“Where are we going?” He bites his lip, and finally asks, “this isn’t the way back to my cell.” Is he being punished? Is he being brought to a different cell? A smaller one? One with no windows? No cellmate? None of those options sound good.

“Do you want to go back to your cell?” Fox simply says, and Boba scowls. He’s always been a snarky asshole, even back on Kamino. Boba doesn’t have time for this. He’s tired, hungry, and his shoulder still hurts from Hardeen’s hold. If he can’t escape, he just wants to be thrown back in his cell. And hopefully, Bossk would be there too. 

 If not, then maybe he got out. Without Boba. But getting left behind shouldn’t come as a surprise anymore. 

 “Where’s your scaly friend?” Fox asks, as if reading his mind. Boba huffs. 

 “Don’t know, lost him in the crowd. We were supposed to meet up again.” He pauses, squinting up at the blank visor, “he’ll be here any minute and then I’m out of here.”  

 “If he’s smart, he’ll be heading towards this sector.” Fox agrees, and Boba frowns. 

 “Why do you know about him anyway?” 

 “The reports say he was registered at the same time you were. The Guard tells me he’s been keeping an eye out for you.” 

 Fox has been keeping tabs on him, Boba realizes. He’s the Commander of the Guard, he knows that Boba’s been here since the day they brought him to Coruscant. 

 Fox hasn’t visited once. 

 Boba knows he shouldn’t have expected him to, even if Boba had hung out with his batch the most back on Kamino. 

 Because in the end, they all grew up without him. In the end, Boba isn’t one of them. He’s gotten one of them killed. He has gotten many of them killed. 

 Fox should be mad. So why is he...

 “Why are you helping me?” Boba wants to stop walking, but Fox continues to gently push him forward, “you know what I’ve done.”

 “And what is it that you’ve done?”

 Boba takes two brisk steps ahead before whirling around to face Fox with a snarl, “Ponds.” The name echoes and it felt wrong for him to say. 

 “I…” He looks at the grey floor, he can’t stand looking at that blank helmet. But he doesn’t want to see the alternative either, “that was my fault.” 

 “It was Aurra Sing that killed him.”  

 “She shot him, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t part of the whole thing.”  

 Fox tilts his head, “she promised you something, didn’t she? Something that made you agree to work with her.”

 Boba blinks, then blinks again when his eyes start to sting, “she said she knew him, that they worked together before….” 

 His hands shake from how tightly clenched they are, “she said she’d help me get revenge. For...for…”

 “For the Prime.”

 “For my buir .” His cheeks feel hot, and wet. Fuck , he’s too old for this.  

 “...I hurt a lot of people. A lot of clones.” He thinks of Jax. We’re all in it together. The betrayal etched across all those faces just like his own when he left the pod. The betrayal on all those older faces that will eventually be his own. 

 “You did, I saw the reports.”

 “So why?” He sucks a breath in and his voice shakes, “why aren’t you angry!?” How can he just stand here, so damn calm while Boba’s the one falling apart? It’s just not fair.  

 “...Do you want me to be?”

 No.

 “Yes!” He throws his hands up, “it would make more sense than whatever the hell you’re doing right now. It’s treason, isn’t it? Isn’t that all you guys care about? Being loyal?”  

 He’s breathing hard, and Fox approaches him, kneeling down and holding a hand out. Boba turns his head towards the open palm. They’re large, hidden under a layer of fabric and protected by a dark red plate. It’s not the same. 

 “Boba, you’re—”  Fox’s hand hovers for a long three seconds before he drops it back at his side, “you’re a damn kid. And under all those circumstances? I-, I can’t say that I agree or that I would’ve done the same.”

 The gloved hands ball into fists before relaxing again, “but I understand, alright? It’s not as simple as right and wrong, and I sure as hell don’t see it that way either.”  

 Boba sniffs, rubbing his nose with a sleeve, “doesn’t make what I did okay.” He’s not going to pretend it is. Dad taught him to own up to his mistakes, even when it’s hard to. 

 “No.” Fox sighs, “no, it doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean jail is the right answer. There’s nothing in here for you.” 

 “There’s nothing out there for me either. I’m alone.” 

 Even back on Kamino, surrounded by so many just like him, he was alone. And as he grew older, he only found it to be more true.  

 “Well, you won’t always be. Sooner or later, you’ll find people who will want to be with you for you.”

 “...And not because of what my dad left behind?” 

 He’s lost the helmet, he’s lost the Slave I . It’s just Boba now. Nothing but Boba. Is that enough for anyone? 

 “Just for you. People who won’t care about that reputation of yours.” 

 “...Do you mean it?”

 “...Yes.” Fox answers softly. It’s the same dark visor staring back, but for a moment...Boba imagines there’s a face there. Not quite his dad’s, not quite his own, but a face.

 “But…” Fox stands to full height, straightening out his kama before giving him a look, “that can't happen unless we get you out of here.”  

 He holds out his hand again.

 Boba takes it without pulling away this time. 

They navigate the halls in silence, dodging other Guard members every so often. The lieutenant had been right about getting the riot under control. Boba can no longer hear any more sounds of blaster fire. The amount of footfalls have decreased. They are running into less and less people.

“Are we almost there?” 

“Almost.” Fox rolls his neck in a way that looks like he’s rolling his eyes instead, “if it were that easy to break out of prison, we’d all be fired.” 

“You don’t get paid. I don’t think you can get fired.” 

“Touché”

“Actually,” Boba looks up with a smile, “I think I’ve made more money bounty hunting than you’ve ever had in your life.” 

“Way to rub it in.” He flicks the back of Boba’s head, and he resists the urge to kick the asshole in the shins. It would hurt his own foot more.

They continue walking.

“Do you remember what you said earlier?” Fox starts after a minute, voice sounding weird, “about loyalty?” 

Boba frowns.

“What about it?” 

“It’s true. We were trained to be loyal to the Republic. But you know what else we learned back on Kamino? Something that wasn’t taught?”

Boba raises an eyebrow, and Fox places a hand over his chest plate thoughtfully. He looks around, as if checking for someone listening.

“Our loyalty is with our vode, first and foremost.”

...Boba knows that. He’s no stranger to the closeness of the other clones back on Kamino that persists even after they’ve become grownups. Boba had his dad. The clones had...well, they have each other. They are vode . He knows that, so why is Fox telling him this now? Unless...unless? 

“...Am,” He swallows his spit nervously, “am I one of the vode? Even though I’m not like you all? Even-, even though I screwed up?” 

Fox sighs again, leaning down until—

Cool plastoid taps against his forehead, and Boba forgets to breathe. The hand on the back of his head scratches at the short, trimmed curls and Boba closes his eyes with a shudder. The last mirshmure'cya he had—

Beskar. Warm from battle. Dusty with the sand of Geonosis. Empty.

He no longer remembers how it feels anymore.

Until now. 

“Ori’vod,” Fox’s voice is quiet, close enough to be heard without the robotic quality of his helmet speakers, “you never stopped being a vod.”

By the Ka’ra , Boba needs to stop crying in front of Fox. 

“Asshole,” he shoves Fox away after an embarrassingly long time, hiccuping and rubbing at the corner of his eyes, “you know I hate it when you guys call me that.” 

Fox snorts, reaching to rub the top of his head, “we know. But you are our littlest older brother, and nothing’s going to change that.” 

“Quit it, di’kut ! Don’t touch me.” A squeak escapes him and he dodges more attacks on his buzzcut by skipping ahead with a grin. 

Crash

He turns around just in time to see the overhead vent hit the ground and a blur of orange and green land on top of Fox. 

Bossk . 

The two tussle in a mess of limbs, snarling and hissing curses. Fox slams his head back, helmet nailing Bossk in the snout. The Trandoshan grabs the hand reaching for the holster. His other clawed hand grabs Fox by the head, pulling so his neck is exposed. He opens his mouth, rows of fangs gleaming in the lights as he dips down to bite—

“BOSSK, STOP!” Boba shoves his fingers between the gaping jaw, and Bossk immediately pulls away with a growl.

“How many times have I told you to not put your hands in my mout—” 

“—Don’t hurt him! He’s okay, he was helping me!” 

Bossk tilts his head, hands still wrapped around Fox’s throat while he kicks uselessly at Bossk’s side and scratches at tough, scaly skin.

“Boba, you know this one?”

“Yes! That’s my...my younger brother. So, so let him go already!” He demands. 

Bossk looks between the two of them one more time before dropping Fox. The Commander lands on his knees, coughing and rubbing his neck. 

“Younger brother, huh? Shit Boba, do I have to teach you math too?” 

“Shut up.” He rolls his eyes, leaning down to pull Fox to his feet, “you okay?”

“Not the worst I’ve had.” Fox mutters once he’s steady. He glowers at Bossk, “glad to see you finally caught up.”  

The Trandoshan sneers at that, but doesn’t do more than flex his claws. Fox isn’t going for his blasters either, so okay maybe things aren’t too bad. 

Boba catches Fox’s gaze, “you’re gonna let him leave too, right?”

“Funny if he thinks he has a say in it.” Bossk’s tongue darts out, flickering in the air.

Fox crosses his arms over his chest, “if you take three lefts from here through the vents, it’ll take you directly to a landing bay that isn’t being used. There won’t be any patrols there.” 

“...that’s awfully kind of you, Commander. No traps or anything fun like that?”

“I just want to have your word.”

“On what?” 

Fox pauses, looking down at Boba.

“That you’ll look out for him.” 

Boba opens his mouth. He doesn’t need anyone to —

Bossk gives a teetering laugh, slamming a large hand over Boba’s head and rubbing it, “been doing it for months, no reason to stop now.” 

“Quit it!” He does not whine . He doesn’t. 

“Good. If I find out you ditched his sorry sheb , I’m dragging yours back here.” 

Bossk grins. 

“Now go, you don’t have much time.” Fox points at the open vent and Bossk nods.

It takes him one single leap to scurry his way back into the ceiling. Show off. 

“Didn’t find anyone else crawling up there, did you?” Fox shouts as he kneels under the vent, cupping both his hands together. Boba takes a step onto it. 

“None that I didn’t already toss out. It’s my escape route, I’m not sharing.” 

Fox actually barks out a laugh, and it nearly startles Boba off his hand before he finds balance.

“Hey,” He whispers, and Fox looks up, “I uh…” His mouth feels dry, “thanks.” 

“Remember what we talked about, alright? Don’t do anything stupid out here. You have to stick around to find those people.” 

“Are you waiting for an invitation?” Bossk groans from inside the vent, holding out a hand.

“But it seems like you’re not as alone as you thought, kid.” Fox hums. 

“...Yeah.” 

With that said, Fox gives him a boost and Bossk pulls him up the rest of the way. 

“Clean up your damn mess.” Fox heaves the grate off the floor and hands it off to Bossk to put it back in place.

“Easy there, Commander. I might drop it again.” Bossk snickers, but does as he’s instructed. 

Boba scoots his way over the grate, peering through the slits. 

“Will I see you again?” 

“...I don’t know. Maybe.” Fox’s voice sounds distant, “when the war ends.” 

“Okay,” Boba nods, “don’t die before then.” 

Fox gives another laugh that sounds weirdly choked up, “that’s my line, ori’vod.” 

Boba grins, “ Ret'urcye mhi "

“ Ret'urcye mhi ."

The crawl towards the abandoned landing bay is quiet, the only sound being the rumbling of the vent space as they inched forward slowly. Bossk isn’t exactly light. Too much movement and noise would get them caught. 

“You know,” Bossk finally says once they make the final left turn. The exit grate is in the distance, “I thought all clones were awful. But I guess that one’s okay.” 

Boba turns with a frown, “hey! I’m a clone too, y’know.” 

“I was including you in that statement.”

“Oh...okay.” He turns around, stops, then whips back again, “wait, in which way?” 

“In that you’re also awful, kid.” 

“You take that back!” He gasps, and Bossk cackles.

“C’mon, Boba. We’re here. You got that grate?”

He hmphs , grabbing the vent grate and shaking it. 

“Yeah I got it, it’s loose enough.” 

He pulls it off, letting it drop onto the ground below. 

“...Boba?” Bossk’s voice draws him out of his thoughts when he doesn’t move.

“...what will we do now, Bossk?” He is ship-less. He has nothing but the handful of credits from Bane. 

A hand settles on his shoulder, “whatever you want, little boss. I’ll be here.” 

Boba pats the hand, lips curling up just enough for Bossk to respond with a toothy smile of his own. 

Boba jumps out of the vent, landing on solid ground. He takes a deep breath, reveling in the air of freedom that surrounds him.

“I’ve got a name to make for myself.” 

/

[ao3] if you wish to kudo/comment <3 

[goldstonegolem64]

Murder Drones : Crusher Core assault  Chapter 2

In the frozen waste land of Copper-9  two worker drones Running for their lives as several winged figures chased after them

“ Kevin I don’t want to die “ one of the Worker Drones said 

“ Neither do I bro. We just need to get to that Bunker we herd about and well be safe  “ Kevin said

“ I though you said all the Murder drones were destroyed that why i followed you out of our hideout” 

“ I know Luke and I'm sorry but I'll make it up to you  if we mak” Kevin   was cut off as something slammed into the ground in front of them causing Both drones to fall back from the force of the impacted. This also caused a huge cloud of dust to be kicked up and obscuring 

“ Kevin I swear on Robot God if we die I’m going to haunt you “ Luke said to his brother as three more Murder drones landed surrounding two worker drones

Kevin and Luke looked around in fear as they looked toward the three new drones. The ones on the left and Right of Luke and Kevin looked younger then the average Murder drone and were swaying side to  side in a rhythmic faction with each . the two looked identical with short Silver hair and  bright eyes X’s on their faces the only way anyone could tell them apart was by the Coats they were wearing. The one on the left was a bright blue coat and the one on the right was wearing a bright red. 

The one behind them looked like a older model of Murder Drones as they were Larger ,Bulkier, their wings were larger as well and their tail didn’t end in a Stinger but in a four fingered Claw. Their face was covered by a mass with a skull painted on it 

“ Were going to Die “ Kevin said as he looked toward the cloud of dust and saw a the four and Final Murder drones they towered over the two drones on the floor they were wearing a Black coat and nice looking black cap ,their wings were fully out making them looking bigger then everyone in the area. He had a smile that could drain the life out of the sun and the X on his Visor made both Luke and Kevin pray to whatever god was there until what the two guessed was the leader spoke      

“ Hello my name is serial designation N and who are you two?” N asked in the polities Voice anyone had ever heard

Kevin and Luke looked at each other confused by what was going on 

“ N Maybe we should introduces the rest of your unit “ The biggest of the Disassembly drone said  

“ Oh yeah thanks Gamma R,B say Hi “

“ Hi I'm B” The one in red said 

“ I’m R “ the one in blue said 

“ Were twin “ RnB said 

“ And I’m serial designation Gamma   , Model number E-102, Design: Slayer Class Anti infantry”

“ Well I’m Kevin and this my Brother Luke” Kevin said 

“Hi” Luke said still a little bit nervous  

“So what brings you guys here ?’ N asked 

“ Well you see we were looking for a colony that was seemingly a safe place for us Worker drones “ Kevin said 

“ Kevin don’t just say where were going they’re still Murder drones “ Luke yelled at his brother 

“ You guys looking for Khan’s colony. We can take you there R,B take them there ” N ordered without even asking for the two worker drone consent . 

As ordered R and B each grabbed a worker drone then took off into the sky With the two screaming worker drones leaving Gamma and N alone together 

“ N you forgot to do something in that situation “ Gamma said as he watched the twins flow off with the worker drones

N took a few seconds to think about what his mistake was  the realized it “ Oh biscuits i forgot to ask if they wanted our help  “

“ At least you realized it. Now lets make sure the twins don’t end up doing something stupid. We know how khan gets when we show up without Uzi “ Gamma said as he took to the Sky after the twin quickly followed by N

As the two flow after the twins. Gamma spoke up“ Your doing better  in a leader ship Roll N” Gamma said 

“ Really i mean i just told them what to do “

“ Yes like you normally do but this time they followed it without question or back talk. So your doing better not great but better “ 

“ Thanks Gamma “

“ Don’t thank me it’s just my observation you still have a lot of work to do. Still keep it up ” Gamma replied  

N smiled a little hearing that from Gamma. 

the group continued to fly for a few minutes before landing in front of the closed Doors of the Colony   

R and B landed first and dropped the workers in front of the door 

“ Here you go “ R said 

“ Have a fun new life “B said  

G and N Landed next 

“ Let me get the door“ N said as he walked to the door and  processed to punch the metal door four times. Each hit reverberated loudly and left a dent in the door. It took several seconds for the door to open to reveal several Members of the W.D.F and Khan who looked somewhat annoyed 

“ Hi Mr .Doorman” N said happily 

 “ Hello N, Gamma, Twin “Khan said as he looked towards the group of Disassembly drones 

“ We brought you two more oil cans for you “R said

“ New food for our pantry “B add 

Gamma  walked behind the two and brought both his fists down on the back of the twins heads” Stop it you two. Were just dropping off new blood for you khan” Gamma said 

“ Thank you Gamma it’s much appreciated “ Khan said as he looked towards N” So how’s Uzi doing ?” He asked 

“ She’s doing fine. She been busy trying to figure out a way to stop most of us from over heating and dying in the Sun . “N replied 

“ Good to know if i may ask”

“ Yo N what’s up buddy.” Thad said completely cutting of Khan  as he walked out the colony  towards N 

“ Thad my dude how you been “N smiled seeing another one of his friends 

The two teen drones high fived followed by an elaborate hand shack as R and B ran up to  them 

“ Hey Thad “ R said      

“ Hi Man “ B said 

“ Hey you brought the little dudes “ Thad said as he began doing the same thing hand shack with the twins 

Gamma know Khan was going to ask something of N. So he walked towards Khan who somewhat shuttered at see Gamma walking over to him “ You were going to say something?” Gamma asked

“Uh Yes I was going to ask could you ask my Daughter to comeback we need some help teach us how to make weapons. I know it’s been a few months since the last drop pod fell by it never hurts to be safe right “ Khan said 

“ I will relay this request to Uzi. But she may not like it”

“ That’s why I wanted to tell N this she seems to listen to him more then anyone else. Makes me wonder are they you know together ?” Khan questioned 

Gamma went silent for a few seconds. “ Maybe. Beta She would know more Seeing as she as filled the Motherly Roll for her “ 

Hearing that cause khan’s eyes to dime for a bit then went back to normal “Oh good to hear. Uzi never really know her mother so it goo that someone took that Roll “ 

“ Khan from father to another A Father is just as important to a child’s growth. An you may have failed her for a while you still fix what is broken .”

“ For a Murder drone you act more like a teacher  “Khan replied        

“ I have train main disassembly drones so the father roll comes neutrally.” Gamma said as he looked towards R,N and B who were talking to Thad. He then noticed it was going to be dawn soon ” Boys the sun is rising get back to the Base.”

“ Yes sir “The three Boys said 

“Later Thad “N said as he fist bumped his friend 

“ Tell Uzi I said Hi and this weekend their going to be a party at a warehouse we found a few miles away  form here it would be totally cool if you guys showed up” Thad said shooting to Finger Guns at N

“ Yeah sounds fun I’ll see you there “ N replied as he shot finger guns back at Thad    

“ Yeah sounds Fun “ The twins said happily 

“ BOY!!! Get you asses in gear “ Gamma Barked. Causing the three Disassembly Drones to Jump 

“ Yes Sir “ The twins said   

“ Yes Dad. I mean Sir “ N said embarrassed by his slip up then he took to the sky Followed by the twins. 

“ Ha you Called G Dad again “ the twins said jokingly as they chased after N

G looked to Khan “Teenagers“

“ Yeah Wait shouldn’t you be heading off after them ?” Khan questioned 

“ Perks of being an older Model. I don’t over heat or need oil to survive ” G said knocking on his chest. “ So if your daughter and N didn’t convince me other  wise. This colony would have been nothing but a smoking Crater “ G said 

Khan couldn’t see the Smile on G’s face but he could fell it” Well when i see her i will thank her for that “ 

“ Good I will be leaving now have fun with this two and see you a poker night” G said as he spread his wings and took to the Sky Leaving Khan, Thad Luke ,Kevin and W,D,F member to watch the group of disassembly drones fly 

Khan then looked towards Luke and Kevin who were just sitting on the floor “ Come on you two let me show you around” Khan said as he walked inside 

The four Disassembly Drones flow quickly through the desolate city towards there new base of operation. Do to the influx of Disassembly drones the Spire got cramped and well it made Uzi uncomfortable living in a tower made of the corpses of her people. Their new home was a huge Mall Call New Haven. It was large enough to house the everyone from the Colony and the Spire if they were alive. 

The four landed on the Roof of building near by a sky light Which they quickly opened it and entered the building. The twins being the first to enter then N and Finally Gamma who just before going in hear a large  booming sound off in the distance. Which he turned to see a object  falling towards the planet .Gamma followed the objects predicted trajectory and watched until he couldn’t see it anymore. He continued to wait until there was a loud echoing booming sound

“ What was that ?”N asked as he had stay put when Gamma didn’t com in right away 

“ Debris fall to the planet. It landed somewhere between the red light , residential  and entertainment districts “ Gamma said as he enter their home and closed the skylight behind him and found himself on the third floor of the mall  

“ Do we need to investigate it?” N asked                  

“No it’s just debris nothing to worry about ?’ “ Gamma replied as the two started walking towards the stairs to the second floor“ Oh N i need you to relay a message from Khan to Uzi” 

“ What is it ?” 

“ Khan wants Uzi to come back to the Colony to help with making weapon just in case the the company sends more Drones and seeing as you tend to be the only person other then Beta who can tell her to go back to the colony to help then . “

“ I’m perfectly suited to relay this important message “ 

“ Correct now go tell your girlfriend I said Hi young blood “ G said as he slapped N on the back.

“ She’s not my girlfriend“ N said

“ Keep telling yourself that “ Gamma said as he walked away towards the Mall’s storage area where most of the Group live   

N stood there as they watched Gamma walk away” I real wish everyone would stop thinking that me and Uzi are dating were just friends “ N said as he continued to walk down the stairs until he made it to the first floor then continued to walking towards His,V, R,B and  Uzi’s section of the Mall which was about 60%  of the Malls first floor. which was closed of from the rest of the group by a wall made of scrape metal and had a sliding door. Which N opened and found himself in the very colorful and sprat painted area that was his section of the Mall. 

He was happy that Uzi had turned on power to this place as this part of the Mall had two arcades , a Game stop, a rec Room, Three video stores, A candle shop, eight clothing store a Bed bath and beyond a Hot topic ,a Gun Shop where Uzi made her room and a Barns and Nobles and dozens of other miscellaneous store that were free game for destruction.   N had made his rom the Barns and Nobles     it into his room seeing as he enjoyed well doing anything and well reading was one of his new favorite things to do. As he walked through the Mall he heard someone crawling on the ceiling above him. So he looked up to see V 

“ Oh Hi V “ N said 

“ Hey Nitwit hear you called Gamma Dad again” V said playfully 

N Blushed in embracement then noticed the twins leaning out of the door way of a nearby store entrance that was clearly trashed “ traitors “ N said

“ Don’t be made a them they were just following big sister orders “ V said as she jump of the ceiling and Landed in front of N and got in his face. N felt flustered with V right in his face. 

“ What ever you say V. Uh  do you know where Uzi Is  ‘N said      

“ Last place I saw my favorite Oil can was in here Room.”

“ We heard her cursing after hearing some gun fire “ The twins said 

“ Ok thank you and see you all at poker night “ N said as he walked around V a little awkwardly and quickly walked toward Uzi’s Room 

“ Oh And N!!?” V yelled 

“ What “N said as he stopped and turned around 

“ I heard there was going to be a party the oil Cans were throwing this weekend you going ?” V asked 

“ Yeah i was playing on going “ N yelled back

“ Alright see you there “ V said as she walked to where the twins were 

“Ok” N said with a smile on his face as he walked to Uzi’s Room which had a giant doors with the words [ Stay out ] Spray painted onto it with dozens of different colored skulls on it.  N quickly opened the door and found himself in a very clean well kept Room the walls were covered in all sorts of guns. Gun parts ,different weapon attachments ,hundreds on Ammo Boxes neatly stacked and a queen sized bed in the corn were the register use to be . Uzi may have been an Edgy teen but she knew how to keep a clean Room.

When he didn’t see Uzi in the main work shop he walked towards the back room and Opened the back rooms door and found her sitting at her work bench.

 The moment Uzi’s heard the door to her Work shop open. She quickly turner around, Grabbed her side arm and pointed it towards the door and saw N standing there

“ Hey N” Uzi said 

“ Hi Uzi I heard from The Twins and V that there was a Gun shoot you ok?’ N asked with genuine concern in his voice for his friend  

Uzi raised her leg to show off a bandaged up part of her leg “ yeah there was a miss fire on one of the guns I was working on and this happened you might fixing it “ Uzi said as she undid the bandage to reveal a the cut that was still leaking oil 

“ Alright “ N said as he walked over to Uzi crouched down and put his mouth on the open wound. 

Uzi felt N’s tongue move up and down the small cut on her leg .His hot breath causing her to shiver a little. No matter how many time’s N did this .She couldn’t help but feel a little strange . She couldn’t tell if she liked it or not but that didn’t matter at the moment as N removed his mouth from her leg     

 “ All better ?” N asked happily 

“ Yeah i’m good” Uzi said just a little flustered from what N just did for  her

“ You really need to be more careful “ N said as he whipped away the excess nanite saliva off of Uzi’s leg.

“ Alright Dad I’ll try” Uzi said sarcastically

“  Uzi “ N said 

“ Ok I'll try. Now what brings you here ?”Uzi  asked

“ Well your Dad asked us to ask you to come home and help make weapon just in case the company showed up again. Also Thad invited us to a party this weekend 

Uzi was quiet for a bit “  Well at least he as this time.I’ll think about 

“ Alright “ N said as he stood up and looked towards the work bench “ So what were you working on?” N asked 

“oh well I just finished my prototype on the heat shield it lasted for a bit but when it stopped working it nearly killed D “

“ So nothing of value was going to be lost “ N said jokingly 

Uzi playfully punched N “I’m really starting to rub off on you Well after that i was working on new rail gun but this time it’s not a beam of destruction that takes thirty minutes to recharge it uses magnets to super charge a projectile that can punch a hole in  armor ,people and Murder drones alike” Uzi said happily “ But  when I was testing out the Ammo to see which one would work well with my new rail gun it back fired. Shot gun shell don’t work as rail gun ammo ” Uzi then looked towards her target dummy that was ridded with bullet hole

“ Well at least your ok “ N said yawned a bit “ Well I need to recharge. Talk  to you later ”N said as he started walking out of the workshop 

“ Alright see you later “Uzi replied as she returned to working on her new rail gun “

Elsewhere

The Object that fell from the sky had crashed into a Fair ground in the entrainment district. That was home to a small community of Worker drones entrainment drones and security drone. the following two being reskinned Worker drones. The community surrounded the impact crater and the closet to the crater was a young child drone. she had long curly pink hear that matched her eyes. she was wearing a puffy purple coat and a purple cap with little Mouse ears on it. She looked into the smoking crater curiously   

 “ I wondered what it is ?” She questioned 

“ Esper get way from there “ A female worker drone wearing what looked like nuns robe said concerned for the younger drone’s safety 

“Ok mother  Hilda” Esper said as she ran towards  Mother Hilda and the other child drone  as several security drones made there way to the crater  

“ Alright everyone go back to your homes will handle everything from here” the Chief of the security drone order 

“ Alright children let’s head back to the chu”  Mother Hilda was cut of as the sound hydraulics legs moving could be heard walking out of the Crater 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paJQH5aTj6M

Everyone turned to look at the noise and saw a large quadrupedal cube like droid. It walk a few more feet until it stopped. It stood there for a few as the top of it opened up . Then from the opening came an Antenna Array that pointed to the sky [ Searching  Searching connection found] A booming emotionless voice said as the cube lowered itself on the ground and retracted it’s legs and slowly started to open up to reveal a  one way teleportation  station[ Connection complete teleporting first contact Commando units ] and in a flash of blue light ten humanoid commando droids appeared. They droids  belong to Hammer industries but unlike their normal combat droid the commands were the same size as an average human they had light armor making them more agile.  and their weapons weren't build into them. Instead they had various weapons on there back’s the commandos marched of the telepad allowing ten more commando droids to appear followed by ten more and finally came the last one and unlike the other commando droid’s this ones head was different instead of the basic Blue color mono eyed  head. This one had a head that looked like a Hornet. 

The leader droid  walked to the front of the other commandos and stood there for a bit then a voice came out of it [ Assuming direct control] The leader droid shock for a few seconds as it eyes changed from blue to a infectious green. The head commando began moving it limbs similar to how a person who just wake up would 

“ It has been so long since. I’ve had a body” The leader said in a hundred different voices at once. They then looked around to all the Drones around them and saw the chief of the security  drone looking 

“ State your business here “ The chief said leveling his blaster 

Hive paid the little worker drone no mind  “Capture all the Drones kill those who resist and don’t let any escape” Hive said as he reached for his back and pulled out their blaster and point black shot the chief in the chest killing them instantly” Oh i forgot to switch it from lethal to capture “ Hive said as he switched setting as the drones around  his screamed in fear as the droids start pulling out their weapons and started opening fire into the crowed 

Esper Ran along with the rest of the children fear running through out her body 

“ Alright children don’t look back just keep going back to the church and will be sa” Mother Hilda was cut off as she was shot in the back. By a stun bolt causing her to power down and hit the ground 

“Ms. Hilda “Esper yelled as she was the only to stop and try to help their care take back on her” Come on we only have a little bit more to gooo” Esper watched as the leader of the commandos was walking up to her Esper froze up in fear 

Hive walked up to the child and came to one knee to be on the same level at the young worker drone “ Hello there little one what is your name ?”

“ Es-Es-Esper “she replied scared 

Hive looked towards the downed worker drone Esper was trying to help” Was she your care taker ?”

Esper shock her head up and downing a yes motion 

“ Ok now how old are you Esper “hive asked with all one hundred of their  voices sounding calm       

“ Five years old “ Esper replied as she started to cry “ please don’t hurt me “

“ Hurt you why would i hurt you i just want you to join us in the Hivemind “ Hive said as he placed their  empty hand on Esper’s shoulder But the moment  they placed there hand on Esper’s shoulder A metal Pipe slammed into their Arm causing Hive's hand to slightly brush against Esper face

“ Get way from her “ A male worker drones yelled Giving Esper time to run as the worker Drone swung at Hive again. Only to have Hive  grab the pipe then the work Drone’s throat and crushed it .

Hive then throw the lifeless body of the worker drone to the side and looked towards where Esper was running to. It was towards the very visable spire of corpses ” You can Run Esper but you can’t hide from us you will join us sooner or later “ Hive yelled as he got up and barked an order. "Alright boys you know your mission scout of your designated locations we have a full weeks till  El Automaton and the main me arrive  “ the Hive fragment yell

" What of the girl if she is found then there will be complications to our plans?" One of the droids asked

" Don't worry about that she won't fully remember what happened here " Hive said as he watched Esper ran away

An as she ran Esper didn't notice that her memory was being rewritten by the small fragment of Hive’s mind that had infected her. All she knew was that she need to keep running or she would die and that’s all she needed to know 

[silly-nonny-fics-are-for-fandoms]

I don’t need to see to love you

Bakukami week day 2 (Part Three): “Injury” @officialbakukamiweek Summary:  It was Bakugo’s fault. He had failed to protect the person he cared most about, and he didn’t like that it seemed as if Hatsume was waiting for this to happen. Read on Ao3

Katsuki doesn't remember much from the battle, other than watching his husband fall to the ground in a puddle of his blood and blind rage.

He remembered Kirishima having to pull him away from the villain, he recognized people calling out to him, but his focus was on the blonde laying on the ground and keeping him talking. Denki was crying blood; eyes shut tightly. He'd known, then, that Sensory Overload had gotten him. He remembered Denki mentioning that it was dark.

He remembered watching the paramedics putting Denki on the stretcher, and he remembered crying in the ambulance without judgment from those around him.

"He's going to need surgery, Ground Zero." One of them had said, and Katsuki had looked at him, sneering.

"Why the everloving fuck are you telling me?!"

"Sir, he's sustained injuries to his head. It's not life-threatening, so we don't have the authority to operate without consent from either himself or you."

"What's the surgery for?"

The man had shown him a chart, but Katsuki didn't remember all of the terms or what exactly it had said. He recalled telling them to operate, and he remembered why.

The damage had ruined Denki's eyesight, and if he wanted ever to be able to see again, surgery would be required immediately. Although there was a seventy percent chance this wouldn't work, it was worth the risk.

"Bakugo..." Kirishima said, sitting next to him in the private waiting room. He'd only left once, to get out of his bloodstained hero costume, and Kirishima had been waiting there when he'd gotten back. All their friends were. Honestly, any other time, he might have found it annoying that Midoriya was part of that friend group, but Katsuki needed some familiarity.

"What?" Katsuki asked, voice tight and his throat sore. He stared down at his arms, bandaged up to his biceps, Lichtenberg figures lying beneath. He deserved these marks. He had never taken failure well, but he had failed to protect the person who meant the most to him. Denki was in surgery to make sure he could see, and it was his fault. If he'd been faster, if he hadn't been distracted for that short amount of time, this wouldn't have happened. He'd held Denki in his arms, talking to him until the paramedics arrived about whatever would keep his attention, but Denki's quirk required a lot of control. Whenever he got hurt, his control slipped. Even so, Katsuki hadn't let him go.

He deserved these injuries, he deserved even worse, because he'd failed.

"I just thought of something, bro... If this is for Denki's sight, and it fails-"

"It won't fucking fail. He's going to be alright, dammit!"

"I know, I know. But, man, if it fails. If. Denki won't be able to do hero work anymore." Kirishima's voice was solemn, and he knew it wasn't what Katsuki wanted to hear, but considering the situation, he doubted the thought had crossed his friend's mind.

Katsuki nearly stopped breathing. Hero work was their life; if they weren't working, they were talking about work or talking with people from work or taking care of the wounds caused by it. If Denki couldn't do hero work, he wouldn't know what else to do with his life. It'd destroy him.

"It won't fail. It won't fail." Katsuki whispered to himself, but the people around him didn't seem so sure.

It wasn't a conventional surgery, after all. Denki had been confirmed to be blind, but there was an option for an experimental operation as suggested by one Mei Hatsume. She'd come up with drones, flying drones which would run on Denki's electricity, and the only way to save his sight would be to do two things. Implant a chip into his brain to control the drones, and perform surgery which would put contacts onto him that connected to a visor, which was the whole 'seeing' part of it. It could also help him 'see' regularly, like glasses, and could connect to his pointer and shooter. This was because the drones couldn't stay activated for longer than twelve hours, so he needed to be able to see to live. He wasn't supposed to wear it around the house, needing to learn to function without it.

To Katsuki, it seemed like she'd thought it out far too much to not have been expecting something like this sooner or later.

Two hours passed, and finally, a doctor came out, telling him that the surgery was complete, but Denki was unable to receive visitors yet and to see if it were a success would take time. Katsuki was allowed to see him.

The visor was able to be taken off, Katsuki had insisted on it, and Hatsume had agreed. If this thing blew up, he wouldn't have it attached to his husband's face.

Katsuki sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair, leaning over and taking Denki's hand in his own, the metal jeweled band on his ring finger missing. He'd placed his wedding ring next to Denki's on the nightstand since the doctor was worried the metal would react with the electricity and cause a spark in heart rate.

Katsuki thought the doctors were stupid; they'd specifically had them made of manganese and titanium, two of the worst electrical conductors of all metals.

Katsuki thought back on their wedding day when they'd promised to keep each other safe, to love each other forever. When it came to last names, Denki ended up taking his, since it fits better than 'Katsuki Kaminari.' Their teachers had attended, Aizawa had cried just a little bit. They were the first out of his students to get married, after all. No one had expected them to get together, but they were glad they had.

They had moved into their beautiful house two weeks later, and they'd adopted their cats a month after that. That was three years ago.

Now, looking at Denki in a hospital gown, hooked up to all these machines due to his inability, he felt like a teenager again; Brash, incredibly quick to anger and too overconfident in his abilities.

"Mn... Katsu...?" Denki whispered, and Katsuki looked up at his face. Denki's eyes were open, but the opaque film covering of them worried him.

"Yeah, it's me, babe." Katsuki felt the tears stinging his eyes, but he wouldn't let them fall.

"It's dark, Katsu. Can you turn the light on?" Denki's voice wavered, but Katsuki obliged. He reached over for the visor Hatsume had made, hating the look of the damn thing, and carefully slid it onto Denki's face, hitting the power button on the frame. It was just a band, sleek and elegant, but it was transparent, and he hoped it worked as intended. As soon as it was turned on, Denki's eyes looked normal again, golden and sparkling.

Denki blinked a few times, looking from one side to the other, then at his husband.

"We're not home?"

"No, we're at the damn hospital. Can you see me?" He would never admit to his voice cracking on the last phrase, tears threatening to spill over.

The smile he loved to wake up to, brighter than even the summer sun, came to Denki's face and he said, "Yeap! I can see you. It was dark before. Hey, Katsu, why are you crying? You miss my stupid grin that much?" He chuckled, and Katsuki looked down at their joined hands, shoulders shaking and chest heaving as he started to cry. Denki could see him. He could see him.

"Hey... Love, it's okay. No villain's gonna take me from you; you're the best, yeah?" Denki whispered though he couldn't move all that much yet.

"I. I thought. For a fucking second- I thought I'd. Your sight."

"Is that what this thing is for? My sight?" He shakily moved the hand which wasn't entwined with Katsuki's to the visor and started to take it off. Katsuki wanted to protect him from the truth, but he knew it would be better to let him find out now.

He seemed to understand, setting the visor down on his chest.

"Put it back on, Denki," Katsuki whispered, voice shaking from his crying.

"No. Katsu, kiss me?"

Katsuki obeyed, leaning down and kissing his lips softly with a tilted head. When he pulled back, he saw Denki smiling.

"Why the fuck are you grinning?"

"Because I got a kiss from the best person on the planet, and his nose didn't smudge my funky new glasses!"

Katsuki couldn't help laughing through his tears. Only Denki would find a way to make him want to laugh at a time like this.

"Seriously, you need to put that back on; you've gotta see."

"Don't wanna."

"Why are you a pain about this?!"

"Because I just wanna listen to your voice right now. I don't wanna think about what happened." He pouted, though he was still looking in the direction of Katsuki. "How're our babies?"

Denki had referred to their cats by that stupid nickname since they'd adopted them as kittens, Jig and Nick, named by Denki. Jig was a silly, fluffy Russian Blue Munchkin mix, on the darker side of the color spectrum. She had a bad habit of needing to be in between her humans at all times or otherwise wanting nothing to do with them. Nick, on the other hand, was a gray-yellow Scottish Fold Munchkin, with a penchant for anxiety. Honestly, he might as well be on the edge of screeching if someone wasn't holding him.

Katsuki loved their cats, no matter what kind of mood they were in.

"Well, Jig's pregnant." He watched Denki's eyes widen at the news, more shocked than excited.

"But we had them fixed...?"

"That's what I thought too, but Mina took Jig to the vet while you were out and, well, fuck." He chuckled as his silly husband laid in awe.

"That makes Nick the American, Katsu."

"Enough with your shitty references!"

Denki was allowed to go home two days later, after being introduced to the idea of having drones fly around to help him see.

"It's weird, seeing my body through the drone," He'd complained, though it seemed to help Katsuki's nerves. He wouldn't let him drive home, however, even with the visor on. Naturally, Denki was excited to be back home, happy to spend the recovery days he had left with his kitties, books, and his husband, but something was bothering him.

"What's wrong?" Katsuki asked, seeing Denki biting his lip and looking down at his lap.

"Katsu; what if I never get used to the drones?" They were stored in his locker at their agency, but it was grating on his nerves.

"You will; you got used to the visor already." He shrugged, watching Denki fidget with his hair out of the corner of his eye.

"That's different."

Pulling into their apartment building's parking garage, he drove up to the private level and parked. As soon as the car was off, he looked at the other blonde, leaned over, and kissed him. They'd learned that kissing with the visor on meant it was getting smudged, no matter what they did, but he couldn't give a rat's ass about it.

"You'll get used to it eventually. For now, let's fucking see if you really can walk around our apartment blind."

[lostinyourears]

Arena Mexico Children’s Day Report! 04/30/2019

Microman, El Gallito & Atomo vs. Chamuel, Perico Zakariaz & El Guapito

Who’s who?

Microman tiniest guy in gold, Gallito also in gold a bit taller & Atomo in blue with blonde hair and no mask.

Chamuel in black, Perico in bird mask and Guapito blond and in blue as well.

How’s the match?

Good, wish this was a bit better or that they did more. We haven’t seen anything here that we haven’t already seen from this division recently. It needs to be said that the division needs to find more talents of the Microman/Gallito/Chamuel. I’ve sadly never really been impressed by Guapito/Atomo, while at least Perico is someone everyone knows even if he and Mije aren’t as good as the best guys in this division. On the bright side, most of the kids are probably less critical than the hardened lucha fans like me and the other internet talking lucha heads.

Tiger, Cancerbero & Raziel vs. Star Jr., Drone & Pegasso

Who’s who?

Tiger in black orange, Cancerbero/Raziel are the duo dressed alike with Raziel being the thinner man with no tanktop.

Star in blue/red, Drone in white and Pegasso in blue/white.

How’s the match?

Great, Tiger and his brother Puma who left CMLL use to be the highlight of the midcard on a regular basis vs. the Panther Bros. and whoever those 2 sets of brothers decided to have as a 3rd. This is a great window into what that time was like. Raziel/Cancerbero are a great duo and it’s nice to see them get some respect and be used outside of the opening tag match. Plenty of fun to be had here and all three tecnicos are great too. Even if Pegasso certainly feels like he will never be given a title or big match again in CMLL, he is great in matches like this where he can shine. 

Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. & Black Panther vs. Felino, Ephesto & Luciferno

Who’s who?

Blue Panther(maskless) and Jr. both in blue, Black in black.

Felino maskless, Ephesto/Luciferno in name shirts. 

How’s the match?

Good, but certainly was the match that was decided would have the least amount of time on this card. Might be even shorter than the opener which I’m not reviewing here. Not a bad match and both Panther Bros. certainly put in the work here even if it’s a short match. Just hard to really push too hard, but at the same time being so short means it’s a brisk viewing. 

Atlantis, Stuka Jr. & Soberano Jr. vs. Sanson, Cuatrero & Forastero

Who’s who?

Atlantis in his iconic white mask, Stuka Jr. having a silver like visor thing on his mask so you don’t see his eyes and Soberano Jr. the skinny long boy win blue/white. 

NGD boots : Sanson in white, Cuatrero in black and Forastero in gold. 

How’s the match?

Great, NGD even pull out new stuff for this Tuesday Show.   I was surprised by that, though Kid’s Day is sorta a big deal... I think some people on these shows think along the lines of, “Kids won’t know better” for better or worse. NGD obviously don’t feel that way bringing their A game for the younger than normal audience. I assume on Tuesday Night NGD made some new Lucha Libre fans for like. They had good opponents too with Stuka/Soberano Jr. both being champions and of course Atlantis, who is one of the biggest legends still wrestling fairly regularly. A must watch trios match. 

Caristico vs. Ultimo Guerrero

Who’s who?

Caristico masked and Ultimo maskless.

How’s the match?

Very good, this match didn’t reinvent the wheel and isn’t a cut above what one would expect from Ultimo vs. Caristico, but most of the (child) audience haven’t seen this match the dozens of times like we may have. The crowd seemed to love it and that’s more important than what anyone watching online thinks. Leave the kids going home happy and hopefully they will want to come back before next year’s Children’s Day show.   

Highlights :

[curlicuecal]

Let’s Be Outcasts (Kankri/AR, Latula/Mituna) ch 12/?

Part 2 of cyber!bunny Apocalypse ‘verse (tumblr)

ch: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

read on AO3

Summary: Divergent AU where AR and Li'l Seb get kicked into a new universe with some snazzy new cyborg bodies. They’re still working out the bugs.

In which AR discovers that kidnapping rarely solves more problems than it creates, Mituna breaks out of a lab (with some help), and Seb continues to take good care of his Bro.

Chapter Excerpt:  

Latula hesitates. It’s just the tiniest hitch in the conversation, but considering how effortlessly she seems to follow even your most scrambled utterances, the pause is noticeable.  “It’s an outworld artifact,” she says, breezy and open.

“Wow, no grab-hulmping ass nugs,” you return before your mind can really analyze if sarcasm is the wisest choice for this situation.  

—–

Ch 12.

Latula, you reflect, has the best secrets.  Or possibly acquires the most excellent ones from other people.  Behind the steel door at the back of the ransacked bunker had been a short, damaged shaft, like something for an out-of-service hivestem lift.  Venturing down the rungs in the shaft wall (a feat, in your case, composed of equal parts climbing and falling), you and Latula had emerged into a second, more confined bunker.  The sprawlingly empty labs in the level above had looked aged and deteriorated, fragile.  A hollowed-out husk prone to falling to pieces at any moment—in retrospect you’re probably lucky your lightshow didn’t damage anything structural.  This room has an equal sense of age, but it is shelled from floor to ceiling in metal plates and girders as if were meant to survive a war.

It’s a bit like being in a tin can, if it turned out that tins cans turned down the exterior noise from your metal mind almost as effectively as that underground dropshaft you hid in for a day, and were therefore very quiet.  The perpetual static of Latula’s sigil chip buzzes and echoes in your metal mind, but you get only brief bursts of the distant voices of the imperial drones circling the city.

The tin can is also full of dazzlingly unfamiliar technology.

You want to look at everything.

You shuffle around the tiny room, pressing your face against screens and poking your fingers into circuit arrays like you could absorb the fascinating new patterns unfolding in your brain through your fingertips.  You’ve managed to move a good chunk of this busy-ness from the inside of your head to the outside, your programmed subtasks paying off in scratchy lines of blue and red text that now scroll across your helmet visor, superimposed appealingly over all the other nonsense your metal mind seems determined to dump into your brain at all times.

You clamber over a counter and pause to contemplate a screen that has flickered on at a nearby hub, watching the numbers count down.  That is new.  With one fraction of your attention, you start mapping out the attached equipment, backwards extrapolating toward what kind of function they might serve.  Your lips twitch up a bit as the countdown flicks past 44:44.

The whole lab could be overwhelming, but instead it’s engrossing.  For once you have no shortage of tasks to divide your attention across, occupations to channel the restless tangle of your mind.  The muffled data inflow from your metal mind fades into the background.

It is, it occurs to you, hard to be all one thing, to marshal all the disparate parts of your mind and your body and match up the edges and push them into lockstep with the world.  With your attention scattered you don’t have to try so hard to keep your balance.  Your blue mind purrs acquisitive conquest while your red mind whispers wary caution that it will all be taken away, that you will be filed into place with the rest of this puzzlingly obsolete equipment.  But you’re steady.

Latula makes a grumbling noise from the back of the room, where she has been poking at the largest device, decoupling connections.  “Hey, ’tunz.”

You turn this inscrutable string of syllables around in your head several times.  Oh.  Is that you?

“You happen to know how to hack an object duality function onto sylladex cards?”

You spend another moment of low-key bewilderment trying to decide if this is something you know how to do.  Object duality: carapacian storage system. Programming structure and relationship to sylladex development: …no data?  Did you never know or did you forget?  “No-oh?” you try, anxiously.  And then, with a bit more confidence as you rifle through files and your brain continues to be completely blank on the subject of non-imperial technology: “Oh-no.”  Still, the idea is interesting.  You engage a few of the sorting programs you’ve coded with your helmet, scanning through the ridiculous backlog of data from your metal mind.  You don’t know if any of this clusterfuck could possibly be relevant to working out a technical puzzle, but you don’t know that it couldn’t.  It gives another portion of your attention something to do.

“Right.  You happen to have a sylladex slot that’s oh, say, this big?”  Latula’s hands dryly sketch out the wall-spanning machine in front of her.

“Dong ilven halve a sillydickth.”

“Huh; we gotta hook you up with something.  You know, assuming we ever get out of here, a thing which would be way the heck easier if I had any way of ganking the massive freaking technorelict I came specifically to hunt down.  Damn it, Porz was supposed to be here.”  She frowns at the machine in question, one hand on her hip.  “Maybe we could just… leave it here?  Come back with company and snag it before the ‘net gets back online and that lab full of dead scienterrorists get noticed.  Assuming…”  Her frown tips down farther.  Her eyes glance toward the dropshaft, then back to her machine.

You turn to squint at the device yourself.  Aside from being big, it doesn’t seem particularly more interesting than any of the other artifacts in the room.  Some blackened screens, something you think might be sensors, a row of large glass cylinders that look a little like the carapacian growth chambers from the level above.

Maybe it’s presumptuous of you, but you’re pretty sure she should just take something smaller.   “Walk innit?” you ask.  No.  Although some of those tubes are certainly big enough. “Waltz is’t.”

Latula hesitates. It’s just the tiniest hitch in the conversation, but considering how effortlessly she seems to follow even your most scrambled utterances, the pause is noticeable.  “It’s an outworld artifact,” she says, breezy and open.

“Wow, no grab-hulmping ass nugs,” you return before your mind can really analyze if sarcasm is the wisest choice for this situation.  Who the fuck are you kidding, your mind has approximately nil control over the shit that plops out of your mouth.  You’re just happy when the contents remotely resemble what went into the digestion.

Latula snickers.  “Yeah, okay, it and everything else in this room.  But this is a big one.  There’s only ever been three found like it before and they all stopped working sweeps and sweeps ago.  ‘Least as far as anyone knows.  Outworld technology is property of the government that finds it after all.  The highblood council or whoevs says it up and broke—who’s there to say diff?”

“You?”  No, wait, you think that was a rhetorical question.  Conversation is hard.  And now Latula is giving you an extremely sharp look, oh, oh.  Torn between the desire to apologize and the desire to make her look at you more, you instead wander closer and examine her pet artifact more closely.  Like you, it seems to be at the interface of technology and biology.  Something artificial, but designed to work with living systems.  Not the type of assemblage that could be used to modify a hatchling into a cyberorganic construct, no, you can’t make that fit the structure of the thing, but.

Not the right pattern of parts for the carapacian’s genetic modification projects either.  You thought before it reminded you of the sort of equipment they might use to grow their generations of workers and soldiers, all the various castes of their population.  Something for biological creation, yes, maybe…

“I’d really rather you didn’t overthink this,” Latula says, into your thoughts.  “Or, like.  Try not to pull out any more of your mad insights?  ‘Cause I’m working on being responsible over here and I hella can’t promise that info’d work out safe for you.”

You spend a few complicated moments trying to determine how not to think about something and a few more wondering why this would possibly matter.  In your experience, your thoughts and intentions have very little correlation to any of the things that happen to you.  You wind up just staring at Latula.

“Unless you’d rather I told you?”  Latula asks, not at all like she thinks your decisions don’t matter.  “Because, I mean.  I figure you’ve got as much right to know what’s going down as anyone.  More than.  It’s just...  right now if things go completely ingestible-tree-ovoid shaped you could maybe slide outta it on not knowing and being, like.  Technically stolen lab equipment?  But if I tell, you’re kinda stuck with me ‘til game over.”  She gives you a little fatalistic grin and shoulder shrug.  “Win or lose.  However the hell it all goes down.”

That sounds… really nice actually.  In a flippantly ominous kind of way.  You’ve sort of been figuring your whole life will implode any hour now—a seesaw swing of the pendulum for all the unexpected fortune you’ve been granted in defiance of probability.  You’d spend every second of that time with Latula if the choice was in your fronds to make.

Latula looks at you like she thinks maybe it is.

“But, hey.  Maybe we’ll go down in the fun way ‘stead of the dying horribly way.”  She wiggles her eyebrows and grins and then tucks her hair behind her ear and looks half away from you.  “You want in on this?” It echoes between the twice-two halves of your mind, flesh and metal, red and blue.

(“You wanna get outta here?”)

You dig your teeth in your lip and remember to breathe.  You’ve caught her hand in your own without noticing and that’s starting to be a habit.  She lets you keep it.  So, is she dumb for not realizing by now just how far you would follow her, or are you dumb for never guessing that first invitation might have been for keeps?

There’s a completely nonsensical smile twitching across your face.  For what’s visible beneath the helmet you must look completely deranged, but Latula’s got a smile growing to match.

Your answer tangles with a thrum in your throat and comes out sounding more like a dirty suggestion than a word.

“…Yeah?” Latula says, eyes bright as lit fuses, and reels you in.

Or maybe you’re both really, really fucking smart.

You do eventually  have to pull up for air, only for Latula to spend a giggly few moments testing the bony angle of your jaw with her teeth, following it back to where flesh meets the metal of your left interface.  You even took off your helmet for her, despite how dizzingly like freefall the sensation of losing the control it provides is.  It’s worth it when she tugs you by the hair, tweaks your horn.  When she snickers at the huffy noise you make when you give up on shaking your overgrown bangs from your ganderbulbs.  Latula feels like the very best kind of freefall.

You nuzzle at her face, hair, hands, anywhere you can reach, and her fingers trace fractal patterns back along your jaw and cheekbone, down from the raised headphone-like interfaces you have where ears might be and down along the vulnerable skin of your neck.

“Wow, babez, you are all over circuits.”  One finger plucks testingly at the high collar of your flightsuit and you make a happy, contented noise for her.  “How far down do these go, anyways?”

Hm.  “I four-get?”

“Oh!”  Latula pops back up from your neck to grin into your face, eyes lit up like you just handed her a present.  “…wanna find out?”

The words lick through you like an electric current.  Straight to your nook.  But in a fun way.

You blink again—one, two, three, four—and then tangle a hand in her hair, because yes, okay, good, perfect.  Words not functioning, but no part of you has any confusion on the answer to that question.  Latula folds into you, laughing—and then abruptly keeps folding, her laughter blowing out in a hiss as she turns her forward momentum into a shoulder roll across the equipment-cluttered counter behind you.  Your own breath abandons you with an oomph as your ass cushions hit the floor.  Falling is like your special talent.

Metal and wires clatter to the floor.  Something shatters.  A pale shape skitters by, flitting through the air, dodging debris, and Latula sweeps up her staff—wow, when did she put that down, you’re not sure you’ve ever seen her let her weapon out of arm’s reach before—and scrambles in pursuit.  The point of her staff stabs out once, twice—and then she’s pinned it, just before it could dart into a crevice behind a wall unit.

“Aw, fuck it all,” Latula mutters, frowning at the fist-sized genemod still twitching and oozing blue goo onto the point of her staff.  “I just can’t catch a break tonight.”

Your adrenaline-sped pusher suggests otherwise.  You are (red) panicky and (blue) panicky, but you also just did the psiistorm thing twenty minutes ago and one floor up, so you are mostly just balancing on the panicky in a fun, internal way.  It’s almost comforting in how familiar it is.  And nobody’s dying; that’s nice.  Winning all around.

You scramble for your helmet and take only two tries to get it on.

Better.

Making your way around the counter, you peer past the flashing text on your helmet view screen to squint over Latula’s shoulder at the fluttery, leggity hoofbeast-faced thing.  It has about a half a dozen more eyes than you feel are really called for and looks like something some carapacian geneticuller spliced half the contents of his DNA library into on a whim.   You can’t see anything in particular to make it worth looking at—other than the ungodly suspiciousness of a feral genemod turning up two levels down in a sealed underground bunker lab in time to interrupt your make outs.

It’s a scientifically engineered nookblock, is what it is.

Latula’s eyes dart around the confines of the lab again, narrow and seeking.  You don’t need higher level processing programs to recognize a pattern.  You just wish someone would explain why it matters.

“Think we just got put on a timer,” she mutters.   Your head twitches uncertainly toward the console across the lab, the one with the countdown running on the screen, but Latula’s turning back toward the wall-spanning outworld device in front of you.  She faces it down with more determination than conviction.  “Right.  Get the goods and get gone.  Hm."

You blow out a frustrated breath through your nose.  “’tu-la, what.”

Her eyes shoot to you almost guiltily.  “Um.  So.  Speaking of deetz I haven’t been sharing with the schoolfeed cohort.”  She fiddles the little mutant corpse free of her staff, holding it up by one of the many insectoid legs before flipping it out of sight, into her sylladex.  “It’s possible somebody’s using these to track us.  I wasn’t sure for a while, but the co-inky-dinks are kinda piling up now, and…” her patter trails off, face going inwards-turned.  Her free hand toys with the red scarf concealing her hanging scar. “…I sorta feel like this is all familiar in the bad way.”

Shitty titfucking nose-bulge, you have no idea what any of that means.

Latula’s eyebrows go up and, yep, you are surprise audio-tracking a static-y version of your internal dialogue.  You bite your tongue on the middle of the string of curses exiting your maw, gulping off the runaway flow through straight bodily force.  At least you’ve also cut short the post-make out ‘murder and contemplation of dead things’ portion of the evening.  Small victories.

“Sorry,” Latula says, which has the novelty of coopting your next avenue of verbal stress dump.  “I’m not trying to be cryptic; it’s just like a disease.  I think my life is half lies these days.” She twists her hand in the scarf.  “Or half-truths.  Maybe whap me upside the head or something when it happens.”

Alarming.  No.

Although, with your coordination and her cooperation maybe you could just skip to whapping random body parts together.  Eheheh.

“So, right.  Cards on the recreation platform.  Think you’ve sneaked a peek at like half the deck already.  This obnoxiously complicated dealio here,” she gestures at her giant out-world artifact, “is for making wigglers the un-fun way.  And like I said, this is the super rare, holographic edition kinda item; a lot of people would like to get their claws on it.  So, okay, there’s me and Porz and some other peepz—I dunno if Kurloz counts he’s kind of nuts—and the deal is—“  —but you don’t get to find out if she’s winding up to tell you about her kinky breeding program plans or what.  You don’t actually hear the soft shuff of a misplaced footfall, you just see Latula’s eyes flick toward the dropshaft and your auditory sponges catch up later.  “—the deal is,” Latula continues, voice even as ever, eyes suddenly bright and fixed on you, “I’m going to need to put a save point in this explanation for later.  All these things popping up that need taking care of, you know how it goes.”

As she speaks, she steps back slightly and to the side, like she’s going back to the device, tucks her staff with apparent casual disinterest under her arm.  Caught in her eyes, you turn with her.  It’s only belatedly that your instincts catch up to the way this places your back to the empty dropshaft and whatever made that noise.  Your pumpbiscuit trips and speeds in your chest, red fear and blue fury and you don’t fall to either because you’re watching her sort sylladex cards and thinking about the way your back to the shaft means her hands out of view.

She comes up with a set of finger-sized knives like mawbeast fangs, and something small and metallic, held so the chain won’t clink.  They disappear up her sleeves.  “Sorry to keep expo-bailing on you,” she says, and her voice makes a joke of it.  “…Trust me?”

“Yes.”  Your reply, for once, comes out crystal clear, as sure as your certainty, a perfect line between thought and action.

Latula’s own next line stops halfway out of her mouth, like you’ve startled her.  You watch her pupils flare wide and dark, the teal in her irises brightening in contrast.  Her tongue touches her lip, her breath caught there.  You get a glimpse of her dichotomies again—all vulnerable/dangerous and careful/reckless and hungry/satisfied—and she’s not more honest like this, just different honest, like seeing the flipside of a coin in the air.  

“...oh,” she says, in this naked, bruise-roughened voice that flips your pusher and sends a clench of pity dizzily through your veins.

Just a glimpse, and then the coin revolves and her game face is back in place, determined and calculating and exhilarated.  She leans in toward you, close enough to kiss, close enough to be indistinguishable to an observer.  Close enough you can feel her grin a breath away from your lips.  “Hold that thought, babe.”

A moment later she's sliding past you and into ambush so fast you almost can’t see it.  There’s a flurry of noise from the bunker’s exit, a rustle of cloth and the scrambling metallic sounds of someone ascending a ladder at speed.  Latula disappears up the shaft after her unseen quarry and you’re left blinking after her, hands clutching the item she pressed into them.

You flick your eyes down.

It’s… her sylladex.  On the top three cards are all the components to the device she’s secured so far—everything she could break down small enough to captchalogue.  You stare at the device for two beats more, at all her belongings placed in your hands, and then you reboot a half dozen internal processes and start towards the dropshaft exit.  You struggle the sylladex into assemblage with your helmet’s fetch modus slot as you go.

A flicker of psionic sparks licks the back of your brain, high on adrenaline, half nervy, half pumped.  You check your emotional balance, tweak your programs—and start up the ladder after her.  Above you, the sounds of a fight grow quieter, and you think the confrontation might be done before you get there.  Oh, good.

You’re pretty sure you can keep her stuff safe, but you can’t make any guarantees about this building.

---

next>>

[goldstonegolem64]

Book1 Hope returns Chapter21 Hopes and Dreams  By goldstonegolom64

It was two day after Adam and shiro wedding. nothing really important happened in those to day which was a nice change of pace for them  after the challenges the newly formed team had faced in the pasted few day. Lance spend most of his time ether hang out with Keith hunk or pidge   , showing Fitz the around the castle or just studying altea and the Galra languages. it was nice see those old book put to use . Keith could be found hangout with lance or rolo, working on one of the two hover bikes that jay  found on phobos with shiro, training with the security drones or just sitting In the Prometheus petting one of jay’s pet lizards. pidge was making up for loss time with matt .The two of them spent most of their time hacking into the galra computer systems  trying to find their fathers location. Hunk was just with shay.  adam and shiro were just in enjoying each others company and After everything Shiro had been thought he need they deserved a moment of happiest together. Allura spent some of her time in her room reading about earth and mars history and culture for the day she when to her friends home worlds. Coran and beau were double checking the castle for any problem or repairing the damage that Val caused after slammed in to the castle during the fight with the robeast. Fitz mostly spent time with Coran learn how the castle of lions worked. As for Jay the past two day were spent setting up Fitz new room , repairing the engine and a going on salvaging missions   with some of the rebel on galra structures.  Which brought in a massive hull of supplies an weapons

It was nice to have friends around to help with everything but all good thing must come to an end. 

in the kitchen of the castle pidge and matt were sayin their goodbye

“ So this is farewell for now little sister” Matt said sadly 

“I guess it is”Pidge said sad as well 

“Look at it this way you have Seven new big brothers ,a little brother,a  sisters an uncle to looking out for you it a weird little family  and if your ever feeling lonely I'm only one comm call away ” Matt said still a little sad but put on a smile to lighten the mood.

pidge laughed that the though of the team being her home away from home “  your right I do have a weird new family out here and I'm happy I have it ” pidge said

 Ace and shiro walked in the and said “ We have new orders”

“What are they ace?” Matt asked

“ Were to leave someone with Allura and the other An no matt you can’t stay we need you back at HQ for a new mission you Eve and I are going on” Ace said

“So who is the lucky one  to stay behind with us ?” pidge asked

“ Rolo ,nyma and bezzer  do to them already knowing you guy “Ace said 

“Dose Allura know this?“ pidge asked 

“Yes we just asked her just in case she wasn’t ok with new people on the ship. She said it was fine.”Shiro said

“ Alright goodbye my dear little sister stay safe out there” Matt said hugging his sister  

“same to you big bro” Pidge say hugging her brother back

“And Shiro Keep her safe while I'm gone and be good to Adam too”  Matt asked

“ I will and  just  stay alive out there old friend” Shiro said join in on the family hug

In the hanger bay that jay called home with Rolo and nyma’s ship now parked in it 

“So you guy are going to be with living with us now” Keith said 

“Yeah were here for the long hall do to the bosses orders” Rolo said

“Wait why aren't we just going to the rebel base. Why are we splitting up” lance asked 

“Because you all still need training” Coran said

“And we are the most wanted people in” Jay looked at a date pad” Seven galaxies with a total bounty of six hundred trillion Gac”   Jay said still looking at the date pad in his hand.

“then why are bring Fitz?”Hunk asked 

“Why is Shay coming along "Jay countered 

“Because she wants to fight along side us and see the universe ” Hunk replierd 

“An Fitz wanted to stay with me and I'm want to show him the universe as well” Jays said 

“ Fair point” Hunk said 

“ But Why did her brother come along?” Jay asked pointing to rax  who had just walking in to the 

“ I would like to make sure my sister is safe and I spent years thinking if I just followed the galra’s rules my family would be safe but I was just fooling myself so I want to fight along side you.”  rax said 

“well that answer that “ Lance said 

“ So hey I asked Allura this question a few day ago an she didn't have answer for it but I would like to see if you all have one . Now here’s the Question what are you guys going to do after this war is over?”  Jay asked 

As jay asked the question Shiro, Ace, Adam, Matt, Shay and Pidge walked into the room. The room went quiet when the question was asked.

“if you do have an answer that fine b” Jay was cut off

“ I want to be a teacher at the garrison. I just want a quiet life to raise a family of our own. When this is all over” Shiro said Smiling looking to adam

“you took the word right out of my mouth love. But easier said then do when this war is over were going to be the most famous people in the universe” Adam said smiling as well    

“ I think I'm going to be a fire fight like my dad or something else I really don’t have a plan for the future ” Keith said 

“ why not a become a belt runner?” Jay asked

“ What that? “ Keith asked

“ its like a nac car racer but the race track is the space between mar and Jupiter. But it’s really dangerous though of new pilot do to the asteroid belt “  Jay answer 

“ I'll think about it” Keith said

“ well I went to the garrison to become an engineer but my dream job is to own a restaurant that brings the world together” Hunk said 

“that’s a Beautiful dream” Shay said

“ What’s your plan for when this is all over lance?”  pidge asked 

“I’m going to work on a farm” Lance said 

“Really after everything that your going to see in this world and your going to be a farmer” Jay said with a look of confusion on his face

“ Hell no maybe when I'm in my old and gray. But when the war over I'm going to ride the fame for a few years while I and my partner or partners explore then I'm going to be a garrison flight instructor or a dance instructor.” Lance said smiling  

the day carried on with them talking about their dreams and what they were going to do after the war. Matt and pidge planned on co owning a tech and research company. Rolo wanted to open a repair shop. Nyma wanted to be a singer. Rax and Shay didn’t really have a plan after the war but that was fine they just had their home freed and now they were out seeing the universe they had time to think. Beau wanted to be the first ai to truly be seen as a person. Ace wanted to show her family a free universe. Then time came for Matt and Ace to leave. As they all said their good bye Jay put Fitz to bed seeing as it was midnight when they were leaving the balmera 

the hanger slowly emptied leaving Jay to look thought the items he and the other salvaged. What Jay found was Mostly weapons and other resources. But one think caught his eye a big barreled cannon with a warning label on it . it was heavy even for him to lift . it looked like smaller  version of the ion cannons. But his thought were interrupted by the sound of several metal feet walking behind him. He turned to see several of the sentries he had brought in yesterday.

“Hey guy what are you doing?” Jay asked as he reach for his Bayard with his right hand

the sentries didn't replied they just lifted their fire arms and pointed them at him. their visors were no longer the blue color that beau would leave when he had hacked into them. Jay know that if one plasma bolts of a armor piercing bullets hit him would most likely kill him. So he closed his prosthetic hand sending a signal that locked the doors in the Prometheus so Fitz didn’t get involved. then he activated the shield in the prosthetic then raised both the shield an the Bayard as the room filled with the sound of gun fire