Callback Ping

Cyn was lowered to the ground with eerie gentleness, a tendril placing her down like some treasured doll, making sure to keep you close at her side. She smiled sweetly, far too sweetly.

"Hello, Uzi." Her voice was smooth, mockingly pleasant. Then, her tone shifted into a chirpy, high-pitched sing-song. "Hiii, N!"

Uzi and N instinctively stepped back. The sight of you—eyes vacant, body limp in Cyns grip—felt like a punch to the gut. A horrible, stomach-churning weight of terror settled in their chests.

Cyn tilted her head, watching them. "I see." Her voice took on a static-laced distortion, any trace of warmth vanishing. "You will not talk to me because I have hurt... your feelings." Her lips curled slightly. No real emotion. No real remorse. "Easier to assimilate..."

Before either of them could react, she slid backward into the fog, dragging you with her. Her tendrils hoisted you higher, spikes stabbing into your sides like a twisted marionette on invisible strings. A sickly green glow pulsed from the mist. Cyn was feeding off of you. Your radioactive energy mixed with hers, a horrific fusion of power and corruption.

"...than explain, anyway."

As the glow intensified, Cyn's body began to change. Metal screeched against metal, flesh twisted, contorted, grew. She transformed, her new monstrous form an unholy mash-up of machine and sinew, now infused with your Atomizer Drone nature. Her limbs split and multiplied, each one mutating into jagged, claw-like spikes that radiated the same eerie green hue as your stolen energy.

"Callback ping."

Her eyes locked onto Uzi. She tried to control her. It didn't work. But it had worked on you. Cyn had found a weak point, an opportunity buried deep in your unfinished programming. She had taken it.

Uzi's fists clenched. "Bite me! AND GIVE ME MY SIBLING BACK!!!" she roared.

Then, Cyn charged. "Okee." She casually swatted N aside with a tendril, sending him slamming into the ground.

Uzi barely had time to react before another tendril shot forward, piercing straight into her chest. Her robotic heart was yanked from her chassis. "Agh—!" She collapsed, sparks erupting from her wound.

N lunged to intervene—Cyn was on him in an instant. "Okay. You first, eager beaver." She straddled his chest, tapping lightly against his metal plating, her claws clicking in a playful rhythm.

Then, she began to scratch. Digging in. "Heeheehee. Let me in." Her fingers burrowed deeper. "Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. Let me in." The words repeated, glitching, overlapping, a chorus of static-filled mania.

N screamed. His body convulsed as her claws tore through his chest, cutting deep, peeling back the plating. Sparks fizzled. Oil splattered. His screams grew raw, pained—until Cyn, smiling like a child unwrapping a present, ripped his head off. Oil sprayed. His body twitched. Then, it went still.

Uzi's eyes flashed with determination as she activated the Solver, her hands twisting like static before—CRACK! The bridge beneath them snapped apart, debris plummeting into the abyss below.

Cyn barely reacted. Wings burst from her back, grotesque and jagged, stretching out like an angel's silhouette sketched in horror. She hovered midair, her twisted grin never faltering.

But Uzi wasn't sticking around to admire the nightmare. She lunged for N's remains, grabbing every broken piece she could, yanking him away before Cyn could pounce. Dragging his limp, mangled form behind her, she bolted, her servos whirring as she tore through the wreckage of the station.

From behind the rubble, Cyn watched. Giddy. Twitching. Her fingers fidgeted, tapping against each other in excited little beats, as if playing along to a song only she could hear. Then, she moved. Her form slithered, slid, and flickered as she followed, stalking them into the half-collapsed structure they'd chosen as their refuge.

And you? You were still locked in her grasp.

Meanwhile...

"Offer rescinded!" J's blade clashed against V's midair, sparks flying like fireworks as the two spun in their aerial battle. "And here I thought you stepped it up after Earth." V grunted, forced back as J twisted, knocking her away.

J barely gave her a moment to recover before she whipped out a missile launcher, locking onto V. "I never needed either of you." BOOM! A missile shrieked through the air.

Back with Uzi, she was pulling N's broken body through the darkened hallway, her processors overheating, her mind racing, N's body regenerating. Cyn was right behind them. She stopped, scanning her surroundings—she could feel their presence.

"Lick." The word was spoken softly, almost lazily. A long, wet tongue dragged across Cyn's visor, smearing it with a sickly green sheen. The lights shattered.

From the shadows, hands crawled out from her shifting body, twitching, unnatural. Their fingers gleamed with razor-thin blades, all of them pulsating with the same neon green glow as Cyn's corrupted energy.

"Callback ping."

The phrase repeated. Again. And again. Static-laced, emotionless, looping like a broken transmission. N's vision flickered. His systems stuttered. Flashes—Cyn's claws ripping into him, prying him apart like a machine being dismantled piece by piece. V's lifeless body. A sinking, horrible weight crushing his chest.

Uzi's breathing hitched—her own systems were destabilizing, panic clawing up her throat as Cyn's presence loomed closer. But—the hands stopped. The whispers faded. Cyn's presence receded, distant, slipping away into the dark.

THUD! V dropped from the ceiling. The hands snapped back into existence, jittering, crawling towards her. V didn't hesitate. She straightened up, dusted herself off, and strode forward—toward a Cyn disguised as N.

"N? N?" V's voice was unsteady, hopeful. "You're okay? I wasn't-" She swallowed. "Tessa is Cyn! She's here! N, I don't know how much you remember, but J tricked us. Or-" She hesitated. "It tricked J, too." She reached out gently. "N? I'm so sorry. I—I should have been honest with you. I was just so scared for us—for you!"

N wanted to respond. But Uzi's grip on him tightened. She knew this was a trap. But N? N couldn't stop himself.

"V, stop!" His voice rang out.

Too late. A tendril lunged from the pipes, piercing through N's chest like a hooked blade. His body jerked forward. Cyn pulled him in, grinning as she locked eyes with V.

"Do your job," she cooed. "And I leave you and N alone." Her grin widened, cruel and knowing. "Right, V?"

V's breath hitched. "I-I can still..." She took a step back.

Cyn's eyes flashed. "Bad job, V." She winked, and the lights went out.

V stumbled back, skidding across the wrecked floor as Cyn relentlessly pursued, her grin stretching too wide, too unnatural. A sickly glow pulsed in her grip—N's heart. She raised it to her mouth, fangs forming along the edges of her jagged smile, ready to take a bite—SLAM!

The doors behind her slammed shut. Khan had remotely locked them, cutting her off from her prey. Cyn jerked back, hissing, her grip faltering. Thump. N's heart tumbled through the air—and landed right back into his open chest cavity.

"Squirmy worm." Cyn blinked. Stared. "Go- fu- d--mit." Cyn's voice glitched, cutting in and out like a corrupted signal.

She whirled around furiously, just in time to see Khan, Thad, and Lizzy plummeting from a collapsing ledge.

Khan just laughed. "Hah!"

BOOM! The ground split open. Massive, glowing tentacles erupted from below, ripping apart the landscape, their grotesque tendrils pulling entire structures into the abyss. The sky flickered, a shifting mix of static and neon green lightning, as Cyn turned her focus back to V.

With a lazy, almost bored expression, she strolled forward, then coiled like a spring about to pounce. But—SHINK! A black blur flashed in front of V, Cyn's claw flew off in a clean slice.

"Hands off!" Uzi landed between them, Solver blade gleaming, her coat flaring out dramatically. "No one traumatizes these weirdly hot robots but me!" She shot V a glance, pausing just a second longer than her usual quips. "Glad you're not dead... or whatever." Then, after another beat, a little softer.

V's expression flickered—maybe a little caught off guard—before quickly returning to scowl mode.

Cyn, meanwhile, examined her severed claw with mild annoyance, then flicked it aside like a broken toy. "Boring. And annoying." Her eyes flashed. "Callback ping."

A shockwave rippled outward, the air itself distorting as she attempted to wrestle control over Uzi's mind. But it glitched. One of Cyn's own eyes flickered green for a brief second. She recoiled. Something went wrong.

Uzi grinned. "Sorry. Just me in here." She raised her hand, letting Solver energy crackle through her fingers, twisting into something sharp, something dangerous. "I think dumb things are frickin' cool, and I... AM..." Her arms shifted, transforming into an uranium-infused blade, glowing with a mix of raw power and righteous fury. "FREEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Somewhere above, a small, falling object caught the light. Nori's heart. Her voice echoed from it, excited and full of energy. "Kick her butt, babe! Whoo!"

"'Kay. But first—" Cyn smirked. With a flick of her wrist, a massive tentacle lashed out, the same one that had been holding you hostage.

WHAM! You were slammed into the Corpse Spire, metal crunching on impact. A shudder ran through the entire structure. The tentacle's yellow glow shifted to a neon, eerie green. And then, the dead began to move.

The shattered remains of Worker Drones twitched, their broken parts pulsing with the same energy infecting Cyn's body. The entire Corpse Spire groaned, its metal plates shifting, gears grinding, as something far worse than just Cyn began to awaken.

Nori's music player plummeted from the sky, tumbling through the freezing air before landing with a muffled plop in the snow.

It whirred to life, its screen flickering, before—BLASTING distorted Nightcore at ear-splitting volume. Uzi and Cyn didn't stop. They sprinted straight at each other, Solver energy crackling around them like an oncoming storm. Clash!U zi twisted mid-strike, redirecting Cyn's attack back at her. A shockwave tore through the battlefield, splitting open the planet's surface. Massive holes ruptured across the landscape, swallowing what little remained of the already ruined terrain.

J appeared beside Cyn, standing ready. Uzi barely hesitated—her second arm transformed into a railgun. BOOM! The shot shredded through the air, grazing J, slicing off one of her pigtails. J flinched, touching her now uneven hair. THUNK! Uzi hurled her railgun arm at J, forcing her to dodge—and charged straight for Cyn, sword raised.

Cyn smirked, blocking with a familiar weapon—Tessa's sword. SHINK! She teleported, flickering around Uzi like a phantom. But Uzi was faster. She slid her own blade down Cyn's, sparks flying, before carving straight through her claw. Cyn let out a distorted shriek, reeling back, Uzi didn¿t give her a second to recover.

WHAM! A wing slammed into Cyn's side, throwing her off balance, and Uzi followed up with a brutal kick straight to her face. Cyn was sent flying, skidding across the cracked ground. She recovered quickly, grabbing Tessa's sword and hurled it.

The blade whistled through the air, only for J to step right into its path. SHUNK! J's head separated cleanly from her shoulders. Her body stood there for a second. Then collapsed. Uzi barely blinked, snatching up her railgun and punted J's head at Cyn.

Cyn dodged, her smirk faltering. She snatched her sword mid-air, teleporting around Uzi, attacking from all sides. Uzi anticipated it. She lunged, raising her pickaxe, aiming straight for Cyn's core—Cyn's form glitched.

Suddenly, it wasn't Cyn standing there. It was N. Uzi froze. Just for a second. It was enough. J sprang back into action, launching herself at Uzi. Btu...

"Wrong team." V and N stepped in front of Uzi, blocking J's strike.

"No more tricks." N added, his blade gleaming.

V grinned—then launched J straight into a pit. WHAM! N's scythe flashed. Cyn jerked back—her arm sliced clean off. Her disguise flickered away.

N tilted his head. "I dunno, I feel like we need a secret handshake or something, right?"

But Cyn was already gone, a trail left in her wake as she retreated into the distance. The three gave chase. As they ran, the landscape shifted. The Corpse Spire wasn't just a tower anymore. The ground trembled.

The Spire's metal plates and shattered debris groaned, twisting and realigning. With a horrifying grind of steel and circuitry, its entire form contorted, reshaping itself into something alive. A massive, towering machine.

At its chest, something glowed, a cockpit. Through the reinforced glass, Cyn sat in a massive throne-like chair, fingers drumming against the armrests. Floating beside her, suspended in an unnatural green energy field, was you.

Your form twitched unnaturally, glowing with the same energy keeping the entire structure together. Cyn's voice boomed, echoing across the ravaged battlefield.

"You. Now. Face. The. Final. Boss."