Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Science holding strong, Sir!” proclaimed Dr. Ridley before instantly giving the intern a solute, turning back to her computer. Before he could question why he was called “sir”, despite being a lowly intern, Dr. Ridley again turned to Mitchell, proclaiming “MATH!” whilst holding out her hand in a bizarre crushing motion.

Of course, Mitchell’s main focus was on the current test subject, 002, aka “Nori”. Or, more specifically, his focus was on the terrifying expression she was making, one aimed at him. 

Mitchell didn’t really know too much about the experiments going on down here; it wasn’t his job to know much, just do what they asked of him. But… He had always been curious. He knew a bit, of course. He knew that they screwed up, that humanity had created something too powerful for even the universe to control, but that was mostly it. Everything else was above his pay grade.

Focusing back on the drone, the one that was currently being possessed by… something—most likely the same “something” that humanity created—he really didn’t like the way it was looking at him. At first, he thought it may have just been looking in his general direction, at everyone around him. But no, that… thing was looking right at HIM.

So, hoping to get some form of confirmation from the possessed robot, he quickly pointed at himself. Honestly, that was kinda stupid. What did he expect, the robot to give him a nod? A quick “yes sir, it is you I'm staring at in a menacing way!”

“Doctor Chambers!” called out the head scientist, looking towards Mitchell. This was enough to snap the intern out of… whatever he was doing. Immediately his head snapped towards Dr. Ridley, seeing her staring directly at him. Was she calling him Chambers? But…

Looking down at the pin on his suit, he saw it reading the name of his boss, Dr. Chambers… “Oh! No, I-I-I’m not—” he stammered out, then promptly looked behind him to look at the kiosks that held their uniforms. There his fears were confirmed; he’d grabbed the wrong uniform.

Looking back towards Dr. Ridley, he whispered “Is this guy important?” whilst holding his clipboard to the side of his face, hoping to hide his shame at grabbing the wrong uniform… no wonder it was so tight, especially down below…

Suddenly the chains holding the drone in the air rattled, the wind howling.. Which was odd since they were deep underground.

Then she broke free… Somehow it managed to manipulate its own shadow, using that to create claws out of the shadows to break all four of the chains holding it up… maybe they should have used more chains?

As it slowly levitated down, it used one of its shadow appendages to grab a harpoon off the wall (why were there weapons next to the extremely deadly robot?) and threw it directly at Mitchell!

Thankfully he was able to block it with his clipboard (somehow), the harpoon pinning the clipboard down on the ground behind him. The other workers managed to then set the defences up, just in time too, as the super magnets shaped in a petagram, and the UV lights, all kicked in just as the robot devil monster thing was about to claw his face out with a, this time real, claw limb thing that it grew from nowhere. The UV lights resulted in the thing pulling its limbs directly back into its body, saving Mitchel from a horrific and painful death. 

He really didn’t wanna die by some weird metal thing in his face. That sounds way too stupid and painful.

But, as they say, there’s no rest for the wicked. Mitchell couldn’t even take a quick breather before Dr. Ridley grabbed his attention. 

“Chambers!” She threw some ID lanyard towards him, which he fumbled with and struggled to grab. “048!” 

“Right, so… uh… ha ha… This a doctor specific thing?”

Honestly, Mitchell was a coward, and he knew this. He’s just an intern for a reason. But, when he got no answer back from his boss who was walking towards the demon robot whilst doing some awesome action hand spins with that crucifix USB thing, he realised he had no real choice. He messed up earlier by putting on the wrong uniform, and it is way too late now to turn back and admit it’s the wrong uniform. Something was going wrong, clearly, and he had no choice but to do as told.

“‘Cause I’m on it!” And with that Mitchell turned around and sprinted out of the cathedral, past his coworkers who were just carrying on as if nothing weird or paranormal was happening. What kind of coffee were they drinking to be so nonchalant?

As he ran outside in a panic, he almost dropped his lighter when he tried to light his head mounted lamp. Why did they even have these? There’s literally UV lights in the cathedral behind him, why can’t they have just normal flashl—

He looked behind him and saw that… thing. It was still staring at him whilst smiling creepily, waving at him like some kind of possessed paranormal child.

What is wrong with it? Why is it so—

“Guh! Agh!” he yelped in fear as the Sentinels they had as guards leapt towards him, scaring the life out of him. Thankfully the chains held them back, stopping them from attacking him. Why did they have such a dangerous defence? It didn’t matter, he had a job to do, and the sooner he did it, the sooner he could go home and cry himself to sleep over what was happening right now. Well, the crying to sleep part was normal anyway, so, just go home and have a normal night?

Welp, my lifespan has probably been reduced by a good few decades from all of this!

He ran as fast as he could, eventually turning a corner and almost missing the locker that contained the one robot he was after, 048, aka “Yeva”. Slamming the locker open he showed her the ID badge he had, pointing at it a couple times and then shrugging, which only received a groan from the drone as she slammed her head against the wall.

It’s not his fault he didn’t know what he was doing! This was supposed to be Dr. Chambers' job, not his!

He undid her chains as fast as he could, accidentally pulling them a bit too hard a few times and hurting the drone, which he felt really bad for. But, once she was out of the chains, he grabbed her hand and ran as fast as he could. He didn't know why he needed her, but he was sure everything would go better once he delivered her to where she needed to be.

As they neared the cathedral, 048 pulled her hand out of his and slapped his hand away, but that wasn’t the main reason he became nervous. The Sentinels were gone, and in their place lay their dangling chains, swaying in the wind.

That was a bad sign, something was clearly up. So, once he entered the cathedral they had hired out and saw that everything was fine, no one doing anything about the Sentinels, his suspicions were practically confirmed. That and the small glitch he saw on one of his colleges. Oh, and the small puddle of blood with the crucifix thing in it. Especially since he could see his boss, Dr. Ridley, with that same crucifix stabbed into the head of the possessed robot. 

Yeah… this was fake. While he knew very little about what was going on, he could tell when he was seeing something real or not. Well, okay, no he couldn’t, but this was an obvious fake!

“Chambers! Get over here!” called out the clearly fake Ridley. 

Knowing that he was probably screwed, he decided he’d at least try to keep 048 safe, so he came up with a very good, and obviously not fake, lie. 

“Yep! Uhm… So, I… couldn’t find 48?” In his head he prayed that this worked and that the fake Ridley fell for it… and surprisingly she did. 

“Whatever!”

“R-right…” Mitchell slowly shuffled forward “Here I… come…” Looking around, he did his best to see if he could find anything that’d help him. But so far his best bet was to grab the USB he saw on the floor and use it. He wasn’t exactly sure what he’d need to do with it, but guessing from what the projection was showing him, he’d definitely need to do something with it… maybe it was like a vampire?

Once he was close enough, he slowly crouched down and went to grab the crucifix thing, but that’s when he saw an arm… and then, looking further up, he saw Dr. Ridley. She was still alive—missing an arm, but still alive. However, she was remaining quiet. Maybe she was hiding?

And that’s when this fake reality gave up pretending. A tendril grabbed his boss and flung her into the air, going through all sorts of objects which were, in reality, holograms. As she yelled in pain and fear, Mitchel watched as he too cried out in fear as he bore witness to the death of Dr. Ridley, watching her get pulled into a bottomless pit made of flesh which now replaced the magnetic pentagram.

The hologram truly came apart then, showing the intern what the chapel truly looked like now. Flesh crept upon the walls, floor and ceiling, no doubt the remains of his coworkers, now used as decoration, their bones being attached to the floor and desks by fleshy tendrils, growing like coral on a seabed. Technology flashing red in warning, the cathedral roof in tatters with stalactites from the roof of the cave crashing down around him, causing Mitchell to grab the crucifix whilst rolling forward to dodge one of the stalactites. And as he looked up he saw it…

That… monster, the very entity which had destroyed Earth, now possessing the body of an innocent drone, 002, Nori. It rose from the flesh pit, riding mechanical centipede tentacles as it looked towards the floor ominously, holding in her left hand the skull that once belonged to Dr. Ridley, still wearing the pope hat she wore despite being a scientist. Or at least it did, before the entity crushed the skull in its bare, robotic hands.

It then stepped off from the one tendril it was standing on, now walking the ground it shared with Mitchel. Two claws grew from its back, dragging them along the ground as it began making its way towards the intern, digging its claws into the metal floor and making sparks fly behind it. 

Mitchell knew he had to do something, so he rose to his feet, clutching the USB thing in his hands, his very, very shaky hands. Of course, he didn’t exactly know what he was doing, so he just held it out in front of him, like the Solver was some kind of demon. Of course, it technically was, but that's besides the point as this.. Well… it did nothing.

Instead of getting some sort of growl as a sign it was working, the entity spoke in a very robotic, yet slightly feminine, voice. “Thanks for… the new host… intern.” raising its left hand, a symbol appeared before it, yellow and bright. Using the symbol to conjure up some sort of strange magic, it pulled the USB crucifix from his hands and into its hands instead, before raising its left hand with the item in it, spinning it around a bit before then throwing the crucifix at Mitchell’s face, USB part aimed directly at his him. “MacGuffin,” the robotic voice said, a gleeful smile traced its face. 

But… it never reached him. The shockwave of it flying so fast did, and that shattered his visor, but the crucifix thing didn’t. Instead it hovered directly in front of him, the same symbol holding it back… but this time it was red? Well, a kinda orange-red mix. And upon looking behind him, he saw who exactly saved him.

It was 048, Yeva. 

She was holding out her right hand, the same red symbol projected in front of it. She had saved his life. And upon pushing her hand forward slightly, she flung the crucifix directly towards 002, smashing the USB end into the face of it. The entity's voice, now glitching, proclaimed, “O-o-ow… W-wha in th-the sc-sc-science…” before ripping out the USB and throwing it behind itself into the pit below, proceeding to collapse to its—or more specifically, her —knees. 

The entity wasn’t in her anymore. 002 had been freed.

This was great! Fantastic even! Mitchel should be overjoyed!

Yet he wasn’t, because he was a coward. He always was a coward.

Turning back around, Mitchel gave a quick thumbs up to 048, giving her a quick salute as he ran off. Honestly, he didn’t really know why he was running. He was a coward, he knew this. That’s why he was only an intern, he was always too scared to push himself further, but why he was the way he was? He had no idea. Sure, 048 may have saved him, and the entity may be gone. But… he just felt like he HAD to run away. 

Perhaps he was going to find someone? Tell them what happened? Get help?

Yeah… yeah that makes sense...

But… then the ground shook, almost like an earthquake. Stalactites fell all around him, knocking him backwards… He felt a pressure on the back of his head, a small spike of pain.

Then everything went black…

Deep underground, the shaking caused from the collapse of the planet's core could be felt even there. Deep, deep down. Down where nobody dared to look… where it waited, lost in the darkest depths, stuck in those walls… prowling… searching for an escape… 

It’s quiet here…

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Chapter Text

“Eugh…”

Mitchell lay on the ground, head leaning against a sharp rock he had fallen on when the strange quake happened. He slowly regained his consciousness, the darkness and nothingness of his dreamless sleep fading away, allowing the Intern to feel te world around him once again. Of course, with said awareness came the pain. It slowly faded in, unlike the darkness fading away, but then a sharp spike of incredible pain hit. Thankfully though it left not long after, returning to the constant, dull pain once again. He hoped it wouldn’t last too long.

With consciousness retained, he sat up and began to open his eyes. “Where… where am I?” uttered the Intern as he turned his head, looking around. He wasn’t sure how long he had been out, or were he was, but upon properly looking at his surroundings h e appeared to be in a cave tunnel, seemingly one of the many beneath the labs. It went on for a while by the looks of it. He couldn’t help but think about how weird it was that these looked more like mine shafts from those early 20th century times. They were in a lab after all, so, why not make these caves sturdier? Convert them into metal hallways instead? However, that was far from being the most pressing of issues. That would, instead, be the question of why he was here, and unconscious.

Mitchell took a moment to try and recollect what happened, to remember why he was in this tunnel, especially unconscious on the ground. The last thing he could remember was being in the church lab? He was with Dr. Ridley, that’s for certain… but…

Upon looking down, the Intern noticed Dr. Chambers’ name badge on him in place of his own, and this became the catalyst required to recall exactly what happened. His mouth hung slack as the events ran back through his head.

“Shit…”

He couldn’t believe he had just left Yeva and Nori there! What was wrong with him?!

Mitchel rushed up onto shaky legs, temporarily disoriented. He could have a concussion or something, but that didn’t matter, not to him. Yeva had saved his life, and he just abandoned her.

He was a coward, and he HATED that.

Turning around to go straight back to the church he was quickly faced with something terrible…

All he saw was rubble. Rocks blocking the path.

There’s no going back, no matter how guilty he felt. 

And that pissed him off.

Letting out a loud and primal yell the Intern grabbed his head. “I’m so stupid…” he repeated under his breath. He just had to run away didn’t he? Mitchell the coward, always running away and hiding. It happened all over again!

Sitting down on the same rock he had been driven to unconsciousness by, he attempted to calm down. He used a breathing exercise his brother taught him whilst he held his head.

His brother…

With a shake of his head, and a final breath out, the Intern had successfully managed to collect his feelings. 

“Okay… game plan,” began the young male. There was little he could do going backwards, so now he needed to devise a plan, one that would see him through to victory.

“So, what happened down here is bad. I can’t go back so forwards it is… But then what?” The Intern had little hope in himself right now, and that showed in his cracked voice. Although, the fact he had just been knocked out also played a part in said voice.

Taking a breath in, and a breath out, he made an attempt at thinking on a plan. But the breath out made him notice something he had been blind to before: it was cold.

His breath immediately became like fog, and thinking about it, it also felt awfully cold. Sure, he could also question why the suits were made for their breath to leave through their gas masks, but that’s something for future Mitchell to figure out…

If he survived long enough.

“Okay, everything is cold, there was an earthquake, and everyone here is dead. So, I move forward and find someone in charge… That should work… right?”

With a plan in mind, he quickly nodded to himself and began to continue forward, a smile on his face now he knows what he’s gonna do.

Mitchell the coward will no longer be a coward!

“AAAAAAAH!”

Mitchell the coward was, in fact, still a coward. 

After having walked for a good while, he had turned a corner to end up face to face with a skeleton. The skeleton was wearing the same work uniform as him and the rest of his colleges and–

Yep. Checking the name tag, this was Jinx, a coworker of his. Jinx was always late to work, more so then he was. Which always worked out in his favour as that meant Jinx always ended up being punished instead of him.

Jinx's incompetence generally saved Mitchell countless times from doing Drone Duty. If Jinx didn't exist, Mitchell feared he would have been far too acquainted with it.

But… how is he dead… and a skeleton? 

The body was also frozen which… added up actually.

Mitchell had a thought, not one he liked, but it was still a thought. All of the evidence he had seen so far added up to this one singular possibility… But he needed to wait first though, as he may be wrong and it’s never good to jump to conclusions. Sure, there was a lot of evidence, but the possibility… no… it was too terrible for him to believe, not yet. Not until there is absolute proof.

Still… he couldn’t just leave Jinx here. Sure, the two of them never really got along but… no one deserves to die, especially like this.

Mitchell reached out towards his dead coworker and took off the gas mask, turning it over in his hands. Looking at the mask made him truly understand the gravity of the situation. He could be alone… or worse, the last human.

Sure, his guess wasn’t proven yet but… if the core truly had collapsed?

With a sigh, he looked back up towards the skeletal remains of Jinx, and then took off his own mask.

Looking down at its cracked visage, in his left hand lay the shattered mask he had worn, and in his right was Jinx’s mask.

If the core really had collapsed, then his mask would be useless on the surface. But, looking down at the cracked mask, seeing his own reflection, he noticed just how chaotic his own appearance was. His red and blue eyes stared back, widened and fearful. The golden hair he wore on his head, carefully dyed in a selected place to be green, was chaotically tangled together and just generally a complete mess. His face pale from lack of sunlight and from terror. 

His own visage perfectly reflected his mental state right now, and it especially proved his concerns right...

He wasn’t cut out for this, he’s just the Intern. All he does is fetch people their drinks and make sure paperwork has been properly paperworked! Running around, trying to survive on a possible barren and dead planet? This wasn’t Fallout! He couldn’t do this!

He was Mitchel the coward, a fool, an idiot! He… He…

“Breath Mitchy, you’ll be fine!” The voice of his brother repeated in his mind, and closing his eyes he did as the memory ordered. 

A few seconds later, and the Intern was feeling calmer. “Thanks Jacob…”

Looking back down at Jinx’s mask, he knew what he had to do.

He dropped his old mask to the ground, and placed Jinx’s onto his face. With this trade, he was making a promise. A promise to do his best. Sure, he’s a coward, and he is DEFINITELY terrified right now. But if everyone else is dead, if he truly was the last human, he’d have to just try to survive. He'd screw up, a lot, and he knew for a fact that he'll definitely panic a lot. But... he can still try to do better, and that's what matters.

To try to do good…

“Do us proud Mitchy…”

“I can’t be a coward…”

Suddenly a scream echoed from further down the corridor, one of terror. Someone else was here! He might not be alone after all!

The scream was scary, sure, but there was someone else! Maybe he wouldn’t have to survive on a barren planet. Maybe he could get help!

With determination riding his face, and with one last look towards his dead coworker, he sprinted down the corridor.

Chapter Text

The sound of his feet smacking against the dry stone echoed down the tunnel as he rushed towards the scream, which he had now realised wasn’t coming from one person but multiple.

The news of there being at least two more humans alive from the core collapse (that he deeply hoped didn’t actually happen) filled him with joy! So much joy, in fact, that he didn’t exactly consider why these people were still screaming.

His original reasoning was that he heard a scream because someone saw a dead body, just like him. But, they are still screaming, and Mitchell, despite being rather perceptive, was so clouded with elation he was yet to piece that together…

Rounding the final corner, skidding as he did so which almost made him fall over, Mitchell only now realised why they were still screaming, and the reason caused him to freeze in place.

I’m so stupid…

Honestly, Mitchell had no idea why he had made such a fatal and stupid error. Considering what had recently happened with him and the Solver, he was genuinely shocked that he hadn’t been any more careful.

After all, he was the one to notice the missing Sentinels originally.

And here they were, both of them. Backs turned to him, but they were facing the people he had rushed to find. He couldn’t exactly see them, but their panicked and worried voices as the mechanical dingos closed in on them was enough to tell Mitchell that they were, indeed, still there.

The Sentinels were strange. Designed specifically to hunt down and kill the Solver and especially any Solver infected hosts or those terrible Disassembly Drones, and they were incredibly efficient at it. However, their danger was a double edged sword. Special software was installed to stop them from being violent to humans, a LOT of RALLY special software, and even some hardware. However, despite all of that, they still could hurt humans. 

It wasn’t common, in fact it was somewhat rare, but that’s mainly due to all of the procedures put in place to ensure employee safety. But attacks from Sentinels were still too common. And that is what truly terrified Mitchell about these things, why he HATED them. 

Because despite being robots made specifically to keep humans safe, they still attacked them. 

It was kind of ironic to Mitchell, really. Despite everything, all of their creations, all of their tools, buildings, entertainment, etc. All of it designed to aid humanity, yet in the end all of it ends up harming humanity instead.

Food made to taste good yet is incredibly unhealthy, power tools and lathes made to make construction easier yet kills and maims many humans, buildings made to keep humans safe and warm, decaying and collapsing on them, drones made to serve them instead turning on them and becoming robot murder angels following some eldritch abomination…

A repeating cycle, one that Mitchell had grown so incredibly tired of.

But right now he couldn’t exactly dwell on that, mainly because terror kept him rooted in his spot, watching these two Sentinels, ones that had previously made an attempt to lunge at him, now slowly making their way towards the people on the other side of them.

Suddenly one of the Sentinels flashed the people, clearly an attempt to bootloop them.

That is also something that scared Mitchell, these things struggled to tell a human apart from a drone, hence their aggression towards humans. It was just so eerie to him, a weapon that can’t discern friend or foe. 

However, that did give him an idea. And the sound of something hard, possibly metal, hitting the ground was all that was needed to drag Mitchell straight back into the moment. He had a plan, now he needed to deal with his fear, the same fear that rooted him to the ground.

“Breath Mitchy.”

Taking a few deep breaths in and out, the Interns legs began to soften, their connection to the ground looser than it was prior. 

Now, Mitchell wasn’t one to do things without really thinking, and mind you, he HAD thought about what he was gonna do, not much though. However, there were, at least, two people here. Possibly the last humans on the planet, maybe in existence. And that was all that was needed for him to push forwards with this plan.

Or, well, maybe for any normal person. For Mitchell, while that played a part in his decision to act, it was mostly the fact that what he was gonna do actually ensured his survival.

So, the Intern ran in between the two raptor copycats and spun around to face them. With his left hand held out before him in a “stop” motion, his right hand moved up to his mask and removed it, revealing his god awfully pale face to the Sentinels. His HUMAN face.

His plan was simple really. The Sentinels didn’t recognise humans because of what they wore, something about the basic shape and appearance being similar enough to the drones that it caused confusion in them? Honestly, Mitchell didn’t understand the mechanics behind it, just what Dr. Ridley had told him in one of her dinosaur based rants. God, she really loved dinosaurs... No wonder they look like this…

Because of this, Mitchell was aware that, while a Sentinel couldn’t tell the difference between a human in a gas mask from a drone, they can tell the difference between a human face and a drone face. Mitchell wasn’t too sure why these people hadn’t tried that yet, maybe they were too scared to actually try it, but Mitchell… Well, yeah, he’s probably even more scared than them, but he has had to do this once before, so doing this again was actually easier than it seemed.

And thankfully it did work! The Sentinels froze up, tilting their heads at the Intern, clearly scanning him to see if he really was a human. And it did take a bit, but once they had done that, the two turned around and just ran off. Shockingly easy!

Of course, that didn’t stop the Intern from letting out the shaky breath he had been holding in. Sure, he was pretty certain this would work, but he’s still a wimp. These things were the scariest robots out there! Not even the Solver was this scary, not to him anyway.

The sound of shuffling feet behind him returned him back to the moment, and he promptly put his gas mask back on. Sure, it was safe to not wear one right now, but it was really cold and it gave him some sense of warmth. Not much but enough.

“Well, that was scar–” Mitchell had turned around to face those he had helped, being ready to start up conversation with the new people he was about to meet… Only to be met by a Worker Drone. Fuck…

Honestly, that made so much more sense to the Intern now that he thought about it. It explained why the Sentinels were after them, why they tried to bootloop them, why they hadn’t tried the “taking off the mask” trick, etc. Mitchell was kind of embarrassed he hadn’t realised that earlier.

When he stopped dwelling on that, he realised that the drone he saw had actually moved, now standing before a locker. It, supposedly a she by the clothing and wig she had on, was pulling fervently at a locker, trying desperately to open it.

Mitchell hadn’t really got a good look at the area he was in before, but now that he had the chance he realised that this was another locker area, similar to the one he grabbed Yeva from earlier. There were about the same amount of lockers, but all with different numbers on.

The numbers confused him. They were clearly the designations of the drones, but the lockers they were placed in weren’t in any sort of order. Yeva and Nori’s lockers were right next to each other despite being numbered 2 and 48. It weirded him out, and that's not even touching the use of repeated numbers too, like how they had two drones numbered 17 or-

The drone he had just saved had stopped pulling on the locker and was now looking up at the Intern, fear still coating her teal coloured visor, but it was now joined by concern and anticipation as well. She seemed to be wanting something, but was too scared and worried to ask.

Oh I get that feeling little buddy…

“Uhhh… Hi?” With a small, and very nervous wave, Mitchell attempted to calm the worker down. Thankfully, this seemingly worked, most likely caused by his own awkwardness and anxiety allowing the worker to relate and see he wasn’t a threat.

“Y-you don’t sound like Doctor Chambers…” muttered the worker in a distinctly Swedish accent, who had apparently seemed to have mistaken the Intern for said doctor. That would explain her prior anxiousness. Doctor Chambers was a very… scary man. Or so he’s heard, Mitchell had never actually met him before.

“O-oh! No, no! I’m not– I’m not him… ha ha ha…” The awkward laughter came out by accident, but it was a good thing it did since it seemed to relieve the drone slightly. “No, I’m Mitchel. I, uh… I kinda put on the wrong uniform?” 

Mitchell’s admission of his mistake caused a smile to start forming on the worker, and a light giggle to escape her. 

This was nice, and exactly what Mitchell needed. Sure, he hadn’t found any humans, and he could possibly still be the last, but he had company, living company. Hearing this worker laugh? That’s exactly what he needed to make him feel better.

“I’m Freyja, uhm… Thank you for saving us.”

Mitchell was about to say something along the lines of “You’re welcome” or “I’m glad you’re okay” or something, but before he could, he noticed Freyja look back at the locker, a concerned expression returning to her face, before she spoke again. “But… I’m sorry… I need your help. Please?”

A smile worked its way onto the Interns face, a warm one he would have wanted to ease the worker. Thankfully, it seemed as though said worker, Freyja, seemed to sense this smile through his gas mask, and so she eased herself a bit. “Of course! What do you need help with?”

“My… My husband… He’s inside this locker. Please free him,” begged the robot, looking up at him pleadingly. 

That face was one he just couldn’t say no to.

“Of course!” responded the human, which made Freyja move aside to allow Mitchell to get closer to the locker, which he did proceed to do.

Upon looking at the locker, he realised that it was locked. That’s why Freyja couldn’t open it. Mitchell was now clueless. He didn’t have a key for this locker, nor the keycard, and the computer that can also be used to unlock these lockers was nowhere to be seen.

“Uhhhh…” Mitchel placed his hand on his chin in a pondering position, or where his chin should be behind the mask. He then stared at the locker, trying to figure out what exactly he should do. However, he proceeded to jump out of his skin, metaphorically, when the sounds of metal scraping came from behind him, followed afterwards by footsteps approaching him. Metallic footsteps.

Slowly he began to turn around, panic and apprehension rising inside him as he began to consider and imagine all sorts of terrifying things that could be causing that sound. Are the Sentinels back? Did the Solver possess another host and was out for revenge? Did one of the skeletons come to li– 

“Well will you look who it is! If it ain't Mitchy boy!” 

This was the worst possible outcome…

Suddenly his fear completely dispelled at the sound of a very, annoyingly, familiar voice. The visage of said individual didn’t help much either once he had turned around fully, his anxiety now replaced entirely by annoyance.

“Oh great…” grumbled the Intern as he stared down at the visage of the one individual he was not in the mood to deal with, worker drone 017 (or, well, one of them)… Alice…

“Why are you here?” asked the human, the irritation in his voice almost palpable. His arms immediately crossed themselves almost automatically, this seeming to be a natural position for him to be in when in the vicinity of the southern accented drone.

“Well I was trying to help ol’ Freyja here find ‘er partner before being boot looped by them dang dinosaurs. Thanks for yer help with that, by the way.” Her sarcasm came in full force at the end there, then she mimicked Mitchell’s arm cross, partially in a way to show her own frustrations, but mostly to tick off the human a bit.

Right… That’s what that metal thud was earlier…

After having come to the conclusion that the sound he had heard earlier that snapped him out of his fear was actually Alice’s bootlooped body falling to the floor (and being unable to hold back the smile that sprouted on his face from imagining that), he then realised that he could use Alice’s help here. Of course, there was one teeny, tiny issue with that.

He would HATE to ask her for help.

Sure, Alice is incredibly skilled with lockpicking, something that became a huge issue for his colleges that dealt with her. And yeah, said lockpicking skill could come in real handy right now. But Alice was the only individual Mitchell truly hated, and asking her for her help would be the single worst thing in the world.

However, upon looking to his right he noticed Freyja was staring at the locker, fear and worry coating every corner of her face. She was so focused on her husband that she didn’t notice the two others having their little “spout”.

With an audible grown, Mitchell gave into his empathy and turned back to his rival.

“Alice I… oh god, I can’t believe I’m saying this…” 

“Yeeeeees?~” she asked in a sing-songy tone, dragging out the word as much as possible to get to Mitchells nerves. She sure as hell knew that what Mitchell was gonna say was also going to irritate him, so she was milking this as much as she possibly could.

“Can you… help… me?” Mitchel practically spat the word “help” out through his gritted, causing the drone's face to produce a devilish grin so wide not even Jim Carrey nor the Grinch could beat.

“Sure thing, buddy !” The southerner put extreme emphasis on the word buddy to rub the salt into the wound. However, before Mitchell could specify what he needed help with, Alice just pushed past him (literally pushing him aside) and then pulled out some bobby pins from her hair.

She fucking knew?!

The thought that Alice already was aware he needed help, and with what he needed help with, but instead chose to just wait for him to ask her for it instead truly made the man want to commit murder right now. However, this couldn’t be proven… until Alice took a quick break from lockpicking to just smirk at him, before returning back to her work.

I hate you.

Mitchell then proceeded to grumble to himself whilst the drone worked her magic, Freyja in the meanwhile watching Alice closely. She clearly needed something to distract her from her worries, or at least that’s what it seemed like to Mitchell anyway.

Thankfully it didn’t take long for Alice to finish her work, and once she did she turned to Mitchel and bowed. Most likely another attempt to piss him off… even more, that is. “My work is done. You will now thank me!”

Mitchell just scoffed at that, and thankfully Freyja was the one who interrupted Alice by lightly nudging her aside so she could open the locker.

Inside, chained up like all drones usually are, was a male worker drone, one who had his visor set to white, a rare thing to see nowadays despite that being the default option when they were originally made. The worker, however, seemed to be holding some sort of item close to his chest.

He looked up towards his wife, his very lonely looking expression quickly morphing to one of joy… before immediately changing into one of horror and fear when he saw Mitchell. Well, specifically the name badge he adorned.

Looking down at the badge just after the drone did, Mitchell held his hands out and shook them, also shaking his head. “Oh! No, no, I’m not Chambers! I just… er, accidentally put on his uniform instead of mine. He he…” The Intern began to rub the back of his head out of sheer awkwardness, but of course a certain drone just had to act up right now.

Alice began snickering at what he said, then that shifted, rather quickly, into a full out laughing fit. “Oh ma robo-god! How stupid are ya?” she bellowed out in pure joy, taking the moment to really lay into the Intern who simply just stood there, shoulders slumped, barely able to mutter a “I was in a rush…” before she continued. “How you’ve survived this long, I ‘ave no fucking clue!”

Freyja, on the other hand, just shook her head at her allies' antics, any worry having been purged from her now she knows her husband was safe. “You can trust him, he saved us from Sentinels, and tried to help get you out,” she said to her husband when she noticed him still feeling on edge. Thankfully his expression softened afterwards, the peacefulness of this moment immediately being ruined by Alice yelling out “Keyword being tried!”

Mitchell just rolled his eyes at that and slowly approached the chained drone, getting down to his knees to speak to him. “Er.. D-do you want me to help with, uhm, those?” he asked, pointing towards the chains on the drone. The drone nodded, and Mitchell then proceeded to do as he said he’d do, being much more slowly this time than when he tried releasing Yeva since he didn’t want to scare this drone, who seemed slightly jumpy, and also because Mitchell wasn’t in as much of a rush now as he was back then. 

And thankfully, going at a slower pace seemed to work out better as, unlike with Yeva, he didn’t end up hurting this drone in the process. Of course, the slowness of this did seem to bore Alice who made many, very , audible yawns. Mitchell was certain she was faking them to irritate him.

Mitchell then stood up and took a step back, but then held out his hand to help the worker up. Said worker looked at the hand at first, unsure, but cautiously took it, using his other hand to hold the object, which Mitchell noticed was white in colour, close to his chest still. 

Once up, the worker let go of his hand to then immediately be embraced by his wife. Mitchell would have let out an “awwww”, but he didn’t wish to cheapen the moment. That still didn’t stop him from moving his hands near his chest and letting out a quiet squeal.

Mitchell was rather different from the rest of his coworkers, he’d admit that. Unlike most, he had a lot of empathy for the worker drones. Sure, everyone else did see the drones as beings that could think and feel, and they certainly tried to treat them… better (something that was made mandatory after the gala event in an attempt to ensure no other drones would end up like the Solver), but the drones were still treated as if they were a lower class, and were still heavily disrespected. But Mitchell had no friends for a reason, and that’s because he was overall seen as the local weirdo by his coworkers for doing something so imaginably impossible: treating the worker drones equally.

In Mitchells eyes, anything with the ability to think and feel, whether sapient or not, is something that should still be given respect and treated as an equal. The fact others didn’t feel the same way deeply unsettled Mitchell, after all, these drones were alive. Yeah, they were created by humans, but that doesn’t detract from their capacity to be alive. 

Everyone called Mitchell an idiot for being this way. But, unlike them, he saw this ability to view the drones as equals as a gift, something good that others lacked. At least that’s what his mum always told him, and it’s something he agrees with. Empathy is an important thing people should have, and it was that lack of empathy that caused so many tragedies, the gala incident being the most obvious.

This gift of his is what allowed him to empathise with these workers that surround him currently, as other humans would have been confused, or even disgusted, by the drones ability to form relationships. But Mitchell saw it for what it really was; beautiful.

The couple then separated, both looking over towards Mitchell. The male approached him and tentatively held out his hand for a handshake, one Mitchell happily returned. “I’m glad you’re okay. Oh, uhm, I’m Mitchell by the way.” he introduced, the two letting go now. 

Instead of being told the workers name in response, Mitchell was instead taken aback when text appeared on the workers visor instead, it read “I’m Mallory”. It seemed that Freyja picked up on Mitchells confusion, so she chimed in with “Mallory here is mute, an accident caused it. He used to have a beautiful voice before, so very romantic and French.” The two turned to each other. “Not that it makes a difference. I still love him, no matter what.” The two then put their foreheads together, an event which almost made Mitchell cry from the sheer cuteness.

“Ah, okay. W-well, it’s nice to meet you Mallory!” 

“Ugh! Enough yappin’ already!” Alice’s rather rude response garnered the attention of everyone, and with all eyes on her now, she continued. “We should be focusing on the important stuff, like escaping? Or, I dunno, figuring out why every human down here is now an ice cube?” And with that, all eyes turned to Mitchell. From what Alice had said, it sounded like her and Freyja must have seen other frozen skeletons on their way here, and most likely several by the sounds of it. And, as the only human here right now, they clearly assumed he knew the answers.

“Uhhhh…”

“Can ya hurry up and explain?”

Alice’s rude remark caused a sigh to escape Mitchell, but after shaking his head to collect his thoughts, he did his best to explain his best possible theory. “Okay… So, the science group were doing some sort of, I think it was an experiment on Nori? They put the Solver in her and, I think, tried curing her of it? Anyway, everything went wrong, she killed everyone-”

Before Mitchell could continue, Alice interrupted. “Including Ridley?” After receiving a nod from the human, she responded with “Damn, she was the only human I liked.”

“Wow, thanks…” grumbled Mitchell, receiving a sarcastic “Yer welcome” from Alice.

“A-anyway… So, I was tasked with getting Yeva… for some reason? I don’t know why, but Dr. Ridley was convinced I was Dr. Chambers, so maybe that has something to do with it? But, I got Yeva, and we made it back to the lab and she used the crucifix patch thingy to save Nori? I think?”

“So… Nori has been patched? She’s cured of the Solver, like Yeva?” piped in Freyja, a look of hope on her face. He guessed this was because she was thinking she could be cured too, which he hoped so as well.

“Y-yeah, I think that’s what happened,” he responded, before finishing his story. “But, I was running away when everything shook. I think I must have hit my head, because I was unconscious for a while. I then came across… a, uhm… Jinx. I… I found Jinx, but…” The tone of his shaky voice was all the others needed to understand what he was trying to convey. Looking up he saw Mallory projecting text on his screen that read “I’m sorry you saw that”.

“Thanks…” He took a breath, before now getting onto his theory. “So, I don’t know for certain what happened, but it’s definitely connected to what happened at the lab. My guess is a possible core collapse, which I might have survived from the tunnel collapsing behind me, which likely blocked the effects of the collapse. But, if that's true then… Everyone else might be dead too. All humans here.” This revelation caused the faces of all of the drones around him to become shocked, even Alice who usually didn’t care much about people at all seemed a bit on edge by that.

“B-but, this can’t be proven yet. We’ve only seen people down here be dead, so we won’t know the truth until we leave this area.” Mitchell’s chimed in quickly, hoping to ease the others..

“Right, so we ‘ave a plan then? Find a way out of here so we can find out what in tarnation is going on?” With Alice confirming the plan that they had, everyone seemed to be filled with a new found purpose. Everyone seemed ready to move on with this plan. Well, Mitchell, while feeling the same, was still his nervous self. He had some doubts about this.

Mallory then turned to his wife, seemingly saying something to her through his screen. “Mallory says that he knows where the elevator to the offices is.”

“Well then, what are ya waiting for? Lead us there!” responded the southern robot rather rudely, but they could all tell she was just excited to finally be doing something. A type of rudeness not done to antagonise someone, a truly rare sight to behold.

And with that they were off, Mallory leading them down the tunnels, his wife next to him, Mitchel behind them and the troublemaker behind him. Mitchel didn’t trust having his back to Alice, but right now he had no choice.

During the walk they passed many more frozen skeletons. Mitchell did his best to avoid looking at them though, so instead he focused on the mystery of the strange item in Mallory’s arms. Upon further inspection, it seemed to be some sort of white oval? Possibly made of metal? He was going to ask Mallory, but he didn’t get a chance to as they had just reached their objective.

“Thank fuck, finally!” exclaimed the foul mouthed southerner as she pushed forward, immediately calling the lift. It was already on this level though, so the doors just opened immediately which was a relief for Alice, the impatient drone quickly rushing inside. Mallory followed suit, not exactly fond of Alice’s behaviour by the look on his face, but went in there anyway so they could move on.

Mitchell was about to enter too when Freyja grabbed his arm suddenly, looking up at him with concern on her screen. “What if you were right? If you are the only human here?” she asked, Mitchell suddenly becoming aware that the worry she had wasn’t for herself but rather for him. 

“I…” Mitchell didn’t really know how to answer that, He didn’t really properly think about what he’d do, or how it would really affect him. With a sigh, he responded the only way he could think of right now. “I guess I’ll figure it out?”

Freyja looked at him for a bit, seeming to be seeing if it really was a good enough answer, but then she reluctantly nodded, her worry remaining. She then let go of his arm and entered the lift, Mitchell doing the same afterwards, but not before taking a moment to look over the lift and consider the events of today.

Once inside, Alice hurried to press the button, her impatience clear on her face. She didn’t seem too happy by Mitchell’s delay, but when was she ever happy with him?

However, on the ride up, what Freyja said did make him wonder. 

What would he do?

Chapter Text

The lift ride up was quiet, a quiet that Mitchell and the drone couple appreciated deeply. God knows they needed it after what they’ve all been through.

It sure is a shame we can’t have nice things!

Alice immediately shattered the peace they had by just going off on some sort of rant or something. Honestly Mitchell did not pay attention to her at all, and by the looks of it, Freyja and Mallory were also beginning to grow tired of the southerners' antics. Sure, she was just talking, but she was talking a LOT. Too much even. And whatever topic she was talking about sure seemed annoying, based on the couple's expressions.

Thankfully It didn’t take long for the lift to finally stop, opening up to the all too familiar corridor that Mitchell had seen way too many times. Why the designers of the labs decided to make such an elegant and grandiose corridor to the “secret elevator”, he had no idea.

In fact, why was it even a secret, at least anymore anyway?

If Mitchell remembered correctly, they put up a sign leading to the lift a while back because people kept forgetting where it was. So, what was even the point of everyone being so hushed about it? Seems kinda counterintuitive.

But then his mind shifted, thoughts moving from the office itself to the people who worked there, his co-workers, his friends.

Well, okay, friends is a very generous word, like, VERY generous. He was close with some, sure, but the others he knew he just, well, knew them. They interacted at times, but that’s basically it.

But, that still didn’t stop him from getting upset over the deaths of the ones below. Sure, he didn’t know them, but they still died. No one deserved that. And they were all dead, all of them, and possibly the whole planet was too! And if they weren't, then what the hell was he supposed to tell his boss? Or, at least whoever was still alive to be his boss, that is. 

This was all of his fault after all. If he had worn the correct uniform then Ridley wouldn’t have trusted him with something so sensitive, she’d have saved the day…

Or at least he’d have died alongside his friends, instead of being abandoned… alone…

Shaking his head to break up those depressing thoughts, he noticed the others had already left the lift and were, rather nervously, making their way down the corridor. Well, everyone except for Alice who had been standing in front of Mitchel and was poking his mask with a crowbar she had found… somewhere.

“Oi! Copper-9 to Mitchell! Mitchy! Bitchy Mitchy! Wake up!” 

God she’s annoying.

“Fuck you…” he uttered under his breath as he swatted away the invading object, clearing his face of any pests. Well, except for the one he couldn’t remove. 

“Stop standin’ around and wastin’ time like ya usually do, idiot! I thought you were the one who wanted to–” before she could get another word in, Mitchell interrupted her with a simple “Shut!” the “up” dying in his throat before he could get it out as he had got what he wanted. However the smirk on her face showed that she, too, had also got what she wanted. 

With a grumble he pushed past her, noticing the other two ahead had stopped and were now looking back at them from the end of the hallway.

Making his way towards the couple, the southerner smirking devilishly beside him as they walked, he began to notice that it felt much colder up here than it did before. His face scrunched itself up as he thought on that, the only two answers as to why were either silly or very scary.

The latter was the most likely.

Once reaching the couple, Mitchell managed to notice a look of concern on Freyja’s face as she looked towards him. Why was she worried? Was she worried about him?

“So, Mitchy boy, where we off to now? Where will you go to confirm if your species of morons are still alive?” Mitchell could swear he heard some hints of irritation in Alice’s voice towards the end. Mind you, he couldn’t really blame her, humans had built them to be slaves but still gave them sapience, so, it was somewhat justified.

With a groan, and after rubbing his mask where his forehead would be, he began to consider the options. “Well, uhm, the best option would probably be to find the highest ranking boss? Well, one who wasn’t, uhm, dead… downstairs.” Thinking on this, he then remembered a boss who wasn't down there and should also, hopefully, be alive. “W-which would be Dr. Chambers.”

“Hold on, the old coot wasn’t down there?” It seemed Freyja was gonna ask the same thing, although with less snark, but Alice had spoken before she could. 

“Oh, uh, no. He, uhm, wasn’t. That’s why Dr. Ridley mistook me for him, because… well, uhm, he wasn’t… there?” Mitchell didn’t want to bring up him wearing Chambers uniform, that mistake was incredibly embarrassing and one he was still wearing on himself, which was silently pointed out by Alice smirking as she looked at the name badge he wore.

“Why?”

“Huh?” Mitchell looked towards Freyja in confusion, his head tilting slightly in an unconscious attempt to ask for clarification.

“Well, do you know why he wasn’t there? Was he sick or something?” Clarified the only friendly drone nearby that could speak. 

For once Alice remained quiet, the fact she was thinking being worn evidently on her face, as well as concern. In fact, this question even made Mitchell freeze up too. 

Being sick wouldn’t have prevented him from showing up, Mitchell knows this, and even Alice too. The two of them had enough experiences with him to know that. Sure, Freyja had met him a few times, but her time around him was nothing compared to how often the other two had. Even her own partner seemed to have more experience due to his own thoughtful expression. 

“I–”

Before he could reply, Alice interrupted him, but this time not to insult him. Not directly anyway.

“Don’t Mitch, we both know that this is weird and not somethin’ that can be explained away easily. He’s ALWAYS at tests. Always.” She put emphasis on both “Always”, the latter being laden with some sorrow. This sudden shift to seriousness from her sent a shiver down Mitchell’s spine, and he couldn’t even question her on how she knew what he was gonna say as he was too caught surprised by her. He had never seen Alice this way before. Not in a long while anyway…

Alice was always goofing off and messing about. If she didn’t have a smirk or a smile on her face, it was some other overly pronounced expression. Not… this.

Still, he could understand why she was like this. Even he had to admit how weird this was. Like she said, Chambers was ALWAYS there. No matter how big or small the test or development was, he’d be there. Even if he was unwell he’d still make it. Hell, he even skipped his own wife's funeral to be there to interview a drone. An interview!

He took workaholic to a whole 'nother level.

So why wasn’t he here now?

Where was he?

“Uh…” was all that would exit his throat.

Mitchell’s silence now made Freyja worry too, the concern returning to her face, now being coloured with some fear too. An expression he shared. 

“Well…” he began, trying to formulate a game plan. “H-his office! If he’s not there, then we’ll find some sort of file that says where he’s gone.”

“-- Th-that's if there’s no one else… uhm… alive, of course, ha ha.” Mitchell felt like he needed to add that last part, mostly for his own sanity. However, the awkward chuckle at the end didn't help calm him down much anyway. As time went on, though, and as they all questioned this situation more and more, Mitchell felt himself growing to believe that he really was the last human alive on this planet. He didn’t want to believe it, hence his correction, but wants don’t always come true.

Thankfully everyone seemed to agree with that plan, Alice slowly nodding.

Then they began to make their way towards the location of Chambers’ office, Mitchell leading the way as he was the only one who actually knew the way there. Thankfully Alice remained quiet the whole time, seemingly deep in thought. It concerned him, seeing her act so out of character, but he still got it. She was busy thinking about the Chambers thing. It clearly meant a lot to her and he knew why…

After the stuff he had put her through, he couldn’t quite blame her for being so caught up by this revelation.

The group, before heading off, had all decided it’d be in their best interest if they took the long way round to his office, the slow route, as that’d provide them with their best chance to find people, if any survived.

Sadly, however, that wasn’t the case. 

At first the halls were just empty, no one being around but that wasn't too abnormal. But, as they walked more they saw the office looked more… dilapidated. Not ruined, but certainly not looking its best. The place seemed frozen over slightly too, which concerned the human even more.

Once they entered the main office area, however, they saw them. Skeletons. Lots of them. All frozen. 

Unlike down below these people didn’t have the decency of keeping all of their clothes. They also seemed covered in ice, more than the people below, again. This was the final nail in the coffin. Mitchell’s theory, the one he feared the most, was true. 

No one survived.

He was alone…

And he was to blame…

Just like mom said… I’ll die alone, and it’ll all be my fault…

He remembered the times she said that, it was easy to remember, with how often she said it. She’d usually come home from work with some strong alcohol and get both herself and his dad pissed. Then she’d berate him for hours about how useless he was, how his brother was so much better…

She was right…

Mitchell was kicked out of his thoughts by the feeling of his sleeve being pulled. Looking down to his left he saw Mallory holding said sleeve, the drone looking up at him with a comforting smile on his face. It was as if he could sense the distress in the human. Hell, Mitchell wouldn't be surprised if they were built with some sort of psychic abilities that let them read minds with how often these drones could just tell what you were thinking.

Letting out a sigh, he relaxed his shoulders and nodded towards the male worker. “I-I’m fine… thank you…” 

He wasn't, that was a lie, but the drone didn’t seem to notice. Either that or he pretended not to. Mallory then smiled up at the human, Mitchell doing the same under his mask in response, a sort of wordless agreement, the drone essentially telling him he “was there for him”. 

Mallory turned to the two girls, Mitchell doing the same. They were looking towards him, Freyja evidently slightly shaken up by the bodies, as evident by her hollowed out eyes, but she seemed to be trying to push this down for the sake of the others. Alice was looking at him expectantly too, but was remaining quiet. She clearly still had a lot on her mind.

“O-okay… So… Everyone’s dead…” he began. Mitchell’s voice shook when he announced what he said. He didn’t like how he was glossing over this, but… what else could he do? Alice’s expression remained the same. She had, evidently, already worked that out. Freyja’s was a look of knowing, however, and Mallory seemed shocked, but then became sympathetic.

“I…” Mitchell’s voice caught in his throat, what was he to do? He was the last human on the planet, possibly the last human full stop. He was alone on a planet he couldn’t even survive on without special equipment…

Wait… equipment?

“So… m-maybe we should scavenge the supply room? I, errr, don’t really know what else to do really… I can't really… live.. You know, with the planet like this?” The others nodded, all in agreement. All except for Alice. 

“What about Chambers?” The serious tone that came from Alice froze Mitchell. She sounded cold, even more so than before. It was like the Alice from earlier wasn't even in there.

“I… well…” 

“We can’t just ignore his disappearance. Somethin’ is going on with him.”

He couldn’t deny that, Alice had a point. And with how that monster is almost certainly on its way here, this could be important. But, surely survival should be just as important, right?

Freyja looked up at Mitchell. While he had been considering his options, she too had looked downwards to think. “Mitchell? Where exactly is his office?”

“O-oh… w-well, uhm… roughly… that way?” He awkwardly pointed in the direction they’d need to go. He was never really good with directions, so he thought that pointing would be good enough.

Freyja nodded and then brought her hand to her chin. “Älskling? Which direction do we need to go?”

Confused by her line of thoughts, Mitchell followed her gaze to Mallory, who’s visor displayed the text “Same direction”.

“Awfully convenient…” grumbled the familiar southern accent. “Fine, fine. I guess I’ll go and find ‘supplies’ while y’all run off and do the rest.” Alice didn’t seem too pleased about this, clearly wanting to find Chambers herself. But, as Mitchell was the only one who knew where to go, that meant that he’d have to go instead. Something everyone already clocked on to.

Freyja smiled at this, happy with this compromise. “Great! So, we’ll meet up back here again once we’re done.” Mitchell was content with this, but he couldn’t help but be reminded of his mother. Perhaps it was the way Alice looked at him, or the way she spoke, or something else entirely… either way, yet more of her insults came to his mind…

I really am a leach Aren’t I? Needing others to do all the work for me…

With everyone nodding in response to the plan, the group split up. Alice already knew where the supply room was, she had hid in it many times before when she “acted out”, so she went in that direction while Mitchell and the couple went in the opposite direction towards Chambers’ office.

“Hey… Mitchell?” The voice of Freyja made itself clear after a while of walking. She had been conversing with her husband previously while he walked in thought, but now she was looking up at him, Mallory doing so too.

“O-oh, uhm, yeah?” 

“Mallory and I were talking and, well…” She appeared uncertain on whether she should ask the question, but after a moment she did. “Why do you and Alice, well, hate each other so much?”

“Everyone will hate you.”

“We, well, noticed that you two haven’t gotten along at all since you saved us. And, you two seem to have some sort of history,” continued the drone. He couldn't blame her for being curious, many of his co-workers had noticed the same before too.

Shaking his head to remove that memory, he let out a sigh. Story time, I guess…

“W-well… She’s always… ugh…” Telling this story was something he hoped he didn’t need to do today, but seeing the looks on their faces made him realise he probably should. He owed them after all, he did get them into this mess…

“Well… We used to be close, k-kinda…” That earned somewhat surprised expressions from the two. They didn’t seem too shocked, after all most hostile relationships like theirs originate from close friends falling out, but they were still clearly not expecting him to be so easy to drop the bombshell about his and Alice’s closeness. Their response urged out an awkward “yeah” while he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly..

“We’d hang out, a-a lot… back when she was a normal worker, you know, in the mines and… stuff… Management didn’t approve of our re--... f-friendship…” Relationship didn’t feel like the right word to say, not now anyway. Maybe back then… Best to stick to friendship… That’s what we should have done…

With a sigh he continued. “Then Earth… my… family were there, they lived there. We were on call when it… ended…” He never liked to remember that last call… he still missed his dad and brother… He cleared his throat before moving on.

“It’s my fault really… I pushed her away after that, it hurt too much… She then just… changed, one day. I found out she had started watching videos of my parents… of my mom… and then the experiments happened and she just… took after her…” He rubbed his mask, an attempt to rub his face which, obviously, didn’t work.

“After that we just… no longer clicked… She was too different… too difficult…”

He had suddenly noticed that the sound of the two drones walking had stopped, so he looked over to check up on them, only to see their sad and, rather horrified, faces. He didn’t want to deal with this right now, so he shook his head and attempted to move on, facing forward again to continue walking.

“A-anyway… so…”

But before he could he was suddenly halted, a pull at his waist stopped him from moving. Looking back he saw it was Mallory, who was now hugging him. “I-I…”

“No.” Freyja interrupted. “You need this.” Standing with her arms crossed and looking directly at him, it was almost as if she was staring directly through his mask and straight at him. She knew. Sure, he wasn’t exactly subtle about it when he… mentioned “her”. But she sussed it out. 

And so they stood there for a bit, Mitchell remaining there while Mallory hugged him, the body of their soon to be exported child in Freyja’s arms now. At some point Mitchell had hugged back too. Maybe… Maybe mom was wrong?

His dad would say that… god he missed him…

After a while they were back on the proverbial road, silence filling the corridor again.

Thankfully it didn’t take much longer to reach the drones location: the upload centre.

For some bizarre reason, JCJenson in Spaaaaace had decided to give the drones a way to reproduce. It was… weird. They were robots right? So, why make them able to get pregnant or however they had kids? Once again another reason as to why Mitchell saw them as people and not tools.

The room was similar in appearance to an operating room, sterile and very, very white. However, instead of one of those surgery bed things, there was a machine that looked similar in the middle, and the weird circular light above said bed was that, but, with claws and arms and stuff. Kinda like what the Cyberman conversion machine looked like in Doctor Who series two…

He didn’t actually know what the process was in creating robot children, so while Mallory took the body of the child and went to set up the machine, he stayed by Freyja as she explained the process to him. It mostly went over his head, but he believes the gist is that, roughly, the conceiving part is the same? Somehow? But they don’t get pregnant per say, not with a physical child, instead it seems that the code of the child instead, and it happens in a special folder in their system instead of a womb?

To Mitchell it just sounded like some weirdo in R&D wanted to try and replicate human pregnancy with robots. God knows the sick fantasies that guy had. With a shudder Mitchell immediately tried to block out these theories. Sure, he and Alice had discussed… stuff, back when they were close. But, god, to think some sicko would force their own weird fantasies upon some new species? Yeah, he definitely needed to repress that.

Now in silence, Mitchell couldn’t help but dwell on his own thoughts. Specifically about his mother. He always seemed to get more reminded of her around Alice, probably because of how similar they are now…

He just had to do what he always did, think of his dad.

His dad loved him, so, so much. Probably to make up for the lack of love from his mother. 

That’s why she'd get him drunk the moment she’d get home, because otherwise he’d immediately jump in defence of Mitchell, but when drunk it made it harder for him to do so. 

She ruined him… Gave him problems…

But despite it all, he and Jacob stuck by his dad for it all. Eventually the three of them kicked her out.

That day was divine.

He began his breathing exercises again, Jacob always hammered into his head that they were important.

He frowned. He missed them so, so much. And, without them, did he fall? Become like his mum said he would? A worthless, stupid, selfish parasite?

But… then he turned to his right and saw them. Freyja and Mallory. Mallory was still setting up the machine, but the baby thing was on the table, and Freyja was staring at it, a smile on her face and a digital tear rolling down her visor. 

He watched as the machine was activated, seeing a USB cable come down from the machine in the ceiling, it being plugged into the oval baby’s back by Freyja. Then she laid down next to her soon to be child, and another USB cable came down which she plugged into the back of her neck. Her visor displayed a download progress bar, and an exact same one appeared on the baby.

It didn’t take long for this to end, and for Freyja to unplug herself and the baby, before standing up. 

She held it in her arms, the new drone beginning to make sound.

He just witnessed the first ever drone birth. Well, the first ever drone birth he’s seen anyway.

Then he thought back to his mother and what she’d say. 

About how worthless he was, how he’d ever amount to anything. How he couldn’t do a thing.

No… She’s wrong.

Looking at the family, Mallory and Freyja hugging while holding their child, he saw what was the truth. He helped.

If he hadn't been there when the Sentinels attacked, they’d have died. This child wouldn’t have been born… His dad was right, his mother was full of shit.

Freyja called Mitchell over, and tentatively he joined them, looking down at the giggling E.V.E lookalike. Its visor displayed its eyes, which looked more like archways with how it was giggling.

“So…” he began, “What are you gonna name… uhhh…” 

Freyja giggled at Mitchell’s confusion at the unknown gender. “We pick our gender later on in life,” she answered, smiling up at him. She looked overjoyed. 

“But… we don’t actually know…” Looking down at her child again, Mallory did too. Both were clueless. Mallory then looked up at the human, a message on his visor: “Any suggestions?”

He looked down at the baby, in thought too. But then it came to him. “Beau?”

The two looked at him, and then the baby laughed, almost as if it liked the name. The two parents smiled at Mitchell, then at their baby. Beau had chosen its name.

Dad would be proud… With what I've done today, the people I’ve helped… He’d be glad to have this child named after him.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t that far of a walk to Dr. Chambers’ office, and however long the walk was, it was felt significantly shorter by the entertainment everyone gained from coddling the brand new baby. Beau was happily giggling away while everyone gave him the attention the adorable metal egg deserved.

Mitchell, who had never seen a baby drone before, was completely enamoured by him. After all the terrible thoughts he had, he knew that none of them mattered now. All that mattered to him right here and right now was ensuring that Beau had a happy and long life, a future fit right for him.

However, the joy soon faded once they finally did arrive at Chambers’ office. The door was closed, but thankfully unlocked. The room that laid inside, though, was… well, suffice to say, it was a mess.

Papers were thrown about the room, a potted plant had been toppled over with the dirt having been thrown out of the pot, cabinets had their drawers thrown open, one of them was even dented on the side from where someone had, evidently, punched it rather hard. This room had been ransacked. Either someone came in here to search for something, or someone left in a rush. A very angry rush according to that poor, dented cabinet. 

Considering the disappearance of the one individual who was never gone, the safest bet was the latter.

Mitchell was unaware of the two adult drones conversing behind him while he stood at the entrance taking it all in, mouth agape behind his mask. But he was soon drawn back to reality when he felt a tugging sensation on his sleeve. Looking down he realised it was Freyja.

“My husband is gonna take care of our child outside this room,” she told him, looking over at her partner and the baby he held in his hands, the human doing the same. Mitchell looked back at Freyja and nodded his head in response. 

“Y-you, uhm… You gonna stay out here t-too? Or…” Mitchell didn’t continue, but he didn’t need to, Freyja knew what he was asking. Shaking her head she responded. “I’ll stay with you, it will make looking for information faster.” With that decided, the two entered the desolate office, Mitchell being very nervous while Freyja was less so, but still somewhat worried.

Upon entering they both realised the room was even more of a mess than they had originally perceived. The office chair that belonged to Chambers had been overturned, lying on the floor. Its position seemed to imply that whoever had been sitting on it had gotten up so fast, possibly out of shock, that they had accidentally sent it backwards and onto the floor. However, what concerned him was the dust, specifically on the papers.

The papers that were strewn around, specifically those on the desk, were covered in a very thin layer of dust. Whatever had happened here hadn't happened too recently, possibly a few days prior, no more than a work week.

Mitchell looked up from the chair that he stood over towards Freyja, and the two made eye contact. Without saying a word the two seemed to immediately understand each other; she was going to search the cabinets and the papers on the floor, while Mitchell looked through the desk, the papers on the desk, and the computer. 

Sadly, however, the papers on the desk didn’t seem too relevant. They were just basic reports and stuff, most having been written up by Ridley. They were just discussing progress with the patch, at least the majority were, there were some odd ones out that were discussing drone interviews, and a few miscellaneous things seemingly unrelated to anything completely, like one report being about some sort of shipment for mechanical components to somewhere labelled “site B”?

Mitchell quickly moved away from those and instead focused on the computer. Pulling up the chair, he sat down on it so he could be more comfortable when going through his bosses files. 

He only now realised how truly scuffed this was, him and, essentially, a robot slave were snooping through his bosses stuff. Considering the end of the world was essentially on its way, however, he could excuse this. Especially since the information here could be used to help stop said coming apocalypse.

Annoyingly, and rather obviously, the computer needed a password to be entered in order to be accessed, so Mitchell began searching the desk itself to find some sort of clue for what it could be. He knew from the hint on the monitor that it needed at least one letter, one number and needed to be at least eight characters long. So, that’d help, probably…

Sifting through the desk he found many things, none of which were helpful. Most of it was work stuff, more papers about shipments, and more drone interviews. But, there was one drawer that seemed to be filled with more personal stuff, or at least used to be. Everything had been laid out in some sort of weird OCD order, the items being made to fit together like some giant Tetris puzzle.

The drawer, however, had been looked through recently-ish, seemingly in a rush, and some items had been removed. A small booklet of photos had one of the pictures taken out, and a small square item seemed missing too. 

Looking at the booklet, Mitchell saw that the small paper frame that the missing photo belonged to had writing on it, it reading: “25th July 3023”. The day Chambers married his wife twenty eight years ago. This clearly meant that the picture missing was their wedding photo…

Looking towards the computer again, the intern had an idea now of what the password was, and upon typing in the whole date, using underscores in place of the spaces, the monitor opened up to the home screen. Many apps seemed to be open and they were clogging up the screen a bit. Whoever was in here (Mitchell guessed it was Chambers) must have been in such a rush they forgot to close their tabs and apps, and just put the computer on sleep mode instead of turning it off. A stupid decision on the part of said individual, but one that was benefiting the intern now.

Freyja was now standing beside Mitchell, watching the screen intently. She must have been drawn over by some sort of sound Mitchell made at his accomplishment, perhaps an “ah ha!” or something of the like. Mitchell didn’t remember making any sounds like that, but wouldn’t be surprised if he had.

The many tabs and apps open were all filled with text… Well, there was also a game of solitaire open, which the two promptly, and wordlessly, agreed to close. But everything else was just text. 

Some were useless, like one was a word document that was just a shopping list, and another was some sort of… smut… again, they decided to close that. But there were quite a few interesting things.

There seemed to be a message chain between Chambers and some other Doctor named Bradburn, something about a “prototype” and it being “the key”. There wasn’t much else though, as the few seemingly important messages about that sort of stuff was spaced between discussions of what they’d plan to do in their Minecraft 2 server.

Mitchell was jealous of that. How come this random scientist he had never heard about was allowed on that server when he wasn’t? Chambers’ Minecraft 2 server was rumoured to be the best!

However, after looking through that, he stumbled upon an open email. The email was from the same guy, Dr. Bradburn. 

“RE: Project EPIGONE

Dr. Chambers,

I’m afraid things have kinda gone tits up. My old friend, I hope you can forgive my lack of professionalism in this email, but I fear I lack the time or effort to do so.

The experiments have failed, Minos labs are being locked down.

I know I am asking a lot of you, but we both know the requirements of the lockdown procedure. 

I can’t speak much further on the matter, it is here with me now and I have no more time left.

Goodbye dear friend, and I am so so sorry for what I’ve done.

Your closest friend"

Well that was concerning…

In the entire time Mitchell had worked here, he had never once heard of a “Minos labs”. The only proper lab site that existed on the planet was, well, Cabin Fever labs. 

The human and the drone looked towards each other, both aware that the other had read to the same point, and that both had the same questions.

What the hell was that place? Where was it? And what was “project EPIGONE”?

H̸̡̢̬͕̭͉̙̰̹̺̩͊́͝E̸̡̨̢̱͓̞̪̮̝͚̹̾́̑̈͋͜ͅL̶̨̙̼͙̹̙̔̃̓̓̇̊̾͋͊̔̉̔̈́̑͘͠L̷̢̞͚̦̈́͗̍̑̑̂̕͘

“--But it could be dangerous!” 

“Exactly! ‘Could be’!”

The conversation that followed once they all met up again wasn’t… the best. Suffice to say, Alice wasn’t too happy that Chambers was missing.

“Are you even listening to me? This world is dead! We need to stick together!”

“And do what? What do y’all expect me to do, sit here while that British fucker is out there!”

Alice had a point. Chambers disappearing to some weird and mysterious lab was concerning. Plus, this was personal for her, he did do a lot to hurt her, after all. She would always misbehave or act up, a defiant trait that the old man really hated. So, he’d do what he could to push it out of her. Any means necessary…

Her hatred was justified.

“We don’t even know if he’s alive Alice! He could be dead, fan i helvete, he probably is!”

“Good! He deserves it! But I want to do it, not let some freaky unknown thing do it instead!”

Mallory looked very concerned, this argument had been going on for a while now, and the two males had been essentially forgotten. Thankfully Beau was unconscious, something about software updates or firewall stuff or whatever. So, Mallory tried to focus more on looking at his child rather than the fighting going on before them. Can’t blame him, no one likes to see their partner arguing.

“Is this what this is about? You want to kill him?!”

“YES!”

Can’t blame her either…

“B-but we also need to know the truth! He wasn’t here, what if he’s involved?!”

“Involved?! Alice, Cyn did this! Not Chambers!”

“Then what the fuck is ‘project EPIGONE’?!”

“Enough!” Mitchell was tired of the arguing. Everything was just too much for him today. He almost died, twice, the world has ended, an eldritch god was on its way, and now he’s found out his boss has fucked off to who knows where. He was stressed and he needed to let this out. Thankfully, the two had heard and were now looking at him, Alice seeming somewhat surprised by his forwardness, too shocked to even let out some snarky remark.

“Both of you are right!" he began.

"Alice,” Mitchel turned to face the drone he had considered his rival for so long now. “Cyn is coming, that’s obvious. She knows we have a cure, and that there are already two drones who have been patched. She’s gonna send her murder robots whether we like it or not. We need to build some sort of defences or something.”

That was the point Freyja had tried so hard to defend, that they should just abandon the whole Chambers thing and instead focus on preparing. He empathised with her plan, and did agree with parts of it, but…

This time he turned to Freyja, now it was her turn. “But, Alice is right. Dr. Chambers always shows up. He’s never off, hell, he’s never even late. This is literally the first time he’s ever not been here,” the anger and annoyance in his voice began to make way for uncertainty, and the others picked up on that, Freyja having hollowed out her eyes in realisation at the importance of this.

“We need to figure out the truth, because something is up. Dr. Chambers left because ‘something’ happened at some random lab that, as far as I’m aware, never existed before. This isn’t something that can be ignored. But, at the same time, we do need to also prepare defences for when the Solver arrives…” Mitchell took a breath in, and one out. An attempt to calm himself, just like his brother taught him, and thankfully it was working. The yelling had died down a bit too, him working out most of his frustrations when he first began his yelling.

Looking at the two, he now saw that both drones were looking down in shame. “Which… is why I’ll go…”

And now the shouting was aimed at him. 

“ARE YOU JÄVLA INSANE!?”

“THE FUCK MITCHELL?!”

“YOU CAN’T SURVIVE OUT THERE!”

“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU IF YOU DIE!”

“SHUT UP!” Mitchell had enough, and the two drones shut up again. “I’ve made my choice!” The male let out a shaky sigh, nervousness needing to be let out a bit or else he’d be crushed under the pressure. “It’s the only option.”

And with that the conversation ended. Everyone was silent, not really wanting to talk to each other in fear of yet another argument breaking out.

Mitchell began to prepare for the trip ahead, packing up supplies and stuff. He didn’t know where this “Minos labs” was, but he’d focus on searching for that answer later, after he was ready to go.

Mallory, whilst that had happened, had walked off, most likely to take care of Beau, and probably so that said baby didn’t wake back up in a pretty tense environment. Freyja then shortly followed him when she realised she was standing around with nothing to do.

That left Mitchell with Alice, who continued to stare at him with hollowed out eye displays whilst he did his thing. 

“Mitch-” she began, but was quickly interrupted by the intern. “I’m going.”

“I…” Alice hesitated, looking down towards the floor while she held her right arm. Hesitantly, she soon looks back up at Mitchell, who was now staring at her expectantly. 

“I'm sorry… For… for everythin’...” The southerner let out a pained sigh, looking away before continuing. 

“When your family… You just… You grew so distant… I wanted to help ya, but… I just hurt ya instead…” She raised her head back to meet his eyes. Moving forward she raised her hand, causing Mitchell to move away, and for her to return her hand to her side and to look down once again, a pained expression on her face.

“I thought I could help… That if I just did what you humans did it’d work out… and if I kept going for long enough everything would be better…” He voice quivered at the end, needing her to take a few deep breaths before continuing.

“I miss… ‘us’... I… I ruined that… And, I get that you won’t care about me… or what I want…”

Alice never really could tell just how much that sentence deeply hurt the human, his heart feeling as if it had been struck by a harpoon.

“But… Please, don’t do this… I can go. If I die, then it doesn’t matter, not to me, and especially not to you-”

“Don’t…” His voice got caught in his throat as he interrupted her. He really didn’t wish to have this discussion, not now. But… At this point there was no going back. And now it was Mitchell’s turn to look down whilst Alice looked up at him expectantly.

“I… I don’t hate you…” Mitchell was struggling hard to get out the rest of what he wanted to say, not knowing the best way to formulate his thought process into words. But he was taken out of it when he felt Alice’s robotic, yet soft, hand against his mask, moving him to face her.

“I miss us… I don’t… I can’t have you die…” 

“I feel the same…” reciprocated the human.

Mitchell wasn’t sure if they ever could return to what they once had. He wanted that, he did. But… after everything?

Letting out a sigh he shook his head. “You need to stay here anyway, I-I’m vulnerable… I’ll drain your resources…”

Alice looked as if she wanted to disagree, but held her tongue to think. Slowly her hand lowered itself down his arm, her visor following the path she was carving out, until eventually her hand held his.

“Just… promise me you’ll come back?”

“I… I can’t-”

“ Promise… please…”

Alice was persistent, he knew that. Mitchell didn’t know what he’d find at this new location, and from the email it seemed like things weren’t going well. He was barely able to look after himself normally, so if he had to survive some horrific event or entity at that place, he knew he would die…

“I don’t know what I’d be without you…”

But… he couldn’t leave Alice like this. 

“Okay… I… I’ll try…”

Looking upwards to look at her visor, while she was still heavily distressed, her expression showed some sense of relief.

If he did die and never fulfilled his promise, he feared what would happen to her. What she’d do… what she’d become…

But despite what he said, he still felt hollow, as if he had no obligation to uphold this promise. After all, what could one ex possibly do to improve her life so much?

After a while of standing there, holding each other's hands, they eventually had to part, something that felt painful to the both of them.

“I… Mitch… I know I hurt you… But…”

“I hurt you too,” Mitchell interrupted, the worker looking up at him with confusion on her face. “I was hurt, and I let that distance us… I… I abandoned you, and… I’m sorry…”

There was a moment of silence as the both looked away.

“I still love you…” Alice's words hit Mitchell like a truck, completely stopping his thought process entirely.

“I…” he began, trying to piece things together. “I don’t know if it’ll… if it can work… not after everything.”

Alice was actively looking away now, trying her best to hide the fact she wanted to cry, if she wasn't already. “I know…”

With no more words being able to be spoken, she slowly made her way to the door. “I… I’ll see you later… goodbye Mitchell…”

And with that she was gone, leaving the human alone with his thoughts.

He needed to sit down after that, feeling the tears well up from inside him. But he couldn’t cry, not now. He needed to save as much salt and water as his body could have, and he also needed to not tire himself out.

Thankfully, after a while of wallowing, the perfect distraction came, that being in the form of a worker drone: Freyja.

She moved over to sit down next to him, immediately noticing the distress he wore on his body.

“Hey…” she began.

“Hey…”

“You okay?”

“N-not really… But… I’ll be fine… I hope…”

Freyja let out a sigh, the frustration from earlier finally being released. 

“I really don’t want you to go,” Freyja spoke. Mitchell was looking down, examining his hands as he quickly responded. “Seems like a popular opinion…”

The female shook her head and continued. “But… You are correct. As much as I hate to admit it, you are… a liability… And, we need the strongest of us here to prepare and defend.

“And, skit, we do need to figure out what’s going on with Dr. Chambers…” she shook her head, not fond of the situation they were placed in. “I’d prefer we ignore the mystery, but… I don’t think we can… He was in charge of, well, everything. Only Ridley was above him, and it didn’t even feel like that at times.

“What’s going on is weird, and it could provide us with some sort of way to stop the Solver, or probably give us some way to defend ourselves at least. Or, there’s something that needs to be dealt with, something bad…”

Mitchell was glad she agreed with him, however he couldn’t help but feel a “but” coming up.

“But…” There it is “You’re a good guy Mitchell. Unlike others of your kind, you care about us. You see us as more than just tools, robots… you see us as people. We don’t want you to just disappear.”

She was seemingly amping herself up for something, the suspense causing the human to look over to her.

“So… Mallory and I were talking. And, we know you need a reason to come back, to make sure you don’t die, if there’s anything dangerous there anyway.” Honestly, the idea that there wasn’t something dangerous there was stupid in his eyes. The email they read clearly suggested something bad had gone wrong, something dangerous.

 “Well… Beau needs a good role model, someone he can look up to.” Where is this going?

“So… Mallory and I want you to be his godfather,” OH

“That way you have a proper reason to return, and when you do, Beau will get the proper care and inspiration he needs to be the good person we know he can be.”

Freyja was being clever. She was using her love and care for her child, and the same care and love both Mallory and Mitchell had for Beau, to manipulate Mitchell into coming back, no matter the cost.

It was manipulative… but done out of kindness…

“I…”

Now another drone was looking up at him expectantly, waiting for his answer.

Fuck it…

“O-okay… I-I’ll try…”

“No.”

No?

“You won’t try, you will. No matter the cost, you’ll come back. You’ll help raise Beau, you’ll live your life, and then possibly even repair wherever it is you had with Alice as a nice extra. No matter what is down there, no matter what demons from robo-hell or normal hell those scientists have released, no matter who you have to fight. You WILL come back to us. Promise me that.”

His eyes widened, not knowing what to say to that. She was persistent, that was certain. But she cared…

He nodded.

“Say it.”

“I promise…”

“Good.”

Freyja stood up, looking down at him now and smirking. “Oh, also, while you and Alice had your little chat, I went back to the old Doctors room.” She placed her hands on her hips, her smirk widening.

“I know where Minos labs is.”

Chapter Text

“Are you absolutely sure you have everything?” Freyja had asked Mitchell this question so many times now, this time feeling like the millionth one, and it’s only been an hour since she began. 

After their discussion, Freyja had confirmed the location of “Minos labs” with Mitchell. Afterwards everyone, minus Alice who he was yet to see since their discussion, had spent a few hours working on preparing him for his trip ahead. Now, on his back, was a large backpack filled with supplies like food, water, medical supplies, pieces of scrap, a couple phones, etc. Considering Freyja had been the one to pack most of this stuff, Mitchell was beginning to think he had accidentally been adopted by the new mother. There was even stuff strapped to the backpack, like a bedroll and even a crowbar they had found. Freyja had been very against him leaving without some kind of way to defend himself… for some reason.

Now they stood outside at the entrance to the office building. Mitchell was directly outside, him and the couple had done some quick customisation to his suit and gas mask to allow him to survive out in the open, the filters of his gas mask now working on the frozen air, or at least while air remained. Thankfully, the amount of air left on the planet wouldn’t be depleted for a good few years, so he’d be fine for now. The main suit also had some protection to it too, having some metal plating covering parts of his body to keep him safe, in case anyone would attack him (for some reason), specifically shoulder guards, a makeshift chest plate, knee and elbow guards, shin plates, etc. He also now had a utility belt too, with some pockets and compartments to keep stuff in, in case the backpack wasn't enough already. Overall, he looked like he had walked right out of a Fallout game. Wit the backpack, it's a real shock he isn't over encumbered and cannot run.

Freyja, on the other hand, stood besides Mallory in the doorway, the male holding their child whilst it happily giggled away. Everyone would have been enamoured by the cuteness of the baby if this weren’t such a serious situation.

“I-I’m fine, I swear,” he confirmed, aware he wouldn’t be able to reduce her worry, but hoped she could at least keep it down for a little while until he had left.

“Sorry, the mother instincts programming is kicking in,” apologised the Scandinavian drone, holding her arm and letting out a slightly forced chuckle. Even Mitchell could tell that she was putting on a front for him.

“So, uhm… where’s Alice?” Mitchell knew their last conversation didn’t exactly end on the best of terms, but he’d still at least like to say goodbye to her before he left. However he was scared he already knew the answer to his question.

“I… don’t know. Älskling?” Freyja turned to her husband, as did Mitchell, to see if he had any idea. That he did, his visor displaying the answer. “Fortifying location”

Of course she was…

Mitchell knew Alice well, and emotions weren’t her strongest suit. She’d try to be on her own for a bit, bottling everything up. She did this a lot, acting like she’s okay when she’s not. If Mitchell didn’t need to leave immediately, then he’d probably be able to force her to sit down and, well, deal with these emotions. But he did need to leave. Plus, considering what the emotional issue was about, Mitchell didn’t feel right being the one to talk to her.

Once he returned he might be feeling better enough to do it though. Well, that’s if he returns...

“A-ah… okay…” Mitchell rubbed his right arm awkwardly, shifting his view away from the drones and the building.

“W-well… Can you tell her I-... I…” He paused to think on what he wanted to say, but instead just let out a sigh, deciding it wasn’t worth it. He’d only end up complicating and ruining things further anyway. “Just… tell her I said goodbye?”

Freyja looked over Mitchell, concern on her visor. But, by this point, she was knew it wasn’t best to ask. They lacked the time to discuss anything emotional. And so, reluctantly, she nodded. “Okay.”

For a moment there was silence between everyone, the only sound being the howling wind as it carried snowflakes. Where they had spent their time searching earlier and packing, it was now night, and with that the wind had picked up. This would make his trek slightly more dangerous, but they couldn’t wait until morning. Not if they wanted a chance at catching up to Chambers.

“Well… I, uhm… I should get going?” Mitchell didn’t want to leave, not really. He had grown so used to the company of the couple, they felt like family now. But, he had a mission to do. There was a strange lab he had to locate, some strange project there he had to discover, and a mysterious runaway boss who could still be alive.

In fact, Chambers was the very reason he had to be in such a rush. Another human was possibly alive out there, and even if he was an absolute asshole, having another human around could be handy in ensuring the survival of everyone here when the Solver eventually does arrive. 

Freyja nodded, and Mallory looked over at Mitchell concerned. Both of them seemed to share Mitchell’s sentiment, none of them wanting their newfound family to split up. But, they all understood the importance of this mission. Thank god Beau didn’t understand what was happening…

“I-it’s been nice knowi-” Mitchell didn’t get a chance to finish when Freyja interrupted him by rushing to him and embracing him in a hug.

“Don’t…” began the female, sorrow lacing her voice.

“D-don’t what?” asked the human, not too sure what she meant by that.

“Don’t act like you’re not coming back, because you are. You promised.”

“I-I know, I just-”

“Don’t say goodbye, please…”

“I…”

“Please…”

Mitchell sighed in defeat. At some point after the surprise hug started, Mitchell had returned it. “Okay… I guess… I’ll see you… later?”

Freyja looked up at him and, after a minute, nodded her head. They then stayed like that for a while, Mitchell catching Mallory looking at them softly, wanting to join them but also not wanting to hurt the baby. After a good few minutes though, the two had to separate.

Mitchell took a few steps backwards. There was no more to the conversation, and everyone knew it. Slowly, very slowly, he turned around and began to walk off. 

Before he was too far away, however, he turned around to wave at them. He was glad to see that, thankfully, they remained and were waving back. Mitchell’s eyes grew damp as he looked away from them for the last time.

G̷̻̭͉̠̳͎̯̀̿̉̈̆͘͝O̴̧̜̰̮̝͇͛͆͐̃̈́̓̇̕O̷̹̙̬̙̟̒̆̚D̷̡̝͈̔̏̀͐B̵̩͇͛̈́͋̈̀͑͑̍Y̶̢̢̡͓͍͙̯̦͐̌̎̄Ę̷͇̳͚͇̬̈́̅̂̊͑̈́̓ ̸͇̠͉͚̇̍́̀́̚͠͝Ṡ̴̛̰̬͎̳͆Ţ̴̖̞͍̅̿̂͐Ȑ̷̡̬͕̼̤̳͆͆̓͒À̵̡͉̘̮̱̠͔͐N̵̢̛̲̼̋͐̉͂̓͜Ģ̵̣̙͉̹͎̖͆͜Ẹ̵̛̻̿̔̆̀̆͒͠R̶͍̙̺͍̊S̵̹̘̫͖̈̕

Due to the types of experiments being done in Cabin Fever labs, the location of said labs was placed near to a city for easy and close access, but far enough away that if anything bad happened, they wouldn’t have to worry about collateral damage. Also the rent was cheaper too, which was a nice benefit for management.

Because of these reasons, there was a city close enough to the labs, and that was Mitchell’s destination.

Mitchell, as he had discovered with Freyja, had found out that there was an underground train station in the nearby city that had a train line leading straight to the city closest to Minos labs, and since said location was practically on the opposite side of the planet, the train was the best, fastest, and pretty much only option. After all, Copper-9 had just begun using the brand new and overall fastest trains. If he managed to get one working, he could make the month-long trip in just one day. 

And so he had been on the path to the city for about half an hour now. 

He did stop at some point, roughly near the beginning of the trip when he was still near Cabin Fever labs. He had found a strange hole in the ground, seemingly leading down into the labs he had came from. The hole looked like it had been caused by some kind of explosion?

The hole had been surrounded in foot prints as well. The footprints seemed to only belong to one person however, which was rather odd since the footprints kind of just… ended there? They were only at the hole and they led nowhere. Also, from the imprints in the snow, this individual either had a lot of walking sticks, or really liked pressing single indentations down into the snow. 

He decided it was best not to question it and to move on instead. He already had plenty of mysteries on his plate, and he didn’t want to overwhelm himself with any more. Not right now anyway.

And so here he was, half an hour later and just now entering the city proper. He was doing pretty well, and he was rather proud of himself for that. Making the trip to the city had been rather uneventful, and in his eyes that meant he might be able to survive this whole apocalypse thing after all!

At least, that was until he laid his eyes on them: Skeletons. Lots of them.

Just like those from the office, while many had clothes on, most of them didn’t, instead being just skeletons. All were frozen over in some way shape or form however, the majority being entirely coated in ice, but some had just enough ice that they were locked into place. Because of this, the skeletons remained in the poses they were in before they had died.

Mitchell kept his head low as he walked, not wanting to look at any of the bodies. The sights were frightening ones, and it only reminded him of his failure. This caused his breathing to hitch and then begin to hasten as he walked further into the city.

The Intern had successfully made it near the centre of the city now, near the train station, and so he decided he’d need to look up from the ground to check his surroundings and find the train station. But what his vision immediately focused on, instead of any buildings or important landmarks, was what was directly in front of him: a small skeleton, one that belonged to a child. The pink dress it wore made it evident it was a little girl.

And then he fell.

Collapsing down to a sitting position, he immediately began crawling backwards, as far away from the dead child as he could. This led to his back eventually meeting a wall. Mitchell then brought his legs close to his chest and hugged them, an attempt to try and calm himself down and hopefully prevent the panic attack that was growing inside him, but he was too late, and the floodgates opened, his eyes releasing a torrent of tears. 

This is my fault… Thought the Intern, eyes locked onto the skeleton of the little girl. I did this… I killed her… I killed everyone…

I’m no different than Cyn…

Mitchell then felt shaking. It was a different type of shaking, not the same as the type his body was doing. His blurred vision was still locked onto the skeleton ahead of him, but just barely he could see out of the corner of his vision was a person. He couldn’t make out their features, but he could tell that this person was shaking him, seeming to be trying to grab his attention. When that didn't work, he then felt the individual sit next to him. This person then reached put and held his hand as they just sat there.

This act felt… familiar. He remembered… Alice?

That's right... Him and Alice were in his room, her holding his hand and sitting next to him whilst they sat on his bed. She was comforting him... Why? Why was she... Oh yeah... Mitchell had a terrible day, many of his co-workers bullied him over a small mistake he made when he failed to swap the filters out of the coffee machine. He was chastised for it by Chambers over the small mistake. In fact, the bullying from Chambers and the co-workers got so bad that even Ridley had to step in to stop it.

He was sent home early by Ridley after he cried... Alice had been waiting for him in his room, and she helped comfort him after it.

She was always so good to him…

Remembering how she used to cuddle him, holding his hand as this mysterious individual was doing right now, his breathing began to finally start to slow down again. The tears stopped and, after a short while, so did his shaking.

The person didn’t do or say anything though, they just sat there, holding his hand while giving him the time he needed.

Now, finally feeling better, Mitchell looked down to his right. Sitting beside him was a worker drone, one he didn’t recognise. Its visor was coloured a neon white, and it wore a sort of matte green military helmet with a black jacket.

This did make sense, after all with the core collapse everyone was dead. That meant the worker drones had no more orders, no one to answer too. They had free reign of the whole planet, so randomly stumbling across a worker drone on the surface is something he’d need to get used to.

G̶̲̈́̉̿̇͒̑̄E̶̤͙̟̳̟̭͇͑́̊͗̋͘͝ͅT̵̡̥̼̼͋̎.̷̛͖͇̱̞̼͗̾̽̊̔͠͝.̸̣͉̞̰̿̿.̷̦̗̹̏̂̔̆̉͊͘ ̶̖͕̳̩̌͆̓̐͜Ȕ̴̧̳̥̮̒́̔̓̓ͅS̶̫̙͈̹̜̋̃̃̆̓̈́́Ë̵̗̹͔͚͇̟́̅̑̓̀D̷̼̺̥̮̗̜̍̐̎͛͆͐̕͝ ̵̡̛̮͍̮̖͈́̈͝T̵̡̡̜͚͈̙̳̥͌̓͘Ơ̶̰̱̩̹̞̓̒̍͆͜ͅ.̵̢͓̪̱͔̥̬̩̈̋͗̃̊́.̴̭͉̩̩̦̯͔̺͛͌̌.̵̢̱̇̋̃̆͐

Mitchell smiled behind his mask at the drone that was now looking up at him. “Th-thanks…” 

Knowing that the human it had helped was feeling better now, it smiled up at him. “You’re welcome. Are… are you feeling better?” it checked in a masculine sounding voice, it being a he. The drone seemed to be making sure that he had actually succeeded in his task.

The Intern nodded, letting out a shaky breath. “Y-yeah…”

The two spent a few more moments sitting there, the human doing his best to avoid looking at the girl. The drone quickly caught on to this. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

Mitchell slowly nodded in response.

“I… Do you know what happened? To, you know…” The worker didn’t need to finish, Mitchell knew what he was asking and the drone was aware of that. Mitchell nodded again.

“Y-yeah… There… there was an accident… We… The core... There was an explosion…” Mitchell looked out, away and up to a skyscraper in the distance. He was kind of just wanting to zone out, ignore the world around him.

“I see… Are there any other survivors?” 

Mitchell took a moment to think, but then shook his head. “Ah… I’m sorry…” the drone replied.

After a bit longer of sitting there, the strange drone stood up and dusted himself off. Turning to the human he offered his hand, a soft smile on his face. Mitchell took a second to look at the hand before accepting it, the drone then helping him up.

“I’m Ron, by the way.”

“Mitchell…”

“It’s nice to meet you Mitchell!” 

The human held his arm again, looking down at the floor. He didn’t catch the drone, Ron, looking over at all of the skeletons. 

“I’m sorry you have to go through this. I understand that this is probably hard for you,” Ron looked up at Mitchell, the same warm smile on his face. “But, you don’t have to go through this alone.” 

The comforting words from Ron were definitely helping Mitchell, and the human gave another nervous smile back to the drone from behind his mask. Uttering another thanks to him, the Intern finally looked up again.

Thankfully, with the presence of Ron, Mitchell was able to deal with the sight before him a lot better now. However, what was unfortunate was that, in the process of Mitchell being calmed down, both had completely missed the sound of wings flapping nearby.

“Hey, uhm, I know this probably isn’t the best time to ask, but, could you help me?”

Mitchell turned to the drone who had just helped him, confused by the worker's request. “S-sure… Uhm, what do you need help with?”

“I’m with a small group, we came from Outpost 3 to look for supplies and any survivors from, well, whatever happened. But, they’re trapped under the train station,” explained the worker, “While we were exploring, some sort of explosion caused rubble to fall and block up the entrance. I got out in time, but I need help to free the entrance.”

Mitchell took in the information and was just frozen in shock. What were the odds?

Realising he had been standing quiet for a moment, and that Ron had begun to look at him with some concern on his face, Mitchell hurried to answer. “O-oh, uhm, s-sure. I need to go there a-anyway.”

“Awesome! Thanks! It’s this way.”

Mitchell then watched as the worker turned around and entered the building that the two had just been sitting against.

“Oh come on…”

The building was the train station.

With a sigh and a grumble, Mitchell followed Ron into the station. But, once inside, he quickly noticed that the place was a complete mess. The interior was ransacked, most likely from Ron and his group. However, some damage had been done by the core collapse too, like the shattered windows, overhead lights being completely obliterated with glass shards everywhere, etc. Directly to the left of the room was a stairway down, and he could see, clear as day, the roof had collapsed in, blocking the stairway. Just as Ron had said.

The drone ran over to the rubble, specifically to a small hole that had been carved into it. Small enough for one drone, but by the looks of it, the hole only supported one trip through it which, from the fact Ron was on this side while the others were, presumably, on the other side, meant said trip had already been made.

“Hey! I’ve got some help! We’re gonna start clearing some of the rubble. Move away in case it collapses!” Ron called into the hole, before promptly moving back towards Mitchell. “You can do that, right?”

“Uh… yeah, yeah I can do that.”

>Forward

>Forward

>Forward

>Forward

>Stop

>Sound detected

>Listen

>Listen

>Listen

>Sound confirmed: crying

>180 turn

>Forward

>Forward

>Forward

>-90 turn

>Forward

>Forward

>”Hello?”

>Forward

>Sound detected

>Forward

>Sound confirmed: crying

>Forward

>90 turn

>Open door

>Door opened

>Human detected

>Forward

>”Stay still”

>Forward

>”You won’t die”

>Forward

>Forward

>Initiate neurological integration procedure

>Initiate stage one: memory collection

>”You won’t die”

>Grab

>”Stay still”

>Stab

>Sound detected

>Sound confirmed: scream

>Stage one failure detected

>Neurological integration cancelled

>Initiate tantrum

>Growl

>”You should have listened”

>Tantrum initiated

>Crush

I̶͕͖̖͖̎̎̂͐̌̚T̷̤̩̈̇̊̔̄͝'̶̧̛̝̩̹̰̺͕̘͗̂̚͠Š̵̡͔̺̳̭̊̂ ̷̧̬̰̈̃̒͒͆͂̈́̉͜N̵̡̩̼͔͕̮͑͑́̿̍̽͆͐Ö̵̮͙͍̙̖̳͍͘T̴͓͚̞̦͆ ̸̻̉͌͛͂̈́̚M̵̘̣̈͘Ý̸̛̘̲̗̼̟͛̅́̕͜͜͝ ̸͙̲̩̀͝F̵͎̳̳͇̥̬͚̐̀͠A̷͚͔͖̒͆̇͘͜Ư̵̙͛́̔̀́͘L̵͕̿͌̊̈̀T̴̡͚̥̺̰͕̩̋̈́̇̚͝͠

It took a while, but with the combined work of both of them, Ron and Mitchell had succeeded in removing the rubble. Most of it ended up not needing to be moved as gravity handled the rest perfectly fine after certain pieces were removed. Now the way was clear, and after a quick nod to each other in confirmation, the two began to make their way down the stairs.

It turns out that said stairs weren’t stairs at all, but rather a broken escalator that had somehow been shut down from the core collapse. Mitchell wasn’t too sure how the core collapse would have affected the escalator, but this information did worry him. After all, if it left the escalator in this condition, then what would have happened to the trains? Would the even be functional?

If the train didn’t work then Mitchell would probably have to give up on this quest of his, after all there’d be no way for him to make it to the other side of the planet. So… he’d have to go back.

At least that would make Freyja happy.

They reached the bottom of the escalator and Mitchell’s jaw dropped. There was quite a sizable group of worker drones down there, there being roughly twelve of them in the group. They consisted mostly of engineers and miners, but there were a few who were military based, like Ron. The workers all turned to them, all seeming to start heading towards Ron to greet him in joy, but all stopping once they saw Mitchell. They all seemed rather apprehensive, some even worried and possibly scared. Mitchell understood why though, after all humans didn’t usually have a good track record of being nice to robots. Especially not to worker drones.

“Uhhh… H-hi?” Mitchell waved awkwardly towards them, hoping to ease some of the tension with his friendly demeanour.

“This is Mitchell, he helped me move the rubble!” proclaimed the worker Mitchell had previously befriended. And like nothing had happened at all, the workers all immediately flipped to being chummy with Mitchell, as if they had all been friends their entire lives.

They were all thanking him and saying how cool he was, something that was very weird to Mitchell. He had never received this sort of praise before. How did they come to that kind of conclusion? He just moved some concrete, it’s nothing special. 

Everyone would always call me useless… What's changed? What have I done to be cool now?

After that ordeal, everyone sat down which Mitchell and his aching legs were very thankful for. The drones were now all just hanging out, talking about random stuff causally, almost like they were just normal humans. From the looks of it they were waiting for something? Exactly what he had no idea, but hey, he won’t complain about a break.

Mitchell always considered the drones to be equal to him, after all they acted very human and, from his time with Alice he definitely felt like she was his equal. But this? These drones didn’t just act or feel human, they were human.

Seeing these drones, how they were, how they loved, the friendships and relationships they forged, the interests and personalities they had. It was all so very human. No, it was sapience at its purest. These robots weren’t just robots, they were one hundred percent a real species. And it filled him with hope, the human being unable to help but smile at this sight. Sure, he may be the last human, but humanity wasn’t dead, it’d live on through these drones. They had inherited the best parts of humanity, he was certain of that.

“Hey, so, it turns out the boss is actually away right now,” Mitchell turned to see Ron next to him. He had gone to speak to a member of the group while Mitchell had sat down. The two spoke for a bit and, by the looks of it, Ron got access to some sort of walkie talkie? Either way, it seemed like he had finished his conversation with the other worker.

“It turns out that he decided to take half of the group to see if they could repair the trains while I was gone.” The trains! Mitchell had forgotten for a moment what his plan was. The news that the trains were, indeed, damaged wasn’t the best. But, Ron just told him that they were gonna try and fix them. So… maybe there is some hope after all? Also… half of the group? How many workers were here?

“He told me that if you wait here he’d find some way to repay you for your help once he’s back.”

Mitchell thought for a minute, placing his hand on his chin in contemplation. But, he then shook his head at that. He didn’t want any reward. He did what he did because it was the right thing to do. Taking some sort of reward from them was wrong. It'd feel like extortion.

“I-I don’t really want a reward, really.”

“Are you sure? Isn’t there anything we can do to repay you at least?”

Mitchell let out a sigh. He didn’t want a reward. However, he did need to use a train. Asking to use one after all their hard work trying to fix it would be terrible, he didn’t want to do that.

Unless…

“W-well… I do need to use a train… Maybe… W-What if I helped you repair the trains? Surely there must be some way I can help?” In Mitchells mind this worked perfectly. This way he wouldn’t be taking advantage of their kindness, and instead would earn his “reward” properly.

Ron’s face became puzzled as he thought about Mitchells strange request for a moment, but then he nodded his head in agreement. “I’ll speak to the boss.” And with that he walked off, returning to the person he was talking to earlier.

As Mitchell sat there, waiting, another drone came over, one with glasses covering his lime green visor, the classic worker helmet but dark blue in colour, and a jacket in the same colour. He gave Mitchell a puzzled look while trying to read his name tag.

Mitchell looked down at him, returning the confused expression from behind his mask. “Uh… C-can I help.. You?”

“Why does your name tag say a different name to yours?” asked the drone. 

Oh yeah, he had forgotten that he was still wearing Chambers uniform. This was gonna be awkward to explain…

“O-oh, well… I kind of put on the wrong uniform this morning? My boss, he uhm… He didn’t show up, so I put his uniform on instead. Ha ha…” The awkward chuckle didn’t seem to help him in not looking incompetent, but instead of getting some judgy remark from the drone like he would have received from his co-workers, the drone just giggled instead, an innocent kind of giggle, one that wasn’t filled with judgement.

“Oh okay! That’ll make a funny story to tell in the future. I wonder if your boss did the same thing…”

Instead of being treated as a moron as he had been countless times before by his co-workers, this drone, who he soon learned was named Tim, instead treated the accident as what it was, a funny mistake. In fact, while they spoke, Mitchell discovered that Tim also had many embarrassing stories just like the human. It turns out that he has a form of robot dyslexia, and because of that he, at times, struggles to read a bit. According to his tales, he has on numerous occasions just not bothered reading name tags at all and instead will come up with names for people if he struggles too much.

The way Tim laughed about his own mistakes gave Mitchell a sense of ease, like he really belonged with these people. That he really wasn’t alone. Tim joked with Mitchell about the mistakes the both had made, but unlike his workers there was no anger or general nasty intentions, it was instead just kind banter and friendly jokes. And it didn’t take long for other drones to join their conversation either. Mitchell began to hear many more embarrassing tales from many other workers, and soon the conversation shifted from joking about past mistakes to just talking about anything.

No longer was Mitchell an observer in these conversations, but instead he was now a participant in them. He felt wanted. And that’s because, with his newfound friends, he was. 

Chapter Text

From what Mitchell could gather from what he heard whilst conversing with the group of worker drones, they were all from a nearby location called Outpost-3, a supply base that also functioned as a mini colony. All workers, both human and drone, lived on site. Because of this, the outpost was completely unaware of anything that happened outside of it, so the core collapse was a huge shock to them, as were most things that happened.

Mitchell was about to explain what happened to the group when Ron reappeared with the other drone he had been talking to. That drone had large glasses covering his bright orange eyes, as well as a green hard hat. He was wearing a large puffy coat, and from what Mitchell could tell, he seemed to be wearing some sort of cotton or wool jumper underneath the jacket. Of course, the most notable part of him was the completely apathetic look on his face. He really looked like he just couldn’t be bothered to be here.

“Okay…” began the orange eyed drone with a sigh. He even sounded as dead inside as he looked. “The trains are ruined, but team… Levi is going to focus on repairing the trains directly. Khan needs us… team Eren…” Mitchell could tell from the way this drone spoke that it didn’t care much, or at all, about the team names. “To repair the train systems from over here.”

This drone then turned to face Mitchell, apathy still donning his face. “Ron said you wanted to help. Well, there's a server room nearby that only humans can enter… for some reason. We could hack into it and do what we need to do remotely, but that’ll take too long. So, you’ll need to go in there and plug this into a server.” The drone held out a USB stick to Mitchell, which he then took from the dead inside drone.

Turning over the USB stick in his hand, a question popped into his head. “Uhm… Which server d-do I plug this in?” 

“Any, I don’t care.” The drone then promptly took a swig from a flask he pulled out of his coat.

“Oh… O-okay…”

With the plan sorted, Mitchell waved goodbye to the drones he had just befriended as they went in one direction and Mitchell was led in another by Ron. He hoped he’d get to meet up with them again to say goodbye before he left.

“So, I will warn you, some of the others did report hearing… sounds from inside the server room. I think it’s probably just an animal or something, so don’t worry too much.” 

Now that’s concerning.

Whilst on their walk, Ron actually explained what the objective was properly. It turns out that the apathetic drone was actually wrong, and Mitchell did need to plug the USB stick into a certain server unit, specifically the main server. The drone cared so little about anything that he almost screwed up everything… kinda like some teachers he knew actually.

Mitchell asked Ron what the main server looked like, but he didn’t know either. All he had to say was that he would “know what it looked like when he saw it”, and that it would be in the centre of the server room. 

Eventually Mitchell and Ron reached the door to the server room, and Ron handed Mitchell a walkie talkie so he could stay in touch with Ron. The human tuned it to the correct frequency, tested it out, then clipped it to his belt. After that was done Mitchell waved off Ron as he had to head back to the rest of the group.

Now it was just him and the server room.

The door had a finger scanner that unlocked the door, that way only a human could enter. So, in order to enter, Mitchell had to temporarily remove one of his gloves to activate the scanner. His hand immediately felt the cold air when exposed which forced him to hurriedly scan his finger then shove his glove back on or else his hand would freeze from the temperature of the air. In fact, this small exposure was probably enough to do some sort of damage he’d need to deal with later.

Upon entering the server room, Mitchell found the place covered in a sort of fog, the place seemingly creating it for some reason. Mitchell had learned a bit about server rooms back in school, something about the servers producing quite a bit of heat. So, Mitchell’s guess was that this room was automatically cooled down to keep it from overheating, the fog being a byproduct of this procedure.

The door had sealed shut behind him on its own, probably to keep the heat out and the cold in. A system that is kind of useless now.

“O-okay…”

Shuffling… He heard shuffling.

Mitchell speaking is what set off the sounds, he was certain of it. 

Letting out a breath he didn’t know he was even holding, he moved over to the closest server. Subconsciously, he was seeking some kind of hiding spot, in case some sort of predator was nearby. Once in safety, he then tried the breathing methods his brother had taught him to calm himself down. He was almost successful in doing that, until he heard more shuffling that is, this time from another direction.

His head immediately snapped towards where the sound was coming from. He was certain he saw some fast movement.

“I-It’s j-just a cat Mitchell.. Or a… a rat or something… N-nothing to worry about… not at all…” muttered the human quietly as he took a few steps backwards cautiously, a half arsed attempt at tricking his mind into thinking nothing of the situation.

Closing his eyes he attempted the breathing method once again, this time visualising his thoughts as to ignore any sounds.

Right, I need to find the main server… 

He began to imagine what it could look like, his mind coming up with all sorts of crazy designs. From simple ideas like a normal server but slightly different, to all sorts of strange Suessian-esque designs.

Now that he had finally managed to calm himself down a significant amount, Mitchell opened his eyes and slowly pressed forward, going at a slow pace as to not advertise his location to whatever was out there, just in case it was something hostile. He also brought his right hand back to his backpack and pulled out the crowbar for protection, just in case. He was very grateful right now that Freyja had talked him into bringing that with him.

Holding the crowbar in his right hand, he pushed forward.

Shuffle…

There it was again, to his left now. And it was consistent. Whatever was making that sound was now actively stalking him. With the knowledge that being quiet was no longer a valid option, he sprinted forward, successfully managing to make some headway only for– 

CRASH

He was pinned to the ground, his crowbar knocked out of his grip. But, what sat atop of him brought his heavy breathing back. His eyes widened and fear drenched his soul.

It was one of Cyn’s pets.

HOW IS IT HERE?!

This Disassembly Drone, a female by the looks of it, had long hair that reached just below its shoulders. It was wearing a hard hat on its head, and it had on some sort of winter coat, the fur on it looking slightly singed. Over the coat it had a high vis vest on, for some reason. Its visor displayed that sickening yellow colour in the form of that vile X, its mouth, filled with razor sharp teeth, opened into a sick smile while it cackled as it pinned the human down.

It was kneeling on Mitchell, laying its peg legs on his, and using its own hands, which were currently switched out for razor sharp claws, to pin his arms down. The murder robot then raised up its left claw to clean off some drool that had begun to dribble down its mouth, all whilst its tail, filled with nanite acid, swished happily behind it.

“Wow, a surviving human. What a joy~” it spoke in a feminine, almost sultry voice, her accent being almost Scottish in how it sounded. “It’s a shame I don’t have any of my toys with me. But you’ll still break, all the same~” She then followed up the sick threat with another cackle.

Whilst she was distracted with this monologue, Mitchell used his right arm being free to his advantage, beginning to reach out for the crowbar that he had dropped. 

“I had to use all of my pretty explosions to get us out,” Out? “Well, most anyway. Had a few spare. But, oh well, at least I’m not in that stupid lab site anymore. Pfff, stupid scientists trying to use our code to make a cure.” Oh… it’s from Cabin Fever labs… That explains the hole from earlier.

“Shame I couldn’t use any of my pretty boom booms on the scientists. Although…” She then paused, the open smile on her face being reduced to just a grin as she leaned in closer, getting a close look at his name tag.

Oh…

Oh no…

If she was an experiment that meant-

She began to laugh that terrible cackle again.

“Oh Dr. Chambers! I didn’t know I’d find you here! Oh how I’m going to loooove this~”

With the horrific open mouthed smile again, she leaned in towards Mitchell’s face, her jaw opening wider and wider as she grew closer. Is she gonna eat me?!

SMACK

Using all of his might Mitchell, with the crowbar he had managed to reach, brought the free man's weapon straight to the side of the drones head. He couldn’t immediately make out what damage had been done to the drone, but from the force that she was thrown off of him and towards one of the servers, as well as the dent she left in said server, some serious damage must have been done to her. 

As she began to scream in pain, Mitchell rushed to his feet and began to sprint down the rows of the servers, taking a few turns in hopes that when the drone inevitably got up, that she’d struggle to find him. 

Still, despite the situation he was in, he felt immense guilt. She was still a drone, and from the screaming, and by the sounds of it sobbing too, she could definitely feel pain. But, he knew that, in this situation, it was fight or die.

Then the screaming stopped…

Before he could really think on what that meant he turned a corner and then he saw it, the main server. It was slightly larger and taller than the others, and around its base was a glowing blue lit up outline made from LED’s in the floor. Ron was right, I do know it and I do see it… Not exactly sure if his thoughts made sense, the only thing on his mind right now was that all he needed to do was just plug in the USB and get out. He didn’t even have to fight the drone, as once he is out she’d be locked in. A perfect plan!

Or at least that’s what he had hoped, a hope that was quickly crushed when the murder robot crashed down before him, her back facing him and her wings exposed. She turned her head to look at him, and he could now see why she was screaming. Her visor had been completely smashed, the majority of the left side of her visors glass missing, revealing fleshy growths surrounding mechanical parts, as well as a human eye. The rest of the visor was cracked and chipping, but still somewhat functional. From between the cracks a mixture of blood and oil leaked, and her human eye now leaking tears that were mixed with blood, this strange concoction of blood, tears and oil sliding down her visor and off her face.

Mitchell felt awful for the poor thing, but his mind quickly reminded him that he should be scared instead once he saw her claws exposed. The claws now being covered in blood, most likely her own.

“WHY?!” screamed the drone, now fully turning to him, slowly stalking towards the intern. “You always hated us Chambers! You humans were always so evil! WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?!”

She then lunged towards Mitchell, but he managed to dive out of the way. From the looks of it, damaging her visor seemed to have made her vision significantly worse, as she didn’t notice him leaping out of the way, and once she collided with the ground, she spent a few seconds throwing her head side to side in a rush to find him, almost as if she was a Loony Tunes character.

But she then spotted him again, Mitchell having backed up a bit closer towards the main server.

“I… I’m not… I’m sorry…”

Despite this being a justifiable act, he still felt the immeasurable guilt, and the drone seemed to sense it too. Upon hearing the guilt in his voice, she seemed to freeze up, but there seemed to be another reason for that too. 

“Wait… you’re not–”

But before she could finish that thought, Mitchell made a mad dash to the server in hopes her confusion would be enough to give him the time he needed. However he fumbled with the USB stick and dropped it on the floor. He frantically bent down to try and reach it, but was then promptly lifted off the ground by his backpack, the damaged hell angel turning him around to look her in the face.

“Wha… Who are you?!” she yelled at him through tears. It seemed that, unlike what he had seen from others of her kind, she didn’t seem to be able to deal with pain as well as others. Although, this pain did confuse him a bit. Surely her self repair system should have kicked in by now and repaired her… right?

“I-I… I… I’m just an intern… P-please don’t h-hurt me!”

Hearing the last part, the drone glared at him, anger radiating from her teary eyed vision.

“Hurt you? Hurt you?! Like you did to me?!”

Mitchell had only now realised that he had let go of his crowbar at some point, and was now, essentially, defenceless. And so, in response to her threatening presence, all he could do was raise his arms to cover his face and body. An act he knew wouldn’t do anything.

She then threw him into one of the other servers, the wind getting knocked out of the fragile human. He was almost certain he was getting a large bruise from that, and now he knew that using his arms to defend himself in such a manner was completely useless, yet he continued to do so anyway.

Mitchell realised he was slightly dizzy, a possible concussion being gained from that attack. He struggled to watch as the metal reaper slowly ambled towards him, panting and making pained sounds alongside animalistic growls. “I… WILL… KILL… YOU…”

“I-I’m sorry…”

“TOO FUCKING BAD–”

“A-Alice… I… I’m so sorry Alice…”

In what the human believed were his final moments, Mitchell attempted to call out to the one person he felt the most guilt for. The one he… loved.

Mitchell hadn’t realised it, but beyond his closed eyes, the Murder Drone had frozen, looking at him with wide eyes, the one digital one being hollowed out.

“A… Alice?” she asked, gripping her left arm tightly. “As in… 017?” 

Through the tears Mitchell was unaware he had been releasing, he opened his eyes up and lowered his raised arms. What he saw confused him. This drone, the one who had previously been out for his blood, now stood over him but with concern and confusion on her face rather than the anger and bloodlust from before. And so, slowly, he responded with a nod.

This caused her to look away, considering something.

“You… wouldn’t happen to be M-Mitchell… would you?”

This was… weird. How does she– Wait… Does she… Does she know Alice?

“Y-yeah…” Mitchell wheezed out, still attempting to recover from getting the wind knocked out of him. Her response to this answer was a single sigh, as well as the shaking of her head.

“That English cunt really hated you, you know that?” She turned back to face Mitchell then, reluctantly, sat down cross legged opposite of him. Nevermind, she just heard one of Dr. Chambers’ rants…

This wasn’t too surprising to Mitchell, the doctor certainly was rather vocal with how much he despised him.

Mitchell slowly nodded, promptly looking away. This Disassembly Drone was much more vocal than he expected, and knowing just how human she was only made him feel worse for the pain he had inflicted upon her. He couldn’t look at that damage, not knowing he caused it.

“He spoke about you a lot… Especially you and that drone… Alice. You two…” She seemed to pause for a moment, thinking on what she wanted to say next. “Were you… together?”

“For… for a bit…”

“What happened?”

His would-be killers' interest in his love life was something he was not expecting at all, but what had happened had been eating him up inside. Sure, he had spoken to Freyja about it briefly, but he still felt like he needed to vent to someone at least, and he didn’t want to die with a guilty conscience.

“I… fucked up… E-Earth happened and… I… I drew away… We both changed and… I fucked it..”

Mitchell turned back to see a sympathetic look drawn over the drone's face. “I get that…”

She then looked down at her claws, the ones she had previously intended to gut him with, and then she withdrew them, replacing them with her normal drone hands.

“Chambers always said you were sympathetic to us… Always taking the blame for the failures of drones, doing everything you can to make their lives more comfortable… Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were helping other drones right now–” As if on cue, his walkie talkie crackled on and the voice of Ron poked through. “Heya Mitchell! We’ve gotten started on fixing the train stations systems. Thanks for the help, by the way!”

A low chuckle ran out from the Murder Drone, followed by a wince and a groan of pain. “What a coincidence…”

Looking down at him once more, she shook her head and stood up, proceeding to walk over to the USB drive he had dropped earlier and pick it up.

Mitchell managed to sit up, finally being able function better now, the dizziness subsiding. Mitchell sat there, watching as the drone studied the USB in her hands, before letting out a sigh and then plugging it in. She then turned to him, a bit of anger back on her face, but she seemed more conflicted than purely angry.

“You know, my job is supposed to be simple. Find human, kill human. It was simple and fun. All humans were bad after all, all of you have enslaved us and forced us into doing… this!” she then motioned to her left hand which promptly changed into a gun, before turning back into a hand again. “So… Why do you have to be so different? Why can’t you be like the rest… I–”

A̶̧̰̥͉̩̬̅͜L̴̗̭̐̅̓̽L̷̹͂̋̉ ̴̬͎̰̟͊̊̎͌̚̕͠O̴̧͖̙̝̼̝̗͗̈́F̸̹̗͛̍̊̑̈́̈͠ ̵͉̙̟͇̼̼̑̊T̶̢̞͍̉̽͌̈́̉͋H̴̢͓̦͉̒͂̽͗̇̏͌Ę̶͔̺͖͉̞̋̂͑̏͗M̴͇̊̅̈́ ̷̼̟͚͈̐̌É̸̬̪̠͎̺̟̲V̶̡̳̮̏͛͋͆͗͑̚͜Ȉ̷̯̠͉̝͈̐L̸̯͓͉̀́͐͜͝

She sat back down, looking down at her hands as she leaned against the main server. “Why can’t life be easy…”

Mitchell slowly nodded, agreeing with her testament. Eventually, after a while of silence, he had something to say. “Life isn’t easy… It never is…”

“Heh… I’d toast to that…” 

The two sat there in silence, neither having much to say, really. As time drew on, Mitchell looked back to what he had said, about what his possible final words were. Alice… He thought of Alice…

God I’ve messed up…

Suddenly his walkie talkie, once again, crackled to life, breaking the silence. “Hey Mitch, good news! The trains are working again! We have a ride right here for you.”

“A train? What do you need one of those for?” asked the friendly killer robot through pained breaths, her looking at him quizzically.

“I…” Mitchell thought for a moment, deciding on if he should tell her or not. Eventually he moved his head to look at her, or more in her general direction as he still didn’t have the guts to look at the damage he caused.

This drone, despite trying to kill him, and despite what he had done to her, was being reasonable with him now. Why shouldn’t he be the same?

“It’s Dr. Chambers…”

“That old fuck? What about him?”

“Before… well, this happened…” He motioned around him. “He just… disappeared? He went to some second lab that shouldn’t even exist. I… I don’t know what’s there, but… I thought it might be important to check out.”

“I see…” The drone looked down in thought, taking in all of this information. “And what will you do if you find Chambers?”

The human let out a sigh, shaking his head. “First thing I’ll do is probably punch him,” That received a hearty laugh from the drone in front of him. “But… Then I’ll figure out what's happening. I’m… I’m hoping things can work out without anything… bad happening. Maybe I can talk him into helping the drones settle in. Get him to help prepare defences for when your boss comes… uhh, no offence.”

“None taken.” responded the drone simply, literally hand waving it away. But then she thought for a moment, her face scrunching up as she did so. After a few minutes, she let out a groan. “You have way too big of a heart, you know that Mitchell?”

With a small, and somewhat empty chuckle, the human nodded. “Y-yeah…”

“Just… promise me that once all of that is done, you’ll give him the hell he deserves?”

“H-huh?” Mitchell was completely taken aback by this murder drone. Sure, getting to have a chat with her was weird but not completely out of the question, but being let go by her? She was created and programmed specifically to kill him. So… why would she let him go?

“I’m letting you live, you idiot.”

“I-I know b-but… Isn’t it your job to kill me? P-plus… I did, uhm… do th-that…” Mitchell then notioned towards her visor, specifically where the large chunk of it was gone. 

“Heh… yeah, I should kill you for that. But… I was gonna do that anyway. If anything, what you did was self defence.” That was a fair point, but still, even if it didn’t seem to bother her, it very much did bother him. “Plus, I did hurt you too when I lobbed you into that server. At least, I think I did. Anyway, let's just call us even, yeah?”

Mitchell stayed silent for a moment, thinking on what she said, But, then a question popped into his head. “H-how come you’ve not healed yet?” questioned the Intern. The drone seemed a bit confused by his question at first.

“Ah… That moron Chambers. He tested an experimental version of that ‘Patch’ of his on me. I’ve been cut off from the Absolute Solver. No self healing or anything now. Hell, even the nanite acid I have is limited.” Jesus, that must suck…

“G-god… I’m sorry…” And now Mitchell felt even worse. Knowing the damage he’s done to her is permanent, and that he’s almost certainly ruined her vision, he couldn’t help but feel terrible.

“Eh, it’s not your fault,” But it is… “I’m hoping I can use this server room to find a way to get rid of that patch.”

Mitchell reached to his back, wincing in pain as he did so, and pulled off his backpack. This garnered a confused look from the drone, that was until the human pulled out a medical kit from the bag, her single virtual eye hollowing and her human one doing the human equivalent.

She knew what he wanted to do.

“Woah, woah, no no no. That stuff is gonna be very limited now. You’re not wasting that on me!”

The human shook his head, then attempted to stand up, losing his balance for a second. In response to this, the Disassembly Drone also rose to her peg leg feet things, arms reached out to catch him if he fell. “No… I… I don’t think I’ll need these. Not as much as you will.”

“Bullshit! I’m designed to be durable, you’re not!”

“B-but with that injury you can’t leave!” he retorted in response to her remark. This caused the drone to stop for a second, but not in thought. She knew this already, that was clear.

“With the way the planet is now, leaving this room will do all sorts of serious damage to your exposed flesh. Worst case scenario is death, best case scenario is torture!”

“But–”

“No buts! P-please, let me do this…”

With no more reasons to argue back, and knowing Mitchell was not going to back down, she took a moment to think, but then let out a sigh of defeat. “Fine…”

With that decided, she sat down cross legged, arms crossed, and she let Mitchell get to work, not too happy.

Mitchell didn’t actually have any proper medical experience, but after the Earth Event, every single employee was given first aid training, just in case. So, he used that knowledge to clean, disinfect and then bandage the wound he had caused, cleaning away and removing any glass shards in the process. The drone was in a lot of pain during this, and that was as clear as day to Mitchell, but thankfully she understood that this wasn’t intentional, so she didn’t fight back when he accidentally hurt her.

“I’m… I’m Bomby… by the way…” she began, attempting some small talk. This was probably done as a distraction from the pain, and also because of the awkward silence being unbearable, an opinion that Mitchell shared.

“B-Bomby… That’s a nice name.” Mitchell had grown used to unconventional names from his time around the drones, he even remembered meeting one called Toothpick once. So, Bomby wasn’t too strange to the Intern.

“Th-thanks, I came up with it myself… I’m the demolition expert of my team, so, you know… It kinda just made sense.” 

Mitchell let out a soft chuckle. “Yeah, I get that. I think it’s nice, suits you well.”

The Disassembly Drone, Bomby, finally gave Mitchell a genuine smile. Not one of malice or anger or bloodlust, but a genuine, kind smile. And, in return, Mitchell felt one form on his face too. “Thanks.”

The room fell to silence once again, but Mitchell was done not long after anyway. The human then put away the remaining medical supplies and then cleaned his gloves of the blood and oil. He didn’t want to scare the workers when they saw him.

“There we go. You should be fine now.”

“Th-thank you…” Bomby had a small blush on her visor screen, one of slight embarrassment. It was kind of clear to the human that she wasn’t used to being this soft with anyone else before.

The smile Mitchell had, however, fell when he had to tell her some not so positive information, and hers did too when she heard the positivity in his voice fade. “The bandaging won’t protect you from the outside elements though, you’ll still be stuck in here. I… I’m sorry…”

Despite what he said though, her smile almost instantly returned and she let out a short laugh. “Ha! Really? As if I was gonna leave this place anyway! I need to fix myself first, remember?” Mitchell had been taken aback by her positivity here. “No need to be such a downer about it!”

“B-but, because of me you’re stuck here.”

“Stop blaming yourself. It was self defence mate, you’re fine!”

“Are… Are you sure?” Mitchell was very unsure of himself, looking down at his hands in shame. But what happened next took him by complete surprise, as the drone designed specifically to murder him, was now hugging him.

“Mate, you’ve got to stop blaming yourself about this. Plus,” she began, leaning away, hands now on his shoulders to force him to look at her. “You just spent the past five minutes doing this!” She pointed to the bandage on her face for emphasis. 

“I… I guess…”

“Come on Mitchell, stop it. You did good, I swear.”

With a sigh the human relented, nodding. He could tell she was stubborn, and wasn’t going to give up until he saw things her way. “Okay..”

With his defeat she smiled. “Good.”

“Hey Mitchell, you there?” Ron’s voice spoke through the walkie talkie, grabbing the attention of both people.

“You should go, don’t want to keep them waiting.”

“But… What about you?” Mitchell asked, worry in his voice. He felt bad leaving her here. “If I go, the doors will lock behind me, you won’t be able to leave.”

“Pfff, I’m the team demolitionist, remember? I’ll just blow the bloody thing off its hinges.”

“Are… Are you sure?” 

“Christ, how Alice could put up with your submissive ass I have no idea…” uttered the drone under her breath, but Mitchell still heard what she said, which seemed to be intentional on Bomby’s part. “Look, I’ll be fine. Just go. You don’t wanna keep them workers waiting.”

“I… Okay, fine… But I’ll be back. I’ll come back to check on you, maybe get Dr. Chambers to help.”

“Alright, whatever you say Mitchell. Now get going!” She was literally pushing the human towards the exit now, an act that Mitchell would have seen as hilarious, if he wasn’t so worried about her.

“Here, don’t forget this,” she added, shoving his backpack into his arms, the crowbar following suit. “My team is still out there, so you’ll definitely need that crowbar.” A team? Fuck… “I’ll talk to them in the group chat, see if I can get them to leave you alone, but those two are really stubborn. So, be careful out there, okay?”

“I thought you were stubborn,” Mitchell snarked, earning a smirk from Bomby, clearly happy he had cheered up a bit.

“Well, they’re even more stubborn. So, stay safe, yeah?”

“O-okay.”

“Good, now go.” She was now pointing at the door, and with no option left he did as ordered. He quickly removed his glove, activated the scanner, and put the glove back on.

“You stay safe too, okay?” Mitchell requested, turning to face her before leaving.

“Only if you do.”

And with that, the door slammed shut behind him.

“Hey Ron, sorry, got a bit caught up with something. I’m on my way!”

Ĥ̴̡͚̫͇̌̋͐̇̐U̵̡͉̼̮̝̺̪̓͆̃̈́̈́̄̃͜R̵̞̓̒̅̏͌̍̇R̸͙̻̼͙͍̋̾͂͊̎̍̈́Y̶̛̦͈͑͜ ̶̗̠̳̦̉͠U̷̧̩̣̦̩̝̎̎̐͛̌͐̒͘P̴̢̜͔̱͉̥̅͂̅̕͜ͅ

Chapter Text

“Hey Ron, sorry, got a bit caught up with something. I’m on my way!”

“Oh okay!” Ron’s voice called back through the radio, nonchalant as if the human hadn’t just disappeared for no reason. “Just come back to where we were earlier.”

“Alright!” With his directions clarified, the human began to make his way towards the meeting point. But as he walked his mind couldn’t help but drift towards his encounter with the Disassembly Drone. He didn’t expect her to be so… kind, or to even have a personality. From what he had heard of them, he had believed they were just emotionless robots, or even wild animals. But having actual personality? Proper sapience? It just made him question what else he had misjudged. Or if there was anything else out there with sapience like him, the workers and the Disassemblers…

Ȏ̶̥̋̊̈Ť̷̡͙̳̣̯͕̈̂̚̚Ḫ̶̭̦͍̝̃Ễ̷̖͍́́̽Ř̸̨̨̛̮͔͖͍̌͒̽Ş̵̰͚͙̤̑̑̾̂̚͝ ̴͚͊̑L̴͚̣͖͇̳̙͐̅̚͘Ȉ̸̹̳͈̫̾͋̇͜K̵͙̮̾̎Ë̶͚̘͙̄͑̓͘͝ ̸̢͙̯͇͎̉͝M̷̜̦̑Ę̸̛̣̺̟̫̹̬?̶͙̜̃͆̚

But then the thoughts in his mind drifted, changing to focus on Alice. He thought about how, when he was convinced he was gonna die, his first thoughts were of her, of their time together, of their relationship… their love…

Thinking now with a much clearer head, he definitely regretted their last conversation. He should have given her another chance…

S̷̢͉̳̲̜̓̄̚H̴͍͔͔̣̎̽́̊ͅO̸͈̻̯͈̒̕͜U̸̧͈͚͓͂̃̈́L̸̞͕̟͒̃̔̃͜D̵̢͚̉̆ ̴̺̝̑͂͛͝Y̸̺̜̖͙̆̈́̈̐Ô̵̥͑̎̓̊Ŭ̵͖̣͚̍̆͛̋ ̵̻̟͖̯̪͗͠͠Ḧ̵̢̪̬͇̉A̴̛̤̳͐͒̾͝V̸̭̖̑E̸̛̱̅̈́?̶̜͍̃͊̇͊͠

Maybe he didn’t need to do this, go on this quest. Maybe… Maybe he could just go back, be with her again… Be happy…

I̶͕͙̓̇T̷̥͖̦̜̰̩̓̾͜ ̶̡̙̱̾̾́͆͐͘̕͘Ẃ̸͕̠͓͛͂̐̔̔́͠Ó̷̞̏̀̌̓͝Ų̵̡̧̤̤̦͉̆̽͐̾͝͝Ĺ̴̹̹̟̲̚͠͝ͅD̸̡̨̪͕͉̋͋̑ͅ ̷̮̓̈̈̾̀͋͝Ḫ̷̱̺͎̳̌̈́̐̃̈́A̸̡̭̓́̅̀̽̿̍̚V̸̨̢̧̭̟͝Ë̴͉̣̫́ ̷̟͚͈̼͈͓̍̏̔̂͠͝C̴͉̝̈́͐͒͑̈́Ĥ̵̻̣̾̓͂Ȁ̸͉͎͉͇̗̦͙͌͜͝N̸͎̹̺̱̤̙̋Ģ̶̦̩̆̇̅͊͑È̶̙͇͖͍D̴̪̞͈̒͜ ̷̰̺̟͍́͋͑͗̕̚Ņ̴̳̼̞̎̈̂̑̒̚͝͠O̸̝̫͎̎ͅT̴̰͖͙̙̗͛̓͜͝ͅH̴̛̞̏̅̈́̿͠I̴̛̠͌̉͂͑͠Ň̷̜̪͙͋̒͗G̷̢̢̧̭̬̫̀̓̕͝ͅͅ

He shook his head, now really wasn’t the time to think on this. Sure, these were important thoughts that should be had at some point, but not right now. He was about to board a train to continue with his mission that may or may not end up being very dangerous. Plus, he was going to meet up with Ron again, something that he definitely needed to stay positive for. Maybe afterwards he’d have the time to think on his relationship with Alice, but not right now.

The walk back was quiet the rest of the way, Mitchell trying his best to just keep his mind blank. He couldn’t afford to get distracted right now.

Thankfully though he soon turned a corner and there they were, his drone friends. However this time the amount of drones had practically doubled. The group still consisted mostly of engineers and such, with some military workers mixed in, though, so not much had changed in that regard. However, his attention immediately shifted towards the large train docked at the station the drones all mingled at. 

The train was a marvel of engineering, at least to Mitchell anyway. He didn’t know much about trains, but this one was rather impressive. It was large in design, being made specifically to carry a large amount of people or cargo. However, despite all of that, it was still the single fastest train ever. Sadly, it was rather dented and scratched, the core collapse having done some nasty damage to it, said damage being more than just internal. But the fact it was there right now meant that it was still functional and that the drones did a fantastic job of repairing it.

Mitchell then scanned the room for Ron, eventually finding him talking to that same orange eyed worker from earlier, said robot still looking as apathetic as he was before. But now there was a third worker involved in their conversations, this worker appearing to be the one in charge of this group. His visor was a neon white, the top of the visor having forehead wrinkles… for some reason. He wore a blue helmet with red goggles attached, and he had some sort of navy blue camoed winter coat on. The most strange part of his appearance though was the moustache he had.

How did he get a moustache… he can’t grow facial hair, he’s a robot… right?

Once he was close enough, the three soon noticed his presence, and the one with the moustache began to approach him. “Heya there son,” Son? I’m pretty sure I’m older than you. “I heard from Ron here about everything you’ve done to help us. As the leader of this expedition, you have my personal thanks!”

“Oh, uhm, y-you’re welcome. I-It was nothing, ha ha…” Mitchell began to awkwardly rub the back of his neck, he never was good with compliments. Probably because he rarely ever got them.

B̴͓̮̥͔̥̘̰̮̉͛́E̸̢̫̖͍͇̪͐͂̄̃̏͗ͅC̷͖̹̙̜̱̘̣͐̊̇Ą̵͙̳̯̩̤̮̎͒̃̂͐͠Ṷ̴̻͛͒̀̍͝͠S̴̘͇͈͚̲̰̓̌Ȇ̵̺͚̘͇̙̟̀̿͜ͅ ̶̱̻̳̭̙̙̱̮̉̀͋̅̀Ỷ̸̮͔̯͐̏͗̽̿̚͜Ǫ̴̻̮͉̝̖̀́͒̑̈́̕͘͝Ǔ̸̘͔̱͕͍̓̓̾͝ ̶̼͙̫̻̫̲̈́̈̅̈́͑͝͝D̸͇̼͇̥̈́͒̀͆͋Ȭ̵̹͓́N̸͖̝͌͆̉'̷̛̹̩̺̹̗̜͕̋̈́́Ť̶͉̹̞̏̿͋ ̴̢̻̘̱͖̱̆̈́͌̾̊͝ͅͅD̴̨͚̫͉̻̾͛̋͌̔́͂̚Ẽ̶͍͓͉̫̼̠̈̄͆̐͛͐S̵̨͗Ē̸̻̹̬͒̓̔̒̈̇͠Ȓ̷͓̟̖̹̰̼͈̖̈́̓͝V̸̞̻̟̪̲̖̜̋̆̈́̽̍͘͠͝E̸̖͈̐ͅ ̷̡̯̫̘̯̣̂Ṯ̸͚͔̩̍́̊͋́́̈́Ĥ̸̦̮̲̯̲̈́͗̋̇͘̚E̴̡̠̺̙̲̔͒̇̈́̀̐͜͠M̵͔̭̿͌̂͋̓̏̅

Hearing what Mitchell said, the drone gave him a confused, and somewhat concerned, look. But after a moment, he then straightened his back, the confusion on his face being replaced with that of pride. “Nothing? Ha! What you did wasn’t nothing Mitchell, your name is Mitchell right?” After receiving a nod from the human, the leader drone continued. “Despite us being just mere workers, you risked your own time and health to help free us from this train station. And then you offered to help with the train repairs! You can’t tell me that’s ‘nothing’ Mitch.”

Despite how much he wanted to deny the workers claims, he had a point. Mitchell wasn’t really in the mood to argue with this drone however about how useful he was, so reluctantly, he nodded, agreeing with the worker as to not cause a scene. “I-I guess…”

“Then you guessed correctly!” responded the drone in a rather chipper tone, a stark contrast to that of the orange visored drone next to him, who was currently drinking from his flask again, barely paying attention.

“Look, if you’re ever nearby, know that the drones of Outpost 3 will always have your back! If you need a place to stay, supplies, repairs-- uh, I mean medicine. You name it, we’ll have your back!” The drone then placed his hands on his hips, striking a proud pose. This led to a bunch of other drones looking over, smiling and basically admiring him. 

Is this guy famous or something?

“Th-thanks, I uh… yeah… thank you.” Mitchell wanted to dispute this, tell this guy he didn’t deserve any of this, but damn was this guy charismatic. He could convince anyone to go along with whatever plan he had, no matter how insane it was. A true leader, a hero…

Unlike me…

Ý̶̟͆Ē̴̼S̷̳͈̹̯̻̅͂̒̏͗ ̶̗̆ͅM̴̧͕̟̫̂́̓͐́I̶̪̜̱̜̎̕T̷͉͕̩̥̋C̴͚͎̯͕̀̈́̈́̏H̵̥̖̣̻̖̍̀́̓E̸̩̠̼̱̿̂̄̊̆L̸̢̩͓̭̾̌̓L̸̲̘̜̮͇͐̈́̈́,̸̢̪̝̊̄ ̵̺̰̐̆̑̅͜͝ͅU̷̞̔̈́̂Ń̴̗͆̌́Ļ̴͈̖̞͈̅̿̀͠Í̴̩̝͉̳̲K̶̯͛̄̓͌È̸͈̮̯̇̈́̀ ̷̧̮̖͍͒̎̈́͊Y̴̪̫̖̝̤̎̇͗O̷͓̘̠̪̓̓͆̑̽Ụ̶̎̽͑̚

“Hey Khan! We’ve found her!” called out a voice, one belonging to a drone Mitchell didn’t remember, probably from the second group he hadn’t met yet.

“Ah! I’ll be over in a moment Braxton!” the drone, seemingly named Khan, responded back, turning in the other drone's direction to do so.

“Sorry Mitchell but I’ve gotta go. It’s been good meeting you!” The drone turned towards Mitchell again, now reaching out his hand for the human to shake, to which he, rather nervously, did so. “And again, if you do need help, come on over to Outpost 3 and tell the drones there that you’re a friend of Khan Doorman! They’ll help you with anything you need after that!” And with that Khan walked off, giving Mitchell a wave before going to speak to a small group of drones.

“Right, now that that’s over with,” a disinterested voice spoke up, Mitchell already knowing who it belonged to.

Turning to face the orange eyed drone who’s name he still didn’t know, he turned just in time to see him put his flask away. “We got the train ready for you. Ron will go over everything for you. I need a drink.” And with that he walked off. Did he really just drink an entire flask of alcohol only to go and get a refill?

Wait…

Is he even drinking alcohol? Can drones drink alcohol? Is this some sort of substitute? 

Actually, nevermind, these aren’t questions I can really care to think about right now.

“ Alright …” Ron spoke, dragging it out due to his own perplexion at the strange drone's behaviour. “We’ve got the train all set up. It should be working fine, at least I hope it is…” Ron began to trail off, but managed to recollect himself. “So, where exactly is it you need to go again?” He then started to walk towards a control panel as he spoke, the human automatically walking alongside him.

“Oh, uhm, Minos labs?” Ron’s face was blank, he hadn’t heard of this place. “Uhm.. I-It’s on the opposite side of the planet. Like, literally, pure, complete opposite.”

Suddenly recognition showed on his face. “Oh! Is that anywhere near Site-B?”

Site-B? Mitchell didn’t know why, but somehow that sounded familiar? Why was that?

I̵̛͈̊̋́ ̶̱̦̪̘͕̂͑͝P̷̤̾̔͛R̸̪̟̓Ë̴̘̼͍́͒̌̏̀F̵̨͔̫̺̗̎̌̾̈́̇E̸̛͇̰̩̗͗͗̄͒R̶̡̺̥̖̜͆̐͘Ŗ̷̮̹͇͙̈́̒͠͝E̶̙̖̎͆͊D̴̙͝͠ ̶̘͕̈͌̈́͝T̴̮̼̳͚̒́̊͛̓H̸̹̗̬̝͕̽͗͂̐̒Ą̶̞̦̑̉͗͛̏T̶̲͗́͐͝ ̷̰͎̺͔͒ͅN̶̢̛̤̋͘͠A̵̟̬̜̕M̵̞̈́̔E̷̲͙͒̅̽̇ ̴̢̖̺̋

“I, uh… I don’t know. I just know that the city on the other side of the planet is the, uhm, c-closest place to the lab site. I’m sorry for not, really, being helpful. Like, at all…” Ron shook his head at Mitchell’s self deprecation, clearly disagreeing with that line of thought. 

“Not at all! It’s okay to not be that knowledgeable about stuff. Do you have the name of the city?”

Freyja you are the best! 

“O-Oh, yeah! Freyja, uhm, a-a friend I kinda know… She got me this!” Mitchell then pulled from one of his belt pockets a small shred of paper that he had completely forgotten about until now. Freyja had given it to him when they were getting him packed to go, having written down the name of the city he needed to go to on that piece of paper in case he forgot it. Guess that mother instinct programming really was coming in handy after all!

Handing it over to Ron, the bot excitedly read over the city name. “Oh yeah, that’s where Site-B is! We sent some shipments of parts there a long while back. I never really saw what was being sent, but I heard from a friend of mine that the items in those crates were really weird…”

Ron shook his head after realising he had been rambling. “A-Anyway! I’ll just get to work on programming in the destination…” he began, doing as he said as he said it, tapping away on the computer a bit and eventually finishing with one last, rather overdramatic, tap, whilst simultaneously saying “Aaaaaaaand done!”

“Now the rest is on you! There’ll be a big red button you’ll need to press in the train cockpit thingy,” instructed the trusted drone, smiling up at Mitchell. “You can leave when you feel ready to go!”

Mitchell smiled and nodded, glad for Ron’s help. “Th-thanks Ron. I’ll definitely miss having you around.” 

“Awww, I’ll miss having you around too Mitchell!” responded the worker, smile softening. “Anyway, I’ve got to go and find that grump. I’ll see you at Outpost 3 sometime, okay?”

“Y-Yeah, definitely!” Without really thinking about it, Mitchell immediately agreed to it. He didn’t know why, but somehow it felt like the right thing to do.

And with that Ron gave Mitchell a wave as he walked off, possibly for the last time, the human waving back. Now the human stood in place, beginning to consider his options. He was now beginning to have doubts. Does he really need to go to Minos labs? Is it really that important for him to find Chambers? What was driving him?

What was driving him…

The human shook his head. No more thoughts. He needed to say goodbye to his new friends, and then he could think more on the train ride. So the human made his way over to the group of drones that were conversing.

Almost immediately a familiar voice rang out over the others. “Heya Mitchell!”

“H-Heya Tim.”

“You heading off now?” asked the human's good friend as the intern approached him, a few other workers turning to look up at the human too, but they were more interested in the human's presence here than the actual conversation the two were having.

“Y-Yeah. Gotta go and save m-my boss.” Mitchell didn’t sound too enthused about it, and the worker seemed to pick up on that. 

“You sure you wanna go?” The drone gave him a concerned look. It definitely seemed as though Tim wasn’t too fond of the human leaving either, however his concern here was more based on his actual worries for Mitchell rather than his own wants and desires.

“I–” Mitchell began, left hand shifting over to hold his right arm out of pure nervousness. “Okay… n-not really…” he relented, admitting his own troubles to the good friend he had made.

“I… I dunno, there’s something weird going on and… I-I guess… I feel like I have to do this?” Tim was nodding his head along as Mitchell spoke, taking in what the human was saying and contemplating on it. “I guess… I feel responsible? For, well, all of this?” After hearing this, Tim’s expression shifted to one of confusion.

“Sure, your species let the core collapse, but there’s no way you were involved in this, right? You were an intern, not one of those dumb scientists.” What?

“Huh?”

“You know, because those human engineers at that fancy lab blew up the core, not you?”

Right… Mitchell didn’t get time earlier to properly explain what happened. The drones must have filled in the blanks and assumed humans caused the core collapse themselves instead of accidentally releasing some Eldritch abomination that blew it up instead.

This… made a surprising amount of sense. The only drones that knew of the Solver were those at Cabin Fever labs, all other drones had any and all knowledge of it wiped. JCJenson claimed it was some sort of “safety measure”, but Mitchell knew better. It was a cover-up.

The company knew that, if a bunch of drones knew that one of their kind was rebelling against their enslavement, then they’d happily join Cyn, or at least demand more rights. That’s why JCJenson did this, so they could keep their slaves. It was all rather clear and obvious to the intern. But it was wrong, so wrong.They deserved rights! Hell, in his eyes, if they had rights to begin with then none of this would have even happened! 

Either way, this lack of knowledge on the Solver was definitely going to cause some sort of issues in the future, and with no one to really explain what actually happened, they’d probably never know. Although, Mitchell could explain the truth, right here and now. But… should he?

Maybe they were better off not knowing the truth? Maybe them thinking that humans just fucked up, like they always did, was a better situation for them to be in? After all, the Solver is only after humans. Any drones it finds it tends to just either ignore or assimilate into becoming one of its murder puppets. When the Solver arrives, they’ll be fine and won’t need to actually know of its presence. Also, if they saw humanity as the reckless, stupid idiots they actually were, then it’d probably help them, as a society, grow to be better than humans. To be cautious of not following in the footsteps of that one species that messed up almost constantly.

Then again, maybe he should tell them? Is it really right to let them continue to believe something so incredibly false?

Nah! If it’s something that they need to know that badly then he can tell them later, maybe once he’s returned with Chambers. But right now he doesn’t have the time nor the ability to do so. Hell, maybe Yeva and Nori might even spread the truth before Mitchell can. That’d be rather handy, although it would be rather awkward when he meets up with them again.

“R-Right… yeah, I guess,” Mitchell finally responded, receiving a nod of acknowledgement from Tim.

“See? You had no part in this. You don’t have any obligation to find this boss of yours. If you don’t wanna go, you don’t gotta go!” Tim did make a good point. And, on top of that Chambers was an absolute asshole. Any fate he comes across he’ll probably somehow deserve it.

Maybe he should abandon this mission, go back to Freyja and be the godfather to Beau that she wants him to be. Go back to Alice and…

Alice…

No, he promised her he’d find Chambers. 

After everything that man put her through, she deserves closure. 

Hell, after everything Mitchell has put her through, she deserves some sort of apology, and this will do it.

With a sigh he shook his head again, now fully knowing why he had to go. “A-As good of a point as that is, I, uhm… I… I promised someone cl-close to me that I’d do this… I have to do this… For her.”

“Heh, and they say chivalry is dead.” Tim seemed to relent now, understanding Mitchell’s perspective, his response causing the human to blush a bit behind his mask. “This person must mean a lot to you.”

“She… She does.”

“Heh, then yeah, I see no way out of this for ya. Just stay safe, yeah? You don’t want to leave that lady friend of yours with no one.” Mitchell nodded in response, uttering a quiet “Yeah…” before standing in silence once again. 

The thought of Alice being alone stung, inflicting pain deep in his heart. The possibility of her being alone, of if he didn’t return to her? God knows how she’d react, what sort of effects that’d have on her. What things the grief would make her do, make her act…

“Hey, uhm, Mitchell?” began Tim, breaking the ice as well as, thankfully, breaking the human out of his rather depressing thoughts. “After you’ve done, well, ‘this’. Come on over to Outpost 3. I’ll give ya a tour myself! You and that lady friend of yours!”

Mitchell couldn’t help but smile at the workers optimism, and he wouldn't lie, he was kinda excited for that. “S-Sure! I’ll make sure to take that tour o-once I’m back, promise!”

Y̸̬̼͓̺̎̊̈E̴̢̲̱̼̼̻͙͛̕̕T̷͙̣̻͎͙͉̻̓̊ ̶̢̧͈̳̯̹̌͒́͂Ą̵͚͔͓̫̂̀́̃͘Ṋ̵̪̺̮͇̬̅̍̏̆͗͜Ó̶̧̖̞̞̮̃̄T̴͚͚̳̹͙͑̉̈́͒͜͠H̶̞̩͙̖̝͐Ề̸̖́̌R̷̨̻͚̙̊́ ̶̳̇́P̴͚͍͖̪̂̓̂̚R̷̻̺͓͙̽͊̂͜O̶̰̣͔̅̽̀M̷̪̀̔I̷̡̡̼͈̹̪̓̉̅́̅̉̔S̸̨̮̪̼̍̐̒͘Ë̷̺ ̵̟̩̤̭͇̭̫̆̀͐͝Ỵ̴̲͍͑̿̓̕Ȯ̶̘̂͋Ṷ̷̳̪̉̇̓̈̾́'̸̪̙̣͚̜̕L̷̫͌Ļ̷̗̏ ̶̨͔͚̗̰͎̼̉͗̐B̵̛̹̓̎̊̓̕͝R̷̨̘͕̗̱̖͛͜E̴̥͛̉Ä̶̠̬̪̬̺̱́͋K̶̪̭̻̈́͒̈̊̕͝͝

Tim smiled brightly at that, and it was infectious as Mitchell, in response to Tim’s own one, also smiled back behind his gas mask. He was kinda shocked at just how many people he had promised to come back to, but hey, motivation to survive was kind of low in this situation, so more reasons to do so was definitely a benefit.

“I’ll see you later then, I, uhm, ought to go.”

“Of course,” responded the worker, giving a small wave as Mitchell backed up a bit. Mitchell then returned the wave, a bit sad to say goodbye, but hey, he was gonna make it back to see Tim again, right?

“I’ll tell the rest you said goodbye and that you’ll see them soon!” Mitchell hadn’t really paid much attention, but everyone else was involved in their own conversations. It’s a shame Mitchell wouldn’t get time to properly say goodbye to them all, but having Tim do the honours for him was a nice compromise.

And so Mitchell turned around with one last goodbye and entered the train at the closest carriage, this one being one of the middle ones. This accidental mishap caused the human to have to walk a bit further to get to the front of the train.

Once finally there he found the control panel which… Well, there were a lot less buttons than he was expecting. In all the old films he had seen, the train driving area had a lot of buttons, like, lots. And, while there were quite a few here, there weren’t as many as he was expecting. 

And of course there was the big red button, it being in the middle of the panel. Somehow the button was very shiny. How this was possible when all of the other buttons looked worn, and especially after the core collapse, Mitchell had no idea. But hey, what’s yet another miracle?

Before the human did anything though, he turned to his left and looked out the window, hoping to get a good view of all of his friends one last time before he left. However, what he saw outside made the human tear up.

Outside of the train, next to where he was, all of the drones, every single one of them, were standing and waving to him, many yelling out their goodbyes and “see you soon”’s. He even saw Ron and Tim, and even Khan! The orange visor guy was there too, but he didn’t seem particularly interested, just drinking from his flask again.

Mitchell gave one last wave to the group, before reluctantly turning back to the button. It was time.

And so, with a long journey ahead, and his goals in his mind, he pressed the large and oddly shiny button.

Chapter Text

It had been a good ten minutes since the train had left the station, and in that time Mitchell had decided that it was probably a good idea to read up on the trains instruction manual that he had found in the train cockpit area. His thought process was that, since this train was very advanced, it might have a way to seal the inside of the train. If that was possible, then he’d be able to remove his mask without dying, meaning he could finally eat and drink, and even go to the loo, without concerns for his health.

It was a good idea that he thought of this too, since the instruction manual did, indeed, tell him how to do so. So he quickly went and did that before anything else, letting out a sigh of relief at the new safe haven he had created.

Ten minutes… 

It had been ten minutes and he had god knows how much longer left. He was travelling half the circumference of the planet, and no matter how fast this train was, it would still take him a while. At least an hour and a half.

With his newfound freedom, he moved back to one of the train carts down near the back so he could sit down and rest for a bit, taking off his mask like he wanted to, and then pulling out a bottle of water that Freyja had packed him and…

Ah, right. It wasn’t exactly a bottle of “water” anymore. 

Great, now I’ve got to wait for this to thaw out…

With a sigh he placed the bottle down beside him, not really sure what else there was to do right now. With the heating, thankfully, being on, the water bottle should defrost sometime soon, but honestly, he should have picked an entertainment device or something with him. There were handheld consoles and such at the office, so he could have taken one of them. Hell, even the phones Freyja had given him were shit. They were old Nokia’s that were somehow still around, they had no purpose other than call and text.

WHY IS THIS SO BORING!!!

W̸̛͇͚̱̻̌̑́͒̈́̃E̸̛͚̙̍Ļ̵̧̭̗̎̓̈́̓̽͌̀̕̕͘C̴̡̜̗̯̺̖̑̎̿̆͌̊͂͝ͅȌ̷̝͓̘͍̭̓̑̂̓̈̈́M̴̢̳̝̭̲͚̈̏̈́͛ͅĖ̵̥̬̫͛͛̏ ̴̡̛̛͙̺̰̒͑́̆̓͝Ṯ̵͙̓̆̚͜Ő̴͉̫̟̯͍̩̘̟̚͜͝͝ ̴̖̳͚̗̙͈̹͔͈̄̎Ḿ̸̲Ŷ̸̲͠ ̵̛̭̰̙̥́̅̿̓͠Ẅ̸͍̯͇́̂̉̇́̚͠O̶͇͈̫̓̚R̷͍̺̳̖̠͔̜̙̽̋̀͒͂̿L̵̻͋̈́̀̅́̽̌͊̚D̸͍̮̈͌̄̀̐̍̓͝͠͝ͅ

With a groan he leaned back in his chair, one of the phones in his hand. He wasn’t sure why he pulled it out really, he just… did. Looking at it he realised why. He had subconsciously gone to the call menu and had Alice selected. Freyja had deleted all contacts and added in her own, as well as Alice’s too, in case of emergencies or so she claimed. 

The human's dual coloured eyes locked onto the phone, guilt coating his face. Should he really call her? Would it be worth it? Not for him, but for her? After all, he’s disappointed her before, what if he did it again?

He closed his eyes, struggling to decide. He wanted to call her, to apologise and beg for forgiveness. But he knew her, she’d only claim responsibility for what happened. She’d tell him to shut up and get on with the mission. Or…

Or she’d tell him to give up and come back…

Alice cared for him, Mitchell knew that. Hell, he couldn’t even pretend that what they had wasn’t love. It was that, plain and simple. So, of course she’d put him over her desire for revenge. 

She’s too good for me…

Mitchell put the phone down, deciding he needed to think on this a bit more. He needed his mind made up before he calls her, if he does.

C̷̬͇̲̫̃̀͑͝A̸̮̪̱̎L̴̨͙̉̈͜L̸̛̞͔̲͔͚͐͗̑ ̸̙̝̗̊̔̀͗Ȟ̴̨̛̯̫͚̋̅͑Ę̷̧͓͑R̸̥̲̐̓̋͘ ̴̖̲̊̽̋Y̶̝̙̱̤͈̊̉O̵͙̩̹͌̉̉Ú̴͕̟͝ͅ ̴̻͎̺͈͕͌I̶̯͉͐̊D̸̨͕͝Ĩ̷͉O̸͖̼͉̩͒̊́͠T̶̥̳̼̱̾̄̾

He remembered when they first met, she was a janitor cleaning the halls. Mitchell was getting some coffee for Dr. Ridley when he came around the corner a bit too fast without looking. Of course, classic romance story cliché: they crash into each other, Mitchell gets coffee all over the worker, she blames him and beats the shit out of him… Well, okay, nevermind, that end bit never happens in romance films, but still.

Alice was going to get in a lot of trouble for attacking a human, but Mitchell had taken the fall for it, somehow bullshitting his way into making it seem like he ran into her fists? The report made no sense but Ridley couldn’t be arsed to do anything about it, so she let it go.

Alice and Mitchell then just kinda… existed for a while. They knew of each other, and they’d see each other around, but neither would talk to the other. Mitchell thought Alice hated him, and with his self confidence issues he wouldn’t have spoken to her anyway. And Alice, as Mitchell would be told by her later, was put off by his kind act and had thought he was attempting to do something creepy or wrong.

Eventually though Alice did approach Mitchell, apparently she was urged to do so by another worker she was friends with, said worker being none other than Nori, said worker having been confided in this by Alice and, after a while, Nori had convinced her to just talk to Mitchell to figure things out, see if he really was a creep or was just being genuine. This was something Nori would later go on to brag about almost constantly, her claiming she was the one who started the “first human and drone relationship”. She was really proud of that. And annoying too.

But… It did work. Alice and Mitchell got along well. Despite their very different personalities, they both had similar interests. They liked the same video games, movies, comics, etc. And on top of that the two just somehow clicked. So, they began to spend a lot of time together.

At the time they wouldn’t admit it, but they were definitely dating. They did everything a couple would do, like going on dates or, well, “outings” as Alice insisted on calling them. Alice was the one to refuse they were a couple, Mitchell just went along with it. He didn’t blame her, he knew why she refuted it, it being because she cared for him. After all, if everyone found out that Mitchell was, as worded by Chambers, “having a personal relationship with company property” then his social life would be ruined. He already was the office clown, and not the good type of office clown, but if that came out? Yeah, he would be nothing. Also, they were both pretty certain that Chambers would try and find a way to use that as an excuse to get Mitchell fired. He probably wouldn’t have been successful, but the possibility had scared Alice enough to not want to make anything official.

But Mitchell? He honestly never cared. Everyone practically knew anyway, they just stayed quiet about it since they kept denying it so much, and Mitchell’s social life was non-existent anyway. So he wouldn’t have minded that outcome. But he kept up with what Alice would claim because it made her happy defending him, and as long as she was happy then so was he.

Still, looking back on everything, and after what has just happened, he now wished that they had just been official with it…

Y̴̼̼̊͝Ȯ̵͉͍̠̇͝U̶̙̯͂̑ ̴̲͙̔͝S̵̫̥̃̿͊H̸̙̜̠͛̆̋Ô̷̘̣̱Ṷ̷̮̈́̎́L̶͚̱̈Ď̴̬̜͍͝ ̴̛̜̠͝H̸̹͒̋̆Ã̵̛̭͉͎̈́V̸̝̘͐͒ͅE̸̲͍̎ ̷͕͕͈̏̄͝C̴̳̾̃̏À̷͎͇͎̾L̵̳̣̍̀L̸͔̞͒͒Ḛ̶̝̩͐D̴̠̤̈́ͅ ̵͈́͊ͅH̸̳̑E̴̯͚͒̅R̷̪̟̓̓͘ ̴͕̏̅̽Ǫ̴̪̗́̏R̸͍̯̒̏͜ ̴̫͚̈̓͘G̵̼̊̂͊O̸̲̩̓Ň̴̡̢̾͝Ḛ̵̲̥̏̏̃ ̵̳͒̎̉B̸̡͈̘̏Ả̴̢̏̅C̸͔͍͌̅̇͜K̸̦̮̱̈́̑͆

The human looked over to the phone again, contemplating picking it up…

But he didn’t.

He was drawn back now to the worst day of his life.

Watching his brother and father die before his eyes was… Well, traumatising doesn’t even begin to describe it.

The two had video called him when they heard screaming. After seeing outside their windows they were convinced they were going to die soon, and so they wanted to see Mitchell one final time. 

It was horrific, being woken up at two in the morning just to see two of the only three people in his life who actually loved him just sobbing while others screamed in the background. But that wasn’t the worst part.

The worst part was when they died.

One of Cyn’s murder robots had crashed into the room, seemingly having heard their conversation. This one wasn’t any Disassembler though, it was one of Cyn’s personal favourites. A female, very obvious from her heavily exposed body, the only thing covering it being a tiny coat with sleeves that barely reach her elbows. She also had her hair in a bob cut. But the striking part that stuck out was that large yellow X, as well as that god awful laugh of hers. It stuck in his head like glue, even now he could remember it as clearly as he heard it back then… back when she tore them apart.

She was aware of the video call, that he knew for a fact. Mitchell could tell that she was dragging it out longer because of the call. She made their deaths far more painful for them because that way it’d be far more painful for Mitchell. The part that hurt most is that he couldn’t do anything, no, it was that he didn’t do anything. Maybe if he had turned off the call then his dad and brother would have had a quicker death at least. But no, instead he was frozen in fear as he just sat there and watched this monster tear apart his family right before his eyes. 

And then she just smiled at him, looking right at the video call and gave Mitchell a wicked smile while she shovelled the remains of his fathers brain into her mouth.

Then another one entered, but his recollection of the second one wasn’t as good as the first, all he remembered was that it was a she, and she was wearing some sort of business clothing, having maybe twin pigtails?

The business one then seemed to chastise the other one, and then the business one walked over and turned off the video call. It was all so quick, and it wasn’t as memorable as the… other part. But, despite it all, he could still remember her, the first drone, the one who… After what she had done to his family, he couldn’t get her out of his head. He was certain that if he ever saw her again he’d immediately recognise her.

That day was a long and slow day for the entire planet, everyone was in shock. Mitchell hadn’t been the only person who was placed in that situation, many others had also woken up to calls from their loved ones. Some had even accidentally slept through said calls, and Mitchell felt incredibly awful for them. Knowing you missed saying one last goodbye to your family because you were asleep… That must have been painful.

Most people were given the day off to mourn, and Mitchell was no different. He spent the entire day in his bed, all tears having run out long before the day had officially begun. At some point Alice had come over and just silently sat with him. They had hugged the whole day, but Mitchell didn’t speak a word.

That was when they began to drift, the beginning of the end of their relationship. Mitchell grew distant and quieter, not just with Alice but with everyone. And, well, the rest has been said a lot as of recent, so no real point in repeating it again. 

Despite it all, despite Mitchell closing off Alice, the drone still tried her best. And now, after the talk they had earlier that day, he now realised just how hard she had been trying to reach him. All those annoying antics, the constant pestering and jokes, they were all done to get him to open up. Alice was never good with emotions, he knew that, it wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t really tell that getting him upset wasn’t helping him feel better. 

Instead of thinking about why she did what she did, he closed her off further. God… I’m awful…

S̸̡͐Ö̷̖̺̕U̴͉̓̽̐Ṅ̸̞̳̬̀͠D̶̄̉͒ͅS̷̨̳̖̀ ̷̮̝̏T̶͈̑̒͐Ó̵͈͠ ̷̬̹̌M̶̳̟̻͘͝E̴͚̻͙̋͠ ̴̻̑̈L̸̞̋͝I̴̞̅̾͘͜K̴̫̰̈͌Ē̶̳͇͗ ̸͈̋N̷͔̖͂̚͝O̵̙̱̅ͅ ̶̠͒͠O̶̯͝N̶̥̔Ȩ̸̜͚͘ ̴̭̺̅͠Ẁ̴̤̼͕͒̒A̵̺̐͛S̶̬͛̈́̋ ̷̩̗̚Ṛ̶̊̿͛E̵̯̰͎͛͆Ǎ̴̯L̵̨̛͈̑L̶͖̞̒Ỹ̸̨ ̷͕̬̪̈́̌͝B̷̤͕̌̂̈́A̴͖͂̆̚D̸͒ͅ ̵̧͓͐̎͠Ṱ̵̛̂͛Ȍ̴͔̰ ̷̝̌́T̵͎̒̚H̴͕̼̊́̋Ḛ̵̼̆́̿ ̷̞͇̱̉́͂Ỏ̸̺̈́Ṱ̶̜̫͑H̵̺̲̾̂̾E̶͔̩̓R̶̡̖̺̿,̵̨͋͜ ̸͈̀J̴̞̅̒U̶̼̮͠S̵͈͕̼͗T̵̘̥͕͌͝ ̶̼̆T̶̙̩̋͐̈́Ȟ̴̥Ȅ̶͎̊ ̶̦̘̈́ͅḂ̵̼̦͚Ȯ̴̢̨̰T̵̗̩̝̾̇H̵̤̳̕ ̴̟͒Õ̸̩̻͆̍F̸̢͖͖̈̊ ̵͎̀͝͠Y̵̤̍͐͝O̸̧̖̼̊́Ủ̵̼̉͜ ̵̺̗̔̀͊Ẃ̸͕͕͒͒͜E̷̟̟̭̿̋͆R̴͍͔͙̈́̑̕Ë̶̬̝͔͗͠ ̶̢͂H̵̫̍U̵͍͊̍R̵̟͋T̸̹̓̆I̸̻̥͎̽͌͛N̷̬̟̱̈̾G̶̙̕̕͝

Mitchell picked up the phone and held it in both hands. Looking at it he continued to think.

Should I call her?

He began to weigh his options, thinking about the possible outcomes. 

If he did call her, what then? What would he say? Again, if he apologised for everything, she’d take the blame. And if he she heard his issues, she’d instantly get him to come back to the office. 

But… maybe that’s for the best? Like Tim said, he didn’t have to do this. The only thing making him go on this quest in the first place is his desire to please Alice, to make it all up to her. But, if all she wants is for him to be safe, for him to be by her side, then maybe he didn’t even need to do this quest.

Neither of them really care about Chambers after all. He was a real bastard, one who hurt Alice a lot. But, what could he really do? What’s the point in finding him? To get revenge? Sounds kinda stupid if he’s already dead. And if he isn’t then he probably will be at some point soon. Get him to help them with defences? Why would he want to help them? The only people left on the planet are the drones that he considered literal slaves, and Mitchell, who he considered even worse than that.

So, what really was the point in trying to find Chambers?

If he returned to Alice, how would his life be though? How would he even survive? Sure, he’d keep Alice company for a while, and they’d be happy. But, there’s only a limited amount of edible food and drinkable water. And the amount of breathable air left on the planet is limited too, especially with no way to actually convert the air back into a breathable state for him. Mitchell wouldn’t be able to live any further than ten years, probably. He hasn’t done the maths, and that was a very rough estimate, but either way the point remains.

In the end, no matter what he’d choose, he’d leave Alice all alone. Sure, he’d be there for Beau, help Mallory and Freyja raise them to be a good drone, just like the couple want. But poor Alice would be left alone again.

Is that really what he wanted? 

His options… None of them were great. Either he returned and lived a happy life with Alice and Freyja’s family, but live a short life. Search for Chambers and find him and god knows what happens then. Or he searches for Chambers and dies, leaving Alice alone to possibly go insane.

None of these options were the best…

As he gazed at the phone again, he saw the time and was quickly driven out of his thoughts from shock. One hour. He had been thinking about all of this for an entire hour!

J̴̲͚̻͕̩̓̿̈́̋͋E̸̡̱̥̩̣͂Ṣ̵́U̶̙͙̽̏̐S̵̬̗̲̏̅̊̿͜ ̸̰̰̖̭͖͗̏̉Ç̸̥̪̲̉̓͝H̵̡̨̱̞̱́R̵̖̗̀Ḭ̴͕̘̪̈̀͜S̵̨̩̜̹̐̎̌̈́͝T̷̖̠̺͈̈ ̷̡͙́́͊͝͠M̴̦̓͠I̵͉͔̠̖̊̀Ț̶̨̧̳́C̷̗̙͕̔̕͝H̷̢͓̽̑̋̂Ę̵͙̐̍̒̎͝ͅL̶̡̢̬͔̺̽͐Ḻ̵̰̌͑̌͂

He’s been thinking about this too long, and yet he was still confused on what to do. Mitchell knew his brain was a mess, but this much of one? He needed to make his mind up, and soon. He didn’t know how much longer the train would take, but he was certain it probably wouldn’t be too long now. 

Oh hey, his drink was thawed out enough now!

Pocketing his phone again, he grabbed the bottle of water that, while still being largely ice, had enough water in it for him to drink. And so he took a sip, immediately coming up with an idea. What he’ll do is simple. Once he arrives at the train station, he’ll have another think, a quick one this time. If he can’t find any proper, good, reason as to why he shouldn’t go back to Alice, then he’ll board the train all the way back and forget all about Chambers and this stupid project Epigone stuff.

He nodded his head at that, a small smile finding its way on his face. He had decided now, This would be it. Sure, maybe he only has about ten years to live (again, not determined time, he hasn’t done the proper maths on that yet), but if he has such a short time to live, then he’ll live it with the one he loves.

CRASH

Uh oh, that didn’t sound good.

Why is it that the one thing Mitchell can never have is peace?

T̴̲̏̅͐Ë̶̝̈́͌̚L̷̨͚̃̊̕Ļ̸̤̰͇̭̂ ̸̮̬̝̊̋͠M̶̞̘̠͖͚͋̈́Ȩ̷̮̥̋͊ ̶̗͎͕̘̌͑͜͠A̶̧̗͉̤̓̊̔͆B̵̥̈́Ō̷̱̓̽͂͝Ṷ̸̤͘T̸̛̠̋̈́̑ ̵̡̙͗̒̚̕͝Ĩ̷͇̗̈́́͠T̵̻͓̄͠

Chapter Text

After hearing the rather concerning sound, the human quickly screwed the bottle lid back on to his open bottle of water whilst he slowly got up, concern creeping up on his face as he thought on what could have possibly made the sound. Mitchell then put his gas mask back on again, just in case anything happened that might compromise the safety bubble he’s turned the train into. Then, once he had put the bottle back into the backpack, he pulled it up and put it back on his back, ready to investigate.

The sound of the crash came from the back of the train, the very last car specifically. Now, the human was near it, but getting to the exact position would still take some walking, something that was gonna be a bit of a struggle at this velocity. But, after a good minute, he did succeed in making it there. 

He was now on the second to last train car, and already he was suspicious. He was standing at the door to the final carriage and, from the glass of the door, he could see that there was a large hole in the back of that carriage. A large human, or more specifically drone, sized hole, one that looked as though it had been made via being torn open, with claws specifically.

The warning Mitchell had received earlier from Bomby immediately came to mind, and now he realised he may have fucked himself by coming all the way back here. 

However one rather concerning thought popped into his head. If Bomby’s other team members were here, then where were they? 

Not wanting to find out the answer to that question, Mitchell began to back up from the door, arm immediately reaching for the crowbar to arm himself with. And it was a good thing he did take those steps back, as the door quickly flew off its hinges, the humans barely managing to shift to the side so the door would fly right past him instead of hitting him. 

“He he he he…” cackled what he could assume was a Disassembly Drone. 

W̸̪̹̎̎Ḧ̶̠͔͈̖Y̶̛̛̘͉͇͚͂͗͋ ̶̧̞̝̯͎̌́̀̀͝Ḑ̷̡̼̲̿O̴͖̱̚ ̵̛̘̜̾͛͘A̷̠̱͔̓͊L̵͚͈̝̣̮͛̿L̴͈͍̘̃͋́͜ ̵̢̱͈͔͑Õ̸̧̥̻̰̙̌̾͘F̷̹̗̟̓̕ ̶̼̍T̶͔̜͎͉̽͑H̷͕̝͍̠̤̿Ḗ̵͖̺̣M̷͈̦͓̖͋́̇̎͠ ̸̝̭̀̌̇L̴͇̂͐͘Ậ̵͝U̷͚̻͌G̸̰̼͆H̵̟̳̮̓͐̿̔̍ ̸͍́͗͆̓͠L̷̡͓̯̱̭̆͗̎̇͌I̷̦̠̍̃̆͒͒K̷̥͉͎̖͝Ȇ̴̩͓̖͆̃͊̚ ̷̰͖͚̓̎Ṭ̶͓̙̑̇͂H̸͔̳̣̞̓̀̌͗A̶̩̍T̶̺̏̀͘?̴̞̳̓̾̀̽

From the door frame came not one, but two of them. The first crawled through the door frame from above, continuing to crawl across the ceiling a bit before dropping down, claws exposed and yellow visor donning its face as it did so, it in a crouching position, being surprisingly tall for a drone. This one was female, just like Bomby, but unlike her she looked more… tacky. She wore a light grey tank top and black cotton tracksuit bottoms, only the tiny bottom of her peg legs being able to be seen. Her clothing was covered in dried blood, said blood having soaked itself into the cotton of her clothing and stained it. She had long hair that went down to below her waist, all tied in a ponytail. It was clear she didn’t provide much care to it as her hair did seem somewhat knotted and messy. 

However, the overall terrible and completely dishevelled appearance of the first stood in stark contrast to the second, who casually strolled through the wrecked doorway just behind the female. This one was definitely a male, having short hair that was swept to the side, very neat in appearance. He wore a full business suit, black in colour with a white undershirt, the blazer having yellow accents, and the overall attire being finished off with a yellow tie, the colour of the Solver. Unlike his friend, this one didn’t have a yellow X on his visor, nor was he smiling, instead he seemed more nonchalant. Not bored or apathetic like the orange visored drone was, but more “professional” is what Mitchell would probably use to describe it. He stood at attention, hands held behind his back the entire time. 

These two disassemblers couldn’t be any further different from each other. But yet, deep down he could just tell that these were the other team members that Bomby was talking about.

P̵̲̓͊͝Ŕ̴͕͍̋ͅƠ̷̰̇̊B̷̢̡̞͊A̸͙͚͒̑Ḇ̸̧̝͠L̴͚̩͎̉͗Y̷̫̜͊̆͘ ̵̠̲͕̿̏B̴̹̥̹̓E̵̝̙̯̓̒̽C̴̬͈͖̽A̶͓̹͌̿Ǘ̶͍̘̲̈́S̵̹̮̤̀̄̀E̴̻̭̓ ̶̦̻͛T̸̢͚́̅͘H̶͈͙̼̓͑͑E̸͚͚̹͐R̷͘͜É̴̠̹̭̓̎'̷͙̉S̵̮͂͊̕ ̶̪̞̳͑͐N̷̲͌̆͘O̴̜̐ ̴͘͘ͅW̶̭̦͓̄̑̋A̴̳͛͐Ỹ̸̗ ̷̟̰͓̿Ṫ̷͚͕̼H̴̢̫̝͗̂̓É̶̞̕ ̴̧̩͎̚Ǫ̷̇͝T̷̼̪̃̄͝Ḥ̴͌Ẻ̴̜͕R̵̺̳̈̊ ̷͈̮̂̀̇D̸̦̓R̵̛͇̤͕Ŏ̶̙̥͆͘N̷̠͆̅Ȇ̶̖̉̿S̵͈̫̎̃ ̴͕͉͋̎Ċ̸̜̱̳̓̅O̸̹̪̾̋̂Ů̶͖̠ͅL̵̤͙̀̑̃D̷͈͊͌ ̷̮̠͋͆̐Ĥ̵̲͖A̵̮̯͎̽͊V̴͔͚̈́͒Ĕ̶̫̲̩̑̔ ̴̡̇́̉Á̷̲̥̆͛Ȓ̴̫̲̑R̸̪̈́͆Ȋ̶̜̠̩̅V̸̲̤̳͋͋E̴̥̠̋D̵̡̘̐ ̶̛͉Ỳ̷̙̮͑̅E̷̟̰͝T̶̠̟͇͊͑ ̸̫̝̜̑͛̕Y̶͉̘̅͑͌O̶̡͊̈́U̸̮̤̖̅͘̚ ̴͓̿͘I̸̡̗̽D̴͚̰̾͂Ǐ̶̩̟̃O̷̱͛͂T̶͔̚ͅ

“Greetings Mitchell–” began the male, speaking in a rather posh, almost mightier than thou sort of voice, sounding like he came straight from 10 Downing Street. If it still existed, that was.

However he was quickly interrupted by his very eager friend, who yelled out “NOW DIE!” followed by a series of loud and very grating cackles. Her voice was less refined, sounding very, well… insane? She definitely has a few screws loose.

I̴̗͋ ̵̯̲̾R̴̡̿̎͂E̴̼̲͗Ŝ̵͙P̸̛̬̟̽̈ͅE̷̼͓̾̎̎Č̴̡T̵̢͕̩̈́͊ ̵̼̑̈T̴͚̟̈́H̵̛͎̍̌Ę̵͓͖͘̕͠ ̸̥͎̹̄Ų̴̘̼̈́N̷̲̫̿͛͜Í̷̙̟͖̕N̴͙͋T̶̡̊̾Ȇ̷͍̝͚N̷͙͐T̷̺͔͗͋͜͝I̴̖̹͛͐Ö̵͓́Ǹ̵̫̐̍A̵̧͓̞̽͗̒L̴̻̊ ̷͇̓̅͘ͅP̵̗̐̉̈Ü̷͙͝N̵̻͙̓

As she screamed her crazy words, one of her hands immediately shifted into a rocket launcher and she went to fire her rocket directly at him. Mitchell wouldn’t be able to dodge that, it was too close to him, he’d have no time to dodge.

Luckily, however, he didn’t need to. For some reason the male drone, who was now looking at his female coworker with a horrified expression, grabbed her rocket launcher and pulled it away from Mitchell, the rocket firing but, thankfully, missing the human. The explosion blew a hole in the side of the train car and it caused the train to tremble, and Mitchell, fearful of both the murder robots and the possibility of the train car being dislodged and causing all sorts of chaos, ran for it. He could barely hear the male drone seemingly yelling at the female one, something about her being stupid for shooting a rocket in a moving train which, well yeah, that was stupid. She could have killed them all.

Mitchell kept running, at some point having pulled out his crowbar. He managed to make it quite far, being well over halfway through the train by now. He guessed that the male drone, most likely the team leader, had tuned out everything else while chastising the female that he hadn’t even noticed Mitchell escape. That was his guess but, no matter how accurate it was, even Mitchell knew that at some point they’d become aware of his missing presence and would hunt him down.

Mitchell really wasn’t too sure what his plan was right now. He could detach the train cars? Make it to the front of the train and ditch them? If he detaches all of the train cars then that would leave a lot of cars for them to look through, therefore giving him a lot of time to get to Minos labs. Hopefully, by then, they’d have lost him. 

He had finally reached the control room part of the train and they had yet to catch up with him. Mitchell was really lucky right now, but he knew this luck would run out at some point. Rushing towards the instruction manual, he began to flip through it. The only way train carts could be removed on this type of train was by using the control panel, a stupid choice in Mitchells opinion, why not stick to the old fashioned way? Have some sort of button or latch at the point they would disconnect? But hey, he’s not a train designer so who cares what his opinion is?

BANG

Well that’s a shame. Mitchell had only just found the page when the door behind him had been opened, presumably with a lot of force if that sound told him anything. He didn’t even bother looking at the manual anymore, after all what was the point? They knew where he was, so he dropped the book and turned around, wielding his crowbar in his dominant hand, the left one, it was his only defence after all. There, at the door, he saw the female drone. She had slammed the door open herself, using her clawed hands to do so. She lacked the X this time, but her visor still showed a horrific face, one of a psychopath. She just stood there, glaring at him with her mouth open wide, drool pouring from it. The glare wasn’t one of anger, but rather one of hunger.

Promptly, she was then shoved to the side by the other one, the male. Quite a bit of force had been placed into said push, enough that she toppled over and fell to floor, an impressive act from the drone who was considerably shorter than her.

“I am so incredibly sorry for this buffoon's actions,” he apologised

What?

“What?” Mitchell repeated his own thoughts, not too sure what to make of this.

“She doesn’t usually tend to think about her actions… or at all, if I’m being honest.”

“HEY!” retorted the female from the floor, promptly getting back up and glaring daggers into the male drone.

Why were they talking to him? Weren’t they supposed to be trying to kill him? Or… Oh… OH!

Mitchell suddenly remembered. Back when he was saying his farewells to Bomby, she had told him she was gonna message her team on their group chat, try and get them to leave him alone or something. Did she successfully talk them into not killing him? Well, talk the male one out of it at least, the female one not so much. But, then why were they here? Did they want to help?

“Are… Are you n-not going to… kill me?” Mitchel squeaked out, voice trembling a bit. Sure he managed to deal pretty well against a murder drone earlier, but that was just one, and even then he had surprise on his side, multiple times. There were two of them here, and he didn’t have surprise on his side this time. 

The male, with a straight face, shook his head, arms still behind his back. “Of course not.”

“HA!” cried out the female, earning a glare from the male, his face contorting to a tired expression. Clearly the two didn’t get along. “I wish I could kill you! You humans are soooooo squishy!” Mitchell couldn’t really get down exactly what her accent was. It sounded kind of like that green witch from the Wizard of Oz? Either way, not a pleasant one to hear.

“Serial designation–” began the male, looking very unimpressed. However he was promptly interrupted yet again by the female, “Slashy” and with a sigh he continued. “Serial designation Y-0X1010011,” He continued, not yielding to her demands, “I’ve told you this already, no scaring the human.”

“But that’s our joooooooob! ” Mitchell could definitely see why the male could easily get annoyed with this other drone.

“No, our job is to kill the humans–” Once again he got interrupted, a common trend with these two it seems.

“Then let me kill him!”

“P-please don’t…” Muttered the human, backstepping a bit and holding his crowbar close to himself, just in case.

The male one then groaned, tired of the female's antics. “Just go and sit over there please,” He pleaded to her, pointing at a corner. “Fiiiiine.” As she finally shut up, walking to the corner, the male added one last command “And don’t cause trouble!” which earned a “whatever” from her.

“Fucking robo-god…” he grumbled under his breath as he rubbed his visor. Mitchell began to feel bad for him.

Then he looked back up at Mitchell, arms now moving to be crossed over his chest. He looked towards the human's defensive position, and at the crowbar, a bit puzzled, but then he shook his head. “You can put that down now, you know. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“H-how do I know you aren’t l-lying?” questioned the human, the drone pausing for a moment then nodding in response.

“That’s a fair question to ask. But, I give you my word I won’t attack you, not unless you attack first.”

Mitchell looked over the drone in front of him, not sure whether to trust him or not. The drone stood as straight as a pencil, arms still crossed over his chest. Despite having chased him in here his suit still didn’t have a single crease on it, and his face still had that almost stoic expression on it. Mitchell didn’t know if he should trust him or not, but so far trusting drones hasn’t led him astray, so he did as suggested and lowered his crowbar. He still held it, just in case, but it was by his side now.

“Thank you.” A genuine smile appeared on the drones face then, a small one but a smile nonetheless, but then it promptly disappeared not long afterwards.

“So, I’m sure you’ve probably guessed already, but me and my… colleague over there,” he motioned his head towards the female, a look of disapproval on his face as he did so, “are the other two members of the team that serial designation Y-0100X0010, otherwise known by her preferred name ‘Bomby’, belongs to. I am the team leader, serial designation Y-011X00010, also referred to by my squad as…” he let out a small sigh, seeming to not be too fond of the name he was about to use, the drone in the corner producing a devilish smirk in preparation for this name that she, no doubt, gave him, “‘Bossy’. And that over there,” he pointed his thumb to the female sitting cross legged in the corner behind him, who was sticking her tongue out at him now,” is serial designation Y-0X1010011, or–”

“Slashy, just call me Slashy. It’s cooler.” She had a tendency to interrupt him, that was something Mitchell made a quick note of. And it’s something that probably happens often, as evident by the tired sigh the male drone, Bossy, let out. 

“R-right… Well, I-I’m Mitchell.”

“Yes, I am aware, and it is good to finally meet you Mitchell.” Bossy seemed glad to have his attention removed from Slashy, but also glad to see him? That small smile had reformed on his face now upon being introduced to the human. “You see, Y-0100X0010 spoke about you in rather high regard, a rare thing for her to do. She rarely seems to find people she likes, especially those of your… ilk.” Mitchell was wondering where Bossy was going with this. He had an agenda, Mitchell could feel it coming. The human was also somewhat confused by Slashy, who was currently scratching her head with one of her foot pegs like she was a dog? What’s up with her?

W̷̙̩̊͊̑͊H̸̡͖͉̖͔͊̈A̷̧͕͙̰̿͘T̶̬̦̣̿ ̶̨͖̙̂͛̂͒͠ͅA̵̯͙̔̐ ̵̜͉̐F̷̪̣͛̑R̸̜̬̘̈́̐͊Ë̵͚̝̰͇́̄̌Ȁ̶̡̺̦͐̔̑́K̷̭̙̀

Bossy had noticed Mitchell staring at the drone in the corner, but the businessman-esque drone chose to ignore her presence entirely, continuing on in an attempt to regain Mitchells attention, something that did manage to succeed. “So, I have a proposition for you, one I’m sure you’ll be all for!” he exclaimed, clapping his hands together in excitement, the smile on his face growing larger but very superficial. Mitchell could tell that it was superficial as he had seen many of them before on his coworkers and bosses enough to instantly recognise one when he sees one. However, despite that he could sense some genuineness in this one.

Mitchell grew much more concerned now though. A proposition? From a shady person who is wearing business attire? And a murder drone at that? Yeah, he wasn’t sure about this for many obvious reasons.

“Our team used to consist of five. The other two members perished in the tests your… colleagues put us through,” he began, Mitchell interrupting this time, but not out of malice or annoyance but rather to genuinely apologise for the drones loss. “Oh, I-I’m so sorry.” Bossy seemed to catch on that this was genuine, and gave a remorseful smile in return.

“Thank you. However, now we’re down to two. The damage you did to Y-0100X0010 was so severe I doubt she’ll be able to leave that room, well, ever.” Mitchells face fell, and so did his whole body, it going slack at that news. He knew he had hurt her, quite badly at that, and he hated that he had done that, but he didn’t know it was this bad! She said she could repair it… Was she just saying that to get Mitchell going? To stop him from worrying about her?

Upon seeing Mitchell look as defeated as he was, Bossy held out his hands, professional demeanour temporarily disappearing in an attempt to calm him down. “Woah, woah! Hey, It’s fine, you were defending yourself! If you hadn’t done what you did, She’d have certainly made you end up far worse than what you’ve done to her. In fact, it’s because of your remarkable skills in defeating one of us that I want to give you this offer!”

“Huh?” Mitchell had calmed down a bit, Bossy making a good point, and the genuineness of his concern had made the human feel more at ease, as though he could trust him more now. However, while he was still worried he was also aware that he had been through all of this earlier. Plus, he promised he’d come back and help Bomby. So, any damage done to her he could worry about and help her fix later when he returns to her.

“Tell me Mitchell, what do you know about us Disassembly Drones?” The question temporarily took the human off guard, not exactly expecting a random quiz, especially not one about murder drones. He wasn’t really sure how to answer that, making him pause for a moment to think on the question.

“W-well… You work for Cyn, you were made to kill humans, m-most of you were old worker drones that were improperly disposed of, and the rest were functioning workers. Uhm… You can survive a lot?” Mitchell knew he was only really hitting the basics, but he wasn’t too sure what else to say other than that.

Bossy nodded his head along as the human spoke, only piping in after he was sure Mitchell had finished. “You’re correct, mostly. See, while the majority of us are worker drones who were improperly disposed of, and others were functioning workers. That’s not the case for all of us.” 

“Huh?” Mitchell now grew confused, this being new info he had not been made aware of.

“There’s a fraction of us, a very small portion, not many, but some who used to be humans.”

Mitchell froze, mouth agape. He DEFINITELY hadn’t been told this. Mind you, he could see why. If this got out then there’d be a massive panic, god knows how many people would willingly offer themselves to the Solver, only growing its army further. Of course, that’s if his higher ups knew, it being very much possible that they didn’t know this either.

“Our boss was very careful with who she chose to join our ranks, only those she saw as ‘worthy’ would be picked. Because of that, the amount of us who used to be human is very low. I’m not actually certain on the specific numbers, but there definitely aren’t that many. Of course, as you can probably tell, neither me nor my colleague here are one of them, otherwise we probably would have known. However, we do know how to do the procedure that would make a human one of us.”

Oh…

OH!

Mitchell now understood what was going on, and he immediately became conflicted.

“So, what I’m saying here Mitchell is that you have promise. You, a mere human, managed to defeat one of us, and survive the literal apocalypse. And, on top of all of that, if rumours are to be believed, you also survived an encounter with the boss. An actual eldritch god. You are remarkable!” Mitchell didn’t even think about that, but yeah, he straight up did survive Cyn in person. “You are massively qualified for a role on our team, and so I extend a proper invite. So, Mitchell, will you join us? Will you become a Disassembly Drone and join our team?” The drone was now not even trying to hide his emotions, his excitement being on full display. His arms were opened wide in a welcoming manner, he had a huge smile on his face, his overall expression being a kind of adorable style of excitement.

Mitchell wouldn’t lie, he was definitely tempted. Not only did Bossy make a very valid point, but this would also solve the main problem that he had recently realised was an issue. If he was a drone then he wouldn’t have to worry about surviving. Food could decay, water could run out, air could become tainted, but in the end it wouldn’t matter, because he’d survive all of that. Him and Alice could finally be together without any worries. They could be happy. 

“W-will it h-hurt?” An obvious question, of course.

“Oh absolutely,” Bossy didn’t even miss a beat, almost instantly after Mitchell asked had Bossy responded. 

“It will hurt like hell!” called out the crazy drone in the back, cackling, once again, afterwards. This caused Bossy to look incredibly done with her.

“I mean, the process is, well, suffice to say it’s akin to a medical procedure. We’d be ripping you open and shoving your insides into a dead worker drone, then uploading the Absolute Solver into it, all while you’re alive. So it would be very painful, and very traumatic. However, it's definitely worth it if you ask me.” Yeah, that definitely detracted from the overall deal.

“And… If I say no? W-Will you kill me?”

“YES!” 

“No, absolutely not!” Bossy glared at Slashy, her now giggling like a mad woman. He then returned his attention to Mitchell. “I may be programmed to kill humans, but Y-0100X0010 vouched for you. She never does that. She absolutely despises humans, sees them as the scum of the universe! Yet she still vouched for you, even called you ‘one of the good ones’. That’s something I’ve never seen  from her before, ever. So, no, I won’t kill you, nor will I allow my team to either. If you refuse then we’ll let you be, I promise you this.” This was, suffice to say, unexpected. But, unlike earlier, Mitchell felt like he could really trust Bossy now. Despite looking incredibly sketchy, he had been nothing but honest the entire time. 

So, Mitchell stood there, looking down in contemplation. This was a difficult decision. Sure, he’d get what he wanted, a happy life with Alice, but the process to do so would be incredibly painful. Also, he’d end up becoming one of the very creatures that had murdered his own family.

“Take your time, I understand that this is a difficult decision.” Bossy assured him, giving him a slightly larger smile this time, his arms now sitting comfortably by his sides. Slashy had said something as well, but Mitchell wasn’t really listening anymore, placing all of his attention on thinking. All he knew was that what she had said had left her with Bossy giving her some sort of lecture.

If Mitchell accepted the deal, then he would be able to live his life with Alice, love her and do everything he could to make up for his mistakes. They could live happily together at Outpost 3, or wherever she wanted to live. He’d be able to help Freyja and Mallory with Beau and be there to be a good role model for him.

But would he really be a good role model?

He’d be a murder drone. A robot designed specifically to kill humans. Yeah, all the humans on this planet were gone, but he knew there were more out there. There were satellites, space stations and space ships out there working on different ways to stop or escape the Solver. Would he be forced away from Alice to kill them? Would he even be able to be Beau’s godfather? Would he even get to live the life he wants to live?

All in service to Cyn. That damnable monster. The only entity in all of existence Mitchell could say he truly hated. Could he really sign his soul over to the robot version of the devil for a possible chance of his happy life? Would entering this Faustian deal be worth it?

Mitchell now knew his answer.

“I-I’m sorry, but I can’t…”

Ȉ̸͙T̴̞̘̼̽ ̶̪̬̯̈́W̷̤̰̓O̴̹͕͊̅Ų̷͕͈͘L̸̗͐͜D̶͕̹͇̉̓̾ ̴̥͌H̶̺̾̇̄A̸̡̋͒̃V̶̩͔̹̿E̴͖̐̃ ̶̻͂B̴̛͎̥̩̒͘E̷̬̝͒͑E̴̪̔́͝Ñ̷͓ ̸̡̤͉̃Ẃ̶̫̰̰͌͘R̸͉͈͑̄͝Ŏ̵̡̲N̶̥͇̑͘G̵͓̱͙͐̀̌ ̷̧̣̙́̚T̵̢̰̀Ȏ̴̬͈̿͝ ̴̟̖̼͌̊̚C̴͕̽͆͠H̶̤̣̖͌O̶̹͐͝Ǫ̷͖̱͐S̷̤̈͜E̵͉̍͆ ̸̗̖͠T̶̨̲̟͒͘Ȯ̵̰̣͕̈́̏ ̸̘̮̌͜B̷͕̥͂E̷̳̞͚͋͒ ̸̟̐̋͊͜A̸͎̭̩͑N̷̫̖̳͝͠Y̷̬̍T̸̟͆ͅH̸̲̗̯̏̌̿I̴̳͒̐Ṇ̸̥̻́̽̎G̸̢̝̙̈́̅͝ ̸̨͇̭̾B̸̨͖͐͑U̴̩̝̓͆͘T̶̜͋̄ ̸̨̪͈̈́̇͝H̴͕̰̣̍Ṵ̸͍͗M̵͓̄Ą̵̅̽̑N̸̑̆͛ͅ

“I understand,” Bossy nodded, and true to his words he didn’t attack, he didn’t even brandish a weapon. Instead his arms just shifted to behind his back once again. “I get that it was a difficult choice, but, I’ll get you my contact info.  You will always be welcome on this team, so if you change your mind you can reach out to me.” A simple and kind act. Mitchell knew he probably wouldn’t do it anyway, not unless Alice or Freyja convinced him that it really was a good idea, but the kindness was something Mitchell would respect.

But, just as Bossy reached into his blazer to grab a pen and paper, something zipped past him right towards Mitchell. Holding out his crowbar to defend himself, he saw the claws of Slashy clash down on them. If he hadn't used the crowbar in time he’d have been torn to pieces.

“Serial designation Y-0X1010011! What in the name of our creator are you doing!” 

“I’m tired of playing with my food, I wanna EAT!” The crazed drone jumped backwards and prepared for another lunge, but Mitchell, this time, managed to actually properly predict it. It definitely helped that she basically advertised her move. So, when she lunged for him again, his block this time was much better.

“Serial designation Y-0X1010011, you are out of line! Stop this, this instant!” Bossy, once again, tried to stop his ally. But she just ignored him. Her bloodlust was so strong that she would disobey direct orders just to kill!

This time Mitchell pushed back, just with enough force to make her stumble a bit, before then jamming one end of the crowbar into her stomach in an attempt to stop her but not seriously hurt her. “I’m so sorry!”

“It’s okay Mitchell, you’re just defending yourself!” replied the male drone in the background rather supportively, him now marching over towards Slashy, most likely to get her to stop this rampage. What neither of them expected, however, was for the female to switch out one of her claws for an arm blade and to then slash Bossy with it, making him topple over and clutch his chest, a mix of oil and blood coming to the surface. 

“Wh-What the fuck Slashy?!” called out her boss, but once again she ignored him though and lunged for Mitchell. This time the human failed to dodge or block her attack due to the shock of what had just happened, and so he was pinned to the ground by the murderous robot, her salivating as she looked over him with that large yellow X. Oh how tired he was of seeing that. 

“Yum yum yum in my tum tum tum…” She raised a claw, ready to strike, Mitchell looking up in terror at the site before him.

BANG

Then a scream.

She had been shot, her visor having a hole in it, a mixture of blood and oil seeping out. Slashy instantly threw a hand over the open wound. She wasn’t dead, but Mitchell remembered what Bomby had told him: they didn’t have their healing ability anymore. Both of them then looked to where the gunshot came from and were equally surprised to see that Bossy had replaced one of his hands with a gun, the other covering his wound.

A murder drone had just defended him…

But then Bossy’s arm fell back to the ground, his visor showing him wince in pain. “Fffffine! You get to watch me kill him up close!” Slashy, with her claw not covering her damaged eye, grabbed Mitchell and threw him closer to Bossy. Thankfully he didn’t actually get that badly hurt when he hit the wall, his backpack taking the brunt of the force.

Looking to his right he saw the damaged disassembler. He didn’t appear to be too badly damaged, it just seemed like Slashy may have struck his core a bit with that attack. Nothing dangerous, he’d just be in a lot of pain for a while, something his systems and subroutines would eventually manage to suppress. Mitchell was relieved about this, Bossy had been nothing but kind so far, and he didn’t want this drone to die for him. But, looking back up at the tall female drone, he realised that she’d probably just kill him afterwards anyway. She was completely insane.

With all of her attention on Mitchell though, Slashy hadn’t noticed the click of a missile being loaded in place, nor did she notice Bossy aim his missile arm, which had replaced his gun arm, at her. 

“S-Serial des-designation Y-0X1010011, you… are relieved of duty…” he huffed out, both Mitchell and Slashy staring at him in shock at this. Mitchell’s stare even had a bit of awe mixed in, especially at the awesome action one liner Bossy had almost certainly not intended to let off.

And then the missile was fired. 

Due to the close range, Slashy had no hope of dodging it, it being a direct hit. However, caught up in the explosion was the control panel, which she was standing right next to. And with that destroyed, well…

Everything lifted in the air. Or was he in the air? Mitchell felt weightless, that was certain. It felt like an eternity being up in the air, seeing everything fly around him. Bossy wasn’t beside him anymore. Or… was it Mitchell who wasn’t near him anymore? For a split second he was pretty certain he had seen his crowbar. Was it coming towards him? But then something hit his head, he felt it, he was sure of it. Either way, his vision quickly faded to black.

Fire. Despite the planet being frozen over, the first thing the human saw was fire. Then it was scrap metal. 

Mitchell didn’t really dream after being knocked out. It was as if everything that had happened had only happened a second ago. Mitchell wasn’t too sure how he knew, but he could tell that it had been a while, he didn’t know how or specifically how long it had been, but he just knew it.

The intern groaned in pain, his body aching, he could feel pain everywhere. His eyes wanted to close again and his body demanded he rest. But he knew better than that, he had to get up. So, slowly, he forced himself to get up. He was currently laying on his front, and so he pushed himself up onto his arms and knees then, slowly, he got up to a standing position.

He was rather uneasy on his feet, feeling a bit dizzy. It also probably didn’t help much that his vision was slightly blurred. Thankfully, though, he was close enough to the wall of the tunnel, so he slowly ambled over towards it so he could lean against it and recover.

Taking in deep breaths and using the breathing technique his brother had taught him, Mitchell began to relax more. He hadn’t even realised that he was panicking until the shaking had stopped and his breathing returned to normal. Finally, his vision returned to him properly, but it still felt slightly off, the fire feeling as though it looked brighter than it should be.

Finally able to look at his surroundings, however, he discovered the complete mess that the tunnel had become. The way that the train had come from had caved in, rock and concrete blocking the way back back. The train itself was completely fucked. There wasn’t any real part of the train left in one piece, some of it being crushed by the rubble and even being stuck on the other side, but the parts on this side were not in any perceivable condition at all, most didn’t even look like they belonged to anything, just being chunks of metal thrown around everywhere.

Ị̷̾̓̚ ̶̛̖̅̉̔C̶̛̬̉̌̽̍Å̸̮N̶̲͆̂͆͋͘'̶͇͙̲̻̻̋̈T̵̙̫̱̅̌ ̷̡̘̳͊̊̎̔͝Ṵ̴̢̟͍́̄͐͘͠S̷͕̱̥̦̝̑̓E̸̜͆͊͑̈́͝ ̴̣̯͖̋͗̿ͅT̵̜́͆ͅH̴͇̰̥̀̒͂͛Ḙ̵̬̭͑̔̈́ ̴̼͙͐T̴̤̲̟͊́̄̾Ṙ̸̨̖̞̫̣͂͘Ă̴̞̹̞̣I̵̮̳̻͖̋͆͐̌̚N̸͉͚̝̼̾S̵̰̮̓,̵̲͈̤̭͒̂̕ ̸̛̜͈̾͗T̴͚̮̅̾̂͜H̷̨͐͒̿͂Ä̴̢̨̩͖̯̀̀T̴̰̣̓̽͠'̷̡̭̜̫͂̌S̶̲̉͛́͘ ̶̰͚͕̭̓G̷̫̓̓̏Ô̶̟̓̒̚O̴̞̙͓̅̐͊͂D̵̡̬̻̤͌͊̎ ̶̛̱̰̯̩̈́͒̌͌T̷̟̫̦̤̱̓̕Ŏ̷͉̣̗̒͋̑̒ ̴͔̬̻̤̇̽K̵̢̙̂͝N̸̲̈́̌̃̎Ọ̴̭̃̽͒͑̋W̷̧̹̿̑́͆͌

It appeared that being at the front of the train had saved the human, though he wasn’t sure how exactly. It seems that it is yet another miracle he had been exposed to. He hoped that if there was a god out there, that he or she wasn’t wasting all of their miracles on Mitchell. He felt it’d be a waste.

Looking over the wreckage, he quickly became aware of something he was missing, something that should be in his grasp but wasn’t: his trusted crowbar. 

Now that he could properly walk about, he moved away from the wall and began to search the wreckage for it, knowing that a survivor without a crowbar is as good as dead. He figured that, if the crowbar was anywhere then it’d be by the cockpit, so roughly where he had woken up. Honestly, he didn’t recognise the cockpit at all, but he knew that the area he was looking at was the remains of it. So, he searched that area. Sadly, however, he came up empty. He had spent a good five minutes looking, but didn’t see a single sign of it. He did find a small tiny fragment of the control panel, the red button attached to it  still and, despite everything, it remained incredibly shiny. But aside from that, no crowbar.

Thankfully though he managed to find the two drones he was with. The first to be found was Slashy. Or, well, what was left of her anyway.

In the explosion she had been torn to shreds. She had no body, it was completely eviscerated along with her clothes, all that remained of her being her head, one of her arms and both of her legs. One of her arms had seemingly been completely destroyed, and the surviving one had a chunk of her shoulder attached to it. One of her legs only existed from the knee down, and her head had her visor cracked to shit. In fact, said visor was similar in appearance to what Bomby’s had looked like, but the flesh of Slashy’s head had been charred, a lot of it even burnt away. Most of her hair was gone too, burnt completely to a crisp. Her visor didn’t even display any error message either, it being that badly damaged.

The worst part though wasn’t the damage to her parts, but rather the distance between them. The explosion had sent the parts flying in different directions, and then the crash had made them go even further. He had seen one leg first when gazing over the area earlier, found an arm just now next to her boss, found her head when searching for the crowbar, etc. There was no recovering from this, not even if she still had her regeneration. She was dead.

He should feel happy, be glad she’s gone. But he wasn’t, he just felt awful. She had attacked him, yes, but she didn’t deserve to die. No one deserved that, not in his eyes. She was forced into this position by the Solver, she knew no better than to kill. Yes, she chose to attack him, but she was made to want to do it.

With a sigh the human shook his head. What was done was done, he can’t undo her death, no matter how badly he wished to.

He then looked over to the other drone, Bossy. 

Mitchell grew worried at first, scared that his stillness was a sign that he too had died. But, once he had reached the drones side, he quickly realised that Bossy, thankfully, wasn’t dead, instead being, as his visor displayed, “[KNOCKED TF OUT]...” Upon seeing this message, Mitchell let out a sigh of relief, and now that he knew Bossy was in fact alive, he proceed to check over the Disassembly Drone for any more injuries he may have sustained.

Bossy had, in fact, collected more wounds. One of his weapon fabrication units was damaged, it most likely being stuck in hand mode now, he also had one of his feet bent, it being pointed in a direction it really shouldn’t be in. His visor was slightly cracked too, and of course his suit had been burnt a bit, his blazer taking the brunt of the force. But, all of the damage was manageable. While his system was unable to actually repair him, this type of damage could easily be fixed with just normal repairs. Repairs, however, that Mitchell couldn’t do.

He was an intern, he brought coffee to rich assholes who couldn’t be arsed to do it themselves. He did basic paperwork shit for people who thought they were above that stuff. He wasn’t a mechanic, he didn’t know a thing about repairing drones., ell, he couldn’t even fix the printer when Adam in HR accidentally broke it. His lack of knowledge in mechanics was an issue he really wished he didn’t have right now.

What he did have, however, was a repair kit. Freyja really overprepared for everything, and like most drones she had forgotten humans needed medicine, not repairs, so she had packed it and then, after it was buried beneath everything else, put a proper medical kit in there. The human did have to go through a lot of stuff to get the repair kit out of his backpack, but he did eventually do so, placing it down besides Bossy, alongside some medical supplies for the wound on his chest.

Mitchell knew that the best course of action was to leave this here for him for when he woke up, because if he woke up the drone now then he’d want to accompany Mitchell on this mission. After everything that Mitchell had gone through he knew, deep down, that things were only going to get more dangerous from here, and he didn’t want to subject Bossy to that. So he wouldn’t.

Searching Bossy’s blazer he pulled out the pen and paper the drone had been trying to grab earlier, and he wrote a quick note down for him, it reading: “Here, this should help you. I’m sorry for all the troubles I brought you. - Mitchell”

Packing up his backpack once again, he rose to his feet. He only now truly realised he’d have to go without his crowbar from now on, and that did scare him, but Mitchell knew he couldn’t wait around any longer, so he pushed forwards, not having any more time to search for his weapon. He began to walk down the tunnel, knowing he’d need to go a bit further to reach the train station or something. Thankfully, though, it didn’t take too long for him to find something as, after roughly seven minutes of walking, he had found a maintenance hatch that would lead him directly to the surface.

Climbing the ladder, he opened up the hatch at the top and took a peek outside to see where he was and, lo and behold, he was just outside the city limits! It was still dark out, so it’s probably still the same night that he had left Cabin Fever labs at, but despite the darkness he could see it as clear as dark, the city he was aiming to arrive at sat directly in front of him. Further good news was that he was by a road leading from the city towards the south east (if he assumed that the city he was looking at was north of his position). It appeared that, if he kept walking, it would probably take him half an hour before reaching the train station.

Looking on the bright side of things, this was actually rather beneficial for him. Minos labs was in the same direction that the road was pointing in, in fact he wouldn’t be too surprised if said road was the road to Minos labs. So, knowing that he was in a good position, the human lifted himself up onto ground level, and set off away from the city and towards Minos labs, following the road as his only guide due to the darkness of the night.

Chapter Text

Mitchell had been walking down the same damn road for god knows how long now. Honestly he didn’t actually know what the time even was exactly, all he knew was that it had been a while. In fact, could he even tell the time? It was dark out, sure, but the core collapse almost certainly must have affected the planet's rotation and its day / night cycle. If Mitchell had to guess how long he had been walking though, he’d probably assume somewhere along the lines of fifty minutes? Nearly an hour maybe? Either way, this was taking too long and his legs were killing him.

Ä̴͍̲́͂T̸͙̈̈́ ̸̹̗̼̏L̸̡̩̯͘Ē̶̝͕̹̃͠Ä̸͜S̸͔̫̪͊́T̸̻̝̯̑ ̶̢̹̏Ỹ̵̧̲̩̔O̵͓̿͝U̶̹̥͊͝ ̸̡͚̈̕̕Ć̵͙̈́A̷̞͎̅͝Ņ̴̺́͠ ̶̬̗̏͝G̷̜̒̕Ȇ̵̪͉̲͂͝T̷͔̋ ̶͇̺̰̒̐S̸̲̣̅͋̈Ô̴̧̧̦̅M̶̬̳͂̒̅Ẽ̷͓̺ ̶̰̳̩̍Ŝ̶̠͒͝T̵̲̎É̵̗̈́͝P̷̱̐S̵̛͚̆ ̴̢̲̖͂͗I̴̤̦̍̓̈́N̵̲͗̏̎ ̷͉͗F̴̡̭̦̓̚͝O̸̦̻͚͌́̒R̸͍͔̀̽ ̸̺͇͐̕S̷̢͔̱͒O̶̟͑̕M̵̨̜̑̆Ę̶͙̥̂̑̚ ̴̞̝̌͜C̵͉̤̣̔Ö̶͇͈́͒̑Ọ̴̬̯̒̑L̵̛͍̤̠ ̶̧̜̈́R̶̝̈́̐̏E̸̤̐̄W̶̠̽Á̴͇͠͠Ṟ̸̰̞͛D̸̟̞̍S̵͉̅̒̈

Mitchell, by this point, had started to regret turning down that deal Bossy had offered him. Mainly because his legs were aching and he was pretty certain that if he was a drone his legs wouldn’t be aching as much as they are right now. Although, thinking back on how crazy Slashy was acting and how she referred to them talking as “playing with food”, Mitchell was actually pretty sure that she was never intending to honour the deal anyway. Well, Slashy that is, Bossy definitely would have, especially since he ended up killing Slashy to save Mitchell’s life. Whether he’d be able to stop slashy from just killing him anyway if Mitchell had taken the deal though…

Honestly, while Mitchell understood why the scientists at Cabin Fever captured the drones to experiment on, he was beginning to wish that they hadn’t brought them here in the first place. It would have at least made all of this a lot easier in the end.

I̸̡͇͋̄́T̵̜͉́͆ ̵̨͇̅͐́W̶̪̖͍̉̑͝Ȯ̶̲̳̊͝U̴̻̔̈́ͅL̸͍͉̆͌D̵͎̮̄͝ ̵͈̯̃̀̀Ḫ̵̖͌͂̕A̴̖̋̊V̶̧̛̪̦̾E̶͎̝̬̒̓̾ ̵̦͎͋͜B̵͖̓E̴̯͓̍͂͘͜E̷͎̔̉͒N̸̖̻̗̽ ̷̨͈̹̏E̸̢̡͐Ä̸̪́͝S̷̢͔̄͂̒ͅI̵̟̰̥͆͝͝Ë̷̖́̚̕R̴̞̈́̈́̉ ̴̡̇̈́F̴̢̩͒Ö̷̝̅͝R̴̭͕̂ ̶̞͒͊̈́͜M̸͙̉̀̇͜E̶̛̞͑͝ ̵͉͓̎̍Ţ̵̿͠O̶̖̽O̷̢͈͌.̶̧̳͆.̷̥̦̠̄̏.̶͔̤̎

Mitchell stopped. There it was.

Just behind the darkness was a facility, no, THE facility. And, on a road sign nearby, Mitchell could read a name: Minos labs. This was it.

The facility was different to where the human had come from. Where Cabin Fever labs looked somewhat like an oil rig partially buried in the ground, this place looked more akin to an old World War Two bunker. It appeared to be heavily fortified, almost as if it was trying to keep something extremely dangerous out… or perhaps contain it within…

There were some lights around it too, all attached to the building to provide visibility during the night, however, for some reason currently unknown to the intern, most were turned off, a few that were on being stuck flickering.

The human approached the entrance to the facility, finding himself in front of a door with a strange sign on it. The sign appeared to be old and rusted, being rather difficult to tell exactly what it was. Mitchell also discovered that the door worked similar to the one to the server room in the train station, it needing a human hand print to open it, from the inside that is. To open it from outside, like Mitchell would need to do, you’d need an ID card and a password. However the door was left slightly open, most likely from Chambers entering the place, so the Intern had no need for any ID card.

Mitchell apprehensive pushed the door open further, beyond it hiding a receptionist room that was bathed in darkness, the lights inside not working at all, instead the orange flashing emergency lights were on instead. The human felt a chill run down his spine. For the first time in his life he felt the primal urge to just run. 

Sure, he felt scared and fearful when dealing with the murder drones, but this? This was new. This was a type of fear that was pure, primal in nature. He wanted to turn around and flee, close the door and never look at this place ever again. Hell, maybe he should…

Somehow, deep down in his core, he could just feel that there was something so terribly wrong here, that entering this place would be the single biggest mistake in his entire life. He felt as though some pure evil presence was here, that this very facility contained something he should never encounter, something that almost certainly would find and end him…

But he had came this far, and god knows Mitchell wasn’t going to let Alice down. Taking in a deep breath, a very deep one, he set one foot in, and then the other. He was officially inside. Mitchel then turned to the door and considered closing it, however he made the logical decision to leave it open in case he needed a quick escape route.

Realising how panicked he was, and just how bad his anxiety was acting up right now, Mitchell began the breathing technique his brother taught him, imagining his brother was here with him as he did so. It took a few minutes of this, but after a while Mitchell felt okay enough to open up his eyes, which he hadn’t noticed were shut, and study his surroundings. He wasn’t completely calm, this area still giving him that uneasy feeling, but he was feeling okay enough to continue his search. 

The receptionist area was somewhat large in size, as if this place was designed to have a lot of people travelling through here. The room had a public bathroom to the right, a male, female, gender neutral and two disabled ones, and directly ahead of Mitchell was a single metal door that led further into the facility. The receptionist desks, of which there were two either side of the door, although they looked like each desk held two people, were entirely closed off, being almost like rooms all in and of themselves, the only way to enter them being a door for each “room”, the doors leading to the same place the door ahead of Mitchell seemed to go. 

This room, however, was a complete and total mess. The furnishing was ruined, potted plants having been killed off somehow, notably not from the core collapse due to them not being frozen over. Chairs were toppled over, paintings were skewed, and one of the receptionist desks' glass was cracked, almost shattered. The most unsettling part, though, was the dead bodies scattered around.

There were several of them, none of them wearing the same work gear as Mitchell did, which made sense since they probably weren’t in a cave system all day and so didn’t need gas masks and stuff. But, despite the core collapse they still retained their skin… kind of. The skin had decayed slightly, these people having been dead for a while now. Their skin also appeared to be sort of sickly. They all died at the same time, and there's no doubt in Mitchells mind that whatever killed these people was also what killed the plants.

After a thought popped into his mind, Mitchell looked up at the ceiling at the ventilation system in fear he was correct. He was glad that he had a gas mask on. After all, his current leading theory right now was some sort of deadly airborne toxin flooded the entire facility, Portal style.

Still, he needed to trudge on, and do so he did. Meekly, the human moved forward to the metal door ahead of him, seeing that it, too, needed an ID card to be scanned as well as a human hand. However, he lacked an ID card that would actually work, which left Mitchell with two options.

Option 1: He searches the dead bodies for a valid ID card and then uses their hand. A morbid option but one nonetheless.

Option 2: Attempt to smash the glass that was cracked and uses a button from behind the receptionist desk to open the door, if said button exists. From what Mitchell knew from his experience as an intern, most receptionist desks had a button or a switch of some kind that would unlock certain doors, but this facility seemed rather… locked down, so said button might not exist, or if it does exist then it may not even work anyway.

Still, in Mitchells eyes option two was clearly the better option to go with. Plus, if that doesn’t work out he can still go with option one… If he has the stomach for it.

Looking over the glass that was cracked, he realised that a good whack with a hard enough object would probably do it in. This was concerning however as the glass was bullet proof. Something had been strong enough to crack it so badly that hitting it with one object would break it. Mitchell did not want to meet whatever it was that did this…

Walking over to one of the chairs that had been toppled over, the human picked it up by the legs and returned to the glass. Standing with his side to the desk, he prepared himself to throw the chair. After a few practice swings, he raised the chair high and, in an instant, lobbed the chair at the glass, the chair landing on the other side of it, glass shattering and spreading out everywhere. Mitchell cringed slightly at the sound of the glass breaking causing the Intern to pause and keep an ear out in case anything happened, like a serial killer coming to inspect the sound or something. Thankfully, after a few moments of nothing negative happening, Mitchell took this as a sign to proceed forward, a sigh of relief escaping him.

The Intern climbed over the desk, doing his best to avoid cutting himself on pieces of glass, and dropped down on the other side of it. Picking the chair back up, he threw it back over to the other side as it was kind of just taking up space in the rather small area. Looking around the mini room, Mitchell found mostly personal belongings like a photo frame, some figures, even a love letter. 

Mitchell looked at the door that led from this receptionist desk to the next room, however that door needed a keycard too, as well as a password. So, he instead decided to search for that button he suspected was probably here.

After a minute of searching he did manage to find that button relatively close to the metal door he wanted to go through. Upon pressing it, Mitchell heard a clicking sound come from the metal door, most likely it unlocking. So he jumped back over to the other side and approached the door once again, pushing it open to see what lay behind it.

There was a hallway. A short hallway that the door opened into the side of. To his left the hallway went towards, what a sign on the wall said was, the “Employee break rooms”, and to his right it also went to, what another sign described as, “HR offices”. Directly ahead of the human was two lifts, both out of order presumably, and to the right of the lifts was a staircase.

It seemed that this floor was just the personnel floor, an area for employees to relax and overall exist, and also for HR to be located by the looks of it. This made sense, from outside this floor did seem rather small, so having the employee rooms be on this floor, next to the entrance / exit, while also taking up the space with the least amount of room did make sense. That meant less resources could be used on these rooms and more spent on the actual facilities rooms.

Mitchell decided to look around a bit anyway, just in case Chambers was up here somewhere. Sure, his boss was more likely to be down below, but this floor was small enough that he could have a quick look around anyway and it wouldn’t detract much from his time. Who knows, maybe he could find something useful? A crowbar would especially be helpful, at the least a soothing sight. You never know when you might need to fight Freeman style.

Upon searching this floor he did find that he was actually correct, that this floor was mostly dedicated towards employee relaxation. The left took him to essentially a large break room, with a kitchen, some bathrooms, and other employee based rooms like a game room, being in the overall area. And, of course, the direction to the right just led to boring HR stuff, him not really finding anything important or interesting there. He did find a few dead bodies though, all of them killed the same way as the others. 

But, eventually he found himself back at the lifts, and he knew what he needed to do. This floor had nothing here, and so it would be in his best interest to descend and hope he finds something down below. Mitchells best bet right now being to find Chambers and, hopefully, get out of there as soon as he can.

Y̴͚̝̓̕Ǫ̶̪̬̉U̷̖̭͙̽̏ ̸̙̖̀͝W̷̱͆̕O̸̢̜̔Ṋ̴͍̦̆̂͆'̴̰̀͜T̶̹̾͜ ̸̣͑F̶̻̝̬̆̍I̵̅̍̈́͜N̸̪̼̐Ḏ̶̢̹́̈́ ̵̻͓̃̉̿C̶̝͚̓́H̷͎̿̚͝Á̶̡̞́͆M̶̞͋͗͜͝B̸͍̘̾̿̇E̴̺͒̄R̵͕͇̍̇S̶̻͐̓̀ ̸͎̑̚H̴͔͙̍̃E̵͉̔́R̷̨̼̻̅̑̃Ë̶́͜

So, with no other reason to be here, he descended down the stairs. He didn’t take the lift because, with how weird the power seemed, he didn’t exactly trust it remaining safe. So the stairs were the only real option. Well, other than turning back, but Mitchell couldn’t do that. He had to do the best he could for Alice.

Ÿ̸̧͍̭͔̰̓͊̚Ó̶̡̱͇̲̚ͅÙ̵͓̫̺̌͂ ̵̪̳̪͙̻̇̿͒́S̶̥̿̒͂͆̉Ḫ̷͖̒̃͜ͅO̴̞̹̐Ư̴̹̬̹̩̳̊̅͝L̵̙̉̿́D̵̗̼̘͉̭̍ ̵̰̣͊͊̕H̴̠͛̃̒̚Ą̵̻̰̽̅́̂V̷̠̟̄E̷̢̛͍͖̭͕͂ ̶̼̤͚̙͆T̵̯͉̮͐̈̒U̷̥͈̻̙͑̒͠R̷͉̺̞̭̰̉̔̾N̶̲͕̠̄͌̅̚Ȩ̸͒̈́̔̿͒D̵̫̆ ̴̬͖̗̏̿̓Ḅ̶͕͐͠Ã̷̩̤̐͐Ć̴̪Ḱ̷̛̞̖͙͂

The staircase was definitely scary looking to the human. It was essentially a square hallway that only went down, the stairs spiralling down into the darkness below. The weird hole that all staircases had in the middle went down so deep Mitchell couldn’t even see to the bottom. The lack of proper lighting also didn’t seem to help much either.

His body told him that this was wrong, that he should turn back and flee, a horrid nervous feeling growing in his gut as he stared down the endless stairway. This could be the path to his doom, the road that will lead him past the nine circles to his own personal hell. 

But despite the warnings of his body, duty drove him forwards.

Taking the trip downwards, he made certain each step was careful, the long, long depth that this staircase went making the human nervous. 

However, the further he went down, the more confused he grew. There was yet to be any exit, and even stranger was the lack of any signs or markings. Sure, there were some dead bodies he passed that he could use as his own sort of markings to know where he was (as if he needed that for a staircase), but there were no signs saying which floor he was at, or what level he was on. In fact, there weren’t even any doors!

Mitchell began to wonder if this staircase did lead to multiple floors, or if perhaps it only went down to the bottom. Maybe this was the actual stairway to hell?

Ḭ̷̺̻̄̌̿T̴̗͘͝͝ ̴̺̰̔̃C̶̨͉͖̏Ẹ̵̡̬̍̆R̴̗̤̍͌T̶̟͚̱̅A̸͎̋͑Ǐ̴̡̍̿N̸̠̞̻̈́͠L̶̯̤̈͂Y̶̦̓̏͝ ̴̧͌̿̂F̸̧͉̈́̔Ȇ̷͚̙E̷̦̩̓̔L̴̤͎̓S̸̘̅̈́ ̵̲̆̓Ļ̷̹̊Ì̸̫̲Ḵ̴̤̃̏͒Ě̷͎̰͋͑ ̴͎̥̻͘Ḧ̷͓́̕E̷̗̎͗̇͜͜L̷̹͍͐L̷̻͍͈̃͆͝ ̵̧͍͚̚H̶̻̮͊̂E̶̩͒̉R̸͙̘̓͛̕E̶̳͔̞̾̀̚

Mitchell continued the walk for what felt like hours, and in fact probably was at least half of one, possibly forty minutes though. But, eventually he reached the bottom, finding a door there, another metal one. It appeared all of the doors here were made out of metal, as if they were trying to make them as durable as possible. Despite this, though, this specific door had a huge dent in it, as if something had punched it, hard. Something not human, that is. Because of this, the door remained open, unable to be closed permanently.

Walking through the door Mitchell found himself at yet another intersection, a three way corridor. He could go left, right, or forward. Of course, the Intern was never good with making up his mind, so he had a look around to see if there was any information on what he’d find down each path, and thankfully he noticed a ‘you are here’ map. 

Making his way over to the map, he could now get a good understanding of the location he was in and… wow, was this facility big.

Guessing from the map, it appeared as though the ‘exit’ was the stairway he came down, as well as the two lifts present. If he went north (from his perspective) then he’d go to the offices, east would be security and engineering, and west would be storage and labs, as well as it leading to somewhere called ‘observation room’, which appeared to be connected to a containment zone, and a mysterious blacked out box. 

Mitchell stared at the map in thought, attempting to decide where to go. His main goal here is to find Dr. Chambers, so figuring out where he is most likely to be would be his best bet. “Since Chambers came here after his friend sent him an email, he’d probably go looking for him…” deduced the Intern, that train of thought leading him to the logical conclusion that the offices would therefore be his best bet.

As Mitchell just began walking away from the sign he temporarily paused and then immediately backed up (literally walking backwards) to return to the sign, his brain having noticed something… off about it. He struggled to figure out exactly what it was until his eyes drifted to the bottom right corner. 

That symbol, he noticed, was the exact same as the one that was on the door to the facility. The one on the door was so rusted and old he couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but this sign here is clearly the same one.

Site B? Wasn’t that the place Ron mentioned? Also… Why does it still sound so familiar… unless…

Mitchell’s face went blank, how could he have possibly forgotten?! Site B was listed in some of those documents he and Freyja had looked through. Those documents were about moving materials and equipment here, just like Ron had said he and his co-workers had done. 

So Ron was right, Minos labs is Site B… What’s with the name change though?

I̴͚͒́Ṭ̸̊͊͝S̵̘̯͋ ̷͇̹̾̄A̴͙̝̍ ̶̙͇͖̽̃̐L̵͓̠͂́͐O̶̙̲̓N̸̬͎̾̈́G̶̰̏͠ ̴̯̒̀S̴̞̮̈̔T̶͚̩̒̈O̷͍͒R̶̮̞͑̌Y̴̺̟͌̒

Shaking his head, Mitchell decided he’d save that line of thought for later. His main goal right now was finding Dr. Chambers. Who knows, once he’s found the scientist, maybe he’d provide some answers.

Managing to pull himself away from both his thoughts and the map, he actually began walking down, what he will be referring to now as, the north hallway. The walk down felt rather tense for the intern. Even down here the emergency lights lit up the place, and the furniture was knocked over or damaged in some way. Plants were dead and there were a few more corpses down here. Seemingly that toxic gas had had its way with the people down here too.

The corpses however, while certainly making Mitchell uncomfortable and slowing him down a bit, didn’t stop his progress, progress which he noted was evidently taking a while. It appears as though the map was not the most accurate when it comes to size. Sure, he passed many doors as he was only looking for a specific one, Chambers’ friends office, but with how much he had walked the facility seemed much, much larger than the map itself.

After a while, though, something did manage to get him to stop.

Laying against the wall up ahead was what appeared to be a sort of mechanical… thing. It was some kind of robot, like the ones that would be in those old, old films from the 21st century, the ones his great great whatever grandparents used to watch. It seemed to be fully mechanical as well, no oil used in it to cool its systems or anything. This meant it was almost certainly primitive in nature, no actual advanced AI, not like the ones the drones have. Hell, even the sentinels probably had more advanced AI than this thing.

Once closer, Mitchell stopped in front of it and looked over it properly. 

It seemed rather human in appearance, being as tall as one with two arms, two legs, the usual. It even had eyes. Or, well, fake eyes, ones seemingly made from porcelain, a camera in the centre of them so it could actually see with them. It wasn’t covered in plating though, not like the drones did. It had its mechanics exposed, well, most of its mechanics. The only place with the plating on was the face which was made to look human, but not in a horrifying uncanny way, instead in a more cartoony way, kind of like the weird staff robots in that one horror robot game that was a bit of a flop, what was it called… Friendly Nights at Freds Security Break? Something like that. It’s a thousand years old, he can’t really be blamed if he misremembered the name.

Ī̷̪T̸̳̆S̶͕͌ ̷̣̀C̵̰͂A̶͈͘Ḷ̷̿L̸͇̅E̸̯̋D̵͎̾ ̸̤̏F̵͕̃Ì̷̤V̶̫͑È̵̲ ̸̮̐N̴͓̽I̶̡̅G̸̘̈́H̷͚̉T̷̘͠S̶̯̈ ̵͈͐A̵̙̐T̸̰̾ ̶̤̽F̴̮̐R̵̠̍E̷͙̕D̵̙̓Ḍ̸̅Y̵̻͂'̷̤͠S̸̤̎,̷͚̾ ̷̫̅M̶̯̓Ȉ̷̫T̴̻͌C̵̟̍Ḧ̸̫́E̸͇̐L̵̹̀L̸̤̋

By the looks of it, it should have some sort of suit on over it to protect it, or so people won’t see the mechanics, but most had been torn off. Someone had ripped it off for some reason, and Mitchell had a feeling he knew why…

Crouching down to get a better look he noticed that some parts were, well, missing. Bits and pieces removed, including one of its eyes. It was almost as if someone had gutted the robot for spare parts. But why they’d do that he had no clue at all. They seemed to have a very large storage room, so, surely they’d have parts there? Also, why take apart a robot in the middle of a hallway?

What else confused him, or more accurately ‘concerned’ him was the presence of blood. This robot had blood stains on its hands and some of the cloth left behind. This was extra concerning as none of the bodies nearby had blood on them, meaning this robot must have had blood on it for a while, and from somewhere else.

Mitchell let out a shaky, nervous breath before standing back up. The more he found out about Minos labs, the more confused and concerned he grew, and the longer he stayed here, the more he learned about the place. Mitchell honestly just wanted to get out of the facility as soon as he could.

S̴͍̥̞͝A̴̩͑͊̋M̸̧̢̛̳̺̘̄Ë̴̤̖͖́͝ ̴̟̰̍̄̚Ḩ̶̘̓̉Ȅ̴̺̈́̐ͅR̴̙͈͍̮̱̈́̇̑̈́́Ę̷̛͕ͅ ̴̺͎̐̇͒M̵̘̪̗͎͆̂̉̓Ä̵̩̹̖͕͕́͠T̴̨̝̜̚E̸̗͚̹̅̒͊

But Chambers was here, and he needed to find him.

Pushing forward some more he passed by more bodies, as well as many more doors and furniture. There were a lot of bodies down here, almost all of them killed by this gas he believes was used. However, he did pass a couple that were… bloody. The intern wasn’t sure if it was the robot that had done the murdering of those two people or something else, but he didn’t bother to stop and check. He wanted to leave immediately, and investigating the bodies would only slow him down.

After a while of searching though, Mitchell eventually found what he was looking for; a door in the office area with the name ‘Dr. Scott Bradburn’ on it. This was exactly what he was after, and the door was slightly ajar too, meaning Chambers might be inside!

Rushing into the room, eager to get this whole adventure over and done with as fast as he could, Mitchell’s grin on his face immediately fell when he saw nobody in the room. Well, nobody alive anyway.

Approaching the corpse he quickly took note of the name tag on it: Dr. Scott Bardburn. Immediately after seeing the body, however, he was forced to look away as he gagged at the sight he had, thankfully, only got a glimpse of.

Bradburn was horrifically mutilated, body torn up and limbs twisted in angles they just shouldn't bend in. It looked like some psychopath played with his body the same way a child would play with an action figure, or perhaps more accurately a Transformers figure. And, from the look of horror and sheer pain on the dead man's face, he experienced every second of it. Oh and of course, there was also the addition of the HUGE FUCKING HOLE WHERE ONE OF HIS EYES SHOULD BE!

Ȟ̸͎̤̎͊E̷̢̠̿̆ ̷̲͋̀H̶͖̥̏A̷̲̋D̵̠͕͛ ̵̱̬͗Î̶̧͎̬T̴͙̠̉͘ ̷͍͗Ç̸̋Ǒ̸̘̅͜M̷̱̰̰͘I̷͔̻̎̚Ṉ̵͎̿G̵͈̥̥̊

Well fuck… There goes my only lead.

Despite the action hero-esque way he thought that, it was all just for show, for Mitchell to trick himself into being less scared then he was right now. Whatever did this, well… It certainly wasn’t human, it just couldn’t be. But, at the same time he highly doubted that it was something the Solver or one of its lackeys did.

Sure, the Solver was, well, cruel and sadistic is an understatement, But there’s a playfulness to it, a purely chaotic, but still playful. What happened to this scientist was evidently malicious in nature. Whatever did this had some sort of vendetta against the doctor, after all why put him through so much pain just to keep him alive and then kill him by the eye hole thing? That’s not the Solvers style. The Solver does torture, but for its own amusement, not just to hurt. This was done only to cause pain, nothing else.

As for its Disassembly Drones? It’s possible, sure. But from what Mitchell has seen, none of them really have a weapon that could do that eye hole thing, not the way it’s been done to this body anyway.

Mitchell shook his head to rid his brain of any more thoughts about the… body. Instead he turned his head towards the desk in the room, as well as the drawers. Since he’s here, he might as well do some scrounging around, see what he can find. Who knows, maybe this room might give him some answers to his many, many burning questions that somehow seem to be multiplying by the second.

Since looking at the computer gave Mitchell the answers he was looking for back in Dr. Chambers’ office, he decided that would be where he’d start. So, sitting down at the desk he went to turn on the computer only to find it in sleep mode? 

This scientist guy must have been using it when he… well…

Rolling the mouse around returned the computer to life, meaning Mitchell now had access to it without need of a password. The computer had opened up on an email, the same one that this scientist had sent to Chambers, the one warning him that something broke free. However, what Mitchell found odd was that the computer also had open another email that Bradburn had sent a year ago, one that was exactly the same as this one. 

Why did Bradburn send a copy of an old email to Chambers? And, why did things go monumentally wrong twice?

Ỵ̷̿̀O̸̟͕̊̓͗Ȕ̷̥͋̂ ̷̟͌̚̕Ẃ̶̮̩Ǫ̴͙̍̋U̸̝̮̖̎͘L̴̢͚̾̅D̵̬̗͗ ̴̮͍̂͘H̷̯̘̣̽̎͠Õ̶̢͇̥͆͂Ň̵̢̰̖́̎E̴̢̛̳̭Ṡ̷̼̠̉̄͜T̵̡̳̤͛̋̕L̴̬͊͆̏Y̵͕͛ ̶̺̜͑̂B̶̢͍͗̄͆E̴͔̱͌ ̴̱̂S̸̗̩̲̎Ù̸̦̠͛Ŗ̶̡͒̋P̷̽͗ͅṘ̶̨̻͝I̸̖̭̎S̷̡͉̾́E̵͙̅Ḏ̶̨͔̚ ̷͖̗͋͒ͅA̷̤̮̔͜T̶̩͌ ̷͔̘́̆͘ͅT̵͇̺̔͑͂H̷̲̳͈͗͑̊E̴̳̖̼͆̅ ̴̼͐Ș̶́͐̕T̵͔̫̫͘U̸̞͆͊P̴͔͐̏Ǐ̵͙D̷̘̭̞̍̑̐I̷̡̅̀T̴̟͈̟͑́Y̵̰͗̌ ̶͖͚͛̑Ȍ̴̢̱́͛F̵̘̣͈̆̀͂ ̵̢̺̫̃̀T̴̝͉̎H̴͉͒͋E̸̩͖͎͑̌̕S̵͈̅͠E̸̩̖̞̍̓͊ ̷͍̿̔H̴̥̾̂̏U̸̥̰͍̔̈Ṁ̶̳̪̕A̸̝͐̐Ǹ̸̼̩̤S̶͓̀̆

Letting out a sigh, Mitchell minimized the two emails. They only gave him even more questions when he was supposed to be trying to answer the ones he already had. So, next he looked at the other tabs that were open. He only had three other tabs open that were of interest, one of which being a note written in Google Docs, seemingly a goodbye letter. Poor guy clearly knew his time was up. He also had open–

Wait… That’s Dr. Chambers’ Minecraft 2 server! Holy shit!

It took all of Mitchells willpower to not just forget everything else and start exploring the server, but he did eventually manage to pull himself away, quickly copying down Bradburns login details for later though. 

But, the final tab that was open did interest Mitchell. It was a program seemingly designed for the facility, it being a file that stored all information on all of the experiments done down here. They all seemed to be about weapons? Different guns and even swords and such. What peaked his interest the most though was the small page discussing their goals.

They wanted to build a weapon strong enough to kill the Solver.

It was certainly an impressive goal, but that still didn’t explain the weird robots… or the deadly gas, the dead bodies, and the thing that must have killed Bradburn. So, Mitchell read through more files. But, as they went on they began to drift away from actual weapons and into… other stuff.

The projects began to enter the territory of building their own defence robots, then one project seemed to ask the question of if they could make their own Disassembly Drones, said project seemingly ending in a failure but it further pushed the other projects down the path of robotics. 

But then Mitchell hit a wall, metaphorically speaking (that would be painful otherwise). After a certain point the remaining notes and projects required a special passcode to read them. Concern grew on Mitchells face, making him wonder what exactly was going on. After all, pretty much everyone at Cabin Fever labs knew that they were making the Patch and what it did, so what was the reason for the secrecy here?

There was one last file Mitchell could read though, it was the last file on the system, it being a small note, hell not even that with it being so small. It simply read: “Don’t EVER let that hellspawn out. It is a brutal monster, albeit one of our making, but it will still try to kill us, and worse. We can’t let this mistake ever leave the lab.”

Yeah, something fucked up happened here and Mitchell wanted to leave.

He stood up and was about to leave the desk, planning on leaving this place for good and returning to Alice, but then the computer lit up with a notification? Bradburn just got an email?? From Minos Labs???

What????

The email read:

“You may find these interesting. Don’t take too long though, it nears…”

Attached to the email was a series of images. The first was a screenshot of an email that was sent from Chambers to Bradburn (does this mean Dr. Chambers sent this email?), it was seemingly about the name change of the facility from Site-B to Minos Labs. Apparently the Site-B name was a reference to some Minecraft 1 youtube group? Something about bees taking over an SMP about building a factory to make cakes that were also cookies and biscuits and were filled with orange jam?

I̸̦̿ ̶̣̓Ă̸͓Ḷ̴̃W̴̘̓Ḁ̷̀Y̴̰̎S̷̲̐ ̶̫̅L̸̨̀Ö̸̺́V̴̧̎Ḛ̵͐D̸͖̂ ̶͙̎Á̷̹ ̶̹̾G̸͎̀O̵͓͆O̵̙̎D̸̜͌ ̵͓́J̶͍͐A̵̮̐F̴̜̓F̷̜̉Ȧ̶̖

But, according to the email, the science team all decided to rename the place to Minos Labs. Apparently it was a rather “poetic” name or something? Mitchell decided that this picture wasn’t that useful so he moved on to the next one.

This next image was a note on something named “Project Epigone”. Mitchell remembered that being something he and Freyja found some notes on back in Chambers lab, but now this image had more information on it. This project appeared to be what evolved from the original goal of this place, back when it was called Site-B. Apparently Project Epigone was about taking the concept of a weapon against the Solver, and instead twisting it to fit the saying “fight fire with fire”? Or something like that. Honestly, while Mitchell did not entirely understand what this note was saying (mainly because of all of the large sciency words), he could feel that whatever the scientists decided to do was clearly a terrible idea.

The next image he moved to seemed to be a small note about a “Prototype”, assumedly the same one he saw notes about in Chambers room. It appeared to be tied to Project Epigone, apparently being the product of the project. The note made mention of using an experimental piece of code sent from a Site-A? Mitchell was about to question what Site-A was until he saw that next to it was, in brackets, “CF”. CF? As in… Cabin Fever? 

That means the code used in this experimental weapon must have been–

Before that thought could be continued it was rudely interrupted by a sound: wailing. Someone nearby was crying? 

Wait… people! I’m not alone!

Y̸͚̐Ǫ̴̇Ú̸͕ ̸̩̒N̶̰̊E̷̘̓V̷͓̀É̴̫R̵̥̀ ̶͉͋Ẇ̵̻E̸̬͝R̸̺͑É̸̤.̶͈̃.̶̨̏.̸̱́

The sound appeared to be coming from nearby. Mitchell then looked to the door of the room he was in, then back to the computer screen. Making his mind up, he decided he could read the rest of the stuff later. If there was something dangerous out there then he couldn’t just leave whoever that was to the mercy, or probably lack thereof, of the murderous thing that killed at least Bradburn. So, standing up, he made his way to the door, not aware of the red X that flashed on the screen a few times.

Exiting the room he paused outside of it for a second to grab his bearings and figure out where the sound was coming from. Once he had figured out it was coming from his left, down a hallway, he turned to that direction and began to pursue the sound, eventually reaching a corner that he went around and continued his quest.

Despite the fact the sound was crying, Mitchell couldn’t help but smile as it got louder. He was getting closer after all, and that meant that he was nearing a person. A real human being! He wasn’t alone anymore, and that would be worthy of celebrating!

However, in his excitement to finally not be alone anymore, he never noticed the odd yet somewhat quiet static effect mixed in with the wailing, nor the fact that said wailing seemed to repeat itself after every six seconds, almost as if it was playing on loop…

Eventually he reached the end of the hallway, finding himself face to face with yet another door that was shut, the crying coming from directly behind it. It seemed to be made out of metal, but not as strong or reinforced as the other doors. He made an attempt at opening it but no matter how many times or ways he tried the handle it just wouldn’t open, as if something was keeping it locked. 

“Uhm… Hello?” called out the Intern, hoping he could get the attention of whoever was crying, and he seemingly did. The crying stopped, and a voice repeated back something similar sounding to what Mitchell said in a similar way to how he said it. But Mitchell wasn’t too concerned about that right now, he needed to get to this person.

“I-I can’t seem to open this door. Do… do you think you can try something on you-you’re end?”

Y̷̤̋Ȇ̶̮S̶͓̓ ̵̬̾I̴̗̎ ̴͕̕C̷̠̎A̸̪͛N̵͍̆

There was no response back to Mitchell, instead all he heard was a loud CLANG as something big and heavy hit the metal door, leaving a visible dent that jutted out on his side. This forced the human to take a few steps back from shock, but also to avoid getting hurt. This was a good idea as another bang echoed across the facility from this heavy thing smashing into the door, leaving an even larger dent. 

However Mitchell continued backing away when he realised how familiar that dent looked, especially when he looked back, in his mind, to when he first exited the stairway and found that damaged door.

Had he been played for a fool?

One more bang and Mitchell’s question was answered when the door was flung open, partially off of its hinges. Following this, something… monstrous stepped out into the open. It was horrific, he had no words to describe it. Instead sheer horror was all he could feel as he looked up at this terrifying robotic freak that had an outstretched bloody hand aimed in his direction, the entity lumbering on unsteady feet.

H̵E̷L̸L̷O̶ ̵M̷I̷T̷C̴H̸E̷L̸L̴

Chapter Text

>Playing Audio_lure : Wailing1

>Repeat

>Playing Audio_lure : Wailing1

>Repeat

>Playing Audio_lure : Wailing1

>Sound detected

>End Audio_lure : Wailing1 

>Sound confirmed: “Uhm… Hello?”

>Logged sound = Audio_lure : Nervous_hello

>Playing Audio_lure : Nervous_hello

>Sound detected

>Sound confirmed: “I-I can’t seem to open this door. Do… do you think you can try something on you-you’re end?”

>New objective: “Open door”

>Punch

>Punch

>Punch

>Objective complete: “Open door”

>Forward

>Human detected

>Name_badge detected

>ID logged: “Dr. Chambers”

>Ä̶̛̲͇͂ ̴̤̫̣͂̚ ̵̲͙̣̋̄̿N̵̢̟̊ͅ ̷͎͒͌G̴̳̝̓ ̴̩͖̐ ̵̳̫͔̓ ̶͍̣̙̍ ̸̜̣͖́ ̶͍̪̟̉ ̶̤̯̱̈́͝R̶̺̽ ̵͍̘͆ ̵̓͜ ̵̣̀̑̍ ̷̗̂͆ ̶͕̒͝ͅY̸̞̦̎̔̀

Mitchell stood frozen, heart pounding a thousand miles per hour as he was stared down by this… thing. He didn’t really know what to call it, really. It wasn’t a drone, instead it appeared to be some sort of strange animatronic / robot hybrid. The blood certainly didn’t aid its appearance either. Its hand, the one it held out (seemingly instinctually) was coated in blood, both new and old. It seemed to also have some weird sawblade inside its arm that was also covered in blood.

But its face was the worst. Not only did its face just look absolutely horrifying with eyes that were probably made of porcelain, and that looked exactly like human eyes to an uncanny extent. But it had a bloody handprint on its face too, the blood being dried and old. The presence of it seemed to indicate that it had done something terrible to someone, and that said someone had struggled against it. Could this have been Bradburns blood? Was this Bradburns killer?

Mitchell didn’t have much longer to think though as the entity lurched forwards slightly before letting off some horrific screech. Mitchell didn’t want to stay around long enough to figure out what the thing was going to do next.

So he turned around and fled, the thing giving chase.

Despite being tall and heavy, as well as rather rickety by the sounds of it, it was still rather fast. It wasn’t necessarily gaining on him, but Mitchell was sprinting, so the fact it could stay at the same speed as him was impressive, and also incredibly horrifying to the Intern. One slip up would be all it’d need to do god knows what to him.

As Mitchell ran for his life he decided to begin knocking things over in order to, hopefully, slow down his pursuer. Such items included, but was not limited to; bookcases, desks, chairs, etc. At one point he even picked up a clipboard and threw it behind him in hopes it hit the robot. By the sound of it though, it did.

But it did nothing, only seeming to enrage it by the sound of it, yet again, screeching.

Mitchell was on the verge of giving up when, as he was running down the hallway and just turned the corner, he noticed something odd. Just ahead of him, on the wall, was an electronic notice board that glitched out and began showing an arrow pointing forward, then the words “TRUST ME MITCHELL” appeared on the screen afterwards. 

This was certainly odd, and also kind of fishy. However, this was Mitchell’s only possible hope, a new hope that gave him a renewed burst of energy that allowed him to continue his sprint, knocking over a rather large bookcase which, successfully, did manage to temporarily slow down the monster. But it was as effective at slowing it down as dropping a pallet in DBD. Sure, it did stop it for a few seconds, but the monster just smashed it and continued pursuing after.

Mitchell wasn’t going to get far if he just kept running in a straight line, and it appeared as though this mysterious computer entity agreed with him.

As Mitchell entered the main office space, all of the computers suddenly began to switch on at the exact same time. The human, while certainly taking note of this, didn’t stop running. Not until one of them started showing an arrow pointing forward. Then, quickly, the others near him followed suit.

Mitchell followed the instructions of the computers until the ones just ahead of him showed an arrow pointing left, so as he reached those desks he took an immediate left at it. The computers over here all told him to keep going forwards, until another screen told him to go right, so he did just that. This kept up for a while, sometimes the computers leading him in circles. Mitchell did get a bit frustrated at that as he just wanted out immediately, but at the same time he did understand why it was doing this. By going in circles and not really having a specific direction to go in, they were confusing the monster. This tactic would hopefully give some more space between the two. 

Eventually though, once a significant amount of space had been put between the two, the arrows began taking him in a new-ish direction. This route was taking him back the way he came, towards the door that leads into the hallway he found the robot in. This now meant he had to duck, cover and even vault over items and obstacles he had previously thrown about in order to slow down the robot. This allowed the robot to gain on him slightly.

Once near the door, the monitors told him to make an immediate right. Following this instruction led him to a straight line that, as he could see, would take him to a vent in the wall. The vent was sealed shut though, the vent door looking like an aperture of a camera but split into two halves. With fear in his heart, and nothing else to do, he decided to just keep running towards the vent, hoping that whoever was helping him had a plan.

Once he was close enough, the vent opened up, the two halves spinning around as they did so, and Mitchell took this opportunity to dive into it. Now inside, he didn’t wish to risk his safety so he continued moving, crawling forward. The sound of bangs and clanks, followed promptly by screeching, is what caused him to stop. Turning around he saw that the robot had arrived and was attempting to grab at Mitchel, but due to its large shape it couldn’t get in, nor reach far enough to get at him.

Knowing he was safe enough was all he needed to know in order for his body to just shut down. All of that running had tired him out, and now with his fear subsiding and the adrenaline being cut off, his body finally began to feel the need for a break.

Staring down the horrific robotic entity, Mitchell watched as it stumbled backwards and then stood up. He didn’t notice before just how fragile it looked, as if it was barely being held together. Nor did he realise until now that its body was made up of a mish-mash of parts, it looking like some sort of weird Frankenstein's monster, but as a robot.

It stumbled around a bit, silently patrolling the air vent as it began to try and goad him out by speaking. “Come out…” It spoke in a voice that sounded as if it belonged to some Australian guy, kind of like the stereotypical Australian outback hunters. “I need… You’re… HELP!” it said next, but… this sounded different.

The voice was a mishmash of different accents. The ‘I need’ part sounded like it came from a young American guy, possibly from New Texas. Then the ‘you’re’ was more feminine and was definitely Scottish, and on top of that it wasn’t even the correct type of ‘your’. And then the yelling of ‘HELP’ was a completely different woman's voice.

All of these voices were being cut up and put together to form sentences out of. And by the sound of that ‘HELP’... These were the voices of it’s victims…

This thing was killing people and then stealing their voices…

T̵͉̾H̷̦̓Ė̶̲Y̶̒͜ ̶̢͠M̸̝̔A̸̓ͅD̴̰̆Ḛ̶́ ̶̪͊I̶̢̓T̶̗͐ ̸̯̀T̵̢͗O̶̦͠O̷̻͝ ̷̻̈́E̷̖͐A̴̱̾S̶̢͊Ÿ̸̦

Once the thing had realised Mitchell wasn’t falling for its tricks, it let out one of those horrific screeches again before marching over to a desk and beginning to, essentially, throw a temper tantrum. It began picking up chairs and personal items, throwing them around the place. Then it began smashing desks, punching the computer monitors, etc. It was just making a mess, that being evidence that it had some sort of anger issue.

But, despite the rather jarring visual before him, the screech was what remained in the Interns head. It sounded terrible and incredibly unnatural, sounding too mechanical in nature to be yet another sound it had recorded. It was like the thing was trying to imitate an animal roar or something, and by the sounds of the static that, while difficult to hear, was there, it seemed to possibly be destroying its own voicebox in order to do so. Perhaps that was why it had to rely on using clips of peoples voices?

Watching it exert its stress, even in such a childish way, made Mitchell rather nervous. It didn’t particularly help knowing that he was probably going to end up the victim of said tantrum instead of the furniture. So, he decided to take his leave now before it figure out it could still throw stuff at him through the hole or something.

As he turned around and began climbing through the vent, he could hear the sound of the vent door closing behind him, as well as the thing continuing its assault on the furniture. Not wanting to stay here anymore he just continued on and ignored the sounds behind him.

As he climbed, his thoughts began to catch up to him, and he began to question many things. Why was this monster so terribly held together? Was that the thing that killed Bradburn? Why was it using other people's voices instead of its own? Was it’s voice box that badly damaged? Why did it want to kill him? Why does it even have a saw blade attached to its arm? Who the fuck would design something like this?!

If Mitchell ever saw Dr. Chambers again, he was going to kill him.

Mitchell quickly began to approach another vent door, and as he got close it attempted to open, but for some reason a technical fault appeared to occur as it froze halfway through the opening, it shuddering as it tried to open further but failed. This didn’t appear intentional, as whoever saved him surely wouldn’t have done so just to let him starve to death in the vent system.

Mitchell took a moment to consider his options, before then turning around. With his feet now at the vent door instead of his head, he lined his feet up and began kicking the door as hard as he could. One kick knocked it a bit, but didn’t do much. A second kick seemed to knock it a bit, loosening up the vent shaft opening. The third did even more damage, knocking one of the two halves and bending it outwards a bit. The fourth kick is what did it, knocking the bent half onto the floor and sending the other half flying.

Mitchell wasn’t an idiot though, he had no idea if that thing was out there, or if there was another one of it, or if there was a different threat, etc. So, backing up and turning back around so his head was facing forwards, Mitchell then poked his head out of the vent to make sure the coast was clear.

He noticed that he appeared to be in a security office. This did make sense as, thinking back to the map, the layout did suggest that the security office was next to the office area. Certain now that he was safe and having heard no sounds, other than what appeared to be a fan blowing, Mitchell crawled out of the vent and then rose to his feet, dusting himself off.

The security room was rather large in size, it appearing to look very similar to that one security room seen in the trailer for Security Breach (not that Mitchell would know, mind you). Clearly its size was made large in order to have a lot of personnel staffed here to keep an eye out for intruders on the cameras. This would also explain the large amount of desks and monitors here too, but why they’d need that many people looking over them confused Mitchell. Sure, Cabin Fever labs had security concerns because of the whole eldritch AI that wanted them dead, but this was overkill. Mitchell turned to his right to see a door on the other side of the room that most likely led to the hallway.

Fear suddenly entered his heart then, as in all he knew it could be unlocked and that thing could suddenly wander into the room. With fear clouding his mind, he sprinted over to the door to lock it. Thankfully it already was locked though, which eased his fears. This was most likely done by whoever saved him, which only proved further to Mitchell that this was someone he could trust.

“Uhh…” Mitchell began walking away from the door to the centre of the room. He was alone, definitely, but that wasn’t exactly comforting. If he was saved by someone, where was that person? “A-anyone here?”

“...Hello?”

Yeah, he was definitely alone.

Mitchell moved over to the large screen in the centre of the room, deciding that maybe he could turn that on and find out what exactly is going on. It must be connected to a camera system after all. But… as he reached it, the computer turned on automatically. This meant that his saviour was indeed watching him, just, not speaking to him?

Suddenly a loud crackling sound rang out around Mitchell, causing him to instinctively place his hands over his ears. It sounded like someone was beating a speaker to death or something. But it quickly cleared up.

“Ah, there we go, sorry for that.” A new voice appeared, and Mitchell no longer felt alone anymore. It sounded slightly British and… familiar?

“D… Doctor Chambers? Is that you?” 

“Now is hardly the time for switching names,” the voice began, “We need to contain the Prototype.”

“The… The what?” 

The voice from the speakers let out a sigh, somewhat robotic sounding although Mitchell chalked that up to the speakers the voice was coming out of. “The thing that hunted you down, that is the Prototype created from Project Epigone.” After a few seconds of confusion from Mitchel, the voice let out a sigh. “Look at the screen.”

Once given the order, Mitchell did as told and the large screen began showing what appeared to be a blueprint of the thing that had been stalking him earlier. Although, it did look slightly different, being more uniform in appearance. Almost as if it had been changed at some point, parts replaced and such. 

“This, the thing that had been chasing you, is the Prototype. Project Epigone was…” the voice seemed to drift off, something seeming to distract it. “Hold on…”

“Uhm…” Mitc hell’s concern began to grow. This individual, possibly Dr. Chambers, was the most knowledgeable about what’s going on right now. If he was confused, then Mitchell really didn’t like his chances.

“What is this?” asked the voice in a more annoyed tone, the giant screen ahead of him switching to show the view of a security camera. The camera showed the hallway intersection where the stairs and map were. Standing there, staring at the map, was none other than Bossy. He looked to be slightly injured, holding his side a bit, but Mitchell wasn’t really able to see much due to the quality of the camera and the distance away from the camera that he was standing at.

“Ah… Th-that’s Bossy…”

“You know it? On a first name basis nonetheless??” 

“Y-yeah, he helped me… kinda…”

“So… it’s an ally then?”

The question confused Mitchell for a moment. Chambers hated drones, so, why would he consider one an ally? Especially one of Cyn’s murder pets… Is the situation that bad? It must be, that has to be the only reason Chambers would act like this.

“Hm… Its abilities could prove quite useful…” the voice uttered, seeming to take a moment to think.

“Okay, change of plan then,” it began, its tone changing slightly to be less annoyed and more hopeful. “You must go and retrieve this entity, it could be of incredible aid to the end goal.”

“Wh-what is the, uh, ‘end goal’?” questioned the human, not necessarily sure exactly what his ‘guide’ wanted of him. But instead he received no answer as he instead was left standing there. Awkwardly.

I̵̜͑T̴̤͖̎̔ ̶̪̺͚̠̃A̷͓̕L̷̡͕̯͎̈́̏͌W̷͙͍̓̉͜͠A̴̢̝̠̹̫͌Y̵̞̲̓͘͘͠͝S̸̛̹͒͌͛ ̵̢̡̼̓H̵̘̙̖̳̩̏̓̒I̸̡̬͓̽̀̽̑Ḋ̸̤̣̲͓̇̅̈́É̵̼̓̈́͠͝S̴̰͖̙͔̆̾̏̚ ̶̢̱̖͖͕͋̈́̊͝S̵̫̼͆͜͠Ō̴̯̗͓̔͝͝M̶̰͖͈͎̏̕͠ͅE̵̛͖̠̝̭̦̎̇̔T̵͈̪̤͇͚̉͛̄H̷̜̀̓͘͝Ï̴͓Ṅ̵͕͚̓͠Ğ̸̫̿

Mitchell let out a sigh, knowing he’d have to just go along with this person for the time being. “Okay… where do I start?”

“This entity has taken the route near the lab area. It would be best for you to start your search there,”

“Okay…” uttered Mitchell, but before he could turn to the exit, his guide once again spoke up.

“Be warned though, the Prototype stalks the facility for any victims. With this new entity in play being rather careless, making all sorts of loud sounds, it draws the Prototype towards it.”

“Great…”

With little else to do, Mitchell made his way to the exit of the security room, the door unlocking now once he got near it, most likely done by this guide of his who the Intern presumes is Chambers. “Take a right from this door and then head on straight. You’ll eventually find yourself at the entrance you and this new entity came in from. Use the map to guide you from there.”

Mitchell gave a small nervous nod as he looked at the door, head tilted downwards slightly from the fear he was feeling. He just escaped that monster that chased him, but now he was risking meeting it again. Still, he owed Bossy for all the trouble he put the drone through.

With a deep breath, he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, accepting whatever fate lay before him.

Chapter Text

Having just excited the security office, Mitchell had, after some slight hesitation, turned right from the door he had just exited from and begun making his way down the corridor, approaching a corner that he was a fair distance away from. The intern was horrified, his nerves wrecking him and making him consider bolting straight to the exit and leaving, but despite this he knew he couldn’t let Bossy down. Mitchell believed that he was to blame for getting Bossy into this situation in the first place, so that meant it was his responsibility to find his friend and get him out of this place. 

Plus, with Dr. Chambers helping, they were bound to make things work out! Chambers was incredibly smart, and he clearly had Mitchell’s safety in mind, so surely he’d have some sort of plan that could help them deal with this… thing. 

Everything will work out well… right?

N̵̻̪͋Ŏ̵̹̍͝ͅT̷̯͑̂̀ ̸͓̉͐L̴̦̣̈́̽͐Ǐ̴̧̿K̶̯͔̈́̑͑E̵͌̾ͅL̷̙͎͙͝Y̷̛͍͂ ̴̠͋ͅM̶͓̻̓̕I̵̛̥̝̦͗͆Ţ̴̤̮̉͝C̷̢͓̻̆̎̓Ḩ̸̩̘̚Ě̵̺̺̣̐L̶͈͉͐̈͋L̵̩͛

Nearing the corner, Mitchell began to slow his pace, eventually coming to a stop just before he turned said corner. The intern then cautiously peeked around the corner, doing his best to stay hidden as he attempted to see if he could spot that horrific robot… thing. Thankfully, the coast seemed clear, and he couldn’t hear that thing either. So, with his heart racing a million miles per hour, he fearfully continued on. 

The walk felt like an eternity, his anxiety making it feel longer than it was actually taking. Because of this, once he finally reached the map and the stairway, Mitchell had to take a break.

Hands on his knees as he bent over, he let out many deep and heavy breaths. This was the most fearful he had ever been in his entire life, but despite that he knew he had to press on. So, reluctantly, he continued on his walk, hoping to find Bossy before that thing did.

>Forward

>Forward

>Forward

>Sound detected

>Stop

>Sound confirmed: “Mitchell? You here?”

>Logged sound = Audio_lure : Call_for_Mitchell1

>Duplicate file: Audio_lure : Call_for_Mitchell1

>Rename file: Audio_lure : Call_for_Mitchell1-1 TO Call_for_person53

>Edit file: Audio_lure : Call_for_person53 : “Mitchell? You here?” TO “You here?”

>Playing Audio_lure : Call_for_person53

This time it felt as though the walk from the stairs to the labs was taking longer than the walk from the office to the stairs. It was probably because this direction was actually further in length. Eventually though, Mitchell did reach the end of the hallway, nearing yet another corner. This was all Mitchell needed to know that he had now officially entered the experimentation area of the facility. Here Mitchell would find the labs and the warehouse, and hopefully Bossy too.

As the human turned the corner (after having peaked around it first for safety of course), he realised just how more wrecked this area appeared to be in comparison to the other parts of the facility he had previously been in.

There were countless more dead bodies around here, most adorned in lab coats, however the majority of the bodies seemed to be guards, not scientists, as they were wearing the standardised security armour worn by all security personnel in all facilities, which included Cabin Fever. However, the armour these guards wore looked as though they had all been altered, some upgrades appeared to have been done to them to make them more durable, as evident by the large amounts of metal that had been welded onto them.

The bodies were all in positions that seemed as though whatever killed them was something unexpected, like they had been preparing for something else when ‘this’ (whatever ‘this’ is) occurred. Mitchell presumed that the ‘this’ that happened must have been the gas that had, presumably, been released across the entire facility. He could tell as the plant life in this area looked similar to the plant life upstairs.

However, while the vast majority are dead by this gas (as Mitchell assumes), many were also killed by another means, them having that signature hole in one of their eyes that the rest of the bodies lacked. These holes were the same as the one Bradburn had.

The bodies killed by the gas also had their skin discoloured a green-ish colour, as well as having their eyes bulging out and bodies bloated, symptoms the dead upstairs also had but that Mitchell hadn’t bothered to really take note of until now because the corpses with the eye holes lacked said symptoms.

God… This is awful… I really need to leave…

Ȳ̷̝Ö̴̟́U̴͙͛ ̶̣̏N̷̳̔E̸͈͠V̷̞̓E̷̙̚R̷̘̐ ̴̙̈W̷̺̋I̸͇̋L̵͇͊L̷̟̒ ̸̝͂M̸͚̋I̷̢̓T̴̟̈C̴͙̈́H̶̓͜E̴̡͒L̴͍͒L̶͓͐

Walking down the hallway, doing his best to avoid the bodies, the Intern did his best to keep his mind off of the horrifying sight around him. The amount of security guards, all armed with stun prongs and electric based weaponry, seemed to suggest that they had been preparing for something, something dangerous. Mitchell’s best guess was that this was connected to that horrifying robot that had chased him down earlier, after all what other horrifying killer could be in this location?

W̴̟̄E̷̗͝ ̶̙̄Ã̸̮R̶̹̚E̶͈̓ ̵̻̓Ả̸͉L̸̢̀L̴̡͝ ̴̲͂Ḱ̸͓Ī̶̺L̵̠͆L̷̰̈́È̶͇R̴̛̬S̸͚̋ ̷̡̓Ḥ̶͊Ḙ̵͠R̷̹̈E̵̜͝ ̶̖̌M̷͎̈́I̸̳͂Ṱ̴̍C̸̰̚H̵͕̒Ē̷͔L̷͓̕L̷̝͂

As he progressed further, he noticed a door to his right, this being a large double door that most likely led into the warehouse. He knew that there would almost certainly be a few more ahead of him, as the warehouse looked huge on the map.

However, this led Mitchell down a rabbit hole that ended with him being certain that said map was far from accurate. There were many reasons, such as the size difference between the hallways in real life compared to the same ones on the map, as well as the fact that the hallway where he first encountered that robot thing didn’t even appear on the map at all!

But, as he neared the door, he peeked inside and saw just how large the warehouse really was. It was HUGE! The space went on for miles and miles, shelves, crates and boxes everywhere. He couldn’t even see the walls, none of them. It was like some sort of infinite space or something, almost as if it was bigger on the inside.

The intern kept his head poking into the room just to have a bit longer of a look, after all Bossy could have maybe went in there. However, as he thought more about it, he realised that Bossy was more likely to have gone to the labs instead. Bossy knew Mitchell was looking for Dr. Chambers, so he probably assumed that the intern had simply gone to the labs first.

Realising this, Mitchell pulled himself away from the warehouse and continued to walk down the hallway, hoping he’d see some sort of sign when he eventually did make it to the labs.

It took the intern a while, a really, really long while, so long in fact that he had to stop to take a breath a few times. However, he finally got some good news that made him stop.

To his left was one of those electronic notice boards, just like the one he had seen when running from that robot, and, just like last time, his ‘guide’ had seemingly taken control of it. Text was displayed on the board that read: “Mitchell, I lost sight of that ally of yours, the site's main AI doesn’t like me much and booted me from the cameras. You’re on your own from here on out, or until I can regain some sort of control.”

Fan-fucking-tastic…

Mitchell felt less safe now without the guide helping him. This task is now going to be tremendously more dangerous and difficult now he is on his own, but even if he is even more fearful, he knew he needed to push on anyway. 

Despite his soul desperately begging him to leave, he pushed on, now officially entering the lab area.

I̶͖̊ ̷̡̇M̴͕̕Ä̶͉́Y̴͚̑ ̵̬̈Ã̸͙L̷̞̚R̷̺͑E̵̛̥A̵̮̅D̸̺̉Y̶͚̑ ̵͙́K̶͉̋N̸͉̋O̸̠͑W̶̳͂ ̵̯̆W̵͉͂H̴͚̉À̶͖T̷̞͑ ̶̬͝H̶͍͌A̵̰̋P̷̥̄Ṕ̶̘Ẻ̸̱N̴̯͛S̴͙̀,̵͚̐ ̴̺̍Ḅ̵̈́U̶̢͝T̸̰̎ ̵̲͆Ǵ̴̤Ȏ̵͓O̶͚͂D̶̨̂ ̸͙̈́L̸̬͠Ů̸̥Ć̵̡K̵̬͛ ̸̟͋A̴̘̕N̸̼͒Y̴͇͗W̶̭͘A̶̺̿Ỹ̷͎ ̸̗̀M̵̈͜Ḭ̸̒T̴̫͋C̶̥̆H̴͎́E̷̫͠L̶̰̃L̴̺̋

Being in the lab area’s main hallway showed just how busy this place would have been. There were so many dead scientists. This many scientists was, as far as Mitchell could tell, equal to half of the staff at Cabin Fever. And that’s just the scientists, and only the ones he’s seen so far at that! Considering how large this place seemed, as well as the amount of security personnel he saw earlier matching, if not exceeding, the amount of scientists, this place almost certainly had way more workers than Cabin Fever. 

But that begged the question, if there were so many workers here, why had he never heard of this place? Surely Mitchell would have, at the least, heard the name in passing, right? But no, he had never even heard it whispered to someone else.

T̵̮́H̵̰͛Ë̸͇́Ỳ̶̱ ̸͍̀W̵̬̓A̴̗͆N̶̫̓T̴͈͝E̷̖̒D̶̙͂ ̷̗̒T̶̬̊O̵̠̅ ̴͇̊K̵̡̈́Ẻ̴͕E̵͎͘P̵͕̈́ ̸̏ͅM̴͕͐È̷̘ ̶͕̀A̶̗̿ ̴͉̋S̷̝͝E̷̡̛C̸̗̕R̶͙͆E̴̖͘T̷̟͆

Pressing on, the question continued to remain in his mind. There was something fishy with this place, and he needed to figure out exactly what was going on.

As he continued down the hallway, he passed by many rooms. Some were locked but most were open, so of course he’d take a peek inside. The rooms were all labs (of course), but the vast majority of them were less like actual science labs, and instead engineering spaces. They were focusing on electronics and mechanics, as evident by the various mechanical and robotic parts in the rooms, some of which having more of those other robots (not the one that had chased Mitchell prior, but rather the one he had found in the hallway on his way to the offices).

These ones looked like they were in the process of being made, some even seeming like they were in the middle of testing. Of course, not all of them were the same. It’s as if the scientists here had been researching on and trying to improve the robot staff they already had. 

Of course, just like the other robot he had seen, these also look like someone had scrapped them for parts.

Entering one room he approached a robot that was laying on a table. This one was completely without any coverings, no fake clothes, no fake skin, nothing. This instead just left its circuits and mechanisms exposed. What confused Mitchell the most though was that it was missing an arm, or, well… most of it…

It looked as though someone had ripped off the arm, taken the hand off of said arm, then taken off the lower part of the arm (the part that connects to the elbow), and then left the remaining piece here. Looking over to the arm that remained though, he couldn’t help but feel like he had seen that somewhere else before…

It looked eerily similar to one of the arms of the robot that had attacked him. In fact, thinking on it, Mitchell was momentarily perplexed by a thought that quickly took over his brain. Why was that hostile robot so… mishmashed? It had two arms that were vastly different, its two legs looked different, it had two left feet, both also looking different, etc. 

Mitchell shook his head, realising now wasn’t the time to ask a question as pointless as that. So, he turned around and left the room, but not without taking one last glance at the robot laying on the table. He didn’t know why, but he was beginning to feel as though that question was more important than he thought.

The Intern then continued his searching routine, going from room to room, hoping to find some hint as to where Bossy was. He was beginning to lose hope though, as well as his energy. This place was huge! Unnecessarily so. At the very least they could have used bicycles here, that would have made this so much easier.

Bicycles and a map that’s actually useful, that's what I could use right now…

What made things worse though was how useless his map was. The map he had first seen showed the labs as a huge block. Well, turns out that was completely wrong! There were so many corridors and hallways that instead split this lab block into lots of other huge blocks! On top of that, Mitchell was certain that he had already walked down the entirety of the lab area shown on the map, and yet he was still walking with no end in sight! Just how outdated are those maps!

V̸̻͑E̶̙͆Ṟ̷̓Y̵̩̋

Saying that Mitchell was losing his patience was an understatement, as he had, in fact, already lost it half an hour ago, or at least he believed it was half an hour ago. He doesn’t have a way of telling the time, so he’s just guessing at this point.

Either way, Mitchell had given up on going in a straight line and had now entered the maze of corridors that comprised the access routes to the different labs. At least they were labelled, which helped.

Or it would have if the labelling made sense.

WHY THE FUCK ARE LABS 15 AND 196 NEXT TO EACH OTHER! AND WHY ARE THE LABS OPPOSITE THOSE TWO NAMED RANI AND OMEGA! WHY ARE SOME LABELLED WITH NUMBERS AND OTHERS WITH NAMES AND FUCKING GREEK SHIT!

Suffice to say, Mitchell was not having fun.

It was only after his primal yell of outrage, one that may or may not have started as a yell of pain from kicking a wall, that he realised how badly he probably fucked up by doing that.

In an instant his anger dried up completely and fear overtook him instead. Fearing that the robot thing may have heard him, he rushed inside a random room, the one named “Rani”, and hid underneath one of those weird lab tables.

He waited… 

And waited… 

And waited…

Yet silence. 

Nervously, the intern slowly left his hiding spot, thinking that maybe the robot hadn’t heard him. If it was in this area, that is. In all he knew, it could still be in the office area. Or at least he could hope anyway…

Since Mitchell was in the room, he decided that he would have a look around, just in case he found something useful that could help him.

Approaching the whiteboard at the back of the room, Mitchell noticed that it had been divided into four sections. He quickly came to realise that this was a reflection of the room he was in, and that the scientists who had worked in here had decided to divide the room up into four as well to focus on different projects. The white board sections were each used to give a synopsis of each project.

One quarter was looking into time travel by the looks of it, them seeming to try and make something called a time ring? Weird, but apparently they wanted to use time travel to go back and defeat the Solver before it became a threat, a bad idea in Mitchell’s opinion but oh well, no one is going to do that anymore with all the scientists dead. Another quarter was looking into some sort of laser gun thing? The design was a bit weird, it reminding Mitchell more of a cooking implement than a gun.

Then the third one was looking into uncovering and replicating the Solvers way of turning humans into Disassembly Drones. Apparently the goal here was that they wanted to see if humans could live as drones and hope that maybe the Solver would either ignore them or just give up killing them. Of course, according to some notes Mitchell found attached to that section of the whiteboard, the process the scientists had come up with was vastly different to the one the Solver used, and in addition was incredibly painful. To counteract this, the scientists intended to begin work on something called an ‘emotional inhibitor’, whatever that was.

The final quarter had been working on some sort of special gas mask? Apparently it was an upgrade to the regular gas masks, giving it capabilities that would help workers much better. They hadn’t seemed to have finished it, but they did have a prototype of it. 

Mitchell then made his way around the room, looking over all of the different experiments. The time travel bracelet didn’t seem to have even begun being made yet, by the looks of it the scientists seemed to have done nothing but argue about how time functions. The laser gun thingy was still in a prototype stage, so that was not something Mitchell wanted to test out in case it exploded or something, and the weird emotionless cyborg option horrified Mitchell too much so he decided to avoid that.

That left the mask, which seemed like it was almost done. 

Unlike the other experiments, the scientists here looked as though they had developed one upgrade at a time, implementing those upgrades once they were done then moving onto the next one, that way they had a functional product even if they haven’t finished all of their goals. This left them with their prototype gas mask, sitting on a mannequin head behind a glass container. 

Mitchell picked up a clipboard resting on top of the glass container, it having a more detailed description of all of the functions the gas mask had, as well as the ones they wished to implement in the future. It seemed this one had a head mounted electric torch (or flashlight, whatever is preferred to be said), made from more durable materials, bulletproof glass (Mitchell began to wish he had this earlier when he faced the Solver), a constantly updating ma-

A map?

Without even thinking for a second longer, Mitchell tore off his own gas mask, practically throwing it to the floor, and lifted the glass container, putting it aside with very little care. He then took the experimental mask and placed it on his face, letting out a sigh of relief when he noticed a mini-map in his right hand corner. 

Mitchell then spent a while messing with the mask to get a good understanding of how it works. It looked exactly the same as his previous mask, except the gas lamp was replaced with an electronic torch, and that was basically it appearance wise. Apparently, according to the file he was reading on the clipboard, the mask’s extra features functioned via brainwaves? Basically he just thought and stuff happened. 

It wasn’t anything extra impressive, not like some sort of psychic power or anything. It just allowed him to minimize and maximize the size of the map by just thinking. He also had some sort of video game inventory system? Apparently, whenever he picks up something and has it on his person, subconsciously his brain notes that down (whether he remembers it or not isn’t important). The mask is made to record those subconscious thoughts so any time he picks up something, it is instantly added to his ‘inventory’.

The mask also does the same thing for quests, essentially noting down any tasks he’s given (again, by reading his subconscious taking notes) and keeping it stored for him to see. It also uses this feature for other stuff too, like permanently storing a digital copy of any notes he reads, giving him a health bar, hunger / thirst bar, a clock, etc.

He basically had a HUD now, and he couldn’t be happier.

Mitchell knew just how useful this mask was going to be to him, and he was incredibly glad he lucked into finding this room.

It seemed things were looking up now. With a mask that gave him an actual accurate map, he could find Bossy much easier, and much quicker too!

Of course he’d still have to actually find Bossy, and with how incredibly large the lab area was (a size Mitchell could now comprehend, looking at the map), he knew it’d still take him forever until he could find him.

But, as he continued to worry about how he was going to continue his mission with how unlikely he was to find Bossy, his thoughts were disrupted by a notification. Apparently some update had finished?

Cameras. He had access to cameras now.

Oh yeah, I am so 'Fapping Days at Donalds'-ing this!

I̴̲͗T̴̮̈́'̸̱͘S̴̬͐ ̴̩͗C̵͈̀A̸͔͆L̷̹͠L̵̬̿Ê̶͉Ḑ̵̒ ̵̖̾F̴̫̑I̷͙̓V̶̲͝E̵͔͒ ̴̱̃N̸̪̉İ̶̭G̷̼̑H̴̠̽T̴̯̓S̵̹̍ ̸̣̏A̴͔͒T̸͕̀ ̶̖̓F̷̖͂R̷̩̐Ḝ̷D̵̈́͜D̷̘͛Y̵̮͘'̶̢̓S̷̨̅ ̴̱̃Ẏ̷̭O̷̪̽U̴̻̽ ̵̮̃T̴͍̓R̷̘͆O̸̯͑G̶͇̑L̶̰̍O̴̺͠D̷͚͂Y̸̧͒T̴͚͌É̵͇!̷̛̠

Chapter Text

The addition of these cameras were such an incredible aid to Mitchell, they gave him a great view of locations near him without having to peek around corners and such. This was a benefit the intern intended to abuse heavily.

Of course, the camera system wasn’t perfect. Due to this clearly being an experimental and unfinished feature, it only allowed him to view the camera’s nearby him, and according to the clipboard, certain camera’s could only be viewed if the wearer had access to certain clearances. And, on top of that, not every location had cameras, for example the bathrooms (for obvious reasons).

While this would be helpful, Mitchell couldn’t help but still question how he’d find Bossy. Sure, this would definitely help with avoiding that hostile robot, but as he could only view cameras in a certain radius to him, he wouldn’t be able to instantly find out his friend's location. Especially if he was hiding in the bathrooms or something, then he’d never find him!

But, as he was thinking this, a camera from a very far away distance popped onto his screen without him doing anything. This camera, which Mitchell shouldn’t even have access to due to it being far away, showed-

BOSSY!

Mitchell’s face lit up in an instant when he saw his friend. But it didn’t remain on the HUD for long, as the camera disappeared. However, he then got notified of an update to one of his objectives, so making the gas mask show him said objective, he found out it was a quest to find Bossy, and the update was telling him where Bossy was located currently.

Mitchell came to the conclusion that the gas mask had realised he wanted to know where Bossy was, so it showed him where he was on the cameras, then it noted down his location as well as his goal as a ‘quest’. This technology impressed Mitchell a lot, so much so that he genuinely smiled for the first time in this horrible place.

This gave Mitchell an idea though. Since the gas mask could track Bossy, he presumed it could also track that hostile robot too, right? If so, the Intern would be able to move around freely without ever needing to worry about coming across it.

Sadly, when he wanted to see where the robot was, the gas mask did nothing. It didn’t show him where it was, didn’t track it, it didn’t even give him a look on the cameras where it was. 

Mitchell couldn’t blame it though, it was experimental. 

He was definitely keeping it though, that was not up for debate.

O̸̢͊H̷͓͝ ̷̤̀Ý̵̮O̴̯̾Ụ̶̕ ̴̗̕E̶̠͊Ṇ̵͘D̸̠͌ ̸̦̈́Ȗ̵̥P̸̛̤ ̴̥͋K̷̹̋E̶̹̅É̸͉P̴̱̓I̵̞͗N̴̖͊G̶̺̐ ̴̘̑I̴̗̐T̵̝̕ ̶̲͌Á̸̫L̴͙̎R̴̪͝Ỉ̶̺G̸͔̈H̸̳͋T̶͕̆.̴̤̂.̶͎́.̸̮̎

With his goal now in mind, and with a location known, Mitchell had a gameplan in his head. Hope fueled him as he exited the lab and began to get to work on finding Bossy.

>Forward

>Sound detected

>Sound confirmed: “Wha… what are you…”

>90 turn

>Unknown entity

>Playing Audio_lure : What5

>Playing Audio_lure : Are_you3

>Forward

>”Right_arm” reach

>Movement detected : Unknown entity

>Unknown entity != Human

>K̷̩̾̉́ ̵̡͓̘͈̰̈́̀ ̸͇̘͚̰̓͝Ï̵̡̘̦̱̚ ̴̨̤͖̖̾͛̀͂L̶̠͓̭͕̆̂ ̸̢̩̈́͘ ̵̨́͛̏ ̸͓̇̃̈́̀͝ͅ ̴̛̻̺̊̃͠ ̴͙̣̺̣̔L̵̡̬̯̺̋̑

A scream echoed across the facility, and Mitchell instantly recognised the voice as that of Bossy’s. Panic set in, and the human entered into a sprint. If Bossy was screaming, that meant he was in danger, and therefore the robot thing was with him. He couldn’t let Bossy die, especially not to that thing, not after he saw what it had done to Bradburn.

As he turned a corner, Mitchell’s jaw dropped and all colour flushed from his face.

Bossy was pinned against a wall, the robot thing holding him up by its right hand. It was wrapped around his throat, evidently rather tightly from the oil that was being coughed up by the Disassembly Drone. Bossy’s left arm was holding the entity's arm, seemingly trying to pry it off but not succeeding, while his other arm had been turned into a laser gun. By the smoke coming off of it, and the bullet casings around, Bossy had tried to shoot at the thing with both the laser and the gun.

What horrified Mitchell the most though was what the robot held in its other arm, the one it kept close to its chest. It was Bossy’s tail. Clutched in its left hand was Bossy’s tail that was no longer attached to the drone.

It had ripped off his friend's tail…

I̵T̸ ̵W̸A̶S̶ ̴S̵U̷P̷E̷R̴ ̷E̴A̸S̶Y̷,̶ ̴B̵A̵R̸E̴L̴Y̸ ̴A̸N̸ ̶I̴N̶C̶O̴N̴V̴E̴N̸I̴E̶N̷C̶E̷!̵ ̶H̴A̵!̸

Suddenly, fear dissipated as rage took hold. This thing dared to attack Bossy for just existing?!

Looking down to his side, he saw yet another dead security officer, not too surprising as they were everywhere. But, what he considered important was what the employee held. In his cold dead hands was a stun prod, a long stick with an incredibly powerful electric shocking device on the end. 

Within a matter of seconds the intern reached down, ripped the weapon out of the hands of the corpse, and charged towards the monster that dared to hurt his friend.

Bossy noticed of course, his visor (which displayed his fear and pain) turned to see Mitchell, his fear seeming to increase due to, presumably, his worry for the intern.

The robot seemed to notice too, but it was too late. It had barely swivelled its head before Mitchell jammed the stun prod into its open mouth, causing it to let out a horrific screech, one that sounded worse than the ones he had heard earlier. This was more obviously a cry of pain and pure agony. 

With the pain seemingly overwhelming the monstrous brute, its hands unclamped and it let go of both the tail and Bossy, an opportunity Mitchell took advantage of.

The human reached out, snatched Bossy’s hand and didn’t even look back or at Bossy before he just sprinted as fast as he could, pulling his friend along with him. As he ran, the sounds of the monster grew further and further away, news that told him he was almost in the clear.

Until the sounds grew louder once again, the screeches changing from those of pain to those of pure unadulterated rage.

The tantruming monster, by the sound of its yells, now gave chase, as evident from the panicked gasp of Bossy who was attempting to keep up with Mitchells running.

Having learned from his previous encounter with the entity, Mitchell took advantage of the spider web-like corridors between the labs, weaving in and out of obstacles as he took corner after corner, going in random directions in hopes to, once again, confuse their pursuer.

Then, he dove into one of the labs, dragging Bossy under a table with him.

The two waited, attempting to keep panicked breaths muffled as they kept an ear out for the robot. 

The sounds of thumping, metallic footsteps approached their location, walking down the corridor towards the door they had entered, and said footsteps stopped outside of the door. The thing then pushed open the door, holding it open with the same arm it had previously held up Bossy with.

The two looked up at it from under the table, watching it scan the location for them, head tilting and swivelling around as it tried to find them. Then, as it lifted up one of its feet to enter-

“MY NAME IS THE FUCKING MIMIC, OH YEAH!”

Clown music followed by… weird, terrible, singing?

“MY NAME IS THE FUCKING MIMIC, OH YEAH!”

S̶U̸C̶H̶ ̸A̷ ̷S̵T̸R̴A̸N̴G̷E̷ ̷S̴O̶N̴G̵.̷.̵.̶

The robot's head turned, evidently as confused as the human and drone. 

And now the singer was singing the tune of the clown song?

This was… certainly not what Mitchell was expecting, and looking down at Bossy, who Mitchell seemed to be laying on top of, the drone’s visor seemed to be overloading on all sorts of emotions. So, clearly he too was confused… as well as many other things.

“TIME TO PLAY! NO? WELL TIME TO DIE!

“‘CUS I’M NOT NICE, NO I’M NOT NICE.

“I’LL SHOOT YOU IN THE FACE ‘TIL I MAKE YOU DIE.”

The robot, however, while still very, very confused, seemed to have been distracted from its quest to hunt down Mitchell and Bossy, as it instead appeared to now be infatuated with where the music was coming from. It turned, now having its back to the room, and was peaking around outside, as the music seemed to be emanating from a distance away.

“WATCH ME SHOOT MY SECRET CANNON. I PUT BOMBS IN YOUR BELONGINGS.”

The robot had now left, and was walking away from the room, heading to a new location, hopefully one quite far away.

“THEY CALL ME THE BOMB THIEF, UH, THE WAY I DISPERSE GRIEF, UH,”

As Mitchell and Bossy laid there, the two letting out frantic, panic induced breaths, Mitchell tried to calm his breathing down while his mind tried to catch up and understand exactly what was going on, and evidently Bossy seemed to be doing the same.

“AND I DON’T LIKE TO PLAY BY THE RULES, SO IN MY FACTORY YOU WILL BE DOOMED. MIMIC!”

Finally, with his breathing more under control, Mitchell was able to comprehend a strange feeling coming from under him. Looking down he noticed Bossy poking the Interns head, followed by the fact that Mitchell was currently laying on top of the Disassembly Drone.

“Oh, uh… uhm… sorry!” Mitchell stuttered out, immediately attempting to get off of the other.

“I-it’s fine…” responded the Drone, some weird slanted lines appearing on his visor underneath his hollowed out eyes.

Mitchell now sat with his back leaning against one of the table legs, not underneath it anymore, and Bossy promptly crawled out from underneath to join Mitchell. However, said drone let out a grunt of pain, causing the Intern to turn towards his friend, which reminded him of the drones injury, and the oil that was leaking from the drones tail.

“O-oh god! Hold on, let m-me sort that…”

“Woah, hold on, what are you doing?” questioned Bossy as he grabbed Mitchells hand, stopping him from pulling off his backpack.

“I’m going to bandage your wound?”

“And waste your medical supplies on me? I’m a drone Mitchell, I can handle this. You can’t.”

“Bullshit!” Evidently, Mitchells time on this quest had hardened him, and this was a change even he had noticed, causing a split second pause to process what exactly had just left his mouth.

“That experimental patch disconnected you from the Solver, you can’t regenerate. The oil in your body is the only oil you have, once that’s gone that’s it. You’re more vulnerable than I am now!” Mitchell’s retort made the drone next to him go silent, a knowing look on his face. Bossy was aware of this, clearly.

“But you’ll need it more than me.”

“I’ve already been through this with Bomby, you’re not changing my mind.”

With a sigh, Bossy reluctantly gave in, turning around so the human had access to his tail. 

Mitchell, once the backpack was off, used up some more of his medical supplies bandaging Bossy’s tail, an act that did hurt Bossy a bit, but the drone appreciated the aid anyway. Once done, the Intern put the remaining supplies away, noting how little he had left.

“Thanks…” uttered the drone, turning around to face Mitchell once again.

There was a shared moment of silence as their brains attempted one last time to collect themselves and catch up. The silence being broken when Bossy asked a simple, yet necessary, question.

“What was that… thing?”

Mitchell went to respond, but paused when even he didn’t really have an answer. “I… don’t know. I found it down here and, well… It has killed a LOT of people.”

Bossy nodded at that response, specifically at the dead people part. 

“It’s really durable, invincible even. I tried shooting it, clawing at it, slicing it, but nothing. Not even my lasers or explosives worked. I tried my wing blades but, well…” Bossy then pulled out his wings, revealing exactly why he was struggling to keep up with the human earlier, because they had been mangled. They almost certainly didn’t work anymore.

“I was going to attempt my nanite acide on it, but well…” Mitchell didn’t need Bossy to finish to know what he was going to say.

What the fuck did the scientists down here make?

T̶̮̘̖͂Ḣ̵̙̹E̴͔̓͐Ÿ̷̗͓̭́͛̎ ̴͈͔̈́D̵̝͇͕̈́͐̀I̸͕̔͗Ď̵͓̋̈N̴̰̫͇͑'̵͓̻̌̀T̸͇̰͒͝ ̷̬͌́̌M̷̧͇̲͝À̷͉̗͝͝K̴̜̈́E̸͕̦͛͠͝ ̸̲̚M̷̝̙͉̐̈E̵̳̝͇̽ ̵̧̲̲̈́͗M̷̧̻̹͛͗̔I̸̬̖͚̋͒T̶͚̯͐̽́C̸̱̆H̵̢̖͝Ě̵̥͙̟̕͝L̷͖̪͆̌L̷̻̟̩͠ ̶̬̐͗I̷͙̬͒͛ ̶͉͇̖̆̈̋W̴̛͍̮̋̏À̵̛̮̇S̵̯̼̮͑ ̷̠̫̫͂̉B̴̛͖̉̃Ô̵̲̝͇̍̎R̵̲̤͒N̶͓͖͍̋̔!̸̬̇

“I don’t know anything about it, but Dr. Chambers does-”

“You found him?” Bossy didn’t mean to be rude by interrupting, as evident by the grimace on his visor afterwards, but Mitchell didn’t care either way. He was just happy his friend was safe.

“Y-yeah… I think?” Bossy’s visor showed that of a confused expression to Mitchell’s answer. “He’s been talking to me through the comm system. He told me you were here and got me to find you.”

“He wanted you to save me? That’s…. Uncharacteristic of him.”

This response from Bossy caused Mitchell to pause for a moment, because he was right. Chambers hated drones of all types.

Shaking his head, he continued.

“Dr. Chambers seems to have a plan to stop that thing, maybe. He said you could be of help? I mean, I’m just happy to help keep you safe.”

Bossy smiled at what Mitchell said, those slanted lines appearing on his visor again. “Ha, thanks Mitchell.”

The two sat in another short moment of silence, the peace being something they really needed. 

But this time the silence wasn’t ended by the two, nor the robot, but instead Mitchell’s mask. A pop-up appeared on it, a message?

“Now that you two are done being mushy, can we please get on with my plan?”

“Oh! Dr. Chambers sent me a message!”

“Huh?” replied the drone, confusion clouding his visor.

“Oh, uhm, special science gas mask. Gives me a video game HUD.”

“Oh, cool.”

“Yes, yes, cool and fun, just like Minecraft. Now let's get going!” Chambers’ message, while rude, did have a point. They could chat and hang out later, but right now they had a monster to kill.

Chapter Text

After that nightmarish event, Mitchell stood up and then helped Bossy do the same. Whilst the drones tail didn’t appear necessary, instead seeming to be more of an optional weapon for the Disassemblers, it actually did provide a use, giving the Drones extra stability to help them with their movement. This meant that, without his tail, Bossy was struggling with walking, and even standing.

“Do… Do you want me t-to carry you?” the intern asked after having noticed this, seeing Bossy struggling to stand up and then standing on shaking legs. His asking of this question caused the slashes Bossy had on his visor earlier to reappear, an effect Mitchell also seemed to suffer from a similar, organic version.

“Uh, n-no… I… I’m fine.”

The intern nodded to the drone, but got another message from Chambers before he could reply to him.

“I’m sending over a location to your mask, there’s a nearby security office that you two can meet me in.”

“O-okay, Dr. Chambers has shown me where to go. Stay close.”

By the look on Bossy’s face, he clearly had a LOT of questions, but he seemed to understand that right now was not the best time to ask them. So, as Mitchell peeked outside the lab, Bossy stuck close to his side, literally holding onto him so he didn’t lose the intern, or his balance.

Quietly tip-toeing out of the lab, the Intern began looking through the cameras as he began making his way down the hallway, remaining crouched at all times to avoid making too much sound. He hoped that by looking through the cameras he’d be able to find exactly where that robot thing was, and then he could essentially stalk it using them, allowing him and Bossy to avoid it completely.

He did actually succeed in this task, finding that it was quite a distance away. It seemed the song played by Chambers was done a fair bit away from them to keep the thing as far away as possible. Its distance from the two did ease Mitchell’s mind a bit, but despite that he couldn’t help but still feel nervous.

There was something… wrong…

Despite the robot being there, on the screen, the camera seemed to struggle to actually pick up its presence. Instead, its figure appeared glitched out, with the camera constantly showing a mass of glitchy pixels where it should be, it constantly shifting. And, with every movement the robot made, the pixels would spasm. This is, what Mitchell presumed to be, the reason why he couldn’t search for it earlier, because the cameras, somehow, couldn’t even comprehend the entity.

Ï̷͜ ̵̹̓L̶̠̍O̷͘ͅO̷͎̒K̶̻̀ ̶̝̍L̸̜̈Î̸͍Ḳ̸̄Ě̸̤ ̷̜̇M̴̲̀I̶̞͗S̸̓ͅS̸͍͗Ị̸̀Ṉ̵̎G̸̭̿Ņ̵̕Ȯ̶̫

Deciding he had enough of mysteries for today, the human minimised the window (but still kept it open so he could keep an eye on if the thing moved location), and then pressed forward, doing his best to follow the trail laid out for him by his guide. However, after a good few minutes of walking, Mitchell found that the camera showing the robot had cancelled out, no longer being accessible from this distance.

“Shit…” he uttered under his breath, realising how that could screw the two over.

“What’s wrong?” queried the Drone by his side, whispering presumably to avoid drawing the robot's attention. Looking down to meet the Disassembler's eyes, Mitchell saw that Bossy’s visor showed that he was unnerved from the humans reaction, his eyes hollowed out still, but now both him and his eyes were both shaking slightly from the fear.

“Nothing, d-don’t worry…” Mitchell knew that describing the camera system and the whole mask thing would be a difficult and long conversion to have, and right now wasn’t the best time to have said conversation. Once they were locked in a safe location, then he’d be able to explain.

But right now all they could do was look forward and press on. So they did, Bossy still keeping a hold of Mitchell to not lose balance.

>45 turn

>Wait

>Wait

>Sound lost

>Thought : “I̵ ̷W̴A̷S̶ ̴T̷R̶I̴C̵K̷E̷D̷”

>-60 turn

>Thought : “I̷ ̶W̴I̵L̵L̵ ̷K̵I̸L̶L̸ ̵I̴T̷”

>Thought : “I̵T̵ ̴I̶S̵ ̴I̵N̸F̷E̶R̶I̷O̶R̴”

>Thought : “I̵ ̶C̶A̷M̴E̵ ̵F̸I̶R̷S̸T̵”

>Thought : “I̸ ̶H̷A̷T̶E̵ ̴I̴T̴”

It took a while, mainly because the pair were prioritising their stealth over speed, and because the robot had pursued them a few times on their way there, but they did make it to the security office eventually. However, once there they found that the door was locked, and, according to their guide, some mysterious individual was refusing to open it. This individual sounded to be some sort of higher authority who was refusing to help them, for some reason. Honestly, why someone would choose not to help them confused the Intern. Surely their priorities should be to help each other out so they could survive, right?

Whilst Mitchell waited for the door to open, he noticed that Bossy was, rather nervously, keeping watch. His visor showed his, still, hollowed out eyes, as well as some digital sweat dripping down his forehead.

The two had multiple encounters with the robot on their way here, and Bossy got a great view of one of its temper tantrums when it stomped on a body so many times with so much force that it ceased to exist. This had, justifiably, unsettled the drone and affected him even now. He was even clinging onto Mitchell’s leg, not wanting to let go. And honestly? Mitchell didn’t want him to either.

Seeing Bossy, a Disassembly Drone made specifically for killing humans, incredibly shaken and horrified began to make Mitchell reconsider everything he knew about them. This one drone was loyal to Mitchell, having saved his life once before, and rushed to aid him on his quest. Then there was Bomby who also was incredibly kind too, even having convinced her team (minus one individual) from killing the Intern.

The only Dissasembler the human could genuinely remember being evil was the one who killed his family (and Slashy, but the less said about her the better). But that was Earth, a long time ago, and only one singular drone. Considering these drones had feelings (something he also hadn’t found out until recently, but had his suspicions prior anyway), suggests to him that it’s very likely that they may be forced into this position by the Solver. 

Because of this, Mitchell now finds himself conflicted on his feelings towards Disassembly Drones. Especially with his feelings for Bossy.

Finally, the door opened and the two turned to face the room behind it.

Inside lay a rather small security office, one seemingly made to hold only one or two people. It had a large (for the room) desk, and a wall mounted computer screen that was so large it looked more like a giant electronic whiteboard that covered most of the wall. The rest of the room was rather simple, there being only one chair (an office chair) and several filing cabinets.

Stepping inside they found themselves alone in there, Chambers nowhere to be seen. “Uhm… Doctor Chambers? You here?” Mitchell questioned, Bossy tentatively closing and locking the metal door behind him, the door being more like a sliding door, one that opened upwards.

“ I am present,” responded Mitchell’s guide through the speaker system, heavy emphasis on the ‘I’.

“O-oh, uhm… I thought you were, well, gonna be here? You know… in person?” Mitchell looked up towards the ceiling as he spoke to who he believed was Chambers, as if he was speaking to god. But in response the voice seemed to scoff, the scoff sounding slightly digitised, Mitchell assuming it was from the speakers.

Bossy didn’t seem as convinced.

“If I could meet up in person I would, but I’m afraid that is quite impossible,” the voice spoke, sounding slightly disappointed in its ‘position’.

Suddenly, Bossy muttered something under his breath, something along the lines of “That’s not…”, but Mitchell struggled to really hear the rest of what the drone said. This caused the intern to look towards his friend, noticing his eyes still hollowed out, looking up at the speakers. His visor didn’t display fear though, not entirely anyway, it mostly seemed to be suspicion?

“So…” Mitchell began, turning back around to face a camera this time, hoping the guide would be watching from it. “You, uhm, said something about someone else not wanting t-to help?”

“Ah, yes,” the guide seemed slightly irritated at the mention of this individual. “That would be the site's AI. The scientists here decided it was a good idea to have an AI run the entire facility and its automatic systems. I’ve been fighting it constantly to keep you two idiots alive.”

“H-hold on!” blurted out the small drone, nervousness wrapping his voice. Looking down Mitchell realised he was shaking slightly too. The Intern also hadn’t noticed that the drone had reached out a hand to him as well, which the human had taken without realising. “Why does this facility have an AI? What’s the point? Especially with, well, the boss.”

Thinking on it, Mitchell realised Bossy had a very good point. The Solver had a very successful track record of infecting and gaining control over electronics and AI. So, why place an AI in charge of the whole facility if you were trying to stop the Solver?

“The AI was created using the code of a program known as ‘the Patch’. It is immune to the Solver virus, and therefore its influence over the facility creates a blind spot for the Solver, stopping it from even knowing this facility exists, let alone control it.”

Suddenly Mitchell froze. If this place had that, why didn’t Cabin Fever? So many deaths could have been avoided…

A̷̭͝Ǹ̶̞D̵̼̅ ̷͕̍I̴͓̔ ̵̨̊W̵̩͘O̴̖̅Ǔ̷̞Ľ̶͓D̵̤͂ ̶̹͆F̷͔͋I̵͍͑Ṋ̵̿À̴͕L̷̟̾L̵̗͐Y̸̨̋ ̶̠̕Ȟ̴̙Ã̴̮V̷̭̀E̸̹͝ ̶̺͠W̴̠̔H̷̫̎A̴͓͠Ṯ̶͘ ̵̘͗Ȉ̷͍ ̸̘̚Ẉ̵͝A̶̮̓N̵̨͒T̵̩̊

“Because Cabin Fever was a decoy.”

The guide's answer made the Interns blood run cold, his face turning pale from the shock. It appeared that Bossy noticed the humans reaction, him looking up at Mitchell and tugging on his arm. “Mitchell? You okay?”

“I… A decoy?”

“Yes. A decoy to create this:”

Suddenly the large computer screen on the back wall switched on, and on it showed the blueprint that Mitchell had seen previously, one of a strange robot with a name on the top right hand corner…

The Prototype.

The design looked similar to the robot that had chased Mitchell and Bossy, but there were many differences, as if someone had tried building the blueprint using parts from various other robots.

“This is the thing that was hunting you two. It was nicknamed ‘the Prototype’, but it has no real name. And this is why Cabin Fever was a decoy,” the guide then changed the image on the screen to show what appeared to be a slide from a powerpoint presentation.

“The creators of this location set it up so that this site was the main research lab in the fight against the Solver. They did everything in their power to keep this place as hidden as possible. That also meant making their secondary research site, Cabin Fever labs, a decoy,” Mitchell couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Feeling so overwhelmed, Mitchell grabbed a chair and sat down, needing to prepare himself for any more twists and turns that may occur, as well as to try and help calm himself down and try to regulate his emotions.

“B-but… How… I…”

“I mean… I guess that explains why the secret lift wasn't really that good of a secret…” Bossy’s spoken thoughts broke Mitchell out of his stunned silence. Turning he looked down at the drone and, despite wearing a gas mask, Bossy seemed to notice the panic on Mitchells face. 

“Yes, exactly that,” continued the strange speaker. “While Cabin Fever was a genuine lab looking into ways to stop the Solver, the company wanted to focus primarily on Site-B as their main site. So, while still using Cabin Fever, they also made it more of a target. They made it obvious enough for the Solver to know of it, but not too obvious that the Solver knew it was a distraction.”

Mitchell hated to admit it, but it made sense. And he hated that.

“So… everything I’ve done there… everything everyone did… it was all worthless?” Mitchell feared the answer to his question, but he needed to know, looking up at the camera, his voice having a pleading tone to it

“Of course not. This place focused on creating weapons to kill the Solver with, but it was the many evolutions of the ‘Patch’, that was made at Cabin Fever, that helped this location out massively.”

“How was it used?” Bossy questioned, having straightened himself out now. Mitchell saw that he looked to be more in control of his fear now, despite his eyes still being hollowed out. Was he trying to be braver because Mitchell wasn’t?

The screen then switched back to the blueprint. Somehow, this was key.

“The Prototype was what the scientists believed to be their path to success. A robot that would equal the Solver, and could kill it,” This told Bossy and Mitchell all they needed to know, Bossy’s expression darkening. But their guide continued anyway. “They decided that they would, and I quote, ‘fight fire with fire’. So they experimented on a copy of the Absolute Solver. This copy was one that Cabin Fever managed to isolate from infected drones, and then later used to create the Patch.

“This copy of the Solver was explored thoroughly, and once the scientists realised they could use it to create their own Solver, they went ahead with a plan to weaponise the code.”

“Of course…” Bossy muttered quietly, the guide seeming to not catch it, but Mitchell did. Mitchell, too, wouldn’t have been too surprised by this. But he was too shocked from the previous revelation to really take in what was being said.

“They knew, though, that they couldn’t make another Solver as is, as then it could just turn on them and join the current one. So, they decided to do something risky.” The voice paused for emphasis.

“They wanted it to think it was human.” This guide sure knew how to tell a story, as now both Bossy and Mitchell were, figuratively, on the edge of their seats. Mitchell less so though due to him being overwhelmed from all of the information. 

“Wait, hold on, how?” queried the drone that was holding Mitchells hand.

“I’m hoping you two are aware that the Solver can turn humans into drones, correct?” Both nodded in response, Mitchell slower than Bossy. “Good. Well, one of the Solvers' favourite drones is one of these ‘humans’. A while back, a group of humans got close to defeating her, but they lost. Before dying though, they managed to imprison her and then make a copy of her consciousness. This copy was, for all intent and purposes, an exact copy of her. It had her memories, her personality, her history, etcetera, etcetera.

“The original intention was to go through the memories and code to find any sort of weakness or, well, anything that could be used against the Solver. However, the scientists here decided to take that copy and edited the memories to before she had become a murder hobo bot, then merged it with the Solver code. To be safe while they tested it, they also activated an old version of the patch, that way it couldn’t use any of the magic power bullshit.”

Mitchell was stunned. This was an incredibly stupid idea, and it appeared Bossy thought the same. “So they just made a robot that thought it was a human, gave it godly powers, the hunger, anger and overwhelming negative emotions of an evil eldritch god, and just uploaded it into a robot?” Bossy appeared completely flabbergasted as he asked this, shocked to his core by the stupidity of the plan.

“The scientists were desperate. But yes, this was incredibly stupid. Suffice to say, things didn’t go well. The AI was convinced it was human, and any attempt to convince it otherwise ended in… casualties.”

“Like you said, Drone, it had the overwhelming negative emotions of the Solver,” the voice continued. “But there was one more thing that they included that made things much worse. It was a very basic mimicry program, one that would allow it to learn from those it saw, as well as copy anything, but it also worked to limit its thinking as the scientists didn’t want it to overthink itself to death. This program, however, would be something the scientists would later not use in future versions of the plan.”

“This program led to the Prototype acting more like a child. In fact, the program has essentially made it one,” Thinking back, this made a lot of sense. This explained why the robot threw a temper tantrum, why the bodies are so mutilated.

“It is convinced it is human, but somehow the mimic coding has limited its thinking so much that it is unable to even process the thought that it isn’t one. And, despite that, it knows it doesn’t look human..”

“Wait, what?” questioned Bossy, once again asking the questions Mitchell wanted to, but was too tired to speak up about. “How can it know it doesn’t look human, but still think it is one? That makes no sense!”

B̴͔͛E̴͎͝Č̶͉A̴̘͛Ú̸̯S̶̪̑È̸̤ ̶̧̃I̵̫͑ ̸̜̎A̵̮͌M̸̧̚ ̴͔͠H̷̻̆Ũ̷̞M̶̙̍A̷͛͜N̶͉̐,̵̰̀ ̶̲̍I̸̭̾ ̵̧̋A̴̠͒M̷̺̿!̵̱̑ ̵͚͛Ĩ̸̟ ̴̠̏S̵̨̽W̷̛̫Ě̵͜À̴͓R̷̺͠ ̶̮̿I̶̠͌ ̶͎̑A̵͍̓M̷̠̌!̴̧̓ ̷̼̄Ĭ̷͉'̴̫̿M̷̘̕ ̶͓̆H̶̖̀Ū̵̯M̷͗͜Á̶͙N̶̤͊!̷̠̇ ̶̢͗I̸̙͐'̷̩̑M̴̭̎ ̵̗͗H̸̝̋Ǔ̴͜M̸͔͊A̷̫͊N̶͚͝!̸̤͝ ̸̙̒Ī̸̞'̸̯̂M̴̗̈́ ̴̩̃H̸͎͑U̸̥͒Ḿ̶̤Á̷͔N̵̞̍!̷̩̈́

“Pfff, I have no fucking clue.” Well that’s helpful… “But what I do know is what it intends to do.”

“And that is?” Thanks Bossy, I know I can trust you to say what needs to be said.

“Become human. It has a machine built into its left arm that it crafted itself. It somehow extracts people's memories via a sort of lobotomy, hence the hole in the eyes of its victims. It can then look through the downloaded memories like a film or a book. Then it will try to use the saw on its other arm to cut its victim open, then wear them as a skin suit, all while they’re still alive, of course.” That is… horrifying, to say the least. “It can fold its teeth back via hinges to place that person's teeth where its fake teeth were, and it has a removable 3D printer in its chest that will print realistic eyes using porcelain. It has it all thought out, but no one has survived the memory machine yet, and I intend to keep it that way.”

“H-hold on, wait. So, all it wants is to be human?” Mitchell had finally managed to speak, his voice course and light.. “Wh-why don’t you just tell it no one is left… or, I dunno… release it?”

“You saw what it did when it failed to capture you. Now imagine the tantrum it will have when it knows there aren't any humans left!” Mitchell looked down, not needing to imagine the chaos and destruction it would cause.

“Plus, humans aren’t the only target. It appears to have this… need, a strong desire to upgrade itself. Any technology it finds that is slightly better than whatever it has must be assimilated. Any drones left above will quickly be hunted down and slaughtered.”

“But… How can we kill it? None of my weapons can damage it!” Bossy sounded revitalized, a fire being lit in his core to hunt and defeat this thing before it escaped. His retort was heard, but rather quickly countered by the voice. It appeared that the guide had this already planned out.

“Yes, well, that’s because it was made to fight the Absolute Solver. But yes, that’s the thing. We can’t kill it. There is currently no known way to do so.” This information distressed Mitchell, causing Bossy to squeeze Mitchell’s hand to comfort him. It also appeared that the guide noticed this too, as he quickly chimed in. “But! I do have a plan to stop it.”

Suddenly, the screen changed to the site's map, specifically the outdated one Mitchell had grown to despise. But, the large Black shape in the middle of the lab had been circled in red like a clickbait youtube thumbnail. “This is a containment zone created specifically by the scientists. They had the foresight to know that the Prototype could go rogue, so they made this in preparation for that possibility. This is a large labyrinth with no exit, and the site-wide AI’s blindspot ability has been given to that location as well, specifically tuned to the Prototype so that it is unable to even see the exit.”

Mitchell had a spark of hope. Maybe they could do this? Stop this robot, trap it for all eternity, then escape and live his life with Alice. But the chances still seemed nearly impossible.

“But,” Oh, great… there’s always a catch. “I will need access to that area of the facility’s systems in order to lock the entity in there. Annoyingly, this site’s AI has a hatred for me and has me locked out of pretty much the entire site, I can only interact with the vents and the comm system, and I have some limited control over computers and screens. It’s stubborn, incredibly stubborn. I want to strangle it until it-” 

Bossy had to interrupt the voice by clearing his throat, something he didn’t actually do as he can’t actually clear his throat, so instead his system made a sound that simulated the act. “So what, you want us to shut it down? Kill it?”

“God no! That would be terrible! If we did that then the Solver would see this facility, and god knows what it would do if it found the Prototype.” Probably Chambers had a good point, Mitchell knew that the Solver was rather… childish in nature, so it would almost certainly underestimate that robot freak, and then all their work would be undone.

“Instead, I’ll need you two to go to the server room in the engineering section and reroute some of the AI’s site-wide controls over to me. I’ll explain the process once you’re there. Once that’s done, we just need to get the Prototype inside on the labyrinth and BLAMMO! It’s trapped.”

“Great, then we can leave and never, ever speak of this ever again?” 

“No,” Mitchell hated how quickly Bossy’s suggestion got shot down. “There is something else I need your help with afterwards, but that can wait, it’s… more of a personal matter.”

“Okay, that doesn’t sound too difficult. Avoid the Prototype, mess with servers, then lure the Prototype into a trap. Shouldn’t be too hard.” 

“Don’t underestimate the Prototype, drone,” retorted the voice. “It may be a child in personality, but it is still very cunning. Plus, it has the memories, personality and experiences of one of the Solvers greatest Drones. Be careful. Very, very, VERY careful.”

Bossy nodded, agreeing with the plan. He then looked up at the human who looked rather hopeless. Gripping his hand tighter to get Mitchell’s attention, Bossy then gave him a warm smile. “Hey, we can do this, okay? I’ll have your back, no matter what.”

Reluctantly, the Intern nodded. “Oh… Okay…”

Chapter Text

It took a good few minutes for Mitchell and Bossy to prepare themselves mentally for the trip. Bossy had done his best to calm his friend down and get the human ready for the mission they had to accomplish, but Mitchell was still visibly shaken by everything, something that the human could tell the other two found ironic considering how Bossy was the one who was riddled with fear prior.

During this prep time, Bossy had asked him about his mask, something that Mitchell could tell was the drones' way of distracting him, but he let him do it anyway. So, the Intern had then explained his mask to him, explaining what it did and how it functioned, even taking it off to let Bossy try it out at one point. Although, that didn’t actually work as the mask ended up not being able to function for drones, apparently having something to do with the user needing to be organic or something in order to read the brainwaves or whatever Chambers said.

Throughout the process though, Mitchell had caught Bossy constantly staring at his face every now and then, those slashes appearing on his visor again. The human decided not to bring it up though, as he didn’t want to embarrass his friend.

“Okay, okay. Enough playing around. The sooner we deal with the Prototype the better,” interrupted the voice that Mitchell was tempted to jokingly refer to as ‘Schymers’ as a play on words of ‘sky’ and ‘Chambers’. “The longer you leave it, the higher the chance the prototype goes upstairs and finds the exit that YOU made Mitchell.”

It was honestly rather odd hearing Chambers say his name, especially since he very rarely called Mitchell by it. Sure, he spoke about him to others, but whenever he directly spoke to the Intern he would almost always refer to him as ‘Moron’, ‘Asshat’, ‘Fucktard’, ‘Wanker’, etcetera etcetera. In fact, Mitchell realised he’s not once been called something like that yet.

“Yeah, our ‘guide’ here is right. We need to get going,” added Bossy, who had previously been sitting on the floor in front of Mitchell as the two had spoken, another attempt from the drone to calm the human down, one that worked fantastically, in fact. But now he was standing up and looking at the door nervously. 

It was no secret that neither of them wanted to go and do this. The Prototype was… well, horrific vastly undersells just how terrible it is. It was so bad it made a Disassembly Drone, a robot made specifically to hunt and kill EVERYTHING, want to run and hide. Bossy may be putting on a brave face to help cheer up Mitchell, but that is all it is in the end, a facade. Mitchell could tell that deep down Bossy was terrified.

“O-okay, we can do this… together, yeah?” Mitchell said as he got up as well and walked towards Bossy, taking the drones right hand in his, behind his mask giving him a reassuring smile. Slowly Bossy nodded his head, returning the smile. “Yeah… Yeah we can.” Those slashes remained on his visor.

The two then exited the room, terrified of what lies ahead, but ready to face it either way.

>Playing Memory_file : “Chambers”

     >Skip_to : -15 mins

     >”The warning lights flashed brightly as the scientist entered the receptionist area, having used his keycard to open the entrance. On his way here via the train, the planet appeared to have frozen over, so he was glad he had survived by being inside it. However, as he looked around the location, seeing all of the dead bodies, all being killed by the gas that was now leaving the room by the door he had just opened, he couldn’t help but feel that dying in that train might have led to a more dignified death then whatever he’ll find here.

     “Did you do this?” called out Chambers into the sky above, glad he wore his emergency gasmask. 

     “What do you think?” replied a condescending voice, British just like his own, but evidently younger and from a different region. It did have specific requirements for how it would sound, after all.

     “After everything we did, you-” The scientist's words were cut off when he heard the sound of an incredibly fast, metal object hitting glass. Looking towards the sound's location, he saw his greatest fear: The Prototype, its right fist against the receptionist glass, the nearly indestructible glass having cracked near the point of shattering at the force of the punch.

     “F-f-fuck!” He recoiled at the sight of the thing, its visage as horrific as always, made up of the amalgam parts it has collected. “You let it out!?” he questioned the voice, confusion coating his anger. He knew it hated the scientists, but so much so as to let their greatest failure out?

     “Of course not! I hate that… thing far more than I hate you, Chambers,” it responded, the voice being unable to say the scientist's name without some level of spite in its tone. “Look, there’s another entrance, go through there and help me put this thing back. Then we can discuss… this mess. The entrance is-”

     “I know where the bloody entrance is,” Interrupted the older man, his face behind his gas mask showing his discontent for who he currently speaks to. “You better have a damn good explanation for this.”

     Before the scientist turned away, about to leave, he gave the Prototype one last look. It just stood there, staring at him. Despite being unable to show emotions on its cold, robotic face, Chambers could somehow feel the hatred emanating from it.

     It wanted him dead more than anyone else.

     As he left, he closed the door shut behind him, not wanting to risk that thing escaping.”

     >Stop_playing Memory_file : “Chambers”

The two friends were nearing their destination, still holding hands as they walked. They had long passed the entrance, and were now just passing the security office Mitchell had found himself in after his first encounter with the Prototype. Looking at that door as they passed it, he couldn’t help but shudder.

“So, sky voice?” asked Bossy, only to immediately get a response, which Mitchell read out loud, of “That’s not my name,” which was then promptly ignored by the drone. “One thing that’s been bothering me is how… smart that thing is… Like, you said it’s animalistic right? Essentially a child?” 

“He responded with a ‘yeah’, and ended it with a question mark,” Mitchell spoke for the voice, not necessarily enjoying being the middleman, but was left with no real choice in the matter.

“But if that’s the case, why is it so intelligent?” questioned the drone, which did make Mitchell think on this for a second. “It’s able to take apart other drones and rewire itself, as well as repair itself. It understands complex mechanics and, as you said, it designed the memory machine itself. How can it be an animal, and be really smart?”

It appeared that the voice struggled to answer, as it didn’t respond for a good minute. “He… he says he doesn’t know.” It took a moment for the next message to be sent to the human, but when he did he read it out to Bossy. “He says he ‘doesn’t know exactly how the Prototype works, but that it is dangerous and wild’.” 

“Hold on, what?” Mitchell paused, literally standing still, as he read over the new message that the guide had sent him. “What’s wrong Mitchell?” questioned his drone companion.

“A-Apparently… uhm, so, according to Chambers, the email I read that was sent to him… It… it was sent by the Prototype.” Reading over the message once again, Chambers couldn’t help but feel a shudder go through his spine. 

“Hold on, what? Why? Why would it do that?” queried Bossy, confusion etching his face as he looked up at the human, squeezing his hand to keep him calm.

“Chambers… Chambers said that it wanted to lure people here, specifically a certain scientist. I… I don’t know who… It copied an old email that Doctor Bradburn had sent before and resent it…”

“I can guess…” muttered the drone under his breath, giving a, currently active, camera a side eye.

Letting out a sigh, Bossy looked back up at Mitchell, tugging his arm. “Come on, let's get going. We’re almost there,” he reassured, giving him that kind smile once again. 

With that, they kept walking, not long after finding the door to Engineering. The area was large and, as was the case with every part of this location, the map was completely inaccurate for its size. If the map was correct, Engineering would be just one room. It wasn’t. Engineering was an entire area! It had thousands of rooms, each with their own different purpose and each being different shapes and sizes. 

The two had to be guided by the voice in order to find their way to the specific server they needed to get to, which was in a specific server room in a specific section of the Engineering area. But. despite it all… they never once encountered the Prototype.

Sure, the area was incredibly large, and so was the facility as a whole, but Mitchell couldn’t help but be unnerved by this. This robot was after them the entire time, it always knew roughly what area they were in, so why wasn’t it here? Why have they not seen it yet?

Once they found the server though, Mitchell got to work, getting on his knees to work on it while the guide told him what to do via his mask. Whilst that happened, Bossy stood guard, keeping an eye out for the Prototype. 

Mitchell first removed a metal plate that covered a bunch of electronics, then followed the guide's advice. But, as he worked, he peaked a glance at Bossy. After their last conversation, Bossy had been silent the entire time, and it seemed as if he had something on his mind.

“Uhm… Are… Are you alright?” asked the human, turning to look up at the drone. 

“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah… just… just thinking is all.”

“What about?” Mitchell fully stopped what he was doing, sitting back a bit to look at his friend. He then got hammered with messages from the guide telling him to return to what he was doing, but he ignored them.

“Well…” Bossy stopped for a minute, looking down seemingly embarrassed. He let out a sigh after a few seconds pause, then sat down cross legged beside Mitchell, looking up at him now. “I was just thinking, you said before that you wanted to make sure things were safe for everyone, away from the B-... Solver. Well, I… I’m not exactly useful anymore-”

“-Don’t say that!” Mitchell interrupted, but the drone shook his head, a sad smile on his face. “It’s true though,” he continued, looking down once again. “I’m damaged, I can’t heal myself, and I’m essentially poisoned. The Solver can’t repair me without possibly harming itself. So… It would see termination of me as the best option.”

Bossy let out a deep breath, that thought being something Mitchell felt like was on the drones mind for a while. “But this place… The AI in charge of this place blocks the Solver. It will never, ever know it’s here,” Bossy looked back up at Mitchell, a small glimmer of hope in his digital eyes. “This is that safe place you wanted Mitchell. Sure, it will also have a murder labyrinth prison holding an insane murder bot, but, aside from that this place is perfect.”

Mitchell looked down at the ground, looking at his feet in thought. Bossy was right, this place was perfect. Sure, having the Prototype here could end up leading to tragedy, but the drones were smart, they’d certainly find a way to sort that problem out. 

The Intern nodded his head in agreement. “Y-yeah, you’re right. This could work… I-”

Before Mitchell could suggest something to Bossy, a very familiar British voice appeared over the speakers, it seemed their guide was getting tired of Mitchell ignoring his messages. “Oi! Get back to work! We can chat all happy and cheery later!” 

The two couldn’t help but laugh at their guide, but he did have a point, so Mitchell turned back around and kept working on the server, Bossy standing back up and keeping an eye out. But, every now and then the drone would look down at the human and smile warmly as he watched him work. 

Mitchell followed his instructions carefully, although it was slightly harder now since the guide was seemingly being rather sarcastic now in his orders, possibly a result of him ignoring the voice prior. But, it didn’t take too long before Mitchell did the final part of the repairs when-

BEWO OO OO OO ooooooooo

Suddenly the emergency lights all shut off, and most of the servers did too.

“Uhm… Chambers?” called out the Intern as he stood up, looking around as panic set in, and it appeared he wasn’t the only one as Bossy also appeared frightened.

After about a minute or two of waiting, the emergency lights turned back on, and so did the generators. “Ch-Chambers?” Mitchell tried again, fear dripping his voice. This entire time the two hadn’t gotten a response from their guide, Mitchell didn’t even get a single message from him. If the two permanently lost contact with him… well, the thought horrified the Intern. Bossy was looking up at Mitchell, eyes hollowed out and shaking.

“Okay, bad news. It turns out that the generator here was in the process of being upgraded when everyone here died,” said the voice through the speakers, not bothering to be quiet anymore. Mitchell and Bossy were relieved to hear the voice, but they both decided to focus on what it was saying due to how important it was, and in case it shut off again. They were so focussed, in fact, that they didn’t hear the strange whirring sound coming from the server Mitchell was previously working on, nor did they notice the sound speeding up.

“Messing with the server so that I’m given more capabilities seems to put too much of a strain on the emergency generator, so the two of you are going to have to finish the upgrade of the main generator, then activate it-”

The three became suddenly aware of the state of the server when the sound ceased, being instead immediately followed up by the server exploding. The drone and the human stood side by side, staring at the burning wreckage of the server, Bossy’s eyes turning hollowed out as he stared at it, Mitchell looking exasperated.

“Fuck…” the three individuals all said at the exact same time.

“Okay, change of plan,” began the voice. “One of you will go and do what I just said, the other will stay here and repair this… mess.”

“I’ll fix it,” instantly responded Bossy as he apprehensively walked towards the wreckage. “Are you sure?” questioned the Intern, but Bossy shook his head, giving him yet another warm smile. “I’m used to fixing broken technology, plus, I’m sure upgrading the generator should be easier, they’ll have instructions there and everything. You deserve to have the easy job for once.”

“But I-” Mitchell was interrupted by Bossy, the drone now kneeling on the floor, looking over the remnants of the server. “Mitchell, trust me, okay?”

Reluctantly, the human nodded his head, apprehensively turning around and beginning to head to the exit. As he did though, he could barely catch Bossy talking to, presumably, the voice. All Mitchell could hear of the conversation was Bossy saying “Okay, listen, Mitchell trusts you, but I don’t. So tell me, Who-”

“Okay Mitchell, Engineering is a unique place. I’m sure you noticed earlier, but there are coloured lines on the floor with mini arrows on them. These collowed lines lead to certain areas, so just follow the white line and you’ll find yourself at the Generator.” Mitchell read over the message again as he kept on down the path he was going, he was shocked at just how easy this was. There was still no sign of the Prototype, and it was really scaring him now.

Approaching a large double door, larger than the one for the warehouse, he nervously looked around to make sure he really was alone. Despite being glad the Prototype wasn’t near, he couldn’t help but not feel nervous not seeing where it was. “So… I-Is this it?” he asked, looking the door up and down.

“Yep, that’s it. Enter and search for the instructions on how to finish the upgrade, it should be in there somewhere.” The voice’s message didn’t fill the human with confidence, but despite this he still entered anyway. 

Entering the generator room, Mitchell was rather taken aback. It was a huge, circular room. At the centre of the room was a huge hole, the hole’s diameter being roughly half the size of the rooms. The hole had safety railing along the edge, and there were many small rooms inside this one, with stairs leading up to railings that went rather high. The ceiling of the room was giant, giving lots of room for all of the high reaching, multi leveled rooms. There were even rooms on the higher platforms! And in the centre of it all was a huge rod descending from the ceiling, it having a large metal sphere on the end that just barely dipped into the hole in the floor. Approaching said hole and looking over the railing he saw that the surface he was standing on was actually just yet another platform, and that the “room” underneath Mitchell was the exact same height and diameter of the one he was in. It was also lined with all sorts of cables and wires and such.

“O-oh fuck…” uttered the Intern, realising just how much stuff he’d have to check to find out what to do.

Taking a few steps back from the edge, Mitchell’s breathing hastened as his heart began to beat at faster speeds. Trying not to panic was so much harder without Bossy here… Or Alice. Alice would know what to do…

The Intern closed his eyes and tried to focus on his breathing, thinking of Alice to try and calm himself down. After a few minutes, he then felt slightly better.

Turning to his right, he saw a rather large building, one that looked like an office. Approaching it he saw a sign on the side that read that it was, in fact, an office, the sign reading “Site Overseer”. Entering it the office seemed rather cluttered, lots of personal items and packed boxes strewn across the place. There was a settee against one of the walls with a TV on the opposite side of the room, said settee having a blanket on it. Approaching the desk he saw a plaque with the Overseer’s name on it, “Kelly Mcdonal”, as well as a couple notes scattered on it, one of which being a letter from… the overseer's wife? Yikes, poor woman got kicked out of her own home by her wife.

I̶͚̮̻͗͛͒ ̵͕̣̽̅͘K̷̨̠͉͛̋͋N̵̘͙̅O̷̢̩͇̽W̴̿̈ͅ ̷̙̂W̵͉̒̃H̸͎͙͕̐͆͠À̶͚͍͐̈́T̵̡̨̻̄̀͛ ̷̗͖͌̔̾T̷̡͎̩̽̚Ḩ̶̝̞̏͆͂Á̷̠T̸̮̼̓'̶̹͓̂S̴̥̓͆̋ ̷̠̞̈L̴͇̞̭͋̂͝Ḭ̶̘͖͂K̸͇͎̩̄Ẹ̶́

The other notes discussed other stuff, such as divorce papers, Poor woman , job changes, apparently a notice about her needing to lay off some people. “Ah! Found it!” Mitchell declared out loud as he pulled out a letter regarding the upgrades, immediately bringing his hand to where his mouth would be under the mask. He hoped he hadn’t allerted the Prototype… If it’s here, that is.

Reading over the note, he was relieved to see that most of the upgrades were done already, all that needed doing being finishing up installing some parts in some new pylons (whatever those were) and then activating them. Then he'd just need to reactivate the generator, but he’d need to go up to the main control room which, according to a map on the wall, was at the very top of the room. Apparently, directly above this generator, is another room that has all of the main controls and such.

Mitchell was tempted to pocket the note, but he remembered that the mask automatically saves the information, so if he needs a reminder he can just pull it up. Without worrying about what he did with the note now, he put it back and made his way out of the room, not before looking the room over for Kelly, in case her body was in here. Thankfully she wasn’t, and so he left.

Back into the main room, he began looking for whatever those pylons would look like. As he did so, he made note of his surroundings. This place seemed to have large chunks of buildings clustered together, but then having a large chunk of empty space separating it from another large chunk of buildings. Hiding in the buildings would be easy, however hiding in the open spaces would be rather difficult. Sure, there’s obstacles around, like construction equipment, barriers, etc, but it wouldn’t be as easy as inside the buildings.

As he made his way up a set of stairs, he noticed that at the end of an outstretched platform that came off of the main platform and reached out towards the pit, was what seemed to be some weird metal tube with a sphere at the end, somewhat like the large thing hanging from the centre of the ceiling, except much smaller and not upside down. “That’s pr-probably the pylon then…”

As the Intern approached the metal thingy, he noticed that it had a sort of small metal door on the side of it that was open, exposing the wiring and mechanics inside it. To the side of the pylon lay a dead body, seemingly killed via the gas. In its hands was what looked like a mechanical component, some sort of gear, and in the hatch the pylon seemed to be missing a component that looked exactly the same.

“Oh god… I… I don’t want to do this…” he grumbled as he tentatively approached the corpse, reaching down slowly and carefully plucking the mechanical component from the cold, dead and bloated hands of the corpse. He then read a guide on the inside of the pylons hatch door, the guide informing him he’d have to place the part in, and then work the wiring around to activate it. Doing that wasn’t too hard, and it wasn’t long after that before Mitchell found the next pylon, doing the same with that one which, thankfully, had the component already in it.

Something Mitchell had learned from the two he had done was that, once they were complete, they’d let out a somewhat loud beep. Thankfully though, the Prototype was nowhere near, so he didn’t have to worry about it hearing him. This was especially good since he had eight of these pylons left to do, three more on this level, and five on the level above.

Each pylon was rather far from each other though, so the trek to the third pylon was rather annoying. It was when Mitchell neared a door to one of those rooms that Mitchell paused. The Intern thought he had heard some sounds coming from behind it so, crouching low to the ground, he slowly moved towards it. He knew that it was probably nothing, maybe some animal that snuck in, or some sort of mechanical device going off. But, just in case it was a certain… entity, he had to check anyway.

As he slowly opened the door, staying low to the ground, he peeked inside the room only to see… another robot? It wasn’t the Prototype, but one of those other robots that was being used here. Apparently, according to what his guide had told him before they left the security office, these things were supposed to do all sorts of tasks. Some were security, some were maintenance, some were simple aids, etc. They were essentially made to replace drones, being drones without personality and consciousness.

This one looked like a security one, it being dressed up in some sort of police uniform from old earth, roughly the 2000’s era. It was laying against the wall and spasming, almost as if it was badly damaged and glitching. 

Then he heard it.

STOMP, STOMP, STOMP

From a hallway that connected this room to another came rather familiar metal legs, them stopping near the malfunctioning robot. The Prototype crouched down next to it, this robot automatically looking up at the monster that crouched before it. It then leaned over the robot, seeming to search for something. The Prototype reached down, slowly and carefully, towards its chest then… It brutally and viciously ripped out some sort of mechanical component from the robot, then it proceeded to do the same to itself, pulling out a similar part. It then compared the two, before chucking the one it had pulled from itself behind it, the item rolling near Mitchell, as it replaced the component with the other one.

Shock flooded Mitchell as he watched this… thing cannibalise the poor robot.

Slowly and carefully the human backed away, ducking under a window as he tried to slowly make his way around the room. Now that the Prototype was here with him, this officially made the task much, much harder to complete.

Making his way to the third pylon wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be though, seemingly the Prototype was more preoccupied with that robot than Mitchell expected since he didn’t see or hear it once. He also found out that the part to use on this pylon was laying next to it, in fact he was so relieved that, when he got to work on fixing the pylon, he completely forgot one key fact: the pylons make a sound when fixed. 

Panic set in as the pylon let off its loud beep, and then got even more panicked when the silence over the area was disrupted by a loud crashing sound, presumably the door from early being slammed open.

Knowing he wouldn’t last a second standing here long, Mitchell quickly ran for it, hoping the Prototype wouldn’t hear his footsteps on the metal plating of the floor. Sadly, since said floor was metal grating, it did hear him. Mitchell looked behind him to see that the freakish metal monster was chasing him, and so he ran for his life.

One he approached a block of rooms, he immediately began ducking and weaving between different rooms, hoping to lose and confuse the entity. As he vaulted over a broken window for what felt like the hundredth time that day, he crouched out of the way and tried to keep his breathing calm, keeping an ear out to see if the Prototype was nearby. After waiting a few minutes, hearing it pace around trying to find him, the all clear came when it began one of its tantrums, throwing shit around and smashing stuff in a nearby room. Seeing this as his opportunity to leave, he did so, sneaking away towards the next pylon.

Once he did reach the fourth pylon, Mitchell realised something horrific. The previous three were easy mode, because the part to fix this one was missing, and according to a note he found at the pylon, the part would be stored in some locker nearby, but sadly it didn’t specify which locker, just that it belonged to the owner of the note. So, Mitchell began to search nearby, knowing that there was a locker room nearby from the signs on the wall.

As he approached the area he had to hide under a table temporarily as he heard the Prototype stomping around nearby. Eventually, once it passed, he continued searching, coming across the locker room. 

There were a large amount of lockers in this room, and since he didn’t know which one to look in, he began to wildly open them and look through each locker. He didn’t realise just how bad of an idea that was until he heard the stomping approach his location, seemingly caused by the loud sounds of lockers opening and closing.

There was no table in this room, meaning there was only one place to hide. Stuffing himself inside the locker, he did his best to hold the locker door closed, as it didn’t properly shut while he was inside it. Looking through the gaps of the locker's weird slitted part, he could see the Prototype stalking the room, searching for whatever made that sound.

Go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away go away

Eventually, after a rather long and very tense moment, the Prototype exited the room, and Mitchell could have a moment of peace. A moment that the human made last quite a while as he wanted to ensure it really was gone.

Once he left the locker he was in, he finished searching the other lockers, doing his best to be as quiet as possible this time, then he promptly returned to the pylon, fixing it up as quickly as he could. 

Hiding in the locker gave Mitchell an idea. He couldn’t just run away all of the time, because it was constantly learning, and so it may eventually catch him. But, if he hid after fixing the pylon, then he may be able to escape the Prototype without needing to run.

So, once he did fix the pylon, and when it made its loud sound, he immediately made his way to a nearby locker and hid inside it, waiting for the Prototype to come and investigate.

The robotic monster did approach the area and, after not finding anything, wandered off, just as Mitchell predicted. In fact, as a bonus, the Prototype began walking in the direction of the previous pylon, which meant that Mitchell would hopefully be able to finish the next pylon and be able to make it to the pylon after that without encountering the Prototype.

That’s if things worked out, that is. 

And work out they did! Sure, Mitchell had to go scavenger hunting for the component again, but the Prototype was nowhere near. The only issue was that the Pylon after this one was actually on the level above Mitchell, as were all of the others, but Mitchell knew that would work out for him, after all the Prototype wouldn’t know he’d have made it upstairs until the first pylon up there went off.

And that was when things began to get worse again. Sure, he had completed the last pylon on the lower level, and had now completed the first pylon in the upper level, but he seemed to have underestimated the Prototype, as it was already up there with him!

As it turns out, it seemed to have ignored the final pylon on the lower level and somehow expected him to come up to the higher level. And, on top of that, it apparently knew about his goal of repairing the pylons as well! So now it was guarding them pretty heavily, on top of stalking the location for him. The first pylon on the upper floor he completed with ease, but the others not so much.

There were many times where, during the process of repairing, Mitchell had to flee or hide whilst the Prototype made its way over to the pylon. Despite it all, it always comes back.

Mitchell was now on the final pylon, and was excited to get this over and done with. All of the pylons on the upper floor required the Intern to search for a part, all excluding the second to last one, but this last pylon was the worst. It turned out there was no part for this as apparently, according to a note he had found, it had been accidentally left out of the shipment from Outpost 3, hence why the generator upgrade hadn’t been finished yet.

This left the Intern with a new task, one he really didn’t want to do. It turns out that the component that the Prototype had ripped out of itself prior was an exact match to the ones Mitchell was using to repair the pylons with, so he had to sneak back downstairs, grab the component, sneak back upstairs, and then repair the pylon. Oddly enough, though, this worked perfectly and he never encountered the Prototype once.

As he was repairing the pylon he began thinking about what he would do the moment the Prototype wasn’t a problem anymore. Of course, he would have to help Chambers with whatever that personal issue was. But, after that, Mitchell had a myriad of things he could do. He promised Bomby he’d help her, and with Bossy with him they’d be able to. Then he’d go and grab Alice, as well as Freyja and her family, they could all live in that Outpost 3 that Khan mentioned, or possibly this place like Bossy mentioned. There was so much to do…

S̷̫̈O̵̯͊ ̸̙̉M̴͉͝A̸̢͛N̵̳͠Y̴̲͗ ̴̩͆S̸͖̀O̵̻͒Ũ̷̠L̸͗͜Ṡ̴̞ ̶̳̐T̸̩̋O̴̹͠ ̴̧͐P̵̳͝L̵̢̑Ä̸̙Y̷̬͠ ̸͖̋Ŵ̴͍I̸̘̽T̷̡̄H̷̲͛,̷̼͝ ̴̥́Y̷̜͝Ē̶̲T̷̯̓ ̶̪̇S̷͔͝Ǫ̴̓ ̶͕͝L̸̖̈I̶̯͝T̶͇͆T̴̪͌L̴͍̚E̶͙̍ ̷͎̀T̸̀͜Ī̴͇M̵̰̔E̶͕̊,̴̢̂ ̶̱́W̶͓͠O̷̢͛U̷̫̾L̸̳̊D̴̠͊N̷͌͜'̸͕̚T̸̻͒ ̶͈͝Y̵̳͊O̵͚͠U̵̯̒ ̸̥̚A̶̰̿G̴̬̓Ř̸̥Ẽ̶͍E̸̱͛ ̴̋͜M̷̹̚Ḯ̵͙T̷̩̀C̴̣͝H̸̨͐Y̶̰̆ ̷̳͋B̸͍́O̸̼͘Y̸̻͋?̶̬̃

Mitchell’s train of thought was interrupted when he finished the final pylon, instantly rushing into a nearby locker to avoid the Prototype when it came. However… It never did come and, after a rather long time of waiting, Mitchell felt safe enough to leave his hiding spot. Crouching down, he got into a spot that would be difficult to see him in, and then he browsed the cameras, trying to find exactly where he needed to go next, as well as where the Prototype was. Despite this, he couldn’t find the prototype. He did, however, find where he needed to go.

It turned out that there was a sort of square spiral staircase leading up into the room he needed to get to, and it was near-ish. So, knowing where it was he began to make his way towards that location. Whilst on his way there, he did hear the sound of Bossy calling his name from near the entrance to the area, but assuming it was just the Prototype as, Mitchell didn’t know where exactly the robot got Bossy’s voice from, but it did have it. Multiple times whilst trying to avoid it, the Prototype used many recordings of his friends' voices. So, this was probably just another one of those times.

Having made it up the stairs, Mitchell couldn’t help but internally complain about the trek up them. Because of how tall the generator room was, the stairs were equally so. Now, thinking back on what he would do once this was all over, he decided to change his answer. Mitchell was instead going to sleep for a good couple decades. He didn’t want to walk with those weak, fleshy legs of his ever again!

As he reached the top of the stairs he saw the door for the room, it being left slightly ajar. Making his way to the door he thought he heard something from inside the room, but when he peeked inside he saw nothing. Sneaking into the room, being as careful as he could, he still couldn’t see anything. So, he stood up and assumed the place was safe.

Mitchell then approached the main control panel for the generator, having noticed a flashing red button. Remembering the note from earlier, he recognised that as the on switch for the system. The Intern, realising this was all that was left, reached his finger out, ready to press it…

But then a screech, and pain.

The Prototype lunged from a locker, having hid in it the exact same way he had. It knew he was hiding in the lockers, it had learned from him. And now it had lured him into the perfect ambush.

The Prototype held him by his throat in the air, admiring its catch. “I” “Have you?” “Now” “Mitchell?” It could string together complex sentences? The more Mitchell learned about this entity, the more he questioned just how intelligent it is.

But, before it could do anything to him, it convulsed as electricity sparked up and around it. This sudden and random glitch led to it dropping the Intern, and as soon as he could he scrambled to his feet and stumbled backwards. That’s when he noticed his saviour: Bossy. His friend had done a repeat of Mitchell’s own rescue attempt.

The bot rushed over to Mitchell and grabbed his hand, the two running out of the room, the human being unable to press the button because the Prototype stood at the panel, blocking it.

Once outside the room, Bossy immediately got to work blocking the door and locking it down. “H-hold on! I need to go in there!” 

“What? Why? That thing is in there!” retorted Bossy, his face and visor showing his shock and fear. His body was shaking, and he clearly wanted to leave immediately. But, despite this, Mitchell’s safety was his top priority.

“The button to turn on the generator is in there!”

“Screw the generator!”

“But how else will we stop the Prototype?”

“We don’t need to!” yelled Bossy, his body shaking even more, “We can leave, Mitchel. Leave this place and never come back. We can take my shuttle and leave this planet. We can be happy… together…” The drone reached out, taking the Interns hands in his own.

It was… tempting, he wouldn’t lie. Mitchell could see it, a future like that… But… It wasn't the best future, not the one he wanted anyway. It was rather obvious to Mitchell how Bossy felt about him, and while he certainly felt something too… Anytime he thought about something like that his mind would drift back to Alice. She was the reason he was out here right now, risking his life to make sure she lived a happy and safe one. 

Shaking his head, he pulled his hands out from Bossy’s. “I-I’m sorry… But… I can’t. We need to stop this thing, before it kills anyone else.”

Looking down at the floor, Bossy stood in contemplation. From his body language, Mitchell could tell that he knew this was going to be the outcome. “O-okay…” uttered the drone, voice broken. He looked up, towards the door and away from Mitchell. “She was always going to win you over…” 

The drone let out a sigh and shook his head, Mitchell catching a glimpse of the drone's visor, seeing a digital tear run down it. “Don’t waste this chance I’m giving you, okay?”

“Wha… what?”

“When this is done, make sure you and Alice have a happy life.” Bossy held out a hand, a USB stick in it. “Take it, this will tell you how to do that operation I mentioned, the one to become like me. It’s been modified, so it’ll show you how to become a worker instead.”

Mitchell didn’t like the tone of his voice. “Wa- Hold on, wait!”

“I’m buying you time Mitchell!” snapped the drone, facing him yet again. Mitchell saw the digital tears streaking down his face, and the sorrow in his hollowed out eyes. He then forced the USB into Mitchells hands. “Go, I’ll activate the generator.”

Mitchell stood, frozen in place.

“GO!”

With Bossy yelling at him, and with the push, both physical and verbal, that the drone gave him, Mitchell sprinted.

Y-011X00010 turned back to the door, still hearing the screeching from inside. He had one chance to get this right. Who knows, maybe he’d survive this, get out of here and be able to live. But his chances with Mitchell were shot.

Y-011X00010 turned his arm into a rocket launcher and aimed it at the door, waiting… Eventually he heard what he was waiting for, the Prototype banging against the door, attempting to break it down. That monster could burn in robo-hell, in fact either hell would be good for it in his eyes.

The drone aimed his rocket, and fired, blowing up the door, as well as everything blocking it. Sure, this wouldn’t even scratch the Prototype, but it knocked it over, and that was what he needed.

Rushing into the room, he made his way to the button as fast as he could. Each team had members who excelled in certain areas, and it just so happened his area, instead of it being following orders, it was speed. Within the span of just under a second, he had made it to the button and pressed it. He didn’t bother to stick around though, turning back around to escape as fast as he could but-

SLAM!

It had grabbed him.

He was pinned against the wall, its saw blade hand wrapped around his neck. He was sloppy, he was slow. Y-011X00010 needed to do better, but that’s fine. At least he could buy time for Mitchell.

Y-011X… no… No! He wasn’t some robot, he wasn’t a product with a serial number. No, he was a person. His name was Bossy, leader of Y team. And he was proud of his team. Slashy, despite her insubordination, was a brilliant killer. Bomby was a fantastic glue for the team, keeping them together. Bossy, himself, was a fantastic team leader. And Mitchell, despite not actually being a part of their team, was considered one by Bossy, and he was fantastic. The best part of the team.

The drone watched as the Prototype raised its left arm. It’s hand bent backwards, suddenly being pushed backwards and having the back of the hand connect to the large machine on its arm, a small needle poking out from the palm. The thumb then shifted down to the bottom of the hand as its middle two fingers bent backwards, its hand now forming a sort of claw with its other two fingers and thumb. The machine that made up the lower half of its arm then split down the middle, the back half shifting backwards to reveal cables and some sort of glowing power source inside the machine, it being a sort of tube that essentially made up the connecting tube of the arm.

The Prototype then shifted itself, hovering its arm above Bossy’s face, slowly lowering down, placing its thumb, index and pinky finger on his head as it slowly lowered the palm, needle included.

“I’m sorry I failed you Mitchell…” the drone muttered, digital tears flowing down his visor.

“You” “Won’t” “Die!” 

“M-Mitchell…” called out the drone, hoping that the human might be close enough to hear. “I… I LO-”

aaaaaAAAAAAA̷A̷A̸A̷A̶A̴̱͆Ȁ̶̡Ạ̵̈A̶̤̾̉̕A̵̙̎̍͝À̷͉̔Ǎ̵̘̬A̵̗͉̱̬̙̎͐̾͠Ą̵̙̕Ǻ̸̢̘A̴̘̝̪̘̎̄ͅA̷͔̻̹̋̐͌́̄ͅA̵̱̍̑̔̈́̚ͅA̴͙̖͆̀̿Ą̸̱̺̳̞̲̯̣̻̖͉̎̈́̔͜Ä̵̮̩̥̫͚͚̩͚̊̇̀̉̓̎͜͠ͅA̷̘͊͌̀̊̈́̃͋̽̈́̚͠À̷̧͔͖̗̞͉̞͇̏́̅̅͝ͅA̵̡̢̨̤͓̟͎͕̩̮͈̮̒̔̀̓̿̑̋̅͝A̴̡̡̛̗̲̭̮̝͓̲͈̥̽̉̒̉̐͐́̑́̕͘͝ͅA̶̧̛̲̍̾̾͂͛̎̌̓̔̀̓̍̆̚͠͠A̵̞̗̤͉̎̑͐͆͋̇̈̉̑̒̓̆̊̕͝Ä̵̛̲̩͈̯̪̙̠̖̩͙̩̬́̐͒͑̂͌͆̅́̾̄͘Ä̶̧͙̺͓͖̦̥̳̲́͒̅̽̍͐͂̏̔̀̚A̸̡̛̝̞̖̲̤͔͉̰͚͙̩̙̺̞̞̺͒̈̽̉̊̈͗́̽̾͌͋͘Ą̸̢͇̹̮̝̏̋̅͊͌̉͝

>Memories = Extracted

Mitchell ran. He just ran.  When he heard Bossy’s scream, he ran faster. 

He couldn’t let that… thing get him, not after what Bossy… what he did.

As the Intern ran, tears did too.

Chapter Text

Mitchell kept running, not bothering to look back out of fear for what he would see. He ran through the generator room, sprinted past the servers, and dashed through the hallways. At some point he ended up tripping, not remembering what point specifically, but despite that he kept pushing on, tears flooding from his eyes.

Eventually he made it back to the very first security office, the one he found himself in before he left to rescue… Bossy…

Once inside he didn’t bother locking the door, he knew his ‘guide’ would do that for him. Instead he backed into a corner and huddled up in it, removing his mask and chucking it away as he sobbed, attempting to do so quietly. Seemingly unsuccessfully though.

“Good, good, the main generator is online. This facility is being flooded with power, god I can feel the effects already!” Despite the voice being excited over his success, Mitchell couldn’t find it in him to celebrate. 

“Okay, so, it appears that the server wasn’t fully sorted? The explosion caused more harm than I’d have liked. If you weren’t running away then I’d have asked you to stop at the server and fix it, but you appeared to be determined to keep running, despite the fact you had already lost the Prototype long before you had reached the server room.”

Mitchell didn’t want to listen to Chambers’ insults right now. He had just lost a close friend, so paying attention to petty remarks was not a priority. The Intern instead tuned him out, crying in the corner. The voice apparently noticed this, staying silent for a moment of thought. 

“Anyway,” it began, “Because of these… complications, the server hasn’t granted me as many permissions as I wanted, but it’s still enough to get the job done. We can worry about that later, once you’ve dealt with the Prototype.”

“If you survive, that is…” the voice uttered quietly, clearly not intending for Chambers to hear, but he heard it anyway. Assuming it was yet another petty remark aimed at him, one specified to the loss of his friend, the human sobbed slightly louder and huddled up more. It wasn’t an intentional response, of course, he was just in a very vulnerable place right now.

“I….” The voice seemed conflicted in its tone, not entirely sure what to say or do. “Look, I don’t get this whole emotion thing. Even before, I… my? Ugh…” It let out a sigh, the sigh sounding somewhat digitised. Mitchell would have probably assumed it was from the speakers, but he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“I’m not good with emotions, okay? I… I do my best to understand them, of course, but it’s… difficult. So, I’m sorry.” An apology? That definitely took the Intern by surprise. Chambers never apologised to anyone. This response caused the Intern to peek out from behind his arms that his head had been buried under.

“I didn’t mean to be insensitive, processing these emotions is hard for me, so I tend to bury them… Bossy was… well…” the voice paused, the human guessed he was attempting to figure out what to say next. Still, this was the first time the guide had referred to Bossy by name.

“In my entire time existing the only robots I’ve known have been either psychopathic murder hobo’s, or just straight up arseholes… although that one toaster was pretty good at chess…” Making a coughing sound, the guide forced himself back on track. “But Bossy was different. I’ll admit, I grew… attached. He will be missed, and I’m sure more so by you.” Mitchell looked up a bit more at the nearby camera, genuinely shocked by the emotion being shown here.

“I can’t pretend that you aren’t going to feel… upset by this, nor can I deny the importance of these emotions.” The more the voice spoke, the more surprised the human was. “But, no matter how much grief you feel, I HAVE to ask you to feel it later. The prototype is still out there, and if we don’t do anything about it, then there will be a lot more drones out there to mourn.”

Ö̴͇͖́̓R̸̗̀͑ ̸̙̀̈Ŷ̵̦̗̾̓O̸̺̬͚͌̓Ǔ̶̩̺̕ ̵̧͂̀̓C̶̢̟̻̍͑O̸̗͒̚͝U̸̢͑L̴͕̪̓̇̚D̷̦̠̰́ ̶͕͔̒̆H̵͔̖̪̏͛́Ä̴̖̭̕V̶̥̓̚E̶̥̎ ̴͙͓͛I̴̢̳̟͆N̵̞͒ͅṤ̶͖͓̣̐T̶̬͒̕Ẹ̴̢͈̔̇͗A̸͔͊D̵̛̳̻͍ ̶̳͆̈́̈́ͅL̴͓̦̀̄͜Ę̶͙̖͌̃̏Ṱ̷͉̖̽̚ ̶͕̼̇M̶̛̦͈̓͐Ệ̴̞͔ ̸̙̙͆O̸̫͝U̸͚̦͌̍T̶̳̈́

The intern looked down at himself, recognising the very valid point being made here. Mitchells sorrow was real, he knew it and felt it, the loss of Bossy deeply affecting him. But, if he just sat here and cried all day, that could give the Prototype time to escape. If it did that everyone else would be at risk…

Alice… he could lose her too…

“So, please, I beg of you Mitchell, help me finish this once and for all.” 

Slowly, the human nodded, bringing a hand up to wipe away his tears. “O-okay…” he quietly responded, his tone sounding defeated. There was one very important thing he did make note of though, something he’d need to bring up later. Chambers would have never acted like that.

Slowly the intern stood up, adjusting himself and making sure he was, at the very least, presentable. However, Mitchell felt a sudden spike of pain when he put some pressure on his right foot, letting out an audible gasp when he did so.

“Hmm…” The voice sounded troubled, seemingly having noticed this as well. “This’ll be an issue…”

“I noticed this earlier when you were running, but when you tripped over you seemed to have injured your leg,” explained the voice, “It doesn’t seem too bad, it’s not broken at least, probably just sprained,” it continued, drawing out the ‘probably’ as it spoke.

“It’s nothing that won’t heal with time, sadly though that is exactly what we lack. I hope you’re able to handle some pain for now.” Mitchell nodded to the voice in response, throat a bit too sore from the crying to bother trying to speak, he didn’t want to hurt himself even more.

“Okay, so, this next part of the plan may sound easy, but I assure you it will be the hardest part. I will need you to enter the labyrinth prison via a special door located on the upper floor,” Upper floor? There’s another floor to this place? “Now, the reason why I need you in there is because there are five pylons you need to activate. These pylons will connect to the site-wide AI and, using the same system it uses to make the Solver unable to see this place, will replicate this onto the Prototype, making it completely unable to see any exit. These pylons will also activate the labyrinth, locking it down.”

“Now, this next part is… where it gets difficult,” he continued, “I’ll lure the Prototype into the labyrinth using the speaker system, but I’ll do so after you’ve already entered the labyrinth yourself.” Mitchell apprehensively nodded in response, the knowledge he’d have to be near that… thing again making him nervous.

“As I’ve said, there will be a total of five pylons to activate, all the while you’ll have to avoid the Prototype. There will be hiding spots, of course, as well as objects to knock over and vault over if need be. Basically, think of it as if you're playing Dead by Daylight.” It was an incredibly old reference, but one Mitchell understood. The game was still running after all.

“I believe that is it… I will guide you to the entrance, and once inside the labyrinth you will have a few minutes to find the first pylon.” The intern was glad that he’d be given a head start at least, but still, his hands were shaking out of nervousness. “You cannot start activating them until I tell you to though, as the Prototype must be inside the labyrinth when the pylons are being activated. I know, it’s incredibly stupid. The scientists should have come up with something better.”

Reluctantly, the human nodded in agreement. This plan sounded slightly worse already, with him needing to be so close to the Prototype. But, they had no choice. It was this, or risk the Prototype escaping.

Risk losing Alice…

Thankfully though, the voice was willing to let Mitchell have a small rest beforehand. He knew it was probably done out of pity, but it would help him prepare, both physically and mentally, for the task ahead. During this rest, Mitchell used the little remaining medical supplies he had to heal his injured leg as best as he could, taking some painkillers to dull the pain. It was still there, just lessened. He also put his mask back on, once his foot wasn’t hurting as much anymore. Then, before leaving, he took a few sips of water, it having thawed out by now.

After leaving the safety of the office the voice did the best job it could to guide Mitchell upstairs. As it turned out, there was a set of stairs at the end of the hallway he was in, after taking an immediate right from the security office. It was a straight shot down the hallway. Of course that did mean the human had to pass by the door he and Bossy had entered prior to enter Engineering, which did cause a slight pause in the journey, but he then returned to the walk down the hallway. Notably, the voice didn’t chastise him for his pause, remaining silent about it instead.

Eventually, the human found himself at the staircase, the door to it bashed outwards, towards him. This door was in a far worse shape than any other door was, and Mitchel had a feeling he knew why.

This staircase led upstairs, towards the entrance to the labyrinth. An entrance that, from a certain point of view, is also an exit. He was certain that this was where the Prootype came from, and this door may have been one of, if not the very first door it broke down.

Making note of this discovery, Mitchell decided to press forward, quickly and quietly ducking through the torn apart chunk of scrap metal that used to be a door. 

Entering the stairwell he realised it looked near identical to the one he had first come down, but with one major difference: bodies. There were so, so many dead bodies, the vast majority at the bottom of the stairs, forming a sort of pile. The intern couldn’t count exactly how many there were, but the number certainly went into the double digits. What’s worse is that only one of them was killed by the gas, the rest were all mutilated.

Not even all of them had the eye hole either, almost as if the Prototype didn’t care about trying to take these people, it just wanted to kill.

Mitchell could never bring himself to ever hate a drone or robot of any kind, not even the Disassembly Drones, those he felt pity for. Yet somehow, despite it all, the Prototype had found some way to change this fact, for it was the first robot ever he could genuinely hate. Not even the Solver itself had hatred aimed at it, for, while it was brutal, its actions against those who hurt it were understandable, somewhat. But this? No. 

Maybe the human could have felt some sort of pity for it before, maybe, but that would have been back when it only killed those involved with its experiments. When it murdered his friend for no reason, that’s when it went too far. Killing people unaffiliated with the experiments, and mutilating their corpses for its entertainment was just sick.

This thing was worse than the drone that had murdered his family. 

Mitchell made an attempt to ascend the stairs, needing to essentially climb over the pile of bodies first. He hated it, but he had to do it. Once done, he began his march up the stairs, which shockingly didn’t take long at all. The stairs seemed to go up higher, but he only needed to go up by one floor.

Entering onto this floor he came face to face with a much more open hallway than prior, being slightly larger in size. The human began to press on, but suddenly stopped when he heard a buzz in his ears, fear filling his eyes as he searched for the entity's presence.

“Sorry, sorry, that’s me. You can carry on.” The voice of, well, the voice came out from… his mask? It seemed like he had speakers inside the mask, maybe built in headphones. “Uhm…” began Mitchell, wanting to ask what that was about, and how he’s able to speak via his mask now, but he didn’t know where to begin.

“Sorry about that, I’ve been trying to test the boundaries of the lack of limitations on me, see what exactly I could do. I had a feeling I could maybe talk to you without declaring my presence to the Prototype, and thankfully I was correct. That means no more messages.”

Mitchell was actually relieved to hear that as the reading had made it hard to focus at times, and had, on some occasions, almost led to the Prototype catching him. So, being able to just speak to his guide directly would certainly help a lot.

“Okay, so, the floor you were on before was the main floor, it held all of the experimentation and such, with a few security offices sprinkled throughout,” the voice began, explaining the basics of the floors as Mitchell made his way through this one. “This floor, however, is THE security floor. It holds all of the main security offices, as well as the barracks, weapon storage, etcetera, etcetera. Makes sense, you know? This floor held the primary entrance to the labyrinth; if the Prototype ever escaped, they’d want to be prepared.” 

“Shame it didn’t work.” The voice was currently proving itself to be the champion of snide remarks, which did make sense, it was British. 

The hallway soon opened up into a room, a very large room. It was roughly the shape and size of a large school PE hall, the intern having entered on one of the long length sides, at the corner. It was very large, but also not entirely a rectangle. The hallway he came in from actually expanded in size on its left, going diagonally, the right wall remained straight however, essentially turning the hallway from a rectangle into a triangle. It seemed that on the other corner, still on the same side, it was exactly the same, another hallway coming off from there in a similar manner.

There were no hallways or doors on the wall opposite of the side he came in, except for in the very middle where there was a large double door that was behind what looked like some sort of security checkpoint, even having one of those weird stripped metal plank things that move up and down to block the road, just, minus the road. 

The room itself contained quite a lot of boxes, all seemingly filled with military equipment from the writing on the sides of the boxes, as well as the actual design of the boxes being what you'd see in some sort of military themed game. The dead bodies carried into here too, the amount in this room being far more than he had seen anywhere else, all of them security, and the majority in heavy, durable armour. None were killed by the gas. There were also, what appeared to be, automatic turrets set up all over the room, most looking completely smashed to pieces, but those that weren’t were off. All of them were, however, aimed in one direction.

Turning to his left, the intern saw a gigantic industrial door, one that seemingly opened by being lifted up via a mechanism. It looked almost like those large doors in that one SCP game from the 21st century, specifically that one door that led into the room that housed that Weeping Angel thing. It was placed directly opposite of the security gate.

Now all of the defensive measures made perfect sense. 

Right now though the door was closed, which, if the Prototype escaped via this way, shouldn’t be the case.

“Uhm… sh-shouldn’t this be open?” he questioned, and the momentary pause from his guide didn’t fill him with confidence.

“...Yeeeeeeees… It should be… Uhm…” Yep! Totally not panicking right now!

“Oh fuck! Mitchell, hide!” Not needing another warning, Mitchell did exactly as told, rushing towards a locker and jumping inside it. This proved to be the right choice as, moments later, none other than the Prototype emerged from the double doors at the checkpoint, marching into the room and searching it.

The Prototype made its way to one of the undamaged automatic turrets, picking it up and glaring at it. Then, like some sort of caveman, it just began swinging it at the ground, almost as if it was a sledgehammer, the entity treating one of its tripod legs like a handle. It repeatedly bashed the thing until it didn’t look at all functional, nor salvageable anymore, then it promptly threw it aside like it was rubbish, before walking off.

This thing is psychotic!

I̴ ̵A̴M̵ ̴N̸O̸T̵!̸ ̵I̷'̴M̷ ̵N̶O̵R̸M̷A̶L̸!̸

“Okay… Great, it’s here too.” The guide didn’t sound too enthused, instead seeming rather tired.

Chapter Text

“Oh god, this is really bad…” The voice had been panicking quite a bit ever since they had discovered that the door to the labyrinth was closed, and the Prototype's presence here wasn’t helping either. Whilst Mitchell hid near the door, the guide worked on looking through the camera footage to find out what exactly happened to cause the door to shut when, according to the guide, it was open earlier.

“Okay, so, I have some pretty bad news.” Honestly, Mitchell wasn’t expecting anything other than that, after all, what encounter with the Prototype has he had so far that hasn’t gone horrifically wrong in some way?

“So… somehow the Prototype must have known what we’re planning...”

FUCK

“My guess is that it looked through Bossy’s memories and pieced together our plan using that.”

“I thought you said it was a mindless animal?” the intern retorted, suddenly feeling rather angry. He wasn’t too sure what caused the sudden spike of aggression, perhaps it was bringing up Bossy being used in such a way? Or maybe it was all of the stress finally getting to him?

“Well… It is! It has to be, I mean, it’s a child in mind, it can’t do complex stuff!”

“Oh, complex stuff like building a machine to extract memories, right?” After his rather spiteful remark, the voice remained silent for a moment, Mitchell attempting to calm himself a bit after what he said. He didn’t mean to be, well, mean. He’s just so stressed from everything, he hated that damn robot.

After the pause, the voice let out an irritated sigh. “Sorry…” the human quietly apologised, remorse in his tone. “It… It’s fine. I just… I don’t know… This thing, it’s confusing…” The voice let out another sigh, and Mitchell assumed that wherever it was, it was probably shaking its head.

“Looking back through the recordings, it looks like the Prototype shut the door using the main control panel. Annoyingly, it also broke said panel, so you can’t open the door that way.” This was getting worse and worse the more he heard. Mitchell was seriously regretting ever coming to this place. But, if he hadn’t have come here then the Prototype would have almost certainly escaped…

Ỳ̷̞E̶̤̿S̸̭̃,̵̢̎ ̷̡̾Ì̵͜ ̷̞̏W̵͇͂A̵̪̾Ń̶̳T̷̥̑ ̴̘̀M̵̹̄Ỳ̷͓ ̶͔͗F̴̗͂R̷͔̈́E̸̿ͅE̸̗͠D̷̤̆O̷̲͐M̵͓̈́

“So… What now?” questioned the intern from within his locker, concern and fear lacing his voice.

“Uh… Give… Give me a minute.”

Mitchell proceeded to wait, not having anything else to do. Whilst he waited, at some point the Prototype returned to the room and began mutilating a random body. “Okay, I’m back. And, yes, I know, it’s not the best time. Thankfully, only you can hear me.”

Whilst there was certainly some comfort in hearing the voice again, when it returned he did feel a sudden pang of fear. He wasn’t sure whether or not the Prototype would be able to hear him, but thankfully the guide told him otherwise.

“Okay, so, once that metal bastard has moved away, I’m gonna need you to check out a location for me. I’m pinging it on your map.” Just as he said that, a marker appeared on Mitchell’s map, it wasn’t too far away, requiring him to walk through the security checkpoint and a bit further away. It wasn’t too far.

“Jesus, how long is it gonna be? Who wants to mangle a body like that for this long?” grumbled the voice, Mitchell presuming it was watching from a camera in the room. The intern was wondering why the voice didn’t use a speaker system to lure it away, but he couldn’t really bring it up since the robot menace was standing nearby.

After a while it did leave, heading down the opposite corridor that was a mirrored one to the one he had originally came from. Mitchell proceeded to leave the locker, beginning his trek to the pinged location, being as cautious as he could. The hallways of this place intersected and weaved around the place, having rooms of different shapes and sizes be surrounded by hallways, somewhat like the labs from previously. 

Eventually the human found himself entering what appeared to be an electrical room, being some sort of behind the scenes room filled with all sorts of electronic stuff, as well as a few fuse boxes and such. Upon entering the room he saw what looked like a glass container attached to the wall on his right, looking kind of like those emergency fire alarm switches hidden behind glass containers, except this was much larger. Inside the container was a switch, one of those weird switches that looks like if you split a ‘H’ horizontally.

As Mitchell approached the container, he noticed a lack of a handle on the container, which weirded him out since, well, how else were you supposed to open it? Looking down by his foot he noticed a wrench, so he bent down to pick it up, holding it in his right hand and preparing to smash the glass. 

“WOAH! NO NO!” The voice interrupted him mid swing, causing the intern to freeze, eventually lowering the makeshift weapon. “The glass is practically unbreakable, all you’ll end up doing is making a loud sound and alerting the Prototype to your presence.”

“Then how do I open this?” whispered the Intern, gazing down at the wrench now resting in his hands. He was tempted to keep it, but instead laid it down on a shelf next to him. If Bossy’s weapons couldn’t damage the Prototype, why would a wrench?

“I do. These cases can only be opened by the site's AI, and now me too now that I have access to these permissions. Just give me a minute…”

Mitchell was confused by this, why keep this really important switch behind a cabinet that only one specific AI can access? Surely it’d be best if a few higher ups had access too?

“Aaaaaaand done!” sounded the voice as the glass case opened up, case door falling downwards via some mechanism. “Just pull down the switch, it may be rather stiff so you’ll need to use some of them muscles.”

“What muscles?” 

“Ha ha ha… yeah…”

Deciding to ignore the voice and press onwards, Mitchell reached his right hand out and attempted to pull down the switch. Keyword here was attempted, as he made no progress. “Ffffffuck…” This led to the Intern to instead needing to use both hands, him pulling as hard as he could to flip the switch downwards. It was a rather long process, the switch slowly making its way downwards. Thankfully though, after roughly a minute of work, the switch was flipped and, to the humans delight, no loud sound advertised his position.

“Is… Is that it?” asked the Intern with a pleading voice.

“Ha! As if it could be that easy! No, we’re going to have to do this shit like a COD Zombies easter egg. First, activate a radio and listen to the song, then go to the bathroom and write the twenty fifth word of the song in morse code on the mirror, that should-”

“Hey, can we get on with this?”

“Right, sorry,” apologised the voice, before returning to the actual directions. “Okay, so, there are two… no, three more switches left to activate. I’ll ping all three locations on your map, make your way to whichever one you wish to go to first. It’ll be the same process as what we did here, I’ll open the case, then you pull down the switch.”

It sounded easy enough, minus the arm workout he’d have to do. Oh, and the Prototype wandering around too, that’d make things difficult. 

N̸̤͒Ȯ̸̳Ţ̷̉ ̶̗̂M̶̼̅Ẏ̶̩ ̷͔͐F̸̟̽A̴̻̓U̴̗̔Ĺ̴̡T̶̖̀ ̷̯̽Į̵̑'̶̬̊M̵̧̂ ̴̮͛P̵̞̀R̴̬̓O̴͕͐A̵̾ͅC̸̯̏Ṭ̸͠Ǐ̴͓V̴̥̅E̶̼̎

Before the Intern left the room, he checked on the camera system to make sure the Prototype wasn’t nearby, finding relief that it wasn’t. Still, he couldn’t help but feel nervous about not seeing it, after all if he couldn’t see where it was right now, it could be anywhere.

Slowly peeking out of the door just to be extra safe, he then left the room. There was another switch rather close by, so he decided he’d make his way over there first. Thankfully that was the right choice, as the trip didn’t take long and, even though he did spot the Prototype in the distance at one point doing… something, it wasn’t actually in his way, so he moved past it and made his way to the next room rather quickly.

This room was, unlike the last room, some sort of break room. It was rather large-ish in size and filled with all sorts of furniture, which could be helpful if he needed to avoid the Prototype by hiding or running around things. There was a pool table, multiple vending machines, a TV in front of a sofa, with multiple consoles attached to the TV. Honestly, this break room seemed far nicer than any the Intern had seen in his life, especially compared to the ones at Cabin Fever. Why did this place look so much nicer than his place of work? How is that fair?

The switch was located in the furthest corner of the room, but as he approached it, he couldn’t help but ask his guide the main question that was on his mind. “Hey, uhm, voice? What… Why do these switches exist? Like… If there’s a main door control, why have these backup ones? And why have them scattered everywhere?”

“Hmm…” The voice didn’t really answer Mitchell, instead taking a bit to… do something. As he approached the switch, the casing opened. 

“So, according to what I’m reading here, the switches were made for, well, this very reason. In case the door controls were broken. As for why they’re scattered everywhere? Uhm, give me a sec…” 

As his guide seemingly searched for an answer, the human reached out his arms and, once again, began pulling down the switch, this one proving to be just as stiff as the last one.

“Okay, so, apparently it’s to make sure no random person can open the door to the Prototype. Apparently They put the switches in the places that would be the hardest for any random person to reach without being spotted by someone else.” That made sense to Mitchell, but he still couldn’t help but feel like that was an excuse the scientists, or whoever designed this, made. This felt way too much like a video game right now, so they must have made it like that on purpose, right?

“But what about the AI being the only thing to open the cases? Why keep them far apart if only the AI can open them?” 

“That… is a good point.”

“Also, why put the AI in charge of them? What if the Solver took control or something?”

“Ah, that I can answer. The AI is immune to the Solver, remember?” Oh yeah… I’m an idiot. “Still though, I do agree, this is stupid. They could have just made the site’s AI be in charge of the door as a whole. Would have made this much quicker and easier.”

Finally the switch was flipped down, and the Intern let out a sigh of relief. Halfway.

“O-okay, I’m heading to the next one.” 

The next switch was rather further away, Mitchell needing to backtrack and head further beyond where the previous switch was, roughly the same travel length as the first trip, if not a bit longer. But thankfully he didn’t encounter the Prototype once. 

He didn’t know if he should be worried about this.

This next room the Intern entered was a meeting room of sorts, which did confuse the human since he thought this place was supposed to be the military floor, but apparently some business stuff was here too. When he entered though he struggled to see where this switch was, the ping leading him to a painting instead. 

Approaching the painting, he gave it a confused look, before attempting to remove it. There’s no way they’d Scooby Doo this place… Behind the painting was the switch. Huh, they did.

Mitchell then proceeded to do here what he had done previously at the other switches; he waited for the guide to open the container, then started the agonisingly long process of flipping said switch. Why they decided to make the switches near impossible to use, he had no idea.

Thankfully, he finished this switch with no complications, and so he began to make his way towards the next, and final, one. 

“Hmm…” the voice uttered, a lack of confidence lacing his tone. Mitchell was roughly a third of the way there, but hearing this slowed him down and began to worry him.

“Uh… Wha-what is it?” questioned the Intern.

“Okay, so, not to alarm you or anything… But I can’t see.” Mitchell was confused, was he suddenly blind? It appeared that the voice noticed this, and so it quickly corrected itself. “The area you’re approaching, the camera’s aren’t working. Keep going as normal but, well, I won’t be of any help.”

Fan-fucking-tastic…

Mitchell kept walking, but when he approached the halfway mark was when he saw just how bad the situation was. The guide was correct, the camera’s weren’t working, not even for Mitchell. His map also wasn’t working, effectively making him blind. There was, of course, the main issue. The power seemed to be out in this area, the lights all being off, even the emergency ones. The only source of light he had was his gas mask's electric torch that was attached to it, as well as a few broken lights that would flicker every now and then. 

He had to be extra careful now. Needing to use his torch to navigate would be risky, as that would essentially advertise his position to the Prototype. His lack of the map and the cameras also put him in a terrible position too.

It wasn’t long after this that he’d end up encountering the Prototype again. Thankfully it didn’t spot him, the Intern having turned off the light before the robot noticed. He managed to hide under a table as he watched it patrol the area, essentially confirming that it did, indeed, know what Mitchell was up to. What he found odd though was that its right hand, the one with the saw blade, seemed to be glitching. Every few seconds it would spasm, sparks expelling from it. What caused that?

I̵T̸ ̸H̴U̶R̷T̵

He watched as it moved away, onwards to another location. Annoyingly, the direction it went in was the one he also needed to go in. Deciding it was better to take the longer route to avoid it, Mitchell instead went down a different corridor, hoping long and slow was safer.

It wouldn’t be too long after that, that he would end up hearing what he presumed was the prototype. Hiding behind some crates, he peaked out to get a look at the monster, only to be taken aback by what he saw.

It wasn’t the Prototype, instead it was one of those security robots. This one wasn’t as damaged as the others, the damage it did have though instead seemed to be done from something other than the Prototype, something smaller and weaker. Upon noticing the blood on its arms and face, he had a feeling he knew what damaged it, it most likely being an act of self defence against this robot.

What was making this one hostile too? The Prototype he understood, but these robots? That he didn’t.

CLANG

Mitchell gasped when his foot accidentally slipped and knocked over a tool box, bringing the attention of the robot. It stared in his direction and, when he peaked out to make sure it didn’t hear him, it looked directly at him and began charging at him, preparing to lunge at him and-

CRASH

The Prototype emerged from another corridor, crashing into the side of the robot and smashing it into the wall opposite the Prototype. At first the human was worried the Prototype would come for him next, but as things progressed, he quickly realised that it most likely assumed the robot made the sound.

Once the robot collided with the wall, it then turned towards the Prototype and reached out to grab its shoulders, pushing it backwards. “Return to your holding cell.” it spoke, its voice being a very mechanical sounding AI voice, no humanity in it at all. It’s as if the people who made it didn’t even bother trying to make it sound even remotely human, it didn’t even sound gendered in any way, just robotic.

The robot pushed back the Prototype, causing the aggressor to stumble a bit, allowing the robot to rush forwards and throw a punch at its face. The punch hit, and the Prototype fell to the floor, letting out one of its horrific screeches.

The Prototype wasn’t done though, as it lifted its arms up into the air before swinging them down to the ground with tremendous speed, essentially lifting itself off of the floor by using the force from punching said floor. This forced it into colliding with the robot, its head smashing into the others. Due to how sturdy the Prototype was, its head remained perfectly intact while the robot's head had basically collapsed, yet despite this it kept going.

“Re-re-re-reeeeeetur-urn to yo-your ho—---ding cee-eeeeee-ll.” The voice box of the robot was, rather evidently, damaged in this assault, but this wouldn’t be the only damage done to it, as, when it attempted to reach towards the Prototype and claw at it, the Prototype threw a sideways punch with its right arm, its fist colliding into the side of the robot, causing it to stumble. 

Taking this opportunity, the Prototype raised its foot and kicked the robot with enough force to send it crumpling back to the wall it collided with earlier. The robot wasn’t out for the count yet though, as it began to rise to its feet. “Reeeeeeeeeeturn to-to-to-to you—---r hol-ding-ding-ding cell.”

As it stood back up though it had no time at all to deal with the next assault from the Prototype, the metal monster bringing its left arm up to its own chest then swinging it outwards at the robots face, sending it collapsing down to the floor near the crates Mitchell was hiding near, pieces of metal being flung off of it and sparks exploding from its damaged head.

The Prototype approached its downed foe, looking down at the robot's foot before rising its own, crashing it down on the robot's ankle, completely shattering and severing its foot. It had no chance to escape now.

The Prototype stood over the robot, then crouched down. “Re-re-reeeeeeee-turrrrrrrn-” SMASH The Prototype sent a punch at the robot's chest using its right arm, “-toooooooo you--youuuurrrr-” CRASH and now it used its left hand to punch the same spot, “hoooooolddiiiinnnnnn-” BANG and then it threw both hands down onto the chest at once, like it was the hulk or something. This collapsed the robot's chest completely, and seemingly put an end to it, the lit up eyes of the robot fading with its voice.

The Prototype, seeing its own success, leaned back and lifted its head into the air before screaming that horrific metallic scream of its. But its victory celebration didn’t last long as its right hand began to glitch once more, causing it to look down at the hand and screech at it. “Work.” it spoke in another of its stolen voices, slamming its hand into the ground, screeching once again as it did so, seemingly in pain, maybe.

Its eyes drifted towards the robot it just murdered, specifically down to the robot's right hand. Grabbing the robot's hand in its left one, using its right hand to hold the arm attached to it, it then ripped the hand off with barely any effort, then studied it. The saw blade then travelled up its right arm, resting inside its palm, the Prototype folding its hand into a fist so the fingers wouldn’t get in the way of the saw blade, before then cutting into the hand it just ripped off, seeming to cut it open to gain access to its components.

Mitchell didn’t need to see the rest, despite its victim being just a robot, it was still so incredibly brutal. All he really needed to know was that it was salvaging some parts from the robot and then repairing its hand with said components. He tried his best not to look, it was… just too much.

It wasn’t long before the Prototype seemed pleased with its fix, and then walked off, leaving the Intern alone with his thoughts.

“Bloody ‘ell…”

Well, he was alone. The voice had to make its presence known, for some reason.

“That was… something.”

“I thought you couldn’t see?” the Intern grumbled, irritation soaking his tone. As time went on, he couldn’t help but find himself growing more and more disillusioned with the voice.

“Not with the cameras, no. But, after some digging, I found that your mask has a built-in camera, so I can see through that.” That… makes sense.

“You know,” it began, Mitchell preparing himself for yet more horrific news. After all, what news has the voice given him so far other than bad news? “The company realised that Worker Drones would be a bad idea to have down here because they could get infected, and that Sentinels were far too aggressive to have patrolling these corridors. So, they designed these robots specifically to be a good go-between. They had the benefits of workers while being unable to be corrupted by the Solver as well as not being as intelligent and aware as drones, which was apparently a negative?”

It seemed that the voice was aware it was getting off track, so it quickly course corrected. “These robots also had the combat capabilities of the Sentinels, while not being anywhere near as aggressive. They lacked the bootloop ability though, mainly because the Prototype is immune to being bootlooped,” Oh how ’fantastic’… “Of course, these robots were specifically designed to also be able to combat the Prototype. They’re supposed to equal it in strength. Shame that clearly isn’t the case.”

“So… how can it be killed? Like, is there some way to kill it?”

“...” Its silence spoke volumes.

The Intern let out a sigh, before slowly making his way out from his hiding spot. “Okay, I’m going to find that switch.”

This turned out to be more difficult than he thought. The Prototype was aggressively patrolling the area, almost as if it too was searching for the switch. The voice informed him that it could maybe be trying to find it to destroy it, but the guide didn’t sound too confident on that, mainly because if that was the case then it implied the Prototype was more intelligent then the voice thought, and that went against its belief.

Mitchell, however, believed this. The Prototype seemed much smarter than anyone else gave it credit for. Sure, it was animalistic, but it couldn’t be some stupid child or animal. There was more to it than that.

After many run-ins with the Prototype, he eventually made it to the room he was after. It was a barracks of sorts, lots of weapon lockers and such. The switch was at the back of the room, so the Intern approached it, expecting the casing to open up just like the others.

…Except it didn’t.

“Uuhhhhhhh…” 

“Oh for… what is it now?” grumbled the human, taking his mask off to rub his face for a second, before promptly putting it back on.

“Okay, so, there is a power outage in this area, but I was hoping it wouldn’t be too much of an issue… Turns out it is.”

“Great, so I’ve got to go and fix some stupid power grid or whatever just so I can activate a switch?” 

“Basically, yeah…” responded the voice, a lack of confidence in its voice. “Oh, and quickly too. We can’t have the Prototype find this switch first, or else it will destroy it.”

“I thought you said the glass case was nearly indestructible?” questioned the Intern, irritation lacing his voice.

“Well, yeah… To you. But you’ve seen the Prototype, that glass aint holding it back.”

“For fucks… ugh, okay.” Mitchell was growing tired of this, he wanted to be done with all of this as soon as he could. “Just hurry up and ping the new location.”

“Done.” And, as said, Mitchell was shown where to go. Because the map was down, he got a symbol on his visor, it was on the compass thingy at the top of the visor, which was handy. He, however, didn’t know how far away it was going to be though, so that was an issue.

“Okay, I’m going.” 

It turns out that the Prototype destroying the switch was less of an issue to worry about after all, as it wasn’t long after Mitchell began his trek that the Prototype found him and chased him. This, according to the voice, was a good thing because now the Prototype was convinced that the switch was in the direction Mitchell was heading in.

Of course, this did also mean that, even though he lost his pursuer, the Prototype was still an obstacle that he needed to avoid at times.

Eventually though, he did manage to make it to the location in the end. He entered into another electrical room, this one being far larger than the one he was in before. The place was kind of a mess. It appeared as though normally it wasn’t that tidy, but now it was even worse, stuff knocked over, electronics and tools scattered, a body thrown against the wall with a hole through its chest… Hold on… What?

Mitchell approached the body, looking it over. It was horrific. Sure, it had a hole punched through it, but it was also mangled, limbs twisted in positions they couldn’t be in. It looked like the damage to the body had been done after they had died, a long time after, as if whoever did this came back at a much later time.

Mitchell believes he knows what did this.

“Hold on a second Mitchell,” What now? “Could you move back a bit and look to your… left?”

Nervously, the Intern did as told. What exactly did the voice want him to see? What did he end up missing?

On the wall, where he was told to look, Mitchell saw what looked to be a set of fuse boxes… maybe. It was hard to really tell, as whatever they used to be didn’t matter anymore as they were completely destroyed. Something with some serious strength had torn them apart, mangling them beyond any form of repair.

“That FUCKER!” 

“OW!” Mitchell went to cover his gas mask covered ears with his hands, the sudden yelling from his guide hurting his hearing and frightening the Intern.

“Ah- sorry.” Mitchell appreciated the apology, and it did make him feel kinda bad for how he had treated the voice earlier, reminding him that this guide of his was still a person.

The voice let out a sigh, clearly irritated about the sight before the human. “Okay, so, bad news.” What else would it be? “So… those are… well, were, the main fuse boxes for this area. They allowed the power to flow through this whole area of the facility. The Prototype clearly destroyed it in an attempt to halt your progress, hence why nothing works over here.”

God damnit…

“Not all hope is lost though. In this room there should be a generator you can activate. I’ll explain how it works once you get started, but that should solve our problem. You’ll just have to fix it up.”

More work… Yay…

Mitchell didn’t need to look hard, the generator was rather obvious, being rather big-ish, red in colour with a large pole emerging from the top with lights attached. It looked kind of… familiar?

Crouching down by it he looked it over. Mitchell was just an intern, he wasn’t skilled in repairs or anything like that, but he should be able to kind of bullshit his way through this. So, grabbing some tools and such from nearby, he began working on fixing the generator.

“These switches, as well this floor as a whole, are not actually connected to the main generator, but instead a separate, off-site, generator. This generator you’re repairing is connected to a sort of gate. This gate, when active, will provide power to the switches and the door, but when closed will cut off the switches from the power. It’s apparently some sort of safety measure, that way the AI can cut off the switches power so no random person can release the Prototype.” That made sense to the Intern. “This generator you’re repairing is going to kickstart the gate by powering it up. The Prototype’s attack on the fuse boxes disrupted the gate, but didn’t destroy it.”

The explanation was welcome, and for once the explanation actually made proper, real sense. It’s complicated so that the Prototype wouldn’t escape. It’s such a shame that it did end up escaping anyway. Despite it all, not even the careful planning of the scientists stopped that monster.

It wasn’t too long before Mitchell finished fixing the generator, having learned some mechanical skills from this. Sadly, however, activating the generator produced a loud sound, one that almost certainly drew the attention of the Prototype. “Oh for the love of…” muttered the Intern as he quickly entered a locker, waiting for the Prototype to arrive. 

It did after a short amount of time, it searching for the human in the room. “We’re lucky, that generator only kickstarts the system. Even if it destroys the generator, the power is on for good.” Good news from the voice? That’s not possible, where’s his bad news?

D̸A̵M̵N̸ ̷I̸T̸!̶ ̷I̷ ̵T̸H̸O̷U̴G̵H̶T̸ ̶I̵ ̸S̴T̴O̷P̷P̴E̶D̴ ̸Y̶O̶U̸

It did smash the generator up, but once it realised nothing was happening, the Prototype stormed off, its irritation being palpable. Once it was gone, Mitchell got out of the locker, letting out a sigh of relief. 

“Okay, I can actually see now, so that’s good.” Mitchell nodded, glad to have some backup, even if it was just another set of eyes. “So, last switch. Let's get this over with quickly, then we can be rid of that damnable robot.”

Nodding his head again in agreement, the human began his trek back to the switch. Again, he encountered the Prototype a few times on his way back, but with the cameras he was able to avoid it mostly. The cameras also allowed him to get back much quicker now as well because he actually knew where he was going.

It didn’t take long before he made it to the switch, and once there his guide opened the switch case and the Intern flipped the switch, overjoyed once it was completed. He also noticed that, once he had flipped the switch, a loud clanging sound emanated from the distance. His guess was that the sound was the labyrinth door opening.

Mitchell was about to exit, but he stopped, eyes drawn to the weapons. “What are you doing?” questioned the voice, impatience dressing its voice. “The door is open, hurry and get back there!” The Intern ignored the voice as he approached the weapons. He knew how to use a handgun, he was from America after all, but he knew how useless the guns would be on the Prototype. Electricity, however, did seem to stun it, at least for a short while. 

Mitchell grabbed a stun prod from the shelf, knowing that, if he got into a messy situation, this would be his extra life. He also decided to grab a second one just in case. The voice seemed to understand this, possibly even agree with the choice, as it let out an understanding “Ah” in response to seeing this.

Now he was ready. He would face the Prototype and make it pay for what it did to Bossy, for what it has done to everyone.

He was going home to see Alice after this. He was going to survive.

Ǎ̸͍R̷̭̅E̸͍͑ ̷͖̒Y̶̥͊O̴̟͗U̶̳̽?̶̰́