Monster

Relax, big brother.

You have protected me.

Now, I will protect you.

Playing: Bodies by Drowning Pool

The forest was a blur of motion as the team sprinted for cover, the crack of gunfire chasing them like a tsunami Soap's voice cut through the chaos, "Army's on us! Get to cover!" He sprinted with all of the speed that his legs could go at, propelling him toward the sanctuary of a jutting rock formation, sticking out of the dirt of the forest.

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the floor

Let the bodies hit the...

N's visor flickered and glitched to life, showing a yellow gliph. A triangle of some sort. The AbsoluteSolver. The power surge cut through N's core like an high voltage current.

MOTHERBOARD OVERRIDDEN, TRANSFERRING CONTROLS TO: CYN.

Then black. For N at least.

FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!

Eight spiked tendrils, as black as the gargantuan black hole in the center of our galaxy, but outlined with a crimson color reminiscent of human blood; erupted from his back. They thrashed with a life of their own, tearing through the underbrush and the advancing soldiers with indiscriminate fury while the others advanced, too caught up in the chaos to notice N's change.

Beaten... Why for?

Can't take; much more...

Here we go... Here we go... Here we go now,

ONE - NOTHING WRONG WITH ME

TWO - NOTHING WRONG WITH ME

THREE - NOTHING WRONG WITH ME

FOUR - NOTHING WRONG WITH ME!

"Where were you hit, brother?" Alejandro asked, noticing Rodriguez groaning in pain.

"Back plate, I'm good." Rodriguez said, pushing Alejandro's hand away gently, grimacing at the hit on his armor.

N's wings were stretched out to it's maximum, making the drone look like an Angel of Death as he took flight, his bladed wings shining in the sunlight, his shadow covering the sun. In a blink, N blasted himself downward, slamming into the dirt where the "Mexican Army" was, fracturing the ground and kicking up dust clouds; obscuring his visor and the now rotating glyph.

ONE - SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE

TWO - SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE

THREE - SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!

The soldiers in cover were coughing, waving their hands to wave off the dust; but each of them, one by one had their neck snapped, crushed, impaled, disemboweled, or pulled apart by an unknown force. The only visible thing in the cloud was the glare of the barbed stinger and the golden yellow nanite acid.

LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR

LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR

LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!

A demonic chuckle emanated from N's voice box, as death N picked up speed, sprinting over to another soldier like a feral beast, N jumped over him, the Solver manipulating his arm to become another one of the tendrils; grabbing the poor bastard by the head, reeling the squirming soldier up into the air, then slammed down hard enough to create a small crater. Some trees fell as a result of this, crushing some of the soldiers.

Once the dust had settled, N was surrounded by bodies, and many more to come. Using the same hand he had used to slam the now-crushed soldier, N extends it, grabbing another soldier, pulling him in at incredible speeds.

Push me, again...

Once he was right next to N, the drone gut punches the man, his fist going straight through his torso. Blood was all over his hand, on his visor, on his uniform. It was everywhere.

This is the end...

All while this was happening, the tendrils sprouted from N's back were slaughtering any and all enemies it came in contact with, severing heads, ripping them in half, and filleting the "Mexican Army" left and right.

Here we go... Here we go... Here we go now,

ONE - NOTHING WRONG WITH ME

TWO - NOTHING WRONG WITH ME

THREE - NOTHING WRONG WITH ME

FOUR - NOTHING WRONG WITH ME!

N's mouth was now wide open, baring teeth similar to a shark; his tail coiling around the air like a snake choking its prey.

"Oi, moron-bot!" J called, gesturing for him to regroup with the others. She was looking at Rodriguez; so she didn't see the AbsoluteSolver symbol glitch and abruptly vanish as N glanced over in J's direction, being replaced with his regular neon yellow ovals.

Turning around, N's tendrils slowly receded into his back, like someone slowly waking up from sleep paralysis; the Solver giving the metaphorical reigns back to N.

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NERVOUS SYSTEM CALIBRATING....

OPTICAL SENSORS CALIBRATING...

AUDIO RECEPTORS CALIBRATING.....

TARGETING SYSTEM CALIBRATING....

WELCOME BACK, N!

N looked around frantically, seeing the bodies strewn everywhere. His optics hollowed out, but he quickly suppressed his fear.

'Who the hell did this?' N thought, doing his best to keep composed as he walked up to J; stepping over bodies and fallen trees in the process. He wracked his memory logs, but nothing came of it.

"Quite the performance you had there." J dryly remarked, looking at N.

N only responded with a '?' on his visor.

"You got amnesia or something?" J quipped, knocking on his head twice. "You went fucking crazy on them, had Ghost retching-"

"Shut up, J!" Ghost shouted out, his tone sharper than a Swiss army knife as he cleaned his pistol.

"No, I genuinely do not know what you're talking about, I just woke up and saw bodies." N said, looking back at the massacre.

J only rolled her optics. He was playing dumb, wasn't he? Fuckin' bastard.

"No time, we gotta move!" Alejandro said, running down the trails of the forest, the rest of the team following close behind.

The stench of pine and rotted wood was replaced with the foul smell of blood and iron.

"You know these trails?" Soap asked, stepping over a pool of blood from what used to be a Mexican soldier; now his body had 4 separate gashes from the torso up, making Soap grimace.

"Yes, and so does the military." Alejandro said, as they go deeper into the forest.

"Even with Slayer over 'ere, we can't hold off an army." Ghost chimed, seemingly unfazed as he pointed to a confused N.

"[Rodriguez, call for extract.]" Alejandro said, as the team jumps down from a rock, landing on the dirt road, going down deeper into the forest.

2 gunshots rang out. One hit the dirt, kicking up a miniature cloud of dust that flew away in the wind; the other, hit a near by rock.

Whirling around, J saw multiple Mexican soldiers on the rock face they just jumped from.

"Contact!" Ghost shouted, taking cover near a rock face.

"All guns, hold here, take cover!" Alejandro ordered, as N took cover behind a tree.

"It'd really be good if you did what you did just now!" J shouted over to N. She didn't see the symbol due to the dust cloud, so she thought it was just something in N's metaphorical bag of tricks.

"We suppress by fire, then we advance." Alejandro ordered.

N's left hand had been replaced in stead of a submachine gun; as N peeked out, firing 3 rounds at the enemy.

"[Control, Victor-1; requesting immediate extraction at Soul River Bridge, how copy?]" Rodriguez said into his comms; his facial expression betraying the urgent tone of his voice.

"[Control, how copy?]" Rodriguez repeated, after hearing nothing through his comms.

Once again, radio silence.

The army stopped their assault, and the forest was still. Tranquil, even. The tension, however; you could cut it right through with a hot knife.

"We clear?" Ghost asked, breaking the silence.

"For now, but there will be more. Vamos." Alejandro called, jumping over a fallen log that was not N's doing. The rest of the team followed suit.

"[Any word from Rodolfo?]" Alejandro queried.

"[No, we lost comms.]" Rodriguez responded.

"[Fuck.] Let's keep it moving. Through here." Alejandro directed, the leaves rustling and crunching under the team's feet as they moved.

"Mountain's blocking comms." N said, trying to access comms himself.

Sliding down a smooth rock face and landing on more dirt, Ghost asked "Your man get the call out?"

"Let's hope so." Alejandro responded.

"So, what's the plan?" N asked, surveying the rocks and the trees for a split second.

"There's a bridge at the river, extraction will be there." Alejandro answered.

An RPG rocket blasted directly past J's shoulder, exploding a ways off after flying into a rock face.

"CONTACT, RPG!" Ghost shouted, sliding into cover.

N whirled around and by the time he did, a rocket was headed for him.

Acting on instinct, he opened his palm, optics snapping shut.

Playing: Disassembly Required

Nothing.

He opened one optic, and a yellow glyph that he was pretty sure only Uzi had, was rotating around the rocket, glitching and stuttering as yellow lines of code wrapped around the rocket. Then a text screen popped up, the words 'NULL' on it. The rocket imploded on itself, a small black hole with a black orb and a yellow outline in the center was formed; then it dissolved just as quickly. The same yellow glyph replaced the closed optic.

N was frozen in shock. Time seemed to stop. J was looking at him in both fear and awe, Ghost was in cover, all of the others; they were frozen.

N had remembered when he, V, and Uzi broke into Doll's house. When Uzi caught the bullet. But how? How did he have it? I mean, he knew Cyn had it, but nobody else besides those two.

His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of gunshots.

It's always been with you, big brother. Ever since the manor, when you became what you are now.