Deepspace: Deron and Nyco (Ea)(Com)

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Deron woke up and picked herself up; she had no idea how long she was asleep, but it wasn’t long enough, as her body was still sore, she was still low on energy and had no supplies to make more nanobots.

The only good thing to happen was the elevator working and taking her down to a storage area. Deron slowly walked inside, looking for enemies or anomalies, but once the coast was clear, she started checking boxes for supplies.

Most of them were filled with stuff that couldn’t be used due to how old they were, while others were just filled with random junk. However, after checking nearly thirty crates, Deron found one that had a label reading "machine parts" on it.

Deron got excited and hoped they were in good condition, or at the very least actually inside the crate. As she opened up the crate, her eyes sparkled because exactly what she needed was inside. She was about to start grabbing them to use, but suddenly Deron heard a clicking sound.

Then someone told her not to move, as there was a gun to her back loaded with spacecraft-piercing bullets. Deron gulped as she glanced over at her gun arm. It was still there, but she was using nanobots as ammunition, which she was out of.

All she had currently were the thrusters in her feet, which she would only likely get a few uses out of thanks to being low energy. So whoever this was, whatever fight was about to happen, she needed to end it quickly.

Deron activated both her boosters and used them to do a backflip. Jumped over her ambushers' heads, giving them a nice kick on her way down. The green-haired ambusher held her head and said ouch, while also accidentally shooting into the pile of supplies Deron had been trying to use.

The ambusher, who Deron didn’t know was another one of the captains named Nyco, quickly turned around and started shooting more bullets at Deron, which would have hit dead on thanks to Deron being low on energy, but Nyco was as well after her fight with the Behemoth.

So Nyco’s aim was off due to being exhausted, especially after having to jump all the way down to the floor, where she found Deron. Nyco realized she wouldn’t hit Deron with her blaster, so she changed her tactics.

She took off into the air using her fire foot along with her wings. She sent herself right into Deron, sending both of them to a wall, where Deron took the brunt of the damage from hitting. Deron was stunned for a moment from the impact, and Nyco tried to take advantage of that.

So she tried to stab Deron with her heated blade, which melts through metal quickly. That failed, though, as Deron recovered, and being much bigger than Nyco, she was able to grab Nyco’s arm and restrain it.

Nyco then tried to use her blaster arm, which she was currently loading with explosive bullets. She then tried to shoot Deron point-blank, which wasn’t the best idea for either of them, but might get her free. Like before, Deron grabbed her arm and held it.

Nyco expected that, but it was a blaster arm, so she could still shoot, so she tried to shoot Deron, but Deron noticed before she could get the first shot out and aimed her arm towards the floor. The explosive bullet hit the floor, blowing a hole in it.

Deron laughed and told Nyco she was beaten, as she couldn’t do anything now. Nyco smirked and said she was far from beaten. She then sent power to her wings so they would lift her up; she then sent all remaining power to her fire leg.

Her goal was to push herself away from Deron and break her grip. Deron’s grip was good, though, so instead, all Nyco managed to do was pull her to the hole they had made moments ago. So now Nyco was floating above the hole, with Deron weighing her down.

The two of them looked down the hole, and it was completely dark; who knows how far down it went? Deron tried to activate her boosters to get away from it, while Nyco tried to get rid of Deron before she ran out of power.

Unfortunately for both of them, at that moment, both of them were out of power. Both fell into the hole, which led who knows where. As they fell, both of them slammed into different things like broken floors and exposed beams.

By the time both of them landed at the bottom, they were completely out of energy and out of strength to move, never mind continuing fighting. They sat there silently for a moment until Deron broke the silence and asked Nyco why the hell she attacked her.

Nyco let out an awkward laugh and said it was a misunderstanding. She explained her fight with the behemoth, along with the fact that she encountered many other robots along her way down, so she was sort of in fight mode.

She didn’t even realize Deron wasn’t a robot until they were fighting, which was when it was too late to stop. Deron was a bit horrified to hear about Nyco’s fight with the behemoth; she had no idea that everything was in danger, and she was honestly glad Nyco was there to fight it.

Deron said she forgave Nyco for that, as she completely understood being on edge after that. The two then continued to chat while they waited for their bodies to naturally recover what energy they could.

They started with how pointless that fight really was, not to mention how pathetic it was since both of them weren't at their best. They then moved on to talking about all the things they can do with their new bodies, and in the end, both agreed a real fight between them would be pretty badass.

After about two hours, the two of them were able to get up and start walking down the tunnel they found themselves in. The first exit they found, they took, which seemed to have led them to a strange place.

It was a massive room, with a small building in the center, which was surrounded by a bigger hole than they fell down. There was only one bridge that led to the building, and it seems at one point in time, it may have had heavy security, but now it was all deactivated.

They began to walk across the bridge, only stopping every few seconds to salvage some parts from the broken-down mechs and drones. Deron was able to get enough supplies to make some more nanobots, while Nyco was able to stock up on grenades for her leg.

With that out of the way, curiosity took over, and they went into the building to check it out. They were surprised to find it was set up like a library, but instead of datapads filled with text information, the shelves were filled with recordings, so this place was the station's archives.

Deron and Nyco looked around for a while, with Nyco looking for tapes that would work, while Deron got the player plugged in and powered so it would project them. It took a bit of time for Deron to do that, and even longer for Deron to find tapes that were usable.

In the end, she found a box of them labeled "Column," which sounded like it was the security footage of some bad spot where they built something in front of it, but they could still be used to see if Deron got the player working properly.

So they put the first tape in. They were surprised to find the taps were of Zeta-13’s lab and that there was some strange thing in the center of it that the scientists were experimenting on. The first tape simply talked about the thing they call the column.

They explained that it was made of a strange metal and floated in place. Even stranger, it was covered in names, thousands of them. Most of the names, they had no idea who they belonged to, but some were people they claimed lived in the facility.

Some of whom wouldn’t even know the column existed, never mind being able to get to it and carve their name on it, not that carving names was possible, as they couldn’t seem to damage the column.

The tape ended shortly and Deron looked at Nyco confused.

Nyco looked at the tape and it was labeled the third tape, so they were clearly missing some. Nyco dug through the box and found the next one in order, which was tape number twenty. She popped it in and they watched the scientist conducting an experiment on the column.

They were blasting it with massive amounts of electricity, hoping to get some sort of reaction, but it didn’t seem to work, and in the end, it started to fry all the tech inside the lab, including the cameras, which was when the tape ended.

The next tape labeled fifty showed the scientist trying to pick the column up, then fighting about how much it weighed, at least until they discovered it was weightless until someone tried to pick it up; when that happens, the column weighs as much as the person's mind thinks it should weigh.

Deron and Nyco were left even more confused about what they were watching; they already knew the anomalies made crazy things happen, but most of those things made some sort of sense, but an indestructible column with names that can’t be lifted didn’t make any sense.

It didn’t even seem like something possible in reality. Nyco grabbed the next tape, which was number two hundred. In that tap they were using drones to pick up the column in order to move it. It was actually working, but after a few moments of transportation, the video ended.

The next tape, which was number two hundred and one, showed the column back in the lab, and this time they weren't doing an experiment, merely following up with the last. Apparently they brought the column up a hundred kilometers above the surface.

They said that it caused a lot of problems, starting with the laws of physics being completely changed. They did initially record what happened during this event, but due to the effects of moving the column, they lost all footage from that day across the entirety of Zeta-13.

The next tapes were tapes two hundred and thirty through two hundred and forty-two. All of which showed the scientist trying different things and ending with them bringing in someone whose name was on the column.

They had that person touch the column with their right hand, placing all five fingers and their palm against the surface. That got a reaction from the column, giving the scientists their first lead since they started researching it.

The next and last tap was number two seventy-five. Which was the team of scientists going over what they knew about the column and what they should do to proceed. Deron and Nyco were able to learn a lot from this tape alone.

So the column only works for those whose name is on it. Then if a person’s name is on it, they have to put their right hand, palm and all five fingers, on the column and then say “activate.” Then someone needs to hear them say that, even if it’s the person themself.

Their tests showed that a person who was deaf but had their name on the column couldn’t activate it, and a robot couldn’t be used next to them in order to do it. Once that happens, the column will be turned off.

They then mentioned that they discovered the column was connected to the anomalies that happen, but they’ve yet to figure it out. One of the scientists then went and placed his hand on the column, and then he activated it.

Then it almost looked like all of the scientists vanished, but the tape cut out at the moment and the player suddenly caught fire. Deron sighed and pushed the player on the floor and stepped on it to put the fire out.

Once it was out, Deron looked at Nyco, who had her arms crossed and was deep in thought but for some reason slightly embarrassed about something. Deron asked Nyco if she was thinking about the column and she nodded.

She said it was strange, but if it connected to the anomalies, it was probably in their best interest to turn it off before the anomalies killed them or, worse, created another behemoth that wouldn't be stopped by the power of glitter.

Nyco then looked more concerned, saying that she thought she saw a familiar name on the column in that last tape, which was slightly disturbing, but she was unsure and at the very least wanted to check it out.

Deron asked whose name it was, but Nyco said it was best she keep that to herself for now, and then she started to leave the archive. Deron shook her head, then told Nyco to wait for her. Nyco was a little surprised and asked why she was coming.

Deron shrugged and said no real reason; she was slightly interested in the column, but it also seemed safer to go together. Nyco then asked about trying to claim Zeta-13. Deron just shrugged and said she’d rather share than die, which Nyco agreed with. So the two of them were heading towards the center of Zeta-13 again, this time with an additional goal.