Chapter Text
𝘽𝙀𝙀𝙋 𝘽𝙀𝙀𝙋 𝘽𝙀𝙀𝙋
Uzi slapped her vizor as her alarm went off, groaning as she sat up. She slowly blinked as she let out a yawn. Ugh, she had school today. Honestly, why did she even need to go? Hadn’t she already proved she was smart enough when she made her railgun and saved the planet from the Absolute Solver?
She heard a knock at her door, “Uzi~, time to get up for school!” Her dad called out as he slightly opened the door, allowing light to enter the room.
“Ugh…Morning, Dad.” She grumbled as she hopped off of her bed and landed on the ground, slowly tugging herself into the living area.
She glanced around the room, a few pieces of the nuclear snow having been tracked into the room. Her eyes landed on her mother, Nori, comfortably sleeping on one of the chairs by the counter, her claw legs tucked under her. Uzi walked into the kitchen and grabbed a canister of oil before exiting the kitchen, sitting in the chair next to her mom as she began to drink it.
Her mother opened her main eye, still half-lidded as if she was tired, “Morin’ Uzi and Khan.” She chided up as she snuggled more into the chair.
“Morning!”
“Morning…”
Uzi drank her oil in silence as her mom and dad and her parents chatted about something as Khan stood behind the counter. While she was glad that her dad was getting more involved in her life and that her mom was back, that still didn’t make it any less, well, weird…
Don’t get her wrong, she loved this! But growing up with an emotionally absent father and a literally absent mother for most of her life and in less than a month or so she has both, well it was kind of strange! But a good one nonetheless.
“Oh, by the way, Uzi, how’s your teacher doing?” Nori asked Uzi, stripping her out of her thoughts, “Last time I saw him, he was banging his head against his desk. Is that some sort of new teaching strategy, or…” She wondered as she stuck out one of her claws, spinning it, and urging Uzi to answer.
Uzi gave a wide, mischievous smile at her mom, giggling, “Hehehe, he’s just doing that because my presentation was just so wonderful.” She gloated in a sarcastic tone. She knew that her teacher was probably tired of dealing with her, but she didn’t care, so bite her!
Khan raised an eyebrow at her, “Are you sure, Uzi? He didn’t speak too highly of you at the Parent-Teacher conference.” Her dad spoke skeptically.
Nori rolled her eye, “She’s being sarcastic, Khan.”
“Wait, hold on, what did my teacher say?” Uzi questioned her dad, what did he say about her!?
Khan turned his eyes to his daughter, “Oh, you know! Just about how you’re anti-social and have trouble fitting in!” Khan told both Uzi and Nori cheerfully, causing Uzi to grimace as Nori glanced at her, “Then he had the nerve to suggest your programming was damaged!” He spoke as he clenched his own hand.
“BS!” Nori yelled out as she stood up on her claws and hopped on the counter. Oh thank Robo-God, they aren’t going to punish her, “Just because she’s a bit introverted at times doesn’t mean her programming’s screwed up!”
“EXACTLY!”
Uzi sighed as she slid back into her chair. Oh, if she went to school today, she was giving that teacher HELL! He could bite her!
“Which, speaking of school,” Khan began, “You need to get going, Uzi, you’ll be late!”
Uzi gave an over dramatic eye roll as she groaned, “Do I have to?” She asked her dad, “I already know what we’re doing today! So what’s the point.”
Her dad tisked at her, “Now now, missy. School is very important for both your social life and mental health too! Plus, how do you know what you’re learning today too?” He asked as he raised a digital eyebrow.
Uzi rested her head on her hand, which was on the counter, “Because he gave us a packet with the entire next lesson because he couldn’t be bothered to actually teach it.” She told Khan dead-pan, “It’s just busy work until the next test.”
“Well you still have to go, Uzi.” Her dad responded, “Now, get to it!” Khan then pointed to the door.
Uzi looked at Nori, trying her best to do puppy eyes to get her mom to let her not go to school, “Nuh uh, babe, you got school!” Her mom told her as she also pointed to the door.
“Tsk, fine…” Uzi responded as she went to grab her backpack as she threw away her oil canister, heading towards the door, “Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!” She waved as she exited the door.
Uzi closed the door behind her, sprinting to her locker as she put up all her books and such in her locker which was decorated with all of her interests.
Yeah, she was skipping school today, she couldn’t take it right now.
Her tail popped up to her side, “Hmmm, perhaps you should go to the video game store.” Her Cyn tail suggested to her in its usual monotone voice, “I heard they have an interesting game there.”
Uzi turned her head over to it, “Really? Games, Games, and Even More Games, right?” Or otherwise known as GGmG
Cyn gave a short nod at her. Odd, how’d she find out about that?
Uzi gave a small smile, “Uhm, sure! Why not?” Uzi began to run towards GGmG before running head-first into something tall, silver, and metal. She backed up and looked, seeing a familiar male Murder Drone.
“N!” Uzi shouted out as she was pulled into a hug by him.
“Uzi!” He responded, squeezing her more before letting her go, “How’s my awesome girlf-”
Uzi put one of her fingers over N’s mouth in a ‘hush’ motion, “I told you not to use that word!” Uzi reprimanded while blushing. She loved being N’s girlfriend, it’s just awkward to actually say those words and she wasn’t ready for that.
N gently grabbed her wrist and put her hand down, “Okay, okay, I promise I won’t!” He answered her, “But where are you going, don’t you have school today?” He wondered as he raised a digital eyebrow at her.
Uzi gave a mischievous giggle at N’s question, “Hehehe…Well you see, N, I decided what’s the point of class today? Might as well just skip!” She explained to him before pausing for a moment before clarifying, “Which I am, by the way!”
“Ooooohhh, skipping?” N rhetorically asked as he lowered himself and got to Uzi’s level, “Sounds rebellious, I’m in!” He then raised his hands to his face in an excited manner.
Not like he had school, he sort of just came when he wanted to, “Good! Now come on, I’m going to GGnG!” She exclaimed as she grabbed N’s wrist before beginning to run over there with N in tow.
“GGnG? That new game store” N asked her as he was dragged along, “I thought that place didn’t have many games?”
Uzi rolled her eyes, “Yeah, well it’s not like we have many game shops in the colony, so I gotta make do!” She shot back as she slowly approached the game store.
There was a bright neon green sign over the store’s door, which was built into a wall as the store was in a wall, flashing slowly as it read ‘Games, Games, and Even More Games!’ Right by it, to the left, was a small neon green sign that read ‘Best game store in the entire colony!’ Ironic how it’s basically the only game store on the planet for that matter.
The nearby area was empty and quiet, with a dripping sound being heard from somewhere (likely a leaky faucet or something). The shop was isolated from the rest of the colony, with it being rather out of the way. A strange place to put a shop, Uzi noted, but eh, who cares!
Apparently, N did as he tensed up his shoulders and grabbed Uzi’s hand before she waltzed in, “Uzi, are you sure about this place?” N questioned, looking rather uncertain, “This place looks…rather sketchy…Are we sure this is the right place?”
Uzi pointed up to the sign above the door, “Of course it is!” She affirmed N, whose worry didn’t disappear, “Plus, you’re equipped with like, at least a hundred ways to kill someone, and I got my Solver, we should be fine.” She stressed as she began to walk into the store with a slightly more calm N.
She’ll admit, the first impressions weren’t great…
The place looked liminal, with white fluorescent lights from the ceiling and the walls being completely grey. The shelves that were meant to contain merchandise were empty, with one on the back having some game in a small plastic case that was brightly colored. The tiled floor was another shade of a light, depressing grey. The bins that were meant to contain merchandise like plushes and the sorts were also completely empty.
In the middle of the store was a sales counter connected to a wall, with a worker drone ‘working’ the counter in a tacky, multicolored, store uniform that had seemingly faded in color, but in reality he had his feet kicked up, and was leaning against his chair as he slept. Uzi couldn’t help but shake off the feeling that this place shouldn’t be open yet…
Uzi looked back slightly to see N’s face, who was currently grimacing at the state of the store before looking at Uzi concerningly.
Uzi averted her eyes to think for a moment, “Maybe they sold out of everything?” She suggested with a shrug.
N frowned at the suggestion, “Uzi…I’m not so su-” But N was cut off as Uzi began to walk down the store to where the one game lay.
“I mean, it’s not like it’s completely empty!” Uzi turned back as she walked backwards to the shelf, turning around before bumping back into the shelf, “See, there’s one game left, it’s like destiny!” She snatched the plastic case that had a brightly, multicolored, carnival tent on it before reading out the name, “See, there’s still the…uhm…’The Amazing Digital Circus’...” She suggested to N, who was now behind her.
N peered over her shoulder, observing the front of the game, “I’ll say, this game does look like a light-hearted, circus-themed adventure!” He cheerfully chided to her as he leaned his head down, “Maybe it’ll be some sort of fun adventure game around a circus?”
Uzi flipped the game’s case around, reading the back of it, “Says it’s a VR game…” She muttered to herself and N before shrugging, “Eh, I’ll just use my VR chip to play it.”
“Oh, the thing you used to access me and V’s memories?” N asked her, with Uzi nodding in response, “You can use it to play games?” He questioned as he raised a digital eyebrow.
Uzi hummed an affirmation, “That’s what it’s originally meant for, but I may have modified it a bit.” She admitted as she scratched the back of her head, “I modified it for…Other reasons…But it’s meant for video games!”
N tilted his head and gave Uzi a skeptical look before obviously deciding not to ask anymore questions, “Okay, so do we want to get this game?”
“Yeah, I mean, are there any other games here?” Uzi asked him in a sarcastic tone.
N glanced around for a moment before shaking his head, “Nope, none that I can see!”
Uzi gave a wide smile to him, “Well then we’re getting the Amazing Digital Circus!”