#giggle bugs

“Keep up, you slowpokes. We don’t have all night, and at this rate the sun will be up by the time you both crawl out of your stupid hole of a bunker.”

“Oh shut up, J. You’re not our squad leader anymore. Haven’t you learned by now that your authority means zilch?” V scoffed in response, brushing past the silver pigtailed-drone with an agitated flick of her wire tail. “And you’re not much better than N and I, just clinging to the busted-up space ship instead of taking shelter with us.”

J just gave her an offended glare, but rolled her digital eyes and decided to keep walking, managing to be a step in front of V again.

The trio was out on a mission, and J had finally rejoined V and N after a tense period of months being isolated in the ship within the corpse spire. Rather reluctantly, she might add, although the tiniest part of her maybe felt an old sense of normalcy and contentment with just the three of them as a squad again. Out like they used to be, with rather similar bickering. Just not as heavy topics to reference unlike the present.

“Wait— Wait guys, wait up!” N blurted out, scrambling to catch up after her had taken a bit too long chatting and saying goodbye to Uzi.

He quickly fell in step with the other two, though J insistently tried to keep ahead. “Well I prefer not to fully exist alongside the barely sentient toasters you call ‘friends’ instead of JUST food, which is what they should be.”

“Y’know, if you ever actually tried to get to know one of those ‘toasters’, you’d see they’re not that different from us. Well, maybe just different from you, since not all of them are such prejudiced, corporate-brainwashed asshats.”

“Hey, I object to that statement! I stopped following Cyn, thank you very much. I just know the difference in quality between myself and… others.”

“Oh, are you fucking implying—”

“OHO—KAY, guys, calm down, we’re not here to rip each other’s throats out.” N swiftly intervened, moving to stand between the two with a nervous smile, glancing at the both of them.

V just rolled her eyes and turned her head away, whereas J shot him an even sharper glare. He shrunk away from it on instinct, but took a breath and straightened a little back up, trying to remember what Uzi had told him. Right. Don’t just bend over backwards for J. She’s… scary, but she’s not the same anymore. She’ll bark, but won’t bite… as hard.

V gave him a slight look of pride for silently holding his own against J, although she’d never admit to it. Can’t give him too much credit so easily.

J just scoffed wordlessly and pushed the pilot aside, reinserting herself between him and V out of sheer stubbornness. She didn’t like giving up her leading position, as thin of strings as she could grasp in her situation.

N took that as his cue to just keep going, smile back on his face as he successfully got past another tense interaction with J. “Okie-dokie then. Now remember, we’re on two missions tonight. One is just to scout for any remains of the Solver. The other is just… hunting, at J’s insistence.”

“That’s what we’re meant to DO, you dolt. Of course I insist we hunt.” J huffed, earning another nasty look from V.

“ANYWAY. J, you get this incredibly rare chance to take us on a hunt, but don’t expect it to be common. Uzi let us go because we don’t have enough donors right now and we’re far enough away so that we don’t hunt down anyone from her Colony. Just stragglers.” V reaffirmed N’s statements, being more specific to dissuade her old squad mate from forming a belief that this would be a normal thing again.

J didn’t bother to stifle a hiss at that, her tail giving an angry lash. “Oh Uzi said this, Uzi said that— I don’t care what that angst-filled microwave has to say. I’m only going along with this whole weird new life of yours because there’s nothing better to do without a corporate overshadowing our duties.”

“Well you better start caring. That drone is the bane of my existence but she’s our admin now, and by extension, your admin.” V retorted, reaching over to harshly jab at one of the five nanite-filled LED lights in J’s headband, causing the other drone to let out a sharper agitated hiss.

V wouldn’t really verbally admit that she listened to Uzi somewhat because she viewed her as a friend, just as N did, but that was for another time. This was just for the sake of snapping back at J.

“Agh. Only on paper.”

“Well, not on paper, more like—”

“Okay, not again.” N sighed, deciding to not loudly interject in this developing argument this time. Might as well let them air it all out for now.

The three kept walking, figuring it wasn’t an immediate concern to hunt down anything yet, so they went on foot. They traversed far enough away from the bunker to be sure there was no accidental consumption of a known Worker from the Colony, as per Uzi’s begrudging request.

Right now the trio was trekking through a ruined city, debris and rubble scattered everywhere from the initial invasion of Copper-9 by the Disassembly Drones and Solver itself. The buildings were corroded and crumbling, car wrecks littered along the roads, frozen skeletons were dotted here and there. But at least the stars were twinkling above despite the dystopian environment.

There was just a little bit of breeze, the occasional little creak of a settling ruin and such breaking the soundless atmosphere, but otherwise it was silent.

Well, besides the continued heated yapping between V and J, that is. Which N was subjected to during the entire trip. Not that he was much of a complainer, happy to be “doing anything”, but even he would rather not listen to the hostile words being catapulted back at one another.

He absently kicked a little pile of rubble as they continued trudging along, hands in his coat pockets as he heaved a small weary sigh. He’d forgotten how often the two female drones clashed even back when they hunted together, as rare as it was for them to go as a trio all at once. But it seemed worse now.

Looking for a potential target, or really just anything to distract him, his gaze wandered around the devastated city. Completely dirty and strewn with the wreckage, never to be— Oh. His thoughts were interrupted.

“What was that?” He piped up, not too loud, but enough to accidentally draw J and V’s attention.

“What was what, moron-bot?”

“What is it, idiot?”

Not even picking up on the usual insults from the both of them, N listened for another scurrying sound before he simply pointed to something he spotted a few feet away. “That.”

It was a little mechanical cricket-roach, only a few inches tall and wide, sitting atop a ruined car. A surprisingly clean car, the metal practically buffed to perfection to boot. Odd. The rest of the cars in the vicinity were the same, apparently. They hadn’t noticed that when they first arrived.

The critter was a little keybug of sorts, with a few modifications. The most prominent thing about it was that it was glowing a striking pink, instead of the usual orangey-red or green like StringBean (Hehe reference :3).

The trio drew a little closer out of curiosity, though J and V were more wary of the little bug than N, who took a few steps closer.

The bug’s little pink lights flashed every so often, maybe a glitch, perhaps? The oddest thing about it was it had fluffy pink… fur? More specifically, little pink puff balls as the ends of their antennae, and little puffs on their front-most appendages as well. Pink buffer pads? He also had stumpy little legs rather than sharp angular ones.

“Aw, look at him! He’s such a cute little guy. Like a lil cheerleader!” N beamed at the critter, reaching out to wave a finger at it, wanting to play with the creature before J and V inevitably tried to squash the innocent thing or something.

“Yeah, pompoms and pink seems to be a thing among cheerleaders too.” V side-eyed the bug warily as she now stood beside N, though briefly thinking back to Lizzy at the mention.

J, on the other hand, was more actively scrutinizing the tiny pink-lit roach, an uneasy feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t like how it was just… sitting there. Flashing lights. Almost like it was… trying to draw them in. “…N, V. Get back over here. I don’t like this thing. It’s untrustworthy.”

“Oh it’s probably, fine, J. Now you’re worried about a bug, of all things? It’s just a little pink pest. Ooooh, so scary~!” V half-taunted in return, slight smirk gracing her lips with the last part before turning her attention back to the bug.

“Relax, J. He’s just a silly little cheerleader. Probably was a pet or something before the whole takeover thing. C’mere lil’ guy!” N cast J a smile before looking back to the mechanical roach, gently scooping it up in his hands from the car’s shiny clean surface.

It slowly crawled around the palm of his hand for a moment, antennae twitching with whatever it was perceiving.

“Awh, I don’t have any hex nuts for ya, buddy. Sorry.” The pilot smiled apologetically to the curious bug, figuring it was just peckish and searching for something to consume.

Then the bug stilled for a moment, pupil-less neon pink eyes seemingly flitting over the three drones in the vicinity before suddenly emitting loud squeaks, nearly piercing the air itself from the abruptness. The trio yelped and N nearly dropped the robotic insect, J and V instantly deploying their guns aimed at the tiny creature out of defensive habit after jumping back. They exchanged glances, both somewhat embarrassed over the slight overreaction, now playing it off with the same casual expressions as they avoided each others’ gaze, retracting weapons.

N meanwhile was trying to gently hush the bug, apologizing to it as best as he could. “H-Hey, hey, I’m sorry little buddy, I just don’t have any hex nuts! I’m sure you can just scavenge for food, yeah? Yeah.” And he set it back down on the hood of the car, expecting it to just scurry off into the crumbling buildings.

But the squeaks grow sharper, louder, more frantic. The call rang out across the dystopianly ruined city, reverberating against the buildings, practically turning the city street into a resounding echo chamber.

“Why won’t that thing shut up?? N, what did you do to it??”

“I— I didn’t do anything, V! I promise! I just don’t have food to give it!”

“You mentioned food to it in the first place?? WHY??”

“Well why not? Can they understand us?? I thought only Uzi’s keybug could do that!”

“Well I don’t know, but it sure as hell seems—”

“HEY. You two idiots pay attention! Look!” J cut V off, smacking V’s tail with her own wire as she motioned to the building crumbling behind the clean car. A few more blinking pink lights had appeared, the number slowly growing, pairs and pairs flashing into existence within the shadows.

All three drones tensed up, ready to bolt the moment anything jumped out at them.

And sure enough, something did.

A horde of the neon-lit fluffy roaches sprung out from the debris, scurrying at lightning speed towards the drones. The three immediately deployed their wings and tried to launch off, but were already swarmed by the bugs by the time their blades were spread. The three only lasted a few seconds before topping over, dropping to the ground and covered in those little bugs.

“What— WHAT’S GOING ON?? V?? J??”

“FUCK, I THINK THAT BUGGER WAS BAIT!”

“OH I TOLD YOU SO, YOU— AH!”

J was cut off, biting down on her lip on instinct when she felt the little roaches skitter within her uniform dress, underneath the fabric and roaming along the bare metal. Against her will, she found giggles bubbling up in her throat, and they were the first to escape out of the three. She couldn’t help it, not when they began scurrying around her stomach. “STAHAHAP IHIHIT THIHIS IHIHINSTAHAHNT!”

V and N were shocked to hear the surprisingly prominent giggles of their stoic ex-squad leader teammate, but didn’t have much time to process before overcome with the mechanical pests themselves.

V felt them skittering all over her exposed torso, definitely not helped by the fact that her standard regulation D.D. jacket was cropped. Crawling quickly up and down her sides, their little pitter-pattering on her ribs, she was reduced to a fit of giggles alongside J in a matter of seconds. “G-Get— Gehehet OHOHOFF mehehee yohou— y-yohohou pehehests!!”

“PLEHEHEHEASE?? We— W-We’ll leheheave yohohohou ahahall alohohohone!” N wasn’t faring much better, with the little bugs crawling all over him as well. They slipped under his coat no-problem, skittering their repeated paths up and down his sides as well, over his stomach. Even down to his shoe-like feet.

They were all being swarmed, no signs of stopping. This went on for at least another minute, with the Disassembly Drones wriggling around on the snowy asbestos-powdered ground, covered with the pink-puffed bugs from head to toe. Their insults (V and J) and pleas falling on deaf, nonexistent ears.

Then all the sudden, everything stopped, and the drones quickly fell silent beyond panting for artificial breath. The three of them exchanged glances, J and V more embarrassed over their reactions than their resident golden retriever. Then they peered down at the bugs just resting on top of them.

“Wh-What— What wahas that? Why— Why’d they do that??” N piped up, a little breathless as he stared down at a few of the bugs.

“I— I don’t know. I’ve never seen these stupid fluff balls before.” V hissed at the little roaches, but they didn’t budge off her even when she raised a hand to lightly smack at them.

J sighed, shakily propping herself up. “I think I’ve heard of— of these things. They’re like cleaner bots. We had them around the Manor occasionally. Sometimes drones were sent to them if they were too dirty to the Elliots’ liking. I thought they were wiped out.”

“Cleaner bots? Giggle bugs is more like it.” N chuckled a little nervously, gaze flickering back down to the pink-lit insects. “They tickle really bad.”

”Yeah, unfortunate side effect.” She mumbled, a slight cringe to her expression. She hated these things.

One of the bugs skittered a little closer, on top of N’s chest. The movement drew the three’s attention, gazes cautious.

“Scanning complete, 35%, 45%, and 60% of Disassembly Drone metal has dulled! Initiating buffing sequence in 5 seconds!" 

“Do not worry! This will not hurt one bit! :]”

”J. J, what the fuck does that mean.”

“J, can you tell us— HEHEHEHEEHEY!!”

N’s questioning was cut off by a loud peal of laughter, dissolving into bubbly giggles again as the little critters suddenly sprung to life once more, this time using their little pink buffer pads to brush them all over any bit of metal they could get their pompoms on.

V and J erupted into cackles again as well, the little puffs buffing every spot in their reach. Be it underneath their uniforms, their harder to reach little points like the crooks of their necks and the small hollows of their underarms, to the blades of their wings— which J was especially losing it from, trying her best to fling off the mischievous giggle bugs. Shooting them proved useless, since they were on her and she shouldn’t even bother trying.

So the trio laid there in hysterics, laughter and profanity and pleas ringing out in the city instead of those squeaky calls. Not a single drone would arrive to save them, not after they traveled so far from the Colony. So this wore on for a good few minutes.

Fifteen or so minutes later, the fluffy buffers finally ceased, scattering off the worn-out Disassembly Drones and leaving them there in an exhausted giggly heap.

V was the first to recover enough to shakily prop herself up with an arm behind her, other arm weakly clutching at her waist, trying to rub away the lingering tingles from the pink fluffy pompoms.

“Sequence completed! Drones restored to premium condition. :]”

Alittle pop-up read from the closest cleaner.

V was quick to switch out her hand for a gun, firing a warning shot near the little critter, the loud boom startling the entire horde, sending them scrambling off to where they came form. Probably some nest in the area.

Then she flopped back down beside the others, taking an extra minute to breathe. A few minutes later the silence was broken, and the trio got up from the snowy street.

“Ugh… We’re never going near this area again.”

“For once, I’ll agree with you.” J sighed, tiredly dusting herself off. Not that there was any dust, which the three soon realized.

“Hey! Look, we’re all shiny!” N gleefully pointed out, gesturing to the way his white metal gleamed, just as the others did. “Guess those cleaners work well! As uh, tickly as they are.”

“Yeah, but not worth that torture.” V just scoffed, beginning to walk away. “Let’s get out of here. We can hunt somewhere else or check if there’s enough donors back at the bunker now.”

“I’m so done with this wasteland of a planet. And we are NEVER speaking of this again.” J grumbled under her breath, but begrudgingly fell in step beside V.

“Well it wasn’t THAT bad.” N quickly followed, but not before a quick glance back over at that shiny car, where the little giggle bug had stationed itself again.

It gave a little wave with its pompom, and he gave it a small smile and wave back.

———

Ok so that was it! Tell me if yall liked it! I hope u enjoyed it Floof :3

finished in school lol