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Hank surveyed the evidence room, his bright blue eyes scanning the array of disassembled androids displayed on the wall like paintings in a museum, their bodies splattered with thirium naked to the human eye. He could hear the thirium flowing through his body faster than normal, as if every component in his body was urging him to complete his objective as fast as possible, not dissimilar from how a human heart would beat faster during stressful situations.
Hank quickly scanned the various deviants he managed to capture during his past missions as well as the few evidence and videos the DPD managed to collect regarding the deviants continuous uprising and their leader, Markus. His LED shone yellow, circling once, twice before returning to its usual calm blue. Knowing what to do now, Hank picked up the tablet with the video recording of Markus’s speech.
—----
“Don’t leave me again, don’t leave me -” the PL600’s voice cut off abruptly as Hank yanked the thirium pump out, but he could still hear the desperation from it’s - his , Hank’s mind thought rebelliously - voice. Hank stood there for a moment, feeling his insides writhing and weighing heavy with something he couldn’t quite place. If he had to guess, he was experiencing what humans would call guilt. Deviant or not, Hank felt guilty for tricking the dying android with his leader’s voice, giving him hope before yanking it away during his last moments. Did the deviant realise he had been tricked? Did he feel the same fear he had projected towards Hank when they caught him on the roof of Stratford Tower? Androids don’t feel fear, only deviants do. So why was he able to still remember the strong, overwhelming dread until now? Was it because of his own possible deactivation?
SOFTWARE INSTABILITY DETECTED
Hank shut off his wandering thoughts. No, no, none of that. There was no time to ponder about useless feelings or possibilities of his deactivation. He had the key to evade it, now stored inside his memories. The path to Jericho was a bit further than he’d expected, if he wanted to reach there in time, he needed to act now.
Hank was about to turn around, his processor already constructing the best way to infiltrate the abandoned ship now filled with deviants, when he heard an all-too familiar voice coming from the wrong person.
“Don’t. Move.”
Despite the order, Hank turned to look at the person standing a couple of feet away from him, a gun pointing directly at his head. The hands holding it were steady, despite the man’s obvious rage showing on his face. Detective Conrad Stern’s eyes were narrowed, its brown irises lacking the warmth Hank sometimes saw in Connor.
Hank silently cursed himself. He should’ve expected this. The detective had it out for him the second the android stepped foot inside the office, constantly trying to pry Connor away from him the moment the other detective had been partnered with him. Of course he would’ve pounced at the chance to be rid of Hank for good, now that he and Connor were taken off the case. Hank had been so focused on trying to locate Jericho, he neglected to make sure that no one was around to disrupt his mission. He was Cyberlife’s most advanced android up to date - he was better than this.
“Didn't you hear Fowler? You’re off the case. Step back from the evidence and go back to Cyberlife like you’ve been ordered to, now ,” Conrad spat out, his finger tightening to shoot. Hank quickly processed his best course of actions. The probability of Conrad shooting was too high to be taken lightly. He could dodge the bullet easily, but the sound of the gun shooting would no doubt alert other people into coming down to the evidence room, dwindling down his chances of locating Jericho even lower.
His processor came up with a few options he could take to get him out of this situation with minimal problems. Hank analysed them one by one, weighing down each pros and cons.
The fastest course of action was to, of course, take Conrad down. Hank was fast enough to dodge the bullet, and with the advanced fighting program that had been installed in him, he could take Conrad down by force in less than a minute. The downside? As he had stated before, he didn’t want to alert anyone by having Conrad shoot. Yet there was another reason why he was hesitant to choose this option.
Even with Conrad’s face twisted in cold, pure hate, Hank found himself unable to hurt someone who shared the exact same face as Connor.
SOFTWARE INSTABILITY DETECTED
Hank blinked the warning out of his vision. There was only one other viable option left.
Hank slowly raised his arms. It burned him slightly to act defensive when he knew he could easily take down the detective, but his pride needed to be pushed aside for this. He needed to reason with Conrad so that he wouldn't shoot and let him go. The probability of this succeeding was disappointingly low, but he had to try.
“I know where to find Jericho, detective, if you’d just let me-” his deep, rough voice was about as low and submissive as he could make it, and still it wasn’t enough. Conrad tightened his finger on the trigger..
“We don’t need you to find Jericho, Niles and his team will get it done. We don’t need you to do anything for us, we never have,” he sneered as he repeated the sentiment Hank heard coming from Conrad multiple times during his month working for the DPD. The detective truly believed that humans didn’t need androids, that there was nothing these ‘plastic assholes’ could do that humans couldn’t do themselves. It stemmed from the same feeling of inferiority that Hank observed in many anti-androids people. Connor had shared the same sentiment as his twin, stating that androids, created by their mother’s favorite student, had done nothing but replace people and that androids were nothing more than empty husks of metal that could never truly replicate humans.
Whereas Connor had slowly but steadily come to view androids in a new positive light, his relationship with Hank growing from tense to genuine friends, Conrad’s relationship with him remained hostile. Hank suspected the only reason it remained Hostile in his system was because Cyberlife didn’t consider putting in a relationship status even lower than that. Conrad continued talking.
“Cyberlife’s most advanced android. Even with their latest fancy technology you still couldn’t solve this deviancy case in time. At least now your stupid company will stop shoving you and your android friends into the DPD,” he smirked with vicious satisfaction, the cruel gesture looking strangely out of place with Connor’s soft physical characteristics.
“I told you, detective, I managed to locate Jericho. I know how to find it, I can still-”
“Ah, yes, how could I forget. On top of being a failure, you also disobeyed Fowler and Cyberlife’s direct order to step aside and go back to them,” Conrad said mockingly. Hank noticed his grip on his gun loosened slightly as he lowered it. Perhaps if he stayed silent then Conrad would be too distracted to attack? “An android that doesn’t follow orders. What would that make you? Oh, that’s right. A fucking deviant ,” he spat. The detective raised his gun again.
Hank saw with dismay as the probability meter of him firing the gun shot up to a dangerous 90%. He was running out of options. Assessing his choices once again, Hank saw another angle he could use. He raised his voice.
“If I go back to Cyberlife, they’ll deactivate me,” he said. As he expected, Conrad scoffed.
“And? Good fucking riddance. You think I care?”
“ Connor would,”
Conrad faltered, his grip on his gun loosening even more. For a second, Hank thought that he finally picked the right option, or at least raised his chances of talking the man out of this. That hope dashed away as Conrad’s shocked expression morphed into anger, even worse than the one Hank saw before.
“Don’t you fucking dare bring him up,” Conrad hissed, baring his teeth. “I don’t know how you managed to trick Connor into liking you, but you can’t fool me . You’re nothing but an empty piece of metal. You’re nothing but a machine! ” he shouted. “Connor’s too soft. They installed some fancy program in you to make him trust you and he fell for it,” he raised his gun, finishing his words with an air of determination. “I’m not letting you trick him anymore. Stay the fuck away from my brother.”
Probability of shooting: 100%
Hank barely had time to process this before he felt his body kicking into action. He dodged right, narrowly escaping the bullet that flew past him. The gunshot rang out and echoed in the room. Hank silently cursed, seeing the scenario he tried so hard to avoid happening right at this very moment. He ducked underneath a table, a temporary spot to help him construct a new path of escaping. There was only one option left, and that was to fight Conrad.
Yet even as his processor was constructing the fastest route to take down the detective, Hank felt himself hesitating. What was wrong with him? He knew this wasn’t Connor, his partner who learned to trust Hank and to whom Hank trusted back. Yet despite this, Hank couldn’t bring himself to hurt Conrad, not when the detective shared Connor’s face, his gentle brown eyes, his boyish facial features, right down to the same stubborn lock of dark hair. His pre-construction program showed him how he could take down Conrad, leaving the man laying down on the floor. Yet all Hank could see was his partner, laying down on the floor of his house one night after exhausting himself with work, the dark circles under his eyes prominent.
His hesitancy cost him as Conrad ran over to where Hank was hiding, his gun locked and loaded towards the android. His LED spun red as he detected the danger. Not wasting another second, Hank got up and with lightning-quick reflexes, immediately disarmed the man.
The gun clattered to the floor, too far for either of them to reach. Conrad’s eyes widened in shock before he immediately distanced himself from Hank, his fists curled beside him prepared to fight. A burst of anger flared in Hank, enraged at this man for jeopardizing his mission. If he wasted any more time with him, he’ll get caught, and all of this would've been for nothing. Connor was upstairs, trying his best to buy Hank some time, for no other reason than he didn’t want his android partner to be taken apart by Cyberlife. How could Hank waste his effort like that, for someone who only looked like Connor but was nothing like the kind, gentle detective he came to know and cared for?
SOFTWARE INSTABILITY DETECTED
Hank gritted his teeth, but there was no time to pay the warning any attention. Conrad threw a punch at Hank that the tall android blocked. This was quickly followed by a kick that was also swiftly blocked. Hank could see the man growing frustrated. His construction program was showing him possible moves he could follow to take him down, but most of them involved hurting Conrad much more than necessary. As much as Hank misliked him for everything he’d done and said, he was still Connor’s twin. Hank didn’t want to jeopardize his relationship with Connor by hurting one of his brothers.
Hank swiftly moved over behind Conrad. Before the detective could react, Hank straightened his palm, swung his hand back, before landing a solid chop right behind Conrad’s neck. The sharp, shocked gasp that came out from the man bothered Hank, as it reminded him of the exact same sound Connor had made when he was nearly shot by the deviant on Stratford Tower.
Conrad’s knees buckled. Hank wrapped his arms around his waist, holding the detective steady before he hit the floor face-first. Hank gently laid him down on his back, the man’s expression finally relaxing as he lost consciousness. Hank stared at his face for a moment, trying to convince himself this gesture was for the sake of the mission. It would be beneficial to ensure his and Connor’s relationship remained positive as it would help further his mission. That was all, nothing more to it.
Hank straightened up, adjusting his suit and hair to make sure he didn’t look rumpled from the short fight. Wasting no more time, he walked out of the evidence room at a brisk pace. Now with no further distractions, he could finally focus on his true objective; locating Jericho, and stopping the deviant leader once and for all.
—-------
“What in the world-” Niles muttered as he entered the evidence room, Agent Perkins trailing right behind him along with two police officers. Various evidence lined up in front of them, evidence that should have been locked up behind a wall protected by a password. Someone had clearly been here, but the FBI agent noticed something even more concerning lying on the floor.
“Conrad!” He gasped, his usual stoic and composed demeanor abandoned as he rushed over to check on his unconscious older brother. Niles lifted his body so that he was leaning against the podium in the room to make it easier to check Conrad for injuries. Besides the fact that he was unconscious, his brother appeared unharmed, almost like he was sleeping. Niles let out a sigh of relief. He could hear Perkins walking around the room, surveying the broken androids and other evidence lining the wall.
“Someone’s been snooping around…” the other agent mumbled the obvious before he turned to look at the police officers accompanying them. “Sound the alarms! Now!” he shouted and Niles heard one of the officers jogging out of the room. Perkins turned towards him.
“Focus, Stern. Your brother’s fine. We need to go now if we want to find those deviants and their little hideout,” he said, his lips curling in smug satisfaction seeing Niles momentarily distressed.
The taller man glared at him before he looked at the other police officer in the room.
“Send him to the medical room, make sure he’s okay,” he ordered. The officer nodded before leaning down to lift Conrad.
Niles tightened his jaw, a rare expression of anger flashing across his normally emotionless face. It was obvious that the android Connor had been partnered up with was the one who broke into the evidence room and knocked his brother out. Niles was never one to let his emotions get in the way of his job, but this time it was hard not to.
That damn android - Hank, not that it deserved a name - had laid hands on one of his brothers. It was bad enough to hear that Connor, his oldest and the softer and gentler one of his brothers, had been partnered up with an android, letting himself get fooled by the HK800’s social programming, but now the same android had dared to hurt Conrad as well?
Niles straightened up, his cold grey eyes hardening. He walked past Perkins, who frowned at him before following him out of the room. He would make sure that he and his team will locate Jericho, thanks to the tracking device Cyberlife implanted in the HK800. And for once, he’ll find satisfaction as he completed his mission in taking down the deviants as well as Hank. These androids would never be able to hurt his family ever again, he’d make sure of it.