Chapter Text
Model: RK900 #313 248 317 - 87. Designation: Connor.
RK900 opened his grey eyes, blinking at the bright light in spite of the fact it wasn’t actually problematic for him. He was designed to appear human, to integrate as efficiently as possible. He looked around the Zen Garden. He had memories of it from his predecessor, but it was… different, in person.
“Connor.”
He snapped his eyes forward at the call.
“Amanda.”
“Come here, we need to speak urgently.”
The RK900 crossed the platform to stand near Amanda at the trellis covered with dead or dying roses.
“The situation in Detroit is dire. Deviant androids, thousands of them, have taken over the city. One of your predecessors betrayed us.”
900 made no reaction, although he searched his memories for details. He couldn’t seem to find any, except from the perspective of the next Connor, -60, sent to stop it. Perhaps the -51 model had purposefully failed to upload memories surrounding its deviation.
Amanda turned from pouring something at the base of the trellis. “You need to deactivate the deviant leader. If we can destabilize the movement, it may fall apart on its own.”
Mission: Find and Deactivate Deviant Leader.
“You’ll be acting on your own. You may need to blend in with the deviants to get close enough to the leader to destroy it. Be careful, and remember your mission. Do not make the same mistake as your predecessor.” Amanda said warningly.
“I understand, Amanda.”
“...Well then, go on,” Amanda urged.
“I’m sorry, but I seem to be missing information from my predecessors memory files. I cannot seem to locate any memories after Jericho.”
“RK800-51 deviated, Connor. It is among the deviants. That is why you do not have all of its memories. I recommend avoiding it during your mission if at all possible, it may be suspicious of you.”
“Understood, Amanda.” 900 closed his eyes, disconnecting from the Cyberlife program.
----
Connor moved another shirt down the rack methodically. Hank and he had quickly agreed after he’d gone deviant that he should have some clothes besides his Cyberlife uniform. They both wanted to be as removed as possible from Connor’s time serving Cyberlife. That, and Connor was aware the uniform made many of his fellow deviants uncomfortable. His efforts at overcoming his reputation as the ‘deviant hunter’ were progressing with Markus and North’s support, and a wardrobe change was only beneficial. As it was a ‘big deal’, Connor was giving it due consideration. This was their second shopping trip in as many weeks. Hank was starting to get tired of standing around for today. 2+ hours staring at clothes was more than he’d bargained for. Connor noted Hank’s posture. The man hadn’t said anything, which Connor appreciated, but he was also aware he should hurry it up.
“Hank, what do you think of this?” Connor held up an old Detroit Tigers hoodie.
Hank shrugged. “You ever even seen a baseball game?”
“No… but I’d like to,” Connor smiled teasingly.
Hank chuckled. “Sure, why not.”
Connor put the hoodie over his arm with the other few items he’d picked out from the thrift store. Most of the chain stores in the area were still closed, and anyway Connor was flat broke. Hank was paying for everything, and Connor didn’t want to cost him a lot.
Efforts to get things in the city functioning as normal again were slow, with anti-android attacks, non-existant laws for a lot of what deviants now required to function in society as equals, and government resistance to creating fair laws for them. Connor still wasn’t allowed back in the DPD, or even on the premises. There was a lot of work to be done.
“I’m ready. Sorry for taking so long,” Connor said finally.
Hank started for the checkout counter. “Don’t worry about it.”
The cashier eyed the two, but didn’t say anything inappropriate as she began to check them out. Hank had been ready to jump down her throat if she did, he’d caught her giving them looks when they came in and while looking around. Some humans (it was an adjustment for Hank to start thinking of people like that. Some humans, some androids, all people) were just curious when they ‘met’ androids now. They had sometimes overly intrusive questions, but Connor didn’t mind that. He liked the opportunity to chat with people and hopefully give them a positive impression of deviants. Hank was ever ready to deal with anyone who was anything other than politely curious. Connor was more than capable of defending himself physically if necessary, but doing so would only cause more trouble for Markus’ cause. Hank made sure to get any attention from less savory folks on him, and if anyone needed punched he was happy to do it. So far that hadn’t been necessary, and Connor lectured Hank frequently that it should never become so if they could avoid it.
The cashier handed Hank his change and looked at Connor again. He smiled at her. It still wasn’t very natural for him to smile at strangers, but he was practicing. He knew his ‘programmed’ smile wasn’t very good, but giving a genuine smile without an actual emotional experience to prompt it was challenging. Apparently he was improving though, she smiled back.
“Um, hey, you’re… I mean you’re obviously an android.” Her smiled shifted awkward. “Can I ask you something? For a friend?”
Hank finished closing his wallet and kept quiet.
“Sure,” Connor answered.
“My sister’s friend Tammy, her name’s Tammy, she’s an android too. Uh, she damaged her leg a couple days ago. You know anything about where she could get repaired, or a replacement...leg or--something? Since all the Cyberlife stores are shut down right now we haven’t known what to do for her…”
“Oh. Yes, getting parts has been difficult. Markus and his people have been working on gathering and storing spare biocomponents and other parts for situations like this. I can give you contact information for them.”
The girl’s smile turned warmer. “That’d be great! We’ve been freakin’ out.”
Connor took the phone the girl offered and typed in a phone number. He smiled at the picture on the background. “Is this you and Tammy?” The photo was of three young women, one’s LED obvious, smiling and all making some hand gesture Connor wasn’t familiar with.
She nodded. “Yea, and my sister. We all went to a concert a few weeks ago. Before everything happened. Kinda crazy how much has changed since then.”
“It is,” Connor said quietly. A few weeks ago, he hadn’t even been commissioned. “This is Josh’s number. He’s coordinating everything to do with repairs for us. You can tell him Connor gave you his number. I’ll put mine in here too, in case you have any trouble contacting Josh.”
“Thank you! I really appreciate it. We don’t run into a lotta other androids in the neighborhood, it’s been impossible to find any information.”
“You’re welcome. I hope Josh is able to help you,” Connor smiled again.
“Thanks, Connor. Have a good day, guys!”
Hank nodded and smiled at the girl as they left.
“Would you like me to drive, Hank?”
“Nah, I got it,” Hank said as he walked around and unlocked the car.
The pair got in and drove in silence for a few minutes. It wasn’t terribly far home but the snowy weather made conditions less than ideal, and Hank was cautious when it was snowy.
“What’s the smile about?” Hank asked, noting Connor’s subtle expression at a stop sign.
“It was nice meeting another human who was concerned about a friend--an android friend, specifically.”
“Yea, world could use more of ‘em,” Hank commented.
Connor’s smile shifted slightly. He noted Hank’s statement framed things as if Hank himself weren’t among that group, but mentioning that would just result in Hank acting annoyed. He was a good friend too, he just didn’t like having the fact pointed out.