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"I know what you are. I know who you are," the stranger growled in his ear.
He'd been taken by surprise, Hank had asked if he could run an errand, to pick something up from the store. Of course he'd agreed, he tended to do that nowadays, how could he not, when he was letting him stay in his home?
But, he hadn't realized that the autonomous cabs had been shut down due to the snowstorm. A bus didn't go along this route either, And driving by himself wasn't an option without a license, since androids weren't allowed them yet. The laws for their rights were slow to change. Markus said he was working on it, they just didn't know when the law would pass.
So the only option left was to walk. Connor really didn't mind, even if it was freezing. That's what his jacket was for. He loved to take walks, take in all the scenery. Before he deviated, he didn't really care as much about it, he just focused on his mission. Now, he really took it all in. The lights from all the buildings, the different colors the sky would turn, even just the people going about their business. Not to mention the dogs. He liked dogs.
He'd made it to the store and gotten the requested items just fine, but as he passed by an alleyway, that's when he felt a rough, callused hand slap over his mouth, dragging him into the alleyway. In his surprise the bag he was carrying fell, scattering the items he'd bought everywhere. He tried to break free, jabbing an elbow into his captor behind him, flailing his legs, but nothing seemed to work. His feet dragged in the snow as he was pulled deeper into the alley.
He was made for combat, this shouldn't be an issue for him. He actually felt a little scared.
He let out several muffled "Let go's". If he wasn't a deviant, hadn't gotten rid of Amanda, he wondered what she'd think of him right now.
Weak.
He stopped struggling when he caught a glint of metal out of the corner or his eye, and the press of a blade to his throat.
"You're Connor. That piece of plastic who raided the cyberlife tower. Yeah, yeah I remember you."
The guy's words were quick, almost jittery.
[Dialing Hank Anderson…]
[Connection failed. Try again?] [Y/N]
[Y]
[Connection failed.]
"Don't think I don't know what you're doing tin can. I'm not stupid. I see your LED circling yellow. I knew you'd probably call for help, but that's why I brought a disruptor signal. Cost me just $10 to make. It's funny, they make you so advanced, and yet a simple DIY from YouTube is all it takes to fuck up your communication signals." The gruff voice laughed. Connor thinks he could smell alcohol on him.
[ Dialing Detroit Police Department…]
[Connection failed. Try again?] [Y/N]
Connor tried to shake his head, to clear the hand over his mouth, but he gripped tighter. The blade pressed even more uncomfortably against his skin. He thinks there even might have been the smallest trickle of blue blood.
"No, no, uh uh, you're not going anywhere. Not until I'm fucking done." He said. His tone grew angrier.
[Dialing RK200 #684 842 971 "Markus"...]
[Connection failed. Try again?] [Y/N]
"You see, my brother was in that elevator you took in Cyberlife tower. You shot him. Straight through the head. You could have knocked him out. But instead you chose to MURDER him. If you ask me, they should have shut you down ages ago, and thrown you in the dump. I guess I'll just have to do that myself." As the man went to move to slice his throat, Connor took his last chance, bending back the fingers covering his mouth, hearing them snap. The man let him go immediately. He slammed back into one of the alley walls.
"You little FUCK," the man yelled in a rage. Connor spun on his heels, intent to stop what he expected was going to be another attempt for his throat, or even his chest.
His pre-construction program had given him a 95% certainty that's what would happen. It did not account for the ice the man slipped on. Or stumbling into Connor, and then the searing hot pain in his abdomen.
They went down together, his assailant on top of him, slicked hands with blue blood, and himself in a daze. He said nothing as he got off of Connor. Just a huff of laughter, and ran from the alleyway.
As his assailant left, he stared up at the starry sky. Was that the big dipper?
He didn't know how many minutes had gone by before it really registered what had happened. He risked a look down at his abdomen. That's when he saw the knife.
He remembered just a few weeks ago when Hank and him had gone to a park with Sumo. He saw some kids making snow angels, and asked the older man what they were doing. Hank had explained, and Connor decided to try it out. The snow soaked through his clothes, but he'd had fun. He even caught Hank taking a picture.
And now? The snow melted and saturated his clothes like before, just mixed with blue blood. His blood.
Alerts in his vision Informed him of the damage, and the status of his temperature dropping. He had to get home. He knew it wasn't too far, maybe just a couple of blocks.
[Dialing Hank Anderson…]
[Connection failed. Try again?] [Y/N]
He pressed as hard as he could with one hand, without disrupting the knife, while using the other to slowly climb to his feet. He swallowed back the nausea as the world threatened to tilt around him, his gyroscope refusing to work properly.
Just one step in front of the other, that's all he had to focus on right now. One step. He nearly slid on the ice under the snow.
He took another.
And another.
Time swirled by in a dizzying fashion of stops and starts, almost as if it was fast forwarding, and pausing. It reminded him of Hank's old VHS player.
Hank . He wished his call would go through.
Everything was blurring together. It was bright, but dark. Wind and snow whipped into his face.
"Amanda, whats- what's happening?"
"What was planned from the very beginning…"
No. No, he wasn't in the garden. But…
Where was he?
He looked at one of the street corners, swearing he saw Amanda…
But then he saw the street sign, and the neighbors flamingo on their lawn. They always had one out Hank told him, even in winter.
He'd made it to the door before he could process it. He only noticed he was home when he could hear Sumo barking inside. He couldn't grip the doorknob, his hand was too slick with blue blood. "H-hank…" He tried to say, but all that came out was a mumble laced with static.
Perhaps it was the jiggling of the knob as he tried to turn it, or maybe it was Sumo's constant barking that made Hank open the door. When he did, Connor fell forwards, knees buckling.
"What the fuck? Connor?" Hank said, catching him. He moved him inside.
It was like he blinked, and the next thing he knew he was on the couch, staring up again. But there was no starry sky this time, just the dull ceiling of the friend who took him in.
"Shit, fuck- uh, Connor? Hey! Tell me what happened-" Hank sounded panicked.
"A-ah-" He gasped, "A-Alley...way. St-stabbed."
"Well I can see you were stabbed! There's a damn knife sticking out of your stoma- No no don't you dare close your eyes. Stay awake!"
He was almost certain his eyes were open, until he actually opened them, and a blurry version of Hank greeted him.
"Don't take it out. Jeri...cho" He mumbled, hoping Hank had heard him. He couldn't take the knife out himself, nor could Hank. He needed real help from the only Androids offering any kind of medical or technical assistance to others right now.
Connor knew that as soon as the knife was out, he'd bleed profusely. It had ripped through one of his major thirium lines. The knife was the only thing keeping him alive right now. They needed soldering tools and clamps. Things that Hank didn't have.
"-just, get someone over here! I don't care how, drive if you have to, I'll deal with it-"
He must have missed most of that conversation. Didn't even know Hank had dialed them. When did he get the number for Jericho?
Another blink and Hank was pressing down on his stomach, pure agony ripping a scream from his throat.
"Shit, I know, I know, I'm sorry son, just hold on okay?"
"Ha...Hank...hurts," saline fluid was streaming from...his eyes? Was he crying?
"Shh, I know. It's alright, help is-helps coming. Stay with me."
The alerts were warning him of an imminent forced stasis, "M'gonna just...shu'my eyes…"
"NO. Don't you dare Connor, stay AWAKE. Stay with me son. Keep those eyes open. C'mon."
"Sta...sta…" Stasis.
"I know, I know, I'm right here."
Oh, had he thought he was asking him to stay?
"Have I ever told you about when I got Sumo?"
Half lidded brown eyes met blue ones. Connor was struggling, he couldn't resist stasis much longer.
"Cole was just a toddler at the time. We had this red ice ring we were busting, that was the day Gavin got his scar, by the way. But don't tell him I told you. Anyways, we're in this decrepit house, we arrest all the guys and we're doing a sweep for any more of them, and I go upstairs into one of the bedrooms. In the corner, sleeping away the world, was a basket of Saint Bernard puppi-"
His eyes shut on his own accord, and he faded into darkness.
Where the fuck was Markus and Simon? Hank thought to himself. Connor had passed out several few minutes ago, LED blaring bright red. There wasn't much he could do besides hold pressure around the knife. Markus had said the compression of his thirium lines would help slow the bleeding, but not stop it completely. The towel he'd grabbed was almost completely saturated with it.
The older man could hear the screech of tires. The lights of the car shined through the blinds in his front window. He'd ran after the phone call earlier to make sure the door was unlocked for them.
Just a few moments later, and without any knocking, the door flung open.
What a sight it must have been for them. He was in boxers and an old shirt, hair hanging down into his face. Connor was pale and shivering on the couch, his blood all over Hank's hands, and nearly up to his wrists.
He only said two words. "Help him."
The two androids got to work immediately, Markus taking over applying pressure for Hank, and Simon opening some kind of large satchel he'd brought. It must have been some kind of paramedic bag, but for androids.
Once he'd stopped holding pressure, he didn't know what to do. He felt helpless.
Connor made a keening noise as they opened one side of his abdominal panels.
Wordlessly, perhaps through the weird talking they did in their heads, Markus handed Simon one of the clamps. If he didn't know any better, he'd thought it was a clothespin.
Then he moved through the open panel, his hand going inside of Connor with the clamp. His hand was inside of his so- friend. He wanted to be sick. Instead he moved to the end of the couch, by Connors head.
Perhaps he was just trying to ground himself, or maybe it was just to offer some form of comfort to the android, Hank didn't know and at this point what did it matter, he gently rested his hand on the kids forehead. Connors head shifted into it.
"Lieutenant? Could you grab some towels?" Markus asked, completely focused on helping fix Connor.
"Oh shit, yeah." Hank rushed to the bathroom, nearly tripping over his damn dog in the process. Sumo simply boofed at him. He scooped up as many as he could and dropped them onto the coffee table.
It looked like Simon was about to go back in with more clamps, when Connor woke up with a moan.
Hank moved back to his previous position, laying his hand onto the kids head.
The android's eyes were looking around rapidly, and his breathing picked up.
"Easy, easy, it's okay. Simon and Markus are helping, but you've gotta calm down okay?" Hank reassured.
Connor shook his head. He actually attempted to push himself up, but Hank had to push him back into the couch cushions. "Stay down son. Easy." Hank soothed.
Markus cursed. Hank glanced over to the deviant leader. Connor's blood was now leaking even faster. He'd shifted the knife when he moved.
"Markus, you've got to try to initiate a stasis on him. He's leaking thirium too quickly, and I can't fix him if he's moving around like this!" Simon said.
Immediately Markus pressed two fingers to Connors red LED. It was like his strings had been cut. The ailing android went completely limp.
Markus handed Simon a few more clamps. The blonde had his arm, almost up to his elbow, inside of Connors abdomen. In just a few moments he had the rest of the lines clamped off.
"Okay, we can take the knife out now. Lieutenant, are you gonna want to keep this for evidence?" Markus asked him.
"Yeah uh, let me just-" He wrapped a towel around it.
After he'd done so, Simon carefully pulled out the offending object. Connor gasped, even in unconsciousness.
The abdominal panel where he'd been stabbed had a horrendous looking hole, rough and jagged. Part of it was pushed inwards from the force of the knife.
Both androids ignored that part for now, focusing on the completely severed thirium line. It was sparking ever so slightly, though no longer leaking the blue blood. Markus held both ends of the lines together, while Simon soldered them together.
Hank continued to run his fingers through Connors' hair. Even In stasis it seemed like the kid was in pain. His brows furrowed, he grit his teeth with a hiss as Simon and Markus worked.
Once they'd finished with the soldering iron, they wrapped what Hank thought was electrical tape around the damaged site.
"Are you gonna have to remove that later?" Hank asked.
"Huh? Oh! No, no, this is special repair tape, it'll fuse with the line. It's permanent." Simon responded.
Hank looked dumbfounded. He had no idea that even existed. He didn't know much about android repairs either. He thought himself lucky he had the number to Jericho in his phone. What if they hadn't been able to get to them? Connor would have died...or shutdown, whatever the android equivalent was. Maybe he could take android first aid classes...or learn how to do some basic repairs. He owed the kid that much at least.
"We're almost done. We just have to mend the hole in his panel. He's out of danger now." Simon explained.
Then he took out a heat gun, aiming it over the hole in the damaged panel. Slowly, as it heated up, he pushed the buckled metal back into place. There was a small outline of where the knife had pierced through.
Now that they'd finished, they closed up his paneling. The skin projection reformed everywhere except for around the newly repaired panel.
After, Markus pulled out something Hank hadn't expected to see from the bag. Gauze and bandages. Markus saw the look on his face before he could even ask. "Android bandages. Takes the strain off a little, helps the system to focus on the more important areas."
"As long as it works." Hank mumbled.
They placed one of the bandages over the newly repaired site, and wrapped the gauze around the android's waist to hold it in place.
"That should do it. All we have to do now is wait for him to wake up." Markus said.
Hank didn't know how to thank him. Instead he grabbed hold of the deviant leader's hand, and nodded. Markus seemed to understand.
"No need, Lieutenant." He smiled.
"Please, call me Hank."
"-here he his, he's coming back 'round."
Who? What was-
It slowly began to come back to him. His senses were slow to boot, but his memory came back at once. Being dragged into the alleyway. The stabbing. Hank-
He sat up too quickly, moaning at the flare of pain in his stomach.
"Woah easy. You've only just been repaired. Your self healing program still has a lot to do." Simon told him. He pushed him back into a reclined position.
The soft pillows and comforter weren't his, he noticed. He didn't realize it at first, but they'd moved him to the only bed in the house. Hanks.
He looked over to the doorway where Simon and Hank were whispering something, he couldn't quite make it out.
They moved out of his eyesight. Then he barely heard a "thank you" from Hank before the front door clicked shut. A few seconds later he reappeared in the doorway.
They stared at each other for a moment, "you uh, you gave us a good scare, Connor."
"How long was I out?"
Hank looked down at his watch "Like 3-ish hours? The repairs Simon did took a little bit, but you’ve been asleep the rest of the time.”
"I'm sorry, Hank."
"The hell are you sorry for?" Hank's eyebrows shot up.
"For undoubtedly stressing you out. And I couldn't...I couldn't stop him."
Hank moved to sit on the edge of the bed, "Son. Listen to me carefully. It's not your fault you got assaulted with a knife . You didn't do anything wrong."
"I was built for combat Hank. I should have been able to stop him. This never should have happened."
"You're right. It shouldn't have. But not because you couldn't stop him, but because he shouldn't have attacked you. "
Connor whispered, "Amanda was right. I'm weak."
Hank nearly shouted, "You're not weak. You're the strongest damn person I know. Hell of a badass too. I don't know anyone else who's been able to jump onto the top of a moving train."
Connor managed a small smile. But then it fell. "I was so scared. I thought I was actually going to die."
Hank pulled him forward into a hug, as gently as he could. He said nothing, just held him as the android gripped the back of his shirt.
Finally, after several minutes, Hank pulled away and said, "I wouldn't have let that happen. You're my son, Connor." It was shaky as he said it, averting his eyes.
This time Connor hugged him, with a smile. Hank heard him mumble into his shirt.
"Thank you."
If his shirt got wet from his tears, he didn't care. Connor was alive, and that's all that mattered to him.