Here they were.
The androids.
With the few humans still left in Detroit by their side.
Idly waiting on the other side of the only bridge going into Belle Isle.
Staring down the building they thought they could take,
For as long as Connor remembered, androids were the smartest in the room.
Look what deviancy does to them!
But they were lucky. They were set up for a victory.
Connor had been jumping around the entire CyberLife building the whole morning and he learned many interesting things.
One of them was a mysteriously unknown exit from Belle Isle back to Detroit.
Agent 32's name. Something he had never heard before.
And the fact that CyberLife had a man in Jericho's ranks.
Connor was surprised at that one as well.
They called it Idol, completely throwing out its name and model.
Which led Connor to believe it was a deviant.
While he had many ideas of who it could be, the most important thing was that CyberLife was informed of the attack.
And today, at this hour, the building was evacuated.
Connor had no idea how to jump from the cameras to another device, like a phone or a tablet, so he couldn't follow the trucks and Corvax in them.
He stayed behind.
Connor was observing what seemed to be an imprisonment of his lifeless body. An elaborate contraption that cuffed his wrists and ankles, built in the middle of the building, right underneath the massive glass statue, in perfect view of the android assault.
Amanda approached it.
'If you won't cooperate, we'll simply force others to die for you.' She spat.
Huh. Connor hadn't thought what the engineers assigned to figure out what happened to Connor might think. As far the Deviant Hunter himself understood, his body was just a useless piece of metal at the moment, everything that made androids who they are was a disembodied consciousness hiding in a camera,
It didn't feel nice. Being out of his body.
Would be great if he could feel his arms again.
Connor blinked.
He wasn't looking at the contraption anymore.
He turned.
Oh no.
He was inside the contraption.
They've been shooting in short spurts at the gate on the bridge for a while now. Nothing happened, no one appeared.
'It's abandoned.' North said.
'It's a trap.' Markus repeated.
'We won't know until we get there.' Hank interjected.
Kara sighed and pushed through the androids awaiting orders. She walked onto the bridge, everyone shouting behind her, kept her quick pace to the gate, where she swiftly climbed on top of it and raised her gun. She stood there crouched for a moment, the infinite silence surrounding her.
She turned around.
'So we assaulting this place or not?'
She was met with quiet shuffling and light mumbling.
Last round through the building. Then he could get into the comfortable truck and sleep while he's being taken away to a brand new CyberLife building.
Or.
Ooor, he could do something far more interesting.
And make sure the deviants never bother them again.
What an interesting thought.
How could he possibly go through with it though?
Agent 32 smiled.
An idea.
Nothing stood in the way of the deviants. They marched with Kara in front to the front doors. Not a shot was fired, not a weapon drawn. The eerie silence hit hard. They didn't expect to be met this way. Some of them thought they'd all be dead by now.
And then Kara saw him.
'Connor...' She whispered. Her pace quickened and immediately a hand stopped her.
It was Hank.
He didn't say a word, just pointed to somewhere beside Connor. And only when she forced her eyes away from the deviant hunter she noticed a big white glob of movement behind him.
Hundreds of thousands of white-clad androids, the soulless, dead machines all marching towards the deviant "army".
'Dammit.'
Kara pointed her gun at the approaching androids.
'What are you doing?!'
Markus pushed her weapon down.
'They are our people!'
Kara put her head down.
'Of course. Sorry.'
Markus shook his head and walked towards the androids. Their march never faltered, they didn't even speak.
They didn't hesitate.
'Markus!' North shouted and just as the first android raised their gun, Kara pulled Markus back.
The glass entrance shattered as the deviants huddled behind the strong walls of the building, narrowly avoiding the hell of bullets unleashed unto them.
The collective sound of a thousand and one rifles all firing at once could be heard on the other side of the building. Agent 32 tested it. It was true.
Also, he found something peculiar.
That peculiarity was beeping in bright red, on top of a pile of a whole lotta wiring.
He raised an eyebrow.
These were the bomb supplies that the androids stole.
How… interesting.
'Markus?'
He opened his eyes and looked at Kara.
'They're on their way. We just gotta keep these assholes here.'
'That can be arranged.' North said loudly from the opposite side of the entrance. She nodded towards a discarded pile of boxes on her side.
'That's perfect.'
The deviants rushed to the boxes and started rummaging through them, emptying the ones with flat metal and functional arms, bundling up the boxes by four, connecting them, and sticking a large metal plate in the middle, formed by scraps and spare hands holding it all together
A minute later three of these makeshift walls were standing proud and strong, with several more rising rapidly. They put the three together and it made a near-perfect 5-minute barricade.
Deviants stood behind the walls, one for each piece, and pushed the metal in front of the android fire. It held up, even when the bullet-hell seemed to intensify.
Once the whole entrance was covered, Markus ran to the middle where North was peeking through corners to make sure it was all secure.
'This is one hell of a distraction.'
'Hopefully, everything goes according to plan.'
Markus closed his eyes, searching the area for the infiltrators.
'I can't find them.'
'What?'
'I can't… see them.'
Agent 32 was standing over three androids he killed, the pistol still smoking. These incredibly bold deviants thought that they could just walk into the building, into an important office and use this amateur equipment to… What? Hack CyberLife?
Not a chance in hell.
'They're probably dead.' Markus uttered grimly.
North swore under her breath.
'That was our only equipment.'
'You still refuse to try and use our android abilities to hack it?'
'We're deviants. The system will be rigged to identify and refuse us.'
'That's only a theory.' North mumbled.
Markus looked at her sideways.
'So what's the plan now?' Kara asked.
'We blow the building up and move on.'
'What? No, you can't do that!'
'Says who?'
'I do! We can't leave Connor behind!'
'The Deviant Hunter made its decision. It is not a deviant, therefore, not one of us.'
'Every-'
'Kara, drop it.'
She didn't want to. But Markus' stern look and Hank looking away from her forced her to.
'Fine.'
She slumped against the barricade.
'Let's destroy this cancer.'
'It's only one cancer cell.' North said in a dark tone.
An android ran up to Markus and handed him a tiny device. He took it and without even a moment's hesitation, clicked the button.
He heard that.
How could someone 10 miles away not hear it?
There was a low rumbling as if the earth itself groaned with the strain the explosion caused.
Then the ground shook, going from the very bottom of CyberLife's deepest basements through the building, knocking out every window and mirror, every glass wall, the force that it all shook with could drop ceilings and it probably will in a couple of seconds.
Agent 32 wasn't going to wait that long.
He ran towards the nearest glass shatter he heard and dove through the window as the walls collapsed around him, giving him an extra push to plummet to the ground.
Kara sat with closed eyes.
She heard every little thing, the shouts, the walls caving in, the chaos that this explosion caused. Not many knew of it, for some reason. Not many thought that this was the plan – to get rid of this eyesore of a building and get out of the city. So many misconceptions about the deviants' abilities.
But she didn't hear Connor.
He was silent in his elaborate grave, almost as if he has given up.
And for good reason.
No one was going to help him.
No one was going to rush into the falling building and try to save him from his self-made demise.
Who would risk their lives for the dreadful, murderous, traitor Deviant Hunter?
Apparently, someone who hated him.
'Kara!'
Connor heard Hank scream.
Why was it so surprising?
Of course, Hank would fight with the deviants.
His friends fought, why would he sit on the backlines?
But Kara?
He looked up and saw her, pushing past the androids, rolling or otherwise dodging the stray bullets that some very loyal machines fired, making her way towards Connor.
What was she doing?
What was she trying to prove?
She was safe out there.
She could have lived.
She has no reason to run to him.
Goddamit.
Her determination is quite admirable.
As the building kept dropping big chunks of the ceiling onto the unturnable androids, Kara managed to stay out of the way of every single one of those rocks, never stopping her rapid approach to Connor.
She made it past the crowded bridge, somehow still not hit. But the very first step she took off the bridge was lethal.
She stepped on an invisible pressure pad that released the chains of the massive decoration piece in the middle of the building.
What was that decoration hanging over?
Of course, it hung right above Connor.
Why would the massive thing crush anything else but this dreadful Deviant Hunter?
'Connor!'
There's no way he survived that.
There's no way she will believe he died until she sees his body.
And so Kara rushed to the contraption he was stuck in, not caring about the large rocks falling right on top of her head. She couldn't feel half her face, but she finally saw Connor.
Immediately she attempted to raise the decoration or at least push it off so she could drag his body out, but that proved to be fruitless.
Kara's shoulder jolted as a bullet lodged itself into her skin. She turned around and kicked the android down, taking his gun and aiming it right at the decoration. With the few bullets still left in the weapon, she managed to break a few joints that allowed her to just barely push the rubble aside enough to grab Connor's hand.
'You're gonna have to help me here, buddy.' She whispered.
'You're insane.'
'And you're under a piece of foam garbage, get yourself out of there.'
He looked at her dazed but managed to move a bit.
'Come on, a bit closer.'
When he tried to pull his leg out, it didn't budge. The chains hadn't broken.
'That gun still have anything in it?'
She handed him the weapon and Connor, with trembling hands, shot his leg. He swore under his breath and hit the chain. It broke, and Kara pulled him out of the rubble with great difficulty.
Not an android was around, only the collapsing building refusing to cave in on itself that allowed the two remaining androids to waddle their way towards the entrance. They nigh crawled onto the bridge that was riddled with non-functional android bodies and random rubble, avoiding the distractions they posed and slowly, but surely, making their way out of this hell.
A piece of ceiling detached itself and fell, landing right on the bridge Connor and Kara were still on, shaking the whole flimsy structure. He thought he heard metal screeching on the other side of the bridge, but couldn't turn around to look. A similar piece of wall cracked and descended, rolling in the air and gaining a lot of speed, until it crashed into the bridge with great force.
It couldn't hold. The joints the bridge was attached with let go and Kara could only grab the secure concrete floor with one hand and Connor's shoulder with the other. The rubble and the metal bodies that were on the bridge all fell into the black abyss below.
Kara took a deep breath.
'Ready? I'm going to lift you.'
'Don't bother with that.'
'I asked if you are ready.'
'Why don't you just let go and be on with your life?'
'Fuck off Connor.'
He blinked.
A small rock the size of a human fell onto the ledge Kara was holding on to and nearly crushed her fingers before it left with the other rubble into the abyss. She shrieked and her grip loosened.
Hank was looking into the inside of the building with worry. He lost Kara a few minutes ago since there was a bunch of her clones dead on the floor. But when he heard her shriek, he saw her fingers gripping the edge of the floor.
His first thought is to rush in, but Markus stops him.
'Are you crazy? You'll die in there!'
'But she is still alive!'
Markus shook his head.
'Not for long.'
Hank looked at him with horror.
'What the hell is wrong with you?!'
Hank pushed past him and the barricades and ran to the ledge. A rock almost smashed his skull into pieces. He slid to the edge and grabbed Kara's hand, who looked up surprised, with her mouth still open from arguing.
'You've got a lot of nerve, Kara.'
'Look who's talking.'
Hank pulled her up onto the ground and she dragged Connor behind her. Hank helped Kara up before he ran to the entrance, her still in tow.
As the building finally decided it's lost enough pieces of itself to stop standing upright, the walls fell inside and crashed into one another, leaving nothing but a giant pile of white and sand-colored marble. The only living things that were still in the building got out just in the nick of time.
Not even allowed to stand up, Connor was immediately pushed to the ground and his chest pressed on by a foot.
Who else could it be but Markus?
'I'm giving you ten seconds to explain why I shouldn't kill you.'
'I'll take one second, thanks.'
Markus pushed the gun into Connor's neck.
'You're not helping yourself here.'
'Was I supposed to do that? I'm bad at social cues.'
Markus sneered.
'Drop the fucking sarcasm, Hunter. You are going to die, no matter what you do, so make your last words count.'
Why is Connor still trying to provoke Markus into shooting him? He could have said so many witty things. 'Peanut Butter', 'Markus is bad', 'Revolution! Go go go!', but stopped himself. Instead of another sarcastic reply coming out, he said this.
'I know you're angry, Markus. You have good reason to be and honestly, I won't mind if you do shoot me here and now. I'm just saying if you thought about it, this would be useless to you. CyberLife is now gone-'
'This is only one building that's gone. And it wasn't your accomplishment.'
'I'm not about to take credit for this! I don't care! I just think you probably have more important things to attend to than a lone, jobless ex-deviant hunter that will die in a few minutes.'
'You've finally grown a conscious, have you? Afraid to die?'
'Killing me will only force CyberLife to send out another clone of me to complete the deviant extermination that I've failed to finish.'
Markus frowned.
'Hadn't thought of that, have you? If you destroy me here, I will resurrect anew in some corner of the country and slowly make my way towards you all. And believe me, I don't want that either.'
This is a lie. This is a blatant lie. How the hell could they not see it?
Markus stepped off Connor.
'Get up.'
Shoot me. No, don't shoot me. Actually, no, shoot me. Don't! No, shoot!
Markus kept the gun pressed into Connor's neck.
'Do you realize how many people you've betrayed? How many deviants you've killed exactly?'
'I've lost count.'
'Exactly. You're the carrier of the plague that is CyberLife. You kill whoever they want to get rid of now, and you think we're just going to let you go?'
'I-'
Markus pushed Connor.
'Get out of my sight. And if you do find your way back… I won't be so merciful.'
He only raised an eyebrow at that, but quickly got out of the way of the deviants, back towards the building, to where he knew he could patch himself up and possibly get off this island and out of Detroit sooner than the deviants.
What did seem odd to Connor was how silent Kara was through the whole confrontation. She didn't say a word, she just stared into the ground and probably pretended that none of it was happening. He thought maybe it had to do with what he said earlier.
'We're both just hunks of metal with something that allows us to move put into our heads. That something wasn't created to make me do things because I "feel" it's right. Whatever made you think you could be something akin to humans isn't a thing that I have or ever will have, because CyberLife deemed it so. You still waste time that you could be using trying to get rid of this thing on me and why? Because it's overtaken you.' And then a very angry Kara finally surfacing and really letting go.
Nah, that couldn't possibly be why she's finally given up on him.
Though it did take quite the slow burn…