"We're free now, Connor, you're allowed to try new food, " Markus says.
"It is not food! Some androids have simply physically modified the thirium-310 into animal-shaped gummies in some strange attempt to emulate human candy. If it was an improvement, Cyberlife would've done it! I am perfectly fine ingesting thirium the normal way!"
Once Connor's rant ends, Hank sighs and defeatedly pulls away the plate of Gusher-like thirium. They're in Hank's kitchen, sitting around the dining table. Despite Connor's best efforts, Hank refuses to renovate his house. Connor probably wasn't entirely serious when he told Hank that the best course of action would be to sell the land and let the place get torn down and "fixed using modern technology because it was so dirty, old, and-"
But it was still insulting and Hank is stubborn. So he keeps his house the way it has always been. Well, most of it. He doesn't know how, but Connor had fully redone the guest room he was staying in. Cole's room is probably the only thing Connor doesn't nag about.
It's been three months since the successful revolution. Mostly-successful anyways. Lots of humans from the U.S. were perfectly fine with "evacuating" Detroit and ignoring the state altogether. As if they could just keep pushing off the need to deal with an android-led country. California and (most surprisingly) Florida are doing well. Generally, Western civilization is doing alright with androids overall.
The East seems to be taking the whole "Androids have Rights" suspiciously well. Japan and New Korea (North Korea is old history now) had quickly set up protection laws and acts. Specifically, humans can marry androids there. Not very surprising considering Japan's breakthroughs in sensory-enhanced technology and New Korea's breakthroughs in socio-economic politics.
Despite all the progress, there is one constant.
And that's Connor's seemingly impossible case of PTSD and Connor's failure to socially adapt as well as he claims. The PTSD is a much bigger problem, however.
Hank doesn't fully understand what it is, but that's the closest thing he can use to describe it. He lets Connor stay at his place, where they're both at right now, and he lets Connor do almost anything. He lets the kid pick new cutlery and dishes. He lets him do shit with the backyard.
He even lets Connor spoil Sumo! Dogs seem to have a good effect on the android. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to snap Connor out of his moments.
Connor has memory-drive malfunctions that the android-technicians can't seem to fix. The same sort of thing had been found in other androids, but most other androids seem to "get over" it quickly.
Sometimes, Connor's body stiffens up and mechanically moves through system check-up procedures. Sometimes he begs Hank to "believe" that he isn't a deviant. Other times, Connor acts like he's about to kill any piece of advanced technology or potential hostile in the vicinity.
Hank has seen Connor flinch at fucking roses for God's sake.
He feels like he can't do anything for the kid. Even as a human, his empathy capabilities are all fucked up. So he tries to find the next best thing to a therapist; Markus. (Hank tried to get Connor to see a real therapist, but Connor just ended up scaring the apparently-closeted-android-hater with his observational programs.)
Only, Markus just seems constantly perplexed as to why Connor is acting up.
"Why are you frowning?" Markus asks genuine concern colouring his features.
Connor's frown morphs into a scowl and he pushes away from the table and out of the chair.
"I don't understand why you two keep attempting to get me to 'try new things!' It provides no useful information or skills. You need to stop thinking I need a mission! I'm fine without them and I definitely haven't been searching for one! This isn't right-" Connor begins to say. It's not exactly a yell, but it's loud enough to make Hank wince and roll his eyes.
Hank gives a tight smile before standing up and patting Markus on the shoulder.
"I'm going to head out, kids, don't break anything while I'm gone,"
And Hank leaves them to go drown his worries in a calorie-loaded hamburger. His guilt can wait a little while.
Markus eyes Hank's retreating form with half-hearted betrayal. He clears his throat and looks back at Connor's pacing body.
[PLACATE ALLY?]
Markus frowns and cocks his head slightly. He almost misses the simplicity of being the perfect caretaker. His eyes roll at his system's description of Connor. Geez, you'd think he was still doing all that "Make the humans pleased!" shiz.
[ ERROR FOUND: FIXING MISCALCULATION]
[COMFORT FRIEND?]
Y/N?
Markus ignores the robotic text in his vision and stands up from the dining table to get closer to Connor. At least the text fixed Connor's description. He takes a deep breath to cool down his slightly overheated bio components and steps forward.
"Connor, I know you are going through a hard time. I'm sorry that you are. And at the moment, there is not much I can do. But if you could just trust me; I can try to help you at least get better, " Markus says. He's standing closer to Connor now and he holds out his upturned palm of the hand, offering a firmly gelatinous form of thirium.
Connor huffs. He glances down at the piece of thirium and then up and Markus. Silently, he swipes the piece from Markus and pops it in his mouth. It falls down his throat and hits the bottom of his 'stomach'. His eyebrows furrow and he pulls a confused look before raising his head back up at a grinning Markus.
"This is hardly enough to replenish a fully-sized android-"
Markus grins and begins pulling out hand-sized bags from his pockets.
"And that's why they come in packets of multiple! I've got like, ten on me right now and each pack can sustain half a six-foot android! The androids who've been modifying the thirium have been playing around with the way it reacts with the air, and have been trying different ways of encasing them in better containers than screw cap bottles-" Markus is about to excitedly continue before suddenly, Connor's eyes widen in fright. Markus finds himself being shoved aside and bodily protected, but to no avail.
"PRIMARY MISSION; DISPLACE DEVIANT LEADERS "CONNOR" AND "MARKUS." MISSION SUCCESS-"
Blue light only just enters Markus' vision before he blacks out
...
...
...
[ERROR: INTERNET CONNECTION NOT FOUND]
[SCOUTING FOR NEW CONNECTION]
[CONNECTION FOUND]
[REBOOTING PROGRAMS; PLEASE STANDBY. DO NOT SHUT DOWN]
[ERROR FOUND: GPS UNABLE TO PINPOINT LOCATION]
[ERROR FOUND: BIOCOMPONENTS #6847F AND #6847G PARTLY DAMAGED. ]
[NEW MAPS FOUND: PLEASE STANDBY FOR DOWNLOAD]
[REPAIR IN PROGRESS. PLEASE STANDBY]
Connor blinks himself awake and swiftly sits up to look about his surroundings. He's in a forest-no, a park. Connor swiftly scans over the area as new maps reboot his GPS.
[LOCATION: FOREST PARK, QUEENS NY]
Personally, Connor thinks the name is a perfect description for where they are at right now. Tall trees surround him and if he was human, his breath would hitch as he finally absorbs all the information about his surroundings.
[DATE: 12 AUGUST 2016, 10:02:08 PM]
He's pretty sure he isn't malfunctioning. He consistently performs self-check ups. Well, at least he isn't dead. Connor shuts away his rising panic and terror in order to properly assess the situation. Markus is unconscious exactly one yard away from him. But more importantly, another- fortunately unconscious- android seems to have tagged along.
/STRESS LEVELS RISING 67%/
[NEW MISSION: ELIMINATE SOURCE OF STRESS]
[ELIMINATE NEARBY POTENTIAL HOSTILE, MODEL RK900 ANDROID]
[PROCEED? Y/N]
Connor's eyes steel up as he gets onto his feet and stares down at the RK900. His eyes flick over to a medium-sized rock near his feet, and then back up at the other android.
[Y]
Connor perfectly kicks aside a hacked-off leg component into a pile and grimly leans down to reactivate the RK900 android. Inside his own chest, a pleasantly strange buzzing, maybe even bubbly, feeling wells up and threatens to shake through his body. Without his knowledge, an unconsciously-formed smile graces his lips.
This is something to do. It'd be bad to focus on anything else, right? He has a new task to investigate. He's not using this especially horrible and terrifying situation to prove his purpose. He already knows he's got a purpose. He never fails his missions. He doesn't need Cyberlife.
[PRIMARY MISSION: DELIVER MARKUS AND SELF BACK HOME]
[SECONDARY MISSION: OBTAIN INFORMATION REGARDING CIRCUMSTANCES]
When Markus first boots up and his optical units begin processing his surroundings, he is met with the sight of Connor with one foot planted upon the chest of an RK900 model. Specifically, the chest that's left of an RK900 model.
Markus exasperatedly notes the RK900's torn off limbs and bio components neatly piled up next to himself. He carefully ignores the gruesomely blue-splattered rock sitting near the RK900's head.
"If you tell me how you make the device that sent us here, I will show you mercy, no one will know what you did. Aren't you afraid of death?" Connor asks, his LED spinning yellow as RK900's LED flashes red. The RK900's face begins to tremble between terror and anger before its face suddenly settles and its eyes stare into Connor's.
"MISSION SUCCESS. PLEASE STEP AWAY. STAND BY FOR RETRIEVAL," The RK900 states mechanically.
Connor snarls and he kneels onto the ground, his knees bracketing 900's torso, and wraps his fingers around the sides of RK900's calm head.
"You aren't as resilient as you think. I will tear your head off-"
Markus finally has motion back in his legs but before he can walk over to Connor and calm him down, the RK900 smirks and disappears in a flash of blue. As soon as he disappears
, Connor slowly stands up and turns towards Markus. He points lamely at the biocomponents at Markus' feet.
"Cyberlife made a teleporter. We can potentially use the RK900's parts to create our own, but we'll need more resources. I've begun running algorithms for possible ways to complete this mission-"
Well, there goes Markus' plan of just converting the advanced android. Now he has to deal with a pissed-off and potentially stressed Connor. Things could be going better.
Markus pauses in his thoughts as new information pops up on his radar. He usually ignores those sort of things but-
[DATE: 12 AUGUST 2016, 10:32:08 PM]
This is very very Not good. He must've been damaged somehow, this can't possibly be correct. Where are they? He should've installed those adaptation updates when he had the chance.
He smiles in exasperation as he watches his (slightly?) violent friend confidently pick up the android's scraps with a borderline giddy smile. At least Connor is less stressed than he thought Connor would be.
"I have a plan," Connor says as they continue hiking their way out of the park.
"Of course you do," Markus mutters.
"Yes. First, I will be needing clothes to blend in. It might be ideal for you to throw away yours, despite them already being human-made. Still, the main priority, for now, is for me to get rid of my Cyberlife jacket. It seems my unneeded attachment to it has caused some difficulty, I apologize,"
"Ah, don't apologize, lots of androids still wear the uniforms- What about that LED of yours? It'll be easy to get new clothes I guess," Markus mumbles the last part to himself.
"...I'm sure a hat will suffice-"
"Connor,"
"I will be removing it then."
Markus begins seeing lining of buildings in the distance. He grimaces at the badly-hidden sadness on Connor's face.
"...We can reinstall the LED when we get back home. For now, we have to figure out how bad this situation actually is,"
"Of course, Markus. That is completely understandable. I have located one of the most advanced technology companies already, nearest to where we are. Stark Industries seems to be this dimension's form of Cyberlife. Furthermore, their head, Tony Stark seems to have an interest in AI. His personal secretary Patricia "Pepper" Potts is looking for a caretaker to work in-house for Stark. I believe that will be our main way of infiltrating the business and gaining more information-"
"Do we even exist here? They've got to do background checks, don't they?" Markus asks wryly.
"...That is correct. I will start forging our identities. Our names should be fine, but for last names, I will be choosing 'Anderson'-"
"For me, have my last name be 'Manfred.'" Markus interjects calmly.
"Of course. I apologize for the oversight,"
"It's fine, it's fine, seriously, you don't have to apologize for everything,"
"I will find us an apartment. I am about to submit my resume for the caretaking job at Stark Indus-"
"Woah, woah, woah, I know you're built for infiltration and all but I'm pretty sure I should be the one taking up the job as his caretaker. Considering my, well, entire past and all-"
"...Markus, I really do think I should be doing that part of the mission-"
"How about you apply as a bodyguard or driver? I'm not saying you'd be bad with caretaking, I just think that'd it'd be more logical if I was the one to do it."
"Fine, I'll fill out your resume and send it in instead of mine," Connor amends. Markus silently marvels at how petulant Connor sounded. Despite the stuttering sense of loss in the back of his mind, he thinks that maybe this could be fun.