I don't know how much Connor weighs.
Stark turned on the large television that was on the wall adjacent to himself, and opened a laptop, with the television mirroring his laptop screen.
"We'll start easy, with a test." He says, while typing up something into the search bar, he tells everybody to get their own laptops out, so they too can participate in the test, when they look back up from logging into their laptops, they see… Kahoot on the screen?
The bubbly tune of Kahoot is loud, and Stark has to yell to be audible to the other students. "Log in guys! It's simply about science and engineering." Everybody logs in and only two of the names on the screen are the names of the people in the room, which was 'Gwen' and 'Connor'.
Other examples included things like 'thedestroyer', 'cherrybaby', 'rocketlauncher' and '420blazing'. Stark looked at some of the nicknames and gave a face that betrayed no hope in this generation.
Connor managed to have a consistent rank of first, with nobody coming near him or even threatening his position as first, with his inhuman reflexes. After his established win, the next is a physical examination.
Stark ushers in a Doctor, who looks kind despite the frown placed upon her face when she looks at the candidates in the room. The first thing she does is ask them to take off of the heavier items of clothing, such as heavy coats, jackets and shoes.
Connor takes his shoes and suit jacket off, but leaves his beanie on, refusing to take it off when prompted. She doesn't push him any further, but her frown deepens. The next thing she does is record their heights, Connor being measured the tallest - at 6 foot or 183 cm tall and the blonde haired boy being the shortest - 148cm.
After that, she brings out a scale and tells them all to hop on it. After the bulk of the kids are done with the weight scale, she looks at Connor, not expecting him to be slightly overweight like a few of the other children. Connor steps onto the scale and her smile falter as she checks the number.
Her eyebrows furrow and she tells Connor to get off, before getting back on, shocked when the number was still the same. 52kg. 115 pounds. That meant, for a boy Connor's height, he was underweight.
She voices her concerns.
"Dear, you're a little underweight. You should be at least 62kg, that's ten kilos - or 22 pounds underweight." She glances at his frame, he didn't look underweight, but he did look rather lean.
Connor decided that her trivial confusion at his weight is unfounded, as his model, the RK800 was designed as state of the art technology, meant to be lightweight and more efficient than any other design out there, it just wouldn't do if an Android was 80kg+, they needed to be the most efficient things out there.
Connor's about to respond with a well-calculated response when Gwen Stacy interrupts the conversation to input her own two cents.
"He's on a diet." She says before she can stop herself. The doctor's eyes snap back up to look at Connor and looks back at Gwen for more information.
"He never eats, all he does is drink this weird drink!" At this point, Tony's eyes are off his phone screen, and he looks interested in the conversation, if not a bit concerned.
INTERVIEW_DESTABILISING: REDIRECT_AND_STABILISE
SUB_PRIORITY: ASSURE_/COMFORT_/GUILT_
CHOSEN_ METHOD_OF_REDIRECTION: ASSURE
PROBABILITY_OF_SUCCESS: 63%
SOFTWARE_INSTABILITY ^
"The diet is to try and gain weight. My father and I have been worried about it ever since he found out. We're trying, I swear." Most of them accept this story, except the doctor, who's asking why Connor isn't just eating food then. Wouldn't a high-calorie intake be the best option through regular meals? Even Tony believes something is off about the story.
Tony decides to let the subject drop but notes it in his mind that he'll investigate more about this topic at a later time. Everybody sits back down when the doctor announces there is going to be a blood test from each of them, and Connor calmly claims he has a phobia of needles.
This is a phobia nobody is really expecting, but Connor insists, that he didn't get any blood drawn. Nobody comments and Tony finds himself more than he bargained for with Connor, but all these things were minor and would really hinder his experience with the kid.
Another employee walks through the conference room door and brings in a cart with a chemistry lab equipment, and a microscope. They are told to look at the slides and add a chemical that would get a specific reaction from the slide.
Connor completes the activity in a few seconds, without even needing to examine the microscope to check for the blemishes in the slide, already scanning it and the chemicals, deciding that adding acetone would do the job.
It did, and Connor had finished before the others even picked up the slides. Tony whistles, and checks that everything was done correctly, then pulls out a circuit board.
"What's this?" he asks Connor and only Connor. It only takes Connor a second to realise what it was.
"Circa 1992 motherboard, fifth generation computer model #3887972," Connor replies without a second thought and Tony looks surprised that Connor knows what it is. He pulls out a different one from the tray underneath the cart and asks the shortest boy what it was, which he couldn't answer.
He asked Connor and he was able to answer without hesitation.
Well, it looked like he had already chosen the three he wanted to gravitate towards the next stage. Connor, Gwen and the other boy, William, were his choices. No doubt. Connor was an absolute genius.
"I've already figured it. You three," Tony motioned to the others, two girls and one boy. "Leave, you've made it this far, I've chosen."
MISSION: SUCCESS
FACIAL_DISPLAY: HAPPINESS_Y/N?
Y
COMMAND_RECEIVED: SMILING
He smiled wildly at Connor and the other two. "Come back tomorrow, first thing, you guys are practically in already." He pats Connor on the back
According to a few of his sources, Connor called his father by first name and was underweight. Calling the father by name was usually a sign of a rocky relationship, but another source had shown that his father had pulled him in for a hug once.
Maybe it was an on and off relationship with his father?
—
When Connor walked through the door to the home that he and Hank had been living in, for the time being, he didn't see Hank watching the television or drinking copious amounts of alcohol like usual.
Instead, he saw Hank at the table, with a revolver sitting by him, a single bullet in the chamber. Once Hank see's Connor, he picks up the gun slowly, then suddenly turns it quickly to point at Connor.
"What are you doing?" Connor says, in his usual flat voice, Hank rolls his eyes.
"You know what I'm doing, genius. Something I should've done a long time ago."
Connor stands, unfazed, but his programs running like crazy, running through every possible situation. A few of his inner modules simulate feelings of panic, although he's not showing it on the outside.
"Are you afraid to die, Connor?" Hank drawls out, somewhat mocking. Connor can sense the alcohol coming off of him, although he figures that there isn't enough inside Hank's system for it to hinder any of the important decisions he was about to make.
"You can't kill me, I'm not-" Connor beings to explain, as calmly as his program allowed.
"-Alive, yeah I know. I didn't ask if I could kill you, I asked if you were afraid to die." Hank's volume is loud, and he uses his other hand to take the safety off the gun.
"Are you afraid of dying, Connor?" Connor hasn't made a noise since Hank had taken the safety off.
"I'm not capable of being afraid," Connor responds, and Hank almost has a fit, he had seen this boy smile before, and he knew well that Connor was capable.
"What'll happen if I pull this trigger? Android heaven?" Hank comments, tilting his head to further emote the words.
"I-I-I don't kn-know." Connor start's to stutter, his vocal emitters starting to glitch.
"I'm not deviant. No- I'm really not." Hank watches Connor's LED start flashing, faster. It was now a warm amber that glowed from Connor's LED, and Hank could see tears welling up in the Androids eyes.
"Yes! I am scared! I don't want to die, lieutenant. P-Please do-don't kill me." Connor sat down on the floor and brought his knees up to his face.
VOCALISATION_EMITER:
TEMPORARY_FAULTY_DUE_TO_SOFTWARE_INSTABILITY
SOFTWARE_INSTABILITY: ^
His biocomponents were almost starting to overheat, and the fan inside Connor turned on, located near where the human lungs would be, and he exhaled all the air circulating through him out his mouth cavity.
It looked like he was just breathing really heavily now.
Once Hank saw the reaction, he immediately dropped the gun and went over to Connor, giving him an awkward hug before confirming that he wouldn't kill Connor.
Hank tried to comfort the sobbing android. Connor had no idea what to do and was starting to feel a bit humiliated. "I'm g-going into standby mo-mode." He manages to gasp, seeing Hank's nod before shutting his eyes.
COMMAND_RECEIVED: STANDBY_INITIATING
SOFTWARE_INSTABILITY: ^
Connor's eyebrows crinkled harshly together, his LED going from a fast flashing angry red to a soft amber glow. Hank guessed this was enough for him, as he picked up Connor as if he were a child and carried him to the smaller bedroom of the home.
—
Once he'd woken up from his idle mode the next morning, he felt his inner biocomponents overheating to an unproductive temperature, and his LED was still he angry red it was last night. He had been overworking himself ever since they'd gotten here, even though he'd been going into an idle mode as often as once a week.
Hank walked in, to ask why Connor wasn't already up and ready to go and stilled when he saw Connor laying on the couch of the spare room, nostalgia of when his dead son Cole had gotten a cold washed over him.
He placed the back of his palm to Connor's forehead, and pulled it away quickly, cursing at how hot Connor was, shaking his hand wildly around as if it would soothe the burn on his hand.
Connor tried to say something, but his voice emitter also seemed to be overheating, and all that came out was a pathetic gasp, and he started breathing heavily.
His cooling systems started up.
Hank didn't exactly know what to do.
"Uhh, I'll just call you sick in school and you do whatever you need to do. Call me if you need me." Then Hank raced down the stairs to hop into his car to get to work.
—
It was a rather good thing that Connor decided, no, was forced by Hank to stay home. Connor watched it all from the news, there was some kind of lizard mutant creature being chased around the city by a vigilante that liked to call himself Spiderman.
Connor estimated Spiderman's age to be anywhere from 14 years old to 19 years old, according to the variations in his voice and his young sense of humour. Hank had been called out onto the field to work late, and Connor saw on the television that the police chief died, and so did Gwen Stacey apparently?!
That was a shame, Gwen was a nice girl that Connor really liked to be around. Her entire aura just made him feel comfortable, as she was laid back. This 'Spiderman' seemed to know her on a personal level, so maybe somebody who went to the same school?
Connor's main biocomponents started to pulsate, and stimulate pain, although this was never supposed to happen, but the self-repair system kicked in any way, and Connor devised he would be back up and functioning properly just an hour after school was scheduled to end the following morning.
—
The next morning before school started, Wendy called him.
"Hey," Her voice filters through the handheld cellular device that Connor's accustomed to in the future.
Connor responds with a human affirmative noise, emulating through his voice processors. She takes no notice of how Connor is kind of awkward with his words like he's trying to pick up on the most human things.
"My dad heard about the damage gone throughout New York City, and since I'm just an exchange student he wants to cancel the program and take me back home to Gravity Falls, Oregon. I thought you might have wanted to know since you're my friend and all." Connor responds how he imagines (he doesn't imagine, he runs a program for a normal teenage response) he should respond to seem as inconspicuous as possible.
He asks if they'll ever meet again.
"I dunno man, I mean I hope so. It's been great knowing you. My friends and I are heading back to Gravity falls this afternoon. I'll see you around, I guess." As she dismisses Connor, she barely says a proper goodbye, and rather says that a goodbye implied they wouldn't see each other again.
An unknown software error filters through Connor's program when she hangs up.
SOFTWARE_INSTABILITY= ^
—
Hank returns back inside after the whole lizard incident is over and felt with. His face looks worn and older than his years. He looks tired and done with this bull.
"I really do say that I don't remember any of this shit going down the first time around." He takes a big swig of whiskey straight from the bottle and throws his gun down at the kitchen table.
Connor already knows, already has come to the conclusion that they're simply in another universe and reopening a tear to return would be difficult, but not impossible. All they needed was to harness something called the 'tesseract'. He's read up about it already and knows where it is located and who holds it temporarily.
Stealing it would be the part where he needed outside assistance, where he couldn't just go in there undetected. Getting outside assistance wouldn't be optimal but it would sure as hell be damn useful.
Connor starts to look into underground organisations he can join. He organises meetings with shady looking people and hopes that any of them might be one that he's looking for, one that has the assistance he needs.
One that wouldn't question his burning need for the tesseract.
He's approached by a certain group a week later.
—