H's POV:

When I got to Chad's house, there was way too much excitement. What made me so interesting? Chad had so many friends. There was a Mathew, the smart one, Leo, the short one, and a tall strong looking one named Alex that looked anything but excited. We spent the day watching movies, but I had to keep watching my tail because Leo was so energetic, and kept running around, and even knocked over a vase. Chad was planning on telling his mom it was Cheeto, And I was starting to see a bit of a resemblance between the cat and Leo…

Everything was going great until a paper plate fell onto my tail and was sliced clean in half. I didn't know what to do about it, and then Leo and Mathew gasped, Thad looked at it for a moment and continued watching tv, Chad stood up, and Alex just walked out of the room.

"OOH COOL!" Leo said excitedly as Mathew stood up and casually dropped a tin can onto my tail, and that got sliced in half just as easily.

"The nanite acid can cut through pretty much anything, can't it?" He asked.

"Y-yes" I answered, wondering if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Why did Alex leave the room? Mathew kept dropping more trash on my tail, and Leo was watching as if it was the coolest thing he'd ever seen. Every once in a while, I had sliced the walls at my house and left scratch marks everywhere because the walls were so thick. I had never thought of it as cool or interesting.

"Where did Alex go?" Thad asked. "Is he getting a snack?" Thad got up and walked in the direction Alex went down the hallway.

"Maybe he's scared of Hype's tail?" Leo assumed. I never liked it when worker drones were scared of me, of course it wasn't their fault and I'd never blame them for it.

"Eh, I bet it's nothing. He probably just needed to call his mom." Chad said cheerfully. Thad and Alex returned and Alex looked upset about something. I was a little intimidated by him, he didn't seem to like me very much.

An hour or so later, we were all starting to get bored. Chad suggested playing hide and seek, but I wasn't allowed to find anyone because I have heat vision. Leo started counting, and I quietly stepped down the hall, trying not to let him hear which direction I was going, and hid in an empty closet that was in the office. Soon, I heard footsteps approaching and I held my breath. A head peeked around the closet. It was Alex, and he did not look happy to see me as usual.

"I know why you're here." He said to me.

"It's a decent spot, right?"

"Ugh. I'm not talking about your spot, I'm talking about why you are here with us worker drones. You're planning on killing us. You don't have feelings, you have a squad and they're coming to kill us once you make enough 'friends' . Thankfully, I'm here to stop that." He put his fists together. "And everyone will thank me later once they find out your secret."

My eyes switched to rings, realizing what he meant. Alex was here to kill me. "Look, I I understand why you feel that way, but I'm not going to hurt anyone"-

"Shut UP!" He interrupted. "You don't 'understand' anything! A murder drone killed my dad! You're all stupid, mindless psychopaths! You all deserve to DIE!" He quickly swung his fist, hitting me in the side of the face. I didn't fight back. I couldn't fight back. If I fought back, the worker drones would kick me out. I would be treated like the rest of my kind, this was my chance to prove myself as an innocent, and I wasn't gonna fail. Alex kept kicking and hitting me and I took it. Soon, the world around me faded into black and I passed out.

When I woke up, I was still in the closet but there was a blanket on me. That worker drone hit me so hard, one of my sensors was definitely broken, and I couldn't see very well. What time was it? I stood up slowly and opened the door a little bit.

Chad came running down the hall, at the sound, wide eyed and whispered to me: "Alex left in hurry and it's morning. I need to go to school now but you're probably still going to be hurt when I get back, so you can just wait for me to get home from school. At least don't come out until my parents leave though, okay?"

I nodded and closed the door. I sat back down in the closet to assess my major injuries. One of my sensors was definitely smashed, my shoulder was damaged, and there was a wound on my right leg. It would probably fully heal in about five days, but it wasn't that big of a deal, I was usually pretty good at walking those kinds of things off. Of course, it still hurt so I fell back asleep for a few hours.

When I woke up, I waited for Chad and his brother to come home. After a few hours of sitting in a dark closet, staring at the random patterns my eyes made in the dark, I heard the door to the house open and Chad ran down the hall, into the office.

"Hype! Are you okay? I should've given you a movie or something to watch... you were probably bored."

"I'm okay. I was asleep for most of the time." I told him.

"You're not okay! You just got beat up by ALEX! That's a big deal Hype, and it doesn't look like you fought back either."

"If I did fight back, I would've lost my chance of being here, Alex would've told someone that he got hurt by a Disassembly Drone, and people would come to your house and probably try to kill me as well."

"You're right." He sighed. "I wish you didn't have to deal with all of this... you don't deserve it." He came up to me and gave me a hug, and I hugged him back.

"So how did Alex act today?" I asked.

"He avoided us all day. I tried talking to him but he ignored me, same with the rest of the squad. We're all pretty mad at him for beating you up though." Chad looked me in the eyes. "He doesn't hate you as a person, he just doesn't like disassembly drones, if anything, he would like you if we were in a better universe where JcJenson actually cared about us drones."

I nodded. "I think I know his problem with us. He said that a murder drone killed his father and that I was here to kill you guys, but I wouldn't dream of doing that."

"I know you wouldn't. His dad... y'know, I've never met any of his parents before. That makes sense now. And I know you wouldn't. Alex is usually more brawn than brains anyways, so he doesn't understand you or your life."

"Well, I feel bad for him. He probably misses his dad and he's taking it out on the easiest person that he can, which happens to be me. I don't blame him, he's been through a lot."

Chad laughed. "And somehow, you have more compassion than most worker drones."