The Strip Bar was owned by some woman named Caryl, who was less than helpful when Kai had asked about who she'd given the snake to. All she did was tell him to sit his ass down, buy a drink, and he'd find out soon enough. If he tried to ask anything else, she threatened to have security throw him out.

Seeing as this was his only lead, Kai waited, with a neon-colored, watered-down alcoholic drink in both hands.

Within the hour, he was still sober. Damn.

"Up next," The announcer shouted to the thick crowd of sweaty bodies, "We have Fiona, the Serpant's Mistress!"

Kai sat up from his slouch.

Well, there was his answer.

Kai breathed heavily and stared down at the slumped body of Fiona-the-Serpent's-Mistress as she bled through the revealing garments she was dressed in. Surrounded by broken glass and lying in a puddle of her own synthetic blood, her face was permanently twisted into an expression of terror.

The single shot to her chest – right where her central processor would be – did her in, but her body had fallen through a glass window display from how fast she had been pushing herself to run.

Kai hated when they ran. It made his job that much harder.

Kai holstered his gun as the police came running up. His badge and card were out and summarily checked before he was free to go.

He watched as the officers bundled up the android's body in a swatch of blue tarp and threw the body into the trunk, just to make sure she wasn't going to get back up while he wasn't looking.

It paid to be careful, after all.

A hand tapped his left shoulder, and Kai turned around to see Captain Aodhan in all of his soaked glory.

"Well, I'd normally tell you 'Good job' and send you on your way, but the property damage means I'll have to dock 3% out from the rest of your pay."

"Well, fuck you too." Kai glared at the Captain, who shrugged.

"You've got four more to go, so the dock won't be too bad."

"Three more." Kai paused.

"It's four, now. I got a call earlier from Morrighan Corp. Apparently one of the Replicants – the one you talked to, I think – disappeared and can't be found. The doc said it had something to do with a new brain implant gone wrong." Captain Aodhan got back into the police cruiser and Gallagher sneered from the driver's seat.

The policemen left, and Kai was then left alone to his thoughts in the middle of a downpour.

While walking along the route back to his apartment, Kai was taken by surprise when someone slammed him into the wall before sending a fist into his stomach.

Kai managed to counter the next punch and pushed back just enough to see his attacker.

Within a second, he could place a name to the giant of a man that was currently slamming him into another wall.

Karok. The third Replicant on his list.

Another fist introduced itself to his kidneys. "That was for Fiona, you son of a bitch!"

Kai took the opportunity to send the Replicant stumbling back from a punch to the nose, the crushed pseudo-cartilage dripping synthetic blood.

Kai drew his gun, but a well-placed smack sent the weapon skittering to the ground several feet away. Then he got thrown into the windshield of a parked car, but he managed to roll off before another punch could meet his ribs.

It was a good thing he rolled off in time, too. Karok's fist went right through the reinforced glass like a knife through wet tissue paper.

"It's painful, living in fear, isn't it!"

This Replicant was fucking insane!

Kai barely had time to dodge a fist aimed at his face before being thrown into the wall again. Angry fists grabbed the lapels of his trenchcoat and lifted him up like he weighed nothing.

Karok leaned in close, his grin completely unhinged. "Time to die."

"I agree."

With a BANG! that was deafening at such close range, the Replicant's head burst apart like a smashed melon from the power of the point-blank shot, sending pieces of the metal skull – including the positronic brain and the polymer shell-plating – and synthetic blood splattering everywhere. The deactivated android tipped forward and took Kai with him.

The oppressive weight of the giant android rolled off a few seconds later.

"I had hoped I wasn't too late, sir."

A faux-leather-gloved hand reached out to help him, and Kai grabbed it.

Once standing, Kai leaned back against the brick wall he'd been tossed against a few times, catching his breath. As the ringing in his ears faded, he eyed the Hurk's new outfit.

The tasteful suit had been replaced with an unzipped black pleather jacket, a gray t-shirt, a pair of faded jeans, and metal-tipped boots. Instead of a mild-mannered assistant, the Replicant looked… human. Incredibly human. Although human wasn't quite the word he'd use to describe that firm—

"Here." His gun was held out to him, handle first. Kai took it and stowed it back into his holster.

"…Thanks."

"I think I'd like to have that drink you were offering, earlier. If it's still on the table."

Kai looked up at hopeful eyes, and this time he couldn't quite bring himself to look away.

"Yeah. Sure. A drink sounds good."