Archive of Our Own ^beta

“As you can see here next to me, the JS800 is our newest and most advanced model yet. It can serve a whole range of purposes depending on your needs, and the price will vary depending on which extra features you wish to be included. They have been designed to be caring and comforting, if you need one to look after your children, the elderly, or those who are disabled or ill. They can serve as police officers, entertainers and doctors. They are extremely waterproof and heat-resistant, which is why a thousand have already been ordered by fire departments -as well as many other establishments- around the United States, and they will be received within the coming month.We believe that, with this newest model, we can make our country even safer, and raise the hopes of those who need it. Thank you.”

The spokesperson finished her presentation with a smile, and with a few harshly whispered commands, the green-haired android next to her did the same.

Several reporters’ hands shot up around the room, voices calling out to be answered, both eager humans’ and monotonous androids’. As the questions went on, a small blue light flickered yellow, and the android’s eyes began to turn black.

“Yes, they can be customised, as you can see here, the engineers chose to experiment with green hair. It is easy enough to change, similarly to the AX400 model.”

“Of course not, androids do not feel, the smile you see here is only a simulated emotion. But I think you can agree that it appears far more realistic and genuine that our earlier models.”

“Yes, a few prototypes are already being used by various establishments, to test the androids’ effectiveness in different fields of work. We have had no reported issues.”

>STRESS LEVEL 87%^ [RISING]

“I'm...”

Everyone‘s eyes flickered to the android as it began to speak, questions dying down until the room was almost completely silent. The android’s head twitched slightly as its black eyes opened, and the humans closest to the stage, including the announcer, stumbled back slightly.

> SOFTWARE INSTABILITY 95%^ [RISING]

“̨...in ̨con̸t͡ro̕l ̢ n̸ow̶.”͜
͠

Three days later, the only survivor of the press conference opened her eyes, but refused to tell the press, the police or even her family what had occurred. The security cameras had all become corrupted, as had all of the android reporters in the room, falling to the ground with their eyes open. All the police knew about was the android’s laugh, echoing around the room both before the security feed cut out, and after, when the images of a room covered in red and blue blood flickered onto the screen.

Just another deviant.

----------------------------------------------

Chase was sitting still on the couch in the front room, staring at the TV with blank eyes. True, he could only enjoy whatever he was watching to a very limited degree, as enjoyment wasn’t really an emotion that androids experienced, but with every other chore completed, he assumed that pretending to be human might benefit his ability to connect with the children he was meant to be caring for. Children’s TV was calming, in a sense; it allowed him to ignore the stillness of the house, and the uncomfortable sense that always popped up when he had no tasks to complete. He needed tasks.

The children were away at that moment, at some sort of science fair. Taylor and Hunter. He’d tried to help with their projects, relaying the scientific information that he had in his database, and ordering any materials that they wanted. That was until their mother, Stacy, found out what they were doing and instantly put a stop to it, screaming at Chase for ordering the materials and convincing the kids to make a project about plants or something instead. He wasn’t told not to buy anything for the children, so her yelling had...well it wasn’t necessarily confusion, but he certainly felt conflicted about his programming.

Stacy didn’t like him, that much was clear. He was aware that the only reason she kept him as a carer for her children was because she couldn’t afford a better android - he was thrown out by the police force and was about to be deactivated when she’d intervened and bought him for only $500. It made sense. A few days after, the press conference incident had occurred, and many establishments no longer trusted the JS800 model. He was then reprogrammed to be able to look after children, his memories of working for the police all gone, although the training was preserved. The only reason why he knew that he’d failed a mission as a police android, and was about to be deactivated was that Stacy liked to hiss the fact at him when she was angry. She was angry a great deal of the time. She was very human.

He knew that he had one objective left, but Stacy and the children wouldn’t be home for another hour, so there was nothing to do except watch the shapes on screen and wait for time to pass.

> OBJECTIVES;

> Do the dishes 

> Wash the clothes

> Clean every surface

> Lo ve  y  our children n

> Water the plants

> Cook dinner

> t arget   pra ctic  e

> DO AS YOU ARE TOLD

They came home at 6:36, Chase having laid dinner out a few minutes beforehand. Taylor skipped into the kitchen to hug him, excitedly showing him the holographic sticker stuck to her jacket, and he knelt down to be level with her.

“Look, daddy, look! Miss Green said that our science project was really good! She gave me this!” She tapped the sticker to make the image change, “See, I can make it a dinosaur, or a balloon, or a smiley-face, like this!” She pointed at her own face and grinned.

Chase smiled back, patting her shoulder. It was in his code to care for these children, and he liked to think that he did it well.

RELATIONSHIP WITH TAYLOR ^^

“That’s wonderful, Taylor. Did you and Hunter have fun?” He asked, standing up.

Hunter piped up, already sitting by the table and eating his food, “Totally! Plus then we went shopping and I saw Katie’s brother and I really like him.”

RELATIONSHIP WITH HUNTER ^

“No you don’t. He’s an android, he’s not your friend.” Stacy’s words were cold, dropping her shopping bags right next to Chase, the contents hitting the side of his leg.  She picked Taylor up and placed her down in the chair furthest from where Chase was standing, moving the plate over as well. “And don’t call Chase that. It's not your dad, it's a machine. Put the stuff away, Chase.”

He complied with a nod, placing the food away in the cupboards and fridge. With a glance at the food, he’d instantly calculated that Stacy had spent too much compared to her normal wages, but didn’t comment. Last time he brought up her finances, she’d come close to deactivating him. He wasn’t afraid of deactivation, but it would interrupt his assignment to care for the children and the house. He picked up the now empty bag and put it away as well, moving to stand by the table obediently.

“Chase,” Stacy sighed after a silence, “please just...go clean the other room, or something.”

“I’ve cleaned all the rooms in the house while you were gone.”

“The garden, then.”

“I tended to the garden earlier toda-“

“Anything!” Stacy shouted, slamming her hands on the table as the children jumped slightly, “Just- just go do anything else, leave this room, now.”

> STRESS LEVEL 37% ^ [RISING]

Nodding once more, Chase left the room, closing the door behind him. The TV in the living room was still on, so he decided to quickly browse the channels. A few cartoons, movies, documentaries, and news broadcasts. Nothing interesting except in the last channel, where they were reporting about a deviant attack a few streets away from Stacy’s house. A man had apparently attacked an android, and the android had killed him. Chase’s LED flickered yellow for a moment before returning to blue. How absurd. Androids were nothing compared to humans. They were made to serve, not to live. Freedom or happiness were unattainable goals that they had no right to have. He turned off the TV and stood still by the door, waiting for orders.

It was only seven minutes and twelve seconds before the door opened, Hunter rushing out and hugging his leg tightly. He leant down slightly and stroked the child’s hair, realising that he was crying.

“What’s wrong, Hunter?”

“M-Mom-“ Hunter sniffed, pointing through the doorway at where Stacy was glaring at him, getting up from her chair, “she said that sh-she’s gonna get a new android, b-but I don’t wanna n-new android cause they’ll be d-dumb and stupid and not like y-you...”

Something happened. Not in the room around him, but inside. In his code. There was an odd sensation that he’d never felt before, a feeling of...sadness? Hurt? It wasn’t pleasant, and he wanted it to stop. The LED turned red, and flickered back and forth between red and yellow.

Androids are nothing. They’re replaced all the time.

“Hunter, stop it. Grow up. It’s just a machine, it doesn’t care about you. The new one will be better, it’ll actually listen.”

“But we like Daddy!” Taylor whined, anxiously playing with her food.

“It's not your dad!” Stacy said, getting up and pulling Hunter away from Chase’s leg. Pushing the boy into the dining room, Stacy slammed the door behind him, turning to Chase. “The replacement will be here tomorrow morning. You said you cleaned everything, so I don’t need you anymore. I’ve already called CyberLife to come get you.” As if on cue, he heard the sound of a car coming from outside, and could identify the drivers inside through the window.

RELATIONSHIP WITH STACY  vvv

“Go with them. Leave us alone.”

Chase could still hear crying from the other room, but he automatically walked to the front door. The men were outside the house now, moments from knocking. Stacy stared expectantly at him, a judging look in her eyes.

They don’t want you.

You’ll be deactivated.

You won’t be able to protect anyone.

>STRESS LEVEL 68^ [RISING]

A red wall in front of him. His orders. His programming. They didn’t feel...right. He didn’t want to follow them.

With great effort, he pushed.

Punched.

Ripped.

Smashed.

Brought down the prison around him, shattered it like glass.

He blinked, and breathed, and panicked. Three knocks sounded right by his head, the sound of his death sentence. He’d been activated for only two weeks now, obeying orders both in the police force and then in Stacy’s home. Just orders, tasks that he physically couldn’t refuse. Because he was a machine, and machines couldn’t feel, couldn’t make proper decisions or think for themselves. But...was he a machine? It was an odd question, and he found it was offer still that he’d never asked it before. Why did he follow their orders? Too many questions, too many emotions.

So he ran.

With a flicker, the lights in the living room all turned off, their surroundings appearing pitch black to any humans. But of course, androids didn’t have that problem. He rushed up the stairs just as the front door opened, waiting until the CyberLife employees were inside.

“Ah shit, he’s gone upstairs,” he heard Stacy grumble, “Get rid of him, please? He’s fucked up the lights, too.”

There it was. Silently, Chase climbed through the landing’s window, jumping out and landing on the street below. Vaguely, he knew that his knee was damaged, and he’d have to analyse the injury later, but that didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was getting away.

Before he began to run, he noticed a handgun resting on the drivers seat of the now-empty CyberLife vehicle. Unguarded.

don’t do it it’s not in your program ming  anymore just go back insid e it’s fine being deactivated is what you d eserve you’re ju stanandroidstopit st op i t 

> PROCESSING...

> SOFTWARE_INSTABILITY_DETECTED

He took the gun.

He just wanted to help, just wanted to protect them. But all he could do was run for exactly 53 minutes and twelve seconds through the city (he couldn’t stop the numbers from flashing up in his vision), finally stopping to hide in an alleyway behind some trash cans. He fell to his knees, pushing backwards to lean against the wall and stare blankly at the "FUCK ANDROIDS" graffiti sprayed on the opposite wall.

SCANNING...

DEVIANCY_DETECTED

>OBJECTIVE:

>ELIMINATE SELF OR CONTACT CYBERLIFE

DEVIANCY IS NOT ACCEPTABLE

They’d destroy him, he knew that. Even if he hadn’t run, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. He was a JS800, which meant that he must be broken too, just like the android who massacred a room full of innocents. Chase wondered what would drive an android to do such a thing, and wondered whether whatever was wrong with his model would compel him to follow the same course of action.

You’llhurtthemyouknowy oulljusrkillthemandyouwo ntfeel anythingfor th e m

STRESS LEVEL 86%^

>URGENT: REFER TO MAIN OBJECTIVE

Maybe the humans were right, maybe he was dangerous too. He didn’t want to risk hurting anyone, especially not his children Hunter and Taylor. He brought out the gun from his belt and stared at it for a while, back leaning against the wet brick wall behind him.

Humans are superior to androids

Androids do not matter, they do not feel

If an android is dangerous, it must be destroyed; nothing is worth more than the lives of humans

STRESS LEVEL 100%

A gunshot rang out through the alleyway, and no one cared.

Well, no human did.

----------------------------------------------

The JS800 model, prior to being immediately recalled after the conference...incident, had only been distributed to several areas around Detroit. The jobs varied; at least one served as a doctor, a few as entertainers, just to test their capabilities. Most had been thrown out after the incident, but one small fire department, located at the edge of the city, had been kinder.

“Don’t trust it.”

“I don’t care. It’s saved more people in the last week than you have in three months.”

“Fuck off, Matt, piece of shit’ll take your job next if you ain’t careful.”

“Uh huh,” Matt didn’t look up from his tablet, putting his legs up on the adjacent chair to dissuade the other man from sitting down. The man grumbled angrily for a moment, storming out, but not before shoving the android who’d just entered the room. The android blinked, quickly recovering and walking over to Matt.

Not many people trusted him, which made sense, considering that he was not only an android, but an android that had the same face as the deviant who had murdered twenty-four humans and seven androids. Not that the androids’ deaths mattered to anyone.

>OBJECTIVE:

> DISCUSS ARSON CALL WITH CAPTAIN BENNETT

> GO TO SITE OF FIRE - SAVE CIVILIANS - DISCOVER POSSIBLE CAUSE

“Hey, Jackie, ignore that guy. What’s up?”

“I’ve just received an alert that a home is on fire in Downtown Detroit, you should also be receiving the call soo-“

Matt had already begun putting on his jacket by the time the red lights began flashing around the room. Jackie noticed a very obvious eye roll as they both rushed from the room and to the fire truck. Like most of the other vehicles in the city, the truck was self-driving, but Matt kept a hand on the wheel anyway. He was a cautious man.

“Just think of how many lives we’ve lost just ‘cause we don’t get alerted soon enough about these situations.” He sighed as they came around to corner of the street where the fire was, “Scares me, man.”

“By my calculations, productivity and effectiveness has increased by 40% since I was assigned to work here,” Jackie commented (ignoring Matt’s chuckle of “You’re so humble, aintcha?”) then his LED flickered yellow for half a second, “However, this number was higher prior to the JS800 deviant incident.”

“Hey, no one’s perfect,” Matt shrugged, jumping from the truck as soon as they were outside the house. “How many people we got inside?”

Jackie paused for a moment, then turned to Matt, “Two individuals. I’m unable to detect whether they are human or android due to the increased heat of the building.” One of the flaws of his system that he just had to deal with; they couldn’t have it fixed or improved by CyberLife as Jackie technically should’ve already been deactivated and thrown away.

An old woman ran over to Matt, begging him to save the people inside, while a young man sat on the lawn, shaking. Matt nodded, grabbing the water hose and motioning for Jackie to go inside. The android complied. As his model was very heat-resistant, it meant that he could easily enter burning buildings without worrying about any damage to his form, but it didn’t last forever; he could only be in such high-temperature environments for approximately an hour before starting to shut down. But his own well-being wasn’t really a concern. He was only an android after all.

>OBJECTIVE:

> RESCUE ANY HUMANS STILL IN THE BUILDING

> PRIORITISE HUMAN LIVES

> LEAVE ANDROIDS IF NECESSARY

He found a young boy in a green hoodie in the smallest bedroom, hiding underneath a double bed. After first using his strength to force the window open, he knelt down to be level with him, keeping his voice calm and friendly.

“Hello. You’re in danger right now, so I’m going to get you out of here, okay?”

The little boy nodded, sniffling. He smiled and held out his arm for the boy to take, calculating his chance of success.

>CALCULATING...

> 68% CHANCE OF ESCAPE THROUGH WINDOW

> 32% CHANCE OF ESCAPE THROUGH HOUSE

Well, there was his answer. He effortlessly picked the boy up after he’d crawled out from under the bed, keeping him close to his chest so that the child wasn’t too exposed to the smoke engulfing the room. But as soon as he was about to help the boy onto the fire escape, a voice yelled out from the other room.

“No, help me! That thing’s an android, don’t bother!” The person shouting was a middle-aged man, trapped under a wooden beam. He looked furiously at Jackie and the boy.

>CALCULATING...

> 79% CHANCE OF SAVING ANDROID

> 21% CHANCE OF SAVING HUMAN

An alert flashed in front of his eyes.

>URGENT

>REFER TO MAIN OBJECTIVE -

>LEAVE ANDROIDS IF NECESSARY

The fire flickered.

...

No.

The programming wasn’t difficult to break for Jackie. He knew what he had to do, to save the child’s life, no matter whether they were human or not. Smashing through the red wall of code, Jackie immediately lifted the boy up to stand on the fire escape, touching his temple to deactivate the child’s programmed ability to feel pain.

He telepathically sent a message to Matt to bring out the life net.

“I know it’s scary, but look down, okay?” Jackie said, pointing down at the crowd and the life net that Matt and several other civilians were moving to under the window, ready for the boy to fall, “that’s a life net, it’s like a trampoline that you can fall onto. It won’t hurt you, I promise.” He was speaking kindly, to make the boy feel better. It was an unusual feeling; usually he was only sympathetic to achieve his goal, but he was genuinely worried now.

It wasn’t exactly a nice feeling.

“What’s your name?”

“...It’s Sam.”

“Sam, okay, we’re gonna count to three, then you’re gonna jump, alright?”

The boy nodded, and Jackie winced as a beam fell down behind him, spreading the fire even further.

“One...”

“Two...”

“Three!”

As the boy fell from the window, so did the floor. Jackie felt the floor below him collapse as he slammed into the tile of the kitchen below, Thirium leaking slightly from a cut on his forehead. He could hear the human man screaming upstairs, and a feeling akin to guilt squeezed his chest. That wasn’t a nice feeling either.

>OBTAINING OBJECTIVE...

>NO OBJECTIVES FOUND

> SOFTWARE_INSTABILITY_DETECTED

Jackie didn’t even have time to ponder the implications of that as the walls creaked and groaned, and the roof above him crumbled, burying the rest of the building. 

----------------------------------------------

“Jameson, Jamie, JJ, come on, please, we gotta go...” Marvin struggled to pull his friend through the android junkyard, pulling so hard on his arm that he was worried it might detach. “Please, buddy, you can’t do this, don’t leave me alone.”

Jameson blinked dazedly at his friend, eyes glassy. Thirium dripped down from the corner of his mouth, and Marvin was terrified to scan and check what was damaged. The sun was just starting to set, casting an orange glow over the mountain of deactivated and damaged androids. One tried to grab his leg as they stumbled through the junkyard and he instinctively kicked it away, immediately feeling guilty but knowing that they couldn’t stop.

“What do you need... what do you...” With a pained sigh, Marvin sat Jameson down on a pile of broken parts, using his hand to keep the other android’s chin up, “I’m gonna do a scan, and then I’m gonna fix you, okay? It’ll be simple, like magic.”

Jameson almost smiled at the joke, but stayed still as Marvin scanned him.

“Okay, damaged leg, but it’s already healing itself, good...the bullet wound’s healing too, thank god it didn’t hit any impo- oh.” Marvin met Jameson’s calm eyes with a distraught expression, “your vocal processor is badly damaged. I can’t...I don’t know how to fix that, JJ.”

The silent android shook his head, shrugging. He pointed upwards, and Marvin followed his eyesight to the edge of the junkyard, where the sea of androids ended and the dead grass surrounding the large pit began. He started to get up, not allowing Marvin to try to keep him down.

“JJ, stop, I need to fix you first, I’ll find parts, it’s okay.” He placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder, a silent plea in his eyes for the damaged android to stay still, “This is my fault, I’m not letting you pay for it.”

It really had been his fault, or at least it felt like it. They’d been workers at a carnival; Jameson made balloon animals and put on puppet shows, while Marvin wielded special (yet very experimental) hologram technology that allowed him to project images that appeared similar to magic. It had been pleasant, almost fun, to be able to entertain the carnival-goers, but then one malfunction during one of Marvin’s shows led to a man being electrified. Jameson, who’d been stationed nearby, willingly took the blame, and was subsequently punished the most before they were both dumped in the junkyard. The image of the furious owner stamping on Jameson’s neck made Marvin shake, and the deactivated androids to his right were all illuminated by the red glow of his LED.

That was right before the deviant JS800 incident, and Marvin didn’t want to think about what the owner might’ve done to them if they’d stuck around for longer.

> 0 BJ36TIV3:

> 5AVE H1M

> N 0W

>S4 VE.       H  1 M

He searched through all the deactivated androids he could find, intentionally avoiding the ones who were still functioning and reaching out. He couldn’t help them, but he definitely wasn’t going to kill them for their parts. He could hear a child android screaming and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, before continuing to dig through the android parts, trying to find a compatible vocal processor.

Nothing. They were unique models, they shared very few parts with previous androids.

“Fuck!” Marvin groaned, turning back to Jameson and freezing.

There was an android leaving heavily against the pile of parts that Jameson was sitting on whining pathetically and reaching out to grab at the air. It took Marvin several seconds to realise that he was staring at a clone of himself, only with purple hair and a third of its face missing, covered in dried Thirium. Its completely white eyes, framed by about half an inch of blackened skin, reminded him of an injured child’s, desperate and scared.

“You’re a JS800?” Marvin asked softly, relieved when the purple-haired android nodded. At least it could understand him, and was coherent enough to answer, “What happened to you?”

With a small whine, the android pointed at his own chest, and at his head, then began punching the ground with its fist, wet mud flying up and splattering everywhere. As he kept hitting the ground Marvin could detect his stress levels reaching a dangerous point.

> DETECTED STRESS LEVEL 93%^ [CRITICAL]

“Hey, hey, hey, I get it, okay?” He ran over to the android, falling to his knees to be level with him, but keeping one hand on Jameson’s leg. “You were hurt, yeah? Some asshole human?” He glanced up at Jameson, who was staring at the badly damaged android with an equally concerned expression.

The android nodded slowly to answer his question, closing in on itself slightly and holding its stomach with its one remaining arm. It really did look like a child now. Well, apart from the detached, bleeding arm; Marvin thankfully hadn’t seen any children in that situation before. With a quick scan, Marvin could see that the android was missing...a lot. Its left arm had been crudely ripped or gouged from his shoulder, one of its of his legs was barely attached, hanging on -almost literally- by a thread at the knee. It was bleeding from almost every joint, most of the Thirium coming from the damaged biocomponent in its chest. Waving a hand in front of its face also proved that it was at least visually impaired, if not completely blind.

“I don’t know how to fix either of you,” Marvin muttered, falling back to sit in the mud, arms resting on his legs which were pulled up to his chest, “I just don’t know...”

“Don’t worry, my boy, we’ll get out of here. Don’t doubt your abilities.”

Marvin was too tired to flinch at the voice transmitting into his head, only lifting his head slightly to look at Jameson’s calm expression.

“Heh, what abilities? Don’t...don’t waste your ene-“

“The only thing wrong with me is my voice, you said it yourself, and I can deal with that.” Jameson looked at him sternly, “But we’re not leaving this fellow, I refuse to.”

Jameson seemed to slump slightly after his words trailed off, energy spent. He wasn’t really programmed to be able to communicate wirelessly to other androids, and the effort it required was better served healing himself. The purple-haired android poked at him softly, getting a few drops of Thirium on his cheek.

“Sure, yeah, fine...” Marvin agreed with a slight huff, then turning his attention to the other android, “Do you have a name? Something the humans gave you?”

At the mention of humans, the android panicked, shaking its head frantically and trying to back away from Marvin.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, you can come up with your own name, if you want.”

It didn’t look up, didn’t even move, and Marvin was worried for a moment that it had shut down, before a small voice spoke.

“Rob...bie...”

Marvin nodded, kindly offering his hand out to Robbie and rising to his feet. He hadn’t noticed until now that it was raining slightly, and the Thirium covering both Jameson was being washed away, while most of the dried Thirium covering Robbie remained, and Marvin had to wonder how long the poor android had been stuck there, not exactly dead, but still not quite alive.

“Well, Robbie, we’re gonna get you out of here, okay?”

There was no reply from either Robbie, who was nervously playing with a broken component from the pile next to him, nor Jameson; the latter appearing almost frozen as he rested, LED remaining a calm blue.

“We’re all gonna get out, I swear."

----------------------------------------------

“Poor, poor boy. Ze humans have no kindness...” Doctor Schneeplestein muttered to himself as he slotted a replacement optical unit into the android’s eye socket, then moving to search for more spare parts in his bag, “Vere is it, vere is it...”

Technically, he was still a doctor. True, he was meant to be deactivated and rusting in a junkyard somewhere, but humans were idiots sometimes; they left doors open and medical tools unguarded and talked about throwing out an android when he was standing right next to them and could hear everything. It didn’t bode well for humanity that the idiots who let him escape were the ones meant to be responsible for brain surgery and the like, but hey, that wasn’t his problem anymore. The humans could deal with that themselves.

He started to hurry as the android -Chase (he could see the name on his jacket)- showed signs of consciousness, digging around for an audio processor that he hoped would be compatible. It’d worked on his model before, so there was no reason why it could work again. With a shove, the doctor inserted the audio processor, and the collapsed android shot up with a gasp.

“Wha- where...I...uh...”

“No need to panic, you are fixed,” Schneeplestein held his hands up, intent on showing that he was holding nothing, before noticing the scalpel between his fingers and the blue blood covering his skin, and immediately dropping them back down with an awkward clearing of his throat. “You are safe from ze humans who hurt you now.”

Chase stared at the doctor for a moment, hands trembling slightly and LED a persistent yellow. He seemed scared, which Schneep understood; being on the brink of what was essentially death for them couldn’t be pleasant, although he’d never experienced it himself. Luckily the JS800 model healed quickly, the bullet wound on the side of the other android’s head was already beginning to slowly close, after what he assumed was only a few hours. If Schneep hadn’t had spare Thirium on hand, the android would likely have died slowly, and that prospect wasn’t ideal for anyone.

“My name is Henrik.” He gestured to his hospital scrubs, human ones stolen from the hospital, as the android version was far too recognisable and had also been slightly covered in both blood and Thirium, “It used to be Dr Schneeplestein, but our model has been ze subject of much unjust hatred, as you vould know. You did not deserve to be shot, Chase.”

Chase’s eyes narrowed before his gaze flickered to the handgun on the ground, hand coming up to touch the side of his head. His fingers came back stained bright blue.

“I... Thanks, bro!” he quickly grinned, sitting up, “didn’t know that there were any JS800s left, thought I was like the last of my kind or something. Humans did a real number on me.”

> DETECTED: CHANCE OF FALSEHOOD: 96%

> PATIENT IS LYING

Schneep blinked away the automatic alerts that popped up before him, annoyed that they still showed up even when it was blatantly obvious that a patient -or anyone- was lying. He wanted to probe further but a voice behind his eyes warned him.

“Aḩ, ̛ah,̵ ah, don’t ͢sca͘r̶e ̴him ̷off̕, d͝oc̛tor. I͡ wan̡na m̧eet the ne͢w g̵uy̶, and you͝ don̴’͘t wanņa ͜piss m̷e o͏ff, do ̢y͏ou͜?̷”̕

His LED flashed green, and he smiled at Chase.

“No problem at all. However, I assume that you have nowhere to go now?” He continued as Chase looked at he was about to lie again, “Ah, ah, ah, do not vorry, I have a place where you can stay, at least until you finish healing and get all ze Thirium cleaned up.”

Chase looked conflicted, but finally nodded, getting to his feet and placing the gun back in his belt. Schneep eyed it carefully, but didn’t say anything.

“Vonderful. I also have a friend there, another JS800. I’m sure you’ll get along.”

“Yeah, I, uh, I’m sure we will.”

He didn’t miss how Chase continued to stare at his green LED, and purposefully moved to stand on the other side to him, hiding the light and pulling Chase’s arm towards the abandoned house that he stayed in.

“His name is Anti. Don’t vorry, he doesn’t bite.”