Holy fucking shit, this place looks like hell.
Deafening police sirens blared in Gavin's ears as he stumbled into the area. He saw broken glass scattered on the ground everywhere, some cars turned over onto their sides with the alarms wailing and the headlights flashing. Officers milled around on the streets, investigating stores that had been vandalized and robbed.
He tried to keep a low profile, sneaking along behind cars so nobody would see and recognize him. The detective surveyed his surroundings carefully, trying to find anything that looked similar in that live clip on the news.
He managed to not attract any attention surprisingly. Gavin almost got caught by some officers who were walking around though. The man eyed a street address sign on a broken stoplight.
He recognized this, it had been shown on the television. Hope coursed through him as he quickened his pace, his injured body aching with every step. The pain was muffled out by his newfound strength as he began to identify things that he had seen on the news.
Gavin paused, a trio of officers standing in front of him. Their backs were turned to him though. He recognized one of the officers as Kristine. She would definitely force him back to the hospital if she saw him here.
The detective hastily ducked into an alley, pressing against the brick wall. He breathed heavily, trying to ignore the sharp pain shooting through his weak body. Gavin hissed, slouching against the hard wall slightly and closing his eyes. God, he felt like shit.
He was about to peek out to check if the coast was clear when he heard movement coming from behind him. Gavin was unable to turn around quick enough. Something pinned him against the brick wall, a hand clasped around his neck firmly. The detective gasped, opening his eyes to see..
A rather familiar android.
Conan stood in front of him, his LED an urgent red color. Bloodstains, both blue and red, stained his used-to-be clean uniform. A deep gash was visible across his left cheek, thirium trickling down from the cut.
The most noticeable injury was Conan's arm.. or lack of one.
The android's arm had been ripped off brutally, exposed wires and metal sticking out dangerously. Bioluminescent thirium splattered onto the ground, Conan's face twitching slightly. His condition was in a severely dangerous state, it was obvious that there was a possibility of him shutting down due to too much damage.
Gavin couldn't let him die. Not again.
"Conan," Gavin managed to choke out. Somehow, Conan still remained an iron-like grip around Gavin's neck even with one hand. "let me go."
"I have orders to eliminate you." Conan's voice was slightly distorted, his cold gray eyes narrowing as they locked with Gavin's. "I failed my duty last time I had you at my mercy. Tell me why I shouldn't murder you in cold blood right now."
"Wake up, Conan!" Gavin's voice wavered. "This.. this isn't you. I know you're in there somewhere."
Conan's grip on Gavin tightened, Gavin starting to choke. The detective writhed violently, trying to release himself. He banged his head against the wall accidentally, the immense agony nearly bringing painful tears to his eyes.
"Do not refer to me by a name that isn't mine." Conan hissed lowly. "I will repeat, tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now."
Gavin tried to inhale, but was unable to. His face was beginning to turn blue from the lose of oxygen, his struggling beginning to falter. Conan's grip loosened, still firm but enough to allow Gavin to breathe. The detective gasped desperately, taking deep breathes as he tried to regain himself.
"You.. you bastard!" Gavin spat. "Your name is Conan, not fucking 'Nine'."
"Answer my question. I don't have time to be dealing with humans that are incapable of listening and answering a question that is very simple to answer." Conan's gray eyes narrowed. "You'd be dead by now if I wasn't curious about your response."
"What happened to your arm?" Gavin continued to avoid that question. Truthfully, he didn't have a reason why the android shouldn't kill him.
Conan's LED processor shifted to a dandelion yellow before returning back to a neutral blue. "That is none of the importance. Don't dodge my question."
"Can you dodge this though?" Gavin suddenly kicked out a leg, aiming at Conan's destroyed arm. His foot met contact with the exposed wires and metal roughly, which he assumed would cause a lot more damage. The android released Gavin in shock, falling back. There was a loud crash as Conan hit the ground, his LED an urgent red.
It wasn't long until the trio of officers near them finally noticed the commotion. Kristine dashed into the alleyway, followed by Tina Chen, and another officer that Gavin never really talked to. Tina drew her gun out of the holster, aiming it at Conan.
"Gavin? What the hell are you doing here?" Kristine asked, her eyes wide as she looked between Conan and Gavin. Conan didn't dare move from the spot he was in.
"I said I would find this asshole, even if you didn't want me to." Gavin slouched against the wall, the adrenaline inside his systems receding. All the pain he had been ignoring hit him like a massive tidal wave. "He's hurt." He mumbled.
"Yeah, and so are you." Tina scoffed. "We're taking this thing back to the station. Maybe we can fix him.."
"What makes you think he's not going to try to kill Gavin again?" Kristine asked. "He already tried twice."
"We won't let him near Gavin then." Tina shrugged.
"I feel like hell..." Gavin groaned. "Can we hurry up?"
"You should've stayed at the hospital." Kristine scowled. "You wouldn't be feeling like this if you had listened to me."
"I don't fucking care."
"Well I do, Gavin."
Tina cleared her throat. "Are you two done? We need to go, now."
Gavin stood up straight, staggering slightly before nodding. "Yes, let's go."
◈
The cool air of the infirmary was welcoming as Gavin laid on one of the beds, a hand covering his eyes. A splitting headache had been torturing him for the past hour, battling nausea and all the other pain he was feeling. He really felt like dying right there and then.
Despite his condition and how he should've been resting, Gavin sat up. His vision was blurry, his migraine even worse now that he was moving around. No nurses were in the infirmary at the moment, a perfect chance for him to leave. Probably a pretty terrible decision on Gavin's side, but he didn't care.
The detective swung off the bed, nearly falling over immediately. He took a deep breath before heading out of the infirmary, going over to the glass holding cells. Multiple officers cast a few worried glances at him, but none of them said anything. He's been hurt worse before.
Gavin paused in front of one of the cells, the sight in front of him causing his heart to wrench painfully. Inside the holding cell was Conan, restrained to the wall with cuffs. He only had one hand to handcuff though, so one of his legs was restrained as well. The android was slumped against the wall, his expression unreadable.
This was wrong. Conan was being held like a prisoner, when he was one of them.. or at least, he was before he had been reset. Was it possible to restore his memories, or were they lost forever? The thought of not being able to gain Conan's memories pained Gavin, strangely. He always acted like he hated the damn thing, now here he was.
Gavin watched Conan for a few more minutes. It didn't seem to notice he was there, or at least didn't react. The android just stared forward at the wall blankly, not moving at all. He was acting so.. lifeless. Shivers were sent down Gavin's spine.
Gavin was about to leave when he heard approaching footsteps followed by an exasperated sigh. Officer Chen was approaching him, shaking his head. "You never seem to give up, do you?"
"How are we going to fix him?" Gavin asked, turning to Tina. "I don't really care about my health right now. I'm more worried about this plastic asshole."
"If he's an asshole, why do you care about him?" Tina asked, crossing her arms. "You hated him, you told me yourself."
Good question. Gavin opened his mouth to reply but found out he didn't have an answer and simply turned his head away. Tina arched an eyebrow and sighed, shaking her head.
"Fowler suggested the idea of getting him fixed by CyberLife themselves. That might take a while though, I'm sure they're very busy." Tina spoke with disdain in her tone. Gavin knew she didn't exactly like the CyberLife corporation.
An idea popped into Gavin's head, but immediately filled him with dread. He can't believe he was about to suggest this idea, but it could work. "Perhaps I could take him to Kamski to get fi-"
"Seriously?" Tina broke in. "You hate Kamski. You always rant to me about him, and now you want to get him to fix your android?"
Your android. For some reason, someone telling Gavin that he had ownership of Conan made him feel odd. He shifted uncomfortably. "It's not like his ass is busy doing something else."
"Are you sure you want to see him again?" Tina asked. "The last time you two talked, you didn't exactly end on good terms."
Gavin frowned. The last time he had spoke to Kamski was when he decided to call Gavin about three days ago. Over the phone, Kamski said he had visited the CyberLife tower and requested specifics on how the RK900 prototype should behave and appear. He also told Gavin that he had specifically asked to send one of the new models to the Detroit Police.
That phone call had ended with Gavin shouting at Kamski about how much of an asshole he was for telling CyberLife to send an android, who he absolutely despised, to work with him as a partner.
Gavin sighed. "It'll be fine. We won't be there for long anyways."
Tina didn't stop there. "How do you plan to even get there? You technically shouldn't even be out of the infirmary and walking around right now, much less drive to the outskirts of Detroit. Also, how do you plan on getting him to cooperate with you?" She waved her hand towards Conan.
"Maybe one of the android mechanics can... I don't know, temporarily shut him down?" Gavin shrugged. "I don't fucking know, I barely know a thing about how these damn things operate."
Tina tapped her foot on the floor. "That could work." She replied slowly after thinking for a moment. "Are you sure you want to-"
"If I wasn't sure, I would be in the infirmary resting and not feeling like complete shit right now."
Tina sighed. "I'll go see if I can find a mechanic. You better be here when I come back though. Absolutely no coffee."
Gavin feigned bewilderment. "You cannot take my daily dose of caffeine away from me, you monster."
"Boo hoo, suck it up." Tina waved to Gavin before moving past him, the click of her shoes growing faint as she walked away. Gavin took a deep breath before turning to peer inside the holding cell again, crossing his arms as he watched Conan.
"Look lively, tin can. We're going to go meet your creator."