"Oh...Hey Hank...?"

-

Avery said uneasily, knowing he'd kind of blown up at Hank the other night. He avoided his eyes and attempted not to remember what he'd said. How pathetic, in just a year of working together he'd reached his limit, he'd need a little more patience than that if he wanted to survive with Hank.

Hank of course, remembered. He didn't go to the bar after that night, nor did he drink any alcohol. He hadn't exactly considered how he'd made his partner feel with the constant gambling on his life right in front of him especially after being told his background with the whole previous partner being knifed by an android before becoming Hank's partner. He kept quiet about it, knowing Avery wouldn't appreciate talking about it when they had a job to do right now.

"Come on kid, we got things to do." Hank gestured as he passed, Avery made sure to lock his car and follow suit, Connor trailing closely behind, making sure Avery wouldn't potentially self-destruct with his stress at a totally, very, absolutely chill 79%. They took the elevator up with Connor standing in-between them just in case, still doing coin tricks mind you, it was until Hank snapped about it. "You're pissin' me off with that little coin of yours, Connor!"

"Apologies, Lieutenant."

"79th floor." The elevator's voice chimed out and they stepped into the expansive room, it was packed with people just going about. He had to squeeze past five people before he even made it to the control panel with Connor and Hank where they could talk with Chris and see what happened.

"Shit, what's going on here? There was a party and nobody told me about it?" Hank remarked sarcastically as people threw out apologies left and right pushing past each other in a rush all doing their own individual thing all in a hurry. It felt like being in Times Square, everyone was busy in some way or another and no one ever seemed to stop. "Yeah, it's all over the news, so everybody's butting their nose in. Even the FBI wants a piece of the action..."

"Ah christ, now we got the Feds on our back, I knew this was gonna be a shitty day…So what do we got?" Hank muttered, knowing there was no way this web of deviancy would be left to just the DPD now. All of America would be alerted to what was happening in Detroit if the goddamn Feds were on their ass about it. "A group of four androids, they knew the building, and they were very well organized. I'm still trying to figure out how they got this far without being noticed."

Avery tried to focus on Chris' words, but just couldn't, he could hear him but wasn't processing anything he was saying. He was too distracted with everything else, the urge to wander, run, blow off some steam somehow was nagging at him. People and their voices filled his brain, there wasn't much room for whatever Chris was saying. "They attacked two guards in the hallway, they probably thought the androids were coming to do maintenance. They got taken down before they could react,"

"One of the station employees managed to get away. He's in shock, not sure when we'll be able to talk to him..." Chris finished and Avery wandered over to the broadcast panel to take a look. He watched the video intently, studying the structure and features of the android. He knew most things about the androids, he'd helped build some of the first and he knew how they worked, not to mention Elijah always sent him spare parts to just gush about the work his employees managed to pull off after every new breakthrough liKE A FUCKIN' NEEERRRDDD-

Now wasn't really the time to dunk on his brother though. He recognised this may be the RA9 every deviant they'd encountered had been madly scribbling about. But…how had they even learned about RA9 so casually? It wasn't like this was common propaganda, deviants in hiding could barely leave safehouses much less go around telling androids the wonders of an android jesus archetype who would one day free them from human ownership. He was still a little confused, maybe it was instinct? Word of mouth? The casual passerby mentioning it aloud and the android would remember? The internet?

"Connor? Could you check the CCTV? There's cameras around here, right Chris?" Avery asked and he nodded, Connor obliged and disappeared to go check the camera footage as requested. He continued to watch the broadcast given by RA9. Something about it felt so familiar, he wished his brain wasn't so muddled in the past week, had it not been thrown into an emotional and physical blender, maybe he would remember.

"Goddamnit." He set his head on the panel, intent with slamming it instead but knew he'd only get a headache and he needed to be healthy in order to continue working. Who knows, maybe if he hit his head hard enough, he'd shake loose whatever he was forgetting from his brain place.

"...You okay kid?" Hank asked gently, for the first time he actually sounded more genuinely worried, without any anger this time towards a dumb decision he'd made. Avery sighed, burying his head under his hands as he tried to think, racking through his brain trying to remember. He couldn't. He needed something related to whatever he was forgetting to jumpstart his memory. "No...I can't remember...something."

"Well, you'll remember eventually. It's okay, we just got here, you don't gotta solve it on a dime like our fuckin' android buddy here does."

"Heh, thanks."

"I have finished reviewing the CCTV footage, Lieutenant."

"Connor, when are you gonna stop being allergic to my name?—It's been a while since I've corrected you on that."

"Sorry, Avery."

"Let's go check out them androids." Avery sighed and walked with Connor in stride to take a look at the supposed androids that helped maintain the Strafford Tower.

"State your model."

"Model JB300, serial 336 445 581."