Puma's POV

Connor gave me a wink, and I gotta admit, it was kind of hot.

What the hell is wrong with you? I thought to myself as I covered my face with Connor's jacket.

He's my partner, plus an android. I'm not allowed to think of him like that. He can't possibly feel the same way for me. I thought as I walked through the elevator door. Can he? I looked over at Connor, whose eyes were closed. No. He can't. Dad was having a fun time waving and snapping his fingers in front of the android's face.

"You suppose he's out of batteries?" Dad joked. I gave a laugh.

"No, probably not."

The elevator doors opened, so Dad and I stepped through. Connor has been left behind, still, standing eyes closed in the elevator.

"Hey, Connor!" Dad called. "You ran outta batteries or what?"

Connor finally opened his eyes. "I'm sorry. I was making a report to CyberLife."

"Well do you plan on staying in the elevator?" Dad said, sarcasm ringing in his voice.

"No!" Connor said defensively. "I'm coming!"

We all walked down the hallway of the building. "What do we know about the suspect?"

"Not much. Just that the neighbor heard strange noises coming from this floor. Nobody is supposed to be living here, but the neighbor saw a man hiding an LED under his cap."

"Ah Christ, if we have to investigate every time someone hears a strange noise, we're gonna need more cops."

I gave out a laugh. Dad leaned on the door as Connor knocked. When hearing no answer, the android looked at Dad as he shrugged.

"Anybody home? Open up! Detroit Police!" Connor shouted.

"FBI open up..." I muttered right after, rocking back and forth on my heels.

We heard a sudden crash and glanced at each other.

"Stay behind me," Dad said, mostly talking to me.

"Got it." Connor nodded as I stood behind Dad as well. Dad kicked the door down with his foot and walked in. Both of us trailed behind.

Connor did his room scan before slipping in to look through another room. My hand automatically crawled up to where my gun was, but I didn't take it out. Dad had his gun pulled out as he walked in through an open door at the far end of the hallway.

"What the fuck is this?!" Dad exclaimed as about five pigeons flew out of the room. I ducked.

"Pigeons."

We walked into the room as Dad lowered his gun. My hand slipped from my gun. "Looks like we came for nothing. Our man is gone."

Connor was already investigating everything. He was inspecting some sort of jacket. "R.T. Probably initials."

"He put his initials on his jacket? That's something your mom does when you're in first grade."

Meanwhile, I was looking at a poster. It seemed to have been taken down many times and put back up. There was a bent corner on the upper right-hand side. I peeled down the poster, seeing it was covering a hole in the wall. A book lay in the hole. I picked it up, listing it through. It had all these funny drawings of something that looked like mazes or lines.

Probably encrypted. I decided.

"You find something?" Dad turned to me.

"I found his diary. Or I think it's a diary. It's no use anyway, it's encrypted."

I heard Dad correct the androids' gender quietly under his breath, but I decided to ignore it.

"Rupert Travis. The driver's license is fake." Connor stated after a while of silence and Dads' complaining about pigeons.

"Cool, at least we didn't come for nothing."

I walked over to the fridge and opened it to find there was no food left. "So it was an android," I muttered.

"Obviously. How could someone live with these fuckin' things?" Dad exclaimed.

"It's confirmed it was an android. It's LED is in the sink." Connor said. He'd made his way toward the sink.

"Figures," I called as a response.

"Birdseed. I can't believe it. This nut job was actually feeding these fuckers."

"Nice to know androids have a heart." I joked as I walked into another room. It gave me chills because the same "rA9" writing was written across the entire wall.

"Talk about obsessions," I whispered as I neared the wall. "Any idea what it means?"

"rA9. Written two thousand four hundred and seventy-one times. It's the same sign Oritz' android wrote on the shower wall. Why are they so obsessed with this sign?"

"They look like... mazes or something." I said, not knowing how to answer Connor's question.

The android didn't respond. He led through a trail, picking up things I couldn't figure out.

What are the reasons for his actions?

With slight amusement I watched Connor scan the most random things, such as door frames and a birdcage. He crept toward a corner of the room on the ceiling. There was a couch of some sort and the ceiling seemed to be covered by something.

Then, everything happened too fast for me to register what was going on. A blur of something jumped onto Connor, toppling him over. There were pigeons everywhere, receiving a "Goddamn fucking pigeons!" from my dad.

"What are you waiting for? Chase it!" He yelled.

My brain started processing everything as the blur, the deviant ran out the door. Connor got up and chased after as I ran after him, adrenaline taking over me.

No. I need to think logically. Think Puma. Think.

There's no time to think. I heard another voice in my head as I dashed after Connor.

The deviant pushed over a shelf as I swiftly hopped over it. The deviant ran for the fire door on the roof, Connor and I chasing it closely. I bust open through the door to see the deviant jumping over to another room through the UFD fields. I jumped without hesitation, feeling the impact on my feet. I kept running as I ran to hop up a wall. I sprinted to hop on a truck, only feeling the blood pumping in my ears. I ran around a greenhouse instead of going inside, it seemed safer. I jumped from one building to another through a window, locking my eyes on the deviant. My only objective. He ran in between blurs of green and grey as I dashed after him. He slid under a closing door as I almost slammed into it, running toward another exit. I forced myself to keep moving as sunlight blinded my eyes. I spotted a ladder and quickly climbed up, jumping over an employee and pushing another out the way. The deviant was within a yard reach from me. He hopped down and I followed, crashing on a glass rooftop. I slid down the roof and dodged an open glass block. I let out a yelp as I crashed onto the top of a train, but I regained my balance and made a mad dash toward the deviant. I forced myself to run to the edge to another ladder as I climbed after the deviant. I followed him and hopped up a wall to run in a park of some sort. I felt my adrenaline wearing off as I started to slow down.

Shit. I thought to myself, running in between the many trees. I saw a possible shortcut and ran around a building, hopping onto yet another wall. I met a field of corn and ran beside it, to a clearing on the roof. I pulled out my gun as I went for the deviant. He was right in front of me. I could mindfully damage it, but I didn't want to risk hitting an important biocomponent.

"Stop right there!" I tackled him.

Finally. I got him.

The deviant turned toward me with a smirk and pushed me over the railing.

Connor's POV

I heard a yelp coming from up ahead as I got into the clearing of the cornfields. The deviant had pushed Puma and was running in the opposite direction. Puma clung on tightly as I scanned my options.

Chase deviant?

Save Puma (chance of survival 89%)

This deviant could be the answer, I can't just let it go. But this is going to affect my relationship with Puma. And I can't let her die. Something about her will not let me.

Software instability^

Popped up in the corner as I pulled Puma up with both hands and she embraced me into a hug, breathing heavily.

Puma: friend^

Hank: friend^

Puma's BPM: 180

I pat her on the back as I heard Lieutenant Andrson run up to us.

"Shit, we had it." I heard her whisper to herself into my shoulder. Her heart was still pumping very fast against my chest. Again, I felt that strange feeling of her being pressed up against me for the second time today. I checked to see if I was malfunctioning.

No malfunction detected.

"It's my fault. I should've been faster." I spoke up.

"But you would've caught it if it weren't for me." She looked up at me. All I could do was glance back into her hazel eyes.

Lieutenant coughed and we broke apart. "Yeah, sorry don't wish to ruin your lovey-dovey shit but..." he moved to hug his daughter, who hugged him back. "It's alright. We know what it looks like. We'll find it." He looked up at Puma. "You alright? Puma?"

Detective nodded. She was still in shock.

"Come on, I have to get home." She said and started walking back down where we came from.

"Puma, I believe we can make a shortcut by going down the ladder right there, lieutenant's car can be seen from here." I started trying to help her out.

She looked back at me, and after a couple of seconds said, "I'd rather take the safer path. Longer. But safer." Puma turned and disappeared behind the cornfields. Lieutenant Anderson began walking down from the roof by an emergency exit.

"Hey, Connor." He turned around. I perked my head up. "Nothing." he waved his hand and walked down the steps. I looked at him, confused, but followed after Puma in the cornfields.

I caught up to her as she was taking a flight of stairs down from the building. She whipped her head around.

"Oh, hey Connor." She said and continued walking. I walked next to her but decided not to make small talk. We walked in silence until we reached the car. Lieutenant Anderson was waiting in the car for us. None of us spoke as Puma sat in the car and quickly fell asleep.

"Okay fine. Thank you Connor for saving my daughter from dying." Lieutenant said after six minutes and fifty-three seconds.

"I was only doing what was asked of me to do to make a stronger bond with Detective Puma." I lied.

"Don't lie to me, Connor. You look like you care about her. What was asked of you to do was to accomplish your mission. Not save your partner when she's in danger." Lieutenant Anderson looked in the rearview mirror.

"You're correct, Lieutenant Anderson." I nodded.

"You fucking saved my daughter from death. Call me Hank."

"Understood, Hank."

A/N: such a sweet little chapter. Also spoiler next chapter Hank is gonna be super pissed at Lia XD haha

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