Partners [Path Unlocked 🔓]

Chapter 16 - Coffee and Cat Mugs

Hank stalked away from the table without so much as a parting word, LED a consistent yellow the whole way across the department floor and into the break room on the far side of the large open space, flickering, spinning, pulsing. Always yellow. However, when the android finally entered the room he sought and was firmly set on his course, the neutral blue finally returned, spinning its way slowly across the machine's temple to overtake the worrisome yellow and return the prototype to his natural composed state of being. Though that didn't mean Hank wasn't still vaguely wondering if dumping a cup of coffee over Connor's head would be against his programming.

The room Hank finally entered was small and relatively empty, a few tall, circular tables lined one wall and overtop of them a television hung, set to quietly play the news station in the background as the noisy hustle and bustle of daily office life nearly overpowered the smooth voice of the newscaster relaying the same story Amanda had just detailed - Though the man on screen - A Michael Webb by Hank's automatic facial scan - was giving a much more dramatic version featuring three humans who'd barely escaped with their lives yet lived to tell the tale... Except they actually did no such thing as Michael quickly muttered that said people were in shock and had been able to supply no actual information just before moving onto the next story.

The break room had an overall peaceful atmosphere, the blank, clean walls of the cozy room were all painted a demure gray and a potted plant sat in the near corner just by the doorway - Though a quick scan of the thing revealed it to be plastic and fake just as Hank himself was. The sound of a pot of coffee gurgling merrily to the end of its brewing cycle met the android's audio processors and when the machine glanced towards the sound he found a clean counter cluttered only by a coffee pot, a glass container of sugar, and a few foam cups stacked neatly atop one another.

The counter was backlit by a warm, yellow light that shimmered brightly off the glass pot filled nearly to the brim with the freshly brewed dark liquid, an onslaught of data flooding Hank's olfactory sensors as the android neared the item and plucked a cup from the top of the stack. Steam flooded forth from the mouth of the coffee pot, billowing up in great waves as the machine tipped the glass container in the slightest bit to send the burning hot liquid spilling out from the pot to fill the small cup.

The tiny sensors in Hank's fingertips brought up a rising temperature alert where they touched the outside of the coffee cup and the android paused for a moment as he returned the slightly lighter coffee pot to its rightful home and took the newly filled foam vessel from the counter. The HK800 model was well aware that the detective had easily tipped back a cup of coffee just as hot the day before at that god forsaken coffee shop without so much as wincing but that didn't mean the high temperature wasn't a note of concern. Anything higher than 145 degrees Fahrenheit had the potential to burn the human mouth and the coffee Hank currently held was measuring in at about 153 degrees Fahrenheit.

After only another moment's consideration, Hank blinked his stormy eyes once to bring up a program and let his LED cycle yellow a brief moment to activate the protocol. The synthetic skin covering the android's left hand fell way to reveal glistening, white plastic underneath, blue light shimmering forth where sleek material came to fissure together as the program began to work and a shivering chill picked up on the temperature sensors built into the android's hand. The unnatural light glowed softly but vibrantly, shining off sleek plastic and falling gently onto dull foam as the coffee inside the cup began to cool to a safer temperature.

Fire from his right hand and frost from his left. An odd design, certainly - The first of its kind ever actually put into practice on an android - But useful.

When the drink finally hit around 130 degrees, Hank determined it to be safe enough and finally let his synthetic skin fall back into place to cover up the machine underneath once more, satisfied that the beverage would be drinkable but not cold enough to let on that it had been tampered with in any way. The android was just about to step out of the break room when a familiar voice interrupted his retreat, loud with proximity and thus assuring the machine that the speaker had most certainly been nearby and had likely witnessed the whole scene.