Chapter Text
Gavin felt his mouth go dry as he stared at the imposing architecture of his half-brother’s mansion. It was definitely….showy, if nothing else. Which he supposed also applied to Eli himself. Tough outer exterior hiding a little bitch inside.
Which wasn’t to say he wasn’t still intimidated by the sight. If supervillains were real, Gavin concluded that the architect who designed this would probably also work for them. All sharp angles, dark corners, spread out over the hillside overlooking Cyberlife tower, which he could faintly see off in the distance.
Probably started off as a point of pride, but now that Eli had left, probably more of a bitter reminder. Not that Gavin would know. He could count on one hand the amount of times he’d spoken to his older brother over the last decade or so. The man was always either so busy, or so distant, holding him at bay with promises to gift him with riches and androids, which...Gavin wasn’t super interested in. It was deflection and he knew that. Putting off the effort of actually speaking to him.
Which, to be fair, Gavin was doing right now.
He let out a deep sigh, breath frosting in the chilly air, and he stepped forward, slamming the door to his car shut behind him. Pulling his jacket in closer to ward off the bitter cold, he made his way up towards the ramp leading to the front door.
The only sound was the crunching of his footsteps in the snow, lips trembling slightly, wondering why he’d taken so long to stop daydreaming and get on with it. Gavin was freezing his ass off out here: he could only hope that Eli had remembered to actually turn the damn heating on.
He thumped a fist against the door rapidly as he approached it, repeatedly shifting his weight, an anxious fidget, keeping moving to try and stay warm. Maybe his leather jacket alone was a bad idea in this weather. Impatience swept over him, and he knocked at the door again, less than a minute after the first one.
Gavin only got the chance to knock one more time before the door swung open, Gavin quickly stepping back and sheepishly lowering his hand as Chloe gave him a patient, long suffering smile.
“Good afternoon, Gavin.” The android said evenly, LED a calm blue, though there was a hint of the customer-service-frustration bubbling just under the surface of her composure, which Gavin found very normal in most androids that interacted with him. Fair.
“Y-yo.” He stammered out, teeth chattering, internally cussing himself out at his inability to even say one word without sounding like a complete dumbass.
If she found it funny, she gave no indication, though the lax speed at which she looked him over before stepping aside to let him into the house indicated she took pleasure in the act. Again, fair. He’d never exactly been particularly kind to her before the revolution, and it was only because of Nines that he was putting in more of an effort now.
“Elijah’s expecting you.” She said patiently, glancing at him as he tracked in snow and dirt over the clean, polished floors, lips pursing slightly.
“He’s waiting in his workshop. I’m sure you know the way.”
Well, he didn’t, but she was making it pretty clear she’d rather not spend anymore time with Gavin than was absolutely necessary.
….fair.
He just nodded, belatedly dragging his shoes over a mat, before shuffling off through the building, hoping to follow the trail of “nerd” to where he could find Eli. His footsteps echoed through the halls, as both the floor and walls were made out of polished, shiny stone. Made the place feel cold, both in aesthetic and literal. So much for the fucking heating.
It took half an hour of wandering through the damn facility before he gave up and decided to call. Grumbling obscenities to himself, Gavin pulled out his phone, tapping to call his most recent contact, and scowled as he held his phone to his ear.
Within seconds of answering, Gavin already immediately regretted doing this. There was a hint of both amusement and exhaustion in Eli’s voice as the phone clicked.
“Gavin, that’s my bedroom. The door on your right is my bedroom. Literally go down that hall and you’ll find me. Fucking hell.” And there was another click as he hung up.
Great. So Eli already knew how useless he was. Why hadn’t the damn nerd tried to contact him before?! What an asshole.
Feeling his face flush red, he sniffled a bit, nose still running from the cold as he sulkily stomped towards the direction Eli had indicated. Pushing the door open, he was simultaneously relieved and embarrassed as he saw Elijah’s workshop, the man himself spinning around on his chair supervillain style and sipping a mug of coffee, single brow raised.
“Shut up.” Gavin grumbled, cheeks a mottled pink as he kicked the door closed behind him, hands shoved in his pockets as he approached the amused inventor, the fucking asshole.
“The hell’d you want me here for again? And can it with the techno-jargon-” Gavin snarled as he saw Eli’s mouth open to respond, firmly pointing a finger at him. “For once in your life, pretend you’re a normal human being that wasn’t man of the century. Talk like a person.”
Elijah let out a deep, world-weary sigh, and rolled his eyes theatrically as he set his mug down.
“Fine. I’m working on tech that will be able to read brainscans and function like another limb, for prosthetics or working with heavy machinery. I need you here, so I can get a scan of your brain. I have to make it so they can work with any sort of brain scan, and not just mine. And yes,” He huffed. “I’ll fucking pay you, before you ask. By the way, hi, so lovely to see you again, baby brother, so glad all you want from me is money.”
Gavin felt his face burn. “That’s not- shut up!”
Eli let out a mean laugh as he stood, blithely sauntering over to the other side of the room, clearly expecting Gavin to follow. He did, though he wasn’t happy about it, dragging his feet slightly and hoping the noise would annoy Eli. It didn’t.
“Lay down on the stupid table so I can get a stupid scan of your stupid brain already.” And he grandly gestured to what literally look like his normal worktable, considering it probably was. He’d moved the clutter off of it (and onto the floor, it looked like), and there was what looked like one of those hair-drying things that are put in women’s salons sitting at the end.
Wrinkling his scarred nose, Gavin levelled him with a look, but climbed on and laid out flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling as he shifted and squirmed to get into the right position. Despite this, Eli let out a sound like all of the world’s problems were Gavin’s fault, and he started moving things around, placing suction cups on Gavin’s forehead and adjusting the machine to cover his head properly.
“Look, this’ll take, like, ten seconds, then you can get up, leave my house, and go back to pretending I don’t exist. No time at all.” Eli drawled, voice low and irritated, and there was a humming as the machine started up.
To Kamski’s credit, it didn’t take very long at all for it to go horribly wrong.