Hollow Point Happiness

Data Entry: 4/6/2298

Defrag walked down the alley, it was below freezing and the fog was dense. A normal-ish day for Earth. It was 9 pm and it was almost pitch black. Defrag finished walking and stood at the exact cords that they had sent to Chris. 15 minutes later Defrag heard steps coming down the alley.

Chris rounded the corner and stood no more than 20 ft away from the hulking hooded figure of Defrag.

"I'm here."
"Indeed. Please provide what was asked of you."

Chris was slow but began to unbutton his jacket. He put his hand on the handle of the pistol.

"Mr. Cartwin, I have one other thing to as of you."
Chris froze, "Yes, what is it?"

Defrags clock started to rustle as their arm emerged, Chris's eyes shot wide open. Defrag lifted the unconscious body of Aja into the air in front of themselves.

"I need to to know if you were indeed the one that hired this Hydra."

Chris didn't know what to say. Before he began to speak something happened that stopped him from, Defrag sleeve starts to fall down the reveal the Hydra decal on their arm.

Chris thought, "How the fuck... oh god... if Defrag is somehow a Hydra then that means they'll kill me since I hired them... oh god... what do I say..."

"It is not a difficult question. Provide your answer."
Chris swallowed and shakily spoke, "No I did not."
"Lying is unbecoming of you."

Defrag closed their crushing grip, causing blood and sparkes to erupt from Aja's neck as Defrag dropped the body to the ground.

"Don't worry about the other one, he was simply more resistant to the drugs so I had to kill him on the spot. Now then, the pistol Mr. Cartwin."

Chris flinched but finished pulling out the pistol, and slowly walked towards Defrag, stepping over the body he hands it off.

Chris was sweating a storm, "Defrag. What did you do to Chuck?"

Defrag put the pistol under their cloak.

"I shot him in the head, his node is still intact."
Relief washed over Chris, "Oh, thank god."
Defrag turned to walk away and stopped after a few steps, "The powers you have to thank are far more mortal than god Mr. Cartwin." Then resumed walking.

...

Defrag sat down in a rental car.

Speaking to the car's AI, "Take me to Pluto, Biodome Y3."
"The ride will take 23 hours with gates and will be 363 New Euro."
"That's fine."

Defrag looked at the pistol and thought, "I must say, killing a clan head was a tall order but having the Hydras distracted and scattered makes them easy targets. It was a brilliant idea."

Defrag ran a bloody finger of the caduceus, "Well, Robert. We've come a long way. Mana too. You would have been so proud of her."
The car's AI spoke, "I'm sorry I don't seem to understand."

Defrag was quiet for a few hours, looking out at the planets and the stars.

After some time Defrag found their thoughts wandering again and spoke quietly to themself, "Are we... am I... evil?"

Looking at the pistol and got the answer to their question, "Do Harm"

...

Defrag walked into the factory again after another 2 hour ATV ride. Walking to the secret doorway Defrag descended into the secret floor.

Victor saw them first, "Ah! Defrag your back."
"The test was a success, I need you to scale it up."
Al spoke, "So cold. But, we already started, as soon as the prototype worked we started building the scaled-up one."
"That is very good. That aside, I have to leave again quite soon, I've recently come into some information due to a fellow Hydras death that I need to look into. I'll be leaving in a few hours, until then what can I help with?"

Al rubbed his hands together and Victor cracked his knuckles.

Al spoke, "Well we just got to the good stuff, so what we need right now is money. Parts, resources, and the like."
Defrag processed for a moment, "Spend as you need, money is of no consequence. I've sent you both a million to start."
Victor smiled, "Let's get to work."