The car ride was silent.
Cora sat in the passenger's seat while Connor sat in the back.
Hank's reasoning was because the asshole 2 didn't bother him as much as asshole 1 and because asshole 2 bought him a drink.
The slight quirk of lips, including the cycle of Cora's LED as it glanced at Connor could have been mistaken as smug at the slight twitch on Connor's eyebrows that could have been mistaken as annoyance.
Neither, of course thought too much about why they looked at each other that way, they simply figured their human expressions were designed for their integration to society.
Music blasted through the car, both androids glancing through the window, Connor fidgeting with its coin while Cora's finger tapped at its tight alongside the beat of the heavy metal song. Their brown eyes remained fixated to the outside until they noticed the onslaught of red and blue lights coming from the police cars parked outside a house when Hank parked his own car.
The music gone, Cora's fingers stopped tapping it's thigh and Connor immediately put its coin away.
"You both wait here" Hank's gruff voice caught both their attention, looking toward him almost in sync he almost has a heart attack. Fucking androids. "I won't be long"
Cora opened it's mouth to speak, feeling a slight pressure on its shoulder, meeting its gaze with Connor's through the rear view mirror.
"Whatever you say, Lieutenant" Connor replied for the two of them, patiently.
/\ Hank
Cora closed its mouth, noticing the action increased just slightly their status breach with the Lieutenant. Connor's hand fell from Cora's shoulder.
"Fucking-As, whatever I say..." Hank opened the car door, murmuring under his breath, watching the Androids look away, straight ahead before he walked off.
Conflicting Orders
SELECTING PRIORITY...
FOLLOW LT. ANDERSON
"Shall we, Connor?" Cora asked, once it's LED stopped cycling, opening the car door.
"Right behind you, Cora" Connor replied, opening its door.
The slight platter of rain soaking their hair and uniforms. Unbothered by trivial concerns, the pair of Androids walked past the crowd of reporters, and up to a holographic police tape.
A police android was the one to get in the way, holding a hand to stop the Androids, "Androids are not permitted beyond this point"
The RKs looked at the android officer before they heard from the house at the Lieutenant speak.
"They're with me" Hank called annoyed from the porch of the house, seeing the police android step back, letting the plastic assholes walk toward him where he was standing with another police officer. "What part of 'stay in the car' didn't you two understand?" he asked once the two were in front of him.
"Your order contradicted our instructions, Lieutenant" Cora told him, brushing one of its slight wet strands of hair out of its face.
Hank scowled, pointing at the two of them. "You don't talk, you don't touch anything and you stay outta my way, got it?"
In sync, the two androids nodded their agreement, "Got it"
The police officer behind the three was looking amused at the interaction, but was polite enough not to piss off the Lieutenant after not seeing him since the day prior, "Evening, Hank. We were starting to think you weren't gonna show"
Hank scoffed, pointing his thumb at the pair of Androids, "Yeah, that was the plan until this pair of assholes found me"
The officer glanced between him and the androids hesitantly, "So... you got yourself not one but two androids, huh?"
A mocking laugh came from the Lieutenant's mouth, glancing at the RKs "Oh, very funny" he said dryly, following the cop inside, now being serious. "Just tell me what happened"
Without looking at each other, Cora and Connor followed behind, hands neatly folded behind their backs as they tuned in to the debrief.
"We had a call around eight from the landlord. The tenant hadn't paid his rent for a few months, so he thought he'd drop by, see what was going on… That's when he found the body…"
"Jesus, that smell!" As soon as they walked in, the Androids noticed the way Hank scrunched his nose in disgust while the officer cringed just slightly, seemingly at the smell.
The Androids seemed unfazed. Cora tilted its head. Connor simply looked around.
"Was even worse before we opened the windows" the officer, Ben said dryly before continuing "The victim's name's Carlos Ortiz. He has a record for theft and aggravated assault-"
Updating mission status
- Review evidence
- Listen to debriefing
Cora walked further into the room, keeping its auditory sensors tuned in the debrief as it's mission stated, eyes landing on the slumped deceased figured against the wall, watching a bunch of flies swarm around the body.
[Scanning...]
[Scan completed]
DECEASED
ORTIZ, CARLOS
HEIGHT: 5'6" WEIGHT: 286.6 lbs
Estimated time of death: - 11:30 PM
This must be from where the unpleasant smell for the humans come from, Cora deduced after examining briefly the body. It's olfactory sensors picked up the coppery scent of the blood but nothing unpleasant triggered through its systems.
Cora knelt besides the body while Connor glanced around the scenario of the home, noticing the trashing and how unorganized it was.
Connor's head tilted aside. Didn't he own a household android? Systematic errors impeding it from completing its tasks?
"According to the neighbors, he was kind of a loner" Ben continued as Cora kept its eyes scanning the body for evidence, 28 stabs wounds. "Stayed inside most of the time, they hardly ever saw him"
Hank hummed, letting out a gruff sound "Uh, state he's in... Wasn't worth calling everybody out in the middle of the night… Could've waited 'til morning"
Connor noticed officer Ben give a slight shrug of his shoulders, "I'd say he's been there for a good three weeks. We'll know more when the coroner gets here. There's a kitchen knife over here" Connor walked toward the marked evidence, glancing down at the knife "Probably the murder weapon"
Cora stood, turning to face them.
"Any sign of a break-in?" Hank asked.
Ben shook his head, "Nope… The landlord said the front door was locked from the inside, all the windows were boarded up" He pointed toward the back door, Hank and the Androids following "The killer must've gone out the back way"
"What do we know about his android?" Hank asked
"Not much" Ben answered "The neighbors confirmed he had one, but it wasn't here when we arrived…" he let out a deep breath, speaking through a hitch of air in the back of his throat "Gotta get some air. Make yourself at home. I'll be outside if you need me"
With that, Ben immediately walked away.
./LISTEN TO DEBRIEFING
Mission completed
Pending objectives
- Review evidence
Cora returned back to the living room with the body while Connor walked toward the kitchen.
First, Cora walked toward the TV, scanning the red crystallized contents spilled by the TV stand, kneeling to scan better.
[Scan] RED ICE
Acetone, Lithium, Thirium,
Toluene, Hydrochloric Acid
./VICTIM USED DRUGS
Cora stood, walking away and then toward where the murder weapon was, kneeling next to it, seeing a yellow evidence mark around it, scanning the knife.
./No fingerprints
./ANDROID INVOLVEMENT ?
Cora glanced along the length of the knife, seeing traces of blood, letting two fingers carefully swipe through the blood in the murder weapon, raising its two blood coated fingers up to its mouth, letting its tongue dart up to lick over the blood, hearing a disgusted sound from the Lieutenant behind it.
"Err, Jesus!" Hank groaned in disgust, Cora glancing his way, standing up, seeing Connor walking out from the kitchen, seeming to be following a path it could only see. Cora tilted it's head aside, brows pulling slightly together at the tone on the Lieutenant's voice, "What the hell are you doing?"
"I am analyzing the blood, I can check samples in real time" Cora replied, raising its two fingers as if to prove its point, confused at the way Hank stared at it in complete disgust. Oh. "I am sorry. We should have warned you"
"'We'..." Hank repeated, glancing toward Connor. The two of them?! He was too old for technology like this shit, "Ok, just… don't… put anymore evidence in your mouth, you got it?"
"Got it" Cora replied, raising its fingers.
With a slight shake of his head, Hank walked away, murmuring, "Fucking hell, I can't believe this shit"
Cora looked down at its fingers, finally letting itself scan and analyze the blood sample.
[Scan] DRIED BLOOD
DNA analysis: ORTIZ, Carlos
Sample date: 19 days
Sensing Connor at its side, they wirelessly communicated with each other their findings.
It was the first time they did so, but it seemed as if they had been doing it for a while.
While Connor got the evidence Cora picked up, Cora reviewed the reconstruction scenario Connor found in the kitchen, finding out it was where the Android, now confirmed as a Deviant as emotional shock was detected, stabbed its owner after the victim began hitting it with a bat, ending in the living room.
Their LED's stopped blinking, looking toward Hank where he was standing in front of a wall with blood writing on it. 'I AM ALIVE' said the writing.
Cora and Connor reached his sides, stopping, leaving him in the middle of the two Androids.
[Scan] REGULAR LETTERS
Font Cyberlife Sans
"Each letter is perfect…" Hank murmured, examining the writing. "It's way too neat, no human writes like this" he turned toward other officer. "Chris, was this written in the victim's blood?"
"I would say so…" Chris began, and without really listening, Connor walked forward, leaning to the body, itself, scanning. "We're taking samples for analysis"
"He was stabbed 28 times" Connor informed, while standing up.
Cora hummed, walking away toward another part of the house, as Hank replied. "Yeah, seems like the killer really had it in for him"
Connor took the opposite way from Cora.
Cora found itself in the bathroom, having heard one of the CSI mention something weird inside while Connor scanned a possible exit for the Android.
While Cora investigated the bathroom, it heard Connor tell their findings to the Lieutenant.
It first went to the curtain, pulling it aside with a swift movement, glancing down at the bottom of the shower as something shining being reflected by the lights caught its attention, immediately noticing the bunch of 'rA9' all over the tiles in the wall.
./OBSESSIVE WRITTING
Cora leaned down to pick up the shiny object that caught its eye, seeing it was some sort of sculpture, examining it with a blank expression.
./RELIGIOUS OFFERING ?
Cora put down the statue, doing a once more full scan on the bathroom, finding nothing, pausing when it heard the Android lost thirium and Hank pointing out that they could still see the thirium traces even after evaporating to the naked eye after a few hours.
Immediately, Cora activated its scanner.
./FIND DEVIANT
- Search for blue blood traces
It paused when it noticed a lot of blue blood in the bathroom, but the deviant wasn't there, walking out and out to the hallway, noticing Connor making its way to Cora.
Cora scanned where some certain areas were stained with more thirium, glancing along the hallway until stopping just in front of a wall, noticing something used to be there, examining the wall.
./A LADDER WAS USED
At the deduction, Cora glanced up seeing an attic door, the scanner picking up a blue blood handprint in the corner of the trap door.
Connor stopped at its side, glancing up as well.
./TRACES LEAD TO THE ATTIC
Cora immediately sent through a wireless connection the findings on the bathroom, Connor blinking once in acknowledgment before turning away, walking toward the kitchen, grabbing one of the chairs that didn't contain evidence, getting the Lieutenant's attention as Connor brought the chair to it's partner.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Hank walked closer, seeing Connor place the chair underneath the attic door. "What are you doin' with that chair?"
Connor and Cora looked at each other, LED's cycling blue once before Cora was the one to look at the Lieutenant. "I am going to check something"
"Cora is smaller" Connor explained the reasoning as to why it's partner and not itself, while Cora pushed itself up gracefully using the edges of the trap door, after sliding open the attic door, landing in a slight crouch, one hand keeping itself balanced in the attic, it's feet on the sides of the trap door. "Therefore lighter on its feet, so if it finds something up there, it will be faster than me"
"Huh" Hank murmured, "Gonna check something"
Once up, Cora straightened up silently, it's blue LED lighting up the white cloth that had a shadow shaped behind it, tilting it's head aside curiously before it's main objective flashed in its HUD.
./SEARCH ATTIC
Nodding to itself, Cora began to cautiously walk forward, the floorboards underneath it creaking ominously with each step the Android took. It's brown eyes scanning each corner, while the only sound was the pelting of rain hitting the glass of the window and the thin ceiling. Cora's breathing was slow and relaxed, walking with calmness. Another scan came up with empty results but the evidence didn't lie, there was a splatter of thirium in the floor.
The Deviant was still here, hiding.
Before it could take another step, a creak of the floorboards that didn't come from itself sounded through the silent attic. Cora crouched slightly, knowing it's LED would be a giveaway for its location, continuing walking. Suddenly, at certain point across the attic, something suddenly ran across the room in front of it, causing its LED turn a bright red for being startled before turning to a startling yellow color, following the direction the startling object took, maneuvering through objects with ease, determination with each step it took. The Deviant wouldn't get away from it.
Soon enough, Cora found itself in a large empty zone of the attic. It's LED processed the next approach from when out of nowhere, the Deviant stumbled across it, almost making it jump, only remaining calm and relaxed when it noticed it's LED pulsing red.
./DEVIANT LOCATED
Cora stared with a firm and unfazed expression when it began to talk.
"I was just defending myself" the Deviant began, voice shaky and it seemed as if pleading for something. Cora's head tilted just a mere fraction, but it was enough for the deviant to beg her, "He was gonna kill me. I'm begging you-" It's face took on a look of desperation but Cora remained unmoved by its fear, LED cycling back to blue. "Don't tell them"
"Cora, what the fuck is going on up there?" Cora heard the Lieutenant's voice, followed by its partner calling up its name questionably.
Without taking its eyes from the Deviant who kept begging with its eyes, Cora made a swift but easy decision.
The mission took priority.
"It's here, Lieutenant!" Cora called out.
"Holy shit..." Cora heard the Lieutenant say before walking away, barking orders to other cops.
Cora's LED cycled yellow momentarily as the Deviant simply closed its eyes as if in defeat, looking down.