Partners [Path Unlocked 🔓]

Chapter 1 - Hindrance

The number of androids becoming deviant was skyrocketing. The machines rebelling against their masters and turning on those who built them were multiplying by the day with the threat of an actual uprising only becoming more realistic by the hour. What was once a crazy fantasy babbled by old anti-android loons who feared doomsday would soon fall upon the world in vengance for creating the hodgepodge semblance of life in metal and plastic was now an impending reality. The android uprising was a real and truly terrifying threat.

The newly advanced Hunt-Kill model android, shortened to HK800 for convenience sake (And likely to lessen the number of nightmares such a title gave), was designed to locate these malfunctioning machines and terminate them before they became a threat to humanity or, more importantly, Cyberlife's reputation. The creation was a prototype, designed specifically for this mission and well equipped to carry it out however its million dollar processing system deemed necessary. Cold, unfeeling, and wholeheartedly unalive, the android was designed to succeed where all else failed.

HK800 was well aware of this, the information ever present in his endless memory storage unit and accessible to him in a moment's notice along with any other knowledge pooled into the entirety of the web, giving the android access to virtually all human knowledge in a millisecond's time. What the police prototype did not know, however, was why he was still standing in front of an annoying person-less desk at half past noon.

Despite Cyberlife's boundless assurances that HK800 could handle itself, the Captain of the force, one Amanda Stern, had insisted that she had no desire for a masterless android to be running amuck in her department so, per the woman's request, the prototype was assigned a human companion to look over the investigation. A "partner" on paper but cataloged as nothing but a ticket into android free zones in HK800's data storage.

However, the android was quite near considering changing this previous title to "Hindrance" as the prototype police model was currently standing stiff legged staring at an empty chair alongside a messy desk in the middle of the bustling Detroit Police Department as if simply glaring at the piece of furniture hard enough would cause it to bend under his will and call forth the human who was supposed to have sat in it four hours ago. Four hours. That's how long HK800 had been in this goddamned police department with not a single sign of a Detective Connor Anderson to show for it.

HK800 had been running searches to gather research on the absent person since his Cyberlife handler - an AI by the name of Jeffrey who must have some sort of design flaw because no one in their right mind would ever purposely program such a goddamn prick - had given him the name. A few quick Google searches had brought forth the knowledge that Detective Anderson played a key role in the breakup of the rapidly mounting party scene and was solely responsible for infiltrating and exposing Eden Club, previously the biggest party joint in town, for the underground hub of dirty deals and dark secrets it truly was.

As thirium was introduced to the world, newer, better drugs with a stronger high and an even stronger crash to match were produced by the bucket loads and the underground industry had been thriving. However, this increase led to a sudden influx of crime on the party scene, quickly shifting the scale from minor vandalism and occasional overdoses to cartels and homicides. Detroit had been a mess but; under Detective Anderson's crafty direction, the city had since been cleaned up immensely. At least you could walk outside without seeing someone shoot up on the street corner nowadays.

Hitherto, HK800 had cataloged this as the most noteworthy thing about the man he was supposedly assigned to act as a partner to but the android since bumped the knowledge down on his list to prioritize the new found discovery that the famed detective was, in no one's book, punctual.

"What time should I expect Detective Anderson to arrive?" The police model prototype abruptly posed the sudden inquisition to the nearest human in his vicinity, a man of African descent who set off no immediate warnings in the android's processing system and continued to show no signs of hostility as he turned to glance back in the machine's direction.