04232003-RA-9

The Beginning

The world's technology is always evolving. Originally, it was the rudimentary pulley systems, and then cars...and then robots, capable of doing the work of ten individual humans at the drop of a pin. Robots didn't need breaks, and they didn't need vacation time...robots could work 24/7.

That was an immense plus for the large companies out there, building cars and trucks and delicate machines. Humans would sometimes mess up, and they'd cause problems that would then have to be fixed, losing time. But robots didn't. Robots never failed, they never messed up...they performed every single action perfectly, every single time.

They slowly took over jobs that humans had always been in charge of. They paved the roads, taught classes, worked behind the counter in many, many stores. After all, they were faster, more efficient than the slow, imperfect humans. They slowly became more and more startlingly more realistic, almost indistinguishable from humans. The humans started rebelling against this though, knowing they were dying out because they couldn't find work, the intelligent AI-driven chunks of plastic had taken over anything, replacing them. Slowly, the robots were given less distinct jobs, until humanity could flourish over them again. It was all almost back to normal.

Except for the Hounds. The Hounds weren't known by the humans, having lurked in the shadows all their lives. They were metal monstrosities, far from the rosy-cheeked humanoids who were always ready to help. Six legs and four hearts, eyes made of cameras, they spent their artificial lives locked in metal crates, greenish-blue blood cycling through their wire veins and pumping through artificial hearts. They were stowed away beneath the Station, known not for its robots but instead, its kind-hearted human officers, always glad to help. None knew about them except the chief of police, who currently was in his death throes outside what he had assumed was an empty house. On his belt gleamed the keys to Room 86, a door unseen unless the cloudy gray wallpaper was torn aside.

Officer 86 down! Officer 86 down! Screamed the speaker in the normally quiet office. Tobias sat up straight from where he had been snoozing next to his monitor, exhausted in the deep night. Kara was already awake, holstering her shining gun as she headed towards the door. The station rarely used cars now, choosing instead horses made of shining metal, with eyes like emeralds. They were much easier to control than an actual beast and could fit through spaces where their cars were too bulky, where the officer would have to go on foot. Tobias yanked on the rest of his uniform and charge after her, leaping upon his own sleek steed. Together, they charged on towards the scene of the crime, the coordinates punched into the locator interface of the metal horse, it's silver-wire mane whipping in the wind as steam rushed from steel nostrils.

It didn't take too long to get to the scene of the crime. Marc laid outside, impaled through the stomach was a rusted metal arm. His stomach acids seeped out of his stomach and into his soft tissues, dissolving his flesh. It was a slow, painful death as he was consumed by his own body. Tobias cried out, leaping to the ground and rushing to his mentor. "No!" He screamed. "No! Marc! Sergeant Marc!" He knelt next to the dying man. "We can help you. We can help you." He laid his head on his chest, sobbing. Kara walked near them, looking out for whoever had done this horrendous crime. Marc looked up at him, whispered something about a key and a file behind his desk, trying to point out the keys on his waist. "I don't understand you." Wailed Tobias. "Please, don't go!" But Marc smiled weakly at the boy and let go of life.

"Tobias, we must go," Kara whispered to Tobias sometime later. "We don't know what happened to him, we could be putting ourselves at risk." She urgently pulled him to his feet. "Let's go." Tobias sighed sadly, and reached down, taking the old-fashioned set of keys from his mentor's belt. "I'll miss you, old man." He murmured affectionately before remounting the metal horse, heading back off towards the office. He had to find those files, he had to find his mentor's secret.