Chapter Text
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It’s been a few years since the android uprising and subsequent freedom of all androids. And with Detroit getting mostly evacuated of its humans and then more or less being given to the androids to have as their own, well things have been going nicely. Not all the humans left of course. There were those that didn’t leave, either because they had no problem living equally alongside androids or because they just didn’t want to leave their homes where they grew up.
And androids integrated into human society pretty well all things considered. Lots of them formed family units, both ‘traditional’ and not. And androids were incredibly smart and didn’t get sick or tired so they were able to find work without problem. Some amazing architects, engineers, and business driven androids cropped up after the rebellion. Detroit was once again a bustling city with promise for its people. Overall things have quieted down since the liberation of android kind. It’s not a utopia but it’s definitely peaceful more often than not.
Though that calm was shaken one summer day in downtown Detroit when a wrecking crew was brought to a screeching halt when the foreman made a horrific discovery under the building they were in the middle of tearing down. Below what they’d assumed was the buildings foundation was a makeshift lab turned crypt. Pods, some lit up and others dark, were unearthed and the paramedics were called when bodies were discovered inside them.
What followed was a media circus. Camera crews fought to get as much footage as they possibly could of the medics and firefighters rescuing as many of the people from the pods as they could. Which turned out to only be two. There had been six of the odd egg shaped vessels originally. But sadly two had been crushed during the demolition of the building while the other two were...unsalvageable. They’d been cut from power somehow and the humans inside were long dead.
After the two surviving victims were rushed to the hospital the police were all over the place, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. And what they discovered was a metric ton of shredded files, a crumbling lab that looked like it had been abandoned for decades, and a dozen new questions. Who built this place? Why were there living people still here? What was going on?
Putting shredded document back together was an easy thing to do these days so they started there and had a few androids on the task to get them something concrete to work with. And barely 10 minutes later they had quite the stack of intact papers for everyone. The place was cordoned off as a crime scene and the now whole files were taken as evidence. The coroner was called for the bodies in the other pods.
All four of them were beyond the point of saving. Two appeared to have been shut off from power years ago. The bodies inside them were long since decomposed. The two crushed ones were a whole other horror story. One seemed to be like the first two, powered down some years back and the body inside mere bones now. But the other one had still had a possibly living human inside, at least they surmised so, if the blood leaking out was any indication…
The police present weren’t really sure what to classify this crime scene as. These deaths weren’t natural by any means. Though how they were discovered, and subsequently crushed, was entirely by chance. And from the look of the place it seemed these pods were most likely abandoned here. But abandoned intentionally or not is still up for speculation. They’d need to find out who owned this building firstly. Because they had some explaining to do. And during all of this the crowd of reporters and bystanders had barely dissipated.
Flashes from cameras and the dull chatter of people gossiping wasn’t hard to identify for the seasoned detectives on the scene. One in particular, detective Ben Collins, was directing orders to the officers on scene. Instructing them to keep civilians back and the possible crime scene clear. He looked over at the hoard of people behind the crime scene holo-tape and his mood soured further.
“Fucking vulchers. Don’t they have anything better to do?”
The officer next to him, Tina Chen, sighed and answered with a sort of dry malaze,
“You know crime scenes bring out everyone’s worst traits, curiosity and a lust for drama.”
Ben rolled his eyes but agreed. This case was making everyone curious, even he found himself wanting to know what the fuck this all was. And he was usually pretty indifferent to most of the cases he supervised. But this one just felt different. Hell, even Captain Fowler had demanded frequent updates on their findings. The older detective sighed and checked his watch.
“Let’s just hope this mess doesn’t drag us all into overtime.”
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The pins and needles situation from the crime scene transferred all the way to the hospital. The two people taken from the pods were rushed over as fast as the ambulances could safely get them there. And they were wheeled inside the second they were unloaded. Doctors were by their side immediately, checking them over and taking them to the ICU. They took blood samples to try and find them in the system, maybe find a relative to call. Standard procedure.
“Doctor Sakuya! This one, he’s waking up but he’s seizing!”
The male patient had begun to violently convulse on the stretcher, drool dripping from the sides of his mouth. His jerky movements were so erratic that the nurses on either side of him were having trouble keeping him from accidentally striking someone or flailing off the gurney he was on. The staff watched in horror as the second patient, a woman, began to wake up too. Her gaze was unfocused but her breathing picked up and the doctor feared that she was going to have a seizure as well.
The doctor quickly administered a mild nerve relaxer to her to keep her from following the same route as the male patient. Her breathing slowed and she fell unconscious.
“Find a bed for her while we work on him.”
Two nurses, one human and the other android did as instructed and took her to the ER and found her an empty bed and carefully moved her to it. The human nurse inspected her body and noticed how long her nails and hair were. Like she had never cut them before. But her attention was pulled from her when she heard her name being yelled. She turned to the android, an MP600, and said quickly before rushing off,
“Keep an eye on her vitals! If anything changes keep her stable and call for assistance!”
The android turned to look at the out cold human and did as instructed.