Chapter Text
“I don’t need a partner and especially not you, plastic prick!”
From across the room, Connor winced at the familiar words and Hank chuckled, clearly amused at the scene that was unfolding in the precinct. Connor glanced at him with some sort of offended expression. “You of all people should not be laughing at Detective Reed’s reaction, Lieutenant.” He pointed out, which earned him a scoff.
A new android, RK900, joined the force a few weeks ago and has now been appointed to work with Gavin Reed, a stubborn detective who is a certified asshole all around.
“Just because I’m deviant now, doesn’t mean I wanted to be your partner either!”
But that’s not to say his new android partner is a saint.
“It seems they’re made for each other.” Hank remarked, to which Connor gave him a puzzled look. He returned his attention to Gavin when he heard him collapse into his desk chair dramatically, grumbling to himself over his new inconvenience. “They’ll get along just fine.”
“I can feel you staring at me, Detective.” RK900 said, not looking up from his file. If he had, he’d see Gavin glaring at him with a concerning grip on his coffee mug.
“Thought maybe I could explode your plastic ass with my mind.”
“I'm afraid that’s not humanly possible.”
“Don’t counter me with obvious facts, tin can!” Gavin spat; he’s been in a foul mood ever since he arrived at the station and his partner sitting across from him wasn't exactly improving it.
“Is it so hard to address me as an android or RK900?” The android finally looked at Gavin, scanning his rising stress levels and noticing his unhealthy caffeine intake. Gavin turned away with a click of his tongue, viewing his terminal until he peered at RK900 again.
“You seriously still don’t have a name? I have to call you RK900?”
“We’ve been partnered for a month, are you seriously asking me that question?”
Gavin set his coffee mug down with an overexaggerated bang. “Well, I’m sorry that I just wanted to have a conversation with my partner!”
The android gave an unimpressed look, as Gavin’s sarcasm was practically written on his forehead. He contemplated just ignoring him, but then recalled how they’ve only been on small cases together so far; RK900 supposed he could let Gavin away with this one. “Fine. I was never associated with a name, so RK900 is all I have. Though you can give me one if you like.”
“Oh, fuck off!” Gavin grimaced, throwing a hand up towards the android to emphasise his disgust at the idea.
RK900 supposed that was the end of their ‘conversation’ that Gavin was so desperate to have and was glad to have finally finished their bickering, for now they could focus on the new flock of android abuse cases that had flooded their terminals. Things have slowed down now compared to when the revolution had only just ended, but people still weren’t comfortable nor accepting towards androids yet. Markus has been working hard, but unfortunately crimes against androids has become too high for Jericho to handle, so he’s had to back off for his own safety.
RK900 scanned the cases, reviewing the leads they have so far. He would be lying if he said seeing these cases had no effect on him, but it only had his LED spinning yellow for a short while. He caught sight of Gavin opposite him, he seemed distracted and deep in thought; he was surprisingly expressive, though he’d probably deny it if that was brought to his attention. Before RK900 could inform him of a case nearby, Gavin stood up.
“Come on, Nines, I think there’s a connection between a few of these and I want to check it out. One was earlier today, and it’s nearby so get your ass in the car.” Gavin started walking away before the android could reply, but he quickly caught up to him.
RK900 thought for a moment before speaking up next to Gavin. “What did you just call me?” He asked, briefly prioritising his curiosity for that over the case. He reasoned with himself that he can gather information about that while on the road. However, Gavin was unhelpful as he just offered the android a perplexed look. “I believe it was ‘Nines’ you referred to me as. What does that mean?”
Now suddenly Gavin’s face shifted to what the android can only recognise as embarrassment. “Shit, did I?” He considered lying himself out of it, but realised he always underestimates how much androids can see through humans, so just breathes a sigh of defeat. “I was thinking of ways your name could be shortened, ‘cause it’s long as fuck. I must’ve just said it by accident.” Gavin fumbled with his pockets when they finally approached Gavin’s car and they both walked to their respective sides.
The android cocked his head slightly to the left, his LED spinning yellow as he processed the nickname he’d been given. “I quite like it, maybe I’ll use it.”
Gavin gave him a side glare and scoffed, “You’re only saying that out of spite because originally I said I wouldn’t give you a name.” He unlocked the car and opened the door to get in, but not before catching Nine’s smirk that perfectly displayed his enjoyment with teasing the detective.
“In the last two weeks, there’s been four cases reported against security guard androids where three have ended in complete shutdown. They’ve all been local to each other, none of the androids carried weapons to defend themselves, and they were all left the same way: arms and legs detached with thirium pump in hand. The one who avoided shutdown was the third; they were able to escape and give a detailed report on the offender’s looks. While some officers were actively searching, another android body was found near a supermarket. That’s what we’re going to see.”
Nines processed the information, trying to determine the best approach. “So, it seems the offender is only going after androids that guard for small companies, as they are not permitted to carry weapons. Was the surviving android able to upload their memory for us to see?”
“Yeah, but unfortunately, they were pretty fucked up so we couldn’t get a clear shot of the guy. Still, we have a rough idea on what he looks like. I’ll give you permission to that part of the file when we get back to the station.” Nines nodded, slightly annoyed that they haven't fixed the rule that androids can’t view confidential witness data even if they're on the case.
Eventually, they arrived at the supermarket; Nines immediately scans the area to find points of interest. The establishment was relatively new and high-tech, it sold pretty standard stuff, but some places still tend to have low-rank security guards especially if they're located in a rough area. The body was hidden in an alleyway beside the building, tore apart and in the state Gavin forementioned. The two had split up to do their own investigating, as Nines was sure Gavin would’ve come alone if it wasn’t protocol to have Nines accompany him.
A quick scan of the body showed everything that was already written in the file, to his dismay there wasn’t much new information to go by. He continued reading over the case file until Gavin called him over.
“I want you to confirm this is thirium with that weird shit you do with your mouth.” Gavin said as he moved aside so Nines could see the words that had been written on the wall. It was messily scribbled in a thick blue substance and read: ‘I am more alive’. It gave Nines a sickly feeling, but he reached out and analysed the contents to find it was indeed thirium.
“Yes, it must be the victim's blood, that would explain the trail of thirium leading from the body.” Nines informed Gavin, who visually grimaced when looking at the thirium sprayed along the floor. He eventually nodded in appreciation.
“Our perp has never written anything on his previous crime scenes, but now we can be sure it’s related. I’ll see if I can find any more.”
Gavin explored the end of the alley and was a bit dejected when he didn’t find anything. He walked back to his original position and became concerned when he noticed Nines’ LED had been spinning yellow for a while. “What are you thinking, tin can? Got any leads?”
Nines came back from his thoughts but continued to stare elsewhere. “The perp is highly likely to be a human, considering the message he left. I also believe he may be an ex-security guard, which would give us a motive.” Nines then looked at Gavin who was playing close attention, he may despise having an android as his partner, but he wasn’t going to deny his usefulness in investigations. Gavin gestured for him to continue. “I would also like to draw your attention to how recently this murder took place.”
“Well, we assume late last night, it’s hard to determine how long it took for the android to shut down.” Nines shook his head and pointed towards the body, and Gavin leaned to follow his line of sight.
“Our thirium pumps being removed guarantees almost instant shutdown, according to my scan the android shut down approximately two or three hours ago. Furthermore, thirium evaporates after about four hours, which explains why the offender wrote it in the victim’s blood. It’s possible he wrote on the walls in the other crime scenes, but it had evaporated before human eyes could see it.” Gavin furrowed his brows and made a hum of approval, gesturing towards the writing.
“And because we can still see this crap, that means the crime took place under four hours ago? Or, at least, the offender was here.” Nines nodded, smiling at the rare sight of Gavin cooperating. “Well, I suppose we can narrow down the security footage to a four-hour gap now. We might get an identification on this guy if he shows up, but he’s incredibly good at avoiding cameras. It sucks we don’t necessarily have a prediction on his next strike.”
Nines pondered for a minute. “Well, let's hope we can identify him, so we don’t have to resort to drastic methods.” Gavin shrugged his shoulders in a sort of half-agreement and turned away from Nines. Due to that, he missed Nines’ LED turn a bright red.
“Detective Reed, I’d like to run something by you.” Nines approached his side of the desk, and Gavin groaned. It seems cooperation only happens when they’re at a crime scene, but he supposed it was better than nothing still. “I’m aware we were unable to find the offender on the security cameras, and I had a look at our witness’ statements, it seems he’s very calculated with his approach.”
Gavin gave a gesture of ‘so what?’, clearly annoyed by the android’s presence. “We have no leads to find the guy; we’re probably going to have to wait until he leaves some evidence.”
“And wait for more and more androids to die? Detective, he is clearly not careless, especially if our theory of him being a security guard is correct.” Nines folded his arms and Gavin sighed loudly, being incredibly dramatic as per usual.
“Okay, smartass, what do you suppose we do then?”
“I want to go undercover.”
Nines opened his mouth to continue, but Gavin stood up quickly resulting in Nines having to back away slightly. “Go undercover? And what, get yourself killed by that motherfucker?! If you do that, so help me I’ll tear you apart myself!” Nines noted that Gavin’s stress levels had risen to a concerning 48%. At this point, he also had a loose hold on Nines’ tie but he didn’t feel threatened enough to back down.
“I believe it’s the only way we’ll catch him, detective. I’m an advanced android and can defend myself, I don’t understand what you’re so worried about!”
“Worried?! I’m- I’m not worried!” Gavin stumbled back, releasing Nines and regaining his composure. “I just think there’s too much of a risk that you’ll get hurt or die!” When Nines raised an eyebrow at Gavin, he swiftly added: “It’s too much paperwork!" and then he walked away with his breathing unsteady.
Nines was briefly shaken up but was able to recover quickly when Connor approached him with coffee in his hand. “That... was quite the loud conversation. I heard it all the way from the break room.” He smiled at Nines who just laughed sheepishly. “You know, Hank used to be hostile towards me too but then suddenly he started caring about my safety. I suppose, androids are too similar to humans, so some kind of connection is inevitable. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he didn’t want anything bad to happen to me. I reckon the same thing is happening with you and Gavin.”
Nines tilted his head at Connor’s assumption. “Are... you implying that Gavin is starting to care about me?”
“If you die, most of the paperwork will not go to him.” Connor said softly with a slight smirk, and then proceeded to walk to Hank to give him his coffee. Nines was dumbfounded, but just fixed his tie and decided to talk to Captain Fowler about his idea instead. Then, maybe, he’d check on Detective Reed.