Accident Prone - Becoming Human (The Final Chapters)

Empathy

It was a cold wintry morning in Detroit when the two detectives set off for the precinct to begin their shifts. Connor elected to drive Hank in to the precinct as the human detective had awoken with a nasty headache thanks to the suddenly cold weather and refused to call off sick until the Quondam case was solved. Light traffic and chilly weather had ensured that the duo would arrive in a timely manner as per usual until Connor received an unexpected cybernetic message from Markus at New Jericho Tower. Altering his route to meet up with the deviant leader Connor explained the change of direction in a calm voice to Hank as he cybernetically confirmed with Markus that he was on his way.

Whenever Markus contacted Connor the deviant leader had encountered something of utter importance that need immediate attention. Unwilling to risk something important being overlooked Connor made his detour without any hesitation as he repeated Markus's message over and over again inside his own mind.

"I just received an emergency message from Markus." Turning right at the next block and heading downtown Connor made a beeline for his friend's current location. Despite Markus speaking in a calm voice over the cybernetic line Connor could sense the urgency in his words. "He had been summoned to a remote location to aid a deviant in distress, but something is not right."

"You don't need to be a detective to know that, kid." Hank crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes as he pushed through his headache just long enough to focus on their conversation at hand. "What's going on downtown?"

"Markus arrived at the designated location and found a deviant as he was told, but the deviant is already dead. And by all account the deviant has been dead for approximately six years."

"That sucks, but why not just call the police and have them take care of the body?"

"Because Markus found his own name engraved in the wooden siding of the wall directly above the body."

"...Someone scrawled Markus's name above a dead body?" Opening his tired blue eyes slowly he turned to look at Connor and flashed the deviant a confused stare. "And then they called Markus over to find the dead body?"

"Correct."

"All right, that's definitely a trap. Let's figure this out before this day gets any more fucked up and some rumors get started."

"Agreed."

Alone as requested Markus stood in the middle of the lobby that had once been a massive department store with his hands folded neatly before himself. The body of the shutdown android; a male 'AP-600 model' who had been torn apart in a very gruesome manner, was propped up against the bare wall inside the building as if being put on display for Markus to find. The unfortunate deviant had been left for dead for almost six years prior and in that time he had numerous biocomponents stripped from his body. Even the delicate internal Thirium lines were torn apart by rats and other vermin that had picked at the poor deviant's exposed body.

Above the body the name 'MARKUS' was cut into rotting the drywall by a screwdriver and was obviously left as a cryptic message or a warning for the deviant leader to find. The message was simple yet very effective.

"Who did this to you?"

Markus asked the unfortunate victim, not that he was expecting to receive an answer. Kneeling down in front of the victim he used his hand to gently close the victims vacant and blackened eyes so make him appear more peaceful.

"And why did they single me out? What's the connection? What's the point of this sick act?"

As he remained crouched down in front of the body Markus reached his free hand out and grabbed onto the victim's wrist to try for a cybernetic interface, but the damage to the deviant had been so extensive that there was nothing for Markus to connect with.