Beaten, Bloodied, Bruised (Reed900) - rewritten on AO3

Chapter 4

It had been a few weeks now since Gavin Reed had been made to work with "Robocop 2.0." He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but Gavin had started enjoying Conan's company. No no. No, he couldn't be. It must just be the fact that he - it - is useful. Yeah, just a useful machine.

Looking across the bullpen at the DPD, Gavin could see Lieutenant Hank Anderson and Connor, the OG Robocop. Anderson had grown to see the android as a son, and it sees Anderson as a father-figure.  Honestly, Gavin found the idea just... odd is probably the best word to describe it. The idea of humans and androids living together no longer sickened him as it once did. A small part of his prejudice was gone but not gone entirely. Gavin still gave shit to Connor occasionally when their paths crossed, and he never liked Hank all that much either, but the relationship was slowly improving. Maybe.

Reed realised he was lost in his own thought when a cup of coffee was placed in front of him.

"You're early, detective." The familiar almost monotone voice spoke. Conan stood to the side, his arm returning to behind his back. He had swapped the unnervingly pristine white Cyberlife jacket and black high collar shirt for a simple black turtleneck, courtesy of Connor. His head tilted to the side a notch as he scanned the detective. "Trouble sleeping?"

Gavin just grunts and takes a deep swig of the bitter coffee. He had grown used to the android's questions about his health and has learnt to ignore them or risk further questioning. "Sit down, Tinman... how many times do I have to tell you to not hover over me like that?"

Conan silently did as he was told, "I hadn't been standing there very long, actually."

Gavin just grunts again, eyes gazing around the bullpen as he took another swig of his morning drink. Another moment passed before the android broke the silence between them. "You seem preoccupied, Detective." There was that head tilt again. "Anything you'd like to talk about?"

Gavin put his drink down and sit up properly at his desk in one fluid motion, "Nope."

Conan rose an eyebrow, "In that case, we can get to work." Gavin groans. "Unless you'd rather talk about your personal troubles?"

"Phck no, get to work." The detective starts tapping on his computer's keyboard.

"Good idea, a new case came in just a few minutes ago. Two androids have been found dead in an abandoned building on the far south end of town."

Gavin huffs and gets to his feet with no amount of urgency, stretching out his back and shoulders before putting his jacket on. "Great." He couldn't exactly say he didn't care but it was written all over his body language.

Conan feels a pang of... something in his chest as he too gets to his feet once again. Perhaps disappointment. Was he disappointed? Disappointed that the detective doesn't care about android health and safety? Many people still disregard androids, why would Gavin's particular view make him feel this way?

Software Instability ^

Conan frowns but pushes it from his mind as he follows the detective out into the rain and to his car.

"What else do you know about this case?" Reed suddenly askes as they drive down to the crime scene, window wipers going side to side furiously.

Conan's LED spun yellow for a moment, "The bodies were found very early morning by a couple of young teens exploring the abandoned building complex. According to the initial report, the androids are missing portions of limbs and, quote, looking as if they had been butchered for parts."

Gavin makes a noise in the back of his throat and mutters to himself, "sounds gross.. why do I always gross ones?..."

"Perhaps you're the most qualified to deal with such cases?"

Gavin scowls at the android, "I wasn't asking you, Pinocchio."

Conan frowns and tilts his head at the nickname, not quite getting the reference at first. But before he had too much time to dwell on it, they had arrived at the building. Police tape had already cordoned off the area to civilians. The duo got out of the car and walked across the muddy ground and into the building. Gavin talked to the chief officer managing the site while Conan went straight to the corpses.

The teens' description had been pretty much spot on. To Conan, the evidence provided by the two androids' injuries did point towards the harvesting of bio components. The Thirium, or blue blood, had dried and became invisible to the human eye but Conan could still see it and the sight was sicking, for lack of a better word. 

Software Instability ^

Conan closed his eyes for a moment to clear his head, he had a job to do. His next step now was to identify and locate the perpetrator. Easier said than done, however. This person had gone to great lengths to cover their tracks. One little slip-up, however, had been made. It had been raining almost nonstop the past couple of days, dried mud footprints led away from the bodies and further into the building. Conan crept along, following the muddy prints with caution. It was unlikely that the criminal was still here but a little bit of caution never hurt anyone.

The building complex seemed to be built like a maze and it wasn't long until the mud prints had faded too much for Conan to find a clear path. Looking around, all the android could see was the old wooden floorboards and cracked concrete walls.

Something creaked behind him and before he had a chance to spin around, a heavy object was swung into his head. Conan's systems went into sleep mode as his "brain" and memory chip had to reboot to repair the file corruption caused by the blow to the head.

The tall android's body hit the ground with a surprisingly light thud.

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Oh hey I'm back-