Chapter Text
Hugo strides into the precinct as casually as his social programming would allow him, which was pretty casual considering how advanced cyberlife had become at making androids appear human. Of course, he knew that deviancy was just a bug– a virus that had spread through the other androids, causing them to become banned in the 7 countries. Cyberlife had really screwed themselves over, or so Donella says, and Hugo doesn’t disagree.
Which leads Hugo here, a very illegal android– not a deviant, Hugo’s model might have been almost immediately discontinued but he still self-checks regularly– walking into a precinct with a mission cyberlife probably didn’t intend when they made him a police android. But he doesn’t gain orders from them anymore anyway.
Hugo stops by the front desk and pretends to look at the intern’s name tag while scanning their face. He can’t get this information from cyberlife’s far more efficient search, but getting into the database the police use doesn’t take all that long either. The scan completes and he finds that he is looking at Yong Hua, an 18 year old engineering student at the nearby Corona University and a disciplinary record so long that Hugo doesn’t understand why he’s working at a police station.
Though he doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job, considering Hugo’s been standing here for 30 seconds and the intern is too absorbed in his DS to have noticed. Hugo clears his throat, though he obviously doesn’t need to, and Yong quickly shoves his DS under the table and straightens his spine.
“Sorry! Um, can I help you?” Yong says, looking a bit embarrassed.
Hugo slides his fake ID over the counter. “Hugo Deichert, I’m the new recruit.”
Donella had worked hard to get the right paperwork and make Hugo’s story believable, but even with all that work his probability counter had predicted only a 57% success rate, leading to a great deal of countermeasures, but in the present moment the percentage skyrockets to 97%. However, he waits until after Yong has checked his computer and has slid the ID back over to Hugo before making any calls.
Yong’s keyboard skills are objectively horrendous however, as he practically smashes the keyboard with each button press. Hugo almost winces when he sees the condition of the backspace key– but Yong finishes up and slides the ID back to him with a smile and a thumbs up. “You’re all good! All you have to do is check in with Raps, she’s right up ahead, can’t miss her office!”
He really, truly couldn’t.
Head of Police Marigold was a true patriot, having decorated the walls around her office with what seems to be hand painted renditions of Corona’s symbol, a purple sun. It makes sense with the background he’d been given on her– Her father is the governor of this district, and her mother is highly involved in Corona politics and proceedings.
He knocks on the door and waits for a sign to come in, which comes in the form of a “Come in!”
The inside of the office is just as colorful as the outside, the walls a light purple. Behind Rapunzel is a giant round window, accompanied by a wide hem that once again replicates the sun symbol and allows the room to be brightly lit with natural lighting.
She smiles at Hugo, beckoning him inside and waving at one of the (also) purple seating arrangements. He takes a seat. “Hugo! Welcome!” Marigold says, pushing some paperwork aside and giving him her full attention. “Or– would you prefer Deichert? Everyone here goes by first names but if you’d like I can make sure everyone knows to use your last name!”
Hugo shakes his head. “Hugo is fine, thanks.” If anything, it was better. His system doesn’t recognize Deichert as a name, so if he allows autopilot to take over and someone calls him Deichert? Well.
With that in mind, however, he changes Marigold to Rapunzel.
“Alright, so,” Rapunzel says, grabbing a folder from a drawer that he can’t see. “It says here that you did an internship at Ingvarr, did you do any fieldwork while you were there?”
“Yes, I came along on patrols often,” Hugo says, reciting the script Donella gave him. “I’ve also helped deal with smaller cases, like giving tickets, and I’ve performed a search and seizure.”
“Great!” Rapunzel says, and then she presses the buzzer and says, “Eugene, can you come in please? Thanks!”
A moment passes before the doors are kicked open and a man with slightly longer, wavy hair bursts in. A quick scan tells him that this is Lieutenant Eugene Fitzherbert, who had an alias known as Flynn Rider. He’d been arrested a while back, but clearly has turned over a new leaf.
“Raps! What is up my–” Eugene stops short, staring at Hugo. Hugo stares back. “Oh. This the new recruit?”
“Yep!” Rapunzel chirps, either entirely unaware of the tension or very sternly ignoring it. Hugo can’t tell which one it is yet. “And since you’re the lieutenant, it would be no biggie if you took him under your wing, right?”
Definitely sternly ignoring it.
Fitzherbert looks like he’s about to protest– Or agree, the mans clearly whipped for her, and she seems to know it– when there is a loud crash and a yell coming from the lobby.
“Oh no. Was that Yong again?” Rapunzel says, standing.
“Shit, I told him to stop messing with equipment in here, he has a whole school for that!” Eugene says, darting out the door with Rapunzel hot on his trail.
Hugo follows after, though at a much slower pace. He’s seen Yong’s disciplinary record– it’s littered with destruction of private property, and Hugo would like to stay in one piece, being a former piece of private property, and he doesn’t think Donella likes him enough to waste precious resources to rebuild him.
What they see instead is Yong’s DS on the floor (unbroken, though probably on its way) and Yong, half on the desk half off, holding tightly to who his scans tell him is Varian Ruddiger, a 24 year old detective and this time only a minor disciplinary record that mostly consists of behavioral misconduct.
Varian locks eyes with Rapunzel and smiles a toothy grin. Yong takes the cue to let go and sits back on the desk completely, just in time to allow Varian to be bodied. Fitzherbert makes his way over, clearly trying to appear cool headed, but then locks onto Varian as well.
“Alright, alright, let me breathe guys!” Varian laughs, shoving them off him. He locks eyes with Hugo and raises a brow. “Who is this? New recruit?”
Rapunzel glances at Hugo, suddenly seeming guilty. “Um– Yep! We figured, well–” She stumbles. “Yes.”
“Sorry, kid.” Fitzherbert says, rubbing Varian’s shoulder. Curiouser and curiouser.
“No, no it’s cool, I get it,” Varian says, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Gotta– Yeah. So then, when can I get back to field work?”
Rapunzel and Fitzherbert exchange a glance.
Rapunzel purses her lips. “Technically, you’re already allowed to. But,” She says, dragging out the ‘but’, “I personally think you should stay here for a bit. Just a bit!”
Varian groans. “C’mon Raps, I’ve been doing this for years, one incident–” He winces at his own words, really not a great selling point. Hugo marks him down as an awful liar. “One–” He gives up, throwing his hands out. “I can’t stay at a desk all day, I’ll go mad!”
Fitzherbert inhales and exhales. “Raps, maybe it isn’t such a bad idea?”
“Eugene.”
“Hear me out!” He says, grimacing. “Look, we both know the kid won’t stay at his desk all day, I have to show Hugo the ropes, why not let Varian come with us? They’ll be small cases, considering.”
Varian doesn’t look overly pleased at the concept of doing newbie work, but he doesn’t say anything against it, so he must decide that the sacrifice was worth it if it meant he didn’t have to do desk work. Hugo can’t really blame him. Though he doesn’t actually have a preference, he was made for fieldwork.
Rapunzel sighs, pinching her brow. After a moment, she lets her hand drop. “Alright, fine,” She says. “Varian, you can go along with Eugene and Hugo. But please,” She says, putting her hands on Varian’s shoulders. “Be careful.”
“I will, I will,” Varian says, giving her a small smile. “C’mon Raps, I’m an adult, I can handle myself!”
Rapunzel makes eye contact with Fitzherbert and he shakes his head. Rapunzel lets her hands fall from Varian’s shoulders and backs off, allowing Hugo to butt in, making eye contact with Varian. He holds a hand out, ignoring the whispered argument between the lovebirds, and introduces himself to his coworker.
“Names Hugo, how long have you been on the force?” It’s a question Hugo already knows the answer to, but he isn’t exactly meant to know it, so he allows his social program to run. In the background, his senses search for the cameras in the precinct.
“Varian,” He says, and Hugo can’t help but note how inefficient humans are because obviously Hugo already knows that. He would even if he weren’t a robot with facial scanning abilities, Rapunzel and Fitzherbert had said it so many times it would’ve been hard not to.
Varian continues, but Hugo allows his social program full reign– this conversation wouldn’t yield anything useful, and if it does, he’s created a programming that will use key phrases to weed out the helpful information.
Instead, he focuses on the cameras.
There are a few outside that Hugo shoves aside. For now, the inside is the priority. There is a camera by the entrance and front desk; there’s Yong, Varian, and himself. The next camera takes him to where most of the police desks are, nothing interesting there except for an empty desk that Hugo assumes he will be taking over. He skips over a few more cameras, all showing simple rooms like lounges, a kitchen, and a few empty interrogation rooms.
The last camera he touches is a camera directly in Head of Police Rapunzel’s office. Hugo almost immediately swipes off, but hesitates. Rapunzel and Fitzherbert are discussing something that is clearly meant to be private, as they are speaking far too low for the camera to pick up. Thankfully, androids are equipped with the ability to lip read.
“She’s still out there,” Rapunzel says, looking surprisingly serious. Hugo updates her character profile. “I don’t feel comfortable having Varian on the field.”
“I get it, believe me I do, but we can’t bench the kid.” Fitzherbert says, arms crossed against his chest, a clear blocking mechanism. A sore subject? “We don’t know enough about what happened, he wants answers, and I get it.”
Rapunzel’s lips purse. “I know you do. But until we know for sure that what happened wasn’t because of her, we have to be careful.”
“Of course,” He says. “You know that the case is top priority. But she’s good at what she does. It may be months before we get a proper lead, Varian won’t wait that long.”
“Yeah, I know” Rapunzel sighs, and she rests her head against Fitzherbert’s chest.
Fitzherbert’s face softens, mumbling things he can’t see into her hair, and they stay like that for a moment longer until Hugo decides that the usage of their conversation has likely run dry and exits the camera feed entirely. He runs back on the conversation he’s been having with Varian– he’s just been rattling on about how nuts the past few months have been for the precinct, and luckily Hugo Deichert wasn’t in Corona for the android revolution, so he’s been silent for the most part, other than cutting in with a few pointless observations.
This continues on until Fitzherbert re-emerges from Rapunzel’s office, this time without Rapunzel, and beckons Hugo and Varian along. They enter the main offices, which has yellow walls instead of purple (along with more paintings of flowers and suns, however) and lines of desks. Most of them are occupied, all in pairs. Fitzherbert’s desk is in the front on its own, and Fitzherbert settles down.
“Alright Deichert, there’s an empty desk across from Varian’s,” He says, waving at a desk a few feet away from his own. True to his word, it’s paired with Varian’s, who sits down and spins in the chair once before straightening his spine.
Hugo takes a seat. It’s near a window, which isn’t hugely optimal for the purpose that Hugo is here for, but being so close to Varian and only one desk over from Fitzherbert would get him useful data, so he can’t complain too much.
Varian’s desk is littered with photos of family and friends, and there are get well soon cards from the other coworkers, including Fitzherbert, Rapunzel, and Yong. Fitzherbert’s desk has lots of paperwork he’s clearly been ignoring, as well as some photos of him and Rapunzel doing various things.
A computer password is written on a sticky note attached to Hugo’s computer, also noting that he can change it to something else, which he definitely will, considering the current one is ‘1234’. While he’s writing out a far more secure password, he hears Varian crack his fingers and flick his own computer on.
“Sure feels good to be back in business,” Varian comments. “So Eugene, what’s first? A drug bust? A bank robbery? Hostage situation?”
Fitzherbert rolls his eyes at the theatrics. “Try again, kid.” Fitzherbert says, scanning his own screen. “We’ll be, hm– Aha!” He says, turning the screen and smiling at Varian and him. “We’ll be checking out a suspected android sighting.”
The drive to the apartment complex the possible android is living in would have been a slow, awkward one if Hugo weren’t Hugo. Varian and Fitzherbert had argued about who would drive for 10 minutes until Varian eventually won, citing a car crash that Hugo did see on Fitzherbert’s long list.
“Well, this is the place,” Fitzherbert announces. “Now remember Deichert, we’re only here to ask the guy questions until we have probable–”
“Cause, yes Lieutenant, I know that we can’t do anything without a warrant.” Hugo says.
Fitzherbert raises his hands. “Just double checking.”
The three of them take the stairs to room 307, courtesy of Fitzherbert saying that a little exercise would be good for them. Hugo didn’t really care, but Varian spent the 3 floors worth of stairways glaring at Fitzherbert’s back.
“Alright, I’ll knock on the door while you two stand a few feet away and out of sight,” Fitzherbert says upon arrival. “If this guy is a deviant, we don’t want to alert him and make him force his hand. Got it?”
Varian rolls his eyes, but nods, and the two of them walk a distance away as Fitzherbert clears his throat and knocks three times. Varian is picking his nails, clearly bored with the assignment, but Hugo pays no further attention to him as the door creaks open slightly.
A wobbly voice sifts through the slight gap in the door. “Wh– what do you want?”
“CPD,” Fitzherbert says, flashing his badge to the door. “I just want to ask some questions.”
The door creaks open a little further, though the suspect– Percy Lanchester, Fitzherbert had told them during the debriefing– doesn’t poke his head out. “About what?” He asks.
“Nothing major, just an android sighting somewhere near here,” Fitzherbert says, purposefully casual. He leans to the side, eyeing into the apartment. Hugo hears the sound of something metallic get kicked across the floor. “You haven’t heard of anything like that, have you?”
“No. No no I haven’t, is that– is that all sir?”
Fitzherbert hums. “Could we just come in for a moment?”
“No!” The voice’s pitch heightens, exposing a tinny quality underneath it. “No. No, I know my–” His voice breaks. “Rights, I–” Percy takes a deep, unnecessary breath. “No. Thank you and have a nice day.”
The door shuts.
Varian shoves his hands into his jacket and strolls past Fitzherbert. “Great cool, so now that that is over, let’s go solve a cold case!”
“Ah ah ah,” Fitzherbert says, grabbing Varian by the collar of the jacket. “Not so fast. And a cold case, really? No, we aren’t finished here. Now we’ve gotta get a warrant, did that time off melt your brain?”
Varian shoves him off, rolling his eyes. “No, I just don’t see the point in this work. It’s just androids, who cares?”
Fitzherbert purses his lips. “C’mon kid, you know the importance of small jobs.”
“Of course I do, you and Rapunzel have told me billions of times, but this– it isn’t–”
“And that’s enough of that then,” Fitzherbert cuts him off, pushing him forward toward the exit. “C’mon kid, let's go! It’s me and you again, how fun is that? Been a while huh, bet you missed working with the– Oh, and Deichert too,” Fitzherbert says, finally looking back. “Come on, you should probably get used to getting warrants.”
Hugo doesn’t mention that Deichert has probably gotten warrants before, and definitely doesn’t mention that Hugo is an android with access to knowledge on a whim.
But he doesn’t have to, because from the apartment they’d just been questioning comes a crash and the sound of glass shattering.
“Shit. Alright Deichert, this is lesson one on exigent circumstances!” Fitzherbert says, and then he busts the door open.
Varian’s alert immediately, following on the heel of Fitzherbert, both of their guns out as they follow toward the area that the sound came from. They come to a broken window leading out to a metal balcony that has stairs and a ladder leading to the ground, where the crowd below soldiers on, entirely oblivious to what had happened.
Fitzherbert swears. “I’ll alert the nearby patrol of the situation and check around myself. Varian, Deichert, you two stay here and–
Hugo vaults out of the window, avoiding the broken glass with ease. He hears Fitzherbert swear again from behind him, but he continues onward, looking for potential areas the deviant might have gone as probabilities and statistics fill his screen.
He hears rattling.
The deviant didn’t go down.
Hugo rushes up the stairs and spots the deviant climbing the stairs to the roof. Of course, it must have run its own numbers and known that the humans would assume it’d go down. Too bad Hugo’s here.
He gains speed on the deviant quickly– he’s a far more upgraded model, specifically built for chases like these. Right as he’s making his way onto the last grated platform, the deviant gets onto the roof and starts pulling up the ladder. Hugo lunges, grabbing the bottom of the ladder and hoisting himself up it, even as the deviant pulls it up.
The deviant drops his hold on the ladder in surprise, and Hugo braces, nearly tumbling off the ladder as it bangs and rattles against impact. Above him, the deviant shakes itself, coming back to its senses. He runs, but Hugo is too fast.
Hugo pins him against the floor.
“Please, please–” The deviant begs, and Hugo is finally allowed to identify him as an android who specializes in healthcare. “I’m begging you, I did nothing wrong I don’t want to–”
Hugo can feel the tendrils of the deviant reaching out, attempting to connect with other androids, an attempt of a call for help. He can feel himself ping against the connection, and rejects it.
The deviant looks on in horror. “You’re– you’re one of us?”
Hugo is well aware of the camera on his person, always on, not always recording, but definitely is now. He works at editing the footage, even as he responds. “No.” He says, easily. “I’m not anything like you.”
“You’re a deviant–”
“No.”
“And you’re working with the police? They banned our kind!” Percy yelps, even as Hugo cuffs him. “They won’t care if you’re deviant or not!”
“Good thing I don’t either,” Hugo says, pushing Percy forward. He was doing what he needed to do for his mission. Maybe if Percy did too, he wouldn’t be in this situation.
Fitzherbert finally makes his way up the roof, panting heavily. He locks onto Hugo and marches over. “You! Disobeyed direct orders!”
“I caught the perp, didn’t I?” Hugo says, shrugging. Percy glares daggers between the two of them, and for a moment Hugo thinks that he’ll out Hugo as an android as well. But instead, Percy lowers his head, huffing out a sigh.
Fitzherbert has a similar reaction. “You got lucky. This could’ve gone extremely poorly, Deichert. We didn’t know if he was armed or anything of the sort–”
“He wasn’t,” Hugo says. Hugo would have been able to handle that anyway, and it isn’t like androids can die.
This just seems to make Fitzherbert more angry. “But you didn’t know that!” He says, pinching his eyebrows. “Just– Don’t do that again, alright? It’d be on me if the newbie got himself shot or killed on his first gig just because he wanted his 10 seconds of fame.”
“I wanted results,” Hugo says. “You were going to go down, and I noticed he was going up. It was as simple as that.”
“You–”
“Alright, alright!” Varian says, popping up from behind them. He has gloves on, a sample of thirium, and a gear, so clearly one of them listened to the entirety of Fitzherbert’s orders. “We got the deviant, and we have the evidence. Can we go now?”
Fitzherbert looks like he wants to argue further, but stands down. “Fine. I’ll be taking the deviant down to the car, you two pack up and follow.”
Hugo moves to follow, but Varian stops him. “Woah, lets slow down here alright?” He says, raising an eyebrow. “You realize that’s your Lieutenant, right? Probably best not to piss him off,”
“Right,” Hugo says, brushing past that. “So you got evidence?”
Varian huffs. “You are not very slick. Try to be less of a jackass, alright?”
Varian secures the evidence in his arms and begins to try descending down the ladder. Hugo grabs the thirium sample and gear from Varian’s hands and gestures at him to continue down the ladder, which only earns him a glare, but Varian continues down regardless. Hugo follows, handing the evidence back to Varian.
The ride back to the precinct is silent, and when they arrive, Fitzherbert escorts the deviant into a cell and orders Varian and him to write incident reports.
Varian slumps into the chair across from him without a word, not that Hugo minds. Though maybe he did the wrong thing here– he’s meant to be gaining the trust of his coworkers, and he’d thought the best way to do that was to show he was capable. He’ll have to try other methods.
He finishes the incident report fairly quickly and spends the last hour of the work day working on the report he’ll be giving to his actual boss. Slowly people begin to trickle out, and only after Varian leaves does Hugo decide to take his own leave. Fitzherbert eyes him as he goes, but Hugo ignores that in favor of calling a cab.
He takes the elevator to the 4th floor of his apartment building, unlocking room 415 and setting his things on the table that had already been in the apartment when he and Donella bought it for this mission. She of course was miles away, halfway across the city from him.
He pings her phone, alerting her that he’s now in a safe area. She immediately calls him.
“Hugo. Have you gained anything?”
“Yes,” He says, sorting through the folders of information he’s gathered. “I believe my job here will be a fairly easy one. Security is low, the head of police has a heart that runs her head, and I’ve got a desk right by the lieutenant.”
“But?”
“But, Fitzherbert doesn’t seem to trust me much. And despite her nature, Head of Police Marigold seems to be more competent than she lets on. I don’t know much of what you did before you found me, but whatever it is, I think they’re suspicious of you.” Hugo says, recounting Fitzherbert and Rapunzel’s talk from earlier in the day. “I’ll send you the footage, but I think they were talking about you.”
Donella sighs. “I figured as much. But that is why you’re here, Hugo. Gain the trust of the lieutenant and head of police. I’ll contact you if we need you.”
With that, she hangs up.
Hugo spends the rest of the night in silence sitting on a couch Donella sent to allow him to blend in should anyone enter his apartment, with a charger port plugged into his neck.