Noah was enjoying a paperwork day when Nathan got a call. He groaned internally. This meant that Umeni Enterprises wanted them to do their legwork again. He was getting pretty sick and tired of this.

Nathan walked up to Noah with a smile on their face. "Detective! We have another interesting case on our hands."

"Don't tell me it's to do with androids again!" Mika rolled his eyes. "I'm sick and tired of cleaning up Umeni's mess... um, no offence, Nathan."

Gabriella heard the word 'android' and scooted over. "Hey! I'll gladly take your place! I'm an expert on androids!"

Nathan chuckled nervously. "Um... anyway... do you know Julius Roquellet? Apparently, he ran into an android that had convinced themselves that they were a murder victim. We need to help Umeni Enterprises capture the android, so we can fix this bug!"

"Um... what?" Syrena stared at him, eager to skip over the part about Julius. "What murder victim?"

Nathan took Noah's keyboard and typed up a name. "Here. Florence Marsh, died in 1957, found in a well after being stabbed to death. For some reason, the android was convinced that they were Florence... they even led Julius to her old home."

"We've seen androids take names before, but never like this," Noah frowned, staring at his computer screen. "You can solve the bug as soon as you get your hands on them, right?"

"We should be able to work out a patch as soon as possible, yes," Nathan nodded. "Bugs suck... we just rolled out a new patch yesterday, too! It's meant to fix things, not make it worse..."

"We'd best get out there and track down the android," Mika suggested, "It could be dangerous! Nathan, was there anything else that was said?"

"The android was in a state of distress," Nathan replied, "Apparently, they thought that somebody was going to kill them. I assume they were referring to their murderer - although, they're long dead now."

"It says right here - the guy died in prison," Noah pointed to his computer screen. "It's odd, isn't it? Why latch on to this particular case?"

"It's hard to say. We have people going through the patch notes to see if anything could've caused it," Nathan continued, "But... anything that they've added to the normal models would still have been applied to me. Whilst I get a different set of updates, all they're doing is updating the normal models to be more similar to me, in terms of interaction. Does... that make any sense...?"

"Anything that they've added to those models is already applied to you," Gabriella butted in, "Yeah. Makes perfect sense. Whatever it is, it has impacted you, but this one random android."

"Could it be a virus?" Syrena asked them, "I know you said you're well protected, but..."

"We won't know until we find the android for ourselves," Nathan shrugged. "Sorry. I have just speculation at this point."

Noah got up out of his chair. "Right. Let's get going. Nathan, since you have information about the eyewitness, I need you to tell me where the android was last sighted."

"To Splough!" Nathan chirped, "I suspect the android may be hiding in one of the many abandoned buildings."

"I'm coming!" Gabriella said, jumping out of her seat.

"No, you're not!" Syrena forced Gabriella to sit down. "Gab, it's too dangerous. We've told you this multiple times..."

Gabriella groaned as she was forced back into her seat. "Ugh. Fine. Whatever... I'll just stay here and keep an eye on you through Nathan."

"She's joking," Nathan said immediately, "She can't do that. I would know."

Noah rolled his eyes and headed to the garage. "Right, come on, you lot. Hopefully this won't lead to something awful..."

——

The team were busy collecting eyewitness reports in Splough. A few people had heard screaming recently - but this was Splough, so it wasn't anything unusual. Families tended to argue throughout the night.

"Nathan, how's your search going?" Syrena called out to Nathan as they emerged from an abandoned building. "Any luck?"

"I made friends with some birds," Nathan replied, "But nothing so far. Perhaps the android kept on running somewhere."

"Well, no one has heard any screaming recently," Mika pointed out, "So it must be doing something other than screaming... or it's ran off somewhere. But if it did, we'd get a report about it."

Noah rubbed his head in thought. "Nathan, I don't suppose you know where any other androids are positioned? I doubt many people in Splough have them..."

"That's a shout!" Nathan agreed, "I'll do a quick search and get back to-"

Nathan turned as they heard someone running towards them. They gasped and held up their hand. "Looks like I don't have to search. An android is heading our way - but it's not the one we're looking for."

"You have to help me!" The android cried, "You're police, right?"

"We are, yes," Syrena approached them with a smile. "What's wrong?"

"My name is Gregory Jameson. I think there's a group of people after me!" They exclaimed, "Ever since they saw me with his wife, they've-"

"Gregory Jameson died in 1963," Nathan interrupted them, "He was found hanging from a tree one morning after having an affair with another man's wife. You are not him."

"Another one?!" Mika gasped. "At least this one wasn't screaming at us..."

"We should detain them for Umeni to examine," Noah told the group, "Nathan? Care to do the honours?"

"N-No! I don't understand!" The android frowned. "I'm sure of who I am... and I'm sure..."

Nathan grabbed the android's arm, but something made them jump back. A spark of electricity shot from the android to Nathan, causing them to step backwards in shock. They stared at the android with wide eyes, unresponsive.

"N-Nathan?" Mika waved his hand in front of Nathan's face whilst Noah cuffed the android. "Are you okay? Was it a little bit of static electricity?"

Nathan eventually shook their head, snapping out of it. "Y-Yes... I suspect so. We should head to Umeni Enterprises and get this android inspected right away."

"Maybe we should get you checked up, just in case," Syrena said with a frown. "I'm a little concerned... we can't have you breaking down on us, Nathan."

"It's probably nothing." Noah shrugged as he led the android to the SUV. "You're worrying about nothing. Let's get going... I want to eat soon."

The drive there was mostly in silence. Occasionally, the android would pipe up and insist that they were a person, not an android. Noah had a fun time correcting them. Meanwhile, Nathan spent most of the drive in silence, staring out of the window.

When they got there, the engineers covered the android in a blanket and led them away. Nathan volunteered for a checkup, too - mainly to calm down Syrena. The three detectives left behind sat patiently in the Chief Engineer's office, waiting for her to come in and give them a report.

Syrena twiddled with her thumbs. "I hope this isn't going to take too long," she mumbled, "These snacks aren't going to fill me up."

"Anwen said she wasn't going to take too long," Noah replied, "They just need to factory reset Nathan, and we can be on our way. I doubt they'll actually find anything wrong with that android in such a short time..."

The door opened behind them, and Anwen and Nathan stepped through. Anwen sat behind her desk, whereas Nathan stood next to her, a smile on their face.

"We've factory reset Nathan, just in case," Anwen told them, "We don't actually think anything went wrong with him... it was probably just static electricity."

"Did you find anything wrong with that android?" Noah asked her, eager to get out. "We're sorry we, uh, couldn't find the other one..."

"We had a kind citizen drop off the other android," Anwen replied, "We did find something in common with the two of them... Nathan?"

Nathan jumped at being referred to. "O-Oh! Yes! You see, recently, Umeni Enterprises has given androids access to the internet. We're talking about your household models - I've always had access, due to my specification."

"It's supposed to be used when the androids actually need it, like Nathan here," Anwen said in a sarcastic tone, "Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. These two androids searched up the cases they were on about, and became convinced that they were the victims."

"They didn't even look anything like the victims!" Syrena exclaimed, "But... you're telling me they were looking at old murder cases in their free time?"

"I would say that they were bored, but that's nonsense. Androids don't get bored," Anwen chuckled to herself. "Perhaps someone asked them about it. We don't know. But... as of now, we're recalling every android so we can fix this problem."

"Recalling them?" Noah repeated, "That's a pretty big deal. It's not something you can fix in a patch, huh?"

Nathan shifted uncomfortably. "Um... I've been given permission to tell you this, since this might impact your work. But... those two androids aren't the only ones. Cases have started to pop up more and more frequently."

"Especially when there's more than one android per household," Anwen explained, "I don't understand it, but maybe a lot of people are just True Crime fanatics. Why you would ask an android to search something up for you, and not your phone, I'll never know..."

"But Nathan's never been like that," Mika tilted his head. "They looked up cases for us just today, and they're fine."

"Exactly. It seems to only be impacting the household models," Anwen said, leaning back in her chair. "Nathan has had internet access for far longer, and hasn't had any issues. Perhaps it's just because they're more advanced..."

"It's probably just a bug," Nathan shrugged. "I'm sure you'll find a solution, Anwen! But for now, we should head back and see if there's anyone that needs our help."

"Hold it. What about... what about Haytham?" Syrena mumbled, "Do you have any updates? Have you managed to fix the bug behind the naming?"

Anwen was oddly silent for a moment. "That's classified. What I can tell you is that we're still searching for them... wherever they are, they've managed to go off the grid. It appears these cases are very rare - we've only had two recorded so far. The current problem is reported far more. First it started with one, but it's quickly started to spread..."

"What's odd is how the bug is dormant until activated," Nathan frowned. "All of the androids received the update at the same time, yet only now are some of them becoming impacted. It is something to look into..."

"I still hold my theory that people are just asking them to search up these things, and they become attached," Anwen rolled her eyes. "We get funny bugs like this all of the time. But there's no harm done. At least they thought they were the victims, and not the murderers."

"Not that we could harm humans anyway!" Nathan chirped in the background.

Syrena grumbled to herself. That obviously wasn't true. She had a hospital bill to prove that.

"Anyway, we should be heading back," Noah jumped up out of his seat. "Thanks for your help, Anwen. We'll send any androids we find your way."

"Take care of Nathan," Anwen warned them, "It is rather expensive, with how we just had to rebuild them..."

"I'm sorry for my failure, Anwen," Nathan lowered their head. "Next time, I shall take the price of my reconstruction into account when placed in dangerous situations."

Noah didn't want to get into a discussion about that, so he turned round and left. "Right," he said to the two human detectives, "I'm thinking sushi. What about you two?"

"Sushi is fine!" Mika beamed, "Syrena likes sushi, too! I've seen her buy it on her way to work... let's go!"

Nathan followed behind them, even though they didn't eat anything. They were glad just to be able to tag along.