Rudolph, City of Von 2067
Just minutes after Noah was attacked, police cars and ambulances lined the street just outside the police station.
Out of most of the police cars, one of them was Rudolph's and A-3's, who were just now arriving at the scene. The police car came to a complete stop, and Rudolph and A-3 exited the vehicle.
Unable to do anything, they just stand there and watch as the medics load Noah onto a stretcher and carry him to the nearest hospital.
Rudolph, standing there, throws a look of extreme worry.
"What the hell happened?"
A-3 looks toward Rudolph.
"He was attacked."
Rudolph looks at A-3, displeased with his obvious answer.
"No shit, he was attacked."
A-3 has no words to say to him, so he just watches as Rudolph begins walking towards the crime scene, and all he does is follow.
Rudolph, now getting closer to the crime scene, walks around for a bit. He looks at all the blood on the ground that Noah left.
While Rudolph is examining the scene where Noah was seemingly attacked, A-3 goes and sees the bloody trail that was either left by Noah or by someone else.
Rudolph lifted his head to see A-3 following a bloody path somebody had left.
"Do you think that's Noah's blood?" Rudolph gets up and walks over to meet A-3.
A-3 continues to follow the bloody trail.
"I did at first. But now I'm thinking it's most likely someone else's."
Rudolph shines his flashlight down at the blood to get a better look.
"What makes you say that, A-3?"
A-3 stops walking and looks at Rudolph.
"It's Kinda a hunch." A-3 then continues following the path. "This hunch can get confirmed, though, when we go talk to the first responders, or we see what's at the end of this bloody path, which seems to be ending any second now."
Rudolph comes to a stop, then walks again, following the bloody path, which now turns to the left and then stops at a curb.
"This is where the trail ends."
Rudolph comes from behind A-3.
"Yeah, so it seems."
A-3 walks around where the path stopped.
"I'm sure it wasn't Noah now. It was someone else. Someone was being dragged across the cold, snowy ground and then shoved inside a vehicle."
Rudolph steps to the side and rubs his hands together, then he rubs his hair back and takes a deep breath into the cold air.
"This is fucking sick. How could someone do this?"
A-3 looks at Rudolph, then begins walking back towards their cop car.
"You seem worried, Rudolph?"
Rudolph looks at him like he's an idiot.
"Of course I'm fucking worried! People are dying, and we haven't been able to do anything about it!"
Rudolph licks his lips and begins to pace around.
"And don't get me started on Noah! For all we know, he could be dead!"
A-3 stops.
"Sorry, Rudolph, I didn't mean it like that."
Rudolph takes another breath and follows A-3.
"Yeah, yeah, I know you didn't mean it."
While Rudolph and A-3 are walking, they start hearing noises from the sky. The noises sound like a thousand mosquitoes about to fly over them.
Rudolph and A-3 look up to see a bunch of drones scouring the sky. Then they hear the noises of what sounds like an animal, but isn't. They hear the metal of these things clamp down hard, their teeth grinding.
Rudolph and A-3 just stop and watch as a bunch of robot-like dogs walk past them. The dogs are entirely made of metal, and their eyes light up a bright white. And on the stomach of the robot dogs, it says "Robot's Specialty."
Rudolph continues the walk back to the police car.
"I guess they're going all out this time, huh?"
A-3 loosely follows behind him.
"Yeah, it seems so."
Back at the police car, Rudolph reaches into his right coat pocket and takes out a cigarette. After putting the cigarette into his mouth, he goes again into his right coat pocket and takes out a lighter. With the lighter, he lights up his cigarette, then puts the lighter back into his coat pocket.
Rudolph inhales the cigarette, then he takes it out and blows the smoke into the snowy air.
"Where do we start? We have nothing to go on? These killers are organized; they don't make many mistakes." Rudolph inhales his cigarette again.
"I guess we will start from the basics again."
Rudolph looks at A-3.
"Go see if anyone caught anything on security cameras or car cameras. And as for me, I'm going to ask around to see if anyone heard anything."
Without saying a word, Rudolph and A-3 get to work doing their tasks.
Rudolph walks the sidewalks for a bit until he finds a house that sits directly in front of the crime scene. Rudolph walks up to the door and knocks.
No one answers, so Rudolph knocks again. Finally, someone answers.
The person who opens the door is a middle-aged man with little to no hair on his head, a mustache, and a purple robe.
"Can I help you?"
Rudolph looks at him, confused. It's as if this man doesn't know there is a bunch of police surrounding the area.
"Sir, I wanted to see if I could check your security cameras?"
The man looks at him, confused, but then leads him into his house.
"If you would follow me this way."
Rudolph follows the man into his house, then to a small bedroom where a bed sits against a wall and a desk next to it, with a computer on it.
The man pulls up a chair to the desk and begins to show Rudolph the security camera footage.
Rudolph keeps signaling to the man to keep going back on the footage until he finally sees Noah walking across the snow path.
The man looks up at Rudolph.
"This him?"
"Yes, that's him," Rudolph answered.
The man looks at the security footage again.
"This kid looks horrified at whatever he's looking at in front of him."
Rudolph keeps signaling to the guy to let the footage play out.
"Stop!"
Rudolph points at the camera, which shows the exact moment the perpetrator attacks Noah.
Rudolph stumbles over his words.
"I—I need paper. Paper!"
The man gets up out of the chair and runs to get some paper and a pen. After a few seconds, the man comes running back into the room and hands Rudolph some paper and a pen.
Rudolph begins sketching what he sees. He draws a face with a question mark going down the middle, then he draws the green hair shaped like a spear.
Rudolph is now pulsating.
"Ah, this is all I was able to make out from the video."
Rudolph runs out of the house and back towards where all the police cars and ambulances are, which are now surrounded by reporters.
Walking up to the large group of reporters, Rudolph holds up the picture for them to see.
"This sketch right here! Show it everywhere and let them know we are looking for this person!"
Rudolph then goes to find A-3 when a reporter asks him a question.
"And what will you do if this doesn't help you find him?"
Rudolph turns around.
"It doesn't matter. We'll find the perpetrator eventually, no matter what."
Rudolph walks away, ignoring any other questions reporters may have. Rudolph walks up to his car to see A-3 waiting for him there.
"Do you have anything?"
A-3 opens the car door.
"Yeah, someone said they saw someone."
Rudolph looks at him, confused.
"Well, do you have anything else?"
A-3 just stands for a second, his eyes light up white.
"Yeah, they said the person looked to be dragging someone, but they couldn't tell. They also said the person who looked to be dragging someone had a big build and that they might have been missing a finger."
Rudolph and A-3 stand there, staring at each other, knowing that they both know only one person with a big build and a missing finger.
"William France's." They say in unison.