Forums » General Roleplay » Sands of Time (1x1)

(ah, well, it beats running over humans... )

"Squirrels? Little furry rodents that chew through garbage cans? I'm sure they had 'em in Europe--unless they went extinct." Bill shook his head. "Actually they're responsible for more accidents then you might think--people swerve to avoid them."

Chris rubbed his hands together. "Ah, no, not directly anyway." He blanched at the memory of her window wipers. "A cop came by for a talk, but he left again. Don't know exactly what happened. And 54 has been pretty, ah, mild since. She's also been fairly helpful," he added.

''Why swerve to avoid them when you can run over them and end it?'' She hissed, not understanding why humans would swerve to avoid the things if their that much of a pest.

''So you've got 54 helping you without her going berzerk..?'' CD asked. ''I mean, thats pretty unusual for her to do these days..''

Bill shrugged. "Depends on the driver, I suppose. I don't swerve, but I don't try to aim for them either"

Chris put a finger to his lips. "Shh, don't let her hear. It's all for the better anyway." He didn't want to think about 54 being confined in their garage with a boot on her tire or tossed into a junkyard for some other unsuspecting person to find. "She also helped us figure out how to fix your AI crystal--which is really good. But, um, if you think you're overheating again, you might want to turn off for a bit. At least until I can decide what's causing it."

She shuts down again, engine starting to smoke again badly. The smoke smelled strongly of gas, and was blackened a bit. Her engine was extremely hot, and appeared to be overworking itself since most of her mechanical systems were either destroyed or not working properly. Though her core was cool itself, glinting lightly and working perfectly fine.

54 snorts. ''I can't really drive anyway. All the police have to do is scan my plate to find me wanted.'' She inquired. ''With all my weapons and classified info..''

Bill grinned and waved a hand. "Psh, are we a mechanic's shop or aren't we? We've got spare license plates, not to mention a new coat of paint wouldn't hurt either. But as for your weapons--we'd probably want to disable them, or put up some sort of safety guard so you don't unintentionally use them." Particularly on people, he thought, but didn't dare say out loud.

Chris groaned. "Argh. So close! I think it's just the engine. Dad, do we have a spare engine lying around?"

Bill glanced over at his son. "Other than the WRX? Not exactly. We've got a dated four cylinder that might suffice."

Chris sighed. "I'll just rewire her back to the WRX then, until I can get her shell fixed. What a pain." At least this way CD wouldn't need to worry about melting her AI core again and Chris could work on the car with her guidance--if he needed it. Mostly he just needed time. Time to strip the car of all its unnecessary parts, and then build it from the ground up.

He quickly transferred the AI crystal to the WRX, and then turned on the vehicle. Bill just watched, absently patting 54's hood.

54 flinched. ''Why are you patting my hood?'' She hissed, finicky on it being touched.

Afte a few more minutes of silence, CD's voice sounded through the speakers of the WRX. ''Hunh?'' She asked, awake. ''Did something mess up? I can tell I'm in the WRX again.'' She replied. Usually she could tell so when she couldn't detect her wide array of sensors and gears.

54 just glared at the hand, though she did feel a bit strange. Most people hardly touched her hood. Even fewer were this friendly...But this feeling was more than just a hint that just maybe she wasn't a vicious killer that she seemed to be,too.

"Ah, sorry, it's a bad habit," Bill murmured. He stopped patting the hood, but let his hand rest on it. Really, one of these days he was going to get burned. "So 54, who was your last driver--or did you even have one?"

Chris winced. "Ah, well, your engine started spewing smoke and stuff. I didn't want to have to re-freeze your crystal, so I transferred you back to the WRX. Sorry. We do have a spare engine though, so that shouldn't be too much trouble to fix you up." He wandered back over to the shell that was CD and began to dismantle it.

''No one really has drove me. I'm finicky and hate being ordered around...I mean, like two police tried to drive me, but...Uuuh..Yea..'' She remarked, shuddering. ''I only let those who know how to drive drive me. Because I'm built to be fast, but I can crash on accident...'' She inquired, then flinched again, grumbling.

The shell took a bit to dismantle. It was well put together, even though a rattlesnake was curled around a peice and hissed at Chris harshly. 54 saw it and freaked out, badly.

Chris yelped and pulled away when he saw the rattlesnake. Or heard it rather. "Gah! Well, I think I found the problem...one of them anyway." Half the snake was clogging up the exhaust pipe. How it had wedged itself in there to begin with--he didn't even want to know.

"Easy, 54, we've got this." Bill grabbed a tire iron and a pair of long-handled wrenches. "Here, let me." He pinned down the head of the snake with the tire iron and then gripped it carefully with the wrench. Extracting the snake from the tailpipe was easy enough--thankfully it wasn't so badly wedged that it needed oil or anything--though there was plenty of oil lying around should they have needed it.

Chris sighed. "That was close. What else have you got CD? An electric eel, maybe? Perhaps a sea urchin? Oh wait, found one of those already." He had put the car on jacks and removed the tires--finding such a one embedded in the underside of a tire.

Along withe sea urchin was a turtle in the undercarriage. A snapping turtle, mouth open. 54 was still freaked out, staring and trembling silently. So much for being tough, it seemed. The turtle snapped at Chris, thankfully only biting the air. It did seem a bit crushed though, and was burnt a bit. Seaweed was tangled up in gears, and another snake was dead, curled up badly somewhere as it was already rotten and smelly. 54 watched...Only to freak out worser when a ladybug landed on her eyes. ''GYAAHH!!!'' She screeched, the bug just standing there and staring back.

Bill was trying to play damage control and failing. He handed the wrench to Chris. "You fix this, I'll try to keep 54 calm." The last thing he wanted was her blowing holes in things.

Chris managed to remove the snapping turtle without too much trouble--though he put it in an empty box that had held tools at some point. The other snake he was able to remove easily, being that it was dead.

Bill brushed the ladybug off of 54's eye, letting it flutter away. He sighed. "How in the world did you make a good spy if you're scared of bugs and animals?" He posed his question in hopes of learning about her past a little as well as distracting her from the stuff Chris was doing.

''Well, my duty was out on the sea. I didn't see animals or bugs. All I saw were humans and mechanics.'' She replied hesitantly. ''And the bugs I ever saw were these huge moths!''

Chris finished getting rid of the sealife from CD's engine and car and finally stepped back. He was slick with sweat. "Great, now we can start adding anti-rust solution and start getting new, better parts thrown on." He flopped onto a stool to catch his breath.

Bill just shook his head. "Moths must have been enormous and a huge pest if you were having trouble with them. I guess it was your headlights that were drawing them?"

At the mention of headlights, Chris groaned. CD's were still filled with fluid.

54 nodded slightly. ''But these were so big they could carry humans away!'' She exclaimed. ''One even killed our captain. Our ship was a giant plane that got shot down on a mission. It landed in the ocean and sunk. A very powerful AI that could destroy moutains!'' She added, flinching then and mumbling. She hated acting hyper. Her headlights were clear, even if they were cracked a bit with a bit of rust lining the edges. She flinched once more, trying to keep her general annoyed attitude up.

"These were moths?" Chris said from over by his chair--which he vacated again to start cleaning and draining CD's headlights. He shuddered at the idea of being carried off by a giant moth.

Bill chuckled softly. It sounded like a tall tale to him, and he wasn't sure about its accuracy. "Do you have any pictures, footage, or data regarding these giant moths?"

54 growls and pulls up a holographic 3D rendition of these 'moths'...Which were giant mechanical moths, but huge.

Bill sobered at seeing the image. "Oh, those kinds of moths."

Chris looked over as well and sighed. "Great. AIs as well? Or are they actually machines operated by humans? CD, did you ever encounter anything like them before?"

''Machine Operated Tazer Helper...'' CD replied, drifting off for a minute. ''Those things were huge. One even attacked me once, but I used a missile to destroy it. But it hit my engine pretty hard when it fell...'' She inquired, still drifting off in her crystal. ''Humans operated them inside, and they had lazers and all these things. Even a posion dart..''

Chris' face lit up and he whistled, impressed. "I've read about them a little; they make AI planes look like kid toys. I can't imagine meeting one face to face though. That'd be terrifying. Awesome, but terrifying. What I wouldn't do to get my hands on one of those..."

"It's good you don't have one of those," Bill replied. "You've got enough work here to keep you busy for two weeks."

Chris scowled. "Two days, more like. I've got nothing better to do and look--CD's shell is starting to shape up nicely." He had finished adding the anti-rust coating around her shell and now he was letting it dry.

Chris nodded sagely. "Some better rims, tires, and bumpers and she'll almost be roadworthy again. A new engine and she will be." He grinned, excited by the prospect of showing her off to people. "In fact, I might even throw in a new coat of paint. What do you think, CD? You want a new coat of paint? Purple or another color?"

CD was still drifting off, but flinched once she heard Chris speak. ''Hunh..?.....'' She asked, dazed a bit. It seemed her core had drifted off in thought, and she was confused. ''Oh. Purple.'' Sge replied afterwards.