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

Chris sighed and rubbed his head. "Maybe I'll just let the two of you duke it out and the winner will get fixed up by me. BUT the condition is that the garage remains standing. And of course myself, my dad, and Clutch. And the town....On second thought, I'm gonna disable the two of you if you continue doing that."

''I'm not deadly. My sister is. She's the AI thats hostile.'' CD grumbled. ''You already know that. Disabling her would be dangerous because she'd kill you before you got close.'' CD warned.

54 growls, crystals on sides pulsing darkly. Tensed up and willing to strike anything that dared to get close to her hood. Gears within her started to whir quickly, the crystals now a set of mettalic spikes that ran around her front, sharp. Her headlights moved and gun barrels could be seen underneath as 54's form changed until she was a robotic large feline with crystallized armor. Her core was held on her forehead.

CD freaked out and reversed, narrowly missing anything behind her when she did stop.

Chris jumped back, out of the way as CD reversed and then seeing 54's newest form, muttered a curse.

Bill, having watched with a father's discerning eye, stepped in now. "Stop. If either of you makes the next move--I'll personally tow you to the junkyard behind this garage. I don't care if you end up blowing the place up. 54, I'm glad you're fixed, why don't you back yourself out of the garage for the moment and let your engine cool." It wasn't really a suggestion and Bill crossed his arms.

Chis watched, still rubbing his head and wondering if the two cars were going to duke it out here and now.

54 hisses, but walks out of the garage.

CD gulps. ''Yeeaa...YOUR INSANE of you think I'm fighting her.'' She whined. ''I told you she's a force to be reckoned with. It won't take much for her to go berzerk. She looks ready to destroy us, and none can get close enough to calm her down...'' She added. ''54 betrayed us once, I don't see how you guys can still trust her given her history of murder.''

Bill grinned wryly. "The thing about unruly cars is the same with unruly people. They may act like they don't care or don't want to get along with anyone, but they do. They just have to put up a bit of a fight first to get it across that when they do go along with an action, it's because they want to. She isn't so different from Clutch, except that she's armed."

Chris sighed. "She's worse than Clutch in that regard. But they both have their good sides. It'll just take a bit of coaxing to find 54's."

"Hey!" Clutch retorted. "I have my good points and they far outnumber the bad."

Chris smiled. "Yes, Clutch, I know. You're a very good car. Even without cameras." Clutch flashed his brights.

CD shut her eyes, grumbling. ''Bright.'' She hissed. 54 stayed outside, back in her car form, just ready to kill something. A squirrel happened to cross her sight.

BAM!

Dead squirrel.

CD flinched, hearing the gunshot. ''What the..?''

Bill flinched and then laughed when he checked from the safety of the garage. "I don't think we're going to have a squirrel problem around here with 54."

He strode outside. "Thanks, 54. Those squirrels are a pain in the butt. Raccoons too."

Clutch switched off his brights. "Sorry, CD," he muttered. He was calmer now, but whether because of the gunshot, the dead squirrel, or 54's sour mood, any of those could be a factor.

Chris sighed. "Well, I think we've got everyone fixed up as well as we're going to for the day. Did you want to stay in the garage, CD? Or be parked outside?"

54 just stood there, shot gun in headlight still pointed aat the blasted to smithereens squirrel. She flinched badly, but remained silent, looking at Bill, annoyed.

''I'd rather stay out of sight of 54...'' CD eeped.

Bill just looked steadily back at 54, an eyebrow raised. He wasn't judging, more like assessing.

Chris nodded. "Alright, garage it is then; if my dad agrees to keeping 54 outside. Clutch, you want in or out?"

"I'll stay in," said Clutch. "To keep CD company."

Chris rolled his eyes. "You'll be off anyway, so it won't matter. Dad? Is 54 staying outside?"

Bill looked at the shotgun, then at the blasted squirrel. "It's up to you, 54. You're welcome to stay in the garage. Unless you want to stay out and do some more squirrel hunting."

54 remained silent, but slowly the gun slid back into her headlights. She ended up just shutting down right then and there, to ease her temper and rest. Though she remsined to hear any momvements, tensed up.

''54 must be annoyed at us all. But I didn't hear her speak. What did she say?'' CD asked, a bit worried.

Bill shrugged, hiding a smile. "Alright, suit yourself." He stepped back into the garage. "54's staying outside, I think; she seems to want to be alone."

Chris sighed. "I don't think 54 said anything. Hopefully a night out will calm her down though. If not, we've got a healthy rodent populaton that could use some trimming down."

54 remained shut down, out cold in her 'sleep'.

''Hopefully. But she just seems annoyed,upset,and confused. Maybe she isn't as bad as we try to make her out to be..What d you think?'' CD asked, still very much awake.

Bill harrumphed from where he stood. "There's no such thing as a bad car. Just a misguided AI. I see no reason to fear 54. She wants what all AIs need: a purpose that doesn't conflict with her programming. Of course, given her programming, that might be difficult. And I'm guessing squirrels probably aren't going to slow her down."

Chris chuckled. "She'd make a great racecar if you tied squirrels to the backs of other racers." He paused. "Of course, that'd probably turn into demolition derby within seconds...so never mind. But maybe I can hook something up in the junkyard for her. She can shoot and blow things up willynilly out there."

Chris looked at CD. "But we're working ourselves around 54 and not the more temperate of AIs. CD, is there anything you would like? We just fixed you up, but that's routine maintenance--nothing special."

CD chuckles. ''Well, I haven't been able to race anything for years now....'' She inquired, moving her tires a bit. ''Former spies do have to keep their orders in check, usually a basic generic track that most cars would find difficult to manurver without crashing would be a nice test...'' She muttered. ''I'm not the fastest car around, my normal speed was about 250mph.''

Chris laughed. "If that's all you want, that's easy enough to accomodate. My dad works as a mechanic at the race track. A lot of racers want him to fix their cars for them."

Bill scowled and crossed his arms. "They should learn to fix them their own selves. I won't be here forever and a good racer is one who knows how to race. Aaron, now he's one you should watch out for. He'll blast past you at half throttle like you were standing still. And top speed means nothing if you don't have good tires and an even better set of brakes. It all lies with traction."

''What other kind of car can go 250 and jump ramps and land without much of a scratch?'' She dared to asked. ''Doing flips in the air to avoid missiles, and then driving backwards to see who's behind you. Traction is nothing compared to risking your life to save someone you ended up losing anyway.'' She scowled. ''Even if that person was the one who built you out of scratch and got arrested anhyway..''

Chris winced. "Yes, well, probably no other car can match your acrobatics. And I'm sorry about your creator. For what it's worth, he did a good job in designing your core. He used an interesting technique I haven't seen before."

Clutch sighed. "Yes, and my creator played a prank with my system. Count your blessings you had a useful purpose. Mine was being subjected to orders and mindless driving. How boring."

CD snorts. ''At least no one shot at you in an attempt to destroy you for existing.''

"Well no, but I was rusting to death in my original model. I was a lemon and that was bad enough..." he trailed off.

Chris merely shook his head and Bill headed back into the house

''And I was rusting away until you found me...'' She replied, just now starting to fall drowzy as her core slows down in responding, all tuckered out as the skies outside started to darken from nightfall.