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

Chris nodded and tried not to think about the rust. Bill merely flattened his hand and waved it in front of his neck--trying to cut CD off.

"I'll get right on splintering the core then." Chris said hastily. "I'll just need to, uh, turn off again. Can you manage that? Or do I need to override?"

CD turned off and fell deathly silent, eyes shutting. 54 still throws a silent fit, gravely annoyed and angered, her core sparking evem though CD was off and not running.

Grateful for his gloves, Chris pulled the core free and looked the crystal over. "Oh well, here goes everything--or nothing."

He pulled out a flathead screwdriver and a hammer and began to chip away along the crystal core, where the two pieces met. And after a few minutes, they separated.

He stuck the bigger chunk under CD's hood, and then tossed the smaller one to Bill. "That should be 54, if they haven't crossed everything over. God forbid." He started up CD once more, crossing his fingers.

CD stirs to life sluggishly, but comes back to life, both eyes brown. ''All our data was still seperated, so nothing was damaged.'' She said triumphly. ''But now you have to figure out what to od with 54 now that she is no longer messing with my core.'' She replied, hood still seared and engine still damahed from when the two cores had collided.

54's core was icy cold, but cold enough to give ice burns.

"We could just toss her into the trash." Chris suggested and then shook his head. "No. Really, we'll have no choice but to stuff her back in her car. Or transfer her to a car with no special abilities. The latter might work better actually."

Bill nodded. "Well, I've stripped her down to her basic parts, so everything looks goo--well good enough given her, ah, activities."

Chris yelped suddenly and dropped the core. "Geeze, that got cold fast."

54's core hits the ground and clangs dully, freezing the spot instantly, electricity cackling madly around it as CD inched back enough to stay out of it's reach. ''Well, I did say they froze her core long ago, so I'm guess it gets really cold real quick. You should hurry before it freezes the entire floor.''

"Alright then, dad, catch. Just stuff it under the hood, next to the engine if you can." Chris said as he snatched the freezing core from the ground and tossed it to his father.

Bill caught it with a yelp and then, because the hood was still propped open, tossed it into the hood. "I'm guessing we'll find out soon if it hits the right spot?"

Chris ran over to the car to double check that the core had not frozen to the engine. "Okay, so far so good."

The core lands snugly in the slot made for it, and crackles violently as it reconnected to the systems of the car again, acessing the data inside quickly and flawlessly. It reconnected to the cameras and engine, overriding any manual controls as it finally finished installing anything that had been changed on 54.

Bill and Chris hastily retreated from the car's immediate path. If 54 was as angry as she seemed they didn't want to give her too much potential to run them down. Or over.

"Hey 54? You alright?"

Bill pursed his lips and gestured at her rear tire; he'd put a boot on her when no one was looking.

54 awoke with a start and attempted to floor it into drive, but the boot didn't budge and left her pinned to the spot, her free tires squealing breifly before she hit the brakes. ''Do I look aright?!'' She snarled, engine revving up loudly, energy crackling wildly over it. Her programming has gone haywire, for some reason.

Bill sighed in relief. "Calm down, 54. You really should be less worried about your looks. Seriously. There's more wrong with you than is just physical. You've also got a boot on that isn't coming off until you calm down enough to listen to reason."

Chris glanced at CD. "You two haven't really talked much; is there anything you know about her that you picked up briefly while you shared a body--that you can lend me--as in what might calm her down. Or why she's so scared?"

''I did seem to encounter that something of a war scarred her so badly it made her snappy and hostile. But all my attempts to see what it was failed. It very well could be that something in her past made her what she is now and hit her hard enough that she is just now feeling it's effects. The memory seems to be connected to her first colors..Pink.'' CD replied.

''Lies!'' 54 scowled, but seemed to waver slightly. The water in her windsheild fluid seemed to well up a bit when CD had mentioned what she had learned.

Chris turned to look at 54. "The color pink?" He wondered what the color could signify and failed. "If it was red, I might be able to draw a few conclusions with war and all; but pink...I've got no idea. Care to let us in on your secret, 54?"

54 sighed deeply. ''I used to belong to a young girl who painted me pink and the like to suit her age. But when she matured a bit she....Abandoned me in war, saying I was nothing but a being she hated. A friendship that was shared for years was crushed instantly and left me crippled and sour. It had only been a few months after my creation that she rejected me as nothing but a cruel machine incapable of feeling. After that incident I grew a great distrust of the foul human that abandoned me and changed my color scheme to try and put the past behind. But was it success, or was it failure? That one small incident as that has made me who I am. A bitter, cold cored machine....'' She hissed, glaring at CD.

CD just stared in shock, trying to make sense of what 54 had spoke of.

Chris gently patted 54's hood. "I'm sorry that you had such an experience. A lot of people don't understand that AIs can feel and reason just as much as they can--and so they take it for granted. A new toy or state-of-the-art object that is simply to show off for a while. But not all humans are like that. My father isn't one to throw away a car."

Clutch beeped from his spot in the driveway. "Speak for yourself, Chris. He wanted to abandon me."

Chris glared at Clutch. "That was a completely different reason. You were a rustbucket that took too much money to repair for not enough turn out. And besides that, we still kept you around. Anyway, we're not the kind of people to simply 'grow tired' of a vehicle. And we'll paint you another color if you want."

54 just sighed. ''I never even had a chance to prove I was different. Now I'm just a killer...'' She said, but flinched and came back to her senses quickly. Troubled emotions was making it hard for her to stay annoyed and to hate everything. Her hood was still ice cold. ''Just abandoned...Deemed nothing but a reject..'' She hissed, flinching again.

CD urked and backed away, scared.

"Even killers get a second chance," Chris said softly. "If you continue demanding bodies, there might be an intervention, but you can always change yourself. It might not be easy, but it's always worth it."

Bill snorted at her comment at being a reject. "You're hardly a reject, 54. You're a collector's item, highly valued in the car world. Whatever your past that's made you who you are...it's also made you memorable and increased your worth. So before getting mad at being a reject, realize that it's also made you one of a kind and prized because of that."

''A collectors item for police.'' She grumped. ''Even you fools are terrified of me even now even without all the weapons I used to have. I can't really hurt anything stripped down. I mean, sure I can run them over....But theres no fun in that when police are always going to chase you down or try to destroy you...'' She muttered, glaring at CD. ''Even my 'sister' wants nowhere near me.''

As CD was a few feet away from 54 now.

Chris sighed. "Well, we're not afraid of you; maybe respectful, but not afraid."

Bill nodded. "And I went ahead and took the liberty of stripping you down to basics. Sorry; but you're not exactly street-legal the way you were." Well, she'd been a rolling felony anyway.

Most of the basics revealed her standard build, aside from the custom built hood. Marks on it indicated that there used to be a police badge painted large hood, though faded out and almost washed completely off. The pink paint was old, but it did seem to show that there was a kinder side to the frozen car. Even the small child handprint embedded into the darker pink heart.

''She loved me once...And after that I never saw her again..'' 54 sighed, shutting her eyes, still trying not to cry. CD frowns, eyeing Chris and Bill, then looked at Clutch.