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

Clutch turned his flashers on. "What?" he whined, "That wasn't me. That was just...luck."

Chris sighed. "CD, can you hang on while I go get my dad. We'll be back as soon as possible--but in the meantime, don't do anything."

''I can't move anyway. I think all my tires got blown..Hurry back!''

"Will do!" Chris yelled and then jumped into Clutch's driver seat. Without even waiting for the car to respond, he switched over to manual mode, through the gear into reverse--careful of the hole--and then drive, as he gunned it for all he was worth back to the garage.

"You're grinding my gears!" Clutch whined as Chris mashed down on pedals he was only sort of familiar with.

CD waited patiently, though blind and unable to see her surroundings. She would play her radio lightly.

''Careful Chris!'' 54 hissed.

"Fine then, you get us back," Chris retorted, taking his feet of the pedals.

"'bout time." Clutch took over, making a point of not grinding his gears as he took it smoothly from second to fourth. And sped down the sandy beach to the streets.

They came to a honking, screeching halt outside the garage, while Chris fell out of the car. "Shut up, Clutch, I'll take it from here."

"Take what from here?" Bill asked, already on the driveway having heard the commotion.

A pained expression crossed Chris' face and a jumble of words later, Bill and Chris were heading to the beach--Bill in a tow truck and calling for a backhoe.

CD had shut off, her engine also shattered. Her core was intact, as it started beeping loudly ans repeatly.

"Make it stop~" Clutch complained about the beeping as he led the way to where CD was currently stuck.

"I can't," Chris replied shortly. "My dad can though."

Bill found the hole easily enough and looked down into it. "You should have told me to bring more rope. Can you climb down there and then hook her up? The backhoe will be here soon."

Chris nodded and descended into the pit via rope. Once he was down, he began to hook up CD to a towcable. "CD? You awake?"

CD stirred, groaning. The impact had crushed her engine and tires, and destroyed her suspension. ''Can't....Stay awake.....Engine....''

"My dad is going to kill me, you know. So don't die on me. Or I'm going to have to rescue just your core and leave the rest of you here."

He finished just as he heard the backhoe backing up to the hole. And then a more severe looking hook came over the side. He grabbed it and hooked it up before seeing his father peer over the edge.

"She's good to go," Chris called up. His father passed the word along because suddenly CD was being lifted up. He watched, hanging close to the wall out of the way in case the tow cable snapped.

CD was lifted up slowly, shut down. Fluid were soaking her body from bursted pipes, but her core kept chiming lightly to show she was still alive. It had been a solid 20ft drop to the floor, enough to have nearly killed her. Somehowe she stayed alive, though her systems had shut down to stop the leaking. Dents covered her build; Tires warped and flattened.

''Is she ok?'' 54 whined.

Clutch would have shrugged, except he didn't have that capability. He adjusted his mirrors. "No idea. I suppose she'll be fine...whoa." He started suddenly, backfiring as a surge of energy ran through his AI cable which was still connected to the AI in the sand.

Down in the sand caves, Chris pulled out a flashlight and began to work his way towards the AI core. "I wonder if I can reach it from here," he murmured.

Eventually Chris found a crushed car, the cord still attached to core. The car was in ruins, badly rusted out and nearly crushed into a neat cube. But the core was glowing golden a bit, signalling to Clutch that Chris had found it. The bruised engine sputtered violently from the car, lighting up the still working headlights.

Chris saw the core at once and the cord belonging to Clutch. He hesitated though, knowing that Clutch was still connected. And then used the edge of his shirt to disconnect the cord.

"Heya," he said to the core. "I know you don't know me...but I'm here to help you." It was worth a try at least. Using the edge of his shirt to shield his hand from the core, he picked it up.

The core was warm, and glowing dully. Inside was metal chips, and dead things. And a human eyeball that still looked as fresh as they day it had been found. The core seemed to scan Chris to identify him, but made no sound otherwise.

Chris shuddered and then pocketed the core into his pants pocket. That done, he pulled on Clutch's cord twice to get him to retract it, and then headed back to the opening of the sand cave where CD had fallen through.

Clutch scowled and rewound his cable. "Darn, connection severed. I still couldn't get much of a good read on that thing."

''Severed? Did it break?'' 54 asked, worried.

Clutch sighed and revved his engine irritatedly. "It didn't break, but someone broke the connection." He retracted the cord, all 20+ feet of it. "I wonder if CD had anything to do with it."

Chris hollered up at his father and a rope was lowered to bring him up. He landed with a happy groan and then rolled onto his back. "Dad? You owe me an explanation. Why was there a core buried at 20 feet in the sand? We know it's from FearFlyers Inc."

Bill's face showed nothing, but he paled slightly. "That's what you brought me out here for? Some treasure hunting? I should ground you for a month."

''Zrrttttttt.......!!'' Hissed the core as it crackled violently upon hearing Bills voice. It crackled still, but struggled to say anything else. ''Bill, what is it it? Why was it buried?'' 54 asked.

CD stirred awake, her brown eyes open weakly and looking at Bil to see his pale face.

Chris yelped as the core buzzed in his pocket and Bill recoiled. "Don't tell me you brought it up here!"

Chris was already reaching for it, but the core had fallen out of his pocket and Bill kicked it away before Chris could touch it.

"Don't touch it! There's something really wrong with that AI core. We've--" He stopped, took a deep breath, and let it out. "The company I was working for tried to fix it to no avail. Even this is beyond your skill, Chris. I forbid you to even try. And that goes for CD, 54, and Clutch. Do not mess with it."

Bill went over to the core and drew his leg back, ready to kick it back into the hole of the sand cave.

The core bzz'd again and zapped Bill painfully before it rolled out of his reach.

''Whats wrong with it?'' CD yelped, still barely awake. ''Did it get infected with a virus too?'' She whined.

54 just listened, curious. ''So thats why you knew about me..'' 54 grumbled.