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

Chris almost laughed. "So a surge of power is what caused all this? What were you guys doing out there anyway?"

Aaron scowled. "It's not funny, Chris. Don't get me wrong, I think it's an interesting shape for a, uh, vehicle, but this was a Ferrari!"

"Umm," Chris looked it over. "54, do you even know where you AI core is located in this shape? And can you let Aaron out before he hyperventilates?"

54 leaned her head down and opened her mouth to let Aaron out. Her core pulsed from her 'belly', crackling loudly.

Aaron slid out of his seat as soon as he had unbuckled his seatbelt--which fortunately hadn't strangled him in the change.

Chris caught him before he could fall.

"Thanks, 54," Aaron said. "And what is it with AIs going haywire when I'm around? Geeze, I'd almost swear it's something in my blood."

"How's everything working, 54?" Chris called up to the yellow cat car.

''My cores spazz..ing out...an..shor..t..ing out....''

"Stay here, 54." Chris grabbed Aaron's arm and tugged him into the garage.

"What are you doing?" Aaron demanded.

"If 54's going to explode, we'll get hit with the blast."

"You don't know if she's going to explode, though." Aaron retorted and peered out of the garage carefully.

54 cringes and glows dimly. When it fades she was back in her car form, though now the sides had the same blue highlight pattern that pulsed eerily patterned to a ghostly outline of small numbers. Both were nothing more than stating '54092'.

"Told you," Aaron muttered, stepping out to look at the numbers. "You look good, 54. You feeling okay?"

Chris sighed in relief. He wouldn't need to be telling his father why the garage was gone or why they were one additional vehicle short. "You've got your old number back, 54."

''I feel fine, just a bit cold as I used to feel. You both seem scared. What happened?''

"Nothing happened," Chris replied swiftly; cutting off Aaron's attempted explanation. "Which is good, because if something had happened, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation."

Aaron rolled his eyes. "You're a terrible liar, Chris. You changed and then almost exploded. But you didn't so all's well. Did you know you could change the car's shape like that?"

54 chuckles. ''Me and CD are easily able to shift forms, as I share part of her core. It's our secret weapon that we used in the spy wars. I was found for sale by Bill.''

Aaron's face fell slightly at the last part. "Aww, your dad bought him, Chris?"

Chris nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"I was...I was hoping she was yours because then there was a chance you could loan her to me. If she wanted to come, that is." Aaron hastily amended. "But there's no way your dad's going to let me take her. Or buy her...and I'm guessing he paid a pretty penny for her."

Chris frowned and looked 54 over. "Well, I'm not sure she's what he was looking for. If you give him a decent offer, he might let you. But you'd have to square it away with 54 first."

Aaron looked at 54 hopefully. "Well, 54? You like my Ferrari? Would you mind, terribly, if I kept you? Er,..." he trailed off trying to find a 'nice' way of putting things but ultimately failing. "Would you like to come home with me and race?" he asked finally.

''Race?'' She said, perking up slightly. ''Really?''

Aaron grinned and nodded. "I'm a professional racer in the grand scheme of things; I'd like to use you in the upcoming race. The only stipulation is no injuring or harming the other drivers or cars. If you can help it. What do you think? I can give you some time to consider it... And give Bill a chance to come to terms with it."

Chris sighed and rolled his eyes. "My dad would freak if he knew you were using 54 in the race. He'd say she's not ready and is unbalanced for it."

Aaron snorted and waved his hand dismissively at Chris. "You're kidding. I wasn't any better than 54; and racing turned me all around." Although he didn't say whether for good or ill.

54 snorts. ''If I was unbalanced I wouldn't be driving around.'' She retorted. ''Wheres the FF at, anyway?'' She said suddenly when she detected it wasn't in it's usual spot.

"FF? It should be in the box where I left it last night..." But there was a feeling of not-quite-rightness when he went to open the box. It was gone and immediately he looked around. "Jim?"

But Jim had slipped out the back door when everyone had been distracted by the near-exploding 54 and was nowhere in sight.

"We need to get to Jim's place, immediately," Chris said. "CD, are you ready to drive again?"

CD nodded quickly, her engine revving up loud and clear. ''He got the FF!''

"Then step on it, CD!" Chris said, diving into the front seat as Aaron dashed over to his car.

"We're going too, 54," Aaron said. And then realized what had just happened to his car. "Aw man, you changed the paint job on my Ferrari..."

Meanwhile, over in Jim's house--a block away from Chris--Jim was fitting the core that he'd "borrowed" into the first robot he'd ever created. It was a rudimentary robot, meant only for the basics of weed-eating, but for all that it had a propeller like blade on the underside, it had four wheels and could turn on a dime. Why he even thought this was a good idea, he didn't know. But he wanted to see what would happen when he added an AI to this squat, four-wheeled rudimentary robot.

At last he grinned and picked up the robot to take it outside so he wouldn't hurt the carpet or the house. He placed it in the grass, standing well back with an automatic off-switch in his hands, just in case.

"Let there be power," he said, flicking the on switch.

''Oh shush.'' 54 hissed, and floored it into drive once Aaron was inside. She was followed by CD, who's engine roared as she gave chase.

The FF core crackles into the robot rapidly, causing the body to rattle badly. The blades starting to spin rapidly, wires shooting sparks and metal crackling. The wheels melted and the contraption came to 'life', the amber core glowing.

"Shush? I paid dearly for it!" Aaron gave up trying to reason with the AI as he struggled to put his seatbelt on while 54 floored it into drive. "Ack! Wait a minute!" Finally his seatbelt clicked and he breathed a sigh.

Jim yelped and took an additional step back. That rare but guilt-ridden feeling that maybe he shouldn't have done what he did, starting to creep over him.

"Uh..." his finger hovered over the off button, but he wanted to make contact with it just once--verbally. "Hey, FF. You're in my robot, please try not to melt the tires off it."

The core flashed, and the machine became a small but sturdy built caninr with a tail that bore the spinning blade. Small eyes, sharp 'claws', and wires dangling made the small thing a terrible robot with it's paws made of the melted tires. Ir growled at Jim, and charges.