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

Another half hour passed as Chris worked. Then another. And still another. Clutch returned to play some music to pass the monotony, and then finally, Chris sighed and put down the AutoWrench.

"Okay. I think I fixed what I could; I've replaced most of the wires that melted and I've double checked the others. We should be good to go."

He stepped back and then turned on the car. He crossed his fingers hoping that the engine wouldn't explode or burst into flame again...

The engine turns on cleanly, revving to life loudly. But CD was still muted. Her core just beeps meekly in reply, not too loud, nor annoying. The systems whir back to life, gears moving to power the batteries back up, the body humming lightly as it came back to life. The core was still charred a bit, but working, nonetheless.

"Arg," Chris muttered as CD still didn't respond verbally. "Can you hear me at least? Beep or something to indicate if you can." He glanced over at the laptop and sighed. The fire had fried his connection, but what had stayed up on the screen was useful enough.

"Maybe its the sound system?" he muttered. "Or I missed a wire somewhere...? CD, can you, er honk or flash twice or something if its the sound system?"

CD blares her dieing horn loudly for the hearing, and blinks her headlights to signal that her sound system was damaged, all the wires torn off complety that had connected to the speakers. She did seem a bit upset though, hoping she wasn't in too much of a mes for him to fix. But the only way she could manage showing that was with her core beeping in a sad tune.

"I feel like a surgeon," Chris said as he dove into the driver's seat and pried out the stereo. He could get to the wires this way and he saw they were melted through. "Wow, talk about some serious heat..."

He replaced the wires, and then set the stereo back into its place. Moving back around to the engine, he double checked everything and then mopped his sweaty forehead with an oily rag."Alright, how about now? I might as well just shove her into the WRX and then wire up cameras...that might be easier than rebuilding the shell from the ground up."

The speakers blasted out a few stray bits of water, before crackling, then clicking before a familiar voice sounded through. ''Can you hear me now..?'' CD asked. ''I hate water too...Now my windsheilds shattered and my tires are flat. And I still feel the smokey scent from a fire..Who was cooking earlier? Are you two ok..?'' She questioned, still sounding a bit upset.

Chris chuckled softly. "Yeah, we're fine, CD. Your gun misfired and seems to have hit your windshield. At this rate, it'll be cheaper to just put you in an older model--for us--car, than to fix you piece by piece."

But price was one thing; pride another. "We have tires but if you keep blowing holes in things, they might be better saved for last. Did that bullet scramble anything else up?" As he spoke, Chris began to rehook up his laptop and pull up the diagrams he had gotten from his earlier connection.

''Well it's lodged into my air holes in whats left of my bumper...'' She retorted, sighing. ''Am I too messed up to fix? I know my age is about 290yrs...Or more. I had a sister, but she betrayed my allies and disappeared sometime before I hit the ocean. My sisters model, though, was a sports car..And she had blue eyes. And she hates me!''

Chris whistled. "290! You're a classic--no, an antique! You'd be well worth fixing up. I'm going to fix you up or my dad can toss me into the junk yard too."

"I don't think I've ever seen your sister. I'm sure I would have remembered it--her. Was she also a spy?"

Chris began working methodically to dislodge the bullet from the bumper.

''She was a spy car, and she has my old engine. She's younger than me though. About 19yrs old in human years..She's still all shiny!'' CD whined, showing she wasn't always the cranky face. ''Which would make sense, because she was made after me...But I have not the faintest idea if her core is large as mine. I think it was tiny..And she has more guns. She's also crankier. But no one knew her name. We all just called her by what her order numbers was, 54092. 54 likes shooting things..I think she was towed off to some old junk parking lot after being disabled by freezing the core so much it quit working. Otherwise she just vanished. She might try to shoot Clutch and us if she saw us..''

Chris was grinning up until the last part. "Shoot us? Is she hostile towards all humans and AIs or what?"

"That's no good," replied Clutch sourly. "A
rogue AI would cause way too much trouble for us than would be worth thinking about. Chris would you make me guns?"

"What? You armed? No way! Not unless they were
water guns or paint pistols. Anything else would be just asking"-Chris grunted as he twisted the AutoWrench-"for trouble."

Suddenly, there was a "ping" followed by a thud and then an "ow". Chris sighed. "Well good news, I got the bullet out. Bad news, the bumper came with it. And I see more rust. And a jelly fish. How in the world did you get a jelly fish in your exhaust pipe?"

He picked himself up off the floor, rubbing his butt.

''Well, she is a rouge spy after all. She's an off brand of a Ferrari, a mix of several other sports cars. She's got tons of weapons. Her core doesn't respond well to signals, though. But even if it's offline it stills releases a dull signal. She could be in any scrap heap, just waiting to be revived and cause havoc again. She was built in a way that she could go underwater without getting full of water. She's really hostile, and doesn't care who stands in her way. So you might only want to get her if your wearing bulletproof armor. And I dunno how the jellyfish got there. Musta swam into ther and got stuck. And aw, my bumper...''

[lol, her priorities]

Chris sighed and shook his head. "Well if it's a signal she emits, Clutch probably has the better luck of any of us to find her."

Clutch honked. "I'd rather be dismantled than dredge up some Ferrari wannabe. Let alone one that can shoot me up in the process. Besides, I don't think humans can handle such a rogue AI. And CD is enough competition for me," he added grudgingly.

Chris looked over the portion of the car where the bumper had been. "Why were you painted purple?" he asked suddenly. "I mean, if you're a spy, wouldn't you want to be black or silver or something? Besides your sister probably didn't take signals well because of all the extra horsepower and gadgets she had...something was bound to be delayed electronically."

''Well, I was a racer too. Purple was my colors when I got created, so they left it alone. Besides, my sister is a darker shade of it with blue highlights on her rims. She has no trouble blending in traffic. It wasn't beyond the standard to see her in crowds. She has tons of weapons, even a smoke gun. If she's so froze though, she might be too dazed to fight. I ain't saing it'll be easy though. It took a lot of pur ice to freeze the core, and the signal should be stronger since she's not moving. Her AI got corrupted aftre she betrayed us, which could explain why she acts so harsh towards others...'' CD inquired.

''Huh..One of my stations is a newcaster mentioning that a dark purple ferrari is being sold for $49,789 at some dealership...Only 23 miles away.'' She added.

(lol yea. rusted badly, but still whines if she loses something)

Chris shook his head. "If it's a sour AI, I'm a fair hand at, ah, bringing them around."

"Hey!" Clutch flashed his lights. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Chris grinned. "Oh come on, you don't remember kidnapping me for a ride in that lemon of a jalopy you used to be? I remember it like it was yesterday."

Clutch huffed and blew static out his speakers. "That was years ago and I felt sorry for you, that's why I stuck around."

Chris laughed and turned back to CD. "I don't care how rotten your sister is..." he trailed off. "Um, I think my dad said he was going to be at an auction this week. Can you keep tuned to that station to see if a Bill Sanders buys it?"

''Well, now it says that person bought it.'' She inquired. ''Oh, she's beyond sour. All her gears and such are still in functioning order. Your dads going to be in for s big suprise if he thinks driving her is gonna be easy.'' CD chuckled.

''Besides, she's slower than me and crashes. Clutch could easily outrun her with her having my old engine.'' She stated.

''But if she's out cold, she could easily by driven. I just hope your dad is mindful that she still loks brand new.''

Chris grinned. "I wouldn't worry about my dad. He's pretty good with AIs and especially auctioned cars. He won't drive it home--he'll have it hauled by tow truck or trailer. The only problem might be when he tries to turn it on in the garage...should I warn him ahead of time?"

He frowned and scratched his head, forgetting that he was getting rust everywhere. "Fantastic. Clutch, you wanna run damage control on CD's sister? CD, can you talk to her at all? Or is having the two of you share a garage going to be a problem?"

''She hates me to the extremes of shooting at me! Unless you disable her guns. But she is very very very very veerrrryy picky on who messes with her.'' CD inquired.

The dark purple Ferarri that had been bought was still silent to the world, but it's sensors scanned the area constantly, detecting any movements made towards it. Of course, it was too dead to respond currently, and a delay was constant.

"Uh oh," Clutch said. "My AI sensor is starting to beep. I think they're close."

Chris forced a smile. "Well, I guess we'll just have to do the best we can with what we've got. And once again I'll be trying to talk my dad into letting me repair a damaged car while he gets to play on a hardly touched sports car... Why can't I ever get those?" He knew the reason though--he was the only one who cared enough to rebuild them; though he'd learned a lot in doing so.

"How much time do we have left, Clutch?"

"What, you're asking me when we're gonna get shot up by an out of control AI that hates everyone?! Um...ten minutes."

''She's only out of control if you don't calm, her down. She's grown untrusting to everything.'' As her own core starts to beep lightly. ''I think their getting close, too..'' She replied.

The dark purple ferrari remained deathly silent, but it's sensors were starting to detect Clutch and CD. The sensor tried to alert the ferrari, but once more the delay made the alert get lagged behind, resulting in the tiny core to slowly beep in response, in very intermittent delayed timing.