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

"Speak of the devil," murmured Bill, getting up to see what the problem was. "You two-er-three stay here. And try to be quiet."

He headed towards the driveway as Chris grinned. In a softer voice, he asked: "Anything you want to confess?"

''And why would I confess anything to you?!'' 54 hissed silently in reply.

The police stepped out of the car, holding some papers.

"Relax, it was a joke," muttered Chris. Though he was certain now that she had something she didn't want to talk about. He wasn't sure he wanted to know, however, given CD's apparent distrust of 54.

Bill nodded respectfully to the cop. "Is there something I can help you with, officer?"

''We received a call that you have two cars we've been tracking down for years. These cars are dangerous, and we know their due to my specially buit car having a radar that can pick up the AIs of wanted cars.'' He replied, eyes narrowed.

Bill looked surprised. "Dangerous? But officer, I can personally attest to the fact that no vehicle in my garage is dangerous. I just bought one at an auction, even, and everything's still standing."

''They only look normal, but the littlest thing can set them off to shoot. One is charged with 89 counts of murder, sir.''

Bill's eyes widened. "Eighty-nine?! But if it's an AI car; surely it had a rogue driver or something..."

Chris sighed and turned back to the laptop he'd left running. He resumed going back through the code and re-writing in shortcuts.

The police held up the picture of the car. A cold chill struck when one could see it was 54's picture, blue eyes glaring out.

Bill's face went blank when he recognized the car in the picture. "Look, I bought this car in an auction, alright? When was the last, er, report that you got regarding this car's murder spree?"

''The report was sent to us a week ago after the cars license plate was scanned when we were druving it bac to HQ. It came to life and ended up killing several of our officers after we tried to calm it down. This car is beyond safe, and is considered armed and dangerous. It only goes by 54, though we did find out it's a wanted traitor of 'spies'.''

Bill sighed and rubbed at his face. "I'm really sorry for the incident," he said, "she's in the garage. My son is working on her; he's a fair hand with AI personalities and mechanics. For what it's worth, he's probably even good enough to change her personality to become less volatile. It would take time, of course, but so far he and the vehicle have been alright. I can show you back there if you'd like?"

Chris' chest would have swelled with pride had he heard the compliments. Instead he was too engrossed in finishing the shortcuts. "54, would you mind running your window wipers...? I think I've got the shortcuts for moving fixed."

54 frowned. ''Windsheild wipers.....?'' She asked, looking puzzled breifly before she flinched and moved them...Of course, they were obviously uncleaned as both wipers were stained lightly on blood, with human hairs still clinging to the blades. ''These things?'' She inquired.

The police officer sighed. ''We already have her builder in jail, and he gave is permission to retreive her. She has a bad history of killings and it is almost impossible to try to keep her friendly,sir.''

The code registered even as Chris blanched at the sight of blood, his face going white. "What...what happened?" Give him a jalopy of a car leaking oil and losing pieces, he was fine. Blood, not so much.

Worse, there was hair in it. He was thankful for the gloves as he began to remove what he could from the wipers. He still felt ready to throw up or pass out. He tried to pretend it was a squirrel she'd hit...it wouldn't make him so squeamish as the other possibility he really didn't want to contemplate.

Bill pursed his lips and sighed. "Well, I'm glad you caught the real criminal behind it, but as I said, my son can tweak AI personality some." At least, that's the only way he could describe Chris' complicated relationship with Clutch.

''Well, a few pesky humans got in my way ye----.................................'' 54 started to say, but stopped and refused to say anything else. The hairs were too long to be squirrels hair, and a broken police badge was jammed into the left windsheild wiper. ''N-n-nothing....'' She stammered.

''I hope your son is aware 54 doesn't hide the blood.'' And the officer left without another word.

Chris pried the odd-shaped wedge out of her wipers before realizing what it was. He dropped the police badge from suddenly numb fingers and shivered when it clanged to the floor, showing the unlucky officer's face and rank

"Oh my god..." he said, and then bent nearly in half to keep from passing out. "Y-y-you hit someone?" He didn't seem to note his own personal safety given that she had said as much without so much as an 'it was an accident' thrown in.

Bill frowned as the officer left. "So there's still blood on the car...? Chris!" he turned and bolted for the garage, knowing his son's aversion to such things.

54 just snirked darkly. ''So you found me out, huh?'' She hissed. ''Yes, I hit them. All 89 of'em!''' She scowled. ''They wouldn't leave me alone and wouldn't go away, so I did what was needed to get free. So I warn you now. Don't mess with me.'' She hissed, ignorant of the worry she had started.

Chris looked up as his father barreled into the garage. "It's okay, dad. 54 just had some, uh, stuff on her wipers..."

Bill shoved Chris aside. "I'll clean it off for you. Why don't you check to see if CD's AI core still works." He narrowed his eyes at the renegade car as he removed the wiper blades entirely.

Chris looked relieved and went to turn on CD as he'd already put the core in place. "Uh, you awake CD? How you feeling?"

54 scowls silently...

CD stirs awake, her engine turning on a bit as her systems turned on, the cores power surging through.
''Nnnrrggh......'' She groaned, shuddering bit. ''How'd it go..?'' She asked finally. ''I'm fine, just dazed a bit. It's hard to 'wake up' when you can't see.''

"Ah, warmed up then?" Chris amended. "We're all in one piece still, thankfully. Um, can you tell if your AI core is alright?" But he was relieved to hear her voice.

To make things easier, Bill simply replaced the window wipers on 54. He didn't feel like picking through hair and blood. "Alright, a few things I should point out," he told 54 seriously. "If I'm going to dump money into you, I'd rather you didn't run over people. For one thing it's a terrible habit; for another you'll ruin the new bumper and front-end parts I'm willing to give you. Second, if you feel the need to get rid of any...frustration...you might have, I suggest a back road about two miles south of here that has squirrels aplenty. They're a pest anyway."

54 grumbles harshly. ''Squirrels?'' She asked. ''What are squirrels...?'' She inquired. ''Hmph..Fine.'' She noted afterwards, still annoyed.

CD stirs again. ''I can tell it's fixed, just taking a while to work fully. Did you run into any trouble with my sister?''

(the mental image of 54 chasing squirrels......)