Salvage

[aquatic_light]

There's an utter mess scattered over Washed Up Beach today, and a few people who seem to be trying to clean it up. Since the weather in the Nexus is always warm enough to go swimming (except when it isn't) there's also one family already who arrived with a picnic basket and found the beach just isn't suitable for that today. Care to have a look?

(This continues just after this scene. Feel free to talk to anyone there if you want, or just walk up and start poking around. I just ask that no one successfully walk off with any critical parts as there are plans to put that back together. XD )

Comments

[dee_lorean81]

"An incident?" Doc repeats, as Dee looks up curiously at the newcomer. "What happened?" Belatedly remembering his manners, he adds, "Oh, I'm Dr. Emmett Brown."

"Dee Brown," Dee adds, going back to uncovering the mystery object. "Did something come out of the ocean?"

[has_an_answer]

"I'm Alia," replies the blond woman in the labcoat. "And someone, according to Blues..." She's braced to explain both her lack of last name and that she just arrived herself when there's an interruption in the form of a small and very enthusiastic five year old.

"Hi! Did you find another piece? They're all over. Dad's trying to get them to let us stay and help match up all the bits. It's like a big puzzle! Oh! I think I know where that one goes! It's one of the car bits, which are bigger than the circuit bits and are being matched up over there where the guy with the stripy hair is. His name's Punk, I think. Oh, my name's Tad Nigma. What's your name?"

[dee_lorean81]

"Someone?" Doc repeats. Dee freezes, eyes wide. "You mean like--"

And then there is a hyperactive child by them, going on about puzzles and matching up bits and circuits and -- "Car bits?!" Dee repeats in a squeaky voice, hugging herself. "This -- this was a car?! A person car?!"

"Easy, Dee," Doc says, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's okay -- sorry, she's a little sensitive to this sort of thing," he adds to the child ("Tad," he think he said) and Alia. "Dee's short for 'DeLorean' -- I don't suppose either of you are familiar with the Back To The Future trilogy? And, uh, what happened to the time machine at the end of Part III?"

[labtech_alia]

Alia just shakes her head no.

But Tad has quit chattering and looks from the Dee to the mess on the beach and back. He steps a little closer to her and asks, a bit more quietly than before, "Will a hug help? I don't like them much, most of the time, but I know they make some people feel better... And I don't think they have called for a med-evac if they weren't going to try to put them together again. That's short for medical evacuation, right? Are you one of the medical people?" he asks, looking up at Alia.

Alia nods. "Yes. Some others are getting things ready at a clinic near the Wilybot Warehouse, while the rest of us are here..." She doesn't add that, for there to be any chance of this not ending badly, they'd have to find all of the more critical pieces at the very least.

[dee_lorean81]

"It's -- it's okay," Dee says, getting a hold of herself. "You don't gotta hug me if you don't like it. . .just. ..I don't like cars getting smashed up. Especially if they can think."

"She had a very near miss with a train," Doc explains to Alia. "So, judging from what you were both saying, about circuitry and whatnot, we're dealing with an AI mounted in a car body that--" He looks around, taking in the other bits and pieces scattered about. "Looks like it was involved in an explosion."

Dee goes back to uncovering her piece with new determination. "Yeah. . .come on, help me get this bit out."

[1st_mistake]

Tad nods, more solemn as he starts helping her dig the piece out of the sand. "I don't like anyone that can think getting smashed up," he admits. "But that's why it's extra important to find all the pieces this time. I hope they let us help. We're good at puzzles."

Alia sighs a bit. "As long as your're careful, and at least one of your parents is here to make sure you stay safe, then I have no objections. More people would be a help at this point."

While she's talking, a young man with a yellow scarf is padding up behind her very silently. He doesn't even look like he's trying to sneak, any more than a cat does, but that doesn't keep Alia from being startled when he speaks. "The Nigma's had a picnic blanket they're going to let everyone use to organize the circuitry pieces. Good point there - best to make sure we've found all the parts before moving them to the clinic."

Recovering from being startled, Alia just facepalms - though not at the news. "Blues..." She cuts off instead of telling him not to sneak up. She learned that was pointless. It was just something Blues did. "That is a good point," she says to the rest.

"Do you think we'll be able to find all the pieces?" Tad asks, giving a worried look to the rest of the beach as he helps tug out what seems to be a strangely intact side-mirror for having been the subject of an explosion. The glass is completely cracked and crazed, but something is still holding even that together. He's fighting the urge to poke it.

Blues gives a look to the licence plate he's still holding, and then to the rest of the beach. "It's hard to say for certain, but... from what I've seen of this place, it wouldn't have brought him here if there wasn't a chance."

[dee_lorean81]

"Yeah -- we can help too, right, Dad?" Dee asks, looking up at Doc.

"As long as the people here don't have any objections," Doc says, looking over at Alia. "I don't know how useful my scientific background would be -- I didn't do much with computers. But we can at least be another set of hands."

Doc starts too at the sudden appearance of the newcomer -- cripes, how does anyone walk that quietly? He glances back in the direction he thinks this "Blues" came from. "Very good point," he agrees. "You definitely don't want there to be anything missing when it comes to this."

"Nope," Dee says, grinning as the piece finally comes free. The grin turns to a frown as she examines it -- okay, that's weird. Why is the mirror all smashed to bits, but the casing seemingly okay? She taps on the side, wondering what it's made out of.

Doc glances at the license plate too, then around the beach. "The Nexus does seem to be able to match people up with where they need to be, sometimes," he says, thinking of his own miraculous reuniting with Marty so far back. "All we can do is try our best."

[has_an_answer]

"Right now I'm in favor of any help we can get," Alia says, "so long as things don't get so crowded we have people accidentally stepping on any of the pieces we're trying to find."

The licence plate is an older 1980's style plate. It's primarily blue, with CALIFORNIA across the top in smaller yellow letters. Beneath that, in larger letters, it says KARR. Blues glances to Doc Brown, eyes hidden behind his usual sunglasses, and nods slightly to indicate he saw Doc look at it too. "If that, or anything about black 1982 Pontiac Trans-Ams with unusual abilities seems familiar, keep in mind... the kid didn't deserve any of this. Self-preservation is the 'primary programming' of practically every living thing that exists." The sunglasses almost completely hide Blues' expression, and he's good at schooling the rest... but a very slight hint in his tone could indicate that he wouldn't mind getting his hands on the people responsible for this... somewhere nice and quiet and without inconvenient witnesses.

Tad's frowning too. He looks around for a stick or a pebble or something... finally finding a smoothed little twig of driftwood and carefully drawing the tip of it across the shattered glass. He can't feel any cracks in the vibrations of the driftwood. The glass feels unbroken, for all that it obviously isn't. The frown deepens as he tries to work this out.

None of the painted areas of metal seem damaged either. Unpainted areas are another matter. Signs of extreme heat and force, particularly regarding the bolts that would have held the side-mirror to rest of the vehicle - they've been shorn apart by the stress.

Meanwhile Eddie's heading that way to see what's distracted Tad. Once there, he glances over the piece the children are examining. It's tempting to blurt out his findings, but... first things first. "Tad?"

"The glass is broken, but not on the surface. There's something on the glass holding it all together. Maybe on all of it, because the paint... it's not even scratched. But I don't think they put it on the bolts..."

"Some sort of spray-on coating, applied after the vehicle was assembled," Eddie confirms with an approving nod. "Very interesting. Also this can't be the site of the initial explosion. The scatter pattern is wrong for that. You'll have to hope all the pieces have washed up." He says to Alia, having identified her as likely to be one of the medics due to her lab coat.

"Or at least arrived in the Nexus," Alia says. "We have some searching underwater as well."

[dee_lorean81]

"That wouldn't be good, no," Doc agrees, taking another sweeping look across the beach.

Rather different from Dee's own white, red, and blue plate -- then again, Dee's from 1985, so maybe this is an earlier design. Doc blinks at Blues, then admits with a shrug, "It doesn't, actually, but I'll keep it in mind regardless." Hmmm. . .that comment makes him think they're dealing with another "villainous" creation that isn't so bad once you take them out of their own universe. Maybe he'll have to look up "1982 Pontiac Trans Ams in media" when he gets back home. Or ask Marty -- his nephew is much better at catching up with missed pop culture than he is.

Dee watches Tad poke at the mirror, and frowns herself as she realizes nothing's actually coming loose from his poking. This is really strange. . .how come some bits are holding together so well, but other bits -- like the bolts -- are completely wrecked? It makes no sense, especially if the car exploded. . .

She gets her answer, sort of, when somebody else shows up -- Tad's father, maybe, given he seems to know the kid. "So -- somebody sprayed something on this that made it -- well, not really indestructible," she says, taking another look at the bolts. "But close to?"

"Sounds like it," Doc says, taking his own look. "Some sort of protective sealant. Unfortunately, it looks like they prioritized threats coming from outside the car, like potential crashes, and didn't treat the interior workings. Hence why the internal structures holding all these pieces together gave way."

Doc and Dee wince together as Alia admits they're searching underwater. "I hope most of the more delicate parts ended up on the beach," Doc comments. "Saltwater isn't exactly kind to electronics. Neither is sand, granted. . ."

[rusted_trust]

"It's not the first time he's been dunked in seawater and then buried in sand, either," Blues says. Really, the idea of 'already had irreparable damage by that world's standards' went a long way to explain KARR's behavior in the second episode, especially when combined with the sheer mental trauma that would cause in someone whose primary directive is their own survival. And the long term being buried on a beach on top of that. "At least he's not still on fire."

Alia sighs. Blues knew a lot more than he was saying. As usual. "You are at least going to make a report on anything medically relevant that you know, right?"

Blues nods and taps the side of his head. "Already working on it. We're lucky in one respect. The time he was from, his makers thought using Bubble Memory was extremely high-tech. It's a lot more impact resistant than other 80's tech." If it weren't for that, he doubt there was any chance at all. "But it's still magnetic based, so I don't want to see any magflies or metal detectors out there. We'll have to do this the hard way."

Alia nodded. "Leviathan warned not to send Magflies as soon as she realized some kind of antique electronics were involved."

Eddie fights the urge to facepalm. "I'm almost certain the Batman never had an AI in the Batmobile, or I would be suspicious at this point." Near-indestructible was a good description for some of the tanks he drove, but... "And he would have loved to get his hands on whatever they coated this with."

"We should take this bit over there," Tad says, pointing out where a teen with stripey red and black hair is organizing all the car parts. He'll start heading that way, watching his step for any other bits.

As he starts to follow his son, Ed realizes he hadn't introduced himself. Bad habit, since he's used to people knowing who he is. Even if lime green swimming trunks covered in question marks are less than his usual attire. "I'm Edward Nigma," he says, holding out his hand to the nearest adult, which happens to be Doc.

[dee_lorean81]

"Really?" Doc shares a grimace with Dee. "Great Scott. . . You -- seem to know a lot about our potential patient," he adds with a curious tilt of his head. (Yes, he's already thinking of himself as part of this project -- if only for Dee's sake. Poor thing was really rattled when she discovered what this was. . .) "I assume you're familiar somehow with the universe he's from?" Good thing one of them is -- Doc is hoping nobody automatically assumes he's versed in all tech from the 80s. Damn Fae making him miss decades' worth of technological progress. . .

"Magnets not good," Dee agrees, shaking her head. "And you'd have to ask Marty about if there was ever an AI in the Batmobile. He's the one who knows comics best."

"Depending on whether or not he's seen the relevant issues anywhere, of course," Doc says.

"Yeah." Dee nods at Tad, holding the side mirror against her chest as she walks with him. "Keep an eye out for anything else."

Doc blinks at the sudden introduction, but accepts the hand. "Dr. Emmett Brown. That's Dee, my daughter." He glances down at the trunks and bites back a smile. "Tad's your son, right?"

[punk_wily]

Alia heads off in a different direction for now to help elsewhere.

"Yes, he is, Ed replies. "That's my wife, Evelyn, and our daughter Stephanie over there." He indicates a woman with a spiky-short haircut on about a third of her head, and a mix of honey blond and brown-black for the rest that would have to be some kind of dye job. Her bathing suit is a mix of green and animal prints, but no longer divided into neat stripes (and if anyone knew her old costume, they notice the clown-like dotted section missing, and that the spiky section is now a light brown instead of hot pink). She may be mostly in a state of recovery from her 'dissociative identity disorder', but she's still trying to find some balance to who she is now. Stephanie, in contrast, has strawberry-blond twintails and a green bathing suit with one big questionmark on the front.

Edward smiles down at Dee briefly. "I've been in the Batmobile." At least once while conscious, even! "If there was an AI, it didn't say anything. Though, you're right to suggest the comics would reveal things that Batman would have tried to keep hidden from me... I haven't noticed any mentions there, either. Yet." He's going to go looking for that later.

Tad nods, serious-faced as he keeps his eyes on where he's walking and only occasionally looks up to see if he's still going in the right direction. Several times he pauses only to turn up a suspiciously colored pebble, or note that it was just light glinting off the sand. A couple of the more interesting pebbles he pockets for later, along with a pretty shell. There aren't as many pieces this far up the beach.

"Blues... Light-Wily by preference, but last names get complicated."

One of Ed's eyebrows goes up. That name sounds familiar...

"When I was new... It's not easy being the only one of your kind. I looked up any kind of fiction I could get my hands on that had any kind of AI. A few episodes turned up of an old TV show from the 1980's that had a talking car in it. Two of those had a second car... a prototype to the first."

"Should I suspect you found that ironic later?" Ed asks.

Blues nods slightly. "Just for the record, I hate being called Proto." When Ed nods, he grins and says, "We can exchange autographs later." That gets a short laugh out of Ed, and Blues gets back to what he was saying.

"At some point during development they realized KARR was potentially capable of harming a human if necessary to defend himself, and shut him down." And this time Blues can't keep the anger out of his tone. "He was accidentally reactivated by a pair of thieves, but by then there was already some damage to his systems from the storage. He was described to the show's 'heroes' as being like 'a loaded gun in the hands of a child'. And their solution was to try to kill the child. As both an AI and a parent, I find this offensive."

"I know how to be safe with guns," mutters Tad, showing that he's listening despite seeming completely focused on the ground. Oh, hey! He finally found something, a small piece of circuitboard with a couple chips on it.

"They ran him off a cliff into the ocean in the season 1 ep. He stayed buried in the sand until season 3, and by then it's likely his damaged power systems weren't repairable. Best explanation for his sudden deus-ex-machina explosion at the end of that ep. He was last seen in pieces and on fire. And just for the record, unless it happened offscreen and was left out of the novelization of the first ep, he never actually killed anyone." Made a few threats and understandable attempts, and did put one guy in the hospital, but Blues decides to leave that out for now. The kid had been in a really tough spot, and most of his family have done a lot worse. "Can't be sure how accurate any of that is, because of the way this place is... but I have a feeling that if he was from some alternate universe where things went differently, he wouldn't be showing up here in pieces."

And by then, they're close enough for Punk Wily to spot them. "Hey, kid. Is that one of the side mirrors?"

[dee_lorean81]

Doc notes Evelyn's hairstyle with interest -- isn't it usually the kids who are supposed to do wacky things with their hair? Then again, he's not one to judge, given his own flyaway hairstyle. (He can tame it -- with effort. But it's never high on his priority list.) "Looks like you came here with rather a different purpose in mind."

"Yeah -- we oughta go swimming here someday," Dee remarks, looking up at Doc. "When they've got all the parts off the beach." She shifts her attention over to Edward. "Could be that it wasn't voiced -- isn't his car supposed to be able to do all sorts of weird stuff without him in it?"

"I think the general consensus is that it's remote-controlled in those instances," Doc says. "Like with Temporal Experiment #1. Or it could be a very simple AI, like the Batton drones we saw at Halloween."

Dee giggles. "So it measures distance in turtle-steps and not miles?"

"I don't see Batman going quite that far."

Blues introducing himself and explaining how he knows who and what their salvage project/med-evac is quiets their part of the conversation for a bit. "I see," Doc says as he finishes up. "So it's another case of we're just expected to find the villain irredeemably evil when logic dictates there were other factors at work." Yes, he gets the feeling this group of Gothamites and Mega-Man-verse people will sympathize with that. "Then again, I don't think 80s TV was known for its nuance."

"Why didn't they just teach him that he shouldn't harm humans?" Dee says, scowling. "'Potentially capable' isn't the same as 'definitely gonna do it.' Why just shut him down and leave him for some thieves to find?"

"Panic, I'm guessing," Doc suggests. "Humans don't always react to potential threats to themselves in the most logical of ways. Plus you can probably blame a lot of it on sloppy writing, if things did play out how they did on the TV show. Plot convenience can come before logic."

Dee blows a raspberry, before registering Punk Wily's talking to her. "Oh -- yeah," she says, handing it over. "I think he found something else too," she adds, nodding at Tad.

[has_an_answer]

Ed nods. "This is no picnic on the beach, but at least the blanket is being put to good use." He allows it when Doc explains the usual theory regarding the Batmobile, and just nods again. "Batman's been seen with remote controls on some occasions. I only know of one AI he developed, and that one was much more of a menace than, well..." he waves a hand at the scattered parts, and then shakes his head. "Idiocy. Even if he was completely amoral, there are valid logical reasons not to go on a mass-murder spree. Was simply pointing out that the authorities would most likely demand he be deactivated if he killed someone too difficult for them? And why did they even install him in a mobile and heavily shielded form apparently before understanding anything about the AI they had created? And then, as the child said, left him to be found by thieves. And not even very good ones, if they didn't manage to keep him safe." You'll have to excuse him, this level of stupid tends to make his head hurt. He tries to suppress thoughts of robbing the house (at the very least) of whatever irresponsible moron - or string of morons - was behind this.

Asking Blues about that is off the table, as it seems he managed to drop to the back of the moving group and then slip off. He's further down the beach now, helping to look for parts.

Punk takes the side mirror, and looks at what Tad's got. "Yeah, they're puttin' the computer bits over there on the blanket. I'm not one of the medics... one pile of broke circuits looks the same as another to me. I got called in 'cause I work on classic cars." A shrug, and he adds, "Kind of a hobby I picked up in this place." He looks around at where he's laying the car parts out, placing that one down like the whole thing is meant to be some semi-exploded diagram rather than an actually exploded vehicle. "I like to get my hands on whoever did this... I'd shove a Screw Crusher somewhere they really wouldn't like it."

Tad starts heading to the blanket nearby without a word, and is soon crouched next to it, matching up the edges of slightly scorched circuitboards with an odd mix of sharp focus and contentment.

And it isn't hard to tell his father's itching to go join him in solving that particular puzzle... but before he can he notices something on the fender and door parts already found. Silver paint that is damaged, unlike the rest. "It must have been applied after the protective coating," he says mostly to himself, as he touches it, making some flake away.

"Yeah, I don't know what that stuff is, but I know it ain't standard for a 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am. Hell, look at the window..." The window Punk indicates, on the single door found so far, seems even more shattered than the side mirror. And yet the fragments aren't falling apart. In addition, the glass has turned black.

[dee_lorean81]

"A very noble use," Doc agrees. "And is that so? I wasn't aware he was that much of a programmer. . .then again, from what I've seen, he seems to always have exactly the skillset the current plot demands. No matter how implausible." Granted, he'll admit his own movie counterpart's scientific knowledge was similarly ill-defined, but still. At least Doc Brown is clearly a scientist and clearly does things out of his garage on a budget.

Doc sighs. "Again, plot convenience. And probably the writers really wanting to do an 'evil twin' episode or two. From what I've seen of it, 80s TV liked that particular trope. I don't know if we'll get an adequate in-universe explanation."

"People are just dumb," is Dee's answer to all these questions. "Doing stuff 'cause they can instead of thinking it through all the way to the end."

"That seems to be the running theme of the day," Doc says, peering at the car puzzle. "Do you think it's possible to get it all back together?"

"Depends on how many pieces they find," Dee says, hugging herself. Man, she does not like this reminder of how close she came to looking like this. . .

Fortunately, Ed poking at the parts is a good distraction. As is Wily talking more about the coating. She looks at it. "Huh. So they sprayed it on the whole outside of the car?" That's the only reason she can think of for the window being shattered and yet staying together, plus turning that funny color. "What were they gonna do with this car?"

[punk_wily]

Ed, with a thoughtful but determined look on his face just says, "Excuse me a moment" and heads over to the picnic basket left on the edge of their blanket. He says something to Evie, who had been checking on Tad. She nods, and they both retrieve items from the basket...

"The car ain't gonna be the problem," Punk says. "They just modded a factory standard Pontiac. I can make replacement parts if I gotta, and the CR oughtta be able to fix the damage to any of the parts we find. But if we're missing any coated bits, one of the science types would have to reverse engineer whatever they've coated it with. And, well... that ain't the important part..." He glances over toward the blanket. "Like I said, I ain't one of the medics."

And that's when Ed returns, Evie accompanying him. Neither of the items they have with them are food. Ed has a portable radio with hand-crank generator, flashlight, and a few other potentially useful features and connectors. And Evie is giving that shattered window a look and disengaging the safety on a .22-caliber handgun.

"You may want to back up and cover your ears," Ed warns, doing so himself... only slightly hampered by the radio.

Evie aims at the window, making certain the riccohet angle if they're correct about this won't be in a dangerous direction, and fires - getting the attention of just about everyone on the beach who isn't in pieces. (Blues is facepalming and trying not to chuckle - he expected someone would try something like that eventually.) The bullet riccocets and embeds itself in a tree further up the beach and away from gathered people. The broken window remains as it was...

"I think I like this car," Evie says, putting the safety back on and then removing the clip from her gun.

[dee_lorean81]

Doc just nods vaguely as Ed heads off, too intent on examining the bits Punk has gathered. "Well, that's good, at least," he says as Punk explains that the base is just your ordinary car -- minus the fancy coating. "Makes that portion of the reassembly easier." He follows Punk's eyes over to the blanket. "And yes, figuring out the coating isn't the highest priority right now. Although it sounds an interesting project for later." He can think of a couple of applications -- most literally to his daughter, who might appreciate being a little more invulnerable than she currently is in car form. After all, it's a lot harder to find parts for a DeLorean.

Doc frowns at Ed's collection for a moment as he returns with his wife -- then he catches sight of Evie's gun and his eyes go wide. "Great Scott -- Dee, get over here!" he calls, hastily backing up with Ed.

Dee runs over, and they both cover their ears as Evie fires at the window. Doc gives her and Ed a look as she gets the safety back on and the clip out. "You couldn't just try smashing it with a piece of driftwood or a rock or something?" After a pause, he adds, "Also, why did you bring a gun with you on a picnic?"

[has_an_answer]

"That wouldn't conclusively prove that the vehicle was designed to be bulletproof," Ed points out.

"Better to have something nearby and not need it, than need it and not have it," Evie says. "Besides, trick shots I can do. I knew exactly where that bullet would go. Do you have any idea how hard it is to calculate the ricochet for a random rock you just picked up and threw? Someone could have gotten hurt." She shakes her head and makes herself stop there... There was no point getting into a debate about guns unless she really has to.

"It's a thing with that side of the family," says Stephie, having - like everyone else in range - heard the gunshot and come over to see what was going on. "Mom's twin brother is Harvey Dent." Maybe they'll know what that means, maybe they won't, but Stephie's more interested in other things as she seems to be listening to something only she can hear, and rubbing a very odd bracelet.

"Most armored vehicles are conspicuous at best," Ed says. Whatever or whoever this vehicle was meant to transport - and I'm not talking about the associated AI as it's obvious they didn't care about his safety - it was expected they would be placed in dangerous situations. Combined with what Blues had to say about 1980's television shows... possibly some sort of vigilante group." Villains wouldn't have made for good headliners after all, though it's easy for him to see a lot of criminal uses for such a vehicle as well. "Though not one acting as overtly as Batman, or they wouldn't care about whether or not the vehicle could visibly pass as a normal car."

[clockwork_doc]

"I wasn't thinking about throwing the rock -- just using it as a crude hammer on the glass," Doc clarifies as Dee peeks out from behind his legs. "Which, yes, could have gotten someone hurt. And I'll give you that, no, it wouldn't prove anything about the vehicle being bulletproof. Perhaps just a tad more warning next time?"

"Oh?" All right, that puts Evie's somewhat mismatched get-up into a new light. . .though Doc isn't sure what to make of why her hair is divided into thirds rather than halves. Now doesn't seem like the time to ask, though.

He nods along with Ed's analysis. "That all sounds logical enough. Maybe something like -- what was it -- the A-Team? Only with rather more advanced technology."

[has_an_answer]

Evie just nods, then a second later adds, "Sorry, I'm used to acting on things when I get the chance. Life in Gotham can be... unpredictable."

Ed nods, but he's also checking on Stephie with a slight concerned frown.

"I'm okay..," Stephie insists, though the brief almost-feral look on her face is enough to indicate something isn't. "Erdammeru... really wants to tear apart whoever did this, and if I knew how to get to them... I think I'd want to let him."

"Well, for now we don't," Ed says, in a calming tone. "So other things we can do take priority."

Stephie nods, and seems to calm down. Then the bracelet ripples and runs off her arm as if it melted, becoming larger before it burrows and vanishes under the sand... briefly seen, all that might have been caught was a vague shape of shadow with eyes. "He's going to try to find parts."

Ed nods, and then looks to Punk. "I suspect there's at least one other feature that's nonstandard to a factory built car that you might want to take into account... while they may have started with an ordinary car rather than just building a car that resembled one, some of the modifications are less obvious. And they also reveal something..." He starts adjusting the small hand-crank radio/flashlight device he has as he speaks. "The fracture pattern in the window glass indicates standard automotive safety glass. However... well, we've all noticed the color."

Ed attaches tiny alligator clips to two spots on one of the few sections large enough to do so, and the glass turns clear. "Definitely a non-standard feature, especially in 1982." In most timelines, Smart Glass like that wasn't developed until roughly three decades later. "So the question remains - if the glass is factory standard, how does it have this feature? It isn't a spray-on coating that can be added to the glass afterwards. If it is not factory standard, why would it be safety glass? That would be an unnecessarily redundant expense once the coating is factored in."

He unhooks the pocket generator and paces for a bit. "I suspect this project had a backer who had both money and sufficient connections to have the vehicle partially customized for him at the factory, possibly at every level of the production process. The laws would have required the safety glass. It's unlikely the manufacturer was even told about the eventual coating." That's a lot of clout for someone to have. Lex Luthor could have done it.Bruce Wayne might have been able to do it, but it says something that Batman found it easier to have the Batmobiles completely custom built.

[clockwork_doc]

"So I've heard," Doc says. "It's all right, just -- like I said, a little more warning would be appreciated."

"Erdamm--" Doc stops as the bracelet suddenly melts off her arm, transforming into -- well, it doesn't seem to have much of a shape before it disappears under the sand, but it certainly gave off the impression of something big. And dangerous. "Ah," he says. "Well, we can use all the help we can get. . ." He'll -- save his questions for later.

"Another AI?" Dee guesses, since she's pretty sure the ones most upset by all this are the ones who are mechanical themselves (like her, at least some of the time).

Doc watches with interest as Ed fiddles with the window, and reveals -- ooh, that is interesting. Certainly not a feature Dee has. He follows Ed as he paces -- the motion is familiar to him, and it helps him think too. "And it was done at least twice, considering the information we received earlier from Blues that this car was the prototype," he adds. "So yes, we're looking at serious money here. Someone who definitely wanted this project to be secret. And probably someone who knew something about tech, to upgrade the windows like so. And develop the coating that was applied later." He frowns. "Though why a Trans Am? If you have that kind of clout, you'd have your pick of car brands to work with, wouldn't you?"

Dee grins. "If you're gonna build a super-car, why not do it with some style?"

[has_an_answer]

Punk's mostly focused on one thing as far as the demonstration goes. "So, I'm gonna have to check over every piece we find for any more little surprises. CR oughtta still be able to fix the glass, at least."

"Yeah," Stephie says. "He says this one feels... very young to him. I don't know how he can tell that, but it's more than just dating the parts somehow. The Void Hound has sensor systems even I don't understand, and I've got him stuck in my head."

"That they had the clout to do this... and do it twice... And that they did do it at least twice rather than just remove the AI and reuse the vehicle... even Luthor would have questioned the extra expense without a necessary reason. This person, or persons, did not care so long as the project was completed to their specifications." There's a suspicious frown on Ed's face now. "If I'm right, another factor in this situation might have been that they felt they had insufficient time to spend teaching KARR any morals he was not pre-programmed to have. But they had plenty of money to start over." Hmph. "Either they didn't have biological children, or they cared as little for them as they did their eldest AI. But I suspect we'll find his creator is far out of our reach, even if we traveled to that timeline."

Stephie doesn't immediately get it... but Evie does after a moment. She nods. "This is someone's legacy project. They could pour everything they had into it, because they weren't concerned about their own future."

And then Stephie gets it, and growls. "Meaning they're probably already dead."

"It may have been personal preference, or there may be other design modifications that made using a particular type of vehicle a necessity," Ed says. Too little data to know just yet. Oh, and one other possibility. "Or it could just be the show was getting product placement kickbacks."

[clockwork_doc]

"Essentially," Doc says with a sympathetic look. "At least you know now instead of later?"

Void Hound -- that sounds friendly. Dee will take a page from her father's book and save questions for later, though. "Well, they said he was a prototype," she says instead. "One that didn't get used much before they decided he was 'too dangerous' and moved onto the next car. So he didn't get much of a chance to grow up."

"Right -- you can't mature if you're turned off," Doc agrees. "This AI was stunted the moment his creators panicked over a potential lack of morals. Which is probably why they had all those problems with him in later episodes, from the in-universe standpoint."

"Maybe the AI was so integrated into the car's systems it was easier to start over fresh once the original one was put in mothballs," Doc hypothesizes. "We'll see once more of the parts are found. . . Though the best explanation to me for multiple cars is the out-of-universe one -- the writers really wanted their 'evil twin' episodes, necessitating there be at least two cars."

"Sounds about right -- you can't take it with you, so why not spend it on a pet project featuring ludicrously advanced tech for the time period?" Doc shrugs. "If the 'vigilante group' theory holds true, maybe they were making up for a criminal past. A 'seen the error of their ways at the end of their life' situation." He shakes his head. "Which -- makes this situation with 'KARR' a bit ironic."

"Like needing stainless steel for flux dispersal?" Dee says with a little grin. "And hey, they could both be true -- one explanation for the writers, one for the characters."

[has_an_answer]

Ed nods at the mention of evil twin episodes and sighs. "Effect shouldn't come before cause, but when dealing with fiction that's often how it's written... I suppose I'll have to get used to it, so long as it remains a thing for explaining the past."

Which is when Blues slips by and 'borrows' that side mirror. "Be right back." Though for now he just seems to be heading towards a nearby tiki hut.

"Hey, at least the best hypocritical child-abusing jerk is a dead hypocritical child-abusing jerk," comments Stephie, while Erdammeru burrows under the sand and occasionally causes little ridges in it like Bugs Bunny in a cartoon. After a few moments a tendril of black electronic something extends from the ground near the blanket and carefully withdraws from a piece of circuitboard it had protectively engulfed after finding under the sand.

Evie's made her way back over there to keep a watch on Tad, who is still happily and obsessively focused on matching up the edges of broken circuitboards.

[mosaic_archive]

(working on timeline, noticed there is a misuse of the word 'ironic' here. Eddie would not have made that mistake, but it's one I've been making for years because apparently I've only ever heard the word used wrong. Anyhow, since it can't be edited, pretend Eddie didn't make a vocabulary screwup - that's totally my fault.)