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]

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.

[clockwork_doc]

"Exactly," Doc says, sighing. "I imagine you've had quite a few moments like that already. Makes me sort of glad I missed out on some of the nonsense that occurred in the BTTF movies." He glances at the gears poking out of his knuckles. "Then again, what happened to me wasn't exactly an improvement. . ."

Dee squints after Blues, wondering what he's up to with that side mirror -- then gets distracted by Stephie's comment. "Yeah. . .though it makes me worry about the other car," she says, hugging herself. "If they were willing to treat one AI like this. . ."

"I'm sure the 'hero' car had some additional checks on his behavior," Doc says, frowning. "Such as 'can't hurt humans no matter what.' Granted, violence should never be a first solution, but being able to protect yourself is important too."

"Hmph." Dee watches as the tendril reveals another piece of circuitboard. "Is he like a T-1000?" she asks, tilting her head. "Only, you know, black?"

"Wouldn't be surprised if the T-1000 was an inspiration, at least," Doc says.

[riddles_and_ammo]

Eddie isn't even going to ask where the gears came from, not yet anyway, but his own experience with multiple timeline memories prompts him to nod. "There's always some... trade-off. And as much as I hate saying it, there's worse than nonsense and illogic." He'll briefly glance over at where Tad is putting together parts on the blanket before, without another word, he'll just head over there and sit down next to his son to do the same.

Blues really wasn't gone long before he walks past again. He puts the side mirror back, and also leaves the licence plate he picked up earlier, before walking past the blanket and leaving a couple circuitboard pieces there. He walks on only a short distance before teleporting away.

Punk frowns slightly. Blues was up to something, which was actually a pretty normal event for Blues... but still something he decided to silently send a comm message to Enker about, just in case. "More of that Asimov... trash," he says, just barely catching himself from cussing around the kids that could overhear. "So, even if his creator bit it, sounds to me like there are still some people I wouldn't mind trackin' down and seein' how they'd like bein' in pieces."

"Erdammeru's a lot older, but it could be that cause and effect thing again. I don't know which came first from the 'story' side." Stephie kneels down as a patch of the ground near her has black nanotech ooze out of it until it forms a circular patch with glowing eyes, which she gives scritches to. "And while he can do some of the same things, that one's big trick was mimicry. I've never seen Erdammeru make himself look human at all, or even look completely organic. Just mostly-canine-shaped or... well, like that, if he has to get somewhere a dog can't squoosh." She scritches a little longer and looks out at the beach before she says, "I'm going to go search, too." It'll get her - and Erdammeru's - mind off wanting to eviscerate the people responsible for this. Being around Punk, who seems to have similar ideas, is just feeding the mood.

[clockwork_doc]

"Depends on what form the nonsense and illogic takes," Doc mutters, glaring at the gears. There wasn't much that was truly logical about the Fae realms, after all. Andrew may have fancied himself a scientific connoisseur, but given how many of his machines worked more because he wanted them to work instead of actual scientific principles. . . He shakes his head. "But yes, you're right -- always a trade-off."

Dee and Doc share a puzzled look as Blues returns the side mirror and adds a few more pieces to the circuit jigsaw. "Wonder what he's doing," Doc mutters as Blues teleports off.

"Well, he seems to know the most about what's going on," Dee notes. "'Cause he saw the show and all. Maybe he knows another way he can help?" She grins over at Punk. "You can say 'shit' around me. I've heard much worse from Dad."

"Please note the actual child over there," Doc reminds her, poking her in the side and nodding at Tad. "Honestly, what this does is make me want to track down the show -- I want to know more of the reasons behind all of this." He thinks he's done a pretty good job of guessing at them from the writer's side of things, but he'd like to know how it all went down in-universe.

"True -- comparing first appearances would be a job for Marty, I think," Doc notes, rubbing his chin. "Although never having seen him do it doesn't mean he can't. Maybe he simply doesn't want to, if the canine shape works for his purposes."

"Yeah -- if he can do that melty thing, he doesn't really need anything with hands," Dee agrees, wiggling her fingers. "I can't, so being human sometimes is good."

She waves as Stephie heads off, then looks over at Punk's collection of parts. "Anything we can do here?"

[punk_wily]

Punk snorts. Reploid (well, technically Robot Master in his case, but they don't use that term often for reasons) hearing makes it easy to overhear things. "You and everybody else that's ever met him. Blues is just like that."

And the bit about swearwords gets a smile out of Evie. "Don worry about him either... not only has he heard worse, but when they're like this?" She thumbs at Eddie and Tad arranging pieces. "Hell, I used to use an old starter pistol to let them know dinner was ready."

"Unless you're good at car repairs and can help match parts up, about all anyone can do is try to find the rest of 'em." Punk tries to hide that he's concerned about when - not if - they run into any more nonstandard adaptions.

Which is when Blues reappears. A small grey tabby pads up next to him and pushes over a datapad, which Blues picks up and slides an sd-like card - that he concealed in his scarf somehow - into. After checking to make sure it displays properly, he hands that over to Punk. "Got the coordinates for his home timeline so I could take care of a few things - make sure it's not some wild mirrorverse, steal some schematics, bug Devon's office... FLAG security is a bad joke, by the way."

Punk takes the datapad. "At least the important parts of that made sense this time," he grumbles, meaning the part about how they now have schematics to work from just in case. That'll help if any physical parts need replaced, though the medics will still have to recover the programming.

[clockwork_doc]

Doc blinks, then looks over at Punk. "Oh -- well, good to know it's just not us, then."

"Yeah, my dad can get like that too when he's in the middle of a project," Dee says to Evie, grinning at Doc. "Maybe we should get a starter pistol for dinnertime."

"I am not that bad," Doc argues, with the certain shifty-eyed look of someone who knows that, yes, he is that bad, he just doesn't want to admit it.

"Suuuure you're not."

Doc huffs and turns his attention back to Punk. "I do have some experience with automobiles, but not this particular brand," he admits. "Finding more parts and helping match them should be within our capabilities, though."

And then Blues is back, and -- ah, that's what he was up to! Apparently while everyone was complaining about how they'd like to get into that reality to beat up a few people, Blues decided to actually find said reality. Though Doc's pretty sure he didn't actually beat up anyone. (. . .kind of sure.) "Well, that's certainly helpful," he agrees, nodding toward the schematics. "And are you really that surprised about the security? It's a universe that is, in part, a 80s TV show. Realistic security was probably beyond the budget."

[1st_mistake]

"I've seen better from timelines that handwaved it," Blues replies. "At a guess, they have a couple of break-in episodes that had to be able to happen." He hasn't seen the whole series, and is now considering tracking it down through the Nexus. He'd also managed to swipe the schematics and more recent upgrade information for KITT, since KARR hadn't quite been finished and then partly stripped for parts on top of things when they'd mothballed him.

"Is it a good idea to add pet hair to the sand?" Evie asks, eyeing the tabby that's now making a show of washing a paw with typical feline disdain.

Blues chuckles. "One of the many advantages Tango has over organic cats is that she doesn't shed."

[clockwork_doc]

"Likely," Doc agrees with another nod. "Didn't you say that the whole reason this KARR originally got out was because he was found by a couple of potential thieves? I'd be surprised if they didn't use a similar plot again with the main AI." Yeah, he's definitely going to have to track down this show himself. Marty should know something, at least. . .

Dee giggles along with Blues. "She's a cute kitty," she says. "Alice would probably like her -- does she like pets?"