Raymond Stantz (
gone_byebye) wrote2005-07-11 10:45 pm
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The door opens onto an alleyway between two buildings- one residential, one not. "Here we are," Ray says, stepping out and holding the Firehouse door open behind him. "Home sweet- uh, hang on a minute, I need to check the year."
He trots off to the newspaper box on the curb, then gives Kitt a thumbs-up.
He trots off to the newspaper box on the curb, then gives Kitt a thumbs-up.
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"The one thing to remember as I teach you is that, at any time, I can take over control if the need arises. On the display below my voice modulator, you can see my different modes. Now, you're on Normal Cruise - that means that you have control. There is also Auto cruise - in use when I am in control - and Pursuit. Pursuit Mode is for high speeds. If you'll notice to your right, below the displays, there are lit buttons. You can use those to change modes manually. Mostly, we'll be in Normal Cruise."
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"Either you or Bonnie told me about the existence of Pursuit Mode," Ray says. "At least, I'm pretty sure it was one of you two, and not Karr. But that's good to know. Means I have something to fall back on."
It wasn't a very long bridge, fortunately. The off-ramp led, in one direction, to what looked like a nightmare of a highway. Fortunately, Ray steered straight for a four-lane- no, six- street full of traffic lights rather than maddened commuters: Flatbush Avenue. "Little bit less than ten miles from here," he said, "and it's all this very same street. When the sign comes up for Aviation Road, that's the turn for the airfield."
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But at the moment, he had streets, intersections, directions for the local area and phone numbers and addresses for most of the nearby businesses. "It isn't so terribly different from the time I'm used to," he observed. "The bureaucratic computers are a bit faster. That's all I've noticed."
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"It might be different if we were taking a different route and going around Brooklyn," he then said. "The Coast Guard's got some pretty interesting scanner equipment and security measures in place off Coney Island. Trans-Ocean 66 kind of proved how vulnerable our GPS grid was, not to mention the very real dangers of things popping up where they had no right to be."
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"And we may have to eschew that route."
After a pause, Kitt thought that perhaps an explanation may be best.
"Depending on the kind of scanners they have, it might be that my signals have already showed up on their screens. I've been in the middle of a military weapons testing range before, but I don't believe raising governmental eyebrows would be a good way to end our outing."
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Besides, Ray kind of liked driving down city streets in an impressive car. Not that Ecto wasn't, in her own way, but she was a Company Car, and people noticed her for what she stood for, not who was inside.
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He'd already learned to be wary of jacks and, moreover, hydraulic lifts.
"I can't imagine much that would be more humiliating than limping home to tell Bonnie that I managed to get myself caught by the wrong military."
Little did he know that flame decals awaited.no subject
There is a brief, nightmarish moment of an Ecto-1 done up with flame decals in addition to her regular paint job. Someone, clearly, has been smoking the bad crack.no subject
And humans didn't give out signals like he did.
Fear.no subject
Ray didn't answer that for a while. About, oh, a quarter of a mile.
"Sorry, Kitt," he said at last. "I, uh... was thinking of you and the Autobots for a minute there. Um. Sorry."
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Because, with any luck, it'd mean he'd have the chance to catch the premiere. Or show it to Michael, and watch him enjoy it. That was almost as good as watching the show itself.
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They pulled up to a red light. "Oh, you'll like this part. The Transformers have souls. They refer to them as 'sparks', but they're very clearly souls- it's part of being their own entities instead of merely automatons."
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But then as he heard the bit about sparks, that rather forewent his curiousity about video and audio and left him considering. "It does sound like Karr and I," he quietly observed. "Something in our coding makes us more than simply artificial intelligences, or so Bonnie has claimed time and again."
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He nodded. "Two of the Autobots are twins, it so happens," he said. "Sunstreak and Sideswipe. They're Lamborghinis in their non-humanoid forms. Twins are what happens when, for some reason, a spark proves to be more than a single prepared body can handle. At least, that's how I think it works. I know they have to build the body first and get all of the basic computing equipment into place, but after that, bringing a spark into play is the important part. Otherwise, all you have is very sophisticated metal. You guys... I think they'd recognize you as something like themselves. From a different source, obviously, since I don't think there were any Transformers made with Earth tech, but nonetheless."
There wasn't much of Brooklyn left before the airfield by that point.
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"Ironhide. I need you to---"
"Oh my heavens, that's Karr's original voice!" Kitt blurted, blanking out the rest of the clip.
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And then, from his memory, he played the altercation between himself and Karr, the first time they'd spoken - indeed, the voice matched.
"Of course, the years at the bottom of the cliff somewhat eroded Karr's circuitry to give him the voice he has now..."
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He happened to glance up then. "Oh, hey. Aviation Road..."
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But he would show Karr later.
"From what my scanners are picking up, this does look like a good place to at least begin our lessons, even if we need to move practice to a place more condusive to real-life situations."
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He pulled around to the end of a former runway.
"This looks like a good spot to start."
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Aha, the test track. He showed an image on his monitor - and it looked like something a Nintendo would manage, but still. High technology for his time.
"If you'll look at the monitor - this is the Knight Industries test track. I'll guide you through an approximation of it before we begin, so you can get a feel for my capabilities."
In front of Ray, the mode shifted from Normal Cruise to Auto Cruise.
"Keep your hands on the wheel, but don't fight me for control."
And with that, Kitt took over. The gas pedal pushed down to the floor. The spedometer climbed before Kitt engaged the brakes and spun them into a one-eighty. From there he continued - but in reverse. Anyone watching would think that Ray was one hell of a driver.
Another one-eighty, but this one done in reverse as well, and then they were barreling straight forward into a complex series of twists and turns, hairpins and near full reversals. On Kitt's display, a little dot showed their progress along the test track itself.
Once the turns were done, Kitt lifted onto two wheels as the button labeled "Ski Mode" lit. Not too long after, he went to the other side. No ramp necessary.
"As you see," he said as he dropped back down to all four wheels, "on the monitor, normally a large wall would be looming ahead of us. I'll give you the choice if you're willing to try a turboboost."
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And then the pedal went down underfoot.
"Oh, wow...."
He held on. His reflexes were screaming at him to slow down, or steer straight, or something, but this was Kitt and he trusted the car. Somehow, he managed to stifle the urge to do more than dig his nails in a little tighter-
-well, no, that wasn't entirely true. He did let out an involuntary squeak when the Ski Mode transition happened. Otherwise, though, he managed.
"... that's the jump thing, right?" he answered when Kitt mentioned the turboboost. "Uh..."
Stantz, you are never, never, ever going to get a chance at something like that again unless the Bar shoves you into the wrong continuum. Take a deep breath, you nimrod.
"... sure. Let's do it."
(( OOC: The icon is from an episode of the Ghostbusters cartoon where Winston was driving. At this point in the episode, Ecto was running on two wheels as Winston took a corner particularly sharply. ))
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"Now you can see more what I can do."
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