gone_byebye | (no subject)

Ray shrugged as he signaled for a lane change. "Given that it's the Coast Guard, it's currently not technically the military anyway. Right now they're still Department of Transportation. They're only the military during wartime. Weird arrangement, I know, but there it is. But, yeah, I understand what you mean. Don't worry, it's not going to happen."

~~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.~~

"I do have something of a secret weapon, as they say, against the military if it were to come to it," Kitt agreed. "You'd have to have enough time to climb out first, but I can always transform."

And humans didn't give out signals like he did.

~~Fear.~~

"..."

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."

"....Autobots?" Kitt asked. That was one term that was certainly not in his database.

"A group of... it's from fictional entertainment when I was a kid," Ray says. "Cartoon by the name of 'Transformers', about robots who crashlanded on Earth after a millennia-long war on their native Cybertron. They each had two forms- a robot, usually humanoid, and the shape of some Earth machine or device. The Autobots, who were the good guys, were almost exclusively patterned after peaceful machinery like cars, trucks, microscopes, things like that. The Decepticons were a lot more warlike and dangerous. I was just picturing a ten-foot-tall shiny black Transformer running around in Oregon, where the show took place."

"...That's... quite interesting. And it sounds like something Michael would watch avidly," he said, actually a little curious. "What year did this cartoon begin?"

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.

Ray thought for a bit. "1984," he said at last. "It runs for three years. There's other variants on it, too- other cartoons, comic books, stuff like that. There are a lot of toy tie-ins- I mean, it comes from Japan, which has a long and honorable tradition of integrating entertainment forms with each other as well as with the marketing department. And there's eventually a theatrical release movie of it in 1986. The whole thing has a very strong conservationist theme- Earth is a strategic target for these guys because we're a powerful source of the substance they use to run on, and the Decepticons want to plunder the planet for it while the Autobots would be just fine coexisting with the humans and not draining us dry. Fun stuff."

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."

"That's the same year I'll be rescuing Karr," Kitt observed and, as Ray spoke, he rather curiously went through some of the local servers to find-- "It seems I've found some video clips, as well as audio."

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."

"They're really popular with the Internet crowd," Ray said. "A new series is due to start next year. Everyone's waiting to see how it turns out." Well, at least everyone who was as big of a geek as he.

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.

Kitt guided his next search toward those twins, though he'd already brought up a bit about the Autobot leader. "Led by a semi-truck named Optimus Prime," said Kitt as he reviewed his research. He displayed a quick video clip of the Transformers movie.

"Ironhide. I need you to---"

"Oh my heavens, that's Karr's original voice!" Kitt blurted, blanking out the rest of the clip.

Ray blinked, nearly letting go of the steering wheel. "Seriously?" he said. "You're sure?... what am I saying. Of course you're sure. You'd know his voice down to the exact frequency. They probably used the same human as a basis for the voice. Voice actors have longer careers than screen actors, since you can't see them getting old."

"It is indeed Karr's original voice - I would recognize it anywhere. Except his held, perhaps, even less emotion," Kitt considered as he played the clip over once more. "I remember it perfectly."

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..."

Ray whistled. "Yeah, that'd make a difference," he said. "Like people who smoke for twenty years and wind up sounding like Miles Davis, Wow. That's pretty funky."

He happened to glance up then. "Oh, hey. Aviation Road..."

"It's one of the effects salt water can have on us, over time," Kitt said, and put the video clips out of his mind.

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."

"Plenty of that where we've just been," Ray said with a smile. "I mostly remember this place because my uncle Lloyd took me down here once or twice when I went through my model rocketry phase. There's not a lot of spots in this borough where you can really shoot off a rocket, and Uncle Lloyd was usually good for a weekend stay when my parents wanted me and my sister out of the house... anyway."

He pulled around to the end of a former runway.

"This looks like a good spot to start."

Kitt scanned the area. It was close enough that he could do... most of what was on the test track.

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."

That was all right. By Ray's lights, that was pretty damn cool technology; after all, he'd been driving a completely analog vehicle for quite some time, and his one experience with a digitized car interior in the past five years was when he'd had to rent something at an airport and wound up with a Pontiac Aztek. "All right," he said, setting his hands at the nine and three positions, and silently willing his arms to relax while his fingers still held on. He had Mace Windu's teachings to thank for that.

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. ))

It was Ray's choice. That meant it was no longer on his proverbial head. The turboboost button lit with a soft beep, and then the car was launched into the air at a high angle, nearly weightless for a good length, before landing front-wheels first. The suspension was built for such jolts. Bonnie had even added an independant suspension under the driver's seat to lesson the impact. But there was still a jar as the car landed fully, and Kitt screeched them into a turning stop, leaving tiremarks behind.

"Now you can see more what I can do."

"...."

Somewhere in the back of Ray's head, the Ride of the Valkyries began to play.

It didn't have time to run for long, of course, but for a few glorious seconds- oh, wow was that ever the coolest freefall he'd ever imagined!

"Sir," he said as they rocked to a stop and his utterly boggled spinal nerves started reporting in once again, "I admit it, I am impressed. That was massively cool. You do- and are- incredible work."

"Thank you," said Kitt, preening just a bit. He was more than a little proud of his abilities - and he thought he had right to be. "Bonnie would be glad to hear it. But now..."

The mode shifted back to Normal Cruise.

"We'll begin teaching you to do a few things that I can do."

Ray nodded, foot on the brake, and took a moment to wipe his hands on his shirt. "All right," he said. "I'm ready. What've we got first?"

"We'll begin with quick stops and turns," Kitt said. "First, I want you to accelerate down the runway to slightly above the usual speed you use on your calls. Then, perhaps two hundred yards out, imagine the truck as you mentioned before. You'll need to stop before it strikes you, so cut the wheel to the left while pressing the brake. Too far, and you'll manage a full turn. I want you to stop at ninety degrees."

"Gotcha," Ray said, looking around for something to serve as the approximate two hundred yard marker- ah, there, a leftover fencepost; that would do nicely. He took a deep breath, let it out, and brought his foot down on the gas. Kitt's acceleration was considerably quicker than Ecto's, but he'd been prepared for that. It was more a matter of dividing his furtive glances between the speedometer and the side of the runway. The majority of his attention was on the road ahead, in the space corresponding to two car-lengths out-

Oop, there, that was the post- truck simulation time.

Ray brought his foot down on the brake, hard, and turned. An old driving-instructor memory cut in at exactly the wrong moment, and he caught himself going hand-over-hand on the wheel.

Except there was no wheel to go hand-over-hand on. The gullwing afforded only two grips, and when Ray released, Kitt took over, bringing himself to a stop there in the middle of the runway.

"You were doing quite well until you let go," he said.

Ray sighed. "Sorry," he said. "Unfamiliar controls and a very old bit of driver's ed. It won't happen again. Can we try that one more time?"