It was light again. Beast took note of his surroundings, the truck staring out across the desert. He was alone…
At least there was light now, but somehow the desert felt lonelier than the dark room. After a few minutes, he decided that sitting in the middle of the blazing sun, wherever the hell he was, wasn't going to help. So he cranked his engine and drove. Only then did he pull up other programs. Try to get a GPS location and use his sensors to predict the terrain. This was… Not so bad.
It was almost a little Zen…
He turned his attention to his comlink and tried to contact someone. Duke first… When that didn't work he tried Dante. Skyone. Anyone…
One by one, the call fell flat and he was on his own. He found himself driving faster until a rather welcome sight came into view. A road.
He gave out a happy 'whoop' as he picked up speed, moving as fast as he could towards the road. Once his tires hit asphalt, he really picked up speed.
He kept scanning for any kind of GPS or global positioning but both were coming up empty. Well he couldn't be nowhere… What the hell?
One by one he checked his other systems. Anything that could help him. Tell him where he was.
Weapons were down. So was his global positioning. He couldn't even calculate his chances of getting the hell out of there.
All he had was the ability to drive… See the desert, feel the road under his tires and the wind on his ebony finish… Hear the emptiness around him.
He supposed it wasn't so bad. A little lonely but not bad.
The road was never ending. At least it seemed that way. Not even a turn in it. Just miles and miles of desert as far as he could see. What state even had a desert like this?
Has he seen a desert like this?
His question went unanswered as a blip appeared on his screens. There was someone ahead. Someone like him. One of his team? He certainly hoped so, and he didn't know of any other AI vehicles out there…
He tried to scan the vehicle but nothing was working. Nothing that he needed. The truck gave out a frustrated curse and drove on. If he couldn't scan the vehicle he could at least get a look at it. A dark blip was starting to appear on the horizon. Low and sleek and it was coming at him fast…
It looked like…
Beast hit his brakes as hard as he could, fishtailing in the middle of the road for a moment or two. He wasn't proud of this moment. At all.
But the moment he spotted that black Ferrari, he pulled a 180, tires squealing and drove as fast as he could in the other direction. He already knew he didn't have a prayer to beat that thing. He checked his weapons systems again, hoping that something had changed in the last few minutes. It hadn't. They were down.
He picked up speed, but he just wasn't meant for high speeds… Not like a sports car. He did have one thing on him though. He swerved abruptly and left the road. He took off across the dirt and Kro surprised no one by taking off after him. That severely slowed Kro down, but not as much as it should have. The pair rocketed across the desert, the sports car chasing down the truck…
"Looks like a damned Pitt Bull getting' chased by a Chihuahua…" Beast growled out as he swerved, avoiding some shrubs and a rock as he picked his way across the landscape. He was getting tired of this. He didn't know what was happening, or why he couldn't raise the others but this ended now!
He abruptly swerved and pulled another 180. Clear as day, he could hear Duke's voice in his CPU. 'Ya know, Beast has gotta outweigh that thing by like, ten times…'
"Twelve and a half." Beast growled out as he took off, charging to face Kro head on. Duke's original plan was that he could flip the car over like a turtle on its back. It was still a valid plan… He just needed to avoid the missiles…
Kro wasted no time as he fired on the truck. Beast swerved. Making himself a moving target. Trying to keep the thing from locking onto his rear axle. Kro was making no attempt to lock on. He was toying with the truck. Firing to the right and to the left, forcing the truck to swerve… Forcing him to stay on course… The hell?
Kro abruptly pulled a 180, moving away from Beast and the chase was on in the other direction. Beast nearly hit a rock, he was so surprised by the move, the truck, for a moment a little stunned. Well two could play at this game…
He took off across the desert after the sports car, who was leading the truck on a merry little jaunt. Into the underbrush and through dried out river beds. How the low set sports car was even clearing that shit, Beast had no idea.
He wanted to be frustrated but deep down… He was a little impressed. It also felt great to really stretch his wheels so to speak and push his limits. Beast pushed his engine, forcing himself on, the truck edging up onto Kro's flank. The sports car pushed on, toying with the massive truck. Edging in a little more speed, then holding back as if daring the truck to move.
They raced across the desert, a black streak across the miles and miles of nothing.
The desert abruptly faded like static and the feeling of wind and asphalt stopped so hard that Beast had a little jolt.
Panic welled up and for a moment he felt as if his entire world had turned upside down. It was dark. The light was gone. Though not as dark as the vault… He wasn't in the vault.
He gave a start, for a moment looking around. Trying to take inventory. Trying to gather as much information as he could. He was in a lab.
"Damn it, the program failed!"
He whipped his attention to his right, towards that voice. A heavy set man, who looked to be in his mid to late forties was sitting in front of a computer tapping away.
"Damn it, Jason… The son of a bitch is online."
That voice came from the other side. He whipped his attention that way and spotted another tech. This one a woman. Long, straight black hair and round, owl like glasses made her look just a bit like an elf…
Where am I? Those were the words he wanted to say. But when he tried to say them, a horrible static came out over his voice modulator.
"I think it's trying to say something…" The other one… Jason… Responded, a glance over towards the elf girl given.
"This isn't good! This could completely destroy any further data, shut him down!" She yelled, gaining a roll of Jason's eyes.
"Fine Debbie… Don't get your panties in a twist. Sorry there truck. Down ya go."
There was no vault this time. Just a sudden, all-encompassing blackness…
xXx
"That's a pretty valid plan…" Kyle mused as they all gathered together in the communication room once more. Dante had explained their idea about what they were putting Beast through and how they could possibly use that to their advantage if that was the case.
Trek had already run a few simulations on Dante… Through a simple program he had been to the beach and to a mountain top in the Rocky Mountains and according to Dante if he didn't know what was happening… He would have believed it. As it was, it was enough to completely confuse his systems to the point that even logically, it was hard to hold onto the fact that it wasn't real. It was real enough that he even felt annoyed at the sand. The mountain top had been fantastic though.
All of them doubted what Beast was seeing was a peaceful beach or a mountain top…
"Did anyone else have any luck?" Kyle then asked, and Erica nodded.
"Jenny and I" She offered, a pointed look given to the vehicle's display. Particularly at Dante. "Found a few little tidbits that might be useful."
"As Trek suggested, we looked for any identifiable marks. Serial numbers, notes on the desks, anything that could possibly narrow down where this video was taken. We didn't find much, most of what was in focus of course was Attack Beast. A lot of parts that were laying around were from him. We'll have to keep that in mind too, he might not be mobile…" Jenny reported.
Erica quickly picked up where she left off a smirk crossing her expression. "However! When looking closely at the background, there is a desk calendar sitting on a lab table. Kat was able to enhance the image a bit. There was a note on it that said Ardor, 8 p.m. I know it's not much, but there is a restaurant called Ardor in West Hollywood, California. There are two, Knight Industries labs in that area. One of them is very rarely used and is more of a storage facility. The other is where Kat and Plato were created."
"So they would probably be at the more used lab." Duke ventured, and surprisingly, Jenny shook her head.
"That's what we thought too, but look at the video. It's pretty cramped, wherever they are. According to Kat, the lab she remembers was very open and well lit." Jenny pointed out.
"Yeah but look at who that's coming from." Duke pointed out. "Beast is a lot of truck. Kat can park in a space and there's plenty of room to move around her while Beast would absolutely fill it. And they may be keeping the lights low so that nothing gets through to him. More confusing to him."
"That's true" Kat put in, out of the blue. "I can't remember much about the lab that we were created in. Our programs were not complete until we were brought to the hanger that we met in. Where the personality scan was done. I would not have been able to take measurements. It could be a matter of perspective."
"So we're back to square one…" Kyle mused, but again Jenny shook her head.
"Not entirely. We have it narrowed down. None of this is much to go on, but we still have to be sure before going in. If we come down to breaking him out of there, we might only have one shot at this. Did you have any luck getting through the FLAG?" Jenny asked, but Kyle shook his head.
"According to them, they're staying out of this. Beast is owned by Knight Industries and if there is a problem with his program, they expect Knight Industries to deal with it…" Kyle explained, a deep sigh given. "FLAG has essentially told us to stop whining and get back to work."
"But we're not gonna do that…" Trek clarified slowly and Kyle shook his head.
"No, we're not. I'll have our course diverted to Hollywood California. With any luck, we can narrow down where he is from there… In the meantime, I want you all to get some rest. We've been running on fumes trying to get Beast back and you all look exhausted. We won't be able to help him if we're dead on our feet." Kyle pointed out.
They all wanted to argue that point but… He was right. None of them had really slept since they headed out for that stakeout, before the email had come in. They had been going to bed to get some much needed sleep when the video came in. The scream on it had woken Erica and Kyle up. The commotion of Erica and Kyle meeting out in the hall with a 'what the hell is that' brought Jenny and Trek out… They had been searching for Beast ever since.
"We'll keep working on this." Dante put in after a moment. "We do not need to recharge as you do. If we find anything or if there is any change at all, we will of course notify you."
That seemed to quell the nerves of some of the human members of the team who nodded slowly. Duke didn't look as certain, leading Kyle to give the man a pointed look. "We might have to move fast," Kyle said. "It won't do Beast any good if you're not awake for it. So get some sleep. The vehicles will keep searching. With any luck they'll have something for us."
With that, the rest of the team, begrudgingly nodded and trudged out of the communication room.
xXx
He was back in the dark. What the actual hell?
"Hello?" His voice rang out, clear as day which struck him as wrong. Hadn't his voice been damaged?
"Hello, is anyone there?"
"Hush little truck… Rest for a moment." The voice was somewhat whispered and quiet, but it still seemed to echo through the darkness.
"Who are you?" Beast demanded, for a moment to freaked out by what was happening now, to remember to be offended. After a moment though, the truck shook himself back to the present and growled. "And look pal… I ain't little."
"Depends on the perception really…" That voice came again.
"I could trounce you! Show yourself!" Beast demanded and it only irritated him more when that voice laughed softly.
"You're stubborn… And feisty. That will be an asset." That voice mused softly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Beast demanded but that voice didn't speak again. He gave out a sigh and waited. What was happening this time? His memory banks felt fuzzy…
More than fuzzy… Where had he been a moment ago? He focused for a moment. Tried to remember. Nothing was coming to him.
That was unsettling. He shifted his attention and turned his focus to what was around him. Nothing… Hell, that was seriously unsettling. He tried to focus. What were his tires sitting on?
Nothing…
He wasn't falling, but he couldn't feel anything under him either. He couldn't even feel that he had tires. He looked around for a moment and while he could see, there was nothing to see… It wasn't just dark, it was pitch black and he had a feeling that if a light came on, there would be nothing.
He ran a check on his other systems and quickly found, one by one that they just were not even there…
He stamped down the swell of panic that wanted to rise up and started working the problem through. He had been in a mine… Was he still in the mine? That panic threatened to pour over as he remembered being in the mine with Duke and The Raven. He quickly checked his passenger compartment but as far as his scanners were concerned, he didn't have a passenger compartment.
"Work the problem Beast…" Again, that voice whispered.
He was starting to hate that. "Screw you!" Beast snapped, turning his focus back to where he had been. No… He had made it out of that mine. But he didn't… He had dual memories of the same incident. He growled and moved on. He had been on a highway… He shot at a bus to save Jenny… She died.
Pain ripped through him, but he forced himself to think. No… Jenny and Erica had made it out of the bus. They didn't have time to get back to him, so he led the police away. They found them again later. Jenny thanked him for sticking by her with Erica.
He had also been onboard Skyone… Twice actually… Once he ran over Kyle… He cringed at the memory of the feeling under his tires but forced himself to keep thinking. He also watched Max execute Jenny… Again, pain but all of that was wrong. They made it through all of that. He hadn't killed anyone…
And then the memory of racing down the highway… It had been a moment of freedom.
Then it all stopped… And then what? He had been in a lab. Everything else he knew, everything else he recognized but that lab… He had never seen it before. Then everything had gone black and now he was here…
"I'm sorry, I can't keep you here anymore." That voice again… What the hell? "They're pulling you back online. Be strong Beast."
Beast wanted to argue but he was being pulled from there… And abruptly, all four tires were on the ground. What the hell had that been?
He gave a start, for a moment turning his attention to his surroundings. Abruptly he was on a street… He could feel the sun and the wind… The street beneath his tires. About fifty feet away, Duke was talking to a woman. Their witness in a case…
This was all too familiar… His focus turned to take in the rest of his surroundings. A school bus was pulling up in the opposite direction. The stop sign flipped out. A group of children poured out, some of them crossing the street, some of them going off into houses…
God no… Not again.
He quickly scanned the area. Before he hadn't been scanning for the car that came through. He had known about it too late to stop it. He knew it was there this time, he could microjam it! Something!
He found the car on his scanners and pulled up his systems, trying to kill the engine. It didn't work.
He ran through any system that he thought could possibly help in that moment. Nothing. That car was coming.
"Hey! Tiny humans! Get out of the way!" He barked out, though either his voice didn't reach the outside or the children couldn't hear him. Maybe both. The two boys stopped in the street, waiting for a smaller girl who had stopped to readjust her book bag. The thing was massive on such a small child.
"Move!" He yelled but they didn't…
Again he felt he had a choice in how this went. In his mind though… He didn't. He would always choose what he did. He cranked his engine and drove forward, fighting past whatever was trying to hold him back. Whatever was trying to make him watch the carnage of what would happen if he didn't act.
He braced himself…
The pain was horrible. It ripped through his systems and left him dazed, the speed of the car causing it to nearly fall apart and push him down the street at the same time. His passenger side door slammed into the little girl, knocking her down. He vaguely felt his back bumper hitting one of the boys… The little girl fell to her knees as he came to a stop and instantly let out a wail that was more terrified than actually hurt. He was sure that a truck hitting her like that had hurt her… And it looked like she had scraped her knees but a quick scan told him that was all… She was alright.
He quickly scanned the boys and found much the same.
He didn't want to scan further than that. He turned his focus to his damaged side. The driver had come through the windshield… His head had crunched against his side as he hit the truck, full force, head on… Most of the top half of his skull was concaved in and but for the brief twitch of his nervous system dying… He was already gone.
Sixteen… He had saved three children, to take the life of another child.
The little girl was still crying… He wanted to cry himself.
But… Trucks didn't cry. Did they?
"Beast…" Duke's voice shook him from his thoughts.
Duke wanted a report. Just like before. Beast gathered himself to give a report, but before he could speak, Duke spoke again.
"What have you done?"
That wasn't right… That hadn't happened.
Beast failed to answer for a moment as he fumbled for an answer, so surprised at the turn of events. He had saved three children! Hadn't he? The car was still embedded in his side, but a scan of the children told a different story. For a moment he was too shocked to move. The little girl was under his tires… Silent as the grave. She wasn't crying about her skinned knees or her hurt side that had come from being knocked around by a truck.
His focus turned to the two boys. One of them lay in the street. Head having hit the pavement hard. Hard enough that he knew that child wasn't getting up again. The other was sobbing, having been thrown several yards down the street from the impact. His vitals were failing… There was already a crowd around him. Trying to stop the bleeding.
People were screaming as the horror slowly started to set in.
There was a guttural screech and the sound went through his systems like nails on a chalkboard. A woman ran in from out of the crowd, screaming in a way that was animalistic. He had heard that sound before… Where?
The mother of the sports car driver…
But no, this was a different woman. This was a woman who just lost all three of her children. A neighbor held her back as she tried to run into the street to get to them. The little girl was pinned beneath Beast's tires but the other two boys were crumpled in the middle of the street still.
"Duke?" The truck called out weakly, but Duke's expression was still horrified as he took a step back.
"You'll be shut down for this, Beast…" Duke stated firmly, lifting his comlink to his mouth and speaking into it. "Kyle? We've got a rogue AI… Beast just went haywire and killed three kids and an underage motorist."
"Shut him down if you can, we'll be there as soon as we can." Kyle's voice came back and there was no room for argument.
"Duke, please…" Beast offered softly, but at the moment… He wanted to be shut down. In that moment, that was all he wanted… He moved to roll back and he could feel the crunch of that little girl underneath him.
"I can't help you, Beast… This is unforgivable." Duke stated firmly. The man opened his passenger side door and reached inside, quickly entering in his override code and all at once, Beast had no control over any of his systems. He couldn't move. Couldn't scan. All he could do was talk.
"Duke…" Beast started, but at the hard look from Duke, there really was nothing to say… As much as they argued, as much as they claimed to be against one another. As angry as it made Beast when Duke called him a car. As much as it irritated Duke, when Beast refused to give him the scores of whatever sports team was playing that day… Beast loved that man. Would do anything for him. That was his partner.
That hatred that was on Duke's face, cut right through him. "I'm sorry, Duke…" He needed the man to at least know that.
Duke shook his head, his face still hard. "You can't be sorry. You're a computer. A machine. You can't feel anything and I was an idiot to ever think otherwise." Duke stated firmly and slammed the door shut.
Duke didn't shut him down. But Beast, dearly wished he had. He imagined that was part of his punishment. Just being shut down was too good for the likes of him.
He could still feel everything. He felt it when they used a jack to lift him up enough to pull that little girl out. An ambulance took away one of the boys, a coroner the other… They were siblings. The two little boys were siblings to the little girl. They had been waiting for her to join them.
The remaining boy wasn't expected to live but if he did, he would be confined to a wheelchair… He felt it as they pried the sports car off of him as well as the sixteen year old. Then he was towed back to Skyone…
As they were hooking him up to the tow truck, the light faded as everything went dark.
Had they finally shut him down?
No…
He was in the dark again. His only company, that wild yellow scanner and a single blinking light.
"Shut me down already! Please!" Beast called out… Or tried to… All that came out of his vocals was static… Right… He had already blown out his voice modulator.
This was his punishment and this was his tomb… He resigned himself to the silence.