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CHAPTER FOUR

"Ooooh, this is bad," Lizzie said, taking a step back.

Karr had to have complete and total amnesia. How was this even possible? How was he even functioning?

Karr paused his headlight message, and rolled forward to bring the distance between them back to what it was. Then he began flashing his headlights again.

"I'm really sorry," Lizzie said, "But I don't understand what you're trying to tell me, Karr."

Karr flashed her once irritably, then stopped.

"Alright," Lizzie said, talking to herself, "If Mom were here, she would know how to handle this. She knows everything about you and Kitt. But I can't contact her. But if she were here, what would she do right about now?"

Lizzie stared at Karr. The vehicle was silent, listening intently to her even though he couldn't understand a word she said.

"She would check under the hood," Lizzie said, "To see if anything is out of place. I can do that. Karr, do you mind if I check under your hood?"

There was no answer, of course, so she walked softly towards him. He backed away just a little, but only about an inch. Lizzie walked right up to his hood, praying she would do this right without scaring him away again.

"Karr," she said, keeping her voice even, "Can you open your hood for me?"

It wasn't until she asked him that, that she realized how dangerous a question it was. He hadn't even wanted her to touch him earlier. She gulped.

"Your hood," she repeated, pointing to the front of the car, "can you open it?"

She attempted to pantomime opening the hood, but to her horror Karr's only response was to start shivering again.

"Oh, no!" She said, trying to calm him down, "It's alright! I didn't mean to scare you-"

Her hands landed automatically on his hood, and Karr went completely still. Inwardly, Lizzie cringed. How could she make that same mistake again? Touching him right now was not good.

Taking a deep breath, Lizzie decided to stay right where she was and let Karr get used to her. At least he had stopped shivering. She waited for what seemed like hours, but was probably closer to five minutes, before she decided she could speak again.

"It's alright," she whispered.

Karr began shivering again.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Lizzie said.

The shivering didn't stop, and she was getting tired, but she didn't dare to take her hands off the hood. So she decided to slowly lower herself onto the ground. As soon as she was seated, Karr stopped shivering and thrust his front bumper forward until it touched her head.

"Karr?" Lizzie asked, "What are you doing?"

She turned her head around to see him better, taking her head away from Karr's bumper in the process. Instantly Karr began shivering again.

"Hey, shhh," Lizzie said, reaching out to touch his scanner, "It's alright, Karr."

The shivering stopped and the scanner went black as soon as she touched it.

"What?" she whispered, withdrawing her hand.

Instantly, the scanner lit back up and the shivering began anew.

"I'm beginning to see a pattern here," she said, touching the scanner again.

Once again, the shivering and the scanner stopped.

"Oh wow," Lizzie whispered.

She almost couldn't believe it, but it looked like Karr was going into short bouts of recharge. A recharge that was interrupted every time she took away contact. What had someone done to him, her best friend, to bring this about?

She really needed to find a way to contact FLAG.

She decided to keep her hand on his scanner for a while. After waiting until she assumed Karr was likely in a deeper state of recharge, Lizzie slowly got off the ground and began walking towards one of the quietest corners of campus.

"I am going to call Kitt," she whispered to herself, "And I am going to get through to his thick skull that I need to talk to him. And then Mom and Uncle Devon and Dad and Kitt and everyone else who wants to can come here and find out what's going on here, and how to reverse it. And then-oh. I missed the turn. Where's the moon when you need-"

She rapidly turned around, and almost tripped.

"What?"

Karr backed up just a little, but didn't run away from her.

"You've been following me," Lizzie said.

Karr rolled forward until his bumper touched her legs. Then, with was seemed to be an audible sigh, the entire car relaxed as the scanner went dark.

And there they were on the sidewalk, in plain view of anyone who happened to walk by.

Oh boy.

"It's going to be a long night," Lizzie sighed.


When the first pink touches of the sun finally began to grace the sky, Lizzie was still awake. Through the night she had coaxed Karr to follow her across campus until they had reached the parking lot closest to her dorm, and after an inordinate amount of time she managed to finally get him properly parked within the two white lines marking a single parking space. There were several close calls at that point, both with people passing by in the middle of the night and with Karr very nearly crashing into every car in the parking lot as he tried to understand Lizzie's hand signals.

Once Karr was safely parked, Lizzie sat up against his front hood and he fell back into recharge. She spent the rest of the night exactly as she was. Although it was uncomfortable, it wasn't as if she could go anywhere; Karr woke up whenever she so much as moved.

The night passed by forever, and it gave Lizzie plenty of time to think. But as the sun threatened to rise, Lizzie knew that she couldn't stay there much longer. People would begin to notice her sitting there, and the ground was pretty uncomfortable. Besides, she had classes later that afternoon.

It seemed as if Karr had had enough recharge, so Lizzie got up. His scanner fluctuated sluggishly.

"It's alright, go back to sleep," Lizzie whispered, patting the hood.

The scanner went dark.

Just how much sleep had Karr gotten before that night? Honestly, he acted like he had never recharged before.

Lizzie stretched and went back into her dorm. A flight of stairs and a hallway later, she entered her dorm room and after a few steps collapsed onto her bed.

"You stayed out all night, didn't you?" Brittany asked, sitting cross-legged on her bed with her laptop in front of her. Why was her roommate such a morning person?

"Hmphphph," Lizzie mumbled into her pillow. As long as Karr was still recharging, she might as well get some shuteye herself.

Her roommate, however, apparently disagreed.

"Aren't you supposed to take care of the Smith's dogs this morning?"

Lizzie groaned and hit her pillow with a fist, then slowly lifted herself up to a sitting position.

She must have looked pretty angry, because Brittany thought she was hilarious. Her roommate burst out laughing.

"Sorry," Britt apologized, "But it serves you right for being out all night!"

In other words, she wasn't sorry at all.

Lizzie sighed and got off her bed. "I'm going to change before I go," she said, "Think I have time for a shower?"

"Maybe. If you hurry," Brittany said, glancing at Lizzie's analog clock on the wall.

"Then I'd better get going," Lizzie said.

Honestly, she felt all gross from sitting out in the parking lot all night, and wearing the same clothes she wore yesterday seemed like a bad idea. But the dogs she was going to walk were usually pretty messy, and it would probably be best to wait until after she walked them before she showered. So she settled on brushing her hair and reapplying deodorant to make sure she didn't smell too badly.

"Alright, see you later Brit!" She called out, opening the door to leave.

Only she couldn't leave. There was someone on the other side of the door, ready to knock, and incidentally blocking her way.

"Elizabeth Knight?" The woman asked.

"Yes?"

"I'm from Campus Security," the woman said, gesturing to her uniform, "I'm here to deliver you a warning."

Lizzy's eyes grew wide.

"What's this about?" She asked.

"Well, normally we give students warnings on their vehicles. If there's still a problem, we send them an email. But in this case, we decided to talk to you right away."

"What happened?" Lizzy asked.

The woman looked at her suspiciously.

"Parking violations," she said, "To put it mildly. The past six improperly parked vehicles all campus all happened to have the same thing in common: they were all the same vehicle. Your vehicle."

"What?" Lizzy asked, confused.

"The car in question," the security officer continued, "Has been registered to you since the first day of classes."

"That can't be right," Lizzy said, "I didn't register any vehicle. There must be some mistake."

"Oho, there's no mistake," the lady said, shoving a piece of paper into Lizzy's face, "See this? It's a copy of the car registration form submitted to us at the beginning of the school year. Right here is your name, right next to your dorm room number and your car's identifying information. Black vehicle, Pontiac Trans Am, California license plate."

Lizzy took the piece of paper and looked at the license plate number. It was Karr's.

"What?" she whispered outloud.

She hadn't done this. She hadn't even thought of doing this. But Karr, on his own, had registered himself as her vehicle with her school. As far as she knew, not even her father or her sister had done the same thing with Kitt. It was akin to claiming ownership over him.

The fact that Karr had done this of his own free will surprised her. Why would he do that?

"You see?" the woman continued, "Now, up until now everything has been fine and dandy. But if you continue to park illegally like you did yesterday, there are going to be some repercussions. Are you aware that blocking the exit of a building is a major violation of the fire code?"

"I-I'm sorry," Lizzy said.

"Then consider this your warning," The security officer said, "Because next time, we won't go light on you. Got that?"

Lizzy nodded, stunned by the reprimand. She wasn't used to being in trouble. Well, she was used to her life being in danger, but this kind of trouble was a new experience. And being in trouble for something she didn't do made it even worse.

"Alright." The lady said, "Now, I'm not going to forget this conversation. But I suggest you move your car from the handicapped parking spot before you get into even more trouble."

"The handicapped what?" Lizzy asked, "He's not-I mean, I made sure that Karr was parked right last night."

She slipped up a little by saying his name, but thankfully the woman assumed she said the word 'car'.

"Well, for your information," the woman said, "Your car was parked in the handicapped parking space when I passed it in the parking lot on my way up here. I suggest you fix that immediately."

The woman turned to leave without any further word of farewell. As soon as she was two steps away, Lizzy softly closed the door.

"I didn't know you had a car on campus," Brittany said, speaking from her bed.

Such is college life, where everybody overhears everything.

"Guess I'd better go move him out of the parking lot," Lizzy said, opening the door again.

"Don't forget about the dogs!" Brittany called out, and Lizzy cringed as she closed the door behind her. Because, to tell the truth, she had forgotten about the dogs.

Down the hallway, down the stairs, out the door. The sun had come up all the way by now. And there, surprise surprise, was Karr sitting politely in the handicapped parking spot. He had woken from his recharge much, much sooner than she had anticipated.

"Karr," Lizzie said, trying to keep her voice to a whisper, "Do you know how much trouble you got me into?"

Karr flashed with his headlights in response, using a quick pattern of short and long flashes. It wasn't the same pattern he had been using the night before. It seemed to indicate that, contrary to whatever she said, he was glad to see her.

But why did he move parking spots? She glanced at the handicapped spot, and only then did she notice its strategic position. It was two floors below her dorm room window. Lizzy shook her head, but couldn't help smiling.

"You can't park in the handicapped spots, alright?" she said, "Come on, it's time to move to another parking space."

She walked over to his driver's side door and reached for the handle. It wouldn't open.

"Karr?" Lizzie asked, "Aren't you going to let me in?"

Apparently not. She tried the handle again, and Karr revved his engine. Quickly, Lizzie took her hand away from the door. Well, at least this was still better than when he ran away at a single touch.

"Alright, we're going to have to do this another way," Lizzie said.

It took a little bit of coaxing, but Karr apparently remembered the hand directions she had used to direct him the night before. The hard part was that the campus was starting to wake up, and Lizzie didn't want anyone to notice what they were doing. The nearest open parking spot wasn't too far away, but they had to move fast while also making sure that Karr didn't crash into any of the other vehicles.

"Good," she said approvingly when Karr was all settled in front-end first, "Now, just stay there for a while, alright? I'm going to take care of the Smith's dogs. They should be pretty restless by now. I'll be back as soon as I'm done."

She turned around to walk away, but stopped.

"Stay there," she repeated, then left the parking lot.

She turned around one last time to check if Karr was still in the spot she left him in, before she took off down the closest sidewalk.

"Alright," she said, not caring who heard her speaking outloud, "I'm running late for the dogs, but I should try calling home again. If I can't contact them now, I'll try again later."

She cut across the pathway, looked each way and crossed the street before she took off down another sidewalk.

"Once Kitt sees how much I'm calling him, maybe he'll realize it's an emergency," she told herself.

She opened up her phone as she ran, and pressed a button on speed dial.

The number hung up on her before the first ring.

With a groan, Lizzie pressed the next number. The result was the same, so she went down the list of everyone she knew at FLAG, even her sister.

What was wrong with FLAG? Why didn't they have their hacker taken care of by now? She had no idea how to deal with this situation, and she needed help. It was becoming increasingly awkward to treat Karr like a little kid instead of the dangerous, difficult partner that he was.

She reached the last phone number she knew by heart. Still nothing. And she had finally reached the Smith's house. With a sigh, Lizzie put her phone away and stepped up to the door. There were dogs that she needed to take care of, and then her vehicular partner. She would try calling again later.

Lizzie took out the house key and unlocked the front door, but a sound behind her made her turn around.

And there, parked patiently and conspicuously on the front lawn of the Smith house, was Karr. His front tires were in Mrs. Smith's flowerbeds.