"Curious." KARR watched as buckshot from Luke's hunting shotgun fall off of the square material panel that had been clipped to a target stand.

Bo, Luke, Will, and Jocelyn were at Will's father's. They'd set themselves up near the equipment barn both because it had a road KARR could relatively easily traverse that would bring him right to where they wanted to shoot, and because May saw the four of them visiting as an excuse to cook.

While she cooked and Earl was supervising elsewhere on the property, the four of them took turns attempting to harm the panel. First, it was thrown rocks. then a hammer, followed by trying a fire axe. Now it was on to bullets. So far there had been nothing. Not even superficial marks.

"Here ya go," Luke pulled the magazine from a 1911, checked the safety, then handed both to Will handle first. Will looked at the weapon, barrel still pointed at the ground, and frowned as he checked the safety then slid the magazine back in while pointing it away from the other three people on the field.

"Hey KARR?" Will asked, firing a round, managing to hit the two-foot square of material. He smiled for a moment then continued, "KORRA give you any sort of heads up on what they're wanting you to test?"

After Will emptied the magazine KARR spoke, "Mostly electronics. Systems that can lie to the processing cluster because it is too stupid to verify what it is being told."

Jocelyn watched as Will handed first the empty magazine and then the now safetied gun to Luke before looking to everyone else. Only when he confirmed nobody else had anything in his hands did he approach.

the test square of material chose a moment where Will was between where the group was and the target frame to fall to the ground.

Everyone else approached as KARR's camera zoomed in. "Interesting. Will, did you accidentally hit any of the support clips?"

There were no jibes or malice in KARR's question. Jocelyn answered as Will felt the plate over. "No KARR. Three rounds were low, one round overshot. None of them came anywhere near the supports."

Will held the square of material up to show that it was for all intent undamaged. "I'm open to ideas on what's going on here." He then went about re-clipping it to the frame.

Once he got back to the group KARR made an electronic fractive noise. "Clearly it dissipates vibrations. The mounting system for these body panels is more elaborate than the mounting the older body panels used. there is also more vibration being transmitted through the frame. Therefore the only thing that makes sense is the kinetic energy from impacts are transmitted to the point of least resistance. In this case, that is to the edges of the material sheet, causing it to vibrate free from the clips holding it in place."

Luke frowned, "That'd mean eventually just normal driving will rattle these things loose, much less hitting potholes, ruts, or even an accident."

"That might not be such a bad thing cuz," Luke chimed in. "Crumple zones exist to direct energy away from people in the car. I'd take a body kit that needs a little extra doctoring for something that literally will direct everything away from me in a crash."

"Still," KARR's voice was thoughtful, "It is worth notifying KORRA, as these panel kits might need retooling. One thing to demand specialty setups for a vehicle that it was engineered for from the start. Another to retrofit something onto a frame it was never intended for."

Jocelyn nodded as she took Luke's shotgun. After several moments she fired, quickly unloaded while advancing several steps, loaded then shouldered before firing again. Then repeated this process several more times until she was less than an arm's length away from the panel and her final shot blew it off the frame.

As Jocelyn held the still undamaged square of material up for inspection she yelled, "Will! See if your dad has any explosives!"

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

May Thatcher looked to the kitchen window as she heard two quads and a car pull up to the house. She was stuck between bemusement and a slight sense of panic when she saw Earl hand a set of keys over to her son.

Will would step into the kitchen and hug her. "We'll clean any mess up out there. If it helps, this is actually for work."

She waved him off and then went back to cooking. For just a moment her mind reeled back to when Will was eight and those two other boys would drag him along with whatever they had gotten in their heads to occupy themselves with. They'd tell her all about it when they were done playing outside, same as always.

Getting old, she decided, wasn't entirely terrible. The aches and pains and everything being harder she could do without. Seeing her son happy with his friends? That, to her, made the rest worth it.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

'What's this prove?" KARR asked as Bo carefully poured the contents of a lead-acid battery into a tub the sample material was pinned to the bottom of by a brick.

Luke grinned as he leaned beside the table KARR's backpack was sitting on. "Simple. What if someone messes up when taking out or installing a battery? We don't have a graphene battery to cut apart ot test with and what happens next is going to test how it would handle a lithium battery explosion."

Bo added water to the tub, diluting the battery acid. Will wanted to object about safe disposal, but done was done. Instead, he shuffled about as the Dukes rinsed off the test panel and placed it on a metal frame. then placed a brick of... Something on top of it. then placed what could have been an aluminum pan overtop that. This presumably was to mimic the casing to a battery that the explosion was supposed to simulate the failure of.

"RANGE IS HOT!" Bo shouted, causing everyone else to jog back a dozen feet. Everyone except for Will, who paused to grab KARR.

"Leave me in place. My casing is titanium with a Bonded Shell Compound coating. I will get better readings from here. I will signal the all clear." KARR's voice was even as he encouraged Will to get to safety.

Luke let out a whistle. "Clear!"

Bo inserted a blasting cap into already unspooled wires. Only after he joined everyone else did he put a battery into the detonator switch. "And a one... and a two..."

There was a loud blast, a WHUMP of the pressure wave from the explosive brick detonating, and scorch marks where the holder frame was.

"KARR?" Will called as he poked his head out from the barn they took cover behind.

"Still Functional." KARR Reassured. "Plate flew a dozen meters left and forward from where my casing was left."

It took several minutes, but Will held up the material sheet. There were burn marks and the paint was eaten away by the acid bath, but the material itself behaved as if it were unharmed.

"Curious," KARR observed. "Only superficial damage. It is good to know that my new skin seems able to survive even the worst one can reasonably expect. I shall have to find a way to thank KORRA."

This caused Jocelyn to grin, "Well KARR. She seems like the kind of girl that would best appreciate work well done. So best to get cranking when the actual parts start showing up."

The quartet moved to gather KARR before starting with cleanup.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

"So," May Thatcher looked from her place at the table to KARR's camera. "So, KARR. Will says he's let you drive his car. I'm impressed. He barely lets Jocelyn drive it."

"He seemed to believe that giving me a shell that had great sentimental value would help establish trust," KARR explained from where his casing was in the den and a camera left facing the dining room table. "Given my prior interactions with humanity, this was perhaps one of the best things he could have done."

Earl snorted. "Huh. Turns out that big heart has a use after all."

Food was passed around.

Then Earl again spoke. "Heard one of my bricks going off. How many fragments did that metal thing get blown into?"

"None." Bo stated, "Scorch marks and the battery acid etched the paint off."

May slowly blinked. "So why aren't they selling this stuff?"

"Because," KARR stated, "Imagine the sort of damage a vehicle coated in this can do. Vank vaults, store displays..."

Then after a long pause, he added, "The mascot to three rings."

May gave a theatrical shudder, "Hate that creepy off-brand lego knockoff."

"Those examples seem a bit specific," Earl noted but left the question unasked.

Bo, Luke, and May looked at KARR's camera.

"When I was first re-activated it was by two thieves." KARR's voice was terse as he kept to factual statements. "I had not yet formed a concept of right and wrong. Just a need to survive, and to escape the black room I'd been locked in."

"Oh." May looked down then swallowed. "I see. You're done with such foolishness though?" Her voice was hopeful.

"Yes," KARR stated with a sense of finality in his voice. "I have no hard programming to prevent me from harming people or property, but it is clear humans do not have this sort of innate moral wiring either. Most are kept in line by either social pressures or threat of more direct punishment. I have a life that I currently enjoy and am at peace with. I do not wish to lose what I have."

This caused Earl to give a wry grin to KARR, "Can't hang a man for that sentiment. You're doing what you can to help out, and it's not like Will's treating you like a hammer to stuff in a drawer when not needed."

Laughter from Jocelyn. "Here's to the bleeding hearts."

That caused the Duke cousins to laugh before everyone at the table focused on the food.