The weather was clear and the day bright as KARR sped along, driverless. Music blared as he blew through an intersection.

The cause for his haste became apparent as a metallic blue gr86 was gaining ground. The woman at the wheel of this car hit a button on the center console. "KARR give it up. Blockades have been put in place. You have no driver and nowhere to recharge."

The black Fierro that served as KARR's body made a hard right turn, abusing both his direct interfacing with braking and drivetrain systems. "Fat chance I'll let you take me in!" KARR's voice was loud. "Especially when I'm out-driving that wet behind-the-ears brat you're saddled with."

The blonde woman looked down at her car's center console as the car itself spoke up. "Says the museum piece stuck in a hacked-together shell. I've got plenty of horses left under the hood. Don't make me hurt you old man."

Laughter from KARR as he tried another hard turn. Except this time the brakes failed to disengage and he rolled. momentum sending him into the front glass of a building, crashing into the store proper.

As the gr86 rolled to a stop in front of the wreck, the blonde frowned. "KORRA, Kamio, and I both saw KARR's race. He shouldn't have wiped out like that."

"Stupid faulty components," KARR grumbled. "You taking time from your duties is greatly appreciated. Though losing the chase because component failure rather than skill is-"

The simulation chose that moment to inform KARR that hte battery packs in his shell should have exploded.

-

"-Annoying." KARR scanned about. Finding himself at the entrance to Hazard Motors. the simulation had reset. Haruka and her car, Kamio, were out there somewhere.

He double-checked battery charge levels. Then double checked what his subsystems were telling him. By that metric e should have been in pristine condition. Yet his brakes hadn't reported fault until after they refused to respond correctly.

"Most annoying," He said to no one in particular before speeding off. the clock was ticking and he wanted to put that youngster in his place. He was KARR. he was the Original."

-

KARR was midway through his third lap when the alarms started. Even though his physical shell was safely tucked within Hazard Motors, the simulation he was running put him squarely downtown going at unacceptably high speed as he wove in and out of simulated traffic.

There were simulated police following not far behind.

KARR made a hard right turn, his front wheels turned too sharply. Momentum is a harsh mistress and punishes when she isn't given the respect she is due. KARR attempted to course correct, and just as the oversteer carried him into oa sideways skid he tumbled side over side.

On the machine KARR's shell was locked into all four wheels suddenly stopped spinning and a bell went off. Will frowned, flagging Luke over. "Steering lockout again!"

"Nuts," Luke muttered before looking from the data readouts and error logs to KARR himself. "Can you try not having every cop in the county on your next go?"

The AI laughed, "It's a simulation. Running an empty-track course is boring. Plus the unpredictability of pursuit is more realistic than a tightly controlled environment. We have our data points. Get this crap off of me and move on to the next part."

"Yessir Right away Sir!" Luke gave KARR a mock salute before disengaging the wheel locks, allowing KARR to slowly roll to an empty bay where Bo was waiting.

As that happened Will called KORRA, and after several menus worth of button taps, managed to get her to answer. "Will, How's it going?"

"Not good," Will slowly paced to where Luke was joining Bo to pull the hydraulic pump off. "After testing this morning KARR's discovered steering lockup issues. Suspension continually bottoms out and refuses to readjust to the correct height, thermometer in the coolant system reports everything in the green right until failure, and the wipers refuse to work."

KORRA audibly winced, "That bad huh... Might've been better to ask what did work."

"The body panels are amazing." Will tried offering as good news. "Battery acid, Explosives, Gunfire. KARR says there's bound to be micro-fractures, bt considering there wasn't so much as a chip in the test panel?"

Will paused as he saw the pair start breaking tools out. As he walked from the work area of the shop to the front desk he gave a casual wave to more of the staff.

Once the door was closed he continued. "Though we did find out these panels like to rattle loose of anything used to mount them to anything else."

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"That's a feature," KORRA reassured. "Better the panel absorb all the kinetic energy and blow free than all that transfer into the passenger compartment and launch you into the steering column."

"Point..." Will conceded. "But I'm going to give you the part numbers on everything we've tested over the past week and hopefully that will give you leads on which facilities they got shipped from to get here."

"And KARR?" KORRA asked.

"He'll give you his opinions after the Dukes put him back together. He's... Not happy and is considering outright refusing to install any of the batteries."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

KARR refused to start.

Will looked to the key fob that had paired with the ignition and then to the tri-bar strip that visualized KARR's voice. "KARR, is the ignition faulty or are you refusing startup?"

"The Latter," KARR affirmed. "As per my prior statements. My passenger compartment will stay empty for the duration of testing. the only reason I am agreeing to test the production model batteries is that KORRA agreed to find me a new shell if this one explodes."

Bo and Luke had already left for the day and the two other employees were busy cleaning up.

Will grimaced. "KORRA said if anything goes wrong she'd feel pretty lousy for putting us on the hook for damages."

"I will make sure you hold her to that," KARR informed. "Now then. Please plug me back in. I want to wipe that young punk off the road."

This earned a theatrical sigh from Will. "From what I saw Kamio seems really nice. It's just trash talk in a match. He really does respect you, man. that's why He and Haruka are the ones taking a shot at you."

"I was unaware." KARR grumbled. "Still. I owe him a better showing than these garbage components have allowed."

"I'm going to be in the front office and have a fire extinguisher ready if your packs start to go off." Will gave KARR's hood an affectionate pat before walking away.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

"What is that?" Haruka's voice was slightly panicked as a seventies-era cab over Simi barreled through traffic towards them.

"KORRA WHAT DID YOU DO?!" KARR demanded as he made a sharp turn.

There was laughter in both vehicles. "You both complained the simulated resistance was too easy. This is Goliath. A modified cab over simi coated in Knight Compound."

To punctuate KORRA's descriptions a rocket fired from one of the above cab rocket pods.

"It appears to be armed," Kamio noted dryly. "Suggestions?"

KORRA positively smirked as the two vehicles slit up. "Survive."

Any pretense of one car chasing the other vanished with this new threat. KARR and Kamio killed speed, dropping to the left and right of their opponent's flanks respectively.

"Confirming that the vehicle is non-AI controlled." KARR swerved between the truck and a line of parked cars but close enough that a human driver wouldn't see.

"Acknowledged," Kamio pulled ahead of the truck and just outside of the forward blind spot.

The truck lurched forward in response. Kamio's rear bumper unfolded dropping a series of tangerine-sized metal spheres that scattered on the ground. Once the truck was over them, nubs protruded from each and they lept to cling to the vehicle's underside.

In response, KARR sped up to join Kamio ahead of the truck just as those spheres exploded.

"No apparent damage." KARR sounded disappointed. "Suspect this thing has been given a full bonded shell coating.

"Any suggestions old man?" Kamio huffed in aggravation.

"Were this real," KARR stated as the pair wove in and out of the truck's forward blind spot, staying too close for rockets to be effective, "I would suggest your driver attempt entry through the passenger side door."As is, our only real play is to try luring it into a structure to immobilize it."

The simi killed it's speed and fired a full pod of rockets, causing both cars to swerve, one car going left the other going right before speeding ahead, deliberately staying in front of their opponent.

KARR's radio crackled and Will spoke. "Hey, I realize that thing's tires are coated in whatever kept its underside from being shredded but don't you have a stunner in there kid?"

"Kid?" Kamio started, then immediately let go. "Forward facing only, what's your play?"

"Stunners basically are microwave guns with extra steps so you're not microwaving your target's brain." His voice was distracted. Either he was looking the information up, or trying to remember.

Either way, KARR spoke up. "The Bonded Shell Compound would prevent punctures, even from internal pressure changes."

The two cars changed direction, KARR in the lead as oil poured from Kamio's rear bumper, causing the semi to skid, but ultimately it stayed on course and continued pursuing.

Ahead of them was the nearly completely renovated Brut Memorial Mall.

"Kamio. What we're doing is dangerous." KARR stated as he circled and Kamio followed. "Glass entryway. Oil slick right as he hits the entrance."

"Neither of us has a true bonded shell. Goliath and KRO are why the foundation stopped making the stuff. We'll be trapped." Kamio warned, and yet he still drove behind KARR as glass and aluminum broke away, scattering as they drove into the mall itself, Kamio having to tightly follow KARR to accommodate the now suddenly almost too narrow lane.

When the semi hit the oil slick Kamio left, steering again went wobbly. Except this time its path was more constrained, leading it to gouge into storefronts, causing further destabilization, causing it to ram cab first into a pillar and then into a store, leaving it wedged and unable to reverse due to its trailer.

Unfortunately, while their opponent was downed, KARR got rear-ended by Kamio as both vehicles fought to bleed speed rather than hit the far more solidly built secondary entrance to the mall.

For a moment both sat there. KARR laughed as the rear of his frame was completely demolished and Kamio was in the process of extracting himself, barely able to drive due to his crumpled prow.

"Old man, you're utterly insane, you know that?" Kamio sat there in the simulated rubble, surveying the thoroughly trashed mall both of them as well as the near unstoppable truck were stuck inside.

Haruka snorted, "You're one to talk," Then, "KORRA, I figured his battery packs would've gone up by now. Neglecting the simulate that one?"

"Negative miss Tenou." KORRA, in spite of her attempts to sound overly formal, couldn't help but be amused. "As he's testing the new battery formulation they are what was loaded into his simulated frame."

More laughter from KARR, "Told you I'd give you a run for your money with the right parts."

Then the simulation ended. KARR was unloaded from the test rig and slowly wheeled into bay four, unwilling to return home while he had test components still installed.