Perspective is everything. Without proper perspective what is a friendly gathering could look like barely contained chaos. With proper perspective, disappointment can be turned into an opportunity.  

In a field surrounded by a dozen onlookers, two people approached each other. The man was dressed head to toe in black, including a blindfold wrapped tight 'round his face to completely obscure his vision. The woman was dressed in red with a gold sash cinched across her waist and her hair held back by a gold netting. Both were armed with foam swords.

Around the pair, the crowd watched as a third person entered the circle. While he wore casual clothes he carried himself with a degree of seriousness as he approached. "Two hits to a limb, or a clean body shot. Agreed?"

Both combatants nodded.

"Thatcher, as you're supposed to be blind for this do you want any sort of advantage?" The referee asked, voice still professional.

The man shook his head, "We both know this is supposed to be a glorified execution Jeff. My character just had his eyes put out and they're throwing him in the ring."

The woman snorted, "Well you should have been better at slipping those forgeries in."

Thatcher gave a cheerful laugh and raised his dummy weapon to salute, "Lady Jocelyn. I have already been weighed, measured, and judged. Shall we give the crowd a good and proper sendoff?"

"Tell you what," Jocelyn saluted by raising her own weapon. Then she smiled, "You get a clean hit on me and I'll see the nobility of your cause and how far you'll push yourself even when doomed."

"Begin!" Jeff shouted, taking a step away from the pair.

Will pressed forward, weapon held across his body. "And why should my character care? Currently, he's in excruciating pain with barely any medical care even by the standards of the day, and his death is treated as sport at the hands of the third in line for house Tarkand."

Jocelyn's eyes widened when her opponent intercepted her strike and instead tried circling. "It would matter to him because the lady would see to it that his family will be integrated into her house after she takes out her two cousins."

Will grunted when he felt his weapon strike his opponent's and circled where he last heard Jocelyn. His attempt at pivoting to block her strike failed and she landed a hit on his left leg.

"Hit!" Jeff declared.

A nod from will as he forced that leg to remain stiff as if it weren't properly functioning. "That would definitely be reason enough to fight through even if the onlookers are eating popcorn."

At this one of the onlookers spoke up, "Actually since this is pre-columbian no popcorn or chips."

The fight paused as both turned to the speaker, who merely shrugged. "Say we're eating peanuts or dried fruit."

"Fair enough," Jocelyn shrugged. Then after the pair returned their attentions to each other she swung again.

Her opponent stepped inside her guard and landed a blow on her left leg even as her foam weapon landed on his forehead.

"Match!" Jeff announced.

"Ohthankgod," Will exclaimed, taking the blindfold off before offering his offhand to Jocelyn.

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After they shook he handed Jeff his foam weapon. "Hey I'm going to go grab snacks from my car, anyone want anything?"

A few negatives from the crowd before Jocelyn spoke up. "Sure. Cheese and Jerky?"

"Well considering you helped me make it, fair's fair." Will grinned as he trotted off.

The car he approached was Jocelyn's, as she had been his ride to the event. His hand trailed along the finish to the sedan before he set about rummaging through the chest cooler in the back seat.

Then his phone rang. An absentminded tap to the speaker as he continued rummaging. "Talk to me, Bo."

The voice on the other end, one very familiar to Will, spoke up. "You won the auction."

That caused Will to stop and give the phone more of his attention as Bo elaborated. "Lot 8617. To be delivered no more than four weeks from payment."

The crowd heard Will's excited cheering.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

A month later.

Jocelyn stared at the plastic-wrapped square that had been dropped off at the end of Will's driveway. Considering it sat right in front of his garage and gave barely enough room to roll the door up, she was less than thrilled with the delivery.

On the other hand, Will was excitedly unwinding the plastic that layered his prize. "Bets on what we've got Joe?"

She smirked, content to watch his enthusiastic unwrapping of one very expensive gift to himself. "So long as there's some Team Knight Rider swag I'm going to be happy."

Once the plastic was unwrapped they saw a series of cardboard boxes, the kind with wood along the inside edges to provide structure. The smaller of these were carried into the garage, sitting on Will's workbench. The two largest of these were too heavy for them to do more than shove inside the garage's rolling door. 

"Moment of truth." Will proclaimed.

One of the relatively smaller boxes had reams of paperwork. The kind that had hard plastic three-ring binders covering them. Another of the smaller boxes indeed had the sort of clothing worn by support staff for FLAGG's troubleshooting teams.

"Wow."

Joe held up a jumpsuit, complete with patches, practically beaming. "Whaddya think?"

"Huh, might actually fit. I suggest washing before you try," Will teased even as he started attacking the edges of one of the larger wooden crates with a crowbar.

"Wear?" Joe snorted, "This is going to be one of the centerpiece bits for the new mall display."

A pause as Will gave her a deadpanned stare. "So you're telling me I spent several thousand bucks so you could donate stuff to their mall?"

"Our mall." Joe corrected. "Knight Industries might own the plant but they don't own anything else."

"The plant's the reason the mall's not dead." Will countered, continuing to wedge the lid to one of the crates until it popped open. "That pretty much means they own it."

In response, Joe took out several other articles of clothes; hats, several shoulder patches, pins, and finally held up a thick canvas coat, "This is staying with me."

She turned it around, showcasing the gold and black chess piece and shield logo embroidered on the back.

"OK, that's pretty awesome." Will had to agree. Even with his annoyance at donating some of what he had saved months on a dice roll bid for, he had to admit they couldn't keep all of the clothing, so may as well curry favor with the people responsible for keeping their home on the map.

He handed the prybar to Joe as he focused on the crate he had managed to work open. "Car parts." 

This caused him to frown. Bits and pieces that looked twisted and overstressed. "Surprisingly little rust considering all of this stuff looks like it was on a test car that got blown up."

While Joe pried the second crate open, Will tossed the car parts aside. "None of this looks worth keeping. Wonder why it got tossed in a box instead of getting junked."

Joe's response was to hold a box up for Will to see.

He tossed a coil aside as he stared at the thing she held. It was roughly the size of a tablet and several inches thick. A ribbon cable protruded from one side, but that was not what held his attention.

It was faint, easy to miss if one wasn't paying attention, but there was a single blinking red LED.

When Will took the board and started examining it Joe went back to pulling things from the crate she had opened. "This one's got what looks like a bunch of computer parts."

"Huh," Will's voice was absentminded, as his attention was held by the connector to the box. "Whatever you are looks almost like you use an Altair Bus connection."

"Wonder what it does." Joe's curiosity was clear as she looked at the board now in Will's hands.

"Hard to say what exactly," Will considered the parts scattered about his garage, and frowned. "All of this is from the early eighties or so and it's all Knight Industries."

He picked up one of the three-ring binders with a line sketch of a customized trans-am as part of its cover page. "KARR. Serial Number Five Seven Three Oh Seven Five."

Jocelyn shrugged. "I mean, when they went all in on troubleshooting teams, FLAG agents used customized vehicles."