World Traveller

McQueen

  We talked a bit more, when suddenly an engine was heard.
  "Um... And that is?"
  My look wandered to Blackmill, who had run out. 'Was zum Henker!? Okay, ich folge dem lieber mal...' and I ran after him. Because of his head start and because I was considerably slower than him, I had trouble keeping up. He walked through the door that lead to the garage. As soon as I got in, a voice that seemed to come from the main entrance asked:
  "Chlara?"
  It sounded nice, positively surprised and friendly.
  I turned to the right, and McQueen stood there. Since he was the only car in there, he had to be the one that emitted the engine sound.
  "Yes? That's my name..." I joked. I couldn't help but joke around, I didn't want to show how uneasy I felt.
  McQueen started driving towards me, first slowly and then getting a little bit faster. When he was a few centimeters away from me, he braked.
  "... Gott sei Dank geht es dir gut, als du diesen Streit hattest hatte ich Angst dass man dich erschossen hätte. Auf Englisch hier oder?"
  Simon now came up to me and wanted to know what McQueen had said. I replied with a translation.
  "Thank God you are alright. When you got into this argument I thought they would shoot you dead. On English here or?"
  I then shrieked quietly, something had touched me. It was McQueen, who had pushed himself between me and Simon. Apparently he didn't want me next to Simon, that's what I thought at least. I wanted to ask him later. Said man cleared his throat and spoke:
  "As you can see the CPU has been built in. How he heard of the argument though..."
  Now that he said that, I began to wonder too. McQueen had still been a CPU the time Simon and I fought, no auditorial receptors were attached back then. 'I'll just ask later.' I decided. Blackmill shook his head.
  "It doesn't matter that much anyway. How about you two take a drive to get to know each other?"
  I took my time to respond, not even intentionally.
  "... Sure."
  Simon raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything else. I opened the door. The dashboard didn't look different. It still looked like it was right out of the eighties. Well, it WAS but you get the point.
  "So I'm sure you are wondering how I even know of the fight..."
  My eyes widened as I saw the BMW-emblem light up as he spoke.
  "Y-Yes... Yes I am, and I want a good explanation as well, please."
  I always hated it when I accidentally stuttered. I guess the voice and emblem left their influence.
  "Though I never could speak (well, until now) I wasn't lifeless. No car is actually. But some make it more evident than others. From the moment we get out of the factory, we live. But we can't show it. Most people would be too afraid. We communicate with each other through frequencies that humans can't hear. We mostly take recordings and similar things to 'speak', but we can of course do it normally too. The frequencies are too low to be heard by humans, but not for animals. Most animals feel comfortable with them, that's why cats like to hide beneath us.
If we have a strong connection to a person, and this person happens to be a child, we can kind of talk to them per thoughts. So you did actually talk to me when you were younger, indirectly that is. And now, with this CPU inside of me I can even talk to you regularly! My memories are in my frame, so even if I got fried like KITT got one time, I should still have my memory. Any more questions?"
  I couldn't help but stare dumbfounded at him. As a little kid, I often made up conversations with him, now they were real? This seemed like a dream coming true. I stared at the street in disbelief. Then I suddenly remembered that he had pushed himself between me and Blackmill.
  "Hey, why did you push yourself between me and Blackmill earlier? I mean, I'm not complaining."
  It took time for him to respond. When he did, his tone seemed... Controlled. Like he didn't want me to know that he was angry.
  "... I don't trust him a bit. And I know how hot-headed and protective you can get. What would hold him back from killing you? Why did you even take his offer? You may get really hot-headed and aggressive, but you hate crime, and you always feel sorry and guilty after these outbursts. And don't try to deny the outbursts, I've heard your parents!"
  I chuckled at that addition.
  "McQueen. I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait to hear the explanation. Don't worry, it's good, and you'll even meet a couple of my friends."
  Silence.
  "... It better be good, I'd hate to hear that you've gotten on the wrong side of the law intentionally."
  "Don't worry, it would break my heart to even think of that. I really missed you, you ship of a car."
  "You should have called me 'Schiffle'."
  'Schiffle' was the composition of 'Schiff', which means ship, and the swabian trivializationsyllable '-le'. It made sense since he was so big and long, so my parents always said ship to him. Now I had the idea for a joke
  "'And? What's your car love called?'" I pitched my voice a bit higher for that, and then spoke normally, "'' Schiffle'!'", I then laughed amused, "Imagine the stares!"
  I grinned.
  "I should really do that one day!"
  After some seconds he replied with a happy tone:
  "And I thought you had changed. It's really good to talk to you, you know that?"
  I could only say the same.
 
  The rest of the drive we talked. He said that he was glad to have ended up with my family, and I told him that I was too. We mostly talked about my school, my new and my previous job, how I even got there, etc. He was surprised when I had told him that I was doing this now for three years, and had of course his concerns. Then it was his turn for storytime. I found out that he heard how Simon had talked to a guy about the formula. Said guy was interested in damaging the foundation. Someone asked if that guy should not be dead, and it turned out that Simon brought him there before he'd die. I already had my thoughts on who that was.
  "I'm wondering to this day who that could have been..." McQueen exclaimed.
  "Sounds like Garthe, if I'm honest. Dislikes the foundation, will die later in the show, knows the formula... At least he stays dead."
  McQueen sounded shocked.
  "That... Sounded really sinister, Chlara, seriously. Is he that bad?"
  I sighed.
  "Look his files and reports up. Then you'll know what I mean. If I could have, I would have tried to save him, yes, even an asshole like him. But I don't want to somehow change the whole time line, so I won't do it. Believe me, he's way too dangerous to be around freely."
  He was silent for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice sounded a bit timid, which surprised me a bit.
  "Do I want to look at the files?"
  "Eh, I don't know. If you're curious, do it. I didn't get traumatized from the episodes, so I don't think you will from the files."
  "Okay, if you say so..."
  "Hey, you never were this timid before, why are you now?"
  His response came after some seconds:
  "Every bad guy that had and has to do with the foundation and hates it is a possible threat to you. And being with your dad kind of rubbed off on me," he added a bit quieter.
  I stroked the dashboard.
  "Don't worry, I'm not going to be less careful. I'm actually always careful, did you not know that?"
  His response was a scoff.
  "Wow. Thanks for the trust, I really appreciate it."
  "Hey, it's not my fault that rarely a schoolyear hasn't passed without you getting into trouble!"
  Rolling my eyes, I retorted:
  "Okay, I'm in eighth grade, haven't gotten in trouble in the Gymnasium since sixth grade, and in primary school I haven't gotten in trouble since the second grade. Only four years of me having trouble in total. So don't talk about 'rarely a school year has passed without trouble'!"
  He remained silent for a while.
  "McQueen, I do this type of things since three years in total. Believe me, I know what I can do and what I can't. Hey, you really don't need to worry," I tried to calm him down.
  "But if something happens, I will tell you that I told you so!"
  Laughing I replied:
  "And I won't deny it."
  "We should head back, don't you think?"
  "Yeah, we should. McQueen? How about we test your abilities now?"
  "Sure! With these we can even maneuver in Stuttgart with ease!"

  Joy rushed through me. Without a second thought I stepped on the gas a bit more, and decided to try the Ski-Mode. Although I had used it before, I got an adrenaline-rush. It felt great just driving through thin gaps. The Turbo-Boost was even better, it nearly felt like flying, and the faces of the other drivers were just too funny. We got onto a field which seemed to be abandoned. That was when I learned that all of his wheels could spin 360 degrees, because there were seven axes in total, two in the front and five in the back. Four of them connected the wheels in the back with the main axis, which powered the wheels. We spent the afternoon just messing around with that, it was just too strange seeing him drive with his wheels showing their backs. It turned out that you could get out of every parking spot, even if you parked so close to the others, that the bumpers nearly touched each other.

After several hours of us playing and messing around with his functions, we got back to the garage.
  "And? How was it?" Blackmill asked while walking up to me.
  I beamed at him out of joy.
  "It was horrible, can't you see my disappointment?" I retorted, smiling even harder.
  "No but in all seriousness, it was amazing! I nearly never had this much fun!"
  He smiled.
  "That's good to hear. I need you to do something."
  The sudden addition made me raise an eyebrow.
  "What do you need?"
  "I want you and McQueen to make sure that no one finds us. Look around and see if you can find files. If there are, delete them immediately. If there is any evidence, destroy it at all costs. When you are finished with that, talk to me and tell me where you have found files and or evidence. Do not fail, and make sure there is no evidence left anywhere. Alright? Good. Here is a small list of authorities that are on the case of the robberies."
  He handed me the list and turned around. After I watched him turn around I grabbed the door handle quite firmly and opened it. I may or may not have closed it really loudly too.
  "Chlara? Are you alright?"
  I grunted.

'- Foundation for Law and Government (No world change required)
- SSC/New FLAG (World change required)
 - BPD (No World change required)'

  '... Fuck... Oh well, let's get this over with...' I sighed mentally. I bent down to the pistol-compartment on the left under the steering wheel. After opening it, I took the pen that was laying there and wrote numbers next to my 'targets'. The BPD would be my first stop, the original FLAG the second, and, who would have thought, the SSC and New FLAG the third and last one.
  "Chlara? Where are we driving?"
  "... The Bakersfield Police Department. Let's go."
  The doors opened and we drove off.