The Third Time's The Charm

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Job Sign-Up: Page 20, Post Number 491

-Motor City Test Track, 10:00 A.M.-

Wearing her Azure Armor over her Steel Matron t-shirt and black skirt with bike shorts on underneath plus her white tennis shoes, the brunette had answered the call of Dr. Hanlon and Dr. Reid, who believed that they had finally fixed all the problems with the DH-40 Centaur. They wanted Victoria to take the improved DH-40 Centaur for another few laps around the test track to see if all the problems had been worked out or if they needed to go back to the drawing board for a fourth rework of the hovercycle. Victoria did not mind testing it because driving the Centaur was a lot of fun and a welcome break from fighting demons and cultists.

Victoria approached Dr. Hanlon and Dr. Reid, who had already set up their computer monitoring equipment on a wooden table and were testing it to make sure that all of it worked on this crucial day.

"Hey guys! Is the Centaur ready to go?" Victoria asked the doctors. Dr. Reid turned around with a cup of coffee in her right hand. She used her left hand to point towards the left. Victoria turned left and saw the Centaur waiting a few meters away from the open entrance to the test track. Placed in the seat was the blue helmet with the built-in headset and microphone that she had worn the previous two test drives.

"It's ready whenever you are, Miss Sheridan. Dr. Hanlon and I were just making sure that the computer monitoring equipment's working before you test the third version of the DH-40 Centaur. We believe that we've solved the issues with the cooling system and have improved its turning ability at high speeds." Dr. Reid commented. Victoria gave a thumbs-up to the blonde doctor and turned towards Dr. Hanlon, who had just finished checking all the equipment and had turned to Dr. Reid to give a status report.

"All of the equipment is working perfectly." He reported to Dr. Reid. He then turned to the Sabertooth mage.

"You may get on the Centaur when ready, Miss Sheridan." He told Victoria. The brunette nodded and walked towards the waiting hovercycle, taking the blue helmet off of the seat and putting it on. Once it was on she gently climbed into place and waited for the comms check that preceded the test drive.

"The comms check will now begin." Dr. Hanlon stated.

"Can you hear me, Miss Sheridan?" Dr. Hanlon asked. His voice came in with perfect audio quality.

"I can hear you loud and clear, Dr. Hanlon." Victoria answered in the affirmative. Next came Dr. Reid.

"Can you hear me, Miss Sheridan?" Dr. Reid asked.

"I can hear you loud and clear, Dr. Reid." Victoria replied.

"Great! Hang on a moment while I get some more coffee. I don't want to run out before the big test!" The doctor requested before taking off her headset. Dr. Hanlon sighed into the microphone and Victoria chuckled. The brunette was amused by Dr. Reid's burning need for caffeine.

"Please wait for my colleague to return before you commence the test drive, Miss Sheridan." Dr. Hanlon requested.

"Will do, Doctor. I'll wait for Dr. Reid to return." Victoria replied. She calmly sat on the Centaur and waited for Dr. Reid to return with a fresh cup of coffee. Victoria had all day, so she was in no big hurry to begin the test drive.

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-The Test Track, twenty minutes later-

Victoria sat on the idle Centaur while waiting for Dr. Reid to return with her cup of coffee while Dr. Hanlon tapped his right foot against the floor. The brunette understood the need for the blonde scientist to get her caffeine fix, but this was getting to be ridiculous. It should not take twenty minutes to get a simple cup of coffee.

"Where is Dr. Reid?" Dr. Hanlon asked himself over the headset.

"I'd like to know the same thing." Victoria chimed in. She had been sitting in the seat for so long that her butt was starting to hurt. She had just started to get off of the Centaur to stretch her legs when the missing doctor zoomed in at a brisk walk with a cup of coffee in her right hand.

"Sorry for being so late, guys! Nature called and... well, you know." She explained her absence. Upon hearing that very good reason to be a bit late, both Dr. Hanlon and Victoria did not press the issue and let it go at that. They were just glad that Dr. Reid was back so that the test could proceed.

"It is no problem, Doctor. Are we ready to begin the Centaur test drive?" Dr. Hanlon said to his collaborator before asking if everyone was ready.

"Now that I have coffee, I'm ready." Dr. Reid happily announced in between sips of coffee.

"I'm ready." Victoria said over the headset. Her butt was so sore right now that she was tempted to hop off the cycle and stretch before the test, but Dr. Hanlon was looking right at her. The brunette remained where she was and prepared to throttle up to get the Centaur onto the test track.

"When you are ready to begin the test, I would like you to run one full lap at 50 MPH." Dr. Hanlon instructed.

"Understood. Beginning the test now." Victoria replied, gently increasing throttle until she was moving onto the track at 5 MPH.

-On the test track-

Once she was in the center of the track Victoria gradually increased speed until she was at the desired speed of 50 MPH and went into the first turn. The acceleration of the Centaur was fairly good, but the real attraction was its winning combination of speed and handling. It zoomed into the first turn and handled it with ease, turning at speed without any issues whatsoever.

Victoria did the same for the second turn and looked down at the instrument panel when she was in the straightaway leading to the third turn. The temperature was well within safe operating parameters and all the other lights were green. Confident that she was not about to have her thighs burned, Victoria took the third turn with ease and did the same for the fourth turn without any trouble. She passed the entrance to the test track and listened for instructions as she passed by the two doctors, who were manning the monitoring equipment and watching for any trouble with the Centaur.

"The first lap went well. We detected no heating issues or control issues." Dr. Reid spoke to the brunette.

"Now that the first lap is complete, I would like for you to increase speed to 75 MPH and do a full lap at that speed." Dr. Hanlon requested.

"Increasing speed to 75 MPH and entering the first turn." Victoria reported as she increased speed to 75 MPH and made the first turn at speed without having to slow down to navigate it. Victoria approached the second turn and handled it without breaking a sweat. Now that she was in the straightaway she took another glance at the instrument panel. The needle on the temperature gauge had not moved and everything was functioning normally. So far, so good.

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Victoria went into the third turn while carefully maintaining 75 MPH and made it through with ease. Seconds later she went into the fourth turn and breezed through it thanks to the Centaur maintaining its superb handling at high speed. It seemed that Dr. Hanlon and Dr. Reid had managed to fix the issue of the Centaur losing a bit of handling at 75 MPH, but that was a minor issue compared to the loss of handling at 100 MPH and above. However, as Dr. Reid had stated when the issue was first raised a few weeks ago, it was an issue of physics rather than a design flaw in the Centaur. Victoria was not educated enough in science or physics to argue with the doctor, so the Sabertooth mage decided to trust the expert opinion of the doctors, who had been rigorously trained in the subject.

Besides, Victoria had a feeling that Dr. Hanlon would not cut corners on the project he had pinned his hopes of regaining acceptance by the scientific community on. He would do his best to make sure that everything worked properly. He would also take any input from the test driver seriously, which was why the brunette had agreed to continue testing the Centaur despite the risks of testing a new piece of technology.

Victoria passed by the track entrance and glanced at the temperature gauge. It was still within safe operating temperatures and everything else appeared to be working as intended. She looked forward and heard new instructions from Dr. Hanlon.

"Now, we would like you to increase speed up to 100 MPH. According to your input from the last test drive, that was where the DH-40 Centaur lost a good deal of turning ability. That was also the speed where you experienced minor overheating issues." Dr. Hanlon instructed, reminding Victoria of the input she had given a few weeks ago.

"Understood. Going to 100 MPH." Victoria replied, slowly increasing speed until she reached the target speed. She entered the first turn at 100 MPH and gently turned the hoverbike left. Again the handling was a bit sluggish, but it was somewhat faster than the last time she had tried to make a turn at 100 MPH. At any rate, the improvement in turning was enough that the Sabertooth mage comfortably navigated the turn. Soon after emerging from the first turn she navigated the second turn without too much trouble.

Now that she was back in the straightaway she glanced down at the temperature gauge and saw that it had not even moved, suggesting that the overheating problem had been fixed once and for all. Victoria was glad the problem had been resolved because now she was spared from the pain of burning her thighs and calves on the Centaur whenever it ran hot. Looking back towards the track, she went into the third turn and safely passed through it. The fourth turn was only seconds away, but Victoria was confident that she could navigate this turn with the same ease with which she had passed through the others.

She went into it and turned, comfortably navigating it without having to slow down in the slightest. Once out of the turn she straightened out and zipped by the track entrance so fast that Dr. Hanlon and Dr. Reid were white blurs with black and blonde tops respectively. Victoria focused on staying straight and she soon heard from the doctors.

"There were no problems with overheating and only minor turning issues. The Tundra Cooling System we installed seemed to resolve the overheating that the test driver alerted us to when the Centaur traveled at 100 MPH and above." Dr. Reid chimed in before launching into a monologue laden with technical jargon about something technical that involved acceleration or something. Victoria managed to pick out something about a new feature that would be exclusive to the prototype the brunette was currently driving.

"Ah yes. My colleague Dr. Reid is talking about the viability of a special feature that is exclusive to the prototype Centaur because it is impractical for inclusion into the mass-produced Centaur. Dr. Reid has named the feature the Rapid Acceleration Boost." Dr. Hanlon clued in Victoria as to what the blonde doctor was referring to. Victoria blinked as she approached the first turn.

"Rapid Acceleration Boost? I hate to sound dumb, but what does that do?" Victoria asked as she zipped through the first turn. Since she had not been given any new instructions, she would maintain speed at 100 MPH unless told to do otherwise. Meanwhile she zipped through the second turn and waited for an explanation of what the Rapid Acceleration Boost did. The name was likely self-explanatory, but considering that Dr. Reid had named the feature and considering that she was fond of using technical jargon, there was probably a lot of technical jargon that had to be condensed into a simple name.

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"The Rapid Acceleration Boost does exactly what it says it will do." Dr. Reid gave a simple and vague explanation that was much more concise than the explanations that the brunette was used to receiving from her. There was a tone of "I can't believe that we've entrusted this piece of technology to an idiot" in her voice, but the brunette chose to overlook it. Since the name really was that obvious, she was going to chalk the snide tone up to being a one-off mishap and give Dr. Reid another chance.

"Really? Well, that was... simple." The brunette said in embarrassment as she passed through the third turn. Her face was beet-red, which made the helmet worth its weight in gold since neither doctor could see how embarrassed she was thanks to the dark visor. Dr. Reid began another jargon-laden speech when Dr. Hanlon cut her off.

"You see, the Rapid Acceleration Boost works by supplying a lot of power to the engine in a short time, kind of like revving the engine of a car." Dr. Hanlon gave an explanation that the brunette could easily understand in a tone that did not carry a trace of disdain like Dr. Reid's had.

"OK, now it makes sense." Victoria chimed in, passing through the fourth turn. The brunette thought she heard Dr. Reid mutter something about needing more coffee before taking another jab at the brunette's intelligence by saying that "a crash dummy had more brains than her." That was Strike Two. The brunette kept quiet, but another snide remark like that and Dr. Reid would probably need a medical doctor after Victoria was finished educating her on how to behave like a decent human being instead of like a pompous academic who held her nose at having to work with someone who was not college-educated.

"To best test the Rapid Acceleration Boost, I suggest that you decrease speed to 50 MPH." Dr. Hanlon suggested. Victoria wordlessly decreased speed until she reached the target speed, then maintained it through the first and second turns. She came into the first straightaway and asked the question.

"How do I activate it?" Victoria asked.

"Just twist the handles forward as hard as you can. Be ready for a lot of kick, though. The Rapid Acceleration Boost lives up to its name." Dr. Hanlon cautioned her. Victoria twisted the handles forward and felt the Centaur raise up on the back end like a motorcycle doing a wheelie. The brunette yelped as the speed doubled and the heat gauge rocketed up, changing the numerals from green to yellow.

"Remain calm, Miss Sheridan! Maintain control of the Centaur!" Dr. Hanlon urged her. Victoria took an audible breath and focused on keeping control through the third turn. It was something of a tight squeeze, but Victoria kept control of the vehicle and made it through the third turn despite the huge loss of turning ability. She coaxed the Centaur through the fourth turn and got back onto the straightaway, where the Centaur set down with a gentle bump. The speed suddenly decreased to 50 MPH and the temperature gauge decreased to a safe operating level.

"That was intense." Victoria commented on the Rapid Acceleration Boost.

"Now you can see why we chose to limit the feature to the prototype. If we included it in the mass-produced version inexperienced and reckless drivers would use it to get into a lot of trouble." Dr. Hanlon explained the reasoning behind the decision. Putting the Rapid Acceleration Boost into the mass-produced model would get a lot of purchases from drivers obsessed with speed, but it would get them into trouble by causing them to slam into buildings, cars, and other people when they lost control during the Boost. She was glad to see that Dr. Hanlon had a strong sense of ethics that he would not compromise for easy cash. Dr. Reid probably had strong ethics too... underneath the coffee addiction and sarcastic jabs she had taken at Victoria's intelligence.

"That's a good idea, Doctor." Victoria readily agreed with his reasoning. The brunette could not argue with that simple logic. She had been informed of the feature and still found the Centaur hard to control during the Boost. It did not take much imagination to see what bad things would happen should inexperienced and reckless drivers engage the Boost.

"Now, if you would kindly bring the Centaur in, we will take it to my garage and I will show you the other feature that will be exclusive to the prototype." Dr. Hanlon requested. Victoria blinked. There was another special feature on this thing? Victoria could not wait to see what it was.

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-Dr. Hanlon's garage, thirty minutes later-

The trio had arrived back at Dr. Hanlon's garage and were now about to test the second special feature that would not be included on the mass-produced Centaur. The Centaur was positioned so that it was sitting in front of a specially reinforced target dummy. Dr. Hanlon walked just to the left of the vehicle and pointed towards the Centaur.

"When you are ready, get onto the Centaur and we will test the next feature." Dr. Hanlon instructed Victoria. The brunette obliged and get into the driver's seat for a second time. Her hands went to the handlebars by default and Dr. Hanlon instructed her from there.

"Now, look for a button below the display panel." Dr. Hanlon told her. Victoria looked down below the panel and found a circular red button about the size of a quarter in the center.

"OK." Victoria replied after having found it.

"Press it." Came the next direction. Victoria took her right hand off the handle and pressed it. The green top on the front of the Centaur flipped up and a targeting display popped up to obscure the display panel. It was a holographic display that had a glowing green crosshair and basic targeting data like distance to target, the speed of the vehicle, and other information the driver would need to know before trying to shoot a target positioned in the upper right corner. In the upper left corner of the display was vehicle information like speed, engine temperature, and so on so that the driver did not sacrifice knowledge of their vehicle's condition to use the weapon.

"Wow." Victoria said in amazement as she looked at the display. In the green crosshairs was the specially reinforced target dummy.

"How do I fire the weapon?" Victoria asked.

"Simple. Squeeze the trigger on the right handlebar." Dr. Reid said in a calm voice bereft of sarcasm. Victoria took a moment to locate it and found the trigger on the right side in the form of a red trigger built into the handlebar that apparently popped up only when the weapon was engaged. That was another good idea from Dr. Hanlon and Dr. Reid.

"Firing now." Victoria said. She squeezed the trigger and a white bolt of energy fired from the weapon. It hit the target dummy squarely in the chest and blew a fist-sized hole in it. Victoria was quite impressed by the strength of the weapon.

"Now you see why we could not test that feature in public." Dr. Hanlon commented.

"Yeah." Victoria replied with a light smile that she quickly wiped off of her face. She should probably not be smiling about testing a weapon, but the Centaur prototype was so cool. A high-performance vehicle that could carry her plus one or two passengers and fire a weapon? That was something to be excited about.

"You can fire the gun while stationary or on the move. The targeting computer compensates for speed and direction so that you need not worry about speed and direction throwing off the shot... when you are driving straight towards a target, that is. We could not quite work out how to get the gun to move left or right." Dr. Hanlon informed her. Victoria struggled to keep the smile off of her face. Even if it could only fire straight ahead, having a weapon was still pretty cool. It was also handy for when she needed to make a quick escape from trouble and some dimwit jumped in her way. One or two shots and the idiot would either be dead or jump right back out of her way.

"That's a handy feature to have." Victoria calmly remarked. Dr. Reid sipped coffee while observing Victoria and Dr. Hanlon discuss the Centaur's weapon. Part of her seemed to have regretted arming the hovercycle to begin with, but she could rest assured that drivers of the mass-produced Centaur would not be driving around with armed vehicles.

"Yes. That is why it is only going to be featured on the prototype. You know best when to use it and when not to. Other people are not so... wise." Dr. Hanlon remarked. Victoria kept a straight face. She was definitely not the smartest mage to walk Earthland, but she had learned a few things during her career that made her smarter than she sounded. One of those things was discretion. She had magical power that could give the Wizard Saints a run for their money and an arsenal that was varied enough to tackle a wide variety of situations, but she had learned when to use them and when not to.

"Indeed. The prototype Centaur is just that... a prototype. The mass-produced version will feature neither the Rapid Acceleration Boost nor the gun because those features are just too dangerous for the common person to have." Dr. Reid chimed in. Victoria could agree with that. Giving people a high-performance vehicle with a gun would just be a repeat of the military-grade bot rebellion that had happened a little over a year ago, only with a lot more property damage and a high likelihood of lives being lost. This time Dr. Hanlon and Dr. Reid would suffer if the fiasco took place.

"Which is why we are entrusting the prototype to you, Miss Sheridan." Dr. Hanlon said to Victoria. The brunette's jaw dropped. Did he just say what she thought he did?

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"Why me?" Victoria asked Dr. Hanlon.

"You have a need for the Centaur. You also have the power necessary to protect it from thieves. Dr. Reid and I are scientists, not fighters. Our security measures can only do so much." Dr. Hanlon explained why the DH-40 Centaur had been entrusted to her.

"Do you have all the data you need to make the mass-produced version? Don't you need the prototype for a backup in case someone steals your blueprints?" Victoria asked him.

"We've encrypted our computer systems with military-grade systems to make sure the blueprints aren't easily stolen. Today's test drive provided all the information we needed to update the blueprints for the mass-produced version. We also don't need the physical prototype since we kept the older models to work with. It wasn't cheap to make the third model with all the improvements, but we have two earlier prototypes to fall back on." Dr. Reid explained. Victoria was sure that that method was expensive, but at least they had something to work with in case the blueprints got stolen. She started to feel a little less guilty, but she was still concerned about being given the prototype Centaur for a personal vehicle.

"We will modify it with security measures so that not just anyone can hop on and drive off with your new vehicle." Dr. Hanlon assured her. Victoria was speechless. This was the first time that anyone had ever done anything like this for her.

"Thank. Thank you." Victoria finally managed to make a reply after struggling for words.

"And whenever there's a big upgrade for any of the systems, come back and Dr. Hanlon and I will upgrade it for you! For a fee of course. But we'll do it at a discount as thanks for your hard work!" Dr. Reid said with a smile.

"Of course." Victoria answered calmly, struggling to contain her excitement. She was not sure how the two could update a prototype with new systems while keeping all the functionality, but if anyone could do it, they could. They had designed and built it, after all.

Victoria hopped off of the Centaur and stood off to the side while the two doctors grabbed some tools and went to work. She could not believe that this was happening. She just could not wrap her mind around it.

This was going to be so cool.

Soon the brunette would have her own armed high-performance hovercycle that had special features that no one else was ever going to get.

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