A/N: story is going through rewrites until I can make the chapter into a suitable condition that my picky sense of writing approves of. Publishment of another chapter is to be expected soon but has been delayed due to Halo: Synergy and school starting back up for me.

Chapter one:

The World at Large

Rained dropped heavily from the sky, pelting the ground and anyone stuck in it ruthlessly. Unlike California, the regions of the south-eastern border of the United States were often always wet and humid during the warmer seasons, RC having once described the air as if it was made of 'hot and thick soup' when they all first set foot outside foundation's mobile unit upon arrival. The city of Houston had issued a flash flood warning for the residents of not only the areas but surrounding settlements as well, and for good reason as it had been raining moderately the entire week that the team had been stationed out here and has been slowly getting worse. It was expected for a thunderstorm to arrive soon and everyone was more than glad when Devon had informed them that they were pulling out back to California, even going as far as to celebrate in-town at a Tex-Mex restaurant that defensively claimed to be authentic in its advertising. The they had been mercilessly plagued with working non-stop to solve a difficult homicide and connected missing person case in collaboration with the Houston Police Department, being paired with a detective who was a little less than forthcoming on details of the case, often leaving Michael with headaches. That and the challenge of combating deterioration of Kitt's undercarriage inflected in the destructive environment, the humidity and rain causing the rusting despite the handful of aggressive undercoating treatments he had received ever since the loss of his molecular bonded shell to what they liked to nickname "The Juggernaut". A result of the faint traces of his molecular bonded shell trying to protect him against the foreign chemicals despite the continued rusting.

Cars were lined up bumper to bumper and Kitt couldn't help but feel a tad bit self-conscious in the massive gathering of vehicles. Not out of claustrophobia like Michael teased him of as fear was a completely foreign concept to him, but instead at the fact that they were all nearly brand new with the few exceptions of visibly 'older' vehicles from the late nineties and early two-thousands. Like the faded-blue 2004 Crown Victoria in behind him with the front bumper secured onto the body with rainbow duct-tape. At least the thought of him having aged much better than his twin, Karr, brought a sense of solace. The electric stimuli of curiosity slowly consumed the AI's CPU, driving him to connect himself with the city's traffic camera system and allow him to navigate the area freely and without being tethered as his corporeal vessel taking the shape of his partner's dated black sports car. Taken as partial property of the Foundation of Law of Government and Knight Industries upon his successful creation, for quite obvious reasons. Michael however seemed fairly satisfied to be able to have a large say in what was to be done about what to do with him but it left him personally hesitant for the lack of a better word.

After all it-...he, was Michael's car to begin with but it was the Foundation project and Knight Industries, Both lead by Wilton Knight, which ultimately resulted in his conception. It always had been a heavily distracting concept, always there to nag at him when he didn't have anything to prioritize himself with but it was something that had recently been brought to his attention by Ashlynn before he had left home, the offspring of both his partner and caretaker. And it stubbornly stuck with him given his deteriorating condition.

He could never effectively 'forget' the topic, only reason reason he could truly envy his older twin, Karr. The prototype had been seemingly undisturbed by the concept of understanding his own being and existence and instead he had focused all of his available energy on his ignorance and blind rage, first towards him and the foundation before focusing on Michael specifically after being manipulated into driving at full speed off of the beach cliffs. His freedom of troubling thoughts came at the heavy price of multiple self-destructive behaviors often given to the. Arrogance, ignorance, uncontrollable rage and the selfish desire to only improve one's self.

While logically the product of his precursors' actions were that of a poorly-programmed and stored CPU predating his own, there was no reason he couldn't think of it with an more imaginary lens like Ashlynn. A result of her hyper imagination. Kitt paused as the blood-red Ford Fusion ahead of him stopped abruptly, nearly forcing him to collide with the car's rear bumper. Disturbing Michael from his book as the action had tossed him onto the steering wheel as the paperback novel fell onto the ground and under the driver's seat as he accidentally kicked it back when regaining posture, he watched as Michael instead took it as a cue to take over driving rather than the unintentional accident that it was.

"Kitt, you have been more moody than normal-"

Kitt could feel the relieving sinsation that came with the transfer of control, no longer pressing additional stress on the chassis as the custom pistons and locks centered around the suspension and the Alpha Circuit allowing him access gradually released slowly.

"I don't get 'moody', Michael." Kitt quickly snapped

back at him, metaphorically flinching at his reaction.

No, it wasn't a flinch. It had to be a faulty impulse transmitted across his CPU.

Michael was temporarily taken aback, focusing on the driving as he had not expected the hostility in his words and likely thinking he would simply ignore it like he often did. He was never personally insulted by his partner but he rather enjoyed how the man would poke fun at his sensitive nature for a mild source of humor on occasion. Kitt liked to test how creative his partner could be when they weren't in any extreme danger or another task had been taking priority.

He could tell Michael was switching through the local radio stations as he can hear the music being quietly played throughout the interior as he focused on finding the source of the early-morning traffic, becoming satisfied when he spotted both a totaled white Silverado and blue Altima slowly being pulled out of a ditch created by a construction team to extend the highway system. Kitt quickly ditched the traffic camera before he could be noticed by Michael who could easily discover what he was up to if he were to simply turn on the small plasma screen mounted on the dash. Kitt focused on scanning every square inch of the scene as Michael looked on in shock at the pure brutality.

One of the humans involved in the crash were carefully hauled into the rear of the nearby ambulance as he analyzed the situation. Only one of the two drivers appeared to be in any critical danger, suffering with major injuries while the owner of the Nissan and her young child which had presumably been located in the rear car seat, barely escaping unscathed as only the opposite side of the car from where the child's seat was located. They got off extremely lucky compared to the owner of the Silverado as he lay in a gurney in the departing ambulance. The woman was visibly in shock over the event and holding her child who looked to be no younger than five years upon first glance while speaking with a police officer about the event.

"Holy crap." was his partner's only response, the sight taking him speechless. On the bright side of things, traffic seemed to speed up considerably after letting the emergency vehicle pass and clearing from the wreck. Things were fairly silent and quick from there on, excluding the traffic jam they had been stuck in, the journey from their hotel in the north eastern districts to downtown was only about twenty minutes. He managed to record the time that they had been stuck in the jam, totaling up to an hour and a half and causing the both of them to arrive to the foundation's mobile unit behind schedule. However the AI has no right to be upset in the matter, while they were supposed to be heading for a truck that had been specifically ordered to wait for them, an injured human being always took priority over personal tasks. Kitt shutdown his own Anamorphic Equalizer, essentially blinding himself of his surrounding but keeping his ability to 'hear' as he always did. Giving himself a artificial experience of 'closing his own eyes' as how Bonnie had explained it to him during the final series of tests on his systems when he still sat in the lab. Shortly before he was shut down and subsequently reactivated by Devon and unofficially introduced to Michael for the first time, seizing control from his then reckless driving and choosing to move around the semi truck that had been blocking them besides ramming into the rear of the trailer as he was so close to doing, as he remembered correctly.

He slowly learnt to trust the 'nut behind the wheel' as he was appropriately called on occasion as he became more aware of the sensitivity regarding his inner electronics. Although nearly hitting a truck, then falling asleep behind the wheel of a moving vehicle soon after, and leaving him vulnerable to be the victim of theft did not make the best first impression, causing him to become concerned for his own well being and greatly tempted him to contact Devon when he was alone to ask for a new partner. After what they been through involving Comtron however, he became incredibly intrigued in his partner after driving himself to be shot and still persisting to finish the mission at hand despite his injury that needed immediate attention. They would often argue, an event that would rarely happen anymore. At one point they would be at each other's throats for the lack of a better phrase fairly often just after exchanging mild insults, both of them trying to figure out what made the other tick.

Moments like this, being able to shut down for a while and not having to worry about if he would accidentally hit anything. Michael, on the other hand was a bit more confused than anything.

"Kitt, why did your scanner stop working? Is it broken?"

"No Michael, it's in perfectly working order."

"Then why isn't it on?"

Kitt paused, almost begrudgingly turning it back on to make him happy but silently refused. He liked the additional perspective on thoughts that ran across his CPU that the darkness gave him. Perhaps when a more important situation came a long he would reactivate it but for now, he wanted it off.

"Because I am confident in your driving ability. If any emergencies were to arise where we would need it I would know it immediately."

He wouldn't even have to look to know that Michael was less than pleased with his response. Just because all powerful technology being able to detect other vehicles and help provide collision was now nearly a normal feature implemented into a majority of modern vehicles, didn't make it entirely necessary. Being exposed to the luxuries of self-driving and vehicle-detection among many others has undoubtedly spoiled him with prolonged exposure of the technology which had been revolutionary at it's time of initial development.

"Kitt, what the hell is going on with you? You're normally not like this."

Kitt begrudgingly turned his scanner back on and stayed silent, genuinely unsure on how he would continue the conversation for the moment as they pulled into the truckstop where the Mobile Unit was waiting for them at the crack of dawn, Michael driving up a safe distance away from the rear as Kitt opened the doors with the appropriate relay code provided by Bonnie as a security measure initiated by Devon after the replacement of the original semi tractor, along with with print-reading door handles to only allow authorized personnel access to the inside and the code could be blocked manually from the inside console. A protocol that he isn't even able to break, an action added to his very core in the case someone were to successfully take control of him again in the future. The door to the thirteen foot cabin connected to the main tractor, both the passenger and driver doors, as well as the door leading out of the trailer were all equipped with the feature. The massive door slowly descended to the ground and revealed the interior lights had been turned on by someone else on the inside, a large street-rated sports bike took up a considerable amount of space in the front where the lounge ended and Kitt's 'bubble' began, leaving very little room between the AI and the door when fully closed. Aside from the brand name in bold black letters along the bottom, the paint was a three-toned gradient mess of a teal blue, pink, and a vibrant lime green shade with the inclusion of white points in the mix. Bonnie came out from the Mobile Unit's miniature kitchen, as if she was inspecting the source of the sudden interruption while holding a cup of hot coffee before taking a sip and setting it down on her desk close to her computer as she came in.

"RC got a new bike while I was out?" He asked her as she sat down in the seat, logging into the computer.

"Yeah, he sold his old one to a collector who was willing to take it and wanted to get one that wouldn't fall apart every time you touched it."

Michael squeezed himself between the wall and the front of the bike carefully as he didn't want to tip the large bike over, being a huge difference in size and weight than the smaller street bike that sat in the spot before it. "Speaking of falling apart, you should probably take a look at Kitt because he has been giving me a additude the entire week we were here ."

"I don't blame him, this place will start eating at his insides if we stay any longer." Bonnie turned her head in the AI's direction and Michael put out a hand to keep her long brown hair from entering the exposed drink and before carefully moving it further away from the keyboard as he stood behind the chair in front of the computer where she sat. The car didn't even acknowledge them with a swipe of the series of red fiber optics mounted onto his grill like he usually would when he was mentioned in conversation. The erie sight was almost unsettling but Bonnie only felt concern for what she liked to think of as one of her own children.

"Kitt, you alright?"

The red lights finally came to life, pacing back and forth fairly slowly before taking a second to speed up to its regular speed. "Still here, Bonnie. Although you can say I'm a bit frustrated at the moment and I would prefer to be left alone."

He sounded irritated and completely exhausted and it quickly grabbed her attention instantly, it was unexpected as he was usually always excited to meet her, RC, and Devon at the semi. Resulting in a very noticeable perky personality. Bonnie got up from her seat and squeezed between the bike and the wall to fit to him as Michael had done before to get out of the enclosed space. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not at the moment but perhaps later."

"Alright, but keep in mind that we're here for you."

Kitt's scanner paced back and forth almost playfully for a brief moment before shutting back off. Michael sat down as he looked on to see Bonnie was noticeably concerned and had to hold herself back from pressing the matter further in order to respect Kitt's request, her parental instincts often being the one driving her to take quick action when something were to involve not only the AI, but their daughter as well. The girl mentioned specifically as she was often childishly confident in her ability and even violent at moments of great aggravation such as the case that during her junior and senior years of high school where there were a handful of occasions where she had gotten into fights involving another student that she had claimed to be a constant nuisance to not only to her but others as well. The similarities between her and Bonnie were very few in number, some staff at the foundation were claiming that it was a complete mystery how they were related and only saw a shorter, female equivalent of her father on how they shared many personality traits

"Where is RC and Devon?"

Michael propped his legs onto the small coffee table as he sat into one of the leather chairs in the trailers smaller lounge section and picked up the copy of Wired magazine already sitting there and flipped through the more visually-attracting pages before setting it back down as Bonnie stopped what she was doing and looked over to him, holding her cup of coffee and took a quick sip of it before answering. "I set Devon up on a flight back to Sacramento scheduled to take off in three hours after telling him I had made arrangements for Ashlynn to pick him up yesterday and RC got here a bit late with his new bike but after realizing you were going to be stuck in the traffic he went to the diner to grab something to eat before we left."

Michael crossed his arms and an eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Does Devon know that Ashlynn is picking him up?"

"No, left him under the impression that I arranged for one of the foundation's drivers were going to pick him up, I figured it's been a long time since they've seen each other and they could use the chance to catch up." Bonnie turned on the computer's printer and stood u after setting a series of documents to print, moving over to the chair next to him as she left her coffee by the computer, Michael taking his wife's hand into his as she leaned back into her chair. Crossing her legs and pulling up the collar of her pajamas against her neck. "Devon is the closest thing she has to a real grandfather given all that's happened to the both of us and I think that going more than a year of being able to see each other because of a job is a bit unfair."

There was a momentary pause between the two of them as noticeable guilt began to unmask itself in the air, Michael standing up from his seat and heading to the wall where Devon had hung a photo of the all the staff attending the foundation's tenth annual Christmas banquet. He could be seen running along the bottom corner trying to catch up to a younger version of his then five year old daughter as she ran through the room with a sharp steak knife in hand.

"I suppose you could say the same for the both of us as well. Just not at the same scale."

Bonnie shifted in her seat uncomfortably as a clear indicator that she didn't want to go through this conversation again, one that they had gone through time and time again. Kitt turned on his engine and quickly backed out of the Semi's door, closing it behind him as he did not want to get involved.

"Michael, you know we don't have a choice. We knew what we were getting into when Ashlynn was born, April can only take over for short amounts of time and the foundation doesn't have anyone to cover for you to take an extended vacation." Bonnie's voice was calm, it always had been as she had long since accepted the reality of the foundation's demanding work as Michael had always tried to fight it, even for a small amount of time home.

"It has been an entire week, Bonnie. And she hasn't even tried to contact us even once." He turned back around to his wife.

"So?"

"It means she's used to us being gone for long amounts of time and if we all went missing I won't be surprised if she believes that we're just out here working our asses off. This isn't the military where we're stationed on the other side of the world, we should be at least able to go home for a little longer than a couple of days before being shipped out again."

The pair heard the door to the trailer's kitchen open and close before the door opening to the garage opened quickly, RC busting in through the door holding handfuls of bags containing various snacks and appearing as if an unsupervised nine-year-old was given a hundred dollars, wearing a mesh motorcycle jacket with a faded green Miami t-shirt underneath, jeans, and tennis shoes. He seemed to be concerned as to what was going on as he set down the bags onto the table.

"Saw Kitt back out of the trailer on my way back, I knew something bad had to be going on."

Bonnie choose to stand up and walk back to her computer, collecting the freshly-printed sheets from earlier and using a paperclip to temporarily bind them all together. "Nothing new, we were having 'that' talk again and Kitt is apparently not in a good enough mood to get involved this time."

RC only avoided contact with Bonnie out of embarrassment for prodding into their lives and gave a shy nod of his head before he started digging into the bags to show off what he got. There was almost everything; TV dinners that could easily be popped into the microwave, different kinds of candy, chips, trail mix, and even a whole cheesecake.

"Holy crap, how much did you buy!?"

"Better hope that the Chex Mix is all gone before Michael decides to take it."

Michael stopped and gave his partner a playfully annoyed look before moving to the back of the semi and banging on the door a small amount of times and back to the group as the door opened and the black pontiac slowly drove back in.

"Should I start driving us home?"

None of them argued, all in collective agreement in favor to begin the long-awaited and long ride home. RC clapped his hands excitedly and rushed back out the door to the semi's tractor with Michael close behind yelling at him to wait for him as he quickly searched for the supposed bag of Chex Mix and put down the groceries after realising that there was none, settling for the visible bag of Sour Cream and Onion-flavored chips before jumping out the trailer door after his friend. Michael being considerate enough to take some of the TV dinners and put them in the fridge in the semi's small kitchen as he went by, hearing the heavy door slap closed as he left. Bonnie took another sip of her cooling cup of coffee before taking a look at the food items herself and moved the remaining bag to the side of the room out of her workspace closer to the kitchen. She faced the AI that she had been left alone with, Kitt's Fiber Optic-lit scanner pacced back to forth rapidly.

"Alright Kitt. Time to tell me what's going on." Her voice now stern yet still soft and caring. Like the heavily concerned mother she was. "And no lies."

"No lies." Was the AI's affirmative voice.