Chapter four

This is war

It was near the four-day mark after Katherine's disappearance, the techs and AIs still couldn't get a proper location as to where had they taken her and the lack of sleep combined with the constant stress had managed to keep most people far from the best of moods. Both AIs where using all their resourced to try and get a proper location or at least something that would narrow the search area further and lead them to where she was; they knew KARR was behind all this and they knew the people he was working with as well thanks to KIRA and Kate's discovery during their last mission but they had already sent a team back to where they had first met and there was no one there, they hadn't even left a clue as to where they could've possibly gone to, leaving the group with no more clues to follow.

Noah and Sydney had finally come up with a new Nano-skin coating for the AIs using and alloy of Magnesium and Beryllium, both very strong and light metals, none of them where as strong as the Tungsten KARR had, at least not alone but combined they created a very strong alloy and because both metals where relatively light they didn't add much weight which meant they didn't need to sacrifice power for strength.

It had taken them half a day almost to spray both AIs and the effect of the new coating besides the added strength was a very metallic look, not like the normal almost imperceptible sparkly look, but a very noticeable shine that reflected a subtle silver-blue-ish color with the light.

Another team leaded by Ryder had installed new lighter and more powerful weapons on the Mustangs of which amongst them also remained some upgraded mechanical functions such as a new spear hook similar to the one KARR had, the only difference was that this one could release an electric charge on command.

They also had a new passive shield over the protective Nano-skin with the Magnesium-Beryllium cover that allowed them to activate an electric cover, which practically was an electricity layer that could protect the entire car without damaging it, the thing with this was that the systems that controlled it where located just behind the back bumper, which made it highly susceptible to being deactivated with a well-placed hit.

Another of the upgrades was a new stronger EMP that had a larger range, normally it would be risky to install something like that when KITT and KIRA remained in range of each other's EMPs but because it was set to a specific frequency both Mustangs where immune to each other's blast; Connor had made a stronger firewall software and internal defense software to avoid any chances of being hacked, just in case, if someone wanted to hack any of these computers they would need to work their heads off to even break the first half of the new encryption codes...all in all they were ready to face whatever came in their way, the only thing they were missing was finding the missing driver…

Katherine had been stuck to her room for the last few days, with the light of the day she could finally see what was outside of the hangar but the small size of her opening didn't let her see much; some mountains in the distance and a grassy hill with some trees close by. Where in the world was she? One thing was for sure, she knew that her family and friends back at base where more than likely trying to get to her in some way and she needed to find a way to send them a message or signal to make their work easier and her rescue quicker.

Half hopping from the window back to the small bed she laid facing the roof, feeling something on her pants' back pocket, sitting back up she reached inside only to pull out her phone…her phone! Why hadn't they take it away from her before now? More importantly how had she not noticed it was there before?!

Her dark blue case was broken so she ended up removing it completely, the screen was cracked and it was dented on the back, most likely from the crash, leaving the on button pressed down for a few seconds she stared at the dark screen for what felt like an eternity until a white logo appeared on the otherwise dark screen 'YES!' the screen flickered and then went off, causing her to throw several profanities low enough to escape any possible passerby's ears. She pressed down the button again and the screen turned on, it stayed on the same screen for a few seconds before asking for her passcode and shutting down once more.

Being careful enough to avoid being spotted by the passing guards she carefully cracked open the already broken back of the device and exposed the tiny cables and circuitry, one of the smaller chips had been cracked and another one was loose which meant that she either found a way to fix it or she would have to find another way of sending a signal. Hopping over to her jacket she was lucky enough to find a pin in one of her pockets, that helped her set the loose chip back in its proper place but she still needed to find a way to fix the one that was cracked; almost as if in response to her thinking of a solution she remembered the earpiece that she used to normally communicate with KIRA, getting the tiny device out of her ear she carefully cracked it and extracted two of the chips that had a similar function to the one she needed to replace.

The replacement chips were about half the size of the one she needed to replace but by using part of the cables on the earpiece she managed to interconnect them to hopefully boost them enough to work as a proper replacement. Settling her new contraption in place she turned on the phone again and waited for it to power up properly, once again it turned and asked for her passcode which she was able to input without the phone dying.

Through the broken screen she navigated through her phone until she got to what she was looking for, crossing her fingers she typed the number she had known by heart for the last eight years; a few rings went by until an all too familiar voice came from the other end…

"Katherine?"

"KIRA!"

upon hearing her driver's voice the AI kicked into overdrive, internally telling KITT to inform the others "Katherine where are you? are you all right?"

"I-I don't know where I am, I was knocked out all the way here and I can't tell much from what I've been able to see. I've got a few cuts and bruises on my arm from the crash and…I think I broke my leg as well…"

The black and blue Mustang's core dropped, broken leg? Their rescue attempt had just gotten a whole lot harder… "Kate no matter what happens keep this line open, we're working on tracking your signal"

"I don't know how much longer I ca keep it, just barely managed to fix my phone enough to make a call"

"Do you have any idea who kidnaped you?"

"No…but the guy leading the group that wanted you guys' information is here, I can only guess KARR might be around as well"

"We figured that much, KITT found his tracks on the crash site"

"KIRA…I'm scared…I need you"

"Don't worry Katherine, we're getting you out of there…I promise"

suddenly the call was filled with static and KIRA could just barely make out her driver's voice "Kate? Katherine!" this lasted for a few seconds before they lost the line completely "I've lost her signal"

"Already working on it" Matt scrambled to his computer as everyone else on the room quickened the pace to get the final touches on the AIs' upgrades, their time had ran out now…

Since she lost her signal KIRA's processor was all over the place, her already worried thoughts about her driver had just skyrocketed after she told her about her injuries but the thing that really did it was the way he talked to her; she had never heard her driver this way before, it was like she was almost pleading her to go for her after she admitted that she was scared…it was all jus so unlike her normal self.

About five minutes had gone by since the signal was lost and KITT noticed the other AI's internal turmoil through their link but honestly at this stage he couldn't blame her, this was her driver and she was still unexperienced with this type of situation unlike himself; not that he wasn't worried about his driver's daughter but he had managed to bring down his emotions in these scenarios to a point in which it allowed him to see things more objectively. Partly lost in his own attempts at pinpointing the signal he nearly missed a new message just barely stuck on his firewall, a very poorly encrypted message to be precise.

Within seconds he broke the encryption and was met with coordinates for latitude and longitude that once mapped he noticed were within the area they had isolated to trace the call. He was unable to identify the sender so he was debating whether to trust it or not so instead he started to trace the message to its origin point; in doing that he was soon met by a much heavier encryption, one even himself would have trouble breaking down…only one other thing besides him and KIRA could have such a complex encryption level…

The scattered pieces of electronics around the bent and twisted case were all that was left after Katherine lost her connection to KIRA and threw her already broken phone against the far wall of the room in frustration, she didn't care if anyone outside had heard the ruckus it caused or not and she hoped that as short as the call had been that it had given KIRA enough information to know where she was. She sat down on the bed with her back against the wall, folding her good leg towards her chest and leaving her injured leg stretched out she crossed her arms and looked out the window on the other side of the room, the sun was high up so she guessed it was somewhere around midday. 'please hurry KIRA…'

"Michael"

the ex-army ranger turned from the computer he and Sarah were working on and turned to the midnight black Mustang behind him "Got anything KITT?"

"I received an encoded message containing coordinates that are within the area we had isolated from the call"

"Message? From who"

"I could not find the direct sender, I did however track it to its origin point and was stopped by a heavy encryption"

"What kind of heavy encryption?"

"One not much unlike my own"

"…KARR"

Sarah then turned to look at Mike, glancing at the AI as she spoke "It's a trap…"

"Of course it's a trap, but what choice do we have?"

"You can't seriously be thinking about going out there and doing what they say"

"It's our daughter out there Sarah!"

"I know!" she took a deep breath "but we have to think of something, it's too dangerous"

"We don't have a choice, I'm going to get ready to leave while the last touches on the cars are done" turning around Mike walked off into one of the hallways, Matt running after him seconds later.

After about an hour both AIs were shooting out through the mountain road in attack mode, heading for the given location, Mike sat with KITT up front while KIRA drove behind them, Matt sitting on the passenger's seat. It was a five and a half hour drive to the location for the two Mustangs, they knew KARR was going to be there and that the two would be too occupied with him to be able to search for Katherine so instead they would drop off their human charges at the edge of the place's perimeter and go in themselves while they found another way in to try and sneak Katherine out while they work as a diversion, after all, who doesn't want to see the three most advanced AIs in the world in a deadly demolition derby right?

About ten minutes away from their destination the two cars stopped and Mike and Matthew climbed out rather reluctantly, they discussed their plan and the cars took off, leaving them behind to walk the rest of the way up the hill to the warehouse.

The two black Mustangs stopped at the edge of the large double doors, waiting for them to open and reveal what laid inside, it took about a minute but when they did open they were met with a wide open area with another set of smaller double doors at the end, in front of them stood the matte black Mustang that was KARR, his amber scanner tracking quickly in anticipation.

KITT and KIRA drove inside, stopping when the doors behind them started to close, sealing the three AIs in an enclosed space with no way out. KITT tried scanning the area but he couldn't see or detect anything out of the room they were in, guards with high powered guns lined the overlook over the secondary doors at the back above KARR and a one-way glass panel remained on the wall above that.

"Stay close KIRA, we're outnumbered and we don't know what their plan is. Were you able to get anything out of your scans?"

"No, something is blocking them"

from the sides rushed out several more men carrying similar guns to the ones on the overlook, as they took their place at the back. KARR moved forwards into the light, displaying his newly acquired attack mode which gave him a rear win not much unlike KITT's along with double air intakes on his sides and a look similar to a widebody; he approached them then, stopping when he was just about three car lengths away from the other two Mustangs.

KARR looked at the black and blue Mustang, the electric blue stripes on her sides almost glowing under the white light "I was hoping you'd come alone KITT, it would have made things easier on the both of us"

"You took her driver, she had every right to come"

"Was it her driver? I thought she was the other AI's driver, considering she was driving a regular car when we got her instead of one of you two; what was her name again? KIFT?"

KARR was clearly teasing KITT, he could see his ploy had worked on the slight change of the speed his twin's scanner was tracking at as well as the subtle deepening of the engine's sound, the younger AI had a similar change.

KITT had to restrain himself from ramming KARR square in the nose for that one, he was playing a dangerous game and he would make sure to let him know, he detected the change on KIRA's demeanor as well and he had to quickly calm her down through their link before she launched straight for him.

KARR then continued, ever so slightly inching closer towards them "I'm sure you remember right KITT? The smoke in the air, the sound of a dying engine-"

Okay, that. Was. it! in a flash KITT shot forwards and rammed KARR up front just as bullets rained from above, he paid them no mind as he pushed his twin back, amber and ruby scanners tracking in a rush.

Katherine was laying on the bed looking blankly at the ceiling, thinking about any other possible way to either get out or communicate with her friends, partly she wished she hadn't thrown her phone against a wall earlier. She heard the main door close but she was already used to hearing it lately and she paid it no mind.

For some more minutes everything was silent until a loud crash, followed by gun shots, broke the silence; Struggling against her injuries she limped towards the window and struggled to see what was over to the side, with her face against the glass she was barely able to make out what looked like KITT pushing KARR's side and KIRA knocking over boxes and small structures to knock out the men firing at them. looking closely she could tell that there was no one inside KITT or KIRA so they had either come alone or there was more to their plan that she could tell. She really needed to take this distraction to her advantage and find a way to escape, with or without help.

The warehouse was complete chaos wooden boxes laid turned over or in pieces all over the place as some men were knocked out on the floor, the few that remained both n the overlook and down where scrambling back into the building for cover from any stray bullets that could come from the AIs as things really started to heat up between them.

Even with the modifications and upgrades received it was hard for KITT and KIRA to keep up with KARR, their new defenses where really blocking out KARR's impacts and deflecting his bullets. KIRA had managed to scare off the few remaining men shooting at them and was now helping KITT with the rogue AI, who was still in his vehicle mode.

KARR's patience was running short now, he couldn't believe he was having this much trouble with his brother even though he had been receiving continuous updates for his software and body, yet here he was being pushed back by him; in an outburst he pulled away from him and turned around to shoot his spear hook, managing to pierce KITT 's kick plate and getting a hold of his rear axle. KITT kept accelerating as KARR reversed and made the cable stretch as far as it could go, KIRA noticed and she aimed her laser at it. Snapping it and letting KITT free, He spun out of balance for a few seconds and ended up facing KARR as the younger AI drove over by his side and revved her engine in challenge.

"KITT are you all right?"

"I'm fine, how are you holding up?"

"shields are still over sixty percent, how about you?"

"primary shields are down to forty percent of their capacity now, we're going to have to start pushing on him soon If we want to get the upper hand" about four car lengths away KARR revved his engine in challenge, the sound resonating on the cavernous space "We wait for him to make the next move, when he is close enough I want you to activate your electric shields"

Overlooking the unfolding scene, a group of techs alongside the man that had greeted Katherine earlier as well as the one she faced on the south stood watching through the reinforced glass, watching the cars' every move; the latter spoke first "What are they waiting for?"

"They are waiting for KARR to make the next move" he turned to look at him "This rivalry has been going on for years and it goes deeper than you could ever imagine, he's been waiting for years to have his revenge at the expense of a few failed attempts…too bad he's never going to get it"

"Do we activate to pulse now then?"

"No…let them fight"

"We are wasting time here, you think their people back at base aren't planning something?"

"I'm counting on it, let them fight, I want to see what these other two have under their sleeve first…give them another ten minutes, then activate the pulse. Ready the tows and get your techs down to the holding bay and get it ready to receive our new guests"

The man left with the larger bunch of the techs, leaving the suited man alone as he looked down at the three Mustangs "I've waited for this for way too long…they laughed and called me crazy but after tonight I'll be the one laughing…I'll be the one on top…"

The three cars stood without moving for what seemed like an eternity until KARR practically jumped forwards as his tires fought for traction to gain sped at impossible rates. KITT and KIRA mimicked his actions and turned on their electric shields; a blue hue engulfed them in heat as white bolts and strings of electricity ran through their sides, crackling around them and occasionally running through the ground.

the AIs sped towards each other with no signs of turning away up until just before clashing KARR jumped over them as he unfolded into his robot self and turned around to face them as he brought one of his claws down to swipe at them. Upon hitting them there was a shower of sparks and KARR took a step back after the shock from their electric shields, he regained himself afterwards and stared at them as they regained themselves from his own blow.

KITT and KIRA skidded to a halt after KARR's hit, turning around to be once again face to face with him. One of his claw-like hands transformed into a laser gun and aimed at them along with the guns mounted on his shoulders and the rockets on his sides, KITT reached for his internal link with the black and blue Mustang as he thought of a strategy to help them.

"We need to try and deactivate his guns, I can draw fire to myself while you go around behind him and use your EMP to try and at least weaken him enough to make a move"

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

"No, not completely anyway but it's a chance we have to take. Hopefully Michael and Matt managed to get close to Katherine by now. Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be"

KARR started shooting the two Mustangs then only provoking KITT to fire his own weapons in response, shattering missiles in midair and deflecting some of the bullets. KIRA moved around the fire and drifted off around KARR releasing her EMP just as KARR fired one of his last missiles as his weapons were disabled, the last missile flew through the smoke avoiding being seen by KITT and successfully hitting him, sending him skidding around for a few meters KARR turned around to face KIRA.

Stunned by the strong hit KITT quickly performed a self-diagnostic only to find out that his electric shield had been disabled 'great…' only when the smoke started to clear out did he noticed that KARR had a hold of KIRA with one of his hands, panic overcame him as he finally decided to use his newly upgraded attack mode as he charged towards KARR, quickly gaining speed before turbo boosting into him and knocking him down to the ground to effectively release KIRA.

KITT landed on top of KARR as he fell to the floor and before he could angle himself to jump off he felt KARR's claw fall on his roof just before he lost contact with the ground.

KARR half stood up as he threw KITT to the other side of the room where he hit the wall with his side before sliding down and falling back onto all his four wheels. The robot once again folded back onto his vehicle form and charged at him only to be stopped by a considerably strong hit on his side. Before he could do anything to regain himself he slowly felt his systems fading away before being completely shut down.

Seeing KARR's scanner flicker and die mid spin KITT and KIRA looked at each other just as they too starter to get warning signals of failing systems, their engines were the first to die off followed closely by all other primary and secondary systems until all they had access to were their sensory systems, whatever EMP they had used on them had failed to shut them down completely but it had done just enough to render them helpless against whoever remained inside the building.

Matt had stayed behind while Mike took the lead, they had managed to sneak into the building through an unsecured back door and following the sounds they ended up on a side room from which they were able to see the carnage going on in the main open space of the warehouse where the tree AIs were fighting. Matt remained frozen to the window as he saw KITT throw himself at KARR to free KIRA from his grasp, quickly KARR held KITT by the roof and threw him across the room where after tumbling he crashed against the wall on his side.

KARR folded back down and started to speed towards KITT but the younger AI rammed him on his side before he could reach him, sending him spinning to the side where he noticed that even after stopping the oldest of the AIs remained unmoving, KITT and KIRA were standing still as well and he wondered for a second what had happened before from somewhere out of view came three large trucks accompanied by a team of what looked like techs who, when reaching the AIs, set themselves to hooking them up to them. He had called Mike by then and the two were looking at the three Mustangs being dragged out of sight, the two had one thing in mind that bothered them after witnessing that and it was the fact that they had also taken KARR with them so either he was getting fixed or there was something sketchy going on.

They needed to find Katherine and get to their AIs, and fast.

KIRA internally glanced at KITT when she felt herself moving, she could tell he was as uneasy as she was by what was happening.

Getting closer to her link with him she finally asked "What happened?"

"I don't know KIRA…they released some sort of EMP attempting to shut us down but thanks to our last upgrades and adjustments it didn't manage to shut us out completely like it did to KARR"

"What do we do now?

"We really can't do much, but I believe the don't know that we are not completely shut down and it would be better if it remained that way for as long as we can. Remain alert for anything, when your systems come back keep them down and make sure your scanner's off, we will still be able to hear and see what they are doing even then"

"What are they going to do with us?"

"I do not know…tell me when you have your systems back"

"Are we going to fight back?"

"Not unless it's completely necessary. We have to keep a low profile if we want to give Mike and Matthew a bigger window to rescue Katherine, we can keep their attention here"

The three tows worked quickly, the secondary double doors opened the three Mustangs were dragged inside. She wouldn't admit it really, but KIRA couldn't help the feeling of fear that had settled in the back of her processor, she never liked strangers going over her systems and equipment yet here she was being dragged somewhere she couldn't see.

After a few minutes the tows stopped and the AIs were released from them, KITT and KIRA felt their restrains being removed and cursed their inability to reactivate their engine just yet; KARR was already set on a platform connected to three separate computers, one next to his front left fender and two others on either side of his back fenders. KITT and KIRA were settled on the two other identical platforms next to him and secured using a magnetic mechanism that was not too much unlike the ones they had back at base.

"KIRA?" The AI in question turned to her link "I have my systems back now, do you?"

the black and blue Mustang reached into her core for the 'switch' and sure enough her dimly lit surroundings lit up in white lights as she regained control of herself. Immediately accessing her exterior cameras, she saw herself between KITT and KARR on a platform, techs were walking about with computers and tools amongst other things.

The two AIs' attention suddenly shifted to the car on the far left as KARR came back online with a growl, obviously not very happy about his present situation. His scanner was tracking back and forth at a fast pace as he struggled to break free, only managing to spin his wheels uselessly on the floor's sleek surface.

From the door on the far right of the room came in a suited man, followed by two guards as the room fell into silence except for KARR's idle engine; techs walked over to the presumably off-lined AIs so realizing their cover would most likely be blown by now they turned on their scanners, letting them track slowly to betray their internal conflict.

The suited man saw this and looked over at the techs, just as he was going to speak however another growl from KARR caused all eyes to fall on him.

"You betrayed me!"

"I did what had to be done"

"We had a deal"

"well then I'm afraid to tell you that our deal just expired" he turned and walked to the station in front of KARR

"You just used me!"

"And it took you this long to realize? I thought you were supposed to be one of the greatest AIs out there" he glanced at the other two cars "Guess you are, after all, inferior to these two"

KARR's engine growled louder "This was now what we had agreed on!"

"You really thought I was helping you? No KARR, YOU were helping ME"

"You wanted revenge on the government"

"and I will get it, the whole plan about you getting your payback was just a smaller part of my plan, I needed all the technological resources available and yours were not enough so when you mentioned these other two I just couldn't say no. it was all just what I needed to complete my research and get my real revenge on Knight Industries turned FLAG"

"Why do you seek revenge upon them?" this time it was KITT speaking

"that" he turned around and walked over to be in front of the midnight black Mustang "is not something you need to know, Knight three thousand. The only thing you need to know" he kneeled down to be at eye level with him "is that if you don't cooperate things won't get pretty" a low growl formed in the Mustang's engine in response to the threat.

standing back up he gave the techs the all clear, stopping at the door he called to one of them and KITT was just barely able to make out what they whispered to each other "Start the download and infiltration, we can't lose any more time"

"What about KARR?"

"Start with him, we already have some of his programing, it'll make it easier. The other two I'm sure will be putting up much more of a fight"

The techs started to walk around the three AIs as soon as he left the room, one of them stopped at the computer that was next to KARR while another came in carrying a cable the he hooked up to the computer; he took the other end and approached KARR, he stretched out his hands to try to open the hood but was stopped by KARR's menacing growl before he could even get close to him.

He exchanged looks with the tech at the computer who in turn typed in some commands that after a little while were met by the clicking sound of the hood release.

He did everything he could to stop the hacker from accessing his systems, throwing block after block to stop him but it was useless in the end, he had worked with them before for his upgrades and they needed some of his access codes to install them so there was no use for him

to fight back, he was a literal open book for them and there was nothing he could do other than make their work as hard as possible and by god was he going to make sure they had no easy feat with him.

KITT and KIRA looked worryingly at each other when they saw how easily it had been for the tech to hack into KARR's software, if they had managed to break through him that easily there wasn't much hope for them when it came to making time for Mike and Matt; they were in trouble, lots of it, and KITT could see the fast pace at which the black and blue Mustang's scanner tracked back and forth. She was nervous and even maybe scared at the uncertainty of their situation and he couldn't blame her, he himself was still trying to come up with a strategy to make some time and defend themselves.

They had already gained access to KARR's software and if they knew what they were doing they could use his systems to hack into them in less time since despite their obvious difference in programing and personality the three still shared the same basic core program structure.

While thinking of a strategy KITT decided to go over what systems he had available, half way through his check he paused and turned to his link with KIRA

"KIRA?"

"yes?"

"Have you checked your weapons systems?"

"Why? The platforms are blocking them"

"Check again"

"…they are…active?"

"These platforms were designed based off of KARR's programing, not ours, they didn't take into account our latest upgrades so the device can't block our advanced functions…don't expose yourself if it's not necessary, we don't need them knowing we have access to more systems then they know of. are your electric shields still working?"

"They are"

"In that case keep it ready, activate it only if any of the techs try and get to your physical components"

"I will"

"This is not okay…"

"Matt there are many things around here that are not okay, what do you mean exactly?"

"I mean that our time to find Katherine AND get the KITT and KIRA out is running out even faster than I thought"

"Why is that?"

"Because there is something so wrong about this, they took KARR as well after that pulse, I don't think they're working with him anymore…if they had already gained access to KARR for his upgrades then it's only a matter of time until they break him down and use his own core programing to get access to KITT and KIRA"

"What about the last upgrades that were implemented, the security measures"

"They might slow them down but I highly doubt that will stop them"

"Well…if that's the case we better hurry, when we find Katherine I'll be taking her back through here, you stay around and try to reach KITT or KIRA and help them out, that's the only chance we're going to have at beating these guys"

Matt nodded and both started to walk away from the room they had been hiding, being careful to check that there was no one around and avoid camera detection.

After a while of sneaking about they came across a single room on a hallway that had two guards posted outside, they could only guess what was so important they needed to keep under such protection; things were about to get interesting…

So far things were not much better for the AIs, the techs were making quick progress on KARR by the late night hours and one of them had already moved over to the computer connected to KIRA's station; as It had happened with KARR another cable was brought in, one end plugged into the front computer and the other ready to be plugged in to one of her core's ports on the engine compartment. The tech with the other end eyed the car suspiciously, taking note of the quickened pace of the scanner before taking a step closer, not knowing that would trigger the car's electric shield.

With the loud snap of current all the techs near KIRA jumped back at the sudden release of charge that now engulfed the car as white bolts cracked and snapped around the car, creating an impenetrable barrier, next to her KITT brought his engine back on with a deep growl that made the techs around him jump in surprise as he continued to rev his engine furiously.

KARR had to admit the scene had taken him by surprise as well, he realized then that while he was virtually defenseless the other two had means of defending themselves and maybe even escaping, this knowledge made his processor kick in to start trying to figure out any possible way to escape, revenge and fighting were no longer on his mind, the only thing he wanted to do now was escape, save himself from this one-way path that could only lead to eventual deactivation.

All the techs where surprised, to say the least, why wasn't the continuous pulse of the platform blocking the car's electric shields? they were the ones that worked for days on getting the exact frequency for the platforms for them to match KARR's and if it matched his then it would surely match these two new AIs...right?

Their boss was sure to return within the hour and they needed to have some progress done, if the black and blue Mustang was going to be this opposing then they would have to move on the next car. The tech at KIRA's platform stepped back as the others around her moved to be around KITT, the Mustang revved his engine in an attempt to somehow manage to keep the techs away; KIRA remained with her shields activated and KARR was fuming with rage as he stood with his open hood watching KITT's efforts of defending himself, apparently either he did not have the ability the younger AI had or it had malfunctioned somehow.

KITT kept doing everything he could to keep them away without revealing his weapons, he kept revving his engine loudly with a deep growls keeping the techs at bay for the most part, while doing that he kept internally fighting off the hacker in the computer next to him; he was throwing blocks after blocks to keep the hacker out, he was successfully keeping him from breaking his first firewall and it was now that he was incredibly grateful for his new internal system defense update.

All of the techs where really starting to get to their breaking point, they couldn't even get the hood open on the midnight black Mustang, another shot from the EMP would most likely do the trick at least for the time being so two techs left the room only to come back minutes later with a circular, flat device carried between both. KITT once again tried to simply scare them off but it didn't seem to be working this time around KITT's last resource was to try and move backwards and away from the device as they approached but just as KARR had earlier he only managed to uselessly spin his wheels on the sleek floor, trapped by the magnetic force of the platform.

With nothing else available for him to do to defend himself he had no other option but to reveal his weapons, he didn't want to leave KIRA in the dark, especially on their current situation, but he noticed too late that the EMP device they were carrying towards him was already turned on and steadily emitting its pulse, his systems remained operational but they were incredibly slow to respond now; he pushed them to react to the command of bringing up his guns but by now he guessed that he had waited a moment too late to try and save himself, the last thing he remembered was the feeling of his side launchers opening on command just before the device was on him, sending him into a dark void…

The deployed launchers on either side of the car made some of the techs scramble off for cover just as the ruby red scanner went dark and the car's engine died once more, after regaining themselves and making sure the car was deactivated they opened the hood with ease and plugged in the computer in order to start the process of downloading the AI's data. Seeing this was as much as they were going to get for progress the techs left the computers on the two older AI running the download as they left to work on what would be the beginning of phase two of the plan. A single guard was posted outside the room and the three cars were left to their own.

Matt and Mike waited on an adjacent room until the shift change for the guard to leave, they knew Katherine was in that room from overhearing radio chatter from the guards so the moment one of them left Mike swiftly took down the one remaining guard, Matt moved in then and in mere minutes picked the lock and opened the door to see Katherine half leaning on a wall on the side of the room, seeing her father and friend Kate threw herself over them in relief.

"Oh god I'm so glad you guys are here"

Mike hugged his daughter before stepping back to look at her "we need to get out out of here and get some medical attention fast"

"Where are KITT and KIRA, I heard them before but then the sounds suddenly stopped"

"They…got caught, we're working on it"

"We need to get them out of here fast!"

"We know, Matt is going to take care of that while I get you out of here and KITT and KIRA will pick us up where they dropped us off earlier"

"I am not leaving her here dad, I'm going with Matt go get her"

"Katherine you are in no condition to be running around, if you get caught you two will have no chances. I promise you'll be back with her soon but please for now just come with me, let's get out of here"

Reluctantly Katherine had no choice but to go with what Mike had said, he was right but she really didn't want to admit it. Mike took off the way him and Matt had come from with Katherine, helping her carry her own weight to keep her injured leg from causing any more damage; Matt sneaked around the complex back towards the main area where him and Mike had seen the three AIs earlier in hopes of getting at least a clue as to where exactly they had been taken.

He wondered around the place for a while longer until he saw a group of techs come out of a room, a single guard remained at the door and he could only guess what was in that room that had required so many techs to be working around. He waited until the guard was distracted enough to go around the corner and knock him down with a blow to the head; shaking his hand as he admired his successful takedown he cracked open the door slowly to make sure there really was no one left inside.

Sure enough as he had hoped the three Mustangs were in the room, instantly he locked the door behind him and stood looking at the cars; on the far end of the room was KARR, hood open and scanner tracking at a quick pace, KITT was the closest to him as he stood with his hood open and his scanner dark which worried him. KIRA remained between both with her electric shield activated, as soon as she saw him she instantly deactivated it as the young tech ran over to the cars.

"KIRA!"

"Matt I thought you and Mike were supposed to be searching for Katherine"

"We found her already, Mike is probably already out of here with her by now" he walked over to KITT "What happened to him, why is he off line?"

"They placed an EMP device on his side to gain access to him, you need to disconnect him from the computer and take off the device, fast"

Matt leaned down into KITT's engine compartment to reach for the cable "What did they want from you guys?"

"They are downloading his data, I assume that they might want to reverse engineer it and make their own versions"

"Well that doesn't sound too good" he unplugged the cable from the Mustang and closed his hood, moving to the side to remove the EMP device.

The black Mustang's scanner lit up instantly as it tracked in a rush as his engine came to life, Matt then moved over to the front of the car.

"Easy KITT, It's me, I'm going to get the two of you out of here"

"Have you found Katherine?"

"yeah Mike is with her, they should reach our meeting point shortly so we better hurry up. I doubt whoever is leading this whole thing doesn't know that I'm here by now…" he started to go through the computer to try and find a way to deactivate the platforms and set them free but after a few minutes it became clear that he would not have the time to work through it at this rate. "I can't find the kill switch for this thing" in the distance he could just now make out what sounded like an alarm going off, their time had ran out "just great…"

"Matt"

the guy turned to the black and blue Mustang "you got something?"

"I have been working on breaking the encryption from my platform, if you help me it'll be faster and I will be able to free KITT from it as well"

he moved over to the computer next to her "ok what do you need"

Just when he was starting to think that maybe the other two were just as stuck as he was this guy came into the room and started helping them, barely acknowledging his presence as he did so, he knew now for sure that if he didn't manage to free himself now then it would be the end for sure. He highly doubted the guy would as much as come close to him, asking for assistance was out of the question so all he could do now was devote the rest of his resources to fighting against his own programing as it kept him locked into the platform.

An alarm was set off not long after KITT was brought back online, people were sure to start pouring in any minute, guns blazing so thanks to their reckless actions his own time had been cut short as well. His amber scanner slowed it's pace as he devoted all of this focus on breaking what was basically his own encryption, progress was being made slowly and a part of him knew he did not have enough time to free himself yet his own self-preservation program shoved the thought away to keep him focused on trying to escape; he had to make it, it was either that or near certain annihilation and he couldn't allow that…he would not allow it.

Matt typed furiously on the keyboard as he watched the progress bar climbing fast, people were already on the other side of the door he had locked and were attempting to break it down with some success, KITT and KIRA's scanners tracked back and forth quickly in agitation just as the double doors started to open and gunshots rang through the room, some bouncing off of the three cars' specialized shells. Ducking to avoid a few shots he was able to get back to work when KITT brought up his hood mounted gun and started to create cover fire for him, successfully scattering the people trying to get to them.

"Matt go out the side door and meet with Mike and Katherine, we'll be there in a few more minutes"

"KIRA I can't leave you guys here, especially not now that we've been discovered"

"I'll handle the rest of the encryption; I should be able to get it in the time that you manage to lead these people away"

"Are you sure about it?"

"I am" another storm of bullets reached them as KITT's ammo ran out then "go, now!"

Matt took off for the side door closest to KARR, running through the hallways until he found a place to hide to let the guards that were after him run by to allow him to go back the way he had come in through with Mike. He really hoped that KIRA was sure of what she was saying because if she wasn't then his attempts at helping the AIs escape would've been for nothing and they would all be facing a whole lot more trouble to even try to reach them by then…

This was starting to get ridiculous now, it had been a few minutes now since Matt had left with the guards chasing him and KIRA had been working on the last patch of security to access her platform for most of her time now, this one patch seemed to be way stronger than the other ones she had broken down and she was really starting to worry about the time she would have before things went south again. The speed at which she was breaking through the last barrier was an insult to her capabilities and despite everything KARR couldn't help but smirk, it was amusing for him to see the occasional fit she threw with barely audible growls from her engine, her scanner tracking quickly back and forth. This was just too fun to watch.

"Having fun?"

KIRA didn't answer, letting a sigh escape through her vents she slumped down on her suspension before continuing to annoyingly work her way through the patch.

"What is it that is giving you so much trouble anyway"

she looked at the older AI besides him "Nothing that you need to know about"

"I thought you would've gone through that by now"

it was then that KIRA decided to just ignore him and keep working on the computer, this small talk was a waste of her time and she had places to go to.

Silence returned to the room with only the alarm blearing on the distance, KARR had returned to fully focusing on breaking the encryption for himself them when a barely audible hum came from besides him; turning his attention back to the outside he saw the computer hooked up to the younger AI's platform had gone dark, even from his place he could tell that his twin was just as surprised as he was.

Temptingly KIRA slowly reversed out of the platform with ease looking smugly at KARR, who now was staring dumbfounded at her after witnessing her struggling against the program minutes earlier. Unbeknown to the two of them KITT had been working since his reactivation on hacking the outside double doors, he was very close to gaining access to them and since the smaller set of double doors that separated this room from the main area had been left open the main doors were the only thing between them and freedom.

Going around KITT KIRA started to ram the computer connected to him continuously until it went off in sparks, with that destroyed KITT was able to slip out of the platform just as easily as she had done before. From the outside he then detected more people heading in their direction so they had probably figured out that they had broken the encryption. Both him and KIRA remained at the edge of the room's double doors anxiously waiting for the main doors to grant them access; when KITT finally broke through the encryption both of them shot out and started to head out towards freedom to meet Mike, Matt and Katherine at their set meeting point.

KITT looked behind him as they took off, KARR had now completely given up on hacking his platform and was now simply spinning his wheels in one last attempt at freeing himself, he guessed that his self-preservation programing had finally taken priority and it was causing him to essentially panic. He looked back in front of him to KIRA and the double doors, they had stopped opening down and he was fighting to keep them open until they were out; a nagging feeling at the back of his processor caused him to glance back at KARR as he remembered the last thing he heard one of the lead techs say earlier during the night 'Start on KARR, the sooner we are done with him, the sooner we can get rid of him'...those words floated in his processor for what seemed like ages until the snapping sound of the door starting to close once more brought him back to reality...he was definitely going to regret this...