Lost

by lllBluebirdlll

Someone is attempting to break into the SSC and KITT is forced to run away and leave Mike and the others behind, he is offered a deal that allows him to save his friends, now the question is: will they be able to save him on time?

15. Chapter 15

Extra long final chapter, sorry it took so long but it's here now to end the story.

KITT saw everything in slow motion as the situation unfolded before him, the second Mike kicked out the gun Michael managed to also knock the gun out of the hands of the guy pointing it at him which in return made the guards around split their attention between him and Mike, without even needing to communicate with each other the two AIs took charge of their respective set of guards; Kitt having all of his equipment easily managed using darts and other non lethal methods to knock down the guards immediately surrounding Michael.

On the other side of the things KITT was facing a more complicated scenario since he only had his main weapons available, struggling to find a way around he started to be pushed by his core program to protect Mike as it conflicted with his preservation of human life. Getting over his mental debate in a fraction of a second he pulled out one of his side guns and took aim for the hands of the guards as they turned to point at Mike and began shooting in the same way he had managed to make Daniel drop his own gun, this seemed to work quite well and eased both sides of his conflicting program though even though he had eliminated the immediate threat of the guards around Mike now he had other issues, as both Mike and Daniel moved around the emerging chaos the AI spotted a pattern that told him the ex-FBI agent had another plan B.

Over near the house KITT spotted Michael taking cover from some of the guards behind a pillar of the house as he waited for a chance to run over to the Two Thousand, pressing down on the gas he drove through the chaos placed himself blocking the open area between Michael and Kitt, the man took the chance then and ran over to the Trans am where he took refuge in the bulletproof interior; with a silent thanks from him KITT slid his rear end around and headed back around to where his driver was now having a shootout with Daniel, as he started to make his way there around the scattering guards and tents he was stopped halfway by a blow to his side that made him internally flinch, as he began being pushed across the soft dirt terrain where he came face to face with one of the armored vehicles Kitt had mentioned before, despite him being way heavier than any normal Mustang or maybe even other bigger cars he was being easily pushed.

As he began getting pushed back further away from the fight he pressed down on the accelerator and managed to free himself from the push thanks to the combination of the the immediate response from the supercharger and the added increased power from the turbo, sliding around he was face to face with the larger vehicle as it drove through the brush picking up speed, a direct hit with that speed and weight would definitely not go by without giving him some trouble so waiting for the last possible second he took advantage of a new system he had accidentally discovered and he diverted some of his own electrical power to activated what in essence was an electric shield, his jet black paint began to shimmer and crackle with white bolts and sparks that ran all over the car's body, the larger vehicle that was steadily approaching saw this and stepped hard on the breaks in an attempt to stop but the carried momentum of the large mass combined with slippery terrain did not allow it to lose speed at a fast enough rate to stop.

The armored car despite its efforts continued to slide forwards and impacted with the AI at a considerable speed, the moment the two cars made contact with each other the electric current coursing around the Mustang was transferred over to the opposing car in a shower of sparks, KITT was pushed back by the impact some more but the hit was considerably less damaging than it would've been had he not activated his shield when he did and to even things out some more he saw that the shield also served an an offensive strategy since from where he stood he saw the driver of the armored car trying to turn it back on unsuccessfully.

Knowing that he had at least bought himself some precious time he turned around and began driving off to where he knew Mike was, as he pressed hard on the gas a warning popped up on his field of view, and upon investigating he realized that the hit he had received first had not only managed a dent on his side in an area where the Nano-skin had been weaker but it had also damaged a section of his oil line which now forced him to be more careful with his moves in the worst time possible.

Mike ducked down and hid behind another of the tents that had been set up around the house, he tried quickly standing back up but was stopped by the sharp pain on his leg from the shot he had received earlier, cursing his disadvantage he drowned out the distant gunfire and ruckus caused by the other gunmen and tried to focus on whatever sounds were closer to stay alert and try and find Daniel while he snuck around. Checking the ammo he had left in the gun he had picked up he slowly stood up and kept the gun close to his chest as he half limped around the side of the tent to peek at what was around him though to his bad luck the second he tried poking his head out a gunshot rang out close enough to him to make him instinctively retreat a split second before a bullet grazed the cloth on the side of the tent where his head had just been.

Cursing under his breath he walked around to the opposite side of the tent and got inside where luckily no one remained, quickly having a look around he searched for anything that could give him an advantage over Daniel while at the same time making sure to keep an ear out for any approaching footsteps. opening a drawer he stumbled across some medical supplies where he saw a small container of an anesthetic spray that he immediately took and applied to where he had received the gunshot; that was sure to at least numb out the pain enough to allow him to move around more fluently in case worse came to worse and he became stuck in a hand to hand fight with Daniel.

As he continued his search he heard a set of footsteps walking around the tent so with no more luck or time he grabbed the gun he had before again and headed out, having a quick look through the tent's flaps he saw there was nothing but open ground, if he could make a run for it he could reach the main house and be sure to find something useful there but in doing that he risked getting spotted or even shot at again by whoever had been walking around the back of the tent whether it be Daniel or one of the other men. With one last look around he decided to go for it and broke into a sprint across the open area as best he could with his condition; a shot rang out behind him and he dodged to a side just as a bullet landed on the ground in front of him from where he had been prior to dodging, the sudden jolt caused him to lose his already weak balance and a bump on the ground was all it took to make him fall down.

Wincing after the hard fall Mike turned around to try and stand back up but instead came face to face with a gun pointed down straight at him, Daniel standing there with a finger already on the trigger; he slowly stood up keeping his hands up in defeat as both men stared each other down, a sound similar to an explosion over to the side made both of them instinctively turn to find the source and Mike took this chance to grab the barrel of Daniel's gun and change it's aim to point down where he wouldn't get shot if they accidentally released a shot in their struggle to gain possession. The fight between the two was even as they exchanged blows that ended up being blocked by each other most of the times. Taking a risk Mike swooped down to try and sweep a kick to knock Daniel down while he himself picked up the gun he had dropped when he first fell down, his kick worked half-way because of his injury but it managed to make the ex-FBI agent stumbled back and lose his balance long enough to allow him to pick his gun back up and put some distance between them so after the couple seconds that went by during the exchange both men ended up at a standstill with guns pointed straight at each other and waiting for the next move.

Daniel rose up his gun to point at the man in front of him as he slightly winced due to the pain caused by the shot the Three Thousand had fired and grazed his wrist, the fact that the supposedly harmless AI had released a shot on him was somewhat of a shock in itself and it made him wonder how safe he really was in this situation; this piece of knowledge had definitely put a dent in his plan once again. The ruckus he was hearing across from the other side of the house worried him so he had to finish this off fast and get out before everything went down the drain even more.

He grabbed the gun with both hands for support since he knew his injured wrist would not be able to take the recoil and fixed his aim once more before placing his finger on the trigger, it was at that second that his world felt like it started moving in slow motion; the sound of an approaching engine as well as the braking and ripping of cloth made him turn over to the tent over to his right some distance away from which a jet black car was now ripping through at top speed and heading for where he was standing. Acting on instinct Daniel dodged to a side just as the car drove past him and placed itself between him and Mike.

Quickly getting back up and picking up his gun Daniel brushed the dirt off of him and turned to look to where now Mike was standing behind the AI, one hand on the car for support; looking at the AI iself he noticed that there was virtually no damage done to it even though he had deployed both his armored vehicles and if the car was here then he could only guess that both those vehicles had been taken out.

"How?...how are you here after the fight we had, there was nothing left I saw it myself!"

with a slight shake of his head Mike turned to look directly at the man in front of him "You really underestimate us Daniel"

rising his gun back up he caused the AI to move slightly backwards to be closer to Mike to cover him some more in case Daniel did release a shot on him "I'm not talking to you Knight, I'm talking to the AI, stay out of it. Now tell me how the hell did you manage to save yourself from that burnt and bent clump of metal that I last saw on that hangar"

keeping his silence for a few seconds as only the sound of his engine and distant gunshots filled the air he finally decided to answer in order to keep Daniel occupied and buy some time until the FBI team he had contacted could arrive. "my systems always have a backup at the base, my shell was destroyed but it would only be a matter of time to get a new shell ready so that I could be back" of course this was only partly true and KITT purposely left most details out for confidentiality reasons but he hoped that his answer would be clear and vague enough at the same time so that Daniel would keep asking questions.

"Maybe yes but I know that you can't just store all of your data completely and I also know thanks to my own research that the data you cannot transfer is stored in your main core which, if my own AI was anything to go by as well as the state your shell was on I can safely say that at the very least your core must've been damaged to some extent"

"And you would be correct, my main core did sustain some damage but it was nothing that could not be fixed. Your assumption that you had destroyed me back then only shows how little you truly understand how an AI really works which in the end makes you unfit to try and create one of your own, especially if the code is based off of another already working AI and simply modified to suit your needs without thinking of the possible consequences of your actions"

as this unfolded before him Mike could not help but be somewhat dumbfounded as well as confused, he was surprised to hear KITT all but scolding Daniel right here but what had him confused besides the actions themselves were the reason behind them as well as the way the AI was talking.

He had heard the AI talk enough since bringing him back that he was able to tell now that his tone had shifted slightly and the vocabulary he was using was more natural, as for what confused him most being the unknown reason for KITT acting this way he could only guess that he was doing it out of being legitimately pissed, he would even dare say somewhat angry but part of him could only think that it would be near impossible considering the car had lost the true personality he had cultivated over the past year that he had been working with him fully...on the other hand though taking into account the way he was speaking and the fact that he now noticed that there was no coldness or dryness to his words proper of the nature of an AI such as himself back in the day when they first met made him think that something had happened back at the SSC since they lost connection.

Leaving Daniel at a loss of words after his explanation KITT kept all of his sensors fully on alert, he was standing directly in front of Mike to cover him from getting injured further; he pushed out another scan on him then and saw that luckily other than a few scrapes and bruises there was no other injury as major as the shot he had received on his leg but still he couldn't shake the slight guilt for letting him get hurt like that in the first place.

Focusing back on Daniel and his surrounding area he suddenly got a feeling that something was off, he couldn't' tell what or why but he knew something bad was going to happen, he started to back up into Mike slow enough to just lightly push him back and further away from Daniel.

the AI saw Mike's confused expression as he forced him back being mindful of his injury, the man clearly did not know what was causing him to retreat but he opposed no resistance and simply moved back with him.

Kitt closed his driver's side door as soon as Michael was inside, he thanked the younger AI for his help with a flash of his scanner before turning around to escape the shower of bullets hitting him out in the open; he slid around the side of the house when a loud bang called his attention, looking behind him he saw the Mustang being hit and pushed by a larger vehicle just a couple seconds before he himself was hit by a similar one.

Michael braced himself inside the car as he was pushed, Kitt managed to free himself from the push and slid around as the larger car half struggled to stop itself and turn around on the uneven ground. taking advantage of those few seconds Kitt drove forwards and began pushing the car from a side through the terrain, he was having a hard time himself finding traction on the moist soft ground but being who he was he began gaining on it and managed to push the car over to where the ground had a slight drop that had been just big enough to tip the car haf on it's side which allowed the AI to fully tip it over and eliminate that threat at least for the time being.

Michael watched the large car on it's side in front of him and immediately grabbed a gun from the glovebox and tried to head out but the moment he tried to open the door he was stopped by the AI locking him inside.

"Kitt, open the door"

"I'm sorry Michael I cannot allow you to get out when there is this much chaos going on around us"

"I have to go help Mike, he's hurt and Daniel's going after him"

"KITT is going after him now we have to focus on stalling for time until the FBI arrives"

"FBI?"

"KITT just informed he called a squad when he arrived, they should be arriving in a little while now"

Michael was about to question the AI again when something like an explosion or strong impact resonated from the other side of the house, the man turned back to look at the AI directly to try and talk him into letting him out but the second he did look at him he felt like deep down the Trans am was begging him not to go after he had just gotten him back from being taken away from him; Add the fact that Kitt himself was no longer at full capacity after he chased after him before and now after being hit by such a big bulk of a car he knew the AI feared that he wouldn't be able to protect him again if he let him out considering everything that was happening.

With a resigned sigh Michael leaned back no his seat "Well if you're not gonna let me out then at least you gotta help me do something"

"Like what?"

"Well how about we go to KITT?"

"Where is he right now?"

"On the other side of the house, he just reached Mike now and is standing between him and Daniel although since the surrounding dampening field is still active I cannot tell you much more than that"

"Well then let's go after them"

"I don't think us interfering would do any good in this situation, it might put Daniel more on edge and incite a reaction we might not like"

"KITT's with him he can protect Mike if Daniel starts to shoot"

"I think something might be wrong with KITT, otherwise I doubt he would allow Mike to be standing out rather than keeping him inside him. I saw him get hit by another armored vehicle and since he did just finished being fixed I suppose there were some tests missing"

"Maybe...but still we can't just sit here and wait, at least let's try and keep the remaining gunmen focused on us so that they don't interfere with Mike and Daniel"

"That is a better plan"

"Well then let's get going"

Mike kept his eyes fixed on Daniel until KITT finally stopped backing up and pushing him farther away from the man; something was causing him to be on edge the moment the AI began backing up for no apparent reason, as he stood there he took notice of the car itself and it was just then that he saw the differences between the attack mode he remembered and this one. Looking at the car in more detail he also noticed a single dent on the otherwise pristine surface, located on the side of the car around where the door panel started was the damage he guessed had been caused by the armored vehicles Daniel had mentioned earlier.

Seeing some damage on the AI did not surprise him considering there had practically skipped all tests due to this emergency that they all had to tend to immediately.

"KITT?"

the AI then switched his attention to the man standing behind him "Yes?"

"Do you have some sort of plan now"

"I do, I called the FBI when I was approaching and they should be here shortly"

"Can't you tell how far away they are?"
"I can't see anything through the dampening field that was set up around the immediate area, the best thing we can do it wait"

"But since we don't know how long they'll take or if they're even still on their way... if Daniel set up a perimeter like this he might've gotten people to keep watch and stop anyone from coming through"

"Well...if that is the case then we need to think of something now"

"It's not like you to go around unprepared KITT"

"Well I left with half my systems still coming out of reboot and without any proper testing, if you ask me I'd say it was sheer luck that I was able to get here and find you in the first place"

Taking a second Mike took notice of the way the AI was speaking as well as the fact that he was taking 'luck' as a factor in this situation "KITT are you...okay? like...could you maybe be you again?"

"I am, like I told Sarah I'll explain everything after we get this situation over with"

"Wait but how? I thought there was no way to get back the lost data from that particular algorithm"

"You think I wouldn't prepare for a worst case scenario? like I said, I'll explain everything in detail later. How is your leg?"

"I'm fine, what about you though? I see you have a dent on your side"

"A slight malfunction on the new setup for my Nano-skin, sadly the point where it hit has prevented me from being able to open my door properly to let you in and having you walk around to enter through the other door I fear would expose you to get injured again"

"Well...do you have a plan then?"

there was silence from the AI which told Mike that he was working on something at the time. Whatever things he could see that he couldn't gave him a wider range of information to think of something but the fact that it was taking him this long to even do that told him that they were in a tight spot.

KITT kept most of his sensors focused on Daniel as he stood some distance back with the gun aimed at him, even with the dampening field he was able to detect the Two Thousand standing on the opposite side of the house to him, he wished he could contact him to request some assistance considering his situation but that simply wouldn't be possible; Mike didn't know about what was going on with him internally but he was not about to go and give him any more reasons to worry.

On the back on his mind he got another set of warnings, the leak from his oil line was starting to lower his oil reserve faster than he had expected and to make matters worse the armored car he had knocked out earlier was moving again and heading towards him; piecing a together a plan with the little time he had left he set off a smoke screen in front of him to block Daniel's view, in those precious seconds he slid his rear end around to allow Mike to be able to walk around to his passenger's side and climb in. In the midst of chaos and low visibility with the smoke Mike started to half run half jump around the car a few steps before his leg gave out on him and he fell just short of the open passenger's side door clutching his head which of course caused some panic on the AI.

"Mike!"

"I'm fine I'm fine just...give me a minute"

As Mike half-ran half-hopped around the car he found himself feeling a sudden lightheadedness that made him lose his balance and fall to the ground which put some more unnecessary strain on his already injured leg, he heard KITT call his name as his fall had probably caused him to worry considering his current state; He tried to get up right away but his spinning head kept him glued to the ground and unable to look up until another approaching sound practically forced him to get up, in a split second an adrenaline rush gave him the strength he needed to get up and push the Mustang's door with enough strength to close it before jumping back not even a second before out through the thick cover of the smoke screen an armored vehicle came barreling through and pushed KITT out of his sight through the smoke just barely missing hitting him in the process.

The AI couldn't believe that he had been that distracted, his sole attention had been on Mike since his fall and that had now caused him to not only put him in danger by being unaware of his surroundings but also further damage his already broken oil line, luckily this new engine was efficient enough and sturdy enough to allow him to periodically cut off his own supply of oil at intervals to make sure that he was giving his engine just enough oil to function while also minimizing the waste as a result from the damage he had sustained.

As he finally broke free from the armored car's push he spun around and began thinking of a way to stop it permanently as fast as possible so that he could get back to Mike which he now detected was still on the ground while Daniel's form was stumbling about in the smoke.

Keeping the armored car's position locked with his scanner through the smoke he slid around the larger car using the fact that he was more nimble and quick to move to his advantage and shot his grappling hook at one of the roof rails where it managed to get stuck by one of it's spikes, securing that he started to reverse as he pulled the heavier car, rather than falling on it's side as he had hoped for it slid on the uneven surface for some distance before by some lucky chance something kept the car from sliding any further and KITT managed to pull it down, the thing fell sideways with the loud crunching of wood and leaves on the ground. His previous task done he focused back on Mike as the smoke began clearing, he still couldn't use simple visuals to find him but his scanner gave him a clear view of both him and Daniel yet what he saw then made a surge of electricity run through to his very core.

Mike finally managed to regain his footing after a few seconds, the smoke around didn't allow him to gather much information on his surroundings or Daniel's location which was enough to put him on edge. He looked around and tried to draw out the sounds coming from what he could only guess were KITT and the armored car that had pushed him before to try and listen if anything other than the cars was moving about and getting closer to him; despite his best efforts there was too much open space to pinpoint the source of any sound accurately and even though the smoke was starting to clear out thanks mainly to the movement of the cars around him he still was pretty much a sitting duck if anyone saw him.

As he looked around himself he got lightheaded again and had to stop as he closed his eyes for a second to try and brush away the feeling when the sound of the cars around him then stopped, he opened his eyes again just in time to hear a gun being cocked so instinctively he dropped to the ground as the sound of a gun firing rang somewhere near him.

Following his instinct he focused on finding the source of the shot based on how and where the bullet had landed, following that he saw through the remaining smoke the silhouette of a man that after a second and a rush of wind he managed to have a cleared picture of Daniel poting the gun in his direction again; wasting no time he jumped from his crouched position just as another shot landed where he had previously been standing, As he took a few steps back he found his already injured leg giving out on him as the strain from the force he had to pull to jump away from a crouch took its toll.

Failing at attempting to keep himself standing he ended up half kneeling on the ground clutching his injured leg as some fresh blood made its way out, his head started spinning and he broke out in a cold sweat as he struggled to keep himself conscious and alert enough to move if the situation called for it but as it stood he was practically a sitting duck to the man that was now slowly approaching him.

After taking his second shot and missing Daniel readjusted his aim just to see Mike stumbling back a few steps before falling down on his injured leg, he guessed that the aftermath of the blood loss was finally starting to take place and after straining himself this long he was starting to fall an easy prey to him; walking over he met the younger man's gaze with a smile "As I told you before, Knight, there was no way you or anyone could've stopped this plan, I took into account so many variables and countermeasures that it was nar perfect. So what you brought back that AI of yours but now that I see things with a little less panic I see that this allows me to not only tie loose ends with you but get back at that AI of yours from blowing the fruit of my labor to bits along with itself by simply killing you right now and nullifying it's primary directive. I have to thank you now for that to be honest, you've given me a better chance at revenge and even provided an AI with an even better shell to help finish off my research from where I stayed before"

Checking the gun to see if he had any ammo left he loaded the thing and took aim once more, being absorbed by his illusions of completing his plan and making the mistake of keeping his full focus on the man in front of him Daniel failed to hear an approaching engine until it was too close to even give him time to think of how to react, out through the thin layer of remaining smoke the rear end of the modified Mustang came sliding in a direct collision course with Daniel with an enraged roar from the engine as the AI pressed hard on the accelerator to be able to complete the drift he had initiated.

Everything moved in slow motion for Mike as he saw the rear end of the Mustang slide in from out of the remaining smoke and collide with Daniel, the bulky rear end moving at the speed that it was managed to be enough to knock Daniel down as well as push him with enough strength to make him slide some distance after falling to the ground where he would probably stay for a little while until he recovered from the impact.

KITT wasted no time acting as he convinced his own internal programing that this was the only course of action he could take to get to Mike safely, quickly accelerating to get to where both men were standing he made some quick calculations before using the brake to shift his weight to a side enough to cause his rear tires to slide on the already slippery terrain and then accelerating as he used counter steer to keep the angle he had acquired; he had managed to somehow catch Daniel off guard despite being out in the open and the feeling of his rear end hitting against the man and pushing him to a side as he knocked him down managed to make him internally flinch somewhat. Stopping his drift right after that he angled himself in a way that he had his passenger side door right next to where Mike was still crouching on the ground, opening the door he urged the man to climb inside which he did, Mike never thought he would be so thankful that KITT's attack mode placed him lower to the ground because at the time being he had to mostly use his upper body go climb in and use his good leg for some support since his lower body had lost much of its strength.

Eventually Mike found himself sitting inside the AI, KITT closed the door for him and immediately took off, despite being only half conscious Mike couldn't help but question what was going on "KITT, why are we driving away, what about Kitt and my dad?"

"The Two Thousand has contacted me, the FBI team that I called is arriving as we speak and he said that they would take care of finishing things off so that I could take you to get some much needed medical attention"

"Are you sure that they'll be fine back there? I thought there were some armored vehicles causing some trouble"

"those have already been taken care of, most of the guards have been already knocked out as well"

"What about Daniel, couldn't he take off after us in another car?"

"I...do not believe that would be an issue"

"KITT?"

before Mike could question any further the AI brought up an incoming call from Sarah who appeared on screen with a rather worried look "Mike! finally, KITT informed us of your condition, just try to stay awake he'll be taking you to the nearest place where you can get proper medical attention"

leaning his head back on the seat as another wave of lightheadedness came over him he simply answered with his eyes closed "I'm fine I just need to get this patched up and I'll be good"

"You've lost too much blood you need proper treatment, just stay awake you'll get there soon"

turning his attention slightly away from the road ahead of him KITT noticed his driver's breathing had slowed down a bit and his full weight was now completely on the seat, seeing this he became alarmed by the situation so plotting the fastest route to his destination he pushed harder on the accelerator and adjusted himself as he picked up sped, guided by long range sensors and satellite views he marked the line he would be following on the road to move around other cars and obstructions in the road trying to lose as little speed as possible, he was really pushing this new engine but seeing the situation he was currently on he had no choice; a warning popping up on the side of his view of the road brought crashing down the reality that he himself had one particular system of his damaged that played a major role in him, the warning displayed that he was dangerously low on oil despite having managed his use of the precious liquid by opening and closing the line to avoid as much loss as possible, the fact that he was pushing his engine harder meant that more oil was required which in consequence made him use up more of whatever oil he had left.

As he continued to drive he tried to figure out a way around this situation he found himself in, by his calculations the oil he had left would not be enough to get him to his destination but if he reduced the amount that he was currently providing his engine with by a little more then he could get closer to the distance he needed to travel and just hope that he could make it what little was left without causing much damage to his new engine. his full attention taken by oil management and the road ahead he adjusted the amount of oil distributed and kept pushing on. The distance got shorter with every passing minute and eventually he was under twenty minutes away from where he needed to be, he had started to directly pump pure oxygen into the cabin and it seemed to help his driver's situation somewhat but he still needed specialized attention; as he was forced to stop at a light he cursed his current state when his oil warning flashed again with the dreaded message that he had ran out of the much needed liquid, he only had what little drops were still on the pipe and he doubted that would be enough to get him to where he needed to get to without any incident.

Since starting the fast drive to his destination and pushing his engine he had felt the difference in both the performance of his engine as well as the change in the vibrations corresponding to some of the components not getting enough lubrication to move accordingly without getting worn out by the friction of their own movement, as he finally reached the end of his oil supply and took off from the light he had stop at he immediately felt a stronger change in the feeling of the engine, he decided that rather than taking it slow to cause less wear but take longer to get to his destination he pushed himself a bit farther to keep moving as fast as he could to get to his destination quicker.

Sarah sent KITT a short message saying that she had already alerted a medical team on the hospital he was driving towards and they were ready to receive him and take Mike in, keeping an eye on the road he kept most of his focus on monitoring Mike's vitals, he had passed out but with the increased oxygen he was pumping to the cabin he was sure he had bought some more precious time. As much as he had tried to manage himself considering the damage he had taken he had finally reached the point at which his engine was beginning to both stall and overheat due to the lack of oil, it stalled once and the AI was left half moving just on his own carried momentum until he was able to somehow push whatever little remaining oil was left on the line itself, with that push he managed to turn his engine back on with just a couple minutes to get to his destination.

Going around one more corner KITT finally had the hospital in view, he pressed on the gas to pick up seed faster now that he was almost there but instead the only thing he managed to do was stall his engine again, the overheat was bad enough on its own so instead he went with keeping his current momentum rather than attempting to turn it back on; going straight from the street into the emergency drop off where a group of doctors was already waiting, as he reached them the AI opened up the door before even coming to a full stop, because it swung upwards rather than out it allowed the medics to get his driver out faster and less than a minute after arriving they had taken him and disappeared through the doors.

The Mustang let himself sink lower on his suspension as he was finally over with the stress of dealing with his engine as well as the ticking clock for Mike, true he was still preoccupied with his current state but at least now he was getting proper medical attention and he literally couldn't do anything other than wait. Looking more into his system's diagnostics he found that the only important damage he had sustained was the damaged oil line but driving all the way here the way he did and pushing his engine had brought up some warnings that would be better to be looked into before making any important driving.

Seeing that he couldn't simply stay standing there blocking the emergency drop off he had to force himself again to try and get his engine to work to where he could at least get enough going to move a couple meters in front to an empty parking space, squeezing the last few drops remaining he managed to make the engine work again but he was well aware that this could cause some more serious damage so instead he simply pressed gently on the gas to start moving before turning the engine off and moving on his own with the little momentum he gathered from that, it was probably the slowest he had ever moved but in the end he managed to get out of the way and into the parking spot just as a call from the SSC came in.

"KITT I'll be heading your way in a few minutes, get in contact with the Two Thousand and see what's their status then call me back, I can't seem to get in contact with them for some reason but according to satellite image we were able to get it seems they're doing fine but still it wouldn't hurt to check again"

"Before you leave the SSC there is something I need to talk to you about"

"What is it?"

"When I was facing the armored cars that Daniel had I received a hit that caused some damage, I am mostly fine when it comes to my systems but that one hit damages my oil line, I was losing oil during the fight and then on my way here it ran out, luckily that happened when I was almost at the hospital but my engine still stalled twice and I forced it to work through the lack of oil which caused some wear and damaged a few of the internal components of my engine...I might need you to bring some spare parts in order for me to be able to drive away from here eventually"

the AI braced himself for the anger that was sure to come from the other side of the link, he was sure Sarah would not be pleased that he had overworked himself as he did after just being fully back as himself in a new body that he was unfamiliar with as well as a new engine that he had no experience on but to his surprise after a couple of seconds of silence there was only a sigh coming from the tech before she spoke

"Send me a report and diagnostics scan of your engine, we should have any parts you need around here somewhere considering we just got that engine built and tuned; I'll gather anything you need and take it with me when I start heading your way. Still, contact the Two Thousand and tell us what's their status"

"Will do, thank you Sarah"

After the line with the base ended KITT set himself to contact Michael, prodding his line to Kitt he only had to wait a couple seconds before getting a response

"Yes KITT?"

"Just wanted to check on you and Mr. Knight, is everything under control now?"

"Yes, the FBI team you called arrived about a minute after you left and since we took care of the bigger threat that were the armored cars the agents were able to make quick work of the remaining gunmen. Daniel has been taken into custody again and is being treated for some wounds he received, still, it looks like you did enough of a number on him to prevent any further attempts at escaping"

the AI stood quiet for a few seconds then "So...you know?"

"Of course I do, I have my own sensors ya know? but I don't blame you for the actions you took then...if you hadn't done what you did there then Mike could've been seriously injured"

"Well...if it was the right thing to do then why do I feel like it wasn't?"

"If I would have to guess I say that it could be your internal programming debating your own logic; considering one of your main directives is the preservation of human life I wouldn't find it hard to believe that it's still arguing over the decision to save your driver at the cost of harming another human...I still believe you did the right thing and you should stop giving that thought rounds in that processor of yours"

"I've tried to find the logic to my actions then and only way here but I couldn't figure it out"

"Look KITT I was able to see your actions through my sensors and let me tell you that what you did was maybe the only way to get Mike out of there safely and it's not like you killed anyone either, you just hurt Daniel a little bit and in my opinion he's not even someone worth your time worrying about...or have you forgotten what he did to you?"

"Of course not but...I can't help this feeling. I've replayed the situation in my processor from the moment I took Mike to when I got here and the only thing I was able to gather was that maybe there is some sort of malfunction with my systems"

"Where did you get that idea from?"

"Well firstly I went against my directive that dictates the preservation of human life and second as I was making my way here there was not a single moment in which any of my decisions were logical or rational"

"Did it not cross your mind that maybe the fact that your driver's life was in danger would have influenced your thought process and decision making?"

"It did but on other similar situations this was not the case"

"Other situation? was there another time in which Mike's life was in danger like this?"

"There was, not too long after we started officially working together we found ourselves dealing with Mike being injected with a poison that had no apparent cure other than one that would be provided by the person who had poisoned him after we completed a series of tasks.

We finished the tasks but the man with the antidote was attempting to escape, luckily we were able to track him but as I was driving to get to where he was Mike lost consciousness and his heart actually stopped on my passenger's seat for a while...during that time I was talking with Sarah and even as Mike laid there I was able to think properly and make an appropriate course of action that even led me to cross roads with Sarah as well as formulate a way to buy Mike more time. Back then we managed to bring him back for a while until we caught up to the guy with the antidote and well...the rest is history"

"Well...as you explained that I think I figured out why your reaction was different then and now and it's quite obvious if you think about it so I don't know why you were not able to figure this out on your own; to put it simply it's the simple fact that you've greatly evolved as an AI from how you were back then. That first time all your actions and thoughts were lead only by your programing dictating the protection of your driver and because of that everything you did there was guided rationally...this was the opposite, rationality took the backseat and instead you made your main and only priority to get Mike to where he could receive proper medical attention, even going as far as risking damaging yourself further to get there. I don't see this as a malfunction at all, if anything it's simple proof that you really are back to being yourself after your first ever encounter with Daniel" KITT stayed silent after that as he processed the older AI's words, the more he considered them the more he found some truth to them "Well I'm gonna go now help Carrie with the debriefing of what happened here, you keep an eye out for Mike, we caught everyone here but we don't know if there are any of them left around that could target him there"

"Will do, and thank you"

"Don't mention it"

For the following couple hours KITT did nothing but go through his systems and pinpoint exactly what had been damaged and what was the extent of the damage he had received, all in all the only serious thing on him was his broken oil line since without that he was pretty much a sitting duck; Keeping his sensors on Mike as he was moved to a recovery room after his injury had been treated he continued to work on his systems, fixing some of the things that he could until he hit a wall when trying to fix the bigger dent on his driver's side door that was preventing him from opening it, he had been trying to reset and relocate the nano-bots on that section of his body to try and restore the damaged area but so far the only thing he had managed to do was overheat the nano skin in that area as well as get a weird feeling of numbness.

Stopping his work for a few minutes he left his sensors watching over Mike in the background while he simply stopped doing anything and just sat there, with nothing occupying his processor he became hyper-aware of his surroundings as he turned inwardly towards himself without even looking at the outside world he stared to just let himself be absorbed by the information that was pouring in from his systems in some search for entertainment; the AI noticed then just how much he had truly missed the feeling of actually being able to feel his surroundings, there was a soft breeze that had started to pick up and it sent leaves from a nearby tree flying to where some of them ended on the Mustang's hood or roof, KITT felt the nearly imperceptible weight of said leaves as well as the wind that had pushed them there, the warmth from the sun overhead as it changed to just a cool sensation when a cloud drifted overhead at an angle that provided some shade on the area.

He remained like this for some time until he detected an approaching car stopping directly behind him, turning his attention back to the outside he was rather glad to see Sarah climb out of Zoe's red Focus.

Driving into the hospital's parking lot Sarah was able to find the AI rather quickly, turns out a highly modified black Mustang really stood out from your average daily driver. Stopping directly behind him she climbed out of the car and had a quick walk around the Mustang to check for any superficial damage.

"Hello Sarah, glad that you finally made it"

"Yeah, of course it took me way longer than the time you made in getting here but at least I'm here, I see you only have this one dent on your driver's side"

"I managed to fix the few smaller dents and scratched that I had received on my own but I was not able to fix that dent for some reason"

"Could be some trouble with the rearrangement of the new cable netting underneath or just some sort of glitch with the system but don't worry I'll give that a check later and see what's going on but for now first we need to move from here to one of the lower levels of the underground parking lot where it'll be unlikely for anyone to stumble across us while I work on fixing you"

"I agree, although there is one issue with that"

"What is it?"

"I can't turn my engine back on anymore without risking any further damage, especially now that it has cooled down"

"Well...that is a problem...okay I'm going to hook you up to Zoe's car to give you some momentum, just stay in neutral and we can go from there"

Attaching KITT to the smaller Focus after aligning the cars properly Sarah reversed to pull the Mustang out of his parking spot, the small car had a little trouble to get going and pull the weight of the much heavier car but once it started to move it became an easier task so once KITT was completely out Sarah disconnected the cars and maneuvered the focus so that she could attach the Mustang again but this time to the front of the car to be able to simply pull it down to the underground lot. Managing to hook the two in a way that would work Sarah began pulling the heavier car while KITT only steered to follow her tracks as they descended to one of the lower floors where Sarah set the AI up in a better parking spot that would allow her to work without any more problems before parking the focus in a place where should anyone come down to this floor of the parking lot her and KITT would not be out in plain sight.

Getting down from the Focus she opened the trunk and took out two boxes that contained a full assortment of spare parts and tools that she would be using to fix the AI's engine

"Okay KITT, I'll work on getting that dent on your driver's side fixed first since that way at least you'll be free of any superficial damage"

"How do you plan on fixing that? I have tried diverting the Nanobots myself and focusing on that area to work on but I was not able to do much"

"With this" from one of the boxes the Tech pulled out a device that was similar in shape to a speed gun before walking around the Mustang and sitting on the floor in front of the damaged area "This will rearrange the Nanobots forcefully to reset them to their original position which should make the dent pop back out and eliminate any damage done to your paint or anything else in that area. I will say though that you might find the feeling of the rearrangement to be somewhat unpleasant"

"I'll be fine, the sooner I can go back to normal the sooner we can go back to the SSC and at least be safe"

"Well then I'll start, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes"

KITT did nothing but wait and watch as Sarah turned on the device and brought it up close to the dent to where it was almost touching his surface, sure enough when she activated it the same hot sensation he had felt earlier when trying to fix it himself returned only that this time the numbness was replaced by an intense tingle focused on the particular area where the device was working on; the tech slowly moved the device along the edges of the dent in in a sort of outline before repeating the same motion as she moved closer to the center of the thing, as she moved the metal popped back and repaired itself until it was back looking like new after about fifteen minutes.

"Well that's been dealt with, how did it feel KITT?"

"It was just as you said, quite the unpleasant sensation, but now that it's done it feel much better than before"

"Glad to hear that, now would you mind opening your hood so I can take a look at the engine...well...nevermind, yeah just open the hood"

"Were you going to say something else?"

"Well...I was going to tell you to transform back to your normal form but then I remembered that your engine undergoes quite the change when switching modes and maybe I won't be able to reach some of the damaged parts if you switch"

"That would be correct, it would be better to stay in attack mode until the repairs on the engine are done as well"

"Yeah, so now that we're on topic, how was the new engine? this was the first time that you tried that right?"

"It was, the engine was...interesting to say the least, I noticed that there is a big difference in how this engine was tuned compared to the one I previously had"

"That it is, you old engine was already a one of a kind state of the art engine but this one would leave the old one in the dust. We decided to test out this new twin-charged concept and it seems that coupled with the rest of the modifications and new parts, components and special materials that engine turned out to be quite the powerhouse with the appropriate tuning"

"I noticed, together with the modifications I made to the attack mode it really feels a whole lot different than before"

"Yeah about that, when did you come up with those modifications?"

"Well I had been working on them for a while even before this whole Daniel incident happened and was planning to bring it up to you once I had worked out all the possible glitches or problems, I had managed to do just that shorty before all this so I couldn't bring it up to anyone but since I had tested it and created successful simulations before I knew that it would more than likely work if I deployed it now that it would be helpful to reach Mike faster in the situation they were in"

"But there was still a possibility that it wouldn't have worked right?"

"Well...there was but it was a relatively small percentage"

"small you say? define small" there was silence from the AI then as Sarah continued to search for specific parts in one of the boxes "KITT?"

"25% percent chance"

"25%?! KITT that's no small percentage at all, especially for you. you really took a big gamble there"

"I apologize for that but since it worked out in the end I guess it is fine...right?"

"Well yeah I guess but it's not like you to take such risks"

The AI remained silent after that and Sarah simply popped up the hood and began working on replacing the damaged parts as KITT instructed her of what parts exactly needed to be replaced, after a couple hours the Mustang told Sarah to take a break and maybe go upstairs to see how Mike was doing since he detected that he was beginning to wake up finally, taking the car's suggestion the tech simply placed the two boxes of spare parts inside the car and headed for the elevator that would take her to the hospital's main floor where she could then move to search for Mike.

The last thing he remembered was sitting inside the AI's passenger's seat looking at the blurring scenery out the window, he could faintly hear the somewhat alarmed voice of the Mustang calling him and saying some things he couldn't quite understand before he went completely out; He didn't know how long it had been since that moment but as he started to regain consciousness those were the first images that came to his mind before he started to actually pay attention to what his senses were telling him.

Slowly he started to become aware of not only his surroundings but the general discomfort that was assaulting his body.

Immediately he felt a more intense feeling coming from his leg and he was quickly able to recall that he had been shot and had sustained some other relatively minor injuries, before even daring to to open his eyes he took a couple deep breaths as he realized by the coldness of his environment, the light sheets covering him and the sterile smell all around that he was more than likely in a hospital; bringing one hand up he half regretted the movement as some pain coming from his shoulder made him slow down his movement, he had probably strained a muscle a bit too far when he stretched out to close the AI's door when that one armored vehicle came barging in through the smoke.

Bringing up his arm up to cover some of the bright lights that he knew came standard with any hospital room he cracked open one eye and took a quick look at his surroundings, there was really nothing much to look at other than your standard room, he was connected to an IV and had some bandages here and there with the main one being around his leg...naturally he guessed.

struggling a little bit against some of the discomfort he sat up in the bed, taking notice of where some of the bandages were wrapped around to estimate how much he could and couldn't move based on that, he could feel that the worst one was on his left side where the bandage that had been wrapped around there had some small stains of blood and it was then that he wondered when did he get such an injury; his train of thought was stopped by the sound of the door of the room opening and then closing, a couple footsteps rang out on the otherwise silent room and Sarah came out into view to see a rather tired and banged up looking shirtless Mike sitting on the bed.

Relief was just about the only thing she felt when she finally came face to face with Mike again, despite being in the condition he was the man was fully awake and aware of his surroundings as he sat on the bed, quickly approaching him she went straight for a hug that she kept rather short and gentle as she kept in mind the injuries he had sustained. Taking a step back she pulled over a chair and sat right next to the bed.

"Glad to see you're finally up"

"and I'm glad to see you're here not screaming at me for being reckless"

"Oh don't worry, that'll come once you're out of here"

"Gee thanks for giving me something to look forwards to" there was a moment of silence before realization hit him once he had gotten his thoughts back in order "KITT, where's KITT? is he okay?"

"Relax he's fine, I was working on him in one of the lower levels of the underground parking lot so as to not be bothered"

"Working on him? what happened? when I got in him he seemed pretty much fine"

"Well you wouldn't have known since you passed out rather quickly after getting on the car and KITT was not going to be giving you any more things to worry about than you already had so I'll just be straight with you: On his fight with one of the armored vehicles his oil line was damaged and he began to leak out oil quickly, long story short by the time he set out of the place with you in him his levels were just about empty and they eventually did run out a couple minutes before he arrived here; Stalling twice in that time and overworking his already overheated engine he managed to get you here safely but some of the parts in his new engine were damaged because of their continued use on low lubrication and overheated conditions so as it stands he is not able to really move"

"That stubborn AI why would he even do that, it makes no sense"

"only because you aren't seeing things from his perspective...anyway I started working on replacing some of the damaged parts already and maybe in two days time he should be ready to move again"

"Wait what about the oil line? are you able to fix hat here?"

"No but I can make something that'll make it last enough for us to drive back to base and I can fully replace the oil system there with something more durable and efficient"

"Two days huh…"

"Well you have to stay here for just about that long anyway so I think it's just fine"

"Why don't you tow KITT back home and work there on getting everything working again?"

"Well I could...but I don't think KITT would be too happy with that"

"Well what if I just ordered him to go, he's bound to listen to me"

"Under normal circumstances yeah he would but as it stands he has your wellbeing as his priority so he doesn't want to leave the hospital grounds in case any emergencies do happen"

With a sigh the man tilted his head up in frustration, leave it to the AI to learn from him the thick-skulled stubbornness he himself had when it came to certain things "So what about my dad? is he okay?"

"He's in better shape than you that's for sure, he got what little medical attention he needed back at the site where the FBI should be about to be done by now. I spoke to him just before coming here and by what he says it looks like all of Daniel's lackeys have been taken in and the man himself is being transported directly to one of the FBI's headquarters for some questioning"

leaning back down he closed his eyes as he was finally able to get some semblance of peace for the first time in a while "Well that's good...this shit show looks to be about over"

"So it would seem...you should get some more rest, I'll be instructing your dad and the Two thousand to head straight back to base while I stay around here to fix KITT. If you need anything just call either me or KITT and I'll be back up here" searching in one of her pants' pockets she pulled out Mike's phone that she had recovered from where the hospital staff had left all of Mike's belongings "You really need some sleep after all the crap that's been going on lately, just relax, I'm going to go back to work on KITT"

Standing up and pulling the chair to be slightly farther away from the bed she gout out of the room and started to head back down, with a quick call back to base to inform Billy and Zoe of the situation she couldn't help but allow a smile to pull at the corners of her mouth when the only response she got from the two when telling them that Mike was fine and everything was just about to be settled properly by the FBI was a relieved sigh from the.

The following day Sarah took most of the time to keep working on the AI, taking a few breaks in between to rest while going up with Mike who by now was undergoing a few tests to make sure that the only thing he would need to do after this would be to rest up and wait for his leg to heal naturally, down at the bottom of the parking lot KITT pulled the short end of the stick by having pretty much nothing to do most of the time, even while Sarah worked on him the assistance that the tech required from him was minimum and while she was up with Mike he really had nothing to keep him occupied, after a while of doing nothing and just checking his systems over and over again just to keep himself busy he decided to shut himself down for a little while and go into his recharge mode; keeping just his sensors on Mike and Sarah's surroundings active the AI shut most of himself down and went into a state of partial shutdown in an attempt to get some peace and quiet after the hectic and busy last couple weeks that he had been going through, seems like testing so many things out for the first time all together was more tiring than he could have anticipated. Pushing most systems aside or shutting them down he only kept his sensors on the perimeter of the hospital as well as manly focusing on Mike and Sarah before setting himself to be on partial recharge.

After spending most of the morning with Mike Sarah went back down to keep working on KITT, as she walked out of the elevator and down the one remaining flight of stairs she saw the AI simply sitting there with the scanner dimmed down and moving slowly which led her to guess that while she had been upstairs the Mustang had gone into some degree of partial recharge; taking her equipment out of the focus she placed it all in front of the AI and tapped a few times on the hood to try and get his attention, a second later and the scanner's intensity gew a bit and the pace at which it moved increased slightly.

"Hello Sarah"

"Hey KITT, you mind popping the hood open? just gotta replace a few more parts and after that I can work on a temporary fix for your oil line that can at least get us back to base safely and then get to fixing that there"

without another word the hood of the modified Mustang clicked open, pulling it up and following KITT's pointers the tech began with the final tweaks required to fix or replace the few parts that remained.

By the time night fell Sarah was done with the repairs on the engine and after getting a few tests done internally by the AI he confirmed that everything seemed to be back in proper working order...well everything except for his oil line of course, having fixed his engine though he was able to finally switch back to his normal mode. Taking a few steps back Sarah watched as KITT finally switched from his attack mode back to normal mode and she found it rather relieving to see that the transformation sequence was working perfectly, panels moved and reformed smoothly and rearranged themselves to build the shell of the GT5oo Mustang once more.

"Well that's going to be it for that, now I'll just make a few quick repairs to seal your oil line and then we should only need to wait for Mike to be able to leave"

"Thank you for your work Sarah, I really appreciate it"
"Don't even mention it KITT"

"Have you contacted the FBI to check on things on their end yet?"

"Yeah I have, it seems that most if not all of Daniel's lackeys have been properly processed and faced charges for treason amongst other things while Daniel himself is still on the FBI offices under better vigilance while things get settled before he can be transported"

"Do you know when is his transportation schedules?"

"well...no, not really, why?"

"Well considering what happened last time I would like to serve as an escort for that to ensure that this time things do go as planned"

"I mean...I don't see a problem with that but I don't know what the FBI officers will say"

"I doubt they'll be accepting despite receiving free help, with your permission Sarah I'll be contacting Carrie for the details and serve as an escort regardless of the others' opinions since they've already showed once that they are not capable of handling Daniel properly"

"Well I don't have any complaints but that's mainly because I agree with you so feel free to contact Carrie then, though I will only allow you to go if when the transport date arrives I have your oil line working as it should again since I don't want to risk any more damage to the new engine...especially since we really haven't had the chance to test it properly"

"I believe that would be the only logical thing to do. When will Mike be free to go?"

"Well everything's coming out fine so maybe by tomorrow morning we can go back"

"I see…"

"Well, I'll start working on the temporal fix for that now, should be done in an hour or two if everything works properly"

The following morning Sarah drove the focus to the exterior parking lot near the entrance and KITT parked himself in front of the doors, after a little while both her and Mike walked out, the latter with the aid of some crutches that he had been instructed to use until his injured leg was fully healed. As the two walked around the car KITT opened the passenger's side door and allowed Sarah to take the crutches in the focus, in the span of a couple minutes both cars were making their way back to the SSC. Sitting on the passenger's seat of the Mustang Mike looked around the car aimlessly before finally opening up to speak.

"So...KITT I-"

"You have questions"

"Well...yeah, I wanted to ask sooner but I didn't have the chance to and right now we have some good free time"

"Well, what questions do you have?"

"For starters how is it that you're...well...you again after Sarah even confirmed that there was no way to recover the data that had been lost which was what made you...well you"

"Well that's because normally it would've been impossible to get that data back but back then before I was blown up by Daniel's AI I dumped most of my data and core information into my core and stored the more important parts of myself in a hidden section of it in case worse came to worse and Daniel still managed to get a hold of my shell but this secluded part of the core cannot be accessed or even detected by any exterior party which meant that this was also a gamble that I took in which I ran the risk of not being able to be myself ever again"

"You're not one to make something if the odds are against you though so even though it was a gamble the odds couldn't have been that bad right?"

"You would think that but really the chances of my recoded self finding this secluded section of the core were just shy of ten percent"

"Ten? that's no gamble at all KITT that's more leaving it to luck than anything else"

"Well that was the only way to at least make sure that Daniel wouldn't get access to some of the important data in case worse came to worse, luckily the safety lock guarding this separate area of the core was detected and breached by my recoded self and triggered the reconstruction of certain areas of the code to incorporate the missing pieces, that's why the reboot Sarah did that morning took so long to be completed"

"So you had time to really think this through in the span of what...a couple seconds?"

"Something like that"

With an amused smile the man took a deep breath as he looked out the window "Okay next thing on the list, I know you have some upgrades since I was around when this new body was completed, what do you think of them? oh and also, what was up with that modified attack mode?"

"I've experiences some of the new modifications and I am still testing things here and there with the new systems internally but I will say that the modification that stood out the most in relation to my previous shells is the new engine. Right now even in normal mode it already feels different...if I'm honest this is the first time that I've driven with this new engine"

"Wait what? you drove from the SSC to get to where I was didn't you?"

"I did but I did so while in my attack mode which by the way it looked different than before because I did some slight modifications to improve a few things when considering aerodynamics"

"isn't your engine in this and in attack mode very similar? I know that before a few things changed and it ended with a better response, acceleration and a few other things but it was never a massive change"

"This time around Sarah, Zoe and Billy came up with an interesting and revolutionary way to allow the engine to undergo some more drastic changes when switching modes although it did come at the cost of only being able to transform while standing still with the engine off to allow it to undergo said changes"

"And what are those major changes? is the new power output with it really that much better?"

"It increases considerably, as you know in my normal mode I have a highly modified, supercharged Shelby GT500 engine but when changing into my attack mode the engine undergoes several changes, which amongst the several added and replaced parts for better handling and tolerance of increasing temperatures includes a more capable fuel injection system as well as the addition of a high capacity turbocharger...in essence my supercharged engine becomes a super high RPM Twin-charged engine that generates most of its power above the eight thousand RPMs with a redline of eleven thousand and a limit of fourteen thousand"

Mike sat in silence half dumbfounded with this new piece of knowledge, from his time before joining the SSC back in the day he used to race in Vegas and he had a good amount of car knowledge when it came to the mechanical part so hearing this new bits of knowledge and knowing what those numbers meant he simply was at a loss of words; truly Sarah, Billy and Zoe had managed to engineer a way to make the changes in the engine when KITT switched modes while at the same time turning the engine into one hell of a powerhouse "KITT show me, I want to see this new engine for myself now that you say that, it sounds incredible but I just can't imagine how it's possible"

"I would gladly show you but as it stands I'd rather wait and show you some other time"

"And why is that?"

"Because right now my oil line is not entirely fixed and I would like to avoid any unnecessary strain that could cause it to break again before reaching the SSC, once that is fixed I can really show you what it's like"

"Oh yeah...forgot about that, you shouldn't have pushed yourself that much by the way, Sarah told me everything"

"Well would you rather have me stopped in the middle of the road where my engine first stalled with you passed out and losing blood or receiving some much needed attention at a hospital?"

"Well...okay nevermind that just...don't pull something like that again?"

"I won't if you don't give me a reason to"

With a smile on his face the duo fell silent then for a while before eventually falling back to some questions from Mike to the AI regarding some of the new functionalities, this made time go by faster in Mike's opinion and before noon they were getting close to the base's perimeter.

Upon entering the base they were received by Billy, Zoe and Michael, Kitt was parked next to the gimbal and allowed the Mustang to park directly in his place, getting out of the car he was helped into the couch on the side of the room until a couple minutes later Sarah came in with the crutches in had after parking the focus elsewhere. The group began talking about the events of the whole situation and the end result of it while behind them KITT sat quietly, he had been lost in his own train of thought when a prompt from one of his internal communication lines blinked, turning towards it he found it that it was none other than the other AI sitting right next to him.

"Well since last time we saw each other we had to deal with a rather unpleasant situation and last time we talked it was mostly all business so let me welcome you back properly"

"Thank you, glad to see that you made it back in one piece"

"Got a few scratches and bumps here and there but your friends up there made quick work of them, what about you?"

"Sarah repaired my engine while we were waiting for Mike, all that's left it to get my oil line replaced with a better one"
"Ah, I see...well at least it's over, heard that the FBI took proper care of everything this time"

"mostly...what are you and Mr. Knight going to do about the fact that your house as been damaged after this ordeal?"

"I'm sure we can figure something out, we know enough important people to be able to get back into hiding somewhere else, With some luck we'll be back to a peaceful, slightly boring routine"

"If that is what you wish then I can only witsh you two some luck in getting things to move smoothly"

"Thanks, still, if you, Mike or any of your friends need any help don't hesitate to ask, you know where to contact me now anyway"

"Thank you, I will take it into consideration"

later that same day and KITT was sitting sideways as the gimbal was half turned to allow easy access to his undercarriage where Sarah was working now, while she did that KITT set himself to the task of contacting Carrie and after two failed attempts she finally answered on the third one.

"Hello?"

"Carrie, this is KITT"

"Oh...hi KITT, is something up?"

"No not at the time, I heard the FBI took proper care of the people that were helping Daniel"

"Yeah, they've all been transported by now or are in the process of being transported"

"All but Daniel himself if my information is correct"

"Yeah we're...we're still moving some things around for the charges he's facing but we should be able to move him in about two days time, why the sudden interest?"

"Well you'll have to forgive me for this but I thought that it would be better if I went in place of one of the escorts for Daniel's transport, after what happened the last time I feel like this would be a proper safety measure"

"Well you would be good insurance but I would need to talk it over with the other directors"

"To be honest with you it wasn't really a question, that was why I was apologizing earlier, I thought it would be better for you to know but regardless of your answer I will be serving as an escort for the transport vehicle"

"Oh umm...personally I'm not against it but I will have to tell the other directors about this, if you are going to go regardless though I guess I should start arranging the convoy with you in mind as well as informing the people that will be there about you so that they don't think of you as a threat"

"I appreciate the help Carrie"

"It's not a problem, honestly I'm kind of relieved now since with you in tow I doubt we'll get any inconvenients like last time"

"I assume that he is still in the same headquarters where you are located correct?"

"Yeah he's here, just be sure to be here around noon in two days' time"

"I'll be there, thank you again for the help"

"Anytime KITT"

With the call finished the AI informed Sarah of his plan privately, agreeing to let him go considering that by then he should be fully fixed the tech only asked of him to keep a live transmission open to them at all times in case anything did go wrong as some sort of insurance of their own. Later that same day Mike managed to find out the AI's plan and for a while he was immersed in a discussion with Sarah and the car to allow him to go with KITT on the escort mission; both the tech and the Mustang refused because of two simple facts, first Mike was still under orders to rest and not move around until his leg was completely healed and second if things went downhill again to a point where KITT couldn't handle them then at least he could manage an escape plan or course of action on his own without endangering his driver's life anymore. After a couple failed attempts the man finally gave up and pretty much resigned himself to have to stay at the base to sit and watch like the others.

Almost by the end of the night that same Day Sarah had finished removing the old oil line and replacing it with a new, more resistant one that was sure to be able to hold on properly against the higher stress that came with pretty much any component in the AI, the following day was uneventful enough as Billy and Zoe focused on filing some of the reports from the last 'mission' that was technically not really an official mission but they had decided to count it as such anyway. Sitting in his place KITT spend most of that day thoroughly going through all the new systems and creating simulations so that if he did end up needing to use them the next day on the escort then at least he could have an idea of how things would go, lost in that process eventually it became nightfall and even though he wanted to get a few more things ready Sarah all but made him stop to give his processor a little time to relax, rather reluctantly he obeyed and ended up setting himself to recharge mode for the remainder of that night.

the next morning everyone was already up and moving around by ten as they got everything ready to let KITT go off on his own, the possibility of allowing the Two Thousand to go with him was played around with for a while but in the end KITT decided that going on his own would be the best course of action to efficiently act in case of an emergency as well as to minimize the chances of anyone getting hurt now that he was at nearly full capacity with the upgrades that gave him a better resistance to most physical attacks or weapons.

Eventually the Mustang was finally ready to go, preparations had taken a bit longer than expected so he would have to go in attack mode to compensate for the lost time in speed; turning the gimbal around the AI switched modes and fired up his engine, even from here Mike stood behind him he was able to really hear the difference with the new engine and that only made him want to see for himself how powerful it really was.

as soon as KITT got on the main highway he plotted the fastest route to where he needed to get, he was going to be cutting it quite close with the times even if nothing got in his way but he was going as fast as he could without really pushing himself to the limit like when he drove to the location where Mike and his dad were to keep a reasonable safety margin; the powerful engine seemed to emit a sound of released pressurized air whenever he let off the gas and as soon as he stepped on it again the immediate response came with the characteristic whine of the supercharger, yes, this really was an incredible engine even to him and he was looking forwards to testing how good it really was later down the line but for now he just had to keep his focus on the task at hand.

Carrie got out of the building into the back area where the transport team that was going to take Daniel was finishing preparations, it had been ten minutes past the time that she had told KITT to get there but since the directived hadn't agrees with this in the first place she doubted that they would let her hold back the departure a couple more minutes. With a sigh she called for another group that was waiting inside the building and a couple minutes later Daniel came out being escorted by three men, she directed them towards the van where they would be sitting just as a powerful engine made itself know and soon enough a black modified Mustang with a scarlet red scanner came driving around the corner which made Daniel pale a couple shades as he turned to look at the FBI agent.

"What the hell is this? what is it doing here?"

"KITT will be serving as another escort for your transport vehicle, we don't want another incident to happen and after last time we've learned a thing or two about being cautious"

"It can't be here, the board didn't mention anything about this"

"That is because they did not approve him of fulfilling this job but as it stands not even I was able to dissuade him from coming, if he's here then it's on his own accord and under his own terms, don't try anything and we'll make sure that you get to your final destination safely rather than with another hit to add to the last one you got for trying to go after Mike"

cursing under his breath Daniel was walked in front of the AI on his way to the transport van, the red scanner was tracking back and forth slowly and coupled with the menacing sound of the idling engine and the more aggressive look that the attack mode gave the car the man couldn't help but feel intimidated after witnessing first hand that in his eyes the apparently harmless AI was no longer that harmless after all…

Everything being set up the convoy left the building to their five hour trip, KITT had taken a spot right next to the van and was sure to keep his scanners on a wider range that would alert him should anything out of the ordinary or suspicious were to happen.

Back at the SSC the group sat on the main chamber half watching the live transmission from KITT displayed on the main screen, Mike sat on the couch on the side of the room still pouting over the fact that he hadn't been allowed to go but at least he could see what was happening in real time through the live feed.

The first two hours of the trip went by uneventfully with the AI only switching positions with either of the other two escort vehicles every now and then to be either on the other side of the van or behind it, at the present time he was driving behind the van almost on autopilot as the speed he was driving at was just a slight bit slower than your average highway speed; keeping most of his attention on monitoring his surroundings as well as the road ahead he noticed that there had been a car that seemed to be following them for a good distance so deciding to be safe rather than sorry he went over a full scan of the car and just a couple of seconds after he was glad that he had checked.

The car following them some distance behind had four men of which three were carrying guns and adequate protection, in addition to that he detected an outgoing radio signal that connected to two other cars that were ahead of them.

Deciding that the information he had gathered was more than enough he contacted Carrie privately through her earpiece where she sat in the transport van, she quickly shared this information with the other two escort vehicles and even sent a call back to headquarters which immediately responded by saying they were going to be sending a squad for reinforcements as well as a chopper to keep track of everything. Knowing all this the AI decided to tell the other escorts himself to keep formation and acto oblivious to their pursuers in order to spring a trap themselves and catch the enemy off guard.

For the following few miles nothing changed until finally the vehicle behind them sped up until it as just about two car lengths away from KITT, the AI went ahead first and made a faint motion to switch places with the escort car on the right to which their pursuers took the chance and one of them rolled down his window and began shooting.

The second KITT saw the man get halfway out the window he performed a hard braking maneuver that within seconds placed him behind the pursing car, through his sensors he detected that the two cars that bad been ahead of them were slowing down to allow their convoy to catch up so he had to make quick work of things now in order to not be overpowered or outmaneuvered later; taking advantage of his new position the AI made use of one of his newly perfected abilities and quickly moving so that he was next to the pursuing car he took aim and shot a modified spearhook that latched itself onto the undercarriage of the other car. Having secured that link KITT made use of his immediate acceleration to pull the other car from the side and make it lose balance as well as speed to the point where he released the spearhook at the precise moment just before the car his pursuers were in flipped and this only caused the car to lose control and fall into a ditch on the side of the road from where he was sure it was not going to be coming out of without the help of the FBI squad that had been dispatched to them from another location that was closer to them than the place they had originally left from.

Punching the accelerator he caught back up with the convoy just as the two other cars that had been ahead caught up with them, from one of the cars on the passenger's side a man rolled down the window and aimed his gun at one of the other escort cars before starting to shoot; KITT moves quickly and used his quick acceleration and torque to push the escort car out of the range from the bullets and positioning himself in its place, the driver of the car in front of him quickly catching up in his actions and accelerating himself so as to not leave the work of pushing the car to the AI. At the very edge of his sensors KITT detected a bigger group of cars as well as a chopper, the cavalry had finally arrived and that gave the AI the green light to start taking out the two cars attacking them.

Quickly telling Carrie to tell her men to stand down the Mustang charged up and in a matter of a few seconds the midnight black surface of the car began popping light shimmers in a few parts around the general surface of the car, being done with the charge KITT quickly maneuvered to position himself in front of one of the pursuing cars before drastically braking just enough to collide with the car behind him; the second both cars collided electricity crackled from the AI to the car behind him in a shower of sparks, the pursuing vehicle then veered to a side as it was shut down by the impact letting the convoy put some good distance in no time thanks to the good speed they were traveling at since the pursuit started.

The Mustang then turned his attention to the one remaining car on the opposite side of the van from him, from what he could tell one of the men sitting on the backseat was attempting to reach the van to open one of the doors so before that could happen KITT decided to make quick work of them by maneuvering around the van an the other escorting vehicles in order to be behind the last car, deciding to stop prolonging this chase anymore he deployed his grappling hook and got it stuck to the rear axle of the car ahead, with sudden hard braking he pulled on the other car with enough force to take the whole rear axle clean off and leaving the car to drag its rear end along the road until it finally stopped just as a couple of the FBI quad cars that had been called came into view in the distance. Three cars down there was only one more thing to take care of.

KITT pressed down on the accelerator in a way that would've previously left him spinning his wheels in search for traction for a couple seconds but now with all the improvements to pretty much every one of his systems he took off straight off the line without leaving a trace on the road and picking up speed at an incredible rate; flying past the transport van and the escort cars with it he took the next exit off of the highway and headed straight for another van that he could only guess had been parked there as another getaway vehicle, there was only a driver sitting inside and by the looks of it KITT guessed that he would be too distracted to notice his approach so instead of getting ready for another pursuit he slowed down a little bit and from a distance took aim with his spikes, stopping where he knew he would be out of sight he shot out both right side tyres from the van before taking off as he sent Carrie the location of the van from which the driver was now climbing out of in confusion as to why two of his tyres had been blown out. Getting back on the highway he caught up with the transport van while using satellites to see what was the status of the cars he had taken out.

Way in the back the first car that had ended in the ditch besides the rod had be surrounded and by now the people that had been inside were about to be taken away by the FBI, the car he had shocked was surrounded and the agents were working into getting the men to get out of the car and by now the FBI cars were about to get to the last car he had left without a rear axle, from there he saw a small group break off to presumably go after the van now that Carrie had probably given its location to the rest of the FBI agents that were around. The chopper stayed behind flying around the general area where the three cars had been taken out and at least for the time being it looked like there was no longer a threat to the convoy, he couldn't be sure of that though so he would still drive with the convoy until they got to their destination just to be sure.

Back in the SSC the second some activity started to show up everyone's eyes became glued to the screen, Mike had tried to go and open a chat line to KITT but was stopped by Sarah telling him to let the AI handle things on his own so once again the man ended up reluctantly sitting back down on the desk and settle to just watch and of course that by the time the exchange was over he was more than just a little surprised to see the Mustang take out each of the three cars in the most efficient and safest way for the passengers while at the same time protecting not only the van but also the other escort vehicles and their drivers from getting injured before going out and taking out the van that was waiting further up ahead. Everyone in the room had been quite impressed with the AI's performance including the Trans am sitting behind everyone.

For the convoy the rest of the journey to their destination went without any more incident, upon their arrival a team got out of the building to receive the van, a couple guards immediately went over to the open van door to escort Daniel out of it and into the building where he would finally be processed; KITT sat right behind the vas as this whole process took place, walking away from the van Daniel turned behind him to see the AI, scanner tracking back and forth camly and not even a single scratch on him despite the skirmish he had gotten into on the way here, to say Daniel was pissed would've been an understatement but as it stood there was nothing he could do to get out of this one...it was finally over.

after he was sure that there as nothing more that he could do the AI just send a message to Carrie telling her that he was going to be taking his leave, reversing out of the place KITT wasted no time in going back to the highway the way he had come to start heading back to base, he drove past the few remaining FBI cars that were still around and was glad to see that they had everything pretty much under control; finally with no worries clouding his processor the Mustang was able to focus only on driving and for the first time since being brought back he found himself just straight up enjoying the drive back.

The following morning held a cool air, dark clouds hung in the sky which signaled that there was an approaching storm but so far not a drop had fallen from the sky, out in the hangar of the SSC everyone was working on finishing up a few tests on KITT who right now laid in wait of instructions facing the partially open hangar doors. Mike sat on the car's driver' seat, having convinced Sarah that he could still drive for at least a little bit and that he really wanted to check out KITT's new engine himself; the AI was already in attack mode and ready to take off for the speed test that they were about to do while a giddy looking Mike Knight seemed to not be able to wait a couple more minutes for the preparations to be ready.

Finally Mike closed the door of the car and turned on the engine that came to life with a menacing roar, he revved it up a couple times and found himself smiling at the sound of not only the supercharger but the sound of the released pressurized air from the turbo, it really was a unique sound that he had no idea could actually come from a car. The second Sarah gave him the all clear Mike all but smashed the gas down to the floor which caused the car to take off instantly with godly amounts of grip and with such an acceleration force that threw the man back into his seat even with the passenger restraint system being active, the unreal sound of the engine filling the cabin with the whine of the powerful turbocharger as everything not in sight of the windshield turned into a blur as the car shot out of the hangar where Mike finally let go of the gas to be received by the sound of the turbocharger leading off as he only remained with a giant smile plastered on his face.

"Well KITT that was nothing short of incredible, just...amazing"

"I'm glad you approve, now all you have to go is get used to the feeling of the stronger G-force"

"Yeah, that's not gonna be problem if working on that means I get to do more of this"

the AI couldn't help but get a smile of his own internally at the sight of his driver doing well and enjoying himself this much just for getting to drive again, it made him glad that everything had gone well in their last mission "Glad to see that you're okay Mike"

Looking down from the open tarmac ahead he turned his gaze to the AI's voice modulator, the red dot leaned slightly to the left "Yeah...yeah it's good to be back, but more than anything I'm glad you're back, like really back as yourself KITT...we really all thought you were gone for good"

"Then you're not giving me enough credit I feel like, it will take more than just an explosion to get rid of me"

taking the humor for what it was Mike couldn't help but let out a laugh as he gave the steering wheel a couple pats "I guess you're right KITT...you really are..."