The interior of the vault was dry but cold, a shallow mist of dust quietly befalling the two confined vehicles in their tight steel enclosure. They'd been there for a while to their unknowing. Collecting webs in the dark vault, and holding memories of a past life that had ceased, for the moment, to continue. Despite being almost identical when it came to model, (both being 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am) one was two-toned in color. Jet black for the top and silver for the bottom half. The other was just a simple jet black.
Had both been active, the simple idea of being so close to one another in such a confined space would have sent a shudder of disgust down their processors and sent them tumbling in a violent misfit.
Both were not.
The vault had meant to be air-tight, completely sealed off from the rest of the world, blocking all forms of communications and transmissions but its purpose had ultimately failed. It had been put in storage recklessly without taking into account the individuals quietly slumbering inside and it was only a matter of time before someone's negligence could take effect and awaken a forgotten hope.
It did.
The technology inside each car despite being somewhat outdated in the present, we're nowhere near inefficient. They stood for so much more than what they'd appeared and we're certainly not your everyday car. Both easily capable of deflecting dangerous projectiles and jumping over huge barriers, not to mention go through them if they chose.
-But that was just the icing on the cake…
The individuals trapped, the lives put on hold...
Even in sleep, both vehicles still carried a legacy of a now-forgotten dream.
Well….Mostly…
A quiet hum of electricity had slowly begun to creep through the long-forgotten CPU, jolting the sleeping individual contained inside into a figurative yawn. Its system slowly shuddering to life as a special program began to pull at his also very figurative ear.
The other AI housed in the two-toned care was also slowly rolling out of sleep and was more vocal about the process. Gunning the engine beneath the hood in premature bootup as to warn off whoever had awakened him this time. The two last times hadn't exactly gone perfectly, and his will for self-preservation had put him on edge. Still somewhat unconscious of the surroundings around him, he continued to gun the engine despite not receiving any visuals just yet.
As for the more dozed AI, it was taking its sweet time to adjust parameters here and there, realizing slowly that it had long been asleep and that some things weren't exactly the way they should have been, much to its annoyance. It couldn't hear its 'partner' blaring in the enclosed steel container just behind him, but his olfactory sensor was getting a strong smell of gasoline much to his worry.
The second AI was quicker to boot than its predecessor, but for the life of him could not get his visual sensors to react. He was getting no images at all. Terror had started to build in his CPU, and the idea that this was some sort of torture made so his mood quickly shifted aggressively. Defensively he put the car into movement ramming up against the chassis where the other AI resided.
The other car didn't so much as bend but had been jolted up against the wall of the huge container, much to its displeasure.
"Goodness!" Kitt yelped, aware that someone had indeed pushed him. He was quick to grasp for his visual sensors, the AI nearly jumping out of its skin so to speak when it got a glance at the mad AI behind him.
"Karr!?" Kitt cut in, Karr's scanner blaring a bright orange as he realized who was in front of him.
"I see we meet again!" Karr growled, forcefully pushing into Kitt's chassis blindly once more.
"-but we destroyed you! Cut it out, Karr!" Kitt shouted, mostly out of sheer surprise but in too much shock for much else. His scanner was swooshing from side to side madly, trying to reach out to his friends. It fell on deaf ears however, none of the computers and communications channels he was familiar with seemed to be responding. Something was not right!
Kitt went over his predicament quickly, asking himself all kinds of questions as to how Karr was still alive and how come they were locked together in this steel box. He was suddenly jolted out of his thoughts as Karr rammed into his back bumper, nudging Kitt's nose into the steel wall before him.
"Michael!" Kitt shouted, frightened, only encouraging Karr to continue his pursuit.
It went like that for a while, until Kitt embarrassingly realized he could push against Karr too. He did so but it seemed Karr had already gotten a head start. The wall before Kitt was buckling into itself alarmingly, and Kitt's scanner could not pick up what was on the other side. What if they were underwater? Or high up? What then?! The possibilities were endless and yet Kitt went over each possible one.
Karr let out a growl.
"Goodbye inferior production line model!" He shouted once more, backing up and ramming into Kitt one last time. The wall collapsed and Kitt was blindly pushed out into a darkened narrow aisle, with rows and rows of steel containers stacked on top of each other. The air here was less dense than the one inside the container, and Kitt was relieved that the strong smell of gasoline had dissipated.
Kitt was quick to swerve towards safety as Karr continued forward and hit the opposing row of containers. He grumbled to himself in irritation as his nose dented into the foreign object. Karr gunned the motor once more, launching himself forward in the direction he assumed Kitt must have been. Much to Kitt's surprise he rammed into the opposite row of containers and had continued to grumble to himself complaining loudly about his lost vision.
Kitt concluded that he wasn't much of a threat [at least not yet], and decided to slip into silent mode briefly to examine the facts uninterrupted and figure out what was going on.
He tried to scan the area but he was picking up too much interference to come to a viable conclusion. Kitt much to his surprise couldn't help but feel a program luring him to go somewhere. Drawing him out for an unspecified reason. Troubled, he looked over Karr who was still bumping into every container to find the lower production model. Kitt felt a brief pitty run through his electronic mind but was quick to dismiss it as he pulled out disapproving memories of Karr in his memory banks. His scanner hummed loudly in rebuke towards Karr, as Kitt pulled away from the vehicle down the aisle.
Karr was quick to note that Kitt was moving rapidly away, a flash of fear going through him as he realized the severity of his predicament. He couldn't see, he was in the dark and how was he supposed to escape? He was able to come to a logical conclusion, but this meant...NO! He would never-BONK! Well...then...there was also a possibility….
"Kitt?" He called out, trying to drown out his obvious worry from his voice modulator. "Come back here!" He challenged.
Kitt dismissed Karr's response and turned onward into another aisle quite astonished at the sheer size of whatever warehouse they found themselves in at the moment. He didn't have his lights on, but he could see huge metallic support beams stretching upward glittering under the dim light that was entering through the opaque windows in the warehouse roof.
Karr only heard Kitt's tires squeal off in the distance as he took on a sharp turn, the sound alone letting him know he was alone. Karr thought to himself momentarily, he didn't possibly need Kitt to survive, he hadn't back then and he didn't right now. He led himself forward only to find another obstruction. He backed up and collided with yet another container.
"I don't need anyone! I don't need anyone's help!" Karr shouted in self defiance into the dark.
"I will defend my-" He yelped as Kitt's engine suddenly roared right in front of him.
He backed up in retreat only to find himself cornered.
Kitt looked over the troubled AI in amusement; he'd returned to the container after realizing that there was a possibility that Michael, Bonnie, and Devon would be looking for exactly this one. He could only hope that they were looking for him.
His scanner ran slowly from side to side in thought, its ruby red glowing faintly off of Karr's hood. Karr however had gone silent, he was at the mercy of his enemy and he was well aware that Kitt probably didn't have any more towards him. The silence held itself for a long while until Kitt pulled away from Karr. The sound of his retreat calmed the AI if only briefly, Kitt was pulling away further and further.
"No, wait!" Karr called, putting his ego aside for the moment. "I do not wish to be left here."
Kitt stopped. His engine went silent once more. Karr took in the cold silence as Kitt's retaliation and also his leaving. He groaned his engine, and slowly began to bring himself forward attempting to navigate the building blindly, he was distraught.
"Karr, I'm over here," Kitt remarked, clearly irritated. Under no circumstance did he wish to bring Karr with him, but...Seeing him so….so vulnerable…made him reflect about whether he really should leave him or not...
He decided it was best to keep Karr close, but as a safety precaution in case they were in enemy hands.
"Over here, Karr," Kitt called, kindly now.
Karr slowly inched towards the voice but suddenly stopped. Maybe Kitt was playing a joke on him and wasn't there at all!
"If you-"
"Shhh-" Kitt snapped, picking up on voices far off in the distance. His scanner swooshing rapidly.
Karr obliged.
They remained silent.
"They are armed," Kitt replied very quietly. "Karr, I'm in front of you just come forward very slowly until you've bumped into me. Then follow me."
Kitt put his engine into silent mode once again, much to Karr's worry. He didn't possess such a feature.
He tried to silence his engine the best he could all the while inching forward until he bumped into Kitt's back bumper. He felt Kitt suddenly pull forward and Karr pulled forward too, following urgently behind. Kitt suddenly signaled him to stop which he reluctantly did.
He could hear the human voices echo in the space they were in, laughing and chuckling to one another. At some point, the voices sounded so close that Karr was convinced Kitt had left him behind to be discovered and re-captured, however, he got the relieving message of the other AI via their private communication channel informing him that the humans had just walked by unaware of their presence.
'What is your plan?' Karr remarked over the channel. Kitt hesitated to respond, giving Karr an uneasy feeling. What if Kitt really had intended to leave him behind? Anger was slowly starting to trickle in.
'I don't know.' Came Kitt's answer finally, soothing Karr's worries. He could tell the answer was honest.
'Where is your driver?' Karr finally dared. The channel went silent once more and Karr could hear the slow and stuttering scanner of his rival.
Kitt didn't know what had happened to Michael, in all honesty, he couldn't locate his memories of what had happened last he'd seen him and for that matter, last he'd been with Devon or Bonnie. It was all a blur and corrupted data, but some strange feeling was slowly overtaking his CPU, giving him the sensation that something terrible had happened when they'd last been together. The program that was quietly calling to him was also becoming concerning, executing itself in the background, modifying Kitt's parameters commanding him to head somewhere urgently. He couldn't understand it, and he couldn't remember what such a program was for, but it continued to nag at him to get moving.
Both AI's stood in silence in the darkened warehouse, their scanners up in surveillance mode. Karr figured something horrible had happened to Michael Knight since Kitt was taking so long to reply, and he didn't mind at all. Now his twin was being hindered just as much as he was. Good.
Kitt was shuffling all the while through the limited information he'd found in his memory banks, but there were so many gaps and holes that he somehow could feel we're there. Which didn't make any sense. He was a computer. If something wasn't there, then he wouldn't know...but...he could feel it being there...Bothered by his notion, he set his self-diagnostics into action. The data came positive, nothing seemed to be wrong. He decided to put that aside for the time being and resolved to check his communications again. He tried to communicate with the mobile unit but the system failed to reply. He tried other ways, but nothing...What about Michaels's comlink? A slight glimmer of hope grew within him but...something else rotten and cold took its place. He would try the comlink later.
'Someone is coming.' Karr quietly informed him, with a slight hint of scorn. Kitt was so taken by the current situation he failed to register it.
The human was just a few feet away, examining the containers in suspicion, and was slowly making his way towards the box that had imprisoned both Kitt and Karr. His flashlight's beam bounced off the metallic receptacles as he slowly pointed it towards an empty and much-broken container. The man stopped, taking in the forbidding sight. He reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a communication device.
"Someone's broken into shaft 09." The man spoke under his breath.
Something about the name spooked Kitt; the background program taking this opportunity to convince him to move out quickly! He turned on his engine and hurriedly rushed away, it wasn't at all a nimble exit. Karr attempted to follow behind but had sped up too swiftly bumping into Kitt forcefully and sent him drifting slightly to the right, loudly striking a container.
The man with the flashlight quickly beamed them with his light and shouted, gunshots striking the two vehicles in the dark.
Kitt was grateful to hear the familiar sound of the projectiles bouncing off him, Karr couldn't agree more. The two quickly speed up. Kitt warned Karr almost at the last instant to turn left as the warehouse had started to become lively, and not at all in a good way. Kitt was internally panicking now, where was Michael!? What was he to do? Was this part of some sort of plan and he'd forgotten what it was he was meant to do? Had he done something wrong? What was it with the annoying background program nagging at him so much?!
Kitt started to speed up, Karr could hear the loud rumble of Kitt's engine pulling the AI further and further ahead. Karr desperately wanted to catch up but for fear of crashing and creating his demise, he shouted for kitt to slow down!
Karr's voice pulled Kitt out of his daze, and fastly scanned the area ahead for the exit and of course, there it was.
"Karr! Prepare for impact!"
Indeed he did.
Kitt was the first to burst through the cement wall, his sensors tensing at the sudden warmth outside. He jolted himself ever faster as security had started to shoot at both vehicles in the warehouse yard. He wanted to drift sideways and avoid an unnecessary impact with a huge brick wall but he quickly remembered that Karr could not do the same with his limitations. So he went through it.
Karr could hear Kitt still racing forward and blindly followed through the second gap. He could feel his chassis jump and wobble as he pushed past the rubble.
On the other side of this wall was nothing but desert, much to Kitt's relief had it been a forest he was certain Karr and himself would have had a mess on their figurative hands.
The two continued to run in a straight line for a very long time before Karr remarked to Kitt. "There are four miles between them and us. We must change directions."
Kitt internally nodded.
"Go right, Karr." He replied, turning. Karr obliged.
They kept doing that for several miles until Kitt was sure they weren't being followed and had Karr slow down. Both vehicles came to a steady stop, Kitt reassessing the situation.
"Where must we go now?" Karr asked, much to Kitt's surprise. He hadn't expected Karr to allow him to make so many decisions, not for him at least. Karr himself was a little surprised with himself but knew this alliance was worthwhile now that he knew Kitt was most likely not going to abandon him given the chance. For that, he was somewhat grateful...somewhat…
Kitt went quiet, his scanner humming loudly as he tried to pinpoint where on earth they were. It took him a while to establish a connection with a satellite, this one being reserved about giving him an answer as to which he had to turn to a different tactic. When he was able to get a reading of where they were, his navigational system involuntarily pinpointed a target for him. A destination. He shrugged it off for the time being.
"It looks like we're somewhere in Nevada," Kitt replied, suddenly feeling the full weight of his missing partner.
Karr went quiet momentarily.
"We must fix my visual sensors if we are to travel." He emphasized.
Kitt went over the idea, not sure he liked it, but frankly, he'd liked it better if Karr wasn't always bumping into him all the time. Kitt internally nodded, thinking over how they were to do that without a pair of helping hands. It seemed Karr was thinking the same thing.
"You will have to capture a human and bring them to me." Karr strongly replied.
"You disgust me, Karr." Kitt barked quickly. Karr yet again went silent. Right, his twin had sympathy for those phony ballast creatures.
"How do you plan to fix me?" Karr finally answered, knowing very well that after he regained his vision he would probably do away with Kitt...or should he? Hadn't Kitt just saved him? The thought suddenly struck him as odd. Kitt was helping him. He was lost for words at the moment…
Kitt went over any possible solutions to Karr's blindness, several requiring a specialized technician which at the moment was out of the question. There was the off chance Karr hadn't booted up properly and that the drivers for said visual sensors hadn't been accessed. Karr would surely not like the idea of rebooting out in the open, especially at the complete mercy of his rival but it was worth a try, Kitt concluded.
"Karr, I recommend you restart." He meekly replied.
Karr, who was still internally worrying about whether he should trust Kitt or not, beat his scanner faster from side to side.
"Very well, but don't try anything clever. I will protect myself." He growled.
"Yes, Karr." Kitt agreed.
"Keep watch," Karr advised, as he began to restart his entire system.
Kitt stood watch, scanning the vicinity noting now that the sun had begun to lower creating gorgeous brush strokes of pinks and reds in the horizon. The sight was somewhat uncanny, he could remember seeing several of these during some cases with Michael, the difference now was that he had nowhere to be, or any plans to be doing. That was what was so uncanny about it, he'd never imagined he'd be seeing a sunset unaccompanied by his friend and in the company of well...a not-so-good friend...He continued to watch the sun slowly descend disappearing over the sunburn hills and rigid vegetation. A shiver traveling down his circuitry as Karr spoke, breaking the silence.
"You were right. I can now see." Karr reported, sounding somewhat bitter. Kitt's scanner hummed in anticipation, waiting for his first strike. He should have known better than to trust Karr.
"I-" He stuttered momentarily. "I thank you…" He paused. "Kitt."
Kitt took in the complement bewildered.
"What did you say, Karr?" Kitt remarked teasingly.
"You heard me," Karr Growled, as crickets began to chirp in the overgrowth. It was starting to cool down.
"Very well, Karr," Kitt replied, tossing aside his hostility and admiring the blanket of stars that had begun to reappear. He sighed internally, starting up his engine, and subconsciously began to follow the path put forth by the mysterious program that had gotten louder in frequency.
"Where are we heading?" Karr asked, following carefully behind. Kitt stopped, his scanner slowing down in pace.
"I'm not sure." He replied, perplexed. The program's calling just sounded so...inviting...and so...familiar. He looked over the path it had calculated, looking over the destination. There seemed to be nothing remotely familiar in that direction but the program continued to home him in.
"I need to find Michael," Kitt remarked, involuntarily out loud.
Karr went quiet. It hadn't been the answer he'd been looking for. He'd hoped that Kitt would have let go of the human by now and would have preferred to journey across the country looking for trouble instead. Either way, he was aware that two AI's were better than one. He wouldn't protest, at least not yet. He figured he could journey for some time alongside Kitt until things got unfriendly between them again. Then they would part ways as long as Kitt didn't get in his way, in that case, he would have to do something threatening to the younger AI.
Kitt's scanner flashed once more before going momentarily dark, then bright crimson again. He took off towards the desert. Karr grumbled to himself hoping Kitt knew where he was going, following the dark form under the moonlight shimmering over their gleaming black color.