Rig stayed back with the Knight Foundation's mobile unit, Christine and Thunder going on ahead, following Devon and Bonnie. They met with General and KITT in the alley outside of Acid's outer fence.
Christine and General touched fenders in embrace, General bumping Thunder with his tire after Christine pulled away.
"It's good to see y'all again," General rumbled, preparing to address them as a leader.
However, as he said this, Devon stepped forward, straightening his tie and clearing his throat. "Bonnie, escort the General Lee back to the mobile unit, get him fixed up. KITT, I'll ask you to translate for me."
KITT flashed his lights in understanding, and Bonnie smiled warmly at General and walked forward. General revved his engine in defiance, refusing to sit this one out.
"KITT, tell your suit that I ain't goin' anywhere. We have a better chance with more Defects and besides that, Christine and Thunder are under my command," he explained.
KITT repeated it to Devon who's brows knit together at being told this.
"I insist. You've been tortured for the past three days, surely you're in no condition to fight," Devon argued.
General argued back, holding his ground against the aged British man, to which KITT translated. "General says he's bounced back from worse and refuses to let Christine and Thunder go in without him."
"You're no good to them dead."
"Mr. Myles, while I appreciate your concern, I ask that you respect my authority not only as an individual but as a fellow leader and stop arguing against my judgment," General retorted, trying to be as respectful as possible, to which KITT also translated.
Devon was silent for a moment, General guessing it was more than likely due to the fact that he'd realized General was just as human, if not more, in comparison to him. Soon enough, Devon sighed and nodded.
"General Lee, please accept my humble apologies. You're right, I've been ignorant in regards to your kind. I never realized just how human you were, and how some of us humans are not. Forgive me for that ignorance," Devon said softly.
General nodded, revving his engine. "Thank you, Mr. Myles, and you can call me General."
KITT repeated this for him and Devon smiled. "KITT, patch Michael through."
KITT did as he was told, and soon enough, Michael Knight answered KITT's call with a questioning, "Hello? KITT?"
Devon and Bonnie's faces lit up at the sound of Michael's voice. They exchanged excited glances, Devon hurrying to KITT's side.
"Michael, can you hear me?" he asked formally, trying to keep his emotions down.
There was a short pause before the Knight Rider's response came with a despondent sigh. "Devon."
A faint smile played on Devon's lips. "It's been a long time."
"Yeah… it has."
"It's good to hear your voice," Bonnie chimed in, joining Devon at KITT's side.
They heard Michael suppress a relieved laugh. "It's… good hearing from you too, Bonnie."
Devon and Bonnie exchanged glances once more, this time their excitement replaced with concern.
"We're not angry with you, Michael," Devon said.
Michael scoffed. "Well, you should be. Either way, I take it you want to get all of us out of here. So, what's your plan?"
Devon paused for a moment, glancing towards General.
When there was no answer, Michael sighed. "Tarantino's not going to be in tonight if that helps. His daughter's taking him out for some drinks."
"His daughter's strange, I don't trust her," General butted in, KITT repeating what he said.
"We know, but there's a good chance she's telling the truth with this one. Look, once they leave, all of you better get these people out of here, I don't know how much longer it'll be before they get sick of us."
General's engine rumbled in thought and Devon turned to look at him.
"You have something?" Devon asked him.
"We can pull a stunt like we did in Los Angeles. Thunder's got some far-out abilities, he'll be able to knock out the buildin's power grid for a short time. That should be enough for y'all to get in and get out," General explained through KITT's translation.
"Alright, how do we do this?"
"Thunder's gonna need a cover, which I'll provide for him. Christine, KITT, I want you two on the watch for the demon Hearse. If there's anyone who can take him besides Thunder, it's you two. Devon, Bonnie, I trust that y'all will be able to get our people outta there?"
Devon waited for KITT before responding. "Of course, you can count on it."
General nodded. "Right then, let's do it."
Michael explained the plan to everyone in the room, making sure they understood to the fullest extent, not that John was very well kept up on the situation with the Defects and the Knight Foundation.
"So what, we just sit here and wait for them to come get us out? Why not just bust out ourselves?" John asked.
"In case you ain't noticed, there's security cameras in the elevators. Even if we did make it down, they'd know we were comin'. We won't have no choice but to climb down the elevator chute once Thunder cuts the power," Luke explained.
Rosco made a noise. "That's dangerous."
Luke sighed. "Yeah, it is, but there ain't no fire escapes and there ain't no stairs on the higher levels of the buildin'. We're better off climbin' through the chute than jumpin' out a window."
Rosco paused, thinking for a moment. "Good point."
Michael stepped forward, his tall frame casting long shadows in the light of the room. Bo guessed him to be roughly 6'4". He wore a steely expression as he pushed past Luke to walk towards the sofa on the other side of the room.
"You'd think he'd be happy to hear from his people," Luke said in a low voice.
John watched the man walk away, scoffing and muttering under his breath, "Prick."
Bo looked up at him then back towards Michael, who stood in front of the sofa. Suddenly, the man kicked it forcefully, causing it to slide an inch or two across the floor with a loud groan. Then, he flopped down onto it and rested his head in his hands, massaging his temples with the tips of his fingers.
KITT watched as a sleek, black sedan pulled out of the front gate and into the city, turning down a busy, well-lit street. He turned back to the others, flashing his lights to signal that it was safe to come out. Thunder and General ventured out into the street, checking first for any sign of danger. After seeing they were in the clear, they crossed the street and up to the manicured lawns of Acid's property.
Bonnie stepped away from the chain-link fence, grinning at them and ushering them through the car-sized hole she'd cut in it.
"Good luck!" she whispered with a small wave.
General flashed his lights at her, following General up to the garage. They snuck behind it, finding the maintenance elevator and the large breaker box.
"You're sure this's gonna cut off power to the entire buildin'?" Thunder asked.
"No, I ain't sure, but I'm willin' to take that chance," General replied with a rev of his engine.
Thunder shifted on his suspension in thought. "Whatever you say, boss."
That said, he touched his grill to the box, letting a strong pulse of electricity pass through it. The surge sparked through the breaker box, the lights of the building beside them flickering off, then powering themselves back on after a moment.
"Shit, back-up power. Hit it again, Thunder, quick!" General rumbled, stealing a glance around the corner of the garage to see a man holding a flashlight walking towards them, a Doberman on a leash.
Thunder quickly hit it again, using a lot more power than he had before, nearly twice as much. This time, the lights flickered and the sound of electrical currents buzzed through the air. General looked back at Thunder to see what was going on, only to find him strained and continuously sending pulses into the breaker box.
"The hell's goin' on?" General asked in an urgent tone.
"The back-up power's a lot more difficult, I have to short out the boiler and dismantle the generators before we can get the power off," Thunder explained.
"Well hurry the hell up, someone's comin'!"
Thunder quickly gave it one last, strained surge of power, and sparks flew from the breaker box, the lights inside the building quickly cutting off, the street-lamps illuminating the front lawn sparked and shorted out, flickering off as well.
There was a muffled boom from inside the ground, and alarms started sounding off inside. They each turned to look at the building, orange flames flickering to life on the bottom floor.
"Thunder," General rumbled.
The pick-up didn't reply.
"Thunder."
"Ye… yeah?"
"What the hell was that?"
Thunder paused for a moment, choosing his words carefully. "I blew up the boiler…"
"You blew up the boiler."
"Yes."
General remained silent, studying the truck.
"On accident."
General turned back towards the building to see the flames growing up towards the second floor.
"Son of a bitch," General growled.
Devon and Bonnie had had no problem getting into the building and reaching the seventh floor, which was as far as the stairs went. The upper levels were only accessible by elevator, to which they would have taken if not for the sudden loss of power.
Bonnie pressed a finger to her earpiece, patching KITT through. "KITT, where're General and Thunder right now?"
"They're behind the garage near the breaker box. However, Thunder accidentally put too much power into the system and the building's boiler blew. I suggest you all get out of there as quickly as possible, the fires are reaching the second floor," KITT reported.
Devon sighed. "Just what we need, a fire in the basement. The only way we can go is up, so, let's go."
Bonnie nodded and slipped the backpack off her shoulders, which was a small care package she'd put together for their little trip into the building. Strapped to the outside of it was a crowbar and a flashlight. Inside were some coils of climbing rope which she'd stolen from Michael's belongings, some gloves, extra batteries, two bandaids, a couple of aspirin, and a bottle of water to which she'd thrown in there from the cabinets of their mobile unit.
She pulled the crowbar out of its strap, handing it to Devon, who lodged it between the two elevator doors. He pried them open, setting the crowbar between them to keep them that way. He stuck his head through them, peering out into the dark elevator chute, where lines of conduit and metal tubing ran along the walls.
Bonnie pulled a coil of rope from her bag, preparing for the vertical ascent to the tenth floor of the building. She pulled the rope over her shoulder, touching her finger to her earpiece once more.
"Michael, can you hear me?" she asked.
A short moment later, a despondent reply came, "Yes."
"Alright, I'm on my way up, you think you could get those doors open for me?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, I'm coming up."
That said, she ducked underneath the crowbar, leaning out into the chute and grabbing hold of the taught cables that ran the elevator. She held them tightly in a white-knuckled grip as she continued her ascent. She looked up briefly to see the elevator sitting above her, unmoving, as they'd anticipated.
She climbed higher, coming to see one of the many stainless-steel doors being forced open. A tall, light-haired man appeared in the open doors, holding them open with his arms. His arms shook from the strain but he didn't show any sense of his pain. He scowled and locked his elbows, looking Bonnie in the eyes.
"You gonna hang around all day or are ya gonna come inside?" he asked.
Bonnie swallowed hard and reached out, grabbing the man's overcoat, her fingers hooking on the gun strap around his shoulders. She stole a nervous glance toward him and ducked underneath his outstretched arm, entering the darkened room.
Three pairs of blue eyes looked up to greet her, and she saw, to her relief, that no one seemed hurt. Michael stood in front of the glass patio doors, his head hanging low. He turned his head slightly, signaling that he was listening for Bonnie's voice.
Bonnie drew in a shaky breath and looked from each of the men. John let the doors close and turned to the others, glancing at Bonnie who stood in the midst of them.
"There's a fire on the first floor, I suspect it's reached the second by now. We need to hurry if we want to make it out of here alive," she reported
Just then, KITT's voice patched through both Bonnie's and Michael's comms devices. "Actually, Bonnie, it's climbed to the third floor now."
"How soon until it reaches the fifth?" Bonnie asked, a hint of panic in her voice.
"Ten minutes. Authorities have been notified and are en route."
Bonnie nodded, letting her hand drop.
Just then, there was another explosion in the building, and they each turned upon hearing a groan in the elevator chute. John stalked over to the doors, prying them open with his hands and sticking his head out to see what'd happened. A healthy fire now flickered at the bottom and broken conduit lines sparked along the walls. The groan came again, louder this time, and the elevator that had rested at the twelfth floor, was now coming down fast. John reeled back with a surprised yelp, the doors closing in front of him as the streak of silver elevator came barrelling down the chute.
It landed on the ground floor with a loud crash, causing them all to flinch. The entire building shook. The light fixtures on the ceiling swung back and forth, two of them falling and crashing to the floor. In the darkness of the room, they took some of its occupants with them. Broken glass rained down on them, collecting on the brim of Rosco's black cowboy hat and in John's hair. Shards of glass from the spray of impact flew into Luke's skin, as he'd been standing next to Bo. The fixture that had hit the Duke boys swung down from the ceiling, hitting Bo in the head and showering Luke with glass.
The hum of worried voices floated up the second everyone's ears stopped ringing. They couldn't see much in the darkened room, so John pulled the doors open again, shaking the glass from his hair. The flicker from the growing fires illuminated the space in front of the door.
Luke pulled Bo's body close to it so they could see. He was unconscious with a gash up by his right eyebrow. The former Marine sighed, pushing Bo's hair away from his forehead.
"Dammit, he's out," he growled.
Just then, KITT's voice broke through once again. "Six minutes, it's climbing to the fourth floor now, and this'll be my last transmission, we've got trouble. Over and out."
And, just like that, KITT was gone. The departed party all exchanged glances. Bonnie wet her lips and pulled the coil of rope off her shoulder, turning to Michael.
"Where can we tie this?" she asked.
Michael turned away, avoiding eye-contact with her. He nodded to a white plaster column that stood with its twin guarding a separate door a few feet away from the elevator doors.
"That's the sturdiest thing in the room," Michael said flatly.
Bonnie rushed over to the column wrapping the rope around it and fastening it tightly. She walked briskly back to the elevator doors, throwing the rest of the rope under John's arm and down the chute. Then, she turned to address the rest of them, who each looked up, except Michael, of course.
"Alright, Devon's waiting on the fifth floor, once we're down there, we'll be able to get out through one of the west-facing windows. We'll be better off trying to climb out of one of the fifth-story windows than a tenth-story one," she explained.
"We're sure this little rope's gonna hold us?" John asked, nudging it with his foot.
Bonnie nodded. "It's Michael's rock-climbing rope, it's got to."
The men all exchanged glances before giving Bonnie a trustful nod. John sneered, looking back over his shoulder.
"Alright, then, ladies first," he said.
Bonnie swallowed hard and nodded, walking to the elevator doors and ducking under John's arm, grabbing hold of the rope. She disappeared over the edge of the floor, John watching her descend. After a long moment or two, John looked back at the rest of them.
"Hot damn, she made it!" he exclaimed.
Luke and Rosco shared excited glances and Michael nodded. He walked forward, up to John without a hint of hesitation Bonnie had had.
"Your turn," Michael said, grabbing hold of the doors, John quickly lowering himself down to the rope.
John looked up, stealing a glance towards the Duke boys, and Bo lying unconscious in Luke's arms.
Luke nodded to him. "We'll be alright, just go."
John returned the nod and disappeared, Michael gesturing for Rosco to follow him. And it wasn't until Rosco had disappeared over the edge after John that Luke realized what Michael was doing. He was testing the rope to see how many people it would hold at a time. After seeing that it'd held both John and Rosco, Michael turned, pressing his back against one door and his hand against the other. He looked at Bo and Luke to see if there'd been any change. There wasn't, only now Luke looked nervous as ever.
Without saying anything, Luke wiped the sweat from his brow, dragging Bo up and carrying the two of them to the doors. He ducked underneath Michael's arm, sitting down on the edge of the floor. With a deep breath he carefully wrapped the rope around his leg so that he'd have a foothold. He pulled Bo down from the edge, keeping one arm around him, his hand gripping his shirt tightly. Blood dripped down the boy's face leaving streaks of dark red down his cheek.
Luke let out another shaky breath and began to lower him and Bo down. The building shook again, just a small tremor compared to the last one, but as soon as it did, Luke felt the rope jerk. He looked up to see Michael climbing down after them.
You damn idiot! Luke thought. Surely this rope can't hold all three of us!
Nevertheless, Luke continued to climb down, descending the levels of the building as quickly as he could with Bo in one arm. Then, as they were nearing the sixth floor, Luke heard a sickening snap, and felt the rope jerk once more. He looked up to see Michael frozen in place just above him.
Then, they heard the snap once more, and the rush from the air made Luke's stomach drop. In less than a second, all three of them were sent plummeting towards the blaze below.
