Prologue :
"See you around partner," Michael remarked, patting the hood in a fond gesture before sliding his hands over it and clapping in an unspoken farewell.
"Are you sure about this, Michael?" Kitt asked as he gently followed behind the man whose entire life had been entrusted to him for nearly a decade.
"I'm not going back to wallow in self-pity, okay?" The man replied over the electronic whirr of Kitt's new engine. "I just want to live out there for the reason I was living out there for, in the first place."
"Which is?" Shawn playfully interrupted, putting her hands over her waist glancing up at the tall curly-haired man. One of her warm smiles appeared over her face.
"To fish!" Michael exclaimed, turning to face her. "And to fix up this chevy." He added. Maddock, approaching the conversing group silently. "It's the simple things in life you know." Michael's voice came to a slow stop, Maddock patting the man on the back gingerly. Nodding as Michael retreated into his light blue Chevy; engaging the engine and giving Shawn and Maddock one of his last mischievous smiles Kitt knew too well from memory as he pulled out of the parking space.
"What are we standing around for? Let's get to work!" Maddock announced eagerly clapping his hands watching Michael back out of the lot, Maddock and Shawn slowly approaching Kitt. "I'm driving."
"No way," Shawn remarked in playful protest. "I'm driving."
"You're both wrong." Kitt sternly announced as Michael passed them one last time in his Chevy. Keeping his eyes concentrated on the road, not once glancing over at his buddy. The AI internally shed a quiet tear as he watched the man slowly part ways once again with no chance at ever returning…Why had life torn them apart from each other this way? Why did Michael have to leave him again? Was there no remembrance of what they'd gone through all these years?
Kitt pulled out of his parking space hurriedly caught up in this grief welling up over his processor, absentmindedly wishing to escape this life everyone had simply forced upon him with no care. Everyone expected him to stay and pick up from where they'd left off…but without his family there simply wasn't much to go on…One man could make a difference but not at the expense of being abandoned…He drove hastily to the other end of the parking lot, leaving Shawn and Maddock gaping at the obviously fleeing car.
– But there wasn't anything or anyone out there waiting to welcome him…nothing out there to call home. FLAG was home even if it had morphed into the Knight Foundation, this was all that was left. Couldn't he settle with this simple fact? He had duties here, responsibilities…for all it was worth this was his place…Kitt went over the idea, this was simply all that there was for him. Michael could go off to where ever he pleased, Fiji, Nevada, or Canada. No one would think bad of him ever, it was his choice after all…but the options for Kitt were not as simple…He couldn't leave…he couldn't choose…He thought of Shawn eagerly grasping the baton handed to her, he imagined her face flushed with disappointment if he decided to suddenly turn his back at this assigned partnership. Michael had left them…had left Him.
Kitt knew his obligations here. To serve and protect…this was his bargain in life. Michael had relieved him from duty, despite deep down that would always be his purpose.
The computer settled the matter, brushing it aside and concentrating on the assignment before him.
"I don't have all day," Kitt announced loudly after doing a quick 180, shrugging off this initial escape attempt. Drowning out his feelings ringing in the depths of his program.
The woman and the man exchanged smiles, caught up in the exciting future awaiting, over the sound of chirping birds in the warm afternoon rays.
CH 1
Shawn was running hastily through the wet street shouting over the late-night traffic, at what she suspected was their suspect. The rain was beating overhead loudly, the lazy cries of engines and horns caught in traffic blaring around her as she jumped over some discarded cardboard boxes. The suspect showed no signs of stopping. Crossing the traffic-jammed street, the pavement shinnying underneath in bright colors from thousands of shop lights and cars. He momentarily slipped, catching himself just barely before hitting the curb, and continued to run. Shawn wasn't too far away clutching her ultrasound under her protective coat awaiting the moment to fire, madly blinking with raindrops caught in her eyelashes.
The man darted through a swamped park, Shawn finding it difficult to continue. She was just about out of breath and was drawing her ultrasound when a red blur darted out from the street.
Jumping several meters in the air over a concrete barricade, the vehicle cut off the suspect's escape, the man caught dumbfounded under the blinding headlights. The chassis awkwardly jolted on impact with the ground spraying a wave of mud onto unsuspecting pedestrians.
"You're under arrest!" Kitt shouted over the downpour of water beating onto his cherry red body. His scanner a blazing blur over the cascading waterfall forming over his hood. The rhythmic beat of his windshield wipers accompanied that of the rain.
Shawn motioned a grin at her vehicular partner, wading through the flooded grass field cuffing the stunned man, going on with the routined arrest procedure. She beckoned the man into her car under the gaping eyes of pedestrians. Fortunately, the man didn't start another skirmish out of mere shock.
Taking a seat herself, she was quick to realize the dozens of alerts going off the projected screen.
"Kitt!" She shouted, making the suspect flinch.
"Hey, don't look at me." Kitt began his pale blue voice modulator rising and falling in wave-like movements from the screen seated between the driver's and passengers' seats. "It isn't my fault Maddock didn't prepare this thing for jumps."
"Kitt, we've talked about this," The woman retorted attempting to get the damaged vehicle to move through the thick mud.
"Shawny, I'm a jumper." Kitt protested, the chassis jerking unevenly as it move forward. "I was originally accommodated with that ability and it's one I can't work without."
Shawn slammed the brakes, groaning over Kitt's "broken leg's", turning to the green optic to the side of the voice modulator.
"Tell that to Maddock! I won't make up for another one of his sermons this time!" She snapped. "Call up a police unit, while you're at it, a tow truck big enough to lift your ego!"
"I suppose extra mustard on the burger too!?" Kitt remarked snarkily.
Shawn looked down at Kitt's digital modulator.
"Kitt, don't start with me." The woman groaned.
The tires squawked as they unevenly turned, the tow truck pulling the red rocket-like vehicle into the hanger leaving a trail of water strangely looking like the Banshees tears.
"You'd had to go on and do it again didn't you!?" Came the exasperated shout of Maddock storming down the stairs towards Kitt's charging and maintenance station. The tow truck unceremoniously deposited the car.
Shawn sprung forth from the tow's passenger side giving thanks to the driver before unzipping her drenched coat.
"So he did," She gingerly replied, over the howl of the tow leaving the site.
"What's your problem, McCormick?!" Maddock's scream pierced the air in the rather empty warehouse. "This car is the pinnacle of –"
"Of technology, the future, and perhaps your career…" Kitt scornfully interrupted "but you know what it isn't? It isn't the fulfillment of one man's dream. No this 'thing' is the pinnacle of your ambition, not Wilton Knight's dream – and to top it off! Substandard engineering! I hate to be the one miserably trapped in it." Came Kitt's anguished reply, sounding awfully resentful.
"Say's you…" Maddock growled under his breath. "It wasn't meant to house you haughty nuisance! This is the fifth time you've broken something while the car was under YOUR control! It's unacceptable!" He scolded, walking over to Kitt glaring at him disdainfully.
Shawn rolled her eyes, noting Kitt was also "glaring" back with quick sweeps of his scanner.
"Will you give it up you two? Can't you just – you know – add turbo-boost or whatever Kitt's been fussing about?" She slumped down on the bottom step of the stairs, leading to the offices beyond, feeling heavy all of a sudden. Maddock directed his glare at her.
"Why didn't you stop him!?" He loudly questioned.
"Now you're blaming me?!" She yapped back. "What did you expect me to do? I asked for his help and he caught the thief – isn't that enough?" She crossed her arms in bitter response.
"It isn't enough if he continues to deliberately damage the chassis. We still don't have enough funding to complete the car. Let alone repair it after every single one of your shameful acts!" Maddock hollered turning to Kitt pointing a single bony finger at him.
"It wasn't deliberate Mr. Maddock," Came Kitt's stern reply, " – but I don't like feeling restricted by the few functions at hand."
"Well, that's the point! You're a machine! Whatever I hand to you is all you'll ever receive. No more, no less. Is that clear?" Maddock darted up the stairs storming past Shawn, the man's face flushed in bright red.
Shawn shook her head once the man's presence had dried up.
"Oh, Kitt you really did it this time."
Kitt did not reply.
Shawn stood adjusting herself on the hard stairs.
"So, you don't like the car," She mused, smirking in Kitt's direction. "I thought you told Michael…"
"I know what I said–" Kitt cut in. "I greatly appreciated his gesture and effort of bringing me back so at the time I dismissed the whole "putting-me-in-a-tomato-thing". Honestly, I don't understand why Maddock won't just paint me black. It'd make how I look more bearable." Kitt sighed, with a soft hum of his scanner.
Shawn slouched in her spot.
"Studies find that driving a black car increases the risk of a crash by anywhere between 10 and 20 percent." She murmured tiredly.
"I appreciate your concern Shawn, but black is really who I am…I know I can be put into any chassis really and it would "still" be me but I do prefer black. Would it really be too much of a bother to just paint me?" Kitt's voice sounded far in thought, not sure how the woman would react.
She let out a tired sigh, her eyelids were getting heavy.
"So, you were jet black back in the day?" Shawn chuckled slightly "I don't think I could take a black Chevy Seriously."
"A black firebird Trans-Am, Shawny, not a Chevy." Kitt internally sighed remembering how that gone, internally laughing at the vision of a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air in black, it wouldn't have been too bad of a match. "It was a t-top too," Kitt remarked mostly to himself.
He recalled the warm and cool summer nights on call when Michael would ever so often open the t-top. Listening to Michael's choice of music while they devoured the road so to speak. The moonlit nights, glistening under the blanket of stars…almost like they were flying….It had all been lovely, and all too short…
"Wow," Shawny leaned forward propping herself up with her elbows. She raised a brow glancing over Kitt's sagging tires. "Did Michael ever bring you back all busted?"
"Is that an offence?" Kitt offered, trying heavily to stop the corroding feeling from eating away at his heart. The scanner steadily beat from side to side, slowing down until it dissipated to darkness.
"Shawn, I think maybe you should head to sleep. I'll be here...charging up my power packs." He replied dryly. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
Shawn shrugged standing up.
"Sure," She yawned, failing to notice Kitt's gloom.
"Goodnight." He replied to her once more as she climbed the steps absentmindedly.
She waved her hand in goodbye grinning faintly at him.
Kitt tried to comfort himself with her smile, her care, but it just…wasn't enough…
Somehow he'd opened a dark hole, a void where Michael had been, that person who he could turn to amidst the chaos…the storm…he wasn't around.
He felt abandoned again…but only this time it was worse than having been tossed like loose junk in a box.
Forgotten…just a potato sack of obsolete chips and transistors forming the now pathetic Knight 2000, He'd gotten too far only to de discarded and yet too far to be remembered.
He wondered if Maddock even knew who Wilton Knight was, or if he would ever take the man's 'miracle car' seriously.
Kitt simply was starting to feel…old.
A creature adrift in a time where he didn't entirely fit, but not for the obvious reasons. He didn't fit because here no one accepted him or even cared. He'd been hoping over the past days things would resolve themselves…that the simple fact in bearing the name Knight he'd be taken in warmly by the Knight Foundation. He'd been wrong…What had once been his home had become somewhat of a nightmare. The arguments with Maddock never seemed to cease and Shawny –
– Kitt shuddered, he'd given her that nickname.
…He dearly appreciated the woman as his driver and dearly yearned for her favor. Though he did have it, it wasn't the same as Michael's friendship. Time and time again it seemed that their bond wasn't quite working…or perhaps he was asking for too much. He found it endearing when she put into consideration his thoughts or opinion but more often than not he found that she struggled to see him more than just "the car." Michael had struggled with that too in the beginning so this shouldn't have been much of a surprise but…Maddock didn't have an excuse!
Kitt internally sighed, as he silently began to file this evening's report. He wished Devon's "escapade" to Europe was going well. Michael had mentioned something about the man leaving when he'd been installed into Kift's chassis, Kitt had inquired the reason having not received a decisive reply. Michael simply dismissed the inquiry and gave his apologies quickly and that had been that…
Kitt wondered if he could get a hold of Devon about now. He was sure once his older friend came back perhaps the Knight Foundation would accept his existence in a much agreeable way.
Kitt looked over his chronometer doing quick computations of what the time would be up in Europe. It was 1:00 AM now meaning that over there…it was 9:00 AM. Perfect! It couldn't be a better time to call.
'Now, where to call?' Kitt mused, going over his memory bank and remembering what Michael had said.
%ACCESSING MEMORY BANKS%
DATA STATUS: DECOMPILING…
"On purpose Michael, Where is Devon?"
Michael gave him a sweaty smile.
"He's gone home…"
"I'm glad, he seemed rather exhausted last we spoke. Maybe you should get some rest too, Michael?" The man looked rather…pale…
"I meant…Home as in…" Michael dropped a wrench, accidentally kicking it, skidding and bouncing off the edge of a terminal. Making the man groan.
"Something wrong?"
"Nah, pal…Devon went…back to Europe…" He winced.
"How come?"
" – Just…call it an emergency business trip of…some kind…"
:END: MEMORY
DECOMPILE COMPLETE
Memory Fragmentation readings: [Memory Fragmentation 14%...]
RESAVING…
Well, if it'd been an emergency…why hadn't the man bothered to file his absence with the attendance office or payroll? Kitt had looked from top to bottom through the Foundation's records about an emergency business trip regarding Devon but he hadn't been contacted or had contacted anyone from the staff in over a month! It was most unusual for Devon to keep his whereabouts in wraps…as they do say…unless the man had a very good reason. This bothered Kitt as he sat alone taking in the whirrs of the ambient control system heating up the obnoxiously large warehouse.
Was something amiss? Had something happened to Devon that they were simply unaware of?
The computer internally sighed, completely stumped. Without much of a lead of any sort he really didn't know. He hadn't asked Bonnie about it yet so…
Kitt gunned the engine, pulling the chassis forward unexpectedly.
'That's no more.' Kitt reminded himself promptly…and it wouldn't be anymore…
He felt that this dark void was yet again suctioning at his thoughts…deciding it be best if he simply "slept"…
'Downtime…that's all I need, just some adequate inactivity…' Kitt reassured himself as he caringly put his systems tp ease letting his cooling system go on about cooling his aching CPU.
