AN: Please don't kill me if this chapter sucks. I've been having a hard time even thinking about how to start, and I told Jess I'd have it out by today at the latest. Blame her! (laughs) No, don't, she'll kill me if you do. Ok, enough – story time!
Kidnapping
Raven cursed herself for not seeing it coming.
She had been searching through the manga, enjoying herself with every intention of blowing the rest of her spending money here. She had heard the footsteps, but she hadn't thought anything of it. She had figured it was just another random shopper. So it had scared the crap out of her when the hand had gone over her mouth and clamped down tight. She had stopped squirming when she felt the cold steel of what could only have been a gun barrel press into her ribs. Now she was standing rather awkwardly in the isle, waiting for Jess and Heather to show up. She had a feeling she knew what she was now – bait. Jess and Heather would not leave her at Travis's mercy.
Sure enough, she heard voices not two minutes later.
"I swear, I do not understand how you read that crap." Heather's voice, teasing.
"It's not crap. It's a romantic story line." Jess, not even in the least bit defensive. Raven almost rolled her eyes. How many times had they had this discussion? More than she cared to count. She was half-expecting to hear KITT put his two-cents in, but to her surprise, he remained silent. Borden and Drake may have been making adjustments that distracted him. Or maybe he was just enjoying the banter. Who knew? Raven didn't know KITT well enough to say one way or the other.
They rounded the corner and froze.
Travis smiled. "Not one word from any of you." he hissed. "I want you to follow me out and get in my car. One sound, and I will kill her." He poked the gun into Raven's side, and the girl flinched. Her eyes were blazing with fury. If she ever got loose, Travis was so dead.
Jess and Heather knew this. They could read Raven as easily as she could read them. Jess glanced from Travis to Heather. She returned the look and slowly shook her head. Running was not an option. With a sigh, Jess faced Travis.
"So I guess this means no books this trip." she muttered. "Lead the way, buttmunch."
"Wait." They stopped. "Turn off the cell phone, Heather." Travis ordered. "I don't want whoever you're talking to calling the cops." Heather shot him a filthy look, but turned off the cell. She had no other choice.
/--/
KITT had been listening in idly while Borden and Drake worked on his scanner. When the boy had said something about killing Raven, he had started paying closer attention. When Heather turned off her phone, however, it set an alarm off that usually only went off if someone destroyed the comm. link. Drake, who had been in the cabin at the time, yelped and slammed his head on the roof.
"Crap, KITT! What the heck is that?"
"Alarm." KITT said quietly. "Borden, hurry with the scanner. The girls are in trouble."
Borden let loose a variety of choice words. KITT almost laughed at that. He was starting to notice one striking difference between Borden and his little sister – from what he understood, Heather didn't curse. He hadn't thought anything of it at the time, but apparently it wasn't as common as it had been ten years ago, when Michael had been an oddity because of his preference for the word 'damn' when things got rough.
"Ok, that should be good." Borden said suddenly. "Can you tell what the problem is?"
"Not offhand." KITT said. He played back a bit of what he had picked up from Heather's cell. Borden cursed again.
"That's Travis."
KITT felt his anger flare. "Jess's ex-boyfriend?"
"The one and only." Borden seethed. "You get the chance to, kill him. He won't stop unless he's dead, and obviously jail isn't going to hold him."
"It goes against my programming to kill." KITT said quietly.
"But you are programmed to protect your driver." Drake pointed out.
"Yes."
"Loophole." Drake said confidently. "You can use that to your advantage."
"I'll try." KITT backed out of the garage. "I'll bring them back here when I get them back." he told the boys. Borden nodded. Drake's fists were clenched, and KITT had the feeling the younger man would have been coming with him if KITT hadn't made him get out first. "I'll find them. I promise."
"I know you will." Drake said. "Now go!"
KITT powered down the highway, hoping he didn't run into any cops along the way. That wouldn't be good.
Something familiar flickered on his sensors, and KITT almost froze in fear.
KARR!
/--/
It was a beat-up Pontiac Firebird, something that looked remarkably similar to a Trans-Am. All three girls were in the backseat, their expressions depicting varying degrees of anger and malice. Sitting in the middle, Heather was the most calm, if only because she knew the others wouldn't be. Someone had to be able to think, and anger only clouded Heather's mind. She had done some pretty stupid stuff when she was pissed off, and after the fourth time it happened, she made it a point to control her temper.
On the other hand, right now it wouldn't take much to send her over the edge. Like, oh say, hearing Travis the Buttmunch speak.
Which he was doing.
"KARR, how far is it to the safehouse?" Travis asked, pressing some buttons on the dash. Jess suddenly realized the dash of this car looked a lot like KITT's dash. A panel flashed with a green light as a deep voice spoke.
"Not far, Travis. Be patient – we will have plenty of time."
"Who the heck said that?" Jess demanded, pushing back against the seat. KITT had been one thing. KITT actually sounded pleasant. This car just radiated hate.
"I am KARR."
"Oh, really?" Raven snapped. "I never would have guessed. I thought you were a truck." Heather had to stuff her fist in her mouth to smother her laughter. Raven was pissed off, and she was going to take that anger out on someone.
It just happened to be the car.
"My name is KARR. Knight Automated Roving Robot."
"Is that anything like naming a cat Kitty?" Jess asked, a note of disbelief in her voice. "I mean, come on, I've come up with more creative names for mindless trucks than that."
"Well, it ranks right up there with calling our black cat Snowball." Raven said. "Although that is pretty funny."
"If you are going to mock my name, then you can call me by my proper one." KARR's already dark voice just got darker. Heather finally got herself under control enough to speak.
"You don't want them doing that." she said firmly. "They will tease you incessantly about that."
"Knight Automated Roving Robot." Raven said, tasting the feel of the words. "You know, I think that's the name of a new toy Hasbro came out with. What was it Heather – one of those Transformer toys or something?"
"Only from Transformers Animated." Heather quipped, joining in the fun. "Only Animated would be degrading enough to name a Transformer KARR. It's just too redundant. Cybertron or Generation One would have cooler names."
"What could possibly be cooler than KARR?" Travis demanded.
Heather hesitated, but Jess filled in the blank rather bluntly. "KITT."
"The Knight 2000 is an inferior model." KARR snapped. "He cannot save you from me."
"If he's inferior, then why do you feel the need to kidnap us to get an advantage on him?" Raven pointed out. "That's the coward's way."
"Not that we wouldn't have gotten involved anyway." Jess added. "I mean, we do take care of our own."
"Semper Fi." Heather added.
Travis looked at them. "What does that mean?"
"Look it up, dimwit."
KARR groaned. It was going to be a long ride.