A/N Wow, after this sat lost on my flash drive for two years (I lost my flash drive at school) only now do I get around to putting up the 4th chapter of the Knights of Tomorrow. With a revived plot!

Discovery: Yeah, Jet has watched KR again and that gave a boost to update this story!

Jetravenex: So hopefully I'll be able to keep this story going. It may take a while before it ends. But we'll find our way to it eventually. For now enjoy the 4th chapter that has waited 2 years to be read by you all.

Chapter 4

Speedy remained still as the humans trained their weapons, one of the men came up behind him and studied the letters printed in silver on the back of his trunk.

"Chrysler Town and Country…" He read, straightening up and looking at his comrades. "I didn't know the king was desperate for bodies that he'd stick an AI in a minivan." He said laughing as he slapped the AI's trunk.

Speedy's engine roared angrily as the humans burst out laughing. Without thinking he let his trunk pop open and hit the man with it knocking him away from him. The man hit the ground as Speedy snapped his trunk shut and locked all his doors. Immediately the soldiers lifted their weapons and trained them on Speedy. The minivan's engine revved as he tried to back up away from the humans. His headlight's flashing brightly as he scanned wildly.

One of the men behind him began to press down on the trigger of his weapon, sending warnings all over Speedy's defense computer.

"Wait! Don-"

His voice was cut off by the report that came from the gun as the bullet flew at Speedy ricocheted off his right taillight and went back and hit the soldier in the throat.

The soldier gasped dropping down to his knees clutching at his throat, a gurgling sound filling his torn throat as he choked on his own blood. His comrades ran over to him as the two more powerful cannons perched atop the jeeps let out a soft whine as they began to charge their lasers.

Speedy had frozen up once more as he watched the man-who he had inadvertently injured-jerk around choking and gurgling grasping at his throat with blood pouring from the wound like a waterfall, as his friends worked futilely to save him, pull him away from the grasp of death. Speedy's CPU felt cold as the man fell back into the arms of one of his comrades. The injured soldier weakly extended a hand towards the man who held him with tears streaming down his face, the injured soldier fisted his hand and tried to speak, but then his body jerked once and he sank limply into his friends grip, like a puppet with his strings cut.

Even before the soldiers checked for the pulse on their comrade and the friend shouted profanities and curses to the king, Speedy already knew the outcome, and his CPU crept with cold dread.

He'd killed a human.

Typhoon flew low over the city her lights, scanners and weapons trained on the ground. She was looking for the others, but she wasn't going to be stupid enough to fly low without being ready to stuff whatever threat she saw full of explosives.

Her cannons spun as her scanners pulsed on her underbelly. She was flying half blind and scanning was near impossible. The blow from the building had knocked out a lot of her functions and her logic and processing was off too it seemed.

She had to escape. She was too damaged to airlift any of their kin out, and too damaged to provide air support for her allies if they should need it.

Warnings suddenly leapt out at her as a building appeared in front of her, she checked what instruments she had and found that she didn't have the room or ability to move around it.

"Well, then I guess I'll have to go through it." She growled as she let a missile fly from one of its compartments and slam into the building. The building exploded into dust and debris when the missile collided. Typhoon flew through the cloud of dust, wincing as the stuff rubbed against her wings and body and small chunks of debris hit her. Cleaning herself off from this one was going to be hell.

Once she was clear of the cloud she scanned around to find that she was flying above a desert with deep scorches and craters covering the land like dark scars, showing how the earth itself was feeling the agony of the war raging on.

But with the sight of the meadow, she felt herself rise a little higher in the air carried by her raised hopes, and the sight of a certain silver train resting at the foot of the hill near the center of the meadow was all the better. Now there were no obstructions…

"Typhoon!" Zephyr cried trying to move to get closer, but she found that her limitations of the tracks prevented her from doing so. "Oh Typhoon you poor thing you look like a… Wait where are you going?"

Typhoon flew over the train and the hill in the direction of the camp.

"Wait! Typhoon you can't leave yet! What about the others they still need air support!" Zephyr shrieked moving back on her rails, going over schematics and cursing her designs once more. "Typhoon! Whether you like it or not they are our family! You can't-"

Typhoon's turbines screeched as she powered them, racing across the sky, as she sent an image of her internal functions. However, she was still too badly damaged to get it to Zephyr and her integrity was dropping fast.

Zephyr shook as she watched Typhoon 'blast away' towards the camp, she was shocked. Yes, Typhoon had never been a team player, but surely she wouldn't abandon them when their friends were in danger! Zephyr whistled sharply her scanner and lights flashing on and off, her best way of demonstrating how enraged she was.

"Typhoon you metal bitch!" Zephyr screeched after the tiny shape of the plane.

Typhoon winced virtually at her words. There was no way to get a message out without shifting all power to communications and resulting in an all systems failure and a… crash. A shudder rocked through the body of the plane.

Typhoon scanned the area, that she was approaching, the land was flat and level for miles, she scanned over her systems once more, and more warnings started to flash, and shut down was becoming imminent.

Typhoon had two options, do an emergency landing here in the desert, or keep flying and crash land closer to home.

Typhoon didn't like either options but the fear of crashing overruled any other thought and she began to tilt the nose of the plane upwards to slow down.

Panels in her wings shifted and moved as she began to fly lower and lower to the ground, her landing gear started to come out from the plane and Typhoon scanned the ground, her impact with it about to occur in three, two…

Her wheels squeaked in protest as they brushed against the ground once and sent her bouncing upwards, before she came back down again, this time her wheels stayed on the ground and Typhoon slowly braked bringing the plane to a smooth halt in the middle of the desert. Above her the sun was setting to the East, and stars were beginning to appear over head.

Typhoon sighed as she powered up her communications systems, diverging all power from other sources to it. Then she sent a single text message.

"Requesting Discovery for Air Support."

Speedy's chassis refused to stop shuddering as he scanned the dead soldier over and over again, pleading to any high deity that his scans were malfunctioning or some other logical explanation that would say the man was alive, and just appeared to be dead.

Speedy winced as the men worked at getting into his engine and inside Speedy himself.

"Damn AI open up!" Spat one of the men trying to grab the hood and lift it up. Speedy didn't respond only remained still his tires almost fully deflated nearly pressing the underbelly of the car to the ground.

The boy soldier Speedy had saved sat off to the side surrounded by his superiors as they grilled him for answers.

"Sir, please I don't know this AI, I was pinned down by two drones after they'd killed Benny, and I had taken shelter behind that wall over there." The teen said pointing to the broken and crumbling wall behind Speedy who was getting swarmed by soldier. "The drones kept shooting until I told them off, and then they stopped."

"And then the minivan attacked?" The colonel said with his arms folded and his eyes going over the green minivan. Speedy pulled slightly out of his growing depression to scan the man's face, a few seconds later it came back that he was none other than Colonel Will Granger, a high ranking man who had saved the president's life when the King had sent a fleet of attack cars after the president.

The boy shook his head before casting a glance back at Speedy. "No sir, after the drones stopped firing I heard the sound of shifting metal and the next thing I knew a whole lot of light erupted to the left of me and moving forward bringing the blazing white light." He nodded towards Speedy. "Was that AI."

The colonel frowned as he turned and studied Speedy for a moment, "Men!" He barked and all the soldiers jumped in surprise and ceased in their attempts to break into Speedy. "Get off and away from the vehicle and fall in before me, right now!"

The men nodded their heads as they scrambled away from the minivan and fell into ranks before the colonel. Curious Speedy inflated his tires raising himself higher, when an odd looking rifle…thing was aimed at his left headlight.
"Stop! Do not move." Speedy froze leaving his tires partially inflated. Uncertainly he scanned the person who held the rifle in front of him. The person was a man, he was dressed in a black military uniform, with heavy duty black boots, and a large black rectangular case/bag was carried over his shoulder by a black strap. Farther behind the man stood a tall woman, her dark auburn hair was put up in a bun, her arms were folded and her eyes hidden behind a set of dark shades. "AI shut down all your defenses and pop the hood or I will blow out your scanner." He warned squeezing the trigger on the weapon he held.

Speedy focused his attention on the weird weapon the man held, it looked similar to the things police officers had used to calculate whether or not a car who had been targeted was speeding or not.

The man growled at Speedy's lack of compliance and pulled the trigger. To Speedy's shock his left scanner stopped scanning, right before pain, and data started flooded from it, slamming into his CPU forcing him to compute only pain.

The AI jumped back from the man, letting out a howl of pain that was cut off as his vocalizer suddenly cut out, his tires deflated completely and there was a soft clang as his underbelly hit the ground his chassis shaking as pain continued to course through his systems tearing and clawing at everything it could get at.

The boy who he had saved watched his mouth dropping open as the minivan shuddered its headlights and taillights flickering dully on and off constantly its doors and trunk twitching. Then finally the AI stopped moving its headlights going dark, its body ceasing movement.

The man who'd caused the pain smirked and got to his feet, he reached up and popped the hood exposing the minivan's engine.

"Colonel what's going to happen to it?" The boy whispered fearfully his eyes wide.

The colonel shrugged. "They'll destroy it, AI's are smart kid, this one's probably feigning being a turncoat only to get to us." He frowned as he studied the shocked and horrified look on the boys face. "Don't tell me you actually care about that thing?!"

The boy swallowed. "Sir, like it or not he saved my life, he at least deserves a chance to be spared."

The colonel frowned then he grabbed the boy's arm and despite the teens protests he dragged him past where the ranks of soldiers stood in straight lines towards where Doctor Hudson had the minivan prone open.

"Hudson," the colonel said dropping the boy a meter or so in front of the minivan. "Suppress the AI's other functions except its primary one and let it loose." He glared down at the boy. "This will show you why AI's and humans cannot coexist."

Hudson nodded pulling out the laptop that had been within the carrying case and punched in a few commands. Then he and the woman who'd accompanied him along with the colonel stepped back leaving the boy directly in the path of the minivan. The boy stared at them for a moment before the sound of hissing caught his ears. He turned his head to see the minivan rise up as its tires inflated. The minivan's headlights flickered back on catching the boy soldier right between the two beams. The soldiers turned to watch and see what the AI did.

Speedy's systems came back on sluggishly everything super sensitive, his left scanner hurt like someone had stabbed him and blasted explosives into him from there. Speedy scanned what was going on and tried to process this when he hit a block, confused the AI pushed against it only to leap back as a shock of pain raced through him. Tentatively he activated his scanners and was surprised by the scene.

In front of him a teenager dressed in camouflage colored uniform stood before him, his black spiky hair sticking out in all directions his face colored dark with soot. The teen was looking fearfully at him tense and ready to flee. Speedy tried to scan around the area only to find that his scanners were being forced to scan forward. Aggravated the AI lashed out at the wall that was blocking him.

Hudson frowned as error messages leapt at him. "Sir the AI's lashing at the walls,"

The colonel glanced to the woman who shrugged. "Loosen your hold on his processor but keep him blind, don't let him scan or detect us." She said her eyes locked on the minivan and the teen.

Hudson nodded as he punched in a new command releasing the hold on the AI's processing capabilities.

Speedy had drawn himself up ready to slam against the wall within him when all of the sudden, data started flowing back into his processor, as well as info about what was going on. He knew that he was still in the war torn city, he knew somebody was messing with his CPU from an exterior point nearby and was preventing him from detecting them. He also recollected saving the boy from the drones.

'So why is he standing in front of me looking like that?' The AI wondered trying to search the look the boy was giving him in his databanks and slammed into another block. Speedy grumbled in annoyance, but sighed.

"Human?" He spoke, relieved to find his vocalizer was no longer being suppressed.

The soldiers shifted warily reaching for the weapons the colonel was starting to smirk, he knew what was coming, most soldiers only received contact with the AI's drones and very rarely encountered any other kind of AI but the drones. He however had experience dealing with every type of AI the King cranked out and he knew what happened next.

"Human, can you tell me why you look that way?" The AI asked, and the colonel jerked his head to stare at the AI along with everyone else. The AI had lowered its right side making it look like it was tipping itself to one side.

The teenager stared and he blinked. "I-I am frightened, of you." He admitted hands at his sides as he stared into the cars headlights.

The AI's headlights flickered. "Frightened?" He echoed. "Why?" Giving up on trying to pierce the blocks Speedy instead moved forwards slowly. "I mean you no harm."

The boy raised an eyebrow at that. "But you're an AI?"

Speedy gave a beep of annoyance, inching forwards a bit. "So?" As he moved he felt sparks of pain ignite through him and his engine rumbled.

"So your primary directive is to terminate humans," The boy said slowly watching the minivan inch closer, he glanced sideways and saw the colonel scowl leaning towards hudson and saying something harshly.

"Sorry, I don't have any stomach for death." Speedy said engine purring as he drove closer to the boy the boy stepping back.

"You killed Carl." The boy said clenching his fists.

Speedy halted at that. What? He backtracked through his records, the dead mother, the dead baby, a wave of what could've been considered 'sickness' passed through him but, no that wasn't his fault he hadn't been able to help them. Who was Carl?

He tried to search again but hit the wall. Snarling the minivan had had enough, no one was allowed in his processor, in his mind without his permission. His engine roared loudly as he tires turned. He could 'hear' shouts as the minivan spun around agony bolting through his CPU and he faced his tormentor. Headlight's catching the scientist, the colonel and the woman in their bright light.

"Shut it down Hudson." The colonel snarled raising a hand to shield his eyes against the bright light from Speedy's headlights.

The minivan howled in pain as the agony went up a notch but the minivan snarled as he focused in his scanners locking onto the device that was the source of his pain.

Snarling a small dot hidden in his grill lit up and a laser shot forwards slamming into the computer Hudson was using, destroying it. The scientist jumping back with a curse, as the woman beside him raised the weapon they'd used earlier and trained it on the AI.

Immediately the pain ended and Speedy let out a sigh of relief as his scanners expanded back to their normal range.

And he found himself covered in little red laser lights as the soldiers trained their weapons on him. Speedy heaved a sigh.

"Kid," He said loudly projecting his voice, the kid who'd talked to him earlier lowered his gun just a bit and Speedy turned slightly to where he'd picked up the movement. "I didn't mean to kill Private Carl Jefferson," He said after a quick lookup, apparently being temporarily hooked to a military computer had its advantages as it had opened a small hole in their security for him. "As I do not intend to kill the rest of you trigger happy goofs," He said addressing the company as a whole. "My shield's deflect bullets, you shoot you get hit by ricochet, I'm sorry that I didn't warn Jefferson before hand, but if you end up killing each other by ricochet don't blame me." The minivan said flatly.

As expected none of the soldiers moved and they instead kept their weapons on him. Speedy snorted scanning the weapons they did have that were dangerous to him, in truth his shields needed a moment to reboot after the hostile takeover.

The gun they'd used to deactivate him earlier was dead; apparently it was a one shot only, praise the great one. The only weapon of worry was the mounted weapons on the army's vehicles but at least Speedy's mind was his own.

Relieved with this knowledge that for now he was in the middle of a 'stand off' of sorts as the army worked to find something that could take him down without risking the lives of their dwindling amount of men. Speedy opened up a comm channel with Zephyr only to catch her mid screech.

"THERE'S A MISSILE TRAINED ON THE CITY! GUYS! GET OUT OF THERE"

"What?!" Speedy snapped surprising Zephyr out of her continuous warning. "Where?!"

Zephyr's voice filtered through his processor much calmer than before. "The General just launched a missile at the city, its trained right where you're at Speedy."

"And right where the humans are as well." Speedy thought. Then he focused back on his conversation with Zephyr engine rumbling to life startling the soldiers who had begun to relax a little at the AI's lack of movement. "Where's Risk, Hawkeye, Typhoon and Rex?" Speedy demanded.

"Speedy I don't know, Typhoon bailed a little while ago but I havent heard a peep from the other three."

"I have to find them." Speedy said finally focusing on the soldiers surrounding him looking for the quickest way out.

"And then what?! Speed, I haven't been able to make contact with them, but last I checked they were all together, and if they're in trouble what will you do, I've broadcasted the message on all AI channels. What's worse is the city's crawling with humans. And rumor has it they've got more powerful weapons against AI's than ever before!" Zephyr sounded panicked.

"I believe it." Muttered Speedy. He weighed the options. It was true, in all likelihood the other three would've done what Typhoon had done and bailed. Cowardly bird. But the humans would be a problem. He glanced sideways at the kid, and though some of the military were goofs it sickened him that more innocents might die.

He could tell them there was a missile coming at them, but they'd ignore him more occupied with the threat they thought he 'poised' than a missile that could kill them all. An idea was forming in his processor. A crazy mad idea. He needed the humans to clear out? Then he'd give them a new threat to chase.

His engine roared as he rushed forwards making the soldiers jump back to avoid him. He plowed into the jeep with the mounted cannons and blasted it with his lasers tucked in the edge of his headlight, tearing the machinery apart bit by bit. However he kept the process slow, allowing the men time to scramble off the craft.

Shouts came from the soldiers as they fired their guns after the minivan but Speedy didn't as much as flinch from the gunshots. Then he spotted the kid, who was standing open mouthed while his friends were shooting like maniacs.

"He's gonna get hit by one of the goofs." Speedy growled. Then an idea came to him. Turning sharply he drove towards the kid. He had to time this right, slowing down a bit the minivan turned so that he was still moving towards the kid. However he was partially drifting now, with his right sliding door sliding open as he neared the kid. He didn't stop but he went slow enough that the kid could either leap in, or get run over.

The kid's eyes widened when he saw the minivan drifting towards him, had the machine gone out of control? Fear crashed through him as he narrowed his eyes, the door was open. If he timed it right, he could jump in and stop the mad machine. Or he could time it wrong and get smushed. He clenched his fists and readied himself to jump aiming to land in the seat.

Speedy continued to drift towards him, watching the kid tense in preparation, Speedy continued to slow just a little more. The pinging and shrieking of bullets smacking into his shield driving him crazy as he tried to calculate if the kid could handle the stunt they were trying for.

The van was only a few feet away now and the kid ran forwards a few steps and jumped in. He let out a gasp as he hit the seat nearest to the entrance with a whump.

Triumph crashed through him, then the door slammed shut behind him sealing him in and they came to an abrupt halt. The kid gasped as he was dislodged from his grip on the chair and was thrown into the now closed door. Dark spots erupted when he impacted but he managed to flop onto the soft chair and grasp onto it, resting his chest on the cushion while he tried to recover.

"You're… not… losing me… that easily." He said glaring at the console where the AI was probably watching him from. He could hear the sound of bullets drumming against the AI's force field, the sound sounding more like rain against the window.

"Good, I'd rather not see you die." The van's voice emanated from the console. A loud bang and the minivan jolted to the left nearly sending the teen sprawling into the other seat. "Oh pit, kid buckle up." The van said.

The kid struggled to straighten up grasping onto the seat and shooting a glare at the console.

"And why the heck would I do that?" He hissed digging his fingers in the seat in a small hope it'd cause the AI some form of pain. But he relented and belted himself in.

"It's going to be a bumpy ride."

A/N yeah like the road to getting this story done. I mean from my plans its gonna be long. . But that's all right, Speedy, the real car that Speedy is based off of is 12 years old now and the rents are talking about getting rid of him next year. I'm hoping to make some headway in this story for his sake. But it'll all depend on the response its return gets. So all I ask is you review. Do it for Speedy!

Discovery: Or for me! Sitting around all day and being gawked at isn't much fun either!

Jetravenex: Yeah! Do it for the poor machines either wasting away (Speedy) or wasting away without purpose (Discovery). So please give us reviews.

Discovery: And we are sincerely grateful for your support.