{ Chapter 12 - Stray Bullets }

"Tristan, Tristan!" yelled a voice.

Tristan sat up quickly, looking around her and she was slightly confused at the darkness around her but quickly got her bearings and looked towards were the voice was coming from. She lowered her body in an almost cat like manner and narrowed her eyes.

"KARR. Do you have any idea what time it is?" she growled. 1 o clock in the morning. She had basically just fallen asleep. KARR snorted and then continued.

"Of course I do, I'm the timekeeper here. But that aside, Pridmore has been found. Thowra wants us out within the hour. I think it's a good idea if you have a shower and change, I'll stick myself in the automatic wash." he said bluntly but there was something in his voice, something hidden that Tristan was puzzled about. She yawned and stretched, nodding to KARR as she clambered out of him and basically feel face first onto the floor of the hanger. She groaned in resignation as KARR chuckled at her tired blunder. Tristan grumbled at him and sloped off towards the stairs near the front of the hanger and bounded up them. KARR tried not to notice the flex of her leg and bum muscles as she sprang swiftly up the stairs but for some perverse reason, he was drawn to them. Tristan disappeared around the corner and KARR leant back a little on his suspension and growled, just waiting for her to return. She's have a surprise when she did.

888

When Tristan came back down the stairs about 40 minutes later, 42 to be exact, it was KARR who had the shock of his life. Tristan had completely changed and not just clothes-wise either. Her hair had been cut and she had a few extra piercings and tattoos on her. KARR resumed his normal suspension mode and just looked at her for a while, if he had a mouth, his jaw would have been touching the floor.

Starting from the top and working down, Tristans' hair had been cut and spiked back and down, giving her a very streamlined look and the tips had been dyed blonde and red. She was wearing a tight black tank top and had two upside down boomerang patterns on both shoulders. She wore a thin chain around her neck and dog tags. Her lower half was clad with pale cream combat trousers with faint Japanese dragon designs all over them. KARR didn't even try and decipher the patterns on them. Over those she wore something like flexible leg protectors with large buckles on them. On her waist she wore a black leather belt with 2 rows of conical spike and a chain looping down and swinging lightly against her thigh as well as a full chrome bullet belt. Her left arm can a wristband on it with one row of conical studs and both arms sported gauntlets with 7 rows of studs on them. That would be nasty if it connected with you hard enough. Her right arm also sported another gauntlet but this time with a mix of tucks sizes on it. KARR approved but never mead a sound as she carried on down the stairs. Her boots which were army style had leather bootstraps on both with one row of spikes. He prayed none of these would catch on any of his wires. On her hands she wore plain black fingerless gloves and her eye make-up was almost Egyptian styled. her nails had also been sharpened and painted black with gold tips.

For weapons she had her customised Japanese Kris by her waste as well as two Katanas strapped to her back as well as two Walther P99 semi-automatics and one Jericho 941F 9mm. Inwardly, KARR grinned, she wasn't the only one with updates though.

Tristan jumped down the last two steps and went to go over to KARR but was pulled aside by Thowra who gave her a note.

Tristan narrowed her eyes at him and read the note. She drew her head back in surprise and then turned to KARR and cocked her head to one side.

KARR chuckled and activated his new program.

Before her eyes, Tristan watched as KARR turned into a sleek, black and gold Lamborghini Reventón. Of course it was only the shell and none of KARRs' power had been lost. The scanner back sat where the badge would have been, and had slight scanner bridges to protect it and was sunken in and pushed back a little. The badge was situated on the top of the scanner bridge. His alloys were black gut had gold linings and his spoiler had been raised on this model. His air vents also had gold lining and the left one had K.A.R.R written on it in fancy vintage handwriting Tristan gawped at KARR, blinking several times.

"KARR..."

"Yeah...I look good." came the smug reply. Tristan smirked at and then looked at Thowra, giving him a peck on the cheek before embracing him tightly, Thowra returned the hug and said a few words in Tristans ear. Tristan grinned and hugged him a tighter for a little while before releasing him and going over to KARR and looking him over. She grinned, putting on hand on his hood and dragging it along whilst she walked to the driver's door. KARR suppressed a shudder and opened to the door to her. Tristans' grin was more on the calculating side as she got in and was surprised to see Bullet on the narrow backseats, laying down and panting happily. The door closed as she drew her leg in and Tristan glanced to the windshield and grinned. She had a whole new profile for this mission and from what she could see, it was one slick profile.

Name: Jaguar Sunaipaa Ookami

Age: 27

Nationality: Nigerian/Japanese

Organisation: The WKD Foundation of Conspiracies and Threats

Organisation history:

The secrets behind this conspiracy have been pieced together over time from sources deep inside The New World Order.

Led by The Council on Foreign Relations, the WKD conspiracy is part of an ancient European sect's dream to turn America into a police state.

Interestingly, the WKD conspiracy is linked to crop circles -- a link made clear through common names that reappear in each plot.

Evidence of the WKD conspiracy can be found hidden in airport and shopping mall direction signs.

The people behind the WKD conspiracy are single-minded in their efforts and have put huge amounts of money and power into achieving their aims. They have great

confidence in the ultimate triumph of their agenda because the public is generally indifferent to complex, global political issues.

That was all she could be bothered to read and she grinned to herself. She was part of a European Sect that wants to turns America into a police state? Tristan burst out laughing, tears streaming down her face as she rolled down the window on the passenger side. Still laughing she called out to Thowra.

"Thowra! What the hell? If this story is bought, the people we're selling it too must be idiots, or think we're idiots!" she laughed. Thowra grinned deviously at her.

"Each way is good for us, Pridmore won't know what hit him. The wanker!" he laughed.

Tristan doubled over, it was getting harder to breathe.

"I'm sure this amount of laughter isn't actually good for you." advised KARR in a dry voice although he himself was highly amused. He sifted quietly through the new data that had been added to him and he felt content in it. Thowra and the technicians had modified a few of his forms and given him a range of updates on his weaponry.

What he was the most impressed with was his Pilot Mode. It was the Pontiac Trans-am 2009 build and from the schematics, it was sleek, fast and handled brilliantly. It had his name written in the same vintage gold handwriting right on the hood. To be honest, it looked like one mean machine. With two 'nostrils' near the top of the hood, that's where his scanner bars would be. He was in "Stealth Mode" right now, he would not be picked up on any radar and officially did not exist at this point in time, as did the human and canine inside...inside him. KARR sniggered to himself then sobered at the thought before looking over the schematics of his Lamborghini, Pontiac 2011 bodies that he had been given.

It didn't take long to find out his new weapons, suspension, hydraulics, sensor and camera systems and he was pleased with all of them. He shifted a little, balancing his weight and centre of gravity, air hissed from his front grills. Revving his engine he took comfort from the power prancing through him. He ran a self diagnostic and found all systems and installations were running perfectly. Oh the life of a sex-on-wheels super computer. Now all that was left was to call Michael on the way to

Pridmores' hideout...and on that note, they should get moving. He fired up his engine and let it simmer to a cold purr and tinted the windows, even though one was down for Tristan to talk to Thowra about it. He decided to listen into the last part of their conversation.

"...alright, Trist? Myself, Jake, Flare, John, DJ and Fox will meet you there. I expect you to have Knight with you and Richard will be left out of the cross-fire."

"Thank you Thowra. I'll be there. Aui revoir, ma Cherie." replied Tristan in a teasing manner. KARR took this opportunity to roll up the dark coloured window and sped out the hanger, his engine snarling. He left Thowra behind and the mans' calm accepting expression infuriated him more that he cared to admit. He forced a connection to

KITT and the reply was less that friendly.

888

Two hours later, both Mustang and Lamborghini were cruising side by side in silence. KITT and KARR were in each others CPU and had linked together, their presences having something of a face off.

KITT had shielded his most sensitive and powerful programming and had taken the shape of a Smilodon, a huge sabre-toothed cat.

His main pelt was a deep grey-black with his muzzle and a section of his cheek fur, chest upper forelegs, belly and hind legs were a lighter shade. His front paws only were a slightly lighter shade. He had a mane running the length of his neck and ending just between his shoulder blades. His was medium in length and thick, pitch black with blood red tips. His eyes had no pupils for now and glowed red as did his claws which were visible only on his front paws. His tail was longer than the average Smilodon and his teeth were bigger as well. His nose which was also pitch black was wrinkled into a half snarl but no sound came from his mouth. His aura was of a pure red and it bathed the whole of the AI and his systems despite the ambient lighting in his Mustang body which was blue.

KARR's ambient lighting was gold, but that as well was deception since the aura that surrounded his AI form and systems was an inky blackness which was almost hot.

KARR himself was an intimidating Timber Wolf with a fathered tail. His tail was much longer than the average wolfs and the fur was much longer on it as well, giving it an almost equine appearance. His claws were also unnaturally thick and long. He had a nick in his left ear and sported a very human goatee. He had a massive neck ruff, it was almost mane like and this extended under his chest to the end of his ribcage where the hair became abruptly short. His eyes were a vicious yellow and these contained cat like pupils but at the moment they glowed as well and his black aura surrounded him and his systems. A cruel smile on his maw. A growl rippled from his chest as he stepped towards the other AI presence.

888

Unaware of the tension between the two cars, Michael and Tristan were discussing changes and schematics within their cars and listing to shared music and also discussing the plan of action against Pridmore and his men. There wasn't a hint of flirtatiousness between them, since this could be the day they both died.

"So, how's KITT getting on?" she'd asked.

"He's just fine thank you, 'Jaguar'. His modifications have fitted in well." replied Michael steadily, flicking his eyes to her and then back to the road. Strangely him and Tristan were driving the cars and not one had made a sound to complain about such control over them and their drivers hadn't noticed the change.

"Indeed, Knight." replied Tristan in a dry tone, shooting him a sarcastic look which Michael met with a charming smile. Tristan smirked and leant back in the seat, pressing down on the accelerator, drawing ahead of KITT and Michael a little, speedometer topping 170mph. Michael laughed at that and drew level with her.

They spared like that for a few more minutes before coming level with each other. Tristan glanced at screen and smiled a little before changing the song to "Paper Gangster" by "Lady Gaga". Michael rolled his eyes and sat back, his groan filtered through to Tristan who laughed in his face.

"Why, Tristan? Why?! And I thought we were friends." he complained.

"We are." wheedled Tristan batting her eyelashes at him briefly before looking back at the road.

"Then why this? Her lyrics don't even make any..." Michael broke off and started violently, letting go of the steering wheel and pulling his leg up, yelping as KITT let out a deep moan and a shudder ran violently through his frame, almost throwing them off course. Tristan had the same reaction as KARR let out a low hiss and seemed to tense. Both of them stared at the dashes and controls of their cars in and shock.

There was silence and then:

"WHAT THE FUCK, KARR?!"

"WHAT THE FUCK, KITT?!"

There was an awkward silence as Tristan and Michael regarded each other warily through their vid links. Tristan was waiting for KARR to burst out laughing as was Michael but the silence soon became deafening. In the end, Tristan pulled over to the side of the road because she just couldn't concentrate on the road ahead for lack of concentration and KARR had started making a very deep rumbling noise. It was in the tone there earlier complaints had been in but this time it had gained something.

KITT had started making a similar noise but it was more rasping and sounded almost painful, like panting but again, it lacked a certain something. But apart from that, both cars were silent. Then KARR spoke.

"Tristan...something's...not right..." his voice sounded laboured and static was coming through as well as the dash lights were flashing and pulsing. Tristan glanced about worriedly and tried to put her hand on the dash of the Lambo to comfort the AI but she was repelled. KARR bit back a yell as something surged through his systems and he attacked it, defending his most sensitive programming with the firewall Thowra had installed in him and it worked beautifully. Inside his CPU, KARR sent out tendrils of black hot attacking energy, purging the offending virus from his systems, not without a lot of pain though.

Then, one of his fire wall was smashed through, and another, and another. KARR roared, sending all his energy to this main bolt.

"Tristan! Get out!" he barked.

Tristan basically sprang from the interior of the Lamborghini and stood well back, behind him. She was soon joined by Michael who scrambled out of KITT, clearly disturbed and worried since KITT was not faring as well. KARR put himself in partial shutdown, but KITT who was racked with pain, found himself being overrun with the virus and was succumbing to it. Michael ran forward and put a hand on his partners' hood, only to have an unknown amount of voltage shoot through him. He was thrown back, well over KARR and landed in a heap. KITT let out a low keening noise to show his pain and distress. The noise became a lower and more distorted pitch as KITT continued to lose the battle in his systems, but he let out one last warning before he went completely.

"Michael, Tristan....behind....you..." his voice growled and then died.

Tristan whipped her head around just as a dark shape landed on her and drove a knife into her side. She screamed and slashed at it with her nails, drawing blood. Both struggled on the ground, Tristan gaining the upper hand from pure rage. Michael wasn't so lucky, he had been put in a neck hold and was trying to struggle free without breaking his neck. After a while he succeeded but got a nasty cut on his cheek to go with it. Michael quite literally pounded the mans head into the ground. Tristan was wrestling with two of her attackers and then another one tried to jump her from behind. A sharp elbow to the nose but him out of commission before she launched herself at her assailants with a roar. Michael was tackled from the waist and slammed his foot into the face of his attacker before being shot in the shoulder. She turned around and delivered a bone shattering kick to the shooters arm, breaking it. Next thing he knew, a metal bar slammed into his head and he heard his name screamed and then there was blackness.

"Michael!!!"

888

He didn't know how long it was since he had last been conscious, but when he came back to the real world, a voice, that sounded deep, gravelly and very un KITT like told him he was awake as well as alerting others.

"I see you're finally awake, Michael Knight. Tristan...he's conscious."

"Thank you, KARR."

KARR? KARR! Michael attempted to sit up but sound himself restrained in the back seats of the Mustang which was now in his normal mode. A door opened and Tristan helped him up, but Michael was looking around. Something was missing...someone was missing.

"KITT. Where's KITT?"