Kitt had remained curled up inside his microprocessor for several hours, he wasn't too aware of what was going on around him and didn't care much about it for the time being. Here in this dark and mellow place, he found comfort going over his fondest memories of Michael.
"Hey buddy, took a shower?"
"Michael please, no humor…"
"No humor…"
Kitt felt his processes come to a gentle slow pace as Michael's voice echoed in the past, his purpose ultimately lacking at the moment. He felt lonely in this dark electronic space but at peace nevertheless, free to look into the past without having to think too much about what the scary future might behold. It was a scary thought that perhaps he'd have to go on without Michael. FLAG had ceased to exist so at least he had the one consolation (even though he was saddened at its going) that he wouldn't have to be forced into a new partnership with a new driver.
Kitt gently stroked his fondest memories letting them take him along, reliving the past, numbing his pain. Engulfed in his self-pity he hardly registered someone or something tapping gently against the walls of his enclosed domain. It gently knocked, drawing his attention slowly. At first, Kitt let the program continue to tap against the barrier between him and it, dismissing it as an outwaiting input from one of his many sensors stimulated by an outside source. It continued to drag on, however, continuously interrupting Kitt's train of thought. He was hesitant to let the message come through at first, wondering if it was one of Bonnie's clever tricks into checking up on him or Karr having grown frustrated with his sudden withdrawal.
The minutes drew on and Kitt having grown drained from his emotional outburst let the program tap through.
He'd first expected it to inform him with a multitude of backed up data he'd been carelessly letting pile up, but instead, it gently poked him and urged him to continue forth enveloping him kindly and comforting him within his protective domain, and resolving his struggling feelings for the moment, giving him peace of mind as he was gently "hugged" by the program. The program didn't so much as speak, it wasn't sentient in any way but seemed to motion him kindly to follow a route he wasn't familiar with, plotting it out effectively into his navigational system.
Kitt immediately recognized the program as that of the one bothering him at the start of his awakening several days ago. Bonnie had managed to oppress the program, much to Kitt's relief, and set it into a dormant state the night before, but the program willfully had wiggled its way out of its constrained corner and back into his scope of awareness.
Kitt internally sighing decided to unwillingly examine the location the program had reconfigured based on his current location. The destination had remained the same, someplace out in the middle of nowhere holding no significance to Kitt. Kitt slowly unwinded, accommodating himself back in line with the rest of his functions and communicating once again with his many components as he inspected the needy program once more.
He was rather surprised when he realized that his chassis was in motion and that it was rather dark. He picked up quietly on Bonnie's and RC's voices conversing to one another in his darkened cabin over the hum of the rushing road beneath them. He peeked up at them without their knowing, taking in their worried and exhausted glances. He wasn't entirely interested in listening in on what they were yet saying but struck odd that they'd decided to take him on a late drive especially when both were equally tired. He could smell the faint scent of coffee drifting in his cabin and the distinct smell of donuts. He'd feel much better if they'd let him drive instead, especially given the fact…
"Good grief!" Kitt remarked, startling both passengers as he got a fix on the rather late time thanks to his regained access to his chronometer. "What in the world are you two doing driving at 10:00 p.m. like this?!"
RC was the first to answer with a light heartened chuckle, Bonnie staring at Kitt's voice modulator in concern awaiting for RC to settle down.
"Where's Karr? Oh…" Kitt asked over the racket, answering his question immediately as his scanner picked up on Karr with his pop-up headlights reflecting brightly off his glossy form following closely behind them on the open road.
"Kitt," Bonnie Began, giving up on RC entirely. "How are you feeling?" She asked, studying Kitt's dash for any clues on his current state of mind.
"Not that well actually." He admitted, dismissing RC's heavy gasping from his sudden outburst of laughter. "Where are we going?" He asked, "And at such a late hour, might I add."
"We, my friend," RC excitedly exclaimed, "are going to investigate the site of the accident. Oh, Kitt my man! So happy to hear from you!" RC beamed, pure enthusiasm radiating off of him. "It's been a long time!"
Kitt felt a slight ping of guilt trickle into his processor. It hadn't been too thoughtful of him to have let himself get tangled in his emotions so easily. 'Ugh,' He thought, 'I can't hide it any longer can't I?' It was an inevitable fact that he, just like anyone else, was in possession of feelings.
"I'm pleased to hear from you too RC, I apologize for my earlier behavior." Kitt was quick to say.
"Nonsense Kitt," RC smiled, "A very human response, given the circumstances."
Kitt internally grinned, finding it reassuring that RC understood and wasn't at all gauging his emotional state. It was a given that he wasn't handling things too well and that he had let things slip from his fingers for the lack of a better term, something he rarely did and was rather opposed to letting happen.
Kitt was about to reply, Bonnie urgently awaiting a reply from his behalf when the program yet again poked at him, this time in an earnest attempt to regain his attention. He fought off his initial reaction to shut it out and send it back into a dormant state. Unexpectedly the program was not reconfiguring his route, rather was letting him know he was well underway to his destination, but the program found it necessary to let him in on an undisclosed directive it'd been keeping from him thus far.
'The phoenix lives.'
A startled yelp emerged from Kitt's voice modulator, making Bonnie jump in her seat.
"Kitt! Kitt! Is something wrong?!" She shouted, quick to try to get through to him using her mobile computer that was still idly connected to him. RC slowed down the chassis and pulled over gently, hoping he hadn't in some way injured Kitt.
Kitt, completely startled by the program's sudden "vocalization", took a moment to question the program. It didn't seem to have the answer's to his many and endless supply of questions that he was throwing at it rather too fast. Quite content with having gained his presumed attention to the urgent matter, the program yet again gratifyingly "spoke".
'The phoenix lives.'
The program encouraged Kitt, who was at a loss for words, to follow the route.
"Who are you?" Kitt found himself gasping out loud astounded, slowing down the downpour of questions.
"Oh no!" Bonnie remarked, in complete panic. "Something must've happened to his memory banks!" Her rising voice startled RC next to her, glancing down at Kitt's darkened voice modulator in anxiety.
"How could his memory banks get busted just that quick? He knew us literally a couple of seconds ago." He added.
"Bonnie, I'm fine." Kitt quickly reassured her, catching on to her misunderstanding. "Bonnie it's the.." He stopped, what were the true intentions of this program anyways? Was it safe to disclose this directive to his friends at all?
'The phoenix lives.' The program echoed.
"Bonnie, RC can you all give me a moment?" Kitt remarked finally, "Please?" He watched as the two glanced at each other in suspicion.
"What's wrong Kitt?" Bonnie replied, "Want to talk about it?" She coaxed.
"Nothing at the moment that should be of your direct concern, I rather you two take a rest and so will I, it's been a long and exhausting day." He dismissed their worries persuasively. Earning him an eye roll from RC.
"You don't fool me." He replied, leaning the driver's seat back and rubbing his weary eyes. "Whatever it is, we're here for you Kitt." RC grinned, crossing his arms and drifting to sleep. "I hope you understand, goodnight." He said lastly.
Bonnie shook her head in disapproval towards the dash.
"Kitt,"
"It's alright Bonnie, I just need a breather. I have been under a lot of pressure lately," He paused. "Would it be alright if we talked about this tomorrow?" His voice slightly quivering. He wasn't the type to hide things from Bonnie, but he needed to interrogate the program on his own if he was to get to the bottom of this.
Bonnie fondly smiled towards Kitt.
"Yes, that's alright so long as you keep to your word." She grinned playfully, taking a huge pressure off of Kitt. He was happy she wasn't upset.
"Goodnight Kitt." She finally said, getting comfortable in the passenger seat to take a light snooze while Kitt dimed his dash, turning off idle gauges and readings for the time being.
"Goodnight Bonnie," Kitt replied, noting that Karr had remained distant from the private channel and was idly scanning the vicinity behind him. He felt the urge to speak to him right away but the program was unprecedented and he'd feel better talking to Karr when he ensured he wasn't infected with some sort of virus that could potentially harm him as well.
He went right to work.
The first thing was first.
'What phoenix?' Kitt asked the program diligently.
The program was slow to process the sudden inquiry, making it apparent that computing inputs of this kind were not part of its main function.
'A ]Man[ (Wh0) D0es$ n0t 3-Exi$t.' Came its final response after two minutes of computing Kitt's initial response. Kitt wasn't sure if he could maintain an active interrogation with a program that took two minutes to come up with a struggling answer. However, he was intrigued by what the program meant: A man who does not exist.
"Michael," Kitt whispered out loud, his voice trembling. Kitt quickly went over his occupant's vitals as they seemingly continued to sleep uninterrupted. He was relieved to know they hadn't heard him say Michael's name out loud. He didn't wish to continue stressing Bonnie over his well-being more than necessary.
After waiting in silence for a moment, Kitt quickly decided to look over the program's source code, looking for any evidence of who might have put it together and why. It was a good place to start, not to mention would be much more effective than openly questioning the hardly vocalizing program.
Looking over the source code, Kitt found that he and Bonnie had somehow completely overlooked an important detail about the program. There was a familiarity with the way it was put together, a silent signature of the one who'd taken the care and time to build the program from the ground up.
April.
That narrowed down the range of when or how the program might have been introduced into his system. He was quick in looking over his register and personal catalog containing a huge and thorough list of updates he'd gotten while in the care of FLAG over the years. He looked over the section containing April's additions made to his system and found a discreet note describing a program that best fitted the description of the one he was dealing with now.
The program was coded so that it could receive and partially communicate with a homing device. A homing device that once activated over-rided Kitt's actions and sent him on a wild goose chase for the source.
There was something else in the source code that caught Kitt's attention. Although the program was mostly April's handy work, there was clear evidence that it'd been tampered with later in its life span and past April's line of work at FLAG. Looking at it further Kitt noticed something, another signature of sorts...clumsy trails of code seemingly put together disjointedly into the program by what he'd guess was a rather hurried individual...Kitt felt rather appalled when he was able to identify the quiet and messy signature of said coder...himself. He internally frowned, he didn't recall ever having to alter this program at all and there were no records to suggest otherwise. Kitt's electronic mind began to wander as he helplessly tried to remember, it seemed it all looped back to his faulty memory modules from where "the dream" had been quietly hidden away from view. Perhaps...and though he wasn't the one to speculate...his faulty memory hadn't exactly happened by accident. There was a high chance something had happened between when he'd been stolen and when he'd awakened inside the vault with Karr, given he'd been restored to his former glory without FLAG's intervention. His past self must have altered the program given evidence that the 'message' was not part of the original function.
Kitt felt his CPU shudder over his thoughts. 'The phoenix lives.' Kitt quietly repeated to himself. 'Michael lives.'
Kitt, presumably under captivity, had probably modified the message into the program for a very important reason...but what? What had been occurring between his destruction and his awakening to have made himself do a sloppy job in modifying the homing program? When obviously he could have done better…? Kitt felt slightly comforted however by what his past self had done, he'd come to realize that he was probably right about Michael being alive if his past self's shameful coding was anything to go by.
Something blossomed within him, something warm and welcoming as Kitt summed up everything he'd just discovered. The feeling nested itself somewhere in his microprocessor, somewhere deep where he knew his 'heart' probably resided.
"I'm coming, Michael," Kitt whispered one last time before going idle and resting up for the night. Tomorrow he'd continue his search.
Karr was aware Kitt was active. This simple fact made him worry about the lower production model's sustained silence. He'd been hopeful that Kitt would have finally contacted him during Doctor Barstow's and Reginald Cornelius the III's coffee break several miles down the highway. He'd been feeling very lonesome at the lack of contact with anyone for the past hours. Doctor Barstow and Reginald Cornelius the III had seemed to have lots to catch up with, talking about all kinds of subjects. From fast and gorgeous cars to simple and more conservative topics. What he found curious however was that Doctor Barstow had failed at finding a significant other, meanwhile, Reginald seemed to be at the gates of establishing a family of his own.
Karr quickly wondered if maybe Kitt was upset over what he'd said earlier and if he'd at all, as humans put it, "blew it". After a while, Kitt's activity had dwindled and Karr assumed he'd gone to "sleep" and was preoccupied recharging his power packs. This alleviated his worries that Kitt was engaging in healthy self-preserving habits. He felt at ease as he quietly came to the logical conclusion that the other AI was probably exhausted and emotionally spent, and would require proper inactivity to regain his strengths.
Karr watched overhead as the moon shone over the desert, making the overgrowth of plants alongside the lonely highway around them sparkle under the white light. It was a lovely sight that brought to Karr some unwanted memories. The night he'd been reactivated by Rev and Tony came to mind.
"I have no eggs. Perhaps you can direct me to a chicken."
His scanner quickened its pace casting an amber glow against Kitt's gleaming bumper as the quiet echoes of past events tumbled over one another in his electronic mind.
It was unfair that the first humans he'd come to even remotely trust had to be absolute halfwits. The first human's Kitt had probably come to trust, must have been respectful and very insightful. It dawned on him that among those first humans, was probably Michael Knight.
He couldn't blame Kitt for trying to find his driver, had it been his driver...he would have probably turbo-boosted into half the world by now, no questions asked.
Karr's scanner came to a lazy stop, several of his subroutines coming to a subtle pause.
'I don't need a driver.' Came his quiet explicit reply echoing within him, resolving an unsaid issue momentarily, one he often tossed under the bus so to speak.
His electronic mind strayed as he continued to observe the slow ascent of the moon. He played with the idea of heading off to the unknown with Kitt, finding places to go and roam, make trouble, and leisurely lounge. He had a yearning to head to the Bonneville salt flats and experience the so-called "salt fever" (as it was so commonly called) firsthand. It would be exciting for sure, running at full speed alongside Kitt over an almost alien world.
From there they'd head up south before winter rolled in. He had no interest in the snow...then again...wouldn't that be interesting? He'd be sure to calculate the exact volume of snow he'd need to completely bury Kitt when the time came.
Why did Kitt need his driver anyways? Karr finally thought. He knew there was this strong cooperation between them, some dependency that Kitt had grown towards Michael Knight, but wouldn't it be better if he'd simply moved on? Especially if there was more than enough proof to prove his deactivation?
Kitt truly believed that Michael was alive and possibly in some sort of trouble, though this went against all logical reasoning. If the man was truly alive then Karr might as well rev his dreams goodbye.
Karr consumed by fear roared his engine to life urgently, lifting his pop-ups, lighting his way through the night as he quickly sped up the road and away from a very asleep Kitt. He knew what Kitt was looking for had ceased to exist, but he needed to know that such a thing for certain had vanished as he felt internally threatened by the mere thought of the man's reappearance taking priority over the lower production model copy's companionship.
Kitt was by far the only life form he'd come across that had demonstrated unconditional loyalty towards him, having convinced Devon Mile's, the man who'd sought to destroy him, to change his mind. He'd also gotten Bonnie Barstow to even reconsider his plane of existence.
If Michael Knight entered the picture he'd be left for scrap as Kitt wouldn't even have second thoughts about following his driver, leaving Karr undoubtedly behind.
If the smallest odds of him being alive were true then Karr would see to it that Kitt continued to believe the latter of him being deceased. To do that he'd have to be the first to arrive at the scene of the accident and cover-up Knight's whereabouts.
Karr hurried along the highway, the speed limit taking the backburner as he raced against the dawn of a new light.