The Lost Highway (KITT/Mike)

[Blindspot]

Friday, January 13th, 11:08 PM
Rural Wyoming

Darkness ahead, darkness behind.

From the shadows before him, yellow slashes of cracked paint appeared, as if by magic, under the glare of Blindspot’s headlights, blurring by him as he drove to disappear in the shadows behind him. It was chilly and overcast, with a grey pall over the starless sky. The road was a small two-lane highway, winding through the rural sprawl of Wyoming’s interior. Blindspot was coasting at an easy fifty miles an hour, and in a relatively good mood.

It wasn’t what one would call a pretty night, but he was happy to be out of the Nemesis, all the same. He spent far too much of his free time cramped in that spaceship. The drone knew he had no right to complain, but he longed for the open road, for the feeling of the wind and the asphalt. As much of a relief as it was to be outside, he couldn’t help but wish the circumstances of his mission were different.

Somehow, they’d lost a miner.

The scouting expedition had been about as routine as they could come. A miner had been sent to the field to scope out an area that was believed to contain trace elements of energon. It was not, by any means, a rich vein, but frankly they could use all the energon they could get. There was believed to be a minimal risk of Autobot incursion, since this energon reading was so faint and insignificant, so the miner had been sent out alone. Needless to say, this had distressed some of the drones, but they were needed on the front lines, and it was not their job to question their leaders.

The miner had failed to report back. He had been missing for twenty-four hours, which was long enough for Blindspot’s superiors to get annoyed. It was possible that he was underground and out of range of communication, but it was also possible that something had happened to him. When the Decepticons encountered a problem, they had one solution: throw drones at it.

Blindspot was aware that he might be driving into a trap, but that was irrelevant. There was a miner in trouble, and that was at the forefront of his thoughts. Imperatives hardwired into him were commanding him to find and protect the miner. Just because he was possibly driving into a trap didn’t necessarily mean he had to drive in unprepared, though. He had backup.

Every now and then he heard the roar of Windshear’s engines, muffled by distance and by the cloud cover between them. The sound came again, reminding him that he should probably do what he could to prepare his partner. <“Windshear, do you have a visual on the town yet?”>

<“Nope,”> came the reply.

<“Well, in the meantime it would probably do us both good to become familiar with the layout. I am going to pull a satellite map of the town while I am driving. It might be useful to see if you can find any information about it on the humans’ internet.”>

<“Good idea.”> The seeker fell quiet as he did just that. Blindspot was not used to taking charge in any situation, but Windshear needed a nudge in the right direction every now and then. The Vehicon divided his attention between the empty road and jacking into the internet. Out here in the distance, it would have been difficult for a human, but Blindspot was, of course, packed with more sophisticated technology than the average human had at their disposal. To his surprise, Windshear contacted him again. <“Says that there’s some humans what went missin’. Pretty recently, too.”>

<“That… that is interesting, actually,”> Blindspot mulled this over. Could something natural be to blame? Perhaps a disaster of some kind?

Windshear clearly had other things on his mind. <“And it’s… abandoned. The town. Sounds kinda creepy.”> There was a pause. <“You don’t think…”>

<“No, I do not think it is cursed,”> Blindspot quickly replied.

<“But--”>

<“I am certain that there is a logical explanation for all of this,”> Blindspot went on calmly. <“I am going to need to make a turn soon, and I should try and memorize this map. Don’t fret, Windshear; everything will be fine.”> Blindspot noticed a glimmer in his rear view mirror. Another car, on the road? It was still some distance away, but he was surprised. How unusual. It was hardly consequential, though. He would be making a slight right soon, and he highly doubted the car would be going his way. Nothing awaited at the end of that road except Peach Grove. The drone turned his attention back to pulling up the map.

[Windshear]

Windshear was still feeling nervous, despite Blindspot’s reassurance. His tentative probing into the internet had pulled up a lot of sites about the abandoned town of Peach Grove. Despite the fact that these were packed with loads of useful information--the town’s history as a copper mine and a hangout for Prohibition-era gangsters--the Eradicon had decided instead to focus on the aspects that he dreaded to find.

Local consensus was that the town was haunted.

Humans had even been disappearing recently--local news sites reported the vanishing of two teenagers. It seemed the nearby town of Truston was apparently quite upset about it. It didn’t occur to Windshear to report this to Blindspot, because he was mulling over the possibility that something sinister and supernatural had been the cause of their miner’s disappearance.

It was making him nervous, but it was not effecting his resolve; their miner was missing, and he was subject to the same programmed-in imperative that his Vehicon counterpart was. He had to find the miner and bring it home. He would prefer not to face down all the horrors the unseen world had to offer, but if that was the case, then so be it. He took comfort in the fact that his partner for this assignment was Blindspot. The Vehicon was kind of weird, but he was smart, that much was obvious. If they did end up facing off against something spooky, he would know what to do.

<“Hey Spot, I’m going to go on ahead,”> he commed, <“I’ll cover you if you need anything, okay? I’ll uh, I’ll let you do the lookin’, just call me in if you need something shot.”> A pause. <“Or punched.”> Another paused. <“Or lifted.”>

<“I read you, and comply, Windshear. Thank you.”>

Feeling satisfied that he had passed the torch of investigating on to his ground-bound companion, Windshear tilted and veered sharply east, increasing his speed to make his way to the abandoned mining town of Peach Grove. Anyone looking up through the occasional gap in the clouds would probably have been startled to see the sleek, otherworldly aircraft sliding through the sky.

[Mike Traceur Knight]

KITT and Mike had been asked to investigate the mine, as well as the town. After having seen absolutely in the town itself, KITT began to pick up a faint Energon trail, though neither were well educated on what Energon WAS even though they had recently learned that Cybertronians had existed on New Year's day.

They were about to approach the mine's vicinity and, on the controls like usual, Mike applied KITT's brakes abruptly as he caught sight of Windshear's sleek, dark figure in the night sky. Mike's eyes were on a constant scan despite KITT always being on the look out, so both he and the AI easily spotted movement. Of course the drone was hard to see, but both had spotted the dark movement. KITT projected Windshear's image via infrared imagery - heat sensing. It was a little easier to depict, but still fuzzy at altitude.

"Aircraft almost twelve o'clock high," Mike had announced.

"It is unmarked and unmanned. We can conclude it is Cybertronian." KITT was unsettled though, it was obvious it left the mine. "What are they doing at this mine? The signal we've been following must suggest there is a good reason. Something else other than minerals is in there. I hope it is not radioactive, because that means you cannot leave." KITT replied in acknowledgement.

"Well, I guess if it left the mine then we should be small enough to investigate ourselves without sending me in there by my lonesome. I like that deal now that that thing likely flew out of there." Apparently these aliens flew as well, and that was a little unsettling.

KITT and the others were aware of the extreme global phenomena that had happened several years ago when Unicron had awakened. Could this be one of those cases? Of course, they didn't know that what caused the extremities was in fact a living entity/being!

((Sorry it took me so long to reply, my brain was tired the last times I attempted and nothing seemed good enough xP))

[Blindspot]

((HUSH YOU BEFORE I POP YOU ON THE LIP. Your post is fine. XD))

Windshear didn’t pay the ground vehicle any attention. He slid away across he sky, quickly overtaking Blindspot and vanishing into the night. Before long, he was out of range of both KITT and Blindspot’s sensors. KITT and his partner were left to discuss the ramifications of the presence of Windshear for the next ten minutes or so in silence as they veered toward the road leading to Peach Grove.

Blindspot, still in front of them, however, was getting irked.

He had been surprised to see the car behind him turn down the same road that he had taken. There was no question about what the vehicle’s intent was. It was going to the same place he was. This was the only road to Peach Grove, and even though it went through the town, it simply re-joined the major highway again much further down the line.

Under normal circumstances, Blindspot was not an aggressive creature--quite the opposite. As he drove, though, gradually slowing to close the distance between himself and the car behind him, his mind worked overtime. This vehicle didn’t look like anything the military would use, but appearances could be deceiving. His passive scanners weren’t picking up anything unusual--it only told him that the car was a sophisticated piece of technology (as most modern cars were) and that it had a human passenger.

The closer they drew, the more agitated the drone became. Protocols beyond his control were asserting themselves in his processor. It was highly probably that they were going to Peach Grove. (Protect the miner.) There didn’t seem to be anything unusual about the vehicle, but Blindspot had not actively scanned it yet. (Protect the miner!) There was a chance that they knew where they were going, that indeed they had been there before, even, (Protect the miner!)[/b][/color] Blindspot felt a sort of haze beginning to creep in through the edges of his thoughts, clouding his ability to think rationally.

They might know something about what had happened.

They might be responsible for what had happened.

(PROTECT THE MINER!)[/b][/color]

Blindspot felt an inner mechanism take control, and immediately he reached out, scanning KITT, and came back with a wealth of evidence that this was definitely not an ordinary car. KITT would have been more than aware of the alien signature emitting from Blindspot as he scanned. Instantly Blindspot screeched, his front wheels locking as he fishtailed, spinning around to point his front at KITT. He was still moving backwards at a decent clip, which would make it difficult for KITT to overtake him.

Blindspot flicked on his high beams, and, at the same time, deployed his hood-blaster, which powered up with a high-pitched whine. The medic rarely ever made the first move in a fight, but he was no longer strictly under his own control. “Identify yourself and state your intentions!” he rasped as loud as he was able. At the same time, he sent out a wireless communiqué with the same message, directly to whatever hardware would receive it inside of KITT. It was possible that his voice even came through the Mustang’s radio.

He did not fire, but he held his ground, still reversing to keep KITT in his sights. If the Mustang stopped, then he would stop.

[KI3T]

Mike halted KITT abruptly, and both hesitated in speaking right away. Yes, this was definitely one of the Cybertronians Interceptor had encountered. It was dark in color like KARR, too. They still had limited knowledge on who exactly created them but they knew now that Decepticons were responsible for it.

Was this a Decepticon? The drone's voice certainly sounded a bit on the creepy side to both of them, particularly Mike. KITT wasn't so much bothered by it because he presumed maybe there was a reason why his voice was like that in the first place. KITT chose his words carefully, taking the opportunity to speak first.

"Easy, we are merely here to investigate upon request by our superiors." KITT replied. "I am the Knight Industries Three Thousand, KITT if you prefer, and the driver I carry is Mike Knight."

[Mike Traceur Knight]

Mike was confused and also curious. As of just this week they had discovered aliens had existed and not only vowed to keep the matter secret (which was no problem given FLAG's classified projects), now they were encountering the aliens this way and that! First there was the encounter with Jazz and the reborn Decepticon version of KARR, and now there were these two. They certainly came in all forms, didn't they?

"I'm not sure I like this, that one looks angry, which means it's hiding something. Surely that something is connected to the signal we've been tracking. Maybe if we play nice it--I guess he, will let us in?" Mike was increasingly careful about gender references as the years had passed since he first joined FLAG. Given the unique entity that KITT was, he fully understood now that the AI's took on personae with genders of their choice. After meeting Jazz, it seemed these Cybertronians were the same way.

He made sure to speak once the external communication device was cut off so he wouldn't be overheard, just to be on the safe side.

"As long as we tread carefully and remain defensive, it is likely, but not certain." KITT replied, giving his best prediction on the situation.

[Blindspot]

Blindspot held his ground, his engine rattling like an angry diamondback’s. He was somewhat surprised that the other hadn’t deployed any weaponry of any sort--his scans hadn’t told him exactly what this mystery car was hiding in its arsenal, but he knew that it was certainly capable of doing some kind of damage. Distantly, in the part of his brain that wasn’t being swamped with protective commands, he was aware that, if he and this car really got into a fight, he would not likely last long.

That didn’t matter, though. Only the miner mattered.

Blindspot wrestled with his own mind, his own will, for a few moments, before he forced himself to relax. The fact that KITT had not deployed any sort of weaponry further soothed his sudden spike of aggression. He let his blaster fold back under his hood, and sat for a moment contemplating the other. It--he, the voice was definitely male--had mentioned an investigation. Windshear had brought up something about missing humans, but Windshear had somewhat of a reputation for less-than-reliable information. The Seeker simply wasn't bright.

It didn’t occur to Blindspot that he was speaking to anything other than a sentient creature. He was more used to the idea of automobiles as sentient than humans. As such, he weighed his next words cautiously. He simply didn’t know enough about this car, or about how Earth agencies operated, to make any kind of educated decision on what he should say, so he decided, instead, to be honest. “You are referring to the missing humans, I presume? I had half-assumed that was a rumor. It is not?”

That reminded him--Windshear was still out there. It was better to let him be, for now; Blindspot didn’t want to tip off this stranger than he had backup. He was willing to tolerate KITT’s presence, for the moment (and, by extension, the presence of whatever pet human he had brought) but that didn’t mean he was going to trust him anytime soon.

[KI3T]

"No, the town is completely empty, and we don't know what caused it. Very rarely do towns disappear, even if small." KITT replied. "We have humans who work in mines all the time; the towns they work in do not disappear like they did here. No one else wanted to do the job, so thus we're here. May we investigate? We were tracking a strange unidentifiable signal leading to this mine, likely it is radioactive." he hoped Blindspot would let them through, they knew the rules: no tampering, no stealing anything from the site.

KITT and Mike didn't do this sort of investigation every day, but given the queer events of late, it seemed like a good idea. And Mike certainly agreed with that, given the fact that KARR was revived by an alien race.

((Done))

[Blindspot]

Blindspot was turning over what he’d learned from the stranger. Hmm. So this sort of disappearance was wide-scale enough to cause humans to worry? He would need to wrap this investigation of his up as soon as possible before they started flocking in by the droves. KITT then did something that quite threw the drone for a loop--he asked Blindspot’s permission to continue.

For a moment Blindspot sat there helplessly, unsure what to do. He was being given power in this situation. That was, needless to say, something that hardly ever happened to him. Part of him was screaming to drive this stranger away, far from the miner; the other half of him was very reasonably suggesting that he allow the car to come along. It could have attacked him already, if it meant harm.

What if it was even able to help? The stranger’s presence might hurt the miner or might improve the chances of finding or helping he miner. The flurry of thoughts in Blindspot’s mind reached a breaking point at that suggestion, and his processor locked momentarily as he struggled with the conflicting analyses of the situation. He shook it off, finally pulling a decision out of the churning maelstrom of his heavily-programmed mind. <“Yes. You may accompany me. I am also investigating a disappearance.”>

He backed up, tires screeching as he performed an abrupt turn, and began to drive again. He didn’t wait for KITT to catch up, but should the other car draw near, he would swerve obligingly; the road was big enough for the two of them, and Blindspot did not think he would run into any oncoming traffic anytime soon. <“I warn you, though, I am heavily armed and ready to defend myself. I have come to retrieve one of my kind, and if you show aggression towards him, I will attack you.”> His tone was quite calm as he said this. He was not trying to intimidate KITT; he was merely stating a fact. He might as well have been talking about the weather, for all the aggression he showed.

<“The signal you picked up likely originated by my target, or possibly from weapons discharge from my target. I do not believe our presence is harmful to humans--as long as they do not cross us,”> he added dryly. <“It is no surprise to me that your sensors do not know what to make of it. Likely, your sensory equipment was not designed with such creatures as myself and my companion in mind.”>

[KI3T]

"Perhaps that is so. We were able to detect your signal a couple miles out. If this whole town is abandoned and you and your friend are the sole beings that remain, it is logical to conclude you have interest in the mine. But why? We were told it was run by humans." KITT and Mike were both a little confused now...was the mine, in truth, run by the Cybertronians? Blindspot appeared to be Decepticon as well, so that couldn't be good. They had been briefed on Cybertronian energy sources a day or so ago, and had been told the truth about what happened a few years ago with Unicron when he woke up. They were on high alert to look out for the signs that they were briefed on. It was when KITT thought about the lecture that KITT thought it wouldn't hurt to explain some of their suspicions. "We were concerned that it might have something to do with the dark Energon of Unicron. It is evident this is not a normal mine. I am scanning what I can of it as I speak."

Mike stayed quiet, letting KITT do the talking simply because he did not want to piss off the enemy.

((Done, I may randomly make a post on Mike's account when I deem it necessary.))

[Blindspot]

Blindspot hesitated as he drove. What exactly should he tell this car? This stranger seemed well-informed--shockingly so, even. Most human agencies had covered up the Unicron incident, to the best of their ability. <“Well, that is what we sent our miner to find out,”> he finally responded, <“we picked up a faint energon signature. This mine was established by humans, long ago, but it was also long ago abandoned. They were mining for copper, though, so it would stand to reason that they would lose interest in it once the ore was depleted.”>

He went on, <“I was hoping this mine was a source of normal energon. It is rather more useful than dark energon. At any rate, our miner has gone missing. Miners are capable of defending themselves, but they are non-combatants. It is possible he was ambushed.”> Just the thought of the miner getting ambushed was upsetting Blindspot. <“The fact that this coincides with humans disappearances is… most puzzling. Very puzzling indeed.”>

Slowly, but surely, the Vehicon was relaxing. The more he focused on the problem ahead of them, the less he focused on KITT as a threat. The fact that he had some formidable air support was probably also contributing to his ease.

((**salutes!**))

[KI3T]

<"With that in mind, may we explore further? For the concern of both our people."> KITT requested hopefully. They wouldn't be able to get very far if Blindspot didn't let them, and it wouldn't do well to get into a fight in here, especially since mines were highly dangerous. KITT wasn't too fond of tight places, and neither was he with aircraft. He didn't look uncomfortable of course, but the possibility certainly wasn't impossible.

KITT surveyed Blindspot curiously once more. Yes, he was exactly like the ones he saw on the Nemesis earlier this month when he and Cira rescued York. He had been given a picture of what they looked like so he could mock their paint job and pull off a disguise so he could access the Medical Bay more efficiently even though he was a good hacker. It would put less risk on Cira so she didn't have to do all the infiltration herself. The disguise had certainly come in handy. Now he hoped that he wasn't one of drones he'd injured. At least the drone didn't seem to recognize him, so that was a plus. KITT thought surely if he was there, he would have remembered KITT's appearance from the scene - two humans running with a Bot that had an appearance similar to a drone and one of the humans having strange armor that didn't blend in at all was hard to miss.

[Blindspot]

Blindspot, not for the first time that night, found himself in an unusual position of… well, authority, almost. <“Er,”> he responded, intelligently, <“well… yes, of course. I will not hinder your investigation if you will not hinder mine. Our goals may very well coincide.”> He wasn’t sure how he felt with working side-by-side with a strange, apparently human-produced car, but his feelings weren’t important. The miner was important.

The road began to curve, and off to one side It dropped away steeply. Below them, Blindspot could see the town. He cut his headlights, running dark, as he peered at the sight below. They still had a good ten minutes of driving before the road wound down in a lazy switchback to the valley below, where Peach Grove had been constructed. There was a small cluster of houses, looking eerily out of place on the fringes of the woodlands, which had begun to slowly retake the old mining town. There were newer sections with long, tall warehouses further from what used to be the main hub of the town, and another road leading off to the mine itself.

His attention was immediately drawn to a handful of trucks. They were large boxy things, the sort of vehicles commonly utilized by moving companies. They were also unmarked, with plain white sides. Blindspot knew enough about Earth vehicles to know that was slightly irregular. There were more common-looking civilian vehicles parked next to some trailers, the lights of which were dark.

The scene was eerie. There was no sign of life outside, or of habitation in the trailers, which seemed, for all intents and purposes, to be homes. At least one of them should have had some sign of life, even at so late an hour. <“Something’s going on here,”> Blindspot concluded, though he could not figure out what. He silently pinged Windshear with his location and a visual of what he had discovered.

He was interested in those warehouses. Whatever was inside of those might hold a clue as to what was happening here, and when he discovered what was happening here, he would be closer to determining the fate of the missing miner. If something had happened to the miner--something that could not be repaired… well. Then he almost felt sorry for the humans, because he knew exactly what Windshear would do to them.

He would ensure that they never hurt another miner again.

Blindspot, himself, didn’t have the sort of stomach for bloodshed. <“I would like to investigate those warehouses. There are an unusual amount of trucks there. It could be… it could be any number of things. Humans are odd. Either way, I would like to know exactly what they are doing, and exactly what I need to be prepared to face. However, getting close without attracting attention might be problematic. Do you have any experience in these matters?”> The strange vehicle had mentioned that he and his human partner were on a ‘job,’ but Blindspot was clueless to the fact that this sort of thing was rather run-of-the-mill for them.

[Mike Traceur Knight]

Mike glanced to KITT's voice orb then, knowing he was best for the job unless the drone wanted to use a holoform. <"If I may interject, humans tend to be good for this sort of investigation. I can get in there and take a look, see what I can find and report back with KITT's help. He has easy access to satellite surveillance and can track my movements unless I go into someplace that is blocked off completely by advanced security measures. I can stay in communication range every step of the way."> Mike offered to Blindspot, watching the car in front of them as they moved along.

He knew it was a perfect job for him, he'd done far more difficult things before. And having recently recovered from his incident with KARR, he would be more mentally fit for it.

[Blindspot]

Blindspot was a little startled to hear a response coming from the human, rather than the AI, and for a moment he was silent as he grappled with this. If this human could be trusted, then he would be the most logical choice for infiltration--but what if he couldn’t? What if this was some sort of ploy? He had to assume it wasn’t; after all, if the other car had wanted to attack him, it could have done so earlier.

<“Very well,”> Blindspot finally conceded. <“I am sure you will know how to identify any missing humans; the miner will also be difficult to miss.”> A pause. <“He will be a very tall purple mechanical being. Very tall indeed, compared to you.”> Another pause. <“If the miner feels startled or threatened, it would be best to tell him that 207 sent you; he will know what you mean.”>

It was a little amusing how quickly the drone, which had, only a handful of minutes before, been threatening them with weapons drawn, reverted to an overanxious mother hen. Apparently the protective instinct for this missing miner ran strong. He continued to dispense nervous advice as they approached, showing perhaps the first true hint of what his nature was really like, as they drove. By the time they drew near enough to park among the abandoned buildings, Mike would have received a handful of tips about how to calm a nervous miner. (These consisted of a short tutorial in body language, the proper modulation of voice, as well as an impromptu lesson in the proper pronunciation of the Universal Greeting, “Bah weep graanagh wheep ni ni bong.”)

Eventually they came to a rather secluded space where KITT and Blindspot could park, in the shadow of two abandoned buildings. One of them was an old school, and in the dark, it was quite creepy, with its deteriorating playground (a single swing squeaking, swinging in the breeze) and significant exterior damage (broken windows gaping like black maws in the crumbling façade). Blindspot paid it no heed.

The drone was practically humming with anxiety. He didn’t like the idea of sending some strange human in to look for his miner, but necessity dictated discretion. He was being as quiet as he could, but the persistent rattle in his engine was echoing off the empty walls, and there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it. <“I will come to your aid, of course, if something goes wrong,”> he assured Mike for what had to be the fourth time, <“since you are cooperating with me.”>