K.I.T.T. (3000; Earth-70)

* Normal Mode
* OG Attack Mode
* Attack Mode

### Function

the preservation of human life and crime-fighting duo with a partner to stop criminals who act above the law.

**K.I.T.T.** (an acronym for **Knight Industries Three Thousand**) is Michael Knight III's 2008 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Super Snake KR. The former partner/grandson of Michael Knight II, the partner/A.I. son of Michael Knight III. A virtual Swiss Army knife-on-wheels, the car features a nanotech driven transformation system, a top speed of 377 mph and a suite of onboard defensive weapons systems. K.I.T.T. is also the name of the car’s self-aware artificial intelligence, who is not only the software counterpart to the Mustang’s hardware but also John’s partner in the field, and along with formerly, April Wright the closest thing John has to a true friend besides Barry Allen (commonly known as **the Flash**).

## History

### Origin

The Knight 3000 is an evolution of Dr. Charles Graiman's programming and software that he began developing back in the late 1970's/early 1980's for Wilton Knight and Knight Industries. Over the decades, Graiman saw his grandson, Michael Knight III (originally known as **Michael "John" Traceur II**) advanced and refined the technology. The greatest leap in the advancement of the technology that would become K.I.T.T. came around the turn of the 21st century when the NSA had Graiman develop K.A.R.R. (the **Knight Auto-Cybernetic Roving Robotic-Exoskeleton**) based on the original A.I. he designed for Knight Industries and their first supercar. After the **K.A.R.R. Program** failed, the NSA told Graiman to try and build a new A.I. unit with the hope that it would correct the problems with K.A.R.R.

Graiman began to build a new A.I. with only the FBI's knowledge. It is assumed he incorporated elements of another one his projects that he also developed for the government, Project Prometheus. This accounts for the A.I.'s ability to uplink itself with satellites and the Military Defense Network as well as the ability to control other and lesser mechanical objects. Graiman added his grandson's old ex-girlfriend April's nanotechnology (which is technically Michael Knight III's technology) to replace his previous creations' nearly indestructible Molecular Bonded Shell. Graiman decided to build the new A.I. and technology into a Ford vehicle, specifically the 2008 Shelby Mustang GT500 KR. Graiman christened the car the Knight Industries Three Thousand after his previous success the Knight Industries *Two* Thousand.

Graiman built in all the features that he could conceive of that would allow this car to be the ultimate supercar; a supercar that clung to the basic programming that he had written into the previous K.I.T.T. and lacked writing into both K.A.R.R.s which lead to its downfall: the preservation of human life. This directive would be K.I.T.T.'s governing doctrine, and would lead to many safely completed missions and a better world. Some of the advancements and refinements that Graiman made for this iteration of a Knight Industries' supercar were an energy-efficient solar powered system, reduced dashboard clutter with a centralized touch screen and a regenerative nano-skin that allowed K.I.T.T. to heal itself and change form whenever necessary. One of these forms was called Attack Mode. It beefed up K.I.T.T., allowing the car to achieve higher speeds and gave the car more defensive and offensive abilities. This mode was a more integrated version of the the 2000's later added Super Pursuit Mode.

Graiman was against returning K.I.T.T. and the refinements made in its programming to the NSA to finish the K.A.R.R. Program and correct the flaws in K.A.R.R.'s seemingly and continuously defective A.I. Graiman left many systems in K.I.T.T. unchecked and untested so as to not mark the project as complete, therefore not allowing the NSA to take K.I.T.T. But K.I.T.T. was still operational and ready to perform basic duties when called upon for them. But until that time, K.I.T.T. sat in Graiman's lab next to parts left over from the development of its previous counterparts.

### Chapter 1: A Knights Beginning

K.I.T.T. saw his first bit of action when soldiers from the Black River organization broke into Graiman’s mansion. The soldiers were intent on stealing everything related to Project Prometheus. The burglars stumbled onto K.I.T.T. in the garage and seemed intent on stealing the hot sports car as well, assuming Graiman was dead from a heart attack. These events triggered a fail-safe program Graiman had programmed into K.I.T.T., causing him to activate and escape. The program directed K.I.T.T. to seek out Charles' partner April and ensure her safety; locate her old childhood friend John Traceur to protect her (Charles respected him and believed him to be the only logical choice to protect April should anything happen to him); and then turn itself in to the FBI to protect Prometheus and the rest of Graiman's research since K.I.T.T. had access to all of this and could be used by the Black River soldiers.

While K.I.T.T. was returning to the Graiman mansion because of objections from April about turning himself in, K.I.T.T. receives contact from Charles and brings John and April to his location. K.I.T.T. leads John to Charles' room at the hotel where he is hiding and leads John, Charles and Jennifer Traceur, John's mother to safety avoiding detection from the Black River. But Graiman had stored K.I.T.T.'s data and specifications on his hard drives which the Black River soldiers took and the soldiers' technology wizkid managed to hack into K.I.T.T.'s system. K.I.T.T. shut down his software as per Graiman's orders to prevent them from getting any information out of him. John gets behind the wheel of K.I.T.T. to drive after the soldiers and get back Charles. With his system off, K.I.T.T. cannot regenerate his nano-skin so John has to tackle the soldier's vehicle the old-fashioned way by sideswiping the vehicle and firing guns. John positioned K.I.T.T. in front of the Black River's SUV and has April reactivate the system. Doing this allows the Black River ops to finish hacking K.I.T.T.'s systems but also halted their transmission of data needed to decrypt Graiman's files on Prometheus. There is just enough time after reactivating K.I.T.T.'s system and the ops from hacking it for K.I.T.T. to repair the nano-skin and brace for a deadly impact with the SUV. The impact doesn't even dent K.I.T.T. but kills everyone in the SUV except for Charles.

After seeing what K.I.T.T. can do, Charles and the FBI decide that it is the right time to restart the Foundation for Law and Government (FLAG) using K.I.T.T. as the new field unit. K.I.T.T. is paired with John and they set out to start making a difference in the world.

### Chapters 2-19

The reformation of FLAG was halted and a new division of Knight Industries, Knight Research & Development (KR&D), was formed in conjunction with the FBI and (to Charles' dismay) the NSA. K.I.T.T. is still commissioned to be used as the Field Unit with John as it's driver, but now the objective has changed, and K.I.T.T. will be used to help thwart terrorists and criminals who have it out for national security. As Carrie Rivai, FBI agent in charge of the KR&D venture (named the **K.I.T.T. Program**)

> There are even some cases that the FBI can't be too closely involved with.
>
> -Agent Rivai, *Pilot Movie*

 Alex Torres was assigned to the Program to be the NSA agent in charge, assigning missions to K.I.T.T. and John and overseeing all operations as Second-in-Command of KR&D under Dr. Graiman. Torres was assigned because of his connection with Charles and the original K.A.R.R. Program.

Graiman upgrades some of K.I.T.T.'s systems during this time. He redesigned K.I.T.T.'s Attack Mode to be more aggressive looking and adds many more defensive and offensive modifications such as missiles and mini-guns. He modified the interior, removed the centralized touch screen and added an interactive Heads Up Display (HUD). Graiman adds features that had been present in both the original iteration of K.A.R.R. and the Knight 2000, such as Turbo Boost and Ski Mode. With the help of April and John, Charles upgraded K.I.T.T.'s nano-skin program, allowing the vehicle to effectively transform into different vehicles rather than previous morphing ability to that was limited to different versions of a Ford Mustang. Other new features were added to make K.I.T.T. the pinnacle of Knight Industries' supercars, such as holographic generator & external screens on its chassis.

K.I.T.T.'s missions ranged from protecting secret government "packages" to infiltrating rogue military groups to stopping raids from anarchists and protecting foreign ambassadors from psycho maniacs and giant bombs. However, K.I.T.T. had his fair share of villains to deal with himself. Ryan Aeros, a scientist whom April had dated and Charles worked on a project with developed a nano-virus for the government. K.I.T.T. became infected with the virus during the pursuit of Aeros as he was trying to get the virus out of the government's hands. The virus caused several of K.I.T.T.'s functions to malfunction and K.I.T.T. killed Aeros and almost killed John, April and Charles because of it. K.I.T.T. systems were almost deleted by the virus but John and April were able to find Aeros' counter-virus in time and was able to upload it to K.I.T.T. and the infected S.S.C. .

K.I.T.T. had another run-in with death on Halloween of 2008. A woman named Terri Lee infiltrated the S.S.C. and impersonated Zoe Chae, one of K.I.T.T.'s technicians in attempt to gain access to all of K.I.T.T.'s files, though it remains unknown for what purpose. Lee initiates K.I.T.T.'s self-destruct sequence that Graiman installed in K.I.T.T. as to force an emergency backup of K.I.T.T. to the S.S.C. so Lee could take the files. K.I.T.T. felt betrayed that Charles had put this backdoor into K.I.T.T. K.I.T.T. discovers that the backdoor self-destruct program was installed incase K.I.T.T. ever went rogue and learned how to self-program, as his prototype, K.A.R.R., had done. Despite its distrust for Graiman, K.I.T.T. allows its files to be downloaded to the S.S.C. in hope they can install K.I.T.T. in a back up neural-net. During the upload, K.I.T.T. informs John about K.A.R.R. and triggers something in John's hazy memory, but John doesn't know exactly what it is. The destruct sequence is stopped in time and K.I.T.T. returns home unscathed.

K.I.T.T.'s greatest enemy to date, however was its evil twin and prototype, K.A.R.R. After Graiman's death, the NSA moved in and shut down the S.S.C. and KR&D to move ahead with the K.A.R.R. program. Torres and Jack Hurst removed K.I.T.T.'s A.I. and install it in K.A.R.R. as the original intention was believing K.I.T.T.'s artificial intelligence will overwrite KARR's programming flaws. With only a few moments to respond, K.I.T.T. uploads all of its data onto the internet (michaelknight.org), hoping that John would find him and restore him. Billy Morgan and Zoe are able to download K.I.T.T. onto a makeshift CPU to reinstall in the Knight 3000, which was carted away to a hangar at Area 51, Nevada. K.I.T.T. is reactivated only with a few memory gaps, but not all his systems are operational yet, and go face to face with K.A.R.R. in a weakened state. With the guidance of John, K.I.T.T. was able to use some of its more simpler features such as Ski Mode, the grappling hook and Turbo Boost to save Torres from K.A.R.R.'s grasp and then eliminate K.A.R.R. K.I.T.T. did sustain damage, but was able to limp back to the dismantled S.S.C. to be repaired and await new missions; missions that were not decided upon by the government, but the reinstated FLAG.

## Gadgets

* **Black Ice**: First used in the episode "knight of the zodiac" when Virgo plays possum and escapes over a fence.
* **Grappling Hook and Winch**: K.I.T.T. has a hidden winch and grappling hook system, one mounted under his front bumper, and another in a compartment behind his tail light plate. Most often the hook is connected by a strong cable, but a metal arm has also been seen. The grappling hook is first used in Chapter 5 "a hard days knight" when Michael is dying in K.I.T.T while April is trying to stop the truck to get the antidote to the lethal poison.
* **Olfactory Sensor**: KITT could "smell" via an atmospheric sampling device mounted in his front bumper.
* **Laser Powerpack**: KITT can fire a high powered ultra-frequency modulated laser capable of burning through steel plating. Like most of KITT's components, the schematics for the laser device are classified. First used in Chapter 5: A Hard Day's Knight to cut a chain connecting Mike to an overturned car.
* **Voice Stress Analyzer**: KITT can process spoken voices and determine if someone may be lying.
* **Computer Printout**: KITT could print hard copies of data on a dashboard-mounted printer. First used in Chapter 5 "a hard day's knight" K.I.T.T produced a perfect copy of an invitation for April to gain entry into a model bikini pool party.