Considering that Commander Nebula seemed very keen on the idea of deactivating XR should Buzz's report prove inadequate, it was very much a problem that XR had been missing for so long. The robot ranger was sent to check on the mystery cargo ages ago and he still wasn't back yet. They even managed to drop off AP-99 in XR's absence.
"Maybe he just got caught in the access tube," Mira mumbled, trying to assure herself that XR wasn't slacking off.
"Booster," Buzz ordered, glancing back at the Jo-Adian. "Why don't you go to the cargo hold and see what's taking XR so long?"
Booster frowned, ears lowering, but nodded. "Sure thing, Buzz."
When he got to the cargo hold, the mysterious box was still there, and still mysterious. Booster looked around for XR and gasped when he found his little buddy, stiff on the floor with a look of fear on his face. He leaned over the robot and pressed emergency restart, waiting for the robot to reboot.
"XR...?" he asked after a moment. "You okay?"
The robot sat up, smiling as if nothing was wrong. "I'm fine," he answered, sounding impressed with that fact. "Just fine," he stretched out before laughing, almost evilly. He paused and glanced around. "Huh? Was that me laughing?"
Before Booster had the chance to comment, he was stunned to see XR's eyes glow red. The robot continued his evil chuckling, albeit quietly. "XR... Did something happen to you?"
"What?" XR stood up. "Of course not, big guy. Let's get back to the bridge. Say, how long was I out?"
Booster didn't have the chance to answer again, since XR left for the bridge without him. Once the door was shut, the Jo-Adian opened his communicator.
"Buzz, XR's heading back to the bridge now."
"Oh, good. Do you know what took him so long?"
"Well, uh... He was... Passed out."
"What?"
"And he's acting kinda strange too. Should we be worried?"
"Well, we'll see. Get back to the bridge, and we'll keep an eye on him. If there's something wrong, we can have the LGMs check him out when we get back to Star Command."
A few moments later, XR arrived in the bridge, taking up his usual spot. "Hey, where'd that Autopilot go?"
Mira turned around to answer. "We already- Woah! XR, what's with your eyes?"
XR blinked. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Buzz glanced back as well, his own eyes widening in shock. "XR... Your eyes are red."
"What? That's just silly. Why would they be red?"
"You tell me," Buzz frowned. "What happened to you when you went to check on the box?"
"Box?" XR repeated. "Oh, right! The mystery cargo! It- Uh... Iiiit's a mystery alright. Must be a real boring mystery too, let me tell you. One moment I was inspecting it, the next I was out like a light."
Mira looked at Buzz and then back to the robot. "And you have no idea what actually happened?"
The robot frowned, crossing his arms defensively. "Hey, what's with the twenty questions here? I did nothing wrong!"
Booster came back in, looking at Buzz in question who shook his head to indicate that he had no idea what happened to the robot either. Booster gave XR a concerned look and then sat down at his panel.
"Mira," Buzz whispered. "Remind me to have XR examined by the LGMs when we get back."
The Tangean nodded. "You got it, Buzz."
When they got back to Star Command, the first thing they did was unload the cargo and take it to the Science Bay. The second thing they did was pull one of the LGMs aside and ask them to take a look at XR. They managed to avoid Commander Nebula initially, since it would be bad if he knew something might be wrong with their robotic ranger, and when Nebula did show up he was luckily more focused on the cargo than what some of the other LGMs were doing with XR.
Apparently, they found two holes on XR, right on top of his power supply, but they couldn't say how those got there. They went ahead and patched them up and then ran a basic system check to see what caused the change in eye color. According to the LGMs, XR's eyes weren't even programmed to be able to be red, just yellow and green or act like a flashlight.
After Mira asked her question about Zurg making another play for the cargo, Team Lightyear all walked to the LGMs working on XR to find out their process. They strapped the robot into the overnight charger/diagnostic machine. The system check had turned up some strange results, even for XR's complicated programming, and they needed a more detailed report on what may be wrong.
"Sweet mother of Venus!" Nebula shouted, walking up to them. "What's so fascinating up there?"
"Daddy-o!" XR greeted cheerfully. "Hey!"
Nebula scowled. "Which reminds me." He turned towards Buzz, banging the side of his fist on Buzz's chest. "I look forward to that report." It was almost a threat.
"I'll..." Buzz allowed himself to pull a face once he knew the commander wasn't looking. "Get right on it." He looked down at the LGM in front of him. "Yeah, I'm really going to need you to fix this eye thing with XR asap. We don't need Commander Nebula to complain that XR is malfunctioning."
"Will dooo," the LGM assured.
With that, the organic members of Team Lightyear left the LGMs to work in peace, not knowing that they would find out what was wrong with XR soon enough.
AN: As has been pointed out, XR's eyes turn red in a later episodes (such Speed Trap). For the sake of this story, assume that those later instances of XR's eyes turning red are as a side effect of the events in NOS-4-A2. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!