M-O hid once again in the shadows, his coordination still sub-par after the foreign program invaded his circuit boards. Sheesh, he hated foreign contaminants, and he'd had one in his body! It made him feel nauseous, so he chose not to think about it.

Alpha had sent reinforcement to Quinn to take him down. He wasn't actually there, but his face was on every SECUR-T bot in the corridor. Alpha was still in the control room, where he had access to everything. It was scarier than being in his face, but at least that red eye wasn't so close.

M-O watched helplessly as Quinn was surrounded by weapons, from the ceilings and walls of the hallway, from the floor, the Atlanta was a supply ship, so it didn't have to worry about holding passengers.

Still, all the weapons seemed overkill to him. He would soon get lost in all the confusion and noise.

"What should we do?" Willow whispered helplessly.

"They have us surrounded." Quinn let the engines turn on, "I'm going to floor it. Permission to proceed?"

Willow strapped WALL-E and herself into the seats while EVE braced herself against the back wall.

Willow grabbed the rim of the control panel, "Permission granted!"

Just as the weapons fired, Quinn launched himself through one of the weaker barricades. EVE waited for the velocity to level out before getting back to the windows.

"What's he doing!?" EVE hissed.

"It appears that he is willing to try anything to keep his directive."

"Just like Auto." WALL-E breathed.

"What's going on out there!?" Willow strained to see out the side windows.

"He is throwing everything at us." Quinn flew down a new corridor, "No!"

"What's wrong!?"

A loud thump! was heard against the side of the shuttle, sending it into the wall.

"Thought you could get away, huh!?"

Quinn shrunk away, "Master Fletcher..."

"Fletcher!?" Willow tore her seatbelt off.

"Willow! Don't!" WALL-E tried to snag her, but she slipped by.

Willow stared at Fletcher's confident grin behind the safety of the glass, "Quinn! Do something!"

"I-I cannot." Quinn tried to escape but was promptly shoved down again, "M-my directive."

"What!?"

"I am to never harm Master Fletcher." Quinn's voice was filled with apology, but he made no move to push Fletcher off him.

Willow punched the wall, "Fine! I've got no directive, let me out!"

"No! Miss Willow!"

Willow pried the door open, "Hey Fletcher!"

His teeth spun as his eyes locked onto her, "You look tasty! Hahaha!"

She stood no chance against him. He was a pure-blooded energy vampire, and half her code was from a model that was more than 700 years out of date. He was physically superior in every sense, but she had something that he didn't have; experience of the other.

She would have to count on that.

"I am!" she wiggled her fingers on either side of her face, "Come and catch me if you can!"

"Oh I will!" he lunged for her.

She jumped out of the way, "Try and keep up!"

"Willow!" WALL-E got out of his seat, "Stop!"

She zig-zagged down the hallway, making sure she was moving unpredictably.

"Quinn! Stop her!" WALL-E shouted frantically.

"I will do my best." Quinn shut the door back up and headed after them.

"Gr! Hold still!"

Willow was too focused to talk back, she had to keep moving or she'd be skewered in a moment. She'd been in countless play-fights with her cousin, but he'd always gone easy on her, and even when he did pick up his game, he stopped immediately when he realized she was hurt or tired. Fletcher was ruthless and had a bad temper, but his kindness always made up for it (and his dry sense of humor).

She didn't often see him in a real fight, and that was throwing her off.

"Am I scaring you, little one?" Fletcher giggled, "You don't want to be destroyed!?"

She didn't hear him. Too focused.

"Miss Willow!"

Quinn was coming.

"Just hold still for a minute!" Fletcher wined, "The robots in the west wing were dry!"

Don't listen. Don't stop.

Willow finally turned around and in one swift movement, kicked Fletcher under his jaw.

"AHHH!" Fletcher grabbed the spot, which was now bleeding servo fluid, "You horrible little brat!"

"And stay down!" Willow panted, huffs coming in and out through her voice. She reached out an arm and was swept away by Quinn. She collapsed upon falling inside.

"Willow!" WALL-E held her tightly, "If we survive this, you're grounded until the day you die!"

Willow smiled, "Ha. That's fair." she pushed him away, "I'm okay, though. I didn't use all of my power. Quinn, how's Fletcher?"

"Alive, lucky for you." Quinn let a little sass into his voice, "It was hard enough watching you hurt him like that."

"Yeah, sorry. It was all I could think of."

"How did you know that would work?" EVE peeked out one of the back windows.

"Me and Fletcher spar sometimes, and I know that Fletcher's neck is sensitive, so I hit it as hard as I could!"

"No need to elaborate, Miss Willow."

"He's following us!" EVE gasped.

"Huh?" Willow gazed outside the shuttle. Fletcher's orange wings were glowing a heated red color, and his eyes burned with rage. His neck was still bleeding.

"Quinn! Faster!" Willow stuck herself in the front seat.

"Oh no..."

"What? What's wrong!?"

"They're leading me to the Lido Deck." Quinn darted his cameras every which way, "They want us to be near the humans!"

"What!?" if they fought near the humans, innocent people would get hurt! "Keep going, but go faster!"

"Are you certain?"

"Yes!" Willow gazed forward, "Shoot yourself right past the humans! All the way to the back of the room!"

Quinn was skeptical, but Willow sounded sure of herself, "Very well." he picked up speed, "I assume you have a plan?"

"Er...not exactly a 'plan', but we have to do something! We can't let any humans become casualties!"

Quinn agreed wholeheartedly, "Then let's go."