CHAPTER VI

Foreshadowing

"Fate...It's shadow, long and wide. Encompassing our world and shrouding our judgment. It isn't always a matter of emerging from the dark a better person, sometimes, all that matters is that you survived at all."

R.D.M.

Somewhere

"Ooohhhhhhh..." A well deserved and well needed yawn, ringing true with the sound of satisfaction as one, Jennifer Diane Wakeman, stretched her stiff servos. Her joints clicked as they reach their maximum radius. She took a moment to glance around her room as her OS booted up. She couldn't place a metallic digit on it, but something was defiantly a miss. Her OS had loaded exceptionally fast. She processed the thought for a second as she, simultaneously, flung back the bed sheets, scanned the room for any discrepancy, and ran a quick systems check. To her surprise, nothing was out of place, her systems check was clean, and her processor was operating at peak efficiency, "Peak efficiency?" She processed out loud as her feet touched the floor, "I only reach peak efficiency at extremely low temp-" Her train of thought was subsequently derailed by her C.P.U. processing a strange new sensation. One that absolutely dumbfounded and fascinated her at the same time. She looked down at her feet. They appeared exactly the way she expected they would, yet something was defiantly different. The feeling was slightly ticklish, she processed, drawing on her experiences with a prototype nervous system to describe what she was experiencing as she starred at her feet on the carpet, "Soft...It feels soft and...Warm..." Normally, her various sensors would tell her a surfaces texture, composition, and temperature through a series algorithmic processes, ending with a numerical value displaying in her H.U.D. for each quality scanned, but to actually feel the sensation on the bottom of her feet was captivating. Feelings. Such a simple little thing, most take for granted, had rendered the heroine incapacitated. A smile stretched across her face unconsciously. She stood fully and hurried to her full length mirror, not really knowing what to expect. To her surprise she could feel the air between her pigtails as she somewhat jogged from her bed to the mirror. She scanned the reflected image, "Everything seems to be in order..." She proceed the reflection before her, "It just doesn't make sense." She, once again, processed out loud as she ran her right hand down her left arm, "I'm not equipped with the proper sensory nodes or the programming to interpret sensations. Unless Mom finally finished those old ones and snuck in my room last night. Last...night?..." She suddenly realized she had no idea how she came to be in her room, "UUUUHHHH!" She grabbed her head and slightly doubled over as a confusing byte of data flashed through her C.P.U., "That-that hurt!" Pain was a sensation she was familiar with as well, experiencing it before in her miss adventures with the prototype nervous system. The image confused her even further. Fire, screams, laughter, "Laughter?" She sound of her own voice cackling like, "Like Vexes..." This was becoming to much for her to process. She ran to the huge window at the far end of her room, sending a wireless signal to the curtains control module as she approached. The curtains slide apart and Jennifer gasped at what she saw. Nothing, absolutely nothing. No ground, no sky, no sun, just an endless void of white, all encompassing and never ending. She slowly backed away from the window, another jolt of data streaked through her C.P.U., causing her to fall on her knees. This time, it was an image of someone, someone familiar. The memory file appeared from a ground level prospective, approximately 29.3 meters away from the familiar form. The main image the file focused on, a roughly 6ft tall metal humanoid, white hot with heat from an unknown source, liquid metal running off the poor automaton as it screamed in what seemed like agony, fire, consuming all flammable material around as it collapsed under the extreme amount of structural damage. A small, clear tear of lubricant ran down from the corner of her eye as she saw the robots own body pool around it. She cradled herself, swearing she could feel the pain. The memory file started to become blurry as a hand reached out into view, followed by a small audio file in a slightly digitized male voice, "Jenny..." It called out as the file stopped playing. She wiped away the oily tear and sat for a moment, processing the data. Slowly, she began to stand when a familiar voice spoke in an omnipresent manner.

"Jenny..." This startled her. She scanned the room again and took a defensive stance, pacing in a circle, she tried to pinpoint the source, "Don't be afraid. Try to relax an-"

"Screw! You!" Jenny shouted, "You'd better start explaining where I am and what the hell is going on or I start blasting until I find you!" Jenny formed her left arm into an energy shotgun.

"I would be happy to explain everything, just put the gun down." The voice pleaded.

"Not until you tell me who you are." Jenny's face held a very serious expression as she pointed the gun randomly around the room, "And why the hell does it sound like your in my head." She demanded more than asked.

"I figured you would recognize my voice. It's me. Axle." Axle answered.

"Axle? I thought I recognized the voice, I just wasn't sure because I can't find you..." Jenny calmed a little and lowered her weapon, "Where are you?"

"Jenny...The question is, where are..." Jenny retracted her weapon as confusion now crept across her face, "Your programming reactivated faster than I expected, probably due to my more advanced processing systems. I was in sleep mode and was unable to put a firewall between our systems."

"A barrier between our systems?" Jenny questioned, "Your just confusing me even more." She scanned around, still trying to locate her friend.

"The images you saw were my resent memory files. You don't...What is the last thing you remember?" Axle asked with evident concern.

"I can...Feel there's something your not telling me. The last thing I remember...is..." The room Jenny was standing in shifted into Brads front yard. Jenny was a little shocked when she saw Axle, Brad, and herself standing off with a strange robot bearing her color pattern. She remained still and watched in silence shock as the familiar scene played.

"My target has arrived." Said the bot as it fired a blast at the other Jenny who easily sidestepped the shot.

"NO!" Jenny's memory snapped back a bit as she realized what the robots true target was. She ran as fast as she could, placing herself between the blast and the car. To her dismay the blast past right through her, destroying the car, and Brads family, just as she remembered. The entire scene froze, as if time had stopped. She fell to her knees as the oily tears began to flow, "Why...Was I so careless...So stupid." Jenny heaved a few sobs as she looked at the expressions paused across the faces of her friends. She stopped at Brad. The shock, the anger, the sadness, all displayed vividly on her former lovers face. She reached out towards him as his image began to flicker like an old television set. The entire scene faded to static and disappeared, leaving her kneeling in the vast white void alone. A Caucasian hand gently rested on her shoulder.

"These are just our memories, it's painfully to watch I know, but you can't change what's already happened...I'm sorry..." Axle spoke softly trying to ease her pain.

"sniff...You keep saying things like that...Tell me whats going on. Am I...Are we...Dead?" Jenny asked. Even if he couldn't feel her emotions, her tone said it all.

"Death is a hard thing to explain for beings like us." He removed his hand and tried to explain, "Your aware, but not active..."

"The memories...The ones I seen first...You said they were yours. I'm guessing that the robot in those files was me, right?" Jenny asked while standing and wiping away the tears. She kept her back to him.

"...Yes. Those images were from my point of view. Jenny...Your body was destroyed in battle. You saved us all, but..the cost was dear." Axle paused for a brief moment to find the right words, "It's..It's my fault. I gave you my power core, you used it to defeat that evil machine, but...The power was to much. It made your emotions wild, you couldn't control them and they overrided your power management systems. The result was the failure of your dampeners, causing unpredictable and uncontrollable surges. You were not deigned for that much power, which caused a catastrophic failure to your structural integrity-"

"Ha...sniff...I melted into a puddle of slag...Gotcha..." Jenny depressingly simplified with her interruption, "I appreciate you softening the blow but, dead as a door nail says it all." She turned to face him, a little surprised by his human like appearance, she continued to speak none the less, "That still doesn't explain you, or why you look like you did the day you we met you. Where I'm I? Please...Tell me the truth."

"Sigh...Your mother saved the emergency hard drive housing your...Essence. Unfortunately, the hard drive was to damaged to access your data. I was badly damaged in the fight and offered to bond your hard drive with my systems during my repair time. It was the only way to retrieve your data. Your sorta...In limbo, nside my C.P.U. until your mom finishes your new body."

"Soooo...I'm like, inside your head? That's why you look like that. Virtual reality. Kinda." Jenny looked herself up and down then all around at the void, "And I suppose I can feel because you can, right?"

"Yes. I created a simulation of your room for you when you activated. I didn't think your systems would bond with mine so quickly. I guess it's because were so similar. I know this is an incredible shock Jenny, but I'll be here for you. You can use my C.P.U. like a simulator until my repair is complete. Then...Then things get interesting." Axle had a nervous grin on his face. Jenny sensed his shyness to tell her everything.

"Interesting? Define interesting." Jenny shot him a look from the corner of her eye. The same look she gave him when they first met.

"Well...I've never done anything like this before sooo..." Axle needlessly swallowed hard under the glance,

"Spill it." Jenny demanded as she formed her hands into thunder fists and flexed them. More to experience the feel than to intimidate, Axle assumed.

"I wont be able to completely separate our programs until I download your data into the new body. Witch means, you will have superuser privilege to all of my systems. You can see what I see if you want, feel what I feel, uhhhh...know what I'm thinking, even take control of my body. If you chose." Axle, begrudgingly spat out to fast for humans to understand, "Not yet though. I still need 9.36 hours of recovery time. Until then, you can experiment around in here, or go off line..." He suggested.

"Ha. You mean I got the super powerful mysterious robot boy under my thumb?" Axle gulped again. Jenny smiled for the first time when she seen the look on his face, "Don't worry, you still got 9.358 hours left. I promise I'll go easy on ya."

"Ri...Right I'm going off line now until time to activate...Sooo, I'll be seeing you later..." Axle forced an awkward smile as Jenny watched him flicker into static and fade away, just like the memory files. Left standing alone, she decided to try out the simulation program. She stared at her hand, concentrating hard, she visualized what she wanted to happen. Slowly, a fifth digit, a pinky sprouted on her hand. She smiled again. This may not be officially real, but she was not about to let that keep her from enjoying it to the fullest.

Somewhere in the United States Southwest. A plane lands in an undisclosed location.

"You wanna tell me where we're going yet?" An irritated Red-headed teenager asked. His voice deep with sarcastic boredom, "We've been flying for forever..."

"Three and a half hours and we are touching down now. Jeez, your father never complained like this." Dale commented.

"What did you say?" Brad obviously didn't like the remark.

"Easy red. Save that anger for the ones who deserve it." Brad gave him the eye for a few moments none the less. The silence continued until the plane slowed to a stop. After an all clear announcement from the pilot, the doors of the Skyway aircraft opened. Brad shaded his eyes from from the intense sunlight. Once his eyes adjusted, he saw what was clearly a heavily guarded military style base. Armed escorts accompanied them from the aircraft a short distance, then stopped at a door requiring security clearance. Clearance Dale obviously had as the door slid open and slammed shut behind them, leaving the duo in a completely white hallway. No sign of any discrepancy save for the door on the far end, "No sudden movements now. Don't need another fried cadet this week!" Dale casually informed.

"Fr-fried?" Brad asked sheepishly. Dale smiled a little to himself.

"I'm just yanking your chain! Ha! But, seriously, no sudden movements." The two continued until they reached the opposite door.

"What did you mean by (another and cadet) back there?" Brad asked, making sure to over enunciate the words in question. Dale just glanced at him with a slight grin. A quick retina scan continued the forward progress of their journey. Brad couldn't help but to gawk at the massive hanger as they stepped through the doorway. The hanger was filled to the brim with all manner of scientist, gadgets and technology. A large majority of witch he had never seen before, "Whoooaaa...what is this place?"

"Awe, the ole place? This is just the most top secret place on Earth! Well...We think. It's kinda hard to find out if there is a more secretive place. You know...Cause it would be...Even more...Top...Hey! Don't touch that!" Dale ran over to Brad, who was clearly not listening, about to hop on a prototype hover board, "Get back here! We'll get to all the cool stuff later, right now you got to see M." Dale explained as he dragged Brad away from the board.

"Just who is this M guy anyway?"

"She and it'll be better if you just meet her." They reached an elevator on the far end of the hanger. The doors opened as they approached. Dale stepped in first and motioned for Brad to follow. Once the doors closed the elevator began to descend. The silence didn't last long this time, "There's...Somethings you need to know before we arrive...Things about your father..." Dale's words hung in air for a moment before Brad replied.

"My father was a good man. He retired a hero, a veteran from Skyway. After he came home, he worked in an office day and night to take care of us. With a disability." Brad began to become red in the face as he spoke, "And he...He continued to do so until the day he died." The pint up emotions coming to a boil as anger, Brad clenched his fists and began to tremble a little, "That's what I know about my father! I've put up with this shit long enough! Do you even know what I lost today? Do you even care? I didn't lose a brother I lost Tuck Carbunckle! A man and women didn't die today, Derrick and Linda Carbunkle died today! A robot wasn't deactivated today, Jennifer Wakeman died today! Defending me! Hell defending all of us from that, that...Robot!" Brad let a heavy sigh leave his mouth as he leaned against the elevator wall, "The only reason I agreed to even come with you is because anything was better than staying there. Seeing my home like that was like...My own personal hell..." Dale let him have his moment but, only for a moment.

"I do know what you lost. And I damn sure know what they meant to you. Brad, you need to know that your father was no accountant to some corporation. That was his cover. Your father never retired. In-fact, he became a valuable asset in the area of, shall we say, field observation." Dale let this knowledge sink in before continuing, "Why do you think you lived so close to Dr. Wakeman? She was head of the Global Defense Project. After the whole Armageddroid fiasco, she retired. We knew she had begun work on a new type of defense droid when she left and with all that knowledge of Top Secret Skyway what not, well...We needed to keep an eye on her."

"You mean, my dad was spying on Jenny this whole time?" Brad asked.

"Observing, not spying. And when he was at his "job" he was actually monitoring deep space spy satellites focused on Cluster Prime. We were aware of the civil unrest on the planet and kept eyes on the situation encase anything headed our way. His main task was deployment of a highly trained top secret strike team to deal with threats of the mechanical variety." The elevator stopped, Dale reached over and pressed the door close button to allow for a few more moments of privacy. Brad simply shook his head.

"You mean Jenny. He's been helping you make a team to take out Misses W and Jenny..." Dale replied with a silent, blank stare, "This...This is just...Insane. She would never do anything to hurt anyone."

"Believe it Red. The government provided the funding shortly after her little dream chip episode..." Dale pressed the door open button and stepped out into a lab that Brad could only imagine came straight from a Trek Wars movie, "Anyway, w think that after the planetary war, the winner abandoned the broken world for greener pastures." Dale glanced over his shoulder at Brad to make sure he was listening as they approached a giant computer screen, "They must have found our satellite and traced the signal back to earth."

"OK...Whats this got to do with me?" Brad asked.

"We intercepted a transmission from deep space a month ago. We couldn't tell exactly where it came from, but we did get a general area of where it was heading." Dale paused and turned to face Brad with hands folded behind him in the small of his back, "Tremorton." Brad seamed confused at this revelation.

"That doesn't make sense. Jenny's the only robot-" Brad stopped himself as he realized there was a resent new addition in town. Dale seen the look on his face.

"Yeah. I see you finally got it. Your new friend Axle just so happened to be in the area where the signal was going. He didn't receive the message, thank the lord, but we couldn't crack the thing, until M came along." Brad noticed Dale looking past him, he also heard the faint sounds of feet coming to a stop behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and immediately locked eyes with with a female officer. He felt his heart speed up as he fully turned to her.

"Melody?" He asked with a mixture of shock, longing, relief, and disbelief.

"Hi Brad. It's...It's been awhile..." The sweet southern bell spoke with a voice that matched her face. Clad in a Grey and Black Skyway uniform, she had defiantly grown up or modified rather, a lot since last they encountered. She had the figure Jenny dreamt of, "I heard what happened. I'm so sorry." Without hesitation, she grabbed him in a tender and much needed hug. Brad stood still for a moment, his mind void of all thought. The calm before the storm. He returned the embrace without even realizing it and then, the tears came. He felt his knees giving out and fell on them, releasing his tears into Melody's uniformed shoulder as she knelled with him.

"I...I miss them...Mel, I miss them so bad already...I don't know what I'm going to do now. I don't even know why I'm here." Brad sobbed the words out. He had unknowingly held in all the emotions around the stone heart-ed Dale, but the sight of a trusted friend was the final straw. Melody placed a finger to his lips to stop the flow of now unnecessary words.

"It's O.K. now Brad, I'm here and I'm never leaving you again." Brad smiled. Somehow he just knew she was telling the truth.

"*Cough*cough* I hate to interrupt your little moment but, there is still a lot that you don't know. Melody, if you please." Dale insisted. Melody stood and easily pulled Brad to his feet with her.

"Yes sir." Melody walked to the giant computer, converted her right hands pointer finger into a U.S.B. cable and plugged it in. Video of what seemed to be key points in Melody's memory files played on half the screen. Graphs of seismic activity overlying the image of Cluster Prime appeared on the other side of the giant monitor, "Everyone assumed that my father died that day at the robotics convention but, he survived. When he returned to the lab, he swore he would have his vengeance on Dr. Wakeman. He built a communications array powerful enough to reach Cluster Prime. The Hive answered. In exchange for XJ-9's weapons systems data, they promised to share their latest experimental technology so that he could have his revenge. The catch was he would have to help them perfect it. My father captured Killgore and used him as a test subject for the Hive's tech."

"So, that's what happened to him. Yeah, me an Jen had a run in with him awhile back." Brad recalled as the images played on the monitor,

"Kilgore was the first step. He began experiments on me shortly after. I wanted no part of the mess he was creating and escaped at my first chance." Melody explained.

"That's why you look so, uhhh, grown up." Brad blushed a little. Melody, surprisingly, blushed as well.

"Yeah, anyway, shortly after I escaped, my father's lab was destroyed and he along with it. I wandered around the planet for awhile, not knowing were to go or what to do..." She frowned a little at the thought, "Dale tracked me down. He's looked after me and made me apart of his team. I shared the information with Derrick."

"The time-line of Dr. Locus activities and Cluster Primes seismic activity match up. A few months later and the entire planet is torn apart, not a single robot left activated." Dale added, "That's why we need this team. This new robot, Axle, shows up, deactivates XJ-9, The Silver Shell goes haywire, attacks Skyway officers then disappears off the face of the Earth. If you ask me, we've been set up. How do I know? Show him Melody." Melody changed the images on the screen to one steady shot. The image was of a list of names with key information beside small pictures. Information such as location, schedule, and usual hangouts. Every member of Brads immediate family was there, including himself, along with the order terminate. Dr. Locus was on the list and Dr. Mogg. Dr. Wakeman and XJ-9 were as well but orders were to capture them, "This is the message we intercepted. The one headed towards Tremorton. I can't say for sure weather or not it was going to this Axle character, but I doubt it was intended for XJ-9. The best we could figure, Axle didn't get the kill order so, the Hive had to send in another robot. We could really use your help Red. Tell us everything you know about Axle and be apart of my team." Dale starred at him very seriously, awaiting an answer. Brad looked uncertainly into Melody's eyes, "Where do I begin?"

The Hive. Location unknown.

"Awake human filth." A rather deep toned creature spoke. The human somehow instinctively knew it was directed towards him. Groggily, he opened it's eyes to observe a world of blurry hazes, "Ah, so you are alive." The deep voice spoke again. The humans vision cleared slowly. Oh, how it wished it could rub it's eyes. He looked around at his surroundings, such an odd place he thought. So, much mechanical nonsense, this couldn't be Earth, "Pay attention you filth!" Again, the deep voice bellows.

W"Where...where am I...Whats going on?" The bewildered teen asked as his senses slowly became aware of the situation he was in.

"Silence! There is no questioning the Queen! Only understanding from her speakings!" Another boast from the deep voice. This time the voice rang out a more familiar tone the more the humans senses became aware.

"Stand down Smytus. This is no mere drone. No, this one will obey with little modification." The human watched as the beautiful and puzzling female robot arose from a mechanical throne, "This one is apart from the other primitive organics that dwell on this mud ball." The human glanced at the deep toned robot the beautiful one somewhat scalded.

"Smytus...I remember-" His memory began to come back.

"Your memory is returning? Oh, how wonderful!" The familiar looking female robot spoke, "I thought that Smytus would never get you back on line, that we would have to gather whatever information we could from your rotting cortex."

"I remember now! Your Vexes and Smytus! You look so different though...Can't think straight...Whats wrong with me?..Are..Are you friends or foe?" Sheldon asked, honestly unsure.

"Do you like?" Vexes spun in a circle to present herself fully, "I know I've deceived you in the past, but this is the real me. I went through a lot of modifications, I hope I please your perception arrays." The female robot stopped to face him, arms stretched out to the sides as if to present herself further as she slowly stepped toward him. He examined her as she moved to him. He ran his eyes up and down her form, taking in the beauty before him. She possessed the body of an Earth supermodel. Full figure from top to bottom, he could tell she had similar design characteristics to his favored XJ-9. The head was a dead give away, an exact replica of Jenny Wakeman's, down to the pigtails, although the tips came to a deadly sharp point and reached to the top of her buttocks. The coloring was defiantly of a Cluster origin, "Hello..." Vexes asked as if to an inattentive child.

"Why do you look like Jenny? Why can't I think right? And...What the hell happened to Smytus?" Sheldon asked the fem fatal.

"Oh, him? Well, he didn't fair so well when that garbage meteor exploded. When he was found there wasn't enough left of him or Krakus to worry with so, my minions gathered up all the bits and pieced them together. That's why he looks like a pile of scrap." Smytus folded his poorly constructed arms in a disgusted manner, "He did receive Krakus knowledge of robotic, so he is of use to me. My appearance, however, is do to my body being almost completely destroyed. I existed as a program in my emergency hard drive until I was found by a most curious race of creatures. Neither organic or mechanical, they existed as living star energy. They foolishly took me in, repaired me. They were far more powerful than me so I had to wait..." Vexes moved to within just a few inches of Sheldon's visions, "They built an exact replica of my former self based off the information stored in my hard drive. I lived amongst them for a year as an accepted member of their society. I knew my loyal subjects would be looking for me, but I dare not cross the Pyrertus. They could melt me into slag. Fate, however, decided to play it's hand." Sheldon tensed a little as a slight shock crept up his spine and exploded into a breath taking image inside his mind. He was instantly standing in a massive city on an alien planet, so close to it's parent star that it filled the entire sky. He looked around and spotted Vexes, hiding behind a building corner, peeking out at the sky every so often. Out of curiosity he looked himself. The image was stunning. A planet sized asteroid drifting lazily by between the star and the planet, casting a dark shadow across the city as it went. He looked back at Vexes who was now smiling evilly. She moved from the corner and raced towards the highest structure in the city. To his amazement, he was following along beside her without even moving, as though he were inside a movie. When she entered the asteroid's shadow, Vexes sprouted wings and took flight, heading towards the complexes highest point, "I discovered their weakness. Darknesssss..." Vexes hissed her narration with detectable delight, "The asteroid provided the perfect opportunity." Sheldon gazed down upon the immaculate city, paying special attention to the areas where the shadow was overtaking the light. The beautiful, luminous Pyrertus people turned into small flickering blue flames in the dark, "Their ruler, Cha'terger, had just produced his first born son not 5.89 cycles ago. Ha ha...That poor fool. He once told me that he could sense a wickednessss from me. He said he would not imprison me because I...I was no threat to even the weakest of their race!" He could feel the hate in her tone, "The bastard turned his back on me! ON ME! I AM A QUEEN! I swore vengeance that day no matter the price, but I knew it wouldn't be easy. I had to wait, time my strike with the passing of the asteroid. I observed the space rock some time back and plotted out it's course. I knew this day would come and I couldn't wait." The robot Queen smashed into the building with enough force to gain entrance. By the looks of it, Sheldon could only speculate that this was some type of throne room. At the far end there stood a figure, lightly glowing blue and wisping faint blue flames. The creature was slightly leaned over a rectangular box of some kind. Sheldon could hear the creature muttering something to the boxes contents, whatever they may be. Vexes calmly retracted her wings and strolled across the room towards the box and it's guardian, a mocking half smile etched on her metal face. She stopped no less than 10ft. from them.

"Hello again mighty Cha'terger. I come bearing grave newsssss...it seems something terrible has happened to your son..." She seductively spoke. Cha'terger stood and turned to face the intruder.

"I knew this day would come. The prophets talked of the asteroid bringing death in it's shadow. They said I would not survive to see the light again..." Cha'terger tensed.

"What a coincidence, I had the same vision!" Vexes retorted, "It doesn't have to end that way though. Just hand over your son. You can always produce anothe-"

"SILENCE WITCH!" The outburst caught Sheldon by surprise, causing him to cower, "The prophets said I would die this day, but they also said my assailant would fall into the darkness from witch it came." Cha'terger smiled, "Come then death! Do. Your. WORST!" He let out a wave of energy, striking the Queen and sliding her backwards several feet. She steadied her stance and allowed her smile to return.

"Now you've gone and showed me just how weak you are." She fired back with a beam from the orb on her forehead. Striking the King and sending him through his own palace walls into the air, "I can finally claim my prize." She glided over to box the King was protecting. She gazed at it's contents. A small blue star, pulsing like a heartbeat. She carefully reached in and scooped up the the bright thing. The paint on her hands burning away as she held it, "How unfortunate for you my dear. The energy you produce out of star light just happens to be compatible with my systems. All I have to do is consume you and escape this planet. I can unlock your powers later...Ha...Hahaha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She cackled madly with victorious delight, "The power of a star inside of me! I will make everyone PAY! Starting with that traitor...Vega.." She frowned deeply with the passing process, "No matter...I'll burn that bridge when I cross it." Just as she was bringing the Cha'terger's son to her razor toothed mouth, he appeared behind her.

"Ha. I understand now. The prophets words ring true. You want power? Then allow me to grant your wish." Vexes didn't have time to defend the Kings move. She couldn't have if she did have the time. He turned into blue mist and surrounded her. Her energy hungry systems eagerly absorbed the Kings essence. His son feel from her hands to ground. She began shaking violently, convulsing, her H.U.D. sending every warning signal in her systems. She feel to her knees, clutching her stomach in pain.

"Wha...What have you done to me!" The Queen demanded.

"I granted your wish mad Queen. More power than you could imagine. More power than you can handle..." Vexes could not control her own body. Her systems overridden, the King was now in control, she could only feel, observe, and try to survive, "My son...One day, you will know my story. You will know my sacrifice for you. I challenge you, be a better ruler than me. Farewell." Vexes's propulsion systems kicked on full blast, sending her streaking through the palace roof and into the planets atmosphere. Vexus fought hard against Cha'terger's control of her body. The King's grip was to much and soon they left the darkness of the asteroid, "Now that my power has been restored I will end you and ensure my planets...My son's safety." The King spoke solemnly.

"You fool. You are apart of my power supply now, if you deactivate me then you'll deactivate yourself!" Vexes warned.

"I've existed for millions of years. I fear not death but embrace it." Vexes could not respond. To busy silently screaming into the void as she felt the paint boil off her body. She barely caught a glimpse of the planet and it's star fading fast as if she was moving very quickly, before her optics melted, "Goodnight Queen." Those words were the last she heard before she downloaded her being into her emergency hard drive. Just before the explosion, she ejected the hard drive into deep space. Leaving the King and her former body to suffer the fate of a small supernova. Sheldon's vision returned to normal and the tingling in his brain faded.

"Connection to the Hive mind successful my Queen." Smytus commented.

"Excellent. Of course, I knew it would work. This one's mind operates more like a machine than the other organics." Vexes replied as she made her way back to her throne.

"How did the Hive find your hard drive? How does Axle fit into all this? How do I?" Sheldon questioned the Queen as she took her seat.

"I sent a tachyon pulse before the explosion. The supernova carried that signal at light speed towards Cluster Prime. Smytus and my loyal subjects came for my signal." She replied.

"We downloaded the information Vexes had accumulated over the course of her stay with the Pyrertus. Their technology is astounding, the problem was the power supply. We had to capture energy particles from Cha'terger's explosion, upon studying his remains, we discovered a DNA type sequence. It took a little work, but the result was amazing. We could create stars! Small one's, but stars non-the-less. A limitless power source. With such energy powering Vexes new body she would be unstoppable. Add to that XJ-9's weapon's systems, the best designs from Dr. Wakeman's blueprint's, Cluster's technology and...Well...You get the idea." The mismatched behemoth added rather proudly, "It took a few experiments to perfect the Starbirth tech. Our society has never dealt with DNA before, so we recruited the human Dr. Locust. His breakthroughs on energy based DNA replication where crucial. He used that useless tinker toy in his first experiments. Then the robot designated Melody for phase two. With the successful integration into existing robots, the next step was to build one specifically designed for the Starbirth." He smiled a smile of satisfaction as he spoke, "The one you call Axle is a prototype. The second in fact. DV-1 was the bot you encountered just recently. An experiment to see just how well Dr. Wakeman's technology melded with Cluster's, as I'm sure you can recall, it was a success. DV-2 was the first prototype to receive the an actual star instead of a energy pack filled with solar energies. Another success." He boasted with a smile.

"I wasn't sure how useful he would be but...So far he has proven invaluable." With a wave of her hand, Vexes brought up a holographic image displaying video of Jenny, Brad, Nora, the XJ's, their school, friends and of Sheldon himself, "All of Jennifer's most precious secrets, beamed directly to me by DV-2. I will use this information to destroy her reputation and every other facet of her existence." She said rather matter of factually, "I'll slaughter her loved ones before her eyes and scorch the Planet of all life. She'll be begging for deactivation by the time I come for her!"

"Destroy the Earth? I thought you wanted to enslave it?" Sheldon asked while trying to move. He found it impossible as if his body could not or would not respond to his minds commands.

"I too found wisdom in the words of the Pyrertus prophets. I will forever dwell in the darkness of space, traveling the Universe dealing death to all organic, leaving behind my seed on each planet." She smiled seductively at him as she talked, "That is were you come in my dear. You are going to be my companion in my travels. You will be granted a new body and powers. In return you will do as I say or...Or you will go off line. Permanently." The seriousness of the situation was becoming more evident to Sheldon as his mind seemed to become more clear.

"My Queen his Theta waves are increasing. We need to initiate the process quickly or the transfer my not work properly." Smytus informed. With a nod of her head, she signaled him to begin.

"Goodnight Sheldon." Was the last thing he heard before the familiar feeling crept up his spine and out, his lights went.