"What is the meaning of this?!" The mechanical voice roared at the small creature's excitement to see him, "You should not be happy to see me! I am the most feared villain in the galaxy!" Confusion spread across the two Grubs, exchanging glances with each other they glanced back to the energy vampire, Phill the first to speak, "After your rule, us and a couple other Grubs didn't want to go back under Zurg, we couldn't stand it." There were others? The monocle optic scanned the room, picking up multiple life forms in the small cramped room. Seven others, nine in total, "There are a couple others who felt the same, but they stayed back at Zurg's palace to be the inside men, five there doing so." The grub seemed to notice that he was trying to figure out a number on how many got the wits to walk away and join him, leaving that old fool of an "Evil Emperor." So I have fourteen little organics to command. I must make sure they are loyal to me and not little spies sent by the old man to manipulate me back into his control... The energy vampire grinned to himself, humming in satisfaction at his thoughts, the idea of torturing the little organics to make them speak their schemes pleasuring his systems, "And," He paused, glancing to his claws as if they were the most interesting thing at the time, "How do I know you are not spies for Zurg?" The two whom had spoken to him when he first woke up shifted uncomfortably, hesitating before speaking, "Well… It's hard to prove…" The first one started, Phill, the second one, continuing, "We were getting tired of nothing getting done. All Emperor Zurg wanted to do was petty little things like steal a baby Rysomian's flower or burn a colony of ants. We wanted something more!" His eyes seemed to light up as he continued, "To see destruction and fear in the eyes of our enemies again, just like in the younger days of Zurg." Slowly the look in Phill's eyes died down, a frown spreading onto his round face, "Zurg was never going back to the days of actually making real chaos and striking fear into his enemies. After all the obsession over Lightyear, his schemes just aren't evil enough anymore."
"The only good thing that came out of his schemes now days is you," A shrill voice called from across the small room, the smaller of the group of Grubs moving to the other two and the vampire, "After you took over we were almost thrilled to have a scare and a rush to create the weapon. It was refreshing, reminding us of what we lost." Phill and his partner nodded in agreement, "So, we gathered other Grubs who felt the same way, and went to find your parts."
"Took a while to find them all, scattered around Planet Z, but we found them all," Phill grinned slightly, proud of the group, glancing up to the energy vampire, "Once we did, we found a trash ship leaving to Trade World, paid the guy not to tell anybody and found this place once we landed, going straight to work on rebuilding you."
Impressive…. The energy vampire observed each Grub, some things different about them than others: mostly they were smaller than the rest, but their eyes seemed to shine more, lust for chaos glowing in them. Keeping his face neutral, he glanced down at them, his right eye narrowing a bit, focusing right on their blood thirsty eyes, "And, how long has it been since I was…." He didn't want to say 'destroyed,' it made him seem weak. That he was able to be defeated. Defeat is not in my programming, "incapacitated?"
"Ummm…." The three hesitated, exchanging glances with each other, until the smaller one cleared its throat and spoke up, "It's been about two to three years since then. We decided to leave a couple days after your," It paused, knowing by the glare not to say 'defeat' or 'destruction' and used a better word, "incapacitation. Zurg never bothered to clean up your parts so it was pretty easy to find some of it."
"Most of the parts were there except for the motherboard, AI, ant gravitational apparatus, and your power cell. Some black market sellers gathered those parts and tried to sell them to others," Phill continued his friend's train of thought after they became silent with worry of the results of the statement, "After a couple of months we tracked down each part from different buyers and found the trash ship to leave planet Z. It took us about half a solar cycle to get from there to Trade World, the guy having to stop at multiple places before there," Annoyance was clear in his tone, "And then about a year and a half to get you fully functioning and in one piece." A snort came from another Grub in the back, "Some genius decided to put your head on backwards." Hmm… perhaps that is why I remember seeing my own backside, "Hey!" Another voice squeaked out, "We said we wouldn't talk about that."
"You said you wouldn't."
"You said so too!"
"No I-"
The conversation lost the vampire's attention as the two continued to bicker on at each other. His thoughts wandered to the interest he had in the group of grubs that had came to his side. They were interesting compared to the others. They could build machines much more efficiently than the brain pods. The robot vampire glanced to his newly created cape, the silky dark-purple fabric fitting snug around his mechanical shoulders, draping down to the bottom of his metallic body. Finally he noticed a difference in his claws after minutes of staring at them. Unlike before they had the joints showing, bringing extra mobility to them, the tips being much sharper than they once were, perhaps sharp enough to rip through the thickest metal. On his abdomen there were two sets of gold spikes, covering the external tubes of his circulating servo fluid for extra protection and to give him a bit more diabolical look. His body was basically the same, new paint onto his chipped surface with the darker colored cape covering the newly rebuilt frame. It was beautiful, and the job the Grubs did was surprising. Contrary to the intelligence gathered by Star Command and what Zurg thought of the Grubs when he rambled on to him on the Evil Emperor's off days, some of them had brains, vigor and a drive to produce chaos. Those ones perked his interest, and those were the exact ones that came to him. They followed the one like them. Unlike Zurg he was serious, focused upon the domination of the cosmos and the destruction of his enemies.
"What shall we do first?" The egger voice of a Grub interrupted his thoughts, bringing him back to reality, "Hmm, oh yes," His right optic squinted, gazing around the room, "First we need to find a substantial base in which we are hidden from Zurg and Star Command, as well as have enough victims in the vicinity for me to feed off of." A grin fell across the small face, "Already got that set up. We found an empty factory on Trade World far enough away from the cities to not be noticed but close enough to lure victims in for you, plus a power supply to the factory with plenty of rooms to hide evidence from any, visitors." My they really were smart.
"Excellent work," He praised, something that was still new to him, "Now, it is time to hunt for my feast." Nos-4-A2 licked his lips in anticipation for the taste of energy touching his fangs, as well as for the screams and begging from the robot he would pray upon, "Keep things running, when I get back, it will be time to plot my revenge!" Closing his right optic he focused on expanding out the frame from his back, igniting the wings' frames with energy, glowing a crimson orange as they came to life. With a roar echoing into the air around them the wings sprung to life, NOS-4-A2 flew up through a small hole in the ceiling of the factory, the hum of the wings slowly drifting away, leaving the Grubs to get back to work on Star Command proofing the fort.