Mira walked with a steady, even pace. To say her first session went poorly was an understatement. Dr. Animus wanted to talk about her childhood, like that had anything to do with her energy ghosting. How could it? She wasn't even really yelled at. True, she and her father had their differences over the years, and with their strong personalities that often led to... impassioned arguments- but craters, you'd think she was a traumatized survivor of abuse the way he kept poking at everything!

Maybe she was overreacting. Maybe he was just trying to be thorough, and she was being defensive like she was when this all started. All he'd asked about, in the end, was how well she got along with her family. Man, I could use a boost. She pressed her fingers against her temples, trying to crowd out the craving with some traditional Tangean meditation. It wasn't helping; if anything, the craving got stronger. Soon Mira made it to the cafeteria, where she decided to get extra food, and maybe some kind of espresso drink. That might settle her down, getting energy the natural way. Natural was good.

Dr. Animus considered the session a success, although he was certain in hindsight that his patient had misunderstood his intentions. She seemed to have taken the background questions quite personally... this could be a problem. He had found a probable personality trait that contributed to her addiction, and given the nature of the addiction it made sense: Miss Nova had a strong, often overwhelming desire to prove herself, to be better, and to be different from what she perceived as the stifling, inflexible Tangean ruling class. This trait he had seen before, though generally those patients were taking stimulants or performance-enhancing drugs, not sapping energy from a nuclear reactor, but the principle held. Very interesting, he thought, and wrote that down in his post-session notes.

XR zipped into the restroom, checking his mouth again. "Oh, this isn't good," he said to himself, his optics flashing between his normal yellow and a certain shade of red. "They can't be coming back already!" It was now every two hours that he had to file the fangs, and he'd accidentally stalked a vend-bot while he was on patrol a few days ago. He hadn't done anything, thank goodness, but when he realized what he was doing he was so distraught he couldn't stop shaking. XR vowed right then and there he would go cold-turkey, and so far it worked. His processor felt like it was being trampled by a million angry Jo-Adians, but he hadn't bought batteries or stuck his fingers in any sockets or chased down any robots, so it had to be working. Just starve the programming out, that should work. He was having some trouble purging it from his system- it kept reappearing, hidden in other data. More recently, it started splitting itself up, somehow still functioning despite being fragmented almost beyond recognition, and was sinking in deeper, like fangs...

And so XR went out and got lubricated after work, which helped a lot, but then disaster struck. He was still craving energy- his programming constantly roared at him to get some, and this time he obeyed. He started prowling, ignoring Nebula's desk (something told him his dad would notice if the desk didn't bother him at least twice a day) despite the temptation. Soon, he was deep in the clutches of the vampiric programming, and saw his next target. Somebody was pacing down the empty hallway, murmuring under her breath. It was someone he knew. Mira was still wearing her Ranger suit, freshly-charged and alive with thick, spicy waves of electric energy. It was more than the little robot could bear. He pulled a cape out of his chest compartment and wrapped it around his shoulders before coming out o his hiding place. XR hissed and lolled his tongue at her, not caring that she saw his fangs and glowing optics, and wheeled at her so fast smoke came up behind him. Her eyes widened in shock. "XR!"

He crashed into her with his most intimidating and vampiric yell, which Mira would have found hilarious if he hadn't just lunged at her throat. She shoved him away, and he popped right back on her and sunk his pointy fangs into the shoulder of her suit- or thought he had. Instead his fangs got stuck in the ground, electric lines kept a tantalizing distance from his spinning teeth... She ghosted the rest of the way through him and jumped to her feet, then shouted at him again. "What do you think you're doing? How long have you been hiding this?"

"Huh? What?" Wait... Why was Mira upset at him this time?

"You just tried to bite my suit!"

"I... huh?" XR's eyes slowly blinked back to yellow. "I did what?"

"You attacked me," she insisted, clearly expecting some explanation.

Craters! What do I do now? "No, that was just a joke, umm... I gotta go, late for my dentist appointment, bye!" XR raced away, horrified. He attacked someone! And not just anyone, Mira, a member of his team. This was bad, he'd be found out for sure!

"Hey! Come back here!" Mira shouted after him, and ran after him. "XR!" What had gotten into him?

Commander Nebula marched down the hallway, when suddenly that pesky robot shot past him, screaming and followed closely by Mira.

He stared for a moment, wondering if he should stop them, and went on his way. No, he was not going to get involved in their shenanigans. It would just make it easier for the desk to find him.

There was a bathroom, and XR turned sharply into it. "Ha! Mira wouldn't dare follow me in here!" he shouted triumphantly. The fear of manly toilets would surely keep her at bay!

"This is the women's restroom, XR."

The little robot squealed and hid under the sink. "Don't tell Pops! He'll deactivate me!" he begged.

Mira's face softened. "I won't. Just tell me what's going on, I want to help."

He sniffled. "You do?"

Mira nodded. XR wrapped his arms around her. "Aw, thanks Mira! You're the best friend a robot like me could ask for."

She patted his back, smiling. It was a sweet, cuddly moment for them both. Then she heard a scraping sound and ripped him away, holding him at arms length. "XR. You really need to see the LGMs." There were little dings in her armor where he'd tried to sneak a bite.

XR laughed sheepishly. "Yes, ma'am, right away. Sorry about that."