CHAP 2

"An energy vampire?" the big red one exclaimed, his eyes bugging out. "Why would you be looking for an energy vampire?!"

"It's... complicated," Prowl answered. He thought for a moment then explained. "You see it kind of wound up coming with us when we- Ow!" He looked down at Sari who had jabbed him with her elbow. She shook her head, a clear message that it wouldn't be a good idea to tell them about the space bridge. "We need to find it before it activates and starts feeding on the local robot population."

The red thing didn't say anything for a moment. He seemed to be trying to figure out why a robot would be looking for something that could eat it. "Aren't you worried that it will.. you know bite you?" it asked. He pointed. "You're not exactly out of its food chain."

"Yes," Prowl admitted. "But I've dealt with it before. I know what I'm doing."

The red thing looked at Sari. "Do you really want to send your robot to do that?" he asked. "Aren't you worried it might-"

Sari laughed. "He's not my robot," she told the thing. "He's my friend. The only robot I own it a dog." she patted Prowl's arm. "I'm not very worried about Prowl here getting himself bitten. Like he said he's fought the vampire before. It's not that hard to beat once you know the weakness."

"You know it's weakness?" The alien looked surprised.

Prowl was wondering why this thing seemed so interested in his and Sari's problem. The more they talked the more upset the little alien girl seemed to get so she obviously wasn't happy hearing about it. Her big black eyes got bigger the further they got into the discussion. "Umm are you sure you want to talk about this in front of her?" he asked pointing at the girl.

The red thing looked at the other alien. "Oh don't worry about that," he said, reaching down and picking her up. "Becky's dealt with worse things than energy vampire. I mean she's had Zurg invade her planet and didn't even lose her head."

"Zurg?" Sari asked, looking confused. "What is that?"

The red thing shot them a startled look. "You mean you've never heard of the Evil Emperor Zurg?" he gasped. "He's only the most evil being to ever step off a starship!"

Prowl and Sari looked at each other. "I thought that was Megatron," the techno organic girl commented.

"Maybe they never heard of Megatron here," the cyber ninja suggested.

"Who is Megatron?" the little girl named Becky wanted to know.

Prowl almost told her then thought better of it. It was clear that the beings in this dimension had never heard of the Decepticon Commander and telling them about it might cause unneeded panic or worse. It was best if they kept that to themselves. "Nobody," Prowl explained. "anyway. Now that you know what and why we are after this thing can you tell us something or were you just asking us those questions because you were curious?"

"Well I don't exactly know where the energy vampire it," the thing replied. "But I do know somebody who might be able to help you find it."

"Really?"

"Sure," it said, turning away from her and heading back the way it had come. "Just follow me."

Prowl hesitated. He wasn't sure he wanted to do that. He didn't exactly trust this red being or it's little friend. He looked at Sari who shrugged. "Maybe they do know somebody," she said. "It couldn't hurt to be sure and if they try something it shouldn't be too hard to take care of them."

"All right," he consented.

The two Autobots hurried to catch up with the aliens.

"Would you mind taking your hand off the robot?" Shadowstar demanded once she recovered from her shock.

"Why?" the other robot asked, its voice male sounding with a British accent. "What could you possibly want with it?"

"Not that it's any of your business but that robot happens to be my dinner," the femme replied shortly. She yanked on the little robots head. "Now hand it over."

"You're dinner?" The other robot tightened his grip on it, not about to comply with the order. "I am afraid you are mistaken, this robot is my dinner," he shot back. He gave it a hard yank, pulling it closer to himself. "I saw it first and I intend to feed."

"Funny," she said, yanking it back. "I was thinking the same thing! and you did not see it first! I've been chasing after this morsole for the past half hour."

"Oh no, I am afraid you are mistaken, my dear," the robot replied. "I have had my eye on this little treat for the past half hour."

"You did not!"

"I did too!"

Their faces were nearly touching now. Both bared their fangs and growled. The other robots growl sounded better. It actually hurt Shadowstar's audio receptors. He noticed her flinch and gave the robot a good, hard yank, pulling it out of her hands before she knew what had happened.

Now he held the robot in both hands and floated some distance away from her. "It's mine!" he shouted then laughed.

The Decepticon energy vampire recovered quickly and lunged at him, grabbing the little robot by it's legs. "Let go!" she ordered, attempting to pull the robot out of his grip. "This robot is mine!"

The other robot held on tight to his prize's arms, refusing to let it go after he'd gained it. "Find your own energy!" he shouted at her. "You lost claim to this when you lost your grip!"

"I only lost my grip because you screamed in my face!" she shot back, her optics flashing in anger. "Follow your own advice and get your own bot!" she yanked again, bracing her feet against the ground so he couldn't get away so easily. "Now let the robot go!"

"Oh fine." and he did just as he was told.

Shadowstar, who was still pulling, didn't expect that and flew backward, slamming hard into the pavement. When she hit the ground she lost her grip on the little robot who bounced once then took off. The other robot vampire gave chase, flying past her as she got up.

"Oh no, you don't!" she yelled, activating her thrusters and shooting after him.

The red thing led Prowl and Sari down the street toward a less crowded part of town. On the way he stopped to drop the girl off at a hotel where an alien that looked similar to Becky picked her up and headed inside. After that they took another street then came upon a white torpedo shaped ship.

Prowl studied the vehicle for a moment. Compared to Cybertronian transportation it loked a bit.. primitive. "Is the person inside there?" he asked the red thing.

It nodded and gestured for them to follow it into the ship. Prowl got a really bad feeling but when Sari started to go after the alien he followed, not wanting her to go in there by herself. Once they were inside Prowl said, folding his arms. "Okay, so where is this person?"

"Just a moment." and the alien ducked out of the room.

The moment he stepped out of the room the door behind them slid shut, making them both jump. "Uh oh," Sari said.

A pair of throwing stars appeared in Prowl's hand, the pointy ends sticking out between his fingers. He was on full alert, expecting something to happen. Sari followed his lead and charged up an orb, her eyes darting around, looking for something hostile to shoot at.

For a moment nothing happened and Prowl began to wonder if he might just be acting too cautious.

That all changed a second later when cables came out of the walls and tried to wrap themselves around the two. Sari freaked out and started shooting orb after orb at the cables in an attempt to keep them away from herself.

Prowl threw some of his shurikens at the cables, cutting them in half. But the more he cut, the more came to replace them. He was fighting a losing battle.

"Prowl!" Sari yelled.

He turned his head just in time to see the techno organic girl, tangled up in cables, be lifted off the floor.

"Sari!" he called, raising his arm to throw one of the stars at cables. Just then one of the cables wrapped around his wrist, pulling him back. He turned to cut it but when he did more surrounded him and wrapped around his body. As he fought to free himself he was yanked off the floor and into the air where he was then hung next to Sari. Only, unlike her, his arms were suspended over his head. The cables tightened around his wrists until his hands opened and he dropped his weapons. They clattered to the floor.

Just then the door that the red alien had ducked out of opened and it, along with three other figures, stepped inside.

"Is this what you do to everyone who asks for your help?" Prowl demanded looking down at him.

The red thing started to speak but one of the other beings, this one looked like a human put out his arm and silenced him. "I'll handle this," the human said. He walked forward until he was standing under Sari and Prowl, who looked down at him with hostile eyes. "I am Buzz Lightyear," he introduced himself, putting his hand on his chest. "I am sorry for the rude welcome but we can't be too careful about these things."

"What things?" Sari demanded, glaring down at him as she wiggled around in a vain attempt to break free from her bindings. "Visitors? If you do this to all the people you meet you're not going to have any friends."

The smallest of the beings, a boxy looking creature burst out laughing. "She got you there."

The one called Buzz ignored the smaller being, instead choosing to focus his full attention on his captives. "Booster here tells me that you've been asking about an energy vampire," he went on. "Why would you want to find it?"

"I would be all to willing to tell you why," Prowl answered, struggling to free himself. "If you would kindly release us from these cables."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." he didn't sound the least bit sorry.

"Well you'd better do it," Sari shot back, still wiggling around in her cocoon. "Or I'll break these tentacles apart and feed them to you!"

"Now now, young lady, an attitude like that won't get you what you want." Buzz scolded. "If you want me to shut down the cables you will answer my questions."

"Who gave you the author-"

"Fine," Prowl cut her off. She looked at him, her eyes wide. "Prowl, you can't be serious!" she exclaimed. The look he gave her told her that he was indeed serious. She fell silent.

Prowl looked back at Buzz. "We are trying to find the energy vampire because we're the one responsible for it coming here."

By the looks on their faces he realized saying such a thing might have been a mistake. "You brought the energy vampire here?" The red thing whose name was Booster exclaimed.

"We didn't mean to," Prowl answered quickly. "It was an accident."

"Some accident!" the smallest one scoffed. "Bringing that vampire here doesn't sound like an accident to me," He pointed up at Prowl. "You're a robot. You should have known better than to let him loose in the city!"

"Hey!" Sari shouted. "It's not our fault the space bridge sent us here! It wasn't like we chose to bring a power eating freak to your oh so perfect planet."

"Oh and you didn't choose to allow Nos-4-A2 to come back to life either," it shot back.

Prowl's optics flickered. "Nos-4-A2?" he said.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" the fourth being, a blue skinned female shouted, stepping forward and getting between the Autobots at her comrades. "Instead of us shouting at each other like children why don't we discuss this in a more civilized fashion?" then she turned toward their captives and aimed her arm at them. "Okay, spill. Who made you bring Nos-4-A2 here and for what reason? Was it Zurg? And don't lie or I will be forced to blow off your head."

Prowl noticed a little red light blinking on her arm. A laser. "I already told you what happened," he replied. "It was an accident"

"Ennt! Wrong answer!"

She probably would have shot them but Buzz put his hand on her arm and stopped her. "Enough Mira," he said.

"Oh sorry," she said. lowering her arm and smiling sheepishly. "Got a little over dramatic there."

Buzz turned back to them. "Why don't you tell us who made you bring it here?"

Prowl didn't answer. He didn't feel like repeating himself.

"No answer? That's a shame."

Shadowstar chased after the other energy vampire and her lost prey. She was determined not to let this wanna be steal something that was rightfully hers.

The chase went on for a few more minutes until the little robot ran into a dead end alley. The other vampire got to him first. He smiled in triumph and reach out to grab it. Before he could, Shadowstar caught the edge of his cape and gave it a sharp yank, pulling him away from the robot. She swung him around then let go. He flew in the opposite direction and crashed into some garbage cans.

"Maybe next time you won't wear a cape!" she shouted before turning her attention on the thing she was really after. She walked up to the robot who began to shake. Smirking she picked him up and held him before her. "Don't worry, tiny, this will only hurt for a moment."

But just before she could bite it the other vampire came up behind her and wrapped his arm around her neck. She shrieked in surprise and let the robot go. But the vampire didn't let go of her. He grabbed her head with his other hand and started yanking backward. She grabbed his arms and tried to pry him loose. It felt like he was trying to break her neck.

"I don't give up so easily," he told her before shocking her with some plasma energy.

She screamed in agony. He kept that up for a moment then let her go. She fell to her knees, her head filling with static. While she tried to recover the other vampire grabbed up the little robot. "I am so sorry you had to go through all of that," he said to it, the tone he used saying he really wasn't. "Here, let me put you out of your misery." then he bit into it.

Shadowstar heard the little robot squeeling and lifted her head just as the other robot let it go. The now drained machine clattered to the ground. "Lovely," her rival said, wiping off his mouth.

"No!" Cheated of her meal she got to her feet and stalked over to the vampire. "How dare you!" she screamed.

He looked at her just as she lunged at him. He couldn't react fast enough and managed to grab him. They crashed to the ground, her on top. "You took my prey so now I'm going to prey on you!"

Their captor's stepped out of the room, leaving Prowl and Sari where they were, wrapped in cables, suspended in the air.

Sari struggled to free herself, even resorting to biting the cables in her attempt to get out. All she got for her troubles was a sore jaw. Rats! What are these things made of? Anamantium? She noticed Prowl wasn't doing anything. He was just hanging there, looking thoughtful. "Prowl?"

He lifted his head as if her voice has startled him. The cyber ninja looked over at her.

"What is wrong?"

"I don't know," he replied. "It might not be anything.. but... didn't it seem odd that they kept calling Shadowstar Nos-4-A2?"

"Not really," she answered. "Maybe that's the name they came up with for her since they never got to find out her real name."

"But that's not the only thing," he replied, thoughtfully. "Shadowstar is a femme bot and yet the little robot called the vampire they mentioned a he. It isn't hard to figure out what kind of gender Shadowstar is since her frame distinctly says female."

"Maybe they never got close enough to realize that?" she questioned. "From far away you can't really tell unless she says something to you."

"Maybe," he consented. "But we don't know."

"Too bad we can't ask them."

He perked up then. "Or maybe we can."

The girl looked at him suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

He didn't answer. But only because he had started humming.

"Oh."

A/N

I am so in the zone writing about the Transformers characters that keeping them in character is relatively easy. As for the BLOSC characters.. it's a bit harder because I have to stop and wrack my brain for ten minutes trying to figure out the right things to make them say and do. Buzz is actually the easiest. I am calling Sari an Autobot because it makes things easier at certain parts. Since she's a robot anyway it isn't too hard to think of her as one.