CHAP 4

"Looks like you just showed your true colors." Buzz said as Mira slapped a pair of cuffs onto Prowl's wrists. The cyber ninja could not stop them because his body was still paralyzed, though the effects were starting to wear off. "By breaking out of your holding cell you just proved that you are indeed an enemy."

"We broke out of there because we wanted to get answers!" Sari protested, trying to break free from Booster who was gripping her arms. He held on tight as XR attempted to slap on the cuffs. "If you guys had just helped us instead of treating us like criminals this never would have happened!" she glared back at XR. "Get away from me, shrimp!" She spun around, surprising Booster by how strong she was and aimed a kick at the little robot.

XR moved back and avoided the blow. "Oh no, you're not going to knock my head off again!" he grabbed her foot when she attempted to hit him with it again. "Ha ha! Now let's see you- hey I can see up her-"

"XR!" Buzz shouted, cutting him off. "Just put the cuffs on!"

"Oh fine," the robot said, letting go of Sari's foot. "You always have to spoil my fun." he slapped the cuffs on then rolled away. Booster held onto the girl's arms to keep her from bolting, not that she would be able to get very far since they were out in the middle of space and she didn't know where anything was. "When I get out of this I'm going make you all sorry," she snapped, glaring at XR. "Starting with Robo McPervert there."

"Now now just calm down," Buzz said to her. "You won't be going anywhere any time soon."

"Oh yeah?" she demanded, glaring at the space ranger. "You'd be surprised at what I can get out of, you-"

"Sari," Prowl cut her off. She looked at him and he shook his head, indicating baiting the human was a bad idea. Seeing the wisdom in that, she never finished her sentence but did shoot them all the death glare just to show them that she wasn't happy about any of this.

Buzz took his attention off Sari to speak with Prowl. It was obvious the robot was the leader, not the girl."I don't know how you freed yourselves from those cables but I can assure you that you will not break free from these." he pointed at the cuffs "They are specially made for robots. If you try to get loose they will send a surge through your body that will knock you offline." Buzz then looked over at Sari. "As for you, I do not know exactly what you are but as a precaution we gave you the same restraints."

She stuck her tongue out at him. He made a face then looked back at Prowl. The cyber ninja attempted to reason with him. "Listen, this has all been a misunderstanding," he began.

"Misunderstanding?" Buzz demanded. "I'm not so sure of that. Maybe I would have believed you if you hadn't broken out and attacked us."

"We didn't attack you," Prowl started. "If we did it was in self defense."

"Yeah, you pointed a laser at our heads!" Sari shouted, unable to stay silent for very long. "You guys are so lame. All we wanted was help finding a crazy vampire and you arrest us like we're the bad guys!"

Buzz rounded on her. "You two are responsible for letting a highly dangerous criminal loose on an unsuspecting planet, young lady!" he told her, pointing at her face. "I don't call that innocent."

"I think we might be thinking of two different things," Prowl answered, once again gaining Buzz's attention. "You see-"

"Save it for the Commander," Buzz cut him off. "We'll get the whole story when we return to Star Command and believe me, you will tell us everything." he looked at Mira and Booster. "Take them back to the holding cell and make sure they can't get out this time."

A small pile of empty robots lay at Shadowstar's feet by the time she finished feeding. She dropped the last one onto the heap then wiped her mouth, making a disgusted face. Stale. Why in the All Spark are all inferior machines always stale? she kicked the mound, making it fall over then glanced back at her wing. It seemed to have repaired itself. Good. Now I can look for that stupid bat winged freak. She activated the thrusters in her feet and shot into the air, transforming into vehicle mode and shooting off into the busy airspace. He's around here somewhere. There are so many robots on this planet that it's not likely that he will leave it.

But how was she going to find the other vampire? She didn't exactly know where it hung out or even what kind of energy signature it had. She'd been so bent on kicking his pointy metal behind that she hadn't bothered scanning him.

Stupid! Stupid stupid!

She checked out a few more blocks then decided to rest for a moment and landed on the roof of one of the casinos, transforming into robot mode as she did so. She then perched on the edge, looking over the city. Where am I? she thought to herself. What is this place and how did I get here? She thought back to her fight with Prowl and the human girl.. er cyborg girl. She remembered tackling Prowl who had been holding onto the girl to protect her. All three had fallen into the space bridge transporter. After that she'd blacked out and rebooted here. Of course! The space bridge! It must have sent me here! She looked around the city. and if I am here... maybe Prowl is too.

At the very thought of Prowl being there sent a jolt went through her frame. "Maybe this won't be so bad after all," she said out loud. "Not if my favorite meal is here too." she activated her thrusters and shot into the air. "If he is here I wonder where he's hiding right now?"

Finding the fembot energy vampire proved to be a problem. Trade World was a big place and by now she could be anywhere but Nos-4-A2 wasn't one to give up easily. He was determined to find her and find her he would. He began at the very place where he had last seen her. The alley behind the Exotic Treasures casino.

It wasn't hard to find because the little robot he'd drained was still where he'd left it, plus the neon sign helped too. The local peace officers hadn't found it yet. He stared at the robot for a moment, debating whether he should bring it back to life or not. Maybe it would be able to tell him something. But doing so would be wasting energy. So he did the next best thing.

He opened up it's chest and poked around inside until he came upon the memory drive. Perfect.

A short time later he was flying away with more questions than answers. From what the little robots memory card told him the fembot had just fallen out of the sky. No ships and no comrades to bring it there. Just poof! Right out of nowhere. While all that was terribly fascinating it did not given him even the slightest clue on where she could have gone.

Maybe I should try something else. he paused and scanned the city for a moment, attempting to pick up that alien energy signature that made her unique from the rest of the mechanical population.

For a moment there was nothing and then... a faint trail. It led to the more population part of the city.

Nos-4-A2 smiled. Lovely.

Sari slammed her body against the door of the ship's holding cell. It held and all she accomplished was bruising her shoulder. "Ow."

"Forget it Sari," Prowl said from across the room. He was sitting cross legged on the floor. "They fixed the door and sealed it. You won't be able to break it open by slamming yourself into it."

"Oh" she groaned, getting to her feet. "This whole thing is just stupid! We didn't even do anything and they're treating us like we just set Megatron loose on their universe!"

"I am sure they have their reasons," he replied.

"Yeah, they believe we sent this Nossy four two thing loose," she replied, glaring at the door. "I don't even know what a Nix four oh whatever it's name is is!"

"I believe they said he was an energy vampire," Prowl told her. "and I do believe it was pronounced Nos-4-A2. Now why don't you just leave that door alone and sit down by me?"

She complied but didn't look happy. "Yeah well whatever," she said, turning toward him. "Well if old Dinohead back there hadn't lied about us this never would have happened."

"I don't think he lied," Prowl said, wondering why he was defending the red alien. "I think he just misunderstood what we said." He looked over at her as she sat down beside him. "It's obvious they believe we brought back to life this other energy vampire they mentioned."

"What I would like to know is who in their right mind would create an energy vampire in the first place?" she demanded. "They're nut jobs! Fembot freak is a prime example of how loopy those things are. If there are two-"

"I don't know," the cyber ninja answered before she could continue ranting. "But maybe this Commander Nebula will be able to tell us something."

"Or throw us in the can before we can clear our names," she added. "With how our luck's been lately this Nebula guy is probably one of those people who passes judgment first and asks questions later." she folded her legs under her and glared at nothing. "Yeah that's probably what he'll be like and he probably hates robots too."

"We won't know that until we get there."

The girl sighed and settled back for the long trip to this Star Command place. "I hope whoever that guy is he's not as stupid as these losers."

Prowl didn't comment. He was hoping the same thing but wasn't about to say it. It would sound too unlike him.

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Kaput.

Shadowstar thought she'd been following the energy signature for Prowl when it suddenly vanished as if it had never been there. "Sparks!" she cursed, hovering over a star ship landing pad. "Where did it go?" she looked around herself, trying to pick up the signal again. Nothing. It was gone. "Oh Pitfall!"

She descended to the landing pad and studied it for a moment. The faint trace of his energy signature ended a few feet away. It almost seemed like he'd walked there then vanish. No.. Not vanished. He must have taken a ship.

"But how could he?" she asked herself out loud, putting her hands on her hips. "He doesn't even know anybody in this crazy universe."

"Looking for something, wench?"

Shadowstar startled by the voice, jerked around. She spotted the vampire thing from earlier hovering over her head. Right now those weird wings weren't activated and his arms were hidden by the folds of his cape, though one hand was peeking out. He looked much smaller when he was like that. Maybe even... weak. But she knew he wasn't weak. "Oh, it's you," she said, glaring up at the energy thief. "Here for round two, you legless wanna be?"

"Now now, let's not resort to childish name calling, shall we?" he said, looking at her condescendingly. "It makes one sound so immature."

"You're the one who is immature," she snapped. "Stealing something that does not belong to you."

"I am afraid you are mistaken, my dear," he replied. He spread his arms out wide. "Every machine here belongs to me."

She smirked. "Not any more," she responded. "I need to recharge as well. So I guess you'll have to learn to share."

"I never share," he stated. Then activated his wings and dived down at her.

Oh sure. Find the vampire and immobilize the vampire. It should not be that hard to do. He spends most of his time in Trade World after he was so foolishly reactivated by that silly little Gravitina. Ha! Easy to find my butt! Warp Darkmatter glared down at the metropolis of Trade World. Evil Emperor Zurg had sent him to the planet to find and capture that traitor energy vampire Nos-4-A2. He had said it would be easy.

Easy was the wrong word for it.

Impossible fit better.

He didn't even get why the cyborg wanted Nos-4-A2 to begin with. Oh sure the energy vampire had over thrown him but he'd also been taken down by Buzz Lightyear. Zurg didn't even really know who had put the machine back together but the security camera's had picked up that big headed Gravitina outside the room where his parts had been stored. Why the gravity manipulator would want to bring Nos-4-A2 back was beyond him and there wasn't any proof that she had, aside from those security tapes. When asked about it she vehemently denied it, saying she would rather fall into the sun than revive such an ugly freak.

But had she protested too loudly?

Warp could worry about that later.

Right now he had a vampire to find. He looked down at the city again. "Nope, this will not be easy. Not in the slightest." He sighed and checked his blaster. Fully charged. "Might as well get this over with."

He jumped off the roof.

"Transformers more than meets the eyes. Autobots rage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons," Sari sang softly as she waited. She saw Prowl giving her a funny look. "What?"

"Where did you hear that song?" he asked.

"Uh...," she thought for a moment. "I think some of the kids in town were singing it."

"Hmm." the look on his face told her he didn't like it. Did the music offend him? "Could you please sing something else?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Just something else."

She thought for a moment then sang. "Strange things are happening to me. Strange things. Strange things are happening to me. Ain't no doubt about i-"

The door opened just then. Sari instantly stopped singing and fixed a glare on the person or persons standing in the doorway.

The ones named Booster and XR stepped into the room. "What do you want?" she demanded, giving them her most deadly look. She focused it more on XR than Booster. "Here to try sneaking a peak at my underpants again, you sick freak?"

Booster looked down at XR. "See! I told you coming with me was a bad idea," he said to the robot.

"Hey, Buzz asked us both to come and get them and I intend to do my job," XR retorted, putting his hands on the sides of his body because he didn't have any hips.

"Okay but I don't think you should-"

"Oh blah blah blah!" XR cut him off, waving his hands and rolling over to the Autobots. "You guys are no fun. I never get to do what-" he didn't get to finish his sentence because Sari kicked him in the face, knocking off his head which landed at Boosters feet. "Now that's just playing dirty!"

"Speak for yourself," Sari growled. "You keep your sticking fingers away from me, you lecherous googleface!"

"Sari, enough," Prowl ordered, shooting her a hard Look. "You're only making things worse."

"I'm making things worse!?" she shouted. "That Buzz guy sent Panting Peeping Louie there to come get us and you're saying I'm making it worse?!"

"Just ignore him," the cyber ninja suggested. "It will make things easier."

"Okay fine," she said. She looked at Booster who was busy putting XR's head back on his body. "You, Big Red!"

He put his hands on his chest. "Me?"

"Yes you," she said. "If you're coming to take us out of here I want you to be the one who does it. I don't trust Mr Googlehead over there."

"Okay.." Booster crossed the room and helped her up. He looked at XR. "I guess you get the robot."

"Oh sure," XR grumbled, wheeling over to help Prowl up. "Leave me with the poker faced bot here. Why do you always get the girls?"

"Maybe because he's not a pig," Sari replied.

Booster didn't comment, he just led Sari out of the room.

"All right, Shades," XR said, grabbing Prowl's arm. He extended his legs and helped him up. "Let's go. Dad wishes to speak with you."

Dad?

Shadowstar activated her thrusters and shot into the air. "Okay, if that's the way you want to play!" she yelled.

They clashed about halfway. She raised her arms and slammed them into his shoulders while he grabbed her by the neck. She growled at him and kicked at his chestplate, knocking his grip loose and sending him flying back.

He didn't stay back for long. Instead he let out a roar and dived down at her. She dodged out of the way and kicked him in the back. He in turn twisted around and slashed at her. His clawed fingers caught her legs and he pulled, creating long, deep scratches in them.

She screamed in pain and shot away from him, the scratches bleeding out purplish colored mech fluid. She hovered for a moment, staring at the damage then growled and dived at him. "You're going to regret that!"

Dad wound up being Commander Nebula and from as far as Prowl could tell the man didn't look the least bit like a machine, well except for the peg leg. He looked like any other human, complete with tanned skin and facial hair. The man reminded him of Captain Fanzone. "That's your dad?" Prowl asked, staring down at XR.

Commander Nebula heard him. "I'm not his father," he snapped.

"You're not?" Now Prowl was real confused. "But he-"

"Commander," Buzz said, cutting Prowl off. "These are the ones who let Nos-4-A2 loose in Trade World."

"Oh really?" the Commander walked over to them. He stood before them, his hands on his hips. "You do know aiding a fugitive is a federal offense, don't you?"

Prowl tried to explain. "But we didn't-"

"I don't want to hear any excuses!" Nebula cut him off. "Nos-4-A2 is a danger to machines everywhere." he poked Prowl in the chest. "You being a machine yourself should have known that."

"With all due respect if you would just let me explain-" Prowl started.

But Nebula wasn't listening. He'd noticed the Autobot symbol on Prowl's chest. He had never seen a symbol like that before. "And what in the name of Andromeda is that?!" he demanded, pointing at it.

Prowl looked down at his insignia. Instantly he felt something in his processor beginning to fry. "That," he began. "Is kind of hard to explain."

"Well you'd better try," Nebula snapped, folding his arms. "Is that the new logo Zurg is going by now, weird mechanical faces?"

"No!" Sari spoke up. "That's the Autobot symbol."

Everyone stared at Sari then down at the symbol. "What in blue blazes is an Autobot?!"

Yep, this was going to be complicated.

A/N

Yeah I got it done in time, even with episodes help.