CHAP 7
Internal repairs one hundred percent. Stasis lock terminated.... Power levels twenty five percent and steadying.
"Okay just a little longer. Don't leave him on there too long or it might fry his circuits."
Prowl was slowly coming to. The voice he was hearing did not sound like anything he remembered. If it was Ratchet, he must have damaged his vocalizer.
"This had better work.," he heard a familiar voice say. "If you kill him I'll blow this entire station out of orbit and don't think I won't!"
"It seems to be working. See? his color is brightening up again. He'll be fine."
"Ugh."
"He's waking up!" three voices that sounded exactly alike exclaimed.
Prowl's optics flickered and came to focus on three little green, three eyed faces. "He's awake!" one of them called to somebody he could not see.
"Prowl!"
He heard running footsteps then Sari was leaning over him, her dark features full of relief.. "How are you feeling?"
"Not very well," he replied, trying to sit up. He noticed he was lying on some kind of tanning bed. But it wasn't really that because his chest was open and a kind of wire was plugged into him and a port on the side of the bed.
"Let me help you," Sari said, noticing his struggle. She put out her hand.
Grateful, he took it. "Ugh, what happened?" he questioned as she pulled him into a sitting position.
"You ran out of energy," she explained. "and then you kind of blacked out."
"Sparks," Prowl cursed, looking away. "I knew it."
The girl stared at him. "Knew what?" she asked.
Prowl put his hand to his head and looked at her. His optics were dimmed. "I'm low on energy," he replied. "I should have recharged this morning."
"Why didn't you?" she demanded.
"I didn't know this would happen," he told her, shaking his head. "I was going to get some energon once I got to Cybertron but-"
"Energon!" she exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "That's what it was!"
By then Buzz and his team had joined them. "Energon," the space ranger said looking like he had no idea what they were talking about. "What is that?"
"It's the fuel Prowl needs," Sari explained, looking at him. "It's different than any kind of energy source you might have here."
"Yes," Prowl replied, looking at the space ranger, his voice dead serious. "That's what I need. This recharge won't last for very long. If I don't get some energon soon..." his voice trailed off.
"Prowl, I don't want to sound like your mother but maybe you should have had some this morning." Sari told him.
"I know that now," he told her.
"So you needed it even before you go here." Buzz stated.
"Something like that."
"So what are we going to do?" Booster wanted to know. He too was worried about the Autobot though he barely knew him. "We don't have any energon!"
"No," Buzz confirmed, rubbing his chin. "But I think we might be able to use something else."
Prowl looked at him, his expression doubtful. "What else can you use?" he wanted to know. "Energon isn't like any other form of energy. It's very powerful and rare."
Buzz acted like he did not hear that. "Tell me," he said. "Does this energon have any other use besides fueling transformers like you?"
"It's the main power source for everything on Cybertron," Prowl replied. "It comes in two forms. Cubes and crystals."
"Crystals huh?" Lightyear smiled. "I think I have an idea."
They all looked at him. "Like what?" Sari questioned. "You gonna magically create energon out of thin air?"
"No," Buzz told her. "We can't create energon because we most likely don't have the necessary components, but I think we might be able to get something that will be just as good."
"Oh?" Sari looked doubtful. "Like how?"
He smiled at her. "Just trust me."
She didn't reply.
"All right," Prowl said. She looked at him. "It's better than doing nothing." the cyber ninja told her. He tried to stand up but was too low on energy to do so. Booster stepped in and grabbed Prowl's shoulders. He pulled him to his feet. The cyber ninja nearly fell over but the alien managed to keep him standing. Prowl looked at Buzz. "Why don't you show me what you intend to use for this."
Buzz turned away from him. "Follow me."
Shadowstar's whole body was aching as she came around a few hours later. She moaned as she came to and tried to move into a better position that wouldn't hurt so much. But she couldn't move, something was holding her down.
Being immobile had been one of her greatest fears for vorns ever since an incident in her past. She panicked, thrashing her body around in an attempt to become mobile. She succeeded in moving a little but no more than that. Her optics flickered then came on, her broken optic seeing everything in black and white while her intact one saw color which created a strange other worldly affect on everything. Not that there was much to see.
She found herself staring at the dark blue of.. space? No, there were no stars. This was a ceiling.
She was inside a building.
No, not a building. She heard the hum of an engine. She was in some kind of vehicle. How did I get here?
The last thing she remembered before going offline was her vampiric rival socking her in the face then a shock coursing through her body and damaging her extensively. She knew the other vampire robot was not responsible for that because his punch had been so weak she barely felt it. But, if it wasn't him, who had done that to her and why?
Well she wasn't just going to lie there and wait for the answer to come to her.
But when she tried to move she found she couldn't and this time she knew why. She was attached to a giant magnet rendering her immobile, or at least that was her theory. Whenever she attempted to do anything the magnets would hold her in place. She wasn't going anywhere. Even if it wasn't a giant magnet she still couldn't move.
Wonderful.
She gave up struggling and rested. Well, since she wasn't going to be moving any time soon, she might as well run a scan and find out how much damage she had. It would give her a better idea on how much energy she needed for repairs. That actually took longer than she thought it would.
Nearly a half hour later she was informed by her internal computer of every single scratch. There were plenty of those. Plus her wings were shattered and useless and the puncture wounds from NOS-4-A2's claws weren't just on her legs. He'd managed to scratch other places as well. But she had to smile because she had given just as much as she got, even though that robot was much stronger than he looked.
With or without legs that wannabe is powerful, she realized. I wonder what he tastes like?
What in the world are you thinking about, girl? You have more important things to worry about than how much an inferior machine tastes.
Oh yeah. She didn't know who had attached her to that magnet, if that was what was keeping her from moving. When she found out who it was she vowed to make that person pay. It's probably the same person who shot me.
She couldn't wait to meet this person face to face.
Buzz led the group down into the section of the space station that housed the power core. "What's that?" Prowl asked looking into the room with the reactor.
"That's the crystalic fusion reactor," Buzz explained."'It's what powers Star Command." he looked into the chamber. "The crystals we use are some of the most powerful in the galaxy."
"and what do you want Prowl to do?" Sari asked, folding her arms. "Walk into the core and absorb the energy?" she glanced at the reactor. "Are you crazy?"
"Of course not," Lightyear told her. He looked up and saw Mira who was staring into the reactor. She had a hungry look on her face, as if she was considering walking into the core herself. "We already had to deal with that problem in the past and it wasn't a good idea." Mira saw him looking at her and stepped back, embarrassed.
"So that what are we going to do then?" Sari demanded.
He made the solution seem so simple. "We're going to try to turn some of the crystalic power into fuel."
Everyone stared at him. "Is that even possible, Buzz?" Booster asked who was keeping Prowl on his feet by holding onto his arms.
"I don't know," the human admitted. "But we won't know until we try it."
Sari did not like the idea. It did not even seem possible. She looked at Prowl who was staring at the reactor core, wanting to know his opinion on the idea. His face held a blank expression as if he was deep in thought. "Prowl."
"It might work," he said in a low voice. He sounded like he was doing a survey on the odds of it working. "If you can somehow turn the energy into liquid form."
"That shouldn't be too hard," one of the LGMs that had gone with them said. "All we need to do is change the cellular makeup."
"Oh, like that's going to be as simple as you said," XR commented, folding his arms. "Why don't we just give him some motor oil?"
"XR!" Mira scolded. "You know we can't do that! What the matter with you?"
"Nothing," the robot told her. "I just don't see why this is such a big deal or why you're even falling for this. It's obvious he just wants attention."
"Why would he want attention?"
"I don't know," he replied, turning and rolling a short distance away. "Maybe so that he can stay in the spotlight."
Sari heard him. "What do you know about it?" she demanded, turning on him. She glared at him, clenching her fists at her sides. "You didn't spend three years of your life being good friends with Prowl. He's one of the most selfless people I know."
The smaller robot wasn't moved by her statement. "Of course you would say that."
The girl looked like she was about to kick off XR's head again but Mira took her arm and pulled her away from him. "Just forget it," she told her. "XR is just as worried as the rest of us-"
"I am not!" he shot back.
"But he doesn't know how to show it," the Tangean finished. "Just don't let him get to you. He has some issues he needs to straighten out."
"Like what?" Sari demanded, glaring at the woman. "Besides being a pervert and a jerk?" She looked away before Mira could comment glared at XR, who glared right back. She knew she was never going to like XR, no matter what anyone said about him. "I might be able to fix that little issue."
XR noticed her left hand glowing and put more space between himself and her. "Okay, I'm sorry," he said, putting up his arms. "There's no need to resort to violence."
Sari's hand powered down as she said. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."
"Forget it, Sari," Prowl said, who had heard the entire exchange.
She looked at the Autobot. "But-"
"It's not a big deal," he told her. He looked at XR. "The fact doesn't bother me."
But it bothered Sari. She couldn't understand why the other robot was being so sour toward Prowl. Was he angry at him about something? He sounded jealous, like the fact that Prowl's abilities fascinated everyone, bothered him. Yeah maybe that's what it was, but he would have to get over it. If things went the way they were supposed to he wouldn't have anything to worry about very soon. Sari intended to be back in her own universe before too long if there weren't any more set backs.
Just then one of the LGMs shouted. "I got it!" which drew everyone's attention back to the reason why they had even come down there in the first place.
"What have you got?" Sari asked, peeking over his shoulder. She saw some kind of weird spiraling formula on the monitor screen. "Did you convert some of the energy in fuel?"
"Better than that; we sent some of the energy to the recharge bed the Autobot was connected to earlier," the LGM explained. "All he has to do is hook himself back up and the energy will go into his systems."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Sari asked, grabbing Prowl's arms and beginning to drag him away. "Let's get this done!"
"Hold it there, young lady," Buzz said, putting up his hand. "First they have to convert it."
She stopped and looked at him. "How long will that take?"
"About an hour," the alien replied.
"Well until then, we're going back upstairs and waiting for it there," the girl said, not wanting to stay near the core any longer. The energy coming from it made her feel weird and she didn't like it. She pulled on Prowl's arm. "Come on."
Shadowstar heard a door opening but was unable to turn her head to see who was there. Heavy footsteps reached her audio receptors then stopped. She heard breathing then a voice speaking to somebody. "Okay, let's get it out of here."
Hands grabbed her arms and she was pulled to her feet. Because she hadn't moved in the longest time and she was low on power her legs were a tad bit weak and she nearly fell over. But the hands on her were strong and kept her up. She became aware of the fact that her hands were behind her back and would stay there. The magnet must have removed her sense of feeling because she should have realized that sooner. The same with the pain in her back from her broken wings... and from the rest of her damage which had hurt but only slightly.
Something stepped in front of her, blocking her view. She lifted her head and saw a blue colored face with dark blue hair staring down at her. This was definitely not the energy vampire she'd been fighting with earlier.
"Who in Cybertron are you?" she demanded.
"It talks," the being said, not really surprised.
"You make that sounds like it's a bad thing," she growled. She had only met him and she didn't like him. "What are you supposed to be anyway? Some kind of bounty hunter turned lame super hero?"
It did not comment. She saw by the look on its face that it didn't really like the idea of something he might consider an unacceptable monster being smart enough to speak. She could also tell that her comment had offended him but he was choosing not to address it at the moment. It looked at the things, two orange and black robots, holding her. "Let's get her inside."
The silent machines nodded and led her out of the room which was part of a ship. They walked her off the ship and outside. Right away she noticed that the air was colored. Red. A lot of red. Red clouds, red smoke, even red lights. The whole planet was red, like Mars only with buildings and many many robots that all looked the same and moved around as if they had some kind of purpose.
The blue skinned being led her to a tall building on the other side of the landing pad. She looked up at it, noticing the large letter Z carved into the wall near the top. They took her inside the Z marked building and down a gray-ish blue colored hall toward a large room in the center of the building. Once they were in the room they stopped. Shadowstar got a good look around. The room had windows or was it computer screens? covering the walls and it seemed cramped with strange looking technology. In the very center of the room was a throne and behind that a kind of glassed in reactor.
The blue being focused his attention over toward the throne. "I'm back," he called to somebody sitting on it.
"Ah Darkmatter," a not so deep voice said as the figure on the throne stood. "I was wondering when you'd get back." the figure headed toward them. Shadowstar noticed it seemed to be gliding or it just looked that way because it wore a really long... dress? As it got closer she realized it looked rather strange. It's mouth didn't even move when it talked. "Now you can tell me what you meant by-" it noticed her. "What in the name of Jupiter is that thing?" it demanded, pointing at her.
"That thing, Evil Emperor Zurg is the being I was referring to on the phone," Darkmatter replied.
"Oh really?" the thing named Zurg stepped toward Shadowstar and studied her a moment, his hand on his chin. This close she realized it was male, not just from the voice but his anatomy. "It doesn't look like much." he tried to poke her face. "In fact it looks like you pulled it out of the scrap heap. Why is it-" she tried to bite him "WAH!" he pulled his hand away. "So you're a biter too."
She hissed at him.
Zurg ignored her and turned on Warp. "You were supposed to bring me Nos-4-A2, not this useless female robot!" he shouted.
"Useless female robot?" Warp exclaimed offended by the accusation. "You have no idea what you're talking about."
"Don't use that tone with me, Darkmatter!" Zurg shouted. "I know exactly what I'm talking about!" he pointed at the fembot. "That thing is useless! Just look at her body!"
"There is a perfectly good reason why I kept her body the way it is." Warp raised his cyborg arm and shoved it into the other man's face. "This might explain it better."
Zurg shoved it away. "I don't want to look at your arm," he snapped.
"Well maybe you should do it anyway," Darkmatter told him. "It'll give you the answer better than anything I say."
"Oh all right." and he did, just to humor the man. That's when he spotted the fang marks. They created deep puncture wounds in the silver metal. The emperor wasn't impressed. "So you got a little bite from something, big deal?"
"A little bite?" Warp snapped. "I don't call my arm powering down to uselessness a little bite!"
"Well maybe you shouldn't have gotten so close to NOS-4-A2."
"NOS-4-A2 didn't do this to my arm!" he pointed at the femme. "She did!"
"Oh poppy cock! You don't exactly think I'll believe such rubbish do you?" Zurg asked, putting a hand on his chest. "I mean really. What kind of damage could that little junk heap do?"
Warp looked over his shoulder. He noticed something and pointed, smirking. "How about that much?"
"Huh?" Zurg turned around to face the fembot. "AH! Oh my!"
Shadowstar had somehow got her fangs into one of the hornet robots. Her mouth was wrapped around its arm and she was draining the energy out of it, even as it tried to get away from her. The charge lit up her frame which was slowly beginning to repair itself, including her shattered wings. When she finished draining the hornet she let it go and it crashed to the floor. With that one drained she turned on the other one.
Zurg watched her, his eyes bugging out of his head. Warp on the other hand wasn't surprised at all since his arm had been her meal before and he was over the shock factor, even though watching her made him nervous. He wondered if NOS-4-A2 fed that way too. Since he had never really met the energy vampire in person he did not know.
"I told you," he said in a totally calm voice.
Zurg rounded him him. "You lunatic! Why did you have to bring that freak in here?" he demanded. "Why didn't you take her to a cell where I could look at her through bars?!"
Warp smirked. "Too late now," he said, folding his arms.
"Yeah, too late for both of you." spoke up a female voice.
Both men looked back at the fembot energy vampire. She had finished consuming the second hornet which had joined its partner on the floor. Her frame glowed which is what it did when it used energy to repair itself. Most of the damage she'd sustained from her fight with NOS-4-A2 was completely repaired.
"Ah! How did you do that?" Zurg demanded.
Shadowstar grinned. "It's my specialty," she said. There was a snap and the metal holding her wrists together snapped. "Just like dishing out punishment on people who tick me off!" She lunged at them.
"Okay we're ready to start," the LGM said once Prowl was back on the recharge table and Buzz, his team, and the little aliens had returned from the reactor core. "Just lay back and relax. This should take no longer than ten minutes."
Prowl nodded and did what he was told.
"I hope this works," Sari said, looking from Prowl to the computer then back to Prowl.
"It will," the LGM assured her.
But the techno organic girl was having a hard time trusting them. These were the guys who'd gone starry eyed when Commander Nebula made that joke about taking Prowl apart. "What if it doesn't and he dies?" she asked the aliens.
Before they could answer XR butted in. "Then you can take him apart," he said to the LGMs.
They looked at him, almost hopefully. "Really?"
Sari rounded on the robot, looking ready to kick his head off. He sensed it and backed away. "Who asked you!?" she shouted at him. "Who gave you the authority to decide what happens to him if this doesn't work? Get out of here!"
"Fine!" he wheeled away but didn't leave the room. Instead he stopped at the door and turned around, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He glared at the other people in the room, muttering under his breath.
Meanwhile the LGMs were working at the computer, carefully working on the delicate procedure of transferring crystal core energy into Prowl. They had never done such a thing before so they weren't sure if it would work. They would have to be very careful. Something told them making a mistake would cause a lot of pain, for them. The strange smelling girl had an evil aura around her at the moment. It seemed to be saying. "Do it right or die."
Sari stood over the recharge bed, looking into Prowl's face. His optics were out because he said going into his recharge state would help it go better. He said if he was offline he wouldn't risk frying anything important, like his memory. She wasn't sure. That state just made him look dead.
Don't die on me, Prowl. she thought, reaching out to touch his arm. If you die I'll be stuck here by myself without any friends.
She knew Lightyear and his team were just putting up with them. They would rather have nothing to do with them if they had the choice. But that Commander Nebula guy had ordered them to keep on eye on the Autobots so they were stuck with them. The only one who really seemed to be trying to be honestly nice was Booster. But maybe being nice was something that came natural for him, not that she didn't mind. He might actually become a good friend if they stayed long enough. Buzz seemed all business, XR was a rude panty peeping pervert and Mira.. well she didn't have much of an opinion on Mira. The Tangean seemed okay, though.
"Sari."
She jumped, startled by Prowl's voice. She looked down at his face. His optics were still out but he wasn't in sleep mode. "Don't worry about it," he said. "I'll be fine."
"Promise?"
He smiled. "Promise."
"Come on," Buzz said, coming up behind her and putting his hands on her arms. "You'd better move so you don't get electrocuted."
The girl allowed the space ranger to lead her away, her eyes focused on the cyber ninja the whole time. She stood next to Mira and Booster who had given her some space. Booster put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry," he said when she looked up at him. "The LGMs know what they're doing. He'll be fine."
"I hope so," she said looking back at the recharge bed.
"Okay," the LGM at the computer said. "Here we go." he pressed the "send" button and a second later Prowl's entire body lit up as the energy was transferred into his body.
A/N
Okay this chapter is kind of long so I'll stop here. XD