CHAP 9

An hour later. (Star Command Time)

"Okay, before we head out I think you need a suit," Mira said, leading Sari into the locker room on 42. She opened a locker and stared at the suit inside. "Buzz told me it would be a good idea, in case we run into more than just the energy vampire you guys brought with you. You're kind of small but do you think you would be able to fit into a medium?"

"Why does Buzz think I need a suit?" Sari asked, her hands on her hips. "Besides the reasons you just gave me."

"Well," Mira said, turning to her. She pointed."You can't exactly go against as threat dressed like that."

Sari looked down at her yellow and orange mini-dress. "What's wrong with it?" she asked. "I wore it before when I fought Shadowstar."

"Yeah," Mira said. "But you're not in your universe anymore and there are more than energy vampires to worry about in Trade World. Plus like I said, they're not the only problem we might have to deal with. There are dangerous creatures there that would love to take advantage of a girl not properly dressed."

"Oh ew," Sari said, making a grossed out face.

"See? That's why you need a uniform." Mira took out the suit and held it up to her. "This might to a little too big."

Sari stared at it then folded her arms. "I am not wearing that," she stated. "It's ugly."

"Oh come on it's not like it's permanent," the Tangena said. "Well it could be permanent if you decide to become a space ranger but otherwise it's only for while you're here and Commander Nebula and Buzz said you should so I think you should to keep us from getting in trouble."

Sari shook her head. "I'll pass," she stated. "I don't look good in white."

"I know the suits aren't in high fashion," Mira told her. "But they're durable and they hold up well under extreme temperatures."

"Plus they leave room for the imagination," XR cut in wheeling into the room.

The two females looked down at him. "XR, who let you in here?" Mira demanded, putting a hand on her hip.

"I let myself in," the little robot replied, smirking.

"and why did you do that?" Mira demanded.

"I bet I know," Sari said, glaring at the little robot. "Because Panty Peeping Louie here thought he could get a look at somebodies underpants while she put on the suit."

"Well that's where you're wrong," XR said to her. "I didn't come in here in hopes of seeing anything of the sort." he turned away from her and headed toward the lockers. "You have such a dirty mind, young lady. You better get help for that."

"I'm not the one who thought it was okay to look up somebodies dress," Sari shot back.

"Forget about him," Mira said, getting Sari's attention back. She held up the suit. "Put this on."

"No," Sari said, folding her arms. "For two reasons. One: it's ugly and two: little pervy bot is still in the room and he's sneaking glances over here."

Mira glared at him. "Do you mind?" she snapped.

"Oh sorry," XR grinned sheepishly then rolled out of the room.

"Now," Mira said when the robot was gone. "Put this on."

"I'm still not wearing it," Sari said, folding her arms and making a stubborn face.

"Oh come on, we can't leave until you're ready to go," the female space ranger told her. "Which means you have to wear the suit."

"I didn't see Buzz trying to force Prowl to wear one of those things," Sari muttered. "So why should I have to wear one?"

"Prowl doesn't need one. He's a robot."

"Well your robot has something on that looks like the suit."

"That's just how his body was designed," Mira told her. "You on the other hand aren't a robot so therefore you have to wear this outfit."

"How would you know that?" Sari grumbled. "I could be a robot."

Mira laughed. "Sure you are," she said. "and I'm the queen of Capital Planet." she turned away from Sari and put the suit back. "I think we might have a smaller on in here." she turned back to Sari. "Are you a size four? Because-" she gasped when she saw the girl. She looked different, though she had not changed position. She now wore some kind of battle armor and helmet. The outfit was the same color as her dress except for a few blue parts, like the wings sticking out of her back. "Where did that come from?"

"Oh this?" Sari said in a strange robotic voice as she looked at herself. She made an innocent face. "I kind of came upon it by accident." she looked at Mira. "Is this good enough?"

"Yeah sure," the Tangean said, backing away from her. "I don't see anything wrong with it." she closed the locker and headed toward the door. "Let's let Buzz know you're ready."

This is it! Zurg thought when the fembot pulled the trigger on the plasma riffle. All my evil work is going to end before I even rule the galaxy. He shut his eyes, as if doing so would prevent his demise. I knew I should have written my will.

He waited, but the incoming plasma bolt never came. Huh?

He opened his eyes and stared at the gun. It hadn't fired.

"What is this?" Shadowstar demanded, pulling the trigger again. Click click. She raised the gun to her face. "What is wrong with this thing?"

"I told you that one jammed up," Zurg said, grinning goofily.

She growled at him. "Well I don't need a gun to take out a little chicken like you," she stated. "All I need is my teeth."

"Oh you don't want to try that," he said to her as she leaned over him. He put his hands on his chest. "You see; I'm not a machine."

She made a face. Something told her he was telling the truth. She wasn't picking up any kind of energy signature from him. Well not much of one. It was there, only very faint which told her whatever cybernetics he had on or in him were minor and had been added later. Cyborg. Sparks. "Well maybe I can't take energy from you," she told him. "But I can take energy from your toys." she looked at the gun in her hand for a moment then bit into it, draining out all the energy.

Once it was dead she dropped it at his feet. "Looks like you won't have to worry about it jamming up anymore, " she stated with a smile. "Then again when I'm through with you you won't be worried about anything ever again."

"Ah!" Zurg tried to crawl away from her but she stepped on the edge of his robe and held him still. "Where do you think you're going?" she demanded when he looked over his shoulder at her.

The evil emperor tried to come up with a good excuse.. "I was just uh.." he could not think of anything to say.

"Running away like the cowardly little organic you are?" she finished.

"Well not actually. I just wanted to check on something," he said. That's when he noticed Warp Darkmatter get up. The man looked at him for a moment and their eyes met. Darkmatter smirked then quietly made his way across the room toward one of the computer consoles. "You see I have a lot of robots here and I figured you might want to use them for food or something and uh.."

The look on her face told him she didn't believe a word he was saying. "Why would you suddenly want to feed me your robots after I tried to kill you?" she demanded. She kicked him in the face, knocking him over. Before he could get up she grabbed up the gun he'd dropped when he'd tripped over his own robe and put it in his face. "As a mater of fact; why would you want to do anything for me after you called me useless?"

"I uh.. now see that you're not," he said, thinking quickly. "I was going to bring some in as an apology for my lackey bringing you here when uh.. well it was a mistake!"

"A mistake you're going to pay for," she growled. "Thanks to you and you're little trigger happy friend there I lost my one and only chance to take down that legless wannabe!"

Legless wannabe?

Suddenly, before Zurg could make a comment or ask her who she was talking about, all the doors leading to the room opened up. Shadowstar lifted her head, her optics instantly focusing on an army of hornet robots crowding the doorways. As soon as the doors opened all the way the robots stepped into the room, raising their arms and shooting plasma bolts at the fembot. She glared down at Zurg. "You did that on purpose!" she shouted.

He grinned, this time evilly. "Of course I did, my dear," he told her. "That's what evil emperor's do."

She shoved the gun into his face. "You're going to regret that!" she growled.

"Ah ah," he said, wagging his finger. "I don't think you should be pointing that thing at me. Especially since you have more important things to worry about."

Just then a bolt of plasma hit her in the leg. She yelped in pain and took her attention away from Zurg. Taking advantage of her distraction, he kicked her in the stomach, knocking her away from him. She fell back, off balance, but managed to regain it before falling over.

Zurg picked up his gun, which she had dropped when he'd hit her. He aimed it at her. "Now this is the way I like it." he looked at the hornets which had stopped firing when he was once again armed. "Shoot her but don't terminate!"

The hornets with their simple A.I's obeyed instantly, once again raising their arms and shooting at her.

She hissed at them then activated her thrusters and shot into the air. They lifted their arms and followed her flight path. She wasn't going to get away that easily.

"So what does this ship run on?" Prowl asked as Buzz ran a diagnostics on the ship's engines. Thought it had just been run recently it didn't hurt to make sure nothing had happened since then.

"Crystalic fusion," the space ranger said, looking at him.

"Hmm that almost sounds like the same type of fuel cybertronian ships work with."

"What do cybertronian ships work on?"

"Energon."

"Just like you?" Lightyear prompted.

"Not exactly," the cyber ninja said, looking at the control panel. "The energon used for ships and the energon used by transformers is a little different. Pure energon is consumed by beings like me while the tainted energon is used to power ships because it's poisonous to us."

"But aren't the ships transformers as well?"

"No," Prowl replied, folding his arms and looking like he was deep in thought. "They're not. Ships are mindless forms of transportation. They don't have sparks or an A.I."

"So they're just dumb machines then?"

Prowl wasn't sure he wanted to call Cybertronian ships dumb. "Well they're different than transformers."

"Oh.. I see." Buzz was silent for a moment then he asked. "You were taller in your own dimension, weren't you?"

Prowl looked at him, startled. "How could you tell?" he asked.

Buzz started to reply but was interrupted by Mira. "Hey, Buzz I think we can go now."

"Good," the space ranger said, turning around in his chair. "Did you give the girl a-" he stopped, his eyes bugging out in surprise. "Uh what is that?"

Prowl turned around. His mouth dropped open when he saw what Sari was wearing. Her battle armor. She looked at him. "What?" she asked in her robotic voice.

"Sari!" he exclaimed, gaping at her. "I told you not to-" she glared at him, shutting him up before he gave her secret away. A secret he didn't want out. He noticed the space rangers looking at him so he changed the subject. "Nice suit. Where did you get it?"

"Oh I found it in the locker room," Sari said, innocently. She put her hands on her helmet and took it off. She grinned at Prowl. "and it's even in my colors too."

Buzz got up and walked toward her. "Hmm," he said, looking at it, his hand on his chin. "I don't remember ever seeing a suit issued that looked like that."

"Maybe it's a prototype," Sari said.

Buzz gave her a look that could only be described as suspicious. "It's not in standard issue colors," he said. "Regulations say all uniforms must be green and white."

"Well I'm not painting this," Sari told him, putting her hands on her hips. "Those colors don't look good on me."

"This isn't a fashion shoot, little lady," he told her. "We're going to Trade World to find your energy vampire. The least you could do is at least wear the suit in its proper colors."

"Well your suits suck anyway," she informed him, folding her arms. "and they all look the same too. Haven't you heard of individuality"

"The suits are made that way to-"

Just then the door opened and XR came into the room. "Hey, Mira," he said, rolling forward. "I was wondering-" he jumped when he saw Sari in her battle suit. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, rolling around her to get a better look. "That is one sexy battle suit." he poked her leg. "Hey is that synthetic armor?"

"No," she said, glaring down at him when he tried to lift her skirt. "It's called touch me again like that and I will blow off your stupid face!" she slapped his hand. "Mind keeping your grubby nubs to yourself?"

Something told him she was going to kick his head off again. "Uh, okay sorry," he said, putting up his hands and wheeling away. "No offense intended."

"Anyway," Buzz said, getting back on topic. "I want you to either take that suit off and put on a standard issue space ranger suit or repaint that armor so it's the right colors."

"I won't be doing either," she told him, getting right into his face. "You're not the boss of me and what does it matter what kind of suit I wear anyway? I'm not a space ranger and this armor is just as durable as the ugly prison uniforms you all wear." as she said this she poked Buzz in the chest with a blue finger. "I won't change and you can't make me."

"Young lady," Buzz began, annoyed that she was being so stubborn. "This isn't up for discussion. Just change your suit so we can get going."

"I said-"

That's when Prowl decided to get into the discussion. He walked forward and put his hand on Buzz's shoulder. "Look, it's not a big deal," he told him. "Sari can take care of herself and what she wears shouldn't prevent us from going to capture Shadowstar. The longer we delay going to Trade World the more likely she has drained every machine on the planet."

Buzz turned to him. "I know this," he told him. "But she's not wearing the right suit."

"Why does that even matter?" Prowl asked, folding his arms. He could understand that the space rangers had rules about things including what they wore but Sari wasn't even a space ranger. "No offense to any of you, but if you force Sari to wear the suit she will just take it off every chance she gets and probably drop it into something hot and dangerous. If you want to keep your suits in their proper shapes and uses I would advise against making her wear it."

"Yeah," Sari said. "and don't think I wouldn't."

"Why don't we just let her wear what she has on?" Mira asked him. "I mean it couldn't hurt and nobody has to know."

"Yeah," Booster said, who had been admiring the suit without getting into the discussion. "It looks like it could take a lot of punishment."

Buzz opened his mouth to protest then changed his mind. He slapped his palm against his face and sighed. "Okay fine," he consented. "She can keep it on." there was no sense arguing further. "But if she gets killed don't say I didn't tell you so."

"Don't worry," Sari said, smirking. "I won't."

Buzz sighed and turned away from her. "All right, everyone, let's get going." he said, walking toward his chair. "Energy vampires don't capture themselves you know."

Shadowstar was in trouble. While she flew around near the ceiling of Zurg's throne room, avoiding hornet fire power she was losing energy at a rapid rate. This bothered her because she had never lost so much energy so quickly before, not even when she fought against Optimus Prime and his crew back in her own dimension. Either so much action after just breaking out of jail was laying a number on her systems or this universe somehow zapped energy from machines at a much faster rate. She hoped it just the first option because if it was the second she was in big trouble.

I have to get energy soon, she thought, swerving up and down to avoid hornet firepower. But I can't feed under stress and I can't get rid of this stress with those stupid inferior machines shooting at me! A huge plasma bolt nearly hit her. She moved out of the way to avoid it then looked down to see who had fired it.

Zurg. He was also trying to shoot her with his gun. By the look of childish glee on his face he was having fun doing it. If she had been closer she would have heard him commenting on it saying that "this is more fun than shooting helpless citizens."

But whether she could hear him or not he was still ticking her off. Stupid purple people eater! she thought, pausing and hovering in the air for a moment. One of the hornet blasts almost hit her so she transformed into vehicle mode and flew toward them. At least that mode still had active weapons. She let loose a folley of energy blasts, hitting robot after robot.

A whole row exploded. She flew out of the burning wreckage and flew across the room to take out more of them.

Unfortunately for her, she never got to fire at the hornets.

Zurg actually got a lock on her. "Hehehe, you're mine," he cackled before firing.. The plasma bolt crashed into her wing, breaking it off and sending her toward the floor. She transformed into standard mode, hoping it would break her fall but it did little good. She was too late. Just as she turned back into robot mode she slammed into a pile or hornets, which broke her fall but she still hit the floor pretty hard and wound up tangled in the twisted metal of the yellow and black machines. She struggled to free herself from the mess of spare parts and might have succeeded if a giant, three barreled gun haven't gotten shoved into her face.

"I wouldn't advice moving," Zurg said, looking down at her.

She glared up at him. A group or hornets overwhelmed her, slapping on secure restraints and lifting her to her feet so she could look at him face to face. This was the first time she noticed that he was taller than her. "Go ahead," she told him. "Now that you got me shoot me." she sounded like she wanted him to.

He laughed at her. "Oh I'm not going to kill you," he said, moving the gun from her face so the barrel faced the ceiling. "At least not yet. I have some other things in mind for you." he turned to the hornets. "Take her to the dungeon."

Once the hornets had left with the fembot, Warp Darkmatter came up behind the evil emperor. "Why are you letting her live?" he demanded, sounding like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "She tried to kill us."

"I haven't forgotten that," Zurg said, turning to him. "But I think I just came up with a good use for her." he looked toward the door she'd been taken out of and put a finger on his chin. "A very very good use."

Sari was getting bored. It had been hours since Team Lightyear, Prowl, and herself had left Star Command for their trip back to Trade World. She was getting a little stir crazy and hoped they would get there soon.

As she sat in the only chair left she thought about the instant before they left. Some LGMs had boarded the ship and gave something to Prowl. She didn't know what it was and Prowl didn't want her to see it. All she knew was that it was glowing and let off a strange kind of energy aura. When she asked him about it he did not say a word except to tell her it wasn't important and she didn't need to worry.

What was it and why did he tell me?

But she didn't feel like asking him again anyway. Not after the lecture he'd given her about what she did with her battle suit. She didn't understand why he was so angry. Would it really hurt if they knew she was a robot? He seemed to think it would and she didn't want to make things worse for him. He was under enough stress already. She was still worried that that crystal energy might make him explode so she wanted to avoid giving him a lot of anxiety.

At the moment the cyber ninja wasn't in the room. He'd gone to familiarize himself with the ship. XR had gone with him but only because Buzz had ordered him to, not because he enjoyed giving tours of the ship, especially to robots he was jealous of. Sari hoped the little robot wasn't acting like a jerk toward Prowl like he had been earlier.

"And this is the brig," XR said winding up the tour. He sounded bored, which he honestly was. The tour had been Buzz's idea so Prowl would know where everything was. "If you have any questions feel free to ask them now."

Prowl didn't. Instead he looked into the brig without commenting. It still looked the same as when it did when he and Sari had been put in there. It made him uncomfortable. But his mind was actually on something else at the moment. Buzz's comment from earlier. How did he know that about me?

"You're not going to go back in, know you," XR said putting his hands on his hips.

"Oh?" Prowl looked down at him. "I'm sorry. I was thinking about something."

"Oh. Mind if I ask what?"

"You wouldn't understand," the cyber ninja said, looking away.

"Why do you say that?" the little robot wanted to know. "We're both machines here. You can tell me. I'll keep a secret. Is it about that girl? Do you have a crush on her?"

"Sari?" Prowl said, looking startled. "Of course not. She's way too young for me."

"Sure she is," the robot said, giving him a look. "Just how old are you, if I might ask?"

He didn't even hesitate. "Over ten million years," the cyber ninja replied.

XR's optics nearly fell off his face. "Ten million years?!" he exclaimed. "Are you serious?"

Prowl nodded.

"Oh sure," XR said, waving it off. "Come on, be honest. How old are you for real?"

"Over ten million years," he insisted.

"Right, just keep it up," XR said, folding his arms. He looked annoyed. "and I bet you rode the dinosaurs too and shook hands with cavemen."

"No," Prowl told him, sounding offended. "I didn't come to Earth until fifty three years ago."

"What is with you and big numbers?" the little robot demanded. "Are you trying to impress me or something? But then again you being an advanced machine that's older than dirt isn't very impressive."

"Why not?"

"Because you can't be ten million years old and be more advanced in technology than what we are now!" XR insisted. "It goes against all forms of logic and common sense. It also makes you out to be an old man."

Prowl put his hands on his hips and gave the smaller robot a look. "You know, you remind me of a certain little smart mouthed Autobot I'm team mates with," the cyber ninja stated. "He doesn't know when to keep his rude comments to himself either. Only he is almost as old as I am and wouldn't call me old unless he wanted a foot in his chassis."

XR stared at him, surprised that this level headed robot was actually ticked off about something. He must be real touche about his age. "Whoa!" he said, backing away. "Keep you hands, feet, and other parts to yourself. This robot is too valuable for you to be kicking around."

"Funny," Prowl said, stepping closer to him. "Nobody else seems to think that way about you."

"I'm just under appreciated," XR told him. "They don't know what they're doing."

"Hmm.." Prowl made a face then turned away from him. What exactly is your problem with me? he was tempted to ask but didn't. It wouldn't do any good to question the smaller robot about his feelings. If he didn't like him he didn't like him. The cyber ninja knew he probably wouldn't ever change his mind so he didn't bother trying to make him change his mind. Prowl just wished XR wasn't so loud about his opinions. He was tempted to lecture him about his lack of manners.

Instead he merely turned away and said. "We'd better get back to the control room. I'm sure Buzz Lightyear will be wondering why we are taking so long."

"I bet that's not all he's wondering," XR mumbled, folding his arms and making a face.

Prowl ignored that statement and headed back to the control room without another word.

Nos-4-A2 woke from a long recharge, feeling worse than when he went to sleep. "I knew I should have fixed that damage before recharging," he groaned, climbing painfully out of the coffin. His hand slipped and he crashed to the floor.

Growling in annoyance he activated his wings and used them to get up. He then hovered for a moment, looking at the robot shells littering the floor. Thanks to that rotten femme he would have to replace a few pieces of his inner workings as well as a few outer things as well, like part of his arm where she's taken off the silver armor. She'd also managed to damage the part that allowed him to defy gravity which meant he would have to use his wings until he found a replacement part. Hopefully one of these junk heaps had the part he needed.

He flew from one robot to another but none of them had any anti-gravity hardware.

Craters. This meant he would have to go out and find a robot that did.

But before I do that, he thought sitting down on the lid of his coffin which he'd closed. I'm going to repair the rest of the damage I sustained from fighting that wench. He studied the puncture wounds on the arm that still had its armor. This could take awhile.

A/N

Oh looks Nos did appear. Even if it's just at the end. Don't worry. He'll have more of a role in the next chapter. And the fun continues.