CHAP 12

Nos-4-a2 covered his audio receptors to block out the sound of the girl's scream. Why must it be so loud and piercing? Ugh, it was like a siren! "Oh, do shut up!" he yelled, reaching out his hand and covering her mouth with it. "There is really no reason for you to be making such a racket."

Sari thought otherwise and bit down on his hand. It actually hurt! He yelped and pulled it back, looking at the dents in the middle. "Well that was uncalled for."

"So is this!" XR shouted, pulling out a gun and shooting the energy vampire square in the chest.

The proved to be a weak spot and knocked the vampire to the ground. While he was momentarily incapacitated XR wheeled over to Sari and grabbed her arm. "Let's get out of here before he recovers and decides to have lunch," he said, yanking on it.

She allowed him to take her away, her eyes focused on Nos--4A2's body as the energy vampire struggled to get up. He seemed to be having a hard time, like a turtle thrown onto it's back.

"Do you believe me now?" XR demanded as they ran down the street.

"Okay, where did he come from?" Sari asked, turning her attention back on her partner.

"Like Dad said earlier, Nos-4-A2 was rumored to be on Trade World," XR explained. "Having seen him ourselves, just proves that the rumors were true."

"So much for this being easy," Sari said.

"Oh no, Little Ones, you're not getting away from Uncle Nossy that easily."

Both Sari and XR looked back. The energy vampire had finally gotten up and was flying after them.

"Uh oh!" Sari said,

"Uh oh is right," XR confirmed. "We'd better let the others know." he raised his arm as if to speak into his comlink.

"None of that!' Nos-4-A2 said when he saw what he was about to do. The vampire shot a bolt of plasma that hit the comlink dead on, short circuiting it.

"So much for that," Sari said, looking annoyed. "So what now?"

"We keep running until we find Buzz."

"Running?" Sari asked. "Is that any way for a Space Ranger to deal with an enemy?"

"It's how this space ranger deals with that enemy."

"Chicken."

"I'm not a chicken. I just have common sense!" he informed her. "That's the energy vampire I was talking about. I've had enough run ins with him to know that a robot is no good against him."

Sari didn't ask what he meant because she already knew. Nos-4-A2 was the robot energy vampire they thought she and Prowl had let loose in the city. Now that she knew what he looked like, well she couldn't blame XR for running. The look on the vampire's face hadn't exactly been friendly.

It had looked hungry.

Hail Zurg! Hail Zurg! Hail the Evil Emperor Zurg! He is the most evil-

"If I hear that song one more time I'm going to explode!" Shadowstar screamed, covering her audio receptor's with her hands. "Who wrote that slag anyway?!"

Of course nobody was down there to answer her. She turned her head and glared at the speaker mounted on the ceiling outside her cell. She couldn't remember how long ago that obnoxious song had started playing but it had been quite a few hours. She would have broken the speaker off the wall if she'd had something to throw at it but she currently had nothing at her disposal except for the cot which didn't fit through the bars. The one thing she did have to throw at it was the pillow and she'd chucked that thing at the speaker hours ago. She'd missed it by a full yard.

She cast her optics about the cell, searching for something else to throw at the speaker. She saw nothing except for what looked like a bed pan. Oh yuck! That is disgusting! Organics are such filthy creatures.

But then again; that bed pan might just come in handy. She picked it up off the floor and weighed it for a moment. It wasn't heavy which meant it would fly rather easily. She walked over to bars and looked up at the speaker, calculating the distance between it and her cell. Once she got that figured she checked the weight of the pan again then carefully wound herself up for the pitch.

Once she was satisfied, she smiled to herself then threw the pan, hard. Her aim was true. The pan slammed heavily into the speaker, breaking in half. There was a short electrical sound as it short circuited then a small explosion. After that. Silence.

Shadowstar smiled in triumph and returned to the cot. Score one for me. Now I won't have to listen to that obnoxious music anymore and can focus on getting out of here.

Mira and Booster had also heard the scream and ran to investigate the source. On the way they met Buzz and Prolw who were also heading toward sound's location. "Did you hear that scream?" Mira asked Buzz.

"Yeah," Buzz said.

"It was Sari," Prowl told them.

"Sari?" Booster exclaimed, himself looking worried.

Prowl noticed the red alien sounded overly worried about somebody he had just met. I wonder what that's about? "Yes," he said as they ran. "I know Sari's scream anywhere. If she's yelling like that it means they ran into trouble."

"Do you think it's your vampire?" Buzz asked him.

"If that was Shadowstar, Sari wouldn't have screamed like that," he told him. "She's not afraid of her."

"Then if it's not your vampire-" Buzz said.

"Who is it?"

None of the space rangers wanted to say.

Xr drug Sari through parts of the city they had avoided earlier, most of them alleys or barely used areas. She wasn't sure why he was avoiding the more populated parts because she figured that if they went out into the busy areas that Nos-4-A2 would stop chasing them to avoid being seen. XR knew better though. It wasn't the fact that the areas with people would chase the energy vampire away that made him avoid them it was the fact that if they did go there and the civilians saw the energy vampire they would panic and cause more harm than good. The robot Space Ranger wanted to avoid unwanted problems, like an alien stampede. Plus in the confusion, he and Sari would most likely get separated and then they would be easy pickings for Nos. But he didn't tell Sari that. If he did she might just encourage the idea to get away from XR.

The robot space ranger might not like her very much but he didn't want Nos-4-A2 to attack him, nor did he want to wind up be himself either. That was just what the vampire wanted.

"What are you doing?" Sari demanded, when he yanked her behind a dumpster. "I don't want to hide here!"

"Well I think you should," he said, grabbing her arm when she tried to get up.

"You're not my boss," she informed him.

"I might not be your boss but I'm the space ranger here," he let her know, pointing a stubby finger into her face. "Which means you have to listen to me whether you like it or not."

"Who said?"

"Prowl."

"Prowl did not!" she protested. "If he had he would have told-"

XR put his hand over her mouth. "If you want to live I would advise lowering your voice."

She pulled his hand away but did speak quieter. "I don't see why we have to hide behind a dumpster," she whispered. "What's this thing going to do?"

"Keep Nos-4-A2 from finding us," he replied, though his voice told her he was only hoping it would.

Sari was a little fuzzy on the details of XR and Nos-4-A2's relationship, if they even had one, so she had to ask. "What's your deal with that guy anyway? I mean you're all gungho when we started looking for Shadowstar but the moment you realized that guy was after us and stuff you turned into a chicken wuss."

"You wouldn't understand," he told her, looking like he didn't want to talk about it. That only confirmed her guess. Something had happened between them after all. "You and that high and mighty Autobot friend of yours can't even begin to comprehend what he did."

Something about XR's statement gave Sari a feeling of Deja Vu. Did something similar to what happened to Prowl happen to him with this vampire? But she didn't ask. Instead she turned away slightly to peek out from behind the dumpster but did say. "Maybe you should tell Prowl about that. You might surprised to find out how similar your story might be to his own."

XR blinked his optics. "What do you- hey don't do that!" he yelled, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. "Do you want him to see you?"

"What do you want to do then?" she demanded, looking back at him. "Sit here for hours and do nothing? How am I even going to know if he's gone or not if I can't look to make sure?"

"You won't." a voice said above them. Both froze then slowly raised their heads. Nos-4-A2 was perched on the top of the dumpster, looking down at them with an amused grin on his face. "Hello, Little Ones, you didn't think you could get away from Nos-4-A2 that easily did you?"

"WAAAH!" XR screamed, going into panic mode.

Then before any could stop him, he shot out of the hiding place like he'd been told he was going to be melted down for parts.

"You stupid robot!" Sari shouted, getting up to chase after him. "Don't leave me here by myself!" A hand grabbed her arm and held her still. She looked back at the vampire robot. "You have a strange energy signature coming from you, my dear," he told her, looking amused and curious. "Tell me, why would a human like yourself have a energy signature, unless you're not a human."

"What I am is none of your business, freak!" she shouted, opening her hand and she throwing an energy orb at him.

He took the sphere of energy square in the face. He roared in pain and fell back, letting go of her arm as he crashed to the ground.

Sari saw her chance and took off after the cowardly space ranger robot, bent on giving the stupid thing a chewing out when she found him. How dare he leave me behind to deal with Dracu-bot by myself!

"All right who broke the speaker in the dungeon?" Zurg demanded, pointing at the security camera feed on the computer monitor.

The Grub working at the console trembled as he said. "I don't know, your evilness."

"Well weren't you monitoring that camera or were you snoozing at your post?" Zurg demanded, glaring at the little insect. "Because if you'd been paying attention you would have seen who broke out the speaker!"

"I am sorry, Evil Emperor Zurg," the Grub apologized, nervously. He ran his appendages over the keyboard. "If you wish to find out who broke out the speaker we will just rewind the video."

Zurg really did want to know who'd done it. Annoying the fembot vampire in the dungeon with the anthem to himself written by himself was part of his plan on breaking her will. He couldn't afford to have the sound system broken.

The evil emperor leaned against the Grubs' chair as he rewound the tape. "There!" Zurg said, pointing his finger at the screen. "Go back and play from there."

"Yes, your evilness." The little insect rewound a little further then pressed the play button.

The two watched the tape in silence. When Zurg saw Shadowstar throw the bed pan at the speaker and break it out, he yelled. "How did she do that?" he glared at the Grub. "Did you leave that bed pan in there?"

"No, you're evilness," the Grub said, shivering. "I work at the computers. I don't do work in the dungeons."

"Argh!" Zurg shouted, moving away from the chair and striking a dramatic pose with his hand in the air. "I want to know who left that in there!" he spotted another Grub. "You!"

The Grub upon hearing his voice turned his swivel chair around. "Me.. me sir?" he asked putting his little hands to his chest.

"Yes you," Zurg said. He pointed toward the door. "I want you to go down into the dungeon and fix that speaker!"

The Grub saluted. "Yes, Evil Emperor Zurg," he said, jumping off his chair and running off to do his master's bidding.

"And make sure the prisoner doesn't have anything else to throw at it!" Zurg shouted at his back.

Sari found XR hiding in an alley two blocks away. The moment she saw him she began her pre-rehearsed rant. "Why did you leave me like that?' she demanded, glaring down at him, her hands on her hips.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking up at her.

"Sorry doesn't cut it, goggle head," she snapped, putting her hands on her hips. "That energy vampire could have done who knows what to me!"

"You look fine to me," he said, giving her a once over.

"That's because I took care of him myself," she snapped. "No thanks to you. The least you could have done was shot him again. But no, you chose to run away like a cowardly little chicken wuss."

"That's no very nice."

"Neither is what you did," she growled. "When we catch up with the others I'm going to tell Buzz what you did."

"No, don't do that," he said, looking panicky.

"And why not?" she wanted to know. "Are you afraid he's going to yell at you? Well too bad. You should have thought about that before you decided to abandon me."

"No!"

The intensity of his voice made Sari jump. In the short time she'd known him the robot had never spoken like that before. Usually it was him being annoying, indifferent, mean, or just perverted. Now it sounded... scared. that unsettled her. Was he scared of what Buzz might think or did it have something to do with Nos-4-A2? "XR?" she said.

"No," he told her emphatically. "I won't say it again!"

Instantly she knew who he meant. Prowl had acted similarly when asked about Shadowstar after she'd been taken off the planet by the Elita Guard. "Why are you so afraid of him?" she asked, and her face actually looked like she wanted to know. "Did he hurt you in some way? Is that why you ran away?"

"No," he said a little too loudly. "He did not hurt me. I just don't want to be his midnight snack."

Sari looked back the way they came. She saw no trace of the energy vampire. She wasn't sure if that meant he hadn't followed them after all or he was hiding his energy signature very well. "Well he's gone now," she said, looking back at him. "So you don't have to worry about that."

"How do you know he's gone?" the robot asked her. "Did you see him leave? I don't know about you, sister, but Nos-4-a2 doesn't give up so easily. He's still out there, just waiting for the right moment to strike."

"Okay, fine," she said, walking closer to him. "But he's not here now so why don't we let the others know we're here so they can come and help us take old fang face out?"

XR smiled. "Now you're talking sense." he activated his comlink which he'd fixed. "Buzz. Come in Buzz."

Actually contacting the others wound up being a good idea. Though the scream had been pretty loud the others didn't know exactly where it came from. They might have gotten lost had he not contacted them. After Buzz finished talking to XR he turned to Prowl and the rest of his team. "Okay," he said. "XR and Sari are in an alley behind the Vega Casino. They'll wait for us there."

"Why did Sari scream?" Prowl wanted to know. It was clear he was worried about the girl. "Did he tell you?"

Buzz looked at him. Something about his expression told the Autobot that the human knew but didn't want to tell him what it was. "I'll explain when we are sure XR and Sari are safe and have nothing to worry about."

So you're saying this is none of my business and privileged information. Prowl wasn't happy with that thought. But he took comfort in the fact that Sari would tell him if none of the space rangers did.

If only he knew what was about to transpire he never would have thought that.

"Buzz and the others are on their way," XR told Sari when he deactivated his comlink. "They should be here in a few minutes."

"So what are we going to do in the meantime?" she asked. "Wait for them?"

"Pretty much."

"How can you be sure Dracu-bot there won't find us first?" she asked.

"I'm not," he said, "But if he does I know what to do."

"What? Run?" she folded her arms. "How are we going to do that when Buzz told us to stay where we are? I say we defend ourselves if that thing comes after us."

"How are you going to do that?" he asked her. "Do you have a gun because I'm not giving you mine."

"I don't need your guns," she said. "I have my own arsenal."

That's when the robot remembered the fight on 42 back when they had thought she and Prowl were working for Zurg. The girl had been able to create balls of energy in her hands and she had had a hammer that she seemed to pull out of nowhere. The others hadn't really noticed her abilities except maybe Buzz because of the comment he'd made about not knowing what she was. XR didn't have to be a genius to figure it out. "You're a robot."

Her expression told him he was right. "What makes you say that?" she asked him.

"Oh, I don't know," he said, looking at her suspiciously. "Maybe it's the fact that you can create energy orbs with your hands and pulled out hammers. Incidentally I have one of those too." and he pulled it out to show her.

Sari ignored the hammer. Instead she stared at him, her eyebrow raised. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said.

"Oh don't give me that," he said, putting the mallet away. "I wasn't built yesterday, you know. I saw what you did on the ship. I don't know why you're hiding it but I don't think it's very honest of you or your boyfriend to lie to use about what you are."

"I'm not hiding anything."

He stared at her hard. She stared back, not about to lose to an expendable ranger. "If you think I'm a robot, prove it." she challenged. "I dare you."

"Fine, I will!" he said, wheeling toward her. He stared hard at her face for a moment then pointed. "You have glowing eyes!"

"What?"

"Don't what me," he snapped. "I can see them. They're glowing and the whites of your eyes are a lighter shade of blue. That proves you're a robot."

"It does not!'

"Oh yes, it does," he said, putting his hands on his hips. "No organic I ever met has glowing eyes that look like that. Only machines have optical sensores that glow."

"Well yours don't."

"Mine do too!" he told her. "It's just not dark enough to show you!"

"Well you still don't know what you're taking about," she said. "If I was a robot I would have an energy signature and you would be able to feel it." she smirked. "Tell me, googlehead, have you picked up anything like that from me?"

"No but that doesn't mean you don't have one."

"You just keep telling yourself that."

"Oh but I can sense it, my dear." spoke up a third voice, startling them both.

Sari froze. That voice had come from behind her. XR's panicked expression told her all she needed to know about the speaker. Nos-4-a2 had found them.

"In fact," the energy vampire went on, his voice getting closer. She could hear those glowing wings of him moving. "It feels very similar to another robot's energy signature I came across. Other worldly. But yours.. yours is very interesting.." Sari felt hands touching her shoulders. He was right behind her. "So why don't you be honest with the Little One? It wouldn't hurt you to tell him the truth."

"No!" Sari screamed, twisting around and throwing an orb at him. "Get your hands off me, you jerk!"

Nos-4-A2 easily dodged it. He smiled at her. "It looks like you just did."

She froze. She looked over her shoulder at XR who was staring at her with his mouth hanging wide, then at her and which was open, revealing the inner circuits. Above her hand was another orb. Uh oh.

Nos laughed. "Now that you've revealed your little secret, I think I'll take what I came for." he flew at her and before she could react, grabbed her by the arms and flew away.