CHAP 14

The brain pods were busily working on Evil Emperor Zurg's next greatest plan when the door to the lab suddenly burst open. Startled, all four looked up, expecting to see their boss come storming in on one of his temper fits. But it wasn't Zurg at all, that didn't make any difference, it was just as bad.

The moment the brain pods rested their eyes on Shadowstar as she stalked into their lab they freaked out, hiding behind tables and peeking over the tops. "Umm hello," one of them said, not leaving the safety of the table. "What are you? What do you want?"

Shadowstar stood in the middle of the room with her hands rested on her hips. "Who I am isn't important," she told them. She looked from one brain pod to another. "I'm here to get information and you're going to give it to me."

"Uh.. what kind of information do you desire, miss?" one of the brain pods, which spoke with a British accent, questioned.

"Oh nothing too important," she said, crossing the room until she reached the table. She rested her arms on it and looked at the brain pod that had spoken with dimmer optics and a wicked smile on her mouth. "Just some data about a certain little energy vampire named Nos-4-A2."

"Nos-4-a2?" the brain pod asked as the other pods ducked out of site. Just the energy vampire's name was enough to scare them."W-Why would you want to know about him?"

"It's simple," she said, leaning closer to them with that grin still plastured on her face. "I want to kill him and I want to know what the best way to do it is." she looked at them. "You do know what that is, don't you?"

"Uh.. I'm sorry but that is privileged information," the brain pod told her. "We can't tell you that."

She glared at them. "Oh really?" she demanded. She lifted her head and looked around the room for a moment. Her optics fell on a computer on the other side of the room. Pushing away from the table, she walked toward the console and picked it up. Then she bit into it, draining the energy before the horror filled eyes of the brain pods. When she was done she threw the now dead computer to the floor and looked back at them. "The next thing I'll drain is that machine you're squishy pink bodies are housed in." she told them as she walked back. The pods coward as she stood over them, grinning, her fangs bared. "and I will keep on draining you all, one by one, until I get what I came for."

Sari heard the sound of the space rangers jet packs behind her as Nos-4-a2 led them on a wild chase through the back alleys of Trade World. It was obvious they weren't going to give up until they had her back and she silently cheered them on, wanting desperately to get away from her captor. She didn't know where the energy vampire was taking her and she didn't want to find out. All she knew was that it was bad and best if she didn't wind up there.

There was one other reason she hoped they would save her. Prowl's actions. She didn't know what had caused them but she was going to find out the moment she saw him again. There had to be a reason for him suddenly turning tail and running. Surely he wasn't afraid of Nos-4-A2, he didn't even know him.

So then why did he do that? she asked herself. What reason would he have for flying away when he was so close to getting me out of here?

She would have to worry about that later. Right now she had more important things to dwell on. Like getting away from sucker face here.

Nos-4-A2 roared at the space rangers pursuing him and dived. Sari's stomach went into her throat as the ground flew toward her at a blinding speed. At the last minute the energy vampire stopped his descent and shot off toward the busier part of the city.

"Whoa!" Sari exclaimed as the vampire swerved to avoid being hit by passing air cars. "What are you doing?!"

"Isn't it obvious, my dear?" he questioned, looking down at her. "I am creating an obstacle."

Sari heard a grunt behind her and looked back just in time to see both Mira and Booster fall toward the ground after colliding with an air taxi. She gasped. Two less people to help her but she could still see XR and Buzz following them.

She looked behind them for Prowl. He was nowhere in sight.

Had he really abandoned her after all?

No, she couldn't think that. The chase hadn't been going on for very long. There was still a chance he would catch up with them and save her if the rangers couldn't. She prayed to whatever higher power was out there that he would.

Please Prowl. Don't let him get away with me.

"We have to get closer," Buzz said as he and XR flew side by side except when they had to split to avoid being hit by cars.

"How can we do that?" XR asked, looking over at him. "We're stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic."

"We just need an opening," Buzz told him, aiming his laser at Nos-4-a2. "One shot to knock him out of the sky."

"And have him crash while still holding onto Sari?" XR asked, looking horrified. He didn't know Sari very well or like her for that matter but he didn't want them to kill her. "Do you want her Autobot friend to kill you?"

"If I can get this shot right he won't be killing anybody," Buzz said, still attempting to get a good shot. "If I clip his wings he'll glide slowly to the ground and Booster and Mira can apprehend him from there." he looked at XR. "The girl won't be hurt."

"How do you intend to clip his wings?" XR asked who had never thought about attempting such a thing. "It's not like cutting features. Those wings are made of energy. If you clip them all he has to do is reactivated them and they'll work perfectly again."

Buzz hadn't considered that. "Maybe he'll be too surprised to think of that," Lightyear responded.

Somehow the robot space ranger doubted that. Nos-4-a2 was a crazy vampire but he wasn't an idiot.

As luck would have it, it didn't matter.

Nos-4-A2 flew into a narrow alley. He positioned his wings so that they were straight up and slid right through, using his momentum to move forward without fear of falling. Buzz on the other hand couldn't turn sideways in time and wound up breaking the ends of his wings off. As he fell to the ground, he shouted to XR. "Keep tailing him!"

"Oh sure," XR grumbled as he followed the human space ranger's orders. "Leave me to deal with Dracula. Doesn't he realize how much this is a bad idea?" He straightened out once he was clear of the alley but by then he'd lost sight of the energy vampire. He stopped himself and hovered for a moment, turning his head in all directions in a vain attempt to spot anything with glowing orange wings. But Nos-4-A2 was gone. "Craters. Well so much for that." he spun around and headed back to where Buzz fell. "Buzz isn't going to be happy about this. But he'd better not blame me. It wasn't my fault."

The Brain Pods huddled together behind one table, trying to look as small as possible. Maybe the fembot wouldn't hurt them if they looked helpless. At least they hoped that, though everything said otherwise. Right now she was perched on the table like a large black and red falcon, leering at them. "We-we-we can't tell you anything about Nos-4-A2," Number 33 told her.

"Why not?" she asked, leaning closer to him. She dimmed her optics. "Are you trying to make me angry, flesh thing?"

"No no no..." He moved back, unable to look her straight in the eyes. "Well you see that information is classified," he tried to explain. "and if we tell you....."

Her optics flashed green then red as she let out an eagle sound. She jumped on the pod, knocking him over. "If I cared about classification I never would have come in here," she growled, her face touching the glass protecting the brain's frail body. "Now tell me what you know before I feed on your energy!"

"Well I uh.." he stammered, putting his little finger things together. "I honestly don't know."

That wasn't what she wanted to hear. "What!?"

"I wasn't here when Nos-4-A2 was built," 33 replied. "So I can't tell you anything."

She growled at him, running her sharp fingered hands over the brain pod's fragile glass bulb. "Sparks."

"Umm, please don't do that," he pleaded, fearing what would happen if his glass house broke.

She ignored him and lifted her head, locking eyes with the other brain pods. "Were any of you flesh creatures here when he was built?" she growled. "and don't lie to me or I will kill your little friend here."

One of the brain pods raised his hand thing. "I was."

Prowl found Mira and Booster half an hour later. They were dusting themselves off after climbing out of the dumpster they'd fallen into. "What happened?" he asked them, landing on the pavement and deactivating his jet pack.

"We were chasing Nos-4-a2 and we got knocked out of the sky by an air taxi," Mira said, taking a banana peal off her head. "Oh yuck!" She stuck out her tongue and dropped it then looked at him. "Where did you fly off to? I thought you wanted to save Sari."

He looked away. "It's.. complicated."

"How is it complicated?" Booster demanded, stalking over to him. "You left your best friend to that energy vampire! How could you do something like that?!"

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Prowl told him, looking up into the red alien's face. Why was this creature acting like that anyway? He barely knew Sari. "I intended to save her but I-" he shook his head. "Forget it. You wouldn't understand."

Mira sensed that something was bothering the cyber ninja. Something he didn't want to talk about but knew he had to. Whatever it was, it explained why he had fled. "Okay, let's just not get into this right now," she said, stepping between them. "Let's try and catch up with Buzz and XR. Maybe they were able to capture him."

"I hope so," Booster said, glaring at Prowl. "Unlike some people who claim to be her best friend."

"Okay enough," Mira said, activating her wings. "Let's just get going."

Awhile later they came upon Buzz who was sitting on a bench looking ticked off. "Buzz!" Mira shouted as she and the others landed in front of him. "Are you all right? What happened? Where's XR and Sari?"

"I sent XR after Nos-4-A2 after I had a little accident." he gestured to the broken jet pack wings. "Hopefully he will be able to save Sari by himself."

"Too bad he didn't even get close," a voice said above them.

The group looked up just in time to see XR flying toward them. Alone.

"XR!" Mira called to him as he hovered over them then landed, deactivating his wings.

"Where's Sari?" Prowl asked, walking toward him.

"She's gone," XR explained. "Nos-4-A2 got away with her."

"What?!" Prowl shouted, looking horrified. "How could you let that happened?"

"Hey, don't blame me," XR protested, putting up his hands. "By the time I reached the open air he was gone."

Prowl couldn't believe what he was hearing. "No," he said, clenching his fists. "I promised myself I wouldn't let it happen to her."

Everyone looked at him. "Let what happen to her?" Mira questioned.

Prowl didn't answer. He turned away and started pacing. "It was bad enough it happened to me," he ranted to himself. "But now Sari? No! I can't accept that. There's got to be a way to find out where he's taken her. There's got to."

"What is this about?" Buzz asked him.

"Yea," Mira said. "and why did Nos-4-A2 take Sari in the first place? He feeds on robots and Sari isn't a robot."

"I know why," XR said, folding his arms and giving Prowl a look. "A certain Autobot hasn't been completely honest with us."

"What do you mean, XR?" Buzz asked, looking at the robot.

"Let's just say there is more to that girl than meets the eye." he pointed at Prowl. "Why don't I let him tell you?"

Prowl didn't look at them but he felt the eyes of the rangers boring into his back. "Does that really matter?" he inquired.

"Uh, yeah," Buzz said, folding his arms. "Rule Number 682: Always tell the truth, even if it's embarrassing." he walked over to Prowl. "Now, why don't you tell us what XR is talking about?"

The cyber ninja looked at them. The Space Rangers looked back with mixed expressions. Buzz looked serious, XR looked annoyed, Booster looked worried, and Mira looked like she was having a hard time deciding how she felt. He knew if he didn't tell them, XR would because he seemed to already know. "Okay," he said, facing them. "I'll tell you."

Nos-4-A2 dropped Sari onto the pavement with a careless plop. She hit the concrete with a yelp, banging her knee on some weird metallic thing that let out a loud clang. "Ow!" she shouted, grabbing her knee and falling back onto her seat. "Couldn't you have been a little gentler?"

"No," he said, flying over her with his wings still out. "Why would I want to be gentle with my dinner?"

She glared at him. "Because I'm not your dinner," she said, raising her hand and opening it to reveal her circuitry. "and if you try biting my neck I'll knock out your fangs."

He laughed at her threat as if it was a joke. "Now now, there's no need to resort to violence, my dear," he said, grabbing her hand. "I promise I'll be gentle if you promise to just hold still." he started crushing her hand, right away proving to her that he was the one in charge, not her. "Because if you make me mad I won't be such a gentleman."

She tried not to wince as he tightened his grip. It felt like he was trying to break her fingers. "I don't.. have to.. worry about that," she managed. "Because you.. won't.. be able to.. do it to me.."

"Why is that?" he smirked. "Is it because your robot friend and the space rangers are going to come and rescue you?" he let her hand go. "Don't get your hopes up, my dear."

"Just you wait," she growled, messaging her damaged hand. "They're be here! and when they do Prowl is going to make you regret ever kidnapping me."

"Prowl," he said, putting his hand on his chin. "Wasn't he the one who flew off like he'd seen his worse nightmare come to life?" he laughed at her. "Don't expect anything from that guy, except maybe my next meal. If he wanted to save you he would have done so and I'd be on my way to PC-7 right now."

"I'm sure Prowl had a good reason for that," she insisted, though she had no idea what that reason could be.

He laughed. "I'm sure he did."

Then he turned away and started rooting through the robot corpses littering the floor, ignoring her. It was almost as if he knew she couldn't do anything to him or sneak away.

Sari looked around the room, hoping to find an entrance she could use to escape from. To her disappointment the only way out was too high for her to reach. She sighed and looked at the robots littering the floor. They were all inactive shells, having been drained of their energy a long time ago by the vampire. It was depressing.

Poor things, she thought, taking in the frozen mask of horror on one of the robot's faces, they didn't even see it coming.

The techno organic girl reached over and picked up a small robot, barely bigger than her hand. She studied it's face for a moment then closed her eyes and concentrated. A second later her eyes flew open and a smile crossed her face.

Shadowstar eyed the brain pod carefully. He had a smaller number on his chest. The number eleven. "You were?" she asked him. When he nodded, she got off number 33 and walked toward him. "Okay then, if you were here, why don't you tell me about Nos-4-A2?"

"Umm uh what do you want to know?" he asked, cowering before her as her shadow darkened his frame.

She grinned. "How about everything?"

"Uh.. umm uh..." he thought for a moment then said. "Well Zurg was the one who wanted the energy vampire built."

"Why?"

"So he could take over Star Command."

She cocked her head, unfamiliar with the name. "Star Command?" she asked. "What is that?"

But before the brain pod could explain, the Grub that had let Shadowstar out of her cell ran up to her and poked her leg. "Uh.. excuse me," he said, trying to get her attention.

"What?" she demanded, glaring at him, unhappy that he'd interrupted her questioning. Just when I was getting somewhere too. He'd better have a good reason for this.

"I hate to interrupt but-"

"But what?" she growled. "Spit it out, you sniffling little parasite!"

"There are hornets coming," he replied, pointing toward the door. "I think we'd better get out of here."

"Hornets?" she spun around just as a group of the yellow and black robots burst into the room. She ground her teeth together in frustration. "Sparks! Not more of those stale machines!"

"Well I think I'll be going now," the brain pod said, moving away from her.

"Oh no, you don't!" she shouted, grabbing the pod's neck. "I'm not done with you! Once I take out these droids you're going to tell me all about that stupid legless wannabe who dared to feast on my energy!" She patted his head, grinning like a crazy bot. "Now don't you go away. I'll be right back."

She lunged at the hornets, her fangs bared and her claws out in front of her. "You won't shoot out my wings this time!"

She grabbed the first hornet she came across and bit into it, draining the energy then throwing the shell into the other robots. Three crashed to the floor but the other hornets behind them came forward, shooting off their blasters. One hit her square in the chest, knocking her off her feet and sending her flying back onto one of the examining tables. Screaming in anger, she got back up and lunged at them. "I'm going to drain all your energy then send you back to your master in a box!"

The brain pods and the one Grub ran for cover as she fought against the hornets that only replaced their fallen comrades when she drained or tore them apart. She kicked out at three when they tried to grab her, breaking out their chests and sending their smoking ruins to the floor. She laughed as she took out three more, gnashing at them with her talons. These things were so weak compared to Cybertronian armor plating.

"What's the matter?" she asked, dodging fire power. "Too fast for you? Come on, you fakes can do better than that."

And she would have won too. If not for somebody shooting her from behind, right in the back between her wings. She screamed in pain then crashed to the floor. The hornets immediately surrounded her, their guns aimed at her head. She tried to get up but found she couldn't move. What is going on? she thought as her processor started to panic. Why can't I move?

She got her answer a second later when a shadow fell over her. She raised her optics, meeting the eyes of Warp Darkmatter. He grinned at her. "Hi there," he said, smiling like a dope and waving.

She growled at him.

"Now now none of that," he said, kneeling down in front of her. "Not if you want to keep your sexy little body in good shape." He looked at the hornets. "All right. Let's take our spunky little lady to the boss and," he looked at the trembling Grub that one of the hornets had grabbed. "Don't forget her accomplice."

000

"Sari's a robot?!" Buzz Lightyear exclaimed after Prowl had finished telling them everything about the techno organic girl.

The cyber ninja nodded. "Well not exactly," he said as an after thought. "She's more like a techno organic but she does have a lot of robotic components."

"and you didn't tell us this why?" Lightyear demanded.

"I didn't think it was that important," Prowl said. "and your commander seemed to not like machines that much and I didn't want him disrespecting her."

Buzz looked at Mira. "I'm surprised you didn't know this already."

She jumped. "Me?" she asked, putting her hands on her chest.

"Yes, you," he said, nodding. "You did read her mind."

She thought about that. "Well I did see some stuff that might have implied that," she admitted. "But I didn't think it was that important so I didn't really pay much attention to it."

"But that was important," Buzz said, glaring at her then Prowl. "and it seems that Nos-4-A2 knew what she was already and that's why he grabbed her."

"You don't know that," Booster spoke up.

"Of course I know that," Buzz told him. "Because it's obvious."

"Come to think of it he did say she had an energy signature," XR said, thoughtfully.

"But how could Nos-4-a2 know that she was a robot?" the Booster wanted to know.

"Maybe he scanned her," Mira suggested.

"I scanned her and I didn't pick it up," XR informed her. "My scanner is the latest issue. If I didn't pick up an energy signature he wouldn't have either."

"And as you said," Buzz replied, turning to him. "He seemed to know."

"Does it matter?" Prowl asked. "Sari's still his prisoner and we have to save her."

"Which never would have happened if a certain robot that claims to be her best friend hadn't run at the first sight of Nos-4-a2's fangs." Buzz rounded on Prowl. "Mind telling us what that was all about or are you going to lie about that too?"

"No," the cyber ninja said, looking angry. "I'm not going to lie."

"Then why did you run?!"

"Because he-" he hated to admit it. "He scared me!"

Buzz looked startled. "He scared you?" he asked. "How could he scare you?!"

"It's hard to explained."

"Well do it," Lightyear snapped, folding his arms. "We have the time thanks to you."

Prowl nodded and looked away. "You see, back in my own dimension Shadowstar, the vampire we came here to find, bit me and put me under her control," he explained. "Sari and the others saved me from her control but I made a mistake afterward. I thought I could help her."

"Help an energy vampire?" XR exclaimed. "Are you crazy?"

"No," Prowl replied. "I'm an Autobot. I am programmed to help people." he turned away and walked toward the building the bench stood in front of "She had a reason for what she did and I thought I might be able to come up with a way to make her become normal." he punched the wall. "But it was a bad idea. I never should have done it. It only made things worse and I.." he couldn't go on, the rest was too painful. "What happened next isn't important. Let me just say that when I saw him come at me my mind went back to the time I faced Shadowstar. It was too similar and I couldn't deal with it."

"I'm sorry," Buzz said, looking like he indeed understood. "I didn't know."

"It's not your fault," the Autobot said, resting his hand on the wall and staring at the damage he'd done to it. "Don't worry about it. Let's just try to find Sari. I don't want what happened to me to happen to her."

"But how are we going to find him?" Mira wanted to know. "He could be anywhere."

"I got an idea," XR said. "Let's just follow the yellow brick road of spare parts."

Nos-4-A2 perched on the edge of his coffin, his chest compartment open as he worked on installing the anti-gravity hardware he'd stolen from the traffic light bot. Flying around so much was taking its tole on him and he didn't like using up so much energy keeping his wings active just to stay airborne. His back was turned to the girl but he wasn't worried about her trying to escape. The only way out was too high up for her to reach and the walls were too steep to climb. His dinner wasn't going anywhere.

I wonder what she tastes like, he thought, finishing up the repairs and closing his chest. I am willing to bet that it is lovely..

His chest compartment closed with a click. Done. He smiled, pushing off the coffin with his hands. The hardware worked right away and he hovered above the floor. Good. He was whole again. No more having to use his wings all the time.

Now for the girl.

He looked toward the spot where he'd left her but she was gone.

"What?" startled he flew toward the spot and looked around. Robot corpses littered the floor, packed so tightly he had a hard time moving them. "Ugh," he said, pushing a few aside. "I am going to have to clean this place out after I feed."

The robots fell over with a clang and he moved forward, looking from right to left. "Where are you, Little One?" he said, pushing over another corpse. "Don't hide from me. You can't get out of here so don't bother trying to. Just come out and I'll make this quick and painless."

A plinking sound caught his attention. He lifted his head just in time to see a small figure come flying at him. Before he could react it latched onto his face and knocked him to the corpse covered floor.

A/N

Yes I am being evil. BWAHAHAHA!