CHAP 37

"Maybe we should land closer to the palace," Booster suggested as Mira maneuvered the small star hopper through Planet Z's atmosphere. "It would save time, and-"

"Are you crazy?" she cut him off, looking at at the red alien with wide eyes. "If we land close to the palace Zurg's security system will pick us up and fire at us." she yanked on the control stick. "and if that fire power hits the ship, we'll crash and then we won't be any good to anyone."

"Oh.." Booster obviously hadn't thought of that. He fell silent, looking out the windshieild of the ship, down at the city. Right now it seemed peaceful, as if nobody was aware that two space rangers were about to touch down and cause trouble. Or maybe they did know but weren't worried because the two rangers were still rookies in a sense. "How are you even sure they're here?" he asked.

"Oh, they're here," she told him. She closed her eyes for a minute. "I can feel them." she pointed toward Zurg's palace. "and they're already inside."

He looked where she was pointing. "Where inside?"

Mira shook her head. "That I don't know," she responded. "all I know is that they are in the palace and most likely in trouble."

"How do you know that if you don't know where they are?"

She smirked. "Booster this is XR we're talking about," she said. "When has he never gotten in some kind of trouble?"

He could not argue with that. XR was prone to run into some kind of trouble one way or another. "But what about Prowl?" he wanted to know. "Surely he can take care of himself."

"With the way he's been acting lately I don't think Prowl is faring much better."

"If that's true we'd better hurry then."

"I'm already on it." she yanked on the stick and the ship took a sharp turn.

Mira touched down a few minutes later, landing a good distance away from the palace. That was to avoid being spotted, which incidentally was what Prowl and XR had done as well. Once she and Booster were outside of the ship they activated their jetpacks and flew toward the palace.

He wants to get rid of me, Shadowstar thought as she stormed down the hall. I should have known something like this would happen eventually. I knew he wouldn't keep me around for long. After all; the only thing he wanted from me was to bring in that wannabe so he could teach him a lesson. For that one thing we both were on the same page but now that that's been taken care of.. She sighed, shaking her head. "What else would he need me for? He's a evil emperor. They don't exactly keep the people in their employ around for long..."

Of course Warp Darkmatter and the other aliens in Zurg's employ were an exception to the rule unless they tried to defect. She on the other hand was nothing like them and couldn't be cowed easily. Zurg seemed to know that and it was likely he didn't want to take any chances in case she decided to do what she did when she was first brought there.

But he couldn't really blame her for the way she'd acted. After all, nobody liked being taken captive for no reason then brought to some idiot who called you useless and made fun of you just because you weren't built with a male body or went by the male pronoun. If he had been in the same situation she was sure he would have acted the same way.

"Or he would have started blubbering," she said to herself. "Freaked out and never got anywhere."

No, that doesn't sound like him. Much as I hate to admit it I'm sure he'd be more level headed than that. If he did act that way there is no way in the Pit that he would have become what he is now.

"An all powerful evil emperor," she said somewhat sarcastically. "The scourge of the galaxy. The one whose very name strikes fear in the hearts of men." she laughed. "If he is able to do that I'd love to have the people in this place meet Megatron. Now that would be a spectacle. They'd probably all fall over with heart attacks."

Megatron....

For some reason she missed being under his rule which bothered her since he'd been such an abusive son of a glitch that she was happy when she'd finally gotten away from him. Maybe she only missed him because she considered him more of a villain than Zurg and she missed what she considered real villains. "But he is a real villain," she reminded herself once again thinking about Zurg. "You know he is, it just makes you feel better to tell yourself he's not."

Exactly. But thinking he is less than a villain keeps me from worrying about him removing me. If I consider him a campy stereotype I feel better and I can assure myself that if and when the time comes for him to try to kill me I can easily get out of it without a scratch.

She paused and then took the hall to the left. "But if he is going to have me killed anyway I might as well have my fun while it lasts," she said out loud. "No sense letting him do what he wants to my property while I play a good girl if he's got an alterior motive and my coffin all picked out." she snickered. "Coffin. How fitting for a vampire."

"Hmmmmmmmm................"

"Oh come on! Can't you do that later!" XR shouted at Prowl. "Now isn't the time for finding your center!"

Prowl did not responding. He continued to ignore him, though the humming did grow louder as if he was trying to drown out the other robot's words.

It was so loud the smaller robot had to cover his audio units to block it out, even though it didn't really work that well. "If you don't stop that I'm going to leave you behind when I get out of here!" he threatened.

Still no response.

XR sighed and turned his attention to the lock on the cell door. Maybe he could pick it. It didn't seem too complicated. All he would have to do was reach inside and move his hand around a bit.....

"Craters! I'm stuck!" the robot yanked on his hand, trying to dislodge it from the lock. "Okay, that was dumb," he stated, grabbing the lock and pushing on it in hopes of freeing his hand. It did little good. "Note to self; never try picking a lock with your hand again." he looked over at Prowl. "Hey! Thanks a lot for caring!""

By then Prowl couldn't take it anymore. He stopped humming and looked over at XR. "Do you mind?" he demanded.

"Do I mind what?" he asked. "Making noise? Well sorry for interrupting your oh so important mind tripping. You'd be yelling too if your hand got stuck in a lock!"

The Autobot frowned. "How did you get your hand stuck in the lock anyway?" he demanded.

"I was trying to get out of my cell," he said, pointedly. "Unlike some people, I have no intention of sitting in the dungeon until Zurg decides he wants to have fun with me." he yanked on his hand again, in a vain attempt to free it. "You must be bonkers if you think I'm going to stick around for that."

Prowl watched the robot trying to free his hand with a frown. "Don't keep doing that," he told him. "You'll only make it worse."

"Who asked you?" XR snapped. He gave it another yank. "Mind yor own business, Mr Know-it-all."

"I'm only giving you advice." he stated. "It really isn't a good idea to pull on it like that."

"What do you suggest I do then?" the space ranger robot demanded. "Cut off my hand? I don't know about you but I've lost enough body parts in my life time, thank you every much. I think I'll keep this hand for a bit longer."

"I still think you should hold still," Prowl answered, watching him because he couldn't help him free it since they were in different cells. "If you allow yourself to remain calm and not panic you should be able to easily slide your hand out of the lock."

"Calm down?" XR shouted.

The Autobot nodded.

"Oh sure, easy for you to say, " he grumbled, allowing his arm to go limp. "You're not the one with his hand stuck in a door lock." as ranted his hand slid easily out of it and hung limply. "I mean it's not like-" his pulled his arm up to gesture with and realized it was free. The smaller robot stared at it a moment, wiggling his fingers. "Well okay so maybe it is that easy. But it still doesn't get us any closer to getting out of here."

"It would," the Autobot said, looking away from him. "If you would just let me concentrate for a few minutes."

"No offense, Prowl, but I don't think humming is going to help us out of here."

"You'd be surprised what it can do."

"Now you're starting to sound like those Ryzonian nut jobs," the robot remarked. "Breath deeply and evenly. Find your center. Find your center."

Prowl glared at him. 'That kind of attitude is really uncalled for," he told him, his optics flashing with annoyance.

"I know and that's why I do it."

Prowl chose not to respond, instead going back to mediating, humming much louder this time to drown out XR's complaints.

The poor brain pods were taken completely by surprise when a screaming banshee with red eyes and glowing blue blades coming out of her arms, lunged out of the lab and blocked their path. The two beings screamed and grabbed each other in fright, staring at the thing with wide frightened eyes.

"Wha-what are you?" the one asked his voice trembling with panic.

Sari smiled a wicked smile. "Your worst nightmare," she responded batman light, walking toward them. Her face held a maniacal expression. "Master ordered me to take care of anything that could interrupt his repairs." she raised her blades and pointed them in their faces, stopping only inches from the glass bulbs, "So if you don't want to die I would suggest running."

The pods, not wanting to face her wrath, turned in fled with the echo of her laughter chasing after them. Once they were out of sight Sari turned around and joined Nos-4-a2 back in the lab who was putting the finishing touches on his repairs.

"Did you take care of it?" he asked, not looking up.

"Yes, Master." she replied, folding her arms and leaning against the door.

"Good." he closed his fists and the plasma laser coming from his fingers winked out. "I am finished now. Let us be going, my dear. We still have much to do."

She followed him out of the room and down the hall. "Where are we going now?' she questioned him.

Nos-4-a2 smiled. "Why the control room, my dear."

"Which way do you think they went?" Booster asked Mira once they were near the palace. They moved around the side of it, heading for the back entrance that Prowl and XR had taken. "Can you sense them?"

"Booster my abilities aren't that powerful," she told him, looking over her shoulder. "I can't pinpoint exact locations. I'm still working on that."

"So I guess we'll just to search for them until we find them then," he said.

"Pretty much," she replied. She touched his arm to get his attention. "Let's go."

Then, instead of using the door at all, she ghosted them both through the palace wall.

Shadowstar drew near to the dungeon's entrance. She was sure she'd reach her destination very soon, unless of course Zurg decided he wanted to make her do something else for him. To the Pit with him. I'm not doing anymore favors for that big toothed, purple jerk, she thought, baring her fangs in anger. He can take care of his problems himself. If he's going to kill me any way why should I do him any more favors?

This was it. She would do no more. From now on she would do what she wanted to do from the beginning. Take care of Prowl by herself and finish her revenge on both the cyber ninja and Nos-4-a2.

"After all, what's the point of playing by the rules when you're just going to wind up regretting it later?"

But if wasn't like she hadn't expected it. Bad first impressions tended to form an opinion on people and it was hard to make them change their minds about it. If he viewed her as a dangerous freak by first encounter he would keep that impression until she was no longer around. Not that she was going to do anything to change his mind about it. There was no point. She didn't care all that much what he thought of her anyway.

She considered him incompetent, though she knew he wasn't. All well. It didn't matter anymore. It was time to finish what she started.

Or not.

"Oh Shadowstar..."

Zurg's voice spoke into her commlink.

She stopped in her tracks, startled. "Zurg," she growled, putting her fingers to the side of her head, opening the channel. "How did you get this frequency?"

"It wasn't that hard," he said, a smile in his voice. "Since it only required changing the code a bit."
"What do you want?" she demanded, itching to get to the dungeon and have her fun with Prowl.

"I am in need of your assistance," he replied while looking at a security feed in one of the throne room's monitors. "It seems two of Lightyears rookies are trying infiltrate the palace. Why don't you be a good girl and take care of them for me?"

Do it yourself, you traitorous jerk-face! "Why should I?" she demanded. "They're not my problem."

"Shadowstar," he said, his tone like a father speaking to a child. He leaned forward in his seat and rested the tips of his finger together. "If you don't take care of them I will terminate that Autobot in the cells. Now do you want me to do that?" his grin grew bigger. "I know how much you. feel for that robot.."

She paused, her optics widening in horror. How did he know how she felt about him? Had Warp told him? She clenched her fists at her sides. He's going to regret that. How dare he tell him! Why would he do such a thing?
Oh that's simple. So Zurg can hold it over to you and make you do everything he tells you.

"Well?" the evil emperor's voice held a note of impatience.

"Fine," she snapped, turning on her heel and heading back the way she came. "I'll take care of them."

"Good," he said, leaning back in his throne with contentment. "and while you're at it, why don't you pick me up some donuts?"

"Get your own donuts." she grumbled.

"Shadowstar!"

"Okay, fine! I'll get you your slagging donuts!"

"Will you stop that already?" XR demanded, grabbing the bars of his cell. "All that humming isn't going to do either one of us any good. You're giving me a processor ache! Hey, are you even listening to me?"

The Autobot made no respond. He just continued to hum, his mind centering on one thing. Opening the bars of the cells.

Ever since he'd figured out how to use the ability called Processor Over Matter it had helped him out many times. It had worked here too at the beginning until he'd run out of power and used crystals to keep himself online. Maybe they were responsible for his inability to use the power now, but he wasn't going to think about that any more. Getting out was top priority and he wasn't going to let a small thing like crystallic fusion energy hold him back.

Mastering Processor Over Matter hadn't been easy but nothing ever was.

The doors, he thought, concentrating harder. Open the doors.

Xr rolled his optics and leaned against his cell door. "He's not even listening," he grumbled before turning his attention to the drawer built into his frame. "I wonder if I have a blow torch in here?" he asked himself before beginning to rummage through it. "While Mr. Omm and humm there is wasting time I think I'll do something useful. If I have a blow torch I can melt the bars and get us both out of here.. Hello, what's this?" He pulled something out of the drawer. Something that moved. "A scorpion!?" he exclaimed when he saw what it was. "Why do I have a scorpion in here!?"

The scorpion didn't seem happy that XR was holding it by the tail and snapped his finger in his claws.

"YEOWCH!" the robot yelped in pain, dropping the bug onto the floor. "Stupid insect. I outta step on you just to show you whose boss." he crawled to the end of the cot and glared down at it. "Would you like that, you stupid arachnid? I've got a foot here with your name-"

Click. Click. Click.

XR jumped. "Huh?" he looked back toward the cell door. It was making strange noises as if somebody had stuck a key inside the lock and was turning it. But he didn't see anybody. "What in the-"

Click! The door slid open on its own.

XR jumped off the cot and wheeled over to the door, contemplating it, his hand rubbing the base of his helmet. "I never saw that happen before," he commented. "I wonder if he-"

Click!

The sound made him jump once more. He looked over toward Prowl's cell in time to see the door slide open by itself as if an invisible hand was pulling on it. The space ranger robot stared at it, his mouth hanging open, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Prowl stopped humming at that moment and looked toward the door, spotting XR standing there, gaping. "What?" he asked him.

The robot raised a shaking finger. "How- why-what??" he asked, pointing it at the door. "Did you do that?"

The Autobot nodded.

"How?" he asked, awed.

"Processor over matter," the cyber ninja replied, swinging his legs onto the floor and standing. He faced XR. "It's something I learned from my master back on Cybertron. It enables me to do things that would be impossible otherwise." he touched the open door and smiled. "and it comes in handy."

The space ranger robot just stared, unable to say anything.

"Come on," Prowl said, exiting the cell and heading toward the way out. "Let's go. I don't want to be here whenever somebody comes to get us. Plus we still have to find Sari before something happens to her." he added.

XR moved to follow him. "Speaking of Sari," XR said wheeling up beside him. "I ran into her earlier."

The Autobot jerked his head toward him, his expression changing. "You did?" he asked, hopefully. "Where was she? Is she all right?"

"She's here," XR replied. "and about as all right as she can be since she's still under Nos-4-a2's control. Oh and-" he said as an after thought. "she repaired him."

Prowl looked startled. "Repaired him?" he asked. "Why?"

"I don't know," he replied. "Thought it might have to do with the energy vampire's current condition. When I ran into them Nos-4-a2 was covered in dents anc scratches." he shrugged. "He kind of looked like he'd been used as a crash or something like that."

"Shadowstar."

"Excuse me?"

"Nevermind," he said. "Let's just get moving. Hopefully we'll be able to find them both before something else happens."