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Description
Renee finally got home at six that evening. "Dad?" She called into the empty house. The day, after finding Kindle, had been extremely productive with Nos-4-a2's help. They had, together, cleaned out the storage room and salvaged what props they could, including three usable backdrops for the play. "Dad?" She called again. All was quiet.
She walked into the kitchen to grab some dinner. She didn't usually think anything of her dad not being home. He sold the bikes he built regularly during the summer, but he was nervous. It's because of Kindle. She thought quietly. Something had been… off about him this morning.
There was a note pinned to the refrigerator in its usual place with a "Jesus Saves" magnet.
Renee,
I've gone to the dealer in Lenore City to try and sell the new series. Don't wait up; I shouldn't be home till ten or eleven. Dinner is in the freezer. Sorry, fish sticks again.
Love, Dad.
It read easily, short and to the point, just the way Alan liked it. This was the third time this week they were having fish sticks. She decided to cook something else. Maybe spaghetti, that was nice and simple. Her stomach growled disagreeably. The closest thing to lunch Renee had gotten all day was when she had to do- another- drive by to WalMart for Nos and grabbed some chips.
Putting the water on to boil, she flicked the TV on. The five o'clock news was going off. Wheel of fortune would come on, then Jeopardy. But instead of wondering what Brent Starkisser had babbled about, Renee sat back in the recliner and thought about the play. All those rangers would be coming, and here she was taking care of one of their worst enemies. Buzz, Mira, and the rest of team Lightyear were guaranteed to be at the benefit. Countless other rangers would be as well. It was funny, considering a town so small would attract all these rangers.
Something was eating at Renee's mind. She adjusted her feet in the chair, thinking of that first encounter. Why wasn't she dead or dying, hidden away somewhere? Surely enough people like her that had gotten a glimpse of the energy vampire had perished. She picked up the phone and dialed the theatre's number. Nos answered in moments. "Didn't you get enough talk out of me today?"
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes. "Quick question."
"Yes? Come on, spit it out." He sounded impatient, but the girl knew better.
Renee sat up, crossing her legs Indian style. "Why did you let me live?"
There was silence on the other end, and finally Nos replied. "I needed your help, obviously."
"I understand that." The Zephyrite kicked up her leg and lay down again, restless. "But after you were repaired, even without the terrilium, you could have just left." He hung up. Renee rolled over and sighed. No answer there.
****
After the conversation Renee checked the water and tried to pay attention to what Pat Sajak was saying. She fixed some spaghetti sauce in a pot to warm up. There were awfully tough puzzles tonight and she was glad to not feel so stupid when Teen Week came on Jeopardy. Alan still wasn't back when nine-o'clock rolled around, and Renee was getting tired of sitting up alone. She didn't want to get on the computer and there was nothing good on.
Finally she went up to bed, exasperated, to work on a few designs for backgrounds and a program for the droid. He was going to play the part of the phantom himself, because the actor Mrs. Hardacker had assigned to the part had to leave between acts four and five. She wasn't exactly an artist, so the backdrops were extremely vague but looked nice from a distance.
At ten she was ready to throw herself out the window to escape the boredom. The girl wondered if Nos had gone out to get those sheets of terrilium yet, and where he would get them. Probably some machine shop out of town, where they couldn't track him. Renee stood and shoved back her desk chair, going to the window. She watched the bright waning moon among the stars, glad to feel a little more connected to the outer world. Earth's moon was beautiful, round and unpopulated so it didn't have a cloud of smog or spots where you could see cities that stole from its elegance.
Turning away, the girl threw herself onto the bed and sighed in defeat. There was a short tap on the window. Renee sat up, alert at the break in silence, and went to investigate. A bit of cloth was flying against the window sill. She opened it and tugged at the strip of burgundy cloth and ended up dragging in an entire bolt. She stared, dumbstruck, at the material. Her ears twitched and folded backwards, and a low growl escaped her throat. She wasn't really mad, but suspicious.
Striking a match (Much more fun than any flashlight) she stuck her head out the window. Nothing. The girl looked for any movement in her field of vision and still didn't find anything. Tired, suspicious, and a little frightened she rolled over to look up at the sky again. But, instead of finding a starry sky to look at, she came nearly six inches from the energy vampire's fangs.
Renee screamed and jumped back into her room. He crawled inside the windowsill and picked up the bolt of cloth. "I picked up the terrilium." He smiled, saying it like it was a simple errand.
Renee let out a heavy breath and her fur settled into place. "Good Lord, Nos, you scared the heck out of me." She put her head in her hands. "Oh, God…"
"What?" He dropped the material onto her bed and patted her shoulder awkwardly, not sure what to do.
"I'm fine." She stood up straight and yawned, brushing his hand of reluctantly. "You just nearly gave me a heart attack. So, how do you know where I live?"
"Actually, I didn't." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I took a wild guess. You know, house with a motorcycle."
Renee rolled her eyes. "Of course. So, why are you here?"
Nos clammed up. "Um…." He stammered, then snatched up the bolt of cloth and tossed it like a hot potato into Renee's arms. "I need you to make me a new cape."
"Fine enough." Renee flicked an ear. She pulled out a sheet of paper and pen, never even touching the cloth. After a few moments of just staring at her back and wondering what was going on, Nos got impatient and leaned over her shoulder silently. There on the sheet of paper was a less than satisfactory sketch of him with a cape. She stood up and whacked her head on his chin. "Ow! Man, what the heck?" She demanded, rubbing at an already swelling pump knot.
He found himself backed into a corner. "What are you doing?" The vampire spat in response.
Renee paled. She tilted her ears back and hissed. "I need a model to work off of, don't I?" He frowned but backed off. Man this guy was sensitive. "Whatever." She rolled her eyes and walked to the drawer, picking out a tape measure.
Nos winced a little and tried to back away when she swung the measure around his shoulders. "What are you doing now?!" She took a note on the paper and shimmied it down around his arms.
"Will you shut up? You're going to wake the whole town. I'm just taking a few measurements." She kept switching between notes and measurements.
"Oh, well then…" He bit his lip. God this was awkward. Renee didn't reply but kept at her job, inching the tape measure all the way down to his base. "It's supposed to go down to the tip and come to a point." He mentioned, just so the cape didn't come out like a superhero's.
"You think I don't know that?" She tossed the burgundy cloth onto the ground and rolled out a few yards. "I know how to use Google, you know."
"You GOOGLED me?" He demanded, less than happy. "Someone could have tracked that! And, and…" He fizzled out.
"That's what I thought. You don't know, do you?" She cut off what looked like the right amount and tossed it over his shoulders.
"Know what?" His eyes narrowed.
"I looked you up." Renee hugged the cloth to his shoulders and got close. He tried to move back uncomfortably. "And I got ten thousand hits. Photo's galore. And, get this, a fan club."
"Fan club?" He put a finger to his lip, and then shook his head. "Forget it- I won't ask."
"Good choice." She smirked, like there was a secret. He ground his teeth together. "Penny for your thoughts, Nos?" She dropped the cloth and started cutting along a few marked areas, where she had slid in pins.
"It's going to take more than a penny."
"Seriously."
"What?" He examined his fingers nonchalantly.
"What all planets did you hit with that Wirewolf gun?"
The vampire's eyes got big, but he answered easily enough. "It can't hurt. Let's see, hmm… Rhizome, Capital Planet…"
"Of course."
"Star Command, and Tangea. I think that's all I got to." Renee sighed in relief. "What is it?"
"I'm just glad you didn't hit Zephyr. Or Earth."
He winked, but scowled a little. "I wasn't totally aware of Earth's existence at the time, but nothing would have stopped me from hitting Zephyr."
"And, eventually, feeding there." She finished for him.
Ouch. "Right." He winced.
She laughed, a little. It was a nervous, high- pitched giggle, like someone trying to get an awful idea out of their head. "We would have been awfully funny- looking Wirewolves. You know, cat people."
He snickered a little too. "Surely."
****
By midnight Renee had run the cape through the sewing machine and given it to Nos. Her father had called to let her know he wouldn't be home, because of traffic backup and more business to discuss. He wouldn't be back until noon tomorrow. "You know what?" The alien was sewing the vampire's button onto his cape by hand. "I may just not come in tomorrow."
He frowned, disappointed. "Come on! You've got to finish repairing me! I even got armourillium plating."
"I don't have to do anything." She hissed teasingly. "You owe me big, Nos-4-a2. I could leave you here right now and never finish repairing you. Then you'd have to find a way off earth without getting caught, and I could always turn you in-"
He grabbed her by the shoulders and spun the girl around to meet him. "It kills me to say this, don't think it doesn't, but please?" She smirked. Victory.
"I'll finish repairing you, don't worry." He relaxed and took his hands off of her. She walked to the closet and, opening it, slid an air surfing board out from behind the hangars full of clothes. "Look at this. I've been working on it forever." She sat it in the windowsill. He looked at it silently, again impressed with her talents. "And don't even think about it. This thing runs on solar power." She slipped a battery pack that had been charging for weeks from just under the roof's edge.
"Oh, ew, renewable resources." He stuck out his tongue dramatically. "You must have known I was coming."
She laughed. "No, but lucky me." She crawled out the window with it and folded out a sail. She snapped the latches over her shoes and dropped off the roof's edge. "Come on!" She called, reappearing in a steep incline towards the sky. He took her offer and flew out side, spreading his wings.
The night shined brightly with the moon's luminescence. It settled over the cool summer night like pixie dust, coating everything in contrasting quicksilver and shadow. Renee's tail flew out behind her as she crossed paths with the moon on the board. Fireflies parted in clouds as the pair darted between them. Wind passed through the vampire's cape, sending it flapping crisply. He chased after Renee and dove, really enjoying the moment for all that it was worth. And suddenly she was gone. The girl had retreated back into the window suddenly.
"What is it? Come on!" He snapped, lounging on the roof. "I want to test out my cape for a little while longer." The vampire whined good naturedly.
"You can test it all you want in a week or so." She shuffled through some drawers, tossing items left and right carelessly.
"Huh?"
"Dress rehearsals in the theatre start a week before the play. You can stay with me then." She looked back at him out of the corner of her eye, but continued rummaging through the cabinet.
"And what does that have to do with anything? Why don't they just have the performance in your school auditorium? And why in the summer?"
"Ah, here it is." She tugged an old necklace out of the chest of drawers. "Because, we needed a bigger building, and the late summer was the only time the rangers could come."
He jerked up. "The rangers?"
"Yes." Renee replied. It hadn't occurred to her that he would like that information.
"Who?!" He yelled, excited.
"Team Lightyear are the guests of honor." She smiled darkly. "And other rangers, like Nos enemy number one Ty Parsec, Rocket Crockett, you name it. And the best part is they think your dead."
"But that doesn't mean I am!" He was angry. "Ooooh I just want to ring their little necks! To throw them on the ground and make them beg!"
"To crack the whip in their direction one more time?" She asked with a grin.
"Yes…that's it…" His smile widened suddenly. "What are you thinking?"
"My dad worked on Canis Lunis all the time because Zephyr is so close by." She started.
"I know that."
"Will you let me finish, please?" She smacked his arm. "And I even visited the barren place once. He made me this." She held up the necklace again. Under closer examination, it became obvious that the glowing stones were not gems, but the, now, extremely rare moon rocks. Three of the seven rocks had been lost sometime since she got the necklace at age six.
"Oh, lovely." He took it and rolled the four stones, one at a time, in his fingers. "What's this coating on them?"
Renee didn't take the piece of jewelry back but looked at it with him. "It's a special plastic made to contain radiation. The reason I didn't get sick wearing it and the reason it's still glowing like we just picked it up."
"Renee, this is excellent." He smiled evilly.
"You think I don't know that?"
He passed the necklace back to its owner. "So what are you planning here?"

Description
Renee finally got home at six that evening. "Dad?" She called into the empty house. The day, after finding Kindle, had been extremely productive with Nos-4-a2's help. They had, together, cleaned out the storage room and salvaged what props they could, including three usable backdrops for the play. "Dad?" She called again. All was quiet.
She walked into the kitchen to grab some dinner. She didn't usually think anything of her dad not being home. He sold the bikes he built regularly during the summer, but he was nervous. It's because of Kindle. She thought quietly. Something had been… off about him this morning.
There was a note pinned to the refrigerator in its usual place with a "Jesus Saves" magnet.
Renee,
I've gone to the dealer in Lenore City to try and sell the new series. Don't wait up; I shouldn't be home till ten or eleven. Dinner is in the freezer. Sorry, fish sticks again.
Love, Dad.
It read easily, short and to the point, just the way Alan liked it. This was the third time this week they were having fish sticks. She decided to cook something else. Maybe spaghetti, that was nice and simple. Her stomach growled disagreeably. The closest thing to lunch Renee had gotten all day was when she had to do- another- drive by to WalMart for Nos and grabbed some chips.
Putting the water on to boil, she flicked the TV on. The five o'clock news was going off. Wheel of fortune would come on, then Jeopardy. But instead of wondering what Brent Starkisser had babbled about, Renee sat back in the recliner and thought about the play. All those rangers would be coming, and here she was taking care of one of their worst enemies. Buzz, Mira, and the rest of team Lightyear were guaranteed to be at the benefit. Countless other rangers would be as well. It was funny, considering a town so small would attract all these rangers.
Something was eating at Renee's mind. She adjusted her feet in the chair, thinking of that first encounter. Why wasn't she dead or dying, hidden away somewhere? Surely enough people like her that had gotten a glimpse of the energy vampire had perished. She picked up the phone and dialed the theatre's number. Nos answered in moments. "Didn't you get enough talk out of me today?"
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes. "Quick question."
"Yes? Come on, spit it out." He sounded impatient, but the girl knew better.
Renee sat up, crossing her legs Indian style. "Why did you let me live?"
There was silence on the other end, and finally Nos replied. "I needed your help, obviously."
"I understand that." The Zephyrite kicked up her leg and lay down again, restless. "But after you were repaired, even without the terrilium, you could have just left." He hung up. Renee rolled over and sighed. No answer there.
****
After the conversation Renee checked the water and tried to pay attention to what Pat Sajak was saying. She fixed some spaghetti sauce in a pot to warm up. There were awfully tough puzzles tonight and she was glad to not feel so stupid when Teen Week came on Jeopardy. Alan still wasn't back when nine-o'clock rolled around, and Renee was getting tired of sitting up alone. She didn't want to get on the computer and there was nothing good on.
Finally she went up to bed, exasperated, to work on a few designs for backgrounds and a program for the droid. He was going to play the part of the phantom himself, because the actor Mrs. Hardacker had assigned to the part had to leave between acts four and five. She wasn't exactly an artist, so the backdrops were extremely vague but looked nice from a distance.
At ten she was ready to throw herself out the window to escape the boredom. The girl wondered if Nos had gone out to get those sheets of terrilium yet, and where he would get them. Probably some machine shop out of town, where they couldn't track him. Renee stood and shoved back her desk chair, going to the window. She watched the bright waning moon among the stars, glad to feel a little more connected to the outer world. Earth's moon was beautiful, round and unpopulated so it didn't have a cloud of smog or spots where you could see cities that stole from its elegance.
Turning away, the girl threw herself onto the bed and sighed in defeat. There was a short tap on the window. Renee sat up, alert at the break in silence, and went to investigate. A bit of cloth was flying against the window sill. She opened it and tugged at the strip of burgundy cloth and ended up dragging in an entire bolt. She stared, dumbstruck, at the material. Her ears twitched and folded backwards, and a low growl escaped her throat. She wasn't really mad, but suspicious.
Striking a match (Much more fun than any flashlight) she stuck her head out the window. Nothing. The girl looked for any movement in her field of vision and still didn't find anything. Tired, suspicious, and a little frightened she rolled over to look up at the sky again. But, instead of finding a starry sky to look at, she came nearly six inches from the energy vampire's fangs.
Renee screamed and jumped back into her room. He crawled inside the windowsill and picked up the bolt of cloth. "I picked up the terrilium." He smiled, saying it like it was a simple errand.
Renee let out a heavy breath and her fur settled into place. "Good Lord, Nos, you scared the heck out of me." She put her head in her hands. "Oh, God…"
"What?" He dropped the material onto her bed and patted her shoulder awkwardly, not sure what to do.
"I'm fine." She stood up straight and yawned, brushing his hand of reluctantly. "You just nearly gave me a heart attack. So, how do you know where I live?"
"Actually, I didn't." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I took a wild guess. You know, house with a motorcycle."
Renee rolled her eyes. "Of course. So, why are you here?"
Nos clammed up. "Um…." He stammered, then snatched up the bolt of cloth and tossed it like a hot potato into Renee's arms. "I need you to make me a new cape."
"Fine enough." Renee flicked an ear. She pulled out a sheet of paper and pen, never even touching the cloth. After a few moments of just staring at her back and wondering what was going on, Nos got impatient and leaned over her shoulder silently. There on the sheet of paper was a less than satisfactory sketch of him with a cape. She stood up and whacked her head on his chin. "Ow! Man, what the heck?" She demanded, rubbing at an already swelling pump knot.
He found himself backed into a corner. "What are you doing?" The vampire spat in response.
Renee paled. She tilted her ears back and hissed. "I need a model to work off of, don't I?" He frowned but backed off. Man this guy was sensitive. "Whatever." She rolled her eyes and walked to the drawer, picking out a tape measure.
Nos winced a little and tried to back away when she swung the measure around his shoulders. "What are you doing now?!" She took a note on the paper and shimmied it down around his arms.
"Will you shut up? You're going to wake the whole town. I'm just taking a few measurements." She kept switching between notes and measurements.
"Oh, well then…" He bit his lip. God this was awkward. Renee didn't reply but kept at her job, inching the tape measure all the way down to his base. "It's supposed to go down to the tip and come to a point." He mentioned, just so the cape didn't come out like a superhero's.
"You think I don't know that?" She tossed the burgundy cloth onto the ground and rolled out a few yards. "I know how to use Google, you know."
"You GOOGLED me?" He demanded, less than happy. "Someone could have tracked that! And, and…" He fizzled out.
"That's what I thought. You don't know, do you?" She cut off what looked like the right amount and tossed it over his shoulders.
"Know what?" His eyes narrowed.
"I looked you up." Renee hugged the cloth to his shoulders and got close. He tried to move back uncomfortably. "And I got ten thousand hits. Photo's galore. And, get this, a fan club."
"Fan club?" He put a finger to his lip, and then shook his head. "Forget it- I won't ask."
"Good choice." She smirked, like there was a secret. He ground his teeth together. "Penny for your thoughts, Nos?" She dropped the cloth and started cutting along a few marked areas, where she had slid in pins.
"It's going to take more than a penny."
"Seriously."
"What?" He examined his fingers nonchalantly.
"What all planets did you hit with that Wirewolf gun?"
The vampire's eyes got big, but he answered easily enough. "It can't hurt. Let's see, hmm… Rhizome, Capital Planet…"
"Of course."
"Star Command, and Tangea. I think that's all I got to." Renee sighed in relief. "What is it?"
"I'm just glad you didn't hit Zephyr. Or Earth."
He winked, but scowled a little. "I wasn't totally aware of Earth's existence at the time, but nothing would have stopped me from hitting Zephyr."
"And, eventually, feeding there." She finished for him.
Ouch. "Right." He winced.
She laughed, a little. It was a nervous, high- pitched giggle, like someone trying to get an awful idea out of their head. "We would have been awfully funny- looking Wirewolves. You know, cat people."
He snickered a little too. "Surely."
****
By midnight Renee had run the cape through the sewing machine and given it to Nos. Her father had called to let her know he wouldn't be home, because of traffic backup and more business to discuss. He wouldn't be back until noon tomorrow. "You know what?" The alien was sewing the vampire's button onto his cape by hand. "I may just not come in tomorrow."
He frowned, disappointed. "Come on! You've got to finish repairing me! I even got armourillium plating."
"I don't have to do anything." She hissed teasingly. "You owe me big, Nos-4-a2. I could leave you here right now and never finish repairing you. Then you'd have to find a way off earth without getting caught, and I could always turn you in-"
He grabbed her by the shoulders and spun the girl around to meet him. "It kills me to say this, don't think it doesn't, but please?" She smirked. Victory.
"I'll finish repairing you, don't worry." He relaxed and took his hands off of her. She walked to the closet and, opening it, slid an air surfing board out from behind the hangars full of clothes. "Look at this. I've been working on it forever." She sat it in the windowsill. He looked at it silently, again impressed with her talents. "And don't even think about it. This thing runs on solar power." She slipped a battery pack that had been charging for weeks from just under the roof's edge.
"Oh, ew, renewable resources." He stuck out his tongue dramatically. "You must have known I was coming."
She laughed. "No, but lucky me." She crawled out the window with it and folded out a sail. She snapped the latches over her shoes and dropped off the roof's edge. "Come on!" She called, reappearing in a steep incline towards the sky. He took her offer and flew out side, spreading his wings.
The night shined brightly with the moon's luminescence. It settled over the cool summer night like pixie dust, coating everything in contrasting quicksilver and shadow. Renee's tail flew out behind her as she crossed paths with the moon on the board. Fireflies parted in clouds as the pair darted between them. Wind passed through the vampire's cape, sending it flapping crisply. He chased after Renee and dove, really enjoying the moment for all that it was worth. And suddenly she was gone. The girl had retreated back into the window suddenly.
"What is it? Come on!" He snapped, lounging on the roof. "I want to test out my cape for a little while longer." The vampire whined good naturedly.
"You can test it all you want in a week or so." She shuffled through some drawers, tossing items left and right carelessly.
"Huh?"
"Dress rehearsals in the theatre start a week before the play. You can stay with me then." She looked back at him out of the corner of her eye, but continued rummaging through the cabinet.
"And what does that have to do with anything? Why don't they just have the performance in your school auditorium? And why in the summer?"
"Ah, here it is." She tugged an old necklace out of the chest of drawers. "Because, we needed a bigger building, and the late summer was the only time the rangers could come."
He jerked up. "The rangers?"
"Yes." Renee replied. It hadn't occurred to her that he would like that information.
"Who?!" He yelled, excited.
"Team Lightyear are the guests of honor." She smiled darkly. "And other rangers, like Nos enemy number one Ty Parsec, Rocket Crockett, you name it. And the best part is they think your dead."
"But that doesn't mean I am!" He was angry. "Ooooh I just want to ring their little necks! To throw them on the ground and make them beg!"
"To crack the whip in their direction one more time?" She asked with a grin.
"Yes…that's it…" His smile widened suddenly. "What are you thinking?"
"My dad worked on Canis Lunis all the time because Zephyr is so close by." She started.
"I know that."
"Will you let me finish, please?" She smacked his arm. "And I even visited the barren place once. He made me this." She held up the necklace again. Under closer examination, it became obvious that the glowing stones were not gems, but the, now, extremely rare moon rocks. Three of the seven rocks had been lost sometime since she got the necklace at age six.
"Oh, lovely." He took it and rolled the four stones, one at a time, in his fingers. "What's this coating on them?"
Renee didn't take the piece of jewelry back but looked at it with him. "It's a special plastic made to contain radiation. The reason I didn't get sick wearing it and the reason it's still glowing like we just picked it up."
"Renee, this is excellent." He smiled evilly.
"You think I don't know that?"
He passed the necklace back to its owner. "So what are you planning here?"