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Description
Walking down the street of their suburb to drop Kindle off at his house, Renee's phone rang. "Hello?" She glanced at Jonah and smiled faintly. She hadn't checked the number but fully expected her father or Mrs. Andromeda to be asking where they were. After all, the girl still hadn't taken a shower or eaten and they had been looking for the runaway since seven thirty. It was ten now. She nearly dropped the phone in surprise when Nos-4-a2's voice hissed out of the microphone.
"Renee, when are you coming back?" He demanded, not really angry but on the brink of it. His voice hitched. "There's something wrong."
Again the idea that he had been discovered crossed her mind. "What is it? I can't really talk right now, with friends. And where the hell did you get the phone to call me?"
"It was in the back, one of those wall phones. Never mind that, I'm starving! Literally!" His voice hitched mechanically.
"What?" She suddenly stepped off into an alley, aware that the boys had stopped to eaves drop.
Jonah tapped her shoulder questioningly. "Who are you talking to?"
She waved him away embarrassedly, smiling. She covered the mouth speaker and said "Just a friend from out of state, don't worry." He nodded back and moved away with Kindle, continuing home.
"I haven't eaten anything in three days or so." He barked unhappily. "And it doesn't help that this dead arm is spitting sparks all over the place. I'm shorting out over here and I can't very well get over to the generator room. Bring me something to eat!" Nos lulled. "Please?"
"Yeah, please." She smirked. "Give me some time to get a shower and some breakfast."
He sighed disappointedly. He knew he was in no position to order her around, at least not until he was fully repaired that is. "You people. Fine, go home and bathe. But you can eat here. And hurry!" His voice jumped again.
"I will, jeez." Renee hung up, the vampire still ranting on the other end. "Sorry guys." She apologized, more facing Jonah than Kindle. "But I really need to get home." She hugged them both quickly. "You go home and get better, Kindle." She offered.
"I will." The other alien replied quickly. He loved the attention, but hated it to.
"I'll walk him home." Jonah said kindly.
"Good idea." She replied, thinking of how off- balance he must be with those messed up ears.
"Thanks." Kindle muttered coldly, still wearing a big falsetto smile.
He must be in so much pain. The girl thought tenderly as she ran down the street to her house. She didn't know the half of it.
~~~~
Nos was rocking back and forth grumpily, eyes lazy and somewhat dark when she arrived. "Where were you? Did you bring me some food?" He said before Renee was even in the door. He was back on the stage with bits of machinery that still needed to be packed back into his base lying askew.
"Yeah yeah." Renee rolled her eyes and tossed him a package of twenty- four lithium ion D batteries she had grabbed at the WalMart on the way there. The energy vampire tore open the package and jammed a battery into his mouth, draining it. He savored the splitting bite of battery acid for a second then continued to the others.
The theatre was at the edge of town, marking where the forest began. Trees swayed outside calmly. Renee stared out a window at the woods for a second then snapped back to reality. She realized Nos hadn't been lying; the socket where his arm had been was still showering sparks onto the hardwood. She was lucky he hadn't burned the building down, going that way
"I better reattach that." She whispered, thinking mindfully of how long it would take to finish on him, paint and all, compared to how long she had to clean up this theatre. Three weeks until the play. It couldn't be so hard.
"Yes, and when did it occur to you that that would be a good idea?" He said resentfully, biting into another battery.
His tone was infuriating, so ungrateful and arrogant. No wonder someone had blown him sky high. "You think awfully high of yourself." She said, setting up beside him and preparing the arm.
The vampire was taken aback. "I was programed for nothing but success. I expect no less than perfection, from myself and anyone who works for me." He looked at her indignantly. "Blame Zurg. I'm going after him as soon as I'm out of here." Nos looked out the window, disgusted, at all the nature.
"You've got to get in touch. Instead of just assuming your first plan is going to work, fix a backup. And don't be so pushy." Renee advised.
"What makes you so sure that's what's wrong with me?" He snapped, somehow knowing she was right.
"Because it's fun to poke holes in your plans, and trust me, there's plenty of holes to go a' pokin'." She held a screwdriver up to his face. "Poke. Poke. Poke." She pretended to jab imaginary holes in his plans.
Nos shoved her hand away. "Then explain."
"Well." She started, reattaching the wires in his shoulder joint. "When you first got to Star Command, we'll start there. You said you bit XR the moment you got out of your box, so he could release you when you got to star command and the coast was clear. That was your first mistake. Should've let him be, just used that fancy box of yours to suck up the security field."
"But-" He began to defend himself, putting the working hand to his lip.
"Hush it." She slapped his hand. "Let me finish. I've got tons of holes to poke yet. If you couldn't get out without the bot, you should have killed him as soon as you were finished. That was your ultimate demise. Adding to that, Commander Nebula was in the database. You had the computers all to yourself; you should have known whether or not he trusted machines instead of blurting something flat out." She slapped her palm with a soldering iron to get it started. "Last but definitely not least, your arrogance could have killed you on any of the occasion when you ran into Buzz."
"I've heard enough." Nos spat, shaking his head. "You've made your point. I could have done better."
"Oh whoa." She rolled her eyes. "The fabulous energy vampire agrees with little old me."
"Little one, you're just lucky I'm trapped here." He hissed resentfully.
Had he just called her 'Little One'? She knew the pet name from his stories. How cute, he was calling her by less insulting names now. But what he had added onto the end of his creepy nickname was worrying. Will he really just fly off? She paused from holding a heat gun to the wire wrappers. Of course he will. What kind of ass do I think I'm repairing here? He's a villain for God's sake. Just going to fly off the moment I finish him without a bit of thanks or regret.
She reapplied the heat, trying to burn away the thought. "I've got to work on some other stuff as soon as you're up and running again. Just remember we paint soon so don't get any stupid ideas. You're going to help me before you ever get a decent paint job." That threat should hold him for a while. More time to poke holes, and the less time it would take to repair the theatre.
"Fair enough." He rolled his eyes, but smiled a little.
Renee felt herself melt. She shook her head coldly. Think Jonah. She commanded herself. I'm just spending way too much time with this… machine. "Then let's get you finished up." The girl held up his still limp hand and started to test the circuits. "I need to pick up some terrilium sheets tomorrow. The cost is going to freak my dad out."
"Yes. That aluminum isn't going to hold long." He agreed. She had even applied it loosely, caring not to make any permanent joints so she could replace it. "I don't think I can help with the cost, though."
"Maybe you don't have to help with the cost." She had an idea. It could work, she was sure of it. "You can just steal them."
Nos looked at her in surprise. "I… suppose I could pull it off."
"It's not like stealing terrilium plating is a capital crime." She rolled her head. "Aren't you supposed to be good at this stuff? Kill the electricity and your home free."
"Isn't that supposed to be kind of wrong?" He asked. I like her style.
"Not if you do it. You're the bad guy here."
"Good enough for me." He sat up, twisting his newly reattached arm.
Renee pushed him down again. "Not done yet. Cool your horsepower."
~~~~
Nos kept flexing his arm, smiling wickedly. "Are you happy with yourself yet?" Renee asked, snickering.
"What?" He looked up, having almost forgotten that she was there. "Oh, yes." The vampire looked away. He could've blushed. Leave it to a teenage girl to make you feel like an idiot.
Renee continued to tighten the bolts on the underside of the balcony. It was wobbling a lot less now. "Much better than a ladder." She smiled down on her little helper. 'Big helper' might have been better.
"Don't get used to it." Nos held her higher. "But no problem." He had her around the waist, holding the alien up to the balcony's underside. He had gotten his fair share of scolding as they worked. Something he found in all the tips and pointers that had come with the scolding was this- kill XR first. "You've got something against XR, don't you?" He asked casually, watching where he guided her.
"I never said anything about it. Why?" She wiped a few drops of sweat out of her fur.
"Context clues. I want to know why you want him dead."
"I never said anything about wanting him dead. I was just telling you what should have been done."
"So transparent." He smiled curiously. "You obviously have something against that sorry tin of snack- chips. What is it?"
"Alright, alright." Renee held up her hands in fake surrender. "You caught me. But who says all members of the galactic alliance think like an alliance? There are some pretty wicked bad guys out there to."
"You're changing the subject." Nos scowled.
"Fine, jeez." She finished fixing the last bolt and they dropped to the floor. "The bot, XR, you see…" She paused, working the story over in her head. "When I was just a kitten, I still lived on Zephyr. Of course this was long before you were ever built, but my dad was a ranger and he would hang around Buzz and the rest of team Lightyear whenever they dropped into the Zeta quadrant. One day dad needed a babysitter, fifty unibucks pay, for me. The team didn't give one iota, but Mr. Noble butt Lightyear talked XR into doing it."
Nos winced inwardly. It was a nightmare to simply imagine being trapped with that mechanical terror on treds for even a few hours.
"So, like I said, XR gets signed up for babysitting duty by Buzz. Of course I was on the losing end. XR just told me 'sit in your room, be quiet, and let me alone.' It worked perfectly fine. Until" She held it out dramatically. "One of the regular passing zeppelins dropped something. I never got a good look at what it was, but the thing went straight through the ceiling and onto the ground floor. Of course Chips for Brains down there freaked out. He ran up the stairs, and guess what?" She left him hanging.
"Hmm… He shot you?" That was the best guest he cared to make.
"Close enough." She smiled. "He threw me out of the window in some freak panic attempt to 'save' me." The girl made air quotes around 'save'.
"Ouch." The vampire winced again.
"Oh yeah. Second story, landed on the roof of my porch and… broke my arm." She shivered. The old break seemed to have a sudden shot of pain. "He flew to the hospital, of course. Without me."
"Again- ouch."
"You said it."

Description
Walking down the street of their suburb to drop Kindle off at his house, Renee's phone rang. "Hello?" She glanced at Jonah and smiled faintly. She hadn't checked the number but fully expected her father or Mrs. Andromeda to be asking where they were. After all, the girl still hadn't taken a shower or eaten and they had been looking for the runaway since seven thirty. It was ten now. She nearly dropped the phone in surprise when Nos-4-a2's voice hissed out of the microphone.
"Renee, when are you coming back?" He demanded, not really angry but on the brink of it. His voice hitched. "There's something wrong."
Again the idea that he had been discovered crossed her mind. "What is it? I can't really talk right now, with friends. And where the hell did you get the phone to call me?"
"It was in the back, one of those wall phones. Never mind that, I'm starving! Literally!" His voice hitched mechanically.
"What?" She suddenly stepped off into an alley, aware that the boys had stopped to eaves drop.
Jonah tapped her shoulder questioningly. "Who are you talking to?"
She waved him away embarrassedly, smiling. She covered the mouth speaker and said "Just a friend from out of state, don't worry." He nodded back and moved away with Kindle, continuing home.
"I haven't eaten anything in three days or so." He barked unhappily. "And it doesn't help that this dead arm is spitting sparks all over the place. I'm shorting out over here and I can't very well get over to the generator room. Bring me something to eat!" Nos lulled. "Please?"
"Yeah, please." She smirked. "Give me some time to get a shower and some breakfast."
He sighed disappointedly. He knew he was in no position to order her around, at least not until he was fully repaired that is. "You people. Fine, go home and bathe. But you can eat here. And hurry!" His voice jumped again.
"I will, jeez." Renee hung up, the vampire still ranting on the other end. "Sorry guys." She apologized, more facing Jonah than Kindle. "But I really need to get home." She hugged them both quickly. "You go home and get better, Kindle." She offered.
"I will." The other alien replied quickly. He loved the attention, but hated it to.
"I'll walk him home." Jonah said kindly.
"Good idea." She replied, thinking of how off- balance he must be with those messed up ears.
"Thanks." Kindle muttered coldly, still wearing a big falsetto smile.
He must be in so much pain. The girl thought tenderly as she ran down the street to her house. She didn't know the half of it.
~~~~
Nos was rocking back and forth grumpily, eyes lazy and somewhat dark when she arrived. "Where were you? Did you bring me some food?" He said before Renee was even in the door. He was back on the stage with bits of machinery that still needed to be packed back into his base lying askew.
"Yeah yeah." Renee rolled her eyes and tossed him a package of twenty- four lithium ion D batteries she had grabbed at the WalMart on the way there. The energy vampire tore open the package and jammed a battery into his mouth, draining it. He savored the splitting bite of battery acid for a second then continued to the others.
The theatre was at the edge of town, marking where the forest began. Trees swayed outside calmly. Renee stared out a window at the woods for a second then snapped back to reality. She realized Nos hadn't been lying; the socket where his arm had been was still showering sparks onto the hardwood. She was lucky he hadn't burned the building down, going that way
"I better reattach that." She whispered, thinking mindfully of how long it would take to finish on him, paint and all, compared to how long she had to clean up this theatre. Three weeks until the play. It couldn't be so hard.
"Yes, and when did it occur to you that that would be a good idea?" He said resentfully, biting into another battery.
His tone was infuriating, so ungrateful and arrogant. No wonder someone had blown him sky high. "You think awfully high of yourself." She said, setting up beside him and preparing the arm.
The vampire was taken aback. "I was programed for nothing but success. I expect no less than perfection, from myself and anyone who works for me." He looked at her indignantly. "Blame Zurg. I'm going after him as soon as I'm out of here." Nos looked out the window, disgusted, at all the nature.
"You've got to get in touch. Instead of just assuming your first plan is going to work, fix a backup. And don't be so pushy." Renee advised.
"What makes you so sure that's what's wrong with me?" He snapped, somehow knowing she was right.
"Because it's fun to poke holes in your plans, and trust me, there's plenty of holes to go a' pokin'." She held a screwdriver up to his face. "Poke. Poke. Poke." She pretended to jab imaginary holes in his plans.
Nos shoved her hand away. "Then explain."
"Well." She started, reattaching the wires in his shoulder joint. "When you first got to Star Command, we'll start there. You said you bit XR the moment you got out of your box, so he could release you when you got to star command and the coast was clear. That was your first mistake. Should've let him be, just used that fancy box of yours to suck up the security field."
"But-" He began to defend himself, putting the working hand to his lip.
"Hush it." She slapped his hand. "Let me finish. I've got tons of holes to poke yet. If you couldn't get out without the bot, you should have killed him as soon as you were finished. That was your ultimate demise. Adding to that, Commander Nebula was in the database. You had the computers all to yourself; you should have known whether or not he trusted machines instead of blurting something flat out." She slapped her palm with a soldering iron to get it started. "Last but definitely not least, your arrogance could have killed you on any of the occasion when you ran into Buzz."
"I've heard enough." Nos spat, shaking his head. "You've made your point. I could have done better."
"Oh whoa." She rolled her eyes. "The fabulous energy vampire agrees with little old me."
"Little one, you're just lucky I'm trapped here." He hissed resentfully.
Had he just called her 'Little One'? She knew the pet name from his stories. How cute, he was calling her by less insulting names now. But what he had added onto the end of his creepy nickname was worrying. Will he really just fly off? She paused from holding a heat gun to the wire wrappers. Of course he will. What kind of ass do I think I'm repairing here? He's a villain for God's sake. Just going to fly off the moment I finish him without a bit of thanks or regret.
She reapplied the heat, trying to burn away the thought. "I've got to work on some other stuff as soon as you're up and running again. Just remember we paint soon so don't get any stupid ideas. You're going to help me before you ever get a decent paint job." That threat should hold him for a while. More time to poke holes, and the less time it would take to repair the theatre.
"Fair enough." He rolled his eyes, but smiled a little.
Renee felt herself melt. She shook her head coldly. Think Jonah. She commanded herself. I'm just spending way too much time with this… machine. "Then let's get you finished up." The girl held up his still limp hand and started to test the circuits. "I need to pick up some terrilium sheets tomorrow. The cost is going to freak my dad out."
"Yes. That aluminum isn't going to hold long." He agreed. She had even applied it loosely, caring not to make any permanent joints so she could replace it. "I don't think I can help with the cost, though."
"Maybe you don't have to help with the cost." She had an idea. It could work, she was sure of it. "You can just steal them."
Nos looked at her in surprise. "I… suppose I could pull it off."
"It's not like stealing terrilium plating is a capital crime." She rolled her head. "Aren't you supposed to be good at this stuff? Kill the electricity and your home free."
"Isn't that supposed to be kind of wrong?" He asked. I like her style.
"Not if you do it. You're the bad guy here."
"Good enough for me." He sat up, twisting his newly reattached arm.
Renee pushed him down again. "Not done yet. Cool your horsepower."
~~~~
Nos kept flexing his arm, smiling wickedly. "Are you happy with yourself yet?" Renee asked, snickering.
"What?" He looked up, having almost forgotten that she was there. "Oh, yes." The vampire looked away. He could've blushed. Leave it to a teenage girl to make you feel like an idiot.
Renee continued to tighten the bolts on the underside of the balcony. It was wobbling a lot less now. "Much better than a ladder." She smiled down on her little helper. 'Big helper' might have been better.
"Don't get used to it." Nos held her higher. "But no problem." He had her around the waist, holding the alien up to the balcony's underside. He had gotten his fair share of scolding as they worked. Something he found in all the tips and pointers that had come with the scolding was this- kill XR first. "You've got something against XR, don't you?" He asked casually, watching where he guided her.
"I never said anything about it. Why?" She wiped a few drops of sweat out of her fur.
"Context clues. I want to know why you want him dead."
"I never said anything about wanting him dead. I was just telling you what should have been done."
"So transparent." He smiled curiously. "You obviously have something against that sorry tin of snack- chips. What is it?"
"Alright, alright." Renee held up her hands in fake surrender. "You caught me. But who says all members of the galactic alliance think like an alliance? There are some pretty wicked bad guys out there to."
"You're changing the subject." Nos scowled.
"Fine, jeez." She finished fixing the last bolt and they dropped to the floor. "The bot, XR, you see…" She paused, working the story over in her head. "When I was just a kitten, I still lived on Zephyr. Of course this was long before you were ever built, but my dad was a ranger and he would hang around Buzz and the rest of team Lightyear whenever they dropped into the Zeta quadrant. One day dad needed a babysitter, fifty unibucks pay, for me. The team didn't give one iota, but Mr. Noble butt Lightyear talked XR into doing it."
Nos winced inwardly. It was a nightmare to simply imagine being trapped with that mechanical terror on treds for even a few hours.
"So, like I said, XR gets signed up for babysitting duty by Buzz. Of course I was on the losing end. XR just told me 'sit in your room, be quiet, and let me alone.' It worked perfectly fine. Until" She held it out dramatically. "One of the regular passing zeppelins dropped something. I never got a good look at what it was, but the thing went straight through the ceiling and onto the ground floor. Of course Chips for Brains down there freaked out. He ran up the stairs, and guess what?" She left him hanging.
"Hmm… He shot you?" That was the best guest he cared to make.
"Close enough." She smiled. "He threw me out of the window in some freak panic attempt to 'save' me." The girl made air quotes around 'save'.
"Ouch." The vampire winced again.
"Oh yeah. Second story, landed on the roof of my porch and… broke my arm." She shivered. The old break seemed to have a sudden shot of pain. "He flew to the hospital, of course. Without me."
"Again- ouch."
"You said it."