Chapter 7

Nos-4-a2 hadn't been expecting that kind of reaction from the young female and was totally unprepared when she screamed like a banshee and flung herself at him. The girl slammed into his chest, knocking him to the ground. He roared in surprise and struggled to push her away but could do very little with only one arm except flail helplessly.

"You stupid vampire," she screamed into his face. "How dare you do that to my father's gun!"

He shoved at her but wasn't able to dislodge her. She gripped his arms and glared into his face, he expression that of one who had just lost something precious. "I won't let you get away with that! I don't care what he says!"

The girl held him down with her knee and let go of one of his arms so she could grip his forehead. Before he could stop her she slammed his head hard against the pavement.

An explosion of static burst into his head as sounds and images winked out. He struggled to regain his senses but the alien girl repeated the movement and the static winked out to body suddenly went limp as consciousnees slipped away from him even as he tried to hold onto it.

He couldn't let it end like this. He couldn't let that girl take him down so easily but there was nothing he could do to prevent it.

Right before he slipped into stasis mode he heard the evil voice mocking him. Such a disappointment. You're so much tougher than that. I'm so ashamed of myself.

00

Heather Gemini stopped smashing Nos-4-a2's head against the ground when she realized he was no longer online. She stopped the onslaught and looked into his face. The red optics had gone dark and he stared at her with a blank expression. She stared back, suddenly realizing she might have gone too far.

Uh oh. I did it again. I hope I haven't killed him.

Letting go of the energy vampire's head she reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a small computer. Switching it on she ran the tiny machine over his limp form. The read out told her he was still funtional, just in stasis. She sighed in relief and pocketed the device.

Well so much for a challenge, she thought getting up. But at least he's still alive. She reached down and grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the dumpster. When she realized holding onto only one wasn't a good idea, she tried to grab the other only then discovering he only had one arm.

"Huh?"

Zurg didn't tell me that Nos-4-a2 only had one arm. she put her hands on her hips and glared down at the machine. Now how in the world am I going to put the cuffs on him if he's only got one arm?

Just then she heard a voice call from above. "Heather!"

The blue haired girl looked up and saw Buzz Lightyear and his robot friend slowly decending toward her. "Oh great," she muttered. "I bet now they're going to try to take him from me.."

Her guess prove right a few seconds later when the space rangers landed and Buzz said. "I see you've managed to incompassitate the suspect." he walked toward her. "We'll take it from here."

"Oh no you won't!" she shouted, stepping in front of the robot vampire. "I'm the one who captured him, Lightyear, and I'm not going to give him up to a bunch of pompus space rangers."

Buzz glared at her. "Don't start with that attitude, young lady," he scolded her. "You know giving him up to the Gallatic Alliance is the right thing to do."

"I know no such thing," she snapped, folding her arms. "The only thing I know is that you're trying to take him away from me and steal credit for capturing him."

"I will do no such thing," he informed her.

"Don't lie to me!" she shouted, clenching her fists. "Just get away from me and let me do my job." she turned back to the vampire but Buzz grabbed her arm, forcing her to give him her full attention once more.

"Now you listen to me, Miss Gemini," he began. "If you don't hand Nos-4-a2 over to the propery authorities it can end very badly for you."

"Are you threatening me, Lightyear?" she asked.

"I'm not threatening," he said. "I'm giving you a warning."

"Well," she said shaking his hand off. "Thanks for the warning but I'm not going to change my mind." she reached down and grabbed Nos-4-a2's good arm. "Don't tell me how to do my job. You should be focusing on your own."

"I was sent here to capture Nos-4-a2," he told her. "and I intend to do what I was hired to do."

"And you failed your mission," she responded. "I got him first, which means you have to step aside and allow me to do my job."

"Just who exactly paid you to capture him anyway?" he asked her.

"That," she said, sneering. "Is between me and my client."

Buzz wasn't about to let her get away with such a vague answer. "I mean it, young lady! Who is your client!"

Heather looked back at him again, her expression defiante. "Why don't you try and find it out for yourself," she challenged. "Seeing as you're so smart and perfect."

Then before he could say another work she and Nos-4-a2 disappeared into the ground. XR watched this with his mouth hanging wide open. "I wha-what in the world?" he looked up at Bizz. "Did that girl just ghost through the ground?"

Buzz nodded absently. "Yes she did," he said, as his mind worked over what she'd said. "She's half Tangean."

"What?"

XR gaped at the space ranger, unable to process what he had just said. "She's half tangean?' he asked.

Buzz nodded.

"How can that be possible?" he asked him. "Tangean's have a strict code about those things. If any of them went and married someone of a different species-"

"I don't know how it happened," Lightyear cut him off. "I just know it did."

"But if her parents were well known bounty hunters wouldn't that be common knowledge?"

For a moment Buzz didn't respond. He seemed to be debating whether to tell the robot what he knew about her family or continue to keep it to himself. "Her parents didn't exactly follow the rules anyway," he finally said. "Her mother was a bounty hunter that fell for her father who was a Tangean knoble. Because neither of their parents approved they eloped."

"Oh so it's like a Romio and Juliet kind of thing then?"

"I guess you could say that," Lightyear responded, frowning. "But anyway that's about all there is to the story."

"Aww I was hoping for something more interesting than that."

"Forget about that," Lightyear replied looking down at him. "We have more important things to worry about."

The space ranger turned away and headed back the way they came.

"Where are you going, Buzz?" XR asked, wheeling after him. "Aren't we even going to try to catch up with her?"

"Oh, we will," Buzz informed him. "But first we have some research to do."

00000

Heather ghosted out of the ground with her prize a few blocks away from where she'd left Buzz and XR. Once she was fully out of the ground she let go of Nos-4-a2's arm and leaned against the wall, panting. "Craters, that took a lot out of me," she grumbled, her hand resting on her chest. "and that guy is heavier than he looks!" she glared down at the robot. "Stupid robot, Why does he have to weigh a ton?" she toed him with her foot, wanting to kick him but knowing she'd hurt her foot if she did. "How am I going to get him back to my ship if I can't even carry him?"

She was tempted for a moment to waken the robot then changed her mind. If she did that she had no way of controling him, seeing as he only had one arm and she couldn't secure him with hand cuffs.

This sucks.

She slapped her hands against her thighs and glared down at the robot. There had to be an easy way to move him. If only he was as simple to move as the other fugatives she'd captured.

Blasted machine. I'm in shape but I'm not the Bionic Woman!

She stood still for a moment, her mind working to come up with a solution. So far nothing came to mind and it only served to further irritate her.

"Great," she muttered, sinking down to a sitting position on the pavement. "I manage to catch my prey and I can't even get him to the 's no way I'll be able to ghost all the way there. That would take up too much of my energy." She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them. "Just perfect!"

A faint moaning brought her to full alert. She instantly raised her head and looked over at the energy vampire. He seemed to be stirring.

He's waking up. Oh wonderful. This isn't going to help me at all.

She got to her feet, her injured wrist protesting when she used her left hand to hoist herself up. She winced slightly but forced herself not to dwell on the pain too much. If she focused on her pain she'd never get anything watched him carefully, noticing his optics flickering on and off in a rapid strobe light fashion. A few seconds later the anomoly ended and his optics went dark again.

She sighed. "Looks like he wasn't waking up after all..." But then what in the world was that about?

That's when he surprised her. Suddenly his hand reached out and grabbed her ankle. She could only let out a gasp of surprise before he yanked her off her feet, sending her crashing to the pavement. She hit her head on the concrete and a burst of stars fill her vision.

She fought to regain her senses and did just as the robot lunged at her, landing on top of her and pinning her down with his good arm.

Then... they just stayed in that position for a moment staring at each other.

What is he waiting for? she wondered. Why isn't he trying to kill me? He's got the perfect oppertunity.

But he didn't in fact it seemed like he was having some kind of internal conflict, it was obvious by the look on his face. His teeth were clenched in an angry scowl and a low growl emitted from his throat.

Kill her! the voice in his head urged. You have the chance. She's at your mercy. Rip her head off.

I...

Well? What are you waiting for?

I can't!

Don't start with that again! She very nearly killed you! Why are you holding back? This isn't like you at all.

How would you know what is like me?

The voice made no response to that. He shouldn't have even been expecting one from that elusive voice. It only seemed bent on making him more confused about himself and what he was. A brief memory flash went through his mind. An image of a blue skinned woman with red hair. It was there then gone before he could even try grasping at anymore informaton. It merely left him with a question.

Who was she?

He would figure that out later. Right now he had someone else with blue on them to deal with. He focused all his attention on the bounty hunter girl under him. She was struggling to free herself but not accomplishing much. She glared up at him with hard, purple eyes. Another memory flashed through his processor. A girl with tanned skin and blue hair... but she was different looking.

"I don't know what you want with me but I'm not going to let you take me," he growled into her face.

"I'm not giving you a choice," she shot back, wriggling in his grasp. "I'm being paid good money to capture you and I'm not going to let you slip through my fingers."

"Right now it seems as if the only thing you're doing is wasting your energy," he informed her as a smile crossed his lips."Seeing as I'm the one who has the upper hand."

"That's what you think."

and then... then she seemed to stink into the ground. Nos-4-a2, who stills grasped her arm started to go down with her. When his hand went into the pavement he panicked at let her go. This accomplished little, seeing as the moment he did so the sinking stopped but his hand remianed stuck in the ground. When he tried to pull it out nothing happened. Roaring in anger he yanked on his hand, wishing he had both of them so it would be easier.

"It seems you're stuck now."

Now-4-a2 looked up and found the girl standing over him with her hands on her hips. How did she do that?

Before he could figure that out the girl lashed out with her foot, kicking him in the face. The blow knocked him back but since his hand was stuck in the ground he didn't go very far and fell forward onto his stomach afterward.

He let out a roar of anger and glared up at her but couldn't do much more because his other arm was missing. She glared back, her arms folded and her hands on her hips.

"You're not going anywhere, vampire," she stated. "Not in the condition you're on so just give up before I'm force to kill you and if I do that my client won't be very happy."

Client? Who was she refering to? He couldn't think of anyone who would want him this badly but of course he lacked memory so for all he knew a million people would want him captured or worse.

"You wouldn't kill me," he stated, his eyes never leaving hers.

"You want to make a bet on that?" she asked. "I could, should kill you right now, seeing that doing so would be doing the universe a huge favor."

What did she mean by that? He tried to figure that out but nothing came to him. His mind was a blank.

"But seeing as that isn't possible right now the best I can do is finish my job and get my payment for it." she moved toward him as if to hit him again

Nos-4-a2 visably flinched and tried to move away from her, though with his hand stuck in the ground, he couldn't go very far. When she was close enough he roared into her face and tried to bite her. She stepped back, avoiding it. There was no way she was going to let him do such a thing. But there was still one problem even if she did knock him out again. How was she going to get him to her ship?

She couldn't carry him, ghosting would use up way too much energy, and she doubted she could convince him to get there himself.

Who am I kidding? He'd never do that.

She was stuck. Craters.

"You're not going to take me in that easily," Nos-4-a2 replied, glaring up at her. "I don't need hands to take care of you."

"Maybe not but they help," she responded. "and you don't seem all that formidable without them, seeing as you don't have any legs. Just those little arms and your wings."

The energy vampire didn't respond. He glared at her a moment longer then seemed to suddenly resign himself. He stopped trying to free his hand and flopped over onto his side.

Heather watched him, wondering what he was doing now. If this was another ploy to escape she wasn't going to fall for it. She readied herself but whatever she was expecting never happened.

Instead he surprised her. "Oh, what's the point of it?" he asked out loud. "I'm not going to find out anythng anyway so why bother trying?"

The girl blinked. "Huh?" she had no idea what he was talking about.

He looked up at her. "I guess nothing ever goes the way I want it," he said. "Ever since... since this happened I haven't gotten anything I wanted. I can't even repair my own arm!"

Well this was unexpected. Why in the world was he going on about this anyway? She had no idea but at least he wasn't trying to get away.

You're an idiot saying this in front of her, that voice scolded him. It's not any of her business what you're going through. Why are you bothering to tell her? Just shut your mouth already.

I don't know, it just came out. Why do you care anyway?

The voice gave no reply.

Meanwhile Heather got an idea. Since she couldn't ghost him all the way to the ship and since he was too heavy to carry she only had one other alternative. Stinking her hand into the ground she pulled Nos-4-a2's stuck arm out. before he could react to this though she was on top of him.

"Okay, here's how it's going to go," she saidl eaning down to get into his face. "You're going allow me to take you to my ship without putting up a fight and-"

"No!"

"-and I will repair your arm and give you something to eat," she finished, pretending he hadn't said a word.

He hesitated then, letting her words sink in. Would she really do that? The offer was very tempting even though he knew he shouldn't. She was here to capture him after all so why should he even agree to her offer? That would be foolish.

But what other choice did he have? He was stuck in the ground thanks to her and missing an arm, plus his system was telling him he was getting low on energy which wasn't a good thing. If he said no she would probably leave him there to die but if he said yes she would probably take him to his death. So either way he was going to die. At least if he allowed her to do what she wanted he could live a little longer and come up with a way to turn this whole incident in his favor.

Yes, exactly. Now you're thinking clearly. Once you have what you need you can get rid of the disgusting organic.

And do what?

Live for one thing. You do want to live, don't you?

Of course I want to live, but why must I take her out to do so?

Because if you don't she will take you out.

The voice was right about that. She was going to take him to his death. It would be better if he pretended to go along with her just to get repaired and fed and then take care of her before she took him to whoever had hired him to capture him.

That sounded like a plan.

"All right," he said, looking up at her. "I accept."

Heather smiled, a odd looking smile that wasn't exactly happy, more like sneaky, as if she was planning something. "Good," she replied. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

A/N

I am very sorry this fic is taking so long to write. I have writer's block so it slows down my progress.