Moose wandered down the halls. She smiled slightly; it was kind of like when she had been hypnotized into believing she was an Irken. She stopped and looked into one room. It was Mri’s old room. There was a faint light coming from it. Moose opened the door slightly to see-Cri? The blood-doll turned to look at Moose.
"Hey, it’s my killer!" she said and walked over to her.
"Isn’t it terrible, to see one’s work erased when the Tallest hook ya up to jumper cables?" she asked.
"I’M SORRY! IwasunderMri’sbraincontrolandIhadnofreewilland-" Moose took a breath, "-I’M SO SORRY!"
Cri grinned and waved it off, "It’s okay, I understand. Don’t worry! I have my own thoughts and feelings and everything! I am no longer a blood-doll to Mri! I have become a free Irken citizen!"
Moose grinned, "Cool! So they revived you after I left?"
"Yea, they took me and hooked me up to Voot Cruiser jumper cables! WOW! You haven’t felt alive until you’ve been brought to life with jumper cables!" Cri shook her head, "Oh, see these beautifully curled antenna? They're wires! Purple rammed my head into the wall when they were bringing me up and it crushed my antenna. Sooo… I got NEW ONES!"
"Coolness! Hey can you-"
"Gooood mourning, Irk! This is Kar J, your favorite Irken DJ here at N-ODK! And here’s
you Top Twenty! Number twenty, an Earth hit, DJ Sammy featuring Yanou: HEAVEN!" said Cri, her voice becoming announcer-like and started singing the song.
"-Get the radio?" finished Moose.
![](https://www.angelfire.com/anime2/Moose/qshomeBar.gif)
She left Cri jamming to the Techno beat inside her head to talk to Red. After running into the same maid at the beginning of the story, she found Red’s little hidden hole, i.e., his room. She walked in to find him listening to the same station that Cri had "tuned into".
"RED!" screamed Moose and leaped on top of him. "I’VE MISSED YOU!" she yelled and hugged him around the neck.
He grinned and hugged her back, "I take it you found Cri’s well?"
"Yea! She was playing this song..." Said Moose, raising an eyebrow.
Red sighed, "Purple’s idiocy. Now, Moose, as happy as I am to see you, I can’t feel my legs anymore.
Can you get off?" Moose sweat-dropped (think "anime") and got off.
"So, what happened on Lupesia?" asked Red. Because we all know, and I am a very lazy person, I’ll just say that Moose told him. When she finished, Red stood and headed down to the main Computer System. He tracked Kro and found her in a Lupsian prison with a
harmonica playin’ da blues.
"Well, she seems to be okay. Other then she’s in a prison," said Red. "I’ll send a SWAT team in to get her out."
Within minutes, a SWAT team had headed over to rescue Moose’s partner. Moose sighed, happy that her "friend" was going to be safe, "Since Kro is safe for the moment, what’s gonna happen now?"
Red turned, "Well, you’ll have to stay here, since you can’t go to Lupesia, now that they know something is up. And you can’t go to Earth-"
"Why not?"
"They might track your ship."
"Can’t they track the SWAT team’s?"
"No, their's is fitted with a mini super computer which scrambles their signal. That, and I’d prefer if you stay here."
"Awww... That’s sweet! Okay, I’ll stay. I would rather to stay in one piece versus being scattered throughout out the galaxy," said Moose, "and that brings up the question, where am I going to sleep?"
![](https://www.angelfire.com/anime2/Moose/qshomeBar.gif)
Several hours later and Moose was sitting on Red’s bed. She tugged at the giant red nightshirt he had lent her and pulled over a book on the nightstand. Red returned and sat down next to her. He pulled out his own book and they read for about two hours until
Moose fell asleep reading.
Red smiled slightly and took off her glasses and put the book on the nightstand. He out his own book on his shelf and turned out the light.
M E A N W H I L E (somewhere on Planet Diater, An ally to Lupesia):
Kro sat quietly in her cell playing her harmonica.
Four dark shapes flitted through the prison. There was a dull thud and the guard fell limply to the ground. An Irken looked her in the face, "Kro right?"
"Who wants to know?"
"You’re coming with us-" something hit the back of his head and he fell to the ground. A guard stood there with a huge club and looked in at her, "Who's he?" he asked in heavily-accented Irken.
"Dunno. Some reject probably." She shrugged. The guard grunted and wandered away.
Three lean forms dropped down by the cell.
"Damn, Tig got caught...," muttered a female voice. She started picking the lock with a lazer and the whole thing blew in her face. She coughed and the door swung open.
Kro stepped out and the three remaining SWAT members pulled her out to safety. The fallen guard lurched to his knees and whistled. He slumped down and two red eyes light in the dark. There was a quiet growl of annoyence and a second guard padded to where the
SWAT members and Kro had gone. In a minute, the guard was gone and hunting.
The SWAT team had gotten Kro into the Cruiser and were about to climb in themselves when the guard came. The SWAT members pulled out their guns and started firing at it.
Bad move. Bad, bad, BAD move.
This guard was not living. It was a metal hunting device, running on four legs and the ability to store over five hundred thousand DNA codes within its circuitry. Pretty ingenious, for Diater intelligence, ne? Its hide is titanium and those terrible red eyes I
mentioned earlier had heat-seeking tracers in them.
One member fired at SAND (Stealthy Aartificial Nocturnal Device), and was killed in seconds. Mostly, it was from his own stupidity, the lazer had bounced off the metal "skin" and hit him in the head.
The remaining two, a girl and a guy, turned to the Voot, leaped in and turned the engines on. The Voot blasted off the planet and flew back to Irk; all the Irkens inside said not one word.
![](https://www.angelfire.com/anime2/Moose/qshomeBar.gif)
"TALLETHT RED, GOOD MORNING! THE THWAT TEAM HATH RETURNED WITH INVADER KRO!" said the computer happily.
"AHHHHH!" shouted Red and leaped up. He nodded at the computer, "Thanks, I think..." He leaned over to see Moose still sawin’ logs (i.e. She’s still asleep).
Red’s jaw dropped and Moose woke up.
"Hey, did I miss anything?"
"You’re the first person I have ever known to sleep through the Computer."
Moose shrugged, "What can I say? I’m gifted. What’d the computer say?"
" ‘The THWAT team hath returned with Invader Kro.’"
"SMART ATH!" snapped the computer, sparking to life. Moose jumped up and ran into the bathroom. Although, since Irkens can’t tolerate water, what would it be called? Uh, I’ll just keep calling it a bathroom, okay? Thank you, anyway, Moose ran in and the sounds of clothes rustling were heard. The nightshirt was flung out and Moose ran out from the room with her normal clothes on.
"BYERED! Thanksforthenighshirt, I’lllseeyalater-" Moose took a long breath, "I MUST SEE KRO!" Red gingerly removed his shirt from his face and waved weakly. "See ya," he said and wandered off to find his uniform.
"KRO!" screamed Moose and attacked her friend. There was the sound of bones cracking and Kro’s muffled death threats and curses.
Moose released her and Kro rubbed her spine, "Hey, um, you might realize, that was my spine and um, gee, I don’t seem to HAVE ONE NOW BECAUSE YOU JUST SMASHED IT WITH YOUR CLOSENESS!" snapped Kro.
Purple and Red hovered in within seconds. Zix followed, and was vainly trying to see if she could get her head phones to work if she stuck them in Cri’s mouth (remember, Cri is now a walkin’ radio! Whoo!)
![](https://www.angelfire.com/anime2/Moose/qshomeBar.gif)
"Kro, you don’t have the prison uniform on," remarked Purple.
"Yea, apparently, I’m not good enough for one..." she said and looked at him from the corners of her eyes.
Purple coughed and turned slightly red, "Here, come with me, I need to talk to you for a minute..." He led her away. The rest of the company watched her go and
Red smiled at them.
"I need to go for a while I’ll see you all later," Red said.
"Whatcha doin’?" asked Cri.
"AHA!" shouted Zix triumphantly and twisted Cri’s left antenna so that she got the radio. "YES! Wicked!"
Red and Moose stared at them for a minute, "Um, nothing important. Just some ‘me’ time. See ya," he hovered off.
Moose shrugged and left to see what he was REALLY doing. Zix watched them leave, and started dancing to the music Cri was playing.