“Who would do such a thing?” Amy asked as she watched Leela - bent over the dead Nibbler, crying.
Robin went into thinking mode with Kim and Shego. “Drakken and Blood are gone, Zoidberg was the only other one here, and he was found in the alleyway unconscious-”
Starfire’s sudden gasp & terrified cry of “CYBORG!” made the three forget completely about thinking mode as everyone but the Planet Express crew raced to the doorway into the meeting area – where Starfire stood frozen, an absolutely horrified look stamped across her face.
Raven’s face drained paler than normal when she saw. “No…”
“CY!” Beast Boy yelled upon entering.
“CYBORG!” Robin ran over to Cyborg – who was standing up by the viewscreen - but with his circuits black, not their normal colour of blue. All the Titans knew what it meant. They’d seen it before.
Ron, Kim, & Shego walked in - and all 3 quickly figured out what the Titans already knew. “Oh no…” Kim gasped. She also noticed that the viewscreen's console was sparking heavily in one spot.
Robin frantically tried to see if his friend was just temporarily incapacitated, hoping that Cyborg had some power left in reserve that would kick in soon. But after 2 minutes of trying, Robin realised that wasn’t going to happen. “His systems are down. His entire battery system’s been drained somehow!” Robin knew Starfire had come up behind him as he’d examined Cyborg. He turned around & embraced her, letting her cry as much as she wished to, her tears staining his shoulders as they fell from her eyes.
“Hello? Cyborg? Kim? Anyone?” The voice was familiar, though shrouded in some fading static.
“Huh?” Kim knew that voice. She looked over - and spied her communicator, on the floor. Wade was freaking out on the device’s video feed. “Something went wrong! Guys! Hello?” the 10-year old computer whiz yelled.
“Wade, we're here,” said Kim, picking up the communicator.
“Kim? Oh, finally, someone's there!”
“Take it easy, Wade. What happened?”
“I - I don't know. We thought we had it. Cyborg plugged him arm scanner into Circuit #257-321, and the communicator into Circuit #310-220 so we could do the test run to make sure we had it - when my computer detected a massive redirection of electrical current! I tried to warn Cyborg about it - but all hell broke loose over the communicator, and my connection went totally futzed! I just barely got it back up seconds ago!”
Shego had come over to Kim’s side. Kim took the chance and grabbed her lover’s arm, resting her head on Shego’s shoulder again to calm her nerves. Neither had known Cyborg for very long, but he was still a friend nonetheless – and considering they’d just seen someone’s lethal handiwork, the thought that Cyborg was gone for good was beginning to make Kim shake. Shego caught this, and began running her hands through Kim’s flowing red hair. She carefully took the communicator from Kim’s quaking hands. “Okay - Wade?” Shego began. “First off - calm down, boy. Deep breaths…count to 10…that's it. Now, when you heard all hell break loose over this thing, did you catch anything - like, maybe - someone else coming into view behind Cyborg, an explosion, or anything else like that?” she asked.
“I'm checking the last few seconds of what the communicator caught already. Gimme a minute and I'll send it to you.”
“Thank you lots, Wade!” said Kim. As soon as the communicator’s screen went blank, Kim turned and collapsed into Shego, her face landing on the woman’s chest. Shego calmly began soothing Kim. When it finally started working, Shego rested her chin on top of Kim’s head and looked off, contemplating.
“So, uh, what do we do in the meantime?” Ron asked.
Bender & Fry entered - and upon seeing the powered-down Cyborg standing silent in the room, Bender couldn’t resist. “Hey, what happened to the Tin Can? Systems get fried? Dahahahah-AHH!” He stopped laughing as Robin, Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, Ron, Kim, & Shego all converged on him, glaring; Beast Boy as a grizzly bear ready to strike; Starfire w/her starbolts charged up; Raven's eyes glowing white; Shego w/her green energy flared up - and Kim, Ron, & Robin just ready to punch his lights out.
“I didn't say anything! I swear!” Fry backed up, ever the innocent bystander.
“You will not insult our friend Cyborg like that ever again, robot Bender!” Starfire demanded.
“Hey, bite my shiny metal ass!” Bender retorted.
“It does not look so shiny to me!”
“Shinier than yours, meatb- ooh, actually got a nice golden glow,” Bender answered, looking behind her.
Back in the Lounge, Prof. Farnsworth motioned at the dead Nibbler. “Leela, give me the body for a second.”
Leela sniffed back a tear. “You're not gonna use it in one of your crazy experiments - are you, Professor?”
“Not yet! I just want to scan it to see if I can pinpoint the cause of death!”
“But you already know the cause of death,” Amy butted in. “His neck's been snapped like a twig!”
“Pfah! That's what God wants us to think!” said Farnsworth, taking out the scanning device.
Kim’s communicator beeped. Shego went to answer it, but noticed Kim had calmed down considerably. She nodded at Kim, who immediately answered it. “Go, Wade.”
“Okay,” said Wade, “Here's what the communicator caught:”
The communicator’s video feed changed to what resembled a security camera feed. In it, Cyborg was seen plugging the communicator and his arm sensor into the viewscreen’s console.
Wade’s voice came over the faux security feed. “Ok, track - Wait! Cyborg! Something's-”
CRZZACKK! A wave of electrical discharge rolled over Cyborg - and the feed went static with a KKZRRT!
Ron was watching over Kim and Shego’s shoulders. “Ouch - that looked really painful.”
“I still don't have the final analysis on just exactly how much electricity was discharged in that - but if it was enough to fry his circuits, I think we can all agree it was a lot of juice,” said Wade.
Raven scoffed. “Yeah, that would be kind of obvious…”
“So he got shut down!” said Bender, with no emotion whatsoever. “Bah! Lots of my friends have been deactivated - but you don't hear them complaining! Nosiree!” He crossed his arms to make his point.
“Uh, that would probably be because they've been deactivated…” Shego pointed out.
“Oh yeah.” Bender quickly got sad. “I miss those guys…”
Robin finally spoke up, slowly slipping out of his embrace with Starfire. “Let's go talk to Professor Farnsworth - we need to find a recharge system that Cyborg's compatible with in this time.”
Everybody walked back into the room - just as Professor Farnsworth finished scanning Nibbler's body. He studied the results the device gave him. “Hmm, that's odd… According to my scan, the fingerprints on Nibbler's neck are none other than his own!”
“Sweet crapster of Kidnappster!” shouted Hermes. “Nibbler didn't tell us he was feeling suicidal!”
“I knew I should've talked to him more!” Leela sobbed.
A man in the corner wearing a faded red hat spoke up. “Scruffy asks that ya’ lay off the waterworks, Miss. Gittin’ all over the fresh linoleum he just laid down in here.”
“Uh - who are you?” Ron asked the fellow.
“Scruffy. The janitor.”
“I've never seen you before,” said Beast Boy.
“I've never seen you before neither,” Scruffy replied.
“Uh…” Beast Boy scratched his head.
“Right - ok,” said Shego. “Can we move on to what we actually came in here to do already?”
“Thank you, Shego.” Raven’s voice was heavily tinged with sarcastic enthusiasm.
“Professor Farnsworth,” Robin asked, “We need your help. Something happened to our friend Cyborg, and his systems were completely drained of all their power.”
“So?” snorted the 160-year old man.
“Ask him, Wade.” Kim held up the communicator so Farnsworth could see Wade - and also turned up the volume on the communicator's speaker so Farnsworth could hear Wade better.
“We need to find a charger he's compatible with. Does S.T.A.R. Labs still exist?” Wade asked.
“S.T.A.R. Labs? That antiques shop? Pfuff! They only sell things that are a thousand years old!” Farnsworth grumbled.
“And he’s from a thousand years in the past,” Robin reminded him, thumbing back at Cyborg.
Farnsworth looked Robin up and down. “Who are you, and what are you doing in my office building?”
“Wait! S.T.A.R. Labs?” asked Bender. “I think I might've stolen from that place once!” He pored over his memory banks. “Yeah! I know where that place is! What do you need to make this guy run again?” Kim held up the communicator to Bender's head, and Wade whispered it to Bender. “What? That thing? I almost jacked that the last time that I broke in there - no, wait! I did jack it! Hold on a second!”
Bender zoomed out of the building – and returned seconds later with the charger device in his hands. “This what you were talkin’ about?” he asked, setting it down on the table.
Beast Boy, remembering the time he’d accidentally gotten Cyborg’s charger infected with a computer virus, replied, slightly embarrassed. “Yeah - that's it.” Ron plugged the machine in. Beast Boy forced the plate in the middle of Cyborg's chest aside, revealing the socket for the charger's input cable.
“How'd you know where that was?” Kim asked him as Beast Boy plugged the cable in.
“Uh…Fifth Amendment?”
“Ok, Kim?” said Wade before Kim could reply. “I know this is what fried him last time, but plug the communicator into socket number 257-484. I can hack this machine easily and make the recharge go a lot faster - while also keeping the amount of electricity sent to him at once within the safe range.”
“Alright - here goes:” Kim plugged the communicator into the socket as she’d been instructed to.
Kim’s face filled Wade’s computer screen. “All yours, Wade.”
Wade cracked his knuckles. “Stand back and watch the master.” He typed for a moment - then hit Enter.
“UPLOADING FILE: EPSTN.BRR.304” popped up in the top left corner of Wade's computer screen, whilst Cyborg's recharge process began in the window w/the communicator's video feed in it.
END ACT TWO