A/N: Ah! See, I told you I'd update. And here we are. An update.

Thank you for everyone who reviewed last chapter! I really appreciate it.

1. Failing to do what law or duty requires.
2. Overdue in payment.

n.

1. A juvenile delinquent.
2. A person who neglects or fails to do what law or duty requires.

10/1/02

7:02 AM

"Hey, buddy! Up and at 'em!"

Oh sweet mother of Venus, where did Booster get off being so freaking perky? NO ONE should be this happy this early, farm boy or no. XR could deal with being woken up in the morning but the attitude was intolerable.

"Get away from me..." he grumbled, burrowing into the couch cushions.

"Rise and shine!" Booster sang, shaking him. "Up up up! Wakey wakey! The early bird gets the worm!"

"Now, why do you think a worm is something I'd want for breakfast?" XR demanded, sitting up. "I mean, really."

"There you go," Booster said. "I made breakfast."

"Oooh," he said, stretching. "What is it? Copper? Nickel?" Not worms, he hoped. These organics.

"Umm... well, I made some waffles for me and for you I got some lug nuts from the hardware store," Booster said. "I don't know what they're made of but, um, they look crunchy!"

"Oh," XR said. Booster always got him lug nuts. "Thanks."

He took the bag of lug nuts from Booster and gazed glumly into it. Booster shrugged kinda self-consciously, then said "Well, I'm gonna go take a shower."

XR didn't think he needed to know every detail of the man's personal hygiene (then again, maybe it was nice to know what he could expect Booster to smell like that day), but whatever. He made a dismissive motion with his hand and continued to stare down at the lug nuts. They looked greasy and cheap.

He picked one up and put it in his mouth. Ew, it was greasy and cheap. Oh well, it was food.

He set the bag down in his lap, chewing slowly as last night's events sank in.

Twenty thousand Unibucks. Three days. Could he take out a loan? Nuh-uh. Horriblecredit. Ask Booster? Booster was dirt poor. Mira, now. She was royalty, so she must be loaded. But she'd ask questions. And if she found out what he needed the money for, she wouldn't be happy. Buzz? Absolutely out of the question. Though, he was slightly more gullible than Mira... well, it was really more that Mira was paranoid. Didn't trust him an inch.

What else was there? Sell something? No time. Return something he'd bought? No, it had all been non-refundable, which really sucked now. Oh craters.

He popped another lug nut into his mouth. Maybe he could take on a second job. Yeah, he supposed he could do that, but how much could that help? He only had three days.

Well, it was a start, and he set the bag of lug nuts down beside him and took a laptop out from his inner compartments.

5:20 PM

Unfortunately, it did, in fact, take him longer than the 20 minutes he had before he had to go to work to find something, so he wound up taking the laptop along with him and doing more job hunting on breaks. Yes, his team did notice the laptop, but he claimed he was playing Solitaire. This was satisfactory for Buzz and Booster, but Mira kept giving him suspicious looks, which he stuck his tongue out at and ignored. (This excuse turned out to be handier than he'd first anticipated, by the way, since when he got sick of finding no good jobs after two hours and threw a small tantrum, he just blamed it on sucking at cards.)

He needed something that had nightly hours, because he worked at Star Command during the day. If he didn't show up for work, obviously everyone would know something was up with him. Only there weren't any job openings on Capital Planet at night that he could do. (He couldn't work at Louie's Magnet World, for example. He'd die.)

Then it occurred to him to try Tradeworld, and when he looked there a whole rash of job offers popped up.

Some of them made him feel like he needed a shower, things like 'NEED OLD LADY KNOCKED OFF WILL SHARE LIFE INSURANCE'. (Yeah, he should probably tell Buzz about that one. He'd do that later.)

After some searching he managed to find one that had the opportunity of large bonuses, and nightly hours, AND it only made him feel like he needed a wet-wipe or something, not a full-on shower, so that was good. And it said 'no questions asked', so that was good too. So he called the place, and headed over when he got out of work at five.

5:21 PM

It was pouring heavily on Tradeworld.

This made a dent in the crowd, but not a big one. The small figure heading down the street went mostly unnoticed. The figure, child sized, was wrapped in a black cloak that hooded over his face and covered most of his body, leaving only occasional glimpses of glowing yellow eyes and mechanical treads visible. He was wearing some kind of glass helmet and the rain trickled down it, obscuring visibility further. Apparently the figure's visibility was likewise obscured, as he kept veering dangerously close to passing cars.

He was heading for the bad part of town, and the crowd was thinning steadily as he went. And the remnants were getting seedier.

He sped up, biting his lip.

Here it was, this was the address. Dirty nasty door in an alley wall, lovely.

He darted inside, his treads squealing on the wet concrete. Inside, it wasn't any cleaner.

"You the five thirty?"

He looked up to see a big, thuggy guy. Looked kinda like a fish.

"Oh, uh... yeah," he said, approaching slowly.

The fish guy nodded once and turned away. The small figure followed him down a flight of stairs.

There were more fish guys at the bottom. They ushered him into a room with a desk and a chair in front of it.

He sat down in the oversized wooden chair, which wasn’t too comfortable. His feet dangled off of it, like a little kid.

He folded his hands in his lap and looked up at the desk in front of him. Calm. Collected. Don't let them see you sweat.

The man behind the desk was large. He had a wide, froglike nose, small, almond-shaped eyes and a greasy black ponytail. He was stroking a small, mutated-looking pink furry animal. Which... didn't appear to have a head. Uhhh.

"XR," he said in a faintly mocking tone. XR was careful not to change his expression. "No last name? No title?"

XR made a throat-clearing noise. "Actually, yes, it's Ranger XR. Not a huge deal, but..." ...but kind of a huge deal, yeah.

The guy's lips pressed together.

"Ranger?"

"Yeah," he said, squirming a little. The guy's expression wasn't what he'd consider a good one to see in a job interview.

"You're a space ranger?" He'd stopped stroking his headless pet. "Is this some kind of a joke?"

"No," XR said, wringing his hands. "I thought I'd take on a second job for a little while. I need to pay off a debt, see..."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" the guy snapped.

XR froze, blinking rapidly. "Wha- me?" He waved his hands in midair. "No, no! What? I just need money, c'mon!"

The froggy thug's eyes narrowed and he resumed stroking his pet. "If you're trying to get dirt on me, this is an incredibly stupid way to do it."

"I am not trying to get dirt on you." He folded his arms over his chest, scowling. "Honestly, why you'd think I'd have any interest in a slightly-sleazy delivery service is beyond me."

The guy laughed haughtily and XR winced. "You're really a space ranger! I can't believe this!"

"And why not?" XR demanded.

"Oh, it's just a little unusual," the guy said, waving one hand in the air.

"So..." XR replied, raising one eyebrow and frowning.

"Oh, of course we can hire you," the man said, leaning forward and grinning. His teeth were very sharp and XR resisted an urge to squirm in his seat.

"You understand, ranger, that you can't tell anyone about this."

"Yeah, I understand," he said.

"All right."

The guy threw a piece of paper at him. He took it. It had an address on it.

"That's the location of your first drop-off." The guy snapped his fingers and one of the thugs dropped a package into XR's lap. It was heavy. He grunted.

"Wow, you guys work pretty fast," he said.

"And so should you, or you'll get fired," the guy said smoothly, leaning back in his seat and stroking his pet.

"Direct, to the point, I like that," XR said, winking.

The guy raised his eyebrows.

XR cleared his throat and said "Well. Yes. I guess I should... start right now then. Uh. When will I get paid?"

"When we pay you," the guy said.

"Oh, I see. Well. I should go," XR said, standing up.

"Then go," the guy said.

XR nodded, gulping, and left the room. The thug who had shown him in followed him back up the stairs and to the door. He went back outside. It was still raining.

XR tucked the package into his storage compartment away from the rain, and looked at the address he'd been given. It was miles from where he was now. He sighed. It'd take about... half an hour to get there on jetpack, only a few minutes to drop the package off, half an hour back, get another package... he got fifty bucks per package, so... if he earned fifty an hour it'd take him... 400 hours. Or two and half weeks. Mother of Venus, he'd never make it.

He whimpered.

Whatever happened he could count on working his tail off. He sighed and activated his jetpack. Might as well start now.

5:57

His first drop-off location was uncomfortably close to Killerville. It was a little, tiny, dirty, crappy house with this ugly yellow lawn and a tricycle sitting out. There was nothing particularly wrong with the tricycle that he could point out, but something about it made him think 'death tricycle'. He didn't know why. Just a gut feeling.

As someone familiar with how injurious mistakes concerning the difference between death and non-death could be, XR trusted his gut feelings, and he gave the tricycle a wide berth as he went up to the door. He looked for a doorbell and found one. However, the doorbell was pretty gross and he didn't really want to touch it so he knocked instead- though that wasn't much better. He needed to wash his hands now. Or wipe them on the side of his chassis- yeah, that'd do it.

Some lady yelled "WHO IS IT?"

"Delivery!" he called.

There were footsteps, then the door opened a crack. "Leave it on the step," the lady said, and he nodded, leaving it on the step.

He turned and left, once more avoiding the tricycle, and as he recorded the delivery down on the little notepad he'd been given, his thoughts were well, hey, that wasn't so bad. And he went to get his next package.

10/2/02

5:02 AM

As XR sat on the sidewalk tending a pretty bad dog bite in one leg, he decided his assessment of 'not so bad' had gone completely out the window. Just what kind of dog had that been? This bite was deep! He was a robot, for crying out loud! What kind of devil dog... oh, well.

He winced, wondering how he'd explain this to the LGMs. 'Yes, it's a dog bite. I got it on a mission, right? Well, no, Buzz didn't see it... or Mira... or Booster... and they don't even know I got hurt... and uh, now they want to know how I got bit too...' no, that wouldn't work, how about 'Well, I was out on a date with a girl' hey, the version of himself in the lie had a girlfriend! sweet! 'and, well, her neighbor had this dog.' Better.

He stared off into space for a moment, sighing. The last few hours had been, in the words of the hippies, 'a drag, man.' He was no longer quite so sure this wasn't a 'need-a-shower' level of scummy job after all.

Well, he wouldn't let himself think about that, because he needed this. It was just for a little while anyway, and as long as no one specifically said something was illegal, he would trust that it wasn't.

He pulled out the wad of money the boss (Marian, he'd found out his name was) had given him. 1,400 dollars. It would've been even less if that one crazy guy hadn't refused to take the package the moment he saw the logo on XR's chest, offering him money instead. XR had argued with him for what felt like forever until finally taking the money and abandoning the package on the sidewalk right outside the house. That'd been really weird... it'd almost been like the guy was afraid of him...

He gnawed his lip. Was that the guy who kept asking him not to tell Buzz, or... come to think of it, that was weird in and of itself. But... oh, well. No one ever said Tradeworld was normal.

Anyway, Marian wouldn't know the guy never got his package.

Now he got to his feet, putting the money away and taking his jetpack out. He had to be getting back to Star Command, if he was late his teammates would know he was up to something.

And considering the hot water he was already in, he sure didn't want that.

A/N: Incidentally, story extras for Chapter 1 are now available in my profile. Chapter 2 extras will be up when I upload Chapter 3, and so on.