Chapter One: Goodbye Sheen

It was hard for Jimmy to concentrate with the demands, complaints and worries of his friends and family ringing through his ears. The quaint backyard where his clubhouse was situated, was filled with glares, rolling eyes, tears and pointed fingers, all directed at him. He had gotten used to this type of reaction from the citizens of Retroville towards himself. After all, he did cause plenty of havoc on a daily basis, which left the town pervaded in a constant cloud of mayhem. However, this time there was little he could do to reassure the people around him, for even he was stumped as to how he was going to fix this situation.

One of his best friends, Sheen Estevez, was gone and it was entirely his fault.

His parents were furious at him for constructing yet another rocket set for another mission, and for his failure to retrieve their permission in order to do so. Sheen's grandmother was in hysterics collapsed in the grass with Libby at her side trying to console her. Sheen's younger sister stared at him with huge brown eyes surrounded by pools of tears. As for Mr. Estevez, he crouched beside Jimmy and spoke in a low, but shaky Mexican accent. He pleaded, "If anyone can save my boy, I know it to be you, Jimmy. Please do whatever you can to find him. I do not blame you for his departure, but I trust that you will do whatever it takes to ensure his return as safely as possible. Any hope we have, I place in you. Please do everything you can."

After what seemed to Jimmy like an eternity of swimming in a pool of guilt as thick as tar, the Estevez family managed to pull themselves away from the Neutron's yard and back home. His own parents watched the Estevez family leave and went in the house, but not before looking down upon him with utter disappointment. The boy genius sighed and sat down on the little plastic chair next to the entrance of his lab. Carl Wheezer, his other best friend whom he trusted dearly, came over and patted him on the shoulder. Trying to reassure him, he said, "Aw it's okay, Jim. You couldn't have known Sheen would have completely ignored those accurately placed little notes you put on anything he shouldn't touch, with short demands that totally would not have distracted a mind as hyperactive as his. Those vague notes that had nothing to do with Ultralord or possibly Retroland, which if they had, could have completely swayed Sheen's attention span to other things. It's alright, Jim, you couldn't have known something like this would have happened. There wasn't really anything you could have done to perhaps—"

The irony within his voice was unbeknownst to Carl, but he stopped talking when he turned to see Jimmy standing at the wall of his clubhouse knocking his forehead against it repeatedly. Jimmy sighed again in defeat and slumped down into the grass. Why had he been so careless? Forget shielding the lab against the threat of nosy females, his two best friends were enough of a handful. However, that thought quickly dissipated as Cindy Vortex marched up to him shouting at the top of her lungs. "Nice going, Nerdbomb! Your ginormous brain is always thinking away, but it never considers the consequences of its thoughts, does it? I don't know what sort of cockamamie ideas roll around in that big head of yours, but they never fail to result in sheer destruction and wild pandemonium for everyone within your vicinity!" she lectured.

Jimmy rolled his eyes and glared at the girl standing before him with her scowl, crossed arms and foot tapping lightly in anticipation for his retort. He was not in the mood for her incessant bickering and walked up to her. "Holy Heisenberg, Vortex, you're always so high up on that almighty horse of yours! Look at me, I'm Cindy Vortex, all bubbly, blonde and can do no wrong! That's right! Ignore my big mouth, bossy nature, obvious anger issues and completely illogical ankle freezing pants, because underneath all of that I'm simply perfect you see. Check me out!" he bantered.

Jimmy strutted around the lawn in attempt to mimic her way of walking. Cindy's eye twitched and jaw clenched at the sight of the boy's inconceivable nerve. She kept yelling as she waved her hands in the air frantically to get him to stop. She raged, "Neutron, you annoying little jerk! This isn't a competition as to who is the most insufferable, even though if it were it would clearly be you! This is about that new rocket of yours being a complete waste of time and brain cells! You already have a rocket! Haven't we had enough contact with extraterrestrial beings?"

The boy genius threw his arms up in aggravation. "Of course I have a rocket, Vortex, but this rocket wasn't built to hold any passengers, only a single person," he hinted.

Cindy squinted and wrinkled her nose in confusion. "Oh that's rich, because gallivanting through all of space on your own is a brilliant idea. Taking off on your own family and friends would have no repercussions at all. You've seen firsthand people's grief over the loss of Sheen, why would you have wanted to cause people to panic over you?" she questioned.

Jimmy's features softened and, with his hands in his pockets, he shrugged, "You said it yourself, Vortex. I just thought that maybe I could escape for a while and leave everyone here in peace. Picture Retroville as an isolated system, where no matter or energy can enter or exit, and cannot be created nor destroyed. Now, just as the second law of thermodynamics explains, the entropy of an isolated system is forever increasing, since there is limited energy that can be used to put things back to the way they were. Therefore, it's simpler to leave things as they progress. My inventions are sort of like that, causing such great disorder that, despite my best efforts, cannot be stopped from increasing Retroville's entropy—"

Cindy shook her head. "Enough science spiel Neutron. Get to the point," she sighed.

Jimmy took a deep breath and explained, "I thought if I left, Retroville could have had some sense of normalcy for a while. I could have found a planet where there would have been no distractions, so that I could have focused on perhaps beating Leonardo da Vinci's invention record and no one could possibly have been harmed. Alternatively, I could have found a more advanced planet, which had a love for science like mine that would have accepted me."

Cindy's mouth gaped open from hearing this. She had ranted about Jimmy's catastrophes ever since he moved here, but she had not thought he was ever listening to her incessant babbling. It was hard for her to see him harboring so much pent up sadness, and she certainly did not want to be the cause for putting those thoughts in his head, causing him to want to do away with himself. She frowned and took him by the shoulders. "Jimmy, listen to me. I know sometimes I can be hard on you, but you really are capable of producing some great things, even if sometimes they don't quite work out as well as you planned for them to. That's the whole point of being a scientist though: trial and error. It all starts with an idea, and it takes off from there. Consider Goddard, it must've taken so many tries to create him, but you did it and he truly is the most useful and loyal companion there is out there…even though he went on a destroying rampage too, but that was Timmy's fault. People like you are needed in order for society to progress and we appreciate that about you…I appreciate that about you," she admitted.

Jimmy's wide eyes blinked in shock. Even though they clearly had feelings for one another, it still caught him off guard whenever she said something heartfelt. He could never understand their relationship. They could have such nice moments, like when he had kissed her after the fiasco with the television news show. However, eventually, they would go back to their arguing selves. He gave her a lopsided smile and stuttered, "Wow Cindy, th-thanks. That's really nice of you."

With that, Cindy let go of him and shoved him to the ground. Looking down at him, she smirked remembering their time on Mars. "I'll always be a distraction wherever you run off to, might as well get over it," she laughed.

He blushed, while she looked up at the sky narrowing her eyes with her hands on her hips.

"Enough pitying yourself now, Nerdtron, and get to thinking about how we're going to save Sheen," she ordered.

Jimmy looked at his three friends standing before him: Carl, Cindy and Libby. He grinned,

"Alright, let's save Sheen."