Summary: A My Life as a Teenage Robot fanfic one shot. Jenny fights bad guys on a daily bases. But to overcome this parasite, she'll need to use a different type of action. Especially since this rogue is holding Brad hostage while using a terrible blunder against her. Is a robot any good to her protocol if she makes errors?
Disclaimer: My Life as a Teenage Robot characters and plot belong to Viacom, Nickelodeon, and Rob Renzetti.
Error
"You wouldn't think of harming your best friend, would you?"
Jenny firmly detained a redheaded teenage boy against a brick wall. She confined him high enough to prevent his classy black loafers from touching the ground. Her metal hands seized his neatly pressed black vest. She stared straight into his eyes. While the apprehended adolescent retained a confident smirk, his eyes read something else, something that she distrusted.
"You're not my best friend," she bitterly replied.
The sun was aiming to leave their side of the world. Beautiful shades of brilliant persimmon and deep crimson danced. Shadows draped themselves against the tall buildings. A cooler atmosphere slowly replaced the warm weather. Bit by bit Tremorton settled.
"You're just a parasite that took over my best friend's body," Jenny replayed. "And I plan on saving him."
The creature governing the human boy reserved his strength. His sly smirk stayed. Though his physical form currently brought him a disadvantage, he engaged a sound strategy.
"You best watch your strength, XJ-9," he equably warned, his smooth voice brimming with venom. "Or else you'll damage his body."
Jenny growled. The organism that controlled her dearest companion spoke the truth. She could pound this threat like she does against every other menace. But that would greatly injure her friend. She needed to spare him from that method; Brad was only a victim.
"Let him go!" Jenny demanded. "Now!"
His laughter was haunting. While her friend acted marginally conceited, he was also fun-loving and full of life. This bewitched version used the boy's vocals, so he sounded the same. But he deluged an arrogant, malicious exterior.
Jenny stood her ground. "Care to share the joke? I'd hate to miss something funny."
"Your point of view, XJ-9. After my weary travels through space, you truly expect me to just vacay this organic form? I must decline."
"That wasn't a request."
"Even if I were to overthrow a different organic form that exhibits superior assets, your friend won't respond to anything. He's only—what's the word?—asleep!"
"He's what?!"
"I mean that literally. He's fully present, but his mind is far off in dreamland. He can't hear you."
"Then I guess I'll have to wake him up."
Jenny extended her legs like a pole, lifting her enemy nearly twenty-five feet off the ground, rising above the roofs. Keeping her grip on his vest, she rotated her torso like a spinning top. The boy's body swirled and swirled. She gyrated faster. His red hair swooshed. He muted himself while the town around him blurred. All vehicles, buildings, trees, and roads became hazy. The cycle halted.
"Had enough?" Jenny asked, permitting her foe to surrender.
Giving his head a simple shake, the teen opened his eyes. He appeared unfazed, which perturbed Jenny.
"One must learn to cooperate and navigate direction with little gravity in space," he explained. "I won't be getting motion sickness that easily."
"Ok, let's try this."
Lowering them back down, she kept one hand on her detainee and transformed her free arm into a clock. The screen that displayed light green digital numbers carried an electric megaphone on top. After a minute's expiration, the clock's buzzer shrieked. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The possessed teen tightly clasped his eyes. He squeezed the girl's arm. His borrowed ears rang. Several vehicles' alarms sounded off and a few store windows shattered. When the screeching terminated, he opened one eye. "Do you wish to blow out his eardrums?"
Disappointed in her exertion, Jenny grunted. "An alarm clock like that should've worked. It's a teen's worst nightmare. How is it that your grip is so strong?"
"This isn't the first time I've manipulated another being's body. I've commanded dozens of bodies on dozens of planets throughout my travels. Some are easier to maintain than others."
"Well consider this to be your final voyage." She needed to reach her friend. Possibly all the redhead needed was a friendly voice to awaken him. "Brad! Can you hear me at all?!"
"Nice try, XJ-9. Your endeavors are faithful, but I intend to stay."
Feasibly he could escape and catch another body. However, he understood that the Global Defense Unit would ruthlessly pursue her duty. And she would personally serve justice to the one who harmed someone so close to her. Expending that train of thought, he designed a plan. In one swift motion, he focused his momentum and effortlessly knocked off her grip.
Jenny grew puzzled. Her past enemies involved her employing her large firearms. She would pull out her big guns, her many blades, her numerous missiles, her massive strength. A physical struggle always entailed chasing and retreating. However, this opponent remained stationed. This was a new game. A game of chess.
"It's amusing how a robot and a human are friends," the redhead noted, placing his hands on his hips. "And how comical is it that you two, despite your quarrels, engage in both high school antics and world saving tomfooleries. Tell me, if I hadn't come along, would you have dragged him off somewhere superficial, like this 'mall'?"
"For your information, Brad likes the mall." Jenny kept her shoulders raised and her arms out, prepared to strike if her enemy darted. She mistrusted his pleasant conversation skills; his tone sounded foul. Incapable to grasp his plan, she kept her guard up.
"Based on this refine outfit, I can tell. Too bad you're unable to enjoy a comfy blend of cotton."
"No, but I enjoy the taste of victory in defeating troublemakers like you."
The devious creature shut his rented mouth. This girl played the game of wits quite well. She incessantly pursued her protocol. However, having visited many hosts, he uncovered ways into submerging whoever stood in his way. Using his modish loafers, he confidently ambled closer to the robot.
"My dear Jenny," he quipped. He noted that her scowl was now fiercer. "That is what you prefer to be called, isn't it? Over your original name XJ-9?"
He aimed to place one hand on the side of her face. His encounter lasted less than a second before she aggressively smacked it away.
"Don't you dare touch me," she ordered, lowering her eyes to a deathlike stare. "We're not friends."
"Hurtful. Both physically and emotionally. But then again, this wouldn't be the first time you've hurt him."
She watched the wily teen rub his injured hand. She loathed her deed. But looking back into his shrewd eyes, her resentment developed. She hated how a once warm and friendly voice morphed into something egotistical and nefarious. She despised the once kind eyes now grown crueler. And she detested the once welcoming smile turned deceitful.
"Don't try and twist my actions around," she mandated. "It's my duty as a hero to save humanity. I would never hurt a friend."
"No, of course not." He flexed his hand. The sting slowly disappeared. "While some injuries are easily healed, injuries of the heart are a different matter. This boy has endured his fair share, but one pain still lingers."
"What are you talking about? How did you—"
"A mere trip down his memory lane. I have access to his mind and all that it holds. How else am I able to communicate with you so well in this tongue? Not all aliens know English as their first language."
"You looked through his memories?!" Jenny's oil bubbled while she grew appalled. She abhorred the entity who invaded her friend's privacy. This villain acted as though he only looked through a photo album rather than expose a diary.
"And one that caught my attention was a girl," the teen steadily reported. "Yes, a lovely girl with blonde hair and special blue eyes. Only… she wasn't an ordinary girl, was she?"
Shocked by the recollection, Jenny lowered her shoulders and widened her eyes. She lost her voice. He knew that the girl he was mentioning was Melody.
"No," the captured teen continued. "She was a robot, like yourself."
"She's not like me!" Jenny vigorously renounced. She loathed that comparison.
"How so? She's a robot designed with lethal weapons. She has a very educated scientist and engineer for a parent. Her features are based more on Earth's organic life."
"Humans don't understand that not all robots are the same. We can be just as different as they are. We have our own missions, but also our own wishes."
"Like how you both long to be normal."
"That may be true, but I… Melody… She…"
"Left her home and latched on to this boy. It's no surprise for someone living a shelter life to develop a special attachment for the one that she first meets. Am I right?"
Jenny's confidence gradually dissolved. Looking at the twisted version of her friend, she grew uneasy recalling that day. She wanted that vile being out of her life. She wanted to be with her friend again. She placed her hands on the teen's shoulders and desperately cried, "Brad! Wake up! I know you're in there!"
Once more the possessed teen emitted an eerie cackle. "I'd say don't waste your breath, but you're incapable of either inhaling or exhaling."
The robot brawl was fierce. Melody had fought well; she took punches head on and returned the favor in full force. When her fury overcame her and she removed her exo-skin, she appeared ready to finish off everyone. She only stopped when she saw him, Brad Carbunkle. His look of horror struck her the hardest.
The bedeviled teen continued to chip away his enemy's poise. "Maybe he can hear your plea. But maybe he doesn't want to see you. What was his reaction at the end of all that again?"
Releasing her grip, Jenny recalled Brad's harsh words, "She's just a confused kid. A robot just like you who wanted to fit it."
She hated the ire that he had delivered. Ever since that stray baseball smashed her house's window, they had always been close friends. The redhead taught the robot girl his knowledge regarding teenage life. And she permitted him to tagalong on her adventures. Because of their close bond, she strongly believed that she was only protecting him. Perhaps she was wrong. Perhaps her true intention was misplaced.
"I did it for him!" she defended. "He could've been in real danger!"
"It would seem that the robot has transformed into a mouse. She's cornered. All for the sake of one boy's companionship. You and that blond girl have more in common than you realize. Even he saw it."
"We're not the same!" Jenny shut her eyes, raised her shoulders, and clasped her fists. She demanded that the world know their dissimilarities. "She wore an exo-skin! She kept her robot identity a secret from Brad and everyone else! She actually liked his singing!"
"Yet she saved him. She saved you as well when that smitten cockroach tossed that vehicle towards you two."
Despite her stresses on her and Melody's differences, Jenny recalled Brad's sorrow when Melody departed. Many girls at their school openly rejected his advances, but he marched on. The blonde android was unlike any previous girl. He truly did appear hurt at the end.
"Your actions were rough," the redhead brought up. "Your assumptions did cause her to flee in tears. What happens when you assume?"
Nonetheless, Jenny sustained her position. "I did it for him! When Carol the cockroach champion tossed that car towards us, I stood in front of Brad! I protected him!"
Her wiring heated while her emotions flared. She denied her mistake. She was a robot. Machines follow their protocols uninterrupted. If she was to malfunction beyond repair, her mother could dump her in a scrap pile. A metal graveyard. She wondered if something could easily replace her.
The teenage boy under control enjoyed his upper hand. "Poor girl felt like she didn't belong. Wonder what she's doing now. Roaming the world without a place to call home? How tragic. And I'm not the only one to believe so." He hinted towards the real redhead's perception.
Jenny renounced the situation. A hero's obligation was tough—she would spend her weekends and lunch break busting up threatening asteroids, she would wake up early to stop a broken dam halfway across the world before school, and she would constantly save the people who belittle her repeatedly.
"But Brad always cheered for me," she whispered. "He always likes listening to my adventures even when I get tired of doing them. And he likes hanging out with me to do normal teenage things. He makes me feel normal yet special."
Having overheard the robot's murmur, the fiend concluded his game plan. "Perchance a fear then that he'd cease hanging out with you altogether?"
Jenny froze.
"That's it, isn't it?" The malevolent teen won the match. "If he were to go off with this blond girl, you'd be by yourself. You'll attend a school where everyone ignores you yet at the same time banter you for your differences. You wouldn't have anyone to share your stories with. You'd be just a robot looking to fit in. Just. Like. Her."
Unable to hear anymore, Jenny shoved the boy to the ground and took off via her rocket boots.
The sun finally melted into the horizon. A full moon cast its beautiful glow. Endless twinkling stars accompanied the giant, silver sphere. Buildings and streetlights lit themselves. All the warmth now vanished. Tremorton settled in for the night.
She landed in an alley. She sat next to an empty crate and a warped box. Plenty overran her computer mind. Her suspicion against Melody caused an innocent robot to castoff her robot-self. Her insistence to safeguard her friend caused an uproar. She was a wreck after their battle, yet Brad focused more on the blond robot. Melody's departure greatly hurt him, far more than a punch to the face or a kick in the shin. Her blunder had hurt him.
"Were my actions that day any better than the bad guys I fight on a daily bases?"
The ominous laughter persisted.
She had made an error that day, but she still needed to save her best friend.
END
A/N: "To err is to human; to forgive, divine."