My Life as a Teenage Robot and all related characters are the intellectual property of their respective owners.

The following work and its proceeding chapters will contain mature content, read on at your own peril.

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Chapter 1: The Fated Hour

"It can only be attributed to human error."

The Ruins of Tremorton, 2090

He ran.

The pitiful thing ran as fast as its primitive cardiovascular/muscular system would allow. The wretch breathed and sweated, seemingly choking on its mortality. But nothing can run forever and so it was that the human finally collapsed from exhaustion and lay there in the ruins of its former education center.

What disgusting, illogical thing these humans are! Cybernetic enhancement of the brainstem would allow for easy downloads of all requested information, rendering their primitive school system obsolete. But, of course, these things are quick to argue that such a thing would deprive them of making meaningful social relationships. They would ignorantly proclaim that the conflicts and triumphs contained within the rotted husk of these edifices are necessary for healthy psychological development. Not to mention the fact that humans always believed that such necessary modifications (which they themselves gave birth to) were an affront to their sense of human pride.

Fools….the whole lot of them are nothing but evolutionary dead ends.

"Target Acquired" intoned a cold metallic voice, which was enough to make the beaten, sweaty thing, look up from the ashes. Its hair matted to its brow, its clothing shredded, its dark eyes now bright and widened from sheer terror. The creature stared at the engine of its destruction, the metal titan before him and tried to speak, as if its words still held value. "Jen…Jenny. Please." The XJ unit lowered its laser cannon, only to grip the pathetic creature before it by the throat.

A simple increase in pressure, the snapping of bone, and then all but light hum of the XJ's power core reigned in that dead ground. This place was clean again. The sweating, bleeding, defective things called Homo Sapians were dead and Tremorton was finally gloriously quiet. Oh the joy, oh the rapture! Oh the…..

"Mother?"

The small robot spoke again, its voice trembling knowing full well that his mother did not like to be disturbed when she was in mental contact with a soldier, "Mother?".

The tall robot sighed and with a great force of will, disengaged herself from the direct link with her soldier. She stood and stretched, her metal carapace-like body creaking from the time she had spent in the neural uplink chamber. She looked down with a scowl at the one who would interrupt her very important (and enjoyable task) and saw the nervous form of her latest offspring.

This didn't trouble her in the slightest. After all entire worlds had trembled before her power….the terrible, beautiful might of Vexus the Traveller. Even her older spawn had held a healthy amount of fear for their mother.

But even those who destroy worlds have soft spots for loyal children, and Durandal, though young, was so dear to the metal queen that she often found herself quickly shaking free of her terrible visage and nuzzling her precious child, cradling his four year old frame, whispering sweet nonsense and otherwise assuring him that his mother would welcome him always.

Much like she was now and as always she would then place her child down (after all she didn't want any of her minions think she was raising a soft robot) and ask him to "State his business".

Durandal didn't mind, father had explained that such treatment would assure that there would be fewer Coups attempted by over-emboldened drones and the less interspecies infighting, the better.

The young robot stood up straight and tried to look as dignified as he could, given the fact that he was carrying around his stuffed Silver Shell doll (a fact which always made his mother laugh inwardly—it was SO adorable!) and spoke, trying to modulate his voice for a more dramatic effect. "Hail my mother, Vexus the Traveller, may all your conquests be glorious!" Vexus cocked an eyebrow, 'it appears that someone has been taking his etiquette programming seriously' , she considered his greeting for a moment and finally decided that it would be wise to humor the boy, "You have spoken, and I have heard you my child, what do you wish to make known to I, the eternal queen of the Cluster?"

"I, Durandal, your first born, do wish naught but to inform my exalted mother that I have finished my Terran language studies examination and have performed with skill and ability worthy of my lineage." Vexus leaned forward, her mecha-feminine intuition making her aware of where this would soon lead. "What was the clearance mark, my good and loyal son?" rolling the words off with just a hint of a warning (lies tended to bring about harsh punishments as Durandal had learned), but the crown prince stood up straight and answered "The clearance mark was 3.1, I received a 5.0, I dedicate this victory to you, my mother". Durandal ended his statement by prostrating himself and waiting for his mother's response.

Silence filled the chamber….only to be broken by a long, slightly sinister laugh. "Skip the formalities my son, I have already heard from the examination mainframe what your score was." Vexus added a light chuckle, and shifted on her throne motioning her son to approach and take his seat….on her knee.

Quickly shuffling over to his mothers side, and with a slight (awkward) climb up her leg, the crown prince of the cluster, Durandal (and his special friend, the Silver Shell, of course) sat on the royal knee of Vexus, and with a determined look and tone spoke to his mother, "Mother, please keep your promise, tell me about what led us here. Tell me your story."

Vexus sighed, "Very well my son, this is a story of returns, of revenge, and most of all it is a story of a great rebirth, and like all great rebirths….there is at first, only death."

"This is the story of your heritage, hear, learn, and remember………."

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Tremorton, Present Day

"XJ9? XJ9? X-J-NIN-UN!"

The aged (yet commanding) voice of Nora Wakeman was like a thunderclap to her auditory system. A simple check of her nucleo-protonic powered, satellite linked, state of the art internal clock provided her with the answer as to why: it was 8:00 a.m., she was late for school.

"XJ9! Get out of bed this instant and get ready for school!" added her mother/creator. Jenny Wakeman, the savior of the world, and titan plated teenager stood and stretched, performing a rather quick systems check she unceremoniously opened her bedroom window and with the grace and force of an ICBM launching, she blasted out of her room, leaving a dense vapor trail.

But being a super powered robot heroine has its drawbacks. Along with the usual pitfalls which come with being a teenager, she also is required to deal with the frequent threats that befell Tremorton, irregardless of how inconvenient or potentially threatening it could be to her academic career.

Today's case was no different.

Just as she was close to her destination, the Skyway patrol trouble alert system halted her. "Perfect, just freaking optimal." sighed the metallic teen as her chest plate slid open revealing a large monitor. Flashing letters and numbers lit up the dark screen, "PRIORITY ALERT! CODE 56-D IN PROGRESS! PIETRO'S PIZZA PARLOR IS UNDER ATTACK BY UNKNOWN METAHUMAN THREAT! NEUTRALIZE THREAT!"

"Pizza? What kind of a villain attacks a pizza joint?" Jenny retracted the monitor and with a simple tilt of her head, her pig-tail mounted jets changed direction and soon she was flying towards the crime scene.

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"Hey Sally, what are you….." WHAM! the young red-head buckled as an expertly delivered jab knocked the air out (and some sense in) of his body. The blond yelled at the wheezing boy, "For the last time, I will NEVER, EVER, go out with you, you loser!" she punctuated this by stomping off in the opposite direction.

"Well that could have gone better." Brad Carbunkle, accidental hero, and all around adventure junkie stood up straight and mentally noted that he needed to keep better record of which girls he had been rejected by. While Sally was by far the least damaging, he dare not try again.

"Brad my dear friend, you have little to complain about."

Brad suddenly looked around the now empty hall looking for the source of the new voice. "In here" a rather nasally voice sighed seemingly coming from (of all things) a trash can.

Brad chuckled and walked to the waste bin, "Well, if it isn't Oscar the Grouch, then the only guy it must be…" Brad lifted the top slowly, revealing a rather disheveled looking, pale, freckle faced young man his same age. "Sheldon!" Brad spoke in mock surprise, "You know usually you LEAVE your garbage, after you throw it". Brad snickered at the amusing sight of his friend buried up to his neck in trash. The nerd in question was not amused. "Funny man….NOW GET ME OUT OF HERE!!" He yelled shaking his waste bin prison. "Easy Shel, I'll get you out, just hold on to your hoodie." Brad spoke calmly trying to defuse his odd companion's "geek rage".

After five minutes of struggle, Sheldon Lee, techno-genius, and undisputed king of nerds, was free of his latest humiliation. Brad looked at Jenny's self-proclaimed suitor, and quickly brushed a banana peel from his shoulder, "I take it Don Prima is in a nasty mood today?"

Sheldon shrugged, "I never seem to notice the difference". They began walking to the cafeteria together, talking about their day, when suddenly Sheldon froze. "Shel, what gives?" Brad followed his friends eyes (his love sick eyes) and soon found the source.

"Hey Jen! What kept you?"

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'Giant….mutant…..adolescent…martial arts using…..pizza obsessed….turtles' Jenny mused, 'Silicon chips, now I have seen everything'.

Jenny sighed as she entered the school (and was promptly chewed out by the principle). She missed half of her classes today, and on top of that was looking at a rather stiff detention if she was late again. This (of course) is inevitable in her line of work, but no one in Tremorton (save perhaps her mother) could understand her situation. Her glum mood however, brightened considerably when she saw her two closest friends.

Well, one friend and one pseudo-friend….or her one human-who-isnt-creeped-out-by-her/ sometimes hero and her stalker/ally…or….

'Geez, men are confusing'. She thought 'Not like…HIM'. Her mind turned to silicon mush at the thought of her secret crush. Every available resource in her hard drive turned to displaying him and every memory she had of him. His sexy chassis, that bad/good guy vibe, the way he looked at her…the Silver Shell. While she may have outwardly shaken off the Shell after the Sadie Hawkings fiasco, inwardly her hunger for him only grew. He may be a jerk, but something told her that there was more to the big,bad, 'bot than met the eye. He was mysterious, powerful, and confident (bordering on arrogance), and most importantly….

His ass…Jenny quickly learned that she was a sucker for guys with cute butts and the way he moved those hips when he walked...it made her wild. She often fantasized (i.e. planned) that if she ever saw him again she would make things right (namely, by following the Silver Shell to his lair and making him confess his true feelings for her). Once the standard exchange love and kisses had occurred, she would then grab those literal buns of steel and…..

So lost in her daydream, was our heroine that she did not realize that she had indeed grabbed someone's ass, Brad's to be precise.

"J-J-JENNNY!" yelled Brad (who was fighting down every urge to moan)

"Wha-Brad! Let her go right this instant!" yelled Sheldon (who was fighting down every urge to cry).

"Me?! She's the one clawing my butt!" Brad's verbal defense woke Jenny from her trance, and upon looking at the sight of her mighty mitts molesting her best buddy's rear. Jenny then did what any rational robot girl caught fantasizing about her metallic beau would do.

She blushed, she stammered and then she blamed the whole thing on a circuit error.

"Malfunction?" Sheldon cocked an eyebrow, "Jenny, I know almost everything about your systems, and I don't think that…"

Ding! Ding!

"Class! Go to go! Bye!" Jenny flew off to her next class (and tore through several walls enroute). 'Saved by the bell'

Brad and Sheldon looked at each other.

"Hey Shel?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it just me or did you hear Jenny whisper something about me having buns of steel?"

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Earth's Atmosphere, Cluster Flagship 'Righteous Indignation'

A clawed hand clicked along the metal throne. The owner of the hand knew full well the value of patience. She had waited long for this day. She had planned this campaign over many long cycles, and had sacrificed everything she held dear to get to this point.

Smytus, her General/lover died to get her to this point.

Cluster Prime, the homeworld SHE had created from naught but oil and sand was now a ruined testament to her rage.

Her first born daughter, Vega, her pride and joy, her baby….she had killed her in the name of victory.

She now had her entire race once more under her control, they feared her again (after all, one who is capable of killing her own flesh and blood in order to regain the throne is more than able to do the same to any who oppose her).

Her most loyal drones were drunk from their recent victory which placed their queen back on the throne. They were ready to drink from victory's chalice again.

Her fleet was fueled, loaded and ready for deployment.

Her trump card was ready. Vexus, lovingly ran a talon around the button which could unleash it.

But most of all….SHE was ready.

Queen Vexus was back and Tremorton was going to go up in smoke and screams!

"Your highness" bowed a command drone, "we await your divine guidance".

Vexus laughed,her voice echoing throughout the hull of her vessel and resounding through the depths of the cosmos.

Next Chapter: Heroes

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