Disclaimer: I don't own Fairly OddParents.
Author's Note: Concrit welcomed, particularly on characterization, though it can be on anything you think I'm doing wrong. I allow anonymous reviews.
Chapter 3: Of Robots
He was not the type of person that usually took interest in Vicky's Babysitting Service. He didn't have any kids, and from the sound of it, didn't want any. He behaved like a rich British gentleman, and his clothes matched his behavior. He was smarter than most people that Vicky knew, and she doubted that she'd be able to con him into accidentally aiding any of her various moneymaking schemes. She wondered why he was at her Babysitting Service, and if she could profit from it somehow.
"I'm here to discuss modifications for your robots," said the strange man.
"Is your Vicky-bot defective?" asked Vicky. Maybe he had a robot after all, since one's own robot being defective was often a reason to suggest modifications. Another reason would be that one knew a lot about robots.
"No," replied the strange man. "Your robots work brilliantly. However, I have noticed that they break easily and are not well protected."
Vicky rolled her eyes skyward. The robots were for babysitting, not for doing/causing/preventing anything dangerous – except to the kids. What kind of damage could babysitting do to a robot, honestly? Did young kids spill stuff on them too much or something?
The strange man grabbed a purple material and several mechanical butterfly nets from a box that he had put on the floor earlier.
"One of the modifications is simple," continued the man. "All you have to do for it is attach mechanical butterfly nets to every robot you make."
"Butterfly nets?" asked Vicky with a groan. "What kind of crackpot are you?"
"The robots can use them for protection if they are threatened," replied the man promptly. "The harder modification is melding this purple material, smoof, with metal, and making new robots from it."
"Is the 'smoof' for reinforcing the robots?" asked Vicky. "It sounds like it."
"Yes," replied the strange man, smiling in a way that she intimately recognized. "Smoof is very durable, which makes it great for reinforcing materials."
Vicky pondered it for a moment. The strange man's suggestions for modifications sounded as though they'd be able to save her a lot of money.
"Sure," replied Vicky. "I'll do these modifications. They sound useful."
The man smiled – though it was more like an evil grin – and then vanished in a puff of smoke.
-
Tommy and Tammy sighed in relief when their parents came back. Because neither of them fully trusted Norm, Tommy didn't want to use any of their wishes yet, even to save them from the Vic-bot's numerous tortures.
Both of them showed the results of the constant torture they'd endured, because to remove the injuries, they'd probably need the genie's magic or a hospital. And of course, neither of them felt like taking the risk of trusting a genie, though Tammy sometimes wondered if the genie really was untrustworthy as their fairies made him out to be.
"What happened?" asked their mother in a worried tone, getting out the phone so she could call the hospital.
The twins glanced at each other, both wondering if they should tell. After all, the misery inflicted by the Vic-bot did cause them to be assigned fairy godparents, and neither of them desired to lose their fairies. Cosmo and Wanda kept them occupied when their parents left, filling the time with magical fun, granting their every desire (unless it happened to be against Da Rules), and being, among other things, their friends and another set of parents.
Tammy spoke up, deciding on a lie. "We tripped and fell down the stairs. We were carrying tons of heavy objects, which fell when we did, and hurt us."
Tommy stayed silent, as their mother called the hospital. Going to the hospital would be boring, admittedly, but at least it wasn't school. School contained a teacher that disliked Tammy, a bully that spent all his time calling Tommy a nerd, popular kids that scorned anyone unpopular and quite a few rather boring classes, all taught by that same teacher for some weird reason. It also contained some stuff he liked, but he found that the bad things he'd listed far outnumbered them. No wonder they were miserable enough for fairies. With all that and the Vic-bot, who wouldn't be?
-
Norm watched from behind a couch, in the form of a mouse. He almost groaned. This certainly deterred his plans. He'd never be able to manipulate the twins into setting him free and causing their father's downfall if they were in the hospital!
But, he was a magical genie, a magical awesome genie, so that could be fixed easily. He snapped his fingers, which was hard for a mouse to do, and the twin's wounds healed. Both the twins appeared as good as new, and the genie glimpsed expressions of shock on their parents' faces. Norm learned a crucial fact from that: Turner had indeed forgotten; no one had prevented Jarhead from wiping his memory, despite how worshipped Turner was in Fairy World.
Norm smirked. Perfect.
The twins' mother picked up her phone and called the hospital again, telling them that their services weren't required. The twins groaned, probably bothered by the loss of the opportunity to skip school. School never appealed to Turner, so it was no surprise that it wouldn't appeal to his kids.
Tammy continued talking with her parents, while Tommy went back to his room, presumably to play video games or something like that. Norm groaned. Why were the twins ignoring him? Did they know what he could give them, if they just made a wish? Did they have any desires, any wishes? Did their fairies grant every single wish they made, because somehow none were against Da Rules?
Norm laughed to himself, knowing that none of the possibilities he'd thought of were true. He knew why: neither of the twins trusted him, despite his attempts to gain their trust. Tammy almost did, but Tommy had rubbed the lamp, and almost wasn't enough. Surprising? Nope. No matter how hard the genie tried, he couldn't recall being trusted by anyone ever, though he counted his conversation with Tammy as proof of her almost-trust. If only he could turn almost-trust into full trust. If only…