MLAATR: Cluster Wars

Chapter 3: Upgrade Pains; Old Bot, New Tricks pt.2

Later that Day

Wakeman Household

Basement Lab

Drew was lying flat on a metal table, staring up at an intimidating device that glowed and crackled with orange arcs of electrical discharge. Motors whined, tilting a long metal probe to point directly at his head. A droning hum increased in volume, filling the basement of the Wakeman home. "Um, Dr. Wakeman, not that I don't appreciate this and all, but … is this thing safe?"

The person he was talking to was standing next to Jenny and Brad as the figure worked at the controls. It was an elderly woman, probably seventy-five years old, wild silver hair sticking upward, and wearing red lens bottle glasses. She was thin and around almost Brad's height, wearing a black sweater turtleneck, black stockings, and a yellow lab coat with yellow high heel shoes. This was Dr. Nora Wakeman, scientist extraordinaire, and creator/mother of Jenny, as well as the other XJ series.

"Please! It's perfectly safe," she answered, as she dropped the large black goggles over her eyes. "I've modified this device since last time I did a scan on you, Andrew."

"Doc, thanks for taking the time to do this," Drew said as he tried to be comfortable in this situation.

"Oh, don't worry your nano-chips about thanking me, " Mrs. Wakeman reassured her 'patient' as she finished the final touches. "If I can figure out what's causing your glitches, we might be able to learn another mystery that your Cluster technological Nano-machine body has been deluding me."

"I just hope it's nothing too serious," Jenny replied, rubbing her hands together. A very human bad habit that she had been gaining, just as much as biting nails that didn't exist.

"Oh, it's probably nothing to worry about, XJ-9," her mother reassured. But then she turned around and gave her daughter a stern look. "And don't think that just because I'll be occupied, that I've forgotten about your upgrade."

"UGH! Mom, I'm not getting any stupid upgrade," Jenny protested, turning to her side as she huffed.

"Oh, honestly, XJ-9. You can be so stubborn. Where did you get such tenacity?"

Jenny turned to face her mother with only her side as she answered, "I got it from you, Mom. Remember?"

"Oh, that's right." she chuckled, a bit embarrassed at that realization as she finished the last touch to the machine. "There, it's ready." and before anyone asked, she ran out of the room, and shut the door.

The three teens seemed a bit confused by the doctor's action, until Brad heard his cell phone ring. He pulled it out of his pocket as he answered, "Hello?"

China

Wakeman stood on the Great Wall, at a phone booth where she had parked her rocket car there. She was currently on the phone as she shouted out, "Alright, Bradley! Hit the red button!"

Back in Tremorton

The three teens sighed at this awkward moment, as Brad walked over to the controls, and pressed the red button. Then the two stepped behind a thick metal panel labeled Blast Shield. "All right, here we go!" He flipped a knife switch, beneath a sign reading Danger High Voltage, and a deep thrummm echoed in the room.

"I guess this time the governor called." Drew gulped as the probe shone with a brilliant white light, spitting off bolts of electricity. The probe fired a bright scanning beam that swept over the length of Drew's metallic body, head to feet and back again. As soon as the equipment had hummed down, the room was safe once again as Brad and Jenny stepped out from behind the barrier.

Suddenly, Mrs. Wakeman boomed back into the room at lightning speed, coming back from her little 'trip' from China. "There," said Mrs. Wakeman, removing her safety equipment, "Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Honestly, teenagers these days are so melodramatic."

Drew slid up, blinking from the lights, and sat on the edge of the table. He pointed at a large video display on the wall. "So what's the damage, Doc? I got a virus?"

Mrs. Wakeman was already studying the full body scan. The image looked like an x-ray, but Drew's insides appeared flowing and featureless. There was a kind of structure, but it spread throughout his body like a honeycomb, rather than a skeleton, or a chassis. Strong and flexible. No bones, no organs, no muscles. No gears, no pumps, no motors. However, there was something amiss with the tick-shaped nanobots. Firing across to one another, green bolts of unstable and rather destructible energy sparked wildly, doing some serious damage.

"Fascinating," she mumbled. "Variable atomic structure. Distributed energy generation. Non-centralized molecular computing. All appear to be normal." She cocked an eyebrow as she stroked her chin in thought. "But this energy signature that your nanobots have generated… completely unknown." it was then that it suddenly clicked. "Wait a minute, that energy signature is unmistakably Pip Crystal based!" She turned her attention to the trio as she deduced the cause of Drew's ailment. "Somehow, and I'm still calculating on how it happened, Andrew's nanobot-based body, has somehow ingested the unstable and rather unpredictable element of Pip Crystals, and are now reeking unimaginable havoc on his systems."

As Mrs. Wakeman was going through reams of data on one of her computer screens, excitedly jotting down notes on a clipboard. "But is Drew gonna be okay, Mom?" Jenny asked, fearing the worst for her friend.

"Yeah, Doc," said Drew, pointing to the video display. "Am I falling apart?"

"Oh, don't be so temperamental and dramatic, you two," Mrs. Wakeman picked up a thin metal wand and walked over next to Drew. "My suspicions could be theorized in that your nanobots are simply trying to upgrade to handle such a power source, Andrew."

The teens in the room gave Mrs. Wakeman a clueless look as they asked. "What?"

Mrs. Wakeman groaned, knowing full well she was gonna have to explain in lament's terms to these kids. "Ugh. The strange behaviors you underwent yesterday and today, the vomiting, your powers not working properly, they're all possible indications that your nanobots are beginning to reformat themselves in order to contain and utilize the energy that the pip crystals have infected your body with."

"There's something that buggin' me," Brad asked as he cocked an eyebrow at Drew. "Just how did you manage to digest Pip Crystals when there aren't any on Earth at all?"

Drew gulped at that question, until Jenny shook her head and answered, "That's easy, Brad. don't forget, Jean Phillipe had a fabric loaded with Pip Crystals that he used to make prom dresses for Brit and Tiff." She groaned as she remembered that was a difficult battle; luckily the Krust Cousins were fashion cautious, so it was easy to trick them to get rid of them. "They must have thrown the fabric out, and Drew must've stumbled on them by accident."

"Yeah, that's sort of how it happened," Drew lied, and everyone buying it. But then he pointed at the two growths at his head as he asked, "But… what's with the devil horns on my head."

"Devil horns?" Tuck asked as he popped out from behind the door, excited as always when it came to something about freaks and monsters. Just a playish boy thing in some cases. He rushed over as he begged, "Let me see! Let me see!" but when Drew turned to face Tuck, the little boy took one look at the two growths on Drew's head… and responded the only way he could. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAH!" Tuck jumped up and clamped onto Jenny's head as he shook with fear.

Ignoring Tuck's usual screaming outburst, Mrs. Wakeman deduced. "I suspect it could be part of the process of reformatting your nanobot body, Andrew." She merely shrugged as she calmly strode over to him and pat him on the shoulder, "It's probably nothing to worry about. Cyber-puberty and all."

"Well, I have my own theory to boast out," Tuck shot out, as an eerie background popped up behind him and his face was a bit overshadowed. "I think the Pip Crystals have infected his body, causing the nanobots to become confused, paranoid, and dangerous. Slowly changing him from within, and turning Drew, slowly but surely, into a… monster… A HIDEOUS MONSTER!"

"You and your wild imagination," Brad groaned as he shook his head. "Seriously, Tuck. This isn't like the nano-tick that Vexus sicked on Jenny, this is Drew's body handling a power overload. C'mon, two pimple bulbs on his skull does not a monster make."

It was then that they all heard something clatter to the ground, as well as a groan from their nanodude friend. They turned their attention, and noticed that Drew was hunched over a bit, as he groaned a bit and noticed the mess he left on the floor. But it wasn't the usual silver green vomit like yesterday… it was his teeth. After he was done groaning, he looked up to everyone… and exposed a set of shark-like teeth in his mouth replacing his human default teeth.

And it wasn't Tuck that screamed… but everyone else did all together. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Seeing them freak out like that, Drew turned around and closed his mouth to hide his new monstrous teeth. After the scream ended, slightly he turned to look at him with his left eye. They were still freaked out, looking at him with big freaked out eyes. Wanting to make sure that they didn't do it again, he faced them, and exposed his teeth. Unfortunately, the screaming started again, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAH!"

Drew's shoulders slumped as he sighed to his friends. "The, uh… screaming, isn't helping my morale, guys."

Sensing his friend's spirit dropping, Jenny shook her head as she walked over to her buddy. "Screaming? No, we were, um… "

"Singing," Brad squeaked out. "Right, Tuck?"

"Are you nuts? I'm screamin' my head off!" Tuck shouted out hysterically. "Look at the size of those knives in his mouth? If he goes robo or human cannibal on us, he's gonna shred us up!"

"Gee, thanks, Tuck," Drew sighed crossing his arms.

However, Mrs. Wakeman walked over as she pried his mouth open to examine Drew's new dentures. "Hmmmm. I'm going to need more study on this." and then sharply turned to Jenny. "And we're still going to talk about your upgrades, young lady. Don't think that this excuses you out of them."

"No, Mom," Jenny protested as she crossed her arms and huffed. "I'm not becoming a bigger freak than you try to make me."

"Young lady…"

"NEEEEEEEERGH!" Jenny whined as she grabbed Drew by the wrist as she and the others walked out of the room, and slammed the door.

Mrs. Wakeman just sighed in exhaustion as she walked over to take the fallen teeth for examination. "Ugh! Stubborn and temperamental. Why did I build a teenage robot?"

Early Evening

Mezmers

The coolest hangout for all teens in all of Tremorton was buzzing like crazy. The hip hop music, the shadows of kids dancing being shown in the window, indicated that this was gonna be one heck of a shindig tonight. However, as Tremorton's robotic teens were making their way to it, it was showing much resistant for their silver green friend. Jenny, after stomping out of her home with everyone else, decided they needed to blow some steam off. Brad decided to take them all to Mezmers for the night, but Drew was hesitant. And knowing Jen, she wasn't about to let him go without a fight.

"Jenny, this is serious!" Drew protested, dragging his feet as Jenny pulled him persistently into Mezmers'. however, as she dragged him, he left plow marks of his heels into the pavement as she continued to pull him. "I said no, Jenny! What do I have to do? Make a new word for No?"

"OH, come on, Drew," Jenny stubbornly dragged him in, until she finally yanked him in. "Don't be such a baby!"

"Yeah," Brad encouraged. "Nobody's gonna notice."

Finally, she yanked Drew into the hangout as he stumbled on in, the music seemed to stop as everyone inside took notice. Drew was now sporting a paper boy hat on his head…with the horns sticking out, as well as false teeth in his mouth, sticking out from his lips, giving him the appearance of a duck. All anyone did at that time, was stare at the nanodroid that was once a human named Drew Nabholtz. As he walked in, they just whispered rumors and stiffened chuckling or giggling of sorts. For Drew, this was just unbearable for him to even be in the same room.

He sat down at one of the tables, with Jenny and the others sat down with him. He sighed as he heard the chuckling, "Great, now I feel like an even bigger…Fool." his voice had suddenly deepened, causing his friends to gain wide stares at him, as he slapped his hands on his mouth. "Oh, great. My voice is acting up too."

He then jumped out, as even more laughter erupted for the robot boy's awkwardness. Feeling the laughter getting to him, Drew went against his usual calm and cool instincts, and just bolted out of there, spitting out the dentures and throwing away the hat as he bolted out the door and disappearing out fo sight. Jenny, knowing full well that she made him go through this, chased after him outside. As soon as they were outside, they noticed that he was gone. Jenny's pigtails retracted as her rocket boosters came online, and she shot up in the air, to take a look around. 'He has to be somewhere around. He couldn't have gone far.' her eyes scanned around the area, trying to pick up at least one signal from her friend's nanobot based body.

No such luck.

Her shoulders slumped as she hovered down back to the ground as Brad ran up to her. "Any luck, Jen?"

"No, he's completely disappeared off the radar." her pigtails whirred back in place. "We've gotta find him, Brad. We don't know what's happening to him, and…"

"Whoa, take a cool down, Jen," Brad reassured her as he placed his hands on her shoulders. He took notice that she began to bite the tip of her nails, acting like she had fingernails at all. Brad had to grin at seeing such a human reaction coming from Jenny. "We'll find him. I mean, this is Tremorton. He couldn't have gone far from here."

"BRAD! BRAD!"

The two looked as they saw Tucker running towards them… and surprisingly with Allison along with him. The two stopped as the little guy caught his breath. But Brad and Jenny were a little equally confused at seeing their cluster bot friend on Earth like this. "Allison?" Jenny asked as she cocked a non-existent eyebrow. "What are you doing here? I thought you were back on Cluster Prime, leading the resistance?"

"I was, but Tuck called me on Drew's comm back from his house." Allison explained as she placed her slender hand on her chest, over her pump generator as a look of fear on her face was evident. "I got here as fast as I could. Jenny… he told me what's happening to Drew… I… " she nervously rubbed her left arm housing, "I wanna help find him."

"Great," Jenny proclaimed as her left pigtail folded into a small parabolic dish, "We need all the help we can find."

"XJ-9!"

The three teenagers and kid looked as a yellow modified hover converted station wagon sped up towards them. It then skidded to a halt as it did a 90 degree skid to the side, stopping nearly six inches in front of the kids. Surprising them, Mrs. Wakeman was at the driver's seat, earning a confused look from Tuck as he looked to his big brother, "Sheesh, Brad. She's as crazy behind the wheel as you are."

"XJ-9, I'm glad I located you! We need to…" Mrs. Wakeman frantically pointed out, but stopped as she noticed Allison, and went to polite Mom-Mode, "Oh, hello, LSN-1482."

"Hello, Mrs. Wakeman," Allison curtly responded.

Jenny ran over ot the driver's window as Mrs. Wakeman rolled it down. "Mom, what are you doing out here?"

"I've been trying to contact you on your communications, XJ-9. I really need to update that system if it's broken," Mrs. Wakeman scolded. "But that's not important at this time. Andrew's reformation might put him, as well as all of us, in grave danger."

"What do you mean?" Allison walked up, deeply confused, and deeply worried now. "What's wrong with Drew?"

"This, LSN-1482," Mrs. Wakeman pulled up something from her driver seat, making the girls gasp in horror… and Brad and Tuck nearly vomit in a nearby trashcan. In her right hand, was a half-oozing eyeball and nose… colored silver and green. Not wasting time to give the girls and boys a chance to relieve their stomach expelling moment, Mrs. Wakeman feverishly explained, "Andrew's body is entering its pupil stage of reformation."

"Putrid stage?" Tuck asked, wiping his mouth from vomit chunks, "I knew Drew was kinda disgusting before, but how is it he's gonna end up putrid?"

"Pupil, Tucker," Mrs. Wakeman dronely corrected. "Like the butterfly that enters a cocoon, Andrew is entering in such a stage as well. And in this stage, he might be vulnerable as well to subjection got assimilation by the Cluster." She then opened the doors as she explained, "We need to locate him as fast as we can. I have a feeling the Cluster might expect such a moment to strike."

Allison paled at this as she cupped her mouth in fear. The robot boy she fell in love with back on her home world… the one that had given her so much… was in danger. Her face then hardened in determination as she hopped into the car, "We've got to find him. Fast."

"Well, what are we waiting for!" Jenny's pigtails retracted back into rockets, as a pair of rocket wings folded out, "Let's go find him!" the rockets roared to life, and she flew up in the air and out of range like Superman speed.

"Looking around Tremorton might not be enough." Mrs. Wakeman pondered aloud as both the Carbunckle brothers jumped in. "The last thing that most creatures go when they need to hide is a place they know they'll be safe."

"His home?" Brad asked.

"No, somewhere they believe they'll be safe in."

Tuck scratched his chin in thought, pondering on it very hard. "Let's see: where's a place that only Drew would think be safe to go and hide in."

Late at Night

Tremorton High

Basketball Court

The night was cold and stale as night fell upon the gymnastic building of Tremorton High, and boy was it ever a frightful sight. The streets and sidewalks darkened and only lit up by the moonlight, all shaped like some sort of ghoul, angel, or gargoyle. The whole school buildings darkened by the rain clouds that were coming in. And what made it even far worse for anyone who was traveling in at that night, a low cloud of mist shrouded the ground, and eerie owl hoots filled the air with a small hint of eeriness only found in a horror movie. Truly… this was the set for a horror film, and it would have been foolish for a few to venture out in this frightful place.

Leading the way, holding a radio-based tracking device, hooked up to Allison with her foil hair folded up into a parabolic dish, was Mrs. Wakeman as she led the way. Following the two were the Carbunckle boys, Brad with a wooden bat, and Tuck along for the ride. However, the kids had gotten this far by following Mrs. Wakeman in the lead, even when she was driving her car to the basketball gym court, all thanks to Tuck's guess of the school. But they were still trying to figure out where Mrs. Wakeman was going to. While she still held on to the tracking device, Allison didn't get what was going on, and neither did the boys.

It was then that high time now, Allison had to sigh and turn to the good doctor. "Mrs. Wakeman, you have to clarify things for us. I know that Drew's going through a reformatting… but what's with all the weird changes, and his body parts falling off?"

"Well, when trying to improve on a home, it's a huge fixer upper. You start rearranging." Mrs. Wakeman explained. "I think that's what the nanobots are doing: they're rearranging Andrew's structure in order to protect him in his vulnerable state."

"But why's that so dangerous?" Brad asked. "This is Drew we're talking about, you know. He's about as vicious as a gnat."

Mrs. Wakeman's attention was still focused on the device as she continued to scan as they opened the gym doors… which had been torn loose from their locks. "Bradley, you're missing the point. Because of this rapid change, Andrew's very mentality will be seriously weakened. During his pupil stage, he'll have the intelligence and instinct of that of a wild animal. In that state, he won't be able to tell who's friend or foe. Hunting anything or everything that moves… with no memory or remorse of those that are important to him."

After hearing that, Tuck gulped as he squeaked, "On second thought, maybe we should just leave him be until Jenny gets here."

"There's no time," Mrs. Wakeman replied as she pulled out what appeared to be radio antenna clamps. "We need to attach these to him, and the other set to an external power terminal. The sudden jolt of 1.21 giga-watts should be able to cause the second state of his evolution to finish. Afterwards, he should be normal again."

It was then that Allison turned to Mrs. Wakeman, as they walked down the hallway with the signal getting stronger. "Um, Mrs. Wakeman? Just hypothetically speaking… " she rubbed her left arm housing nervously once again as she finished, "… what'll happen if it doesn't turn him to normal?"

"Then…" Mrs. Wakeman sighed as she answered. "… it might turn him into a vegetable, frying every one of his systems, with no chance of a reboot."

Allison's face couldn't get any paler than that, 'No. please, don't… don't let that happen…' she then looked to Mrs. Wakeman as she asked, "Mrs. Wakeman… what if he can't go back to being 'Drew'? what if we don't succeed?"

"We must succeed. For Andrew's sake," She answered as she stopped, along with everyone else as he pointed forward, "It seems we've arrived."

Everyone looked ahead and either gulped in determination, or went white as a sheet, like Tucker did. They saw that the signal had led them to the doors of the basketball stadium inside the gym. Despite the fact that the windows were black from lack of light, someone had obviously been there, considering the doors were torn open by some unseen force.

Tuck gulped at all this as he shivered with fear, "Ugh. It had to pick a place like that," and then was about to walk back outside, "Well, that's it. Time to go home. It's past my bedtime anyway, and I got a Spelling Bee to get ready for."

But then Brad grabbed on to his little brother's collar fur as he raised an eyebrow, "Hold on. We're here to do a job; and we're gonna finish it right now."

And then they all proceeded into the basketball stadium, with Tuck whimpering from behind in a high squeaky voice, "Why me? Why did I have to go with these suicidal people?"

They all walked into the empty court, seeing that no one had been here for some time. They waltzed or staggered right on in, keeping their guard from side by side as they traversed inside the stadium. However as they went in, they failed to notice the strange insect shadows luring from above the light railing of the building. However, they all stopped as they saw someone kneeling in the center of the court floor.

It was only a few seconds, but everyone saw the figure at the center of the court. The person was none other than Drew, his arms wrapped around his chest and kneeling in the ground; his face, while missing an eye, twisted in pain as he looked like he was struggling.

"Drew!" Allison rushed over to him, ignoring the warnings from Mrs. Wakeman and the boys as she knelt down next to her boyfriend, "We're here to help. Are you okay?"

"I… I don't… GUAGH!" Drew clutched his chest even tighter as he nearly screamed out in pain and struggle.

"Hang, on. I'll bring over Mrs. Wakeman," Allison told him, but then felt an iron grip on her left wrist as she got up. She turned and was nearly scared out of his wits end at what he saw. Drew's hand grabbed her only his hand started to grow and the outer part started to shred or melt off, revealing a silver green hand with black claws at the end of the finger tips, his forearm also grew in length as a black spike jotted out of his shoulder. "Drew!"

Suddenly, he let go just to backhand her in the face. Allison flew back a few feet, hitting the stadium benches, and was a little dazed from the blow.

Then suddenly, Drew felt himself being torn apart from the inside, causing him to gag from the pressure on his back. His whole body twisted and grew, as the outer layer of his body started to ooze and fall apart, falling to the ground like dead skin. Out of his butt, a long tail jotted out with a spear tip at the end. His feet burst open to reveal hind legs with the feet jetting out two sharp velociraptor-like sickle ankle claws. His torso thinned out and a ribcage-like structure armored and muscled to the max. The muscles, not being mechanical, were organic as they twined and pulsed as if they were alive. Jotting out of his back, three spike-shaped tail pipes shot out from both sides of his back, hissing out what appeared to be green smoke of sorts. Drew's face twisted in agony, as four spike mandibles ripped through his mouth, his hair falling out as the spikes grew and sharp tendril like dreadlocks grew out from the back of his head. Then finally, his remaining eye oozed out of his skull as his face broke apart and fell to the floor, leaving only a skull like head of monstrous proportions, leaving only that which changed before.

Allison looked in terror, as the creature that was once Drew, stood up on its hind legs… and roared viciously out to the ceiling, flexing its claws.

She cupped her mouth as a saddened and terrified voice squeaked from her, "No… no… Drew…"

Brad gulped as he paled at Drew's transformation. "Okay… this would be a really good time for Jenny to fly in and save the day."

Suddenly, a familiar cackle echoed all over the stadium, catching everyone's attention. The laughter continued to grow louder and louder as the four tried to look around frantically to see where the cackling was coming from. Suddenly, the lights shot awake as they all centered at the other side of the stadium. There, standing on the mid benches, was Vexus, along with Smytus, and a couple of armored Black Mantis Drones, the Royal Bodyguards of the Queen herself, and one of them had oversized shoulder guards.

Vexus nearly cackled her head off as she wiped an alcoholic tear away. "My, what a difference a reformatting does for a young robot." the creature that was Drew snarled as he hunched over, sniffing from side to side as Vexus continued to gloat in this scene. "One day the abomination is a thorn in my sides, siding with those who would threaten what I've built over three thousand years, and the next day… he becomes an obedient pet."

"I should've known you'd take advantage of Andrew's weakened state," Mrs. Wakeman snarled out as she glared at the Cluster Queen. "But you can't take control of him. Even if he's like that, his mind will still fight against your control!"

"Oh, I don't intend to control him," Vexus chirped as she tapped her fingers together. She then looked to Smytus, as he took a simple brick… and chucked it right at Drew.

The brick hit him directly on the side of his head, not even hurting him, but shook him on high alert. He snarled as he looked at Vexus and Smytus, as the Cluster Commander pointed to Wakeman and her group. "They're the ones! They attacked you!"

Drew's empty eye sockets stretched to angered slits, his mandible mouth snarled at the humans and LSN robot. Until finally, he roared out in rage. After the roar ended, Tuck simply said as he paled to his brother, "I think I just did something involuntary… and messy."

Going on all fours, the Drew creature lurked towards the four, as Brad helped Allison up on her feet. The two teens, plus kid, looked terrified as the creature slowly stalked towards them like a lion, hunting his prey down. The scene looked terrifying, as the five or six foot teens looked at the nine foot beast coming towards them. His tail swishing slowly but dangerously as the spear tip slashed at the floor, making marks into it, his claws digging into the floor as well along with the dreadlocks hanging loosely to the ground.

Thinking there was a way to reason with him, Brad gulped as he defended, "Drew, come on, man. You've fought over control from an evil mastermind before, you can do this. C'mon, Drew, its us! It's me, Brad, Tuck, and Ally. Your best friend, best bud, and your main squeeze!"

"MWAHAHAHAHA!" Smytus bellowed out as he couldn't help but cackle at this joyous scene. "Foolish fleshopods! He only remembers what his basic instincts tell him to know. Namely to attack all threats he doesn't recognize as friend or foe."

"Correct, Smytus," the Queen smirked in this triumph. "And once he's dealt with all of you, XJ-9 will be an easy target. After she's destroyed him, what will be left of her shall be an easy victory to assimilate to the Cluster Empire. And with her on our side, not only with this puny planet fall, but the remainder of those that are still left for me to conquer."

Drew then charged right towards them, gnawing his jaws together, making sickening growling sounds. And as just as he was about to pounce on them, a ten foot blue safe broke through the roof, and crashed directly on to him, burying him into the floor. Everyone, both Earth and Cluster, were a bit startled by this scene as they saw the safe. Just where did a blue safe come from, and who brought it? Suddenly, their question was answered as they saw the safe splitting and folding in different sections, until finally, Jenny returned to her default state from one of her many battle transformations.

"Hey, guys. What's up?" Jenny smirked as she waved confidently.

"Jenny!" Brad shouted in delight, but then pointed to the creature. "Jenny, you gotta be careful! Drew's on a confused animalistic rampage!"

"Wha?" Jenny asked cocking an eyebrow, but was suddenly thrown into the benches, denting them. She got up shaking her head, and noticed the creature emerging from the crater she had made. She didn't know what it was, until she noticed the green chip patterns on its body. "Drew?"

"Yes, little XJ-9," Smytus bellowed out, getting her attention as she saw him, Vexus, and several Black Mantis drones along him. "Your friend, in his confused state, has come to realize his place. As will you once he's defeated you; that will show you to your true destiny."

Jenny simply joked as she gave him a confident smirk, "Umm… to become wildly accepted as a normal teenage girl?"

"NO! To be one with the Cluster!" Smytus then pointed at her as he commanded, "Take her!"

"I'll leave this all to you, Smytus," Vexus chuckled as she slashed open a portal back to Cluster Prime. "Don't let me down… again." and then flew on in as it closed up behind her.

The Black Mantis drones, at least three of them, forgetting that the Nanodroid was out there, attacked the teenage robot girl. Jenny smirked as she jumped up and turned 90 degrees vertically, causing her waist to stretch out, as three paddle ball sticks folded out. As the Black Mantis drones charged at her, the paddles smacked them away in different directions. They crashed in different areas, groaning as they steadied themselves to get up.

Jenny retracted back as she clanked her hips on her waist in triumph, "Either on Cluster Prime or here on Earth, you Black Mantis drones still can't touch me."

Then suddenly, a massive black beam of energy shot right at her, blowing her into the wall, creating a small blast. As the blast subsided… coming from the drone with the oversized shoulders. They had opened to reveal powerful lasers of sorts as the energy started to power down a bit. Smytus chuckled as he explained and pointed to the drone, "How do you like the new high output laser cannons. And the best part is, they're not even oscillators. Making this Black Mantis drone the perfect fighting machine."

Jenny groaned as she got out of the crater. Her body was a bit dented, and some of her joints were a little loose from such a blast. But still, she stood her ground as her left elbow cracked open, and out came her Laser limb attachment. Out of her right palm, a blade shot out as she was battle ready against the Black Mantis that charged at her. "Okay, boys," Jenny hissed at her pigtails transformed into head mounted laser cannons, "Time to show you why your buddies get sent back in pieces."

"Oh, really," Smytus taunted, and looked to the Black Mantis guard, and the mindless monster that was once Drew, and shouted, "ATTACK!"

Sensing hostility, Drew snarled at Smytus, whom was a bit surprised at the beast about to attack not the humans or Jenny, but him. Smytus snarled as he ordered, "You dare to snarl at me? I am your master! And you will obey me! OBEY MEEEE!" the beast continued to snarl at him. But Smytus gulped, and squeaked out, "Please?"

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWRRRR RRRR!

The Drew beast charged at the whimpering commander, as Smytus screamed like a little girl, flying all around the basketball court. The Drew Beast continued to go after him, as he didn't let anything get in his way. Meanwhile, Jenny fired her pigtail boosters to go straight towards the Advanced Black Mantis Guard soldiers. She smirked as she balled her fists, "Okay, Black Mantis drones, get ready for…"

SPUT! SPUT! SPUUUUT!

CRASH!

Jenny skidded to the ground in a heap, only seven feet away from the drones. Getting herself back up groggily, she shook off her crash, and looked up to her pigtails, "Wh-What?" the pigtails drooped, sputtering until they slumped down dead. She frowned, "What the? What's going on?" she got back to her feet, and looked to the Black Mantis drones, as she aimed her Laser Limb at them, "Oh, forget the flight mode. I'll just do it by foot." But then suddenly, her laser limb fell off, along iwht her right forearm and hand. The same thing happened with her left arm, and all Jenny could do was stand there, unarmed, so to speak.

"Wha? What's going on? I wasn't hit that hard," Jenny pondered, but then felt imbalanced as she collapsed on one knee. Struggling to get back up, she found she had no strength, and started to nearly panic, "Wh-What's going on? I powered up this morning! I should be able to get back up! What's happening to me?"

"Your systems have become outdated, XJ-9!" Mrs. Wakeman shouted, getting her daughter's attention. "That's why I urged you to take them; it was a full reformation of not just your external, but internal systems. Your chassis was only built to sustain five years. The upgrades would've lasted until your college years. Without those upgrades, your outdated systems would fail, and reduce you to this weakened state!"

Jenny blinked at that, and slumped, grumbling, "Now she tells me."

Suddenly, Jenny felt shadows all around her, as she looked up, and saw the five Black Mantis bots before her, all around her, trapping the helpless Global Response Unit. The leading Black Mantis, the one with the shoulder cannons, cracked his knuckles, as he chuckled, "Here that, boys. The high and mighty XJ-9's as helpless as a newborn protoform." He then shouted, "TAKE HER!" and they jumped at her, pounding their fists into her relentlessly, without holding back or none.

Brad paled at this, as he shouted, "JENNY!"

He was about to charge in there, but Mrs. Wakeman stopped him, "Bradley, we can't help her. The only hope we have for all of us, is to snap Drew out of his state." She pulled out a pair of clamps and handed them to Ally, "LSN, Tucker. I need you two to attach these clamps to that power box over there."

Allison took the clamps but asked, "Where?"

"There," Mrs. Wakeman pointed out, to the other side of the gym… the one were the Black Mantis Drones and a confused and monsterized Drew was chasing Smytus, who was still screaming like a little girl.

Seeing the scene before her, she gulped, but shook her head, as her resolve hardened, "Okay, nothing too hard to handle."

Tuck slapped his face, as he groaned, "It's just one of those days."

"Go!" Wakeman shouted to the two, as they bolted to the end of the room. Mrs. Wakeman and Brad ran towards Drew, who had cornered a now whimpering and crying hysterically Smytus in a corner. "Andrew, stop this foolishness," Wakeman shouted, getting the robot-boy's attention, as she pulled out a pair of clamps of her own, "We need you to put these on your head, so that we may get you back to normal, and save XJ-9."

But all that got from Drew, was a loud and monstrous roar, "ROOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWARRRRRR!"

The wind from the roar caused the two to have their hair stand on end. Once they shook their dos back, Mrs. Wakeman looked to Brad, as he asked, "So… what do we do now?"

"We should flee in terror all around the stadium," Mrs. Wakeman calmly answered, as the Drew Beast growled at them, nano-saliva dripping from his gnaw. "Yes, that would be the wisest course." And the two bolted, with Drew chasing them on all fours. As they ran, Tucker and Allison were making their way through the chaos, while Mrs. Wakeman shouted, "Young man, stop trying to kill the human race, this instant. Or I'll notify your parents of this, and they'll have you grounded!" She wheezed out, as she huffed, "I… really need to start… my spinning classes…"

Drew stopped for a moment, and looked at a tractor-sized waxing machine. Using his tail, he batted the machine towards Brad and Wakeman, causing it to crash in front of them, stopping them both in their tracks. The two turned around to run for it, only to come face-to-chest with a hulking Drew Monster, as it hovered above them, his fangs and claws exposed for the kill. Brad gulped, as he looked to Mrs. Wakeman, "Mrs. Wakeman, I have something to tell you."

Mrs. Wakeman was a bit surprised by that, but shook her head, scowling, "Oh, Bradley, please! I already had a seventy-year-old Sheldon take interest in me. Don't start…"

"No, not that," Brad corrected her, "I'm trying to say… I always thought… you were really weird."

Mrs. Wakeman blinked in surprise, but nodded, "Same to you, Bradley Carbunkle. But then again, XJ-9 always thought of you as good company. So I doubt I could say the same to you and your brother."

At the power box, Allison got the fuse box open, and was about to clamp the clamps on to the positive and negative. Until Smytus flew up behind her, and pulled her away, snarling, "Gimmie those, traitor!"

"Tuck, catch," Allison shouted, tossing the clamps to Tuck.

The little boy grabbed them, but then gulped as he saw Smytus, who still held Allison hostage, snarl at him, "Hand over those clamps, Dwarf human. Or suffer annihilation!"

At this moment, the only thing Tuck could do for this situation was his usual response to everything. A loud scream in panic, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

But just as Drew was about to devour Brad and Mrs. Wakeman, he stopped as the young boy's scream echoed throughout the stadium, earning Drew's undivided and limited attention. He turned and saw the little boy, screaming his head off, as he ran around in circles near the powerbox. At that moment, Drew's face contorted from vicious to confused, as he looked to the boy. Suddnely… memories flashed in the creature's head. Memories of that same boy screaming his head off as memories of him, his brother, and the old woman about to be attacked by Cluster roach drones. The same boy screamed his head off, as he clamped onto a silver green robot boy, as they escaped an exploding asteroid station. And the same boy freaked out… after seeing a giant monster car tire.

Suddenly, the boy's scream seemed to awaken within the beast, as his face twisted in a confused state, and asked in a gluttorial tone, "TU-U-U-CK?"

Brad saw this as their only chance, as he grabbed the clamps, and jumped at Drew. He clamped them on the upper mandibles, and landed as he shouted, "TUCK, NOW!"

Snapping out of his screaming spell, Tuck hopped up, clamping the power box, and hopped up again to switch the power on. The two pairs of clamps lit up, as electricity surged on through them. Once that happened, the Drew Monster was jolted with 1.21 giga-watts of electricity. The Monster roared out in pain, as his entire frame was lit up, with lightning and electricity dancing all over it. It fell on all fours, shaking all over until it hopped back on its back feet, and roared aloud, and then crashed to the ground, dead as a doornail. The Drew Monster, had finally been defeated, but now… was Drew going to be okay?

"Drew!" Allison cried out, in fear if he didn't surive, while struggling to break free of Smytus' grip. "Lemme go, you buck-toothed excuse of a Cluster Warrior!"

"What?" Smytus snarled, "How dare you! Black Mantis Drones!" the drones stopped their relentless smack down on Jenny, as they turned to face their master, while one drone held a severed leg. "The Abomination has fallen! I now have the leader of the Cluster Resistance, Victory is ours!" He then pushed a button on his hover platform, as a Cluster Bridge Gate opened up, "Now, scoop up the remains of XJ-9, and we can be on our way to Cluster Prime."

The drones nodded, as they scooped up all the battered bits of Jenny, her head saved last, as a frozen look of depression of her failure as on her face. The drones marched towards their master, ignoring the scared little boy running past them, as well as the continued screams from Allison, as she tried to get out from the Cluster Commander's grip. "Let go of me, you blockhead! Drew! Wake up, please! DREEEWWW!"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! Your abominable boyfriend can't help you now," Smytus bellowed, as he and his troops neared the portal, "No one can help you, the earth, or the universe now! AAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAHAHAAAAAA!"

Back with the Others

Mrs. Wakeman was examining the charcoaled remains of Drew, hoping to see if there was still life in the nano-droid's body. Meanwhile, Brad was doing his best to give the appeared-dead droid's attention. "C'mon, Drew. Snap out of it; the fight's not over," he then proceeded to smack Drew's mutated face around comically, "He's taking Jenny and Ally back to the Cluster! To get assimilated or worse… SCRAPPED!"

Suddenly, Tuck slid on in, and heard that last part, "Jenny… and Drew's Sugar-Bot… assimilated and/or scrapped?" Hearing that information, Tuck let out the big one. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

The panicked scream echoed all over the stadium, causing the Cluster Troops to stop in their tracks, as they held their audio sensors closed. Even Allison did the same, while Smytus could grit his teeth in agony. However, the scream caused seomthing to happen with the charred carcass that was the Drew Monster. The boy stopped, as he, Brad, and Mrs. Wakeman noticed movement from the monster's body. It was as if something was trying to get out of it, as the back bulged upward, almost as if something was trapped in there. Then suddenly, something broke through, as a silver/green bladed claw hand shot outward, stretching towards the skies.

This little scene caused Tuck to scream out again, "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" he coughed for a moment, as he cleared his throat, "Man, this many screams in one day." But then he noticed a figure forcing himself out of the Drew Monster's body, showing only his upper torso freed. Freaked out again, Tuck sighed, "Here we go again. AAAAAH…"

But the figure clasped a silver/green hand on the boy's mouth, and slurped towards him… revealing itself to be a very much annoyed Drew, as he groaned, "Tuck… do you have to yell that loud, all the time?"

Seeing Drew back to normal, Tuck broke free of the boy's grip, and leapt at his face, hugging the boy, as he cried out in joy, "He's back! Drew's Back! Our silver/green puddle of metallic goo's back to normal again."

"Alright," Brad pried Tuck away, as he padded Drew on the back, "Good to see your devil horns, shark teeth, and… um, well the whole you back to normal."

As Drew slurped his way out, he stood up, and arched an eyebrow, "Wait. You mean… I'm back to normal again?"

Mrs. Wakeman walked up, and pulled out a portable compact mirror, as she handed it to him, "See for yourself, Andrew."

Drew took the mirror in his hands, and saw for himself, he had reverted back to his Nano-droid form. He smiled a little, but to make sure he was completely normal, he did a check. In a wave emanating from his body, he immediately morphed into Brad, and then to Mrs. Wakeman, then a Cluster Drone, and then Smytus. He then reverted back to himself, and checked his right hand, as he morphed it into a machete, then a double-bladed axe, then a spork. He then reverted it back to normal again, as his smile brightened more as he stretched his arm out, twisted, flattened, inflated, and more so as he reverted it back to normal.

He looked at the mirror, and shouted, "I'm normal again! I'M NORMAL!" But then suddenly, the green chip imprints in his hair suddenly glowed, traveling to his eyes. Then his eyes suddenly glowed green, and spareked with green electricity, until finally…

ZAAAP!

A pair of bright green energy blasts blew threw his eyes, and disintegrated the compact mirror. And also made a pair of smoky holes behind Brad and , whose left and right sleeves were halfway smoked through. His eyes returned to normal, as he realized what had happened, and sheepishly smirked in embarrassment, "Um, well… almost normal."

Brad, whose eyes were as wide as saucers, merely stated, "That was new."

"Well, while you two are having a blast, so to speak," Mrs. Wakeman calmly replied, but then pointed out in panic, "THE CLUSTER ARE LEAVING WITH XJ-9 AND LSN-1482!"

Drew whipped around, and saw what was going on, but then hardened a determined glare at Smytus and the Black Mantis drones. He turned to face them, and ran towards them, as his forearms morphed into a pair of machete bladed swords, "No, they're not!"

Next Chapter: Upgrade Pains; Old Bot, New Tricks pt.3