Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron or any characters and gizmos associated with Jimmy Neutron.
Chapter 4: R & R (Repair and Rescue)
Cindy sighed as she looked over the main reactor for what seemed the thousandth time. Not matter how much she looked at and from how many different angles, it still didn't look to be in good shape, but that wasn't really what she was thinking about although she tried to focus on how to repair the damaged ship. She was thinking about one thing…Jimmy.
"He can't be gone; I won't believe he's gone. There is no trace of his body or and parts of Goddard so I just have to believe he's alive. He just has to be or we won't get home." She thought to herself.
Libby approached Cindy and stopped then she saw Cindy sniff and wipe what seemed to be tears away.
"Hey Cindy." Libby said in a low voice as she placed a hand on her shoulder. "We're all worried about Jimmy and Goddard, but I believe they are still alive."
Cindy shrugged Libby's hand off her shoulder, attempting to indicate that she wanted to be alone, but Cindy knew it would take a lot more than that to make Libby go away and she really didn't have the energy to so she turned her head slightly in Libby's direction and then sighed again.
"I know how you feel about him deep down." Libby said.
"Do you Libby? Do you really know how much he is on mind?" Cindy asked, but, after she quickly thought about what she had said, knew that she shouldn't have said it.
"Probably nearly every moment of the day and at this particular time I would say every moment. Your focused on believing he's alive and don't want him to be gone as you love him Cindy. You love him more than I probably know."
Cindy turned around, her green eyes slightly blurred by tears welling up inside her. She hadn't imagined this would be how she would tell Libby of how she truly felt about Jimmy, but it seemed as though it didn't really matter, plus deep down she knew she needed to tell someone. Cindy threw her arms around Libby and started crying; Libby put her arms around Cindy and held her.
"We'll get back home. I don't know how but I just know we'll get back home." She said, hoping that she would be right. "But now we've got to focus on trying to make this ship space worthy and you're the only one here who has any idea on how we fix this thing."
"Your right, I'm sure Jimmy would rather have us try to get back home than just sit here doing nothing and speculate about him." Cindy said as she wiped her eyes dry.
"That's the spirit Cindy." Libby smiled.
The sensation of cold air rushing across his face caused Jimmy to start to come around. The first thing he felt was a thumping headache and when he tried to put his left hand on his head, he was greeted with a shockwave of pain flowing through his body. He groaned in agony and opened his eyes…and nearly fell off Goddard, clutching one of the handlebars at the last moment with his right hand and steadied himself. He looked down and recognised he was back on Earth; Retroville to be precise.
"Goddard? What are we doing in Retroville?" He asked. "Hang on…where are the others?"
Goddard whimpered in response and started to descend as they approached home. Outside Jimmy's house, Jimmy saw his parents, Sheen's dad, Libby's parents, Carl's parents and Cindy's parents.
"Why do I get the feeling this is a bad sign?" He asked himself.
Cindy walked back into the wrecked ship and stood in front of her friends and faced them.
"Hey Cindy." Carl said.
"Okay guys, we're going to get this rust bucket working again and we're going to go home. We can't count on rescue since we don't have a clue if anyone knows we are in space except for Jimmy and Goddard, and there's no way of knowing where they are." Cindy told them.
"But how do we go about repairing this thing? We don't have any tools or any knowledge on how Jimmy rigged this thing up." Libby said to Cindy.
Cindy grinned and pulled something out of her pocket.
"Is that…don't tell me you stole Jimmy's Hypercube!" Libby exclaimed.
"Correct and wrong at the same time. It is a Hypercube but it's not Jimmy's; it's mine. Jimmy made one for me for my sixteenth birthday and luckily I just happen to have a number of tools inside it to make a start on repairing this thing." Cindy explained.
"You carry tools around with you?" Sheen asked, looking as Cindy with a disturbed expression on his face.
"After ten years worth of adventures with Jimmy Neutron, let's just say it's better to be prepared for everything that can go wrong as it generally will."
"Okay, but, we don't know anything about Jimmy's ship so how can we fix it?" Carl questioned, but still disturbed over the fact that Cindy of all people kept work tools with her.
"Well, granted you three don't know much but I know a thing or two. After all I am the co-pilot so Jimmy did tell me some things about this ship and its design so I'll tell you all what I need done and tell you how to do it." Cindy told them.
"Those Chemistry and Physics grades had better come in handy today." Libby commented as they began listening to what Cindy wanted done.
"Look! It's Goddard in the sky with…Jimmy on his back!" Mr. Estevez stated, pointing up in the sky at Goddard.
"At last, now we can find out what happened to our kids." Mr. Wheezer said.
A few moments later Goddard landed on the front lawn and the parents rushed over to Goddard and Jimmy.
"James Isaac Neutron! Just where do you think you have been?!" Judy demanded to know from her son.
"And where are the rest of our kids?" Mrs. Folfax asked.
"I can explain! It's not my fault! Sheen did it!" Jimmy blurted out trying to appear innocent of anything that had gone wrong.
"You better start young man." Judy told him.
"Well…you know I kinda told you we were going to the Candy Bar and generally hanging around Retroville all day? Well actually I took everyone to some asteroids to mine for a new material I found for scientific purposes." Jimmy confessed.
"So what happened next Jimbo?" Hugh asked.
"Well, after finding some samples we started to return home but we were attacked by that blasted Eustace Strych and Professor Finbarr Calamitous. They fired missiles at us and we evaded them but the manoeuvres that I was forced to do to avoid getting destroyed meant we all kind of blacked out. The last thing I remember was seeing five more missiles heading for my ship and telling Goddard to take evasive action. I don't exactly know how I'm still alive really." Jimmy explained.
The parents all looked shocked after hearing what Jimmy had told them.
"So where are the others?" Hugh asked, finally breaking the silence.
"I…don't know." Jimmy replied. "Goddard? What happened after I blacked out?"
Goddard whined and opened his back to allow a screen to come out. He played a tape showing what happened from Goddard's eyes. They all watched with great interest.
Goddard extended one of his arms to grab the co-pilots control stick and positioned himself in-between both seats. He turned around and changed vision to a heat source tracking based vision so he could see the missiles through the back of the ship. He pulled back on the pilot stick hard so the ship went into a steep vertical climb as the missiles rushed through the area the ship had once been.
The missiles turned around and lurched towards the ship once again, however Goddard rotated the ship to the right and turned it left causing one of the missiles to collide into another detonating both of them. The radar bleeped violently as Calamitous' ship came closer and began firing laser cannon blasts at Jimmy's ship. One blast caught Jimmy's ship on the tip of the nose and scythed some armour plating off. Goddard moved the ship from left to right and back again, inverting it on its axis many time in an attempt to avoid the cannon blasts and evade the three remaining missiles.
Unfortunately, a clever ploy by Calamitous caused one of the missiles to slam into the armour plating just above one of the engines on Jimmy's ship. Calamitous fired a number of cannon blasts aimed just in front of Jimmy's ship, causing Goddard to have to turn the ship, which meant the missile was able to connect with its target.
Goddard howled and had no choice but to switch the engine off. The cannons stopped as the last two missiles homed in on the ship. Every second they got closer until one of them hit the ship on its belly. The explosion came slightly muffled and the sound of metal shredding off was plainly audible. The unconscious five were all thrown about in their seats, but the ship survived somehow. Goddard turned to look out on of the side windows to see the asteroid samples drifting into space as the final missile slammed into one of the asteroid pieces and exploded. Fragments of asteroid slammed into the ship causing more damage to it, although it was minor damage. Finally, another blast from Calamitous' ship hit Jimmy's ship in the rear end and sent it spinning into space.
Goddard closed down the screen and lifted up the front of his chest and typed: 'I was able to get the ship to crash land on Io. However, it suffered heavy damage in the crash and seems almost impossible to fully repair but everyone survived.'
"Jimmy, do you have another ship?" Judy asked. There was no response from Jimmy. "Jimmy!" She poked Jimmy's shoulder.
"Huh? What?"
"Do you have another ship?" Judy repeated herself.
"Uh…yeah." Jimmy replied. He wasn't focused on really what his mother was asking.
"That missile to the underside of the ship should have torn a gaping hole in the ship which would have meant the end of us. Is this mineral highly resistant to explosive damage? If it is, I might be able to invent something to get revenge on Strych and Calamitous." He thought to himself.
"Good, first thing tomorrow we're going to rescue those children of ours. It's very late now and we need rest." Judy said.
"One thing mom, I'll need you and Mr. Estevez to come with me and Goddard but I cannot bring anyone else as there won't be enough room on the other ship for everyone when we come back." Jimmy stated.
The other parents murmured amongst themselves but reluctantly agreed to Jimmy's suggestion.
"Right, that's that settled, now off to bed with you young man." Judy told Jimmy.
Jimmy frowned but didn't make any attempt to challenge his mother; he was in enough trouble as it stood. He got ready for bed and sighed as Goddard sat next to him and whined.
"I hope they are all alright up there." Jimmy told his robotic canine.
Goddard whined again and licked Jimmy on the face affectionately. He lifted his front up and typed on his screen: 'Admit it; you're worried about Cindy aren't you?'
"W-well sure, I'm worried about all of them." Jimmy said trying to avoid going where he thought Goddard was going to.
'But you're more worried about her than the others though.' Goddard typed next.
"No, no. Er…of course not! Not at all. Why would you possibly be thinking that?" Jimmy stammered.
'The fact that you're all defensive and blushing.' Goddard typed.
Jimmy glanced at himself in the mirror and saw his face was slightly red. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath.
"Sleep mode, Goddard." Jimmy said.
The next morning Jimmy, Judy and Sheen's father stood outside the Neutron's garage. Jimmy went over to the garage and flicked open a panel on the garage door and pressed a number of keys. The door retracted up and Jimmy stood to the side on the lawn as his other ship, not nearly as big as the one he went to the asteroids on, appeared and rolled gently out of the garage and stopped on the driveway.
"Excellent. Goddard, mom, Mr. Estevez, climb aboard! We're heading to Io!" Jimmy cried.
They boarded the ship and Jimmy sat in the pilot's chair and started to prep the ship for launch, that is until he moved his left arm and yelped in agony.
"Jimmy? What's wrong?" Judy asked as she rushed to Jimmy.
"I must have hurt my arm in the crash." Jimmy sighed. "I can't fly this thing in this state."
"I'll fly it Jimmy, just tell me how to." Judy said as she urged Jimmy off the seat and then sat in it and looked over the controls.
"Okay, well, start by activating the thrusters, which is the button here." Jimmy said pointing at one of the buttons.
"Okay, then seal the airlock?" Judy asked.
"Exactly. That button there." Jimmy replied moving to the other side and pointing at another.
After a few minutes, the party of four were heading out of the atmosphere and into space. Jimmy showed his mother how to set the autopilot as they headed towards Io.
"In a few hours we'll be there." Jimmy said to the others.
"I hope at least one sample is still on the other ship." Jimmy thought.
Cindy worked hard on repairing the main reactor. She had managed to stop it leaking and had been able to patch it up with some scavenged parts but the right engine was by no means repairable without new parts.
"Hey Cindy, what should we do about the nose of the ship? It's pretty bad on the co-pilot's side." Libby asked.
"We'll just have to weld some plating onto it for now; we only want to make this thing able to fly us home not get it fully operational again. Most of the systems aren't going to be needed so we can use parts off of those." Cindy told her friend.
Cindy had decided that it was time to put Carl and Sheen to work. She hadn't made them do very much as really, they couldn't do too much without being supervised and she couldn't be everywhere at once.
"Hey Carl! Take the laser cannons off the ship and bring them to me! Sheen, take this engine off and I'll see if there is anything that can be scavenged from it!" Cindy shouted to her companions.
"Do you really think this is gonna work?" Libby asked as she approached Cindy with Sheen in tow carrying some tools to take the wrecked engine off.
"I hope so. I'm just worried that we won't be able to generate enough thrust to get this thing off the ground with just one engine." Cindy replied as she moved to repair the one engine that was still functional.
Libby looked behind the ship at the marks in the ground where the ship had scraped along until it had stopped. She turned to Cindy.
"Maybe some plating came off as we crash landed." Libby said.
Cindy stopped her work and stood up. "Possible I guess though I'm not convinced leaving the ship to scavenge would be a good idea at the moment." She sighed. "Maybe tomorrow you, Sheen and Carl could go and look and I'll stay here and continue on the ship?" She suggested.
"Sounds okay to me." Libby replied.
"Hey Cindy! I got the engine off." Sheen said triumphantly.
Cindy turned to face him and raised an eyebrow. She had to admit that Sheen had done quite well considering how bad he is with hand and eye coordination even though he had pretty much shredded it off instead of unbolting it.
"Good job Sheen…but did you really need to hack it off so badly?" She sighed. "Never mind, I didn't exactly say to you how I wanted you to remove it." She said to Sheen knowing that he would have protested if she hadn't said that last part.
"What do you want us to do now?" Libby asked.
"Help Carl get those laser cannons off the front of the ship. We won't be needing them anymore and I could use some of the wiring in them to fix more vital systems. Oh, and make sure they are unbolted properly and not hacked off." She told them and grinned slightly.
Sheen eyed her angrily but said nothing as he and Libby walked off to help Carl.
"Once they've got the cannons off, I think it'll be time to get some sleep." Cindy thought to herself as she looked up into the sky.
After a fairly restless night, or what seemed to be night, a slightly groggy Cindy got up and stretched her back. Sleeping on the floor of a space ship was not a comfortable experience and she had no desire to have to do it again. She rubbed her eyes, shook her head and blinked away the blurry vision she had.
"Come on guys; let's get this thing running today so we don't have to spend another night on the floor." She said to the others.
"Yeah, my back is killing me." Carl said.
"I'm feeling good." Libby stated proudly.
"Only because you stole mine and Carl's seats and wouldn't share!" Sheen told Libby with a real hint of frustration in his voice.
Libby just smiled at Sheen and got up and walked over to Cindy.
"Don't suppose there is any breakfast?" Carl asked rubbing his stomach.
"Unfortunately, no. No drink either which is another reason why we need to get off this moon today." Cindy replied.
Carl groaned in disappointment and Sheen joined in. Cindy has to admit, she was hungry too but there wasn't any food in the ship and she had no food or drink in her Hypercube too.
"Note to self: If we get out of this alive, pack food and drink supplies for the next adventure." Cindy thought to herself.
"So what needs doing before we can get going?" Libby asked.
"Patch up the hole in the nose of the ship, re-wire the systems and remove all unnecessary systems and equipment to compensate for the fact we only have one engine." Cindy told them.
"Weren't we supposed to see if we could find any parts of the ship that came off when the ship hit the ground first?" Libby asked.
"Yes, I'll want you guys to go a bit later once I've powered the ship up a bit to see what vital systems need fixing and we've finished on the main reactor and engine." Cindy replied. "While you guys are gone on the scavenger hunt, I'll re-wire any vital systems that need doing and mark off what we can throw off the ship."
"Really didn't think I'd be getting my hands dirty in this kind of way." Cindy thought.
"The sooner we start, the sooner we can get home and I can listen to music again." Libby said.
"UltraLord! Man I'll be so glad to watch my beloved TV again." Sheen cried out.
"I'm gonna go to the Candy Bar and eat as much as I can before I pass out." Carl told the others which made Libby and Cindy give him disturbed looks.
"Cool! I'll challenge you to an eating contest to see who can eat the most before throwing up!" Sheen exclaimed excitedly to Carl.
"You're on Sheen." Carl said, accepting Sheen's challenge.
"What about you Cindy? What are you gonna do the moment we get home?" Libby asked.
"Oh, just spend some time with my mom and dad...and have a lie down on my bed to remind myself of how I could end up having to spend every night on the floor of this ship." Cindy lied, hoping the other three wouldn't notice she was lying.
Libby gave her a knowing look and whispered: "I bet you're gonna be all over Jimmy."
Cindy blushed. "No way. Seriously, I'm just gonna hang with my folks."
"Sure you are." Libby teased. "Just talk to him Cindy, ask him out for goodness sake. We all know you two are meant to be."
Cindy said nothing and just walked out of the ship and started working while Libby just sighed.
"Cindy can be a real pain in the butt sometimes." Libby thought to herself.
To be continued…
Pretty much the longest chapter so far, hope you all enjoyed.
Same as usual with the other chapters and thank for reviews on the previous chapter.