Mark II

Chapter 4: Making Amends

As Jenny rocketed out of the Earth's atmosphere, she received an unexpected call from Tuck. She picked up. "Jenny! Something terrible happened!" The boy cried. Jenny rolled her eyes. "Did your favorite action figure get stuck in a tree?" Jenny quipped. "This is no time for jokes woman, this is serious!" Tuck retorted.

"Alright, what is it?" Jenny sighed. "It's Brad. He went into the forest after coming home from school. He's been gone for hours and won't return any of my calls!" Tuck explained. Jenny began to feel an overwhelming sense of dread. Locus' minions must have him. She thought. "I'm busy with something else right now, but I promise I will rescue Brad." Jenny assured.

That seemed to satisfy Tuck enough to calm him a little. "Okay. Good luck. And please… get him out alive." He pleaded. That last part nearly made Jenny start to cry. "I will." She vowed more to herself than to Tuck. The boy hung up and Jenny continued toward the moon. She kept thinking about what she was going to say to Melody before eventually deciding to play it by ear.

Meanwhile…

Brad would have laughed at his situation if he weren't in potentially mortal danger. The robots caught him running through the jungle with two baking sheets as torso armor, a metal bowl as a helmet, roller blade padding for his elbows and knees, and a paintball gun. In hindsight the whole thing was a dumb idea from the start, but men do crazy things for love… er… friends. Just friends.

Anyway the robots dragged him toward his new residence in the lair Locus built under the forest. "Let me go you curs! Once Jenny gets here, you'll all be sorry!" He yelled. His captors simply rolled their eyes. "NO! PLEASE! STOP! NOOOOOO!" a random voice yelled. Brad turned his head to see the source of the voice get put into some sort of vertical glass tube. A bright blinding light enveloped the person for a few seconds and dissipated.

The boy lay dead on the floor of the chamber. Brad's gaze followed the vine like network of wires to an assembly line where giant automated arms assembled a perfect robotic likeness of the boy who died in the scanner. Brad shifted his eyes to his captors. Back to the assembly line. Back to his captors.

"Y-you're h-human?" Brad realized with horror. "Were human. Dr. Locus freed us of our weak human bodies and opened up new possibilities for us and the human race." The robot on his right boasted. "You will be free as well." The one on his left promised. "But, I don't want this!" Brad protested. "You've never wanted to be stronger, faster, and better?" Brad was floored. Having a robot body would be kinda cool. He thought. I could help Jenny save the world. There was one problem however.

Whoever these people were before, they seem completely different from any human I've met. "Not if it means losing who I am in the process." Brad retorted. The robot on his right gave an evil sneer. "You'll change your mind in time. Then again, you won't have a choice." The trio arrived at an empty prison cell. The robots threw Brad in and locked the door.

Brad clung to the bars and yelled. "Jenny will come for us and she will stop you!" Brad yelled in defiance only to be met by condescending laughter. "Please hurry Jen. I'm counting on you." Brad whispered.

Meanwhile…

Jenny finally reached the moon after an hour of flying. Pulse engines work wonders for long range space travel. She activated her scanners and set them to find signs of technology. Lo and behold, she picked up a power signature located halfway in between the Apollo 11 and Apollo 16 landing sites. Jenny decided to touch down at the Apollo 11 site to avoid detection.

She maneuvered to about 50 ft away from the Lunar Module Descent Stage and landed smoothly on her feet. After touchdown she folded her Jetpack away. "I'm on the Moon Mom." Jenny reported. "That may be so, but you're about 188 klicks away from Melody's position." Nora reminded. "I didn't want to alert her. Besides, I'd like to do a little sightseeing while I'm here." Jenny replied.

Jenny walked toward the remnants of the LM. She eyed the plaque on the main leg and rubbed the lunar dust off of it. She could almost hear Neil Armstrong's voice as she read the words: (In Neil's voice. If you can find a voice recording on Youtube, play it here.) "Here, men from the planet earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." She stared at the plaque for a little longer. I came in peace too. I just hope Melody will forgive me. Jenny thought.

"If you are quite finished, I believe you have amends to make." Nora interrupted. "On it Mom." Jenny groaned. After a few minutes of jogging, Jenny came to within ten feet of Melody before the blonde whirled around with a dirty look on her face. "What are you doing here?" She growled. "And why do you look different?" Jenny kept her distance. "I came to apologize for the things I said and did to you. You were a stranger looking to fit in and I should have seen it." Jenny apologized with all the sincerity in her heart.

Melody wasn't impressed. "That's it? I'm sorry?!" She questioned. "What more do you want from me?" Jenny replied. "I want to be able to go back to Earth without being treated like a freak, but thanks to you that's impossible!" Melody snapped. Jenny didn't know how to respond so she just stood there and let Melody continue. "Don't you remember the looks on everyone's faces?!" She yelled before pausing. The blonde looked down and began to tear up. "The look on Brad's face?" She whimpered. Jenny still didn't know what to say or do, so she kept her mouth shut.

Then Melody came to a sudden realization. "Why did you pick now of all times come here?" Melody asked suspiciously. Shoot. Jenny thought. Well, I was going to have to tell her one way or another. "Well, no reason to put it off any longer. I need your help." Jenny admitted. "I knew it. The only reason you're here is because you need something from me. Well you won't get it." Melody declared.

That comment stung Jenny like a bee. The worst part was that Melody was mostly right. "Melody…" Jenny began. "No! No more!" Melody interrupted. "You've said what you wanted to say and I gave you my answer. Now leave and don't ever come back!" To drive her point home, Melody activated the laser guns in her arms. "I didn't come here for a fight." Jenny said calmly.

Melody leveled her weapons at Jenny and growled. "Too bad." She sent a volley of laser fire at Jenny's head. Jenny dodged, bobbed and weaved around the blasts but didn't return fire. "Melody, stop this! I don't mean you any more harm!" Jenny pleaded as a laser blast whizzed past her head. Melody ignored Jenny and continued firing. Jenny activated one of her new abilities to provide a more reliable defense: a spherical plasma shield that protects Jenny from all directions.

The laser blasts impacted the shield and were absorbed by the plasma energy. "Get down here and fight me you coward!" Melody yelled. Jenny had enough. "I. Don't. Want. To. Fight you!" Jenny retorted. She thrust her arms out which propelled the shield outward in a powerful shockwave attack. The blast pushed Melody into a rock formation. Jenny touched down next to her.

"There's one more thing I have to say. Brad is being held captive by your father. If you want to improve your image, you'll help me save him and countless others being held by him." Jenny spat. Melody just stared at Jenny with a dumbfounded look. "You don't have to forgive me. Just please help me this one time. For Brad." Jenny asked while holding a hand out to Melody. The blonde picked herself up and dusted herself off. "Only for Brad." She replied.

With that the two launched from the Moon's surface and headed back toward Earth. On the way Melody remembered something. "You never told me why you look different." She realized. "I didn't choose it. When I first went into the forest to find out the cause of some disappearances I was jumped and beaten by robots that your father built. Luckily my mother and my friends found me and gave me this new form to better fight those robots." Jenny explained. "What about you?" Jenny wondered. "What do you mean?" Melody replied in a perplexed tone. "What was your life like before I showed up?" Jenny inquired.

"I was born a human. But, I was so weak that the doctors said I only had a month to live. My father saved me by downloading my consciousness into his latest robot model. I was hailed as a miracle of science and my father was praised as a genius. But when you started saving the world, everyone forgot about my father. He went mad with jealousy and vowed to make me the most powerful robot ever."

Jenny didn't know what to say. "Melody I… I'm sorry." She said. "Let's just focus on what we have to do." Melody suggested. The two robot girls continued speeding toward Earth, both of them hoping that they weren't too late.

A/N: This was kind of a hard chapter to write. I wanted to make sure that Melody's reaction would be believable and I wanted to give her a more fleshed out back story. I still don't know how I'm going to resolve the love triangle but I'll think of something. Anyway please give me your honest opinion and thank you for reading.