Ordinarily Extraordinary

A/N: Whoa, it's been a long time since I've been writing any fanfiction. But recently I got into JN again and I just had to write something starring my two favorite characters and two favorite pairings, if you read it or not, 'cause this idea is busting my skull. I'll recycle some of my old fanfic ideas in this story (which will definitly, no matter what, be completed) and well...I hope it isn't anything cringe-worthy. ;)

Disclaimer:I don't own Jimmy Neutron or anything related to the show.

Prelude

Somewhere on a far away planet called Vorth there was a pretty wasteland. A pretty wasteland, indeed, fluorescing peacefully in its bright shades of purple, green and a little bit of turquoise. It was covered in thick neon green fumes that wavered warily from place to place and floating rocks of emerald color, as if it had every right in the world to be so outrageously appealing. And if you asked any Vorthian inhabitant, such a pretty wasteland wasn't exactly anything out of the ordinary. It was fairly simple - they had tried the vast, void kind of wasteland all the other planets seemed to be so keen on, but had found, that it didn't quite agree with the Vorthian sense of aesthetics (and neither with the wardrobe of Vorthian femmes). So they had switched back – you didn't have to obey just any fashion, after all.

Thus, in theory, there was nothing special about this particular wasteland that lay stretched out right there, illuminated by the serene light of two crystal blue moons.

In reality, however, there were five flashy colored bubbles bouncing off its ground that interrupted the Vorthian idyll. By the looks of the buzzing multitude of laser beams following said intruders, it was safe to say that this was a very special event for Vorth, indeed.

"WHEEEEEE! I'm the Bubblin' Bouncin' Bubble Man! FEAR MY BUBBLING BUBBLES!" An ecstatic Sheen cried out, drumming his hands against the surface of his soapy 'vehicle', far too caught up in his rush of adrenalin to notice the whirring laser that almost hit him. "BUBBLES!"

"Sheen, watch out! If you're pounding too hard, chances are that your bubble will burst before we reach my rocket!" his friend Jimmy, exceedingly concerned about their- er, Sheen's- wellbeing, reprimanded him, but unfortunately the message was clearly lost on Sheen.

"DUDE, This is AWESOME! I feel my brain pouring out my ears! WHEE!"

Cindy threw a dirty look in his direction. "Wouldn't be the first time."

Four simultaneous gasps resounded, as Sheen kicked against the surface of his bubble, flipped over and started to steer his bubble on a seemingly random course, all the while laughing his head off at their fear-stricken faces.

"Jimmy, are we there yet?" Carl yelled over the noise of the lasers and Sheen's antics. "I think just from watching this, I'm gonna be…" His face turned into a surprisingly bright shade of green. "Sick."

Libby, who was controlling the bubble right next to his, snapped her eyes wide open.

"No way, Carl! Don't even think about barfin' on us here!" Disgust written all over her face, she threw herself against the insides of her purplish colored bubble to scoot away from Carl, but to her great misfortune, the gap between them didn't increase by much more than five inches. Suspicious noises rang from her left side and she shook her head in defeat.

" I shoulda just gone to the mall."

"Don't worry, Carl, we're almost there! We're already close enough to receive Goddard's signals, just hang on…" Jimmy looked up from his watch and stopped short in his steps, as he found the way to 'almost there' barred with what seemed outrageously similar to a giant Vorthian spaceship armada. Of exactly the same type as that lovely armada that had chased them until this point.

His voice dropped.

"Uh oh."

" COOL! MORE SPACE PEOPLE! LET'S KEEP 'EM!"

Sheen pumped his fist into the air, oblivious to the shadow that fell over his friends' faces, as well as to the mind blowing thundering sounds that set off as the ships started to open fire on them.

" I have a feeling, we're about to be toasted, guys!" Libby cried warily. Carl's head jerked around to her, utter panic shaking his voice.

"But my mom doesn't approve of me getting a tan!" He hiccupped. "At ALL!"

Unperturbed by their little chit chat, Jimmy pushed a good dozen of different buttons on his watch, calculating the risk of the risk of risking risking the risk of getting blown up by a spaceship armada in the middle of nowhere. The results weren't exactly encouraging, but, as leader of this expedition (and most likely the scapegoat if somebody would indeed be blown up), he felt it was his duty to pacify his friends.

"Guys! Don't worry, this is just a minor setback in a major…"

A third armada appeared on their left side, this time, though comfortably medium sized, apparently the best armed one. The ships didn't waste any time to fire away twice as forcefully as their neighboring armadas, after all.

"Uh oh."

"Nice going Nerdtron!" Cindy decided to enter the stage in a heartfelt attempt to raise their spirits. " How do you CONSTANTLY manage…"

Unfortunately her well-thought out, frequently practiced speech of blame and failure was interrupted by the very misfortunate event of her bubble being hit by a salvo of laser beams. Immediately the vehicle spun out of her control, bouncing right into the way of the others' bubbles.

"Whoaaaaa!"

" Girl!" Libby cried out helplessly, watching her best friend slithering on collision course with a certain someone's bubble, a someone, who was currently snuggled very peacefully against the insides of his vehicle, arms crossed behind his neck, humming a cheery little tune.

It didn't take more than one panicky cry from Cindy to make him snap his eyes wide open and notice his predicament.

"ABUSIVE BLONDE AHEAD, ABUSIVE BLONDE AHEAD!" Sheen yelled out frantically, waving his hands so forcefully that he managed to bring his own bubble off course, too. Eyes wide open; both he and Cindy saw their figures approaching each other at a worrisome pace.

"SHEEN, CINDY WATCH OUT!"

The girl's head spun around to Jimmy, eyes ablaze, while she was doing a double flip inside her bubble.

"EASY FOR YOU TO SAYYYY-!"

A loud crash drowned her words as hers and Sheen's bubbles collided, sending both of them off in different directions. However, to the children's great horror they had to find that while Cindy managed to get her tumbling bubble back under control, Sheen's vehicle burst into thousands of pieces. Taken by the velocity of his bubble and the force of the collision, Sheen was sent flying in a horizontal position right through the line of lasers.

Libby reached out in shock. "Sheen!"

Breathlessly, all children leant against the right side of their bubbles to watch him land an approximate distance of 300 yards away from them and slide another couple of yards before he finally came to a halt, barely visible in the dense green fumes that radiated off the earth.

Groggily, he lifted one finger. "I'm ooookay!"

Promptly a floating rock hit him in the head and caused him to fall flat on his back.

Libby raised her eyebrow. "That was weird."

However, she couldn't help but feel relief washing over her on seeing that Sheen was unharmed by his little flight and on looking back at Cindy's and Jimmy's faces she found that feeling reciprocated.

Carl, on the other hand, was slightly distracted by another, rather unnerving discovery.

"Hey… why are those creepy alien thingies closing in on our rocket?"

Jimmy nearly jumped as he twirled around to look into the direction his friend was pointing at.

" Pukin' Pluto, there are going to destroy it!" he observed and the others looked helplessly at each other. Hysterically Jimmy pushed another bunch of buttons on his watch." Goddard…Goddard! "His eyes widened fearfully." Oh no…his battery must have run out during the first attack… that means he's all defenseless! We gotta save him! When they manage to…"

A quite entertaining rapport on nearly every possibility to cause Goddard physical harm poured out his lips in a matter of seconds, all need for oxygen forgotten, and would've continued for quite a long time in this manner if not for the ever so easily aggravated Cindy Vortex, who cried incredulously:

"Earth to Neutron! I'm sorry to interrupt your concerns about your blender, but how are we supposed to get back home without the rocket?" A laser shot towards her, but this time, she avoided it with expert reflexes. "Nice try, you loser!"

Jimmy rubbed his temples. "Well, we…we've got to push through before they get there, somehow! Maybe if we split up and vary our pace, they'll get into a friendly fire and we can use the moment to break through their lines."

"Ya-a, or get shot dead in the progress." Cindy responded dryly. Carl's face paled at that thought.

Jimmy scoffed.

"Well, I don't see you coming up with anything, Vortex!"

She opened her mouth to berate him once more, reminding him that it was his stupid fault they were in this mess, anyway, but before she could shoot him down, she caught Libby's exasperated glare and for once in her lifetime decided to delay this delicious pleasure.

The boy genius certainly didn't mind.

"Now, c'mon, you guys!"

Carl raised hesitantly his index finger. "UHM, aren't you forgetting something, Jimmy?"

"What?"

Carl, Libby and Cindy pointed at their backs.

" Him."

In the distance Sheen was visible as he staggered towards the battleships, still caught in a daze, his legs almost tangling. Lasers buzzed around his head in dizzying speed.

"HOW'RE YA DOING; OL'ALIEN BUTTHEADS?" he howled and gave the Vorthian armada a thumbs-up. Another floating rock hit him in the head.

Jimmy gulped. "Uh oh."

"Well, we can't just leave him there!" Libby stated matter-of-factly, urging him to come up with a solution. "Chances are, he's gonna be fried!"

Cindy crossed her arms in annoyance. " Well, tough chance! We can't save him AND the rocket!"

There was a moment of silence as everyone turned around to glare at her. Even the lasers seemed to take a break for a split second.

"What?" she asked defensively. "Everyone was thinking it!"

Libby shook her head in disbelief. "Girl…"

"Well, Libby's right" Jimmy stepped in, cutting both girls off. "We have to go back to rescue him. The rocket must wait - and so do YOU, Vortex. I won't let Sheen behind!"

"Are you raving mad? We barely made it this far!" Cindy cried out, waving her hands for emphasis.

" Well, if you hadn't pushed Sheen out of his bubble in the first place…!"

" EXCUSE ME? I WAS SHOT, you imbecile!"

"Which NEVER would've happened if you-"

"Guys, cut it out! We got a situation RIGHT HERE!"

The squabblers shut their mouths, flicking apologetic glances in Libby's direction. She shook her head at both of them as a mother would do at a pair of very naughty little children- and sometimes she felt she could just as well be that mother. Sure enough Jimmy and Cindy lowered their heads in perfect synchronization under her glare, inspecting their shoes with sudden interest. Ever since that… incident last week involving a very scarring encounter with a diviner and a jellyfish, they weren't quite comfortable with ignoring Libby's chiding remarks anymore.

Carl used that blessed moment of silence to make an announcement.

"Jimmy, they're almost there!" He pulled out a hanky and sniffed. "I really don't want to live with crazy alien thingies for the rest of my life…"

Another salvo of lasers raced their direction and the conversation was immediately broken up. While they steered their bubbles around the shots, Jimmy's head rocked forth and back between Sheen and the rocket, his decision to go back slowly faltering. After all…If they rescued Sheen, the Vorthians would waste no time to blow up their only way to get back to Earth. Goddard, his oldest and most loyal companion would be lost forever. The thought was horrifying, unbearable even. But…he couldn't just leave his friend in the middle of the battle; the entire trip had been Jimmy's idea after all. How would- how could he live with the knowledge that he was the one who sealed Sheen's doom? Not to mention that it would be highly immoral, cowardly and utterly devastating to turn his back on him like this. But if they stayed behind, it was most likely all of them whose gooses would be cooked. Then he wouldn't be responsible for the loss of just one, but four friends. This couldn't be the answer!

Jimmy frowned, calculated, weighed all options, his heartbeat racing as he realized that he didn't know what to do next.

'That's what you get for playing the omniscient leader of the group, pushing others around as you please, little boy. Predicament after predicament, all for fun.' a nasty voice in the back of his mind whispered. 'But are you ready to assume full responsibility for your actions when you can't evade the consequences of your decisions?'

His desperate thoughts were interrupted by his watch broadcasting a heartbreaking howl. Goddard!

"Guys…I..I…" he stuttered, but faltered quickly under the expectant gazes of his friends. He drooped, kicking himself up about his stupidity. If he didn't make a decision soon, then…

" Oh, for heaven's sake!" Cindy yelled out and threw her hands up in the air. Typically Neutron! You never got anything done unless you did it on your own when he was around. Scowling at him, she took a few steps back. Before any of her friends was able to decipher the meaning of her words, she threw herself against the inside of her bubble, pushing it slowly, but steadily in Sheen's direction.

"I'll get the freak, all right!"

Jimmy, Libby and Carl blinked. "What?"

Cindy kept stomping forward, crying over her shoulder: "Ya,ya, just get the rocket so we can leave this stinkin' place! " Her voice faded, as she disappeared into the green fog.

The remaining three children were frozen on their spots, a bewildered glance tossed back and forth. However, it didn't take much more than a laser almost hitting Libby's head to shake her out of her amazement.

"Well…"she started. "You heard the girl-now get a move on before my hair's frizzing!"

" I think I'm allergic to that." Carl spoke up, his voice still a bit shaky as he recovered from his initial shock about CINDY showing something resembling humanity.

Libby rolled her eyes." No, Carl, you just needa get live." She ignored the outraged sniff she got in reply and contented herself with avoiding another laser beam.

At last Jimmy came to his senses. Slipping back into his familiar role as the leader of their group, he told them:

"…right. That's that. Now, c'mon guys, we still got a chance to beat these guys to the rocket. Let's bounce!"

Without further ado they set off, throwing themselves forward to increase their speed.

"We split up by three."

Meanwhile, Sheen found himself caught in the middle of approximately a dozen of smaller vessels, steadily closing in on him. Behind their windshields he caught a glimpse at the Vorthian soldiers inside, their skin bright turquoise, but their bodies of an awfully similar consistence as the Yokians' slimy selves. Kicking into his Ultra-fighting mode, he jumped up to his feet and teased them by threatening them with their fists, much like he'd seen super-heroes do on TV.

"You want a piece of me? "he growled at them. "Prepare to be crushed by my mighty crushing fist of ultra justice, alien scum!"

A third space rocket smacked his face, ruining effectively the impact of his speech. Strange, gurgling noises rang from the aliens in the cockpit – chuckles, he supposed.

His eyes narrowed.

"So that's how you wanna play, huh?"

Without warning he leapt forward, cried manically and ran straight into the lines of the vessels, head first. "PREPARE TO FAAAALLL…!"

It was that memorable moment that Cindy decided to arrive with her bubble.

"What the heck are you doing?" She cried out at the sight of Sheen's idiotic stunt and shattered her travelling bubble with a swift movement, jumping in front of him, right before he would've crashed into the first vessel. He tripped over her and fell with a loud shriek. The aliens started to shake with laughter.

"The pain" yelped Sheen. "THE PAIN!"

Exasperated, Cindy shoved him off her body- in a not-so-kind manner. Then she turned to glare at the Vorthian pilotes. " And just what are you laughing at, uglies?"

Acting on impulse, rather than making any plans, she jumped on top of the nearest vessel and as she spotted the output of thick wires sticking out of the backside, she began to tear out every wire she could get a hold of, not letting go of any of them. The pilotes of the neighboring vessels yelled at her in their strange tongue, but since neither of them wanted to shoot their comrade, there was only mild fire – a couple of shots that Cindy avoided with ease. After a few seconds of fumbling and tearing, she jumped onto the next vessel, repeating the process. Sheen realized that she was most definitely up to something, and whipped around to the aliens with newfound confidence.

" YOU SEE THAT, ALIEN SLIME? That's what Earth is cookin', I tell's ya! You better go home to your cry-baby homes now, and do your cry-baby stuff, cause I'm savin' the DAY!" He chuckled at his own joke. " Cry-baby."

The Vorthians continued to ramble, waving their slimy fists at him. Due to reasons never to be found out, the gesture put an idea into his head – as idiotic, as senseless as ever. But who cared, right?

Sheen threw himself into a heroic pose, reached into his pockets, drew out a pen, leapt forward -and scribbled onto the windshield of the first vessel he found.

" SHEEN WAS HERE. All right!"

Cindy looked down on him in annoyance, holding the wires like strings of a marionette over her head.

"Would you please shut up? I'm working over here, you know?"

Her eyes nearly bulged out as she watched him fire aimlessly around with a laser gun that DEFINITELY hadn't been in his hands a few seconds ago.

"Say what? " Sheen asked lazily, before bursting into laughter when a vessel began to shoot randomly though the air as he hit it with his gunshots. "FEAR MY UNCONTROLLABLE RUSH OF UNCONTROLLABLE ADRENALINE! OH YEAH, BABY!"

Cindy was stunned. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"The adrenaline rush? Well, I'm high on sugar and when the-"

"THE GUN, YOU IDIOT? " She ripped out another wire, glaring murderously at him.

Sheen exaggeratedly rubbed his ear. "Well that voice is annoying."

Cindy didn't have time to ask again, thanks to a laser being shot into her direction in that very moment. By a hair's breadth she managed to dodge it, but failed to hold her balance and slipped down the vessel, face first into the thick fog. With all her might she kept clinging to the downside of the vessel. She cursed under her breath and worked her way up again, sweat running down her forehead.

The things she did to rescue that idiotic, braindead, drooling-

"Hee,hee …sorry, Cruella!"

Incredulously she stopped her climbing.

"Did you just shoot me?"

Sheen looked warily around." Uh…LOOK it's the Vorthian Thunderfly!" He tossed the gun discretely a few yards away.

Cindy groaned to herself. "Oh, why do I even bother?"

A good deal of lasers, mishaps and yelling at a certain somebody down there later, she finally held all wires in her hand. They were quite heavy for her to handle all alone, but she ignored the stinging pain in her hands and proceeded to knot them together. Looking back at the ground beneath her current vessel, she measured her height and the approximate weight she would need to conduct her little trick. A frown appeared on her forehead.

Oh great.

Grudgingly, she squatted and reached out for Sheen with her left hand.

"Sheen, quick! I need you to take my hand!"

Sheen dodged just another laser beam, flicking a bit of dirt off his nail. "Well, Cindy, you know I'm down with the whole 'getting along' thing, but I really think you and me are better off staying just friends…"

With a growl, Cindy yanked him up to her. "JUST GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE, you moron!"

She paid no mind to his protests, glancing down at the vessels beneath that were trying to break free from the hold she had on them (courtesy to the monster knot). Several desperate shots passed them by very closely. Sheen cringed.

" Er, I don't wanna pressure you, but what's the plan, chief?"

Cindy bit her lip. "Well…I didn't really plan that far ahead, but…"

"YOU GONNA DO A ROUNDHOUSE KICK and send them over the edge! It'll be cool!"

She blinked at him. "What?"

"Eh, sorry." Sheen chuckled."Wrong fandom. Carry on."

"We really don't have time for you nonsense, ya dweeb!" Cindy hissed at him and he cowered. "Now, I don't know if this will work, but we have no choice anyway since Neutron got us stuck in this stupid mess and I have to fix things for him as usual, because apparently that hideously huge head of his …Are you listening to me?

Sheen's eyes snapped open. "Huh? What? Grandmother, what a great mouth you have!"

"Okay, that's IT!" Cindy snapped, determination edging into her face. Wordlessly, she tightened her grip on Sheen's arm, counted down to three and then, all of a sudden, jumped down, forcing him with her towards the ground. The powerful tug pulled the light weighted, versatile vessels together with a sudden force- and accompanied by a deafening noise- they crashed into each other. Sparks flew through the thinning fog, fires broke out, shards cut through the air- and then the bodies of two children disappeared in the chaotic pandemonium of a medium-sized explosion.

On the other side of the wasteland, hidden behind the enemy's own lines, Jimmy, Carl and Libby were hastily scurrying around the rocket, trying to start it up. Their little maneuvers had indeed proven to be successful , but they knew it was only a matter of time until the friendly fire would stop and the fog would thin out. If they weren't gone by then, there would be lots of space toast.
And as Carl always liked to point out, they were allergic to space toast.

As Jimmy was handling the controls with shaky hands, Libby started abruptly at the sound of an explosion.

" Guys, did you hear that?"

"Well, it WASN'T ME!"

Jimmy and Libby scowled at their red-haired friend.

"No, Carl…" Jimmy tried to keep his voice even. " I think she's talking about the explosion RIGHT THERE!"

" Owww, you don't have to scream about it!" Carl complained, rubbing his ear." You know, you spend too much time 'round Cindy."

"I most certainly do n-"

"CINDY!" Libby cried out, stepping in between of them. "Wasn't that the exact spot where Sheen got lost?

The color quickly drained out of Jimmy's face as he realized the meaning behind her question. " I…I think you're right,Libby." he stated quietly.

Carl's eyes widened. " But if they were there when the boom boom things went on…" His voice went an octave higher and then instantly stopped short.

Libby stared blankly at the two boys, her mouth never closing as the three of them tried to wrap their heads around the horrifying implications of those few observations. A deadweight crushed on their shoulders, the threat of the nearby Vorthian armada temporarily forgotten.

After what seemed like an eternity, but wasn't much more than a minute, Jimmy's lips parted slightly, as he thought of something to say…but failing to do so, his entire mind paralyzed at the thought of having lost his two friends in that explosion that looked so tiny from this distance.

Sheen…Cindy…

Suddenly, however, a small yelp from Libby shook him out of his palsy and following her gaze, he made out two distant figures huddling away from the explosion's centre, one of them dragging the other one by the ear. Both were gesturing wildly, as though engaged in a heated verbal sparring.

"Is that…" Libby breathed, barely believing her eyes.

"Guys! " Jimmy affirmed her perception. "They made it! They MADE it!" *

Without even realizing it, the three of them engaged in a crushing hug, laughing almost hysterically in mind blowing relief. Their joy, however, didn't last long, as Carl suddenly tugged Jimmy's arm.

"Uh…Jim, I don't want to spoil the atmosphere, but…but…" His voice quivered. "ALIEN ARMADA AHEAD!"

Jimmy twirled around. "What?"

Sure enough more than a dozen battle ships lined up on the horizon, pushing with lethal precision through the fog in their direction, followed closely by a couple of smaller vessels that were racing close to the ground, approaching Cindy and Sheen at a worrisome rate.

"We've got to get out of here at once." Jimmy stated matter-off-factly.

Libby grabbed his shoulders, unable to contain her hysteria any longer.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Fire this thing up and get Cindy and Sheen on board, genius!"

He shook her off with his elbow and hopped inside the rocket, immediately taking over the controls. With an impatient nod he signalized them to get inside and once they had obeyed his commend, he turned his view back to the giant armada, brows furrowed together in anxiety.

"Starting on five…four…"

Meanwhile, Sheen interrupted his repeated cries for mercy (the cause for said cries currently abusing his left ear) as he noticed the group of small vessels hovering over them, weapons all stashed out and most likely ready to shoot any second.

As if he hadn't seen THAT one before.

" Uh, Cindy?" he probed carefully as she was catching breath to continue her tirade." I do appreciate the name calling and physical abuse, but, say, doesn't that feel like a major déjà vu to you?"

Cindy felt her heart sinking at the sight of the vessels as she followed his gaze. There were more of them? After they'd barely managed to overcome the last dozen without losing any vitally important organs?

"I don't believe it! Where do these goofy things keep popping out?" she cried helplessly, kicking the ground. Hard.

At her side, Sheen narrowed his eyes. "HEY! They're descending from their ships! Maybe they want to call in the uber-treacherous truce of Padomnia like the Chirrers did in Ultra Lord episode 23, when they ended their war with the Hobnoxs by sealing the uber-treacherous truce in Ultra Lords backyard!" He grinned euphorically." We're the Hobnoxs!

Cindy glanced at him, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Uber-treacherous, huh? So what happened?"

" The Hobnoxs got shot and it was COOL!" Sheen beamed.

She was about to reply, that NO, if they were the Hobnox (what kind of name was that anyway?) it was definitely NOT cool to get shot in the process of some silly uber-treacherous truce, but before she could open her mouth, she noticed the first aliens running towards them. Kicking into defensive-mode (an ability she'd perfected in the years of practicing martial arts – and in the years of cleaning up after Neutron's messes) she took in all escape opportunities, found the chances very slim and, with a heavy heart, braced herself for the fight. It came always down to that, didn't it? God, how dearly she wished to hate that kid.

Sheen jumped when he realized she'd let go of his ear.

" FREEDOM! SWEET FREE-

A laser beam shot past his head.

With a swift motion, he jumped behind Cindy for cover.

" -dom."

"Jimmy, can't you go a LITTLE FASTER! Cindy looks as though she's about to throw herself at these freaky aliens! All alone!" Libby cried from the backseat of the rocket, giving the guys regular updates on their friends' increasingly hopeless situation. She had long since dug her finger nails deeply into the fabric of her seat, following every single move of Cindy's or Sheen's. Unable to take the suspense any longer, Carl hopped next to her.

" Yeah…and Sheen looks like he's about to …"He paused, trying to express what he saw in accuracy."…he looks like Sheen, only… scared. Which is kinda creepy, if you think about it."

"Tell me about it."

"Definitely."

"Yeah."

"Totally."

Jimmy rolled his eyes at their running commentary as it didn't exactly help him to keep his cool. As if it wasn't enough to steer a rocket around an alien armada without worrying himself sick over Sheen and Cindy!

"Well, guys, I'm trying, but our not-so-gently landing here damaged our engines…Now if I would only have…

Libby cut him off, bluntly and painlessly. "Two words, genius boy: MOVE IT!"

"Okay, okay! Firing it up…" His gaze found his two friends in distress and he froze. What… the… heck?

"What in Edison's name is she doing?" he cried out, half amazed, half furious.

"Well, I don't wanna be nitpicky, but you had better plans." Sheen stated dryly, as he looked down on the aliens who were swarming around the vessel that they had settled on top of. "Like the one with the explosion! I liked that!" A laser hit a spot in front of his feet- perhaps for the hundredth time ever since his bubble had burst. "I really don't like this." he finished quietly.

Cindy huffed at him, her eyebrows drawn together in deep concentration, but her voice running full on anger as always. It wasn't as though this was her idea of the ideal vacation, after all.

"Well, maybe if you'd shut up for once, I could explain to you...! Watch out!" She grabbed his collar and jerked his head down.

Sheen tumbled on his spot. " I'm…feeling…fuzzy…." She slapped him across the face and his head popped up. "Okay. I'm a-LIVE!"

" Alright then…" ignoring his statement, Cindy braced herself. "Let's dance." She waved at the aliens, to which they –ever so creatively- responded by opening fire. Avoiding the shots, she almost missed the sympathetic look that crossed Sheen's face.

" You know, when I said: 'let's just be friends', I truly did mean that, Cindy."

" Urgh!" There was no time left to set him right about his misconception. She dodged another laser, rolled on her left side and jumped on top of a vessel to her right, continuing to provoke the Vorthians. Sheen's eyes grew to the doubled size as he watched her perform her little one-girl-show.

"Hey, how'd ya do that?"

Cindy shook her head; cheeks flushed bright red from the exertion. "Less talking, more jumping, Ultradork!"

"But I-" Just another shot was about to hit him in the chest. Sheen shrieked. "Okay, okay, I'm jumping alright!"

Sparks flew, when the first laser hit a vessel so hard that it exploded on the spot.

"They're trying to turn the Vorthians against each other, aren't they?" Jimmy asked quietly, before his face morphed into an expression of hot anger. "Have they completely lost their minds? Their bubbles are both destroyed! They were lucky to survive the first explosion! Those are real weapons!"

Libby watched Cindy hop and back, from vessel to vessel, kicking an alien out of the way whenever she got the chance. "I'd say."

"I am getting nauseous with all those bright lights flashing!" Carl muttered at her side. "Plus I really don't like my friends getting toasted."

All three of them gasped, when Sheen almost didn't jump off a vessel in time.

"That was a close! " Libby cried, clinging to Jimmy's shoulder with a death grip. His obvious uselessness in her friends' predicament was starting to grate seriously on her nerves. " So help'em already, Jimmy!"

He turned around to her, concern edged into his features, although his voice was dripping with annoyance. "Well, I would, but if we race down there, the main armada is going to notice our approach! And if they start firing, Sheen and Cindy will be fried before we even get there!"

"So you just want to wait here, until they might make it out of that?" Libby asked disbelievingly and pointed back at the chaotic battle beneath them.

Jimmy nodded solemnly. "Right now, I think we have no other choice, guys."

"There was a Vorthian Thunderfly and Bingo was his NAME-O , B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-" Sheen sang (terribly off-key as always) as he jumped merrily from top to top, sometimes blowing raspberries at the foolish aliens down below, who weren't even clever enough to take out two elementary school students.

Cindy kicked another two aliens out of her way, before clinging to her next vessel." I thought it was a Martian named Ringo?"

Sheen rolled his eyes. "Hey, I'm a flexible guy!"

Both started to jump on the last vessel left, but, by force of bad luck, crashed into each other and fell off at opposite sides.

" WHY DO THE GOOD ALWAYS CRASH?" cried Sheen dramatically, hectically reaching for something to hold on to. In vain, as he found himself face to face with the beautiful Vorthian earth quicker than expected.

Above their heads, the vessel got hit by a nasty salvo and exploded. It didn't take them too long to realize, that, hadn't they crashed into each other, they would be flying through the air just like the burning metal that was raining down at their sides in that very moment.

All grief instantly forgotten, Sheen perked up, pumping his fist into the air. "ALL RIGHT!"

At his side, Cindy gave a surprised yelp.

"What was that?" She asked and clutched her left leg, a bit of blood staining her finger. Apparently one of the smaller shards had cut her calf when she'd hit the ground. It was luckily nothing but a shallow wound, but it burned nonetheless quite painfully. Her expression darkened as she saw more blood trickling.

"Oh come on, now."

However, there wasn't much time for her to take care of her calf, as Sheen, eye twitching, poked Cindy's shoulder to draw her attention to something infinitely more worrisome and definitely more lethal.

"Do you see what I'm seeing?"

To their utter surprise (and utter horror) the bodies of the aliens they had struck down (or rather, who had struck each other down) began to slide rapidly over the ground, piled up as if put together by an invisible force and built slowly, but surely one huge slime alien. A deep roar echoed through the Vorthian night.

"That looks almost like an advanced form of this loopy twonkie specimen that Neutron brought with him one day!" Cindy observed; genuine amazement audible in her voice."These aliens here …they must be related or something. "

Sheen nodded, putting on a pair of glasses that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

" Hmm, fascinating, fascinating indeed… "

The monster tensed its muscles and lunged towards them. Instantly, Sheen yanked the glasses off. "BUT I'D REALLY RATHER GET OUTTA HERE!"

At a loss of words, Cindy crammed her brain for something, anything, to allow them to escape being torn into shreds by this hunky Twonkie-brother. As her gaze touched the destroyed vessels, a light bulb went off in her head and she started racing with all her might towards the wreckages, hectically (or rather hysterically) tearing off a larger piece of metal, a few wires and some engines. Satisfied with her loot, she then rummaged through her pockets and pulled out a miniature jet-pack engine.

"Hey, isn't that Jimmy's…."

Cindy grabbed Sheen's shirt and yanked him onto the metal scrap. "You never saw that, Ultra Dork." she hissed and he shrunk on his spot.

"Yes, ma'am."

Quite aware that it wasn't much more than a mere few yards until the monster would reach them, Cindy fired the engines up, biting her lip, hoping, praying that her provisory installation would do its job. Relief washed over her as she felt the familiar tug a few seconds later and the two of them started to race right through the monster's legs, shortly before its fists would've crushed them.

"Take that, you amateurs!" she couldn't help shouting in triumph. At her side, Sheen blew the monster a raspberry.

"Ya-hahaha! Team Earth: 1, Team…uh…YOU:ZERO! HAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Cindy felt inclined to stop the obnoxious laughter, but as luck would have it, a rock, larger than the previous ones, hit him just then and effectively shut him up. At least for a second.

"Dang why does that keep happening to -"Cindy cut him off, pointing excitedly ahead of them.

"Hey, isn't that Jimmy's rocket over there?"

Sheen narrowed his eyes to take a closer look at the small shadow closing in on them, before leaping to his feet with relief. "YES! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! They're coming to resc-" he stopped short.

"Did you just call him Jimmy?"

Cindy chuckled nervously: "-he,he"

The sound of a very familiar (and very welcomed) voice saved her from awkwardness and embarrassment, effectively interrupting Sheen's wondering gaze.

"GUYS! Come on, get on board quick!"

"Libby!" they both cried happily, allowing their relieved friend to heave them inside the rocket that was floating above their heads. As soon as they set foot inside, Libby slammed into them and crushed them in a deadly tight hug, cutting of every function of their lungs until they had to cry and beg for oxygen. At their side, Carl clapped excitedly.

Jimmy's voice sounded from the piloting seat. "Are they safe?"

Libby nodded. "Ya, I got it covered, don't worry. Now pull some levers and get us outta here, Jimmy!"

Without further ado, he obeyed her command.

"Leaving planet Vorth -" Goddard counted down for him. " NOW."

They disappeared with a bright flash into deep space, just before the first shot from the giant armada would've hit them.

A few minutes later, all pulses slowly calming down, the rocket drifted peacefully through space on its own accord as Jimmy had switched the autopilot on. With a shake of his head, he turned on his chair to see Sheen entertain everyone with an in-depth description of his 'AWESOMELY AMAZING' adventure with Cindy, complete with quotes and reenacting of crucial parts.

Jimmy had very mixed feelings about this episode. On one hand he had to admit, albeit grudgingly, that it had been pretty-almost-sort of impressive how quickly the two of them had managed to save their necks in the light of a giant alien armada shooting with full force at them. On the other hand, the extreme irresponsibility of their maneuver –and the main fault was definitely on Cindy's side who'd obviously been the mastermind behind their actions-was much too overwhelming to take easily as he recapped the events of the last hour.

" So I'm jumping on the next vessel, right, right, when Cindy kicks that nasty alien off its feet karate style, and it bursts into a huuuuge puddle of slime right in front of my eyes!" Sheen mimicked Cindy's motion, jumping onto his seat. "It was AWESOME!"

" I'm just glad I wasn't there…jumping makes me noisy." Carl said quietly.

"Well, it was actually pretty cool." admitted Cindy with a smile, allowing herself, for once, to actually agree with something that came out the deranged one's mouth. After all, she'd pretty much saved their day and she couldn't help rubbing it into Neutron's face, Neutron, who was silently brooding on his chair, his gaze darkening with every word that was spoken. Libby shook her head at her.

" Are ya outta your mind? It was more than cool! You made some ravin' smokin' moves, out there, girlfriend."

Carl nodded, his fear of jumping already forgotten. " Yeah, you guys were pretty amazing."

On seeing Cindy's triumphant grin, Jimmy couldn't contain himself any longer. They were congratulating her for nearly getting herself and Sheen killed?

"Ya, more like amazingly asinine!" he cut off Carl's praise. "That was yet the stupidest thing I've ever seen you perform, Vortex!"

Cindy was clearly taken off guard by this most undeserved comment."What?" she cried and rose from her seat. Jimmy met her outraged gaze with equal fervor.

"That stunt of yours could have easily backfired, costing you and Sheen your lives!"

"Well, it didn't, did it?" The memory of the anxiety she'd felt when the second troop of vessels had turned up rushed back into her thoughts, the thrill, the danger, the lasers. How quickly she had had to think on her feet to avoid ending up stuffed above some Vorthian's fireplace, how mentally challenging it had been to get Sheen to act in a not non- self-destructive way. In the light of THAT, the unfairness of his accusations almost squished the air out of her lungs. Why did it always end this way, when she had to bail them out of the messes he got them into? He never, ever appreciated any of her efforts!

"Why can't you admit, just for once, that I…"

" And to think that if you'd just kept your course in that bubble, none of this would've happened and we would've had a chance to complete our mission. Nice going, Vortex."

"Uh guys…" Sheen spoke up weakly from behind.

"Y-you ungrateful -"

"GUYS, I think I know what hit me back there!" Sheen repeated, this time loud enough to draw Jimmy's attention to him. In his hands he held a glowing green jewel that sparkled brightly when a ray of light fell on its surface. Jimmy, completely forgetting about his rant, leapt forward, pretty much flipping out at the sight of the stone.

"SHEEN! You found it! You found it! The energy source we came to find! This…this is AMAZING!" excitedly he jumped into the air, yanking the jewel away from his friend's grasp.

"Er… I guess."

"No, no, no, I'm serious! Sheen, you're a genius!" Jimmy beamed, slapping Sheen's shoulder comradely. "Really, really good job, my friend! " He indulged into a abstruse speech, congratulating his friend over and over again all the while analyzing the object in his hands with blissfully sparkling eyes.

Cindy gaped at the scene, dumbfounded by this sudden twist. After all…she got yelled at for taking out more than two dozen of bloodthirsty aliens, while Ultra Freak got praised for getting hit in the head?

"What? But he didn't even-"she started helplessly, but had to find that nobody paid attention to her anymore. Carl and Libby were patting Sheen's shoulder, Sheen was looking at them with a mixture of confusion, amazement and pride and Neutron…Neutron…

"Well, after Sheen saved our day like THAT, I'd say, it's really time to get home as quickly as possible to celebrate this for all it's worth!

…Neutron was just being himself. An ungrateful jerk.

Cindy hugged her knees to her chest, glaring at the happy 'let's celebrate the great hero Sheen' party with all the contempt she could muster up.

"Fine. Don't thank me for saving your freaking best friend's life, for all I care." she muttered sullenly and rubbed her left leg which was still smarting because of the shard that had cut her when she had made the last Vorthian vessel explode into thin air.

.

A/N: Well...yeah. That's it for the prelude. Doesn't tell much yet, but if I had added the first chapter already, it would've become to long. Just setting up the characters a bit. Gosh, I hope they're in character! I apologize for any grammatical/spelling errors, you know the drill, English is not my native language, but hey, I love to write nonetheless. I'd really need a beta, but sadly they don't grow on trees. I checked. If there's anything completely incomprehensible, please do tell me. If anyone reads this at all. Which I doubt, cause JN fandom seems to die down a lil' bit. However, in case somebody DOES read it, tell me what you think :) Cause...you know. It's polite :P.

-And for the record: I don't think Jimmy's a jerk, Cindy does. But that's okay, we love her anyway. ;)