the punishment
Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron or it's characters.
Chapter 2,
"Bring me the individuals." The ruler said and Jimmy and his friends approached a tall woman, sitting on a obsidian throne with a white marble scepter with a brilliant amethyst stone at the top. The ruler had a one-shouldered ballgown dress made out of diorite, and a belt made out of the priceless aster-rubies.
"Wow, a woman ruler, I wish we had one of those on earth." Cindy said and Jimmy scoffed.
"A ruler is a ruler despite gender you know." Jimmy said and the ruler arched one of her diamond eyebrows.
"What are you two squabbling about?" The ruler said and Jimmy and Cindy were shockingly quiet.
"Gender, miss-rock-lady." Sheen said and the ruler looked even more confused.
"I am unfamiliar with this term 'gender'. What is it's purpose?" The ruler asked and Carl giggled.
"Madam, gender is what we call male and female, boys and girls, men and women." Libby said and it was met with Sheen bobbing his head like some mad bobble-head.
"Exactly, woman have two X chromosomes, or XX; and men have one X and one Y chromosomes, or XY." Jimmy further explained and the ruler smiled.
"Ah, you mean the dark side or the light side." She said and Carl sneezed.
"Excuse me." He said, but the ruler didn't seem to hear his sneeze and thought it was a question instead.
"Well, I don't know what your species does, but here we Petram-Populus can change from the lighter side to the darker side. Currently I am using the lighter side which is more emotional and understanding of situations. I try to only use the darker side at times of true anarchy, because it tends to be rash and hotheaded." the ruler said and Sheen was practically crossed-eyed listening to her speak.
"Uh, what's going on?" Sheen asked and the ruler laughed.
"I'll show you then, little youngling." The ruler said and she handed her scepter to Xan and placed her hands together and tilted her head back. It almost looked like she was meditating, until the different stones that created her body started to move. Her chest moved to her arms and created bulging muscles, her hips went down to create strong leg and calf muscles, and her cheek bones became less defined and her forehead grew. The ruler now looked like a Roman or Greek god, because of the dress that currently resembled a toga.
"Whoa, Jimmy do you see that?" Carl said and Jimmy nodded.
"It's unlike anything I have ever seen. The closest thing I can think of is how clown fish act on earth." Jimmy said and Cindy looked at him.
"Clown fish? What a funny thing to say?" Cindy said and Jimmy looked at her.
"It's true, though. Clown fish, and even different species of eels, frogs, and I believe clams can change gender. I have to check on the clams, but the dominate male will turn into a female when his mate dies, and mate with the children so that he can create more." Jimmy said and Carl blinked.
"Uh, what is 'mate' again?" Carl asked and Sheen pointed at him.
"It's what your parents did to make you." Sheen said and Carl covered his ears.
"Oh, stop it Sheen. La La La La La La La! Don't give me nightmares." Carl said and Sheen tucked his hands behind his back and Carl uncovered his ears.
"Think of Nemo!" Sheen shouted and Carl shivered.
"I'll never watch that movie again." Carl said and Sheen laughed.
"It looks like you individuals very between your lighter and darker sides. Perhaps you should switch sides so that I can better understand your thought processes." The ruler said and Libby scoffed.
"Ok, lady, er sir, this is the lowdown. We are born this way and we live this way and we die this way. We can't change from male to female whenever we please." Libby said and the ruler thought about this.
"That seems like quite the disadvantage for your species." The ruler said and Cindy laughed.
"I know. I would love to see Jimmy as a girl." Cindy said and Jimmy gasped.
"Gross, you take that back, Vortex." Jimmy said and Cindy stuck out her tongue.
"Oh, yeah, really mature." Jimmy said and Cindy smiled.
"More mature then you." Cindy said and Jimmy rolled his eyes.
"Well, I bet that you would hate to be a boy Vortex." Jimmy said and Cindy glared at him.
"Like I would ever willingly give up being a girl, so that I could be a smelly boy." Cindy said and the ruler smiled.
"I think I have devised the perfect punishment for trespassing on private land and attempted robbery." The ruler said and Jimmy swallowed. Picking up his trusty scepter he pointed it at the children. He started speaking this language that sounded like two heavy rocks grinding against each other.
"Oh, my head feels itchy." Sheen said and Jimmy looked at him.
"It looks like your hair is growing." Jimmy said and Libby gasped.
"He's right, and I... oh... my hair isn't covering my eye." Libby said and Carl placed his hands on his chest.
"OH! The pain... Jimmy I think I'm having some sort of a heart attack." Carl groaned and Jimmy started to feel like his chest was going to explode.
"AH!" Jimmy said and he closed his eyes from the pain.
"I'm starting to feel a little dizzy." Cindy said, but Jimmy didn't look at her. It was like his head and lower torso was having constant Charley Horse and he didn't know what to do.
"That's good, release them from that beam." The ruler said and Xan turned off the beam and dropped Jimmy and his friends.
"Oh, Leaping Leptons." Jimmy said and he lifted his heavy head and looked beside him and saw a bunch of long black hair.
"Libby are you alright?" Jimmy asked shaking the girls arm.
"Did you say 'Libby'? I'm over here." Libby said and the voice was behind Jimmy and he didn't quite have the strength to look at Libby.
"Then who is this?" Jimmy said shaking the arm once again.
"Leave me alone." Sheen said and Jimmy blinked.
"Sheen?" Jimmy asked and the girl rolled over and he saw Sheen, but... only his eyes. The girl had a smooth, heart-shaped face and bright natural blush on her cheeks.
"Whoa, Jimmy what happened to you?" Sheen asked sitting up, and this is when Jimmy notices Cindy's shoes beside Sheen's head. He looked up and saw a sleeping blond boy.
"Oh, no." Jimmy said and Sheen sat up.
"Libby, where are you?" Sheen said and a black boy waved at him.
"Oh, no! Libby... They changed you." Sheen said and Libby rolled his eyes.
"I'm not the only one." Libby stated and Sheen nodded, and pointed to the different people as he named them.
"You're right, they changed you, and Cindy, and Carl, and Jimmy, and... why are my fingers so skinny?" He said and they realization struck.
"Oh, no, I'm a girl!" He shouted as he stood up and started running around the room.
"Calm, down Sheen." Carl said weakly.
"Goddard, come here boy." Jimmy said as he was finding the strength to sit up. He saw a little mechanical cat strolling towards him.
"Oh, Goddard." Jimmy said concerned.
"Why would Goddard turn into a cat?" Libby asked and Carl looked uneasy by the question, and other things.
"I may have activated that new program of his while we were digging." Carl said and Jimmy sighed.
"When they switched our genders, the programming must have effected the beam and turned Goddard into a cat." Jimmy said and Cindy lifted herself up unto one arm.
"I did tell you that it sounded like a cat." Cindy said and Jimmy glared at him.
"Shut it Vortex." Jimmy said and suddenly they heard Sheen stop screaming so his friends looked around the room and saw the ruler holding him.
"Come on, Rockman, change us back." Sheen said and the ruler smiled at his fear.
"This is your punishment. Since your species cannot change your sides easily, this seems like the perfect punishment. I will force you to stay this way for an entire moon cycle. If it seems as though you did not learn your lesson, then it will be as long as at it takes for your planet to rotate around the sun. If after that, you still are little trouble makers, then this transformation will be permanent." The king said and Sheen, once again, looked confused.
"Jimmy, what's happening." Sheen asked and Jimmy sighed.
"We are stuck like this for at least a month. If we don't change, he will keep us like this for a year; and after that if we still don't change then we will stay like this forever." Jimmy said and Sheen gasped.
"You wouldn't dare!" Sheen said and the ruler chuckled.
"So emotional." He said before dropping Sheen.
"Xan, you are handy with tools, help fix their mode of transportation and let them go back to their planet. And remember children, I will be keeping a close eye on you." The ruler said.