Android Scam
A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic
Chapter Four – Be Cruel to Your School
Students ran in the hallways in every direction, some running away from the turmoil in the cafeteria, others eager to see what was going on. Jenny quickly made her way through the chaos in the hall and stepped back into the cafeteria, which was now empty of all but about fifty people. They were all staring towards the far wall of the room, where the cooking stoves sat in a row behind the serving counter.
Drew – who could now easily reach over the counter – had rammed his silvery left arm into the front of a huge cooking grill. A wave of ooze washed over it, converting the hundreds of pounds of metal into a quivering, silver-green mass. The former grill started to flow into Drew's arm, in seeming defiance of the laws of physics. Fifteen seconds later, the last of it slurped up, and a three-fingered hand re-formed.
Brad made his way in, just in time to see Drew absorb the last of a soft-serve ice cream machine. Jenny had an annoyed look on her face.
"Brad, you told me that Drew wasn't an android!"
"Well he isn't! Or, he wasn't! I had it on good authority!" he said, shrugging his shoulders.
Jenny, now very unsure of what was going on, took a few steps towards Drew. Not five minutes after she'd confronted him about his lies, about pretending to be an android, here he was – ten feet tall and made of metal. So he's an android after all? Well … maybe I made him angry. She walked slowly towards him, her hands clasped behind her back. Drew was literally devouring the kitchen sink. She smiled, and tried to get his attention.
"Ahem - Drew? Hey, Drew, look. I may have said some things earlier that were a little … harsh." Jenny gently rocked back and forth on her heels.
The silver-green, wedge-shaped head turned around at the sound of Jenny's voice. A pair of green eyes narrowed into slits, and stared at Jenny, as if … analyzing her. Drew finished absorbing the sink, and his long, snakelike arms shrank back to his sides. He turned and slowly started to walk towards Jenny.
Good, thought Jenny, he's calming down. "That's it, Drew. We can talk this out."
The huge silver-green android took a few more cautious steps towards Jenny, with slow, fluid motions. An electric hum filled the air, and a low synthesized rumble reverberated from its head.
Wow, thought Brad, almost sounds like an animal growling.
A horrible possibility suddenly occurred to him.
"Jen? Just a crazy thought here …" he shouted. "I think he's trying to absorb all the metal in the cafeteria."
"Uh … yeah?" Well, that's pretty obvious. Jenny was trying to focus on keeping Drew calm.
"So what else is in the cafeteria right now that's made of metal? Or should I say, who else?"
Gasp! Jenny cupped her hands over her mouth.
Drew slowly approached her, almost as if he were … stalking prey. No way – he wouldn't!!!
Jenny took a few steps backwards. "Heh-heh. Okay, Drew, calm down. Don't do anything crazy, now."
The android's arms started to shimmer a liquid silver-green. Its hands re-formed into claws. It knelt into a crouch, ready to pounce …
"Drew, I'm warning you!"
The android swung a clawed arm towards Jenny like a scythe. Jenny's pigtail-jets flamed to life, and she leapt into the air, easily avoiding the attack. The silver-green claw rammed through two cafeteria tables, sending table fragments flying in every direction. Jenny grabbed a ten-foot long chunk of tabletop out of mid-air.
"I'm sorry about this, Drew," she shouted, holding the wooden tabletop over her head, "but nobody's absorbing me!!!" Jenny swung the massive board like a giant paddle, slamming it into the silver android's chest. Drew flew backwards, blasting tables and chairs into the air. His body crashed into the wall with an impact that shook the entire cafeteria, then bounced off and fell to the floor. He shook his head, as if trying to regain his composure.
Jenny hovered in mid-air, fists at the ready. "Maybe that will knock some sense into you."
But "Drew" jumped back to his feet, shaking the floor with his bulk. The ends of his arms briefly shimmered a liquid silver-green, and grew from three-fingered hands to heavy blunt cylinders. The silver android crouched, and jumped fifteen feet up in the air towards Jenny, lunging its two new weapons at her like battering rams. Jenny gracefully dodged left, then right, and grabbed one of Drew's arms as it missed her.
Gripping with both hands, she grit her teeth and used the android's own momentum to swing his body into the ceiling, embedding it with incredible force, knocking loose dozens of ceiling tiles and smashing pipes. Still holding on to the android's arm, she felt a faint vibration in her hands. The arm started to shimmer with a rippling silver-green. That's what happens just before it – absorbs something. Panicking, she heaved on it and hurled the android back into the cafeteria floor. Its body lay crumpled at the center of a ten-foot-wide crater.
"Gross gross gross gross gross!!!" Jenny backed away and shook her hands, rubbing them furiously. There was no silver ooze on them, though – whew.
A whining schlorrrrrp came from the crater, and pair of silver-green legs flowed out, lifting the rest of the android's body to an upright position. Rippling waves washed over the body and smoothed out the damage from Jenny's attack. It stepped fluidly out of the crater with a low, guttural growwwl, looking as if Jenny had never laid a finger on it.
Brad stared, slack-jawed, from behind an overturned table, with a couple of other students. "That would be so cool … if it wasn't trying to eat you."
"Brad, take those people and get out of here!!!" ordered Jenny.
"Shh-yeah, right!" answered Brad. "Like I'm going to miss this. And you might need my help."
Jenny didn't have time to argue with him. Drew started to approach her again, his glowing green eyes tracking her movements as she hovered in mid-air. Jenny started to grow concerned. Up to now, I haven't used any weapons. I don't want to hurt him … but what if he doesn't give me a choice?
She landed back on the floor, and held her arms open in a gesture of truce. Maybe there was still a chance to reason with him.
"Drew, come on. This is really getting crazy. What's wrong?"
Drew crouched to jump again –
Suddenly a loud crack, like thunder, tossed both Jenny and the silver android onto their backs.
A bright, purple light burst into existence a few feet away from them. Tables, chairs, and wastebaskets were knocked over, and a strong wind started to blow loose garbage and debris into a whirlwind. Jenny shielded her eyes with her hands.
"For crying out loud," she shouted, "NOW what?!?"
The bright light expanded into a purple sphere, crackling with energy. Two figures started materializing inside, one tall and huge, the other short and stocky. A warbling, tinny sound resolved itself into two robotic voices … arguing.
"You had one simple job to do, genius! One job, and you couldn't even get that right!"
"Oh, that's nice. Way to pass the buck, Mister Responsibility. Oh, oh, wait, we're on."
The purple energy sphere dissipated, leaving two imposing robots standing in the middle of a scorched circle on the cafeteria floor. One robot towered nine feet in the air, and had a crimson, four-armed insectoid body. The other was much shorter – maybe four feet tall – and most of that was a massive head covered with antennae, blinking lights, and three pairs of eyes. He had six arms, and stood on a single leg that ended in a pair of wheels.
The big fellow thrust out his massive upper arm, scowling at the students in the room. His eyes glowed a menacing yellow.
"PATHETIC humans!!! Surrender, and bow before your new MASTERS!!! The robotic perfection that is … THE CLUSTER!!!"
Gasps of terror spread through the room. Jenny got to her feet with a nasty look on her face. Cluster goons! Arrgh, that's all I need!
The robot continued. "I am a representative of Queen Vexus, from Cluster Prime, sent to seize this planet in her glorious name! My name is Cluster Warrior Commander Omicron Twelve! And I'll be your dictator today. That's Omicron, with a 'C', not a 'K'."
The little guy spoke up. "Resistance is futile, meat creatures, for I am the most highly evolved robotic intelligence known to the galaxy! My name is written in a quantum language that is beyond the abilities of your puny human brains to fathom! Translating it would shatter the primitive ideas of what you call mathematics, and science, and reality itself!!! … but, everybody calls me Stanley."
Jenny leapt in front of the two Cluster robots, raised her arms, and deployed an impressive laser rifle out of each elbow. She trained one on each of them. "All right, you Cluster losers, listen up. Nobody's seizing my school or my planet. Surrender now, and maybe I'll go easy on you."
Omicron Twelve gestured towards Jenny. "Why hello there, XJ-9. Queen Vexus sends her fondest greetings to you."
Jenny's lasers whined up to full power. "I'd love to send her 'my fondest greetings', but it looks like I'll have to settle for you two."
"Oh, it's not just 'us two'," chuckled "Stanley".
A pair of silver-green tentacles suddenly sailed at Jenny, and coiled themselves around her arms, pinning them to her sides. Caught by surprise, she struggled against them as they grew tighter.
"Unghh …. Drew! Drew, what do you think you're doing?!?!"
The huge silver-green android just tightened its grip, holding Jenny immobile against its chest, within the coils of its tentacle-arms. Stanley wheeled forward, holding several complicated-looking pieces of equipment in four of his six arms. He circled around Drew, apparently inspecting him, and studying his readings with great interest.
Omicron Twelve pulled a small yellow box from a compartment on his torso with one of his two smaller arms. "What he is doing is obeying his Cluster masters, as you soon shall be, XJ-9."
"Not likely!" Jenny grimaced, still struggling against Drew's grip. Wait a second … "What do you mean 'he's obeying'?"
The huge crimson insectoid smiled, and opened the box for Jenny to see. Inside was a small, yellow-and-black robot wasp.
"Yesterday, your little android friend here was infested with a colony of Cluster nano-probes, deployed from a robotic wasp, exactly like this one. Nano-probes that were meant to be for you, I might add," growled Omicron.
Stanley rolled his eyes, and shrugged his six arms. "Okay, okay, so sue me. Let's get on with it."
"They integrated with his circuitry," continued Omicron, "giving us complete remote control over his computer brain functions, and giving him certain impressive … abilities … that were lacking from his original design."
"Like oozing and stretching and absorbing metal," said Jenny.
"Exactly. He was getting a little out of hand, so we intervened to make sure he did not absorb you." He grinned. "After all, the Cluster has big plans for you, XJ-9."
Stanley rocked back and forth, waving his instruments excitedly, almost bouncing up and down.
"Fantastic! Amazing! Simply unbelievable! So that's why there's so much carbon in there. Not that there's anything wrong with carbon, mind you, it's a lovely little element ..."
"What are you babbling about?" snapped Omicron Twelve.
Stanley pointed at the ten-foot, shimmering silver-green android that held onto Jenny. "This was a human!!! That's why the nano-probes converted the entire mass. There was no internal circuitry! There was some metal, but it was just a defective human with a metallic limb!"
Jenny struggled for words – this was all happening so fast. "Wait – so he wasn't an android after all? Then wh-what did your stupid nano-probes do to him?"
"They used him as raw materials to make zillions of copies of themselves," Stanley explained proudly. "That's what they do. They take atoms from a machine, or a table, or a building, or just about anything with atoms in it. Which is everything!" Stanley laughed. "The little dickens do have a taste for metal, though. Then they re-arrange and manipulate the atoms to create almost anything they want. They're such clever little devils!"
"Raw … materials?" asked Jenny, in a weak voice.
"They ate him."
"Ate him?" Omigosh.
Stanley continued, matter-of-factly. "From the inside out. He's one hundred percent nano-probes now."
"Well, whatever he was," said Omicron, "now he belongs to the Cluster."
Omicron Twelve took the robot wasp in one of his small claws, and lowered it towards Jenny's forehead. Jenny stared at the hideous little insect, its robotic legs wiggling in the air.
"And in a few seconds, XJ-9 … so will you," he chuckled.
Jenny fought back tears. No matter what she thought of Drew, nobody deserved anything like this. It was a fate worse than death. And they want to do the same thing to me! Never before had she felt such complete and total hatred for the Cluster. With a mighty yell, she fired the rocket boosters in her feet, propelling herself and the Cluster android – she couldn't think of it as Drew anymore, he was gone – into the air. The Cluster android was taller than her, and its head rammed against the ceiling, hard. That was enough to loosen its grip. Jenny grabbed the android's head and flipped it over her shoulder, driving it back into the floor, and knocking both Cluster robots twenty feet backwards.
Jenny landed and planted her fists on her hips, defiantly.
"What part of 'NO WAY' don't you understand?"
Omicron Twelve scrambled back to his feet, still holding the robot wasp, growling. "XJ-9, we tire of these antics! Your future is with the Cluster. You will serve the Queen." He gestured to the students who remained in the cafeteria. "And these hairless monkeys will serve you."
He pointed towards his short partner. "Stanley! Order the android to capture XJ-9, and enslave the humans infesting this building. Y'know, you can really never have too many human slaves."
Stanley opened a compartment from his body, and took out a large remote control device covered with buttons, tiny screens, and joysticks. He started manipulating the controls with all six of his hands.
Jenny stood in a martial arts position, eager to dish out punishment. "Capture me and everyone else? Puh-lease. For somebody so smart, you don't count very well. You've only got one android."
Stanley smirked. "O-ho! Little Miss Attitude! Maybe you've heard of … divide and conquer?"
He pressed a red button on his controller.
A hum came from the silver Cluster android. Its body and limbs started to shimmer silver-green in a now-familiar way … but this time, its whole body dissolved into a huge pile of shiny molasses. The silvery blob gurgled grotesquely and started to pull apart. Soon one large blob separated itself into eight smaller blobs.
Jenny watched in amazement as each of the blobs started to grow in height. Shimmering green patterns flowed over their surfaces as they sprouted gooey branches that turned into arms and hands. They grew heads, each of which sprouted two glowing green eyes, and where there once stood one large android, there were now eight androids, each six feet tall.
They charged.
The first two lunged for her arms, trying to pin her again. Jenny let them grab her arms, then spun to her left, slamming the silver android on her right arm into three others that were diving for her legs. It shook off, but the other one held tight on to her left arm. Jenny simply swung him over her head, tossing him backwards so hard that he knocked over the remaining two androids, and sailed back into the kitchen. She flipped backwards and landed upright in a textbook fighting stance, watching the Cluster androids spin around on the floor like bowling pins.
But they recovered quickly. And as eight regular-sized androids instead of one large one, they moved a lot faster now. Two androids got back to their feet and dove for Jenny. She ducked them, then fired her pigtail-jets to leap over three more who came at her next. Three more, behind her, lifted one of the few remaining unbroken tables, and threw it at her back. But she turned and caught the massive lunch table, swung it over her head, and slammed it down directly onto two unlucky silver androids. They didn't even break – they splattered, as if they were made of toothpaste, spraying the walls and floor with a thick silver-green goo.
"Ewww! All right, Omi-creep Twelve," Jenny said angrily, "now it's your turn."
But before she could take one step towards Omicron, four silver androids tackled her to the floor. Jenny rolled with the tackle and somersaulted to her feet, delivering a brutal kick that sent one of the androids flying across the room and into a wall. A couple of punches sent two more androids sailing through the air. Another two tried to tackle her feet, but Jenny delivered a perfect pair of kicks to their silver-green chins. They rocketed towards the far wall of the cafeteria, arms and legs flailing like rag dolls, and smashed through it, sailing outside towards the parking lot.
"That's four down, and I'm only using my fists," she grinned towards Omicron Twelve and Stanley.
Amazingly, Omicron Twelve didn't seem concerned at all – he was actually leaning against the wall with his arm. He pointed behind Jenny with a smug look on his face.
Stanley was working his remote control with all twenty-four fingers, he cranium lights flashing with intense activity. And he was chuckling. "What was it you were saying about … not counting very well?"
"Huh?" Jenny turned around to see what was left of the androids –
There were twelve of them now.
Parts of the cafeteria wall, floor, and kitchen glistened with a shimmering silver green. And the shimmering silver patches seemed to be gurgling, oozing, and growing. One of the soda machines was dissolving into a silver paste. Suddenly, with a disgusting schlorrrrp, a stream of silver goo flowed out of what was left of the soda machine, and started taking the shape of a Cluster android. Two new green eyes flickered to life, and glared at Jenny.
The new silver android charged, joining eight others in another attack on Jenny. Okay, time to get serious. Jenny's hands and wrists split apart, unfolding into a pair of giant fists. One right cross knocked two silver androids into the wall, shaking loose the plaster with a clang. The left hook blasted three more androids into the air, sending one crashing right through the wall and into the hallway. The other two tried to wrap themselves – literally – around her arms and legs. Jenny shook them loose, stepped back, and converted one of her fists into a huge saw blade. One neat screaming blow sliced both androids in half at the waist. They flopped to the ground, and started to flow into silver-green goo ... repairing themselves.
A voice shouted from the far wall of the cafeteria. "JENNY!!! – ack! – Little help!!!"
"Brad!"
Nine silver androids jumped on her back, trying to force her to the floor. A blast from her rockets sent Jenny into the air. Eight androids flew limply in random directions; but one clung stubbornly to her back. She looped and dove straight for one of the few remaining tables. At the last moment, she pivoted her body to land on her back – cushioned by the silver android, of course. The force of the blow turned the android into a shimmering silver-green paste. Now, she could see what was wrong with Brad.
Brad and six other students were clutching at silver-green collars around their necks, each of which was fastened to the cafeteria wall with a strong silver cable.
"Jen!" gasped Brad. "They just came out of the walls!!! And they're giving me a rash!!!"
"Oh, man … hang on, guys!" They came out of the walls?
Jenny squinted, and a thin red laser beam shot from her eyes, cutting the collars off of the students' necks one by one. The last student was wildly gesturing as his collar broke off, as if to say look behind you … Jenny turned in time to see seventeen androids coming at her.
"Everybody behind me!" she shouted. "Brad, get everybody together. We're getting out of here."
"Out of here is sounding pretty good," he said, rubbing his neck.
Jenny positioned herself between the growing crowd of silver Cluster androids and the remaining students in the cafeteria. There was an exit on the outside wall that led directly outside. Jenny raised her arms, and activated the lasers concealed in the palms of her hands. While Brad led the group towards the exit, Jenny opened fire on the androids. Rapid-fire, white-hot beams of energy shot out of her palms, cutting into the first row of attackers. The destruction was spectacular. Silver androids shuddered and shook as they were pounded by the powerful laser fire. Androids flew over backwards, some with smoking holes in their bodies. Some androids simply blew to pieces. It was almost bothering Jenny – the stupid things aren't even trying to dodge!
Brad reached the door and pushed the handle. The door was locked … and the handle started to shimmer with a silver-green color.
Omicron Twelve, standing a few feet away, still hadn't bulged a robot muscle. If anything, his smirk was even more arrogant. "Going somewhere, mammals?"
The entire door quivered into a silvery mass, and small buds started to grow out of it, forming into long, thin arms, with hands reaching towards the students …
"Jenny!" shouted Brad. "Ahhh … the whole out-of-here thing really isn't happening!!!"
The students screamed, and ran away from the exit. Jenny gave her lasers a rest, and took a brief moment to look around what was left of the cafeteria. The floor was littered with broken tables, benches, chairs, and scattered garbage. Most of the kitchen area was either gone, or dripping with silver-green goo. The walls, windows, and ceiling were scarred with holes from the ferocity of the battle, and many of those holes had trickles of silver-green syrup dripping from them. And then there were the green-eyed silver androids, already recovering from Jenny's laser assault, oozing up from large silver puddles on the floor. Jenny counted twenty-two of them.
"The hallway!" she shouted to the students. "It's the only way out!"
Brad led the students into the hallway, as Jenny covered their escape with a long wooden bench. She swung it back and forth like a sword, knocking five or six silver androids into the air with each blow. Finally, everybody was out of the cafeteria. Jenny took one last look at the Cluster robot invaders.
Omicron Twelve shook his head. "Foolish XJ-9 … you are only delaying the inevitable."
She left the cafeteria and joined the crowd in the hallway. Students that escaped, and curious passers-by, talked and shouted, trying to figure out just what was going on in the cafeteria. Some were crying and hugging each other. Some were in a near-panic. Jenny deployed an arc welding torch from her right elbow, and sealed the cafeteria doors shut. Hopefully, that would hold those monsters in there for a while. Now, she just needed to calm everybody down and get them out of the building. Fortunately, as a global defense robot, crowd control was part of her programming.
A panel in her chest slid upon, and deployed a microphone. Her pigtails unfolded into loudspeakers. "Everyone, I need your attention for a minute, please!"
The crowd of students ignored her, buzzing with dozens of separate conversations.
"Excuse me? Would everyone quiet down, please?"
If anything, the noise of the crowd grew louder.
She reached for a dial inside her chest, and turned it up to "11".
"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!!!!"
The hallway was filled with silent, staring faces, hands clasped over their ears.
"Heh-heh … sorry about that." Jenny returned her volume to normal. "Now, we had a little excitement in the cafeteria." She held her thumb and her finger half an inch apart. "There was a little situation, but there's no need to panic. So, if we just all walk down the hallway to the front doors, and head outside, everything will be just fine." Very professional, if I do say so myself.
One girl at the back of the crowd raised her hand. "Excuse me?" Everyone turned to look at her.
She pointed towards her locker. "What's that?"
A thin stream of silver-green goo dribbled down the front of her locker door.
The crowd looked around. The hallway was lined with lockers … metal lockers … on either side, and everyone suddenly realized that about one-quarter of them looked like they were splattered with thick silvery paint. Paint that seemed to be flowing out of the lockers themselves …
Brad grabbed the microphone coming out of Jenny's chest, nearly jerking her off of her feet in the process.
"It's evil alien robot slime zombies!!! In the name of all that's holy, run for your lives!!!"
Brad and Jenny were knocked on their backs and nearly trampled underfoot by the wave of panicked students. Screams rang through the hall, and arms waved in the air as they sprinted down the hallway for the front doors.
Jenny sat up, gently pushed her bent microphone back in her chest cavity, and glared at Brad. "Thanks a lot."
Brad propped himself up on his elbow, grinning with satisfaction. "No problem, Jen. Just doing my part to help out."
One of the locker doors flew open, gushing a stream of shimmering silver-green paste onto the floor. Then a second locker door simply dissolved, also flowing onto the floor. An electric hummmm echoed in the hallway as two pillars of ooze started to rise, schlorrrrp, up from the silvery mess. Brad and Jenny scrambled to their feet, and backed away from them, in the direction that the crowd had run off.
But pools of silver molasses were pouring out of the lockers in that direction, too – and to make matters worse, the cafeteria doors that Jenny had just welded shut started to ripple, and warp, as if they were melting. A few trickles of silver ooze leaked out from the cracks, and started to envelop the doors in a shiny silver glaze.
"Hang on, Brad!" Jenny's legs cracked open, unfolding and deploying, until her lower body had converted into a powerful set of tank treads. Her arms unfolded at the elbows, and expanded into a large snowplow blade. With a blast of throttle and a squeal from her treads, Jenny took off in the direction of the crowd. Brad hung onto a pair of handlebars which had extended out of her pigtails. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the cafeteria doors collapse into sludge, and dozens of green-eyed silver androids poured into the hall, sliding and clanking like kitchen pots.
Jenny roared down the corridor in the direction of the front doors. Lockers and water fountains everywhere were melting into shimmering silver goop. Puddles of silver-green were leaking out from under the bathroom doors. And while most of the Cluster androids were behind them, more were springing to life out of the nano-ooze in the hallway. A dozen silver androids ran towards Jenny, some with arms extended to grab her, some with tentacle-arms, some actually turning their entire bodies into steel cable, trying to slow her down. Jenny lowered her head and plowed right through them. Androids clanged and rattled off of her, into the walls and ceiling, stunned. A couple were flattened under her tank-treads. Jenny caught the last one right in the middle of her plow blade, neatly slicing him in half top-to-bottom. The two halves flopped to the floor on either side of her as she rolled on past.
"WOOHOO!!!" Brad yelled, hanging on for dear life. Dangerous or not, this was a rush. "Way to kick Cluster butt, Jen!!!"
"The front doors are right there," she said, as they screeched around a corner to the main entranceway of the school.
And they ground to a halt.
Dozens of thick, shiny silver tentacles wrapped around Jenny, lifting her into the air. The main entranceway of the school was crawling with dozens of silver androids, and more were pouring from cracks in the walls and the ceiling. Androids jumped towards Jenny, clutching and wrapping her up in their arms. Androids climbed the walls and crawled upside-down overhead. Silver ooze was flowing down the stairwells like a pair of waterfalls, spilling out into thick bubbling pools that spawned even more Cluster androids. The trophy case, the school statue, the pipes in the walls were gone or dissolved into glistening silver pudding. More silver-green arms reached up from holes in the floor which led to the boiler room in the basement.
The sudden stop flung Brad into the air, and he landed with a splash in a foot-deep pool of shimmering metallic goop. Jenny was struggling in the web of silver tentacles and android arms, trying to free herself. She managed to get her arms transformed back to normal, but each was wrapped tight by at least fifteen androids, plus a few tentacles that simply emerged from the walls. Every time she managed to wriggle free of one, two more androids would grab on. She tried to convert her tank-treads back into legs, but the androids had them wrapped up too. Every move she tried to make was countered by the grip of seventy-three androids, plus wall-tentacles on top of that.
Brad sloshed his way out of the pool of silver slop, trying to think of anything that could help. Anything around them that was metal, and even some wood and plastic, was being devoured by the flood of Cluster nano-probes.
"Jenny! Oh, man – hold on! I'll get you out!"
Jenny strained and struggled. "Run, Brad! Run! Save yourself!"
No chance of that. "There's gotta be something around here they're not eating!!!" But anything Brad could see that was metal had already melted into ooze, or was in the process of melting. And it's not like he was strong enough to rip the wood out of the walls and use it like a club. Those miserable Cluster dorks will do anything to get Jenny. They're not even paying attention to me …
Bingo.
Brad took a few running steps and jumped, landing on the back of one of the silver androids coiled around Jenny's left leg. He started beating its head with his fists.
"You lousy alien robot!" Clang! "Ouch! You let Jenny go!!!" Clang! "Ouch! Let her go or else!!!" Clang! "Ouch!"
Brad's blows had no effect on the silver android's metal body. But it did distract him …
That was all Jenny needed. Her left leg twisted free enough to retract the tank-tread, and she deployed a grappling hook in its place. Small but powerful rocket motors blasted the grappling hook down the last remaining Cluster-free hallway, and the hooks latched onto an intact set of sturdy lockers. With all the power she could summon, Jenny yanked herself free of the silver androids' clutches. She wrapped one arm around Brad's waist, pulling him to freedom with her.
They lay on the floor for a moment, Brad catching his breath, Jenny restoring her legs to normal, and they glanced back to see what lay behind them. The front entranceway was totally engulfed in Cluster androids. They could hear the rumbling and clattering of Cluster androids running down the hallway from the direction of the cafeteria. They could hear a liquid, slurping sound coming from the walls and the ceiling. The entire school was being overrun by the Cluster nano-probes. The only untouched part of the school was this corridor, which led to the gymnasium.
They got up, brushing droplets of silver-green goo off of themselves. "Ewww, disgusting!" said Jenny. Then she chuckled at Brad. "My hero."
Brad wiped his hands together. "Hey, I said you might need my help. Ouch." His right hand was still sore from his "rescue".
But a mob of silver, green-eyed androids coming around the corner snapped them back to attention. Jenny ignited her pigtail-jets, grabbed Brad by the arm, and blasted down the corridor towards the gym. They flew through the doors, and Jenny slammed them shut, once more welding them closed.
The gym was filled with students.
Brad was relieved to see that the gym still seemed to be normal; the walls, the score clock, the basketball nets were still there. But he was surprised to see most of the student body was standing in the middle of the hardwood floor, looking confused, nervous, and plenty scared. He recognized some kids who had been in the cafeteria, where everything had started. Why hadn't they just run outside, he wondered? The gym had two pairs of big double doors that led out to the football field and the parking lot.
All the conversations made talking difficult, but Brad managed to grab a sophomore by the shoulders and get his attention. "Hey, what's going on? Why is everybody just hanging around? We got a bit of a crisis here."
"Didn't you see the front doors?" shouted the sophomore. "All the doors are like that. The whole place is, like, gooey and shiny, and there's like arms everywhere!!! This is the only non-freaked-out place left in the whole school!!!"
"Yeah, no duh," said Brad. "But those doors go outside."
"Nobody can get 'em open," whimpered the sophomore.
Jenny ran over to the middle of the gym, joining Brad. "What's going on?"
"Doors are locked, I guess," said Brad.
"Not for long. Stand back, guys."
Jenny walked over to the closest set of double doors and tried them. Sure enough, they wouldn't open. Well, that wasn't much of an obstacle to a super-powered robot. He drew back her arm and threw an impressive punch. The doors ripped off their hinges and sailed outside.
A wave of relief washed over the students, as they moved towards the opening. Jenny just stood there, though, staring. That seemed strange to Brad, until he saw what she was looking at.
A shimmering lake of green-tinted nano-ooze slowly boiled and flowed in the afternoon sun, hundreds of feet across, a bubbling pool of silver lava. The parking lot, the cars in the parking lot, the streetlights, the fence, and the football bleachers were either gone, or melting like silver chocolate. The two silver androids that Jenny had earlier kicked through the cafeteria wall had landed in the parking lot. And they'd been busy making copies of themselves. Green-eyed silver androids walked and crawled all over the ball field, the football field, the yard, and the outside walls of the school. Silver-green androids marched towards the gymnasium in columns from the edges of the silver lake. And thick worms of shiny molasses were springing up from lake with slurping, humming noises, growing into dozens and dozens of new Cluster androids. Brad was speechless. The whole school ground seemed to be a living carpet of flowing silver. There were more silver-green androids than he could count. Jenny had an advanced electronic brain, though, and she had no trouble counting them.
Two thousand, four hundred and seventy-seven.
Seventy-eight …
Seventy-nine …
CONCLUDED in Chapter Five