Disclaimer – All characters are from the cartoon "My Life as a Teenage Robot" and are property of Rob Renzetti, and the good people at Frederator Studios. My sole creation is the character of Drew, a human high school student who was accidentally turned into an android by Cluster nanotechnology. Now friends with Jenny and Brad, his nanobot body has shape shifting (and other bizarre) properties. It's explained in my stories, starting with "Android Scam".
To everyone who has ever left a review: you rock, you rock in stereo, you rock in Dolby surround sound. Thanks for reading, and for providing the motivation and encouragement for me to keep writing. I rated this story PG simply to err on the side of caution; it will be a bit more serious than the last one. It might turn into another 30K word story. Hopefully, I can make it worth your time. Okay, here we go.
ONE GOOD REASON
A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic
Chapter One – One of Those Days
Jenny punched through the low layer of clouds, roaring out of the sky on the twin flames of her pigtail-jets. Hurtling towards the ground at breakneck speed, she pulled out of her dive at the last moment, leveling off a mere ten feet above the sidewalk. Pedestrians below barely had time to notice a blue-and-white streak sailing over their heads before being buffeted by the swirling gusts in her wake. She didn't have an extra second to spare tonight. One more turn, a hard, ninety-degree bank to the right, and her objective was finally in sight.
The bright marquee of the Rialto Theater shone with patterns of yellow, orange, and purple, bathing the faces of the people below in humming neon light. There were well over three hundred people in line, impatiently waiting to buy their tickets for the Hollywood blockbuster event of the season, Lord of the Armbands. She barely slowed down as she curled out of the air, and flew directly towards the old-style revolving brass door that served as the main entrance to the Rialto.
But she was in too much of a hurry, and quickly spun the door up to a speed normally associated with jet turbines. "Whooooooa!!!" she cried, trying to regain control of herself. The six people stuck in the door with her collectively groaned in agony, as if trapped on some berserk carnival ride. Finally, the centrifugal force spat them inside the theater. People surrounding the doors tumbled like dominoes, and Jenny slid gracelessly into the lobby, ripping and scraping the thick red carpeting with her metallic bottom.
She came to a stop, and wearily looked up at a circle of scolding faces – including a little fellow with black hair, slurping on a giant soda cup. "Well, it was awfully nice of you to decide to show up," Tuck huffed, tapping his foot.
Brad leaned over his little brother, hands in his pockets, with his trademark easy-going smile. "Hey there, Jen. Spectacular entrance. You lost a few points on the dismount, though."
"Hey guys," she moaned, as she climbed back up to her feet. I guess they've been waiting for me for a while. "Ahhh … sorry about that. I was trying to rush here as fast as I could. Train derailment on the other side of town. Just finished saving the passengers – and all their luggage. Do you have the tickets?"
"We are good to go," he said, handing her a movie ticket. "Drew is in charge of refreshments. Status report, refreshment boy?"
Drew walked over from the snack counter, carrying a foam tray loaded with goodies. "We got yer popcorn, Twizzlers, Mini Mints, Juju Beans, and two foot-long hot dogs with everything. And for us robot folk – a can of engine coolant for the lady, and a sack of nickel-plated hex nuts for yours truly. By the way, Jenny, I have this amazing piece of hi-tech equipment inside my body that comes in so handy. It's called a clock. Maybe your mom can hook you up with one."
"Very funny," Jenny shot back, grabbing the coolant. "I know I'm late, guys – I'm sorry! I just finished my evening patrol. It's been crazy today." Something seemed different; he didn't have his usual silver-green appearance. Oh, right – the shapeshift thing. "Going with the natural look tonight, hmmm?"
Drew was mimicking his old human form for the evening: blond hair, oversize baseball shirt, and baggy jeans. "Yeah, figured it wouldn't be too hard to hold onto the old look for a couple of hours. It'll make for a lot less pointing and staring."
"Gee, nice for you," she sighed, with a hint of sarcasm - her mother hadn't been putting much effort into Exo-Skin version 3.0. And as usual, there was plenty of pointing and staring at her. "Has the movie started yet?"
"It started five minutes ago, but don't sweat it," said Brad. "They'll run fifteen minutes of ads and trailers first. But we're probably going to get stuck sitting way up front."
"All the better to see the special effects during the battle scenes with the giant elephants! That's gonna be so cool," grinned Tuck, before ramming another handful of popcorn into his mouth. "Sore neck muscles are a small price to pay for total sensory immersion!"
"Let's get going, then," said Jenny. "The sooner I'm sitting down, the better."
The four of them made their way inside the theater, and just as Brad had feared (and Tuck had hoped), the only seats available were close to the giant screen. They snuck down and found four empty seats in the middle of the third row. Irritated movie-goers who had just gotten comfortable stood up to let them slide across, grumbling at them for the inconvenience. Jenny collapsed into her seat, and tried to sink back as low as her six-and-a-half foot frame would let her. She was looking forward to being in a comfortable chair for two hours.
Brad choked down half a hot dog, and pestered Tuck for a drink from his giant tub of soda, which he didn't feel like sharing. A typical brotherly argument grew into a good-natured popcorn fight, even while the upcoming releases played on the giant screen. Suddenly, a hand reached forward from the seats behind them, and tapped Brad on the shoulder.
"Can you quiet it down up there?" whispered a large, annoyed man. "We're trying to watch!"
"Heh-heh, sorry about that," said Brad. "We'll knock it off. Didn't mean to …"
"Not you," the man hissed. "Her." He was pointing towards Jenny.
Only then did Brad realize that Jenny's head was slumped back over her seat, her eyes were closed, and she was snoring. Her pigtails had flipped backwards, and were resting limply in a tub of nacho cheese sauce on the large man's lap.
"Jenny! Wake up!" Brad shook her by the shoulders, and she snapped to alertness.
"Wha? Who? Knock it off! I'm awake," she stammered.
"Sh-yeah … you were totally sawing logs there, Jen."
"Ewww!" She grimaced with disgust as cheese sauce dripped from the tips of her pigtails. "I guess I am feeling a little run down … I haven't gotten much sleep-mode time this week. There was that forest fire in Canada last night, and the dam break in India the night before that …"
Drew lobbed a hex nut into the air, catching it in his mouth. "So take a day off," he said, as his nanobots dissolved the metallic treat.
She gave him a downtrodden glare. "Yeah, right. Hel-lo? You have met my mother, right? There's no such thing as a day off."
"Geez, Jen," said Brad, with a touch of concern in his voice. "Maybe you should just skip the movie, and go home to get some rest."
"No, no, that's okay." She sat upright and wiggled back and forth in her seat to get comfortable, as the trailers finally came to an end. "Everyone at school has been talking about this movie since last fall, it's been in all the papers, and all over TV. I've been looking forward to it all week. And I've been looking forward to seeing Ian McCulley play the handsome Elf Prince," she giggled. "I'm not going to let a little thing like being tired spoil it for me now."
The lights dimmed, and the lush, rolling green hills of Medium Earth filled the giant screen. The camera seemed to be flying through a fantastic valley of tall trees and beautiful waterfalls. The dramatic theme music of the motion picture epic started to flow over the dozens of speakers, filling the theater with haunting, soul-stirring music …
That was pierced by a shrill beep-beep-beep from her belly-bolt. Oh, no.
The row behind Jenny started to shush her. "Come on, lady, turn your phone off!"
You don't know how much I wish I could. Her pigtails sank as her chest plate snapped open, and the all-too-familiar viewscreen unfolded into place. The monitor lit up with the distraught face of her mother, waving her arms in an agitated fashion. "XJ-9! You must get downtown immediately! A fire has broken out at City Hall!"
"Shhhh! Quiet!" hissed the crowd. A few kernels of popcorn came from somewhere, and bounced off the back of her head. She glanced behind her, trying to give the crowd her best there's-nothing-I-can-do-about-it face, only to get bombarded with another volley of popcorn.
The boys cringed in sympathy, as Jenny pleaded with her mother. "Auuuughhh … Mom! The movie's just starting! Can't the fire department handle this? I've been flying around like a maniac all day!"
"The fire engines are stuck in rush hour traffic. And this is not a negotiation!" Her mother grew cross, and wagged a finger at her. "Your fun time comes after your responsibilities. You have a job to do, young lady! Now, hurry along!"
"Yes, ma'am," she moped. The viewscreen – that miserable viewscreen – folded up and retracted into her chest. She looked at Brad with crushingly sad eyes. "I've gotta go, guys."
Brad tried to find a way to salvage the situation. "Look Jen," he whispered, "maybe it won't take that long, and after you're done with the fire, you can come back. We'll save your seat for you."
"Thanks, Brad. I'm sure gonna try." The boys shielded themselves as she configured herself for flight mode with the whirr of motors and the whine of engines. With a cloud of pale blue exhaust and blinding speed, she blasted out of her seat and streaked through one of the skylights in the theater's high ceiling. Tuck was preoccupied with an ogre battle on the movie screen, and didn't seem to notice the little drama. But Brad and Drew knew how much Jenny had been looking forward to the movie, and they exchanged a downcast look, shaking their heads.
Jenny soared hundreds of feet above the rooftops, her cheeks burning red with anger and frustration, and let out a scream that rattled windows for city blocks in every direction. She almost wished that the emergency had been an alien attack, instead of a stupid old fire – she felt like blasting something with a laser right now. She quickly scanned the Tremorton skyline, looking for the latest crisis. The billowing column of thick black smoke was impossible to miss. She headed off for the smoke column at high speed.
"I don't believe it! Is two lousy hours to enjoy a movie too much to ask? AUUUGGGHHHHH!!!! Life is so unfair!"
The whole day had been one series of crises after another, each one timed more inconveniently than the last. The Alaskan avalanche on the way to school. The jumbo jet emergency landing in Germany during P.E. class. And the mudslide in Argentina at lunch hour – not only did she miss lunch, but she was cleaning mud off of her body all afternoon long, much to the amusement of Brit and Tiff.
"You have a job to do, young lady," she sneered, mocking her mother's voice. "Funny, I don't remember applying for that job. Well … I might as well get down to business."
Below her, she saw the snarled evening traffic that her mother had told her about. Sure enough, trapped on a side street in the middle of four solid lanes of cars , she could see the flashing red lights of a hook and ladder truck from the Tremorton Fire Department. Suddenly she got an idea – hey, this'll go a lot faster if I bring along a little help!
Jenny swooped down to street level, and landed in the middle of the clogged traffic. She waved to the driver of the fire engine to get his attention – then the driver turned and shouted to the members of his team to hold on tight. The huge red fire truck lurched slightly from side to side, as Jenny lifted the massive vehicle over her head, then leapt into the sky on pillars of white-hot flame from her pigtails and feet. Evening commuters and pedestrians stared into the sky with astonishment at the spectacle of a flying fire engine, soaring over downtown Tremorton.
Even with the dark smoke roiling from the windows, Tremorton City Hall was still instantly identifiable by its tall, majestic columns and domed rotunda. Jenny gently dropped towards the street, looking for a fire hydrant. Unfortunately, the hydrant in front of the building, where the fire was at its worst, was blocked by a row of cars, illegally parked.
"Some people are so inconsiderate," she grumbled. Still holding the massive fire engine over her head, she kicked a pair of sedans away from the hydrant to make room. With a spot cleared, she sat the hook and ladder truck down on its own tires once more, and waved to the driver. The firemen jumped off and started unraveling their hoses.
She paused briefly to dust her hands off. "All right – another crisis averted! And that didn't take long at all. I can be back at the movies in a minute or two …"
As the firemen opened up their hoses on the front of City Hall, a row of windows on the back of the building exploded, showering the sidewalk below with broken glass, and sending a new plume of smoke skyward. Jenny overheard the fire chief scream into the truck's radio. "We're at City Hall, but the flames are spreading! We can't get to the back of the building!"
Her shoulders sunk. So much for getting this over with in a hurry.
Jenny flew around to the back of City Hall, and spotted another hydrant. She hooked herself up to it, turning her left arm into an extendable hose, and flew about fifty feet into the air. Most of the flames were coming from the upper windows, so that's where the water was needed most. Jenny lifted her legs, and after a series of whirrs and clanks, her lower body had converted into a water cannon. She took aim at the worst of the fire, and a blasted a powerful jet of water into the building.
She panned the nozzle back and forth, flying closer to the inferno than any human fireman safely could. Her water cannon made fantastic progress attacking the fire; in just a few minutes, the flames and heat began to diminish. Between herself and the fire department, the fires were coming under control, and soon would be extinguished completely. A few more minutes of this, and there won't be enough left to toast a marshmallow. Okay, I've only missed the first half hour – I can still see Ian McCulley's big scene.
A hoarse voice shouted out from somewhere on the top floor of City Hall. "HELP!"
"There are people trapped in there?!?" She rolled her eyes. "Of course there are."
Easing her way through an open window, she let her arm-hose continue to extend, and converted her legs back to normal. A smaller nozzle deployed from her right hand, and she started making her way through the darkness, fighting smaller fires as she went. It was a mess of dust and smoke inside City Hall, and it was difficult to see anything, even with her infrared mode selected. But her sensors did confirm that there were six people on this floor: all healthy, but still in danger.
She ran down a dark, smoky corridor towards the readings on her scope, until she could hear the sound of people coughing and sputtering. They were coming from behind a thick office door, engulfed in roaring flames. Jenny attacked the fire with a blast of water, and broke down the door.
She sprayed the entire room with water, fighting back the inferno. Then she retracted her nozzle, and deployed a large pair of propeller blades from her pigtails. They spun up to a terrific speed, clearing away the smoke and soot, and extinguishing the remaining fires. As the smoke dissipated, she smiled to see the six city workers huddled on the floor, disoriented and soaking wet, but apparently all right.
Another six innocent lives successfully saved, she beamed to herself, while her hose-arm reeled back into her shoulder. "Attention, everyone! Just hang tight, and I'll have you out of here in a minute!"
She scooped up the survivors, three in each arm, and blasted the office window open with a pair of laser bolts from her pigtails. They leapt through the window, and slowly descended to the sidewalk below, landing softly on a cushion of rocket exhaust. By now, the area around City Hall had been blocked off by the police, more fire trucks had shown up, and three ambulances were standing by. Paramedics rushed over to wrap blankets around the workers, who were still coughing and spitting water from their lungs.
Jenny frowned as she wiped at the grimy layer of moist soot that covered her body, looking back towards City Hall. The column of dark smoke had all but disappeared, and the fireman were starting to turn off a few of their hoses. "Well, it looks like things are under control here," she sighed. "But I am in serious need of a wash and wax. I can't go back to the theater looking like this …" She planted her hands on her hips, wondering if she should try to clean up or simply call it a night.
"Her! She's the one!" shouted one of the survivors, shivering in his blanket. He pointed a shaking finger at Jenny. "She's the one responsible!"
Jenny proudly folded her arms across her chest. "That's right, sir. But don't worry, it's no big deal. I was just doing my job."
"Your job?" he shouted back. "Are you joking, you robotic maniac? You almost drowned me!"
She nearly keeled over backwards from shock. "Robotic maniac?!? What are you talking about? I just saved your life!"
Another fire victim joined in, hands clutched over her chest, tears streaming from her eyes. "That's right, she's the one! We thought it was the firemen, but that mechanical beast stormed in and nearly blew us away with her horrible giant propellers! I'm going to be emotionally scarred for life!"
"I'm pretty sure she gave me an electrical shock," added a third. "I could have nerve damage!"
Jenny was speechless with disbelief. She had just saved these peoples' lives, by risking her own … not to mention ruining her movie night! But to her relief, one of the fire victims stepped forward with an open hand and a friendly face.
"Well, I for one would like to shake the hand of the robot girl who saved my life," he smiled. "I thought you were very brave, miss, and I'd just like to say …"
His friendly smile mutated into a horrified scream. "MY CAR! What did you do to my car!?! Oh, just look at it! I just made the final payment on it last month!"
Jenny cringed, and turned to look at the beige sedan, sitting overturned on the front lawn of City Hall – one of the cars she had kicked out of the way to make room for the fire engine. "That was your car? But it was right next to the hydrant! It's illegal to park there!"
"Then write me a parking ticket!" he screamed, in hysterics. "You deliberately destroyed my car! You're going to hear from my lawyer about this!"
Her oil started to boil over with anger, but she managed to bite her tongue. So far this evening, she'd had to leave her friends, miss the biggest movie of the year, carry a twenty ton fire truck, and fly around inside a building filled with fire and filth. She'd put out the fire, and saved six lives. And her reward for all that effort was angry insults. Her hands squeezed into fists of rage, and she could feel sparks of electricity leaping from her cheeks. Sometimes, I wonder why I even bother. She ignited her pigtail-jets and shot into the sky, mad at the people below, mad at the firemen for getting stuck in traffic, mad at the world. Maybe everything will seem better after eight hours of sleep mode. This day can't end soon enough for me.
Continued in Chapter Two