One Good Reason
A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic
Chapter Three – Making Waves
Brad nearly broke his neck running down the stairs. He finally popped his head free of his black vest, and stopped in front of the hallway mirror just long enough to check his hair. After all, with all those news cameras next door, there was always the chance that he might get to be on television. Jenny must have done something really great this time, he thought. She must have saved the President or something. One last check to smooth his collar and his shirt tails, and he was lookin' fabulous. He flew out the front door, eager to see what the circus next door was all about.
A large, excited crowd filled the yard in front of the Wakeman house, pumping their fists in the air, yelling, and waving large signs. TV cameramen were wandering about in the crowd, collecting shots, and interviewing folks at random. It all seemed a bit chaotic, and Brad thought that the crowd seemed a little hostile for a pep rally. But that had to be why everyone was here, right? Jenny saved City Hall last night – maybe the mayor is giving her the key to the city.
Then he started reading the signs. "End Robot Vandalism." "Just Say No to Robots." "Protect Our Children From Robotic Menace." I don't believe it. These people aren't cheering Jenny – they're protesting her!
"Brad! Brad, wait up!" Tuck ran up to him, struggling to get his arm through his sleeve. He started jumping up and down, trying to see over the hedges. "What's all the excitement about?"
The protesters started their chant up again, as another news crew started a live feed. "Hey hey, ho ho, the robot thug has got to go! Hey hey, ho ho …"
Brad glared at the crowd with a mixture of anger and sadness. "Let's put it this way, Tuck – this isn't a gathering of Jenny's fan club. Would you get a load of these idiots?"
"Lemme see! Lemme see, lemme see!" Brad finally surrendered, and lifted Tuck up to sit on his shoulders. Tuck started reading the protest signs out loud. "'XJ-Nine is an XJ-Nuisance.' Uh … wow, kinda nasty. 'Keep Us Safe from XJ-9.' I don't understand that one, Brad. Jenny's the one that keeps everybody safe, right?"
"You know that and I know that," Brad frowned, "but it looks like this bunch of bozos doesn't."
Tuck still didn't fully understand the crowd's anger. They watched the protest silently for a few more minutes. "Wow, these people sure don't like robots, do they?"
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." The brothers turned to see that Drew had silently walked up to watch the demonstration along with them. He was staring with morbid fascination, yet it seemed like he was … preoccupied with something else. Brad figured that walking up to a huge anti-robot rally couldn't have been the most enjoyable experience for him. Which explained why he had taken his old human appearance for today … all except for …
"Dude," Brad whispered to him. He reached up and tugged on his earlobe. "Most of us humans are wearing them these days."
"Oh, crap." Drew focused for a second, and with a tiny shimmer of silver-green, two ears flowed out of the sides of his head. "Can't believe I forgot that. I'm not really thinking straight this morning." He gestured towards the chanting crowd in front of the Wakeman house. "Lovely bunch, huh?"
"All they're missing is the pitchforks and torches," said Brad, not trying to hide his disgust. "Hey, isn't this a little out of the way for you in the mornings? Well, I am glad you're here – it looks like Jenny can use all the friends she can get right now."
"Actually, I came over to see her mom. But it looks like now's not the best time for a visit."
"What do you need to see Mrs. Wakeman for?" asked Tuck.
"Well, I sort of have … um … robot things to talk about," Drew answered uncomfortably. "And she is a doctor, after all, or the closest thing to a robot doctor I can think of. It's not like I can go down to Tremorton Mercy Hospital."
"Then let's just head on over," said Brad. "You can get Mrs. Wakeman to, uh, probe you … or whatever, and we can go visit Jenny. All we have to do is just walk right through the crowd. We're not gonna let these clowns intimidate us, right guys?"
Drew looked at the sea of angry faces, shouting anti-robot slogans. "Uh … yeah, right." Maybe I should just come back later …
But the boys hopped over the hedges anyway, and started making their way through the mass of people and journalists clogging up the front yard. Brad looked around at the variety of people in the protest; some of them were virtually boiling over with rage, some of them seemed like they were barely interested to be there. Most of them looked like perfectly ordinary folks, of the sort you'd see a hundred times in the run of a normal day. But gathered together into a mob, an animalistic mentality seemed to have overtaken them. The protest was still very orderly, though a pair of police cruisers were parked behind the TV vans to make sure that it stayed that way.
A tall, thin college student with long stringy hair bumped into Brad, shoved by the growing crowd. Brad was just about to move on, until he saw the student's sign, which read Save the Whales.
"Uh, are you sure you're in the right place?" Brad asked him, shouting to be heard.
"Oh, I never miss a good protest," the student grinned, as he adjusted his tie-die headband. "Uh … you mean this isn't this the protest against toxic polluters?"
A short, rotund woman with a round, pudgy face turned around to answer the student. "No, we're here to protest that renegade robot that this Wakeman maniac uses to destroy the city! We're going to pressure the mayor to pass a proclamation, and make him shut down this mad scientist's operation!"
Brad simply couldn't ignore that. "Destroy the city?!? She doesn't do that! Jenny's saved the city more times than you or I can count!"
The pudgy woman was eager to argue, and shouted back at Brad with a grating, nasally voice. "The plate glass window in my flower shop has been broken twice in the last six months! I just replaced it last Thursday! I'm sick and tired of it, and the mayor had better do something about it!"
"Last Thursday …" – Brad thought for a few seconds – "… last Thursday was when Jenny defeated that giant flesh-eating worm that crawled up out the sewers."
"And she destroyed my plate glass window!"
Brad irately flung his arms in the air. "If Jenny hadn't stopped it, that giant worm would have eaten hundreds of people and left a rampaging trail in carnage in its wake!"
"That window cost me eighty-seven dollars!" screamed the woman, poking Brad with her chubby finger.
The argument started to draw attention, especially from the television news people. Ever eager for spectacle, cameramen made their way over towards the boys, along with well-groomed reporters, and technicians carrying boom microphones. More of the protesters took note of them too, and a circle of craziness started to close in on Brad, Tuck, and Drew.
"This is Chet Scarsdale of Channel Six Action News," shouted a tall, handsome man with impossibly perfect hair. "So you describe yourself as a supporter of Wakeman's unlicensed robotic experiment?"
"She's not an experiment, she's a teenage girl!" Brad was fighting to keep his temper in check. "Her name is Jenny, and she's my friend!"
"This is Vivian Veracruz from CNS," said an intense woman in a power suit. "This crowd seems to feel that your 'friend' is more trouble than she's worth," she sneered. "Isn't it true that the XJ-9 has caused millions of dollars in damage to private and public property in Tremorton since its activation?"
"Umm … uh …" Brad stammered into the microphone. "You see, the thing is … "
Then he noticed that Tuck was happily chatting away with the reporter from Channel Ten. "… then Jenny got her dream chip stuck to 'ON', and she hallucinated that I was a goat boy. Ha, ha! She was all zapping stuff with her lasers, and bashing cars and power poles – Pow! Blam! Oh, oh, oh, and then there was the time we all went to Wizzly World and she freed all the robots, and they ran amok …"
Brad snatched his little brother away from the cameras, and glared into his eyes with irritation. "Tuck – you are – not – helping."
"What about you?" The Channel Twelve reporter pushed a microphone into Drew's face. "What do you have to say about the robotic threat to the city's safety?"
Drew felt like a sheep in the middle of a pack of wolves. "Bwa … er … um, well, I …"
move into position all units report operational status tactical analysis complete situational evaluation initiate weapons startup awaiting execution signal obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey
He slammed his hands to his ears, and grimaced as the torrent of voices bombarded his mind. Drew's knees buckled, and he felt a mild sense of vertigo for a few seconds, until the mental blast subsided. This had been the worst episode yet. Echoes and echoes of the same menacing female voice, like a thousand whispers in his brain.
Brad ignored the reporters and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Drew! You okay, man?"
"Not sure," he moaned. "I think I'd better see what the Doc has to say." They managed to squeeze through the protesters, towards Mrs. Wakeman's front door. Drew looked over his shoulder at the seething mob, and couldn't help but feel a sense of … danger. There was almost a hundred people shouting anti-robot garbage and waving angry signs. But the feeling wasn't coming from them. The protestors were intimidating, annoying … but weren't really dangerous. So where is this feeling coming from?
One hundred miles above the Hawaiian Islands, the pure blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean stretched from horizon to horizon. Even at this altitude, islands and cloud patterns moved beneath her at high speed, as she rocketed through space en route to the latest emergency. The shining crystal-blue ocean was a sight more wonderful than most people ever got to experience in their lifetime. But Jenny was oblivious to the scenery at the moment.
After the huge fight with her mother, she had actually looked forward to flying out on the emergency mission, hoping that a few minutes in the perfect quiet of outer space would help her clear her head. But all of the morning's turmoil was still boiling over inside of her. There was nothing to listen to but her own inner thoughts, and those were focused on maintaining a nice healthy rage towards her mother. All she ever does is order me around. She just sends me out whenever she feels like it, like I was her slave or something. And when I try to tell her I'm tired of it, she just doesn't understand.
Jenny angled downward slightly, watching the scattered islands of Micronesia speed by. She twisted her mouth into a frown, compiling an inventory of her mother's unfairness over the past few months.
She grew frustrated, as she tried to explain things to her mother. "But Mom, without ears, I can't wear earrings … and without earrings, I'm just a … a freak!" Mom just didn't understand how important this was; all the girls at school were wearing earrings!
Her mom gasped. "Earrings? I designed a state-of-the-art, aerodynamic, streamlined, crime-fighting robot! Not some simple mannequin to hang with googols and gimcrackery!" She folded her arms in disgust. "Earrings! Oh, the very notion!" As usual … ask for Mom's help and she just freaks out!
Jenny started to slip into the upper layers of the atmosphere, and saw the coast of Australia and New Zealand come into view. She was getting hot and red-faced, but it wasn't from the atmosphere.
She almost fell over backwards when she realized just how hideous the new eyes were – and Mom had her out walking around in public with these things! "Normal!?! You call this normal? How could you do this to me?!?" They looked like a couple of periscopes stuck in her face!
Her mother was totally perplexed. "Do what!?! What are you talking about?"
How on Earth could she be so clueless? "I'm talking about these wiggly-squiggly bug-snakes you call eyes!" she cried. Didn't she care that she was making her daughter look like a total dweeb?
She glided gracefully through the stratosphere, speeding along faster than anything else in the sky, dropping towards a line of white clouds drifting over the metropolis of Sydney. Less than a minute, now.
She pounded the button on her monitor, but it still wouldn't retract. Her mother's face just hung there, wearing a smug expression. "I don't call you to chat, young lady. I have important things to discuss!"
"Mom?!? What are you still doing here?" Oh no … the cute new boy was walking this way!
"I updated your communications software so you can't tune me out," she gloated. "Now, about that muck monster …" She WHAT!?! She snuck into her bedroom and reprogrammed her in the middle of the night!?! That … that's the most hideous invasion of privacy that she could possibly imagine!
That's all her mother ever did. Give her orders. Ruin her life. Tell her what she couldn't do. Do everything in her power to make sure that she never had any fun.
Her blue-and-white form burst through the clouds, high above the skyscrapers of downtown Sydney. There were the trademark giant white sail-shapes of the Opera House, jutting out towards the ocean. Thousands of boats of every shape and size were darting about, along the waterfront and underneath the bridges. Everything certainly seemed peaceful enough, and a temptation flitted through her mind to simply play hooky and spend the day down on one of the beautiful beaches …
Then she looked at towards the horizon, and saw a blue wall roaring towards the city.
Well, it looks like the monitors were right this time. A huge tidal wave was speeding towards the city, high and wide and certain to cause widespread damage, and probably casualties among the citizenry of Sydney. It would strike in only a few minutes, but she didn't even have that much time. The wave was also a lethal threat to the boaters, and already it was growing dangerously close to innocent people, just trying to enjoy a peaceful day on the water.
Jenny rolled her eyes with a sigh. She was still upset that she had to be here, but she simply couldn't let any harm come to such a large number of people. It was probably something that her mother had programmed into her. With a quick series of clanks and whirrs, her boosters and wings retracted into her back, and she jetted off towards the face of the monster wave on her pigtail-jets.
"One good wave deserves another," she smirked, as she clasped her hands together. Her arms popped open, unfolded, and combined into a ten-foot-long cannon barrel. Then she converted her pigtails into a pair of giant loudspeakers. Taking aim at a spot about half a mile ahead of the tidal wave, she built up a surge of energy from her internal reactors, and blasted powerful sound waves into the cannon. The sound intensified, focused, and converted into a powerful ultrasonic beam.
The ocean heaved and frothed as Jenny pumped it with ultrasound energy, until the water started to rise up into a second massive wave – moving away from Sydney, and traveling directly towards the first wave. She poured on the power, herding the counter-wave away from the city to make sure it collided head-on with the incoming threat. In mere seconds, the two giant walls of water would slam into each other …
And with a boiling fountain of foam and spray, they collided, canceling each other out. The folks back on shore had been given a scare and a show, but they were safe now. The ocean's surface, while it was still roiling and growling like an irritated old sea monster, started to settle down … although there were still secondary swells rippling away from the colossal impact of the twin tsunamis. Those posed no threat to the city itself.
But there was a large, unfortunate pleasure boat only a short distance away. The skipper was trying to turn his bow around to point into the surf, but he wasn't acting fast enough. In a few moments, a series of forty-foot waves was going to bulldoze into the side of the craft. At the very least, the boat would be flipped over. Most likely, it would be snapped in two.
Jenny swooped down towards the churning ocean, converting her arms back to normal, and streaked ahead of the rushing swell, towards the imperiled boat. With a slight tilt of her body, she dove, and disappeared beneath the surface with a spectacular splash. The two passengers on the boat took no notice of her, though, as they gaped in fear at the oncoming waves. They braced themselves for the inevitable crushing impact … then nearly fell off their feet as a powerful jolt lifted the boat clear of the water. The pleasure boat rose safely into the air, and the assaulting waves rushed harmlessly by beneath it. One of the passengers rushed over to the side and looked down –
"Strike me!" he laughed heartily, pointing over the side. "Would you have a look at this now? We just done got our necks saved by this robotic Sheila 'ere! Good on ya, luv!"
Jenny held the thirty-foot boat aloft without difficulty, balanced on the twin rocket plumes from her feet. She smiled back at the boater, although she was a bit confused – I think he just said thank you. "You're welcome! But my name's Jenny, not Sheila." I don't think that Mom loaded me with a language disc for Australian. Oh well, guess this mission wasn't too hard after all …
"Holy Dooley! Let's have a look-see," grinned his partner. He leaned over to take a look at Jenny … then his attention was caught by something else.
The color drained from his face, and he raised a shaking hand, pointing towards the ocean. "Crikey."
Jenny turned to look, wondering what could possibly be the problem now – the waves were gone, and the ocean was settling back to normal. Wait – no, that wasn't right. A huge patch of ocean was starting to swirl and froth like a giant whirlpool. An audible roar rose up from the water, and the wind started to whip up with strong gusts, making it tricky for her to balance the boat. But she didn't want to set it back down until the seas calmed. The whirlpool grew chaotic, and suddenly heaved into the air …
Something breached the water, rising up from beneath the waves. Something immense.
It was a vessel of some sorts, with a massive, rounded body like a giant metal dome – it probably was close to the size of a domed stadium. The vessel's hull, painted an ugly dull green, kept rising out of the water, higher and higher into the sky, filling the air with an overpowering thrum from its engines. Then the flat bottom of the vessel's hull cleared the surface, and still it rose higher into the air. This was no submarine, nor was it a naval vessel. Jenny stared in astonishment as the mammoth ship floated hundreds of feet above her head, and blotted out the sun. Its silhouette stood out clearly now – a large round body with a small spherical hull attached to the front, and six long, spindly booms stretching out in every direction. It hung amongst the clouds, looking like a giant evil insect.
"That's … that's a Cluster starship," Jenny gasped.
She set the boat back on the water as gently as possible, but everyone's eyes were focused skyward, at the colossus floating in mid-air. She hovered in place, and for a few moments it seemed like nothing was happening. Then a powerful loudspeaker crackled to life from somewhere on the hull of the starship, piercing the air with a painfully loud test tone. Then silence, save for the low rumbling hum of the ship's drives. Then a smooth, condescending voice –
"Well done, Jennifer. I must say, your feats of strength never cease to impress me. Although, I'm afraid I cannot say the same for your stubborn choice of allegiance. Perhaps today is the day that I manage to … persuade you … to join us in the Cluster family."
Jenny recognized the voice all too well. The revulsion on her face was plain as day. "Vexus."
It looked like her troubles for the day were just beginning.
Continued in Chapter Four