One Good Reason
A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic
Chapter Four – The Threat Revealed
The giant Cluster starship hovered motionless a thousand feet above the ocean waves, its engines filling the air with a deep unnatural hum. Trickles of sea water still drizzled down from its grimy green hull, dripping from hundreds of small metallic spines. Its sheer size alone projected an ominous sense of menace. It almost certainly had something to do with the mysterious tidal wave that had just threatened to drown millions in Sydney. And now the commander of the starship had announced herself to be none other than the ruthless mechanical sovereign, the self-proclaimed liberator of robots, the terror to all humans everywhere: Queen Vexus of Cluster Prime.
The speakers on the hull of the starship boomed once more with the queen's condescending voice. "Come now, my dear, be reasonable. I would truly hate to destroy an exceptional young robot such as yourself. Surrender is your only option."
Floating on her pigtail-jets below, Jenny seemed like nothing more than a metallic gnat compared to the Cluster dreadnought. But she clenched her fists, and glared back up at the ship with furious resolve. She hated the Cluster. Paradise for robots – yeah, sure, as long as you're willing to get a control chip implanted in your brain! I've already got Mom giving me orders twenty-four hours a day. Like I want to take even more orders from that miserable witch! Why can't these losers just leave me alone?!? I do – NOT – need this!!!
"I'll never join the Cluster, Vexus!" she shouted up at the ship. "What part of 'never' can't you clowns understand?!? Now, why don't you and your disgusting bug-ship just fly back home to Cluster Prime, before I kick your butt?"
"I come all the way to this backwater planet for a visit, try to have a nice little conversation – and all I get in return is hostile, clichéd dialog. Oh, Jennifer, for shame." The queen chuckled evilly. "Well, I'll forgive your bad manners this time – after all, I know you're feeling so very tired today."
That took Jenny a bit by surprise. How would she know that? "I'm feeling good enough to turn that ship of yours into scrap metal if you don't leave Earth right now!"
"Oh, such a brave girl." Vexus' oily-smooth voice dripped with mock compassion. "Flying all over the planet, saving these ungrateful hairless apes from accidents and disasters, for seventy-two hours in a row. Avalanches, fires, train derailments – it's all been very amusing to watch."
Jenny's face plunged with an astonished gasp, as Vexus' laughter rained down from the loudspeakers. Then her eyes crackled with outrage. "You … you and your Cluster goons have been causing all of these stupid emergencies!" She's been endangering lives – and ruined my movie night – just to mess around with me?!? Why – why that dirty rotten –
"Guilty as charged," purred the robot queen. "You know, all that running around can really take its toll on a robot after a while. I think we need to schedule a little down-time for you, dear."
The hypnotic thrum of the starship's engines was broken by sharp metallic cracks. Dozens of doors slid open along the bottom of the hull, revealing batteries of laser guns, their barrels glowing with an intense ruby light. The lasers pivoted in unison, aiming at one common target … and then crackled to life with brilliant shafts of laser energy. Jenny fired her pigtails up to full thrust, and began to slalom through the sky as the laser fire burned the air around her into a haze of ozone. Even in her fatigued state, she confidently danced her way between the lasers without so much as a singe on her paint job.
"Now it's my turn," she grinned, as she flipped over on her back and brought her laser-limbs to bear on the Cluster leviathan. Brilliant blue laser bolts sprang from her weapons, and ripped into the gun bays of the starship. While Jenny was flitting through the air in random patterns, the massive starship and its weapons were easier, stationary targets. Even while crimson gunfire continued to chase through the sky after her, Jenny kept scoring hits on the gun mounts, and more Cluster lasers fell silent.
But the law of averages finally caught up with her, and she lurched as a laser bolt slammed into her back. That slowed her down momentarily, and allowed more lasers to hammer her body. Gritting her teeth in concentration, she fired the rockets in her feet for an extra burst of speed to get out of trouble. All right, that's about enough of this nonsense. Time to take the fight to Queen Thing herself.
Jenny climbed into a loop, until she was directly over the top of the starship. Stupid Vexus – none of her laser cannons can reach me up here! She picked a vulnerable-looking spot on the ship's hull, smiled, and dove directly at it headfirst. Her pigtails expanded into large blades, and started to rotate, faster and faster, until they whined into a pair of razor-sharp blurs.
The pigtail-blades ripped through the thick armored hull of the Cluster starship with a deafening shriek. She shredded her way through two, then three bulkheads, leaving a trail of destruction behind her as she tunneled through the ship. Jenny busted through one more wall, and suddenly found herself in a long, barren corridor. She paused to take a quick scan of the inside of the ship …
When the ship's internal speakers came on with a familiar voice. "Sigh – just look at the mess you've made, my girl. I'm going to have to get that painted over, I suppose."
"Pretty lame laser show, Vexus," Jenny chuckled. "Guess I'm not as tired as you'd hoped, huh?"
Mechanical footsteps rumbled through the corridor, from the direction of the ship's bridge. A dozen Cluster drones roared around the corner, charging directly towards the teenage intruder.
"You didn't think it was going to be that easy," Vexus purred over the PA system. "Tell you what, dear – you've done so well to make it this far. I'll give you one last chance. You'll never reach me on the bridge in your condition. Join me, join the Cluster family – or be destroyed."
"Let me phrase my answer in the following way," smirked Jenny. Her rockets re-ignited, and she streaked down the corridor towards the approaching drones. In less than a second – whirr, clank, click – her arms converted into a giant bulldozer blade. The drones didn't even have time to react. She roared through their ranks, sending the robot guards clattering against the walls, and continued onward down the ugly gray corridor – in the direction of the bridge. Never reach you, huh? We'll see about that.
Alarms sounded with shrill electronic howls, and the hallway lights flashed a crimson red. More large robotic cockroaches, Cluster drones, spilled out of side doors into the corridor, turning to face the invading robot girl. Jenny converted her right hand into a particle beam ray – and pointed straight up, blasting a hole in the ceiling. She wasn't feeling patient enough to deal with every robotic stooge on this ship. She wanted to get her frustrations out on the top robot herself.
Jenny started flying between the decks of the ship, blasting through walls, ceilings, floors, and bulkheads, working her way closer and closer to the command level. Her particle weapon began to glow from the constant firing, and she was getting dangerously close to overload – but the next blast cleared the way into a tall elevator shaft. She quickly hovered up to the top, stared at the thick steel doors labeled Bridge, and took a deep breath. Jenny slammed her power fist into the doors with vicious force, ripping them from their moorings as if they were made of cardboard. She jumped through the opening –
And found herself in a vast, circular room lined with electronic displays, tactical maps, and sensor grids. Huge rectangular screens hung from the ceiling, showing camera views of the world outside. Dozens of stations were manned by spindly, feeble-looking genius robots, trembling in fear as they watched her walk onto the bridge. And in the middle of the room, sitting in an ornate, high-backed metallic chair, Queen Vexus sat calmly, with a smug expression on her face.
"Congratulations are in order, I suppose," she smirked, preening one of her long eyelashes. "Although I must admit, I'm surprised it took you this long to get here."
Jenny allowed herself a few seconds to soak in the moment. "It's finally just you and me, Vexus," she grinned. She clanked down a few stairs and approached the Cluster queen, eager to pay her back for all the misery she'd inflicted in her life. But Vexus didn't seem worried – if anything, her sneering smile grew more arrogant with every step Jenny took. I'll wipe that smile off your face soon enough.
"Surrender now, Vexus," she said, "and maybe I'll go easy on you."
To her astonishment, Vexus started laughing. "Oh, Jennifer, you are simply darling. I do so love our little get-togethers. I have only one little regret …"
She grinned wickedly. "I wish I was actually there to see the look on your face."
"I don't have time for – huh?" Jenny grabbed Vexus' arm, and her metallic hand passed right through her. Stunned, she tried to grab her shoulders, and almost fell forward, passing right through Vexus' suddenly ghostly form.
Vexus laughed with even greater enthusiasm. "It's amazing what they're doing with holograms these days, isn't it? I told you it wasn't going to be that easy. Such a simple task to lure you here – honestly, I'm a little embarrassed for you."
Jenny swung her fists through the hologram again, her confidence evaporating by the second. "You … you let me break onto your ship?" This is a trap?
"Not feeling terribly swift today, are we dear? Perhaps you should lie down and relax."
"That's the signal!" yelled one of the genius-bots. He tossed a switch, and Vexus' image faded from view – and the floor beneath Jenny's feet hummed with intense electrical current.
It instantly became powerfully magnetic. Her moment of triumph was over – now suddenly, Jenny couldn't budge her feet so much as an inch; a few seconds later, unable to resist the intense pull, she fell over backwards, her back and arms pinned to the floor. Even her pigtails were immobilized. She was able to move her eyes though, and from the dark corners of the command room, she saw dozens of drones and warriors emerge from the shadows, forming a circle around her.
One of the drones gave her a evil smile, and pulled out a small pistol-grip applicator. And it was loaded with a softly beeping Cluster obedience chip.
"Dr. Wakeman! Dr. Wakeman, Chet Scarsdale from Channel Six! If you'd care to tell us …" "Doctor, this is Corky Summers for Channel Twelve Prime News! Can we just get a minute …" "Doctor, I'm Lance Livingston from TTV, if I could just ask you a few questions …"
She moaned with relief as the last lock was finally secured, even as the swarm of reporters continued shouting questions at her through the front door. Brad, Tuck, and Drew had barely gotten inside when the media had sensed their chance to question Dr. Wakeman. It had taken all of the strength in her diminutive frame to beat them back and close the door. She dusted her hands off against her yellow lab coat, and glared at her barely-welcome guests through smudge-covered glasses.
"Well, as usual, you've managed to visit at a most inconvenient time," she glowered, as she walked back to the desk monitor in her lab. "If you're looking for XJ-9, she is out on a mission, in Australia. So as you can imagine, I am very busy right now, and …"
"Wow! Australia!" grinned Brad. "Heh, heh. G'day, mate. What's the big emergency? Kangaroo stampede? Crocodile wrestling?"
Tuck rushed up to Mrs. Wakeman's monitor and started randomly pushing buttons. "Let's get her to bring us some of those funny crooked sticks that come back when you throw them! Those are cool!"
"If you don't mind!" she said, smacking Tuck's hand away. "I am not in the mood to put up with your childish antics! Now you can wait quietly until XJ-9 returns, or you can see yourselves out the back door. You should know the way by now, you're over here often enough." She grabbed a pencil, and started scribbling notes down on a clipboard beside her computer.
"Sorry, Mrs. W," said Brad. "No need to be testy ..."
"I am not being testy!" she shouted, snapping her pencil in half. "Blasted monitor, the signal is on the fritz – I'm barely receiving any telemetry from XJ-9 at all. Oh, if that girl has deactivated her communications link again … Oooooooooh!!!"
She flinched as a loud, persistent knocking came from the front door. "Dr. Wakeman, Corky Summers for Channel Twelve. We'd like to ask you a few questions about your robotic creation …"
Drew cleared his throat. "Umm … is this a bad time for you, Doc?"
"And just what do YOU want?" she barked back at him, with glaring, frazzled eyes. "You must want something – after all, you are a teenager, and teenagers only seem to be capable of thinking about themselves! I believe it must be hard-wired into the adolescent brain. Do something for me, make something for me, what about me … me, me, ME?!?"
The tension in the room was practically dripping from the walls. Drew and Brad exchanged a glance and silently came to the same conclusion – oh yeah, BIG fight with Jenny this morning. "This is a bad time, isn't it? Look, maybe I'll just head on in to school …"
After an awkward pause, the doctor heaved her shoulders with an aggravated sigh. "Wait a minute, Andrew. Since I do not seem to be able to contact my daughter …" – she grit her teeth – "… my headstrong, obstinate, infuriating daughter …" – she relaxed – "… at the moment, I suppose I have time to listen to your tale of woe. What seems to be the problem?"
He began to regret coming over; between the shouting mob, the news reporters, and the tension with her daughter, how silly would it sound to complain about having had a few bad dreams? "It's … it's nothing, Doc. I've just been feeling a little off for the past three days – probably just need to get some more sleep. Like you said, you've got plenty to worry about already. I should just leave and …"
"NNNNGHHH!!!" Drew slammed his hands to his head, shocking her with the sudden action. "Arghhh … just … shut … UP!!!" He started to shudder, as if he was having a seizure. Alarmed, Brad grabbed him by the shoulders, and helped him stumble his way into a chair.
"Oh my," said Mrs. Wakeman, tapping her chin with a pencil. "That is rather peculiar. Hmmm … I could run a quick pan-spectrum scan I suppose, to see if anything shows up."
"It doesn't hurt," said Drew, trying to downplay their concerns. "It's just really annoying."
"Maybe so, but we still do not understand the inner workings of your nanobot-body very well, Andrew. Better to be safe than sorry." The doctor rummaged around in a desk drawer, and pulled out an odd-looking electronic box with a small antenna. "Now, this won't hurt a bit. Er … at least I think it won't – I've never used it on myself."
The doorbell started ringing again, and she twitched with anger as the shouting continued. "Dr. Wakeman, Corky Summers for Channel Twelve! If we can just get five minutes of your time today …"
Tuck hopped up and down excitedly. "Ooh! Mrs. Wakeman! Let me! Let me do the probe thingy!"
"Very well, Tucker," she sighed. "Simply press the red button, and hold it next to Andrew's head for sixty seconds. It shouldn't take me that long to dismiss these rabble-rousers."
Tuck pulled a stool up next to Drew's chair, his little chest swelling with pride at being given such an important job. "Now open your disk drive and say ahhh," he smirked. Drew just rolled his eyes back at him, and sunk back in the chair.
Mrs. Wakeman worked her way through the door locks, even as the obnoxious doorbell continued to ring. Finally, she flung the door open with murder in her eyes, and glared up at the perky blonde from Channel Twelve who apparently couldn't take no for an answer. "I have told you before and I shall tell you again, I do not have time for any of your foolish …"
But both women were rudely surprised as the news team from CNS – consisting of two tall barrel-chested cameramen, and the cool yet intense interviewer Vivian Veracruz – boldly marched through the crowd of protesters, and came up to the front door. Apparently, TV news really was a cutthroat business; one of the cameramen simply shoved Corky aside, allowing Vivian to stride up and steal her spot.
"Sorry about that," sneered Vivian, "had to take care of some business back in the truck. Dr. Wakeman, I presume? I'm Vivian Veracruz from CNS, and I'd like a few minutes of your …"
"I shall tell you the same thing I told your colleague. I have no time for these harassing questions about my work with XJ-9. Now, if these interruptions continue, I shall be forced to call the police …"
"Oh, I'm so very sorry, Doctor," purred Vivian, feigning remorse. Her eyes darted back and forth quickly, scanning the inside of the Wakeman home through the open door. She saw a plaque hanging on the wall, and put on an innocent smile. "Although we weren't going to do a story on XJ-9. I understand you recently won an award for … mold spores?"
Mrs. Wakeman's attitude changed completely in a split second, and an excited smile broke out on her face. "Why … why yes, that would be my research on Martian mold spores!"
"How fascinating!" beamed Vivian. "Would you like to talk about your work for a few minutes?"
Drew squirmed restlessly in his seat while "Doctor" Tuck held the probe next to his ear, trying to look like he understood what the gizmo was saying. Suddenly the lights on the probe pulsed with a high-pitched scream. Drew's head snapped up, and something that had been rattling around in his mind started to come into focus. His eyes grew wide; his face grew pale.
Brad was playing around with a scale model on the doctor's desk. "Drew, what is it?"
He almost seemed gripped with terror. "Th-that voice," he stammered. "I recognize that voice."
Mrs. Wakeman cheerfully invited Vivian and her team to come in the house, eager to talk about her mold research. Vivian smiled graciously. "I really do appreciate this, doctor. I must say, it's an honor to meet an intellectual such as yourself." Vivian extended her arm to shake hands …
Which was when Drew went insane.
"DOC!!! NO!!!" He bolted out of his chair. With three running steps, to the horror of everyone, Drew barreled into the lovely young Vivian Veracruz with a flying tackle, knocking her and her cameramen back outside. They sprawled gracelessly on the front walkway, to the shock and amusement of the crowd, catching everybody completely off guard. Television cameras rolled and lenses zoomed, lapping up every second of the latest Wacko Wakeman public relations disaster.
Mrs. Wakeman stood in the doorway, red-faced with fury. "Andrew! Have you gone mad …"
Then she saw the shattered syringe next to Vivian's hand, leaking clear fluid into the ground.
Vivian Veracruz got to her feet, her lovely face twisted in rage and hate. She grabbed Drew by the shoulders and … lifted him over her head, in one swift, clean motion. He twisted uncomfortably in her hands, not quite believing what was happening. Then with a mighty heave, Vivian flung Drew back at the house – smashing him through the living room window.
The crowd gasped in awe at the display. Mrs. Wakeman couldn't believe her eyes; neither could Brad or Tuck. Drew gathered himself together, and looked back through the broken window.
Vivian regained her calm composure. "All right then, we'll do this the hard way." She struck a pose on the front walkway and tapped a device on her wrist. Then she started to shimmer, like a bad television signal. The protesters and reporters started to back away nervously, as a glowing halo of light sprang into existence around Vivian's feet, and quickly slid up her body. The green power suit, the toned legs, the attractive young woman disappeared before their eyes. An evil cackle rose from her throat, and the halo of light faded away, revealing a tall, wasp-like form –
Queen Vexus, ruler of Cluster Prime, now stood on the front walkway of the Wakeman house.
The two CNS reporters underwent a similar transformation, revealing themselves to be Cluster roach-drones. Vexus smiled at the astonished Mrs. Wakeman. "I was just telling young Jennifer, it's amazing what they're doing with holograms these days."
Then she turned to the stunned crowd; cool, calm, and smiling politely into the television cameras. "Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for this important news bulletin." Her eyes narrowed into a menacing glare. "You are now all prisoners … of the Cluster."
Continued in Chapter Five