Author's Note: Thanks to CoyoteLoon for the one review in Chapter 3. To anyone reading, here is Chapter 4. Please review.
Disclaimer: Refer to the prologue
Story Title: Corrupted Programming
Chapter Title: Captured
Outside Tremorton High
Jenny activated her pigtail boosters and rocketed upward, narrowly dodging a hand swipe by Viruz. The energy-covered, blade-like fingers of the Cluster High Commander cut into the metal lamppost that was been behind where Jenny had stood. The part of the lamppost where Viruz's hand cut into melted. The lamppost fell like an axed-away tree.
Viruz looked up at Jenny and flashed her a smile. Bright purple energy shot out the bottom of his legs, propelling him skyward. As Viruz rose he charged balls of energy in his palms and flung them at Jenny. His target jinked and twisted in mid-air, dodging his blasts. But only barely.
Jenny deployed her forearms into lasers and launched her own volley of weapon's fire at the pursuing Cluster robot. To her annoyance the High Commander easily batted away Jenny's blasts with his energy-covered arms. Jenny gritted her teeth as she intensified her shooting, but Viruz didn't even slow down.
"I'm disappointed, XJ-9." Viruz taunted in his Cryptkeeper-like voice. "The reports from all the Cluster robots faced you indicate that you are a formidable opponent, but this little skirmish isn't even taking up a fraction of my energy."
"Hah!" Jenny said. "You're just like every Cluster robot I've fought before. You're all talk."
Even as she said so, Jenny knew it was more bravado than fact that made her say that. Viruz really was giving her trouble, and both of them knew it. His blasts were only missing by millimeters and Jenny was having great difficulty in trying to dodge them.
Jenny decided that she needed a new tactic. She un-deployed her arm lasers and started to reconfigure her body. In less than a second she had shaped herself into a large and bulky missile launcher. She smiled at High commander Viruz.
"Try swatting these away!"
She launched a dozen missiles, all of which angled for the Cluster robot. Viruz's taunting smile wavered for a moment as he saw the projectiles heading for him, but the smile soon returned. Viruz shot out his arms and spread his fingers, from his fingertips came what looked like forks of purple lightning. The streams of energy shot toward the missiles and destroyed them before they could even come close.
"Nice try." Viruz sneered. He formed a ball of energy from each hand and hurled them at Jenny.
Jenny saw that and scrambled to un-configure herself. Her missile launching form was large and stationary, an easy target. Jenny returned to her normal form and managed to dodge one purple energy ball but the other ball slammed into her left leg, causing her to spin and fall to the ground.
As Jenny picked herself off the ground she found that she couldn't move her left leg. She looked down and saw that the leg was encased in tendrils of purple energy. Try as she might, she couldn't make her leg move.
"It's a disruption charge, designed to impair movement in machines." Viruz explained as he landed near Jenny, answering her unspoken question. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, XJ-9. You could come with me right now or I'll take you by force. I suggest you choose the path of least resistance."
"Go blow a gasket!" Jenny said defiantly.
"Oh well, I tried." Viruz sighed. His 8-foot-tall form towered over Jenny as he formed balls of energy in his hands. He pointed them at Jenny.
Wakeman residence
When Mrs. Wakeman lost abruptly contact with Jenny's monitor earlier, she had quickly readjusted XJ-9's Global Monitoring System to allow her to see through Jenny's eyes. When she saw the Cluster robot's image on the screen and noted its unfamiliar design, she then accessed some detailed files she had on the different kinds of Cluster machines. (AN: I'll explain where those files came from later)
A moment later, one of the screens on the monitoring system displayed a file identifying the robot as a VRZ-class machine, alternately designated "Viruz". Scrutinizing the file, Mrs. Wakeman found that the Cluster had only made one of the Viruz robots, not mass-producing the design. Reading more, she found that the reason for that was actually pretty mundane.
The Cluster queen, Vexus, had called for the creation of an assimilation-type robot. It's primary purpose to bring other machines under its control. Robotic Cluster designers had created Viruz and had it field-tested in the presence of Vexus. The test had actually gone pretty well until Viruz experienced a weapons malfunction which caused him to send a ball of energy right at Vexus.
This, of course, angered the Cluster ruler. It looked as if she was gonna destroy Viruz but she restrained herself, seeing potential in the design. Nonetheless, she ordered the Cluster designers not to mass-produce the VRZ model, leaving Viruz the one and only robot of its type. At the end of the file was stated that the VRZ robot was given as an aide to a robot called Yomex, the Grand Marshal of the Cluster.
Mrs. Wakeman frowned, the file had said that Viruz was an "assimilation-type" robot, built to control other machines. And knowing the Cluster's interest in XJ-9…
The doctor stood up, she grabbed a portable version of the monitoring system and something that looked like a weapon. She then went out of the house and into her car. A moment later, a kitten was almost splattered across the pavement as Mrs. Wakeman sped down the streets toward Tremorton High.
Tremorton High
Brad looked out of the large, gaping hole that had once been a wall and saw Jenny's fight with another robot. He and some classmates started cheering her on as she fought what he guessed was a Cluster robot. His cheers grew into concern as the fight progressed. The enemy robot seemed to be giving Jenny a handful.
"Come on, Jenny!" he shouted, although he knew Jenny was most likely so concentrated on the battle that she didn't hear him. "Take him down!"
He saw Jenny turn into a big contraption and cheered as he saw her fire a barrage of missiles at the robot. But his cheers stopped as he saw the robot hit Jenny with a ball of energy, causing her to crumple to the ground.
"Jenny!" Brad yelled as he ran out of the hole in the classroom wall, ignoring the teacher who called out to him. As he ran toward Jenny, he saw the Cluster robot land in front of her. The robot formed balls of energy with his hands and pointed them at Jenny.
"No!" Brad heard someone scream. He turned and saw Sheldon pointing a large weapon at the Cluster robot. "Don't you dare lay a hand on Jenny!"
The burst from Sheldon's weapon slammed into the back of the Cluster robot, knocking him some distance away. Jenny used that opportunity to activate her pigtail boosters. She flew off the ground, her left leg hung limply.
"Thanks, Sheldon!" Jenny called out.
"A-anytime, J-jenny." Sheldon stuttered, blushing and wearing a goofy smile.
"INSOLENT BIOLOGICAL FILTH!!!" they suddenly heard. It was the Cluster robot, looking very pissed off. He pointed a hand at Sheldon.
"Sheldon, look out!" Bard and Jenny warned, but Viruz fired before Sheldon could even move. The purple blast slammed into Sheldon, throwing him 20 feet way. The boy lay on the ground, smoking.
"SHELDON!" Jenny and Brad both screamed. Jenny flew toward the still form of Sheldon and landed beside him on her good leg. Brad ran towards them and knelt down beside Sheldon.
Brad winced, seeing Sheldon's injuries and smelling the burned-meat aroma that came from the boy. Jenny scanned Sheldon with her sensors, he was still alive but badly burned. She looked up at Viruz, her face a mask of fury. Sheldon may have been annoying, but he was still a friend. And seeing a friend hurt was one good way to get her furious.
"Take care of Sheldon." She simply said to Brad as she rocketed toward Viruz.
"You're gonna pay for that!" Jenny said as she sped toward Viruz, deploying her Fists of Fury.
"Your friend brought it upon himself." Viruz said as he dodged a swipe from Jenny. Angrily, she threw out punches with her oversized fists. But her anger, coupled with the dead weight of her left leg, hampered her ability to maneuver properly and hit Viruz. The Cluster Commander simply dodged the punches and literally flew circles around Jenny.
Viruz smirked as he grabbed Jenny's neck from behind. "You were foolish to let your emotions get the better of you, it made you lose whatever efficiency you had in combat."
He then ran a disruption charge down from his hand onto Jenny's body. Jenny twitched uncontrollably as the charge ran through her. Viruz then stopped and Jenny hung limp from his hand. A probe extended from the palm of Viruz's free hand. He pressed this to the side of Jenny's head. He leaned in close and whispered: "Now you shall see why I am called 'Viruz'."
Jenny attempted to struggle free, but her limbs wouldn't respond. Error messages scrolled before her eyes as Viruz's override virus began to take hold…
Author's Note: Well, that's all for now. Please review this chapter, I'll try to get the next out as soon as I can.
Extra Note: BTW, in case you want to know how my OC s look like just go to mpcp13.deviantart.com. I've posted pictures of Yomex and Viruz. Also, there is a picture of another OC, named ADAX, which I will introduce in succeeding chapters. Finally, I also created a pic for the concept of Jenny as queen of the Cluster.