A/N – A few replies: mpcp13, I actually didn't remember that bit of info on the stealth wasp! It just seemed logical; either the cloak or the hyperdrive would use a lot of power, so you can't use both at the same time. Pickle, Brohammer is most certainly not an idiot; he simply has to worry about the safety of Earth first. It's his job. And thanks for reading! Paperwolf, gaaaah, stop shaking! My neck hurts! Glad you all enjoyed the tension at the end of the last chapter. Now, we continue …


Countdown to Mindshatter

A "My Life as a Teenage Robot" Fanfic

Chapter Nine – Don't Make Me Turn This Spaceship Around


Jenny's internal pumps kicked into emergency overdrive, moving coolant through her radiator loops at twice their maximum rated capacity in order to cool her down. Some of the excessive heat was coming from the curtain of burning plasma that raged around her; flying back through the atmosphere at Mach 20 had transformed her into a living meteor. But most of it was pouring out of her Mood-O-Tron chip as it blazed with a frenzy of emotions. Anger. I can't believe that idiot actually did something so stupid! Sadness. I'm never, never going to see Drew or the Silver Shell again… Fear. He's going to get himself killed! Frustration. I should have thought of a way to stop him. Anger again. How could he desert us all the day before Earth gets invaded? Still more Anger. I can't believe that the general was going to blow him up! In fact, the emotion chip remained locked on "Anger" all the way through her descent glide and return flight back to the Starship Camp – until she came to a landing in the cavernous interior of Hangar Two. Because when Jenny saw the look of fury on General Brohammer's face, her Mood-O-Tron snapped into "Anxiety" mode. Cripes, am I ever in trouble now.

The veins on Brohammer's neck bulged out as if they'd been chiseled from a marble block. "XJ-9, you let those two escape! We saw the whole thing on scanners – you destroyed the missiles and let them jump into hyperspace. And now those traitors are on their way to Cluster Prime! I could have you arrested, right now! You'd best explain yourself, little lady, 'cause I am hotter'n spit on a skillet!"

"I … I … I …" Jenny took a nervous half-step backwards – the general could be very intimidating when he wanted to – then she summoned her reserve of backbone, and stood up to him. "Stop calling them traitors! They're going to Cluster Prime to try and save Allison. They're heroes, and they're my friends, and there's no way I am going to shoot at my friends!"

"You'll do it if I order you to, little missy!" growled the general, through clenched teeth. Then he stopped himself, took a calming breath, and ran a hand through his graying hair. "All right, for argument's sake, let's say that he's not defecting. Then he's still putting himself at incredible risk. If he gets captured, the Cluster could torture him for secret information. Or, they could use him as a hostage, to force you not to fight tomorrow. And on top of everything else, he's gone AWOL in our time of greatest need! He's deserted his country, he's deserted his planet, and he's deserted you."

"But … but … he didn't mean to … " Jenny found herself having a harder time defending Drew against those charges. Because she had to admit, she sort of felt the same way …

Then her train of thought was interrupted by a commotion at the hangar entrance. Doctors Wakeman, Mogg, and Plink had finally reached the flight deck of Hangar Two, huffing and puffing as they ran to catch up with the general, still not up to speed with the frenetic pace of events. Mogg and Plink collapsed against a portable electric generator, trying to catch their breath after their sprint down a quarter-mile-long hallway. But her mom was at her side in a flash; she always seemed to have enough energy to launch into yet another round of over-mothering.

"XJ-9! XJ-9, we monitored an explosion on deep space radar – are you all right? Did you sustain any damage?" Mrs. Wakeman paced around her daughter, inspecting her systems with a fretful eye. "Is there anything you need, dear? Maybe a new element for your internal heaters? Some fresh grease for your ball bearings? Do you need to change your oil filter?" Jenny slapped her forehead in agony; it never failed to amaze her how quickly her mother could embarrass her in public.

Then Dr. Plink burst forward, stammering as he wiped his glasses against his wrinkled coat. "Glah … the nanodroid … bwah, where did that squishy little devil get to? You see … because we need the nanodroid for the …" – he finished cleaning his glasses, fumbled them back onto his face … and dropped to his knees, as he saw the shattered remains of a large cylinder scattered across the deck plating.

"Oh, my glavin!!! My precious Slurry Projector! Bwah, what did he do to you?" Moist, heaving sobs poured out of his lanky frame, and he lovingly wrapped his arms around a random chunk of broken pipe as if it were a cherished family member. "Bwahhh, so long I worked on you, I did … with the building, and the welding, and the chrome-plating … bwahhhh, don't worry, my poor little Pudding Cannon, Daddy's here to make it all better! Just hold on, while I … ungh … get you off of this … hunghh … cold floor … ow, I think I cut myself. Oh, the pain! Would somebody get me a band-aid, I have … nnn-hey … chronic thin blood syndrome. Oh boy … stood up too fast … now comes the fainting …"

"You don't have to worry about your stupid little cannon," huffed Jenny, ignoring Plink's efforts to find a nearby chair. "Drew's gone. He took off for Cluster Prime, and I could have stopped him – if it weren't for this stupid Z-Pack!"

Dr. Mogg was lightning-fast to jump to the defense of his invention. "Now see here, robot, we've already gone through this! You need the increased power. And you were given a thorough systems check by Nora and myself, and we both agreed that there's nothing wrong with the Z-Pack …"

"Nothing wrong with it!?!" Jenny's frustration with the monstrosity bolted onto her back was nearing the breaking point. "Everything is wrong with it! Ever since I got this hunk of junk hooked up to me this morning, I've been a walking disaster area! I bust through walls. I crush everything I touch. If I had tried to shoot out the stealth ship's engines like the general said, I would have blown it into a million pieces! Look what I did to the giant hangar doors, and tell me there's nothing wrong!"

Mrs. Wakeman studied the Z-Pack and its thick black cabling with a bit more scrutiny. "Hmmm … given the circumstances, perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to open up the Z-Pack and take a look inside. It couldn't hurt to have another pair of eyes examine …

"Oh, no you don't, Nora," grinned Mogg, wagging his finger at her. "The Z-Pack is my idea, my property, my invention. It is only on loan to you and your robot until after the Cluster invasion has been repelled. If you examine it, I'll have grounds to sue you for theft of intellectual property. There are security seals located just underneath the housing – so I'll know if you try to open it up. I'll be the judge of the Z-Pack's health, thank you very much."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handheld scanner, the same one he'd used on Jenny back in the briefing tent, and waved it over the surface of the Z-Pack. A series of plings and bloops and gleeps sang out, and after a few seconds, a row of lights on top of the scanner lit up with a bright green. "There, you see? No power spikes. Everything's in perfect working order."

"That's all fine and good, Phinneas, but how do you explain XJ-9's bursts of uncontrolled strength …"

"Nora … General Brohammer … let me be perfectly frank." Dr. Mogg rocked back and forth on his heels, unable to fully remove the smugness from his voice. "I can confidently say, despite the robot's misgivings, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Z-Pack. So logically, there can only be one possible source for the problem … the XJ-9 robot itself."

Jenny and Mrs. Wakeman gasped in unison at the brashness of the accusation, but Mogg continued. "Nora, can you honestly say that your automaton hasn't had control problems in the past? I seem to recall hearing stories about demolished high schools and wild rampages of destruction through downtown Tremorton. Damaged factories, demolished office buildings, crushed automobiles – why, the first time I met her, she was knocking down walls! All of those control problems, and all with her old, outdated power pack. And now she's got a new, state-of-the-art Zero Point Energy generator connected to the same old, flawed control circuitry? I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she's having problems."

Furious sparks of electricity leapt from Jenny's cheeks. "What the … you little creep! What are you trying to say? Are you saying all these problems are my fault?!?"

"I'm saying …" – Mogg replied to Mrs. Wakeman, instead of Jenny – "… that the Z-Pack is brand-new, cutting-edge technology. The XJ-9, on the other hand, is over five years old. My laptop computer is newer than that! Face facts, Nora. Putting a Z-Pack on your robot is like mounting a jet engine on a covered wagon. The XJ-9 … is obsolete."


"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

Drew finally stopped screaming, pried his eyes open, and ran quick self-diagnostic to make sure that he was actually still alive. Pant – gasp – that was too close. The missiles had barely missed them. It probably would've been a smart idea to run a damage check on the Stealth Wasp at once – except, he still couldn't pry his fingers loose from the control sticks. He settled for a quick survey of the bewildering instruments flickering in front him. While he didn't fully understand what they meant, he knew whether they were showing the right values or not. And amazingly, they were all smack dab on target. The Wasp was actually gliding through the bizarre realm of hyperspace …

"Whooooaaaa! Check it out!" shouted the Silver Shell, as he lunged back and forth to point at the whirling clouds of inter-dimensional plasma just outside the canopy. "Cool beans! We did it! Cluster Prime, here we come! Oh, here we come to save the daaaayyyy …"

The sound of the unwanted passenger's voice made Drew's teeth grind together like tectonic plates. "This is not happening," he mumbled, wondering why the universe hated him so much.

"Well, we've got a long trip in front of us, partner, and I know the perfect way to pass the time!" A small door opened in the mighty robot's shoulder to deploy a tiny horn, which played a single note. "Ohhhh … one million bottles of beer on the wall, one million bottles of beer …"

Drew snapped around in his seat and stretched his neck, bringing his enraged face six inches from the Shell's. "Stop it! Stop it right now! And stop calling me 'partner', because you're not my partner! No, you're … oh, what's the word I'm looking for … excess baggage! What in blue blazes are you doing here, Sheldon? I oughta eject your butt right into the nearest black hole!" Drew waved a silver-green fist underneath the Shell's chin …

And was knocked back into his seat as the Shell's chest swung open to reveal a hyper-excited Sheldon Lee, working the levers of an incredibly complex control panel. "Relax, Drew!" he chuckled, speaking once again in his nasally voice. "I figured out what you were up to. When you asked me to make a Cluster anti-virus program, and you said that it wasn't for Jenny … well, the only other robot it could possibly be for was Allison. But I couldn't figure out how you were going to get the program to her! Uh … that is, until I snuck a peek at your letter in the cafeteria at lunch. The one that said you were going to steal a Stealth Wasp and fly it to Cluster Prime …"

"You read my …" – Drew's eye twitched as he struggled to keep his temper in check. "And you decided to hitch a ride with me, because …???"

Sheldon twiddled his fingers, and his eyes darted about nervously. "Umm … well, it's just like you said, Allison helped to save us, so I thought it would be nice to … y'know, help her out, so I thought I'd come along with you and see if I could … y'know … lend a hand …"

The frown on Drew's face reeked of skepticism. "Just coming along to lend a hand? Out of the goodness of your own heart, huh? And I'm supposed to believe that?"

"Oh, all right!" huffed Sheldon. "When we were on Cluster Prime, Brad and I got sent to this secret lab underneath Queen Vexus' palace. This crazy robot named Stanley had all kinds of cool stuff in there, and he was working on a way to turn humans into robots using nanobots! So I figured, Allison is trapped in Vexus' palace – that's where you're going, right? – so I'd come along with you, swing by Stanley's old lab, and collect a few batches of his nanobot experiments!" A smile crept onto his face, as Sheldon lapsed into a happy daydream. "Then I can turn myself into a robot boy for real, and finally win the heart of my lady fair! I can see it now … first I take Jenny to the junior prom, then we go steady …"

Drew flung his arms wildly in complete disbelief. "You insane, screwball whack-job bucket of fruit loops! This makes it official, Sheldon … you are three fries short of a Happy Meal! For crying out loud … so you wanna go to Vexus' palace to pick up some nanobots? You make is sound like we're going to the grocery store to pick up a quart of milk. Do you not realize just how dangerous this is? There's a pretty good chance we might not be coming back! And you're risking your life to live out some deranged stalker geek fantasy – about turning yourself into a gooey blob of silver nano-snot, like me?" He slapped his hand over his face; just when he thought that Sheldon couldn't get any crazier …

"Are you kidding?! I think it would be kinda cool to be a shape-shifter …"

"Cool? Cool?!? You're talking about letting a bunch of nano-machines break your body down into atoms and blend them up into a metallic milkshake." Drew rolled his eyes in disgust. "You have lost it, dude. Oh yeah, the little hamster is asleep in the wheel."

"Oh, I see …" sneered Sheldon, suddenly understanding the reason for Drew's outburst. "You just want to make sure that you're the only nanodroid in school."

"Oh, you got me, Sheldon," Drew smirked sarcastically. "That's it exactly. Because being a walking blob of sludge has made me oh, so popular with all the kids at school."

"Maybe you're just afraid that I'll be a better robot than you are," taunted Sheldon. "Maybe you're afraid that I'll figure out how to make the nanobots work the way they're supposed to!"

Drew growled at the implied insult. "And you think doing this will make Jenny fall hopelessly in love with you. Man, you're nuts."

"Oh, yeah?" Sheldon snarled back. "You'll see! After I turn myself into a robot boy, Jenny will finally have someone just like her to love and …"

"She doesn't love you, Sheldon!" Drew shouted at the top of his voice, finally losing his patience with Sheldon's insane obsession. "When will you get it through your thick, stupid, pimply skull that Jenny does not love you?"

An abrupt silence fell over the cockpit, with nothing but the faint chirping of the ship's electronics to be heard over the dull background whine of the engines.

Drew and Sheldon simply glared furiously at each other for a long time, as the stormy haze of hyperspace screamed all around them, bathing their faces in a flickering reddish-purple light.

And then, to his surprise, Drew saw a tear trickle from the corner of Sheldon's eye.

"I know," he squeaked, in a tiny voice.

Drew squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, unsure of what to do or say next. But Sheldon took a deep, heaving breath, and continued on. "I know Jenny doesn't love me. Oh, she likes me, I guess. She calls me a 'good friend'. It always makes me happy whenever she says that. And at the same time, it feels like she's blasting a hole in my heart with one of her laser beams."

Sheldon slumped against the Shell's control panel, drooping his head into his chest. "Everyone always makes fun of me whenever I say that I love Jenny. Maybe because I'm a geek, or because I still collect Zokemon cards – I don't know. But Jenny was the first girl that was ever nice to me. She talks with me, and lets me spend time with her – well, sometimes – and I think she really is the prettiest girl in school. She's the first girl I ever held hands with. The fact that she's a robot only makes her more amazing to me." He raised his face, with weary eyes peering through a mop of greasy black hair, and sighed deeply. "I know Jenny doesn't love me, but I really do love her. And I keep telling myself that someday, if I keep trying hard enough, I'll find a way to make myself good enough for her to love."

For the first time that he could ever remember, Drew actually felt a twinge of sorrow for the pitiful little fellow. "Geez … Sheldon … are you sure you're not just setting yourself up to get hurt? Think about it – what if you actually do find a way to turn yourself into a nanodroid? You can't guarantee that Jenny will fall in love with you just because you happen to be a robot."

"It's worth the risk, if it gives me a chance to win Jenny's heart."

"You're talking about throwing your life away, Sheldon. No girl is worth that kind of risk."

Now a faint smirk began to tug at the corner of Sheldon's mouth. "Well that's a funny thing to say, coming from a guy who just stole an alien spaceship from the military so he could go rescue his girlfriend."

Drew's eyes shrunk to the size of pencil points; he hadn't expected Sheldon to put him on the defensive like that. And with a embarrassingly valid point, too. "Th-that's totally different! I … I mean … I have to try and help Ally … we owe it to her, and there's nobody else who can get to her …"

Sheldon folded his arms with a touch of smugness; he knew he was scoring points here. "Give it a rest, Drew. Everyone in the class saw you and that robot girl acting all gooshy mooshy back on Cluster Prime. And now, you're risking your life to save her. Why? Because you're in love with her."

"I … that is … I mean …" And of course he was, and it was as obvious as the fact that water is wet, and there was no point in trying deny it. But he'd be danged if the first person he openly declared that to was going to be Sheldon. "Look, duh, I care about Ally, alright? And, yes, I guess I'm risking my life to try and save her! Arguably, not the smartest thing I've ever done … but I have to do this."

"A-ha!" shouted Sheldon, smiling like a lawyer who'd just gotten a witness to confess. "See? You admit it. And you were making fun of me, when you, of all people, should know how I feel more than anyone else! Because you're doing exactly same thing that I am."

"I am not!" Drew protested, revolted at the idea of being lumped into any kind of group with Sheldon. "It's a totally different situation, okay?"

"Riiiiight," smiled Sheldon, "name one way that what you're doing is any different from what I'm doing."

Drew's only reply was melancholy silence, then he swallowed hard, and slumped back into the Wasp's forward seat. Sheldon assumed that he was conceding the argument to him. Then Drew stared out the front of the canopy, seemingly mesmerized by the swirls and eddies of crackling energy …

"Right now Ally is a prisoner, trapped in Vexus' palace," he said, in a weak, shaking voice. "She's being tortured. She's lost her family. She might have been reprogrammed. I … I'm not even sure how much of her own mind will be left, if I can actually find her. And all of that is happening to her because of me. She risked her life for me, and then, we she needed me the most …" – he had to pause, to hold himself together – "… I let her down. And now she's suffering, instead of living a normal, happy life. Meeting me was the worst thing that ever happened to her."

He closed his eyes, wincing as his nightmare replayed itself again. "You want to know the difference between you and me, Sheldon? The difference is, you didn't almost kill the girl you're in love with."

Light and shadow danced silently inside the Stealth Wasp's cockpit, as it shrieked through hyperspace at unimaginable speed, carrying a pair of sullen teenagers to their unknown fates.


Evening at the Wakeman house could only mean one thing: a wall-shaking, window-rattling, mother-daughter shouting match. And tonight, the tension in Jenny's bedroom was even thicker than usual. They had argued all the way home in the car, continued arguing as they came in the front door, and now they were having a bitter tug-of-war, fighting over a large blue-and-white wrench, of all things. The doctor didn't have a hope of besting Jenny's super-strength, but she did have a weapon that the robot girl was defenseless against – the stern motherly glare. Jenny finally relented, and Mrs. Wakeman snatched the wrench from her hand.

"Stop being so ridiculous, XJ-9!" she shouted, wagging a finger at her pouting daughter. "It's only going to be attached for another day. You are not removing it, and that is the final word on the subject! Now be a good robot, and run your systems check while I get things ready in the basement."

The instant Mrs. Wakeman closed the bedroom door behind her, Jenny smiled a devious smile – and simply deployed another blue-and-white wrench from a compartment in her wrist. "Don't care what Mom says," she grumbled, as she twisted her arms around to reach behind her back. "I'm tired of carrying this stupid hunk of junk around!" After a few very frustrating moments of trying to slide the wrench around the correct bolt, she started to unscrew the first fastener … and then stopped herself. "But I need it if I'm gonna save the Earth tomorrow," she sighed wearily. Her fists shook in a fit of melodramatic angst – then she took the wrench, and hurled it at her bedroom wall as hard as she could.

The wrench pulverized a hole in the wall, right through the middle of her L'il Rover poster, and it kept on going – heading for low Earth orbit. It only missed the window by three feet – the window where Tuck was clinging desperately to the sill, ducking his head beneath his hands. "Uh, if this is a bad time," he grimaced, "we could always come back later."

"Tuck! Omigosh … I'm sorry!" Jenny rushed over to her bedroom window and scooped Tuck up in her arms, just in time to make way for Brad to come spelunking in after him. Jenny reminded herself to be more careful in the future; the windows in the Wakeman house got more use than the doors did.

"Hey there, Jen," he grinned, setting a plastic grocery bag down on the floor. "Heard you guys pull into the driveway, so we thought we'd pop over to visit! After all, there's only one day to go until the big Cluster invasion, and we figured you might want to spend some time tonight going over your space combat techniques. So we're here to help!" He figured that Jenny could use a visit from a friend after a boring day listening to lectures at the Starship Camp.

"That's right!" smiled Tuck, as he dropped to the floor and rummaged around in the bag. He held up a video disc in each hand. "We've got the Star Battles Trilogy, and Attack of the Mars Mutants IV – the director's cut! Y'know, the critics may have panned it, but I personally consider Attack of the Mars Mutants IV to be one of the classics of modern cinema …"

"Please, you still can't watch the whole thing without hiding behind the sofa," sneered Brad. "So anyway, we got soda, potato chips, and can of high performance engine treatment … all the essentials. Which movie do you want to watch first?"

Jenny shook her head, and rubbed her fingers through Tuck's hair. "Aw, guys … it's really nice of you to come over like this, but I can't watch movies tonight." She rolled her eyes and harrumphed. "I'm going to be working in the basement lab with my mom all night. That oughta be loads of fun."

Brad looked a bit disappointed, but he eased his hands into his pockets with a smile. "Not a problem. We'll just reschedule our little training session into a celebration party for tomorrow night! For when after you fill outer space with dismantled Cluster robot tooshie!" He punched the air enthusiastically, imagining the spectacular Cluster carnage that Jenny was going to wreak tomorrow.

"Awww, but I wanted to watch movies!" whined Tuck. "I was gonna stay up all night – after all, I might get turned into a zombie slave tomorrow, and who knows if the Cluster will let us watch movies, or stay up late? Um … not that I think that's going to happen, of course. Heh-heh-heh …"

Jenny gave Tuck a nasty glare. "Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence."

Brad rolled his eyes; little brother sticks foot in mouth, yet again. "Tell you what, Tuck … maybe I'll give Drew a call and see if he wants to watch something with us over at our place. Unless he's busy down in the basement with your mom, Jen. Is he working with you guys tonight, too?"

He was completely unprepared for her reaction to that innocent question. Jenny ground her hands into angry fists, looked around her bedroom for something else to throw, then grabbed an empty oil can and flung it through the wall, making a matching hole next to the first one. "Drew's gone, Brad … maybe gone forever. The big jerk actually stole a spaceship right out from everyone's noses, and he's on is way to Cluster Prime as we speak!"

Brad's eyes ballooned to the size of basketballs. "Whoa! Seriously? He actually boosted a spaceship!?! Suh-weeet! Go Drew!" The angry look he got from Jenny told him that she did not share his opinion. "Uhh … not sweet? Oh, right. He was supposed to help you fight the Cluster."

"Forget about that – the big dummy thinks he's going to save Allison, but he's just going to get himself killed!" she yelled, her cheeks crackling with tiny bolts of electricity. "And the Silver Shell is with him, for some reason! Just when I finally start making some robot friends – now I'm losing them all! And I should have stopped him … that is, I could have, if it wasn't for this stupid Z-Pack dingus."

"Sounds like Drew finally lost his nano-marbles …" As cool as stealing a spaceship sounded to Brad, the thought of Drew and the Shell going up against all those thousands of ships and robots all by themselves … ugh, they're toast. Then something Jenny had just said stuck him … "What do you mean, you could have stopped him? What happened with your Z-Pack? More power surge issues?"

"Major power surge issues," moped Jenny, as she plopped herself on the edge of her bed. She stared dejectedly into her full-length mirror, so she could she the full hideousness of the ugly metal canister with its ugly black cables plugging into her like some alien parasite. "I talked to Dr. Mogg like you suggested, Brad, but he got all snippy whenever me or my mom suggested that there might be something wrong with his invention. I kind of have a feeling that he's hiding something … but he's got all this equipment and this scanner that proves the Z-Pack is working perfectly." She closed her eyes, and her pigtails drooped woefully to the sides of her face. "That means the problem is me. I can't handle all this new power. Mogg said that my systems were obsolete."

"What?!?" Brad had a sudden urge to plant a fist in the old man's face. "Where does that old coot get off calling you obsolete? I bet you told him off good, didn't you?"

"I'm not sure he isn't right," she answered in a glum voice. "I can barely control myself with this new upgraded power pack. I practically wrecked the school today. And I couldn't even stop Drew from running away, when that should have been a piece of cake. How am I supposed to stop a Cluster fleet if I can't even stop one little spaceship?"

And before the boys could think of something to cheer her up, they heard Mrs. Wakeman's voice bellowing from downstairs. "XJ-Niyun! Those power couplers are not going to re-adjust themselves! You had better not be watching music videos on your monitors again, young lady!"

"Be right down!" Jenny hollered back, as she picked herself up off the bed. "I gotta go, guys. Maybe you should go home and watch those movies like Tuck said. The way I'm messing up, we're all going to be Cluster slaves by this time tomorrow." She dragged herself over to her bedroom door, and pushed it open … blowing out a twenty-foot section of wall in the process. Then with an agonized sigh, Jenny clomped her feet down the stairs, trudging through chunks of wall plaster.

Brad helped Tuck out the window and climbed back down to the ground, still somewhat amazed by everything he'd just heard. It was stunning enough that he might never see Drew again. But he was even more upset to see Jenny so down on herself. It was nothing new to see her moping, or sad, or depressed; but in the past, she was always upset over stuff like her mom not letting her paint a tattoo on her arm, or Brit and Tiff tricking her into blowing up the football scoreboard. And of course, Jenny was always in need of moral support whenever a cute new guy caught her eye. Brad smiled to himself; sometimes he wondered if he knew more about Jenny than Dr. Wakeman did. But how could she think that she was obsolete? For crying out loud, she'd saved the Earth how many times, again? And now, just because of something that one of her mom's creepo science buddies said …

He tapped his chin in thought. "What did she say? I kind of have a feeling that he's hiding something." The gears in his head began to turn.

"Well, looks like it's just the two of us," sighed Tuck, munching on a mouthful of potato chips. "You wanna go get a box of Jujubes before we start the movies?"

"I think I have a better idea than just watching movies," grinned Brad, with a smile that set off alarms in Tuck's head. He was getting that feeling again … the feeling that his big brother was cooking up some hair-brained idea that was going to get them both into trouble. The brothers went back to their house, but instead of plopping down in the living room for an evening of sci-fi, Brad explained his idea, then dragged his reluctant little brother with him into the garage. As the last rays of sunlight dipped below the horizon, Brad coasted onto the driveway on his ten-speed, with Tuck clamping his arms around his big brother's waist. The streetlights came on, and the Carbunkle brothers rolled into action.


Continued in Chapter Ten / Nineteen Hours to Cluster Dawn