Well, here's the newest update. I had to do a lot of editing on my original draft in order to make sure that the conclusion would blend well into the sequel. Anyway, read, review, and enjoy!
In response to your reviews:
Crashfourit: Don't worry, Mrs. Wakeman will be able to help Xander.
Yingyanggirl: If you liked the j/s romance, here's another dose for you!
Chapter 6
Back in the house, Jenny and Sheldon were sitting in the living room. They were both worried about Xander's sudden mood change earlier.
"Do you think it was something I said, Sheldon?" asked Jenny, looking at the boy as he stared off into space.
Sheldon looked up and shrugged. "I don't know, Jenny. Maybe it's just something we shouldn't talk about," he said.
Jenny nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right."
"Still," continued Sheldon, quickly changing the subject, "that was some pretty cool stuff that Xander told us. I had no idea that somewhere out there, there were actually robots that could do all the things that humans could."
"Yeah, that was amazing," said Jenny, a faint smile on her face. "Those robots were practically living my dream."
Sheldon immediately picked up on the note of sadness in her voice. He knew that Jenny had always felt out of place around human teenagers, and that her greatest dream was to actually experience being human. The near impossibility of this dream saddened her terribly.
Sheldon immediately got up from his seat and came over and sat next to Jenny. Without actually thinking, he put his hand on hers. "I know how much you want to experience being human, Jenny," he said in a gentle voice. "If I could, I promise you that I would do anything and everything in my power to give you that gift. I would do anything to make you happy."
Jenny looked at him, wide-eyed and blushing blue. "Sheldon, I…," she managed to say before she lost her train of thought. The same feelings that she had been having for the past few weeks were coming back. She wasn't sure what to make of them, but one thing she knew is that they were always triggered by the geeky boy sitting beside her, holding her hand, and giving her a gentle look of concern.
Jenny blinked a few times and her blushing intensified as she asked, "Sheldon, may I…may I hold you?"
Now it was Sheldon's turn to blush. However, he managed to keep his composure as he replied, "Yes, Jenny, you may."
Jenny slowly put her arms around Sheldon, who returned the embrace. 'Why does he make me feel this way now?' Jenny wondered. 'I've known him for almost a year, but lately, it's like all those things that he did for me that I found annoying…I find myself just waiting for him to do it again. Is it…could I be…in love?'
Jenny wasn't really sure about this possibility, but she had to admit that this was different from the crushes she had had on other boys. For some reason, whenever she had been with Sheldon, she had always had a strange sense of relief, as though she were waiting for him to show up.
It's not like Sheldon wasn't good-looking. Since the events that had occurred last Christmas, Sheldon had actually changed a bit. He still had the same hairstyle, but his acne had cleared up, his muscles seemed a bit more toned than usual, and his face practically screamed "gorgeous." There were actually girls at school stealing looks at him and giving him dreamy looks.
"Hey, I'm back."
The two teens quickly pulled away from each other and looked in the doorway to the living room. Xander stood there, looking like he was pretty much out of his funk, looking at them with an amused smile.
"Hey, we didn't hear you come in!" said Sheldon, wondering how he and Jenny were going to explain this.
"Look, Xander, about what happened earlier," Jenny started to say, until Xander held up a hand to silence her.
"There's no need to apologize, Jenny," he said. "It's just that I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Besides, I don't want you guys worrying your heads about me."
"Well, at least you seem to be feeling better now," said Sheldon as he stood up.
"Yeah, I just had to vent a little pent-up stress. Anyway, could I talk to you for a minute, Sheldon?"
"Yeah, sure, let's go to my room," said Sheldon. What Sheldon meant by his room was the room he was using while boarding at the Wakeman house.
Once he and Xander were in the room and the door was closed, Sheldon asked, "Okay, what seems to be the problem?"
"Show me the schematics for Jenny's redesigning and upgrades," said Xander. "There's something I need to check."
Sheldon wasn't sure why Xander wanted to look at his schematics, but he went to his computer and brought up the file. "Okay, here they are," he said, motioning to the screen.
Xander looked at the screen, his eyes rolling slowly over every detail. "I must say, these designs seem to be intended to give Jenny a more "human" appearance," he said as he looked at Sheldon. "With this type of redesigning, her physiology would be approximately 90 identical to that of a human female."
"Yes, that's correct," said Sheldon. "Ever since I first met her, she's wanted to be human. I know this isn't the same thing, but it's as close as I can give her, and if it makes her happy, then by God, I'll do it."
"She must mean the world to you," said Xander, almost looking like he was about to become gloomy again, but that quickly faded. "You know, Sheldon, these designs are very similar to the physiology of the Mechanopolans."
Sheldon looked him right in the eye. "You mean…Mechanopolan robots were built like this?" he asked in amazement.
"Well, this Earth technology isn't nearly as advanced, but still, the basic concept and construction is almost exactly identical to our own," said Xander, rubbing his chin as he looked at the schematics. "So, when do you plan on beginning this little plan of yours?"
I plan to start this Saturday, so that'll be four days from now," replied Sheldon. "Just don't tell Jenny, because I want it to be a surprise."
"My lips are welded shut," said Xander with a big grin. "Well, I have to be going now. Catch you later, Sheldon." With that, he turned and left the room.
As he walked down the hallway, a slight vibration went off in his left pocket. He reached in and pulled out a cell phone that Mrs. Wakeman had given to him for the time being. He pressed the CALL button and put the phone to his head. "Go ahead, Mrs. Wakeman," he said, checking to make sure nobody was within hearing distance.
"I have good news, Xander," replied Mrs. Wakeman's voice, sounding excited. "Construction of the lab is complete."
Xander looked at his wrist as a small panel opened up on it, revealing a digital clock. "Wow, that was fast, it's only 4 P.M.," he said, clearly impressed.
"Well, everything is ready, so you can bring her over now."
"Understood. Thank you, Mrs. Wakeman."
"Good-bye, and I'll see you soon."
Xander hung up and put the cell phone back in his pocket. "Well, I guess it's that time," he said as he walked down the hallway.
Some time later, Xander was standing in front of a small, gray cement building that looked like a garden shed, located in a secluded area of Tremorton Park. The capsule was beside him, standing upright.
Xander easily carried the capsule into the building, turning slightly as the door slid shut behind him. He walked down a flight of stairs until he came to what appeared to be a ten foot long corridor. He walked to the end of the corridor and stepped into a chamber the size of a small apartment. The walls and floors were made of concrete, and it was filled with all kinds of lab equipment, mainly the kind used if you were into constructing and repairing robots. Mrs. Wakeman stood in the center of the chamber, in front of a large, glass tube held in a metal base. It looked just like one of those liquid-filled bio pods seen in sci-fi movies, and it was filled with a strange green liquid.
"Well, what do you think, Xander?" inquired Mrs. Wakeman, noticing the look of extreme joy on the boy robot's face.
Xander walked over to her, set the capsule so that it was still upright, then he knelt down and embraced the short woman. "I can't thank you enough for what you've done," he said, sounding as though he were about to cry. "This is so wonderful."
Mrs. Wakeman patted him on the back. "I'm just glad that I was able to help you," she said, gently pulling out of the hug. "Everything you said you might need is here, and if you need anything else, just let me know."
"Once again, Mrs. Wakeman, I thank you very much for this," said Xander.
"Don't mention it. Oh, by the way, the door has a voice-activated lock, so only you and I can get in here. Well, I'll see you tonight, and don't stay up too late," said Mrs. Wakeman as she left the chamber and departed the hidden lab.
Xander quickly punched in a code into a panel on the side of the capsule. The lid opened with a hiss, expelling a cloud of cold fog. Without hesitating, he took her out of the capsule and set her on a nearby lab table. He removed her clothing and dressed her in something that resembled a one-piece bikini, which was difficult because he did all this while looking in the opposite direction, blushing furiously. After he had done this, he hovered up to the lid of the capsule with the jets in his feet, the girl held with one arm, and a strange cable in his other hand. He put the end of the cable over an area in the center of the girl's chest, just below her neck, and gently lowered her into the liquid-filled tube.
After ensuring that she was in safely, he lowered himself to the ground in front of the large computer that controlled the tube. He typed in some commands, and immediately, a metal cylinder lowered over the top of the tube, creating an airtight seal. A machine inside quickly began pumping another substance, this one colorless, into the green liquid. He typed in more commands, and immediately a small program window appeared in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. It was something similar to an EKG reader, and it was showing a faint, but very steady vital reading from the girl in the capsule.
"Thank goodness it worked," said Xander, breathing a sigh of relief. He left the computer and walked up to the capsule, placing his hand against the glass tube just as he had done with the lid of the capsule.
"Just a little bit longer," he said, as though trying to comfort her. "All we need is a little more time, and then, we can hold each other again, forever, precious."
Chapter 7
Two days later, Jenny was standing in a field somewhere outside of Tremorton. Standing about twenty feet away directly ahead of her stood Xander. His cap was hooked onto his belt, and he wore a pair of angular sunglasses. (A/N: I'm really, really sucky at describing how his sunglasses look, so if you can, visualize him with Protoman's sunglasses) The two robots were staring each other down, like cowboys in a western.
"Okay, Jenny, you wanted more combat practice, so I'm going to oblige," said Xander, his hair whipping slightly from a short morning gust. "Just remember, if you get in over your head, don't be afraid to tell me to stop."
"The last time we sparred, I lost because I underestimated you," said Jenny, her face a mask of rock-hard determination. "Now that I know what I'm up against, I'm going to keep my eye on you, and I'm going to be the one on top."
"Fine, then, let the bodies hit the floor!" said Xander, smiling slyly as he assumed his combat stance.
Jenny charged forward and jumped into the air, launching a spin-kick at Xander. He ducked under the blow and followed with a backwards round-kick, which she managed to block. She dropped to the ground and knocked his feet out from under him with a sweep-kick, hoping to catch him off guard. However, Xander quickly put his hands to the ground and pushed himself up, doing a backwards flip which turned into a triple-luts as he landed on his feet.
"Very impressive, Jenny, you actually surprised me that time," he said. "You're doing an excellent job already."
Jenny laughed, a smile on her face, but her eyes still showing an eagerness to fight. "Thanks for the encouragement, but I won't consider it an excellent job until I've landed some good hits of my own," she said, changing her right arm into her laser machine gun. "Try to dodge some of these!"
Xander suddenly began leaping, weaving, and doing all other kinds of crazy things as he dodged the blasts from Jenny's gun. Suddenly, his right hand transformed into what looked like a blaster. Despite still trying to dodge the shots, Xander took aim and fired, hitting Jenny's gun, knocking it out of commission.
Jenny growled and changed her arm back to normal. "Damn, all that shooting and I didn't even get in one hit!" she cursed. "Not only that, but that weapon is out of commission!"
"Don't be so sure that you didn't hit me," said Xander, changing his hand back. "Take a good look at my clothes."
Jenny looked and saw that Xander's shirt and pants carried a fair-size amount of tears and holes. "You mean that I did all of that?" she asked in amazement.
Xander grinned widely. "See, you've already scored more points than me," he said, just before his grin became sneaky. "Now, I think I'm going to catch up!"
He dashed at her and began attacking with some style of martial arts. Luckily, Jenny knew a thing or two about the martial arts as well, so she was able to put up a good defense against even Xander's onslaught. However, that didn't keep him from landing good number of hits, nor did it keep her from nailing him a few times.
After about ten minutes of vicious fighting, Jenny's communicator started beeping, causing both of them to immediately stop. Jenny's video screen popped out of her chest, revealing the face of Mrs. Wakeman.
"Mom, what's the matter?" asked Jenny, wondering if some sort of disaster had happened while she was off training.
"XJ-9, there's a high-speed chase going on in the city. You need to get over there before things get out of hand," said Mrs. Wakeman.
"I'm on my way now!" said Jenny, shutting off the screen and withdrawing it back into her chest. "I'm really sorry, Xander, but we'll have to do this some other time," she said to her friend.
"Hey, when duty calls, you have to answer," said Xander, taking off his sunglasses. "I'll see you later, Jenny."
"Good-bye, Xander," said Jenny, activating her pig-tail jets and soaring off.
"Besides," continued Xander to himself, "I've got to get back to my own work." With that, he flew off for Tremorton Park, back to his friend.
Xander was in the hidden lab, working on the girl. She was lying on her stomach on the lab table, now minus the suit he had dressed her in, now covered by a white sheet.
Xander really wished that he had something like a female robot assistant for stuff like this. He didn't mind the repairs; heck, he would give up his own parts if it meant saving this girl. What he didn't like was dressing and undressing her. He was sure she would be pissed if she knew that he had seen more of her in the course of saving her than he had in their time together before this. Still, he pushed through it, doing whatever the situation called for. (A/N: It must be tough to know what you're doing when you're looking in the opposite direction from where you're working.)
He looked at the internal workings and found what he was looking for: her heart. Being as advanced as they were, the Mechanopolans actually had robotic organs. As he examined the innards of the mechanical heart, Xander spotted something that was the key to fixing her.
He reached in delicately and pulled out what looked like a cracked, scorched microchip. "Looks like I'll have to rebuild the primary cardiac control chip," said Xander. "Once I do that, she should be fit as a fiddle, as they say here on Earth."
Of course, this was almost easier said than done. Constructing a proper chip on Earth was going to be really tough, even with his extensive knowledge of his people. Still, as his father had always told him, where there is a will, there is a way.
He pulled out the cell phone and dialed Mrs. Wakeman's number. After a few seconds, her voice answered.
"Yes, do you need something, Xander?"
"Mrs. Wakeman, do you think you can get me some computer mother boards, preferably with processor microchips?" he asked her. "I need to construct a new primary cardiac control chip in order to revive her, and I'm going to need a crapload of chips."
"I have plenty of those things, and I'll bring them by immediately," said Mrs. Wakeman.
"Thanks, you're a lifesaver, Mrs. Wakeman," said Xander, breathing a quiet sigh of relief.
"Please, call me Nora. There's no need to keep being so formal."
Okay, I'll see you really soon…Nora," said Xander as he hung up.
He looked at the girl and stroked her hair. It was blonde, and it hung to just above her shoulders, fanning out at the end. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, before whispering, "I'm almost there, baby. I just pray that I'm successful in this. I have to see you smile again."
Chapter 8
Sitting at his desk in Mrs. Wakeman's lab, Sheldon could barely contain his excitement. Saturday had finally arrived, the day he would give Jenny her new enhancements. He was so excited, he was practically begging for it to be nine 'o' clock, which was when Jenny was supposed to show up in the lab to begin work.
As he sat there, dressed in his lab gear, his thoughts suddenly turned to Xander. He and Jenny hadn't seen much of him for the past four days. He would always be gone somewhere for pretty much the whole day, coming back to grab lunch, and not coming back for the day until early evening. Every time they tried to ask him where he was going, he would always shrug and say that he was doing "stuff."
The sound of the door opening jarred him back to reality. He looked up as Jenny came in, looking just as eager as he felt. He got up from his seat and stretched his arms, making sure that he wasn't going to be working with stiff limbs.
"Well, Jenny, are you ready to become a whole new robot?" he asked her, his heart pounding rapidly.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," said Jenny, lying down on the table. The holding clamps snapped down, making sure she wouldn't wobble around while Sheldon was working.
"Jenny, I promise you are going to love what I'm about to do to you," said Sheldon, cracking his knuckles.
Jenny blushed playfully at the thought that popped into her head when Sheldon said that. "Well, promise me that you'll be gentle with me," she said in a playful tone.
Sheldon blushed and tugged at the collar of his lab coat. "Well, I guess I'll begin now. Have a good nap."
"See you when I wake up," said Jenny as she shut down with a soft humming noise.
Sheldon opened the lid of the large case on another table next to him. He looked at the contents, then back at Jenny, then he picked up a tool and began working.
Somewhere in space, light years from Earth, a massive ship hung in space. It was shaped like an arrowhead, and navy blue in color. At the tip of the arrowhead, instead of a point, there was what looked almost like a dragon head, which was the control center. The two eyes were the main forward viewports. The engines were in the back, under the back edges of the arrowhead and on the furthermost edge of the tail area.
Inside the ship, in a dark chamber filled with monitor screens, was a large black throne-like seat. The screens displayed various scenes, both from inside and outside the ship, but the large figure seated in the throne, hidden in the shadows of the room, didn't seem to be paying attention. His glowing red eyes were narrowed to thin lines as he sat, quietly meditating.
A voice coming from his right pulled him out of his thoughts. "My lord Angmar, I have an urgent message from the Draconia, sir."
Angmar turned to the right, his red eyes fixed unblinkingly on the girl robot who had spoken. "I certainly hope it is an urgent message, Elkenah, because you know how much I hate being needlessly bothered. His voice was like a black fog, for it sounded like the essence of evil itself.
Elkenah trembled under the other robot's glare, looking at him with obviously frightened eyes. She had golden hair that hung down to the small of her back, and her eyes were a bright pink in color. She was wearing a red shirt with short sleeves that barely reached past her armpits. There was a diamond-shaped opening in the front, going from the collar to just a little bit over her breasts. This opening, as well as the collar and sleeves, was rimmed with green. She also wore a red half-skirt that only went around her back before stopping with about five inches of space in the front, between the two sides. (A/N: I'm not good at describing costumes and outfits, either, so please forgive me!) This was also rimmed with green at her waist, and her visible panties were green, as were her legs below her gold kneecaps.
"Sir, they detected a powerful robot signature in that backwater system called Earth, where they were tracing that quantum trail leaving the remains of our planet," she said, looking at the screen of the communications terminal in front of her. "They believe that it's…well, you-know-who."
Angmar's eyes widened and he stood up from the throne. Now with a little more light on him, it was clear that he was immensely tall, about seven-and-a-half to eight feet tall. He was dressed in a long, flowing black robe that completely hid his body from view. His face was hidden by a frightening helmet that hung down in the front, with a rectangular opening that served to let him see, and two horns, one on the forehead and another on top, pointing forwards so that its point almost touched that of the other one.
"Send a message back to them," he said quickly. "Tell them to dispatch scouts to the surface of the planet and find him. Also, tell the command deck to set a course for Earth, maximum quantum speed."
"Yes, sir, I shall do that now," said Elkenah, beginning to transmit the messages.
Angmar sat back down on his throne, and held up a fist as he chuckled in triumph. "I've finally found you," he said, "XR-4!"
THE END
TO BE CONTINUED IN "LEGION OF DEATH"
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this fanfic! I've begun work on the sequel even as we speak, so be looking for it soon. Adios, mi amigos!
