Author's notes: Hello again. I just couldn't wait to post the next chapter! Jenny comes into picture in this one. I just hope I managed to keep everyone in character to the satisfaction of all you MLaaTR fans out there. Enjoy. And please review.
Chapter Two: Betrayal
The next morning, back in Tremorton, XJ-9, or Jenny as she preferred to be called, was enjoying the second half of her weekend with her best friend Brad Carbunkle and his little kid brother, Tuck. Jenny was a six-foot tall, female robot with a teenage personality. She looked essentially human, except for her white, metallic skin. Her hair was blue, with pigtails that often converted to jets, allowing her to fly. Her blue, metallic body armor resembled a skirt and tank top. Also, she had blue armor extending from her feet to her knees, resembling boots. Brad was a typical teenage guy. He greatly enjoyed being best friends with Jenny because she always seemed to attract mischief and excitement from extraterrestrial invaders. Brad was nearly as tall as Jenny. He was rather thin, with red hair. Tuck, obviously, was very short and he had black hair. He tended to be a bit hyperactive. Right now, the three of them were on the school basketball court. Brad had challenged Jenny to a game of one on one. Tuck was watching from the bench.
"Now remember Jen," Brad was saying, "No cheating. That means you're not allowed to fly up and catch the ball in midair, for instance."
"Don't worry. I have no problem coming down to your level. I'm still gonna cream you." Jenny taunted.
"Yeah, go Jenny! Kick his ass!" Tuck yelled from several meters away.
"Gee, thanks for the support, Tuck," Brad said sarcastically, "Hey, I'm telling mom what kind of language you're using!"
"Whatever," Tuck responded, "She'll just think I'm getting it from you."
Brad ground his teeth, knowing that his little brother was probably right.
"Are we gonna play or what?" Jenny said, tapping her foot, "I think my warranty just expired."
Brad said nothing. But he took the ball first and started dribbling toward Jenny's net. As a robot super hero, Jenny was very light on her feet. In the past, her swift movements had always overwhelmed Brad, but today, he was ready for her. Jenny made a grab for the ball, but Brad, surprisingly, swung around her, away from the opposing net, and then made a perfect hookshot, sending the ball sailing through the air, toward its target. The ball looked as though it just might go in.
"Ha! You walked right into that one!" Brad shouted in triumph.
Jenny ignored him. Instead, she ran after the ball and, in the precious few seconds she had, she converted her right arm into a huge butterfly net and easily caught the ball before it went through. Jenny returned her hand to normal and started dribbling the ball toward Brad's net. Now that Jenny had the ball, Brad knew he was doomed. She was just too quick for him. She maneuvered her way to the opposite side of the court and slam dunked the winning basket. Tuck was cheering like crazy.
"Hey Jenny, that wasn't fair! I said no cheating!" Brad exclaimed, outraged at having his near victory literally snatched away from him.
"I believe you said 'No flying'. I never left the ground once when I caught that ball," Jenny responded, making a show of looking genuinely confused and innocent.
"You know damn well what I meant, uh, I mean, 'darn well'," Brad said, with a glance in his little brother's direction.
Jenny abandoned the pretense, "Hey, if you wanted to play with a human-level opponent, you shouldn't have challenged a robot."
Tuck came running over, thoroughly excited, "That was great Jenny! I know there was no way he could beat you!"
"Thanks Tuck, and you were absolutely right," Jenny said, looking over at the disgruntled Brad.
"Would you care for a rematch?" Jenny asked in a daring tone, tossing the ball over to Brad, "You know; a chance to redeem yourself from this humiliating defeat?"
"It's so like you to rub it in" Brad pouted, looking away from them both.
"Oh, stop being such a cry baby." Jenny chastised.
"Yeah, even I'm more mature than that." Tuck added.
"Tell ya what; I'll let you win this time." Jenny said, not wanting things to go sour.
"Nah, forget it," Brad said, "I mean, let's face it. You're just too good for me."
"Oh, come on Brad" Jenny said, not wanting her friend belittling himself.
"I mean, with your strength and speed and agility, you're just unstoppable" Brad continued, staring at Jenny through the corner of his eye.
Jenny let out a weak laugh in response to this compliment, "Well, that's sorta true, but still-"
"So what's the point of continuing to play sports against a clearly superior player?" Brad concluded.
"Oh c'mon, stop!" Jenny chuckled. "So, if you don't want to play sports, what do you want to do?"
This was what Brad had been waiting for. Hopefully, his flattery had made Jenny more receptive to his suggestion.
Brad spun around and said enthusiastically, "I want to go back to your house and explore your mom's secret laboratory!"
Jenny froze, "What? You know that we aren't allowed in there. My mom is always telling me never to go in because she's afraid I'll break something or contaminate an experiment."
"Yeah, but your mom's not there right now, is she." Brad said, grinning and raising an eyebrow.
"Well no, she's gone to that yearly science convention." Jenny reluctantly responded.
"You mean the one she made you go to a couple of years ago?" Tuck asked, interested.
"Yeah, that's right," Jenny shuddered at the memory, "Ugh, it was awful; so horribly boring and embarrassing and long. I thought I was going to shut down right there."
"Ahem, if we could get back on topic," Brad cut in, "Your mom's not home, so we can get into that laboratory without getting caught, right?"
"Oh, can we? Can we? Can we?" Tuck was also very excited about the prospect of seeing all the strange gadgets Jenny's mom would undoubtedly have in there.
"Yeah, Tuck and I promise not to touch a thing." Brad said.
"Oh, I don't know. My mom might still, somehow, find out that we were in there." Jenny said, still very unsure.
"Don't worry, Jen." Brad assured her. "In the extremely unlikely event that something goes wrong, Tuck and I will be right there to take full responsibility."
"We will?" Tuck asked, surprised.
Brad gave Tuck a dark look.
"I mean yes, of course we will!" Tuck corrected.
About twenty minutes later, Jenny, Brad and Tuck were descending Jenny's mom's basement stairs. Right next to her mom's work bench, Jenny spied a large wooden door, conspicuously marked 'Secret Laboratory'.
"Is that it?" Asked Tuck, indicating the door.
"What do you think?" Brad said, annoyed.
Jenny tried to turn the door handle, but it wouldn't budge.
"Darn. Locked." Jenny said, trying to look disappointed, "I guess we'll just have to do something else."
"C'mon Jen, you can do better than that." Brad said.
Jenny sighed, "Okay, I guess I could jimmy the lock."
Jenny produced from one of the compartments in her arm, a spare hair pin. She stuck the hair pin into the lock and the lock clicked. As she turned the handle, Jenny noticed that her artificial stomach felt quite a bit heavier than usual.
"Okay, remember guys. You promised not to touch anything." Jenny reminded them.
"Yeah, yeah, sure" Brad and Tuck said in unison as they rushed past her.
Brad and Tuck were both immediately awestruck at the sight of all the strange and magnificent machines. All thoughts of their promise left them almost instantly.
"Oh wow, I wanna go look at boogers through the electron microscope!" Tuck exclaimed.
"I want to take a ride on that huge hedge-clipping machine!" Brad shouted with excitement.
The two boys both ran off into the lab. Jenny was left standing in the doorway, not believing what she had just allowed to happen. She had to put a stop to it immediately.
"Guys stop!" she shouted after them, "You promised not to touch anything! Tuck, turn that off."
Jenny pulled Tuck away from the electron microscope. She didn't see where Brad disappeared to.
"Brad, where'd you go? We have to get out of here now!" Jenny was starting to get angry.
She left Tuck and eventually found Brad over in the corner, driving the hedge clipper back and forth across the bare floor. The hedge clipper resembled a small bulldozer with two huge, scissor-like claws coming out of either side.
"Brad!" Jenny shouted.
"Don't worry, Jen" Brad calmly said, "I promise to put everything back the way it was."
"That's not good enough. My mom notices everything and she's going to be home in half an hour!" Jenny said, after glancing worriedly at the clock on the wall.
Brad sighed, "Alright fine. Just let me park this thing the way I found it."
Brad pulled back on the transmission lever, putting it in reverse gear. But, as he did so, he accidentally pressed the cruise control and the hedge clipper went rushing backwards, straight into Dr. Wakeman's chemistry bench. Several of the beakers were broken and, apparently, some volatile chemicals made contact, resulting in, BOOM, a deafening explosion. Brad was thrown from the hedge clipper, onto the floor. He looked up and saw that the hedge clipper was about to roll right on top of him. Brad's life flashed before his eyes. But then, he was pulled to safety in the nick of time by Jenny. After hearing the explosion, Tuck came running over to see what happened. He saw Jenny there holding Brad as though he were some damsel in distress.
"Whoah Jenny, you saved my brother's life!" Tuck said, "Thanks, I guess."
Jenny was silent.
"Man, I thought I was a goner there," Brad said after coming out of his daze.
But Jenny wasn't listening. She was too busy staring in shocked disbelief at the gaping hole in the wall, where her mom's chemistry bench once was. The hole opened up through the ceiling, through the foundation and into the front yard, where it would be clearly visible from the driveway. Brad followed Jenny's gaze and saw what the problem was, just before Jenny dropped him roughly to the floor.
Brad decided now might be a good time to acknowledge her situation, "Uh Jenny, um, I'm really sor-"
"My mom is going to DISMANTLE me! Do you two realize that?" Jenny yelled at both of them.
"So maybe we'll see you again at next week's garage sale?" Brad tried to break the tension with a joke.
"You think this is funny!" Jenny was focused on Brad.
"No ma'am. Not at all." Brad quickly said, feeling a bit scared now.
"Jenny, it was an accident." Tuck tried to calm her down.
"Well, you two are going to make good on your promise to stay here and help me explain what happened, so that I don't take all the blame." Jenny said in a dangerous tone.
But the two boys weren't too keen on being yelled at twice in one day, nor did they want to stay around this thoroughly ticked off Jenny Wakeman.
"Well, you know I would, Jen, but I just realized that I still have some homework to do for tomorrow." Brad said meekly, and ran out of the lab.
"Yeah, and I uh, I also have to go." Tuck said and ran off after his brother.
Jenny raced after them as far as the basement stairs, "You back-stabbing little-"
But they didn't hear what they were, because they were already out the front door, which had just slammed shut behind them.
Jenny returned to the lab and stared unhappily at the sight that would be greeting her mother when she got home.
"I'm so dead." She whispered to herself.
End of Chapter two