Chapter Five: Disturbance

Brad had been feeling terrible about himself all week for getting Jenny in trouble. As Jenny was now grounded, he couldn't come over to hang out with her after school as usual. Not that she would have wanted him to. Jenny had been ignoring Brad all week. Whenever, they passed in the hallway at school, she would look in the opposite direction and pretend she didn't see him. Brad was now sitting on his bed in his room on this cloudy Saturday morning, wondering how he might go about rectifying the situation.

"Just go apologize!" Tuck popped up out of nowhere to give his two cents. Though Brad hadn't said anything, Tuck knew exactly what he had been pondering about.

"I can't just apologize," Brad protested, "Jenny doesn't want to talk to me."

Tuck frowned at his brother for being such a quitter, "She can't ignore you if you go right up to her and say it to her face."

"No, but she might rip off my testicles and hand them to me." Brad said unhappily.

"Don't be stupid!" Tuck reprimanded, "Jenny would never do something like that. And the longer you wait, the less likely she is to forgive you."

"I still don't know if I can face her." Brad said, flopping himself on his back on his bed.

"If you won't do it, then I will. I was involved too, after all," Tuck said confidently.

Tuck started to scurry out of the room. But just as he reached the doorframe, Brad grabbed him by the shirt collar and stopped his forward movement. Tuck was running on the spot for a good five seconds before he realized he wasn't getting anywhere.

"Hey let me go!" he said.

"I was the one who suggested going into the laboratory and I was the one who caused the explosion," Brad reminded his little brother, "Therefore, I'm the one who should apologize, not you!"

"Great! So, go do it then," Tuck said as his brother released him.

Brad grimaced.

"I will. But just give me a bit longer to work up the nerve." he said seriously.

Tuck gave a frustrated sigh.

"Work up the nerve quickly then," Tuck warned, "I don't want you to ruin our friendship with Jenny."

Meanwhile, Jenny was back in her house, sitting on the couch, sipping a can of motor oil and flipping aimlessly through the TV channels with the remote. She had finished repairing the hole in the wall days ago. And now that she was grounded, she had nowhere to go after school except straight home. As a consequence, she had finished yesterday's homework already, just as she had every day this week. And now she was facing an exceedingly boring weekend. The worst part about it was the knowledge that she still had three such weeks left to endure. Just then, Dr. Wakeman came into the room. She had just finished restarting all the chemical experiments she had been conducting the previous Sunday.

"Watching a little TV for a change are we, XJ-9?" Norene asked, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Jenny narrowed her eyes, somewhat angrily, in response to her mother's smug comment.

"It's not like there's anything else to do around here," Jenny complained, "I'm going out of my mind with boredom."

"Well that's why this is punishment," Norene said, "It's not supposed to be pleasant."

Jenny concentrated on staring at the television as her mother continued through the living room and left through the doorway on the other side.

"What wouldn't I give for a cluster attack right about now?" she grumbled, when she knew her mother was out of earshot.

Just then, as if right on cue, the random threat indicator started flashing and beeping wildly. Jenny jumped up, greatly excited by this change of pace. Normally, she didn't pay much attention to the random threat indicator, because it only ever signaled a potential threat, which could be anything. There was never any way to find out until the threat was already obvious.

"Mom! Mom! Come quick!" Jenny called, "The random threat indicator is going off."

Norene came rushing back to confirm her daughter's report. Her heart sank when she saw that the indicator was indeed flashing. It was not all too unusual for the indicator to be responding to some sort of threat, but this time Norene had a very bad feeling about it.

"Do you think it could be the cluster?" Jenny asked, trying not to sound too excited.

"I don't know, dear." Norene responded, rubbing her chin, "Wait here. I have to make a phone call."

Norene left the room again. But Jenny couldn't wait. She so desperately needed this excuse to get out of the dungeon. She ran back to the television and flipped around the channels until she found what she was looking for, the daily news. Jenny hoped that, whatever the threat was, it was bad enough to make the news and that it was already being reported. Sure enough, they were in the middle of a special report of a disturbance in progress in the town of Quakerton.

"Quakerton?" Jenny thought, "That's not that far from here."

"The local authorities have not officially released any information regarding the nature of the emergency," the reporter woman was saying, "But we have received some frantic reports from evacuated citizens of a 'black ooze' that is spreading throughout the town and that some sort of emaciated metal man with red eyes is controlling it. The Mayer of Quakerton has ordered a complete evacuation. We will bring further developments as they occur."

"Sounds like a job for me!" Jenny announced to herself.

She left the TV, ran out the front door, engaged her pigtail jets and flew off to save the day.

Author's Notes: Once again, another short chapter. I have to build things up. If you think my story moves too slowly, sorry about that, but that's the way it is. Please review. Byee.