Chapter Six: Encounter with the Shadow
Norene Wakeman had a distinct suspicion as to what could be causing the trouble. She called Dr. Turner's office at his laboratory, but there was no answer. Intensely worried, she checked her internet messaging readout, which indicated that there was still a signal coming from the lab.
"Well, at least I know his lab wasn't destroyed. Maybe my worries are unfounded." Norene thought with a bit of relief.
She returned to the living room to tell XJ-9 no to do anything until they found out what was going on. But XJ-9 wasn't waiting for her there.
"XJ-9? Confound that girl!" Norene swore, "I told her to wait."
Just then, Norene noticed what was on the television, which XJ-9 had left turned on.
"This just in," the anchorman was saying, "officials from the Turner Institute of Experimental Technology have contacted us, saying that the black ooze is actually an experimental nanyte swarm which chief scientist, Dr. Steven Turner had been developing, and has now somehow gotten out of control. Dr. Steven Turner himself has not been available for comment. He has actually been reported missing."
"Oh Dear Lord, it's true!" Norene exclaimed when she heard this.
Immediately, she realized where XJ-9 must have gone.
"That silly girl! She has no idea what danger she's in!" Norene thought frantically, "I have to stop her!"
Just then, Norene heard a knock at the door. She answered it. It was Brad.
"Uh, hi Dr. Wakeman," he said nervously, "First of all, I'm really sorry about causing that accident last Sunday. Is Jenny there? I really need to talk to her."
Norene was too upset about Jenny to choose her words strategically.
"No, no, she's not here. She's gone to Quakerton to fight a monster she knows nothing about! I'm sorry Bradley, but I can't talk now." Norene said, shutting the door.
"Gone to Quakerton?" Brad thought to himself, "Hey, if she sees that I'm willing to go that far just to apologize, she's bound to know that I mean it!"
Brad ran back to his driveway, got in his parents' car and drove off to meet Jenny.
Meanwhile, Jenny was flying along at supersonic speed toward Quakerton. It felt good to be flying out in the open again. Jenny enjoyed the sensation as she neared her target. The town of Quakerton was nearly empty. Jenny saw hundreds of cars slowly crawling out, beyond the city limits, trying to get away from whatever was causing the trouble.
"Don't worry everyone!" she called down to the evacuees, "I'll clean up this mess!"
At her speed and altitude, it was unlikely that anyone actually heard her. That's when Jenny saw what all the fuss was about. She stopped herself and hovered in midair over the city as she gazed upon this bizarre sight. Nearly half the city had become jet black. Most of the black mass appeared to be forming itself into huge, geometric shapes that resembled buildings. There were simple rectangular prisms, spheres, pyramids, spires, domes and cones. It was as if each building in the city had been turned into a giant, black building block. The arrangement of these shapes was also perfectly symmetrical. If there was a pyramid on one side of the city, there was a matching pyramid on the opposite side, for instance. The part of the city that was covered in black was separated from the part that was still intact by a writhing mass of what sort of looked like swirling black ooze, which was slowly advancing on the unaltered the streets and buildings.
Standing right in the midst of the black ooze, Jenny thought she saw a man, but he wasn't trying to get out of the city like the others. She wondered if this was the guy who was supposed to be controlling this black stuff. She decided to fly down and confront him.
"Hey you!" She called to the figure as she landed lightly on the street in front of the advancing black ooze, about ten meters away from the black figure, "Are you the one who's doing all this?"
The figure slowly turned his glowing, red eyes upon this new challenger, "That's correct, little girl. I am taking apart this horrible mess you call a civilization and I'm going to rebuild it, pure and perfect."
"Whatever you think you're doing, if you don't stop right now, I'm coming over there to kick your butt!" Jenny called confidently, assuming a battle stance.
The black figure laughed coldly at this.
"You're welcome to try." he dared.
Jenny was just about to take off after this creep when her head phone started ringing.
"Ugh, that's probably mom checking up on me." Jenny groaned.
Jenny decided to get this phone call over with first. She answered the call while keeping her eye on this new adversary. The black figure however, just stood patiently on the spot.
"Hello?" Jenny answered.
"XJ-9! What do you think you are doing?" Came her mother's upset voice from the other end.
"Don't worry, mom." Jenny responded, grinning, "I found out what the threat was. It's this weird shiny guy who-"
"XJ-9, whatever you do, don't touch it!" her mother practically yelled, "It's a nanyte swarm, and if even one nanyte comes into contact with you, it will deconstruct your body and you'll be absorbed into the swarm!"
Jenny froze. She stared, wide-eyed, once again at the black figure, only now comprehending the seriousness of the situation.
"XJ-9 is it?" the black figure said calmly. He had been eavesdropping on her conversation, "My father told me stories about you. You're that robot hero everybody loves. My name is SS-36, but I prefer to be called Shadow Swarm. I shall take great pleasure in making you part of me."
Without warning, Shadow Swarm transformed his arm into an enormous tentacle and it whipped out to make contact with Jenny. Jenny managed to engage her pigtail jets and flew up and away from the tentacle before it could touch her. Now that she had a height advantage, Jenny converted her arm into a laser blaster and fired directly at Shadow Swarm. But the figure immediately sank into the sea of black around him, resulting in a negative impact.
There was now no target for Jenny to focus on. Suddenly, dozens of huge globs of black ooze started flying up into the air of their own accord. It was as if they were being catapulted straight at Jenny. She dodged and ducked as best she could and not a single one touched her. Though, there were a few calls that were too close for comfort. She tried firing her blaster at the black ooze. It splattered quite a bit, but it made no sign of stopping or even slowing down its advance on the city.
"Mom, what do I do!" Jenny called back into her head phone.
"Get out of there, XJ-9! You have to get out of Quakerton!" Her mother responded.
Jenny didn't need to be told twice. She flew away from the advancing black ooze and beyond the city limits. She stopped and landed on a prominent outcropping by the road. The last of the evacuating cars were passing by. Jenny stared back at the city. The black figure had made no sign of pursuit.
"How come he's not following me?" Jenny wondered aloud.
"Because he knows that you can't escape. None of us can." Norene answered her daughter over the head phone, "Soon, the nanytes will spread beyond the city in all directions until the entire planet ends up like Quakerton."
Jenny couldn't accept that.
"That can't be! There has to be something that we can do!" She demanded of her mother.
After a moment's silence, her mother answered, "There's only one person who can help us now, if he's still alive, that is."
"Who?" Jenny pressed.
"Steven Turner", she said.
End of Chapter 6
Author's notes: Well, here's another one. I hope you liked it. I have nothing else to say, except please review.