Happy New Year! I apologize for the shortness of this chapter and the slow start to this story. It'll pick up soon, I promise! I hope I captured the characters right. Enjoy!

FWI: I had a bit of difficulty describing Electron's robo-suit. If any of you play Fallout Four, think a suit of power armor from that game, that should help you imagine what his suit looks like.

It didn't take Cindy long to bust through her front door—some idiot had broken the hinges—and onto her front lawn. It also didn't take long for the crowd inside to follow her outside, curious as to what was happening.

She should have known better than to be surprised by the sight of a suit of robotic armor descending onto her grass. This was Retroville, after all. She just hadn't expected it so soon.

The suit of armor in question was bulkier than the ones she had grown used to seeing as a child. It was shaped more like a shell, one designed to fit around a man. Thick metal limbs surrounded the wearer, making them stronger. There had to be at least a foot of metal separating the man inside from the outside world, with how thick it was. A large, metal helmet sat on his head, obscuring his face.

The crowd quickly grew silent as the man in the robotic suit touched down on the front lawn. It was so quiet, in fact, that Cindy could hear Humphrey barking upstairs in her room.

"I," the man in the armor said, his voice disguised by some sort of voice modulator, "am Electron, and I—"

"That's a lame name!" someone in the crowd shouted.

"Yeah!" another person that sounded suspiciously like Sheen yelled. "Go back to your mommy, dweeb-tron!"

"Sheen, shut up!" Libby's voice hissed at him.

"It's a cool name!" Electron barked at them. "Now be quiet!"

Surprisingly, his words actually worked, and the crowd quieted again. Maybe it was the giant robot suit.

Cindy wasn't sure what came over her. In one moment, the courage of her youth had returned, and she was spitting out something snarky a moment later.

"I don't care who you are!" she yelled at the man. "Get off my lawn, you bucket of bolts!"

Electron's helmeted head swiveled to look at her, standing at the front of the crowd. Cindy thought she could see Libby shaking her head vigorously at her, but it was already too late.

"Cynthia Vortex," Electron said, his voice turning into an electronic purr that made her shudder. "How nice of you to return to Retroville."

Cindy's eye twitched. Before she could bite out another sardonic comment that probably would have gotten her vaporized, Electron was speaking again.

"If you would be so kind as to come with me," he said. "I would be very pleased."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, you tin-plated dipstick!"

Electron didn't move, but Cindy imagined that she had just pissed him off.

"If you don't come with me," he bellowed in his disguised voice, "I will destroy Retroville!"

"Big deal!" Sheen shouted, stepping forward so that he was visible. "Retroville is almost destroyed every other week!"

"Sheen, shut up!" Carl said, elbowing the hyperactive boy in the ribs. "That hasn't happened since we were kids!"

"Oh, right."

Cindy rolled her eyes and turned back to Electron. "In your dreams!"

Electron growled in frustration, and with his voice modulator it sounded like a bear. "Then I guess I'll have to teach you a lesson, Vortex!"

The next thing she knew, there was an energy cannon materializing out of Electron's left hand. She had half a second to think, Crap, before she forced herself to dive to the side.

BOOM! An energy blast hit the grass right where she'd been standing before, sending the crowd running and screaming and sending up the smell of burnt plants into the air.

Wonderful, Cindy thought. I'm back for a few hours, and already everything goes to hell.

She dragged herself to her feet and looked around for anything that could help take down an energy gun wielding maniac. The only thing she saw was a metal fork that someone had discarded on the ground.

But she did see Jimmy Neutron—hiding behind a trash bin and looking every bit as terrified as the other people around them. Why wasn't he pulling out a gadget or trying to invent something that would get rid of Electron?

Cindy grunted in frustration as Electron's energy gun charged up again. She would have to fix this herself.

Despite all the screaming and people running around her, she was able to fabricate a plan that would either work or get her and everyone else killed. Then again, what plan didn't have its flaws?

Banishing the fear that she felt, Cindy ran forward, scooping the fork off the ground as she went. Electron stood just a few yards ahead of her, charging up his energy beam once more. By the time he realized what she was doing, it was too late.

"No! Stop!"

Electron tried to step forward, probably to crush her, but Cindy rolled out of the way and behind Electron—and because his suit was so big, he didn't have enough maneuverability to turn around quickly enough to stop her from doing what she did next.

Cindy spun around so that she was facing the backside of Electron and grabbed onto one of his giant legs. With one hand, she clung on even as he started to turn around, and with her other, she stabbed the metal fork into one of the hydraulic plastic pipes.

Immediately, hot steam burst out of the suit, and Cindy jumped away, right in time for the suit to malfunction.

The right leg of Electron's suit started to fire its rocket, sending the villain flying into the sky, shouting curses in his mechanized voice. A moment later, the lawn was empty of all people who meant anyone harm. Well, except for Butch.

Cindy ran a hand through her hair.

There was no way that this was over.

hmm...not very pleased with this chapter. Any opinions, anyone? Please review!