Brad is outside his house, watering the lawn with a hose from the garage. He waters a wilted flower, someone heavily breathing. They move away some of the leaves to look at the boy from behind. Tuck then jumps out of the bush with a yell, tackling his brother onto the ground and making him drop the hose.
"Tickle fight!" He starts tickling Brad's back. "Tickle, tickle, tickle."
He bursts into laughter. "That's it! Ha ha ha! You're going down!" He tackles Tuck and tickles him right back. "Tickle, tickle, tickle!"
"What are you guys doing?" Jenny asks in confusion as she and Amy are standing nearby, having seen the whole thing.
They glance at each other and then look at the two. "Tickle fight!" The two start tickling them and Amy laughs, trying to push Tuck away.
"You guys!" She exclaims in laughter, though Jenny doesn't laugh.
"I don't understand," The robot just looks confused. "What's tickle?"
They slowly stop at her question. "What's tickle?"
"This is tickle! This is tickle! This is tickle!" Tuck chortles, getting a little carried away.
"Psst! Guys, robot teenager, remember?" Amy whispers to them, a bit annoyed.
"Wait a second, Tuck," Brad stops his brother by pulling him away from Jenny. "I really don't think Jenny knows what being ticklish is." She looks down at her hands sadly, since...she's a robot, she can't feel anything.
"Oh...well, it's simple. It's the funny feeling you get inside when someone pinches you a lot." Amy facepalms at Tuck's explanation as Jenny pinches her robotic arm.
"Feeling?"
"Uhh, it's like the feeling of taking a bushel of dandelions and jamming them in your mouth," He tries another approach. "It's that funny feeling you get inside."
"Ew," Amy sticks out her tongue at hearing this. "Don't ever tell Piri about doing that."
Tuck then gasps sharply as he sees Jenny holding a bunch of dandelions in her hands. "Like this?" She stuffs them in her mouth.
"No, spit that out!" Brad smacks her back to get her to spit the dandelions out. "Let me try to explain this," He helps her up. "You see, we humans have a sense of 'touch', which is caused by nerve endings found riiiight under the skin," He touches his thumb. "These nerves transmit a rainbow of different sensations that range from the sharpness of a pinch to the gentle caress of the wind on your face." This just confuses Jenny even more, especially as some wind touches her...and then falls flat on the ground in front of her feet.
"I don't know what fascinates me more, the fact that you gave an accurate description of touch when you barely pay attention in class, or the fact that I just saw that," Amy points to the fallen wind.
"Wow, well, I guess it isn't so great being a teenage robot if you can't feel," He then points up at his friend. "You've got no feelings! You've got no feelings!" Brad smacks the back of his head to get him to stop. "Doh! Hey..." He rubs the back of his neck.
"See, that's the downside to feeling: pain," Brad adds in.
"So I guess it isn't so great to feel," Jenny points out.
"Eh, whatever," The boy shrugs at his friend.
"I think what he should tell you is that there's pros and there's cons to being able to feel. Physically, it's great to touch stuff, but emotionally and physically...ehh, yeah, that can sometimes suck," Amy crosses her arms.
"Tickle fight!" The two boys exclaim, falling onto the ground.
"Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle!"
Jenny just watches sadly as she wants to experience being tickled. She walks away forlornly and Amy gives the two a look of disbelief.
"And there's also the fact of feeling like sometimes your friends are useless at sympathy," She remarks, chasing after the robot. "Jen!" The robot stops as Amy catches up with her. "I'm sorry that you can't touch things...maybe your mom could help you out somehow? If she could create amazing robots like you, then I'm sure she'll build you something so that you know how to feel."
"Thanks, Amy. I'll try," Jenny smiles weakly and Amy waves as she watches her friend go home.
"I just hope that it doesn't involve creepy exo-skins," She murmurs to herself, shuddering as she walks back to her own house.
A lightbulb turns on and Dr. Wakeman examines it in awe. "Oooh, fascinating," She starts writing down in her notes.
"Mom," The woman flinches as she hears Jenny, who's standing right behind her. "Why don't I have nerve endings?"
"I did start to develop some, but they only worked on two settings: ticklish and pain," She grasps her pencil a bit, writing again in the notebook. "Not very helpful for a crime-fighting robot, so I shelved them. In fact, they're on the shelf right behind you."
Jenny turns around to see the nerve endings in a box. "They're beautiful...can I put them on?"
"Don't be ridiculous, XJ9," Dr. Wakeman dismisses the question.
"But it would help me better understand the...uh...human condition," The robot tries to reason with her mother.
"I said no, young lady!" The lightbulb dings again, and it's enough to distract the woman as she turns away.
"So I'll just be putting them back, then!" Jenny slowly tiptoes away from her mother, still holding the box.
"That's fine, dear," She murmurs, gasping at the lightbulb yet again. "Ooh!"
Some whirring occurs in the girls' bathroom at school, all of them concerned as they stare at one person, which would be Jenny putting on the nerve endings. She had put them on using a drill that she asked to borrow from wood shop. "Say, would you mind turning my dial to tickle?" She asks a girl, who does so. "Now give me a pinch!"
"Ew, no!" The girl walks off.
"Brad, Amy!" Jenny dashes over to the two, Brad flinching as he sees her. Amy yelps in surprise, dropping all of her books onto the ground. "Check it out. I've got my new robotic nerve endings. I can feel. Here, give me a tickle."
The two glance at each other as Amy bends down to pick up her books, shaking her head no. This was already weird enough for her. Brad slowly touches one of her nerve endings and she giggles. "Again." He touches it and she laughs. "Another." Amy turns away, still weirded out by Jenny's reaction, as she's enjoying this a little too much... "One more, one more." Once he does, she ends up laughing so hard she falls to the ground. Amy stands up slowly, staring down at the robot.
"...All right, this is getting weird," Brad says to her. "I'm out of here," He walks past Amy, who stares after him baffled.
"This just now is getting weird to you? You couldn't have said that like 30 seconds ago?" She comments as she gestures to Jenny, who gets approached by two other girls.
"Only a geek would have that much fun in school."
She gives a wide-eyed look and once the girls leave, Amy helps her up. "Uh, not exactly new if you can't control yourself. Is that the only thing you can feel with those?"
"Well, no, it's two settings. One for tickle, the other one for pain. My mom started working on these before she stopped because of it," Jenny explains to the brunette, who pinches her nose.
"Barring from the...why you felt the need to wear them if there's only two settings, are you sure you can get through school today if all those nodes can trigger those feelings? It's not like you can hide it, either. We have a test, Jen," Amy hugs her books close to her chest.
"I'll be fine," Jenny waves it off. "I can hold back on those feelings for the test. I can just answer them really quickly."
"You're not wrong, but maybe you oughta take them off for class."
"No! I wanna feel like you do," Jenny gestures to Amy, who shakes her head.
"Then ask yourself is this all really worth it for the rest of your life?" Amy gestures to the nodes, the bell ringing for class to start. "Alright, let's get this test over with..." She grabs Jenny's hand, which triggers the nerve ending and sends her laughing again. Amy gives her a blank look and turns around to leave. "Nope, I can't do this, I'll see you in class."
"Students," The teacher starts off as they have a mid-term exam today. "Uh, today's scores count for most of your, uh, grade this semester. So no talking! And begin!"
Jenny picks up her pencil and because of the nerve endings, she starts giggling. Amy places a hand on her forehead in disbelief behind Jenny. The teacher clears her throat and Jenny frowns, sinking in her seat. "Sorry. I'd better switch off the giggles," She tries to reach for the dial and then sighs in exasperation as she can't reach. She then watches the teacher, leaning in towards Sheldon to her right. "Sheldon."
"Oh, hey, there, Jenny," He whispers to her.
"Taking a test," Amy whispers back to them.
"It'll only be a second," Jenny tells her, pointing to her back. "Sheldon, would you turn the knob on my back?"
"Boy, would I!" He exclaims loudly to the point where both the robot and Amy have to shush him. The robot groans as she hasn't started yet.
"What?" He turns to Amy cluelessly, who slowly shakes her head.
"Hurry up and just turn it." Sheldon reaches out and switches it from tickles...to pain. "Thanks, Sheldon." She laughs nervously as she looks at the teacher, who looks suspicious of Jenny. She starts doing her test as a fly buzzes around and then it touches the top of her pigtail. "OW!" She exclaims loudly to the point where everyone stops.
"Jennifer, one more peep, and I will fail you!" The teacher warns her.
"I'll be good," Jenny shrinks a bit in her seat.
"See that you are," The woman crosses her arms.
"Man, pain really hurts," Jenny touches the top of her pigtail. Amy leans in a bit from her seat.
"Isn't there an off mode?" She whispers quietly.
"Do you see one? That'd really help," The robot whispers back and Amy inspects her back...to see that for some reason, there's no off mode. "Amy? Amy?" The brunette awkwardly sinks into her seat and says nothing, going back to her test and having her head down.
Someone next to her snaps his pencil, looking at the broken tip. "Aw, man. Hey, Jenny, would you have an extra..." While tapping her to see if she has a pencil, he triggers her nerve ending.
"Ow!" She shakes in pain holding her arm. She groans as she plants her head into the desk.
"Jeez, sorry, I'll get my own pencil," He grumbles and Amy tosses him a pencil.
"There, now do your test," She tells him as she doesn't think Jenny can get through this on her own. "Jen, just take the things off, you're gonna make things worse."
"Ma'am, can I use the rest-"
"I said no talking!" The teacher interrupts, both her and Amy recoiling back in alarm. Jenny sighs and gives herself a small pep talk.
"I can get through this. I just need to find my center...B, C, A, D, A, B, B, A, A, D, C, A, D." Amy pays attention to her own test, tuning Jenny out while someone is listening to her to cheat. "B, A, D, C, A, B, D."
"Hey, slow down, brainiac. I can't copy that fast," The student murmurs to himself, causing Amy to look up.
"Good!" She whispers in annoyance, looking to Jenny. "Jen, stop talking to yourself."
"D, B, A, B, D, B." While Jenny is still marking her answers, the same fly from before comes in. She glances around, alert as she listens for it. She gasps as the bug is on her desk. She raises a hand and Amy looks up, waving her hands in alarm.
"Wait, Jen, don-"
Jenny smacks the fly anyway, wailing loudly in pain as she stands up, knocking everything over. "Ahh-ah?" The cheater murmurs in confusion. "Oh, she must mean A, A, A, A, A."
"Well, at least he won't get a passing grade," Amy murmurs at him before standing up and bending down to Jenny. "Jen, it's okay. It's just the nerve endings!" She reaches out to help Jenny up, but accidentally makes it worse.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry," Amy winces and then they both freeze, looking up.
"Uh-oh," They murmur in unison as the teacher is standing over them, and she doesn't look happy with either of them. She holds up both of their papers, showing Fs for the both of them. Jenny's test falls on her face. "Oww!"
"Great..." Amy groans while looking at her paper. People glance down at them while walking past, and she sits up while holding her head.
"See you tomorrow...Jenny," Sheldon waves in a flirty way to the robot, Amy rolling her eyes. He then blows a kiss, a small heart coming from it. He blows it over to Jenny...and as soon as it touches her, she falls over in pain.
"Gee, thanks, Sheldon," Amy remarks in annoyance, pinching her nose.
Later on that day, loud booming footsteps are heard, and someone walks up to a few buff men working out at a gym. "Thou calleth yourselves men, playing with those tinkertoys?" A guy with a drastic tan and buff arms and tall asks them. He just chuckles at them as he finds them pathetic.
"And who are you to scoff at us while wearing a dress?" One of them retorts back, causing the man to growl while gritting his teeth.
"It's a toga...! I'll show you whoeth you're dealing with," He blows a gust of wind into his nose, causing everything around to fly over to him, including all the dumbbells the trio are holding. He then spits out discs at them, and they flinch, ducking their heads. They turn around to see that he had carved his name into a brick wall.
"Himcules?"
"That's right—Himcules," Himcules introduces himself boastfully. "Ten times the man Hercules was," He flexes his muscles. "I am, how you say, muy macho. Now, form a sewing circle!" The three shake in fear, doing exactly as told. "Yes, the pain of your humiliation gives me much pleasure and increases my already prodigious power," Himcules brags, flexing his arms once again. "Now, to profit from your pain," He steps up to a wall, making cracks in the sidewalk as he steps forward. He grips the wall...and rips it right off an office building! He tosses the wall away, everyone either shocked or scared of what just happened. "Hear me, scrawny but wealthy businessmen!" Himcules' voice booms as he speaks. "I, Himcules, command you! Giveth me all your loot!" He then poses to show off his muscles, smiling as money falls over him. He laughs mercilessly, especially since now he can use his strength for anything. "Now I will haveth the richest muscles in all of Olympus!"
As he's speaking, Jenny and Amy as Ms. Mecha land nearby in crouches. "The only place those muscles will be seen is in the prison yard," Jenny remarks and he turns around to them. He laughs, hands on his hips.
"Yeah, after we kick your butt," Amy adds in, narrowing her eyes.
"You make me laugh, little ladies!" He scoffs as they stand up, in fighting positions. "Now get back to washing the dishes and scrubbing the potatoes."
"...Oh he didn't," Amy glares at him in anger, now hating him even more.
"How 'bout we scrub that smirk off your face instead?" Jenny bites back, turning her arm into a large device with a laser in the middle. Amy brings her fists together to make them larger and to have them grow spikes on her knuckles. Jenny fires while Amy lunges forward, spinning around towards Himcules...who simply grabs the laser and absorbs it. He then punches Amy when she's close enough and she lands on the ground in front of him, groaning. He punches the road, which creates a wave that sends Amy towards Jenny. A smack is heard as they go flying and land on the ground, which touches Jenny's nerve ending. "Ow!"
Amy rubs the side of her head, looking up and watching Jenny, who holds her butt in pain and runs around. She growls as Himcules is laughing at this. She stands up, dusting herself off. "Your screams of pain only give Himcules more strength." He inhales deeply, showing a vein coming from his muscle. "See?"
"Those dumb nerve endings are only making him stronger," Amy grunts as she looks at Jenny. She sees the dial from Jenny's back. "We've gotta stick it so that she's not giving him the advantage!" She murmurs to herself.
"In fact, it's time for me to juice up," He grabs a bus, holding it over his head while someone falls over.
"Hey! I was using that bus!" The man calls out in protest.
"Feel my pain," Himcules tosses the bus to Jenny...who has no time to react and it falls on her. Amy gasps as she rushes over, looking over the flattened robot.
"Ow, cut it out! Get out of the way, Ms. Mecha!" Amy flinches in alarm as Himcules smashes the bus onto her friend again. "Ow, please stop!" He continues doing and Amy clenches her fists, rushing forward. She jumps up and kicks him in the face, sending him backwards and onto the ground. The bus falls onto Jenny, though. "Ow, ow, owwwwwwwwww!" She cries out and Amy winces at her.
"Sorry."
"Yes, yes, that's it!" Himcules shouts from the wall, standing up to be perfectly fine. "Your pain is bringing Himcules much strength!" He flexes his big muscles yet again, laughing evilly as Amy growls, going over to Jenny.
"Let's take care of this jerk!" She grumbles, reaching out to help Jenny.
"If I could just reach that switch, I'd show you some real pain," The robot declares to Himcules. Amy turns her around to see the dial herself. She grasps it and tries to switch it to tickle mode, but thanks to Himcules, it was stuck right now.
"Oh no..." She groans at this.
"You showeth a lot of spunk for little ladies. Just to show you I'm a good sport, I'll let you both bust me in the chops once," He shows his face to the both of them, who don't look as amused as he is right now. "Go 'head. Right here," He pokes his cheek.
"Nice try, but I'm not-"
"This is gonna hurt you more than it hurts me—I hope," Jenny interrupts her friend, preparing to swing.
"Wait Jen, I wouldn't-" Jenny attempts to punch the man...but she still has the pain setting on, so it doesn't hurt him, it just hurts her. She yelps in pain, hopping up and down while holding her arm. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow."
"I was trying to tell you that he's too strong for us to get a good hit on him," Amy sighs slowly at her. Which is why while she wants to slap that smirk off his face, Jenny's screams of pain are practically making him invulnerable to any of their attacks. Not to mention his smug attitude...
"Now it's my turn," He grabs a street pole while Jenny examines her hand. "Batter upeth!" He swings and knocks the both of them into the air. They hit the hall and make bricks fall off as they slide to the sidewalk. Jenny opens her eyes, frowning in pain.
"Ow..."
She flops onto the ground, Amy getting on her knees to look over her. "Jen, Jen, we gotta get up!" She tries to encourage her, but fails.
"Now, whereth was I? Oh, yeah," Himcules rips off a wall, revealing more people in it. They scream in terror at him. "As I was saying before, give me all your loot!" He shows off his muscles yet again. Jenny lies there on the ground, Amy shaking her a bit.
"Jenny!"
Jenny opens her eyes, sitting up to see a girl with a lollipop in front of them. "Little girl, you gotta help me!" Jenny exclaims rapidly, Amy blinking in disbelief. "I was created without the ability to feel, so I stole some undeveloped sensors and put them on without my mom knowing. But they only work on two settings, and that jerk Himcules keeps beating us up." She turns around to face her back towards the girl, who says nothing. "So could you please set me back to tickle?"
"Jen, was all that really-"
The girl does as told, Amy blinking that the girl would blindly do that without thinking. "Thanks, kid. Come on, Ms. Mecha!" She speeds off and Amy waves at her.
"Thanks for the help!" She flies after Jenny, the little girl walking off.
"Whatever, freaks..." She mutters to herself.
Meanwhile, Himcules is laughing boastfully while money falls over him from the people handing over their loot. "Hey, Himcules!" Jenny and Amy come to a stop behind him across from the road. "With all that cash, you can buy yourself a new dress."
Amy chuckles in awe, covering her mouth at the insult. "Good one."
Himcules snarls at this, turning around and tossing bags of money to the both of them. "It's a toga!" He shouts in anger, Amy ducking as the bag explodes while touching Jenny. She giggles thanks to the nerve endings. "Now you're laughing? Laugh at this," He picks a car, tosses it, and Jenny continues giggling as she slices the car in half. Amy smiles at her friend, Himcules grabbing a hot dog cart. "Stop...laughing...at..." He groans after tossing a mailbox as he grabs an entire building. "Me!" He tosses it right out of its foundation, Jenny still giggling. The cart and mailbox split in half from her head. And when the building falls on her, it still splits in half, Amy perfectly fine thanks to the armor. And none of these objects have any pain effects on Jenny as she keeps laughing. Amy starts giggling too as she finds it contagious.
Himcules growls at them. "Hey. Macho man Himcules is getting beat by girls," A bystander points out. Everyone starts laughing now at this. "Hey...cut it out," Himcules frowns at them, the three guys he terrified earlier laughing as well.
"I guess he isn't so tough. Heh heh. Ooh, I dropped a stitch."
"Stop laughing at me!" Himcules whimpers as he feels humilated, falling onto his knees. He looks at his muscled arms, which start to lose their strength. "My powers! Aaaah! Oh, no!" He then shrinks down to size to being really skinny and small. "Ah, great, reduced to a 90-pound weakling," He puts his glasses on.
"Oh, Himcules," Jenny and Amy walk up to him. "It's not the size of your muscles that matters, it's the size of your heart," The robot gestures to herself. Amy just scoffs a bit since the guy terrorizing a town...was just a smaller guy.
"Ah, gee, thanks. You know, you're pretty cool—I mean, for a girl," He adjusts his glasses, both the robot and Amy baffled by his statement.
"That's it," Jenny declares as she and Amy bring out the fists. "Batter up!" Together, they both punch him into a prison cell.
"That was satisfying," Amy smiles proudly, hands on her hips. She then looks to Jenny, who giggles again.
"That tickled!"
"Okay, we gotta get those things off you before this kind of thing happens again," Amy pushes Jenny down the street, the robot still giggling along the way.
"Amy, you're tickling me!"
"Oh boy," The brunette rolls her eyes.
"Hey, Jenny, what happened to your new nerve endings?" Brad wonders the next day as Jenny comes to school without them on.
"Mom busted me and took them off," Jenny looks away in annoyance. It was more so that Amy brought her back home that day so that Dr. Wakeman could take them off her. To Amy, it was for Jenny's own good...
"Well, they were a little primitive," Brad points out. "You'll probably feel better without them," He walks off and bumps into Amy.
"Dude," She hisses to him and he's confused.
"What?"
"Ugh," She looks away as he didn't know that he was probably being insensitive.
"Yeah, you're right," Jenny looks around as no one is watching her. She holds up her arm to reveal one nerve ending that her mom missed. She touches it and starts laughing. Amy shakes her head with a smile, deciding to let her keep it as it's in a place that no one could touch while she's in control of her body. And another plus, it wasn't gonna interrupt class or interfere with her crime-fighting, so she's okay with Jenny having this one.