Chapter 3- Life goes wrong

(Two weeks later)

Throughout the next couple of days Tessa began to realize that perhaps Steven's mood wasn't going to go away. In fact, the more days that past he seemed to get worse! He also seemed to regard their mother with some sort of contempt.
Tessa tried to ignore the craziness that seemed to go over her brother, she kept repeating to herself that it would go away…But then he started disappearing for hours at a time!

"He has some project he's working on; I just wish I knew what it was!" Tessa said to her best friend Rose as they walked home, stacks of books in their arms.
Rose nodded, "You could always fallow him," she offered in her usual misty voice. Rose was rather tall with jet black hair; her face was a beautiful mix of her mother's and father's.
Tessa shrugged off the idea, "No, that doesn't seem right…" she mumbled. Rose looked at the sky, suddenly lost in thought.

Tessa went silent; she knew that there was no point in talking to Rose when she was like this. She didn't mind, she loved spending time with Rose when she wasn't lost in thought, so it was kind of worth it.

Tessa was taken out of her own thoughts at the sound of screams, a loud bang echoed across the entire town!
People ran past her screaming, some grabbing at her arm to get her to move with them. But with her super strength they couldn't do it and abandoned her. Tessa dropped her books at the next sight to catch her eye, it was a robot.
And not some tiny helpful little robot like Bastian! This giant metal beast was about the size of the tallest building in town, with four sets of thick legs that crushed concrete with each step of its giant feet. It had a huge dome like head, and its body had two enormous hooks coming from the location of where its collar bones would have been.

"I am looking for WordGirl!" called an all too familiar voice.
Rose looked at Tessa with a horrified expression, "Steven?" she mouthed. Tessa couldn't believe it, it had to be someone else! How could Steven had created something that amazing and huge?!
The screams persisted, people kept running, WordGirl wasn't there yet.

"MOM!" he shouted.
Tessa stepped back as the shout echoed across the entire town, her hand flinging towards the warm grasp of her best friend.
She felt relief flood through her at the sight of her mother finally arriving, "Steven!" she said sharply, Tessa was thankful to be able to hear the conversation that fallowed.

"Ah, hello mother," Steven said, Tessa could practically hear the smirk in his voice.
"Steven, what's going on? Is something wrong?" Becky asked, perhaps hoping that Steven hadn't lost his mind like Tessa imagined that he had.
"Oh, nothing's wrong," Steven sighed.

"Tessa, what's going on?" Patrick shouted (though he really didn't need to) as he ran up to the two friends. Miss McCallistar didn't respond, she only swallowed.
The young boy turned around to face the robot, "The voice in there sounds like Steven…Why did he call WordGirl his mom?"
Tessa couldn't react, she was too in shock. Steven was only eleven years old! (they were twins) How could he have done something like this?
Perhaps she was misunderstanding the situation but it seemed like he was trying to be a villain!

"Steven, get down from there and we can talk!" WordGirl implored.
"Talk? So now you want to talk to me? I thought the only way I could learn anything was by listening through a doorway!" Steven shouted, "About your past, about just how extraordinary Tessa is and how ordinary I am!"
Becky looked taken aback, "Stevie-"
"No mom it's time to listen," Steven hissed, "It didn't take me long to realize that the only way to get power is to eliminate people that are stronger then you," he seemed resigned to something and Tessa felt her heart squeeze.
How could he have created so much hate in such a short time?

"I don't want to kill you mom," now he sounded tearful, his breathing was quick like he was hyperventilating, "But I can eliminate your power!"
There was a pause then, the air around Tessa seemed to buzz. Then there was a small seemingly insignificant beep and then the claws that Tessa had noticed earlier shot out.
One missed WordGirl completely, but the other reached its mark and it wrapped its metal jaws around her body.

The only thing Tessa could tell was that her mother was in great agony, she was screaming, and her body had gone rather rigid.
Steven had gone silent as this happened, except for what appeared to be him sniffling. Was he crying? Tessa didn't care, the only thing she cared about was rescuing her mother!

"Mom!" she shouted, flying into the air and towards the giant robot.
"Tessa!" Cried both Patrick and Rose, they ran after her. Being true friends they didn't stop to harp on her sudden ability to fly, instead they wanted to go help her!
Tessa flew faster as the claw released her mother and she dropped to the pavement. The young girl landed by her mother's side, "Mom, mom can you hear me?" she yelped.

"Good, good this is good," Steven said, "Alright Tessa, guess who's next!"
The claws which had been pulled back into their holders shot out again straight towards the young girl, Tessa had no way of escaping in time!
That is of course, she wouldn't have been able escape had it not been for a stranger which grabbed her and pulled her out of the way before the claws could grab her!

Tessa's eyes were closed, she couldn't breathe. She could tell that whoever had her was running, she was tucked next to a thin body, "Come on you two!" came a high voice from the person holding her.
"What's going on?" cried Rose, who was running behind.
"Don't ask me!" came Patrick's reply.

Moments later Tessa was set down, and he willed herself to open her eyes.
The man who had saved her was very thin with pale skin (everyone has pale skin it seemed) and a pair of handsome brown eyes. His hair was white, cut short, and combed back.
He looked tired, which perhaps made him look older then he actually was. "Who are you? What's going on?" Tessa asked rather tearfully.
She couldn't quite grasp how sudden this had all happened, one moment she was enjoying a nice day with her best friend.

The next, her mother was on the ground perhaps dead, and Steven trashing the entire town in a giant killer robot!
"Hush, it's ok. My name is Doctor Steven Boxlietner and you're going to fix this all!"

This is kind of dark 0-0
Yay the Doc! He's by far my favorite character in WordGirl so I had to bring him in.

Please review!