It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. A young boy was walking home from the park with his metal dog, Goddard.
"I can't wait to start work on that regenerative candy bar idea for Carl," Jimmy Neutron mused to his robotic pet. Goddard barked his usual metallic bark. Jimmy grinned happily as he walked up to his front door.
"I hope mom doesn't mind me researching with the stuff in the kitchen," Jimmy muttered to the dog as he walked into the house. Goddard scanned the house suspiciously as Jimmy calmly walked straight into the kitchen.
The ten year old froze as he saw his mother and father tied to chairs in the kitchen and a group of four people in dark clothes with black cloth masks covering their faces and a buff man with blonde hair and a ski mask. Goddard wandered into the room and growled at the intruders.
"Call off your robot or things are gonna get unpleasant," the blonde man snarled in warning.
"Well, personally things are already unpleasant. It would be more threatening if you threatened to make things more dangerous or more unpleasant," Jimmy corrected before blinking as he realised what he had done. Two of the black clad people grabbed his gagged parents and placed guns to their heads.
"Call off the mutt or we kill your parents," the man growled angrily. Jimmy gulped fearfully and nodded.
"Goddard, stop," Jimmy ordered, swallowing the dryness in his throat.
Goddard stopped growling but instead began recording the interaction. The blonde man nodded in approval.
"You are going to come with us, quietly," the man commanded.
"Why?" Jimmy inquired softly.
"Because if you don't we'll kill your parents," the man gritted out. Jimmy shook his head and held his hands up quickly to appease the group.
"No-no that's not what I meant. I meant why do you want me to go with you?" Jimmy amended.
"Because we require your services. Does it matter?! Either come with us or become an orphan. That simple," the man answered sharply. Jimmy nodded in understanding. These men were brutes, dangerous brutes that were threatening his parents. He had to be careful.
"If you need me to make something for you, I'll need tools. May I get them from the basement?" Jimmy requested carefully. The blonde man tilted his head slightly in thought.
"We have tools where you're going," the man retorted.
"I'm used to my own tools. And I have tweaked some of them to improve their performance. I'd assume that whatever you require from me would be best done as quickly as possible. Surely allowing me to get my tools would be the best option," Jimmy reasoned. The blonde man huffed impatiently.
"Fine kid. Get your precious tools if they mean so much," he grumbled. Jimmy gave a quick grateful smile and rushed out of the kitchen towards the traditional entrance of the basement, he didn't want these people knowing about the secret access hatches in his room or clubhouse, giving the blonde man and the one black clad person that followed him a quick glance.
Jimmy walked down the stairs and turned on the light, he wanted the lab to look as unassuming as possible. If he could get these kidnappers to take him less seriously he might be able to escape. However he couldn't exactly hide all his inventions ranging from a rocket to a functioning time machine.
"Grab your tools kid," the blonde man prompted. Jimmy nodded fearfully and ducked under the computer counter. He quickly reworked the wires to emit a distress signal and then came out.
"Huh? Not there," he called loudly. He rushed across the lab to where he kept a new project, a life-sized robotic version of one of the cartoon characters Sheen loved. He slipped behind it and rapidly unclipped the panel and twisted together a few wires, biting back a soft yelp as his fingers were singed by a spark.
"Not there either? I know where I put them," Jimmy exclaimed unconvincingly. He had never been a good actor. Jimmy rushed to the other side of the lab and counted the seconds until the robot booted up.
Jimmy ducked down behind a workbench laden down with old projects and a couple of notebooks, filled with blueprints for future ideas.
"Kid! This is getting annoying. Quite stalling and grab the to-!" the blonde shouted but was interrupted by the robot shuddering to life. The black clad person leapt forward and Jimmy watched in dismay as the kidnapper completely destroyed the robot. The blonde man stomped over to the workbench and yanked the boy out by the back of his shirt.
"Enough! You'll have to manage with our tools," the man snarled angrily. Jimmy flinched fearfully, dreading what would happen now that his robot plan had failed.
Both kidnappers returned to the kitchen and Jimmy's parents cried out in fear as they saw their son in the blonde man's grasp, muffled by their gags.
"We're leaving," the blonde declared. Jimmy couldn't stop himself.
"No! Mom! Dad! No! Put me down!" Jimmy yelled in a panic and struggled uselessly, he could feel foolish later. Goddard ran forward to help but one of the people in black fired a gun at the robot.
"Goddard!" Jimmy screamed as the dog exploded.
"Next will be your parents. Now, shut up!" the blonde hissed in Jimmy's ear. Jimmy clamped his mouth shut and nodded. Without another word, the blonde man carried Jimmy out of the house and the four black clad people followed. Hugh Neutron tried to free himself and only achieved falling over with the chair sideways. The sound of a car told the parents that Jimmy had been taken and they wouldn't be able to catch up. Judy Neutron began to cry, loud heaving sobs escaping her gag.
In the thick silence that followed, punctuated with loud sobs, Goddard's pieces trembled and flew back together. Hugh blinked as the robotic dog barked and ran to Judy, a laser morphing out of its head to cut the ropes tying her to the chair. Judy tore away the gag and buried her face in her hands. Goddard then went to Hugh and freed him.
"Good dog," Hugh praised as he got to his feet and wrapped his arms around his wife to comfort her.
"Now now, Jimmy's a smart kid Judy. He'll be alright," Hugh muttered.
Within thirty minutes, both parents had called the police and were sitting in the kitchen, sipping cups of tea as they waited for the police to get to the house. However when they answered a knock on the door, they certainly weren't expecting to see a group of teenagers. A boy in bright coloured clothes and a cape, Robin, partner to Gotham's Batman. A girl with long black hair wearing a suit, Zatanna. A green skinned girl with long red hair, Miss Martian. A tall boy with a Superman shirt, Superboy.
"We received a distress beacon from this house. Are we too late to help?" Robin explained with a worried frown, seeing that both adults were distraught.
"Distress beacon?" Judy repeated in confusion. The teens nodded in confirmation. Hugh snapped his fingers.
"Jimmy! He was in his lab. He must have sent the signal," the man realised.
"Who's Jimmy?" Miss Martian wondered.
"Our son. He's a genius," Judy answered. All four teens raised doubtful eyebrows. "No, he really is. He has an IQ of 210. He has a lab in the basement," Hugh added. The teenagers blinked in surprise.
"What happened then? Why did he send out a distress call?" Zatanna asked.
"He was kidnapped. We were held at gunpoint and bound to chairs," Judy replied with a soft sob.
"Did you see their faces?" Robin inquired. The four teens knew this was a job for the police, but since they were there, they might as well look into the matter.
"No. They wore masks," Hugh admitted sadly. Goddard wandered over to the door and barked at the teens.
"What's that?" Superboy remarked.
"Oh, that's Goddard. Our son made him because we said no to getting a real dog. Goddard cut us free," Judy explained.
Goddard barked again and morphed to show a screen in his chest. The screen flickered with a jagged line which moved as a voice was replayed for the teens.
"You are going to come with us, quietly," the voice repeated.
"Sportsmaster," Robin whispered in recognition.
"You know who they are! Can you find our son?" Judy requested with desperate excitement. Robin glanced at the others on his team.
"We'll do our very best. You have our word," Robin confirmed before the teens walked into the house to look for clues.
Any ideas why Jimmy was kidnapped?
Other than Sportsmaster, do you know who the other kidnappers were?
I'll be honest, I tried to watch Jimmy Neutron so I could study the characters but I couldn't get into the show. I know Jimmy might be a little different but I tried to keep him as close as possible to the show's interpretation.
Let me know what you guys think of the story so far.
Until the next chapter.
