Ben 10 and Monster High belong to their rightful owners
Grammar issues ahead
ELECTRIC FEELINGS
Frankie was staring at her shoes, trying to stay calm and steady, but it was difficult as in front of her were her parents, scolding her for something that, in her eyes, was not wrong.
"I can't believe you lied to us!" her mother exclaimed loudly, causing Frankie to cringe in place. The young woman was sitting on her living room couch with her purse next to her. "You told us that car was a gift from Cleo! It was obvious that was a lie! How could I be so stupid!?" the woman massaged the bridge of her nose, ashamed of herself for believing in something like that.
"We are very disappointed in you Frankie." Her father added. "It seems we've given you too much freedom."
"But what's wrong with it?" questioned the young woman. "It's just a gift."
"There's a lot wrong with it!" her mother replied, raising her voice again. "Do you have any idea what this sort of thing might entail!?"
The young woman wanted to answer her mother.
No, she did not know what that might entail, she was created and at sixteen days old she was released to the terrifying place known as high school, many things were still unknown to her.
"The worst part is that he's a human! I really can't believe it."
Hearing this, the young woman looked wide-eyed at her mother. The woman covered her face with one hand as she denied slightly, her father looked at her disapprovingly, as if disappointed in her.
Why did her mother say something like that? Was it so wrong for her to associate with a human? They always interacted with humans. They taught at a human university, but she couldn't even be friends with one?
"It's amazing that I had to find out this way!" Viveka waved that ICoffin on which the Ghostly Gossip was on. "By one of my students!"
"Frankie, you told your mother that car was a gift." Her father folded his arms, giving her a very serious look.
"But it was a gift!" she exclaimed in despair. "Cleo ..."
"Cleo, of course, she did! She'd be tied up in this! I knew she'd be a bad influence, she's just like her big sister!" Frankie looked at her mother in surprise. "What surprises me that you would bring Clawdeen into this! Werewolves rarely lie, you trying to hide it!"
"We're not only disappointed, Frankie, we're also worried." Her father's words confused her. Worried? Why would they be so worried? "Do you even know how humans treat monsters?"
"W-well I..."
"No! You don't!" interrupted Viktor. "You're too young and you're still too reckless!"
"They will judge you, Frankie, for being who you are, for being the way you are. You must understand, we're worried about you! We don't even know who that kid is or how he got that car!"
For a few moments, the room of the house was silent. None of the three said anything. The two adults looked with disappointment at their daughter, who had a very confused expression.
The girl's mind was a jumble of thoughts. Why did her parents say such things? They... They were always dealing with humans! And besides, she read in her magazines that she should be who she was and she should be proud of that! Why were her parents so intent on making her fear humans? Some were idiots, but not all were like that. Just as not all monsters were nice, some just as many were nasty.
"What does it matter if I hang out with a human?" she questioned. For the first time since that argument began, the young woman looked at her parents. Her face was adorned with a frown and her hands tightly clenched her skirt, on rare occasions she argued with her parents, usually over some discrepancies between the thoughts they had. Because of this, confronting them caused her a great deal of stress. "You guys always interact with them! You even work at a human university!"
"This is very different young lady!"
"No it isn't! You al, ways tell me that things between humans and monsters could get better if we tried! Well I'm trying!" Th,e young girl began to let out a few tears, her emotions bordering on new levels as far as frustration was concerned. "I don't understand! You all seem to have something against humans! Why!? I... I understand that they make fun of us, how we look or because we are not the same as them!" the memory of the encounter with those two nasty human boys flashed in Frankie's mind, she didn't understand why they acted like that and if she had to make a comparison, her parents were acting the same with "Ben", he looked like a human, but the person behind that disguise he was not bad, or human, after all.
"You must understand that we act this way because we care about you!" replied Viktor.
"You are no different than humans! You are judging him and you don't even know him!" the young girl couldn't stand that situation any longer and ran away. "You are just like the humans who say you will judge me for who I am!"
Her mother tried to stop her, but Frankie ran off in the direction of the stairs.
When a door slammed. Both adults knew their daughter had gone to lock herself in her room.
A weary sigh escaped Viktor's lips as he plopped down on the oversized couch and rubbed his face with one hand.
His wife joined him shortly thereafter.
The atmosphere was filled with an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds. None of them had any words to say about it. Until some tears began to roll down Viveka's cheeks.
Sniff... Sniff
At the sound of his wife sobbing, Frankenstein's monster looked at her sadly and hugged her.
"Calm down honey." Viktor mused as he tried to comfort his beloved wife. "She won't be eternally angry with us."
"That's not why I'm crying." Viveka breathed in sharply, trying to calm her emotions, but failing. "She's so... She's so beautiful and with so much potential, she's my beloved child and I would do anything for her." The woman sobbed again. "It breaks my heart that things are this way... That she has to live as we do."
The man looked down when he heard that. They were already adults, he being the one who was almost a hundred years old. They had both seen many things in the century of life they had, good things, as well as bad.
Viktor knew that, in human society, people who were different were always isolated or denigrated. He had learned that part of that human and monster essence was that they loved to feel superior.
Whether in a good or bad sense, humans feel pleasure when they feel superior to their opponents. That pleasure was the main reason for the persistence that existed when it came to discriminating against other species.
This very thing was something the monsters shared and what caused the gap between humans and monsters not to shrink in size. He could even argue that it was only getting bigger and bigger.
The last ten years were strange and difficult for everyone, especially for monsters, but it was fortunate that there was no witch hunt as in previous centuries. Still, discrimination was present, it was not uncommon to hear some idiot discriminate against monsters and call them aberrations, or for some politician to suggest that they should be ostracized.
Despite all this, Viktor was aware that there was also a good side, they no longer needed to hide, not as much at least, plus many humans considered them as part of the world and that they also deserved to live in the same society as equals.
His adored little daughter had a very small worldview, but she was somewhat right, they were judging the human without knowing him, although they had no reason to trust him either.
"Viv..." Viktor spoke to his wife in a calm loving voice. "Things are not going to go on as they are forever." The woman wiped away her tears and looked doubtfully at her husband, who continued speaking. "We've witnessed almost a century of change in the world, I'm sure everything will get better, sooner or later."
"How?" the woman questioned. "Who's going to change it?" her voice cracked slightly as she said that. The fear that her daughter would have to live through bad experiences just by being the way she was terrified her.
"I... I don't know." Viktor took a deep breath, he needed all his willpower to say more hopeful words. "I just... I just know that sooner or later, someone ..."
For a few moments, Viveka just watched her husband, who tried to appear calm, but deep down, Viktor doubted his words.
"I'll trust that." The woman breathed in and out, calming her mind and heart. "I just hope I'm still here to see it with my own eyes."
A small chuckle escaped the lips of the male monster.
"We will be," Viktor assured her. "We, The Steins, tend to live for many years."
Viveka laughed softly at those words. There were many things she had yet to tell her young daughter and her family was one of those things, but those were problems for another time.
"How about we order ice cream?" the man suggested. "Frankie loves mint chocolate chip ice cream, maybe that will calm her down."
"That's not true, that's your favorite flavor." Replied his wife.
They both shared a laugh and left the living room, unaware that the whole conversation had an unintentional spy in it.
Inside Frankie's bag, the shard that belonged to Upgrade rattled, moving inside the bottle that was its prison.
Its movement lasted a few seconds until it returned to an inert liquid.
Outside the house, Upgrade opened his only eye, his head was in the driver's seat and his gaze was directed towards his friend's home. He felt uncomfortable and with a bad taste in his mouth, despite not having one.
His intention was never to listen to all that discussion, he just wanted to know where his fragment went.
He felt guilty.
Frankie didn't deserve to be scolded for something like that. It was his carelessness that caused that situation and the worst part was that he couldn't fix it. He was stuck as an alien and although he had no problem with making himself known, he preferred to keep the number of people who knew about him to a minimum so as not to cause trouble.
He mentally recalled everything he knew so far about that world. Was the situation between humans and monsters that bad?
"At least this world doesn't have supremacist factions." He thought, remembering xenophobic factions or those that followed a dogma of racial purity and caused many people to get hurt.
A guilt-filled cyber sigh came from him. He felt guilty. His friend was punished and he made the mistake. If only he had been more careful then those photos would never have been taken. The photos themselves were a mystery because at no time did he detect the presence of a third party around him.
Yet another mystery to add to the list of all the unanswered questions he had, right behind how he ended up there and what they put in the hamburgers at McDonald's to make them so delicious.
He could no longer do anything about it. He mentally apologized to her friend and retracted her nanomachines, hiding his head again.
Other things were on his mind, such as his current situation and the lack of signs of any of his friends showing up to help him.
At dawn the next day, Frankie woke up very early after a bad night's sleep due to the argument he had with her parents and went to take a shower to try to relax his mind and body.
Hundreds of drops of warm water were falling on Frankie's body. She was removing the last traces of shampoo from her hair.
Her eyes were closed and her mind was scattered. She was still thinking about that argument, which did not end well at all.
She brought a hand to her chest and felt her heart beating. It hurt more than anything to argue with her parents, but she was sure they were being unreasonable.
He opened his eyes and looked at his hand. Her mint green skin and the sutures that held her hand and wrist together.
Frankie turned off the faucet, thus cutting off the flow of water in the shower, and moved the curtains to get out.
She approached the mirror that had the bathroom, it was fogged by the steam so she used a hand to clean the glass and the first thing she saw was the reflection of her face, soft features, smooth skin, and eyes of different colors.
She didn't look so different from a human.
The young woman observed her reflection in detail. She looked at her face and body, they were not so different from those of a human. Her mint green skin, the different parts that made up her body joined by sutures, her hair originally ebony-colored and that she dyed with white reflections like ivory, her firm and perky breasts of medium size, her flat abdomen worthy of an athlete. She looked all the way down her legs.
She was not strange, just a little different, but that was no reason to treat her badly as her parents claimed.
She remembered for a moment what happened with Draculaura, those humans who made fun of her. She didn't understand it yet, Draculaura was even more normal than her, maybe if she tanned she would pass as a normal human girl.
Once again, she questioned whether her parents' words were more right than she wished to accept.
The young woman wrapped a towel around herself and exited the bathroom, heading to her room.
There she dried off and began to get dressed. That was the last day of school, so then she was going to have the summer ahead of her to be with her friends and maybe find an answer to her doubts.
Dressed in her usual skirt and shirt, she looked for her purse but did not find it.
Confused, she tried to remember where she left it, she remembered that, after arguing with her parents, she fled to her room and spent the night locked in, so her purse must still be downstairs.
She rushed to find him, she wanted to talk to her friends, make some pre-plans and chat, as they always did.
The bag was where she left it, next to the couch. She picked it up off the floor and took a deep breath. Being at the site of the argument brought an uncomfortable feeling.
Her mother had tried to talk to her later that night, but she had pretended to be asleep. It pained her to know that her parents would not support her if she decided to be with a human.
She dismissed those thoughts and went back to her room, she didn't want to start the day with a sad expression, besides she still needed to comb her hair.
"I think my comb was in here..." Frankie opened her purse and the first thing she came across was a bottle with a black liquid in it that she recognized instantly. "I forgot this stuff was in here." She picked up the bottle and looked at it closely. The Upgrade shard. It looked like a strange jelly rather than part of an alien body.
Determined to return it to him later, she put the bottle on her nightstand and continued searching in her purse.
She felt something else. Something rectangular and she took it.
It was about that green phone that for some reason was in Upgrade's possession.
She wondered where her friend could have gotten such an object and curiously pressed the home button, turning on the screen.
Her eyes widened at the sight of the screen. The image of a human couple.
"It's... Ben Tennyson..." she whispered in confusion. Why would her friend have Ben Tennyson's phone? And more importantly, who was the girl? She looks like a human.
Many questions formulated in her mind. The reasons Upgrade would have for having such an object with him and the truth behind this boy named Ben.
For a few seconds. She pieced together some clues. The mask, the phone, the photo, the girl.
Was Upgrade Ben Tennyson? Was it possible that Upgrade was wearing the mask so he could see the girl?
Was it a secret affair that brought him to Earth in the first place?
She could imagine that, a boy, a girl, separated by how the world saw them, but secretly loving each other and...
She shook her head. Calming her teenage mind. She shouldn't jump to conclusions, maybe it all meant something else and she was overthinking it. Although she'd rather think her friend had a secret human girlfriend than that he was a thief and stole Ben Tennyson's phone.
That day her mother drove her to school. They were both silents all the way there, hardly any words had passed between them, although her mother had tried, Frankie was reluctant to speak as she was still upset.
Frankie got out of her parent's car, not bothering to say goodbye to her mother, who was driving.
The woman watched her daughter, who walked a few steps away and spoke to her before she left.
"Remember, I want you back home as soon as you get out of school." hearing that she paused for a few seconds, but then continued walking.
Viveka could only watch as her daughter crossed the school gate and mingled with other students. She knew her little girl was still angry, but she also knew that sooner or later she would understand that everything they did was to protect and care for her, they did not want her to experience that darker side the world had to offer.
For Frankie, the day went on like any other, although she had a pensive look on her face, still, she enjoyed the morning, even though she knew that after that day she was going to be punished for what she did.
She questioned whether helping Upgrade was a good idea, was it her fault that she was punished. No. It wasn't. Upgrade just wanted to help her, he wasn't to blame, the person responsible was whoever was behind the Ghostly Gossip, and also that nosy college student attending her mother's class. Who did she say it was?
"Frankie, are you okay?" the voice of one of her best friends brought her out of her thoughts. There beside her was Draculaura, looking at her with a slightly worried expression, Clawdeen was also there, though a little further away.
"Sorry, what are you saying?" she asked curtly, she was sure they were talking before she became completely self-absorbed.
"I was telling you about the party, you gonna go, right?"
"Party?" she questioned a little confused. Draculaura put in front of her ICoffin, there was a publication of that Blog so full of lies. Ghostly Gossip. For an instant, she frowned, but let out a sigh and denied. "My parents grounded me, I'm not going."
"Grounded on the first day of vacation? That sucks." Clawdeen commented as she pulled various things out of her locker. "Uhg, gross." The girl threw a smelly sock that didn't belong to her completely disgusted. "My brother again has been leaving his stuff in my locker. I'm going to beat him up."
"And why were you punished?" the vampire asked curiously.
Frankie told them about what happened, the argument they had, and about how they now believed thanks to the Ghostly Gossip that she was dating a human.
Her friends were sympathetic and annoyed with the person behind that gossip blog.
"You really can't blame them," Clawdeen commented. "Humans are idiots, there's never a shortage of brainless environmentalists trying to spray paint my fur because 'wearing fur is wrong." The young woman made quotation marks as she said that. "I'm a werewolf, I'm all fur!" she exclaimed pointing to her body.
"I don't think they're that bad, you remember my neighbor, he's nice!" added Draculaura.
"Your neighbor? The human you went out with on holidays, but never showed up for your date nights?" the werewolf woman arched an eyebrow as she said that and her vampire best friend cringed a little and smiled sheepishly. "Of course, they're not all idiots, just the vast majority."
"Werewolves are technically half-human." Commented the vampire.
"We're not, I think so..."
Frankie let out a small laugh as she heard her two best friends debate about it.
The two of them always took it upon themselves to cheer her up when her energy was low and she appreciated them very much for that.
I wouldn't trade them for the world, of that I was sure.
Her friends soon said goodbye to her, they still had to go to one last class, one of those classes with a teacher who was too demanding and who did not like any student and who, even during the last day of class, was determined to make them study. Fortunately, she was already free, unfortunately, she did not know what to do.
Her aimless walking led her to the stairs to go to the second floor of the school, those last days that place had seen many strange scenes from what she heard. She accidentally overheard three catgirls talking about "Ben", who jumped from the floor above to escape from them.
She looked up, the height was high enough that the fall could cause some damage, even in someone like her it would mean that her seams would break.
That alien was more athletic than it appeared at first glance.
The thought of him filled her with renewed curiosity. How much did she know about him? In short, he was from space, liked to watch action movies, and seemed to have a knack for getting into trouble.
"Maybe Clawdeen is right." She said quietly. Her friend insisted that they look into it, even a little, and she had two ways to do that, one was with that strange translator and the other was the phone, and both were in her purse.
She pulled out the least conspicuous and one that she could most easily explain if she was discovered, the phone.
Seeing again that image of two human boys, as far as she knew, and how they seemed to enjoy being together filled her with a little envy. Her friends, at least the ones with partners, we're always talking about them, discussing their problems, and giving each other some advice. This at some point resulted in her wanting to be a part of it and she made a boyfriend. She still regretted that decision for several reasons.
Having a partner seemed such a beautiful thing in her eyes and one of the things she had yet to experience was love. Not the love she felt for her parents and creators, real love. She read so much and watched so many romantic movies that she got an idea of what it would be like.
"If I just..." the girl let out a resigned sigh. That idea of love seemed far away at the moment.
Yes, her parents would surely let her have a boyfriend when she turns forty and stops being grounded for what happened with "Ben".
She refocused her mind on that photo, her thoughts about Upgrade and a possible human girlfriend were something she couldn't get out of her head. Did their parents know about this relationship? How would they take something like that? Did they accept it? Or was it just another case of Gnomeo and Juliet?
She could ask Upgrade, it was the logical thing to do.
Or she could keep snooping on the phone...
"Clawdeen stop influencing me!" she complained as if the werewolf woman could hear her.
A sound suddenly took her by surprise. It sounded like something hitting a metal object so she looked around for the source.
Again, she heard a metallic sound, this time louder, as if someone was pounding her fist on the lockers.
"C-Come on Manny, it's the last day, at least leave me alone today." Implored a trembling male voice.
"Oh sure, I'll be quick and let you choose, your legs or your arms?" replied another male voice, but more robust.
Frankie followed those voices to their source, finding there a scene that displeased her. One student was bothering another.
The student threatening the other was a minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and much taller than she was. He had a gold-colored nose ring and wore a rather plain outfit, consisting of a red shirt with a maze printed on it and blue jeans. His hair was sandy blond and his muscular build gave him a very intimidating look.
The other, the student who was being harassed, to her surprise was human. Black hair with the ends of his bangs dyed blond, blue eyes, and a piercing in his left eyebrow. His clothes consisted of a yellow shirt buttoned up to the neck, a vest with a green, black, and gray checkered pattern, and a blue bow tie.
Frankie for a few moments was spellbound before him.
That kid was really cute, he was like one of those kids that were in her magazines. The ones that followed a more "Nerd" fashion were adorable.
"Today is the last day, so let's make good memories." The minotaur snatched the black-rimmed glasses he wore from the young human and tossed them backward, they fell near Frankie, who picked them up.
"P-Please Manny, you don't have to bother me today." The boy tried to reason, but the bully used his words against him.
"You think I'm annoying!?" he questioned, putting his fist in front of the boy, who swallowed his words and began to quickly deny. "Maybe you want me to fix that silly Normie face of yours, right?"
"N-No! I don't..."
The bolts in Frankie's neck sparked uncontrollably due to the sudden emotions she experienced at the sight.
Almost as a reflex, she approached both students. Her usually kind and smiling face had transformed into a frown, a clear sign that she was angry.
"Hey!" the minotaur was taken by surprise when he heard Frankie's voice, who pushed him away from the human with a shove. "What do you think you're doing?" she questioned.
The anger she had built up after the argument she had with her parents and the frustration at not understanding why someone would pick on someone else just because of how they looked caused Frankie to be much more aggressive than usual.
Despite the size difference, she planted herself firmly in front of the student and pulled him by the ring he had on his nose. The pain forced him to bend over and look Frankie straight in the eye. "Are we in a kinder garden?!"
"N-No!" he responded painfully. Frankie pulled harder, causing the minotaur to groan in pain.
"Then why are you behaving like a child!?"
"I-I just..."
"I don't care! What do you think Minnie would think about this!?"
At the sound of that name, the monster's bravado disappeared completely and turned to fear.
"You're not going to tell her, right?" he asked fearfully. This caused Frankie to frown more and release an electric shock.
"Get out!" she commanded, at the same time releasing the electricity in the direction of that bully.
After being electrocuted, the bully fled the scene. Frankie didn't take her eyes off him until she was sure he actually left the scene and then looked at the human boy.
The boy looked at her with doubt and some fear, which worried Frankie. She didn't want that cute boy to be afraid of her, maybe she had gone too far? She had scared him.
Worried about what he might say, Frankie hurried to speak up.
"Is this yours?" She held out the glasses Manny had thrown, somewhat sheepishly the boy took them and put them back on.
"Thank you..." he whispered.
Frankie mentally scolded herself, it was more than obvious that this boy was afraid of her now.
She thought of some clever phrase, some witty idea that would get her out of that awkward moment, the boy was too cute, she didn't want him to be afraid of her now because of her little outburst.
"I... Thank you, for helping me." said the boy. His voice showed his embarrassment, plus it was obvious he was feeling a little fearful.
Seeing him with such a shy expression Frankie felt frozen for an instant, her heart pounded as the two exchanged glances and she mentally thanked whoever it was that he didn't run away. Those sky blue eyes made her stomach tingle and she felt the need to keep talking to him.
"Don't even mention it, I know it's hard to fit in the school." She held out her hand and he, though somewhat hesitant, accepted the greeting. "My name is Frankie."
"Jackson." He replied. "And I fit, in my locker, trash cans, you'd be surprised." Because of his nerves, the young man spoke automatically and would have felt like a fool, except that his savior wasn't paying attention to him.
"Jackson..." she repeated in a whisper, saying his name felt almost like candy to her. "That's a pretty name."
Both teenagers looked at each other. For an instant, everything seemed to slow down for Frankie. Her mind began to work, imagining her in different scenes with the boy she had just met.
Those beautiful blue eyes slightly hidden by blonde bangs, a face, although far from what she was used to, was still attractive.
Without realizing it, the young woman had been staring at him silently and the boy began to feel uncomfortable. A little confused since she was looking at him without saying anything, Jackson moved his hands nervously and pointed to his locker.
"I... I'm going to finish gathering my things."
Frankie couldn't say anything, the boy simply turned around and started to take his belongings out of the locker. She bit her lower lip, this was maybe her only chance to talk to a cute boy like him, she didn't want it to be over so fast.
Desperately she looked around for some topic of conversation, she saw the ceiling, the floor slab, even a student gathering his things from a locker being helped by green tentacles, which then pulled him inside, but nothing seemed to be a suitable topic to talk about.
She then noticed that the boy was taking some things out of his locker, many of these were artistic instruments, such as brushes, paints, pencils, even what she deduced was a folder full of drawings. This gave her an idea to talk about and she took a chance on it.
"Do you like draw?"
The boy was a little surprised to hear her and turned to look at her. The girl remained a few steps away from him, with a small smile on her face.
He hesitated a bit to answer but chose to go the simpler route and nodded. Frankie in response pointed to the drawing folder and asked.
"May I see it?" Jackson hesitated a little as if he felt embarrassed for her to see the contents of that folder. Finally, the boy handed her the object and she began to glance through it.
Several drawings were there, sketches made in pencil and others with different techniques, such as watercolors or ink. One, in particular, caught her attention, it was a blur of pastel tones. Silhouettes of children and horses were present in what she deduced was a carousel.
"Wow, this is good." She praised him with complete sincerity. "Have you been doing it for a long time?"
The boy shrugged his shoulders.
"Not really, I did it one afternoon when I went to the Riverfront last summer." Frankie hearing that let out a chuckle and shook her head.
"I mean if you've been drawing for a long time. It's a great hobby." Jackson ran a hand through his hair as he laughed a little nervously at not understanding the question correctly. "I have a hobby of sewing, it's relaxing and helps me practice for..." she pointed to the stitches in her arms and neck. "You know, in case I have an accident."
"Gosh, that skill would come in handy when my clothes get torn, which happens often."
Frankie felt that strange heartbeat again as she watched the boy laugh at her comment and again she was enraptured.
Without realizing it, they started a conversation.
She offered to help him finish gathering his things from his locker.
So, after several minutes between words and little laughs, Frankie managed to get a little closer to the boy.
The young girl felt that the bad taste in her mouth that the argument she had with her parents was disappearing, being next to that kind human was proof enough for her, not everyone was a racist idiot and she was going to show it to her parents.
"Remember Monster High, today is Cleo DeNile'sl party, do you have your partners yet? If you not, don't forget I'm only a phone call away, C.A. Cupid, mistress of the heart." Both teenagers, and the entire school, heard that female voice come out of the loudspeakers scattered throughout the building. "No doubt tonight you'll find me there and who knows, maybe the rumored DJ Hyde will show up and delight us with his mixes? oh, I'd love to dance to them with my prince... Is the mic still on!? "
Hearing that, they both stopped their conversation and looked at each other for a few moments. Frankie's bolts sparked with the nerves he began to feel and almost without thinking he blurted out a question.
"You-You...you're going with someone?"
The boy lowered his gaze and denied.
"That's one place that I'm not going to fit in." He replied. "It would be better if I just stayed in my house."
Frankie's heart clenched as she watched the boy's expression turn sad.
"Don't say that! I'm sure you'd fit in, I mean, you come to this school, don't you? You're one of us!" her words made the young man smile sheepishly.
"And you? will you go with someone?"
Frankie was about to answer, but when she focused all her attention on those blue eyes, once again her mind went blank. Why was it so complicated to look away from that boy?
Again she stared at him, which confused the young man who passed his hand in front of her face and managed to bring her back to reality.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes! I mean, no, I mean, yes I'm going, but not with anyone, I mean, yes I'm going with my friends and..." her bolts let out some sparks at her obvious nervousness. Realizing she was starting to look like a complete fool, she decided to stop dragging that conversation out and get to the point. "How about we go together?" she suggests. "That way you won't feel so out of place."
"You want to go with me?" he asked uncertainly. "You don't mind being teased about seeing you with me?"
"That's right, it's going to be fun!"
"I... I don't know, Cleo doesn't like me for... you know, I'm a human. Besides, I think you'll have more fun without me."
Frankie blinked at that. Was it so wrong for a monster and a human to be together? Why did everyone insist on making it seem unnatural and heretical?
She remembered the picture she saw on Upgrade's phone, her friend and that other girl. He was an alien and she was human, that was stranger than a monster and a human, they weren't even from the same planet.
Her brow furrowed for a few moments. Jackson was nice and very cute and she wanted to go with him.
"Who cares what anyone else says?" she replied. "I think you and I will have a lot of fun."
"You... are you serious?" she nodded. The boy's face lit up for a few moments, he was attracted to her too, despite his insecurity pushing him back. "O-okay, let's go together."
"Really!?" she exclaimed excitedly. A single second was enough for her to realize she was being too expressive, so she falsely coughed and tried to regain her composure. "I mean, great." despite that, she barely managed to hide her excitement.
"So, I'll see you at Cleo's house."
"I'll see you there." she hurried away from the place with a big smile on her face, she was to tell her friends that she had gotten her first date.
In the school's girls' restrooms, Frankie's vampire and werewolf best friends were touching up Frankie's makeup.
Unable to see her reflection, Draculaura was almost completely dependent on her friends, or luck, to be able to get her makeup right for the occasion.
Clawdeen carefully used eyeliner for
"Hold on, I'm almost done..." Draculaura squeezed her eyes shut, the sensation of the brush running across her cheeks was tickling her, still, she did her best to stay in that position. "There, with that blush your cheeks have more color, now to finish..." Clawdeen took a maroon-colored lipstick and brought it close to her friend's lips and carefully started to apply it.
Her concentration was interrupted when the bathroom door opened and a very excited Frankie Stein walked in.
"Girls!" she exclaimed.
Due to her sensitive hearing, the werewolf woman reflexively twitched, leaving behind a streak of maroon on her best friend's rosy cheeks.
Frankie excitedly approached them, intending to tell them the good news, but when she saw the vampire's face she was silent for a few moments.
"Thank you, I've been doing her makeup for the last half hour, now I have to start again." The young woman shrank in place with a nervous smile at her friend's scolding, but she was not discouraged, she was happy.
Clawdeen wiped her friend's cheek and once again began to apply her makeup, while Frankie began to tell them what it was that had her so excited.
"So, are you this overloaded because you got a date?" questioned Clawdeen, who was reapplying lipstick to her friend. "Another Hoodude?"
"No!" she replied embarrassed at the mention of that name. "He's a real boy!"
"That's great! I'm happy for you Frankie, but..." Draculaura looked at her a little confused. "You said you were grounded."
The young girl brought both hands to her head in despair, she had completely forgotten that detail, she was so focused on fantasizing about Jackson that she overlooked the small detail that her parents punished her the day before.
"What am I going to do now!?" she was filled with despair, she didn't want that cute boy to think she was an idiot for not showing up.
"Easy." Clawdeen put a hand on her shoulder to calm her and gave her a thumbs up. "I have an idea."
"Really!" she asked hopefully. "And what is it?"
"Runaway from home." Replied her friend calmly.
"What?! I can't do that!"
"Why not?" The werewolf woman questioned. "I run away sometimes, my siblings the same, it's part of growing up, ask Draculaura."
Frankie looked at the vampire, expecting her to deny that statement, but she did not.
"I ran away a few times too." This was not what Frankie expected, not from her shorter friend at least. "Dad is so old-fashioned, he always wants me to change my ways, I snuck out a few times to go to the spa." The big smile on her face said it all, she had no regrets. "Of course, you mustn't get caught."
"But I never escaped before, what should I do?"
"Well, you have someone who can help you, remember?" Clawdeen pointed upward, giving her friend the clue she needed. "Our alien friend is sure to help you."
"Do you think Upgrade like dance?" questioned Draculaura with intrigue.
Frankie for her part gave it some thought, she wasn't so sure how good an idea that was but thinking about Jackson and that this was her chance to prove to her parents that she did know how to tell things apart and that she was good at discerning humans, she was filled with a new motivation.
She would convince Upgrade to help her.
Several items belonging to Upgrade were finely arranged in front of the alien, who was sitting cross-legged in the Stein family garage. All those things were the ones inside the metal box he had built himself. Some of those items were broken or slightly burned, but for the most part, they were in decent shape.
With his arms crossed over his chest, he threw his head back and closed his eye. He tried to concentrate and remember what it was that happened moments before he woke up in the strange psychedelic-colored void.
Like a computer, he searched his memories, going back almost a week into the past.
His eye opened as he discovered something. His most recent memory before his trip between realities was talking to his parents. A mild discussion about his future and the things he was going to do, beyond his job. His mother was urging him to continue his studies, comparing him to his cousin Gwen, and although this was not to his liking, he understood what they were referring to.
The memory ended when he received a call on his phone and quickly left home leaving his parents without an answer.
He forced his mind, tried to remember something else, but his next memory was waking up inside the proto truck, alone and with a horrible headache.
"I hope Rook is okay." He was aware that his friend was not someone easy to take down. That didn't stop him from feeling worried about him or any of his other friends.
His attention turned to his belongings. Small items were inside the proto track for various reasons. Two portable consoles, magazines, comics, and a music player with a piece of tape with the word "Rook" written on it.
Upgrade took that last one and pressed the button to play the music, it was a gift given to his companion on his first Christmas on Earth, a mix of songs was there, courtesy of Kevin and him, all intending to get his alien friend more familiar with the Terran culture.
His head rocked to the rhythm of the song. For a few seconds, he felt relaxed, but insecurity assaulted him. He was trapped in a world away from home, not sure if his friends could find him or if they were okay. The feeling that something bad happened gnawed at him.
The song stopped. Upgrade had pressed the pause button and dropped his head on one of his hands.
A feeling of discomfort was circulating through his body. He had been in that other reality for a week and he still hadn't started looking for a way to return home. Being trapped as Upgrade limited his options, not to mention that the only thing he had managed to do so far was for Frankie and her parents to have an argument, which ended with the young girl crying in her room.
Maybe he should talk to Frankie about it. He wanted to apologize for the trouble he caused her. She was nice to let him stay there, he couldn't let her pay the consequences of his carelessness.
He considered the idea of introducing himself to the girl's parents for a few moments and with some sarcasm spoke aloud, imagining the situation.
"Hi, I'm your daughter's alien friend and I've been living in your garage for the last four days. By the way, I'm Ben Tennyson the guy who gave her the car and I'm the car." His right palm slapped his face and a sound of resignation came from him. "Riiiight, that sounds good."
Resigned, he began to gather his belongings, soon his friend's parents were due to return from the University so it was better to be hidden.
"Upgrade! I need your help!" the garage door was slammed hard, causing the alien to have something akin to a minor cardiac arrest and drop all the things it had lifted off the floor.
Startled by the sudden break in his calm, he turned around fearing that someone had discovered him, but found only a very shaken Frankie Stein, who was breathing with some difficulty.
"Deja vu." He thought at the similarity of that scene to one he experienced days earlier.
Upgrade was patient, waited for her friend to recover her food, and took advantage of those moments to collect her things and put them back in the metal box.
"What do you need?" He asked. His friend suddenly looked a little uncertain, as if she doubted what she was going to say.
"There's a party at Cleo's house." The young woman began.
The alien arched his eye. Was that what was so important that had her friend in such a state of agitation? Was he the odd one out, or did the young people have their priorities a bit crossed?
"I just felt like an old man..." he said to himself mentally.
He turned his attention to Frankie, who explained the whole situation. If his face were more expressive, he would undoubtedly be looking at Frankie with a look full of confusion. Really, his priorities were a bit crossed.
"And then after that, I ran back."
"No."
"What!? Why?!" questioned the girl.
"I won't help you run away from home." Upgrade folded his arms, at seventeen he was more than aware that doing something like that when one was grounded carried a lot more trouble.
"But don't you get it! I invited this cute boy and if I don't go he'll think I'm an idiot!" the voice Frankie showed that she wanted to go and that she liked that boy.
Upgrade once again denied and headed for the remains of the proto truck. Frankie was more than determined to convince him, so she followed him.
"Please! They're all going!" the young woman tried to use that excuse, but he didn't go down that easy.
"Frankie, I won't help you escape, you'll get into more trouble."
"Well, I wouldn't be in this trouble if it weren't for you!" Upgrade paused and turned to look at the girl, who was looking at him annoyed. His one eye furrowed at that and he wanted to reproach her, but guilt overcame him.
She was right, it was his fault. If he had been more careful, she wouldn't be grounded and she wouldn't be fighting with her parents.
He thought for a few moments about the whole situation. He could help her, but if her parents found out that she had run away, everything would get worse.
Seeing the pleading look on the girl's face his defenses broke down and he let out a cyber-sigh of defeat and finally raised his thumb.
Frankie was thrilled to see that she had managed to convince him and almost without thinking jumped in for a hug.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she exclaimed excitedly. Her bolts released several sparks, which terrified the alien made of nanomachines.
The girl turned away from him, a little embarrassed by his outburst of happiness and because he forgot that she was someone very dangerous to his friend's species because of her electricity.
"Well, what's your plan?" questioned the alien.
"My plan?"
"You don't have a plan, do you?"
"I thought you could help me." He replied with slight regret.
The top of Upgrade's eye turned into a straight line when he heard that.
xxx
The sound of gasps, struggles, and energy shots flooded the air. The cacophony of irregular sounds was because of the pitched battle taking place inside the Plumbers' main headquarters on Earth.
Different species faced each other only separated into two camps, the protectors of peace and the convicts.
All the chaos had only one person responsible. Doctor James A. Animo. Who very wisely had chosen not to stay close to all the main chaos and went almost unnoticed down several levels in the prison, until he felt safe enough to rest and think of some plan.
The man surveyed the surroundings carefully, it was the first time he had been in such a deep part of the facility, usually, they locked him in the upper part of the middle levels. He had heard some stories of the lower levels and the convicts held there.
Assassins, lunatics, entities with powers that in the wrong worlds could cause much, much harm.
Being in such an open space, Animo felt insecure so he advanced to some metal boxes and hid behind them, there he allowed himself to sigh in exasperation and then cover his face with both hands and scold himself aloud.
"Why do I have to accept this!?" the man scolded himself aloud as he slapped his forehead with one hand.
His outburst lasted a few seconds, but he soon shook his head and slapped his hand to force himself to keep a cool head, he was a genius geneticist, his intellect had helped him escape on several occasions, and now would be no different.
BOOM
The sound of loud explosions was heard and the man almost jumped with fright, it was more than obvious that things up there were getting too complicated, and getting out without getting shot would be very difficult. Especially with the aliens who hated humans and who managed to get some weapons after snatching them from the Plumbers.
Even with everything against him, Animo thought, there had to be a way out, some poorly closed vent, a toilet that could move, but all he saw around him were the cold white and gray walls, made of some strange alloy of materials.
Determined to escape, and as far as possible to avoid being attacked, Animo got up and continued walking. Little passed until he reached a sector with some containment cells, some were empty, a few others were with some tenant inside.
Animo approached with curiosity at the sight of an orange-colored figure dressed in tight-fitting attire.
When he rested his hand on the reinforced glass door of the cell, the cell's occupant pounced on it and bared his fangs at the villain.
Animo fell backward in surprise, dropping the plasma rifle he still carried with him, the same rifle that belonged to that Plumber who was now nothing more than a parched mummy. That creature tried to break through the door of his cell to get to the Doctor, but it was impossible.
The doctor was mentally grateful for the existence of that crystal and allowed himself to breathe and analyze that creature.
It was some kind of animal, perhaps a mammal, but he couldn't identify whether it was a canine or something else, its fur was orange and it lacked visible eyes, but it had gills on the sides of its neck, along with some black spots on its back.
The alien was quite large, surpassing animus in size and being similar to a bear, its ferocious jaws tirelessly trying to break through the glass to get to the sandwich that had just appeared before it.
Suddenly a whistling sound pierced the air, interrupting the outburst of that creature, which began to shake its head from side to side and tried to cover its head using its paws as if to avoid hearing the sound.
Dr. Animo, being the expert biologist that he was, realized instantly that the whistling sound was hurting the creature's sensitive hearing, forcing it to become docile and move away from the door in fear.
"Who are you?" when the whistling stopped, a hoarse voice was heard behind the villainous geneticist's back. Animo turned around, meeting a tall figure covered in black attire that clung to his body.
The human felt small as he stood under the gaze of the sunken red eyes that this new presence possessed.
A humanoid, possibly some kind of humanoid reptile given its scale-like skin, stood in front of Animo. Tall and with a strong body, a villain he had never had contact with before was there.
Looking at him with a critical eye, the prisoner studied the human and made a mental note of every little detail.
The sound of the nearby battle interrupted his thoughts and made him and Doctor Animo turn his face away.
"Looks like things got out of control out there." The geneticist looked at the alien, who returned his attention to him. Almost unconsciously, Animo swallowed saliva, yes, he was a villain, but his actions were based on trusting his genetically modified animals, being face to face with a villain twice his size, and looking like a total psychopath was not something he wanted to put up with. "Human, get me out of here."
Doctor Animo's expression of complete confusion was ideal for a painting. Did that prisoner want him to release him? He was a villain and he was a bit crazy, but he wasn't stupid and if he judged by appearances, that prisoner looked like someone who would use his spine to clean his teeth.
Piercing, sunken red eyes accompanied a face that was not at all friendly. A wide jaw with sharp teeth that seemed fused to his lips and gills under his cheeks. That guy was the opposite of the definition of friendliness.
"I'm sorry, but what's in it for me?" Animo tried to look calm, if there was one thing he learned from being a villain, it's that he shouldn't show all his cards on the first play, and even though that alien terrified him, that safety glass would keep him safe. "I don't even know who you are."
The alien remained impassive, folded his arms, and took a deep breath.
"My name is Khyber, I am a mercenary. Let's make a deal, if you release me, I will take you safely to the person who released you in the first place." Animo was surprised to hear him speak with complete calm and eloquence, perhaps he shouldn't judge him by his appearance as a blood-drinking barbarian. Though if it offended him that he said someone freed him, that was the case, he was able to free himself.
"You underestimate me!" the doctor's ego kicked in, eliminating his fear and planting himself firmly in front of the alien. "I'm a genius! I could have quietly walked out of that cell by myself!"
"But you didn't." Answered the alien sharply. Animo was about to answer him, but Khyber continued speaking. "I just used deductive reasoning, seeing how you showed up running here, it's possible that you were the one who started all the chaos out there, the prisoners tried to escape at first, but since their numbers didn't match the Plumbers, they tried to free more and gradually the upper floors turned into a pitched battle. You fled, given your slender build and since you are human, you would be an easy target for some species."
Animo was surprised to hear such a precise deduction, perhaps he had underestimated the intelligence of that alien, but he was not going to show confidence just for that reason.
"If I release you, what assures me that you won't attack me?" he questioned.
"I am a mercenary, I have a code, I will abide by it to my contractor until our contract is up," Khyber spoke calmly, caring little and nothing that this little human behaved in such a way towards him.
"How do you expect me to release you?" Khyber pointed a finger toward the plasma rifle Animo had dropped due to fright. "That thing? It's out of ammo." He explained. "Do you want me to beat the glass until it shatters?"
"It's a plasma rifle, it uses energy ammunition, the magazines never fully discharge or they would be useless." Khyber replied. Animo, though skeptical, decided to pick up the weapon and show it to the alien. "Turn the knob next to the trigger to the maximum and then remove the safety."
Animo followed the alien's instructions, although he was not sure what was going to happen next. Once he turned the knob to the maximum, a red light became present in the charger and began to blink, first, it was every two seconds, but little by little it was becoming more and more intermittent.
"What's wrong with it?" Animo looked up to look for Khyber, but he had turned away from the cell door as if waiting for something at a safe distance. He looked down again at the weapon in his hands and his eyes widened like saucers as he realized what was wrong.
The scientist dropped the gun by the door and walked as far away as possible.
That weapon exploded like a stick of dynamite, shattering the door lock and allowing Khyber to force it from the inside.
"Cough, cough." The human coughed at the amount of dust and smoke generated in the atmosphere and tried to disperse some with his hand so he could breathe better. "That fucker tried to trick me!"
The human kept silent when he saw the alien standing in front of him. His imposing figure generated a shadow over the thin doctor, who swallowed saliva by reflex.
Khyber narrowed his gaze, but said nothing to him, simply walked past him and continued walking.
Animo could only watch as the alien walked away, but when four meters separated them, Khyber looked over his shoulder and spoke.
"Don't hang back, I'll keep my end of the bargain."
Those were not the words Doctor Animo had expected, but he was not going to complain, so he went after him. If that mercenary improved his chances of escaping from the Plumbers' base, he would take advantage of it.
They both continued down a corridor, going into an area that Animo had not been to before, so this set off some alarms in the doctor's mind, and even though it was a risk, he decided to ask.
"Aren't we supposed to go upwards?" he questioned.
"No, we'll go towards the warehouses." Khyber pointed to the opposite side of the facility to the doctor's confusion. "One of my former employers wanted to get something from here, so I had to study the entire map in detail, all the confiscated stuff, it goes to the armory storage."
"I'm sorry, but I don't use guns, I'm a man of science."
"All the things the plumbers have confiscated are in that armory, which includes whatever you have attached to that glass dome." Khyber pointed to the section of the dome where Animo possessed two small holes. "And I'm not leaving without getting my stuff back."
Animo decided not to question his taciturn new companion and followed him silently as he seemed to be very capable and intelligent. Perhaps he could even retrieve his mutagen antennae and thus avoid the tedium of making new ones.
xxx
You know, I originally had both a note and a completely different version of this chapter written, it's amazing how everything changed.
Connecting two completely different series and not losing the essence of either is difficult, especially now that the story is just starting (or rebooting, as you want to see it) and the truth is that this chapter for the first time I focused more on the... normal part, if you know what I mean, letting see some little things and behaviors between monsters and humans, and I'm sure that more than one felt identified with that scolding of Frankie's parents. It's almost textbook.
Other than that, writing teenagers is harder than one would expect, I don't want to fill the story with Mary Sue and Gary Stu, so I've been looking for some guidance in terms of character writing. This was one of the reasons it took me so long, the other, terrible, really terrible writer's block, it's horrendous when you write and then it reads it and you realize it's garbage. Maybe I'm too critical of my writing.
Also, I'm trying to find the "tone" of the story, and I think with this chapter I'm starting to get the drift, the discussion, Frankie's thoughts, and the mistakes he makes all help to give it a bit of an odd tone, it even feels like an original story, except for the characters, places, etc.
That same "tone" has forced me... to think about certain little things, small things... and that are somewhat sensitive.
In short, there will be chapters with... "Warnings".
Also, excuse me, if anyone got excited about the "return" of the previous version, it was just me doing some testing with that story, I still don't understand how FF works and I try to see all the options and settings and I deleted the note to see if I could make changes in the order of the chapters, but it didn't come out so I left it like that.
Funny thing... that story received several new followers, amazing... maybe I should take it up again? But as a separate story more focused on humor. Uhg, better not, more work I surely won't do. Well, if any of those new guys read this, hello and I hope this "improved" version is to your liking as well.
Changing the subject, I am now free for about two or three months before I see what to do with my life so you will surely have more updates, or maybe not, I am in the process of seeing what college to go to, I have weighed in arts or philosophy, please don't make jokes that I am going to live under a bridge, I already know that.
Besides the fact that I have ideas, I lack the desire to write.
And in case anyone is wondering. That human Draculaura mention does exist and it's... Jackson. No one saw that coming, did they? Well... no one except anyone who's read the characters' journals, says so there, along with that they live next to each other, although it seems Clawdeen lives a few houses down from Draculaura, it's not specified very well. They also talk a bit about Jackson's powers, apparently at nightfall Jackson transforms into Holt, besides with music, I'm going to use that and other things about this guy that come out in the books, for example, that Jackson can draw and the musician is Holt, (Who they call DJ and here I call him as DJ Hyde, and Holt works in a disco as a DJ and nobody knows exactly who he is and by the way, he dated Operetta and she left him because he was jealous) and if anyone wonders what was that drawing that Frankie saw, in Salem, Oregon there is a Carousel, Carousel or whatever they know it as, and in the book, Jackson draws it and I took advantage of that for them to talk a little more.
That's not the only thing I got from the books, because there it also says that "some environmentalists spray-painted Clawdeen" and she complains about it and I wanted to refer to that.
There are many references to books in this chapter.
Anyway, that would be it, sorry for the delay, but holy shit, I've graduated and wanted to take a break, and then I had a horrible creative block as I told you, let's see if the next chapter comes out faster...
Spoiler, that fight in the Maul will no longer be in the Maul and will be a little bit more violent.