Author's Note: For my sake and for the sake of everyone reading this, this chapter may or may not be nearly as long as Smytus' Folly, it took me a solid 9 hours of writing on and off over the weekend until I was satisfied enough with what I had done to post it, so I apologize in advance if you're disappointed.
As for the title of this chapter, you all should have a very good idea on what this one is about later on just from the name alone, taking some liberty here and diverting from the show just a tiny bit by placing Jenny's model number "XJ-9", on the right side of her right pigtail, kinda like a serial number stamp.
I also took some liberty from the original story and tried pinning Tremorton to a state, and ultimately went with Pennsylvania, due to the snow (which rules out the obvious California) and the city being located at the end of a fault line.
Other than that, enjoy.
Chapter 4- The Mechanical Girl's Debut
The two boys divert their attention from the sky as the cluster starship disappears out of sight, seemingly satisfied enough with the sight of their would-be capturers turning tail, and place it on their new-found ally.
Lightspeed's attention stays in the clouds a few seconds longer, until the sound of Brad's voice brings him back to terra firma:
"You really saved our butts back there, thanks!" brad said, his tone practically overflowing with enthusiasm.
Lightspeed was, simply put, quite shocked at how quickly Brad had recovered from his near abduction at the hands of the Cluster, was this kind of thing a normal occurrence for him?
"I'm Brad, Brad Carbunkle, and the little guy is my brother Tuck." brad said with an overly enthusiastic tone.
Brad shoots his right arm outwards and opens his hand, as if wanting or expecting a handshake from Lightspeed.
Tuck didn't seem to be as eager to be cordial with the one who saved him from Smytus as Brad was, the best Tuck could do was absentmindedly stare, whether it was in "shock" or "awe" was impossible for Lightspeed to determine.
Despite the "one way mirror" esque transparent metal plating that made up Lightspeed's visor being nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding metal, Brad was somehow looking Lightspeed right in the eyes, possibly without even realizing it.
Lightspeed had never been a fan of direct eye contact during any conversation with anyone he wasn't very close to, as it made him rather uncomfortable, this particular instance was no exception.
Something about this unexpected eye contact caused a powerful albeit short lived chill to run down Lightspeed's spine, and it wasn't for the usual reason either, no, this was something different:
Either Brad had gotten lucky and just guessed where Lightspeed's eyes were, or there was more to him than what meets the eye, and Lightspeed couldn't shake the feeling that the latter was looking more and more possible by the second.
Aside from the peculiar four fingers compared to Lightspeed's five, Brad's hand was completely normal in every sense of the word, and yet… Lightspeed hesitated.
Lightspeed was absolutely exhausted and in pain, but as pain addled as his mind was, it was still capable of dimly understanding the concept of the fear that venturing into the unknown brought with it.
Sure, Lightspeed had traded blows with Smytus, but he was an automaton, Brad was flesh and blood, and physical contact hadn't occurred between Lightspeed and a biological organism of this dimension, who knows what could happen if they shook hands.
Whilst mulling over the possibilities of accepting Brad's handshake, Lightspeed visibly puts his right hand behind his back.
Brad's seemingly chipper mood and ram-rod straight posture significantly withers in response to Lightspeed's gesture, as if "wounded" by Lightspeed's apparent refusal to shake his hand.
"Oh, to hell with it, I've already broken the rule, there's no point in trying to adhere to it now." lightspeed silently thought to himself before shooting his right hand forwards.
Lightspeed gently accepts Brad's hand-shake, causing Brad's cheery mood and ramrod straight posture to return to him in a metaphorical "flash".
As much as Lightspeed didn't want to hurt Brad's feelings, the neurons and synapses in his mind were still alight with fear provoking thoughts of what the contact could be doing on a microscopic level to both parties.
If the hand-shake lasted much longer, Lightspeed would not be able to control his ever increasing feelings of fear, and may succumb to the increasingly overwhelming impulse to rather forcefully tear his hand out of the handshake
After what Lightspeed assumed was around 1.5 seconds of handshake, Brad breaks it off, much to Lightspeed's relief.
The sight of Lightspeed's 5 fingered right hand catches Tuck's attention causing him to break his silence with the following:
"Cool five fingered hand, you some kind of mutant or something?" tuck asked with a tone practically oozing with curiosity.
"Tuck…." brad muttered impatiently whilst glaring at Tuck out of the corner of his right eye.
Tuck's posture withers slightly in response to Brad's glare, what was Brad's deal, it was only a question.
In an attempt to ease the tension between the two brothers Lightspeed replies with the following:
"Don't worry about him, it was a genuine question that I take no offense to." lightspeed stated with a rather nonchalant tone.
Brad's glare immediately softens, and he diverts his attention back to Lightspeed.
Lightspeed felt a need to answer Tuck's question, the truth was complicated… most likely far too complicated for the little guy to understand, so he would keep his response short and simple.
Lightspeed turns towards Tuck and looks down at him and responds with:
"To answer your question Tuck, yes, I am what you would consider a mutant, but not because I have five fingers, where I come from, having five fingers per hand is considered normal."
Lightspeed turns his attention back to Brad, who momentarily looks at him with a puzzled expression on his face, before going back to his usual "happy go lucky" smile.
"What brings you to Tremorton?" brad asked rather enthusiastically.
"Tremor…ton." lightspeed replied rather quizzically.
"Yeah, Tremorton Pennsylvania, never heard of it before?"
Lightspeed had never heard of Tremorton, which made some sense considering he was in another dimension, yet, the state to the south of New York named Pennsylvania retained it's name across dimensions… how odd.
"No, never heard of it, and nothing brought me here, in truth I'm not even supposed to be here." lightspeed replied with as stoic a tone as he could muster, trying to mask his somber attitude towards his current predicament.
Brad's rather gung-ho facial expression softens before he replies with the following:
"Are you lost?" brad questioned, his voice practically overflowing with undertones of concern.
Brad's sudden tone of concern caught Lightspeed off guard, why such care and concern over a complete stranger he had just met?
Either Brad had ulterior motives and was trying to butter Lightspeed up or the small town teen had a heart of metaphorical gold, as the seconds ticked on, Lightspeed was very quickly coming to the conclusion that it was most likely the latter.
"In a way, yes." lightspeed replied rather flatly.
"Where you from, if you don't mind me asking, maybe me and Tuck could get you there?" brad asked.
Brad's offer for help, while naively optimistic, was very welcome to Lightspeed, Brad trusted him enough to give him his name and even offer him help, so Lightspeed would answer in a mostly truthful manner.
"Des Moines Iowa." lightspeed stated.
Brad scratches the back of his scalp with his right hand in response to Lightspeed's answer before saying:
"That's… way above what I can manage, but once the rain stops, Jenny will have you back there before you can blink." brad replied.
"No offense to you, or whoever this Jenny that you're mentioning is, but I'm fairly certain she'll be of no use getting me back home, if it was that simple, I'd run there myself." lightspeed replied with a shake of his armored head.
Brad slightly opens his mouth, seemingly flabbergasted at Lightspeed's statement.
"I don't get it, that's a trip of less than 1000 miles, Jenny could easily…" brad said before being cut off mid-sentence by Lightspeed:
"I'm afraid it's not that simple." lightspeed cut in with a rather somber tone.
Lightspeed had no problem with telling Brad and Tuck his city of origin, but would not be as loose lipped about his extra-dimensional nature.
Assuming the two boys believed Lightspeed in the first place, there was no way to guarantee they would keep it a secret, and even if that's not what the two boys would want, word could get out and if found out, Lightspeed could end up being studied and vivisected by scientists like some kind of lab rat.
"I'm not sure I follow." brad replied, the look of confusion still present on his face.
"What are you, some kind of interdimensional being?" tuck inquired.
Lightspeed immediately cringes and tenses up in response to Tuck's question, the little guy could be disturbingly pin-point accurate with his questions.
Lightspeed would not reply to this question, obviously he wouldn't say "yes", but he wasn't sure if he could muster up a believable enough tone to say "no", either, so he simple chose to stay silent, practically screaming internally to himself whilst waiting for this mess to hopefully blow over.
Much to Lightspeed's relief, Brad almost instantly defuses the situation by replying with:
"Yeah right, Tuck, don't be ridiculous." brad replied whilst suppressing a small chuckle and walking to Lightspeed's left hand side.
Tuck frowns and begins to pout in response to Brad shooting down the legitimacy of his question.
"Little kids and their imaginations, I'll tell you." brad joked whilst playfully jabbing at Lightspeed's left pauldron with his right elbow a few times.
"Wait…." brad said, a look of shock spreading across his face before taking a few steps back and facing Lightspeed.
"You were the thing me and Tuck found laying in the creek motionless a little while ago, how could I forget?" brad exclaimed.
An awkward few seconds of silence pass before Brad breaks it by saying:
"You weren't hurt, were you?" brad asked with a tone of guilt in his voice, slightly wincing before adding:
"If you were, I promise you we would've helped, we didn't know that the armor you're wearing was occupied, Tuck and I simply assumed it was empty." brad was quick to add.
Ever stoic, Lightspeed was always one to downplay his own suffering to not make others worry about him, Brad would be no exception.
"I was hurt and got the wind knocked out of me, so I couldn't call out for help, but I'm feeling a lot better now, got a second wind after you and Tuck disappeared out of sight." lightspeed replied with a tone he hoped was believable enough for Brad to buy, before quickly adding:
"Pesky boulders, always tripping you up when you're running at Mach 5." lightspeed was quick to add with a whimsical tone to his voice, hoping it would successfully downplay the severity of the situation.
The story of how he got injured, him feeling better now, and why he couldn't call out for help were all lies so bold and blatantly false that they would make the Devil himself blush, and yet…. Brad seemed to buy it, the look of guilt on his face almost immediately vanishing, giving way to his trademark ear to ear grin.
"Since I can't leave you out in the rain, how about you come over to my house and hang out with Tuck and I until the rain stops. I doubt my Mom would mind, what do you say?" brad asked with a rather cheery tone to his voice.
Brad's question left Lightspeed absolutely speechless, he had no idea who Lightspeed was, how old he was, and yet here he was, inviting Lightspeed, a total stranger into his very own home.
Brad was either painfully naïve, had never been taught the concept of "stranger danger" by his parents, or was a fool, perhaps even all three, and yet … Lightspeed would accept his offer.
Like a dog who needed sleep to recover from a fight, Lightspeed desperately needed some form of rest, and the muddy ground of the forest if it continued to rain would be inadequate for him to rest upon, he might end up sinking into it and disappearing like a tank in a marsh due to the sheer weight of his armor.
Sleeping on the concrete ground of whatever this "Tremorton" that Brad mentioned wouldn't be an option either, if the laws here were similar to the laws of his home dimension he would get busted for loitering, and given that he had no form of ID or identity verification on his person or armor, if he got the police called on him, he would most certainly be detained for questioning. Lightspeed had always had tremendous respect for the institution of law enforcement and would not fight it or its employees, for he was a vigilante who helped enforce it back home.
After an awkwardly long period of silence, Lightspeed replies with the following:
"Sure." lightspeed replied rather nonchalantly.
In response to Lightspeed's acceptance, Brad and Tuck immediately begin grinning ear to ear before walking away from Lightspeed, after a few feet they take a right towards another clearing.
Not needing any further explanation, Lightspeed tails them.
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The trip was fairly uneventful, consisting of the trio walking into a clearing, taking a sharp left and walking along a dirt trail till they hit a paved road, said road eventually lead into a suburb of what Lightspeed could only assume was Tremorton itself with the trio arriving at Brad's house in what could only be assumed to be 30 minutes.
Not much was said between Brad and Lightspeed during the 30 minutes besides the standard and basic small talk that accompanied adolescents socializing with a person they just met, with things like "how old are you", "what's your favorite color" and things of that nature being standard fare during the trip.
Tuck, on the other hand, metaphorically chewed his ear off, spouting a practically endless barrage of questions at Lightspeed, ranging in topic from fairly innocent ones like: "Why won't you take your armor off", to much more concerning ones such as: "if you were a serial killer, and the cops were on your tail, how would you get away from them".
Lightspeed took care to answer each one of Tuck's questions as truthfully as he could, but he rapidly began to lose his patience with the young boy's never ending barrage of questions, he had limits to his patience, and the pain he felt in his chest didn't make things easier.
Any mud that was on the clothes of the two boys and Lightspeed's armor had long since been washed away by the rain, the torrential downpour of which hadn't ceased in the slightest bit between the start of their trip and it's end.
Without any hesitation, Brad opens up the front door, allowing Lightspeed to walk in, saying the following:
"Just be sure to dry off with the towels mom left for us to your right, if Jenny can come inside without issue, that armor shouldn't be an issue for the floor or the furniture." brad said whilst holding the door.
Lightspeed walks through the entrance, stopping dead in his tracks at the welcome mat and immediately does as Brad says, taking a towel from the coat-rack to his right and patting himself down as adequately as he could.
Tucker and Brad follow suit, closing the door behind themselves and immediately start drying themselves off.
Afterwards the two boys make a break for the couch in the nearby living room, and take a seat, Lightspeed doesn't follow them and stands at the entranceway, practically rooted in place.
"Mom, a friend's over, wanna come down and say hi?!" brad yelled whilst facing the stairway.
"Not right now honey, I'm working, maybe in around 5 hours when dinner is ready!" a rather feminine and tired voice yelled back in reply from upstairs.
Brad grabs the remote from the coffee table to his left with his left hand and turns on the tv the couch is facing, before looking in Lightspeed's direction and gently patting the open spot on the couch between him and Tuck a few times with his open right hand, as if beckoning Lightspeed to come and join them.
After some hesitation, Lightspeed complies, and takes his first step forwards, accompanying said first step is the sound of the floor groaning in protest from the strain that Lightspeed's armor put on it.
Whatever or whoever this "Jenny" was, she was most likely more heavy than he was without his armor.
Without his armor, Lightspeed was no more than one hundred and sixty pounds on a day where he had a rather large meal, with his armor on however, he easily weighed in at 2 tons or more, the alloy the armor was made of had a density that put Osmium to shame.
Needless to say, if the weight of his armor didn't send him plummeting through the floor and to the basement before he made it to Brad and Tuck at the couch, it would be a miracle.
One step after another, with an audible groan to the floor that was protesting but not breaking in response to the weight placed on it, Lightspeed makes it into the living room, and takes a seat on a chair to the right of the couch Brad and Tuck are situated on, with the nervous eyes of the two boys following Lightspeed every step of the way.
As if by some miracle, the chair doesn't immediately buckle from underneath the weight of Lightspeed's armor, even when he puts his full weight on it, it doesn't so much as even sag or let out a single groan of protest… just what was this chair made of, adamantium?
Lightspeed almost instantly relaxes upon sitting in the chair, and he could quickly feel his eyes getting heavy the second he did so.
"Not willing to risk it I assume?" brad asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"I don't wanna break your couch." lightspeed replied rather flatly.
"Fair enough, I already had one couch break when Jenny came over a while back. The weight of the two of us was too much for it to handle, Mom and Dad were pissed." brad replied with a stifled chuckle.
"Speaking of which, where is your dad?" lightspeed asked, with hints of exhaustion beginning to seep into his tone of voice.
"Business trip, he should be back by around 8 PM tomorrow." brad replied before quickly adding:
"When the rain stops, Jenny might come over, you and her will probably get along like a house on fire." brad was quick to add.
Lightspeed wanted to stay up and continue the conversation, but he simply couldn't, much needed sleep was beckoning him and he simply had no choice but to heed it's inescapable call.
Lightspeed was out like a light within seconds of Brad saying "house on fire", and was visibly slumping into his seat more and more as the seconds passed.
"Lightspeed… Lightspeed…. you there?" brad called.
Tuck turns to face Brad, Brad simply replies with a shrug before saying the following:
"Must've conked out." brad stated rather nonchalantly.
"What a party pooper, want me to wake him up?" tuck asked with a visible frown on his face.
"No, let him sleep, that fight with Smytus must've taken more out of him than he let on." brad replied whilst shaking his head.
"Fine!" tuck replied.
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The inky blackness of a dreamless and deep sleep was all Lightspeed had to accompany him as he fell out of consciousness.
No sound, no light, no thoughts, just the black void of his subconscious where the flow of time itself seemed to stop.
After an indeterminate amount of time, something physical and tangible came to him out of the inky blackness….a nightmare more vivid than any Lightspeed had suffered from in a very long time.
The nightmare overcame Lightspeed's subconscious with the intensity of a punch to the stomach, taking the form of a series of violent and rapidly flashing images occurring in quick succession to paint a story, as if a movie projector was burning them into Lightspeed's retinas.
The reality that Brad, Tuck and Lightspeed found themselves in was failing as the Void's influence was bleeding into their dimension, the Void Entity had clearly breached the dimensional barrier.
Before he knew it, Brad and Tuck were ripped from Lightspeed's line of sight, and try as he might, he couldn't find them.
Without warning the series of flashing images ended, as if the film reel on the invisible film projector ran out, and before Lightspeed knew it, the floor beneath him gave way to an inky black sea of nothingness of unknowable depth.
Lightspeed was slowly sinking into this sea of blackness, like a trapped mammoth in a tar pit, and try as he might, he couldn't break free.
The contents of his newfound predicament were dissolving his armor, but not his flesh, he was falling… drowning, being smothered, and for all the might he possessed he couldn't escape… he couldn't breath… he couldn't breath… he…couldn't… breath.
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Lightspeed practically jolted awake in response to the mechanical buzzing that he was all too familiar with, to the right of his eye on the interior of his armor was the so-called "red warning light of doom" that he dreaded seeing.
The audible "pitter patter" of the rain striking the roof of the Carbunkle house-hold was completely gone as if the rain seemed to have stopped, yet there was no hint of sunlight peeking through the curtains behind Lightspeed's chair.
The internal power supply for Lightspeed's armor was dying, and rapidly.
The power supply controlled the internal climate control system that kept the suit at a comfortable 40 degrees Fahrenheit to keep him alert at all times.. and, most importantly, the suit's internal C02 scrubbers, if the power went, both would go.
Lightspeed could survive without the climate control system, sure, the inside of the suit would quickly become more humid and hot than a swamp due to the condensation of his breath mixing with his body heat, but that was livable… without the C02 scrubbers though, he would very rapidly asphyxiate.
The final part of the nightmare now made sense, it was his subconscious practically screaming at him, "get up dumbass, you can't breathe."
"Hey, sleeping beauty's up!" tuck stated with a smile.
Lightspeed had long since tuned out whatever Tuck and Brad were saying to him now that he was awake, he had to make a decision, and quickly.
Lightspeed's armor could not be recharged while in use, and could only be recharged whilst in it's "user-standby" configuration, a simple and otherwise relatively benign design flaw caused by a lack of foresight on his part, it's not like he needed power for his armor to function after all.
He would very quickly run out of air if he didn't un-form the interlocking plates that covered his head, the only problem was that by doing so, he would expose himself to whatever particulates and bacteria this dimension had to offer (assuming this dimension had air he could breath to begin with of course).
Un-forming his helmet would also expose this dimension to whatever otherwise benign bacteria he had on him that had come along for the ride, Brad and Tuck could possibly drop dead the second he took his first breath.
On the flipside, however, if he didn't open his helmet, he was going to die.
"Will Die, might die, will die, might die, WILL DIE, might die." lightspeed silently thought to himself, as if mulling over his two options and their repercussions.
The answer was obvious, Lightspeed would open his helmet.
After some hesitation, Lightspeed reaches his armored right hand behind the back of his neck and pulls a small latch with his index finger.
Almost instantly the audible sound of a mechanical "whir" grabs both Brad and Tuck's attention, causing them to go silent, much to Lightspeed's relief, he didn't need the sound of their voices interfering with his attempts to compose himself for what was coming.
The "whir" continues as the two primary interlocking plates that formed Lightspeed's helmet split apart at the seam where his forehead is, opening up like some kind of mechanical maw, exposing his scalp and forehead before coming to a stop.
These two primary plates split apart further into 4 pieces at the secondary seams that perfectly aligned with Lightspeed's nose and neck vertebra.
"Cool!" brad and Tuck replied in sync, eyes wide with fascination at the mechanical sophistication on display in front of them.
The 4 plates recess into various openings of the gorget of Lightspeed's armor, disappearing out of sight completely to reveal the appearance of a boy not much older than Brad with black hair, blue eyes, a rather pale complexion and noticeable bags under his eyes.
Within a few seconds, Lightspeed takes his first breath, practically forcing himself to do so because the normally automatic process wasn't occurring.
After his first few manual breaths and discovering that no ill effects had yet to occur, Lightspeed's internal feelings of terror began to subside enough for him to breath normally and slightly relax.
"And here I thought you had a third eye or something, Lightspeed." brad said with a small chuckle.
A small smirk appears on Lightspeed's face in response to Brad's comment.
Lightspeed knew he might be stuck in this place for quite awhile, and hearing his two friendly acquaintances refer to him by his hero alias was starting to get a bit grating.
Hiding his real name from Brad and Tuck seemed to be pointless now, the two boys had stuck their necks out for Lightspeed by giving him their real names, so it only seemed right that he would do the same.
"Please, call me John, Lightspeed is just an alias." lightspeed stated, whilst trying to manage as genuine a smile as he could in order to appear friendly.
Smiling was never one of Lightspeed's strong suits, but Brad seemed to appreciate the effort nonetheless.
"I apologize for conking out on you both, but I needed the sleep." lightspeed stated before adding:
"How long was I out?" lightspeed was quick to add.
"Just a few hours, nothing too extreme, rain stopped about 10 minutes ago, Jenny should be here any second." brad replied.
As if right on queue with what Brad just said, the door practically slams open with a "bang", causing Lightspeed and everyone else in the room to immediately turn their attention to the source of the offending noise.
From Lightspeed's angle, he couldn't see much, something or someone was standing in the doorway to his left, the only thing he could see were two light blue metallic structures shaped like scalene triangles with a curve at their longest side hovering well above an average person's head-height would be.
These two metallic scalene triangle shaped structures had what looked like miniature jet engines embedded within each of them, with a single air-intake at the peak of their height, and were both twitching and jerking about randomly as if they had a mind of their own.
Lightspeed saw something on the right side of one of the metallic structures facing him that caught his attention, stamped on said structure as clear as day, were two letters and a number, "XJ-9" in bold industrial font like that of a serial number.
"So this must be the so-called "XJ-9" that Smytus mentioned." lightspeed silently mused to himself before being snapped out of his inner thoughts by the sound of a feminine and rather high pitched voice emanating from the doorway.
"I came as fast as I could after I got your text, I am so sorry I wasn't able to save you two, the waterproof coating Mom applied literally just dried." the feminine voice said, practically letting the words tumble out of her mouth in what seemed like shame before quickly adding:
"If Smytus so much as harmed a single hair on either of your heads I swear I'll…." the feminine voice said before being cut off mid sentence by Brad:
"Jenny, relax, Tuck and I are both in one piece, besides, I think the good Samaritan that saved us from Smytus and his drones gave them more than enough trouble as is." brad interjected rather calmly.
"Jenny, you should've seen it, it was like two metallic bears fighting one another, he was an absolute brute, he absolutely shattered the metal plating that covers Smytus' chest." tuck said, his tone practically exploding with enthusiasm and excitement.
So, whoever or whatever was in the doorway was the so-called "Jenny" that the two boys wouldn't shut up about, as eager as Lightspeed was to meet her, there was also a slight bit of apprehension and paranoia gnawing at the back of his mind around the prospect of meeting her as well… could she trusted, was she manipulating the boys, would she try to manipulate him?
"Really now?" the feminine voice replied, her tone practically overflowing with doubt.
Tuck slightly shrinks into his seat in response to Jenny's reply, as if realizing that he might've struck a nerve.
"You're still my favorite because you're a lot more interesting to watch, he's all brawn and speed with no versatility." tuck replied rather nervously.
Lightspeed directs his attention to Tuck and frowns, which causes Tuck to squirm in his seat even more.
"And where is this good Samaritan now?" jenny replied, the doubt still very apparent in her voice.
"He's sitting in the living room chair about 7 feet to your right, Jenny, come inside and meet John." brad interjected whilst pointing his right index finger directly in Lightspeed's direction.
A few seconds of silence pass before Jenny breaks it by saying:
"I really hope this isn't all an elaborate prank, that text made me worried sick." jenny said.
"Come on Jen, you know perfectly well I'd never do something like that to you, you're my best friend after all." brad replied, sporting a smile as bright as a summer day.
Jenny lets out a small sigh as if accepting defeat and complies with Brad's command.
Jenny steps onto the welcome mat and enters the house, with the floor audibly "groaning" in protest to each step she takes, just like it did with Lightspeed when he entered, albeit it to a much lesser extent.
Jenny walks up to the couch, does a 180 and leans against it before locking eyes with this so-called "John" momentarily, before visually inspecting him from head to toe with a small scowl on her face, as the seconds pass the mechanical girl's scowl is slowly replaced by a look of absolute confusion and bewilderment.
This so-called "John" seemed to be returning the favor, visually inspecting her from metallic head to metallic toe with a cocked eyebrow and a slight scowl, looking more like a mechanic inspecting a broken car engine than a person, his gaze was...rather dehumanizing for her, who did he think he was?
"ANOTHER automaton!" lightspeed silently thought to himself in bewilderment at what he was seeing.
"HE saved Brad and Tuck from Smytus… how?" jenny silently thought to herself, in disbelief.
In front of Lightspeed was a feminine looking automaton that looked very close to a female human, she had porcelain white metallic skin, the metallic triangles that he had initially seen looked more like a "pig-tail" type of hairstyle than anything else, as they were bolted to left and right sides of her head.
This "Jenny" had what appeared to be metallic clothing, her "attire" consisted of a light blue crop-top, light blue mini skirt, and light blue boots, and curiously enough, a blue bolt was situated between her crop top and mini-skirt, as if mimicking a belly button on her exposed metallic midriff.
Brad could practically feel the mounting tension between the two, this was not how he was expecting the two meeting would go, he was fairly convinced that things would blow over without issue, but he wasn't certain, and he wasn't certain what he'd do if the situation didn't defuse itself.
Author's Note: Sorry for this cliff-hanger but I need to wrap this chapter up, I have work early tomorrow, see you guys and gals and everything in between next Sunday. And for those wondering and worrying, no, this won't be one of "those" fics where the two characters meet, fight, continue to squabble and then get along when a bigger threat than both of them comes to town.
What I have in mind is a lot more refined than that.