Author's Note: The "Jenny" I'm going for here is early season 1 Jenny, where she is most socially awkward, and doesn't have much self esteem, because at least, in my opinion, Season one Jenny is the best Jenny, wasn't the biggest fan of what they did with her character at times later on in season's 2 and 3.

I apologize in advance if this chapter isn't as up to snuff as its predecessors in terms of length and quality, or release date for that matter…. I have a lot of things on my plate right now and my mind isn't as clear as it should be. A great uncle of mine for lack of a better term quite literally dropped dead on 7/12/2022, but I still feel a sense of duty to please everyone who reads this stuff.

John and Lightspeed are the same person btw, just thought I'd clear that up because I use both interchangeably.

I thought I'd make it easier for people reading this by signifying the shift of internal thoughts between different characters with a "~~~~~" mark, since the internal thoughts of a lot of different characters are shown in this chapter, a "~~~~~~~" mark signifies either a small time skip, or the internal thoughts switching between characters.

Chapter 5- The Mechanical Girl

Jenny felt that the metaphorical airplane that could symbolize the relationship between herself and her newly met acquaintance was already stalling before it could even get off the ground.

If she were to salvage things, she would have to suspend her feelings of disbelief, as hard as that might be.

If Brad said that the rather skinny and exhausted looking teen sitting in the chair within 10 feet of her did save him and Tuck, then that would have to be good enough for her.

She of all people knew that appearances could be deceiving and that there was often more to an individual than met the eye, or in Jenny's case, the optic sensor.

Jenny's facial expression softened even further, she knew that the armored teen had picked up on her feelings of doubt for he was practically glaring daggers at her with a facial expression that practically oozed contempt for her and her alone, but she couldn't hold it against him, she had mis-stepped and driven a metaphorical dagger into the heart of the boy's pride, she would feel the same if the roles were reversed (albeit NOWHERE near as openly.)

Jenny was critically lacking in the friends department, and in the powerful ally department, even more so to an almost dangerous degree.

For Jenny to lose someone that had the potential to be both before things could even begin between the two over a simple mistake that she had made was simply too much for her to bear, the feelings of regret over "what could've been" would metaphorical eat away at her internal 2.5 Petawatt battery for the rest of her mechanical life, she would prefer Vexus thrust an energy dagger into her mechanical heart than live with such a feeling.

If she wanted to salvage things before things got ugly and Job's forbid, potentially even violent, she would have to fix things by putting her best foot forward in an attempt to mend the metaphorical bridge that she had burned.

Without warning, a simple but fairly fool-proof idea popped into her positronic brain, one that she quickly acted upon:

"Like Brad said earlier, my name's Jenny, Jenny Wakeman, pleased to meet you John." jenny said whilst mustering the brightest smile she could.

The armored teen's facial expression slightly softened in response to Jenny's statement, a response that she was, for lack of a better term, relieved to see.

John thankfully hadn't been angered to the point where the metaphorical "olive branch" Jenny had to offer would only fall on deaf ears, or at least that's what she hoped.

Jenny was quick to follow up with:

"Sorry if we got off on the wrong foot, let's start over." jenny said whilst closing the distance between herself and Lightspeed, and extending her mechanical right hand, as if expecting a handshake.

Jenny's pigtails begin to spasm about with increasing intensity the closer she gets to Lightspeed as if she was becoming some kind of mechanical Geiger counter, she couldn't determine why her "Remote Emergency Warning System" had been active for the past 5 hours because every attempt she made to consult the "Crisis Control Center" had yielded NOTHING, her "Remote Emergency Warning System" was most likely malfunctioning… again.

Jenny may not have had the same social skills as her biological peers but she knew enough to know that it was a very bad sign that John wasn't immediately accepting her apology and hand shake.

Jenny could feel the sickening feeling of her mounting anxiety and dread increasing in intensity with each passing second as time marched on with what felt like agonizingly slow speed, John wasn't biting, his facial expression, while nowhere near as hostile towards her, hadn't changed much.

It took all the self control that Jenny had to make sure her friendly facial expression didn't falter; she couldn't allow her internal feelings of inadequacy over the situation to bubble to the surface, because if she did, the "hurt" facial expression that could result might be seen by John as emotional manipulation, which was NOT her intent, nor was it something she wanted.

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As socially inept as Lightspeed was when compared to his peers back home, he was exceptional at being able to determine the true color of a person's character; making him an absolute nightmare for manipulators of any kind, simply because he could metaphorically sniff them out like a bloodhound.

The gynoid before him had set off every metaphorical alarm John had, for anyone to be so dismissive and then immediately do a 180 and act all nice was a very bad sign.

Lightspeed had seen this kind of two-faced behavior hundreds of times before, and there were very few things more telling of the true color of a person's character than it.

Jenny must've wanted something out of him now that she had detected potential, she was buttering him up in an attempt to try and cover her tracks since she had made the initial mistake of being so dismissive of him, what kind of fool did she think he was?

She was a manipulator… there was nothing more loathsome to John than what Jenny was or at least… what he thought she was.

His intuition for being able to uncover such loathsome people had never been wrong before…surely it wasn't wrong now…right?

...

Either way, the "snake" before John wasn't worthy of his ire, she was trying to manipulate him, and was most likely manipulating Brad and Tuck as well, he wouldn't accept her handshake… or so that's what he initially thought:

One look at Brad and Tuck out of the corner of John's right eye was all it took for him to reconsider, the two boys desperately wanted Jenny and him to get along… and even if every bit of admiration they had for her was based on some false persona she had most likely created to win them over (a "hero" could be just as rotten on the inside as the most despicable villain was on the outside after all), what harm could playing nice do?

Jenny would be found out eventually, and all that she had worked for would come crashing down upon her.

For now, for the sake of the two boys, and no matter how much it made his stomach churn, John would play nice and accept Jenny's handshake.

Mustering as neutral a facial expression as he could (because a forced smile wouldn't work in this situation) without risking the possibility of revealing it's forced nature, John accepts Jenny's handshake, one that he breaks off after 1.5 seconds of contact.

"Nice to meet you, last name's Olmstead by the way." john replied with a rather formal tone to his voice.

The mechanical girl's face metaphorically brightens even further in response to Lightspeed's "nice to meet you", she was good, but not good enough, John's already somewhat lukewarm heart, combined with a newly "dug" metaphorical trench network around it, made it impossible for Jenny to tug at his heart strings.

Deceiving Jenny into believing that she had him wrapped around her mechanical finger was in itself, a form of the manipulation that John loathed, the irony and hypocrisy of the situation was not lost on him at all, but sometimes the best way to deal with a snake (provided one wasn't going to metaphorically crush it's head underfoot) was to beat it at it's own game, for the last thing the manipulator expects is to be deceived.

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Brad was very relieved that the situation had defused itself and the two now seemed to be getting along, but at the same time, he couldn't shake the feeling that there were unseen but still smoldering embers of animosity under the surface that threatened to re-ignite the now extinguished tension between the two superheroes.

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Jenny walks to the left, picks up a chair and sets it down between Lightspeed's chair and the couch that Tuck and Brad are on, before taking a seat in it, facing John and saying:

"So.. how exactly did you defeat Smytus?" jenny said, before quickly adding:

"N-n-not that I doubt you anymore or anything…I'm just curious is all, I know what Tuck said but I wanna hear it straight from the person that actually did it." jenny was quick to add.

Jenny could see Tuck frown in response to that last part out of the corner of her right optic sensor, but she wanted to hear things from outside the influence of his overactive imagination, as nice as Tuck was he often diluted or exaggerated important details to stories simply because his imagination took the reins when he remembered them.

Jenny felt that she had made a mistake by asking that question, but she had to know, her curiosity on the matter couldn't go without being sated any longer. Just as her anxiety was starting to build over the question, John almost immediately relieved it by calmly answering with the following:

"Traded hits with him until the metal plate that covered the internal workings of his chest shattered, he conceded defeat and turned tail along with the rest of his goons, took off into the stratosphere and out of sight in some kind of starship." lightspeed said before quickly adding:

"Not much to it, truth be told, nothing worthy of shock and awe or Tuck's admiration, if you want something that looks similar to what went down, just go to the zoo and have the keepers train two silverbacks to bare knuckle box and then have em go at it for a few rounds." lightspeed added rather flatly.

Jenny could hardly believe what she was hearing, he had traded hits with Smytus and came out on top… Smytus was a moron, sure, but he was no slouch when it came to brute strength.

"No need to be so humble, John, that fight you had with Smytus was awesome, there's no need to downplay your triumph." brad said with a small grin.

"Yeah, you kicked that bolt-brain's butt, nothing wrong with having a bit of pride in it." tuck chimed in.

Lightspeed shakes his head in response to the two boys attempting to boost his ego before saying:

"If there's one thing you two boys need to know about me, it's that I have a very strong sense of humility." john said before quickly adding:

"I don't want praise, reward, admiration or idolization for any heroic action I take, nor am I comfortable with praise, reward, admiration, or idolization." john added matter-of-factly.

Jenny couldn't help but have her doubts about this statement from John, sure, she was humble herself, but even she couldn't turn down admiration and praise for her actions.

Without warning, the all too familiar monitor displaying the likeness of her mother that Jenny had come to dread pops out of her chest, facing her with Brad and Tuck in the background, Lightspeed is in the monitor's "blind spot".

Jenny could feel the eyes of everyone in the room divert their attention from her to the monitor that she oh so despised.

"Xj… Jenny." her creator gently said, seemingly stopping herself mid sentence and choosing to address her daughter by her chosen name before quickly following up with:

"Sorry, force of habit." nora added.

Jenny rolls her eyes in response to her mother's unexpected and unwanted call, which Nora doesn't seem to appreciate in the slightest:

"Don't you roll your eyes at me young lady, you are to come home this instant, this is important." nora replied with irritation mounting in her voice.

"Come on mom, can't you see that I'm busy here, if it's about Smytus that's already been…" jenny said before quickly being cut off mid-sentence by her mother:

"This isn't about Smytus, Krakus, Vexus, the Cluster, Space Bikers, The Mudslinger or any of those hooligans, this could be more significant than anything you or I have ever experienced." nora interrupted.

"This could be bigger than you, me, Brad, Tuck, or anyone in Tremerton, the very safety of our universe and the fabric of our reality could be at stake." nora said with a noticeable quiver to her voice that Jenny was just now starting to pick up on.

Now that Jenny was paying full attention to her mother, she immediately took notice of the fact that Nora was as pale as a sheet of paper and was visibly trembling, she couldn't recall the last time her Mom had looked this scared over anything, if she was this scared over something, then hanging out with Brad, Tuck, and the gab with John would have to be put on the backburner, and it would have to be done now, not in 15 seconds, not in 15 minutes, and certainly not "in a bit", but NOW.

"There's something seriously wrong, there's an anom…." nora said before being cut off by Jenny misentence:

"I get it Mom, I get it, I'll be right over to deal with it this instant." jenny interrupted.

"No, you don't understand, I don't think there's anything that you or I can…" nora said before being interrupted by her daughter turning off the monitor she was using to communicate, said monitor immediately goes back into her chest.

Jenny looks around the room whilst saying:

"Sorry boys, duty calls, gotta go, we'll hang out later." jenny stated.

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The words of the mechanical girl's "mother" continued to repeat in Lightspeed's mind, the terms "safety of our universe" and "fabric of our reality" were the ones that stuck out the most, because the implications that the two had were terrifying.

What if the Void entity had sniffed him out, and was on it's way to finish the job right now, and was willing to take this dimension and everything in it for a snack on the way?

Lightspeed's attention immediately diverts to the automaton who looked like she was about to get up.

Assuming that this mechanical girl was truly sentient and it's emotional responses weren't just very convincing mimicry, and as much as he loathed the kind of person that Jenny was (assuming his gut instinct about her was correct of course), no-one, be they mechanical, flesh and blood, or anything in between deserved the fate that would befall the girl if she suicidally waltzed up to the void entity to fight it… assuming that the void entity was what the mechanical girl's "mother" was talking about to begin with.

The void entity could bend and corrupt machinery and more importantly, electronic devices to it's will within the blink of an eye, Jenny would be metaphorically devoured and turned against everything she protected if she so much as even got near the void entity, the only thing that could resist her corruptive aura (albeit temporarily) were people with a will of iron and the strength to fight her, or, in other words...him.

Lightspeed was in no shape to fight, he knew that, but what choice did he have?

He'd tag along with Jenny, and even if both of them were most likely metaphorically marching to their literal deaths, it didn't matter, he'd rather die fighting than be swept away in the miasma created by the judgment day that would befall this dimension if the void entity had sniffed him out.

"I'm coming with." lightspeed said rather assertively.

Everyone in the room diverted their attention to him, Brad and Tuck simply smiled with barely contained anticipation for what was about to come, and Jenny was looking at him like he had just grown a second head.

"What?" jenny asked, as if in bewilderment at what she just heard.

"Brad, it's a super-hero team up!" tuck practically screamed, his voice overflowing with excitement.

Brad immediately sticks his pinky into his right ear in response to Tuck's voice and begins to wriggle it back and forth whilst wincing for a few seconds, as if in pain from Tuck practically blasting his right ear with noise.

Brad removes his pinky and from his ear and glares at Tuck before saying the following:

"Inside voice only Tuck, you're gonna make me deaf." brad said with frustration.

Tuck simply turns around and sticks his tongue out at Brad in response to his "inside voice only" comment.

"I'm coming with you, you might need help." lightspeed said rather flatly.

The mechanical girl just stared blankly at him, and John could feel his blood pressure rising for every millisecond of silence that passed between the two of them.

The girl clearly loathed heroics and viewed them as a simple chore, yet she had the AUDACITY to not just roll with it when someone offered her help without any strings attached, it made Lightspeed's blood boil.

Like a foreman that had sensed the building tension and anger before things got out of control between John and his co-workers when they gave him attitude at the local steel mill that he worked long hour shifts at back home, Jenny immediately extinguished Lightspeed's metaphorical fuse by simply saying:

"If you insist." the mechanical said as she stood up and started towards the door.

In response, Lightspeed got out of his chair with a multitude of groans, sounding more like an arthritic and sore old man than a teen.

The armored teen and the teenage robot both silently wave to Tuck and Brad before exiting through the front door.

Just like before, the floor creaked and groaned in response to every step the two made.

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Within a few seconds of the two leaving, and as if he was waiting until the two were out of ear-shot, Tuck asks the following:

"So, when do you think the wedding is gonna be?" tuck teased.

Brad was too dumb-founded at his Brother's question to even say anything, the only thing he could do was pinch the bridge of his nose and shake his head in frustration in response to the absurdity of the thing that Tuck would call a "joke".