Author's Note: A "~~~~~~~~~~~~~" mark signifies either a small time skip, or the internal thoughts switching between characters, Like before. I had mandatory overtime at work, so I apologize in advance if this isn't out on time with the standard "weekly" update schedule, I've been having some motivation issues as of late. For anyone that didn't read the previous chapter Lightspeed = John. One final thing, I'm going for a more "realistic parent" approach to Mrs. Wakeman on this, so sorry in advance if that's not your cup of tea.
Chapter 7-The Wakeman Residence Part 2
The initial panic that usually accompanied being trapped subsided unusually fast the moment Lightspeed saw the material that was surrounding him:
It looked like a very thick layer of glass clad polycarbonate, incredibly strong and durable but completely worthless if used to contain someone like himself.
With a lot of brute force, Lightspeed could break out of his newfound prison, flee and disappear out of sight before she could even react, he still had the upper hand despite his newfound predicament, and even better yet, Mrs. Wakeman was most likely none the wiser.
…
On the other hand…if he willingly submitted to his imprisonment, whilst subtly….."showing" Mrs. Wakeman the vulnerability of the walls that comprised his prison, perhaps he could (if need be) "strong-arm" his way into making a deal with her:
In exchange for Lightspeed's cooperation, Mrs. Wakeman might be willing to assist him in getting back home, if she created Jenny, she might be able to create a means of tearing a hole large enough in the dimensional barrier for him to get back home with.
And, if not, or if Mrs. Wakeman had more sinister intentions, well…. breaking his cage and fleeing was always a solid "Plan B".
The sudden (albeit somewhat muffled) sound of Mrs. Wakeman's voice rips Lightspeed from his internal thoughts:
"Re-activation code 25-842." mrs Wakeman said whilst standing up.
Lightspeed could hear the sound of various servomechanisms roaring to life in response to Mrs. Wakeman's words, seconds later, the sound of Jenny's metallic footsteps were getting louder and louder, until she finally walked through the open doorway and into the room, the Mechanical girl didn't even give a glance in his direction, but instead closed the distance between herself and Mrs. Wakeman.
The Teenage Robot's facial expression was that of pure heart-break, like she was some kind of puppy who had just gotten kicked by their owner, even an idiot could tell that the topic of Mrs. Wakeman using the "override code" was a very sensitive one to Jenny.
As steeled as John's heart was against her, he momentarily felt a slight surge of sympathy for the mechanical girl…whatever was about to occur between the teenage robot and her creator, it wasn't going to be pretty….and since he had intent to try and strike a deal with Mrs. Wakeman, he would have no choice but to witness all of it.
The unexpected sight of the tears welling in Jenny's optic sensors (despite their seemingly impossible nature) that were threatening to spill out like a metaphorical dam breaking was all it took for John to realize that this was going to be just as bad for him as it was most likely going to be for Mrs. Wakeman.
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Mom had used Jenny's emergency shut-down code, the very one she PROMISED to NEVER use, to say that she felt heart-broken was an understatement.
As much as she wanted to break down and bawl her eyes out, Jenny knew that she couldn't allow herself to succumb to the feelings of sorrow eating away at her, because she could see that John was in the room with them (albeit encased in a thick layer of glass) out of the left-hand corner of her left optic sensor.
Fighting back the tears and trying with all of her might to maintain her composure whilst flooding her positronic brain with self affirming thoughts such as "you're a big girl", "you're a tough girl", and "you can do this", Jenny opens her mouth and says the following:
"How… How could you?" jenny stammered.
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The severity of the situation was starting to dawn on Nora, she had broken the promise she made to her daughter, and rather recklessly too, but what other choice did she have?
Jenny's interference could've put her plan in jeopardy because she wasn't informed of it.
"Surely she'll understand and calm down once I've explained things." nora silently thought to herself whilst trying to prepare as best an explanation as she could.
"XJ…. Jenny, I didn't have a choice, your interference could have jeopardized my plan." mrs. Wakeman calmly stated.
"I thought I needed to protect you, mom!" jenny cried out with a mounting tone of frustration mixed with sadness in her voice.
Nora briefly closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose with her right thumb and index finger out of mounting irritation, before opening them and responding with the following:
"I appreciate the concern but this is one of the very rare instances in which your assistance wasn't needed, or wanted." mrs. Wakeman stated, before quickly adding:
"I had to think on my feet, and it's not like I could just telepathically inform you of the plan." mrs. Wakeman added as calmly as she could despite her mounting irritation.
Jenny's facial expression didn't even soften in the slightest to Nora's logically thought out explanation, what made things even worse was that Jenny immediately turned away from her and folded her arms, as if pouting.
Nora understood that Jenny had full right to be upset with her, but at the same time, her daughter's refusal to at least take what she had to say into consideration was so illogical and immature that it stoked the fires of Nora's ice cold temper in a way that she didn't think possible.
The frustration over the situation that Nora felt was beginning to go from a simmer to a violent boil, and rapidly too.
Against her better judgment, Nora allowed her thoughts to burst to the surface, as she blurted out the following in frustration:
"Why must everything be so difficult with you?!" mrs. Wakeman blurted out loud.
Nora's mechanical daughter immediately turned to face her, a look of newfound shock mixed with the already present sadness on her face.
Nora knew that she had just made a huge mistake by going on the offensive in this little "battle" between the two of them, but at the same time… she had already passed the point of no return the moment she allowed her thoughts to burst to the surface, there was no point in holding back now.
"Look, I'm sorry, ok, it can't be undone and that's the best I can do." mrs. Wakeman said with increasing irritation in her tone of voice.
"What I did was wrong and I regret it, I'm not going to deny that, but you must understand that I had no other choice." mrs. Wakeman cried.
"If sorry isn't enough for you, then there's no point in continuing this discussion, young lady." mrs. Wakeman said, the frustration in her tone of voice dying down, as if she was trying her best to calm down.
One look at her robotic daughter's face was all Nora needed to know that she had driven the metaphorical dagger in even further with the "if sorry isn't enough for you" part.
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The "if sorry isn't enough for you" part was the last straw, how could mom be so… so… so callous?
Jenny wanted to say something, anything, retaliate with some kind of quip, be defiant, something, anything, but she just couldn't, she was too hurt, the metaphorical dam in her optic sensors was threatening to break and all that mattered to her was not letting her newly met acquaintance see it.
Jenny needed to get away, to retreat and escape to the solace of her room and cry her optic sensors out, if only to collect herself and come back later, she couldn't leave John to rot in that containment cell, he had done nothing wrong to deserve such a fate.
She would free him, even if it meant directly disobeying mom.
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It was too late, and whatever emotional storm her robotic daughter might produce, Nora would have to weather it. Sure, Jenny always got over things like this, but it still didn't make moments like what was most likely about to come any less painful in terms of heartache.
….
The moment finally came, Jenny stormed at break-neck speed out of the room without saying a word, the sounds of her stifled sobs falling silent within seconds of her leaving.
"No "I hate you", no "I'll never forgive you", not even a "I can't believe you did this", she just… left." mrs. Wakeman silently thought to herself.
Nora wanted to chase after Jenny, honestly, she did, even if it was an entirely superfluous venture, but the "exchange" the two just shared had drained her of so much energy, and even if it hadn't, the humanoid anomaly in the containment cell behind her was her top priority, she would be firmly rooted to her lab and (by extension) him, until she got to the bottom of things.
Mrs. Wakeman turns to face the containment cell and presses her back against the wall, whilst slowly lowering her butt to the floor.
After taking her seat on the floor and using the wall as a brace for her back, Nora closes her eyes and begins to massage her temples with her fingertips, as if out of exhaustion and irritation at the situation.
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To say that what Lightspeed had just witnessed made him uncomfortable would be the understatement of the century, the experience had actually made him feel sick to his stomach, and against his better nature, the experience had him practically squirming in his own skin from the feelings of discomfort that it had given him.
He was no voyeur when it came to family drama, and he felt like he had just witnessed something he was NEVER supposed to see, the fact that he was the source of all this drama didn't help matters either.
…..
Lightspeed gave himself a few seconds to collect himself before removing his helm (the power source on his armor was now officially dead, and "unforming it" via the servomechanisms housed within like he had done before in the Carbunkle house-hold was no longer an option) and allowing it to clatter to the concrete floor at his feet with a rather loud "crash".
The "crash" was seemingly loud enough to get the attention of Mrs. Wakeman off of the floor and onto him, or at least, his containment cell, the time to talk would come, but not now, the armor had to come off first.
As much as Lightspeed loathed the headache that came with having to put the interlocking plates of his armor back together at their anchor points, he didn't have much of a choice but to take his armor off manually because again… the power supply was dead.
Sure, the armor didn't really need to come off, but John sure as hell felt an overwhelming need to take it off because he was starting to sweat and it was starting to chafe.
…..
Following the helm came the gorget piece after a rather obnoxious amount of blindly finessing the very tight gaps between the front and back of John's flesh covered neck and collar bone and the armor itself with Lightspeed's right index finger in an attempt to find and unlatch the two anchor straps and anchor points.
Like the helm before it, the gorget, once removed, was allowed to fall to the floor at John's feet with another audibly noticeable "bang".
The right and left pauldrons came next with barely any struggle, removed and sent tumbling to the floor where they joined the now growing pile of armor pieces with two distinct "thuds".
After a rather minimal amount of finessing with the anchor point at the base of the back of his neck, the 500 pound breastplate with the power supply attached to it's interior (along with the micro maneuvering thrusters for use in zero g environments attached at the back of the breastplate) came next, within milliseconds of it coming off, it was sent to the floor just like its precursors.
Next came the Plackart and Fauld with barely any effort at all, those two were usually the easiest pieces to remove manually (and thankfully some of the easiest to put back together).
Then came the Tasset….aside from the gorget being a pain in the ass, the armor usually became increasingly difficult in terms of ease of removal with direct correlation to how close it was to John's feet, primarily due to the incredible amount of passive and sometimes actively powered mechanized parts around the leg area that assisted in shock absorption and balance.
After about 3 minutes of finesse (and force after John lost his temper and patience), off came the Cuisses, Poleyns, Fan-plates, Greaves and Sabatons, all of which were allowed to fall to the floor in the now sizeable pile, consisting of armor pieces that were dull cobalt blue in coloration.
Finally, off came the Rerebraces, Couters, and Vambraces, all sent falling to the pile, the gauntlets would stay on….for now at least.
The irony that he had just thrown away around 7 man-hours of armor-assembly work in the span of around 5 minutes wasn't lost on John in the slightest.
John's hair was for lack of a better term, drenched with sweat to the point where it was firmly weighing down on his scalp, the same could be said for his long sleeve t-shirt and blue work jeans, both were soaked with sweat to the point that they both adhered to his skin like they were a second layer of flesh.
John's tan work boots were (thankfully) dry, but the same couldn't be said for their interior, their interior was trench foot just waiting to happen, so they had to come off as well.
After taking a seat on the concrete floor to the right of the pile of armor pieces, Lightspeed removes his work boots, and rather callously tosses them to a random corner of his containment cell but leaves the socks on.
As much as John wanted and arguably even needed to strip down to his undies due to how unbearably drenched his shirt and pants were, he couldn't because Mrs. Wakeman was in the room with him, not to mention looking directly at him…. not even he was that audacious or socially inept for that matter.
….
The time to talk had finally come, and yet, funnily enough, Lightspeed was struggling to find the right words to start things off with, sure, it would be awkward to start a conversation with his captor but at the same time, other than escaping, what other choice did he have?
Screw it, as awkward as it might be, it was better to get it over with, might as well rip the metaphorical band-aid off now rather than later.
Against Lightspeed's better judgment, he allowed the first thing that popped into his head to spill out of his mouth in hopes of it being an adequate "icebreaker" that would get the metaphorical "ball" that would be their conversation, rolling:
"I'm… sorry you had to go through that, Mrs. Wakeman." john said.
Lightspeed immediately places a hand over his mouth, he had probably said too much, that topic was not something to start off a conversation with, not to mention the fact that it could be taken as rather insensitive of him to give his opinion on it.
The fact that Mrs. Wakeman's facial expression didn't immediately change to something a bit more "angry", in response to what Lightspeed came as a relief.
Some anxiety over his disastrous conversation starter was still present, but it was nowhere near the initially unbearable amount that John first felt immediately after he let the words tumble out of his mouth.
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With any apprehension and terror over the situation now long gone since it's source was now safely contained behind a wall of glass clad polycarbonate over 2 feet thick, Nora knew that there was no point in trying to maintain scientific informality, the anomaly was a sentient humanoid and was just as human as her, there would most likely be no harm in responding.
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"No need to apologize, I'm the one that should be apologizing because you had to witness it." mrs Wakeman replied rather unenthusiastically.
Without thinking, and once again against his better judgment, Lightspeed allowed what he was thinking to tumble out of his mouth once more:
"You're not going to…vivisect me or cut me open in any way for research purposes…. are you?" lightspeed asked, silently cursing himself for the stupidity of the question considering the fact that if she did have such intent, she most likely wouldn't answer truthfully, before adding:
"I understand that since I'm from another dimension you could learn a lot from me by…." lightspeed said before being cut off mid-sentence by Nora who was getting up and off the floor and slowly closing the distance between herself and John's containment cell:
"Don't be ridiculous, you're clearly a human being, interdimensional or not, you're still entitled to all the rights and liberties that come with being one." mrs. Wakeman interrupted with a slight hint of irritation to her tone of voice, as if she had taken serious offense to the very notion of what Lightspeed had just asked.
It immediately felt like some immense, albeit invisible weight had been lifted from John's shoulders in response to what Mrs. Wakeman had said, sure she might be lying, but at the same time, the tone of her voice clearly implied that that wasn't the case, hopefully he hadn't pissed her off too much with that question.
An awkward silence was permeating through the air, John was somewhat certain that Mrs. Wakeman was about to speak, and was simply trying to find the right words to say.
After a few seconds of waiting with nothing to show for it, Lightspeed took the verbal initiative once more, this time without even bothering to attempt to not make what he was going to say awkward:
"You're just gonna keep me trapped in this thing forever or.. what?" john asked rather nonchalantly.
Nora immediately lets out an audible sigh and slightly slouches before responding with the following:
"That isn't an option, assuming you have no malicious intent here of course." mrs. Wakeman replied.
"I didn't choose to come here, I am, for lack of a better term, stranded here. " john said with an incredibly noticeable lack of enthusiasm to his tone.
"If what you're saying is true, than I'm truly sorry that I had to do this, but you must understand that the risk you could possibly pose to our world, let alone our reality by simply being here is far too great to have you walking about without at least running tests to determine if you're benign or not." mrs. Wakeman replied before adding:
"If you cooperate, I promise you that I will try to make this process as quick and painless as possible for the both of us." mrs. Wakeman added.
"No need to apologize Mrs. Wakeman, I'm fully aware of what I could be doing to your reality just by being here, I tried very hard to quarantine myself from the local inhabitants of your dimension by keeping my distance until I had to…. intervene with something." john said.
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"If what he's saying is true, he's without a doubt smarter than he looks, perhaps this situation won't be such a nightmare to deal with after all." mrs. Wakeman silently thought to herself.
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The time to ask the two "trillion dollar" questions related to his fate (and by extension, whether or not he would have to break out of his cell) had finally come, and as apprehensive as John was over what he might hear, he needed to know.
"So, if I'm benign and this dimension is benign to me, what do you plan on doing with me?" john asked.
"Then you're free to go and do as you please, so long as it doesn't involve harming others or yourself." mrs. Wakeman rather nonchalantly replied.
Well, that was somewhat of a relief, he would have preferred to hear a perfectly ideal answer, something like "you're free to go, but if you want to get back home I'm more than willing to assist you", but overall, the answer received was a silver-lining to an otherwise rather grim situation.
Now to ask the question he was more nervous about hearing the answer to:
"And what I'm not?" john asked with a rather apprehensive tone to his voice before adding:
"Benign that is." john quickly added as if in an effort to try and preemptively prevent what might become a misunderstanding.
"That would make things….rather complicated." mrs. Wakeman responded with a very obvious tone of discomfort to her voice that made it very evident that she would prefer to avoid answering the question.
The lack of an immediate and clear answer from Mrs. Wakeman was an immediate red flag, causing John's imagination to run wild in fabricating imaginary "worst case" scenario responses, he needed her help in getting back, fleeing might lose him his only chance at getting back home.
Barely managing to drag his mind back from the nearly inescapable chasm that was full blown "panic mode", John chose to press further:
"I'd prefer you not dance around the issue please, just give me the answer, I'm the kind of person that would much rather hear something I don't like than hear nothing at all." john said with a mounting tone of panic in his voice that he was trying desperately to suppress.
After a few seconds of hesitation, Nora relents and replies with the following:
"Then I'm afraid I'd have no choice but to keep you contained until I find a means of getting you back home." mrs. Wakeman replied, with her gaze shifting towards the floor as if expecting some form of hostile reaction from John.
"That's what she got cold feet over, seriously?" john silently thought to himself.
What Mrs. Wakeman told him was the equivalent of a first class ticket to the pearly gates themselves when compared to what he was expecting to hear, but… just like a solar flare, the rather violent metaphorical explosion of anger and frustration within himself was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.
…..
"Do you think you could assist me in getting back home even if I'm benign?" john asked.
"In the event of you being benign, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to do that for a very long time, I have a rather large list of things to do that grows by the day." mrs. Wakeman replied with a rather delicate tone to her voice.
John had attempted to make a deal and been metaphorically shot down, unfortunately for Mrs. Wakeman, and no matter how guilty it would make John feel later on down the line, he simply couldn't accept an answer like "in a very long time", he had friends and loved ones back home that were probably already worried sick about him.
The time to take a more "assertive" stance in this negotiation had finally come.
…..
Now the real question was how to go about it, John found himself at a metaphorical crossroads, the first (and safest but at the same time most time consuming) option was to be subtle about it.
There was always a chance that John was really overthinking this, but at the same time, being "subtle" about it could vilify him less in Mrs. Wakeman's eyes, on the other hand however, Mrs. Wakeman might not take him seriously and wouldn't be as receptive, or receptive at all for that matter.
The other option was to about as subtle as a rusty heroin needle to the temple and involved going full metaphorical "saber rattle" mode, bluffing and posturing and if it came down to it, actually "showing" Mrs. Wakeman that he was only still in his containment cell because he chose to be.
This option, while easier and less mentally taxing to pull off, came with a lot more risk for… obvious reasons.
As the seconds of silence ticked on, John became more and more convinced that the latter seemed like the better option, and the best method of pulling it off would be in the form of an ultimatum without any verbal tip-toeing and no metaphorical punches held back:
"Ok, let's try this again, in exchange for my cooperation, and in the event that I'm benign, I'm going to need you to move getting me back home to the top of your "list"." lightspeed said with a calm yet somewhat assertive tone to his voice.
Mrs. Wakeman's rather dismissive reaction to what John just said clearly showed that she didn't take him seriously, which was fairly understandable as it probably wasn't very convincing.
"I would also appreciate…" lightspeed said before cutting himself off mid sentence.
Not even two sentences in and the façade was already crumbling, it was proving to be incredibly difficult to try and be aggressive with someone who hadn't really done anything to warrant earning his full ire, sure she had trapped him, but not for any malicious reasons, or at least, that's what she claimed.
"Be aggressive damnit, you are mean, you are ruthless!" lightspeed silently thought to himself like some kind of method actor giving himself a mental pep talk whilst getting ready for a shoot.
"No, I also demand that housing and the bare necessities required for my survival until I'm sent back home be provided to me." lightspeed stated, with the assertive tone to his voice faltering rapidly after the word "demand".
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Nora couldn't help but roll her eyes in response to this, he was at her mercy, not the other way around, he was in no position to be defiant or give ultimatums, yet, for some reason, Nora decided to humor him:
"Or what, you'll be non-cooperative?" nora asked with her arms folded and a look of annoyance on her face.
"Or I'll break out of this containment cell and be gone faster than you can blink, the only reason why I'm still in this thing is because I'm choosing to be co-operative." john replied with an unexpectedly strong level of conviction to his voice.
To say that Nora had her doubts would be an understatement, yet she decided to humor the boy and press further with a simple:
"Prove it." nora rather coldly commanded.
What followed next took Nora completely off guard, instead of conceding that it had all been a bluff, the boy began to deliver blow after blow with his gauntleted fists to a single point of the wall of his cell, the noise of which was… unexpectedly loud, the boy must've been hitting the glass clad polycarbonate of the cell with all of his might.
Nora's initial dismissive attitude towards the boy's attempt at "proving it", was immediately reversed upon the 4th impact of his fists, a spider web shaped crack appeared in the spot that his fists were impacting, and rather concerningly, it was spreading at a rather alarming rate.
The damage was spreading so fast in fact, that the self repairing nanite systems of the cell couldn't keep up.
At this rate, the walls of the containment cell would fail, and the boy would breach containment within at most, 20 seconds.
A part of her wanted to call out to Jenny for help, but at the same time, considering what had just happened between the two, there was a decent chance that she may not even come to Nora's aid and stop the boy's escape.
It was unlikely that she'd be able to stop the boy from escaping because the stasis ray trick most likely wouldn't work again, and the odds of her being able to activate the defective, albeit much more co-operative and strong (when compared to her younger sister XJ-9) XJ-8 fast enough were one in a million.
Nora would have to accede to the boy's demands, for now at least, truth be told, aside from the "getting him back home" part, he wasn't really asking for much.
Sure, having TWO super powered teenagers in her home sounded like a hell she wouldn't possibly be able to survive, but at the same time, due to the interdimensional nature of the the boy, he had no ID, no social security number, he wouldn't be able to receive aid from the government or hold a job even if he so desired.
Unless he would be willing to turn to crime or turn to living off the land to feed himself, his survival was entirely dependent on the goodwill of others.
What initially started out as resentment for the boy because he was demanding these things from her, was slowly turning into an odd and uncomfortable feeling cocktail of pity mixed with sympathy.
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"Stop, stop, STOP!" mrs. Wakeman cried out in panic before adding:
"I'll give you what you asked for, just DON'T break that wall." mrs. Wakeman added.
In response to what Mrs. Wakeman just said, Lightspeed stops the unrelenting assault of his fists on the glass of his prison.
Miraculously, the damage he had just done to the glass clad polycarbonate was starting to disappear, as if the glass clad polycarbonate itself was somehow healing itself.
"You promise?" john asked.
Nora silently nods in response to John's question.
"In that case, when do the tests start?" john asked.
"Tomorrow." mrs. Wakeman replied whilst trying her best to suppress a yawn.
Mrs. Wakeman gives a rather half-hearted wave goodbye before walking out of the room, pressing a rather large red button before exiting through the doorway and out of sight.
As if Mrs. Wakeman had read Lightspeed's mind, a clean bed (and most importantly) a fully enclosed bathroom stall begin to appear from what seems like thin air in his cell, along with a fully stocked mini fridge full of food and beverages (not that he would consume either until both were proven safe for him to do so.)
….
It would seem that things were finally looking up for Lightspeed, maybe with a little bit of luck he would be able to get back home within a few weeks.
Author's Note Continued: I apologize very deeply for the very long delay between chapter 6's release and this chapter's release, but due to work, and a lack of motivation, this one took quite awhile to get out.
This kind of exposition is SO boring to do, but sadly it's required for a proper story, can't have my character appear in another dimension and suddenly get along with everyone.
Thankfully the most boring part of the exposition will be completed with this chapter's release, so hopefully I'll start to have more motivation to write, and by extension, the release time between chapters will be less long. I also apologize deeply in case the quality of the writing starts to drop off a bit towards the end, but I just HAD to get this part of the exposition done this chapter.