ALIEN RUMORS
xxx
The routine that Frankie followed each day after waking up was simple.
First, she would wake up from her comfortable bed, an operating table made of metal, modified with padding, and covered by a soft layer of silk to maximize comfort. Before getting up, she would connect two wires protruding from the head of her bed to the pins on her neck to recharge herself, but not before putting on her headphones and playing on the ICoffin one of her many songs, her favorites among the long list were always Lady Gaga's, Frankie liked everything in that song and her music and enjoyed listening to them whenever she had the chance.
After recharging, she would get up and choose her outfit for the day. To go to class, she always chose the same outfit, after all, she had several identical pairs. She continued to feed the rats covered in non-toxic glitter that was inside the fish tank in the corner of her room, and on a small metal table. The small mammals were still asleep and even had their masks so that the light would not bother them. Once she was sure she had everything ready, she took off her pajamas, wrapped her body in a bathrobe, and went to clean her body.
One of the biggest problems she had was her inability to control her electrical flow properly, which always caused some problems when he got wet, so to bathe he had to be extremely careful, or use a wet cloth, which took a lot of her time.
Once ready, dressed and after struggling a bit with her hair, Frankie would come downstairs.
As was usual in their household, mornings were always hectic. As was customary, her father would greet her with a loud shout, imitating Frankie's late great-grandfather, Victor Frankenstein.
"She's alive!" hearing those words, maybe for the thousandth time already, Frankie could only put on a blank expression, she loved her father with all her heart, he was the one who created her along with her mother and allowed her to experience life and the world, but she hated that greeting.
It was just after seven in the morning, no one in their right mind would be screaming like a mad scientist just to say good morning to their daughter.
Well, Viktor was a scientist and he was a little crazy, which could justify that display of eccentricity. What she couldn't explain, was how her father knew she was already awake, she was silent to go downstairs, but they always caught her, as if they knew she was coming.
Frankie could only sigh silently and wish with all her might that one day, just one day, her father would skip that silly greeting.
The young woman walked toward the kitchen, narrowly avoiding her mother, who ran past her with a slice of bread in her mouth. The woman was in "human" attire, brown high-heeled shoes, ankle-length pants, a beige turtle-necked T-shirt, and an immaculate white lab coat. She also had her face and hands covered with heavy makeup that allowed her to pass for a human.
"Frankie, hurry up, we got a call from the university, we have to go now." The woman walked away in the direction of the upper floor. "They found some strange materials and want us to study them."
The woman lost her way up the stairs, leaving her daughter a bit confused by it all, but decided to pick up her way and go to the kitchen.
She saw her father there, trying to make toast. Emphasis on trying.
The six-foot-four-plus man was squinting, staring too intently at the toaster in the kitchen.
Like Viveka, Viktor had an outfit that covered most of his body, dress pants, shoes, that turtleneck shirt, the lab coat, and human makeup.
"Just do it already! I want my bread!" he complained loudly. Frankie held back a chuckle at that, her father was a genius, a highly respected inventor and accomplished scientist, as well as having hobbies reviving the careers of some famous people. "Damn device! If only I could modify it..."
"Mom told you no modifying appliances." Frankie walked over to her father and looked at the toaster. She barely managed to contain her laughter when she saw that her father hadn't even moved the lever that lowers the bread or the knob to regulate the temperature, so Frankie had to do it for him. "There, that wasn't so hard, was it Dad?"
The man grumbled, his ego bruised at the dexterity his daughter displayed with that infernal device.
Frankie this time couldn't help herself and let out a chuckle, her father was a genius, but he had no idea how to use the simplest elements.
She went to the refrigerator and pulled out a box of juice, then poured and drank some. Feeling the cold liquid go down her throat was refreshing and filled her with a sense of satisfaction.
To be a monster of the simulacrum type. In other words, creating monsters. It took away her need to feed, she only needed a small energy recharge every day and she could function without problems. Eating and drinking was just an action she performed for mere pleasure, although according to her parents she needed them as she was a bit more special than the two of them and her body required some vitamins present in the food, they never explained the reason for this, but she wasn't going to complain, the food was delicious.
After drinking all the juice, and making sure her father didn't try to disassemble the toaster, Frankie headed for the garage with the excuse that he wanted to see her new car one more time. Viktor made no complaints, Frankie always showed a lot of excitement for new things and a new car certainly awakened her irrational, adolescent side.
When the girl left the place, Viktor looked in the direction where the garage was, he could feel a spark besides that of his daughter. He felt it when he first saw that car and couldn't explain why.
In the garage, Frankie rested her hand on the hood of the vehicle that functioned as Upgrade's cover. She wasn't sure if the alien was still asleep or even if asleep, since it seemed to be more machine than monster or alien, she still wasn't sure how she should refer to it.
"Upgrade, are you there?" she asked in a whisper. If he was asleep, she had no desire to disturb him.
From the steering wheel, a small version of Upgrade's head emerged and then made a small gesture, as if greeting her. She bid him good morning and began to make a few reminders.
The day before they had already explained the rules about living in the garage, plus they mentioned that they were all attending school so he would be alone for most of the day.
"You can't go out, and you can't break anything, I'll bring you my laptop so you can entertain yourself, and ..." the girl was speaking to the alien as if she were a mother giving directions to her six-year-old son to behave while she was gone.
The alien just nodded, although he already had some plans so he wouldn't get bored.
"I'll be back around four o'clock in the afternoon, please don't do anything bad."
After giving him all the directions she thought necessary, she went back to her room, she had to get her bag to go to school, plus her laptop to give to Upgrade so he wouldn't get bored.
xxx
Frankie said goodbye to her parents as she arrived at the school and got out of the car. Her eyes looked up at the large gothic-style building that stood about a hundred yards from the front gate. She preferred to get off there and be able to walk to the gate. Admiring the building getting bigger and bigger with every step was amazing.
"Frankie, remember we'll be back late today, I left you some money on the living room table," Viveka spoke to her, keeping her from walking away.
"It's okay mom, I love you." Frankie was ready to leave, but once again her mother stopped her.
"And don't even think about taking anyone while we're gone." Frankie felt her body tense at that, she knew what her mother meant. No taking boys. After what she did, namely creating Hoodude, her parents put that rule in place. "Have fun at school dear!" giving a one hundred and eighty change in her attitude, Viveka smiled at her daughter and she along with her husband left the place.
Frankie stood in place for a few moments, slightly embarrassed that her mother had said that to her, they still didn't forgive her for what she did, but she didn't let it affect her for long and pulled herself together and started walking towards the school.
As she walked, she passed other students, some looked at her ICoffin with some astonishment and then looked at her, while others simply waved.
"Hi, Frankie!" greeted a praying mantis-headed monster.
"Hey Frankie, looking good." Flirted a boy with orange hair and yellow skin.
"Frankie, do you want to go to the Maul after school?" asked a girl with a single eye and green hair.
Unlike her first day of school, now Frankie was no longer someone unknown to the students. She was popular, quite popular in fact. She was known for her great kindness and good heart, caring very little about who she had to help, which caused many to appreciate. This was not all, though.
Frankie was part of the Fearlanding team, the school's cheerleading squad or commonly known as the "Fear Squad". This and being friends with Cleo caused her popularity to skyrocket into the clouds as well, although she never let it go to her head. Neither could she, her kind and selfless personality prevented her from doing so.
As she entered the school, she noticed that students walking the halls were looking at their ICoffin and then glancing at her. This was not unusual, she was attracting attention thanks to being friends with Cleo, so she downplayed it and continued on her way to her locker.
Some murmuring was heard from the surroundings. Unlike Clawdeen she could barely hear a few things, but she did hear something about a student now having a human boyfriend. She was interested to hear that. Knowing that a student at the school was dating a human boy was amazing and strange in equal parts. But it was also something that meant they both put aside what anyone could say and took a big step despite the difficulties they might have. She was proud of both of them, whoever they might be.
After going to collect her things, the bell rang signaling the start of the first period and the young woman hurried to her classroom.
As they were in the last week of classes before the vacations, many students were taking exams and Frankie was no exception. Biteology, or Biology, was the subject she was doing the best, all thanks to her parents who taught her everything they knew, so she was the first to finish.
During the time she was waiting for the class to come to an end, she could hear once again that some students were whispering. Again, the topic was about the monster girl with her human boyfriend. The news was making too much of a fuss if they risked chatting about it during an exam.
Frankie tried to hear the gossip, she was interested to know who the brave girl was. Did she know her? Was she one of her friends? She wanted to congratulate her for not being swayed by what others said and agreeing to be with whomever she wanted.
Hours passed and before the young Frankenstein's monster realized it was already the middle of the day.
As usual, she went to pick up her friends to have lunch together.
As she walked through the halls of the school she noticed that students were acting strangely. Some were looking at her and then looking at their ICoffins, others were simply whispering with their friends and a few were pointing at her. This confused Frankie, she wasn't sure what could be going on.
Finally, she arrived at the usual meeting point, she found there Draculaura and Clawdeen, who were looking at the former's ICoffin. When they saw her arrive they looked at her with concern and nerves, Frankie was confused by this and did not hesitate to ask.
"What's the matter, is my hair frizzy?" the Frankenstein girl took a lock of her hair and examined it, but saw nothing strange.
"She doesn't know yet," Clawdeen muttered, but Frankie could hear her.
"We have to tell her." Draculaura replied.
"What do you have to tell me?" both girls were taken by surprise, Frankie had approached them unnoticed. The girl saw that the vampire's ICoffin screen had the gossip blog, Ghostly Gossip, open. Seeing that the girl was about to see more than she should, Draculaura hid the device behind her back, surprising her friend.
"Your hair has nothing on it, it's lovely as always." Hastily replied the vampire as she laughed very suspiciously.
Frankie looked at her in confusion and looked for some response from Clawdeen, but the werewolf woman was hissing and avoiding eye contact.
"Girls what's going on?" none of her friends wanted to answer that question, but before Frankie could insist, she was interrupted.
"Frankie!" a feminine shout was heard down the hallway and the alluded turned, she saw one of her friends approaching gliding down the aisles.
It was a young monster with an amphibious appearance, light blue scales covered its entire body while its head was shaking from the movement of blond hair with light blue highlights.
Her attire could pigeonhole her as a tomboy. She wore a dark pink tank top with a fish scale design, a black sweatshirt with a cyan fish scale design on the chest and hood, black shorts and fishnet tights underneath that covered her up to her knees.
The girl stopped as she reached Frankie and looked at her with a big smile.
"G'Day girls!" the girl greeted in a thick Australian accent. The three Fear Squad member girls returned the greeting. "Frankie, I heard the news, is it true you have a car now?"
Frankie didn't hesitate and nodded, even though it was a lie, at the same time it was technically true, it was best to keep up appearances.
"That's great! I was at the swim club yesterday and didn't get to see what happened, but I heard the rumors, is it true what they say? That you got it from a 'special friend'?" Frankie bristled when she heard that. It was one thing to pretend that the car was just a car, but explaining the origin of it was very complicated.
"Yeah, my friend, well, he's not a friend, he's more like..." the blonde interrupted her.
"Easy, I understand, I know it can be hard, it was the same with Gil, he's freshwater, and I'm saltwater." Frankie only managed a nervous smile, she wasn't understanding what the girl was referring to. "But believe me, I support you completely."
"Thank you Lagoona, but what are you talking about?" the eyes Frankie shifted from Lagoona to her two best friends, who began to act strangely once again.
"Frankie, you don't have to hide it from me, already the whole school found out you have a human boyfriend! At first, I didn't believe it, but then I saw the picture and now that you told me about the car I confirmed it, I didn't think you would dare something like that, and besides..." Frankie's mind was disconnected from the conversation almost from the start.
The Frankenstein girl could only stare wide-eyed at her saltwater friend. Then she looked at the vampire and the werewolf, both of whom had nervous expressions. They already knew. She looked around, she noticed that the students who were around the place were also looking at her or muttering as they watched their ICoffins.
"Frankie? Frankie, are you okay?" Lagoona's voice snapped her back to reality, but suddenly, the flash of a camera momentarily blinded her.
Frankie rubbed her eyes, at the same time as a feminine giggle could be heard nearby.
"Meow, that was a good shot." A female voice with a certain feline purr behind it was heard a few steps away from them.
It was a young woman with orange skin with tiger-like stripes, short reddish hair, and an outfit reminiscent of a motorcyclist.
The girl was a cat lady and along with the sly, wicked smile on her face, she also had an ICoffin in her hands and was the one who took Frankie's picture.
"Straight to the yearbook. How about this title 'The Human Lover'?"
In the presence of that girl, Clawdeen began to growl at her as if she were a wolf, but before she could attack Draculaura stopped her. The cat woman took advantage of this to take a picture of her and then stick out her tongue.
"Piss off Toralei." the wolf woman wasn't about to let that cat start bothering her friends.
"And miss out on the opportunity to take good pictures for the school yearbook? Not a chance." She replied with a clear tone of amusement. Her gaze then returned to Frankie, who was still trying to process everything that was going on. "Who would have guessed, you do have a boyfriend, and this time you didn't create him, even though he's a human." Saying that, Toralei put on a disdainful expression, she didn't like humans. "But worse is nothing, I guess."
"Why are you bothering her?" Lagoona stepped in front of her friend, not wishing to be harassed by the cat woman. "No one set rules for love."
"Funny you should say that." He replied with a very confident look. Lagoona frowned even more at hearing that. "I don't want to bother her, it's humiliation enough dating a human." The cat woman prepared to leave, walking past the four girls standing there, but before she left, she turned and spoke directly to Frankie. "Even though that guy wasn't too bad, I'd date a human too if he gave me a car. Maybe that's why you're dating him." A purr escaped her lips accompanied by a somewhat evil chuckle. "I can't wait for the pictures I took of the Ghostly Gossip to appear in the school yearbook, I'm sure they'll be the talk of the school and even more so when your parents see it."
The girl left after saying that and the hallway fell into an awkward silence. Lagoona looked worriedly at Frankie, knowing that she could be a bit impulsive in certain situations, but instead of finding an expression full of sadness or something similar, she was met with an expression of complete bewilderment and confusion.
"What are you looking at!?" growled Clawdeen as she saw that many students were still around. These seeing themselves under the werewolf woman's gaze hurried away, not wanting to get in trouble with the younger sister of the most athletic student in the school.
"Frankie, are you okay?" the saltwater girl asked worriedly.
The Frankenstein girl did not answer, only looked in the direction of Draculaura, who continued to hide her ICoffin. The vampire could only smile nervously at the look on her friend's face.
xxx
Inside the garage of the Stein family. Upgrade was sitting cross-legged on the floor. In front of him was a medium-sized box made of what appeared to be bent and buckled sheets of metal.
"Uhmmm..." the alien's eye narrowed as he thought. All of his and his companion's belongings were in that box, all the ones that weren't destroyed of course.
The items ranged from magazines and comics to a couple of portable consoles, some CDs, a hoverboard in its compact form, his phone, wallet, and most importantly, his Plumber's badge.
The alien reached into the box and pulled out an object similar to a police badge, only white and gray, and with a large red circle.
"This thing still work?" he brought the object close to his face, then shook it back and forth, expecting to hear something broken, but that wasn't the case. "Let's see, how did it turn on? Damn, why did they have to make these things mechamorph-proof?" Finding himself unable to merge with the device to figure it out, he had no choice but to try to turn it on by other means. "If I can get it to work, it might be a good replacement for the Omnitrix."
At the mention of the device attached to his chest, the alien lowered his gaze and focused on that highly advanced circular object.
Since he tried to make it work that first day, he didn't try to touch anything else, first, because he might accidentally activate one of the many functions that he and his best friend, Kevin E. Levin, dubbed "end of the world protocol" or, in other words, self-destruction on a universal scale, but he was already starting to get impatient.
He touched the center of the dial and waited for the device's built-in AI to begin speaking.
Warning. Failure in primary systems. Failure in secondary systems. Electromagnetic damage detected. Evaluation and self-repair process at 43%.
"It's almost halfway through, maybe it will be ready on Saturday."
The possibility of returning to his real form made him feel hopeful, even though Upgrade was one of his original ten aliens and those were the transformations he had the most experience with, he was tired of spending so much time as a Galvanic Mechamorph, plus he was dying for some chili fries and smoothies.
"What am I supposed to tell them?" He was beginning to stress. He was no fool, he knew that once the clock was repaired, he was going to have to tell the truth. "Aaagh, I wish I had Gwen's brains or Kevin's lie telling skills right now." Frustrated, the alien held his head and shook from side to side.
After a few seconds of exasperation, he chose to take a deep breath, even if he couldn't, and calm down. He began to evaluate all the possibilities he had. None were better than the other, which meant he was going to have to come up with a plan and not have it blow up in his face, as it usually did, which meant that lying was not an idea that would work in the long run.
His attention then turned to the red and white device. That thing was his Plumber's badge and among the many functions it possessed, most of these useless given his situation, it had a universal translator. The problem was that it was out of order, possibly damaged either by the impact or by the electromagnetic discharge that also damaged the Omnitrix. If he could repair it, then he could talk to his new friends and gradually explain to them who he was and when the watch finally came back online, he would show them that he was a human.
Human whom they would possibly hate thanks to the horrible relationship they had with the monsters.
He was researching about it for part of the day and wasting time after getting bored, that reality also had Terminator, and Frankie's father looked a lot like that guy, but back to the research. He had discovered many things.
Humans and monsters had a very bad relationship, no matter how much they tried to hide it and to appear civilized, it was more than clear that it was not so. Most people, humans and monsters alike, did nothing, preferring to be stuck in this mediocre situation, while the few who tried to improve things, either by protesting, seeking inclusion, or trying to change things through laws, were boycotted. The most backward insisted that things were fine as they were. That peace was already there, so why change things?
If something was already working, why repair it?
Just the thought of those words made the biomechanical blood coursing through his body boil. The mechamorphs were the perfect example of making things better. They improved everything, all the time. To prevent things from changing was like insulting the pride of that specific species and being one of them at that moment, it was like insulting him.
"Great, the DNA is already affecting me." He muttered resignedly. The bad thing about spending too much time transformed was that many of the quirks belonging to the selected species made him act one way or another. Fortunately, he was a mechamorph, a very peaceful and calm species. He didn't want to imagine if it had been selected the most violent and dumb species he had. "If I had been Rath, those two gorillas would be in wheelchairs." He commented with amusement as he recalled the humans who dared to molest the lovely pink vampire and in revenge, he slashed the tires of their van, as well as birching her using the car door.
His thoughts were interrupted at that moment by the sound of the front door opening and then slamming loudly, followed by accelerated footsteps in his direction.
At this, he darted towards the vehicle he was using as a disguise, but not before leaving his badge back in the box and kicking it into a corner to avoid being seen so easily. He waited patiently for the person who had entered to make their presence known. He peeked his eye slightly to spy who was the one who had just entered, if it was a thief, he would pat his ass. But it was not the case, there, standing in the doorway was his monster friend, who had a very dismayed expression.
Upon seeing her, Upgrade detached himself from the vehicle and waved with his right hand, greeting her.
"Upgrade, we're in trouble." He could see the worried expression on her friend's face, which confused him. What could be happening to her? "The whole school thinks I have a boyfriend."
The alien's lonely eye arched at that. It wasn't a problem, was it?
Frankie seeing the alien's confusion took a deep breath and chose his words better.
"Everybody thinks my boyfriend it's the guy who was in the car yesterday." The alien cocked his head to one side as a sign of not understanding her. "The one who was in the car!" Frankie, in desperation, pulled out her ICoffin and showed him the picture that had been uploaded to Ghostly Gossip. Seeing the picture, Upgrade understood what she was referring to. "I'm in big trouble, rather, we're in big trouble!"
"Why is my hologram more photogenic than me?" muttered the alien as he kept his attention on the photo. Frankie noticed this and didn't hesitate to get his attention.
"Upgrade, if my parents get wind of this rumor, then they'll know Cleo didn't give me a car." The desperation in his friend's voice caused the alien to frown slightly. He didn't want to cause her trouble, but he was already causing it. "We have to do something, a girl at my school who's mean to everyone took pictures of me today and said she'd publish them in the school yearbook saying I'm dating a guy who gave me the car!"
Even though things like that were not real problems, in Upgrade's eyes at least, he felt responsible because it was his fault that his friend was in that situation.
While the young woman was talking, explaining to him how bad the situation was, Upgrade's mind lit up. One of the good things about being a living machine was that his mind worked at a different speed than his body, one second inside his mind was the equivalent of hours, it was this that allowed him to analyze and modify all the artifacts he joined and in turn, this allowed him to draw a plan quite fast.
There was only one problem left. Explaining his plan meant he was going to have to talk and he preferred to do it straightforwardly, so he moved. Frankie was left with the words in her mouth as she watched the alien ignore her and move to a box made of bent and dented sheet metal that she had never seen before.
The alien took out his insignia and turned to his friend, showing her the object. The young woman was confused when she saw the artifact, she did not know what it could be, but if it belonged to the alien, by the rule of three, whatever it was, it must be very advanced.
Frankie watched what her friend was doing. The alien did not move toward her, instead, he went toward a small work table behind the car nicknamed "MUTT" that continued to be covered by a tarp.
Curiosity led her to follow him a few steps behind. She wondered if he was trying to repair that device. She confirmed this suspicion when she saw him take a flat-bladed screwdriver and use it as if it were a crowbar to try to open the device, but to no avail.
"Can I never have any good luck?!" he exclaimed. Despite Frankie not understanding, she could feel the frustration behind those words, plus Upgrade looked up at the ceiling as if talking to someone.
She peeked over the side and focused her attention on that strange object. She had never seen anything like it before. The strange thing was that, unlike her ICoffin and any other electrical device, that thing emitted no trace of electricity. She could tell this from her nature, being powered by electricity sometimes had its advantages.
"You need help?" Upgrade turned his head, realizing that the girl was standing next to him. He was unsure, that was his immediate opportunity to be able to speak, he didn't want to accidentally have the girl destroy that thing. "Maybe I can make it work."
The alien's eye arched. He wasn't sure about that. Frankie was nice and very good, but still, he didn't fully know her abilities, she seemed more like a girl who didn't study much and only cared about her looks, she, and all her friends. If he had to go with a stereotype, it would be the cheerleader stereotype.
He looked back at the device and after some thought, decided to step back and let her try, if she failed, there would only be the Omnitrix to wait for.
Frankie approached the Workbench and Upgrade held out the screwdriver, but she shook her head.
"I have no idea what this is, but it looks like it's out of battery." Hearing that, the alien's eye expanded. He hadn't considered that possibility. "It doesn't look like it has a docking port, but maybe it can do something."
Upgrade watched her expectantly, he wasn't sure what the girl was planning to do, but he wasn't going to interfere, if she broke that thing he could get another one when he returned home.
Frankie for her part went to the toolbox and pulled out two wires, one blue and one black. These wires had clips on the ends and she connected one to each bolt on her neck and the other end to the small device. In a single second, the battery of that alien device was recharged and the red circle began to glow brightly.
"I think I managed to turn it on." The girl hurried to disconnect the wires and set them aside, then held out that object to the alien. "Here, it's already charged." To her surprise, Upgrade shook his head, a sign that he did not wish to retrieve that object yet. "What's wrong?" the alien began gesturing with his hands, pointing at the white object and then pretending to press something. "Do you want me to touch something?" She asked pointing to the strange object. The alien nodded and pointed to the red section.
Unsure about what might happen if she touched it, Frankie slowly brought the index finger of her left hand closer and pressed.
A red light emerged from the device, taking the girl by surprise, who had to make a great effort not to drop the device. The light ran across Upgrade's body from left to right, as if scanning him, and after a few seconds, it stopped.
"I think that will be enough." A male voice possessing a cybernetic echo that Frankie didn't know was heard. "Frankie, can you understand me?"
The girl took a step back. Her eyes were fixed on the alien, who was just watching her. The young woman could only look at him, confused and surprised.
"Yo-You spoke." The young girl stammered as she said that, she was surprised, amazed that she could understand the words coming out of Upgrade. Her mind didn't take long to understand what was going on and she turned her attention to the object in her hand. "It's a translator." She muttered in surprise.
"It's a little more complicated than that." He replied. "I remembered I had that thing with me and thought we could use it to talk."
The alien's words were being ignored by the girl. Frankie continued to observe the device that was now in her hands. She studied it in detail, the shape was not too complex and it was small enough to fit in a pocket.
"Wow." The girl muttered.
At this, the alien could only wait for the initial astonishment to dissipate. Whenever someone who was not used to things like that came into contact with extraterrestrial contraptions went into something akin to a state of shock.
"It's a two-way translator? I can understand you, does that mean you can hear me in your language?" Frankie started asking him questions, which surprised Upgrade. "This is amazing! How does it work? Did it connect to my mind or maybe it's translating in real-time what you say? Can I understand other languages?"
Upgrade was invaded by the girl's questions; she was surprised by this discovery. New to her at least. The alien on the other hand could only nod silently and answer as best he could all those questions.
"She's smarter than I thought." He thought, a little embarrassed that he had been wrong about the cheerleader stereotype.
Several minutes later, and after Frankie regained her composure, the two were chatting for the first time since they met.
"Tell me again, what happened?" Upgrade leaned back against the car that was covered by the tarp and let Frankie talk.
The young woman explained to him everything that had happened that day and also told him that the person behind the Ghostly Gossip posted on that blog that she was with a human and that he had given her the car. Upgrade understood the problem. If Frankie's parents found out about this, it meant that they would discover that Cleo did not give Frankie a car and that it must have another origin.
"What shall we do?" questioned the monster girl.
"Worst case scenario, they'll lock my alien ass up in Area 51." He replied with a certain touch of amusement. "I think I have an idea. When will they have the yearbooks ready?" he asked. A slightly crazy plan to solve that whole problem was forming in his head, and at the same time, this plan might serve to keep him from being so bored by being locked up.
"The day after tomorrow." She replied a little confused and not figuring out what he was planning. "But what does that have to do with anything?"
"Upgrade. I mean. My kind." Frankie noticed he referred to himself in the third person, which she found odd, but didn't focus too much on that. "We can alter all the technology we touch, I can merge to the computer where the pictures are stored and delete the ones you don't want them to post or change anything they write there."
"You can do that?" the surprise in Frankie's voice was very noticeable, she still didn't know the full extent of her friend's abilities, so intrigue set in.
"I can do a lot of things." He replied though this didn't clear up Frankie's doubts at all. "I just need to connect to wherever they keep those photos and presto, evidence removed, but regarding that gossip blog, if I can't get to the source computer, then I won't be able to do anything. On the bright side, your parents are too smart, they won't believe a rumor."
"But how will I be able to take you to school? If you get separated from the car, then mom and dad will notice it's a pile of junk!"
This bump in the alien's perfect plan made him reconsider it. Frankie was right, if he got separated from the car, it would go back to being a pile of junk. He could leave a fragment of his body behind to keep up appearances, but if he went too far away his fragment would be deactivated. He had to stay within range and at the same time look for those photos.
Once again, an idea came to Upgrade's mind.
"Take the car."
"What?" questioned Frankie.
"Take the car." Repeated the alien. "Go to the school using the car, so I can sneak out and erase the pictures. It's a perfect plan."
"That's a bad idea. What will I tell my parents? I don't even have a license! How will I drive to school?"
"You don't have to drive." Frankie looked confused at that answer, but as she saw the alien's eye curve upward, she began to get a bad feeling. "Draculaura has a license, doesn't she?"
The young woman could not say anything. She was speechless in the face of all this, but before she could contradict Upgrade, he spoke again.
"You helped me, now I'll help you, that's what friends are for." The alien looked at her and despite the expressionlessness on his face, Frankie could tell that his words were honest.
Frankie stood still, staring at that big four-fingered hand. She was surprised that he wanted to help her, but even more surprised that he considered her his friend, after all, it hadn't been more than three days since they met, she could only assume that he wanted to make it up to her for all the trouble.
"Okay, I'll convince my parents to let me take you to school and I'll call Draculaura." She was a little more relaxed, the plan was risky, but if there was no other option left, it would be for the best.
For a few seconds, both teens were silent. Frankie had to admit that Upgrade was quite nice. He wasn't at all close to what she had imagined the first time she saw him. On that occasion her mind had been influenced by that movie they saw, she had expected a being who was cynical and would only experiment on her and her friends, but this one was quite the opposite, he was funny, had a kind aura about him and liked Earth movies.
Frankie believed with increasing intensity that he was no different from other monsters on Earth. He was just an ordinary boy, who had nothing ordinary about him. He was like her, they both made a bad impression on their first day, but they managed to work it out and now they had friends.
"Do you want to watch a movie? When you left I was doing a marathon, did you know your dad looks like the Terminator?" Upgrade walked over to the pile of junk that functioned as his disguise and merged into these, then opened the passenger door, inviting the girl in.
"Wouldn't it be better to plan what you will do?" he questioned approaching. The alien's head emerged from the driver's seat and its eye curved upward.
"Not at all!"
Frankie decided not to question him and got into the car, she watched as some tentacles went to her laptop, which was on the car's dashboard and connected to it.
"I'll send a message to Draculaura." The girl pulled out her ICoffin and looked up her friend's number, she was going to let her know about her plan, but stopped and looked at the alien. "Upgrade, thanks for helping me."
"Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss the chance to get out of this garage for the world." He replied with amusement and getting a chuckle out of the girl. "Hurry up! O want to watch Jurassic Park!"
xxx
Several hours passed since Upgrade and Frankie had their first conversation since the meeting. The sun's glow was lost on the horizon and the moon was rising high in the sky, its ethereal light filtering through Frankie's bedroom window.
The young Frankenstein's monster was lying on her bed, in her hand was that strange object that functioned as a translator. Upgrade had handed it to her, stating that it was not necessary to give it back to him so soon and that he trusted her to take care of it.
When Frankie's parents returned home, the alien had to pretend to be a car, so he stopped talking to her, but they both continued to watch movies inside the vehicle. The knowledge that the alien possessed about Earth movies was too extensive, which affirmed once again that he had a relationship with the planet in some way and that Ben Tennyson was behind it. But who was Ben Tennyson?
After dinner with her parents, she ran to her room and used her ICoffin to search for a person called that in the city, using the best way to locate a person, social networks, only she had to use human social networks. She didn't come up with any results. Ben Tennyson was a name shared by a few people, she even came across a girl named that, the list could be too long and even with a photo as a guide, it would take too long to find him.
"If a human, like Ben Tennyson, could befriend a monster like Upgrade, then could more humans befriend a monster?" her mind evaluated that possibility, she was very optimistic, that such an idea would become real was something she would love to see happen.
If humans and monsters finally came to a real coexistence, then there would no longer be a need to hide who they were. Like their parents and many monsters did just to have a job. Would it be a utopia? Maybe something even better. But it was a distant dream.
Her thoughts drifted away from improbable futures and back to that thing in her hands.
She had no idea how it worked, the translator activated automatically when it detected an alien species, or so Upgrade told her, apart from the fact that it had many functions that were useless for some reason he did not explain.
Being a young girl with a brilliant mind and being raised by two scientists, leaving a mystery like that unsolved did not please her, so she put a finger close to that rocky circle and pressed it.
A red light emerged and she pushed the device away from her face as she was blinded by the sudden flash.
"What is this?" she muttered as she saw that a holographic screen had opened up over the device. To her surprise, the words were written in English and not some strange language.
Her eyes roamed over all the options in front of her, she was starting to feel confused. That thing had the basic functions of a phone, a computer, and several other things.
"A map?" she read and curiously brought her finger closer and pressed the holographic key. The image changed, showing several black squares and a red dot in the center. While it did not show anything resembling a map, it did show something else, a green dot a little to the left of the center dot.
She didn't need to be a genius, the center point was her current position, but what was the green dot?
She looked away from the object for a few seconds and observed her surroundings. The green dot was a little to her left, but to her left was only the window overlooking the garage.
"It's... detecting Upgrade?" she was confused; she didn't understand why on earth that device would detect its original owner.
Without realizing it, she touched the green dot and a holographic tab appeared in front of her.
Connection failure. Omnimatrix has been detected. Wireless connection required.
"Omnimatrix?" the young woman did not understand what she meant by those words. What was an Omnimatrix? And why could that device connect to that?
She tapped the holographic screen again, not sure what she was about to connect to, but she wanted to get an answer. Once again an error message appeared on the screen.
Connection failure. Unable to connect wirelessly to the Omnimatrix two-way communication system.
A little disappointed, but at the same time happy to be understanding the device a little more, the young woman decided that enough was enough and touched the red circle again, retracted the holographic screen, and then placed the object on the weight next to the operating table that served as her bed.
She laid her head back and began to think. She thought about her new friend from outer space. He was someone quite mysterious, but he wasn't bad, quite the contrary, he was a kind, funny and a bit sarcastic character, something she discovered when she spent the afternoon with him. If it weren't for his out-of-this-world appearance, he could pass as a normal teenager.
"Maybe we can disguise him." She thought as she closed her eyes. The next day would be a hectic one, especially for Upgrade and she could only hope he didn't cause chaos.
Gradually her mind shut down, her body relaxed and she drifted off to sleep.
xxx
Early in the morning. Frankie and her mother were outside the family home, standing in front of the car that now belonged to the young girl.
The monster woman kept giving directions and rules to follow to her daughter, who could only listen, resigned to her mother taking the situation to an exaggerated point.
"Remember, I don't want you to drive too fast, remember to always wear your seat belt, and also..."
"Mom, please, I know." Frankie tried to get her mother to desist with all that road safety talk, but only got the woman to escalate.
After Viveka recited the entire road safety manual to her, Frankie was able to rest, that information was too cumbersome for the young woman.
"Are you sure you don't want us to drive you as usual?" Viveka tried to dissuade her daughter, but she shook her head. The woman looked at her and then rolled her eyes at the car, she could feel the monster inside that car and it made her uncomfortable. She wasn't sure what it was or why it looked like a car, but she didn't trust it.
"Mom, I'll be fine, besides, Draculaura and Clawdeen are already here." As Franki said, both girls were inside the car, the werewolf woman seemed to be rummaging through the glove compartment and the vampire had sunglasses on for some reason and seemed to be imagining herself in a high-speed situation. "I promise we'll be careful."
Viveka held back the urge to force her daughter to stay but finally gave up. While the presence made her uncomfortable if her daughter was with her friends it meant they would be in a group and she would be safer. Frankie gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek to say goodbye and headed for the car with her friends. Shortly after the vehicle started up, the three young women waved goodbye and the car drove off.
The woman stood in place, watching the black vehicle with concern. Whatever it was, if it hurt her daughter, she was going to electrocute it until it ran out of power.
The car sped through the city, even though Draculaura was behind the wheel, this was only a façade and it was really the alien who was driving and the vampire was only acting as his guide.
After following many directions, heading away in the opposite direction of the school to their confusion, the small group ended up on a paved road up a hill. The alien kept watching his surroundings, memorizing the way back.
"Tell me again where we are?" Upgrade poked his head out from the front dashboard of the car, he was a little confused about his current surroundings and despite trusting his new friends, he was uncomfortable not knowing where he was going. "How far to Cleo's house?"
"Remember the jackal-headed guy who waved at us as we went over the wall?" said Clawdeen, who was in the back seats. "Well, we're on the grounds of her house."
Upgrade opened his one eye as wide as he could. He remembered the moment when they came upon a gate guarded by some strange jackal-headed fellows. Clawdeen spoke to them in a language he did not recognize and they let them pass. They had been there for almost five minutes and had come a long way down that road. How big could Cleo's house be?
"Ah look, they added new bushes." Frankie looked out the window.
The environment changed, the trees gave way to an ornate garden full of plants, several of those jackal monsters were around the place performing different maintenance tasks to the very, very, perhaps a little exaggerated in size, big garden.
Upgrade for his part could only keep quiet. As far as he knew, Cleo and her family were rich, so rich that they could buy that whole place and still have a lot of money. He wasn't going to point out the unnecessary spending of money, he could only say that he didn't understand rich people.
Another five minutes passed until he was told to stop. Upgrade looked with surprise at Cleo's house, if he had not been told that it was the young woman's house, he could have mistaken it for an Egyptian temple, the whole place resembled one. Tall columns adorned with hieroglyphs, huge stone doors, and ornamentation that seemed to be made of gold.
If Upgrade had had a jaw at that moment, it would have fallen out of place and hit the ground.
"When she said she was a princess I thought she was being vain..." muttered the alien.
"You have to see how inside; they have a huge television," Clawdeen commented.
Frankie had already explained to them that they could now understand Upgrade's words thanks to an artifact he lent her, the initial surprise was replaced by excitement as they could now converse more pleasantly and ask him more about him or space.
The group stood there, waiting for Cleo to make her appearance. The girl did not take long. She appeared through the huge stone doors that opened before her. Her stride toward the car was graceful and full of confidence. Her hips swayed from side to side as she descended the steps and approached the vehicle. With one hand she shook her hair to arrange it properly behind her back.
"How dramatic." Thought the alien as he saw that the girl seemed to be putting on a haughty performance.
After that unnecessary impromptu modeling act, or perhaps something she performed daily when leaving her house, the young Egyptian girl reached the car and made her way to the front passenger seat. Frankie shifted into the back seats, allowing her friend to climb in.
The young Egyptian woman adjusted her seat belt over her shoulder and chest and then looked at her friends.
"I'm not against getting to school in a car, this will certainly elevate my presentation a few notches, but I have to say, why?" questioned Cleo as she pointed at the alien, which was peeking out of the front dashboard.
"I already explained it to you, it's to prevent Toralei from putting in the yearbook that I have a boyfriend who gave me this car," Frankie replied.
"Easy princess, I can handle this," Upgrade added.
"Uhg, great, now you're talking." The mummy folded his arms and decided that for the rest of the way he would ignore the one-eyed head. "This is a very bad idea, if we get caught we'll be in a lot of trouble."
"We will be if we don't do something," Clawdeen added. "Come on Cleo, put some trust in Upgrade, Frankie says he's really good."
"Please, Frankie trust anyone." Frankie is about to respond to that, but Cleo's gaze silenced her. She wasn't that nice, was she? "Whatever, let's go already, the less time I'm inside this thing the better."
"You're the boss princess." Replied the alien as he started the engine once again and began to move forward.
"Don't call me princess!"
"How about snob?"
"I think I liked it better when you couldn't talk." The mummy could only curse in her mind at that alien.
xxx
Stormy clouds of an unnatural red color billowed over a ruined city.
The place looked as if it had been attacked by nuclear missiles. The air was toxic and almost non-existent. All life that once existed there was no more than an inert pile of dust that melted away with the occasional toxic blizzard. Nothing could inhabit the place.
Nothing but a person.
Reinforced black leather shoes hit against a worn and crumbling fence.
The echoing footsteps sounded as if he were inside a cave, but he was not.
These footsteps belonged to a person, a man covered by reinforced and dark clothes that consisted of a black two-piece outfit reinforced with plates of some single metal in the chest area, offering him protection, but without obstructing his movements and over this a black trench coat with violet edges, reinforced in the shoulder area, and elbows. Black gloves covered his hands and on his left arm, he had some sort of highly advanced gauntlet that glowed violet.
That man had his head covered by a helmet with a black crystalline visor, which prevented his face from being seen and the air of that hostile environment from damaging him.
The man plodded steadily forward, walking through the rubble of what were once buildings until he came to a crossroads, only, instead of asphalt-paved roads, there was a huge void stretching off into infinity.
As if to make sure that no vehicle was approaching so he could pass, he looked both ways. A group of rocks passed in front of him and he used them as a bridge to cross to the other side and continue on his way.
He stopped once again as he came to a destroyed structure that had once been a fast-food restaurant. Underneath the hard hat, his eyes were drawn to an object that stood out among the rubble and trash. A large mug with a cartoonish face and a straw protruding over its head.
That place was once called Mister Smoothies. Now, it was nothing more than a pile of garbage, the passage of time was inclement with the restaurant. As with everything in that city. As with everything in that world. As with everything in that reality.
"What stupid thing you did now..." muttered the man, his mature and raspy voice was accompanied by annoyance and disdain.
At some point in the past, measuring it accurately was difficult in that place as time did not behave constantly. This entity had sensed something. As space overlapped itself and time passed twice through the place, creating momentary feedback. This was a rare event, only caused by interference from beings with the ability to do something like that or by an accident.
Usually, he would not have minded, but on this occasion, he did since he was affected and this could only mean that a certain person had done something extremely stupid.
He was not a mentally stable person, the effects of the fate to which he was bound. His mind had been twisted long ago, upsetting him and turning him into a violent and volatile entity, but at the same time-wise and calculating. This intelligence he possessed led him to know some secrets that allowed him to go wherever he wanted in a limited way, if he was not careful he could get lost and never return.
This was the reason why he was in that destroyed restaurant.
Time was a concept that sapient beings had, but it only existed as long as it was measured. He could look in any direction in time as long as he had a way to do it, a shortcut. And one of the many shortcuts he knew, is right in front of him.
The man extended his hand forward and it was covered by a violet aura. That aura flowed as if it were a fiery call, but without burning its bearer.
From one moment to the next. What was once a destroyed restaurant returned to a perfect condition, but its color gamut was dull as if viewed through an old television with static interference.
For the man this was not strange, it was his work. It was a door and like any door, it served to cross to somewhere.
He advanced toward the building. When he set a single foot in the grayish area, everything around him changed. The colors became present and what was once a destroyed and silent city was now in perfect condition. The man's ears picked up the typical bustle of a fast-food restaurant. The hurried footsteps of a waitress walking towards a table with three young men, who were waiting for their orders.
The waitress walked past the man and stopped a few steps later, she turned her head to make sure she hadn't hallucinated and that this man had just come out of nowhere, but no one was there. This confused her slightly, but she played it down, it was very sunny that day, so it was possible she was seeing a mirage, so she continued with her work, dismissing that as just a momentary hallucination.
But that man was not a hallucination, he was real and he was looking for something.
"Time distortion." He muttered. The mysterious man was standing on top of a building, it only took him a second to get to that place, after all, for him, time was a relative thing and space could bend. "Damn brat, what did you do?"
His visor was no longer black, it was now transparent and was illuminated by small violet internal lights. The green eyes that man possessed were dull, emotionless and as if they had seen too much, his face was somewhat decrepit and the dim violet lights that the case possessed inside gave him an even more haggard appearance.
His eyes stared in the direction of the desert outside the city.
Humans are only able to detect certain external stimuli, heat, cold, pain, all thanks to the nervous system they possess. But this man was different from the average human.
No, he couldn't even be considered a human anymore. He was a concept. Someone who existed outside of natural laws and was bound by others much broader and more complex to understand.
Thanks to this, his eyes could see what normal humans ignored.
He could see the residue of something in the desert.
A point of singularity was several kilometers from that city. Space and time bent there, cracking and overlapping into another reality.
His lips curved upward at this. It was a very interesting situation. While he had only gone to that place to try to take down the person responsible and who in turn was a constant pain in his side, this was changing his plans. Maybe this was his chance to get something he had wanted for a long time.
The wind stirred the man's trench coat, lifting it slightly.
From one second to the next, the man was no longer on top of that building.
xxx
No note today. I barely managed to finish translating this chapter, many things happened this week and today I got sick... again.
Thanks for reading and any questions, I'll clear it up later
