Author's Note: A "-" mark signifies either a small time skip, location skip or the internal thoughts switching between characters. A "..." represents a separation between thoughts/recaps, dialogue, and actions. Lightspeed = John. I Thought I'd take some creative liberty, and divert from the lighthearted tone of the original show, this story has the "T" rating for a reason, and you can bet I'm gonna use it (whilst not "overdoing") it. I apologize in advance for the unusually long delay between chapters but, like I said before, I prefer quality over quantity. Like always, feedback/reviews are very appreciated.
Chapter 12- A Night at Mezmers: Part 2 (Terror and Confusion)
—
The initial panic of not being able to move quickly gave way to immense irritation when she saw the boy's neck turn to the right with a spring loaded speed to it.
She needed to see who or what John was staring at in a manner that suggested that his life literally depended on it, and yet, try as she might, she couldn't, and not for lack of trying either. Her internal diagnostic systems weren't displaying that there was anything wrong with her internal servomechanisms.
It was as if she was being physically restrained by some unseen force.
…..
"How a-are you here?" John nervously questioned before visibly tensing up.
"Isn't it obvious…you should know me well enough by now to figure it out." The man gently replied before letting out a light chuckle.
"And I thought you knew me." The man added with a faux tone of "hurt" to his tone of voice.
….
The second the sound of the man's voice hit her auditory sensors, her internal diagnostic systems briefly went haywire in a way she had never experienced before, something was obviously very wrong.
A metaphorical sea of static was slowly flooding the field of view from her left optic sensor. For the first time in a very long time, a lingering feeling of dread and uncertainty was slowly consuming her positronic mind.
…
"I'm surprised you recognized me so quickly in this new form, nice to see that you're just as sharp as the last time we met." The man gently stated before letting out a mild yawn.
Seemingly finding some of his courage, Lightspeed says the following in a more collected manner:
"Shedding your old skin doesn't make you anything but the same snake you've always been and always will be." John replied before biting his bottom lip.
Lightspeed clears his throat and after some mild hesitation, says the following:
"Let's just get this over with." John stated rather gloomily before attempting to get up from his seat.
Lightspeed gets up from his seat, only for his pant covered legs to visibly shake for a few moments and give out from beneath him.
The seat breaks Lightspeed's fall, and despite his best attempt to get back up, he can't seem to do so…. as if the same unseen force that's holding Jenny in place is now acting upon him as well.
"That won't be necessary, just stay in your seat and it'll all be over before you know it." The man replied in his usual calm demeanor.
An awkward few seconds of silence pass before Lightspeed lets out a mild sigh and says the following:
"I'm ready…. All I ask is that you leave the girl out of this when I'm gone, she's done nothing to you."
The man lets out a mild chuckle before responding with:
"Heavens no, I'm not here to do that… not yet at least." The man responded before adding:
"No, I'm just here for a little chat, that's all." The man added.
…
Before she knew it, both John and the bottle of vegetable oil were quickly disappearing to the left of her field of view, she was clearly being pushed aside and further down the seat to make room for someone.
Curiosity, fury, and terror ebbed and flowed with one another in her positronic mind as dozens of thoughts appeared and vanished with the rapidity of a machine gun:
Who did this fiend think he was to just shove her aside like some kind of inanimate object?What did this fiend look like?Who or what was he?Why was John so terrified of him?What was this fiend going to do to them?
…
"You've tried to kill me four times and you expect me to believe that you're just here for a chat!" John spat.
"Forgive me for thinking that I could conduct a civilized conversation with my injured foe, I wasn't aware that such a thing was off the table." The man retorted with a faux tone of "hurt" in his voice.
"I don't understand… you know that my ribs are broken, you know that I wouldn't win, and yet you won't act on it." John replied.
….
She would have to confront him about that later… assuming they survived this mess.
…
"For the same reason why I never attack you when you're stuck in my stasis field… it wouldn't be fair." The man replied before quickly adding:
"You'd do well to remember that I'm a predator, not some opportunistic vulture." The man added.
The man lets out a mild sigh before saying the following:
"Alright, John, I'm going to release you from the stasis field on the count of three, when I do, I expect you to look me in the eyes and play nice."
"There will be consequences if you disappoint me, understand?" The man stated with a previously unheard sharpness to his tone of voice.
Lightspeed silently nods in response.
"One."
"Two."
"Three." The man finished.
With a couple of audible "cracks" and a few groans, Lightspeed stretches his neck to the left and right before turning to face his foe sitting across the table from him.
"F #! %* hell I hate it when you do that, I feel like I'm being crushed in a vise every time you do it!" John snapped.
…..
She never thought she'd be grateful to hear that her auditory profanity filters were functioning, just the mere thought of knowing that at least something in her operating system wasn't going haywire gave Jenny a much needed feeling of comfort.
…
"Quit your whining and get to chatting, I've been absolutely dying to catch up with you since our last encounter." The man replied with an almost manic tone to his voice.
"You won't be getting much more out of me until you let her out of stasis as well." John demanded.
The room falls silent for a few seconds before the man responds with:
"I'd rather not, the automaton seems like the type to butt in on a conversation if she's not the center of attention."
"You know nothing about her." John retorted.
"You've known her for less than a week, it's not like you know her any better than me." The man angrily shot back before adding:
"What were you doing here with her anyways? You can't tell me that you took her to a diner like this without having some ulterior motive in mind." The man calmly added.
"You're a Senior on his way out of highschool and she's a Freshman who just got her foot through the door. It's a tad bit on the nose, don't you think?" The man taunted before letting out a mild chuckle.
"You learn something new everyday, I never took you for the lecherous type…how scandalous." The man flamboyantly stated before bursting into a short lived fit of laughter.
….
Second hand, first hand, it didn't matter, because she honestly couldn't recall the last time she felt this embarrassed, the all too familiar heat welling up within her chest and cheeks was so overwhelming that it felt like she could start melting from the inside out at any second.
Her already distorted vision was starting to blur, it felt like she was about to shut-down, jobs knows she'd prefer a shutdown over this…
….
The man angrily slams his fist against the table with a mild "thud", and lets out a sigh before saying:
"Can't enjoy anything, can I?"
"Fine!" The man relented before snapping his right finger.
Jenny's lifeless metallic body falls into a heap on the seat like a marionette that just had all of its string's cut.
Lightspeed diverts his gaze to Jenny in response before assertively demanding:
"What did you do to her?"
The man briefly raises both of his hands in a defensive manner before responding with the following:
"I didn't do anything."
"What did you do!?" John snapped back.
"You and your bleeding heart…she must've shut down." The man retorted with annoyance.
After a few seconds of silence, the man firmly states the following whilst snapping his fingers multiple times:
"It's rude to not maintain eye contact during a conversation, Mister Olmstead." The man firmly stated before adding:
"I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your eyes on me…. don't make me ask twice." The man added.
Lightspeed seems to get the "hint", and diverts his attention back to the fiend in front of him.
"That's more like it." The man stated with a smirk rapidly forming on his face.
After a few seconds of silence, Lightspeed shakily asks:
"I hope you haven't… done anything to the others in my absence."
The man shakes his head negatively before responding with:
"I wouldn't dream of it, I recall telling you this before, but I'll tell you again, they are, and always will be off limits until this little game between the two of us comes to its natural conclusion."
Lightspeed lets out an immediate sigh of relief in response to the man's answer.
…..
She was completely alone with her thoughts in the inky black void she called her subconscious, she had gotten what she wanted… a shut down.
She was starting to… collect herself….
After what felt like an absolute eternity, a blindingly bright icon appeared from the void in front of her, and it read as follows: [Reboot: Y/N]
The choice was obvious…..
…..
Without warning, and unbeknownst to the others, Jenny's lifeless metallic body begins to silently stir from its inactive state, and within milliseconds she sits back up in her seat.
Jenny silently turns her metallic head and locks her optic sensors on the two conversing to her left.
…..
As expected, John looked like he was nearly scared out of wits, he was pale as a sheet and was quivering in place like a terrified dog during a thunderstorm.
Unexpectedly… the man that John was so terrified of… looked as drab as could be; black hair, average height, average clothing, no older than thirty… it didn't make any sense.
A second and longer glance gave Jenny a new perspective… something was very wrong about this fiend….
For starters, the mere act of glancing at him caused the damage prevention and warning systems in her optic sensors to flare up in a way that only happened when she looked at the Sun for far too long.
Was the mere act of looking at him actually damaging her eyes?
It didn't help matters that looking at him also left her internal threat analysis and diagnostic systems locked into a never ending cycle of crashing and rebooting that left them effectively "bricked".
Just what exactly was the thing in front of her?
She needed answers….
…..
"Mind explaining who you are and what you're doing here!?" Jenny demanded rather firmly.
The man briefly diverts his attention towards Jenny and rolls his eyes dismissively before snapping his gaze back to Lightspeed and says the following in a somewhat "drained" manner:
"See, what did I tell you?"
Lightspeed diverts his attention to Jenny and says the following in a panicked tone of voice:
"Please stay quiet Jenny, I'm begging you."
"No need to be so selfless and warn her, I'll deal with it if she continues to make a nuisance of herself." The man replied.
"By doing what exactly?" Jenny challenged.
The man lets out a sigh and briefly diverts his attention to Jenny, only to silently respond to the teenage robot's question with a rictus grin teeming with yellowing teeth.
Without another word, the man allows his grin to falter, diverts his attention back to Lightspeed and asks the following:
"I saw that you had another bout with her, how was the fight?" The man demanded with rapt attention.
A look of absolute bewilderment briefly appears on Lightspeed's face before he responds with:
"How did you see anything, you weren't even…"
Lightspeed cuts himself off mid sentence before responding with:
"Oh…. right, could you stop doing that during this conversation."
"I'm afraid it's impossible to stop doing that when one is omnipotent." The man replied with a small smirk before adding:
"If it's any consolation, you're the only one I've ever met whose mind has contents that are nearly impossible for me to peruse on a whim, the best I can ever get is bits and pieces." The man added.
"It's such a shame too, I'd love to find whatever secrets you could be hiding. You always looked like that kind of person to me." The man stated with a small chuckle.
….
Who was this "her" that the fiend seemed fascinated by, what were they even talking about, every fiber of her positronic mind needed to know… and yet, as much as she wanted to demand answers, she didn't feel like finding out what that fiend and his self proclaimed "omnipotence" had in store for her. This wasn't something she could just "wing"; no, the risks of not being prepared were far too great to ignore, she'd need a plan of action before she even considered getting on that fiend's bad side. Come to think of it, would her plan even be "safe" from the fiend's self proclaimed ability to "peruse" minds; sure he could be lying, but what if he wasn't? If it was true, the fiend would know her plan long before she even thought of putting it into action. Maybe his ability didn't work on robots…..
…..
"So… how was the fight?" The man demanded impatiently.
"I was getting there, " John nervously huffed in response before adding:
"Other than it being an unpleasant rush, there isn't much to say about it." John added.
The man silently nods before saying:
"Let me rephrase…. what did she do, did she seem off?"
Lightspeed gives pause before responding with:
"Why do you care?"
The man impatiently drums the fingernails on his right hand against the table for a brief moment before assertively demanding:
"Just answer the damn question."
"Alright alright." John replied defensively before adding:
"Nothing about the encounter seemed out of the ordinary because she's always in a blood crazed frenzy. It's hard to tell if something's off with her if the only two things she cares about are ripping me apart and making sure that the spread of her domain never comes to an end." John added with a huff.
The man glances down at the table and gives pause for a brief moment before blatantly switching the subject and saying the following:
"Say… do you want anything to drink?"
A look of absolute bewilderment crosses Lightspeed's face in response to the man's question.
The man gives a half-hearted shrug before calmly responding with:
"Can't fault me for trying, just thought I'd ask because I'm feeling a bit parched myself."
The man lazily snaps his fingers, in response, an unopened soda can appears from the thin air in front of his face, only to fall and somewhat noisily clatter against the surface of the table a few moments later.
The man grabs the soda can with his left hand and cracks open the pull tab with his right, after doing so, he takes a rather long swig from it and places it back onto the surface of the table.
The man leans back in his seat and places both of his feet on the surface of the table before stating the following:
"I'd love to hear about the stir you caused when you first got here, surely you ruffled quite a few feathers upon arrival, right?"
"Aside from drawing the attention and ire of a single scientist, not really." John replied.
The man places both of his hands behind his head and lets out a mild sigh before stating the following:
"Disappointing but not surprising, given that this dimension appears to house nothing more than helpless simpletons and bottom feeders forever mired in their own mediocrity."
"That sounds an awful lot like something Oblitus would say." John half-heartedly replied.
"And you were behaving so well, too." The man stated in disappointment.
The man snaps his fingers and a metallic fork levitates up from the surface of the table for a few brief moments, only to unexpectedly rush towards Lightspeed with incredible haste. The fork comes to a sudden stop mere millimeters from Lightspeed's right eye, where it continues to hover in a threatening fashion.
The man lets out a quiet "tsk tsk tsk" of nonverbal disapproval before saying the following:
"Consider this your only warning. Never use his name in my presence again, do you understand!?" The man explosively stated.
Lightspeed silently nods his head in agreement to the man's question before responding with:
"Understood."
As if starting to calm down, the man sternly replies with a simple:
"Good."
The fork hovering in front of Lightspeed's face veers off to the right and out of sight where it audibly collides against Jenny's metallic head with a light "clink" before noisily clattering to the table.
The man shoots the teenage robot a subtle glance out of the corner of his right eye and states the following with a smirk on his face:
"Sorry about that, kinda forgot you were there."
…..
A glare of pure malice was all she could muster to give "voice" to her immense distaste for the vile being before her.
He wouldn't be smirking for much longer, for the pieces of a perfect plan of attack were falling into place at paces that an organic mind would find impossible to keep up with.
…
The man diverts his attention back to Lightspeed and asks the following:
"You don't seem very talkative John, is something the matter?"
Lightspeed rolls his eyes in response to the man's question.
The man suddenly lowers his feet, places his elbows against the surface of the table, leans forwards and stops at an uncomfortably close distance from Lightspeed before saying the following:
"I'm not very convinced, I'd be willing to bet everything that your mind is aching to know about what I am and where I came from."
"Why bother? It's not like you'd answer truthfully if I asked." John huffed in rebuttal.
The man smirks, leans back in his seat and takes a swig from his soda before responding with:
"Guilty as charged."
Unbeknownst to the man, Jenny can be seen quietly raising her right arm above her head, after doing so, she transforms it into its "Mighty Mallet" configuration, and swings it downwards with all of her might.
Without warning, the man reaches his right arm above his head and grabs hold of Jenny's transformed arm with his hand, stopping it dead in its tracks mere inches from colliding with the top of his head.
Without diverting his attention to Jenny, the man takes another long swig from the soda clutched in his left hand, and begins to tighten his already vise-like grip on Jenny's transformed arm, much to the Teenage Robot's dismay.
…..
She was clearly in over her head, but when had that ever meant anything?...
Wait.. why couldn't she move?
…..
Seemingly finishing his can of soda, the man haphazardly tosses it to his left and out of sight, where it noisily clatters to the floor mere moments later.
In one fluid movement, Lightspeed gets up from his seat, leans over the table and latches onto the man's right arm with his left hand and quietly says:
"Don't."
The man lets out a sigh and briefly diverts his gaze to the hand gripping his right arm, only to rather firmly "pry" it open with his left hand and shove it away.
As if shoved by some invisible force, Lightspeed is suddenly flung away from the table he's leaning over and his upper-back collides with the cushion covering the back of the chair. After colliding with the cushion, Lightspeed comes to a stop, only to fall and have the cushion covering his seat break his fall, and much to his dismay, he can't seem to get up from his seat.
The man slowly turns his gaze to the completely immobile teenage automaton and says the following with a small grin on his face:
"It's been awhile since I've had something of substance to play with, do try your best not to disappoint me."
After finishing his sentence, the man violently heaves the immobile teenage robot over his head and to the left via his grip on her transformed arm.
The incredible force from the acceleration and lightning fast deceleration cleanly uproots Jenny's transformed right arm from its socket, leaving nothing behind but an oil hemorrhaging metallic stub and exposed copper wiring.
Jenny collides with the floor back first and lays there for a moment before hopping to her metallic feet.
The man lets out a mild sigh before responding with:
"I was hoping you'd be more durable than that, how disappointing."
…..
She had been knocked down and damaged before the fight could even start… never before had she felt so demeaned, and to make matters worse, her foe was actively rubbing salt in the wound by acting as if nothing had just happened… The fiend was still sitting in his seat, looking like he couldn't be more relaxed even if he tried… he wasn't paying a single ounce of attention to her.
The fiend was making her feel as insignificant as a mosquito… it was enough to bring what was left of her oil to a metaphorical and literal boil.
It.
Was.
So.
On.
…
After transforming her damaged (but not destroyed) right arm into its "Fist of Fury" configuration and her left arm into its "Fist of Fury" configuration, Jenny rushes towards her foe with incredible haste.
Upon closing the distance between herself and her seated foe, Jenny delivers a hard right hook into a (now) vacant space of thin air that her foe once occupied.
In what appears to be a state of mild panic, Jenny sloppily whirls around 180 with her right fist leading the way, only to be greeted by her foe staring back at her with a mild grin on his face.
"A bit sloppy." the man taunted before letting out an amused chuckle.
…
She honestly couldn't recall being angry enough to feel as if she might blow one of her gaskets, was this all just a game to this freak?
…
After transforming her left arm into its "Mighty Mallet" configuration, Jenny swerves it directly at the center of mass of the foe in front of her in a similar manner to a vandal attacking someone with a baseball bat.
Jenny's attack once again connects with nothing but thin air, as if her foe had disappeared without a trace once more.
Jenny turns slightly to the right to be greeted by her foe staring back at her once more.
In response to the eye contact, the man briefly places his the palm of his right hand near his mouth and lets out a mocking sigh before responding with:
"Mind picking up the pace a bit, I'm gonna fall asleep at this rate."
In response, Jenny angrily throws a right hook towards her foe, once again connecting with nothing but thin air because her opponent keeps "dancing" just out of reach.
"Faster." The man demanded.
The Teenage Robot lets out an irritated scream of frustration before angrily throwing a flurry of blows at her foe with exceptional speed, much to the apparent amusement of her foe that keeps managing to dodge every single one of them with little apparent effort.
…..
It took her mere seconds to lose count of how many blows she had thrown, and rather concerningly, the much dreaded "servo system overheat" warning was staring back at her from the bottom right of her Heads Up Display.
The loss of oil from having the "Mighty Mallet" ripped from her right arm must've been far greater than she had initially thought and because of that, she needed to find a way to finish this, and …..
…..
Before the Teenage Robot can finish that thought, the man dodges just out of reach of one of her attacks and returns the favor by delivering a hard kick to the right side of the automaton's torso with his right foot.
The blow knocks Jenny off balance and causes her to stumble backwards a few feet in an absolute daze.
Jenny's attacker swiftly follows up with another blow that the teenage robot manages to block by the non existent skin on her nonexistent teeth.
The man throws another blow, which Jenny blocks by an even narrower margin, than another and another and another.
…
The advantage had been ripped from her, and what little confidence she had remaining had been torn away with it, leaving nothing but dread and an ever increasing feeling of absolute panic.
Her optic sensors and positronic brain were being left in the dust by the literal blur of speed and strength assaulting her.
Now would be the perfect time to activate some of her countermeasure systems… wait.. why weren't they working?
A brief flash of a warning message on the top right of her heads up display gave her the answer she didn't want to see:
[Warning: Countermeasure systems disabled, move 500 meters away from civilian populace in order to activate!]...
Surely she could override them, surely Mom couldn't be that paranoid..Right?
A brief flash of a warning message on the top right of her heads up display dashed any hope she had:
[Override disabled, move 500 meters away from civilian populace in order to activate!]...
For every blow she blocked, her internal integrity monitoring systems went haywire, whatever her foe was attacking her with, it was hitting her hard and she was almost completely powerless to make it stop… her body wouldn't last if this assault kept up much longer.
Wait…. Why couldn't she move her arms?
…..
The literal blur of a man comes to an abrupt stop with both of Jenny's transformed arms wrapped tightly in his grasp, and in one fluid movement, he uproots both of them from their sockets.
The man haphazardly drops both of them to the floor at his feet before delivering a devastating right hook to Jenny's (now unguarded) torso.
The force of the impact sends Jenny sprawling back first to the floor with an audible "thud".
…..
The message she had been oh so dreading could be seen clear as day on her heads up display:
[Warning: Auxiliary coolant tank levels at twenty-five percent capacity, catastrophic overheat risk at 75%, emergency system shut-down imminent.]
She…. had lost.
…
The man begins closing the distance between himself and his immobile foe, only to stop dead in his tracks in response to Lightspeed quietly pleading the following from the seemingly invisible box keeping him trapped in his seat:
"Don't do it, I'm begging you."
The boy's request falls on deaf ears, as the man attempts to resume walking towards the fallen automaton, only to stumble forwards and nearly hit the floor in a manner akin to someone suddenly being overcome by a wave of vertigo.
Lightspeed seems to take notice immediately, and with an unexpected boost to his confidence, he mockingly asks the following with a grin on his face:
"You don't look so good all of a sudden, did someone over-exert themself again?"
Whilst gently massaging his left temple with his left index and middle fingers, the man turns to face Lightspeed with a look of absolute annoyance on his face and breathily says the following:
"It would seem that I've overstayed my welcome once again."
With a pale and clammy looking right index finger, the man twitchily beckons Lightspeed to him, in response, Lightspeed quickly flies through the air as if he were a piece of bait cast at the end of some invisible fishing line, only to come to an abrupt stop mere inches from his beckoner.
The man lowers his right hand, and in response, Lightspeed gently falls to the ground.
The man clutches Lightspeed's shirt with his right hand and pulls him closer before saying:
"Enjoy your short-lived reprieve for every second that it lasts, because the next time we meet, I won't be so cordial."
A handful of tiny cracks appear at the edge of the man's left eye as if his flesh were a piece of brittle pottery that had just been struck by a hammer.
The cracks quickly metastasize until they encompass the entire left side of his head, and a barely visible yellow glow starts seeping through the newly formed cracks on the man's head.
As if dreading whatever answer he might hear, Lightspeed lets out a sigh and asks the following:
"Time and place?"
"That's for me to know and for you to find out, you'll know when the time comes." The man breathily stated before adding:
"And when it does, you'd do well to take heed of my call the very second you are beckoned." The man added.
"And what happens if I don't?" John prodded.
Without warning, the yellow glow seeping from the cracks explodes in intensity, as if someone unseen force had just lit a flare inside the man's head.
"Don't play dumb, you know exactly what I'll do if you even think of getting cold feet." The man responded.
"Be seeing you." The man stated.
Without warning, a flash of blindingly bright yellow light envelopes the entirety of the diner, only to disappear just as quickly and leave no trace of the man once standing in front of Lightspeed behind.
In the light's wake, the once dimly lit and "dead" diner appears to have transformed back into the "lively" and bright environment that it was before the man appeared, with its gabbing customers and staff seeming none the wiser to the string of events that have just occurred.
—
Even with his broken ribs, the advantage was now firmly in Lightspeed's hands, and the temptation to pull the plug on this nightmare before it could even truly begin that came with it by giving chase to his exhausted foe was nearly overwhelming.
The fiend had to be hiding somewhere, it was merely a law of averages that he'd eventually turn up if Lightspeed was willing to search at a breakneck pace.
….
On the other hand, the chance of him finding his way back to Dr. Wakeman's house was slim at best if he took off at full speed and attempted his search, and more importantly…he'd draw a lot of unwanted attention to himself by sprinting across the globe at hypersonic speeds.
And what of the robotic girl laying on the floor behind him in such a sorry state, he couldn't just leave here ...right?
Before Lightspeed can come to a decision, the sound of Mr. Mezmer's voice rips him from his thoughts:
"Ya alright there, laddie? Ya look like you've seen a ghost."
Lightspeed diverts his attention to a rather concerned looking Mr. Mezmer staring back at him from behind the counter and responds with:
"I'm alright, I was just debating on what I should do."
Mr. Mezmer cocks his left eyebrow inquisitively before asking the following:
"What's that supposed ta mean? Ya weren't planning on dining and dashin' were ya?"
"Of course not." John replied.
Lightspeed closes the distance between himself and the counter that Mr. Mezmer is standing behind, shoves his right hand into his pocket and digs out the two twenty dollar bills that Mrs. Wakeman had given him, and promptly lays both of them on the counter in front of the owner of the diner.
"Ya paid twenty five dollars more than ya needed ta, take a twenty back and I'll get ya a five." Mr. Mezmer said.
"Keep the change, I need to get out of here and fast, it's an emergency." John responded before turning on his heel and sprinting to the fallen automaton on the floor.
The attention of Mr. Mezmer and many others follow Lightspeed along his path, and quickly fall upon the fallen automaton, the sight of which earns more than a handful of audible "gasps" and "what happened to hers" from the diner's patrons and staff alike.
Lightspeed leans down, grabs hold of Jenny's feet and pulls them up to his waist, and begins to pull on them like they were the handles of a wheelbarrow.
Much to apparent shock of the now silent patrons and staff of the diner, Lightspeed continues to rather crudely drag the seemingly lifeless teenage robot until he nears the exit and says the following:
"I'm deeply sorry for the disturbance ladies and gentlemen, I would explain everything if time wasn't of the essence, but sadly that's not the case."
"Sorry about the mess, Mr. Mezmer." John awkwardly added.
Lightspeed rather callously lets Jenny's metallic feet slip from his grip and fall to the floor, and mere moments later, he leans forwards and quickly shoves his left arm underneath the automaton's metallic popliteal fossa before shoving his right arm between the floor and the robot's metallic back.
With a deep breath, Lightspeed stands up with the seemingly lifeless automaton in a "bridal style" carry.
"I'll be right back." John stated before rather gently shoving the exit door open with his right foot.
Upon opening the door far enough, Lightspeed quietly squeezes through the doorway, and breaks into a sprint before disappearing into the night.
—
(Sorry about the long delay between chapters, work has been hectic and draining as of late, and a bit of writer's block hasn't helped matters either, so if this chapter seems a bit more unorganized than usual, now you know why. I just wanted to get it out because I know a few of you have been waiting patiently for this and I don't wanna leave you hanging any longer. As for who "the man" is, you'll just have to wait and see.)