Sisters, Sisters
Danny was so bored.
That shouldn't be something you say two days into an enforced stay in an alternate dimension filled with advanced technology and aliens, and yet here he was.
After he'd woken up late yesterday, late enough that Jenny had already shot off to school, he'd been pretty eager to get out and about. Sure, he still felt kinda sucky about the situation, but venting to Jenny about it had helped a lot in dealing with it. She was a good listener, gave him some pretty solid encouragement about the whole thing. Didn't hurt at all that she was fun, too - making up constellations with her had them both laughing.
With that and a more optimistic look at the situation inspired by her, that morning he'd stopped down in the lab to let Dr. Wakeman know he'd be going off exploring.
To be told he absolutely could not in no uncertain terms.
The more rational side of his brain did get it. It was bad enough bringing diseases from one side of the world to the other, never mind a different world entirely. So, a short quarantine was maybe in order whilst Jenny's mom went over all the various samples and reading's she'd gotten when he'd first arrived to be sure he hadn't brought something ridiculously deadly through with him. Or used her automated process for that while she worked on studying the ectoplasm she had, whichever. It made sense.
Unfortunately, rational brain was having to contend with bored teenage brain right now.
He'd been so bored he actually did his homework. His school bag had survived the trip with him, and he'd figured he may as well do his assignments as long as he was stuck here. Assuming he can go back to school without issue when he returned, Lancer would be pleased. That had, mercifully, taken up the time until Jenny came back from school, and they'd settled in for a movie marathon with a mountain of snacks and oil until it was time for sleep. Thank Clockwork cheesy horror movies existed here too.
Today though? Homework was done, the only books in the house were super technical science stuff, the non-super science computer had a password he'd forgotten to ask Jenny for, and the only TV he was aware of was in her room. He wasn't clear on the etiquette of this world just yet but barging into someone's room and stealing their TV was probably out. There were board games, but he'd need at least one other person for that.
He let out a groan. One more day, maybe more, that's it. Then he can start exploring the town a little more.
Danny hauled himself up from the sofa he had been listlessly lazing on. Fine, then, go for a wander in the house. It's the house of a mad scientist, after all, there's got to be something interesting around here somewhere.
How was there nothing interesting anywhere.
Danny had vaguely assumed that all mad scientists were the same as his parents – that is to say, deeply uncaring about the safe storage of their dangerous creations. Granted, they had the excuse of most of their stuff being supposedly harmless to humans but leaving lasers powered by ghost juice just laying around was probably still bad.
But Dr. Wakeman? In the three or so labs he'd found that she wasn't currently using (good grief, who needed this much laboratory space), there was nothing out of place. No weird looking project he could examine or learn from or mess with for his own amusement. Really advanced looking equipment, sure, she couldn't have built the most human-like robot he'd ever seen otherwise, but none of it looked especially fantastical. Not that he had the faintest idea what some of this was.
Oh well, at least he'd killed an hour or so. Yeesh, this house was big, every time he thought he'd gotten it figured out there was some new set of rooms he'd somehow missed the first time out.
… Like these stairs to a basement, for instance. How had he missed this?
Eh, maybe they kept pinball machines down here or something. At this point he'd settle for any kind of entertainment.
A sense of foreboding crept up Danny's spine as he wandered down. Something about this place felt forbidden, like he wasn't supposed to be down here. Nobody had said anything to him about it, but still. Vibes. You get a feel for them being occasionally dead.
He wasn't really sure why, though – disappointingly, this was just another lab. Well, maybe workshop would be more appropriate. There was a really big glass jar… thing. It looked big enough to cram a few people into, which. Um. Leaving that one well alone. He recognised a few bits and pieces of the other equipment down here; they were all to do with machining metal or building circuits. Wait, was this where Jenny was made? Or born, maybe? Whichever.
Cool idea, but without knowing for sure this wasn't much more interesting than… what's wrong with that wall.
Danny blinked a few times as his investigative instincts, honed by a year of dealing with Vlad and his paranoid architectural habits, immediately homed in on a back wall that looked just ever so slightly off. Secret door?
He walked up to it and shoved, and hinges creaked as the panel hidden in the wall swung open.
Secret door! Now this was much more mad science!
As were the contents, as Danny made his way through, his hand ignited with ectoplasm as a torch. All darkness and cobwebs and bundles covered against prying eyes. He pulled a dust sheet from the largest object sitting in the room. His eyes widened as he drank in the sight before him.
The dust sheet had concealed… This looked disturbingly like a larger version of Jenny. The metallic tube top and mini-skirt were recognisably similar to hers, if much bigger and a dark blue on this robot, and the head was much less human-like than Jenny's. The fists resembled a gorilla's, and he was suddenly glad that this robot wasn't his welcoming committee to Tremorton.
And there were at least seven other, similarly dust sheeted and of varying sizes, which Danny also removed. Every single other robot, because that's what they all were, resembled his robot roommate in some regard, be it colour scheme, pigtails, or some obvious technological relation. One of them didn't even seem like they had any means of movement, except… Jenny can fire rockets from her pigtails, so maybe this one that looked like a radio with a face could do that to get around? … Were these prototypes? Wow!
He crept around and examined the others. He peered at one that almost looked like a snoozing metallic baby, swaddled in circuitry. Another appeared to be a cross between a vacuum cleaner and an octopus, another a very depressed looking metal dog. A pistol with legs, for… some reason. An absolutely adorable tiny robot with claws that Danny was absolutely taking home with him if he could manage it, and a three-legged, one-armed bot with a TV head.
Danny stepped back to survey the deactivated group in wonder. There were eight other robots down here! That was so cool!
The smile he wore at his discovery slid from his face slowly but surely, however, as he thought more about this. Jenny, so far as he could tell, was entirely self-aware – a true AI with her own personality. He hadn't had any real problems accepting that, a fact which he attributed to both consuming a significant amount of science fiction, and learning the hard way that ghosts were people even if they weren't human, which didn't stop some of them being jerks. Unfortunately, that facet of his character was now drawing some worrying conclusions about the robots in front of him.
They didn't seem to be as advanced as Jenny in some regards, but were they intelligent as well? People as much as her and him? If so, why were they locked away down here? They didn't look… Well, OK, the big one looked very dangerous but come on, the baby? The small pincer robot? Why would you leave them down here? Or why not warn him off coming down if they were dangerous? It didn't seem right just leaving them down here to gather dust.
He reached out and brushed his thumb against the screen of the three legged one as he pondered. It would probably be better to ask Jenny about this when she got back. He'd ask Dr. Wakeman but interrupting her in the lab when she was frenzied about something was the one warning he did get, so perhaps not.
As his thumb moved across the screen, however, the inky blackness lightened and flickered, and the faint whine of electricity built up slowly but steadily.
Jenny hummed to herself as she turned the corner onto her street on her way home from school.
This hadn't been a bad day! Brit and Tiff had left her alone most of the day, too preoccupied with some infighting with the popular kids to bother the robot girl, her classes went pretty well, and Sheldon was being less obsessive than usual, so she had some company! And now she could head home, finish up her homework quickly, and hopefully talk Danny into something fun again. It'd only been a day, but she was really enjoying having someone her age in the house. He was funny, friendly, and perhaps most importantly, he got it.
A couple of times in the movie marathon she'd make some sarcastic remark about the heroes in the deliciously terrible horror movies they were watching, comparing it to her own experience having to fight something similar. He'd just talk back with some similar event from his own set of bad guys, with the tone of someone who knew what she felt from experience. Another teen hero with a complicated life - she didn't have anyone here she could have that kind of connection with, although Brad came close.
Oh, when he and Tuck got back, she was so going to have to introduce them to Danny!
She was wondering how best to do that – probably just something simple, like hanging out at the mall or the park. They were both talkative dorks, so they'd probably hit it off in those circumstances – when her hand wrapped around the doorknob of her front door and flung it open.
To be immediately knocked backwards by a wall of sonic force accompanied with a deep bass rumble.
She leapt to her feet immediately, flinging her schoolbag to the side to protect it from any further damage. Her arms shifted and split apart, her still intact hands grabbing onto the pistol grips of the large guns that emerged from her elbow joints. In an instant she had them pointed through the open door, ready for anything.
"… What?!"
Well, anything except all her sisters arrayed in the hallway playing musical instruments.
XJ-8 held a tuba, playing it with enough force that it had been what knocked Jenny down when she'd opened the door, XJ-1 giggling as she bounced within the mouth of the tuba, acting as the mute. Standing on her shoulder was XJ-3, a triangle gripped in her pincers she was hammering hard in time to the music. XJ-4 had her hands around both a bass and a violin, drawing her bows against two sets of strings. XJ-2 was repeatedly hiccupping at a bass drum, the blasts she fired producing booming beats, as XJ-7 beat out a rhythm on the others of the set.
And standing at the front, reading from the screen of XJ-5 whilst the floating radio played a trumpet, stood Danny and XJ-6, arms around each other and singing, backed by the rest of her sisters.
"What's the life of man any more than a leaf?
Life has its season, so why should there be grief?
Oh in this wide world, we appear fine and gay!
Like a leaf we shall whither, and soon fade away!"
Jenny stared in blank confusion as the music died down enough for Danny dash forward and grab her shoulders.
"Jenny!" He shouted enthusiastically as the eight-robot-and-one-half-ghost orchestra paused their rendition at the entry of the robot girl. "Why didn't you tell me you had sisters?"
"It… didn't come up, I guess?" She replied, sheepishly. "When did you-"
"XJ-9!" XJ-6 interrupted, her one arm wrapping around the ghost boy, her screen displaying a huge smile. "Please tell me we're keeping him! He actually listens to me!"
"I mean, he's staying with us for about three months and… no wait, mom only activates you guys in an emergency! Did something happen while I was gone, XJ-6?"
"Hexy!"
"… what?"
"I wanna be called Hexy now!" XJ-6… or Hexy, Jenny supposed, shouted gleefully. "Danny gave me the name!"
"Hey, I just asked if any of you would like one," Danny shrugged modestly. "Kinda surprised only two of you took me up on it."
"Hexy – a reference to her unit number, the hexadecimal numeral system, the heat exchanger device and the character from the early 3D television show ReBoot," XJ-5 chimed in from behind them cheerily.
"… I intended two of those at most, but sure," Danny shrugged.
"Who was the other?" Jenny asked.
The ground shook as XJ-8 lumbered forward, tuba still held at the ready. Her servo's had a deep bass whine as she bent over to look at her younger sister.
"This unit is now designated 'Jane'", the gorilla like robot rumbled in a monotone.
"… That's great! Both of you!" Jenny responded, a smile creeping up on her face, before she turned back to Danny. "How'd this happen?"
"Well, OK, it started like this…"
"… and you're seriously only activated whenever there's an emergency?" Danny asked, incredulous. "That sucks! You guys have just as much right to exist in the world as Jenny!"
"It is what it is," XJ-5 waved off his concern. "At least things are always interesting when we wake up! So, what's going on now? Who are you? What are you? Some weeeeeeird readings coming from you! I'm pretty sure you should be dead! Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, and why can't the oh-so-brilliant Jenny handle it," XJ-6 grumbled.
"Oh, there… kind of isn't anything?" Danny replied, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "I, uh, I'm staying at the house for a few months, and I got bored. There's nothing to do here and I can't go out, so I wandered round, found you guys…"
He made an expansive gesture, a clear 'you can figure out the rest' in his arms.
"You snooped around a laboratory and activated robots you didn't recognise because you didn't have anything to do?" The mechanical octopus that was XJ-4 piped up. "Oh my. If there isn't anything wrong now, there certainly will be soon with that attitude."
"Hey!" Danny protested. It sounded feeble even to his ears. "… OK, yeah, fine, it was dumb. But hey, it's not like I actually planned to do that, and it worked out! The world isn't ending or anything so, you know. Better than most times you mess around in mad science, in my experience."
"Great. That's all I'm good for, being activated accidentally by curious houseguests," XJ-7 moaned morosely. "Why do I even bother…"
"Is… she alright?" Danny asked, concerned.
"She's fine, she's always like this," XJ-4 dismissed.
"That actually makes it worse, you do realise that, right?"
"Query," the huge one Danny knew to be XJ-8 interrupted. "If there is no emergency, what is our function at this time?"
Danny paused for a moment, and then shrugged.
"Wanna play some board games?"
"Why would you invade us?!" XJ-4 shrieked as Danny and XJ-6 flipped over their orders for the turn. "You said we'd invade England together!"
"Did we?" Danny replied innocently. "I'm pretty sure I remember my advisor over here only telling you you'd get what we promised."
"And we promised to WIN!" Shouted XJ-6 gleefully.
"Guess this is what happens when you don't listen to your sister," Danny grinned, turning and holding up a hand to his partner, who happily slapped her one hand onto his. A quick glance at the board by the dismayed robot sisters (seriously, Danny would have to ask how Dr. Wakeman managed to make all of these robots so expressive, it was incredible) confirmed what Danny and XJ-6 had predicted – with their surprise betrayal, the other 3 teams were pretty much doomed.
Diplomacy wasn't a game Danny got to play all that often – never had the time, or the right amount of people to make it work properly. And even when he did, he could count the times he'd won on a single finger. Sometimes he hated living with geniuses.
So to have beaten a group of advanced, albeit seemingly human level, robots at the game, with the sister who claimed to be his fellow ignored sibling? Oh yeah. This was a good feeling.
"Data indicates only one likely outcome," XJ-8 declared, pointing with her free hand as her other held XJ-1. The baby-like robot (another thing to ask Dr. Wakeman about, but in this case the questions would probably be confined to 'Why?') concurred with her game partner, gurgling in a dejected manner.
"Of course we lost, we had me on our team," XJ-7 sighed, her vaguely canine head hitting the table.
"No, no," XJ-4 dismissed, patting her sister on the head condescendingly. "We lost because Team Tiny over there put troops on our border."
XJ-2 and 3 both tittered to themselves and Danny grinned. Neither he nor XJ-6 had planned on making an alliance with anyone, both deciding they'd try to win entirely by themselves even if that wasn't strictly how the game worked. But darn it, XJ-3 was too cute for Danny not to listen to when she offered to turn their already losing position into a kingmaker scenario for the team of bitter sister and half ghost.
"Is that a unanimous decision by our teams?" XJ-5 queried, acting as the judge to make up for the odd numbers involved. Strictly speaking they needed 7 players for a full game, but they'd decided teams were more fun, especially since only Danny was familiar with the rules.
The other three teams all signalled their assent, XJ-4 flinging the games paperwork to the table in a huff as she did so.
"Alright!" Danny cheered as XJ-6 pumped the air. "Good game, guys!"
"You would say that," huffed XJ-4.
"No, I mean it!" He insisted, grinning a little at the sore loser bot. "I don't have enough time or people to play this one normally, so thanks everyone!"
"Absolutely dandy, bucko!" XJ-5 chimed in cheerily. "At least losing's a different experience than what usually happens when we wake up!"
"Yeah, usually we either have to fight something, or something blows up," XJ-6 added. "This was more fun."
"That still bothers me," Danny frowned. "Seriously! You're all people!"
"… no we're not?" XJ-4 said hesitantly.
"You know what I mean! It's not right you're just kept down in the basement! Why do you get less of a life than Jenny?"
"Yeah!" XJ-6 piped up. "See, he gets it!"
"Like, do you guys even have names?"
"This unit is designated XJ-8."
"I mean… yeah," Danny conceded. "But I mean, do you have personal names? My name isn't homo sapiens ectoplasmus 2, for instance."
"Jenny named herself," XJ-7 raised her head to interject. "Mother just calls her XJ-9 like the rest of us."
"Well, do any of you WANT a name?"
The robots around the table suddenly stilled, and Danny could hear the processors whirring as the eight prototypes contemplated that question.
"… can we?" XJ-4 asked, looking from sister to sister nervously.
"Why not?" XJ-6 questioned. "If Jenny can, why can't we? I want one!"
"I'm happy enough with XJ-5, honestly."
The majority of the sisters nodded their agreement with that sentiment, although some Danny could see were reluctant about it. A shame, really, but hey, you can't enforce a sense of individuality if people are content with their lot. A lesson Sam had yet to learn. Danny chuckled to himself at the thought.
Then the floor shook, as XJ-8 stood and approached the halfa.
"This unit requests a redesignation," the giant bot rumbled.
"Yeah, help me out too, Danny!" XJ-6 insisted.
"You… You really want my help picking a name?" When the two bots nodded, Danny beamed at them. "Cool! I won't let you down! Alright, lemmie think…"
He tapped his chin as he pondered. "OK, so, Jenny is kind of based on J9, so let's start there. X-J8, J8, Jate… Jane? How does Jane sound to you?"
Clicks and whirring emanated from the hulking sister of his roommate, her eyes flashing and flaring as she thought through the suggestion.
"Redesignation accepted," was the eventual reply. "This unit will now respond only to Jane."
"Me now, me now!" XJ-6 yammered excitedly, her one arm flailing a little. "And no J names! Gimmie something that'll stand out!"
Danny grinned at the enthusiastic TV bot. In a lot of ways, he related to XJ-6 – they both felt neglected and ignored by family, although he'd admit the robot girl had WAY more of a chip on her shoulder about it. No matter what, he was making sure at least she stayed active as long as he was here.
"Hm. OK, no J names… So maybe something based on 6…" Danny tapped his chin in thought. "6, 6… Oh, I got it! Tucker and me watched an old TV show a few months back with a character called Hexadecimal. How's that sound?"
"Eh, too long. People won't remember it, and they gotta!"
"Remind me to never introduce you to a different girl with blue hair back home," Danny deadpanned. "Alright then, let's shorten it to Hexy."
"Hexy… I like it!" The robot girl declared, her screen flickering for a moment before displaying a wide smile. "Alright, everyone has to call me Hexy now!"
"Great! Everyone else, you sure you don't want a name?"
Danny caught XJ-4's tentacle briefly twitch, as though she wanted to raise her hand to him, but she eventually shook her head with the rest of her mechanical family. He shrugged, but made a mental note to ask her alone at some point. Maybe she just didn't want to admit it in front of the rest of her sisters. Danny knew that kind of familial crisis all too well.
"Well, I guess that's that then. What should we do now? My quarantines still on, so we have to stay in the house."
"Alert," XJ-8… No, Danny shook his head, not anymore. Jane interrupted. "Unit designated 'Jenny' will be returning to domicile in one standard hour."
"Really?" Danny started, before glancing at the clock. "Huh. Time does fly when you're having fun, I guess... Oh hey, I've got an idea! We should surprise her! Any of you guys know how to play an instrument?"
"No, but give us five minutes and a decent download connection and we could!" XJ-5 chattered.
"Great! So here's what we're going to do..."
"... And then we searched for 'deeply ironic songs for robots to sing', came up with that one about people inevitably dying, which was also ironic for me, your sisters found all these instruments from… somewhere, and we waited to catch you by surprise!"
"Wait, now that you bring it up," Jenny questioned, pointing a finger at her siblings. "How did you play some of those? We don't have lungs!"
XJ-5 and Jane glanced down at their wind instruments briefly, before meeting each other's eyes and turning back to Jenny.
"Yeah, you got me, sis," XJ-5 replied.
"No data available," Jane rumbled.
"… I'm choosing to put that down to interdimensional weirdness," Danny supplied.
"Oh sure, you can, I have to live here with this mystery now!" Jenny laughed. "Oooh, I never get to spend time with you guys! What did you have planned after this?"
Danny scratched the back of his head. "… I'll be honest, this is as far forward as I thought through. Any ideas, girls? I still can't leave the house, but anything you all wanna do together?"
"I demand board game vengeance!" XJ-4 shouted.
"Nah, nah, Danny says he's got a hard drive full of video games from his world!" Hexy enthused. "I wanna try some and see if I can do this thing called 'streaming' with 'em!"
"Spaaaaaa day!" XJ-5 sang. "My joints are killing me!"
"You don't have joints!"
"Explain my pigtails, then, vacuum for brains!"
"It's always like this…" Bemoaned XJ-7.
Jenny watched her sisters devolve into bickering, before turning to Danny. He shrugged.
"All of the above?" He suggested, and briefly flinched at the cheering that ensued from the robotic sisters. The brood of robots all shuffled into the living room, XJ-4 swiping at various board games as they passed, Hexy talking loudly about her plans for her streaming channel.
"Was that weirdly in sync to you too, or is that normal?" Danny queried.
"No, it's, uhhhh… We're all kind of networked?" Jenny replied. "Not, like, hivemind, but something to 'facilitate coordination', mom put it."
"Ooooh, so kinda like a sibling bond thing? Like me and my sister can't hide anything from each other."
"Huh. I never thought about it like that…" Jenny muttered, a smile growing on her face. "Yeah. Sibling bond! I like that! … Um, Danny?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for… treating my sisters like this," Jenny said shyly. "They don't get a lot of respect from anyone. Not even mom. I'm glad you found them."
Danny scowled slightly. "Like I told them all, they're people even if they're not human. I don't get how anyone can talk to them for more than two minutes and not get that."
"You'd be surprised," Jenny said, sadly. "A lot of people think like that about robots. Doesn't matter how human we act, for some of them it isn't ever enough."
Danny put his hand on Jenny's shoulder, a sympathetic expression on his face. Jenny turned to look at him, her circuits flickering strangely as she did so. They stayed that way for a moment before Jenny shook herself and plastered a big smile on her face.
"Enough of that, come on! I wanna do a spa day with my sisters!"
"Yeah, and Clockwork alone knows what Hexy's doing with my hard drive," Danny grinned back. "Let's go!"
And so it was that, a few hours later, when Dr. Wakeman exited her lab and found the living room a chaotic mess of the all the XJ series, XJ-4 triumphantly laughing over a board game with several other models, XJ-8 having swapped her hands for twin polishers and giving both XJ-5 and XJ-9 a thoroughly enjoyable buffing, and XJ-6 yelling at a TV screen with their houseguest giving her pointers about some game or another involving a large man dressed as a bat, that the good doctor decided Danny could wait a day to know his quarantine was lifted.
"Heehee ha HA HA HA HA HA!"
The cackling resounded over the junkyard, echoing as it collided with piles of scrap.
Technus had never been happier. Of course, he'd only been bamboozled by his new surroundings for a short time! A mere day and a half of careful investigation (with some small measure of being yelled at by the junkyard owner, a complete philistine to the ways of technology), and he had discovered the truth.
A different Earth! A new world to plunder and conquer! And what plunder such a place had! Technology beyond compare! Articulated, fully functional robots of all shapes and sizes! The perfect fodder for reshaping into an invincible army of the mighty Technus!
Oh, but then, but then, he had found the true prize! Thrown out like so much garbage, like the people of this blighted dimension couldn't see the potential! A pile of robotic drones, far in advance of even this worlds technology! A vast, advanced insectoid army of alien robots! It was all he could do to not frolic through the air with joy!
"NYA HA HA HA! At last, the opportunity I deserve! All the beautiful, sexy technology I could ever dream of! And even more to come from this world! For now I, TECHNUS, the master of all technology extradimensional and extraterrestrial, shall take control of this horde of magnificent robotic insects, and without the Phantom child to get in my way, nothing can stop me! The Technus… Cluster? No, doesn't fit the insect theme… Hive! Yes! The Technus Hive shall make all of this plane of existence MINE!"
With a final cackle and a mad, enthusiastic smile, Technus dived into the pile of abandoned Cluster drones. The pile glowed ominously and began to shake.
Before Technus abruptly exited, the same crazy grin on his face.
"I, TECHNUS, do not have the faintest idea how these things work!"
OK, yes, perhaps in his zeal to finally enact the Technus Empire on this virgin territory, he forgot that he kinda, sorta, needs to understand how the technology works in order to take full control.
But that was acceptable! To learn about technology was almost as exciting as using it to crush his enemies and conquer nations! He could make a lair here, a throne of junk from which to study these drones… and perhaps improve them! He could think of several improvement that weren't just Technus branding!
Yes! All he needed was time… and here, with the secrecy afforded an interdimensional traveller, and no Phantom to ruin things for him, time was a resource he had in abundance.
Now where to start…
A/N: OK.
So as you're probably aware, this hasn't updated in a while. I started it when I was at the peak of my ability to get chapters done, then promptly completely crashed. So this is notice for those of you following this - it's not dead, and neither am I. Here's what's going to happen. Barring me overwriting again, which I admit is a possibility, Fire And Ice has two chapters to go before I was going to take a break from it to do some other things. That is when I shall hopefully be able to focus on this one some more, possibly get a backlog going. We shall see.
For what it's worth, this is always what I had planned for the next chapter regardless! I wanted this series to more reflect MLAATR's structure more then DP's - the show is a lot more episodic than DP is, and can generally be split between more social or family episodes, action episodes, and weird science episodes. So most chapters will just be one and done 'episodes', but with Danny and Technus arriving on the scene, it will also have more serialized elements creeping in, like the universes styles are melding. Plus, I always felt like the XJ sisters were hard done by in a lot of ways. Thus this one fits more into the social episode, and the next will be weird science!
Anyway, lemmie know what you think, and hopefully see you sooner than this next time.