Emerging Compassions

Chapter 42: Discovered!

(Cindy's POV)

Just as Jimmy was about to send the transmission into hyperspace, a deafening roar seemed to shake the very ground we were standing on. Terrified, he deactivated it and we frantically looked around for the source of the frightening sound, but found nothing just staying where we were.

"J-Jimmy, what k-kind of animal just made that n-n-noise? !" Carl stammered, apparently the most terrified out of all of us.

"Everyone, get behind me! I know how to handle this!" he ordered, pointing in the direction behind him.

"Jimmy, are you sure about this? ! A lot of terrifying predators were known to live during the last Ice Age! ! Not just mammoths, but saber-toothed tigers and giant sloths, too!" I informed him anxiously, biting my nails a bit, which was something I rarely ever did.

"The saber-toothed tiger is the only one we have to really worry about out of the 3. The mammoths and giant sloths are herbivores," Jimmy hastily told us, a worried look on his face.

"Yeah, but those other 2 could still crush a human with their sheer size!" Libby worriedly reminded us.

"Oh, please! !" Sheen said with a smirk, completely unaware of the immensely large shadow that rapidly descended upon us cast by the rising moonlight, his back turned to it, "How big could they REALLY be? !"

Shaking in fear with the majority of our group, Carl pointed a trembling finger at the gigantic figure behind him and practically whimpered, "T-Try that giant c-creature r-r-right b-b-behind you, Sh-Sheen! ! !"

He slowly turned around to face the creature, then looked upward into its glowing eyes and gasped. "I s-see what ya m-mean, Carl! ! It's huge! !" Sheen exclaimed, "We'd better get outta here! ! !"

"For once, I second what Sheen said!" I agreed, scooping up Marie who'd previously been sitting near me on the ground, "Scram, everyone! !"

Without a second thought from any of us, we scurried back to the village in well under a minute, barely making it through the gate before it was shut and the creature was able to catch up to us.

Through the moonlight, I could just make out Anya hurrying over to meet us. After she reached us, she gasped, "Is everybody okay? ! I could just make out the giant sloth's head as it approached the village!"

"And thank GOD we ran when we did! ! That critter would've crushed us flat!" I wholeheartedly agreed, cuddling Marie extra close while glancing at the village gate.

"Guess those confidential matters of ours will have to wait until tomorrow...," Jimmy muttered with a sigh, "It's time for us to get to bed by now..."

"Well, come with me and I'll prepare you some pelts to sleep on," Anya invited, leading us back to her hut. We followed her back, then afterwords, I noticed a slight problem. Big as her home was, it was just barely large enough to allow all of us to sleep in, laying down...

After thinking that over a few moments, and as Anya was preparing our beds, I spoke up and asked, "Are you sure all of us are going to fit in this home of yours? ?"

"What utter nonsense! Of course, it's going to hold you! Silly girl!" she teased, smoothing out the last of the pelts.

"Well, I'm tired!" Carl put in with a yawn, and settled onto the pelt nearest the doorway, then pulled up the extra pelt that served as a blanket and was asleep within moments, snoring loudly.

"Now that you mention it, I'm pretty wiped out myself...," Jimmy noted, and settled into the pelt bed next to Carl.

I walked up to him hesitantly, then cleared my throat a bit and wanted to know, "Um, mind if I sleep next to you, Jimmy? ?"

"Huh? Oh, Cindy. Sure, I don't mind...," he sleepily replied, not bothering to look up at me.

"Thanks," I told him, laying down on the pelt next to him, making sure Marie had room next to me. After covering ourselves up, I reached over and lightly caressed his shoulder, saying softly, "G'night, Jimmy..."

"'Night, sweetie," Jimmy barely whispered, for he was almost fast asleep.

Just before my eyes fully closed, I noticed that Sheen and Libby had laid down across from us, cuddling together gently with Taylor in between them. I finally couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, and drifted off to sleep for the night.

The following morning, I woke up to the bright sun, just rising over the horizon, shining in my eyes. I rubbed my eyes, stretched, and sat up in my pelt bed. I was just admiring the sunrise when I heard someone near me mutter, "Ow... Careful where you're stretching, Cindy. You hit me in the eye there..." That made me jump just a bit in surprise, then I turned to see who'd said that. I soon found that it was Jimmy, already sitting up in his bed while rubbing where I'd accidentally hit him. "Oh!" I softly exclaimed, "Sorry about that, Jimmy!"

"Nah, it's okay, Cindy...," he reassured me, "I needed an early start to the day, anyway. Why are you up so early?"

"The glare of the sunrise got me up," I informed him, giggling softly so as to not wake our daughter or the others who were still sleeping.

"So I see...," Jimmy replied, a thoughtful look on his face, "It's best to get an early start today, so I can begin working on how to get us back to our own time."

"Good idea, Jimmy," I gratefully agreed, "As exciting as this era is, I really wanna leave this Neolithic Era behind and get back to 2012..."

I was later informed exactly what happened in Retroville while we were stuck in the Stone Age...

Meanwhile, back in the year 2012, an all-too-familiar buck-toothed villain makes his dastardly plans in yet another attempt to destroy Jimmy Neutron, or at least humiliate him beyond repair socially, mentally, and emotionally...

"This is it, Blix! I think I've finally come up with a way to destroy Neutron! !" Eustace Strych thought aloud as he sat comfortably in his easy chair in front of his million-dollar fireplace, "I'll make him PAY, even literally, in fact! Just the other day, I saw him at the jewelry store purchasing a diamond ring. It was only one carat, which was totally pathetic, by the way! Luckily, I've got a duplicate just waiting to be used! Come, this way, Blix! We shall see if he can outsmart his way out of this one...! !" The 2 of them made their way down the long corridor that led to the double-doors of his bedroom, entered via a complex security system that included a handprint analyzer, an iris scan, and voice recognition, among other things, and ventured over to a large, historic painting by da Vinci. With the touch of a button on a small remote, the painting opened like a small doorway to reveal a safe with 3 combination locks and a fingerprint scanner put there for security measures.

With a few twists of the dials and a quick scan of his fingerprint, the safe unlocked to reveal a heap of priceless jewels and artifacts. Eustace reached in and searched through the pile worth billions of dollars and muttered, "Dash it all, Blix, it's GOT to be in here somewhere... I've got dozens of priceless rings in here, but which one is only one carat? Wait a moment... Ah, here it is! Brilliant! !"

"So, uh, you've got a plan, mine heir? ?" Blix questioned warily in his German accent.

"Precisely! Blix, sell this pathetic excuse for a ring to the local jeweler in Retroville. One hour from now is when we'll frame Neutron for its theft! !" Eustace cackled evilly, a devious plan forming in his spoiled rotten mind. Then he demanded, handing his servant the ring, "Blix, use the hi-tech financial exchange system to teleport and sell it! I'll put the finishing touches on the Neutron 2.0 robot..."

"As you wish, Mr. Strych!" he replied faithfully, and went over to the financial exchange system, entered in a numerical sequence, and teleported the ring, immediately receiving the appropriate cash amount in return. Blix then returned to Eustace and gave him the cash, which he folded neatly and stored in his velvet robe pocket. "So, how goes the progress on the robot, mine heir? ?" he wanted to know.

Eustace just cackled evilly again and responded with a sneer, "It's nearly complete! The artificial hands have the exact same handprints as Neutron, so any fingerprints left behind will lead to him! I've only got to duplicate his shoes exactly, and then activate the droid! Let's see... Type in the appropriate commands...execute the creation process... and BINGO! ! !" He reached inside the compartment that spit out the shoes just created and picked them up, bringing them to his nearly-completed robot and firmly attaching them by latching them shut. He then stepped back to admire his creation, announcing triumphantly, "Yes, Blix, I believe I've done it! ! It looks exactly like him!"

Blix stood back next to Eustace and added, taking a good look at it and handing him the remote that controlled it, "Excellent work, mine heir! Now, to activate it via remote... Care to do the honors? ?"

"It would be my pleasure!" he exclaimed, and pressed the activation button on the remote, causing the droid's eyes to glow bright red as it "awakened", "Brilliant! ! Now, pay close attention, Neutron 2.0! Your task is to infiltrate the local Retroville jewelry store, steal a 1-carat diamond ring, then return here! Understand? !"

The droid nodded, then, using the built-in rockets in its shoes, rocketed out of the Strych residence through a nearby escape hatch, headed right for downtown Retroville!

Several minutes later, it touched down in the middle of the street, walking casually up to the entrance of the jewelry store...

Officer Tubbs happened to see it nearby, mistaking it for the real Jimmy, and rushed over, extending his hand in greeting as he said, "Why, hello there, Mr. Neutron! Pleasure to see you this afternoon-"

But he didn't get to finish, because Neutron 2.0 identified him as a threat, grabbing Tubbs' hand and slinging him onto the sidewalk, landing him on his back. Then it slammed one of its fists into the window and lept inside, leaving Tubbs laying on the sidewalk in excruciating pain, with him groaning, "Someone, please, call an ambulance..."

The jeweler spotted the droid marching up to him and offered, "Can I help you-" But he was cut short because Neutron 2.0 grabbed him by the front of his shirt and slung him across the store, landing into one of the window displays and going unconscious.

The droid turned its attention to the display in front of him, then smashed one of its fists into the glass while its other hand rested on part of the display nearby. It slung its hand through the jewels until it found the 1-carat ring, then snatched it and stored it in a compartment in its chest cavity. Then it charged through the glass door and ran down the street, close to the speed of Sheen as Vibrating Lad, and disappeared without another trace, not realizing it had left a trail of mud behind it the entire time...

I was to later be informed that all that took place during our absence, but at the time, we had no earthly idea it was occurring. We were all too concerned about letting our parents know of our whereabouts, 9,000 BC.

"So," I persisted quietly, "Shouldn't we get going on that tachyon transmission?"

"Yes, we should," Jimmy calmly replied, picking Marie up gently so as to not wake her up and the two of us rising to our feet, "Go get the others up, then meet me just outside the village, okay?"

I nodded my reply, then went over to Carl, Libby, and Sheen, in that order, and urged them quietly and giving them each a nudge with my foot, "C'mon, it's about time we let our parents know where we are. Come with me, but quietly, so as to not wake Anya up..."

They each quietly voiced their agreement and got up one by one, following me to the village entrance. Once there, I pushed the wooden doorlock to the right just enough for the gate to open, then we ventured out of the village just several hundred yards downriver and hiding ourselves behind some large bushes nearby.

When we got ourselves settled, I added to Jimmy, "Okay, now you can relay that transmission into the future from Goddard..."

"Excellent," he concluded, and pressed a sequence of keys on his watch that activated the transmission of tachyons through Goddard into the future. Before long, a fuzzy image on his screen appeared that sharpened to perfect clarity. The living room of the Neutron vicinity came into focus, with Hugh waxing up some of his ducks and Judy flipping through TV channels, searching for a soap opera, no doubt!

Sheen immediately got in front of our end of the monitor and hollered, waving, "Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Neutron! !"

That caused both parents to be startled a bit and jump in their seats, which I found quite amusing, giggling to myself a bit. Once they regained their composure, they stood up to face the opposing monitor just above the front living room window, with Judy asking, "What's going on? Is everything alright, kids? ?"

Jimmy clearly noticed that Sheen was in the way and blocking the screen, so he snapped while giving him a light shove, "Sheen, move! !"

"Okay, okay! I'm going! Yeesh! !" he protested, getting out of his way.

"Thank you, Sheen," Jimmy thanked him with a glare, then turned his attention to his parents and added, "You'll both probably notice that we're in some sort of brushland with a river nearby... There's a good explanation for that!"

"Oh, that's easy to guess, Jimbo! You're clearly out in the desert for the burning of the giant duck!" Hugh commented in approval, laughing.

"Uh, no. Not even close...," he told them begrudgingly, slapping his forehead, "A mishap in my lab with Marie evidently warped us back in time to the Stone Age. She is learning to walk already, despite her young age... She got up on a stool and pressed too many buttons and levers, which caused us to warp."

I temporarily looked upward and saw a beam of energy being shot vertically into the sky from Goddard and into some kind of wormhole. "So that's how they're getting the signal..., " I said to myself thoughtfully. I also noted that it was thundering and crackling with electricity where the beam intersected with the wormhole high above us. I then pointed out to everyone around me, "Um, there sure is a lot of electricity crackling overhead at the wormhole's entrance, and it's pretty loud. I sure hope that doesn't get us discovered as strangers from another time, or, according to the primitive people in this time period, evil spirits from the bowels of the earth..."

"Excellent point, Cin!" Libby agreed with me as Jimmy continued to converse with his parents, gazing upward, "If that happens, there could be trouble..."

"What are you guys so worried about?!" Sheen tried to convince us, a heroic look on his face, "What could possibly go wrong now?! Anyway, if we're attacked, UltraLord will save us! !"

"Ugh... Not again...," I groaned, slapping my forehead begrudgingly.

"Sheen, please just shut up, hon...," Libby snapped at him.

"Sorry," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

Just then, we heard hurried footsteps coming toward us, so I poked my head over the bushes and glanced toward the town. My heart immediately skipped a beat as I saw Anya approaching us, so I shook Jimmy's shoulder and urged, "Jimmy, Anya's coming! We need to turn this thing off! !"

"Sorry, I can't hear you over all the static from the wormhole-!" he started to say, but was interrupted as Anya spoke up as she approached us.

"I knew you travelers were strange, but this is almost too much to bear!" she remarked, dramatically raising her hands into the air, "What is this strange light coming from the sky?! Oh, no! This can only mean one thing, that you're the evil ones from the underworld! ! ! I must alert my village! !" With that, she took off running back to her village to spread the word.

"I knew this would happen! !" Carl cried helplessly, "Now they're probably gonna burn us at the stake or something like that! !"

"Carl, you're such a big BABY! !" Sheen barked at him.

"Sheen, calm down! !" I hissed, grabbing his wrist.

"Cindy, quiet! You're makin' Taylor cry!" Libby shushed me, trying to soothe her squalling child.

Sheen looked over the bushes and pointed, saying nervously, "I think we better scram, cuz here they come! !"