[Set to the My Life as a Teenage Robot opening theme song]

Five o'clock, get a call to confirm our reservation at the restaurant down by the mall

But my mom still says I gotta stop evil aliens from annihilating us all! (Jenny: Hi-yah!)

With a new partner in crime, I guess I really shouldn't complain

Still, I just wish I could get through one fight without my boyfriend yelping in pain! (Sheldon: YEE-OUCH!)

It's enough to fry my brain!

So welcome to my life (as a robot girlfriend!)

Welcome to my life (as a robot girlfriend!)

My Robot Girlfriend… Life!

It Fell From the Sky

Brad Carbunkle loved the feeling of driving around Tremorton. It was the best way to clear his head, especially with so much going on in his life. "I'm really gonna miss this place…" he muttered to himself. As he drove back into his neighborhood, he heard the sudden, unmistakable sound of glass shattering. He slammed his foot on the brakes and pulled to the curb. Just outside his car, a familiar house had a newly formed hole in the living room window.

Almost as if on cue, a young kid began to walk past his car, whistling nonchalantly. Brad frowned. That middle schooler was unmistakably his younger brother, Tucker. He grabbed the boy by the top of his head and turned him around to face him, then pushed down on his head. Tuck stuck his tongue out, revealing a baseball glove he'd hidden in his mouth. Raising an eyebrow, Brad lifted his brother's hat, revealing a full baseball bat underneath.

Brad frowned. "Now why," he said to his little brother, "why, oh why do I have such an overwhelming sense of deja vu, Tuck?"

Tuck pulled the glove out of his mouth. "Hey," he replied defensively, "at least it wasn't Jenny's house this time!"

"Yeah. It was Sheldon's." He leaned out the window a bit and in closer to his brother. "You know what to do, right?"

Tuck let out a long, exasperated sigh of defeat before marching over to the front door of the Lee residence. He knocked on the front door. No response. He knocked again, this time more impatiently.

The door cracked open slightly. Tuck blinked. He opened the door a bit more. At the end of a dark hallway, illuminated only by the light from the sun behind him, rested his baseball. "Now I'm getting deja vu…" he muttered. After a deep breath, he slowly walked inside. Tip-toeing over to his ball, he looked around the hall. The shatter glass on the living room floor glistened in a way that reflected light onto the family portraits on the wall beside him- but only their eyes. It was as if Sheldon and his extended family, throughout various points in their lives, were silently judging him for smashing the window. Tuck gulped in fear and looked away from the photos.

"Sheldon?" he called out, trying not to let the fear show in his voice. There came no reply, aside from the slight echo of his voice. "Sheldon?" he called again. "Are you home?" He was greeted again by only the slight echo of his voice. The fear in him was now beginning to show as he reached down to pick up his ball. "I-I'm just gonna grab my ball and leave, if that's alright…" the kid yelled out, unable to hide his fear any longer. "I'm sorry about your win-" A door slamming open behind him cut him off. He looked over his shoulder, finishing his sentence with a mutter of, "…dow?"

Down the hall, the garage door was wide open, smoke flowing out of it and it into the rest of the house. In the doorway, a figure towered over him. Tuck began to shake in fear, until he noticed the two tuffs of hair sticking up from the back of his head. "Oh, Sheldon!" Tuck said as he sighed with relief. "There you are! Listen, I'm sorry about smashing your window with my ball. I'll help you clean it up if you want!"

The figure in the door said nothing. The left eye began to glow a deep red, taking light, slow steps forward. With every movement, the pumping of hydraulics and squeak of clashing metal followed. Tuck gulped. "Sh-Sheldon?" he whispered. As the figure grew closer, the boy began to get a better view of the figure. It was unmistakably Sheldon- but at the same time, not him. A metal helmet encased most of his head, covering his right eye with a red, glowing bionic one. His legs and arms were covered in metal leggings and gauntlets, each equipped with hydraulics and dangling wires and tubing hanging from them, connected in various places all willy-nilly. He came to a stop right in front of the boy. As Tuck quaked in fear, Sheldon bent down, shoving his freakish face in the poor lad's face.

"H e y, T u c k!" came an eerie electronic voice from Sheldon's mouth.

That was enough for the boy to scream in terror and run past the armor-clad man and straight out the door. Just as he thought he was home free, he felt something grab the back of his shirt collar and pick him up. "Woah, slow down turbo!" Brad said as held his brother up eye-level to him. "Once again, you seem to be down one baseball. What's got you spooked this time?"

"C-c-c-c…" Tuck stuttered, unable to say the dreaded word.

"Come on, Tuck, I don't have all day."

The boy gulped. "CYBORG!" he finally screamed.

Brad raised an eyebrow at his younger brother. "Cyborg?" he scoffed. "Really?"

"It's true!" Tuck said, hoping his brother would believe him. "I saw it! It was Sheldon! He turned himself into a cyborg! A big, bloodthirsty cyborg with a glowing red laser eye! A-and he's got this super scary electronic voice, too!"

With a roll of eyes, Brad sighed and said, "Jeez Tuck, you're in middle school now. Shouldn't you be over making tall tales like this?"

"But I'm being totally truthful! He had pale, Sun deprived skin! A gangly frame caused by a lifetime of bad posture! And he reeked of motor oil and car grease!"

"Tuck, those are all just traits of Sheldon in general, not some weird cyborg version of him."

"But what about the laser eye? Or the creepy electronic voice?"

"Tell you what Tuck, I'll believe Sheldon is a scary cyborg now when I see it with my own eyes."

" o, B r a d!" came that same electronic voice from before. The two brothers' attention snapped to the doorway. Sure enough, there stood Sheldon, with all the technological additions that Tuck had mentioned.

The two of them screamed and hugged each other in fear. "I can't believe it, Tuck," Brad muttered as he clutched his younger brother close to his chest, "but you're right! Sheldon's finally gone mad and turned himself into a bloodthirsty, man-killing cyborg!"

"W o a h, w o a h," Sheldon said, the electric voice seeming to sound a little nervous, " n, g u y s!" He reached his hands up to the sides of head and pulled off the metal frame around his head.

"It's just a suit, guys!" Sheldon said quickly, his voice completely normal again.

Brad and Tuck looked at each other, blinked, then looked back to him. "A suit?" they asked in unison.

"I was working on a new exoskeleton for a new high-tech battle suit I could use to help Jenny fight any bad guys that pop up," Sheldon explained.

"Then… what's with the voice?" Brad asked.

"Oh, that? I put a voice filter on the helmet to make me sound more intimidating. I don't exactly have the scariest voice, you know, so I figured if I had a filter on, criminals might take me more seriously. I forgot to turn it off, so I'm sorry that I scared you with it, hehe…" He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Ok, but what about that entrance you made?" Tuck asked, annoyed. "You came out of your garage and all that smoke followed you! You looked all spooky and scary with that glowing red eye!"

"Oh, that? That's uhhh… well…" Sheldon looked aside nervously. "Well, I was working on a potential new power source for the suit, right? So I was delicately mixing a bunch of chemicals around- you two wouldn't begin to understand it so I won't bother to explain it in detail- and since I'm not as experienced with chemistry as I am with inventions and technology and such, so I was trying to be as careful as I could and keep the whole place quiet so I could focus."

"And?" Tuck asked, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Well, all of a sudden I heard this loud crashing sound in my living room, which made me jump in surprise! Only problem is, I was holding a vial of some volatile mercury, and that ended up spilling out into other vials, and before I knew it my entire chemistry set had exploded!"

Tuck stopped tapping his foot and stared up at Sheldon with his eyes wide. He glanced at his brother, who shot him a dirty look. The middle schooler looked to the ground in shame. "I, uh," he muttered. "I was playing with my baseball and uh… it kinda smashed your window. Sorry!" He flashed a nervous grin to the tech-clad adult in front of him.

"You what?!" Sheldon leaned over the middle schooler, angry. "I spent six hours working on that formula! And on top of that, now I gotta pay to get the window fixed on top of cleaning the mess in my workshop!"

"Aww, gee, Sheldon, I'm sorry!" The boy said as he cowered away from the nerd. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

Before he could say anything, Sheldon's thoughts were interrupted by the distant droning sound of jet engines rapidly approaching. His eyes shrunk in fear. "Tell ya what, Tuck, all is forgiven if-" He leaned in closer to the boy, reaching his hand out. "-you take the fall for me on this one."

Tuck thought for a moment, then shook his hand. "As long as I don't have to do chores to pay for the window again," he muttered.

Brad frowned. "Uh-oh," he muttered. "That's the 'my girlfriend is totally gonna kill me' look. Sheldon, what did you do?"

"I think you mean, 'what did Tuck do?'" The nerd replied with a wink.

"Yeah Brad," his little brother added with a wink of his own, "what did I do?"

Brad rolled his eyes as the sound of the jets began to slow down. From the sky, Jenny descended onto the walkway in front of the porch, a look of worry on her face. "Sheldon, are you okay?" she asked. "I got an alert that the smoke alarm in your gara-" she paused, before correcting herself, "-workshop. The smoke alarm in your workshop went off. What happened? Are you ok?"

"Oh, hey Jenny!" Sheldon said, trying his best to act casual. "Oh, it's a funny story, really. You see, Brad and Tuck here swung by to see if you were over, and then Tuck got in the workshop and started messing around with my chemistry set. You know, the one you told me not to mess with because I don't have a good grasp on chemistry and you wanted to be there to help me with it? Yeah, that one. That's the one Tuck messed around with. Without my knowledge. Anyways, he started mixing stuff and there was a small explosion, so there was a bunch of smoke. That's why the smoke alarm went off. Ain't that right, Tuck?" He nudged the boy with his elbow.

"Uh, yep!" Tuck said quickly. "I was just looking around and saw all the funny colored liquids and thought it would be fun to play with. Boy was I wrong!"

Jenny looked over at Brad, not convinced. "It's true," he shrugged, "and if you believe that, I got a neat little bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell ya!"

The robot girl crossed her arms and glared at her boyfriend. "So, it's all Tuck's fault then, is it?"

"Uh huh!" Sheldon confirmed, nodding his head and giving a thumbs up.

"You caught me!" Tuck agreed, throwing up his hands in defeat.

"So," Jenny said angrily, tapping her foot impatiently, "it was all Tuck's fault, then. You weren't trying to make a new kind of power source after I specifically told you not to and Tuck so happened to smash his ball through your living room window, making you jump in surprise and cause a whole bunch of smoke to flood your garage? That wouldn't have happened, would it?"

Sheldon gulped in fear, tugging at the collar of his zipper hoodie. "Uh, umm…" he muttered nervously. "What would give you that idea, Jen?"

The robot girl blinked, then rolled her eyes. "Just because I don't have ears doesn't mean I don't have super hearing." She stepped up onto the porch, and towered over her boyfriend, who was already starting to tremble in fear. "You think you'd know that, given our history together."

Sheldon looked around nervously, trying to think of anything that could help him out in his predicament. Brad and Tuck looked away, whistling nonchalantly. Looking back to his angry girlfriend, the nerd asked, "Sooo… does this mean date night is canceled?"

Jenny grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him in close to her. "Are you crazy?!" she asked worriedly. "I've spent all week working on fine-tuning my dress transformations for tonight! Plus, it took forever for us to get that reservation. We can't cancel now!" She let out a frustrated sigh. "Ok, fine. You're off the hook for now, but tomorrow you're gonna get it, mister."

Sheldon gulped. "Thank you for showing me mercy, Jen."

"Don't push your luck, buster."

"Wait, you guys are going on a date tonight?" Tuck asked. "But you said you'd help me with my math homework! I still can't wrap my head around fractions and factor trees…"

"And you said you'd hang me out with me once you were done helping him," Brad added.

"Oh, shoot!" Jenny exclaimed with a facepalm. "You're right, I totally forgot! I'm sorry guys…"

"Well, this wouldn't be the first time," Brad sighed.

"Yeah," Tuck added. "Ever since you started dating Sheldon, you don't spend time with us as often as you used to anymore!"

"I'm sorry guys," Jenny muttered, scratching the back of her head. "I'm not trying to push you guys aside, it's just… I don't know, I wanna make it up to Sheldon for always ignoring him back in high school."

"Jenny, you've more than made it up to me!" Sheldon assured her. "Hey, why don't we reschedule our date? You should hang out with these guys some more, they're your best friends after all! We can go to that fancy place some other night."

"But… but…" Jenny muttered. "But what about my dress transformations?"

"You'll look great with or without them. How about this- once you're done hanging out with them, we can go get something to eat at Mezmer's! They're open late most nights anyways."

"Come on, Jenny!" Tuck pleaded. "Please?"

Jenny thought for a moment. She glanced between her boyfriend and the boy hugging her leg, before letting out a small sigh. "Ok, I guess that's fine by me."

"We'll have plenty of other nights for dates," Sheldon shrugged. "Go hang out with your friends! You don't wanna make them feel left out. Trust me…"

"Alright, alright. But don't think I've forgotten about the chemistry set, Oswald."

Sheldon cringed a little at the mention of his middle name. "I'll prepare for the consequences," he whispered.

"Good," she replied, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Ok Tuck, hop on and I'll fly you home so we can do that homework!"

"You got it, Jenny!" Tuck yelled cheerfully, latching on to her leg.

"Oh, by the way Tuck," Sheldon said. "Jenny didn't buy that story. That deal we made is off. I'm gonna call your mother."

The boy's eyes widened. "WHAT?!"

Before the conversation could continue, Jenny took the skies, dragging the yelling boy along with her. "You're not actually gonna call mom, are you?" Brad asked.

Sheldon shrugged. "I'll decide later. I might be able to fix the window myself." He turned to face the redhead beside him. "You, uh… you still haven't told her yet, have you?"

"That I got accepted to that college in New York? Nope." He let out a sigh, taking a seat down on the porch. "I have no idea how to tell her I'm gonna be leaving Tremorton. I can't imagine she'll take it well, either."

Sheldon took a seat next to him. "She'll certainly be upset, but you can always come and visit, right? Plus you can still call her and send emails and such."

"Yeah, but it just won't be the same. It seems like everything's changed now that we're out of highschool. I never thought she'd actually start dating you, no offense. Or that you of all people would cancel a date night with her so she can hang out with her friends."

Sheldon shrugged. "You're not always going to be the same person you were in highschool. Just look at all the other people we used to go to school with!"

Brad gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Stephanie and Petresa stopped hanging out with the cousins and volunteer at the soup kitchen downtown now. Stephanie is training to become an Olympic snowboarder and Kiki does professional skydiving now."

"How ironic…" the redhead muttered, recalling asking both of them to do those same things at one point.

"Jeremy moved back to Britain, Travis is now running for office in South Carolina on a robot segregation platform, that stupid jerk…"

"Yeesh, didn't think the break-up with Jenny was that bad…"

"Don Prima's parents got sick of him being a spoiled brat and forced him to get a job at Mezmer's to learn what hard work is like." A big grin crossed the nerd's face. "Oh, sweet karmic justice…"

"What about the Crust cousins?"

"Oh, well they-" Sheldon thought for a moment. "Actually, they peaked in highschool and are now desperately trying to hang on to any sense of relevancy. It's honestly kind of pathetic."

"Jeez, I guess everyone really has changed, huh?" Brad let out a sad sigh. "Even Tuck has. He's less annoying now, sure, but he's also not willing to go play with race cars and toys as much either. When I told him I was gonna leave, he got real bummed out. Now he doesn't want to play with me anymore."

Sheldon put his hand on his friend's shoulder for reassurance. "He's growing up, just like we are. He probably wants to hang out with other middle schoolers, kids his own age, you know. It's not fun hanging out with grouchy adults all the time."

"Heh, I guess you're right. It just feels like the world is moving by too fast. Even just a few years ago, the summers felt like they could last forever, and the school days were so long and boring. Now it's like the day is gone just as I started to realize it was morning."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I've gotta start looking for a new place to stay. Mom and dad are going to sell this place soon."

"Woah, wait. They're kicking you out and selling the place? But you're only 19!"

"19, and not going to school," Sheldon muttered. "Which means I'm not hard at work to become a doctor or lawyer or whatever stupid career they pre-planned for me at birth."

"But what about your skills in robotics?"

"They always thought that was a weird hobby. What they really wanted was for me to become a doctor or lawyer, something like that."

"Why don't you talk to them about it?"

"They won't listen. They're not even in the country most of the time."

Brad looked away. "Right, I forgot about that…"

"It's fine," Sheldon said dismissively. "I'm used to it by now. Besides, I got Jenny and you guys!"

"Heh, I guess that's true. Even if I won't be in the picture for too much longer."

"Let's not dwell on that sad stuff. Come on inside, they're gonna be premiering the Captain Crush TV movie soon and I don't wanna watch it by myself!"

"Alright," Brad laughed. "I'll watch your silly nerd movie with you."

Nora Wakeman took a sip from her coffee as she read the daily Newspaper. A smile formed on her lips as she read about her robot daughter's latest exploits. The accompanying picture showed her standing over an unconscious alien as her new boyfriend ran away from a falling mech suit in the background. She giggled to herself. "Oh Sheldon, you silly boy," she muttered to herself. "You really ought to be paying closer attention to your surroundings." As she took another sip of her coffee, a siren began to go off on her computer.

"ALERT! ALERT!" the alarm rang out. "UNIDENTIFIED PHENOMENA DETECTED! ALERT! ALERT!"

Nora raised an eyebrow. "Unidentified phenomena?" she muttered. "That's… new."

She set her newspaper down and walked over to her computer.

"Let's see here…" she muttered, pulling up a visual feed. The recording showed the view of the forest. For a moment, everything was fine, until a white portal opened up in the sky. Nora frowned. "Now what could that be…?" As the footage continued, a sleek black car fell out of the portal, crashing into one of the trees. The portal soon closed afterwards. "How… peculiar…" Nora rubbed her chin, deep in thought. "I better have her check it out, just in case."

"…and so one third is more than one fourth," Jenny explained.

"But four is bigger than three," Tuck stated.

"Yes, but these are fractions, Tuck. Think of it like money. A quarter is twenty-five cents, right?"

"Uh-huh," Tuck nodded.

"And three dimes and three pennies is thirty-three cents, right?"

"Yep!"

"So a quarter would be one fourth of a dollar, at twenty five cents, and three dimes and three pennies would be one third of a dollar. That means that one third is greater than one fourth."

"Ohhh… I get it now! Thanks, Jenny!"

"No problem, Tuck," Jenny replied with a smile. "Ready to try some on your own now?"

"Yeah, I think I got it."

"Good!"

All of a sudden, Jenny began to feel an all too familiar mechanism in her chest begin to shift around. "Oh, what now?" She groaned as a small TV screen popped out of her chest, with it soon displaying her mother's face.

"XJ9!" her mother yelled, putting emphasis on the "nine" in the annoying way she usually did.

"Jenny," the robot girl corrected, bitterly.

Her mother ignored her. "A mysterious portal opened up over the nearby forest and spat out some kind of vehicle! I need you to check it out immediately!"

"Yes, mother," Jenny sighed, putting away the screen. She turned to the boy beside her. "I'll be back as soon as I can, ok Tuck? I promise."

"Alright, Jenny!" Tuck said. "I know how pushy moms can be when you don't do what they tell you to, so don't worry about it too much. I think I can solve most of this on my own now thanks to your help."

"I'll give it a look over when I get back," Jenny said as she climbed out his window. "See you later, Tuck!"

"Later, Jenny!"

As Jenny flew towards the forest, she reflected on what her mother had called her. XJ9. Her model name. Not Jenny, the name she'd been going by since before she even graduated high school. The name that all her friends called her. The people she met at school called her. What most people who respected her referred to her as. Instead, she called her XJ9. "I guess it bothers me more than I realized," she thought to herself, remembering the conversation she had with Sheldon on the night they shared their first kiss.

As she landed in the forest, she looked around for the wrecked vehicle. At last, her eyes settled on a beat up, long black car with two headlights that seemed to make the shape of eyes. Curious, she cautiously walked over to the vehicle. The glass was tinted in such a way that seeing inside was practically impossible. Although beat up, she could tell the back of it was meant to have two identical, bat wing-like tail fins on the back.

"What a weird… car…" She muttered, walking around it cautiously, inspecting it without getting too close. Noticing a latch keeping the windshield down, she pulled it up, climbing into the driver's side seat. A variety of buttons and switches lay on the inside. "Spikes… oil slick… tear gas… missiles… wheel slashers…" she scratched her head. "What lunatic builds a car like this? It's like they're prepared for war or something." Flying out of the car, she called her mom.

"Status report, XJ9?" Her mom said as soon as the TV popped out.

"Jenny," she corrected again. "Well, it's certainly a car."

"And…?"

"It's got some weird features to it, I'll give you that. There's buttons for deploying all sorts of weird stuff, like oil slicks and road spikes. Even missile launchers."

"A car with missile launchers that fell from a weird portal from the sky?" Nora rubbed her chin, deep in thought. "Hmm… Well whatever its purpose is, we can't let anyone else get their hands on it. Especially not any remnants of the Cluster. Bring it back to the lab for further study."

"Yes, mother," Jenny sighed as the call ended.

She picked up the vehicle with relative ease and began to fly back to her home. "A simple 'thank you' might go a long way," she muttered.

"…And that alien character that you said looked like the space bikers is actually a super deep cut reference to one of the earliest episodes of Captain Crush: The Animated Series," Sheldon explained as the credits rolled on his television screen.

"Uh-huh, cool," Brad muttered, barely paying attention. "Say, do you know what time it is, by chance?"

"Hmm? Oh! It's uh…" Sheldon pulled back his sleeve to check his watch. "It's a quarter 'til five."

"Crud!" The redhead muttered, holding his head in his hands. "I totally forgot I was supposed to make dinner at home tonight. Mom's gonna be so mad… She doesn't think I'm 'responsible' enough to live on my own. It took dad to convince her."

Sheldon thought for a moment. "Hey, what if I help you make dinner?"

Brad flashed him a funny look. "You? Can you even cook?"

"Of course I can!" The nerd said defensively, crossing his arms. "Being by myself most of the time has led me to learn how to cook for myself, I'll have you know. I can make a killer roasted salmon platter!"

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt having someone help out. Sure, why not? How good are you at doing more… American-style foods?"

"I can make pizza dough, does that count?"

"Eh, we ordered pizza last night. Mom won't be happy if we eat that again."

"Hmm… Oh! I just made some noodles last night. I was gonna use them to make lasagna later in the week, but I could bring them to your house and use them tonight!"

"You'd do that?"

"Sure thing! What are friends for?"

Brad gave him a high five. "Alright! Way to go, Sheldon!" He turned around and pointed to the front door. "Quickly, to the Bradmobile!"

A puzzled look crossed the nerd's face. "The what?"

"You know, my car, man."

"Why didn't you just say that?"

"I just… thought it would sound cool…" Brad sighed. "Forget it. Just grab the noodles while I get the car started."

Nora furiously scribbled some notes down on her notepad as she studied every aspect of the strange car. "Hmm…" she muttered.

"It's just a car, mom," Jenny said, rolling her eyes. "You see them literally every single day."

"This may be just a car to you," Nora replied, climbing into the driver's seat, "but to me, this is an interesting piece of technology! This thing has tinted, bulletproof glass windshields! Carbon-fiber, reinforced armor plating! A police scanner and video call system right on the dash board! Not to mention all the other gizmos and gadgets that pop out of this thing!" She shuddered with joy. "Ooo, this is just like something out of one of those old comic books!"

Once again, her daughter simply rolled her eyes. "Well, do you have any idea where it came from?"

"As a matter of fact, I just might have a lead on that," Nora beamed. Reaching into her coat pocket, she pulled out some kind of scanner. "I invented this scanner a few years ago," she explained. "At the time, I was experimenting in my lab, when a strange businessman showed up. He introduced me to something called 'Canvas Particles,' little invisible atomic particles that tie us down to our reality. If someone crossed over to another reality, their energy signature would be different."

Jenny perked her head up. "A strange man businessman…?" Something about that description felt oddly… familiar to her, as if she'd seen the same person before.

"Correct," Nora replied. "He left just as soon as he came. He said his 'new employer' sent him to speak with me, but he didn't tell me who they were or really what they were after."

"Weird…" Jenny muttered, rubbing her chin absentmindedly. "What happened after that?"

"After he left, I got to thinking about these so-called Canvas Particles and began toying around with them. In the end I couldn't do much but make this very scanner you see now. Allow me to demonstrate it." She aimed the machine at herself, then at Jenny. The machine did nothing.

"How… impressive…" Jenny muttered.

"It's not doing anything because we give off a signature native to this reality," Nora explained. "But when I point it at the car here…."

Nora aimed the scanner down to the car she was sitting in. Almost immediately, it began to beep like crazy. "Hear that? Whatever this car is, it's giving off another form of Canvas Particle signature than us and everything else here is! That means it must've fallen out of another reality and into this one!"

Jenny thought for a moment. "But… how did that even happen?" she asked.

"That's what's puzzling me, dear. By all my calculations, it doesn't make any logical sense. It's as if someone is intentionally ripping holes in the fabric of reality and sending things here."

"Someone's ripping holes in the fabric of reality?!"

"It's just an expression, dear. I'm sure there's a sound, scientific explanation for this. I just haven't pinned one down just yet."

"Well you better figure out what's happening sooner or later. I don't want to have to keep picking up random junk that falls from the sky and bringing them here."

As if on cue, a small white portal opened on the ceiling. Before either of them had time to react, a conveyor belt-like contraption with a control panel on the side of it fell through, shattering apart on impact. As the portal closed, Jenny picked up a thin, circular piece that fell off and rolled over to her foot. It was a logo of some kind, a white circle with a yellow lightning bolt in the middle. She flipped it over, revealing small fine print that read, "Property of B. Allen."

"Well, at least you won't have to go retrieve that for me," Nora joked. "…What even is it, anyway?"

Jenny walked over to the wreckage and examined the control panel. "I… think it's some kind of homemade treadmill? Weird."

Nora pointed her device at the wreckage. "Hmm… Well whatever it is, it's giving off the same readings as this car. Fascinating…"

"Sooo I'm done here, right?" Jenny asked impatiently. "I was kind of in the middle of something before you pulled me away to play tow truck."

"Yes, yes, that's fine," Nora muttered, scribbling down notes about the ruined device in middle of the room. "Run along now!"

"Great," the robot girl muttered as she began to take off. "You're welcome, by the way."

"No, no, no!" Sheldon exclaimed in frustration. "You're not gonna evenly cook the beef chunks like that! Here, just give me the pan." Without even waiting for Brad to respond, he took the skillet and wooden spatula away from him and began to spread the meat around more evenly. Clad in an apron that he'd brought from him which read, "Kiss the Mechanic," he was taking this cooking business way more seriously than Brad had thought he would. "Just go crack open some sauce cans, that should be easier for you."

"You know, when you offered your help," Brad muttered as he reached for the can opener, "I wasn't expecting you to take over entirely for me."

"It's not my fault you don't know the bare essentials of cooking! How are you gonna prepare meals for yourself without your parents- or heck, even me- to help you!"

"I'll probably just live off a steady diet of off-brand cereal, cheap sandwich bread and a ton of top ramen. Since, you know, that's all I'll probably be able to afford anyways."

"Whatcha guys doing?" Tuck asked, coming down stairs.

"Sheldon's helping me make some lasagna for dinner," Brad explained. "Although at this point, it's more like I'm trying not to get in his way."

"Sheldon's cooking?!" The boy's eyes lit up with wonder. "Oh boy! He made me this awesome homemade mac'n'cheese when he was babysitting me one time!"

The redhead gave him a funny look. "Really? When was that?"

"When you were too busy going on a date with that girl who stood you up to stay home and watch me."

"Oh. I kind of just figured Ms. Wakeman was watching you that night."

"She said she was too busy."

"That sounds about right."

"Could one of you get me the measuring cups?" Sheldon asked, holding out his hand. He was already placing the first layer of noodles down in an oven pan.

Brad fished around in a drawer, before handing him a small ring with various measuring cups on it. "Here it is," he said as he handed it to Sheldon.

"Is that sauce opened?" Sheldon asked as he flicked through the cups.

"Yeah, here's two cans of the stuff, just like you asked," the redhead muttered as he slid them across the counter to the new clear head chef of the house.

"Thank you," the distinguished chef muttered as he poured the two cans into a pot and placed it on the stove where the skillet was prior.

Flicking through the measuring cups, Sheldon quickly frowned. Turning to Brad, he asked, "Where'd you put the half-cup?"

"The what?" Brad replied.

"The half-cup! I need five half-cups of the beef chunks to put in the sauce."

"Is it not on the ring?"

"Obviously not. This is the second time I've checked."

The redhead shrugged. "Guess we don't have one, then."

"You don't have a half-cup?" A look of pure and utter befuddlement crossed his geeky friend's face. "What household doesn't have a half-cup?!"

"Apparently this one," Brad muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"We've still got one-fourth cups though, right?" Tuck asked.

Sheldon turned to him. "Yeah, there's one right here. Why?"

"Well, a half cup is two fourths, right? So instead of five half-cups, just use ten fourth-cups!" The boy put his hand on his chin to think. "Although, if we have one-cups, you could just use two of those and two one-fourth cups."

Brad blinked. "When did you learn math?"

"Jenny taught me a good way of remembering fractions!" Tuck beamed excitedly. "They're super easy now!"

"Thanks for the suggestion Tuck!" Sheldon said. "I can get on such a one-track mind sometimes that I miss the simple stuff right in front of me."

"Maybe there is such a thing as too smart," Brad thought.

"Hey, Brad?" Sheldon said. "Umm… sorry for getting heated back there. You can help me assemble the rest of this if you'd like." He smiled at his friend apologetically.

Brad smiled back. "It's no big deal, Shel. Let's assemble that and get it in the oven already, I'm starving!"

"I'm gonna head back upstairs then," Tuck said as he climbed the steps. "Call me down when dinner is ready! I'll wait for Jenny in my room."

Jenny scanned the paper in her hands carefully. "Wow, Tuck!" She exclaimed. "You got these done perfectly!"

"Aw, shucks!" Tuck said sheepishly. "I only got them figured out because of your explanation!" His eyes lit up. "Now tell me about the car from the portal you mentioned!"

Before Jenny could speak, Brad's voice came from down stairs, "Tuck! Dinner!"

"I'll tell you while we eat," Jenny said as she and Tuck went downstairs.

As soon as he saw the pan on the table, Tuck ran to his seat and began demanding Brad cut him up some. Sheldon smiled as he watched the two brothers plate up. From behind, he felt a pair of metallic arms wrap around his waist. "Kiss the Mechanic, huh?" Jenny whispered to him playfully. "Don't mind if I do." She planted a kiss on his cheek, making him blush instantly.

"Hehehe…" he giggled. He turned to look at her as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Hi, Jenny. Tuck told us you grabbed a car or something? How'd that go?"

A smile crossed her lips. "I'll tell you over dinner."

"Right, we should get going soon, shouldn't we? Mezmer's isn't open late on school nights."

Jenny let go and walked in front of him, looking at Brad and Tuck. They hadn't started eating yet, instead they looked at their two friends, waiting for them to join. "Hey, Sheldon?" Jenny asked. "Mind if we-"

Crack!

She turned her head over her shoulder. Sheldon stood there with a freshly opened can of motor oil in his hand for her, a smile on his face. "…Skip out on Mezmer's and eat here tonight instead?" He finished.

Jenny smiled. "You know me so well, don't you?" She said as she grabbed the can from him.

The two of them took their seats at the table, Sheldon cutting a square of lasagna for his own plate. After everyone had gotten a few bites in, Tuck said with a mouthful of beef and noodles, "So Jenny, tell us about the cool car you found!"

"Only if you stop talking with food in your mouth," Jenny replied, giving him a dirty look.

Tuck swallowed his bite. "Sorry!"

"You're excused, Tuck. Now, let's see…"

Over the course of the meal, Jenny went over the events of her day as the food in the pan slowly but surely disappeared. She went on about the car, all its weird features, the alleged treadmill that fell from the ceiling, all that and more. Although, she did forget to mention one little detail.

"But wait," Brad said, "how do you know the car and that pile of scrap you think might have been a treadmill were from another reality? Couldn't they just be from another planet or country or something?"

"Oh, that's right!" Jenny said, facepalming. "I forgot to tell you about the Canvas Particles!"

Confusion crossed the redhead's face. "The wha…?"

"Canvas Particles! Apparently, they're these things at an atomic level that tell you what reality you're from. All of us- and everything around us, in fact- would have the same type of Canvas Particles in our molecules and such. But stuff from another reality would give off a different type of Canvas Particle. My mom scanned both me and herself, then the treadmill and the car. We have different energy signatures based on the particles, though the car and the treadmill seemed to give off the same one." Jenny shrugged. "I don't really understand it all that well myself. Apparently a weird businessman showed my mom how to read their signatures."

The sound of a fork clattering against a plate alerted everyone's attention to Sheldon's general direction. For a brief moment, he seemed to have a look off of shock on his face, but it almost instantly faded to an embarrassed smile. "Woops!" he said nervously. "Clumsy me…" He picked up the fork and cleared his throat. "So, uh… weird businessman, Jen? What did he want."

"Beats me," Jenny said with a shrug. "Mom thought he was trying to sell her something, but apparently he only showed up to tell her Canvas Particles exist. He said he was doing so on behalf of his 'new employer' or something like that."

"Weird…" Sheldon muttered as he went in for another bite of his food.

The words echoed in his mind over and over. "New employer." Something about that sounded so familiar in his head. He just couldn't exactly pinpoint where it sounded familiar. Or why, for that matter.

"So, should we be worried about things dropping from the sky?" Tuck asked. "Or even people?"

"Nah, I don't think it's that big of a deal," Jenny replied nonchalantly. "It's not like people are falling out of the sky, right? I think it's all gonna be fine."

"If you say so!" Tuck said with a shrug.

"Well, with that out of the way," Brad said. "Thanks for hanging out with us Jenny. You too, Sheldon."

Jenny smiled. "Of course, Brad. What are friends for?"

"Exactly," Sheldon added.

"I don't have to tell her right now, right?" Brad thought. "I'll still be around for another month. I got time."

As the group continued to chat over their meal, some white portals opened up all over the city, dropping some objects from them. A man in a lab coat watched from a hill overlooking the city. "So it begins," he muttered. "Tremorton… ground zero for his meddling." His words went unheard by anyone other than himself.

Author's Note: I worked real hard on this! I thought it would be fun to structure the beginning of each chapter like an intro to an episode of the show. Let me know what you think! Really excited to be publishing this series finally, big plans for it. Remember to leave a review.