179 replies to this topic

[CraazyOne]

Hurray for Beks! :dance: And thanks for readin' and replyin'.


@PIGQUET-- Aw, thanks. Of course I don't mind. :D I'm glad you think it keeps getting better, and that you like the asteroid, and that you couldn't stop laughing at some of Sheen's lines! Hurray! I feel...like I actually managed to do something with my writing! LOL! Nice to know I could cheer ya up when you're down like this. ^_^


~Rach~

[Chica_Andromeda]

Eeeee!!! It's AMAZING, Rach!! :thumbsup:

Wow, I really love how you described everything; it made it very realistic. :D And gah, a cliffhanger! XD

And sorry about my inbox being full. :ph43r:" I had thought it was empty, but I guess I was spacing again. XD''

[CraazyOne]

Aw, thanks.

And that's OK... Like I said, I just didn't want you to think I was ignoring you or something. I have memory blackouts and blonde moments all the time (especially at work :blink: ), so don't feel bad. ;)


~Rach~

[cancel_me]

Wow Rach, this is an incredible story! Very well plotted out, indeed. I think I have an idea of who might be working with Yoo-Yee! *Nodnod*

... Hey, that rhymed!! 8D Awesome job, again. Your story really does have that episodey feel to it, and you describe things well with the perfect mixture of dialogue. PLUS you kept all the characters in character (a feat that even I can't control sometimes). GOOD WORK! :bff:

Thanks for posting such an amazing story to read. Mad props to you! ;)

[CraazyOne]

Well, if you even REMEMBER where I left off, here's the next chapter of my fic. It seems pretty terrible, especially for the long wait I gave everyone, but I feel like I should probably post it soon or I won't even have any readers anymore. If I have any now... :wacko: I almost gave up on this fic, but I made myself sit down and work on it again. I just...er...got distracted with life, but forcing myself to write helps me concentrate on more pleasant things.

Anyway, if you're interested, here ya go. I hope it's halfway decent...

Chapter 11: The Entertainers

The kids sprinted toward the sidewalk and turned breathlessly to watch the hovercars rocket past them. As the wind whipped through their hair and the noise buzzed in their ears, they could feel the very air around them vibrate from the machines’ momentum. Then the vehicles soared back up into the sky, leaving the kids to stare in awe.

“Um…I don’t think it’s safe out here,” Jimmy said slowly. He turned to face the row of buildings behind them and stepped a little hesitantly towards the nearest one. A poorly played melody floated out to their ears as they approached the open doorway and stared uncertainly into the dark interior. Within were rows of tables lined up before a stage on which someone was attempting to play a song on a somewhat battered keyboard. Those sitting at the tables were eating and glaring at the man on stage, until at last someone let out a loud boo, which was soon echoed throughout the restaurant. A man tossed a tomato at the musician, someone else hurled another, and soon a whole tomato volley followed.

“You call that talent?!” came an enraged shout.

With that, the crowd started grabbing anything that happened to be on their plates and throwing it all at the stage. The performer stopped playing at last, jumping out of his seat, and, to the kids’ surprise, responding by throwing the food right back at the people!

“Yeah!” Sheen cheered. “A food fight!”

“Is this whole asteroid some kind of giant mental institution?!” Cindy demanded.

Libby grimaced at the scene unfolding before them. “Yeah,” she agreed, “these people are actin’ just a little weird.”

“I don’t know,” Jimmy responded, frowning in thought for the hundredth time that day. “They spend all their time committing evil actions and working hard to keep from being decent citizens. It reminds me of…Evil Jimmy’s duplication of Earth!” The idea hit the genius like a bombshell. Why hadn’t that occurred to him before…? Yet he quickly tossed the thought aside. “But it couldn’t be!” he argued with himself. “Evil Jimmy trapped himself and all the citizens in a dark matter dimension and there’s no way they could’ve escaped!”

“Well, someone had to create this place.” Cindy glanced at him pointedly.

“We’ll have to worry about that later,” Jimmy answered, sweeping the subject out of the way. “Right now, if we’re gonna find Betty, we have to blend in with the population.”

As if they’d heard Jimmy’s last remark, the people suddenly became aware of the children’s presence and turned on them menacingly. At first the gang only felt terror, but as they studied the citizens closer, their mouths dropped open in shock instead.

“Hey, Jimmy,” Sheen whispered at the genius’s side, “why do all these people look vaguely familiar?”

Before Jimmy could reply, a familiar man in a white T-shirt stepped from the shadows at the back of the building and glared at the kids. This time, their eyes practically bulged out of their heads.

“Sam?” they chorused.

Cindy threw a glance at Jimmy. “You were saying…?”

Too upset to be annoyed at Cindy’s comment, Jimmy stared in mixed shock and horror at Sam. “This asteroid is populated with the evil clones!”

As Sam and a few other clones advanced toward them, the gang crept back nervously.

“What’re ya kids doin’ in my restaurant?!” Sam’s clone barked. “Yeah!”

Sheen thought quickly. “Uh…” he stuttered, “we came to…uh…entertain you!”

The clones frowned skeptically before slowly coming to a stop. Sam studied them a moment before relenting. “Fine! But ya better be good…or else! Yeah,” he threatened, receding into the darkness from which he’d come. His customers threw dark looks at the children as they reluctantly returned to their seats.

Splattered with tomato juice and coated in food, the performer slipped off the stage and exited the restaurant, kicking a parked hovercar and setting off its alarm as he went. The kids moved uncertainly toward the vacated stage and began climbing the stairs. When they reached the top, they stood in a cramped cluster and blinked back at the crowd anxiously.

“Good going, Ultrafreak!” Cindy muttered, leaning toward Sheen with a venomous fire in her eyes. He responded with a frightened grin.

“Whadda we do?” Libby questioned.

Jimmy shot his friends a smile. “We entertain them.”

“Ah, this’ll be easy!” Sheen interjected. He rushed toward center stage and snatched up a few of the smashed tomatoes. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced to the crowd proudly, “prepare to be astounded by my awesome juggling abilities!”

The rest of the kids stared in horror. “We’re doomed,” Cindy declared.

Sheen tossed the tomatoes into the air, hitting the ceiling with several, but dropping most to the ground. Carl became too distracted by all the food to worry anymore. With a smile of absolute contentment, he devoured a smashed slice of cake lying on the stage in mere moments. “Mmmm, chocolate,” he proclaimed. Libby, Cindy, and Jimmy stared at him in disgust.

Boos erupted from the angry crowd and there were several shouts for them to get off the stage.

“I haven’t seen anything this bad in ages!” a woman complained.

At that moment, a boy seated in a booth near the doorway stood to his feet. With a start, the gang recognized him as none other than Sheen’s evil clone! He was clothed in Sheen’s customary Ultralord outfit, but he clutched a Robofiend action figure in his hand.

“I say we tie them up and throw food at them mercilessly!” Evil Sheen cried, jerking a finger at the gang excitedly. His eyes held his counterpart’s usual animation; only their friendly, harmless look had been replaced with a threatening gleam.

“Wait!” Jimmy called out, running to the edge of the stage and raising a hand as if to stop the oncoming food volley. “You haven’t seen anything yet!” He made a dramatic sweeping gesture, and their clone audience paused to study him dubiously. Jimmy grinned hopefully and continued, “I give you…a comprehensive study of common geometric theorems!”

The crowd stared at him blankly. “What?!” a man cried.

Libby rolled her eyes as Cindy cringed and turned to her. “You’re our only hope now, Libbs!”

A knowing grin slid across Libby’s face. Before Jimmy could begin his mathematic lecture, she strode confidently over to the piano, slipped into the seat, and turned to the crowd. “Are ya ready for some real entertainment?” she demanded, and received a shout of assent from the clones.

Without hesitation, she set her hands to the keys and burst into a fast-paced melody reminiscent of the Mission: Impossible theme. As her fingers flew deftly along the keyboard, the rhythm pulsated through the room, earning appreciative cheers from the crowd. Goddard flipped out a disco ball from his back and let the rainbow lights flash across the stage and dance in Libby’s dark eyes. Throwing a mischievous grin in Libby’s direction, Sheen began attempting fancier juggling moves in order to go along with the music’s tempo. Cindy clapped her hands to the beat and plastered a smile on her face, despite her inward fear that Sheen would launch a tomato at the crowd. Jimmy gaped at them, half-pleased that they’d found a way to satisfy the people, and half-frustrated to see they’d stolen the spotlight from him. But, whatever Jimmy felt, Libby’s passion for music had spread to the crowd. Sheen had somehow managed to keep up with her song and not drop a single tomato, and even Carl began to feel the enthusiasm. Wiping some of the cake crumbs from his face, he followed Cindy’s lead and began clapping, then swinging his hips to the music—which, needless to say, didn’t sit too well with the clones.

“You call that dancing?!” a man shouted, glaring at poor Carl. The boy lowered his head in embarrassment and stared at his feet.

Libby’s song ended right at that moment. She turned back to the crowd with a content smile on her lips and a fire in her eyes, but when she noted the clones’ growing unrest, her happiness quickly vanished. Cringing, she stepped away from the keyboard. Off to her right, one of Sheen’s tomatoes sailed dangerously close to the ceiling and landed with a smack on top of his head.

“This performance is terrible!” a woman yelled.

Jimmy stepped to front stage desperately. “But you couldn’t possibly be disappointed with a lesson in advanced mathematics!”

Loud groans and another cry to punish the kids rose up from the audience. Libby and Cindy stood side-by-side near the back of the stage with growing fear in their eyes. Wiping the smashed tomato off his head, Sheen finally noticed the restless crowd and backed off nervously.

“Um, Jimmy…” Carl began anxiously, creeping toward his best friend, who still stood at the stage’s edge, wracking his brain for a way to appease the clones. But one of his shoes slipped in Sheen’s smashed tomatoes, and with a cry and a huge thud, Carl found himself falling backwards on the stage. The rest of the kids cringed, but the audience burst out in cruel laughter. Carl struggled to get to his feet, but slid in the tomato juice and hit the floor once again, resulting in an even louder outburst from the crowd.

It was then an idea struck Jimmy. He turned back to his friends. “That’s it!” he exclaimed softly, his voice barely distinguishable to the gang over the audience’s noise. “They enjoy watching people suffer! Entertaining them can’t be that hard!”

“What do you want us to do, run around and trip ourselves?” Cindy demanded sarcastically.

“Just find some way to preoccupy them while I find a way to get out of here!” Jimmy responded.

“Got it, Jimmy!” Sheen saluted his friend.

Heading to the back of the stage and scanning the room, the genius quickly analyzed the situation. The audience blocked the entrance, and, from what Jimmy could see, that was their only exit. But, if his friends could just entertain the crowd long enough, he knew he could find a way to get out of there.

With Jimmy occupied with finding an escape route, Cindy stepped forward to take control of the situation. “If you think that was good,” she proclaimed to the crowd, “watch this!” She took Jimmy’s Pie-O-Matic from Goddard and punched a few buttons. Removing a pie from the invention, she turned to Sheen. He gave her a thumbs-up and she launched the pie right in his face! The crowd burst into cheers and laughter. Cindy pulled out another pie from the Pie-O-Matic and this time, tossed it at Carl.

“Ow! Cindy,” Carl whined, “when you’re pretending to be mean, could you not be as mean as when you really are being mean?”

“Carl!” Sheen broke out. “Take it like a man!” He turned to Libby and winked. “Here, Sugar Cake, throw one at me and see how your man takes pain!”

Libby lifted a pie and grinned mischievously. “OK, ya asked for it, Sheen!” she replied, and threw the pie in Sheen’s face.

“Ow!” Sheen cried, falling backward, to the crowd’s utter delight.

Libby and Cindy, now thoroughly enjoying themselves, continued chucking pies at the boys, and even Goddard joined in.

As the pies continued to fly, Carl found a second to sample some as it ran down his face. “Mmmm…banana cream!” he gushed. “It’s almost as good as Sam’s mud pie with real wor—”

A shout from the crowd interrupted the kids in their pie battle. They turned to see Evil Sheen standing near the stage talking enthusiastically. “Whoa! This reminds me of the time Robofiend attacked Ultralord with his mega-fast pie thrower!” He held his hands to his heart. “I love Robofiend!”

Sheen, his face still covered in pie, wiped the food away to stare in horror at his evil clone. His eye began to twitch agitatedly until suddenly he sprang forward to the edge of the stage! “How dare you pledge allegiance to Ultralord’s arch nemesis!” he cried, pointing an accusing finger at the clone.

“Sheen!” Libby said quietly but urgently. “You’re gonna give us away! If they find out we’re not as evil as they are, we’ll all be toast!”

But Sheen was too distracted even to notice Libby.

“Ultralord is lame!” Evil Sheen sneered. “Robofiend is way more awesome!”

“What?!” Sheen cried.

“I said,” the clone answered, speaking slowly to emphasize his words, “‘Ultralord is laaame.’”

“I thought that’s what I heard!” Sheen replied solemnly. “And so, as Ultralord’s faithful ally, I consider it my duty to remove any threat to his greatness! Come up here and show me watcha got, Robo-boy!” He threw some punches in the air while the audience stared.

Libby tried once more to make the boy listen to her. “Sheen!”

Evil Sheen stepped forward menacingly. “You don’t stand a chance against my fiendish, mechanical moves!” he bragged.

“Oh, yeah?! Wait till you get a load of my Ultralord poking and pinching abilities, Fiend-Fighter!” Sheen retorted.

With that, the audience began standing to its feet in anger. “They’re just no-good…good kids pretending to be bad!” one of the men declared. “Let’s get those imposters out of here!”

“Yeah, imposters!” Sam agreed. “Yeah!”

For a few terrible seconds, the gang froze as they faced a sea of enraged clones. Then Cindy found her voice.

“Run!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


***Rachel***

[Beks]

Hahaha! this is so funny! and everyone is really in-character! Write more soon!

[CraazyOne]

Look, Beks and Pigquet! Another chapter! Already! It's much shorter than the last one, and probably very crummy, but hopefully it helps make up for the terrible wait you had for chapter 11... :P


Chapter 12: Yet Another Angry Mob

Hearts pounding, the entire gang rushed off stage and made a mad dash for the one and only exit. But before they could reach it, the angry crowd cut them off, forcing them to come to a dead halt. With eyes gleaming cruelly, they eyed the kids as they clustered together anxiously.

“We gotcha now, ya lousy kids!” Sam barked. “Yeah!”

Sheen sauntered forward and held up a fist in an attempt to look tough. “Ha! You don’t know who you’re messin’ with!” he proclaimed, but the crowd remained unimpressed.

Cindy raised an eyebrow at Sheen. “You mean the world’s first one-man circus?” she muttered tartly.

“You’re just jealous because I’m unique!” Sheen shot back.

Ignoring his friends’ pointless dialogue, Jimmy faced the angry citizens nervously. “Can’t we just settle this diplomatically?” he suggested.

The crowd burst into laughter, not even bothering to reply as they edged closer.

“Jimmy,” Sheen told the genius quietly, “I’m guessing they don’t like diplomaticacey.”

While the clones continued to surround the kids, Jimmy turned to Goddard. “Goddard, Escape Plan Alpha!” he commanded.

Immediately Goddard rocketed himself into the air and Jimmy snatched one of his back paws. The bewildered crowd stared as Goddard and Jimmy arced right over their heads and landed a few feet away from the door. With their attention locked on Goddard and Jimmy, the rest of the gang took the opportunity to make a run for the exit. Cindy, Libby, and Sheen reached Jimmy without trouble, but, trailing behind them, Carl was quickly encircled in a ring of hostile people! He screamed and cowered down, hiding his face as the crowd moved in closer.

In one smooth move, Goddard extended a robotic arm from his back, stretched it out to Carl, and yanked him into the air by his shirt. Carl kept his eyes covered as he dangled wildly in the air. “Ahh! I want my mommy!” he shrieked. “I want my mommy!”

With a bark, Goddard plopped Carl down beside the rest of the gang. Realizing the world had ceased to spin around him, Carl patted the floor in relief and at last opened his eyes.

“Hurry!” Jimmy cried to his friends.

The gang raced out the door, with the mob right behind them. Overhead, hovercars continued to zip about at insane speeds as their drivers simply laughed at the havoc they caused. Everywhere there was disorder: broken glass and graffiti decorated buildings that had been robbed and vandalized, trash lay where people had carelessly tossed it in the road, and smoking, battered vehicles that citizens had destroyed and then left for the owners to find lined the road. The asteroid, of course, had no moon: only dim starlight casting an eerie shimmer on the ruined city.

As the kids raced along the sidewalk, they came to an alley. Though it was dark and littered with trash, Jimmy dashed eagerly into its shadows. When he reached the next street he made a quick turn back into the alley, his friends following close behind. When the mob reached the street, the gang was already out of sight. Leaning against the back wall of a building, the kids anxiously watched the mob from the shadows of their hiding-place. Not until the citizens ran straight past them down the road could they breathe a sigh of relief.

“We’re going to have to find a way through this city,” Jimmy informed his friends, “but it’s going to be hard to get out of here without running into those people again.”

“But, Jimmy,” Carl protested fearfully, “I’m allergic to angry mobs!”

“Carl,” came Sheen’s voice, surprisingly soothing, “just imagine you’re with a herd of llamas in South America… and you’re sipping lemonade…”

Carl closed his eyes and relaxed. Even Sheen was uncharacteristically calm as he leaned back against the bricks of the building they were hiding beside.

“…and you’re wearing a big straw hat…and the sun is shining…and…WAIT!” Sheen jerked forward and his hands flew up dramatically. “NO! It’s not possible! How could you?! You…you FORGOT TO WEAR SUNSCREEN!” His voice seemed loud enough to bring the building crashing down on them all—or at least alert every single clone citizen in a five-mile radius of their presence.

Carl popped his eyes open in alarm. “Ahhh!” he cried, as if Sheen’s explosive outburst hadn’t been enough.

“Sheen, why do you always do that?” Jimmy demanded, studying his friends with a puzzled frown.

Sheen stood twiddling his thumbs. “I don’t know.”

Libby merely rolled her eyes and shook her head, but Cindy kept a gaze trained on the boys that seemed fiery enough to incinerate them on the spot. Carl shrank back, but Sheen, as usual, remained blissfully ignorant of the fact that he was receiving a death glare.

“Can’t we ride Goddard through the city?” Libby offered, changing the subject.

Jimmy paused as his mind carefully considered the possibility. “Goddard can’t carry us all high enough—or fast enough—to avoid the citizens effectively.”

“OK, Brainiac, then what do we do?” Cindy spoke up.

Jimmy gazed up at the stars thoughtfully. As he watched, a shadow on a hover board zipped along the edge of a roof before dipping back down past the street and into another alley. With a sudden grin, Jimmy turned back to his friends.

“Follow me, guys. I’ve got an idea.”



~Rachel~

[Beks]

Oh yeah, a new chapter!! :D I don't think it was bad at all! I liked the part with Sheen and Carl! They make any dire situation funny! :lol:

[CraazyOne]

I just remembered that it's been a while since I've posted a chapter, so I figured I'd put another up before I go to bed. XD

Chapter 13: Downtown Crazy Town

In the darkness of a nearby alley, Nick’s evil clone practiced a few incredibly cool and slightly destructive moves with his hover board. He flipped and twirled in the air, knocking over a trashcan, and smashed into a sign in a nearby window advertising Purple Flurp. The sign clattered to the ground and Nick, unhurt, laughed at the damage he’d caused. Nearby, Butch’s clone sat on a hover bike and spray painted a pair of glasses and a French mustache on a poster of the mayor.

“I love defacing private property!” Evil Butch proclaimed gleefully.

Suddenly, a footstep caught the boys’ attention and they turned in mid-air. Searching the alley for whatever had caused the sound, Evil Nick’s voice took on a bewildered tone. “What? Who’s there?”

Out from the shadows stepped a dark figure. “Guys,” the form said, attempting to sound ominous, “hand over your hover machines!” Even before the voice grated on their ears, the clones quickly recognized Sheen’s lanky frame.

“Oh, yeah?!” Evil Nick snapped. “I’m not giving my hover board to you, Robo-dork!”

“Yeah, you’ll have to take ’em from us first!” Butch’s clone chimed in.

Sheen’s threatening face took on a dramatic, determined expression. “Then taste my wrath, you fiends!” He assumed a sparring stance and threw a few kicks and punches at the air, obviously imagining he looked far more terrifying than he actually did.

The other boys simply stared at him, clearly unimpressed. “Uh…that’s your wrath?”

But at that moment, a battle cry pierced the air and a shadow dropped off the roof and onto the hover board, right behind Nick! With one swift move, Cindy threw Nick into the air and sent him flying into Butch. They both toppled over and fell straight into an open dumpster.

“Ow!” Evil Butch cried, running his thick fingers over his forehead in pain.

Sheen grinned victoriously at them. “No, that was my wrath.”

As Jimmy jumped off the roof onto Butch’s hover bike, Libby and Carl ran out excitedly from behind a building.

“Good work, guys,” the genius commended them.

“I think helping you and Cindy climb onto the roof strained my scapula,” Carl declared, rubbing his back.

“Carl, you can’t strain your scapula!” Jimmy exclaimed impatiently.

Cindy rolled her eyes and cut in. “Forget your scapula, Carl! We have to get out of here before that mob finds us!”

“I get the hover board!” Sheen shouted. Leaping onto it, he shook it around violently and almost caused Cindy, still perched atop it, to lose her balance. “Make room for Libbs, Cindy!” he cried, and without any ceremony, swept Cindy off her feet and threw her to the ground. Then he turned to Libby with a smile and gallantly offered his hand to help her up.

Libby stepped onto the hover board and sternly placed a hand on her hip. “Uh, Sheen, could you not throw my girl around?”

Sheen merely beamed back at her. “Sure thing, Cupcake!”

With a rigid frown, Cindy got to her feet angrily and scrambled onto the hover cycle behind Jimmy. As she grabbed onto him, she dug her fingers in painfully.

“Ow! Cindy!” Jimmy complained.

Cindy loosened her grasp a little, but her mood was still black after being thrown off a hover board.

With Carl too afraid to climb onto him, Goddard was forced to snatch Carl up by the back of the shirt again. As he rocketed himself off the ground and prepared to follow his master through the maze of city streets and alleys, Jimmy revved up his machine and turned back to his friends with a smile.

“OK, guys, follow me.”

Jimmy led his friends through the maze of shadowy alleys toward the open “roads” surrounding the huge skyscrapers. He sped through the air effortlessly, but, behind him, Goddard struggled with the yelling load dangling from his mouth. Last of all were Sheen and Libby, fighting over how to maneuver the hover board. Sheen, thoroughly enjoying himself, twisted and jerked it about at a crazy speed while a nervous, slightly sickened Libby attempted to maintain control.

“Hey, look, Jimmy;” Sheen called to his friend, “I can flip upside down!”

Libby glared at him threateningly. “Oh, no, ya don’t!”

“Uh…never mind,” Sheen said sheepishly.

Meanwhile, swinging uncomfortably in Goddard’s grasp, Carl kept his eyes covered as he nervously questioned Jimmy. “Hey, Jim, we’re not going far, are we?”

“Don’t worry, Carl,” the genius reassured him. “We’ll just search for Betty while we exit the city and find a place to camp. Even if we do find Betty tonight, Sheen has to get ready to fight Yoo-Yee.”

“And that will take a while,” Cindy muttered dryly behind him.

At that moment Jimmy came to the end of an alley leading to the main “roadways” and paused for a moment to take in the sight of the city. In the darkness, every light in the futuristic city glowed vibrantly, illuminating a metropolis still pulsing with life. Huge skyscrapers flashed with animated advertisements for lab kits and lessons in karate, collector’s edition action figures and classic musical hits, llamas and lifetime supplies of chocolate. Without the aid of traffic lights, all sorts of hovering machines weaved paths around slender towers and through the steady flow of traffic. Below them, parked hovercars rested on the wide, concrete streets. Even though the asteroid city was in chaos, with citizens shouting, stealing, vandalizing, and smashing into one another’s vehicles everywhere the gang looked, it was still an awe-inspiring sight.

Drinking it all in with eager eyes, Jimmy finally turned back to his friends. “If I can just get everyone to accept my inventions, this is what Retroville itself will look like in a couple years,” he announced proudly.

“What are you talking about? With all the times you’ve nearly destroyed our city, it’d only take you a few minutes to make it look like Nutcase Utopia here!” Cindy countered.

Immediately, Jimmy turned in his seat to face her. “Hey, don’t yell at me, Vortex! You’re the one who got us in trouble this time!”

Cindy’s eyes flashed and she raised her voice to a harsh shout. “Oh, yeah?! You’re the one who created the evil clone that made this crazy town!”

“Even if I hadn’t, we’d still be rescuing Betty because YOU got her kidnapped!” Jimmy fairly yelled.

“I did not! She was the one who was stupid enough to go with the ninjas!”

“Betty is not stupid!”

This time, Cindy simply crossed her arms and grinned spitefully. “No,” she responded in a softer tone, “she’s just a little slow.”

Standing beside Sheen with her arms crossed, Libby lost her patience at last and threw her arms in the air. “That’s it! If we’re gonna rescue Betty, then you guys are gonna have to figure out how to stop fightin’ every ten seconds!”

Jimmy and Cindy closed their mouths, but glared at each other without giving any sign of trying to be friendly.

“That’s good enough. Now let’s go!” Libby ordered.

Wordlessly, Jimmy veered out of the alley and zipped over a few parked hovercars as he flew through the city. He continued to study his surroundings in wonder, but none of his friends were enjoying it anymore. Hovercars raced around them, the air whipped through their hair, and the height at which they were soaring was dizzying. A nauseous Carl closed his eyes, Sheen was losing control of the hover board and nearly sending Libby over the edge, and Cindy still maintained a death grip on poor Jimmy while she scowled at the passing vehicles. When one hovercar nearly smashed right into him, even Jimmy stopped staring in awe and focused all his energy into dodging traffic. After all, this wasn’t ordinary traffic. Here, every driver’s goal wasn’t to avoid a crash, but to cause one.

----------------------

Yes, Cindy's being a jerk. XD And yeah, lame ending. Sorry... :unsure:

Anyway, tell me whatcha think!



~Rachel~

[Beks]

oooo, good chapter! Poor Carl... :rolleyes:

[CraazyOne]

Aw, thanks for the replies, guys! (Hehe, that rhymed...XDDD :rolleyes: ) It's been a while since I've updated, so thanks for hanging in there and sticking with this story. Nice to see I still have a few readers.

@SNAZZ-- Haha...If you think Cindy's being a jerk now, this is nothing. I'm afraid she'll get much worse later in this fic. But don't worry, I plan on working this out so that you sympathize with her through it all. I'll just be doing a lot more than poking her, that's for sure... *shuts up before she gives anything away*

@PIGQUET-- Ah, don't worry. You know I still love Cindy, and you and I understand why she's acting that way. But she's still harboring a lot of hatred toward Betty, which is inexcusable no matter what Betty had done (which was basically nothing, haha), and I'm afraid Cindy has a few things to learn before this is all over...

Oh, yeah. Ha. You forgot how fun my fics could be because you've only been reading my depressing original works lately... :rolleyes:

@BEKS--Yeah, unfortunately, I don't think this adventure is going to be much fun for Carl. :unsure: There are a few too many vengeance-seeking ninjas and evil clones to deal with for that.



Hopefully, the next chapter will be up soon. I kinda gotta go over it some more...



~Rachel~

[CraazyOne]

I actually have another chapter ready for you guys. Thanks for reading, and please reply and tell me what you think. Your comments encourage me, inspire me, and help keep me from neglecting this fic. :P Thanks so much. :D


Chapter 14: Oncoming Traffic

In the midst of the raging traffic, Jimmy and the gang continued to dodge hovercars that flew too close. Up and down, left and right, they zipped through the swarm of crazed drivers as fast as they could go. Jimmy piloted his machine with ease, but Sheen still jerked his hover board around recklessly.

“This is just like Ultralord and the Revenge of the Vorrgebots!” he proclaimed.

“Watch out!” Libby cried, staring in horror at an oncoming hovercar.

Jimmy swerved around the machine just in time, with Sheen and Goddard on his trail. Just as Libby caught her breath in relief, she noticed another hovercar directly ahead, plowing toward them at an outrageous speed! This time Jimmy dropped straight down and sped right under it, and again his friends followed.

Carl, his eyes still covered, moaned as he was jerked about recklessly. “I don’t like speeding through dangerous traffic!”

“Oh, come on, Carl!” Sheen exclaimed as he nearly slammed right into a passing hover cycle. “This is almost as fun as the time we switched Principal Willoughby’s exercise tape with The Thirteenth Sense!” He grinned mischievously at the memory of their principal shrieking in terror at the horror film, prancing about his office, and finally remembering he had the ability to turn off his television with the press of a button. That had definitely been one of Sheen’s finer pranks… Even if it had come with the heavy price tag of two weeks’ worth of detention.

Carl’s frantic voice broke in at that moment, pulling Sheen from his reverie. “I didn’t do it; I DIDN’T DO IT!” the poor redhead shouted in denial. “…Well, it was your idea,” he ended softly.

Unfazed by Carl’s outburst, Sheen’s mind quickly jumped to a completely unrelated topic. “Hey, Jimmy, wanna watch me spin around?” he asked eagerly.

Hands taut on the handlebars of his hover bike and jaw set in determination, Jimmy was so focused on dodging traffic his mind almost didn’t register what Sheen had said. “Sheen,” he replied with forced patience, “I’m kinda busy dodging crazed drivers right now!”

Libby turned to Sheen angrily. “Keep your eyes on the traffic or we ain’t gettin’ outta here!” she reminded him.

Sheen grinned sheepishly and seemed about to apologize when a hovercar smashed into Jimmy’s bike and sent its riders tumbling off the seat. Now dead weight, the bike plummeted to the ground far below, and Jimmy and Cindy found themselves following it!

For several terrible moments Libby could only stare after her friends’ forms as they dropped through the air. Over the din of the whirring and honking machines, the pair’s screams fell faint on her ears. The expanse of air below them was dizzying: in fact, Libby couldn’t even detect the street from this height.

Then, all at once, her voice returned. “Sheen!” she shouted. “We gotta help them!”

“I’m on it!” He tilted the hover board at a precarious angle while avoiding a hovercar, and Libby struggled to keep from toppling over the edge. As he jolted the hover board around, he threw his head back to practice his imitation of maniacal laughter until Libby interrupted his fun with a furious look.

“Sheen! Our goal is to save Jimmy and Cindy, remember?” she snapped, looking angry enough to break him in two.

“Actually,” Sheen answered casually, “my goals are to meet Ultralord and spend all my time doing activities of no educational value whatsoever! But I’ll save Jimmy first.” He dipped the hover board downward in an attempt to follow after Jimmy and Cindy, but it was hard to do so when they had already disappeared into the maze of traffic far below. Not to mention when Sheen’s wild movements had the hover board flying out of control.

“You know,” he commented after a while, “this would be a lot easier if I wasn’t having a sugar rush from those pies right now.”

If she weren’t working so hard to maintain her balance on the hover board, Libby could have smacked a hand to her forehead in her exasperation. Then, all of a sudden, inspiration hit her. She turned to Sheen with a devious grin and let a triumphant note enter her voice. “Hey, Sheen. What happened to bein’ afraid o’ heights?”

Immediately Sheen glanced down and seemed to calculate the distance to the ground with his wide eyes. “Oh, yeah,” he muttered, then grabbed Libby’s shoulders in a frenzy of terror. “GET ME OUTTA HERE, LIBBY!” he fairly screamed in her ear.

The girl shoved him away firmly. “Sheen, relax!” she ordered, letting him collapse onto the hover board and cling to it for dear life. With that, she turned her attention to guiding the hover board calmly and safely through the traffic. “Now we’re gonna find Jimmy and Cindy!” she said determinedly.

***

As the wind whipped through their hair and the ground drew ever closer, Jimmy and Cindy plunged past dozens of other hovercars, but there didn’t seem to be anything to save them from their fall. Their screams had been cut off long ago when the wind and their sheer panic had stolen their breath away. Now they found themselves staring down the lengths of immense skyscrapers all the way to their bases, which they could hardly see from this altitude. The hovercars moving hundreds of feet below them were mere specks of motion. Lights from the hover machines and buildings all glared at them and blurred into a collage of neon colors before their eyes. On the skyscraper directly ahead of them, an advertisement flashed the question: Need a Lift? Yet, even as Jimmy took in all of their surroundings, his brain was working rapidly. Turning to the falling girl beside him, he extended his arm. “Cindy! Grab my hand!” he shouted.

Cindy managed to tear her wide eyes from the ground and reach for the boy’s hand, just out of her grasp. Stretching his arm as far as he could, Jimmy’s fingers just met hers and tightened around them. With his other hand he reached into his pocket and struggled to draw something from it. After what felt like an eternity to Cindy, the genius succeeded in sliding it out: the Quantum Replay. He pointed it down at the retreating form of the hover bike and punched the button he needed. Immediately the bike reversed motion in mid-air and was sucked back up toward them. Jimmy stopped it just below him, smashing onto the seat with a painful thud and yanking Cindy after him. He hastily steered the bike out of the line of traffic and began driving out of the heart of the city. As they reached safety at last, he noticed that in front of him, Cindy was still holding the hover bike in a death grip and trying to catch her breath. Hair that had slipped from her ponytail straggled down wildly in her face while her eyes betrayed her fear. It was strange seeing her so vulnerable. This wasn’t the first time he’d saved her life, either; but it was only now that he realized how indebted she was to him. If it weren’t for the fact that they were still in danger, his swelling pride would have spurred him to rub it all in her face.

As usual, it was Cindy who found her voice first. “Neutron, only you would be crazy enough to try controlling time and space!” she snapped, though she couldn’t quite keep the quiver of fear out of her voice. As much as she’d tried to sound angry, Jimmy could tell that, even if she was pretending not to, she was complimenting him. His earlier desire to come up with a searing insult instantly faded away. Just the thought that, for once, he’d earned some respect from her flooded him with contentment. Truth was, Cindy’s approval had always made him feel far more important than Betty’s ever had, though he didn’t know why. But he couldn’t enjoy the feeling for long. He had to concentrate on finding his friends…and getting them out of this insane city.

-------------------------------------

One more thing. For those of you who've seen Star Wars Episode II, maybe you can see how that inspired this chapter. I really picture a city kinda like the one Obi wan and Anakin flew through here. Ha. :P



~Rachel~

[CraazyOne]

Hehe, thanks, Snazz. I love Sheen! ^_^ *Gwen creeps forward wielding an absurdly gigantic shovel* No, not in THAT way... :rolleyes:

He's a lot of fun to write. ^________^

Yeah, I think you're right. Coruscant's pretty cool. I just love the futuristic cities like that. I kept picturing them all flying beside skyscrapers as tall as those and being at that kind of altitude. That's a fun scene in Episode II, even though I don't like that particular one very much. Too much Anakin/Padme...but that's for another discussion...

Uh-huh, 'bout time there was a little J/C to soften up their constant arguments and insults lately. You gotta admit, Jimmy hasn't been the greatest either. But it IS all Cindy's fault. I can still sympathize with her...poor girl was just trying to get his attention, albeit in a roundabout and unfeeling way toward Betty.

Daaang, I can't shut up! If I'm not careful I might start discussing this fic too much and giving things away. :rolleyes:




~Rachel~

[sunnstar]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY IT WAS AWESOME!!

Sunscreen lolz. And Sheen mispronoucing democratically or whatever it was.

Although, I have no idea what's going on. XD

OCRAP I just realized there are two more chapters I now I have to read lol. XDD

[CraazyOne]

LULZ SUNNY BE CLUELESS. Maybe if you read the other two chapters you won't be so confused!! XD

Diplomaticacey. XDDDDD *adds it to the dictionary of Sheenism*




~Rachel~

[CraazyOne]

MUST FINISH THIS OVER THE SUMMER, BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS EATING ME ALIVE. Or at least I've gotta try to make a lot of progress on it... :P


Chapter 15: Preparing the Chosen One

Jimmy guided the hover bike through the darkness of the alleyways and back routes toward the outskirts of the city. Here the sounds of blaring horns and ear-shattering collisions soon grew faint and was replaced by the humming of an occasional lighted sign advertising various futuristic-looking products. As he wound his way through the shadows Jimmy gripped the handlebars extra tightly in order to keep from losing his hold, and in order to make sure that if Cindy slid, he could break her fall with his arms.

From her spot up front, Cindy clung to the seat with all her might, willing the frantic pounding of her heart against her ribcage to cease. She closed her eyes, leaned her head back, and let the cool air beat against her face. As she drew in a deep breath in order to recover herself, she tried to keep from shuddering. She feared Jimmy would notice if she trembled, and she didn’t dare let him know how scared she’d been.

Even as these thoughts crossed her mind, a shadow fell over her and she jerked her eyes open. She stared up at the night sky as several dark shapes whooshed overhead. “Jimmy!” she cried anxiously, instinctively shrinking back toward the boy genius.

Peering up at the sky, Jimmy slowed to a stop as the figures descended toward them. To his relief, as the shadows approached they transformed into Libby and Sheen on the hover board and Carl dangling from Goddard’s mouth.

“Jimmy! Cindy! Oh, boy, we thought you guys were pancakes for sure!” Sheen exclaimed. At his side, Libby rolled her eyes as if thinking, If they were, it would be your fault!

“Can I open my eyes now?” Carl wondered.

“Yes, Carl,” Jimmy replied as patiently as he could.

Carl cautiously removed a hand from one eye and peeked out at his friends. “Ahh! We’re still up in the air!” he cried.

Jimmy didn’t even try to moderate his tone this time. “Carl, you’re three feet off the ground!”

“But I’m allergic to heights!” Carl protested. He appeared ready to faint, causing Cindy to roll her eyes.

With a shake of her head, Libby turned her attention to Cindy and Jimmy. “We were so worried! How did ya get back on the hover bike?!”

Jimmy grinned and spoke with feigned modesty. “Oh, it was nothing! I just used the Quantum Replay to pull the bike toward us in mid-air and then maneuvered it out of traffic.”

A few feet away, Goddard landed on the ground, releasing his cargo at last. A relieved Carl brushed himself off and turned to his friend in awe. “Wow, Jim, you’re amazing!”

“Yeah, that is pretty cool,” Libby agreed.

Furious to find her rival basking in her friends’ praise, Cindy wasted no time breaking in. “Oh, please, like tampering with the laws of physics ever was a good idea!” she nearly growled.

Jimmy threw Cindy a smug grin. “You thought it was a good idea when it saved you from falling to your death!”

“And I bet ya thought it was a good idea when he saved your life an’ swept ya away on the hover bike!” Libby teased.

Cindy gave her friend a stubborn frown. “I did not! I could’ve figured out a better way to get out of that than Nerdtron!” she insisted.

“Why don’t we just find out right now then, Dorktex?” Jimmy asked slyly, causing Cindy to only frown the more.

“Guys,” Libby interrupted the oncoming argument matter-of-factly, “shouldn’t we get outta this city before another mob or more crazy drivers start chasin’ us?”

Sheen, in the middle of performing a precarious headstand on the hover board, plopped down and yanked himself to his feet. “Good idea, my angel of music!” he gushed, leaning close to Libby. He paused, then muttered thoughtfully, “Although experiencing road rage from a victim’s point of view is pretty interesting…”

Sheen received a few blank stares before the kids prepared to set off again. With a sigh, Carl let Goddard lift him up in the air once more while the rest of the gang followed on their hover machines. Only a few moments more took them out of the city’s reaches and into the barren stretch of land where Jimmy had parked their space car earlier. Landing beside it, they hopped off their hover machines and started making camp.

“OK, guys,” Jimmy announced, “tomorrow we find Betty and Evil Jimmy…and things could get ugly.”

“But, Jimmy, battling evil ninjas gives me indigestion!” Carl declared.

“That’s OK, Carl,” the genius reassured him. “You won’t be fighting them. I was just going to say that in case Sheen has to battle Yoo-Yee again, he’s gonna have to learn as much about karate as he can tonight.”

Sheen’s face glowed with the thought. “Man, this is gonna be awesome! Ninjas, beware of the Chosen One!” He punched the air near Carl, causing the boy to scream and jump at least three feet into the air. But Sheen’s laughter was cut off as a new idea popped into his head. “Hey, Carl,” he said eagerly, “watch me grab a pebble out of your hand now!”

Recovering his dignity, Carl picked up a pebble and held it out to Sheen. Sheen stepped toward him with a cocky grin and a wink in Libby’s direction. Yet, as soon as Sheen started to reach for the pebble, Carl closed his hand effortlessly and giggled. Sheen made another valiant effort, but was once again outdone by his friend.

“Carl,” Sheen whined in frustration, “cut it out!”

“We’re hopeless!” Libby groaned, leaning her head in her hand and averting her eyes from Sheen’s pathetic attempts.

“No, we’re not!” Jimmy broke in eagerly. “With some simple mathematic calculations I figured the positions that will give Sheen’s kicks the most forceful trajectory, as well as the angles he should use to have the most powerful punches. But, most importantly, I know how to actually train Sheen to use all those moves!”

Cindy’s face was almost sourer than her voice. “Forget it, Nerdbomb!” she barked. “Let a real karate expert show him how it’s done!”

Jimmy seemed about to snap back at Cindy when his, Libby’s, and Cindy’s attention was diverted back to Sheen and Carl. Sheen was still attempting—and failing—to snatch the pebble out of Carl’s hand.

“Hey! I’ll get you for that!” Sheen started chasing Carl, who fled from Sheen for dear life.

Turning back to Cindy, Jimmy suddenly surrendered his coaching duty to her with a mischievous grin. “Have fun, Vortex,” he smirked. He headed over to where Goddard sat observing the goings-on and plopped down on his sleeping bag with a self-satisfied air.

Cindy took a step toward Sheen with a no-nonsense expression that would have motivated anyone to get moving. “OK, Ultrafreak, let’s just get this over with!”

Frustrated by his lack of success with the pebble snatching, Sheen stopped chasing Carl and approached Cindy hopefully.

“This is how you punch,” she informed Sheen. With one fluid motion, she drew her hand back to her hip and then twisted it as she released her punch. When her fist stopped mere inches away from Carl’s nose, he screamed and ducked, covering his head in fear.

“Ah! Make it stop!” Carl cried, but no one paid any attention to his sufferings.

“And this is how you do a roundhouse kick,” Cindy continued. This time she whipped her leg out into the air, pivoting on the ground and letting her foot stop just short of Carl’s back. Again, Carl shrank away in fear.

“Uh, Cindy,” he asked hesitantly, “when you’re teaching Sheen how to fight, could you do it…less dangerously? You almost hit my scapula.” He rubbed his back as if he could feel the damage that had almost been inflicted.

“Carl! How can you let a girl scare you?” Sheen reprimanded. “Where’s your manhood?!”

Still focused on nothing but the art of Tae Kwon Do, Cindy rocked on one foot to give herself momentum, lunged forward with one leg in the air, snapped a kick with her other leg, and landed in a sparring pose in front of Sheen. Immediately, the boy recoiled in fear and dashed behind Libby. She glared at him and received a sheepish grin in return.

“Well, that was sure manly,” Libby observed.

“Even the manliest manly-men have to take breaks sometimes!” Sheen excused himself.

Cindy crossed her arms impatiently. “Look, Ultra-dork, do you want to learn how to fight or not?”

“Learn to fight?!” he repeated. “I’m the Chosen One! I’m undefeated in battle!” He stepped toward Cindy and then glanced over his shoulder at Libby. “Check this out, Libbs! No one messes with the Chosen One!”

He promptly jumped into the air and performed a perfectly executed flying kick! Libby and Cindy stared in amazement…until Sheen crashed to the ground in a heap.

Libby cringed before looking over at her wide-eyed friend. “This is gonna take a while,” she muttered.

***

For one long hour Cindy worked hard to coach Sheen, but his lack of hand-eye coordination and short attention span continued to hinder any progress. He just couldn’t concentrate on anything Cindy said or did for more than a few moments. It was all she could do to cling to her last remnant of patience, even with Libby’s help.

“Now, when you kick…” Cindy began to instruct the boy, but the rest of her words fell on deaf ears. Once again, Sheen had paused in the middle of his training to stare at something else.

“Cool, look at that!” He pointed at a section of the night sky, forcing Cindy to halt her demonstration of a roundhouse kick for the tenth time and glare at him.

“Stop staring at constellations and kick!” she demanded.

Sheen aimed a kick for Cindy, who easily blocked it, knocking him over onto his back in the process. Finding himself staring up at stars, he spoke again. “But, Cindy, those stars remind me of…”

“Ultralord?” Libby finished for him.

“No, George Washington!” Sheen responded.

Her curiosity aroused, Libby glanced up at the cluster of stars Sheen was staring at. “Actually, if ya look at ’em right, they look more like a monkey,” she commented thoughtfully.

“George Washington!” Sheen corrected.

Standing off on the sidelines, Carl spoke up in wonder. “George Washington is a monkey?”

“No, the stars are a monkey!” Libby answered, gesturing to the sky.

A realization dawned on Carl. “Hey, I’m allergic to monkeys!”

“I love monkeys!” Sheen proclaimed, still lying on his back.

“FORGET THE MONKEYS!” Cindy almost shouted, bristling with rage.

“But the Atomic Monkey Special Forces Squad recruits expert fighters!” Sheen protested. “Colonel McSwainey and his monkey troops could help us battle Yoo-Yee!”

Cindy spun away from Sheen furiously. “OK, forget it! You’re done training!” She stomped over to her sleeping bag and plopped down on it with an angry thud. Stretched out on his own sleeping bag with his arms behind his head and Goddard curled up beside him, Jimmy continued to observe the whole proceeding with a grin.

“Give up, Vortex?”

“No!” After a pause, she calmed down a little and looked over at him. “How were you going to train him, anyway?”

Jimmy shrugged casually. “Oh, with a simple technique, really…” He patted Goddard’s head and gazed up at the stars as if he didn’t plan on actually explaining it.

Cindy promptly fell for his bait. “How?” she persisted.

With a triumphant smile, Jimmy turned back to Goddard, who popped open his screen. It displayed none other than Ultralord himself effortlessly kicking, punching, and blocking Robofiend in heated combat. If it were possible, Jimmy’s smile only grew. “You just have to know how to get Sheen’s attention,” he explained, “and the rest is easy.”




~Rachel~


Any comments or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading. :D