Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

'Some people are born into the world to lead others, the rest are meant to be leaded around. But it's not that certain as many would believe it is; a slave could rise up and lead his people into freedom, and a master of a nation can fall into servitude and stay there for the rest of the existence…'

Brit Crust bit the nub of eraser. She hit an impasse on her grand speech. The last year of high school required every senior to do something significant to be remembered as long as the building stood. Trying to outdo everyone else as always, Brit decided to perform two acts. A great rousing speech to her classmates during graduation and some sort of a large-scale senior prank. She didn't plan out her prank out yet, but wanted to get the speech done before work bogged her down. The first week of actual school had passed, and Brit was spending a Saturday in the park writing alone under the old ash tree on the hill.

But then the rushing sound of a jet engine came by her. She muffled out her annoyance as she held onto her notes as Jenny flew by. Brit stuffed her papers into her backpack as she looked up to see a giant New Cluster ship coming down into Earth's orbit. Jenny rushed right up to it and engaged the invaders. The sky lit up with violent bursts of blinding light as Jenny exchanged fire with the Cluster. Business as usual. Machines/aliens/mad scientists/monsters/whatever would attack and Jenny would fight them off. Same old, same old.

Brit sat down again, having got used to this a long time ago. As the battle continued to wage on to prevent the conquering of Earth umpteenth time, Brit couldn't get back to work on her speech and decided instead to get a small pocillo down at the traditional Peru café. After finishing that, she would return to the park to find the wrecked remains of the Cluster ship, surrounded by the cleanup crews and the press as Jenny would entertain both. Everything would then go back to normal until the next big disaster. Hopefully a disaster caused by Jenny…

But Brit knew better. She sighed as she dismissed the thought away and thought about what she would order to go with her coffee. Perhaps an empanada? Being meaning to try one of those for a long time. She would call Tiff, but Tiff had made plans with other friends this weekend to visit some-sort of a monster truck rally down south. Tiff had become a bit more accustomed to being dirtier, but she still had a 'passion for fashion.'

Brit…ultimately felt alone. Don Prima went off to study in Europe, and Pteresa had graduated early to work in her father's fashion business. Most of the popular kids two years ago were no longer popular or not popular enough for Brit's plate. Same matter applied to the freshmen and the sophomores. During the greyer days, Brit felt like she lived in a world that barely survived apocalypse. She wandered down a torn-up sidewalk, walking around the debris of a skyscraper and climbing over stripped cars.

She hadn't changed much, really. And that was a problem she faced everyday. While her cousin found delight in entertainment meant for the lower classes, Brit continued to enjoy the same material she did two years ago. Her attempts to keep up with the world of fashion were one she often trailed behind in. The only thing that improved was her attitude; she performed less pranks and broke less rules as her future was falling into the red zone.

But Jenny? Savior of the world, and now going to graduate with at least the minimal honor of cum laude, but if its grades continued to soar (Which it would.) Jenny would earn summa cum laude. It had become 'popular' to everyone, despite its lack of proper class needed for such a role. Its appearance had become more defined, and Brit felt truly jealous. Brit lived eighteen years and barely filled C and Jenny could easily get D cups if she so wanted. But being the modest machine it was, she kept to her usual size and just made her form more svelte. Its painted-on hair had become actual hair (Well, metal plates, but acted like actual hair) and it had gained a more human-like design.

But it still acted the same, and it was popular.

Sitting down in her usual spot near the big window, Brit ordered and waited as she watched Jenny normally walked down the street, adoring fans following behind in her steps. As soon as she witnessed the event, Jenny flew off, presumably to go and fight some more bad guys elsewhere. Brit's food and drink came and went as well. Money on the table, she left without a word to the staff and went back to the park to continue writing her report.

But even though the park had returned to its quiet state (Although with a huge crater from the ship's impact) Brit couldn't focus and work on her speech paper. She tried to write down anything, be it a structured sentence or notes to be deciphered later, but her thoughts drifted back to Jenny.

Jenny.

How dare it.

Brit held back tears. She didn't want tears to come falling down, she wanted to scream out loud. She wanted to be angry, not depressed. All her emotions were out of control.

So she decided to do what most teenagers (Then again, she was turning 18 near the end of the year.) do when they want to nonverbally get their emotions out. Doodle out her frustrations. Brit took delight in making caricatures of Jenny for the rest of the afternoon, often breaking out into evil laughter as made Jenny the stupidest and disgusting thing on the planet. However, Brit wasn't really paying attention to what she drew, and just assumed she drew out the exact images in her mind down on paper. After spending at least a good thirty minutes on it, she decided to look at her drawings and see her accomplishments.

Then she ripped out the paper and crumbled it up.

How and why would she draw that?

Brit felt confused and even more furious at this. All she wanted was to draw Jenny as unflattering as possible. This…came as far away from that goal as possible. It actually painted Jenny in a positive light. Brit couldn't stand to look at it! Like, what the hell! She felt so disgusted with it; she tried to crumple it up even more and even stomped on it for good measure. But she stopped when she heard someone talking with a friend over a phone walking nearby and getting closer. Not wanting to throw away the incriminating evidence and let it be found, she stowed the ball into her purse and walk away. Might as well head home and get started on those handouts she need to fill-out for next week.

"Brit!"

Oh no.

Jenny had come back to the park to inspect the damages done.

"I've been looking for you." Jenny approached with its usual smile and wave. "I saw you before right here during the attack." Jenny's eyes got brighter and turned light blue. "I'm going to check for any damages done or any sort of infection. Vexus has developed a virus…"

"I'm fine." Brit coldly dictated as she simply stood away from the eyebeams.

"Oh." Jenny eyes went back to the normal. "Okay." Brit went to walk off, but Jenny quickly caught up and then asked, "Hey, how's school?"

"Fine." Brit replied. Didn't Jenny ever pick up the idea that Brit didn't like talking with her? Or the only times Brit ever talked to it was to use it? Brit continued to walk away, with Jenny following regardless.

"Ah." Jenny nervously whispered. "So, what's your plans for the year, and after?"

"None of your business."

"I was just trying to start a conservation…"

"Not in the mood, not caring." Brit shrugged it off and hurried her pace, before turning back and saying, "Shouldn't you be checking others for this virus?" Jenny did catch up on this and fly off to check the people of the town for infection, or find any Clusters soldiers who landed. Brit went along her own way home.

Jenny had already checked the area for any activity, but she left to keep Brit some breathing room. While Jenny didn't get a full scan of Brit, she did see a crumpled ball of paper in her purse. Jenny's high-powered computer mind took the paper and made a digital image to unravel it and see why Brit just didn't throw it away. Jenny figured it wasn't too important; but Brit had worked with Vexus before so such caution was needed.

At first, Jenny shook her head at the terrible drawings of her. Terrible as in drawing ability, not in design. Pushing past that were the notes for a speech about leadership. Fairly decent in Jenny's opinion. But even the optimistic Jenny knew that Brit wouldn't make valedictorian unless she pulled a 180 in her grades and her general attitude.

But at the bottom of the paper was the most damnable item on the paper, the reason as to why Brit just didn't throw it away. Jenny had to stop in midflight and examine it closer.

The biggest drawing had the most talent behind it, almost as if Brit made the caricatures around the sides intentionally bad to make room for this one. The Jenny in this picture looked way prettier than the real one; Brit had even given Jenny a nice dress and pimped out the details on both the outfit and on Jenny. It looked professional.

And surrounding the whole picture was a heart.

Jenny too went home to ponder this. She had met several same-sex couples in her travels around the world, but those people were happy in their lives, and Jenny had been noticing how sullen Brit usually acted. While on campus she acted the same way she usually had been, outside she acted quiet and reserved; Jenny had seen Brit on last Thursday leave Tiff at school without a single word to her.

"Jenny!"

Out from her chest came the monitor. The static buzzed and then came in the clear picture of her mother. Jenny immediately stored the digital paper into her private databank before answering with "Yes, mom?"

"I need you back at the lab." Nora coughed out. "I'm going to need your help developing a vaccine for the New Cluster Disease."

"Please tell me you actually bought lab rats this time."

"Of course I did!"

"Mom."

"What, you assumed I used my famous fan dance to distract the pet shop owner while Tuck snatched the rats?"

"Didn't even have to try that time." Jenny muttered under her breath. "All right, I'm heading home now." The monitor then retracted back to Jenny's chest. However, instead of taking the normal and short route home, Jenny opted to take the long route. Give her time to think before she would have to fight off mutated lab rats.

Brit had a crush on her? Since when? And why her? Robosexuality was an ongoing issue, not a fashion trend.

Speaking of issues, this wasn't that important in the scheme of things. Attacks by the New Cluster were becoming more and more frequent, super villains were taking full advantage of this by attacking when Jenny was off saving their world elsewhere, and…

Doctor Wakeman was reaching the end of her lifespan. No denying such a fact. Nora had been coughing a lot recently, she hadn't been moving a lot as she used to, a lot of color had been drained from her face…the obvious material. Nora had prevented her daughter from scanning her old body, so Nora's internal organs could be melting into goop as far as Jenny knew. Her pride just wouldn't allow that.

Jenny had a lot to mull about when she got home. Things would really change this year. Be it for better or for worse, things would change.

Chapter Text

Everyone got out of her way, teenagers and adults alike. Today might be Friday, but that didn't help Brit out one bit.

Brit's mood had worsened in the following week. Her grades had severely dipped even further; to the point where, combining her overall average from the past years, she wouldn't be allowed into graduation would have to repeat the grade. Tiff had faked illness three days in a row to avoid a quiz (Without even telling her own cousin how she did it without being caught, let alone the method itself) leaving Brit alone to keep the rabble inline with very little success. She hadn't written anything new on her speech, and it just remained as that one single paragraph. And Jenny had once again stolen the spotlight with her impressive academic record and stopping the enhanced Krakus from making the Ring of Fire in the Pacific Ocean emerge from the water and make the world melt.

She normally could take this sort of crap usually. But the walls of her self-control had been torn down. She needed to vent, and hit someone hard. That someone being Jenny.

Brit stormed through the halls without any delays towards the cafeteria, giving anyone that dared try to look at HER and judge HER a pair of evil eyes straight into their souls. Everyone sitting down for lunch felt twenty degrees colder as soon as Brit entered. She scanned the room for her target. Hopefully Jenny stuck around for lunch; she usually went off around this time to do patrol around the world at supersonic speed. Brit instead decided to look for the two dorks she often ate lunch with. Sheldon had gotten considerably taller, so he should stick out from the crowd…

Ah-ha! The always lanky and eternally dorky Sheldon and the somewhat middle-line Brad sitting at a table, with Jenny! Brit grunted out something animalistic as she made a beeline towards the group. Any students in her path ran off or fell onto the tables as Brit stormed past. Jenny didn't even notice until Brit rapped on her head with a clenched hand. While Brad and Sheldon stopped eating and put on a nervous look, Jenny acted more relaxed and greeted Brit with a chipper "Hello!"

"That's all you have to say?" Brit hissed.

"Oh." Jenny looked down to think. "How are things going?"

"Very funny." Brit sneered. "You did it again."

"Did what?" Jenny asked with a honestly-concerned look. "Was there something important I forgot?"

"You robbed me of something." Brit got her hands on the table and edged in closer to Jenny, like she was questioning her during a trial. "And I want you to stop it."

"Uh…" Jenny wasn't following Brit. "If stole something from you, wouldn't you want it back?" Jenny then shrugged with a half of a smile. "But if you lost something, I will gladly help you find it…"

"Then leave this school and don't come back." Brit admitted out loud. She had pushed way beyond her normal boundaries by this abusive week, and didn't think ahead for any consequences. Brit wanted to vent out and she didn't care whom she trampled down. Jenny didn't take too kindly to this, and her eyes narrowed. Brad and Sheldon decided it was high time to beat it. Jenny got up and returned the evil eye look.

"I think you need to calm down a bit." Jenny warned with a unwavering tone. Brit would have normally backed down a bit, but her bravado kept her going.

"Calm." Brit repeated. "I have no reason to remain calm." Brit stabbed a finger in Jenny's chest, but not hard enough for Brit to break a finger. "All you do is rob me of my hard-earned success and make me out into playing the fool." She jabbed her finger again. Brit could have sworn to hear Jenny grit out a growl, but she pushed it aside for now to continue her rant. "I, Brittany Crust, used to be the golden girl of Tremorton, the one people who looked up to and inspired to be like. Now?" Third point. Jenny crossed her arms, meaning her patience was coming undone. "Normal organic humans wish to be you! Why strive to be something when you can be built to become it?"

"Are you saying I had a choice in me being built?" Jenny pointed out.

Brit ignored it, as she desperately wanted to win this. "You can be the savior of the world. Fine. But keep out of human activities. All you can do is to win them and enjoy the rewards. You can play sports without getting injured, or at least without earning a permanent injury. Academic events, as nerdy as they are? You have a computer connected to the internet! Just look up the answer!" Brit's voice had elevated above the usual chatter of the cafeteria and earned her a audience standing in fear of the two women.

"I don't cheat in those events." Jenny filled in Brit. "Even if I do participate in those events, I will purposely limit myself to ensure a fair game, and only amp it up if the other team decides to cheat…which they mostly like will."

"Excuses."

"Finger-pointing."

"You're nothing more than failed flawed imitation of a real human." Brit sneered. "In fact, no one should refer you as 'Jenny', but as X-J9. Jenny is a human name, you walking pile of junk."

"Oh." Jenny started to feel genuinely angry from all of Brit's insults. She decided to play 'fair', forgetting that the information she was about to say was meant to remain hidden until Jenny thought it would be an appropriate time to do so. "So…in other words, you think I'm incapable of making and understanding real emotions, and therefore I don't deserve to have any emotional attachments, be it that I make any or others make towards me?"

"Sounds about right…" Smugly declared Brit.

"What about hatred?" Jenny did her own finger pointing, though not as mean-spirited as Brit did. "That's a emotion."

"Well…" Brit stalled, long enough for Jenny to access her hidden archive and start printing out the paper she scanned last weekend. Brit didn't recognize the paper at first, but she did when Jenny spat out the print (Literally) and showed her the paper. "HOW!" Brit tried to snatch it with nervous fingers and a panicky voice, but Jenny's machine reflexes pulled it away in time. "HOW!" Brit repeated with true terror trembling in her voice.

"I scanned a part of you after the failed invasion for the Cluster virus." Jenny tapped the paper with one hand. "I didn't have a chance perform a full scan as you moved away…but I did scan your backpack." Brit stepped away from the table, but Jenny jumped up onto the table. "I saw a crumbled up piece of paper in your backpack, and I wondered as to why you kept it instead of throwing it away. I thought you conspired with the Cluster again so I unrolled the paper digitally…and found something that's quite interesting…"

"Destroy it!" Brit dug into her purse and retrieved her lighter. Clicking it on, she swiped it around; trying to catch the paper on fire with the little flame. Never mind the fact that Jenny could easily reprint a copy, all that Brit could think of while panicking was to burn the evidence. Jenny kept far away and rather gracefully dodged each attempt.

"While the paper…" Jenny started before ducking under a straight punch. "…is mostly a crudely written speech about leadership with a comparison to slavery…"

"Stop it right there." Brit quivered.

"…there are some drawings of me in some unflattering poses. You know, buck-teeth, eye-patch, stupid faces, poopy diapers…"

"That's enough, that's enough!"

"But here's the main event is at the bottom!" Jenny's eyes flicked, and a small hatch on the back of her head opened up to reveal a mini-projector. Aiming the back of her head towards a huge sports banner and pointing her eyes towards the incriminating drawing. Thus the lovely drawing of a beautiful Jenny decorated with a flowing dress and a large heart surrounding her got displayed to the entire cafeteria of about hundred people. "Quite a interesting take on me…you know? X-J9, the machine?"

Brit's world shattered.

Everything that could go wrong just did. What was a little secret she kept hidden and treated it as a wayward thought would now suddenly become the one trait people would remember her for. A robosexual. A dirty, filthy lover of machines. The laughter had to started to pick up in volume. Even the exhausted and deadpan lunch ladies were laughing at her. That was step one. Step two would be the vulgar insults she would have to endure everyday from everyone. Step three will be the personal attacks, not just the verbal ones, but the physical ones and the property damage. Oh god, her house would be trashed, and that was only the start of what her parents would punish her for. Everything she worked for would be thrown in the trash like a used paper towel. Her past achievements would be forgotten, as she would be. But that would be better than living as a outcast.

Hot tears streamed down her face and soaked her quivering lips. If she could see past the blurry vision, Brit could have seen Jenny drop the folded arms pose and smirk and take upon the wide-eyes and terrified look of a man who just bludgeoned his son in the heat of the moment. Brit had transformed from a cruel queen into a heartbroken woman who wanted to run away from everything. While the room continued to explode in laughter, Brit did just that as ran towards the exit through the crowd. Unlike before, where the people just got out of their way, she had to muscle her way through. Multiple nails were broken as she forced past the bigger people. But she did make her escape. She ran out of the cafeteria, into the hallway, and finally out of one the sidedoors. A teacher tried to say something about the student leaving the campus only a few minutes before class began again, but realizing it was just Brit Crust, decided to let her go and just let her fail out right.

Jenny became awash with multiple conflicting emotions all at once. For starters, she knew she didn't do the right thing, but one emotion laughed and stated that Brit needed a good dose of reality; people weren't going to take her crap anymore. One emotion played it cool said that Jenny should have waited and shown the evidence in private and essentially blackmail her. A third emotion, this one being more neutral, tapped on Jenny's shoulder and asked her if a direct confrontation was the best decision. The fourth emotion slapped Jenny across the face screaming 'how dare you?' The fifth and the final emotion asked her, in a calm but disappointed tone, the most damming question that shook Jenny to her very core.

Jenny gently made her way through the crowd, who were returning to class. A lot of people had taken screenshots and shot short movies of the event; so Jenny would have to do a lot of hacking later to remove the slander. Jenny didn't even say anything to her friends as she followed Brit's path. As she reached the student's parking lot, she noticed that Brit's new bright-purple Washington convertible wasn't in her designated parking spot and leading towards the main road were thick skid marks. Jenny headed up into the skies. If Brit was attempting to commit suicide…

No. She pushed aside that thought to focus on searching for Brit. Jenny followed a trail of dark skid-marks down the road to the park. Brit got lucky; all the cops were elsewhere and the road was fairly empty this time of day. Jenny touched down next to the parked car and proceeded on foot to locate Brit.

This would be the moment where all things changed for the two of them.

Chapter Text

Jenny took her time walking through the park. She didn't want to spook Brit by jetting over and landing near her. Being the middle of the workday, the park didn't have much people around, just a few business workers on lunch break and some mother or fathers enjoying the playground with their younglings. Some waved towards their town's heroine, but none of them offered any information or even made a comment about Brit. Jenny didn't stop and ask anyone, she needed time to calm down herself.

What the hell was she thinking? Publically outing Brit as a…possible robosexual? Hell, as Jenny knew, the picture was just a random, mindless drawing Brit did without looking at it. But her logistics kicked in and pointed out some inconsistencies. The damning drawing had the most effort put into it compared to the other sketches on the paper. The indentions of the lines on the paper also proved that she spent the most time on this one drawing; she erased some messy or off-place lines to make the drawing 'work'. All this only made Jenny feel even worse than before.

The question that Jenny asked herself back at the school still pressured her to answer it. She hadn't came up with a proper answer, and thus tried to ignore it until she found and kept Brit safe.

Trying to focus on other things, Jenny observed how fast fall came upon the park. Not an ounce of green within sight. All the warm colors of summers had dried up into the more colorful textures of the later year. Piles of multiple-colored leaves decorated the ground, most undisturbed for the time being. The wind had picked up in ferocity in the past few days; barely a day went by without Jenny overhearing some annoyed grunts of people running about trying to recover their blown-off accessories. Jenny pushed through the rushing wind towards the lake, towards the hill where she found Brit after the last invasion.

Indeed, from the hill came the faint whisper of a terrified girl crying her heart out. Jenny's auditory processors positively identified Brit. She engaged the stealth joints in her legs and slowed her walk into a crawl up the hill. Switching her eyesight into 5x binocular sight, Jenny peered upward. On top of the hill, laying her back against the tree with her head buried in her arms, Brit cried away. Jenny took a deep breath, returned her vision back to normal and got up the hill.

"Brit?" Jenny whispered. "Brit?"

"GO AWAY!" Brit yelled out loud, shocking Jenny and make her jump down the hill.

Brit sounded angry, but her voice greatly trembled. She screamed again, "FUCK OFF!" But this time Jenny just hung her head down. Instead, she moved around to the other side of the tree on her knees. Brit resumed her muffled crying. Jenny inched up to Brit. "I can hear you!" Brit choked out. She must have thrown out her voice with those screeches.

"I came here to apologize…" Jenny started.

"Go away bitch!" Brit hoarsely shouted, right before she started to choke. Seeing that as a opportunity to get up the hill, Jenny rushed to see Brit starting to turn a little red. Brit attempted to do a Heimlich maneuver, but Brit held out a hand as she cleared her throat and stopped the choking. "I'm fine! Go away!"

"Brit, you could have choked!" Jenny defended herself.

"On what?" Brit pointed out. She turned her head to face Jenny. Now the robot girl could see the damage on Brit's face. Her usual black makeup had ran down her face and stained it with smudgy black rivers, her eyes bloodshot, and her face had already turned a little red. "Air?"

"You need to slow down or your throat will close up." Jenny tried to get her hands on Brit's shoulders to calm her down, but Brit stepped back several steps. "Let me help you."

"No." Brit coughed. "You've helped me enough today…and for the rest of my life for that matter." She sat down at the base of the tree again. The one good thing about Brit being angry meant she stopped crying. A step in a…somewhat right direction. Jenny just stood there as Brit coughed every few seconds. Once the silence had fallen upon the two, Jenny reached into her chest cavity and pulled out a tiny medical spray bottle.

"Here." Jenny lobbed the bottle at Brit, who caught it. "It'll clear your throat." Brit still looked cross, but she handily took the spray and spritzed three times down her throat. The effects worked right away, as noticeable on Brit's face as it lightened up and the coughing immediately stopped. She massaged her throat before tossing the bottle back. "Better?" Brit nodded.

"Why did you leave school?" Brit jumped over to a different conservation piece with a mean sneer. "You're only allowed to leave school grounds during lunch or during a major crisis."

"This is a crisis." Jenny started. "I thought you were going to be a danger to yourself and others…"

"As you can plainly see…" Brit held her hands, showing them to be clean, yet stained with makeup-laid tears. "…the only thing that came anything close to danger are my in-season Jeanne DeVaccin designer clothes and my Tratamiento makeup." She pursed her lips thinking back to her tear-filled drive here. "I didn't hit anyone, but I guess drive over the speed limit. So I guess you can give me a ticket."

"I don't give out tickets," Jenny waved her arm, slightly narrowing her eyes. "And I won't turn you in."

"Well, isn't that great." Brit bemused by slapping her shins. "My social status falls into the deepest pit of hell, but hey." She threw up her hands with a fake smile. "I didn't get a ticket. I guess I should count my blessings after all."

"I can reserve the damage." Jenny tried to defend herself. "I'll head home and delete everything associated with the image; pictures, videos of the event, text messages, blogs, whatever it is! I swear I will contain the damage! I will do whatever is necessary…"

"Leave me alone." Brit bitterly insisted. "Do what you think is right, but please. Don't talk to me." She let out a sick chuckle. "I get it now. This is revenge." Brit got up and continued to let out her pitiful laughter. "All those years of mocking you have finally caught up to me huh? You found something against me, and you used it to destroy me!" She roared out the last part. "Happy now?!"

"I'm not happy!" Jenny shot back. "I overreacted! I got angry, and I…blew a fuse! I shouldn't have showed that picture…I should have deleted it!"

"Then why didn't you?" Brit asked with a faux calm tone. "If you saw my picture, and knew what sort of damage it would have caused if released to the public, then why didn't you delete it immediately?" Tears started to form again. "You're smarter than every human alive, so tell me."

"I…" Jenny really couldn't answer. "I wanted to know why you made this picture in the first place."

"So…" Brit threw on her false smile. "…you made me into a fool for the sake of learning the truth behind a stupid drawing." She bounced a few times. "Good." Suddenly, she reached out and slapped Jenny in the face using the flat side of her right hand. Jenny's head moved, but being made out of metal she didn't feel any pain. Brit collapsed onto her knees and held her hand in pain.

"I didn't mean to show the picture to everyone." Jenny calmly stated, looking down at Brit. "I saved the picture so I can ask you in private. I'm sorry." If Jenny could cry, she would have done so. "I'm sorry.' She repeated.

The two were quiet for an extended period of time. Jenny stood there, keeping a eye on the kneeing Brit. The seasonal winds picked up, blowing leaves at and around the two girls. At least the winds felt nice and cool instead of rough and cold. Neither girl moved, just letting the wind comfort them.

Brit spoke up first. "I didn't mean to draw you like that."

"The caricatures or the heart drawing?"

"The one with the heart." Brit sighed, got up and actually faced Jenny eye-to-eye. "I just saw you fighting against the aliens and got jealous, and just doodled out my frustrations. But I got so caught up in the moment I just…doodled that."

"But why?"

"…I don't know." Brit placed a hand on her bicep and rubbed it. "I don't know."

"Was it like…" Jenny went to the immediate first idea that sprang in her head. "…a rivalry crush?"

"No!" Brit defensively spat out and held up her hands. But Jenny's warm eyes made Brit drop her arms and meekly added, "…maybe. I just wasn't thinking…"

"Yeah." Jenny nervously whispered. "I know the feeling." For the second time, the two sent silent and let the season whisper all around them. But this stillness didn't last as long as last time, as Jenny brought up, "Actually…before I left the school I asked myself a question. One…I need your help answering."

"Okay." Brit nodded her head.

"I asked myself…" Jenny took a deep intake of the fall winds. "I asked myself…'how could I do such a thing to someone you might love?'"

Brit's eyes went wide as she heard those words leave Jenny's mouth. Jenny put on a small smile and continued. "I kinda formed that rivalry crush I just brought up a while back." She nodded her head back and forth. "I think you're cute." A little bluish tint came to Jenny's face. "But I think I blew my chances…"

"Wait." Brit interrupted, sounding so unsure. "I…really…don't know about my sexuality now." She started to tap her fingers together, hunching her back over. Jenny never seen Brit so nervous. "I dated a few guys back then…but now I just feel a bit weird around them. I wouldn't mind trying a experiment…"

"Weird how?" Jenny asked with honest concern. "How do you feel when you're around me? The same kind of weird…"

"Not that kind." Brit shook her head. "When I'm around boys…I feel uncomfortable. Not creepy-uncomfortable, just unevenness. But I feel safe around you…not that I would admit that to you or anyone else." Brit chuckled nervously. Still, sounded more healthier than the sick chuckle. "Of course, other people are going to feel the creepy vibe seeing us together. Lesbians and human-machine interfacing?"

"I'm a world-renown hero!" Jenny declared. "I think I can deal with those kind of people."

"Well…" Brit shook her head. "…should we try it? Just something simple, friendly get to together?"

"And see where it goes?" Jenny put on a earnest smile.

"…yeah." Brit sighed. "Let's keep this on the down low…at until the little scandal is forgotten." Brit looked out to the lake. "Let's meet here. Nobody comes here. Makes a good place to be alone for a long while."

"Sure." Jenny went over to hug Brit with open arms. Brit stepped back, but after looking into Jenny's inviting eyes, stepped forward and accepted the hug. The two girls sighed a breath of relief as this chapter in their lives came to a close…

…or would have, if Jenny didn't feel the barrel of a high-power laser pistol stick into her back. Brit yelped and broke off the hug by jumping back. Jenny instinctively held up her hands and waited for instructions from the hostage taker.

"One move out of line and this puppy will tear a hole through your chest, hit the girl in front of ya, through the tree, probably going to go through that building out there…" Came the familiar rambling voice of Krakus. While Jenny had no reason to believe that the scatterbrained inventor could not only make a gun capable of that damage let alone firing it, she kept still. "You too buck-tooth!" Krakus ordered. Brit with a whimper raised her trembling hands.

"What do you want, Krakus?" Jenny asked, right before being smacked in the head by something heavier than Brit's hand. This time it did hurt, so Jenny rubbed her head. "Look, if you want to kill me, do it. Leave Brit alone."

"Not a chance!" Krakus barked, swinging his wrench again and smacking Jenny on the neck with a wild swing. This got Jenny to turn around and see the new Krakus. Despite working for the New Cluster, Krakus appeared to be falling apart; loose wires stuck out of his chassis, a thin black smoke puffed out of his neck, one of his eyes had came loose, and his wheel had various degrees of wear and tear. The gun meant business all right. That thing could kill both girls in one shots…and going by all the modifications added on, the recoil would tear Krakus' loose head off.

"I see Vexus didn't spring for any upgrades." Jenny smirked. "I guess you didn't qualify, oomph!" Jenny wheezed as Krakus hammered his wrench into her stomach.

"Be quiet!" Krakus ordered. "I shouldn't need to kill you…" He held up the wrench as a declaration of his intentions. "I'm going to strip you for your parts! Maybe I'll leave you alive, maybe I'll kill you, maybe I'll reprogram you to serve us…eh, depends on much work it's going to require." He pointed the wrench towards Brit, who jumped. "Bucktooth! You're going to assist me! I'll tell you what to do, and by following that I won't shoot you."

Brit nervously walked over towards Krakus, hands still up in the air. Krakus tossed her the wrench, but by doing so, a loose elbow joint fell out and his arm went limp. This distracted Krakus long enough for Brit to throw the wrench back, hitting him square in the head, making him drop the gun. Jenny immediately reacted and held up Krakus with one arm while pointing a fist at him. "You should really retire Krakus. A old machine like yourself…"

"…still can learn new tricks!" Krakus declared with venomous intent, stabbing Jenny in the stomach with a dual-pronged knife that surged electricity into Jenny, sending down to the ground completely stunned. Krakus chuckled as he held the knife right above Jenny's head. "Not bad for a rusted tin can, heh? Without you, the New Prime shall move forward and conquer this world…and Vexus will finally award my genius!"

Such fitting last words for the mad scientist.

Brit, in a moment of sudden bravery, picked up the blaster and pulled the trigger. Thankfully, some of the new parts had fallen off, severely weakening the recoil and power. The shot ripped through Krakus like an enflamed arrow through a flag, permanently damaging his insides. The shot flew and crashed into a nearby tree. Krakus didn't even mutter out any cry of pain, he jus fell dead on the spot, the knife scattering away from Jenny.

Jenny could move again and the first thing she moved over to was Krakus to make sure he died for good. Her sensors detected nothing. No sparks of life, running motors, active computers…nothing. Krakus no longer exists in the mortal plane and not even the greatest mechanistic in the entire universe couldn't bring him back.

"Brit?" Jenny asked. Brit had returned to sitting under the tree. The blaster, having explosively unraveled itself after firing, now laid on the ground useless like it's inventor. Jenny joined Brit under the tree and sat next to her without any input from Brit. Jenny let a second pass before putting her arm on Brit's shoulder.

"Thank you."

"Yeah…"

Chapter Text

Okay, okay.

Baby steps, baby steps. Don't try to run, keep your walk steady and slow, and everything should be fine.

Brit looked over to Jenny, who offered her hand to hold. Brit peered back to the front of the school to see the bustling crowd of students pushing through the entrance or talking with another before class started. She returned focus back to Jenny and politely shook her head. Jenny understood and bumped shoulders to calm her. Brit did return a nice smile and the two pressed onwards.

The weekend had passed, and Jenny had managed to remove all videos, pictures, and texts relating to the incident back on Friday. As a additional incentive, Jenny had dived into her memory banks and turned the fight with Krakus into a video to show that Brit jut saved the world. People responded with varying degrees of doubt, but they did forget about the picture, so at least Brit could hold her head up normally out in public. Krakus' remains were jettisoned in space by a very happy Nora, who took delight in kicking the tin can's can before launching it into the sun. At this point, nobody would know how Vexus would respond to the death of a subject of the New Cluster, but Nora shook her head and said she expected to get a strongly worded card from the Queen herself.

So life returned to normal…outside the two-year rivalry coming to an end and two beginning to see each other. Well, they met at a bookshop and bought some reading material on the recommendation of the other, but it's a start. Brit smiled! That's a good start! Jenny took delight in making Brit happy; part trying to be a good girlfriend, part still trying to redeem herself after the whole debacle. But she understood Brit needed time to get comfortable, and she would happily wait.

…well, Jenny kinda wanted to go official before the end of the school year, but hey, that's months away.

The two didn't share classes anymore, so they had to split off and go on their separate ways for now. They waved, a small wave as not to get people thinking again. Brit had made it very clear she didn't want to come out in public just yet, and made it even clearer that any interaction between the two would be 'friendly' at best. Birt promised she wouldn't antagonize Jenny any more and would try to keep Tiff off her.

Tiff had finally returned, speaking of the devil. She took on the more grunge-biker look, but kept her fashionable appearance with her new style. Brit had to hand it to her; the clothes really did make a powerful statement. Tiff strode over and held out her hands for a high-five, which Brit returned.

"So I heard about you saving the world!" Came the first words that Brit heard from her cousin in about a few weeks. "Pretty impressive…and you yet you saved Sparky."

"I merely returned the favor." Brit returned with a level of snark. Out of all the people in the school, Tiff would have been the first to figure out the truth, so Brit had to become her old self. "She protected me from the bugbot, and I kept her alive to make sure in case we're invaded, we would stand a chance against them."

"Working alongside the bugs was fun while it lasted." Tiff bemused as she piled her legs on the desk. "But I'm guessing the second time around they won't be accepting applications."

"Yeah." Brit put on her usual demented smile. "I sorta shot a high-ranking member in the back."

"Totally." Tiff chortled. Amazing she hadn't changed much and more or less remained in the same place. Brit sighed a breath of relief as Tiff bought it wholesale. So far so good.

Oh, if she knew the true power of those words.

Jenny burst into the room with a rushed pace. "Brit!"

Brit's eyes shot wide open, while Tiff merely looked on with a confused look. Brit bit her lip as Jenny approached. Didn't Jenny promise her this morning to not blow it? Jenny's chest cavity opened up and out came a claw carrying a lunchbox with a familiar logo of a crown. "You forgot your lunch!" Jenny declared.

Brit could almost hear Tiff's questions, but thankfully Jenny followed it up with, "Your butler called me on my flight over here to ask you to deliver this to you!" Which thankfully, was a huge lie. The butler on premises (Who Brit never bothered to learn the name of.) made lunches for Brit everyday. Seeing how Jenny came over to Brit's house to pick her up for school, Brut must have forgotten her lunch in the rush to quickly escape with Jenny before anyone could see the two together. Jenny must have retreated back to the house and got the lunch.

Jenny winked at Brit out of eyeshot of Tiff. "He said to have a good day…" She continued, expecting Brit to follow up.

"I will, thank you." Brit snatched the bag. "And I really don't need you playing nursemaid for me. Go rescue some kittens…or something." She waved off Jenny with a slight smile, thanking her somewhat. Jenny jetted off to class, keeping the illusion nice and thick to Tiff.

"Still the ever-loyal girl scout." Tiff blew a raspberry in the direction of Jenny.

"I got my lunch." Brit proudly displayed her lunch like a hard-earned prize. "So she's good for something."

"You should forget your lunch more often." Tiff commented as she reached over and opened the box. "Let's see how long this will last before Jenny catches on."

Brit forced out a laugh at the prank. Of course, she wasn't going to do the prank…but possibly arrange it with Jenny to help keep up the illusion. But as Tiff opened the box, Brit's eyes caught a note that didn't resemble any handwriting from neither her parents nor any of the staff. Plus, the bright blue ink gave it away as a note from Jenny. Before Tiff could see the note, Brit grabbed it, along with the orange it had been balanced on.

"Hey." Tiff noticed. "Gimme that orange."

"No." Brit shook her head. "It's my orange." While Tiff's eyes focused on the orange, Brit managed to hide the note into her jacket's sleeve with a magic trick she once learned in order to play a trick on Jenny years ago. Tiff's arm reached out to grab the orange, with Brit playing keep away. "Why don't you bring your own lunch?"

"Too lazy I guess." Tiff simply replied as she struggled to obtain the forbidden fruit. Brit sighed and tossed the orange to distract Tiff long enough to read the note in private.

"Dear Brit! I added a dark chocolate treat at the bottom of the box. Keep it away from Tiff! With hugs, Jenny."

Brit crumpled the paper up and hid it in her backpack while Tiff continued to devour the orange. Brit dug into the box and did find a complete dark chocolate bar at the bottom, but quickly hid the treat under the sandwich before the ravenous Tiff could see it and snatch it. Brit would see Jenny at lunch, so the two would talk about leaving little notes in places they could be easily seen.

The day went by without any more incidents. Brit and Jenny got through class, said hi in the halls in the middle of the crowd, and nestled shoulders when they had that one class together. When the lunch bell rang, Brit snuck past Tiff and made her way up to the roof through the janitorial access door and found Jenny already munching on a steel-plate sandwich, sitting on a wide iron pipe meant for running plumbing. The room had very few machinery on top, and not very big machines. If public access was allowed, this would make a perfect picnic spot; a fantastic view from all around. Brit waved over to her and sat next to her.

"We need to talk about your notes." Was the first thing Brit said.

"I'm guessing you really don't want people to find about us." Jenny asked with a sigh.

"Really!" Brit groaned. "You barely helped me get past the whole picture problem. If they…they being the other students and the people online…no amount of deleting evidence or giving me credit for saving the day would make people forget about me being a homosexual and a robosexual!"

"I thought we discussed this." Jenny asked with a raised eyebrow. "Eventually, one day we're going to come out."

"But not now!" Brit held her arms in defense. "Not now. I heard about a recent bill that might properly legalize Robosexuality. Once it becomes a public thing, we can come out. My dad has some sort of political power…if his princess becomes apart of the new movement, he might push the bill forward."

"So you're waiting for the new line of clothing to become a hit." Jenny aptly summarized.

"Guess I haven't changed." Brit chuckled before switching subjects. "Are you sure we won't be caught up here…"

"The door has a DNA/Camera lock with a computer unconnected to the main school server that I hacked into, and will only open for me and you, AND nobody will know we'll we're up here." Jenny angrily chewed away at her meal. "Let's get back on task here. You don't want to be seen with me out in public. Fine, you need time to get used to the new situation. I get it. But can you lighten up a bit?" Jenny tossed the remainder of her sandwich into her open mouth and swallowed it whole. "You did save my life, we could at least act as friends in public." She crossed her arms and put on a smile. "Hugs and other girly stuff 'girlfriends' do?"

"I…" Jenny nudged Brit before she could talk any further. "Look, low-key. That's what I want…for now. A week!" Brit shot up returning the nudge. "That's all I need. After that…we can do what you want." She held up her hand. "I promise. I REALLY will hang out with you in public." She than swung her arms out around. "Though I would prefer eating up here."

"Totally." Jenny gave an ok symbol.

"What about your other friends?" Brit then asked.

"Sheldon and Brad have clubs going on right now." Jenny reached into her cavity to remove an oilcan. "I usually spend this time on patrol, but after the death of Krakus, there hasn't been much activity from the New Cluster. I'm guessing they tried to use some of technologies he invented and it blew up in their faces, so I think I got some time to deal with some internal threats." Jenny shook her hand towards Brit. "Hey, more time with you is always good time." She finished up with a huge gulp of high-octane oil.

Brit simply chuckled. "Now I do have a question relating towards dating."

"You do?" Jenny's eyes sparkled…metaphorically, not actually sparking with electricity.

"How come you didn't date either Sheldon or Brad?" Brit honestly asked Jenny.

Disappointed by the third-party question, Jenny sighed and answered. "Well, Sheldon is nice…but a tad bit creepy. And Brad has his own little love life I think it would be rude to barge in. We're good friends, and I would like to keep it that way." She crumpled up the can and tossed it up in the air before disintegrating it with heat beams from her eyes.

"Wait, do they know?" Brit asked with sudden alarm. Jenny sighed once more. Seems like keeping this relationship up and working would require a lot of fine-tuning. And some strategic whacks in the right place.

"No, they don't."

"Oh thank god." Brit let loose a sigh of relief before again repeating her new catchphrase, "Let's keep it between ourselves…"

"In that case, let me tell the one person who does know." Jenny put on a rather evil smile. This, along with her statement, made Brit drop her lemonade can. "And she figured it out, I didn't tell her a thing." She dropped the smile. "Then again, she saw me deleting the picture incident and posting the video of you saving my life."

"Your mother knows?" Brit's eyes shot open. "Oh god." She held her head in her arms and started to rock back and forth. "Oh god."

"She's not going to tell anyone!" Jenny protested. "She's taking it well all things considered! In fact, it might take her even longer for her to come around than you." Jenny threw up her arms. "Look, let's talk about something else other than…this. Sports, clothes, makeup, anything else please. Please?"

Brit agreed and the two switched gears over to different subjects. For the remainder of the half hour of lunch, Brit and Jenny bounced back and forth on various subjects ranging from the previous three Jenny brought up to weekend plans, boys, (Often mocking) shopping, school, (Always mocking) Brit's paper, and other things (With varying degrees of mockery.) before waving goodbye as Jenny flew off the roof to head into class, allowing Brit to exit without being seen with Jenny.

All Jenny could do was to sigh. Brit will take time to crack, but there's a pearl in there…

Chapter Text

Tap, tap.

Went the pen against Brit's head. She sat at her desk in her second-floor room, desperately trying to move on to the next part of her supposedly powerful graduation speech. She hadn't gotten much further from the last time she sat down and powered through, which was the first meeting in the park. Only two paragraphs decorated the journal page, and only the first one had any merit to it. The second one would need a lot of work.

Tap, tap.

Brit held back groaning out loud. She had been doing enough of that recently. Besides, it would only break her very weak concentration, and she needed to hold on to that if she ever wanted to make any progress on the paper.

Tap, tap.

Brit started to chew on the end of her pencil. Her bucktooth easily left marks in the soft rubber end and the wooden part. She twirled it around, put it behind her ear for a bit, tapped the desk, doodled some more, (This time making more positive drawings of Jenny.) erased some stray marks off her report, and did everything else but reworking old paragraphs and adding new ones.

Tap, tap.

Tired, Brit let out an annoyed grunt as she tossed the pencil out of the opened window in a blind rage. She threw up her hands as she slumped back in her chair so hard, she titled too far and started to fall. But before she could slam her back into the carpeted floor, she got pushed back up and her chair rocked back and forth.

"Jenny?" Brit asked with a still terrified tremor in her voice.

"Sorry for breaking in." Jenny apologized while pulling out a pencil from out of the scarf she had on for some reason. "But I was coming by to see you and got beaned by this." She started to wag the pencil around. "Something wrong?"

"Oh." Brit didn't get into her usual spiel about the distance Jenny and Brit should have. "Thanks for saving me here."

"You're welcome." Jenny put on an easier smile. "Hey, want to come outside for a bit? Help you think a bit?"

"Sure." Brit stated without thinking it through. "Wait…"

"Here!" Jenny took the scarf off with a single swing of her arm and tossed it onto Brit, quickly tying it on using her computerized mind to get it on perfectly; not too loose as it to go all over and annoy the wearer and the people around and not too tight to strangle Brit. Also, Brit already wore a long-sheeve shirt and a jeans, so the cold wind wouldn't bother her. "And off we go!" Jenny took Brit up into the bridal-carrying position and carried Brit out of the window before Brit could voice her concerns.

Now the year had reached the apex of fall. The trees had become bare with long, skinny branches. Quickly fading colored leaves created a second layer of ground, and small piles created small hills all over. A strong, cold gust tore through town unrelentingly, forcing everyone to put on their winter clothes early despite the warmer temperature. Brit looked down to see many people struggling against the wind, some even being knocked down. Thank goodness Jenny completely resisted the wind.

The two landed somewhere outside of town, in a unoccupied clearing of trees. Several stumps remained planted here, but given a coat of polycyclic and smoothed out to become stools in the middle of the forest. Brit immediately sat down to catch her breath after the high altitude flight. Jenny merely dusted herself off.

"Windy." Brit commented.

"Going to be the windiest day of the year according to my internal meteorological sensors." Jenny added as she joined Brit on the same stump.

"You have one of those?" Brit asked, trying to start an conservation. Being alone with

"Sure." Jenny tapped her head, and out came a small radar dish attached to a small machine box. "I used it originally to learn about rain storms, back in the day when I used to rust up a lot easier. Now I use it nowadays to learn about any disastrous weather ahead of time so I can get people away from the dangerous areas." The machine retreated back inside her head soon after.

"Is there any chance of tornados?" Brit asked, a bit worried.

"None." Jenny shook her head. "Unless All Weather One returns from the grave." Jenny stalled for a second before added. "Natural causes, naturally."

"You don't need to tell me that." Brit waved her hand with a comfortable smile. "I know the only thing you kill are machines…and that's not the best term to use, right?"

"I 'decommissioned' many rouge or evil machines myself." Jenny sighed. "Some of those robots I dealt with are indeed truly wicked, like most of the Cluster, and I calmly forget about them soon enough once dealt with. Some machines I do remember, but I try not to dwell on them too much. And the rest…I do remember. Not all the time. But enough." Jenny let loose a uneven breath, looking upwards into the sky. Brit let her be for a second before prodding her to return back to reality. Jenny blinked several times before facing Brit. "Oh. Sorry 'bout that. Didn't mean to sour the mood."

"It's fine." Brit shook her head and placed a comforting hand on Jenny's shoulder. "At least you have a conscious." The two shared knowing smiles. They hadn't much time to themselves during the week, but they had a entire weekend to enjoy.

With the whispering forest to themselves for the run of the afternoon, Jenny and Brit engaged in some fall activities meant for younger kids. Jumping from pile to pile, throwing balls of compressed leaves at the other, hide-and-go seek…Brit for once let go of her snobbish attitude to enjoy a fun pastime of the lesser people. All things considered, this was their first date. Not a small get-to-together in some café for a snack, but just the two screwing around in the forest alone.

But the fun and games came to a abrupt end when Jenny's chest opened up and the monitor came alive with Doctor Wakeman shouting. "XJ-9! The New Cluster has just landed in the Great Lakes and are attempting to set up a base." Without even stopping for a single break she continued with, "Oh hullo, Brit. Did I interrupt something?"

"It's not that big of a deal, mom." Jenny responded. "I'll head there right away." Doctor Wakeman nodded before the screen turned off and the monitor retracted back inside of Jenny. "Looks I got to jet." She nervously pointed off in the general direction of the Lakes. "Otherwise this relationship will end when the New Cluster kills everyone."

"Yeah, go." Brit waved. "I'll find my way back." Jenny nodded before jetting off at max speed in a northwest direction. Brit sighed, placed her hands in her pocket and went in the general direction of the town.

Brit mulled over the short exchange she and Jenny just shared. Honestly? One of the better moments in Brit's life. She felt…comfortable. She felt relaxed. She enjoyed herself, and didn't treat Jenny's departure like she got dumped. Jenny had bigger concerns right now than forming a strong relationship. The threat of the New Cluster was too big to be ignored. Brit silently prayed for Jenny's safe return as she entered back into town.

"Whatcha doing!" Tiff snuck up behind Brit and slapped her hard on the back. Brit must have jumped up fifty feet. "You okay?" Tiff switched from joyful to slightly concerned. "Didn't mean to scare you like that."

"Hmph!" Brit put on the air of authority. "You don't sneak around and scare people like that. At all." She put her hands on her hips.

"Hey, I haven't been seeing all that much." Tiff passed it off like it was a normal occurrence. "Spending all your time in your room, don't talk in between classes…"

"My grades are starting to slip." Brit stuck up her chin. "I've been hitting the books, that's all." Brit gave her cousin a evil eye. "I should be asking you the same thing, you punk. What have you been doing recently?" Brit eyed Tiff up and down. Tiff wore the basic biker's outfit: leather tuscadero with a rather gaudy punkish t-shirt and a scarf wrapped around her head. "Looks like you've doing some dirty work."

"Man!" Tiff tossed her arms down, keeping her cool despite Brit's bittiness. "I'm learning how to make my own bike! I can make my own millions that way!" She pointed a finger at herself, really proud of herself. "And then I teach all the snot-nosed brats 'my' techniques and charge them a arm and a leg!" She then crackles at the scheme. Brit shook her head out of disappointment. Not because Tiff's cruelty, but because the scheme had plenty of holes in it. All it took for it to fall is for Tiff to forget one detail in construction…and the fact getting multiple sets of every required motorcycle part would cost two arms and a leg.

"Good for you." Brit quickly congratulated by patting Tiff on the head forcefully. "Now." Brit cleared her throat while pointed towards the road leading home. "I best be returning home. I need to seriously study. We got a quiz on Tuesday in my math class…"

"Who were you seeing in those woods there?" Tiff deviously smiled, getting right into the main meat of things. Brit reacted poorly; she stopped dead in her tracks with a wide-eyed look full of fear. Tiff giggled. "And no hiding from me. I didn't see you doing anything…and I promise to keep it a secret…"

"You will not!" Brit regained her normal composure. "You will blab it out loud all over the world, and it will be that picture fiasco all over again!"

"Wait a minute." Tiff's smile got even more uneven as she tried to contain her laughter. "That picture was about a sexy Jenny posing nude…"

"It was just a random intrusive thought that I ended up doodling." Brit falsely grimaced. Honestly, she hadn't gotten to the point where she could consider Jenny 'sexy'. "And I don't draw nudes. Just a big stupid heart around a big stupid robot."

"A big stupid robot…" Tiff let out a snort. "…you're dating!"

Brit put on a stone cold face. "Absolutely not." She stated without even a single twitch of her lip or face.

"Oh come on…" Tiff started before actually looking at Brit. Brit looked so serious, even angry for implying such an action. Tiff backed away, giving Brit some breathing room. "…come on." Tiff repeated. "Really?"

"NO." Brit spat out venomously to make absolutely sure that Tiff perfectly understood.

"Okay, okay." Tiff nervously put her hands behind her back. "Sorry, sorry. I shouldn't ask such stupid questions like that anyway."

"About time." Brit calmly stated, realigning her new scarf. This made Brit lose focus on her demeanor. Jenny hadn't reclaimed her scarf! And it didn't match Brit's clothes or even her usual palette. If Tiff caught on, no amount of lying would save Brit from public embarrassment. Brit turned around from Tiff to walk home, trying to keep the scarf hidden from Tiff's view. Sure, she already saw it, but hopefully she wouldn't bring it up. "Look, I just went out for a walk to clear my head. Sorry for being so mysterious, I didn't think it would a big of a deal."

"All right, geez." Tiff groaned out all annoyed. "Sorry."

"Let's go home then." Brit stated as she started to undo the scarf. The wind had died down enough as so it would longer be needed, so she could hide it away under her shirt. "I'm getting hungry anyway." Tiff didn't question her cousin any further and meekly followed behind. Not that she fully bought what Brit said, but at this point she had no evidence to back up the claim. Tiff just went along with it for now.

For now.

But this had an profound effect on Brit. She had promised Jenny to come out sometime this following week in public…but with Tiff's picking, she started to doubt that decision. All those fears she wanted to get past and forget about reared their ugly heads and served as a reminder of certain consequences that would befall Brit if she went through with her plan…

If she didn't want to keep it a secret, Brit would have wrapped up back in the scarf. She suddenly felt very chilly.

Chapter Text

She could feel her feet freezing. Rocking back and forth didn't warm them.

Brit could already hear the mocking voices of her peers as she stood in the cafeteria where practically the whole affair began. She nervously took ahold of her spoon to take a bite out of some yogurt and nearly dropped it with her shaky grasp. Normally, eating strawberry yogurt calms her nerves. But those nerves were usually rattled by popularity issues, not romantic problems. All the yogurt did to her was to make her stomach churn and leave a weird strawberry taste in her mouth. She quickly ditched the half-eaten cup into the nearest trash can and placed her hands in the pocket of her lavender coat.

Wednesday. The dreaded day. Brit had thought the weekend would be enough for her to be ready to finally come out in public a as lesbian robosexual. But the encounter with Tiff over the weekend and further talks with her cousin during the two weekdays only continued to make her feel like the whole thing was going to end up being yet another giant embarrassment for her. Didn't help that Brit stood in the same room where she got embarrassed the last time around.

And yet, Jenny's happy little giggle and bouncing was reason enough for Brit to come out and admit the truth.

So adorable ~

Thus Brit arrived at a crossroads, and not one with just two roads. One road lay straight ahead: come out in public as per the plan. Jenny would cheer and the whole world would be decorated in a giant rainbow. But the possible consequence…Brit knew them and didn't want to bring them up again. The road that went to the right would make Jenny unhappy: delay even longer to a later date when Brit could work up the courage. A little rough path, but manageable. But there's the left road that Brit had sadly put some thought into: outright deny it out in public or even break it off with Jenny in private. The left road would avoid any future problems all right…

…but a sad Jenny would make anyone sad. And Brit wasn't that cold-hearten. Going left had been considered, but wouldn't be used at all…unless she got forced into a corner.

And god, she didn't want to be in that corner.

Honestly, Brit would have preferred eating on the roof. Wait until after lunch to do the reveal. That way, Brit could enjoy the nice breeze on the rooftop and actually discuss a plan with Jenny. As it stands right now, they would strike up an conservation in the middle of the cafeteria and come out in the crowded room. No big song and dance number…not that this situation required such a event, but Brit wouldn't minded if the whole thing had more flair to it. A one-act play would have given Brit the bravado she so desperately needed right now.

She pulled back the cuff of her coat to look at her watch. It read 12:34:21. Jenny said she would back by around twelve-forty, after she did a patrol around the world to make sure the announcement would go without a hitch. Of course, nobody could predict the unpredictable, but Jenny wanted to at least have enough time for the two of them. Plus, the New Cluster had been quiet since Jenny smashed their Great Lakes base.

So Brit had five minutes to burn. That's enough time for her to freshen up again in the nearest bathroom. Try to at least look decent for Jenny. Hide all the worrying wrinkles and that. Practice funny faces. Act out her 'lines'.

And all she did those last remaining minutes was to stare at a dirty mirror in an equally dirty restroom. Thankfully, nobody came in and made a passing comment towards her. She didn't let go of the edges of the sink. If she had the strength, she would have ripped the damn thing out of the wall and smashed into bits. Yet another method to calm her down. Destruction of public property. Fun for the whole family.

Suddenly she felt very fragile; like very loose strings were holding her whole body together. Brit tried to focus on something to calm her down, anything. She thought about how the new line of designer clothes by Majestic looked really good. She thought about all good times she experienced up to now, obviously not bothering to recall all the embarrassments. Good food, great entertainment…

…and Jenny.

Yes. That thought alone brought a smile to Brit's worried complexion. While they had only been seeing each other for nearly two weeks, the two did share some happy moments. Playing in the leaves, enjoying lunch alone on their private rooftop, Jenny taking her around town…

Jenny really had become a positive influence on her life. Only been a short time since the two started to be friendly instead of antagonistic, but Brit felt easier when Jenny came around her. True, that feeling went away when people came around them, but if they made the big announcement…Brit would feel fine going out in public with her girlfriend. People might mock them, sure. People might assault them, sure. (Or just Brit.)

…and that nearly killed the growing bravado. Brit worryingly sighed. This wasn't going to work…

"Muffin?"

Brit broke away from her little dream world to see Jenny holding a warm blueberry muffin up to Brit's nose. Smelt fresh and even delicious…but then Brit took in the scintillating smell of an unkempt public high school bathroom deep into her nostrils. She would have gagged if not for Jenny quickly releasing a thick stream of aroma of rose through the air. Once Brit could feel her fingers again, she ravenously devoured the muffin with two quick bites. "Thanks." She said after swallowing the last bit.

"Had a feeling you would be in here…or in a different restroom." Jenny shrugged. "I grabbed the muffin about two minutes ago while walking throughout the school looking for you."

"Have to look good for the big announcement." Brit half-heartily stated. "I could save some face with a good face." She tried to make a joke, but the punchline, along with her tone, fell flat. Jenny had already predicted that Brit would falter today and wore a gentle smile to help calm Brit. A gentle pat on the shoulder got Brit away from the mirror and back to facing Jenny. "Can we…." Brit tried to force out the words.

"How about this?" Jenny sighed. "We confess today. After this, I'll take you out wherever you wish to go. Clothes, food, amusement park…doesn't matter where in the world it is, I'll take you to it." Jenny then wrapped Brit up in a huge hug. "No price is too high."

"You don't need to bribe me." Brit whispered.

"I mean it. Besides, a few stores have promised me some free stuff."

Brit took a deep breath, and confirmed to Jenny with a simple knowing look. Jenny almost wanted to kiss Brit on the forehead, but decided that Brit would more than likely overreact to that. Jenny tenderly broke off the hug and took Brit by the hand and lead out of the bathroom and back towards the cafeteria. The crowd, at first, paid no attention to the two until Jenny and Brit started to maneuver through them to go to the center part of the room. Jenny cleared her throat, and out from the top of her head came two speakers. Her left hand retracted and out came a microphone. After testing it with a few taps on the fabric head, she then spoke, "Attention. I got a announcement to make, everyone." Everyone stopped eating or talking and turned their attention towards Jenny and Brit.

Brit swallowed one last time. From this point on, she would power her way through this.

"Me and Brit…" Jenny turned towards Brit, extending her hand and heart out. Brit didn't hesitate and took it with a firm grasp. "…are going out!" And the two put on big smiles, Brit's more forceful. And they waited for the thunderous response. One of either hatred, acceptance, applause, laughter…

…but this response was one of apathy. Some people slowly clapped, some people just stated on, (Most likely not understanding?) and others just returned back to their lunch. Brit and Jenny took a minute of standing completely still, only blinking as they tried to compute what just happened, more so in Jenny's case. The speakers and microphone took their time retracting back to Jenny, almost if those objects felt embarrassment.

"…honestly not the reaction I was expecting." Jenny piped up. This apparently earned a verbal actual response from the audience.

"We already knew that. We kept seeing Brit and Jenny go up to the roof."

"Brad figured it out."

"Tuck then blabbed about it."

"Pretty obvious."

"I kept seeing you guys together."

"I'm a background character. My opinion doesn't matter."

"I read the title of the story. I know about the fourth wall."

And then everyone went back to his or her business. They treated the big secret of their hometown world-renown super hero and the biggest bully of the school like they found a penny on the ground. Jenny and Brit were left alone in the dull crowd without even a inkling of a idea as to what they should do next. As the bell rang for everyone to return to the class, everyone mechanically went back to their studies. Brit and Jenny continued to stand there.

"Huh." Jenny broke the silence.

"That simplifies a lot of things." Brit let loose several relieved breathes as she regained her usual demeanor. "And here I thought this would be a mistake!"

"Well now." Jenny returned the favor with a chuckle and elbow jab to Brit's arm. "Seems like someone made a 180." Brit started to pick up laughter as she endured Jenny's tender jabs. As the room had become empty, the two spent their time not running off to class but laughing out all their frustrations. Brit suddenly felt way lighter after that. Tonight she could go to sleep without having to worry about any problems now!

The two had to run to get to class in time, but they did make it. Brit took her seat next to Tiff, who had a weird and a conflicted look on her face. Possibly the only person in the entire school to be honestly surprised by the news. Brit waited for Tiff to start the conservation, running high on her bravado. Tiff finally broke the ice with a prompt, "What the hell?"

"Yes, I lied to you." Brit smugly declared. "I wanted to tell everyone on my own terms."

"You sidelined me." Tiff grunted. "Your bestest best friend."

"Only until I felt like coming out in public." Brit leaned back in her desk. "If I told you I was actually seeing Jenny, you would have used it to mock me or hold against me as leverage. But now it's public knowledge…" She held up her hands. "…we can add it to our topics of discussion."

"Filthy." Tiff put out her tongue.

"Take a bath then." Brit retorted with her own tongue wagging. But the teacher standing in front of the two cleared her throat to grab the classes' attention so they could get back to work on quadratic formulas. Brit and Tiff turned away from each other and for once, paid attention in class.

So things didn't explode or go into a full-blown riot as Brit dreaded. The only thing on her mind now was how people reacted when they first realized the truth. Then again, nobody confronted the two about the relationship nor posted anything online about it. Then Brit realized the obvious. These people lived in a world where technology is constantly doing all sorts of strange things to everyone, so the best human analogue dating a actual human isn't all that weird to them. Forgetting about the whole state or worriment she had spent several days in, she got back into her schoolwork.

But Tiff? She knew the truth, until Brit had convinced her otherwise. She honestly believed Brit. Brit honestly seemed so certain on that day.

Now Tiff looked down upon Brit…

Chapter Text

Today had been good so far. Jenny decided to stop flying around and hit the ground to walk through the brisk early afternoon air. It felt good on her metal skin. Definitely helped cooling down the still hot parts of her body following her fight with the Sun Lord.

Besides, it gave her chance to think about how things were going. As the weather shifted from bitterly colorful to freezing grey, Jenny's relationship with Brit only continued to heat up. With the secret out to the public, Brit now had the courage to step out in public with Jenny. While holding hands! And Brit smiled! An honest smile! Jenny felt such elation on seeing Brit gleaming. Kept Jenny going like a 50K megawatt battery. Nothing could bring her down; not evil villains hellbent on world domination, not the New Cluster, not a annoyed Doctor Wakeman, nothing!

Well, the same couldn't be said for Brit. Her parents didn't take too kindly to the news of her daughter being not only a robosexual but also a lesbian! They did take great delight in the fact that Brit dated a famous heroine; one they could use to help promote some new products of theirs. But they still grounded Brit for not telling them first, instead going for the public display. The grounding wasn't that bad; she couldn't go out outside of going to school, and she had a curfew on the weekends. She could leave the house at twelve and must return by six. Not that strict…

…but she staid in today on this Saturday. Jenny had a little job that herself; she had to clean up the remainder of spy operation sent by the New Cluster. They knocked out ten power grids and Jenny most of the day and last night repairing those circuits. Now that she had some free time and free of her responsibilities for the remainder of the weekend, she would go and pick up Brit to go see that new Kooky Dank movie that just came out two days ago. Not something out of Brit's caliber, but going out and doing something different wouldn't be that all painful. Reviews so far made the film out to be a simple action flick with no real surprises in it; a harmless movie to waste time.

As she approached the Crust Mansion, she stopped in her tracks with a sudden stop. Walking up and knocking on the door like a polite young lady wouldn't get her into the house, rather getting the door slammed into her face would be the more likely reaction. As Brit's parents hadn't quite warmed up to their daughter's automaton friend, the only way to meet Brit was to wait outside the grounds or elsewhere…or do that thing she always been doing. Ya know? Fly in through the window into Brit's room?

Jenny sighed. So much for walking. With her jet boosters set on low power, she floated around the building and went over to Brit's window. Brit had decorated the window pane with a small garden of daphnes that seemed to be in need of water. Jenny first figured that Brit's usual trait of laziness and boredom made her watering schedule slip.

But as she gently opened the window shutters, she could see the real reason.

Brit never really bothered to clean her room before, letting the maid handle it while she was out. But man, this place had gone to hell. Only one light bulb functioned on the slow fan, and that started to flicker away the last bit of life. Thus the whole room got cast in strange and unnatural shadows that gave the once colorful room a makeover into a haunted house. Balled-up paper and dirty clothes decorated the floor and covered some parts of furniture. Jenny's eyes quickly scanned the room and discovered a large amount of dust covering the entire run of the room.

And sitting down on her little throne the unbalanced queen desperately trying to write something down in her journal. No longer the neat and ordered journal, but a messy and torn up journal down on it's last few pages, and those were getting filled up a cloud of blurry ink lines leading somewhere but ending nowhere. Brit hadn't noticed or didn't care that Jenny just entered through the window. She did, however, yawn every few seconds.

"Brit?" Jenny asked with a quiet voice.

"I can't do anything with this." Brit declared with a steady voice. Jenny figured that would soon change. "I can't do anything with this." She repeated. She continued to repeat that phrase for several more times without once looking behind her to Jenny, who slowly approached her.

"Brit?" Jenny asked once more right before trying to place a hand on Brit's shoulder. Brit finally acknowledged Jenny presence by lightly pushing away the hand and yawning straight into Jenny's face.

"This speech is crap." Brit let loose a pathetic giggle as she slowly got up from her chair. "I can't believe I wasted nearly three months on this." She held up the only surviving page of the journal with any credible text on it right before yawning once more. Jenny recognized the first paragraph way back when they met in the park, the one about 'born into the world to lead others, the rest are meant to be leaded around.' While some progress has been made, Jenny clearly saw the root of Brit's growing madness. She had art block, and going by the darkness of the scratched-out marks, this had been going on for several days, maybe weeks. Brit just tossed it over her shoulder before Jenny could inquire further.

"Well…" Jenny honestly couldn't think of anything good to say. Tell her to start over? Offer help to get back on track? Take Brit out for a relaxing afternoon within her curfew time? What? Brit needed some time alone, but Jenny started to think that perhaps the speech isn't the only problem. A quick scan around the room shown a few papers from school with the same defeated effort on them. Brit did mention she started to fall behind on her schoolwork during lunch, but she would deflect to something else. So Jenny decided to inquire about that. "…I could tutor you. I have excellent grades…"

"That's not going to save me." Brit continued her sick little chuckle, going around and collecting her fallen papers, still yawning. "Look." She held a graded chemistry test, one with a huge red twenty-nice on it. The teacher had left a message that was the complete opposite of: 'Give it your all and you'll fly out." Jenny would have bit her lip if she could. And given by Brit's breaking shell, this might be one of many terrible grades Brit received…or worst, the best grade. "My parents don't know yet, but once they do find out either from me or my teachers, I'm going to be buried here." She waved her arms up and down, trying to make her point. The test paper flew out of her hands. "Never going to leave this stupid mansion, never going to go out and have fun again, never again…" She sat down on her bed, cupping her head into her open hands, rocking back and forth. Jenny held back from joining her.

"Then let me tutor you." Jenny asked compassionately. "It's a win-win. As a tutor, I can come in through the front door instead of through the window. As girlfriends, I won't charge you…" Jenny broke the serious act for a bit to lavishly blink her eyes at Brit. "…much…" Jenny hoped that the joke would warm Brit up a bit, but she seemed to be in an entire different world. "…and this would allow your parents to…" Jenny started to stammer. She never did that. Brit's nerves were starting to get to Jenny. "…get to know me better! You make good grades and we hang out more! What could be bad…"

Bad choice of words.

"Bad?" Brit looked up from her little stupor.

"Brit!" Jenny jumped back in shock. Brit's little tizzy had wiped off a good deal of thick makeup, revealing the huge bags under her eyes and the lack of real color. "How long have been awake?" When Brit didn't answer but moaned Jenny switched on her eyes to examine Brit medically. According to a detailed scan, Brit hadn't gone into REM sleep for at least three whole days! Her heart rate had increased to dangerous levels. Plus, the periods in between yawns were getting shorter each time. "Brit, why haven't you gotten any sleep?" Brit didn't answer, so Jenny picked up the test paper. The test happened last week, and going by Brit's sleep deprivation, she got this test back on Wednesday. "You need rest."

"No, I need to work." Brit yawned out as she jumped out of bed and very clumsy got back into her chair, nearly tipping it over. "Where's that geometry…" Brit yawned once more, trying to remember if the 'geometry' is a book or a homework paper. Jenny sighed, and lifted Brit back into bed, rolling the covers back so she could tuck Brit into her comfy feather bed. Brit tried to mumble out a defense, but all that came was yet another yawn.

"Shh." Jenny calmed Brit down by massaging her forehead with a hand emitting a chilled wind. "You need some sleep. We'll talk sometime later tonight." Brit tried to fight back, but the combination of the comfy bed and the cooling draft sent her into a easy sleep she hadn't experienced in days. Once Brit stopped moving and her heart rate slowed to a normal rate, Jenny let loose a breath of fresh air and sat on the floor. The time was around one, and Brit would awaken feeling better around ten to eleven. Had nothing else going on, so Jenny decided to pass the time by cleaning the room up. Remove those clouds of dusts, organize the workload, and restore the glow of this bright room.

But she didn't do anything with the homework or the speech. Even through her mechanical hand could very easily replicate Brit's distinct handwriting down to the swirly 'o's and curvy 'l's, she put the papers down on her desk. Not just because a expert could see and point out the difference, but a teacher would call out Brit's sudden jump in grades. If Jenny announced she was tutoring Brit and actually did help Brit by teaching her rather than doing the work for her, then things should work out.

Around the time where Brit started to awaken, Jenny had finished cleaning and even went out and got some new supplies make up for the destroyed objects. The first thing Brit saw when she opened her eyes was Jenny operating various cleaning equipment out of her arms while sitting down in a fold-out chair in the middle of the room. Brit would have told Jenny to remove that cheap piece of furniture, but she felt way more relaxed to argue.

"Oh!" Jenny had looked over to see Brit slowly getting out of bed. "Sorry." She then did a courtesy and put on a fake, but effective French accent. "I forgot to wear my maid uniform, Madame."

"Jenny…" Brit tried to get out of bed and talk at the same time, but the strain on her mind lead her to wobble out onto the floor. "I'm fine." She just talked. "…Jenny, what are you doing here?"

"Getting you ready." Jenny started, hoping that would make Brit's memory kick in. "For tutoring?"

"Tutoring?"

"Yeah, your grades?" Brit's eyes went wide as she started to remember, but Jenny's warm smile kept her going back into her panic. "I'm not going to do your homework for you, but am I going to assist you in getting it done right." Jenny then 'dinged'. Out from her chest cavity came two slices of finished toast. Jenny avoided using her nose sprayer, and instead retracted a dust buster to use a finger to spread jelly all over the slices. Jenny lifted Brit up onto the bed before handing the tray of toast to her. "Sorry, out of orange juice."

"Thanks." Brit muttered as she munched away on the first slice. Jenny just suddenly recalled that for the past few days, Brit had only been nibbling at her food. Must have forgo eating to avoid sleeping to work on projects. "You really think I can graduate?"

"I did a little averaging." Jenny shook her head. "Nothing special, but you'll be able to leave high school and move forward to college with my help." With the room cleaned, Jenny extended her arm out to grab Brit's old journal and show it to Brit. "I…could pull a few strings and make you the valedictorian."

"I can't do that." Brit passed it off. "My speech sucks and even if I do graduate, I don't have the chance in the world to get past the others vying for the final speech. That includes you." Brit pointed a finger towards Jenny. "I'm better off giving you the speech."

"Brit." Jenny sighed, laying a hand on Brit's shoulder. "We'll worry about this in the morning. You need to get more sleep. I'll stay here…" She waved to the closet. "…in the closet so your parents don't see us. I'll come out, I promise." Jenny giggled at her little stupid joke, but at least Brit followed suit as well. "We can go out all day and get you all nice and relaxed before we tackle geometry." Jenny walked backwards towards the closet door while whispering good night and blowing a kiss.

Brit caught the kiss and pressed against her cheek. It felt cool and nice.

Chapter Text

As the year got colder and bitter, Brit's mood warmed up and got sweeter. Sure, she still retained her usual off-degree criticisms and snobbish attitude, but at least she didn't direct towards Jenny honestly, just as a joke between good friends. Against others who would insult the two, Brit would show no mercy and be unrelenting.

Much like the blizzard outside that lead the two to be trapped inside of Jenny's house over a extended four-day weekend. Brit had came over to learn a bit more about mechanics for a few hours then the storm hit. Jenny could barely get outside thanks to the brutal polar winds. At first, it was thought that the New Cluster or All Weather One might be controlling the polar vortex, but from what Doctor Wakeman could gather from her machines outside, the thing was entirely natural and had spread all over the country. But not the entire world of course, so Jenny had to go out and fight crime in the sunnier parts of the globe and return feeling incredibly frozen.

"Why can't you just melt the damn ice using a heat beam or something?" Grunted Brit as she swung her hammer on the chisel placed firmly in the chunk of ice stuck on Jenny's stomach area. She couldn't believe she had to do this for about the fourth time today! Plus, the carpet in the guest room Brit took over had become ruined thanks to the ice water soaking in it.

"My heatbanks are too cold to be activated." Jenny pursed her lips as she waited for the ice to broken up, keeping her tone calm. "I'm barely moving as it is."

"So much for being the most powerful machine on the planet." Brit remarked under her breath before speaking with a normal voice, "You can fly into space, withstand attacks from giant machines, and are capable of performing complex equations within seconds. And yet! You aren't weatherproof!"

"If she was…" Nora stuck her head around the corner in the hall. "…she could go mad with power and be able to take over the entire world without any problems whatsoever!"

"Mom." Jenny sighed and gave a bored glared. "In case you forgot and you can't hear the BLISTERING winds outside, WE ARE TRAPPED INSIDE OF A SNOWSTORM!"

"Pah. Don't get a cold shoulder now…oh wait, too late." Nora waved it off and approached the two with a tray of hot chocolate. "Even with the growing rate of technology, it's still best to have a snowday and spend all day inside!"

"Funny." Brit groaned as she finally broke free the ice on Jenny. The ice crashed onto the carpet and started to melt. Jenny had recognized Brit's discontent with the rug and scooped it up and headed into the bathroom to dispose of it. "I recall from my days as a young child that snow days were meant to skip school and go outside and have fun; not spend all day locked inside with the intent of staying alive."

"Obviously you never spent a year in the Canadian Whitehole." Nora chuckled out her usual laugh as she set down the two mugs onto the table. "But's that a long story, and you two could use some alone time." Brit then looked at Nora with a blush on her face. "Do whatever the hell you two do when alone. I don't care! I can't hear through walls, and going by what the age Jenny assigned herself, I already slept with the president of France by her age…two of them!" She giggled as she recalled their penis sizes. Brit decided not to press on THAT matter. "Toodle-loo!" She waved as she did a backflip out of the door and landed on her back in the hall. "I'm fine." Nora slowly got up and walked off like a normal person. Jenny returned moments later and took a seat down with a mug in hand.

"Always love this time of year." Jenny let out a happy sigh as she sipped on her hot drink. "Ow, tongue."

"Vulnerable to blizzards and hot chocolate." Brit summarized.

"It's good hot chocolate." Jenny held up her cup. "Got a little cinnamon in them."

"I like cinnamon." Brit shrugged before joining Jenny on the couch with her own mug. The two went silent as they sipped on their drinks. "Good." Brit commented.

"Glad you like it!" Jenny cheered. "Now that I'm certain that every significant villain is behind bars and the New Cluster is having way too many problems to invade us, we have the rest of the weekend to ourselves!"

"And your mom." Brit joked. "And I doubt she can't hear us."

"I removed most of her bugs and hidden cameras over the years." Jenny whispered into Brit's ears as she placed a hand on her chestplate and started to remove it by moving it downward. Brit could start to see a part of Jenny's 'ample' chest. Brit's face had went from red from the hot drink to red from sexual embarrassment. "So we can…"

"You got drunk from drinking THAT!" Brit shouted and pointed at the mug, breaking Jenny's attention.

"Sorry." Jenny reshifted her plate back to its original place. "Guess you aren't ready for that?"

"Absolutely not!" Brit shook her head rapidly. "We haven't even kissed properly!"

"Then let's get started!"

"JENNY!"

Thankfully for Brit, the blizzard did end by the next day. While the entire town (And if the frozen newscaster could be trusted, the entire state.) had got suffocated by a wool blanket of snow, people could go outside and actually enjoy the winter day without dying of instant hypothermia. Jenny had to go and help with clearing some roads, but this would Brit to return home and tell her parents that she was still alive and well.

And finally get to wear those fashionable threads from Jean-Mary!

But as she entered the main foyer of her mansion, there awaiting her by the still burning fireplace were her parents and Tiff. Tiff had put on some more sensible clothes, but still had that punkish style about her. Brit's parents were glaring more in the direction of their own daughter rather at Tiff. Brit hung her stiff jacket on the rack before proceeding into the living room to have a talk with her parents.

"I understand that mobile reception was down." Her father started with a stern, but neutral tone. "And obviously the post. Now…" He sighed and got up from his velvet chair. "…I'm not angry at you for not contacting us. That's understandable." He approached with a nerve-racking demeanor on him. Brit backed off and generally considered running upstairs to escape and hopefully ignore this whole ordeal for the time being. "…what I need to know…is why you were staying with that machine?"

"Had no other choice…" Brit had thought about her possible excuse and with the straightest walk she could manage when confronted by the patriarch she went over to the most majestic of family heirlooms, a masterpiece of oil painting depicting a storm-ravaged 1800s ship carrying the British flag escaping a armada of pitch-black storm clouds to head into a sunny harbor proudly displaying the original American flag of the thirteen states. The title of the painting proudly stated: 'The Birth Of Our Empire.' "Any port in a storm after all." Brit stuck a finger towards the painting.

"There's a difference, dear." Brit's mother calmly stated. "Our ancestor Sir Reign Crust was supposed to return to Great Britain, but that fierce storm forced him to change allegiance to keep his crew alive and his cargo intact." She remained in her chair. "You could have asked it to return you here at any time. It's house isn't far from ours."

"Hers." Brit spat out with really thinking about it. Her eyes went wide as she realized her mistake. Her dad gave her the evilest glare she had seen in all of her life. "Jenny…"

"…we haven't approved of your relationship with it." Her father reminded her with a strong emphasis. "Even if she is tutoring you."

"Rather let me fail then?" Brit muttered under her breath before returning to her usual voice. "Father…it…is useful." Brit had grown to hating calling Jenny as it. Sure, Jenny was still a machine, but she had feelings, self-awareness about her being, could think about deeper and complex matters better than most people Brit had met, (Tiff included) had gained a higher understanding of her environment…at this point it should be very obvious that Jenny had gained all the proper traits of sentient life and should be referred to using proper pronouns.

"Useful to a extent." Her father tapped his foot. "It is there to protect us from threats…and there have been a few things it has been responsible for. She is a wall. And you don't talk to walls." He shook his head in complete disbelief. "And besides…she will live longer than you. Much longer. Any sort of relationship with it will be forgotten by it. Your life is no more than a fly's in it's eyes."

"And I'm going to be punished for this?" Brit finally asked the damning question, letting her true irritation come forth. "Are you really going to…" She waved her hands around. "…send me away, send me to my room…"

"Kick you out of the family?" Her father added in. "We can't let our legacy be tarnished." He said with little care in his voice. Brit suddenly got reminded exactly why she feared her dad. His utter need to keep the family intact even though his actions could destroy it. He often sought temporary answers to permanent problems.

Brit didn't retort. She just ignored her father and ran up stairs. She could hear her mother and father discussing 'what a failure their daughter had become.' Brit didn't care at this point, she had already promised Jenny a fun snow day and she would deliver it. She kicked off her crinkly dry clothes and threw on a fantastically long scarf with the colors of black and white, a chess-checkered coat, black gloves, a black Gatsby cap and some thick black stockings. Brit sniggered at herself in the mirror, it made her look like she was attending both a funeral and a wedding. She couldn't help herself but quote Shakespeare: "The Funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables."

But those words did hark back to what her father said. True, Jenny would pretty much live forever, provided she got over her weaknesses. Within a hundred years, all those that Jenny had come to know would be dead…and would Jenny forget about them? She…not it…only went through school because Jenny wanted to. But what happens after this, or college? Jenny would be able to live out her original programming of saving the world without the pressures of normal life.

And that is when Brit sat down onto her bed. The pressures of normal life. That didn't apply to Jenny. She needed very little to survive, so she didn't need to get a regular job. Taxes? Jenny regularly saved the world from alien invasions. She didn't pay taxes! She cost at least ten times less than Skyway Patrol! And for the most part, Jenny could feed and power herself using the stuff she found on the villains! Jenny CHOSE to live the life of a regular human being. She, at any time, could turn that option on or off!

The sudden pang of morality came over her. Jenny had become very comfortable and open with Brit. And Brit felt the same, and that feeling grew with each passing day regardless if they spent it together. If Brit did commit to Jenny, how would Jenny fair after Brit's eventual passing? Would she continue as the protector of the planet? Would her emotions overtake her? And then Brit recalled Jenny's mind is a computer. She could erase any memories she wanted!

What if Jenny chose to forget Brit?

Brit took several calming breaths. No need to overthink this! Her father only saw those things to unnerve her, and she didn't have to take in those unkind lashes of the patriarch's tongue. She laughed it off. After all, she and Jenny could break off at any time! Only in sappy stories do romances last forever!

Brit got up, ran downstairs and exited out the front door while avoiding any more speeches. What she didn't notice was Tiff had already left on special orders.

"Hey sexy!" Jenny called from the skies. "There's a snowman building contest going on in town!" She landed and gave Brit a look over. "Wow! You look really good!"

"Thank you." Brit bowed. "But does this contest allow you?"

"Other machines are coming all over the state to show off their skills in making the biggest and most awesome of snowmen!" Jenny giggled. "We can't do snowwomans. Said something about a Jugga." She shrugged. "You design, I build?"

"Perfect!" Brit clapped her hands before holding on tight on Jenny's body. As they flew off towards the screams of little children witnessing the building of giants, Brit threw out her concerns into the rushing winds.

Chapter Text

Brit could only sigh.

Socks.

Argyle socks.

Black argyle socks with white lines.

For Christmas.

Socks for Christmas.

Black argyle socks with white lines as a Christmas gift.

"You could knit them into a kickass scarf." Jenny shrugged.

"Tempting." Brit glared at the giftwrap, seemingly worth more than the socks themselves.

"Yup." Tiff sighed as she showed off her own unique gift: a pair of argyle gloves. "Aunt Augustine. Never sent anything worth a damn." Tiff faked barfing as she tossed the gift into a far corner. "Like for instance…"

Brit started to tune out Tiff's little rant on previous Christmas and the terrible gifts of Augustine. She heard it every single year, and more than once as Tiff would go into her little speech on her birthday and any other holidays when Augustine sent them something. Plus, as someone who also experienced the times where Augustine sent them party balloons for their birthday, Brit didn't need those memories dredged up from the bottom of the ocean. Yes Tiff. The time where Augustine sent both of us tacky sweaters during the summer months was bad, yes.

Christmas had always been a mixed bag for Brit. She got permission from her father to spend a weekend at Jenny's…as long as Tiff tagged along. Brit played her cards close to the table, making sure to not engage in romantic affairs with Jenny once Tiff entered the room. Unfortunately Brit had seen a budge in Tiff's purse when she arrived, and Tiff made sure to earn her due.

"Duct tape?" Jenny repeated.

"Two rolls each." Tiff held up two fingers. "Sure, I got some good mileage out of it, but still. Two dollars for both rolls. She always spent more on the packing." Tiff threw down the golden metallic paper on the ground after stating Brit's previous observation. Tiff snorted up a laugh as she kicked back onto the couch and lifted her cap down over her eyes to take a nap…or at least trick Brit into engaging Jenny. Brit had already fallen for this trick several times before, she silently motioned over to Jenny and moved out of the living room and up into Jenny's room. Brit took notice of the metal Christmas tree Jenny had set up in the corner.

"That?" Jenny pointed after Brit asked about it. "Made it in shop class a year ago. I'm going to make it my tradition to set that up all throughout December."

"I didn't see it the last times I was here." Brit pointed out.

"I forgot." Jenny sighed and rolled her shoulders. "First time and all." She went up to it and tapped on the side to get the lights working. The neon colored neon lights flickered on and alternated between different colors. "But I will next year! And every year after that!"

"I'll hold you to it." Brit remarked without actually considering it. "I mean…"

"Brit." Jenny sat down onto her bed and patted the area next to her. Brit took the invitation and sat down next to her. Jenny wrapped a arm around Brit and nuzzled up close to her. "Do you want to talk about dealing with Tiff?"

"Deal with?" Brit asked before holding up her hands. "Wait…what are you proposing?"

"We play as many pranks on her during this weekend." Jenny's mouth turned into a rectangle and started to print out a list of possible prank ideas, ranging from short-sheeting, hiding the remaining gifts she had, good old laxatives in her drinks…all sorts of pranks ranging from the simple and fun to the complex and nasty. Brit quickly realized that Jenny had all those things ready to print for some time. "Okay." Jenny looked at the list for a quick second. "…ah! I know, we can start with a whoopie cushion…we know that Tiff likes to lay around a lot, so this should be easy enough to pull of…"

"I'll think I should trying talking with her first." Brit reflexively got out. After all, she didn't want to dare engage in a prank war with her own cousin. She wanted at least one family member on her good side, let alone keep her own best friend. "I mean, she was bought by dad to keep a eye on me…"

"With fifty bucks?" Jenny asked with a raised eyebrow. "I mean, aren't you guys well off?" Brit returned the look. "Oh, I saw the bulge in the bag and thought it might have been a stink bomb, so I x-rayed it. It's just a wrap of ones with two twenties on top and bottom."

Brit took only a second to realize the truth behind that. Without a word to Jenny, she strode out of the room and jumped the flight of stairs to find Tiff still napping in her usual place. Brit grabbed Tiff by her shirt and dragged the dazed Tiff into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. "So, why did you really come here!?" She asked with an angry whisper.

"What?" Tiff replied in a drowsy manner.

"Jenny invaded your privacy and looked into your bag." Brit started. That awoken Tiff from her snooze, but then she tried to escape. Brit held onto her. "She said she only found only fifty bucks…but that didn't come from Dad. He would have given you more than just that. Does this mean…"

"Actually." Tiff sighed. "I asked for this 'assignment'…and only asked for that much just as cover." Brit let go and Tiff turned around, seemingly out of embarrassment. "So…" Tiff hiccupped. "Uhh…"

"You did this…" Brit started. "…for what reason?"

"Cause…uhh…" Tiff pranced around. "…IdontwantyouandJennytogether?"

"What."

"You and Jenny…"

"…yes. Yes?"

"Don't belong together?"

"Ah!" Brit put on a fake smile and waved her pointer finger in the air like a baton. "That makes sense! You were angry about me deceiving you!" She clapped her hands. "But really? Only fifty bucks?"

"I didn't want your dad calling me greedy." Tiff argued. "Besides, I did it out of the 'kindness in my heart.' I really don't like you being with Jenny."

"You'll get over it sooner or later." Brit gritted out.

"You being a lesbian robosexual?" Tiff placed a rather mean glare straight at Brit, getting onto the offensive now. "That's…so insane!" Tiff moaned out loud all annoyed. "You went from zero to sixty in a second flat! One moment you considered her to be a annoying goody-two shoes, now you want to fuck her!"

"Not even close!" Brit shouted louder than Tiff. "We haven't even kissed yet! This is only a little experiment, just testing the waters!"

"It's been four months!" Tiff pointed out. "And Jenny is way into you! I overheard her in the halls before the break…"

"Overhea…" Brit started before reaching over and grabbing Tiff by the color of her biker jacket. "How long have you been stalking me and Jenny?!"

"Two weeks before break…" Tiff counted off her finger, seemingly calm despite being the threat of physical violence. "And that was pro bono. So…" She smiled greedily at Brit. "I do have evidence that I hid somewhere…and I do intend to turn it over to your dad once he agrees to my price." She rubbed her fingers. "Of course…I don't like him anymore than you. I will gladly burn my secret stash if you…"

"How much?"

"Oh…say…ten bucks and you break up with Jenny…"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Brit yelled out loud at the top of her lungs and slammed Tiff against the wall.

"So you are lying!" Tiff coughed out. "You do want to bang a robot! For crying out loud, you could just buy a sexdroid and do it behind closed doors! You don't have to be so upfront about it! I think even dad has one he hides at work! I pretty sure once you spend time with one, you'll change your mind!"

"No." Brit hissed. "I'll make my own decisions. Besides, I already got Jenny, why would I need some cheap hoe?"

"I read your journal." Tiff hissed and finally pushed back against Brit. Being a mechanic, she managed to easily resist against Brit and escape the hold. "You expressed some concern…" Tiff took a deep breath to calm down and return to her normal speaking voice. "…about Jenny forgetting you? Youknow, the whole thing she outlive you and all that nonsense?" Now Tiff exerted some pressure against Brit, pushing her back into the opposing wall with her words alone. "But wait, I take that back. It's not nonsense, it's simple logic."

"I don't care anymore." Brit tried to escape, but Tiff blocked the way. "Damnit, move it!"

"Not until we make a decision." Tiff held up a finger. "So, smart or stupid?"

"Neither."

"So middle school." Tiff shrugged. "But there's not a middle road here. Continue down the path of ruin and date the dumbbot, or peacefully resign and live the normal life…"

"I'll ruin you if you continue to talk about Jenny like that." Brit threatened.

"So fine!" Tiff opened the door and waved to outside the bathroom. "I'll go home and spend Christmas with my family instead with some fake THING!" Tiff screamed. "And don't worry, I'll have your things out of your room within the week!" She dived over to grab her bag and left with seconds. By this point, both Jenny and Doctor Wakeman had overheard the shouting match and stood near the bathroom door, unmoving in complete silence. After Tiff slammed the door behind her, Brit took her time leaving the bathroom and quietly sitting down on the couch. Jenny took a second to approach her.

"You…" Jenny started with a whisper.

"…fine." Brit sighed. "I'm fine. I didn't lose anything really important." Jenny sat down while Nora went off into the kitchen to fetch good hot chocolate she had been making before the argument. "I still got you."

"But your family…" Jenny tried to comfort, but Brit placed a hand on Jenny's shoulder. The two went silent as Nora served the drinks. "…I can secure your accounts so they don't take everything."

"Any port in a storm." Brit stated out of nowhere.

"Uh?"

"It's how the Crust fortune got started. Our British-loyal ships swapped flags to dock in America during the Revolution. It's the name of the masterpiece we hang in the main hall."

"Ah."

"Can I stay here? For a short while?"

"Sure. We work things out with your family…"

"Can we forget about them for a bit? I want to enjoy the rest of Christmas."

"Oh!" Jenny snapped her fingers. "Your gift! I forgot to bring it downstairs!" Jenny turned on the boosters and flew upstairs for a second before returning with a box the size of a adult novel. The giftwrap didn't shine nor was it a eyesore. Just a simple purple snowman wrap. Jenny landed butt-first and calmly handed the gift. With a nod, Brit opened the gift.

"It's not that special…" Jenny started. "…but I figured…"

"Jenny!" Brit held a mouth over her gaping mouth as she started to gain a red blush. Inside the cardboard box laid a fantastic arm bracelet made out of pure platinum with a twelve-carat diamond placed in the middle. "How…"

"The New Cluster mining operation in Africa. They forced me to take it. Do you like it…"

Brit tackled Jenny down on the couch and cried into her chest. Jenny only acted surprised for a brief moment before warmly returning the hug. Nora decided to head down into the lab to do some work on her recent project.

Outside, Tiff trudged the snow all cold and very alone. Some doubt hanged in her head, but she continued towards her destination. While the rest of her Christmas would be spent eating chicken soup and engaging in simple conservations with Brit's parents, Brit herself would spend time with her new family.

Chapter Text

It didn't take long for her parents to put their foot down, and put it down hard. Credit cards were all denied, her debit card to the family account was also dead, and her own account had become frozen. Only a single text message from her father showed the full run of the gambit: "Find your own port."

Brit adjusted as fast as she could. She offered help in chores, but given how she usually had the servants back home do them, she nearly ended doubling the damage she was supposed to clean up. She took up permanent residence in the Wakeman household; taking control of the guest room and only slightly redecorating it to her tastes. With Jenny's help, they managed to grab the essentials from Brit's old room before Tiff and the servants stripped Brit's room clean. Jenny at least offered hope by recounting that she had watching the house and hadn't seen any of Brit's stuff thrown into the trash so at least some of her best clothes were placed in the attic or the basement.

Five days ago, Jenny's love came to live with her. Since then, Jenny had been running on smiles alone. So when a report from Skyway Patrol came in asking assistance on dealing with a New Cluster invasion in Australia, Jenny waved Brit a quick good-bye before jetting off towards the land down under. Swiftly weaving her way through the Skyway Patrol barricade with eyes closed, Jenny took on an entire armada of the New Cluster by herself. This time they were trying to remove Ayers Rock to use for three purposes. The first was to use the unique sandstone as fuel in the New Cluster war machine. Second was to use it a major blow to the people of the continent by taking their landmarks. And third was to hold Uluru as a 'hostage' against the Anagu people until they became servants of the new empire.

Queen Vexus watched hopelessly as Jenny cut through the hardened ships like they were made out of air. She growled as she watched the machine that destroyed her and let that weakling of a daughter take control of her real empire just flawlessly destroyed a entire army designed specifically to destroy XJ-9. They were born that one purpose and that one purpose just made their lives completely insignificant.

What would it take to destroy her? How many armies would it require? Would she, the rightful Queen of the Cluster, be forced to destroy a entire planet full of great resources?

Vexus turned off the monitor once she saw the little girl giggle on top of the pile of the fallen soldiers. The rage boiling inside started up a coughing fit. Her doctors (Mechanics?) rushed up to her with hoses and promptly attached them to her body. As life support kicked in, Vexus gave out a growl to send off the doctors so she could fume in peace. The last fight with Jenny left her like this…that alone would be incentive enough to lead those loyal to her into battle.

The doctors gave her about two years to last like this. Given her higher standard of parts that her body ran on and the falling structure of the New Cluster, she wouldn't be able to find any new parts unless she took over Earth and use their unique materials. And she did look for alternate, weaker worlds to invade…but at best raiding those other worlds only would waste precious army resources to buy her only a few extra weeks. Vexus' desire to live forever shall not be stopped by one machine! The entire planet should standing together against her, not throwing all of their eggs into one basket.

But Vexus managed a weak smile. XJ-9 had the parts that could not only save her, but empower her to the point where even a XJ-10 would be a pushover. With the proper energy flowing in her, Vexus tore off the hoses and got back to her throne to consider new options. Focus not on the planet, but on the defender.

Jenny cleaned up the refuse and quickly returned home. She really wanted two things. First off, Vexus' location. And with the first could come the second: spending more time with Brit. While there would be other threats to world peace other than the New Cluster, they were by far the most dangerous menace and wouldn't die off on their own. Skyway Patrol were trying to locate Vexus' ship using the computers inside of the soldiers, but nothing doing. Even Nora had problems trying to find a location.

But Jenny shrugged with a smile and jetted back home. She had a plan today, and she wasn't going to let New Year's go to waste.

"Look, I'm sorry." Brit started with a annoyed sigh. "As someone formally apart of the 1%, I'm not used to physical labor when I could easily pass off the chore to a servant."

"If that's supposed to be comforting me?" Nora snorted.

"It's a joke!" Brit protested. "A parody!"

"A parody isn't the truth, it's a joke based around the truth." Nora snarked as she stuck a finger into Brit's face. Brit pushed away the finger. "But really! What kind of human being can't figure out a vacuum cleaner? This isn't the kind with a thousand buttons that makes transforms the vacuum into a pool cleaner that dispenses chocolate sauce, it has two buttons!" She held two fingers into Brit's face. "One for tilting it back so you can move it easier and turning it on!"

"I'm going to wait for Jenny." Brit declared as she sat down on the couch with both arms crossed.

"As her mother and provider, my word is going to matter more than yours." Nora pointed out, following Brit's lead by sitting down in her law chair. "And that's only if she decides that you made a simple mistake instead of screwing up big time."

"Hmph." Brit couldn't think of a good response so she dropped it by turning her head away. Nora rather menacing chuckled at the prospect of winning. It took only a minute waiting around for Jenny to finally arrive through the open window.

Jenny immediately picked up the hostility between her mother and her girlfriend and out right asked with a forlorn sigh, "What did I miss?"

"Brit blew up the vacuum and spread dust all over the second floor." Nora stated.

"Your mother can't fix a simple vacuum cleaner." Brit protested.

"Yah." Jenny muttered while facing the opposing wall with a annoyed glare. "I figured this would happen."

"You let her in…"

"That vacuum cleaner died months ago." Jenny turned to face her mother, who raised a eyebrow at this little 'defiance'. "Mom, I told you that the cleaner was beyond repairs, and modifying it would have made it even worse."

"Thanks Jenny." Brit smiled as she slumped back on the couch.

"Brit." Jenny turned to face the smug lady. "I know you aren't used to using appliances outside ones that make food, but that means you used a vacuum that was sparking and smoking the entire time. Tell, what's a warning sign to you?"

Both women went quiet as their loved one scolded both of them with arms on her hips and a angry stare. The elderly Nora twiddled her thumbs while Brit hung her head down low to stare blankly at the ground. Jenny sighed as she walked over to the kitchen, opened the fridge to grab a cold can of oil, and snapped into a chair to wait for the first person to speak so she could cut them off. Taking a deep sip of her preferred drink, she calmly waited.

"I think…"

"You obviously didn't. I shouldn't have to tell you the obvious."

So the whole household went quiet for several minutes as Jenny took sips out of her drink, taking her time to finish it. But as she reached the last few drops of the can, Jenny stopped to ask: "Hey, wait. If the vacuum cleaner exploded and got dust all over the place, did anyone clean up the mess or did the two of you come downstairs arguing and ignoring the piles of dust?"

As if they had rocket boosters in their asses, Nora and Brit dashed upstairs armed with a broom and a pan. Jenny dropped her annoyed look and let out a delightful chuckle. So this was how a adult lived. Ordering everyone around felt kinda fun!

But Jenny wasn't that cruel, and joined them to clean up the mess so they could enjoy the New Years together. With the good mood restored, Nora went off to grab a case of semi-cheap champagne and Brit even cleaned her room without being told or complaining during the chore or after it. Jenny straighten up her room so she and Brit could spend the hours up to midnight together in a nice looking room. She put away her little tree to wait for the next year and set up some beanbags up against the wall facing towards the window so they could watch the fireworks in the park.

With only a small shot glass full of champagne for them to last the night, Brit and Jenny huddled up close together to watch the dazzling display of fire illuminate the night sky and to serve as the only source of light. Brit calmly sipped at her drink while Jenny had already chugged her glass all the way down, seeing how alcohol didn't affect her in anyway.

Brit looked way different in the flashes of light. While she still wore her fancy clothing, her face had changed. The smile she wore on nowadays seemed to be forced on. It lacked the usual charm…her degree of confidence had vanished. She still acted the same, but the effect of living without all of the benefits she grew up with started to chip away at her. Brit had picking at her food during meals, been drifting in and out of conservations, mood shifted around a lot…she didn't say it out loud, but she clearly kept a good deal of her suffering deep down. Her parents managed to break her this much in about six days.

Jenny decided to tackle this problem. "Hey Brit." She turned to face her girlfriend, still invested in the display.

"Yeah?" Brit asked while turning her head to face Jenny.

"Your parents are leaving on the fourth to go on that business trip, right?" Jenny pointed a finger at Brit. Brit, a little bit confused about this line of questioning, nodded her head. "Your parents wouldn't dare throw any such precious material, even if they think they betrayed you." Oops. Wrong choice of words there, Brit looked down to the ground. Jenny stammered out: "H-hey! Don't worry! Once they're gone, I'll sneak past the security and take your stuff back! We can decorate your room here…"

"Don't." Brit held up a hand. "I'm done with that style of life. If the people who support such a living are going to hang you over a trifle, then it's not worth it."

"Brit." Jenny sighed. "You were happy living like that. Hell, that's how you lived most of your life anyway. Do I have to scan your brain for activity?"

"Don't you fucking dare." Brit gritted out between her teeth. "I'm going to get through this on my own. It's nothing." She seriously stressed the last part out. "t's not that important in the long scheme of things. I'll get back there myself! I'll even take over my own family if I must!" Brit started to tear up and her face became flushed with anger. "I am way smarter than my father! Ooo, I can't wait for the day where I walk up to him, the papers to his businesses in my hand and declare, right in hi face…!"

Jenny cut Brit off with a kiss right on the lips. Brit acted like she got shocked by a jumper cable attached to a car battery and jumped back, brushing her lips with her hand to see if any damage had been done. "Brit." Jenny sighed as she extended outward and brought Brit back near her. "You need to relax. Tackling this sort of problem right now and with this attitude will only end with you up short. Take your time…"

Brit wanted to yell. Scream Jenny at her invasion of privacy. She told Jenny before many times that they would kiss when Brit felt it was right. Hugs and holding hands were fine, but no kisses. Brit still had to get over the uneasy feeling of the whole thing…

But as she returned the kiss with full force, she had gotten over that.

As the display of exploding light started to die down, two young women made their own explosion with their lips. Even the usual blunt Jenny kept her clothes on and decided to not her push her luck. The two spent the first hour of the new year engaging in a deep kiss that ended with the two cuddling together in their arms and whispering, "Happy New Year." Before they fell asleep together.

This year would indeed be better than the last.

Chapter Text

Another day, another New Cluster invasion thwarted. Almost like they didn't learn anything at all, huh?

But they did this time.

Jenny could only sigh as she moved the giant plate of the destroyed drop ship off her. In by far the most desperate attempt to finally destroy her, Vexus ordered a damaged drop ship to leave orbit and turn off all controls so they would crash on a specific target location. The troops on the ground in the Anhui Province in China were ordered to keep the enemy in one specific location without knowledge of the real plan. An intense firefight between the New Cluster soldiers and the eight-armed Jenny kept the two forces at bay long enough for the dropship to hit the field and send off a massive explosion that created a crater the size of a large football stadium. No innocents were killed, but Jenny got piledrived into the ground and went offline for two hours while the rest of Vexus' forces were destroyed either by the impact, shockwave, the giant fireball or raining debris.

Jenny sighed as the looked all around the crater. There were piles of twisted metal the size of houses that needed to be cleaned up. Jenny first checked herself out. Thank goodness she made sure to get an armor upgrade following the first attack of the New Cluster. But even with the new armor, the plasma shield barrier generator, and the extending armor plates, she did find various pieces of steel fragmentations buried deep into her body. Nothing serious, but she wouldn't be moving that fast for now and would look like a run-over beef patty for about a week…as long as she made it back. Jenny looked up into the sky in to see if Vexus decided to send in any more surprises, but the skies looked clear. But not wanting to risk it, Jenny started to remove the biggest and deepest pieces of shrapnel before flying off.

Getting back home turned to be extremely traumatic. Some oil started to drip out of open wounds, making her droop and nearly fall out of the sky. Jenny grunted as the smaller bits of metal started to fall out and open up more gashes. She had already spent a great deal of energy fighting off a entire army on her own, so navigating a straight path nearly ended with her colliding with at least two planes and even a few billboards.

As the last bit of her electronic stamina faded, Jenny sent a single message to her mother. 'I'm going to crash into the lawn. If it does, then goodbye.'

Jenny's last few thoughts before complete shutdown forced her vision to fade into black was that of Brit…naked and inviting. Well, Jenny sighed in her own head, if I'm going to die, it might as well be thinking about my girlfriend naked. 'Brit's got nice boobs' ended being her last thoughts.

But she didn't die there. Nora waited on the front porch with a small generator in hand and once Jenny touched down she got to work giving Jenny enough power to sustain her life functions while she properly recovered.

"Is she okay?" Brit screamed as she ran outside still wearing her dirty clothes and apron. By this point, the neighbors and a few cop cars had arrived on scene and crowded around the small crater.

"Oh, she's fine!" Nora laughed it off as she removed the generator's hook-up cables and put them into her coat's pocket. "Well, save for the deep gashes, the loss of 80% fuel, some of her limb connections are severed, and the least damaging thing about her is the massive dents…" Nora snapped her fingers. "Nothing like a few hours in the lab can't fix!"

"I hope." Brit bit her lip. "Can I watch?"

"I will need help, so you don't have a choice anyway." Nora waved as she started to drag Jenny's unconscious body into the house. "Pick up the feet, they might fall off!"

Brit let out a wheeze as she lifted up Jenny's legs. Brit had been playing with Jenny's legs before, and they were very light and reacted well. But when Jenny went out cold, she must have gained like fifty pounds! Nora didn't have much trouble, but then again she did build Jenny in the first place. Woman probably wrestled bulls in her youth. Nora whistled as she opened the door to the labs and waited around patiently for the table to rise before placing Jenny on top.

Brit realized that she was already dressed for such an occasion. A loose white t-shirt that hadn't aged well, thick blue work jeans, and a long green apron. She had been working on that new garden in the backyard when she overheard Nora's "Oh my!" and realized that Jenny was in trouble. Be it tending to plants under the sun or fixing up a severally damaged robot, Brit dressed for the occasion.

As Brit assisted Nora in fixing up Jenny, Brit couldn't help but reflect on the past few months. The situation at home hadn't changed at all. Her father has made it very clear that Brit no longer belonged in his home and completely emptied out her bank accounts and cancelled her cellphone. At least Jenny managed to recover most of Brit's belongings before they got sold off in auction. Not that Brit minded anymore, she started to get used to the life of a middle-class family.

"Hand me that monkey wrench." Nora asked as she put down her giant pair of pliers after finishing extracting the last pieces of shrapnel. Brit handed the wrench over, and rather expectantly, Nora used it to bash in Jenny's skull…you know, for the dents and all. But seeing how murderous blunt force doesn't get you far, Nora tossed away the wrench in favor of using a small rubber mallet to tap out the huge dents. "Here." Nora stopped for a second before handing Brit a wrench. "Remove the covers on her thighs. We're going to replace the parts in her legs."

The old Brit would evacuate the house if she saw the dirty wrench. But with her girlfriend's life on the line, Brit took that stained wrench and quickly opened up the side panel on Jenny's left leg. She got an award in the form of a squirt of oil. Brit closed her eyes before the oil hit her square in the face. But some did go up her nose and a single drop entered her mouth.

"Here's a tissue." Nora said with a loud voice and placed a tissue into Brit's hand. Brit didn't waste any time to clean off the gunk and get back to work on Jenny. Over the years, most of Jenny's complex skeleton structure went from a mess of various parts into a simplified metal shell that covered her electronic parts. But the dropship had cracked, warped, and shattered the shell and done the same damage to her insides, but thankfully on a smaller scale. An ocean of oil had filled up in the compartment and had stained various broken parts; dried cakes of oil made it clear that the parts were completely useless now.

"We don't have time to remove the parts normally." Nora grunted. "Put on a pair of these gloves and start yanking!" She tossed over a pair of heavy work gloves before starting to pull out wires from Jenny's arm. Brit did the same, only slower. Wires, motors, metallic rods, whatever smelt of embers was tossed aside. By the time Jenny's leg got stripped clean of all parts, Brit's arm became stained with oil up to her elbows.

But she continued to get herself dirty by tackling the second leg. The lab became a pigsty of twisted and melted parts. Brit's apron and her bare arms got cut up thanks to all of the sharp pieces she yanked out of Jenny. But she ignored her own damage and focused on getting out the fried components.

"I've been meaning to do this for a while." Nora wheezed out. She started to cough, and her knees buckled. Brit quickly grabbed her a chair for her to sit on. "I've been working on more upgrades for Jenny. These ones should be what really puts the nail in Vexus' coffin. They will make Jenny borderline indestructible…and really…" Nora went into a coughing fit that made her shoot out saliva all over the place. Brit went over to the fridge that Nora set up for snacks sessions during experiments and pulled out a water bottle. Nora waited for her fit to stop before downing half the bottle in one swing. "…really makes her stronger all around. It will take the New Cluster a hundred years of radical improvements to match Jenny."

"You aren't well." Brit pointed out. "Did you swallow something…"

"No, just overexertion." Nora breathed in and out. "Listen. Jenny is safe…for now. She wouldn't be able to move her limbs at all, but she will wake up alive. But…" Another fit, but this one only lasted for a few seconds. "…but she will need to be asleep for the upgrades to take place. Those suckers…" She pointed with a shaking finger towards a table of parts that looked like the ones that Brit just pulled out, but clean and looking way higher tech than the ones previously inside of Jenny. "…need to go inside of Jenny."

"You aren't in the right shape to handle this." Brit shook her head. "Who should I contact? Some doctor you trust…"

"We need to do it now!" Nora suddenly shouted before wheezing. "Oh, but do call a doctor. I'm not going to able to give you instructions if I die, huh?"

"Wait wait wait." Brit backed off with a surprised look on her face and holding up her hands. "Are you saying you want me, somebody without any experience in mechanics, to repair a complex robot that's our last defense against a invading alien fleet?"

"Yes." Nora simply stated without a cough/wheeze. "Its not that difficult! I just need you to open Jenny up like a action figure and put the parts in! It's not that difficult! I even included instructions on how to put the damn things!" But that last part did cause her to cough for a bit. Brit went for her cellphone and dialed for a ambulance. "On the table. Not that hard…" Nora simplified her speech to avoid coughing, but she ended up having a huge one that made her spat out a thick wad of saliva. "Get to it…"

The paramedics arrived to see the old woman sleeping with a blanket draped over in a chair, and a young woman tending to the famous hero. The woman just grunted over to the woman right after she nicked herself on a sharp end of some random part that the paramedics didn't recognize. They offere assistance, but the young woman just asked them to hurry up and help the poor woman as she dealt with the injury by simply ignoring it. The paramedics dropped off a small first aid kit for her as they took the old woman in. She had problem breathing, so they carted her off back to the hospital.

Brit worked tirelessly for four hours straight (with only a short five minute 'break' where she would grab a bottle of water or a snack and do some light work on Jenny's exterior to fix Jenny up right. All those parts that Brit tore out had to be replaced by new versions with a careful hand as not to break them or any other part of Jenny. There was less to put in, but they were heavier than the old stuff and were a lot more bulkier. She came close to dropping several times, but she held on and kept the parts from landing on the floor and shattering. Brit got nicked up more times, drawing blood a little too often. She silently thanked those paramedics for leaving a kit so she could continue the repair and upgrades without having to stop and leave Jenny alone.

Her legs couldn't take it any more. Brit tore off the ruined apron and let her legs give out as she fell into the previously occupied chair. Her body had became stained with grime, dirt and oil. The skin on her hands and especially her fingers were bruised and torn up. Her clothes would have to be thrown away; no way could these be cleaned again. The muscles in her arms and legs were strained like she just finished a triathlon.

But she could relax now. Jenny was safe.

Brit got awoken by being nudged. When she woke up, the first thing she saw was a worried-looking Jenny. Brit put on a feeble smile. "Where's mom?" Jenny first asked.

"At the hospital." Brit wheezed out. "She got severally winded. Had to finish up here by myself." Brit let out a sick little chuckle. "Here's hoping I put everything in the right place…" She groaned as she moved her head back and forth out of weariness. "How do you feel?"

"Like I got run over." Jenny sighed. "Which is what DID happen…how do you feel?"

"Like utter crap." Brit yawned. "I'll just need a good night's sleep to feel all better." Brit started to fade in and out of conscious. She tried to stay awake, but her eyelids refused to obey and just shut down. "Now if you would excuse me…"

"Wait. Quick question. You saw me naked, right?"

"Jenny, you don't have the proper autonomy for that…"

"But you saw me naked, and I didn't get a chance to see you naked."

"Maybe I didn't screw your head on right, your priorities are skewed…" Brit couldn't talk any more, and feel asleep again. As Jenny hadn't gotten used to her new limbs, she couldn't do the honorable thing of taking Brit up to her room and into bed and just had to slump back down onto the table and go into sleep mode to let her body adjust to the new parts. Nora had a breathing tube inside of her, but other than that she had perfect vitals.

So the three women of the Wakeman household enjoyed a nice little nap.

Chapter Text

The skies were so clear today! Jenny hollered as she soared through the open skies on her new jets. Brit looked up from her garden to see her girlfriend fly through the air performing all sorts of amazing tricks without even the slightest delay or stumble. She looked to be having the time of her life up there. Amazing how fast she recovered following her near death. Doctor Wakeman did the same thing when the hospital released her; she got right back into her work and dismissed Brit from hanging around and providing assistance.

So Brit had spent most of the week following the Anhui Crash just tending to her garden. Spring time; so most of the flowers were in bloom and sadly Brit discovered that she was allergic to the various flora in her little garden. So they had to go. Oh well, Brit was able to sell them for a decent price and buy some good plants. She even planned out planting some berry bushes earlier and they were starting to spout.

"Feels great!" Jenny shouted as she landed on the ground using her new gravity mufflers to quickly hit the ground without burying into it. "Man, with this new body, I could tackle a entire invasion within seconds! If the New Cluster attacks during class, I'll be back without anyone even noticing I was gone!" She started to go through various warm-up activities; Brit's eyes couldn't keep up with the rapid motion as Jenny went between each exercise without moving her body between on the ground and standing up. The sound of 'vrr' came in between each pose. Jenny 'vrr'ed a lot more often now. Seemingly a function of her new turbo limbs.

"I guess you should be able to hunt down Queen Vexus and stop the invasions." Brit stated as she focused on planting a few extra tulips to liven the garden with some color.

"Great idea!" Jenny shot a finger up into the air. Then she slumped over. "I don't know where she is nor how to find her."

Brit put down her spade and turned to face Jenny. "You have all that new equipment and you can't locate a powerful being?"

Jenny shrugged her shoulders as various devices, such as a radar dish, antennas, and a radar screen popped out of her head and made some stereotypical noises you would hear in a cheesy fifty-science fiction movie. Several long minutes passed as Jenny 'scanned', with the movements she made were tapping in foot slowly. Brit just watched on with a growing annoyed look on her face.

"Nope." Jenny shook her head right before all the dangling equipment inside of her instantly retreated back into her head. "Can't find her. Must have a network of cloaks, false sensors, and redirecting signals."

"Was that necessary?" Brit asked as she returned back to work.

"Yes." Jenny pointed out finger and out shot a long iron rod, and water started to sprinkle out onto the garden. Brit didn't catch on until the wind picked up and sprayed a few drops of water on her. She turned to see Jenny whistling with her hands behind her back.

"Stop that." Brit warned as she continued to garden on her own. "And you know, I make sure to water my plants appropriately. Too much or too little could really be bad for the plants."

"Actually…" Jenny started to 'vrr' again. Brit turned around to see Jenny automatically transform into a desk with a computer. "Your roses need more water, and the tulips a bit less than what you have been doing. And…" Jenny then switched over to her normal body, this time with a scanning device in her torso that scanned the flowers. "…and you haven't been properly watering your plants. Looks like you forgot to do it yesterday…"

"Stop that!" Brit raised her voice with a sharp tongue. Jenny immediately retreated back into her usual body. Brit stood up and approached Jenny with a glare. "Why do you keep doing that?"

"I need to practice my new upgrades." Jenny ignored Brit's last order by transforming her right hand into various gadgets; a Swiss army knife, a small laser pistol, a pair of scissors, a antenna, (For what was never specified.) and for the thumb came out a drill. "I don't want to go into a battle with a giant monster and suddenly attack with this!" She pointed the spinning drill at Brit, who jumped back a few inches. "Whoops."

"Ergh!" Brit let out a loud groan. "I get that. But you're just acting annoying! Showing off unneeded gadgets like some dirty travelling salesman!"

"Sorry." Jenny blushed, putting her hands behind her back. Her right hand transformed back to normal, but her left hand retracted and pushed out a bouquet of plastic flowers. Pushing aside the thought as to why she would even have that, she forced her body to return the flowers inside. "I'm still having to adjust to my new body."

"How long did it take you to get used to your powers when you first got activated?" Brit then asked while crossing her arms.

"Only a few hours." Jenny shrugged, keeping her new shoulder pads missile launchers from coming out. "I was born with the knowledge of my abilities. Literally! Every power, equipment, and even every part was built into my CPU…but there was a warm-up period." She tapped her foot again; this time keeping her new equipment from going crazy and just popping up. "So…a few hours…about two?"

"Benjamin Button effect in here." Brit muttered under her breath with a slight chuckle.

"I got to get used to all the new weapons and gadgets built in!" Jenny's left arm retracted into her elbow, and showed off a giant rod with a hoop attached. "I mean, what's this?" She waved the object around. "A bubble wand? An energy ring shooter? A racket?" She demonstrated her tennis swing. "An plasma net? What?" She shrugged her shoulders. Brit gave the same expression, not really caring at this moment. Jenny returned the thing back in before then asking: "Am I annoying you?"

"Oh." Brit groaned. "Just a little. A mite."

"Are we going through a spat?" Jenny then asked.

"No we aren't." Brit shook her head. "Just a little divided right now. Don't worry, once you get used to the new stuff inside of you, we should be able to hook up again."

"Wait." Jenny slowly approached Brit from behind. "Are you saying the reason we have been separate the past week is my fault?" Brit nodded. Jenny huffed and turned away before getting a wicked idea. Turning on the new mufflers to cover her footsteps and activating her ventriloquist program to throw her voice. "Geez, fine." Brit thought that the voice came from the patio door. "I'll be making some awesome brownies then! And you'll get only one!"

Brit just laughed at that. With her distracted, Jenny scooped Brit up by her armpits and lifted up into the air. Brit protested but Jenny ignored her girlfriend and took her far away from the house. The two flew out of Tremorton and went past state lines. Brit continued to plead to be placed down on terra firma, but Jenny continued to fly on, going over a ocean. Seeing the entire world had suddenly became blue and a bit darker as they passed through time zones, Brit kept quiet and stopped struggling.

"Where are you taking me?" She finally asked.

"Somewhere special." Jenny replied with a greeting card statement. "Just close your eyes and when I tell them to open them, you'll forgive me and everything will be all right again!" Brit didn't reply and just closed her eyes as asked. Better than try to argue with a war machine…

Only a minute passed before Jenny said: "Okay, open!"

The first item of note to be seen as soon as Brit's eyes open was the sky. It gone from blue and empty of clouds over her small garden to a fantastic display of orange and yellow with a great shining sun with beams of light piercing through the clouds. As she glanced down, Brit couldn't help but gasp. The entire landscape had became filled to each corner of the earth with tulips of varying colors all formed in lines. She had seen photos taken from airplanes…Jenny just flew her into the Netherlands. Brit found her knees buckling after seeing such a impressive sight and Jenny directed the falling gal onto a nearby smooth rock for her to sit on. Jenny continued to stand, facing the sunset with a warm smile.

"Welcome to the Netherlands." Jenny sighed as she took a deep breath of the air around her. Her systems found it to be at least 26.5% more cleaner than the air back home. "Feel better?"

"Sight-seeing isn't proper medicine." Brit groaned as she held her face with her face to hide her growing dark blush.

"It's working, isn't it?" Jenny started to laugh. "You got into flowers recently, so a trip to the flower capital of the world should cheer you up!" She sat next to Brit and placed a hand around her shoulder. "So what's the problem? Can we talk about this, or do I need to fly you to a full planet of flowers?" She tapped on her chest, and out popped a simple oxygen mask. "This might be small, but it's got enough charge to take you to Tau Lambda. That planet's got…"

"Jenny…" Brit sighed as she tapped a finger against Jenny's chest. "That's reason why I don't feel as close to you now."

"My lack of breasts?" Jenny raised her eyebrow. "I don't want to make you envious…"

"You have developed a weird liking for breasts…" Brit sighed. "No, it's not your chest itself. It's you Jenny. You've become more machine than human…I mean, you were already a machine, but you wanted to become more human, right?" Brit started to mutter under her breath something inaudible. "It's silly, I know. But with you constantly pulling out weird stuff…I just feel…"

"Oh, you big baby!" Jenny started to laugh and slugged Brit on the shoulder. "That's all? Man, you really do go get worked up over the little things!" Jenny continued to laugh. "But…if you honestly consider me showing off my upgrades to be a bad thing…then I'll stop! I'll just practice in private! By next week I will have complete control over my new equipment and I'll be acting normal again."

"Jenny." Brit sighed. "It's just…if you were more human, my family would accept you. But the more machine you act, the more my family distances me. They somehow heard about me upgrading you and they sent me a letter." She got off the rock and laid out flat on the grassy knoll, staring up at the sky above. "They said I was a hero for saving you, and they were willing to let me back into the family…if I immediately left." She held a hand up to keep Jenny from talking. "I already told them to forget it…but honestly…they made a good offer. I leave you…and I get immediate access to the family vault." She then bit her lip. "My part? One billion dollars."

"Why don't you just take that amount and come back to me?" Jenny shrugged. "Okay, that's a bit on the evil side, but hey, it's your money and your family are douchebags…"

"The moment I take the money and run is the moment my dad fully considers me no longer apart of the family…and I will lose the money and…mostly likely my life."

"You're shitting me."

"My dad made it clear I have only two choices in this manner." Brit held up two fingers. "Be apart of the family and enjoy the wealth…" She waggled a finger before putting it down and pointing the second finger up into the air. "…or live with a emotionless machine and in poverty."

"We ain't that poor!" Jenny spat out. "In comparison to them, yeah, but Doctor Wakeman still can afford to send us to college and can retire to a beach resort! She's got…like a…gold bullion hidden out in the Arizona desert somewhere!"

"But family." Brit held out her hands. "Family is important."

"Brit, if your family is willing to kill you, then perhaps it's time to find a new one."

"Dammit Jenny." Brit groaned. "Family isn't something you just replace like a broken machine. Yes, I should. Totally. It's the smartest decision to make…but Jenny." Brit's voice got real low when she said the next part. "And I've known them at least eight times longer than I've known you…"

"I understand completely." Jenny sighed. She got up and looked away. "Well, it's been fun and all, and hey! It lasted nearly six months…"

"Jenny, I'm not breaking up with you." Brit shook her head. She got up and hugged Jenny from behind. "I'm going back to my family…but I'm not going to stop seeing you."

"That's the worse decision you can make." Jenny turned around and stated the obvious. "You'll be living with people who will hate for stupid reasons and they'll take every opportunity to mock you. They'll dangle the money you deserve right in front of your face! I'm not worth it!"

Brit went silent. "Jenny. I'll get that money in time. My parents will pay attention more to my work ethic than they will to who I date. I'll become a better businesswoman than my mom or dad ever was!"

"Do you want me to be your sexy secretary?" Jenny bemused.

"Yeah, might as well!" Brit laughed. "Imagine you, the hero of the world many times over, coming into the office wearing a stupid sexy Halloween costume!"

"Hey, I wouldn't mind wearing a outfit that just put my underwear on display! Say, what kind of underwear do you prefer? Lacey, thong, bikini…"

"Stop that Jenny!" Brit shouted out loud, but could barely stop laughing. The two got into such a fit they ended collapsing back onto the ground and rolling down the knoll together. The laughing didn't stop as laid together at the bottom of the hill, kissing each other. It wouldn't go too far though; Jenny had detected a few human beings that were coming and wouldn't be happy to see a couple rolling around in their flowers. Jenny picked up Brit and flew her out of there before the people arrived.

They had school tomorrow and Nora kindly asked them to not dirty the new sheets, so no naked fun under the sheets tonight. At least Brit allowed Jenny to touch her. Jenny found the feeling of human breasts to be quite warm. Brit looked so happy now.

Chapter Text

High school graduation…wasn't anything special. Brit and Jenny had already guessed the whole ceremony wouldn't be memorable, but they didn't expect it to be so boring. Even the more studious kids were pulling out their cellphones to pay some games as the staff made some lame speeches and recite them with stale voices. Almost like nobody wanted to be here…

"Are you sure you can't set up a hologram and make it look we're paying close attention when in reality we're playing a game?" Asked Brit after nudging Jenny.

"It's too hot for me to run a workable hologram." Jenny groaned. "If I did use it, people would be able to see the two of us being really wavy. We will be in a lot of trouble…" She then flashed a cruel smile. "And they might make us start over…"

"Can I have a soda then? It's hot out…." Brit waved her paper fan back and forth to keep herself cool under the summer sun. Jenny opened her chest cavity and pulled out a ice-cold beverage and handed it to Brit. She snatched it and quickly downed half of it with one deep gulp. Brit didn't thank Jenny that time, nor did she when Jenny provided the fan earlier.

The heat really made the already slow event even slower, bogging down everyone with intense beams from the sun that not caused the poor students to start melting thanks to the thick robes they wore but also buffeted the people at the podium with thick rays. The students that brought sunglasses were being hassled by others so they could borrow their shades. Jenny would have cooled down the entire stadium using the multiple fans inside of her, but she had been warned to stay in her seat. Apparently the teachers wanted to 'make the kids go through the same experience as them.'

So Brit didn't get all the awards she expected nor did she get the honor of valedictorian. But she did pass and at least got a few credits for college. Jenny passed with flying colors of course. Tiff barely made it out, though going by some chit-chat Brit overheard the other day there might have been a few points added on thanks to a few extra loose dollar bills. Tiff opted to sit further away from the two, while Jenny managed to get her and Brit the cooler seats. While Jenny could endure levels of heat equal to standing on the sun, she could see on all the human's faces around her that they were in pain.

"Jenny, I'm going to die." Brit moaned. "Jenny, save me."

"You might faint, but you wouldn't die." Jenny mechanically replied.

"That's not a good thing…"

"Sorry, but just endure it for now. We got only about half a hour left…"

"…WAKEMAN!"

Jenny jumped onto her feet as she rushed up onto the stage to receive her diploma. Seeing how she accomplished so much, the diploma was stacked! Jenny held up her diploma so her mom could take a snapshot before returning to her seat. After sitting down, Brit held her normal diploma up weakly and allowed Jenny to tip hers like a wine glass.

Brit survived the whole way through the rest of the ceremony, even the final words. Once the students were allowed to leave, Brit jumped into Jenny's arms as they flew off back to Jenny's home where they would spend the rest of the day under the powerful fan in Jenny's room. Brit had lied to her parents that she would spend the rest of the day following graduation going around town. Tiff would be preparing for her three-month long cross-country bike tour, so she wouldn't be spying on the two anymore.

"Sweet bliss." Brit moaned as she flopped onto the bed and let the fans ease her reddening skin. "Oh, Jenny, of all the times you decide to play by the rules…"

"Hey, it's the last day of public school, might as well leave with a good impression." Jenny started as she removed her gown and hat and tossed them into the closet to be forgotten for the rest of time…or until next Halloween if Jenny wanted to be a wizard, a friar, artistic view on how America views the education system… "After all, you're talking to the robot who has caused massive mayhem before and has destroyed parts if not all of the school before."

"Ah, you weren't that bad." Brit yawned, a terrible combination of tired and hot. "You were young then. And so I was, and I was an asshole. Remember? I nearly got you kicked out of school thanks to "

"I got over it a long time ago." Jenny scoffed as she joined Brit on the bed. "So! College plans?"

"Jenny, we just escaped the final choke of high school, please don't inquire about my plans to strangle myself some more right after." Brit groaned as she pressed a thumb on her forehead to either relieve and/or forget.

"Hey, we got a summer to think out those things!" Jenny spread her arms out. "And hey, nothing stopping your parents from letting me from joining at the same college! And even becoming dorm-mates!"

"Nice thought, but unless you can afford Highvard, there's no way you'll be joining me…"

"Hey mom!" Jenny opened her chest cavity and brought forth the familiar monitor to contact her mother, still at the graduation attending the small party for the adults. "Is it possible for me to go to Highvard for college?"

"Well, I used to date the current headmaster and I got a few extra dollars in my account to make it look good on paper…any reason you want to go to that crappy, preppy craphole of a school?"

"Brit's going!"

"Yeah, yeah, I figured." Nora yawned. "All right, I'll get a few things arranged before summer's end. Remind me later, would ya? I got other things on the backburner…"

"Thanks mom, you're the best!" Jenny hung up and rolled over to face Brit with a goofy smile.

"You have it way too easy." Brit remarked with a sigh but smiled back.

The rest of the day just got filled up by the two just relaxing in Jenny's room, as previously stated. Brit recovered fast and regained her more positive attitude as the cool wind reenergized her. As the sun dipped down, Brit realized she would have to return home soon. "My parents are still suspicious of me." She gave as her answer. "And yes, I checked for bugs before leaving."

"See you tomorrow?" Jenny asked after kissing Brit on the cheek.

"Tomorrow." Brit confirmed and left with a wave to the two Wakemans. As she came up on the steps of the front door, the headache from before returned. Being around assholes will inflict a great number of headaches; as stated in some scientific journal Brit had skimmed through while in the waiting room of the dentist. One good thing about living with her mom and dad was having medical insurance.

She entered into the house without a fuss. She said hi and announced her arrival home. Her parents responded in kind. Tiff ignored her. Tiff had scourging around the house looking for anything useful on her trip out across the world. Brit hit the fridge and pulled out the bowl of left-over coronation chicken and filled up a smaller bowl of the stuff and went up to her room with a glass of iced tea.

Being around her family again gave Brit a chance to think about things she didn't want to even consider any more. Whenever it came time to spend some quality time with the beloved people who birthed her, such as meal time, they would 'subtly' remark about various things in Brit's life or what they referred to as 'past'. Such as Jenny, how Brit nearly failed her classes without the aid of the 'calculator', Highvard standards were addressed and mentioned that she would need to conform to those standards if she so wished to belong there…a bunch of stuff that tended to fall into 'Brit sucks' territory.

And she started to believe in it a bit. Jenny had been carrying her so far…just how long would she continue to be dependent on her? Brit picked away at the bowl for the actual pieces of chicken. What had Brit done for Jenny besides yell at her and constantly depend on her to solve her problems? Yes, the whole relationship started when Brit managed to kill that Krakus…quite a feat! Killing a literal walking trash can! Give Krakus a few more seconds and he would have a sudden heart-attack that would just end him!

Brit pushed the bowl aside and stared at her new journal. She got this one to write down ideas that would allow her to become more successful than her parents, but the contents were sparse and unfinished. And worst of all? They were generic ideas! Brit needed something inspired and new to really kick her parents in the ass!

But not today. And maybe not for a while. Her head felt empty and the ideas were bouncing around too fast to read them. She laid down on her bed and let her eyes close. Slumber came in fast. But instead of pleasant dreams or the better nightmares, she instead found her flying through dark clouds of doubt.

She did hear one thing that almost awoke her in her sleep. A tiny electronic chirp. Nothing like what Jenny sounded like...

Chapter Text

She felt a bit cold. Weird, most people would call her mad and kindly remind her that the summer sun produced intense heat and not a shivering chill. Perhaps the new swimsuit she wore made her feel this way? Usually the feeling of putting on the summer's next big fashion hit was the feeling of pleasure, comfort, sexiness, and having all eyes on her at all times. But this number made her feel uneasy, uncomfortable, and perhaps drew a little too much attention.

Brit recalled when she was excited to have a body that could support a two-piece outfit. Her curves really were placed on display whenever she strapped on the finest fashion that season had to offer. Her breasts and butt really looked damn good in whatever she put on anyway, so putting on a sexy swimsuit only added on even more power to her.

Seemingly after becoming girlfriends with Jenny gave Brit a reflective look upon herself. But that might have not been the best idea. Brit's fragile mind couldn't comprehend the idea of inferiority, be it to herself or about others. A multi-color floral print Brazilian-cut two piece bikini wouldn't seem like much to the average eye, but the well-trained professional eye could tell that the piece came from Dynamite Lady's 2015 Summer Special by Francesca Voltaire. Made from the finest fibers and hand-woven. Cost as much as a next-gen video game console.

Jenny loved the swimsuit of course. She whooped and hollered about how sexy Brit looked and Jenny would joke about how proud she was to earn such a prize. (Putting on her best 'brah' voice) Jenny's swimsuit consisted of painting her metal exterior red and orange stripes and reshaping the new blades of armor into slimmer pieces while pushing out her chest and rear to really show off the control of her body.

"You likey?" Jenny started to slowly dance and gyrate her torso on the hip joint in front of Brit. "I can make them bigger…" She blew a kiss as she turned her torso around so she can inflate her rear as a point and started to shake what her momma made for her. (Or rather, what Jenny later snuck in during a check-up.) "…or smaller, if you prefer."

"Average is fine for me…" Brit trailed off. Of course she enjoyed bigger things. At this point in the relationship, Brit felt completely comfortable in finding Jenny to be sexual and attractable being. It didn't matter if she were cast from metal and wires rather than flesh and bone. Even if Jenny didn't have her winning personality, her easily changeable body would win Brit over. Feel like playing with something squishy? Literal balloon breasts or balloon butt! Brit could play out whatever fetish she wanted; try it out to see if she actually enjoyed it. Then again, Jenny's personality is what attracted Brit to Jenny in the first place, (That and the whole saving her life thing) so that last statement is rather pointless.

"Third beach, and we're still going!" Jenny shouted to the world as she exited the hotel. Summer vacation offered the couple a chance to escape from Brit's parents and enjoy themselves as adults. On good faith, Brit had been given a half of a million for her to go and see the world in preparation for her entrance into college and adult life. Her parents would take the money back if they saw Brit hang out with any robot for more than a minute in a manner not related to work. After hearing that from Brit over their secret communication line, Jenny worked a all-nighter to fix up the human exo-skeleton so it would drive her mad (…again!) so she could blend right in and pretend to be a good friend of Brit. Whenever Jenny spotted or detected one of the Crust's family agents, she would put on the disguise and auto-tune her voice into a bubbly valley girl to ward off the agents.

"We should visit a city next." Brit simply stated. "Do a little shopping?"

"Wherever and whenever you want!" Jenny proclaimed as she kissed Brit on the cheek and dashed off into the sky to dive into the ocean. Brit stuck her hands in her jacket's pockets and followed Jenny below to the beach. Place was fantastic. Clear sea, fine sand checked every four hours for trash and cleaned, plenty of space, and plenty of refreshments.

And yet Brit still felt down.

Why did she feel so worn down? So tired and sad? She had no reason to be this way! She was going to a great college that would offer her a chance to take a great and prosperous future and make it a reality, she had a super-heroine for a girlfriend who Brit had a great attraction to her, she had a entire summer to explore the world at her own leisure and have as much as fun as she wanted…she should be playing it cool and enjoying herself!

Brit spread out a blanket and laid down. Not because she wanted to tan, because she didn't feel up to setting up a umbrella. She just wanted to lay there out in the broiling sun and just stay there. Brit rolled around for every so often for no other reason but to move her body around. The only thing to escape her mouth was a sigh to herself.

Jenny enjoyed herself however. She dived under the surface to explore the ocean floor. All the colorful fishes swam away from her, keeping to themselves at a safe distance. The bigger creatures went about their business as usual, ignoring the metallic humanoid swimming freely in their domain. Jenny's eyes flashed several times to capture the wonderful and various flora and fauna she spotted. Jenny figured that Brit wouldn't be all that interested in sea life, but maybe Jenny could coax her into it. Like…selling huge portraits of the sea floor! Yeah!

Jenny went up to check up on Brit down on solid ground. She had at least expected to spot Brit drifting freely on a inflatable raft tanning with a tall glass of exotic juice, but Jenny instead noticed Brit hadn't even left the beach and barely moved far from their hotel. Jenny touched down and looked at Brit, who didn't acknowledge Jenny's arrival.

"Something wrong?" Jenny asked, bending down to look at Brit's face. Eyelids were halfway closed and mouth had a constant frown plastered on. Brit looked like half-dead. Jenny rapped a finger against a cheek, watching the flesh bounce. "Brit? You…okay?" Jenny transformed her other hand into a scanning device. A quick showing of Brit showed her to be physically healthy, outside of getting a little too much of a tan. Jenny quickly whizzed back to the hotel and picked out a umbrella. Setting it up, Jenny slapped Brit a few time. That got her out of a daze. "What's wrong, Brit?"

"Nothing." Brit remarked. "There's no problem. I'm fine."

"You know that means you're not." Jenny stated, hands on her hips and concerned. "Please tell!"

"Honestly." Brit sighed. "I don't know. I just feel…" She took a breath to figure out what she needed to say. And she didn't find that. "…I don't know. I feel cold and lifeless…like a zombie…"

"And this vacation is making it worse, huh?" Jenny asked, Brit confirming with a nod. "Wanna try something different then?" Jenny pressed on her chest and the monitor appeared. "We could try something more energetic." A display of a green forest and a background mountain appeared. "Like hiking or camping?" Brit merely shook her head. "Okay…" The image changed into a cityscape. "You wanna leave the beach and enjoy a day in the city." Again the head shook 'no'. "Something not so physically demanding then?" The screen flickered and showed a small resort. "Sauna, massages, heated pool, live in the lap of luxury?" Brit's response changed, a weak nod. "You sure?" Jenny asked to be certain. Brit responded with another weak nod. "Okay…" Jenny trailed off as she picked Brit up and delivered her back to the hotel. "Dry off and I'll get our things packed."

Brit went into the bathroom and undressed. Not that she really needed to; she didn't go into the water and the only dirt on her was sand on the bottom of her sandals. Still, she felt relaxed now that she was out of her suit. She might not wear it ever again.

The resort promised a lot from what Jenny blabbed on about, just reciting the information on the website. Brit did enjoy these sorts of places, and the fact that it had pudding did make things better. Besides, she could go off radar for a bit and avoid run ins with her parent's agents. If they asked where she went to for a week, she would say that she went to a resort wanting peace alone. They might not buy it, but Brit would be able to point out they had no evidence to prove that Brit and therefore can't push her out of the family estate…again.

Still, Brit couldn't shake the feeling that she felt something wrong. No explanation and she couldn't shake it off. She felt a bit warm with Jenny right next to her, but that was just the jet engine giving off heat through Jenny's chest.

Chapter Text

Jenny checked everything twice and then thrice. Had to make absolutely sure. Their luggage was all packed away into two suitcases, two carry-bags, two trunks, two duffle bags and two backpacks; with everything packed in nicely and not just jammed in and threating to burst the bags open. And not just clothes were stuffed in, but also Brit's hygienic supplies, tools for Jenny, and the new computer Brit bought. While Jenny could make multiple trips from here to there to carry the stuff, it was decided by all three to do things the old fashioned way of travelling by train.

"Just because you have two million horsepower now doesn't mean you should use it all the time!" Nora coughed as she handed Jenny the printed-out tickets. "You should relax and enjoy the pleasure of old-fashioned travel while everyone else does all the work!" She giggled at some sort of old memory of her traveling on a train and being lazy as hell. Heck, she had to be escorted/kicked off the train. "You sure got everything?"

"Yes mom." Jenny sighed as she opened her mouth and printed out her checklist before handing it over to her mother. "Double check and then tripled checked. If we missed something, it's probably not important, not expensive or rare, or something we would absolutely need."

"Oh really now?" Nora chuckled. Jenny picked up significant strain in her voice. "Repairs kits…" She started to read off the list with the sheet in her face. "…soap, scrub pads, shampoo bottles, cache cleaners, school supplies, extra ram cards, tampons, steel wool rolls…" She continued to chuckle as she ran down the list with a slow finger. "Check, check, and check. Well it looks like you're got everything, as far I'm aware or care."

"Care?" Jenny asked with a tilt of her head.

"You're a grown-ass woman now XJ-9!" Nora declared, throwing her arms up. "If you forgot something, it's your own fault, not mine! It's about time you took responsibility for yourself and your belongings." Nora found herself shaking a bit, so she moved over to a nearby chair. "Don't worry…once you leave for college, I'm going to build a few bots to keep me going in my old age. I have no plans on dying any year soon!"

"I'm worried this might be the last time I ever see you." Jenny sadly stated. "I'll just wake up one day to find a letter from some neighbor saying you collapsed…"

"Pah!" Nora stuck out her tongue. "XJ-9, following my little experience with your near death and my last visit to the hospital, I'm going to build my own nurse and doctor bot to keep me company while I finish my last few projects…and…" She fidgeted in her chair. "…I'll make sure I'll live long enough to ensure I either find immortality…or until you and Brit have a child together, whatever comes first."

"Wait!" Jenny asked, getting a bit worried. "We're just starting college! Brit wants to get started on her own company, and that's going to take a few years! And me…" She tapped on her head. "…law enforcement and engineering! That's going to take maybe even more longer than Brit's degree." Jenny walked up to Nora and started to scan her. "Yup, the usual problems of old age."

"I'm not old!" Nora coughed for a few seconds. "I'm a young fifty-seven years old! In this age of high technology, I should be able to live up to TWICE this age!"

"But most people haven't gone through all the things you went through." Jenny smiled as she retracted her scanning device. "You've done more in your lifetime than most people do thrice!"

"Oh yeah, I have done a lot, haven't I?" Nora raised two fingers to her chin and scratched, becoming quickly lost in her action until Jenny snapped her fingers a few times. "And…my mind is going." She sighed as she forced herself to stand up. "But I must…finish my last few projects…and what the devil are you still here for?" Nora suddenly went from antique melancholy into annoyance. "Your train is leaving in a few minutes! Get going!" She pointed out of the door.

"Okay mom!" Jenny went over and picked up her luggage. "Look…if you need anything…"

"MOVE!"

"Okay!" Jenny jumped up and flew out the already opened front door with her luggage. While she did feel the shackle of childhood breaking free, she could start feel the next shackle of life clamp down on her…oh, that's just the big duffle bag wrapped around her leg. Once she cleared out with all the bags, she looked forward to see Brit sigh and hold out her thin arms; ready to help pack it in.

With a great deal of help from Jenny, who did most of lifting and packing in to make sure nothing would slid about and cause the rented car to flip, the two got themselves into the front seat with Brit driving. Nora waited by the door, waving good-bye as she watched her daughter drive off into the real world. Nora could feel her legs trembling once more, so she quickly ran inside and sat down once more. Give her legs a few minutes, then she would head downstairs to get started on the last projects.

The trip to the train station and boarding was eerily quiet. Mostly because of Jenny's worries about leaving her mother alone and Brit worried that her parents would spring a trap and take away her tuition money. The two spent their time staring at the sights of Tremorton one last time before they arrived at the train station. Jenny threw the luggage onto the cart, leaving the usually snarky bellboy to live up to his boasts and carry it all to the car while shoving the cart.

Ten minutes following departure from the station, and Jenny and Brit were in their private cabin, each looking off in different directions and sitting on separate sides of the cabin. Things were quiet for a long time. By the time Tremorton was way out of sight, Jenny decided to ask a necessary question.

"As this is a private chamber with thick curtains, soundproof walls and we got plenty of time, do you wanna do it?" Jenny sincerely asked. Brit groaned out loud as her response. "Just asking." Jenny defensively asked with her arms raised. She put them back down and went quiet again. But Brit had a few things to ask, so she got up and sat down right next to Jenny, staring the robot in the eye and crossing her arms.

"Jenny." Brit started after clearing her throat. "Your constant need for us to have sex. It's annoying and demeaning." She held up a finger. "Just because we will be left alone for three hours with the only way we'll be interrupted if we summon service, there's a accident or you're needed to do your job as a designated hero of the world doesn't mean I want to do it." Brit crossed her legs to further hammer in that detail to the blushing Jenny. "Also? We're on our way to one of the prestigious colleges in the entire world, and you want to have sex on a bumpy, uncomfortable train?" She smiled as she then kissed Jenny on the cheek. "We got a soundproof dorm there, it's perfect."

"You mean…" Jenny's eyes expanded. Brit nodded. Jenny hollered out loud: "…I would say I'm sorry for pushing the subject, but it appears I do not need to be! You're all for it!"

"Then I won't." Brit scooted away from Jenny, looking away.

"Okay." Jenny muttered under her breath. "I'm sorry that I constantly asked for sex like a drunk frat boy." Brit held up a cupped hand to her ear. "I'm sorry that I constantly asked for sex like a American frat boy." Brit stared at Jenny with a perplexed look. "Okay…I'm sorry that I constantly asked for sex like a frat boy…with a trust fund?" Brit nodded and scooted back to Jenny, kissing her again, this time on the lips.

"Again, I have to ask you as to why you really wanted to have sex with me." Brit sighed as she jumped into Jenny's lap, embracing her girlfriend. "It's been a daily question."

"Well…" Jenny's engine cheek warmed up and gave her a noticeable blush. "…following the invasion and temporary occupation of the Cluster...Doctor Wakeman removed a few limitations from my computer banks. She said I was a adult now…then…and I deserved it for my hard work overthrowing a queen. One such limit was my internet safe-search restriction…and so I had a field-day with my searches." The blush covered her entire face as Brit raised ab eyebrow and a demented smile. "For research…you know? To learn more about the human condition, how they interact on a more personal level? So…I sorta…kinda…downloaded a few…a tidbit…files? Photos, movies, stories, games…Doctor Wakeman found out and deleted the files…not that I preserved a memory file…"

"Naughty machine." Brit nudged a punch into Jenny's plated arm. "Well, have you learned where to put it? You know how to play it safe?"

"I have been waiting for this!" Jenny shook a bit, making Brit bounce a bit. "I've added in a few…things…behind Doctor Wakeman's back. You'll enjoy them all right…do you want a sneak preview?" Jenny put on a rather evil smile, and Brit could hear a panel open up, but she couldn't see anything open from the front of Jenny.

"No thanks." Brit waved her hands, gently scooting herself out of Jenny's lap and back onto the train seat.

"Come on. You want to have your first time to somewhere different than a bed." Jenny slowly crawled up to Brit and leaned over her body. "I know from my research that humans enjoy having sex in more exotic and dangerous locations."

"How is this dangerous or exotic?" Brit nervously asked. "It's a train…"

"It's a start. Think of it like this." Jenny leaned up and got her hands around the back of her chest plate. A few taps and the chest-plate fell to the ground of the cabin. Jenny took a deep breath and Brit got a close-up of two mountains growing. "We're on the way to the next stage in our lives. College and adult-life. Together. Get it?"

"…can I…"

"Go ahead."

Brit didn't tell Jenny that she already had sex with someone else about a year ago. A tall dark hunk on the football team of course, popularity dictated that she should. He was…average. She didn't really enjoy it nor really remember it. Not really disappointed, but she didn't feel any enjoyment from that encounter.

Jenny on the other hand not only became the complete opposite but also far exceeded whatever Brit expected. Her entire body gave off a wonderful warmth as her extended fingers and hands went all over her body with each motion caressing her skin so smoothly. If Brit wanted to do something, Jenny gladly provided. At first Brit felt incredibly embarrassed and wore a dark shade of red all over face, but as Jenny worked her down into a puddle Brit's shy expression became more pleasant and highly aroused. Her entire body shook from how Jenny treated her.

A great deal of worriment that had been hanging over Brit suddenly vanished.

Chapter Text

She had read all the articles. She listened to the testimonies of other people’s experiences. She heard all the jokes and every single possibly funny iteration. And that Brit had arrived in college and it had been three months…

…it wasn’t that bad. Pretty tough in Math, as always.

Then again, with her and Jenny sharing a dorm and bed, she had the best tutor and confidant that anyone could ever had. Free from her oppressing family and not having a shaming past with these students allowed Brit to express herself in a more presenting manner than her old shtick of being a snobby bully. As it turns out, being nice to other people made them nice to her in return! Who knew? Jenny also made some new friends that weren’t just the robots in the robotic labs. Of course, she still remained in contact with Brad and Tuck via video conferences every day, so at least she had something to look forward when she got home.

Unlike Brit. Her parent’s goons had followed her to Highvard and become apart of the security staff to ‘keep a eye’ on her. Really, they were still waiting to catch Jenny and Brit together in a compromising situation. It became really annoying that Jenny had to run a security scan every time they wanted some alone time. The agents had gotten smarter and would make patrols by areas that the couple used to think were safe spots to get away from the crowd.

“If we make even a single mistake, my parents will pull my tuition and I’ll be forced off the college premises.” Brit told Jenny with great alarm in her voice.

“I got your back, amiga.” Jenny replied with a gentle kiss to the cheek.

People here didn’t pay too much mind to Jenny and Brit’s relationship, although some of Jenny’s new robot friends did express some jealousy towards Brit…and one towards Jenny. “Don’t be going saying too much.” Brit warned Jenny. “The agents might be paying ordinary people to watch us from the crowd.” At that point Jenny wanted to rush back to Tremorton and arrest the Crust Family for invasion of privacy…if she had any evidence outside of seeing a couple of guys in campus security outfits patrolling around the campus. “Let them fumble for our benefit.” Brit told as she held Jenny back from engaging the still-fleshy humans.

“All right.” Jenny sighed. “Right, what’s for dinner tonight?” Her right hand retracted inside of her arm and out came a digital planner. “Chicken? Soup? Salad? Sex?”

“Chicken and sex?” Brit nudged Jenny. “Delicious. But I’m not going to eat off you…but we can use your cavity to cook the chicken.” This pretty much constituted how the two went about their private-bedroom business. Very open about it but kept their affairs to their dorm room and didn’t try to do anything outside. Their dorm room was, after all, the one place where the agents wouldn’t dare to go into. Honestly one of the few moments where Brit could enjoy herself without needing to look around her back every so often. Jenny had downloaded a great deal of por…articles on proper love-making. She didn’t even know some of those positions were possible!

“Got this for ya.” Jenny opened her cavity and retrieved a portable deck player. “Made this recently. When you go to bed, put it on and in your sleep, you will learn everything you need to know about physics without me needing to teach you.” She whistled as she tapped the player. “Still working on the math tape. It’s keeps going around and around and doesn’t go anywhere…”

Brit went off somewhere else in her mind as Jenny explained the workings of the deck player. Was it just her, or did Jenny become…boring?

Jenny helping her with her college work and being a goddess in bed? Yeah, those things kept the interest alive and well. But anything else? Brit scratched the back of her neck as she feigned interest in whatever Jenny was discussing at this point. Jenny used to inspire her, tell her how beautiful the world could be…but now it was random junk. The sort of thing you hear when you flip through channels late at night.

The two parted ways; Jenny to go on patrol so she could look into the nearby mob scene and Brit went back to the dorm so she can study and clean up. When they first arrived Brit offered to do a great deal of chores; knowing that Jenny would be focusing on getting high grades and dealing with the threats all across the world, at the least Brit could keep their place looking tidy when Jenny got home. But she had been slacking off recently. Garbage cans were filling up, dirty dishes stacked up near the counter, and the dinner table was still stuffed with last night’s dinner. Jenny hadn’t mentioned anything…yet.

Brit sighed as she gazed around her dorm. She SHOULD be cleaning up or studying for next week’s quiz…but she lacked the energy to crack open a book or even turn on a faucet to let water run and fill up a bowl. Brit dragged her body into the bedroom and collapsed onto the queen bed. She rolled around for a bit out of boredom, dragging the cover sheets around with her.

So listless…so bored…

“And it’s all because of Jenny.”

“Yes, it IS her fault…”

“She no longer sees as you a equal…she only wants your body, not your mind.”

“It explains so much, why she isn’t talking about anything interesting…”

“Jenny wishes not for your best interests, but hers. She wants you to keep her interested, but not the other way around.”

“Jenny…how could you…”

“Listen to me. Jenny Wakeman will gladly dispose of you if she finds someone better…or if you fail to live up to her high expectations…”

“But…I love…”

“She’s a machine. While intelligent and having a human-like appearance, she is still a machine without a soul, without a heart…just a powerful mind capable of replicating emotions.”

“Our love is fake.”

“Repeat.”

“Our love is fake.”

“Repeat.”

“Our love is fake.”

“Repeat.”

This went on for hours until Jenny retuned home. And Brit went back to normal once her girlfriend walked into the door. And the voice watched and waited…

Chapter Text

The voice that dwelled within Brit’s mind went from whispering to having pleasant conservations with the young adult. Brit spent more time with the voice than she did with Jenny or her new friends. The voice complemented her. The voice helped her. The voice offered more devotion than Jenny. After all, Jenny is a machine without an actual heart, just a constantly-calculating computer that told her what to feel. The voice calmed Brit, the voice treated Brit as a equal…the voice loved Brit more than anyone else in her entire life. Not her family, not her friends, not her own lover.

And Jenny had to go.

It made sense. She and Jenny were constantly hiding from prying eyes, never allowed to enjoy their artificial love in public. One slip-up and her parents would kick her off the family fortune for good this time. That’s not smart, the voice spoke. You’re willing to sacrifice near a billion dollars for a love that will outlast you and never be as fulfilling as a real person? That’s not being greedy, that’s being sensible. Isn’t it better to live our your days with somebody you can get old with?

Today would be the day then. The day where Brit would cut ties to Jenny. Thank goodness.

Brit waited until the right moment. While she didn’t believe that Jenny didn’t had real emotions, Brit wanted to at least give Jenny at least the decency of doing the breakup in person instead of doing it over the phone or leaving a note. The kind voice told her that Jenny would get suspicious otherwise and might stalk her if Brit didn’t properly do the breakup. The emotionless types were the unpredictable ones. Brit sent a message to Jenny saying: “Come home soon.” With that done, Brit deleted Jenny’s contact info from her phone. The voice said she would need to dump the phone to prevent Jenny from tracking it. Can never be too prepared when trying to avoid a humanoid machine.

Brit waited in her personal chair for Jenny to come home. Brit never felt this patient before. She felt like she could spend a entire day in this chair and never feel the need to leave it. Brit felt so calm and relaxed…not a worry in the world. The voice in her mind kept Brit so nice and peaceful…she almost went to sleep if not for Jenny coming in through the door.

“You okay, Brit?” Jenny asked, sounding…concerned? Why would a machine be concerned about a human being that’ll live a mere fraction of what IT would live? “I heard there’s a bit of a bug going around…” And explained away. It heard and noticed the spread of a disease and wondered if Brit had become infected. IT didn’t express concern, IT was just responding to a growing problem.

“That’s not the problem at hand.” Brit shook her head, repeating what the voice told her to say. “I’m not sick of a disease…but I am sick of you.”

Jenny’s eyes widen at that statement. Her voice…voicebox trembled, faking the growing dread, “What-t do you m-mean?”

“This relationship is fake.” Brit got up and started to explain. “You’re a machine.” To prove this point, Brit rapped a hand against Jenny’s chest, causing the monitor inside of her to pop out. “Any relationship with you is temporary…even your own creator will die one day. Your friends, possible family will all have to be machines to have any real connections.” She stopped herself short when she realized she used the word ‘real’. “Oh, what am I saying? You can’t have anything real. It’s all artificial. It is as real as your computer tells you. It’s fake.”

“Brit, what are you…”

“We don’t belong together, XJ9.” Brit made sure to full emphasize Jenny’s model name to deliver the point across. Brit walked past Jenny. “Think about it. Is this relationship logical to the both of us?”

“I’m not a machine devoted to logic!” Jenny immediately retaliated, now getting ‘angry’. “I’m a machine with real emotions, devoted to protecting the planet…”

“Why aren’t you out there right now then?” Brit pointed out, actually pointing a finger towards Jenny. “Why do you bother with school when you can spend all of your time fighting crime? Surely just a mile away someone is in trouble and could use a hero…”

“I can’t believe…” Jenny stated, completely crest-fallen at this point. “I thought I was through with this sort of conservation. Even my mom changed her mind about me being earth’s protector all the time…”

“Well, maybe she became senile in her twilight years!” Brit shouted over Jenny, now meek and cowering. “And calling her mom?” Brit and the voice both scoffed. “She’s your inventor. She didn’t birth you, she made you.”

“Brit, why…”

“Jenny, this isn’t going to work.” Brit dropped more of the dripping vile and went into something more…kind in a sense. “You know it isn’t going to work out. You can’t become attached to human beings. They’ll die…and who knows if you would remember them. As big as your mind can be, won’t be it easier to have more of your memory dedicated towards the various tactics and information about the enemies you have to face? I’m only holding you back…and it’s just plan stupid anyway. I mean, my family will cut me out a huge fortune over you. It’s not worth it.”

“Brit, why are you being…” Jenny looked to be on the verge of ‘tears’.

“As for living quarters, I’ll shall do you a favor and move out with my stuff instead of having you leave.” Brit stated. “I’ll go find a new apartment and move out tomorrow.” She reached over to the coat rack and took her dark pink coat. “Please, it’s for the best.” She muttered out loud as she draped the coat on.

“Brit, this isn’t…”

“I know.” Brit suddenly spoke up. The voice didn’t understand why Brit said that, and didn’t like it. So the voice pushed a bit harder. “But it is for the better. Let’s make it nice and simple…and for what it is worth, I’m sorry.” Brit shrugged and left without another word or even a look back towards the being she shared a bed with. Brit walked all the way downstairs to the lobby of the dorm building and continued until she had left the building and off the campus.

The voice couldn’t help herself but cackle. It left Brit’s mind and went back to the dorm room to watch it’s enemy wallowing in misery. The room had nearly completely flooded as Jenny fell into a deep depression and her tear ducts had turned into fountains as they spewed all the water Jenny had stored within her. Oooh…she ain’t getting that deposit back. The voice waited until Jenny started to bawl her eyes out and cry for Brit to come back.

Vexus had done it. She had demoralized her greatest enemy into a ball of eternal sadness. Jenny wouldn’t have the will to fight back…at least not as hard as before. 

As Vexus’ little bug flew out of the building and back up to space to return to the cloaked ship hanging in Earth’s orbit, it detected one last signal from Brit. She was crying, and she didn’t know why…

Chapter Text

Jenny couldn’t believe it. After years and years of fighting and losing…the Cluster was going to win.

The New Cluster anyway. The original Cluster now being run by Queen Vega had been cut off from providing some much-appreciated support to the besieged Earth. Skyway Patrol had been decimated and greatly depowered before the New Cluster even attacked Earth, leaving Jenny, other heroes and the world’s normal armies alone to survive against the army of robotic bugs. The Teen Team were busy fighting their own battle, and it’s not like Earth had the money needed to buy their help. The armies didn’t stand much of a chance and Jenny couldn’t fend off a entire empire on her own. Even with all of her new enhancements, she still needed energy to keep going.

And the bugs were smart. They would invade a major city, but the next day they would sneak around and sabotage anything they deemed to be a threat or would cause massive chaos. It could be a missile center, a power grid, or even a popular bakery; Jenny could never find a pattern and thus only arrived when the New Cluster completed the job. Defeating the enemy soldiers is one thing, keeping the good guys alive and with good morals is another.

Jenny’s morals weren’t as high as she hoped they would be. For the past three weeks, the only people she had been talking with random soldiers all across the globe. She didn’t have time to make new friends, she only had time to save as many as she could from the invading bugs. Doctor Wakeman had gone quiet but still occasionally sent out messages, Brad had joined up with the remnants of Skyway Patrol, and Tucker had been safely evacuated a long time ago.

But Brit was missing. Jenny checked everywhere that Brit would go in her spare time between attacks. Not anywhere at Tremorton. Not back at Highvard; according to the teachers, they hadn’t seen the Crust girl since she broke up with Jenny. Jenny even went to the effort and got the patience to visit Brit’s parents in their safehouse in the Caribeean.

“Oh.” The father put down his laser rifle, but didn’t bother to power it down. “Only you. Checking in on us?”

“Have you seen Brit?” Jenny sternly asked.

“No.” Tiff called out from the living room, her head stuffed in a magazine. “Have you checked your bed?”

“We…” Jenny started before sighing, but not changing her stoic expression. “…had a little spat.”

“She rejected you.” Mr. Crust sneered, not moving away from the front door. “It took her a year, but she finally realized…”

“We were happy until you reared your head.” Jenny blurted out. She instantly regretted saying that, but she kept her expression.

“I’m her father.” Mr. Crust gritted out, placing a hand on the humming laser rifle. “I…ALWAYS…know what’s best for her. The only reason the two of you even met is because I raised her right. If she was raised by someone else…the only way you would have heard about her was through the news, probably about the crimes she would have committed…”

“You know…” Tiff sighed, actually placing her magazine down. “The last time the Cluster invaded, we and Brit joined with them, them being the winning side at the time…”

“Brit would have never joined them!” Jenny retorted, now actually displaying anger in both expression and in voice.

“Any port in a storm.” Mr. Crust let out.

“Huh?”

“It’s our family motto.” Mr. Crust filled in, almost feeling annoyed he had to explain that. “We aren’t going to fall behind because of changing times. We will change with times. Even if it means betraying those we known for years, the Crusts will survive. Always.” He took a deep breath and reached for a nearby wine glass he was drinking before Jenny knocked on the door. He took a long sip before remarking: “Maybe we should join the new Cluster. Perhaps it will allow some part of humanity to survive this onslaught. After all…you’re responsible for this whole ordeal.”

“ME?” Jenny exasperated.

“They’re doing this as revenge for beating them over and over again.” Mr. Crust breathed out after taking another a quick sip. “They keep coming back and back, and you haven’t gotten rid of them for good.”

“You want me to kill?” Jenny wondered out loud.

“Why haven’t you?” Mr. Crust put on a rather nasty smile. “They’re not human, they’re machines. Shut them down for good so they can’t harm anyone anyrmoe…” He sniggered. “Perhaps that’s something we should do for you as well, when this is all over.”

“Why?” Jenny again asked. “Why do you hate me so…venomously?”

“Because you ruined my daughter.” He snarled. “If she takes control of the business, she will run it into the ground in under a month…hell, I’ll give her a week.” He wandered away from the door, his back turned towards Jenny. “How can anyone, let alone a unfeeling machine like yourself, rely on compassion in this day and age? People will get in line to exploit the hell out of you. I mean…there’s a difference between nice and there’s just being plain ol’ stupid…”

Jenny had enough. She burst through the door and pulled Mr. Crus upward with one hand. Tiff yelled and went for the rifle, but Jenny used a spare hand to blast the rifle into pieces. “You want to know what stupid is?” She asked Mr. Crust as she shook him once. “Stupid is insulting someone and their loved one over and over again…and then turning your back on them!”

“You can’t hurt me!” Mr. Crust ordered.

“Oh. Right.” Jenny robotically stated before her eyes became a deep red. “Asimov’s Laws. About that.” Her voice lowered as she announced the following: “Disabling Law One.” Mr. Crust screamed for help. Tiff grabbed her glass of juice and tossed it right at Jenny, hoping to short-circuit her. All it did was to splash against her and drip down. “Water-proofing circuitboards.” She told before slamming Mr. Crust against the wall.

“What do you want?” Shrieked Mr. Crust.

“Tell me what information you have.” Jenny asked, returning to her regular voice. “Do you know where Brit would go? Do you have some way of tracking her?”

“You should be out there fighting the New Cluster!” Tiff pleaded as she yanked on Jenny. “Leave him out of this! He might be a craphead, but he’s not your enemy!” Jenny didn’t answer, but once more used her free hand to non-lethally subdue Tiff with a paralyzing laser.

“You!” Mr. Crust shouted.

“Where’s Brit?” Jenny again affirmed.

Mr. Crust went horrifying silent as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his expensive cellphone. Jenny snatched it and quickly went through it. She found a specially-installed app that could track people across the globe. In a open tab was the name BRIT. Seeing it, she threw Mr. Crust away without a care as to where he would land. At least he got thrown into the couch and only broke his shin bone.

Jenny burst out of the house through the walls as she hooked up her GPS with the cellphone. With the information downloaded, she winded up and threw the cellphone like a baseball at a nearby New Cluster ship, penetrating through the hull and breaching the engine core. Mr. Crust’s cellphone did more for the war than what the rich ass ever did.

Brit had relocated to a big city by the name of New Arlington, three states over. Jenny powered up her rocket boosters to the max and with a boom, she shot over to New Arlington.

She behold in her optical receivers a sign of how bad the war had gotten for Earth. New Arlington hadn’t just become littered with craters, several buildings were left standing with gigantic holes in them. Jenny recognized the sign. The New Cluster wrote in the city’s ruins that they could destroy them…or humanity could surrender to them. They showed some bizarre sense of mercy in the destruction of New Arlington.

Jenny’s rage faded when she witnessed the city. As far as she knew, the signal she was picking up was just a ghost…Brit could have died a while back. She descended down to the nearest point next to the signal and looked around. A crater-lined street with fragments of former cars, street signs, and victims littering the way. Jenny calmly, if a bit scared, walked down the street and keeping a look out for anyone familiar. As she went further and further down into the dead city, her pace became slower and slower as the dread of the reality started to set in. No way anyone still lived here and was alive…

…Jenny picked up some faint breathing nearby. Her mind went into a rush as she raced towards the site of the breathing. Jenny found herself in a obliterated town square, with a giant hole in the middle where a fountain once stood. Jenny scanned the area and found…

“Brit!” Jenny called out. She disregarded her surroundings and ran forward towards a fallen brick wall. “Brit!” She yelled again as she jumped over the wall. “Brit.” Jenny whispered upon seeing her old friend.

Brit was alive…but barely. Her hair had become sleek and shiny for not being washed in weeks and stuffed with soot. Brit’s outfit, the same one she wore when Jenny last saw her during the breakup, had gone through hell: torn all over, burnt in several places, and Brit attempted to fix it by stuffing the holes with random pieces of cloths, cardboard and scraps of paper. Blood stained her skin and clothes but thankfully she was fully intact even with all the rotten bandages tried wrapped around on her body.

“Brit?” Jenny whispered in shock.

“Jenny.” Brit sighed, seemingly returning to life. “How did you…”

“I confronted your father.” Jenny sat down next to Brit, ready to wrap her up and rake her out of here. “And I took the app that he was tracking you with…and found you. How and why did you come here…”

“It’s a trap you metallic dullard.” Brit grimly insulted. “This whole thing…between us? Vexus used us. She gave you something to cherish, and then ripped it out of your hands when she needed to. I was used to demoralize you, to distract you…and see what they did to the planet?” She spread her arms around the place, highlighting the destruction.

“They came in strong.” Jenny told. “It has nothing to do with us…”

“Yes it does.” Brit turned to actually face Jenny. Jenny gasped as she witnessed on Brit’s cheek a massive burn. “The breakup? That was all orchestrated. She used me…to be rid of you…and you didn’t think…” The anger and resentment in Brit suddenly vanished in a instance as her head bobbed down for a second and she turned white.

‘You’re not well.” Jenny affirmed as she tried to wrap Brit up in her arms. Brit gathered the energy to back away. “Brit, this isn’t the best time. You’re close to death.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing.” Brit breathed out. “I had a hand in the death of Earth…only makes sense for me to go as well…”

“No, no!” Jenny quickly shot. “You didn’t!”

“She did.”

Jenny’s arm instantaneously morphed into a giant blaster as soon as she heard that voice. “Vexus.” Jenny gritted out as she turned and faced her nemesis. “You’re dead.” Vexus stood on top of a downed street light. Like the long-deceased Krakus, Vexus looked worse for wear. She appeared to have rusted, but she still remained in one piece.

“Doubtful.” Vexus sighed, looking at her talons on the right hand. “Are you sure you want to fight me with your meat doll nearby?” Vexus’ talons lit up with a sharp blue light. “She might just go ahead and die on the spot. Won’t take much for her to snap…poor thing.” Vexus held up her left hand that too lit with up the penetrating light. “It’s not her fault she was born as a fleshy human. Short-life span, built incredibly weak and not very intelligent...they should have surrendered after the second attack…”

“And yet they built me!” Jenny shouted as unloaded two blasts of burning plasma straight at Vexus. The queen teleported away from the shots as they destroyed the light. Jenny looked up and see the queen appear on the top of a building right in front of them.

“I consider you a act of serendipity.” Vexus admitted, with a mocking measure of her shrugging. “Your creator is a gifted designer, but…” She let out a chuckle that echoed in both of Jenny’s and Brit’s heads. “…she’s one being! And so are you. It’s not enough to take on a entire army!” Vexus jumped off the building and landed exactly she was before, minus on the street light. “I admit…I’m not my usual self.” Vexus grunted as she placed her hands on her chest and pulled open two flaps. Jenny peered in and saw a hodgepodge of various electric components just stuffed in to keep Vexus alive. Vexus quickly shut her panel shut before Jenny had a chance to open fire at the weak spot. “As you can guess…losing my empire and constantly failing to find even the smallest victories haven’t done wonders to me.”

“So you’re dying.” Jenny guessed with a stone-faced glare.

“Slowly.” Vexus admitted. “The recent victories here have given me a little more to keep me going. But…” Vexus pointed to Jenny. “I need you.”

“Well.” Jenny put on a smile that beat out Vexus’ own. “Looks like it will be easy to spite you.”

“I will kill everyone to get you.” Vexus simply told. Jenny’s smile instantly faded. “While having a slave force is beneficial in strip-mining force…I need you to keep me alive. It’s worth killing six billion people if it means I get to kill you and strip you for parts.”

“But you have a empire to run.” Jenny pointed. “Wouldn’t be smarter in the long run to train someone…”

“Like I did last time?” Vexus sneered. “Vega used to be such a nice and promising child…until you came about and corrupted her. So…” She re-displayed her glowing claws. “…I’m going to learn from my mistakes and go straight for the jugular!”

Vexus growled as she launched herself forward, striking her talons out. Jenny managed to deflect the attack, but it caused the talons to dig into her shoulder. A fantastic amount of high-amp electricity flowed into Jenny. Her body convulsed as it tried to divert the current away from the sensitive parts. Jenny shoved Vexus off and jumped back. Jenny wanted to fill Vexus with plasma, but her arm hurt too much to even lift up.

“Come on!” Vexus roared as she went for a second attack. Jenny rolled under a long swipe and spun her leg around, tripping Vexus. Before Vexus could jump back to her feet, Jenny pounced on her and stuck her hands on the chest flaps. With a powerful yank, she was able to expose the vulnerable section. Jenny transformed her still-working hand into a blowtorch and attempted to set Vexus’ insides ablaze. Vexus lifted both of her legs and kicked Jenny off.

But Jenny was waiting for something like that to happen. Her jet engines powered up and she shot forward like a rocket straight into Vexus, who was trying to close the forced-open plates. Jenny tackled Vexus into a wall, and stuck her blowtorch inside. Vexus screamed in pain as the fire raged inside of her. Jenny also gave the queen a swift kick into Vexus’ stomach area. Jenny watched as Vexus squirm around as the fire raged onward.

“It’s over.” Jenny groaned, the electricity still surging into her arm. “Vexus, take your new empire and…”

“CONQUER EVERYTHING!” Vexus howled as she stood back up and let loose a powerful laser cannon from her chest. Jenny couldn’t avoid it and got consumed inside the blast. The heroine was propelled all the way into and through a few building as the beam ripped right into her. Jenny’s reactive armor plating barely absorbed the beam, and her entire body threatened to fall apart in a second.

Jenny must had blacked out for a second, for she found herself in the rubble of a wall she must had passed through. Her entire felt intact, but she looked at herself and saw the real damage. Plating fried and slag melted into her circuits…thank goodness her upgrades gave her reinforced slag protection. She could still move her limbs and her legs just fine, at least the surge of the Queen’s electric talons has worn off. But just moving her fingers hurt like hell…

“Like I would show you my weakpoint, fool!” Vexus cackled as she landed next to Jenny. “True…it is what I am now…a walking heap of rusted junk tied together with string…but it is enough to deal with you ONCE and FOR ALL!” Vexus lifted her foot up and stomped down hard on Jenny’s head. Jenny didn’t let a single sound to spite the now-crazed Vexus. But Vexus didn’t stop with one stomp, she continued to rain down her foot on Jenny’s head, stamping a impression of her sole into Jenny’s body. “DIE!” Vexus screeched as she continued to assault Jenny.

“You’re going to damage my parts…” Jenny wheezed out, as her voice box had become partly crushed. “…how are you going to use me to fix you? You’ll become even more like a walking scrapyard…”

“QUIET YOURSELF!” Vexus bellowed as she stamped her foot down on Jenny’s chest so hard she got embedded in the loose. “I’ll salvage you…Doctor Wakeman built you to last after all!” She tried to lift her foot out, but her particle cannon had severally soften the metal to the point where it glued Vexus’ foot down. “Come on…” She growled.

“Whoops.” Jenny half-heartily shrugged and fired off a powerful bolt of plasma into Vexus’ head. The queen withstood the blast, but her face didn’t. It started to drip slag down, turning the queen’s face into a nightmarish Picasso painting. Jenny couldn’t help but let out a little gasp as she saw the sludge of a face.

Vexus let out a horrible shriek capable of shattering eardrums as her arms transformed into cannons. “I don’t need your pathetic CPU…” She growled, her voice heavily distorted by the damage done to her. Vexus pointed her left cannon towards Jenny’s blaster and fired a single shot. Jenny screamed in horrible pain as her arm was viciously torn off by the shot, nearly outright disintegrating it. “ Nor do I need that arm!” She cackled again, bringing both of her cannons towards Jenny’s head. “It’s all over, XJ9.” Jenny peered down the barrels and saw the energy building up. “Oh.” Vexus smiled, the best she could given that her mouth had become enveloped by her melted skin. “I think it’s only fair if I show this to your creator…”

Her arm returned to normal as she reached down and yanked open Jenny’s chest and pulled out the monitor. “Still works…” Vexus admitted. “Seems like she wanted to make sure she would always have a means of contacting you…” She pushed the button to turn it on and contact Doctor Wakeman. “…but…” Vexus slowly went into a roar of cackling as she turned the monitor around. “…I don’t think she’ll be picking up this call.”

Jenny…openly started to cry. The world around her had been reduced to utter ruin, both in the literal way and the metaphorical way. She was going to die here by her greatest nemesis, with her girlfriend nearby dying and would definitely die soon…and on the screen…showed her mother lying in a pool of dark red blood…unmoving.

Dead.

“Seems like some of my agents got to her.” Vexus sighed. “I was hoping to enslave her...but she tried to fight back by the looks of it.” She tapped a broken laser pistol next to the dead Doctor Wakeman on the screen. “Oh well.” Vexus gripped the monitor and with a powerful pull, yanked it clean off. “I’ll just stuff her brain into a bot. I’ll make sure to tell her that her daughter died by my hands…you want me to tell her something?” Vexus mocked.

“Tell her I tried.” Jenny wept, broken in many places. Vexus nodded and returned the rifle at Jenny’s head. Jenny stared at the barrel…not caring anymore.

The sound of torn air filled the air, and Jenny felt no pain.

Because someone fired a regular old gun at Vexus. Vexus seemed more annoyed than angered that someone dared to attack her. Vexus slowly turned to face her target as another round of buckshot punched into her chest, barely even registering a small scratch. Brit had somehow managed to pull herself up to mount a weak offensive with her extremely-outdated weapon. “I should have expected this.” Vexus sighed as she calmly walked up to Brit. “XJ9 was the only real threat to me…so once she left the literal mortal coil, I would be facing nothing but these weaklings.”

“I’m going to kill you.” Brit gritted as she loaded up another shot, quickly unloading it into Vexus’ chest. The shot barely made Vexus flinch. Brit continued to fire away, hoping that a constant barrage would eventually punch a hole in Vexus. No such luck; even as worn down as Vexus had become not even a high-powered shotgun could bust her.

“Oh, ho ho.” Vexus chuckled as she came in front of Brit, fumbling around in her jacket’s pocket for ammo. “Oh, dear Ms. Crust.” Vexus rather gently took the shotgun out of Brit’s hands and swiftly crushed the gun, snapping it in half. “Like you ever mattered.”

Vexus swiped her talons against Brit’s body, drawing a fountain of blood. Brit tried to stand despite the three massive gashes in her torso, but Vexus kicked her down. Vexus pounced on the fallen human like a lion to the kill, dragging her claws down into Brit. The poor girl screamed and screamed as the alien robot dug into her body, tearing sinew after sinew of bloody flesh as Vexus went for the organs to tear them out or reduce to bloody chucks as she reduced the girl into mere scraps as if she were sent into a grinder.

But Vexus left Brit alive, hanging by a string. Brit coughed as she couldn’t feel a single thing in entire body. No pain, but nothing at all. Not warm or cold. “I spent years studying human anatomy.” Vexus declared as she shot Brit a look of cold terror. “I wish to torment the very people that resisted me…and lead to my downfall.”

Brit attempted to get something out, but as her vocal cords were cut and bleeding out, she could only let out a little burp of blood that bubbled up out of her mouth.

“The last thing you will see…” Vexus started, only to be stopped in mid-sentence when she felt something approach her from behind. “…now what…” She turned to see her opponent standing up. “XJ9, stand down and die. You can not…”

Jenny promptly raised her hands up clapped them together, with Vexus’ head in between. The queen failed to let out any noise as her body went limp and fell to the ground.

But she wasn’t done yet. Jenny transformed both of her hands into the most powerful lasers she had in her. She pointed them at Vexus’ twitching body and fired with most of her remaining energy. The combined beam swallowed the body and Jenny kept firing until the body melted away and the beam started to bore into the ground.

Unless Vexus kept a copy of her mind somewhere, she would remain dead…and Jenny couldn’t care less.

She turned to Brit, still on the ground and bleeding out fast. Hard to tell if it was Brit anymore…she wouldn’t survive for long. So much came over Jenny…she just went through rage, but now despair and fear were rolling over her….was there a point? Vexus’ death wouldn’t bring upon the end of the New Cluster attack, only to serve as a martyr for their cause. And Jenny doubt she too could survive for much longer. Her body had suffered intense damage and might shut down to protect the necessary systems active…but there wouldn’t be someone to repair her…

Jenny reached down and lifted the dying Brit up. Brit couldn’t even turn to face Jenny. With a sad yet…with a hint of determination…look, Jenny gently lifted up the two up into the sky and departed up and away from the destroyed city. Where would they go…

Chapter Text

The red sky continued to get darker as Jenny flew into the burning remains of Tremorton. At this point, her energy reserves were just a touch away from empty and her body shook from being this high up in the sky, her arms and legs threating to fall apart. Not the Jenny cared if her body were to suddenly collapse like a Jenga tower in mid-flight. Neither she nor the bloody mess of Brit were going to last much longer anyway. There didn’t seem to be a point anymore.

And yet, she stopped at a abandoned clinic to get Brit bandaged up as best as possible. But her organs were a mess and she couldn’t speak, and even with Jenny using the best medical tools installed in her…

She figured if they were going to die, they might as well do it in their hometown. Jenny just had enough energy to make the journey back to the Wakeman house. Good place to die, the same place were she was created. Jenny no longer worried about the future; if the New Cluster won and enslaved the Earth, if she were to be blamed for the invasion or the death of Brit…it didn’t matter.

Jenny found her home without a roof and a front wall. What it did was several New Cluster bug soldiers lying out all around the place, having been shot by a high-charged rifle from a good distance. Figured Mom would have taken out as many before being taken down. Jenny carried Brit inside, gently moving through the ruins of her home. The furniture had all been destroyed; either slashed, smashed, shattered or burned in a massive battle to get Doctor Wakeman. A trail of spent energy cells, broken weapons, more dead soldiers, and a dry path of blood lead Jenny into the basement lab.

Jenny sighed as the trail became redder and had various human parts lying about. A very ho-hum thing to her; seeing the various bits and pieces of her deceased mother lying about. But the thing that did surprise her as she went down into the basement?

A lack of a corpse. Sure, there were the corpse of the big New Cluster enforcer who obviously killed Doctor Nora Wakeman lying in the corner, but Jenny didn’t see a mangled corpse of a old woman lying around anywhere. Did someone kill the enforcer and then take the body away? Jenny went over to the table in the middle and laid Brit down softly. She murmured something and twitched. Jenny slumped against the wall and slid down.

She didn’t have the energy anymore…both literally and figuratively. Not to get up, not to even more a inch…her reserves were empty now…her vision start to flicker, her stats were glitching out, and static started to grow in both her vision and thoughts. She was dy..i…n…g…no power…

“Wake up XJ9…you’re drooling.”

Jenny’s eyelids slid open to see a radically different lab. The smears of blood were cleaned off, but the biggest difference was the entire lab itself. It looked more suited for cybernetics than it originally did for robotics as the entire area was dotted with computer and other cybernetic equipment. A gentle electronic hum vibrated throughout the air and a soft blue glow came off the monitors.

She felt…alive. Jenny looked down to see that her while her body still had the various gashes all over, a parting gift from Queen Vexus, most of the major damage had been fixed and her body flowed with new energy. Her internal clock took a few seconds to adjust and tell her how much time had passed. According to the current time and the time her system was last active, four hours had passed.

“How am I still alive?” Jenny wondered out loud as she got up.

“It took some time to get the new systems online and re-create all the equipment needed to restore you back to working shape.” The voice told her. “But it didn’t take too long for me to build everything needed to get the new lab up and running, and to recharge you.” A robotic hand shot out of the wall and handed Jenny a cup of fresh oil, with the lid taken off already. “Sip slowly. I hadn’t developed all of the equipment needed to fix the internal damage, so don’t overexert yourself. At least your limbs are nice and attached again.”

“Mom…” Jenny trailed off as she recognized the voice.

“Yes.” The voice acknowledged. “I am your mother…who just died in a horrific manner and had her personality transplanted into a computer system.” Another arm came out of the wall and gently petted Jenny on the head. “I’m capable of building pretty everything we would need, run on a special power source that wouldn’t run our bill up high and I can instantly connect to any computer across the globe and far away…but you probably figured I would do something like this.”

“Yeah.” Jenny weakly muttered before taking a small sip of oil. “You wouldn’t just let up and die…you would find a way to survive.” She then sighed. “You’re going to live forever, aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah!” Nora exclaimed. “A bit morbid that I’m going to most likely outlive you, my own daughter, but future generations will need my expertise. Of course, I will never forget about you.”

“Oh thank god.” Jenny sighed. “At least my own mom will remember me after she long passes me. I can go to the grave now with no regrets.”

“Not yet XJ9.” Came the authoritative voice of her dearly departed mother. “The New Cluster will most likely attack soon to avenge their leader’s death and yet another failed invasion…”

“Wait, woah, wait.” Jenny raised her hands up to quell the conversation a bit. “Failed invasion? What happened in the last four hours that changed all that…”

“The original Cluster is what happened.” After that, several monitors flickered and showered several news channels displaying two shared headlines: NEW CLUSTER DRIVEN OFF and/or QUEEN VEXUS DEAD. All the footage showed how much difference the original Cluster had on the war, one ship flew in and shot down three New Cluster ships with remarkable ease. Vexus’ new empire was made out of scrap metal, while her old empire was made from titanium. Without their leader and their stealth tactics being made redundant, the New Cluster had no choice to pull out. “Congratulation Jenny. You saved the Earth yet again.” Nora ‘clapped’.

Jenny smiled, feeling satisfied that her effort weren’t in vain. “The Cluster was able to come to us once Vexus died…apparently she installed some powerful warpdrive blocker in her body? Don’t know where she got that, or why she kept in herself…” Nora then let out a long electronic fizzle; a substitute for sighing. “In the end, she became a walking garbage bag; just everything thrown in without a care as what’s there and where it goes.”

“Yeah…” Jenny took another sip before her eyes wandered over to the middle of the room. “BRIT!” Jenny screamed, dropping her oil bottle and running over to the table in the middle. A protective bubble surrounded the tabletop, keeping Brit safe from outside infection. Her messy and bloody clothes had been torn off and she was covered in bandages instead. Many tubes ran out of her and into the table; the table once used to create, repair, and upgrade Jenny had been converted into a human life-support system keeping Brit alive as possible. “How is she?” Jenny frantically asked.

“…not good.” Nora admitted. “When I came to in my new form, I quickly set up the table to keep her as healthy as possible. She’s stable, but falling slowly. Many of her organs were torn up beyond repair, and even with this level of technology; I can’t fully replace all the body functions with machines.” She paused before admitting, “Even with donor organs, expert surgeons, a constantly-active life support system, and constant care…Brit won’t survive for long. I give…two weeks. Two days in the bubble without the extensive care…and in her state…and the state of the world as it is and with more ‘important’ people needing care…”

Jenny gently laid a hand on the bubble. Brit didn’t look good at all. She just looked ready…to just die. Like…one second she would be alive and in the next moment she would stop breathing and not wake up. It could happen here and now. Jenny quivered at the thought.

How could Brit be saved?

What did Jenny have that could save her…

“Mom?”

“Yes?”

“…there is a way to save Brit…and I think you know what it is.”

“…Jenny.”

“I know that her parents wouldn’t consent to it, and there’s probably a entire book of law going against this…but…”

“You love her Jenny. Your consent is enough. I’ll get start manufacturing the parts and tools needed…you stick around in case I need you…”

“Thanks mom.”

“…I think it would be better if you would talk to her after we finish.”

“…yeah.”

Chapter Text

Jenny didn’t know what to say, what to do, or even how to approach Brit. What just happened…would take a lot to explain it to her. And Jenny was drained. From fighting, flying and all of the fixing. Jenny deeply exhaled as she slid down the wall in complete exhaustion. She could hear Brit crying in the next room.

…how…

…just, how…

…how could Jenny properly explain to Brit that she would have to live out the rest of her life as a machine?

The Nora computer had gone silent. For once, Jenny’s mother wasn’t going on and on about her great accomplishment of taking someone out of the clutches of death and giving them new life. She figured it would be better to be quiet and allow Jenny to talk this out. Besides, she needed time to continue to upgrade her system and expand…plus find people to fix the house.

Jenny ran several scenarios through her head. What would be the best way to explain what just happened to Brit? Comfort? Just the facts? Go into details? Create a funny little PSA about cyborg transformation? She might react bitterly towards comfort, ignore the facts, not understand the details, and might fall asleep during the video. Of course, the love they shared could help her understand things easier, Brit wasn’t stupid, and she could use a good laugh to cheer herself up.

No need to waste time. Brit wasn’t leaving the room anytime soon, and Jenny had a lot to say.

Jenny got a good look at Brit’s new body. Looked very similar to the old human Brit, tall and lean. But her new limbs made her a few inches taller, and they had a nice sheen to them, plus they had some robotic lines showing where the two different parts connected. Most of her limbs and organs had to be removed and replaced with synthetic parts; as of right now, the only original parts left were her head and her torso, even then those had to refitted with lightweight metal plates to hold the body together. Her brain did have to be fitted with various electronic assets to make sure her new components would work in sync and not cause her to move the left arm instead of the right.

Brit’s eyes didn’t hurt. She just bawled out her heart after the sudden and massive collapse of her reality, and her eyes didn’t sting. She blinked a few times. Brit could hear a noticeable click from inside her head as the servos worked her new eyelids to work as she ordered. At the very least, she could say it’s weird. The automatic functions of the human body were now running on automatic functions. Things she didn’t even think about doing now had to be processed and each had it’s own sound effect. Her own body felt alien to her…

“Brit?” Jenny called into the room. Brit’s shifted her weight a bit after her new audio receptors recognized the voice. While she looked to have human ears, they were cast out of carbon fiber and had a high-def audio system built in and lead directly to her computerized brain. Yet another reminder of her loss of her humanity. “Can I come in?”

Brit didn’t answer right away. She didn’t like her ‘new voice’. Yes, it sounded the same to her ears, still vibrated her throat the same way…but it felt fake to her. Brit felt that she wasn’t actually talking, all she did was to play a recording of her voice. But not wanting to leave her girlfriend unanswered, Brit did work her new vocal cords to say: “Sure.” Her skin quaked after saying that.

Jenny took careful steps, watching the back of Brit the whole way. Brit didn’t move a inch, not even her head. Jenny could clearly see Brit’s uncomfortably with her new body. She sat rigid, even once Jenny sat down next to her. “…how are you doing? Everything working alright?”

“I looked through the guide.” Brit held up the guidebook that the Nora computer had designed and printed out. The whole thing looked and read like a tacky doctor’s office pamphlet, complete with a nonsensical mascot character known as Doc Cyborg using talk balloons to explain the conservation process to a much younger audience than Brit. “So far all the functions are working fine. I’m still breathing, my heart is still beating, and I feel fine.”

“Great!” Jenny reached her hand behind and patted her on the back, all the while having a big smile on her face. “You’re alive and well.”

“Alive.” Brit repeated the word to herself in reflection. “Am I? Weren’t I dead?”

“No, you were barely alive.” Jenny shook her head. “That’s the miracle of technology, huh? And hey!” Jenny tapped on Brit’s head. A faint metalliac resounded. “You got a computer for your mind now. I’m out of a job as a tutor.”

“At least for me.” Brit returned with. Jenny put on a more honest smile. Looks like Brit was on the road to recovery. “So…does this body come with any…new features?”

“You don’t have to ever use the bathroom again.”

“Ah. Anything not disgusting?”

“Well, your body can run up to thirty-six hours before needing to shutdown and recharge. You may be mostly machine, but you still have organic parts that do require some rest. Otherwise, you have unlimited stamina and enhanced strength.”

“Can I fly?”

“No. You need to pass a class before we can issue you some jets.” Jenny rapped on the guide. “You would know that if you actually read it.”

“I skimmed.” Brit closed the guide and tossed it over her shoulder. “But I do remember everything that I did see.” She looked down, all the emotion draining out of her voice. “Unfortunately.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I’m no longer what I’m able now.” Brit picked up her hands and looked at them. “I remember dying, Jenny.” Jenny’s smile dropped and drooped. “I remember dying and having a good look at my internal organs. And because of my new mind…I’m not going to forget it…I remember every second and detail of the whole bloody affair.”

“We can scrub that part off your harddrive…”

“I’m not a machine.” Brit snared, her voice becoming quite venomous and a furious glare arched into her brow. “I’m a human being. Red blood, fleshy organs…”

“Brit.” Jenny interrupted. “Brit.” She repeated as she shook her head. “No. I’m sorry, but you’re not human anymore.”

Brit so wanted to launch into a tirade about why Jenny was wrong. She wanted to bare her fangs and tear Jenny a new one. But the only thing that were tearing were her eyes. Her tearducts may have been replaced with a synthetic version, but they still worked. Her eyes might not be burning, but her now dynamic-vision was blurred, her artificial heart ached, and her cyborg computer could only feel sadness…and understand the depressing truth.

“It’s okay.” Jenny whispered as she held the sobbing Brit close. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

“I’ll never be normal again…”

“It’s fine. I’ll help you.”

As expected, the next few months were difficult for Brit. While the world went through the motions to rebuild following the massive attack by the New Cluster, Jenny helping Brit working her new body would take a lot longer. Not all the damage that Vexus caused could be fixed right away by cybernetics, Brit still needed to be able to use her limbs properly.

First came the walking. Brit thought initially: It’s just walking. I’ve done that my entire life and it shouldn’t be that hard to do it again. She even asked Jenny to put away the silly rails as she wouldn’t need them. But then she actually tried to walk properly…okay, first steps were fine, a few more in and she started to wobble a bit. Fine, fine, keep going. Then her legs started to buckle, and she had little control over her own momentum. Okay, abort abort! At least Jenny came by and caught her before she crashed into a wall.

“Your muscles and nerves were severally torn apart.” Jenny softly reminded as she lowered Brit into a chair. “The new parts help, but they’re heavier and you need to keep doing this for your new muscles and nerves to adapt.”

“I feel like I just ran a marathon.” Brit panted as she slouched back in her chair. “Is this going to be a recurring thing?”

“Well, due to your cybernetic enhancements, you’re officially banned from all marathon, so no.”

Brit groaned as she twisted open a cap on a bottle of water. According to the Nora Computer, who had put herself in a movable robot body and left to demonstrate her invention to the world, Brit would still need to eat, drink and sleep to maintain her body, but not as often as a normal human being. One of the annoying things her new body did were to detect all of the materials and minerals in whatever she put into her mouth. Okay, so the water she just drank tasted like…water, a slight bit of dirt, a few tiny specs of fly…

Brit sighed as she tossed the water bottle behind her and perfectly into the nearby wastebin. Curse her now perfect pitching arm and incredibly fast-calculating brain. Jenny returned, holding up the two long walking bars. “Let’s take it slow.”

Brit wouldn’t say it out loud, but she hated taking things slow. Now, here she went, step-by-step-by-step-by-step…sssllooowwllllyy. She just wanted to rush things and get backing to enjoying the outside world. Not learning anything, she tried to take incredibly long strides, only for her to fall flat on her face. At least she didn’t feel much pain in her face.

But she continued, day after day to continue to re-learn how to use her legs. During that time, Brit had to use Nora’s old wheelchair to get around the house, using a special attachment lift to get up and down from the basement. The Nora Computer continued on it’s grand world tour to show itself off, so Jenny took care of everything for her and Brit. Cleaning up and rebuilding after all of the destruction, cooking the food Brit needed, helping Brit keep herself in shape…

In the month following the near end of the world, Brit found herself thinking about a great deal of things. Like the future, for starters. As she now were part-machine, she would definitely live longer…possibly just as long as Jenny. She could easily replace any dying organic parts with more cybernetics if necessary. Living for hundreds…possibly thousands of years…meant she could do a lot of things that most people who lived healthy lifestyles couldn’t do in a single lifetime. Explore the entire world, watch all movies and TV shows she wanted to see, eat all kinds of unusual foods, be a heroine just like Jenny…so much she could do now.

And that included work. Her father did want her to take over the family business at some point. Jenny did explain about her little conservation she had with Mister Crust before going and finding Brit.

After a month had passed, Brit had regained feeling to her legs and could move about as normal. She asked Jenny to be left alone for a hour to take a walk on her own…and Jenny agreed, not knowing of Brit’s plans. Brit, with some difficulty, did make the walk all the way to her old home. The rest of the Tremorton looked fairly okay given the circumstances; while a great deal of buildings that Brit remembered were no longer standing, it looked like most of the rubble and mess had been cleared away. The citizens looked worn-down and some looked to have taken a nasty beating, but they went on with their lives like nothing had happened.

And no surprise, the Crust family mansion looked no different than the last she saw of it. That didn’t mean it didn’t sustain any damage during the attack, it just meat that her family put in a lot of money and probably took several workers away from helping the city to restore the mansion back to it’s former glory. Before knocking on the door, Brit looked down to her outfit. Long shirt and pants to hide her connection lines. Good. She actually wanted to talk with her dad, not have the conservation be about her transformation.

“Oh.” Tiff greeted at the door. “You’re alive.” She sighed as she looked at her nails. “What a surprise.”

“I wish to talk with father.” Brit directly asked.

“You’re just in time.” Tiff pointed up to the second floor. “Dad’s in the study…doing exactly what you expect him to do with a child he’s doesn’t like.” Brit groaned and pushed past Tiff as she went inside. Her normally silent mother didn’t even wave at Brit as she rounded up the stairs and made straight tracks to her dad’s office. As expected, the door was locked. Gritting her teeth a bit, Brit gripped on the doorknob and squeezed. The once ornate bronze knob got reduced to a useless scrap of flat metal.

“How did you…” Her father started as he spotted his daughter walk in. “Never mind. You see this?” He pointed with his ink pen towards the pile of papers. “This is a combination of my will and the business shares. I’m writing you out. You get nothing. You broke our agreement and had a relationship with a machine.”

“And yet.” Brit nodded her finger in the air. “It’s you who’s going to lose something really good.” She then sat down in the chair opposing her father’s, a big no-no in the family. That chair was specifically reserved for clients, lawyers, anyone in the business with the Crust family. Not for family members. “I offer to take you into the future.”

“I tried that already with that walking computer.” Mr. Crust groaned. “She might be your future mother-in-law, but she refused to divulge her secrets to how she pulled out the mind transfer process. It’s immortality in the bottle…”

“Of which you’ll need never have.” Brit shot back. “You need to consider other options. Like who’s going to lead the company. I’m certain that Tiff has expressed she doesn’t want to take control over the company. And I know, this is a fact, that you don’t trust anyone to take control of the family’s 67% take in the company. Not even one of your long-term partners.” Her father looked at her like she became mad. “So…who’s it going to be…I elect myself.”

“Doubtful.” Her father snorted. “You haven’t finished your college, let alone gone to a accredited university. And think of the scandal!” He slammed his fist onto the desk, making the contents and even Brit jump. “Being a robosexual in office will only serve to make easily-avoided problems. Paparazzi, power-hungry board members, people looking to shift blame from one incident to another…Brit, you don’t have what it takes…”

“I will.” Brit interrupted by lifting up her legs and placing them right on top of the desk, papers be damned. Her new metal legs clattered against the wooden surface, a noise that Mr. Crust obviously found to be unusual. “My experiences have reshaped me…quite literally in fact.” Brit reached down and pulled up her pants leg to show off her longer and quite obvious robotic leg. “So I’m going to running the company for far longer than anyone in the company’s history.”

“…you’re a machine now?” Her father asked in disbelief.

“Cyborg. But yes. Part machine. I’m going to be living a long time, so I’ll be able to see our company continue going down the same path and following the same ideas I set forward.” Brit removed her feet off the desk and crossed them on the floor. “And let’s face it, that’s a safe and powerful investment.”

“But you’re not…”

“Not right away, of course.” Brit mockingly shrugged. “After I finish school, I’ll be drafting up a few ideas that can help our company not only continue, but proceed ahead any of our rival companies. Perhaps even convince them to join us.”

“But…”

“You’re going to put that into writing, yes?” Brit tilted her head with a sly smile. “Otherwise, I’ll build my own company and just buy you out. It’s possible.”

“Why should I…”

“Any port in a storm, father.” Brit reminded as she got up. “I’m taking any opportunity I can to further myself, even at your expense. So make this easy and do the right thing.” Brit tapped on the side of her head and a sun visor popped up and surrounded her eyes. “Be seeing you father.”

Brit promptly turned around and left her father alone in his study to stumble over his thoughts. Brit passed by Tiff and her mother and flashed a confident smile towards them before passing through the doors one last time. Perhaps in a few years she would return to the mansion with Jenny in tow. It did have good realstate.

“Ready to go?” Jenny asked as she floated down to the ground.

“Yeah.” Brit nodded with a small sigh as she hopped into Jenny’s awaiting arms. “I guess I’m a bit obvious in my plans.” Jenny nodded. Brit breathed out of her nose before going into: “The school is opening in a few days, so we best head back, clean up our dorm and get ready for the new marking period.”

“Should we make a pitstop to get something for the dorm?” Jenny asked as she hovered above the ground. “We could go and get a tacky souvenir from anywhere in the world. A tiki lamp from Hawaii…”

“Oh, no.” Brit blew a raspberry as she raised her head up to kiss Jenny on the cheek. “Those things are cheap made and sold for 200% more than what it cost them to make it.”

“But it would like so nice on the dresser.”

“Nah, I was thinking we could put a real creepy doll on that. We could hide it from our guests and reveal it to get them to leave.”

“That works!” Jenny laughed out as finally rose up into the sky and into wild blue yonder. They promptly left Tremorton and made their way back to their dorm. Brit didn’t feel any discomfort at all this high in the air; the wind didn’t hammer her face in, Jenny’s hold on her didn’t feel like she was squeezing her, and above everything she felt safe in the air. Maybe it’s her new body thinking that, maybe it’s something else.

“Hey, Brit.” Jenny asked out of the blue. “You still working on that speech?”

“What speech?”

“The speech you were working on when I caught you doodling me.”

“Oh, that speech!…yeah, haven’t worked on that in a long time. Kept forgetting about it…”

“Well, you could use your new brain to continue and finish it.”

Brit stuck in her lips into her mouth as she recalled the original statement she made. Once she remembered it, she voiced it out-loud: “Some people are born into the world to lead others, the rest are meant to be leaded around. But it's not that certain as many would believe it is; a slave could rise up and lead his people into freedom, and a master of a nation can fall into servitude and stay there for the rest of the existence…”

Brit never could find a appropriate way of continuing the speech from there. Heck, she couldn’t even recall the original intent of the speech. Perhaps it was about how people how should remain in the social circles they were born in? Her computerized mind raced with various ideas of how to continue the speech and make a powerful point. Examples of other speeches following the same themes flew through her mind.

Taking a few cues and quickly rewording them, she continued, “…so anyone can lead and anyone can follow. While it takes more effort to lead, it doesn’t require much to be a great leader. You need to understand the followers; what they are like, what they can do and how you can make them go against their weaknesses with little delay.”

“That’s good!” Jenny interjected. “You’re on a roll.”

“But I don’t know if I could go on further than that.” Brit sighed. “I didn’t learn anything about leadership during the entire time we’ve been together…and nothing about being a good follower.”

“It’s okay.” Jenny nuzzled Brit’s cheek. “We can work on it together. We’ll alternate between leader and follower.”

“Hmm…I thought I was writing the speech...hey.” Brit turned towards Jenny. “What are your plans now that the New Cluster is dead? There’s still plenty of other villains, sure, but there wouldn’t be much of a real threat….unless a new alien race pops up.”

“Hey, don’t jinx it.” Jenny whistled. “But I do plan on getting my degree in teaching, continuing to defend the Earth, keep my mother in line so she doesn’t become Skynet…”

“You mind if I stick around?” Brit asked.

“Brit…” Jenny sighed as she looked at her partner with a gentle look. “…would you mind if we take this a step further?” Brit raised both of her eyebrows. “You know? Go beyond holding hands, hugs, kisses, sharing a room and a bed…and…you know…”

“Ah.” Brit traced a finger around Jenny’s chin. “You want to put a wingnut on my finger?”

“I-I can’t r-really say-y it…”

“Jenny Wakeman, can I be your wife?” Brit asked as she nuzzled against Jenny’s head. “I want to spend a thousand years with you.”

“Me too.” Jenny happily quivered as she looked forward towards the descending sunset, hopeful about the future for the first time in a long while. “Me too.” And so they flew into the approaching future together.