Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The Short-Circuit of Tremorton
The sky over Tremorton wasn’t its usual postcard blue. Instead, it was a sickly, pulsating shade of Cluster-green, choked by the smog of a hundred hovering insectoid dropships.
Down on Main Street, Jenny Wakeman—known to the world as XJ-9—was currently a blur of chrome and blue energy. Her pigtails had transformed into twin rocket boosters, and her right arm was currently a high-frequency sonic cannon.
"Give it up, Vexus!" Jenny shouted over the roar of a collapsing billboard. She fired a pulse, shattering a squad of Cluster foot soldiers into scrap metal. "I’ve got a chemistry test in twenty minutes, and I really don't want to explain to Mr. Mezmer why my homework smells like ozone and scorched oil!"
From the shadow of the lead mothership, Queen Vexus descended. Her wings shimmered with a jagged, crystalline light, her silhouette sharp enough to cut the air.
"Always the petulant child," Vexus hissed, her voice a cold mechanical purr. "You cling to this organic dirt-ball as if you were born of it. You are a masterpiece of engineering, XJ-9. It’s time you were put to a... higher purpose."
The Clash of Steel
Vexus didn't wait for a witty retort. She lunged, her razor-sharp claws clashing against Jenny’s forearm shields. The impact sent a shockwave that shattered the windows of the nearby malt shop.
Jenny countered, her feet shifting into heavy-duty treads to gain traction on the asphalt. She swung a massive, pneumatic hammer-fist, but Vexus was a shadow, flickering out of reach.
"You’re getting slow, Your Highness!" Jenny teased, though her internal sensors were screaming warnings. Her core temperature was spiking. She’d been fighting for three hours straight without a cool-down cycle.
"And you," Vexus countered, appearing behind Jenny in a flash of green light, "are far too predictable."
The Unlucky Break
Jenny spun, her chest plates sliding open to reveal her multi-phase energy beam. She had a clear shot. Vexus was momentarily caught in the debris of a fallen satellite dish.
"Target locked," Jenny’s internal HUD flashed.
She pulled the trigger, but instead of a beam, a sickening POP echoed through her chassis. A stray piece of shrapnel from a destroyed drone—a tiny, jagged gear—had jammed the cooling vent of her primary capacitor at the exact moment of discharge.
The energy had nowhere to go.
KRA-KOOM.
The feedback loop tore through Jenny’s internal wiring. Blue sparks erupted from her joints, and her vision flickered into a static-filled haze. She gasped—a sound produced by her vocal processors struggling to maintain power—as her systems plummeted toward a forced shutdown.
"No... not now..." she whispered. Her knees buckled. The ground rushed up to meet her, hard and unforgiving.
The Spoils of War
Jenny lay prone in the middle of the street, her eyes dimming from a vibrant blue to a dull, lifeless grey. She was conscious just long enough to see the pointed boots of Queen Vexus come to a halt inches from her face.
Vexus looked down, a cruel, triumphant smile spreading across her metallic features. She signaled to a pair of heavy-duty Cluster Enforcers.
"Pick her up," Vexus commanded, her voice dripping with malice. "Be careful with the chassis. I want her intact."
"Where are we taking her, My Queen?" one of the drones mechanicalized.
Vexus looked up at the looming mothership, her eyes glowing with a sinister intensity.
"To the laboratory," she replied. "Dr. Wakeman built a hero, but with a few... adjustments to her neural processor and a complete overhaul of her loyalty subroutines, she will make a divine weapon of conquest. Why destroy a planet when you can have its protector do it for you?"
As the tractor beam locked onto Jenny’s limp form, lifting her toward the dark belly of the ship, the last of her power cells flickered out. Tremorton’s protector was gone, and the real nightmare was just beginning.