Stella Starlight and the Metal Men S1E1

BRRRRING!BRRRRING!

The alarm clock rang annoyingly, as Stella shifted under her covers. A pair of drowsy golden eyes glared out to the offending object. After enough twisting and turning to mummify her, Stella realized why the alarm was set. She quickly ripped the covers off of herself, and got dressed as fast as she could. She ran down the hall to the living room, almost tripping on the carpet.

 Her mother, Alice, sat at the table, cane resting against the couch. "Morning, hon. It's a really important day, huh?"

Stella nodded, grabbing a box of sugary cereal from the top of the fridge. She went without a bowl. "Mhm! I'm going to actual school." She said, rearing her head back and pouring the cereal directly into her mouth. "Stella." Alice warned, before a sheepish Stella began to eat with her hands.

"As if it was required. Bronze and I were doing an EXEMPLARY job." A voice called.

Iron trudged into the kitchen, a very dissatisfied look on his face. "Stella can name every General from antiquity to now, and she's just begun to understand Trench Warfare! This academy-"

"It's a public school, Iron." Alice said, rolling her eyes, and flashing a knowing smile to her daughter.

The irate Metal sighed, placing a hand on his face. "...really?"

"Really. Alice can't just learn about war and military history, you know. She has to learn about the sciences, language arts, math..." Alice said. Which was correct, Stella could really use a little more help with those, especially math.

Iron 'hmph'ed. Sure, Alice was right, but that didn't make Iron like this any more than before. "Very well." He sighed. "Alright Stella, let's get in the car."

Stella's eyes lit up. "Wait, we have a car now?"

They'd never owned a car before. Really, you could walk about as far as you needed in Empire City, especially when you're a man made of metal. And before that...well, you're not going to drive off of a military base without express permission.


Iron nodded. "Yes, I bought it earlier this morning, while you insisted on sleeping." He said, holding a small key in his large hand.

"Sweet!" Stella shouted, giving her mom a quick hug and running down the stairs to the studio, and out the glass front d-...

Parked neatly against the curb was an absolute rustbucket of a car. It was somehow old enough to be tacky, but young enough to not be retro. It was immensely rusted, with three different-colored doors. Looking into the windows, one could see that the backseats had been removed, and the two seats up front were stained and ripped.

Stella's smile dropped as she took it in.

"What the HECK Iron? You can't take me to school in that!" She said, as she heard the approaching footsteps of Iron. "I can, and I will. If it were my decision, you wouldn't be going at all. But, you have to, and this vehicle works perfectly fine." He said, lightly pushing Stella forward.

Sighing, Stella stomped to the passenger side and entered.

"Stella!" Alice called, having hobbled to the door on her cane. "Make sure you keep an eye on the boys! A cute girl like you is going to be the target of so many crushes." She lightly teased.

Stella blushed. She...hadn't really thought about that part too much. Could she find love at school? Oh! It could be like 'High School Basketball'? Where she could find the sweetest guy, and he'd hold her close, and whisper about how they're just plain meant to be...

She was pulled from her daydream by Iron entering the car, being forced to hunch over the wheel. The car took a noticeable lean.

"Not on my watch," He muttered to himself, "No sir, not happening again. I don't care if I have to castr-" He was cut off by the backfiring of the car.

----------

Stella happily strolled through the halls, clutching a small note in her hand, which was enscribed with her locker number.

Orientation was rather short, or at least, it felt short to Stella. She had zoned out in the middle of it, but she was sure it wasn't too important. She had the basic idea down; find friends, find a boyfriend, somehow get a rival, and if she still had time, go to classes.

Easy peasy.

Stella finally found her locker, having to push past tight groups of other students. She started fiddling with the lock, staring down at her piece of paper.

43...37...wait was that a seven or a one?

Stella noticed the locker give, and looked back to the object of her frustrations. The lock had been busted, and her locker opened...

Mission accomplished?

After successfully opening her locker, Stella had about seven minutes before class started. Looking down both ends of the hall, she figured she should try and make a couple friends. Her uncles were great, don't get her wrong, it's just... it's a little weird for your only friends to be family. Y'know?

She caught sight of three girls, all around her age. Yeah, they'd be perfect!

She walked up to the small group, sticking out her hand. "Hey! I'm Stella." She greeted. The one in the middle, who Stella picked out for their leader, looked down to Stella's golden hand. Throwing her blue hair back, she flashed a sneer.

"Really? I mean, I get that it's to cope with being disabled or whatever, but did you have to choose such a tacky pros-" She was silenced as the hand formed a fist and gave her an uppercut, faster than she could react.

The two other girls who were on either side of their now-airborne friend, looked back in shock to see her crash a good couple feet behind them.

Stella grinned. Jeez, she didn't even try with that one!

The girl on her left attempted to push Stella away, but she easily sidestepped and took her out with a quick punch to the liver. The third was taken down with a leg-sweep, and Stella stood amidst her handiwork with a grin. It was then she noticed the crowd that had formed around her, staring in shock and awe.

Stella awkwardly announced. "Uh...anyone else wanna go?"

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

Stella sat just outside the principals office in an uncomfortable chair, dejected. Why the heck was she in trouble? She won!

Faced with no other choice, she looked to her left, out into the parking lot. She slowly zoned out, and was faced with so much boredom that she would soon stop thinking.

Thankfully she was saved from Ego-Death by a familiar rustbucket of a car screeching into the parking lot, and perfectly parking. Out climbed Bronze and Iron, the sun glinting off of them as they trudged to the front entrance.

"Huh, Chrome must be with m-" Stella thought out loud, before being interrupted as the leather-clad speed-demon drove in on his motorcycle at top speed, crashing into the car and tumbling over. Skidding on his helmet for a moment, he flipped on his rear, and stood.

Chrome chose not to use the door as a normal person would, instead opting to run to the window Stella sat near, throwing it open as the glass rattled in the pane. "Stella! Stella, ya won, right?" He asked, climbing in to sit on the windowsill.

Stella nodded. "Yeah! They...sucked pretty hard, honestly." "Nice!" Chrome exclaimed, and the two shared a high-five.

Iron and Bronze came in through the office doors, the latter bumping his helmet off the top of the doorframe.

"She won!" Chrome informed, to which Iron responded, "Of course she did, I didn't expect anything else from her." He said with a hint of pride.

Bronze nodded, "Of course, she's a little Spartan, is she not?" He praised in his rattling voice, patting Stella's head with a heavy hand.

"What I'm not sure about, however, is why exactly the Principal chose to call home." Iron stated. Stella responded with a shrug. She honestly didn't have much of an idea.

Suddenly, the door to the principals office opened, and out walked the man himself, heavy glasses sitting on his shallow face.

"You're...Stella's Uncles?" He asked, shocked at the appearances of the men before him.

"We're performance artists." Iron said, covering for their strange looks.
"True thespians." Bronze said sagely.
"I dunno, I'm a freakin' loon." Chrome shrugged.

--------

Bronze and Iron chose to occupy the two chairs in front of the principal's desk, while Chrome stood and bobbled a small Bea Arthur bobblehead on the desk.

The Principal sat straight, clasping his hands on the desk to gain some semblance of authority here. "Gentlemen, as you know, Stella has gotten into a fight. She beat three girls in the hall today, just before class."

The men were silent. Iron nodded. "Yes, and?"

"P-pardon?" The Principal asked, clearly not expecting that answer. Chrome continued to bobble, as the conversation was just so...boring.

Bronze placed a hand on Iron's shoulder. "I believe his problem is with the location. Good dáskalos, we apologize for Stella, she should have used the battlefield you've provided." He said, referring to the football field.

"Battlefield!? Just w-Just what do you people think this is!? We're a school!" The Principal exclaimed.

Chrome stopped bobbling the bobblehead for a moment. "Yeah, like, you teach em to fight, then you teach them the useless stuff. Right?"

"No! We don't teach them to fight! This is a government-regulated public school! Not some...back alley fight club!" He yelled, and noticed that all three had their eyes on him.

Iron leaned over the desk as the principal shrunk back into his chair.

"We're going to unenroll Stella from this... sorry place. Do you understand me?" He said in a low tone.

"YessirIapologizeformywordsthankyouforgivingusyourtime."

---------
"The nerve! Not teaching them how to fight? Mithril, they're holding back the most important facet of their education!" Iron raged in the driver's seat as they drove home.

"I swear, that Bastardus Ghandi must have something to do with this..." Bronze muttered in the passenger seat. Stella spoke up, "It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be, honestly."

"I didn't exactly find my true love yet, either." She said to herself, under her breath.

They finally parked in front of the studio, and everyone climbed out of the car. "Well, I'm glad Stella's going to stay far away from that 'sch-'", Iron said, before noticing a very stern-faced Alice looking at them from the glass door, arms crossed in her wheelchair.

Chrome zoomed past on his motorcycle, "I'VEGOTTAGETANTIFREEZESEEYOUGUYS!" He yelled, using that as an excuse.

"I'm honorbound to clean a war memorial...somewhere." Bronze said in a cautious tone, ambling off to the right.

Stella and Iron were the only ones left. "Figures." They both said at the same time, with a sigh.


FIN