Futurama: What Could Have Been ... 1st fan-fic by Pazuzu

First, here's the story so far, just to mke a fresh start:

Every-one where she lived wished they were her. To them she was the most perfect thing they had seen. She was funny, smart and beautiful. Her name was Turanga Leela. Leela was the least mutated mutant ever born. She had one big lilac eye and long, shiny, purple hair. Besides that she was completely normal.

A splash echoed through the dank home owned by her boy-friend Charlie. He had 3 arms and 3 eyes with a lizards tail that oozed slime. Leela found this very disturbing how-ever felt it un-kind to mention it.

“Do you think we should see what that was?” Leela asked as Charlie tried to put his arm around her.
“No, I’m sure it’s not important.” Leela looked disgusted
“But what if it is?” Leela protested “some-one could be hurt or some-thing worse could have happened!”
“Are you kidding me?!” the confused mutant removed his arm from Leela’s shoulder and stood up. “You would rather investigate a splash in a SEWER SYSTEM than spend time with me?”
“MAYBE I WOULD!” Leela screamed as she ran to a so called door which was really just a piece of drift wood which must have floated up the sewer line. As Leela left she slammed the door behind her causing a damp ceiling to start to crumble to the floor of the room where Charlie had started to whine.
“Pathetic.” Leela muttered as she walked down the alley in a rage. She realised the fight was a bit petty but she couldn’t stand Charlie anymore. Remembering she left to see what the splash had been she went to a section of a sewage-lines behind Charlie’s home where she guessed the noise came from. She followed the twisting pipe further and further until she thought it was a waste of her time and what ever happened, happened and is over and done with.

“Hello?” a confused voice boomed along the pipe where Leela was standing. Around her ankles the water rippled and she could see her new black boots becoming dirty and grubby. Leela continued to follow the pipe in the direction of the voice and with every step she took the hello continued to boom louder and louder until suddenly she saw someone. Leela was close enough now to see that it was a human from the surface.

“Hello – please help me!” the human, un-aware of Leela’s presence continued begging.

“Hiya!” Leela greeted the human. “I’m Leela – you?”

“Uh- hi – I’m Fry.” Fry seemed about 26, a year older than Leela. He was wearing a slightly tatty pair of jeans and trainers and a white t-shirt and red jacket.

“How come you’re down here?” Leela questioned

“I fell and I don’t know how to get out. – where am I?”

“This is the sewers – very popular tourist destination you know!” Leela got the feeling Fry wasn’t very in on the joke. “Joke!” she chuckled as she gave Fry her hand to help him up. Fry was in shock. He had no Idea where he was. He saw the hollow iron tube go on for what seemed miles. Green goo and human waste was up to his knees. All he knew that helping him up was a girl called Leela. He stared at her. He was stood up by now but didn’t move. He felt safe with her holding his wrist and him holding hers. He was in a strange place and she was all that he had. He first noticed her incredible long purple hair. It was swept back neatly in a high pony-tail with just a floppy fringe across her face. He looked into her eyes. Eye.

“Why do you have one eye?” fry asked rather tactlessly.

“I’m a mutant.” Leela hesitated in her response. There must have been a thousand lies she could have told that wouldn’t make him think of her as some strange monster, but it was too late, the damage was done. Fry sharply moved his hand from Leela’s. He was now stuck. Half of him wanted to run. Run away from this strange place. This place where there were monsters, mutants, Leela. ‘Leela’ he though. The other half of him wished he could stay. He wanted to stay with Leela and talk to her.

Fry was cryogenically frozen on December 31st 1999. He had awoken a few weeks ago and was greeted by a strange man called Terry. Terry had told him that he had to spend the rest of his life as a delivery boy. Fry was then taken to his Great x30 grand nephew to work for him. He worked along side an intern Amy Wong, a bureaucrat called Hermes Conrad and a doctor called Dr Zoidberg. Fry loved his job. The auto-pilot of a space ship would fly him any-where in the universe and then he would get out, deliver and go home. Easy.

“It’s not like I’m some freak…I mean there are robots and aliens on the surface I should be no different to you than they are.” Leela could see how badly Fry had taken the news. She wanted to fix this. She wanted to know Fry.
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All through her life Leela had been protected. Her parents had been with her every day of her life. Leela loved her parents but some-times throughout her childhood wished for the freedom she now felt having run from Charlie and possibly having saved Fry. Leela had been very popular throughout her life but that left her feeling smothered and even though she was with so many people she always had felt alone. Leela was strong happy and confident but had always wished for a chance to show it. She wished she could be independent and fight for herself.
_________________

Fry, still uncertain of Leela’s origins continued to stare in her large purple eye. It still freaked him out slightly that she was a mutant but he could see Leela was ok. She wasn’t like a mutant in some sci-fi horror show, she was as normal as him.

_________________

Loud screams started to echo through the sewer system where Fry and Leela stood staring into each others eye/s. Leela instantly recognised the terrifying wails coming after her. Charlie. She quickly grabbed Fry by his wrist and pulled him down a narrow tube. Fry would usually have been scared but for some reason he trusted Leela and knew that she would look out for him. They ran, hand in hand through a maze of sewer systems. Leela knew the systems like the back of her hand. Fry felt lost.

_________________

Fry was pulled, by Leela, into a little avenue. He recognised it from some where put just couldn’t place it. The avenue led to a high ledge. He stuck his head over he ledge and looked down. He saw the decaying ruins of old New York; New York to him; his home. In the far corner he could see a pathetic excuse for what used to be a park, the park where he first was taught how to ride a bike by his brother Yancy, who soon after pushed Fry down a large hill (Before teaching Fry how to use his brakes!). A bit further to the west fry could see his house. It was never a house to be proud of. The roof was always broken, the windows never shut right, the grass was never cut but at least, to Fry, it felt like home. It was only a small block from where Fry was standing but he knew it was his home, even though it didn’t feel homely anymore. Fry looked around a bit more at the decaying ruins of his former neighbourhood. The last place he saw was Panucci’s Pizza Parlour. ‘Seymour’ thought Fry as he saw his former place of work.

Fry blinked back a tear and turned to Leela. She was sat huddled behind an old phone-box and had a terrified look on her face. Her large eye wept tears and it smudged mascara down, what Fry though was, her pretty face. Fry crouched down to her level.

“What’s wrong?” He asked her, genuinely concerned about the first person he’d really met in the future.

“He’s coming for me” Leela wept.

“Who is? Who is coming after you?”

“Charlie is”

“Who’s Charlie? Why is he coming after you?”

“Charlie’s my Ex-Boyfriend.” Leela muttered, “I just broke up with him and he’s coming to get me. Even now in the decaying ruins of Old New York, where nobody goes anymore, I can still his voice calling my name. Can you?” Leela asked fry still crying.

Fry stood up and listened. He heard nothing and assumed Leela was hearing thing, she seemed so scared. Suddenly Fry heard a voice. It was a strange voice. It seemed to be chanting something or screaming something. Fry couldn’t quite understand the whole of what was being said but he picked out one word. Leela.

“Leela” thought Fry.

Heroically, Fry grabbed Leela, who was still a nervous wreck and crying, by the wrist, and dragged her down a flight of moss covered stairs that led to below the ledge, to Old New York. As Fry and Leela ran down the stairs Fry became more aware of what Leela’s Ex, Charlie was saying.

“I’m going to get you Leela – no one messes with me, Charlie, Your life will be a nightmare when I get my hands on you. Just you wait you -”

Fry and Leela ran so far they could no longer hear most of what Charlie was saying. It was a relief what-with the odd curse word and insult they could just about make out.

“I promise you Leela, whatever happened you’ll be ok. I’ll protect you”

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Fry was normally a coward. He didn’t know why but being with Leela made him feel strong. He saw that Leela seemed quite helpless and defenceless, like she’d never had to stand on her own two feet before. He didn’t even now her last name, but he felt obliged to help out.

_________________

Fry ran so fast he was tripping over his untied laces, panting and sweaty but he didn’t care, he just wanted to make sure that Leela was ok.

Fry saw his old house, he ran to the door and holding Leela by the hand, he found the spare key beneath a ceramic toad and opened up his front door.
Fry stepped inside first. The house seemed cold; derelict. The damp over powered him. He peered around into his living room. Everything seemed intact. His dining room; everything was fine. His kitchen; was the same as he left it. ‘Strange,’ thought Fry, ‘this house seems almost, lived in, but then again, dad made this house bomb proof. It must have been unaffected by time.’

Fry Saw Leela stood trembling in the doorway. He quickly remembered to get her inside before Charlie came. He put his arm around her and led her to a door that was locked with a bolt, key AND a combination-lock. Fry slid across the bolt. He lifted up a plant pot from the hall way.

“These spare keys are every where – it’s a miracle we haven’t been burgled” Fry tried to break the struggling atmosphere, “But then again, look around, what would anyone want to steal?”

Leela let out a little chuckle. She liked This Fry. She turned to him as he was about to unlock the door with the key. She gently held his hand and smiled. Fry smiled back.

“I know you’re in there! I’ll find you”

Leela quickly removed her hand from Fry’s. She pressed both her hands onto his back, as if to move him forward. Fry turned the combination dial -0003- then he raised his hand and went to enter the key into the lock. He was trying to get to his dad’s disused bomb shelter. If it could stand strong for 1000 years, then Fry was sure that it could keep Leela safe from her deranged mutant ex.

As Fry began to rush, he dropped the key to the floor.

“I’ve got it…” Leela said as she bent down to retrieve the key. In her rushing she nudged it. The key slid under the door. Leela and Fry’s faces faces sank. Every time the key made a ‘pang’ as it dropped down another concrete step, Leela felt her stomach tie tighter and tighter.

The front door began to be thrashed from the outside; it was Charlie. The door began to seem to be giving in. Leela and Fry began to panic. Fry grabbed Leela’s arm and dragged her upstairs. He pulled Leela into his parent’s old room. As Leela was last in, she closed the door behind them. Fry and Leela sat on the foot of the neatly made bed. Fry looked at all of the stuff in this room that reminded him of his old family. He saw a picture the he’d drawn, aged 18. He saw a clay pot Yancy made in year 6 (Grade 4). He saw the family photo that they’d taken on a trip to the park when Fry was 8. It made Fry miss his family so much.

A crash could be heard. The door had been broken through. Charlie was in.
“I know you’re in here. I’ll find you!”

Leela Panicked. While Charlie was still downstairs, Fry took Leela, again by the hand. He led her outside of his parent’s room and he pulled down a ladder which lead to his attic. He and Leela climbed the ladder as Charlie continued to rant and search. Once in the loft Fry pulled up the ladder and shut the door. He picked up an axe that his parents always kept in the loft for emergencies. Fry swung the axe, repeatedly attacking the roof. Once a hole, big enough for Fry and Leela to fit through was made, Fry put the axe down and went to Leela.

Fry and Leela climbed through the hole and then down the side of the house, while carefully placing their feet in the gaps in the rocks and on window ledges. Fry didn’t let go of Leela the whole way down. Once they were out of Fry’s back garden, they ran. They ran back up to the sewer pipes that they first met in. Once they were there Fry ran wildly, not knowing where to go but knowing what to look for.

What Fry was looking for was the nearest manhole, so while Charlie was still trashing the old house in a desperate search for Leela, Fry could take Leela to the surface where she would be safe. Leela had no idea where fry was taking her but she new he’d keep her away from her psychopathic seeker. Fry ran down the slimy passageways counting how many junctions he had run past so if a manhole wasn’t found then he would know how far to run back to his old house.

“…23, 24, 25” Fry muttered to himself as Leela looked out for Charlie. Suddenly Fry stopped as in front of him were some slimy metal steps leading up to a manhole. “Finally,” Fry said as he Lead Leela in front of him.

Leela had a tough decision to make. She put one hand on the smarmy, clammy, contaminated steps and just stopped to think. She had never been to the surface before, for one reason: She wasn’t allowed. Mutants were banished from the surface 100’s of years ago. Since then none had ever dared to go up and through a manhole. Leela knew if she stayed Charlie would soon find her. After all, he knew the sewers as well as she did; better even. What would be worse – Charlie catching her in the sewers, or the cops catching her on the surface, Leela thought. Her mind was made up. Putting one hand in front of the other with her feet working in an opposite motion, she began to scale the steps that lead 25 feet up the cold metal wall, to a round manhole, unopened for most probably decades.

As Leela reached the top Fry was ones a few step below her. Leela wiped the moss and grime away from the manhole cover so she could get a firm grip. As she pulled away the manhole cover she slipped. Fry tried to grab her but before he got to her, Leela was being hoisted up by a metal hand. The metal hand, belonging to a robot, pulled Leela through the manhole and to the surface

”Thank you so, so much …”

“The name’s Bender. And you shouldn’t be thanking me, you should be paying me. It’ll be $30 meat-bag – I gotta get me some beer.

Meanwhile, on Vergon 6…

“Ken this is commander 18-C, stationed on Vergon 6”

Ken replied from the nibble-ship. “Ah Nibbler, long time no see. Or even speak for that matter!”

“Yes, yes but…”

“You know, me and Fiona will have to have you round for snacks and a film some time”

“Yes, okay, yes…”

“Oh, do you remember the last time we got together? Good times. Good times! Oh, that reminds me…”

“KEN. I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS! THIS IS TO DO WITH ‘THE MIGHTY ONE!’”

Every one on the nibble-ship over heard the most important words to every Niblonian. The mighty one.

“I’m sorry Lord Nibbler; I had no idea – what’s the problem?”

“Philip Fry isn’t reporting to his work station anymore. If he doesn’t return within one week then he will miss the delivery to Vergon 6 and I won’t be able to protect him before the brain spawn invasion!”

“We will have to act,” said ken “and now!”

And back to where we last took off

“Aw screw it, I’m out of here. I’ll rob a grocery store on the way over.” The impatient bender strode off towards a tube line.

“Stay here-” Fry instructed Leela as he tried to follow Bender. “-I’ll be right back. I promise.”

With that Fry followed Bender to the tube entrance and Leela covered the manhole, trapping Charlie in the sewers.

“Um excuse me? My name is Fry and well I’m pretty
new to here and I was wandering…”

“...If good ol’ bender could show you around? ‘Cause I guess that be okay.”

“Well, I was just going to ask if there was a bathroom round here but I guess it’d be cool to have someone show me around? Oh, and Leela too.”

And with that the three of them set off.

Bender had led Fry and Leela to sleazy robot strip-clubs, and to horrendous robot bars so smoky that Fry and Leela could hardly breathe. Leela was becoming sick of the ‘in-your-face’ attitude that Bender felt he needed to flaunt at every opportunity. Fry could sense Leela’s annoyance but also found something appealing about Bender.

“I’ve had enough,” Leela whined, “can we go to somewhere decent? Or just go?!”

“I agree,” Fry joined in, “I’m out!”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait and WAIT!” Bender yelled, “I haven’t got anywhere else to go and I know you don’t either! You’re a mutant escapee and you’re an accomplice.”

“How do you know that?!” Leela gasped.

“Lady, come on. I helped you and your friend out of a sewer. You have one eye and purple hair. Remember I am a computer who can do 3 million calculations in a second. You could say I can DO THE MATH!”

“Fine,” Leela sighed, “but can we at least go to somewhere that is suitable for humans?”

So with that Bender, Fry and Leela went to O’Zorganax’s Pub.

And now, as promised..... Update!

Back to those Nibblonians…

“Ken. This is Urgent.” Nibbler had flown in his space ship from Vergon 6 back to the nibble-ship which was currently orbiting Earth.

“Nibbler! What are you doing here? You were commanded to remain on Vergon 6 so the mighty one will collect you!”

“He won’t come to collect me unless he returns to the Planet Express soon.”

“Never fear Lord Nibbler! We have devised a plan!”

“Really? What is it?”

“There is no time to explain now. All will become clear…”

And where we left off from….

Bender hummed to himself as he led the way to O’Zorganax’s Pub. Fry and Leela could pick out the odd chorus of ‘Bender is great,’ in his tuneless song. Fry hung back with Leela who looked shifty and nervous.

“Why did you agree to go along with Bender? I thought you didn’t like him?” Fry asked Leela. Fry didn’t know whether or not he liked bender himself. Sure, Bender was a bit loud and obnoxious. He seemed to think of human life as extendable and didn’t mind breaking rules to get what he wanted but Fry had wanted a robot for a best friend since he was little. He saw something in Bender that was quite an attractive quality for a friend to have.

“Fry! Why do you think I live in the sewers? Mutants aren’t allowed on the surface! Bender could tell everyone and if I get caught I’ll be exiled!”

“Well that’s not too bad! I mean what company could you have had in the sewers if Charlie is anything to go by? And I’m sure some people would visit you! Your parents! … Me?”

“I won’t just be banished I’d be exiled to the home planet of the pain monsters!”

“Oh... Well Leela. You don’t look that different from everyone else to me so maybe you won’t be recognised. And besides, I may have not been here that long but I’ve seen plenty of things weirder than you.”

Leela gave Fry a stern glance.

“Not that you’re weird or anything.” Fry added. “There’s this alien who I work with. He’s from another planet - can’t you say you are too?”

“I guess. It could work.”

As they continued to walk Fry took in some of the strange and marvellous things which surrounded him. He had never really ventured out into New New York. He usually kept himself confided to the Planet Express building. However, after the day he had had, meeting Bender and Leela, saving the later from her derange mutant ex and visiting robot strip-joints, he was almost glad that he had had that argument with the professor. And yet Fry still didn’t believe that you had 60,000 miles of blood vessels. Nor did he like the idea of the professor telling Fry he could extract his blood vessels replacing them with titanium alloy tubing and he would be fine and be able to see for himself the length of his veins and arteries. But anyway…

Some of the things that Fry saw as he walked were shops selling the strangest things: there were shops selling organs that didn’t seem s though they were from humans; another shop sold dog sized amoebas that could have been pets or food, fry was unsure; a small corner shop sold clothing that was mostly transparent and lastly a shop that was selling bizarre animals. This time Fry knew they were pets. Leela grabbed fry by the arm and pulled him towards the animal store. Bender followed whist keeping a close eye on them, not letting them out of there sight.

“Hurry up though mutton chops. I want to get drunk!”

In the shop were many, many animals; none of which fry had seen before. There were yellow scaly things in the shape of Persian cats however with a beak for mouths, a weird white snake with no eyes slithered round the tank of a squid like beast with lots of tentacles in all the colours of the spectrum and lastly there was a weird little creature. This weird little thing was by far the most adorable animal in the shop. It was fury little penguin with he face of a pug and a little eye on top of an antenna that stared up at Leela and Fry. Wrapped around the creature’s antenna was a small yellow bow. Leela cooed at the thing but after a few moments Fry grew uninterested. He wandered around some more shops. The last one he came to was the one he saw selling transparent clothing.