//------------------------------// // Season 1, Episode 9: Rise of the Technovore // Story: The Omnitrix Hero // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// In the furthest corners of the solar system, at an area referred to as the oort cloud, a ship was zooming through space. In the cockpit of the ship, the pilot was busy making sure the ship didn't accidently crash into an asteroid or part of the long since destroyed planet Ceres. But then, they picked up a distress signal coming from within the solar system. Seeing no reason not to investigate, the pilot plotted a course and hit the faster than light drive. In the blink of an eye, the ship zipped all the way from the oort cloud to just passed Mars. As they slowed down, though they were still going several thousand miles an hour, the ship that had sent the distress signal was coming into sensor range. The pilot saw the ship's design and felt it looked familiar. But by the time they realised what it was, it was too late. The wrecked ship suddenly fired several lasers towards its wouldbe savior, hitting it right in the power and propulsion areas. The ship exploded in several places and was forced to drift closer and closer to the attacking ship, which then shot another stronger blast that struck and caused the whole thing to explode. Aboard the ship, Vilgax watched from his tube as the ship was almost completely destroyed. "FOOL!" He growled, "I told you to only use enough power to disable the ship." The robot that had just fired the beam turned towards its master. "My apologies. Sensors indicated that the vessel's shields would weaken the blast's impact and allow only minor damage to it. However, those shields cut out seconds before the laser struck." Vilgax growled again, "send drones to retrieve what materials they can salvage. For your sake, there had better be something worth all this trouble." Back in the cold vacuum of space, the remains of the ship were floating about as the other ship unleashed its robotic workers to collect whatever they could find. The drones had to stay away from some of the wreckage, for it had already drawn too close to the planet in order to safely retrieve. Sure enough, the gravity of the planet began to drag it down towards it. Much of the wreckage began to burn up into nothingness as it fell. But one piece of tech was withstanding the head of reentry. It continued to fall and fall and fall, until it finally crashed down in a wooded area with a loud bang. However, this area was almost completely deserted and only one person was close enough to see it. That person spent the next hour rushing through the forest towards the crash-sight, eventually arriving and looking down to see a crater as large as a hot-tub. And inside that crater was a rather unusual sight. It was an egg-shaped device about the size of a soda can, made out of a silvery white metal covered in red metal bumps. The person jumped down into the crater and reached for the device, fearing for a moment that it might be too hot. But to their amazement, it was perfectly fine. So they picked it up and looked it over. "What do we have here?" The voice asked, as they looked it over. "I think I know someone who'll be interested in seeing you." A few days later. School had ended, but many students were still there since they had club activities. On of those clubs was the chemistry club, where we find Flash and Twilight working on a formula whilst Rarity was helping Derpy get some goop she had made out of her hair. Currently, Flash was holding a dropper above the mixture. "Careful," he whispered as he gently squeezed the dropper, "careful." A tiny drop of blue liquid fell out of it and into the mixture, turning it green. "Yes!" He pulled back and returned the rest of the liquid to the container. "The mixture is complete. What's the next step?" But Twilight didn't reply, "Twilight?" He looked over at her and saw the girl staring at the notebook, an almost bored expression on her face. "Twilight?" He poked her and she jumped, turning to him and suddenly looking embarrassed. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine," Twilight shook her head. "Sorry. Guess I was a little out of it." "It's not like you not to pay attention to anything science related. You're usually super eager to complete these assignment." He gave her a worried look, "so what's wrong?" Twilight sighed as she sat down, "I guess this kind of thing doesn't interest me anymore." Flash's eyes went wide whilst Rarity and Derpy turned to her in shock. "I mean...yeah chemistry is amazing. But let's face it. Our science pales in comparison." "In comparison to what?" "To the aliens!" Twilight cried. "They had the power to travel entire solar systems. Compared to that, this level of chemistry is probably taught to kindergarteners." "So you don't want to bother with our science cause you think the alien science would be even better." "They're a highly advanced race," Twilight told her. "Imagine what secrets they could hold. The cure to cancer. A non-pollution making fuel source. They might even have a way to decontaminate chernobyl. That's the kind of science I want to see, if only they would be willing to share it with us." "Now Twilight," Rarity told her. "You can't expect them to simply hand over their technology like that." She finally managed to get the last of the gunk out of Derpy's hair. "Where would the triumph be if we were simply handed all the answers to questions we've been searching for. We wouldn't be evolving darling. We would be reengineered by an entirely new species. Progress never comes with any shortcuts." "I'm with Rarity," Derpy nodded. "Besides, even if they did give us a bunch of technology, would it really be smart for us to have it? I mean...imagine giving a caveman a car. He wouldn't know what to do with it and would probably have caused more harm than good." Flash wanted to agree, but then his eyes shifted down to the Omnitrix and he was feeling very hot under the collar. Luckily, before anyone could ask him what he thought, Twilight's phone went off and she quickly excused herself to answer it. Seeing that it was getting close to the end of club time anyway, Flash decided to clear up the classroom and put their experiment in a safe location so they could complete it when Twilight was more on the ball. Every now and then, he would happen to glance over at Twilight and see a smile on her lips. Clearly she was excited to talk to whoever she was one the phone with. And as she cut the call, Rarity spoke up. "You seemed overjoyed whilst on the phone. Was the person on the other line someone special in particular." "Timber," Twilight smiled. Flash didn't know why, but he rolled his eyes at this. Timber was an okay guy, but something about him rubbed Flash the wrong way. Part of him was telling Flash Timber stole his girl from him, but then another part had to remind him Twilight was never their girl to begin with. Even so, there was just something about Timber that he couldn't get over. "What did he want to talk about?" Derpy asked as she took off her lab-coat. "He's coming over tomorrow," Twilight explained. "And he said he's got a really big surprise for me." This statement got a bunch of squeals from the girls, making Flash wish he could transform into an alien that was deaf. "We need to go shopping and buy you something special for the date." Before Twilight could argue against that, Rarity grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the science room with Derpy hot on their tails. This left Flash on his own to do the rest of the clean-up, the teen groaned as he needed to wash the used beakers, sweep the floor and return the science key to the key pot. "Seriously." He then got an idea and smirked as he activated the Omnitrix, "XLR8'll have this place cleaned up before you can say-" He slapped the watch down and in a flash, he found he wasn't the alien he wanted. "Chamalien? Seriously?" He let out a groan and quickly went invisible, the alien choosing to still clean up instead of waiting to time out. Luckily, nobody happened to walk by the lab. If they had, they would have been in for the shock of their life seeing a broom sweeping the floor without anyone holding it or beakers floating into the sink and washing themselves. He finished cleaning up right as the watch timed out, Flash returning to normal and heading off to return the lab key. He then headed out and as he did, he noticed a familiar police car pulling into the parking lot and rolling in next to his car. "Hey man!" Shining got out, "you know when Twilight's gonna be out?" "Err....Twilight left ages ago?" "What?" Shining asked, "but she asked for a ride home since the bus wasn't gonna come for an hour." "Well...she got a call from Timber. Apparently he's coming over tomorrow and Rarity pulled her out of the door to go shopping." He leaned against his own car, "leaving me to clean the lab up." "Timber," Shining had a look that told Flash he wasn't happy to hear that name. "You don't like Timber?" "I don't don't like him," Shining leaned against his own car. "Though he's not exactly the kind of guy I'd want to hang out with given the chance. I don't know, I just don't think he and Twilight go well together." Flash was surprised to hear this, since everyone else who saw the two together seemed to thing they were a match made in heaven. "Maybe it's just me being the overprotective big brother type." "What don't you like about him?" Flash asked, "he and Twilight share a lot of the same interests. They're both super into science, Timber makes her laugh and he's always complimenting her." Shining thought about it as he leaned back. "Growing up, I never really envisioned Twilight ever having an actual relationship. Heck, I figured she would try to build a boyfriend before finding one." Flash couldn't help but laugh at this, "but I always thought Twilight needed someone the balance out her nerdy side. Someone who knows enough about the stuff she's interested in to understand her, but no so interested that all they do is talk about those thing and keep her from experiencing something new." "So someone who shares a few of her interests, but has their own things that she might not like." "Exactly. Cadance and I don't have the exact same likes. She enjoys boring soap operas and I enjoy Ogres and Oubliettes. She likes going to the beauty parlour and I like building models. But we both enjoy several of the same movies, we both share our favourite restaurants and Cadance even got me into a pear and guava fruit drink I really like. And I hate pears." "Well I don't know if Twilight and Timber share all the same interests. But he makes her laugh." Shining didn't look convinced. "I've seen the two of them together and when he makes Twilight laugh, he's actually trying really hard to do it. Twilight can't tell, but it's clear he's purposely saying what he's saying to get that reaction out of her. Real relationships don't require that kind of effort. It should come naturally." As he said that, he felt something wet land on his head and looked up. Dark clouds had been hanging over Canterlot all day. And now it appeared that the heavens were finally starting to open up. "I'd better get home. Hopefully Twilight will get back before the rain picks up to much." Flash nodded and the two got into their cars, giving one final wave to each other before setting off and heading home. As they did, Flash started his wipers and found a squeaking noise coming from one of them. Taking a closer look, he saw part of the rubber of one wiper had come off of the blade. He knew what he was doing tomorrow. It rained well into the night, not stopping until about midnight. Luckily when the sun rose the next day, most of the water had dried up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. This made Twilight happy, as she caught the bus too the middle of town where she was planning to meet Timber. She was glad her parents had agreed to watch Spike, allowing her to focus on Timber the entire time. She also couldn't wait to see what Timber thought of her new dress. She was currently wearing a light blue summer dress that flowed all the way down to her knees, with her legs covered in white socks and wearing shoes that matched her dress. Twilight liked it, but was glad she had talked Rarity out of making her get the large sun-hat that she thought went well with it. She waited patiently, wondering how much longer Timber was gonna be. Then she suddenly found someone covering her eyes. "Guess who?" She spun around and smiled seeing Timber, who was dressed in his usual non-Camp Everfree clothing with a backpack slung over his shoulder. "Timber!" She cheered, throwing her arms around him. Timber hugged back as the pair laughed. "I'm so glad you could come." "Of course I came," Timber smirked as he pulled away. "I wouldn't miss the chance to see my favourite glasses wearing girl." Twilight blushed at this, "besides, I have something interesting to show you." Now Twilight was really interested, "but that can wait until later. What do you wanna do today? Go grab a bite? Head to the arcade? See a movie?" Twilight tried to think, but the only thing on her mind was the surprise Timber had for her. "I guess we could have some lunch," Twilight told him off the top of her head. Timber smirked and the pair headed towards the nearest burger joint. As they did, Twilight told Timber everything that had been going on. And much to Timber's amazement, it mostly involved aliens. "And then Riot-Horn was thrown up and punched the dinosaur right in the jaw. That dazed the beast so much, it didn't defend itself when Riot-Horn fell back down and hit it square in the chest." "Are you sure this actually happened?" Timber asked, "maybe you bumped your head or something and just imagined it." Twilight frowned at this. "What? A large rhino alien fighting a massive gliding dinosaur that came out of the earth. That's kinda hard to believe." Twilight pulled out her phone and showed him images of all the aliens, Timber taking a closer look. "Yeah, I've seen these pics. But how do you know they're not just guys in suits?" Twilight frowned, flipping to an image of Goop which clearly showed he was transparent. "Okay, fair enough. I guess I don't have anything to debunk, given what happened a few days ago." "What do you mean?" Twilight asked, wondering if it had something to do with her surprise. Timber sighed as they reached the burger place and was about to go inside, but knew Twilight was likely going to be asking about her surprise the entire time. So, he took off his bag and reached into it. Twilight was curious about what he was taking out, her eyes then going wide when she saw something that did no look like it was made on earth. "Here." He held it out, "I found this a few days ago. More accurately, it crashed into the forest a few days ago when Gloriosa was out bulk buying a bunch of stuff for the camp." Twilight took the egg-shaped the device and turned it over in her hands, her eyes going wider and wider as she listened to Timber's explanation. "It was a giant ball of fire when it crashed, but when I touched it there wasn't any heat. I don't know of any metal that can do that." "That's because there isn't one," Twilight stated. "At least...not one on earth." She realised what this was and couldn't believe it. "This is alien. An actual alien device. And now I have it." This was turning into the greatest day of her life. "I have to figure out how it works." Flash had just stepped out of a nearby autostore, his new wiper blades in hand. He placed the new blade into his car when his stomach began to grumble, the teen realising it was about lunch time. Knowing there was a good burger place within walking distance, he left his car since he didn't think he would be able to find a parking spot near the place. As he made his way through the streets, he heard a familiar voice. "Come on Twilight," he looked around and spotted Timber Spruce along with Twilight walking up the street. "You can play with that thing any old time." Flash turned his attention to the device in Twilight's hands, whatever it is clearly being something interesting to the girl. "Can't you wait until later to have a look?" "I only want to see what kind of power source it has," she told him. "It won't take that long." "Twilight." They both looked ahead and Twilight smiled when she saw Flash, "hey. What's up?" "Hey Flash," Twilight waved before turning to Timber. "You remember Flash, right? From camp." "Right," Timber nodded, "Flash...um...hey." "You have no idea who I am, do you?" Timber laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, Flash rolling his eyes and turning back to Twilight. "So what's that? Some kind of new gaming console or something." "Nope," Twilight looked like christmas had come three times over, "it's alien technology." Flash's eyes went wide and he quickly looked down at the device, asking how she got it. As Timber explained, Flash was reminded of the night the Omnitrix had fallen into his hands. This made him gulp. "Don't you think you should take that thing to the proper authorities?" He asked, making Twilight raise an eyebrow. "It could be dangerous. For all you know, that thing is a bomb waiting for somebody to mess around with it and make it explode." Twilight frowned, whilst Timber shook his head. "It'll be fine." He put an arm around his girlfriend, "Twilight's smart enough not to do anything stupid with it. Cut her some slack." Flash wasn't so sure. "Twilight, you know the kind of trouble messing with something you don't understand can cause. We both know you don't want another Friendship Games fiasco. You need to give it to Shining or someone who can properly figure out how to make it safe." The techie stared down at the object and wondered if he was right. But before she could, Timber took it from her. "Well I found it, so it's mine. And I say Twilight's the perfect person to figure out what it does...after our day out together." Flash frowned at this and stepped forward. "Don't be an idiot!" He reached for the device, but Timber held it up above his head. "That thing might not be safe." He reached for it but Timber was taller and kept it out of arm's reach, Twilight frowning as she feared a fight might be about to start. "You guys, stop it!" But they didn't listen and Flash kept trying to grab the device, with the Omnitrix getting within inches of it. As it did, the dial of the watch glowed for a second before a tiny spark of green energy moved from it to the device. When it did so, the red light on it lit up. This got the three's attention and the boys stopped fighting and stared at it. "What did you do?" Flash asked, Timber not replying. Twilight quickly grabbed the device in her magic and pulled it over to her, the science genius looking the machine over. "Maybe you hit a switch or something." But before she could figure out what happened, the device suddenly jolted out of her hands. "Ahh!" She cried, trying to grab it. But the egg fell to the ground and began to roll towards a nearby vending machine. As it did, one of the red domes retracted into the device to reveal a hole. A hole that suddenly shot a metal cable out that struck the vending machine. "Oh that can't be good," Flash gulped. The cable retracted and pulled he device towards the vending machine, sparks flying off of it and surrounding it. "What's going on?" TImber asked, the other two having no idea what was happening. They soon figured it out when the vending machine suddenly started transforming, its rectangular body morphing as a quartet of legs appeared from the side and hoisted it up, whilst the device was moved up to the top to act like a giant eye. Finally, an opening appeared before some kind of gun folded out. "That really can't be good," Flash gulped. Many other people had seen this and were curious about what had happened, but that curiocity turned to fear when the machine started firing high-velocity cans from out of its gun. They screamed as the projectiles flew through the air and smashed anything they came in contact with, causing the people to flee. "Wow!" Flash cried as he was swept along with these people, whilst Timber grabbed Twilight's arm and pulled her away as the machine continued to attack. "FLASH!" Twilight cried, staring at the teen as he was pulled in the other direction. "Timber, let me go!" "We gotta get out of here!" Timber cried as the machine fired a can that sailed right over his head, Twilight turning back to where Flash had been and seeing he had vanished. Flash had managed to pull himself out of the crowd and ran into a nearby alleyway, the teen activating the Omnitrix as soon as he did. "Those cans won't even scratch Diamondhead." He dialed up the alien and slammed it down, a bright green light filling the air as he did so. When the light faded, Flash saw he wasn't the alien he had picked. "Goop!?" The living slime groaned, "fine!" The ufo above him shot back towards the street and pulled his gelatinous form behind it. He spotted the machine and flew at it, the former vending machine appearing to sense him and pointing its can blaster at him. But as it fired, the cans simply flew through his body and did nothing to hurt him. "Nice try!" He cried before takinging humanoid form and swinging his arms around, whipping at the machine's legs. With every strike, his acidic form burnt a little of the metal. And as it tried to fire back, the cans continued to fly right through him. "Hahaa!" He reached out and grabbed the legs entirely, working to melt through the metal as fast as possible. "This should deal with you." But as he said that, the device controlling the machine looked around. Eventually, it spotted a pair of cars across the street. "Huh?" Goop looked up as he heard a whirring sound and saw the machine unleash two more cables from the red spots on its body, the cables flying across the street and hitting the two cards. "Uh oh." The cables retracted and pulled the vending machine towards the cars, its legs breaking away from the areas that had been melted. When the three machines connected, lightning surged out of the device and started surrounding them. As it did, the machines started to transform and merge together, slowly creating an entirely new form. "What is this thing?" He asked as the mech took a more beastly form, creating four mechanical legs that had tires for feet and a large head that appeared to be the mix of a lizard and a tiger. Once it was completely transformed, it let out an actual roar that Goop realised was a variation of the car horns. It then leapt forward and tried to crush him underfoot, Goop's ufo flying away and letting his body get smooshed. Luckily, he didn't feel a thing and quickly flew out from under the foot as the ufo flew back and pulled it upwards. Goop quickly started spiraling around its leg, melting it before flying off so it couldn't try and eat him. The damaged leg creaked as sparks flew out of it, Goop hoping this would stop it once and for all. But instead, the machine ran over to a nearby ATM and ripped it out of the wall with its mouth. As it chewed the machine up and swallowed it down, the damage to its leg was starting to be repaired. At the same time, a section of its back opened up and started spitting out money. "This thing eats technology and then makes it apart of itself," Goop realised. "It's some kind of...technology carnivore!" As he said this, he heard sirens from down the street and realised the police were coming. "Not good." He leapt into the air, hoping to finish this thing off before it could cause any harm. He shot up to the beast and swung a ball of acidic slime towards it. This struck the beast's shoulder and melted through it just a little, Goop quickly using this chance to fly towards it. Planning to take it down the same way he did the bounty hunters, he stuck his head into the techno carnivore's damaged shoulder. The beast saw this and growled before doing something unexpected. Suddenly, Goop found himself getting zapped by electricity. "YOW!" He cried, his ufo flying in and pulling him out of the hole. As he flew to a safe distance, the lightning died down. "Was it using the car batteries?" As he asked this, the beast chomped down on a motorcycle and healed its shoulder. "Well I'm not beaten that easily!" He charged again and continued to fire slimeballs at it, but every time he burned through the metal the creature ate more tech to repair it. They were at a standstill. The police cruisers flew into the scene and as it did, the creature tried to swallow Goop's ufo. He knew if that happened, it would gain the power to float and Goop couldn't allow that. As such, he flew away from the beast and spotted Shining amongst the officers getting out of the cop cars. When he saw them reach for their guns, he gasped. "DON'T!" He flew down and landed on one of the cars, surprising the cops. "Don't use your guns!" "Why?" One of the officers asked, "and what is that thing?" "Right now, I'm thinking of calling it a technovore." They raised their eyebrows at this, "long story short. This thing eats technology to build and repair its body. And anything it eats, it gains the powers of. If it gets one of your guns, it's gonna turn into a walking shotgun." Shining nodded, "guns away men. We'll have to think of some other way to stop this thing." The officers nodded as the technovore charged, letting out a car horn roar as its mouth opened and unleashed a bunch of tongue-like cables. The police and Goop all leapt away as the beast grabbed hold of a cruiser and started assimilating it. "Hey!" A cop cried as it pulled the car into its mouth and began chomping down on it, causing the mech to start growing larger whilst police sirens appeared on its head. "Do you know how much paperwork damaged police cars come with." The technovore turned to this police officer and raised a clawed foot, ready to slash him to bits. But before he could, a purple aura appeared around it and pulled the mechanical ligament away. "Huh?" Shining and Goop looked around to see Twilight standing further down the street, the teen using her magic to hold the technovore in place. As the police officer got out from under the paw, Twilight groaned as she tried to envelope the entire machine with her magic. But something this big, which was fighting against her the whole time, wasn't something she was well equipped the hold. "Ahhhh!" She groaned, as she pulled her hands apart. Doing so caused the technovore to start making weird sounds and they all realised she was trying to pull the machine apart. The beast didn't like that and slowly turned towards Twilight, then raised its head as part of it opened up to unfold a gun. "Uh oh," Goop gulped. "Look out!" Twilight gasped as the technovore began firing a bunch of cans towards her, forcing her to let it go and focus on grabbing them. But this allowed the technovore to charge forward and leap into the air, ready to crush Twilight below its feet. Luckily, Goop shot forward and managed to grab Twilight before it could and pull her out of the way. The technovore still slammed its foot into the ground and did it so hard, it crashed right through the pavement and into the piping below "Ew!" She cried as she landed on the ground, covered in Goop slime. "Sorry," he told her before pulling the slime off of her whilst the technovore found itself stuck. Shining used this chance to rush over to Goop and Twilight, whilst the other officers were trying to find a way to fight it. "Twilight!" He cried, "what are you doing here?" "Trying to clean up my mess," she frowned much to Shining's confusion. "I'm...kind of responsible for this." Shining's eyes went wide as the technovore pulled its leg free, the trio quickly running to a safe distance. "Maybe if we can disconnect the original device from the body, the thing will fall apart." "What device?" Shining asked, Twilight turning to Goop. "I don't suppose the thing Timber found belonged to you and your friends?" She asked as the technovore chased them. "Nope," Goop told her, "never seen it before. But clearly, it's not something humans are ready to be messing with yet." Twilight frowned, "alien technology is very dangerous. Especially when in the hands of someone who doesn't know what they doing." Twilight continued to look upset, whilst Shining shot him an, 'are you serious', look. Before Goop could say anything else, the technovore stopped in its tracks and lifted its head. It mimicked sniffing before turning to look down another street. "What's it doing?" Shining asked, only for the mechanical beast to rush off in another direction. "HEY!" "I think it picked up the signal of something it'd rather eat then us," Twilight realised. "Well it's not gonna get its fangs on it!" Goop flew into the air using his ufo and chased after the beast as fast as he could go, Twilight and Shining following behind. As he got closer, he tried to look for a weakness. But so far, he couldn't think of any way to beat it. In that moment, the Omnitrix beeped and he sighed before flying into an alleyway and out into another deserted street. As he landed, he transformed back. "Well I wasn't having much luck as him anyway," Flash sighed as an explosion rocked the ground and made him look around to see the head of the technovore appear over the building between him and it. He quickly rushed back down the alleyway as the beast stomped further down the street. When he rushed out of it, he found Shining and Twilight had finally reached him. "Flash!" Twilight cried, "you're okay!" "Yeah," Flash nodded, "that crowd swept me away before I could think what was happening." He then looked over as the beast began munching on another car, causing it to grow and make even more people run in fear. "How the heck are we gonna stop this thing?" "I don't know," Shining frowned at Twilight. "I hope you realise how much trouble you've started." Twilight looked down, clearly not happy her brother was upset with her. "You and I are gonna have a serious talk about this later, but right now I've gotta focus on stopping that thing and protecting people. And Twilight, if that thing hurts anyone I won't be able to protect your or Timber from facing severe consequences." Twilight gulped and Flash felt bad for her, but knew they had more pressing matters to focus on. "Come on!" He ran forward and the other two followed, as the technovore started firing more soda cans until the flow suddenly stopped. "Looks like it's out of cans." "Finally, some good news." The beast looked around, clearly trying to figure out how to replenish its ammo. "Hey," Twilight looked around, "where'd Goop go?" She seemed to just now realise the alien slime creature was nowhere in sight, "he was fighting the technovore before." "Must have realised he couldn't beat the thing," Flash stated. "Don't worry, I'm sure another alien will show up soon to help." He looked down at the Omnitrix and saw it was still red, "I hope." "Right now, we've gotta figure out a way to stop this thing." Shining frowned as the beast swallowed another motorcycle whole a grew again. "If we don't, it'll get so big it'll start pushing buildings over just by walking." "But how?" Flash asked, "every time we damage it it rebuilds itself. And we can't risk calling for some big piece of heavy machinery, cause it might eat it all down and get even stronger. How the heck are you supposed to beat something made of tech...without any tech?" Twilight thought about this and as the technovore continued down the street, she noticed it pass a small computer store. It was then that she had an idea. "I know how to stop it." The boys turned to her in surprise, "but you've gotta give me time." She ran towards the store, "this'll work!" As she ran inside, Shining turned to Flash. "You really think she can build something to get us out of this?" "It's Twilight," Flash told him. "She's probably got a hundred ways to stop that thing. Now come on!" They ran forward, rushing between the beast's legs whilst it was busy gnawing on a lamppost. They had to keep it distracted from the rest of the populace, but luckily it appeared there were no other people around. "HEY!" Shining cried, "over here you oversized robopet!" The technovore looked down at them, Shining reaching down to grab a rock off the ground and throw it. The stone bounced off the beast's metal body without leaving a scratch, causing the creature to let out a loud roar that was a mix of horn, buzzer and siren. The two leapt to the side in order to avoid its giant foot stomping on them. "That the best you got?" Flash asked before throwing a rock at it, with the same results as the previous time. The technovore turned to Flash and opened its mouth, "that the best you got?" Flash and Shining gasped hearing Flash's voice come out of it, the pair realising one of the cars it ate must have had a tape recorder or some form of recording software. "Officer Armor!" Shining pulled out his radio, "We have your position. We're bringing in the heavy machinery to deal with this creature." "Don't!" Shining took out his radio. "This thing's dangerous. It eats and absorbs tech. Don't bring any heavy weapons." "Sorry officer, what was that? Had a bit of interference!" Before Shining could repeat, one of the technovore's cable tongues shot out and grabbed the radio. "HEY!" Shining cried as it pulled the radio into its mouth and it swallowed. A few seconds later, an antenna stuck out the top of its head. "This thing's dangerous," it copied Shining's voice. "Bring heavy weapons!" "NO!" Shining cried, hoping the other officer knew it wasn't him. Alas... "Roger, we're moving to your position." Inside the electronics store, Twilight had grabbed a bunch of different pieces of tech. She was busy soldering a bunch of items together, hoping her plan would work and being thankful the store owner had run off when the technovore attacked. She prayed she could get this done fast enough. "Twilight!" She looked up from her work at the sound of her boyfriend, who sounded terrified. "Twilight, where are you?" "In here!" She called back, not stopping what she was doing. A few moments later, Timber rushed into the store and saw her working on her creation. "What are you doing?" He rushed over to her, "we have to get out of here before that thing comes back." He then noticed the device, "what the heck are you even making at a time like this?" "Something I hope will end that creature," she stated. "An EMP!" Flash and Shining were still at the technovore's mercy, Flash looking down at the Omnitrix and seeing it was still red. They had just dodged another attempt by it to slash at them when they felt the ground beginning to vibrate. "Huh?" Flash asked before looking around, only to go wide eyed when he saw a large tank rolling down the street. "What the heck?" The tank was white with a police badge logo on it. "Why the heck does the CCPD have a tank?" "Because super powered aliens, giant robots and mutant animals kept making us look like a joke." "Point taken." The two rushed towards it, "if the technovore eats that thing, it'll be unstoppable." Shining nodded and rushed in front of the tank, which rolled to a stop. "Don't get too close!" He yelled to the riders inside. "If you do, that thing will consume you and turn itself into a tank. Fire before it gets to you!" The ones inside seemed to hear this, as the turret started moving and pointing at the technovore's head. The creature saw this and seemed to realise the tank was a threat, so quickly grabbed a car in its many tongues. As it lifted it into the air, the tank fired. But before the shell could land, the beast threw the car towards it. The two collided in midair and exploded, ringing the ears of Flash and Shining as smoke filled the street. Seconds later, the tongues shot through the smoke and grabbed the tank. "NO!" They cried, as the machine was lifted into the air. As the technovore pulled it closer, the tank's top opened and the police started climbing out. But they were a good twenty feet in the air. "We have to do something!" Shining cried, right as a dinging sound filled the air. Flash looked down to see the Omnitrix go green and smirked, the teen rushing into a nearby alleyway as he dialed up his choice of alien. "If you're not gonna give me this, give me something that can save those people." He slapped the watch down and too his joy, he got his alien of choice. Seconds later, the first cop lost his grip on the tank and fell as the technovore pulled it towards its mouth. But before he could hit the ground, he was caught by something moving really fast before being zoomed a good distance away. The others then lost their grips and where equally saved, as XLR8 managed to catch each and every one of them. As the last cop was safely delivered out of harm's way, the technovore munched down on the tank. "Oh," the alien groaned seeing this, "that's really not good." Sure enough, the technovore grew even larger than before. As it did, its back opened up and started projecting something. A tank turret. "Oh great," Shining gulped as the technovore turned towards them. As it did, the turret shifted down and pointed towards them. "FLASH!" XLR8 rushed up and pulled him out of the way, as the turret fired and blew up where they had just been. The ground shook and several shelves fell over, Timber covering his head to protect it as he turned back to Twilight. "We have to go, now!" "I'm almost done," Twilight told him. "With this EMP generator, we can stop that thing before it causes any more damage." Another explosion rocked the store, making Timber cry out. "Why are you risking your neck to stop that thing. It's not your job to take it down?" "This is our fault," Twilight cried. "Flash was right. We never should have messed with that device. I should have taken it to Shining the moment I realised it wasn't from earth. You should have too. We caused this and if anyone gets hurt, it'll be our fault." "How is anything that monster does our fault? We're not the ones controlling it. We're as much victims as anyone else." The store shook again and part of the roof broke apart and crushed a nearby shelf. "That's it, I'm getting you somewhere safe. Let someone else handle it like they're supposed to." He grabbed her arm and tried to pull her away, but Twilight pulled back and added one final piece to her device. "It's done!" She announced, rushing towards the door. Timber followed suit and when they were outside, Twilight saw the technovore further down the street. "Where are you going?" Timber cried, "just turn that thing on and leave it." "This thing isn't that powerful!" Twilight called back, "it needs to be really close if it's going to work!" "Twilight!" Timber cried, but remained where he was. "Don't be a hero. Heroes don't live long lives!" But Twilight didn't listen and kept running. The technovore kept firing its tank turret, destroy a bunch of different buildings that had luckily been abandoned when it showed up. Atop one of these building, XLR8 and Shining were watching the devastation. XLR8 raised his visor and looked the machine over, "I don't think any of my aliens can stop this thing now." "Maybe Firefly can burn it," Shining suggested. "Or Volt-Edge can make it short-circuit." As he said that, he noticed something appearing behind the technovore. "TWILIGHT!" XLR8 turned in that direction and lowered his visor, which zoomed in to show Twilight running towards the beast. "What's she doing?" XLR8 didn't answer, instead rushing down the building. Twilight was soon close enough and prepared to activate her EMP, planning to connect it to the technovore using her magic. But just as she was about to flip the switch, the robot seemed to notice her. It spun around, its head smashing through another building, and growled before pointing its turret at her. She gasped and as it fired, a blur shot passed the machine and grabbed Twilight. In the blink of an eye, Twilight was up on a roof besides her brother and XLR8. "Twilight!" Shining cried, "what were you thinking?" "I was trying to stop that thing," she stated before showing them the device. "This EMP should cause the device that start all this to deactivate. Though, since it's alien technology I can't be sure it's not shield from this kind of thing." "It's better than not trying anything," XLR8 took the device. "I'll get it on the thing. You just tell me how it works." Twilight did so as the technovore continued to look around for more large technology to devour. Once XLR8 knew how to work it, he shot down the building and onto the street. The technovore noticed him and growled before pointing its turret at him, firing a round towards him that the alien managed to side-step and outrun the explosion off. It fired again with the same result and then a third time, with XLR8 leaping into the air and onto the side of a nearby building to avoid. As he did, he flipped the switch on the EMP whilst running along the side of the building. He then leapt forward and with his incredible speed, zoomed through the air and grabbed onto the turret of the technovore. Before the beast could fire, he threw the device down the barrel before running along it himself onto the robot's back. He then avoided all the moving parts as he shot down its body and leapt off its back, right as the generator unleashed the electromagnetic pulse. This wave shot throughout the technovore's entire body, causing the beast to suddenly freeze in place before it started vibrating. The wave then continued, XLR8 looking behind him and seeing the energy through his visor. He didn't want to know what that would do to the Omnitrix, so ran at his top speed and managed to keep ahead of it. As the wave began to weaken, the Omnitrix beeped. In a flash of green light, he returned to normal and cried out as he started rolling along the ground before eventually stopping. "Ow." The technovore's body began to collapse, as pieces of the beast slowly started to fall off it. First was all the stuff on its back, then parts of its head and shoulders followed by the rest of its body. Soon enough, its once dangerous form transformed into a giant pile of scrap metal. And sitting atop that pile of scrap was the egg-like device, which flickered its lights in an attempt to stay alive. But it just couldn't hold on and died. Twilight had ponied up and carried her brother down the building, letting him go two feet off the ground before flying over to the scrap pile. She saw the device and picked it up, happy to see her EMP had done its job. As she flew back to her brother, Flash moved up to them and she saw his clothes were badly ripped up and he had a few scratches. "Are you alright?" "I'm fine," he told her. "Just a few bumps and bruises. Would have been a lot worst if XLR8 hadn't pulled me out of the way." As he said that, they heard more footsteps and spotted Timber slowly making his way towards them. "Is it over?" He asked. "Relax cool guy," Flash told him. "It's dead." He turned to Twilight, "it is dead right?" Twilight shook the device, hearing a lot of rattling coming from inside. "I think so. The technovore's collapse must have damaged something inside. I don't think it'll be coming back to life any time soon." "Even so," Shining yanked the device out of her hands. "I'm taking this back to the precinct and getting in contact with officials that can study it in a safe environment." Twilight and Timber saw his still upset face and looked down, clearly worried they were in trouble. "And I won't tell them where it came from." They smiled and looked up at him, "as long as you promise never to pull something like this again. Alien technology is not a toy." "I promise," Twilight stated. "If I ever find something like this again, I'll report in immediately." Timber looked away, "I still don't see what the big fuss is about. Nobody got hurt." The others decided to ignore him as sounds filled the air. More police cars, ambulances and other emergency services began to race towards them with the technovore's destruction being their signal to get in close. The lot of them would be given several look overs to make sure they weren't all injured, whilst Shining passed the device to the first high class officer he could find. They agreed to keep it looked in a very low-tech storage device until it could be determined what would happen to it. Flash and Shining were both sitting on the back of an ambulance as the paramedics determined they were unharmed. They spotted Twilight and Timber, the pair apparently getting over the previous spat as Twilight laughed at something Timber said. Shining couldn't bare to watch and looked away, then noticed Flash looking down at his watch. "You okay?" "We both had such a go at Twilight for messing with alien tech," Flash told him. "But how am I any different? I've been messing with it even more than her." "True," Shining nodded, "and when this all started I thought the same thing of you that I thought of Twilight. That you were a kid that can't handle that kind of technology. But you proved me wrong." He turned to Flash, "I'm not worried about you having that thing because you've proven you can be responsible with it." "Twilight might have learned to be responsible with that device...if I hadn't gotten in the way and fought with Timber." "True, but there's a difference. That device wasn't stuck to any of you. If it had, I would have been more open to keeping it a secret. I don't want Twilight or anyone I care about to end up a government lab experiment. This whole situation is just like with what happened with Negatine. It's not the tech that was the problem, but the person. Twilight isn't the right person to handle technology she doesn't understand. But you've proven you are." Flash smiled at this and looked up at the sky, "I just wish I knew where the heck that thing came from." Up in space, Vilgax's ship was being repaired using the materials they had salvaged from their destroyed rescuers. Inside his ship, Vilgax waited to hear a status report. Sure enough, one of his robots stepped up to his tube. "Repairs to the ship are now at seventy three percent. We should have full flight capability within the next week or so." "And what of the technology scavenged from the ship?" Vilgax growled. "The absorption and adaptation technology has been studied. We are currently working to integrate it with our drone technology. Once fully installed, they should be able to repair and improve themselves should they end up damaged or destroyed." "Good," Vilgax smiled, "soon the Omnitrix will be where it rightfully belongs. And the one who keeps it from me should suffer."