//------------------------------// // Season 1, Episode 14: Ice to Meet You // Story: The Omnitrix Hero // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// Up in space, the warship of the mighty Vilgax continued floating above the planet completely unaware. The many machines that worked there were trying to devise a way to acquire the Omnitrix, when an alarm suddenly went off. This awoke Vilgax, who had been resting whilst his body continued to undergo repairs. "Report!" He growled, as a robot moved over to the computer connected to the alarm. "Proximity detector has picked up a vessel moving towards us. It has just passed the planet that the earthlings refer to as Mars." "Why did we not detect it sooner?" "Sensors indicate the vessel is a small craft. Likely an escape pod of some kind. The computer is scanning it now." He waited a few seconds and nodded. "A level twelve mark eight escape capsule, complete with no onboard controls. It is programmed to scan until hitting a planet with a tech level of ten or higher, then automatically head to it." "I see," Vilgax growled. "it must have picked up the Omnitrix's signal." "The capsule will likely land within fifty miles of the Omnitrix. Would you like to send more drones to follow and try to retrieve the device?" "No," Vilgax growled. "Send a surveillance drone. I think it's time we find out more about the individual wielding the device." The robot nodded and waited for the capsure to approach earth. As it did, the ship's doors opened and a single device shot out. Unlike the other drones, this was was round and shot through space. As it did, something shot towards the planet at blinding speed. It was the middle of the night and despite this, the city of Canterlot was still active. One of the less busy people still awake was looking at the sky, smirking when he spotted a shooting star fly across the black void. But it wasn't a star. It was a rocket shaped vehicle the size of a car. It shot passed the city and crashed down just outside of the metropolis. Once it had crashed, creating a large trench upon impact, it came to a stop as the rockets on it stopped firing. The pod was red hot, it being a miracle that it didn't burn up upon reentry. But suddenly, a door in the side of it flew open and a pure white mist flew out of it. When this mist touched the surrounding trees, the wooden pillars suddenly turned to ice. Something then stepped out of the capsule, whatever it is being hidden by the darkness of the night. If someone were there to see it, all they would be able to tell was that it was standing on four legs. The figure moved through the trees, letting out long breaths that filled the air with the same white mist. They eventually reached the top of a hill and looked down at Canterlot. "Great," the figure then announced with an almost columbian accent, "I'm not alone on this rock. How the heck does this place have level ten technology?" They shrugged, "whatever. They've gotta have something good to nab here." With that, they headed down towards the city. The next day. The people of Canterlot were out in full swing that day, many going to the parks or any place they could enjoy the particularly hot weather. One person who wasn't enjoying the heat was Flash Sentry, the teen having forgone his usual attire due to the heat. Instead of his leather jacket and jeans, Flash was wearing his old white emblem shirt and blue shorts with tennis shoes. He was currently inside the Canterlot Mall, which was one on the only public buildings in town that was air conditioned, sitting outside the smoothy place Applejack worked at. As he sat there, Trixie and Sunset were standing at the actual stand getting drinks. Sunset was dressed in her sushi store uniform, currently on break from the smelly place. Once they got their drinks, they headed to Flash's table and noticed the teen currently sweating like mad. "Wow," Trixie smirked as they sat down, "you really don't like heat?" Flash grabbed his drink and used it to cool down his head, sighing as he felt the coldness flow over his head. "I'm not a heat guy. If someone told me to pick whether or not to live in constant summer or constant winter, I'd pick winter every time." Trixie and Sunset laughed at this as they slurped down their smoothies. then tried to think of something Flash and Trixie could do that didn't involve getting super hot. Meanwhile, not far from the mall, a jewelry store was experiencing a big boom. Thanks to its air conditioning, many hot customers were coming in to escape the heat. And as they did, they started looking around at all the fancy gems and body decorations filling the store. But what the store didn't know, was that across the street in an alleyway there was a figure just waiting for the right moment to strike. And that moment came when they noticed someone walk into the store carrying a large dufflebag. The perfect piece of equipment. "This is gonna be a cool day." The figure chuckled at his own joke, as a cloud of mist came out of his mouth. "Maybe you can go swimming?" Sunset suggested, as the three finished their smoothies. "Already tried that," Flash sighed. "Did you know you have to book a place at public pools now?" He sighed as he threw his empty cup into the trash. "Something about fire codes requiring only a certain amount of people in the building at any one time. How the heck does a place that's defining part is water, have to worry about fire?" "Well I'm sure you'll figure something out," Sunset slurped up the last of her smoothie. "Count yourself lucky. Fluttershy and Rarity are working today and their jobs don't have air conditioning. I get the feeling Rarity's gonna be crying by the time she gets home, screaming that her hair is ruined." Flash and Trixie couldn't help but imagine Rarity with frizzy hair, the pair laughing at this as Sunset got up. "I'll see you guys later." The pair waved her off as she headed back to the sushi place, Flash not wanting to think what raw fish smelled like in this heat. "I don't get it," Trixie spoke up. "Your alien forms must be really hot. Firefly has fire right in its name, and Volt-Edge shoots bolts of super hot lightning. How come you never complain when you're them?" "When I'm an alien I'm not hot," Flash explained. "I don't know how, but Firefly's completely heat proof. No matter how hot I make the flames, I don't so much as sweat. Same with my other aliens. Even when I'm Vapaw, all that fur and smoke is pretty cool." "Huh," Trixie hummed, "maybe all their home planets are really hot. Who knows, Firefly's planet could be a giant volcano covered planet that's always spilling magma. You'd need to be heat proof to live somewhere like that." "Makes sense, which is odd for you. You've been hanging out with Twilight too much." He laughed as Trixie rolled her eyes, only for Flash's phone started ringing and the teen answered. "Hello?" "Flash, we might have a problem." Flash realised it was Shining Armor and the teen quickly sat up. "I'm outside of town at a sight of something that's crashed down to earth. Something that looks alien." Now Flash was really concerned. Shining was hiding behind a tree, watching as a bunch of high ranking police officers, scientists and the bomb squad were gathered around a large rocket-like space shuttle. He had been one of the first on the scene and had gotten look at the thing before a higher ranking officer told them to clear the area and called in backup. "Listen, I might not be an expert on alien stuff, but I've seen enough of it to recognise it when I see it. Something's crashed here on earth. Something not of this world. And so far, when something alien shows up, nine out of ten times they've been looking for the same thing." "The Omnitrix." "Exactly," Shining nodded. "You need to be on alert. Who knows what's gonna be coming after you." "Got it. Any clue about what we might be facing?" "Not sure," Shining shook his head at the rocket. "Whoever built this thing seemed to do so for it to be able to fit any form of life inside. I didn't get much of a look, but the seat appeared changeable so it could fit any type of body that needed to sit in it. Plus it's not that big. My Sci-Fi brain is telling me this thing's some kind of ship to ground transport, maybe even an escape pod." "Right," Flash nodded. Hearing this made him think about his own time watching Sci-Fi movies. "Wouldn't that mean they don't have a way off the planet?" "Well they're not getting off it using this thing. Even if we didn't find it, there doesn't seem to be any power left in it. Unless they have another way to escape, they're stuck here." "Alright," Flash got up and headed for the exit. "Hey!" Trixie cried as she ran after him. "Mind telling me what that was about?" She asked after he hung up, "I only got half the conversation and understood even less." As they headed for Flash's car, he explained what Shining had told him. "That doesn't sound good. Think it's this Vilgax guy?" Flash shuddered as he remembered the tentacled alien, still unsure if what he had seen back then was real or not. "I don't know," Flash got in his car and they drove away. "But I'm not letting what happened last time happen again. If this thing is after me, I'll head somewhere I can fight them without needing to worry about collateral damage." "Just so long as you don't try and take them down on your own," Trixie reminded him. Flash smirked and nodded as he flew through the streets of Canterlot, all the while trying to think of someplace to go where a fight against whatever was there wouldn't cause any problems. But as he was about to turn a corner, something came flying out from around it. "WOW!" He hit he breaks and Trixie grunted as her seatbelt went tourt. The something that came flying was a car, which had driven completely out of control and didn't stop until it hit a fire hydrant. Flash quickly got out of his car and ran to the crashed on, as the front door opened and someone leapt out. "Are you okay?" He asked, the man standing up and looking himself over before stating he was fine. "What the heck just happened?" "I don't know," he cried. "One minute I was driving normally and the next, it was like I was sliding on ice." Flash would have asked more, but another loud crashing sound made him and Trixie look around to see another car had just crashed into the side of a building. This was followed by another and another, creating a large mass of wreckage. "What the heck is going on?" Trixie asked, Flash looked to the ground and was shocked to see it was frozen solid. A single section of road was a miniature ice rink. "What the heck?" Flash moved towards it. But as he did, a building beside the ice-rink exploded as a giant spike of ice shot out of it. "WOW!" He leapt back and everyone else ran, he and Trixie wondering what the heck was happening. But then, they heard the sound of laughter coming from out of the mist that had followed the ice spike. Looking up at the tip of the spike, they saw something standing on it. Something that was quadrupedal and bulky-looking. Slowly, the mist began to fade and reveal the one responsible for this whole mess. It was strange-looking lizard creature, whose body was light blue despite only its head and chest being visible. On said head, it had a pair of bright yellow eyes surrounded by black patches. Each patch had a black line that ran down below its eyes, then zigged upwards towards the forehead. This caused the lines to cross, forming an X-shape. It was wearing some kind of gray coat over its back, which also covered the extra long arms it seemed to have. Three blue spikes stuck out of the back of the coat and under it, on the creature's waist, three pairs of black gills were on either side. Its crotch and legs were inside a pair of orange pants and its feet had a trio of short blue claws sticking out of the pants whilst two long blue fingers and a thumb stuck out the end of the coat sleeves. The odd looking creature smirked as he looked around, Flash figuring he had found the new alien that had appeared. He then noticed a dufflebag slung over his shoulder, the teen looking towards the destroyed building and seeing it was actually a jewelry store. The lizard chuckled again. "This place might be low-tech, but it's got a lot of great stuff to steal." He took a deep breath and when he breathed out, a blue laser shot out of his mouth. That laser struck the side of the ice spike and caused an ice path to appear from it, the alien leaping onto said path and sliding down it down the street. "It's getting away!" Trixie cried, as Flash activated the Omnitrix. "Not if I can help it!" He slammed it down and in a flash, he was replaced by XLR8. "Let's roll!" He shot off and Trixie looked around, sighing when she saw nobody was around. It was then she realised she had been left behind. "HEY!" She ran after him, almost slipping on some ice, whilst taking out her phone to call in the cavalry. XLR8 zoomed through the streets after the fleeing arctic iguana. The speed alien managed to catch up to him as he left his ice path down the street, then zoomed ahead. The alien barely had a moment to realise something had passed him before that something spun around and shot towards him, the lizard getting slammed in the head by something fast enough to send him flying off his ice path. But instead of slamming into the side of a building, he spun around and landed on it. Much like Chamalien, this alien could stick to walls and didn't seem happy about being slammed in the head. "HEY!" He cried, glaring at XLR8 as he came to a stop. He then noticed the mark on his chest, "how'd you guys track me down so fast?" "What?" XLR8 asked, wondering what he meant. "Well forget it!" The lizard cried, "nobody's taking Gelidafur to jail. Plumbers like you are nothing but problems for hard working thieves like me." "Plumbers?" He tilted his head, wondering what the heck he was talking about. "Look...Gelidafur, was it?" The alien nodded, "I have no idea what you're talking about. All I know is, you stole something and put people in danger. That means you're going down!" "I don't think so!" Gelidafur cried before unleashing his freeze breath, but XLR8 managed to speed away from the spot as it turned to ice. Gelidafur then smirked and leapt off the building, falling towards the ground and freezing it as he did so. When he landed, he was surrounded by ice in every direction. "What'cha gonna do now?" The lizard asked the armored dinosaur, who didn't seem at all worried "Kick your butt, duh." He shot forward but as soon as he hit the ice, his feet suddenly stopped obeying him. "WOW!" He fell to the ground and slid along it, Gelidafur stepping to the side as the alien flew passed him. "HEY!" XLR8 tried to use his claws to stop himself. But as he did, Gelidafur flew off on another ice path. XLR8 growled as he tried to get back to his feet, but slipped on it once again. He did this over and over, really glad nobody was around to see his humiliation. But what he didn't know was that something was watching him. Above him, the sphere that had been propelled from Vilgax's ship hovered in place. It had a little helicopter rotor coming out the top, which kept it aloft as a camera on the front of it recorded everything. "This is the fool keeping the Omnitrix from me!?" Vilgax almost roared, "how pitiful!" "It appears the user has very limited understanding of ice's effect on moving objects," the robot announced. "Calculations have determined their ability to defeat the retrieval drones must have been down to either luck, or outside interference" "Possible," Vilgax nodded. "But we shall see just how effective this being is when the battle has concluded." XLR8 finally managed to get off of the ice, using his tail to push himself along until he reached solid road. Once off the slippery surface, he jumped back to his feet and raced after Gelidafur once again. He followed the ice path and managed to catch the lizard as he came to a stop in front of another jewelry store. "I don't think so!" He cried, catching the ice alien's attention. Gelidafur blasted some more ice towards the ground, freezing the entire road, but XLR8 never fell for the same trick twice. So when he reached the ice road, he leapt up and did several flips through the air. As he fell towards Gelidafur, he spun around to try and hit him with his tail. But the alien leapt back and fired a beam straight at XLR8. Despite being fast, XLR8 couldn't escape in time and was barely able to raise his arms in an X before the ice struck him. In a flash, he was transformed into a giant ice statue. Gelidafur smirked at this and turned towards the store, slamming his fist into the door hard enough that the whole thing was broken off its hinges. He stepped inside and saw all the scared humans, who were now hiding behind the counters of the store, making him smirk as he began smashing the glass cases holding the jewelry that he started scooping into his bag. "Hey!" One of the men cried, getting up to tell him he couldn't do that. But before he could say anything else, Gelidafur spun around and launched a freeze blast at him. He was slammed backwards into the wall and everything except his hands and head were frozen to the wall. Gelidafur turned to the others, "anyone else wanna be a hero?" They all shook their heads, "I didn't think so." Back outside, the XLR8 statue was vibrating. Inside it, the speed alien had been shaking as best he could to create friction. This melted the ice and weakened it enough so the shaking began to break it apart. And eventually, the ice exploded off of him as he fell to the ground. His visor opened and he let out a gasp, Gelidafur noticing this and smirking. "Not bad. I'll have to go extra hard on you next time." He took a deep breath and XLR8 prepared for battle, only for the Omnitrix to start beeping. "Oh, come on!" He shot off, making it a half-mile and flying into a back alley before being consumed by light. Flash gasped as he leaned against the wall and slid down it, still freezing from his stint in the ice block. He was suddenly beginning to appreciate the hot weather a lot more. Before he could think about what to do next, his phone began to ring. "Hey man," he shivered out when he saw it was Shining. "Hey. You okay. Trixie said you went racing after the alien whose pod we found." "Yeah. Icy little devil that one. He's robbing a bunch of jewelry stores and freezing anyone who gets in his way. Including me." He picked himself up and frowned when he realised Gelidafur had likely raced off by now. "Sorry man. No idea where he is." "Call Trixie to pick you up. I get the feeling we're gonna need your help taking this guy down." Flash nodded as Shining hung up, Flash texting the magician his location. Hopefully, she would be able to get to him through the chaos the alien was likely spreading throughout the city. "Ahhh!" A police officer cried as he was knocked to the ground, frozen from the neck down as his gun fell to the ground in a block of ice. Gelidafur jumped on top of him and smirked, "that wasn't very nice now, was it?" The cop began to quiver at the sight of him. "Tell you what. Tell me where I can find more valuable things and I'll leave your head uncovered." The cop seemed to want to keep some dignity, making the alien sigh. "Fine." He breathed in and was about to fire when- "The bank!" He stopped his freeze ray, gesturing for him to continue. "There's a bank not far from here. It has safety deposit boxes that'll be full of valuable things." "Is that so," Gelidafur smirked before jumping off the man. He was about to create a new ice path for himself, but something was about to show up to get in his way. "Hey!" He looked around to see a car flying towards him, the lizard unleashing an ice blast that froze the car in its place as a pole of ice connected it to the ground. He then leapt up onto it and saw the one who threw it. Applejack, Rainbow, Twilight and Pinkie stood there, the four girls having rushed to the scene when Trixie called them. "Who the heck are you? That was a pretty good throw for a bunch of weaklings." "Weakings?" Rainbow asked, cracking her knuckles. "Who you calling weak?" "Well from what I've seen, your species doesn't seem to have any particular powers or abilities. At least the revonnahganders could jump higher than they were tall. Compared to the rest of the universe, you guys are just...lame." He smirked, "which is fine by me. Means nobody can stop me. Especially since that kineceleran ran for the hills." With that, he unleashed his ice blast towards the girls. Pinkie acted fast and pulled out some sprinkles, throwing them into the air and making them explode as soon as they hit the beam. This explosion caused it to start snowing, whilst Twilight used her magic to grab a chunk of ice below the alien. Gelidafur leapt off that ice and onto the side of a building, launching another ice blast at the girl. Applejack was the one to the rescue this time, grabbing another car off the street and throwing it. The beam struck the vehicle and covered it in ice, Twilight grabbing it as it fell back towards them. But this allowed Gelidafur to leap off the building and escape using an ice path. "Hey!" Rainbow chased after him, the alien looking back and seeing her approaching "Another speedster?" He leapt off the path and fired at the ground, freezing it as Rainbow stepped onto it. She screamed as she fell to her but and slid along the ground, causing her to crash into the side of a car as Gelidafur created another ice path and escaped down the street. "Rainbow!" Twilight cried as the others found her, but noticed the ice on the ground. Pinkie quickly started sprinkling it, blowing the ice away and making a path for them to follow to her. "Are you okay?" Rainbow hissed as she held her arm, a long cut running down it. "You need to get to a hospital," Applejack told her. "But what about that alien guy?" Rainbow asked. "Looks like we'll have to leave it to the other aliens," Twilight sighed. Pinkie then spoke up. "I'll get her to the hospital. You two go after him. Maybe you can slow him down until the heroes get here." They nodded before Twilight and Applejack ran off down the road, following the ice path left by Gelidafur whilst Pinkie helped Rainbow up. Hopefully, Rainbow's injury wasn't server and the heroic aliens would arrive soon. Said hero was in his own car, being driven by Trixie as he turned the heater on full blast. "So this guy's a jewel thief?" She asked, as Flash nodded. "Why would he want to steal jewels? The only way they could be worth anything is if he could sell them and I doubt any other store would be willing to do that." "Who knows," Flash told her. "Maybe his plan is to sell them off world. Maybe gemstones are just as precious on other planets as they are here." "Maybe," Trixie nodded, "or maybe they're what power that pod thing he came here in." Flash then got a text and opened it up, "Shining?" "He just got a call from Twilight. She and her friends had a run in with him and he got away. Said he's heading west from Soulston Avenue." "But there are no jewelry stories in that part of town," Trixie pointed out. "Why the heck would he go there?" She thought, then gasped. "Unless." She did a sharp turn that caused Flash to headbutt the window, "tell Shining Armor he might be heading for a Bank of Spade Street. It's got a huge vault there full of gold and tons of safety deposit boxes." "Right," Flash nodded and text Shining back. Luckily, they weren't far from the bank and as they arrived, they spotted path of ice that trailed from around the street to the front of the bank. Unfortunately, the front had been frozen on the other side. Gelidafur had sealed himself in. Inside, the surveillance drone hovered in the air and watched as Gelidafur threatened the people there. "That's right," the lizard told the owner of the bank. "Show me the vault. I want all the gold you've got." "But we don't have any gold," he told him. "Our vault is cash only." But Gelidafur didn't believe him and pushed him forward, the man screaming as he turned to see a security guard that was frozen from the neck down and had his gun out in front of him. A thin trail of ice was coming out of the gun, with the end encasing a bullet that had been stopped in mid air. They reached the vault and the man typed in the combination, causing the locks to undo and allow him to spin the wheel in the centre. The door opened and Gelidafur rushed inside, only to see piles and piles of green paper. "What?" He picked them up and saw images printed on them, "what's this?" He knocked the piles over, hoping to uncover something valuable, but there was nothing. "Where's the gold. The jewels. The taydens?" The man didn't know what that last thing was, but his curiosity vanished when the alien turned to him. "This is a safe. Where you put important things!" "I told you!" He cried, "we use cash in place of things like gold or jewels. That money is equal to many gold bars." "Not on other planets!" Gelidafur growled as he prepared to freeze the man solid. "Don't you have anything precious here?" The man shivered and stammered. "M-m-maybe in the-the safety deposit boxes." Gelidafur smirked and told him to take him there. He gulped and they headed out of the vault. But as they did, a loud banging filled the air. "What was that?" Gelidafur frowned as he ran back to the front door, which seemed to be the source of the sound. Something was slamming against it, causing the ice holding it closed to crack. "What?" He was about to refreeze it, but the ice wall shattered and the doors flew open to allow something in. "Surprise!" Riot-Horn cried as he punched the ground, causing it to shake and knock Gelidafur off balance. It also caused the ice covering the security guard to shatter, leaving him safe and free to run out of the building along with everything else. "You want to get behind a locked door so badly, I'll be happy to help you." "Ha!" Gelidafur stood up, "another plumber. Like you guys could catch me." He fired an ice beam and Riot-Horn leapt to the side. The rhino alien quickly picked up a desk and threw it at the arctic iguana, who leapt into the air and stuck onto a wall before firing another ice beam. As this was happening, Trixie was watching from the doorway and heard a police siren behind her. Looking around, she sighed seeing Shining Armor was the one getting out of it, the man rushing to her side. "Well?" "Riot-Horn's holding it off, but I'm not sure if he can keep it up!" They then heard a cry of pain coming from their friend and looked inside, seeing Gelidafur had hit him on the shoulder and covered it in ice. But this didn't stop the alien, who simply flexed and caused the ice to shatter off of him. "Nice try," he told Gelidafur. "But that trick's not gonna beat me this time." He ran forward as Gelidafur launched another freeze ray, the rhino crossing his arms as both were covered in ice and he got close. Once Gelidafur stopped to breath, Riot-Horn ripped his arms out of the ice and reached out to grab him. "Uh oh!" He cried as the rhino slammed him into the wall behind him, then spun him around and sent him flying through the air until he hit the other wall. He cried out as he fell to the ground, but seemed relatively unharmed. "Study little guy," Trixie frowned as Shining headed inside. Gelidafur saw this as he picked himself up and smirked, then launched a blast of ice towards Shining. The cop gasped and rolled behind a desk, using it to shield himself as the ice beam struck and began to freeze it over. Gelidafur had to stop when Riot-Horn charged at him, the lizard pointing the beam at the ground. This had two results. The first was that it propelled him into the air and away from Riot-Horn, whilst also causing almost half the bank's floor to freeze over. As such, Riot-Horn's foot hit the ground and began to slip, making him cry out as he fell to the ground and slid until he hit the wall. Shining and Trixie flinched at this, Gelidafur smirking as he reached the wall and started crawling towards the exit. "He's trying to get away!" Trixie cried, Shining and Riot-Horn seeing this with Shining pulling out his gun. He fired, but Gelidafur managed to avoid the three bullets before firing a laser at him. Shining once again dodging out of the way as Riot-Horn picked himself up. Instead of tripping on the ice again, Riot-Horn slammed his fists into the ground and caused the entire building to shake. This resulted the ice breaking apart and no longer covering the ground, allowing Riot-Horn to pick up a large junk and throw it at Gelidafur. The lizard leapt off the ground and as he did, he launched another freeze ray towards Riot-Horn. He once again crossed his arms but since he didn't have time to brace himself, the impact caused him to be sent flying backwards. He crashed into the back of the vault and hit it so hard, the whole thing was ripped out of the wall and fell back a few feet until it finally stopped. Riot-Horn moaned as he sat himself up and broke the ice off his arms, but then heard a beeping sound. "Not now!" In a flash, he was reverted back to human and picked himself up. He was slightly off balance, but he managed to make it to the door. But as he did, Gelidafur took a deep breath ready to seal him inside the vault. "NO!" Shining leapt at him and tackled the lizard as he fired, causing him to instead hit the roof and cause it to freeze over. It also struck the drone, pinning it to the ceiling as it tried to look inside the vault and see who had the Omnitrix. The pair struggled against one another as Flash escaped th vault, the teen trying to think of a way to stop him. "Augh!" Shining was then pinned to the ground with Gelidafur on top. "Bad move!" He took a deep breath and prepared to freeze his head. But before he could he was suddenly thrown off Shining as a purple aura appeared around him. "What?" Flash and Shining turned to the door and saw Twilight and Applejack, both of them standing besides Trixie with Twilight holding her hands up. "Nice try!" She glared at the alien, "but nobody hurts my BBBFF!" Gelidafur growled and fired a beam at her, Twilight forced to let him go and jump away to escape. Shining quickly got up and rushed for his gun, as Gelidafur landed and fired at him again. Unfortunately, the man was struck below the waist. "Augh!" He quickly found himself stuck in a block of ice, Flash and the girls gasping at this. Applejack ran into the bank and grabbed a table, throwing it at Gelidafur. The lizard fired a freeze ray and struck the table, turning it to a block of ice that was pushed back towards Applejack. She leapt to the side as it hit the ground, the ice breaking off and going flying through the air. One piece struck the spot the drone was frozen too, breaking the ice and freeing the machine. It flew back down to the vault and looked around it, but saw no sign of anyone wearing the Omnitrix. Flash had snuck out the back door so as to not give away his secret. Hopefully, the girls would find a way to beat Gelidafur before he caused any more damage. "Ahhh," Shining as he tried to punch the ice again and again. Trixie had rushed over to him as the other girls fought against Gelidafur, grabbing his gun and using the butt to break the ice away. "Hold still!" They heard Applejack cry, as she threw another hunk of ice. Gelidafur leapt over the ice as Twilight tried to throw some more at him, but the lizard fired at it and pushed the ice back towards her. She and Applejack leapt away as Gelidafur landed at the doors. "This has been fun," he told them. "But I have more jewels to find." He leapt back and fired his beam at the door, freezing it completely solid. Flash saw this and frowned, but his Omnitrix was still timed out. Sirens then filled the air as more police arrived, but Gelidafur was quickly to react and fired at the floor. The street was quickly frozen over and the police cruisers were sent spinning out of control, several flipping when half their bodies went over elevated pieces of ice. Flash flinched at this and saw Gelidafur race off down the street, the teen rushing to his car and going after him. He had to take another street to avoid the ice, but luckily he was able to get back onto the one the alien was sliding down. He stayed far enough back that Gelidafur didn't see him, but the arctic lizard was quickly beginning to speed up. "Stay perfectly still!" Trixie cried, pointing the gun at the ice block. "Wait!" Shining cried, but Trixie fired and the bullet slammed into the ice. The block began to crack and eventually shattered, leaving Shining's legs uncovered. Luckily, Trixie had avoided his legs. "Don't...do that...again!" Trixie gave him a sheepish expression as Shining moved over to the door, which Twilight and Applejack were trying to break through. "We gotta get out of here and take that guy down." "Be a lot easier if those alien things showed up," Applejack grunted behind slamming her shoulder into the door. "One did," Trixie told them. "But they...got injured. I think their friends beamed them back up or something." She gestured to the vault, "that's what happened when they tried to fight that thing." Shining looked at the vault and sighed, since Gelidafur was clearly very strong. The ice beam combined with all that jumping around meant there was almost no way to beat him. "Wait," Shining whispered, "I think I might know how to beat this thing." He sighed and looked back at the door, "but it might involve a little damage to this wall." Applejack then used all her strength to punch the wall, causing it to explode and send ice, concrete and metal doors flying everywhere. Luckily, the police that had appeared earlier had left to try and chase after the alien. "That works." Shining turned to his sister and her friend, "how much weight can you two lift together?" The girls raised an eyebrow at this. The surveillance drone continued to follow the ice path down the street, hoping that whoever had the Omnitrix was doing the same. It was right, as Flash continued to drive as fast as he could through Canterlot to follow Gelidafur. The alien had yet to notice him, but kept zigzagging through the streets in order to avoid the many police officers that now filled them hoping to stop the menace terrorising their city. Flash had to pull to a stop when he found himself coming across a section of the street where Gelidafur had formed a path that covered the entire road. He was about to reverse and try a different way, but then his watch turned green. "Yes!" Parking up, he got out of his car and ran into an alleyway. Whilst driving, he had realised the perfect alien to use against the ice user. The drone had arrived at this section of the street and would have simply passed it, had a green flash not caught its attention. Turning towards the alleyway, it spotted a black and red blur shoot out from between the building and into the sky. Firefly propelled himself forward using his fire and followed the ice path through the town, eventually spotting Gelidafur up ahead. "Time to heat this battle up!" He launched a fireball at the lizard, who noticed it just in time to leap off his ice path as the flames caused it to explode. Gelidafur landed as Firefly stopped, the lizard looking worried. "Another plumber? What's with this planet? I've never even heard of it before and it has three plumbers in one city?" He fired a laser at Firefly, who unleashed a wave of heat that acted as a shield against the sub-zero energy. He then launched a firestream at Gelidafur, who leapt to the side and fired another laser. Firefly kept launching fire and the two attacks collided, creating a cloud of stream that filled the area. Gelidafur looked into the steam, unable to see where Firefly had gone. But before he could say anything, something shot out at him. "WOW!" He leapt back as a white string struck the ground and went taut, then went limp as the rest of it fell out of the cloud. Firefly then shot through the steam, launching rapid fireballs in Gelidafur's direction. The lizard began jumping around as Firefly finally got in close, turning his flames into a pair of small but super hot welding torches that he started swinging at him like sword. "Wow! Hey! Watch it!" Gelidafur fired his laser again and Firefly leapt into the air, "you need to watch it with those things. You could put someone's eye out with them." "I'm alright with that!" Firefly gave him asmirk as he flew around, "so long as they're yours." He unleashed a flamethrower at him, but Gelidafur launched himself into the air with his laser and avoided it, the flamethrower and beam's end colliding to create another steam clouds. Firefly launched several several more fireballs at Gelidafur, but the lizard stopped his beam and fell into the steam. Firefly was so focused on the lizard, he didn't realise his fireballs had kept going. Most of them simply burned out, but one of them hit something: The surveillance drone. The flame slammed into the machine and causing it to be blasted backwards, cracking its camera, causing it to crash into a building behind it and break its propeller. Falling to the ground, the camera complete shattered upon impact and caused it to go offline. Up in space, the ones watching were not happy. The two aliens continued to battle it out, both of them at a dead even. Every time one of them fired their elemental attack at the other, they either dodged it or blocked it with their own. "RAAAAAH!" Firefly launched a barrage of fireballs towards Gelidafur, who created an ice wall that shielded him from the ones coming at him. Firefly then dived down and cut through the wall with his fire blade, allowing him to get in close and slash at him. Gelidafur dodged these attacked, but Firefly managed to fire his silk thread as he did and hit Gelidafur's chest. "Gotcha!" He cried before propelling himself into the air in order to pull the lizard with him, but Gelidafur quickly breathed a small cloud of cold air around the string. This caused it to freeze and shatter when Firefly pulled it taught. This surprised and annoyed him as he stopped in mid-air, Gelidafur launching his freeze ray at Firefly which he protected using a heat shield. "This is getting me nowhere!" "Just give it up!" Gelidafur smirked, "we're too evenly matched. You're not gonna take me down." Firefly knew he was right. And the worst part was that he was on a time limit. If he didn't come up with a way to win soon, he would timeout and Gelidafur would get away. He needed help. It was then that Firefly noticed something moving down the street. Something big and floating. "Huh?" He tilted his head when he realised it was the vault from the bank, which wasn't actually floating. It was on top of Shining Armor's police cruiser, Twilight using her magic to take some of its weight whilst Applejack was pushing up on the car's ceiling so it didn't crush them under its weight. And when Shining saw the two battling, he smirked before coming to a sudden stop. The vault flew off and Twilight used her magic to keep it from spinning, allowing it to fall to the ground with the door pointed towards Gelidafur. "What's this?" The lizard asked, as Firefly watched the door open. It was then he realised what they must have been planning. "Oh yeah!" He cried before diving down. Gelidafur saw this and fired his beam, Firefly creating the heat barrier to protect himself. He then started launching fireballs at the lizard, who jumped backwards in order to avoid the all. But this caused him to get closer and closer to the safe, the ice reptile realising what they were trying to do. "Oh no you don't!" He cried before launching himself into the air with his laser, but Applejack quickly grabbed a car and tossed it into the air with her tremendous strength. It would have flown over Gelidafur, but Twilight used her magic to stop it right above the lizard. This resulted in him slamming right into it, making him cry out and stop his laser as Firefly flew up towards him and covered his right gauntlet in fire. Before Gelidafur could react, Firefly slugged him in the face and made him cry out as he was knocked towards the ground. But as he fell, he fired a laser at the humans and forced them to leap to safety and not try and grab him to throw in the safe. This allowed him to land as Firefly launched another flamethrower, the lizard retaliating with his own elemental attack. The two forces slammed into one another and created a cloud of steam, blocking Firefly from Gelidafur's view. Moments later a familiar string shot out of the cloud towards him, but Gelidafur leapt into the air to avoid it. However, Twilight saw this and quickly reacted. She grabbed the end of the string in her magic and sent it towards Gelidafur, who was surprised with the sudden change in its trajectory. Before he could try and freeze it, the thread was wrapped around his middle. "HEY!" He cried, about to fire the laser but suddenly feeling the thread jerk and squeeze the wind out of him as he cried out. Firefly flew out of the steam and pulled Gelidafur with him towards the vault. And as the lizard was about to regain his breath, he swung the thread around and let it go. The lizard cried out as he flew through the air and slammed into the empty vault, hitting it so hard the metal box was almost knocked onto its back. And as it fell back to the ground, Applejack ran over to the door and pushed it closed. "Wait!" Gelidafur cried, as the metal doors slammed shut. Firefly then started flying around the metal box and unleashing a flamethrower, which heated the vault but not so much it melted. "Yeah," Twilight smirked, "no way he'll be able to stand that. I give it three hours before the air in there is completely gone." Firefly frowned, knowing he couldn't stick around that long. Plus, he didn't want to kill Gelidafur. "We'll let him out before he suffocates," Shining told his sister. "The question of the moment is, what do we do with him? I doubt any jail we have can hold him." But before anyone could reply to that, the blazing sun was suddenly gone. "Huh?" Twilight looked up and they saw that something was blocking the sunlight. Something floating above them that appeared circular in design with two semicircles connected to the sides. And as their eyes got used to the darkness, they saw it was a spaceship. "No way," Trixie whispered as the ship slowly floated downwards. As they did, they saw an image on the side of it. The same image they had seen on all the alien heroes. Firefly was suddenly very worried and when nobody was looking, he snuck away and flew into an alleyway but kept close enough to hear them. "What's going on?" Applejack asked, only for the spaceship to extend four legs that allowed it to touch down. When it did, a part of the bottom opened up to allow a ramp to extend downwards. Moments later, two figures appeared from out of the ship. They were a pair of aliens that they had never seen before. Both were wearing a white and black suit with the hourglass symbol on the chest, with one having a glass helmet on its head. The one with the helmet was some kind of fish alien, whose helmet was filled with water, with large teeth and an angler fish antenna on its head. The other appeared to be made out of rock, though they could only see a collar of this sticking out of the suit, whilst its head was on fire and made its face look like a flaming mask. The fish turned to the hothead, "we have natives who have been exposed." "Might as well do our duty," the fire alien announced. "Not like anyone will believe them." Twilight took out her phone but when she tried to turn on the camera, something caused the picture to go all funny. "Do you have his readings?" The fish took out a device and when he pointed it at the safe, it beeped. "There it is." They moved forward, but Shining jumped in front of it. "Who are you?" The aliens looked at him, curious by either his courage or idiocy. "I'm Magister Fuego," the fire-headed alien stated before gesturing to the fish. "This is Magister Glug." They gestured to the badged on their chest, "we are the Plumbers sent here to reacquire the escaped convict known as Gelidafur." "And from what we can tell," Glug pointed at the safe. "He's in there." The humans frowned, wondering if they should trust them. But Twilight stepped forward. "I think we can trust them," she explained. "They have the same badges those other aliens have." She turned around, "right?" Only then did she realised Firefly wasn't there. "Where'd he go?" "What is this about other aliens?" Fuego asked, only for Twilight to show them her phone and the pictures she had of the aliens. "What?" They watched as she kept scrolling, showing all ten of them. "Those aliens are not plumbers. Must be a renegade group attempting to pass as plumbers." "We'll need to inform headquarters of this," Glug told him. "But for now, we need to focus on Gelidafur." He pressed something on the device and the spaceship unleashed a laser that struck the vault, cutting through the door and causing it to fall to the ground. Doing so revealed Gelidafur, unconscious but alive. Fuego threw a cube like the one Tetrax had used at him and the arctic iguana was soon trapped inside. Once it shrank back down, the dufflebag of stolen goods remaining where it was, the fire alien picked it up and turned to the humans. "You were the ones that defeated him?" "Kinda," Trixie shrugged. "It was...one of those aliens that did most of the work." She pointed at Shining, "but this one is the one that came up with the idea to trap him like that." "Interesting," Glug hummed as he and Fuego stared at Shining. "You are an officer of the law on this planet?" "That's right," Shining nodded. "Why?" "No reason," Glug told him before taking something out and throwing it to Shining. The man caught it and saw it was another badge like their's. "This will allow us to find you when we return. I'm sure headquarters will want to hear everything about these alien heroes you talk of. For now, keep that on you and don't tell anyone about this." "O...kay," Shining was confused as the pair headed back to their ship. "Why are you being so open about this? Aliens usually try to hide themselves from humans, or at least that's how it seems." "Maybe most aliens try that," Fuego told them. "But the Plumbers have a vast interest in your species. By the sounds of things, your planet's starting to become an alien hotspot. That means if the Plumbers plan to keep order in this part of the galaxy, they'll need humans who can help them keep that peace." They didn't really get what these aliens were talking about, but the pair didn't say anything else and boarded their ship. All they could do was watch as the ship took off and floated above the city for a moment, then shot into the air faster than they could blink. The situation over, the humans continued to stare at the sky before Shining looked down at the badge. The others moved over to him, curious about the device. And none more so than Flash, who had reverted back to human right before the aliens left. As the blazing sun began to set, the city was still in turmoil. Many of the jewelry stories had been trashed and some of their best merchandise had been taken into evidence, though with all the insanity there would likely never be any kind of court case, and many of the streets were closed due to the large amount of ice that could be found there. On the bright side, many people got to enjoy a cooling ice skate before the ice began to melt. One of the people not getting to enjoy the ice skating was Rainbow, whose arm had been stitched up and expected to heal up in a week or two. She had been quite bummed to hear she missed her chance to meet more aliens, wanting to hear every second of the story from Twilight and Applejack when they went to see her. Shining Armor was at his house, not looking forward to the report he would need to write come tomorrow. He was currently sitting in his garden, a drink in his hand as Cadance put Flurry to bed. He then reached into his jacket and took out the badge that the aliens had given him, wondering if it was a better idea to simply throw it away so they didn't come back. "Hey." He looked up to see Flash standing on the other side of his fense. Shining smirked and put the badge away, gesturing for Flash to come in. Flash did so and sat down next to him. "Crazy day, huh?" "They seem to show up a lot more frequently ever since I met you," Shining joked before taking a swing of his drink. Flash chuckled as he felt a refreshing evening breeze blow over them. "What do you think those aliens are gonna do with Gelidafur?" "Hopefully, lock him in a cell and throw away the key." Shining glanced back at him and saw a worried look, the teen fiddling with the watch on his wrist. "You worried they're gonna come back?" "They said they would be," Flash pointed out. "They know there are aliens on this planet, so of course they're gonna come back. And they probably know what the Omnitrix is, so they might figure out that's what's going on and track me down." "Well I don't think you have to worry," Shining assured him. "I might not have met them for very long, but I get the feeling these plumbers are the good guys of the universe. I'm sure once we explain the situation to them, they'll understand and won't do anything bad. Who knows, that Tetrax guy might know them. If he does, he might throw in a good word." "I hope so," Flash nodded as he looked down at the Omnitrix. "Ever since this thing showed up in my life, it's been one insane situation after another. And I love having it and helping people. But...I just wonder how long I'm gonna have until everything comes crashing down on me." "We both know you being those aliens isn't gonna stay a secret forever. Eventually, you'll timeout surrounded by people or just be forced to reveal who and what you are. Hopefully, that time won't be for a long time. But when it comes, you need to be ready." "I know," Flash nodded as he looked up at the darkening sky. "Who knows what's gonna come after me next time." Up in space, the Plumber ship had just left the solar system. As it did, the other spaceship came out from behind the moon. "The plumber ship is no longer in sensor range," the robot told Vilgax. "All readings show they did not detect our presence." "Good," Vilgax growled, "the last thing I need are those intergalactic do-gooding fools getting in my way." The screens then appeared around the tube, showing the images the drone had recorded before getting destroyed. "Now I can focus on getting my prize from this fool of a human, whoever they are." "Shall we dispatch more drones to retrieve it?" The robot asked. "No," he growled before something unexpected occurred. The tube began to open, unleashing a tone of steam. As the steam failed, a figure stood within it. A large, bulky figure with cybernetics in its arms and a mask covering his mouth. Vilgax, bigger and better than ever. "I will see to this task myself."