The Omnitrix Hero

by Banshee531


Season 2, Episode 1: Plumbing School

Several days had passed since Canterlot's near destruction at the hand of the alien overlord known as Vilgax. Many people who had seen parts of the battle had feared that it was the end of days, but since that day everything had been perfectly normal...ish.

The alien that destroyed half the town had vanished without a trace and the damage done was slowly being repaired. Made even easier by the help of the alien heroes.

Technically, only one hero was helping with the reconstruction. One minute people were working on a slow repair and rebuild of a building when, suddenly, a blue blur explodes onto the scene and does three month's worth of work in ten minutes before rushing off. It had happened several times over the last few days and thanks to it, the city was getting closer and closer to being rebuilt.

One such reconstruction was going on right now. The builders had arrived at a building and found many of its bricks and other junk lying around the ground. It looked like it was gonna take forever to sort through it all, but in that moment something shot passed them and started running around the worksite.

That something created a tornado around it and did this for several minutes before rushing off, revealing a neat stack of bricks and piles of other stuff they could use to rebuild the building. The workers were surprised, but wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.


Said gift horse had just shot into an alleyway and revealed himself as the alien hero, XLR8.

XLR8 sighed as his visor lifted up, the alien stretching his body out as he felt exhausted from all the hard work he had been doing to help fix the buildings he had accidently destroyed when fighting Vilgax. He was hoping if he helped repair things, people wouldn't be angry at him.

In that moment, the dial on his chest started beeping and in a flash, he reverted back to his human self. Flash Sentry huffed and headed out of the alleyway towards his next destination. Sugarcube Corner.

Stepping into it, he spotted his friends over by a couch. Trixie Lulamoon and the Rainbooms all smiled when they saw him arrive, Sunset holding up his favourite milkshake. "Tough day?" She asked, as Flash sat between her and Twilight.

"You have no idea. And I'm gonna have to head back out once the Omnitrix recharges." This statement made the girls, minus Trixie, all feel weird. Despite having seen Flash transform into all those aliens, the fact he actually was them still seemed absolutely bizarre to them.

Flash had explained everything to them since his fight with Vilgax. Finding the Omnitrix. Discovering what it could do. Having his identity revealed to Shining and every insane adventure they had enjoyed. The girls had felt a little dumb for not putting the pieces together, but even still they were amazed by it all.

Twilight looked down at the Omnitrix, still intrigued by its ability to rewrite a person's DNA. She wanted nothing more than to try and open it up and see how it works, but then she remembered the last time she tried messing with alien technology. The last thing she wanted was to mess with a device fused to her friend and could do serious harm to him if it malfunctioned.

"Maybe you should take a break from the rebuilds," Trixie told him as Flash began to slurp at his milkshake. "You've been working non-stop on it since the whole event with Vilgax. You should rest up a bit so you don't overdo it."

"I guess," Flash nodded. "I'm just glad things have been quiet since then. But I'm betting the peace won't last long. Something or someone's gonna show up to cause problems again."

"Well now you won't have to worry about facing them alone," Twilight assured him. "Now that we know about the Omnitrix, we can help you."

"Yeah," Rainbow smirked, "or you can leave some of the fun to us." The girls rolled their eyes at this, Rarity speaking up.

"Twilight's right though. I'm sure that with our help, you can do your whole alien hero thing much easier than before." Flash smiled at this and nodded. One of the biggest issues before was finding a reason to escape the girls and transform. Now that they were in the loop, he could transform around them without issue. Now he just had to worry about the whole rest of the city's populace. "And maybe, in return, you could use some of your alien's powers to help us."

Flash raised an eyebrow at this, "meaning..."

"Well...I would love to have some of those crystal shards you make as Diamondhead so I can decorate my next design. Or...maybe lend me some Firefly silk. I could make an entire line of fireproof clothing with it. Just a suggestion." They all laughed at this. All except Fluttershy.

"Are we even sure using the Omnitrix is safe." They all looked at her in confusion. "It's just...what if something goes wrong with it. You said it's turned you into the wrong alien before. What if it malfunctions and you can't turn back? Or what if it puts you back together the wrong way? We just don't know that much about the Omnitrix."

"She kinda has a point," Applejack nodded. "What if somethin' goes wrong?"

"You girls worry too much," Flash assured them. "Sure, the Omnitrix isn't perfect. But I doubt VIlgax would want it so badly if something like that could happen."

"But it still could happen," Fluttershy looked worried.

"I don't think it'll be a problem," Pinkie smirked. "If it does, we'll just call tech support to fix it. What's the intergalactic number again?" They all laughed at this and continued to talk, Flash deciding to take Trixie's advice and lay off the help rebuilding for the day. He was gonna need to be on his A-game when something big happened. And he had a feeling it was gonna be soon.


That night, something flew into the planet's airspace completely invisible to any detection device.

It was a ship that turned invisible before it passed the moon, which now floated above the planet scanning for something. And inside, those that were controlling the ship stared at a console. "No sign of the Omnitrix," one of the figures explained.

"I know the basic idea of where it is," another figure replied. "I'm setting the coordinates for the City of Canterlot, in the Country known as America. Once there, we'll have to wait for the Omnitrix to be used."

"How do we know this individual can be trusted with the Omnitrix?" A voice asked, sounding it was trying to talk whilst underwater.

"I've seen what he is capable of," the figure in the middle of the room announced. "He might be young and immature at times, but he's got a good heart."

"A good heart isn't enough," the first figure replied. "What matters is skill and ability. Without those things, we can't trust this human to wield the most powerful object in the world. You understand what'll have to happen if this doesn't work out, don't you."

The figure in the middle of the room stepped forward, revealing the alien bounty hunter known as Tetrax. "I do." With that, the ship began to descend towards the planet. They would have to wait, but hopefully their patience would soon be rewarded with results.


The next day.

The Rainbooms were all in a junkyard, the same one Flash had once trained in, watching as Riot-Horn held up six junk cars. Trixie and Shining were also there, watching as Twilight lifted another car up. "You ready?" She asked, Riot-Horn nodding as she placed the car on top of the pile.

Riot-Horn almost lost his balance for a moment, but that wasn't due to the amount of weight he was currently carrying. In fact, he felt like he could carry another three of four cars before he even felt like he was gonna struggle. "Still good," he smirked at them.

"Great," Shining nodded, "try another one." Twilight lifted up the car and Rarity, who had needed a lot of convincing to get to come to the junkyard, coughed at the dust that was kicked into the air.

"Did we really need to come all the way out here to test Flash's abilities?"

"Where else are we gonna do it?" Applejack asked, "this place is completely deserted. Anywhere else and someone might see him transform."

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" Trixie asked Shining, who smirked.

"Well we've had a basic guess of what Flash can do, but we've never been able to actually test the full limits of Flash's powers. If his fight against Vilgax proved anything, it's that he's not unbeatable. We need to know exactly what Flash can and can't do so we'll be ready in the future. And now that the girls are in on the secret, they can help us test him."

"Well I'm ready to try another car!" Riot-Horn cried, Twilight placing the car on top. He flinched for a second, but was still able to hold them all up. This amazed them all, but they they started to panic when the Omnitrix started beeping. "Uh oh!" He quickly threw the cars off him and they all came tumbling down around him before he was consumed by a green light.

They all gasped seeing this, but sighed in relief when Flash stepped out of the light. "You okay?" Shining asked, Flash nodding back.

"So you've had to deal with that thing turning you back without you getting a say in the matter?" Rainbow asked, Flash nodding again. "Well that sucks."

"You have no idea." Flash sat on one of the cars he dropped and sighed, knowing he would need to wait for the watch to recharge before he could do anything else. But before he could, another beeping caught their attention.

This one was coming from Shining, the man reaching into his coat and taking out something many of them had forgotten he had. The Plumber Badge. "What's it doing?" Twilight asked, as Shining held the badge up and had no idea. But then, the green parts unleashed a light that formed a hologram above the badge.

"Wow!" Shining flinched at the sight, as the hologram was of a radar-like screen with a dot in the middle. Another dot could be seen near it and drawing closer. "What?" The others gathered around him and saw the same thing, all wondering what the heck it was as the moving dot eventually merged with the middle one.

They got their answer about it when, suddenly, a powerful gust of wind almost knocked them all over. They looked up and were shocked to see something appear above them. A spaceship.

At first, they thought Vilgax had returned. But then they realised that they recognised the ship, or at least some of them did, from when they had beaten the alien criminal: Gelidafur. The ship floated down and landed on the ground, only to then vanish again whilst those on the ground were confused. At least until the invisible bottom opened up and unleashed a ramp that extended to the ground.

Flash gulped, wishing the Omnitrix would time in so he could XLR8 away. But all his fears vanished when he saw something stepping down the ramp. Someone he knew. "Tetrax!" He cheered, rushing towards the ship as the others wondered who the dome-headed figure was.

"You know that guy?" Rainbow asked, Shining nodded.

"Alien bounty hunter. He's actually the same race as Diamondhead." That surprised them, as Flash stepped up to him.

"Long time no see."

"Indeed," Tetrax nodded as his helmet retracted. "I'm glad to see you're doing well. Hoverboard working for you?"

"I...haven't had a lot of chances to use it. But I found that message you left in it." Said message had been an instruction manual about how to use it, which had also had Tetrax's name in it. "So what are you doing here? Don't get me wrong, it's great to see you. But you said were would come back as soon as possible and it's been months."

Tetrax nodded. "I had planned to return as soon as possible, but I got waylaid along the way. Then I was contacted by the Plumbers, who had discovered that the Omnitrix was on this planet." That surprised Flash. "I rushed over to them and explained my meeting with you and how Vilgax was after you. However, by the time we were ready to return and rage an assault on him, he left the planet. We feared he had taken the Omnitrix, so we tried to give chase. But then we picked up the Omnitrix's signal and found it was still here."

"Yeah," Flash scratched the back of his head, "that was kind of a close call." As he said that, Shining, Trixie and the Rainbooms stepped up and Tetrax noticed the new people there.

"It seems many things have occured since my last meeting with you." He gestured to the ship, "let's get inside before someone notices us." They nodded and all headed into the ship, which closed up behind them and completely went invisible.


Meanwhile, across town, someone was busy working on a little project.

That someone was Animac, the mad scientist smirking as he worked on his device. The same animal fusion device he had created and attempted to mutate the entire city with. As he worked, the scientist thought back to the moment several days ago when he was being transferred to a new prison after he started a mild fire in the old one. It was amazing how flammable everyday prison items could be.

During the transfer, the bus had been rammed by a giant metal spikeball. Said ball had sent the bus spinning out of control and knocking it over, causing the guards to be knocked unconscious and allowing the genius to escape. Now he was free to make the world a better place.

"Almost done," he smirked as he looked over at another desk. There, a cage full of white mice sat next to an ant farm. "Once I have this working, this city will regret trying to lock my genius up." He laughed at this and kept working, eventually completing one of his gauntlets and moving onto the next one.


Flash and his friends were all staring in absolute awe at the sight of the ship's interior, which was much different from the warship they had previously been on.

Tetrax walked ahead of them, turning around one of the corners with them right ahead. "Wow," Twilight whispered, "everything looks so high-tech." She noticed one of the doors suddenly open and looked inside, finding a large room with a bunch of gridlines. Her nerd brain instantly recognised it, "a holodeck?"

"Don't wander off," Tetrax called back. Twilight didn't want to look away, leading Trixie and Sunset to have to drag her away. Eventually, they reached a door that led to what they believed was the ship's main bridge. Stepping out onto it, they found the room had many different computers lining the walls and a large screen was up at the front of it.

As they stepped into the room, they found two more figures standing there. Aliens that some of them recognised.

"Hello again," Majester Fuego smirked seeing Shining Armor. He fire alien stepped forward, "I was hoping we'd meet you again." The fish alien, Majester Glug, nodded as he walked forward as well. "So, you had the Omnitrix this whole time. No wonder you were able to beat Gelidafur." But then they saw Shining's wrists and found neither of them had the Omnitrix on.

"Wait," Glug looked confused, "where's the Omnitrix?" Shining raised an eyebrow at this, "you don't have it?"

"No," Shining told them, "what made you think I did?"

"We saw the Omnitrix's signal was close to the badge we gave you. We just figured...so then where's the Omnitrix?" Flash chose this moment to step forward and pulled his sleeve back, revealing the watch in question.

Tetrax spoke up. "Majesters. Meet Flash Sentry. Wielder of the Omnitrix." The pair turned to Flash and looked him over, not appearing impressed.

"This is the one that defeated Vilgax?" Fuego asked, looking him over and poking his arm to try and feel for muscles.

"Well," Flash stepped back, "I didn't exactly beat Vilgax." This confused the three, leading the lot of them to explain what had happened when Vilgax appeared. The three aliens looked shocked and horrified at some spots.

"So you managed to escape...through dumb luck?" Glug asked, the teen nodding as the fish didn't look happy.

"And Vilgax is still alive?" Fuego asked, Flash nodding again. "That's not good."

"Why isn't it good?" Rainbow asked, "he doesn't have the Omnitrix?"

"Which means he'll be back," Tetrax told them. "Once he's fixed whatever happened on his ship, he'll head straight back here. Trust me, Vilgax doesn't give up. He'll be back and when he does, he's not gonna be taking you lightly like he did before."

"Lightly?" Flash asked, "he was gonna cut my arm off!"

"Next time, he probably won't bother cutting. He'll just grab your arm and pull until it comes off." Everyone gasped at this, Fluttershy looking like she was about to be sick. Shining stepped forward.

"So what do we do?"

"It's clear your friend isn't ready to face Vilgax," Fuego told him. "The Omnitrix is too powerful to allow a civilian to have. It needs to be in the hands of a trained plumber."

"Yeah," Sunset held a hand up, "question. Who exactly are the plumbers? You talk about them like they're some big organisation, so who are they?"

The aliens smirked as Glug moved over to a computer and typed something into it. When he did, an image appeared on the screen showing a bunch of individuals. One of which they had seen before...in a history book. "Is that Gorge Washingteeth?" Rarity asked, the pair nodding.

"Indeed. Gorge was the founder and original leader of the Plumbers. Back then, they were known as the Plumbiers. They vowed to protect the world from paranormal threats to their new world, which led to them fighting against aliens that originally came to this planet. One of those aliens was Vilgax, who Gorge destroyed the ship of during his first attempt to invade the planet."

"The Plumbers started on earth?" Shining asked, amazed to hear this.

"Yes," Glug nodded. "They've been working in secret, keeping the public in the dark about the existence of aliens for centuries. Every leader of your country's government was a Plumber. And over the years, the Plumbers went from simply fighting aliens to getting to know them. Several species made friendly contact with the Plumbers, helping them catch dangerous criminals and even giving them more advanced weapons. Eventually, the Plumbers became an intergalactic law enforcement brigade."

"And it all started on earth?" Flash asked, with the Plumbers nodding.

"At least until about forty years ago. That's when the number of aliens appearances on earth started to dwindle. Many species realised earth had become too dangerous to approach, so began to keep their distances. Eventually, the Earth Branch was shut down and the remaining Plumbers were put on semi-active duty."

"But now it seems the earth is starting to be brought back into the limelight," Tetrax stated. "The Omnitrix coming here has set things in motion that will lead to earth's branch of Plumbers being brought out of retirement."

"The guys who were fighting aliens forty years ago?" Shining asked. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think any of those guys are gonna be in much fit state to start protecting the earth again." The Plumbers frowned at this.

"We know that. That's why we're here."

"You three are gonna protect earth from aliens?" Applejack asked.

"Nope," Tetrax told her. "I'm not even a Plumber. I just work with them occasionally. We're here to train someone who can be this planet's protector." They all slowly turned their attention to Flash, the teen suddenly noticing all eyes were on him.

"Me?" Flash looked shocked, "you want me to become a plumber?"

"Who else?" Tetrax smirked. "You've been using the Omnitrix to protect the planet already. But now you can do it in an official capacity."

"If he can pass the tests," Fuego pointed out. "If not, we'll have to find someone else to become the Plumber of this sector. And if he fails..." He looked down at the Omnitrix, Flash realising what they were talking about.

"You're gonna take it away?" He asked, holding it protectively.

"We told you we couldn't let the Omnitrix remain in the hands of a civilian," Glug pointed out. "You either join the Plumbers or we take it away. That's the hard truth of the matter."

Flash frowned as he stared down at the watch, then turned to the others. "What do you guys think?"

Trixie was the first to speak up. "You should do it." She stepped forward, "you said you wanted to use the Omnitrix to help people. If you become a plumber, you'll be doing just that. Plus, you'll be working in the footsteps of some of our country's greatest heroes. You might even get to be president someday."

Flash looked at the others and they all nodded, thinking the same thing. Flash smirked and nodded back, "alright." He turned to the aliens, "I'm in. Where do I start?"

"We'll need to put you through a few exercises," Fuego explained. "Manage to complete them and you'll gain Provisional Plumber Status"

"Provision Status?" Shining asked, "what would that entail?"

"Flash will become a plumber, but he'll be monitored carefully and will need to make regular reports about what he does whilst working as plumbers here. But if he does a good enough job he'll be invited to the Plumber Academy in order to complete his training and become a fully deputised member of the plumbers."

"And anyone can do this?" Shining asked, the aliens shrugging.

"Well this is a special case. If he didn't have the Omnitrix, we wouldn't be offering this chance to him."

Shining seemed to be thinking about something, Twilight stepping over to him. "What are you planning?" She asked, knowing that look on her brother's face. Shining then stepped forward.

"I want to be tested to." The plumbers were surprised by this. "I might not have an Omnitrix, but I've worked as a police officer for years. I know my time on the force will have given me some useful skills that'd help with plumber work. Will you let me try?"

The pair stared at each other, then turned to Tetrax. The crystal alien nodded, the pair turning back to him.

"Alright," Glug nodded. "You can try. But these tests won't be easy. Sure you wanna do it?" Shining nodded and the pair agreed to let them in. "But before we start. Tetrax." In that moment, Tetrax stepped up behind Flash and suddenly slammed something onto his wrist.

"Huh?" Flash looked down and saw a large metal tube was now encasing his arm, completely blocking him off from the Omnitrix. "What the heck?"

"Sorry kid," Fuego told him. "Like we said, the Omnitrix is too dangerous to be in the hands of a civilian."

Glug nodded. "So until you prove to us you've got what it takes, the Omnitrix is off limits to you." Flash frowned at this, as the plumbers headed out of the room and told them to follow. They did so with Tetrax and the girls following behind. Tetrax led the girls into one room, which turned out of the a windowed control room for the one Flash and Shining stepped into.

"Welcome to the holodeck," Fuego stated as they looked around the gridded room. "Here, we'll simulate any environment to determine your skills in a safe and controlled manner."

"Cool," Flash whispered and smirked at the girls watching. Glug then coughed and they turned to him, as Tetrax activated the room.

Flash and Shining expected the place to transform into some kind of environment, but instead only two things appeared.

They stood facing one another and looked at what had appeared. A pair of tables, each with a wire loop game on them and a bell on the end of it. They looked at the handle they had to move through the wire and saw it had a round metal ball on the end that they could use to ring the bell.

"First test," Fuego told them. "You must ring the bell on the end of the wire."

"Huh," Flash smirked, "no problem. We have this game at the fair every year."

"Really?" Glug took out a handkerchief, then threw it into the air. "Did those games give out a ten thousand volt shock?" The handkerchief hit the wire and in a blast of lightning, turned to ash and fell to the ground. "Flash Sentry, you go first."

Flash smirked and grabbed the loop, picking it up as Glug started the timer. He carefully started moving it along the wire, being careful not to let the metal touch. The girls watched from the control room and Pinkie had to cover her mouth to stop from cheering, not wanting to surprise Flash into failing. "Come on Flash," Twilight whispered.

He did his best and managed to get about halfway, but then his loop touched the wire and a large bolt of lightning shot into his body. "YOW!" He was blasted backwards and everyone flinched as he hit the ground, moaning in pain. After a few moments, he sat himself up and everyone stared at him, the teen reaching up and realising his hair was stuck up.

"Okay," Fuego turned to Shining as Flash staggered forward. "You ready?" He nodded as Glug started the stopwatch, only to stop it when he heard the bell ring thanks to Shining hitting it with a pen. "Zero point five seconds. Not bad."

"What!" Flash cried, "he didn't use the wire!"

"The rules just said to ring the bell," Shining told him. "They didn't say anything about the bell." Flash wanted to argue, but couldn't think of a way to say that was wrong. And by the way the other two were smiling, he could tell that was well within the rules.

"That's not very fair," Sunset frowned.

"Plumbers need to be able to think outside the box," Tetrax pointed out. "There are a lot of different kinds of alien out in the universe, with strange and complicated abilities. Flash will need to be able to find ways of beating them that exist outside the norm." They all frowned as the wires disappeared and was replaced with something else.

This time, the tables each had a large metal lunchbox-like object on it. The humans took a closer look and saw it had a combination of it. "Next test," Fuego stated. "Open the box and remove the contents before time runs out." He showed them a watch with fifteen minutes on it, which he started.

The two got to work examining the box, both finding four long lines of numbers and math symbols. They quickly realised they needed to solve these equations in order to open the box, but that was gonna be tricky since they didn't have anything to write the numbers down so they needed to do them in their head.

Flash tried to answer the questions, but math had never been his strong suit. And even if he could answer them all, it would take forever to figure out which order they went in.

Suddenly, he remembered the last test and how Shining had managed to solve it easily. He smirked and grabbed the box's two sides, using all his strength to pry them apart. But as soon as it opened, something shot out of the box and splattered against his face.

Everyone flinched at the green goo covering Flash, Fuego shaking his head. "I should have probably mentioned that any attempt to force it open, will activate the booby trap."

"You think?" Flash asked, as Shining continued to do the equations. Eventually, he figured them all out and had the four digits. He managed to get them in the right order on his third try, opening the box with two minutes to spare.

"Very good," Glug told him. Flash suddenly had a very nervous feeling that this wasn't gonna be as easy as he had hoped.

And sure enough, over the next two hours, Flash was subjected to one horror after another. At one point, he had to carry a bucket of water over a rolling log on top of a lava pit and fell in. Shining also did, but managed to get more water over before Flash did.

They then had to catch a bunch of holographic birds in nets that would sting them if they couldn't catch them in time. Flash managed to get three by the end of the time and Shining had seven and a lot less stings on his face.

They then had the pair run through an obstacle course that looked like something you would see on TV shows, with a climbing wall that had boxing gloves flying out of it, spinning platforms they had to jump on and swinging pendulums on walkways that electrocuted anyone that touched them. They both got punched in the face, but Shining managed to stay on the platform and avoid getting zapped. Flash did not.

"Impressive," Fuego told Shining when they chose to give the pair a break. "You're score is most definitely a passing grade. You certainly know what you're doing in the physical aspects of the job."

"Thanks," Shining smiled as he saw a still smoking Flash walk out of the room. "Listen. Don't be too hard on Flash. He might not be great in his human form, but he's amazing when he's fighting as an alien."

The plumbers frowned. "I know he's your friend," Glug stated. "And maybe he is good with the Omnitrix. But imagine how amazing someone more physically skilled could be with it. Like you, for instance."

"Me?" Shining looked shocked by this.

"Why not," Fuego nodded. "You've clearly got the physical skills. And you must know what each of the aliens the Omnitrix has can do. Once we've figured out how to remove it from Flash, I'm sure you'll do much better then him." This made Shining frown.

"Thanks, but no thanks. It wouldn't feel right. Flash has proven time and again that he's worthy of handling the Omnitrix. You might not be able to see it, but I wouldn't be able to hold a candle to him using the Omnitrix." He turned to walk away before either of them could say anything, whilst the girls looked upset.


"This is nuts!" Rainbow cried, "of course Shining's gonna be better at this. He's already trained himself as a cop."

"Yeah," Pinkie crossed her arms. "If they let Flash use his aliens, he'd have passed those silly tests no problem." The others nodded in agreement, Tetrax agreeing but knowing why they weren't letting him use the Omnitrix.

"I'm not saying Flash isn't good with the Omnitrix, but there needs to be more than that if he wants to be a plumber. Normal members have to get by with only their natural abilities. If Flash can't do the same, it wouldn't be fair to let him become a plumber. Besides, what'll happen if the Omnitrix is timed out? If Flash can't defend himself whilst it's not working, he won't survive as a Plumber."

Twilight could see the logic in this, but still felt bad for Flash. She just hoped that these failures wouldn't make him doubt himself.


Unfortunately, that's exactly what Flash was doing.

He had left the ship and was sitting on the ramp of it, thinking about his failures and how well Shining Armor had done. He looked down at the tube locked around his arm, keeping him from turning alien and showing off his true power. But...was that his problem? Had he grown too attached to the Omnitrix?

"Hey." Flash looked around and saw Twilight walking down the ramp until she was next to him, then sat down besides him. "You okay?"

"No," Flash sighed, "you saw how bad I was. I couldn't do a single one of those tests right. There's no way they're gonna make me a plumber."

"You don't know that," Twilight tried to assure him. "There are a lot of people out there that don't do well under test situations. Rainbow tried to learn how to drive from a book, but couldn't. And when she was actually out, driving, she picked it up faster than anyone."

"Not exactly the same thing."

"My point is, Fuego and Glug haven't seen you in action. If they had seen how you beat Animac, Negatine and that dinosaur, they wouldn't be so quick to judge you."

"But that wasn't me," Flash pointed out. "It was the Omnitrix. Everything I've done, I've only been able to do as an alien. Without the Omnitrix, I'm as useless as I've always been."

"You're not useless," Twilight told him.

"Really? How many times have I been brainwashed or forced to hide when magical stuff appeared?" Twilight wasn't sure, since she hadn't been around since the start of the magic situations. "Let's just say, it's a lot. And when I got the Omnitrix, I thought it meant I'd never have to be useless again. But now...now I've become so dependant on it I'm even worse than before I got it."

"That's not true. You might have used the Omnitrix to do a lot of good, but it was still you doing it. Power is nothing if it's not being used right. You were the one using those powers to the best of their ability. And the Omnitrix isn't perfect. You've said it yourself that it didn't always give you the alien you wanted."

"I guess," Flash sighed.

"And even then, you were able to get the job done and save the day. Because you're not useless. You're a hero." Flash wanted to let Twilight's words help him, but he just couldn't feel himself lightening up. Even if she was right, Flash still felt useless without the Omnitrix.

But in that moment, something caught their attention and threw Flash's thoughts out of his head.

A massive explosion over in the city, which instantly causes Flash to stand up and look up to see the smoke cloud not to far away coming up from behind several buildings. "Something's going on." As he said that, the others rush out of the ship.

"What was that?" Rainbow asked, the lot of them seeing the smoke cloud.

"Something bad must have happened," Sunset frowned. "What do we do." Glug stepped up and patted Shining on the shoulder.

"I think this is a good opportunity for you to show us what you can do in the field." Shining looked surprised by this and Fuego held out another plumber badge, spinning the outer edge before placing it on Shining's waist. This caused the badge to suddenly unleash a black liquid that wrapped around his waist and formed a utility belt with many compartments. Fuego then pushed the badge buckle inwards and this caused the belt to unleash a strange gray substance that began to form around his body

The man gasped at this, as the substance covered him. The others were worried he might suffocate, especially as it began to form fit to him. But then it started changing colour in places, transforming into a gray suit with black on the neck, shoulders, upper arms and around the knees. He was wearing black gloves and boots with white cuffs, along with white zipper running up his chest to his neck. On his legs were a pair of holsters, the right holding what looked like a metal H that was curved inwards at one end whilst the left held a metal rod of some kind.

His head was surrounded by a gray helmet that looked like something out of the kids TV show, having a black visor covering his eyes and a white mouthpiece with actual lips carved into it. The rest of the helmet was gray and covered his entire head.

Shining looked himself over and was shocked by the sudden transformation. "Wow. What is this?"

"Plumber suit," Fuego explained. "Not the same make as ours, but this one seems to suit you better. It's actually based on some of the early plumber suit designs. What do you think?"

"I think this feels great. I'd better head out." He turned to Flash, "you ready?" But Flash didn't look so sure, the teen frowning as he looked away. "What's up?"

"I...I don't think I should go with you." This surprised them, Flash looking back at them. "Maybe it would be best if you go without me. I might mess up." The others groaned at this, Shining wanting to argue, but an explosion made him realise he didn't have time.

"I think you're wrong," he told Flash. "But we'll need to discuss this later. I gotta get going."

"Left holster," Glug announced. Shining reached down and took out the rod. When he did, his visor suddenly showed a bunch of different vehicles and their states. "Hard Light Vehicle producer. Perfect for a Plumber who doesn't know what terrain he'll be one."

Shining smirked at this and picked a vehicle, then held the rod with both hands and pulled the ends apart. Doing so caused a light green light to shoot out the front of the gap and form a shape beneath him, Shining sitting down and finding the light was actually physical. In the blink of an eye, he was sitting on what looked like an ATV. Except it didn't have any back wheels and instead, something similar to a tank tread was there instead.

"Wow," Rainbow cried, "that is awesome."

"Hard light," Twilight whispered. "Amazing."

Shining smirked and kicked the machine into gear, the vehicle revving up with the wheels spinning in place for a second before it shot off at amazing speed. As he disappeared, Tetrax turned to the others. "Come on. We'll watch from the ship." They nodded and all rushed inside, the girls staring at Flash with worry.


Shining couldn't believe how fast he was going. The speed he was currently zooming through the streets at was insane and despite that, his visor was letting him see everything perfectly.

Another explosion caught his attention and he turned towards it, skidding around a building and onto a street full of smoke. And thanks to his visor, he could see through the smoke and was shocked by what he saw was causing the explosions. Giant mice, whose bodies were covered in a brown armouring. They had large antenna on their heads and their mouths were sideways with mandibles sticking out of their cheeks.

The large mutants were all over the place, being the size of lions and digging through the ground chomping through anything they found. The cause of the explosions were from them cutting into gas lines, their mandibles cutting through the metal and sparks that made them explode.

Shining was shocked by what he saw, but quickly realised who must be the cause. "Animac!" He stopped his bike and pushed the rod together, causing the light to vanish as he stood up. "Animac! Where are you?"

"Oh." He looked over at a building and saw the man in question standing atop it. "I don't think we've been introduced. But obviously, you're a fan of mine."

"Hardly." Shining put the rod away and reached for his other leg, taking out the strange H device. As soon as he did, his visor started showing him multiple different weapons. Some were close combat weapons like swords and axes, whilst others were different forms of gun. He quickly picked one and the device suddenly transformed into a futuristic pistol that he started firing at Animac.

The man gasped and leapt back, the lasers missing him as he focused on his creations. "Rip him to shreds!" The mutants didn't hesitate and started attacking him, Shining quickly blasting them but finding there were quite a few he had to deal with.


Back at the ship, everyone had tuned into Shining's helmet cam and were watching the battle unfold.

They had seen Animac and frowned when they saw he was back, having hoped they had seen the last of him. But now they were more worried about Shining Armor and his issues. "Anyone else feel like they're watching someone play a first person shooter?" Rainbow asked, as Shining switched his gun to a two-handed blaster and started firing. The others gave her a look, "just saying."

"Is Shining gonna be alright?" Twilight asked Tetrax, as Glug and Fuego watched.

"His suit's equipped with some impressive tech," Fuego told her. "He shouldn't have any trouble with these creatures. Plumbers have to deal with these kind of problems all the time."

"But not on their own," Sunset pointed out. "I looked through some of the data on Plumbers and they always have partners. Shining's fighting on his own." She turned to Flash, Twilight and the others doing the same.

Flash stared at the screen, hoping Shining could do this on his own.


Shining could not do this on his own.

The suit he was wearing was strong. It allowed him to jump three times his normal jumping height and doubled his physical strength, evident when he managed to punch one of the ant-mice away, plus it could take a beating as one of them mutants slashed at his back but it didn't even tear the suit. However, it wasn't enough to help him beat these creatures.

He blasted one down but their armoured bodies were meant that the blasts were equal to getting punched in the face. And these creatures could obviously take a punch.

He stopped blasting and switched up his weapon, changing it to a saw-style broadsword that he started swinging around. The blade managed to scratch the ant armor, but it would take a few slashes to actually break through it. "Guys!" He cried out when he was surrounded by them, "I could use a little backup here!" The creatures charged and he was barely able to change his weapon into a round shield, which he held up so it would unleash some hard-light that formed a dome around him. "GUYS!"


"Ahhh!" Flash cried, seeing his friend in trouble making him forget all about his previous self doubt. "Enough of this. I've gotta help him!"

"Heck yeah!" Rainbow told him, "let's do this!" Flash turned to the plumbers and held up his arm.

"Take this thing off!" Glug and Fuego frowned.

"You haven't been cleared to use that," the fish alien told him.

"I don't care what you think. I might not have been able to pass your dumb tests, but I've overcome way harder challenges when it actually mattered. Take this thing off and I'll show you what I can do." The pair didn't looked like they agreed, Flash turning to Tetrax. "Please."

The crystal alien stared at him for a moment, then nodded. "Alright." He reached over and typed in the release code, the plumbers going wide-eyed at this.

"What are you doing?" Fuego cried.

"Flash is right. He might not be able to do much as a human, but when he's an alien he's almost unstoppable." Flash smiled an activated the Omnitrix, slapping it down and transforming into XLR8.

"Just watch," the raptor lowered his visor. "I'm gonna show you just how good I am." Before either plumber could say anything, he shot out of the ship and rushed towards the battlefield. As he did, everyone else looked back at the fight.


Shining groaned as the hard-light shield was beginning to crack, as the mutants slashed and bit at it.

"Ahh!" He groaned, "any moment now would be good." He looked through his visor and tried to find a weapon that could help him out, finding a setting that might help but also leave his power reserves low. "Better than nothing." He selected the setting and the shield he was holding up began to spark before unleashing a wave of energy, which zapped the ant-mice and caused several of them to go numb and fall to the ground.

This also caused his shield to turn off, needing a minute or so to recharge. And as it did, the mutants that had been standing behind the now numb ones approached.

From the rooftop, Animac chuckled seeing his foe in trouble. But before he could start gloating, he noticing movement to his right. That movement was coming from a blue blur, which shot down the street and reached the battle ground. "What?" He cried as the blur knocked down several of his creations, stopping right next to the armoured figure and revealing the alien speedster. "Not again!"

Shining smirked as he and XLR8 stood back to back. "Glad to see you decided to stop feeling sorry for yourself."

"Yeah," XLR8 nodded, "sorry about that. I might not be good at tests, but when I'm in the field I can kick butt like nobody else." With that, he started running circles around Shining Armor. Any mutant that got too close found itself getting kicked, punched or tail-slapped away.

Shining used this to reactivate his weapon, changing it to a double-handed blaster that he started firing through the small tornado XLR8 created. He aimed for the cracks that appeared on the mice's chest armor with every hit XLR8 dealt to them, breaking through it and causing them to actually feel the volts being shot at them.

Animac growled at this and as XLR8 stopped circling Shining, the alien grabbed a mutant's mandibles and held them in place. "You're not getting to have a bite out of me," he groaned before jumping up and flying over the creature. Doing so allowed him to pull the mutant's head backwards and allowing Shining to hit the gap in its armor at the neck.

As XLR8 landed, he looked up at the building that held Animac and ran up it. "Stay back!" He yelled throwing a pair of glass tubes into the air. One of them held a praying mantis and the others held a hornet, XLR8 stopping as Animac fired the beams from his gauntlets. As he did, a pigeon happened the fly passed and got caught in the beam along with the two insects.

In a flash of light, a giant mutant appeared in the air. Said mutant had the body and stinger of the hornet, wings and feet of the pigeon and head and arms of the mantis. "Wow," XLR8 stepped back, "that's just freaky."

Animac smirked. "Not what I was going for, but I can work with this." He leapt up and landed on the creature's back, "attack my pet!" The mutant launched its stinger at XLR8, who managed to avoid it. But unlike normal hornets, this one was able to regrow its stinger and fire again.

XLR8 quickly found himself on the defensive, dodging the stingers as the mutant flew higher. Meanwhile, the numbed ground mutants started to recover and Shining started shooting at them.

XLR8 ran forward after the mutant fired the stinger and leapt up attempting to slash at the creature but it was just too high. "You can't reach us," Animac laughed as he pet fired another stinger, which XLR8 barely managed to avoid when he landed. The beast then dived down and slashed at him with its arm blades, XLR8 rushing over to the other side of the building and getting ready to attack from behind it.

But then, he heard Shining cry out and looked down to see one of the mice had grabbed his leg in its mandibles. The suited man groaned as he tried to kick it, XLR8 quickly rushing down the building as the flying mutant fired its stinger at him.

Before the ant-mouse could tried to tear Shining's leg off, XLR8 shot passed and pulled him away in a blur of motion. The pair reached the end of the street and caught their breath. "You okay?"

"I'm good," Shining nodded. "We should focus on Animac. Get that device off his head and everything turns back to normal. At least, I hope it will." XLR8 nodded and was about to do that, only for his Omnitrix to start beeping.

"Oh come on!" He grabbed Shining and rushed off, speeding the pair around a building seconds before he was consumed by light and returned to human. "Great. Now what do we do?"


"Ahhh," Glug sighed. "See, he wasted time and let his power run out."

Fuego nodded, "he should have stopped playing around and taken that scientist down before it was too late." He and Glug turned to head to the ship's exit. "Clearly, we're gonna have to deal with this situation ourselves."

"Would you guys cool it!" Twilight told them. "Flash did his best. It's not his fault the Omnitrix has a freaking time limit on it." The others nodded. "Besides, who knows what Animac has up his sleeve. You don't know what you're walking into, but Flash does. He just needs to buy time for the watch to recharge."

"Twilight's right." Tetrax nodded before opening a panel on the wall, which revealed a bunch of plumber weapons.

"What are you doing?" Glug asked, as Tetrax removed one of the smaller blasters and a face mask. "That is plumber tech and can only be used by licenced plumbers."

"Sue me," Tetrax pressed several buttons and the devices suddenly vanished in a flash of light.


Flash and Shining watched as the mutants drew closer, Shining preparing to defend Flash until the watch recharged.

But before he could leap out, a flash of light caught their attention and they looked down to see the blaster and mask on the ground. The pair stared at them for a moment before Flash smirked and grabbed them, placing the mask over his face and feeling the sides and back of his head being encased within it. Now the only part of him that could be seen was he blue hair.

The two nodded at each other as the mutants got closer, both of them leaping out from behind the wall and starting to blast any that were close by. They once again aimed for the gaps in the armor, but found the ant-mice were protecting those spots now. They were then bombarded by the flying mutant's stinger attacks, the pair leaping around to avoid it.

Shining changed his gun to a flail that had an energy cord connecting the head to the handle, which he started swinging around and slamming into the mutant's heads. Animac saw this and whilst he wondered what happened to the alien, he smirked seeing the two do gooders were on the ropes.

"Nothing can stop me now!" He laughed, as the mutants began to surround the heroes.

"Don't be so sure!" Animac spun around, just in time to see a trio and strange suited individuals flying towards him. He gasped as he attempted to pull his triple chimera away, but Tetrax managed to fire a blunt crystal at him and knocked him off his creation.

He screamed as he fell, but luckily one of his ant-mice managed to catch him.

Tetrax then threw another gem at the ground between Flash and Shining, which suddenly exploded and formed a large ring of gemstones around them. The pair smirked at this, as this had pushed the mutants back and gave them something to hide behind as they fired at them.

Fuego held up his hands and launched waves of fire at the mutants, but Flash gasped. "Don't!" He cried, making Fuego stop and looked back at him.

"What do you mean, don't?"

"These are innocent creatures," Flash told him. "They didn't ask to be turned into these monsters and Animac is the one controlling them. If we can stop him, they'll turn back to normal." Fuego and Glug frowned at him, Flash removing his helmet so they could see how serious he was. "You said it's a plumber's job to protect the innocent. That includes these creatures." The pair seemed surprised by this, as Shining and Tetrax smiled.

"Fine," Glug told him, "what do you suggest?" Before Flash could answer, the flying mutant charged forward and attacked the pair gasped at this and took evasive manoeuvres.

Flash turned to Animac as he replaced the mask and tried to think, as Tetrax landed besides him. "Those creatures will try to protect him. We need to sneak up on this fool and take him out quickly." Flash nodded and as he did, the Omnitrix turned green.

"Yes," he activated it, "sneaking is something Chamalien does best." He found the alien in question and slapped the dial down, causing a green light to fill the crystal circle. But when it died down, Flash wasn't the alien he wanted. "Molestache," the rodent sighed, "I said sneaking not squeaking." The jumped up and looked over the crystals, as Twilight's words entered his head.

Fuego and Glug both saw this as they continued to distract the flying mutant, frowning at him becoming an alien that had no chance of helping them. But then a look appeared on Molestache's face, as an idea formed in his head.

"I've got it!" He jumped down, "cover me!" With that, he started slashing at the ground until he managed to scrape away the asphalt and continued to dig. Shining and Tetrax kept the rest of the mutants at bay, whilst Glug and Fuego leapt off their hoverboards and landed on the triple mutant's back.

"Time to ground this bird!" Fuego cried as he and Glug each grabbed the pigeon wings, making it cry out as it was unable to fly and started falling towards the ground. They aimed the beast towards Animac and the man gasped, leaping to the side in order to avoid getting crushed.

The mutant and aliens landed and the plumbers were both thrown off, Glug's glass helmet cracking at the impact. As he picked himself up, he gasped seeing the crack which was beginning to let what dribble out of it. "You fools!" Animac stood up, "nothing you do can defeat me." He pointed at them and the mutants began to turn their attention of the plumbers, the lot slowly moving forward with their teeth at the ready.

Fuego frowned and prepared to blast them all, not willing to lose his life to keep a bunch of mutated animals alive.

But before he could blast them, the ground beneath Animac's feet suddenly broke apart. "What hoe!" Animac looked down just in time to see Molestache smiling at him before the alien rodent leapt up and punched him with a stache fist, sending him staggering back and allowing Molestache to jump at him and land on his shoulders with his nose-hair wrapping around the mad scientist's head.

"HEY!" He cried, trying to get the alien off of him. "Let go of me!" He roared, swinging his head around but Molestache was able to keep hold of him. The alien grabbed the antennas of his helmet and pulled on them, managing to rip them off the helmet. "NOOOOO!" He roared as his device lost its power, the mutants all being freed from his control.

Molestache finally leapt off of him and coptered into the air, Animac gasping as he opened his eyes and saw all his servants turning to glare at him.

"What have you done?" He asked, Molestache crossing his arms as the mutants moved towards him. Even the flying one had gotten up and was pointing his stinger at Animac.

"They're free. Free to make their own choices. And they seem to have chosen to make you their next meal." Animac's eyes went wide at this, as the chimeras got closer. "Guess you've only got two options. Turn them back to normal so they can't hurt you, or hope they suddenly decide to go vegetarian." Animac knew he was bluffing. Any moment now, one of them would jump in and save him...right?

The mutants got closer and closer, but still the heroes did nothing but watch and smile. Then, one of the mice leapt at him. "AHHHH!" He thrust his hand forward and launched a laser from his gauntlet, which struck the mutant and in a flash, it returned to normal and split into a mouse and ant.

The returned to normal animals ran off, whilst the rest of the mutants got closer. Animac had no other choice and fired several more beams, hitting multiple mutants and turning them back to normal. The last one reverted back was the flying one, the pigeon and mantis escaping whilst the hornet decided to sting him.

"Ow!" He cried at the sting, only to hear the sound of a blaster powering itself up. He looked around and saw Shining pointing the weapon at his head, Glug and Molestache doing the same with their weapons whilst Tetrax and Fuego held up their fists. Animac gulped, "I'd like to go to jail now." They all smiled at this, then at each other.


Later, after they had destroyed Animac's gear, they left him tied to a lamppost as the cops arrived.

They then returned to the ship, where the Rainbooms cheered for their victory. "You guys did it!" Trixie punched Flash in the shoulder, "that was awesome what you did. Forcing Animac to undo his own work. Man, I wish I could have taken a picture of his face."

Fluttershy smiled, "I'm glad you were able to help those poor animals. I could hear them through Shining's helmet. They hated what they were doing, but couldn't stop themselves." Flash smiled back at her, glad he had gotten Glug and Fuego to not hurt the animals.

"So what happens now?" Twilight then asked, catching their attention and focusing on the two plumbers.

They were focusing on repairing the crack in Glug's helmet, the water level having dropped almost halfway. Once the helmet was fixed, the pair turned to Flash and saw him looking worried. They then looked at one another, shrugging at each other. "I'll admit," Fuego spoke up. "Despite your less than stellar test results, in the field you've proven good at thinking on your feet."

Glug nodded. "Plus, you have taken the plumber's most important teachings to heart. Protecting the innocent, whether they be senitiant or mindless animals."

"What does that mean?" Flash asked, the plumbers sighing as they turned to Shining Armor.

"You truly think he has what it takes to be a plumber?" Fuego asked, Shining nodding.

"He still has stuff to learn, but you can trust him with the Omnitrix. And if anything happens, I'll take full responsibility." The pair nodded at this before moving over to them, Flash and Shining curious about what they intended on doing.

"Flash Sentry and Shining Armor. We deem you worthy of Provisional Plumber status." Everyone gasped at this. "So long as you both maintain regular reports and don't do anything to make us regret it, you will have the authority to arrest any alien criminal that might arrive. Do a good job, and you'll be on your way to the Plumber's Academy in no time."

"Seriously," Flash smirked, "that's awesome!" Fuego nodded before turning to Shining.

"Remember, he's your responsibility. If he messes up, or starts using the Omnitrix irresponsibly, you have to inform us. If not, you'll lose your plumber provision. Is that understood?" Shining nodded. He knew Flash wouldn't ever mess with the Omnitrix, so he wouldn't need to tell them.

"Alright," Glug pointed at Shining. "Your badges." Shining looked confused and took out the two badges he had been given. Glug took the first one and held out another badge, which unleashed a light that hit the one that had formed his suit before. "There. You're now in the plumber system. As long as you show that badge to any galactic criminal or officer that might show up, they'll know you're a plumber."

Shining smirked at this, whilst Flash looked at them hopefully. "You've got the Omnitrix," Fuego stated. "That's more than enough for you." Flash pouted at this, as the two went on. "As of this moment, the two of you are the only law in this quadrant. Do a good job." They nodded as the pair turned away. "Well, we need to get going. Headquarters will want a full report on what happened."

Tetrax stepped forward, "I have my own duties to attend to. This'll be it for now." They all nodded as the plumbers prepared to take off, Tetrax giving them a look. "You guys might wanna leave. Can't protect the planet if you hitchhike with us to outer space." The others didn't need to be told twice and the lot of them rushed for the exit, running down the ramp and getting off it seconds before it raised.

The ship then took off and became visible for a second before shooting into the sky at warp speed, the ten humans watching it go before letting what had just happened sink in. Shining held up his badge and as he clutched it, he felt a sense of pride. He was now part of something bigger than himself and he couldn't wait to see what the future held for him.

As for Flash, he looked down at the Omnitrix and smirked. This event might have made him doubt himself, but that doubt was gone. He was worthy of the Omnitrix and though he still had a lot to learn, he would one day become worthy of the title plumber.

"So," Trixie looked to the others, "what do we do now?"

"Now," Flash smirked at them, "we get ready for whatever the universe throws at us. Whether it be alien, magic or human, we're not gonna let it mess with our planet. You with me?"

"YEAH!" They all cheered, knowing Flash was right. Whatever came their way, they would handle it...together. The plumber, the magical girls, the magician and the alien hero. The ten of them would handle any threat.