//------------------------------// // Season 2, Episode 3: Grounded // Story: The Omnitrix Hero // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// It was another busy day in Canterlot and on the freeway, people were driving as fast as they could to get to their intended destination. But there were those that were driving even faster. A large armored truck was zooming down the road, zigzagging through the vehicles around it to try and escape the pursuing police cruisers. They managed to get far ahead of them and even outrun the stingers that were being deployed, as the last of the civilian cars were forced to stop or go onto a different route to keep the highway safe. But before the drivers could start singing their 'I outran the cops' song, a wall of crystals suddenly exploded upwards from out of the ground. The truck skidded to a stop before it could crash and as the driver got into reverse, someone appeared standing atop the crystal wall. Diamondhead, who smirked at them before leaping up and over the truck. Landing behind it, he quickly punched the ground and caused a line of gems to fly out of the ground until it struck the truck. This pushed it forwards until it hit the crystal wall, locking it into place. The crooks inside the truck got out, but pulled a hostage out with them. They had a gun pointed at his head, "don't try any funny stuff." Diamondhead nodded and raised his hands, making the crooks relax. But then, he flexed his finger and unleashed a tiny shard. It shot over and struck the gun before he could fire it, impaling the barrel and making it unfireable. Then, before the crook could do anything else, Diamondhead ran forward and punched him in the face just hard enough to knock him out. He then grabbed the hostage and pulled him behind himself, protecting him as the other two criminals pulled out their guns. But Diamondhead simply punched the ground and their legs were encased in crystal, preventing their escape. This allowed Diamondhead to pick the hostage up and jump up and over the crystal wall, right as the cops arrived to arrest the men. The whole scene then froze before becoming captured in a tiny box, which hovered right beside a news announcer. "This footage was caught by highway surveillance, showing another appearance of the heroic aliens. Nobody knows where they came from or why they're focusing on Canterlot, but it's clear everyone feels safer knowing they're here. But one can only wonder what these aliens do when they're not saving us earthlings. I wish I knew what they were doing right now." "Grounded!?" Flash cried at his parents. He was currently in his house, having just gotten home from school. He hadn't been expecting his parents to be there, waiting for him on the couch. "What for?" "Let's jog your memory," Trail took out a piece of paper and looked it over. "Monday morning, absent from gym class." Flash's body went rigid as he remember why he was absent, having had to save a police helicopter from crashing after its engine failed. The pilot certainly hadn't been expecting Bushwhacker to use a bunch of trees to catch it. "I was in...study hall." Trail raised an eyebrow at this and looked back at the letter. "Friday..." He showed Flash the not, "absent from study hall." Flash blinked before trying to remember, then shivered at the memory of a tree stuck cat launching itself at Vapaw with claws drawn. "I was in gym." Trail frowned at him as Misty stood up. "You're never where you're supposed to be." She placed a hand on his shoulder, "the only way we can keep track of you is by keeping you here. So until further notice, you're grounded." Flash groaned at this, his parents looking at him in concern. "Flash, we're worried about you." "Why? Just because I've been late to a few classes?" "It's not just this," Trail told him. "What about when you come home limping, bruised or exhausted?" "Those aren't my fault," Flash pointed out. "A giant monster appeared in the middle of town the other week. I wasn't the only one hurt by that!" "Yet this keeps happening," Misty stated. "Either you have the worst luck when it comes to running into these situations, or you're using them to cover something else up. What are you even doing in these locations?" "You used to barely go anywhere," Trail sighed. "Most of the time, it was only to hang out at the mall, practising with your band or doing a gig with them." Misty nodded. "Why did you even stop playing in your band? You loved it so much, but I don't think you've even picked up your guitar in weeks." Flash frowned, pulling his jacket sleeve down over the Omnitrix. "I just...realised it wasn't what I wanted to spend my life doing. I've been focusing on that." "And what is it you want to do with your life?" Trail asked, Flash trying to think of what that was. "I...I wanna be a police officer." He wasn't far off and his parents seemed surprised by that. "I wanna help people and getting to know Shining Armor, I realised that's what I wanna be when I leave school." "I see," Misty nodded. "Well, I'm happy you know what you want to do with your life. But you'll never be able to become a police officer if you keep missing classes. So until these are dealt with, I'm sorry to say you're grounded." Flash groaned again and headed up to his room, his parents looking sad as they watched him disappear. "We're doing the right thing, aren't we?" Trail placed a hand on her shoulder, "I think so. He'll thank us for this when he's older." Flash threw his bag down and dropped onto his bed, his face pushed into the pillow as he tried to think of a way to still be a hero despite being grounded. His phone then rang and he picked it up and put it on speaker, "hello?" "Hey," Trixie's voice called out to him. "Saw your work earlier today. Nice one." "Thanks," Flash sighed, "hope you enjoyed it. Might be the last bit of alien action I get to do for a while." He could tell Trixie was about to ask why, "my parents just grounded me." "What, why?" "I might have missed a few classes here and there. I got sidetracked." "I see. Well it's your own fault. I've told you again and again that you don't need to drop everything and rush in to help. You're too nice for your own good sometimes." Flash rolled his eyes. "Well now you're not gonna have any choice. You'll have to cut back on the alien thing. Probably do you some good. Your grades have been slipping a little bit." "Yeah, I need to deal with that before my parents notice." As he said that, he heard his parents climbing the stairs. "Flash. Are you on the phone. No phones." Flash groaned and told Trixie he had to go, hanging up before she could say anything. He was glad his parents trusted him enough not to take the phone away from him. Instead, he laid on his bed and moaned to himself about how uncool things were gonna be for a good while. Several days later. All over the city, people were curious why the aliens hadn't been showing up as much as they had been recently. In the last few days, only two or three sightings of them had been noticed. Other times, it was like they were never there to begin with. And a lot of people were starting to take notice. Some of those people were the police, who found themselves with a lot of extra work since the aliens weren't being their usual helpful selves. But this was fine for them. The police force had really been low on moral since Flash's aliens appeared, so they were all waiting for the chance to show they were just as effective as the extra-terrestrial heroes. And that chance had just walked through the front door of the precinct. He was a man in his mid twenties, with cream coloured skin and shiny blonde hair that was combed back with what was probably a bunch of hair gel. He was wearing a white shirt under a black vest, with a black bowtie and pants. He also had a white plastic headband on his head, which had a blackish purple gemstone on it. The white gloves and black cape he was also wearing really gave him the appearance of a stage magician. The man looked around and smiled, whilst the officer at the front desk raised an eyebrow at him. "Can I help you, sir?" The man looked at him and smiled, then he reached into his pants. The officer was instantly on guard, but then he saw all he had taken out of his pants were deck of cards. "Hello there," he announced to everyone in the room. "It's so nice to see so many new friends. I'm sure we're all going to get on like a house on fire." "What do you want?" One of the cops asked as the man shuffled the deck. "I want to make friends. Friends are so great, aren't they. Especially when they do things for you." With that, he took out several cards and touched each of them to his forehead. They started glowing as he threw them towards the officer that spoke along with several others. The cops all cried out as they felt their minds going completely blank. Then, their bodies went stiff and they stood completely still. Upstairs, Shining Armor was working at his desk completely unaware of what was going on. Despite being a plumber, he still had his day job as a police detective. It might not have been as exciting as the alien fighting life, but being a plumber didn't exactly pay the bills. So there he was, trying to get as much of his paperwork done so he could go home and spend time with his family. He had just finished processing his last perp when it happened. All the uniformed officers from downstairs suddenly marched into it. Shining turned to them and when he saw their eyes, he knew something was off. Their eyes were blank and lacked any life, whilst their movements were all synchronized. "What's going on here?" His captain asked as he stepped into the room, only for the oddly dressed man to step out from between the officers. "I apologise for so rudely interrupting," he took out the deck of cards. "Care to see a magic trick." The captain crossed his arms and didn't look happy. "Is it teleporting you into a cell, because that would entertain me greatly." The man smiled before touching the card to his head before pressing it into the captain's chest. His eyes went wide at this and his body stiff, making the detectives around him instantly go on alert. But the uniformed officers outnumbered them and quickly grabbed them. The detectives flinched as they tried to fight them off, but one by one the man struck them with a card and brought them under his control. Shining was the last one still fighting and managed to knock several officers down before reaching for his Plumber Badge, but more quickly grabbed hold of him and he was soon subdued. As he was pushed to his knees and his arms pulled backwards, the man stepped forward and took out another card. "Who are you?" He smiled and held out the card, "I'm The Hypnotist." With that, the card touched his chest and everything went blank. Later, Twilight and her friends were at Sugarcube Corner. Twilight and Sunset were up at the counter, waiting for their drink orders when they heard someone speaking up about the aliens. "Maybe they're starting to go to other cities." "I don't think so," his friend told him. "We would have heard something if they had." The girls grabbed their drinks and moved over to where their friends were sitting, who seemed just as worried as Twilight was feeling. "I was afraid of this," Sunset stated. "People are starting to notice." "This could be a problem," Twilight gulped. "If Flash starts going full alien again when he's ungrounded, people might notice." "I don't think we have to worry that much," Trixie told them. "Barely anyone knows Flash is grounded. And even if they did, they're hardly gonna connect it to the alien's sudden vacation." The others knew she was right, but they were still worried someone would notice. Plus, every day Flash was grounded was a day he couldn't train as an alien. The thought that an alien like Vilgax might show up and cause trouble worried the lot of them. If they couldn't find a way to get him ungrounded soon, things were likely to get problematic. "I really hope nothing big happens," Fluttershy quivered. "I usually don't want anything big and dangerous to happen, but right now is a really bad time." The others couldn't agree more. Each of them did a silent pray that things would remain quiet until Flash wasn't stuck at home. "Hey," they then heard someone call out, "what's going on?" He pointed to the TV and everyone turned to see a new broadcast. Said broadcast was showing a bank the Rainbooms recognised as the one they had fought Gelidafur at. From out of the bank, several police officers were marching out of it carrying bags they assumed was stuff with money. Mrs Cake turned it up and they heard the newscaster speak up. "As you can see. The entire CCPD has began looting the bank of anything valuable." As she said this, several officers fired their guns into the air. People screamed and ran whilst the newscaster and cameraman tried to hide. "It is unclear why the CCPD have suddenly turned criminal, but they have already attacked two other banks before this one and don't look to be stopping." "This can't actually be happening," Sunset gasped as someone walked into view. That someone was Shining Armor, pulling along another bag of money. "No way!" Twilight cried, standing up and staring at her brother in horror. "Shining would never do anything like this." As she said that, someone else stepped into view. The only dressed individual. "Who's that?" Pinkie asked as two police officers pulled something towards this man, who took out a deck of cards. He then placed it against his head before touching it to the man, who suddenly went limp before standing up. The police let him go and he started helping out. "Did you see that?" Rarity asked, "you don't think..." "They're brainwashed," Sunset gasped. One of the police officers walked close enough to the camera to show his eyes and sure enough, his eyes were blank. Sunset had only seen that one place before. When she had brainwashed the entire student body. "We need to do something." They others nodded and rushed out the dinner, heading towards the area they thought the crowd was. "But Flash is grounded," Trixie pointed out, "how are we supposed to stop that many without him?" "Oh please," Rainbow told her. "We were dealing with situations like this way before he got the Omnitrix. I think we can handle one bout of brainwashing without his help." The others agreed as they reached Applejack's truck, the lot of them climbing in and driving off. Silently, they all hoped they could handle this situation. Because they probably weren't getting Flash's help. The alien hero was currently in his room, working on some homework assignments he had fallen behind with during his alien work. His brain was absolutely fried as he finished his math work. "What I wouldn't give for an alien with super smarts." He heard his phone going off and quickly checked it, rolling his eyes when he saw who it was. "Hey mom." "Hey hon. Just checking in. How is everything?" "Same as half an hour ago. I'm stuck in my room, trying not to die of boredom." "Well just remember, we're doing this for your own good. Maybe you could use this time to improve yourself in some way. You know, I was grounded when I was a little younger than you and used that time to learn Prench." "Really?" Flash asked. "Cause that year we went to Prance, you kept getting us lost reading the street signs." "I never said I became fluent in it. But I learnt enough to ask where the bathroom is." "Then why do I have the strangest memory of needing to cross my legs for three hours before giving up and going in a bush?" Misty didn't answer that, Flash knowing he had her. "My point still stands. You never know how useful being grounded at this time might be for you. Try and use it to-HEY!" Flash was on edge, hearing his mother cry out. "You okay?" "I'm fine. Some idiot just jumped in front of the car. Talk to you later." She hung up and Flash wondered who would jump out in front of the car. "What are you thinking?" Misty asked as she and Trail got out of the car, whilst the man they had almost run over simply stood there. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was." The girls had finally arrived at the area that had been on TV and by the looks of things, what they saw had only been a taste of what was to come. Getting out of the truck, they spotted more police officers beginning to ransack buildings and stores now. "What are they doing?" Fluttershy asked, looking scared as she watched some police officers walking out with everything valuable. Then they started pulling those that had actually been in the store out. "Let me go!" A lady cried as the cop carried her over his shoulder, "this is police brutality!" Twilight acted quickly, grabbing the man's arm and pulling it off of her. This allowed her to leap down as the man remained completely immobile. "Run!" Sunset told her, the woman running off whilst the cops turned to them. Seeing they were under their master's control, they moved in to grab them. But Rainbow exploded into motion, changing into her pony form, using her magic to zip by them and trip them up when she did. She then ran ahead. "Rainbow!" Applejack cried, "don't run ahead!" The girls went after her, Rarity using her shield to protect them as they saw her run around a corner. "Gotcha!" They heard Rainbow cry out. "What the!" They then heard a man cry, as they got around the corner and saw Rainbow standing next to the man. They thought she had caught him, but then Rainbow turned towards them and showed her eyes were blank. "RAINBOW!" The man smirked as he looked her over, "wasn't expecting that. This girl is like lightning. Glad I was holding a card when she came at me." The rest of the Rainbooms transformed into their pony forms, as Trixie rushed over to take cover. "Oh," he noticed Twilight's hands glowing and Rarity forming a pair of small shields, "you can do stuff like that too? Interesting." "Give it up!" Sunset cried, "I don't know who you are, but you're messing with forces that are beyond your kin." The man rolled his eyes and took out some card, tapping them onto his forehead. "I am the Hypnotist." He gave the cards to Rainbow, "and I look forward to adding you all to my collection." Rainbow shot forward and in the blink of an eye, she was behind each of the Rainbooms as the cards were stuck to their chest. Trixie's eyes went wide as she watched the girls go limp for a moment, then look up with their eyes completely blank. "Oh no." The Hypnotist laughed and jumped on the spot with a clap, then looked them over. "Alright," he pointed at Twilight, "what's that purpley stuff?" "My Equestrian Magic?" Twilight replied, "it allows me to lift things with my mind." "I see," he nodded before turning to Applejack. "And what can you do?" He went on to ask what each of them could do, looking bored when Fluttershy and Sunset explained their powers. As this was happening, Trixie chose this moment to escape. Luckily, th alleyway wasn't blocked off and she could run for it. But she accidently kicked a trash can as she fled, catching the Hypnotist's attention. "Who's there?" Trixie didn't respond, "go look!" She heard Rainbow's whoosh of wind and knew she only had seconds, so quickly grabbed the trash can and threw it to the ground. Rainbow ran in as it hit the ground and accidently tripped over it. This allowed Trixie to keep running. But as she left the alleyway, her eyes went wide when she saw Shining and several more police officers moving towards her. Shining reached into his coat and took out his badge, attaching it to his waist and activating the suit. Once he was kitted up, he took out his weapon and turned it into a laser blaster. "Oh boy." Trixie pulled out several smoke bombs and threw them to the ground, creating a large cloud of smoke that blocked her from view. When it faded, Trixie had vanished. Flash sighed as he finished his last piece of homework. He threw his book over to the others and laid on his bed, with absolutely nothing to do. He looked over at his guitar and was tempted to start playing, but his phone went off before he could. "Hello?" He asked, only to hear Trixie's terrified voice. "FLASH!" He pulled his phone away from his ear, "you have to get down here." Flash sighed. "I can't. I'm grounded, remember. My parents call in every thirty minutes to make sure I'm in the house." "Flash, some crazy guy's shown up and he's using some kind of magic to take control of people. He's got an entire army of everyday people that are grabbing others to recruit." Flash hadn't been expecting that, but it didn't change anything. "If it's magic, Twilight and the rest of the Rainbooms can deal with it. They did before I got the Omnitrix." "They could, if this Hypnotist guys hadn't already used his magic to brainwash them. He's got Shining too. You're the only one that can stop him. If you don't do something, the entire city's gonna eventually be under his control." She screamed as Flash heard a lot of movement. It appeared Trixie had been found. "Get down here. NOW!" She hung up and Flash frowned. Flash knew she was right and knew that if he was fast, he could stop this guy and be back before his parents called. Throwing his phone down and activating the Omnitrix, he cycled through his aliens before slapping the dial down. In a flash, he was replaced by Firefly and quickly climbed out of his window. Flying into the air, he launched a bunch of flames and propelled himself towards the town. As he did, he noticed a bunch of people walking like zombies through town. They were walking into stores and houses and stepping back out carrying anything valuable. Money, TVs, jewelry the works. He even spotted a few classmates from school, Sandalwood and Micro Chips were carrying a big computer and Wallflower Blush was carrying what he assumed was a rare and probably valuable plant. He followed them and when he did, he spotted a giant mountain of stuff in the middle of the road. And sitting on a comfy chair in the middle of it was the person Firefly assumed was the villain. "Yes!" The Hypnotist cheered, "bring me more riches, my minions. Soon I will have everything valuable in this city." As he said that, two police officers walked up to him pulling a man with them. "Oh? Who's this? Another willing participant?" The man begged to be released as the Hypnotist stood up and stepped down the mountain of stuff, pulling out a card as he did so. Firefly saw him hold it up to his head before bringing it down to the man. "Oh no you don't!" He launched a fireball towards them and they all noticed the flames coming at the last second, the Hypnotist leaping back as the fire incinerated the card. He looked up and saw Firefly, a smirk appearing on his lips. "Finally. I was wondering when you'd show up." Firefly tilted his head, "were you expecting me?" "Of course," he told him. "Why do you think I came here? The city with a bunch of strange creatures calling themselves aliens. The perfect place to build my army. An army that includes a bunch of powerful monsters." Firefly realised what he was talking about. "You did all this to draw me out!" "Not just you," The Hypnotist stated. "All of your alien friends. Where are they? I would like to complete my collection before going to bed." "They're not coming," Firefly ignited his arms. "I'm all the alien needed to take you down." He launched a flamethrower straight at the Hypnotist, who simply smiled and didn't look at all worried. And he had a reason not to be worried. A wall of energy gems appeared in front of him and blocked the flames, making Firefly's eyes go wide. He stopped the flames and looked around, spotting Rarity stepping out from behind the pile of junk. The Hypnotist smiled. "As you can see, I've added some pretty powerful beauties to my ranks. I wasn't expecting to run into humans with these kinds of powerful, but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth." Suddenly, something flew towards Firefly. The alien insect dived down to avoid the car, as he looked down to see Applejack was the one who had thrown it. The car fell towards someone and Firefly gasped, quickly shooting out a blast of thread that hit the car and stopped it as he attached the other end to a lamppost. As he did this, several of the TVs in the pile glowed before shooting towards him. He gasped and launched fireballs to deflect them, the bug looking around and spotting Twilight on the roof of a building with Rainbow and Fluttershy. Twilight kept throwing more and more objects at him, whilst Rainbow leapt into the air and flew towards him. Firefly was barely able to keep from getting struck, as Rainbow reached him and threw a kick. He blocked with his arm guards, but grunted at how fast the impact was. "Rainbow!" He pushed her away, "snap out of it." But Rainbow kept attacking, throwing a bunch of superspeed punches that made him flinch with ever impact. "Knock it off!" The Hypnotist laughed. "You can't get through to them. They are under my control and nothing you say or do with change that." Firefly ducked under another punch before firing a thread at her, hitting her chest and quickly swinging her around. Rainbow tried to pull herself free, but Firefly let her go and she flew back before slamming into the wall. Another shot of webbing later and she was stuck in place. He didn't have time to rest, as Twilight continued to throw things at him and he had to dive down to avoid her gaze. But this just put him in range of Applejack, who had pulled a mailbox out of ground and tried to club him with it. "WOW!" He flew up, but ended up smacking into a ceiling of Rarity's gems. Applejack threw the mailbox and he blasted it, feeling bad for all the mail he was accidently burning up in the process. Rarity tried to trap him inside a sphere of her shields, but Firefly rocketed out of it just in time. But he wasn't out of the woods yet, for an explosion occurred right in front of him. "Augh!" He was knocked back and hit the ground, moaning as he rolled back to his feet before looking up and seeing both Pinkie and Sunset moving towards him. Pinkie took some more sprinkles out of a can, charging them with magic before throwing them at him. Firefly spat some thread at them and managed to wrap them up, right before they blew and made the thread ball expand. He then leapt into the air before Pinkie could try again and shot some thread at their feet, sticking them to the ground. Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack stepped towards them and Firefly knew he couldn't beat all of them at once. He quickly fired his jets and rocketed away from them before they could attempt to attack him again. He flew as fast as he could before flying around a building. "Alright," he sighed, "if that guy's the one controlling them...I'll just have to take him out first. Hopefully, knocking him out will free the others." He flew down another street, planning to sneak up behind The Hypnotist. But before he could get there, a laser suddenly flew up and hit his wing. He screamed in pain as he fell to the ground and crashed into it, rolling down the street to an eventual stop. He let out a moan as he picked himself up, then looked around and was shocked to see Shining Armor walking towards him. He was dressed in his Plumber Suit, holding his laser pistol in his hands as he marched towards him. "Uh oh." Shining fired at him and he deflected the attacks with several fireballs, then rocketed himself forward. "Sorry Shining!" He tackled the man to the ground and caused him to lose his weapon. He quickly spat webbing at Shining, trapping everything but his head inside a cocoon. "Trust me. You'll thank me for this later." But as he stepped away, Shining grunted and groaned as he pulled against the thread. Firefly wasn't sure he could break through the webbing, but he had never really seen the limits of Shining's suit. It did increase his strength, but was it enough to break free? He got his answer when the webbing began to slowly tear, Firefly quickly taking flight and getting as far from him as he could. But just as he turned a corner, the Omnitrix started beeping. "Not now!" He flew down and hid behind a dumpster, right as the device unleashed the light and returned him to human. "Great. Now what do I do?" He tried to think, then realised this guy couldn't remember every person he had in his control. "If I act like everyone else, maybe I can get close enough to take him down." He knew it was a risky move, but he also knew he didn't have much of a choice until the Omnitrix powered up again. He moved to the edge of the alley and looked out at the people walking like zombies through the street, carefully seeing how they moved. As he did, his eyes went wide when he saw two figures walking side by side. "Mom. Dad." Trail Blazer and Misty Vail marched together, carrying another large TV. Flash frowned, though he also realised this meant they wouldn't be checking in on him. One upside. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out of the alley and started walking like the others. He spotted a group of mind controlled people outside an electronics store, being handed items by another zombie to add to the pile. Flash got in line and was given a games console, the teen carrying it over to the Hypnotist. As he approached, he saw the others had gotten Rainbow Dash down. They were all gathered around the pile and Flash was worried they would recognise him and blow his cover. But when Sunset turned towards him, she didn't even give him a second look. He was able to march past them and place the games console down on the ground. "You there." Flash tried not to react to this statement, turning towards the Hypnotist as he sat in his lazy-boy throne. "Bring that to me." He picked the games console up and marched up to the man, who looked excited. "Great. I've been wanting one of these for a while. Someone bring me a TV, a hundred extender leads and every game you can find for this console." Several slaves walked off whilst Flash stood there, the Hypnotist looking at him for a moment. Then he looked back at him, giving him a strange expression. Flash had a feeling he was expecting Flash to do something, so quickly turned to walk away. "Halt!" He stopped at the bottom of the pile, turning back to him. The man continued to give him several looks, the last one being a frown. "I just ordered you to do a bunch of star jumps. The fact you didn't do them tells me you're not under my control." Flash's eyes went wide, the Hypnotist appearing to now have his suspicions confirmed. "SEIZE HIM!" Flash turned to run off, but Rainbow sped up and tripped him. "Augh!" He hit the ground and before he could get up, Applejack grabbed him and pulled his arms behind his back. He groaned in pain as he was pulled to his feet and turned to face the Hypnotist. "So," he smirked, "tried to sneak your way close to me." He slowly moved down the pile. "You're either very brave or very foolish." Flash tried to struggle, but Applejack's hold on him was too strong. "Why are you doing this?" Flash asked, glaring at the mind controller. His smile slowly turned to a frown, "have you ever had a choice in your life?" Flash raised an eyebrow at this. "Do people make you do things, even when you'd rather be doing something else? Forced you into doing boring things when you'd rather be off, having fun and playing games? Your parents ever ground you for no reason?" Flash had to admit, this guy chose a pretty good time to ask this. Flash thought back to his parent's words and how they had grounded. But he knew they had a reason. "What about it?" "I've never had a choice in my life. My parents controlled everything I did. Every class I took in school. All my extracurriculars. Even what I did when I was out of school. And when I was finally old enough to leave, I had to take jobs I hated in order to survive. You ever clean the bathrooms at a fast food joint. I tell you, it ain't pretty." "You did all this, just to get out of scrubbing floors?" "I did it to give myself some control. Now I can do what I want, when I want. From now on, others will have to follow my orders. And if anyone tries to stop me, I'll add them to my army." "You're insane," Flash growled. "Don't try and get all high and mighty on me. If you had this power, you'd use it the exact same way." Flash glared at him, as the Hypnotist took out a card. "Now, I think that's enough delightful conversation." He reached up and touched the card to his forehead. Flash watched carefully and noticed a light. But it wasn't coming from the card. It was coming from the gem on his headband, which quickly spread to the card. It was then that Flash realised where this lunatic's powers must come from. But it appeared he had figured it out too late. "Goodbye," he held the card towards Flash. "And welcome to the winning team." Flash continued to struggle, but Applejack was still too strong. But as the card got inches away from him, a loud banging caught their attention. The Hypnotist turned in the boom's direction and saw the cause was a firework that exploded in the middle of the street. Several more fireworks then exploded all around them, along with several smoke bombs which filled the entire place. "What's happening?" The Hypnotist roared, "who's doing this?" In that moment, someone ran through the smoke and tackled Applejack. This freed Flash and he rolled back to his feet, only to feel someone grab his arm. After a few moments, the smoke and lights began to fade and the blinded people were all free to see again. And as The Hypnotist looked around, he saw that Flash was gone. "Where is he?" He brushed himself off and straightened his headband. "Find him!" His slaves began to look around, all of them looking in every alleyway and inside every dumpster. But instead of looking straight or up, as some began to check out the buildings, they should have been looking down. Flash sighed in relief, though the smell of the sewer made him hesitant to breath in. "Thanks, Trixie." Trixie smirked as she looked up at the manhole they had used to escape, glad to see she had managed to put it back on before the smoke faded. "Don't mention it. The Great and Powerful Trixie is always happy to come in and save your butt. Though she's a little miffed you didn't come and look for her." "I thought you'd already been captured. Your call cut out all of a sudden and I rushed over as soon as it did. When I saw how many people he'd brainwashed, I feared you were one of them. Shining and the Rainbooms didn't really give me a chance to look for you." "Fair enough. Some of his goons did find me and almost caught me, but I was able to shake them off with a smoke bomb." She then frowned, "but we're clearly in trouble. We might be the last two people in the area not under that guy's control." Flash nodded. "And it won't be long before it spreads to the rest of the town." "Great," Trixie sat next to him. "What do we do? We have no way of stopping him without the girls." "I don't think this is Equestrian Magic," Flash told her. "Usually, whenever Equestrian Magic captures the girls, it superchargers it and transforms the wielder. But this guy hasn't turned into a monster. At least no more than what he already was." "Okay, so it's not Equestrian Magic. Still doesn't help up beat him." "Actually, I think I might know how we can take this guy down. Or at least, how he can free everyone under his control." Trixie looked surprised by this. "When he was about to take me over, he held a card up to his head. I thought the power he had was his own, but then I noticed the light that lit up the card was coming from the gem on his headband." "You think that's the source of his power?" "Why not. Even if it's not Equestrian Magic, it's similar to how the girls have their powers. It's possible that if we get that gem away from him, it'll break the spell and free everyone." Trixie smiled at this, liking the sound of Flash's plan. "Great, so what are you gonna do?" That was a good question. One Flash didn't have an answer for yet. "Maybe go Chamalien and sneak up on him. I just need to get close enough to pull that headband off." But as he said that, the manhole cover slid open and they looked up to see someone they didn't know. That someone stared down at them before looking away. "They're down here!" The pair gasped and got up, running as fast as they could down the sewer system. As they did, the Hypnotist arrived and looked down into the sewer. He frowned as the pair disappeared into the darkness before pulling his head back out. "I'm not so eager to have these two in my friendship circle anymore." He turned to the Rainbooms. "You, pink one." Pinkie stepped forward. "Do that thing you do and do as much damage as you can. Crush them! Drown them! I don't care, just get rid of them." Pinkie nodded and she moved over to the manhole cover, taking out some sprinkles and powering them up before tossing them down into the sewer. Seconds later, a boom could be heard as the ground shook. "Keep going. I want to be sure they're gone. The rest of you help her." Rainbow grabbed both Pinkie and Twilight before flying off down the street, Twilight using her magic to lift every manhole before Pinkie dropped more sprinkles down into it. More and more explosions filled the air as the sewers were ripped apart, with the walls and other safeguards crumbling. This caused the sewer water that had been held back to suddenly overflow. Soon enough, a tidalwave of sewage rocket through the tunnels. Flash and Trixie continued to run as they heard the explosions going off. "What the heck is he doing?" Trixie asked, as they had to stop to catch their breath. But as they did, the explosion sounds were replaced by a new sound. The sound of rumbling and rocking, which the pair felt they recognised. "Is that what I think it is?" Flash gulped. "If you think it's a bunch of water moving towards us, I think it is." They looked up the tunnel and sure enough, a bunch of water splashed around a corner. "RUN!" They did so, but the filthy water was much faster and would catch them any moment. Luckily, the Omnitrix had timed in before this and Flash knew he had to use it. Activating the watch, he found the only alien that could save them and slapped the dial down. In a flash, he was replaced by XLR8 and grabbed Trixie. He shot down the sewer and outran the water, allowing him to jump up and through another manhole cover. He landed on the street right before the water rushed passed the hole, both of them sighing in relief. Drowning in sewage wasn't how they wanted to go out. They didn't have much time to celebrate, however, since another explosion occurred next to them. They looked around and saw Pinkie, Rainbow and Twilight standing at the other end of the street, Pinkie throwing more explosive sprinkles towards them. Trixie leapt onto XLR8's back as he shot forward, avoiding the explosions. But Twilight started throwing anything that wasn't nailed down at them, whilst Rainbow ran forward at top speed. XLR8 managed to avoid the objects thrown at him, but barely managed to jump over Rainbow's kick. Trixie had an idea and as Rainbow rushed around to come at them again, she took out another smoke bomb and threw it to the ground. Rainbow ran right into the smoke cloud, blinding her so she couldn't see XLR8's tail right in front of her. She tripped over it and went flying out of the smoke cloud, where she bowled straight into Twilight and Pinkie. Both girls cried out as they were knocked down, whilst XLR8 shot passed them. "Remind me to apologise to them later," XLR8 told Trixie as they headed back in the direction of the Hypnotist's treasure pile. Trixie took out some more smoke bombs, ready to use them at a moments notice. When they arrived, Applejack, Rarity, Shining, Sunset and Fluttershy stood there and prepared for whatever XLR8 was planning. The Hypnotist was back on his throne and smirked seeing XLR8. "Another one. Good. I was wondering when you'd show up." One of his slaves handed him a drink with a super long and bendy straw. "Take them!" He cried. Shining summoned a weapon that looked a handheld gatling gun, which he started firing at them. The lasers shot towards him and XLR8 was forced to avoid them, whilst Trixie threw smoke bombs in their direction. Rarity created a bunch of shields to block them, whilst Applejack threw a TV in their direction so fast it would likely shatter a few bones on impact. XLR8 ducked under the TV, but was then struck a bunch of lasers. "Augh!" He was knocked backwards and crashed into a wall, as Rarity started putting shields around them. Luckily, in her mind controlled state, she wasn't able to do this fast and XLR8 was able to get out just in time. He grabbed Trixie and rushed her over to another part of the street, "stay here!" She hid in an alleyway, as XLR8 rushed back towards the others. "This is gonna hurt me a lot more then it'll hurt you." With that, he started running in a circle. Faster and faster he went, making a vacuum that created a mini tornado. This tornado began to drag the others into it, pulling them off their feet. And as soon as they were in the air, XLR8 stopped running and they fell to the ground. As they hit the ground, XLR8 ran towards the Hypnotist. But before he could reach him, another wall of people stepped in front of him. This wall included his parents and as much as he knew he had to take them down, he couldn't do it. He stopped as another group of slaves arrived behind him. Then another group to his left and his right, surrounding him. XLR8 growled as he stepped backwards, but then spotted something that made him smirk beneath his visor. "You haven't beaten me yet!" He started spinning on the spot, sweeping his tail around to form another tornado. This one was even smaller, unable to pick anyone up but strong enough to suck up all the dirt and dust in the area. The tornado formed a dust cloud that grew larger and larger, only to then explode outwards when XLR8 instantly stopped and swung his arms and tail around. This unleashed a wave of wind that knocked everyone staggering back and threw the dirt in their faces, blinding them. It also flew up the treasure piles and hit the Hypnotist, knocking him backwards until he slammed into his chair. He groaned, dropping his drink as he did so, whilst his head leaned back. And in that moment, someone grabbed his headband. He gasped as he felt it be pulled from his head, the Hypnotist opening his eyes. "Hi," Trixie smiled before leaping down the treasure pile. "Give that back!" He roared, looking absolutely terrified. Trixie looked around, expecting everyone to be freed from its control. But they kept attempting to grab XLR8, clearly still following their last command. She put the headband on and pointed at them, "let him go!" And they did so, stopping their attack and standing completely still. "What do you know. Ordering henchmen around is pretty fun." They looked up at the pile and saw the Hypnotist running away, Trixie turning to the crowd of people. "Let him through!" The crowd split and created a path of XLR8 to run through, the alien shooting passed them and over the pile. He zipped by the Hypnotist and used his tail to slam him backwards, knocking him to the ground. As it happened, a sporting goods store was on the street and XLR8 zoomed into it before returning a second later. In the blink of an eye, the Hypnotist was tied up. "Ahh!" He struggled against the ropes, "let me go!" "Not gonna happen," XLR8 told him. "You ain't going anywhere until you tell us how to free everyone." "Never!" The pair frowned and looked at one another, then at the group of mind slaves. "I guess it's not gonna be as easy as saying I release you from my control." But as soon as she said that, the gem burst into light, which quickly spread to the rest of the people on the street. They all glowed before the light exploded off of them, causing them to all stagger around and clutch their head. "Ahhh," they all moaned, "what happened?" Shining asked. XLR8 quickly rushed up to him and deactivated his Plumber Suit, returning him to normal before anyone could notice him. When they all recovered, Trixie pulled the Hypnotist to the front of the group. "People of Canterlot!" He pointed at him, many of them recognising him as the man they had been talking to before everything went blank. "This man has been controlling you. Forcing you to do criminal acts for his own amusement." This statement shocked them all, as the man continued to struggle against his binds. "No. She's lying to you. I managed to save you from that alien's control," he gestured towards XLR8. "He was the one brainwashing you and I managed to save you. He's still controlling this weak minded girl into trying to make me the bad guy." "Hey!" Trixie kicked him in the butt, "nobody calls Trixie weak minded." "And we all know the aliens are good guys," Shining told him. As he said that, Twilight, Rainbow and Pinkie arrived and all of them were looking pretty badly bruised. "And I remember you from the police station. You were the one doing all this." Many others nodded, not believing this man's claims of innocence for even a second. The Hypnotist gulped as several police officers rushed over to pick him up, cuffing him before untying the ropes. As they did, Trixie handed Sunset the headband. "This is what he was using to control us?" She asked, Trixie nodding as she and the Rainbooms examined it. "I'm not sensing any Equestrian Magic." "Really?" Shining asked, "but then how was he using it to take control of us?" That was a good question, but one that they would need to think about later. Sunset, begrudgingly, handed Shining the headband to take in as evidence. They knew letting a magical artifact out of their sight might be risky, but they didn't have a choice. XLR8, meanwhile, looked around and spotted his parents. Focusing on them, his helmet allowed him to zero in on them and hear them speak. "Ahh," Trail moaned, "my head is killing me." "Same," Misty sighed, "but at least nothing else seemed to happen to us. Oh dear, what do you think happened to Flash?" XLR8 began to panic and chose this moment to shoot off, surprising everyone since they were hoping he would stick around and answer some questions. "Do you still have your phone on you?" "No," Misty frowned, "I left it in the car." The pair knew they should have stayed and gotten checked out by the medics currently being called in, but they had to find out what happened to their son. So they snuck away and headed for where they had last seen their car. XLR8 moved at top speed, praying the Omnitrix wouldn't cut out until he got home. He finally got onto his street as the Omnitrix started beeping, the alien speedster rushing inside and up to his room. He arrived just as he transformed back, causing him to stagger forwards and land on his bed as his phone started beeping. "Hello?" He picked up, sighing when he heard his mother's voice. "Flash, are you okay!?" "I'm fine. Are you okay? You didn't call when I expected you to call and you're sounding kind of distraught." "We're fine. Just...had a bit of a strange situation." "Really?" Flash looked smug, "what are the chances of that happening." "Haha. So you're okay. Nothing weird's been happening?" "Nope. Everything's perfectly normal. Been practising my guitar. Like you said, I should use this time to better myself. Just because I'm not playing in a band anymore, doesn't mean I can let my music skills slide." "Alright. We'll talk to you later. Love you." "Love you too mom." Flash hung up and sighed as he laid on his bed, happy he had managed to get away with this. Hopefully, he could undo his grounding and wouldn't have to jump through any hoops for long. Several days later. All over the city, people were watching the news as it did a story on the mysterious Hypnotist. "Breaking news," the announcer claimed. "The Hypnotist has been identified as Periwinkle Primrose and has been officially sentenced today for countless acts of theft, vandalism and assault." The image of the man appeared on the screen, then was replaced by the picture of a young girl. "The evidence was gathered by Ms Trixie Lulamoon, who was at the scene of the fight between Periwinkle and the alien heroes that stopped him. The video then cut to Trixie, giving an interview about everything that happened. In the Sentry household, Flash was only half paying attention. He was too busy focusing on his parents, who were both smiling at him. "Looks like you weren't absent or late all week," Trail told him. "Excellent work, Flash." "Does this mean what I think it means?" Flash asked, the pair nodding. "Your grounding is officially over," Misty replied as Flash leapt up with a cheer. "But don't think this means you can start slacking off again. If we find you've been late even once for the next week, you're grounded again." "Don't worry," Flash assured them. "I learned my lesson. I'll be on time. So does this mean I can go hang out with my friends?" They nodded and Flash thanked them both before rushing out the room. The pair smiled as they moved to the window and saw Flash drive out in his car. He raced along the street, cheering at his new found freedom. As he did, he thought back to what the Hypnotist had said about never being allowed to do what he wanted. It was true that that could suck, but getting to do whatever you want, whenever you want, would just spoil someone. Times like these needed to be earned and Flash was glad that he had earned his freedom. Now he could enjoy it more and he intended to, along with getting to go back to hero work. From here on out, things were gonna be seriously fun.