//------------------------------//
// Season 4, Episode 8: Twilight's Haunting 
// Story: The Omnitrix Hero 
// by Banshee531 
//------------------------------//

Canterlot mall was as busy as it always was, with every store having something that someone wanted. 

There were shoppers who were browsing, ones who had every intention of buying something and others who were simply enjoying themselves at the arcade or in the food court. All the while being watched over by mall security, whose job it was to protect the mall. 

But in a few moments, the security guards would wish they had gone into plumbing. 

A man walked into the room, carrying a dufflebag over his shoulder and had a large trench coat covering him up. He made his way towards the mall's jewellery store and as soon as he stepped inside, he took out a gun and pointed it at the cashier. "This is a robbery!" 

Everyone, the employees and shoppers, screamed as they saw he wasn't kidding around. He also removed his trench coat and revealed he was a slightly overweight man, wearing a strange looking vest with machine parts stuck to it. 

He hit the button and as soon as he did, a purple bubble of energy appeared around him before vanishing. "Nobody try anything stupid." As he said that, several guards that had noticed his arrival ran into the room with with batons drawn. 

They saw the man and the gun and one decided to throw his baton towards him, hoping to knock him out or off balance. But before it landed, it bounced off the purple bubble that disappeared as soon as it was not being touched. "What the?"

The man spun around and smirked at them, then pointed his gun forward. The bubble appeared again, with the end of the pistol sticking out of it. "Bad move." He fired and the guards ran for it, several more customers trying to do the same only for the madman to point the gun towards the exit. "Anyone who leaves does so in a body-bag?" 

The people all remained silent and stayed where they were, as the man reached down to his dufflebag and unzipped it. 

He then took out what appeared to be a bunch of metal tubes welded together, with wires sticking out of it and a metal box with a glass screen that appeared to be from a digital alarm clock. He placed it on the ground and the device seemed to stick to it like a magnet. 

"Perfect." He switched it on and the device showed a timer for thirty minutes. "Alright. Here's what's gonna happen." He held up a metal stick with a button on it. "If I don't get all the money in this mall inside that dufflebag before the timer hits zero, this whole place goes up." 

"But you'll kill yourself!" One of the employees pointed out, only for the man to point to the device on his chest. They all realised that if that bubble was as strong as they thought it was, then it would very likely survive an explosion. 

"Now, I'm sure those security guards heard my demands. If I don't start seeing money in front of me soon, you'll find yourselves saying goodbye to life." 

"Oh, I don't think so." The man looked around, confused by the voice that seemed to come from the roof. "But you'll be saying goodbye." Suddenly, out of nowhere, an alien lizard appeared and leapt at the man. 

Chamalien tackled the bubble as it appeared, but the impact actually pushed it backwards. This made him cry out as he was knocked to the ground, his gun and the detonator falling from his hands. 

"Come on!" The hostages heard, as they saw Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash at the entrance of the store. 

"Time to move!" Rainbow cried, the hostages quickly running for it as Chamalien continued to struggle against the man. 

"Get off of me!" He cried, hitting the button on his chest. This caused the bubble's energy to increase and shock Chamalien, forcing him to leap off. 

The alien hero quickly slammed his hand on the Omnitrix and transformed in a flash, "Bushwhacker!" The alien plant thrust its hand out to try and grab the gun and detonator. But the man rushed in front of the detonator first. Bushwhacker found his hand bouncing off the forcefield, making the man smirk as he tried to grab the device. 

But due to the shield still being around him, the device was pushed away from him whenever he tried to get closer. "Dang it!"

"Looks like your little toy backfired on you," Bushwhacker laughed. "Now just give up and come with us. It'll be easier for you if you don't struggle." The man glared at them, Rainbow and Twilight ready to help stop him if he did anything. 

He slowly stepped backwards until his shield touched the explosive, the man looking back at it before an idea formed in his head. 

He smirked before hitting the button on his chest, causing the bubble to cancel out. He then leapt back and hit it again, the bubble reappearing around him and the bomb. "If I can't get any money out of this, I'll just blow the whole place up." He pressed a button on the top and the device activated, counting down. 

"No!" Twilight cried, as the man rushed for the door behind the counter. 

Rainbow tried to go after him. But by the time she got to him, he had reached the door and used the force field to smash his way through it and the wall. "Rainbow!" Bushwhacker cried, making her stop. "We don't have time to go after him." Rainbow frowned as the alien turned back to human, he and Twilight looking over the device. 

"He's right," Twilight nodded. "Get everyone out of here now!" Rainbow didn't argue and ran out the store, using her super speed to check everyone inch of the building. Luckily, the guards had already made an evacuation order and most of the people were out of it. She just had to grab a few stragglers and rush them outside. 

As she did, Twilight found the screws keeping the bomb's shell together and removed them with her magic. Doing so revealed an intricate amount of wires and components, so complex in its design that even Twilight had no idea what any of it did. 

Rainbow returned to them and saw the bomb was still counting down. "You haven't turned it off yet?" 

"I don't think it has an off button," Twilight replied. "The only way to stop it is to disarm it. But I have no idea what does what in here. It's like nothing I've ever seen before." 

"Then let's move it somewhere," Flash told them. "We've got thirty minutes. That's more than enough time to take it someplace deserted to blow." He tried to pick it up, but the bomb was still stuck to the ground. "What the heck? How did that guy design something like this?" 

Twilight had a feeling he hadn't. Based on how he was bumbling around with the shield and detonator, he had little idea how it worked outside of activation. "What do we do?" 

Flash thought and nodded. "Rainbow, get Twilight out of here." 

"Are you nuts?" Rainbow cried, "I'm not leaving you here alone." 

"I'm gonna turn into Grey Matter or U-Reek-Ah to unplug this thing. But if I can't get it off in time, it'll be way easier to escape on my own than it would if you two were here." 

Twilight frowned, not wanting to leave him. "What if you don't get the alien you want?" 

"Then I'll switch until I get the one I want. I have thirty minutes, I'll be fine." He turned to Rainbow, "GO!" Rainbow frowned, but grabbed Twilight and rushed out the mall before the girl could start to protest. Flash then turned towards the bomb, taking a deep breath before activating the Omnitrix. 

But as he did, the bomb started sparking. It was almost as if the Omnitrix was starting to interfere with it. And when the alien screen appeared, Flash was shocked to see it glitching and form a blurry form he couldn't recognise.



Outside the mall, Rainbow and Twilight arrived at the entrance. 

Police were cordoning off the area and when they saw the girls, they rushed over to them. "You need to move away from here," he told them. "We're sending in a bomb squad to try and disarm it." 

"Flash Sentry's in there," Twilight explained. "He's going to turn into his smartest alien and turn it off." The police looked relieved at this, but that relief soon vanished. 

The reason for it was an ear splitting bang, that filled the air followed by a powerful shockwave. This shockwave sent them all flying along with a bunch of glass and concrete that had been blasted away from the building, which started to break apart due to the explosion the flew out of it. 

Twilight hit the ground, her glasses flying off her face as her ears started ringing. 

She laid there for several moments, the ringing slowly fading as she heard people screaming and running around. She finally opened her eyes and saw everything was blurry, looking around to see her glasses a little ways away from her. 

Using her magic, which was difficult with her head pounding, she floated them over to her and put them on before turning towards the mall. And when she did, her eyes went wide. 

The entire building was destroyed, a burnt out husk of what it had once been. It looked like it was barely standing, cracks and missing pieces of the structure covering the whole thing. But the mall's fate wasn't what Twilight was focused on. 

"Flash?" She croaked out, picking herself up only for her legs to give out. Rainbow and the cops were also with her, looking just as dazed. "Where's Flash?" She looked around, expecting to see XLR8 or another alien standing around. But there was no sign of him. "FLASH!" 

Slowly, realisation sank in. If he wasn't here, there could only be one place he was. Inside the mall. The mall that had just blown up. Was Flash...dead?



Shining Armor rushed to the scene as soon as the report came in. 

Arriving at the destroyed mall, he got off his hard-light cycle and rushed towards the building. Police, ambulances and the fire department were hard at work, Shining quickly spotting Rainbow and his sister on one of the ambulances. 

"Twilight!" He rushed over to her, seeing the girl had a few scrapes and bruises. "Are you okay?" He asked them both, the pair nodding only for Twilight to grab his shoulder. 

"Shining. Flash is missing." 

"What?" 

"Flash was in there when the place blew," Rainbow cried. "The bomb was supposed to be for thirty minutes, but it blew as soon as we got outside. Flash was in there when it happened." 

Shining didn't like the sound of this, turning to the building. Twilight stood up from the ambulance. "He had to have gotten out. He said he'd use an alien to protect himself. He had to have escaped. XLR8. Diamondhead. Gemini. Even The Worst. There were tones of aliens that would let him escape." 

Shining knew she was right and pressed the side of his helmet, telling it to scan the area and locate the Omnitrix's signal. The suit did so and after a few moments, it came back stating the Omnitrix wasn't in range of his scan. "Increase the parameter to the max." The suit did so and still, there was no sign of the Omnitrix. Shining then connected to the base, "scan the entire city." It did so, the base's signal being able to pick up the Omnitrix no matter where it was in the city. But after a minute, the scan came back negative.

"What does that mean?" Rainbow asked, but Shining wasn't sure he wanted to say it. 

"If the Omnitrix isn't being picked up, that means it's not in the city. And I doubt Flash would leave the city." Shining told the computer to do another scan, whilst Twilight and Rainbow feared the worst. If the Omnitrix wasn't in the city, what did that mean? Had it been destroyed? 

And if it had, what did that mean for the one wearing it?



Three days later.

Twilight was in her room, having not left it aside from going to the bathroom since returning home after the horrible event. Her phone was plugged in and tuned into the news, Twilight hoping it would tell her the second they found something. But the only broadcast talking about the subject she was listening for had been ones saying there had been no new developments. 

Shining hadn't returned home once since the explosion. He had apparently gone over every inch of the mall with any piece of Plumber tech he had. Every kind of scan he was capable of had been done. But there was no sign of the teen or his device, leaving many to believe the worst had happened. 

"In other news," The broadcaster announced. "The investigation into the whereabouts of Flash Sentry have led to dead ends. The police have released a statement stating that Flash Sentry died three days ago, whilst trying to remove an explosive from the city shopping mall. Though there has been no sign of his remains, many suspect his point blank proximity to the explosive, resulted in his body being completely vaporised along with the device, that allowed him to be the hero we will all remember him as. Our hearts and minds go out to his friends and family."

Hearing that statement drove it home for Twilight, making the girl tear up and turn her phone off. 

She curled herself up and cried into her pillow, all the while thinking about that last sentence said. As terrible as she felt, Flash's parents had to be feeling even worse. She couldn't bring herself to go and see them, knowing they must probably hate her for letting their son die. 

A knock at the door was followed by a voice, "Twilight?" It was Cadance, "can I come in?" Twilight didn't answer and the door opened. Cadance walking in with Spike running in with her. 

The puppy leapt onto her bed and whined at her, pushing his head against hers to try and make her feel better. At the same time, Cadance sat down and placed a hand on her shoulder. "He's gone," Twilight told her. "Flash died."

"We don't know that," Cadance tried to make her see some hope. "Shining's still looking. We thought he was gone forever when he fell into the Null Void, but he managed to survive that." Twilight didn't feel as hopeful as Cadance. "But...if he is, you shouldn't let it ruin your life." 

"But he's gone!" Twilight cried, "he was my friend and he's gone!" Cadance pulled her to a sitting position and hugged her. 

"But would he want this? Would he want his death to make you lock yourself up in your room and waste the life he did so much to protect?" Twilight, despite the pain she felt, realised Cadance was right. Flash had saved her life so many times and if she locked herself up in the room, she would be disrespecting everything he had risked his life for no. 

"No." 

Cadance nodded. "It's alright to grieve. Losing people you care for is hard. But that grief will overwhelm you if you let it. Remember Flash for his life, not his death. As long as you do, he'll never truly be gone." Twilight sniffed and held Spike close to her, but nodded and felt herself feeling a little better. The pain in her chest hurt, but it wasn't overwhelming like it had been before.

"Thanks, Cadance." 

"No problem. And I'm going to miss him too. Flurry will miss him as well, even if she might not remember him when she grows up. So let's make sure Flash is remembered by us, so she can grow up hearing stories about him." Twilight nodded, as she felt herself getting tired. All the mourning she had been doing had seriously been cutting into her sleep schedule.

She let out a yawn and Cadance promised to run her a hot bath, the girl thanking her as the woman stepped out of the room. 

Twilight sat on her bed and took out her phone, opening up the photo album and flipping to the pictures with Flash in them. And though seeing his face felt like a dagger to the heart, she refused to let herself be pained by it. She would not feel pain when thinking of Flash. She would remember all the fun times they had had together. 

Cadance was right. She had to grieve, but she would do it the right way. Because that was what Flash deserved.



Shining was in the Plumber base, continuing to scan and re-scan every inch of the planet. He didn't care if he spent the next ten years searching, he would find Flash. 

He leaned back, feeling exhausted. He had barely slept since Flash's disappearance. He refused to think of it as a death, since he knew Flash wasn't dead. And even if he was, that didn't explain the Omnitrix's disappearance. The galvin device couldn't be so easily destroyed. It might have been damaged, but it shouldn't have been enough to leave no trace. 

"You're out there," Shining stated. "And I'll find you. No matter what." 



The sun had set and Twilight was asleep in her room. Or, at least she was trying to sleep. 

The girl, despite how tired she was, couldn't seem to drift off. Spike was asleep at her feet, but she couldn't sleep no matter how much she wanted to. And maybe it was fear of having a dream of what had happened three days ago. 

She kept her eyes closed, but still she remained awake. She laid like that for a few more minutes, eventually feeling herself starting to drift of. But as she did, something whispered in her ear. 

"Twilight." She ignored it, thinking it was just the wind. But then she heard it again, "Twilight." It was louder this time and Twilight frowned as she sat up, grabbing her glasses and putting them on. And when she looked around the room, she saw something that made her gasp. "Flash?" 

Flash Sentry was standing at the foot of her bed, but she could barely see him. 

Flash's body was transparent and parts of him were fading in and out of nowhere, the teen looking at her like he was scared and in pain. "Twilight," he looked like he was yelling but his voice came out a whisper, "help me." Twilight could barely register what he was saying and suddenly, Flash vanished completely. 

"FLASH, NO!" Her scream woke Spike up and he jump around, asking what was happening as Twilight stared at the spot Flash had been standing. 

A few moments later, her parents burst into the room with her dad holding a baseball bat. "What's going on?" He asked, looking ready to swing at whoever had made his daughter scream. But they saw nobody there. 

"Twilight?" Velvet asked, "what's wrong?" 

Twilight could barely understand what was happening either. Had it all be a dream? But it felt so...real. And if it was real, what the heck was it?

"Geez," Spike told her, "you look like you've just seen a ghost." Those words made Twilight gasp, as she remembered how transparent Flash had been. "Twilight?" 

"I...I think I did," she told them. "I saw a ghost...Flash's ghost." 



The next day.

Shining was in Twilight's room, scanning the place with his badge. His parents, Cadance, Applejack and Sunset were there as well, as he got the results of his scan. "I'm not picking up anything out of the ordinary." 

"So nothing that indicates something actually happened in this room last night?" Sunset asked, as Shining kept scanning the place. 

"No holograms. No gas or substance that can induce hallucinations. And no radiation signatures that I can find. As far as I can tell, nothing happened in here." 

"But Twilight was so sure of it," Velvet told him. "She was sure she saw Flash, right here." 

"And I believe her," Shining nodded. "But...I have no way of knowing what it is that caused this." That didn't make them very happy. Getting Twilight over what had happened to Flash, wasn't going to be easy if she was seeing him everywhere.

Applejack, always the one most grounded, decided to ask the tough question. "Are we sure she really saw something?" They all looked at her. "I want Flash alive as much as you all. But...how can we be so sure Twilight really saw something last night? She's takin' what happened pretty hard, so maybe she's in denial and she's seeing things. Ah know when ma'h parents died, I thought I saw them a few times." 

Nobody wanted to agree with her, but they knew it was a possibility. They just didn't want to be the ones to explain it to Twilight.



"I know what I saw," Twilight told the rest of her friends at Sugarcube Corners.

They had tried to get Twilight's mind off what she had seen, but the girl had refused to change the subject. "We're not denying anything, darling." Rarity took a sip of her latte. "But it's just kind of hard to believe, is all." 

"Yeah," Rainbow nodded, "you sure you weren't just dreaming?" Twilight frowned, "we don't wanna say you're wrong. But honestly, I'd rather it be a dream than what you're describing. You said Flash was all ghost-like, right?" Twilight nodded. "Well, doesn't that mean..." 

"Flash really is dead?" Fluttershy asked, making Twilight flinch. The lot of them had been holding out hope that Flash was still alive. But if Twilight really had seen Flash's ghost, he must have lost his life.

Pinkie, whose hair had been deflated since the incident, looked incredibly upset by this thought. "Is...is there a way to bring the dead back to life?" The others looked at her like she was nuts. "If Flash really is a ghost, it means his spirit is still here. And if it is, maybe there's a way to bring him back. We've got magic and all that Plumber tech. There has to be something we can do." 

Twilight was actually wondering the same thing, the girl getting up to use the bathroom. 

She headed inside and did was she needed to do, all the while thinking about the idea of maybe cloning Flash and finding a way to transplant his spirit into it. It sounded insane, but she was talking about the ghost of a boy that turned into aliens. 

She finished in the cubicle and stepped out of it, only to come face to face with the boy she was now constantly thinking about. The boy who was once again in a transparent form, that she could see through. 

The sight made her scream as she staggered backwards into the cubicle, kicking it shut before she could really think. She panted, trying to get her breathing under control. But as she did, she heard the bathroom door slam open. "Twilight!" Rainbow cried, "what's going on!?" 

Twilight took a deep breath and opened the door, stepping outside and looking around. 

There was no sign of Flash anywhere. He was gone. "He...he was here." They all looked confused by this, "Flash. He was in here. Just like last night." her friends shared a worried expression, as they looked around. But like Twilight had noticed, there was absolutely no sign of him. 

"Twilight," Rarity told her, "there's nothing here." Twilight knew this was true and felt her eyes filling with tears, the girl clutching her head and sliding down the cubicle as she started crying. Her friends gathered around her, trying to help her through this. She couldn't keep this up. She needed help. 



And so, Twilight's parents booked her an appointment with a well respected therapist. 

The next day, Twilight was sitting on a couch with Spike in her lap. A yellow skinned woman with a black bob cut and glasses was sitting across from her, Twilight explaining everything that had happened. "Twilight," she told her, "it's perfectly normal to see something like this." 

"It is?" Twilight asked, the woman nodding. 

"Yes. Have you ever lost anyone before? A grandparent or close family friend?" Twilight shook her head, "so this is the first time you've experienced loss. Your brain is trying to figure out how to handle it and until it does, it'll try and cope by adding images of the one you lost in front of you like what you saw." 

"But why did it happen when it did?" Twilight asked, wishing that somebody had been around with her when she saw them. 

"When you're on your own, the brain can truly be free. It can place images in front of you that aren't there without worrying about outside interference. It's trying to convince you Flash is in front of you and it knows that if you see someone walking through the image, you won't believe it's real." 

"So...what should I do?" 

"I'd suggest not being alone. Having just one person there should stop you from seeing these images. And once you've had enough time to truly accept Flash's death, you'll be able to be on your own again without worrying about these hallucinations." 

Twilight nodded and the pair continued to talk with one another about Flash, the doctor asking Twilight to tell her more about the boy and why he was so important to her. Twilight had to admit, it seemed much easier to speak to a stranger about these things than it was speaking to her friends and family. 

Eventually, their allotted time came to an end and the doctor asked if Twilight wanted to book a follow-up session. Twilight did and the pair headed out of the room, her parents waiting for her as they thanked the doctor and booked that appointment. 

"Feeling better?" Velvet asked, Twilight nodding as they headed out onto the street. 

"I think so," she nodded. "The doctor said I shouldn't be on my own for a while. I shouldn't see any more hallucinations if I'm not alone." The pair nodded as they began to make their way towards their car. But as they did, Twilight spotted something across the street. 

Flash was standing on the other side of the road, looking just as ghostly as the last two times. He was standing inside an alleyway, people walking past him without even glancing at him. She closed her eyes and let out a gasp, "it's not real." She opened them again and sure enough, the image of Flash was gone. 

She sighed as her parents called out to her, Twilight catching up to them but still being a little concerned she was losing her mind.   



Over the next two days, Twilight found herself constantly around people. 

There were her friends, who were doing everything they could to keep her distracted. There was her family, with Flurry becoming a welcome distraction for the troubled aunt. And there was Twilight herself, who did everything she could to keep her mind off of Flash. 

She didn't completely ignore his existence, however, as she still wanted to grieve for him properly. 

She had finally gone to visit his parents, Trail Blazer and Misty Vail both looking an absolute wreck. The pair had been so distraught with their son's death, that they had not bothered to wash up or sleep in days and looked like they had barely eaten anything. Twilight knew that compared to them, the pain she felt for his death had to be even worse. 

They spent the day talking, Twilight wanting to apologise for what had happened to Flash. But the pair seemed to already know about her guilt and told Twilight it wasn't her fault. This did little to ease Twilight's worries, especially when Trail looked ready to hunt down the real person responsible. 

Said man had not made any more appearances since the mall attack, with nobody able to even remember what he looked like. And with the mall's security cameras destroyed, he would likely remain forever a mystery. And if he was smart, he wouldn't try anything again. 

Twilight had gone through all of this with somebody else besides her, the girl terrified of seeing Flash again if she was on her own. There were a few times when she thought she saw Flash in a passing glance, but he was gone when she looked back moments later. It got to a point where whenever she turned her head, she did so slowly to take in as much info as possible. And obviously, that wasn't doing her any good. 

Currently, Twilight was at her house with all of her friends. 

Twilight's parents had to be out late that night and Cadance and Shining couldn't make it, so Twilight's friends had offered to hang out with her at her house and make a sleepover of it. 

Currently, Twilight watched as Trixie and Rainbow Dash were racing one another whilst Rarity was doing her and Adagio's nails. Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy were bringing in the snacks, whilst Sunset was writing something in her journal. 

Twilight didn't need to have Sunset's mind reading abilities, to tell everyone wasn't just doing it for her benefit. They were all trying to keep their minds off of the loss of their friend as well, with some appearing to be doing a better job at hiding it than others. 

Eventually, Fluttershy spoke up and brought up a subject everyone was hoping to avoid. "I heard the mayor's going to honour Flash with a statue." They all looked at her, as she hid behind her hair. "Sorry." 

"No," Twilight shook her head, "don't be. Flash would want us to talk about this." 

"Yeah," Applejack nodded, "I think it's a good thing they're gonna honour him. Flash did so much for the city, it's only right he be remembered like that." The others agreed, as Rarity asked the question everyone was thinking. 

"Any idea if they'll do a funeral for him?" 

"I think that would do his parents a lot of good," Sunset sighed. "But...with no body to bury..." She didn't finish and the others started feeling uncomfortable, Twilight getting up to grab a drink. 

She headed into the kitchen and quickly took out a glass to fill, the girl turning towards the fridge. But when she did, she saw something that made her drop her glass. 

Flash was once again standing in front of her, as ghostly as ever, once again yelling something but barely making a whisper. "Twilight...help me." 

"You're not real," she told him as she shut her eyes. "YOU'RE NOT REAL!" The others rushed into the room and ll stopped as soon as they did, silence filling the room. 

"Flash?" Sunset asked, Twilight opening her eyes and seeing Flash was still there. 

She then looked at her friends and saw they were all staring at the same spot Flash was standing, the lot of them going pale and looking shocked. "You...you can see him?" They all nodded, Twilight's brain feeling like it was being fried. 

Flash looked them all over and yelled/whispered to them, asking for help. But before anyone could recover from the shock, he began to disappear. 

"Wait!" Twilight cried, but he was gone. The girls could only stand there, taking in what they had seen. They all shared a look and realised that Twilight seeing Flash hadn't been from trauma. She had really seen him. Flash was really there. He was a ghost. 



"A ghost?" Shining asked, he and the girls being in the base, shocked by the tale they had just told him. "You can't be serious." 

"We're not joking," Rainbow told him. "We all saw him. Flash was in your parent's kitchen, looking all...ghosty. He was see through and his words came out super quiet, even though he looked like he was yelling. I bet if I threw something at him, it would have gone right through him." 

"This doesn't make any sense," Shining frowned. "There's no way Flash can be a ghost, because ghosts can't exist. And if he has somehow left his physical form behind and become some kind of energy body, he should have left some trace for me to detect." 

"Maybe this trace only lasts a short while," Fluttershy suggested. "And the only way to pick it up is to scan him when he's visible or shortly afterwards."  

"If that's true, the only way to figure out what happened to him is for Flash to show up again." Shining frowned, wishing he had been there when he had.

"What if Flash is here right now?" Pinkie asked, looking around the base. "Flash, are you there?" There was no answer and when everyone looked back at Pinkie, she was dressed in black robes and carrying bells and a candle. "Speak to us, humble spirit. Let your voice be heard, so we might hear your tale." Given it was Pinkie, her friends actually felt like it was possible Flash might actually show up. But there was still no sign of him. 

"Now what?" Rainbow asked, only for the computer to start beeping. 

"What's that?" Sunset asked, as Shining typed away at the computer. 

"Police report," he explained. "Someone's holding up a bank. Someone armed with explosives that the guards can't hurt, no matter what they do." That description brought only one person to mind. The person responsible for what had happened to Flash. 

"Let's get that guy!" Rainbow cried, the others nodding as they rushed out of the base and got into their vehicles. Even if they couldn't figure out what happened to Flash, they would make sure the guy that did that to him was stopped and brought to justice. 



The bank's front exploded, bricks and mortar flying everywhere as the one responsible stepped out of it. 

The bomber laughed as he carried a bunch of money bags out of the building. As he did, several police officers drove onto the scene and stopped on either side of the street. "FREEZE!" One yelled, pointing their weapons at the man. "You're under arrest." 

The man smiled, "you think I'm scared of you? I'm the man that killed Flash Sentry, for crying out loud." With that, he dropped his money bags and took out an orbular device. He pressed the button on the top and threw it out of the bubble surrounding him, the cops seeing this and running as fast as they could. 

The device landed next to a police cruiser and exploded, flipping the vehicle and almost crushing an officer. 

The man laughed at this and picked his bag up, whilst the cops that stayed behind tried to shoot at him. But their bullets did nothing against the force field around him, allowing the bomber to throw more explosives in their direction. 

"This is too much fun," he laughed as more explosions occurred behind him. He walked down the street without a care in the world, only to see a bunch of vehicles come around a corner and head straight for him. The lead vehicle was a hard-like sports car, whilst screeched to a halt and disappeared to reveal Shining Armor and Lady Masquerade. 

"Freeze!" The Plumber yelled, pointing his weapon at the man. Trixie was in her Luna Cat form and prepared to attack as well, whilst Adagio and the Rainbooms got out of the car. 

"What?" He asked, "You think you guys can stop me? I killed Flash Sentry." 

"We know," Trixie glared at him. "And that's why we're gonna make you pay." She charged at him, but the man threw out another explosive and Trixie was forced to stop. 

Rarity put a shield up as it exploded, the force behind it causing it to crack and fall apart. Rarity frowned, not liking how much power this psycho had. 

Shining chose this moment to fire at the bomber, the energy shield around him appearing and blocking the lasers. Pinkie threw a cupcake at him and Twilight did the same with a piece of rubble from the bank. Both of them hit the force field and the cupcake explode, doing no damage to him whatsoever. 

Rainbow grabbed Applejack and they both sped towards him, Applejack's super strength increased due to the speed. But even a punch from this wasn't enough to make the shield even wobble, Shining scanning it with his helmet. The energy making up the shield was in his Plumber database, but his blaster didn't have a frequency to disrupt it. "Where the heck did you get something like that?"

"Don't know," the bomber shrugged. "Just showed up at my house one day. When I found out what it could do, I knew it was my ticket to being rich." 

"Wrong," Twilight told him, "it's your ticket to multiple life sentences." 

"And how are you gonna make me serve them?" He asked. Twilight held out her hand and tried to grab the device in her magic, either to rip it off and just to push the button and turn the shield off. But she couldn't. For some reason, her magic wasn't able to penetrate the shield. 

"Impossible." 

The man laughed as he took out a few more bombs, "that's what I thought. Now, get ready to have this whole street turned to rubble." He was about to press the button, but stopped as he seemed to freeze. "Wha...what is that?" They all looked rather confused by this, but quickly realised he wasn't staring at them. 

He was looking behind them and when they spun around, they were shocked to see Flash standing behind them in his spectral form. "Flash?" Shining asked, seeing him smiling. "Is that really you?" Flash nodded, everyone unable to believe he was there. 

Shining quickly scanned him and was shocked to find an energy trace around him. It was weak, but Flash was giving off some form of energy. Fluttershy had been right about it being quick to dissipate. Whatever this was, the trace would only remain for a moment of two before fading away. 

"Any idea what's wrong with him?" Adagio asked, as Flash walked towards them. He seemed to be staying see-able longer now, but they could all see him looking strained. 

"Are you...forcing yourself to be visible?" Trixie asked, Flash nodding. He tried to talk, but it was still coming out a whisper. 

"Hang on," Shining held up his Plumber badge. It quickly recorded Flash's voice and played it back louder. 

"Guys," he told them, "you gotta help me." Everyone smiled, glad to be able to hear Flash's voice at the proper volume. "I don't know what happened, but I've been stuck like this for almost a week." 

"How the heck did this happen?" Shining asked him, "are you...you know..."

"I'm not a ghost," Flash told them. "And yes Pinkie, I was there before when you were asking about it. But whatever's happening to me, it's really hard to make myself visible." 

"But if you're not a ghost..." Rainbow asked. 

"Honestly," Flash looked down at his left arm, "I'm not sure." The others looked down at it and all realised something was missing off it. The Omnitrix. "It's like this." 



Several days ago.

As Flash activate the Omnitrix, the bomb started sparking. It was almost as if the Omnitrix was starting to interfere with it. And when the alien screen appeared, Flash was shock to see it glitching and form a blurry form he couldn't recognise.

"What the?" Flash spun the dial and the image remained, "what's going on?" But as he said that, the bomb's screen suddenly shut off for a moment before turning back on. And when it did, it only had fifteen seconds left on it. "WHAT THE HELL!?" Flash panicked the Omnitrix was still glitching up. 

Five seconds passed and Flash saw no other choice, the teen slamming the dial down as the room was filled with green. And when it faded, Flash was still standing there. 

But as he looked himself over, he was shocked to see his body was now transparent. "What's going on?" He looked at the Omnitrix and saw it was gone. And as he did, the bomb's countdown struck zero. "NO!" The bomb exploded and Flash braced himself for the end, but he felt nothing as the room was filled with fire and sound. 

He covered his ears, but they were the only things being affected by this blast. The flames were passing right through him  and the smoke wasn't filling his lungs. And he felt no shock or effect from the blast. It was like the explosion was just passing through him. 



"And since then, I've been stuck like this. I thought I really was dead, but I couldn't let myself believe that. I realised this had to be some kind of alien power. So I tried to force myself visible and it worked...for a few seconds." 

"That's insane," Shining told him. "You've really been stuck like this...all that time?" 

Flash nodded. "I knew I couldn't figure it out on my own, so I went to you guys. First I tried Shining, hoping he'd be able to detect me. But you didn't. I tried to make myself visible in front of you, but I couldn't. I tried Sunset, hoping maybe she could read my mind or something if I was able to get close enough. But it didn't work either. That's when I went to Twilight." 

"So I wasn't crazy," Twilight whispered. "You really were there." Flash nodded, looking ashamed. 

"Sorry I did that to you. But I was able to make myself visible around you and even speak. But it's still really tricky." As he said that, his body started flickering. The others gasped at this, as Flash held his head and screamed in pain. "Can't...hold it...much longer!" He looked up at his friend, a pleading look in his eyes. "Please." Those were the last words they heard before it completely vanished, his friends all looking worried as they tried to think of what to do. 

"There has to be someway we can turn him back to normal," Applejack cried. 

"We don't know anything about how the Omnitrix works," Twilight told them. "We have no idea what's making it glitch and even if we did, we don't have the technology to fix it." 

"So what do we do?" Fluttershy asked. It was at that moment, a sonic boom of some kind exploded above them. 

They all looked up and was shocked to see a familiar looking ship appear above them. And from out of it, a green beam of light flew out and hit the ground. When it did, a small figure appeared on the ground. One they hadn't been expecting to see. 

"Azmuth!" Twilight cried, seeing the creator of the Omnitrix step forward. "You're here!" 

"Of course I'm here," Azmuth nodded. "You think I'd stay away, after hearing what happened? You can thank Shining for sending me the message." They all turned to the Plumber, who nodded as Azmuth took out a strange looking device. "And honestly, I'm appalled that you would even think that my Omnitrix would let itself and its wearer be so easily destroyed." 

"Flash was just here!" Twilight cried, "he just appeared and then disappeared." 

"Is that so?" Azmuth asked, only for Flash to actually appear in front of him. The galvin was shocked to see the boy in his transparent state, Flash calling out to him for help. "Fascinating." 

"What's going on?" Flash asked, only to disappear again. Everyone turned to Azmuth, as he scanned the spot Flash was just in. 

"This energy signature," Azmuth hummed. "I see, so that's it." He turned to the other. "Something has caused the Omnitrix to malfunction and trap Flash halfway between transformation. That's why the Omnitrix isn't on his wrist and why he keeps appearing and disappearing." As he said that, Flash flickered into existence again. "The state he's in is due to the ability of the alien Flash is currently stuck between. One with the ability to turn invisible and intangible." 

"So you're saying Flash is an alien in human form?" Trixie asked, Azmuth nodding as Flash vanished. 

"That's why he can't control it. He's not in the right form to have mental command of the ability, like he should." He pressed several buttons on his device before his ship beamed something down. A microwave sized device, with a satellite arm on the top of it. "We have to hurry. Flash has already been in that state for too long. If he isn't restored to normal, he could be trapped intangible and invisible forever." 

"What do-" Flash started when he appeared, only to vanish again.

"What do we do?" Twilight finished for him, as Azmuth started typing on the computer connected to the device. 

"We need to push the transformation all the way. This device should allow us to do that. But...there is a risk." Everyone frowned at this. "Currently, Flash's atoms are in a state of flux. If we do this wrong, or something happens to interrupt it, Flash's atomic structure could be destabilised and he'll be completely disintegrated down to the subatomic level." Everyone gulped, fearing they might lose Flash once and for all. 

"Isn't there another way?" Shining asked, but Azmuth shook his head. 

"I'm afraid not. It's either this, or Flash is trapped like that forever." They weren't sure what to say about that. The risk sounded too great. What could they do? 

"Go for it!" They looked up and saw Flash appear again. "If I have to choose between a quick end or being stuck like this forever and being unable to touch or talk to anyone, I'd go with that. I'll starve to death anyway." 

"Actually, you won't." Azmuth hit a button and the machine began to hum. "You won't need food it that form. You could live forever...in the terrible state you just described." 

"Then I say do-" Flash vanished before he could finish, but everyone got the message. 

"Okay then," Azmuth stated. "Flash, stand in front of the device." There weren't sure if Flash was there or not, but they had a feeling he was. "Now, this is the most crucial part. You have to make yourself visible. The most visible you are, the better chance this device has of sending the signal to the Omnitrix." 

"Can't you just wait for him to become visible again?" Rainbow asked. 

"I could. But if he vanishes again, the signal will break and he'll be atomised. He might not have complete control of the power, but if he focuses hard enough he can make himself visible and stay that way. But it's all up to him." 

"Come on, Flash!" Applejack cried, "you gotta focus. It's just like usin' any of ya'h alien powers." The others agreed, cheering for Flash as the ghost-like boy took a deep breath. 

Flash knew he could make himself visible. He did so when he was trying to call out to Twilight. He just had to focus. "Come on," he told himself. He closed his eyes and held his head, trying to visualise himself appearing in front of them. "RAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" His head was starting to pound, but he kept his concentration up and suddenly, his body began to flicker into view. 

Everyone saw this and smiled, seeing Flash grow more and more solid. "That's it!" Azmuth cried once Flash stopped flickering. "Now no matter what, keep yourself in that state." He hit the button and the satellite unleashed a beam of green energy, which hit Flash and began connecting to the Omnitrix.  

Flash continued to groan, the strain of doing this making him feel like his head would soon explode. But he refused to fail now. The beam continued to connect to the Omnitrix and with each passing second, the reboot and activation command was imputed. 

It was at this moment a certain someone had had enough of being ignored.  

The bomber let out a growl as he finally got over the appearance of his victim's ghost, taking a grenade off his belt and activating it. "I'll make sure he's gone for good this time!" He threw the bomb and Shining saw it, gasping as he realised it was heading for the machine. 

"NO!" He fired his laser and hit the bomb, making it explode in the air. This sent out a shockwave that made the ground shake and caused the beam to move, almost falling off Flash. But Twilight was able to keep it steady whilst Flash continued to concentrate.  

"Just a few more seconds!" Azmuth cried, as the bomber threw all his grenades at them. 

Shining fired whilst Rarity launched some crystals at them, causing the bombs to blow up and cause more shockwaves. But Flash and Twilight were able to keep the beam on him, as the command neared completion. But as it did, one last bomb flew through the smoke and landed near them. 

The explosion completely deafened them, as they were all knocked off their feet. Azmuth was almost crushed under a piece of flying pavement, but Rarity was able to put up a barrier just in time to protect them. 

The same could not be said for his machine, which slammed into the ground and smashed to pieces. 

Everyone gasped at this, wondering if Flash had even made it. They turned to where he had been standing, which was covered in smoke, calling out to him as he did. But then the smoke faded and Flash was nowhere in sight. 

"Flash!?" Twilight looked around, "Flash, where are you?" But he didn't answer, making her and the others fear the worst. "No. Not again." 

The bomber stared at this and couldn't believe it. Had he actually done it this time? "Yes!" He cheered, making the others turn to him. "I did it! Now I really am unbeatable!" Shining roared at this and fired at him, but his shield still held. "Don't you get it. Nothing can get through this shield." He cheered, "I'M UNTOUCHABLE!" But as soon as he said that, something hard smashed him right in the face. "AUGH!" 

Everyone watched as the bomber staggered back and he held his nose, eventually getting his balance and looking around. 

"What was that?" He was then punched in the gut, making him cry out, before something grabbed his underpants and gave him the greatest of all wedgies. "GYAH!" 

Everyone was watching in surprise, but slowly realised what had to be happening. "Flash?" Twilight asked, barely able to hope at this point. And then, a hissing voice spoke out. 

"You were expecting someone else?" With that, Flash suddenly appeared. And what they saw, was the strangest floating creature any of them had ever seen. 

Whatever it was, it was covered in a layer of white skin. It didn't have any legs, instead having only a long wispy tail that flowed like smoke. Its arms were thin and bony, with clawed fingers. The skin had a bunch of black gaps covering it, looking almost like someone had drawn on it with a sharpy, which spiralled around its entire body from the tail to the chest, around the arms and all the way up to its head. On said head, a single purple eye could be seen inside the gap. The Omnitrix was on the left side of its chest, sticking out of a gap.





Silence filled the street, as the new alien looked himself over. "Well," he hissed, "this is certainly different." 

As soon as he said that, a grenade flew towards him. But the bomb simply phased right through him before exploding, the alien not at all affected by the blast. When the smoke cleared, the eye on his body moved along the gap until it was on his back. 

"You want some more?" He asked the bomber before vanishing, the man gasping as he took out some more bombs. 

"Where are you?" He cried, looking around for any sign of the alien. "Show yourself, you...you freak!" 

"Freak?" A voice called from behind, making him spin around but see nothing. "Well, I guess I am a little freaky looking." Slowly, the shadowy outline of the alien appeared and phased through his shield. "A freaky spectre. No," he solidified inches from the man's face, "a Ghostfreak!" 

"AHHHHHH!" He threw several more bombs, but Ghostfreak vanished before they could hit. 

As they exploded, he felt himself get punched again and Ghostfreak reappeared. He threw another punch and it went right through the force field, hitting him in the face again. And as he staggered back, Ghostfreak grabbed the device projecting the barrier. 

The next thing the bomber knew, the device went right through his body until it was completely off of him. This also caused the barrier to no longer remain around him, the man hitting the back of the bubble. 

Ghostfreak then threw the device to the ground, causing it to break apart and make the bubble around them pop. 

Without his defensive shield, the bomber felt very vulnerable. And before he could think of running away, Ghostfreak grabbed the back of his collar and lifted him into the air. "HEY! Stop!" He swung his legs around, as Ghostfreak flew him higher and higher. 

The alien laughed at this, enjoying the terror in his victim...opponent's voice. "I think my grip his slipping." He pretended to drop the man and he screamed, making the alien laugh. "Too easy!" He flew down and finally dropped the man, who stagger as he hit the ground and fell over at Shining Armor's feet. 

"Okay!" He cried, "I give up! Just get me away from that...that monster." 

Shining smirked as he cuffed the man, whilst Ghostfreak flew down to them. "So," he posed, "how do I look?" 

"Kind of creepy," Fluttershy gulped. The others had to agree, asking him to switch back. Ghostfreak nodded and after hitting the Omnitrix, a green flash filled the air before the teen fell out of it. 

He cried out and landed, almost falling over as he did so. His eyes glowed purple for a second and he quickly shook his head, his eyes returning to normal before he patted himself over and saw he was back to normal. This made him sigh in relief, as he turned to the others. "Thanks guys! For getting me back to-" He didn't get to finish, as in that moment someone tackled him to the ground. 

Pinkie was squeezing the life out of him, Flash gasping at it as the others gathered around him. "Do you have any idea what you put us through!?" Trixie cried, looking both happy and furious at the same time. 

"What you've been through?" Flash groaned out, "I've been the one stuck unable to be seen or touch anything." Pinkie let him go and he moaned, clutching his stomach. "And I haven't gotten to eaten anything in almost a week." As soon as she said that, Pinkie pulled a muffin out of her hair and shoved it into his mouth. 

Flash didn't complain as he ate it and in that moment, a car pulled up that Flash recognised. "FLASH!" He looked around and saw his parents, the two looking like they hadn't slept in days. And it was then he realised, they probably hadn't. 

He got up and rushed over to them, the pair looking him over. "Is it really you?" Misty grabbed him by the cheeks, the teen nodding as she burst into tears. "We thought we'd lost you!" 

"I'm sorry," Flash sighed. "But I'm okay. I'm back now." The others smiled at this, seeing the family reunited after such an ordeal. 

At the same time, Azmuth stepped over to the device the bomber had used and began taking it apart. "You know that's evidence," Shining told him. "But I'm guessing you're the best one to figure out how it works."

Azmuth hummed as he looked at the components. "Alien technology, but made using Earth level methods. Whoever made this was clearly not human." 

"You're saying an alien is supplying people with alien tech?" Shining asked, remembering the phasing guy he had taken down not too long ago. "This is bad. If they keep doing this, we could end up with a bunch of teched out idiots trying to be cool and cause serious damage." 

"Indeed," Azmuth nodded. "You'll need to look into this. I'll be sticking around for a little bit, to make sure what happened to Flash doesn't happen again." He looked around at the boy and his loved ones, seeing how happy they all were. "They all went through a lot, didn't they?" 

"Yeah," Shining nodded. "Flash was stuck unable to interact with the world around him, whilst his friends had to live through thinking he was gone forever. They might be happy now, but something like this can't just be forgotten. It's going to have a serious effect on them. Whether that effect is positive or negative will be up to them." 

Azmuth nodded, understanding completely. "I'm sure they'll come out of this event stronger. And they'll need that strength." He looked down at the device in his hands, "there's no telling what might happen next. They'll need all the strength they can find to overcome it." 



In the warehouse, the five Flash Sentry villains were watching a TV. 

The news was reporting the return of Flash Sentry and what had happened to him. And despite the fact their greatest enemy was alive, the lot of them smiled. "I knew Sentry wouldn't be taken out by some no name loser," Dragstar laughed. "Took him long enough to show back up." 

"Indeed," Animac nodded. "But at least this distraction kept them from focusing on us." He moved over to the device, which was full of smoke. And as he did, the device beeped and appeared to start powering down. "Finally. She's ready." They all gathered around, as the machine's power down sequence completed. 

As soon as it did, the glass of the pod detached from the metal and released the smoke from within. As it did, the figure inside the machine started moving. 

The males smirked at what they saw, Doddery rolling her eyes before grabbing a sheet and throwing it over the figure. 

"Welcome to the land of the living, my dear." Animac's words were the first thing the figure inside the device heard with her new ears, that figure being a young woman with bright red skin and long flowing dark red hair. Her body was also slightly blue, as every vein in her body had a soft blue pulse of light running through it. 

She opened her glowing blue eyes and smiled as she looked herself over, using the sheet to cover her body. As she did, she couldn't help but feel the fabric against her skin. She could also feel the cold metal of the pod and gentle coolness of the air. This is what she had longed to know for her entire existence. And now she knew it. 

"You don't look half bad," Dynamo Danger told her. "So, what's the first thing you wanna experience now that you're as real as the rest of us?" Viral's soft smiled quickly turned sinister, as she said what the rest wanted her to say. 

"Revenge."