At a street corner where a fire hydrant is two dogs were having a meeting, which didn’t seem very unusual to an outside observer. Upon closer inspection you’d see that the Pug and the Shar Pei were actually speaking the human language with perfect precision.
“So what’s the skinny Frank, what’s going on in the world of aliens?” Fu always had meetings with his compatriot; he looked to be an average if overweight looking Shar Pei. What he really was is magically gifted dog that is slated to protect the earth as the guardian of a mystical being that watched over New York. “Any chance the MIB is going to interfere in my kids work? Not that he has to really do much after the dark dragon went down… but something strange is going on in the balance and it was just a tickle of something going pretty badly soon and I always trust my gut.”
“Well Fu, last night we got a new arrival from space. Apparently the MIB are aware of it and they have Agent CB on it with his partner, you know the one. I’m talking about the large pinkish red chinchilla thing with the dark red stripes. I’m surprised not many people stare at it or notice something’s out of place about it, she’s legally labeled a giant Sumatran chinchilla if you can believe it.” Frank the pug was an informant for MIB and Fu was an informant for any magical mishaps that went on around New York, their jobs aside from informants was to make sure nobody stepped on anyone else’s toes. MIB was particular about what they dealt with and what they had to cover up drastically, the magical dragons could fend for themselves easily enough against both aliens and mythical beings. “Apparently the situation they’re dealing with might have some dire implications, as there’s something magical involved there and whatever it is it has me on edge Fu. The MIB does not mix well with magic as you well know and they leave that stuff to the world of the dragons. Magical aliens are not something they see very often, sure there’s a lot of aliens with little neat biological tricks that makes it look like they’re doing magic but it’s not the same as an actual magical being from space mucking things up. Speaking of dragons we got incoming evil and it doesn’t smell good, not good at all. Whatever is magical was involved with the ship that went down last night.”
“Yeah, the low rank Heylin wannabes are on the move into our neighborhood. No clue why they are doing that though, I haven’t heard of another ‘Shen Gong Wu’ going active in this area. Though I know where a dormant one is, I’ve been making sure it wasn’t attracting trouble and it’s under our protection as it’s too powerful to fall into the wrong hands.” Sighing Fu shook his head and stood up on his hind legs while pulling out a phone. “I try to keep my boy well out of the way of other good versus evil fights that he’s not supposed to be a part of, but if we’re having magical visitors from space we’re going to need some massive cover up help soon from MIB. My gut feeling says we have a problem and Houston Texas isn’t a part of it. Some seriously weird stuff is about to go down Frank, if I can be you with you.”
After a moment of holding the phone to his head Fu waited as did Frank who wanted to hear what Fu was going to tell his boy to do.
“Hey Jake, I don’t care if it’s really early in the morning, we might have a situation here! Yes I know you haven’t had much to do since the dark dragon went down, but I got a gut feeling and you know how that usually turns out.” After a moment the voice on the other end started yelling as whenever Fu had a gut feeling things went really bad for him. “Yeah, I know. Look we got incoming hostiles from out of town and they might be after a mystical artifact which I happen to know the location of. I’m going to check it out to see if I can deal with the situation on my own. If I’m not at the shop within the next two hours when you’re obviously going to be more awake, then come looking for me. If the artifact went active while I wasn’t looking, then be prepared to get your dragon on kiddo as we might have major problem on our paws here. It’s another artifact that’s on the side of having world ending capabilities so take this seriously. Thanks for understanding, call up Sara and Kara before you go back to sleep and tell me if they got anything to say about this. See you around Jake-y.”
“So what is the magical artifact and how bad is it on a scale of one to ten in terms of alien related dangers?” Frank was used to the planet of Earth being threatened by all kinds of world ending apocalyptic scenarios; at this point it was already really old to him. The Earth had always been in danger at one point or another; both he and Fu were old friends and had seen a lot of crap together that they both shared with each other.
“If used correctly, it’s definitely beyond a ten with how powerful it is and it can change its appearance minimally depending on the user if it is active. It’s one of those old Chinese mystical weapons that all give you crazy powers or let’s you do strange things; they are called Shen Gong Wu. The things are really hard to destroy permanently, quite frankly the one I have under wraps is capable of wiping out all life on this planet on its own.” Fu Dog was a magical guardian and if he could handle this himself then he would, otherwise Jake would need to step up as a dragon once more.
“Then I better warn MIB that the magical side of things might be causing some issues soon. You should avoid that new Japanese restaurant that opened up recently, its run by aliens and they aren’t up to health code standards quite yet, so don’t eat there. Also MIB still has Global Justice buried in the sand so don’t worry about them finding out Jakes secret. It’s been nice talking with you Fu Dog.” With that said by Frank, both dogs nodded and separated from the hydrant trying to look incredibly nonchalant about their meeting.
-
They were sitting under the pier with the entrance to the Head Hunter just above the water and they had gone over what they had to work with. Food was getting a bit low, with three hungry mouths to feed that was understandable. Roller would eat just about anything as long as it wasn’t sharp and pointy, Bonnie was an average level omnivore compared to Roller and Fluttershy could only handle seafood and most forms of vegetation that even a normal native equine of this planet couldn’t eat safely. Fluttershy’s biology notably did not match that of pony from the planet Earth. They had an internet connection so Bonnie had Fluttershy busy herself with looking up horses, while she took stock.
They had a list of souvenirs Fluttershy had earned throughout her journey, a lot of which were useful including the spare translation device. The ship was a veritable treasure trove of memories for Fluttershy, most of them bad or downright scary. At least she had made friends during those times. Bonnie was currently off to the side checking the laser rifle at the moment.
“Serviceable, but I can’t use something like this while on Earth. It would draw way to much attention if I fired it in public, plus I can’t scavenge its power source for my empty blaster as it’s not compatible. The glass knife made of alien materials is something I can use however; you said it hasn’t dulled yet despite running it through solid metal?” They were finished taking stock of what they had and Bonnie new they didn’t have much. The medical tomatoes and one Maximum Tomato were completely useless in being able to help Clyde since he couldn’t eat or consume anything in his current state. Otherwise the last Maximum Tomato would have solved everything.
“Well it is a little weird that it can do that, it doesn’t even seem to be made of normal glass from melted sand. Still it has been very useful in collecting plants and it’s been the best utility knife I’ve ever had.” There were some materials like it on Equestria that could do the same thing as Fluttershy had seen Rarity use them before. If this knife made it back to Equus she was going to do so much cooking with it.
Bonnie was about ready to meet up with her sister Shush and Agent CB on the pier, but she wasn’t about to go unarmed and a knife was better than nothing as her one blaster was currently useless. She looked at the handle made out of Fluttershy’s hair and frowned slightly but slid it into her holster anyway. It was one of the things she was allowed to keep after being jailed, along with the strips of red cloth she took to wearing around her right arm. You never knew when some strips of cloth would be useful.
The area around the seldom used pier had been cleared easily enough, there wasn’t anybody around to really clear out. As they rose up to the top of the Head Hunter, they took in the new shielded exit. It was shield to prevent anyone from shooting them as they came out and it gave them an option to see how safe things were from the comfort of a shield that could easily handle small arms hitting it. They were looking at the bottom side of a pier with the Head Hunter close enough to a dinghy loading platform low enough to jump to.
Bonnie crawled on top of Fluttershy and pointed towards the platform and with a slightly skittish leap Fluttershy got onto the platform. Looking back, it wasn’t hard to see Head Hunter from this angle if you knew it was there, otherwise nobody would have a reason to check under this pier. Now that they were out from under the pier they could see the surrounding beachfront and there were plenty of busy cars and ships moving around in the distance.
“They’ll be here within the hour, so a few things to mention about my younger sister… she looks like a chinchilla. She’s got a lot more rodent genetics in her, but we still have some similarities. She’ll be with a tall well muscled mountain of a human with dark skin, he might be intimidating at first but he’s okay in my book given he’s taking care of one of my sisters.” Looking around Bonnie didn’t see any humans around, it was a good sign that Cobra Bubbles managed to get this area sealed off easily enough. “Hopefully he’s managed to train her to be less ditzy, but I doubt it. She’s easily distracted and mostly innocent, just don’t upset her in any way, shape or form."
“Why, she doesn’t sound scary or dangerous and you said her power was just eavesdropping right?” Even if Fluttershy knew Bonnie was going to scare her with more tales of how everyone in her entire family was practically a living weapon, she still wanted to hear it.
“Well I’ve explained the side effects of being designed by Jumba already, but I might as well tell you about this one as she has a very powerful defensive mechanism going for her in how her body works. My sister is impossible to deafen and is completely immune to shock waves, combine this with the ability to amplify and increase any sound made in her vicinity.” Seeing that her friend wasn’t entirely comprehending the danger of her sister, Bonnie continued on while looking around for a nondescript onyx colored car that the MIB organization tended to use. “The reason why this makes Shush dangerous is she can turn any sound into a weapon; quiet as a mouse doesn’t describe my sister when she feels threatened. In fact, I’d naturally be completely helpless against her in a fight if she were to actively attack me since she primarily uses shock wave based attacks. Even your normal level of talking could be dangerous around her if she’s scared and with your good sense of hearing, you’d definitely become deaf in a matter of seconds if she directed an attack at you.”
“Is there anyone in your family that isn’t dangerous?” This was just a good way to pass the time and at least Fluttershy would learn more about her friend. It seemed every time Bonnie’s family was brought up, it was followed with a bit of information about what they could do and how dangerous they were because of that ability. “Although I must admit that I like hearing you talk about them, it makes you seem more afraid of yourself around them than afraid of them being around you.”
“Actually you’d think there would be, but no. Jumba found out some disturbing things about his earlier experiments that proved they did have an application for evil that he had never even considered before. He also didn’t know of their hidden talents, like one of my oldest brothers Double Dip who is experiment number two. He was designed to double dip things, like licking candy and then placing it back where it came from. Now you must be asking yourself, how could he be dangerous if what he does is basically ruining an entire plate of nachos if you don’t watch him closely enough?” There was actually a clear bit of intrigue in the pony’s face and a bit of disgust to go along with it; Bonnie smiled since that’s the general reaction to Double Dip when he was around.
“I know what double dipping means, but how exactly is he dangerous aside from doing that while he’s sick?” Despite Fluttershy knowing it would lead to an answer she’d rather not hear, she knew that they didn’t have much else to do while they waited. Plus it would be interesting to hear about.
“It was a strange thing about him that was found out long after he came to Earth and found his one true place acting as a house cat for a little old lady. He has this strange ability to repeat any action or outcome that he is involved with. Take for instance if Double Dip was caught in a mild explosion, say the worst injury he gets from this explosion is a nick on his right leg. Now this is where it gets interesting, so stay with me here.” Making sure she had the pony’s full attention Bonnie knew this was going to sound really strange, but it was completely true. “Now imagine him getting caught in an explosion five times the size of that previous one, take a guess at how injured he’d get from it?”
“I’d rather not, but I think you’re going somewhere with this.” Fluttershy didn’t like the idea of anyone getting hurt much less her friend's family member.
“Oh I am, the bigger one would cause him to get a nick on his right leg in the same exact spot with exactly the same amount of damage as if he had been caught in the previous explosion. He’d only be able to do that once though, after that he would need to be caught in another explosion that does something similar to him to even repeat the effect. He can kind of ignore reality a bit and Jumba still isn’t certain how he missed that ability when he first made him or why it works the way it does.” Bonnie liked the comical look on Fluttershy’s face at the very idea that such a thing was possible. “Yeah, that surprised everyone else too since it actually happened. My brother Double Dip is dangerous because if he can do something once then he can do it again. So… oh look they’re here!”
Fluttershy didn’t even need Bonnie to finish what she was going to say, if he hurt anything he’d be able to do it again in the same manner. There was probably some little fact like he’d have to use the same kind of motions or what have you, but that kind of ability was still downright incredible. It was hard to think that Double Dip was just made to double dip food with that kind of ability; it got Fluttershy thinking that if he saved someone’s life, then could he do it again with someone else in the exact same manner?
Shaking her head the pony looked over at the road and saw a black vehicle drive up and slowly a large dark skinned human got out wearing a suit. They watched as he walked around the car and opened the door for a large mouse like being that was obviously Shush; she crawled out of the vehicle and looked around attentively while wagging her tail.
“It looks like she’s gotten better since I last saw her.” It was just an observation of Bonnie’s and Shush immediately perked up as the vibrations of her voice reached the eavesdropper experiment.
“It looks like she’s gotten better since I last saw her.” Shush’s ears noticeably vibrated and played the voice back much louder and her tail was pointing directly at Bonnie and she was smiling from ear to ear as she looked at where her tail was pointing. She started waving to Bonnie with a cheerful smile on her face. She then yelled into her own tail and was quite clearly heard by both Bonnie and Fluttershy. “Aloha cousin, been long time!”
“Come on Fluttershy and be prepared to keep my sister Shush from wandering off, it’s an annoying habit of hers.” Bonnie hopped off of Fluttershy’s back and climbed up the nearby ladder onto the pier.
-
“It’s should still be… what the, hm now that’s interesting. A magical, two unidentified aliens and a MIB operative, heh sounds like the start of a really bad joke.” Fu hid behind a trash can as he spotted the four people with Mr. MIB the center of attention given his size and muscle mass, it was hard to think he was human given his size and musculature. “So what’s going on here?”
Something was happening and it wasn’t about the Shen Gong Wu he had stashed right near where they were standing, he was thankful for that potion that made it impossible for him to activate the magical artifact by accident.
He watched as the green alien spoke with the MIB agent as some form of liaison. Meanwhile the pink and red chinchilla lost attention of the ensuing conversation and started playing with a nearby flock of seagulls and was joined by the magical who managed to get a seagull to come to her, she got the alien chinchilla to start petting the bird gently.
-
“See it’s not so hard to make friends with animals Shush, you just got to be more careful and take how they feel into consideration… what’s wrong? What’s making that noise?” Fluttershy had heard it a short moment after Shush had when she started to protectively clutch the live seagull to her chest. The seagull didn’t mind being hugged a little tightly, being in Fluttershy’s presence made things alright for the bird.
-
Fu ‘s ears twitched as he saw the one that looked like a Chinchilla suddenly shoot up into a standing position clutching the seagull protectively to her chest and her ears flexed as she pointed her head off into the distance. After a moment she started pointing frantically at something which she was seeing and the magical next to her was now also looking at.
Turning his head Fu groaned at the sight, it was one of the Heylin wannabes and he was carrying one of those artifacts. It had to be none other than Jack Spicer searching for the Sheng Gong Wu he had stashed at the pier; this situation was going to blow up fast because he knew this guy was never without an army of robots to fall back on.
-
Fluttershy could see the strange teenager with the helicopter backpack plus his army of robots hovering in the distance. The flying robots that reminded her of those cable throwers back on that place that had disappeared in a fluctuating chaos field. She started hyperventilating as they looked vaguely similar to the Roadkill Rodney’s that she had a very bad run in with.
“Be prepared to hand over your Shen Gong Wu, because boy genius Jack Spicer is here! Whoa, what are those things? I mean I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff before, but that’s new even for me.” Jack Spicer crossed his arms and hovered there for a moment taking in each of the three strange creatures he saw, plus the obvious CIA operative guy. “No matter, where are the Shen Gong Wu I’m detecting? I know they are here somewhere as I’m detecting two in… your immediate area!”
Fluttershy squeaked as she was pointed at and hit a loose wooden board in the pier with her rear leg that launched an object into the air. Reacting on instinct she caught the object and Jack Spicer flew forward to grab onto it as well. The object was glowing as they both held it and Fluttershy knew something odd was going to happen, given the magical glowing pendant.
“I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown! My Monkey Staff versus whatever it is you have for the… is this the Lunar Locket? Looks a bit off, how in the world did this end up here? You know what? Never mind that, name your game!” Jack Spicer had managed to spook Fluttershy further, but she couldn’t release her grip on the Shen Gong Wu that was a pendant that had no symbol on it.
“Um… what do you mean?” Fluttershy squeaked out, afraid of what was going on and that she couldn’t let go of the pendant.
“Oh this is just too great; I got a newbie and this should be an easy win for me! We both just grabbed a Shen Gong Wu, which is what we’re both holding. We both have Shen Gong Wu to fight over it with, so name your challenge or a game and then we’ll compete for it!” The evil smile on Jack’s face did not sit well with Fluttershy.