Season 1, Episode 4: Power Outage
Canterlot traffic had always been pretty good. The highway system was great, so ending up in gridlock was a rare thing. That was usually loved by most citizens, but there were times the police hated it.
One such time was in that moment, as three police cars were chasing another car as it zipped through the streets. Inside that car, three men in masks laughed as the one in the back look to the seat next to him. "What a haul!" He cheered as he opened one of six dufflebags chock full of money.
"Now we just gotta get away from the pigs," the shotgun passenger laughed as the driver swerved between the many cars on the road.
"No problem," the driver stated. "Nobody can out drive me."
In the police cruiser, Shining Armor was sitting in the passenger seat as his fellow officer drove. The man was giving commands to base about where the chase was heading. "They just turned left into Roswell Avenue!" He yelled into the radio, as his partner groaned whilst turning the corner.
"They're not going where we expect them to go. How are we supposed to set up a trap if we don't know where they're going?" Shining thought the same thing, but then noticed something atop a nearby building that made him smirk.
"I think we might be getting some help."
Up on the roof of an apartment building, a giant grey lion was running in the same direction as the cards. The smoke coming off his neck, paws and tail were all flickering in the wind, as he continued to run and looked down at the cars below. "Here goes!" He cried before leaping off the roof and falling towards the street. He then used a street land to slow his fall and swing himself in the car's direction.
The crooks were in for a serious surprise when suddenly, something slammed down onto the roof of their car. "What was that?" One asked before a pair of claws could be seen wrapped around the sides. Then, the head of a lion popped down from above and glared at them. That got the criminals screaming.
"Pull over!" Vapaw roared, as the crooks continued to scream. "Fine!" He then used his claw to cut a hole in the window before reaching in and grabbing the wheel. Quickly turning it, the car swerved into a fenced off parking lot. It was here that the driver finally realised what was happening and hit the break. He did so fast enough that Vapaw was thrown clear off the roof, but also ripped off the steering wheel and shattered the windscreen as he did so. "Ahh!" He cried as he hit the ground, rolling to a stop as the crooks tried to bail.
He got up and saw them all running out of the car, each carrying two bags of cash apiece.
"Oh, I don't think so." He leapt into the air with enough force to sail over them before landing on the ground, his mane suddenly exploding and sending smoke out around him. Within seconds, the crooks were surrounded in a smokescreen and couldn't see.
"Where'd it go?" One asked as he dropped a bag, then pulled out a gun and pointed it in the alien's direction. But before he could fire, something grabbed him from behind and pulled him out of sight. "AHHHHH!" His friends turned to where he had been, dropping their bags and pulling out their guns. But then another felt something grab his leg and pull it out from under him, making him scream as he fell to the ground before getting dragged into the darkness.
The final criminal began spinning around constantly, not wanting to be taken by surprise. "Where are you?" He asked, constantly looking around but seeing no sign of the creature. "Show yourself!" He was about to fire into the smoke, but before he did a gray furry hand reached out and grabbed his wrist. He looked around before the lion's face appeared out of the smoke.
"Boo."
"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed before he fainted, Vapaw grabbing him before he hit the ground. As he put him down, the smoke began to far away and return to just his mane, tail and feet. Doing so revealed the other crooks, unconscious but otherwise unharmed, whilst also allowing the police who had been waiting outside the smokescreen to get close.
Vapaw leapt into the air before any of the cops could ask questions, landing on top of a building besides the parking lot before running out of sight.
"Where the heck are those things coming from?" The other officer asked as they started cuffing the criminals before they came around, Shining shrugging.
"I don't know. But it's clear they wanna help out. And he managed to do it with very little damage." The other officer nodded, unable to deny that. Even so, the idea that aliens would just show up out of nowhere to do who knows what kind of freaked him out. Where did they come from? Why were they here? And where did they go whenever there wasn't a problem that needed to be dealt with?
Two alleys away, Vapaw was doing his best to hide.
The lion, monkey, smoke machine hybrid was curling up as best he could behind a large dumpster, staring down at the symbol on his chest. "I really wish you came with an off button." Just then, the dial started flashing red and beeping. He sighed in relief before he was consumed by the light, reverting back to Flash Sentry.
"Perfect," he smirked before taking out his phone. When he saw the time, his eyes went wide. "Not perfect!" That little detour had taken way longer than he expected and the watch wielding superhero rushed out of the alley towards where he had parked his car.
Getting in, he saw his guitar in the back and quickly pulled out. Fifteen minutes later, he arrived in a suburban area of Canterlot and pulled up in front of a certain house.
He grabbed his guitar and ran towards the garage, where he spotted his band-mates waiting for him. Ringo was busy tuning his base whilst Brawly was leaning against his drum kit, the pair seeing Flash and frowning. "Sorry I'm late."
"Twenty-five minutes late," Ringo pointed out. "What the heck, man?"
"I'm sorry," Flash repeated. "I got...sidetracked."
"By what?" Brawly asked, "this is the third time you've been late to practise this month."
"No, it's the third time he's shown up at all." Ringo took off his shades and glared at him, "the other six times he's nowhere to be found and his phone seems to be off." Flash frowned, remembering that many of those times he had been doing his hero thing. As for his phone...he honestly had no idea where that went whenever he transformed. "What's causing you to be so late?"
"It's...complicated," Flash explained. "And kinda personal."
"Personal?" Brawly asked, "I thought we were friends."
"We are," Flash nodded. "But...I'm sorry."
Ringo and Brawly were clearly not happy with that answer. "Look man," Ringo told him. "You gotta tell us if you're not interested in being in the band anymore." Flash's eyes went wide, "cause Brawly and I wanna make a name for ourselves as musicians and we can't do that with someone who's isn't serious about it."
"I am serious about it," Flash told them. "It's just...I've got a lot of stuff to do right now."
"Stuff that might keep you from the concert tomorrow?" Brawly asked. He was talking about a charity event that had been plan a while back. Lots of bands in the school had signed up for it, including the Rainbooms as the girls were using it to show that Rainbow's leg was completely recovered. "This is a really important event. Not just for charity, but for us as well."
"There'll be a bunch of people from music labels at this event. If they see us and like us, they might consider signing us to a record deal."
"I know," Flash told Ringo. "And I promise, I'll be there." The boys frowned at this, but sighed and nodded. "Alright, then let's get practising. We'll never impress anyone if he can't play our music right." They nodded again and Flash Drive began to play, all the while Flash thought about what the guys had said.
He loved being a musician and how his music made people happy and excited, but ever since he had become an alien hero he had experienced so many wonders and saved people's lives. It might interrupt his social life, but he knew what he did was important. What would he do if he ended up having to pick between saving a life and playing with his band.
That night.
Just outside the city, between it and the forest, a large hill housed the city's nuclear power station. The place supplied power to the entire city and all the waste was dealt with properly, so there had never been any environmental damage to the surrounding area.
But on this night, as the stars twinkled in the sky, something out of the ordinary was about to happen.
One of those stars suddenly grew larger and larger, transforming into a streak that moved across the sky. Many who saw it believed it was simply a shooting star and made a wish upon it, but this star was not the kind you put your dreams into.
The streak shot towards the earth and flew over the power plant before crashing into the forest below, the light coming off it quickly dying down to reveal its true nature. A giant coin-shaped space vehicle, which slid along the ground and knocked down several trees.
The machine continued this for several hundred meters until it finally came to a stop, smoke coming off the machine. A minute later, the ship whined as it was suddenly elevated by four extending legs. Once it was high enough off the ground, it stopped before a light came out the middle of the bottom. When that light hit the ground, it caused a bunch of figures to appear.
Hidden in the shadow of the night, their features were hard to make out. But they were humanoid, standing at around ten feet and each having two long tendrils sticking out the top of their heads and curling down to give them a twin pigtails appearance.
They all began to march towards the power plant, a plan in their minds. And as they got closer and closer, the giant ship suddenly vanished.
The next day, Flash and Trixie were hanging out at Sugarcube Corner.
Flash was making sure his guitar was properly tuned for that night, not wanting anything to ruin it. "You seem tense," Trixie told him. "Alien problems got you down?"
"I've been missing a couple of band practises because of my...extra curricular activities." Flash put his guitar down and took a sip of his milkshake, "Ringo and Brawly are pretty mad. If tonight doesn't go well, I don't know what's gonna happen with us."
"Yeah," Trixie nodded, "Trixie wishes she could perform with the Illusions. If only Lavender Lace hadn't had to move schools." She turned to smile at Flash, "think Ringo and Brawly will be looking for a new guitar and lead singer?" Flash turned to glare at her as she laughed, but that laughter was quickly cut short when the lights of the cafe began to flicker for a few moments before stabilising. "What was that?"
"Probably nothing," Flash told her. "Likely just a hiccup with the grid." Trixie shrugged, appearing to agree with him. This wouldn't be the only time that day that electrical areas of the city began to act strange. All over Canterlot, lights would flicker and some devices would die for no reason due to the power going out for a minute or so.
Luckily, important things like the traffic lights and other electrical equipment remained on and life went on as normal.
That evening, at Canterlot's modern theatre, the bands were arriving to do sound checks and determine where they would put everything on stage. Ringo and Brawly arrived together and as they carried Brawly's drum kit in, they looked around at the many students who were preparing themselves.
They noticed the Rainbooms off in one corner, laughing at something Pinkie had said as Rarity did some final checks for the costumes they were wearing. Now Ringo and Brawly had nothing against the Rainbooms, especially after everything that the girls had done for the school. But ever since the battle of the bands, they had taken Flash Drive's spot as CHS's number one band.
It was a little hard to not feel jealous about that, given that Flash Drive actually wanted to become a famous band whilst the girls only did it as a fun past time. But hopefully, tonight would prove that Flash Drive were meant to be number one. So long as Flash didn't leave them high and dry.
"Where is he?" Ringo asked, looking around. "He better be here."
"You looking for Flash?" They turned to Octavia, who was sitting on a stool tuning her cello. She pointed her bow at another corner of the backstage. "I think he was the first one here." Sure enough, Flash was there strumming at his guitar.
Ringo and Brawly smiled as they moved over to him, "you're here."
"Told you I would be," Flash assured them as Trixie stepped over carrying a pair of sodas. "Is it okay that I let Trixie in with me? She agreed to help get everything we need set up."
"Sure," Brawly smirked. "She can help me bring my drums in." Trixie sighed and gave Flash his drink, then followed the drummer back towards where he had parked his van. Ringo sat next to Flash, smiling as he took out his base.
"Glad you're here man. Had to admit, I was starting to think you had better things to do then be in the band."
Flash smirked at this, "I wanna be a part of Flash Drive. But...there's a lot more going on in my life at the moment."
"Stuff you can't tell us about," Ringo frowned with Flash shrugging. "Well whatever it is, I hope it gets sorted soon or Flash Drive are never gonna get the big break we've been looking for." Flash knew he was right, but once again he couldn't think of ever giving up on being an alien hero. But that didn't mean he couldn't take a few days off from it every now and then. It's not like the city would go to heck with him not going hero every once in a while.
As if the universe was trying to laugh at him, the lights of the theatre instantly went out. Everyone cried out at this, some like Fluttershy getting rather scared of the darkness that now surrounded them. "What happened?" Rainbow asked, many others wondering the same thing. But it wasn't just them that were experiencing this.
All over the city, the lights and electrical devices went out. Some people were watching TV and found it cutting out halfway through their soaps, whilst others were driving only for the traffic lights to cut out and force them to stop or crash.
Even at the hospital, many of the lights and machines went out. It had a generator, but that could only go for so long.
Near the outskirts of the city, Shining was on patrol when the lights went out.
"What the?" He asked, looking out of his car at the darkness. "That can't be good." The traffic in his area wasn't very thick, so he was able to drive around without much issue. "I hope this is just a normal blackout."
In that moment, the radio went off. "Dispatch. Any officers near the area of the power plant? All attempts at communications have yielded little results."
"This is Detective Armor," Shining stated into the radio. "I'm roughly ten minutes away from the plant and will investigate. Be ready to send backup if required."
"Roger that Detective. And if there is no call from you in the next hour, we'll send backup as well."
"Copy," Shining nodded before driving off in that direction. It only took him five minutes to get to the plant once he had activated his blues and twos, the man pulling up the dirt road to the giant building located outside of town.
He spotted several other cars parked outside and pulled up, getting out and heading towards the closest entrance.
"Hello?" He called out, "anyone around?" But there was no answer, making him frown. That frown grew darker when he noticed the door, which had no door handle. Where one would be was a hole with burn marks around it. Shining had a bad feeling about this and pulled his gun, carefully opening the door and looking around.
The building had power, but they flickered in several spots as he made his way through the building.
Nothing seemed suspicious, if you didn't count the fact there were no people around a place that should have a few workers there. Shining continued down the halls searching for any sign of life, about to call in the disappearance of the worker, only to hear a crashing sound coming from further down.
He moved quickly and stealthily, arriving at the spot he had heard the crash. When he did, he saw a large barrel that appeared to have been knocked to the ground and rolled into view from an area around a corner. He was about to call out, but then noticed a shadow on the wall that was getting closer.
This shadow was of a humanoid figure, but it had a pair of large chords sticking out of its head. Shining's eyes went wide as he saw the chord shadow move, seconds before a long black tendril with a metal plug-like object on the end slithered out from behind the corner.
It curled around the barrel and lifted it up, as the owner of the tendril stepped into view. Shining had no doubt it was an alien, this one being over ten feet tall with pitch black skin under some kind of orange jumpsuit with no arms and boots. It had a single yellow eye in the middle of its face below a mouth and a bunch of metal nodes running down its arms. Its fingers ended in metal squares with holes in the end and its feet ended in a pair of toes that curved towards one another.
The alien put the barrel down and didn't seem to notice Shining, at least until the light behind the cop flickered and caused a shadow to appear within its vision. It turned to see Shining and its face became one of shock, Shining mirroring it as best he could until it began to glare at him with its big yellow eye.
"Stay back!" Shining told it, pointing his gun at the alien. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" The alien didn't say anything and instead, raised its hands as the plugs on its fingers began to spark with lightning. Before Shining could do anything, it thrust its hands forward and unleashed a bolt of lightning.
Shining gasped as the bolt struck the ground in front of him and blasted him back, his gun falling from his hands. He hit the ground and slid backwards, as the alien began to run forward with more lightning sparking around his hand.
Shining leapt to his feet and ran for it, rushing down a hallway as fast as he could with the alien on his tail. It was likely faster than him, but the hallway they were in wasn't very big so it couldn't manoeuvre as fast. Shining turned a corner and as he did, two more aliens stepped into view.
One was like the first only it had a blue eye, whilst the second looked more feminine with a pink eyes. When they both saw him, they looked shocked until the first alien appeared and yelled something in their own language. The two glared as Shining and charged up their hands, firing at him until he leapt down another hallway to escape.
Shining knew he had no chance of beating these things alone. And calling for human backup would likely cause a serious incident. There was only one person who could fix this.
Flash and his friends were still standing in the darkened concert hall, the multiple bands around them continuing to complain about the loss of power. "I'm sorry," the hall worker told them. "But it's not just us. Power's out all over the city."
"This is just great," Ringo sighed. "How are we supposed to perform without power?" The others agreed, hating every moment of this. Flash was also upset, but that vanished when he heard his phone ringing.
"Huh?" He looked at it and saw Shining's name on it, making him frown since that would only mean one thing. "I gotta take this." He left the room, his band mates frowning as he disappeared whilst Trixie caught the look on his face.
In the corridor, Flash answered the phone. "Hey Shining. This isn't really a great time to go hero."
"FLASH!" Shining's voice called back, "you need to get over to the city power plant now!" The tone of his voice put Flash on edge instantly. "There's some kind of creatures here. Alien creatures." Flash's eyes went wide at this. "They're what's causing the blackout. If we can't find a way to stop them, the power will remain off for a long time. There are lots of places that need power, mainly the hospital."
Flash frowned, feeling like he was in a catch twenty-two. He was worried about letting down his friends, but he needed to do something. He quickly hung up and rushed for the nearest door, Trixie following after him. Once they were in the back alley, Trixie turned to Flash. "I'm coming with you."
Flash wanted to argue, but knew there was no point. He quickly activated the watch and dialled through his aliens until he found the one he needed, slamming it down and transforming into XLR8. The alien velociraptor lowered his visor before grabbing Trixie and flying off in a burst of speed.
Shining was still being chased by the aliens, the cop quickly jumping around a corner to avoid a lightning blast that had been sent his way.
A moment later, the alien was rushing around the corner and continued to chase after him. It thrust its hand forward and fired another lightning blast, which shot passed Shining and hit a piece of machinery in front of him. It exploded, knocking the man backwards. "Ahhh!" He cried, hitting the ground as the alien stepped forward. And as he tried to get up to run, it sent one of its tendrils towards him and slammed into his chest. Before Shining could react, he was zapped. "AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed before the alien stopped, the man falling to the ground whilst smoking.
"Shouldn't have tried to escape." The alien grabbed him by the back of his jacket, "I'll enjoy you personally later." He began to drag Shining away, the man's last thought before he went unconscious being a hope that Flash got there soon.
Outside the plant, XLR8 arrived and put Trixie down. "Is this the place?"
"How many other power plants exist around here?" Trixie asked as they noticed an open door and headed over to it, pushing it open and slowly making their way inside. They looked around, finding the power of the building was still running despite the outage of the city.
Trixie tried to call Shining, but her phone kept going to voicemail. "I hope he's okay?" But as she said that, they heard a noise coming from down the hallway and both hid, the pair chancing a look and see two of the aliens Shining had mentioned.
"How much longer until we can get off this planet?" One of them asked the other.
"The ship should be ready in about another hour," the other explained. "Now quit complaining. It could be worst. At least we're not the ones guarding those humans. See that blue furred one Glick caught?" Hearing that made XLR8 realise they had Shining, so stepped out from behind where he was hiding.
"Hey!" He hissed, catching the pair's attention, "where's the humans? You better not have harmed them."
"A kineceleran?" One asked, "what are you doing here?"
"Protecting people and taking you guys down," XLR8 announced before lowering his visor and shooting forward. The aliens both fired blasts of lightning, but XLR8 was easily able to dodge the bolts like they were moving in slow motion. He then got in close and shot passed them, grabbing their tendrils as he did.
Before the aliens could react, they were pulled back by XLR8's speed and the speedster ran as fast as he could down the corridor until he suddenly stopped and let them go. They kept flying through it until they slammed into a wall hard enough to crack the wall, both falling to the ground and going still. XLR8 looked them over and saw they were unconscious, Trixie rushing up to them.
"We gotta find the captives," she told him.
"I know," he nodded before grabbing her and shooting down the hallway. The alien began searching each and every hallway, finding no trace of the aliens or the captives. But as they got further and further into the building, they started hearing noise. The sound of crackling lightning filled the air, the pair rushing towards it.
But when they turned the corner, they were met with the sight of two more aliens standing in front of a door. The aliens noticed them and instantly took a battle stance, their fingers sparking with energy as XLR8 put Trixie down and charged. Once again, the speed alien dodged the lightning bolts as they were thrown at him. He jumped to the side to avoid the first, then leapt onto the wall and ran along it to avoid another before hitting the ground and sliding on his knees to duck under another.
He finally reached the aliens and threw a punch at one, then at the other. Moving at rapid speed, he kept punching them one after the other before either could react and eventually he spun around and slammed his tail into them both to knock them flying into the door they were guarding.
They broke through it and XLR8 was about to rush inside, only for several more of the aliens to step into view on the other side. They all frowned at XLR8 and started moving towards him, summoning their own electrical energy. "Bring it," XLR8 smirked as he prepared to fight them all. But before he could the watch started beeping and he reverted back to normal, Flash now standing there with a worried look on his face. "Um...hi?" The aliens charged as Flash turned to run the other way, barely dodging a lightning blast.
As he reached where Trixie was hiding, she leapt out. "Time to go!" She cried as she took out her smoke bombs and threw them to the ground, filling the corridor with smoke. The aliens stepped forward and started swinging their tendrils around to blow the smoke away. But when it vanished, Flash and Trixie were both gone.
"Where'd they go?" One asked.
"Find them!" Another yelled, causing the aliens to run off in search of them. "They have to be here somewhere." And they were, but not where the aliens expected.
Up above them, within the large ventilation shafts that were located all throughout the plant, Flash and Trixie were hiding. They stayed perfectly still, not daring to even breathe as the aliens stood under the grate they had used to jump into it. The metal box was big enough that they could easily curl up within it and sit, waiting for it to leave. And after a few moment, it did.
"Phew," Flash sighed, "that was too close."
"What do we do now?" Trixie asked, but Flash was already in motion. He began to crawl down the shaft, it the direction the the room that the aliens had been in was. "Great," she sighed before following after him, "now I know what a TV dinner feels like." They moved through the maze of metal grates, trying to find one that opened up to the room they were looking for. It took several minutes, but they finally found one.
Looking down into the room, they spotted several of the aliens next to a bunch of machines. Their tendrils and plugs were connected to them and sucking the power right out of the place, causing the power levels in the plant to drop more and more.
They dropped so much that the lights in the plant were starting to flicker. "I think the stores are almost tapped out," one alien said as he stopped draining power and moved over to another part of the room. This was where a bunch of cables were hanging from the ceiling, coming out of something the humans couldn't see. "But hopefully, this should be enough." He grabbed the cables and let the energy he had stolen free, causing it to run into the cables and up towards whatever they were connected to.
"All this for electricity?" Trixie asked, wondering what it was they were powering. Flash was more concerned with something else he spotted.
"Shining!" He pointed at a corner of the room where Shining Armor was located. There, the police officer was tied up alongside several people Flash guessed worked there. They all appeared unconscious, but that was soon about to change.
Shining let out a moan as he started coming around, the man opening his eyes and looked around. His brain quickly leapt into gear when he saw the situation he was in. "What the?" He spotted the aliens and frowned, seeing them charging up the cables and looking up to she what they led up to. A large hole in the ceiling, which allowed him to see the sky above them. But strangely, the wires weren't connected to anything. They were just hanging from midair, making Shining raise an eyebrow. "What's going on?"
"Huh," one of the aliens looked over and smirked. "Well, looks like our little detective is awake."
"What are you guys?" Shining asked, only to hear movement at the side and turn to see more of the aliens enter the room. Some of them were being held up by the others, looking like they had just been smacked around.
"Oh," one of them frowned, "so he's awake." He rushed over to Shining and used his tendril to hook him by his coat and lift him up. "Who'd you contact? Are you a plumber? How many more are coming?"
"Plumber?" Shining asked.
"Don't try and play dumb. We saw a kineceleran wearing a plumber badge, only for it to turn into another one of you. What's happening here?" Shining smirked, now knowing that Flash was here. The alien glared at him and threw the man back to the ground. "Whatever, doesn't matter." He held up his wrist and Shining saw a watch-like device on it that he pressed several buttons on. How he did this with those giant plug-ended fingers he didn't know, but after a few presses something happened.
The hole in the ceiling was suddenly filled, allowing him to look up and see the wires were now sticking into some kind of machine. "A spaceship?"
"Huh," the alien smirked, "that's right. Our ship. Which is now fully charged." Shining slowly put the pieces together.
"You did all this because you needed fuel."
"Of course. Our ships only run on the purest of electricity. We usually use cosmic storms to recharge, but the only one we could find had a to'kustar living in it. We conductoids are powerful, but we're not stupid enough to take those things on. When we started running low, we had to find a planet that could supply us with the energy we needed."
"But why attack?" Shining asked, "you could have just contacted us. We would have helped you!"
"Yeah right," the leader smirked. "I've only been on this planet a day and I can tell your species would betray us at the first chance, cutting us open and taking our ship apart to figure out how to increase your own pathetic tech level. No, this is the best way to do things."
Shining wanted to deny that, but had to admit he had a point. "Fine, then get out of here. And untie me. I promise I won't try and attack you."
"Oh, I don't think so." He hooked one of his plugs around Shining's coat and began to pull him along the ground, Shining struggling and demanding to know what they were doing. "You and the others are coming for a ride. We'll be needing a snack that won't drain our ship's power core."
Shining thought they were nuts, "I don't have electricity. I'm a human being and we don't-" He stopped when he realised that humans did produce electricity. His brain. "You're gonna drain the electrical pulses of my brain." Flash and Trixie's eyes went wide hearing this, as the conductoid laughed and stated that's exactly what they were gonna do. There was no telling what kind of damage that could cause.
"We've got to do something!" Trixie cried as the watch suddenly turned green.
"Hero time!" Flash cried before punching the vent open. As the netting fell to the ground, catching the conductoid's attention, Flash leapt out of the vent and fell to the ground. "Watch out!" He cried as he fell, "this next part's sure to shock you!" He slammed the watch down and in a flash, he was replaced by the electrical alien known as Volt-Edge.
The conductoid's eyes went wide as Volt-Edge flew down towards him before spinning around and slamming a foot into its chest. The alien grunted as he was thrown back, dropping Shining as Volt-Edge landed next to the tied up man before using his tail to catch Trixie before she hit the ground.
"Flash!" Shining cried as Volt-Edge used one of his claws to cut through the ropes holding him, "thanks." They all turned towards the conductoids as the leader picked himself up, Volt-Edge stepping forward and charging his body with lightning. But the conductoids just smirked and held up their plug-ended appendages ready to absorb anything he threw at them. "You know, turning into a lightning throwing alien might not have been the best move against a lightning eating opponent."
The electric lizard just smirked, "Volt-Edge is more than just his lightning." He pointed at the other scientists, "free the others. I'll handle these guys!" With that, he charged towards the conductoids and they charged as well, Volt-Edge leaping into the air and landing in the middle of them. "Surprise!" He cried as he slashed at a conductoid, his sharp claws cutting the beast's skin and knocking it back. He started throwing punches and kicks around himself, being sure the sharpest parts of his body were at the edge of the attacks.
The conductoids were quickly becoming wary and moved away to a safe distance. They then charged up their own electrical attacks and shot them at Volt-Edge, but the raiden reptile simply stood there and let the lightning strike him. But to the conductoid's surprise, he wasn't at all hurt.
"What?" He asked, "did you really not see that coming?" He tried to keep up a facade, but inwardly he was worried. Unlike those conductoids, he couldn't sap electricity out of the source. If they realised that, he was gonna be in big trouble.
Over with Shining and Trixie, they were working to awaken and snap awake the plant workers. "Wha?" One of them asked, "what's going on?"
"Trust me, you wouldn't believe us if we told you." Trixie did her best to try and untie him, but the knots had been done really well.
"Trixie!" Shining cried, "behind you!" She looked around and saw a conductoid heading towards her, looking ready to zap them. The worker saw this and fainted again, as Trixie looked around and saw that Volt-Edge was currently engaging with the others. The alien hero a little too busy to notice the one coming towards them, meaning they were on their own.
She looked back at the alien approaching and noticed the giant single eye it had, an idea forming in her head. "You like electricity?" She asked, taking out her phone. "Well so do I. Without it, Trixie's phone would be dead and it is oh so useful to her day to day life." The beast growled and charged only for Trixie to hold up the phone and hit the app.
A light shined out the back of it, right into the conductoid's eye. The alien quickly shut it whilst letting out a cry, giving Shining the opening he needed to run in and punch the alien in the face. As it fell, Shining turned to nod back at Trixie. She nodded back and they continued to try and undo the knots once again.
Meanwhile, Volt-Edge was starting to grow tired. He punched, slashed and kicked the conductoids again and again. Eventually, the lot of them were down and looking just as tired as him. But just as he was about to tell them to give up, the aliens ran over to one of the generators and attached their plugs to it.
"Oh no!" He cried, as the aliens started summoning the electrical energy into them. This completely re-energised the lot of them, and as they turned back to Volt-Edge and electric lizard gulped.
As they approached, Volt-Edge slowly shuffled backwards. He needed to think of a way to end this fight, since he was likely to time out before he could beat them for good. He had to think. What did he have that the conductoids didn't?
It was then that the ship above them started humming, making him look up at the machine. "It's almost completely charged," he realised before a smirk appeared on his face. "You wanna get off this planet, right?"
"Of course," the lead conductoid smirked. "I'll admit this place has some interesting technology, but the electricity here's just too stale. It'll work in a pinch, but I don't intend to make it my steady diet." Volt-Edge smirked at this.
"Then leave now, without any humans. Do that and I won't strand you here forever." The aliens looked at him in confusion, then shared a look with one another before bursting out laughing.
"And how'd you plan to do that?" One asked, only for Volt-Edge to started summoning electrical power. The conductoids wondered what he was doing, until he shot towards the wires hanging from the ship and grabbing them. The lightning he was generating flew into them and then into the ship, powering it up.
The conductoids all looked at him like he was crazy, wondering what the heck he was trying to pull. But then the realised what he was planning. "Stop!" The lead conductoid cried, "you'll overload it!"
"That's the idea!" Volt-Edge yelled, as the conductoid's charged at it. He simply leapt about to avoid them, all the while continuing to hold the wires and unleash his energy into them and the ship. The aliens started hearing warning alarms coming from the ship, indicating its batteries were completely full and started to get overcharged.
"Stop!" A conductoid yelled as he tried to charge at Volt-Edge, but the lizard leapt away and landed upon the grate he had removed earlier. Suddenly, some of the electrical energy flowed into it before the grate started floating off the ground.
"Wow!" Volt-Edge cried, looking down at it in surprise. The others watching were just as amazed, as Volt-Edge pushed more lightning into it and allowed the grate to fly up towards the ship.
"Stop him!" A conductoid cried as they fired more and more energy at Volt-Edge, only for him to use his hover-board as a shield until he reached the ship. He leapt upon it and thrust both his claws into the ship, unleashing as much power as he could into it. "We have to drain it!"
"Drain it as much as you like!" Volt-Edge cried. "I'm willing to bet I can overload it faster then you guys can drain it." He pumped up the juice, causing more warning lights to go off.
"Please stop!" A conductoid cried, "you'll destroy this place."
"Then get off my planet!" Volt-Edge yelled, "and leave the humans behind!" The conductoids all frowned and shared a look, but then sighed and nodded.
"Okay," the leader agreed, "you win!" Volt-Edge smirked at this and stopped overloading the ship, but stayed where he was unless they trained anything.
"Please don't time out on me now," he begged the watch. The conductoids all moved to under the ship and one pressed a button on the device he wore. The ship unleashed a beam that surrounded them, the lot glaring up at Volt-Edge.
"You win this time," the leader stated. "But you better hope we never meet again." With that, they all vanished and the beams disappeared. Volt-Edge leapt off the ship and flew down on the grate, as the spaceship powered up. It slowly lifted itself up off of the building, pulling out several wires it was still connected to whilst the place shook. And once it was high enough in the sky, it shifted positions before shooting upwards faster than the eye could follow. They were gone.
Volt-Edge leapt off the grate and rushed to the others, who had only managed to get three of the workers un-tied. "Nice work Flash!" Shining told him, "way to get them to leave." Volt-Edge smiled and quickly slashed through the ropes of the workers, then turned towards the rest of the plant.
"They took almost all the power here," he told them. "It'll take hours to generate enough to get the city working again."
"Maybe days," Shining sighed. "Without power going into the machines, they can't do what they need to to generate anymore. Who knows how long it'll take to get that from another power plant. The city's gonna be back in the dark ages for a while."
"Maybe not," Trixie smirked as she held up one of the wires connected to the machines. Volt-Edge raised an eyebrow at this, then smirked when he realised what she was planning. He rushed over to the wire and grabbed it, whilst she and Shining rushed away and pulled the workers away. Volt-Edge then started channeling his power and it surged into the wire, flying through it and into the machine.
It sparked for several seconds and everyone was terrified it was about to explode. But then, the sparking stopped and was replaced by a low humming. Slowly, the machine came to life and soon the lights in the building followed. Many other machines started powering up, the power plant coming back to life.
"It's working," Shining cheered. "It's working!" Volt-Edge kept supplying power to the machine, just enough so the device didn't completely explode. Soon the dials indicating the amount of power being produced began to rise and eventually, the power plant become self powered and the reptile stopped.
Seconds later, the watch started beeping and he transformed back to human form.
"Just in time," Trixie smiled as Flash dropped the wire and smiled at them. It was then that the workers started moaning, the three realising they were about to wake up.
"Let's go!" Shining cried, "let em think it was all a dream or something." They nodded and all rushed out of the room, right as the first worker came around. Rushing through the building, managed to find the exit and rushed out the door just in time to see the city below start to come back to life.
"Beautiful," Trixie whispered as Shining stepped over to Flash.
"You did good kid." Flash smiled back at him, his eyes then going wide as he pulled out his phone. He had several missed calls and texts from his band-mates, Flash quickly realising what was likely going to happen soon.
"I have to get back to town right now!" Flash looked down at the watch, but it was still in the red. "Come on!" He tapped the dial, "I don't need anything big. Just two minutes of XLR8." But the watch remained in the red, "no."
"Come on!" Shining pulled him over to where his car was parked, I'll give you a police escort." Flash smiled, but feared there wouldn't be enough time to get there in a car. Flash hoped the show had been cancelled.
As soon as the power came back on, the students of CHS all cheered.
"Alright!" The hall worker stated as he checked the time, "looks like we're just about to make it. But don't expect a lot of people in the seats with the blackout." He headed towards the front stage and looked out, surprised to see a bunch of people in the stands. "Wow." Guess charity work drew a crowd even without electricity. "Okay, first band. Get ready."
Ringo rushed up to Brawly, "where's Flash?"
"I saw him earlier," Brawly stated. "But I haven't seen him in a while." Ringo groaned at this and rushed over to the sheet of band orders, seeing that they were number eight.
"He'd better get here soon."
Flash could barely remain still as he, Shining and Trixie sat in the man's car. Unfortunately, they weren't going anywhere.
The power outage had caused a major traffic jam and even with the lights on, none of the cars were able to move. "Come on!" Trixie cried out the window, "move it already!" She turned to Shining, "can't you put the sirens on?"
"I want too," Shining told him. "But I can't do that without a serious cause and unfortunately, getting Flash to a concert isn't a good enough reason." He looked out at the traffic as the car in front moved a few inches, allowing him to move forward too. "Besides, even if I could flash the lights none of these cars have anywhere to move to so I could pass." Flash groaned as he hit his head on the dashboard, all the while looking down at the watch.
"Come on," he begged. "Turn green." But the dial remained red, causing him to sigh.
Ringo and Brawly watched as Octavia played an amazing piece on her cello, she being the seventh player to perform. Their spot up next.
"Hey guys." They turned to see Rainbow step up to them, as the rest of the Rainbooms were behind her. "You guys are looking a little worried. Everything okay?"
"No," Ringo growled, "Flash completely bailed on us." This caught the girls off guard, the lot of them knowing Flash's loyalty was only outdone by Rainbow. They looked around and sure enough, he was nowhere in sight.
"That is weird," Sunset frowned as Twilight nodded. "What are you guys going to do?"
"Flash Drive," the theatre worker announced. "You're up next." The boys flinched and Ringo turned to him.
"We've got a bit of a problem. We can't play right now." The worker frowned at this, "is there anyway we can wait?"
"We can't leave the audience waiting for who knows how long," he told him. But seeing the teen's frowns, he sighed. "Tell you what. I'll push you guys back to the last spot. But if you can't perform by then, we'll have to end the show early." They thanked him and he went off to get another band, whilst Brawly took out his phone.
"Where are you?" He asked as he tried calling Flash.
His heart stopped when his phone rang, showing it was Brawly. "Aren't you gonna answer it?" Shining asked, but Flash sighed.
"And tell him what? That I'm in a cop car heading towards the theatre. How am I supposed to explain that?" They frowned, but knew he was right. All they could do was hope they could get there in time. But as the traffic got more and more packed, it was looking less likely.
Flash spent every second of the drive shifting his gaze between the time and his watch, flinching every time a minute passed and the watch remained red. They finally managed to get out of the traffic and get some actual speed, praying that they still had time.
The Rainbooms had just finished their song. It was time for the final performance of the night, but Flash Drive were still missing their most important member.
"Well?" The theatre worker asked, "are you boys going on or what?"
The theatre had just come into view and Flash sent his band a text, telling him he was moments away. And as the car pulled up and Flash got out, the watch turned green.
"Seriously?" He asked as he ran towards the building's back entrance, seeing an open door and running in. "Guys!" He called out, "I'm here. Is our turn up?" But he didn't hear anyone reply. In fact, he didn't see or hear anything. "Guys?" He made his way through the theatre until he reached the stage, finding it almost complete empty.
Ringo and Brawly were standing there, staring out at the empty seats. The concert was over and Flash Drive had missed their turn.
"Guys," he whispered as they slowly turned to him, "I...I'm sorry."
"Are you?" Ringo asked, "if you are then tell us where the heck you went?" Flash frowned, knowing he couldn't tell them. And he didn't want to lie to them either.
"I can't," he told them. "But you've gotta trust me. I had to go." The pair were clearly not happy with this, looking away from them. "I'll make it up to you?"
"How?" Ringo asked, "by promising this'll never happen again? I get the feeling you can't promise that. That whatever reason you missed this will come up again and you'll have to bail on us." Flash tried to say something, but stopped because he knew Ringo was right. Tell us honestly. Could this happen again? Could, for whatever reason, you have to run off and leave us high and dry when we're about to perform?"
Flash looked down at the ground, then at his watch. Yes, this could definitely happen again. As long as Flash had this watch, as long as he had the power to help people, he was going to drop everything to do it. How could he not. "Yes," he finally said, "it could. And I'm sorry."
Ringo and Brawly sighed before the drummer spoke up, "not as sorry as we are. But you've left us no choice." Flash looked up at them, his heart clutching as he waited for the words he knew were coming.
Twenty minutes later, Shining and Trixie stepped into the theatre and look around. Flash hadn't come out yet, though they had seen his band mates leave a while ago.
They then spotted Flash sitting on the stage, looking down at the watch on his wrist whilst his guitar lay besides him. "Flash?" Trixie asked as they stepped closer, "are you okay?" Flash didn't reply, but they could see on his face that he wasn't okay.
"Sorry you missed the concert," Shining told him. "How mad were they?"
"Really mad," Flash told them.
"You'll make it up to them," Trixie smiled.
"They kicked me out." That shocked them, "they kicked me out of the band. They don't wanna be in a band with someone who isn't giving it their complete attention." The two frowned, both feeling bad for the kid.
Shining climbed up onto the stage and put a hand on Flash's shoulder, "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Flash told him. "You did the right thing calling me." He took a deep breath and forced his frown away, "I don't regret leaving. If I hadn't, you'd be up in space acting as an alien's dinner and the city'd still be stuck in a blackout. I saved lives tonight." He looked at his guitar, "I just wish I could have saved my friendship with Ringo and Brawly."
"I don't think your friendship is dead," Trixie told him. "They might not wanna be in a band with you, but I doubt they'd wanna stop being friends. They're just a little mad right now. Give'em time to calm down and who knows, they might even want you back in the band."
"Maybe," Flash nodded, "but I've been thinking." He picked up his guitar, "I became a musician because when I played I made people happy. And I still wanna do that. But I've helped way more people as an alien than I have as a guitar player."
"What are you saying?" Shining asked, "are you gonna give up being a guitar player?" Flash shook his head.
"No. I don't wanna stop cold turkey. I love playing. But I can't divide my life between being a musician and being a hero." He held up the watch, "I don't know how long I'll end up having this thing. But as long as I do, I'm gonna become the hero I always wanted to be. If that means I have to give up trying to be a rock star, that's okay." Shining and Trixie smiled at this, happy Flash wasn't taking losing his band so hard.
"Come on," Shining patted his shoulder. "I'll buy you a treat for saving my life." Flash smiled at this and nodded, jumping down off stage and heading to the door with his friends. His life as Flash Sentry, master guitarist and future music legend might be over. But his life as Flash Sentry, alien superhero and future defender of the earth was only just beginning. Flash didn't know what the future held for him, but he was sure he had made the right choice.
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Very nice chapter. I think that Flash's band members will realize they made a mistake later when they can't find anybody good enough or a few others (including them) see Flash facing off against a big alien threat.
What Ben 10 episode is this based on?
By the way, the aliens that the Flash is facing... are they the alien species of Feedback?
11378377 Yup. And this isn't based on any chapter. Not all the chapters are gonna be based on Ben 10 ones.
11378382
Oh, okay
Conductoid, nice use of Ben’s favourite alien.
so there are plumbers in this? If so when will Flash and them meet them?
Was surprised to see members of feedback's people in this.
I feel bad for Flash thought he might tell them but chances are with a certain alien after the omnitrix its best not to.
I enjoy this chapter. I really like Feedback, so it was interesting that we got to have some conductoids appear so soon, even if they were the villains of the chapter. This was also a good example of how sometimes being a hero really sucks, but "with great power comes great responsibility" and even though Flash himself got a crummy ending he doesn't regret his choice.
11378571
Well I hope Flash get to scan one gain Feedback to his arsenal of aliens. The Onmitrix can scan alien DNA from any alien creature and catalog it.