Season 3, Episode 13: Tirek's Scheme
In Tirek's ship, the old man was busy working on a strange tube-like device.
Behind him, five tubes of water had something floating within them. Each one was a different shape, two looking like humanoid birds, one looking like a winged lizard, one appearing to be a wrestler-sized individual and the last appearing ape-like. But they were just shaped hunks of meat, with no actual features on them.
Lightning sparked inside the tubes and with every zap, the flesh became more and more stable.
Tirek sighed as he finished working on the device, holding it up and smiling at it. It was perfect and would easily fool anyone who looked at it. Now he just needed to do one final thing.
Taking a cable out of a computer, he attached it to the device and ran a program. A loading bar began to form and as it did, Tirek smiled before turning to the hunks of meat. "With this, I'll finally be able to get you back where you belong." He focused on the ape-shaped meat, "all that's missing is you. But if you don't show up before my plan is put into motion, I'll just have to hunt you down myself."
But as he said that, a beeping sound caught his attention. He spun around and looked at his computer, a smile appearing on his lips at the sight of the tracking system. "Ah, finally awake I see. Just in time. If you're able to make enough noise, Sentry and his friends might find you and take you to meet your siblings. Then you'll all be mine." He smirked, "all mine."
The next day.
It was a peaceful day in Canterlot and Flash was taking some time off from being a hero.
Currently, the teen was in his dad's car with his parents in the front seat. Behind him, Banana was jumping up and down to look through the window of the trunk to watch the world roll by. The family had decided to take their pouch out for a day at park, Flash having not had a lot of time to spend with his four legged friend since his identity as a hero came out.
The car arrived at Banana's favourite park and pulled into its lot, Banana letting out several excited barks seeing where they were. "Okay boy," Flash told him. "We'll let you out. Don't worry." They got out and let the dog free, Banana leaping out of the trunk as soon as it was open. He ran towards the gated area and Flash chased after him, his parents following with Banana's bag in hand.
Many people and their dogs were already there, the older people sitting on the benches around the edge whilst the younger ones played with their dogs. Flash let Banana in and he ran off to play with some of the dogs, Flash and his parents sitting on an empty bench and smiling as they watched him having the time of his life.
"Ahhh," Misty sighed, "I can't remember the last time we spent time together like this."
"Not in a while," Trail agreed. "Not since before Flash's little secret came out to the world."
"Yeah," Flash nodded, "sorry about that. Being a public superhero's a lot more time consuming than a secret one. And with everything that's been happening with the hybrids, Medallions and everything else, I've barely been able to get a day to just relax."
"We understand," Misty assured him. "And we're proud of you. We might not have been fully on board about you being a hero when we learned about it, but you've proven you really are perfect for the job." Flash smiled as a little kid ran up to them.
"Wow, you're Flash Sentry."
"The one and only," he told him.
"Can I get a picture with you?" He took out his phone and Flash nodded, Trail taking the phone as the two sat side by side. As they did, Banana and the kid's dog ran up and jumped into their laps. Flash hugged his dog and made sure to get the Omnitrix in the shot as his dad took the picture.
Down below, something was moving through the ground at high speed.
Whatever it was was digging through the dirt with super powerful claws. Any piece of rock or hard dirt was quickly ripped apart and moved away from it, as it continued to dig through the ground in search of something.
Then, it stopped as it seemed to pick up a smell. Despite being deep underground, it could smell something. Something it felt was familiar. The smell of dog. The smell of...family.
"Thanks!" The kid smiled when he saw how great the picture had come out.
"No problem," Flash smiled as the kid ran back into the fray with the two dogs. As he watched, Flash thought about everything that had happened since becoming a hero. There had been some times he wasn't sure anyone would accept him, but slowly he had managed to win people over and now the whole city seemed to accept him as its hero.
He sighed, as he sat back and took in the piece and tranquillity of everything around him. It was times like this that Flash was sure he was doing the right thing. He might have to fight villains and run into burning buildings, but times like this made him believe it was all worth it.
But the peace and tranquillity was suddenly destroyed, when the ground exploded near the dog group. This caused the pouches to run away, Banana heading straight for his owners and leaping into Flash's arms.
The teen in question was shocked by what he saw, holding his dog tight as they watched something pull itself out of the hole that had just appeared.
That something looked like a cross between a dog and a gorilla. Its large gray body looked like a giant ape, standing at around seven feet in height, but it had a dog's head with long droopy ears. It had a short tail and its long bulky hands had short black claws on the ends, whilst a metal collar was struck around its neck.
"What on earth is that thing?" Misty asked, as Flash handed Banana to him. "Be careful."
"Hey," he smirked at her, "this is me we're talking about here." That was why his parents were worried, Flash quickly rushing towards the creature as it sniffed the ground. "Hey big guy." The creature turned and growled at him, Flash holding up his hands showing he wasn't a treat. "Okay, let's try and stay calm. I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna know why you're here."
The creature tilted its head, but kept growling before raising its clawed hands.
Flash frowned, seeing he wasn't gonna be talking this one down. "Alright," he reached for the Omnitrix, "you asked for it." But as he said that, the watch suddenly lit up.
"Uncatalogued DNA detected!" Flash's eyes went wide, the teen realising what this meant.
And sure enough, the creature's entire hand suddenly changed. In seconds, the whole thing was surrounded by a familiar crystal coating and its claws looked extra sharp. It leapt forward and tried to slash at him, but Flash was able to jump back to avoid it.
"The last hybrid!" He cried, quickly changing the Omnitrix to scan mode. As he did, the creature's other hand was surrounded by crystals as well. Its feet also gained crystal boots with claws whilst its teeth suddenly changed to be made of the same substance. "I'm guessing you've got a little Diamondhead in you, huh." His watch shot the beam, which flew over the creature before it could attack.
"Unknown DNA sample acquired," the Omnitrix announced once the light finished. "Scan complete." The beast leapt at him with its claws ready to strike, but Flash dived forward and rolled under its attack as he activated the Omnitrix.
When the creature landed, a green flash from behind made it spin around and see a new opponent standing tall. "Diamondhead!" The crystal alien stared back at its genetic cousin, who licked his lips before running forward. It let out a howl as it leapt into the air, its crystal claws primed to slash at him.
He raised his arms and created a shield, blocking the claws but they managed to carve a groove in them.
"Augh!" Diamondhead was knocked staggering back, as the hybrid landed before launching itself forward for another slash. Diamondhead quickly reacted and punched the ground, causing a wall of crystal to appear that they hybrid attacked instead. The beast's claws slowly cut their way through the wall, as Diamondhead ran around it. "Take this!" He fired several shards at the hybrid, who spun around and saw them coming.
It quickly started swinging its arms around, its crystal arms blocking and deflecting all the projectiles. When the last of them reached it, it actually opened its mouth and caught it between its teeth.
"Wow," Diamondhead was impressed. The hybrid actually bit through the gem with its crystal teeth and smirked before rushing forward, Diamondhead charging as he threw a bunch right into its face. But once again, the hybrid surprised him by opening its mouth wide. "WHAT?" His fist flew into its mouth and it stopped it from hitting the back of its throat using its teeth, which started cracking his arm. "No way!"
The hybrid smiled as it bit down harder, whilst raising its claws ready to cut him up.
"Oh no you don't!" Diamondhead pulled and his hand broke off his arm, allowing him to jump back whilst the hybrid accidently swallowed the hand and found itself choking.
As it clutched its neck, Diamondhead regrew his hand and leapt forward. With a roar, he threw a punch right into the beast's gut. This knocked the wind out of it and dislodged the crystal hand, as it was thrown backwards.
Diamondhead had been sure not to hit too hard, enough to simply knock the creature down and stop it from suffocating. And as it recovered, he hit the Omnitrix and transformed. "Pesky Dust!" As the hybrid picked itself up, the fairy flew above it and started sprinkling the dust down upon it.
Slowly, the wolf began to drift off and fell to sleep as the crystals around its body retracted back into its body.
Pesky Dust sighed as he transformed back to human, landing down next to the hybrid. He looked him over and couldn't see any serious injuries. And as he did, his parents moved to his side with Banana. "You sure it's not gonna attack again?" His father asked, as Flash took out his phone.
"He should be out long enough for us to put him somewhere safe." Flash rang a number and quickly got through. "Shining, it's Flash. I've found the last hybrid." He nodded, "don't worry. I managed to subdue it without hurting it. But I'm gonna need to put it somewhere before it wakes up." He continued to nod and smiled, "great. Hold on a second." He turned to his parents, Misty speaking up.
"Is Shining going to come and get it?"
"Not exactly. He wants to use the teleporter to bring it back to the base. Gonna need to act as the beacon." He frowned, "sorry our family day out got cut short." His parents smiled at him.
"Don't worry," Trail told him. "We know this is important." Flash smiled before having an idea.
"Shining, can my parents come? I haven't been able to show them around the base yet." He waited and smirked before turning to them, "he said you guys can come if you want." The pair smirked and nodded, very interested in seeing the place Flash was now working. "Shining, they're in. Alright. Give he a few seconds." He turned back to them, "you'll need to be holding onto me."
Misty and Trail stepped up and placed a hand on his shoulders. "Like this?" Misty asked.
"Yup," Flash smirked before lifting his phone, "we're ready." He hung up and they waited, as Flash placed a hand on the creature. The next thing they knew, there was a flash of light and they all felt a tingling sensation.
Banana didn't seem to like this and squirmed, Misty holding him tighter as the sensation began to dull. As it did, the light vanished and they found they were no longer in the park. Instead, they were inside the main control room of the Plumber Base.
His parents looked around in amazement, Banana continuing to struggle in Misty's arms until she attached his lead and put him down. "This place is amazing," Trail stated before the elevator dinged and they turned to see Shining, Azmuth, Twilight Sunset and Fluttershy stepping out of it.
"Flash!" Twilight rushed over to him, "you alright? We got worried when we heard you ran into the final hybrid."
"I'm good," Flash told her. "This one actually went down pretty easily." They turned to the creature, as Sunset looked it over and Azmuth began scanning it.
"No wonder," Sunset finally spoke up. "This thing's a Diamond Dog. They're tough, but not the sharpest tool in the shed. They usually spend their days digging in mines looking for gems."
"Well this one came up from the ground," Flash replied. "I didn't get a good look at the hole, but its probably one heck of a digger. Those diamond claws of it are probably better then digger scoops."
"Diamond claws?" Shining asked, "is that its ability?"
"It would appear so," Azmuth nodded as he tapped his tablet. "Its DNA is an unknown sample mixed with human and petrosapien." He turned to Flash, "you're saying its claws were made of diamonds?"
"Kinda. It was able to cover its hands and feet with crystals just like Diamondhead. Its teeth suddenly turned crystal as well." Azmuth nodded and he completed his scans.
"Well, you've managed to capture it at a perfect time. I'm finally ready to purge all these hybrids of their human DNA."
"Really?" Flash was amazed to hear this, "why didn't you tell me?"
"I only just learned I would be able to do it," Azmuth replied. "I was missing a part that was essential to complete the machine, but it turns out Tirek had something similar he could lend us."
"Really?" Flash asked, "he has something similar to galvin technology?"
"Oh, this isn't galvin level technology. It's a rather simple piece of equipment. It's just very difficult to create due to how small it is." He turned away from him, "think of it like a jigsaw. They're a simple concept, but difficult to put together due to how much concentration is required."
Flash wasn't sure he fully understood that, but didn't have time to answer as the Diamond Dog was starting to make noises. "I think he's starting to come around."
Azmuth quickly poked his tablet and in a flash, a large mechanical pod appeared that opened up. "Quickly, get it inside." Flash, Shining and Trail quickly grabbed him and heaved the hybrid up, all glad he wasn't currently in diamond form since he was already heavy enough.
They placed him inside the device and closed the door, which filled with gas that started putting him back to sleep.
"There," Azmuth nodded, "that should keep him contained until the process is complete." As he said that, Sunset moved over to the main computer and typed away at it. A few moments later, the screen came alive and something appeared on it. A horse's face.
"Hey everypony." They all realised it was Princess Twilight, Flash, Shining and the human version a little weirded out by the sight of her in that form. "I'm guessing you guys are calling to tell us about the hybrids?"
"Indeed," Azmuth nodded, "and I'm ready to remove their human DNA and transport them to your world."
"That's great," Princess smiled. "The leaders of their nations have all agreed to take them in. Have you managed to find the final one?"
"Yup," Flash nodded, "it's a Diamond Dog." Princess frowned hearing that, "something wrong?"
"That one could be a problem. Diamond Dogs don't have a kingdom or a governing body, so I don't know if I'll be able to help it get adapted to life here as well as the others." They nodded at this, as they turned to look at the hybrid in question.
"This one wasn't exactly friendly," Flash told them. "Maybe we should keep it here and just send the others to Equestria for now."
"We should still attempt to remove its human DNA," Azmuth told him. "This process isn't exactly easy, so I'd rather do it once if possible." They nodded and Princess agreed to contact the other leader and tell them about the hybrid's arrival.
They ended the call and started getting to work.
They took the Diamond Dog, which Flash had chosen to name Scoop, up to the hybrid habit. The other hybrids were excited to finally be getting sent to Equestria, Sunset having told them all about the place and the different homes they would each be making there.
Azmuth summoned four more capsules, which they would also need to be placed in. "Why?" Drift asked as they were all released from their cells and stepped towards them.
"This isn't exactly going to be a painless process," Azmuth told them. "DNA re-sequencing take a toll on the body. Whilst the Omnitrix can rewrite Flash's DNA in an instant without pain, it took a long time for me to develop that technology and even longer to build it. If we waited for me to complete that task, you lot would all be stuck in here for a few more years."
"So we're gonna be in pain?" Pearl looked worried.
"Of course not," Twilight assured her. "These pods will put you all into a deep sleep. So deep you won't feel a thing when your DNA is altered. You'll go to sleep and awaken in Equestria in your new bodies."
"I guess that's okay," Scales agreed. "Let's just get this over with." The others nodded and all climbed into the pods, as Fluttershy made sure they were all comfortable.
"I guess this is goodbye," she told them. They all smiled back at her.
"Thanks for everything," Drift stated.
"Charger miss Fluttershy," the minotaur yak hybrid announced.
"I'll miss you all too," Fluttershy nodded. "But you'll be safe in Equestria. Now, go to sleep." They all nodded and laid down, allowing the humans to close the pods as Azmuth activated the sleeping system. They all smiled as the gas filled the devices and knocked them out.
"Alright," Azmuth stated, "let's get to work." They pushed the now hovering devices back towards the elevator and rode it down towards the room Azmuth had built the DNA re-sequencers. When they arrived on that floor, Flash was surprised to see the rest of the Rainbooms were already there along with someone else.
"Tirek," Shining smiled, "Good to see you again."
"And you," Tirek replied. "And congratulations on the promotion to full Plumber Agent. That must have been quite the test."
"I'll tell you what happened there later." He looked over at a large device that had a bunch of wires hoses and wires laying everywhere. He then looked down at the device in Tirek's hand, "is that the part?" Tirek nodded and turned to hand it to Azmuth, who took a closer look at it and smiled.
"Perfect," he announced. "With this, we can complete the re-sequencer. I'm still amazed you actually had one." He floated down and behind the machine, whilst Tirek smirked.
"You know I'm always happy to help." He looked over at the hybrids, "so these are the creatures created using DNA of another universe?"
"Yup," Flash nodded. "And once the human side of their DNA is purged, we can send them back to that world and they don't have to worry about being captured by whoever made them."
"It's too bad we never learned who the one behind all this was," Rainbow stated.
"Indeed," Rarity nodded. "They clearly have a way to enter Equestria. What's to stop them from going there and kidnapping them once they're there? Furthermore, what if they try and simply recreated these five from scratch?"
Sunset stepped forward. "The leaders in Equestria are gonna be keeping a close eye on them once they're there. If anyone tries to capture them, they'll let us know. And if they do recreate more hybrids...well there's nothing we can do about that. We'll just have to handle it when it comes."
The others were in agreement with that, as Azmuth finished installing the device into the machine. "We're ready." He took out his tablet and contacted Twilight, who appeared on screen. "Princess, are you ready to receive them once the process is complete?"
"Yup. Just let me know when to be ready." Azmuth nodded as they all pushed the pods into position and started connecting the hoses and wires to it as instructed.
Once that was done, everyone stepped back as Azmuth began to power up the device. "Ready?" They all nodded and Azmuth pressed the button, "activate!" The machine began to power up and unleashed a bright light, forcing them all to cover their eyes whilst Azmuth put on shades. "Beginning to lock onto their DNA." But as he said this, something else happened.
An alarm sound filled the air, surprising them as the machine's power increased. "What's happening?" Misty cried, as the machines around them started sparking before a few small explosions occurred around them. They cried out, as Azmuth tried to connect to the machine.
"Something's causing the base's power system to overload!" Azmuth cried, trying to shut down all power. But as he tried, the tablet's connection to the system was cut off. "What?" There were more explosions and the room started shaking, everyone crying out as Rarity put a shield around them.
"What do we do?" Pinkie screamed, as an explosion above them caused the roof to start caving in. Pieces of metal and debris fell towards them, as more explosions caused some pieces to be thrown into the walls and do more damage.
Fires started all around them and the DNA re-sequencer started going nuts. "IT'S GONNA BLOW!" Shining cried, activating his badge. "Plumber override. Code three eight S A four!" The badge beeped and the override was accepted, with more explosions occurring. "Lock on to all life forms and teleport them out of the base!" The badge kept beeping as lights appeared around them.
And as they did, a massive explosion ripped through the floor and fire flew straight towards them.
They all flinched, but none of them felt the flames. The next thing they all knew, the light around them was disappearing and they felt a gentle breeze on their skin.
Opening their eyes, they saw that they were outside the base and unharmed by what had happened.
But before they could relax, the front of the building exploded and the lot of them were knocked flying backwards. They all crashed into the grass on the front lawn, as pieces of metal and glass were thrown every. Luckily, none of the debris was thrown at them. If it had, they would have been in no fit shape to stop it.
They all laid there, their ears ringing due to the explosion.
People who were nearby also heard the explosion and rushed to the front gates to see what was happening, as Flash and his friends started picking themselves up. They all stared at the building and were shocked to see the whole place had been trashed.
"What happened?" Tirek asked, "what could have caused an explosion?" None of them knew the answer and as they picked themselves up, Fluttershy realised something.
"Where are the hybrids?" They looked around and realised she was right. The hybrids were nowhere in sight. Not even their pods were around.
"No," Shining shook his head, "the teleporters should have locked onto their life signs." He took out his badge and tried to log into the base, but the explosion had completely destroyed the systems. "I can't figure out what's happening in there."
That was all Flash needed to hear before he ran forwards, his parents calling out to him. But he didn't stop and transformed into Kagenobi, leaping into the remains of the building and making his way to the elevator.
The metal was red hot, but he barely felt it in his shadow form. He was able to make his way down to the room they had just been in and when he looked around, he found the place was a total mess. And then he saw the device and the remains of the five pods, which had been blown open and damaged beyond repair.
Moving closer, he took a chance and looked inside. And all he saw was...ash. "No."
Back outside, the police and fire department had arrived.
A small crowd had also arrived, with Trixie and Adagio being amongst them. The girls tried to get in, but the cops wouldn't allow them. However, they couldn't stop Trixie from going Sky Butterfly and carrying Adagio over the blockade. "HEY!" He cried, as the girls flew towards the building.
"Shining!" Trixie cried, the man turning to her. "What happened?"
"An explosion," he explained. "We don't know what caused it, but it blew the whole base up." He looked towards the building, "and the hybrids were still inside." The girls gasped, fearing the worst. Shining then noticed Kagenobi return and rushed over to him. "Did you find anything?" He returned to human and Shining could see the anguish on his face.
"Flash?" Fluttershy looked terrified by what he was about to say, "are they..."
"They're gone," was all Flash could tell them. This pushed Fluttershy over the edge and she started crying, her friends rushing to her side to comfort her as Flash explained what he found.
As he finished his story, everyone couldn't believe what had happened. They all thought about the hybrids. Even though they had started off enemies, they had grown and were about to start a new life in a new home. But all that had been stolen.
Tirek sighed, being the first to speak up. "We lost some great souls today. I know this must be hard on all of you. Take time to properly mourn them, so that we can focus on the most important thing right now."
"Most important thing?" Pinkie asked, "what could be more important than them?"
"Nothing? Apologies. I meant, the most important thing after them. Find out what caused this. Not knowing what happened will not help us feel any better. It won't be until we learn the truth behind their deaths that we'll feel better."
"He's right," Azmuth agreed. "I will begin work excavating the base and try to figure out what happened."
"You should also take time," Tirek told him. "I can't imagine you're at your best in this moment." But Azmuth shook his head and moved towards the building.
"No, there's no telling what the explosion did to the devices in the base. If it caused serious damage to anything volatile, then we need to be made aware of it now." He took out his tablet and connected it to his ship, which decloaked and started unleashing robots.
As they flew down, they started spraying the building and putting out the fires.
Azmuth turned to the others, "this might take some time. You should all head on home or wherever you need to be to deal with this right now." They all frowned, not really wanting to just leave without knowing what had happened. "Tirek is right. None of your are in a fit state to be of any help right now anyway." He turned to Shining and Flash's parents, who nodded.
"Come on guys," Shining grabbed Twilight by the shoulder. "Let's not get in his way." Flash's parents did the same with their son, leading them all out of the compound.
As they did, people started asking questions about what the heck had happened. But they quickly backed off when they saw the pained expression on the kid's faces.
Flash barely registered anything that was happening around him. He remembered hearing something about Shining taking Twilight home whilst Trixie and the other Rainbooms would take Fluttershy to her favourite cat cafe to try and cheer her up.
Adagio and his parents started marching him down the street, Flash barely paying attention as he couldn't stop imagining the faces of the hybrids. They were his friends, except for Scoop, all of which he had given names and promised to protect. But he had failed.
He didn't come out of his little dreamworld until he felt himself sitting down.
He blinked and looked around, seeing Adagio and his parents were sitting around the same table as him. It was a small cafe near the park they had been at, since they had to go get the car to go home. Adagio ordered them all some drinks, getting Flash his favourite milkshake in a hope to cheer him up.
But even as the drink was placed down in front of him, he couldn't help but feel bad for what had happened. Even Banana leaping onto his lap didn't make him feel any better.
"Flash," Misty placed a hand on his shoulder, "it's not your fault. You had no idea this was going to happen."
"I promised I'd keep them safe," Flash told her. "And I failed. They never got to really experience the world. Before they could, I locked them in a tank and hid them away so people wouldn't be scared."
"You had to," Trial stated. "They weren't ready to be out in the real world. We watched your fights with them and they were out of control. If you hadn't caught them, they would have caused who knows how much damage to the city before someone else took them down. And they might not have survived if it was anyone else."
Flash didn't say anything and just took a sip of his drink, Adagio shaking his head. "You shouldn't feel sorry for yourself. You didn't do anything wrong."
"Didn't I?"
"Were you the one who caused the lab to explode?"
"No."
"Were you the one who stopped Shining's badge from teleporting them out?"
"No."
"Did you do everything you could to save them once you knew they were in danger?" Flash frowned, unsure about that idea since he hadn't done anything to save them. He had just rushed in a soon as he realised they weren't there. "The answer to that is yes. You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened. It's not your fault."
Flash sighed, "then whose fault is it?"
Azmuth's robots had managed to put the fires out and he was currently riding one through the base.
As the other robots continued to shoot extinguishing gas, the one he was riding was scanning the area. They were currently on their way down to the power station, which had been where the explosion had started. A part of him wondered if maybe Twilight had done something when she messed with it not too long ago, but had checked it himself after returning.
Nothing Twilight did could have caused this. "But what did?" He reached the power core and the robot scanned it, Azmuth staring at the data on his tablet. And as he did, he realised something. "A virus?" Some kind of virus had infected the power system's control processor, deleting its safety subroutines. "How? The base's firewalls are the best there are. How could a virus infect the system?"
He did a further scan of the system and found the virus left a digital trace, allowing him to track it back to its source.
He followed it through the base, travelling through multiple systems until he arrived back in the room they had been in when the explosions started.
He kept following the virus' trace until he arrived and the DNA re-sequencer, which shocked Azmuth as he did a full system diagnostic on the machine. But the device was too badly damaged. Whatever part had been infected, it had been destroyed along with the virus.
He sighed, feeling like he had hit a dead end. "Was this just an accident? Did I miss something when I checked everything before the explosion?" He shook his head. There was no way he could miss something like a virus in one of his machines. But how had it happened then?
However, as he continued to ponder what had happened, the robot beeped.
It had still been scanning the base when he went on his virus hunt. And when it reached this room, it had scanned the place and picked something up. Azmuth brought up the robot's scans and saw what it had found, his eyes going wide. "It can't be."
Fluttershy should have been in absolute heaven.
Here she was, in her favourite cat cafe, with some of her favourite furry friends. Many had jumped around and wanted her attention, but she could barely acknowledge them as she thought about the five creatures she had taught so many things to.
Her friends watched and were all worried, fearing Fluttershy might go into depression if they didn't find a way to help her. "What do we do?" Rainbow asked, Applejack sighing as she shook her head.
"There's nothin we can do," she explained. "She's in mourning. Trust me, losin' someone close ta ya'h like that takes its toll. But you can't just ignore it. If ya'h do, it can be even worse. Most people can't accept the pain and just stop themselves from feelin' anythin. But that's the worst thing ya'h can do."
The others nodded as Pinkie moved over to Fluttershy, a bunch of cats sticking out of her hair. She sat down and put her arm around Fluttershy, pulling her into a hug and allowing her to start crying into her shoulder. The others all stepped around her, hugging her tightly as well.
They could do nothing but be there for her, letting her know she wasn't alone through this.
Still feeling upset, Flash and his family were still at the cafe.
Flash had activated the Omnitrix and was currently cycling through his aliens. When he saw the ones for his Equestrian aliens, he frowned as he remembered how he had gotten each and every one of them. "You okay, son?" He looked up at Trail and then back down at the Omnitrix. "Something wrong with the watch?"
"No," Flash shook his head. "I'm just...wondering if I should stop using these aliens."
"Why on earth would you want to do that?" Misty asked. "What if you need one of them and none of your other aliens can fill in for them?"
"I guess. But...I got these aliens from those five. Using them...would feel like a mockery to them." He suddenly saw the silhouette showing the alien he had gained from Scoop. He had actually been excited to use this one after he had gotten it, having already come up with a cool name for it. But now he would never get the chance.
"That's all the more reason you should use them," Trail told him. "Those five never got to do anything good with their lives. But if you use the aliens that contain their DNA, then they'll continue to live on through you." Flash smirked, actually liking that.
Misty placed a hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes. "I know you're upset about what happened to them, but they're not really gone. So long as you remember them, they'll always live on in your memory."
"You really think so?" Flash asked, his parents and Adagio all nodding as he looked back down at the Omnitrix. Seeing each of them no longer made him feel sadness. Instead, he felt joy and hope. His parents were right. He would protect the world with these aliens. There were many people out there who probably still felt afraid of them after what happened, but he would work to change that.
It was in that moment that an alarm caught his attention, making him look towards a nearby store that a bunch of guys ran out of carrying a bunch of dufflebag.
"STOP!" The store clerk yelled as they jumped into a van and drove off, "GET BACK HERE!" Flash could tell these guys were bad news and looked down at the Omnitrix, smiling as he knew what to do.
Inside the van, the four criminals laughed as they looked over their haul.
The store had been an electronics store and they had made off with a bunch of laptops, games consoles and phones that would fetch a pretty penny. They all smirked at one another, only for the one driving to notice something in the rear view mirror. "We've got a tail!"
They all looked out the windows and saw a strange orange bird horse man hybrid. "You made a big mistake!" He squawked at them, "cause Skydiver's gonna rip you up!" He readied his claws as he drew closer to the truck, only for the criminals who weren't driving to open the back of it and reveal they were armed with machine guns.
They fired, but Skydiver was able to fly around and avoid them without much issue. However, this slowed him down and the truck began to lengthen the distance between them.
"So, that's how you wanna play it huh?" He flew up and out of the guns range, but kept the vehicle in sight as he sped up. He managed to get ahead of the truck before diving down, hitting the Omnitrix as he did so. And in a green flash, he transformed right as he got level with the vehicle. "GRYFORCE!" He announced, unleashing his sonic blast as he did so.
The attack wasn't too powerful, but it was strong enough to act like a brick wall that the truck slammed into.
The crooks all screamed as they were shaken about, the driver getting slammed by the airbag. Gryforce smirked, hoping that would be enough to stop them.
But before he could think about turning back, the van's side door opened up with the other three crooks leaping out. They still had their guns, but they were also armed with swat shields. Gryforce was surprised by this and as they opened fire, he leapt into the air and fired another sonic blast.
But the shields protected the criminals, causing them to only be pushed a few inches back as they kept firing. This made him smirk as he flew down, hitting the Omnitrix and transforming again. "Dragoon!" He flew into the bullets and protected his eyes, his scales turning the deadly projectiles into nothing more than paintball bullets.
He landed right in front of them and unleashed a wave of fire, the crooks using their shields to block it. But the heat from the flames quickly overwhelmed them, forcing them to all drop their shields and leap back. They kept firing and Dragoon once again shielded his body,
He waited until they ran out of ammo, forcing them to stop and quickly reload. But not quick enough to stop him from hitting the Omnitrix and transforming, "Yak-Smasher!" The hairy minotaur quickly raised his arms and wrapped a bunch of hair around it, then slammed his fists into the ground so hard everything around him shook.
This knocked the criminals staggering, their weapons falling from their hands as Yak-Smasher ran forward.
He dealt a single quick blow to each of them, knocking them out but not causing much more damage. He sighed, seeing they were all out, but another gunshot made him spin around. The van driver had gotten out of the truck and was pointing his own pistol at him.
But given he missed a rather large target, he clearly wasn't in the best state to be wielding a weapon. As such, Yak-Smasher slammed the Omnitrix one last time and transformed.
When the light faded, he was revealed to be in a form similar to Scoop. His body wasn't as bulky, however, as he only stood around five feet in height with a lean physique. His fur was orange, with a mop of blue hair on his head that looked just like his human form's hair. He was wearing a black vest with white trim and a white collar around his neck that had the Omnitrix on it.
"DIAMUTT!" He howled, as his hands, feet and teeth all crystallised.
The crook fired at him again, this time actually getting a good shot. But Diamutt used his claws to knock the bullet away, as he started running forward on all fours. He kept firing at the beast, but each and every one of his shots were dodged or deflected. Diamutt then leapt into the air and flew over him, landing with his front legs on the ground as he thrust his back legs into the crook's back.
He cried out as he staggered forward, attempting to regain balance and turning to shoot. But he lost his footing and fell onto his butt.
As he spun around, he saw Diamutt slowly turn towards him and let out a low growl. Fear flooded his body at the bloodthirsty looking creature, which licked its lips as it stared at him. He began to quiver and shake in terror, as Diamutt suddenly shot forward with his claws pointed right at him.
He screamed in horror, thinking this was the end. But he felt no pain.
As he thought the beast had killed him before he felt the pain, he opened his eyes and saw the claws inches from his face. Diamutt had stopped at the last moment and this was enough to overwhelm him.
He fell backwards and was completely past out, Diamutt smirking as he heard sirens approaching. A crowd gathered and were amazed by his new alien, as he touched the Omnitrix and transformed back. It was here that the police arrived, all driving up the street and stopping in time to see Flash standing over the criminals.
The cops quickly took his statement and placed the criminals into custody,
The crowd cheered as Flash returned to Adagio and his parents, who had arrived just as Diamutt finished off the last crook. When they saw him, they noticed a smile on his face and they realised Flash was likely feeling a lot better.
They let Banana run over to him and Flash knelt down to give him a belly rub, as they moved to his side. "You feeling better?" Trail asked, Flash nodding as he stood up with his dog in arm.
"Yeah. You were right. If I want to remember them in the right way, I need to honour them. She from now on, whenever I use these aliens, I'm using them for Drift, Pearl, Scales, Charger and Scoop. So the whole world can remember them in a good way." The three of them smiled at this, Flash smiling as well.
But then, Flash's phone began to ring. The teen handed his dog to Misty before taking it out, seeing it was an unknown number.
"Hello?" He asked, wondering who it was. But he got his answer when the person spoke in a voice he knew all too well.
"Flash, I need you to get back to the base right now."
"Azmuth?" Flash was surprised the alien was contacting him like this. "What's wrong? Did you find out who caused the base to explode?"
"Get back here and I'll explain. I've already sent a message to Shining and he said he'd contact the others. I'm really not in the mood for repeating myself." Flash frowned as Azmuth hung up, the teen sighing before telling his parents he had to go back to the base.
They nodded, agreeing to take Banana home as he and Adagio headed for the base.
When they arrived, they saw Shining's car pulling into the place whilst Trixie and the rest of the Rainbooms arrived as well. "You guys know why Azmuth called us back?" Sunset asked the others as they stepped up to the building. They all shook their heads and as they did, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by light.
"What the hay?" Applejack asked, as they suddenly disappeared and reappeared someplace else.
When the light faded, they realised they were in the base. They were in the room they had been in during the explosions, the sight of the destroyed DNA re-sequencer making them all frown. But then they saw Azmuth working on something.
"Sorry for the sudden teleport," he told them. "Lift's out and we didn't have time to take the stairs."
"What's this about?" Shining asked, "were you able to figure out what happened?"
"I did," Azmuth nodded. "And you'll be shocked to hear what I've discovered." The lot of them frowned as Azmuth moved over to the re-sequencer. "The cause of the explosion was a virus that infected our system. Somehow, it bypassed all the security protocols and caused the power core to go into overload. The virus originated from this device, but I still have no idea how it got infected."
"That's why you called us to explain?" Flash frowned at Azmuth, "that could have just been told over the phone."
"That's not why I asked you back here," Azmuth explained. "Whilst investigating the cause of the explosions, I discovered something. Transporter energy."
"So what?" Trixie shrugged, "didn't Shining teleport you guys out before the explosion?"
"He did, but the energy wasn't from our teleporter." This surprised them. "Every teleporter works in a different way. It's like a gas and electric car. Both do the same thing, but use different methods to accomplish it. And the residual energy my scanners detected, is different from the energy that our teleporters give off."
"So you're saying another teleporter activated in this room?" Twilight asked, "but what was teleported?" Azmuth smiled and turned towards the remains of the destroyed device, everyone slowly putting the pieces together. "No way."
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Shining asked, not wanting to actually say it if he was actually wrong. But the look on Azmuth's face made him feel hopeful.
"I'm saying that the hybrids are still alive," he proclaimed. "But were teleported somewhere else. Whoever did this was able to lock on and transport them away a millisecond before we were transported out. That's why they weren't with us when the teleporters moved us outside." Everyone slowly began to smile, but Adagio looked a little sceptical.
"How sure are you of this?" She asked, Azmuth moving over to the pods and taking out the ash that was inside each of them.
"I tested this ash to figure out what it was originally made of." His tablet suddenly projected a holographic screen in front of them. "And whilst it was a form of flesh, it was only a few hours old at most. Whoever did this teleported the hybrids out and replaced them with newly grown flesh. Had I not began to investigation right away, the ash and energy trace would have weakened and we never would have realised the truth."
"They're alive," Flash whispered. "But...then where are they?" They all wanted to know that answer, fearing that wherever they were wasn't pretty.
Tirek had returned to his building and as soon as he was alone, he had transported himself up to his ship.
He smirked as he arrived at the lab, seeing five tubes with five familiar individuals. Drift, Pearl, Scales, Charger and Scoop were all still asleep, having no idea that they were in the most dangerous place they could possibly be.
Tirek was thanking his lucky stars he had decided to grow a fifth piece of flesh to swap out. If he hadn't, he would have had to either take Scoop and leave no trace anything had burned or leave him there and be down a creation. He smirked, unable his plan had worked so well.
The virus he had planted in the part had done its job almost too well, infecting the entire system and causing the place to explode. He was just glad he had been able to cancel the teleport he had on himself when he heard Shining was going to teleport them had. He had hoped to take all of those foolish idiots out of the equation, but at least he had gotten his investments back. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.
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Tirek needs to go down for that evil trick alone. I was honestly expecting the last hybrid to be a Changeling, though. Not complaining about a Diamond Dog, though.
Glad they found they are alive Flash and Fluttershy were so sad but now they can work to free them.
was surprised at the creature used but was good.
who does Tirek plan to do now he has the hybrids back and how did he get to equestrian to get what he needed to create then I wonder?
Like the last comments I was VERY surprised about the last hybrid choice.
Didn’t expect it to be a Diamond Dog
Wow, poor Flutters. Though I'd feel the same way if the folks I bonded with was gone. But now that they know that they're alive, she'll do whatever it takes to save them.
Fair enough point on the Changeling alien. Still, I'm surprised that you didn't splice the Diamond Dog with Wildmutt's DNA. Sounds like a missed opportunity.
In any case, here's hoping that Flash and the others can stop Tirek and save the hybrids before it's too late. I don't know what Tirek has in store, but I doubt he's going down the 'Ultimate Aggregor' route.
Well, the fifth hybrid has been revealed, right at perhaps the worst possible time.
I'm glad Flash managed to get over what happened to them thanks to using the alien forms he got from them, though it is unknown what Fluttershy's state is even with the reveal they are still alive. Now Tirek finally has his five hybrids back, and it's up to Flash and the others to take him down.
On tvtropes it says the orange in his hybrid forms is him as these creatures but isn’t his skin yellow?
11681968 He's orangey yellow. It's hard to tell with his human form, but if you see his pony form he's a light shade of orange.
11681973
Got it thanks
I think, in the next chapter, Flash 10 is about to take on... ULTIMATE TIREK!!!
guess you right about changeling