High in the sky, completely invisible to the eye and any form of scanning equipment, a ship was flying through the clouds at high speed.

Inside the ship's bridge, Zaaton and his crew were at their different consoles doing what they needed to do in order to keep the ship aloft. But Zaaton was doing something else, the white alien staring at a holographic map with several Xs on it. He stared at the image for several long moments, then growled as he turned his chair away from it.

His second in command, Mera, turned to him and got up off her chair to move over to him. "Something wrong?"

"I've no idea where to look next." Zaaton turned back to the map. "All the areas we've found a reading of its energy, have had nothing there. I don't know why its energy readings are there, but all these loose ends are getting us nowhere."

"We'll find it," Mera told him. "We just have to be patient. It's just like you said. We've waited a long time for this. We can wait a little longer."

Zaaton sighed. "Things would be so much easier, if we didn't have to worry about the Plumbers. If they find us, there's no telling what they'll do to us. Or the seed."

Mera nodded. "They have the best scanning equipment on Earth. If we do anything too outlandish, they might locate us and that could be a problem." Zaaton agreed. "It's too bad we don't have access to their tech. They could probably scan the entire planet for it." Those words caused something to click in Zaaton's mind, his head shooting up.

"That's it!" Mera turned to him, confused, as he turned towards another member of their crew. "Kiraki!" The yellow, tentacle armed, alien turned towards his superiors. "I have a mission for you. It might be dangerous, but it might also be the only thing that'll help us."

Kiraki stood up. "If it can help revive Thouser, I'll do it. Just tell me what you need."

Things at the Plumber base were tense.

Magister Clawcer's arrival had really shaken things up at the place, which had only just gotten into a rhythm before he arrived. When Shining was in charge, the Plumbers were working well. Not perfect, but far from horrible. Things might have been a little shaky in some areas, but the Plumbers hadn't faced an issue they couldn't solve.

But then Clawcer arrived and everything was thrown on its head. After his firing of Flash was undone, Clawcer had started making the entire base much stricter. The agents that weren't out in the field, were all given tablets that had their duties for the day and an exact time table at which to do them in. And if an agent couldn't complete a task in the allotted time, the tablet gave off a horrible warning noise that didn't stop until they were back on schedule.

The time table even had specific bathroom breaks, which did not fly well with those that had weak bladders. This combined with no breaks and lunch times that lasted for only five minutes, was not leading to a great work environment. Clawcer had even replaced all the vending machine snacks with heathly options, which was just a step too far.

The field agents weren't much better, as they had to check in with the base every fifteen minutes to give their exact location in longitude and latitude. If they didn't check in at the exact time, they got into serious trouble. Even if they were chasing a criminal, they got in trouble if they failed a check in.

As such, the Plumber Agents were not happy with their jobs at the moment. Even the alien Plumbers with way more experience, were currently hating their jobs. Clawcer had turned the place into a worse prison than their actual prison cells.

Currently, the Plumbers were all in the main control room. They were stood in an orderly file, as Clawcer stood in front of them all.

The cerebrocrustacean was marching back and forth in front of the prisoners. "Listen up. Today is the transfer of the prisoners to the galactic holding cells. Once these prisoners are out of the way, we'll no longer have to split our focus between them and our other duties. This is sure to boost productivity by at least thirty percent."

"Sir," Flash raised an arm.

"Yes. What is it, Sentry?"

"I'm just curious about something. What'll happen to the prisoners when their time is served? Will they be brought back to the planet?"

"The ones from Earth will be returned to Earth, yes. But given what the earthlings being transported did, I'm very doubtful they will actually live long enough to ever see this planet again." Flash and Shining frowned about that.

They might have been their enemies, but Flash didn't like the idea of taking them away from Earth for the rest of their lives. And what would happen to the ones that died before their sentences ended? Would their remains be returned to Earth, or washed into space?

"You've all been given your assigned tasks. I want this transfer done by the book. Sentry," Flash stepped to attention. "You will transform into your Ninjage form and be ready to act, should the prisoners try anything. If they do, you will trap them in your shadow void."

"But...there's no air in my shadow void. They might suffocate."

"These criminals have proven themselves too dangerous to allow them to escape. If they attempt anything, you will contain them before they can get away. If this might lead to them suffocating, they should have thought of that before they attempted to escape."

"Sir?" Shining spoke up, "isn't that a little too much? Containing them is one thing. But risking them dying-"

"We risk killing our captives every time we shoot a blaster. This is no different. Now no more arguing. All of you, get to your posts!" He began to walk off, as the Plumbers dispersed and headed off to their designated locations.

Flash and Shining moved to one area of the building, Flash frowning as he watched Clawcer walk away. "Too bad Twilight and the girls aren't here. Their abilities would have come in really handy."

"Yeah," Shining nodded. "Unfortunately, they're not Plumbers or even Honorary Plumbers. Clawcer might not have been able to kick you out, but he can keep them from coming here."

Flash groaned, "that guy is the worst. He really needs to learn to relax and let us do what was working." Shining partly wanted to agree, but he knew Plumber rules were in place for a reason. He was just glad Clawcer hadn't attempted to arrest the Rainbooms, given how they had all used Plumber tech in the past without official authorisation.

"Let's just focus on this transfer and don't do anything to upset him. I'm hoping he'll lighten up over time."

"I don't think we have time," Flash stated. "All these new rules and schedules are gonna drive people crazy. Trying to get all that work done on time is seriously stressing people out. I mean, we're not robots." A cough caught his attention and made him look down, where he saw a small humanoid robot alien in a Plumber suit. "Oh, sorry Frank." The robot nodded before walking off. "We're not all robots."

"Just get to work," Shining told him. "We've gotta do what we can to make things go smoother. The last thing we want, is something going wrong and Clawcer making things even stricter than they are now."

"How the heck can things be even stricter?"

"I don't know and I'd rather not find out." Flash frowned, but nodded and headed off to where the prisoners were being kept. Meanwhile, Shining headed over to help with monitor duty.

Outside the base, a particular alien was making his way through the city.

Kiraki was amazed by how easy it was to get to the Plumber Base. He had expected to have to sneak through the town, but found he didn't need to. In the few weeks since the aliens had started coming to Earth, people in Canterlot had quickly adapted.

Now, whilst not everywhere he looked, aliens could be seen all over the place.

Kiraki smiled, amazed at how accepting these humans could be. It was almost tragic, given what would happen in the future. But at the moment, Kiraki was more focused on the base he was heading to. The place wasn't guarded at the gate and as he approached, the moon on his head began to glow.

That light spread to the rest of his body and soon, he was entirely consumed by the shine and began to change.

In moments, his body shrank down and his arms became more suited to his body's height. In just a few moments, the transformation was complete and the light began to fade. And when it did, Flash Sentry was standing in the alien's place.

He was an almost perfect replica of the alien hero, with the only difference being a small sideways moon crescent on his forehead. Aside from that, there was no way of telling the difference between him and the real Flash.

The fake stepped up to the gate and pushed them open without issue, then headed up the drive and into the building. The Plumber's ground base was just as busy as the one underground, with a Plumber working at the desk and spotting him. "Flash? When did you go out?"

"Just needed to get something from my car," he explained whilst moving just as he had seen Flash move online. "I said hi when I left. Did you not hear?" The Plumber frowned, as Flash headed to the elevator. Once he was out of listening range, he pressed his ear. "Okay. Where to now?"

Mera spoke up. "According to what we were able to figure out, the fastest way into the base is using a warp system inside the elevator."

"Got it." Fake-Flash opened the elevator, checking the buttons in it and locating the ones that would send him down into the base.

Back in the base, the real Flash was in the cells and was ready to transform if anything happened.

So far, Doddery, Dragstar, The Hypnotist, Dynamo Danger and the smugglers had all been placed inside stasis pods. The lot of them were fast asleep, ready to be taken to the galactic prison.

The only one left was Animac, the mad scientist glaring at Flash as a Plumber opened his cell. "Alright," he pointed at the pod. "No funny business. Get in the pod and you'll be off on a nice trip to another sector of space."

Animac glared at them. "If you think that pathetic contraption can hold me, you'll be dead wrong." The Plumbers grabbed him and pulled him over to the machine, throwing him into the pod and quickly closing the pod before he could fight back.

Animac let out several cries, as he tried to push the door open. But the Plumbers pressed a few buttons and he started to drift off. Soon enough, he was in stasis sleep and wouldn't be any more trouble. "Nice," Flash gave them a thumbs up. "Now let's get them out of here." They nodded and using a remote, they had the pods begin to float and move towards the transporter.

They warped to the main control room, as the Plumbers there all held their Multi-Striker Blasters at the ready.

Clawcer nodded at them. "Good. The ship should be arriving soon. Once they warp the prisoners on board, we'll be able to relax." However, at that moment, the base's alarms started blaring. "What's going on?"

One of the Plumbers at a monitor, started typing away to figure out what was happening. "Security breach. Teleporter is detecting a DNA signature that doesn't register as a Plumber. They're trying to warp to one of the empty computer rooms."

"Redirect them to this room. All Plumbers, prepare yourselves!" The Plumbers nodded and activated their weapons, pointing them at a teleporter pad whilst Flash prepared to turn into an alien.

Finally, the intruder appeared in front of them and they were shocked to see a copy of Flash standing there. They all turned towards the real one, then to the second. As they did, the new Flash seemed to realise he had been caught. "Ah. Hello there." The Plumbers raised their weapons again.

"Who are you?" Shining asked, but the fake Flash said nothing as his body began to glow. And before anyone could shoot, he shrank down and the light faded to reveal a mouse. A mouse that ran towards a nearby vent.

"Stop him!" Clawcer ordered, as the Plumbers began to fire at them. But the mouse was able to dodge them all and one of the blasts hit the vent grate, breaking it and allowing the creature to get into it. "Sentry!"

"On it!" Flash ran towards the grate and transformed, "GOOP!" The alien slime leapt towards the metal tunnel, his UFO flying in first with him right behind it. He flew through the tunnel, spotting the mouse's tail as it flew around a corner. "You're not getting away!" He chased after it and as he reached the turn, he looked around and spotted the mouse at the end of the tunnel.

It turned another corner and he managed to get to it and look around, just in time to see where the mouse was heading.

As so it was that Goop chased the mouse through the maze of vents, going up and down multiple levels to try and find where it was heading. "You won't get away!" However, this was soon proven untrue. For as the mouse turned another corner, it found a small hole in the vent.

Looking through it, the mouse found it dropped down into another part of the base. And as Goop arrived around the corner, the mouse glowed again and shrunk down even more. And when the light faded, a small fly could be seen buzzing around before it dived through the hole.

"HEY!" He pushed his head through the hole and looked around, but couldn't see any sign of the fly. It was so small, it was barely noticeable. "Great." The bad news was, he wouldn't be able to leave the vent this way. The UFO and Ultimatrix wouldn't fit through the hole. And if he changed, he was still be stuck in the vent.

Seeing no other choice, he pulled himself back up into the vent and headed back the way he came.

"Sorry guys," Flash told them over the radio. "He managed to get into an area I couldn't go. I think I'm in sector G."

One of the monitor Plumbers brought up the base's map and locked onto Flash's signal. "Yup. Sector G. but I can't seem to lock onto the intruder's life sign." Clawcer frowned at this, as he rushed over to a teleporter. "Everyone, put on your helmets. Armor. There's a pair of special glasses in that storage shed. Give them to Sentry when he shows up." Everyone nodded and put their helmets on, whilst Clawcer warped over to his office hallway.

When he arrived in the office, he pressed a button on the wall and caused part of it to open up. Doing so revealed an alcove that Clawcer backed into. Once he was in, wires extended down and attached themselves to his brain shell.

"Activate collective visual link." Suddenly, the rest of the world around him vanished and a bunch of images appeared in front of him. It was like he was staring at a hundred or so monitors, with each one showing a different image.

Goop returned to the main control room and as soon as he did, Shining rushed over with a pistol and a set of shades.

"Change back and put these on." Flash did so and as soon as he did, he could hear Clawcer's.

"Good. Now that everyone's online, begin sweep of the base. Leave no stone un-turned."

"But this guy could be anything?" One of the Plumbers called out. "Or anyone!" They all looked around, clearly worried there was an impostor amongst them.

"Relax. That's why I've opened the collective visual link. Everything you see, I'll see. If you're looking at someone and I can't see you through their helmet's recorder, we'll know they're a fake." Everyone nodded, understanding the plan. "I know you're all confused and don't know what to do. But just follow my lead and we'll catch this guy. He made a mistake, trying to sneak into our base. Now let's go!"

"YEAH!" The Plumbers cried, as they rushed over to the teleporters and the stairways.

Shining handed Flash the pistol and they both nodded, the two heading towards the stairwells. As they did, Flash turned to Shining. "How the heck is Clawcer able to see through everyone's eyes? There's hundreds of us."

"Maybe," Shining nodded. "But he's a cerebrocrustacean. They're one of the smartest alien species in the galaxy. It's all about parallel processing and with Clawcer's intelligence, it's easy to split his focus between over a hundred screens without missing anything. But he can only do it by blocking everything else. It's like going into a trance."

Flash whistled, impressed Clawcer could do something like that. Flash wondered if he should try scanning him and unlock an alien like that. But then he shrugged. "I got Grey Matter and U-Reek-Ah. Those two should be smart enough for me." As such, he focused back on the task at hand.

All over the base, the Plumbers started checking each and every room for the intruder.

As soon as they opened a door, they jumped in and aimed their weapons whilst their helmets scanned the room. They checked the cells, the training rooms, locker rooms and kitchen. They also had Plumbers head to all the computer rooms, since the intruder had tried to teleport there in the first place.

Each room was quickly occupied with a Plumber, who would remain there constantly scanning the place for life signs.

At one point, a human Plumber ran around a corner and spotted an alien Plumber. Both raised their weapons and prepared to fire if needed, but Clawcer spoke up. "Stop. I'm seeing you both through each other's visor. It's the real them." The pair nodded and lowered their weapons, both stating where they had just checked and found nothing.

In another hallway, Flash and Shining were checking each room.

Flash opened the door and Shining jumped in, blaster at the ready. But as his visor began to scan the room, he found no organic matter. "He's not here." He lowered his weapon and took another look around, as Flash moved over to another door.

The pair repeated the process, but still found no sign of the intruder. "Where is he?" Flash sighed. "He's clearly after our computer system. But wouldn't the base have shut down all the computer systems as soon as we realised that's what he was after?"

"Most of them," Shining agreed. "But there are a few areas that need to remain online. Just in case we needed them. But all those areas are being heavily guarded. There's no way this thing could get to them." Flash nodded, only to then realise something.

"There's one place that should still be online. And the only person in it, is too distracted to notice an intruder." His eyes widened. "Oh no."

Within Clawcer's office, the crab alien was practically asleep as he focused on the sights and sounds his agents were seeing and hearing.

Because of this, he was completely oblivious to the fly that had just entered his office. It buzzed past him without a care in the world and when it reached his desk, it glowed and transformed back into the Flash double.

Kiraki laughed, as he started typing away at the computer. "I cannot believe this worked." He quickly managed to hack into the system and get past all the security, with Clawcer being none the wiser. "Okay." He took something out and connected it to the computer. "Forming digital connection. The others should be able to access the systems in no time."

Sure enough, it only took less than a minute for the connection to be made. And when it was, he laughed as he started finding other ways to buy time. "Let's see." He brought up a bunch of files and then noticed something filed to happen today. "Prisoner transport." He brought up the prisoners and smirked. "Perfect."

He started typing away and within minutes, he had what he wanted. "Teleporting stasis pods. And teleporting evidence as well."

Back in the main control room, the single Plumber that had stayed behind, suddenly got a message stating a teleportation was about to occur.

"What?" She tried to stop it, but her override was quickly overridden. And as she kept trying, the stasis pods began to glow. "No, no, no, NO!" She opened up a channel to all the Plumbers. "Emergency! Emergency! Unauthorised teleportation in progress. I can't stop it!" She looked over at the pods, which began to glow and before she knew what was happening, they all vanished in the blink of an eye.

Clawcer heard this announcement and was shocked. "How is that possible? All the online computers are being guarded."

"Magister!" Shining cried over the coms, "you're office computer is still online." Clawcer's eyes widened and as he shut down the collective link, he realised he had been a fool for not taking his own lack of awareness into consideration.

As he was shutting the link down, Kiraki thought about leaving. But just as he shut the computer down, the office doors opened with Flash and Shining running into the room. "Freeze!" Shining pointed his blaster at the intruder and Kiraki laughed before beginning to transform.

But Flash was just as fast and in a second, he warped into his alien form. "BLOXX!" The Lego gorilla thrust his hands out, trying to catch the intruder. But at the last second, he transformed into a fly and managed to avoid the hand. Bloxx then began to spread out, covering the entire room in an airtight cage made from his own body. But he couldn't do it instantly.

The fly moved as fast as it could and headed for the vent, managing to get inside just before Bloxx completely sealed the room.

"Damn it!" He quickly retracted his body back to normal, allowing Clawcer to leave his alcove and rush over to the computer. "What did he do aside from teleport the prisoners?"

Clawcer started typing and tried to figure everything out. "I'm not sure. Whatever he used to gain access to my systems, it completely scrambled them. But it looks like he also teleported a few objects out of evidence along with the prisoners."

"Where are the prisoners?" Shining asked, as Clawcer kept working.

"I don't know. Looks like he didn't have time to set any proper coordinates. But the teleport range was limited to five or so miles away from the base." The two frowned, knowing that it was still a wide range to cover. "It gets worse."

"How much worse?" Bloxx asked.

"The stasis pods were reprogrammed. They're set to deactivate the moment they re-materialise." Shining and Bloxx were really worried now. All the criminals they had put away. Most of the Negative Ten, the smugglers and a few more, were now all back on the street.

"This isn't good," Shining stated.

On a random street in Canterlot, people were driving around and minding their own business.

But suddenly, a bright flash of light appeared in the middle of the street and all the cars stopped. When they did, they found a bunch of metal objects suddenly appearing on the ground. They quickly bunched up, though none of them overlapped, allowing the lids to slowly open as those in stasis began to awaken.

The people watching were worried about what was happening. And their worries intensified, when they saw a bunch of criminals they remembered from a few months ago. As the criminals began to awaken and pull themselves out of the pods, the citizens began to run or drive away whilst calling the Plumbers.

"What happened?" Doddery asked, the old woman holding her head as she climbed out of the pod.

"I thought we were going to space jail?" Dynamo asked, as they looked around and realised they were still on Earth. "Why are we here? Not that I'm complaining."

"Something must have happened," Dragstar stated. "Somehow, we were freed from the Plumbers."

"Then let's not stick around," Doddery stated. "I'm not getting arrested so quickly after getting out." She jumped onto Dragstar's back. "Giddy up."

"Really?" He asked, as Doddery smirked.

"Respect your elders and help an old woman escape from the police." Dragstar sighed, but ran off along with Dynamo and Periwinkle. The only ones that stayed were Animac and the alien prisoners, the slime smuggler and the bulky blade aliens smirking.

"I say we make this planet wish it never evolved humans!" The slime smuggler laughed as he ran off, the other aliens agreeing and laughing as they all ran off.

That just left Animac, who looked around. "What should I do? I need to get out of here, but what can I do without my tech?" He knew Flash Sentry would be on him quickly. If he couldn't create his amazing monsters, he wouldn't stand a chance against him.

But just as he was about to leave, he noticed something laying on the ground next to one of the pods.

Moving over to it, his eyes went wide at what he saw. "No way." It was his monster maker. The device Shadow had created for him. And next to it was Doddery's wing suit and Periwinkle's control disk shooter. The equipment that made them so insanely feared.

He laughed as he grabbed his device, the laugh being him imagining the other two's face when they realised they missed out on getting their abilities back. And once he was sure the device was working properly, he started typing at the glove to make his creation.

Back at the Plumber Base, everyone was still looking for the intruder. But now they had a bigger problem.

"We need to find those criminals," Clawcer cried. "Before they cause any serious problems." But as he said that, an alarm went off and everyone looked up. "Now what?" He, Shining and Bloxx rushed over to the monitor room, teleporting over to them as the Plumber on monitor duty brought up CCTV footage. "Report!"

"We're getting reports of a giant monster in the city, causing major terror in the streets." They looked up at the screen and saw the aforementioned monster, which was some kind of giant beetle.

Said beetle was twice the size of an elephant and it was partly humanoid, having four long arms that were almost as long as it was tall. it was dark blue in colour, with a few red sections at the shoulders and around the chest. and instead of flying with wings, it was using some kind of natural propulsion to send it flying.

"What the heck is that?" Clawcer asked, with Bloxx having an idea.

"Zoom in on its head. And anywhere else a person might be able to sit." The Plumber did so and as the screen zoomed in, it revealed one of their escaped convicts. "Animac!"

"How'd he make that thing so quickly?" Shining asked, only to then notice the device Animac was wearing. "How'd he get that?"

"The teleport signalled something was taken from storage," Clawcer growled. "He must have gotten it after he woke up. This isn't good."

"I can deal with Animac," Bloxx stated. "You guys should focus on finding that guy that's still here." Shining nodded and whilst Clawcer didn't seem so sure, he agreed and turned to the Plumber.

"Warp him to the location that creature is." She nodded and started typing away, as Bloxx remained as still as possible. A few moments later, he vanished in a flash of light and Clawcer turned to Shining. "Can he really take that man down?"

"He's done it before," Shining stated. "I'd say to watch and see, but Flash is right. We need to find that guy before he escapes."

"Not just him. We also need to capture the other criminals that were teleported out. We might not be able to find all of them, but we still need to capture as many as we can. Leave Animac to Sentry. We'll locate and obtain those other criminals. You and a group of agents will be in charge of that." Shining nodded and opened up his coms, selecting the agents he believed were best for this task.

Meanwhile, Clawcer returned to locating the intruder. If he let this guy escape, he would never be able to live this down. He very well might have to resign if he failed.

Animac was laughing, as his beetle creation soared overhead.

The giant insect was his ticket out of the city, the mad scientist intending to set up shop somewhere else where Flash Sentry wouldn't be an issue. "Now, where should I go? I hear Maine is nice, this time of year. Or maybe I'll hit the beach. The sun and sand will be good for my bones." He laughed, only to then notice a light appearing somewhere.

He looked around and spotted Bloxx, the lego ape staring at him as he stepped out of the light. "You're coming with me, Animac."

Animac didn't hear what he said, but knew he didn't agree with it. "Not happening, Sentry." He gave his beetle a mental order and the mutant swerved around, flying towards the building Bloxx was on.

But before it could hit him, he extended his arms over to another building and pulled him off the roof. The beetle pulled up before its horn hit the building, as Bloxx extended his arms and started walking from one roof to another whilst the beetle chased after him.

At one point, Bloxx retracted his arms before spinning around to point them at the beast. They quickly began to reformat into a pair of cannons, allowing him to fire his block bullets at the beast. But due to the insects hard shell, they didn't do anything to it.

Animac laughed at this. "Pathetic. What do you actually think you can do with those silly things? They won't hurt my beautiful creation!" As he said that, the alien ape re-aimed his weapons and fired. This time, the blocks shot towards Animac and threatened to smash into him. "Ahhh!" He barely managed to jump behind the horn and protect himself.

"I might not be able to hurt your bug, but you're another story!"

"Stupid pest!" Animac gave his beetle a command. "Fry him!" The beetle flew up and pointed its butt at him, unleashing a powerful blast of fire.

"WHOA!" Bloxx barely managed to extend his arms and propel himself away. But the flames hit his arms and made him hiss. As he pulled his hands back, he found they were melted and his arms dropped all the melted sections before regrowing new ones. "How the heck did you make that thing able to shoot flames?"

"Ever hear of a bombardier beetle?" Animac laughed, as the mutant launched more fireballs at him.

Bloxx leapt away and as he did, he slammed his hand on the Ultimatrix. Animac flinched at the light, as Flash transformed. "FIREFLY!" The flaming insect shot into the air, as the beetle launched a flamethrower at it. But being a fire user, Firefly was unaffected by the attacks. "Now I've got you!" He charged, but Animac's beetle was able to knock him away.

It swung its horn around and slammed it into Firefly, sending him flying in another direction.

The alien insect screamed, as he rolled through the air with barely any control. He shot towards a building and would have likely gone splat, had he not fired his hand jet at the last minute and propelled himself away from the building. He then used it and his other hand to regain control, as the beetle flew towards him.

He glared, knowing this was gonna be a tough fight. As such, he charged forward with his hand torches aflame.

The beetle saw him coming and at its creators behest, swung its arms around in a wild motion. The long, tube-like, ligaments made getting the Animac almost impossible, Firefly needing to dance around as he tried to get to the made scientist.

On another street of Canterlot, the people who hadn't seen giant bugs and metal pods appearing out of nowhere, were enjoying themselves.

Humans and several aliens were having fun, eating at cafes and tearooms. But just as a few of them were finishing their cups, their peaceful tranquillity was destroyed by a cat being thrown through the air. It didn't land on anybody, but it did smash into the ground and terrified a bunch of them.

Everyone leapt to their feet and ran for it, as the muscular bladed aliens ran onto the street.

"Tendacians?" A Churl alien asked as they started running. "What the heck are they doing?" The aliens ran about the place, grabbing things to throw or using their blades to slice through anything they could find.

Everyone screamed, as they did their best to escape these psychopaths. But one human tripped and fell to the ground, crying out as he hit the ground. At the same time, one of the aliens lifted another car and threw it at him.

As the man picked himself up, he looked around and saw the car was falling towards him. There was no way he could escape before getting crushed. His body froze up and he braced himself for the pain. But it never came.

Instead, a banging sound filled the air and he opened his eyes. Looking around, he saw a large wall of gem-like constructs in front of him. It had blocked the car and caused it to bounce away from him.

"Are you okay?" He turned to see Rarity, walking towards him having ponied up. She lowered her hand and the wall vanished, as the smugglers stared at her. But before they could think of attacking again, three other girls suddenly appeared.

Rainbow, Applejack and Trixie in her Mighty Bull form, all leapt at three of them. Rainbow slammed a foot into one at high speed, knocking it off its feet, whilst the other two girls threw a bunch right into their faces. This also knocked them back, whilst another one picked up a car and threw it at them.

But it stopped in midair, as Twilight, Sunset, Fluttershy and Pinkie stepped into view.

Twilight put the car down, whilst Pinkie took out a bunch of cupcakes and threw them. They all slammed into the alien and exploded, knocking him back whilst Sunset and Fluttershy ran over to help the man to his feet. "Get out of here." He nodded and ran off, as the alien smugglers picked themselves up.

Rainbow turned to the others. "Aren't those the aliens that Flash arrested before?"

"They are," Twilight nodded in agreement. "But what are they doing here?" The others wondered the same thing, as the criminals prepared to attack.

"Who cares," Applejack stated. "The Plumbers ain't here, so we gotta keep them from causin' too much damage to the place." The others nodded, as Trixie cracked her knuckles and smirked.

"Flash had to go Ultimate to beat these guys. Let's show him up and do it on our own." The girls nodded again and as the aliens charged to attack, they charged as well.

Back with Firefly, the alien insect was still fighting against its large mutant brethren.

He was once again slapped by the monster's large hand, which sent him flying around before regaining control. All the while, Animac laughed at Flash's difficult time. "Why was I ever afraid of you? You're no different from any other fool that's gotten in the way of my brilliance. And the same thing will happen to you that happened to them. Getting crushed under my genius."

"Laugh all you want!" Firefly flew a safe distance away. "But I bet none of those guys could do this!" He slammed the Ultimatrix and in the blink of an eye, he was transformed into almost an entirely different alien.

His black skin turned red, his armor turned yellow with blue flames, his wings disappeared and his legs were replaced by a giant rocket thruster. Two new arms grew out of his back and two smaller arms appeared under the original, with three sharp claws. His head also transformed, his mouth vanishing whilst a beetle horn extended upwards from between his eyes.

Transformation complete, his thruster bottom ignited and sent him flying higher whilst he spun around in the air. "ULTIMATE FIREFLY!" Animac frowned, really hating Shadow for creating these accursed Ultimate Aliens.

Ultimate Firefly dived down, the arms on his back unleashing blasts of fire to further propel him forwards. The beetle once again swung its arms around, but Ultimate Firefly used his multiple means of propulsion to dance around and even used his suddenly burning horn, to slam into one and break through it.

The beast roared, as its arm was cut off and Ultimate Firefly shot towards Animac.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" The scientist screamed, but Ultimate Firefly didn't listen. And before the beetle could move away, the hyper evolved alien grabbed Animac and pulled him off the beast.

He flew away from the beetle at top speed and once he was a safe distance away, threw Animac towards the nearest rooftop. The old man cried out, as he hit the roof and rolled to a stop next to the roof's entryway. And as the beetle approached, Animac picked himself up and was about to command it to attack.

But Ultimate Firefly used his webbing to grab his monster maker and rip it away, whilst also webbing Animac to the side of the roof entrance. "NO!" He cried, as he watched Ultimate Firefly unleash a blast of flame and destroy his beautiful creation.

Without the machine to control it, the beetle was suddenly following only its instincts.

As such, Ultimate Firefly shot towards it at high speed. The creature saw him coming and tried to grab him, but he was too fast and missed. And as he dodged, the alien fired a blast of webs from his hands that hit the beetle. As soon as it collided, Ultimate Firefly began to fly around it at top speed. This caused it to become wrapped in webbing and before long, the whole thing was completely mummified.

Ultimate Firefly even managed to get under it and fire a bunch of flameproof webbing right into its rear-end, preventing it from flying away. But this also meant it began to fall, forcing Ultimate Firefly to shoot up and keep it lifted into the air. He slowly began to lower it down towards the street, but realised the street would likely crack or break under the beetle's weight.

Suddenly, the Ultimatrix began to ring and he quickly answered it. "Little busy right now."

"I know," it was the female Plumber. "I'm sending you a capture cube, so you don't have to break the street or your back." In a flash, the aforementioned cube appeared and he quickly dropped it onto the beetle. As soon as it touched the creature, it began to expand.

Ultimate Firefly wasn't even sure it could get big enough to fit this creature inside, but thankfully it just seemed to manage. As soon as it did, the thread holding the creature snapped and the cube fell to the ground. Luckily, it shrank back down and Ultimate Firefly was able to catch it before it hit the ground.

"Gotcha!" He flew back up towards Animac and as he reached the roof, the Ultimatrix started beeping and he reverted back to Firefly before becoming Flash. The teen landed on the roof and showed the mad scientist the cube, making Animac glare at him. "Control. Lock onto my signal and prepare to teleport the two of us back to base."

"Copy that." But as she did so, Animac finally managed to tear the webbing holding him off the wall.

"I'll get you!" He charged at Flash, thinking the kid was defenceless with his Ultimatrix powered down. But as he tried to grab him to throw off the roof, Flash side-stepped him before pulling out the stun blaster Shining had given him. Animac spun around, only to get hit in the chest by a laser and knocked to the ground.

Flash smirked as he blew the smoke off the end of the weapon and moved over to the twitching scientist. "Do you have a lock?"

"Ready when you are."

Flash nodded and said something he had always wanted to say. "Energize." With that, the pair were teleported away from the rooftops and were back at the base. As soon as they were, some Plumbers rushed over to grab Animac and take him back to his cell. "That's one down."

"But many more to follow," the female Plumber explained. The woman, named Violet Rain, turned to Flash with a worried expression on her face. "How long until you can go alien again?"

"Won't be for another few minutes." Flash frowned as he held up his stun blaster. "I can probably take on Doddery, Dragster or The Hypnotist, so long as none of them have their gear. But those aliens might be tricky." As he said that, Violet got a call and turned back to the monitor.

"Control," Shining's voice spoke up, "we have the Tendacians dealt with."

"Great work," Violet smiled.

"Yeah...it wasn't us."

Shining was standing with several Plumbers, staring at the unconscious smuggler aliens.

Beside them, Trixie, Rainbow, Applejack, Twilight, Pinkie and Rarity were looking pretty smug with themselves. "You might wanna send a lock onto all the life signs around my signal and teleport us all back to the base. Clawcer will probably have a few choice words." Sunset and Fluttershy stepped out from their hiding space, as Violet locked onto them all. "Energize."

In the blink of an eye, they were all warped back to the base and the Plumbers quickly got to work with moving the smugglers into their cells.

"It's great to be back," Rainbow sighed as she looked around. "Guess we should enjoy it whilst we can."

"What happened?" Twilight asked her brother. "Aren't these the criminals Flash captured before?"

"Yeah," Shining looked around, "that's kind of a long story. One I'm hoping will have a happy ending." But then Clawcer arrived in the control room and looked around before spotting the girls.

"What are they doing here?"

"They were the ones who stopped the Tendacians. I figured you would want them to give a report about what happened." Clawcer sighed, as he turned to the girls and gave what they assumed was a 'go on' gesture.

Sunset stepped forward and started explaining, the crab alien nodding as he listened. "I see," he announced once the story came to an end. "I will admit you did the right thing." He sighed. "As much as I'd like us to fix our own messes, I wouldn't want that to happen at the cost of lives being lost. You did the right thing."

The Rainbooms nodded, as Sunset continued to speak to him. "I know we're not Plumbers, or even honorary Plumbers. But we have abilities that most humans wouldn't be able to use. Abilities that can be used to help others when nobody else is able to help. We're not trying to pretend to be Plumbers and if we had a choice, we wouldn't have to use them to save another. But..."

"Yes. I've noticed many humans have little ability to protect themselves. You seem oddly fragile, despite having evolved to survive on this planet. I guess this planet is just changing too much for many to adapt to."

"We don't want to step on the Plumber's shoes," Twilight told him. "We just can't look away when others are in trouble."

Clawcer nodded, turning to the computer. Hopefully, their battle with the Tendacians was recorded and he could watch how they fought. Maybe their abilities had their uses.

Flash turned to Clawcer. "What happened to our uninvited guest?" This pulled Clawcer out of his thoughts and he sighed.

"By now, he's probably found a way out of the base. We allowed him to sneak in, gain access to our systems and free our prisoners before escaping. I've failed." Everyone frowned, having not expected him to be so hard on himself. "I allowed this opening in our security. I was unable to locate him and my oversight allowed him to access my own computer. I should have had someone guard me during my link up."

"Nobody's perfect," Shining told him.

"Maybe so. But it was a rookie mistake a Magister in charge of a Plumber base shouldn't be making." He turned away from them. "I will report this to high command and give in my resignation."

"What?" Flash cried, as the other Plumbers looked shocked. "You're gonna quit after one mistake?"

"I have allowed dangerous criminals to get away. And I allowed another to gain access to our systems. Who knows what he did whilst he was in there. I have no other choice. The high command would likely terminate my position here. I may as well hold my head up and resign whilst I still have my dignity. I'm sure many of you would be happy with my leaving."

"What?" Shining asked.

"Don't think I don't know. You all hate the changes I've made to the base. And you clearly aren't happy with my style of leadership."

"I'll admit we do hate some of the changes you've made," Flash nodded. "And your leadership is a little...much." The others nodded. "But...that doesn't mean we want you to just give up."

"Flash is right," Shining nodded. "You might have made a mistake, but you also showed great leadership when we were searching for the guy. If you hadn't been using the visual link up, we would have quickly gone nuts not knowing who was who. You managed to keep us from attacking one another out of paranoia and allowed us to do our job." Everyone else nodded. "You made a small error and yeah, that's led to a lot of problems. But that doesn't mean you should just give up. If everyone gave up after making a mistake, nobody would do anything."

"So what are you saying?" Clawcer asked. "That I shouldn't resign and just forget this ever happened?"

"No way," Flash told him. "I mean, I've made plenty of goofs since I got the Omnitrix. Some worse than others. And sometimes, I considered giving up after making those mistakes. But I didn't give up. I didn't forget about them. I learned from them. Haven't you ever made a mistake and learned from it?"

"No," Clawcer stated. "I've never really made a mistake like this before."

"Then maybe that's something you need to learn about," Shining replied with sympathy. "You shouldn't expect us to do everything perfectly. And you shouldn't expect that from yourself either. Making a mistake isn't a bad thing. But not learning from them is."

Clawcer sighed. "Maybe you're right. And I guess I have been a little hard on you all."

"A little?" Flash asked, making Clawcer frown at him. "Dude. I don't know about everyone else here, but you're always gonna get a hundred percent from me. But if you try and push me past that, I'll eventually reach a point where I can't go on." The others nodded, Clawcer realising his error.

"I see. So I've made another mistake with how I run this base. Very well. Then I shall work to learn from it." The others nodded and wondered if things were about to get a little less intense around the base. But at the moment, they had bigger issues to worry about.

"We might have captured Animac and the Tendacians," Shining pointed out. "But we've still got a lot of criminals to round back up. Plus, we need to find out who that intruder was and why they did this."

"What did they look like?" Twilight asked, clearly curious about who this intruder was.

"That's just it," Flash sighed. "They were some kind of shapeshifter. They got past the front desk because they were pretending to be me. Then they turned into a mouse and a fly before hacking Clawcer's computer as me again."

"I see," Twilight frowned. Trixie and the Rainbooms were all worried about this. There was no telling what other damage this intruder could have done. They all couldn't help but wonder, why would they risk being captured by going there? What could they possibly have been after?

Kiraki had returned to his ship and once he was safely hidden within the invisible vessel, he allowed himself to revert back to his natural form.

The yellow alien arrived at the bridge, where Zaaton and the rest of his crew were waiting. Zaaton had a big smile on his lips, as the others were working at their consoles. "Kiraki. You brilliant morphing fool."

Kiraki laughed, as he spun around and let his arms swing around like they were boneless. "It was my pleasure, captain. It was fun, taking those fools by surprise. I just wish they had become more paranoid. But their leader was able to keep them all from going out of control."

"True," Mera nodded. "But those criminals you released will surely keep them busy. It'll be a while before they realise we've hacked into their systems."

"Were you able to do a scan?" Kiraki asked, with Zaaton nodding.

"Yes. And we've got some promising leads. All thanks to you." Kiraki smiled, as he returned to his station and they all turned their attention back to the open sky. They had a lot of new ground to cover and little time to do it all in. Soon, they would find what they seek.

Author's Note

Well, Clawcer's hopefully gonna lighten up now. Too bad so many crooks had to escape for it to happen. Hopefully, they can be put behind bars again soon. But what were those aliens looking for? Stay tuned to find out.