The sun had just gone down in Cosmic Town and at the space port, an alien woman was finishing up work as a filing clerk who did all the paperwork for the arriving ships.

Said alien was a pink skinned one with a head that looked like a cone that had had the top cut off at an angle. And from out of the hole came blue flowing locks of hair. She also had three eyes and was dressed in a simple suit. And as she finished filing the last piece of paperwork, she spotted the time and sighed.

She knew her children would likely be asleep right now, but she still wanted to get home and make sure they were okay. As such, she quickly grabbed her handbag and began to make her way out of the airport-like building.

Along the way, she saw a collection of humans and aliens that would be working the night shift. Cleaners, guards and several aliens that were waiting for their ships off-planet.

She waved goodbye to them all, as she reached the exit and headed out onto the street of Cosmic Town. Beside the lights from the nearby lamps, she was still feeling a little worried about being out at night alone. It was times like this, the woman wished they had more than one vehicle. But with her husband's work further away than her's, he needed the car more than her.

As such, she was forced to make her way through the streets alone. She did her best to stay away from dark alleyways and keep inside the light of the street lamps. But she was still worried, as she felt like she was being watched.

But that wasn't just paranoia.

As she walked through the dark city, someone was hiding in the shadows keeping a watchful eye on her. And slowly, they got closer and closer. Until finally, the alien woman sensed the presence and spun around.

Moments later, a scream filled the air. But nobody heard it, many of the surrounding inhabitants being asleep and using some form of soundproofing, to block out the sound of ships flying overhead. As such, nobody heard her and came to her rescue. All that was left of the woman, was a handbag that had been thrown into a nearby alleyway.

The next day.

Flash let out a yawn, as he sat in Shining's Plumber cruiser with his partner at the wheel. Shining glanced over at him, "you okay?"

"Tired," Flash rubbed his eyes. "Chip wouldn't stop binging until we watched the entire series of Phantom Knight Striker." In the time since Flash's mechamorph brother had come into their lives, Flash's parents had met and gotten quite attached to the puddle of goo that was Chip. So much so, that they had offered to let him stay with them as Flash helped him learn all about the big wide world.

The one thing that Chip seemed to enjoy, was watching a bunch of different anime. Something that Flash also enjoyed, though he was paying for it thanks to Chip needing a lot less sleep than him.

"Wanna get some coffee?" Shining smirked, as Flash stuck his tongue out. "It's not that bad."

"I hate coffee," Flash groaned. "Why can't there be a sweet drink that has caffeine in it?" Shining shrugged, as they suddenly got a message from the base.

"Armor," Violet Rain told them, "we've got a reported missing person near your location. Sending you the address now."

"Copy that," Shining nodded before the two drove towards the address being sent their way.

The place was a simple little apartment building, Flash and Shining heading up to the third floor and meeting a cone-headed man and his two children. "Please," he told them, "my wife hasn't been back since last night."

"Last night?" Flash checked his phone for the time. "Did you try her cellphone or calling her work?"

"Normally, it's not unheard of for her to fall asleep at her desk doing paperwork. I've lost count of the number of times she spent the night working and just woke up at her desk and got back to work." He frowned. "But her boss called and told me she hadn't come into work this morning. He then told me she left work late last night."

The Plumbers frowned, knowing this didn't sound good.

Shining took out his badge and created a holographic map of the city. "Does your wife have a specific route she takes to and from work? We'll check that first and see if we can find anything." The alien nodded and used his finger to draw a red line from the apartment to the space doc, showing them the quickest route between the two that his wife always took.

"Thank you," Shining and Flash headed out. "Flash, use XLR8 to go to the space port and walk this route back here. Make sure you stay human on the way back. Kinecelerans don't exactly have the best attention span when it comes to finer details."

"Got it," Flash quickly activated the Ultimatrix and transformed into his speedster alien. "See you at the centre of the route." With that, he shot off at lightning speed. Meanwhile, Shining began to walk the route himself.

He had his badge scanning every section of the street, looking for anything out of the ordinary. But in a town full of different aliens, ordinary was something hard to describe. But he kept searching, refusing to let this woman's disappearance go without an explanation.

It was after ten minutes of walking the woman's route, that Shining finally detected something.

"Hello," he tapped at the badge to bring up the scan data and blinked. "What? Level four stasis energy." He frowned, knowing that something like that couldn't simply be something a normal alien citizen would cause. As such, he followed the scan and stepped into an alleyway.

He checked every square inch of the alley and when he did, he finally found the energy source. A handbag.

He picked it up and did a proper scan, as Flash happened to be walking past on his way back. "Shining?" He spotted the handbag and frowned. "What's that?"

"I can't be sure, but it might belong to the woman that went missing." He threw Flash the handbag and the teen quickly looked through it.

"Purse is still there. Same with the house keys. If something did happen to her, it wasn't a robbery." Shining nodded, as he kept scanning the handbag. "Something wrong?"

"My badge it detecting traces of a level four stasis energy. The bag is totally stained in it."

"Stasis energy?" Flash raised an eyebrow. "You mean like what the capture cubes use?"

"That's level three," Shining explained. "Level four energy can be dangerous. It's quicker and harder to escape from, but it's more likely to cause serious side effects if used on something for too long."

"So what's it doing on a bag?"

"Best guess. She was carrying this when the energy hit her, causing her to drop it whilst she was placed inside a stasis field. The energy must have seeped into the bag and stained it." He tried to scan the rest of the area for the energy, but couldn't find any trace of it. "Damn. If it was used on her, locating the energy might help us find her."

"Well we'll have to do this the old fashioned way." Flash threw him back the bag and activated the Ultimatrix, cycling through his aliens until he found what he was looking for and transforming. "DIAMUTT!" The hybrid alien quickly stepped up to the bag and started sniffing it, getting a sense of smell from it. "Got it."

"You found her scent?"

"Yup." Diamutt began sniffing the ground and managed to lock onto her scent. "There it is." He moved along the ground, following the scent with Shining right behind him. The Plumber felt a little embarrassed, walking around with a woman's handbag on his person. But he had more important things to worry about than being embarrassed.

They followed the scent, as Diamutt tracked her down until he arrived at the area the scent was at its strongest.

"There!" He pointed at a large building, only to then realise what it was.

"That's the space port," Shining pointed out. "Where the victim worked. I think it's obvious her scent would lead there, considering that's where she was right before she disappeared." Diamutt whined, his ears flopping down as Shining sighed. "Alright, let's try something else."

That something else was returning to the woman's family, returning the handbag they had found and asking about it.

"Yes," her husband nodded. "This is her bag." Flash and Shining were sitting on a couch, as the husband sat in a chair staring at the bag in question. He opened it up and looked inside, nodding as he took out all the items. "Even her purse." He opened it up and found a picture of another one of their species. "This is a picture of her mother before she died. She'd never let this be lost."

Shining nodded, as he leaned forward with a serious look. "When we found that bag, we detected an energy trace on it. Stasis energy."

"Stasis energy?" The alien asked. "What exactly does that do?"

"Well," Shining explained, "it places whoever it's used on in a form of stasis. It creates a force field that causes time inside it to completely stop. Basically, it shields you from time. Doesn't matter how long you're inside of it, time doesn't move inside the force field. It's used mainly to transport perishable foods and supplies across vast spaces, or keeping victims alive if they're seriously injured."

"So...my wife has been trapped inside this stasis field?"

"It looks like it. We think she was kidnapped and taken somewhere. Another possible effect of stasis devices, is that these fields can be shrunk down to the size of a baseball with anything inside of it. It's very likely that your wife was placed in stasis and shrunk down to be transported without being noticed."

"Why?" He asked. "My wife is a good person. Never did anything to upset anyone we don't really know anyone on this planet yet. We moved here for a better life. So why is this happening?"

Shining got up and moved over to the alien many, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry this is happening. But I give you my word. I'm going to do everything in my power to find her." The man nodded, as Flash and Shining asked him a few more questions that might help them find their wife. Basic stuff about any recent situations or stuff that were out of the ordinary.

He didn't really have any answers for them, so they headed out to begin their investigation. The alien sighed, worried out of his mind for his wife. But as he sat there, the family phone rang and he quickly got up to answer it. "Hello?"

"Your wife has gone missing and the Plumbers are no where close to finding her. They'll never find her using their restrictive methods. Let me search for her and I'll find her. I promise."

"Who is this?"

"My name is Frax. And unlike those Plumbers, I'm way ahead of the curve. I've known about missing aliens for a while. And I know your wife wasn't the only one. All I need, is your agreement to search for her. What do you say?"

The alien looked worried for a moment, then sighed. "Do it. Find her. Bring her home."

"I won't let you down."

Flash and Shining had spent the last few hours, searching for any sign of the woman or the figure that might have taken her.

Having scouted out the area several times, they then returned to the base to try and find any info that might be useful for the investigation. They searched the victim's history as far back as the base could go, but found nothing that would indicate she would have an enemy.

They checked her Earth Visa and the ship she and her family had arrived on, but found no useful info there either. And they checked all the security cameras in the area they found the bag. But it appeared she was in a security blind spot, which Clawcer didn't like and would work to correct later.

"Maybe we should head back to the crime scene?" Flash suggested. "Maybe someone saw something?"

"I doubt it," Shining sighed. "At that time of night, everyone would be fast asleep. And with the space port so close, most of those houses would be soundproofed to keep the tenants happy." He got up and the two headed out of the base. "Besides, I don't think this was premeditated. My gut's telling me that this was a case of wrong place wrong time. Whoever attacked her, would have taken anyone who happened to be there."

"Why would anyone do that?" Flash asked, as Shining frowned.

"I'm not sure. There are lots of reasons to kidnap a random person off the street. And I'm afraid none of them bode well for this woman. That's why we've gotta find her, fast." Flash nodded and they returned to the area the woman had disappeared in.

The pair started going door to door, asking about her and if they had seen any sign of her. And whilst some aliens did know her, none of them had seen her on the night she disappeared. Nor had they seen anyone acting strange. It was like she had disappeared into thin air.

"Come on," Shining sighed as he stepped out of the apartment. "There's gotta be some clue to help me find her."

"Guess the Plumbers aren't as good as they claim to be." Shining's eyes went wide, as he spun around to see someone leaning against the side of the building.

He was a tall, light red alien, that had a white line running down the middle of his face. His hair looked like a bunch of dark red tentacles, whilst his fingers were long sharp blades. He was dressed in a green shirt with a brown tie and black pants, with a black overcoat on top of it. He was also wearing a pair black shades, whilst having a fedora hanging from the side of his coat.

As Shining stared at the alien, the figure stepped forward and smiled. "Long time, no see."

Shining glared at him and took a step back, "Frax. What are you doing here?" At that moment, Flash stepped out of another apartment and spotted Shining. He then spotted the alien, along with Shining's defensive stance which made Flash worry.

"I'm just working a case. Need to make a living."

"Why are you on Earth?"

"It's a free galaxy. I've got every right to be here. Even have a Visa that states that. You always talked about how great your planet is, I figured I'd come take a look around. You're right. It is pretty impressive."

Shining sighed and turned away, "I don't have time for this."

"What's the rush? I thought you'd want to know about the woman that went missing." Shining instantly stopped and spun back around, a look of anger on his face and he glared at the alien. "Don't give me that look. I'm not connected to her disappearance. In fact, I'm working to find her myself."

"What?"

"I've been hired by her husband to locate her. And the others."

"Others?" Frax took something out of his jacket. A disk, which he threw towards Shining. The Plumber caught it and when he pressed the button in the middle, a holographic screen appeared showing images of several different aliens. "Those are the aliens that have all gone missing in the last few days."

Flash ran over and saw the list, whilst Shining looked at it in shock. "So many. How did we not know about this?"

"Those aliens are all individuals that wouldn't get reported missing. Either they have nobody that would miss them, or are on this planet illegally so involving the Plumbers would get them and their friends deported."

Shining glared at him. "And how did you learn about all this?"

"Information comes my way," Frax stated. "I've been hired to find these aliens and I figured if the Plumbers are able to locate them with the info I gathered, I'd have a much better chance of locating them."

"So that's it," Shining switched off the device. "You just want the show off for the Plumbers."

"All I want is to find these missing aliens and make sure they're safe. Unlike you, I don't just care about myself." Flash heard this and wondered what the heck he was talking about, as Frax began to walk off. "If I find anything, I'll contact you and you can perform the arrest. Just don't get in my way." With that, he left and Flash looked over at Shining.

"Okay. What the heck was that about?"

Shining sighed. "Frax. We have a history."

"How do you have a history with an alien I don't know?"

"We met when I went to the Plumber's academy," Shining explained. "We were on the same team for all the drills. He was good, but he couldn't follow the Plumber regulations if it killed him. Kept going off, half-cocked trying to prove he was the best. But every time, he got knocked back and our team lost."

"Okay," Flash nodded. "But why are you two so hostile towards each other?"

Shining sighed, "I got him kicked out." Flash's eyes widened in shock. "I found him trying to sabotage the other team's weapons, right before a big training sim. He wasn't just gonna stop them from working. He turned them into a bunch of bombs. If the other team used them, they would have been seriously injured."

"So you turned him in?"

"I had to," Shining stated firmly. "But he said I betrayed the team and ruined all our chances of passing the academy. But once he was gone, our team's ranking shot up. We weren't top of the class, but we were some of the highest ranking graduates."

"So what's he doing here?"

"Apparently, he became a galactic P.I after getting the boot. Now he's trying to search for the aliens just like we are."

Flash nodded, as he looked at the list of missing aliens. "You think they might all be connected?"

"Only one way to find out," Shining stated. "I'll send Clawcer this intel. If they are missing, he'll want to know about it. Let's keep asking around and see what we find." Flash nodded and they continued talking to the people around the neighbourhood. But nobody seemed to have any idea where the missing woman was.

Clawcer soon contacted them and suggested talking to the friends and family of the other missing aliens, but Flash and Shining hit a dead end there as well.

After hours of searching and questioning, the pair had no leads to help them figure out what could have happened to the woman. They returned to the base and briefed Clawcer on what little info they had.

"What do we know?" Clawcer asked, as he, Flash, Shining and a few more Plumbers were in a small briefing room.

"We know that late last night, the alien known as Mirona was walking home when she suddenly went missing." Shining showed them the image of the alleyway. "After casing the neighbourhood, we discovered her handbag in this alleyway. Due to the energy trace we picked up, we've determined she was attacked with a level four stasis weapon."

"I see," Clawcer nodded. "And you have no other info?"

"No," Flash shook his head, "unless you count the info Frax gave us."

"Yes," Clawcer made his own hologram of the aliens that were missing. "All have gone missing in the last few days. All different races. All arriving at different times. None have a connection to each other. All went missing when nobody else was around."

"Why would anyone kidnap random aliens?" Flash asked.

"Ransom," one Plumber suggested.

"Doubt it," Shining shook his head. "None of them are from any form of wealth. Most don't have anyone to pay for them."

"So why were they taken?" Flash asked, as Clawcer snapped his claws together.

"Best guess. We're looking at an alien trafficking ring. Taking aliens off the street and smuggling them off-planet, then selling them to the highest bidder." Everyone frowned, not liking the sound of that. If aliens were being kidnapped and smuggled away, could it already be too late?

Before anyone could say anything, Shining's badge beeped. "Armor here," he answered before hearing the Plumber working the reception desk.

"Agent Armor. You have a caller that asked for you specifically."

"Put him through," Shining replied as the badge beeped. A few moments later, he heard a voice he hoped he would never have to hear again.

"Hello, Shining."

"Frax," Shining frowned, "what do you want? I'm in the middle of my investigation."

"I know. That's why I'm calling. I might have discovered a lead that could help us find the missing aliens. I'd rather the Plumbers handle this, since I'm not properly equipped for such a thing."

Shining sighed. "Alright. What have you found?" He hoped Frax didn't have an actual lead, but Shining couldn't ignore a possible answer to the mystery. So Frax told him everything, which made Shining frown. But he eventually nodded. "Fine. I'll have my Magister decide what to do with this." Before Frax could say anything else, he hung up and Clawcer raised an eyebrow.

"Find something?"

"Frax thinks he's found the ship where the kidnapped aliens are being stored. He said the ship's been on Earth for several days and the first disappearance happened when the ship arrived."

"That's hardly evidence to point the finger at them."

"He also looked into the ship's manifest and according to him, the ship's engines aren't the kind that would be used to transport that particular product. They would react with the product and cause the ships to explode. Either these guys are idiots and a danger to the planet, or they're transporting something else and lied about it."

"I see," Clawcer snapped his claws. "Very well. We'll send a team of Plumbers to check it out. You and Flash lead the team. I'll use the collective visual link to see what's happening from my office." They all nodded and Shining quickly gathered some Plumbers.

Though he was hoping to find the woman they were looking for, a small part of him was hoping Frax was wrong.

It wasn't long before the Plumbers were assembled and sent to the space port. And much to Shining's chagrin, Frax was waiting for them there. "Ah," he smiled, "perfect timing. I think they're about to take off." He pointed at the ship in question, a large yellow ship that was egg-shaped with several wings.

"Okay," Shining told him, "you stay here. Flash and I will check." Flash activated the Ultimatrix and found the alien he was looking for, the teen transforming.

"Chamalien!" The lizard cried, as he suddenly disappeared. "Shining will talk to them and I'll sneak into their cargo to have a look around."

"Good luck," Frax stated as Shining and Chamalien headed towards the ship. The aliens working on the ship were rather unusual, looking like a bunch of snails made entirely out of slime. Their shells were lightning bolt shaped and when they needed to carry something, they created arms made of slime to lift them.

When the snails noticed them, they put the boxes they were loading down. "Greetings," Shining showed them his badge, "I'm sorry about this. But we're gonna need to take a look at the items you're transporting."

"Why?" One of the snails asked.

"If what your manifest said is true, you're transporting a chemical that reacts dangerously to the type of energy your ship puts out." The snails seemed surprised by this, as Shining began to climb up the ramp and Chamalien snuck inside. "if you are transporting the chemical, I'll have to suspend your ship's take off. I don't want this stuff exploding above my planet."

"But we've been transporting this stuff for three galaxies," one of the snails stated. "There hasn't been any issues."

"Then you got lucky," Shining opened one of the crates and found jars of liquid inside, which his badge showed was the chemical they had announced they were transporting. This made him frown, since it meant Frax had prevented a major accident. But if they were transporting what was on their manifest, it also meant they might not have the missing aliens with them.

However, as Shining continued to check all the crates, Chamalien was walking along the ceiling. He looked down and saw one of the snails was carefully moving a crate, the alien spotting some kind of hatch being covered by it. "Hmmm." He waited for the snail to move away, then carefully jumped down.

Once he was sure the snail was far away, he slowly moved the crate away from the hatch and found it was locked. Luckily, the spike on his tail was able to pick it and he soon pulled the hatch open.

Looking inside, he found a small section that was full of small yellow egg-like objects. They were the size of a baseball and glowed the same colour the capture cubes they used. And next to them was a strange looking pistol, which Chamalien guessed was what created the eggs.

"What the!?" He suddenly looked up and saw a snail, who was focusing on the hatch since he was still invisible, the alien rushing forward to close it. But Chamalien suddenly appeared and he let out a cry of terror.

This caused Shining and the other snails to run over, as Chamalien picked the gun and eggs up out of the hatch. "Look what I found." He threw Shining the blaster and Shining's helmet quickly inspected it.

"Level four stasis ray!" He glared at the snails, "wanna talk your way out of this?"

The snail raised his arms in defence. "We swear, we didn't use it. They all just showed up on one of our crates one day."

"A likely story," Chamalien stated. "If they just showed up, why'd you hide them? Why not just contact us and tell us about it? " The snails said nothing, Shining pointing his blaster at them.

"You're all under arrest for kidnapping and wielding illegal weaponry." The snails all looked terrified and one suddenly swung its arm around and knocked Shining's blaster out of his arm. The others then leapt into action and attacked, Chamalien going invisible before they could strike.

Shining was quickly knocked off his feet and the stasis blaster thrown into the air, one of the snails grabbing it and pointing the weapon at Shining.

Chamalien saw this and tried to run over to save him. But someone else got to the snail first.

Suddenly, a red energy dart slammed into the snail and zapped him. He screamed, dropping the weapon as most darts flew into the cargo hold and hit several more snails. Those that weren't hit, were quickly taken out by Chamalien.

Shining quickly sat himself up and looked towards the dart's source, a frown appearing on his lips as he saw Frax standing there. His fingers were sparking with energy, until he flexed them and they stopped sparking. He then smiled at Shining, "you're welcome."

Everything after that was a blur, as the snails were all arrested and sent to the base. Clawcer had teleported over to check on the eggs, nodding as he did so. "It's a good thing we found them when we did. Who knows how long they would have remained like this, had they been taken into space. That would have done some serious damage to them."

"How do we get them out?" Flash asked, as Clawcer simply broke one open with his claw.

The energy shot out and formed a large sphere, which then vanished to reveal an alien Flash recognised from Frax's list of missing aliens. "Simply break them open. Won't have any negative effects, so long as we're careful in breaking them." Flash nodded and let Clawcer break the others, releasing the multiple aliens that Frax had been searching for.

One of them was the woman Flash and Shining had been trying to find, Flash rushing to her side and making sure she was alright.

As this was all happening, Shining was still in the ship. His badge was out, scanning the area. But as he did, he frowned as the scan reached the hatch. He found something that didn't add up, Shining feeling like there was something missing.

He re-scanned the area several times, as Flash finally stepped into the cargo bay. "Hey. What's up?"

Shining sighed, as he looked over the scan data. "That stasis blaster was poorly designed. So poorly made that the stasis energy was actually leaking out of the eggs."

"So?"

"So, the energy levels in that hatch are too low. If some of them have been in there for days, the levels should have been much higher. They should be staining the metal. But there's barely a trace."

"Weird. How'd you think that happened?"

Shining frowned. "Remember what the snails said? About finding the eggs and blaster?" Flash nodded. "What if they were telling the truth? What if someone left them here?"

"Who?"

Shining sighed, "I don't know. But my gut's telling me there's more to this than we realise." Flash nodded, as they headed out of the ship. When they did, they found Frax being thanked by all the aliens that he had helped locate.

"You saved us," the woman the two had been searching for exclaimed. "How can we ever repay you?"

"None of that," Frax told her. "I didn't do this for the money. I did this because people were in danger. It's only right." Shining frowned, really hating that Frax was getting so much attention.

"Guess he does deserve it." Shining was just glad that this was all over and hopefully, Frax wouldn't be his problem anymore. However...

"I'll be making a full report to Plumbers High Command," Clawcer told the alien P.I. "I assume they'll be very impressed that you were able to do this. They might even reconsider your dismissal from the service." Shining's eyes widened, clearly not liking the sound of that.

"Is that so," Frax nodded. "If they do allow me to rejoin, I'll have to think about it. Lot of painful memories back at the academy. Going back might hurt."

"I only said they might reconsider," Clawcer told him. "I wouldn't pack your bags for the academy quite yet." Clawcer turned to leave, as Frax moved over to the two heroes.

"Well, this was fun. Maybe we can work together again, someday."

"I doubt it," Shining stated.

"Ouch. Being kind of hostile. I did save you from getting egged, you know." He sighed, as he put his hat on his head. "Some people just can't let the past go." With that, he walked off and Shining frowned as he watched him go. Shining didn't know why, but his gut was telling him there was more to Frax than they knew.

"You okay?" Flash asked.

"Frax is hiding something. Where did he hear about those missing aliens? And the fact he just happened to find this ship so easily. Makes me think there's more to this he's letting on."

"So what do we do?"

Shining wasn't sure how to answer that. He wanted to look into this, but was also worried he might be letting his past with Frax lead him to jump to a conclusion. "Nothing. At least...not yet." Shining walked off, as Flash watched him leave and frowned.

The rest of the day was a blur to Shining, who returned to the base as the capture victims were all given check ups.

He wrote a report about what had happened, angrily typing Frax's name whenever it came up. After that, he headed home to spend time with his family. Flurry was happy to see her daddy and Cadance even made him his favourite, but Shining just couldn't enjoy it.

"Are you okay?" Cadance asked, as the pair lay in bed that night. "You've had your head in the clouds ever since you got home. Is something wrong?"

Shining stared at the ceiling, unsure how to answer her. "I think someone did something bad, but I'm worried I'm letting my own personal feelings affect my thoughts. That I only think this guy is up to no good, because I want him to be up to no good."

"I see," Cadance nodded. "I can understand that. I've had to face that problem plenty of times." Shining gave her a look. "Okay, it's not the exact problem. But I've had plenty of bad students that did things wrong. And whenever I see them, I can't help but think they're up to something again. And most of the time, I'm right."

"This isn't exactly the same. If I look into this guy and I'm wrong, it could get me into a lot of trouble."

"Maybe," Cadance nodded. "But if this person is doing something bad, isn't it your duty to make sure of it? If they aren't up to anything, no harm done. But if they are up to no good, they could cause a lot of harm."

"Maybe. My gut's telling me he's behind all this, but I don't have enough physical evidence to back it up."

"When has that ever stopped you before?" Cadance smiled. "You always trusted your gut in the past and it never let you down. You caught a bunch of criminals by following your gut. And it was your gut that told you not to turn Flash into the cops when you first learned about his abilities. Imagine what would have happened if you hadn't."

"But a gut feeling can be wrong."

"Maybe, but do you think you're wrong?" Shining paused for a moment. "Don't think. Just answer. Do you think your gut is wrong?"

"No."

Cadance smiled, "then follow it. It won't steer you wrong."

Shining smiled at this and kissed Cadance on the forehead. "What would I do without you?"

"Probably make a mess of the laundry and live in a house with dirty socks all over the floor." Shining pouted at this, the pair then laughing before Shining got up. "What are you doing?"

"Following my gut. If Frax is responsible for this, he's smart enough not to leave evidence laying around for too long. If I wanna catch him in the act, I need to be quick about it." He gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry about this."

Cadance nodded, "I understand. Go get him." Shining smirked and once he was dressed, he headed back to the base. He was careful not to make too much noise, not wanting to wake Flurry as he left. And the whole way to the base, he thought about how he could find the truth behind Frax.

Two hours later.

As Flash happily slept in his room, he was having dreams about a world made entirely out of chocolate.

He was just about to take a bite out of a lamp post, when he was suddenly awakened from his sleep by his phone going off. "Wha-" He looked around, half asleep until he found his phone and answered it. "Hello?"

"Flash. I need your help."

"Shining?" Flash rubbed his eyes, "what's going on?"

"I think I've found something. I'm sending you an address in Cosmic Town. Can you meet me there in an hour?" Flash wanted to say no and go back to sleep, but Shining was clearly serious about this.

"I'll be there."

"Thanks." Shining cut the call and Flash wondered what he had just gotten himself into. He also knew he was gonna need to drink a lot of coffee to keep himself up, which he was not looking forward to.

An hour later, Flash arrived at the street Shining had sent him.

The teen looked around, wondering where Shining was. But he got his answer, when he saw Shining step out of an alleyway and gesture for him to follow. Flash got out of his car and ran over, as Shining returned to the alleyway. "Shining. What the heck is going on?"

Shining held up his badge. "Frax is connected to the disappearances and I think I might have proof."

"What kind of proof?"

"I checked the stasis blaster's identification and where it might have been built. The planet that built this style of blaster, is the same planet Frax was on right before he came to Earth. The ship he arrived on had no other stops before here."

"Okay," Flash nodded.

"So, I checked where he was living and did a high intensity scan of it. And I managed to pick up a faint trace of the stasis energy. If he was keeping those stasis eggs here until he left them with those aliens, then the energy must be staining the walls.

"I get it," Flash nodded. "So why are we sneaking around? Shouldn't we tell Clawcer and get a whole SWAT team ready?"

"Not yet," Shining shook his head. "I wanna make sure before I tell Clawcer. That's why I need your help. I need you to get me into his apartment. Then I can do a thorough scan of the place."

"But won't Frax be in there?"

"Nope." Shining showed him a holographic image of Frax on social media. Currently, Frax was celebrating at a nearby bar. "He shouldn't be back for a while. This might be our only window. If there's any more proof he's behind this, he'll get rid of it soon."

"Alright," Flash nodded, "let's do this." He stepped out of the alley and Shining led him over to an apartment building, Flash carefully looking around as he activated the Ultimatrix. Once he was sure nobody was around, he slammed the dial down and transformed. "Ampfibian!" The alien jellyfish moved towards the building and phased through it, allowing him to open the door from the inside before they headed up to the apartment.

Once they reached Frax's place, Ampfibian phased through it again.

As he opened the door, he looked around and found the place wasn't that great looking. The walls were brown, there was a small leather couch, a small kitchen and a few doors leading to other rooms. "Kind of depressing."

"You should have seen my first apartment before I married Cadance." Shining took out his badge and started scanning the place, whilst Ampfibian floated around looking for anything else that might help them uncover Frax's guilt. But aside from a few magazines and a very unhealthily filled fridge, nothing in the room spoke out evil kidnapper.

However, Shining's badge soon picked something up and he moved the couch to reveal a vent on the wall close to the ground.

The Plumber managed to pull it open and used his badge to light the place up, allowing him to look inside and see something inside the vent. He quickly reached in and just managed to grab it before pulling it out, finding it was some kind of cloth covered stack of papers.

Once he had it out, he unfurled it as Ampfibian floated over to him. The cloth was soaked in stasis energy. Enough to send Shining's scanner off the charts. And as they looked through the papers, they found they were space port ship listings. One line had a red circle around it, Shining seeing it was the same ship they had captured that day.

"I think this is good enough evidence," Ampfibian stated. "What's the plan now?" But before Shining could do anything, they suddenly heard the sound of a weapon charging up behind them.

The pair spun around and standing at the door was Frax, the alien holding a Multi-Striker in his hand that was in pistol mode. "You know, breaking and entering is a serious offence."

Shining glared at him, refusing to be worried. "So is kidnapping." He grabbed his own Multi-Striker, as Frax raised an eyebrow. "You kidnapped those aliens, didn't you?" He raised the cloth. "This thing is soaked in stasis energy. The same kind I picked up from the handbag and the hatch. The eggs you trapped them in were leaking energy and when you bundled them up in this cloth, the energy seeped out and stained it." He looked back at the vent he had found it in. "That vent also stinks of the energy. Did you really hide them all in there? That's sick. If they had broken, you could have crushed those aliens."

Frax shrugged. "I guess you caught me."

"Why?" Ampfibian asked. "Why do that to those aliens? Were you working with those traffickers?"

"No. I just left the poor saps on those aliens' doorstep. They're the ones that chose to take them. Guess they couldn't resist the payday."

Shining glared at him through his helmet. "You did this to try and get back into the Plumbers, didn't you? You made a case that seemed impossible to solve, so that you could swoop in and save the day." Frax shrugged, not denying it. "You made a big mistake doing that here."

"Oh, I doubt that. I wanted to show you up and make you look like a complete fool. And it worked."

"No, it didn't." Ampfibian told him. "Because we caught you. And when we tell the Plumbers what you did, the only place you'll be heading is jail." Shining nodded, as Frax laughed.

"You're not gonna be telling anyone. Because you're not getting out of this room alive. I mean, look around. This doesn't look good for you. You broke into my home, then attacked me out of frustration when you couldn't find anything to prove I was the villain. Once I've dealt with you both, I'll just have to find a way to nullify the energy stain on the room and tell the Plumbers I shot you in self-defence."

"Not a bad plan," Shining nodded. "The Plumbers might even believe you. But...counterpoint." Shining suddenly spun around, his back facing the alien. "Go ahead. Shoot us in the back in self-defence. We'll be laughing all the way to the slab." Ampfibian quickly spun around as well, as Frax frowned. "Always trying to weasel your way out of a situation. Never putting in the effort to get things the right way."

"Enough of your morality lessons," Frax stated. "You think you're so great. Well, Shining, things aren't going your way this time." Shining glanced back around and saw him take something out of his coat. Some kind of box with buttons.

"What are you doing?"

Frax chuckled. "Those aliens weren't the only thing I used the stasis gun on." With that, he pressed something on the box and the next thing they knew, the ground suddenly shook as a loud crashing sound filled the air.

Shining staggered around, as Frax managed to keep his balance. Meanwhile, Ampfibian flew towards the wall and phased through it. When he got outside, he heard a loud roar and looked around to see a giant alien had crashed through a building down the street.

It stood on all four and was the size of an elephant, with rock-like skin that was multiple colours, a pair of moose-like antlers coming out the side of its head and a large horn coming out the front of its face.

It let out another roar, as it started stomping around the place. "That ain't good!" He flew forward, "hero time!"

Back in the apartment, Shining was still working to regain his balance. "What did you do?"

"Kragobeast," Frax laughed. "Very dangerous. Will attack anything that gets close to it. I doubt that even the great Flash Sentry, will be able to handle something that strong."

Shining chuckled. "You really don't know Flash. That thing won't stand a chance against him. And while he deals with it, I'm taking you down!" He suddenly spun around and fired his Multi-Striker, Frax barely managing to avoid the laser as Shining charged at him.

The two switched their weapons to swords and clashed blades, the pair inches from one another. "You ruined my life!"

"You ruined your own life," Shining told him. "You chose to cheat, not me. If I hadn't turned you in and we got caught, we all would have been kicked out of the academy." He pushed Frax away. "You risked our entire team's future. I wasn't about to let the rest of us suffer, because you weren't confident in your abilities."

"Oh, I'm confident in my abilities." His Multi-Strike changed to a bladed staff, which he started spinning around as Shining stood defensively. "I'm going to cut you to bits and feed you to that creature outside. And with you gone, nobody will know what I did. I'll have my life back."

"Sorry," Shining told him, "but I'm not letting you kill me. Unlike you, I have something worth living for!" With that, the two charged at one another.

As Ampfibian charged towards the kragobeast, he saw a bunch of aliens running for their lives.

He quickly fired a blast of lightning towards the alien, but its tough skin wasn't even singed by it. Whatever it was made of, it was clearly resistant to electricity. But Ampfibian wasn't letting that stop him and he flew in front of the creature, as lightning surged all around him. "Lights out!"

The lightning grew so bright, it completely blinded the kragobeast and made it roar out in pain.

It staggered back, whilst swinging its antlers around as if trying to swat Ampfibian away. But the electric jellyfish was able to protect himself, phasing through the antlers whilst keeping his electrical surge up. But as the beast staggered around, it smashed into part of another building and he realised this wasn't gonna work.

"I'm doing nothing but blinding it and making it crush the town worse. I'm gonna run out of power at this rate." He thought for a moment and nodded before flying backwards and killing the lights. And as his electricity subsided, he hit the Ultimatrix to transform. "Lindwhirl!"

As the kragobeast's eyesight returned, it opened its eyes and saw the animal hybrid as he crashed into the street.

It growled before sending out a blast of air from its nose, whilst Lindwhirl got ready to fight. They then charged at one another, with Lindwhirl quickly curling up and rolling towards the beast. He picked up speed and launched himself at the creature's face, but the kragobeast swung its antlers around and slammed him with one.

"Ouf!" He was thrown away from the creature and smashed into the side of a building, making him cry out as he broke through three walls before finally coming to a stop. "Ouch."

Back at the apartment building, some aliens were running past it when they suddenly heard a smashing sound coming from above.

They looked up to see something crashing through a window several floors up, glass raining down on them as a pair of individuals fell down towards the ground. Luckily, nobody was stabbed by the glass and the two crashed into the street with groans of pain.

Shining rolled away from Frax and pointed his blaster at the criminal, but Frax quickly raised his Multi-Striker and turned it into a shield. Shining fired, but the attacks just bounced off the force field. This allowed Frax to stand up and look around, seeing the many people currently trying to escape the dangerous situation.

He chuckled, getting an idea. But before he could enact it, Shining ran forward with his weapon changed into a sword.

He swung it at Frax, who leapt back at the last moment before changing his own weapon back into the bladed staff. He spun it around, a humming sound filling the air as the blade sparked with energy. He then launched it towards Shining, who charged his own sword with energy.

The two weapons clashed against one another, sparking as they did so. They both appeared evenly matched, with Frax jumping back before leaping forward and thrusting the weapon at Shining. But Shining managed to lean out of the way before swinging his sword upwards, causing Frax's weapon to be knocked out of his hand.

As the Multi-Striker flew through the air, Shining changed his weapon to its blaster form and aimed it at the criminal. "Give it up!" Frax growled, then noticed something and smirked before his fingers glowed.

Shining saw this and was about to fire, but Frax swung his claws around and sent the energy darts flying at him. The Plumber had to change to shield form and block most of the attacks, but one of them flew past him as Frax ran at him.

Suddenly, a cry of pain filled the air and Shining glanced around.

He saw an alien had been struck by Frax's attack and fell to the ground, as Frax leapt over him. Shining then realised what had happened and quickly changed his weapon to blaster form, but Frax had landed next to the woman and jumped behind her.

"I don't think so!" He held her up, using her as a human shield whilst holding a claw to her throat. "What kind of Plumber lets someone get hurt, just so they can capture the criminal?" Shining growled, seeing her was in a seriously dangerous situation.

Back with Lindwhirl, he had escaped the building he had been thrown into and was rolling along the ground.

Picking up speed, he aimed for the kragobeast's leg and tried to trip it up. "RAAAAH!" He slammed into its front leg and ground against its rock-like flesh, but the creature wasn't even phased and kicked him back the way he came. "WHOA!" He crashed into the ground and ripped it up as he rolled along it, eventually using his claws to slide to a stop. "Geez, what are you made of?"

The kragobeast roared before it started charging at him.

"Uh oh." He curled up and rolled forward as fast as he could, then flung himself upwards so he was soaring over the kragobeast. But the creature tried to slam its antler into him, Lindwhirl seeing this and quickly using his claws to grab the antler.

He swung himself around and managed to fling himself to a safe direction, rolling up and hitting the ground rolling as he did. But as he slid to a stop, he realised he needed some extra power against this creature.

"Time to go Ultimate!" He slammed the Ultimatrix and in a flash, he was transformed into his hyper evolved form. His fur turning white, a second set of arms appearing and golden armor covering his body whilst his tail split in two. When the transformation was complete, he roared. "ULTIMATE LINDWHIRL!"

The kragobeast roared before charging forward, Ultimate Lindwhirl using his tails to flick himself into the air.

He flew higher and higher, as his arms swung around to move him around. And when he was above the Kragobeast's back, he curled himself up and let himself drop down like a meteor. And before the kragobeast could react, he slammed into its back and forced it downwards with incredible pressure.

The creature roared in pain, as Ultimate Lindwhirl once again catapulted himself upwards out of the way. And as it tried to push itself back up, the hyper evolved alien flew over to where the creature's face was. And before it could do anything, he dived down and let himself get heavier as her grabbed its horn with all four arms.

The kragobeast's head was pulled down, unable to handle the sudden increase in weight. And as Ultimate Lindwhirl hit the ground, he used all his strength to suddenly fling the beast forward.

The kragobeast roared, as it was thrown forward unable to keep itself from being flung around before crashing into the street on its back. As it did, Ultimate Lindwhirl let himself go light and the wind from the impact sent him back into the air.

The creature looked to be in bad shape, but it could still fight back. As such, Ultimate Lindwhirl landed and curled himself up and made himself as light as possible before rolling forward. He managed to pick up a bunch of speed, basically turning into a giant spinning blur as he got closer and closer.

The kragobeast pushed itself to its feet, as Ultimate Lindwhirl then flung himself into the air whilst still spinning.

Faster and faster he moved, as he got closer to the creature's face. And seconds before he hit it, he made himself as heavy as possible and smashed into its face. The resulting impact shattered its horn, as it was thrown backwards and let out a mighty roar of pain.

The beast was thrown back several feet, as Ultimate Lindwhirl landed right as the Ultimatrix began to beep. In the blink of an eye, he reverted back to standard Lindwhirl before becoming human again. Flash staggered around, getting his balance as the kragobeast lay on the ground.

Flash frowned, scratching his head as he did. He wondered what he was supposed to do with it, but got his answer when a capture cube suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Wow," he caught it and looked around. But as the beast let out a moan, he realised he didn't have time to waste and threw it. The cube quickly expanded around the kragobeast before shrinking back down, trapping it inside.

Flash let out a sigh, as he rushed over to pick up the cube. "But who sent it?" He tried to connect to the base, wondering if anyone was watching.

Back with Shining, he glared at Frax whilst the alien criminal just smiled and held his prisoner at claw point.

Frax smiled, as the tip of his finger pocked at the poor woman's throat. "Here's your choice, Armor. You can shoot at me, arrest me and let this poor woman die. Or, you can give up and throw your weapon away. I'll get away, obviously, but do you really think you can live with knowing my capture cost this woman her life?"

Shining sighed, as he lowered his Multi-Striker. "There's no decision to be made. Let the woman go and you can leave."

"Oh, I'm not that stupid. Drop your weapon to the ground and throw me your badge. Once I deactivate the tracker, it'll be a nice souvenir of when I bested you." Shining growled, but knew he couldn't say no.

But just as he was about to throw his weapon down, his helmet beeped. "Don't throw it away." It was Clawcer, Shining being shocked by this but keeping hold of his weapon. "When you see the opening, use it." Shining wondered what he meant, until the woman Frax was holding suddenly glowed.

"What?" He asked, as the alien vanished right in front of him. "NO!" But before he could do anything, Shining raised his blaster and fired. "Augh!" The energy pulse slammed into him, knocking him backwards as Shining fired again.

Frax cried out several times, as the laser slammed into him again and again. Finally, he could no longer take it and fell to the ground.

As smoke came off his body, Shining found a capture cube appearing in front of him and he didn't hesitate to use it. "Later, Frax!" He threw the cube and before Frax could recover enough to escape from it, the cube grew larger and completely enveloped him before shrinking back down.

As Frax disappeared, Shining sighed in relief before removing his helmet and opening a channel. "Thanks, sir."

"I knew there was something off about that one. That's why I decided to keep an eye on him. Looks like you were right to follow your instincts. It's a good thing he was removed from the Plumbers. I'd hate to think what he would have done with the authority."

Shining moved over to the cube and picked it up, as Flash arrived with his own capture cube. The two nodded at one another, as they both let themselves get teleported back to the base to give a full report on what had happened.

A few days later, the Plumbers were all watching as Frax was being transported to a top security prison.

Many of them were standing there with their Multi-Strikers, ready to deal with anything he might try and pull. Frax appeared, now wearing a grey prison jumpsuit. His hands were locked inside metal coverings that prevented him from firing his stunner claws, as he was pushed towards the spot that he would be teleported from.

Shining and Clawcer were both standing there, the pair glaring at him as he approached.

Frax's attention was completely on Shining, as he stepped up to the spot. "Don't think this is over, Armor. I'll be back. And when I am, you'll wish you were never born."

Shining glared at him, as Frax started glowing and was warped away. He would be facing several counts of kidnapping, assault and theft of Plumber technology. If all went well, he wouldn't be seeing the outside world again for a very long time.

Clawcer turned to Shining. "You did good work. It's clear, you were an excellent choice to be made Earth's first new Plumber. I see a bright future for you, so long as you can keep up your level of skill and dedication." Shining smiled at this, as Clawcer began to walk off.

Flash patted Shining on the shoulder, the pair glad that Frax was out of their hair and looking forward to the bright future Clawcer had mentioned. Shining would never doubt his instincts again. No matter what, he would listen to his gut and use his own experience to help him complete his Plumber work. And the world would be better for it.

Author's Note

Interesting note. My beta reader, SuperSonicHeroes, hoped Shining would get a nemesis of his own. He originally suggested Chrysalis, but I decided to go my own way with that character. Hopefully, this works for Shining. Whilst I'm not sure when we'll see Frax again, I hope you consider him a good nemesis for Shining.

Also, who can guess where I got some of the design details for Frax? I'll give you a clue. It's a film with Bill Murray, Chris Rock and William Shatner