Voyager Saga
Change of Soul
Chapter 1: Panmorpha's Box
After Ghoulwyrm, Mantichrome, and Omnirus escaped with their minions, the NSC were on high alert for them. Particularly the crew whom the villainous trio would be most likely to seek revenge upon. Therefore, the Bladestorm's crew was busy making sure their security does not have any chinks.
The experiments in particular was suffering the most scrutiny, only cause what they might find non-lethal and, in some cases, edible (sometime the same case) were, to the rest of the ship, highly dangerous. Several of the experiments with Lilo were trying to get past the guards on the entry ramp to the BiNebular. "I'm sorry, Miss Pelakai. Captain's orders. WARDEN picked up Class 12 dangerous materials aboard and till we find it you can't use the portal. What if it's a stowaway infected from the NYC incident and it uses the ships portal somehow?" said the marine on guard.
"That sounds kinda farfetched if you ask me," said Lilo.
"I highly doubt there are any infected left from that incident," said Chip, "Let alone that would be on the BiNebular."
"You could let us on so we could find this thing," said Draco, "We experiments tend to be immune from what mutates most other organisms."
"But humans on Kauai may not be..." said the guard before relenting. "Fine, but no portal use till WARDEN says." A few of the experiments groaned and complained at this as that had mainly been the reason for coming to the ship.
"I was hoping that we'd be able to pop over to see how Jumba, Pleakley, and Nani were," muttered Lilo.
"Same here," said Contrinus, "It gets so cramped in a spaceship."
"Maybe if we find this hazardous whatever-it-is," said Stitch, "They'll let us go."
The guard couldn't actually believe this. The Bladestorm was easily 1 and a half miles long. His shock was probably why he was dumb enough to agree to Stitch's idea.
--
Draco, Chip and Contrinus headed for the ship's living quarters and were shocked and slightly horrified to see a group of hazmat suited marines at Morph's room. Kala could be just seen inside and Matt could be heard screaming as the bed's resident mold monster tried to see what he tasted like. Draco quickly shot several blasts at it from his four mouths that made the mold monster let go of Matt and retreat under the bed.
"Oh no, it took us 3 hours to coax it out," moaned Matt. He'd been wearing a plastic helmet, "Turns out it can't digest plastic."
Techo, who was in the room, said, "Turns out it used to be an egg and cress sandwich."
"Morph never did like cress," said Chip, "Those his disposing habits leave much to be desired. What are you guys doing in here, anyways?"
"The energy signature's coming from here. We think his magic kit's going critical, and do you want another Chupy aboard? One is enough." said Matt, peering into a drawer and pulling out a flag-of-all-nations chain
"You might want to be careful," said Chip, "Morph did like to collect unusual things."
Matt pulled out a small anti-matter warhead and glared. "I think we'll call the bomb squad to finish the search," he said annoyed.
"Hey, what's this?" asked Kala. She reached under Morph's mattress and pulled out a large metal box. It was a little grimy from being where it was. The mold monster squelched in an annoyed way as the box was removed.
Techo was first to look at it, "Oh boy, how in hell did Morph get in contact with the Khufans?"
"The Khufans? You mean like Ben's Benmummy form?" asked Draco.
"Yeah, you know that the Null Void's in Nullspace. They live there and they make the Combine look welcoming, most paranoid bunch I ever met," said Techo.
Matt said, "They designed the reality shield technology. Apparently they can cure advanced reality poisoning."
"Huh, you wouldn't have guessed it from their appearances," said Kala. "So how dangerous are we talking here?" asked Lilo as she put her hand on the lid.
Matt slammed his hand down. The box suddenly lit up and there was a flash. Matt was knocked across the room. "...DNA security, unless Morph added you, you get that," said Chloe as Techo checked Matt who's hair was crackling.
"Ok, I declare that this box is off limits until we find out what's in that box," said Matt.
"But how can we open the box if don't open it?" asked Stitch.
Matt glared at Stitch. "Lilo, can you and Stitch come with me? You four...DO. NOT. OPEN THAT BOX!" he yelled.
--
About 1.023 seconds after Matt n co, Lilo and Stitch had left, Chip was fiddling with the box's computer security.
"How long will it take for you to get that open?" asked Contrinus.
"Might take a while, it's pretty tough security," said Chip, "In fact, it could take several-"
Suddenly the box's computer beeped, "DNA match confirmed. Identity: Chip. Opening." With that, the lock clicked open.
"What is it?" said Kala, her own experiment curiosity making her lean over to look. A pile of what looked like glowing rubies could be seen. "Wow, Morph was rich," said Kala.
"Ooh boy," said Draco, "Can anyone say 'space casino'?"
"You might want to reconsider that," said Chip, "These aren't space rubies."
"Then what are they?" asked Contrinus.
Chip wasn't sure. His analysis system was just sending error messages. Some were saying it was rubies, some said Kryptonite, some said granite, and a few said the box was empty. He reached out and touched the first ruby and it started an apparent chain reaction. The rubies began to make a humming noise and crackle with energy. This did set off an error message from the ship, warning of a destabilizing isotope. With that the door to the room slid down, sealing them in.
--
Matt, Techo and some bomb disposal squad members were walking across the bay back towards the Binebular when WARDEN announced. "ALERT! REALITY ENERGY SPIKE DETECTED IN BAY 12!" Matt and Techo exchanged a glance and started running towards the ship. Matt almost made it when the side of the BiNebular exploded, throwing everyone in the bay to the floor and setting of a few small fires. Matt was knocked out for a couple minutes before he came to. He noticed that there was a lot of damage around him. Large holes have been blown through several sheets of metal and most things that were more frail had been completely incinerated. Matt stared for a couple stunned seconds before he called for the person he knew was responsible for this. "CHIIIIIIIIIP!!! If they survived...I'LL KILL EM!" yelled Matt and had to be tackled by Techo and two other marines.
--
Matt, Chloe, Lilo and Stitch were sat outside the medibay. Luckily the ship had recently got, in Matt's opinion, the best doctor in Nullspace. Dr. Willis, who Matt n co had met at Sy-Yong was a professional with genetic...lifeforms. The door hissed open and Dr Willis walked out, folding his wings in. It was worth noted that Dr. Willis was a splitter. "Ok, I have good and bad and really bad news." he said, looking up from his PDA.
"Ok, give it to me in ascending order," said Matt.
"The good news is that they're fine and healthy," said Dr. Willis.
"That's a relief," said Chloe.
"Now the bad news. The box contained unrefined Red Kryptonite which we all know is refined for use in reality shield technology...they received 12000 times the maximum safe exposure," said the doctor.
"Wait? What?" said Matt, "Red Kryptonite? I thought that stuff only affected Superman and any other organism that came from Krypton."
"It's not real Red Kryptonite. It was named after it as it is made the same way, only using time crystals. The reality radiation it gave out was thousands of times more powerful then the reality guns used on Kala and you, Mr. Lynch. This brings us to the last bit, would you all follow me please?" said Dr. Willis.
The four of them followed the splitter doctor out into the corridor. "Is this going to be really gruesome?" asked Matt, "I know you said they're alive and healthy, but they're not altered beyond recognition, right?"
"I will leave that to you. First, Mr. Draco and Miss Contrinus, in here please," he said leading the way to an isolation room. The group looked inside to see what looked like a pair of statues on the floor. They didn't seem to be of any importance at first, but then they noticed they were actually stone gargoyles, with familiar heads. "Yes, the rescue crew was surprised too. Mr. Chip is just in here," said Dr Willis, leading the way to a second room.
This one had two guards on it, holding EMP arc rifles. "I'm afraid if Mr. Chip has mental altering from his form, he will be an extreme danger," explained the doctor, opening the door.
The group looked around but all they could find was a hovercraft similar to a Covenant Ghost. "I don't get it, where is he?" said Chloe.
"Right there," said Dr Willis, 'Motoralis sapian...also known as Cybertronian." Matt and Chloe tensed up at that.
Dr Willis sighed and walked towards the last room. "I'm afraid Miss Kala has some mental trauma. She was...surprised when she woke up. I think just Mr. Lynch for now," said Dr Willis.
Matt glanced at Chloe and she said, "It's ok, I don't mind."
Matt went into the room and said, "Kala, are you o- DAH?!?" The last part was a reaction to Kala's new body. She was now a human woman of the same age as Matt with scarlet hair and green eyes and, to Matt's opinion, one of the most beautiful women he's ever met.
Matt walked up to her slowly. "Kala?" he said softly. Kala jumped as he gently put his hand on her shoulder and she flinched away. "Whoa, it's me. It's Matt," he said and when that didn't work he tried. "It's master."
Kala blinked and looked at Matt. "Matt?" she said.
"Take it easy, you don't want to put any stress on that new body of yours," said Matt.
"What happened? Is this a dream?" she said in a shakily confident tone.
"Afraid not," said Matt grimly.
"Do I- Do I look ok to you?" asked Kala.
"Well, er, actually, you look better than ok," said Matt, feeling his cheeks redden a bit. Kala smirked a bit and Matt brightened up. "Plus, for once, you woke up before Chip," he said jokingly.
"How is Chip? And Draco and Contrinus?" asked Kala.
"Well, Draco and Contrinus seem to have become gargoyles and are in stone sleep at the moment," said Matt, "and Chip's apparently become a Cybertronian hovercraft and is in stasis lock or something."
Kala looked at herself. "Looks like I'm the least worst off," she said.
Matt chuckled and said, "Yep, so it would seem." The two of them laughed for a bit until Kala stopped and sneezed. A fireball came out of her mouth as it happened. The fireball hit Matt dead center in the face. "Ok...maybe not human," he coughed.
"Well, close enough," said Kala. She paused and muttered to herself again, "Close enough."
"Don't worry, I bet Dr Willis has a cure in the works already and if not, the Khufans can damn well fix their mess," said Matt
--
Dr Willis however was not so optimistic. "I'm afraid without the Khufan government's help, your friends had better get used to these new forms," he said
"You can't really expect them to stay like this," said Matt, "Gargoyles can only operate at night. You know the history the NSC has with the Cybertronians. Plus, Kala's needed to treat EXP victims."
"The NSC has been cloning her blood for months so we cannot expect them to pull strings on our behalf I'm afraid. I was hired for the project in question," said Dr Willis.
Wilson came in, looking grim. "Just got this for our request to the Khufan ambassador...answer's no," he said
Matt, Chloe, Lilo, and Stitch just stared for a couple seconds before there was a loud simultaneous "WHAT?!?"
"They said and I quote 'Consider the subjects' situation's a product of their own stupidity and they will not spend valuable credits fixing something they could have avoided' unquote," said Wilson coldly before throwing the message PDA at the wall angrily.
"So they say that it's our fault they got transformed?" said Chloe, "That's ridiculous. It was Morph who was hoarding Red Kryptonite in his room."
"Why did he have it, anyways?" asked Lilo.
"Apparently he brought it legally off them as a curiosity. The box was never meant to be opened," said Wilson.
Matt said. "Wait, then technically we brought it so we can demand the equipment."
Wilson shook his head. "Only Morph can request it."
"Well that's just dandy," said Chris, "Just when we need him the most, he's lost somewhere in some other universe." Chris stopped as everyone glared at him. "Sorry," he muttered, realizing he'd stepped over the line
"Well, I suppose we can learn to work around this," said Techo, "Let's just hope that they'll take this with calmly and rationally."
--
To put it simply...they didn't. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY WON'T CURE US?" yelled Draco, eyes glowing white.
"Hey, don't blame us," said Matt. Matt couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by Draco now. Draco had the basic gargoyle body shape, only he retained his old form's head and coloration. He was had a noticeable amount of streamlined muscles. Fortunately, he'd been given clothing to cover himself up, an attire somewhat reminiscent of Brooklyn's only mainly emerald in color "Look, what do you expect us to do? Declare a one ship war on the Khufans?" he said.
"Draco, dear, they really are trying to do the best they can," said Contrinus. Her gargoyle form was slimmer and noticeably well proportioned. Her wings were like the ones on her old form and she was finding advantages of having separate arms. Like Draco, she was now wearing clothes, a simple bikini top and loincloth-like combo that were red. "We just need to take this calmly."
"Calmly? That's easy for you to say!" shouted Chip, "At least you still have limbs, I can't even move!"
"Can we all just stop arguing? If Morph ever turns up he will be able to get the stuff you need, till then you have to live with yourselves," said Matt, yelling a bit to be heard.
"Easy for you to say," said Chip, "You can still sleep in your beds. I have to rest in a parking space!"
"For heaven's sake..." muttered Matt as the three started arguing again.
"This going to be a long day," said Chloe as she rubbed her temples.
Kala spoke up. "Look. At least that blast didn't kill you. You're all still breathing...technically," she said, looking at Chip at the last part and adding, "...and I read up on Cybertronians last night. Why don't you just transform, Chip?" she said.
"You think I haven't been trying?" said Chip, "I've been charging different pieces of circuitry, defragmentizing my hard drive, polarized my spark chamber, I've tried everything!"
Matt thought for a second then said, "What about that funny noise they make?" he suggested and noticed the stares. "What? It's worth a try," he said defensively
"Oh please," said Chip, "as if I'll just transform by going choo-chuh-chah-chik-WHOA!" Suddenly the casing on the top split in half and swung around to form wings. Then the front portion of the body underneath flipped forward while his bumper/wings and the front part of the underside split and unfolded to form legs. Two of his arms were at his sides while the other four came from the back of his underside. His head was already at the top of his vehicle mode and simple swiveled to be in a more normal position. Now Chip basically resembled a 10-foot version of himself with thicker arms, shields on four of them, and wings on his back.
Matt whistled. "Impressive, Chip, very impressive," he said.
Chip looked down and said, "Yes, this is pretty cool. Now I'm the tallest one in the group."
Matt nodded. "There is that, but by Cybertronian standards, you're a midget," he said.
"We probably don't want to go into details about this when we tell what happened to the higher-ups," said Wilson, "I don't think they'd feel comfortable with a Transformer in their midst, even a friendly one."
"Yeah, we could fall back on the usual plan," said Chloe.
Matt said, "Oh, lie out our front teeth."
"Huh, I wonder if I got any new powers," said Chip.
"Probably lots of guns," said Matt simply.
--
The next week or so were not very enjoyable for Matt. The gang was trying their best to get used to things but the crowning point was when Chip finally did find his robot forms guns and blew up 3 Starfury fighters in the docking bay before he could get control.
Kala however seemed to be adjusting pretty well by comparison. However, something weird arrived one day. The courier had delivered a package for Kala and so naturally everyone presumed that the Empire had sent a nice explosive present for her.
"What do you think is in it?" asked Chloe.
"What I'd really like it to be is something to reverse Red Kryptonite transformation," said Matt. Matt had finally agreed to open it. The weird part that had struck him was that it was covered in Atlantean runes. The box opened easily enough and nestling in a felt cover was..."It's an ion blade," said Matt, picking it up.
"An ion blade?" said Chloe, "Are you sure it's addressed to Kala?"
Matt nodded, checking the destination address. "Miss Kala 777. Right here," he said before offering the handle to Kala.
Kala took the device and runes along its length lit up before an orange energy beam shot out, nearly skewering Matt who only just jumped out the way. "Ok..." said Matt weakly, looking at where the blade had shot INTO the wall, "I think you may need a few...pointers."
"I think so too," said Kala.
Chloe headed for the door and said, "I'll let you two lovebirds figure that thing out."
Chloe ducked round the corner cackling as Matt tossed a low level plasma blast at where she'd been. "I suppose we can use Bay 15 for practice," he said after a bit, leading the way.
--
As soon as they were there, Matt said to Kala, "Now, the first thing you need to know is how to hold it. Like this." He took out his own ion blade and turned it on. Kala nodded and tried to do the same. "No, no," said Matt, "you're holding it wrong." He put his arms around and put her arms in the right position, "Like this."
Kala smiled a bit at this and Matt blushed. "Erm...that should do it…hey, where's the setting ring on this thing?" he said, looking at the blade. His own blade had a rotating ring that controlled the power of the blade, allowing non-lethal settings. This one however had no such ring.
"I don't know," said Kala, "Did it fall out of the box?"
"No, it's attached. This thing's designed just to kill, nasty little thing," said Matt, looking at it. Now he came to think, the runes on Kala's blade looked different from his, colder...more cruel.
"You think we can get one and attach it to it?" asked Kala, "I'd hate to accidentally hurt someone."
"No way, these things are relics. Chloe found hers on an archeological mission while I was on the Maelstrom star and I got mine from Dante senior, they're thousands of years old," said Matt, shaking his head before saying. "Just means you'll have to practice more," he said.
"Then how comes this one looks practically brand new?" asked Kala.
Matt shrugged, "Maybe this one wasn't used that much."
Matt however was worried about who would have already found out about the incident when the NSC had only found out a few days ago...and even then how had they gotten a courier drone out?
--
Matt yawned and turned over before the computer beeped again. "Incoming communication." it chimed.
"Identity of caller?" yawned Matt.
"David Xanatos," replied the computer.
"What?" said Matt, now awake fully at that news. "Impossible, DARKRIFT got rid of all the stuff at WARDEN's old base, .put him on," he said, sighing the last part and putting on his NASA hat to try and look official.
Xanatos's face appeared on the screen. "Matt, is that you? You look good. I didn't call at a bad time, did I?"
"Perhaps," said Matt, "How in Nullspace did you manage to contact us?"
Xanatos smiled that smug smile of his. "Your friends didn't do a good job clearing away. We found alot of intact equipment and I managed to put together a special satellite," he said.
Matt sighed. "Ok, but I have a feeling this isn't for social purposes, it never is. Why are you calling? I've got enough on my plate with exploding reality power sources and Chip blowing up the fighters," said Matt
"Believe or not, this about Brooklyn," said Xanatos, "You know how he's been to the future, right?"
Matt thought about this "Yeah, vaguely. I was a bit suspicious of that. Temporal radiation doesn't cause amnesia," he said.
"I wondered about that myself," said Xanatos, "Anyways, he said he had a message he was supposed to deliver on this date. He said he wants you to go to this address, grab what looks of most significance, and come here."
"Anything else? I've got to teach Kala how to handle her dragon form tomorrow," said Matt as the co-ordinates arrived at his terminal. It was for an address in New York.
"Well, yes, apparently there's a warehouse he wants you to go to and there's a similar item there. Only the problem is that it's not on Earth."
"Oh great, where is it then? Mars?" said Matt, yawning again.
"I can't really say," said Xanatos, "It supposed be a constantly warp-jumping orbital facility or something. But Brooklyn says you'll be able to get to it if you go this place at this time."
"Ok," said Matt, getting up to get the ship heading there.
--
Xiphos facility was the empires key bio-storage facility, used to store the prototype EXP weapons and failed experiments of the empire. It had a large jump engine that it used to warp between universes periodically so that raiders or the NSC couldn't locate it. Being stationed there was usually a punishment. The two empire troopers on watch aboard were both thinking this. "So, how did you land this gig?" said one of them in a bored tone, watching the surface of Earth rotating below the station.
"Eh, I accidentally spilled hot coffee on Splicer," said the other guard, "That guy freaks when anything hot touches him. How about you?"
"I commented that the emperor was a furry little nutcase with a Napoleon complex," said the first guard.
The other smirked. "Yeah...that'll do it."
Suddenly the radar bleeped something. "Incoming spacecraft," said one.
"That's odd," said the other, "We weren't expecting anyone today."
The first guard paled as the radar displayed the ship's I.D. "Oh hell, it's the traveler," he whimpered.
"Stay calm," said the second guard, "Maybe he's just passing by." Suddenly a small craft exited the ship and headed towards them.
"Or not. I gotta idea, let's get in that shuttle and run away," said the first guard.
The second guard was about to object when he remembered that Xiphos had no droid security, relying on its jump engine to avoid trouble. "I like that plan," he said and the guards legged it.
The two ran to the incoming ship, which turned out to be a Ghost and climbed onto the back seat. "Where's the pilot?" asked the first one.
"Maybe it's on auto-pilot," said the second.
"That's one way to put it," said a voice that seemed to come from the Ghost.
"Oh no..." said the first guard weakly, being quicker on the uptake then the other guard. "Erm, what would happen if for example, we surrendered unconditionally?" he asked
"Then you'll be tied up and left alone," said the 'Ghost', "Now please get off of me before I decide to test my vehicle mode guns."
The guards looked at each other, unclipped their blasters and threw them as far as they could before running into the security room and locking themselves in.
--
Wilson was trying to get the guards out. "For the last time, we are not going to shoot you," he said under the door. "That was actually surprisingly uneventful," said Chip, now in robot mode, "Guess the Empire's running low on backboned soldiers."
The others were looking around the facility. Chloe and Kala were searching together. Chloe said, "This place was a dumping ground for screw ups. I have to say when I was in charge and chasing Matt, it ended up with a very large crew. Anton must be doing well."
The two of them happened to be looking through the weapons section. There were plenty of odd-looking guns there. One in particular caught Kala's eye. It somewhat resembled a gold bazooka, only its end looked more like that of a telescope. Chloe spotted it too. "A P.O.V. gun, I thought they stopped making these," she said, looking at it.
"What's it do?" asked Kala as she picked it up. Matt and Chris just happened to walk into the room and Kala accidentally pulled the trigger. A small pulse of blue light came out of the barrel and hit Matt.
Matt flinched and said, "You know, I suddenly realize how much goes on Kala's mind. I mean, switching species is one thing, but switching it to someone you're really good friends with something else." He blinked his eyes and shook his head in confusion.
Chloe smirked and tried to take the gun off Kala. "Give me a go. Let's see what happens with Chris," she said smirking evilly.
"Uh, that won't be necessary," said Chris backing up, "I'm pretty sure we'd know what would happen-WHOA!" Chris tripped backwards over a crate.
The crate fell over and a cylinder emblazoned with a bio-hazard symbol fell out. Matt picked it up. "What the hell's this?" he muttered
"I don't know," said Chloe as she took it, "Let me see if there's a label."
The label simply said '-630 prototype...remains...destruction postponed.' Chloe looked at it sadly. "Guess NegaMorph got into trouble for helping you recapture me," she said to Matt.
Matt grimaced and said, "Leave it. Or better yet, toss it in the trash."
Chloe glared at Matt. "No," she said simply.
Matt looked at it. "What you wanna do then? Resurrect him? If you've forgotten, he wanted to kill us all."
"Not entirely," said Chloe, "You forget, I know NegaMorph better than anyone. He doesn't outright go for the kill. Besides, he'd be useful if he were on our side."
"No, actually, HELL NO! I refuse to have that murdering blob on my ship," said Matt angrily.
"I say we should this democratically," said Kala as she picked up what looked like a stick of dynamite and put it in her pocket, "We should vote on whether we should resurrect him or not."
"Oh, very well," said Matt, "But for the record, my answer's automatically 'no'."
The others gathered together to deliberate the notion of reviving NegaMorph. Techo started. "Nega's a nutter who I bet will want to skin us the minute he can move. I vote no."
"Logically, he would serve as an extremely significant ally if he were revived on our side," said Chip, "I vote yes."
Kala said, "That's one each. I vote yes. I had a good look inside his soul and I think he could be talked over to our side."
"He beat me up because I wore the same outfit as him," said Draco, "I vote no."
"Uh, Draco, that didn't actually happen that way," said Contrinus, "That was how we told it. Anyways, I'd hate to leave him in a state like that, I vote yes."
"Oh yeah, it was so graphic though," said Draco, "I switch my vote to yes."
Matt sighed. "The yes's have it, but as captain I vote once he's resurrected, we hand him over to the council to face the music," he said.
There's the first chapter of a new story. As you can see, we're already having some freaky things happening. What with Draco and Contrinus becoming gargoyle versions of themselves and what not. By the way, I intended Chip's transformation to robot mode to be similar to Scourge from the original Generation 1 cartoon. And there's also the matter of Kala receiving that mysterious gift. And it looks like NegaMorph's going to have a comeback? Or will he? Find out in the next chapter. Please review.