Disclaimer: Toonami is copyright Cartoon Network. If I did own it, I would never have tried to give TOM a face.
Author's Note: This is a rendition of "The Intruder" a computer-animated series starring the hosts of Toonami, which used to occupy two hours of Cartoon Network's weekday schedule. The Intruder was a week-long event that unfolded with a new episode every day during the Toonami time slot. I've altered a few details and added some dialog. The original can easily be found at Youtube or toonamiarsenal(dot)com. Thanks for reading.
Episode 1: Alien
The Absolution came close to measuring a full kilometer from end to end, with its silvery-gray fuselage reaching forward into space and its brick-shaped engines humming with rhythmic power far behind. Its curvaceous length was decorated with sections of one-way glass that were blue when seen from the outside and clear when viewed from within the ship. One bump in particular was situated along the ship's dorsal, midway between its nose and its engines. It was a dome-shaped window with basketball contours in its reinforced glass. Beneath it, TOM sat on the Absolution's bridge in front of a broad, raised disc, above which Sara's avatar was displayed on a rotating array of holographic windows. A news article had been published earlier that regarded his recently acquired occupation as a multimedia host, and he couldn't resist criticizing it.
"Ya know, on the phone they act one way, but what they write is totally different," he asserted while Sara, the Absolution's onboard AI and his closest companion, listened patiently. "Huh ... 'Bubble-headed,'" TOM scoffed. "They're not even in color."
"Well, you must admit, Tom, you are rather silly-looking," Sara acknowledged.
"Thanks for the morale-booster."
"Well, I—" An alert from Sara's ship-wide security systems abruptly snared her attention. She abandoned her conversational tone. "Intruder alert!"
"What're you talking about?" TOM asked. To himself he thought, That was unexpected. I hope she isn't serious.
"I'm serious, Tom. Intruder. Alert!"
"Okay, stop it!" TOM relented. "Send in the Clydes."
At another location along the top of the Absolution's lengthy dorsum, six tiny hatches popped open and two eyeball-like robots emerged. The Clydes swiftly navigated their way down and back to the ship's starboard engine nacelle where a third Clyde was already waiting. Its multiple lenses were directed at a puncture in the ship's armor. The hole was about one meter wide and had edges that were slightly singed, as though a superheated rock had pierced through.
As the Clydes stared curiously, TOM leaned forward in his chair, peering at the video they were sending. "What is that?" he wondered.
A blaring alarm filled the ship's interior. "The hull's been breached," Sara announced. "On the forty-ninth level, starboard side. I've sealed it off."
"Must have been a meteor or something," TOM mused as he observed the Clyde's video feed.
"Negative," said Sara. "There is no telltale distortion, nor are any serious scorch-marks present. There may have been heat, but the bulk of the damage was caused by some sort of dissolving agent."
Reaching a decision, TOM pushed himself off his chair. "I'm goin' out there."
Minutes later, he was in the port cargo bay. Along the nearest wall was a single row of jetpacks that stretched off into the distant corner. He stepped out in front of one and waited while a signal was sent to the device. It jumped off the wall and clamped onto his back with the force of a door slamming, making him stagger. "There's gotta be a better way to put these things on ..." he muttered as his feet departed from the deck and he glided awkwardly across the immense cargo bay. The bay doors opened, and he was on his way to the other side of the ship.
He'd wanted to exit from the port side for safety reasons, seeing as all he knew about the thing that had punctured his ship was that it was somewhere on (or in, as the case may be) the starboard wing. Feeling extra cautious, and also wanting to go a little wild with the jetpack, he took the long way around, swooping up toward the Absolution's prow, looping around some of the dynamic hull design on top, then coming back on the other side. Alighting on the starboard engine wing, he found the Clydes waiting for him, still analyzing the entry point.
"Man, it ate right through the hull!" he exclaimed upon seeing the breach. It was slightly blackened around the edges, so he'd been right about the burning. Leaning over the hole to peer inside, he found that there was too much plating and wiring missing for it all to have been incinerated. Sara would have detected major heat signatures. There had definitely been more dissolving action going on like she had said.
"Do we know where it is?" he asked, placing his hands on the edge.
"No idea. It doesn't show up on any scanning tech." In the screens room, Sara was displaying the video feeds from all three Clydes, as well as her face, on the monitors. "There's massive system disruption down there."
"Any idea what it is?"
"No," she answered flatly.
Outside, TOM positioned a fresh piece of hull armor over the damaged area and got to work securing it. "Okay. Well, the hull is sealed, but keep the doors closed. I'm gonna go down there and check this thing out."
Meanwhile, down in the bowels of the engine fuselage, beyond severed cables, breached walls, and sundered support structures, something was moving not ten feet below where TOM currently stood. In the dark, a shapeless red mass stirred ominously. Immersing itself in the Absolution's interior, it began to quietly carry out its one and only function.