The New Year was soon on its way; as a custom, many people in Japan would visit a major shrine to pray for good fortune and make their New Year's wish. Among these people were our familiar friends, Kyle and Sabrina.

"Hurry up! I want to get there before it's too crowded," Sabrina could be heard, grabbing the attention of Kyle, who was walking behind her.

"Wait Sabrina, don't stray too far! Let me catch up first!," Kyle yelled out as he was trying to hurry to Sabrina's side.

"Don't worry about me, I can handle myself." Sabrina slightly smirked. "Pick up the pace or we'll be stuck in the massive crowd!"

"I'm coming, chill out." Kyle was carrying a heavy bag and he couldn't keep up with her. "Argh...this bag weighs a ton. Damn it, I shouldn't have packed so much stuff."

Sabrina realized that if Kyle had walked at the same speed as her, they would have made it to the shrine by now. "This is never gonna work. We won't get there in time at this rate." She sighed.

Kyle looked distressed. "But... but...we walked all this way and..."

Sabrina reassured him. "Don't worry, I know this is important. We'll find a more secluded shrine somewhere else, maybe a closer one. Let's go back to the car." Sabrina headed back to her car.

Kyle questioned the situation. "What? Are we not going to this shrine? Great, we walked all this way for nothing." Kyle groaned but turned around and began walking back to the car.

Eventually, after they had driven around for quite awhile, they found a secluded pathway that looked like it might lead to a shrine.

Kyle had spotted it first. "Look, look! I'm sure there's one up there!"

Unfortunately, they had to go up a snowy mountain path to reach it. And Sabrina wasn't looking forward to it. "I hope you can carry that heavy bag that far up, 'cause I'm not helping you."

Kyle was broken in spirit. He complied silently, while he sighed deeply. He was starting to regret coming along on this trip. "Okay fine, whatever. I guess I can carry this thing by myself." He got out of the car as soon as Sabrina had parked.

As they began the arduous trek to the mountaintop shrine, which took about an hour or so, they took a short break, and started to move again. Once the two of them were nearing the crest, they seemed pretty damn tired from the long-ass walk, but things were looking a bit brighter now.

"There it is. It's a little small... but it's so pretty." Sabrina made it up first.

Kyle made it up next after Sabrina had. "This is awful. Whose idea was this, anyway?" He was out of breath, with both of his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

Sabrina rolled her eyes, then she cleared her throat. "There's an inn nearby if we keep walking towards the west. The owner is a close friend of my father's. So let us pray, and then we can head over there to rest, okay?"

Kyle nodded, and he was eager to start. "It's really nice up close. Let's wish hard."

However, fate would have other plans for Kyle and Sabrina. The shrine grew bright and emitted a blinding white light that, out of nowhere, engulfed them both...


Next thing they knew, they found themselves walking out of an ancient-looking bunker. And once both of them found out that no one was harmed, they started to wonder what the fuck was going on.

"What...what is this place?" Kyle looked at the surroundings.

They were in a clearing, with dense trees and plenty of animal life surrounding them. The cold mountaintop they were at previously had become a hot, humid sub-tropical flat land with lush greenery. Strange bird calls and funky creature noises could be heard everywhere. The air was also very thick and heavy.

Sabrina looked around and she was blinking rapidly. "What the hell is this?! Where the hell are we?!"

Kyle didn't have any answers, but he speculated. "Maybe it had something to do with that shrine. I don't think we're in Japan anymore..."

Sabrina chimed in. "Obviously not! This is the strangest thing ever! What the fuck is going on?!"

Kyle shrugged and still couldn't think of a good enough answer. He did, however, figure that this was the best time to reveal his item in his heavy bag. It was the Atomizer, fully recharged and ready for combat!


Meanwhile, in the forest near the group of humans, a cheetah and a large rat were just walkin' and talkin', minding their own business.

The cheetah, known as Cheetor, was the first to spot the group. He immediately noticed how out of place they seemed. He turned his head to face his companion, named Rattrap. "Look over there! There's some...uh...wait... is that HUMANS?," he said in a surprised tone. He stared at them and he made sure he wasn't seeing things. He thought for a moment, then he suddenly felt really excited to talk to them. "...Whoa! Ultra-gear! Let's check 'em out!"

Rattrap wasn't impressed, even though he hadn't even seen them yet. Plus, he didn't really pay attention to everything Cheetor said. "This planet's full of 'em, what's so special 'bout these chumps...wait a cycle, did you just say "humans?" His face suddenly had an expression of pure shock.

Cheetor was already running towards the group. "Come on, Rattrap!"

Rattrap had no choice but to chase after him. "Hey, wait up!" He groaned. "Another wild goose chase..."


Sabrina had spotted the speedy creature first that was coming towards them. "Uh, Kyle? What the hell is that?" She pointed towards the jungle. "Is it an animal?"

Kyle squinted his eyes. "It's obviously a car, or something. No animal goes THAT fast." He felt quite proud of himself.

Sabrina blinked at Kyle's statement. She saw that it was a cheetah. "...I'm pretty sure it's just a regular cheetah." Pretty simple enough.

By this point, Cheetor had closed in and stopped in front of them. He had heard the conversation. "Hey there! You both seem out of place. Maybe I can help you out? You're all humans, right?"

Neither Kyle or Sabrina had a clue as to what to say in response to that question. Especially since this cheetah was talking!

Rattrap came out to the side of the two humans. He didn't say anything at first, because he was just as shocked to see them as Cheetor was to see them.

"AHH! A GIANT RAT!" Sabrina yelled and she clinged to Kyle tightly.

"Uhh..I uh..." Kyle was so shocked at this point, that he was still pretty much speechless.

Cheetor was visibly dejected. He hung his head and shook it. "Rattrap, you idiot...why'd you go and do that?"

Sabrina figured that her wooden sword wouldn't do much damage, but she was prepared to try. After she slammed her bokken on Rattrap's head, which only made him flinch, Sabrina backed away. "I-Is this another one of those things... or just a really big rat?"

Kyle decided to reason with the rat first. "Are you with the other beast? W-What are you things anyway? If you don't tell us, I'll shock you!" He pointed the Atomizer at the two strange beasts. He was shaky, though.

Rattrap finally got over his shock. "...Whoa whoa whoa, hold on! What kinda fleshies from this time can talk like we can?!" He suddenly got another shock...from the Atomizer that is. "AH-ahhahahaHAHH!" He screamed out as he was being zapped.

Sabrina ignored that question and she just stared at the two strange things. "Destroy that rat, Kyle!"

"We mean you no harm! We just want to know how you got here, maybe we can help you all out!" Cheetor tried to get through to the humans.

Once the stream of Kyle's Atomizer stopped, Rattrap recovered quickly. "What's the big idea, ya monkeys?!"

Cheetor was once again the voice of reason in this case, usually a rarity. "Calm down, Rattrap! It was a mistake, I'm sure of it." He turned to the humans. "My name is Cheetor. This bot's name is Rattrap. You look lost, and we can help you. We wanna know how you got here in the first place. If you come with us back to our base, we'll go from there!"

The two humans looked at one other. Kyle was the first to say something in response to that. "Do you have food, water, a way out of here? We'll take what we can get."

Sabrina was against the idea. "You can't be serious! I don't believe them! Why should we go to this so-called base anyway!" She held onto Kyle even more.

Kyle reasoned with Sabrina on this subject. "We won't be able to escape from them, you know. It's better to do what they say. We can't survive out here for long."

Cheetor reassured Sabrina. "Don't worry! We'll take you back to the base, and you can meet our leader, Optimus. He'll know what to do."


After what seemed like an eternity of walking, they finally spotted the crashed ship that served as the base.

"Cheetor to base, I'm back with Rattrap. Lower the defenses. And I have a surprise for everyone, too." Cheetor smiled lightly as the group moved closer to the ship.

As they got closer, the humans started to get a better look, and they were impressed by the exterior.

Kyle noted the size first. "Whoa... i-it's huge!"

It really was a sight to behold. A large, partially damaged alien ship embedded into the Earth over top of a deep canyon, a scenic river flowing beneath it. It stood out like a sore thumb, but almost looked like it belonged there, somehow.

"Yeah, wait 'til you see the inside!" Rattrap saw his chance to make an impression.

Sabrina was quite interested in seeing the inside of the ship. "I can't wait until we go inside!"

As Kyle and Sabrina continued to gawk at the base, the elevator came down to pick them up. It made a distinct hydraulic sound, and it suddenly went up, taking everyone up to the base. Once it came to a hault, everyone stepped forward into the control room.

What an interesting day so far...