Me: Avengers now continues here.

Mordecai: awesome!

Me: Just to let you know, the events in this chapter take place parallel to the events in the last chapter.

Rigby: meaning?

Mordecai: (sigh): he means that Ben meeting Kim and Ron is taking place at the same time as what's going on here.

Me: Thank you.

Rigby: K got it.

Ch. 3 A Different Strategy

Sherman

All was quite in the home of "Team Titan". Octus, in his "Dad" hologram was cleaning up the dishes after dinner Illana and Lance have recently finished. Illana and Lance were sitting on the couch watching TV.

As the show progressed, Lance had slowly put his arm around Illana's shoulder. Illana then moved closer to Lance and the two were almost cheek to cheek. Before a moment with them could form, Octus had received a familiar signal. "The rift gate has opened!" he announced.

The moment then ceased. Illana breathed a disappointing sigh. "Well, looks like you were right about Modula not giving up."

Lance hated it when he was right, especially when it came to the Mutradi. "Well Octus? Is it another Mega-beast?"

"No" Octus replied, much to the other two's relief. "It appears to be a small ship, I believe I have the relative area of which it will land."

No sense in dotting around. Illana, Lance, and Octus left the house into the backyard and had prepared for battle. Illana had activated her watched and formed her gold Corus armor. Lance activated his watch, donning his purple Manus armor. Octus deactivated his hologram, revealing his transparent robot form. They took off into the sky to follow Octus to deal with the Mutradi

G3 sky-fortress

G3, also known as Galactic Guardian Group, has been on the watch for Mutradi ever since helping to free Galaluna from Modula's grip. Solomon had been working with Team Titan since to better understand their enemy. Lance knew what strategies Modula may possible come up with and helped Solomon prepare defensive strategies against the Mutradi; Octus allowed the G3 scientists to study him and have created a beacon that can detect rift gate openings as well. In the event Titan is unavailable, G3 would respond in their place.

Solomon had been recollecting all this in his private quarters until alarms blazed throughout the base.

Within five minutes, Solomon was at the bridge. "What is it?" he asked as soon as he entered.

"Sir." One of the agents at the controls responded. "The rift gate has opened."

"What came through?" Solomon asked

"Telemetry scan indicates a small Mutradi scout ship." The agent answered. "It is already entering our atmosphere and will touch the ground within five mintues."

"Any word from Titan?" Solomon asked as well

"Octus has sent us a message, saying they are on the way to the coordinates now." The agent replied

"Alright, keep tracking that ship, and get a team ready just in case." Solomon commanded

"Yes sir."

Valley near Sherman

Lance, Octus, and Illana have flown in the valley and are scanning the area from the sky.

"You guys see anything?" Lance asked

"Nothing." Illana replied.

"I am seeing nothing as we…" before Octus could continue however "Wait. Guys I found something, down there." He said as he pointed straight downward.

Lance and Illana stopped and continued to hover in the area, looking straight to where Octus was pointing.

"I don't see anything." Lance observed.

"That's because it's cloaked." Octus told him before firing an arc of electricity toward the ground. Before the bolt could make contact, it struck something. Electric surged around the object until the cloaking field completely vanished, revealing the Mutradi scout ship.

"Wow. Good eye Octus." Illana congratulated.

"Thank you." Octus replied before the three flew down to get a closer look at the ship.

Lance had his armor's guns primed and ready at the ship, Illana readied her armor's lasers as well. Octus took the time to scan the ship. Once his scan was complete, he told his friends what he found.

"There are no life-forms on board, and I am not scanning any traps or anything else." He told them.

"There's nothing on board? How's that possible?" Lance asked

"Was it on auto-pilot?" Illana asked as well

"No." Octus replied. "I am wirelessly accessing the security footage of the ship and am searching for anything useful. I believe I have now found something."

"That was quick." Illana observed.

"There were five Mutradi soldiers on board, and they recently left, each in a different direction." Octus relayed to his teammates.

"Can you make out which directions they went?" Lance asked

"Well, not exactly." Octus answered

"'Not exactly'? What does that mean?" Lance asked for clarification.

"I cannot pinpoint the Mutradi's exact locations, but I am reading five strange signals coming from the directions they traveled to. The signals appear to be moving and I cannot diagnose what they are."

"Where's the closest signal?" Illana asked.

"It is five miles due east of here." Octus answered. With that, they flew off into that direction.

Their conversation was monitored by an incoming G3 drop-ship with a team of G3 agents and Solomon. "Can you track those signals?" Solomon asked the pilot

"Yes sir." The pilot responded.

"Good. Locate the one furthest away and plot an intercept course." Solomon instructed before accessing his communication piece and contacting his base. "Control, track the remaining three signals and let me know what you find. Observe only, do not engage." He instructed before the ship set out to get the furthest signal.

Octus, Illana, and Lance had arrived at a Cliffside, the relative location of where Octus said the signal was.

"Well, Octus? Where to now?" Lance asked

"I am uncertain. The Signal is scrambling my instruments." Octus replied "I cannot locate it."

"Down there!" Illana stated. They all looked in the direction and saw a Mutradi climbing up the cliff. They all proceeded to fly towards it.

The Mutradi noticed them and activated his chest-plate, thus activating his jet pack and flying off, with the Princess, Corporal, and Robot in close pursuit.

"Don't kill it. We need answers from it." Illana instructed.

"Understood." Lance replied

"Got it." Octus answered

The three began their hot pursuit and were nearing close to the Mutradi; realizing how close they were getting, it pushed another button, causing the rockets to boost and thus flying at an even faster rate.

"It's getting away!" Lance observed.

With that, they activated their weapons in an attempt to neutralize the Mutradi. Rockets, lasers, bullets, and lighting arcs all blaster for it; but it was quick to avoid all of them relatively easily.

It had flown closer to the ground, with Team Titan continuing to try and shoot it. One of Illana's lasers was able to hit the jet pack.

Seeing that its jet pack had been damaged, the Mutradi pressed a button on its chest plate, causing the damaged jet pack to eject from the creature. The Jet pack then spun out of control upwards until it finally exploded.

The alien rolled on its landing and continued to run on its front and back legs.

The three heroes were able to catch up to the creature immediately and quickly surrounded it. With weapons primed and at the ready.

"You are surrounded. Surrender now and know harm will come to you." Illana said as she tried to reason with the beast.

The creature took out a small device, it activated it and a sudden flash exploded. This caused all of them to shield their eyes. When the light subsided, they creature was gone.

"It's gone?" Illana queried

"Octus!" Lance commanded, hopping Octus would be able to track the mysterious signal.

"The creature is still moving. Twenty meters north." Octus pointed. The team continued in pursuit.

Knowing his enemies would be upon him soon, the Mutradi ran as fast as he could. He finally got to the place he was supposed to be. He made it to a small Cliffside. He quickly took out a familiar box-like device, and placed it on the rock. He pressed the button on the center and it began to glow brightly.

The alien turned around and saw its enemies bearing upon him at an alarming rate. It didn't matter, his mission was accomplished.

"Death to all!" it shouted as an explosion erupted behind it, completely obliterating the alien.

The shockwave had knocked back our heroes some feet, but their armor had taken most of the pressure, and Octus couldn't feel pain. No permanent damage had come to them.

Once they got up, they wondered what had just happened.

"What just happened?" Illana asked

"It committed suicide." Octus observed

"But why?" Illana wondered

"It must have done what it need to do." Lance guessed as he and Illana deactivated their armor, Octus remained in his robot form knowing no need to use his hologram disguises.

They approached the mysterious device attached to the rock.

"This is the source of the signal." Octus told his friends. "Yet I cannot analyze it."

"Maybe we can…" Illana started as she reached for the box, but when she got close, an orange energy field appeared around it and shocked her.

"Illana, are you alright?" Lance asked

"Yes, I'm fine." Illana reassured.

"It appears to be some kind of defense" Octus mused "My scan indicates this flied is incredibly strong, we will not be able to break it."

"What can you tells us about this thing?" Lance asked

"That signal prevents me from scanning it, I have no idea what it is or its purpose. All I do know, is the signal is also being transmitted from four other locations." Octus relayed. "Also, I am now receiving a message from Solomon."

"Put him through." Illana instructed. Octus then opened communications

"Lance? Illana? Do you read me?" Solomon asked

"We read you. What is it?" Lance asked

"My team has just tracked a Mutradi soldier trying to plant a strange device. Did something like that happen from your end?" Solomon asked

Illana and Lance then began to tell what happened with their Mutradi. The scene shifts to a forest, where a G3 squad is setting up a small base of operations, with Solomon hearing what happened from his Galalunian allies.

"Would this device, happen to be shaped like a box with a red circle in the center? Surrounded by a small, impenetrable force-field?" Solomon asked, looking at said device attached to a tree.

"Yes." Illana answered with surprise in her voice. "How did you know?"

"Because I'm looking at it right now." Lance told her.

"What about the Mutradi who was carrying it?" Lance wondered

"It blew itself up two seconds after planting the device." Solomon relayed.

"Just like us." Octus compared.

"And you said, the device was transmitting a signal with four other signals correct?" Solomon queried

"Yep, that's it." Illana clarified

"I already have teams moving in to intercept those signals and see what they can find. I have a team here and we will continue to monitor things from this end." Solomon told them "You three, stay there and see what you can learn. If you find anything let me know. I'll try and do the same"

"Understood." Illana said before signing out.

The scene shifts back to Team Titan

"Sending scouts, planting devices; this isn't any type of Mutradi strategy" Lance observed

"I have searched through Galalunian military records for any similar strategy and have found nothing." Octus said "Even under Modula's charge I couldn't find anything."

Illana just stood and stared at the unknown device. "Just what are you up to?" she wondered.

Me: Well?

Mordecai: Very interesting.

Rigby: I'm surprised the other "Avengers" haven't shown up yet.

Me: During this time, Ben has just met Kim and Ron. Also; Illana, Lance, and Octus won't meet the other "Avengers" till later in the story. You'll see why.

Mordecai: Sounds like you have this thing well thought out.

Me: I've been waiting to get this whole project off the ground for some time now. I just hope many of the readers will enjoy it.