Chapter 1: The Accident

This story was inspired by a video I found on YouTube titled "HEROES UNITED: CORONAVIRUS," which I would advise watching, if you haven't seen it. It's really good.

And to all the doctors and nurses that have been, and still are, out there battling COVID-19 on the front lines: Thank you.

Chemical concoctions bubbled in their glass containers as the yellow Poipole scanned her notes. Sticky was busy at work, she just needed a few more ingredients and it would be ready.

She had been at it for months now. The Ultra Guardians had been working around the clock to create a treatment for a new kind of virus that had surfaced in Ultra Megalopolis quite unexpectedly. They called it the Cholegio virus.

When word had gotten around about a vaccine that had been invented to counteract the disease, the Ultra Guardians went to work producing the medicine, not just for themselves, but for everybody who needed it. Creatures all over the Multiverse were getting sick, and it was their duty to save them. Because this virus was not just any ordinary illness; the microscopic cells were far more sturdy than anyone would have thought. The virus wasn't something that was brand-new, it had mutated and evolved over time, becoming stronger and more resistant to traditional medicines that were used to counter the flu.

Yes, the Cholegio virus was a force to be reckoned with. But the residents of the Multiverse didn't plan on going out without a fight.

It was the Ultra Guardians' lunch break, but the Ultra Megalopolis Labs weren't completely empty - there were still two Ultra Beasts at work.

A white, semi-translucent jellyfish Pokémon floated in the air behind Sticky as she mixed the last few chemicals into a proportionately-sized glass beaker.

"Just one last vaccine," the yellow Poipole promised. "And then we can go have lunch at McDonald's. You heard about that new burger, right?"

If Nihilego had eyes, Symbiont would have rolled them. "Of course. Who hasn't heard of the McGuffin? That Glutton the Guzzlord will do anything to try and satisfy his unsatiable appetite."

"Why else would we still offer the Super Size option?" was Sticky's rhetorical question. She stirred the mixture a few more times, to make sure all of the soluble chemicals had dissolved. "There, I think that should do it."

She reached for a syringe, but she bumped some of the beakers that contained several unstable isotopes. They tipped over, and the Shiny Poipole threw herself back to avoid getting splashed.

"Uh-oh," Sticky whispered to herself as she watched the liquid spill across the tabletop, along with one of a few petri dishes containing Cholegio virus cells for the vaccines. Sticky grabbed the nearest cloth she could find and started wiping up the mess. Once she was sure there wasn't any trace of it left, she grabbed the contaminated petri dish and placed it under her microscope. She gulped nervously as she peered through the lens.

Besides a few twitches and quivers from the cells, nothing really happened.

Sticky sighed, "Well, the good news is we can break for lunch."

"What happened?" Symbiont asked.

Sticky shrugged. "Nothing, at least not yet. But I'll check on it again when we get back."

Had the two hovering Ultra Beasts stayed in the room just a moment longer, they would have seen the Cholegio virus cells contaminated by the unstable isotopes merge together and start to grow several times their normal size.

The day had started out normal enough for Team Go-Getters. It was only a week since their dare war with the Monster Riders, which was the most fun they'd had in quite a while. It didn't really matter to them who had won, they'd all had a good time, that's what counted.

They were all outside, just ten feet away from the front door of their living quarters, which was not unlike the one they'd been living in during the dare war. Hiccup and Toothless had been awake since early morning, as per the Night Fury's morning flight routine, which was something Hiccup had stopped complaining about since the first winter holiday they'd spent after the Viking-Dragon War had ended. The events of the dare war were still pretty fresh in the young trainer's mind, and he personally doubted he'd ever be able to forget it.

"Honestly," he was saying, "I never would have imagined riding on a Gore Magala."

"Well, Magalas don't exist in this universe," said Adhesive, "So of course you never would have thought of that."

"For what it's worth, I'll bet your counterpart never imagined he'd ever ride a Night Fury," Brandyn chuckled. After a minute, he added, "And I never imagined I'd ever ride a Tigrex and a Diablos."

"Snarl and Twinhorn are good monsters," Snivels said, "They just picked up a few things from their riders after spending so much time with them. Once you get on their good side, there's nothing they won't do for you."

Astrid snickered. "It was pretty entertaining to see Brandyn flying around screaming like a little girl."

"The same way it was entertaining to see you wear a dress to the academy?" asked a smirking Blaze.

The blonde girl's face instantly went red with embarrassment and rage. She glared daggers at the Blaziken and said through gritted teeth, "I thought we agreed to never speak of it again!"

Hiccup tried to maintain the peace. "It really wasn't that bad, to be honest..." he trailed off as his wife turned to glare at him. His stomach did a nervous flip-flop when she smirked devilishly.

"Alright," she said, "Since we're on the topic of Go-Getters getting embarrassed by certain dares, how about the time Snaketail stole you and your counterpart's prosthetics and made you two hop all the way to the academy to get them back?"

It took every ounce of willpower Snivels had to not burst out laughing at the memory. He may not have liked her very much, but he had to give Alvin's daughter credit for pulling that one off. After choking down his amusement, he asked, "Or when Blaze had to spend an hour in a water-filled bathtub?"

The Blaziken quickly retaliated with, "What about when Snivels drank a mug of mead and started blabbering on about whatever popped into his head?"

The Servine immediately turned around to hide his blushing face.

At that moment, only Ninjark showed him any empathy. "Hey, if you think that was bad, you should try sticking your whole hand in an active beehive!" He held up his right hand and stared at it. "Am I ever lucky I only got stung once. I was afraid the swelling would never go down."

"I'll tell you what was really hilarious," Heather said, trying and failing to keep a straight face. "Snotlout paddling across the cove in a bathtub with his underpants on his head!"

That memory made everyone burst out laughing, including the dragons.

It went on like that for a good couple of hours - embarrassed blushes, devilish smirks and lots of good laughs.

"You know what the best part was?" Snivels said after the conversation had reached a lull in the excitement.

"Brandyn's dare-induced proposal?" asked Heather, smiling down at the diamond-studded silver band wrapped around her left ring finger.

"I was going to say all of the fun we had," said the Servine, "But, yeah, that works, too."

Sonata the Siren dragonet wriggled out of Heather's jacket and launched herself into Brandyn's arms. "Papa!" she squealed.

"That's right, little song," Brandyn said, smiling like a fool, "I'm gonna be your daddy."

The moment was interrupted by Adhesive's cell phone ringing. He answered it, and an image of Sticky's smiling face appeared on FaceTime.

"Hey, Ad," she said cheerfully, "I'm getting lunch, you want anything?"

"No, thanks," he politely declined. "How's Stegoraptor doing?"

Stegoraptor was the Dracozolt that had hatched from the egg Sticky made with her Fossil Fuser. The Shiny Poipole had originally intended to introduce them to the Velozolt and Dracostego in the Sanctuary dimension, but since the poor misshapen creature couldn't figure out which group they belonged with, she decided to take them in as a pet.

"They're doing great!" Sticky exclaimed. "They mastered Aerial Ace just last week! And the new Fossil Reviver is coming along nicely."

"Cool," Adhesive said, "So, how are the vaccines coming along?"

"Very successful," Sticky replied, smiling victoriously. "The results are a lot better than we would have hoped. We're still cautiously optimistic, though. Anything can happen."

Smiling at his girlfriend's optimism and determination, Adhesive said, "Well, there's no Cholegio virus in the age of Vikings, so you could stop by and hang out with us if you want to. You could probably use a little break from the Multiversal pandemic."

"You know I'd love to," she said, "And at any other time, I would, but we can't risk spreading the disease."

Adhesive nodding in understanding. "Right. Good call."

Curious, Hiccup walked up and asked, "What are you guys talking about?"

"Hey!" Sticky's eyes lit up when she saw the male half of the Haddock-Hofferson couple walk into view. Then she started singing, "Chop chop chop! Chop away at -"

Adhesive let out a frightened, and very undignified, high-pitched shriek as he hastily pressed the 'end call' button and hugged the phone to his body. In the five seconds of awkward silence that followed, the Poipole looked around at all of his friends and discovered that they were all staring at him in confusion.

"What was that about?" asked a very suspicious Astrid.

Nervously, Adhesive stammered, "Oh. I, uh, you know, chops. Maybe she's having chopped salad. I love chopped salad. Do you guys like chopped salad? I can't get enough chopped salad. I'm gonna go get some chopped salad. Anyone else?"

He was hiding something. And, Astrid being Astrid, she was going to find out what it was. She'd already found Hiccup training a Night Fury, there couldn't possibly be anything more surprising and life-changing than that.

...Right?

The morning started out normal, too, in the Monsters of Berk timeline. At least, that's how it was according to Ratha.

The one-eyed Rathling had grown to Stoick's height now, but was nowhere near as stubborn and pain-in-the-butt-y as the Viking chief. Rathi, who was just the tiniest bit smaller than her male companion, was the more aggressive of the two.

Let me put it this way - imagine Hiccup and Astrid as a Rathalos and a Rathian, respectively. That's Ratha and Rathi for you.

The juvenile Rathling stretched himself awake, his one remaining eye fluttering open to meet the early morning sun's rays. He gazed down at Rathi's sleeping form, which was outlined beautifully in the light.

Something nudged Ratha from behind, and he turned around. As he expected, Swift the Nargacuga was sitting there, her tail curled around her paws. The Flying Wyvern had been looking after him and Rathi as a motherly figure, but neither Ratha nor Rathi thought to refer to her as such. The male Rathling preferred having the female Rathling as a potential mate than a sibling.

The Nargacuga heard something behind her and whirled around. She raised her whip-like tail, and there was an audible *ching!* as her spikes sprang out.

The pint-sized intruder gulped audibly and declared, "Nope, too spiky."

Swift fired her spines at the boy, but he ducked under a log and avoided them. She screeched a warning at him as he retreated into the forest.

Ratha and Rathi had no mothers of their own, so Swift was dedicated to raising them like the children she'd lost barely a year ago. Usually, monsters preferred to avoid adopting orphans outside their species, for such an action was deemed unnatural. But certain animal mothers who'd lost their offspring would occasionally attempt to fill in the gap by taking in babies that needed a parent to look after them, regardless of whether or not they were the same species.

And that included some monsters, apparently.

The noise Swift was making woke Rathi, who stretched and yawned. Her spikes were shining like polished jewels in the morning light, her sharp predatory eyes gleaming like two lights in a dark room.

Ratha didn't know how long he sat there staring at her, but it must have been a while, because when he came to his senses, he saw that Swift had dropped a very large slab of Bullfango meat at his and Rathi's talons.

Rathi was perfect in every way. Not like him. Who would want to mate with a Rathalos that had only one eye? A monster that lacked depth perception would be a liability, they couldn't hunt or fly or even walk efficiently. Ratha was learning, he was desperate to adjust to his handicap, but would it be enough for Rathi? She deserved the best.

He wasn't the best.

"R-Rathi?" he growled.

She looked up at him, pausing in mid-chomp, having been digging in to their breakfast while he was distracted. Bits of Bullfango meat were stuck between her teeth.

"What?" she snapped. She didn't mean to sound mad, but she was hungry, and she didn't like being interrupted while she was eating.

He hesitated, then crooned, "Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did," she snorted.

"A personal one," he clarified.

She swallowed the meat in her mouth. "Okay, fine. What is it?"

Ratha lowered himself into a submissive pose, in case she were to turn hostile. "D-do you like me?"

Rathi didn't answer for the longest time. After a couple minutes of silence, Ratha tensed a little as he prepared to turn and run from an angry Rathling.

"Of course I like you," Rathi finally growled. "You're my best friend."

Best friend.

That's all he was.

That's all he would ever be.

"Thanks," he grumbled out. Then he lowered his head and sank his teeth into their breakfast.

...we'll meet again someday.

Ratha's head shot up. He remembered those words, somehow.

Until then, promise me you'll stay strong, okay?

He made a promise. But to who? Did it have something to do with the strange dreams he'd been having since he'd met Rathi and Swift?

Come to think of it, he didn't at all remember how he'd met Rathi and Swift. Or how he'd lost sight in his left eye, for that matter. Odd, right?

Maybe Rathi is having these dreams, too? he wondered. I should ask her. Later, when she's full and happy.

Swift sat off on the side, eating her own half of the Bullfango she'd caught. Her sharp ears caught Ratha and Rathi's conversation, and she crooned, "Poor little wyvern."

Back in the lab where Sticky had been working on the Cholegio virus vaccines, something was growing.

All it ever knew was the tiny, unseen world in which it thrived. It had no regard for the giants that couldn't see it with the naked eye. But that was about to change, because now it had an edge like nothing it or any others of its kind had ever had before.

It had no brain, so it couldn't process exactly what was happening. All it knew was that it was growing, changing, mutating. As big as a golf ball, then a baseball, then a soccer ball. Its grayish-blue surface glistened slightly, and dozens of circular spike protrusions stuck out all over its spherical body.

It quivered, and three bulges poked out from one side. Then three more bulges started popping up on the opposite side.

It fell off the table, taking the microscope with it. The scope crashed and broke on the floor. When the larger-than-ever cell made an impact of its own upon the flat surface, something gave way.

Six long, insectoid limbs erupted from its sides, their pointy ends slipping on the smooth surface of the lab floor.

It had no eyes, but it could sense where it was. A large empty space, with countless unliving objects occupying the room. It needed to find someplace safe where it could continue to grow and develop, and it needed to find something alive, something that could house others of its kind.

Survive.

Thrive.

Multiply.

Those were the only things the mutant virus cell ever knew.

I wanted to include the Monster Riders in this, but I decided to instead shift focus to a potentially forgotten character (well, actually three).

Oh, and if you want to know what Sticky's singing about, I would suggest looking on my YouTube channel (same name as my user name on this site).

Reviews are appreciated.