Sometime later, Ted, Shawn, and Erika find themselves in a new location. Maybe it was the next morning, or a couple of weeks later, or perhaps even earlier then they were. It can be hard to tell when time travel is involved. Curiously, the team is always rested and recovered at the beginning of every new mission. Anyway, they were now in a long, cold hallway. It was tall and narrow, the walls were metallic, and it was lit by lights along the floor.

"I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," Erika said rolling down her sleeves.

"Kansas City is in Missouri," Ted corrected.

"Yeah, I mean that wasn't the point of… *sigh* whatever."

"Guys," said Shawn, looking out of a high window that he was barely tall enough to see out of, "I don't think we're even on Earth anymore." Outside the window was the vast, empty expanse of space. They were on a massive space ship!

"So where are we then?" said Erika.

Ted read the wheel, "Universe 69P. After discovering the Omnitrix at a young age, Kasi Sharma was kidnapped by Vilgax, who intended to brainwash her into servitude. However, she escaped on an alien planet and was taken in by the Red Reavers… basically space pirates."

"So, what does that mean?"

"It means we have no idea where we are."

They looked around helplessly for a second, but then heard someone or something approaching from around a curve in the hallway. Since there was nowhere to hide, they had no choice but to stand their ground and face whoever it was.

Three figures appeared and were shocked and dumbfounded by the trio just standing there in the hallway. On the right was a stocky, scarred whale-looking guy armed with a rifle and wearing an electronic visor with crosshairs over one eye. On the left was a female Sotoraggian in brick red and peach-colored armor. In the middle, presumably the leader wore a tattered leather trench coat with metal pauldrons and knee pads. Her face was obscured by a mask.

"What the…" the leader said in a hushed tone, "What are humans doing on a Crymirian capital ship!?!"

"We're looking for Kasi Sharma," answered Shawn.

The leader gasped and pulled out a knife. "Where did you hear that name!?!" she demanded. Before they could answer, they were startled by the sound of someone else approaching. "Scratch that," she said, sheathing the knife, "Go with them, and keep your mouths shut!" She then pushed up one sleeve, exposing a pink Omnitrix, and transformed into Upgrade.

The trio followed the other two pirates to a seemingly random place in the hallway. The Sotoraggian tapped the wall, lighting up a key pad. Typing in a combination caused the wall to morph into a round doorway, which led to another hall. The five entered, and the door shrank except for enough room for a tiny camera on a stem attached to the Sotoraggian's armor. She projected what the camera could see onto the floor.

Kasi, as Upgrade, hid against the wall until a guard robot rounded the corner. She possessed it and turned to see a small battalion of robots following her lead. She stopped and said, "There is a security breach in the starboard maintenance hall! Apprehend the intruder on the double!" Without hesitation the other robots did an about face and ran back down the hallway the way they came from. When they were gone, Kasi caused the robot to turn its gun on itself. She came out of the robot, turned back into a human, and pulled a computer chip out of its head.

She returned to the group, handed the chip to the whale guy, and said, "Now it's only a matter of time before they find the guard, which means we have a deadline and should be moving."

"Kasi," Ted said.

She removed her hood and mask and pushed her goggles up on her forehead, revealing her face and a hot pink dyed streak in her hair, matching her Omnitrix. "I haven't used that name in years," she said seriously, "Nowadays, they call me Army, because I have the powers of an entire army."

The trio held up their own Omnitrixes, and Erika said, "We know all about it."

Kasi, or Army, was confused at first, but then shook her head and said, "Come with us, explain yourselves quietly, and if we say, 'Get down' or 'shut up', you do it."

The six crept down several hallways, stopping periodically to check rooms on each side, as Ted introduced them and tried to explain how they were sent by a time traveler from an alternate dimension to warn her about her future. Then, the pirates finally found the room they were looking for, one with a secured door on the back wall. The whale guy inserted the computer chip into a panel on the reinforced door and typed another combination of buttons.

"OneNine," Army instructed. The Sotoraggian opened the heavy door and slowly rolled in a smoke bomb, revealing a web of laser tripwires around a pedestal in the center of the room. "Barricade," she then said. The whale dude got down on one knee and aimed with his rifle. The shot ricocheted several times, taking out a few laser emitters, creating a clear path to the pedestal. Army and OneNine walked up to the object, an unassuming gray canister, and stuffed it into a leather bag.

Suddenly, four guard robots dropped down into the room from the ceiling, but before Army or the trio could even activate their watches, OneNine formed an energy blade on one arm and twirled around, taking down all four with quick precision. "Thank you, OneNine," Army said calmly, "Now we can get out of here!" Barricade pulled out a can of red spray paint and painted a stylized Omnitrix symbol on the wall of the safe room and then pulled the door closed.

"So," Army said as they continued down hallways in the ship, much faster now that they obtained their macguffin, "You wanna warn me about the future? Go ahead. I just hope it doesn't involve us getting caught!"

"According to Professor Paradox," Shawn explained, "…that's the time traveling guy we were talking about… the Red Reavers steal something called an Ectonurite Virus, which can apparently infect even inanimate objects. After you sell it to the highest bidder, it falls into the wrong hands and ends up infecting entire swathes of the galaxy."

Everyone stopped and Army turned around and said, "Did you say… highest bidder?"

"Uh…" Shawn replied, "I did, but I also said the galaxy gets infected. Did you miss that part?"

"Do you have any idea how much someone would pay for a galaxy threatening virus?" Army excitedly asked Barricade.

"I feel like you're learning the wrong lesson, here!" Erika said worriedly.

They came to a large door at the end of the hallway. OneNine and Barricade went to levers on each side of the door. Army said, "Brace yourselves," and they flipped the switches. Gravity suddenly lightened, lifting everyone into the air and then reversed, sending them plummeting into the ceiling, with was actually the floor. Apparently, they had been walking on the ceiling of the halls this hole time.

"That was trippy," Erika said as they rubbed their sore heads.

"Really?" replied Army, "You time traveled here from an alternate dimension, and artificial gravity confuses you?"

Beyond this door was a raised platform which went around the perimeter of a massive hangar filled with smaller ships. The hangar doors were open, and a forcefield maintained the air and pressure, but allowed the smaller ships to pass through. Outside, they could see that the ship they were on was headed toward an even bigger space station, the size of a small moon. It was shaped like three crescents joined at the thickest part, almost forming a sphere that was hollow in the middle.

OneNine hovered with her jetpack and kept watch, as Barricade rappelled down into the hangar.

When the coast was clear, she pressed a button on her armor and their own ship decloaked, prominently displaying across the wings the same symbol Barricade had spray painted on the wall.

"Army?" Ted asked apprehensively.

"Yeah, yeah, wrong hands," she brushed them off dismissively, "We'll do a background check on the buyer or something."

"We won't let you steal that virus!" he stated, threatening to transform.

"Won't let me?" she replied, "What are you, Plumbers?"

"Well, yes, actually," Ted answered, "I am a Plumber."

"Oh, really? Well, in that case…" Army said, but then she threw down a flashbang and turned into XLR8. With super speed, she ran down the wall into the hangar, and flipped a switch on a control panel, activating an alarm. Just as the trio were getting over the effects of the stun grenade, Army was boarding her ship, and it was taking off.

Shawn turned into Wildmutt and destroyed all the robot guards already in the hangar, as well as the alarm. Ted, as NRG, melted all the doors, fusing them closed and buying themselves some time before any more guards or the ship's alien owners could appear. Erika, as Spider-Monkey, webbed up the Red Reavers' ship, but only managed to slow it down momentarily, before it broke loose and sped away into space.

"Why'd you have to tell them you were a Plumber!?!" shouted Shawn, now human again. "Say, you're not a robber are you?" he added sarcastically, "Cause we're the cops!"

"What do we do now?" said Ted, "Commandeer a ship? Can either of you fly a space ship?"

"They got away," Erika replied, "They could be anywhere by now, AND they're still going to steal the virus!"

After feeling defeated for a moment and hearing the ship's crew begin pounding on the sealed doors, Shawn looked at the other ships in the hangar and then at the space station they were headed toward. "Guys, I think I have a plan," he announced, "But you're not gonna like it. Well… Erika might. It involves lying."

-- -- --

When the capital ship docked at the massive space station, the three snuck out of the hangar as their stealthiest aliens; Nanomech, Chamalien, and Ghost Freak, through an airlock, and into the station. Inside, very reminiscent of Undertown, aliens of every species imaginable walked around browsing shops and stalls set up in rows. Some purchased products small enough to fit in a pocket, while others loaded numerous crates onto hovering carts.

"This is a place of commerce," said Ted, "And based on the fact that the Plumbers don't even know it exists, I'd say it's a black market." After seeing one robotic giraffe guy beat up a purple broccoli dude in a dark alley, and steal his stuff, Ted added, "A shady one, at that."

"That's good," said Shawn, as they walked the rows, "One, because that's exactly what we need for my plan to work, and two, it means I was right! I noticed that the Red Reavers ship was all sleek and sharp, and it had guns and stuff, but most of the other ships in the hangar were just kinda square. I figured they were for hauling packages, so they must have been going someplace to buy and sell stuff, and I was right!"

"Very good, Shawn," said Ted, genuinely impressed, "but what is this plan of yours?"

They stopped at a stall against a metallic wall close to a currency exchanger. Shawn then grabbed one of the two cockroach-looking dudes running it and said, "Beat it, Bug Breath! This is our stall now!"

"What are you doing!?!" shouted Ted.

"Setting up shop," Shawn answered.

"You heard the man," Erika joined in, just for the fun of it, "Get lost, Roachy!"

Shawn took down the sign from above the stall, flipped it to the blank side, and began scratching words into it with a rock. "I'll explain in a minute," he assured.

Ted read the new sign, "Hat Repair?"

"Well we don't want actual customers, do we?" replied Shawn, "Actually… this may not be enough." He added a couple more words.

"Rich Guy's Hat Repair?"

"Right, because if I'm a rich guy, it must mean I charge a lot to repair hats."

"Well then, shouldn't it say Expensive Hat Repair?"

"Ooh!" added Erika, "I know what you should put! Modiste! That's a guy who makes women's hats!" Shawn added it in parenthesis at the bottom of the sign.

"That spells modest," said Ted, "It says, 'I'm rich, but I don't like to brag about it.'"

"Whatever, man!" Shawn replied, "It's not the business that matters, it's what gets told about it. Lying, remember?" He put up the sign and stepped inside. Soon, an alien who looked like a miniature hippo walked by and held up a device kind of like a phone that translated the sign into his own language. He gave Shawn a weird look, no doubt thinking, "What an awful business model!" He walked away, and Shawn gave Ted and Erika a thumbs up.

Later, after finally filling in Ted and Erika to his plan, Shawn, as an Upchuck, sat in the stall, pretending to wait for customers. Then, Erika approached as a Juryrigg,and sat on a bench next to a blobby green alien and within earshot of several waiting in line at the currency exchanger.

"What happened to the divorce lawyers who used to be there?" the blob asked pointing at Shawn's stall.

"Uh…" Erika answered, "They split."

Then, Ted, as Eatle, came up from another direction wearing an absurd alien hat and started talking to Shawn.

"What!?!" Ted suddenly shouted in an over-the-top accent, getting everyone's attention, "Why, this price is simply outrageous!"

"I understand that you're upset, sir, but I…"

"Upset!?! This is exorbitant! It's egregious! It isn't MODEST at all!"

"Look pal, if you don't like my prices, then you can hit the road!"

Ted stormed off angrily, mumbling, "Unconscionable prices for hat repair, I say!"

"That business won't last long," the blob next to Erika muttered.

"You know what I heard?" she replied, "I heard the whole hat repair thing is just a front for something much bigger, like a smuggling operation!"

"Really?" the blob asked.

Discretely making sure that everyone was paying attention, Erika said, "Yeah, and I heard they move some super high value targets, like, uh, like an Ectonurite Virus." The crowd started whispering among themselves. "Also," she added, "I heard he wets the bed!"

-- -- --

That night, the trio have been taking turns manning the stall as an Upchuck, but they're beginning to lose hope in Shawn's plan. That is, until they were approached by two intimidating new figures. One was a bipedal crocodile, and the other was a Swampfire with a tattoo of the Red Reavers symbol carved into one bicep. Shawn was in the stall at the time.

They stood there menacingly, but said nothing, until Shawn asked, "Can I help you gentlemen?"

"Are you the bed wetter who has the Ectonurite Virus?"

Erika was out of sight, but they heard her chuckle mischievously. "Uh," Shawn stalled, "Do you have a hat that needs repairing or not?"

"What do we do now?" Ted whispered frantically to Erika, "The plan was for Army herself to investigate the rumors, not send two lackeys!"

"We know what this is, Gourmand," the Swampfire guy threatened, forming a fireball in one hand, "Hand it over, or you'll have a bad case of heartburn!"

"Listen Gassy," Shawn replied, "I don't take well to…"

"Hey Boss!" Ted interrupted. He was an Ampfibian holding a canister of some liquid glowing bright blue. "Where do you want me to set this… uh… whoops."

"Get him!" the crocodile growled.

Ted shrieked and tossed the canister into the air. The Swampfire stretched one arm to catch it before it hit the ground. As he breathed a sigh of relief, the other said, "We've got it, now let's get out of here!" They took off running.

Ted as the Ampfibian, Erika as a Snare-Oh, and Shawn now a Rath gave chase, but struggled to keep up with the two pirates weaving their way between crowds and stalls.

"Let me tell you something, Ted Colton!" Shawn roared, "That was some good improvising! I didn't know you had it in you!"

Erika swung from pipes like a monkey above them. When on pipe happened to break loose, she hurled it at a stack of wooden creates in front of the pirates. It collapsed, at they halted for a moment. "They're after us!" the Swampfire said, dodging a lightening blast from Ted. The croc smashed someone's cart selling what looked like cabbages, and they took off in a new direction. This narrower path had low-hanging lanterns strung across the gap. The Swampfire set them ablaze and kept running.

Ted phased right through, but Shawn got draped with the burning cords. "Fire makes me angry!" he bellowed.

This path came out at a road, busy with transport vehicles speeding back and forth. The Swampfire, the croc, and Erika made it across by dodging traffic, but when Ted tried to phase through one large hovering truck, it caused the electronics to short out, which led to it jackknifing and causing a pile up! The civilians screamed in terror when they saw a flaming Appoplexian bounding from hood to hood of the vehicles.

The two pirates vaulted over a short wall just beyond the road, and were followed by the trio, but on the other side of the wall was a huge drop! "Falling makes me…" SLAM! They landed with a cloud of dust on the roof of a building. The two jumped from roof to roof and finally reached an alcove in the giant metal hull of the station, climbing in, and vanishing.

When the trio caught up, Erika said, "What is this? A trash chute?"

"Let me tell you something, Erika Chae!" Shawn roared, "Shawn is not going down a trash…" She grabbed him with her bandage-like appendages and tossed him in, then she and Ted jumped in after him.

-- -- --

The Swampfire and the crocodile stood in the center of a big, dimly lit room with the Red Reavers symbol painted on the floor. They tried to explain how they stole the virus sample from the shop owner and were chased there, when Ted, Shawn, and Erika, all humans again, came sliding into them, bowling them down like pins. The glowing blue canister rolled to someone's feet in a large chair and was picked up by Army. She stepped into the light and read the label, which had been purposefully crumpled up toward the lid.

She then opened it and took a large swig. The pirates gasped. "It's an energy drink, you morons!" The trio stood up, and Army said, "And as for you…" Dozens of pirates stepped into the light, completely surrounding them. There were aliens of all different species, and most were armed with some type of high tech weapon. "… do you still think you can stop us?"

"I know we'll try," Ted answered, as he, Shawn, and Erika readied their Omnitrixes.

"Well, let me ask you this," Army countered, "What has my galaxy done for you, to make it worth going to so much trouble to save?"

"Nothing," Ted answered.

"If anything," added Erika, "It's been a huge pain."

"But innocent people are going to get hurt," continued Ted, "and if there's a chance we can prevent that, we're going to take it."

After contemplating for a moment, Army said, "So you really are doing good, just for the sake of goodness?"

"I guess so," said Shawn.

"Then, I'll make a deal with you." She finally admitted, "We won't go after the virus as long as you three help us steal something of equal… no… greater value. And I already have something in mind!"

-- -- --

Later that same night, Army, OneNine, Barricade, Ted, Shawn, and Erika are in the Red Reavers ship on the outer hull of the space station, which they later learned was called the Tumbleweed. OneNine pressed some buttons on the ship and pulled up a holographic diagram, and Army explained the plan. "We enter here and go along this shaft, until we reach this, a conference room. Under the table is a vault which contains this…" The diagram zoomed in to show the target. "… the Biot-Savartian Stone."

"Is it some kind of a jewel?" asked Shawn.

"No," Army answered, "It's kind of a long story. You see, when placed between two pieces of a rare mineral called Ruginite, the stone vibrates at a very specific frequency which is very destructive to metal, almost like an anti-metal energy. And well, there's this crime boss who made some orbs out of Ruginite and uses the Stone to fill them with anti-metal energy. As you can imagine, an unlimited supply of anti-metal bombs is pretty effective at extortion. He has all of the Tumbleweed under his fat, ugly thumb."

"Let me guess," said Erika, "This crime boss is a rival of yours."

"There's a reason we hang out at the bottom of the trash chute, and not in the penthouses."

"So, long story short," Ted summarized, "You want us to help you steal the bomb maker from your criminal rival."

"The thing is," said Barricade with a deep Kiwi accent, "When the Biot-Savartian Stone is separated from the two pieces of Ruginite, it can never be charged up again. It becomes useless."

"Wait," said Ted, "So does that mean… this is a good for the sake of goodness thing?"

"Of course not," Army replied, "I just can't, you know, put my men in danger for something that yields no financial return. It's cause you're expendable."

"Sure it is," Ted said sarcastically, instead choosing to believe Army was doing this because she wanted to save the station and put an end to the extortion.

The ship formed a cylindrical forcefield from it's hatch to the hull of the Tumbleweed. Barricade, wearing a pressurized space suit, used a torch to cut a hole, and then some sort of high tech wand to deactivate the backup shield. Once the pressure and oxygen had equalized, the rest leapt into the hull. As they moved through the tunnel, Erika said, "Nobody should be in the conference room this time of the night, right?"

They came to a glass floor. Without answering Barricade smacked it with the stock of his rifle and all six plunged through. They landed amid a shower of glass on top of the table surrounded by the big, fat crime boss and all the higher ups in his gang. They were all Dittos. "We've been had!" the boss shouted.

Immediately, an all-out brawl erupted between the sharply dressed Ditto mobsters, who couldn't do much damage individually, and the squad; OneNine, Barricade, Army as Ball Weevil, Ted as Bloxx, Shawn as Whampire, and Erika as Overflow. The dittos were easy to defeat, but they just kept coming.

After a while, the three wondered if Army had tricked them into simply beating up her enemies for her, but then the crime boss suddenly shouted, "HOLD IT!!!" in such a commanding tone that everyone froze in place. "Were there not six of yous when you come barging in? One… two… tree… four… five…" He then panicked and overthrew the large table.

At some point during the fracas, Army had transformed into a Grey Matter, picked the lock to get into the vault under the table, and grabbed a hold of the Biot-Savartian Stone. They found her just in time to see her yank it free from it's magnetic holders between the two bars of Ruginite, permanently destroying their means of fear and control over the station. The big boss fainted with a thud, and the rest screamed and ran around in circles before fleeing the conference room.

Army, Ted, Shawn, and Erika turned back into humans. "Well," Army said with a smile, glancing at the rather unimpressive stone, "We did it."

"The Tumbleweed doesn't have to fear anymore," said Ted, "and it's all thanks to you."

"They can go about their shady black market business deals in peace!" chuckled Erika.

"You know what?" Army admitted turning to OneNine and Barricade, "They're right. As good as it feels to steal from innocents, it feels even better to steal from bad guys. Good for the sake of goodness, right?"

"I guess," said Shawn.

"Well then, we should probably give this back," said Army. OneNine handed them the wheel, which they hadn't even realized had gone missing.

"Wait a minute," said Shawn, "this means… if my plan hadn't worked… we would have been stuck here… forever."

The three grabbed the handles quickly, and Ted said, "Let's get outta here!"

-- -- --