Hey, so! Gonna try this out. Releasing parts of a chapter. This is like 40 pages in total, so some larger ones may be split and released bi-weekly. I think it'll help the views.

Anyways, here's your chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5

The shooting star landed on the ground- despite the narrator's apt description, this was not a star. It was actually an alien cargo ship, and it had stopped to fix a 'flat'.

"Damn Cerebromorph engines. Always so finicky..." The alien driver said, hopping out of the ship. He had a spare engine in the back of his cargo, and it was a quick fix.

He went around to the cargo bay and opened up the loading ramp. He was so fixated on getting that spare engine out and installed that he didn't notice a green and black metallic blob slithering out from the hold. The pilot sifted around the cargo bay until he managed to find the spare, tapping it on the side before hauling it out and starting repairs.

The blob, meanwhile, slithered away from the crash site and made its way towards civilization. It wasn't following anything specific at first, just looking for the highest concentration of technology. Then, a notification filled its vision. A familiar signal got its attention and it was so happy to see it! That signal meant "friend!" And "friend" meant "safety!"

With a goal set, the little creature made a beeline for the source of the signal.

It was three weeks until the finals at UA. The end of June was approaching fast, and that looming threat of dread hung over Class 1-A's head like the Sword of Damocles. Always start studying for final exams at least a month before the week of finals. You won't have to hustle to fit everything in when your examinations get closer.

...I know I'm a narrator, and it's weird that I'm saying that. But that advice would've been very useful to two of Class 1-A's dumbest students.

"I haven't...studied...at all..." Kaminari said, hands trembling as he admitted the horrid truth. His grades hadn't improved, and he had a very low GPA across all of his classes. Out of the 20 students in class...his grades were at rock bottom.

"Pfft, me neither." Mina scoffed. She seemed unbothered. She too had a very poor report card, and she was a place BEFORE rock bottom.

"And you're calm about it?!" Kaminari asked, "How?! Aren't you like, just slightly better than me in grades? Which isn't much?!"

"Well, I was stressed. But that's looped around so much, I've gone back to feeling not stressed about it." Mina said. "I'm sure it'll hit me by the end of the week. THEN I can panic."

"That's no way to live." Tokoyami said. He was comparing his notes with Iida's own. While Tokoyami seemed smart, his grades were shockingly below average. He was just one place (14th) above the bottom five students in Class 1-A.

"Yeah, but I'm still standing." Mina shrugged.

"How does being stressed loop around to not being stressed in the first place?" Tohru asked. The invisible girl had to stifle a yawn after asking, though. She knew her grades weren't doing the best right now and she had a singular drive in her to improve her. She'd pulled her third all nighter yesterday, studying and doing all she could to improve her grades.

"Did...did you pull an all-nighter?" Kaminari asked.

"Uh...maybe?"

"How are YOU awake right now?" Mina asked. "That can't be good for your health."

"I have a WEIRD sleep schedule." Tooru retorted. "Plus, being invisible means no one can see how awful I look. That includes me."

"You...could just ask for some help. I'd be more than happy to," Momo offered. If there was anyone who shouldn't be worried about the looming finals, it was Momo. She had the highest grades of the class, surpassing even Iida.

"I wouldn't mind that, honestly," Sato said. "Midterms were...well, since we didn't cover much at the start of the semester, they weren't tough. But after everything else...I'm having trouble recalling everything from all of our classes." His ranking in the class was decent, somewhere in the "average B/C+ student" range.

"Sucks that there's gonna be a practical exam, too." Mineta frowned. While he showed promise at the start of the semester, his ranking had steadily dropped. A month ago, he would've been 9 or 10th in grades. But that had been co-opted by...Mineta activities. Now he was 13th.

"I would HIGHLY recommend Momo," Ochako said. "She saved me from my academic probation!" It was true. Ochako was getting higher grades now- her Ds and Cs slowly turned into higher Cs and high Bs, and even a bonus A grade. She was 10th place in grades.

...Ochako had a feeling the number '10' would be haunting her for a LONG while. Like Todoroki and the number 2.

"Maybe I should take you up on that offer," Toru admitted.

"Momo's not the only help you can get," Izuku said, stepping forward. "I really wanna make sure everyone can go on that trip to the training camp, so I'm willing to help anyone study." Izuku was one of the top 5 in grades- high As and high Bs across all of his classes.

"As do I! As class rep, I am also willing to help anyone who needs it!" Iida said, again with his empathic arm waves. He was second to Momo in grades, a fun inversion of their president-vice president dynamic.

"Thanks guys," Toru invisibly smiled, before she had to stifle another yawn, "...really regretting the all-nighter now..."

"I...am also willing to help." Todoroki said. The 5th in terms of grades, he was a good student. Just a bit quiet. Those missing points were mainly due to a 'lack of participation'.

"Wow, four of the smartest students are offering their help?" Sero (ranked near the bottom) said. He looked very relieved. "Sign me up."

"Yeah, sign me up, too," Toru chimed in.

"How many are you good with tutoring for this?" Kaminari chuckled nervously a bit.

"We can split up, if it helps." Todoroki said. "I say we all have rotating groups."

"That works- since 4 of us are offering tutoring, we can divide into groups of 4." Iida hummed. "That should work-"

"Nah."

Everyone looked over to Bakugou. Ranking 3rd in grades, Bakugou was hyper aggressive with grades. While his test papers were often messy with work, he always got high marks.

"Count me out of it," Bakugou said, grabbing his bag.

"Not...really that surprised. I mean...if anything you should be the one tutoring," Toru said.

"Do I look the type?" Bakugou threw back.

"Which is why I said 'not really surprised.'"

"Aw, come on, Bakugou." Kirishima (also a low ranking grader) frowned. "You gotta at least help out in SOME way. You're smarter than we give you credit for."

"What the hell is THAT supposed to mean?" Bakugou frowned. "You think I'm dumb!?"

"No, not really- hell, I'm the dumb one because of my grades." Kirishima admitted.

"...how well would Bakugou even do a-" Toru began, before Kaminari covered her mouth.

"Ahaha, ignore her, she's sleep-deprived!" the electric Quirk user said, covering for the invisible girl.

"He is gonna blow something up if you finish that, I just know it," Kamiari whispered to Toru.

"You know what!? Fine. I'll fucking help." Bakugou grabbed Kirishima's collar, and began to drag him out. "I'll show you how good at this shit I am. I'll make Kirishima get the highest fucking marks just to spite all of you!"

Kirishima didn't even flinch. "Welp. See you guys tomorrow!"

"...or he could...do that," Tokoyami said, watching Bakugou drag his classmate away.

"...Iiiiiii dodged a bullet there, didn't I?" Toru asked, the realization hitting her.

"Big time," Mina said.

"Please...stop me from ever pulling an all-nighter ever again."

"Let's stay on campus for today," Todoroki said. "So we can communicate properly with one another, just in case. Then, we can line up further plans and rotations."

"Wow, you're serious about this." Ojiro noted.

"Is there a reason not to be?" Todoroki asked. He might have meant that genuinely or not, it was never easy to tell with him.

"I mean, it is our grades on the line." Ojiro was 8th in terms of grading. Not good, not bad, pretty average.

"And I'm dying to go to this training camp. Rumor has it we'll be working with some serious pros." Jirou said. She was a place above Ojiro, at 7th.

"Oh, have they said who yet?" Ochako chimed in.

"Don't think so. Just that they're some of the most popular."

"As to determine the study groups, we'll draw straws." Iida said. "...which, it occurs to me, that we don't have any."

Momo stifled a laugh. "Here." She created a group of 14 straws from her arm. "These straws have a random number on it, from 1 to 4. Since there's 14 of us, the groups will mostly be in 3s, with one group of 4."

"Let chance decide? Alright," Toru yawned, "Why not?" The invisible girl drew a straw, followed by Kaminari and Mina.

The class soon grabbed their straws, and everyone was pretty satisfied with their results. Ochako was in group 1, with Jirou, Tsu and Tokoyami.

"Alright, I'm good with this group." Ochako grinned.

Shoji, Satou, and Mina were in the second group and the third was composed of Ojiro, Toru and Yuga. Rounding up the different groups was the fourth, made up of Kaminari, Denki. Mineta and Koda.

Mineta seemed pretty bummed about his grouping. "Here I thought I'd luck out and get in an all girls group."

Oh, thank God, Momo thought. She was endlessly thankful for whatever God of Luck smiled on her.

"I can handle group one," Todoroki volunteered, walking over to Ochako's group.

"Then I will handle group four!" Iida said, volunteering himself to deal with Mineta.

"Aw, come on!" Mineta whined. "I wanna work with Momo..."

"You'll have your chance!" Iida said.

"I guess I'll take Ojiro's group." Izuku said. "Hope you guys have notes to compare, because I'm not just going to let you guys copy off mine."

"Pfft, of course we have notes!" Toru said, before sheepishly adding on, "But uh...quality might...differ." She was mostly referring to herself there.

"Mmmm~. I hope my work is...stunning..." Yuga said, holding up a notebook with fancy cursive notes. Izuku squinted as he took a glance at it.

"...do you use glitter pens?" Izuku asked. "Doesn't that get points taken off your exam?"

"A high price to pay, but a fun one~" Yuga grinned.

"More recent stuff uh...might not be the neatest given...y'know," Toru admitted, pinning most of the blame on her lack of sleep.

"Can't be that bad," Izuku said, trying to give her some hope.

Toru handed the freckled boy her notebook- it was a pretty dog eared and wrecked by her backpack. Izuku opened it...and found a LOT of gibberish and other strange writings inside. It felt as if he had opened one of Lucky Girl's tomes.

"How sleep deprived are you, Tooru?" Izuku asked, concerned.

"Don't...ask me a question I don't even have the answer to," Toru said.

Ojiro and Izuku shared a look.

"My notes are decent, don't worry." Ojiro clarified. "But...I think we're gonna need to crack down on helping Tooru this session."

"I'm scared to ask what your other notebooks are like." Izuku said.

"Trust me, I think mine's the worst," Toru said, stifling another yawn, "...I am gonna sleep for, like, two weeks straight after finals I swear."

"Make sure you stay hydrated, at least." Momo said, as she approached her group. "Now then! I promise to help you as best I can."

"And somehow that weird looped-around 'not worrying' is actually turning real," Mina admitted. After all, with the smartest person in their class helping, she was bound to at least...not fail.

"Don't worry. I'll help you as best as I can. I helped Ochako out immensely, so I believe I can do it with you." Momo smiled.

"I feel a lot better knowing Momo's helping us, honestly." Satou said. "She'll probably ace the written part with ease. Maybe that'll rub off on us!"

"That's what I'm hoping for," Mina admitted.

In the city proper, the little black and green alien slithered unseen by the average citizen. It tried to make its way to a vantage point, so it could get a better idea of where the signal it had locked onto was coming from. It managed to find one, merging with and traveling up the strange device and looking out above the people. It managed to find the signal, gauging a good time until arrival before it left its newfound perch.

This sounded innocent and it was, but there were two complications. The first was that it accidentally shorted out the device it merged with. The second was that the device used was a stop-light at a busy intersection.

The creature ignored the sounds of cars crashing and people yelling as he slithered off the stop light. The creature made its way over to another strange device- it had never seen anything like it. It was big and wide and full of all sorts of stuff. The sight of it made the green glob wag its tail and merge with it.

Sparks surged through the machine as it gained a black coat with green circuit lines running over it. The machine itself...really wasn't that interesting and the creature quickly lost interest, and scampered off, focusing on its mission.

Finally, it reached something worthwhile- a moped, just parked by a shop. Perfect! The little goober could use this to navigate the streets with ease.

It might look a bit weird to any onlookers, but who cared? Not that little guy! He just leapt at the machine and merged with the vehicle, taking it over and revving up the engine.

The creature zoomed down the street, as it hyper focused on that target. Next stop: UA High!

"...was that a driverless moped?" a random passerby asked, seeing the possessed vehicle zoom off.

"Must be one of those new models," another answered, his eyes resembling those of a mantis.

"So, passive voice can occur if you have a sentence with an object." Todoroki explained to Tokoyami. "Passive creates unclear, less direct, wordy sentences, whereas active voice creates clearer, more concise sentences."

"I see. Suddenly, it becomes so clear." Tokoyami hummed, nodding his head. "The darkness has been lifted..."

Overdramatic as always, Ochako thought, as she looked at her practice worksheet.

Her practice sheet was actually one of the best in her group. Sure, there were some mistakes, she wasn't perfect, but the mistakes themselves were small and few and far between. Thank god for Momo. Of course, she could still use the help, and she also offered to help too.

As Ochako worked her way through the problems, she couldn't help but feel like she was being watched. Ochako looked over to her left to notice Tsu. She was giving Ochako a puzzling look.

"Everything okay, Tsu?" Ochako asked.

"…is everything good with you, Uraraka?" Tsu asked.

"Uh, yeah? What gave you that impression?"

"Well…you've been kinda less available than usual, Uraraka." Tsu noted. "Between your weird drop in grades and not being able to hang out with a lot of us…"

"Oh..." Ochako was trying to come up with a good excuse. "Well, part of it is trying to get my grades back up."

"Buuuut?" Tsu questioned. She thought there had to be more to it.

"If you worked with a hero like Ben, I think your grades would go up." Todoroki said. "Why wouldn't you want to do better in your studies?"

"Well, Tokoyami worked with Hawks, but his grades didn't improve," Ochako pointed. That seemed to bother Tokoyami a little. "A-ah, sorry."

"Okay, but that still didn't really answer the question. I mean, kind of, but not completely." Tsu said.

"I...well, I've just been too busy, that's all!" Ochako wanted to tell Tsu right away, but they were both at UA. Anyone could hear and tell other people about it.

"Hm..." Tsu pondered.

"Considering what's coming ahead, it's not that difficult to imagine," Jirou added, unknowingly aiding Ochako.

"I've just been quite busy with my apartment life, studies, and other more...personal stuff." Ochako scratched the back of her neck.

"Well...ok," Tsu conceded, "It seemed so out of character for you that I became concerned."

"Don't be concerned about me, Tsu. Just average teen stuff from m-" Her phone abruptly rang, cutting her short. She snatched it off the table.

"Uh, scuse me. I have to take this." Ochako said, walking away.

"Oh...alright," Tsu said, a little defeated. She still couldn't shake the feeling something was going on with Ochako, but had no clue what. Iida and Izuku saw their friend walk out the room, phone in hand and both already had a pretty good idea what that was about.

Ochako answered the phone, and tried to act casual. "Hello?" She said, hoping she wasn't drawing too much attention to herself.

"Uraraka, this is Ruby." The person on the other end of the telephone responded.

"Oh! I thought Ben was calling." Ochako said.

"He's a little busy at the moment. One of his old 'arch-enemies' popped up again. Well, I say arch-enemy but, he kinda gave himself that title. He's no Vilgax," Ruby explained.

"Ah, fun." Ochako said.

"Anyways... I wanted to call and tell you about some strange things that have been happening in your area." Ruby said as she moved some papers.

"Alien weird or criminal weird?"

"Alien weird." Ruby said, laughing. "You know your Upgrade form, right?"

"Yes, she's useful. What's up with them?" Ochako asked.

"An alien dog version of that is roaming the streets." Ruby responded.

"... Excuse me, what?" Ochako replied, wanting to double-check. "A...dog version...of...Upgrade? How small can they be?"

"The history of Mechamorphs is...interesting. The Galvanic Mechamorphs were accidentally brought to life at first. Galvan B was an uninhabitable moon that orbited Galvan Prime at the time." Ruby explained.

"Galvans...those are Grey Matters, right?" Ochako asked.

"Yeah- so, Galvans tried terraforming it, and the Mechamorphs were the unexpected result of their experiment on Galvan B. With their help they built a great civilization within days." Ruby went on. "They come in all shapes and sizes. Kinda like humans."

"And in animal form." Ochako added.

"Well...calling it a dog might be the most precise but it's accurate. Now, it's not really dangerous, but it is causing a bit of chaos out there. Broken stop lights causing car crashes, vending machine malfunctions where the contents are shot out at people-"

Ochako couldn't help but laugh a little, acting too late to try and stifle it, "Sorry, sorry."

"Oh no, it's hilarious...but here's the problem. Ben already took care of it a while ago. Found a stray, and gave it off to a friend of ours so it could get tested on Galvan Prime and then get sent to an adoption agency." Ruby clarified.

"So...it broke free? Wait, Galvan Prime? Another planet?"

"Yeah, the smartest race in the galaxy and they can't get a decent security system. Probably hijacked a way back here by a ship." Ruby theorized.

"And now it's...here. And you want me to play dogcatcher, essentially?"

"Just contain it until my friend gets here to retrieve it, okay?" Ruby asked. "Just a small favor."

"Um, sure. I can handle that. Where was it last seen?"

"Downtown Musutafu, near the UA campus." Ruby said. "That's what the reports said."

"That close?!" Ochako almost yelled, catching herself at the last minute and lowering her voice to a whisper.

"The last time he tracked Ben, he used the Omnitrix symbol. I guess he might be tracking yours." Ruby shrugged. "...hope you're not around people right now."

"Ruby. I'm at UA. I'm preparing for finals."

"Oh...ohhhhhh," Ruby said, the realization hitting her.

"...I'm gonna quickly leave right now so no one else realizes. Y'know."

"Fair and valid. Good luck." Ruby said, hanging up. Ochako rushed back to her table, looking a bit embarrassed.

"That was a long call. Everything good?" Jirou asked.

"Uh, yeah! Just...need to run to my apartment! Water leak, hahah..." Ochako lied.

"Alright," Jirou said, seemingly buying the lie, "I'll let the others know."

"Yeah, sorry about all of this." Ochako said, shoving her papers frantically into her bag. Tsu looked at Ochako again, but the girl didn't look back.

Tsu knew something was up now.

Ochako quickly gathered up her things before leaving the classroom, making a beeline for the campus courtyard. If a teacher showed up, she'd slow to a quick-walking speed, before bolting away again.

"Please don't be right outside," Ochako muttered to herself, hoping not to jinx it.

Ochako was thankful to see there wasn't any alien activity outside. She gave a sigh of relief, and quickly got outside the school. She needed to cut into an alleyway or something to transform...

She moved a good distance away from UA, ducking into the nearest empty alleyway she could find and dialed up an alien form. In her haste, she didn't really see which one she stopped on and just hit down on the Omnitrix. She didn't have wings, nor could she fly by whatever means Chromastone did. She found herself looking through an almost technological point of view.

"...I'm Upgrade?!" she yelled, looking down at her form.

She was right- Upgrade had taken her place. Ochako melted a bit in disappointment. "How am I supposed to get around like this? If I take over a piece of tech, I'll be spotted..."

Ochako thought for a few moments. Wait...I am stretchy. What's the name of that one big American superhero? He's...got that elastic quirk. Maybe I can replicate his way of maneuvering around.

"How does he do it...just...swing from building to building? Wait no, that's a spider Quirk...well...it could still work," Ochako muttered to herself, looking around for a good handhold before she stretched her arm out to grab it, and quickly pulled herself towards said handhold.

Ochako pulled herself up, and slingshotted her way into the air. "W-woah!" She yelled, struggling in mid air. Her body suddenly flattened itself out, and she began to soar in the air, like a kite.

"...I wasn't expecting this." Ochako hummed.

Unexpected but not useless. Ochako was flying above the city, looking down at the city. Her vision zoomed in on the people below as she looked for any other signs of Mechamorph activity.

"This is unexpectedly handy." Ochako noted, as she flew around. Occasionally, she'd have to land and slingshot herself back into the air so she could glide around again.

She saw a few things during her fly-bys, none of it too terribly interesting, most of it just people going about their daily routines and walking about. Ochako landed on top of another roof and sighed. "There's gotta be an easier way to do this." She wondered. "Maybe I can like sense tech or something?"

Ochako paused.

"Sounded dumb when I said it out loud, sounds too dumb to be a thing."

She could turn a toaster into a gun, though. So...maybe worth a shot.

Ochako pulled out her phone, and melded it into her body. "Maybe...just maybe..." Ochako's phone had been transformed into a scanner that rested in her arm. "Oh, now this I can work with." Ochako looked down at her wrist, and the lines on her wrist formed a map inside of the scanner.

She fine-tuned the scanner, hoping to maybe sense whatever energy signatures the Mechamorphs themselves gave off. That was almost an immediate bullseye. Two blips showed up on the map like a radar, with one being herself. The second was further away and quickly moving in her direction.

"Wow, it's...really moving in my direction." Ochako said, noticing the dot move faster and faster. It was now 5 miles away. 3 miles. 2 miles...1 mile...

"Uh oh," Ochako immediately went on alert, scanning around for the source of the signal as that mile turned to feet, quickly reaching triple then double digits.

Ochako needed to stop this thing from tackling her off the building. She quickly transformed into Gravattack, and deployed a powerful gravity field around her. Whatever would come flying at her would IMMEDIATELY slow down.

A loud high-pitch whine caught her attention as the small Mechamorph launched itself at Ochako, getting caught in the gravity field. Instead of struggling or freaking out...the little guy thought it was a game and just enjoyed the ride.

"H-huh...you...you really are like a dog, huh?"

Ochako reverted back to normal, and the blorpy dropped down into her hands. Ochako looked at it- the body was like a weird slug, all wriggly and cold. The dog's behavior was charming. It was making those panting noises and shaking in her hands.

"Aw." Ochako grinned. "You're not that bad, are you? Just a bit...energetic." The Mechamorph yipped in response. Ochako laughed, and cuddled it. "Guess alien dogs are like earth dogs too."

"Hmmm...maybe..." Ochako mused before getting her phone out. This was gonna be a gamble, but one she decided to take.

Ochako dialed up Ben's number, and listened to the dial tone. Ochako set the dog down, as Ochako waited for a response.

"Ship."

Ochako nearly jumped when the dog spoke.

"You...you can talk?!" Ochako asked.

"Ship!" The dog said again, happier.

"U-um, okay! Weird." Ochako said. "...I have no idea what to do with this."

"Ship!"

"Is...that your name?"

"Ship!"

Ochako paused to think. "Okay...let's try something else. Flatten yourself if your name is Ship. And...I dunno. Stay the same if your name isn't Ship."

The little Mechamorph flattened itself against the roof, its central power-symbol like eye morphing to a shape that made it seem more happy.

"Ok, so, you're Ship," Ochako said.

"Ship!" The creature said, suddenly pointing somewhere.

"Huh?" Ochako remembered watching a movie as a kid, with a dog that alerted to a kid being stuck in a well. It did a similar pointing fashion. "Is...someone in trouble?"

"Ship! Ship!" the small Mechamorph said before scurrying off in that direction.

"Ok, guess I'm following you now!"

The small Mechamorph morphed into a small drone, and flew off. Ochako gasped, as she turned into Big Chill and followed after the small tyke. "Hey, hold up!"

"Ship! Shiiiiiip!" the Mechamorph called out as it flew.

Ochako followed the Mechamorph out of the city, and into the dense woods. Ochako felt a strange twinge unease. This wasn't a trap, right?

It couldn't be right? The way the little guy was acting had to be genuine.

Ship landed down behind some trees. Ochako paused for a moment, and looked around. She pulled out her phone and called Ben once more. She wanted to trust this little glob of preciousness, but...her gut gave her a bad feeling.

"Ship! Ship! Shiiiiip!" the little Mechamorph called out.

"Hold on, I need to make a ca-" Ochako began, before a loud droning sound got her attention, best way to describe the sound was as an industrial-level start-up sound.

"...what was THAT?" Ruby asked, from Ochako's phone. "Where are you?"

"Well, I found the Mechamorph- it's name is Ship, apparently." Ochako said, looking down at the Mechamorph. It was straining itself to stretch just to poke its face through the trees. "It led me outside the city to...show me something. I dunno if I trust it though. Especially after that noise."

"Fair enough," Ruby said. "I'll send it to your location as soon as I can."

"Thanks," Ochako said, as she hung up. She floated down to the ground, and cloaked her body. Ochako scanned her surroundings. No traps, no minions, no big bad around...just Ship, eagerly wagging his tail.

"Ship." It said, as it began to slither away. Ochako hovered as she followed it- she wanted to make sure there weren't any traps on the ground. Ochako was soon led to a ship. There were two other, larger ships by it as well. There were three aliens in front of the smallest ship, and all of the same species. They were Lewodans, aliens that had skin like marshmallows. White with light blue eyes and no pupils, and wore blue or purple clothes.

"Woah, is that what you brought me out here to do?" Ochako asked the Mechamorph. "Fix a flat tire?"

"Shiiiiiiip." The creature shook its head. Ochako raised an eyebrow. Ship slowly slithered over, being undetected by the aliens. Ochako went intangible, and drifted past them.

"I'll tell you what, getting past those Galvan scanners was insane. I'm shocked they didn't detect my cargo." One of the Lewodans said. "Just got unlucky enough to land on a planet that's still Level 3 in terms of tech."

"I'll say...once you bring that back to the council, I'm sure they'll listen to us." Another Lewodan said. "I've got a few more on MY ship, and they're some of the bigger models."

"I managed to get my hands on...the big one." The third grinned. The other two ooh'd.

"How did you EVER get your hands on that?" The first alien asked.

"I'll never tell." The third one smiled. "Just have my black market contacts."

Black market contacts? That's worrying, Ochako thought, as Ship entered the back of the ship. Ochako phased through the ship's back, and found herself in the back bay. Ochako found Ship on top of a strange alien robot- they had a wide brown and red colored torus shape, and little disks in the top and bottom. Ochako felt the strange alien robot.

"This doesn't look good." Ochako frowned.

Ship then hopped off this robot and began to scurry further back into the cargo hold. He was trying to be as discreet as possible as he searched for something. He eventually found it and brought back a shipping manifest, balancing the datapad on his back rather expertly.

"Ship!" the small mechamorph softly chirped, hoping Ochako would understand that he was trying to get her to read the manifest.

"I think I get it- you're warning me about what these guys are gonna do with these drones. Looks like they're gonna commit some sort of terror act." Ochako shook her head. "Well, too bad. I'm taking this down now."

She was kind of right, but Ship still tried to get her to read the manifest. When he picked it up, he managed to find how many of these things there were, something that Ochako should definitely be aware of. After all, the smaller robots weren't the only type these guys had managed to smuggle out.

"I'll just have to wreck this one. Gotta be subtle about it-" Ochako turned her hand intangible, and forced it into the robot.

It was easy to find a vital component in the drone's chassis. She gripped onto what was the equivalent of the drone's heart. She turned it intangible as well and ripped it out, severing several of the wires and making the inner workings spark and glitch. A head-like attachment poked out of the top of the disc suddenly and its optics began to blink with light a few times, before they dimmed out entirely.

"There. That was easy. Now I just have to take care of the rest of them and-" Ochako was cut off by the loud beeping of the heart. "That doesn't sound good."

"Ship! Ship!" the little Mechamorph said, morphing into a hand and making a crushing gesture. Ochako followed suit and quickly crushed the heart in her hands. She looked around a bit, on edge.

Silence filled the cargo bay for a few tense seconds.

When nothing happened, Ochako let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding, letting out a burst of cold, misty breath.

And then a single red dot appeared on her chest. Ochako immediately turned intangible, as a blast of energy phased through her body, and through the back of the truck. Ochako grabbed Ship and flew out of the cargo ship.

"W-what the!?" The driver Lewodan frowned.

"I thought you said we'd be fine here! Out of the way, inconspicuous!" another Lewodan yelled, grabbing a pistol from his personal holster and charging it up.

"It should've been! It's a forest! Unless some lost hikers found us, no one should be out here!"

"Hiker or no," the third Lewodan said, taking out the energy equivalent of a shotgun, "They've probably seen too much. You know who lives on this planet, right?"

"This IS Tennyson's backwater planet? I didn't know I landed on this rock!" The driver said.

"Hey- that's MY rock that I live on, jerk!" Ochako said, revealing herself to them. Before they could react, Ochako froze them solid, to the side of the ship. "That oughta hold you."

"DAMN IT!" the second Lewodan cursed. "Of all the mistakes you coulda made!"

"Oh, yeah, like it's my fault," the driver countered.

"Please...freeze their mouths shut or they'll go on like this for hours," the one that seemed to be the leader begged.

"Alrighty." Ochako put her hands over their mouths, and froze them shut.

"Thank you." The leader sighed.

"Now." Ochako clenched her fist, and formed an icy mace with her hand. "Tell me what you were transporting."

"What species do you think we are?" The Lewodan asked, doing a bit of gauging here.

"A race of fluffy white idiots for landing on a planet that has the galaxy's strongest hero?" Ochako asked.

"Fluffy and white, yes. Idiots? Not quite. Our kind is at war with a race of savages known as the Phantophage. And...I believe the Earthlings have a lovely little saying for situations like this. 'All's fair in war' I believe?"

"It's 'All's fair in love and war' but that didn't answer the quest-" and then the pieces fit together, "...the robots. You're smuggling death machines back so you can win!"

"As we should! If we don't, who KNOWS what the Phantophage will do us! Enslave? Devour? Worse?"

"Now you're trying too hard."

"No, I'm serious. LEWODANS are part of their diet! Not a mainstay, granted, but still!"

Ochako raised an eyebrow. "Now, these robots- where'd you get them from?"

"...are you that dumb? I thought you'd recognize these robots." The leader frowned.

"Just answer. Or would you prefer dealing with someone stronger with four arms?"

"...fine. We got them from the black market. They aren't a pretty penny." The leader said.

"And how many do you have?"

"You destroyed one, didn't you?" The Lewodan smirked.

Ochako could hear the sound of whirring from inside the other ships. "I'll take that as 'many'." Ochako frowned.

"Oh, yes." The leader grinned.

Ochako sighed and made sure the Lewodan was frozen in place before flying off to deal with the machines. She flew back to the cargo bay, only to be greeted by a small swarm of laser sights.

Ochako was greeted by a flurry of drones flying at her. She began to phase through them and freeze them solid. They dropped to the ground and shattered.

Some of the drones managed to get shots off, firing red blasts of energy that phased through Ochako. But for the most part, these drones were all disc-shaped.

"These things don't seem that tough," Ochako said, as she punched her way through another one. "That could just be because I'm Big Chill, but..."

And that's when the actual challenge showed up. The second ship began to shake...before a clawed hand burst through the side of the ship, followed by another. The two mechanical hands pushed open a hole in the hull of the alien ship. Metal crunched and strained as the claws tore an exit, before the full beast pulled itself free. Instead of a rust-red paint job, this machine sported a Lewodan royal blue color scheme, though the eyes still remained orange and insect-like.

This looked a lot more dangerous than the others.

"Oh, fudgesticks." Ochako said.

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