Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter one: Did I get isekaied into ben 10?!

Cold, black unconsciousness.  That was all that came before.  Her mind was… fuzzy.  Even when she started to come too, her mind was… blank.  Well, not really blank, just… imperfect. 

On instinct, she looked around, trying to get a feel for her surroundings.  She was in a small, metal room.  No doors, just walls.  The room had a foul stench to it, like something had died in here.  It made her want to hurl.  

Confused, all the girl could do was try and remember what had happened.  She focused, what was the last thing she remembered…?  Nothing.  Her mind was still blank as to how she ended up here.

“What is…” She muttered to herself, getting familiar with her own raspy voice, “Ok.  Don’t panic.  You have amnesia.  I mean, you’ve got to, why else can’t you remember anything!” 

Now she was beginning to think she had a habit of talking to herself.

She took a deep breath, kind of regretting it after inhaling the stench of the room again.

“Alight… let’s start with something simple…” She said, looking herself over.  Seeing if she had any clues to her identity on her person.  Ok, from what she could see(even in her limited vision in the dark room), her hair seemed to be dark and shoulder length.  She was wearing glasses, not that they were helping, a thick hoodie, jeans, and sneakers.  

The more she felt around, she noticed something in her pocket.  

“Jackpot!” she exclaimed, taking a cellphone from her hoodie, hoping it was charged.  To her relief it turned on, illuminating the room and hurting her eyes.  When her eyes adjusted she saw its black and blue wallpaper, along with the name, ‘ Mari .’

“Mari, huh…” She said, guessing this was her first name, “Well, that’s one mystery solved.” 

She swiped at her phone to try and use it, only to find it was password locked.  

“Shit…” Mari sighed, putting the device back into her pocket, “Guess that’s a deadend…” 

Clang! Clang! Clang!

She heard something, causing her to jump a little.  She put her ear to the wall, hearing consistent sounds against the metal floor… sounding almost like footsteps.  Soon afterward, light flooded the room as the wall opened in front of her.

“You’re awake… good.  That makes my job easier,” She heard a gruff, male voice say.  She looked to the now open door seeing an imposing, humanoid figure.  

Despite his upright posture, the figure wasn’t human.  His dull green, reptilian skin, sunken-in eyes, slitted noise, and noticeable gills made that all too obvious.  He was wearing black clothes, covered in armor made of both bone and metal, looking almost like some kind of knight.

For some odd reason, she knew exactly who this was, “K-Khyber?”

“The greatest hunter in the galaxy,” Khyber grinned, “glad to see you understand your circumstances.” 

Mari’s mind began racing, how was this possible?  Khyber wasn’t supposed to be real.  He was supposed to be a fictional character in a t.v. show about aliens!  And that raised another question, how the hell did she remember a tv show, but not her own name?  What kind of amnesia was this!?

“What… what’s going on?” The teen tried to put distance between herself and the alien hunter.  Her mind was racing.

Seeing the fear in her eyes, Khyber let out a low laugh, “well, little one, You’ve found yourself the subject of a little… experiment.” 

Hearing those words, Mari gulped. The hunter grabbed her by the collar of her hoodie(which she could now clearly see was black with a neon blue circuit design to it, along with some fluff on the hood), and began to carry her to another part of the...ship?  

As she was dragged by the alien, she noticed the pitch black sky, with stars and clouds of neon dust outside the windows, leading her to one conclusion… she was in space.  If it weren’t for the fact her shirt was in the grip of a fictional character, this would have been the craziest thing she’d seen today.

Although, this begged an entirely different question.  How the hell did she wind up in this situation?  How did she get to space?  Why was she being dragged by an alien?  What was happening?!

Eventually, Khyber dragged her into a room filled with much scientific equipment, and two more inhuman beings, causing her to gulp again.  

One of them was large, black, red and spikey.  Its only facial features being its single eye and gabing jaw.  Its right hand seemed to be a weapon of some kind.  Just great.

The second was even more odd.  A three foot tall, purple, crab-like… thing. 

It was upon seeing these two, Mari was beginning to get an idea of what had happened to her.  Just like Khyber, she recognised these creatures as fictional characters, Malware and Dr. Psychobos respectively.  All three of them were villains from an animated tv show called Ben10.  

Now given the fact that animated villains being right in front of her should have been impossible, it gave her a decent idea of what had happened… She’d been isekaied into Ben 10. 

Wait, she understood weeb culture too?  Why wasn’t she remembering anything useful!?

She didn’t have time to dwell on that, however, as the crab-like scientist began to speak, “Ah!  My test subject.  About time..” 

“T-test subject…?” Mari gulped again, her mind was racing “ alright.  Focus, you amnesiac moron, what do we know about tests that involve these three aliens?  I mean, we only have memories of pop culture apparently. Think, you foo-... Oh no. ”

Her face twisted with fear as she realized what they were about to do to her.

“Malware, prep the subject,” Phychobos said, as he scuttled over to another table to retrieve something. 

The black and red creature muttered something as it took Mari from Khyber.  It laid her on a large examination table and faceted her limbs to it.

“Please no, oh god please no!” She said trying to get out of the restraints.  If she was right, and she really hoped she wasn’t right, what they were about to do would either kill her, or make her life hell to bear.  

Sure enough, Psychobos picked up a red collar from the table, strapping it to her neck, “This device will show that fool, Azmuth what for!”

“What transformation shall we begin with?”  Khyber asked. 

“I already have one in mind,” Psychobos chuckled, he turned to Mari with a sinister grin, “I must thank you for finding us.  It eliminates all the trouble we would have needed to go through to find a subject.”

“No, no please,” She pleaded, staring down at the red device on her neck.  She had been right.  The machine attached to her was none other than the Nemetrix.

If she remembered correctly, the Nemetrix was a knock off of the most powerful weapon in the universe(at least in the show.)  It could turn you into the most powerful predators in the galaxy… but at the cost of your sanity.

“Now then, lets begin…” the crab alien came over to her.  Using his smaller claw, he tapped the Nemetrix’s dial.

The dial flashed a deep yellow, and a robotic version of Mari’s voice let out, “ DNA receiving mode, initiated.  Please insert DNA sample to proceed. ” 

“Seems to be working properly…” Khyber said.

“Yes...yes indeed… Now.  On to the true test,” The doctor said, moving to the other end of the lab, a panel opened revealing large tubes of strange liquid.

“ Alright… think.  There’s gotta be a way outa this ,” Mari thought as she struggled to get out of her restraints, “ Bron isn’t going to work.  Time to use brain. ”

She looked around, trying to think of some kind of escape plan, when her eyes fell on Malware.

“ Wait.  if the nemetrix is in capture mode, then I could scan an aliens DNA and turn into them, ” Mari thought to herself, “ most of the time this would harm me more than help, but as long as whoever is scanned is sentient… ” 

An idea came to her mind.  Quickly, she thought of everything she knew about the Galvanic Mekamorph before her.

“H-hey, knock-off shadow the hedgehog!” She yelled, getting Malware’s attention for a second, before he turned away, “Man you’re ugly… no wonder Azmuth hates you…”

At those words, the alien’s temper boiled.  He charged over to the constrained human and grabbed at her throat, “ HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT AZMUTH!?! ”

“I-I… know a lot of things, you w-worthless slug!”  Mari gasped for air, hoping her plan succeeded. 

“ Why you little- ” Whatever the alien was about to do, he was interrupted by a shock running through both him and Mari, both screeched. 

“Don’t touch the Nemetrix, you Imbecile! ”a very angry Phychobos yelled, “You destroy any technology you touch!  You might damage the nemetrix!” 

Malware groaned as he released her neck, “ Fine. ”

“Guess you’re as dumb as you’re ulgy, Mally,” Mari smirked as the collar on her neck returned to its red hue. 

“ Galvanic Mechamorph DNA, collected ,” the collar’s electric replica of her voice said.  All three of the villains widened their eyes in shock.

“Yeah, thanks for the-” She slammed her chin down on the caller's dial.

“NO!” Psychobos yelled. 

Mari felt more than a chill fall down her spine, as in a flash of red her body felt like it was melting down, her bones and organs dissolving into liquid metal.  After a split second, the transformation was complete.  Mari’s sight now looked as though she was viewing the world through a screen.  She could see her hands had lost a finger each, and had sharpened into claws.  Her hole body was an inky black, with electric blue stripes in the same patterns as Malware’s.  The Nemetrix poked out of her chest.  The collar nowhere to be seen.

“ Upgrade! ” She announced, her voice now sounding mechanical as well.  With her new body, she slipped from her binds easily, “ Heh, no wonder Ben does that.  It felt empowering! ” 

“ Ben ?” Khyber questioned. 

“It works…” Phychobos sounded more astonished than angry now, “a full body transformation, even with such impure DNA, it works!”

“ Yeah it works, and now I’m using it to get out of here! ” ‘Upgrade’ said with confidence, hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes… well, eye.  

“ Oh really? ” Malware asked, cocking his cannon arm.  Khyber pulled a blade from his armor, taking a defensive position.

“ Oh yeah… of course it wouldn’t be that easy… ” the human turned mechamorph sighed, “ Alright.  I got at least ten minutes, let's do this. ”

Malware fired multiple blasts toward her.  With her new body, she was able to shift away from the blasts, narrowly dodging them all.

“Careful, careful!  You’ll damage my creation!” Psychobos pleaded as his associate fired.

“ How could he?  He’s a terrible shot! ” Mari laughed as she jumped out of the way of another blast, she caught sight of some lab equipment.  Normally it would be useless in combat, but not to Upgrade!   

She grabbed a hold of the tech, her body covering over it.  She expected her body to be absorbed into it, take it over, and, for lack of a better term, upgrade it.  Instead, once the tech was fully engulfed, it seemed to pull itself apart. 

“ Uh… that was an accident !” Mari said in mild embarrassment as her liquid limbs retracted, “ why the hell didn’t that work? ”

“Looks like someone doesn’t even know how to use their own powers,” Khyber smirked.  He pressed a button on his blade, causing it to crackle with electricity, he glared at his cohort, “Leave this to a true hunter.” 

The Zaroffian lunged toward her, stabbing his blade into the former human’s navel area.  The electricity flowed through her, causing her metal body immense pain.

“Living or not, metal still conducts electricity,” Khyber said, ramming the blade deeper as his target screeched.  However, soon the weapon began to corrode just like the tech she touched before.

“ Yeah… and Tech is still tech! ” Mari yelled, gripping the blade.  The corrosion spread in seconds, causing the blade to fall apart harmlessly. 

Mari felt something in her change, like she suddenly knew how to do something.  Focusing on it, her left hand shifted into a replica of the blade, red electricity running out of it. Khyber’s smile faded as he backed away.

“ Didn’t know Upgrade could do that… ” Mari looked at the weapon her limb had become.  Looking at the floor, she got an idea, “ Hey Khyber!  What was that you said about metal and electricity? ”

She didn’t give him time to answer as she stabbed at the floor beneath her, focus all her energy on the electric charge of her new weapon.  The electricity ran through the lab, causing various devices to explode from overcharge and electrocuted her captors.  The three let our a collective screech. 

“ Toodles, morons! ” Mari giggled at their pain, before running for the door, leaving the lab.

“MY EQUIPMENT!” Psychobos screeched in response to the destruction of his lab. 

“ I think it’s time to put your new hunting dog to use ,” Malware said as he got up.

“Agreed,” Khyber said, his gills swelled as a high pitched whistling sound began to ring through the ship, getting something’s attention.

…

“ Alright, escape pod, escape pod, where the hell are the escape pods? ” Mari said as she ran down the hall.  As she ran she caught sight of her reflection, getting a full view of her mechamorph body.  She stopped in surprise, “ woah… I’m like a Miss Malware… ” 

It was true.  Her new body looked more like Malware than it did any other Galvanic mechamorph.  It made sense, she used his DNA, but it still surprised her.  

Her body was almost fully black, with blue versions of malware’s patterns and a single, red ring acting as her eye.  Just below it was a small, angular, light purple mouth.  At the bottom of her head were four, hornlike spikes curling up like hair.  She still had a feminine frame, likely influenced by her original DNA.

“ Man… wait, is that why… ” her eye fell on her blade arm.  Beginning to piece together how this new body worked, “ I’m just like Malware.  I can’t upgrade tech… I take it over, destroy it from the inside, and use it to upgrade myself.  I’m like a virus… ”

Virus... that sounded about right.  More fitting than Upgrade in this case.  

“ Alright.  I can work with this. Just gotta find the pods ,” the newly dubbed ‘Virus’ said, continuing her trek down the hall.  

The former human saw many signs with strange text, likely the Zaroffian written language(or whatever language Khyber used).  Normally she wouldn’t be able to read it, however her mind currently being a computer auto-translated it.  So far none of it was useful.

“ No, no, not that.  Come on, where’s the escape pods?! ” Virus was getting frustrated.  When suddenly a warning sign came into her vision, “ what th-OW! ” 

She felt something bite down on her non-weaponized hand, she lost her focus on her weapon, reverting it to normal(well, normal for a galvanic Mechamorph anyway.) Virus looked down, seeing a purple, reptilian dog biting down on her limb.

“ Wait a minute.  You’re Khyber’s alien mutt!  Get off of me! ” she flailed her arm in an attempt to free it from the canine.  She tried to force it off of her, “ Come on, let go!  Wait a minute. Why am I doing this? I’M LIQUID! ”

She dissolved her arm through the dog’s mouth and reform. 

“ I don’t have time to play with some pooch! ” Virus said, running off.  But the alien dog would not be deterred.   

It continued to chase and bite at her, making her escape much more troublesome.  Eventually, she found it.

“ Jackpot!  The escape pods!  My luck is finally turning around! ” Virus exclaimed as she kicked away khyber’s pet one last time.  The minute she said that, the nemetrix began to beep rapidly, “ My ten minutes are up already?!  Me and My big mouth! ”

To make matters worse, she heard heavy footsteps from down the hall, likely Malware and Khyber coming to recapture her.  Just like that her luck had run out.

Panicking, she ran in the pod, using her autotranslate to find a GPS.  Without any means of charting a course, and time running out, she simply found the launch button.  Just before changing back to human, she slammed down on it.

“Whew, homefree,” Mari said as she felt her human body return.  She heard the door close  and lock behind her… and then growling.  She gulped as she slowly turned around, coming face to face with Khyber’s canine, “Uh… Nice doggie?”

The dog came closer, like a wolf boxing in its prey.

Well, thankfully luck couldn’t decide whether or not it like Mari, and the pod took off.  The G-force knocking both her and the dog to the back wall. 

“Ugh, I’m gonna be sick!” She said as the pod hurtled through space.

…

“My hunting dog!” Khyber yelled as he watched the pod shoot off. 

“ We’ll get it back,  FOLLOW THAT POD! ”  Malware yelled, Running off to the control room.

The ship soon began to track the trail of the escape pod, following closely behind.

…

“I… Want… off this… ride!” Mari screamed as the pod continued to run through the cosmos, no sign of slowing down.  The dog beside her whined in pain.  

After what felt like hours, the teen got a look of an unfortunate sight.  The pod was on a direct collision course with a blue planet, multiple moons surrounding.

“Oh, come on…” Mari sighed, “BRACE FOR IMPACT!” 

It was barely seconds before the ship crashed through the planet’s damp atmosphere.  Beginning to burn in reentry.  The human closed her eyes as the surface approached, not wanting to look.  She was expecting a sickening splat…  that never came.  

She and the dog slid down to the front of the ship. When she opened her eyes, she saw the ship was hovering just above the surface of water.  Jets at the front of the pod kept it just a few feet in the air, must have been some kind of anti-crash technology. 

She let out a sigh of relief as the ship lightly fell into the water.  Carefully, she got to her feat.  Looking out the windshield, her jaw dropping at what she saw. 

The alien dog got up as well, growling at her.  After a few seconds, the dog realised she wasn’t paying attention, too fixated on the view.  It made it confused.  

Mari went to the back of the pod, opening the door, being met with the same sight.  Water.  Water everywhere.  As far as the eye could see was nothing but wet, blue liquid.  It only ment one thing… they landed in the middle of an ocean. 

“OH COME ON!” she yelled.

…  

“The pod landed in the seas of Cascareau.  The planet is mostly covered in water, so there’s no means of escape unless she’s a strong swimmer,” Khyber said as his ship hovered outside the blue planet’s atmosphere.  

“ Good.  Take us down, we’ll retrieve the Nemetrix, then throw her body to the sharks ,” Malware said.

“No…” Psychobos said, entering the room.

“ What? ” the mechamorph questioned. 

“My nemetrix works.  Even with your corrupt DNA, the device was capable of turning her into a prime Galvani-... No. Cerebrocrustaceous Mechamorph-” He stopped mid-sentence at the look Khyber gave him, “She gained Malware’s powers instead of a normal mechamorph, thus they are just genetically different enough to be considered a different species.  But that’s beside the point!” 

“Which is?” the hunter asked. 

“My Nemetrix exceeds our expectations.  We need to see how this human will use its potential,” the doctor reasoned, “I can always rebuild the device, but this is a unique opportunity to test its boundaries.  An opportunity we likely won’t get again. 

“What are you saying?” the zaroffian’s curiosity was peaked.

“Three days.  If she can’t escape the planet in three days you may kill her.  But if she can, with nothing more than my device, your hunting dog and a damaged escape pod…” Psychobos explained, “Then you will continue to test her limits.”

Khyber smiled, “I see… if she succeeds, hunt her for sport, rather than gain.”

“You get a challenging hunt, I get my data… everyone wins,” the cerebrocrustacean said. 

“Alright, then.  Three days it is…” Khyber said.  He was going to enjoy this thoroughly.

Chapter Text

 Chapter two: the Seas of Cascareau

Mari was pissed.  What felt like hours in the middle of the ocean, no one to be seen, and still no idea who she was… 

She’d tried to get the ship out of the water, but that was a bust.  Most the thrusters were damaged in reentry, and even if they weren’t the pod was pretty much water-logged.

At least that alien mutt wasn’t trying to bite her anymore.  Apparently it got sea sick soon after they got here.  Now it was just laying in the corner.

The teen heard a grumbling noise, looking down at her belly.  She quickly realised she hadn’t eaten in who knows how long.  She let out a sigh, she only really had one option.

“Let’s hope Virus is seaworthy,” She said as she pulled the Nemetrix off her neck.  It had recharged since she last used it, but there was no practical way she could use it as a collar.  So, instead she used the device’s size adjustment to fasten it to her wrist.   She tapped the dial, its touch screen lit up red, showing the silhouette of her mechamorph form.  

She touched the dial again, seeing the flash of red, and feeling her body slip into a liquid state once more.  Once again, she was Virus… now she just hoped Virus could swim.

Taking a deep breath, she dove into the cold water, an odd tingling sensation went up her metal body. 

“ Oh, that’s cold… ” She said, as she looked around the area, her voice altered slightly by the water.  Thankfully her camera vision made the undersea look much clearer than if she were still human.  Despite the circumstances, it was a beautiful sight.

The sea floor was decorated with elegant mounds of coral in bright colors of orange, red, and purple, contrasting against the pale blue sand of this world.  Sea green kelp forests were in sight, swaying in the current, like dancers to a slow rhythm.  Littered amongst the sand were glittering objects, likely gems or stones of some kind. 

All around were schools of brightly colored fish, most of them glowing, some looked similar to those of earth, others not so much.  Really, she just hoped they were safe to eat.

Kicking her feet, she began to try and swim toward some of the aquatic creatures.  Keeping her eye on the prize, she tried to grab at one that resembled a glowing trout.  However, the creature was a slippery little thing, and remained just outside her grip.

“ Come on, little fishy… ” Virus swam after it, “ I just wanna eatcha! ”

Little did she know, she wasn’t the only hungry creature in these waters… and one of them just happened to hunt by sound...

She continued to chase the resilient fish.  Unfortunately, being made of metal didn’t make you a fast swimmer.  The mechamorph trailed just behind the creature, until it led her to the sea floor, diving into the sand.

“ Ok, that’s just unfair! ” she yelled as the fish disappeared into the ground.  She groaned, before the warning symbol came up again, “ wait a minute… last time that showed up… ” 

She turned around to see what looked like an armored shark with one eye swimming right for her. 

“... I hate my life ,” Virus sighed, before dodging the creature's bite, “ AH!  I came down here to eat, not be eaten! ” 

The mechamorph shifted her arm into a blade once again, which promptly began to crackle with electricity.  That was about when she remembered she was underwater, as the electricity shocked throughout her body, and the next twenty feet.  

“ Bad idea, bad idea! ” She returned her arm to normal.  She looked at the shark, hoping the attack had at least bought her some time… the mechamorph was pretty sure she just made it angry, “ Ah nuts… ” 

She took off swimming, trying to stay ahead of the predator, bitterly hating the irony.   She quickly tried to come up with a plan, anything that could get her out of this situation.  

Electricity was out, that was obvious.  But what other options did she have?  She didn’t remember absorbing any other weapons.  Wait… didn’t Upgrade have an eye laser?  

The shark tried to bite at her once again.  It was as good an idea as any, she turned around, focusing her energy toward her eye, she could feel the charge building up.  Virus grinned as she fired a red beam from her eye, hitting the shart point-blank in the jaw. 

“ Oh, HELL YEAH! ” she started blasting the fish-like predator.  The beams only stunned the beast, but it was enough for her to get a headstart, “ not so tough now! ”   

The mechamorph continued to swim, every so often firing a beam to both taunt the shark and keep it at bay.  

“ Ha ha!  Smooth sai- ” she was interrupted as she crashed face first into some kind of metal structure, she rubbed her head, “ Ok.  the warning system is useless .”

She looked at what she had bumped into… only for her eye to widen in awe.  

Right in front of her was the wreckage of a massive ship.  Based on it’s design, it seemed to be modeled after a squid, having a long, cone-shaped haul, and several tentacle-like appendages at the bottom, as well as joints where some may have once been. 

The ship had multiple holes and broken windows, clearly it had a rough time sinking.  There was no way it still worked… but…

“ This thing is huge… if I could salvage some of the parts… ” Virus said to herself, examining the wreckage, “ maybe I can fix the pod…. ”

She was about to examine the ship further, when nature gave her a reminder how she found it in the first place. 

The mechamorph’s warning system went in place again, that combined with the sound of rushing water behind her, alerted her the shark was coming back.  She turned around to face the approaching beast, firing a laser at it again. 

The creature was beginning to lose its patients with her.  It swooped in for another attack, forcing her to hide amongst the wreckage.  

“ Ugh, I’m running out of time… I need an escape or I'm fish food… ” Virus said to herself, looking at the nemetrix.  Surely she’d been down here at least five minutes so far, it was only a matter of time before she became human again.  

She looked around the wreckage, trying to see if anything here would prove useful.  That’s when her eye fell on what looked like some kind of harpoon, noting its jagged tip.  

“ Jackpot ,” She said, swimming over to the weapon.  

She engulfed the alien harpoon in both her hands, feeling it begin to break up with her touch.  Once again, she felt previously unknown knowledge flow into her mind as her left arm became a black and blue replica of it. 

“ Hey sharky! ” She yelled, stepping out into the open, the beast took notice of her and began swimming toward her, “ Get a load of this! ”

As the shark approached, she fired the harpoon from her arm.  It launched through the water and ripped into the shark’s gills, still attached to Virus by a chain.   The beast let out a low, sour cry when the weapon pierced its flesh, dark blood began to spill from the wound and float upwards.  

“ How's it feel to be one in danger! ” Virus yelled as she retracted the chain back into her arm, ripping it from the shark.

It whined a little, before slowly swimming off in defeat. 

“ And don’t come back! ” Virus yelled, hands on her hips.  Or, hand really.  She looked down at her weaponized appendage, getting an idea.  

… 

Once again, Virus fired her harpoon into the depths of the sea.  Watching the chain descend into the seemingly endless water…  She felt it stab into something, then began retracted it.  A fish now stuck to the tip.  

“ That should be enough… ” She said, shifting her hand back to normal, than putting it on a small pile of fish.  She figured it would be enough to last her a few days, at least enough for her to use Virus’s computer brain to fix the pod.  

The mechamorph turned to a small, metal dish filled with sticks she’d fished from the sea.  She may not know who she is, but she definitely wasn’t stupid enough to eat raw fish of an unknown species… too bad they were her only food.

As the nemetrix once again started beeping, she lightly blasted the sticks to start a small blaze, just enough to cook some food.  

In a flash of red, she was human once more.  

She sighed, taking another stick and attaching a fish to it, beginning to roast it over the fire.  She leaned toward her small flame, as she saw the sun begin to set on the horizon.  Despite a Close, bright, and visible moon in the sky, it would be dark soon.  

“Guess it’s eat up, get some sleep, then get to work in the morning…” Mari said to herself as the alien sun when down.  She kept her eyes on the cooking fish, making sure not to burn it.  

The teen heard a faint whining from the corner of the pod.  She turned to see Kyhber’s dog still in the corner, looking at her with longing eyes…

It was pretty easy to tell that it was hungry.  Mari looked at her pile of fish, she weighed her options.  She knew there was nothing more dangerous than a hungry animal, heck she’d already had a run in with one today.  And while she was still a little mad about the biting, at the end of the day, it was just a dog.  I likely didn’t know any better.  

Ultimately, she threw the dog one of the fish, figuring it the best option.  

The dog noticed, sniffing at the food.  It took a hesitant bite, eating up the fish.  Mari chose to do the same with the one she was cooking.  It tasted… odd… that was for sure.  Not exactly bad, just strange… 

After finishing it, she put the rest on a second dish, which she put on the ships dashboard.   She figured it was time to hit the hay.   

She laid down, it was much darker now.  Only the distant moon and the fire providing any light.  And without light, it was also much colder.   She shivered a bit, even through her hoodie the wind was cold.  

Then came a warm sensation, she looked down to her side.  Seemingly, Khyber’s mutt had come up to her side… She decided not to question it.  She gently pet the purple dog’s head, feeling it’s tail lightly wag into her leg.  

After that, she slipped into peaceful sleep…

… 

When morning rolled around, the sky was littered with grey-blue clouds.  Mari ignored it as she readied some breakfast.  Same as last night, one fish for her and one for the dog.  

The dog was a lot calmer this morning… guess it just needed to eat.  The teen gave her a scratch behind the ear.  The dog may have been odd, and reptilian, but she was still a dog…

“You aren’t as mean as you let on, huh?” Mari asked the purple canine, as if it would respond.  Though, a response did come, in the form of a lick to the girl’s face, “hey!  Quit it, that tickles!” 

She laughed as the alien dog licked her.  

“Ok, ok…” She said, “Alright, doggo… huh… I don’t actually know your name, do I?” 

She racked her memory, she was sure Khyber had said the dogs name in the show at some point, but she was drawing a blank.  Oh well, she needed to call her something. 

The human looked to the sky, this planet’s moon was still visible… 

“Hey… you’re a hunting dog… how about… Artemis?” Mari asked.  The dog tilted her head, “Yeah… I like it.  Artemis.” 

Evidently she also knew about greek mythology… eh, it didn’t matter.  She had work to do.   

“I’ll be back,” She said, getting up, leaving Artemis behind.  

She brought her arm forward.  Fiddling with the nemetrix, she once again changed into Virus. The now mechamorph looked out at the horizon, bracing herself to dive.   The horizon however, caught her eye.  In the distance, storm clouds seemed to be gathering. 

“ Sea storm… that ain't good ,” She said, seeing the clouds would reach them before long, “ Better work fast. ” 

She dove into the water, immediately beginning to look for the wreckage.  It didn’t take long, and she soon began taking the ship appart, looking for anything that could fix the pod.  Her mental computer told her what still worked, thankfully a lot of the engines were still usable.  

She grabbed as much as her arms could carry and when back to the surface.  Dumping her quarry onto the door of the pod.  She began to look through it, seeing how it could be used.  She took a few pieces, and moved over to one of the broken engines.  

Her hands maneuvered the devices, following her mind’s instructions.  Guess being made out of tech made you good at working with it.  After doing an acceptable job merging the tech together, she took a sheet of metal, using her laser to weld it into place.  

She repeated this with a few more areas, before running out of tech.  She once again dove into the depths to recover parts.  

“ Haha, this is going better than I could have hoped! ” Virus said as she reached the wreckage, “ Let’s see… what else here can I use? ”  

She began to pick apart the wreckage.  Pulling anything that looked like it could be useful. 

“ That, this.  Ooh!  Definitely that! ” She said, picking up the scattered wreckage, “ And… what the? ”   

Among the tech seemed to be a box of sorts.  She picked it up, her internal computer couldn’t make heads or tails of it. 

“ What are you…? ” Virus looked it over, before her warning sign came up, “ hmm? ” 

She turned around to see the currents picking up.  The storm must have been approaching. 

“ Better head up before things go rough ,” the mechamorph said to herself, leaving the wreckage and swimming upward.

Little did she know, someone else was close by...  And they weren’t exactly friendly.  

… 

Virus surfaced a few minutes later, and paddled her way to the pod, just as the storm reached it.  She entered the crashed vessel, returning to her human form and dropping all the parts she brought. She closed the door before turning to the canine awaiting her.

“Hey girl, told you I’d be back,” Mari said, shutting the door to keep out the rain.  She scratched the alien canine’s ear, “we just have to wait out the storm then we can get this show on the road.” 

Artemis looked at her, obviously she didn’t understand the human, but who else was Mari supposed to talk to?  

“You hungry, artemis?” the girl asked.  That the dog understood, “yeah, let’s eat.”  

She walked over to where she’d kept the fish, throwing one of them to her companion.  She wouldn’t be able to cook her’s for a while, but she was patient… 

This little moment of peace was soon interrupted as the pod violently shook. 

“Storms getting rough…” Mari said, looking outside.  

Once again, the ship shook, making her believe it wasn’t the storm.  

“If it’s that shark again, I’m turning it into sushi!” She yelled, trying to get her bearings. 

Artemis began to growl, turning to the door.  Mari must have had dogs in her life, because she knew it meant trouble.  She felt the ship rock again, hearing metal creak from outside.  

Soon, three-fingered claws ripped through the door, prying it open.  Mari looked to her Nemetrix, knowing she’d be in for a fight.  Unfortunately, the device was still timed out.

“Come on, come on!” She said fiddling with it.  All it really did was turn the dial yellow, signalling it was now in capture mode… well, now she knew how to do that.  

But right now, he mind was on other things as whatever creature was on the other side of the door made its way in.  The creature seemed to be a large, humanoid crab.  With dark red shell armor and four digits on each hand.  It was covered in liquid pockets, some connecting to a breathing apparatus.  Just like with her former captors, Mari realised what this was, “Overflow?” 

“Zar recam lah!”  the alien said, in dialect the girl couldn’t understand.  

“Um… what?” she asked, confused at the crustacean's language.  

The alien pointed it’s arm at her threateningly, if she remembered correctly, the alien was planning to shoot a jet of condensed water at her, which would no doubt tear the girl to bits.  She had to think of something and fast.

“I don’t wann-” She was cut off when Artemis charged at the alien, before either of them knew what was happening. 

The canine bit down on part of the Overflow lookalike’s leg not covered by its shell.  It let out a screech as it kicked the dog away, blue blood spilling from it’s wound, which had its attention.

Artemis winced as she hit the side of the pod.  

“Artemis!” Mari leaped to her companions side.  The alien dog seemed fine, just rattled.  Her mouth covered in the blood of her victim, “come on, don’t do that!  You’re all I’ve got out here!” 

As she moved her hand to check the dog, some of the blood spilt onto the nemetrix.  The device seemingly absorbed the liquid, returning to its red color.

“ Cascan DNA sample obtained ,” the watch chimed, the silhouette of the alien attacker showing on the dial.  

“New alien,” Mari said as she faced the Crustacean. It had seemingly recovered and was once again taking aim.  The girl narrowed her eyes, “Time to fight water… With water!” 

She slammed down on the watch’s face.  Once again, she was engulfed in a red light, but this time it felt different.  Rather than liquifying she felt her skin harden into a shell, expanding and becoming thicker.  Next thing she knew, she was her opponent's match.

Mari had become a female Cascan, with a purple, spikery shell.  Around her wrists were spiked bangles, similar to the Nemetrix’s design.  Speaking of, the device was once again placed on her chest, just below her breathing tube.

“Oh, you are in for it now!” the now Cascan said, aiming her own arm cannons.  

“How did you do that?!  How are you suddenly a Cascan?” the Alien demanded. 

“I… wait, I can understand you now?” the former human questioned.  

Before she could get an answer, the other cascan aimed his arms backward using a jet of water to propel himself into her and pin her to the wall. 

“Answer me, Shapeshifter!” the cascan yelled. 

She struggled to free herself from the alien’s grip.

“Get… OFF ME!” She blasted him off with her own jet of water, knocking him outside the pod, hearing a splash.  She looked to her canine companion, who also seemed to have recovered, “Stay here, Artemis… Riptide’s got this.” 

The newly dubbed, “Riptide” leaped outside into the drink, immediately looking for her attacker.  The water wasn’t as cold this time, now it was actually pretty nice, if it weren't for the rough currents at least.

She used her water cannons to stabilize herself, looking for her missing attacker may have gone.  

“Where’d you do, crabface?” she asked herself.  

Suddenly, a light shown behind her.  She turned to see a large, metal, crab shaped vessel.  In the windshield of the ship, she could see her attacker, piloting it.  

“I will retrieve my treasure, Shapeshifter!” the cascan said over a speaker, the claws of the vessel moving toward her, “... Even if I have to rip you apart to get it!” 

“Ugh, the bad guys always get the good shit,” Riptide sighed.  

She propelled herself out of the way of the attack.  Unfortunately, while underwater her own attacks were weakened, she’d need to rely on dodging for now.  

Again and again, she dodged the claws, fighting against the current to avoid her capture.  Unfortunately, her luck soon ran out, as the claws finally caught her. 

“AH!  Can’t we talk about this?” She screeched as the metal attempted to crush her shell. 

“There’s nothing to talk about!  You stole my cascan pearls, you slimy shapeshifter!” the Cascan yelled at her, “I saw you take them from their hiding place just before the storm!” 

“Pearls… wait, that box…”  Riptide said, realizing what he was talking about, “THIS IS OVER A BOX OF ROCKS!?!”

“You know nothing of the form you possess, Cascan pearls can be made into indestructible armor, you fool,” the Cascan said, tightening his vessel’s grip. 

Riptide groaned as the mecha claws crushed her.  She needed out of this, “Come on Riptide, you gotta have something for this…”

With no other options, she did the first thing to pop into her head.  She began to take in water, her pockets expanding as she did.  She figured Cascans needed to refill these, looks like she was right.  As the water sacks increased in mass, the claw’s grip began to loosen, just enough for her to free her arms. 

Riptide smirked as she aimed her water cannons at the arm of the sub.  She fired all the water she had just absorbed, the shear force of the current she created was enough to tear the arm off.  

The human turned cascan pried herself from the claw, staring her attacker in the eye. 

“Get lost,” she said, before aiming her cannons in different directions and firing.  The opposing jets caused her to begin to spin, faster and faster.  Soon enough she had created her own whirlpool.  

The cascan’s eyes widened as his ship became caught in the current, spinning around helplessly.  

When she felt she’d let him spin long enough, Riptide ceased her attack, sending the crab-like sub flying off into the distance.

“AND DON’T COME BACK!” She yelled as it left her sight.  After a moment to ensure he indeed wasn’t coming back, she returned to the surface, pleasantly surprised to see the storm passing.

She reentered the ship, shifting back to Mari, and once again being greeted by Artemis.  

“He’s gone, girl…” She said, looking at her watch, now timed out, “Let’s blow this pop stand.” 

… 

It had been nearly two days since they lost the pod, and Khyber was beginning to grow tired of waiting.  His gaze was fixed on the blue planet below.  

“She still has one day, Khyber,” Phychobos said, looking at some kind of tablet.  

“Do you think she’s dead?” Khyber asked, “I mean, she’s human.  Such a weak species left with no supplies, it’s not lik-” 

Whatever he was about to say, was cut off as a ship bolted from the planet’s atomosphere, jolting passed them.  

“Hmm, and with a day to spare,” Phychobos said with a grin. 

Khyber smirked as he brought the controls to the ship up, “Let the hunt begin.”