Chapter 174: I Already Have a Dog
The coastal highway stretched out like a ribbon of gray beneath the bright morning sun, flanked by the sparkling ocean on one side and rolling hills on the other.
"Woohoo! I am a man of the wind!" Kevin hollered, his hands gripping the steering wheel of his sleek sports car as the engine roared.
Klein sat slouched in the passenger seat, the window rolled all the way down. He rested his arm lazily on the door frame, letting the rushing sea breeze ruffle his hair.
"Awesome! This is exactly what driving should feel like!" Kevin cheered, shifting gears as the car tore down the empty stretch of road.
The two of them had just wrapped up a highly lucrative business deal earlier that morning. With their pockets full and their spirits high, even the glaring sunlight and the salty air felt perfect on their journey home.
Just as Klein closed his eyes to enjoy the ride, a faint, rhythmic wailing sound drifted into his ears.
Wee-woo. Wee-woo.
Klein cracked one eye open. Hmm?
The sound grew louder, sharper. Hmm?!
"Damn it! Kevin! There is a police car chasing us! Drive faster!" Klein barked, reaching over and slapping the back of Kevin's head to snap him out of his joyride trance.
"Ow... huh? Oh, oh! No problem, Boss!" Kevin rubbed his head, blinking in momentary confusion before his street-racing instincts kicked in. He slammed his foot down hard on the accelerator.
The sports car lurched forward, the tires screeching against the asphalt as it practically flew down the highway.
Glancing at the side mirror, Klein watched as a sleek, black-and-green police cruiser accelerated to match their sudden burst of speed. Strangely, there was no driver visible behind the wheel.
Kevin gripped the steering wheel tight, his eyes darting between the road and the rearview mirror. He executed every racing maneuver he knew, drifting around wide curves and weaving across the lanes, pushing the engine to its absolute limit. Yet, no matter how recklessly he drove, the black-and-green cruiser stayed glued to their tail, matching every swerve with flawless precision.
After several long minutes of high-speed evasion, Klein watched the relentless cruiser in the mirror and let out a long sigh. He gave up.
Seeing Klein slump back into his seat with a look of total apathy, Kevin grew confused. "Boss, the police are still chasing us."
Klein rolled his eyes. 'Have you ever seen me afraid of any planet's police force? I just watched too many action movies lately and my first instinct was to run.'
Waving his hand dismissively, Klein settled deeper into the leather seat. "Pull over. At most, it is just a speeding ticket. We just made a massive profit today, so there is no need to panic over some pocket change."
He shot Kevin a sideways glance. "If push comes to shove, I will handle it. What are you so scared of?"
His tone heavily implied that Kevin was an amateur who had not seen enough of the universe, getting flustered over a simple traffic pursuit.
Kevin gripped the steering wheel, his jaw twitching. He desperately wanted to point out that Klein was the one who slapped him and screamed at him to run just five minutes ago. But out of sheer respect for his boss's terrifying authority, he swallowed his complaints and kept his mouth shut.
"Pull over," Klein repeated calmly. "Let us see what they actually want with us."
Hearing the order, Kevin eased off the gas and smoothly guided the sports car onto the shoulder of the highway, bringing it to a halt.
The black-and-green police cruiser pulled up right behind them, parking with robotic perfection.
As Klein stepped out of the passenger side, he finally took a good look at the cruiser's unusual paint job. The black surface was laced with glowing green circuitry patterns. "Wait a minute. Is this a police car possessed by a Galvanic Mechamorph?"
Hearing the alien species name, Kevin stepped out of the driver's side, his eyes narrowing as he noticed the unnatural, liquid-like texture of the car's exterior.
The two of them approached the vehicle cautiously.
"Alright," Klein called out, crossing his arms. "What do you want with us?"
The moment he spoke, the black-and-green metallic surface of the police car began to ripple and peel away. The liquid metal pooled onto the asphalt, rapidly shifting and condensing until it formed a small, dog-like creature. It had two front legs, a small tail, and a round head with a single glowing green ring for a face.
Klein stared down at the puddle-sized alien, his expression flat. "Is this... a Galvanic Mechamorph dog?"
"Ship! Ship!" the creature barked happily, bounding forward and aggressively rubbing its smooth, metallic head against Klein's leg.
"Alright, alright, Ship, is it? I will call you Ship. Now, what do you want with us?" Klein asked, looking mildly annoyed as he used the side of his shoe to gently nudge the overly affectionate alien away from his pants.
The very second he finished his sentence, the Another Omnitrix on Klein's wrist and the Plumber's badge hidden in Kevin's pocket simultaneously erupted into a frantic, high-pitched beeping.
"What does this mean? It has never done this before," Kevin muttered, pulling the glowing Plumber's badge from his pocket and staring at it in confusion.
"It is a distress signal," Klein answered immediately. Having wandered the cosmos for years, he recognized the emergency frequency without a second thought.
He looked back down at the little metal dog. "Are you the one sending us a distress signal?"
"Ship!" The creature nodded its round head with frantic excitement.
Klein rubbed his chin, weighing the potential hassle against the potential reward. He finally nodded. "Alright. Take us there."
"Ship, Ship!" The little alien rubbed against Klein's leg one last time before leaping back onto the hood of the regular police car. Its body liquefied, spreading rapidly over the chassis until the vehicle was once again coated in black-and-green circuitry.
"Kevin, get in. Follow it," Klein ordered, already sliding back into the passenger seat.
Kevin scrambled around the hood and jumped into the driver's seat, firing up the engine.
The Galvanic Mechamorph cruiser peeled out onto the highway, with Kevin's sports car roaring right behind it.
They drove in tandem for several miles until the cruiser suddenly veered off the main road, braking hard near the edge of a dense, sprawling forest.
Kevin parked the sports car right behind it. As they stepped out, Klein immediately noticed a massive, jagged hole smashed through the steel guardrail, leading directly into the thick treeline. It was painfully obvious what had caused the damage.
The black-and-green metal peeled off the cruiser once more, reforming into Ship on the grassy shoulder.
"Ship!" the little alien barked, looking up at Kevin and Klein. It hopped a few times toward the broken guardrail, then paused, looking back over its shoulder to make sure they were following.
Klein and Kevin exchanged a brief glance before stepping through the mangled steel and following the little alien into the woods.
They trekked deep into the forest, pushing past broken branches and scorched earth until they reached a massive crater. Resting in the center of the destruction was a heavily damaged alien spacecraft, its hull smoking and torn open.
Through the jagged breach in the outer plating, Klein could see an adult Galvanic Mechamorph trapped inside a crackling, red energy containment field.
"Boss, he looks like he is in a pretty bad situation," Kevin noted, pointing down at the trapped alien.
"He is probably about to die, right?" Klein muttered, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the wreckage. "I wonder if he will drop any good equipment or rare items when he goes." He rubbed his hands together, looking entirely too mischievous for a rescue mission.
Hearing this, Ship began to panic, bouncing up and down frantically. "Ship, Ship! Ship!"
"Oh, right, we are actually here to save him," Klein said, feigning sudden realization. He waved a hand lazily toward the crater. "Go on, Kevin. Give him a hand."
"Alright, Boss." Kevin cracked his knuckles and stepped up to the damaged hull. He placed his hand against the exposed metal, absorbing its properties until his skin shifted into heavy, dark steel.
Lowering his shoulder, Kevin charged directly at the red energy field, trying to shatter it with brute force. However, the moment he made contact, the field flared violently, repelling him with a heavy shockwave. Kevin gritted his teeth, straining against the intense repulsion, but his progress was agonizingly slow.
Watching Kevin struggle, Klein sighed. He raised his wrist and slapped the dial of the Another Omnitrix.
A brilliant flash of light illuminated the forest canopy. Where Klein stood a moment ago, a tall, moth-like alien wrapped in a cloak of dark blue wings now hovered in the air. Big Chill.
The temperature plummeted as Big Chill drifted down into the crater, simply turning intangible and phasing effortlessly through the spaceship's reinforced hull.
"I... I cannot hold on much longer," the trapped Galvanic Mechamorph groaned, his single glowing eye flickering as he looked up at his savior.
"Relax, you are not going to die today," Big Chill replied, his voice echoing with an icy rasp.
Instead of immediately helping, Big Chill took a slow, deliberate lap around the interior of the wreckage, thoroughly scanning the area to confirm the source of the malfunction. He also took the opportunity to verify that there were absolutely no valuable treasures lying around. Finding nothing worth looting, he reached up and slapped the Omnitrix symbol resting on his chest.
Another flash of light flooded the cabin. The towering ice moth vanished, replaced by a tiny, gray-skinned alien with massive green eyes. Grey Matter.
"Alright, let me take a look at this mess," Grey Matter muttered, scurrying up a control panel. He stopped in front of a heavily damaged, black-and-red generator that was violently spitting out red electrical sparks.
He analyzed the circuitry for exactly two seconds. "Kevin, reach in and pull out those two thick wires on the left."
Hearing the order from outside the ship, Kevin pushed his metal-coated arm through the breach, grabbed the two specific cables Grey Matter pointed at, and yanked them hard.
The red energy field instantly collapsed with a dying hum. The generator stopped spitting sparks, powering down completely.
Grey Matter did not stop there. He squeezed his tiny body directly into the exposed chassis of the device, his hands moving in a blur as he rewired the fried components. Within moments, the angry red glow faded, and the device returned to a stable, healthy black-and-green hue.
His work finished, Grey Matter hopped out of the console. A ghostly blue light washed over his small frame, and he shifted back into Klein, landing smoothly on his feet. "Problem solved."
"Thank you. Thank you both so much," the Galvanic Mechamorph said, slowly picking himself up from the floor. He dusted off his liquid-metal body. "Let me explain what happened. Right before I lost consciousness during the crash, I expelled a small symbiotic organism from my own mass. You call it 'Ship'. I gave it a single command: find the nearest Plumber."
"Ship!" The little dog-like alien squeezed through the hull breach, bounding over to Klein and happily rubbing against his leg. 'That is me!'
"We are..." Kevin started to speak, about to clarify their identities, when Klein suddenly reached out and flicked him hard on the forehead.
"Ow!" Kevin winced, rubbing his head.
"Uh, strictly speaking, we are not actually Plumbers," Klein said, crossing his arms and staring the alien down. "So, what about the reward?"
The Galvanic Mechamorph froze, looking incredibly awkward. "Uh, Klein, perhaps you do not know me personally, but I certainly know who you are. You should know the creator of our species, Azmuth. Given your close working relationship with Azmuth, surely the reward would be..."
"Are you trying to get a free ride out of me?" Klein interrupted, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
The Galvanic Mechamorph panicked, waving his hands frantically. "No! No, of course not! How about this... I will give Ship to you as payment."
Klein stared at the alien in silence for a long moment. "Hmm..." He looked down at Ship, who was currently purring like a metallic engine while resting its head on his shoe. "I already have a dog."
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alright, I guess I will take him."
Hearing this, the Galvanic Mechamorph let out a massive sigh of relief, his posture slumping. "Thank you. Then, since you are already here, could I trouble you to help me repair the rest of my spaceship?"
"That is a separate price," Klein stated, his expression completely deadpan and utterly unfeeling.
The Galvanic Mechamorph stared at him in stunned silence. '...Fine. I will just fix it myself. It is not like I do not know how.'
Grumbling under his breath about greedy Earthlings, the alien turned around and began repairing the scorched control panels alone.
Having secured his payment, Klein turned on his heel and walked out of the wreckage. Kevin followed closely behind, with Ship happily trotting at their heels.
An hour later, they arrived back at Klein's house.
Klein pushed the front door open, stepping into the living room with Ship right behind him. "From now on, this will be your new home, Ship."
"Ship!" The little alien barked, its single eye glowing with extreme excitement as it bounded into the room.
Ship curiously wandered around the spacious living area, sniffing the furniture. Its gaze eventually landed on the corner of the room, where a massive, hulking Loboan was lazily sprawled out inside a ridiculously luxurious, custom-built doghouse.
The terrifying wolf alien cracked an eye open, staring at the tiny puddle of metal. It let out a low, questioning growl. 'Were you kidnapped too?'Ship happily shook its round head.'Ship!'
The massive Loboan froze, staring in absolute disbelief. What was wrong with this kid? He actually came here willingly!
The wolf alien rested its heavy head back on its paws, grumbling internally. It had been dragged here by absolute force back in the day, though it had to admit... the boss did provide excellent room and board.
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