The Pods Chapter 1 (Patreon)

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The Pods

Kevin knew he shouldn’t have done a job for Argit, but the money was soo good! How was he supposed to know what he was transporting, they get loose and Ben has to show up and help. It begins… Cockhugger Size Manipulation Ben/Male Harem

Chapter 1

Kevin was on his own today, already a bad sign.

Ben was called in by Grandpa Max to help train the new recruits. So the omnitrix hero was running drills with Cooper, Helen, Pierce, Manny, and Alan. With his powers and unorthodox tactics he could offer scenarios in combat one wouldn’t find in plumber text books. It was a win win, as Ben was even able to test out new aliens on them to see what they could do.

Grandma Verdonna was visiting Gwen, so the two were off on a mana training adventure. Even if Gwen wasn’t leaving to visit their home world, that didn’t mean Verdonna couldn’t train her when she visited.

So Kevin was on his own, and he had already worked on his car yesterday so he had loads of free time. Another bad sign. So with idle hands he called up Argit looking to score a job for some easy money. Argit had taken over as a broker, when he wasn’t ducking people wanting to either kill him or collect on what he owes.

Levin used to be a broker himself, but stopped when he went legit…mostly legit. Argit’s jobs/deals tended to be risky, as he’d sell anyone out if it benefited him. When it came to Kevin’s “friends” he had trouble figuring out who to trust. He saw Argit as a friend despite their odd/weird history.

“Kevin...what can I do for you?” Argit had that long draw in his voice, you could almost see that he was smirking.

“Sup Argit, got some free time. Was wondering if you’d like my help on a job?”

“A job huh?” Argit flipped through some papers, pretending to look, but moved to grab a specific file. “Well I might have something for ya. You still got that space craft?”

“The Rustbucket 3, yeah I got it.”

“Then I might have a job for you, I got this cargo that needs transported. I haven’t been able to move it through customs.”

“So you need my ship which has Plumber Clearance?” Kevin frowned. “What’s in this cargo?”

“Hey man I didn’t ask. I just was given the location of the ship, I collected the cargo and I’ve been unable to move it since.”

“You didn’t look? Not even a little peek?”

“No way man, curiosity killed the cat you know.” It was hard to tell if Argit was lying. “My contact said it was fine if I had to sit on the cargo for awhile, they paid me half to collect it, and said would pay me double when I could finally move it.”

“Double?!” Whoever wanted this cargo moved must have some deep pockets.

“What do you say Kev, help me move this cargo and I’ll cut you in for 10%!”

Levin twitched in annoyance. “Didn’t you already get a cut for this job, plus getting double for delivery. That seems pretty low. Cut me in for 50%!”

Argit chuckled. “It’s just business Kevin, should I really have to pay out more when I’m doing you a favor? I’ll give you 15% to do the job.”

“Considering you can’t move this cargo without me, I’d say the offer is still too low. 45%!”

“Come on Kev, buddy this job is so easy. 20%!”

“If it’s so easy, then you don’t need me then. 40%!”

“Kevin...please...for old times sake...do it for your buddy Argit. 25%!”

“You are right, for old times sake. 38%!”

“Hey!”

“Take it or leave it Argit!” He had to take it, he couldn’t get any other person to take the job. Even Rad Dudesman turned him down.

“Fine!” He really needed the cargo moved, and this really was his only way. “Just make sure your other friends don’t screw this up for us, this is a serious payday!”

“It’s fine, I got this!”

-x-

Kevin got in the Rustbucket 3 and went into space. He had the directions Argit gave him and reached the location. It was a decommissioned outpost on a moon of a planet that no longer carried any life or resources. “Perfect place to stash questionable goods, not a bad idea Argit.”

He put on a space suit and grabbed a gravity dolly. The cargo was right where Argit said it was. The dolly could move four containers at a time, so it was five trips altogether. It was a tad boring, move the dolly, load the dolly, move back to the ship, unload the dolly rinse and repeat. “A job is a job I guess.”

By the fifth trip, Kevin was slacking a bit, when he was loading the last containers, he moved to sit the last one up, but hadn’t put it fully into place. The container fell and popped open.

A strange ooze spilled all over the floor and a pod of some kind rolled out. Kevin’s eyes widened at the sight of it. He acted fast, quickly grabbing it and putting it in the container, closing it and putting it back into place properly.

The spill was cleaned up and he tossed the suit he was wearing into a decontamination chamber. Kevin raced to the cockpit and called Argit. “Hello Argit speaking.”

“Argit, what the hell did you send me to get?” He took off from the moon and began to fly at top speed.

“Did you open the containers?”

“No! I mean...one just fell over...listen Argit there was…”

“Upbupbup!” Argit cut him off. “I don’t wanna no, whatever is in those containers I don’t care, we just have to deliver them and hand them over, we get paid.”

“Argit listen!”

“You didn’t damage the merchandise did you, if you did any fines we get is coming out of your share.”

Kevin was having a bit of a freak out. He watched a lot of old tv, this included a lot of old black and white movies that came on after dark. Those old cheesy sci-fi movies from the 60’s 70’s and even the 80’s. It was funny how much they get wrong, but it was even crazier how much they get right.

He wasn’t scared of those old movies, he knew they were fake. Just when he saw that pod roll out, it sent chills down his spine. It looked so much like a thing from a horror movie he had seen about aliens it unnerved him.

The alien pods were the containers of a creature that brought ruin to everyone and everything in that movie. Kevin had seen plenty of alien life in his day, both in the null void and doing research he never saw anything like it before. So it was pushed in the back of his mind that it was just something made up to scare people. ‘It’s just a movie...it’s just a coincidence…’

He took some deep breaths. “Kevin are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just contact your client and tell them I’m on my way. We need to do a hand off and get paid as fast as possible.”

“That’s what I like to hear, relax Kevin, this score is huge, easy money!”

“Right...easy money…” The call ended, but Kevin’s grip on the steering wheel didn’t lessen. He wasn’t a stranger to space travel, the calm and quiet could almost be peaceful, but right now he was just feeling really alone. The worst kind of feeling to have especially in a horror movie situation.

Space, vast and quiet, he knew how long it would take to get back home, but he suddenly felt it wasn’t fast enough. Just as he felt he could finally be calm and at ease…

Bang!

The noise ruptured the quiet. Kevin knew it was coming from the cargo area. That deep chill suddenly spread and Kevin shivered. ‘Calm down...calm down...calm down…’ The ship was set to auto pilot. He got up and grabbed a blaster.

If the container just fell over again, it’d be no big deal, though the raven hybrid was sure he had secured the cargo and there was no turbulence to cause a stir.

He checked the source of the noise and there was a container, open and a trail of ooze leaking out of it. Kevin checked inside and saw the pod was still in there, but the pod was open. Whatever was inside the pod had gotten out.

Kevin followed the trail of ooze, whatever this was moved fast. “Oh no…” The trail reached a ventilation port. “It’s in the vents!”

Suddenly the power flickered and and Kevin could feel the ship slow down. “Crap!” He rushed back over to the console and found it covered in slime. Everything was caked in the stuff causing buttons to be jammed and the system to go nuts.

Automatic pilot was still engaged but it faulted causing the ship to stop. Automatic could turn off the ships engines for the sake of docking and landing, that feature seemed to be triggered and now Kevin was stuck. Because of the slime and jammed mechanisms Levin wasn’t able to turn off auto pilot to get the engines going again.

He had also didn’t install a plumber badge override in this rig, seeing as how Michael and Aggregor had stolen plumber tech and manipulated ships with a badge before.

What was worse is with the system shorted out he couldn’t use the ship communicator to call for help. The lights flickered again. Kevin was more on edge than before. ‘What the hell is this thing?’

It took him a moment. “Wait the plumber badge!” Plumber badges had a communicator and tracker for certain situations. A long range feature was applied if you knew the code for the device. Kevin knew one code by heart Ben’s omnitrix.

“Ben, listen to me, I’m stranded…” A creature observed Kevin. “I was doing a job, moving some cargo, and whatever it was got out, I’m in trouble, please come!” The message was being recorded, and Kevin was about to give his location when the creature jumped at him.

Kevin opened fired, shooting at the alien creature and while the force pushed it back it didn’t seem to harm it as it scurried away. In the attack Levin accidentally ended the recording and the message was sent. “He’ll find me...I know he will.”

He went to a wall console and activated the quarantine procedure, a wall came down blocking him from the cargo area. “I’ll be fine...I just gotta wait for Ben.” The quarantine procedure even sealed the vents, or tried to, the strange ooze seemed to keep the vents open...just enough…

A strange mist began to leak into the room…

To be continued