Battle Heroes X Vetera: S01E01

Commotion in the Ocean is the first episode of Battle Heroes X Vetera and the pilot of the series. The episode's plot involves Julius, Zack, Cloud and Popple returning to action when a mysterious force enters Earth.

The heroes return to action.

## The Episode

Commander Roy walked through the halls of the SPD base, heading for the elevators. As Commander of the Earth Branch, it's his job to run the branch and help defend Earth from any and all threats. In recent years, there have been relatively few dangers to the planet. Bane proved to be a dangerous foe, but Julius, Zack, Cloud and Popple prevailed and defeated the villain. He hoped that after Bane’s imprisonment, Earth would enjoy some peace and downtime, at least for a year or two. The day started out normal enough. Well, as normal as his job allowed. A few meetings in the morning with a briefing on new technologies afterwards. The Space Commander now stood in a large room filled with technicians on computers. At the front of the room was a large monitor which displayed live footage of the Earth.  He hoped that whatever he had been called down here for wasn’t another evil. Even if it was, he had no doubts in his mind that it could be taken care of. When he glanced at the monitor, his demeanor switched to tension. The source? A massive purple cloud hovering over Earth.

Roy turned to a technician next to him. “What do we know so far?”

“Very little, sir. It’s composed entirely of an unknown energy source. We are currently running scans to identify what it is.”

Roy nodded. “Good. The sooner the better.”

On the monitor, part of the cloud broke off and began drifting towards Earth. Roy’s tension was replaced with fear.

Pulling up a communicator, he spoke into it. “Ready a transport,” Roy turned back to the technician. “Calculate its touchdown location and send the results to me.” He raced out of the room.

On Earth, a certain group of teenagers were taking advantage of the nice weather. Julius, Zack, Cloud and Popple were at the beach, enjoying their summer. A lot of other people had the same idea, because the beach was particularly full today.

The four sat under their umbrella, eating ice cream. Cloud licked his vanilla with sprinkles and let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, man. I am sooooo relaxed right now,” He announced, turning to Julius who had a cone of green tea ice cream. “Julius, how relaxed are you feeling right now?”

After a few seconds, Julius replied. “...Cloud, I’m so relaxed, I almost forgot the question.”

“That’s the spirit, Julius,” Cloud said as he now looked to Popple. “How’re you doing?”

Popple licked her blueberry ice cream and smiled. “I’m so relaxed, Cloud. We really needed this break.”

“What about you, Zack?”

Zack finished his chocolate ice cream and grinned. “I’m in heaven right now, Cloud. No Bane, no world threatening dangers, just four friends enjoying their summer.”

“Amen to that, brother.”

Meanwhile on the other side of the beach, a young couple chased each other in the deeper water away from other people.

“I'm gonna get you, Felicia!” The man said, swimming after his girlfriend.

“No you won't, Marcus!” The girl named Felicia called back as she fled her boyfriend. She stopped swimming and froze when she felt something brush against her underwater.

“Marcus, did you feel that?” Felicia asked as she stopped moving in the water.

“Other than the roar of the waves, nothing, babe,” Marcus said as he caught up to her and embraced Felicia in his arms, beginning to kiss her neck.

“I’m serious, babe. Something’s not right,” Felicia said in between giggles as Marcus kept kissing her.

“You’re just a little wound up. Let me loosen you up,” Marcus finally made his way up to her face and kissed her.

“A-alright, babe,” Felicia kissed him as he held her in his arms.

This romantic moment was then interrupted by something large bumping into Felicia, sending the two lovebirds off balance and sprawling into the water. Marcus resurfaced first.

“What the hell was that? Felicia? Felicia!!” Marcus yelled, looking around frantically.

“I’m right here, Marcus!” Felicia screamed back, now a distance away from him in deeper waters.

“Hang tight, babe! I’m coming!” Marcus began swimming towards her. Behind Felicia, what had bumped her was now torpedoing through the water at a rapid pace towards her. Felicia began to wave about wildly in the water before being pulled down into the water.

Back on the other side of the beach, Zack had finished his ice cream and gotten up. He was eyeing the volleyball court, where a group of people were gathering to play. “Who’s up for a game of volleyball?” He asked.

Cloud got up as well. “Sounds like fun, Zack. I’m in!”

Popple had also gotten up. She held a tackle box and a fishing rod. “I’m gonna have to pass on that offer. Julius and I really wanna try fishing today.”

Zack shrugged. “Your losses. Cloud and I are gonna dominate the competition!”

“You said it!” The boys high-fived and walked to the volleyball court. Julius and Popple began walking in the other direction. She watched the crystal blue tide lap against her feet, then return to the ocean. “I’m glad we went out today. The weather's great and the water looks beautiful.”

“Not as beautiful as a certain someone I know,” Julius replied. Popple’ eyes lit up and she smiled. "You're so sweet, Julius."

He got closer to her and cupped her left cheek in his hand. “Not as sweet as you.” Julius and Popple leaned in to kiss.

A high pitched scream of agony shattered the moment as the two stopped what they were doing. The scream was loud enough that those around them were also interrupted.

“Huh?!”

“What’s going on?”

“I think it came from over there!” Someone said, pointing in the direction opposite of where Julius and Popple came from. People began flocking in that direction.

“What the hell was that?” Julius and Popple turned around to see Zack followed by Cloud jog over to them.

“No clue, we were just walking along the beach when we heard a scream,” Popple explained, a concerned look on her face. Looking ahead, Cloud caught a glimpse of two people near the shore. The water around them was crimson red.

“Oh, crap…” He uttered. Zack, Julius and Popple turned around and saw what had caught his attention. A man was dragging a woman onto the shore. Blood leaked from her leg. All four of the teens ran closer to examine the scene. The woman’s leg was bloody and wounded. Now a crowd of people formed in a semi-circle in front of the couple.

“OH MY GOD!”

“Are you okay?”

“Is that what I think it is?!”

A whistle could be heard in the distance.

“Clear up! Make way people!” Two men in white shirts and red shorts jostled through the crowd and rushed to the injured woman. After some time, they got the woman on the stretcher and the people made way for them to exit.

“I’m sorry, everybody, but the beach is closed for today! Looks like you’re gonna have to leave,” A lifeguard announced. The crowd was quick to disperse and in no time, everyone was off the beach and going home. Julius, Zack, Cloud and Popple walked home sullenly.

Julius sighed. “So much for a day at the beach. What could have happened to that woman that her leg was cut up like that?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Zack began. “She got bit by a shark.”

As the heroes crossed the street, a black SUV with tinted windows drove next to them and the back door opened, revealing a familiar face.

“Afternoon, Rangers.” Roy greeted.

“Space Commander Roy!” Julius stood to attention.

“You know you don’t have to do that every time we see him, right?” Zack told Julius.

“You all need to get in, there are urgent matters that we need to talk about.”

Julius, Zack, Cloud and Popple got in the back and the car continued to drive.

Cloud looked around the interior of the SUV. “Y’know...I had a dream about Roy telling us to get into his car. Except in the dream, there was candy.”

Roy raised his eyebrows. “Huh...anyway, were you four at the beach this afternoon?”

“Yeah, why?” Zack asked.

“Then you must have seen the woman who was attacked, correct?”

“Yeah. She was attacked by a shark, right?”

“If only it were as simple as that,” Roy said, picking up a laptop on the floor and opening it up. Typing into it, he then showed the heroes the screen, which displayed the same footage of Earth from earlier.

Julius pointed to the purple cloud. “What’s that thing?”

“As of now, no idea. All we know so far is that it appeared in our atmosphere and a few hours before the ‘shark’ attack, a piece of it broke off and fell to Earth, where this happened…” Roy fast forwarded the footage and now the heroes were looking at the ocean. They could see a shark’s fin moving about in the water. As they watched it, a black shadowy mass landed directly on top of the shark, turning the water around it pitch black. Shortly after, the pitch black seemed to literally retract into the shark. The fin disappeared in the water. Ten seconds later, the shark jumped out of the water and into the air with something just as large as it was in its jaws. Fowler paused the footage and the heroes saw the infected shark biting down on the neck of another shark. When the shark started tearing apart the other, Roy shut down the recording.

“Whatever that substance is, it put the shark into a feeding frenzy. After that, it swam in the direction of the beach and attacked that poor girl.”

“So you want us to take down the shark?” Zack guessed.

“Not exactly. Scientists at SPD Base want to investigate the inner workings of the cloud. This is the perfect opportunity to do so. Your task is to bring the shark in non-lethally.”

All four heroes raised an eyebrow skeptically. “You sure it wouldn’t be better to just kill it, then bring it in?” Cloud suggested, summoning one of his blasters.

“We don’t know what will happen to the substance if whatever it is inside of dies. Deliver it to us alive. No disintegration,” Roy stated. Cloud dismissed his blaster. The heroes felt the SUV stop. “In light of your task, the four of you have been issued the necessary resources,” Roy said as he opened the door and exited the vehicle. The heroes followed suit. The SUV had returned to the beach and parked next to a small dock. There was a search boat on the water.

“It may not look like much, but it’ll serve you well. You’ve also been issued non-lethal weapons for this mission. They should be in your weapon databases. Good luck, rangers.”

“Hey, commander! If we do a good job here, how about something cooler next time?” Cloud asked as Roy walked away. He got back in the SUV and it drove away from the beach.

Zack walked to the SPD boat and climbed aboard. “Alright, guys. We’ve got a shark to catch.”

Later on, the boat was out in the water. Zack adjusted the steering wheel and exited the cockpit. On the deck, Cloud and Popple were examining their weapons databases. Cloud was summoning weapons, eyeing them for a few seconds, then groaning and dismissing them. Currently, he held a small pistol.

“A peashooter?” He put it away, then summoned a small club. “A baton? Man, this is ridiculous! We’re going against that shark with these?”

“You heard Roy, Cloud. We gotta bring it in for *science*,” Zack rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I know. Couldn't we at least use something stronger?"

"We can't take any chances, Cloud. If that stuff in space can send a shark into a cannibalistic frenzy, we have to know everything about it," Popple explained. She closed her database, having decided on a ranged weapon with a scope.

Julius climbed up from below deck, dragging a CPR dummy by the feet behind him. A rope was tied around its torso.

"What the heck is that?" Zack asked.

"How we're gonna lure in that shark," Julius answered, opening his weapons database and taking out a silver object. "The shark is savage right? We'll take advantage of that by tricking it with this dummy! When it bites down..." He slapped the silver object onto the mannequin and electricity surrounded the torso. "...The adhesive shock grenade will knock it out!" After explaining, Julius tied the rope to the boat and tossed the decoy in the water.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Cloud said as he summoned a shoulder-mounted cannon. His dismay turned in glee. "Ooh wee, this is what I'm talking about!"

Zack watched Cloud and couldn't help but smile at his excitement. "Who do you guys think is causing our weather problem in space?"

"Who else? It's obviously Bane," Julius said.

Zack shook his head. "There’s no way Bane could be behind this. He’s locked in the SPD base, remember? Top-tier security. He’s going nowhere.”

Popple got up and began scanning the water for any shark-like motion. "I don't think a *who* caused it. More like a *what*." She looked through the scope of her weapon. Quite a distance away, Popple made out the fin of a shark moving towards the ship. The fin was a dark purple color. "And that what is coming it's way to us!"

Julius, Zack, and Cloud looked at the horizon. Indeed, there was a shark fin advancing.

"Alright, remember, all we have to do is wait for the shark to bite the mannequin, then when it's hurting from the shark, neutralize it!" Julius explained.

The shark stopped beside the boat and plunged into the water. The heroes watched anxiously. Julius looked at the line and it was being yanked.

"Any second now..." He said.

The yanking didn't stop. It continued to the point where the entire boat started to tip over. All four heroes fell on their sides and were about to slide off the edge of the boat and into the water!

"Cut the line, Julius!" Popple yelled frantically.

Julius summoned one of his blasters and fired it at the line. The shot broke it and the ship tipped in the other direction, maintaining balance.

Cloud got to his feet first. "What kind of shark is that?! It almost tipped the entire boat over!"

Something dark and large shot out of the water and into the air. The heroes gazed upon the shark in awe. Its skin was a sickly violet color with black pulsating veins. In its jaws was the mannequin, electricity pumping out of it. The shock trap seemed to be activated, but it wasn't working.

"That's my kind of shark!" Zack answered, a hint of excitement in his voice. "Looks like your plan didn't work out after all, Julius."

"Yeah, I'm painfully aware of that," Julius groaned.

The boat shook with the impact of something ramming it. Underwater, the shark reeled back from hitting the boat and looked about itself. It quickly swam deeper in the water and came back hold a boulder in its jaws. Picking up speed, it rammed into the bottom of the boat. Back on the surface, the heroes fell back on the ground.

A holographic display materialized on Julius' forearm. He groaned again when he read the feed. "The hull is taking damage?!"

"We have to do something soon, or we'll be dead in the water!" Popple exclaimed. She glanced frantically around the boat before finally resting her eyes on Julius. "That's it! Julius, give me your chum!"

Julius' eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He became extremely flustered. "W-what...Popple? How...Popple! This isn't the time for--" He shook his head. "OHHH, you said chum! I thought you said--you know what, I'm gonna shut up!" Nearly tripping himself, he ran below deck and returned with the chum bucket. Once handed to her, Popple dumped its contents overboard. The pieces of fish floated in the water, turning it a shade of pink.

"Remember when we saw the shark go into that feeding frenzy? Well, let's hope that it's still hungry!" The ship was rammed again and the heroes anxiously waited. After some time, the shark emerged in the midst of the chum-covered water. It swam about in it, mouth wide open to consume the fish.

Cloud picked up his cannon and grinned like a madman. "Ohhh yeah! Time to bag us a shark!"

The other got their weapons as well and aimed. Julius counted down. "Ready...aim...FIRE!"

They all fired their weapons at the shark, landing direct hits. The shark roared in pain and turned back to the ship. It charged ferociously at the ship. Cloud squeezed the trigger of his cannon and the barrel began rotating. Inside of it, a yellow sphere of energy began charging up. The projectile shot out of the weapon, the recoil knocking him down. It hit the shark and the creature veered off course. Slowing down, the defeated shark floated on its side in the water, unmoving but still breathing. The heroes breathed a sighed of relief.

Cloud remained on the floor, raising his fists in the air. "That. Was. AMAZING!"

Julius, Zack, and Popple turned to him and lightened up a little.

Back on the mainland, Commander Roy watched as members of SPD began the process of transporting the shark. Restraints covered its entire body and a forklift was being used to lift it out of the water and into a large tank. Julius, Zack, Cloud, and Popple sat on the sidelines.

Roy walked over to them. "Good work neutralizing the shark. I hope it didn't give you too much trouble."

Julius scratched the back of his head. "That shark was scary. *Really* scary."

Zack looked at the shark being lowered into the tank. "We've been out of action, and it definitely showed."

Cloud grinned. "I got to fire a cannon!"

Popple nodded her head. "I'm just glad we're all alive and safe. Is there any news on what the weird weather in space is?"

"Unfortunately, no. Now that we have the shark, however, more information should be available soon. In the meantime, you four should go home and..." Roy's voice trailed off as he looked up to the sky. The teens followed his eyes and saw that above them, a violet cloudy mass could faintly be made out forming in the atmosphere.