Megas XLR:

The Last of the Tygrins

Chapter 1: First Encounter

"Why are we here again?" Jamie complained as he stumbled over another branch. Coop, Jamie, and Kiva were in Allamunchy State Park, and Jamie had been complaining about the lack of civilization since they arrived.

"For the millionth time, we are here because our sensors registered an extraterrestrial being arrive in this vicinity yesterday," Kiva explained in an exasperated tone. "Besides, don't you and Coop have a project to do for your conservation class at school?"

"Why we even signed up for that dumb class, I'll never know," Jamie mumbled.

"Look at it this way, Jamie," Coop said. "The sooner we're done here, the sooner we can go home." Jamie shrugged and continued to follow his friends. Suddenly, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. When he turned his head to get a better look, however, all he saw was trees.

As the trio walked by, they were unaware of the unseen creature hidden up in the treetops, concealed by the dense leaves and branches, its crystal yellow eyes never once moving off them. They were unaware that this creature had been following them since they arrived, and could never have known that very soon, they would confront with this creature.

An hour later, the group decided to stop for lunch. Kiva couldn't help but roll her eyes as Coop pulled out an armload of cheese-steaks dripping with bacon grease out of his bag, and kept all but two for himself. These, he offered to Kiva and Jamie. They were about to start eating when a strange, crunching noise rang out through the forest, almost a large object had fallen from out of the sky.

"What was that?" Kiva quickly turned toward the noise. "That was too big to be a squirrel."

"Hey, don't look at me," Coop replied.

"There's a reason we live in cities and not out in the middle of nowhere, Kiva," Jamie retorted. "It's so we wouldn't have to be bothered by strange noises in the woods."

"Stay here." Kiva ordered, as she went off to investigate the sound.

"Kiva, wait!" Coop yelled as he hurried after her. "Didn't you ever see The Flare Warlock Documentary? You never go off alone."

"Hey, what about me?" Jamie called after them, but to no avail. Instead, he sat there sulking, until he felt an eerie sensation that something was watching him. Fearfully, Jamie stood up and looked around. When he didn't see anyone, however, he relaxed, until he felt someone's breath on the back of his neck. He quickly turned around and saw a pair of crystal yellow eyes level with his. Jamie stumbled back, screaming, and tripped over a branch. The strange creature that had appeared behind him simply stared at Jamie.

"Yaganagh noaga Gloratatan," the creature blinked. Jamie looked at the creature. Whatever it was, it resembled a human dressed in a raggedy old garment, except it had a cat-like tail, two strange dreadlocks attached to its skull, and tufts of fur growing out of it's elbows. The creature's body was so caked with mud and muck that it was hard to tell anything else about it. Slowly, the creature approached Jamie, with an intensely curious look in its eyes. Defensively, Jamie held out a hand to keep the creature at a distance, but this action made him freeze in shock. His hand managed to land on the creature's upper chest, resulting in the ragged garment the creature was wearing to conform to it's body, revealing two rounded mounds emerging from the creature's chest.

"You're a girl!" Jamie whispered in amazement. The female creature did not respond. Instead, she reached out and lightly touched Jamie's forehead. Instantly, he felt a strange, prickly sensation inside his head. However, it was surprisingly pleasant at the same time. The female creature withdrew her hand and continued to look at Jamie with a mystified expression on her filthy face.

"Jamie!" Coop's voice made both Jamie and the female creature jump. As Coop and Kiva hurried back to the two, the creature turned and raced back into the trees. "What was that thing?" Coop asked, as the creature disappeared from view.

"I have no idea," Jamie replied.

"Did you get a good look at it?" Kiva demanded.

"I sure did. And it's not an it, it's a her."

"Okay, I don't think I want to know how you figured that out," Kiva moaned. "Anything else?"

"She had a tail, and these weird dreadlocks things coming out of her skull." Kiva looked at Jamie in surprise.

"That sounds like a Tygrin!" She cried in amazement.

"A what?" Coop and Jaime voiced in unison.

"Tygrin. An Alien race from a planet known as Shegrath. But as to how this Tygrin got here, I don't know." Before anything else could be said, a deep rumbling sound was heard. Instantly, a six-foot robot burst out from the ground. Kiva immediately pushed Coop and Jamie behind a group of trees where they hid.

"Kiva, what is that?" Coop asked.

"It looks like an Assassin Mech, designed by the Glorft. But they were all destroyed before I was born. So, either this one is a new model, or it was made by a different Glorft army- the one that exists in this time."

"Well, what's it doing here!" Jamie whimpered.

"No problem!" Coop waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "MEGAS can handle this thing, no problem."

"Coop, MEGAS is all the way back at the beginning of the trail. There's no way we could possibly make it in time without getting killed." To emphasize this point, the Assassin Mech fired strait through the trees, coming dangerously close to hitting the three friends. Jamie jumped back and lost his balance, resulting in him falling into a dense patch of bushes, as Coop and Kiva tried to hide from the Mech, so they could come up with an idea. As Jamie lay in the bushes, a hand dropped onto his shoulder. He was about to cry out, when a second hand clamped onto his mouth. Jamie turned his head to see the Tygrin female.

"James, is it?" She whispered. Jamie stared in awe at the Alien.

"You can speak English?"

"I'll explain later. Listen, James. Do you see this metal band on my arm?" Jamie looked over at the Alien's arm to see a strange armband that looked something like a manacle. "I can't quite manage it on my own. Please help me remove it."

"What?"

"My restraint. Remove it, please."

"Why?"

"Do you want to help your friends? Then take this thing off my arm."

"How am I supposed to trust you?"

"You don't exactly have a choice, here. Now, do we have a deal, or don't we?" As soon as this was said, Jaime heard Coop cry out. He turned to see that the Assassin Mech had succeeded in hitting Coop's arm, leaving a smoking, bleeding wound.

"Coop!" Jamie cried, as the Mech aimed for the kill, with Kiva trying to fight it off. The Alien female held out her arm, brandishing the restraint. After a moment's hesitation, Jamie took the restraint band, and tried to pull it off. When his initial attempt did not work, he grabbed a nearby rock, and began to hit the restraint with it. After the third blow, the restraint cracked open and began to release sparks. Once the sparks died down, a series of wires were revealed within the restraint. Slowly, the wires began to snap, and the restraint slid off the Tygrin's arm, and fell to the ground. The Tygrin carefully rubbed the spot where the restraint had been, as if hardly believing it was off. After a moment, the Tygrin looked up at the Assassin Mech, laughing hysterically. Instantly, The Tygrin flew right off the ground and went off like a rocket. The Tygrin female stopped in between the Mech and Coop and Kiva. Before everyone's eyes, a bright ball of light formed in the Tygrin's hand, which the Alien female threw at the Mech. The light made contact with the Mech's optical sensors, and a slight explosion rang through the air, accompanied by smoke and sparks to rise up from the damaged optical sensors. The Tygrin then flew right at the Mech, and, grabbing it firmly by its robotic arms, shot out toward the sky. After the Tygrin had gained a considerable height, she threw the Mech to the ground. The Mech fell like a stone, and landed hard and the feet of Coop and the others, smashed beyond repair.

"Wow!" Coop cried, starring at the remains of the Mech. "That Tygrin is the bomb!"

"I'll say!" Jamie agreed. "But, where'd she go?" As if on cue, the Tygrin flew down and lifted Jaime off the ground, where she spun around repeatedly in happiness.

"I FEEL BETTER!" She cried in excitement. "YOU'VE DONE THE RIGHT THING!" The Tygrin carefully returned Jaime to the ground, composing herself. "Thank you so much. Sorry if I scared you."

"Uh, you're welcome, I guess?"