Ship broke free of Earth's gravity as we flew into the vast emptiness of space. It was cool, like always, but I had forgotten that Zeke had never been to outer space. She was leaning forward in her seat, grinning from ear to ear, "Wooah! This is great! Ben, we're in space!" I smiled as I watched her, babbling on in excitement. "It's 10,000 times cooler than in the documentaries!"
"You watch documentaries?"
"Nooooo?"
I laughed, "Really now?"
Shiiiiip, Ship said as the systems finished preparing to jump. Zeke looked at me for translation. "He's basically saying to buckle up."
"No seat belt light?"
"Welcome to Ship Airlines, want some stale peanuts?"
She snorted as she secured herself in. I did the same, then patted the seat, "Good to go."
Shiiiip!
Then, we were slingshotted away from Earth, and to the space of Galvin Prime; home planet of the Omnitrix's creator. Once we had exited our jump, Zeke unbuckled for the soul purpose of falling out of her chair without restriction. I laughed as I watched her lie on the floor, face down.
Ship?
"She's okay," I assured him, unbuckling as well. Zeke grumbled something like 'never again' before rising to her knees, rubbing her head, "I have a headache..." Smiling, I patted her back, "Yeah, it sucks the first time." Ship broke through the planet's atmosphere, flying towards the advanced city, heading straight towards the giant tower with the Omnitrix's symbol on the front. Zeke was standing again, looking around in awe, "This is a different planet..." I nodded, standing by her with my arms crossed, "Humans live on Earth, the Galvin live on Galvin Prime, and all of the other aliens we've met all have their own planet."
"Wow..."
Ship began to land and I tugged lightly on Zeke's arm, "The great creator requested our presence; we mustn't keep him waiting." She pointed at the infected piece of tech on my wrist, "Because something broke that." It was getting worse by the second; the green was corrupted and turned into oozy, black material, and the hourglass was a pulsing red instead of green. I started to walk out of Ship, "Because your enemy broke it."
"It's not my fault! He claims to know me and I have no clue who he is!" she argued as she followed. I waved my hand, stopping once outside, "Yeah, well..." Azmuth glared up at me, his hands behind his back, "You're late."
"How can we be late?"
"Hurry up!" he ordered before heading towards the front doors of the tower at a quick pace. I looked at Zeke, who shrugged, before following. "Azmuth, what is going on with the Omnitrix?"
"Clearly, a virus."
"No duh, what caused it?"
"The Skeleton King's presence is pure corruption, so he single-handedly infected the Omnitrix. When you first encountered him, did the Omnitrix mention anything about a virus?"
I nodded, "Yeah. And every time we get close to something that has to do with that weirdo, it acts up."
"That's the virus," Azmuth confirmed. We loaded up in an elevator that took us up to one of the top floors. When the doors opened, I saw two tables in the middle of the room, hooked up to all of these machines. "What's all this?" I asked. The Galvin turned to look at me, "You have to manually destroy the virus."
"Meaning..?"
"You have to go into the Omnitrix," Zeke clarified. I stared at her, "In the Omnitrix?" She nodded before looking down at Azmuth, "Isn't that dangerous though? All viruses can develop some kind of immunity to whatever 'cure' is thrown at it, right?"
"While that may be true for illnesses, a virus like this is different. What's more, that's not the only problem."
Azumth gestured for us to follow as he approached the machines, "Annex's virus has control of the Omnitrix. If you, or even myself, were to go into the Omnitrix, it would 'delete' us." I stared at him in shock, "Then, it'll delete me?!" He shook his head, "No. You are, technically, one of the aliens in the system. It wouldn't dare delete a part of itself."
"Then, that's it, right? Get in, take out the virus, and, bam, I'm done."
He climbed up to one of the tables, "I wish it were that easy, Ben, but this virus will destroy you itself. Not only that, but every alien within the Omnitrix will have the same goal. There's only so much you can do." He then turned to look at Zeke, "Which is where you come in."
"Me..?"
"At the center of the Omnitrix, you both will have to take out the virus. Also, your power strongly effects whatever corruption Annex has influenced the DNA with. Not to mention that if Ben is critically wounded and dies, both of you will perish from the world."
"Hold on a second," I said, putting my hands on the table, "I thought you said the Omnitrix would delete her." Azmuth's eyebam arrows, "It would, if she wasn't with you. If you were to be separated, the Omnitrix would erase Zeke and the virus would go after you. Now lie down on the tables," he instructed. Zeke went over to the other table as I hesitantly sat on the edge of the one Azmuth stood upon, "What are you going to be doing during all of this?"
"Fixing the Omnitrix from the outside. And making sure nothing happens to you two."
I smirked, "Aw, you do care." He gave me a glare before hopping off of the table. Carefully, I lied down, casting a glance at Zeke. Her fingers were drumming on the table's cool surface with anxiety. I smiled slightly as Azmuth began hooking me up to different machines, "You okay?" I asked her. She nodded, "Yeah. Besides, you should be more worried about yourself." Azmuth put a ring on my left ring finger and the machine with a simple screen started beeping. Heart rate, I assumed. Then came this helmet kind of thing that had a piece of glass which covered my eyes. The tinkering in the distance told me Azmuth was doing the same for Zeke. "I'm not worried," I told her, closing my eyes, "You've protected me a billion times before, this is no different." Systems whirred in the helmet and I then felt someone's hand take my own. I took a breath, She's shaking... I noted before grabbing her hand, giving it a small squeeze, "See you soon."
"Yeah..."
"Infiltrating the systems," Azmuth announced as my mind became fogged, "Good luck."
