Gargoyles and Lilo and Stitch are property of Disney. The NSC and related things are property of Largefish8. Draco, Chip, morph, NegaMorph and Omnirus are property of Cydra.

Retrieval Saga: Nocturne Operations

Chapter 4: Harum-Scarum

The bridge duty on the Bladestorm, like any night watch, was hated like in any military organization. Having to spend all night long looking at a screen that only showed Sky satellites tended to annoy after a while. So it was a shame that the guard didn't pay attention to the pod as it passed by the scanner's range.

--

The newly reprogrammed 'Warden' A.I was more vigilant however and tracked the pod as it screamed into the atmosphere at Mach 2, smashing down into a deserted street and punching through to the old tunnels below. The A.I sighed inwardly. 'A guard A.I's work is never done,' it thought as it beeped the commander.

--

Matt moaned and blasted the beeping intercom with a plasma burst. "This had better be good," he yawned. "...It's 3am." "Sir, we've got a UFO sighting," said the Warden A.I. "Oh yeah, that would be us. We travel in a spaceship, a majority of my personal crew are aliens, I don't like getting sci-fi convention calls before sunrise!" "I have uplinked to NSC command and referenced the UFO to known empire devices...it is a deployment pod," the A.I said. It was impressed at how fast Matt ran out the room at those words. Anyone would have thought he had said that a zombie virus outbreak had occurred.

Matt ran into the closest occupied room, which happened to be the tech lab. Chip and Lexington had quickly become friends and were working on a project together. Specifically, a set of rocket-power shin guards for Chip. Chip was putting one on for fitting when Matt ran in and yelled, "Hey, we've got a bogey!" Chip's hand slipped and accidentally started the rocket. "Oh blitznak," he said. Matt ducked as Chip flew out into the corridor, knocking out a marine. "...just when I thought I'd seen it all," he said, watching Chip's progress down the corridor before remembering why he'd come. "I have a bad feeling that our old bud, the Emperor, sent a clone-shaped present to us." Warden chimed in at this.

"There is only a 56% probability of that. No Empire military ships are in range." "Yes, but clone deployment pods have a tendency to wander about space until they find some unlucky planet to land on so they can cause havoc," said Matt, ducking as Chip passed over him. Matt finally grabbed Chip and deactivated the booster. "Most of them are gone but we keep seeing a few every now and then," he said.

"But what if it's some other alien threat?" asked Lexington. "C'mon, how many non-empire alien threats have we come across," said Chip. He paused and said, "On second thought, don't answer that." Suddenly the booster turned on again and Matt was unfortunately still holding Chip at the time. "HOW DO YOU STOP THIS CRAZY THING?" they both yelled as they rocketed down the corridor.

By the time that Matt, Chris and a small team had driven to the crashsite via warthog, the police were already barricading the area. "Ah, hell, why can't it ever be easy?" muttered Matt as the small mini-convoy turned the corner. The commanding officer told them to stop. His badge identified him as 'Officer Morgan.' Matt jumped out the warthog and walked over. They'd happily had a plan just in case the cops had gotten there first. It had been Warden's idea.

"Ok, officer...Morgan...Me and my squad'll handle it from here," he said, using as official a voice as he could. "Sorry son, but unless you have proper authority, I have to ask you to leave," said Officer Morgan. "We do, and if you go away now, you'll get free donuts at Dunkin Donuts," said a rather young-looking soldier. Matt pushed the soldier aside and flashed an ID card in the officer's face for a split second. "NSA...This is very top secret hush hush, we don't want these Quarryman wackos getting to the satellite that crashed here," he said. Before Morgan could get a good look at the card, his radio buzzed. "Morgan here, over," he spoke into it. After someone on the other side spoke, Morgan said, "You sure, chief?" After the response, Morgan shrugged and said, "Ok, if think so." Morgan looked at Matt and said, "The Chief called me about NSA sending a squad to take care of this. I guess you're free to go on ahead." Matt nodded. "Pull your men back, I want this entire block sealed off," he said. "The...device we're recovering may be radioactive," he said. Morgan shrugged and said, "As long as it's away from here. Who's up for Dunkin Donuts?" A surprisingly large number of cops hurried over to the nearest store of that name, which was on the corner.

The tunnel had been almost completely caved in, rubble almost burying the pod completely. The only sign that it was there was the pressure door laying against the wall, bent in the middle at nearly a 45 degree angle and the hole that had been its doorframe. Three figures, Matt leading them, jumped and scrambled down the rubble. "Ok...not a virus clone," he said as Chris and the other marines came down into the tunnel, leaving a few to guard the jeeps. A growl echoed out of the hole. "Tell me that was my stomach," said Matt weakly. "Let me check if it was mine," said Morph and his head retracted itself inside his body. A minute later, it popped up and he chirped, "Nope!" "I don't know what frightens me more," said Matt, "the way you answered my question or the answer."

Chris nodded before pointing at some of the troopers. "Team one, let's go." Team one filed down the hole along with Chris. Matt followed with the others. "Meet up in one hour," said Matt, looking at the smoking pod. No clone could have torn the heavy-looking door apart that lay in shards across the tunnel. "Ok, let's try to find whatever this thing is, and let's not panic when we see anything unusual," said Matt and when he turned, he promptly came face to face with a yellow version of Broadway with red eyes. The two of them screamed and ran in opposite directions. By the time the team had gotten their act together and shot a few flares down the tunnel, the lookalike was gone. "What in the ancients was that?" said a private. Matt shuddered. "Gone, I hope, let's move," he said, turning on his comm., "Chris, anything yet?" "Nothing you'd really want to hear over lunch, or breakfast, or dinner," replied Chris. "Ok, just keep an eye out for anything unusual and when I mean unusual I'm referring to anything that does not belong in a mundane dimension's sewer. And no albino alligators." Chris replied, "What?" but Matt turned of the comm.

"Sir, we got signals ahead, three human lifesigns," said a corporal quietly, pointing down a side tunnel. The group moved along and peered round the corner to see three people, homeless by the state of their clothes. "Crud, that's all we need. HEY!" he said, yelling the last part and walking towards them. "You gotta get out of here. It's not safe." A deep voice behind him spoke, "No one's forcing these people out." Matt turned and nearly had a heart attack when he saw a humanoid panther with glowing yellow eyes and bat wings standing over him. Matt stared, swearing in splitter out of shock. "Who the hell are you?" he said, taking a few steps back, "...and we're not here to force anyone out." "My name is Talon and the surface is a lot more dangerous for these people to survive there." "Well, some kind of alien's down here that's gonna make it hard for everyone to survive," retorted Matt. Talon seemed to have lost Matt, "Some kind of what?" he said, sounding thoroughly confused. "Alien," said Matt, "you know, 'We come in peace', little green men, 'Destroy all humans'. Oh wait, that's robots." Talon gave him an incredulous look, "Uh, did you hit your head on the way down here?"

Matt suddenly stopped, looking past Talon. "Don't...move," he said softly, raising his rifle, spotting the same red eyes from before, with two extra pairs. "Hey man, what are you-" Matt shot at where the red eyes were, causing whatever they belonged to give out an inhuman cry of pain that sounded nothing like a gargoyle's roar. A cloud shot out into view. Given where Matt's shot had gone, it should have been missing its head, instead it looked very angry. It shimmered into the shape of a four legged silver mech, complete with laser cannons and wailed, firing at Matt before aiming at kick in the direction of Talon.

The Kryteer was angry, it had found little food beyond barely sentient animals and upon finding proper fear to feed upon, the small lifeform had fired one of its metal sticks. It was still weak from no food and now it was angry. It would crush the small human and feed on the others' fear. Before it could proceed with the crushing, Talon through a bolt of electricity at it. Given its currently metallic form, the attack was very effective. The creature shimmered, revealing the cloud for a minute. The rest of Matt's team ran round the corner firing. The creature decided that 9 enemies was too many to handle for now and changed into a black wolf, loping away down the tunnel, much too fast for a normal wolf. "What the heck is that thing?" asked Talon. "Very good question," said Matt, "Mind if I applied that to you first before we stop that thing from causing any more trouble?" "I suppose that's a fair enough question," said Talon, "You might say that I'm a genetically-engineered imitation of a gargoyle. We prefer the term 'mutate'." Matt just looked at Talon. He suddenly realized how lucky he was that he had a choice of looking human with his own mutation. "Ok...well...that thing there was what we were chasing, hold on..." he said and turned on his communicator, "Chris, you got trouble heading your way, it's some kinda shapeshifter.

Chris, who was with Morph at the time, said, "I hear it coming. What form was it when you last saw it?" "A black wolf." "Then how comes I'm hearing clacking?" asked Chris. His answer came when the shapeshifter in question appeared in front of them in the form of a very creepy-looking marionette. One of Chris's team screamed. This seemed to excite the creature even more, making it grab the marine. A white mist shot out from the marine's eyes and his screams petered out, finishing with the marine falling to the ground as a skeleton. The creature turned on the others, suddenly giving out a fresh air of confidence...and hunger. Morph was particularly creeped out by the puppet. He hid behind Chris's leg, shivering all over. When the puppet fixed its eyes on him, Morph let out a very loud scream that seemed even too much for the puppet to handle. The Kryteer looked over at the little blob. It definitely gave off enough fear, but the screaming would give it indigestion. It had eaten enough for now. The Kryteer turned into a RC car and zoomed away along a small overflow pipe. It could smell sooo many humans ahead, it would feast tonight.

"Uh Matt," said Chris over the communicator, "that thing just scared the life out of one of the marines, literally." The Warden had been listening, "I have monitored feeds and such a creature is on record. However, how the empire acquired one is beyond my reasoning. It is a type Z demon known as a Kryteer; it feeds of lifeforce that is laced with fear. They were apparently wiped out when the NSC destroyed their planet." "They always miss a few," muttered Matt, "and we're unlucky enough to find one. So, any specific weaknesses on this thing?" "Yes, a 900 megaton nuclear weapon is deemed effective," said the Warden. Matt sighed, "One that won't reduce the US to a pile of ash please." The Warden tutted, "Please add specifics then. The answer is not on record. All known ground engagements with fully grown specimens ended in complete defeat. However, this one appears to be a juvenile. Extreme heat would be effective complete with positive wavelength magi energy." "The extreme heat we could probably handle, but as for the positive energy, that's harder to come by," said Matt, "It'd be easier if Draco were around. Where is he again?" Chris sighed, "No idea..." Warden chimed in. "Draco and Contrinus's lifesigns are in the city limits 2 city blocks north of your sector. Do you wish me to comm them?" Matt rolled his eyes. "Remind me to get Techo and Chip to install some urgency in the computer."

The Warden patched them through and Draco's voice soon replied, "What's up Matt?" "We've got a demon in the sewers. The kind that turns into your worst fear. We need your firepower to deal with it." "Ok, I'm here with Goliath right now. We'll head over as soon as we can." Matt sighed as he realized something. "It's not likely to find much prey down here at least. Demon predators like high concentrations, not people who shoot back," he said and stopped as he saw the mutate's expression. "What?"

"There are people who live down here," said Talon, "People who could get easily scared by it. It could wipe them all out in one night." Matt gulped and commed Chris, "Hey, Chris, did you happen to see which way the Kryteer went?" "It went into one of the pipes," said Chris, "Could pop up anywhere." Matt sighed, his head starting to ache. "Why me? Could this night stink any worse? I half expect an old enemy to drop in..."

--

Not far away, a Quarrymen patrol had come across what looked to them like an alien pod. And for once, they were right, which would turn out to be a shame. The Quarrymen peered around the corner into the alley where the pod had landed. "I told you those gargoyles were aliens," said a rookie Quarryman. "Maybe, maybe not, whatever's in there has to at least be worth something, either to us or some scientist," said the squad's leader, "Open it up." Before anyone could do so, the pod opened and what appeared to be a mutant four-armed sun bear wearing black and white clothing and a green device on its belt buckle sprang out. It then shouted something alien at them and laughed loudly.

The Quarrymen stared at it. "What the hell?" said the leader. "That's not a gargoyle. What the hell, let's just grab it," he said and turned when he saw that nobody seemed intent on following. "What? He's just a fuzzy little shrimp." The 'fuzzy little shrimp' glared and opened its mouth. Four green tongues shot out and snared the leader's hammer. It brought it back where it was ground up and swallowed. "Hey! Give that back!" The creature grinned and said, "As you wish." It then spat out a large blob of goo that hit the ground in front of them and exploded. The others stared with mouths open. After a minute, their collective common sense came back from its extended holiday and they turned tail and fled.

A panel in the landing pod chimed and Omnirus's ships A.I commed him. "Sir, I strongly discourage this mission. The Empire still has search teams after you since your raid on their EXP troop quarters and that attempt on General Silvia." "Get your processor out of the mud," said Omnirus, "you computers are such utter bores. This planet can't have extraterrestrial contact seeing as how those humans didn't react when I criticized their fashion sense. I'm going to find me some fun." "My database indicates that the Empire do not obey NSC first contact regulations," said the A.I, "Also, there are several key reports on the local law enforcement that you should be aware of, more importantly the currently active NSC defense fort south of the city. Also sir, the battery in your translator is flat." "I can speak English without it," said Omnirus, "and I didn't come to this planet only for pleasure. Your readings said the target I'm after is here and I'm not budging until I find him." "Very well, sir. I suggest you start with that sewer cover," said the A.I, using the pod's sensors to 'see'.

Omnirus picked the manhole cover and crumpled into a ball before eating it. "If the Kryteer's down there, I better conserve my energy and have my selection ready if I run into it," he said, "Let's see if there are any gators down there." He then jumped into the manhole and into the city's underground labyrinth.

--

Matt looked up at the heavy duty looking blastdoor that apparently was the home of the majority of NYC's homeless. "Impressive," he said. Chris's team had been closer and were already trying to get by..."Gargoyles? These guys look familiar," said Matt, looking at the three gargoyles, one of who was trying to take Chris's rifle away. "You know about the gargoyles?" asked Talon. "Know about them?" said Matt, "I disabled a homicidal computer with them." Talon raised an eyebrow. "When you hang around me, you tend to hear a lot of crazy stories," said Matt. "Well, uh, these are clones of the gargoyles. They weren't very bright at first but they're improving. It seems that Hollywood's taking after Broadway in more ways than one."

"I think I'd best break this up, those MA5's are expensive," said Matt. As he approached, Chris finally lost his grip and ended up being tossed into Matt, much to the marine's amusement. "Chris....remind me to do something painful to them later...now please...GET OFF ME!" said Matt. "Easy fellas," said Talon, "They're friends." "Friends?" asked the one that looked like a blue version of Brooklyn. "Yes, Malibu, friends, they're here to help." Hollywood blinked and gave Chris back his rifle, "Sorry." Chris winced as he got up and took the rifle. "I really pity that Kryteer when he arrives," he said as Matt got up behind him and peered at his now-bent rifle. "If anyone asks, Stitch ate it," he said.

Then Goliath and Draco came around the corner. "It would seem we are just in time," said Goliath. "Ok, so where's this boogeyman thingie?" asked Draco. Suddenly the 'boogeyman' came out of another tunnel, in the form of a miniature frost giant. "You've got to be kidding me," said Matt, raising the wrecked gun out of reflex. The rest of the marines, especially the ones who had already met the Kryteer opened fire with everything till their guns ran dry. The Kryteer didn't seem the bit annoyed. If anything, it was smirking, Matt didn't like being smirked at. "Laugh this one of, tiny," he said and threw a plasma grenade. "Who around here's afraid of ice?" asked Talon. Matt glanced back at Draco, who had wrapped himself around Goliath's shoulders. "In my defense, it's not so much a personal fear as it is an instinctive one," said Draco.

The Kryteer snarled and focused on Matt, shapeshifting into a huge purple dragon. Matt stared horrified until a lightning bolt from Talon shook the Kryteer out of its attack. The Kryteer focused on the group and morphed into a grizzly bear the size of a tank. "Smeg!" yelled Matt, diving aside as it homed in on whoever was afraid the most of it. Draco stopped shivering when the Kryteer dropped the frost giant disguise. But now he was shivering again, only in a more focused area. Draco's nose twitched and he said, "I feel kinda fun-fun-AAAAHHH-CHOOOOO!" Draco's sneeze released an enormous fireball that fortunately didn't hit anyone but caused a lot of vapor to form. The Kryteer seemed confused. Usually it liked to pick off prey one at a time, so many fears, which to choose. "Let's just blast it," it heard from the annoying one that feared the dragon. It morphed its arm into a pulse cannon and shot the person into the wall before deciding it would kill the ones it didn't want.

Morph had been watching from behind. He saw that the battle wasn't going well, but he didn't want to face the puppet again. But then Draco's sneeze made him think about how much power potential he had. "If he could do something that big, than I can do it too." Morph raised his arms and called, "BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!" He paused and said, "Wait, wrong line, TRANS-MORPH-ATION!" Morph sprouted glowing green gem-like armor over his body as his eyes started glowing the same color. "PosiMorph!" he exclaimed before curling up into an armored ball and flying at the Kryteer. The Kryteer turned to face Morph, confused before recoiling. This new one stunk of poison. It morphed its arm into a blaster and fired a burst. PosiMorph flew around the blast and started firing small balls of green energy from the gem plates on his body. The Kryteer wailed. The positive energy balls shot through its body like hot ball bearings through butter. But what was worse for it was that now the weapon fire was no longer passing harmlessly through it, now it was hitting. PosiMorph bounced off the ceiling and slammed straight into the Kryteer. It wailed even louder as it was forced back into its original form. The cloud began to try to float away till a final burst from Morph ignited it in a blue fireball. Matt and a couple Marines slowly walked towards the scorched patch where it had been. "I think we got it," said Matt.

Meanwhile, Omnirus was watching through a grating. "Hmm, didn't see that coming. Oh well, I was hoping I would be able to get in on some of the action. This sewer seems a bit crowded though. Let's find some place with a little more fighting room." Omnirus looked up through the grating. Above was one of the shopping avenues that New York was famous for. Plenty of civilians, plenty of shields more like...

Goliath turned to look at PosiMorph, who had by then powered down. "It would seem that underneath his simplistic exterior is the spirit of a great warrior." "Hey guys, check this out," said Morph and he started rubbing his sides, producing a high squeaking sound. "Of course, you must realize that's a very thick exterior," said Matt. Morph kept on squeaking for about a minute before Matt said, "Please stop."

One of the Marines suddenly looked down at his wrist. "Sir? I think a clone did come through, it's up top." "That can't be right," said Matt, "We would have detected it before." Suddenly an explosion was heard topside, along with a couple of startled screams.

"Ok, I'm convinced," he said. The group ran for the nearest ladder. Matt climbed it first but as he was pulling the manhole cover away, something reached down and pulled him up through the hole before tossing him through the window of a car dealership.

"Well, well, look what the sewer rat dragged up." Matt wished he didn't recognize the voice, but it was very distinctive sounding. He looked to see an experiment-like creature with brown fur, four arms, green eyes with minus-shaped pupils, six small round ears, and a black and white vest and pants ensemble with a belt buckle that had the imaged of a green hourglass cracked perfectly in half. Matt pulled himself out of the large dent he'd afflicted on a Jaguar. "Erm…bill goes to the NSA," he said to the shocked couple before turning to face Omnirus. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?" said Omnirus. "Yeah, I guess you take your time in paybacks," said Matt, "Ghoulwyrm came after me almost as soon as we left the Sol system." "Payback? Nah, you didn't really have much of an opportunity to do anything to me last time. I'm mostly here for a little R&R. You know, ravaging and rampaging?"

"So, what brings you to NYC?" said Matt, watching as the rest of his team sneaked up behind the experiment. "Well, asides from testing my new powers here, I've heard there's a certain someone here whose A.I. could give me the kind of upgrade I need," said Omnirus. Matt glared. "Take your pick, I got two," he said coldly, "Of course if that lobotomizes me, my men may object." "Nah, not you, nor the brat either," said Omnrius as he wiped a paw on his vest, "But it's not really in your interest. Well, better start this game up." He reached down and twisted the dial on his belt. When an icon appeared, he pushed it down and disappeared in a flash of green light. When the light faded, he was replaced by a being that looked like it was made of magma-based crystals. The red rock-like substance covered most of its body, except his hands and feet, which glowed a bright yellow. "Is that Heatblast?" asked Morph. "Looks more like Diamondhead," said Draco. "Actually," said the being with a deep fiery voice, "I prefer to call this form Diamondblast." He then threw a mixture of flames and fiery crystals at the marines that were sneaking up on him.

The marines scattered to avoid being fried and impaled while Matt tossed a plasma orb in Diamondblast's face, to no effect. "Sir, you realize your target A.I must be dominant, do you sir?" said Omnirus's ship A.I in his ear. "Yeah, yeah," said Diamondblast, "I'm not interested in him right now. Just having a little fun." Diamondblast slammed a hand in the ground, causing a large wall of crystals to rise up like fire to keep anyone from running away. "Sir...I must remind you that the NSC armed forces have more then enough firepower to neutralize you permanently and it is a 98.7% chance that they have summoned re-enforcements from command by now," said the A.I in an annoyed tone. Organics were so irrational sometimes. "They can't send any to a civilian area," said Diamondblast, "especially one that currently thinks there's only one intelligent species in the universe."

A plasma blast hit Diamondblast in the back and threw him forward. He looked back to see Matt standing there. There was a slight red glint in his eyes. "Hmm, looks like your A.I. wants to come out and play," said Diamondblast, "Let him out, I'm all game." "Oh, I'm not that failed A.I, V-627...I'm worse then that, allow me to demonstrate..." he said before energizing one of the cars and sending it into Diamondblast's face. "Convinced?" said Draconus. To think, that idiot had fried his host's inhibitor. Ah well, now he could have fun himself. "This should be a good challenge," said Diamondblast as he converted his arms into flaming spikes. Suddenly a beeping sound caught his attention. He looked at the cracked Omnitrix symbol on his chest that was flashing red. "Oh man," he said before he reverted back to Omnirus.

Draconus just smirked, "You're tougher then you look, peewee. Let's see just how tough." And with that, he fired a dark magic burst. Omnirus rolled out of the way before the blast could hit him. He was about to chew up a hubcap for ammo when Goliath and Talon appeared. "Matthew, what is the meaning of this?" demanded Goliath. Draconus turned and looked. "Sorry, Mr. Lynch isn't home, could I take a message?" he said before tossing another blast. "He's been possessed," determined Goliath, "we must help him regain his control. Perhaps a shock to his system will help." "Hope this doesn't make things worse," said Talon as he fired a lightning bolt at Matt. Draconus just block the burst with a plasma shield. "Naughty, I never invited you to play," he said, sending a seeker energy blast in Talon's direction.

Before the blast could hit, Morph jumped in front with his shield in front of him. The blast actually ricocheted of the shield and hit Draconus. "Sorry," said Morph. Draconus glared. "Oh, you will be you little mutant." he said, sending a wave of explosive plasma in Morph's direction. Morph activated the spinning mechanism on the shield, which diverted the wave away from him. "I wish Chip was here," said Morph, "He'd know how to fix Matt's inhibitor thingy." "Don't you possess the ability to assume your clan members' forms and powers?" asked Goliath. "Oh yeah," said Chip and he morphed into Chip. Draconus's eyes widened. "Not this time," he said and fired a blast into the ground in front of Morph, a cloud of dust rising between them. As he ran, he paused next to Omnirus. "I'm feeling generous, you kill em," he said before transforming and flying off.

Omnirus shook his head to get the dizziness out. "Hey! We weren't finished yet!" he called. He noticed the others looking at him and he muttered to himself, "Not enough time to take to the sky, guess I'll have to go with old-fashioned speed." He activated his belt buckle and selected a new form. A flash of green light later, and he had become a wolf-like alien wearing a black and white armor. He had reptilian features, particularly the blue and black-striped tail and his digitigrade legs with balls attached to the feet. "Ok, that's XLR8 and Benwolf," said Draco, "So that must make him..." "XLRWolf," finished the transformed Omnirus, his voice now a feral growl with a slight buzz behind it.

Draconus, in dragon form, settled on a rooftop to watch the fight and to be in a good position to kill the winners. He was silently impressed with Omnirus's transformation. "Almost a shame I got to kill him, almost," he said to himself. Draconus smirked and tuned in mentally to hear the now conscious Matt, 'They're gonna kick your butt, you realize that. Hell, you lost to em once, don't you remember?' "I think they'll be too distracted to go after me," said Draconus. 'Oh no? What about the monster they're fighting?' Draconus peered over to see XLRWolf shooting up the side of the building. "Son of a...Invitation only," he yelled, blasting the wall just in front of Omnirus, sending rubble towards the mutant. XLRWolf responded by opening his visor and then splitting his muzzle apart. A sonic howl blast the rubble out of the way and still made if far enough to knock Draconus back.

"Had enough?" said Draconus. "I'm just getting warmed up," said XLRWolf and he started running around Draconus at top speed. In a few seconds, a miniature twister started forming. Then XLRWolf started firing his sonic howl which reverberated throughout the funnel with increasing amplification. Draconus dug in his claws into the rooftop until Omnirus slowed down a bit then grabbed him and pulled him up nose to nose. "Was that little breeze your best? Want to see MINE?" he said and threw him into the now-abandoned car dealership before firing a plasma burst in. It was lucky the dealership's owners had ran when the fight had started as the blast caused all three floors of the building to explode, turning the building into an inferno. Omnirus groaned as he got up. He had changed back after being launched into the alley behind the dealership and he felt rather sore from the explosion. "This guy's berserk, even for my standards," he grumbled, "I better wing it out of here once I recharge."

Draconus just stared at the fire, waiting for Omnirus to re-emerge. He had no doubt that the little experiment had survived somehow. Experiments could survive vacuums so a simple explosion would not be much trouble. He turned as he sensed the gargoyle, the mutate, Draco and Morph come up behind him. "Volunteers? Usually I have to chase my victims," he said casually as if he hadn't just gutted a building. "Joyride's over," snarled Talon, electricity crackling in his fist, "You're going back to where you belong now!" "Oh my dear fuzzball, but I am," taunted Draconus, "I am level 12 combat rated. You're nothing but a bug to me," igniting a plasma orb in response.

Suddenly an odd buzzing sound caught their ears, something like a cross between a helicopter and a flying wasp. They looked to see a strange insectoid alien with a white underbelly and a black black with perfectly symmetrical green circuit lines fly away from the ruined car dealership. Draconus followed their gaze. "Harder to kill then a space weevil, I like his style. Now...where were we?" he said, turning back. "Ah yes, I'm not going back into the back of that weakling's mind. I'll kill you all long before that."

Suddenly a real helicopter's engine was heard and they looked to see a SWAT chopper appear. "This is the NYPD," said a voice through a bullhorn, "Surrender at once and put your hands on the ground." The pilots, who were watching the strange creatures on the rooftop, didn't see the even stranger creature flying right at their chopper. Draconus readied a plasma orb to destroy the chopper when the creature hit the chopper in the side and...splatted? However, instead of falling off, it quickly covered all of the chopper, giving it a black and green, high-tech look, along with four insectoid legs. "Now who's got the big guns?" said a whiny nasal voice that sounded like it was coming from a walkie-talkie. Cannons that didn't exist moments before appeared and started firing.

Draconus barely raised a plasma shield in time, holding it until whatever the upgraded guns were firing became exhausted. "I said GET LOST!" yelled Draconus and only a shot from Talon avoided the SWAT chopper and its pilots meeting the same fate as the car dealership. The two pilots had no idea what was going on and they were very unnerved to see that the helicopter no longer responded to their commands. "Keep in down in their, or you'll be the next ammo," said the voice from before.

Meanwhile, Goliath was saying, "This is madness, we have to save those pilots. Talon, Draco, you take care of that. I and Morph will keep Draconus from destroying anything more." Draconus heard that and smirked. "Good, let's see how long you last...in seconds," he said, charging a plasma orb in each fist and throwing them. "Is there any form you have that could put Matthew back in control?" asked Goliath. "Oh yeah," said Morph and morphed into a slim purple dragon-like creature. Morph in Jekyll form shot Draconus right in the back, making him crumple like someone had clocked him on the head. The rest of the marines from Matt's team aimed at him while another fiddled with Matt's wristcomp. "Ok, he's good, he'll have one helluva headache...uh oh," said the marine as distant sirens were heard, backup for the chopper which had been abandoned by Omnirus and whose pilots were looking at the armed personnel in shock.

"Where'd Stinkgrade go?" asked Draco. Talon raised an eyebrow, "Stinkgrade?" "Well, he's part Stinkfly and part Upgrade," explained Draco. Talon's expression didn't change. "I'll explain later." Omnirus was watching from above, merged to one of the air conditioning vents on a roof. "Do not feel bad sir, the Silvia and Draconus A.I's were purpose-made to deal with things a million times worse then you," said the ship A.I. "They'll be harder to extract then I thought," said Stinkgrade, "I'll have to wait till I'm stronger before I try to rip them out. But I might as well cause a little more havoc before leaving." He cranked the AC vent to full blast, becoming a powerful sucking turbine. The sudden suction caught everyone off surprise. Morph, being the lightest was drawn straight into the fan. His gooey body jammed it enough to make it stop turning. Seeing as there was no more use of it, Stinkgrade went into the wiring and traveled down them and out of sight.

At this, Matt opened his eyes. "Who won?" he asked weakly. "Uh, Morph did," said Talon, pointing to the two dozen tiny copies of Morph that popped out of the AC unit and were running around. "That's hardly the weirdest thing I've seen," he said, shifting back to human form. "You never met Chupy..."

Not far away, several Quarrymen watched from the shadows, one holding a video camera. "Did you get all that?" said the leader. "As much as I could," said the Quarryman holding the camera, "Not sure what all we can do with this film. The only destruction was being carried out by that dragon thing and the weirder alien monster." "The gargoyles were there and we know not all gargoyles look the same, maybe the dragon was one of em?" said the leader. "I don't know, I've never seen a gargoyle throw fireworks like that before," said the cameraman. "Who would know?" dismissed the leader.

Matt had gone back to the base to have his inhibitor checked out properly by the real Chip while the others were shown the Labyrinth and the rest of the Mutates and clones. "So, you guys were created by this creepy geneticist named Sevarius who used to work for Xanatos during the Mutate project and also created a clone of Goliath named Thailog who commissioned him to make these clones," said Draco, "Is that about right?" "Yes," said Maggie, "But Xanatos has been trying to make amends for the first incident. He's hired Dr. Goldblum to find a cure for us." "And you are not an original member of the Mutates, but mutated yourself so you can protect your parents?" asked Draco to Sharon. "Yes," said Sharon, "I have no intention of using this power more than necessary." "Huh," said Morph, "You know, with your heritage, I'm surprised you didn't end up looking like a snow leopard." Draco slapped him in the back of the head and said, "Snow leopards are from Central Asia, not Japan, you dolt." Chris nodded. "Maybe we could get the NSC to give some data to Goldblum, help out a bit," he said.

"So what about this Omnirus creature?" asked Talon. "Well," said Lilo, "That's hard to explain. A friend of ours has a device attached to him called the Omnitrix that contains the DNA of all these different aliens. He got infected with a virus designed to turn him into an experiment, but the Omnitrix's energy mutated it and created Omnirus from him." "His Omnitrix was cracked during our first fight with him," said Draco, "evidently, it allows him to make combinations of Ben's available forms at the time. We better keep an eye out for him from now on."

--

Meanwhile, in the suburbs of the city, another spacecraft had landed, albeit a lot more subtlety than the first ones. It was a small scout ship, built for stealth. The first two beings that disembarked from the ship somewhat resembled the robots that were with Romanov, only better disguised as humans. The next two were different. One was humanoid in all respects except for the fact that her head more closely resembled that of Angel except with purple fur. This soon changed when it shifted to that of a human woman with long black hair in a ponytail. The other was more alien-looking. It mostly covered itself with a black fedora and trench coat. It retracted the six spine-like appendages growing from his back out of sight, but it could not hide the black face underneath the hat nor the five red eyes in an irregular pattern, a large mouth full of sharp black fangs, the larger eye on the left side of its head that had a slit-like pupil, or the two ears that were joined at the base on the right side. As long as one didn't take a hard look at his head or his sleeves, he might be able to pass a short black person.

"New York, why does it always have to be New York?" grumbled the black creature with a harsh contorted voice. "The setting isn't important, NegaMorph," said the woman, "Omnirus is out there somewhere and we must capture him. He's too much of a loose cannon to let roam free. He depleted an entire squadron of EXP mutants before we could chase him off." "You don't need to remind me, Silvia," said NegaMorph, "I'm the one who kept him from draining you as well, remember?" "Clearly," said Silvia, "Omnirus shows no loyalty to Hamsterviel and is therefore a liability. We shall search this city and neutralize him. Since the Traveler and his crew are present, as well as unusual local authority, we'll have to keep a low profile. We should probably ask locals if they've seen him." "Easy for you to say," said NegaMorph as he pulled up the collar of his coat, "You've got the face that can ask people questions without them running away."


There's another chapter. Looks like trouble's landed in town. You can expect to see Omnirus again before this story's over. And the gang will eventually run into Silvia and NegaMorph. When will that be? Wouldn't you like to know? By the way, Diamonblast, XLRWolf, and Stinkgrade's design are based on the hybrid pictures of the Omnitrix aliens that were 'revealed' with the DNA codes that came with the second series of the Ben 10 action figures. You could probably find pictures of them on deviantART if you looked for them. The next chapter might take a while, but it'll extremely interesting. Keep an eye out for it and please review.