Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 Ultimate Alien or Iron Man Armored Adventures

4 The Story Of Corruption

Tony

Tony watched as Azmuth kept breaking down his Mark I armor and the device that he had seen on Ben Tennyson's wrist.

"Why don't you go sit down?" Rhodey asked. "You've been standing there staring at Azmuth working for over two hours."

"I know. But he did say he would be back an hour ago."

"Don't worry. Azmuth seems to be caught up in his work." Rhodey walked over to the War Machine Armor. "I'm going on patrol. Call when they get back."

Tony nodded.

It wasn't long after Rhodey left that the alarms went off.

"Would you please shut off that noise?" Azmuth asked.

Tony walked to the console and watched as a giant green ship landed on top of the Armory.

He ran over to his Mark II armor, picked up the bag and ran out of the Armory, hitting the button to activate it.

As soon as he got up there the ship lowered it's loading ramp. Out zipped Ben and Helen.

"Hey!" Ben yelled waving his blue hand.

Iron Man landed and walked over.

"What's with this thing?" Tony asked.

"This is the Rustbucket 3."

Tony looked toward the new voice.

"Iron Man, meet Kevin Levin and Gwen Tennyson."

Ben and Helen changed back to human.

"Gwen, Kevin, meet Iron Man."

"Pleasure," Gwen stated.

"Yeah, yeah."

"Let's get below. Azmuth is still working."

Gwen looked over at Tony.

"What's he doing?"

"By the look of it, he had all of that device dismantled and most of my suit the same way."

Gwen looked at Ben.

"Azmuth took the Ultimatrix apart?"

Ben stood with his mouth hanging open.

Within a second he was a Kineceleran again and he ran straight into the Armory.

"Azmuth?"

"Here, Ben Tennyson."

Ben looked toward the sound and saw Azmuth crawling out of the suit.

"Tony told me you dismantled the Ultimatrix."

"I did. But for a good reason."

"Tell me."

"For this suit to work in conjunction with the Ultimatrix, both would have to have been the same device. So I had no choice but to dismantle the Ultimatrix and integrate it into the suit. But after all is said and done, it will still look the same."

"You mean the suit?"

"No. The Ultimatrix."

"And will it feel the same?"

"That I cannot be certain of. If all goes well, yes. It will."

Ben nodded.

"That's a relief."

"It's amazing how calm you can be."

Ben looked at Azmuth.

"I'm referring to our problem in the Plumber Council."

"Oh."

"So you are human?"

Ben looked over his shoulder and saw Tony, Pepper and Rhodey leading Helen, Gwen and Kevin into the Armory.

Tony retracted his armor and Gwen and Kevin watched as Tony sat his bag down on the ground next to the old interface chair.

"I'm Tony Stark," he said, holding out a hand to Kevin.

Kevin slowly took the hand offered and shook it.

Pepper walked over to the table and ejected from her armor. As did Rhodey.

"Pepper Pots and James Rhodes. But call him Rhodey."

Azmuth looked at them all.

"Hey, pipsqueak."

Azmuth let out a breath of annoyance.

After giving Kevin a glare, Azmuth said, "Seeing as all of you are here, it's time I explained things."

Ben wrapped his arms around Helen, Kevin did the same with Gwen. Tony, Pepper and Rhodey just stood there.

"About two of your months ago, we gained a new member to the Plumber Council. Talwanok joined the council and almost by that days end, he had the entire council on his side. I decided to go along to find out what his true intentions were." He turned to Tony. "I believe you know a certain 'Dr. Doom'."

Tony nodded.

"He is behind Talwanok sudden rise to power."

"How can that be?" Tony asked. "The last time I saw Doom, he was pulled into an extra-dimensional rift."

"That would be correct," Azmuth said. He looked at Ben. "Vilgax returned him from that dimension and gave him even more power."

Tony pulled Pepper close.

"How will we be able to stop Doom now?" she asked.

"I don't know. But we will find a way."

"I'm already working on that," Azmuth said as he turned around and jumped back into the suit. "I've almost finished with this thing."

Tony looked at Ben.

"Azmuth is the smartest person in three galaxies."

Tony snorted.

"I would go Gray Matter and help, Azmuth, but I can't."

"I've actually been working on something else," Azmuth said before tossing Ben the faceplate. "You're Galvan transformation is ready. Press it to your heart."

Ben returned to human and slammed the faceplate against his heart. After a few seconds, Gwen, Keven, Helen, Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey were watching as Galvan Ben climbed up the table with faceplate.

"Thank you, Azmuth," Ben said carrying the faceplate over to Azmuth.

Azmuth took the face plate and returned it to where it had be a few moments before.

"And now, Ben, would you gauge those servos?"

Ben made his way over.

Several hours later...

"It is finished," Azmuth said as he stood next to the Ultimatrix. Ben jumped down to the floor and returned to being human.

Ben waited until Azmuth gave him the go ahead and slipped on the Ultimatrix. As soon as the device shrunk down to his wrist size, the face plate changed from green and black to red and gold.

Sorry for making everyone wait so long. I've been busy with other stories. I'm actually working on the next chapter, so it won't be to long a wait. I just ask for a little patients.

Thanks for reading. Please review.

Talon Earthstone