Up in space Vilgax's ship still was in orbit with drones working to repair it. The process was considered halfway done at this point, but still insufficient. Inside three new entities wearing armor were granted an audience with the injured commander. Or as he put it, they were giving him an audition. One looked like a humanoid crustacean in their orange armor, more specifically a fiddler crab given the giant claw on the left arm. One looked like a normal but thin human dressed in a purple bodysuit with black armor attached and a jetpack on his back. The last one looked like a tall and broad human dressed in black and grey armor with some green highlights. But none of them were human, they only had the same basic shape and all three had their faces covered by some kind of helmet.
But rather than speak with Vilgax right away, they were forced to fight off a few defense drones. Each one fought well, using various means to defend themselves and take out the manufactured enemies, and when each one was destroyed, Vilgax appeared on a monitor.
"Impressive. You are all hired. Your objective..." The screen then showed the omnitrix. "...is to retrieve the omnitrix. The one who succeeds collects the reward." He had to pause to wheeze a bit as he was still hooked up to life support. "Do not disappoint me!"
Three pods to the planet below were provided, and each of the armored figures stepped inside. The ship launched them down, the landing trajectory close to where the omnitrix was presumed to have landed originally.
"Darling! I got something for you!" Lum called out as soon as she heard Ataru enter his home.
'I wonder what it is.' He thought. 'Lum's been in a good mood ever since Setsubun.'
He went inside the kitchen, and saw the oni girl busy at work creating... something. He honestly had no idea what she was making. It didn't even smell familiar. "What are you doing?" He asked nervously.
"Making you something to eat. I know how upset you were to miss out on that sukiyaki, and your parents didn't bother leaving you any leftovers. So when I looked up what sukiyaki is, I decided to make you my own little version of it." She explained, keeping her eyes on her food. "Just a few more touches and it should be ready."
"Your own version?" Ataru repeated, not sure he liked the sound of that.
"Yep. You'll love it." She said. "And it's done." With that she started dishing up her new creation. "Here you go Darling."
Ataru just looked at the dish. On the surface it looked like sukiyaki. It had some thin-sliced meat strips, some strips of green onions, shredded lettuce, and blocks of tofu along with noodles, all in broth. But there were some differences. For one, the noodles were purple and the broth was green.
"What did you put in this?" He asked.
"Some things I brought from Uru. C'mon, try it." She said, using some chopsticks to grab some meat and noodles then ate them. "It's good. Not bad for my first try at Earth cuisine."
Tentatively, the teen boy used his own chopsticks and grabbed some meat and noodles too, then put it in his mouth and tried chewing.
Right away he had to stop.
"What do you think?" Lum asked, expecting praise.
What she got was Ataru exhaling fire without having to turn into a Pyronite and steam coming out of his ears. He jumped to his feet and ran to the sink, practically attaching his lips to the faucet while guzzling water.
"Is this a normal human reaction?" Lum asked herself.
Ataru had to come up for air at some point, and it took him a while to be able to talk. "That was way too spicy Lum."
"Spicy? No this is normal. I would have told you if it was spicy." She replied.
'Apparently we have very different taste buds. But luckily, I'm not stuck with just human ones.' He thought to himself. "Hold on a moment." Fiddling with the omnitrix, he changed himself into Onitaru. "Maybe it will taste better this way."
Still cautious, he sat down and took another bite. To his shock, it actually tasted better this time and much less spicy. So much less that by comparison it tasted bland now. But he could eat it now, and that was the important thing.
"Better this way." He said, making Lum beam with joy. "I just hope you can learn how to cook by human standards too."
That was when there were three loud thump sounds heard outside, drawing both their attentions.
"Please tell me you invited some friends." Onitaru whispered, only for Lum to shake her head. "Great. Why can I never just be allowed to enjoy sukiyaki? Even alien kind?"
He went outside and saw three black pods, and they opened up, revealing three fully armored and weapon-carrying aliens.
"Give us the omnitrix boy." The purple one demanded.
"Sorry, not an option." Onitaru said then stomped his foot, making the ground underneath the three intruders shoot up quickly and throw them away.
In the air the grey armor alien pulled out a small black square that expanded into a board. He stepped on it and used it to fly back down.
"A real hoverboard? Well, I can fly too." Onitaru said, then took to the air to get the enemies away from his house. The board-riding alien followed.
"Darling!" Lum shouted, following after him.
"I'm home." Shinobu said when she came home.
"Dear, can I have a word with you?" Her father calmly asked.
"Yes Dad?" She asked, getting to the living room where her father sat on the couch. She sat on a chair across from him.
"I'm concerned about this after school activity you've been doing lately." He started. "I'm not sure this woman is quite all there if you know what I mean."
"Have you ever even met her?" Shinobu asked.
Mr. Miyake nodded. "Yes, I spoke to her. She said she was giving you instructions in mana, making it her job to train you to be as skilled as any miko in the use of the mystical arts."
"And you don't believe in any of that?" Shinobu questioned.
"On the contrary. I know full well that the mystical arts are real. I just figured that when it was time to train you I would be the one to instruct you." He told her.
Shinobu blinked several times. "Wait, you know how to use mana?"
"Not mana, something else. Something much more useful." He said, then extended his right hand like he was holding something. Shinobu simply watched as he made a white energy staff appear in his hands to a length equivalent of his own body length. Then the staff curved a bit making it a crescent shape, then he held it upright. "Like this."
"It... it looks like a bow." Shinobu noted.
"It is a bow. This is the weapon of our ancestry. You see, we are of a race called the Quincies." Mr. Miyake told his daughter, making the bow disappear. "We are humans who can use the energy of reishi, particularly the reishi around us."
"Reishi? The energy of the dead?" Shinobu repeated.
"Ah, so you have been learning." Mr. Miyake said, satisfied. "Have you seen any uses of reishi?"
"Well, Sakura-sensei did have me go to Karakura the other day to get a feel for reishi. I did sense some around this boy with orange hair but I thought it was just my imagination."
"Ah Karakura. A good place to learn about reishi." Mr. Miyake stated. "So I think it would be for the best if you forget this woman and learn just from me."
"What? Why?"
"I'm your father. Do I need more reason than that?" He asked.
Shinobu frowned and stood up. "Hell yes! If this meant anything to you then you would have made the offer before now! A complete stranger sees potential in me and does something, but all the while you should have seen that potential sooner! Either you didn't care or you were being lazy! But it doesn't matter! I don't like how you waited until weeks after someone already started teaching me anything to even bring up the subject! What's your angle?"
He leaned back and made an effort to show how relaxed and unintimidated he was. "Because for all your life you haven't shown any ability to use reishi. You seemed to take after your mother in that regard, especially if you can use mana instead."
"Wait, you mean Mom can use mana?" Shinobu asked.
Mr. Miyake nodded. "Quite well. Which makes me wonder why she's never said a wonder. Since she didn't say anything and I sensed nothing, I assumed all our potential just skipped your generation. If this woman you know could sense mana potential in you, then I must find out why she could when we couldn't."
"Well you waited too long to notice. Both you and Mom." Shinobu sharply stated. "I'm not giving up Sakura-sensei just because this hurts your prides."
"Then have your fun for now. You will come to me for training at some point." Mr. Miyake said calmly.
Onitaru was flying his fastest, not thinking one bit about how he was doing so, and not sure where he was going. But he did have an idea. Up ahead was the mountains, the same place he ended up when he first became his very fast dragon alien form, one he had later dubbed XLR8 as a pun on the English word 'accelerate' and because it sounded alien. The mountains would give him free room to fight back and not endanger anyone.
Behind him, Lum was firing lightning at the pursuing alien, who was careful to dodge each time. 'Weird, he hasn't fired one shot at Darling. It has to be because dodging my blasts is compromising his ability to aim. I need to keep it up. Darling's oni form is unable to defend itself in the air.'
Fearing his time was almost up, Onitaru started descending. He was away from the city so the threat to others was gone. Now the hard part was fighting back. At least there was only one enemy now.
On the ground Onitaru looked up towards his pursuer, who hovered in place. He immediately took command of the ground, trying to attack the hostile alien. But the grey-armored alien remained out of reach.
"Is this how you use the omnitrix?" He asked, with a deep voice. Lum showed up beyond him and tried to attack with some lightning to his blind spot, but the lightning had no effect on him.
The omnitrix timed out, and Ataru returned to normal. 'Great, how do I avoid him for ten minutes?'
The alien landed, and his hoverboard folded into itself for easy storage. Lum hovered in front of him, shielding Ataru from this guy. "You stay away from my darling!" She threatened.
"Urusian, be at peace. I am not here to harm the earthling." The guy proclaimed.
"And why should I believe you?" She asked.
"He's still standing without a scratch isn't he?" The guy asked, then opened his helmet so they could see his face.
"Whoa, you're a Diamondhead?" Ataru asked, seeing a being that looked just like his crystal alien form.
"My name is Tetrax, and I am a Petrosapien from the planet Petros." He stated. "Vilgax thinks he's hired me to take the omnitrix from you, but I have no intention of giving it to him."
"So you're one of the good guys." Ataru said, feeling better.
"Good and evil are just a point of view child. Besides, I didn't say I wouldn't take the omnitrix from you if I thought you were misusing it." Tetrax clarified.
"And who are you to judge how he's using it?" Lum asked, still mad. "You're not the creator."
"I don't have to be. The omnitrix is attached to what I fear is a foolhardy youth who only sees it as a toy."
"Hey! You don't know anything about me!" Ataru yelled.
"Have you only used it responsibly?" Tetrax asked. "Have you never used it for personal gain? Do you use it for combat?"
"Look, I don't know who you think should have the watch, but to my knowledge there's no such thing as a perfect saint." Ataru declared. "I can use this to help others. In fact, I already have by leading you away from the city so you couldn't hurt anyone."
"Just me. I came with two others, and they aren't as nice as I am. Krabb is just a hired goon and Sixsix is one of the most dangerous criminals in this quadrant of the galaxy." Tetrax replied. "And you were already using an alien form when we arrived. What for? Personal pleasure?"
Ataru was really starting to lose his patience with this inorganic alien.
"The omnitrix is not some toy for your amusement. It's the most powerful weapon in the galaxy. The key to an epic battle between good and evil."
"First you say good and evil is nothing and now you say it means something?" Ataru questioned. "Look Tetrax, maybe I'm not the one you think deserves this thing. But with the way you're talking, I don't think you know anyone who does. So I'm not going to just let you take it from me."
"Unless you get better at using it, we will be better off without you possessing it. You likely use the omnitrix recklessly, valuing brute strength over strategy." Tetrax chewed out.
Atary frowned and stepped up to the tall alien. "With all due respect bub, I'm still figuring this thing out." He held up the omnitrix at the words 'this thing' for emphasis. "I haven't figured out what all these alien forms can do and what hurts them, so there's only so much strategy I can use at the moment. And in case you haven't noticed, I can't exactly just go to a library and read up on this sort of thing."
"You won't have to. I still intend to bring you in for the omnitrix's removal so it can be put away properly away from reckless use. With me, you at least will get out alive and be able to return to a normal life. With the others, you'll be lucky if they simply decide to remove your hand." Tetrax claimed.
"I'm not letting you take the watch." Ataru insisted.
"It's not your choice." Tetrax insisted back.
"It is now!" Ataru said. He tried attacking in his normal human form, but Tetrax brushed him aside.
"Now it's personal!" Lum yelled, charging up her lightning for better results. Petrosapiens didn't react to lightning the same way other beings did, but they weren't immune to it.
While she charged, Tetrax took out his gun and pointed it at her. Onis weren't immune to ammunition either. "I brought the omnitrix to this planet. It's my fault that boy ended up with it in his position. If you're going after me, you're going to have to get thru me first."
"Rather than fight me, you should conserve your strength for the others after him." Tetrax said, then fired his gun but the blast went around Lum to hit something in the distance she couldn't see. Acting on reflex, she flew after her love interest.
Ken was out for a drive outside Tomobiki in order to get a few things for his foster parents that he knew he could get for a better deal than he could in Tomobiki. It was no problem for him, but it was about to become one.
A red button on his dashboard started to beep, then next to it a compartment opened to reveal a sonar tracking screen.
"This isn't good." Ken noted to himself, seeing that his car's alert system detected a threat to his right. "I should leave, but honestly this is the first time this alert's gone off in years without it being a test. I should see what the deal is."
With that, he turned right and headed towards the threat.
Being extra careful, he parked outside a warehouse. It looked like no one was there, but the alert system was shouting otherwise. Ken kept the car on a silent idle and went outside, putting his hand on the hood. Then his body transformed to take on the color and characteristics of the metal of his vehicle.
Like Ataru and Shinobu, Ken had a little trick up his own sleeve. He was an Osmosian, an entity that could absorb the traits of other lifeforms or minerals and use them for himself, for a limited time of course. And only in proportion to the mass and durability of the original source. Luckily the car provided enough metal for him to be secure from any direct attacks if this turned ugly.
He went to the window and looked in, seeing some dim lights and hearing some crashing sounds. Most of the sounds were muffled, as most were when heard from the outside. In the light he saw two large creatures bound by chains, weird lion-like creatures with monkey faces, with one as big as a truck and looking quite aggravated. Ken could also see two people trying to keep them under control with electric prods, but one of them had red skin and a large head and the other had blue skin and a reptilian tail.
"Okay, this is something you don't see every day." Ken said to himself, unable to hear anything they could say. He looked around, trying to see if there was a possible way inside. 'Then again, maybe I shouldn't make this my business.'
Ken quickly went over the facts. One, there were no humans in there and they were dealing with a pair of potentially dangerous animals he had never seen. Two, he couldn't hear a word they were saying, so he couldn't have any idea what they were intending. Three, they were armed and he wasn't, and having metal properties all over his body would have been bad if they used their electric prods on him. Four, even if he did go in there and fight them and win, what would he do with them or the animals? He had nowhere to take them or means to restrain them. And five, if his car's security system acknowledged them as a threat, it was possible that these guys knew about him and could counter them.
'Pop only programmed the system to recognize specific threats. Otherwise my car would go haywire every time there was another car or cyclist on the road with me. So if these guys qualify, they can't be handled on impulse. Besides, I can't help but think that big-headed guy looks familiar, and I get the feeling I don't want to reunite with him if we have encountered before. Yeah, I should just sit this one out.'
As careful as he could, Ken went back to his car, returned to normal once inside, and drove away. Hoping that this choice wouldn't later turn out to be a mistake. All the while the image of his younger self being confined as a human man hooking up tubes to his head flashed in his mind. What was worse, the tubes made him act as some kind of connector to the same man and a giant crab, as a bunch of kids watched.
Ataru was running thru a forest, trying to speed up the omnitrix's recharging. 'What do I use against this guy? Fourarms? Heatblast? Upgrade? Never thought I'd have to fight against one of my own forms.'
He was cut off by a red laser appearing directly in front of him, like someone was shooting him from the side but fired just a split second too soon. He forced himself to stop, the sudden shift in inertia making him fall on his backside.
Coming out of the forest was the purple armored alien, a well-known dangerous criminal answering to the name Sixsix. "Damn, I missed. Oh well, you're not going anywhere."
"I don't suppose you're going to turn out to be a good guy are you?" Ataru asked, stalling for time.
"Fraid not kid." Sixsix replied, taking aim again. "So, you want to surrender or make this tough? Please choose tough, it's more fun for me that way."
"Well if that's your attitude why should I believe you won't kill me even if I do surrender?" Ataru asked, still stalling and glad the omnitrix was recharged now.
Sixsix seemed to laugh. "Who said I wouldn't?"
"Then I might as well make it tough." Ataru said, rushing to make the omnitrix work. 'That guy said I don't think this thing thru, I just act recklessly and don't bother planning anything. Now's a good time to prove him wrong.' Pressing the trigger, he transformed into the alien he had dubbed Ghostfreak.
"An Ectonurite?" Sixsix asked, recognizing the spectral lifeform. 'Crap, I'm not equipped to handle this kind of creature. Where's Krabb?'
"What's the matter? Afraid of ghosts?" Ghostfreak taunted.
The next thing he knew, he was hit from behind by a strange energy blast, and he definitely felt it.
"Yeowch!" Ghostfreak yelled, collapsing to the ground. Then some strange orange-brown slime was sprayed on him, and the stuff burned to the touch. "What the heck?"
Coming into view was Krabb. "He might know how to handle an Ectonurite, but I do. Infrared to see you when you do invisible, and this special reishi-suppressing formula to render you powerless."
'I'm not losing here.' Ghostfreak thought, trying to phase thru the ground, but true to Krabb's word he couldn't. The large crustacean-like alien tried to step on him, so Ghostfreak had to roll out of the way, then got back into the air. 'Good, I can still hover.'
Before Krabb or Sixsix could get do more, Lum started firing lightning at both of them. It bounced harmlessly off Krabb but Sixsix appeared to take some damage from it. The crustacean-like hunter turned towards the oni and fired his own kind of electric bolt at her from a gun on his smaller limb. And since Lum wasn't immune to outside lightning for the same reason electric eels aren't immune to electric attacks, she got hurt and fell to the ground, when Krabb grabbed her tightly with his giant claw.
"I bet you'd fetch a good price to someone else too." He said.
"Hey! No fair trying to get extra cash." Sixsix complained, pointing a gun at his fellow bounty hunter.
Krabb pointed a gun back. "And what are you going to do to stop me?"
"Forget something?" Ghostfreak asked, reminding them of their true target before using some of his hidden interior tentacles to try and peel apart Krabb's armor. The crustacean-like alien started hobbling around, trying to get rid of the ghost-like alien. But Ghostfreak didn't release him and Krabb didn't release Lum.
At the same time Lum, who was merely stunned by the electric attack not injured, pointing her hand without moving her arm towards Sixsix and fired some more lightning since it had been having an effect on him. He dodged and fired his gun at her, but Krabb's inconsistent moving made him take the hit.
All the while Tetrax was watching. 'The Urusian is dedicating to helping the young Earthling. She has complete faith in him to use the omnitrix properly even if not professionally. And the boy is showing intelligence by using a form that allows him to sabotage the threat rather than merely beat them like a brute.
'Look Tetrax, maybe I'm not the one you think deserves this thing. But with the way you're talking, I don't think you know anyone who does.' The words of Ataru went thru the Petrosapien's mind. 'I haven't figured out what all these alien forms can do and what hurts them, so there's only so much strategy I can use at the moment.'
'Boy, you have a lot to learn if you want to be capable of handling the burden that the omnitrix bears. But maybe you deserve the chance to learn and prove yourself.' He told himself, and with his mind made up, Tetrax had his hand into a crystal blade and charged in.
Once both enemy hunters were in sight, Tetrax shot at them with crystal projectiles, hitting Krabb and Sixsix but not Ghostfreak or Lum. This stunned the victims but didn't actually leave any marks. While they were stunned, Tetrax ran towards Krabb and jumped, who started to swing his claw to retaliate. But rather than attack, Tetrax got out his hoverboard and used to it fly over Krabb, then shoot more at Sixsix. This time he did with enough force that the purple-armored alien was pushed into the ground leaving an imprint of his body. The Petrosapien came down, pulled him out, and socked him in the jaw for added measure, sending him to crash into a tree.
Dazed but not fully out, Sixsix showed a hidden missile launcher in his left arm, and fired one missile. Tetrax created a wall of crystal to shield himself, which worked but destroyed the wall.
"Behind you!" Lum yelled.
Tetrax turned to see Krabb charge at him from behind, still holding the oni girl and with Ghostfreak on its back. The claw came at him again, but Tetrax grabbed it and used Krabb's momentum againsted him by throwing him up and over like in judo. While he could, he pried apart the claw just enough for LUm to get free. Krabb crashed and Ghostfreak fell off.
Sixsix was getting up and ready to fire another missile, but Ghostfreak went for him. "Oh no you don't!" He hissed in his raspy voice, getting behind the dazed bounty hunter and using his tentacles to ensnare him like an octopus, even blinding him with his hands too.
"Hey! Get off me!" Sixsix ordered, struggling to move and accidentally firing his gun a few time, clipping some trees and terrifying one bird.
"You wanna shoot? There's your target." Ghostfreak commented, controlling his captive's arm to make him aim at Krabb, who was busy fending off Tetrax and a vengeful Lum.
As a result, Krabb was hit with lasers, crystals, and lightning at the same time from three sources. The attacks overwhelmed the circuitry in his armor and forced him to collapse, down for the count.
The same could not be said for Sixsix though. "Lum, go up high!" Ghostfreak called out.
"Huh? What for?" She asked.
"Trust me, it will work." He insisted.
Confused but trusting him, Lum went up above, high enough that someone couldn't jump to her but not too high to see or hear what would happen next.
"What are you doing?" Sixsix asked, still trying to get free. Tetrax watched, asking himself the same question.
"Just curious on what happens if I did this." Ghostfreak teased, grabbing some wires connected to Sixsix's jetpack and yanking them out of their sockets.
Right away the jetpack roared to life, and carried the purple-armored alien up to the air against his will. Ghostfreak released him, but not until after he made sure to give some direction in the trajectory. Sixsix went straight up, spiraling around and unable to stop himself.
Lum smiled, seeing what her housemate had been planning. Once he got close, she fired some of her strongest lightning at Sixsix, and with nothing to ground him it was extra effective. It even managed to make his jetpack cease function entirely, allowing gravity to do its job and bring the bounty hunter back down to earth, hard and uncomfortably so.
Tetrax went up to the downed criminals and pulled out a small light blue cube, then he tossed it at them. The cube grew in size and sort of phased around them both, then it shrank with both of them gone, presumably shrunken down inside it.
Meanwhile, the omnitrix timed out and Ataru returned to normal, still covered in Krabb's slime. "Yuck. I hope this stuff washes off."
Lum came down next to him and hugged him. "Darling you were great." Then she remembered the slime as well. "Oh gross." She complained as she pulled away, trying to wipe it off.
"Not bad, for a human." Tetrax said to Ataru when he pocketed his cube.
"I suppose that's the best compliment I'm going to get out of you." Ataru chided.
"I will return to check up on your progress when I have a chance to." The Petrosapien added.
"Wait, so you're not taking the watch from me?" Ataru asked.
"I admit I was hoping that the 'watch' as you like to call it would end up in the hands of some kind of perfect person, but after watching you handle these two, I get the feeling you've earned the right to prove your worthiness. Just remember boy, the omnitrix is not a toy and as long as you have it, those that want it as a toy or weapon will come after you. If you are worthy, you'll have to prove that you're a better person than they are."
Ataru nodded. "While I can't promise I will never use it for selfish reasons, I can promise those won't be the only reasons I do use it. And I've got her around to keep me on the right path if I get carried away." He gestured to Lum then, making her blush with a smile.
"Then if you're going to be around someone who can fly all the time when you can't, this should be of use." Tetrax added, handing him the hoverboard.
"Wow, really?" Ataru said, excited. "Wait, how will you get off the planet without this?"
"I have other ways. Until we meet again child."
Ataru grinned. "The name's Ataru Moroboshi, Tetrax."
The crystal alien nodded. "Until we meet again, Ataru."
After stepping away, Tetrax's helmet went back into place and he hit a switch on his left wrist. He teleported away in a red glow.
Ataru activated the hoverboard and stepped on it. "Hey Lum, race you home."
"You're on." She said happily.
Outside his spaceship, Vilgax could see a teleport beam heading towards him, making him think his hired goons were returning successfully. Then it stopped, and changed trajectory away from him and the planet, disappearing all too quickly.
"Agh! Betrayed!" He rued.
"Sensors indicate that the omnitrix was not with the mercenaries." One of the crew members told their injured captain.
"It would appear that the being who possesses the omnitrix... is as clever as it is fierce." Vilgax wheezed. "But I will not be denied."