And I'm back, folks!

I got my computer back after my grades got up, so I quickly typed up this little baby to show how much I missed y'all!

And thanks for everyone voting on the polls! It really helped me see what my audience wanted, so I shall try to balance things out for everyone so that there's something everyone can enjoy!

As always, I'd like to thank a few people. First, thank you to DJ Rodriguez for the constant support and countless offers in helping me perfect this story. I honestly don't know what I would have done without you. I would also like to thank Menatron the Angel of Ideas and Darkness Rissing for all the support and ideas they've given me as well.

Truthfully though, all of you are great. So thank you to everyone!

I also realize I hadn't given proper credit to the song that Ben sang last chapter. The song is called 'Stand' by the band Rascal Flats. Check out their music sometime! I swear it to be good ;)

As always, comment, review, suggest, and request down below! I love hearing from my public.

Onwards!

~WARNING!~ Graphic content later on! No lemons, but incredible violence!

"Oh, my poor head," Draculaura whimpered, alternative touch the sore bruise on her skull and wincing at the spike of pain that coursed through her when she touched it. "What happened?" she wondered aloud, slowly opening her weary eyes. It was then that she discovered that she was not alone.

Lying next to her with his arm over her and a slight amount of drool leaking from his mouth, was Ben in his human form. Draculaura instantly froze, trying to remember why the heck she was sleeping with Ben in the middle of the training room with nothing but her boots, a pair of nunchaku, and a suspicious pile of weapons off in the corner to help her remember.

Why am I lying down with Ben? she wondered. Did he do- no! Ben would never do that to me! But then, what happened? The last thing I remember was training with Whampire and getting lost in his eyes . . . . no! Stop that! she mentally yelled at herself. Heaving a deep breath to calm her rattled nerves she slowly, very carefully took one of Ben's hands in hers and lifted his strong arm off of her body. She realized his hands were gigantic compared to her delicate, pink fingers, and in a way they reminded her of Clawd. Sphinx, Ben reminded her a lot about Clawd. They had a lot in common: the urge to do the right thing, always putting others before themselves, and always staying loyal to their ghouls.

Then why was he currently passed out on the floor with in the first place? She pushed the thought aside for the moment and continued to extricate herself from Ben's hold, gently placing the hand on the floor beside her before working on the other one. Ben sudden stirred in his sleep and Draculaura froze on the spot like a deer in the headlights of an upcoming car; thankfully, he merely rolled over away from her, making her job all the more easier.

Draculaura quietly climbed to her feet and looked at her surroundings, at the empty gym. Her eyes cast over the pile of weapons cast off to the side and she remembered trying many of them to see which one suited her; unfortunately for Whampire, many of them did not. She then moved on to the nunchaku and remembered training with the, learning the basics. She had been amazed at how good she felt to finally learn something that could impress just about any boy she could come across; Clawd would love it. She loved feeling that sense of power, knowing that if anything tried to harm her they would suffer her wrath; normally if anyone was to suffer anything from her it was the occasional flawed fashion idea.

She then turned back to Ben, who was still asleep on the floor. She remembered how she couldn't stop staring at Whampire throughout the entire training session, tearing her eyes away from his well developed muscles and fangs to his irresistible green eyes that seemed to draw you in with every passing second. That was actually the last thing she remembered seeing, those endless green pools.

That was not however, the last thing she was conscious of. For some reason, her memory was a tad fuzzy around this bit, she remembered hearing Whampire's voice talking to her, even if it sounded distant. What surprised her even more was that he, Whampire and not Ben, had proclaimed his love for her and claimed he was also the technical ruler of a place called Anur Transyl. The last thing she remembered before the blackness finally took her was that the Vladat promised they would meet again.

She didn't know what that meant, but it sounded unnaturally creepy coming from a creature that technically wasn't supposed to be able to think without Ben's mind inhabiting its head. A sudden realization came over her and, with another thought, Draculaura raced out of the gym, leaving Ben alone on the floor.


"Hey, hot stuff."

Abbey gritted her teeth and counted to ten, tightly clenching her fists before turning around and glaring down at the annoying fire elemental that stared nervously upwards. "How many times must Abbey remind thick-headed numbskull?" she growled through gritted teeth.

"Right! Right. Abbey. Not 'baby, Abbey." Heath said quickly, gulping nervously under the yeti's harsh glare that dared him to say the word again.

"Better," Abbey said after what seemed an eternity. "What does Hothead want? Abbey very busy." she frowned, gesturing to the empty table before her. Heath cocked an eyebrow and looked around the empty Mess Hall, him and Abbey being the only people in the room at the moment. "Um, busy with what, exactly?" he asked.

Abbey cursed herself; of course even he would realize she was lying. Truth be told, she did like a Heath. A lot, actually. But he had this adorable way of really grating her nerves and rubbing her the wrong way. She tried to restrain herself, but she would often find herself imaging Heath's face when she was driving her fist into a punching bag as much as she was daydreaming about him; it was crazy enough to drive any ghoul crazy.

"Nothing." she growled, turning away from him and sulking in defeat, hoping Heath would leave her alone to stew. Unfortunately for her, Heath wasn't that kind of guy. Instead, he sat down across from her, reaching into the Monster High Letterman jacket that hadn't left him since they fell into this time travel mess, and pulling out a deck of cards. "So, do you wanna play?" he asked.

Abbey cocked an eyebrow, but slowly nodded her head without saying another word. Heath grinned and folded the cards, shuffling them with surprising dexterity and tricks that actually amused Abbey. She didn't let him know this and merely made a sound that told him to stop with the fancy tricks. Heath eagerly complied and dealt out five cards to each of them, setting the deck in between them. "So, uh, what do you wanna play? Crazy 8s? Old Hag? Poker?" Heath listed off.

"Does Hothead play the Go of Fish?"

"Rookie, huh? Alright then," Heath smiled as he proceeded to fold his cards and look at them with a near comical intensity. "Ya have any nines?"

"Go of Fish." said Abbey from behind her cards. Heath faked anger and pulled another card from the pile.

"Hmm. Does Hothead have the twos?" Abbey asked. Heath pouted and handed over nine diamonds. And so it went on for roughly an hour, the two of them playing Go Fish; Heath would continually ask Abbey for a number, and would only occasionally manage to get a card from her. The other half of the time he was either drawing from the deck or handing his cards over to Abbey. Eventually, Abbey had won every single game of Go Fish they had played and Heath had won zip. But he was determined to win something. Even if that meant cheating in the smallest of ways.

"What say we make a little wager?" he asked after Abbey had won her twenty-sixth game in a row without incident.

"What kind of wager?" Abbey asked, suspicious.

"If I win, you have to do me something. You win, I have to do something for you," Heath explained. "Whadya say?"

"What would Abbey have to do for Hothead if she were to, by some very small chance lose?" Abbey asked, pinching her fingers to an almost microscopic size for emphasis. Heath grinned; hook, line, and sinker.

"Ah, but that would be telling," he smiled. "Unless you're . . . scared?" he asked. The anger that flashed through her eyes almost made him turn tail and run, but he held his ground. He knew he had her right where he wanted her.

"Deal." Abbey growled, taking his hand and giving it a shake, making sure to crush his fingers with her tremendous strength. Heath winced and held his throbbing fingers but managed to keep it together as he fancily shuffled and dealt out the cards, much to Abbey's annoyance.

"You got any nines?" he asked, wriggling his eyebrow.

"Hothead always ask same question over and over," Abbey frowned, her cheeks turning pink. "And Abbey never have any. Go the Fish."

Heath's smile got bigger as he saw he was making progress. "Does Hothead have of the threes?"

"Go Fish." Heath said with great pleasure.

Abbey's glare deepened as she took a card from the pile. "Do ya have any eights?" Heath asked.

Abbey was trembling slightly as she angrily handed over an eight of spades through pinched fingers; Heath was eventually able to extricate the card from her firm grip after a few seconds as he laid his paired cards down on the table. "Do you have any threes?" Heath asked, and once again Abbey handed him another card with great reluctance. "How about any fives? Ya got any fives?" Heath asked.

"Hah! Go the Fish!" Abbey said proudly. Heath smirked and drew a card from the pile, immediately pulling out a matching number seven card from his deck and putting it with the threes and eights. Abbey watched, stunned, and growled, nearly crushing her cards in her hand.

"Hand over your twos." she demanded.

"I would, doll face, but I ain't got any!" Heath said with glee.

Abbey was so furious, she didn't even notice that Heath had called her a nickname. When Heath asked if she had any fours, she chucked the card at him and watched as he ducked, the card imbedding itself into the table; with a shaky hand Heath pulled it out and matched it up with his brother.

"Give Abbey your fives!" Abbey ordered and Heath gave her a four of spades.

"Ya got any ones?" Heath asked, now realizing he was down to three cards. If he could keep it up, he would finally defeat Abbey and claim the prize he had sought after for so long. He was shaken from his thoughts when an ace of spades cut right through his hair and embedded itself in the wall behind him, slightly smoking as he got up from the table to pull it out.

Grrrrr, why does Hothead have to be so good at card game? Abbey frowned, tightly clenching her fists after quickly placing her cards face down on the table as Heath tried to remove the card from the wall in front of her. She could hear the sound of groaning ice coming from beneath her feet as crystals began to form on the floor and the temperature dropped slightly. Why was it that Heath brought out the best and worst in her? Why did she have to find his annoying smirk so dazzling, or his irritating nicknames for her so charming? Was she, a coldhearted beauty that not even the warmest of hearts melt, actually falling for him? She refused to except it. And as such, she had defeat him in this game, one way or another.

"Um, how about sixes? Do you have any of those?" Heath asked rather timidly.

She would defeat him right after she managed to stop losing.


Two hours later, and Abbey was at her wits end. Not only had she continually nearly lost to him, but he had come so agonizingly close to being done for, only to somehow manage to get her guess several of his cards wrong and land her right back where she had started. It so irritating, constantly losing this one-sided battle that only she cared about it. But did he have to do it with the constant, ever annoying grin on his face she simply couldn't ignore? And did he have to stare at her with those fiery brown eyes that were like blazing coals in a furnace? She noticed that while they occasionally focused on her more private of areas, they mostly stayed focused on her face, which Abbey found incredibly confusing. Was a male like him not more interested in her body? Foreign men were so confusing.

"Does Hothead have the sevens?" Abbey asked with a tired sigh. Another thing she noticed was that, among being constantly worn down by his chipper attitude, was the fact that she had always called him a nickname while she refused to be called one. Was this a sign that she was falling for him?

"Sorry, babe, but I got none." Heath smirked.

Abbey growled, too tired to yell at him for calling her something other than her real name and merely took another card from the pile. This made her eighth card so far, while Heath was only down to two. For some reason, she was starting to lose the fiery edge that she had developed to defeat him and merely wanted the game to end, for either him or her to win. She honestly didn't care any more. So when Heath asked her for any threes she might have had, she only handed him the card instead of trying to slice his off with it.

Heath took this as a sign that he was getting close to his goal. Nonetheless, he was still slightly concerned. Throughout the entire game, a coat of ice had managed to crawl its way up the table on Abbey's side, advancing and retreating depending on how she was feeling. At the moment it had managed to claim a small amount of the table as its own, but it had mostly taken to growing all over Abbey, who seemed oblivious to the ice crystals that made their way across her pale skin and warm furs. Heath knew Abbey would be perfectly fine against the freezing cold, but it was still an interesting if not a concerning thing to notice.

"Um, are you okay?" he eventually asked, taking his card between to of his fingers and leaning back in his seat.

Abbey stirred and looked at him with tired, weary eyes. "Abbey is fine. Just tired."

"We can stop if you want." Heath offered.

Abbey shook her head. "No, Abbey want to finish game." she insisted.

"You sure?"

Abbey nodded her head. "Abbey is never unsure of anything."

"If you say so," heath shrugged. "Your turn."

Abbey sleepily looked over her cards, the numbers and colors blurring over each other for a moment before becoming clear once more. "Does Hothead have any of the ones?" she asked with a slightly bored voice. Heath shook his head and Abbey picked another card from the deck in the center that had became a scattered pile during the long hours.

"Ya got any nines?" Heath asked. Abbey handed over a nine diamond without another thought before realizing what she had done. She blinked her eyes and looked down at her hand, eight cards in all. Then she looked over at Heath's hand. Absolute zero.

She had lost.

"How do ya like me now, hot stuff?" Heath smirked, folding his arms across his chest and looking at her with complete confidence, knowing that he had totally owned her in a game she had owned him numerous times in. Oddly enough, Abbey didn't feel like crushing his skull between her fingers and using his bloody corpse as a punching bag.

"What must Abbey do for Hothead?" Abbey sighed, resting her head on her chest and drumming her fingers on the table. Her mind was starting to fuzz right now, and all she really wanted to do was just lie down for a nap. Fortunately for Heath and unfortunately for her, yetis had an instinctual code of honor that forbade them from ever breaking deals, bets, or special promises.

"A dinner with me," Heath announced, catching Abbey's attention and successfully snapping her out of her exhausted state. "Anytime, anywhere you want as soon as we get this whole time travel mess done and over with, on me. All you gotta do is show up." Heath smirked at Abbey's startled expression as he gathered up the playing cards and smoothly stacked them into a pile before stashing them in his pocket.

"Pleasure doing business with ya, doll face." Heath grinned mischievously as he got up from his seat and left the Mess Hall, stretching his sore arms and legs as Abbey stared after him in disbelief. With a tired sigh, Abbey slammed her head down on the table, breaking it in half and resting her head on the remains of the table. She didn't know whether to be happy she had finally scored a date with Heath without it being seen in public or to be mad that she had to be on a date with him. She was so confused to how she should have felt, she didn't hear the door to the Mess Hall open and she didn't realize she wasn't alone in the room until she felt someone sit down next to her.

"Something wrong?" she heard Ben's voice ask. Abbey stirred and rolled her head to the side to look up at him with a weary expression.

"Abbey lose game of the Go of the Fish to Hothead. Now Abbey must go on the date with him once whole clock mess is kaput." she told him.

"And the table?" Ben asked.

"Abbey lose temper."

"I'm not even going to ask how you managed to do that," Ben muttered to himself. "So, uh, are you looking forward to the date?" Ben asked rather awkwardly, unsure on how to talk to someone who was normally so cold to him and so fearless at the same time. In fact, that was the entire reason why Abbey had managed to save him from Phobos after Lagoona had passed away; she had been completely fearless, devoid of any specific fear. Or any fear for that matter.

"Abbey is unsure," she sighed, rolling her head so that her head was face down on the remains of the table. "How does brown-haired teenage boy with magic watch on wrist do the dating?"

Ben blinked. "Um, I don't really know how to answer that," Ben admitted. "Me and the ghouls never officially went out on a date before this whole mess started. It's on my to-do list though." he added. Abbey didn't move. Ben cocked an eyebrow and cautiously poked Abbey in shoulder, not getting a reaction. He poked her again, her pale body moving slightly before settling back down. Curious, Ben turned her over to discover Abbey had fallen asleep on the table, softly snoring. Ben smiled slightly and turned to the Omnitrix, cycling through the aliens before coming across a suitable one. He slapped the activation and let the green light wash over him, changing his DNA at the molecular level. Hard, metal plating raced up his back and front, melting together into a single shield. His shoulders became rounded and massive as flexible black tubing covered the skin between his elbow and shoulder. His arm then began to swell, metal plating taking the place of his skin as his fingers turned into sharp, gray claws. A piston formed on each of his elbows as the metallic plating covered his head and changed it into something that resembled a Greek Corinthian helmet. Two small, pointed ears formed on his head his feet turned into hard, metallic claws. The Omnitrix and Skurd appeared on his broad chest as a short tail popped out from his spine, completing the transformation.

With a grunt, Armodrillo bent over and picked up Abbey' still form in his claws, slinging her over one massive shoulder before lumbering towards the door to the Mess Hall and outside, leaving the smashed remains of the table behind for someone else to discover. He shuffled down the hallway towards the dorms, ignoring the odd looks he received from passing soldiers and staff of the Rebellion. A few minutes he found himself in standing in front of the girls dorm, the door a tad too small for him. Plus, he didn't know the access code.

"No problem." Armodrillo said to himself.

"I'd advise against doing what you're about to do," Skurd warned him. "But then again, when have you ever listened to little old me about anything?"

The Talpaedan ignored him and activated his left arm, the piston on his massive elbow pumping up and down as his claws fused together into a hardened tip that swirled like a drill. He then jabbed the spinning point into the hard, metal door and worked his arm like a saw blade, drilling through the doors frame and knocking it right out of its frame as it groaned and fell flat on the floor. Armodrillo then ducked inside the room and maneuvered himself through the small, dark space to the bunk that he assumed was Abbey's, easy to guess thanks to the icicles that had ground underneath it. Armodrillo heaved Abbey's sleeping form onto the top bunk and turned to leave after pulling the covers over her when he heard her mumble something.

"Abbey is sorry she has been so cold to you," she said quietly. "Abbey glad to have Ben as friend." Armodrillo turned around to see Abbey had turned over in his sleep, making him confused as to whether she had been asleep the entire or not. He decided to ignore it and instead lumbered out of the dorm, pulling the door back up, only to have it fall back down.

"See what I mean?" Skurd sighed with annoyance.

"I got this." Armodrillo grumbled as he slapped the Omnitrix on the front of his armor, briefly transforming him back into his human form before the Omnitrix injected another set of alien DNA in to his bloodstream. His bones ground and crunched as he was shrunk down to a height of only two and a half feet tall as his skin turned a smooth, blood red in color. A thin, spaded tail snaked out from the base of his spine as his fingers grew longer and his nails grew sharper. His eyes widened apart slightly as his nose suddenly jutted out at a comical, almost ridiculous, length. His ears became larger and slightly bat-like before becoming spiked as his toes melted together into three digits, his heel grinding against his foot before becoming a small spike. He became slightly obese as spikes formed on his chin and the corners of his eyes as a green and black aviators outfit materialized on his body, complete with a white ascot and a pair of goggles strapped to his head. The Omnitrix and Skurd appeared on his belt, completing the transformation.

"BREAK BREAK BREAK!" Jury Rigg cried with glee, raking his claws across the disassembled door and tearing to pieces with his jerks of his small hands, kicks of his wild feet, and bizarre and unorthodox movements that stripped the mechanized door and its frame down to its bare bits. "FIX FIX FIX FIX FIX!" he then cried with glee, stabbing wires into circuits and transformers, slapping the metal sheets together and punching the bolts in to hold them in place before shoving the door into the newly rebuilt frame and rebuilding it at a much faster pace, quickly disassembling the key pad before rebuilding it into a much better model. The door was now completely brand new and upgraded, standing out in the drab hallway with its black and green color scheme. Then again, Jury Rigg was never one to care about fashion. With a maniacal laugh that worried Skurd a little bit, Jury Rigg scampered down the hallway towards Ghoulia's lab, eager to break, fix, and cause general mayhem until the Omnitrix timed out and he could regain full control over himself. Until then, Ghoulia was in for a wild ride.

Unbeknownst to the little gremlin or hulking bio-mechanical humanoid, the dorm had not been empty when either of them had been in it.

"Is he gone?" Jane whispered, her voice filled with anxiety and worry She was clutching her change of clothes tightly over her chest, trying to conceal her naked form from anyone that might suddenly enter the dorm.

"I think so." Venus reassured her from under a blanket. The plant monster peeked out from under the covers and looked around the dark room, her clothes pushed underneath the bunk. "Whisp, you got anything?" she rasped. The genie reappeared next to her in a poof of black smoke, not bothering to cover up her naked body as she put two fingers on each hand to her head, reaching out to her surroundings before confirming they were alone.

"Too bad Ben didn't stick around," Whisp pouted. "I was really looking forward to a good time."

"In mean time, you've got us." Venus purred, pecking Whisp on the cheek.

"If it is not too much trouble," Abbey's voice came from far across the dorm. "Abbey would very much appreciate it if hormone affected friends would keep it down when playing sexually games with each other. Abbey is trying to sleep." the yeti grumbled, turning over and grinning mischievously when she heard Jane's startled yelp and the sudden movement of blankets.


The doors to the med bay slid open as Jury Rigg scampered, madly cackling as he bounced around the room, swinging from the light fixtures overhead like a hyperactive monkey and dancing across the dead consoles like they were a dance floor.

"Ayyyahhh!" Ghoulia scolded him.

"I don't have a clue whatcha just said Nyahahahaha!" Jury Rigg cackled as he jumped for a hanging light and missed, landing flat on his face on the floor of the med bay; the Omnitrix timed out seconds later.

"Ow." Ben merely said, peeling his face off of the floor as Skurd rubbed his sore head.

"Your recklessness never ceases to amaze." the Slimebiote grumbled.

"I'm not reckless," Ben shot back. "Sorry about that, Ghoulia. Jury Rigg kinda gets worked up."

"The mother of all understatements." Skurd muttered under his breath, Ben smacking him against the railing of a bed.

"So, uh, how've you been adjusting to the new legs?" Ben asked. Ghoulia shrugged, and gestured downwards. Since Ben's startling wish, she had been getting more use to her newly reformed limbs with the help of her spider legs. They still repaired strapped around her waist, but she had made a few modifications to the device; the legs would pop in and out at given times, mostly whenever they sensed that Ghoulia was falling. Then they would whip out and catch her before she could hit the floor, while not restricting muscle growth and reformation. The legs could also be manually pulled out, allowing Ghoulia to still climb up on ceilings and walls with the greatest of ease.

"Meeeehhhhh-iieeeee." Ghoulia shrugged her shoulders, lurching forward as she spread her arms out for balance. She made her way over to Ben and proceeded to hug him tightly, wrapping her pale arms around him and pulling him close to her. After a few moments hesitation, mostly out of confusion, Ben returned the friendly gesture before asking what it was for.

"Ayyyyaaaaiiiee." moaned Ghoulia, pointing at her new legs.

"For using one of my wishes to give you your legs back?" Ben guessed, Ghoulia nodding to confirm he had translated correctly. "Mind if I try my Zombie out on you/" Ben asked, Ghoulia gesturing for him to go ahead and try.

"Ahhhiiieeeaa?" Ben tried. Ghoulia gasped and quickly slapped him across the face, her pale skin a fiery red.

"I don't think I wanna know what I just said." Ben grumbled, rubbing his throbbing cheek before his eyes caught sight of the curtain around Twyla's bed. "Is she . . . ya know?"

Ghoulia waved her head up and down a little while holding it horizontally, not quite sure how to explain it to him. She instead opted to beckon for him to follow her and lead him behind the curtain, pulling him in when he hesitated a little.

"Aaaahhhiie." Ghoulia moaned. The mass underneath the covers shifted slightly before the figure beneath them finally awoke, sitting up in bed, and rubbing the sleep from her tired eyes. Her pale blue and sea green hair that looked like smoky fog on a dim evening was twisted into snarls and gnarls that looked like it would take a weed whacker just to tame. It was only after a few minutes of slowly waking up did Twyla finally notice the two of them standing there, staring at her.

"Thanks, Ghoulia," Twyla yawned. "I'll call if I need anything."

The zombie nodded and shuffled out from behind the curtain, giving Ben a look that told him to stay right where he was or there would be consequences that he would not like in the slightest.

"So . . . how're you doing after . . . you-know-what?" Ben asked.

"You mean me almost killing you if Skurd hadn't interfered?" Twyla interjected?

"Finally, someone recognizes my accomplishments!" Skurd noted happily; both Twyla and Ben ignored him as usual.

"Did the . . . The Thing come out?" Ben asked, sitting down on the edge of Twyla's bed. Twyla sadly shook her head and put it in her hands, hiding her face from Ben as her eye began to water.

"It was so scary, not being in control of my own body. I couldn't scream, I couldn't resist. All I could do was watch in horror as The Thing attacked you. And before I knew it, I was out cold, unable to see you and my dreams were filled with nightmares of you being slaughtered before my very eyes, with me unable to do anything to prevent your death," Twyla whimpered.

"But The Thing's gone. I killed her when Skurd turned me into Ghostfreak." Ben reassured her.

"Another one! Finally, the cred it I deserve!" Skurd cried happily before Ben whacked him on the bed's railing again, silencing him once more.

"You didn't kill her." Twyla's voice came.

"What?" Ben asked, mortified.

"You didn't kill her," Twyla repeated, lifting her head to look at him with a tear stained eye. "You only prolonged the inevitable. She may not realize it, but she'll eventually reform and go back to stalking the darkest reaches of my mind, waiting for the right moment to take over and destroy everything I care about, simply because she can't have what I have. And nothing, not even genie magic, can remove it. Believe me, I've tried." Twyla sniffed.

"What do you mean you've tried?" Ben asked.

"I asked Gigi and Whisp a couple days ago when they visited me here if they could possibly remove The Thing from my mind, prevent her from every coming back," Twyla replied. "They said no, that it was beyond their limits to affect a person's mind. Plus, it was too dangerous, according to them."

Ben frowned before cracking his knuckles. "Then it looks like I'll just have to keep on kicking her sorry ass every time." he swore. Twyla wiped her eyes and looked like she was going to protest, but Ben interjected before she could. "I know what you're going to say Twyla, and quite frankly I don't give a darn. I'm not gonna let some psychopathic monster destroy my girlfriend and everything she holds dear to her heart. One way or another, The Thing is going down, no matter how many times I have to beat her senseless."

"That sounds excruciating." Skurd noted.

Twyla nodded her head in agreement. "Why go to that trouble just for me?" she asked. "I mean, you've got at least half a dozen other ghouls. Why care about me so much?" she asked quietly.

"Because I'm not going to let someone I care about be taken over by something that they hate and never wanted to be," Ben stated. "I would literally give up my life before I would let anything happen to you."

Twyla sniffed and grabbed Ben into a tight hug, Ben returning the gesture after a few moments. He felt an area on his sleeve become slightly damp, but he let it pass. For any of his ghouls, he would gladly forfeit his clean laundry for them to make sure they were happy. Unfortunately, the moment was ruined when a large tremor shook through the base, the lights in the med bay flickering on and off as more tremors rattled the base to the core in a steady rhythm that sounded suspiciously like footsteps.

"I'll be right back," Ben frowned, gently pulling himself free form Twyla.

"I'm coming with you." Twyla insisted.

"No, you are staying here in bed while I take care of it," Ben argued. "You are in no condition to fight whatever the Sphinx is out there."

"Voltage," Twyla cursed. "Just get back as soon as possible. And I don't wanna see you on any bed in this room, got it?" she threated.

"You forget who're you're talking to." Ben grinned as he activated the Omnitrix and cycled through his roster before coming across the alien he desired. "Gotta run!" he quipped, slapping the activation button and watching as the green light enveloped him and began to change his appearance. His bones became lighter, hollow actually, his arms stretched out a little bit. He was forced to hunch over slightly as his skin turned blood red in color and six slits formed in his flesh where his ribs would be. His fingers fused together into three long claws. His toes morphed together into two talons as his heel ground against his foot and formed a third toe jutting out behind him, his mouth widening across his face. His eyebrows hardened into yellow crests that looked like a pair of devil's horns as they grew upwards above his green eyes. A tail sprouted from the base of his spine as a thin, yellow membrane formed from his wrists to his waist. A pair of black briefs and a green strap vest materialized on his body, the Omnitrix and Skurd appearing on the vest's hooker.

"Jetray? Oh, why can't you ever work with me, Omnitrix?" the Aerophibian whined as Twyla smirked. With a sigh, the alien gave a flap of its wings and flew up and over the curtain and out of the doors of the med bay, leaving Twyla behind to rest,

"Be careful." Twyla whispered.


"Okay, so I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say something totally crazy, but what do you think we're up against?" Jetray asked Skurd after a few moments of awkward silence.

"What, the universe's greatest hero is asking his lowly sidekick for help?" Skurd asked sarcastically.

"I could always ask someone else, ya know." Jetray threatened.

Skurd huffed. "Fine. My bet is that the fools have come back with reinforcements and will attempt to take over this facility."

"Hmm." Jetray mused as he turned down a hallway and came to the base's entrance, landing and waiting for a few harrowing seconds, pressing his head to the door that led outside. The steady sound of footsteps could be heard outside, drumming through the base. He was soon joined by Draculaura, Venus, Jane, Nefera, Robecca, Hoodude, Heath, Clawd, Skelita, Cleo, Clawdeen, and Howleen, all of them looking to him for instruction. Of course, Jetray didn't know this.

"What're you all staring at?" he asked.

"You, duh," Cleo rolled her eyes. "In the absence of Twyla, you're the next in command. It would have been me, but I can't compete with Twyla's boyfriend." the mummy said sarcastically.

"Oh." was all Jetray had to say. "Okay, um, I guess hit 'em fast and hit 'em hard. Pair up and all that stuff."

"Are you sure we should be listening to him?" Clawdeen frowned as Jetray put his hand to the scanner, the door opening and the majority of the mob rushing out, screaming at the top of their lungs before anyone could even bother to answer her. The werewolf huffed and ran out after her fellow soldiers, cocking her guns and ready to fire them at whatever they faced.

She never expected what she saw before her.

Towering over the entire battle field was a behemoth of epic proportions. It was humanoid in appearance, but was definitely alien in origin. It was massive, a little over a hundred feet tall and its skin was a dull gray and metallic looking. Large fins popped out of its wrists and shoulders, looking like razor-sharp ax blades painted black and purple in color. Two sharp fins that resembled rather monstrous pig tails sat on the monster's head as it glared down at her with a feral look in its blood red eyes. And to make things more interesting, it was feminine, made clear by the slender figure and sparse, black clothing that covered its nether regions, with the addition of massive shackles and chains hanging from its wrists and ankles. Large, red pods dotted the arms and back, looking like gigantic, pulsing zits ready to burst at any moment; they looked incredibly painful. Clawdeen realized she had only seen a creature close to this one once in her entire life, a time fifty years ago during Cleo's birthday party when Ben had changed into such a giant to move a massive statue that would have taken thousands of servants to move; he did it by himself in less than five minutes.

With a loud bellow, the Mutant To'kustar raised up a gigantic foot and brought it crushing down, sending a tidal wave of snow in Clawdeen's direction, carrying Cleo, Nefera, Hoodude, an indigo rhino, and an unfortunate Heath who had been standing too close to Hoodude with it. Clawdeen back peddled as fast as she could into the base, shutting the doors tight just before the snow would have buried her. The To'kustar let out another savage roar from outside that shook the base to its core and hurt Clawdeen's ears terribly as she hunkered down on the ground and waited for the noise to die down a little.

Outside, things were not faring much better. Jetray buzzed around the mutant's head, dodging the swipes from the massive hands and striking with his neuroshock rays that he shot from his eyes and tail, aiming for the head and eyes to attempt to stun it. The To'kustar was bellowing like a wild animal, swinging its arms wildly in an attempt to knock the annoying little pest out of the sky.

"Tennyson!" an enraged, gentlemanly voice yelled.

"Aw, man, Dr. Viktor too? What's next, Vilgax and Albedo on another team up?" the Aerophibian whined when it saw the mad Transylian scientist standing on his creation's shoulder. With his magnetic, steel boots, he was able to easily hang onto the To'kustar's metallic skin, directing and watching all the destruction in what might have the best seat in the house if it were a ball game.

Unfortunately for everyone below him, it was no ball game to them. While they would attempt to hit the monster with everything they had, they were mostly trying to avoid being stepped on. And even if they could get close enough for a few precious seconds to do something, it was almost fruitless.

Draculaura, seeing an opening, lunged forward and began to striking at the Mutant To'kustar's heel with the training nunchaku she had stolen from the gym, eager to test her new skills. It was little more than an annoying itch to the monster though, and she would have been crushed had Robecca not zoomed in on her rocket boots and carried off in the nick of time.

"Thanks for the save." Draculaura sighed with relief.

"No problem, luv. Lets see if we can't get the bugger to tumble, shall we?" Robecca frowned, setting Draculaura down on a patch of snow before shooting off towards the To'kustar's face, ready to slam her entire body into its eye if necessary. Suddenly, the monster opened its massive maw and snapped up Robecca like a fly, closing its jaws around her tightly.

"No!" Jetray cried out. He quickly slapped the Omnitrix symbol on his vest and let the green light envelope, changing his DNA. His skin changed into a smooth, chrome white that became tougher than his original. He began to shrink down until he just barely reached the ghoul's ankles as his face widened for his expanding mouth. He could feel his organs sloshing about inside him as his bones became slightly softer and more bendable; his lungs expanded until they were the largest organ in his body as his eyes became smaller and turned squinty. His ears vanished, to be replaced by small holes, and even then they were covered by hardened skin that wrapped around his head in a way that resembled headphones. His arms and legs grew shorter as the Omnitrix symbol appeared on his head, finishing the transformation.

"Echo Echo? Why am I not surprised!?" the Sonorosian cried out feebaly as it fell a couple hundred feet before landing roughly on the To'kustar's shoulder; the mutant didn't even know he was there. The little alien caught his breath and quickly climbed to his feet before dividing himself into half a dozen clones. Each clone simultaneously sucked in a deep breath before blasting it out at a ear-splitting volume, right into what he assumed to be the Mutant To'kustar's ear, aiming in that general area; at least it knew the two bumps on either side of the chin weren't ears.

The effect was immediate as the monster howled in agony, clapping its massive hands over its head. Its mouth was open wide enough for Robecca to fly out from between the razor sharp fangs, her bronze skin covered in slimy drool that hung off her in curtains.

"You okay?" all of the Echo Echo clones asked in unison, each one hanging on tightly as the mutant thrashed about.

"Fine, luv! Covered in slimy, oral secretion, but fine!" Robecca as she edged closer to the ground and landed with a cloud of white snow; the robot was unhurt, but the massive amount of drool was sure to extinguish all attempts to fire up her rocket boots, sending her out of the fight.

"All right, boys! Charge!" an Echo Echo clone cried out as each clone divided itself in two, making an even dozen. The small army of clones raced across the To'kustar's shoulder, gripping with their fingers to climb across the back of the neck and to the other shoulder. A few clones were lost, shaken free form the mutant's thrashing and sent tumbling down to the ground below, but they were easily replaced. Within minutes, nearly twenty clones had made their way to the other shoulder, where they proceeded to attack a surprised Dr. Viktor, tackling him and clinging to his body as more clones piled themselves.

"Agh! Remove yourselves from me this instant, you puny little punks!" the Transylian demanded. Of course, the Sonorosians didn't listen and continued to dog pile on him, repeatedly punching him with their small fists or ramming them with their rather large heads. Suddenly, with a loud yell, Dr. Viktor sent a blast of electricity coursing through his body, blasting all of the Sonorosians off of him and off of the To'kustar, sending them tumbling a hundred feet to the snow below.

"Nothing you have could possibly stop me now!" Dr. Viktor cackled. "I am invincible!"

"Well, you know what they say," Venus grumbled to herself as a couple Echo Echo clones landed in the cold snow a little ways to her left. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!" She yelled, long, thick, thorny vines sprouting from her palms, the tips igniting into balls of flame from the methane gas that coursed through the plant-like whips. With a yell, Venus charged at the Mutant To'kustar as it managed to recover from the assault on its ears and snapped a whip across the giant's foot, causing the titan to howl in pain as it hopped up and down on one foot. As Venus used the opportunity to lash one of her vines around the To'kustar's wrist, which was just in reach, and pull herself up onto the giant's body, Heath had managed to dig himself out of the snow.

He watched with wild eyes as Jane forced her body to change into a massive Tyrannosaurus Rex, charging the behemoth head and ramming her large skull into the giant's other leg, gaining enough leverage to send the giant toppling backwards. Heath prepared himself for what was to come, hugging the ground and covering his head as a tremor worthy of registering on the Richter scale shook the earth, blasting another wave of snow in all directions. He got lucky when he opened his eyes and found that Jane's fallen bulk had blocked most of blast for him, enabling him to climb up and over the dinosaur's massive form and to charge back into battle, hands ablaze. With a battle cry, he slammed his hands palms down into the snow, putting all of his pent up rage and anger into the attack and sending a towering wall of fire around the fallen titan, thoroughly trapping it until it could be further taken care of.

"Every one okay?" Heath called out.

"I think so!" Echo Echo's voice came from numerous places around the battle field.

"We're okay, too!" Clawd cried out, popping out of a snow drift with Draculaura emerging into daylight a few seconds later. One by one, more monsters called out, confirming they were fine and still alive. Above all of this, one could hear several spouts of foul language over the roar of crackling flames, accompanied by the sounds of painful lashing and crackling electricity as Venus and Dr. Viktor fought.

Heath never knew Venus had such a colorful vocabulary.


Cleo cracked open her eye. Why wasn't she suffocating under a good half a dozen feet of snow already? Why weren't the cold hands of Death once again reaching for her to pull her back into the Underworld to kneel before Hades's throne? She opened her eyes fully and found her herself looking at a world of white and light blue. Still confused, she craned her head to look around her. Indeed, she was buried under snow, but she wasn't already dying from lack of fresh oxygen for a very simple reason. Standing over her, her breathing shallow and slow and her eyes shut tight was her sister, Nefera shielding her with her own body from the snow above.

"You okay, sis?" Nefera grunted.

Cleo only nodded her head, her mouth wide open in shock. "Why?" she managed to ask.

"I kept on trying to tell you," Nefera told her with a small smile. "Ben's changed me for the better. Now see if you can dig us out of here. If I move, all the snow's gonna come down and make it a lot harder for us to get out of here."

Cleo blinked. Fifty years ago, there was no way her heartless sister would have saved her life for any reason other than to make it miserable again. And now, fifty years later, here she was saving it simply because she loved her. Cleo remembered the many times leading up to Frankie's rescue when Nefera had apologized for everything she had ever done to her (it was an awful lot), but she never believed it. She never believed it when Nefera saved her multiple times during the fight from severe injury or death, and she still didn't believe her when Nefera had tried to save her from the time blast. And for fifty years leading up to their reunion, she hadn't missed Nefera in the slightest. She had missed Ben, Draculaura, Frankie, and the others terribly, but she never missed her supposed evil sister. Not even once.

With guilt eating away at her gut like a parasite, Cleo dug through the snow withher fingers, ignoring the biting cold that made her hands raw as she hollowed out a bigger space for them. She then started hacking and felt Nefera's hand on her back, clearly worried for her as she attempted to keep her position by rotating her shoulder upwards. The older De Nile sister needn't have worried though when Cleo merely spat out a small amount of saliva and watched it fall down near her hand. She then began digging upwards, now knowing which direction to go and eventually punched through the dome of snow and into the world above. Nefera finally gave out and let her back and arms go limp, ignoring the snow that fell down on them. All she cared about was that Cleo was safe and that she could once again feel fresh, cold air in her lungs again.

"Thanks." Cleo said after a few awkward moments.

"No thanks necessary." Nefera insisted as startled cries of panic came from beyond several snow drifts, calling out Cleo and Nefera's names.

"Found 'em!" a loud, mechanized voice called out next to them, Cleo jumping and nearly screaming when Echo Echo's head popped up next to her. Three more heads popped out of the snow around them, pulling themselves out of the white powder and rejoining each other into one Sonorosian. More clones came running up over the hills, Monsters running with them to collect the De Nile sisters.

"You two alright?" Echo Echo asked as all his clones merged with him again and the Omnitrix timed, reverting him back to Ben as he extended a hand to Nefera. She gladly excepted it and let Ben pull her to her feet, Cleo helping herself up and dusting snow off her arms and shoulders.

"Fine," Cleo replied. "Lets just hope Big and Ugly is down for the count."

"You fool! You've jinxed us! Again!" Skurd cried as the ground began to rumble.


"And your form is appalling!"

"Why you little- hold still you little hobgoblin!"

"I'm a plant, a child of Mother Nature, thank you very much!" Venus yelled, cracking her flaming whips across Dr. Viktor's face.

"I don't care! Just hold still so that I may crush you and get on with my business with Tennyson!" the Transylian roared, faking an attack to Venus's left and striking her in her right side with a massive fist crackling with electricity. The smell of burnt lettuce filled the air as the two continued to battle, using the Mutant To'kustar's body as a battlefield while the beast was down for the count.

"You mess with my boyfriend, you mess with me, got it Stitch Face!?" Venus screamed, running forward and cracking her whips again to make him jump back to dodge the blow so that she could deliver a swift kick to the gut. She the proceeded to give him two swift upper cuts to the jaw before back flipping backwards and landing on her hands, swinging her feet forward like a pendulum and striking him in the gut, sending him back and down.

"You little brat!" Dr. Viktor roared, climbing to his feet as his conductors crackling with electricity. He then stomped down a large foot on the To'kustar's skin and sent out an electric pulse that coursed through the giant's body; the attack wouldn't seriously hurt it, and he didn't care if it did. To him, his creation was a beast of burden that could be abused however he pleased. And at the moment, he chose to use it as a battle field.

The electricity coursed through the To'kustar's metallic skin, amplifying the shock as it went through Venus. Her nerves were on fire as she screamed in pure agony, falling to her knees as her whips were disintegrated into dust. Her brain was going absolutely nuts, unsure of what do as the electricity made her body a living hell to be in. She could feel her fibers slowly, very painfully, start to burn away as her neon hair was roasted into a dark green and sooty black, her vision swimming before her eyes as her heart stopped and restarted a dozen times. The mad doctor was watching with a malicious grin on his face, enjoying her pain as she writhed about, unable to do anything to stop the pain that shot through her body.

"Nobody can help you now, you little punk!"

"Think again, Frankenfreak!" a cocky, high-pitched voice cried. Dr. Viktor spared a glance behind him, just Crashhopper smashed his thick skull into his face, knocking him down and ending the electric current that tortured his ghoulfriend. Venus, thankfully still alive and conscious, collapsed, her chest heaving up and down as she tried to clear her vision and speak.

"C'mon, we're getting out here!" Crashhopper cried, quickly running over to Venus and scooping her up in his arms. He then jogged back over to Dr Viktor, was was just starting to make sense of things again, and proceeded to rapidly kick him in the gut, chest, and nether regions furiously. With a one last kick to the groin, Crashhopper bent his legs and shot off into the air, giving an all mighty "Woo-hoo!" as he soared through the air and easily cleared the wall of flames before coming back down to earth, landing in a cloud snow and cracking the bare rock underneath him as he gently set down Venus. She attempted to stand and would have made it had the nerves in her legs not been fried. She stumbled and nearly fell to the ground, Crashhopper quickly catching her and propping her up with his shoulders.

"Back into the base. No arguments." he ordered; Venus didn't even attempt to as Jane, weary from battle, walked her off the field and back into the base towards the med bay. The Omnitrix timed out as a wave of white snow washed over the wall of fire, extinguishing it as the Mutant To'kustar climbed to its feet, now looking seriously annoyed.

"Everyone step back! I'm going Way Big!" Ben warned his friends, who wisely decided to back up as the behemoth stomped towards them, determined to crush them beneath its mighty fists as Dr. Vikot shouted directions from its shoulder. The monster wasn't even listening right now as it marched forward, each footstep shaking the ground as the puny human before it cycled through his magic watch with angst on his face. Ben quickly glancing back and forth between the approaching giant and the Omnitrix gave up on searching for the alien he desired and simply slapped the activation button, hoping for the best as the green light washed over him and began to change his DNA. His skin began to harden into a rich, brown exoskeleton as his teeth fused together into two tough plates. His fingers began to crunch and grind together until they were a single digit, forming a sort of pincer with his thumb as both digits became larger and sharper. His legs bent into long joints as his toes all melted together into a single claw. There was a sickening grinding sound as Ben's legs split in two, forming a second pair of crustacean like legs. The most noticeable change for Ben however, was his head. It simply exploded in size, growing to be almost five times bigger than his human head had been. Whiskers sprouted from his disappearing eyebrows and chin as Ben felt his brain getting bigger and bigger. He could soon see the world more than just a TV show he could interact in. Rather, he literally began to see how the world worked. Complex equations mapped out the quickest and safest escape routes, analyzed the stunned officer's face and body language, cataloged the different ways it could improve the building's circuity. A green and black neck brace and loincloth appeared around his body, the Omnitrix at the center of the neck brace. The transformation was complete.

"Brainstorm? This hardly the time for such nonsense, Omnimatrix!" the Cerebrocrustacean cried indigently. With a sigh, Brainstorm focused his mind and began to use his oversized brain to calculate the situation. "Potentially useful objects: numerous boulders, frozen precipitation commonly known as 'snow', allies commonly referred to as 'friends', and potential mates commonly referred to as 'ghoulfriends'," Brianstorm thought out loud as the To'kustar got closer and closer. "Their advantage: superior size and strength. My advantage: superior intelligence."

"The To'kustar will strike first, using its large size to its advantage," Brainstorm lectured as the Mutant To'kustar drew back a fist and drove it into the ground, sending out an earth shattering shock wave that forced rocks and boulders to jut up and out of the ground at odd angles. "Avoid with levitation ability." Brainstorm added, opening his skull plates and sending out twin jets of green colored electricity that forced him off the ground just as the shock wave converged on the spot where he was moments ago. The electricity blasted into the bare rock, sending up a cloud dust that obscured the To'kustar's vision. "Eyesight incomprehensible. To'kusatr uses loud roar. Send high voltage shock through snow to neutralize." Brainstorm continued, blasting more electricity into the snow as he hovered above the ground and the To'kusatr bellowed. The snow came up in a large tidal wave, smashing into the giant's face as it howled, filling its mouth with snow and blocking its vision as it stumbled about.

"Dodge," Brainstorm went on as large foot came down from the sky, the Cerebrocrustacean simply moving out of the way as the limb came crashing down. "Electrokinetic blast to leg; neutralize all use of limb." he said as he blasted the To'kustar's leg, causing the beast to howl in agony. "To'kustar, now mildly injured swings wildly. Will force Burns and Calaveras to distract while Wolf goes in for the final blow." Brainstorm predicted as Heath slammed his palms down into the snow and sent a wave of fire at the To'kusatr, the flames washing over the giant like a tidal wave as Skelita cocked both of her guns and went wild, peppering the giant's metallic skin and drawing thick, dark red blood when she concentrated on an area for a certain amount of time. The skeleton gracefully and easily dodged the wild swings of the To'kustar as it balanced on one leg, ducking to the ground as an arm swung over her head and just barely missed it by as little as an inch. Skelita then popped back up and sent several rounds at the To'kustar's face, aiming for the eyes.

While Heath and Skelita distracted the Mutant To'kustar, Howleen attacked from the air. While the others had attacked from below, she had waited patiently above, waiting to strike at the exact, precise moment. She soon found her chance, a sudden moment when the To'kustar's arm was raised just so in the right position, and reached into her belt. While she had never been close to Ben, hardly even noticing him despite all that had happened to him during his time at Monster High, she had quickly grown to idolize him. She had watched old internet videos of Ben in his alien forms, fighting against the bad guys with unmatched skill. She had watched and copied, watched and repeated countless times until she had the moves down in her head. And when the war came, she perfected those skills, making up her own and developing a photographic memory that allowed her to learn another's moves within a few precious seconds.

She pulled out what looked like a grappling gun of sorts and quickly fired it off, watching as the hook sailed through the air and wrapped around the To'kustar's arm a few times before tightening into place. Howleen then allowed herself to be yanked into the air, pushing a button on the gun that pulled the rope back in, pulling her closer and closer to the behemoth until she touched her feet down on the skin. She quickly pocketed the gun and ran up the arm on all fours, digging her sharp claws into the To'kustar's skin to hold on as it thrashed about. She set her eyes on Dr. Viktor, how he hung on for dear life and yelled at his creation while beating it as best as he could; in order to take out the giant, she had to take out its master. With this in mind, she reached for the throwing stars across her chest and threw three of them at Dr. Viktor, watched as two of them hit his conductors and the third hit him in shoulder.

With his attention now on her, Howleen proceeded to leap into the air and drive her heel into his throat, knocking him back against the To'kustar's thick neck. Dr. Viktor rubbed the sore spot with a hand before Howleen whacked him across the face with her boot and proceeded to quickly jab her fingers into several pressure points around his collar bone and neck. While he was stunned, she then rammed her head into his gut and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, swinging him around before tossing him high into the air. She then bent her legs and leaped after him, proceeded to kick and hit him several times over before giving a swift round-house kick that sent him flying towards the To'kustar's head. Or more specifically, its crests.

Not concerned in the slightest for her own safety, she curled up into a ball and fell back to earth like a meteor as Dr. Viktor crashed into one of the To'kustar's crest. The behemoth made a gagging sound and instantly froze up, stuck in an awkward position with one leg in the air and its two arms stuck out to the sides to keep it balanced as Howleen landed in a snow drift a little ways away.

"Lucky shot, Tennyson!" Dr. Viktor spat from another snow drift, too dazed to get up and do anything.

"Not luck! Skill!" Brainstorm corrected. A low, guttural, groaning caught his attention. He turned around on his jointed legs to watch the To'kustar starting leaning forward, unable to balance any longer. "Even with my superior intelligence, to put it lightly, I did not see that coming!" Brainstorm cried out in fear, turning around and skittering away as fast as he could. "RETREAT!" he screamed. The monsters took his lead and scattered in all directions as the giant began to fall, scrambling over snow drifts and boulders as they fled.

Draculaura was running as fast as she could, her chest heaving in and out as she moved her legs. The sky above her was getting darker as the To'kustar's form darkened the ground around her, blanketing the base in a massive shadow created by what little light was available. Ahead of her, Nefera was pulling Cleo forward as they stumbled through the snow with Hoodude running in his usual manner with his arms flung out before him and screaming as loud as possible; unfortunately for Heath, he had gotten too close to the voodoo doll and was being dragged along by an unseen force, painfully bumping over every rock and bump Hoodude ran past. All of her friends were ahead of her, dashing for the safety of the base as the giant above fell. One thing was certain, however: Draculaura was not going to make it.

She suddenly stumbled and tripped on a stone, crying out in pain as her knees hit bare stone. "Clawd!" she screamed as the To'kustar's bulk loomed above her, only half a hundred feet above her and getting closer all the while.

"Draculaura!" Clad howled, whipping around and running as fast as he could to save his love. He didn't know how it had happened, but after the snow wave, he had somehow gotten separated from his ghoul in all the chaos, more focused on taking down the giant and saving the Rebellion than protecting his ghoul.

"My love!" another voice cried out. Clawd immediately whipped his head around towards the source of the voice and saw a flash of bright, green light that blinded him for a split second before a slim, muscled figure raced past him and towards Draculaura, skidding to a stop just above her: it was Whampire.

Clawd gasped as the To'kustar came crashing down on both of them, snow blasting out in every direction as both his ghoul and friend were crushed under the sheer weight of the behemoth. The werewolf cracked open his eyes, unable comprehend what had just happened only a few feet away from him. He had been so close to saving her, to saving both of them maybe. But he had hesitated, and they were lost, crushed under a titan's mass. Clawd remembered hearing Ben say something before dashing into to save his ghoul; the words "My love!" rang in his head. Were Draculaura and Ben secretly dating? Or was it a simple crush on Ben's part that he had simply let slip.

"No . . ." he whispered, forgetting all his thoughts as the realization of the situation suddenly hit him. Ben and Draculaura. Dead. Gone forever. Had Draculaura perished, he and Ben could have simply gone down to the Underworld to retrieve her soul. Had it been Ben, everyone in the base would have rallied together to bring him back. But but both of them were dead. No hope of getting either of them back. He was dully aware of the others coming up behind him, Heath putting a hand on his shoulder as Robecca, Nefera, and Skelita weeped from afar, unable to take their eyes off of the horrible situation.

"He was a good man." Clawd heard Hoodude say sadly.

"And she was a good ghoul." Skelita sniffed.

"At least they'll have each other." Robecca added as thick, black oily tears streamed down her bronze plated face.

A sudden movement caught Clawd's keen eyes. The To'kustar, which had been completely still up until this point, was suddenly shifting slightly. Clawd rubbed his eyes, not quite sure if they were playing tricks on him; they were not. He watched in amazement, elbowing Heath in his croutch to catch his and the others attention as bright beams of green light or energy—Clawd didn't know which—popped out at random spots beneath the To'kustar's chest and neck region before a loud shriek filled the air. The sound was ear-splitting, causing Clawd and Howleen to recoil and howl in agony as the wail pounded against their ear drums. The sound wave swept over everything, blasting the entire base free of snow and exposing bare rock everywhere as the To'kustar's bulk was forced up and off the ground so much so that the titan actually landed on its feet, awake and alert once more.

But none of this was more shocking than what stood in a small crater created by the explosion. With smoke curling off his body as he heavily breathed was Whampire, drenched in sweat as his tongue lolled out from between his fangs, his black and green jumpsuit ripped and torn in several places, exposing pale gray skin. His eyes, normally playful and justified were filled with pure rage that wasn't on the same level as Ben. In fact, Clawd could smell something different about the Vladat; he didn't smell like Ben at all. Where Ben smelled like both sweat and smoothies with plenty of bravery and cockiness to spare, this being smelled nothing like that. It reeked of rage, of raw savagery as whipped its head around to hiss loudly at the giant. Cradled in his muscled arms was Draculaura, out cold but seemingly without injury.

"You shall not touch my love again, foul beast!" Whampire spat, gently laying Draculaura down in the center of the crater. Clawd watched with wide, shocked, and enraged eyes as the Vladat pecked his ghoulfriend on the cheek before spreading his arms and giving them a good flap, taking to the skies and racing right towards the To'kustar's face, his claws balled up into fists. With a loud war cry, Whampire drove them into the mutant's face, blasting its head back as he struck blow after blow. The Vladat was relentless as he raked his claws across the Mutant To'kustar's face, drawing thick lines of dark red across the gray skin as he avoided a large hand. The Vladat swooped back around and landed on the massive hand, grabbing a finger and yanking it back as hard as he could as a sickening pop filled the air. The To'kustar howled in agony as Whampire broke two more of its fingers and its thumb before moving onto the other hand, breaking all four of its fingers and leaving the thumb alone. Whampire then let out another sonic howl that made the giant clasp its broken hands over its ears drums, the Vladat take the opportunity to ram his pointed head into the exposed flesh under both arms, tunneling through muscle and tissue before popping out of the shoulders, drenched in blood.

The alien vampire ignored all of this and continued his merciless assault on the giant, forcing its mouth open and knocking out a few giant teeth before forcing himself down the mutant's throat. The Mutant To'kustar then wailed in agony as it jerked and jolted uncontrollably, Whampire literally tearing through its internal organs without any sign of letting up; Draculaura was thankfully still unconscious when Whampire suddenly tore through the flesh around the stomach region, screeching and tearing through the flesh like some hideous alien parasite. No doubt, several of the titan's bones were broken in several places, its organs utterly destroyed as it stumbled and lurched about, stomach acid and insane amounts of blood pouring out of its many wounds. And still, Whampire didn't let up. He didn't intend to either; this monstrosity had nearly killed his true love, the only girl he had ever fallen in love with since he was brought into this world by the magic watch on his stomach. He intended to make the beast pay with its life, but not before making it suffer.

With utter loathing in his eyes, Whampire continued to tear through the giant's body, ignoring the squealing cries and pleas for mercy; there would be none for those that threatened his queen. After what seemed an eternity torture that would have made Hades himself whimper and hide, Whampire finally ended the Mutant To'kustar's life by digging his claws into the giant's throat and ripping out a section bigger than he was, a waterfall of blood washing over him as the giant finally died and fell on its side.

"WHAT THE DICKENS WERE YOUY DOING!?" Skurd roared from his stomach.

"Protecting my pequeño murciélago vampiro," was all Whampire would say as he tossed the section of flesh aside and swooped down low over the red stained snow and over to a particular snow drift. With a feral hiss, he thrust both hands into the drift and yanked out a semi-conscious Dr. Viktor, bringing the Transylian's face up to his own; Dr. Viktor's face instantly filled with dread and fear as his natural predator breathed hot, venomous breath on his face.

"Let me make this clear, you fucking bastard," Whampire hissed, not caring he had spat out such language. "You will not touch a hair on my love's head. You will not harm her in any way. Because if you do, I will spend every waking moment of my life tracking you down and making sure you pay, drawing out your torture until you beg for mercy. But you will not receive any from me, no matter how much you might beg and plead. Because I will make you suffer for everything you have done to my love and my host's love and friends. And that will last an eternity. Do I make myself perfectly clear?" he growled, snapping his fangs shut an inch away from Dr. Viktor's nose.

"Crystal." the Transylian whimpered, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane.

"Good. Now get out of my sight, you bastard!" Whampire roared, flying up into the air and swinging Dr. Viktor around like a rag doll, letting go after the momentum built up and threw him off into the distance, not caring if he was alive or not. Satisfied that he had made his point clear, Whampire descended to the ground, exhausted. But he didn't care for his own health. What only mattered to him was that his love was okay. With worry in his eyes, he jogged back over to the crater, not caring he was pushing his blood stained body to the limit as he jumped clear over the wall of concerned monsters that stood between him and his love. He landed next to her with stealth that would have been a ninja jealous and cautiously reached with a hand toward his love.

"Um, dude? Are you okay?" Clawd asked uncomfortably, sliding down the side of the crater and approaching the Vladat with caution. Whampire whipped his head up towards the sound and bared his fangs, hissing loudly as he extended his claws. "Who dares approach me and my love at such an hour!?" he demanded in a cold voice.

"Uh, your love? Dude, she's my girlfriend!" Clawd shouted.

"How could someone as beautiful as she ever love a flea-infested hound like you?" Whampire hissed.

"What? Look who's talking Dead and Pasty! How could anyone like a face as ugly as that!?" Clawd shot back, jabbing a finger at the Vladat, yanking it back just in time as Whampire's jaws snapped shut right where his finger had been moments ago.

"What is wrong with my face?" Whampire asked defensively.

"It's still there!" Clawd roared. "And I'm getting sick of looking at it! Stop flirting with my girlfriend, you two-timing, alien-changing freak!"

"My host has nothing to do with this!" Whampire shot back. "How someone whose species has been feuding with yours for thousands of years ever fell in love with you is beyond me." he added, folding his arms across his blood covered chest and saying incomprehensible things under his breath.

"Excuse me? What did you just say?" Clawd asked bewildered. "Dude, who are you and what have you done with Ben!?"

"My host is currently 'napping', per say," Whampire replied. "I am currently in control, and I will not let you insult me in front of my love!"

"Dude! She's my freakin' girlfreind!" Clawd yelled, clenching his fists and baring his fangs.

"Of which I saved when you failed to do so, might I add!" Whampire shouted. "You should be thanking me!"

"Oh, where are my manners?" Clawd asked sarcastically; he had finally had it. He didn't know what the Sphinx was going on, but he didn't like it. He didn't know if Ben was in control or if this Whampire guy was in control, but he didn't care either way. With a loud yell, Clawd lunged at Whampire and tackled him to the ground, punching him repeatedly in the face as Hoodude and Heath skidded down the sides of the crater to stop their friend, latching on to his shoulders and trying to pull him off. Clawd shrugged them off with ease and continued to pummel Whampire, knocking out several of his fangs and making his eyes crusty and black with each blow. When Clawd was finally pulled off of the Vladat by the combined forces of Heath, Hoodude, Nefera, Cleo, and Howleen, Whampire was barely breathing, glaring up at Clawd with hatred in his eyes.

"Until we meet again, Furball." he spat, slumping to the ground, unconscious.

And there we go!

So much going on, and so little time to write it all. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Yes, I will admit the graphic scenes with Whampire and the Mutant To'kustar were a bit . . . graphic . . . but they were absolutely necessary. I apologize for anyone who's dreams have been soiled with nightmares. Maybe I can get Twyla to help you with those.

As always, comment, review, suggest, and request down below! We're nearing the end people, so keep those reviews coming!