Author's Note: I own nothing.
22 Displaced
Ethan was feeling a little nauseous. His girlfriends hand was sitting on the table in front of Kevin, severed from the rest of her which was nowhere to be seen. Her fingers were twitching as the green code slowly spread. He circled the table.
"So… what are we looking at?" He asked as he reached forward and gently poked the hand. It turned to him as if looking for the culprit.
"Worlds best and most disturbing Addams Family costume?" Pierce suggested. Kevin snorted and shook his head.
"Nah. Interdimensional displacement. It's not too uncommon actually. I did it once with a malfunctioning warp belt trying to get out of the Null Void. Ended up with my nose in another dimension for three days." They were silent for a moment. "Aren't you going to ask me how I smelled?"
"Terrible!" Gwen glared. "Like your joke. Can you fix her?" Kevin nodded.
"Yeah. I should have everything I need to rig up a retrieval beam." He began to dig through the boxes in his warehouse. "It might take some time though. An hour maybe more?" A hum filled the air.
"Don't think we have an hour!" Pierce cried out as he dove to the ground narrowly avoiding the axe aimed at him.
"I will have my prize!" Sunder screamed looking like he'd gotten about halfway back home before he even realized that Pierce had taken Jen's hand when he'd escaped. Kevin shook his head.
"Buy me the time you can!" He called out to the other three. They nodded, Ethan pulled a gun from one of the crates. "The kickback on that is pretty harsh!" He warned.
"I can handle it!" Ethan leveled the weapon. "Gwen hit the deck!" She dove to the ground and he fired. The kickback did knock him on his ass but it also sent Sunder flying. Kevin shook his head.
"I hope Jen's having a better time wherever she is." He muttered as he began to rig the machine together.
"Fucking Havok Beasts, and their pointy little teeth!" Jen swore as she fired again. Last time she'd had to take down a Havok Beast it had been tiny and there was one. In their native dimension they grew slightly bigger, just as dangerous and very hungry. She fired around the corner, bringing the roof of what had been Max's house. She shook her head.
"I hate the Null Void. Note to self, get Kevin a really nice gift for ditching him in here for so long." She fired at the stray Havok Beasts. "Maybe a really nice gun, he likes guns. I'll ask Gwen. She knows her boyfriend. And I'm talking to myself." She sighed as she shook her head.
"Watch the car!" Kevin called out as he fixed the final piece into the machine. He turned as Ethan and Pierce continued their game of keep away with Jen's hand. "Got it!" Sunder roared and lunged but missed as Gwen caught her cousin's hand on a slide of mana and snagged it tossing it to Kevin.
"Get my cousin back!" She called out slamming Sunder out of the now mostly destroyed warehouse. He landed with a resounding crash and did not get back up. Kevin tossed the hand to the ground where it twitched. It was now covered in green code. He aimed his new device.
Jen scrubbed at her arm. She'd rolled back her sleeve when it started itching. There were green lines of code coming up from where the Omnitrix was supposed to be. She grumbled.
"So you're still there, that's good, not really helpful in getting me out of here but good to know." The lines of code grew warm. As though the Omnitrix were responding. But that… Actually wouldn't be too far out of what Azmuth had said might be possible. The Omnitrix was alive after all, in a way. She frowned and closed her eyes. She could feel her wrist as if it were still attached to her. "I need an alien to get me out of here but I have no idea which one that would be." She sighed and passed her hand through the space the Omnitrix should have been. There was a bright blast of light. She flinched.
When she opened her eyes there was sunlight again and she was rapidly surrounded by familiar faces. She breathed out but swore colorfully as she looked down at her hand.
"Why! Every time! It can never be simple!" She grouched as Ethan glanced down at the stub of her arm.
"Well at least we have you back." He offered. She rolled her eyes and retuned his hug with one arm. Her eyes widened and she tackled him fully to the ground just barely missing the axe.
"Sunder!" She shouted and pulled the sidearm she'd taken from Devoid's wrecked headquarters. She fired twice sending his axe spinning to the ground. She aimed again.
"Give it up! You're not getting the Omnitrix!" Kevin stepped in front of her.
"Because it's not here. Use your little scanner, it's gone." Sunder paused and pulled out his scanner.
"How do we get your hand back?" Pierce asked. Jen shrugged but a thought popped into her head.
"The axe did this, the axe should be able to fix it." Slipping the axe off Sunder while Kevin had him distracted was easy for Gwen. Less so when the green code lines spread again and the Omnitrix began to register again. "Could really use an alien assist right now!" Jen griped as she dove behind a wall to avoid a swing from Sunder's axe.
'Please make a selection.' The voice echoed in her head and it was like the images for her aliens were being superimposed over her vision in one eye, the eye on the same side she wore the Omnitrix. How to select was a different matter entirely. As it turned out slightly shaking her head acted as though she spun the dial and she grinned.
"This one sounds good!" She said and winked. Green lights flashed and suddenly Echo-Echo was there, spawning duplicate one armed tiny aliens. "Wall Of Sound!" She shriek as she surrounded Sunder. He dropped, unconscious and bleeding from one ear. Echo-Echo hit the Omnitrix symbol and transformed back into Jen. She grinned, one eye nearly flooded green. It looked as though the Omnitrix symbol normally around her wrist was now inside her eye.
"How are you doing that?" Jen shrugged.
"No idea! It's like the Omnitrix knows I can't access the actual physical device so it's connecting us in my brain! Neat huh!" Ethan stared at his girlfriend's eye as Pierce nodded.
"That's… wow… How do we get your hand back?" He asked. Kevin took the axe from Gwen.
"We'll need the machine I used to bring her back initially too." Pierce elected to hold that. Ethan stood back slightly as Kevin aimed the axe.
"Will you just swing the damn thing already!" Jen asked her voice not really shaking but sounding nervous all the same. They all looked over at the spot where they'd left Sunder as he groaned and got back to his feet. Gwen snatched the axe from her boyfriend and swung it at her cousin's severed wrist. The light show was impressive and when it was over Jen cheered, clapping both of her hands together. The circuit lines vanished and the hourglass in her eye righted back to her normal pupal and iris. Ethan sighed in relief and hugged her.
"Good to have you back!" He said and she nodded threading their fingers together. Then she looked around.
"What happened to Sunder though?" She was right the tech hunter was gone. Kevin shrugged as Gwen handed the axe back to him.
"Probably ended up wherever you were." Jen laughed.
"Hope he enjoys his trip to the Null Void as much as I didn't. Now I need a shower and a med kit. Havok Beasts bite." Kevin laughed as Ethan began to fuss.
