Author's Note: Yep some weird stuff is gonna go down on Primus! I own nothing!
41 A Bit Odd
Ethan noticed it first. It was hard not to notice really and he was starting to wonder why the others didn't spot things like this. He was walking behind Jen though so maybe that was why he spotted it. He paused, Kevin nearly walked into him.
"Wha… You ok Ethan?" Ethan was looking down at Jen's feet as she paused and looked back.
"Come on guys we should hurry!" Ethan stared at the earth under Jen's feet.
"Am I the only one seeing that?" All other eyes fixed on the ground under Jen's feet. Green lines of code, like those from the Omnitrix, were spreading from where she stood, they were also going up her heel and leg, on both sides. She blinked and jumped but the second she landed the lines reappeared. She blinked and yanked her sleeve up so she could see the Omnitrix, the lines had already spread up her arm, they were heading down towards her fingers too. She stared for a second before looking down the collar of her shirt. Judging from the glow on her face the code was spreading under her shirt too. She dropped her collar and looked up at the others as the code spread up her neck.
"We may have a problem. But we need to keep moving. Something's happening." Gwen frowned.
"How do you know?" Before Jen could answer there was a mechanical whirring and the wasps were back up they didn't move to attack. Instead they hovered in front of them. Jen blinked at them tilting her head as if listening to something the others couldn't hear. As she did the green flooded her right eye, her pupal splitting and expanding, leaving her eye looking very much like the iconic Omnitrix symbol.
"Slow down! What do you mean 'the creator is in peril'? Are you talking about Azmuth?" Kevin shot a concerned look Jen's way as she kept staring at the large metal wasps. No one was talking. He blinked as he noticed that her other eye had flooded green too, but the pupal had not formed the symbol in this one, it had simply disappeared. She went pale. "Take us to him!" The wasps nodded and snatched the four of them up. Ethan almost dropped his gun. Gwen stared at her cousin.
"What's going on?"
"Someone's attacking this place, don't ask me how I know but Azmuth is here, and he's right in the line of fire!" The coding hadn't faded, nor had the green from her eyes. Ethan couldn't help but stare. Kevin was in a similar state.
"So umm does the eye thing mean you got Master Control back?" Jen blinked down at her hands and seemed to think for a moment before she squinted as if looking at something they couldn't see. Bright green lights flashed and Gwen blinked. The wasp that had held Jen was now holding XCLR8 who grinned.
"Meet you there!" The visor dropped and she tapped the wasp who dropped her and she raced through the air, going so fast the air pressure cushioned her fall and let her race her way towards the mountain the river was coming from. Closer to its source the river was bright green, with only occasional bursts of separate colors.
"Anyone want to explain what's happening?" Ethan asked. Gwen nodded.
"Sure, as soon as I know what's happening I'll let you in on it."
They found the fight pretty easily. Even inside the mountain the noise was easy to follow. They found Azmuth scrambling away from the falling stalagmites. Ethan raced forward and snatched the Galvan out of the way. He scrambled back to the others as the rocks settled. Azmuth looked up at him.
"Thank you." He said and Gwen stepped forward. "You should leave your cousin to her work." The First Thinker insisted. Gwen frowned as the dust cleared and spotted what Azmuth was talking about. Vilgax was battling with Four Arms at the center of the cavern. It didn't look like Vilgax was too happy either but Jen seemed stronger than ever. Ethan glanced down at the Galvan still in his hands.
"I don't mean to be rude but who are you?" Azmuth looked him up and down critically.
"I was about to ask you the same thing." Ethan raised an eyebrow. Gwen let out an exasperated breath.
"Azmuth this is Ethan, Jen's boyfriend and a fellow Plumbers kid. Ethan this is Azmuth, creator of the Omnitrix and the First Thinker of the Galvans." Azmuth raised what passed for his eyebrow.
"She's never mentioned you." He said looking like he had a few things to say about that. Gwen raised an eyebrow at the Galvan.
"Since when have you taken an interest in her personal life?" She asked. Kevin cut across the Galvan before he could continue though.
"Can we focus? How come Jen's fighting like Four Arms has been on steroids since we last saw her?" Azmuth nodded as they turned back to watch the fight. Vilgax was trying to use his bright yellow shield to slow her punches so she picked him up by it and threw him into the wall.
"That would be her connection to Primus." Ethan frowned.
"Who is Primus?" Azmuth shot him a judging look.
"Primus is not a who. Primus is a where. This whole planet is Primus. An artificial creation of my own that holds the Codon Stream." Kevin frowned.
"What's a Codon Stream?" A crash echoed from the cavern and a bubbling hiss became audible. They all glanced up. Vilgax had aimed a laser blast at Jen and missed, or she'd switched to Cannonbolt just in time because she was now the armored alien on the other side of a fissure in the ground that opened into the bubbling green stream.
"That is the Codon Stream. In the simplest terms it is a collection of DNA data that feeds into the Omnitrix. Did you really think something the size of a wrist could hold a sample of every species DNA in the known galaxy?" He didn't sound convinced that they had never thought of that. Though to be fair this was very new information for them. Azmuth shook his head and pointed at his small wrist. "The device on Jennifer's wrist allows her access to the Codon Stream in a form that will not harm her. It makes for a simple interface, of course this is in no way the entire case but it is the simplest way to explain it." Gwen rubbed the bridge of her nose. Kevin shrugged at her Ethan frowned.
"What happens when someone get's dunked in the Codon Stream?"
"I've never tried, most likely mutation or death. Why?" Ethan raced forward and Gwen glanced up spotting the answer to Azmuth's question as Vilgax and Cannonbolt went tumbling into the fissure. Gwen cried out and reached out to catch her cousin.
"If I go you go too!" Vilgax cried out but his hand slipped off Cannonbolts ankle and he fell with a cry into the stream. Ethan set Azmuth down and grabbed hold of Cannonbolt's arm and began to try and heave her up. She made it back up mostly on her own power as green lights flashed around her. She was still covered in green code but she smiled at him as he pulled her to her feet.
"You ok?" Jen frowned back at the green river that Vilgax had just fallen into. Gwen seemed to read her cousins mind.
"You couldn't have saved him. You'd have fallen in too." Kevin nodded.
"He's had it coming for years." Azmuth shook his head.
"I don't know if death is inevitable. If he…" But the First Thinker was cut off when a very large head began to protrude from the chasm. Ethan grabbed the Galvan as the ground under them began to crumble and Jen transformed again this time into an alien Ethan hadn't seen before that declared itself as Way Big before getting straight back to fighting Vilgax. This time though it ended with Jen throwing Vilgax though the mountain. He sailed out of the atmosphere and disappeared as the group looked out after him. Jen nodded and transformed back into herself. Still the circuits glowed strong on her skin, both eyes flooded green. Azmuth hopped from Ethan's hands to Jen's shoulder and took her face in both hands examining her with a critical eye.
"Fascinating. I want you to try something for me Jennifer. Throw a shard of Taydenite. Don't transform just throw a shard as you would as Diamondhead." Jen frowned but seemed to want to at least humor the Galvan. She closed her eyes and focused. She lifted a hand and a spike of bright blue Taydenite flew from her fingers into the rock. She opened her eyes and blinked down at her hand.
"How did I just do that?" Azmuth had walked along her arm to the Omnitrix.
"It seems that your connection to Primus though the Omnitrix strengthens exponentially the longer you are here. How long ago did the Omnitrix teleport you and your companions here?" Jen shrugged slightly.
"An hour or so." She grew thoughtful and her hand, the one Azmuth wasn't currently standing on, burst into flames. She laughed. "That doesn't even hurt!" Azmuth nodded.
"It seems that this much more thorough connection has allowed you access to your aliens abilities without the need for transformation. It should wear off once you leave Primus's atmosphere." He regarded the circuits on her visible skin for a moment. "I could make it permanent if I chose to but I don't believe you're ready." Jen nodded slightly.
"That and I don't really want to go around looking like a cyberpunk makeup nightmare." Azmuth shook his head at her, Kevin couldn't help but agree. Jen looked up. "And now there's a giant Vilgax out there to worry about." Azmuth shook his head.
"He was not exposed to the Codon stream long enough for any mutation to be permanent." Gwen frowned.
"So just a regular sized Vilgax then." Azmuth nodded and tapped out a code onto the Omnitrix before leaping off of Jen's arm and stepping away from the group.
"I had a question, while we're here. Can you…" But a green glowing burst from the Omnitrix interrupted her. When the light cleared they were standing back where they had been fighting the Technodon. The sun was peeking over the horizon. "Fix Kevin." Jen finished lamely. Azmuth had not come with them. She rolled her eyes. "Yeah no just cut me off mid sentence! Not like I have anything important to say! Just summon me to fight your battles for you then send me home without so much as a thank you!" She grumbled as the circuits faded from her skin and the green faced back to the iris of her eyes only. Ethan shook his head.
"That was really rude!" He nodded agreeing wholeheartedly with his girlfriend. Gwen shook her head.
"But pretty par for the course with Azmuth." She checked her watch. "We have school in two hours and Jen you left your shoes on Primus." Jen rubbed the bridge of her nose. It was going to be a long day.
