His ship was falling fast, caught within the gravity of a nearby planet. Engines were busted, the fire was sweeping into the room and the controls were completely destroyed. The old alien that had lived for millennia turned its weary gaze toward the blue planet before it. The entire left side of his body missing, there was no substitute in space that it could use to heal its own wounds. If he were to die in the ensuing crash, he wouldn't have cared as that was also a part of his duty. But as the ship descended, there was, for the first time in many years, genuine fear behind the creature's golden orbs.
For him, who had seen the rise and fall of civilizations, who have breathed life into countless worlds across the Universe, maybe even across the Multiverse, there was nothing more terrifying than to know that all of that might not have mattered in the grand scheme of things. To carry the Fire of Life was his lifelong duty, to past it onto a new guardian was his fate, but at the moment this so sacred flame burning in the center of his chest was little more than a weak ember being blown out.
And standing before this creature was nothing other than the very opposite of Life itself – Death. Faceless, limbless, voiceless, and without a will of its own, the foe that had rendered him, the Guardian of Life to such a hopeless state was no more than a creature made of solid darkness. Constructed from the unimaginable terror and agony of the universe, this monster was more than just Death because Death meant that there was Life before it. This was Anti-Life, guided by the subconscious world of an entire universe that had, throughout endless conflicts came to the conclusion that Life itself had to be destroyed as a concept.
The Guardian of Life was afraid, not because he was going to die, but because when this ship crashed on the planet below, the monster that he was desperately trying to hold back wouldn't. It would survive. More than that, it would thrive. Its mission would not end with the death of the foe before him, with the destruction of the Fire that can grant life. And the innocent beings living on the planet below were the ones who were going to fall victim to its never-ending hunger.
It was pushing against the door again. The guardian silently looked at his remaining claw, a weak flame appearing within it. He readied himself as the creature began breaching the last defenses that kept the Guardian of Life safe. There was no else left to run, behind him was the voice of space, before him, his sworn arch-nemesis. Such a desperate and hopeless situation could break even the bravest of souls, but the Guardian stood firm, a spark burning inside his eyes. This might be his end, but as long as he could prolong it long enough to pass down the torch, it would have been a worthy sacrifice.
"It's the start of December and you know what that means, right?"
Alex flopped down on his chair in the underground base and threw the book he was carrying on the ground. It was just past noon, and for him and Alexis, classes were over for the day, so he was expecting to have a fairly quiet afternoon, or at least until his brother showed up as well, giving him enough time to play a game or two. Alexis walked into the room shortly after her brother and picked the textbook from the ground.
"Could you please not throw your books around like they are some trash? And yes, I know what that means. It means that exams are coming soon and so you should sit down and actually read these damn books instead of playing games. You have good marks, but this is the last year at school, if your marks drop now, you might not be able to get into the university that you want."
"For someone created using my DNA as a base, you sound an awful look like mom, don't you think?" Alex rolled in his chair. "And relax, what could be the worst that could happen? I've been studying at this school for twelve years, I know the ins and outs of the entire school system."
"Whatever you say," Alexis dropped on another chair next to her brother, before noticing something from the corner of her eye. "That DNA scanning machine that you built is just sitting there collecting dust, ya know?"
"Eh, I'll find a use for it, eventually." Alex shrugged. "Wanna play coop with me?"
"You bet your ass I want to play coop."
Alex moved the mouse to the icon of the game he wanted to play when suddenly the screen turned black with a large red 'ALERT' written on it. The two siblings gave each other a look, trying to figure out which one of them had installed this function into Two-One. Figuring that whatever was going on with their AI system was more important than video games for once, Alex pressed a button on the keyboard and the screen changed to show the AI's face.
"What is it, Two-One? We were about to start something interesting when you interrupted us."
"Sir, there has been an alert signal has been transmitted on all galactic frequencies." Two-One informed them. "Reports are flooding in that the Life Guardian's ship has lost contact with the rest of the galaxy within the Solar System, near planet Earth. There are calls for expeditions to search if he has ended up crashing on Earth. And considering the state that the galaxy is about the news, I believe that the optimal action would be to go and check it out for yourselves."
"You know, with how often alien ships crash on Earth, I'm starting to think that we should just buy the planet and then sue them every time they crash for damaging our property," Alex suggested, leaning back into his chair.
"I don't think we have enough money to buy Earth," Alexis replied.
"Wait, we could actually buy Earth if we had enough money for that?"
"There's more important stuff at the moment."
"Ah yes, so that Life Guardian, what is that exactly? Sounds like a cringey name from a one-off character of a Saturday morning cartoon."
"There is a book series written about it from a Galvan historian, would you like me to read it to you? The parts from volume one up to thirty-eight are free to read on the Extranet."
"Just summarize it in a way that a normal human would understand it, will ya?"
"Some very important shit."
"Thank you."
"I think it's best that we get there first and investigate," Alexis suggested. "As much as you might not like doing this work for free, the truth is that if we don't, there's an entire galaxy that will. And if all of them come here, hiding alien activity from the rest of humanity will be near impossible for even us. Also, there's the risk that somebody might get the bright idea that a Level Three planet might have shot down this guy and decide to blow up Earth. Aliens don't like humans after all. And those who do like your kind, it's as dinner snack."
"Remind me why I haven't decided to exterminate all alien life and build my own galaxy-spawning Imperium of Mankind yet?"
"I'm pretty sure that you haven't done that because Games Workshop has the trademark on the name Imperium of Mankind? Or so I guess, I don't exactly know how trademarks work on this planet."
"How do they work on other planets then?"
"Would you like to ask Azmuth how well his trademark on a DNA altering transformation matrix is holding up?"
"Point taken." Alex leaned lazily against his chair and put his boots on the table. "So any idea on where that ship has crashed, because I didn't hear anything, so it must not be nearby, for once. Also, how didn't you spot it, Two-One?"
"Cloaking must have been on, sir. I'm working with Level Three human technology here, so spotting a ship that's not emitting any signals, or has a cloaking device turned on would be next to impossible. I do however have information about where the ship was last before the rest of the galaxy lost contact with it. I can calculate based on that, Earth's position at the moment, and lots of other math that you probably wouldn't know or care about, the approximate location where the ship could have crashed."
"If American movies are anything to go by, it probably fell somewhere in America." Alex let off a scoff as he thought about it.
"The most likely location for the ship's crash site, are the Himalayas." Two-One informed them.
"Add 'on the top of Mount Everest' to that sentence and I'm scrapping you!" Alex snapped at the computer.
"Calm down boy," Alexis whispered, putting a hand on her brother's head to pat him, then turned toward Two-One. "Must it really be the Himalayas, and in December no less? You know how that humans don't like low temperatures. Especially my brother."
"I didn't crash the ship." Two-One pointed out. "You asked me for the most likely coordinates and I'm just giving them to you. That's all I've done. Perhaps you should have installed better equipment, so I could have called the ship and ask them to crash somewhere warmer?"
"No need to get snarky, geez." Alexis sighed. "If this guy is so important that the entire galaxy is ready to send people to search for him, then it would be best for us to wait for Kalin to join us. I'll prepare some warmer clothes for us in the meantime."
There was a green flash as Alexis, Kalin, and a large alien made out of white energy with an aura of fiery blue flames around it, contained inside a black and red containment suit, popped into existence on the snowy rocks of the Himalayas. Which parts of the Himalayas, you may ask? It didn't matter because Alex was absolutely terrible with geography, which made his ability to teleport them to the right coordinates all the more impressive.
"And there we are kids. Careful not to fall." Alex or Starman as this form was named said sarcastically before hitting the Omnimatrix symbol on his armor's collar, reverting back to human form. "Or else you will become another statistic."
"Considering that the nearest species that could achieve faster than light travel should be here in eighteen hours if they already had a crew assembled before the transmission, I think it's safe to say that we got more than enough time to look around," Alexis stated.
"You say that, but we don't even know where to start looking for the damn ship." Kalin crossed his arms. "And eighteen hours? Oh no, I've got school tomorrow, I'm not staying here. Mom's going to kill me! Actually, she's going to kill all of us!"
"Kalin got a point." Alex agreed. "But look, there's a village not far away, so why don't we go and ask them if they saw or heard anything strange? Like, you know, a spaceship crashing into the side of a mountain?"
"That also something that gets me curious every time. How comes our technology is so shit that when a plane crashes there are rarely any survivors, yet when an alien spaceship falls from space and slams into the side of a mountain, or lands into the ocean, it's often in good enough condition to be repaired and fly again?"
"Different purpose?" Alexis guessed. "I mean, entering and leaving a planet, flying through space, and so on require a ship that's far more durable than a plane. But also engineering. If a human rocket suddenly did a U-turn and crashed on the ground, nine out of ten times it would probably result in a huge explosion."
"So what I'm hearing is, if I get to work for NASA, I'm going to make the big bucks by using my aliens to design their spaceships?"
"If you work for NASA, you will get dissected the moment they learn that you can turn into an alien life form."
"Every profession comes with its risks."
Alex cast his brother a glance, then shook his head and continued to walk forward, chuckling a little at the thought of his brother actually getting that far.
The trio climbed toward the small village, and Alex noticed that there didn't seem to be much life in it. In fact, the place looked to be completely abandoned, or worse, decimated. He froze at the sight that came in front of him. Blood. A large amount of blood splattered all over the snow and over the walls of houses, but without sight of any bodies or remains.
"Oh no!" Kalin's face went pale as he saw what his brother was looking at. "T-This couldn't be the same, could it?"
"Only one way to be sure," Alex muttered, as he activated his Omnimatrix and scrolled through his forms.
He slapped down the core and transformed, with orange fur covering up his eyes, and then the rest of his body, as he turned into a larger version of Wildumb with darker stripes on his back, a tail, and the Omnimatrix symbol on its forehead.
The large orange beast sniffed the ground and then ran off through the narrow roads, with his siblings following behind him. The scent was very faint, whatever had happened here was many hours ago. There was no strange scent of the Witch, but the humans, their scent became weaker the farther into the village he walked. His guess was that they must have tried to run in the direction that Alex and his siblings came from.
Alex reverted back to human. "There's no strange alien scent here. The trace is growing colder toward the slope, so if I were to take a guess, that must be where the monster came from."
"Could anyone have survived?" Alexis asked.
"That monster was fast enough to keep up with Fire Force," Kalin pointed out. "I don't think anyone could have outrun it. They are done for, we'll never catch up with the monster, whoever that Guardian of Life guy was; he's dead as well. Let's go home!"
"We can't leave before we find the ship's remains and make sure of what has happened," Alexis stated.
"You can go on if you want, but I'm going to sit that one out." Kalin began to slowly retreat back. "It was nice visiting this place and all, but I gotta go home now. I want to be sure that I won't miss school tomorrow, and-"
"You're still scared of the Witch, aren't you?"
"Of course I'm still scared of the Witch!" Kalin snapped. "That thing almost killed me! Killed me! I barely survived! None of our aliens can beat it!"
"Warrio'Clock did."
"Warrio'Clock froze it in time," Alex turned to his sister. "And then, the creature managed to unfreeze itself. Even time manipulation doesn't completely work on it!"
"See? Alex is siding with me." Kalin said.
"No, I'm not. I simply stated the facts. Another fact is that the Witch must have already moved out of this village, meaning that there shouldn't be anything stopping us from getting to the ship. So if you will?"
Kalin sighed and hung his head in defeat.
"We didn't take any equipment for mountain climbing with ourselves," Alexis rubbed her chin in thought. "So, how do we climb? There's a strong wind, so flying aliens are a big no."
"Stormfoot and Bearclaw?" Alex suggested.
Alexis and Kalin looked at each other and then shrugged. The three of them activated their watches, and in a flash of red, green, and blue light, the three teens were replaced by two Stormfoots, and Kalin's Bearclaw (The Darkness), which was a large bear-like humanoid with pink fur, a skull-like head with teeth protruding under it and a white belly. Each of his arms had four claws on it, and the Omnitrix symbol was on his stomach.
The three aliens went on all four and ran through the small town. Hopefully there weren't any tourists climbing the mountain, or else there were going to be some very interesting photos of two Yetis and a bear climbing up the mountain; something these forms appeared to have been made specifically for. Except for Bearclaw, who was falling a little behind his siblings due to his heavier and less mobile, yet easily more resilient to cold temperatures, body.
After several breaks, which were required in order for their watches to recharge, and a few mistransformations courtesy of Alex's Omnimatrix, the trio reached the crash site that they were looking for. The ship, whose body had split in two during the impact, lied between two of the mountain's peaks. Its length was at about 600 meters, easily longer than the security ship they had to rescue from the Witch a few months ago.
Alex looked toward the sky and growled at the sight of the setting sun. It was already getting dark, which meant that the Witch's drones could show up soon. He wasn't sure how those creatures operated, but the last time they fought the Witch, after its destruction, the drones that went into flames were standing at different places, some near the ship, others on the other side of the field, and so on. It didn't seem like they were following their creator, which meant that some of them could appear even here, far away from where the Witch must be.
"Well congratulations, we found the ship." Kalin scoffed. "Can we go now?"
"We'll go inside," Alexis told him. "We have to see what happened."
"Do we? We already know what happened, the guy got murdered by a giant interdimensional monster and his ship crashed on our planet!" Kalin yelled, throwing his arms into the air. "Now there's an unstoppable monster roaming our planet again, murdering entire villages, and creating equally complex minions to help it kill more!"
"How did the creature came to be on his ship?" Alexis narrowed her eyes. "We already know that it can be captured, but why would the Guardian of Life, carry one of these things aboard his ship?"
"Both I and Alexis hate being here as much as you do, Kalin, but we got a job to do, so please, stop with the whining. It's not like you could go back home without my Starman transformation." Alex said, reverting back to human. He jumped down, sliding on the show.
"This was the part where you should have backed me up," Kalin whispered. He and Alexis detransformed a well and jumped after their older brother.
Alex walked up to the wreckage, then stopped, feeling a powerful wave of heat radiating from the ship. The boy narrowed his eyes, noticing something else that caught his attention. The ship was made from a brownish-black rock. It was something like a hardened magma? Alex wasn't completely sure, but these rocks seemed to be the source of the heat. He turned toward his sister, who had slid down, and walked over to him.
"Have you seen anything like this before?" He asked, gesturing at the ship.
"Looks a little like a Pyronite spaceship, but the rock's different," Alexis commented. "Is it hot too?"
"Yeah. Considering that it spent an entire night crashed in this mountain, with freezing temperatures, I would have expected it to have somewhat cooled down by now."
"The rocks must be generating the heat." Alexis walked closer, morphing into Fire Force, a slim female Pyronite with blue flames and no volcanos on her shoulders. "Let's see if this is going to work."
She pressed her arm against the rock and concentrated. Channeling her fires through the rock the same way her brothers would do to rock in order to make it levitate, but her intentions were different. She was trying to manipulate the rock to create a door through which they could walk inside. But the rock didn't want to move. No, it wasn't supposed to. Alexis closed her eyes tightly, concentrating harder, channeling her flames through the entire half of the ship. After a few moments, she stepped back, panting.
"It's no use," she shook her head. "The ship won't respond because it's too badly damaged. There seems to be some biotechnology involved that I just can't understand. When I touched it as a Pyronite, the rocks felt like they were almost alive."
"The ship's broken in two anyways, so why don't we walk through, you know, the huge hole?" Kalin asked.
"That was my original thought, but Alexis wanted to check if her Pyronite form could control the wreckage," Alex explained, pointing back at his sister. "But be advised, the inside of the ship might not be much cooler from the outside."
"Noted."
"And on that point, should we even check the engine part of the ship?" Alex turned to his sister to ask. Currently, they were near the backside of the ship, which was where the engines were, while the other half, was where the bridge seemed to have been located.
"Most ships of this size use a Dark Matter Reactor to power the ship. If that thing blows up, we will have an even bigger problem on our hands." Alexis explained.
"Like we needed help with that, eh?"
The trio walked through the large opening that was left from the ship splitting apart. The interior appears to be made of the same dark rock that resembled a hardened magma and lit by strange red crystals, which were located on the ceiling. There were bodies of red robots lying around on the floor. Almost all of them had their bodies torn to pieces, suggesting that the Witch must have tried to turn them into minions, or at the very least must have enjoyed destroying them.
As Alex had guessed, the inside of the ship was hotter than the outside. It wasn't intolerable, but the fact that they had come wearing heavy winter jackets, boots, scarfs, and all that good stuff was quickly making their bodies start to sweat, as they walked through the wreckage.
"All of this looks so familiar, and yet so alien at the same time," Alexis muttered. "It's similar to Pyronite technology, but not quite the same thing."
"Does that mean that you have no idea where the reactor is?" Kalin asked.
"I'm fairly sure that the reactor has to be the same place where all other ships' reactors are located, and that's near the engines," Alexis answered. "But this ship, it feels like I'm walking through an ancient artifact."
"How ancient are we talking about?" Alex raised an eyebrow; his sister's feelings were something that he knew he could trust in, as those 'feelings' were most likely the result of some DNA she contains reacting to the surrounding.
"I don't know, but it's definitely older than the human civilization. Maybe it was built around the time of the Cretaceous period, possibly before that?"
"That's ancient enough by human standards." Alex shrugged.
"What more, this seems to be-! Watch out!" Alexis jumped in front of her older brother, morphing her arms into Diamondgal's and generating a crystal shield, as a small ball of fire hit it.
Kalin activated his Omnitrix and slammed the core down, transforming into Predatory. At least his version, which had light green skin green, and a tail that's curled at the end. He wore a black open-front suit with blue over-sleeves and the Omnitrix symbol on his left arm. But most noticeably, his costume, just like the costume of his brother's version of the alien, didn't come with any footwear, which while normally not an issue, when combined with a hot floor made of volcanic rock resulted in…
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Agonizing screams of pain as the small green alien began to jump back and forth on the hot surface.
"That's strangely satisfying." Alex looked back at his brother for a moment, then quickly selected Whirlpool on his own watch and transformed.
Greenish-blue crystals covered his whole body, turning him into a slightly larger version of Diamondguy with a crystallized white beard on his chin. He wore a black bodysuit with a V-shaped portion on his upper torso colored red that turns into two vertical red lines that ran down the center of the outfit into a red and black belt with the Omnimatrix symbol on it. The back of his outfit extended into a hood with the Omnimatrix insignia on it that the crystalized alien wore over its head.
"Diamondguy against fire?" Alexis glanced back at her brother.
"Wrong alien," Alex sighed. "I can still make this work though."
He grabbed his brother and placed him on his shoulder, much to the latter's relief. Alex jumped over Alexis's shield and fired several crystal shards out of his arms at the… burning rocky cat?
The strange little alien jumped back, doing a backflip as it avoided the sharp shards, and then fired another fireball out of its mouth that hit Alex in the chest, washing over the crystal alien like a breeze. Sighting, Diamondguy generated a crystal out of his shoulder and Kalin grabbed it with his tongues, breaking it off and eating it. His belly glowed a bright green, and the tiny alien spitted out a ball of green energy that dropped in front of the burning cat and exploded, knocking it down.
Using the alien's immobilized state, Alex slammed his fist against the ground, generating a crystal path over the hot rocky terrain, all the way up to the cat, which it grew around, entrapping the creature by surrounding its body and mouth with crystal shards.
"I thought that the Witch kills everything in sight," Alex walked over to the burning cat. "But I guess even it can't help but loves cats."
"I'm no cat!" the 'cat' spat back at him. "What are a Petrosapien and a Perk Gourmand doing on Earth!?"
"A what, and what now?" Kalin tilted his head to the side.
"That's the name of the species you have turned into." Alexis turned her arms back into a human and walked over to her brothers. "Are you the Guardian of Life?"
"Yes that would be me, and I must comment I've never seen a shape-shifting human before," the cat stated, turning its yellow eyes toward Alexis's arms. "It seems that your species has begun to awaken its own unique powers."
"I'm not actually a human though," Alexis rubbed her shoulder and looked away awkwardly.
"We came here to look check if you have survived," Alex told the flame alien. "Didn't expect such a violent greeting though."
"I thought you were the Bruuk' Ai Ulgieveed." The Guardian lowered his head. "My vision has been getting darker as of late, I apologize for putting your lives in danger, brave warriors. But an unimaginable horror has crashed on this planet alongside me, and even now, its powers are clouding mine."
"You mean the Witch?" Kalin asked.
"That's what the people of Mark-X had been calling it if I recall. How do you know that name?"
"Ship carrying it crashed on this planet about two months ago, and it broke containment," Alex explained. "We fought it, and managed to, um, banish it from this planet?"
"You must have been fighting its secondary body, but the fact that you fought and survived against such a vicious creature is a miracle by itself!" The Guardian exclaimed. "Not even I, the one holding the Fire of Life has been able to defeat the Bruuk' Ai Ulgieveed in combat. What are your names, Warriors of Earth?"
"Alex," The crystal alien raised his arm, and the crystal shards trapping the fire cat opened up, allowing it to stand back onto its two feet. "My brother that's on my shoulder is Kalin, and that's my sister, Alexis."
"We're humbled to be in your presence, Guardian." Alexis bowed to the tiny alien.
"I never thought that I would see members of three different species call themselves siblings." The Guardian stated. "I have been known by many names throughout the millennia, but my current name is Betox."
"We're all humans actually. Well, I and my brother are." Alex hit the Omnimatrix symbol on his belt, reverting back to human, with Kalin jumping off his shoulder and hitting his own symbol to return to a human before landing on the ground.
"Ah, it must be the Omnimatrix devices then. I heard rumors about those."
"So what's that Fire of Life thingy you're talking about?" Kalin asked.
"It's a concept older than this universe. A flame forged by the Ancient Gods that contains the ability to create life. Just like how your watches can bring entire species back from extinction, the Fire of Life allows for new life to begin." Betox explained. "As long as the Fire of Life burns somewhere within the Multiverse, life will always find a way. But if it gets extinguished, then, darkness shall fall upon you all."
"Sounds serious enough." Alex knelt down to look the tiny alien in the eyes. "And where is that Fire of Life exactly?"
"It's me." Betox pointed at his chest. "I'm the living embodiment created by the fire itself. At least… for now…"
Alex opened his mouth to ask another question, as the second part of Betox's answer seemed to raise a few more of those, but was interrupted by a large black blade-like tendril piercing through the wall. The blade moved down, cutting the wall open, as solid darkness began to squeeze through it.
"That's it again!" Kalin screamed and pointed at the darkness. "The Witch!"
"After I wounded it, it must have ran off to heal itself!" Betox stated.
"Does its requirement to heal include taking the lives of every human nearby, because we just walked through a small village that was-"
"Then we have even bigger problems at hand, kids!"
The solid darkness formed what appeared to be ahead that peaked through the opening into the wall. It didn't actually have any facial features, such as a mouth, a nose, or eyes, but it contained some strange red crystal in the center of its 'face'. But even without a mouth, the monster was still able to let out an ear-piercing scream that made everyone in the room grab their head in agonizing pain. Black scales began to fall of the solid darkness, taking out a humanoid appearance before disappearing in the shadows of the ship.
"T-the drones!" Alexis exclaimed.
"Won't be a problem for much longer!" Alex pulled out a jar filled with a yellowish-orange gas and threw it at the ground, forming a small orange cloud in front of the group.
"What's that?" Alexis asked.
"The thing those bounty hunters used to make your ghost forms solid, but in gas form!" Alex exclaimed. "I figured that this could a chance to check if these things spread their molecules very thin to become intangible."
"Then you will need more gas!" Alexis exclaimed before morphing her body.
She turned taller, with grey skin and black spots on it. Her outfit turned almost completely white, covering her entire body, except for her face, with green gloves and belt with a window on her stomach showing green gas on the inside. Her arms and head had nozzles on them, and her eyes were green. She wore the Omnimatrix symbol on a black gas mask in front of her mouth.
"Gasout!" Alexis exclaimed her alien's name, Gasout (Gutrot), and raised her arms, absorbing some of the yellow gas around her through her nozzles.
"That's a new one," Alex commented.
"I simply never had to use it, and you don't have access to it!" Alexis exclaimed. "Now get ready to hit hard and fast!"
Alexis wrapped her arms around her body, releasing a large cloud of orange gas that covered the entire hall. Moments later, the silhouettes of large bipedal creatures with long claws in place of arms appeared within the gas, prompting Alex and Kalin to transform again, turning into Starset and Overwatch respectively. Both aliens fired beams of light that pierced through the large drones and setting their flail bodies on fire. The monsters screeched in pain and dropped on the ground, breaking apart.
"I take it that we won't be checking the ship reactor anymore!" Kalin exclaimed.
"I absorbed this ship's fire into my body, it's deactivated!" Betox explained.
"It wants you anyway, right?" Alex grabbed the alien cat by the back of its neck. "We're going to lure it away from my siblings! Alexis teleported yourself and Kalin away!"
"Wait, what are you-" Before Betox could finish his question, the two of them were already standing inside the destroyed bridge, on the other side of the ship. "How did you-"
"The speed of light," Alex explained. "I left a trail behind myself, so it can know where we are and come looking for us instead of focusing on my siblings."
"Why would you do that?"
"So you won't waste your time, and instead will tell me how to defeat that thing."
"The creature is the antithesis of life itself!" Betox shouted, raising his arms over his head. "It can't be killed because it's not a living being, and nothing can truly stop it. Not even the bending of time or space has been able to put a stop to its rampage."
"I know, I tried that." Alex crossed his arms. "But there should be a theoretical way to destroy it, right?"
"Opposites destroy each other. Like matter and anti-matter, only the power of life itself would be able to destroy anti-life." Betox explained, then looked toward the ground.
Correction, he was looking at the body lying on the ground. Not much was left of it, the darkness seemed to have torn it down to pieces, only its right arm, and the left side of its chest and face remained intact, but from what Alex could tell, it seemed to resemble a humanoid wolf made out of grey and black stone.
"Was that your friend?" Alex asked.
"That was me a few hours ago." Betox shook his head. "The Fire of Life allows me to incarnate by forging new bodies that resemble my old one. But my current form is nothing but embers. The Fire of Life inside of me is burning out. I no longer possess the power to oppose Bruuk' Ai Ulgieveed. In the end, it all might be lost."
"I don't accept that!" Alex shouted. "I won once, I'll do it again!"
A loud banging sound was heard outside the room, and the two aliens looked back. The solid darkness was crawling through the corridor at incredible speed toward the two of them. Reacting quickly, Alex put his arms together and fired a beam of melting hot light at the creature, but it did nothing to slow it down. In fact, the light seemed to disappear just before it could hit its target, absorbed within the infinite darkness that composed its body.
The creature tore a large rock out of the wall and threw it at Alex, but he dodged it at incredible speed, with his body appearing right in front of the darkness. The light alien generated two blades of solid light from its hands and swung it at the solid darkness's body, cutting through it, but failing to do any visible damage.
After a few moments, the darkness released around a hundred dark thorns out of its body, and Alex dodged those two, returning back beside Betox in an instant. He put his blades together and they merged, transforming into a bow of light. Alex generated arrows of solid light and began firing them at the creature, the light piercing through its skin and leaving large holes that regenerated in an instant.
"It's no use!" Betox exclaimed. "Light doesn't hurt it! Your form is powerless against it!"
Ignoring the small alien's protest, Alex continued to fire arrow after arrow, until finally, grown tired of all this, the solid darkness threw one of its enormous dark claws toward him, at the speed of a bullet. Still, due to his own speed, Alex quickly moved out of the way. Or so he thought.
In reality, the blade wasn't aimed at him at all.
And Betox, who was too weak and blinded by the darkness was unable to move out of the way, as the claw pierced through his red rocky skin, tearing it in two, just like it did with his previous body.
"No…" Alex whispered as he took a step back in shock.
The alien that he was supposed to protect, the so-called Guardian of Life, because he was too focus on destroying that darkness and completely forgot what the Anti-Life's true goal was, was lying in pieces on the ground. The light alien looked back at the solid darkness for a moment, then fired a hole through the ceiling and grabbed Betox's body before flying off.
"Alex!" The light alien turned and saw Alexis as Teleroll and Kalin as Overwatch waving at him, so he flew over to them.
"It's over." He muttered and showed them Betox's remains.
"Oh, Galvan…" Alexis covered her mouth in shock. "And the Fire of Life is-"
"Still… inside me…" Betox muttered, one of his golden eyes glowing brightly as he looked at them.
Behind the group, large black tendrils shoot out of the wreckage and wrapped around the ship's remains, breaking and absorbing them, slowly turning it into a large body of pure darkness with bits of rock popping out of it.
"Quickly put him on the ground, I'll try to use Fire Force to heal his injuries!" Alexis exclaimed.
"No…" Betox placed his claw against the Omnimatrix on Alex's chest. "Time… gone… successor…"
With these final words, the spark inside the alien's eyes faded, as did the fire surrounding its rocky shell. His skin turned darker and fell apart in Alex's arms, leaving nothing more than a small flame, burning brightly in his palm.
"Is that…" Alexis looked puzzled at the fire for a moment, unsure if it really was Betox's essence.
"We have bigger problems!" Kalin exclaimed and fired a beam from the large eye in the center of his chest at the solid darkness. "It's turning its attention toward us!"
Alex kept looking at his palm, inside of it he was holding the essence of life itself, the soul of a being trillions of years old. Behind him was the antithesis of Life that existed for one purpose alone and that was to destroy it. None of the aliens that he or his siblings had could stop the monster's approach at this point. Not even Warrio'Clock could cover such a huge creature with its time rays to try and slow it down.
But if this fire that he held had the properties of a living being then,
Alex got an idea.
He slammed his palm, and by extension the flame inside of it against his Omnimatrix symbol. Sparks of electricity shot out of the badge and it went haywire trying to process the new sensation, the new data, the new life…
A red aura surrounded Starset, and his body reverted back into a human.
"Now's not the time to be turning into a human!" Kalin screamed at him.
"Maybe not, but I'll need your help with something." Alex slammed his brother's badge, transforming him into Whamana, then turned to his sister and did the same to her, turning both of them into matching aliens.
"Whamana is a close-range alien!" Kalin exclaimed.
"Whamana generates Mana, which is the life force of this universe!" Alex shouted right back, gesturing at the large solid darkness that was approaching them. "It's practically poison for it!"
"Even if that's true, how do we get close enough to do any damage?" Alexis asked.
"You won't. We will blast it apart from here!"
Alex activated his Omnimatrix, the holographic red wheel appearing over the black faceplate with five faces on it. But there was a difference this time. All the faces were of one alien, and all the new holograms that rolled in were of it as well.
"Betox said it to me; a Guardian of Life can reincarnate itself, as long as there's a suitable body!" The faceplate of the Omnimatrix retracted, and a red core with an hourglass symbol on it popped out from underneath. "The Fire of Life and the Omnimatrix were practically made for each other!"
Alex slammed the core of his watch, and a blindingly powerful flash of crimson light shot out of the watch, surrounding it. The solid darkness let out a scream, this time one of pain, as its body stumbled back, trying to cover the crystal on its face from the light burning through its, until that moment, indestructible body.
After a few moments, the light surrounding Alex died down, and in place of the human stood a huge humanoid lion with a body made from black and orange rock. Two huge curved blade-like structures extended out of its back, with several smaller blades sticking out its head, surrounding its neck. The two small golden orbs that were his eyes flashed and fire burst form from his body, covering the back of its arms and its neck, creating a huge fire mane around its head. Fire burst forth from the arched blades on its blade, giving it the appearance of having wings.
"Alex?" Alexis looked back at the new alien in slight confusion.
"I never felt more alive!" Alex exclaimed as he clenched his fists. "I can sense the future lives of trillion of beings flowing through my veins! Let's end this battle team!"
He jumped in front of his siblings and leaned forward. The rocks on his back moving, creating two smaller arced blades on his lower back, and opening up two holes inside his back.
"What's this?" Kalin asked.
"Your Mana enhanced fists! Press them against me!" Alex shouted.
The two Whamana aliens looked at each other in silence for a moment then turned back to their brother and pressed their enlarged fists into the holes. As they did, the arched blades moved in, locking around the top and bottom of their arms. As they did, Alex's fire started to become noticeably brighter and hotter.
Alex pushed his fists forward, the rocks forming them starting to move around, transforming his arms into a pair of open lion mouths, filled with sharp teeth and fire. The alien roared and unleashed a powerful blast of fire from its arm-cannons, engulfing the darkness with it.
The creature had begun to shake its body around wildly, as its slow advance toward the humans quickly turned into a retreat. The Bruuk' Ai Ulgieveed was a monster created from the subconscious desire of extinction of an entire alternative universe. It was a beast without a will of its own, simply following that desire that kept droving it forward, destroying civilizations, consuming everything in its path. For such a beast, all it ever had to do was consume, be it light, warm, or flesh; it was all that it knew to do. That's why, it had no counter against Alex's Mana mixed Life Flames, against the very essence of life, from three different hosts, that was being absorbed into its body, destroying it from the inside.
Finally forming its own desires and will to follow, at the very end of its life span, the large creature morphed a claw out of its breaking body and threw it at the trio. As the Life and Anti-Life were flowing inside its body, coming into contact and destroying each other, there was one simple thought that drove the creature forward; a thought very similarly to the one that formed it in the first place. Revenge. Revenge against life and all the suffering that it brought to this universe. Revenge against the fate that forced them into this existence. And at that moment, revenge against the three humans that poisoned it with the very thing it was meant to destroy.
Its claw stopped before it could reach them, its body having been worked past its breaking point, the monster exploded into a final violent burst of Life Energy, throwing Alex, Kalin, and Alexis on the ground. After the sound from the explosion subsided, the three of them sat up and looked into the sky, seeing a small burning orb of Mana and Fire of Life in front of them.
The three of them looked at each other for a moment, then flopped back to the ground and started laughing.
"So, we were too late?"
"I'm afraid there wasn't much that you could have done."
"And the Fire of Life."
"In his last words, he said that a new bear will be born, somewhere out there."
Many, many hours after the fight had ended, the first expedition sent to rescue Betox. Though Alexis had already sent out a signal with a report of what had happened, it was understandable that some needed to see it for themselves to believe it. Meet with half a ship and the remains of Betox's cat form, the expeditors appeared to take the news better than Alex would have suspected. Of course, the official story that Alexis told them, and that was going to be written down in the archives was that Betox died delivering the finishing blow to the Bruuk' Ai Ulgieveed and that the new successor to his mantle was unknown.
The first half was in a way, true. When Alex turned into that new alien, which he had decided to name Healio, he could sense another presence inside of it. It was like he and Betox were linked to each other, their souls synchronized. As for the second half, it was Alex's own choice to hide the fact that the Fire of Life was now residing inside his watch as the transformation Healio.
After a few moments, Alexis walked back to him with a frown on her face.
"They said that they were going to take the ship's remains for a memorial of some sorts," Alexis explained. "They also understand our fear about humans finding out about the existence of alien life and said that they would take it upon themselves to clear any evidence of what happened."
"Then our work here is done." Alex sighed. "Or it just became more complex than ever before."
"Why do you think that Betox decided to entrust you with this responsibility?"
"My Omnimatrix is the only one capable of accepting the signatures of energy-based life forms." Alex shrugged. "I was the only one who had the means to accept such a responsibility."
"And you don't think that he chose you, not the watch?"
"Of course not."
Alexis sighed. She put a hand on her brother's shoulder and the two of them walked away.
Starman
Species: Naljian
Planet: REDACTED
Abilities: Enhanced Intelligence, Teleportation, Telekinesis, Dimensional Shifting
Healio
Species: Guardian of Life
Planet: None
Abilities:
Extra: Pyrokinesis, Terrakinesis, Healing, Form Change, Body Creation, Life-Force Manipulation, Soul Manipulation