CHAPTER 9: The Plan
"You can't be serious!" Ben groaned as he read the sign.
"Yeah, Rook!" said Gwendolyn, "I always thought you were supposed to be the rational one here!"
"Look, I admit I know how this looks . . ." began Rook.
"Yeah, it looks like the worst plan anyone could come up with, and I've hung with Ben!" said Kevin.
"Hey!" said Ben.
"My point is," continued Kevin, "Don't you remember who we're dealing with here?"
"That weasel has always sold us out whenever he sees an opportunity!" said Ben, "It's like what Gwendolyn said, he'd sell his own mother for lunch money!"
"Yeah, and I hired him to betray you guys when we first invaded!" said Attea.
"Okay, I get it," said Rook, "I know Argit has not always been . . . trustworthy, and I have even been hesitant to rely on his assistance; but when he first provided me information regarding certain plumber cases a month ago, it always came through, and same with Sixsix in the desert."
"In exchange for draining your bank account, I'm sure," mumbled Kevin.
"Yes," the revonnahgander admitted, "He did demand a . . . pretty expensive price, but if it helps us, then it may be worth it."
"Couldn't have said it better myself!"
The group turned around to see their old prickle-headed frenemy leaning against the now-open doorway.
"Ah, great," said Kevin.
"Wow, nice to see ya too, Kev!" said Argit, "And after all the help I gave your friends when they were on the run from you and the Rooters!"
"You were mainly doing it to save your own skin, you rat!"
"Well . . . yeah, maybe, but it was also to help too!"
"Argit, if your height was based on the 'goodness in you heart,' then you'd be way smaller than Nanomech."
"Guys!" yelled Warton, "I hate to interrupt, but we are still on the run from the Incurseans and now the U.S. army, not to mention that we still need to sneak aboard Milleous' ship, or did we forget all of that?"
" . . . Ugh, he's right," grumbled Kevin.
"Alrighty then, now that that's all settled, why don't you guys step into my office and we can discuss . . . my terms."
Everyone rolled their eyes, but reluctantly entered the building one by one. Once everyone was inside, Argit lifted his arm to reveal a wrist control. After tampering with it, a forcefield surrounded the building.
He grinned and muttered, "Was worth every tadon!" Then he turned around and followed the others inside, closing the door behind him.
"Well? Can you do it or not?" asked Kevin.
He, Rook, and Warton were sitting in front of Argit's desk, with Argit gently tapping his fingers together with a grin. Ben, Gwendolyn, and Attea were in another room.
"What, you mean get Incursean security codes to get you onto frog-face's ship? Yeah, I can do it. Except, um . . . there's a small . . . fee for it."
Argit wrote down on a piece of paper and slid it over to Kevin and Rook. When the two looked down on the paper, their eyes widened.
"Wow. That is a lot of tadons!" said Rook.
"You can't be serious, man!" said Kevin.
"Hey, ya wanna get up there or not?"
"I'm starting to think we should've turned ourselves in back there," mumbled Kevin.
"Oh, well, if that's what you want I can just call them right now . . ."
Kevin slammed the table. "Go ahead. Try!"
"Kevin, please, calm down!" said Rook.
"Why are you sticking up for this rat?"
"Right now, I am trying to move our plan along."
"Yeah, and how's that working out for us?"
"Well, not very well now."
"Ugh," muttered Warton, "I'm just going to go check on Ben and the others."
With that, Warton left the bickering individuals and went to the room where the three friends were residing in. He gently tapped on the door and went inside.
"Oh, hey, Warton," said Ben, "How's the 'negotiations' going?"
"Um . . . well . . ."
"That bad, huh?"
"Well . . . yeah."
"Ugh, great! This is just what we need!" Attea shot up and sat heavily onto a cot near the wall, placing her face in her hands.
Ben got up and sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her.
"Hey, Attea, it's gonna be okay . . ."
"No, Ben! It's not gonna be okay!" She started breaking down into tears, "I mean, I know my daddy was gonna keep hunting me, but I didn't actually think he'd come to Earth to get me! And I know I was just talking about bringing the fight to him, but . . . when he actually came . . . it all just, just brought back that dreadful night when they all betrayed me!" After a moment of silence, she continued, "I tried to act tough when they did, but honestly . . . I was so scared! And I felt hurt . . . that they would betray me!"
Then Ben turned Attea's face towards his and whispered, "Hey, don't worry. We're all here for you. It's kinda like what I said before, you're not alone anymore."
"Ben's right, Attea," said Gwendolyn, "We might have been enemies before, but you've shown that you truly want to change, and we'd still protect you even if we still were."
"We're going to defeat your father, Attea," said Warton, "He will not harm you, you have my word!"
Attea sniffed and then smiled at her new friends and boyfriend. "Thanks, you guys!"
Suddenly, there was another knock and Rook and Kevin entered the room.
"Well, how'd it go?" asked Ben.
"He will do it," said Rook.
"How much did it cost this time?" groaned Gwendolyn.
"Well . . . let's just say both our bank accounts are free to put more tadons into . . . along with Ben's."
"YOU WHAT?!" Ben shot up from the bed.
"Hey! It was the only way to get that weasel to help us! Also, I didn't want to drain Gwendolyn's account, being my girlfriend and all."
"Aw, that's so sweet!" said Gwendolyn.
"He also said she would kill him if he did that," added Rook.
"Dude!" hissed Kevin.
Ben started to storm over to Kevin, omnitrix dialed on Rath, but Gwendolyn stopped him.
"Look, you can settle this after we save Attea and the world."
"Which brings us to our next problem," said Rook, "We need a plan."
"Alright, guys, listen up!"
Attea and Warton gathered everyone in a circle after the two frogs worked for almost an hour on making a complete holographic map of the Incursean flagship.
Attea zoomed out from the flagship to reveal holographic images of a bit of Earth and the ships the rest of the Incursean fleet, then she continued, "Once Argit gets those codes for us, we'll need to start transmitting them right about here." She pointed at a spot just a few miles before breaking through the atmosphere. "Because Incursean ships are equipped with long-range scanners that will identify and shoot any ship that basically isn't Incursean."
"From there," said Warton, "We will have to activate Rook's new cloaking device to disguise ourselves as one of the other ships."
"Wait, hold up!" said Ben, "Since when did you have a cloaking device installed in your truck?"
"Kevin and I hang out in the garage every other weekend, do you not remember?" asked Rook.
"Oh yeah, right! I forgot how much you guys love your cars more than actual people," he chuckled.
"Anyway," Warton coughed to regain their attention, then he zoomed in onto the ship and made the hologram representing Rook's ship approaching the flagship, "Once we approach the flagship, we'll fly around to this emergency hatch here." He indicated a red dot that was on the rear of the ship. "There should be no guards there, so we'll be safe."
"However," said Attea, "After we leave the room, there'll be security cameras everywhere, so that's where I'm gonna insert this jamming disc in a main power station near the hatch." She held up a small disc lined with the standard Incursean color scheme with a gold trim. "Then all we have to do is make our way through the guards and reach this elevator here." She pointed to a now-zoomed in image of a hall that had the elevator she just mentioned.
"Ben, we'll need you to transform into XLR8 to take out the guards before they can alert anyone about us."
"Got it," replied the hero.
"Next, the elevator will take us to the floor that my daddy's command center is in," said Attea, "Which will be the most heavily guarded floor on the ship, which is where red here comes in with her sleep spell."
"Between that and the codes provided from Argit, we'll be able to gain access to the command center, take out Milleous and his guards, and disable the conquest ray. Any questions?" Warton looked around at everyone.
"Actually, I have a question," said Kevin, "How do we know Argit hasn't already told the frogs we're coming?"
"Honestly, I don't know. But, trap or not, this is the best and only option we've got, so we have to do this."
Kevin rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat.
"Any other questions?" Warton once again scanned the faces in the room. When no one spoke up, he said, "Alright then, let's gather what we need and prepare to depart any minute."
Everyone stood up and put their hands forward until all were joined in the center. Then they raised their arms and cheered, clapping each other on the back. Ben and Attea shared one last kiss, just in case . . .