Chapter one: Perfect Storm

Ben gave a heavy-hearted sigh and leaned his seat back in his car. He then haphazardly propped his feet on the dashboard and crossed them. He then tucked his left arm under his head, and with his free right hand he reached for his cup of that was in the cupholder. He picked it up and gave the cup a good swish, and brought the straw to his lips, and took a long pull from his fruity frozen drink. He then smacked his lips a few times, and ran his tongue along the top to the bottom of his lips to make sure he got any excess smoothie from his mouth.

Ben then brought his cup down on his thigh and gave his cup a forlorn glance. He then gave another sigh, not even could bring him a bit of joy he desperately needed right now. He frustratingly shoved his cup back in the cup holder he then crossed his arms, and turned over on his side facing the driver's side door and gave a grunt of displeasure.

He gazed out the window and silently watched, and listened as heavy raindrops pelt his car and run down the glass of his window. Ben thought that the weather fit his mood to a T. he then let his mind drift back to when everything went south for him, and how he ended up in a parking lot of a 24 hour late at night in such dismal weather. And the very reason why is that his girlfriend of five years Kai broke up with him three months prior. And the reasons why was because they had barely spent any time together at all anymore, and what little time they could spend alone together was interrupted by Ben's untimely hero work or Kai's college and work schedules.

They both tried to put in the effort but life would not cut them a break, and Kai slowly began to lose interest in the relationship. Calling and texting were just not the same as truly spending time together. She knew Ben would never ask her to give up on her schooling or her career. And she also knew she could never ask him to give up being a hero for her she knew that the universe still needed him. Kai made the difficult decision to break up with him, and she knew it would be for the best for both of them to do so.

And within one of the rare moments that they were able to spend some alone time together, she had broken up with him, Kai could never do that to Ben with just a call or a text, she knew he deserved better. He had been silent through Kai's explanation of why she was breaking up with him, and he knew she was right but it still broke his heart all the same. She still wanted to be on good terms, with him and had asked him if he would still like to be friends. Not wishing any ill will towards Kia he deflatedly agreed and they parted ways.

A few weeks after the whole ordeal Ben had lost some of his usual gusto, and he felt mainly depressed most of the time. This however did not go unnoticed by Gwen and Rook, they had confronted him about it a while back. He had told them not to worry, and that he was just fine. But they knew better then to push the subject, and if he was willing to talk he would tell them eventually. Nowadays whenever Ben had free time he would mostly just mope around his apartment and watch TV till his eyes hurt and his brain goes numb, and then afterward instead of going to a bar to drown his sorrows in alcohol like most people his age would after a breakup.

He would rather drink late night smoothies instead which made him feel a little childish, and it did not help to hamper his mood in the slightest. Ben could never honestly give up on drinking smoothies he loved them too much to do so, and that was one of the major reasons why he was at the right now he thought it might cheer him up a little but no luck. He then yawned loudly and stretched in his seat he was both physically and emotionally tired he then yawned again and turned over, so his back was straight in the seat, and he then adjusted himself so that he was in a more comfortable position. Ben had decided to take a quick power nap before he went home. Just as he was slowly closing his eyes a sudden loud crack of thunder made him jump upright in his seat, and he accidentally slammed his shin against the steering wheel.

He gripped his leg in pain and curst. As the pain dulled he flopped back down in the seat, and groaned in irritation there was just no use in trying to get some shut-eye here. He tiredly dragged his hand down his face and blew a raspberry another loud boom of thunder sounded above him, it vibrated through his body. Ben guessed this was a sign that the weather was telling him to get his sorry ass home and go to bed. He readjusted the back of his seat upright and fished his keys out of his pocket and paused, as he stared out of his windshield and saw a white streak of lightning flash through the sky and disappear.

The wind began to pick up, heavy raindrops smack angrily against his car. The weather seemed to be getting worse by the minute. He shook his head to get himself to focus, and he pulled his keys out of his pocket and shoved it into the ignition. And the car roared to life, and he sped the car out of the parking lot into the blustery night. Ben had to crank his windshield wipers to the highest setting because of the heavy rain that collided against his car's windshield, making it hard for him to see the road clearly.

Ben yawned and scratched his bearded chin he reached over to turn on the radio to help him keep awake till he got home. The radio was only picking up static so he began to fiddle with the radio knobs. He was able to find a county station, he didn't usually listen to country but he just felt a little too tired, and lazy to find another radio station so country it was then. A song began to play through the speakers he recognized the song instantly, it was The Thunder Rolls by Garth Brooks. His mother used to play this song a lot when she was cleaning the house when he was still a kid.

It was either by coincidence or just some DJ having his fun because of the weather, but really this song was more of a metaphor about a man cheating on his wife than an actual thunderstorm. He shook his head he did not know why he was overthinking this. He looked off towards some city buildings off into the distance and something strange caught his eye, dark Omanis storm clouds seemed to be gathering around surrounding a singular building forming a dark and thunderous halo. To be more precise the building in question was in fact the Bellwood national history museum. A minacious feeling made Ben's skin prickle and the hairs on his neck and arms stand up on end.

He was no meteorologist but he believed that something was just not right with the weather. Ben needed to check this out, it could be just nothing but his tired mind play tricks on him, but he wanted to be sure. He pulled over to the side of the road before he planned to do some investigating at the museum, he decided he needed some backup. It was better safe than sorry, he reached over and grabbed his smartphone that laid on the passenger's seat, with a swipe of his thumb he unlocks the phone and was about to hit the speed dial for Rooks number when he stopped. As the realization hit him he facepalmed, he had totally forgotten that Rook and Grandpa Max were at an intergalactic Plumbers convention, and would not be back for an entire week.

And there was just no point of trying to get a hold of Gwen or Kevin they were both miles away at Friedkin University. Ben cracked his neck from side to side and lightly slapped himself to wake up. Guess he was going solo then, he drove off towards the direction of the museum. It had only taken him a few minutes to reach his destination. He drove into the abandoned parking lot, he put his car in park. Overhead the wind was angrily howling and thunder boomed, and it made Bens car rock slightly.

Ben looked up towards the top of the building, and watched as a stray streak of lighting dance through the sky, and stuck the museum's flag pole in a shower of sparks. A feeling of unease had settled in the pit of his stomach, he did not know why this place was giving him such bad vibes, and soon he was going to find out. He reached over to his back seat and grabbed his black leather jacket with green sportsmen stripes going down the sleeves, and he quickly put it on. He then proceeded to brace himself, and he opened the car door. As Ben got out of the car, he was assaulted by heavy wind and rain.

He then shielded his face with his arms and ran towards the museum's front entrance archway for cover. He bounded up the entrance steps and dived into the archway, and laid his back against the glass door of the entrance, trying to protect himself as much as possible from the wind and rain. Ben was soaked from head to toe, he reached up to his drenched locks, and he ruffled his hair trying to get his head to be at least somewhat dry. Water droplets went flying in all directions, he dug his pinky in his ear in hopes to remove some water that had gotten trapped inside of his ear canal. After he got himself settled he cupped his hands near his face, and peered through the glass door.

It was completely dark inside. Ben could make out faintly what looked like to be a commons area, and what possibly could also be the museum's curator's office. But the office was empty, and it didn't look like any security guard was making the rounds either. Maybe they were all on a coffee break or something like that, but all at the same time? This did not sit well with him at all, he reached out and gave the door a tug it was locked tight.

Of course, the doors where lock especially at this time of night he sighed and shook his head. Luckily he knew the right alien for the job. Ben lifted the left jacket sleeve upon his arm so he could use the Omnitrix. He tapped the faceplate and a green holographic ring that appeared above the Omnitrix, he scrolled through the interface ring till he found the alien icon that he needed. He taped the faceplate of the Omnitrix once more, and the faceplate slid open to reveal the core of the alien device that lay hidden beneath. The core sprung up, glowing green circuitry covered its cylindrical form. Ben slapped down on the core and his body was enveloped in a flash of blinding green light.

Ben's body began to transform, his limbs became elongated, and his torso stretched becoming long and slender. His human skin was transformed into a shiny black and blue exoskeleton shell, his eyes bulged and enlarged and turn into overly large compound insect eyes. Massive Azul chitin wings grew from his back and spread forth. His transformation was complete. In Ben's new form he now stood as a giant bipedal, humanoid alien moth man that he called Big Chill, his species were known as Necrofriggians.

Big Chill cloaked his impressive wings against his spindly body, he turns his body intangible and slipped through the glass door with he got inside the museum he turned tangible again, and with his sizable eyes, he Scand the front entrance, and commons area trying to make sure he did not set any alarms off unknowingly. It looked like he was in the clear Big Chill uncloaked himself and slapped the Omnitrix badge that was on his chest, and transformed back into Ben. As Ben turned back into a human, suddenly a sensation of intense nausea washed over him and he felt dizzy, the room began to spin. He thought he was going to pass out. But it had stopped as suddenly as it came, he had broken into a cold sweat and he was panting heavily, he leaned against a pillar for support.

He had no idea what just happened. Could it have been he had drunk a bad smoothie or something like that, was it a bad case of food poisoning? Yeah, that was probably it, he took a deep breath and pushed himself off the pillar, and after regaining his balance he slightly staggered and paused for a brief moment to gather his bearings, and once he recovered he passed through one of the museums many corridors. As he walked through the corridor opening he glanced at all of the antiquities as he went by that lay behind glass, he made sure nothing seemed to be stolen or out of place. The sound of his wet sneakers squeaked through the hallway as he went. As Ben came to the end of the corridor he entered a room filled with paintings.

This must have been the art gallery, he gazed at them with a look of wonder and curiosity. A lone painting caught his eye, and he slowly walked towards it. Ben stopped a mere few feet from the painting, he cocked his head slightly and analyzed the painting before him. It was of a woman her back was facing him, and she was standing alone on the edge of a seaside cliff overlooking a stormy ocean view. Her beautiful white dress billowed behind her from an unseen wind, he could not help but feel like this woman was very lonely, and she was waiting for something or perhaps someone. He had assumed maybe she was waiting for her husband who was lost at sea, and he was never going to return home to her.

And she devotedly waited for him at the cliff's edge, never truly knowing about her husband's demise. Ben scratched his head and gave a loud sigh he was getting sidetracked, he gazed at the painting one last time. He did not know why but he felt sorry for the women in the painting, but he guessed it was probably because the painting had spoken to him in some way, and that he too felt depressed and lonely. He gave a droned out a sigh, it was time for him to stop feeling sorry for himself, and not to push everyone away anymore. It was time to get over Kai he needed to move on for his sake, and for the sake of his friends and family. He straightened himself out and made a beeline for the gallery's exit, and headed deeper into the museum.

Some time had passed, and Ben had looked through every inch of the museum, still, nothing seemed to be wrong. There still seemed to be no security guards on duty, if there were he probably would have run into one by now. Maybe they didn't have any on staff, which was kind of odd especially for a museum. Ben had made his way back to the commons area and sat down at one of the many tables, he had gotten himself a can of cold coffee from one of the vending machines. He took a much-needed break after he had searched the entire museum, he took a sip of the coffee and placed the can down with a tap.

He yawned rubbed his left eye with the heel of his palm, and he removed his cell from the pocket of his jacket to check the time. It was almost three in the morning. Ben stretched in his chair, he got up and grabbed his can of coffee and chugged the rest of it, when he was finished he crushed the can and tossed it into a nearby trashcan. He rubbed the back of his neck and popped the kinks out of his shoulder and neck, there was no point of wasting anymore of his time here, and nothing seemed to be wrong. It really must have just been the lack of sleep play tricks on him.

Ben felt the caffeine kick in, the coffee had perked him right up, more than enough to get him home. He was about to head to the exit when he stopped suddenly in his tracks. A foreboding feeling had washed over him, it felt like someone took an ice cube and trailed it down his spine. His body shivered, it was not unlike the feeling he got when his eyes first laid upon the museum earlier that night. Just what the hell was going on here?

Ben perked his ears to the sound of voices, he swore to himself that he had checked every nook and cranny of the museum and he couldn't find any security guard, not even a late-night janitor. He then came to the assumption that the voices could possibly belong to thieves that broke in, well unlucky for them they came at the wrong place at the wrong time to do some late-night larceny. But before he actually confronted whoever they were, he wanted to be absolutely sure, that they were actually burglars, and not a cleaning crew coming into clean before the museum opened. Ben not wanting to alert whoever they were to his presence, he then stealthily tailed the voices and from what he could tell by the tones of said voices it was of a man and a woman. Ben still could not make out what they were saying and so he got closer and strained his ears trying to listen in on the conversation.

"We're late."

Said the unknown male voice.

It was deep and gruff and sounded slightly annoyed. An airy feminine laugh soon followed after the man's complaint.

"We're only fashionable late darling."

The unknown woman's voice was smooth and seductive, like every word she spoke glided on silk it made Ben shiver in delight for some strange unknown reason. He had fallowed the echo of the voices and they lead him to the museum's fossil exhibit room, and he pressed his back firmly against the wall near the door that leads to the exhibit making sure he would not be seen. He then continued to eavesdrop on their conversation, the unknown man gave a loud grunt of displeasure.

"Just what in the nine hells was Aquila thinking, making us come to this rubbish heap?"

The unknown woman hummed in amusement at her companion's vexation.

"This rubbish heap as you call it, is the only place with the artifacts we need filled with the right archaic energy to power the Gods table darling."

Ben furrowed his brow at the sensual voice of what the woman said. Just what the hell was a God table, and also archaic energy? Ben was now pretty sure that whoever they are, they were definitely not janitors. And the unknown man and woman broke into the museum was because they needed this energy whatchamacallit to power their God table thingamajig. And none of it sounded good at all.

Ben heard the man snort irritably at the women's snide remark.

"Fine, let's go meet the others were late enough as it is."

The woman gave a chuckle. Ben had raised an eyebrow at what the man said. So there were more of them, and they were already here? Ben shook his head and wondered why he hadn't seen or heard of any sign of them before when he searched the museum earlier. Did he just miss them? Ben carefully slid against the wall and peek his head through the doorway into the exhibit room. Ben caught a glimpse of two shadows that starched across the floor by an unseen light source.

Ben heard the sound of large shuffling feet and the creek of a metal door.

"Now you didn't forget you're piece of the Gods table, did you?"

The voice of the women playfully scoffed at the man.

"No, I did not forget wench!"

The woman clicked her tongue in delight at the response to the man's outburst.

"I just wanted to be sure darling, I know how thick head you can be at times."

Ben's eyebrows shot up, that woman just loved to push that man's buttons, and it made him a little uneasy.

"Hold your tongue wench, or you're going to lose it!"

The man snarled out.

"Tisk, tisk darling empty threats are so unbecoming of you."

Ben swore he could hear the man's teeth grinding all the way to the door frame where he was hiding at.

"Just, go!"

The man shouted.

The women tittered, and Ben heard the light slapping of bare feet and saw one of the shadows move and disappear. Ben then heard large feet scrap across the floor and watched as the other shadow followed suit, the unknown light source vanished along with the shadow. Ben then heard the loud slam of the unseen metal door. He waited by the doorway for a good long minute, to make sure that it was clear before he headed into the exhibit room.

He walked into the room the room was completely empty except for the bones of great beasts long deceased. He scratched his scalp in confusion and wondered just where in the hell they went, they couldn't have just disappeared into thin air, and he swore he heard a metal door earlier. He had looked through the fossil exhibit earlier that night and he hadn't noticed a door, maybe he just had missed it. Ben looked around the room and found nothing he gave a frustrated sigh and leaned against one of the walls. He couldn't have just imagined all of this, something was going on here but he just had no idea what.

Miffed Ben slammed his fist against the wall and it produced the reverberation sound of metal being struck. Confused he quickly turned around and looked at the wall, it looks just like an ordinary wall from what he could see. But he couldn't quite explain the feeling he got from looking at it, but he felt something was just not right about it. Ben slowly reached out his hand and placed it on the wall, his eyes widened in surprise. Instead of feeling the rough texture of paint and plaster, he felt the cool smooth touch of metal.

Ben realized that this was actually the metal door he had heard from before and that he didn't actually imagine it after all. And yet it was somehow invisible, maybe because of magic or some sort of light-bending field, he believed it was likely the nameless man and woman's doing. Ben gave a sigh, they could possibly be magic users, and the archaic energy the woman was talking about earlier, could that have been a form of similar magic much like mana? This was a whole other headache he did not need right now Ben wished Gwen was with him, so someone can explain to him in magic laymen's terms about all this confusing magic mumbo jumbo. Ben ran his hands over the invisible door trying to see if he could feel for a door handle.

One of his hands brushed against an unseen metal protrusion on the invisible door, and he grinned. Bingo. Ben wrapped his hand around the invisible handle, and gave a tug darkness greeted his vision and cool stale air wafted against his face. Ben squint his eyes, and let them adjust to the pitch blackness of what seemed to be a stairwell leading down into the bowels of the museum. Ben reached for his cell that was stuffed in his jeans and pulled it out of his pocket, and turned on the mini light that was built into it. The light illuminated the stairwell with a faint glow, and Ben made his way down the steps as quietly as he could.

As he went deeper down the stairwell he saw that the stairs lead to a large open room he took his cell and shined the light in the large room and he found a giant gaping hole in the wall right in front of him. It looked like someone or something just ripped a hole right out of the wall, which was definitely not a good sign. Ben turned his head and found the mangled remains of what looked like to be a large steel door. From what Ben could guess that this was the museum's storage vault where they keep all of there antiquities and artifacts safe when not being used for display or for studying. No one could have possibly been strong enough to do something like this, well no one human anyway.

This had Ben slightly worried, not only could the man and woman be magic users they could also not be human either. Could they even be aliens? Ben shook his head, from what he had experienced in the past, aliens and magic was always a bad combo to deal with. What about the man and woman's, yet to be seen pals? They could also be aliens too. Ben needed to be cautious, He had just no idea the full existent of these guy's magic capabilities, or exactly how many of them there where.

His best bet was stealthy observing them from afar and then assess the situation before he made his move. When he was younger he would have thrown all caution to the wind, and dived headfirst into the fray, without thinking about the wellbeing of himself or others. Ben has had too many close calls to count. His younger self would have just arrogantly brushed off his recklessness and come up with some stupid excuse of why he did what he did. Thankfully Ben grew up, and he finally got it through his thick head that he couldn't act like a selfish prick anymore, he would just have ended up eventfully hurting himself and others, or getting himself killed or worse someone else.

Ben stepped into the vault room, his widened in awe. The inside of the vault was massive, and filled to the brim with all kinds of relics of the past, in a way it was a little overwhelming, to say the least. Ben heard the faint murmur of voices and turned his head towards where he heard them. The voices were coming from the far back end of the vault, beyond a row of metal-framed shelves filled with ancient pottery. Ben could see the flickering of soft light shining through the empty spaces between the pots.

Ben hunched down and headed towards the light and voices. As Ben got to the last row of the shelves he quickly ducked behind it, and carefully moved some of the pottery around on the bottom shelf and peeked through his newly made opening. Ben could see five figures bathed in the light pulsating from illuminating orbs that floated near there forms. Ben gazed at the five unknown trespassers each of them appeared more radical-looking then the next.

A tall lanky man was standing by a large circular ornate stone disk with a language inscribed on it Ben had never seen before. The man wore a hooded dark blue cloak the hood was drawn over his head obscuring his face. The hood resembled the head of an eagle and the edges of the cloak were made to look like feathered wings, gold accents were embroidered along the border of the dark blue fabric. Tipped on all the man's fingers, were rings in the shape of long sharp talons that looked like they could slice through flesh with ease. A few feet from the blue cloaked man was another man, he lay nonchalantly on a stone sarcophagus.

He had long brown hair and a scruffy beard, upon his head was a helmet with sharp blades covering the top. A metal visor covered his eyes and the man had a necklace with two small tusks that hung from his neck, and he was completely bare-chested except for the tattoos that covered his entire body. Ben looked down at the tattooed man's left arm and did a double-take, instead of havening a flesh and blood forearm the man had a giant blade in its place. The tattooed man lightly ran his blade against the stone sarcophagus creating sparks in the process. Off in a darkened corner partly obscured by the darkness was a hunched figure, Ben could not tell for sure if the hunched figure was a man or a woman.

Covering its body was a robe of deep purple, a black spiked diadem rested upon its brow, and covering its face was a veil of gossamer. Ben just noticed something large was on the hunched individuals back, but he could not make it out because it was hidden by the darkness of the vault. A man imposing in size stood with his arms crossed, his tan skin was stretched over ballooning muscle the skin looked ready to tear apart if he so much as twitched, and blue hose like veins ran all over his body in a grotesque display. On the goliath of a man's tree trunk of a waist was a bright red wool skirt, and keeping it in place was a cingulum belt. And to top the cherry on the uncanny cake, the giant muscular man wore a bronze helmet in the shape of a bull, and the helmet was fused to his skin.

Standing next to the bronze bullheaded man was an unmistakable form of a voluptuous woman. The woman wore a golden headdress in the shape of a snakes head, the fangs of the headdress framed the woman's sharp features. Jade piercings covered the bridge of her nose and long strings of jade traveled from both sides of her face, from her nostrils to her earlobes. The snake-headed women's eyes were a deep shade of green, and her pupils were slitted not unlike that of a serpent, and they gave off a hypnotic allure. Ben could not help but just stare into the woman's eyes, it felt he had no control over his body he had the insatiable urge to come out of his hiding place, and take women in his arms and just stare into her eyes forever.

Ben suddenly snapped out of his trance, and rubbed his eyes they felt sore like when he stared at his phone for far too long. He wondered how the hell she did that. Ben made a mental note not to make eye contact with the women in the future, as he removed his hands from his eyes, his face quickly heated up from embarrassment. He then quickly downcast his eyes to avoid looking at the snake-like women any longer, he had then just gotten himself an eye full of the woman's naked torso. Ben had no idea that the woman was bare-chested, not unlike her other two companions. He just hadn't noticed before because of the hypnotizing effect of the women's eyes.

Thankfully for his sake, when he looked away from her he saw she was wearing a loincloth to cover her neither regain. He had also caught a glimpse that the women had ritual scarification that marred her dark skin, and a light green paint covered the tops of her shoulders and down the women's biceps and forearms to the tips of her fingers. And much to Ben's embarrassment the paint even covered her bare breasts. He lightly slapped his cheeks to clam his mind and cool himself down, it was not like he had never seen a naked woman before he had seen his ex-girlfriend Kai naked many times. And it was true he had not been romantically involved with anyone for months, but he was not going to leer at some unknown women like some sex-starved pervert, even though she was dressed so provocatively he still had standards.

"I'm bored out of my fucking skull here let's get on with it, we've already had to wait for your slow asses to finally get here!"

The bladed arm, tattooed man barked out and he turned to glare at the brawny bullheaded man and curvy serpent-like woman.

The bronze bullheaded man unfolded his arms and brought his hands to his sides and began to flex his hands and fingers, Ben winced at the popping sound.

"We were late no thanks to Coatl and her gluttonies apatite!"

Ben instantly recognized the voice, it was the gruff voice of the unseen man he had heard coming from the fossil exhibit and he could only guess that the half-naked woman standing next to the man's side was the seductive female voice he hared along with the man's. The tattooed man turned to look at the snake woman and lazily scratched his chest with his right hand.

"Damn woman, you did it again? I think you have a fucken serious eating disorder, this is like what… the sixth time this week?"

A long sinister smile tugged at the women's emerald painted lips.

"I just could not help myself, I just saw a delectable morsel I couldn't pass up."

Ben for some reason felt a slight unease when the now named women Coatl, put emphasis on a delectable morsel.

"And I do apologies Griss dear, for the cause of us being tardy."

Coatl drawled out.

The bullheaded man gave a disgruntled snort at the woman's half-assed apology.

"That's a laugh, you apologizing you never apologize for anything you fucken do!"

Griss said mockingly and cocked his head slightly to the giant bull-headed man.

"Am I right Taurus?"

Taurus gave a slight nod and grunted in agreement.

Coatl waved them off.

"What? I can have my moments."

Griss started to laugh and slapped his knee with his flesh hand.

"You're so full of shit woman!"

A sudden clapping sound ceased the trios bickering, and they turned to look at the dark blue eagle cloaked man.

"You three, stop your squabbling we have a more important task at hand, that needs are up most undivided attention."

"Yeah, yeah Aquila I got it."

Griss said as he got up off the sarcophagus, and leaned backward and cracked his back it made a loud sickening pop.

"Yes, right back to the task at hand."

Taurus grunted out in agreement and headed towards Aquila, and Coatl sauntered behind him. Griss lastly made his way over to the group and leaned against a terracotta statue and crossed his arms and spat on the cement floor.

"So pray tell us Aquila do you know exactly what the fuck does this gods table do, and do you know of all the trouble we had to get all the pieces here?"

Griss said to Aquila in a peeved tone. Aquila cleared his throat at the remark.

"Yes I do realize how much trouble you all went through to acquire all the pieces, but trust me the reword we reap from this will all be well worth it."

A husky whispering voice responded to Aquila's reply.

"Aquila is right the reward will be well worth all the trouble we had to endure."

Ben turned to look in the direction where he heard the new voice, it had come from the hunch violet robed figure who was partially obscured by the shadows, that he had seen earlier.

"Pautina you old fucking hag I almost forgot you were there, still lurking in the shadows I see."

Griss jeered out, and Pautina shifted her form slightly into more of a crouch, it reminded Ben of a spider readying itself to pounce on an unsuspected fly.

"And you still the foul-mouthed whelp as ever I see Griss."

Pautina hissed back.

"Come now Griss dear, you had your fun let them speak you can hound them later."

Coatl chided.

"Fine, whatever, please continue to enlighten us."

Griss said sarcastically and began to pick between his rotting teeth with the tip of his sword arm.

"Ah, yes let us continue without further interruptions."

Ben believed if he could see the cloaked man's face he would be staring daggers at the one-armed man.

"From what Pautina and I could assess through translations we made of the runes on the god's table, that it is a doorway to unimaginable power."

Aquila said.

"So how unimaginable is the power, we're talking about here?"

Griss ask.

The words Unimaginable power was piquing everyone's interest even Bens, but worriedly. Aquila answered Griss's question.

"We would have the power of a god, no we will have enough power to become gods."

"I'm likening the sound of this already!"

Griss cackled out. Coatl sensually licked her lips.

"Having the power, not unlike that of a god is a very intoxicating thought indeed."

Taurus nodded in agreement. Ben did not like this one bit.

"And as I've told you all before we needed to be here in this museum, because it was the only place that was close enough that contains the ancient relics that are stored up with enough archaic energy we need. This place is practically overflowing with it!"

Aquila explained.

"Yeah, I remember you telling us all this about the energy part."

Griss said while he scratched his bare chest with his flesh hand the others nodded in agreement.

"Ah good, now we can get that out of the way, It will take some time but I need to channel the archaic energy to power the Gods table, and then soon we will be gods are selves."

Aquila moved closer to the God's table and had his arms outstretched over the large stone disk, the talon-like rings tipped on each of his fingers shined from the light of the orb that floated near him. Ben not wanting this to go any further, was about to reveal himself and confront the less than savory group, but he stopped when the snake woman spoke up.

"Oh Aquila dear, if you could humor me with just one more question before you start?"

Coatl asks in a sugar-coated voice. Aquila lowered his arms and turned to look at the snake woman.

"Ah yes, what do you inquire?"

"How are we to make sure that no unwanted mice poke their noses into are, little endeavor?"

Ben went rigid his mind went into a panic, did she somehow know he was there?

"Ah, no need to worry I took it upon myself and made precautions just in case for that very reason. I placed a very particular type of tempest ward around this facility, whoever walks within the ward will be put into a magically induced coma. I also made sure that the ward spell would recognize our auras, so we would not suffer the effects."

Ben had no idea why he was not affected by the ward, he could only guess that the birdman messed up his spell, and that's why he was not passed out on the floor somewhere. Ben also wonder about that nauseous feeling he felt when he first set foot in the museum, it wasn't because he drank a bad smoothie earlier that night, but was, in fact, the effects of the ward that was trying but failing to put him down. It seemed like it only really affected him when he turned back into a human but then it suddenly stopped? It was only a theory but he believed that it was because he was not a hundred percent human, he was after all a quarter Anodite even though he technically showed no latent signs of having the spark which would allow him to use powers, not unlike his cousins Gwen and Sunny.

Coatl lightly tapped her chin with a slender finger.

"Also, aren't placeless like these usually well guarded, Taurus and I could not find hide nor hair of any type of guard, was that also you're doing?"

Just when Aquila was about to respond Griss cut in brashly.

"You can thank Pautina, and me for sparing you with clean up duty."

A feeling Dread sunk into the pit of Ben's stomach at the insinuation of the one-armed man's words.

"No sport at all let me tell yeah, once they were flat on there faces from Aquila's spell, I ran them right through. They didn't so much as twitch a pinky it was no fun at all, then Pautina's children picked them clean till there was not so much as a drop of blood left."

Coatl gave a small pout.

"How disappointing I missed out on the chance of having a little snack."

Ben clenched his fists tight turning his knuckles white, his mind seething with silent rage. These monsters had already unscrupulously murdered some poor unsuspected guards it infuriated Ben because of the underhanded way it was committed and the very deed its self, the guards didn't even stand a chance. Ben had already made up his mind he was going to put these immoral bastards down. Ben stood up and revealed himself from his hiding spot from behind the shelf and took one last glance at the sinister group and he inhaled deeply through his nose. Its go time. Ben took a step forward and made his presence known.

Griss turned his head towards Ben's direction as his gaze fell on him, an evil grin spread across the one-armed man's face and he cackled darkly.

"Hey, Aquila looks like you fuck up on your spell, we got our selves a pissant looky-loo."

The throng turned to stare at Griss and he nodded his head in Ben's direction. As they looked to where Griss nodded they saw Ben standing out in the open.

"What!? How can this be, I made sure that my ward was flawless, any being who steps into the area of the ward should be incapacitated this is impossible!?"

Aquila agitatedly clicked his claws together trying to wrap his brain on how Ben could have gotten passed his ward.

"Oh goodie, looks like I get to have a treat after all."

Coatl began to ogle her next potential meal.

"He looks quite tasty I can't wait to sink my teeth into him."

Coatl cooed out and she ran her tongue along one of her elongated fangs. Ben held his head high made his stance firm and narrowed his eyes fiercely at the group and took a deep breath.

"I'm giving you all one warning."

Ben said in an authoritative tone.

"Give up now and come quietly to answer for what you all have done and if you don't… well, I'm gonna have to do something I'm not gonna like. And trust me it's not going to be pretty. So please do yourself a favor and don't do what I think you're going to do it will save me a whole headache worth of paperwork that I would need to fill out."

Ben then pushed up the sleeve of his jacket revealing his Omnitrix, preparing himself for the shitstorm he could smell coming. Aquila turned his attention from Ben flicking his cloak in the process and spread his hands back over the god's table.

"I have work to do I don't need any more distractions I expect you four to deal with this pest."

"With pleasure…."

Coatl trilled.

"If all of you don't mind I would like to play with this yummy little snack first."

"Be my fucken guest."

Griss said to her and paying no mind to the situation, and he began to pick off some stone flakes he just noticed on his arm blade.

"Fine, do what you want wench."

Taurus snorted out and crossed his arms once more, his skin strained at the movement of his grossly oversized muscles.

"Do what you like pet, no skin off my snout if you want to indulge with this little flea."

Pautina rasped out. Coatl began to sashay towards Ben, her tongue darted from between her lips to taste the air she caught the tang of Bens rage and it gave her Goosebumps of excitement and wantonness.

"I'm going to gobble you right up little mouse, but I like to play with my food first."

Coatl sang out and then flashed a glimpse of her fangs at Ben.

"Yeah, I think I'll pass, I barely even know you lady, and I'm not into Vore."

Ben quipped back.

"Oh my, this little mouse has quite the gumption, I can't wait to squeeze it out you!"

As she was walking forward she then looked at Ben and paused for a brief moment. And noticed his eyes did not settle directly on her face as she would have hoped he would have done, so she could entrap him within her hypnotic gaze, she then grinned.

"Don't you know it's rude to not look a lady in the eye when you're speaking with her? Or were you perhaps looking at something a little bit more, titillating?"

She pushed out her chest for emphasis Bens face turned scarlet from embarrassment, being accused of staring at the woman's breasts was far from the truth. He honestly didn't know how she did it but, there was no way in hell he wanted to get ensnared by her hypnosis, aging so he had tried to focus his attention on her shoulders rather than try risking looking any lower, and accidentally catching another eye full of her bare naked chest.

"Oh ho naughty boy, come over here and if you behave and be a good little nummy treat, I will let you play with them."

Coatl began to grope her own breasts, Ben's eyes went wide and he almost choked on his own tongue. Coatl laughed at the stunned, red wide-eyed look on Ben's face. Ben shook his head, this woman was toying with him. He needed to gather his wits about him and getting distracted now would more than likely get him killed.

"All right lady enough games, like I said to you and your pals earlier, come quietly or I'm gonna be forced to do something really ugly and I'm only giving you one warning."

The snake woman threw back her head and laughed.

"Oh such bravado little mouse, to imagine such a little thing has such sharp teeth, but mine are much sharper."

Coatl gave an airy sigh.

"Well, this has been entertaining and all but I'm bored with you now and I'm just going to eat you little mouse."

She flicked her tongue passed her lips to taste the air.

"Nice try, but your threats are all but squeaks I tasted your scent and you are unarmed, and I could not get the smell of magic on you either. You are cornered, trapped like rat and by your self, no less which is quite idiotic on your part little mouse."

Coatl began to giggle with sadistic glee.

"There is nothing you can do to stop us, except your fate I will make this easier for you just look into my eyes, and it will all be over."

Fine green scales erupted out of Coatl's dark skin her nails turned into long wicked claws, and her mouth split open from ear to ear opening impossibly, wide she then gave a hiss.

"Uh yeah, I don't think so!"

Ben popped up the core from his Omnitrix and slammed his hand down upon it, and a viridescent light flashed temporally blinding the snake woman and her companions. Coatl blinked and her eyes they widened in shock, standing where the little mouse stood was a tall humanoid made out of crystal, the crystal gave off an iridescent turquoise sheen. The crystal humanoid had a shard of crystal jutting out of the occipital region of its skull, and twin long fin-like crystals shards on its back near its shoulder blades, its eyes blazed bright green. The being wore a sleeveless bodysuit with a large green stripe traveled down its chest, and midriff, on its waist was a belt and on its belt was a circular buckle with an image of an hourglass. Ben had transformed into his Petrosapien alien form that was known Diamondhead.

To Coatl Diamondhead's form looked like a mediocre artist made an attempt at carving a statue out of a large hunk of crystal to try to replicate basic human anatomy but just gave up halfway through. Coatl tasted the air once more and captured Diamondhead's scent on her tongue she picked up the aroma of silica, and other minerals and the faint undertone of Ben's body odor. A look of pure ecstasy and lusting desire spread across her serpentine features and made her body quiver with excitement as she came to the realization that crystal being was in fact, Ben.

"Oh me oh my! To find out that you little mouse are in fact a shapeshifter is…. I just can't put it into words you're just full of surprises aren't you!"

She clapped her hands in glee.

"What?! Inconceivable he's a shapeshifter, that's how he must have gotten passed my ward? Confound it all to the deepest pits of hell!"

Aquila squawked out.

"How intriguing the little flea knows some tricks."

Pautina croaked out.

"Hey Coatl, you still planning on eating him? I don't think he's going to be like rock candy, if you do end up eating him you would probably be shitting out crystal chunks for weeks!"

Griss howled with laughter at his own crude joke he made. Taurus remained silent but his body was tense and ready to snap just itching to smash Diamondhead to pieces but reluctantly waited for Coatl to be finished playing the shapeshifter. If he had decided to interrupt her playtime, he would never hear the end of it from her.

"Are you sure you will be able to handle him on your own pet, or do you need some assistance?"

The spider crone asked.

"Don't worry Pautina, I can handle the little mouse I'm just gonna have to crack open his shinny new shell to get to his creamy filling. Isn't that right you naughty, naughty boy?"

Coatl eyed Diamondhead slyly.

"Yeah, just try it you freaky fork tongue bitch, and I will give you a full-body diamond bedazzling."

Diamondhead's right hand morphed into many crystalline shards and pointed his arm at the snake woman.

"Such a filthy mouth you naughty boy, I'm gonna have to give you a spanking!"

Coatl hissed out.

She then sprints forward strait for Diamondhead her claws raised. Diamondhead fired off the razor-sharp shards, the snake woman bobbed and weaved out of there path with inhuman agility and speed. Coatl leaped up into the air, Diamondhead raised his arm to fire another volley of shards at her, she left her self wide open and Diamondhead smirked at the snake woman's stupid mistake. Now he was gonna turn this sadistic Vore freak into a saint by making her holey. Coatl lifted her arm and shot it forward the limb lengthened and stretched with an unnatural elasticity the limb sped straight towards the Petrosapien's head.

Diamondhead's eyes went wide.

"Oh shit!"

He barely lifted his morphed arm up in time to block the strike that was rocketing straight towards his head. As Coatl's claws made contact the crystal appendage it shattered the limb into pieces the force from the blow, sent Diamondhead reeling back. Coatl maneuvered her body towards Diamondhead as gravity claimed her form she positioned her self to land right on top of him. Her bare feet made contact with his solid shoulders the sudden weight, and momentum forced Diamondhead to fall backward, and land on the concrete floor he grunted out in pain as he felt his back crack, and his fins shatter. Coatl was now on top of him and she readied herself for another strike at the crystal beings head.

Diamondhead quickly morphed his smashed right hand into a crude blade and slashed in an upward arc at the serpent woman's torso. The snake woman quickly contorted her body backward and somersaulted away, the crystal blade missed her by a hairsbreadth.

"Oh, so you can regrow limbs… I wonder if you can regrow your head?"

Coatl said to Diamondhead as she righted herself. Diamondhead picked himself off the ground and began to concentrate to regenerate his damaged back and fins.

"I'd rather not like to find out, thank you very much."

The Petrosapien spat out and glared at the snake woman.

"Who said you had a choice?"

Coatl flicked out her tongue and launched both of her arms at him this time.

"Shit, shit, shit!"

Diamondhead cursed out as he barreled out of the way of the attacks. The snake woman's elastic limbs smashed into a shelf filled with ancient artifacts, the shelf tipped over and collided into another. The entire row of storage shelves filled with irreplaceable antiquities came tumbling down like a line of dominos. Diamondhead winced as he watched as the shelves went down, oh man were the plumbers going to have a field day with all the collateral damage reports he was gonna have to fill out. Coatl whipped her extended right arm at the Petrosapien and amid at his head once again but Diamondhead was ready for her this time.

He sidestepped out of the way of the oncoming appendage, he then reached out with his left crystalline hand and grabbed ahold of the elastic arm and held firm.

"I wonder… if you can regrow your limbs?"

Diamondhead smirked at the irony of his words and brought down his crystal arm blade slicing though the scaled flesh with one swift motion, passing meat and bone in one clean cut. Coatl screeched out in pure agony, the severed limb went flying spraying crimson droplets everywhere, and the limb landed with a thud on the ground the arm twitched upon the concrete floor. The serpent woman retracted her now bloody stump and cradled it against her body, blood-stained her chest and she quivered in Pain.

"My arm, my arm!"

Coatl wailed out.

"Coatl!"

Taurus bellowed out, the bronze bullheaded man turned towards Diamondhead and gave a snort of blind fury and rage he then charged straight for him.