"You know, this is actually pretty fun, I'm glad I'm here.~"

"Sh-Shut up Kazan!"

"Pay attention!"

It was a little after her declaration that I got Panchi's cooperation, for better or worse. Her fists were flying so fast I could hardly keep track of them, and in my Playset form, even my regeneration didn't make things feel safer as she turned up the heat, starting to blow through my shield and even my arms faster than I could remake them.

If anything, at least this was building up my pain tolerance.

It was worth noting that these aliens were a lot stronger than the typical Quirk user, or most of the aliens I knew of did, but considering a weakling with her Quirk could punch at bullet speeds and break brick she was going to be even worse, and I doubt she's even been training her Quirk. Because of this alone I wasn't shocked that while she was giving her all she'd be able to damage me in this form.

Only problem was trying to respond, with her keeping up the pressure, and me still not familiar with this form, it wasn't exactly easy to try mounting a counterattack.

"How're we sparring if you're not gonna fight back!?"

"I'm t-trying dammit!"

"Not hard enough!" I gasped as she extended her leg past mine, tripping me up a bit before she punched me in the face, knocking me on my back. Clicking her tongue, she crouched in front of me, glaring, "You have regeneration, the hell are you doing!? If you're so scared of getting hurt how do you expect to even fight someone? I blew half of your head off already and you just built it back like nothing happened, if you're this timid then you're never gonna be a hero!"

I flinched, not really sure how to respond or where this was coming from. I couldn't deny that she had a point though, I was scared of whatever I was trying to do failing, scared of pain… I shouldn't have been given the pain I already felt from taking some hits from her, plus my regen in this form was pretty craft, just like she said.

As both of us got back up, the flurry of punches came again, but as I was starting to get used to her kind of movement, I managed to grab her left wrist, turning my right hand into a cuff of sorts. As she was about to try and punch at my arm with her right hand I raised my left into the air, shaping it into a hammer that I was about to bring down on her, but she quickly punched it away before striking my arm with her full strength, little bricks flying as she jumped backwards, what was left of my right arm still holding onto her wrist.

As my hand began to reform, and my hammer arm returned to normal, I analyzed her. She was sweating, and her breathing had seemed to pick up, it seemed like her stamina would be her weak point.

I had some ideas, but I had no clue if they'd work on the first try.

Seeing that she was ready and about to lunge, I raised my fists and threw them, stretching my limbs out by building the extension as they flew. Weaving between my attempts, she threw in a couple punches of her own and quickly closed the distance, hitting me hard, fast, and rapidly as little blocks were blown every which way. She couldn't attack at Rappa's pace, but it didn't really matter.

Then I got an idea, as I started to solidify my form again I quickly stretched out to her shock, forming a dome around her while quickly grabbing her ankles, yanking her off her feet and encasing her in a sphere made of myself. Rolling around, I could feel her trying her best to punch me and break my parts, but I regenerated and reassembled faster, eventually I would unfurl, still mid roll as I swung her overhead and onto the mat.

Breathing a bit heavier, she seemed to relax, even though she was a bit frustrated about it, "Th-This… d-doesn't matter…" she panted, "I-I'll find a way to blow you away at some point…"

Turning back, I sat down, needing a moment myself, "I-If I don't pass out first…"

"Hey, while Pan's getting her strength back, why don't you check out some other form you got?" Inuko suggested, "You still got like, three right?"

"Yeah, I didn't name a few of the ones I've turned into before either…"

Panchi and Kazan were sitting against the wall, Pan with some water, Kazan with a soda, but both of them were watching videos, occasionally looking over at Inu and me, Pan more than Kazan from what I had seen.

"Not like you don't have time to figure it out, you should figure out what all you have first, right?"

"You're making a good point…"

Skipping over the second alien in the playlist again, I could see Inu was annoyed by that since I had told her which ones I still hadn't used. Stopping on the one that was hunched over, I hummed, trying to figure out why it looked so familiar.

"Well, no time like the present!"

"Don't act like I didn't see that!"

Selecting the tenth alien in my playlist, I felt the change immediately, not just in my posture or size, but the almost alien feeling inside me, most prominent in my face… My mouth was extremely wide, my teeth felt a bit strange, and definitely sharper, but stranger yet, my eyes were a little distance from the point my jaw split, and given my sight, they were positioned slightly lower, as if more on the lower jaw… I could see my light green lower jaw, a bit of my darker green, upper jaw, my black lips… My stout body was actually pretty big, with little to no sign of human femininity, three fingers, and nothing that could really count as feet. I was clothed in a white suit, and black pants that blent or mixed with a belt, the faceplate of the Omnitrix where the buckle would be.

Then it hit me, this alien was Spitter! No wonder it looked so vaguely familiar, I only saw this one twice!

"Egh! You're even uglier than usual…" Kazan huffed, jeering from her seat.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up…" I gurgled, the deep voice sounding like she had some fluid in her throat… made sense, these guys did kind of look like fish or amphibians if I remembered right.

"So, what can you do like this?"

"Beats me, let's see…" taking a bit of a breath, I tried to get a feel for my biology. I already had an idea of what this one could do, I just had to figure out how to do it.

There was something I could draw on though, back in my old life I had acid reflux from time to time… Maybe I could conjure up memories of that feeling, since this alien's power was basically just overproducing something from inside its body…

Psyching myself up a bit, feeling something stirring as I did everything I could think of that might trigger the reaction I was looking for, eventually I could feel some pressure rising as something started pooling in the back of my throat. The problem only occurred to me as it started kicking into overdrive, my upper half starting to inflate as I tried to contain the overflow of slime.

Dad's gonna kill me!

Inu took cover as I lost control, the pressure forcing my mouth open as a geyser of dark green slime erupted from my mouth, splashing against the wall. Kazan covered her mouth, paling a bit like she was going to be sick, Inuko had a similar reaction from her position on the floor, rolling out of the way with a yelp as it died down and sludge dripped near her position, and Panchi looked both annoyed and panicked.

"You idiot! If your dad comes home to this we'll never be allowed in here again!" Pan immediately exclaimed.

"I-I'll handle it!"

Quickly changing back, I dialed up Aqua Jet and tried absorbing it! ...It didn't work, so I had to wash it off the walls first with my water blasts.

"Are you telling me you don't have a good way to get rid of that shit!?"

"I-I'm trying Kazan!"

Approaching, I slipped on one of the puddles and found out that certain things seemed to cause my water blasts to shoot off without my consent… For now I would put the blame on shock. As I struggled to get back up, my feet still a bit slimy, I made it to the water and slime coating the opposite side of the room.

Trying my best to manipulate the water, eventually I managed something I hadn't expected as I managed to use hydrokinesis to wrap up some of the sludge into a water bubble that I was struggling to hold together thanks to inexperience, some of the material inside, and even the water itself, dripping off.

"O-Okay, what should I do!?"

Inuko quickly ran over towards the bathroom area, "Th-the shower should work, right?"

Gasping, I nodded making my way over as quick as I could, stumbling a bit due to the contents that managed to escape. Finally reaching my objective, I released the bubble into the shower, making a mess, but one I could clean thankfully.

Panting a bit as I felt fatigued from that manipulation trick, I gave the wolf girl a thumbs up, "Nice save… now to do it again…"

"Well, now I have two forms I can't use here…" I muttered to myself, having finally cleaned everything up, "At least I figured out its big attack pretty quickly… And hey, in the panic I figured out how to use that water manipulation better.~"

"You're too much like a roller coaster…" Kazan shook her head.

"You're lucky it was easy to clean up or I would punch you again…"

"You were going to anyway." I sighed, slumping against a wall, recording information again in my notebook, "Pretty sure all that and the training as Playset has burnt out most of my time limit, and considering we've been here a bit over two hours, given I had to recharge after that dividing form…"

"What, no clever names?" Inu blinked, tilting her head.

"...I honestly have nothing."

"What about Slapback or something?"

"Wouldn't that give away my strength and potential weakness?" I muttered, giving her a blank look, "What about something like… Massplit?"

"Meh…" this time it was her that gave a blank look, "Pretty lame…"

"How is it any lamer than Backslap?"

"Slapback-"

"Same difference."

"Splittle?"

All of us winced, looking to Panchi with a mix of confusion and honestly surprise.

Eventually she blushed, glaring back, "Wh-What? Y-You got something to say?"

"Splittle?" I questioned, "Aside from that being cute as hell, which is shocking, what made you pick that?"

"Y-You know, like split and turtle or something!" she stammered, crossing her arms as she looked away, "A-And you get smaller, so it could be split and little…"

"...Turtle? I-I thought it was a frog…?" Kazan stammered, still lost if her wide eyes were any indication.

"...I-I could sorta see it." Inu hummed, "I like it! Even though I like Slapback more…"

"Y-Yeah, I like it to."

Shrugging, I took note, "I don't hate it, so… sure, Splittle it is. Unless I come up with something I like more." Huffing, Pan smiled, still looking away, seeming proud of herself. Honestly, this side of her was somewhat cute and surprising, who would have guessed…

"What about that new one? The weird fish one."

"Gunk Shot." I answered with no delay.

"Eh, good enough…" Inu shrugged.

Oddly enough, I could feel a sort of kinship forming with Inu, it seemed like if she could forget about having to please the other two she was actually an okay person… Then again, the only one of them that I had the same impression of at this point was Kazan, who didn't seem to reveal any new sides of herself, seeming just as scummy as when she came in, even if she decided to be more quiet now.

"H-Hey, I got two more I'm struggling with naming so far…" I led with, "Wanna help ?"

"Won't you have to recharge soon?" Inu asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, but we weren't going to be able to keep testing for a second anyway."

"...Sure."

Turning into the plant alien that somehow had fire powers, I looked over at her, "I have some kind of strange powers, like I can make vines grow, I have some gas that lets me control it, and I can make fire somehow…"

"You stink…" she muttered, pinching her nose with her fingers.

"Smells like methane…" Kazan piped up, also pinching hers, "Guess that would explain the fire…"

"Methane… plant powers… fire…" I muttered, eventually gasping as I looked at her, "I got it, Swampfire!"

Pausing, Kazan eventually sighed, "I didn't want to help, but you're welcome…"

"Eh, I like it.~" Inu shrugged.

"Then it's decided!" and just in time, as soon my Omnitrix flashed red, beeping before I reverted back to normal.

"...So, what now…?" Kazan muttered, "We're going to be stuck here for like ten minutes? What're we gonna do in the meantime?

Humming, I realized that Panchi would probably need some food if we were going to keep this up all day.

"Wanna come inside for a little?"

"O-Oi! That's bullshit!"

"It's gameplay."

"Look, just don't break my TV you two…"

Sitting at my desk, taking notes, writing more hypotheticals, I watched Panchi and Kazan play Soul Calibur. Panchi was on the losing side of things, getting a bit frustrated, Kazan seemed to be pretty good despite her considering this stuff for nerds.

"Huh, I'm still kinda shocked… Never thought we'd end up here." Inu sat against my bed, looking around, "Think my cousin's room was like this. You sure you want us here?"

Shrugging, I looked at the plates of pizza scattered about, "Eh, you guys are helping me, and I'm helping one of you at least."

"Eh, your funeral."

Shoving my nose back into my notebook, I couldn't help but look back on how strange a day this was… Of all the people I thought I would bring inside my house, let alone my room, this wasn't it chief. Even though they said nothing would change, I already felt like some stuff had changed, with two members of the group at least.

It got me wondering, everyone had their own reasons for how they acted, and it was possible that Panchi just didn't know how to express herself, so going the aggressive route was natural for her… So what was Kazan's issue? Obviously I couldn't go digging, but at the same time I was curious, if not for myself than for her, because when I shut her down earlier, it was like there was a glimpse of someone else.

Just who was that volcanic girl under all that toxicity?

"Ghk!"

"O-Oi! Let me go!"

"I'm trying!"

Panchi had punched me, having to escalate to her full force, lodging her fist in Swampfire's chest. Turns out this wasn't a problem for me, it didn't seem like I could be put down easily, and I would have been freaking out but I think I had done this somehow, rather than her accidentally doing this herself.

I was given this impression because Swampfire seemed a lot stronger than I imagined, not only was I handling these hits incredibly well, but I actually managed to send Panchi staggering the times I had landed a hit. That said, something told me I was even stronger, which made me wonder why my Benefactor gave me this alien, it seemed too good for too much… There had to be some drawback that I wasn't aware of, otherwise what would stop me from just using Swampfire all the time?

Oh god, I'm getting paranoid again!

Relaxing my muscles, or whatever I was made of, I slowly managed to get my body to shift in a way that let her arm escape me, the hole slowly sealing shut, my chest unfortunately blocking my view of this. It was pretty annoying actually, if I had a glimpse of the damage I may have got some kind of insight into what my body was like and how I could mess with it.

Inu and Kazan gagged as they looked away, "H-How the hell can you be so close to her!? I can smell that shit from over here!"

"I'm not breathing the gas…" Pan muttered in a nasally fashion as she retreated, waving at the unseen gas that must have escaped my body from that punch.

"Starting to think it would've been smart to keep the door open for some air flow…" humming, I nodded, changing back and quickly covering my nose as I moved to record recently acquired information, "Alright, enough Swampfire for now. I figured out as much as I needed, from how tough she can be to the fact Kazan's ashes didn't hurt me, so that's some heat resistance, not that I should be shocked but now I'm worried to see what stronger fires might do to me..."

Kazan huffed, "Well I'm sorry I disappointed, I'm leaving now."

"Are you sure? My mom will be home soon, I'm sure she wouldn't mind making food for you guys since you're helping me." honestly, I'm not sure why I offered, they already had pizza on my dime. Maybe I was still interested in exploring her character…

She winced, the briefest flash of pain before she glared at me, "Yeah, because I'm done being around you!"

And with that, she was gone.

"Well, no skin off my nose…" muttering, I shook my head before switching to Gas Leak, deciding to deal with the Swampfire gas in the way I should have from the beginning, "Yeesh, you'd think I ruined 'er birthday or somethin'..."

Turning right back, Panchi seemed bothered.

"That's the gas user…?"

"Worried you can't punch the gases away?"

"N-No!" she stammered, "I-It's just that… Sh-She looks familiar."

Wait…

"Did you play Pokemon?" I asked in a pointed fashion, the brute recoiling, "You did!"

"S-So what!? Shut it!"

"I knew I sorta looked like Koffing in that form, who would've guessed you'd be the one to point it out."

"You want me to give your human form a black eye!?"

Raising my hands in a defensive manner, I shook my head, "Jeez, I wasn't teasing you or anything, it's cool, it's cool…" huffing, she looked away, blushing a bit, "So, should my next alien be one of the last two new ones, or should I go back to one I've already used before?"

After a moment, Pan looked back to me, still blushing a bit, "Y-You know that form you showed us the first time…?"

"Frauminate?"

"Y-Yeah, use that one please."

"Any reason in particular?" I questioned out of curiosity, left eyebrow raised as I searched my playlist.

"B-Because… I-I don't know!" she blurted out, "Just pick it so I can kick your ass!"

"Alright, alright… Jeez…" flipping straight to her, I selected Frauminate, becoming the franken-themed alien, "There you go, just like you wanted. I'm surprised though, I thought you'd want Splittle again since punching her actually hurt your hands."

Growling, she raised her fists, a certain look in her eyes.

It didn't take long before she tried to lunge at me, but I anticipated this, firing off an electric blast where she was going to be. As she recoiled backwards I cried out as I threw a punch, but she still managed to dodge it before she stomped my knee, forcing me to come to a stop. I was about to try blasting her with electricity but I quickly found my gaze forced to the ceiling as her fist collided with my chin.

Note to self, blast dangerous opponents head on.

Delivering a pair of jabs just under my chest, I threw out a kick to her knees to make her back off, but instead she bounced back from it, trying to come at my face again. What she didn't realize was that this was part of my plan as I pivoted on my heel and lunged at her. My fists weren't as fast as hers and I didn't have a good angle to blast her with lightning, so I collided my collar against hers, quickly bringing the dazed Panchi into a bear hug.

"T-Tch, that was cheap…" she stammered, looking a bit flustered as she looked away, "I-I didn't hit you in the chest…"

"Sorry, heat of the moment."

Growling, she squirmed in my grip, eventually trying to headbutt me, but before she could I sent a shock through my muscles that forced her to relax before I laid her down, Panchi seeming annoyed before she just let her body lay there, glaring up at the ceiling, "N-Next time I get up… I-I'm kicking your ass…"

"Noted."