Chapter 34: Ghostfreaked Out (Part 3)

Kevin already lost count of how many walls (and floors, and ceilings) he had destroyed in his search for Ben. He supposed that navigating the sprawling labyrinth that was the SECT base could've been easier if he just went intangible, but he couldn't spread intangibility to others and Gwen refused to let him go into the enemy territory alone.

Not to mention, he had no idea what state Ben would be in or what kind of forces SECT could throw their way. No, it was much safer to have a powerhouse like Gwen covering his back rather than risk being captured too.

A distant sound of gunfire attracted his attention and Kevin froze.

Gwen dug her fingers deeper into his metal hair, "Can't be grandpa: his team is at the doors."

"Ben?"

"Ben," she agreed.

Finally! Kevin grinned in not-quite-relief. Ben was in danger but at least now they knew where he was and could help him.

He flew towards the firefight, tearing through several more walls. Once he reached the battleground, he saw Ben right away.

"Wow," Gwen breathed out. "Where did he learn to fight like this?"

"No idea," Kevin whispered back.

For a few moments they just stayed in stunned silence and watched Ben lay waste to SECT soldiers. Kevin already knew that Ghostfreak's powers were incredibly useful, but he thought the alien was better fit for spying than fighting. Watching his friend now, Kevin was forced to reconsider.

Ben moved with the speed and grace he had never displayed before. He faded in and out of intangibility, allowing bullets to pass harmlessly through his body while his tentacles threw the soldiers around like ragdolls and his claws crushed their weapons into scrap metal.

"What the hell?!" Gwen shrieked suddenly and Kevin did a double-take because, apparently, there was another Ben there.

The second Ben was in the shape of Upgrade and he was currently melded to the circus-guy cyborg. He was also carrying an unconscious Connor on his back, shielding the Knight from stray bullets.

"Guys! You're here!" Upgrade-Ben yelled.

"Here and confused as hell!" Gwen shouted back.

"We have no time for explanations!" Ghostfreak-Ben rasped.

He was right: a middle of a fight really wasn't the best time to talk. Kevin shook himself off and lit a fireball in one hand, "Alright then: let's get this over with."

Steel hurried away from the firefight. He knew that his men wouldn't be able to keep the alien monsters occupied for long. Both the shapeshifter and Hypnos were as good as lost now.

It was a miracle that he had managed to snatch Daniels from their hands, no matter how much he hated running away.

The technopath in his arms groaned and stirred awake, "…Mike? That you?"

Steel slowed his steps, though he didn't stop. "Yes, it's me. Can you tell me what happened, Daniels?"

He couldn't even muster the usual annoyance at being called by his first name so casually.

The technopath stared at him blankly with his eyes refusing to focus, "The– the alien? Where did it come from?" He rubbed his forehead, "Head hurts…"

Did Daniels have a concussion? It was hard to tell.

Steel shook his head. Right now it didn't matter. They had to get out while they still could. As for the rest of the base… Was it worth trying to retake it?

Probably not. But they couldn't just abandon this base either: there was far too much sensitive information contained within its walls. If those knightly nuisances got their hands on it…

"Looks like we'll have to destroy the base," Steel muttered. Preferably, with all those freaks and monsters still inside. He could see now that trying to capture them was a mistake: it was better to just kill them all and be done with it.

"Destroy the base?" Daniels slurred, still sounding completely out-of-it. "Roger that."

His unfocused, half-lidded eyes shone bright blue.

She really needed to learn more spells that would work on humans, Gwen thought in the back of her mind, because the ones she had simply weren't enough and neither was her blaster. Her Contigo shield and the telekinetic Segma Sofom spell worked decently enough but the rest of her repertoire was either too destructive to use on baseline humans like Incendia and Friga were or affected her allies and Gwen herself like Tenebris and Lumenus did.

Thankfully, Kevin and the two Bens (and what the hell was the deal with that?) had picked up the slack. The fight was almost over when the alarms overhead that she had almost completely tuned out fell silent. Then they wailed again with a different cadence.

Gwen's comm crackled to life and Enoch's voice filled her ear, "We're detecting a sudden build-up of energy inside the base, centered on the power generators."

She frowned. What did that–

Her eyes widened at the sight of SECT soldiers running away (at least those that could still run and weren't lying unconscious on the floor). Now that was definitely not good.

"It's a self-destruct!" Enoch yelled. "Get out of there, now! All teams: retreat!"

Max was nervously wringing his hands. He knew that staying inside the predicted blast radius was a stupid idea, especially when he didn't even know how much time they had, but he still felt guilty for retreating when ordered.

It felt like he was abandoning the kids.

He was slowly working himself into panic, when the outer wall of the SECT base was bashed open and Kevin flew out. He was holding SECT soldiers in all four of his arms and Gwen was clinging to his back, carrying even more with her magic. Ben seemed to be possessing some piece of technology as Upgrade, which he had turned into a humanoid robot, and he had Connor draped across his back and another soldier in his arms.

Max sagged in relief. They were alright!

Then he blinked and rubbed his eyes. Was– was that Ghostfreak flying out of the base with more soldiers? How–

Kevin landed heavily in front of him and staggered. "Somebody, bag these guys," he called and put down the unconscious men he had been carrying.

Gwen released her own captives and sagged limply, only the grip of Kevin's circuitry-streaked hair keeping her from sliding off his back. "Those too."

"And this one," Ben added.

He was still fused to the robot, although on a closer look, Max could see that it was actually a cyborg. The hypnotist.

"These as well," the other Ben said.

Max stared at him. He didn't look quite like Ghostfreak usually did. For one, his protective outer skin was a lot less loose. Rather than leaving him vaguely blob-shaped, it clung tightly to his body, defining the shape of his limbs.

For another… He couldn't see the Omnitrix dial anywhere.

"What in the world happened to you?!" Max asked.

The two Bens exchanged glances then turned to him. "Long story," they chorused.

Behind them, the SECT base disappeared into a fiery explosion.

With the battle over, Ben still couldn't allow himself to relax. Forever Knights didn't need his help to deal with Connor and the captured SECT soldiers, and any explanations about Ghostfreak, Zs'Skayr, could wait for later. Right now, Ben was more worried about the cyborg he was still fused to.

The poor guy was a mess which Ben could hardly blame him for. From the snippets of thoughts that he could glimpse in his mind, he had been SECT's prisoner for weeks. And his circus coworkers were still captive!

Ben forgot that Richie could read his thoughts too. The wave of guilt and self-loathing he felt at the mention of his coworkers was staggering. (Should've listened, should've been more careful, my fault, my fault, my fault…)

'It's not,' Ben thought back at him. 'SECT did this to you. It's their fault.'

They were the ones who imprisoned him, experimented on him, turned him into a cyborg, and mind-controlled him when he refused to work for them willingly.

'Please, make it stop! I don't want to be like this! I can't– can't– Don't let him control me again!'

Ben had no idea if he could. Thompson had defenses against Mechamorphs, just like Xylene's robots did. But since Richie wasn't actively fighting him, he might be able to do something.

He had to at least try.

The ruins of an enemy base weren't a good place to exchange information, so Max didn't ask any questions regarding the alien of a species he couldn't even find in the interstellar database. Ben said it was an Omnitrix transformation that somehow got loose, but the alien himself claimed that he had actually regenerated from the DNA sample.

It was only when they reached another safehouse somewhere in California mountains which Enoch directed them to that they could finally talk properly. (The Knight himself was busy dealing with the ruined base and the captive SECT soldiers, while also trying to fend off any official inquiries from Area 51. Max didn't envy him in the slightest.)

They were currently resting in the Rustbucket, hidden inside a fairly spacious garage. The RV was getting a little cramped, but they managed to settle down somewhat. Kevin sprawled on the floor as usual, Max and his grandchildren took the couch, and their alien guest remained floating in the air.

Once everyone stopped shuffling around, Max looked at the ghostly alien, "Zs'Skayr, was it?" After receiving a nod in reply, he clasped his hands together, "Alright. Now tell us who you are and how you got here."

"My species are called Ectonurites," the alien began. "And we have the ability to encode our consciousness and memories into our own DNA. However, I am not exactly certain how this particular sample became active as this could have only happened if my original self was dead. Or why it was inside the Omnitrix in the first place. Nor do I know how it managed to restore me as that would have required a rather lengthy and complicated magic ritual."

"Wait. Are you saying that magic can resurrect the dead?!" Gwen yelped.

Zs'Skayr shook his head, "Not in the way you mean. Ectonurites are alive in a somewhat different sense than other species and the entire process is far more complicated than it sounds."

Max raised an eyebrow, "I've never heard of an ability like this."

"And there's nothing on Ectonurites in the database," Ben added after a quick search through the data slate.

Zs'Skayr put his chin (or rather, the bottom of his upside-down head) on his crossed wrists, "That doesn't surprise me. Is there anything on that slate about the Anur System?"

"You're from Anur?!" Max gasped.

"I take it, that's a big deal?" Kevin asked.

Max nodded. "Anur System is not well-studied. It is located in the galactic graveyard: a region so full of gravitational anomalies that no ship has ever entered it. Even passing too close to it will result in the ship being pulled off course. Which is lethal during a hyperjump."

"Yikes. Nasty place," Gwen muttered. Then she winced and gave Zs'Skayr an apologetic look, "Um, sorry. That probably sounded super-rude."

"But not exactly inaccurate," the alien shrugged. "Cannot complain: the gravity wells make an incredible natural defense system."

Max drummed his fingers on his knee in thought. "If your home system is so isolated, then how did your DNA end up inside the Omnitrix?"

"The last memories to be encoded into DNA are always somewhat blurry, but I remember enough. Faster-than-light warp engines were a new development that allowed us to finally take first steps into the wider galaxy. Thus an exploration team was sent outside our system. Unfortunately, Anur is close to the Plumber sector and they were the ones we have encountered first."

Ben winced, "I'm guessing, that didn't end well."

"No, it did not. The Plumbers managed to take over one of our ships, and thus gain both the information in its databanks and the ability to pass through the gravity wells surrounding our home. Fortunately, they don't use magic and thus couldn't replicate our magitech. Nor did we give them the time for it. And with only one ship available, the Plumbers couldn't attack en masse. They could, however, send an elite team to wreak as much havoc on our homeworld as they could. I don't know what happened after they killed the previous instance of myself, but I fear for the state of my homeworld. I have to go back."

Enoch studied the agent standing in front of him. The medics deemed him to be in good enough health to submit his report, which meant that Connor was once again his problem to deal with.

"Congratulations on managing to salvage some goodwill with Ben Tennyson, Agent Connor," Enoch said dryly. "Now I won't have to demote you. But I'm still sending you into remedial courses on diplomacy: I won't have you ruin another negotiation."

Connor scowled at him, "That doesn't change the fact that he is a child. They all are!"

"And if you bothered to study sitrep, you would've known that!" Enoch bit back. "You are a very skilled operative, Agent Connor, but you have grown far too arrogant. From now on, you are forbidden from participating in any missions without full clearance from the board unless we are on yellow alert or higher. Dismissed."

After Connor left, looking none too happy, Enoch sighed heavily and sent a request for a video call to his superior. It was time to make his own report.

"SECT is becoming a much bigger problem than we expected," Driscoll said contemplatively after Enoch relayed the recent events. "Get as much information out of Mr. Horvitz as you can and start searching for his coworkers. And see if he agrees to use his abilities to question our prisoners. We'll have to hand them over to Colonel Rozum soon, but for now, they're ours to interrogate. Look into that technopath too: he is our biggest threat right now."

Enoch nodded, "I agree. With this kind of power, I'm surprised SECT hasn't yet tried to get into any of the Plumber bases."

"Don't forget: SECT is still a government organization, at least on paper. They are still pretending to play by the rules and no amount of bribery will let them save face if they attack one of those bases without a damn good excuse. Besides, the technopath is young and his powers have limits. I doubt he has been working for SECT all that long. But I will increase the surveillance regardless."

"Should we send any information to Mr. Harangue? I have sent him the Earth-side files on the Plumbers, which he seems to be busy double-checking through his own channels. He does appear to be amenable to an alliance though."

Driscoll shook his head, "Not yet. Once we uncover the puppeteer behind SECT, then we can set him loose. For now, we cannot risk an overeager reporter pushing them back into the shadows. But speaking of allies… What are your thoughts on ours?"

Enoch removed his mask and very unprofessionally buried his face in his hands, "Permission to speak freely?"

Driscoll chuckled with barely hidden amusement and lifted his visor, "Granted. You don't have to ask, Jeff."

"I hate absolutely everything about this bullshit situation. Everything," Enoch groaned. He waved a hand in the air, "I mean, I get your reasoning, I really do. They are too powerful to leave alone and if we wish to have any degree of control over them, we have to prove ourselves as allies worth listening to. But… Fucking hell, Rick! They are children! Actual, literal children! How the fuck do you expect me to deal with this?!"

"I know, Jeff, but what else can we do? They are too powerful to contain and too willful and opinionated to stop what they are doing just because an adult told them to. Honestly, we are incredibly lucky that these children have decided to use their powers to help others. Because if they didn't, I doubt we would've been able to stop them."

Enoch winced but reluctantly nodded, "They are surprisingly competent. If they weren't literal children, I would've already been trying to recruit them."

"That's still the game plan, by the way," Driscoll said.

Enoch took a few seconds to think it over. "You want to kick them into basic training like all the other rookies?"

Driscoll nodded, "Hopefully, that will keep those kids under our control and out of trouble until they are of age."

"I like your optimism," Enoch huffed. "After a couple of weeks in basic, they'll riot from boredom. Also, do you really want to deal with all the legal issues involved? Superpowers or not, they're still minors."

"At the very least I want to send them into therapy: I don't want to find out the hard way how much more trauma those kids can cope with. But that's something to discuss in the future. For now, we have more urgent problems to deal with. With any luck, SECT will need time to recuperate. That base wasn't their property officially, so they can't make a fuss openly, but they will retaliate. We need to prepare for that."

Enoch rubbed the bridge of his nose, "…Damn, I wish we could just sic the feds on them and be done with it. Anyway. Since there is a high chance that SECT now knows the identity of Ben Tennyson, I will set up a protection detail for his family. By the way, how are the negotiations with Dr. Animo and Mr. Haden going?"

Driscoll shrugged, "They are understandably wary but not entirely opposed to an alliance. And I'm still waiting for Hex and Charmcaster to contact me."

"Well, if they do choose to join us, at least one of them is old enough to drive and the other three are legal adults," Enoch commented dryly. "I really hate how 'are they literal children' is something we need to screen for."

Gwen curiously watched the ghostly alien carve magic glyphs into the ground with his claws. They weren't currently in the safehouse: no one wanted to damage any electronics there with what was shaping out to be a quite powerful spell. Thankfully, the safehouse was located well-away from any populated areas, so no one was going to disturb them if they simply settled on a mountain slope.

Zs'Skayr was scribing down the spell that would, hopefully, send a message to his homeworld. It was mind-boggling to think that magic could reach another star system, but Zs'Skayr had assured her that it was quite possible, although he would need her help to power the spell.

Gwen paced around the magic circle, trying to find something familiar in it. The fact that it was a circle in the first place was one: it was the standard shape for anything power-intensive. The mess of lines and angles inside was another: Gwen didn't have enough skill to decipher what Hex referred to as 'magic circuitry', but it did somewhat resemble the communication pattern she had seen in her spellbook. However, the sharp, angular glyphs, so different from the curved lines of Ledgerian language, were a complete unknown. Which did make sense: different cultures had different languages.

And different approaches to magic altogether. As Charmcaster had told her before, although spoken and written word were the most common ways of spellcasting, they were by no means the only ones. Gwen counted herself lucky that Ectonurite magic was similar enough to Ledgerian for her to recognize anything at all.

Although… There was something distantly familiar about the glyphs. Gwen frowned slightly. Where could she have possibly seen them before?

The sudden realization almost made her laugh. Her ring! That was why she couldn't decipher it! Because the enchantment on it wasn't Ledgerian at all!

And sure enough, while the glyphs themselves were different, the writing style was exactly the same.

Zs'Skayr noticed her scrutiny. "Is this magic familiar to you?"

"A little bit," Gwen smiled. She wasn't going to say anything about their time-travelling adventures, but this was another point towards the alien being a trustworthy ally. "Can you tell me what the glyphs do?"

He nodded and pointed at the center of the pattern, "This is the message itself: a simple distress call with my magic signature attached, since I cannot afford to send anything more complex. The outer circle is inlaid with mana-draining glyphs."

Gwen snapped her fingers, "Because it uses the ambient mana too, not just your own, right?"

Zs'Skayr nodded, "Correct. The rest are targeting coordinates." He added a few more glyphs and gave the magic circle an assessing look, "This should be all. Now we merely have to wait until the night falls: my sun-skin inhibits spellcasting and I will need the power-boost that the darkness grants my kind."

"Won't have to wait for long," Ben commented from where he, Kevin, and Grandpa Max had settled slightly away from the carved pattern. "The sun's almost down."

Soon enough the night fell and the first stars appeared in the sky. Zs'Skayr shrugged off his outer skin, not so much tearing it off as retracting it into the uneven black seams that lined his true form. It was a slow process, taking well over a minute, but nonetheless fascinating to watch.

"Man, you gotta teach me how to do that!" Ben said excitedly.

"All in due time," Zs'Skayr replied. He floated down and pressed his hands flat to the ground, the tips of his black claws almost touching the magic circle. "Gwen, if you please?"

She nodded and knelt down on the opposite side of the circle.

"I will weave the spell," the alien continued. "You only need to supply the energy. Break it off if the drain becomes too much for you."

Gwen nodded again and reached into the well of mana inside herself that still hadn't regenerated fully after the fight with SECT. "I'm ready."

She felt the alien's mana pour into the circle and the lines of 'magic circuitry' glowed dark blue. Gwen followed suit, adding her own energy to the spell. The circle absorbed her mana like a sponge and for a moment Gwen feared that it wouldn't be enough.

When she was almost ready to call it quits (and didn't out of sheer stubbornness), the spell had coalesced at last. A dark blue beam of energy shot into the sky and disappeared in the distance.

"Done," Zs'Skayr rasped, sounding just as exhausted as Gwen felt. "Now we just have to wait."

"Then let's get back to the safehouse," Grandpa Max suggested. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather not stay in the open when SECT could still be lurking around."

Gwen couldn't agree more. Who knew what horrible things those creeps were planning next?

Cooper carefully rubbed his aching head. The attack by the ghostly alien (and he still couldn't figure out where that one came from) led the medics to diagnose him with a concussion. Which… didn't sound right because he wasn't hit over the head. There was no sign of blunt force trauma. It was like… like the alien had reached into his brain bypassing his skull entirely.

…Stupid alien powers.

That Knight hadn't been particularly gentle either as his bruised throat could attest too. Cooper wasn't a fighter, he knew that, but remembering how easily he had been subdued wasn't pleasant to think about. Thankfully, there was no lasting damage but he had to do better than that. Be better than that. Next time–

"…Are you even listening to me, Daniels?!" Steel's angry voice cut through his thoughts and Cooper refocused on the present.

"I'm listening, Mike, you don't have to yell."

Steel glared at him and Cooper tried not to roll his eyes. Why was he so hung up on subordination and protocol anyway?

"Then, I suppose, you are ready to give your report regarding your utter failure?" Steel sneered.

Ouch. Was he still angry about all those soldiers that couldn't get away in time and died in the explosion or got captured by the Knights?

"You're the one who wanted the base destroyed! I just did what you told me!" Cooper snapped back. And he had an equivalent of a concussion back then to boot.

"After all your promises, you managed to lose both Hypnos and the shapeshifter!" Steel hissed. He scoffed, "I really should've known: you're just an arrogant brat with delusions of grandeur! The only reason I haven't left you there to be captured by those freaks is because for some inexplicable reason our superior likes you!"

The agent stomped away in a huff, but Cooper still heard his parting words. "…Now I'm wondering if staying in his good graces is worth having to deal with his pet monster."

"Thank you for setting up bodyguards for my family," Max said.

The chances of Ben's identity being discovered during his kidnapping were far too high for his liking. Max was glad that when he brought up the issue to Rick, he assured him that Enoch was already on the case.

"Can I just ask you to try to keep them secret? My sons wouldn't appreciate me dragging them into trouble, especially alien-related trouble, and I don't want them to do anything stupid just to spite me. Frank never did like anything that affected his normal life." Max paused slightly then winced, "But I really need to talk to Vera first. My sister can be a little… trigger-happy."

"I'll see what I can do," Enoch replied. "Are you planning on staying with us yourself?"

"For now, it's probably our best course of action, although I don't know how long the kids can stay cooped up in the safehouse before cabin fever sets in. Now, you said that you needed me to scan something?" Max asked, taking the scanner and the data slate out of a duffel bag.

The equipment he took from Fort Knox was proving to be less useful than he expected, but it was still good to have it on hand.

Enoch nodded and gestured at the electronic components laid out on a long table. "These are the cybernetic implants that Ben has removed from Mr. Horvitz."

"Why didn't you study them yourself?" Max asked, directing the scanner at the scattered pieces.

"This is a safehouse, not a science base," Enoch replied. "We don't have the equipment. We'll take a closer look when we can, but for now, I appreciate any information you can give."

Max nodded in understanding. "Well, I can tell you right now that these are made from Earth materials but the structure is definitely alien. Except it doesn't look like combat drones, so it couldn't have been copied from the robots that attacked us near Rushmore."

He wasn't sure what it did look like, but this technology was… vaguely familiar.

"Which raises the question of its origins," Enoch hummed.

"Exactly."

Max kept working, plugging scan after scan into the data slate. Unfortunately, the slate couldn't crunch the data for him. He could only use it to cross-reference the information. He hoped to find something, anything that might point them towards the mastermind behind SECT. Whoever they were, he wanted to bring them down.

"Have you managed to find anything useful about SECT?" Max asked. "Anything at all?"

He got the impression that Enoch was smirking under his mask, "Surprisingly enough, we did. The technopath was very sure of his control over Mr. Horvitz and didn't regard him as a person. Thus, he let a few things slip in his presence. Of particular interest to us are mentions of an underwater base located in the Bermuda Triangle."

Max felt his heart skip a beat. "Did you just say–"

He grabbed the slate, swiping through the database until he found the entry about Encephalonus IV. And there was the description and schematics of Coleotechs, colloquially known as cyber-squids: cyborg animals that Cerebrocrustaceans used like other species might use robots.

The exact same creatures that Max had encountered before in the Bermuda Triangle.

"…I know who's behind SECT."

Cooper supposed it might've seemed strange that a technopath like him preferred to interact with his boss in person, especially when a video call – even a phone call – would've sufficed to give his report.

But while it did take much longer, this suited his goals much better.

Cooper smirked inwardly at the boss' look of concern and schooled his face into an expression of abject misery, seemingly accidentally tilting his head to show his bruised throat. "I know you're angry about the base and Menagerie and– and– and I'm so sorry! It's my fault those aliens escaped! I should've fought them harder and–"

The boss hushed him, "Oh, Cooper. Of course it isn't your fault. You were never supposed to end up in a fight. Steel was supposed to protect you!" He softly patted Cooper's shoulder, "You're alive: that's all that matters. We can always build more bases and find more subjects."

Cooper sniffled and asked shyly, "You– you were worried about me? Really?"

The boss smiled, "Of course I was."

Cooper sniffled again and hugged him, "Thank you."

He felt the boss hug him back and smiled in satisfaction. That man was as easy to manipulate as always.

Cooper leaned back and wiped away his tears (crying on command was such a useful skill). "I'm gonna do better next time, I promise."

"So will I. If Steel is too incompetent to keep you safe…" The boss' expression darkened, "I think I was too lenient about his constant failures."

Cooper lowered his head, "He doesn't like me. I know he doesn't. He's always so mean to me…"

"I see. I won't make you work with him again, Cooper, I promise."

Cooper schooled his growing smirk into something that could pass for innocent delight, "Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!"

"It's no trouble, Cooper. You're still so young, I want you to be safe here. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Well… Cooper did want better access to their storage of alien tech, but he didn't want to press his luck. Despite his stupidity and generally hands-off approach, the boss might get suspicious. But there was another thing that he might be more amenable to.

Cooper bit his lip and shyly looked up at his boss, "What about the rest of Menagerie? Are you gonna leave it with Steel?"

"I think this project would do a lot more good in your hands than in his," the boss smiled.

Success! And so easy too!

Cooper clapped his hands, "Thank you! I promise, I won't fail you!"

The boss patted his shoulder, "Anything else?"

Cooper shook his head, then gasped theatrically, "Oh! I nearly forgot! When I had that shapeshifter – before Steel lost him – I found some super-interesting stuff! I know his name now! It's Ben Tennyson!"

"…Tennyson?" the boss repeated with a strange expression on his face. "Oh, I really should've realized it sooner. Of course it's him. It has always been him."

A/N: Enoch is voiced by Richard Doyle, same as Driscoll. However, the wiki lists Jeff Bennett as his voice actor in one of the games, so that's the name I'm using.

I don't know how exactly Ectonurites create that second skin, but it can't be an instant process, otherwise Zs'Skayr wouldn't have feared sunlight as much as he does. Also, I vividly remember a scene of Ghostfreak rendering someone unconscious by phasing his hands into their head. Except I couldn't find anything like this in the wiki, so I probably imagined it. Or mixed it up with fanon (or another fandom altogether). Whatever. EDIT: It has been pointed out to me by Rowlets and Oshawotts that this did happen in the canon 'Ghostfreaked Out' episode. *facepalm* How the hell did I miss it?!

The wiki refers to cyber squids as both an alien species and robots which… contradictory much? The name I gave them is a reference to Coleoidea, the sub-class of cephalopods that squids belong to.