Chapter one: The first domino

Ben was sprawled out on his bed, his legs entangled in the blankets, and sheets he was snoring loudly deep in slumber, the remnants of chili were smeared on the corners of his mouth. His brown locks that were always unruly and could only be tamed with swimming pool amounts of hair gel was even more of a tangled mess than usual. It looked like a Gimlinopithecus gave him an electric noogie as his hair was sticking up every which way from static electricity, Ben was clad in nothing but a pair of his lucky green Sumo Slammers boxer shorts. He had just recently passed out in a food coma after splurging on late night Burger shack Chili fries and smoothies. The evidence of his bender was littered all over his room.

Empty grease-stained cartons the once held the artery-clogging goodnesses of Burger shack chili fries were stacked on top of one another in tall unsteady towers, that could tip over if someone so much as sneezed it would send the small grease-stained paper tubs tumbling. A pyramid of stacked empty Mr. Smoothy cups lay next to Ben's bed, just a few hours ago Ben had placed them there one after another after he drained them dry while he was playing an online match of Sumo Slammers. The tv was still on and bathed the room in a faint glow of light that washed over the bed, and all over Ben's Sumo Slammers collectibles and paraphernalia. The teen grumbled in his sleep and scratched his stomach subconsciously and turned over on his side letting his arm and leg dangle off the bed.

The alarm clock that was on Ben's nightstand read two fifty-nine in bright red numbers, as another minute passed and the clock changed to three the smartphone that was also placed on the charging dock rang loudly cutting through the peaceful silence of the bedroom. Ben gasped his eyes shot open as he was abruptly startled awake, Ben flailed around his bed and tried to get up still half asleep he hadn't realized his feet were tangled in his blankets. He had then tried to swing his feet to place them on the floor to get out of bed the blankets held firm, and he stumbled and fell off the bed going ass over teakettle. Ben slammed his nose painfully on the floor.

"Fuck!"

Ben cried out in pain his back and legs collided with the pyramid of Mr. Smoothy cups and some of the stacked chili fries cartons sending them flying in every direction, and even accidentally crushed some beneath him, a few of the cups and cartons landed on top of him. One of the smoothie cups still had some hours old leftover bacon and cheese flavored smoothie. The cup struck the teen's already tender nose the cup burst open splashing the contents all over his face and head.

"Fucking goddamnit!"

Ben cursed and irritatedly kicked off the blankets freeing himself and stood up. Ben wiped off the old sticky warm liquid from his face, he wondered who the fucking hell was trying to call him at three in the goddamned morning?! Ben went over to his nightstand, and fumbled with his phone slightly grossed out by the stickiness of his hands, he looked at the caller ID that was scrolled across his smartphone. Ben pinched the bridge of his nose as he saw who was trying to call him this early in the morning. He winced slightly from pain as he had momentarily forgotten that he had just hurt his Schnoz. Ben sighed, of freaking course it was Rook... The teen swore if the Revonnahgander was calling him to help explain to him about another sex joke that he heard on earth television that went right over his periwinkle fuzzed head, he was gonna chuck his phone right out the goddamned window!

Ben was tired cranky, and covered in smoothie, running only on a few hours of sleep. Ben thought of Rook as one of his most closest friends, but sometimes the Revonnahgander could just really get on his nerves. Ben scratched his head and sighed reluctantly he answered the phone.

"Rook, I swear this better be impor-"

Ben had to remove the smartphone from his ear as he was assaulted by Revonnahgander shouting!

"Whoa! Whoa! Rook, can you please tone it down you almost blew out my eardrum!"

Ben placed the phone back to his ear.

"Apologies Ben, I wouldn't have called you this late if it wasn't an emergency!"

Ben could hear the distress in the plumber's voice, that wasn't a good sign sounded like some shit went down.

"Rook what is it… What's going on?"

The teen sat back down on his bed, and reached over to grab one of his discarded T-shirts, and used it to wipe the remaining smoothie from his hair and face.

"Ben, you remember how we found, and recovered the Alpha rune from Aunr Transyl, after the Zs'Skayr incident yes?"

"Yeah, I remember the plumbers placed it one of their highly secured storage location thingy's right? And Gwen like placed a crap ton of magical scarcity alarms and wards right? She's got the place locked down tighter than Fort Knox."

"Yes, but someone was able to get past the security of the… how you called it… storage location thingy… and was able to bypass Gwen's wards, but not before her spells alerted her of the presence of an intruder. Gwen notified me right away, and so I called you as you have told me and I quote. I want first dibs on all the awesome plumber action. End quote."

Ben scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, right... I did say that… does Gwen know who could have broken in… could it be Charmcaster…or the flaming wannabe ninja turtle Addwaitya?"

"She has no idea."

Damn, that's not good.

"What do you mean she doesn't know?"

"She can't sense anyone in the complex somehow… whoever they are, they had placed a concealment spell around the entire perimeter of the spell is preventing her from detecting any aura within the field of the spell, Gwen also can't perform any type of scrying spell. I did try to get ahold of the plumber personnel stationed there, to see if they knew what was going on. But, it seems that the concealment spell is also somehow blocked any and all visual, and vocal communications to and from the building."

"Damn. Can Gwen like… I don't know, disable the spell somehow?"

Ben then heard Rook exhale loudly out of his nose and through the phone.

"She did try but, whoever had cast the spell is a very, very powerful spell caster she couldn't even dispel it that's what she told me."

This was bad news if not even Gwen could break through the spell who knows just how powerful and dangerous this guy really was, and if the spell caster dude, chick, or whatever got their hands on the Alpha rune who knows what kind of damage they could do? Having all the magic of the entire multiverse at your fingertips was nothing to sneeze at, Ben and Rook both had experienced what the Alpha rune could really do, more than once as a matter of fact!

"Have you told grandpa Max yet?"

Ben asked as he searched for his discarded cargo pants and a somewhat decently clean shirt.

"Yes I have, he told me he will keep the other plumbers on standby just in case they were needed. He knows all about the uhhh… first dibs request thing with you."

Ben found his cargo pants and wedged his phone between his shoulder, and head to free both of his hands so he could pull on his pants.

" it'll be fine Rook we've dealt with the Alpha Rune before I mean to be fair we've saved the world, and the universe how many times? Too many times to count. Hell, it's pretty much another Typical Tuesday for us so we got this."

Ben struggled with slipping on his pants, and also trying to hold the smartphone with his shoulder all at the same time, he was now hopping around his room on one foot trying to tug on the left pant leg but it was caught on his foot.

"But Ben, it's not Tuesday it's Saturday?"

Ben could hear the clear confusion in the Revonnahgander's voice.

"No Rook I know that, it's just a human expr- Oh shit!"

The teen cried out in surprise as he tripped on one of the loose pant legs and fell backwards landing on his back with a loud thud. Ben wheezed out in pain.

"Ben are you all right!?"

Rook asked, his voice filled with worry when he heard the teen curse and fall. Ben reached out and grabbed his smartphone, continuously grumbling curses as he did so and placed it on his ear.

"Yeah… I'm good."

Ben ground out. Ben then sat up and wiggled his pants on buttoning them and zipping up the fly. Ben pushed himself up off his bedroom floor and placed his smartphone back on his nightstand and turned it on to the speaker setting. He really should have done that in the first place. Ben cleared his throat still somewhat embarrassed by his fall.

"Like I was saying it was just a human expression."

Ben slipped the shirt he found over his head.

"Ahhhh I see another one of your human idioms hmmm... that's a new one, I need to write that down in my journal."

"Yeah. Wait... what?"

Ben was now the one confused.

"My journal? It's my journal that I use to write down all the new human slang, and idioms that I have yet to come across. I write down their meanings so I can understand and use them later on during situations that social human etiquette dictates. I even wrote them down into different categories. Their even color-coded to! Oh, let me tell you some of my favorite ones! "

Ben heard the flipping of paper over the phone, Rook's voice was beaming with pride as he spouted off his favorites, Ben snorted trying to hold back his laughter as some of them, we're actually innuendos, and the pure and innocent Revonnahgander had no freaking clue! he would fill him in on it later, he didn't want the poor guy to die on him just yet before the party got started. Rook was a huge dork...but he was a lovable one.

"Hey Mr. Human slang aficionado, I hate to interrupt but are Gwen and Kevin going to be joining us?"

"Hmm? Oh yes! They're already there as we speak just waiting on us."

Rook answered as Ben zipped up his custom jacket, and picked up his phone as he was ready to go.

"I'm just about five earth minutes away from your house Ben."

"Okay got it, I'll see yah' soon good buddy!"

The teen couldn't help but stretch and yawn.

"Oh hey Rook, do you still have those energy drinks I stashed in the Proto-truck? Because papas gonna need a pick me up.

The lift doors down to the plumber's secret high-security subterranean storage base dinged open. Out walked Gwen, and Rook taking lead, Gwen's hands were enveloped in the glowing pink of her mana. She readied herself just in case she needed to throw a mana shield in front of her, and the group if they somehow got blindsided by this unknown threat. Rook had his Proto-Tool trained in front of him with the light built on and the safety off, his plumber training had kicked in he looked all over the pitch-black hallway shining the light at every dark cranny, and crevice ready to fire off The Proto-Tool blaster if any unknown threat decided to use the darkness as a tactical advantage for an ambush.

Kevin was right behind his girlfriend his body was encased in a steel shell that formed on his person like a second skin. He was ready to protect Gwen if she needed it. What kinda boyfriend would he be if he didn't protect his girl? A real shitty one that's what. Ben came up the rear of the formation, and casually moseyed on over near Rook and slurped loudly on his third can of energy drink.

"Ben! Can you please take this seriously?!"

Gwen chastised her cousin.

"What?! I am taking this seriously, you don't want me to be falling asleep do you?"

Ben shot back in a snooty tone, and shook the can of his remaining energy drink at her and she just rolled her eyes.

"You know Ben those energy drinks are actually really bad for human kidneys, I suggest that you cut back on your energy drink intake. Because you may end up with kidney disease in the future, and high blood pressure, and also the possible heart problems not to mention the increase of anxiety."

Rook said advising him on healthy dietary bodily habits as he truly did care for his friend's health and well-being.

"Alright, alright fine Rook, you don't need to mom me okay. Look I'm getting rid of it see!"

Ben walked over to what he assumed to be a trash shoot and pressed a button to open it and tossed the still somewhat full can inside, and closed the hatch.

"There happy?"

Ben snippily asked.

"Uhh… Ben that's not a trash receptacle that's the maintenance hatch!"

The Revonnahgander pointed out to the teen. Ben threw up his hands and walked away.

"Gah! I can never make you guys happy! Alien tech is too freaking confusing!"

Kevin was laughing at Ben's expense, and Gwen placed her hands on her hips and glared at her cousin.

"Honestly Ben, you need to grow up your not ten anymore your sixteen so act like it!"

Gwen scolded and crossed her arms.

"Jeez Gwen, would you get off my back for like one second and not nag me? You don't need to get your Pantie's all in a twist!"

Ben snapped back at his cousin.

"Are you freaking serious Ben?!"

Gwen shouted out a little too loudly, she felt like she was going to burst a blood vessel.

" Yeah I am, maybe if you removed that stick that's lodged up you're ass you wouldn't nag people so much!"

Ben heatedly yelled back.

"Gaahh! Ben your such an immature prick you know that?!"

"Please you two there's no need for fighting, and you're shouting could possibly alert the person who's trying to Steal the Alpha rune."

Rook tried his very best to defuse the situation but Ben and Gwen just ignored him, and kept on bickering and throwing insults at each other.

The three of them suddenly heard a whistle, and ceased their fighting, and turned to see Kevin kneeling on the metal floor.

"Hey, I hate to interrupt all the family love that's going around but... I found something."

Kevin gestured for them to come over to take a look. They went over squat next to him to see exactly what he was trying to show them. Gwen adjusted her glasses.

"Is… i-is that what I think it is?"

Gwen was completely bewildered.

"Yeah, it sure is red."

Kevin replied to his girlfriend.

Ben let out a low whistle in amazement.

"A paw print!"

Rook exclaimed out in fascination.

There in the melted, warped, and scorched metal was a huge paw print about a foot long.

Ben scratched his scalp trying to wrap his head around trying to figure out what type of alien, or creature could possibly melt metal and squish into it like it was just mud? He knew it couldn't have been a Pyronite, because the feet of whatever it was we're the wrong shape and also to fucking ginormous!

"Uhhh… any of you guys know what could have possibly have made this footprint? Because I'm stumped."

"No clue…"

Kevin replied swiping a finger on the large footprint catching some of the blackened ashy residue and curiously sniffed it.

Rook cock his head to the side as he investigated the paw print.

"Hmmm… by judging the shape of the print it looks to belong to some sort of earth Canine."

Rook explained to his companions.

"Trust me Rook there is no earth pooch that could grow this big trust me… well no normal one that is."

Kevin said to the Revonnahgander.

"Um, Rook the power has been out for quite a while now, doesn't this place should have at least a backup emergency power-core, and shouldn't it have kicked in if the main power-core is offline somehow?"

Gwen asked Rook her voice was edged with concern. Rook then turned to look at the Anodite.

"Yes, your quite right someone must have tampered with the emergency power."

"Huh, really Rook? But the maintenance hatch thing and elevator are working just fine."

Ben said clearly not getting the picture.

"Ben that's because they have their own power source just in case if the building did lose power which it has."

Rook explained to the teen.

"Oh, uhhh… yeah okay…right."

Ben scratched his cheek totally failing to see the idea of obvious safety precautions that the plumbers would have taken.

Rook stood up and shined his built-in Proto-tool flashlight further down the darkened hall his eyes widened.

"I found more tracks down the hall, and judging by how many sets there are… I would say that there are at least three of these creatures."

Rook got out his plumber badge and turned on the built-in communicator.

"Hello, this is officer Rook Blonko do you copy?"

Rook heard nothing, no response at all from the security team, the Revonnahgander could feel his stomach sink to the bottom of his heels.

"Gwen, can you sense anyone?"

Gwen could hear the worry in her friend's voice, She then took a deep breath and her eyes instantly turned bright pink as her Anodite power flowed through her. The mana faded from her eyes and she shook her head.

"No, Rook I still can't. Damn. Whoever cast this concealment spell is good, and I mean scary good because I still can't break through this spell. This has me really worried is if this caster did get ahold of the Alpha rune who know just how bad it's going to be,? Especially with those three giant supposed dog things still running around the place."

"Then we shall make haste then and put a stop to this."

Rook replied and headed down the darkened hallway following the tracks that were melted into the metal floor the others following right behind him. The group walked down the hallway with Rook taking the lead, they all came to a sudden halt as a large blaster door blocked their path ahead.

"It seems that the security doors have been activated?"

Rook then placed his hand on the massive metal door.

"We won't be able to go this way but I-"

Rook was interrupted by Ben as he was rudely pushed aside.

"No worries amigo I got this!"

Ben then slapped down on his Omnitrix, and in a blinding flash of green light, he had now transformed into his alternate Vaxasurian form called Humungousaur. Humungousaur was a giant earthy brown colored bipedal humanoid dinosaur with a thick scaly hide, and large bulging tree trunk arms, and legs a long strong thick tail that swayed behind him he had to duck his head as he was a little too tall to fit in the hallway. Humungousaur cocked back his fist and grinned.

"Knock, knock!"

The Vaxasurian bellowed and rocketed his bolder sized fist at the security door.

"No! Wait, Ben!"

But Rook was too late as a loud thunders boom, and then what sounded like the cracking of a tree branch echoed through the hallway. Rook could feel the vibrations from the blow rocked his body. Humungousaur screamed out in pain and clenched his now broken hand to his chest.

"Gahhhh! Fuck! My hand I broke my freaking hand!?"

"Ben I tried to warn you that the security door has a layer of Taydenite that is embedded into the alloy! You are not going to be able to open it with brute force."

"Ow! Ow! Ow! This fucking hurts like a motherfucker!"

The Vaxasurian cursed and lashed his tail angrily.

"Hahaha! Nice one you giant scaly dumbass, you didn't even leave so much as a dent!"

Kevin was laughing his ass off, it was even funnier was that the big brute of an Alien that Ben now was, is now whining like a little bitch over a busted hand. Kevin had suffered far worse things than a broken hand, and he'd never had been this whiny.

"Oh shut up Kevin!"

Humungousaur snapped angrily.

"Kevin! Your better then this… even if Ben did kinda have it coming."

Kevin scratched the back of his head

"Uhhh…sorry babe."

"Oh thanks, Gwen for having my back!"

Humungousaur snorted out sarcastically.

Gwen walked over to her cousin and sighed.

"Okay, you big dunderhead let me see your hand so I can fix it."

"As I was trying to explain before I got interrupted by Ben…"

The Revonnahgander gave Humungousaur a look of displeasure, and the Vaxasurian smiled sheepishly as he was hunched over letting Gwen work her magic on his injured paw.

"Heh heh oops."

Rook looked up at the ceiling and sighed and cleared his throat.

"As I was trying to say I know of another way to get past the security doors with a more stealthy and not to mention quite approach. Will be taking the maintenance tunnels and luckily Blukic and Driba gave me the bypass password for the internal maintenance hatches."

The maintenance hatch leading to the safe room where Alpha rune was kept hissed open. Rook fallowed by Ben who was now once again human were the first ones to enter into the hallway leading to the strong room.

"I still can't believe Password was actually the password."

Ben said to Rook shaking his head in disbelief. Ben and Rook heard Kevin snickering from inside the hatch as he climbed up the ladder and hopped into the hallway.

"Really Ben, you can't honestly believe that the two smartest yet stupidest Galvans in the galaxy wouldn't put Password as the password?"

Ben stared back blankly at Kevin and shrugged.

"You're right Kev, they would be actually dumb enough to do something like that."

Which was honestly a really sad thought.

Kevin reached down, and helped his girlfriend out of the hatch, Gwen stood up, and adjusted her blue plaid Skirt, and pushed her Cat eyeglasses up on her nose.

"Okay Rook where to now?"

She asked Rook and he pointed a furred finger down the hallway.

"We need to go straight down this hallway and take a left that's where the strong room where the Alpha rune should be in."

"Okay, theirs no time to waste dicking around then let's go!"

Ben then dashed off.

"Ben wait we need to go at this with a steal- and he's gone…"

Rook slumped his shoulders in defeat Gwen gently patted his back in support. Kevin crossed his arms and chuckled.

"Rook don't take it personally Ben will be Ben."

"That's what I'm afraid of Kevin."

"Come on guys let's go before Ben gets into too much trouble."

And Gwen started after her jumping the gun cousin and Rook and Kevin followed suit. As they hurried down the hall trying to catch up to Ben a sudden foul Oder that smelled like a mixture of rotten eggs, and spoiled burning meat hit them in the face like a ton of bricks. The trio covered their noses and gaged and halted in their tracks.

"Oh fuck! What the fucking hell is that smell!?"

Kevin coughed out gagging as it seemed like he could taste the foul odor! Gwen's eyes watered, and she felt like she was going to vomit her gut's out!

"I-it smells like… sulfur and… and something else I don't know!? Oh, oh god!"

She managed to choke out, poor Rook looked worse for the ware, he was completely green around the gills, he was hunched over with his head tucked between his knees trying to take shallow breaths through his mouth.

"R-Rook you okay?!"

Gwen was starting to feel like she was going to pass out. Rook let out a pained groan.

"No…. I'm not… a Revonnahgander's sense of smell is more acute t-then humans… however bad this smells to you is way worse for me…."

If Gwen didn't do something fast they would Probably die from Asphyxiation!

Gwen stood up and threw out her hands, and the pink energy of her mana surrounded her hands.

"Aerem!"

She shouted out as she cast her spell. A wave of fresh clean air swept through and around them, the trio gasped out in relief.

"There, that should let us breath better for about 2 hours!"

Gwen and Kevin helped Rook back up to his feet and Rook thanked her. And they continued down the hall till they found Ben leaning against the wall with his multicolored vomit covering it. He looked way worse than Rook, it was probably because he has been in sulfuric miasma the longest he was damn lucky that he was still conscious Gwen cast the same spell like on herself and the others. Ben gasped as fresh air filled his lungs, fully becoming aware of his surroundings.

"Holy Fuck! Thanks, Gwen! Jesus, it smelt like a group of Methanosian's had an ass ripping contest fuck! Where the hell did that smell come from!? It felt like my nose hairs just got singed"

"I think I know where it came from."

Kevin pointed a thumb down the left hall that was in the detection where the Alpha rune was supposed to be placed, they all saw there was the scarcity door to the strong room had been deployed but they all saw that a large gaping hole was melted all the way through the metal.

"Oh damn! Who the fuck could be able to melt straight through Taydenite!?"

Ben asked completely stunned with both fascination, and horror at the thought that not even he could bust through a security door imbed with Taydenite with one of his strongest aliens, yet someone or something was just able to melt through it like it was nothing but butter! Then they all suddenly saw a flicker of what seemed to be a violet light that shined briefly and then disappeared.

"Hey uhh… guys, did you just all see that, or am I just hallucinating from the leftover stink?"

Ben rubbed his eyes and rapidly blinked.

"No, I saw it to Ben you aren't the only one."

Gwen replied to her cousin.

"How strange I wonder what that brief flash of violet light was, perhaps it's from a UV light source?"

Rook pondered about that while stroking his chin fur.

Kevin shrugged his shoulders.

"Who knows for all we know it could be the Tooth fairy, jokes aside we got to go in there, and stop the mook who's trying to steal the Alpha rune."

"Okay, guys then it's go time!"

Ben was about to make a mad dash for the melted entrance to the safe room when he was grabbed by the scruff of his jacket By Rook.

"Stealthy this time Ben."

"Okay, okay fine Rook. Stealth this time."

Satisfied with his answer Rook let him go. And they continued their course to the strong room. They quietly approached the strong room, and hide beside each side of the melted hole, and peeked inside, and what they found shook them all to the core with absolute horror. Inside the room different colored blood of humans, and aliens alike was splashed, splattered, and smeared all over the walls the ceiling, and floor. chunks of body parts, severed and or torn limbs were scattered all over. They all finally knew exactly what happened to the missing Plumbers stationed here.

Standing amidst the bloody carnage were these three giant dogs the size of horses! Their bodies looked to made out of pulsing violet magma, over their bodies were these crusted black Plates of dry magma that covering every inch of the magma dogs like armor. The dog's heads looks like that of a Mastiff breed, their eyes glowed with a sinister malice and hunger. Violet flames danced upon their heckles and around their thick necks were collars and in the middle of the collars was an evil demonic looking eye. Violet lava drooled from their large gaping toothy maws.

Ben thought he was going to fucking throw up again as she watched the huge magma dogs tear off chunks of flesh, and limbs from the bodies, and swallow them. He could hear the sizzling of flesh and see black putrid smoke rise after every time they took a bite. If it wasn't for Gwen's spell the horrific smell of burning flesh would be too overwhelming to handle. Ben had wondered if the origin of that terrible smell actually came from the dogs? Ben had no idea how the others were reacting to this Ben felt like he was frozen in place his stomach churned from nausea the teen was actually terrified! He had never witnessed a sight so gruesome before he was completely shell shocked.

Ben could feel the sweat trickle down his body, dampening his jacket and making it cling to his back uncomfortably. Ben had no idea if he was sweating from the heat that was radiating from the dogs or it was because of his fear. Ben saw that the magma dogs suddenly stopped chowing down on their grisly meal, and lifted up their heads, and watched as their nostrils flared to inhale the new scent they discovered. The magma dogs turned their huge heads to specifically where Ben was hiding. The dogs licked their chops with flaming tongues.

Ben's eyes went wide as he realized that those ugly fiery bastards could smell him, he wondered how the fuck he was the only one singled out by these guys!? Oh, Fuck him six ways till Sunday! He forgot that not just an hour earlier a bacon and cheese smoothie had splashed all over his face and that's what they were smelling! The magma dogs lifted their heads and released ear-splitting howls Rook, Kevin, Ben, and Gwen covered their ears, trying to protect their precious eardrums from the onslaught of that chorus of godawful sound!

The dogs ceased their howling and charged straight for Ben's hiding spot!

"Oh fucking come on!"