Sorry guys! This chapter kinda kicked my butt.
I think I mentioned it before, but if I haven't, this is the chapter that really brings in the Tales of Arcadia (specifically, Trollhunters) elements to the forefront. We have trolls, people. While this'll be more of an extended sidequest, this fic's sequel will have us spending a much more significant amount of time in Trollmarket. I hope you enjoy this introduction!
There's always been something about the canal that's drawn Gwen's attention. It's not just her, of course - back in the sixties and seventies, it was the hangout spot for the town's ne'er-do-wells. Hippies and other such like-minded people would gather in the ever-dry canal and sing, dance, and substance themselves into the night, none too worried about being disrupted by the local authorities - even though the main bridge is smack-dab in the middle of Arcadia, the town is so spread out and unpopulated that they really didn't bother anyone. Ever since the eighties, though, the local teens have been conditioned to avoid the canal like the plague.
Gwen's never really bought it, but the urban legend goes that, upon arrival for one of their weekly hangouts, a few local teens found a truly grisly scene, wholly uncharacteristic of the quaint little town, right under the bridge - a half dozen cadavers, each the size of a large raccoon, of some kind of non-human, possibly alien species, all splattered by what looked like massive feet. The teens, naturally, ran for the hills in terror, but when law enforcement arrived to check the scene out, they found absolutely no evidence of the strange bodies panickedly described to them. The empty crime scene was, in fact, too empty, as if it'd been cleaned by some kind of professional crew.
It's the kind of thing that only the most obscure of cryptid subreddits discuss, and something that's been outright dismissed as a hoax by local authorities and the city historian. Still, Gwen can't deny there's something...foreboding about the canal. Always has been.
Not that she's got more than a couple of seconds to think about it, at the moment, fighting an alien bounty hunter and all.
The redhead is extremely glad that Arcadia's population is so spread out, because, even though her eyes shine magenta and Julie's Kree StarForce outfit provides her with a sort of domino mask, it wouldn't take much for anyone drawn to the battle to put a name to their faces. The bounty hunter seems to have little interest in keeping a low profile, as laser blasts rain down upon her improvised barrier, protecting both Julie and herself. Sixsix leisurely hangs from the bridge's thick, metal supports, seemingly toying with them - likely thinking himself in no danger, with the Omnitrix's Bearer nowhere around to join the fray. Julie's frustrated, unable to fire back; Gwen gets it, of course, the bastard cut off her arm, but with someone this dangerous, it pays to be patient.
"Uba wul b'wis tah levas je solo, femas…" -the alien purrs. "Jee'm chuba moolee-rah tah killee uba...yetta."
"You do understand we have no clue what you're saying, right?" -Gwen grunts, struggling to hold back the hail of blasterfire they're under.
Sixsix chuckles derisively. A small rocket pops up over his right shoulder, aimed right at her. Gwen grits her teeth; her barrier is already weak, so there's little chance it'll take a rocket blast, no matter how tiny. Thinking quickly, she pushes the shield wall towards Sixsix, just as he fires, the resulting explosion forcing him to dive away as much as it knocks Julie and her back. The bounty hunter manages to stabilize himself via his armor's thrusters, but he's still left wide open. Gwen forms a bolt of pure, magical energy and launches it, hoping to strike the hunter's midsection. Just before it does, however, Sixsix pulls out the wrist blade he used to maim Julie, and slices the bolt in twain. The attack, instead, ends up taking out two sizable chunks of concrete at either side of the alien invader.
Julie pulls her small Kree blaster and shoots - surprisingly accurately, if Gwen's honest - but Sixsix is unfazed, letting his armor take the hits. Nary a scorch mark is left as evidence of the bolts. "So ta Kree'r piik'e ladit, hah?" -Sixsix says, examining the spots he was hit at. "Elwi desi tah killee n'Accuser…"
Gwen's getting the sense that Sixsix doesn't really mind having broken bounty hunting rules.
The nascent Anodite has an idea, but she needs the alien distracted; Gwen looks at Julie, who seems to be evaluating what in her arsenal can bring the extrasolar monster down.
"Can you keep him busy?" -Gwen mutters. Julie narrows her eyes, but nods. Her cybernetic arm points at the alien, and her hand launches forward, grabbing onto the bridge's supports and pulling her towards Sixsix. If the alien's surprised, he doesn't show it, simply diving to his right and pulling his blasters on Julie, but the brunette is prepared, having used the Kree gauntlet affixed to her left wrist to pull up a chunk of loose concrete, and have it crash against Sixsix's side. The bounty hunter grunts in obvious pain and surprise, but quickly recovers, shooting back at Julie, who's already hidden behind the thick steel supports.
Sixsix glides towards Gwen in order to get a better angle, which puts him right in range of her attack - she surrounds herself in violet energy and sends a trio of tendrils that quickly ensnare the hunter's legs and arms. Gwen pulls Sixsix towards her, commanding another of her energy tentacles to wrap around his neck - she doesn't want to kill him, but choking him unconscious would do just fine.
Of course, Sixsix doesn't particularly care for her brand of bondage. "Big mistake, female…" -he teases, in clear but heavily accented english, likely translated on the fly, given the voice sounds stilted and robotic, quite different from his normal alien speech. "You should have gone for the kill."
"I'm not a murderer." -Gwen says, scowling.
"A shame. You might've lived longer."
Sixsix's wrist blade sprouts into existence, and swiftly plunges into her abdomen. Julie yells out, terrified that Gwen's been mortally wounded, but the redhead's bet has paid off; any normal human would be one foot in the grave, but the Anodite merely smirks, looking at the broken energy blade, and the unbreakable alien skin under the fragile, burned off human facade.
Gwen throws the gobsmacked alien towards Julie, who promptly decks him with her bionic arm. Sixsix tries to rise, but falls back down, seemingly unconscious. Julie approaches Gwen, shaking her head in disbelief.
"What?" -Gwen asks, defensively.
"Did you even know Anodites were immune to energy swords?"
"I...figured I was." -she shrugs. "I stabbed myself in the shoulder after the drone burned off my skin and didn't feel anything, so I, uh...extrapolated."
Julie sighs. "Well, you're a Tennyson, alright." -she says. The brunette nods at her newly exposed glowing, purple midriff. "You realize you've just sentenced yourself to a summer without pool parties, right?"
Gwen sighs. "A summer without bikinis, more like. And I'd just bought a cute new black one, too."
"Uh-huh." -she mutters. "Warn me next time, alright? I thought you'd gotten skewered."
Gwen bristles, internally, indignant at the thought of Julie berating her for such a reckless move - something she's extremely guilty of, evidenced by her alien prosthetic. Of course, the rational part of Gwen's brain realizes that this is precisely the reason Julie is so worried. "I...yeah, sorry." -she manages. "Promise it won't happen again."
Julie nods at the unconscious lifeform ahead of them. "What do we do with this guy?"
"Same thing we did with Krabb, I guess; let the Accuser and her people clean things up, take him into custody." -she says.
Sixsix laughs, suddenly rising, no worse for wear. "So, Earth's Accuser has thrown her lot in with you primitives, has she?" -he surmises, uncaring of the fact that the teenagers have assumed a battle stance. "I wonder how much their oversized brain of a leader will pay if I bring it Hala's traitorous head...between this and the Omnitrix, I'll walk away from this mudball rich beyond belief."
"You sounded much more intimidating when we couldn't understand you." -Julie says, sarcastic.
"And you stood much greater chances of surviving into adulthood before you chose to fight me."
Julie rolls her eyes. "Dude, you're not a supervillain. You're a bounty hunter, and a shitty one, at that - can't even play by the very simple rules of your trade." -she says, waving her prosthetic. "This? I asked Hala what the consequences of you cutting my arm off would be. You harmed an innocent noncombatant. You used advanced weaponry against a so-called 'primitive target'. You'll be fending off other bounty hunters your whole life."
Sixsix hums derisively. "That's the problem with you heroic types; you are always so naive. Terra is an insignificant wasteland the galaxy pays little mind to. The Guild won't care about a dead ape or two - not when I bring in the largest bounty in galactic history."
There's no getting around it; the bounty hunter has his mind set on his prize, and no amount of talking will convince him otherwise. Even if he's bluffing about the Guild not caring about their deaths, the fact remains that Sixsix is determined to capture Ben, and he will go through them to do so. Gwen sighs, resigned - it's time to pull out all the stops.
Gwen's eyes blaze violet as she unleashes more of her power than she ever has, creating a dome around Sixsix which, centered around him, intersects into the bridge's lower supports and the slanted concrete wall of the canal under it. Sixsix immediately blasts at the barrier, but the construct holds steady. The alien uses everything in his arsenal - blasters, missiles, even a flamethrower - but the dome doesn't budge.
"What are you doing?" -Julie asks, confused.
"Holding him in place." -she grits out, trying her best to concentrate. "Can you contact Hala? Have her people come as soon as possible?"
Julie nods. She brings up some kind of interface on her right forearm, but before she can contact the Kree blockade, something entirely unexpected happens; the concrete behind Sixsix breaks, and then gets sucked into some kind of blue vortex, forming some kind of tunnel that two figures - two humans - pass through. There's something...familiar about them, but Gwen doesn't get the chance to figure out who they are, as Sixsix immediately seizes the opportunity and jets into the passage, forcing the newcomers to dive to either side to avoid being crashed into.
Gwen drops the dome as the wall seals back up, the bounty hunter having successfully escaped her grasp. Julie runs towards the duo, and Gwen jogs behind her. As she does, she recognizes them - not by name, but because they're former classmates, two years her and Kevin's senior, already done with high school, presumably in college. The young woman - a thin, athletic latina with dark brown hair and maroon, almost crimson eyes - used to be the star of Arcadia Oaks High's drama club, while the young man, a tall, heavyset, green-eyed ginger with a barrel-like torso and thick, muscley arms and legs, is the former school mascot's boyfriend. They seem surprised, to be sure, but not all that bothered by the fact that they just experienced a close encounter of the third kind.
"Oh gosh, are you guys ok?" -she asks, offering the older teen a hand. The brunette takes it and rises, nodding and turning back towards the place where the wall sealed up.
"What was that?" -the young man asks. "I've never seen anything like it."
There's little sense in fudging the truth, especially when these guys seem like they have a secret life of their own. "That may or may not have been an alien bounty hunter." -she says. "Do you know where he went?"
The teens share a look. "...we might." -the girl says. "Is this...alien dangerous?"
"Very." -Julie says, unconsciously flexing her robotic fist.
"We can take him, though." -Gwen reassures them.
The girl purses her lips. "...okay. We can take you. I'm Claire, by the way. Claire Nuñez."
"Toby Domzalski." -the ginger supplies.
"But you have to promise to keep this place a secret." -Claire warns. "Innocent people live down there, the kind who'd be hunted down if they were discovered by the wrong people."
Julie and Gwen share a worried look, but ultimately nod. "Okay." -Claire says, clearly nervous. "Toby, the Horngazel."
"Right, right. Oof, Vendel's going to kill us, isn't he?" -he wonders aloud, and fishes a strange, amber-like crystal affixed to a stubby little hilt, like a tiny blunt sword, out of his messenger bag. He kneels down by the floor of the canal and begins drawing a wide arc into the slanted wall with the crystal, which leaves behind a glowing white line that Gwen can feel is of a magical nature. Once the portal is fully drawn, Toby taps the wall with his fist, and the concrete crumbles into the same void as before, creating the passage Sixsix escaped through.
Claire steps through and looks back. "Just...stay close and don't look anyone in the eye, alright? They're not exactly used to humans."
Gwen freezes, an involuntary shiver running through her spine. Even with all she's been through, in the past few weeks, with all she's become aware of, the perspective brought on by discovering humanity is not just not alone in the stars, but hopelessly, hilariously outmatched by the galaxy at large, something in Claire's words gives her a serious case of goosebumps.
Just what is living under her sleepy little hometown?
It takes only 7.2 seconds for XLR8 to transform at Grandpa Max's house, go to Stuart Electronics, search for the device his boss asked him to bring back, and return.
"Bloody hell, Benji! Now that's a Kineceleran for ya." -Stuart says, taking the discus-shaped silver and green machine from XLR8's clawed hands. He rises from the sofa as Ben sheds the transformation, crossing his arms. "Now stand back, boys - my magical girl transformation may not be quite as fancy as the Omnitrix's, but it's still a bit of a shock to the senses."
He places the disc over his head, which hovers in place the same way Goop's gravity projector does. It creates a series of lit hoops around Stuart's form, which glows a sickly yellowish green for a second before reshaping itself into a definitively less humanoid one. When the glow subsides, Stuart now has a large, pear-shaped head, drooping, goat-like ears at either side of it, with a slightly elongated snout, slit-shaped, nearly vertical nostrils, and four eyes - two in the middle of his face and another pair near his forehead - with narrow, purple pupils and golden sclera. His torso and legs are much more humanoid, except for the fact that there's little to no muscle definition, the hoof-like feet, and missing a digit on each hand. Bioluminescent green lines form fascinating patterns all over his strangely gelatinous body, mostly centered around his shoulders, arms, and forehead.
"Ta-da!" -Stuart says. "Stuart of Durio, at your service."
"Are you seriously telling me Stuart is your alien name, too?" -Kevin asks, unimpressed.
The Durian, wrings his head, nervously. "Er, no, not quite. Tiu'ars is the name my mum gave me, but that wouldn't exactly fly here, now would it? No one's called me by any other name than Stuart for the better part of a century, though, so I rather prefer it. I may not look like one, but I'm an Earthling, too."
"You were born here?" -Ben asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Not at all, no. But I've lived on Earth for most of my life - been about sixty years or so since I crashed-landed here?" -Stuart recalls. "My ship was shot down by some overzealous Kree warlord in orbit - I only meant to lie low here for a mekron or two, was maybe running away from a rather ravenous ex-girlfriend, never knew Earth was inside a bloody Exclusion Zone. Should've been the end of your ol' pal Stuart, but the Kree never sent a crew to, er...clean up. Must've figured I'd died on impact."
"Where'd you crash?" -Kevin asks.
"Nevada! Somewhere in the Mojave, I reckon. Passed out for a delson or two, woke up to some lovely buzzards hungrily staring at my multi-eyed mug." -he recalls. "Bit of a rude welcoming, not gonna lie, but I managed to survive long enough to make some repairs and figure I'd let things cool off, mingle amongst the locals. I can hardly believe I'm coming up on three quarters of a century here! Time flies when you're wandering the primitive world you're stuck on, really."
Ben narrows his eyes. "Not exactly helping your case, here."
Stuart rubs the back of his head. "Did I say primitive? I meant vintage, honest! Most folk in the galaxy think of Earth as little more than a backwards little mudball, but that's because so few have ever bothered to visit! Earth is full of charms! Sure, the atmosphere is twenty-one percent literal poison, and humans are rather stuck in the hydrocarbon era, but you Terrans are such a fun bunch! I've spent decades flitting about, going from continent to continent, working the first job I find wherever I picked to settle for a bit. Arcadia's been my latest stop, and I have to say, it might be the last one. Such a charming little town!"
Ben smirks, despite himself. "I'm pretty sure most of the town's teenagers would disagree."
"Oh, they just don't know what they're missing, Benji! Lots more to this town than you'd assume, promise. You're a prime example, eh? I'd have never even imagined the Omnitrix to actually exist, let alone have chosen a human as a Bearer - and from Arcadia, no less!"
The Omnitrix's chosen frowns. "What do you mean?"
"Before Max took it up, the Omnitrix was just another legend." -Kevin chimes in. "It'd been lost for thousands of years, so people just assumed it was some kind of ancient fable."
"Can confirm, as a former galactic history buff." -Stuart says. "The last recorded mention of the Omnitrix before your grandfather found it - and I'd love to hear all about that - dates back over five thousand keltons."
"Years." -Kevin clarifies.
"Right." -Ben says. "So that's why you didn't recognize it a couple weeks ago."
Stuart nods. "I thought the hourglass symbol seemed familiar, I just couldn't have placed it. You realize how it sounds to a regular bloke, yeah? This borderline magical artifact that allows you to take on the form of any and all sentient creatures? Even being perfectly content with my gelatinous lot in life, I wouldn't mind walking in the massive shoes of a To'kustar for a day or two."
"I get it." -Ben says. "We've been fighting bounty hunters and giant drones ever since I put this thing on."
The Durian tilts his head in confusion. "The bounty hunters I get, but...giant drones? Who's sending those?"
"I don't know." -Ben says, frustrated. "They're getting closer and closer to town. We can take them down, but when they land in Arcadia - and they will - people will get hurt."
Kevin sighs. "I know who's sending them, Ben. Figured it out while I was out of town."
Ben gives him an incredulous look. "Well, why the heck didn't you say so before? We could've told Abigail and Hala, maybe even taken them down at the source!"
"Ben, they know. They have to, he's not some kind of unknown figure - he was Max's nemesis back in his day. They probably haven't told you because they don't even know how to handle this."
"Just spit it out, Kevin."
The raven haired teen pulls out the Plumber's badge. It projects a somewhat familiar image - a very similar looking alien to Myaxx, Azmuth's doomed assistant. "His name is Vilgax." -Kevin says. "He was - is - an interstellar warlord and conqueror. He should be dead, but...apparently, he survived his final battle with Max."
The green in Stuart's skin pales to a light, minty hue. "Oh, dear. Not good."
Ben thinks back to how easily Myaxx was taken down by Tetrax Shard. "What's so special about him?"
"Benji, this is a man who's faced the Mad Titan - the genocidal maniac behind the Chitauri invasion that the Avengers could barely fight off - and survived. No one else in the entire galaxy can claim that." -Stuart says.
"Stuart's right." -Kevin says. "Vilgax is so dangerous that both the Kree and Nova Empires refused to go to war with him, even at the expense of some of their fringe colonies - and we're talking about factions that'll either bomb or buy you out of your home planet, if it means they can expand a light year or two."
"All the more reason for me to know about it." -he says, shaking his head. "How am I supposed to beat this guy if I don't even know his name?"
"That's just the thing, Ben." -Kevin says, wincing. "I don't know that Vilgax can be defeated."
Gwen's always had weird dreams. It comes with her magic, she knows, but they're always so nonsensical and inconsequential, that she rarely ever attempts to figure out what they mean.
She probably should've tried a bit harder, though, because this isn't the first time she's seen the cyan crystal path they're heading down on.
"Just how far down are we going?" -Julie asks, dubious. "My ears have popped twice already."
"Well we are about three hundred feet underground." -Claire says. "But don't worry, we're almost there."
"Two hundred and forty steps, each about twice as tall as normal human ones. Hope you guys didn't skip leg day." -Toby chuckles. "You get used to it, though."
Claire wasn't bluffing; a couple dozen more steps and they reach the end of the crystal staircase, which leads into a short tunnel, in turn opening into a massive cavern, the likes of which she - and, in all likelihood, the rest of humankind - has never seen before.
"Welcome to Heartstone Trollmarket." -Claire says knowingly, smugly.
Heartstone Trollmarket extends before them, a grand cityscape built along the walls of a vast chasm surrounding an enormous amber crystal, easily over ten stories tall. It pulses with magical energy, and so does the multicolored assortment of smaller crystals and, oddly enough, neon signs that adorns the entire city, like lights in the night. Stone bridges crisscross from side to side of the chasm's walls, connecting the various sections of Trollmarket, and the heady, almost overpowering scent of pure, free-flowing magic - like sulfur dipped in caramel, spiced with ozone and a hint of mint - permeating the whole place like breeze does at the beach.
"I'm...guessing those are the trolls, huh?" -Gwen meekly says, watching as the city's residents mill about.
There's so many of them, and in so many different shapes and sizes; massive ones, easily clearing ten feet and covered in fur-like moss, and also others who'd barely reach her knees, with massive, googly eyes and stubby paws, hopping from place to place like they're stony frogs. There's winged ones, spiky ones, bejeweled ones, even some covered in tattoo-like ridges filled in with what appears to be lava.
"You don't seem all that surprised." -Claire notes, glancing at her glowing midsection. Julie, on the other hand, takes it all in wide-eyed and slack-jawed.
She's read about trolls in the books Grandpa Max gave her years ago, but...well, they never seemed quite real, not in the way spells and hexes - magic she could, at least sometimes, perform and know to be true. It's hard for her, even though she was born part human, part magical alien, to believe in what she can't see with her own eyes. "This...isn't quite my first magical rodeo." -she says, finding her voice. "Still...this is...wow."
"It's definitely wow." -Toby says. "At least you aren't running off and scaring the trolls like Claire did, the first time she came here."
Claire rolls her eyes. "Listen, I did a lot of prep. I just wanted to see everything I'd read about, y'know?"
"How long have you known about this place?" -Gwen asks.
"Hmm...about three years, now?" -Claire recalls. "Since the tail end of our junior year."
"How the hell has this been under Arcadia the whole time!?" -Julie demands. "There's thousands of them!"
Toby winces. "Trolls can't go out in the sun - they turn to stone, which is trollish for dying. And even at night, it's kind of a no-no, so they mostly keep to Trollmarket and travel to other cities underground."
"But it's not like there hasn't been any contact with the people upstairs." -Claire says. "The weird earthquakes, three years ago? They weren't earthquakes at all, but rather some evil trolls fighting the Trollhunters."
"Plus, even when people do see goblins, trolls, and so on, they just believe they're something normal and rational, like raccoons and bears. Human brains are kinda weird that way." -Toby says.
"What's a Trollhunter?" -Julie asks, raising an eyebrow.
Claire falters a moment before answering. "Us." -she says. "Toby and I, and a few others. I know the name sounds a bit like we're some kind of...troll predator, but our job is to protect Trollkind from humanity and vice versa."
"Probably not something teenagers should be in charge of, but you probably understand better than most." -Toby says. "You're some kind of...alien force, I'm guessing?"
"It's...complicated." -Gwen says, as they pass the threshold into the city proper. Tiny, living garden gnomes chitter about her feet, while the various kinds of trolls themselves leer at her and gossip with each other, not quite hostile but definitely wary of their presence. "My cousin Ben inherited an extraterrestrial device from our grandfather that lets him turn into one of ten sapient alien species, each with their own set of unique abilities."
"Awesome-sauce!" -Toby gasps. "It's like he's ten superheroes in one!"
Julie grins, despite her initial shock at her magical surroundings. "My boyfriend's cool like that." -she says. "And it's not just him; I've got an alien-made bionic arm, our friend Kevin can turn into any substance he touches, and Gwen's got alien magic powers."
"Is that why your stomach's glowing?" -Claire asks the redhead. "I don't mean to pry, but I'm getting some definite magic vibes from your, uh, purple abs."
"My grandma's an alien." -Gwen shrugs. "Like I said: complicated."
Claire hums. "But what kind of spells can you cast? Everyone specializes in some kind of magic."
"What's your thing?" -Julie asks.
The latina pulls out a palm-sized, ivory-colored cylinder from her purse. "I'm a practitioner of shadow magic." -she says, slightly smug. The cylinder extends from both ends into a gnarled, bone-like spear or staff, which becomes infused with darkness until the material it's made from resembles carved obsidian. "I can create portals to any place in the world, create shade to protect trolls from sunlight...even turn myself into a shadow."
"And I have this!" -Toby says, pulling out a metal rod that extends and manifests a crystal-like mace on its far end. The crystal becomes wreathed in some kind of magical flame, because of course it does. "Warhammer and the Shadowdancer, at your service."
Claire rolls her eyes. "Just Claire is fine." -she says, long-suffering, in a way that tells Gwen that she's not all that fond of her superhero name.
"Yeah, I can't do any of those things." -Gwen says. "My magic is kinda...wonky. I can make constructs - shields, tendrils, even things like swords and projectiles - but out of every ten spells I try to cast, maybe half of them really work. I'm not an expert, or anything, but even with all my practicing, there's some magic that just doesn't work for me."
"That is weird." -Claire notes. "Magic is difficult for humans at the best of times, which is why it's recommended that you specialize in a particular branch of sorcery you're better attuned to, but with enough practice…? You should be able to get it, eventually."
Gwen purses her lips. "Maybe I'm just too young."
"That could certainly be a factor." -Claire nods. "But still...maybe your alien side is messing with your ability to spellcast?"
The redhead frowns. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I've read about something like this before." -Claire says. "A human mage that tried and failed to use the kind of magic reserved for those with divine blood - demigods and the like, y'know? It's like...crossing wires that aren't meant to be crossed."
Gwen crosses her arms. "But...I'm able to use both my Anodite magic and some spells I've learned. Shouldn't I be limited to one kind of magic, in that case?"
"Maybe the fact that you're half human lets you cast some human magic." -Toby says.
"It's just a theory, though." -Claire says. "Maybe Vendel can help you discover what the problem is - and he'll definitely know where to find your alien bounty hunter."
As always, thank you for your attention! Make sure to comment or message me if you have any questions about this story. Look me up on Twitter as Darthkvzn or Tumblr as darthkvznblogs if you'd like - and on Ko-fi, as Darthkvzn, if you like what I do and have a coffee's worth of money to spare.
New alien means a new entry! Here's XLR8's description:
XLR8: The Omnitrix's sample of a Kineceleran, from the planet Kinet. XLR8 is a strange, raptor-like life form, devoid of a face or facial features, his head encased in an extremely resistant - and somehow, naturally occurring - metallic casing resembling a helmet. This feature protects his enhanced brain, an evolutionary trait needed by a species that moves faster than thought, and thinks faster than light. Ben's Kineceleran form is not very strong, relatively speaking, but his inability to be affected by friction means his speed is, at least potentially, unlimited.