Ben pushed Gwen down with both of them hiding next to Pax. Gwen gave him a dirty look, intimating that she had already cloaked them with her magic. Ben quickly got up on the other side of the aisle. As he did, he spotted the caged Terroranchula.
Ben headed towards it as Gwen helped the stumbling Florauna up. As Ben headed that way Ben overheard the orders given to the Incursean soldiers. "Ben Tennyson is to be captured alive, as well as his compatriots, the order is very specific, kill any of them and you die." Ben's face contorted, what did these orders mean?
Well, the good news was they weren't trying to kill him. Plus, that meant the Incurseans weren't still in the practice of shooting down every plumbers ship they saw, it had been his intentionally.
Ben shook his head as he realized he had a task to accomplish, the freeing of the Terroranchula, as stupid as it sounded, it would be a great diversion. Getting to the cage he tried to unlock it, but to no avail, hearing an approaching Incursean, he quickly activated his omnitrix without looking at it. "Come on, give me something good," he egged the device on, hoping to not get screwed over by it.
A flash of green light later, Ball Weevil stood in his place. "Well at least I can open the door." Ben used the many unnamed items in the row in his absorbing ball, then flung it at the cage holding the Terroranchula. The cage broke open, releasing the alien creature inside, knocking down the nearby Incursean, and alerting the rest to its emergence. "Success!" squeaked Ball Weevil. As the smoke cleared, Ben realized his tactical error.
The Terroranchula was the natural predator of Ball Weevil's species, and thus, headed straight for him! "I knew it was too good to be true!" Ben shouted as he scurried away, on the now widened aisle.
Just as it occurred to Ben that he did not know where Gwen was, he heard a smacking sound as the guards, who had been chasing after the large creature, ran straight into a glowing pink wall of mana, knocking them unconscious. Moments later, the Terroranchula fell unconscious, and Gwen walked out from behind more boxes, with Pax not far behind.
"So why do they want us alive?" Gwen asked Ben. "So they can give us all the hugs we want?" Ben responded, intimating that he himself had no clue. "Funny." Gwen deadpanned. "Uh, hey! You can't just treat a living creature like that man!" Pax threw the accusatory remark at Gwen who snapped back with, "Is there a problem with a creature sleeping?!" "No, man..." "Then why are you complaining!" Gwen yelled.
Pax moved away from Gwen, clearly having been bested in the argument. Ben, now returned to human form, had a very wide smile. Gwen saw his face and asked, "Why are you smiling like that?" "No reason." he replied. "It's kinda creepy." Gwen stated, then decided to walk towards the bay doors. "Wait, why haven't we heard from Rook?" Gwen paused to ask.
"Probably because almost all Incursean ships have basic transmission interference." Ben stated offhandedly. Gwen, surprised by Ben's knowledge on the subject, questioned, "And you know this how? Plumber info?" "Spent several months as an Incursean, remember?" Ben said in a tone intimating the fact that she should know this.
Gwen blanched, she actually had forgotten, but she figured it wasn't that big a surprise given what she had spent most of her free time thinking about these days. Shrugging off these thoughts, she tried to focus back to the task at hand.
Three guards in this hallway, no helmets, one blast to each head. "Hey, leave some for me, will ya?" Ben snapped her out of her trance. "Head for the bridge, and take the ship to nearest planet?" Gwen asked for verification. "How'd you know?" Ben replied, an unspoken comment to the teamwork the two of them shared.
Luckily, Rook had put them on a bay on the same level as the bridge, making the time to traverse to their location brief. After letting Gwen take out the only two guards apparently guarding the bridge, the rest likely searching the ship for them, Ben slammed down the omnitrix readying for the inevitable fight ahead of them.
"Humungousaur? Awesome!" "Um... Ben, your tail is blue." Gwen informed him with a mark of concern in her voice. "What! Again?" Ben said. "Wait isn't that XLR8's tail?" Gwen noticed. "Wait, again?" Ben, ignoring her, questioned, "Why the tail?" Suddenly he felt his balance change as his feet also became that of a Kineceleran. "Cool, let's go!" Ben activated the door to the bridge without warning Gwen.
"Ben!" She exclaimed with a tone of exasperation. She shrugged, and charged into the fray. The sight Gwen saw was utter chaos. Ben, trying to take advantage of the attributes of his altered state, had sped across the room, only to become a giant mass flying across the room uncontrollably, stumbling and crushing one for underfoot, crashing into a wall, crushing the consoles and the two manning it, bouncing off of the wall and onto the ceiling, and down onto the remaining five frogs.
"Ugh... I don't feel so good..." Ben said, swaying back and forth, still sitting on the five Incurseans. "That's what I was trying to warn you about," Gwen retorted. Just then, a flash of green light marked the end of Ben's transformation. At that same moment, one more Incursean arrived at the bridge. Ben blanched as he saw him, not because he was unprepared, but because he recognized the Incursean.
"Bullfrag?" Ben asked, stupefied. "My name is Barga, Ben Tennyson, I am captain of this ship, I have failed a royal once, and do not anticipate to fail a royal again." the Incursean stated, readying himself for combat. "Sorry, but you won't be able to keep your promise!" Ben said, charging him. Barga began to jump, only to suddenly find himself being knocked square in the chest.
Surprise filled Barga's face. Ben had charged at him, lifting his hand to punch him, then jumped. Barga slumped to the ground, only to get right back up. "Not finished yet, huh?" Ben scoffed. "Far from it Earth child." Barga replied, executing a more direct battle approach, his fists. Ben, unable to throw punches of his own, decided to keep up the banter while dodging, "My aunt hits better than you, right, Gwen?" Ben winked as Barga was blasted from behind by his cousin.
"I've told you fifty times, it's Gwendolyn now." She stated with no real emotion behind it. "You do realize that the future you of that timeline doesn't exist because we gave Grandpa Max a birthday cake, right? The you that said you called yourself Gwendolyn in college ceased to be." Ben flippantly responded.
Gwen paused, then responded, "Unless you lied to yourself." Ben winced inwardly, he actually had a list of the lies he would possibly have to tell himself to keep his reality straight.
Shrugging off these thoughts, Ben disabled the communications inhibitor. Almost immediately, Rook's voice was heard, "Am I to assume that you have not completed your duties of arrest as is normal for you?"
"Thank you, Rook!" A long sigh was heard as the unconscious Incurseans were beamed aboard the Plumber ship, seemingly deciding their first stop in the universe, a prison.
"Where's Pax?" Gwen asked. "Who cares?" Ben responded. By the time Rook had finally gotten around to teleporting the two of them, they arrived to find Barga in cuffs. Looking at the screen, they saw the Incursean ship take off.
"Hey! They're getting away! Rook, why aren't you doing something?" Ben asked, confusion in his voice. "Because I have the culprit in my hands Ben. All accounts of the crew members indicate that the offense was on his orders, no one else was responsible for firing on our ship, thus I was required to let them go." Rook informed Ben.
"But I went through so much trouble..." Ben whined. "Sorry, Ben." Gwen said, patting him on the shoulder.
"See Rook, that's how you there there someone." Ben said. Looking up, Ben realized someone had been missing from this adventure from beginning to end.
"Where's Ester?" "I do not believe she has left her quarters." Worried, Ben headed to her quarters to check on her.
