Bold = Emphasis/Commentary
Italic = Emphasis/small memory moment
[] = Artificial Intelligence/Android Speech
Eyes widened, ears still recovering from shock, he sat up in a dizzy state. The world was spinning endlessly around him, and Ben was failing to recover. Luckily, his brain was doing the job for him. He opened his eyes wide open, hopefully to regain focus, and he did. He looked around and noticed something was clearly wrong, aside from scattered metal from the time machine.
The grass was greener than usual.
Not in the sense that it looked healthy, as a matter of fact it looked the opposite, the grass he was sitting on looked like it was decaying rapidly, with the 'green-ness' coming from a strange glow under the soil. Ben looked up in shock as he came to his senses, but not before a voice rang in his ear.
[Error: You have been sent much farther into the future than Dexter intended]
Ben shivered at this eerie and unsettling information, and soon he regained his senses. He looked up, and what he saw, was more than startling.
THE PAST: MAY 22 - 2014 - TECH SQUARE
"You are an IDIOT!"
Contrary to what Dexter believed, Diva had always acknowledged her brother's annoyance from her actions. She always shrugged it off, knowing that he could just rebuild and re-program, making it seem like she couldn't care any less than she apparently did. But this, she knew she did something wrong. Tears were already streaming down her face, both in fear and in self-pity. She had not only destroyed what could've been the greatest advancement in technology since - forever, but from the sound of it she may have just caused a friend to disappear into nothing. It made her think how much she actually cared about her brother's work.
She shook with regret as she said "I-I don't understand-"
"No of course you do not understand! You cannot even understand, after all these years, Deedee, that anything with metal or buttons could cause something to violently explode or worse, get yourself killed!" Dexter responded, his shouting being so loud it could be heard from the outside of the lab.
"I-I'm sorry-"
"You cannot even care to recognize the world around you! Did you even KNOW that you had walked into my lab (how the hell did you walk into my lab)? DID YOU?!"
Diva didn't know what to say, she opened her mouth to say something apologetic, but nothing came out. She tried again, but before she could actually say anything, Dexter cut in.
"DO NOT say anything...it wouldn't mean much anyway..." Dexter retorted as he looked upon the remains of his time machine. He had little time to mourn for what may have been Ben's death as he began to consider the many costs of this turn of events, such as repair, insurance, replacement, overtime salaries for the rest of the scientists, and confronting Ben's mother about his fate. He shivered as he thought about that, it was sad enough that the Tennyson family was already dealing with one loss, and now another. As he was contemplating these costs, another scientist walked slowly towards Dexter, seeing the machine's remains too. Her face differed from his, instead of contemplating, she was questioning.
"Dr. McPherson...are you alright?"
"I..." He paused to get all his irrational feelings out of the way, "I'm fine, thank you Dr. Test".
She took a moment to breathe, she always did find it intimidating when he was angry. But Susan didn't let her guard down, as she knew that when Dexter used positions instead of names, he was still irritated. God help anyone who caught him irritated. "Well then, are we going to cover this up or tell the public?" she inquired.
"We cannot tell our material supplier, he would have our heads for this," Dexter replied, and after a deep breath he decided that, "We're keeping this covered up, the media could ruin our reputation with a single article, and next thing you know their opinions will spread like the Bubonic Plague in the 12th century."
Susan sighed in relief from this, as she was not hoping on-
"But this does not mean that we will stop here."
-risking hundreds of thousands of dollars on fixing this dreadful situation.
"Make sure that this does not get out of this building, yes, but start rebuilding this machine immediately, leave the experimental matter acquisition as well as the necessary programming and calculations to me, and me alone," he said with confidence, but his confident speech was hiding a deep sense of worry, "and for all those wondering if this means higher payment, it does not. It means lower pay, because if anything, money should be the least of your problems!"
A large amounts of groans and sighs came in response to this unfairness. Dexter quickly responded to their sound of annoyance, "If you want someone to blame, blame her." he said as he pointed to Diva, "Now let us get back to work! Dexbots, please escort my dear sister out of my laboratory." Dexter said, under gritted teeth.
All the scientists and managers returned to their roles, most of them out of frustration. As Dexter walked away, the Dexbots began to approach Diva slowly, in fear that she would jump away, but instead, she stayed. All in all, it really messed with their programming. Diva looked to the Dexbots, realizing that even standing around and doing nothing still broke her brother's tech, it didn't help improve her frenzied state. She looked at him with shock, now in full realization as to what she had actually done. To confirm, she asked, "Dexter? W-What did that button do?"
Much calmer now, Dexter stopped in his tracks and refused to look back at her. He thought maybe he should tell her, that one of his oldest friends was either sent into the future with no means of travelling back, or worse he was disintegrated by the spilling of the radioactive energy the metal surface was equipped with. Instead, he continued walking, disappointed that his sister, who was 1.4x older than him, and although 212 times more ignorant than him, was still unable to figure out something so simple.
Then again, would he expect anything else?
THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015
Green, lots of green. Evil green everywhere.
That was all his mind could attempt to grasp at the sight of a giant planet in the sky that was fused to other planets that was DANGEROUSLY close to Earth, and he saw this having already come out of his earlier state of shock.
Ears now fully capable of listening, Ben turned around after hearing a strange bubbling sound, which came from an equally strange pool of green ooze. The ooze looked familiar, something he had encountered before, maybe? Then it came to him.
No way...
Was this really the same substance from all those years ago? The same one they fought with that transducer thing?
But it was destroyed...
...was it?
He didn't know what to think of it. He felt a sickness in his stomach, it overcame him as fast as the rubble from the destroyed grey ground floated into the apocalyptic green sky. He didn't know what this sickness was, maybe it was the repercussions from the "time jump error", or maybe it was the blood-curdling sight...of all this. Ben looked around and saw many of the destroyed buildings of Tech Square, covered in the same green substance that he was so dangerously close to. As he turned around, he saw an entire sea comprised of this ooze, and went on for miles and miles ahead. Could this be causing all the destruction around him?
What if we played right into their hands, Ben thought, what if what happened back in 2009 was just the beginning?!
Suddenly, an explosion went off elsewhere, crumbling a building in the process, but Ben was too distracted to notice the sound. He gazed at this endless sea, wondering what exactly was happening to the world. Was it dying? It didn't feel like it. Did this have to do with some man-made experiment? No, otherwise there wouldn't be a giant super-planet in the sky. He continues to ignore the obvious, unfortunately ignoring the giant building, which was toppling over, that was about to crush him.
Just as he was turning around, to see what was forming the shadow behind him, he felt himself being pushed to the side, and later the crumbling of a building now behind him. He looked up to thank his savior, only to find...
...it was Number Five?! Ben didn't know how to react, he hadn't seen her since they were kids! Not to mention, she looked radically different. She retained her signature red gatsby cap, gold earrings, and blue color-scheme but sported some kind of metal armor that covered most of her body, even her clothes, which itself looked like it was altered to be a second set of armor. On her forearms were yellow colored armguards, and on her chest armor was a spray-painted '5' in white. After close observation, Five came to realize who she was looking at.
"Holy cannoly! Ben, is that you?!"
"Not now Number Five! We need to - oh my glob! Ben?!" shouted someone off in the distance, who later revealed himself to be...Finn?! Ben couldn't get his head around it, where did Finn come from?! Shouldn't he be in Ooo? What happened to Ooo if he was here?! So many questions populated Ben's noggin it actually hurt!
Finn snapped out his trance, and he returned to his uncharacteristically serious demeanor, "Look, we gotta get movin'! Ben, you should follow us, I've got a hunch on who you are!"
Who he was?
What did that even mean?! As Finn and Five made their way up the cluttered pieces of rubble, he decided that he needed to ask Computress what the hell was even happening!
"C-Computress!" Ben asked, with urgency, but to his horror, he was met with static. Something screwed up his communications server. "C-Computress?" he asked again, his false of hope overtaking his senses. But quickly the reality of the situation he had found himself in seeped into his mind.
He had no way of going back home, or even contacting family. Tears threatened to form in his tear ducts, and something was making his throat heavy.
...
No, he thought, this wouldn't be how Ben 10 goes out!
He readied his omnitrix and set it to Heatblast, and made his way up the rubble, where he found Finn and Five to be back-to-back, fighting those same spawn monsters from before, only they looked bigger, and more powerful than before. Even worse, it seemed like the spawns were winning. Without hesitation, Ben took out the omnitrix, and with a click, a pulse, and one slightly painful morph later, he was covered in charred lava rocks with a flaming hair rising up.
"All right you damn aliens!" Ben shouted, channeling his aggression about the situation into his powers, "This time, you STAY PUDDLES OF SLIME!"
He extended his arms to call upon this form's pyrokinetic powers as he closed his eyes, expecting to open them to find the enemies before him back in puddles, but suprisingly, they didn't.
Not even an ember could leave his palms! What was going on?!
His continuing confusion was halted when Finn jumped up almost as if out of Nowhere and kicked a spawn back, where it was immediately shot by Number Five. Finn then quickly bent down, stretched his leg to the right and kicked a fusion spawn away from Ben, while using his sword to attack the larger spawn, plunging it with a goo-splattering momentum. The smaller spawn quickly lunged at Finn, only to be blasted, as if on que, by Five.
"You good?" Finn asked the seemingly powerless superhero, who looked at his hands as if the answers to his questions were scribed there. Ben looked up to Finn's battle-scarred, yet somewhat still positive face. This was an apocalypse! Why was he smiling?! Ben couldn't take a second more.
"ARRRGGGGHHH!" Ben screamed in frustration, his molten hands clutching his molten head like a ball. Finn took his hand back as his smile faded into a look of confusion.
"I just tried to use Heatblast's powers, I tried incinerating them!" exclaimed Ben, "Why isn't anything working?!"
Finn drew a slightly puzzled look, widening his eyes and curving his lips. He was expecting a question more like 'what the hell is going on'. "It's gotta be this un-bombastic atmosphere, those terrafusers must've polluted the air with fusion matter, so now they can control how he wants things to go out." said Finn.
"Who's he?!"
Before Finn could answer, a small beep came from his pocket, out of which he pulled a circular-like device which he looked at for a few moments before turning to Five, then back at the device. Ben didn't realize what it was Finn held in his hands before he heard the familiar beeps that another well-known device made.
Was that a NanoCom?
NanoComs were made by Dexlabs as the ultimate accessory. By utilizing a French-developed online safe-space network, the NanoComs could digitize any personal belongings and transport it to this space for safe-keeping and later use. Aside from having an app store of its own, it also had a long-distance communications feature, one of the most advanced GPS tracking systems on the planet, and could also remain up-to date on one's personal health status. It was universally successful and had a wide range of uses.
But they weren't built for use in wars, or anything like that for that matter.
"Number Five! We seriously need to keep moving!" Finn said, while he winced at the sound of another building collapsing behind him.
"Finn, if that hunch you've got is true, then Numbuh 5 thinks this is more important than a few meet ups." Number 5 said. She then looked at Ben, still as Heatblast. "Now that that's over with, Ben, what's the last thing you remember?" she asked.
"N-NO! You answer my questions first! Too much has happened today, way too much for a normal psyche to handle practically, especially when he or she CAN'T handle it practically because he or she's being cut off nearly EVERY DAMN SEC-"
Before he could say anymore, Ben was interrupted by a computer-like voice from Five's NanoCom.
[Warning: More hostiles - incoming]
Finn and Five became less relaxed from this alert, and realized that they had more company ahead of them.
"SEE!" exclaimed Ben.
Suddenly, an animal-like thing jumped down from the toppled building on the left, and tackled Number Five to the ground, growling and chomping at her while she resisted its unbearably strong grip on her forearms. Finn delivered a flying kick to the beast, sending it back. The creature hesitated, allowing Ben to have a clearer look at it.
It was a three-headed dog. Not a real one, of course, it was a mechanized model, which looked not only like a three-headed dog, but like an assortment of tech was clobbered together or reformatted to form a body. Fusion matter was splattered on its torso, and on each of its snouts were glowing red eyes that could kill all on their own. It slowly turned around, revealing itself, and with all three of its heads, it gave a mighty roar.
Almost immediately, Finn and Five charged into battle, both equipped with powerful weapons, keeping the creature down. Meanwhile, Ben continued trying to spark at least a small flame, but to no avail his luck was grim. He struggled to find a solution, some kind of loophole that could make this problem go away. Maybe he could turn into another alien? No, if the reason behind his bad luck was the fusion matter in the atmosphere, who knows what kind of effects that could have on, say, Diamondhead, or Chromostone? Or worse, Alien X? So what could he do as Heatblast in order to use his powers?
He'd have to release something into the air, something highly flammable...
...like another flame?
"Hey guys?!" Ben shouted to the preoccupied heroes.
Five, who was being majorly beaten, had resorted to using her pistols as shields. "L-little busy over here!" she responded, with a clear struggle in her voice.
"I need a flame - any flame! Anyone got a lighter or something?!"
Five started to back away, moving towards Ben, "Finn! Keep the Cyberus busy!"
"'Keepin' busy' is my middle name!" said Finn, retaining the joyous smile on his face, "Or was it HUCKLEBERRY?!" he continued as he jumped and kicked the Cyberus in the left-most snout, kicking the rest down.
Five proceeded to look through her NanoCom vigorously, clearly getting irritated, while with her other hand she kept firing at the three-snouted monstrosity. After a few moments, she was able to finally find what she was searching for, crafting a clever grin on her face. What she pulled out was a pistol-like rifle, not too short to be a rifle and not to long to be a pistol. It had a purple and desert-sand color scheme, with a green range that was now aimed directly at Ben.
As soon as she delivered a few shots to the Cyberus behind her, which was being surprisingly well-handled by Finn, Number Five made not a single moment to think about what she was doing and shot Ben with a single blazing ray of heat coupled with liquid plasma.
What Ben felt next was like he could ignite the whole planet if he had to. As he felt thousands, if not millions, of stray heat particles flowing through his molten, and now glowing body, he couldn't help but saying:
"HAH! See this?! HERO TIME!" The next thing Ben knew was him releasing what he could assume was a massive buildup of heat. He directed it towards the Cyberus, nearly hitting Finn, and blasting the three-headed dog through the toppled building behind it as if he was swatting a fly. The heat blast tore the creature apart until it became nothing but dust in the wind. Ben found himself collapsing in utter relief that his idea worked. He held his hands high up in the air in victory for the world to see, well, what was supposedly left of the world anyway. His excitement came to a halt when he heard the classic recharge signal coming from the badge on his chest. Damnit, he thought as he stared at his now human hands, he should have conserved power by reverting back to human form when he had the chance!
"Shmow-zow!" exclaimed Finn. "Nice shot!"
"Yuh-huh..." said Ben nonchalantly, seemingly tired out.
While Ben sat down, Five took out her NanoCom, and zapped the igniting gun back into her storage folder. She extended her arm to lend a hand to Ben, which he waved away, and stood up. Finn walked towards the two and turned his head toward the KND operative.
"So, Number Five? Think its true?" asked Finn.
"He doesn't know jack about fusions, and he's got an Omnitrix on his damn wrist," responded Five, "no way in letter 'H' it ain't him."
"What are you two talking about?" asked Ben, meeting the gaze of two swiveling heads.
"Ain't it obvious? You've been missing for the whole war!" exclaimed Finn.
"I wouldn't say missing...more like-"
"Time travel?" said both Finn and Five, surprising Ben with their knowledge on "recent" current events. He responded with a quaint nod, and both their eyes lit up like the fourth of July.
"Today must be Numbuh Five's lucky day!" she said as another couple buildings collapsed in the background. "You're the Ben from the past that Dexter told us about. Alright, we gotta get you to safety and Sector V! There's no time to lose!"
Nothing felt better than to know that Dexter had tried to solve the problem, and the possibility that he could be alive? Ben felt goosebumps go down his skin at the thought that he may get to leave this nightmare faster than he arrived. But then he remembered the scattered and destroyed parts of the time machine, and realized it would be harder than he could imagine.
Ben didn't know what he should do. Should he help?
Even if he didn't want to, he wouldn't have a choice. This was the future, after all...
"We can spare a few, Five." said Ben, in a much calmer and alert voice, "I want to know what happened."
Five looked perplexed, she didn't know how Ben would take their current state, but it wasn't like she had another choice. "Look up in the sky." she said pointing to the mess of a super-planet above, "That's Planet Fusion, ruled by some nasty guy named Fuse! Fuse has covered the world in that gross green goo, and those disgustin' fusion spawns are wrecking everything!"
Being a seasoned Plumber-in-training meant understanding even the most abridged explanations, but that was just not anything close to helpful. Seeing the confusion on Ben's face, Finn stepped in to explain further.
"Well, yeah, whatever Five said, but you should see what they can do first-hand. Fuse's monsters have adapted to our planet, they're taking on familiar forms, bonding to pretty much anything based on the Earth's nature and environment. Worst off, they use these terrafusers that can terraform and infect the Earth with fusion matter. If..." Finn halted for a second, looking down in what seemed to be fear, which was rare to see in him. "if the infection gets bad enough, the terrafusers locked here will connect directly with Fuse, and before we know it Planet Fusion will absorb our world."
Ben took a moment to digest all of that. He looked back at the sea of fusion matter that now covered what remained of Earth, realizing that this was zero hour, and there wouldn't be an 'Earth' after. He turned back to the two seasoned heroes, with a face of question once that once was masqueraded by a face of relaxation.
"These fusions...they're from before, right?" Ben asked, looking at Number Five, who gave a small nod. Ben couldn't make sense of it, the last terrafusers didn't do this much damage.
"I don't get it, then what were those terrafusers from 5-no-6 years ago?"
"They..." Five paused and gave a small sigh, "...were beacons."
B-blast...beacon! It is c-coming, for us...all.
Ben widened his eyes in shock, he couldn't believe it; Mojo was telling the truth all those years ago. It was why he was missing, it was why there were literal monkeys raining down from the sky, he was investigating...this. Damn it, he thought, why didn't that electro-thingamajig cannon fire earlier?! Maybe then none of this would have happened!
Before Ben could say or think anything else, Five's NanoCom buzzed with an alert. She pulled it out of her pocket and stared into it for a moment, turning to Finn with a small nod. Finn realized what she meant, and quickly turned back to Ben, "Hey, we've gotta go now. You think you're up to speed?"
"Yeah...pretty much." he replied.
"Alright, then-wait, do you have a NanoCom?"
Ben pulled out his Com out of jacket pocket, and held it up for Finn's view. Contrary to what he was thinking, the look on Finn's face was slightly dissapointed.
"Oh right, you don't have the newer model." said Finn, "Here, take mine."
"Why?" asked Ben, "Won't you need it?"
Finn gave a shrug as he threw it into Ben's hands, "I'm gonna die here anyway, buddy! Its just important that you make it to safety before all the others. Besides, that model has features that were made just for this war, so yeah." he said, "Remember, you're going to want to collect that fusion matter, as much as you can, it's super important that you do."
As they left the scene, Ben stared down at his new NanoCom, wondering what he should do now. Then, right after, he gets a message on the device, signified by the blinking red light on the top left button. With the press of a button, he popped open the message monitor; it was coming from the future...
...Number Two?!
"Anybody there? I need help here -bzzt- transmitter's gone -bzzt-"
Ben tried to send a message back, but found it was one way only. That figured, if the fusions and their fusion matter are sentient alone then they have eyes and ears possibly everywhere, so short range communication was the better bet. Ben winced as another explosion got set off, doing more unseen amounts of damage, and soon ran towards Number Two.
One of the things that he loved about being his sector's chief communications officer was that he could have ears everywhere. He could listen in on KND transmissions, even the ones not limited to his sector (he'd have to thank the TND for that position...if he lives) and be the most alert during missions. It made him feel...omnipresent...whatever that meant...
But for this moment, he felt so ashamed of himself. How could he be bested by a stupid fusion monster?!
With a Pop-Gun in hand, and hiding behind a S.C.A.M.P.E.R, Number Two attempted to look behind the shuttle, but nearly got his face blasted off doing so. That oil ogre was firing at him non-stop; Two was just lucky his ship had its shields turned on to protect him, but he knew that the shields weren't going to last long with this amount of heavy fire.
Then, as if a light show had been turned on, the oil ogre stopped firing at him, and instead started to fire elsewhere. Two looked back to see who it was, and much to his surprise, it was an alien. An alien that resembled a large tiger, and was covered in fur, and had a familiar-looking hourglass symbol on its chest.
It can't be, Two thought.
"Ben?!" Two said; he couldn't help but stand up in shock, only to duck down from another blast. "Is that really you?!"
"What you didn't get the memo?!" screamed the angry and furry alien. He didn't take time to notice Two's new outfit, though. He was also wearing an armored version of his standard KND clothing. The flight cap was sort of torn, and he wore a kevlar-like black armor to cover his chest. His suspenders were what kept the armor close to his body, as they were on the outside. Like Number Five, Two had make-shift shoulder pads and leg guards crafted from trash cans or other things. All of these had the green goo splattered on them, right down to the boot.
"Well, sure I did, but-" Two tried to say, calling back to Ben's sarcasm, but he was interrupted by a grunt from the alien hero. He was hit.
"Aarghh!" Ben shouted after getting hit in the shoulder. Luckily for him, it wasn't severe. "Lemme tell ya somethin' about-"
Before Ben could say anything else in a breathless alien rant, he was yet again blasted, this time square in the chest, resulting in Ben's mighty wrath to quickly go away.
"Oh come on!" he shouted in frustration, and quickly hid behind the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. with Number Two. The first thing he did after sitting down was check to see if the blast had hacked the omnitrix, or if it just blasted him out of his form. Luckily for him, it was the latter.
"What happened, dude?" asked Ben, "I thought the Kids Next Door didn't want anything to do with this."
"Well, sure," replied Two, "but then they attacked and nearly destroyed our treehouse."
"Wasn't that 6 years ago?"
"I wasn't talking about 6 years ago." said Number Two, to Ben's questionning, and later horrified surprise. "Seriously though, I could use some help over here. You up for it?"
Ben looked up high in the sky and down on the ground, but couldn't find any other superhero near them. "Dude, where's everyone else?" he asked, noticing the distinct lack of presence of a Number One, or Three, or Four.
"Either dead, or too busy to spare a second, go figure." the KND operative told the alien hero, a second was spared in his speech, which could unfortunately say a lot, especially with someone like Hoagie, "But this attack was no accident for sure. See that oil ogre over there?"
Ben looked through the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. glass to see a monstrous fusion, in no way, shape, or form resembling a fusion spawn. It didn't look much like an ogre to begin with, it looked more like a non-anthro alligator had grown arms and legs. Apart from that it had a metal harness with several small LED lights on it, and a matching helmet to go with. It hadn't moved far from the Terrafuser that it presumably spawned from, and in its hand, was something it was clutching rather tightly, the same way a mother would clutch her child to her chest: in a protective manner.
"It's using a 2x4 transmitter to broadcast our position. It's the thing that basically brought the fusions to our doorstep. Here in Tech Square, I mean, the first door was Mandark's fault." said Number Two, the disdain for the aforementioned being very poignant in his voice. "If we can get the transmitter, though, we may have a slight chance of saving Tech Square, and better yet, the rest of the world that's still intact."
"How can you be sure?"
"The transmitter was Number 274's, it could intercept all kinds of KND frequencies, it helped in battle against adults when more reinforcements were needed, and could also scramble the enemy's defense system and stuff like that. For the war, 274 gave it to me, and I modified it so we could all be connected on the same defense grid. If the fusions have it, it won't be long before that defense grid is gone, and so will we be."
"So we need to kill that monster and get the transmitter!" exclaimed Ben, but he was quickly held back by Two.
"We can't! If we kill the oil ogre, we could break the transmitter. Number One would kill me, and so would Mandark!" Two replied, "Did I mention that without that transmitter, our defense grid is defense-less?!"
Ben looked down at the pavement of the cracked road, as if it would have the solutions for what to do written on itself. Before he knew it, an idea sprung to mind.
"Does it have any metal parts? Anything magnetic?"
"Of cour-" Before Two could finish, Ben had already slammed the hourglass symbol on his wrist, transforming himself into another, different alien. This one had a metallic bronze color scheme to it, with lighter colored stripes covering it as if it were reflections of the body's surface. To top it off, it had a floating head, with thick green glowing goggles and no mouth. Number Two widened his eyes in sight of Ben's new form, his goggles' lenses visibly moving with them.
"Wait here!" he said.
Ben then found himself exposing himself to the ogre-like fusion. The creatures glistening red eyes staring at him, like a lion eyeing its prey behind a rock, only there was no rock, and the lion was out in the open.
"Metal!" screamed Ben, catching the ogre's attention, "Meet magnetism!" The alien hero held his arms up to face the fusion, and before he knew it, electro-magnetic waves were already vibrating off of him, like a flock of birds with a phone line. The oil ogre fell as if it tripped, and as the metal was meeting the magnetism, the oil ogre lost grip of the transmitter, and Ben caught it and repelled it to Number Two, who hurried quickly into the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. to plug the transmitter into its systems. However, the ogre found itself continuing to come towards Ben. The hero realized what was happening, the harness on its chest was also made of metal. The ogre wreathed in pain as its harness was being ripped from the fusion matter on its body, stray amounts of goo were sticking to it, stretching with the piece of metal. Ben realized his mistake as the fusion was nearly 15 feet away from him, and let go of the magnetic pull.
The oil ogre lied there, seemingly recovering from the pain it had undergone. Ben looked down and failed to comprehend what had just happened. Fusions couldn't feel pain before, in fact, human attacks didn't have any affect on them. So why did this one feel it? Ben had to ask Two or anyone else when he escaped this mess, but those thoughts were cut off very shortly...
...as the oil ogre lifted its head with a flame in its eyes, a flame of rage.
Oh, son of a gun, Ben thought.
The oil ogre began firing random and aimless blasts as Ben scampered back into the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. The monster was very clearly enraged by Ben's inconsistent offensive, and was still clutching its harness as if it was its chest.
Once inside, Ben quickly held the door shut with his back, to which the oil ogre was at this point punching the door. Its force being so powerful that it knocked Ben onto the floor. Luckily enough, the S.C.A.M.P.E.R's herculean density prevented the door from being destroyed so easily. While Ben was dealing with the oil ogre, Number Two was at the ship's pilot seat, nearly crushing the radio receiver in his hands, the word 'mayday' was stamped on the device with ink as his hand lifted from it.
Ben was struggling maintaining the door that was being pounded by the fusion on the other side, its strength being that of a battery ram. Thoughts raced through his mind (for the fifth time already), how would he be able to do this? There must have been a way to fix the damaged ship, maybe even give it an upgrade.
Luckily for him, there was, and he pulled out watch and quickly switched to the alien DNA sample of a Galvanic Mechamorph.
"C'mon, Upgrade, c'mon!" Ben shouted to the omnitrix, as if he expected a response. With no wait, he slammed the Omnitrix as hard as he could into its metallic strap; he could feel the very hairs on his skin shrink into his now changing skin, which was quickly turning into mush. The mush that was now a part of him developed glowing neon-green motherboard lines that led up to the hourglass symbol that was now on his chest.
"YES! Thank you Upgrade, thank you watch!" Ben exclaimed.
Ben made no haste diffusing himself into the doors of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R, the entire ship now was covered in the same glowing motherboard lines that Upgrade famously sported. Number Two jumped in his seat at the sight of this takeover, and a neon circle appearing on his transmission monitor.
"Whoah! What just-"
"Well don't just sit on your ass! Try and use me!" Ben exclaimed to the strangely frightened KND operative. He had seen the form before, why the startle? Whatever, Ben thought.
Just then, the oil ogre had began banging on the cockpit glass, itself insulated and shielded, but not indestructible. It continued flailing its arms, desperately trying to break the now Galvan-ized glass. Ben didn't want to admit it, but its random punching hurt like hell. Number Two, on the other hand, had a much more mundane reaction.
"I'm getting too old for this superhero stuff..." said Number Two, "I didn't even want to play superhero in the first place!"
"Forget that crap!" exclaimed Ben, "Fire me! Fire me now!"
Number Two made no more hesitation to take control of the now neon-lighted console, his hands jumping and pressing all kinds of buttons, the sounds of various hatches opening up, especially on top of the cockpit, were evident. As was the sound of a thousand bullets, as if made from steel. The oil ogre was thrown back, having lost most of its balance, but didn't at all wait to charge back into the fight.
Its efforts were futile though, as with the press of a button, Number Two launched the ship's side missile, sending the monster to ride it all the way towards the sky.
The next sound that was evident: an explosion.
Ben had to (figuratively) sit down for this one, it was one hell of a rush for sure. But Two seemed to be in something akin to complete shock. Was he paralyzed from fear, or relief? Probably the latter. Ben, after pausing himself, thought it was-
"What a waste of - oil!" said Ben.
-a good idea to make a pun. Wow.
Two blinked and gave him (on the monitor) a quizical look, "You've...got a really long way to go, 'grasshopper'."
"What? What're you talking about? That was great!" Ben responded, "Admit it, you were going to say that one."
"No...maybe...not...definitely not." said Number Two, "W-whatever, did the oil ogre cause any damage to the S.C.A.M.P.E.R?"
"Just a few bits of damaged hardware, like on the door," said Ben, still connected to the ship's mainframe, "don't worry, though. I'm patching things up right now...including an upgraded communications relay!"
Two didn't know how to thank him, he could only say "Nice work! 'Didn't even know you could do that." Just then, he got an alert on his NanoCom; Ben, as he separated himself from the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. and reverted back to his human form, could only make out a few words, like "trapped", "infected zone" and "lair". He pondered what those things actually meant, before coming back to the oil ogre.
"Two, when I accidentally attracted that thing's harness, it looked like it was in a lot of...pain. But I thought these things can't feel pain without imagination energy."
"It's because it bonded to an external object. When they bond to random stuff like animals, plants, metal, or wood, they get a pain factor. The fusion monsters directly from Planet Fusion, like the spawns, they can only be killed with imagination energy." Two said, still readying the S.C.A.M.P.E.R for something, "But, the pain factor is real small with these spawns that bonded to something. It's really hard to hurt them alone, but a couple other things help out."
"What other things? Imagination energy?"
"Nope. Something else entirely. Look, Dexter can explain it to you later." Two responded, "But first we have to get him."
"Where do we find him?"
"We're not gonna find him," Two said as the S.C.A.M.P.E.R lifted off the ground, "We have to rescue him."
THE PAST: MAY 22 - 2014 - TECH SQUARE
[COMPUTRESS OPERATIONAL]
Computress's source code flowed through the wires of Dexlabs, going back and forth with simulated sweat dripping down her console screen.
[Priority Alpha - BRING BACK TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT SUBJECT: BEN TENNYSON]
It was the third time she had re-stated her objective, she couldn't figure it out the first two times, so why try now? Computress shrugged it off as her latest patch update from Dexter.
She ran the 42nd simulation to determine a possible solution to reverse the outcome of the time travel.
What Diva "Deedee" McPherson did was disable the Temporal Flux linked to the fuel source, removing the time-jump's ability to lock on to a specific point in the timeline, meaning that Ben could have been at any point in history. But that wasn't possible, as Computress had already cross-referenced her findings with all historical records on the internet. There was no evidence to suggest that Ben went back in time, but rather forward. Computress theorized that while she was shorted out in communication with the subject, she still had connection to him, just through a bad channel. If Computress could trace her end of the channel, then perhaps she could trace the other end. Of course, she was successful, and the date read was February 4th, 2015.
What grinded her gears was that she already knew all of this information. Even as a generally emotionless program, she hated having to go through statistics constantly. She forced herself to move on to the next part of the problem: how they were going to get him back from approximately 8 months into the future. The Test twins' reports theorized that if, because the time machine itself was destroyed, he was technically displaced in time, they could build a machine that could extract someone out of that time. They requested to trial such a concept in their own house and lab, with their own subject in their younger brother, but Dexter denied them that request, as they didn't want any more accidents occurring with their tech. So most of the operations took place in the lab, but the scientists have been struggling with their work. She knew even then, that the idea was impossible, as the displacement time period was now apart of the subject's own timeline, so to extract them from their own timeline could cause a very dangerous paradox. But she let them continue, as it was nice to see them have some hope, and also because at least they were trying to solve the problem.
Because if there was one thing that was in her programming, it was that problems could never solve themselves. So she kept running simulations, no matter how many uncomfortably repetitive error signs she received.
THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015
Ben sat uncomfortably in his seat, not in the way that most people would when they would sit next to a complete stranger on an plane, nor in the way they would during embarrassing family dinners. No. He was sitting uncomfortably in his seat because of everything he saw, that had led to this point.
He (mostly) knew how to keep his cool, and put on a calm expression. He did it when Number Five and Finn were explaining this mess, he did it when he fought the oil ogre, as a matter of fact, he was doing it right there. But he couldn't do it when he first arrived in this future. Was it the pressure? The rush? The feeling of something looming over him, fate towering and staring into his eyes. What could it be?
Ben looked out the window, asking the outdoors for answers once again. But all he could see was the color green.
The hero looked at the operative, who was focused on the flying, and asked, "You said that we had to go rescue Dexter."
"Which we are."
"But from what, exactly? A larger fusion monster?"
"No, a Fusion Doppleganger." said Number Two, gaining Ben's interest. Realizing he still needed to explain, Two continued. "Since the terrafusers are bonding and infecting Earth, making it more and more a part of Planet Fusion, I guess the same works with Fusion Spawns. All it needs is a DNA sample, and it becomes this...dark, twisted, and even corrupted version of yourself. It has all your powers, your weapons, your clothing, even your face, and the weirdest part? It's not technically shapeshifting."
"How long does that whole assimilating thing happen?"
"A day or two."
What?! A day or two?! The mere thought astounded him. Even if its got an abnormally fast production and growth system, every organism in the universe with something that fast would still take decades just to reach a form resembling an adult. So how can one species, after assimilating matter, do all of that in the span of a few days? "But that's biologically impossible-"
"-for us, and for the rest of the species in the universe, as you guys in the hazmat suits are talking about," Ben found himself taken aback by Number Two's crude summary of the Plumbers. "But the fusions manage to do it faster, and we still don't know how. Add it to the list of other law-altering crap they've done."
They began flying over an area notable for it being the only tree clearing in Tech Square. But much like Tech Square itself, the place was a mess. Ben couldn't recognize it because of the lakes of fusion matter, or the twisted trees, but because it wasn't even built in his time.
"Where are we flying over?" Ben asked.
"Galaxy Gardens, now the Tech Square Infected Zone." said Number Two, towards a questioning Ben in the back. It was clear that he didn't know what an 'infected zone' was, though, but he tried to hide it, much to total failure. "That's what the most infected areas on the planet are called. Normally its when too many of Fuse's Terrafuser machines are in the same place, or if there's a large enough terrafuser; it causes a massive amount of fusion matter to be produced, which alters the gravitational pull of the area. Fusion matter's completely whacko inside. At least we've got the shields..."
"Containment Shields? For quarantine?"
"Yeah, 'couple o' nerds tinkered around with them, now they can actually contain the infection and stop it from spreading into the populated areas. But with Planet Fusion getting closer and all, those shields won't be doing much good soon."
"Why not?"
"Dexter had to reprogram them. The shields have a special kind of locking system to lock onto checkpoints. If the infection inside expands, it will expand too...it can expand to our homes...our bases. Like, we knew the risk with setting this stuff up was that the infected zone would be more concentrated with Fuse's energies, so it would be like a glacier melting and raising sea levels. But...I...I don't know...they just caught us so off-guard..." It was quite obvious that Number Two was holding back his anxiety, there was a large lump in his throat, trying hard to come out.
"You alright, Hoagie?"
"Yeah, 'm fine," he said, "it's just...y'know, I didn't think this is how it would end for me...or anybody..."
Ben didn't know what to say, as he felt a bit of a lump in his throat too. If there was a chance for hope out there somewhere, where would they find it? In a hole? In a junkyard? In the sea of fusion matter, the very thing they were fighting against?
There was hope alright, hope for the enemy. What made matters worse was the thought of how they "acquired" that hope.
A wave of energy caused the vessel to mildly shake, and a visible and seemingly solid part of the shield passed through like a ghost. Two turned around to Ben and nodded, meaning they had made it into the infected zone, and were set to land shortly.
But something still didn't feel right to Ben about all of this. There wasn't any sign of a trap for sure, but after everything that had just happened within the last 30 minutes, Ben suspected something was happening that was making all the humans or heroes...rush for some reason. He called back to Finn saying that 'he was going to die there anyway', he thought that was just sarcastic, or some kind of anti-euphemism that Finn would normally make. But Number Five had actively pushed to go somewhere. So it was clear that they were rushing.
But what could they possibly rushing for? Sure it's the end of the world and all, but the only time someone would be rushing in a battle would be if...
...oh no...
There was no quantifiable or qualifiable way to sugar-coat the situation.
Dexter was screwed.
He was screwed so deep, he could be mistaken for an actual screw.
He continued to hide behind the collection of stalagmites as if it was some type of a fort. He knew that they had fusion matter running through its internal structure, and could fall apart if it wanted to, or worse, if it could form some crazy abomination made out of stalagmites. Yet he continued to hide from the Fusion that slowly searched for him, for whatever it would have been worth.
But what he had hoped the most for was that his message was sent. If there was any bright light in these deep dark caverns, it was in that.
But what came out of the fusion portal a few moments later was much more than hope could have ever offered.
Number Two of the Kids Next Door; their lead technician, pilot, and communications officer...
...and Ben Tennyson, wielder of the Omnitrix, non-acting intergalactic peacekeeper, and also supposed to be dead.
The universe really seemed to have a way of removing light in one area, and letting a light shine in another, Dexter thought. Number Two quickly stood up and patted his clothes, while Ben was taking the time to acknowledge his surroundings. The alien hero, who was once again helpless on the floor looked up at the standing KND operative.
"Dude, how the hell were you able to do that?!" asked an unusually irritated Ben.
Two blinked at him, with no clue as to what he talked about. "Do what?"
"All you had to do was just touch the creepy tentacles, and now we're on our way to the center of the Earth!"
"What, interacting with the lair? Dexter can tell you that-"
"You keep saying that as if there's not enough time to say anything! It's the apocalypse! What the hell is there to keep asking Dexter for?!"
"You know," Two responded, "...you can ask him yourself."
Two's head pointed toward someone behind Ben, to which he turned around saw a face that, for a while, he thought he would never see again.
Dexter. Freakin'. McPherson. In the same attire as always: a mad scientist-type lab coat, that was open enough to expose his black turtle-neck, a white belt with a bronze buckle, and black dress pants and dress shoes (seriously?).
"It is you!" said Dexter. Freakin'. McPherson, in a whispering tone. He was responded with a clasp of hands, and then a really tight hug.
"Thank god! There's someone who's actually sane here!" Ben exclaimed while still hugging, causing the KND operative behind him to huff in frustration.
"Hey! Who decided to use a giant magnet on an oil ogre just to get a transmitter?!" responded Two.
"Will you all keep it down?!" whispered Dexter, pushing himself away from Ben, with great irritation in his voice. Nothing out of the ordinary, "Fusion Buttercup is in the next room, we must stop it before it causes any more damage!"
"Then how about we go kick some alien ass!" exclaimed Ben.
"And then get out of this place as soon as we can-"
"OH COME ON!" Ben exclaimed. He lost his cool yet again, and unknowingly raised his voice, which was the one thing Dexter told him not to do. Moments later, eerie footsteps were heard, and later a literal shot in the dark, sending Ben flying backwards.
"Dammit!" said Dexter, "Two, get it on front!"
"Your front or my front?!"
"MY front!" Dexter said, then turning to the three-quarters conscious Ben, "Ben, be useful, it's hero time!"
Before Ben could object to someone else using his catchphrase, he suddenly felt another blast of energy hit his chest, and next he felt himself being thrust from the ground and onto the cave floor, yet again; he turned around to see what his attacker was and once he managed to focus on it, he saw...Buttercup.
Buttercup of the Powerpuff Girls?
But...something was horribly, horribly wrong; it made Ben question why he confused this being for Buttercup in the first place. She was bigger in size, her skin was a very bubbly light green, her normal attire was completely black, and her eyes were glowing transluscent red. There were sparks of lightning that flew across her jaw that formed something akin to a smile, not the reassuring kind for sure. Her hands were shaking insanely, as were her feet, and head, as if there was something bothering her, or if there was something uncomfortable in her attire. But that wouldn't happen to her, no, these were shakes of insanity, of complete and utter cruelty. And she was not Buttercup.
Not she...it. It was a fusion doppleganger. The Fusion Doppleganger that was keeping Dexter busy.
Dexter took out a large, wrench-like staff and attacked Fusion Buttercup's legs, while Ben slammed the Omnitrix and became Big Chill, and attacked from above and aimed for its chest using its ice breath. Number Two took out a standard KND custard gun, and shot at its chest. It was a deadly combat, with the Fusion itself not restraining to fire some of Buttercup's laser vision back at the heroes; nobody noticed the thin flow of fusion matter that crept along the ground and entered the cage-fight in the battleground, and Number Two certainly didn't notice it be absorbed by the Fusion doppleganger. A roar of fury sounded out as Fusion Buttercup threw itself to Number Two, its legs were dripping fusion matter because of the damage sustained. With the KND operative firmly in its grip, Fusion Buttercup flew up and away from Dexter and Ben, and away from their efforts to get their friend back.
Number Two struggled, trying to pry off the Fusion's grip on his arms. Lightning cackled once again to form a smile around the supposed mouth of Fusion Buttercup. The next thing Number Two felt was pain, unimaginable pain that extended as far down to his feet, and as far up as the top layer of his neck. He didn't know what the Fusion was doing to him, he couldn't pin-point where this pain was coming from as it came closer and closer to his head and brain. But luckily for Number Two, its grip loosened, and the pain stopped almost immediately. It was still there, of course, but was severely dilated. Number Two opened his eyes to see that the Fusion was focused on something else.
"Hey!" screamed someone from behind the Fusion, causing it to turn around, and meet the stoic face of Big Chill.
Ben tackled the Fusion, releasing Two from its grasp. Ben breathed ice onto Fusion Buttercup's face, and proceeded to endlessly punch it in its (non-existent) guts with his cold fists. This resulted in Fusion Buttercup squirming and spasming violently, as the damage it sustained became too much to handle, it began to lose its form entirely. It sprouted tentacle-like extrusions from its chest, eight of them, one of which threw Ben across the cavern and against the wall, knocking him out, not only from impact, but from the rush too. He was panting heavily afterwords.
It threw one of its extrusions into Dexter and shattered a large stalagmite with another. Number Two burst from the side as the rubble hit the ground, nearly hitting Ben. Now armed only with a small pistol that greatly resembled a plank of wood with a mouse-trap duct-taped to another plank, a glowing piece of mush that looked a lot like ice cream, and a trigger attached to the bottom, Number Two jumped behind a stalagmite and made no hesitation to shoot at the Fusion.
But his efforts were once again foiled as Fusion Buttercup walked toward Two menacingly, and shoved him aside mercilessly. It made its way to a defeated, and now human, Ben. The hair began to fall off its head, clothes began to fuse into its body, resembling a smudge of different paint colors. It was violently losing its form and shape. Its eyes began to glow eerily as it flew up, ready to obliterate the alien hero. Suddenly, it stopped. Its head began to spasm uncontrollably, as did its body a few moments later. When she fell to her knees, Dexter stood, mightier and taller than ever before, holding the Fusion's torso by the edges of his wrench-staff, applying a high-voltage electric shock to her entire body, causing it to fall apart quite quickly.
Dexter removed his trident-like weapon from its body, and all three heroes stared down at the quickly melting monster. "She is finished." proclaimed Dexter.
"Opposite of everything, huh?" said a now fully alert Ben to Number Two. "That explains (pant) why she wasn't as tough as t-(pant) the real Buttercup!"
"Are you actually being serious right now?" said Number Two, holding his back like an old man, recovering from the massive amount of pain he endured.
"Ye-(pant) no, she was pretty freaking tough."
"Now, there is no time to lose, Ben, did you collect enough fusion matter from any time before?"
Oh crap, Ben thought, he forgot to do the one thing that Finn told him not to forget to do! Damnit, he thought, I should have remembered, but why didn't I?
"You do not have much, do you?" realized Dexter, "Very well, we must all accumulate our resources for this one."
"I-I don't understand," said Ben, "what are we doing?"
"Remember the extra-things I told you about that help us fight the fusions? You're about to find out about one of them."
"Unfortunately, Number Two, we only have enough time to concoct it." said Dexter. "Ben, do you have a NanoCom with a fusion matter meter?"
Ben was taken aback, he thought his friend would take the time to even catch up, or have a little small talk. But instead, he was jumping straight to work, just as always. Some people never change, thought Ben.
He paused for a moment before taking out Finn's NanoCom, and handing it to the scientist extending his hand. "Excellent, Number Two, we will need whatever fusion matter and imagination energy you have." Dexter popped out a holographic interface from his worn out, purple gloves, and began typing immediately, but not before tossing Number Two a set of beakers. He also pulled out his NanoCom, and realized a large pillar-like supercomputer on top of the melting Fusion. Two took a sample of the fusion matter, which was spliced with Buttercup's personal DNA, and inserted it (somehow) into the machine. Dexter's glasses were lighted from the holographic image in front of him, making look like the opposite of an idiot, which Ben had presumed earlier.
With a few more clicks on the keyboard, Dexter took a step back, the Fusion Matter began to rise from Fusion Buttercup's carcass, and began to then wrap itself around a sphere of energy on the top of the supercomputer; the sphere began to glow bright white, filling the darkness of the cavern, before glowing red. To Ben's wonder, he saw...
...a miniature version of Buttercup. Her clothing was like how she first met Ben, except with a dark green scarf of some kind with it, and it seemed like all of it was fused on to her body, her head was enlarged, and her overall appearance was more...cartoonish.
Like Buttercup was a cartoon to begin with, thought Ben as he mentally rolled his eyes.
"Success." said Dexter, with no grin, yet a sound of pleasantry. "Number Two, trap the Nano."
"Yessir." said Number Two, sarcastically. Taking Finn's NanoCom, he held it up high and a red laser shot off it, which caused the miniature Buttercup to glow red, and disappear. Ben's jaw dropped in horror, as he thought Dexter had just disintegrated a living, breathing being.
"DUDE!"
"Relax," said Number Two, "the Nano is safe, its main energy and everything that was in it was stored inside here." he continued as he gave the NanoCom back to Ben, who still didn't understand how they were able to do that.
"Mandark will have to explain the science to you, I'm afraid," said Dexter, somehow reading Ben's confusion, but not where it mattered most, "because there is not enough time for that."
"Okay, enough!" exclaimed Ben. Dexter and Number Two were both looking at him now, as if he'd done something wrong. Ben persisted anyway. "I want to know, why the hell are we rushing so much?! Why are you dragging me on with this stuff, when, as a Plumber by the way, I have a right to know!"
"Fine, you want the truth? You want to know why we are in such a rush?" exclaimed Dexter, walking towards Ben very fast. "Well then, do you feel it, Ben? The shifting in your shoes, the rumbling in the ground?" Ben took a step back, and realized that Dexter was right, the ground was rumbling and shaking more by every passing second.
"You did not time-jump into the battle of Tech Square, you time-jumped into its evacuation.", said Dexter, which shocked Ben as to what it meant for the situation; his suspicions being confirmed, even though he didn't want them to be, Ben continued listening. "This city has already been lost, and despite our best efforts, we cannot do anything. Siyenn City will crumble, and after this, the only safe place on the planet for you before Planet Fusion absorbs the world will be in the suburbs of Townsville and Bellwood."
"But you, Ben. You can undo all of this. All the devastation. All the lives lost. All of everything," said Dexter, the grammatical error in the last part of his sentence being pronounced, because he never made those. "if we can send you back to the past, none of this death and destruction will have ever happened. And between bright and well-known minds like Howard over there-"
"Hogarth."
"-we can manage this. We can save our world, for good."
Ben, having enough experience in being told overwhelming things; he took a step back, and finally understood the need to rush. The apocalypse was a scenario without hope. There wouldn't be an even slight chance that everyone will get to live happily-ever-after. But here, he could change everything, he could warn Dexter ahead of time, there could be extra resources to fight, there could be a much more cooperative resistance.
This really could save the world, for good.
"I'll do it." said Ben, "Now let's get outta here."
"I will have to stay back, unfortunately," said Dexter, surprising Ben and Number Two, and halting them in their steps toward the fusion portal. "There is an important set of data I must send to Mandark, and it is paramount that he receives them. I will try to meet up with you at the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Now go!" he said as the cavern began to shake more and more frequently.
And without hesitation, Number Two and Ben exited the Fusion Lair.
Number Two once again baffled Ben with his interaction with the tentacles of the fusion portal, but not enough to stray away from the mission at hand. Ben quickly grabbed hold of Two's arms, the same places that Fusion Buttercup held him in, causing the KND operative to wince in pain. But such pain was unrivaled by the horror they faced when they stepped out of the tentacles.
More buildings were crumbling. Cries of war turned into cries of terror. Behind them, Tech Square was slowly sinking into the green sea of fusion matter; buildings were crumbling, soldiers were screaming, all of these were quickly silenced, as if they weren't there in the first place. The infected zone containment shields surrounding the Galaxy Gardens were still standing, but the issue was that Ben could not see the other side of the shields, or the garden.
Fuse was wiping it clean off Earth's map. Whatever hope was left was running short of itself. But Ben, who was looking around at the devastation, knew this wasn't the end. He immediately turned back to Number Two.
"Two!" he said, "We need to extract everyone now!"
"But what if they're in the middle of someth-"
"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" Ben exclaimed. "We can't hold Tech Square anymore, right? We can deal with it later! But we need to go while we still can! So let's GO!"
At that instant, Numbuh Two understood what Ben meant. He pulled out his NanoCom, and said, "All surviving Kids Next Door Operatives! Get out of here before it's too late! You have the greenlight to rendevous at Sector V! And...also, can some pick us u-"
And then, as if the U.S. Navy came in, a platoon of S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s soared in a 'V' formation. Ben turned around to see the formation breaking and splitting off into different areas. It almost brought a smile to his face.
Not that long after, a group of two or three S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s began to land on the ground. The second they landed, both of them jumped onto the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s, firing at the monsters as they boarded. The spawns tried to bite on to the ledge, only to be met with a gun to the face. They then quickly took off towards the suburbs, which was already short on defenses itself, so they had to get there fast. As the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s landed, Numbuh Five, who was also on the S.C.A.M.P.E.R, instantly talked into her NanoCom, "Welcome aboard boys!"
The moment the doors opened to reveal Five and the ship's interior, Two darted inside, skipping past and ignoring a fusion matter puddle. "Whoever's flying, it's my turn!" shouted Number Two, as Ben and Number Five sat down and buckled themselves in. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. made a careful and graceful exit from the infected zone, flying high as the skyscrapers sunk into the tranquil but toxic green sea.
Everyone inside seemed relieved, joyous that the horror was over and they could head home.
But suddenly, as if held by a towcable, the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. halted.
The interior shook. Everyone recoiled in surprise, with Five being a little more irritated. "Two! The anchor got loose again!"
"It's not the tow-anchor!" Two exclaimed. "I don't know what's happening!"
Something was keeping the ship from flying into the air. Ben quickly realized that it was what Finn had told him about. It was the gravitational disturbances caused by the terrafusers infecting the Earth. But it didn't make much sense, the rubble was flying upwards when he last checked, so why was it holding them down? Then it hit him.
Fuse had control of not just the weather, but now the gravity of Earth as well, and he was toying with them all along. Making them believe they had a fighting chance. As more masses of land would succumb to the fusion matter, so would Lord Fuse's dominion over the very balance of the planet. Ben believed that Fuse would probably use this move in the future, and made a mental note to remember it. Five, having also realized the same thing soon after exchanging looks with Ben, shouted across the ship. "Set up the anti-gravity generators NOW!"
"That might screw with the thrusters! Plus it could alter the S.C.A.M.P.E.R's navigation program and disrupt our course!"
"ENGLISH!"
"We may not be able to control the ship, Five! If we don't crash into the containment shields, we'll crash into the fusion sea!"
Gritting her teeth, she made a tough call. "It's our only way out of here without sinking into fusion matter!" Five retorted. She was not in the mood for the odds. "Now SET 'EM UP!"
"Just need one second..."
Slowly, the hull began to moan and grind, twist and turn out of shape. They were closer to the ground than they were when they landed in the infected zone. The ground was trying to assimilate them.
"HURRY!" Ben freaked out.
"C'mon...and...BOOM!" exclaimed Two.
As the anti-gravity generators began powering up, Ben could feel them slowly rising, along with two distinct hums from the rear. He didn't think there'd be a calm before the storm.
So the storm came when Two shouted to everyone, "Hold on to your lunchbox!"
And before anyone in the ship knew it, the ship was flying at its top speed, rocketing into the green sky, and staring danger right in its face. For a very long moment, all seemed fine, but of course, in the Fusion War, nothing stays fine forever. This was proven as a piece of building suddenly damaged the side of the hull, rocking the vessel and nearly knocking it off course.
"Incoming!" Number Two shouted as more large pieces of rubble began rising, and falling spontaneously. Needless to say, it was like a roller-coaster, only twice as intense, and 10 times more horrifying. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. continued to rock back and forth as it rose higher and higher in the fusion matter-ridden atmosphere. The ship began to violently shake, fitting the intensity of the situation perfectly. Terrified expressions grew on all the KND agents, along with Ben, which resulted in a lot of squinting and gritting teeth. It may have been a roller-coaster ride, only this roller-coaster ride gave you the option out. Many were questioning what they were still doing in that ship, and others began praying as more rubble rose and fell, denting the hull with showers of projectiles.
It even broke the S.C.A.M.P.E.R's front windows, catching everyone by surprise. They all covered their hands and shrieked, protecting themselves from the sharp glass as the ship continued climbing.
It did not deter Number Two, though. A cut was left on his cheek, but it was no big deal. He kept looking above the shattered glass, hoping to find where the infected zone ended, as now their locked positions were floating adrift in the sea. As long as they could get past the barrier, they would be safe. But nothing could be seen for miles with the naked eye. With a huff of frustration, he propped his feet up to drive the S.C.A.M.P.E.R...while managing the pilot control panel. Quickly setting up a shield-tracker, he now had a new course. Hauling himself forward, the ship leveled out, and began flying straight. Two could now see the end point, the drifting shield. Flipping a switch calmly as chaos ensued behind him, he finally escaped the infected zone.
This finally allowed the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. to leave gravitational distortion field created by the terrafusers, allowing Two, and the rest of the passengers, to breath a heavy sigh of relief. They could go home with only a few nightmares tonight.
But Ben, after pausing for a moment to catch his breath, asked an important question. He hated thinking about it, knowing that it would ruin whatever victory was won here. But it had to be asked.
"Is this all that's left?"
Just as he had expected, the sighs stopped, and an uneasy silence took over.
"There are a couple others in the other S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s, but the others...I don't know..." said Number Two, with much more pronounced sadness in his voice, despite being brave enough to answer Ben's question. This feeling echoed through the ship, creating a drift that could not be interrupted. Yet Ben had to know, he turned to Five, who's head was looking out the window, unsure of whether she was looking at herself, or former technological marvels sinking down into the infected sea of fusion matter.
Ben looked out the side of his window, and saw the crumbling headquarters of Dexlabs Inc, and realized that Dexter may have never made it out of the laboratory. He turned to the cockpit of the ship.
"Two? Dexter...is he on the other ship?"
Number Two turned around to face him, "We can't establish short-range contact right now, or it'll reveal our position. We'll find out when we land." Ben nodded back, and returned to facing the floor, noticing Number Five's feet also, he turned up to her.
"Finn?" Ben asked, wondering about the fate of his good friend; even if he wasn't seen with Five, he could only expect the best, since Finn was a skilled hero for sure. But Number Five didn't respond, and instead lowered her head, which left Ben to do the same. There was another moment of silence, much shorter than the last.
Ben always understood Number Five's coolness, she felt that she needed to be a role model, she felt herself to be the glue of her KND sector, and if she showed her emotions, the team would fall apart quickly. But here, she had every right to show her emotions, most of her friends were dead now, so there was no need to be 'cool'. "You don't seem to be-"
"Y'know it wasn't just Finn who fought 'till the end, Numbuh One was down there too, and Numbuh Five knew him way longer than that kid from Ooo," she said, with a profound amount of distance in her voice, as if she was trying hard to act cool as always.
"So why-"
"So when you see so many of your friends get taken away, you get used to it...and then, you're cool with it." Number Five's wording may have euphemized the point she tried to get across, but it hit just as hard. Ben didn't know how to react, he didn't know what to say. For the first time in his life...
...he didn't know what to say.
Number Two was multi-tasking in the pilot's seat, one hand on the controller, and the other on the computer. He was talking to a hologram of someone, and their conversation could be heard "Mandark, please tell me that you got some kind, any kind, of message from Dex. Please."
"I keep telling you Hogarth, I never got anything like what you are describing," voiced the hologram of Simon Astronomonov, "But I can theorize what it was actually for. The time machine."
Ben chuckled a bit, it was always like Mandark could read Dexter's mind.
"Don't worry though," Mandark reassured, "I already knew the plans."
What should have felt like a sense of relief and joy, did not bode well for Ben. If the message was not sent in time, then tough luck. But if Mandark knew what the message would have been all along, then Dexter risked his life for nothing?! Anger boiled inside Ben for Mandark's idiotic mistake. If long-range communication reduced the chances of location, then Mandark could have easily have been informed of Ben's arrival, and have asked everyone to pull out. But no, Mandark did the stupid thing, yet again!
"A-Alright, we're getting closer to Sector V," said Number Two, "We're gonna have to cut you off."
"Sure." said Mandark's hologram, before fading out. Two found himself to be sweating profusely, which was something that he, despite his appearance, didn't normally do. "Hey...F-Five, can you take the wheel?" he asked, "I'm not feeling too cool..."
"Yeah...sure..." she responded as she got up and took over from Two, who sat across from Ben. Whose head was still spinning. He couldn't feel his wrists because of the anger he felt. He wondered as to whether he should cut them off to make himself feel better, but without wrists, he had no place to put the omnitrix. No omnitrix, no hope. But he couldn't feel his wrists under this pressure anyway, so hope or no hope...
...what difference did it make?
THE PAST: MAY 23 - 2014 - SECTOR V TREEHOUSE
Number Two loved his job; he loved his life. He could listen in on KND transmissions, even the ones not limited to his sector (he'd have to thank the TND for that position) and be the most alert during missions. It made him feel...omnipresent...whatever that meant...
Number Two ran his daily systems and communications check with ease, as his chair swiveled back and forth, he flipped the switches needed for authentication, control, and monitoring. And before he knew it, Sector V's communication systems were now in sync with the rest of the KND frequencies on Earth.
But was his work truly done? Oh no. He had to establish contact with the Moon Base next.
Number 362 had changed her codes recently, so this one would be tricky. Two pulled his magic on the keyboard, and before he himself knew it, the Moon Base frequencies were in sync.
But was his work truly done? Oh no. He had to establish contact with the Outer Rim bases next. He grinned at this part, mainly because it made a rad sound when it worked.
Luckily for him, the Outer Rim bases hadn't reported anything about their codes being changed, so this would be much easier than the Moon Base.
He prepared for authentication to come through, and that sweet, sweet sound!
WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO
Wait, that wasn't the sound he wanted!
That was the near opposite of the sound he wanted!
It made him jump out of his seat, causing him to fall down. Shaking his head as the sound kept going on, he looked at the monitor detailing the communications error.
"Huh?" he said, now a little calmer, "That's weird..." He tried a recalibration of the system settings...
WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO
...only to be met with that same stupid sound.
Maybe if he tried calibrating the frequency for each individual planet, "Uh...Pluto Base? Come in Pluto Base. This is Number Two of the Kids Next Door Sector V on Earth. Please stop eating or something and respond!"
No response.
WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO
Number Two's panic modes were beginning to rise quite quickly. Was this an attack by Father? Or the Boss? Whatever notorious adult was behind it, if one KND base was out of sync, the entire system could fall apart! Then, an even worse thought came to mind: if Pluto Base was experiencing the effects of some kind of virus, or invasion, who knows how long it would take for the other bases to be infected!
"Number One'll kill me!" Two exclaimed, and quickly brought up a program that ran calibrations on all the frequency codes, and to his horror, it was just as he feared.
"That can't be good!" he proclaimed.
"No, that can't be good at all!" he proclaimed again as various computer screens detailed that there was no signal on Jupiter Base, Pluto Base, Saturn Base, Venus Base, and Uranus Base...
WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO
WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO
WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO
WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO
As what was once the easiest job became a possible catastrophe, he felt a bit of pressure on his wrists...
WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO WEE-DOO
DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL - CHAPTER 2: A Future with Fuse
It was probably a mistake to say that the next chapter would come 1 week after the first. But hey, just in time (a little late) for Cartoon Network's 25th Anniversary!
So, you may have a lot of questions, but some are best left unanswered, but do express your concerns in a PM or review.
Now, in terms of characters, it may seem confusing as to why I'm jumping straight into the full character roster and introducing character relationships without any introduction, like how and why Finn the Human is in the normal world and how does he know Ben. Trust me when I say that it's all a part of the grand-er design. It may not be obvious now, but I have big plans for all of this. As to what the hell an 'anthro' is, it is the term used for an anthropomorphic animal that shares certain human characteristics, such as bi-pedal walking, talking, having jobs, talking, sharing human lifespans, and talking. Its going to be my go-to explanation for animal characters like Mordecai & Rigby, Gumball & Darwin, Lazlo and co., etc. Animals who aren't anthros are called non-anthros, and for those types to talk or walk is a very rare phenomenon, like with Courage the Cowardly Dog, Scooby-Doo, Dukey from JT, or Munroe, for some examples.
Also, if the visual image I presented of the Future wasn't convincing enough, then I recommend referencing FusionFall: Legacy's impressive version of Tech Square. You can find their showcase video on their YouTube channel, and I based my tech square off of theirs...or, I tried to.
I should also stress what I said about the reviews. I only got 2 for the first chapter, which is fine, but please, do more. It's an amazing feeling to get reviews. To see others across the country, or even around the world, admire your work gives this feeling of professionalism that can't be obtained by being a normal kid at school. Though after this chapter, I'll be taking a small and very short hiatus from this story, because school is happening now, and I have to get back into the mood, especially since my school uses the IGCSE system, and some of our mock papers are this month.
Anyway, I'll be seeing you next time!
NEXT CHAPTER: Get REddy
-end transmission
