Bold = Emphasis/Commentary
Italic = Emphasis/small memory moment
[] = Artificial Intelligence/Android Speech
THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015 - SECTOR V - HERO'S SQUARE
It would be an understatement to say Ben loved statues.
No doubt they could be creepy as hell, of course. The idea of a figure being trapped in one position, never to return or strike back was a sad fate to be in, to be immortalized through. But what Ben Tennyson loved about them is that it could provide guidance, inspiration, hope for a brighter future. Eventually, when he could change his name to Ben 10,000, he too would get a statue erected in his honor. It would be awesome. Ben actively waited for that kind of day to come. In fact, he wouldn't have minded it happening a little earlier.
What Ben saw before him was not how he had pictured this to happen. It was the sight of Hero's Square, at Sector V - or whatever was left of it - with a statue erected in his honor, that made him think otherwise.
The thought of him being considered dead was one thing, to be kept up as a false sense of hope. Seeing others, like Blossom, Number One, and now Finn, alongside him in a pantheon of heroes was another thing entirely. It was heavy on his head to deal with: they were dead, they couldn't be brought back, and now their images, the ones that had inspired so many, and pushed people to be better than even themselves, were being used as nothing but protest boards. They were only there to remind the remaining heroes that there was still something to fight for, with their cheerful faces in an immovable stasis. But no matter how manny cheerful faces they carved and created, they were all behind an immovable truth.
Statues were creepy that way.
To be trapped in one position, never to see the light of day again, never to move again, never to return...
...never to strike back...
Were they like statues right now?
Insignificant pieces of pebble that Fuse would step on...and crush?
Dexter had certainly fit in that position, as a few hours earlier, Ben had found no trace of his friend on any of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s that made it out of Tech Square. It was sad, that Dexter not only failed in getting out of Tech Square, but also failed in the one thing he had to do...
...and that even that was a pointless effort.
The teenaged hero tried to distract himself from the immovable fate before him, and walked around the monument slowly, but it didn't help. He saw the wounded below the statues, their agony reflected on him, he could almost feel their pain. He saw by the west end an orange dog, crouched up in a fetal position, and instantly recognized him as Jake, Finn's adoptive brother from Ooo. Ben looked at him with sadness, he knew what it was like to lose someone in the family, but he couldn't bring himself to comfort him. So he kept walking away, speechless and thoughtless.
Behind him was the Sector V treehouse - or what ever was left of it anyway - that reached the corner of Ben's eye, and tried to make him turn around. The treehouse was slanted, leaning on the edge of fate as their position was being forgotten quickly; word was that Sector V got themselves a massive anti-gravity generator from Dexlabs, and their base became a floating island (held down by many chains of course), but an attack from Fusion Number Two had occured, using bomb-like fusion monsters to damage the generator, and nearly resulting in the fall of Sector V. It remained slanted, but unlike the tower of Pisa which had a feeling of mystery and beauty to it, this was frightening at best.
Ben didn't look though, and continued walking around Hero's Square, no matter how much it taunted him. He pondered on what he had to do next. They had gotten out of Tech Square, but now what? The time machine wouldn't be finished for days, and there wasn't much he could do. Hell, he wasn't even sure that the time machine could be completed at all. He thought about going to a terrafuser, any terrafuser, and just waiting for spawns, or monsters to jump out. He hoped so that could transform into Wildmutt, or Humungousaur, both of which prevented him from normal speech, so he could just pound them and pound them for all that was lost, until he eventually tired out. But that wouldn't bring this anymore towards the end, right?
He sat down to contemplate, on whatever could come to his mind at the moment.
The alien hero then heard a bit of static in his ears, the nanites in them were vibrating, trying to work something out, but what? The vibrating became less and less, as the static turned to words, and words to sentences. At that point, Ben heard a very familiar voice in his head.
[Good afternoon, Benjamin] said a voice, that Ben turned around to face, but surprisingly, no person was there. He tried to observe his surroundings more carefully, speculating that this was just some bad prank. He turned around again, but this time he faced something rather unexpected: it had the colors of a standard-issue Dexbot, royal blue with green and aquamarine highlights, but the design of this one had obviously much more advanced hardware; a white glow emanated from inside its model and its overall body had...a more...uh...f-feminine shape...
"C-Computress?"
[Correct] she replied, [I am relieved to see that you escaped Tech Square unharmed. Many soldiers are seeing your arrival as a sign of hope, and it is quite relieving on my end as well.] Ben was flabbergasted by all that, a sign of hope? Him? How could there be a sign of hope when the sign of hope couldn't hope for an ounce of hope? [Before we can reconstruct the time machine, you must learn vital pieces of information that, when necessary, will increase our advantage in the Fusion War]
"O-One at a time, what?"
[Theory - you have been through much within the past 2 hours, you much have questions for what you have seen, or moreso, experienced in the heat of battle] analyzed the AI. [Are you satisfied with my analysis?]
"One thing doesn't add up, though" he said. "Uh...w-what's...with the...uh"
[This model was created to store and mobilize my hard-drive] said Computress, [Product Result: Successful; Importance Percentile - 15-27 - Not important]
"S-Sure" said Ben, feeling very uncomfortable about the AI's new look. He quickly changed the subject to something else. "My-My ears, huh?"
[I told you that day that we would be setting up a communications channel, no? Argument - illogical]
"What? I wasn't able to contact you at all! It must've been broken or something when I got here!" Ben exclaimed. "Your argument is illogical!"
[Impossible, I am an artificial intelligence housed in an android model. I define logic] said Computress bluntly, but that only made the retort worse for Ben, [Inquiry: Where did you think I would place our communications channel?]
"I dunno, a NANOCOM?!"
[Argument #3 - Illogical; NanoComs were not prepped for that type of activity at the tim-] said Computress, halting in her own words, [information reassessment begi- This argument is illogical; analysis proves the hub stationed in your nanites seemed to have failed in entry to the timestream]
Wonderful, Ben thought, my best friend just died and I got burned by his computer.
[There is plenty to do in the meantime of waiting for the time machine] Computress explained, [You obviously have many questions, Mr. Tennyson, follow me for answers]
He figured from that point that she didn't have the 'answers', she obviously was busy guiding the other fusion fighters and making sure they stay alive. The only other person with 'answers' was...the other guy.
"Are we...going to see him?"
[Affirmative, Benjamin,] said Computress, turning her floating mechanized body towards the hero. [It is time for you to meet Simon Astronomonov.]
Reluctantly, Ben thought.
He stepped into the dark, isolated room in the Treehouse with no hesitation. Dark rooms would normally irk him, or make him extremely cautious. But he felt so much anger that he couldn't give a damn about what was around him.
The guy he was meeting, on the other hand, he didn't want to give a damn about, because of how much he had played 'the villain' within one day. And it pained Ben to have to realize that ultimately...
...he was his last hope.
As expected, the large black & red doors slid open, and the blinding red lights from the room shined on Ben's face, and quickly refocused to find himself in a crimson red laboratory. It must have been off-site, because Mandark wouldn't have normally come to Sector V, much less its Treehouse, to work.
"I have been expecting you, Benjamin," said Mandark, behind his large chair. Ben returned no response, however.
In fact, Mandark could hear heavy breathing. Restrained, but heavy. The clenching of fists was also a somewhat audible sound within the silent distance between them.
"We...have much to discuss...regarding the time machine." he said. No response.
"You...must also have some questions about what you were able to do back there, as well as what you saw Number Two and Dexter do...no?" he asked. No response.
"Is there...something you would like to say?" he asked. Response.
Ben gritted his teeth again under his lips, and tried to hide his trembling fists. "You should have saved them. You should have saved them all back in Tech Square." Ben started to say, "You should have called it in when you had the chance."
"Well," the scientist began, after a brief pause, "I did not. I could have, but I did not, and there is not much I can do about it. I am sorry."
"You should have saved them." Ben continued to repeat, "you were supposed to; it would hav-"
"'Supposed to'?" he said, his voice very nonchalant. "No, I do not believe in fate. It stops me from making conscientious decisions."
"Yet you forgot about the one conscientious decision that mattered."
Mandark paused in typing, and turned around in his swiveling chair, revealing himself to the person behind him. His wardrobe remained uncannily unchanged from how Ben saw him last. He still sported that same tie, white shirt, and striped suspenders, with the only thing standing out being a pair of dress pants, rather than shorts.
"And what, pray tell, may that be," Mandark said, now looking Ben directly in the eye, behind his large, thick, crescent-shaped glasses. "The loss of my friend, or the fact that we now have the most crucial advantage to winning this year-long war?"
Ben could only get more angry at this appearance, because last time, Mandark thought himself to be proactive by adding an extra force that could have destroyed the first terrafusers, but, as both of them knew well, that didn't work and everything went to hell.
That same thing happened yet again, and Mandark thought he was saving time and increasing chances of success...yet again.
Those same clothes weren't odd to Ben, they were just a sign that some people just don't change.
"I don't know, which one matters more to you?"
"Both, Mr. Tennyson." Mandark responded, "But as history has proven over and over again, no one gets more than one gift in life, not even a Morebuck." Noticing Ben's flabbergasted expression, Mandark forced himself to continue, "It would just be up to you, or myself, to assess the situation accordingly." The cold-hearted genius turned around and resumed typing.
"And boy did you do a good job..." Ben muttered, finding himself turning towards a dilapidated advertisement for Mandark Industries. Its ever-so-famous slogan read 'Genius by any standard'.
"'Genius by any standard', huh?" Ben said, catching Mandark's attention. "Does that count for genocidal stupidity?!"
Mandark did nothing to seem anymore enraged by Ben's insults, and simply turned back to Ben. "I am sorry, but these ignorant and frustrated attacks on me are not going to help anyone right now." Mandark said, the tone in his voice rising steadily. "No one committed genocide but Fuse. I cannot be blamed for what Fuse did, and what happened was a consequence of insufficient aid and forces."
"Well WHAT DID YOU THINK, GENIUS?! WHAT MADE YOU THINK THAT DITCHING YOUR FRIEND WOULD HAVE HELPED ANYMORE?!" said Ben, as angry as a pack of bulls. "You may have been Dexter's best friend, and his rival, but what else were you? You weren't there when we needed you the most. You probably already predicted the whole time jump error thing, and you knew when I could have come! You knew about his plans to send someone back to the past! But he risked his life, and everyone else's life just to get those plans to you!" Ben shouted across the laboratory, expecting a response from the cold, calculating scientist.
But he didn't. As a matter of fact, Mandark stood there, his head tilted slightly down in shame. But his guilt quickly disappeared and he retorted as fast as a road runner would with a coyote.
"You've seen what those creatures can truly do, right?"
"Y-Yeah?"
"Did you really look around you?" asked Mandark. "Did you see how many people were dying, being ripped apart, dying of fusion matter infection, or even drinking a glass of water?! Our forces are stretched out at the maximum possible level, and we could possibly be all that is left of this planet. As for the people who died back there? Half of them suffered those excruciating paths so you could even be alive. Here and now. So before you come here, and barrage me with your pitiful micro-aggressions, you understand that the fusions would have followed us here if there was an early evacuation; we needed to convince them that they had won the battle!"
"That's not good enough damnit!" Ben said, slamming his hand down on the table.
"Well then, what would you change?! What would you change?!" shouted Mandark, causing Ben to retreat in thought. "Precisely my point, the present is past, but the future is still the future. The only way you could ever undo all of this is to get into that time machine, when it is ready."
"W-what if nothing works out?" asked Ben, "What if you screw this up again, and everything goes to hell?!"
"Scientists sometimes believe in coincidences, but we do not believe in failure." he explained, "All we believe in is results. So, you shall see for yourself."
Mandark and Ben were silent for a while after that, both somewhat exhausted from their argument. Mandark, however, was not yet finished, and continued on.
"If you think that I didn't regret sending out the call earlier, I did," said Mandark, "But it was 100 people...over 5,000."
"It's not good enough." Ben repeated.
"Dexter would have made the same judgement, no matter how cold, so you could make it here." Mandark attempted to reason. "I know because he...he was my friend too...he was never able to predict me, yet I was always able to predict him..."
Ben found himself defeated in this argument, and exerted whatever hate he had for one, final insult: "You're a real prick, y'know?"
Mandark ignored the insult, turned around, and resumed work on his computer. But he found himself to have halted in typing, and his mouth moving. "Scientists sometimes believe in coincidences, and while your time of arrival proved itself to be one, the circumstances that lead up to this...could not have been any kind of coincidence. If anything, I could go as far as to say...it is a blessing."
Ben raised a brow at what Mandark said. "I thought you didn't believe in fate."
"You do not have to believe in fate to disregard the scientifically questionable."
Once again, silence consumed the room, as Mandark waited hesitantly for Ben's response.
"You really do...don't you?" he asked. Mandark only looked at the alien hero with a hidden expression due to his glasses, and returned to his work.
Number Five marched her way to Hero's Square. She was tired, obviously, and her legs were aching from so much running back in Tech Square. Going back and forth from S.C.A.M.P.E.R to S.C.A.M.P.E.R had been both terrifying and exhausting, so much so that she could have dropped on the ground at that very moment. But she knew she couldn't.
The mission alert she received from Computress was a priority-1 level to it. Whatever the mission was, it had to be related to Ben. That was all the talk going around Sector V at the moment. Ben, Ben, Ben. There were whispers, or even shouts and jumps of joy. Five didn't understand that. Just because one guy came from the past, it wouldn't mean that all is hunky-dory. No, one guy from the past with absolutely no intention of coming here wouldn't even know his way back home. Sure, she had some enthusiasm, as did Finn.
And look where that got 'im.
She didn't understand any of it. None of it at all, and then she saw the people who thought alike. Jake the Dog was still sitting there, all miserable. She didn't have the strength to tell him how Finn died, or whether or not it meant anything in the long run. She was the only one to see the kid meet his end, but she pushed it down deep inside, so much so that she couldn't possibly remember herself. Finn did something similar, she remembered, he had a 'vault' in his noggin where all the trauma and confusion went forever.
Wait, no. No, no, no. She regretted even thinking about it. And down into the vault it went.
She focused towards Computress' mobile body, with her mission assignment ready at hand.
"You asked for me?" Number Five said to Computress once she got near enough.
[Greetings, Number Five] Computress greeted her with pre-programmed joyful voice. [I am happy to see you made it out of Tech Square! New mission - Detail?]
"Sure."
[Mission brief - loading] Computress loaded the mission within milliseconds, [Operation: Investigation; Relaying Providence data: An unnamed citizen was found in the Goat's Junkyard Infected Zone. Providence agents have retrieved him, and have attempted interrogation. Unusual aspects: the boy seems to be rambling, saying that something of great importance was lost to fusion monsters before him being found by our forces. Subject is asking to go retrieve this item.]
"So what? You want me to step into hell to get the kid's action figure?" Five asked irritably.
[Not necessarily; Observe: reports from last week put together by the Urban Rangers Science Division show signs of unknown disturbances in the Junkyard, unlike that of the usual fusion-matter infection and gravitational anomalies. They say it was emanating from a specific center point.]
"And?"
[The boy's ramblings include knowledge of science pertaining to quantum mechanics and relative theory, and the strange disturbances seem to have some co-relation.] Computress finished. [I would like you to investigate this to find the co-relation]
"And prove what theory?"
[Working theory: disturbances related to relative theory - may help in reconstruction of the time machine] Computress explained. [Mission priority: High; Recommended to accept - A companion will be waiting for you when you arrive to help you with this important task; do you accept the mission, Number Five?]
"Yeah." Five responded without much thought. Conveniently the S.C.A.M.P.E.R was exactly where she last parked it. She ran towards the hulking green ship and slid open its large door. The whole time, Computress was simply watching her from behind. Five found it suspicious as to why. The AI must have really regarded this mission to be of the highest importance, so much so that every move Five took, it was towards the theory that could save the world a whole lot faster.
As that was running through her head, she sat down on the pilot seat. With everything ready, she began ignition, and the S.C.A.M.P.E.R scampered away into the sky. The thought of the war finishing earlier still ran through Five's head, as she was finally able to understand the cheeriness of the other fusion fighters.
But as the route was set towards Peach Creek Estates, logic overwrote her hopes and drive with suspense and tension. What would happen if Computress was wrong? What if the kid really did just lose some toy? What if those readings from the Urban Rangers were as truthful as their kid who had a "living piece of wood", but in actuality anything "living" about it was just drawn on with crayon?
With this war, it was all an open book. Wasn't it?
THE PAST: MAY 24 - 2014 - SIYENN CITY - TECH SQUARE
With all of her strength, Susan pushed the ratchet down to tighten the last programming screw for the regulator. She had to admit, it was a really nice idea from Dexter. They were based off an insult from Dexter's sister: something about 'spending all day in the lab tightening stuff'.
That just sounded contrived.
Everyone in the lab was on overdrive. Scientists Susan and her sister had the pride of hatching a possible plan of retrieving the lost subject through a yet to be determined form of "chronal extraction". Their plan also specified a machine was needed for the extraction, but what good could a machine do if it didn't actually work at all? That was what the others had doubts about when they were first explaining their idea, as the physics behind remotely extracting someone out of another time period could end up having disastrous outcomes. But they theorized that since that they could analyze the tachyon infused DNA samples that were left behind when Ben was sent away, and reconstitute Ben from the particle up by harnessing the tachyon radiation. It seemed like a long shot, and definitely a plan with holes in it, but at least Dexter had confidence in their plan.
But she couldn't exactly find herself in a pleasant mood with Dexter at the moment, not even to praise the guy for a complement, and neither could anyone else. While they looked busy, all the employees walked around with great reluctance over this huge mess up, along with one other particular predicament. After that punishment he just served, no one was allowed to leave the building until 8PM. Last she checked, that was a complete violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Even worse, there were only five hours left in their non-stop work, and in the three hours of work, surrounded by geniuses with higher IQs than Einstein himself when combined, there was not a single ounce of work done that could have been beneficial in the slightest. Furthermore, Computress had been trying her damn best to work out several algorithms and equations to help out. But if even none of those ideas could lead anywhere when worked out over the course of three hours, let alone the fact that an A.I is drawing blanks there, what made Dexter believe that the humans could do any better in five more hours?!
It really racked her brains. Hell, all this repetitive action made her as confused as her sister, Mary. She didn't even know what program the screw she was tightening had in it, and she certainly didn't know whether or not it would help at all.
She and Mary weren't the only ones upset. Over by the corner, Chemistry Intern Anthony Automata and Dr. Xyrespace were trying to fix a faulty scanner, complaining about their predicament. Xyrespace was worried her teenage daughter would be okay without her or wouldn't get too worried, while Automata (being 19 years old) tried to reassure her that her daughter would be fine. One of the lab assistants, Fassy Mojomac, was singing quietly while collecting damaged wires and circuit boards, "Dexter and Benjy, sittin' in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G."
But Susan knew better than that. Dexter was probably only concerned about his integrity. Maybe it did have something to do with his long-lost friendship with the Tennyson kid, but having worked for him for about a year, she found it extremely hard to believe.
Her NanoCom began ringing and buzzing on the hard metal plating, causing the surface to loudly vibrate. Susan immediately reached for the device, trying to silence it. If Dexter heard so much as a millisecond's worth of audio, or even a vibration, they could have been subjugated to more work hours. She quietly pressed the call button and spoke to the person on the other side.
"Not right now, I'm being held-" She whispered, only to be interrupted by a much louder, but relaxed voice.
"Hello to you too, evil sis!"
Susan let out a loud sigh, and with reluctance spoke into the phone (still careful to speak too loud). "Hey Johnny."
"That's better." Her younger brother told her. "It's past 3:00 here in Porkbelly, and you two ain't here, so when'ya coming back home?"
"Yeah, about that, our shift doesn't end for another 5 hours. And then of course it's the 2-hour flight from Siyenn City to Seattle, then another 2-hour flight from Washington to Alberta, then a 45 minute drive from the airport to our neighborhood. We're not coming back anytime soon."
"It's because we have to work overtime today." Mary pipped in.
"Yeah, we have to work overtime today." Susan repeated. "Some mess with one of Dex's experiments with a human test subject and stuff - I'm sure you know."
"You try sneaking out?" Johnny suggested, "Trust me, it always works out...for me anyway."
"First, that's illegal." Susan said, "Second, I wish. But Dexter just upgraded his system security protocols. Ones that we helped administer, so we're very well stuck here until we get back the lost subject."
"Boooo!" yelled someone else from the hall. "That's illegal itself! Directly against the Fair Labor Standards Act, 193-crap, my coffee!"
Susan winced at the thought of that image, and later she rolled her eyes. She kept warning Dukey to not keep the coffee so hot.
"So, I'm in the lab right now, and I was just wondering," Johnny asked, "any tests you left for me? Or Dukey? Hopefully me?"
Susan put some thought to that. Johnny's relationship with them was distant due to these new jobs they had in America. They barely got to hang out anymore, or even go on some bizarre (mis)adventure in their quiet town.
"Uh...Mary! Did we make any new stuff off-late?"
"For what?"
"Y'know, for Johnny."
Mary took a while to respond, trying to remember if she had done anything like that recently. Then, as if a light bulb was lit, Mary's mouth opened with realization and she quietly gestured for her sister's NanoCom, speaking into the device when she received it.
"Okay, I've got something for you. You know that closet in the back-right corner?"
"You mean the only closet in the lab?" Johnny corrected her, "How many garage labs have more than 2 closets, let alone a closet?"
"Not important. There's a table right around that area. I've created a new formula for a speed-enhancing drug. I'd tell you the science, but knowing you-"
"I wouldn't care at all. Yeah I found it." Johnny confirmed. "Exactly how fast could I go on this?"
"Theoretically? Mach 2, at the very most. Then again, that's for you to test yourself."
"Okay...would it affect any of my...other powers?"
Mary flinched at the mere words that came out the NanoCom. She really did not like thinking about that. She remembered being grounded for a good 6 months by their psycho dad because of an unforeseen side-effect that showed itself last year. See, in lack of a lab rat, they used their naive and stupid brother for all of their experiments, and even granted intelligence and speech to a non-anthro dog. One of the experiments involved amputating Johnny's foot for a twisted university demonstration. But most of them involved granting Johnny incredible mutant superpowers. Little did they know that their continued altercations on their brother's genetic code would be permanent, and thus, all of his former powers emerged five years later. "Probably would, but in the good way. The kind where you could run at the speed of sound as a cheetah."
"Awesome. Finally, why super-speed?" Johnny asked. "Have you two been reading too many comics or what?"
"N-noo..." Mary tried saying without spilling the beans. Unfortunately, despite what they were doing at Dexlabs, she wasn't a very good liar. "(Sigh) Y-yes..."
"AM I DETECTING NON-IONIZING RADIO WAVES?!" screamed an agitated redhead from across the lab. "YOU KNOW WHAT THE SLIGHTEST FORM OF RADIATION CAN DO TO THESE EXPERIMENTS!"
"Crap! He's actually got a geiger counter on him!" Susan realized. "Why?!"
"I dunno!" Mary responded frantically. She quickly took the phone from Susan and spoke hastily into it. "Okay, gotta go, Johnny!"
"Wait, hu-" Johnny tried to ask, before being cut-off. Susan quickly snatched back her phone from Mary and put it back in her pocket. That was when Dexter came marching through to the center of the lab, so as to face everybody.
"I THOUGHT I MADE IT PERFECTLY CLEAR FOR OUR OWN SAFETY: NO NANOCOMS!"
THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015 - SECTOR V TREEHOUSE
The room was still silent. Both Ben and Mandark were still calming down after their own individual outbursts, and no one had said anything for a good 12 minutes. Ben looked at Mandark to see if he would say anything, but behind those thick, reflective glasses he couldn't tell at all. He wasn't even sure Mandark knew what he was thinking at the moment.
Mandark gave him a small glare. "So? Are we going to stop sitting like ducks and get on with it?"
Ben looked up at the guy with a blank face. "You don't have much experience with aftermaths of fights, do you?"
"Nonsense, of course I do. Dexter and I used to fight all the time. We would even try to steal each others' inventions. But we would not argue about something as ridiculous as earlier."
"I'm sure that's true..." Ben sardonically retorted.
"Let us divert the attention to some long unanswered questions." Mandark began. "As you most likely saw Dexter and Number Two do-"
Ben knew exactly what Mandark was referring to, and immediately interrupted him. "Yeah, what the hell was that?! They just give life to something new and small and cute and they literally just kill it?!"
Mandark didn't say anything to dispel that belief, nothing yet at least. It annoyed the hell out of Ben.
"Aren't you gonna say anything?"
"Hmm? Oh good, you are finished whining," said Mandark, turning his head, "they did not kill it. They stored it, in the same subspace that NanoComs use. They just had to convert it to there for immediate use."
Immediately after that, he pulled up a red holographic keyboard and began typing on it rapid fast. Before Ben was a projection of one of the miniaturized characters that formed from that moment back in Tech Square. Only, this one was different. It had no defining attributes, no characteristics aside from its entire body shown being entirely green. The hologram was transparent enough where it almost looked like cellophane, and with that Ben could also see a glowing "mage orb of energy" (as Kevin once called it) within the character. Was that some kind of power? Was it representing what these things could do? So many questions came to his mind, he almost didn't know where to begin. So he tried asking the most relevant question.
"What are those things?" he asked with a much more interested expression.
"We call them nanos; created from a reaction between a reprocessed form of fusion matter and imagination energy. Since both reactants are similar in qualities, such as their processes being continuous, they can react surprisingly easily. We heat the solution to reach a dynamic equilibrium, rendering the process in a constant share of particles, and since fusion matter can transcend in physical form, so can the 'reaction'. Utilizing a DNA sample, sometimes from a fusion, we can give the Nano a small amount of traits belonging to the DNA sample, creating a nano." Mandark explained, and he could clearly see it was fascinating Ben, and also drawing up some questions in his mind. "However, because of the connection fusion matter has with its creator, the reaction can be made unstable. So we have to trap them in our NanoComs, where they can be used effectively, and powerfully."
"So, why did you guys model them after us heroes?" Ben asked. "I mean, it's nice to have living chibi fan-art floating around my head, but they aren't floating around my head, they're floating around in the Lyoko sub-space. You focused so much time to make Buttercup's nano end up as bug-eyed and cute as possible, you probably wasted time in increasing their power range and making the transmission into the sub-space less complex."
Mandark went silent. His lips slowly opened, but it was clearly forced, like bread cut by a knife, as if all he wanted to do was acknowledge but not admit that what he had done was a horrible mistake.
THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015 - TOWNSVILLE SUBURBS - PEACH CREEK ESTATES
Five looked out the window of the S.C.A.M.P.E.R, seconds away from landing in the Peach Creek commons, the Cul-de-Sac of the Peach Creek Estates area. She saw a figure walking towards the vehicle, and as the figure became more clear she realized who Computress had paired her up with.
"Oh no..." she murmured to herself. She also understood what she was in for.
The girl stood out among the camps of KND and Providence, who were all in uniform while she wasn't. She wore a simple pink dress that had a wing collar, and a black headband in her hair; it was akin to what a child would wear at age 7. She also wore a pantyhose and Mary-Jane shoes. In the center of her dress was a bright flower...that was decaying. Her ears had upside-down pentagram earrings, and her hair was short, styled in the shape of a crescent moon.
"Well, well." said the girl with little emotion, and a poor attempt at sarcasm. "If it isn't Abby Lincoln, as I live and breathe, which by the way," the girl paused for a moment, "I hear Dexter isn't doing so well on right now."
"You're pushin' it, Mandy."
"Whatever," said Mandy, "maybe I should tell you all the other things I heard about."
"Seriously," said Five, with a much more stern look on her face, "stop."
Mandy's sniveling smile, which hid behind a bored pout, faded away as the seriousness in Number Five's voice became evident. She remained silent, logically determining what to say next, but nothing came to mind. Pain was prevalent in Five's face, and she thought 'why break what's already broken?'
"Sure." she said, "You ready to go?"
Five gave a scoff, but with no smirk to it. "I was gonna ask you that."
They walked through the remains of the Cul-de-Sac. To be fair, there weren't any remains yet, but Fuse's armies had certainly learned enough to ravage the place. Pebbles were rising into the air, houses were sinking, and worse, the fortress was falling to pieces. Edd, one of the three con-artists who was helping run the campaign against Fuse, commissioned their personal geek-squad (they called themselves the Urban Rangers) to build a great wall that would protect the Cul-de-Sac as a fortress. The interesting thing about this fortress was that it was made out of...cardboard.
Mandy remembered Edd nervously explaining to Dexter about what was so special about that cardboard. Apparently, the cons had stockpiled on cardboard boxes from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. She remembered Mandark saying there was a radiation signature or something on those boxes, and it was identical to the one given off by imagination energy. Mandy chuckled to herself, it was amazing what kind of safety could be brought from the simpler things.
It was almost a reassuring sight, especially since Mandy was a born nihilist. That peace was short-lived, though, as angry shouting and whining was heard at the end of the Cul-de-Sac. It came from a short kid, with a near-shaven head that practically had three strands of hair left. His face was tomato-red with fury as he sat on a cardboard throne. Somehow, his yellow shirt and purple sweatpants were in perfect condition, compared to the fusion-matter stained clothing of...everyone else. He saw Five and Mandy walk towards him, and sat up from his throne with a huff to 'greet' them.
"Oh joy," said Mandy, "there comes Mr. Wunderkind."
"That's the best insult you've got?" Five said as Eddy was within earshot. "It's not even an insult, really."
"So what is?" Mandy asked stoically, "He's already an asshole…and everything else in the book of swear."
"Fair 'nough," concluded Five. "Let's talk to him." Both of the girls turned their heads to face Eddy's cardboard throne, only to find it was empty. They looked down, and saw Eddy, looking annoyed, right in front of them.
"'The hell do you two want?" asked Eddy, 'greeting' them. He turned to Five, "We don't have any jawbreakers!"
"Sure y'don't." Five said. Usually she would smile. But this wasn't 'usually'. "How 'bout we get serious. We need a transport to get to the Goat's Junkyard infected zone."
"Well, you've got a S.C.A.M.P.E.R, use it." Eddy retorted bluntly. "We don't got anything to give to you."
Five couldn't help but chuckle at that. "a S.C.A.M.P.E.R? For real?! You really want Fuse to see somethin's up? To follow it right back here?"
That punched the smirk right off Eddy's face. He hadn't even told the two about the infiltration problems they've been experiencing, and the thought of Fuse finding better ways to penetrate their defenses was nerve-wracking. He, reluctantly, decided to comply.
"Well...I-I mean, we-we've got...thooose guys." Eddy said with a lot of reluctance, pointing to the two green monkeys in white and purple armor. They, much like their master, had tunics over their heads to cover up their mutated brains. They all wore purple jumpsuits with white armor, with jetpacks on each of their backs. They were having cans of beer next to their tent at the edge of the wall. One of them looked like he had passed out on the grass.
"Sky Monkeys." Five realized. "Yeah, we'll take 'em."
To that, Eddy winced. "Um...okay. You...uh...said it was the Junkyard you needed to go to?"
Five and Mandy exchanged looks. Both nodded in response.
"Well, could ya spare a few minutes for a side mission?" Eddy asked. "Our rations stock has been decreasing at a really steep rate, and I wanted to-"
"Probably because you hid it all in your cardboard highchair." Mandy interrupted.
Just as she had said that, a random but injured and frail Urban Ranger walked around, and said "He did. We've caught him doing it like ten times." Five and Mandy exchanged glances and quickly turned back with a raised brow on Eddy.
But he simply ignored it and kept talking. "Look, we were going to find out what's been causing this, so our tech-heads found a pattern, and it leads to the Junkyard, so..."
"You think fusions are taking your goods." Mandy sarcastically retorted. "They just - found their way into a wall they've been trying to break for the last year, and took weapons they probably don't even need."
"Look around you, dummy!" Eddy retorted, extending his arms and pointing to the desolate Cul-de-Sac. "We need those supplies! Who's to say Fuse needs 'em, he's just tryin' to take from us!"
Out in the distance of the guarded neighborhood, Five could have sworn to have heard someone call out "BULL". She only added it to her mental image of Eddy.
"Remind us why we should help a snobfest like you?" said Mandy...is what someone'd expect to hear, when in fact it was Number Five who had said it. Mandy had simply opened her mouth, and was surprised to find Five playing the Bad Cop in their duo.
"Because, Abigail," Eddy continued, his use of Five's real name did not disturb her, "I know you have a secret, a dark secret for when you're alone. It'll certainly cause some talks, some hype, you know the dealio," Five feigned a look of hidden horror. This was getting ridiculous, "I can only imagine what people'll be sayin'. Some might even spray you with cheese omelet, or the custard-guns. So whaddya say?"
Five leaned down to the snivelling little psychopath. "What's that? That I wear glasses?" She calmly said, while Eddy was immediately put off by that unexpected confidence.
"Y-y-you wear glasses?" Eddy said, nervously. "N-no, I was...uh...y'know, I was talking about the other dark thing..."
"Hmm, sure you were." "We'll just get your stuff back. Got it?"
"Y-yeah...thanks..."
With their side mission begrudgingly assigned, Five and Mandy began walking towards the tent where Computress had previously assigned them to go. Eddy immediately noticed and selfishly told them "Hey! Wrong way, girls!"
"No it ain't." Five said, as she kept walking forward towards the tent.
"Pathetic." Mandy muttered under her breath.
The tent was dark and dilapidated, stretching to the corners of the area. It was pinned to the wall of the fortress behind it to make it bigger, making it somewhat sideways. On the inside were several destroyed pieces of 2x4 technology laid on makeshift repair tables and Providence arsenals on the left and right sides of the tent. Five and Mandy immediately spotted a skinny 14 to 15 year old boy sitting down on one of the cleared tables. He had curly hair that rolled back at the top of his head, while his cranium had little spikes of hair poking out. He wore glasses (broken ones at that) and a blue, fusion matter-stained turtleneck shirt with brown cargo shorts. And to top it off, he was panting.
An adult Providence agent approached them. He took one glance at each of them, from head to toe, "This 'the best they could send?" He remarked; he noticed how both looks on the two girls' faces weren't deterred by his comment. To shake an incoming argument off, he smiled behind his mask, and chuckled a little to try to make it sound like a joke.
No it wasn't, they both thought as they walked past the agent and approached the boy.
"Yo," Five greeted, "you there?"
His attention, surprisingly, was not elsewhere as he jolted his head up to see both Five and Mandy in front of him. He was somewhat speechless, seeing two people that he had heard much about. To him, they were like timeless legends, the kind that never go away. This put Five and Mandy off. It was the apocalypse. How could anyone be joyful in a time like this?
"'Think that's a yeah." Five surmised. The boy's wide-eyed expression wasn't giving much away. "You got a name?"
"Y-Yeah..." the boy slowly, "My name's Otto...Otto Osworth- but why is that important?!"
The girls once again exchanged looks. This kid was full of surprises, he acts like he was traumatized in Vietnam, yet here he was now talking faster than the Flash.
"W-Whaddy'a mean?" Five asked with bewilderment.
"The mission!" Otto exclaimed. "Y'knowtheonethatthefloatingcomputerladysentyouon? Togetmeandinvestigatesomethinginthejunkyard-C'mon, you had to be listening."
Five paused for a full 10 seconds. She leaned in close to Otto, in pure disbelief. "You sent the mission?"
"Yeah! Who'd you think it was, this guy?" Otto pointed to the same Providence agent from before. "He hates kids, y'know! He confessed 1 and a half hours ago!"
"He hasn't stopped talking for 1 and a half hours." the agent dully said. "We had to give him some fresh coffee to shut'm up."
Mandy internally facepalmed. "You don't try to calm someone down with COFFEE, you MORON!" She found the mug Otto was drinking out of, picked it up, and 'carefully' dropped the thing into different pieces. She then went near the kid who was playing with his fingers while saying some weird irrelative stuff. "CALM THE HELL DOWN!" Mandy shouted into Otto's ear. Even though the tent was just a cloth tarp it felt like it echoed to every corner.
Otto tried to sit back up, that voice still ringing in her ears.
"Look, I just lost my robot friend's head in the Junkyard infected area, and it was some new tech that I think could actually change the war forever, y'know? I just need to get it back as fast as possible."
"A lotta kids think they can 'change the war forever'. What's making you so sure this is the one the professionals need to look at? Let alone that you think they're going to get your bot back for you?"
"It's...uh, c-complicated, I can explain when we're there."
Five took a long breath of decisiveness, and conceded to the kid's pleading. "The Junkyard's all the way over in Siyenn City, or whatever's left of it after the Battle..." Five explained, "and the infected zone has the most fusion matter poisoning than any of the others.
"Even more than- am I sayin' this right? Candy Cove?" The agent asked looking at his tablet. "That can't actually be its name, right?"
"Tell that to the big-ass pirate ship stuck right in the middle of it." Five remarked quickly, finding herself getting off-topic. "The name don't matter. We're gonna need some backup if we don't make it out of there alive."
The agent could see that Five was eyeballing his men. "You can't get some of your own soldiers?"
"Our guys are holdin' up fort here, and everywhere else. The KND ain't close to bein' finished, and we're pretty busy 'cause of it. But you dudes are just a Providence survivor cell, so you don't really got much to do anyway."
The agent remained in dead silence. Technically, Providence was over. It was just him and the remaining soldiers now. He had to concede to Five's demands, albeit reluctantly. "Take my guys. They can stand guard around the warp gate if the job needs to get done."
"Wonderful," said Mandy, followed by Otto as she was leaving the tent, "then let's move, people. Our chariot awaits."
THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015 - SECTOR V TREEHOUSE
"Do you remember the nanite event of 2011?" Mandark asked, continuing his discussion, or learning session, with Ben in the treehouse.
"How couldn't I?"
"Are you also aware of the multiple E.V.O disturb-"
Ben interrupted...again, "Dude, I already know this kind of stuff, I watch the news. Plus I've got a friend at Providence who deals with E.V.O.s so what kind of stuff about nanites is there that I didn't already know."
"Ah, you already are fully aware." said Mandark sarcastically, "So then I surmise you already know about the biochemical, true?"
Well, that caught Ben by surprise. Biochemical? There was no mention of a biochemical when Providence made their announcement to the world that enhancing microscopic machines were present in each living being on the planet (and were basically a ticking evolutionary time-bomb). Was this what was triggering those things?
"No they were not Ben. What I am referring to was an unprecedented bi-product. At some point in the war, and you can tell Dexter or (preferably) me about it in the past," Mandark continued, "my company found a biochemical generated from the body's bloodstream, and we theorized it was because of nanite interference. They were already enhancing the body, stalling the growth of cancer cells, replenishing the blood, strengthening the nervous system, but evidently it was doing something else. It was interacting with white-blood cells, and mutating them in a way where they could utilize the DNA in the human, and give them enhanced or even metahuman abilities."
"And because the nanites are machines..." Ben began to understand, "that are producing this stuff all the time-"
"They could be programmed," Mandark concluded, "in the same way Dexter was able to code the nanites for the NanoCom's personal interface." Mandark said, referencing the virtual statistics and gadgets that could be seen at the corner of one's eye. "So we could take some DNA samples, usually from metahumans such as the...late Powerpuff Girls, and essentially give downgraded and temporary superpowers. It certainly provided some edge to the war, but not as much as the nanos were able to provide, because the imagination energy from their composition supercharged the rate of reactions regarding the white-blood cells, and giving anybody true metahuman powers."
Well...that was a lot to take in. Ben himself was no less overwhelmed, widening and rubbing his eyes as he took a step back.
"How didn't Providence see this stuff first?"
"Because the agents of Providence are neophytes." Mandark said. "Even if they were first to discovery, I wouldn't trust them to understand the intricacies of this science."
"Right, and you're the dude whose love for chibi art nearly ruined the only reliable defense in the war."
Mandark quickly closed his eyes in shame, gave a long sigh in humility, and immediately returned to the subject. "The biochemical is of an unidentifiable composition, but three different isomers have been identified and have been confirmed to exist exclusively."
"'Exclusively'? What do you-"
"It varies with each person, and we at Mandark Industries found a pattern pertaining to which isomer belongs where," said Mandark. He then pulled up a wide range of scientific evidence on the holographic screen, including video footage, bar charts "Type 1 was referred to as "Adaptium", it is the weakest of them, but grants increased reflexes, agility, processing speed, and stamina. It also showed signs of increased tolerance and adaptability in different environments. People such as myself and Dexter have this isomer of the biochemical."
"Type 2 was called "Blastons", the strongest of the lot." he explained. "The chief traits among these include strength, enhanced durability and resistance to foreign environments, such as fusion matter." Mandark then looked at the monitor, showing a confused expression. "and...there's Type 3, the strongest."
"What?" Ben asked, "No...you said that the Blast-er one was the strongest, what's different here?"
"Right, allow me to rephrase: this is not the strongest, as it has its flaws but when measuring its extents, this type isn't just strong, but in layman's terms, it...just - fills the user with a massive surge of energy. With the other isomers, we see a general increase in adrenaline or neurone activity, but with this one, we found not only those two points of interest in play, but we also found that when applied to a meta-gene, such as the ones in your aliens, the conversion of energy that manifests as the superpower increased exponentially; the rate of energy transferral seemed to be rivaling the energy of thermal radiation found in deep space. Appropriately, we call this one:" Mandark pulled up a new set of statistics, yellow in color, with much more violent video footage; the stats on the bar charts were through the roof. ""Cosmix"."
"That's a bad name."
"This name was not our idea. The Kids Next Door came up with it."
"But seriously, what evidence do you have to suggest that this stuff hurts fusions more so than the other two isomers?"
"How do you think you were able to kill the Cyberus with one blow back in Tech Square?" Mandark asked, making Ben recall that peculiar event. He just thought that he was really angry. "Earlier footage shows most of our 'adaptium'-based metahumans were unable to deal as much damage as that, even the pyrokinetic ones."
"So you test them."
"Affirmative."
"All of them?"
"Affirmative."
"You even tested me when I wasn't looking."
"Affirmative."
"So...wait," Ben stopped Mandark before he could say anymore, "assuming that you had to run tests to weaponize the isomer, or maybe you just sent out an app through the nanites, how was I just suddenly able to use my Cosmix-thing without any of the right tests used?"
Before Mandark could respond, the two heard footsteps, very fast footsteps, it was coming from outside the offsite lab. The next thing before them was a panting, anxious, and frantic KND operative.
"S-something's wrong with Number Two!"
THE PAST: MAY 24 - 2014 - SECTOR V TREEHOUSE
The alarm rang in Number Five's room. It said 7:00 am. She tapped it. It stopped. Usually, it wasn't like her to wake up to the alarm, it would be a long time and a cold day in hell before she could grow up to be like that. No, what made her "wake up" to the alarm was the fact that she was kept up all night by what she could have only described as mechanical insanity.
Ever since yesterday, Number Two had been working non-stop on the communications system. Something suspicious had happened to the communications hub that 274 had assigned to Two, and it looked bad to the point where all the members of Sector V had to call their parents and ask for a sleepover, as they all had to see this through. One had a massive fit reacting to this, and Two had been killing himself accordingly trying to fix whatever bug was crawling everywhere.
She slowly made her way down the one-oak plank spiral staircase, and down to the control center, where Number Four reluctantly kept watching him at work (his bunny slippers still on), and Number One and Number Three had slept off from monitoring Two, who was still tinkering and troubleshooting. But boy-oh-boy did Hoagie look better on other days. His iconic aviator cap was flat on the floor, with signs of stomping. He looked sweaty, and his hair was all over the place, both in terms of cleanliness and literally. It wasn't a sight for sore eyes for sure.
"How long he been like this?" Five asked Four, slurring in her speech.
"I don' think I remember." Four asked with a less vibrant or cocky attitude than usual. "Whaddy'a think caused it?"
"Numbuh Five don't wanna know. Numbuh Five don't wanna care. Numbuh Five wanna know 'n care where the breakfast donuts are."
"Oh, right. Numbuh Three said she'd get some, but..." Four pointed to the indisposed members of Sector V, completely out cold. "y'know..."
That was the last straw for Five. She just. Could. Not. Take it. Any. More. "GODDAMMIT NUMBUH TWO!" She yelled.
"Not now Number Five, please! I'm-"
"You been workin' for the entire goddamn night! And it's drivin' me bats-hit crazy!"
"It's drivin' everyone bats-hit crazy, mate!" Four added.
"It's not my fault, okay?! This dang thing seems to have it out for me! It's almost like this new computer is really trying to byte me!" Two joked irritatedly, while still biting his nails. He ignored whatever went wrong with making that pun, but to the rest of the KND this looked more serious than ever.
"Oh man, poor bloke's so tired, he can' even make a good pun!"
"None o' that fool's puns are good." Five muttered under her breath. "Two, I gotta tell 274 'bout this!"
"NO WAY! If Chad catches wind of this crap, or anyone else, they could lock me up! Or decommission me, and...I..." Two hesitated with fear, before letting it all out. "I don' wanna be put on trial for a crime I didn't commit!"
"Calling Chad's personal carrier." Five shouted across the room. But not to her surprise, she couldn't open a transmission channel. "Ah crud, comms are still down!"
"I'M STILL WORKING ON IT!" Two shouted yet again in frustration. "BUT PLEASE DON'T DO ANYTHING! I'LL GIVE UP MY SUPERHERO COMICS! MY SHNEBAY ACCOUNT! ANYTHING BUT-" Before Two could say anymore, Four slapped some good ol' duct tape on his pie-hole.
Five took a deep breath, finally able to think straight. "All right, I'm tryin' a morse code frequency." She said.
"You know morse code?" Four asked, apparently not knowing that ever. Yeesh.
"Hell yeah Numbuh Five knows morse code." Five retorted back. "Sweet, we got contact."
LOCATION UNKNOWN
"Numbuh 362!" An operative shouted on the silent (and dark) floor of the Moon Base. "We have contact!"
"For real?!" the young Moon Base commander exclaimed in relief. "It's really about time! Who's it from?"
"Number Two of Sector V, he needs to send this transm-I mean...letter to 274."
"What do you mean letter? It's not a transmission?"
"No, it's morse code, it came from the morse code club downstairs. Our real comms are still down, ma'am."
Seems that relief came too soon. 362 sat back down in defeat. She was hoping that their problem with the comms would end here, but apparently whoever was managing the comms was too stupid or too brain dead. Why couldn't they have given that job to Number Two? She was the best tech-head she knew.
"Patch it through the morse code club again. They can transmit whatever Number Two needs."
LOCATION UNKNOWN
And the letter in morse code came to the hands of one Chad Dickinson, AKA Supreme Commander Number 274.
"Analyze dots and stuff, translate message." he asked his computer.
And when the message showed itself...
"Wait, what?"
THE PAST: MAY 24 - 2014 - SECTOR V TREEHOUSE
"There! Now you don't have to worry." Five said as she marched toward a cowering and shivering Hoagie. "We've informed high command about the situation. And knowin' Numbuh 274, he's a cool dude, so what could possibly go wrong?"
THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015 - SECTOR V TREEHOUSE
Tears seeped into the oakwood floor as fast as people reacted to an unconscious and spasming Number Two. Aside from the fact that he looked terrible, he was profusely sweating, and he was blinking rapidly (they took his goggles off), his arms, neck, and face were covered in green pulsing veins. He looked like something straight out of a nightmare.
Somehow, the rest of the nightmare had followed him into reality.
Ben and Mandark followed the kid into the ER, or the closest thing Sector V had to an ER. It was barely keeping him stable. The genius waited by the door, while Ben slowly made his way
"Get me the insulin, NOW!" screamed Number 142, who was keeping her hands on Two to restrain him. But it was still no use, the legendary KND operative was reduced to a thrashing mess, and he continued to do so. Ben could only blink as rapidly as Two trying to process everything happening.
He then looked around to find others' reactions. Number 10 was pacing back and forth, 60 was pulling his hair out; 39 was lying in a hospital bed herself, along with numbers 28, 47 and 64. That explained why everything was much more frenzied than it would normally be. Another operative, on the other hand, was backed into a corner, trying to keep a state of peace, but it was failing miserably. She was trembling, shaking, and crying silently.
Mandark paced towards the death-bed, first taking Two's hand to check his pulse. Ben went to 142, who was basically pulling her hairs out at the moment.
"You," the alien hero said, addressing the KND medic, "what the hell happened?!"
"WE DON'T KNOW!" 142 exclaimed, much louder than before. "He just collapsed in the middle of Hero's Square a few minutes ago, and he started spasming seconds after!"
"We found the origin of infection on his left forearm." An assisting KND medic said. "From the look of it, he's had this thing since Tech Square, or maybe longer, we don't know." From that, Ben came to realize where this had come from. It was his stand against Fusion Buttercup, when it had tackled and grabbed him, it must have done something to him, something to infect him and make him as miserable as he was.
"So he has survived this long?" Mandark noted, "Impressive." He further examined Two's dying body, checking other points that could provide some idea of what was happening to him.
"Okay, okay, tell me what do you know?" Ben asked.
"The only thing we know is that it's fusion matter poisoning!" 142 said, shocking Ben to the point of being speechless. "We know how to deal with the forms of poisoning usually shown, but we...we just-we haven't seen these symptoms before!" she yelled.
Mandark quickly got up, and calmly said: "I have." He then took a syringe from the tray next to the makeshift monitor.
"Fusion matter infection can work like organophosphate poisoning, specifically similar to the Sarin or VX biological weapons. It can target both the muscular system and the nervous system, and blocks out enzymes necessary for maintaining muscular stability and inhibits the cholinergic receptors of the brain's neurotransmitters." Mandark explained to 142, as he was holding Two down while readying the syringe. 142 was barely catching on herself.
"I thought fusion matter was a nano polymer...thing that could regenerate!" Ben exclaimed, breaking his silence, "When the hell did it become a freakin' poison?!"
"Shut up, Ben!" yelled Mandark, and then he turned to 142, "This is standard medical procedure, and we scientists all know about it, as well as what it is that we are doing, unlike you." Mandark bluntly stated. "Besides, there are other treatments for these symptoms, they're called atropine and pralidoxime. If we don't get these antidotes to him immediately, the fusion matter in his system will bind faster."
A KND agent quickly ran to another room in response to that. 142 walked towards Mandark, consulting the genius with a great deal of faith.
"How do you know it'll work?" she asked.
"It might not, but it can reduce the effect on Two. Hopefully enough to-" Mandark halted and his head jolted to look at his hand, or how Two's chest was visibly slowing down. Most people looked in shock and silence, did this mean he was going to be okay?
Mandark had a second opinion, as his expression worsened. "Oppenheimer's ghost, his convulsions are slowing down!" He turned frantically to 142, "You said he's been like this for 6 minutes?"
"Y-Yeah? Wait, I d-didn't even say anything ye-"
"Then we have 4 to treat him or prepare for the worst!" Mandark said, now shouting close to 142's ears, "Get me atropine and pralidoxime, and include imagination energy as a reactant, NOW!"
"I got it!" that KND agent screamed from the other room. He quickly ran back to the wing, struggling to carry the two large jugs of atropine and pralidoxime, as well as a small vial of glowing imagination energy. Once he made it, Mandark quickly took the supplies and poured them into their respective bags (with an insertion of imagination energy). He then took the IV connected to Two and reconnected it to the atropine bag, and immediately a second tube was applied to Two for the pralidoxime.
The liquids began to flow through the tubules into Number Two's bloodstream, where they would be absorbed and distributed by his body. A moment of silence succeeded the rambling KND agents praying for Number Two, as a ray of hope emerged where they least expected it: Mandark.
But something was wrong, his vitals weren't leveling off, they were the same! They were the alarming, failing, on-the-verge-of-death, SAME!
"YOU SAID THE IMAGINATION ENERGY WOULD DEUS EX-MACHINA THIS CRAP!"
"I know what I proclaimed! But the fusion matter infection is preventing the atropine and pralidoxime from creating any activation energy, it's fighting the reaction back! As a result the solution's not entering his system fast enough!" said Mandark. He words were like pavement to the face, to everyone's face actually. All the KND agents began to retreat, in both fear and shock.
Ben took a big step back and thought of how he could possibly help. He searched his mind vigorously, trying to remember what could possibly speed up a reaction. But it was much harder than he thought, Chemistry had never been a strong point for him, or was that Physics? He couldn't waste time remembering that, but he was able to remember an analogy Gwen had taught him once: if you run faster, more energy is exerted to get to the finish line. So perhaps to speed up the reaction, more energy had to be transferred by say...heat. But what alien did he have in the Omnitrix that could siphon and control heat? Heatblast was one option, but with Heatblast there's barely any control in heat levels. Did he have anything that could properly control heat?
Well...he had...one.
"Oh, dude, I got just the thing!" Ben exclaimed, as he slammed his watch, and green light enveloped the room once again. Bystanding KND agents marveled at Ben as he began to encase himself in thick, metallic armor with small fiery slits on what was supposed to be either a helmet or a face. A green hourglass-like symbol was on the center of its chest, glowing brilliantly. This new mechanical being made its way over to Number Two, with the KND agents still marveling at this form.
Mandark looked up to see Ben's new alien, evidently shocked by its 8-foot stature.
"Everybody, stand back, I'm going to send a concentrated heat wave to speed up the reaction." Ben claimed, extending his alien form's arms.
"You can do that?"
"This one can. I mean, they don't call it NRG for nothin'." Ben declared; he began to radiate heat in his palms.
"Wait, Ben," Mandark exclaimed, "if you heat up his body to try to speed up the reaction, it could fry him!"
"What if we maintained some kind of middle-ground like an equilibrium of temperatures?"
All eyes were now on Mandark, who politely admitted "it could work..."
"Well then," said Ben, "we're gonna need a coolant, or something that can keep him from burning up."
"We have a freeze ray!" 142 offered, showing him a F.R.A.P.P.E, to which Mandark quickly denied with a shaking head. He tried thinking hard as Ben began to heat up Two; the temperature was slowly rising. Ben couldn't move his head, but he was staring at Mandark, expecting him to think of something. At that moment, he thought of something, something that was a real long-shot.
"We have thermophiles!"
"Right! A–a what?!"
Mandark almost immediately pulled out his NanoCom, and was furiously scrolling through his inventory, until he stopped scrolling and clicked one area of the touch-screen. The moment he touched that item, a blue light began to emit from the tiny camera lens, forming a grid pattern that quickly formed a shape. Then, like out of nowhere, a vial of nowhere, a syringe with a clear substance appeared. Was that water?
Mandark held out the syringe in a demonstrative manner. "This is water, Ben, but it contains a microscopic bacterium called a hyperthermophile. Well, actually I mutated it a bit, but that shouldn't-"
"Less talking, more doing!" the alien hero interrupted, to which Mandark heeded as he injected the needle into the bloodstream, and the heat-absorbing bacteria did its work like magic. The green pulsing veins covering Two's body from head-to-toe began to dissolve away. But in place of it, his skin began to take a green tint. The obvious change in skin color frightened the others, specifically Ben.
"Why's his skin turning green?" asked 142, the worry in her voice prevalent.
"Yeah, M-Mandark, is that a bad thing?"
"It...hold on..." Mandark looked like he was observing Two as if he was a painting. He then began touching his hand to check something else.
"Negative, his condition is stabilizing." Mandark exclaimed, sounding surprised himself. "His skin's turning green because the atropine and pralidoxime have singled out the fusion matter particles, causing them to diffuse from his body to the surface of his skin. The imagination energy has temporarily nullified it, and the mutated hyperthermophile has begun to regulate Two's internal body temperatures."
"And now, we just have to take it out!" Ben realized, as he then tried to tap his symbol, but his thick arm-armor was making it hard to do so. He tried once, then twice, then thrice at which people deadpanned at him.
He then fully extended his arm, and then moved inwards, and finally was he able to change...finally. The grey armor became red, his size shifted down to 7 feet, and the structure became a lot more mechanical. This alien wore a half-helmet covering the back of its head, resembling a hood, and had a bug-eyed automaton face. Having finished transforming into "Water Hazard", Ben made no hesitation to extend his arms; he began controlling the water like a puppet, closely managing to extract the fusion matter. The water came out of the alien's fingertips, and carried over to Number Two's much healthier body resembling a bunch of wires.
These 'water wires' descended upon the concentrated fusion matter, and the water began to diffuse and absorb the fusion matter. Then, as if conducting an orchestra, Ben raised his fingers and extracted the fusion matter through the 'water wires', seemingly leaving Two's system.
But the fusion matter continued to go up the water stream, slowly approaching Ben.
"Uh...guys? A-anyone mind...y'know?" he asked, the slight panic in his voice was growing slowly. "G-get this stuff away from me?"
"Right, um," 142 said hesitantly, "how do we do that?"
The fusion matter began to get dramatically close to Ben, at which he began to panic.
Just then, a loud sound came from the left; it sounded like a balloon tie being pinched and the air being let out, only much louder. Everyone looked to their left, to see a tired, slouching and very much relaxed KND agent holding a mini-vacuum cleaner...
...sucking the fusion matter away into the machine.
He let out a yawn in his callowness, while everyone stood dumbfounded by numerous things to long to list.
"Operative, be careful", Mandark calmly warned, "that vacuum just sucked in a highly interactive and contaminating subject. Please dispose of it with extreme care!"
The operative looked back at the vacuum. Then at Mandark. Then at the vacuum. Then at the open window. Then back to Mandark. With a careless and fatigued speech, he calmly said. "Okay."
He then, without looking back at the opening, threw the vacuum out of it. A small whistle was heard as it descended, and a faint grunt from all the way down echoed all the way up, and everyone flinched. Except the half-awake operative.
"So that happened..." a random operative stated. Somehow from there, the tight knot of tension loosened, and everyone could breathe again. Including and especially Number Two. 142 went over to the back end of the death-bed, and with another operative lifted the plank (with great pain and struggle) and carried the recovering patient out of the room.
Despite that everyone was relieved from the stress and worries of just a few moments ago, a long silence possessed the room. No one knew what to say, they just went right back to work. But the look on each one of their faces screamed the meaning of 'trauma'.
Ben tried his best to shrug that face off too, but much like the rest he wasn't able to. He went over to a exhausted Mandark.
"We really need to discuss a group of little kids and teenagers having access to antidotes for nerve toxins." Ben joked nonchalantly.
"No, we do not."
"Yes. We do." Ben reiterated.
"No, we do not. But more importantly, Ben," continued Mandark, "I would like to elaborate on what I had said earlier: fusion matter...as a poison, is completely unpredictable. It can display different symptoms and different types of toxicity, because Fuse controls it that way. None of this is chance, none of this is fate. If we knew about fate, maybe we could have saved him sooner."
Mandark returned to his lab at that moment, leaving Ben to stare out the window of the Treehouse. To his eventual horror, it dawned on him that Number Two was the leading mechanic alongside Mandark. Without Dexter, it was their responsibility to rebuild the time machine. But now, whatever hope he had in returning to his time safely had just jumped out of the window.
"Arriving now, ladies and gents," shouted the Sky Monkey, making sure that his passengers could hear him, "at Goat's Junkyard...where it was s'posed to end."
Mandy ignored that last comment, as did Number Five and their new companion, because at that point it meant nothing. She, Otto and Five detached themselves from the monkeys and got themselves armed, herself with a S.H.A.V.E.R.A.M.A, while Five was equipped with her duel pop guns. The PROVIDENCE agents were a little farther behind on their own two-man shuttle. Otto had no protection on him at all, remaining in the attire he met the two girls at. The entrance changed the last time Mandy's saw it, the nameless man's trailer was gone, completely, and there was more fusion matter vines beneath the ground.
Mandy looked over at that empty space, once filled by a man's home, and possibly the man himself, with nothing but a blank stare.
But over the distance stood a once-towering mecha, which fought to its last stand, but now leaning to one side in defeat. A terrafuser was plugged to its chest like a giant battery, sucking the life out of the robotic giant.
Mandy looked onto that fallen guardian, once programmed with protection and prosperity, with nothing but a blank stare.
She was tired of this. Of all of this. There wasn't a moment in her life that she would have thought that the Null Void would be a nice place to take a vacation. There was barely any sound, the place was well-protected, and best of all, the spawn activity there was as low as Billy's IQ test. But as soon as that plague of ideas could come to mind, the mind made quick disposal of such filth. The spawn level was exponentially rising, the Void's outposts were long abandoned because of that, and worst of all, there WAS sound (rocks hitting each other and some incessant screaming coming from a red glowing orb). It didn't matter to Mandy that her entire world was ending, it only mattered that her last remaining escape plan was foiled.
"Yo! You done sight-seein' or what?" Five shouted. She had already made her way to the brilliantly-glowing warpgate. But her shout didn't deter Mandy from the image in front of her. The nihilistic, pessimistic girl walked into the gate, her eyes still transfixed on the empty space. With a reactor sound, the switch of a lever and a blinding flash of white and blue lights, she was suddenly in the most infected area on the planet.
The Junkyard looked like it went on for miles, with the robot in the distance and towering over the area. They were teleported to the regular starting point: a straight pathway with infected grass hills on one side, and smelting factories on the other. It extended almost endlessly, down the grounds and even into the sky as discarded pieces of metal were floating around and getting closer to the sky.
Mandy stared at the world around her, the floating metal, the fallen titan, the missing man, the seas of fusion matter ahead of them, and the large puddles directly in front of them.
With a blank stare.
"Hey!" Five shouted, yet again to get Mandy's attention. "You still got those cannons?"
"What do you think, genius?" responded Mandy, "I've been stockpiling on these since the episode with the four kids down the lane."
"It was five." Five said. "Look, Otto, just lead us to wherever the fusions took that thing."
"Rightrightright!" Otto repeated. He ran towards one of the floating platforms, jumped up on them, and continued so to reach the top of the smelting factory. Five followed suit, with Mandy unenthusiastically walking towards the factory's nearest door.
They remained discreet throughout their journey in the infected wasteland, carefully tip-toeing to avoid any unwanted attention from the fusion monsters.
It had already been an hour in their mission, and they had never been this tense on a mission before, even if it was for some worthless robot head. Five and Mandy held their respective guns close, ready to fire anything in the line of sight. Anything. Otto on the other hand, was walking in front of them, carefully leading the way to where he last left this robot head.
Otto peaked his head over the scrapmetal to see an area with more scattered tires and trash-bags than the rest of the infected zone. This is it, he thought, this is where he left him.
"Is that it?" Five asked, crouching down to meet Otto.
"Yeah," he confirmed, "but it looks like those fusion creeps found it before us." He pointed to the distant fusion spawns hopping around that spot.
"This better be worth it...wait. How d'you know it could still be there?" She asked. "What if the fusions already took it?"
"That's...likely. Okay, we'll keep a close eye on them then...maybe raid their inventories or something..."
Five turned back to face Mandy, who was readying her S.H.A.V.E.R.A.M.A to fire. She looked questioningly at Mandy, not understanding what it was she was up to.
"I shoot better from this distance." Mandy said, nonchalantly. "Also, I made some upgrades to the grapple wire, this thing can fly up to 234 ft now. So back off."
That comeback made no sense to Five, so she turned back to face the fusion camp. Otto got closer to Five to tell her something, affecting Mandy's line of firing for the gun. "Watch out." Mandy warned nonchalantly to the unsuspecting boy. Luckily for Otto, Mandy would normally wait for someone like him to get out of her view-
BZZZBBZBZZGSSSZZZSSSS
Wait, what?! She shot him? She actually shot and shaved him with the S.H.A.V.E.R.A.M.A?! Why?! What kind of psychopathic person would do that to another human?! She had seen him in view, why would she still fire the damn gun?! THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!
Obviously Otto was in complete shock and disarray. Though Five bolted back from the surprise, giving Mandy an unimpressed look. Otto kept feeling his new bald spot like it was some kind of radioactive substance. Apparently for him, however, touching a radioactive substance meant clawing it over and over with one's bare nails. He kept doing that to his scalp, in something of shock in response to his new haircut.
"M-My hair!" the kid screamed, "My hair!" Otto shouted at the top of his lungs, still touching the bald spot that was once his hair. "Dear fleeperzork! What did you do to my hair?!"
"Whoops." Mandy said. Friggin' psychopath...
"OK, OK, just...calm down." Five said softly, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention. "We're sorry 'bout your hair, really. But you shout any louder than that and we're gonna be found, got it?!"
"Why my hair?! Why my hair?!" Otto repeated, with enough reason behind his devastation.
"We said we're sorry 'bout the hair, dammit!" Five repeated. "Now get a hold of yourself, 'cause I'll say it again. Any louder than that and we're gonna be found!"
"And?!" Otto retorted. Compared to the fast-talking enthusiast they had met, this side of Otto was much more aggressive. It almost seemed impossible for him to show anger based on his looks alone. Until now, apparently, "the world is ending, everyone's dead, and my best friend's probably evil now because a bit of silly-putty got sprayed on him! So explain how I don't get to be angry when I've got that to think about and then everyone's resident goth girl shaves my fleepin' hair!"
"Kid, you need your priorities the other way 'round!" Five shouted to the aggressive Otto. "You think you've got the right to just have mood swings and nearly get us killed?! Nuh-uh. Numbuh Five had to lose more than friends within the last year! Numbuh Five had to lose family, both the one Numbuh Five grew up with and the ones Numbuh Five shared a roof with! Both sets of people are dead! Gone! Cree, Nigel, Wally, Kuki, Mom 'n Dad! Numbuh Five grieved so much, she don't have to shed a damn tear any-damn-more, and she feels that for all this crap, I couldn't call myself Numbuh Five anymore, 'cause I don't have that RIGHT anymore!" She wasn't exaggerating about that. Five kept a straight face for the whole lecture. Otto was little over terrified now, it nearly escaped his mind that fusions were the ones who would actually tear him apart. "So you really need to chill, kiddo, cause I'll be damned before I let you get us killed today."
Mandy stared at Otto without distraction. "What're you playing at?" she asked. The boy braked on his frantic breathing as if there was a pedal for it, and his shoulders became much more relaxed overall. Five had to hand it to Mandy, she knew how to spot the subtle things:
Otto was hiding something.
"Huh?" Otto asked, trying to play it off.
"Your friend is a robot. It's a robot." Mandy began, "Before the war you could buy them on a store shelf. And I'm sure we can build you a new one with the right parts, probably from here alone. So explain how out of all the robots we could make and program, this one's some kind of Holy Grail."
"That thing just has-"
"Has what? Explain!" Mandy demanded, pointing the S.H.A.V.E.R.A.M.A without much aim, rather just showing him and expecting him to be threatened. "And while you're at it, tell us what the hell 'fleeping' means."
Oh no, Otto didn't realize that it was the hundred million-first century swear-word that would blow his cover. Maybe he should've listened to Tuddrussel about that stuff.
"Answers!" Mandy threatened, aiming the gun at his face, "Or I'm goin' for the sideburns!"
"Alrightalright! I...it's a long story..."
"We'll wait." Mandy said, coarsely.
Otto tried to think. "I'm a member of the Time Squad."
"Never heard of 'em."
"That's the point. No one's is supposed to hear about them. In short, the Time Squad exists outside the regular timestream, and because said timestream is unstable, we have to constantly repair the past and keep the future the way its supposed to be."
The two girls remained silent, looking at him without much movement. Behind them, the future continued around them. A KND operative was running away from some fusion monsters, terrafusers were glowing bright as the platforms around them were becoming more distorted due to the gravitational anomalies. The future continued to move on and on and on. So of course, Five and Mandy were thinking the exact same thing.
The Time Squad was pretty friggin' horrible at doing its job.
They also both thought that Otto was probably looking for something Time-Squad related, so they decided to humor the kid. "Like the Plumbers?" Five asked.
"Y-yeah, like the Plumbers." Otto responded. They were taking this surprisingly well, but he could speculate that this was just another day in the years of crazy stuff happening.
"But you're from the future."
"Yeah-well, not me...I'm from this time period..."
"Oh, so you're from the past! As in the same time period as Ben 10?" Five realized and asked Otto.
"Y-yeah?"
To that, Mandy face-palmed and turned away slowly, muttering but still aiming her gun at Otto.
"Why's that such a big deal?"
"I dunno, maybe you could fly away in your little phone box or oversized hair-salon chair yourself, and maybe warn our friends before the invasion, and maybe none of this right now would be happening at all!"
"I don't have the time machine on me, but something that could help is in this junkyard!" Otto tried to voice. "And besides, a major factor to you losing was the absence of Ben for the majority of the war, along with a few others, so sending him back is still your best bet!"
"So maybe now you can tell us what it is you lost here?" Mandy asked, still with a sour tone in her voice. "You know, instead of doing the stupid thing where you still keep it a secret like some self-conscious prick."
"How should we know to trust you now?" Five asked.
"Whaddy'a mean?"
Mandy followed up on what Five had to say. "I mean, for all we care, you could've been hiding some time-travelling tech that would've made everything going on right now a whole lot easier. Maybe we don't even need your stupid robot head!"
"What?! How?! Why?! I just told you everything about myself and the fleeping Time Squad! How can't you trust me?!"
"Well for one, I'm not the one who looks like Lex Luthor."
"YOU DID THAT, YOU INSUFFERABLE-"
Otto would have finished his sentence, if it wasn't for the fusion monsters that towered over them to charge. They were wrecked pieces of cars with circular saw blades for hands. Its stature resembled that of a T-rex, with green headlights glowing and a split bumper that was separating like a mouth. So much like a mouth, it began to roar.
To break the moment of shock and terror, Mandy had to speak up. "Oh joy."
"Junkasaurus! Junkasaurus!" Five shouted in fear, as she imediately aimed her pistols at the fusion monster. But she missed half the time. She found herself regretting losing the contacts, but it wasn't like there would be a difference, as most of her blasts were like an annoying fly to the hulking, mechanical beast. Mandy made haste and fired the S.H.A.V.E.R.A.M.A at the monster's metal skin, which obviously didn't work. At that point, she pulled out her NanoCom and tried to summon the cannons, but another Junkasaurus knocked her off her feet, sending her flying to a fusion-matter infected wall. Five fared no better either. At this point she was running from the monster, leaving a shaking and crouching Otto behind.
Unfortunately for her, she didn't consider that this was a junkyard, and that the next thing that could happen is tripping and falling. The Junkasaurus leaned in on her as she attempted to escape, but it held on of her hands down, making it impossible to move. The fusion monster then extended its own arm, which had a motorized circular sawblade on it. The sawblade began spinning, and getting dangerously close to Five's armor.
But all of a sudden, it halted, and Five didn't know why. The Junkasaurus got up and deactivated its blade, to reveal a figure that looked exactly like Eddy. Everything from the shirt pattern to the mismatched cargo pants. But this one was shaking insanely, the shirt's colors were inverted, and his skin was green.
There stood Fusion Eddy. Its hands behind its back, having combed Eddy's hair over, and commanding the pack of scrapmetal dinosaurs like dogs on a leash. What Five noticed immediately was that this doppleganger was carrying a cardboard box, and based on its posture, the box looked relatively heavy.
Mandy woke up to the fusion scumbag standing victorious. It commanded the Junkasaurus to take Number Five by the legs, dragging her to wherever he kept prisoners. The other one was on patrol, watching the area very closely. She made extremely slow movements while the fusions were scheming in their own language, reaching for her NanoCom. Opening the inventory, she clicked the icon that she immediately recognized.
As the cannon began materializing out of thin air, the Junkasaurus took notice. It gave a loud growl, and paced towards the girl as she equipped herself with the cannon. Mandy took the weapon and fired it directly towards the monster. As if a house of cards, the monster fell apart upon impact with the projectile. The other Junkasaurus that was tackling Five charged at her in response, only for Mandy to quickly send a cannon to Five's NanoCom. The operative made no haste in taking out the cannon and destroying the monster. Fusion Eddy turned around and growled, only to face a standing (but weak) Mandy, aiming her cannon at its face.
"Next time, you mind turning your skin pink for our pleasure?" Mandy sarcastically asked as she fired the rocket into the doppleganger, sending it flying away. It dropped the box it was carrying, spilling several items onto the ground. There was gum, wood, food, and jawbreakers among other things. Five figured these were the missing supplies for Peach Creek. But one item stood out from the rest. It was metallic and cylindrical, a mouth formed from an extruding exhaust port, with cracked optic sensors and clear signs of the head being ripped off from a body. It was beaten and rusty, but attracted Otto as if it was a piece of gold. He held the head up high as he opened his mouth in disbelief.
"S-so what? Is that it?" Five asked, not understanding Otto's exuberance.
"This could solve. ALL. Of your problems." Otto said pacingly, "I never thought we'd find him so quickly though, Larry has been hard to find before, but-"
Five had to blink twice for that. "Larry? You gave that thing a name?"
"No, that's just his designation, Larry 3000," said Otto, sounding more stupid than before, "but that's not the important part, this guy helped with our chronal co-ordination and navigation, and had a repository of tachyon particles stored in his head frame. It may be mankind's only chance of winning this war!"
"Uh...huh...uh...f-full disclosure, kiddo. I have no clue what 'tachyon particles' are, but Mandark probably does." Five suggested, "Besides, we don't want to get anymore monsters up in our business, no matter how much fun it might be."
"Yeah, that was something. Anyway, we got Larry's Head." said Otto, a little exhausted himself. "So we ought'a leave now, and get him to Mandark, as you said."
"Wouldn't be too bad…" Mandy said, weakly, "I could really...relax for a moment..."
"Mandy, y'alright?" Five asked with concern.
"Yeah, I thin...I...whattheffu..." She collapsed onto the ground as Five tried to catch her fall. The highly trained operative failed, and the fall was hard. Five held Mandy by the arms, and immediately noticed a dark green wound on her back that was gushing blood and glowing with fusion matter. Veins turned green and quickly spread to her arms and legs.
Mandy was dying.
Dying from a fusion matter infection.
"The one time we needed Grim," she complained, "he was probably drinking from a coconut by the River Lethe."
"You know that ain't true," Five said, "you also know that even though that bag o' bones ain't here, you can still get through with this."
"If he isn't here...then why do I see him over your shoulder?" That alone sent a shiver down Five's spine. Mandy coughed more, as the green veins were half-way up her neck, getting dangerously close to her brain.
"Yeah, h-he's showin' my hourglass, it looks...really convoluted but, i-it's run...out..."
Mandy failed to finish as the veins covered her face. The fusion matter reached her brain, and shut it down within seconds. Five took a moment to realize the life had left Mandy's eyes. It seemed peaceful enough to have her not freak out over anything, and luckily unlike Finn it wasn't horrific enough to thoroughly mourn her. Five stood up, her head down in shame, without saying a word, and let Mandy rest in peace under the shade of the giant robot...trapped in one position...unable to escape fate.
But she continued to think more about what she said. 'The one time we needed Grim.' The Grim Reaper was nowhere to be seen when the fusions began to invade. It made her wonder as she walked quietly away from Mandy's corpse with Otto, what would the war have been like if Grim was around? Or maybe more importantly...
Where was Grim when everyone she knew began dropping dead like flies?
She couldn't bother herself to answer or think too much about that question. She turned around to face Otto, now stood up and ready to go, and so was she. Five kept her dual pistols at her side, because escaping the infected zone would be harder than entering it. "Another mission...complete..." Five said with fatigue. She was truly finding her limits with this war. She just wanted it to be over.
THE PAST: MAY 24 - 2014 - LOCATION UNKNOWN
"INSUBORDINATION!"
"SABOTAGE!"
"REASON #3!"
All the members of the KND in the courtroom were clamoring into the center of the hall, while Number Two was slowly sinking into the chair of shame. He still had no idea what he had done wrong. He was just doing his daily frequency-synchs with the other bases, he didn't expect to be threatened with decommissioning. It was even worse when he heard Number Five's voice just ringing in his head. What was it she said? "What could possibly go wrong?" He didn't even need his 2x4 goggles to analyze how many ways everything went wrong. Way 1: someone who managed to graduate out of cadets next door and get a great position in the organization, actually mistook a maintenance error for a deliberate sabotaging of KND property and was prosecuting him for it. Way 2: whatever was jamming those usually functional KND signals from all the way to Pluto was clearly not a friendly.
Way 3: Number Four was representing him.
Yeah, he was bound to get decommissioned. Add that to the increasing worry he had about the signal jam.
Two sweat in his seat, still thinking about the communications relay back on Earth, and what in his known existence could jam their signals so effortlessly. He'd deduced that there was some kind of interference for sure, but he theorized that one interference from one area could have affected the rest of the relays. But then again. What on EARTH could do that?! The last he saw Ben, he said that none of his rogues gallery was coming to Earth anytime soon, and as far as he knew there were no other villains from the far reaches of the universe that could come to mind immediately.
So what the hell was going on?!
When Two looked at the "Jury", he could see that some were also thinking that same thing.
"ORDER!" Number 1776 shouted as she slammed the turnip-gravel. "The prosecution has the floor. Numbuh 363, your case?"
"Yeah!" 363 shouted, when he could have just lowered his voice. "Look, we've lost all communications with the Outer Rim bases. Be it through our Twitter or Instagram, or even standard KND transmission channels. Number Two was put in charge of maintaining these commlinks, right?! So obviously he failed his high command job of the highest command! We oughta charge 'im with decommissioning, as a start!" That...really awful argument (what? it was awful) got a lot more respect than it deserved. Several KND operatives were cheering 363 on, more than Two had actually expected. Four seemed ready to say something...god help him...
"I OBJECT!" Four shouted, acknowledging that that wasn't the right word to use, probably, "The initial charges were that my...eh...client...sabotaged these commlinks, but there is no evidence from this twit so far ta suggest that Numbuh Two willingly sabotaged anything out of villainy!"
"W-well, my sister is Numbuh 362! She's the head of the Moon Base and second-in-command to 274! She can kick you out of the KND faster than you can say...uh - sorry!"
1776 was clearly dumbfounded by how this little kid with half as much intelligence as a rock got to be a KND lawyer. "Numbuh 363, I hope you realize that we are on Moon Base, under Numbuh 362's jurisdiction," she continued, "and this fair trial is happening here thanks to her permission."
363 looked like he was going to break fifty pencils if given them. Some swore they could see legitimate smoke rising from his top and coming out of his ears.
"As you can see, this little runt can't respond because of one true fact! He's a CND washout with enough family to exercise his own power!" Four immediately shouted into the auditorium, taking the opportunity to put 363 in his place. "I mean, who even vouched to let you become a KND lawyer anyway? Numbuh MORON?!"
A small voice from the back of the crowd shouted in the vastness of the hall: "No, I designed the birthday suits and the camo-tech."
"Wait, you exist?" a second voice spoke.
"Is that why seven of our units got kidnapped by the Proper Patrol yesterday?!" another voice shouted.
"I'M YELLING ALSO!"
Next thing Four and Two knew, the whole court once again descended into chaos. Four slowly leaned to his shoulder and whispered "So...should I morse code 274 or somethin'? I know someone who's good at it."
Two swore that if this kangaroo-court crap continued, he'd either go insane or make himself pass out.
THE FUTURE: FEBRUARY 4 - 2015 - SECTOR V
Beat
Five pulled out her NanoCom as she marched through Number One's now tilted house and up the tilted elevator to the tilted treehouse. Otto slowly followed her, trying to match her pace, carrying and caring for Larry 3000's severed head. He also couldn't help but marvel at the legendary Sector V treehouse, which he was standing in himself! They were both exhaling after making it out of the junkyard alive, and boy was that difficult. Their hearts were racing minutes ago, and now both were at a satisfying and steady beat. Five just wished that everyone could have made it out alive. With the press of a few buttons, a holographic icon of Eddy appeared, and out came his repugnant voice.
"Hey, you. Did you find our stuff?" Eddy spoke over the NanoCom. "I mean, it was a lotta stuff, so either you're carrying both of the crates on your back, that wuss little kid is helpin' you out, or you delibrately lost them."
Beat
"The last one...in a way," Five responded, "Your fusion doppleganger took your stuff, and got its gooey hands all over it."
"So what, you didn't take it back?!"
Beat
"Like I said, it got its gooey hands on it. Nobody'd wanna eat any infected food, includin' you." Five said as she passed the makeshift medbay, where Otto left her path and joined Ben and Mandark as they were looking over the infected Number Two. Five kept walking forward, wondering how she would phrase Mandy's demise. Was it heroic? Was it in vain? It was these questions that made her want to keep a façade to–
Wait.
What?
Five stopped dead in her tracks. Her heart skipped a beat. That room that she just passed...that...couldn't have been real, right?
Beat Beat
No, it can't be, it's stupid talk, she thought as she slowly peddled her feet back. Her heart was skipping beats as if skipping stones, yet veins were pumping blood faster than ever, pressure formed around her wrist.
Beat Beat Beat
Her eyes began to get glossy, and tears began to form at her eyes, for her heart continued pounding to the beat of her thoughts, begging and pleading for what she saw to not be true. It just couldn't be!
Beat Beat Beat Beat
But when she stared reality right in the face, the tears let loose, her body was frozen yet trembling, and she dropped her NanoCom in absolute horror.
Beat Beat Beat Beat
Not again, she thought.
"So? Am I gonna get new goods or what?!" Eddy tried to say, but his voice was only blocked by the oakwood floor. "Five, I'm talkin' to you!"
"Numbuh Two? Hoagie?!" Five shouted as she paced towards the gurney. She walked faster and faster, as fast as her remaining doubts fading away every step she got closer. When she was close enough to see her last remaining childhood friend on the verge of a painful and miserable death, all her possible emotions spilled out like water out of a bucket. Everything revealed itself, stress, confusion, hate, shock, grief, yet she tried her best to keep her calm...to little avail. She had repeated his name, in some hope that it was some kind of prank, just like the good ol' days. But the lack of any response cruelly proved her wrong. "NO!" She cried.
Ben looked on Number Five with different emotions of his own. Since their arrival at Hero's Square, what Five told him kept repeating in his head. When you see so many of your friends get taken away, you get used to it. Now it seemed impossible for Five to have said that. She supposedly reacted calmly to the demise of Number One, yet here, it was the end of the world seeing another friend dying. But it made immediate sense as to why. This was the last remaining friend and comrade she had from childhood, from the days before the war, and now he was in a near-death state. She felt alone, the last operative of Sector V left, no one could have possibly known what it was like to be the last member remaining of a group like that.
It made him recoil at the thought of Gwen, Kevin, or even Grandpa Max like this. How would he have reacted?
"H-How did it happen?" Five asked with deep sorrow, tears streaming, flooding down her face while raising her head from Two's palm.
With that, all eyes had turned on Ben. "When fighting Fusion Buttercup, he got grabbed. Long enough to infect him with fusion matter." He explained with deep misery and regret. It hurt to say every word. He wished he could've done something when that fight had happened. But he didn't, and it hurt him as much as it hurt Five, but it was his failure in action.
Beat
Five sniffed, trying to collect herself, trying to recover and keep it upbeat. But with her façade already exposed, there was no point. She began to detach herself from Two's comatose body. As she stood up, 142 tried assuring her that so far he was in a stable condition, as Ben and Mandark had managed to extract the fusion matter before it could kill him. But she didn't want to hear it. Her dad was a doctor, and she and her sister had learned a few things about biology, that a virus isn't "eradicated" so much as it's subdued. Knowing fusion matter, she knew that whatever infected Two would come back. But 142 did say that the fusion matter was extracted...
Beat
She...didn't know what to think about it. She needed some...alone time.
She slowly left the medbay, her heart stopped racing, tears continuing to stream down her face; wordless, she left to try and make sense of what had happened.
Beat
From there on, there was silence. No one could say a word, the effects of war were never a discussed or preferred topic, but they all felt like going out and comforting Five as much as they could, but they didn't know if she wanted or needed it, regardless of however they felt she needed it. Mandark, on the other hand, resumed to working on his NanoCom (what a prick), but it went unnoticed by the others.
"Nothing is ever fair...is it..." spoke Otto, having decided to step forward and break the silence.
"That remains to be seen." Mandark said, still facing the projected computer from his NanoCom, with the light of the holograms brilliantly reflecting his glasses. It took him a moment to realize whoever said that was, to his knowledge, a complete stranger...with a large bald spot. "Who are you?"
"I'm Otto, and I'm from the Time S-" Otto halted in his words, realizing that his new friends would probably demean them in ignorance, "uh...the...name's not important, we're just a group of people who make sure time is working right."
Ben could only look in disbelief at this kid's affiliation. If these guys were really important, then where were these guys for the last year?! Meanwhile Mandark simply scoffed at the idea, not taking much seriously from a child he'd only just met.
"Like the plumbers?" Ben asked. "Only much worse at their job?"
Otto winced once again when hearing the same insult. "Yeah..." He reluctantly agreed, as he knew he had to say something to get their full attention.
"You did not need to agree with us to get our attention, Mr. Osworth." Mandark bluntly said, reading his thoughts once again and leaving Otto completely bewildered. "But onto the more interesting subject matter. The one that...Ms. Lincoln informed us of before your arrival. Your robot's head. Care to explain?"
"This head was part of a larger robot body from the far future, and we used him to chronicle any Time Squad missions my famil-uh-partners and I had, and he could utilize tachyon particles to displace us throughout the timestream."
"You are saying this robotic helm was exposed to tachyon radiation?"
"N-no, it wasn't exposed to it. It can generate it, and Larry kept reserve pockets of this energy in his head." explained Otto, "See, because Larry was from the million-first century, he had an entire archive's worth of history databanks loaded onto his central processor. He had his AI housed within this area, which was powered by a flow of tachyons through secondary circuitry, along with a reserve pack stored right next to it. He had a panel which had these cool buttons, that could keep the tachyons in an unstable state for as long as he needed them to, and based on the timings alone, Larry could figure out where in history each event was per wait-time." Otto finished. But he knew he had to add on one potentially theory-shattering fact. "I-I mean, we actually had other methods of time travel, 'cause Larry was technically a diplomatic counselor whowaslookin'forajobandhungoutwithmeandTuddrussel-"
"One word at a time!" said Ben, cutting Otto off his rant.
"Okay, he wasn't really affiliated with the Time Squad, at least until he paired up with us, but we had this stuff installed in him after a few incidents in our times together..."
Mandark scoffed. He wasn't interested in this stupid backstory! Ben looked over to see Mandark tapping his foot like a camper waiting for the campfire story to get to the end.
"What I'm just saying is that he's got time-traveling doo-hickeys in his head, so you'll need it." Otto said as he offered the head to Mandark. The 19-year old scientist looked at the head intensely, checking other areas that could provide some advanced idea of how the head worked on its own and whether it could be useful for the construction of the time machine. Ben and Otto gave him intense stares, waiting for an answer to come out from him.
"This...this could work..."
"W-what? What could work?" Ben asked, not having a solid understanding as to what Mandark was talking about, as always.
Mandark turned around; his face in a fascinated grin that he was not known for having. "The head of this droid is said to have a vast database of events pertaining to history, and probably cross-references various events in order to "triangulate" the next position in history."
"I didn't exactly say that..." said Otto, immediately turning both of the heroes' heads. "...but i-it's true..." he admitted, probably figuring out that Mandark was smarter than him in every possible way.
"If we were to properly activate the head, harness it's tachyon energy, download it's chronal navigation, and salvage any possible equipment for a suitable apparatus, we could create a method of locking onto a specific time in history!"
"S-so..." Ben had to halt in his words in excitement. But he also remained confused. He avoided all the science in Mandark's words, and tried to grasp the logic. "we can...we can lock on to the right time period?"
"Yes, Ben. How long did it take you? A year?" Mandark sarcastically retorted. "While Number Two remains incapacitated, Mr. Osworth here can be an effective replacement. Given his affiliation with a secret time-traveling agency (amongst all other things, apparently), and his dedicated time to preserving what remains of his chronal navigator, he has an acute understanding of how the technology can be put to good use in hopes of sending you to your original time period. And as I have specified, harnessing the tachyon radiation emanating from this head will allow for precise coordination as to the areas in time we need to go. Thus, we can recreate, or perhaps create...a superior rendition of Dexter's time machine!"
Did he hear that right? Well, he heard it, but he felt the need to transform into a new alien with better hearing just so he could hear it again. He couldn't believe it! They could do it now! They could build an advanced time machine that probably wouldn't blow up! Ben found it harder and harder to contain his immense excitement, until he couldn't bottle it up anymore. He kneeled down and shivered in excitement, with goosebumps crawling all over his skin, and he jumped as high as he could and laughed and shouted enough 'yeahs' to send his head flying. Even Mandark partook in the joy of the room, his ever-iconic monotone laugh joined Ben's cries of victory. Ben had one thought through all of this. He had blanked out everything else, because he had one thing in mind.
He was goin' home.
Behind the room, though, Number Five sat by the doorway, knees to her chest and sitting, continuing to let her emotions flood out while covering her hand to silence herself. She had heard everything they said. But her reaction? Everything revealed itself, stress, confusion, excitement, shock, joy...and worry. When she saw the last of her teammates dying, she had begun to detach herself from life as Number Two lay on the bed, still as a statue. But as fate would have it, there was a future yet to look forward to after all.
THE PAST: MAY 25 - 2014 - SIYENN CITY - TECH SQUARE
Dexter stared at the wall, and the wall stared back at him, mainly because of the computer screen right there in front of him.
It was midnight, and he was tired. Too tired. Earlier he had the unfortunate task of confronting one Sandra Tennyson. He of course, didn't tell her that Ben might be alive. But he found himself questioning whether it was the right thing to do. That family was already in worse shape, dealing with the loss of another family member, which had only happened last year. But on the other hand, it was his integrity on the line, as well as that of his company. He pinched his nosebridge in the empty laboratory. He wondered what he could possibly do further. His mother was already emotionally shattered as it was. How much more could be done after all the pointless work that had happened today?
And this was truly a first for Dexter, as nothing came to mind. He had to keep restating it in his mind to emphasize his failure. They had tried everything. Every possible simulation, every test.
He realized that he would need a little help, no matter how proud or arrogant he might have been to admit it. He reached for his Nanocom, which was sitting on his desk, and he pulled out the phone-dial.
He hesitated before pushing any of the touchscreen buttons. What difference would it make? Here were the scientists of Dexlabs, himself, and one of the most advanced Artificial intelligences ever produced by a human, let alone a child. But here, all of them were scratching their heads/processors, pulling out their hair/aesthetic codes, making no progress at all in retrieving Ben from the future. So how were the people he was about to call make anymore of a difference than the "differences" made by the smartest minds on Earth?!
Well...their father, or guardian, was a scientist...and an...experienced professional...so...
"What was the number of that hotline..." he pondered; it had been a while since he had to use it. If there was any physical problems he usually put something together for a way of fixing it, "ah yes. That should be it."
With that, the phone was beeping. Dexter grew impatient by simply having to hear and wait to that slow sound, until it finally picked up.
"Hello, Powerpuff Girls. I...cannot believe I am about to say this...I need some help."
DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL - CHAPTER 3: Get REddy
This has to be the worst chapter I've written.
Wait, did I say chapter? No, that doesn't make sense, I don't even have a large enough array of chapters to say this is the worst. So how about...
THIS IS THE WORST THING I HAVE EVER WRITTEN.
Though, in my favor, I've been incredibly busy with tests at school. So once again, I'm very sorry for the late release. I know I promised to post it by the end of March, and here we are...at the start of flippin' JULY.
...
This is not okay, guys. I couldn't apologize more here. Anyway...
Special thanks to AnimeGirl 144, a.k.a Kyra Xyrespace from the official FusionFall Legacy Community Team, for leaving a review on my story. Getting a review from her was one of the most unexpected things to ever happen to me here, mainly because she's from the official FusionFall Legacy Community Team, and getting a review from her was like getting a review from Stephen King. So my story being read by her was a true honor. Thank you so much! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, especially with its focus on the KND.
I'm also thinking of taking out the Warpgates from my story after the Future. Yes, they were a part of the original game, but I find the warp-sequence to be very hard to write as it involves a transition...even though there was a transition from scene to scene in the last few lines. Also, I've got very convincing scientific evidence explaining how teleportation actually clones you and kills the original copy. There's an entire Nerdist article on the matter, and I don't feel safe about killing and cloning characters. Y'know, I'd like to be safe in this regard, especially considering what might come later on.
Rest in Peace Rumen Petkov. For those don't know, he was a Bulgarian cartoonist who was most famous for being the lead animator for Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls, along with pretty much almost every cartoon you guys remember from the Golden Age. Mr. Petkov died June 11th, 2018 at the full age of 70, and I know that everything that he did, including his style's influence on this story's humor and writing, will truly be missed, and this only further pains me that this chapter came so late. It's amazing when one work of art can influence another work of art, and it's certainly more amazing when that kind of stuff can happen between two different mediums of entertainment.
BTW, if you guys are wondering if these guys look any different to the way you remember them from the shows or the game, then just call the game designs to mind. I mean, not all of them look game-accurate, or at least not the versions of them from the future. As I described in the last chapter, Future-Number Five is modeled after her FF Legacy tutorial model, and Otto is modeled after his own FusionFall Retro Design, so I'll try to describe the future-costumes in more detail next time. For now, you can say that Future-Mandy looks the same as her usual game model, as does Eddy and the Providence Agents. Look, as soon as I figure out how to redirect you guys to links (which is impossible) I'll show you what designs I could see the future-people with.
Finally, I feel I need to clarify the age of the Kids Next Door. They were their original ages back in the flashbacks of Chapter 1, that being 10 years old. Here-on-out, the five year timeskip has made them 15 years of age. I know it's a concept that pretty much betrays the point of the show, but if the original game was allowed to take creative liberties with their five year timeskip, then so can I! Besides, as I just said, I'm using the usual FF designs for them, which I must say look very teenage to me. I'm not going to say what it is that made the entire KND decide to extend the decommissioning to their least favorite age range, but I do have an explanation in mind, one that I...do not plan to tell for now.
Okay, I guess that's everything I have to say after a near 9 month hiatus. See ya'round, and make sure to review the story so far. Trust me, for this chapter, I feel like I really need all the criticism I can get.
Oh and I hope you didn't notice our little change-up. If you did, please excuse the narrator of this chapter, the old one died so I had to get a new one. So if his expressive and...unique expressions are making the story confusing for you, then keep count of the number of times he does this and I'll be sure to fire him ASAP.
Good day, and see you next time...hopefully not next year...god forgive me...
NEXT CHAPTER: Hours of Future Past
-end transmission
