"Curious," EightEight hummed.
"What is it, Sister EightEight?" Ben asked, causing Gwen and Kevin to join him in looking at the Sotoraggian.
She looked at them and gurgled, "There's a camp called Camp Opinicon. It's been closed for a bit due to a mushroom outbreak in the camp, but they can't really contain it very well. Whoever runs it sent out a message for help with the problem and the Dragoon picked it up. We'll be meeting up with Squirrel-mask and Honeybee-mask before heading there."
Ben nodded, then relayed it to Kevin and Gwen.
The girl asked, "Why are we meeting up with two others before going there?"
EightEight signed, 'Fire.'
A beat.
"I don't like that you just signed 'fire'," Gwen commented. The Sotoraggian shrugged.
"Maybe they're aliens that use fire," Kevin shrugged.
"Burn the mushrooms?" Ben blinked.
"Guess we'll see," Gwen hummed.
…
EightEight, pointed a hand towards a vehicle coming towards Sparksville, causing the Wyrmlings to look over as well. She stood up and began towards the edge of the town, the Wyrmlings following her.
The vehicle stopped as the quartet approached it. A humanoid with a squirrel disguise suddenly teleported next to the car and looked at them. Squirrel-mask motioned to them and exclaimed, "Hey, you're the four Dragua said would be joining us, right?!"
"Don't be so loud," EightEight gurgled as the quartet came up to them. Squirrel-mask looked at the Wyrmlings, tilting their head slightly.
"They're children," Squirrel commented.
"And?" EightEight questioned, crossing her arms. Squirrel raised a brow at the Sotoraggian.
"Just saying," Squirrel shrugged. "Get in the car, we need to start towards Opinicon if we want to get there on time." The door of the vehicle opened and Squirrel teleported again. EightEight looked at the Wyrmlings and motioned them in. Once they were in, she joined them.
In front was Squirrel and Honeybee, with the mammal dressed in the passenger seat and the bug dressed one in the driver seat. Honeybee looked back briefly at them before returning their attention to the road as the doors locked. The vehicle reeled, then started off.
"So…" Squirrel started, looking towards EightEight. "What do we refer to those three as?"
"Wyrmlings. If not, Crow, Rat, and Cobra," EightEight answered. Squirrel nodded.
"Cool. I heard one of them uses the Omnitrix. Which one of you three is that watch's wielder?" Squirrel asked, turning to look at the trio.
Ben and Kevin looked at Gwen. She looked at the two before lifting a hand. Squirrel hummed.
"You know, not to be mean or anything, but I kinda expected the Omnitrix wielder to be male, you know? But go ahead and prove them," Squirrel commented.
"To be fair, there's things in different species that make one gender more… for the lack of a better term, powerful than the other," EightEight nodded.
"Case in point, Tetramands and Aerophibians," Squirrel added.
Honeybee growled something.
"Celestialsapiens, fine, Honeybee," Squirrel complained, turning to face the road. "You don't need to be a buzzkill."
…
The vehicle shuttered to a stop before Squirrel suddenly disappeared. EightEight looked at the Wyrmlings and shook them, waking the trio up. Honeybee-mask got out, the Sotoraggian stalling to allow the Wyrmlings to awaken.
She got out of the vehicle, looking towards Squirrel. The humanoid was speaking to a human. EightEight looked down, watching the Wyrmlings get out of the vehicle.
A few seconds after the Wyrmlings got out and gathered themselves, Squirrel came back over to the quintet. Squirrel said, "They told me where the mushrooms started from, so let's head there."
Honeybee growled something from their spot.
"We can take them off when we get there," Squirrel replied to the creature. They then started off, making a following motion as they did so. Honeybee quickly followed, silent. The Wyrmlings followed the duo with EightEight being in the back of the group.
They stopped once they got to a point when the grass clearly wasn't green anymore, becoming more of a purple color. Honeybee was the first to stop, growling something out that caused Squirrel to stop as well.
"I don't recognize this," Squirrel commented.
EightEight bent down to look at the grass, being silent for a few moments before gurgling, "It's too dark to tell what it is, do either of you have a light?"
Honeybee growled something. Squirrel shrugged, prompting Honeybee to take off their mask. As the mask came off, Honeybee's body turned into a creature with four arms, yellow skin, and six brilliant glowing wings. The angelic humanoid floated above the ground as their white dress went down to below their knees but above the ankles. Golden hair sat on and seemingly floated around its head as two blank white eyes watched. It growled something once more.
"Is it bright enough?" Squirrel seemingly relayed.
"Yes, this is enough," EightEight nodded before saying, "This is Mycelium."
"Oh crap, Mycelium?" Squirrel gawked. Honeybee's wings buffeted, the two upper most smallest wings glowing a bit brighter.
"What's Mycelium?" Gwen asked.
Honeybee began to growl something, but stopped when Squirrel cut in, "I'm the only one in this group who can understand you, Azrael."
The angelic humanoid growled something else.
That's when the Omnitrix chirped, "Vulgan language recognized. Activating Vulgan Translator."
"Vulgan language?" Kevin questioned.
"The language Vulgalus speak, they can't speak anything else," Squirrel shrugged. "Anyways, Mycelium is from the Flors System, specifically Flors Purpura. It isn't a predator of any kind of Florauna, Floraunas are actually one of the species immune to its effects, but Mycelium can have poisonous or mind control effects on some species. Not too sure if humans are affected by it, but guess we'll see. C'mon, we still need to find the source of this."
Squirrel started off again while Azrael floated about it. Azrael growled, "Come on, slow pokes."
EightEight quickly stood up and motioned for the Wyrmlings to follow the duo. The trio did, with the Sotoraggian once again bringing up the rear.
…
Azrael suddenly stopped, glow dimming slightly. Squirrel noticed and turned around as the quartet stopped as well. "What's wrong, Azrael?"
"I don't like what I'm sensing," Azrael growled, wings once more buffeting. "What in the name of Starbeard is that Mycelium doing?"
"You're the one who can sense them here, so how could the rest of us know?" Squirrel replied.
"Do you think the Omnitrix or the Predatrix would have a form that could help?" Gwen asked.
Azrael was about to growl something when Squirrel answered, "Not too sure, the only creatures that can really sense Mycelium for a lack of a better term are Vulgalus and Floraunas."
"Maybe hope for a mistransformation into a Vulgalus or Florauna?" Ben suggested.
Squirrel stared at them blankly as Azrael tilted their head and Gwen replied, "Hopefully. I really hope this doesn't need to happen again, though." She activated the Omnitrix, turning the dial as Azrael floated a bit higher.
"Why turn the edge thing?" Squirrel asked.
"It's supposed to let me choose which one I transform into, let's hope it doesn't work this time," Gwen replied before saying, "Alright, Artemis!" She slammed down on the dial.
In the green flash, she felt her body melt and fall into strings, some of much started to clump together. She felt herself being lifted back up by thick, unstable yet stable vines as something grew on her back the something broke open around her face. She knew this wasn't Artemis, it didn't even feel similar.
"This isn't Artemis!" she proclaimed as the light vanished. Azrael stared with blank eyes in amazement as Squirrel blinked and Ben grinned. The Omnitrix user was now a living gathering of greenish blue vines with a dark blue eye and black seed-like shells on her back. The Omnitrix sat on her chest. Around her head was a flytrap head, but with few yet large 'teeth' instead of many small 'teeth'.
"It worked!" Ben added, basically bouncing over to the living plant.
"A Winter Florauna?" EightEight gawked, blank eyes of her disguise clearly staring at the new lifeform.
Ben suddenly stopped and tilted his head at EightEight, "Winter Florauna? What's the difference between that and a Spring Florauna other than colors?"
"Oh, that's an easy answer," Squirrel started, causing Ben, the living plant, and Kevin to look at it. "What 'season' a Florauna is defined by is based on which part of one of the Flors System's five planets they are born in. Farthest from the sun is winter, closest to the sun is summer, et cetera. It determines how quickly a Florauna 'develops', though a better way to say it is how quickly they get fangs."
She moved slightly, a vine purposely brushing the Predatrix as the living plant moved forwards slightly. "I can sense that Mycelium thing now," she said before wisply adding, "Medeina, that's what I'll call this."
"Woo, now come on, suckers," Azrael growled before beginning to fly forwards. Medeina followed, vines carrying her along.
"Hey, wait up!" Kevin cawed, running after them. Ben and EightEight joined him, Squirrel stalling before sighing and joining them.
Azrael stopped at the edge of a clearing, glow from its wings dimming. Medeina stopped next to it while the others came up to them. Azrael pointed and growled, "There. That's where it's coming from." Medeina looked towards it, vines curling around a bit.
A cluster of large, thick mushrooms stood in a circle around something. Every now again, barely noticeable, the mushrooms shifted.
"That's where the Mycelium started?" Squirrel blinked. Azrael nodded. "Seems kinda unassuming."
Medeina frowned as EightEight gurgled, "So what now?" Squirrel made an odd noise.
"Something's off," Medeina muttered.
"What was that?" Squirrel questioned.
She moved slightly, vines tunneling into the ground a bit. After a few seconds, Medeina said, "There's something under us, like some sort of heart or something."
"Pups, a Primrose?" EightEight hissed.
"Of course there's a Primrose," Squirrel growled.
"What's a Primrose?" Kevin asked.
"They're like the mother of a colony of Mycelium," Squirrel explained. It suddenly stopped before saying, "Flors Mycelium? Is it literally just called Mycelium? There's nothing saying its specifically from the Flors System?"
"The only other 'mycelium' I can think of is from Fulmas and you know how weird their naming convention is," EightEight gurgled, staring at Squirrel.
"Eh, fair," Squirrel shrugged.
"If the Primrose dies, will the Mycelium die, too?" Ben asked, refocusing the two. Squirrel looked at EightEight, who shrugged.
"I've been on Flors Purpura before, but it was only briefly to get something for a client before I came to Earth," EightEight gurgled.
"I've only heard of it, so I got no clue either," Squirrel added, shoulders slacking.
Azrael growled, "Well, unless any of you have a better idea."
Silence followed.
"Alright, I guess we're trying that," Squirrel chirped. "Feel free to take off the masks if they get in the way." Squirrel followed their own advice and took off their ID mask. Once the mask came off, it was revealed that Squirrel was much taller than what the mask's disguise put her as. The female took out a staff shaped like a dragon with an orb held in its mouth from an odd bag on her side. She wore a helmet with the appearance of a cyan dragon. The same color of armor covered her chest and a belt of the same color went around her waist, a cerulean skirt flowing down from it along with holding said bag. Her long hair was a bright blonde and her eyes glowed a brilliant sapphire.
Azrael surged forwards first, top two wings suddenly breaking apart and reforming into two separate rings that surrounded them like an orb. From the top left arm sprung a lance of pure light that it slashed at one of the mushrooms, ripping it in two. The leftover mushrooms suddenly screeched, revealing their sharp teeth, grubby little hands and feet, and shaking to let loose spores.
EightEight jumped to join Azrael as Squirrel pointed her staff forward and yelled, "Apple's Flame!" A burst of flames shot forwards, crashing into one of the mushrooms. Kevin asborded some DNA from Medeina before she surged forward, his cloak turning into vines and vines sprouting from his back and head. The mutated Kevin joined in as a red flash came from the Predatrix.
In Ben's place was a massive neon icy blue beetle with its horns, pincers, and legs tipped with a lemon yellow. His shell split open as insect wings carried him into the sky as he screeched. Electricity danced around him, but when he pointed his head downwards, a shot of ice was launched forwards. The ice crashed into one of the mushrooms as EightEight tore apart a different one.
More mushrooms seemed to come from the center of the circle, climbing up from whatever hole they spawned from. Medeina and Kevin used their vines to tie and squeeze some of the mushrooms as Azrael and EightEight ripped the mushrooms with their blades. The newfound predator and Squirrel stayed outside of the clearing, yet still sent attacks into the mushrooms.
EightEight growled a bit as she ripped the talons out of another mushroom. She then hissed, "We can't get to the Primrose like this!"
Squirrel winced slightly at the notification before yelling, "Azrael, can you sense the Primrose?!"
"What makes you think I can, girlie!" Azrael growled, almost a roar as it sliced another mushroom.
Squirrel made no reply to the Vulgalus. She then yelled, "As much as I don't want a child to go down there, only the Florauna- whatever she named that form- can search for it!"
EightEight smashed a mushroom as she sighed. She gurgled, "Then we just don't have another choice…" The Sotoraggian turned towards the Florauna and pointed to the hole the mushrooms were coming from.
Medeina stalled slightly as Kevin used his vines to tear one of the mushroom's head off, mushroom spores and plant goop spilling out. She then surged forwards to the hole, looking into it. Mushrooms screeched as they climbed up and out of the pit. The Florauna's vines regathered and shot towards one of the climbing mushrooms, encasing it. The mushroom screeched as it became unstable and began to fall. Other mushrooms shrilled in an uncaring manner as Medeina was pulled down with it.
The mushroom she grabbed splattered on the ground like a mushed cherry that had an exploding ball of poor quality pixie dust in it. Medeina landed on top of the dusty spores and liquid mush as the mushrooms walked on the roof, climbing to the surface. She shook her head slightly as she slithered off the very dead mushroom, vine legs flicking to get the fungus's guts off of her.
Medeina looked at the mushrooms on the ceiling before looking down a tunnel that was full of nothing. She looked back at the mushrooms, effectively squinted at them, then looked back and slithered down the empty pathway.
The Omnitrix wielder was suddenly hyper aware that said device held a time limit. She let her tiny fangs bite her bottom lip. She wasn't sure how long it had been since she transformed, before she blinked and tapped the symbol. Nothing happened. Of course only the Predatrix had that feature.
"Why doesn't either watch tell time but the Predatrix still says how much time a transformation has left?" Medeina sighed before her vine legs suddenly stopped her from falling off a sudden ledge.
She lowered herself to try to look for the cliff's bottom, but saw none. The Florauna frowned and squinted again.
"It's down there…" Medeina whispered to herself, vines curling the ground. She lifted a vines from the ground, lowered it down the ledge side, then stabbed into it. The vine went through, lodging itself into the wall. The Florauna lifted more vines and began to walk down the ledge side.
Medeina bit her tongue as she walked down the wall. There was no way it hadn't been ten minutes at this point. Spores filled the air around her as she continued to climb. As she continued downwards, the air filled with more and more spores until it was more like a thick fog than simple pollen floating around.
Her vines brushed against the floor and she moved to be back on solid ground. Medeina walked forward, a few vines in front of her to make sure she didn't run into anything.
Her vines brushed up against what seemed like a stalk and she stopped. From her vines, she could tell it was stable and would be somewhat difficult to climb. Medeina came up to the stalk and looked up. The thick fog of spores blocked her view.
Medeina sighed, looped vines around the stalk, and began to climb- more like shimmy- her way up. As she went up the stalk, the spores slowly began to lessen and clear out.
When her view was finally rid of spores, she looked around and froze. All along the ceiling was a mass of mushrooms, covering the entire ceiling. The ceiling of the cave was revealed in an impossibly slow manner as the mushrooms moved down tunnels popping through the ceiling, though it was clear that barely any progress was made. In the center of the cave was a massive, pink, heart-like plant with tree-like stalks allowing it to attach to the walls, ceiling, and floors of the cave. As the beyond massive plant moved for… something, spores fell off it and gathered at the bottom, festering in a giant fog of pure spores.
Carefully, Medeina reached a hand out to touch the Primrose. It brushed up against it, but nothing happened. She lifted a vine and wrapped it around a stick-like protrusion. Once again, nothing happened. Medeina quickly moved, using her vines to get her on top of the Primrose.
When she got on top of the Primrose, she immediately scanned the top of it. There was nothing except a hole in the center that seemed to lead into the Primrose. Medeina slithered over to it and looked down.
She turned away and began to cough up thick, unnatural blops that seemed like condensed mix of water, pollen, and sugar. Medeina puked out this concoction, body trembling as she finished. The Florauna gasped, backing away from the hole she just looked into.
Medeina reached a vine to her back and pulled off one of the seeds that was resting there. More vines followed and they gathered somewhat near the hole. After a few seconds of gathering, the seeds were thrown into the hole.
The whole cave seemed to rumble as an ear-ending screech came out of anything that could possibly make noises except herself.
-()-
Dracula tore a mushroom apart, collapsing slightly as its guts covered the ground even more than the horde already did. He looked around, tiredness beginning to grip him. Kevin, still mutated, at some point passed out with green sparks coming from him for an unknown reason. One of EightEight's talons got stuck in a pile of guts and the other talon was covered in enough dust to make it worthless as a weapon at the moment. Squirrel had retreated to a tree branch to shoot her spells from there, though she was beginning to rely more on what she called Silent's Wish and Kiwi's Burst. Azrael seemed to have lost all sense of sanity, with most of their body having turned into rings and the only body parts left being their head, torso, and a single wing, and tearing apart the mushrooms with beams of light from the rings and with such force it seemed like a god releasing its anger on its people.
Dracula was suddenly forced to the ground by the mushrooms, collapsing entirely. A mushroom bit into him, causing him to screech and kick the mushroom apart, the mushroom's guts splattering onto himself.
Suddenly, the mushrooms reeled back and screamed. EightEight stopped jumping around entirely, falling to one knee. Squirrel stopped as well, breathing heavily. Azrael seemed to notice Squirrel's change of stance because the rings slowly faded and began to reform as body parts.
The mushrooms began to collapse, suddenly beginning to fade into light dust that faded into nothingness. The guts that covered them followed, turning into the dust then nothingness as it was removed from the scene. The abandoned talon fell to the ground harmlessly as EightEight stood back up, body shaking a bit as she looked around.
"Dracula, are you…?" EightEight started, but never finished. The Predatrix shrieked and detransformed its user in a flash of green light, leaving a fainted Ben on the ground.
Squirrel came down from the tree, saying, "I-I guess the battle took a lot out of them?"
Azrael floated back down to the ground, growling something at Squirrel. The magician girl shrugged before she turned to the Sotoraggian.
"Are you ok, Afri-mask?" Squirrel asked.
"EightEight is fine," the Sotoraggian replied, staggering over and retrieving her talon. "I'm more worried about Ben, Kevin, and Gwen."
Squirrel paused for a moment before saying, "Oh, you mean the Wyrmlings!" She looked towards Ben and the still mutated Kevin, saying, "I could probably cast a spell to help Rat- whichever one that is- but I have no idea for Crow or Cobra."
EightEight nodded and gurgled, "Go help him." She then collapsed to the ground, trembling and breathing harshly. The Sotoraggian ripped off her mask as Squirrel stalled, then went over to Ben.
She put her staff over him and said, "Timaeus's Tears." A drop of magic in the color of water dropped from the staff, seemingly splashing onto Ben. Squirrel turned around and looked at EightEight. The magician girl came over as the Sotoraggian laid herself on the ground. Squirrel questioned, "Are… you ok, Afri-mask?"
EightEight rolled onto her back and let out a noise that sounded like a screaming cockatoo.
Azrael stared at the Sotoraggian with half eyes as Squirrel simply blinked. Squirrel then hummed, "O…k then… What now?"
When EightEight didn't make any reply, Azrael growled something at Squirrel.
"Then why not look for her," Squirrel shrugged. She started towards the hole and added, "I'll be back, don't follow me." She dropped into the hole, Azrael staring as she did so with half lidded eyes.
Azrael looked at EightEight, silent. The Sotoraggian looked back at the Vulgalus and gurgled, "If Ben doesn't have a name for his Freezity Beetle form, I'm going to convince him to call it Hellfreeze." Azrael let out a laughing scoff in reply.
The sparks around Kevin died down slightly as the vines finally retracted, un-mutating him.
…
Azrael floated somewhat close to the hole, staring. EightEight sat near a tree with Kevin and Ben on either side of her. A burst of wind came from the hole, causing the others to look over before Squirrel popped out with Gwen on her back. Ben and Kevin quickly surged towards them as Squirrel let Gwen down, who dashed to them as soon as she was put down. The Wyrmlings made a group hug as EightEight came over as well.
"Were there any signs of the Primrose?" EightEight asked.
"If you count guts," Squirrel shrugged. "Which, by the way, was absolutely disguising."
The Sotoraggian chuckled as Ben asked, "Are you ok, Gwen?"
"Yea, I'm fine," Gwen nodded. She then asked, "Did you get a new form from Medeina?"
Ben nodded before saying, "Hellfreeze." Kevin scoffed, a smile across his face.
Gwen chirped, "When Hell freezes over?" The Wyrmlings devolved into a cackle of laughs.
"... That's a phrase?" Azrael growled.
"I guess so, but that's Earth for you," Squirrel replied, shrugging slightly.
"I have no idea what they're referring to," EightEight added. "For most Sotoraggians, Hell is a word that can substitute for Sotoricity or thunderstorm."
Squirrel squinted at her. "Huh," Squirrel hummed, returning to a neutral look as she got out her mask. "Well, we need to report back that we got rid of the mushrooms." EightEight nodded, putting back on her ID mask. The Wyrmlings broke their huddle and went over to them as Azrael and Squirrel put their masks back on.
Azrael growled, "You're driving."
"Fu- fine," Squirrel complained.
Ushi: Yea, Technorg deserved better, especially with the whole 'now you are my master' thing. Useless aliens... I'm assuming you mean canon, so if I had to choose one, it would be Fasttrack. Yes, a speedy alien, so while technically not useless, when compared to the much more popular and better XLR8, Fasttrack is useless. My favorite art style for Ben 10 is between Classic and Reboot.
Pater P0n: That will be addressed during The Visitors.
Ex-Prince FrostFang: Glad you enjoy it! I have planned out all the way through Omniverse, but I can say right now that there's some things that will be changed.