The Uxorite backed away slightly before she asked, "Are you aware?"
There was a moment of silence before a voice in her head said, "Give me a moment…" The Uxorite nodded and crossed her arms as the Cerebrocrustacean collected itself. He stood up on his six legs and the shell opened slightly. Electricity danced around it for a few moments in time before disappearing. The shell closed and the Cerebrocrustacean refocused its attention towards her. "Forgive me for that, I…"
"We crash landed, you weren't prepared," the Uxorite summarized.
"Beyond," the Cerebrocrustacean telepathed, clicking his claws somewhat. "I never expected Vilgax to appear so suddenly…"
"I don't think either of us did," the Uxorite growled.
There was a moment of silence before the Cerebrocrustacean asked, "You were delivering the Omnitrix to Azmuth's chosen champion, correct?"
"Maxwell Tennyson, a former Plumber Magister, yes," the Uxorite nodded. "Why were you approaching Earth?"
"It was one of the few planets I saved for last when collecting DNA for the Nemetrix," the Cerebrocrustacean explained. "Myself and Khyber decided that he would go to Mythicon due to it being much more… volatile, while I went to Earth."
A beat.
"You're Doctor Psychobos," the Uxorite said, emotion blank on her face.
"I will admit, I am curious why you never noticed earlier. Who might you be?" the Cerebrocrustacean asked.
There was a pause before the answer, "Xylene."
-(…)-
'Damaged DNA found.'
Gwen was suddenly aware again.
'Ectonurite form DNA repaired. Unlocking Ectonurite: Styx DNA.'
Gwen's mind was flooded with what the situation was and what just happened.
'Reloading time. Transforming user into Ectonurite: Styx form. Standby…'
A surge of energy and green.
'Transformation successful. Allowing host access.'
Styx grinned under her sun skin, bright pink eye shining as she loudly proclaimed, "Styx!"
-()-
'Omnitrix Sync recognized.'
Fish Snatcher stopped for a brief moment when the Predatrix suddenly informed him of that. A green flash caused the vulture-like, the werewolf, and the mummy to look over.
'Form recognized. Restoring time. Transforming host to Belltail: Anurian Shadow form.'
He felt his body break, disintegrate, and condense within the typical red flash in barely half a second. Belltail's instincts threatened to take over, sensing the weakened prey around him.
"Belltail!" the Anurian Shadow screeched before swiftly ringing the bell at the end of his tail. He ignored the screeching of Ghostfreak as his pure white eyes traveled to the werewolf and the mummy.
-()-
EightEight quickly put together what just happened before yelling, "Styx, focus on the other Ectonurite! Kevin, attack the Loboan! Belltail, the Thep Khufan! I'll take the Transylian!" Kevin nodded and ran towards Belltail, the werewolf, and the mummy, electricity sparking around him. Smoke poured from the Anurian Shadow and fire flared within its mouth. EightEight took out her other talon and dashed towards the Transylian while Styx and the larger Ectonurite faced each other.
Belltail released a fireball towards the Loboan and Thep Khufan, forcing them apart. Kevin ran by him, moving towards the Loboan. The Anurian Shadow floated towards the Thep Khufan, eyes pierced towards the creature. The bell continued to ring as the Thep Khufan backed up, doing an odd motion with its hands. He released a burst of flames towards the mummy, forcing it to drop the motion and dodge. Smoke continued to pour out of his mouth, small flames flicking out.
-()-
M's mind was completely filled with fear as the Anurian Shadow chose him to be its first meal. The wispless fire of its held breath flickered to the doors that lead to the depths of death, its residue floating around it like a cloak. Its blank eyes stared into his mind, a reaper considering how to kill.
The Anurian Shadow breathed another fireball at him, causing M to surge out of the way. It crashed to the ground, leaving a burning spot with nothing but death waiting. Out of panic, M motioned his arm towards the beast and mentally casted the first spell that came to mind. A burst of wind erupted from his palm, but it did nothing but disrupt the settling flames.
Benwolf jumped out of the way of the hornless Osmosian's attack, landing and releasing a howl. The hornless Osmosian made electricity dance around it as the sound crashed into it, but it stood. A sudden lash of electricity was thrown at him. He managed to move slightly, but the bolt crashed into his arm. Benwolf yelped as the energy messed with his arm, forcing him back. The hornless Osmosian continued with another bolt, causing Benwolf to dash towards them. Benwolf ducked under the thrown bolt as the hornless Osmosian stalled, but managed to get out of the way of a slash from Benwolf.
Viktor staggered as a sharp weapon slashed at his back. He turned and released a defensive bolt, forcing the Sotoraggian away. The spirals on his back sparked and electricity danced around them as the Sotoraggian and the Tranyslian stared at each other. He attempted to look towards Zs'Skayr, but the Sotoraggian suddenly dashed towards him. Viktor lifted his arms, electricity dancing around his arms. The Sotoraggian slashed down, making a mark on his arms. A crackle of more storm-like bolts forced the Sotoraggian and allowed Viktor to recover somewhat. Before he could do anything else, the Sotoraggian came at him again. Viktor lifted an arm in defense just before her leg was about to crash into him.
Zs'Skayr growled at the young one in front of him. His claws twitched as the young one approached him. He growled and spoke, "So, child… what do you think you're doing to your Lord?"
She glared at him and hissed, "You are no lord!"
His anger spiked. "And time waits for no rebel!" Zs'Skayr shrilled. A claw of pure energy surrounded his claw and he slashed at her, ignoring the smoking of the burning around the claw. The young one somehow flashed to intangibility before her pink eye pierced at him. He surged towards her, the young one flinching and barely dodging, the tail still being grabbed. Zs'Skayr threw her to the ground, claws tearing through the sun skin. He lifted the energy covered claw and attempted to slash down, but the young one rushed out of the way. Her tail flicked angrily at his claw, slipping out as he growled. The Ecto Lord lifted himself up, the other claw gaining the blue energy around it as the young one followed.
The charm glowed slightly, but it wasn't like either of them noticed.
-()-
"Uh, guys?" an odd humanoid bird puppet-like thing started, hand moving back from the console. The species had thick, fluffy arms, hands with two fingers and a thumb, lower legs like that of an owl's, an owl-like tail, and two odd head feather-ish things from its forehead. Its odd eyes blinked as Tini and a plague doctor-like species looked over. This other species had a large natural cloak that covered the entire body except the hands and lower legs with two odd horns on the head and a large, feathered beak. All three wore the standard uniform of the Galactic Enforcers, yellow and white with harvest gold accents and the Galactic Enforcers symbol on one bit of said accents.
"What is it, Fantbe?" Tini asked, her and the one next to her coming over to them.
"There's this… these weird signals coming from Earth. One is definitely an Ectonurite revival signal, but… the other one?" Fantbe started, motioning towards the screen. "Don't ask me, I can't tell at all."
"Why would an Ectonurite revival take place in Oct-One?" the feathered one asked.
"I dunno, Plaguness," Fantbe shrugged.
Tini stared at the screen for a moment before she said, "Fantbe, get the coords of the signals. I'll take Diaco and Zooie to the locations to see what's going on. Plaguness, tell Ultimos or Synaptak what we're heading out to do."
Fantbe gave a quick thumbs up as Plaguness nodded. Fantbe turned back to the console and began to type as Plaguness and Tini walked off. The Potinum quickly split off from Tini, going off in a different direction than the Tetramand.
Fantbe continued to tap at the console, the signal continuing to glow.
-()-
Styx stared at the Ecto Lord as energy flickered around his claws. He surged forward, lifting a claw and slashing. She quickly dashed, but her arm still got caught by the slash, tearing off more sun skin. A new instinct kicked in as more of the sun skin was torn off by another slash. Styx quickly snapped to intangibility and surged through Zs'Skayr, causing him to pause as she appeared on the other side. The torn sun skin revealed Styx's true form, boney and partially covered with a dark teal color. A pink energy formed at the tips of her fingers and, on instinct, she yelled, "Perturbo!" A disk of energy formed at her hand and she threw the disk towards Zs'Skayr. The Ecto Lord screeched as the energy disk crashed into him.
With the right protection, electricity isn't too bad, but that doesn't mean it isn't a pain. Chase in point, what the Transylian was seemingly attempting to do. EightEight kept on attacking the Transylian, forcing him to focus on her and not the Ecto Lord. The electricity was released as a way to get her to back off, but she just straight up refused to follow. The Sotoraggian kept attacking him with talon slashes and kicks, moving in a way so that if he dared look at the Ectonurites, he would be punished. A talon slashed across one of his arms, breaking the skin, which allowed blood to drip out, slowly freezing. The Transylian paid no mind to his injuries and released a shield of electricity in front of his arms. EightEight just fixed that by getting a kick and a stab at his legs, redirecting his attention back to her. Two wouldn't play that game since she knew the Wyrmlings could handle themselves.
Kevin held up an electrical barrier around him, releasing a bolt towards the Loboan every now and again. The Loboan dodged most of the bolts, but some did hit even just barely. In return, the Loboan howled at him, releasing sonic bursts at him. The maybe-human managed to not get 'hit' by the bursts, but when he did get hit, nothing major happened. It just seemed that the sound transformed into electricity and joined the rest, creating a buzzing under his skin. He couldn't tell what the Loboan was trying to do, but it wasn't like it mattered to his slowly descending mind.
Belltail continued to ring his bell, the noise ringing through the air as he went after the Thep Khufan. Instinct held him, claws deep within and holding his mind. Smoke poured out of his mouth as he released a burst of fire. The Thep Khufan made a screech as the fire burned through his arm. It stumbled back and collapsed to the ground, quickly snuffing out the flames. Its big, purple eyes stared at him as Belltail released another torrent of flame.
-()-
No, not now.
Why now?
Why him…
M stared directly into the fire and time seemed to slow. The blast would end him, he knew. It was always in the back of his mind. Thep Khufans never had conventional deaths, it was always through some sort of attack or by will.
He just wished this wasn't how we would end.
-()-
Belltail simply stared at the burning Thep Khufan, his mind blocking what he just did, before turning to Ghostfreak and Styx. The Anurian Shadow flew over as the two Ectonurites attacked each other.
Ghostfreak kept attacking with glowing claws, managing to tear the sun skin off the other arm. Styx floated around Ghostfreak in a way to dodge most of his attacks while holding pink flowing discs. Ghostfreak slashed at her, a disk breaking on contact yet forcing him back.
EightEight glanced over and mentally cursed. She attacked the Transylian again, making the Transylian turn towards the burning corpse. Another tear in the Transylian's skin, this time near the shoulder. As she made another strike at his legs, it became obvious that the Transylian saw the body. The Transylian froze up,the electricity dying down. EightEight kicked at his stomach, forcing the Transylian to the ground, then stamping on his arm. More slowly freezing blood spilled and she turned her attention to the Wyrmlings.
She paused slightly, noting the two situations. After a moment, she dashed towards the Loboan and slashed at it. Kevin suddenly stopped as the Loboan howled in pain. The Loboan backed off before she could kick him. Good for him, the Loboan should pay more attention.
Styx saw Belltail and smirked under the sun skin. She flew to a point were Ghostfreak was between the younger Ectonurite and the Anurian Shadow. Belltail seemed to smile in reply. Ghostfreak slashed at Styx, but the girl snapped to intangibility. She quickly surged back as Belltail roared, prompting Ghostfreak to look at him.
Zs'Skayr froze for barely a moment.
Then, out of nowhere, he surged and reached a claw to Styx's necklace. All were forced to turn away as a light erupted from the charm. The light suddenly surged, then died.
Styx and Belltail were on the ground, the necklace effectively shattered and both still. EightEight, Kevin, the Transylian, and the Loboan were unconscious on the ground, silent. The burnt remains of the Thep Khufan sat in the corner. Between the two unconscious ghost-likes were ashes in what would be considered a pile, though it was messy and sprawled out.
A crackle, then Asani showed up. She thrilled, zipping over to Styx and Belltail. The Nosedeenian thrilled at them, but when no reply came, she tilted her head. She thrilled again.
A beat.
She zipped over to Kevin. Asani tapped his head a few times before waiting. She blinked a few times. The Nosedeenian zapped over to EightEight and stared. Again, nothing. Asani looked at the Transylian and thrilled.
She zipped over to the Transylian, settling between the two pillars on its back. Asani stared down at the Transylian before putting a tiny hand on the pillar.
After a few seconds, Asani released an offended chirp. She zipped back over to Kevin. She placed a hand on his neck, before settling on his back. The glow from her body died down a bit.
Suddenly, Kevin shot up. Asani zipped to be in front of him and she thrilled. Kevin blinked, shook his head, then stared at Asani. After a few seconds, the Nosedeenian tilted her head in confusion.
"Uh…" Kevin muttered before looking at the others. "What happened?"
Asani made a chirp and shrugged.
Kevin gathered Asani in his arms- who made a happy thrill- before looking at the others. He glanced at the pile of burnt wrappings and ashes before walking over to Belltail and sitting down.
A few odd, silent seconds passed before Asani began to chirp-hum a tune. Kevin was quiet as the Nosedeenian did so.
There were never any other flashes.
…
It started as a background noise before it was suddenly louder. Kevin looked out and saw a spaceship landing nearby. The ship mainly was a harvest gold color, but there were bits of white and yellow on it as well. The vehicle fell silent.
There were a few odd moments were nothing happened. Kevin continued to stare, as did Asani. Asani buzzed, but didn't move more than a head tilt.
Eventually, a sound came from behind the two and they looked over. Asani zipped out of Kevin's arms as he stood up and EightEight awoke. The Sotoraggian brought herself to her knees before noticing the Nosedeenian and the approaching Kevin. She asked, "Are you two ok?"
Asani answered with a happy chirp while Kevin replied, "I think."
EightEight nodded before standing up and looking around. She quickly spotted the spaceship and growled, "The towerspark?"
Kevin and Asani looked back at the ship, the maybe-human saying, "That came just before you woke up." The Sotoraggian nodded before retrieving her other talon. She seemingly looked at the still transformed Belltail and Styx before standing fully and staring at the ship.
A door on the ship opened, along with a small burst of steam. The first creature to come out seemed like a combination of a dog and a weird deer. It stood on two legs, but was slouched in a way that made it seem like it would like to be on all fours. Its fur was mostly navy blue with accents of a near black navy blue and tan. The end of its tail was a hand and on its head was a strange plate with a white outline with a pillar holding fire and a blue background. It also wore a yellow uniform with harvest gold highlights.
The second was a strange humanoid bird with red feathers. It's eyes were a pale yellow with the iris and pupil combined in an orange color. The beak, feet, and claws were the same odd yellow-orange and it had a gitare-like thing in its hands. Around its neck was a bandana with the same symbol as on the first's headpiece. It also wore the same kind of uniform, just different to better fit the species.
The third came out, a somewhat similar Tetramand. EightEight then gurgled, "Why are the Galactic Enforcers here?" Asani made an odd noise as Kevin shrugged. The Sotoraggian went over to the three members of the Galactic Enforcers as the two stayed back.
-()-
Tini looked at the Canis Sanguine and Vinculo. The Vinculo tapped a claw on the instrument before she chirped, "Well, how are we gonna go about this?"
The Canis Sanguine growled, "The Sotoraggian is coming towards us."
Tini looked towards the Sotoraggian before smiling. She said, "I'll talk to her. Zooie, Diaco, check on the other creatures." The Vinculo clicked and Canis Sanguine nodded before they moved. Tini approached the Sotoraggian as she went over.
"Hello, Tini," EightEight gurgled.
"Didn't expect to see you Earthbound, EightEight," Tini replied. She seemed to hum. The Tetramand looked towards the broken Anurian ship before asking, "What happened here?"
"I only know part of the story," the Sotoraggian gurgled. "The Thep Khufan and Loboan were looking for somethings including Corrodium, the Transylian somehow took energy from the Omnitrix, I'm assuming they revived an unstable Ectonurite, the Omnitrix did… something that dragged us here."
Tini nodded. "Which ones can support your side of the story?"
"Kevin, Asani, and the two watch wielders," EightEight answered. "Why haven't they detransformed yet?"
"Which two specifically?" Tini asked.
"The Anurian Shadow and the female Ectonurite," EightEight replied. Tini nodded again before walking over to the ship.
The Canis Sanguine, Diaco, attempted to speak to the Nosedeenian and extremely pale looking human. It briefly came to mind that it was more likely to be a hybrid between human and Osmosian than purely human. The Vinculo, Zooie, was prodding the Loboan with part of the instrument while mostly silent.
Diaco eventually walked away from the two and Zooie grimaced towards a pile of black- oh, it was probably a burnt Thep Khufan corpse. Diaco came to her and said, "The Nosedeenian is speaking in primal elec-chirp and the human, who somehow understands primal elec-chirp, is refusing to speak to me."
Zooie suddenly came up next to him and added, "And everyone else is unconscious, save for the corpse."
Tini nodded. "I asked the Sotoraggian if she knew anything. She did, but it's mostly who is on whose side."
"So we'll separate the groups, talk to them individually, then piece together the situation from there?" Zooie said. The Tetramand nodded again.
"The human, Nosedeenian, Anurian Shadow, and Ectonurite are with the Sotoraggian. The others are most likely together on the same side," Tini stated.
Zooie and Diaco nodded, but then Diaco quietly growled, "Why would an Ectonurite willing be with an Anurian Shadow?" Zooie shrugged before walking over to the Shadow. Diaco turned and walked to the Loboan while Tini went over to who she assumed were Kevin and Asani.
"Hey, EightEight said you two were Kevin and Asani, right?" Tini began. The casual tone seemed to make the maybe-human relax, while the Nosedeenian just made an affirmative chirp. "Go over to her, but we'll need to talk to you two alone at some point before we leave." The maybe-human started off, stopping to nod slightly before going over to the Sotoraggian. Tini went over to the Transylian and, very easily, picked up the creature.
She looked around. Zooie had picked up the Anurian Shadow while EightEight had somehow moved to collect the Ectonurite. Diaco dragged the Loboan over to the ship. The Tetramand went back to the ship, followed by the others.
The moment they left the broken Anurian ship, the symbol on the Shadow's bell and on the Ectonurite began to beep. After a few beeps,there were twin flashes of red and green. Zooie squawked as the two ghost-likes were suddenly humans. The Vinculo stared at Diaco, who just stared back. The female small human wore a black and white device with an hourglass symbol while the small male wore a mostly black watch with a strange bitten symbol.
Something then chirped, "Corrodium levels dropped, exited Lifeform Lock. Entering rest mode." The bitten symbol changed to show that it was actually teeth and briefly the inners were red before quickly changing to green.
-()-
"That was a weird spike," a humanoid fish in a similar yet different uniform stated. Devin looked towards the Piscciss Volann.
"The unknown stuff or the mana spike?" Devin asked, leaning back on his chair. The screen showed the map of two of the Galactic Enforcers sectors: Oct-Peptos-Nemunimos and Ringa-Sunblade. Two spikes happened at the same time, one on Ringa Morr (within the Ringa-Sunblade Sector) and the other on Earth.
"The unknown one," the Volann answered. "The mana spike can be coughed up to a power accident with an Uxorite. What happened on Earth, however, shouldn't of happened."
Devin raised a brow before suddenly beaming and stating, "You're gonna hope that pinpointing what that signal is will be the final push you need to get to the Magister rank, isn't it, Patelliday?"
The Volann paused, then slowly turned to look Devin right in the eyes. Devin kept his grinning face as Patelliday asked, "How?"
"Used to be in the same team as Magister Tennyson and Magister Lily-Rose," Devin replied. "Granted, I wasn't with Lily-Rose for very long since the Magisters at the time decided to split up that band, but still." Patelliday leaned forward slightly, elbows on the console and head in his hands. Devin made a crackling chirp before he added, "It isn't that bad."
"How in hellstar aren't you a Magister yet?" Patelliday asked.
Devin shrugged before saying, "I've been offered it a few times, never said yes. Doesn't feel right, I guess. Maybe it's just the fact that one of my closest friends was one. I dunno exactly."
Patelliday was quiet for a moment, moving his head so his chin rested on his hands, then he said, "Thinking of it, it does seem off for you to be a Magister. You have all the workings of one, just… I believe Osmosians say 'vibe', that doesn't fit."
"See, you get it!" Devin grinned.
"Osmos sayings are just as weird as Earth ones," Patelliday commented. He then sat back up, breathed a bit through the water bubbles, then asked, "What do we know about the signal?"
"Other than it being brief, from Earth, and whatever it is it's not in the system?" Devin started. "Mhm not much. Just that and the general assumption that it's above level 10 tech."
Patelliday nodded, muttering, "Can't be 9, doesn't give off a strong enough signal."
As the Volann was silent, Devin noticed a silently beeping on the console. "So… any reason why the biggest Earth base is suddenly active?"
Patelliday suddenly looked towards the part of the screen with the topic planet.
-(...)-
Zooie stood by the door, as did Diaco as Tini spoke with the girl that wielded the Omnitrix. The pale human, Sotoraggian, Nosedeenian, and Predatrix wielder were off to the side, waiting for the Tetramand to finish. The Vinculo leaned towards Diaco and said under her breath, "So… thoughts on the situation?"
"The fuck," Diaco quietly stated. Zooie just nodded.
A bit more time passed before Diaco moved out of the way of the door. Zooie followed and the door opened. Tini came out, along with the Omnitrix wielder.
"Well, that should be everything," Tini said as the girl immediately went back over to the others. "The Transylian and Loboan we still need to get the story from, but considering the center is an unstable Ectonurite, nothing much won't come of this. Unstable Ectonurites are hard to deal with on a legal basis because of the Milkyway Mindbreak Laws."
"Fuck the Mindbreak Laws, any species with anything that messes with their mind have their own rules for that," EightEight suddenly gurgled. Tini laughed, causing Zooie and Diaco to just stare at the Tetramand. The humans had their own reactions, just looking at the Sotoraggian and not Tini.
Quickly after, farewells were had and the Sotoraggian left along with the children (and Nosedeenian… why was there a Nosedeenian).
Tini breathed a bit and said, "Any signs of the Transylain or Loboan waking up?"
"Nope."
"Guess we'll just head back to base. I can explain the situation."
Chronolocked: I plan on continuing this pass Classic, hopefully into Omniverse. Just be aware that each of the 'series' will be its own book, just to prevent one from getting too big.
Ushi: 1- tbh, I don't have a good explanation other than the Omnitrix got confuzzled. 2- babee chills :3