Virgil sat in the back of the rust bucket with Gwen who was busy typing on her laptop. His eyes were closed as he was deep in thought.
His mind went to his rewards that he managed to assimilate when he got a bit of privacy in the bathroom of the vehicle.
The first skill was not something he was expecting nor was it something that was useful in his opinion.
Bloodlust[1/50]
He couldn't help but shake his head in disappointment as he thought of the other skill he acquired but was unable to use. Sitting in his inventory was a very useful but unusable skill book.
Do you want to learn 'Illusions'
[Yes[No]
Unable to learn skill due to lack of energy source!
It stung as he remembered looked at the notifications that popped up as he tried to learn the skill.
'At least it's wasn't all bad.' He thought as he looked at his new trait.
[Enhanced]
You were blessed with a physique above normal humans. Increases physical attributes.
With the way the other rewards looked, he would have gone crazy if the trait wasn't even a bit useful.
Though he couldn't accurately judge how much stronger or faster it made him, he could say for certain that he definitely felt the increase.
"Ah, just like the good old days...before I retired." Max said in a reminiscing tone as the rust bucket chased after the mutated parrot in the sky.
The nostalgia in his voice coupled with the situation drew a raised brow from Gwen.
"So, exactly, what kind of plumber were you, Grandpa?" She asked a bit suspiciously as Max caught his slip up.
"Er- uh-, a darn good one!" He tried to cover up, quickly turning to Ben who was sulking in the front passenger seat.
"Uh, Ben, what's the matter?" He asked, a bit grateful for a chance to change the subject.
"We save an entire Megamart from being a giant hamster's chew toy, and what do I get? Nothing. It's not fair..." The boy ranted before Virgil cut him off.
"Who's we?" Virgil asked calmly, cutting through his rant.
"You did nothing but cower in fear. Not to mention your little cereal diving escapade before that. Honestly..." He muttered out loud with a sigh before continuing.
"Do you really think you deserve a reward?" He asked as Ben opened his mouth to argue only to close it a moment later as he went silent.
"Cut him some slack Virgil. He's just a kid." Max said, defending his grandson who took offense to being called a kid.
Virgil simply gave him a look. Max then realized his error, remembering that the boy was only a year older than Ben yet...
"You pamper him too much. If he hadn't wasted the watch earlier, maybe he would have been more useful. Though with how he uses it, I doubt the store would still be standing after that." Virgil scolded lightly.
"How did you learn how to do that? I've never seen anyone move that fast. You didn't even look scared as that thing chased after you." Gwen spoke, genuinely curious.
Her question also grabbed Ben and Max's attention, the man already knowing the vague details but was curious on how he would answer it.
"My dad is an ex military. He taught me a few things after he retired. Anything else is self-taught." He answered bluntly, not bothering to hide it seeing as how it wasn't anything secret.
It wasn't like it was weird for a father to teach his son a few things he learned from the military. Him being self taught would alleviate a lot of the questions that would be drawn to him, though it would raise other ones that he could easily deal with.
"That is awesome!" Ben exclaimed as Gwen had a look of awe and surprise on her face.
Her laptop lets out a beep, dragging her attention back to it with a gasp.
"Bingo!" She said as she read from the laptop.
"Five years ago, Dr. Animo was a promising researcher in veterinary science. But it turned out he was doing all these twisted genetic experiments where he was mutating animals, and when he didn't win some big prize called 'The Verities Award', he flipped out. Anything about this sound familiar, Ben?" She finished, aiming the last part at Ben who then looked angrily out the window, his mood sour.
Being in the air, the mutated parrot had more room and freedom to move as it flew faster, disappearing between some buildings.
"We've lost him. He could be going anywhere in Washington D.C." Max said in slight frustration.
"Or Washington 'B.C.'..." Gwen added grimly as Ben gasped.
"That's it! I know where he's going! The Natural History Museum!" He said as Max listened.
The group of four found themselves at the national history museum. Upon entering the building, they saw a giant feather at the stairs of the museum.
"Something tells me we're on the right track. Good thinking, Ben!" Max praised him for his intuition.
"Guess even a doofus can surprise you once in a while." Gwen said mockingly. Ben made to retort but their bickering was interrupted by Virgil.
"Save your squabbling for another time. Let's go." He said seriously, walking in between them as they stared at his back.
The two children looked to each other blankly before following behind him. Max only shook his head as they followed behind the boy into the museum.
They passed different manners of prehistoric fossils and skeletons as they went further into the museum. On the stand of one of the skeletons on display, Virgil sighted a small red box labeled 'M Mart Electronics'.
In front of them, next to a mammoth exhibit was Dr. Animo, fiddling with his machine. He stopped his fiddling, noticing their arrival.
"You...are very persistent. I HATE persistent." Animo said, looking at a them over his shoulder.
"We all know about you and your freakazoid experiments, Dr. Animo! It's over!" Ben announced confidently.
"Oh, but it's only just begun. See, I only needed a few components to push my work into phase two: the reanimation of dormant cells." Animo explained to Ben's confusion.
"Er, does this guy come with subtitles?" Ben asked in confusion as Animo continued.
"Breathing life back into that which has been long since lifeless. Observe!" He explained as his hand went to the device on his head.
Before he could turn the dial on the device, Virgil was already in front of him with a kick aimed at the man's head.
He tried to dodge but the foot smashed through into his neck, sending him a few meters backwards unto his back. The device flew off his head to the side, clattering on the floor.
"I don't want to observe anything. It's over." Virgil said calmly as he walked closer to the fallen man. Animo had a pained smirk on his face as he sat up, facing them.
"Then it's a good thing I was prepared." Animo said as the helmet that was sent to the floor began to spark. Virgil's eyes widened as he turned to it.
"Ben, destroy that thing! Quickly!" He yelled with urgency.
"Why? What do yo-!!!" He was interrupted as the helmet began to emit slightly visible red waves in all directions.
The waves washed over the fossils and skeletons in the museum. They were immediately covered in red light as skin began to grow on the unmoving remains.
Gritting his teeth, Virgil pulled out small metallic spheres from his inventory. With a flick of his wrist, the spheres were sent through the air towards the three closest piles of remains, sticking on the bare bones before they were covered by skin.
The center of the spheres lit up in a red light before exploding immediately. The mini explosions shattered the bones before any form of regrowth could happen.
Unfortunately, that wasn't enough as he was only able to stop the three closest to him while the others were brought back to life.
'Shit!' He cursed internally as two mammoths stomped down from their pedestals, blowing their trumpets.
"Behold my genius!" Animo exclaimed as he got up painfully before running away.
Virgil had no time to pay attention to him as the mammoths charged forward. A dagger subtly appeared in his grip despite him not knowing what it would be able to do to them.
A bright flash of light came from behind him as a red four armed alien that Virgil recognized rushed forward, grabbing the first mammoth by the trunk.
He wrestled with it briefly, sending it falling on its side unto the other one, causing the second one to stumble and the ground to shake.
'Undead or not, you still need to see!' Virgil thought as he dashed forward, jumping over the snout that swiped at him. Using the trunk as a brief foothold, he pushed himself towards its eye level, throwing the dagger as hard as he could towards its eye.
The dagger flew straight and deep into its left eye as the mammoth let out a trumpet, charging forward blindly while swinging its snout.
Still in the air as it charged forward, Virgil could only cross his forearms in front of himself, bracing for the damage. It wasn't in vain as the mammoth smashed into him, sending him more than a few meters back.
He managed to right himself in the air, landing on his feet as he skidded backwards from the momentum.
Damage Resistance has leveled up!
He read the notification with a grim look on his face as the hit still stung a bit. He looked to the side as Fourarms wrestled with the other mammoth before turning back to his own prey/predator with a frown.
He clenched his fist slightly as small marbles appeared in it. He threw them at a low height, not aiming to hit them but the floor around him them.
As the marbles hit the floor, they released a decent amount of smoke each.
"Smoke?" Fourarms said confusedly as he struggled with the mammoth in his grip.
Virgil felt himself relax a bit as they were now in his domain. The smoke rose, covering and filling the room as Virgil was no longer visible, stealth in use.
A blaster appeared in his grip as he took aim at the still raging mammoth in front of him. The blaster hummed lowly before firing a blue beam that tore into the creature's leg, taking it out.
'With a smokescreen as cover, Ben won't be able to see anything I do.' He thought as he took aim at his head, not hesitating to pull the trigger.
Another blue beam shot through the mammoth's head, ending its undead life. Just as he was about to send the blaster back into his inventory, he flash stepped to the side as Fourarms violently crashed into his former position.
While the smoke provided him with cover to pull out all the stops, the same couldn't be said for Ben. The fourarmed alien was having trouble finding his foe.
The blaster disappeared into his inventory as Fourarms spread his arms apart before clapping them together powerfully as a mini shockwave was pushed outwards, clearing the smokescreen.
The smokescreen cleared just in time for Fourarms to see the mammoth charging towards him. Just in time, he grabbed a hold of the mammoth by the tusks, spinning it around. Just as his momentum reached its peak, he let it fly into the wall, defeating the beast.
"Uhhh, I'm gonna hurl." Fourarms said dizzily as he struggled to stay on his feet, holding in a barf. Virgil fixed an unimpressed look at him before narrowing his eyes as the building shook.
He looked around the room, noticing the absence of Animo's device that he had kicked off his head earlier.
'I'm getting careless.' He thought as he disappeared in a blur of motion. He quickly moved in the direction Animo escaped, noting the absence of Max and Gwen.
He appeared just in time to see Animo ride an undead dinosaur out a big hole in the wall. Gwen and Max stood in front of the large hole as Virgil blurred into sight beside them.
He was in a state of hyper focus as he watched the mad doctor ride off on his monstrous pet. His senses tingled as he spun around, a dagger in hand that emitted sparks from its metal.
In less than a second, he was in the air behind Gwen, thrusting the charged blade deep into the head of a mutated parrot.
*SHRIEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!*
The parrot let out a loud pained shriek as it crashed down to the ground. He just barely heard two gasps from behind him.
Blood splashed out from the point of penetration as its body spasmed violently from the shock emitting from the dagger.
Still on its head with his dagger deep in the center of the parrot's head, he pushed the dagger deeper, ignoring the notifications as his body felt a bit of the shock.
It was a few moments before it finally stopped its shaking and laid dead on the floor. He stared at the unmoving corpse with a cold look on his face, a small speck of blood on his face.
"What the hell?" Max managed to utter under his breath while looking at the scene.
"Now that is freaky." Gwen said as she took a step back from the blood that spilled on the floor.
It was at that moment that Fourarms ran into the scene, no longer dizzy.
"Where's Animo?" His rough voice asked.
"Gone, but I think I know where he's going. Come on!" Max said as they hurried towards the rust bucket to give chase.
"Look at this. Animo left this behind." Max said, handing over a paper to Virgil who eyed it critically after receiving it.
'Dr. Kelly accepts Verities Award' The caption read.
"He's gonna finally pick up on his award! We gotta stop him!" Ben said, looking at the mini newsletter over the older boy's shoulder.
Virgil stayed silent as he dropped the paper in Ben's hands, going to the bed area of the rustbucket. He returned to the kitchenette area, now with his laptop as he sat opposite Gwen.
The laptop quickly started up as Virgil began typing at high speed, catching Gwen's attention. They were silent for a while, the only sound being the sound of the keyboard clicking.
"I never really thanked you for what happened back there." She said suddenly, causing his typing to slow down a bit at her voice.
"It was nothing." He said, not looking away from what was doing.
"Yeah right. Like anyone can take down a mutant parrot like that." She said, causing him to stay silent.
"What I'm trying to say is, thank you." She continued genuinely with a small smile.
"You're welcome." Virgil said finally. Seeing that he finally accepted it, she was satisfied but that didn't mean she was done talking.
"So, what are you doing there?" She asked as she walked to the seat beside him to look at the screen.
She felt a headache incoming as she saw what was on the screen. Numerous lines of codes and symbols were present and constantly moving and increasing as he typed.
"Trying to find Animo. We might know where he's going but I still want to know where exactly he is." He explained as a live feed finally popped up on the screen, showing an eagle eye view of Washington D.C.
"Woah! You can do that?" She asked in wonder as the image zoomed in. His only answer was nod of his head as the feed switched to that of the large dinosaur running through the city with Animo on top of it.
It ran straight through everything in its path, leaving nothing spared. He was still quite a distance from his destination. He narrowed his eyes at that, turning to Gwen seriously.
"I have a job for you. Stay here and monitor Animo. You'll be my eyes in the sky." He said, quickly typing a few things on the laptop.
"Me!? Where are you going!?" Gwen asked looking flustered.
"After Animo. I want to take him down before he reaches Kelly if possible. Ben!" Virgil called out, getting Max and Ben's attention.
"We're going after Animo. Turn into something that can get us there fast." Virgil ordered as Max looked surprised.
"Now hold up just one secon-" Max tried to say but Ben's shout drowned it out.
"Alright!" He exclaimed in excitement as he turned the dial of the omnitrix.
"We'll try and cut off Animo before he gets there." Virgil explained as Ben slammed on the face of the watch as light exploded from the watch.
The light died down as a blue reptilian alien was revealed. The faceplate on its face slid up to reveal its face.
"Let's go!" Xlr8's raspy voice said. Virgil wasted no time in getting on the alien's back as it sped out of the rustbucket.
"Be careful!" Max shouted out after them with a look of concern.
Animo rode his undead dinosaur through the streets of Washington, smashing through everything in sight.
"There it is." He muttered lowly as he saw his destination up ahead.
Just as the ancient beast continued moving forward, a young voice was heard behind Animo.
"Now!" Virgil's voice came from behind. Animo turned behind him in annoyance to see the source of the familiar voice.
As he turned, he saw Virgil in the air with a dagger in hand. Already knowing what he wanted to do, Animo ducked, dodging the slash with a smug smile.
"You missed young fool!" He said, not noticing the glint in Virgil's eyes. What he didn't expect was that he wasn't the boy's target.
As he fell back to the earth after the missed attempt, Virgil dug his dagger deep into the side of the dinosaur's neck, dragging it along its skin as he made his descent.
The dinosaur let out a roar and began thrashing around...or at least it tried to. The moment it tried to take a step forward, a swift blurry figure sped around its legs as wires were wrapped around its large legs.
The dinosaur tumbled as its legs were tied together, causing it to fall to ground with a heavy tremor. The surrounding buildings felt the shake as its tail swung into a building at the side.
With the use of flash step, Virgil was able to easily escape the tremor and the swinging tail. Animo had just barely managed to jump off the dinosaur as it fell.
In truth, Virgil would have fallen off Xlr8 at the speed they were going if not for the slightly useful skill he got from the previous fights. He couldn't help but internally sigh at the single skill he got despite the difficulty of the fights he went through.
Surface Walking[3/20]
Despite what he thought, it was a skill that didn't require an energy source. The skill granted him the ability to stick and walk on abnormal surfaces.
A voice in his ear brought him out of his thoughts.
"Hello! Animo's getting away!" Gwen's familiar voice said from the small communicator in his ear.
He snapped out of his thoughts as he saw the mad scientist trying to sneak away. With the use of flash step, he was behind Animo, a cold look on his face.
"My transmodulator! No!" Animo exclaimed in denial.
He ripped the helmet off Animo's head in one swift motion. Upon observing the device, he could see that it wasn't too complicated to operate. He could also see the many errors and flaws in its design.
Tinkering with the device briefly, it let out a wave of red energy in all directions. As soon as the wave touched the thrashing dinosaur that had already escaped its bindings, the skin degraded, returning to bone and crumbling in a scattered pile.
"No...! No...! No!" Animo screamed as his 'creation' was returned to death's grasp. Before the man could continue screaming, Virgil's foot crashed into the side of his head, knocking him out cold.
He waited a few seconds only to sigh as he received no reward.
'I guess it really is 40% chance.' He thought as the communicator in his ear came to life.
"That was a bit harsh, don't you think?" Gwen said in his ear. She was watching and commentating from his laptop that he had set up before leaving the rust bucket.
"He had it coming. The polic-"
"Are already on their way." She interrupted, finishing his sentence.
He had gotten an idea to make Gwen a sort of off field assistant for when the situation required. It was not unlike Oracle to Batman in the DC universe.
Though, it would mean that he'd have to teach her a few things about hacking if he wanted it to work. She was already showing promise as he could faintly hear the police sirens approaching them.
"Any time now?" He asked Ben who was miraculously still in Xlr8.
"Right!" The speeding alien said, absentmindedly as he sped away from the scene, taking Virgil with him.