It was just another average day at Union Academy when Eldritch barged into a currently vacant room that Gamma was occupying.

"AHA! You've sent for me, Young Gamma! Is it finally time to settle our age-old rivalry?!"

"We've only known each other for about a week now, Eldritch," Gamma said flatly while reading a book titled 'Cooking for N00bs'. "And no, I was actually hoping to acquire your assistance. I've been having trouble with Cooking Classes. And remarkably, your grades are outstanding when it comes to this subject."

Eldritch dropped his 'Dark Rival' facade and showed his true happy face. "Oh! Cooking! I love cooking! A well-made meal puts a smile on anyone's face! Sure, I'll help if I can!"

"Excellent, this way please," Gamma led Eldritch over to one of the tables, where a dish had been placed. "Here's my most recent dish. What do you think?"

Eldritch gasped in shock when he saw some unspeakable smoking brown sludge on the dish.

"Um... What... Uh... Is it?"

"Meatloaf."

"You're kidding..."

"Why?"

Eldritch gave Gamma a look. "Gamma, no offense, but Nurgle himself would be proud to have made this..."

"OI! YOU WOT, MATE?! YOU GOT SOMETHIN' AGAINST MEATLOAF?! HUH?!" Barked the 'meatloaf' as it suddenly came to life.

"Gamma... It just talked to me..."

"Yes. That's why I thought I may have slightly messed up the recipe."

"... 'Slightly'..."

"I DON' HAVE TO TAKE DIS! I'LL SHOW ALL YOU BUGGERS! OUTTA THE WAY, HERE COMES THE LOAF!" The meatloaf furiously snarled as it began growing in size and mass.

"Gamma... It's growing..."

"You think that might affect the flavor?"

"FREEDOM!" The meatloaf monster roared triumphantly as it loomed over the two Artificial Humanoids. "THE TIME OF DA LOAF HAS COME! DIS WORLD, WILL SOON BE MI-GRAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The beast didn't get time to finish its rant as Gamma and Eldritch tore through it with the power of Gamma's recently awakened Shiva Battle Protocol and Eldritch's Mark of Nurgle. The two stood before the falling chunks that splattered across the ground as if prepared for the beast to return, which it thankfully didn't.

"It's probably still edible, right?"

Eldritch gave his 'rival' a flat look. "No. It's not. Accept it."

"YOU'RE DOING AMAZING, SWEETIE!" Ben said as he was videotaping Gamma and Eldritch together while Crydius and Tempest Shadow watched beside him.

"You seriously need professional help."

"I don't care, Brother! Your son and Twilight and Shim-Shim's kid are cute together! They just don't fully realize it yet!"

Eldritch looked at Gamma, who curiously looked at him back as he shyly looked away, poking his fingers together with a tiny blush on his face. This didn't go unnoticed by his mother.

"Heh, it's gonna be hilarious to see the day when Twilight, Shim-Shim, and I become sisters-in-law..."

"Say, has anyone seen Ben lately?" Double-D asked as he, Ed, Eddy, Chris, Rina, Rolf, Flash, and the rest of them were at Lunch together.

"I think he said he wanted to play some music or something!" Pinkie Pie said as she put a stick of Pocky in her mouth and leaned over to Ed. "Hey, Ed, wanna play the Pocky Game?"

"Sure!" Ed said, chomping off half of the pocky stick as Pinkie pouted in disappointment.

"I think Pinkie Pie really likes Ed... Could just be my imagination, though," Rainbow said with a shrug as Twilight and Sunset noticed Flash fiddling with his Ultimatrix.

"What you doing there, Flash?" Sunset asked.

"Well, I've been trying to figure out how this gadget works. I know I can turn into different aliens, but I just wish there was a..." Flash said as he turned the dial, before landing on a 3D hologram of the word help. "...help function."

He hesitantly pressed the dial down before a synthetic voice spoke up.

"Hello, if you are hearing this, then congratulations. You have managed to successfully get your hands on your very own Ultimatrix. If you need instructions on how to operate the Ultimatrix, please refer to the enclosed instruction book."

Flash just stared at the Ultimatrix in confusion as the voice stopped. "Instruction manual? It can't be that easy, can it?"

Suddenly a laser shot out of the Ultimatrix, shocking everyone as it digitally constructed a small book. Once the book was fully constructed, Flash carefully touched the book to see if it was real.

"Huh, well that just... happened," Flash said in disbelief, before picking up the book and looking at the cover. The title said "The Ultimatrix and You", with a silhouette of a person underneath it with their arm raised, and the Ultimatrix attached to it.

"Huh, guess it really IS that easy. Hey Flash, I'm not sure how much that thing covers, so how about I help you out, sound good?" Chris said as Flash started flipping through pages.

"Yeah, thanks. I'd really appreciate it." Flash said as he pocketed the manual away.

"Yo-ho-ho-ho, Yo-ho-ho-ho... Yo-ho-ho-ho, Yo-ho-ho-ho..." Ben sang on the school rooftop, playing the violin and singing one of his adoptive grandfather's favorite songs; 'Bink's Brew'.

Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Binks' brew
Sea wind blows, to where, who knows? The waves will be our guide
O'er across the ocean's tide. Rays of sunshine far and wide
Birds they sing, of cheerful things, in circles passing by

What Ben didn't know was that his singing had caught the attention of a girl. She was not like most other girls, then again, the same could be said for a lot of the girls attending Union Academy.

Bid farewell to weaver's town, say so long to port renowned.
Sing a song, it won't be long before we're casting off
Cross the gold and silver seas, a salty spray puts us at ease,
Day and night, to our delight, the voyage never ends

The girl was robotic in nature. She had blue "pigtails" with bolts connecting them to her head, blue "bangs", white skin, blue "clothes" consisting of a crop top, a miniskirt, and boots, a bolt that was in place of a navel, hands with 4 fingers each and center holes.

"It's that boy again..." The robot girl thought as she listened to him sing. "The one that Penny told me about..."

Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Binks' brew
Pirates, we eternally are challenging the sea
With the waves to rest our heads, ship beneath us as our beds,
hoisted high upon the mast, our jolly roger flies

Somewhere in the endless sky, stormy winds are blowing by,
waves are dancing, evening comes, it's time to sound the drums
But steady men, and never fear, tomorrow's skies are always clear
So pound your feet and clap your hands 'til sunny days return

Before Ben could continue singing, he heard the sound of rocket thrusters and opened his eyes to see the girl was now in front of him, jet flames being produced from her feet.

"Hi!"

"GAH!"

Ben nearly fell off the roof but quickly stopped his descent before he hit the ground. The girl blushed a bright blue as the two of them floated down to the ground.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry! It's just that I really liked your singing and, well, I wanted to see what you were doing up on the roof, and-!"

"Hey, I'm not mad or anything. You just surprised me." Ben then inspected the girl. "You're that Jenny girl, right?"

"O-Oh, wow, you noticed me? I didn't really think you kept count of everyone."

"Hey, an old friend always told me that everybody at school is a potential friend. You just have to find the right ground with them." Ben said with a smile as Jenny blushed again.

"Hey, um, I know this is kinda weird but... do you think maybe we could hang out sometime after school? N-Not like a date or anything, just... maybe as friends?"

"Sure!"

"Yeah, I get it, you're busy and-WAIT, HUH?!"

"I said sure! Let's do it!"

At that moment, Jenny felt her metallic heart beating rapidly with joy as she immediately cheered, shot into the sky, did a loop in the shape of a heart, and landed down on her head with a CLANG!

"Um, are you okay?"

"Yup! Never better! This is nothing compared to what I get up to in my day-to-day life!"

Close by, Penny was watching with a bright smile on her face, happy that her friend was able to hang out with Ben today.

"I feel like this is the beginning of one of those Harem stories that Friend Blake likes to read in her spare time!"

"Looking spiffy in your new coat, Eldritch!" Chris said proudly to his 'nephew' as the boy looked at his new forest green jacket.

"Dad gave me this new one in order to keep me from damaging my clothes when I use my Mark," Eldritch said as he inspected the jacket in full detail with Gamma also observing.

"It suits you quite well, Eldritch."

Eldritch blushed shyly. "Y-You really think so?"

Suddenly, a scream was heard as everyone looked to see Applebloom falling out of the window. Before anyone could do anything to help, Eldritch had already moved ahead of them, his jacket turning dark pink and becoming longer, like a cloak of sorts. He then jumped high into the air and caught Applebloom mid-fall, landing on the ground as gently as possible.

"Oh... Oh wow... You just... Y-You just saved my life! Thanks a bunch, El-"

"Wooow~!" 'Eldritch' spoke and Applebloom and everybody else noticed that his hair was more flamboyant-looking, and a magenta symbol was on his forehead. "You are SOOO PRETTY!"

Applebloom blushed in confusion as 'Eldritch' continued speaking. "Oh wow... The first time I get to be top-side and look... I catch a wingless angel falling from the sky. I am soooo luckyyyy!"

Gamma approached worriedly. "Excuse me, Eldritch? Are you okay? You seem... different."

"Yeah, like he just took a pound of Viagra or something." Eddy snarked, only to be smacked upside the head by Double-D.

'Eldritch' on the other hand, looked unflattered. "Booo! Don't call me Eldritch! I hate that name. It's so grim and unflattering. That's what you get when your grandpappy is Nurgle."

"Wait, Rolf realizes what is going on!" Rolf said as his eyes widened in realization. "Eldritch has awakened another of the Marks of Chaos that foresaw his birth!"

"Yes, my dear ladies and gentlemen, I am not Eldritch, my name is ARDENT!" The now-dubbed 'Ardent' said with a graceful twirl. "Favorite prodigy of Slaanesh!"

"Gotta say, I'm liking this new Queer side." Eddy chuckled. "LBGTQ Plus for the win, amiright?"

"It's nice to see representation in these kinds of stories," Double-D concurred with a smile.

Ardent, meanwhile, was continuing to describe himself. "I play eight different instruments, am a master of the old and modern arts, love puppies and kittens, and know every form of dance known to man! My singing makes sirens turn green with envy and I am the very definition of a reckless romantic!"

As Ardent continued to ramble on about 'Life is Love, Love is Life' and so on and so forth, Applebloom was just watching this all awkwardly while Double-D was excitedly taking notes and Chris was smirking.

"I should get him to meet Ninjini or maybe Buckshot, that'll put a spring in his step for sure."

Ardent then turned to Applebloom and smirked as he pulled her in closer causing her face to erupt in a red blush. Gamma looked relatively confused, as she was still new to the whole 'love' thing while Chris winced as he saw where this was going and quickly summoned Elemental HERO Neos and commanded the hero from space to separate the two. Neos did as he was commanded and socked Ardent in the jaw, knocking him to the ground.

Somehow, despite being nowhere near any garages, Ardent smacked his head against one during his descent.

The two men carrying the garage door to its intended destination simply shrugged before heading about their business for the rest of the day.

Thankfully, it was not hard enough to do any serious damage, but it WAS enough to knock him unconscious. With his work done, Chris removed Neos's card from his Duel Disk.

"Oh my gosh! Eldritch, are you okay?!" Applebloom asked as Ardent had switched back to Eldritch.

"Applebloom? Is that you? Why do you look like a giant talking eggplant? And why's the school upside-down?"

"Oh crud, MEDIC!" Eddy cried as he ran to get the closest medical staff.

"I can smell the cosmos and taste purple!"

"So let me get this straight... you pushed Applebloom out a two-story window... because you needed to make an experiment on what Eldritch would do and if he'd awaken one of his Marks?" Ben asked with a narrow eye as Crydius shrugged while Tempest Shadow sighed.

"Hey, I wasn't exactly on board with it myself."

"Benjamin, I'm Chaos, remember? I'm supposed to cause these things to happen," Crydius said to his brother with a smirk. "Everything I've done has been one big gamble. First was when I transferred here, then it was looking into Sunset, Twilight, and their friends, and even making Eldritch. We're very, very close."

"Should I even ask what you're planning on in the long run?" Ben asked as Crydius put a finger to his lips slyly.

"That would be telling, Dear Brother. And I love keeping people in suspense."

"I am not exactly excited for what's to come..." Ben then sighed and stood up. "Anyway, I've got a date with that girl, Jenny. See ya all on the flip side."

Needed to get something out. Sorry if it's just stuff from the old one with some stuff taken out, but I'm trying to just handle things until we get to the new stuff, okay?