A/N: Alright, I saw in the reviews that there was a mix of people wanting both chapters, so I think I'll just do things like this. This chapter will wrap up most of the Map Of Infinity plotline, and the next chapter will be a noncanon one where Aggregor gets the fourth piece, and they have to pursue after him to stop him. I don't have any other chapters like that, so it'll be the only one of its kind.
"Your presence here fills me with relief. We have won," the Sentinel said.
"Not entirely. Not until Aggregor is dealt with," Ben told him.
"That may be. But at least he will not be able to get his hands on this," the Sentinel said, taking off the crown he was wearing. It soon shifted into the fourth Map Of Infinity piece.
Ben went out to grab it, holding it firmly in his grasp. Aggregor may have outsmarted him for the first three pieces, but he had no chance of taking the fourth one from him. He would make sure of that.
Ben looked up to ask the Sentinel more questions, but there was a loud rumble that shook the floor they were standing underneath.
"What was that?" Gwen asked.
"This place has served its function. Whatever else happens, protect this piece of the Map, Ben Tennyson. Protect it with your life," the Sentinel said.
"And what about you? Are you not coming with?" Ben asked.
"No. Now go!" the Sentinel exclaimed.
"You can't expect us to leave you here," Gwen said.
"My life matters not compared to the safety of the Map. Now leave," the Sentinel said.
Each member of the Alien Force looked at each other before Gwen turned around, tossing a mana disc at the forehead of the Sentinel to knock him unconscious.
"I figure I would save ourselves some time," Gwen said.
"Probably the best idea, We don't exactly have time to convince him. Because the longer we stay here, the more time we give Aggregor to figure out we already have the piece and catch up," Kevin said.
"I've got an idea for that," Ben said with a hard expression.
The Sentinel was stirred from unconsciousness, opening his eyes to reveal Ben leaning over him. His eyes widened once he realized what happened.
"You..."
"Before you get upset, there was a high chance we wouldn't have been able to convince you to come with us no matter what we said, and the entire place was crumbling around us. So I decided to take a more heavy handed approach," Gwen told him.
"But, the Map..."
"Not in Aggregor's grasp," Ben said, holding the piece up with two fingers. "By the time he gets out, we'll be long gone."
"Good. It brings me satisfaction to know that I have succeeded. Thank you all," the Sentinel said before his body completely disappeared.
"It really is concerning that he literally disappeared the moment he realized we had the Map safe," Ben said.
"Guess he wasn't alive in a traditional. Still, at least we did manage to beat Aggregor to the last piece. That's the most important part," Gwen said.
"Speaking of which Tennyson, why aren't you Echo Echo anymore?" Kevin asked from the pilot's seat.
"Aggregor vaporized the clone not long after we left," Ben said with a shrug.
"I assume there was sufficient trash talk involved?" Kevin said with a smirk.
"Absolutely. But it was only a bit of satisfaction for the moment. We still have to catch him," Ben said, crossing his arms.
"Maybe your grandpa or Azmuth will have some ideas," Kevin said, hitting a few buttons next to him to activate the communicator.
"I only assume you've finished your time in the Perplexahedron?" the Galvin questioned.
"That's right, and we beat Aggregor to the piece," Kevin told him.
"That's excellent news. Now there's only the matter of catching Aggregor," Azmuth said.
"I was thinking we could all put our heads together to come up with a plan," Ben said.
"Not needed. Your grandfather has already taken steps to try and account for Aggregor's potential moves now that he's lost the final piece. I'm sure he'll explain more once you arrive back on Earth," Azmuth said.
"Good. Then let's get back there as fast as possible," Gwen said.
Aggregor smirked in satisfaction once he laid eyes upon the Sentinel. Finally. Victory was within his grasp.
The Sentinel slowly raised his head to look at Aggregor, eyes showing no fear despite the situation he was in.
"Aggregor," he said in a low, gravely voice.
"You know me. You know why I'm here. So hand it over," Aggregor said, holding out his hand.
"No," the Sentinel said. Aggregor strode up to the Sentinel and grabbed him by his robes, pulling him up to the Osmosian's level.
"I have no time for your games. Surrender the piece," Aggregor said, slamming the Sentinel on the ground.
There was a noise that sounded suspiciously like crying. But soon it turned into laughter. Deep, genuine laughter.
"I'm sorry. The number you dialed is not available at this time. Please hang up and try..." The statement wasn't even finished as the Echo Echo clone lost itself to laughter again.
"Tennyson!" Aggregor growled, grabbing the clone by its neck and pressing down hard.
"How does it feel to still lose in the end Aggregor?" the Echo Echo clone said, smirking up at the Osmosian. "Do you like my trick? I can make more than just human bodies."
Aggregor merely lasered the clone to vaporize it before immediately taking flight, moving to break his way out of the Perplexahedron. His fists were clenched tightly.
The Osmosian was furious beyond belief. Years of planning gone done the drain because Tennyson had managed to out maneuver him once. Three pieces would not grant him the ultimate power he sought, and he needed some way to force Tennyson to give up the piece. Luckily, that was a problem that would take no long amount of thinking.
Aggregor flew into Bellwood, being informed from his minions that both Tennyson and Levin and left their homes - likely to begin searching for him. Just the opportunity he needed.
The Osmosian flew right above Ben Tennyson's house before flying down to the front door, ripping it off its hinges and stalking inside. It was... suspiciously quiet.
Aggregor moved through the house, breaking down doors and walls in order to move throughout the house easier. And yet, there was still nothing. No screaming, no noise. Yet there were still vehicles in the driveway.
"I figured you were gonna stop here first," Ultimate Echo Echo said, causing Aggregor to quickly wheel around. He appeared in a flash of green light, an indecipherable expression on his face. "Even if you stopped at Gwen's or Kevin's, you'd have found someone waiting for you. Our folks aren't even on the planet right now."
"So you knew," Aggregor said.
"How else were you going to even get me to think about giving up the piece?" Ben questioned in a rhetorical tone. "Besides, my family's already been threatened before. It's better to have a few safety measures in place."
In an instant, Aggregor immediately flew towards Ben, but he sent out a powerful sonic wave from the discs still attached to his wrists, and it halted Aggregor right in his tracks. The Osmosian held his hands over his ears in agony, but Ben wasn't finished.
Two more sonic discs flew out of the plates on his body, and surrounded Aggregor in seconds by duplicating themselves five times each.
"Sonic Doom!" Ultimate Echo Echo exclaimed.
The force of the sonic waves started blowing what was still intact of the house to pieces. But more importantly, it was having a clear effect on Aggregor, whose aliens did not have any sort of countermeasure on sound based attacks. The mutated Osmosian screamed and his back arched before he soon fell over, unconscious.
"You're lucky you're needed alive," Ultimate Echo Echo said in a distasteful tone before turning back into his Anodite form. Then he spoke to Gwen through the mana field. "It's clear."
"You were supposed to let us know when he showed up," Gwen said, giving him a stern look.
"It was under control," Ben told her.
"We didn't even know if Ultimate Echo Echo was going to work," Gwen said as she teleported Kevin and several other Plumbers in the house.
"None of the aliens he absorbed had a chance against sound based attacks. It was a calculated decision even if there was risk involved. Plus I wanted some one on one time with him. The fact that he's even here in my house like this..." Ben growled, clenching his fist tightly while the other held his wrist.
"I think that's your cue to get this scumbag out of here," Kevin said to the other Plumbers, who nodded.
"Now there's just the matter of fixing what Aggregor's done to himself. I'm fairly certain there's something Cooper might be able to do to fix it. I'll look into my spell books as well if that's not enough," Gwen said.
"You look into that. I think I'll explore an option of my own," Ben said in a thoughtful tone.
"Alien X?" Kevin questioned.
"Pretty much. I think I might be able to get Bellicus and Serena to cooperate if I tell them this guy tried to break into the Forge. At the very least, Serena will be willing to fix what's wrong with him before they do whatever they decide to do to him," Ben said.
"Sounds like a plan. Let's get to work," Gwen said.
"What are you even here for Tennyson? I would prefer to lose all of my power than listen you monologue to me," Aggregor said.
"You don't have to worry about that. You'll live long enough to suffer through both," Ben said, crouching in front of the cage Aggregor was contained in.
The prison he was trapped in was a big pet project of Azmuth already had built before Aggregor even got his hands on the second piece. He barely had enough room even crouch in the cage, but if he so much as moved in the wrong direction, he'd get a shock that was powerful enough to force him to sit still. Without Ra'ad's DNA in his system, Azmuth managed to figure out that electricity was an easy thing to exploit in order to keep him contained.
"You really think you can fix this Tennyson? You were there when I took their power. You think you can fix something of this scale?" Aggregor questioned.
"You see Aggregor, when you're actually good at magic, you can make things happen pretty effectively," Ben said in a condescending tone. The Osmosian's eyes flashed with anger, and Ben only smiled at him through the cage. "Something I'm sure you know nothing about."
"The power I have is beyond that of any spellcaster that exists," Aggregor spat at him, putting his hand on the cage. He immediately got shocked for that move, but he didn't seem to care much.
"So Azmuth did have a good read on you," Ben said. "A failure of a sorcerer seeking power the best way he knows how."
"You know nothing Tennyson," Aggregor spat at the Anodite, holding eye contact without touching the bars.
"Then by all means - enlighten me," Ben said with his arms crossed.
"Is that what this is about? You want know more about me?" Aggregor questioned.
"About you? Absolutely not. I could do without knowing anything more about you personally. But it's better nip any more cases like you in the bud," Ben told him.
"If you want answers, ask the woman. I have absolutely nothing to say to you," Aggregor told him, eyeing the Anodite with contempt.
"Then don't say anything - just listen. Me and everyone else are coming up with ways to cure what you've done to yourself. No matter how long it takes, we will eventually find something. We'll find a way to get the aliens out of your DNA, and you'll be back to the Aggregor you were before. You'll be thrown into a prison - no one to save you or care that you're gone. You make a big show about being as smart as you are cruel, but in the end, you will leave this world as nothing more than the failure you were and always will be.
Aggregor raised a hand to punch the cage as hard as he could, but the force of his punch was redirected into more energy for the shock that was coming his way. It was powerful enough make him scream, and Ben only stood to his feet and smirked at the Osmosian before moving to walk away. He was glad to see his statement clearly needled the Osmosian.
"When I get out of here Tennyson, I'll kill you! I'll kill your friends! Everyone you've ever known!" Aggregor screamed at him. Ben stopped where he was before looking back at Aggregor, giving him a humorless smile.
"You wouldn't be the first person that's tried and failed," he said before looking at the Plumber responsible for guarding his cell. "We'll be back at some point. Keep him under constant watch. If that cage so much as look like it's about to malfunction, you contact me immediately. I don't want to hear a single excuse."
"Yes sir," the Plumber said quickly before Ben walked into a room with no one in it. He blinked at being called sir, but quickly shook it off. There were more important things to deal with.
"It's been a while, you two. Let's see if we can get something constructive done," Ben thought to himself, dialing the Ultimatrix to Alien X and slamming the dial.
A/N: It's not very long, but I didn't want to spend a super long time on writing out a cat and mouse game involving Aggregor. It would more or less be more of the same, and it's the same if I decided to actually write out the chapter. So better to just wrap things up here. Like I said, the next chapter will be the noncanon chapter that I already wrote, then it'll be back to continuing the story.