Welcome back Ultras to The Ultra 10 Chronicles! Here is the latest chapter, and things keep getting darker for Earth. However, things are going to start improving soon, so don't fret too much!
I'm putting up another poll in my profile. The question is, "Should I organize the chapter headings by Arc? (Similar to the "Alex Animal: Origins" and "Alex Animal: Decisions" chapters.)" This poll is going to be in my profile, and will be active until October 31, 2021. Once again, there's three choices: Yes, No, or I don't care. I kind of think it would be fun to track the story arcs, but it's up to you readers! Once again, if you can't vote, or find the poll, leave your opinion in a review, and I'll be sure to count that as well!
There are a number of triggers this chapter. Two instances of choice words, and one graphic death. The first instance of choice words is in the paragraph following the one which reads, "Losing his balance, he stumbled backward again..." This is also the paragraph where the graphic death occurs. The second instance of choice language is in the first paragraph after the scene shifts back to PLUMMER Headquarters.
The soundtrack for this chapter is "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi. I think that it's a fitting tribute to the decision that the PLUMMERs made in breaking Max out. You can listen to it on youtube by going to /watch?v=9SKFwtgUJHs
Enjoy the chapter!
The Ultra 10 Chronicles: Volume 2: A Hero Earth Needs
Chapter 49: Escape From the PLUMMERs
PLUMMER Headquarters
"Here is your badge back," the agent said, placing Sarah's previously-seized badge on the table for her. "Agent 18 is currently in New York City, so it's going to be a few days before you report to him." Sarah nodded, as she took the badge and slipped it into her pocket.
"What do I do in-between now and then?" Sarah asked the agent.
"Agent 01 still has an interview to conduct with you, but after that, I'm sure he'll find some short-term assignments for you to accomplish." Sarah nodded, and was left alone in the suit-up room to finish suiting up in her gear that was returned to her.
"Don't want me to be unsupervised for too long, do we?" Sarah whispered to herself. She bucked her utility belt on, and pulled on her gauntlets, before shutting her locker door, and getting ready to leave the room. As she was walking out, she spotted another locker with the name "Green" stamped into the nameplate. She stopped, looking around for any possible sensors. Not seeing any, she activated the gauntlet on the underside of her left wrist, seeing the screen boot up. Using her finger like a pen, she scribbled a short message on the screen, and pressed a button.
"Wes, I need to talk to you about Max asap. -Sarah W." The single sentence-message was printed onto a little green disk, which Sarah read one last time before slipping it into Wes's locker. Having dropped the message, Sarah continued out of the suit-up room. About twenty minutes later, Wes's team came into the suit-up room, just getting off of patrolling Bellwood. Wes made his way over to his locker, opening it up to take his suit off. On the floor of his locker, he spotted the little green disk.
With a confused look on his face, Wes picked it up, seeing the message on the inside. He read it, before snapping it in two, the message fading from the disk. With the broken halves, Wes tossed it into the nearest trash bin, before continuing to unload from their patrol. As soon as Wes was done, he headed to the cafeteria, as if to get some food. However, he sat at one of the far tables, leaning up against the wall, as if he were taking a nap.
Some time later, he heard someone sat down at the table. Peaking out from underneath his slouched helmet, he saw who it was that sat down across from him. As nonchalantly as he could, he "woke up" from his nap, greeting the agent in front of him.
"You said we needed to talk about Max?" Wes said, so quietly that Sarah almost didn't catch it.
"That's right," she said. "Have you been told what Alpha's got planned for him?" Wes shook his head.
"Not anything directly. I'd assume that he'd be put up to an investigation. Probably be demoted or placed on leave," Wes replied. Sarah shook her head.
"Alpha was talking about executing the both of us," Sarah whispered. "Agent 01 convinced him that I was innocent though." Wes coughed. It was a thinly-veiled cover of his surprise.
"Impossible," Wes replied. "The executive board holds that authority, they'd never give it to him."
"The Vilgax invasion has changed a lot," Sarah said. "And Vilgax's return has only cranked that up to an eleven. Alpha was gloating the power over Max as I was leaving. I don't think he was bragging without being able to back it up." Wes shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"What is it that you are suggesting?" He asked bluntly. Sarah stared at him blankly.
"I'm not sure… Max told me that he trusts you with his life," Sarah repeated Max's words to the old Navajo PLUMMER. "He said that you'd be my ally on the inside…" Wes looked like he'd just swallowed a bug.
"He what?" He asked again.
"He told me to trust you, and that you'd be an ally," Sarah said again. Wes looked like he'd made some sort of a decision, or that something had changed inside of him.
"We've got to get him out," the old PLUMMER said with finality. "Tonight. I have some business to do, but meet me here in exactly one hour." Sarah nodded her head, slight confused what changed in the man's demeanor.
"Just like that?" She asked, still confused. "You're onboard breaking him out just like that?"
"Just like that," Wes replied, as he stood up himself. "Max and I go way back. When you've known someone as long as I've known Max, then you can have whole conversations in a single word." Sarah nodded, not fully understanding, but turning to leave anyhow to allow Wes to do whatever he was going to do.
"You crazy old codger," Wes whispered under his breath, as soon as Sarah had left. "I was hoping that we'd never have to resort to this…" With that, he exited the cafeteria. He reached into his suit, pulling out a small, modified comm link.
"G. I. Joe," Wes spoke into the comm link. "G. I. Joe. This is Clay-Man calling G. I. Joe to the cave in one tick." He slipped the comm link back into his utility belt, and headed towards the armory. Pressing his badge to the sensor, the door slid open, revealing the wing of the base dedicated to storing weapons and ammo. Making his way down a hallway, he stepped into a closet, pressing his badge on a hidden sensor, which whooshed open to reveal another room.
This room was small, but it's incredible simplicity still made it feel larger than it was. The room was concrete, with a round table in the middle of it. Around the table were a number of chairs. Wes sat down in one of them, and waited for the rest of the secrete group to arrive.
In no less than two minutes, there was a beep, and the door whooshed open, revealing a PLUMMER agent standing there, who stepped into the room. He sat down in one of the chairs opposite of Wes. In another couple of minutes, another agent arrived, and then another and another. Before long, there were a number of agents that had gathered in the room.
"Thanks for responding so quickly," Wes said after the last agent had entered. "I've got reason to assume that Alpha has seized control of the Board of Executives, turning the PLUMMER agency into little more than his personal enforcement agency."
"What makes you so certain?" One agent asked. Everyone turned to look at him. "I mean, it's entirely possible, but the Board of Executives would never hand over their power willingly."
"That is exactly my concern, Bree," Wes answered. "They would never just hand over their power. The members are too much of a politician. I think that this may have been Alpha's plan for decades. To work himself into a position where he could eventually take control over the board."
"That's a pretty hard accusation," Jie rebuffed.
"Max Tennyson is slatted for execution," Wes replied. "He told me as much." That news produced a collective gasp from the agents, who soon fell silent.
"Max started Overwatch to keep the PLUMMERs in line," Wes said. "And as such an idealist, Alpha has never liked Max. Whether you agree with Ultra 10 or not, no one can say that Maxwell Tennyson deserves to die over breaking him out." Wes let that sink in for a moment.
"It is possible, that if Vilgax is truly after the boy, Alpha could try to cut a deal with Vilgax, to leave Earth alone. But it is entirely possible that Vilgax is after the Omnitrix, which the boy possesses. Such a powerful device in his control would certainly give Vilgax an advantage in fighting the Galactic PLUMMERs," Wes continued. "And that would be very bad for Earth."
"I say we put it to a vote," another PLUMMER suggested. "Those for Wes's plan to break Max out?" A large number of hands went up, indicating their support. "Those against?" A few hands went up in protest.
"So it's settled," the agent said. "Those in favor will help break Max out. Those opposed will not hinder their efforts."
"But Max is a criminal!" One of the dissenting agents protested. "And this is going against PLUMMER authority!"
"You joined Overwatch with the knowledge that you'd sometimes be defying Alpha's, or even the board's authority," Jack Morningstar responded. "That's what you swore to do."
"We swore to Max," another agent responded. "But he's got no authority as a criminal!"
"You swore on your honor!" Another agent shouted angrily. "But I see that means nothing!"
"Traitors! All of you!" The first protesting agent shouted. "You all deserve to be locked up with Max!" He pulled out his canister gun, transforming it into a gun. He was quickly attacked by several nearby agents, who wrestled him to the ground, the canister gun skittering away. Several other agents tried to join him, but they were quickly overpowered, and subdued.
"Jack, tie them up," Wes told his friend. Jack nodded, and tied up the protesting agents with a cord. "We'll be back for you after we've freed Max," Wes told them.
"You'll pay for your treason!" One of the tied agents shouted. "All of you!"
"Jie, make sure that someone keeps an eye on them," Wes told his friend. "I'm getting a feeling that all of us are going to have to escape sooner or later, but until then, make sure that they do not contact any agent outside of Overwatch." Jie nodded.
"This is quite an upside down world we're living in, isn't it?" Jie said. "The PLUMMERs are supposed to be the protectors of Earth, not its oppressors."
"With any luck, Alpha will be taken down, and the PLUMMERs will return to what they are supposed to be," Wes said. "But until then, we've got to survive." Wes opened the door to the room, leading out into the hallway.
"Jack, you're in charge of getting our little group here the weapons we need," Wes ordered. "Meet us in front of the detention area in forty minutes." Jack nodded.
"I need three men," he asked. Three men followed him down the hallway.
"Bree, you need to be our inside mole," Wes told her. "You're close to Agent 01. He'll probably promote you after most of us have left. Be the best agent possible. Get his trust, and let us know what the PLUMMERs are up to." Bree nodded, and ran down the hall, back towards the main barracks.
"Josie, I need you to tap into the security grid, to let us get in and out without tripping any sensors. The rest of you? Follow me. We've got someone to meet up with." Josie broke off, heading towards the security console. The remaining two agents followed Wes back to the cafeteria. Back towards the table he had previously been sitting at. There, waiting for him was Sarah.
"Is this all that we've got?" Sarah asked, seeing Wes being followed by the two other agents.
"There's more," Wes told her. "But they're currently preparing the way for us. Now come on. We've got to get to Max's cell before our window closes." The group of four agents made their way to the detention area. Arriving in the area, Wes tried to open the security door, but found that it was still locked.
"Susan, can you get us through?" The agent nodded, pulling out a computer spike and plugging it into the scanner. After almost a minute of her working, the door slid open.
"Someone's coming up behind us," Sarah noticed, turning around to see there men carrying a good amount of guns, ammo and explosives.
"This'll blow the locks off of Max's cell," Taylor said, holding up a case of explosive gel.
"Let's just hope that Josie is pulling through with the sensors," Wes said. "Come on!" The growing group of agents jogged into the detention area. Finding the cell, Sarah called inside.
"Max! Step away from the door!" She told him. Inside the cell, Max stepped away, pressing himself against the far wall. Taylor sprayed the gel onto the locks on the door. Plugging a couple of wires into it, the group stood back, leaving Taylor with the detonation button, and an excited look in his eyes.
"I've been waiting for a long time to stick it to Alpha," Taylor said. "Now let's let this thing begin!" He pressed the button on the detonation, however nothing happened. Taylor got a confused look on his face.
"This usually doesn't happen," he said. He pressed the button again, and then a third time. A look of frustration growing on his face, he started banging the detonation remote on his other palm, trying to trigger the explosion. The reaction from the rest of the group was one of fright, not wanting to get blown up in the process. Finally, Taylor flipped the remote over.
"Found it! It wasn't turned on!" Taylor said. Flipping the ignition switch on, he pressed the detonation button again, this time, the locks on Max's cell exploding off of their hinges. "Haha! I told you I could do it!" Taylor said triumphantly. Max swung the door open.
"I'll take it that Sarah delivered my message?" Max asked Wes, who nodded.
"Wait a second, what message?" Sarah asked. "I just told him that you told me to trust him."
"The message that I'd trust him with my life," Max replied. "I'll tell you more later, but right now, we've got to get out of here."
"That's right," Wes said. "Right this way." The group made their way out of the detention hold. As they made their way out of the sector, another female agent joined up with them.
"Good to see you, Josie," Wes told his partner.
"It appeared that Alpha's onto us," Josie said. "But I shut all power off in his sector, so that should buy us some time." The group turned down a hallway, towards the armory.
"We're still underground," Sarah said. "And the main lift is in the administrative section of the base. How are we going to get out?" Just then, the walls shook, one of the nearby walls completely crumbling. Poking through it, was the barrel of one of the PLUMMER tanks. The grate on top of it popped open.
"Anyone call for a taxi?" Jack Morningstar asked.
"Aw, not fair!" Taylor shouted. "You told me you were getting the transport van ready! I wanted to blow stuff up!" Jack smiled.
"Well, the cannon's all ready for you," he said. "I'll be driving this thing." Taylor just about squealed with delight, as he ran forward and climbed into the tank. "Oh, and Max? It's good to see you again." Max smiled back at Jack.
"It's good to think that there's still people I can trust," he replied.
"We're on a tight schedule," Wes reminded the two. "And I suggest that we climb inside the transport van as soon as we can." With that, the remainder of the agents climbed into the van that Jack had prepared for them. Just then, there was an explosion that boomed through the armory.
"No, no, no!" Josie shouted. "I forgot about the hangar! Alpha's got access to the ships!"
"Nothing we can do about it now, Josie," Max told her. "We've just got to get out of here before they get in."
"That's a fool's hope," Josie said. "With ships, they'll run us down in no time. We'll be sitting ducks. I just need a minute or two to overload the ship interface." She jumped out of the van and ran towards the nearest wall-mounted computer, ramming her computer spike in, and beginning to type furiously on the keyboard.
There was another boom, and then a third. It sound louder and louder with each boom.
"Josie, we've got to get out of here," Wes shouted towards her, anxiety in his voice.
"I'm almost done," she said. Just then, the wall next to where Josie was working exploded in a shower of concrete and dust. Josie was thrown off her feet, her high-tech suit saving her from injuries.
"Taylor, looks like we're going to have a fight inside," Jack told his tank-mate. Taylor laughed.
"Bring it on!" One of the smaller ships emerged from the exploded wall, hovering as it moved slowly into the room.
"Anyone who surrenders now will not be court-marshaled," the speaker from the ship spoke. "This is your last warning."
"Court-marshal this!" Taylor shouted, as he fired the tank's cannon on the ship. The RPG slammed into the ship, destroying it, sending flaming bits of metal in multiple directions.
"Nice shot, Taylor!" Jack congratulated him. Josie stood up, hobbling over to the computer console and began working again.
"Leave it!" Wes shouted. "It's too late to do anything!" Taylor's tank fired again on a second ship that was coming through the wall, exploding it as well. However, a third ship fired at the tank, causing a large explosion off to the side of it.
"Moving onto plan B," Jack told Taylor. Several alarms were beeping at him on the controls of the tank. Taylor nodded, rotating the cannon around back towards the transport van. Another explosion rocketed the tank.
"I've got this," Taylor told Jack. "You'd better go with them."
"Are you sure?" Jack asked. Taylor chuckled.
"And miss out on the biggest explosion of my life? Not on your life!" Jack nodded.
"It's been an honor," he said. "I'm glad to have had you in my squad." With that, he pressed the emergency hatch button in front of him, opening a hatch, which he ducked out of. He ran over to the transport van, as a the tank took a third hit. It was beginning to go critical. Finally lined up, Taylor pressed the fire button, blasting a hole in the ceiling, big enough for the transport van to drive through. Max punched the gas, speeding the van through the exit.
Taylor tried to turn the tank's cannon back around, but too many alarms blared at him, and the tank refused to respond. Three ships surrounded the tank, and several dozen PLUMMERs also, though they stood several yards back from the hot, dangerous hunk of machinery.
"We have you surrounded!" The speaker from one of the ships called. "Surrender now!" Taylor took a deep breath, pushing open the top hatch. He stood up and placed his hands behind his head, glancing around at the scene around him. He saw Josie type a few more clicks into the keyboard, which immediately bugged all of the ships that hadn't been activated. However, she was quickly surrounded by several agents, who wrestled her to the ground, before hauling her to her feet, and dragging her towards the destroyed wall.
"Do you surrender?" One of the agents asked, pointing a gun at Taylor.
"Y-yeah, sure! I-I surrender…" Taylor removed his hands from behind his head, flipping everyone off with both hands. "When I see a flaming Unicorn of Doom blow you sky high!"
In his clenched fist, he had another detonator. He pressed the button, but nothing happened. He immediately felt a laser blast burn its way through his PLUMMERs suit and into his shoulder. The force made him stumble backward, though he caught himself. Quickly, another laser blast burned its way into his chest, and another through his thigh.
Losing his balance, he stumbled backward again, only this time to trip on the side of the hatch he had been standing in. He tumbled off of the tank, crashing onto the destroyed concrete below. His vision was blurry when he opened his eyes. He saw the remote right in front of him. He reached forward, and flipped the ignition switch on the back. Then he reached for the detonator.
"I'll see y'all in hell…" Taylor muttered as he pressed the button. The explosive gel he'd previously sprayed all over the armory instantly blew up, destroying the support columns and bringing the concrete ceiling crashing down on them. Taylor smiled one last time before he felt a large, heavy object smash into him.
Max drove the transport vehicle through the street, swerving to miss the numerous objects and bits of rubble that were in the streets. It had been getting better by degree, but the PLUMMERs still had quite a ways to go before the city would look anything like it did before Vilgax's invasion.
"Where are we headed, Max?" Wes asked from the passenger seat.
"Like I've got any clue?" Max replied. "Though I would be happy with anywhere that's out of sight and out of mind from Alpha!"
"Head towards the docks," another agents suggested. It turned out to be Jack. "The old fishing sector should be quiet enough for us to lay low for a while." Max had to agree that the old fishing sector of town was probably their best bet. No one lived around there, so any PLUMMER patrols would probably be light. Further, most of the buildings were abandoned, so there was a good chance that they wouldn't be discovered by any civilians either.
"Hang on!" Max turned down a narrow street, and cruised their way towards the old fishing docks. After several minutes of driving, the group pulled up to an old fish-packing plant. Max parked the van, turning off the ignition. The side door opened up, with several of the previous PLUMMER agents stepping out.
"I think that this old factory is big enough for us to stay in," Max said.
"I sure hope everyone has switched on the undercover mode on their badges!" Jack shouted. Max saw several agents pull out their badges and switch them onto their undercover mode. He felt a twinge of regret in not being able to recover his own badge before they had made their escape. With a sigh, he tried to convince himself that it would have just been another unnecessary liability.
"Come on, guys, let's get the van inside, and deactivate it's tracking beacon," He commanded. One agents powered up his canister gun and blasted open the chains that wound around the door's handles. Then he, along with another agent, pulled the heavy wooden doors open, while another agent started up the van, and drove it inside. Within minutes, the vehicle, along with all of the agents were inside, with not a trace of evidence that anyone had been near the building in years.
Inside, several agents had activated the built-in flashlights in their suits to illuminate the dark inside of the building, while another couple were pulled up underneath the vehicle, attempting to disable the tracking beacon. The rest of the former PLUMMERs had began to move around boxes and equipment, in order to make living room inside the building.
"You've got to have some sort of plan on how we're going to be moving forward, Max," Wes asked his old friend.
"For the time being, the plan is to survive," Max told his Navajo friend. "If we can manage to do that, then we should avoid PLUMMER efforts to find us. And if we can manage to do those things, we should try to get in contact with Team Ultra, and see what we can do to kick Vilgax from our planet. There isn't any more specific plan than that at the moment."
"I left Bree Albright out of the rescue operation," Wes told him. "She's going to be our inside mole. And Josie Thompson didn't make it out after sending a virus to their ship interface. We should try to come up with a rescue plan for Josie soon. Bree too, if she gets into hot water." Max nodded.
"However we look at it, we're going to need a lot more people than who we've currently got," he said. "We're going to need some auxiliary PLUMMERs."
"PLUMMERs?" Wes asked his friend. "We're not PLUMMERs anymore. You ceased to be one when Alpha arrested you, and we all stopped being PLUMMERs when we broke you out."
"Then I suppose we've got to come up with a name for ourselves too," Max said. Then, with a chuckle, "And I say we stay away from the service industry this time."
Back at PLUMMER Headquarters
"The damn fool brought the whole armory down!" One agent's voice shouted through the radio. The whole channel was chaotic with every agent shouting and trying to climb over the others as they tried to get out of the crumbling armory. Alpha threw his communicator against the far wall in frustration. The force of his throw absolutely smashed the small device, fizzling bits exploding on the wall.
"What is the damage report?" Alpha demanded of Agent 01.
"I think that the rest of the base is stable," his first-in-command responded. "But the entire armory is gone. The entrance is blocked off, and our equipment to get through the blockage would be inside the armory."
"Get our men to the hangar, and get some ships to pursue Max Tennyson!" Alpha shouted.
"Sir, we should try to get into the armory," Agent 01 said. "We still have bodies to extract."
"They will be there when we're done," Alpha said. "But if Max's little group of traitors are allowed to escape, they'll no doubt aid Ultra 10's band of criminals, and our enemies will increase!"
"We still have a responsibility to our agents' families to return their bodies," Agent 01 started to say.
"THE BOARD HAS THE RESPONSIBILITY!" Alpha roared, becoming even more angry at his first-in-command's reluctance to do what he commanded. "I have no such responsibility! Now obey my orders!" There was a second of silence.
"Yes sir," Agent 01 responded before ending the communication. In a moment, he received another call.
"What is it?" Alpha asked testily.
"Alpha, Agent 88 was captured before the explosion, and she's unharmed. She's in our custody now," the agent on the other end said.
"Put her in a detention cell," Alpha said. "I'm going to go have a talk with her."
"Yes, sir," the agent responded, ending the call. With that, Alpha stood up from his desk, and exited the room, locking the door behind him. If someone were to go through some of the information he had stored there, it would end up very badly for him. The long walk gave him enough time to cool down, and to resume his normally imposing demeanor.
He made his way towards the detention area, walking inside to see Josie Thompson inside one of the cells. Her gauntlets, helmet, badge and utility belt had been taken from her, they laying on a table across the cell block.
"Josie Thompson," Alpha greeted her. "Agent 88, is that right?"
"Screw you, Alpha!" She snarled.
"Come now, there's no reason to be so aggressive," Alpha chided her. "If anyone's got right to be angry, its me. After having so many of my top agents commit treason and blow up our base here. But do you see me so upset? No, not yet."
"What are you doing here?" Josie questioned him.
"Right down to it, I see. Very well," Alpha said. "You are a traitor, and I have the authority to execute traitors. Your life is in my hands. But I don't want to kill people, I want to give them a chance to redeem themselves. To prove that they're not actually a traitor, only confused. Give them a chance to do what's right."
"What do you want?" She asked him again.
"Information," Alpha said. "I want you to tell me where Max and his little posse are headed. As well as everyone that was involved."
"And what makes you think that I'd even want to cooperate with someone like you?" Josie shot back.
"Well, you see," Alpha reminded her. "You're a traitor, and you are worthy of death. But if you were to cooperate with me, it would be obvious that you wouldn't be a traitor. There might even be a promotion in store for you. With so many agents abandoning their allegiance to what the PLUMMERs stand for, there's a lot of vacancy."
"I'm not in it for the perks," Josie said. Alpha huffed at her, clearly annoyed.
"Well there's no reason to assume that you're a rotten apple to the core just yet. We've just got to cut out the rotten parts, to get to the good inside of you," Alpha said with a sadistic look in his eye. "Have fun in here, until I come visit you again. And don't worry about smiling for the cameras. You made sure that they were all turned off." With that, Alpha turned to leave, but stopped himself.
"You know, Vilgax's drones have a very interesting laser gun installed on them. One that I made sure to disassemble and reassemble for my personal use," Alpha told her. "You see, they use a kinetic particle, which they fire, causing it to heat up as it tears through flesh. I believe that the process would be incredibly painful. I think that I'm going to call them Ripper Beams, for obvious reasons. And I may need someone to tell me how painful they are. Thank you for volunteering!" With that, he left, leaving Josie in absolute darkness.
A/N:
That is going to be the end of the chapter. What are your thoughts? Not a lot from Team Ultra this chapter, (actually nothing this chapter.) but that would be because they are traveling back the long way from New York City, so there's not a lot of excitement. The next we see of them, they will be getting back into Bellwood, and back into the action. What did you think of Max's escape? And is there more to the Overwatch organization than we were told here? What did you think of Taylor's death? He was a bit of an oddball, but he means well. What about Josie's plight? Will Bree Albright have anything to do with Alpha's "inquisition" of Josie, or will she be lucky enough to stay out of it? What do you think is going to happen with Max's group? And how is Vilgax going to react when he learns of Alpha's problems inside his own organization?
Any other ideas, thoughts, or critiques? Leave them in a review please! Thanks for reading! And don't forget to have an awesome day!
Review Responses:
WiteNinja489: I hope that Max eventually finds out about Ben. Though not anytime soon, Ben has his hands full as is. Also how long has Ben been Ultra by now? I'm assuming it's been a year at most.
Thanks for leaving a review, WhiteNinja489! Yeah, Ben has his hands full, and Max does too, as of this chapter. It's coming up in the next couple of chapters. As a result of Team Ultra finally confronting Vilgax, a series of events will lead to Max finding out Ben's identity. The reveal is still a ways out, but rest assured, it's on its way.
As for Ben's age, since beginning these chronicles, I've learned that time-progression is certainly not my strong suit, so the agre progression is probably not very clear. As of this chapter, Ben is thirteen, almost fourteen. In volume one, chapter two, Ben and Gwen turn eleven. When SixSix attacked in volume one, chapter twenty, the kids were turning twelve. Around the time that Alex bombed Ben's house in volume 2, chapter 35, Ben and Gwen turned fourteen, though they didn't celebrate it because of all that was happening. I will try to write in the chapters more details about the time of year, and their ages, so that it'll be easier to visualize. It's a weakness, and I just hope it doesn't take away from the story too much...
yraj2004: In the end, please have Alpha betrayed and killed by Vilgax, before the boss fight.
Hahaha, we shall see. (Bangs my head into the wall repeatedly asking myself, "Was it that obvious?")
Ushindi: I knew Alpha was bad but this is even worse, making a deal with Vilgax is like making a deal with the devil. Vilgax will keep up the deal until he gets Ultra 10, and that's where he will backstab him, because this is Vilgax we are talking about! He doesn't work together with anyone, only uses them as pawns. Alpha will no doubt try to do the same, though he doesn't seem to have a higher chance to actually stop Vilgax.
Thanks for reviewing, Ushindi! Yeah, Alpha is pretty bad, and he has no idea what kind of **** he is getting himself into. Alpha is an "ends justify the means" kind of guy, which, concerning the ends he's pursuing, isn't really that bad. He wants to protect the Earth from threats, and sees himself as the guy to make it happen. If making a deal with Vilgax in order for him to leave Earth is how he's going to accomplish it, then that's what he's got to do. And, as he sees it, he is the only guy that can protect the Earth.
However, in order to get to his end goal, Alpha is doing some very evil things, and that is what makes him the villain. I had an entire monologue that Alpha told Max while in prison written out, but I decided to scrap it in favor of the scene that I went with. I think that it told, more than showed, Alpha's theory of the ends justifying the means, and how he sees himself as the hero in his own version of the story.