Welcome to the next chapter of The Ultra 10 Chronicles! Little bit of a later upload, but I hope that it is worth the wait!

Trigger warnings: There are a number of triggers this chapter. A number of instances of choice language, as well as a graphic fight scene. The first instance is in the fourth paragraph. The second instance is in the paragraph which reads, "I don't know what's become of the council..." The third instance is two paragraphs after. The fourth case is in the paragraph after the one which reads, "Jack gasped as he dropped the pistol." The final instance is in the paragraph after the one which reads, "That's what I'm afraid of, Wes said..."

There is a graphic fight and death scene where one of our antagonists dies. It starts in the paragraph that begins with, "It's over, Jack warned..." and continues on until the line break, a total of ten paragraphs.

The soundtrack for this chapter is "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi. You can listen to it on youtube. I thought it was a fitting theme for the battle scene.

Enjoy the chapter!

The Ultra 10 Chronicles: Volume 2: A Hero Earth Needs

Chapter 53: Raising the Stakes

Max's base, a month later

Max looked down at his communicator, which had began to signal a call. Cautiously, Max answered it.

"This is Max," he answered.

"Max, what the hell is going on?" Phil shouted from the other side. "I'm deployed to New York on clean-up duty, and the next thing I know, I'm assigned your Bree Albright as a partner with no explanation. And as soon as I try to get one, I discover that you and your merry band of Overwatch are outlaws, and Alpha's ready to kill anyone affiliated with you!" Max had covered the speaker with his other hand to try to mute the shouting.

"Well, yes, all of that happened," Max answered after a moment to ensure that Phil had finished his ranting. "Alpha thought that I'd disobeyed one of his orders, and Overwatch ended breaking me out."

"And you went along with it all?" Phil shouted, exasperated. "Of course you disobeyed his order, you're Max Tennyson! You've hated Alpha ever since you met him!" Phil let out an annoyed sigh. "You should have stayed long enough for a court marshal…"

"If I'd have done that, I'd have been dead," Max responded. "Alpha's seemingly suspended that right. If we're right, he's also transformed the detention hold into a high-tech prison, and started torturing anyone that opposes him. He needs to be taken down."

"Max, you know as well as I do that he's the only guy on Earth capable of countering Vilgax," Phil protested. "But even he is controlled by the executive council."

"I don't know what's become of the council," Max said. "But Alpha's acting with impunity. He's even turned Albright into his own henchman. He's trying to use anyone to get to me…" Just then, the gears clicked inside of Max's head. "Damn it."

"Wait, Max!" Phil protested. "What are you thinking? Don't shut me out!" Max immediately ended the call.

"Oh shit," he swore. "Phil's been compromised too. " He stood up from the stool he was sitting on. "Everyone, the PLUMMERs have our location! They've tracked my communicator! We have to pack up now!" Just as he said that, a laser blast burned its way through the wall of the warehouse, leaving a scorch mark on the far wall.

Instantly, a dozen more laser blasts came pouring through the wall, firing all around the warehouse. After a moment, the door burst open, with half a dozen Vilgaxian drones pouring through, firing their laser beams indiscriminately at the soldiers inside the warehouse.

Most of his soldiers were still armored up, deciding to remain in their scavenged and stolen armor as often as possible, however it still provided little protection against the drones' powerful laser blasts. Max's soldiers scattered, trying to get out of the line of laser fire. Behind the drones, several agents came walking through.

"Get away from the van!" Max shouted in vain as several of his soldiers ran to jump inside it. Barely had they gotten the engine to turn over, before a laser blast from one of the drones caused it to go critical, blowing up and killing everyone inside it. Max saw several soldiers escape through the secret passageways they'd linked up to the other warehouses and shops. At least they had a running chance. Still, too many of his volunteers had already been shot, though they weren't all dead.

"That's the one," one of the PLUMMER agents shouted, pointing at Max. "That one's Max Tennyson." The nearest drone put his laser gun away, or wherever it went, and extend its large claws to grab Max, picking him up and restraining him. It brought him closer to the three agents, who were revealed to be Alpha, Clyde and Jack Morningstar.

"You thought that you could attack PLUMMER Headquarters, and we'd simply let you walk away?" Alpha asked, laughing menacingly. "I turned Bree to my side in a rather unpleasant way. But your friend Jack here came on his own accord. He left us a direct route to your little clubhouse."

"Jack?" Max asked, confused. "Why?" Jack opened his mouth to reply, an uncertain look on his face.

"It's simple, really," Alpha cut off Jack from responding. "He understood that I was the only one able to repel Vilgax's invasion and protect Earth."

"And yet, here you are with several of Vilgax's drones to do your bidding," Max spat at the old tyrant. "How's that working out for you?"

"Rather well," Alpha taunted him. "They have rooted out my biggest adversary… you. Now you are helpless in my power. If you beg, I may still be inclined to make your death painless… More or less." As he said this, the drone squoze tighter, causing Max to gasp in pain. A slight grimace crossed Jack's face. Whether he was actually uncomfortable with torturing Max, or he was having doubts, Max was unsure, though he didn't really have much interest in debating the thought.

"Drop him!" A shout rang out. All three PLUMMER agents and Max whipped their heads to see where the sound had come from. A creature that looked like it was made out of living plants threw several black pods at the drone, which exploded on impact. The force of the organic grenades was enough to made the drone do as Ultra 10 had commanded, dropping Max more than twenty feet towards the concrete floor.

"Immobilus!" A feminine voice shouted as purple energy engulfed Max, suspending him in the air. He glanced over to see Lucky Girl standing on the ground, her arms stretched out in front of her, and purple mana floating all around her hands. Gently, he was brought the remaining distance to the ground, before the bubble popped.

"Where did you guys come from?" Max asked, confused. Lucky Girl was about to open her mouth to answer.

"Fight now," Ultra 10 shouted as he wrapped himself around the drone he'd engaged in fighting with. Several more seed pods sprouted from his back, which he grabbed and threw at the three PLUMMER agents. "Talk later!" Max nodded, both he and Lucky Girl taking his cue, and jumping into action. Max ran his way towards where they had been stockpiling their weapons. Quickly, he located a canister blaster, and powered it up. Grabbing a few grenades, he attached them to his belt, and assessed the situation going on all around him.

Already, the warehouse was all but destroyed, the burning wooden walls barely keeping it all together. Several suited heroes flew around, Max could only assume that they were Ellie or Sam, or some other member of Ultra 10's team. His head was starting to hurt, both from the squeeze, as well as from trying to figure out how many people Ultra 10 had in his group.

"Terra bombarda!" Lucky Girl shouted, her mana ripping sections of the concrete floor up to hurl at the drone she'd began battling with. Ellie flew overhead, using her wrist cannon to pelt one of the drones with, while doing her best to stay out of reach of the robot. Cooper came flying up to her, landing a lucky shot in the neck of the drone, causing a fizzling explosion, which sent the drone to the ground.

Max focused on a drone of his own, which he started firing at. The drone noticed him, turning towards him in a bid to scoop him up again. Max rolled out of the way, his old bones screaming in protest to the exertion. He grabbed one of his grenades, pressing the activator button on it, and tossed it at the drone. The resulting explosion blew the drone's hand clean off, a bit of charred, twisted metal being all that was remaining of the arm.

"No, no, no!" Alpha shouted in annoyance. "This isn't how it was supposed to happen! Clyde! Take down Max!" Agent 01 nodded, taking out his pistol from his holster, and running off into the fray. "I'm going to need more drones," Alpha muttered to himself.

"I don't think so," Jack replied, pulling out his own pistol. "Now you're all alone, and I'm taking you down." Alpha ducked as the laser bolt burned through the air where his head had just been. Spinning around, he grabbed Jack's wrist with one hand, and elbowed him in the ribs with his other arm. He swung his clenched fist up into Jack's face, causing the man to stumble back, letting go of his pistol.

"You're a fool if you think that you can take me down," Alpha challenged Jack, pointing his pistol at him.

"You're out of control," Jack growled back. "What you did to Max, Josie, probably dozens of others too."

"I do what I must, in order to ensure Earth's protection from alien filth!" Alpha spat. "And I remove anyone who would stop me. Now you're in my way as well."

"You are too power hungry to see that you've become exactly what you claim to fight against!" Jack answered, immediately dodging a laser blast that Alpha shot at him. He rushed forwards, stooping low to avoid a second shot. He came up with a fist to Alpha's face. His fist connected hard to Alpha's chin, sending the old man stumbling back a step or two. Alpha trained the pistol back on Jack, who kicked him before he could pull the trigger. The pistol went skittering away, too far for Jack to lunge at. However, it was also too far for Alpha to reach. Something that Jack would count as an advantage.

Jack punched at Alpha, who blocked it with his forearm, returning a punch to Jack. Likewise, Jack blocked the punch, throwing a kick at the old man. Their exchange went on like this for a while before Jack ducked a haymaker, swiping his leg to throw Alpha off his balance. Seizing his opportunity, Jack launched himself at Alpha, pushing him to the ground, with himself on top of him.

"It's over," Jack warned the old man, whom he had pinned underneath him. "Give up!" All of a sudden, Jack felt a laser blast burn its way into his side, splattering his blood as it did so. Jack shouted in pain as he fell over. A dozen or more paces away, Clyde was just about to fire another shot, one that would no doubt end Jack's life.

"No you don't!" Max shouted as he lunged at Clyde, forcing him to break from his would-be fatal shot. The two men continued their sparing match.

Jack tried to stay on top of Alpha, but his side was drawing a lot of his attention. A well-placed punch to his new wound from Alpha, and Jack rolled onto his back, groaning in pain. Alpha now knelt on Jack's chest, pressuring on the wound.

"I will never give up," Alpha snarled at Jack. "Not until I am able to subdue this planet under my control!"

"Subdue this!" Jack growled as he wiggled one of his arms free from Alpha's knee. With savage ferocity, he jammed his thumb into one of Alpha's eyes. Alpha immediately lost all control as he reached up to try to pull Jack's hand away from his face. But his flailing allowed Jack to reach up with his other arm, putting out Alpha's other eye as he dug both thumbs in even deeper. Alpha howled in pain and fury as he jerked his head up and away from Jack. Alpha rolled back onto his back, grabbing and clutching at his bloody eyes.

Jack rolled over onto his stomach, spotting his pistol almost two yards away. He tried to stand up, but his bleeding side was loosing too much blood, and he settled on halfway crawling, halfway dragging himself towards it. Behind him, Alpha continued to howl in pain as his entire face looked like something from a horror movie, blood dripping down his cheeks and onto his uniform. He'd managed to stand up, though he was stumbling around as he covered his eyes with his hands.

Jack reached for the pistol, his fingers brushing against the handle. Finally, he got traction between his fingers, and he grasped the weapon. Rolling over onto his back, he took aim at the stumbling, bloody Alpha and pulled the trigger. The laser blast burned its way into Alpha's head, killing him instantly. His dead body fell ingloriously to the ground.

Jack gasped as he dropped the pistol, his hand instinctually going to his side. He was loosing blood quickly, and his fingers felt the hole that Clyde's laser blast had torn through. As his fingers touched his bloodied flesh, he gasped in pain. Jack blinked, as his vision was starting to spin and darken, making him dizzy. Finally, his arm slumped into the blood pooling up where he lay.

"Damn it," Jack muttered to no one in particular. "I guess that Michael will have… to…" With that, all faded to black.

Elsewhere in the warehouse

Ben slapped the Omnitrix symbol on his chest, an explosion of green light all around him before fading.

"FourArms!" Ben shouted in the nasally voice of the alien. Immediately, he ran at the drone he'd been fighting and slammed his shoulder into it. The force of the impact caused the drone to start to tip, which FourArms seized upon by lifting up on the leg nearest him, and lifting it up, forcing the drone to the ground. Once it was grounded, Ben ran up to where the legs connected into the rest of the drone. With one set of his arms, FourArms pulled, and with the other, he pushed, finally pulling the leg completely off of the drone.

Like a tomahawk, Ben swung the severed robotic leg at the drone's face, smashing it in. A second hit, and then a third hit, and finally a fourth hit resulted in the explosion that Ben was hoping for. Tossing the still-fizzling leg away, Ben ran off to help Cooper and Sam with the drone they were struggling with. After several minutes more of fighting, four of the six drones had been destroyed, and the last two were now trying to get out of the building, Clyde in tow.

"Let them go," Max commanded, stopping the group from pursuing the retreating drones. "They've got Vilgax to deal with, and I can't imagine that he'll treat them any better than we did."

Ben pressed the Omnitrix symbol on his shoulder, resorting him back into his human form, though he was still suited up. He looked around at the destroyed building. Two of the four walls had been decimated, with large sections of the remaining two being blown out. The ceiling had collapsed during the fight, and any sense of order had been blown away in the fight. It looked like at a strong wind, the entire building would fall down.

"I'm grateful for the help," Max broke the eerie silence that had overtaken the battle scene. "But how did you get here so quickly?"

"I called for them," Ellie spoke up. "Jack told me that he had information on the PLUMMERs. That they knew where you were, and that they were coming."

"I thought that he had ratted us out," Max admitted. "But it looks like he came up with a plan to confront Alpha all along."

"Speaking of which, where is he?" Gwen asked. The group started looking through the carnage, before Max came on the sight of Jack's fight with Alpha.

"I found him," Max said. "It looks like he succeeded in killing Alpha. But he didn't make it either." He took a deep breath.

"We need to find our soldiers that survived," Max broke the silence. "And to bury our dead. I have a feeling that this is not the end of either our troubles with the PLUMMERs, nor with our confrontation with Vilgax. If anything, the stakes have just been raised." The group nodded in agreement, and broke off in their different directions.

Bellwood. June 23, six months later (Ben and Gwen are now 15)

Ben's communicator buzzed. Pressing the button, the call picked up.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Ultra 10, this is Wes," the old Navajo said. "Josie Thompson intercepted a transmission between Vilgax and some other ship. It appears that the squid is transporting another ship into Earth space. And it's supposed to be packing some serious firepower."

"We've foiled his invasion before Alpha's death, and another drone invasion after Alpha's death," Ben responded. "How much more can Vilgax throw at us?"

"Vilgax isn't interested in conquering the Earth anymore," Wes warned Ben. "Josie Thompson was able to gather that from the transmission. It sounds like Vilgax is planning to "end the pathetic planet" once and for all."

"So what, like blow Earth up?" Ben questioned. "How could he do that?"

"There are weapons that exist that are powerful enough," Wes responded. "Though none that are in the quadrant. Which is why we're taking Vilgax seriously when Josie learned of the ship he's transporting here."

"I'll inform my team," Ben replied. "How long do we have, before it's here?"

"It is hard to say," Wes answered. "It sounded like it was supposed to be here months ago, but has been delayed. I would assume that we have somewhere from a couple of days, to perhaps a week or two."

"Then it sounds like we've got to take out Vilgax before then," Ben concluded. "Before the ship arrives. If we can take out the squid, we'd have an advantage over his surprise ship."

"I'm meeting with Max in an hour about our options," Wes told the teenager.

"We need to take Vilgax out," Ben repeated. "And soon. If we can't catch him off of the ship, then we have to board it, and take him out there."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Wes said. "But you're right. We have to act fast. We'll call you when we've got a plan." With that, the transmission ended.

"Damn," Ben whispered. "I don't like the odds of this." He activated the Omnitrix, appearing from the explosion as WildMutt. Swinging down from the tree where he'd been, he landed on the ground with a thud, before running off through the forest.

After some time, he broke through the edge of Ross Park, and took cover in an abandoned building. It was one that had been severely damaged in Vilgax's most recent invasion effort, forcing the inhabitants in it to abandon it.

Hiding in one of the rooms, Ben detransformed into his human form, checking around to see that no one had spotted him. Vilgax had been promising food and safety to anyone who would serve him, and it was getting harder and harder to remain hidden. Especially now that normal civilians were snitching on Grandpa Max's Auxiliaries and his team.

"Cooper?" Ben spoke into his comm link. "Are yo there?"

"I'm here," Cooper responded. "What's up?"

"I just got word that Vilgax has a new toy," Ben responded. "Something strong enough to destroy the entire planet."

"Woah," Cooper said, his astonishment leaking through the comm link. "You just kind of dropped that in my lap."

"Sorry," Ben whispered. "But we don't have much time. We're gong to have to take him out."

"And how are you going to do that?" Cooper questioned back. "The alien never leaves his Chimerian Hammer."

"We are going to have to board the Spirit Breaker," Ben responded. "And we're going to have to do it in only a couple of days."

"Ben, are you insane!" Cooper protested. "Do you know how many weapons that ship has? Any attempt to board it is absolute suicide!"

"We have to do it," Ben responded. "And I know that we can. If we don't, then it's game over for all of us."

"Fine," Cooper finally sighed. "When are we doing this?"

"Wes Green is talking to Max about that," Ben responded. "But I'd suggest we make our move in the next day or two. Before Vilgax can even think about using his new ship."

"I'll tell the team to meet up in Ross Park," Cooper responded. "But I still think that this is going to be suicide."

A/N:

That's it for the chapter. I didn't like how the end bit came out, and I was trying to rewrite it clear up until this afternoon, but I guess that it is what it is. But what did you think of the rest of the chapter? Alpha is finally dead, though Clyde got away. We took a big time skip mid-chapter, but we'll refer back a bit here and there to fill in what happened during that time. (Not a whole lot, but a couple of little events happened.) I had originally planned a different death for Alpha, but I think this one is a good one for the b*****d.

What were your thoughts? Leave them in a review, and don't forget to like and follow. Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day! I'll see you next time! (Hear? Read? Not quite sure what the right word there is...)

Review Responses:

Kingpizzathe3: Thanks for the new chapter, I enjoyed it!

Thank you for reading, and leaving a review! I enjoy reading them! Hope you enjoyed this one!

yraj2003: Is this a 3, or more like a 2 part chapter?

It was a two-parter. This one is was kind of a transition chapter from the last arc (involving Alpha's takeover) and the next one/larger one. (Involving Ben and company taking down Vilgax.)

Ushindi: The Break out was a success! Yeah, Bree is going to end up hurting not only herself but others around her just like Josie if she continues. No, I doubt it was a coincidence, it's mostly likely Vilgax has found to track Ben, Gwen and Cooper; but how, I have no idea. I'm feeling nostalgic of the original aliens coming back cause they have been one of my favorites since I watched the original series. I'm up to see any aliens you come up with.

Thanks for the review, Ushindi! Glad that I got that nostalgic feeling going, yo get to see a few more of the originals here as well. But yeah, it's been kind of hard writing it for so long with Ben on the hiding, without using his aliens. That's a large part of why I took the time jump. A Ben 10 story without Ben changing into his aliens gets boring really fast.