Within an a large, cold and dark lair with what appears to be metallic roots growing from the ground and to the ceiling, a humanoid alien with a strangely blackish purple body, with tentacles on its back. The face itself possessed a beak, with a singular eye containing a red pupil, a small black slit iris and green sclera.
The creature knelt down as a blue vortex showed another alien, it was a a white humanoid plant-like alien with black hands and feet, a purple face with red eyes, along with eyes on their chest. In which, it had four eyes on its face. "Speak, Half-Breed Vermin.", it's ancient and guttural voice reverberated in the room.
"Thank you, master. For some time now, someone has been leaking the details of our operations to the authorities.", the creature spoke with a sort of raspy voice, which sounded masculine. "After searching, we had found the source of the leak. His name is Oscar Parry. I believe we've had trouble with him years prior.", the creature pulled out a holo display, in which shown a holographic image of Oscar Parry.
"Then let this be the final time he troubles us.", the much larger being said, it's eyes narrowing. "Kill him and any other Technician's that prove themselves to be of a threat to our work."
"Yes, master."
Alex waved a friend of his goodbye as he walked in the opposite direction. After getting called a slur and verbally harassed by one of the ruder jocks, he went on his way. He now wore a jacket consisting of grays and white, a black shirt with a skull imprinted around the chest, grey sweat pants and black sneakers.
His mom told him to check up on his grandfather before he left the house earlier today, the neighborhood he lived in wasn't necessarily too far away so walking wasn't an issue.
"Oookay,.", was the first thing to run through his head as soon as he walked through the entrance of the neighborhood. It was eerily quiet, especially around that time. "I'm all for a quiet neighborhood but this is just weird."
Alex walked down the sidewalk and to his grandfathers house, knocking once he got no answer. Knocking again he still got no answer, not even hearing a slight movement inside. "Okay, now where did he put that key?"
He searched around for the spare key, the only other person he knew had it on them was his mom and he wasn't about to walk a few miles to the hospital for that. "Okay, new plan.", Alex looked around first before transforming into Cold Soar.
Cold Soar turned intangible and walked through the door seeing it was completely in shambles, reverting back to his default form he began searching. "What the hell happened in here?"
He paused as his senses kicked in, he heard slight rustling nearby. "No, it's too heavy to be his.", Alex squinted his eyes as he walked through the hall. He jumped back as something bursted out of the bathroom.
The something in question was a tall humanoid figure with no distinguishable features for him to tell if it was a man or a woman. The creature was vaguely familiar. It let out a ferocious roar.
"Oho yikes! Can you say halitosis?", Alex quipped while getting into a stance.
It shook its head and leapt at him, Alex slid underneath and activated the Omnitrix. "Y'know, I haven't gotten to use these guys in a while. But under the circumstances, this looks pretty good!", he said erupting into a green flash.
The creature looked at him, unbothered as it was backhanded through the house by Muscle Bound. Leaping through the hole to see a house nearby destroyed and brought to the ground. "Ah shit!"
Muscle Bound leapt out and landed in front of the destroyed house. He rummaged through the rubble to find something, or someone. But he let out a sigh. "Gone, just like that thing.", he turned around and crossed his arms. "First Grandpa Oscar is gone now that thing, there's a 12 foot tall red alien and no one comes out to see what's going on? No one calls the cops?! Somethings going on, and I'm not a fan of it."
Muscle Bound knew there wasn't a person in the entire neighborhood, so he simply reverted to his default form and walked back to the house. Simply breaking the door off its hinges and to another door near the kitchen.
Alex opened the door, revealing the cold garage. "Truck's gone, but this works.", he walked over and picked up a rusty badge. Pressing a button he got a holographic image of Oscar.
["Hello, Alex. If you're seeing this, it means I've left for an important mission -- something big has come up, and The Technician's around this Galaxy and the next are starting to intercept some messages. Round up anyone you can and head out to the old Hardware Store. Further instruction will be there. Love you. Oscar out"]
Alex tapped his chin, he needed people that can and could be available a majority of the time. Gwen and Ben were off the list, Gaterboy and Porcupine? "Ahhhh. I got it.", Alex activated the Omnitrix and transformed into Drag Racer, speeding off and out of the neighborhood.
Drag Racer stopped abruptly in front of a familiar old mansion, reverting to normal as he saw Charmcaster waving at him. "What're you doing?", Alex asked curiously as Charmcaster smiled at him.
"Well I had a feeling you needed something, don't ask why.", Charmcaster said as she walked over to him. "What's the issue?"
"My grandpa went missing."
Charmcaster cocked her head. "Max went missing?"
"Wha- no that's just a family friend. My grandpa is missing.", Alex said with a sigh as Charmcaster smacked herself on the back of the head. "Anyways, I found his house and his entire neighborhood empty. Well almost, I found something that looks kinda like one of my aliens."
Charmcaster was handed a shirt that was torn. "What's this for?"
"Before I left I used an alien to find one of the shirts he's most recently used. That was the closest.", Alex stated.
"You wanted me for my magic?"
"No, you're pretty cute and your personality is uhhhh... a work in progress.", Alex jokingly said, which earned him a swift slap.
"Thanks.", Charmcaster rolled her eyes. "Tracentium Identica!", it took a few moments as the cloth lifted up and glowed. "Got it, it's faint. But it's far away."
Alex erupted in a green flash and turned into Drag Racer. "Direct me.", he said picking her up and speeding off.
Drag Racer abruptly stopped in front of an old diner, it was around for a few years before things like Burger Shack, Mr Smoothies and their sister locations Mrs. Milkshake. It was eventually drove to bankruptcy, after all that, the old diner remained.
"Are you sure he was here? This place has been closed for two decades.", Drag Racer stated.
Charmcaster nodded. "He was here. The energy is strong here, though I doubt the person inside is friendly. Be ready."
Drag Racer nodded and transformed into Blight, utilizing his Shapeshifting ability to open up the door by creating a key with his finger. "Lets investigate."
Charmcaster lifted her hand up and created a sphere of glowing energy, illuminating the room. She shone it around, looking for potential clues. They found Technicians knocked out, and a creature resembling the one from before standing over a mortally wounded officer. This one was much larger, it's beak was missing and instead ripped it's own mouth to display rows of teeth.
"There's one behind us as well.", Blight whispered, sending barbed tendrils at the large, monster resembling himself. Charmcaster sent out large, sharp, rings from her bag that sliced through the approaching one.
Blight rammed the creature with his shoulder and into a wall, the two creatures screeched at each other. "Hey! You're one of them, how do we put em down?!", Charmcaster yelled out as she restrained her with orange, metallic band.
"Fire or sound works.", Blight struggled as the creature was ontop of him, trying to strangle a creature that has no windpipe or solid neck. Creating a spike from his elbow, he stabbed into the creature and threw him off.
Charmcaster's eye glowed a fiery orange. "Berdi Morto Nada!", she opened her mouth and let out a stream of fire, Blight threw the alien outside as the one restrained was writhing on the floor in pain. High pitched screeches rang out, crawling away to get out.
"Leave it, we weren't here for a fight.", Blight said as he reverted to normal. "We can always deal with them later.", he walked over to the only conscious Plumber. "What happened here?"
The alien resembling something aquatic in nature coughed out. "They lured us here, using your grandfathers face. We fell for it and got ambushed. He was here...", the alien coughed. "I'm n-not sure why, but they wanted something."
Alex knelt down. "We can get you help-"
"No, it's too late.", the Plumber's skin dried up, turning a bright pink along with looking wrinkled. "Take these. Your grandfather gave me these a month ago... go.", the magister coughed before turning into a cloud of vapor.
"That was... sheesh.", Charmcaster said as Alex held keys and another badge.
Alex pressed the side button and activated a holographic message of Oscar. {"I'm sure you're aware of the growing alien activity, we're thinking it's the Limax or maybe more Lenopans. I'm investigating, I've entrusted Magister Labrid with this holoviewer and the keys to the Hardware store"}
"Hardware store? Why there?", Charmcaster asked in confusion.
"Couple months back, Grandpa showed me a base hidden underneath an old hardware store. He said there's several across the globe.", Alex scratched his chin. "I thought he was kidnapped though."
"He seems fine. Though there's no way for us to figure out what's going on.", Charmcaster said as she and Alex walked out of the diner.
Alex nodded. "You're right, right now we need to follow the trail and see where this leads us. If the Technician's are getting involved again on Earth, then this isn't just a small force terrorizing us. This might just be the start of an invasion."
"You can ask him when we find him. Lead the way, leader.", Charmcaster stated.
"You got it.", Alex gave a thumbs up as he hid behind the diner, a green flash erupted. Drag Racer sped out and picked up Charmcaster, zipping through the streets.
Charmcaster felt nauseous as he stopped in front of the old Hardware store. She gagged and covered her mouth. "Could you warn me and not just hoist me up, please?"
Drag Racer held his claws up as he transformed back into his default form. "Sorry, that's on me.", Alex said as he pulled out the strangely normal looking key, inserted it into a machine on the wall and turned it three times. "Cant forget to flush.", he grabbed a string hanging and pulled it gently, the sound of a toilet played as the door slid open, showing an elevator.
"Oookay.", Charmcaster followed him in as the doors shut and they descended.
After a rather short ride, they walked out into a large room with machines on the side. "Here we are. Hey, Grandpa! You in here?"
Nothing.
"He must've left, but why?", Charmcaster asked curiously.
Alex scratched his head. "Good question.", he crossed his arm. "Grandpa was using this base as a place of operation to start up Earth tasks again.", he sighed before looking at Charmcaster. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this, if you wanna back out-"
"Hush.", Charmcaster covered his mouth. "I make my own decisions, so you're stuck with me until we figure out what's going on."
Alex smiled as he removed her hand. "You're right... I think I know where the next message is."
Charmcaster followed him down the halls and to a rather plain looking office. An old and torn flight jacket was hanging in a glass display with a strange looking mask. "Is this-"
"His office? Yeah.", Alex said as he walked over to the rather advanced looking computer in comparison to normal Earth computers. He typed the password in, which was his mother's birthday.
They saw Oscar sitting in the chair, drinking something. {"It's only now that I've realized just how serious this is, the depth and the depravity of our current situation. We thought the Limax were going to invade, turns out it's something worse, a race known as the Atasian's have been conquering planets all across the galaxy, Earth is next. Magister Labrid and his squad were sent to help me with this investigation, though we've agreed that me going alone would be the best while they remained here with you. You've probably already recruited a friend you've met last summer, but that won't be enough. You need to assemble a team, think of anyone who can help tilt the scales. You're going to need all the help you can get if we're gonna stop them before they get ahead of us. I'm sorry I had to vanish into thin air like that, and I'm sorry not personally training you. I'm sorry, but I have no choice. I'm counting on you my grandson, be safe. Love you, Oscar out."}
"Do you know anyone who can help?", Alex asked.
"Sorta, but I'm sure you already know them."
"Right.", Alex said as he scratched his chin. "I've been thinking about getting Ben and Gwen on this since they're not too far away, though they're always unavailable. Maybe I can get Max? Or someone-"
Charmcaster shushed him. "Someone's coming.", she said as Alex turned into Crazy Diamond.
The two walked back to the elevator door and prepared to fight one of those aliens, believing they were followed. The door slid open, Tetrax walked out with his helmet sliding back into its compartment. "We need to talk."
/End/