Author's Note: There has been a time skip of roughly two years, around the start of Omniverse.

Also, if you read the previous chapter when it came out, I recommend rereading it. CapnOblivious42 kindly pointed out I could make a few updates to the Anur alien line up and so I have changed some things. With that in mind, feel free to point out if I made any mistakes editing out those removed aliens from this chapter.


Rook Blonko was known as many things.

To most, he was the Omnitrix bearer. Scientific wonder, Azmuth's life's work, a powerful Plumber. A hero, perhaps, in the mind's of some. Rook wasn't sure how he felt about that last one.

To others, he was a friendly face. Someone who could be relied on. Someone to relax around, someone to have fun with. He liked that. He considered this to be his better half.

Those two sides were polar opposites, he thought. He was either the Omnitrix bearer or a friendly face. Rook, this honed warrior and weapon wielder, or Blonko, the somewhat nerdy former farmer. There wasn't really an in-between. Well, for some, maybe. There were a select few who knew both sides of him but that wasn't really the point.

The point was that here, he could be neither.

"Pumpkin Head!"

Scout blinked a few times, momentarily blinded by the Omnitrix's light, and let out an exasperated sigh. "Pumpkin Head? Again?"

"What is wrong with Pumpkin Head?" Pumpkin Head asked, taking a moment to figure out where all his limbs were. It was hard, being made of vines and all. Turning into one of Anur Transyl's mutant pumpkins was nothing like turning into Wildvine or Funguy.

"He's creepy."

"You of all people find Pumpkin Head creepy? Scout, you do realize we are on Anur Transyl, right?"

"Yeah but the pumpkins aren't real beings. They're not like any of the people and they're not even like any of the animals. They're just plants that Zs'Skayr took control of. It's weird seeing them walk around."

"If the Omnitrix scanned them, that means they are sentient. We need this form to get into the castle. And do not complain about going to the castle! You know why we have to go."

"It's so creepy though."

"It was your idea to try to turn Zs'Skayr's old castle into a Plumber base."

"Yeah and I'm regretting it. If you need to turn into that creepy pumpkin thing every time we want to go there, maybe we should cut our losses and find somewhere better. Luna Lobo's got a lot of space."

"If we went to Luna Lobo, we'd be fighting the wild packs constantly. You hate the Lunan Loboans even more than the pumpkins."

"Ugh, you're right. We'd have to spend forever looking for a spot no one's claimed."

"Are you going to stop whining now?"

"In your dreams. The fields smell awful."

"They are not that bad."

"You don't have a nose right now. You have no idea what the fields smell like. It's only fair I get to complain the whole way."

If Pumpkin Head had eyes to roll, he would've. He tossed his head and let his empty eyes bore into instead, hoping Scout would catch his meaning. "Whatever. Help me get the gates open."

Scout shut his mouth and did as he was told. Pumpkin Head raised his arms, letting his vines wind around the gates. Once he had his grip, Scout grabbed his arms and pulled, using his superior Loboan strength to yank the gate clean off its hinges. Both flinched when the metal hit the ground, crashing down with a loud bang, but they stepped over it without a care in the world. The pumpkins always put the gate back no matter what the intruders did.

"Have you made any progress making peace with these guys?" Scout asked as they began heading towards the castle. Pumpkin Head didn't comment on it but he could see the fur rising on his shoulders. Planetary Loboan garb was nice to better blend in with the natives, much better than Plumber gear at least, but it didn't do much to hide a Loboan's- or a Revonnahgander's- hackles. Sometimes Rook wondered if he should've gone with the more steampunk look more popular among Transylians but he didn't think Yenaldooshi or Crüjo would be very receptive to that particular change in wardrobe while he was living on pack territory.

Pumpkin Head's gaze snapped up, thoughts drifting away from loose purple robes and their more fashionable Transylian counterparts, and he shook himself, realizing he hadn't answered Scout's question. "I have been focusing my efforts on mending our relations with the Ectonurites. Not all of them are particularly pleased about what we did with Zs'Skayr."

"Smart," Scout commented, "but not very helpful to us right now."

Scout flicked his ears forward, nodding to the pumpkins that were beginning to lift themselves out of the ground. Pumpkin Head lumbered forward wordlessly, placing himself between Scout and the rising creatures. These encounters were always kind of a gamble. It was hard to get a read on the patch's mood, even as a pumpkin himself. Pumpkin Head was an outsider, not a member of the patch, not attuned to their will. The best he could do was ask for peaceful passage and even those efforts weren't always successful. He had no idea why. To him, it didn't seem like a particularly outlandish question. Maybe they just really hated him.

Things had gotten better since Zs'Skayr and his followers were driven out though. The patch seemed to dislike the castle's former owner especially. He couldn't blame them but Pumpkin Head never got a response when he asked about it. He still hadn't really gotten the hang of floral communication, even after practicing on Revonnah so much as Wildvine. Talking verbally usually just made the other pumpkins angry. Maybe that was something frowned upon in their culture? He really wished the Anur natives were more amicable towards the patch. Then maybe someone could answer all the questions he had about them.

Today, however, they didn't seem very angry. As Pumpkin Head neared, he realized they weren't paying attention to him at all. Wordlessly, he sent a pulse through the patch, a silent question. He got a wave of curiosity and caution in response. He wondered what that was about. He'd never felt anything like that from them before. They were simple beings, mostly focused on protecting their own. When he pressed, the patch told Pumpkin Head to look up.

Pumpkin Head's vision wasn't all that great. His eyes were made of vines and most of his senses were linked to the roots winding beneath his feet. But, he didn't really need any of that to know what Anur Transyl's sky looked like. It was the same sky he gazed up at every night he missed home: the inky black void spread throughout all of space, the same dark blanket he'd look up at back home; the countless little specks of light, the distant stars he hoped to one day see; the pattern of the thick cobwebs linking the system together, the same webs that filled him with so much wonder when he arrived in the Anur System; and the beautiful Luna Lobo hovering in the planet's orbit, the moon the pack howled to each cycle. It was an impossible sight to forget, even when gazing at it with eyes that were not meant to see things that lay so far.

He'd looked up as all his aliens. He knew exactly what the sky should look like through the eyes of every form in the Omnitrix, save the rare few who wouldn't breathe Anur Transyl's atmosphere. If asked, he was sure he could make a drawing of what each alien saw, most similar but some with different colors or even powers that the natives could never hope to comprehend. But Pumpkin Head's version of Anur Transyl's sky was usually just blurry.

That was why he didn't really believe what he was seeing until he heard Scout shout.

"Luna Lobo, is that a ship?"

"Ship ship!"

"Not you. Think you can give me some better visuals, buddy?"

"Ship!"

Pumpkin Head heard the sound of Ship transforming and, trusting Scout to keep an eye on whatever just entered Anur Transyl's atmosphere, turned back to the other pumpkins. Uneasy was buzzing through them, anxious and loud. He tried to tell them to stay calm but none of them seemed to hear him, his connection to the patch too weak. Pumpkin Head tried not to show how disheartened he was.

"The ship's damaged," Scout reported after a moment. Pumpkin Head's gourd swiveled, teetering. Scout's body was tense with focus. Pumpkin Head wondered if he was as stressed as the patch. Probably not, considering he'd been apart of his fair share of space voyages, but Pumpkin Head wasn't the most perceptive when it came to beings of blood and flesh… assuming that's what Scout was. He still really had no idea. "It's going to crash."

"Where? Here?"

"No, Luna Lobo."

"Did it land in pack territory? Should I turn into Beuwolf? Or is it closer to the settlements? Should I turn into Blitzwolfer?"

"I can't tell from here. Um, either. Just some kind of Loboan. Come on, we've gotta get to Luna Lobo."


The captain was ripped out of the ship, Kevin was hammering some alien's face in, Gwen was ushering everyone into an escape pod- It all just happened so fast. Impossibly fast but isn't that how it always went? Peaceful calm to rapid, violent chaos? It happened when they found Kevin, it happened when they discovered Gwen's powers, it happened when they messed up with that Null Void projector, it happened when they found themselves enrolled at the Plumber Academy, it happened when they met their captain, and now it was happening as their ship was being torn open by alien zombies.

But rewind. This was too much for him to process at once.

His name was Ben Tennyson and he was an agent of an intergalactic law enforcement group called the Plumbers. He considered himself a pretty damn good one. A good agent, that is. Sure, he'd messed up quite a bit but that was why he'd joined the Plumber Academy in the first place. To clean up his mistakes. And he really thought it'd be that easy. Join the Plumber Academy, train hard, get the skills he needed, graduate, fix everything he'd broken… What a fool he'd been.

He graduated at the top of his class and after being promoted from cadet to agent, Ben realized that just maybe it'd gotten to his head. He was a human in a class of aliens. No powers. What a disadvantage, huh? He'd worked hard enough for Kevin and Gwen to recognize him as an equal and earned the Prototech gear because of it. He should've known better than to assume it'd be smooth sailing from there.

The Academy was a controlled environment. Out here, in the rest of space, smooth sailing was near impossible. As he'd learned when their captain's ship was attacked by energy draining zombies.

They hadn't realized they'd gotten so close to the Anur System. Hell, Ben didn't even know what it was until they were being shot at and Kevin was rattling off a quick summary of something he'd heard way back when. But it hardly mattered. These aliens, they were brutal. And fast. Efficient, maybe, was the better word. They knew exactly what they were doing.

Their ships had a unique design. Ben knew Kevin would be geeking out over them, as much as he denied he'd geek out over anything, if they weren't under attack. They were curved in a way Ben thought was terrible for space travel but it gave them more control over the metal claws jutting out of them. One swipe and there was a massive hole in their hull and no one could breathe.

The captain was prepared but that wasn't really surprising. He was always wearing that armor of his, helmet covering his head before he could so much as choke. When the next claw came their way, he was ready. He caught it mid swipe and yanked, throwing the ship off balance, and threw himself out to tear into the ship's pilot.

Ben, Kevin, and Gwen were considerably less prepared. In his scramble for an oxygen mask, he only caught a glimpse of their attackers. They were ugly things. Grey, peeling skin over exposed flesh matched with hollow eyes and crooked claws were not a good look. Ben didn't recognize the species. Kevin and Gwen, the ones who were usually knowledgeable on these sorts of things, didn't seem to either.

Gwen had surrounded herself in energy and Kevin had absorbed some of the ship's material to protect themselves from the vacuum of space. Oxygen masks were still necessary but at least they could join the fight now.

Gwen hurled a handful of mana at the creature grappling with their captain. It didn't seem to hurt the thing in the slightest but at least it got its attention. It let out an inhuman noise as its head snapped up and lunged.

Their captain caught it quickly, not letting it anywhere near his crew. "These are Ormerowons!"

"And? We need more than a name to fight these things," Kevin barked in response, bunching up his legs in preparation to push himself off the ship and ram into another ship. Another Ormerowon ship came from the other side, raking a claw into the remainder of the hull. The impact made Ben lose his grip for a moment and stumble but he found it quickly, still listening to his captain carefully.

"These things drain life force. They'd have a field day on an Anodite and Osmosian," the captain responded as he smashed the Ormerowon's head into the side of his own ship. "You need to get out of here!"

"But-" Gwen started to protest but was interrupted when another group of ships joined them and began to open fire on the wreckage.

"Go! Ben, make sure they get away. I'll be alright," the captain shouted as a Ormerowon from another ship ejected to help his friend. He tackled the captain from behind, slamming his hands down on either side of his head. Ben's eyes widened in horror as a pained noise came from his captain but there was nothing he could do. Not unless he wanted to risk his cousin and his best friend.

"No!" Gwen shouted, reaching out like she wanted to help but Ben wasn't about to let her. He drew his proto-tool and fired the cable, wrapping it around her quickly. She made a sound of protest but he was already dragging her back into the ship. He grabbed Kevin by the shoulder, grateful space made it so easy to drag people around, and hurried through the hull to their escape pod, praying it hadn't been damaged in the attack.

Energy bullets or lasers, he didn't know what kind of projectiles these aliens used but the ship was getting littered in them as they ran. One or two clipped his armor and they hurt like hell but Ben knew he would be fine. If he wasn't… Well, that was a problem for future Ben to deal with.

"You're driving," Ben ordered, pushing Kevin into the front seat as he fell into the passenger seat with Gwen. It was awkward and cramped and he really wished they had a bigger escape pod but this thing might just save their lives so he wasn't about to complain. "Go!"

Kevin seemed hesitant to leave their captain but he wasn't one to waste time. He mashed buttons on the control panel and then the engines were roaring and the trio were thrown into space.

Ben saw their captain grappling with even more Ormerowons. He seemed to be holding his own but it was clear his energy was being drained. Ben didn't really understand how but they'd fought energy vampires before and he knew energy drainers were bad news. "Gwen?"

Gwen understood what he wanted and raised a hand, a sphere of pink energy surrounding their captain in a heartbeat. She pulled her hand toward her chest, pulling the energy sphere and their captain along with it toward the ship. For a brief moment, Ben really thought they were all going to make it out of there alive. But only for a moment. That hope was quickly shattered when an Ormerowon's mouth latched onto the sphere and it was sucked up faster than Ben could slurp down a smoothie on a hot day.

Gwen fell back with a cry of pain, spiking Ben's worry. She could feel that from this far? The Ormerowon's draining powers? Gwen was an energy being. She would be vulnerable to the Ormerowons' powers. And Kevin was an energy drainer himself. Different, yet the same. Would their powers clash? Would Kevin be hurt by them as well? Their captain certainly thought so.

His captain's words rang in his ears. He wanted Kevin and Gwen to get to safety. And he trusted Ben to be the one to do it.

"Gun it."

"What?" Kevin glanced at him, drawing his eyes from the fight before them, confused.

"Gun it!" Ben said louder. He reached over with his foot, slamming the accelerator. "We can't help him right now! We need to get away!"

"We can't leave him!"

"We're not! We'll- we'll get help."

"Are you crazy? This is the Anur System!"

"Just drive Kevin!" Ben yelled, hand flailing over the steering wheel. He knew how to drive, sure, but it was pretty damn hard from the passenger seat with half his body pinned under his cousin. Who's idea was it to get an escape pod with only two seats for a ship with four people? What was their captain thinking? That he'd drive while his Earthean crew crammed into one seat? That wasn't safe at all.

Kevin seemed to get the idea and placed both hands firmly on the wheel. They were still being shot at, afterall, and now they were facing a new obstacle. "What the hell are those?"

"Cobwebs?" Ben guessed, just as confused as Kevin. He'd noticed hints of them looking out their former ship's windshield, tufts of purple, but he hadn't seen the mass in the distance. Before, there were a few clumps floating around here and there but now he realized there was a whole structure in the distance and it only got thicker the further they sent into the system. And, judging by the sound the ship made when it scraped one, they weren't as thin and breakable as the spiderwebs on Earth.

But there were still ships in hard pursuit behind them. They had no choice but to dive in.

"Hold onto your shit," Kevin grunted as he leaned forward, pushing the ship into the sea of purple. Ben wondered if he knew that he did that, lean with the ship as he drove. Like a kid playing a racing game. Kevin was a good driver so he couldn't exactly make fun of him but it was a curiosity.

Ben and Gwen gripped each other and the seat for dear life as the ship weaved around cobwebs and blasts from behind. Ben couldn't see the Ormerowons behind him but they were getting clipped quite a bit so he sensed they were still pretty close. He hoped that meant there were fewer whaling on their captain. Even if he knew Kevin and Gwen's safety was a priority, he still felt awful abandoning his captain. He hoped he was alright. He meant what he said about going back for him.

At this point, there wasn't much Ben or Gwen could do. Gwen's powers were useless against their foes and Ben's skills weren't much good in a dogfight. Unless he had a clean shot or two feet firmly on the ground, he was more useless than Gwen. Everything was in Kevin's hands now.

Now would be a good time for a breather but Ben's adrenaline refused to decline. His heart pounded in his chest as the pod rocked and weaved. It wasn't exactly designed for agility but it was doing it's best. Still, it was a wonder it hadn't been caught in the webs yet.

The ship rocked suddenly and Kevin swore loudly. They'd been hit directly. Gwen prepared a protection spell as Kevin kept wrestling with the controls, trying to keep them from getting caught in the webs. Ben was pretty sure the Ormerowons had stopped chasing them but if they got stuck, they'd be sitting ducks.

"I think I see a planet ahead," Ben spoke up after a few moments. He wasn't really sure, he kind of felt like he was grasping at straws, but he was vaguely certain he could see some kind of shape through the webs ahead.

"How? I can't see shit," Kevin growled in response but began angling the ship in the direction Ben had pointed. He had very little control at this point, Ben realized. He wasn't doing much more than trying to pick the direction they were falling in. Gwen's protection spell was going to come in handy.

They were shaking and bouncing so much Ben couldn't see much of what was going on but he knew the moment when they were caught in something's gravitational field. Planet or moon, he didn't care.

He saw purple and white first. A moon, he guessed. Then he saw the spikes rushing towards them. He heard screaming. Probably him. He was surprised he hadn't been screaming before now. He usually screamed a lot during these sorts of things.

The planet was covered in… spikes? He wasn't really sure what he was seeing. Rock, definitely, and it came jutting out of the moon's surface like quills on a porcupine. Kevin grunted and growled and he tried his best to spin the ship away from them but there were about a dozen damage indicator lights blinking across the control panel. There was no saying now much Kevin's efforts were really doing.

"Gwen!" Kevin yelled, signalling the moment he knew he couldn't save them. Gwen didn't respond verbally. Her eyes flashed and they were quickly surrounded by pink. Not a moment later, rock spikes tore into the ship, peeling it clean off them, as they plummeted.

They hit the ground hard. Ben felt the impact in all of his bones, even his teeth. Gwen shielded them a lot, sure, but it still hurt. Still, there was something exhillaring about sitting on the ground, the debris of your escape pod raining around you, perfectly fine. Ben could feel his chest heaving as his body struggled to catch his breath and his high became crashing down.

He let himself fall back, flopping onto the ground. It was pretty uncomfortable but the view above was beautiful. He was right about the rock pillars. They were lumpy and distorted, not smooth like stalagmites, but they pointed right at the sky, straighter than any arrow, toward the mess of purple above. It was thinner here but purple webs were still strung clean across the deep, darkness like a dancer's ribbons.

That wasn't even the most beautiful thing though. The moon's planet, he'd never seen a planet like that. It's surface was split, revealing a glowing energy core, and it's continents- Ben wasn't even sure what he was seeing. There were all kinds of things littered across it. Too many for his muddled brain to comprehend at once.

After a few minutes, the blood stopped roaring in his ears and he could hear Kevin and Gwen's heavy breaths on either side of him. He reached out blindly, feeling for their hands. Gwen accepted it, squeezing his fingers comfortingly. Kevin, the less empathetic of the group, swatted it away and sat up. He was the first to speak. "What is this place?"

"A nightmare," Ben grumbled, only half sitting as he attempted to get up as well. He'd like to lie there a bit longer but he knew they couldn't afford to let their guard down. "Do you think those zombie things are still after us?"

Gwen shook her head. "I sensed them stop chasing us when the webs started thinning."

"Weird," Ben mused aloud. "You'd think they'd take advantage of us falling and all."

"Maybe there's something here they're scared of?"

"Doubt it," Kevin scoffed, pushing himself to his feet. He offered Gwen a hand and pulled her up. "You see this place? Totally desolate. No way any kind of life form could surv-"

Kevin was interrupted by a howl in the distance. Gwen raised a smug eyebrow. "You were saying?"

"Shut up," Kevin grumbled. He gestured loosely to the remains of the escape pod scattered about. "There's no way any of us can fix that thing. I say we abandon it and find some shelter."

"Agreed," Ben said without argument. He wished the hull at least stayed sort of intact. It'd be nice to have even a little bit of something resembling indoors to protect them but alas. Maybe it was for the better that they weren't left clinging onto something they needed to abandon. It pushed them to keep moving.

"Most of the planet-"

"Moon."

"Most of the moon," Gwen corrected, "is covered with these rock things. I sense some trees up ahead though, I think. That would be a good place to start."

"What about those animals we heard?"

Gwen hesitated. "I'm not sure. Their energy is kind of… fuzzy. I'm having a hard time pinpointing them."

"Great," Kevin snorted. He reached down to a chunk of debris and absorbed the metal, coating his body in the solid material. "Keep your eye out then, I guess."

Ben didn't say anything and started after Kevin, Gwen close behind. His eyes flickered around, trying to see if he could see any unusual shadows behind these rock spikes. They were pretty cool, he thought, but scary to be stuck in. They reminded him of one of those traps in those old movies where some explorer broke into some forbidden temple in South America. Only way bigger. He'd always thought they were sort of lame but it was very different seeing something in a movie and in real life.

Oh, how he missed the safety of the ship. It was warm and he didn't have to worry about being eaten. Plus, he could breathe. He had no idea if there was oxygen on this moon or the nearby planet. He sure hoped so. These oxygen masks had back up filters so they would probably be fine for awhile but they were uncomfortable. Stupid space, not having oxygen. If there was one thing he missed about Earth, it was being able to breathe anywhere he went.

He missed a lot more than being able to breathe but he tried not to think about it. Their journey home being interrupted hurt a lot more than any fall could. Ben tried to appreciate this new place the best he could but it was pretty hard when it felt like he was being watched.

Actually, he was pretty sure they were being watched.

"Guys," Ben said quietly as rock began to bleed into forest.

"I see 'em," Kevin responded, equally quiet. He was keeping his cool pretty well but Ben could sense he was tense. "You think it's more of those zombie things? Or that thing that we heard howl earlier?"

"Their energy feels a lot like the zombies but it's possible all life forms here are just murky like that," Gwen told them, eyes flickering around. "I still can't locate them."

"Great."

"Should we stop? Should we keep moving?" Ben asked, fingers itching to take his proto-tool off his shoulder but he was worried the lurkers around them would see that as a signal to attack. "What if they're friendly?"

"Ben, it sounded like a wolf and it's hunting us. I don't think it's friendly," Kevin deadpanned but came to a stop just before the trees thickened. "I say we make a stand. I don't really want to deal with-"

A savage bellow ripped through the air. Stopping, apparently, was a bad idea because it gave their attackers the opportunity to close in. There were… a lot more than Ben expected. And the fact they looked somewhat how he expected wasn't much of a comfort.

They were wolves, like the howl indicated, but they were massive. Granted, Ben didn't know how big a wolf was on Earth but he'd heard that wolves were about twice as big as you'd expect and these things were far bigger than even that. Even the smallest one he spotted was even bigger than Kevin was and his shoulders were so broad they put Ben's to shame without even trying.

Their size wasn't even the scariest part though. As big and muscular as they were, they were also skinny. Ben was pretty sure he could see their ribs. They wanted to eat and he was on the menu.

Their eyes were sharp and slitted, a hungry look gleaming in their eyes. Drool dripped from their… were those tentacles? Around their mouths? Gross. It made it easier to see their teeth though. They were sharp, perfect for tearing their prey's hide and sinking into the flesh below. Even more so than their claws but those were far more alarming to the human trio. Their paws were massive and their claws only complemented that.

They prowled like they were one, closing in on the group ever so slowly. They were silent and that was even more intimidating than any growl these creatures could offer. Ben swallowed thickly and slowly reached for his proto-tool, ready to start blasting the moment one of these wolves lunged.

They didn't get the chance. A loud noise cut through the clearing, scrambling the pack, and three attackers swooped in from above. The fight had begun.