NOTE: Welcome back and as promised here's The Alliance!
Enjoy and Review!
Chapter 13: A Persona Alliance
Yukiko Amagi was a young woman of many talents and possessed the grace of an angel. Her mother would always compliment her ability to ease their guests' worries with her presence and her father would constantly compliment diligence to tend to the needs of others spectacularly. However, there are those who could see past the surface level of her features and see the true essence of her soul. A soul that was filled with the obnoxious laughter of a hyena.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Yukiko laughed.
"It wasn't that funny," Gwen pouted. The younger female turned to glare at Ben who was walking next to her.
"I said I was sorry, geez!" Ben huffed. He just wanted a snack, not like he meant to cause an entire pyramid box of cookies to fall on Gwen. The trio were exiting the gas station and approached the Rustbucket. Their Grandfather was busy doing a bit of maintenance on the old RV, specifically washing off Ben's graffiti.
"Nice artwork, Ben," Max complimented.
"Aw, you know, it makes a statement," Ben shrugged. Yukiko giggled at the words Ben had marked on the window, the RV was due for a washing anyway.
BOOM!
The sudden explosion of a truck in front of them had caught them off guard. Yukiko pulled her cousins back behind her, the heiress pulled out her fan just in case of any attack that would come their way. She looked over to see where the beam had come from to see three people dressed as a hoodlum biker gang. Each one held large green rifles in their hands.
"What are you lookin' at?" The leader questioned the Tennysons. She pointed her blaster at them, prepared to kill any witnesses.
"Amatera-"
"Get down!" Max pushed his Grandkids aside, preventing the blast from the rifle from hitting any of them. The shot had hit one of the support beams that held up the roof above the gas station.
Yukiko felt her anger increase when the attacker had once more pointed her blaster at their Grandfather. "Like hell!" She seethed. She ignored the green flash behind her, knowing that it was Ben transforming.
The heiress revealed herself and pointed her fan at the criminals. "AGI!" The fireball hit thief(1), knocking the blaster out of her hand.
"W-What the!?" Thief(1) gasped at the weird fireball that came out of nowhere. She didn't have much time to contemplate it, since Four Arms landed in the middle of the scene. He smashed all four of his fists into the ground, creating a tremor that knocked the criminals off of their feet.
"GO!" Yukiko and Four Arms yelled at their family. The two noncombatants listened, rushing off to hide behind the RV.
Yukiko turned to see the driver of the truck step out of the wreckage. "Are you okay, Sir?" She asked him.
"Uh, y-yeah I think I-AHHH!" He took one good look at Four Arms and ran away screaming like a little girl.
"Am I really that ugly?" Four Arms asked Yukiko.
"Yes," Yukiko answered bluntly.
Four Arms looked offended. "You didn't actually have to-GUH!" He was prevented from finishing his sentence due to getting shot by an energy blast. He was knocked into another pillar of the gas station, right in front of Max and Gwen.
"BEN!" Yukiko gasped, she turned back to see the assailants pointing their rifles at her. "Amaterasu!" Yukiko called out her Persona to block all three shots aimed at her. The young woman was pushed back slightly by the attacks.
"What the? How the hell is she stopping us!?" The Leader questioned, confused by the invisible wall blocking their beams.
"RAH!" Four Arms got back onto his feet and roared. He once again smashed his feet into the ground, stopping the criminals from attacking Yukiko. They were knocked back by the shockwave, causing their helmets to shatter on impact with the ground.
"Thanks," Yukiko smiled at Four Arms.
"No problem," He nodded his head and picked up two of the thiefs. Yukiko watched as Four Arms took the helmets off of their faces, revealing the crooks to be women. "What? Y-You're all women? I don't want to hurt you," Four Arms said, apologetically. As brash and ungentlemanly Ben may be, his Mother didn't raise him to hit girls.(Bella and Alice didn't count in his book, he just classified them as monsters)
"Of all the times for chivalry," Yukiko groaned. While she was happy to see that her cousin wouldn't hit girls, now was not the time for it. "Be-KYA!" Yukiko cried out as she was kicked in the stomach.
The leader had regained her senses enough to retaliate back, grabbing the gun off the ground; she blasted Yukiko with it. The beam hit Yukiko in the stomach, sending the heiress flying into the RV.
"Yukiko!" Max and Gwen gasped.
Four Arms turned around to see Yukiko struggling to get back onto her feet. The leader pointed her rifle at him. "Isn't that sweet? The big red monster is a gentleman," She taunted before pulling the trigger. Four Arms tossed the other two women out of his hands before the blast knocked him into the truck. She removed her helmet to reveal her dark red mohawk, pale skin, and lips coated in black lipstick.
"Clobber her!" Gwen demanded as she helped Yukiko to her feet.
The heiress down to see the middle of her dress had been burnt off due to the blast, revealing a golden set of chestplate armor. "Thank goodness I decided to put the armor on today," She thought. She watched as the criminals surrounded Four Arms, her usually tough cousin laid there helplessly, too afraid to attack women. "Dammit, Ben. Nobody will blame you for attacking back," Yukiko grunted. She aimed her fan at them, ready to protect her cousin.
ZUUUUMMMMM!
Yukiko peered up at the sky after hearing the oncoming humming noise. Suddenly two drones descended onto the battle, shooting red laser beams at Four Arms. The Tetramand and crooks all jumped out of the way of the beams. The truck was blown to pieces and the money inside along with it.
"Those things, where have I seen them before?" Yukiko questioned.
The leader didn't take too kindly to her heist being ruined. "Hey! This is my heist!" Her partners however weren't too keen on continuing the failed heist. The leader scowled at her partners abandoning her, she lifted her rifle and walked towards the new intruders who were attacking Four Arms.
"Maragi!" Yukiko shot twin fireballs at the robots attacking Four Arms. The twin balls of flame knocked the robots away momentarily. The leader attempted to take the chance to shoot Four Arms, but Yukiko's fan smacked into her head. She fell to the ground in pain.
"Ben! Those drones must be after the watch!" Max informed him.
"That's right from the camp!" Yukiko recalled now. Back during the first night of this trip when Ben obtained the Omnitrix, he was almost killed by a larger version of those drones. That was also the moment where she reawakened Amaterasu.
The leader grunted as she climbed back to her feet. "Stupid little bitch!" She picked up her rifle and aimed it directly at Yukiko and Gwen.
"Gwen move!" Yukiko shoved Gwen out of the way as the beam raced towards her. She was ready to summon Amaterasu until a sharp pain erupted from her stomach. Apparently her armor had only stopped the earlier blast from killing her, but the knock back and her collision with solid concrete was enough to crack a few ribs.
Time seemed to have slowed down for Yukiko as she watched the yellow beam race towards her, the heiress closed her eyes and awaited for the inevitable pain. However, all she felt was a hard push from two strong hands. "Wha-"
"YUKIKO!" Max had shoved his Granddaughter away just as the blast reached them. It grazed his shoulder, creating a gash deep enough for blood to seep through. The yellow beam didn't stop and tore through part of the ceiling, causing some rubble to fall on top of the old man; knocking him unconscious.
Yukiko and Gwen watched in horror as their Grandfather was buried in rubble. "GRANDPA!"
"NO!" Four Arms screamed as he also watched Max get buried. Anger quickly overtook him and he turned back to the two drones. They tried to pierce through him, but he grabbed them before they could. "Nice try!" He smashed them both together and tossed both of them at the leader, knocking her out cold.
Four Arms sprinted over to his family, tearing the rubble off of his Grandfather as quickly as he could. They gasped in horror at all of the blood that was seeping out of his wound. Yukiko quickly summoned her Persona.
"Diarama!" She exclaimed doing her best to heal the wound, she had successfully managed to stop the bleeding momentarily. "We need to get him to a hospital!" Yukiko said, panicked.
Gwen reached for her phone. "I'll call 911-Ben!?" Gwen gasped as Four Arms grabbed all three of them.
"No time! The Hospital is up the street!" Four Arms yelled as he jumped down the street.
"Your Grandfather has suffered a severe concussion. He'll be out for several more hours. He also has several lacerations and a broken leg," The doctor informed them.
"He's gonna be okay, right?" Ben asked, his voice low enough to be a whisper.
"For a man his age, he's remarkably strong. He'll be fine after some rest. Now, it says on his admittance form that he was hit by a car bumper. Did someone back into him?" The doctor asked.
Yukiko didn't bother listening to Ben's response to the doctor's question. Her attention was too focused on her injured Grandfather as she held his hand. She had changed into a different dress that she kept folded inside of her bag(She wasn't risking another humiliating experience like with the Megawatts).
She clenched his hand as she stared at his injured leg. Her healing was only good enough to close wounds and numb the pain of injuries, she cursed herself for not being strong enough to fully heal him. Right now, she was just trying to keep herself together for Ben and Gwen.
"D-Don't blame yourself, Yukiko. None of this was your fau-" Gwen was cut off by Yukiko raising a hand.
"It's fine, Gwen. I'm not blaming myself...I just...I'm going to get some fresh air," Yukiko got up from her seat. "You two keep an eye on him, okay?" She left the room momentarily.
"Is she going to be fine?" Gwen asked.
"I hope so," Ben turned to look at their injured Grandfather, guilt also weighing heavily on him.
Yukiko sat on a bench outside of the hospital, the young heiress did her best to focus on the flower garden in front of her. Sadly enough, the flowers did little to distract her from the image of her Grandfather lying lifelessly-like on the ground. "Good job, Yukiko, you did such a good job of keeping your family safe!" She spat at herself. If she had just been taking things seriously and paid attention then her Grandfather wouldn't have almost died. The looks of horror on her cousins' faces were haunting alone, no matter what she had never wanted them to experience this type of pain. The pain of being unable to save the ones close to you, the pain of being the reason for them being hurt.
She could feel it, a memory that she had been trying to oppress in the deep reaches of her mind began to resurface. Yukiko tried her best to ignore, but no matter how much she tried it kept bringing itself back.
CRASH!
She gasped when her tarot card appeared in front of her, Yukiko grasped it between her fingers as the card shimmered brightly. "You want me to look at it, right, Amaterasu? Fine, I'll look at it."
"Senpai! Dodge!"
Yu Narukami dodged to the left as a blast of electricity blew right past him. The silver haired teen grunted when a desk almost smashed his head in. He watched as Kanji geared back up to strike him again.
"Persona! Yatsufusa! Agidyne!" The dog Persona unleashed a fiery wall between Kanji and Yu. He stepped back attempting to catch his breath.
"Senpai! Behind you!" Rise alerted him.
Yu was too late to turn around in time as Chie's foot implanted itself into his gut. Yu gasped in pain just as Chie was ready to send another devastating kick into his sternum. "Agidyne!" Yu quickly took advantage of Chie's weakness to fire. The martial artist winced in pain from the blast of heat. Yu was breathing heavily as he tried to fight off his friends, their fight against Namatame to save Nanako had taken a turn for the worse. The bastard had the audacity to mind control all of his friends minus Rise. Making the fight 10 times more difficult.
Yukiko watched from a distance as her boyfriend fought against his own team with the assistance of Rise. The young heiress wanted nothing more than to help him at the moment, but the red wheel above her head prevented her from doing so. She couldn't control her own body and neither could her friends. The child kidnapper had completely taken control of their bodies, they couldn't even attempt to talk to Yu to help him. All she could do was watch as he used everything he had to not get killed.
Kunino-Sagiri floated above the battle, observing the battle with his weird ass eyes. He turned his attention over to the screaming idol who was holding the little girl in her arms. The teenage girl was giving instructions to the silver boy the best she could, making it difficult to kill the sinner. He glanced down at the only one who wasn't currently attacking, which so happened to be Yukiko Amagi.
"Strike."
Yukiko felt her body move on its own. Her arm pointed her fan directly at Rise and Nanako as Amaterasu came to life right next to her. The young heiress gasped within her own mindscape at what the bastard was forcing her to do. Yukiko struggled, forcing every fiber of her being to resist against his power.
"Attack."
"N-No…"
"Attack."
"N-N-N…."
"ATTACK!"
"AGIDYNE!"
The super intense wave of fire danced across the white landscape as it raced towards the support member of the Investigation Team. Rise heard Yukiko's roar and turned to her right, her eyes grew wide at the deathly inferno that was coming towards her.
"SENPAI!" Rise screamed in fear, clutching Nanako closely to her chest.
Yu knocked Yosuke back with the hilt of his blade, he glanced over at Rise's direction. His grey orbs grew wide in fear at the sight of Nanako and Rise about to be roasted to death.
Yu raced towards them at a breakneck pace, ignoring the rest of the attacks that his friends were throwing at him. He jumped in front of the oncoming inferno and screamed. "IZANAGI-"
"NO!" Yukiko forced the card away as sweat poured down her face. The young heiress refused to think about the rest of that memory. She jumped to her feet, shaking her head to rid her mind of that memory. "I'm-I'm sorry, Amaterasu. I'm not ready to face that day again...not yet," Yukiko apologized to her Persona. She felt like she was running away like a coward.
"I-I should just get back to Ben and Gwen. I'm sure they need me right now," Yukiko sighed and headed directly back into the Hospital.
Unknowingly to her something was flying above the Hospital. A red skinned creature that looked to be a cybernetic human with four red bug like eyes and sharp metal claws descended down towards the Hospital. She scanned the windows of the Hospital and grinned when she spotted her target. "There you are."
CRASH!
Yukiko paused at the sound of the crashing noise as she was walking up the steps. Explosions soon followed after, alerting her that something wasn't right. "Ben! Gwen!" She yelled, worryingly. She bolted up the steps reaching the door to the floor her Grandfather was on. Until it was smacked open and hit her in the face.
"Yu-Yukiko!?" Ben stuttered.
"Ow! What was that about!?" She questioned.
"No time! We gotta run!" Ben took a hold of her wrist and continued their sprint down the stairs.
"Ben! That thing is the girl from the armored car robbery!" Gwen figured out.
"What? The one with the mohawk?" Yukiko asked.
"Yeah! It's like she merged with those-"
"-Robot drones!" Ben finished Gwen's sentence.
"Merged with the robots? How is that possible?" Yukiko exclaimed, shocked. An explosion appeared above them, alerting them that Rojo(Yes, I'm using her name from this point forward) is quickly approaching. "Ok, ask questions later! Keep moving, you two!" Yukiko instructed.
Rojo jumped all the way down through the stairs, landing just after the Tennysons finally managed to exit the stairway. She turned around and shot laser blasts from her shoulders.
"Okay! Radical thought, now might be a good time to go hero!" Gwen said. As they exited the building, they entered the back parking lot filled with Ambulances. Yukiko stopped and turned around.
"You two get to cover, I'll hold her off!" She said. Deciding to listen, her younger cousins ran to hide between the Ambulances.
An explosion knocked the doors off of the exit and Rojo entered the scene. She slowly walked towards Yukiko, her shoulder blaster pointed directly at the teen. "Well, if it isn't the little girl from before. If you tell me where the Omnitrix is then I might just not damage your pretty face," Rojo taunted.
Yukiko glared at the villainess, her eyes burning with a desire for revenge. "You hurt my Grandfather and threatened my little cousin. That's two sins in a row, don't make a third one!" Yukiko spat.
"Aw, is the little princess mad? Don't throw a tantrum!" Her shoulder blaster fired a red beam at Yukiko. The heiress ducked under the blast and summoned Amaterasu.
"Agilao!" The fire spun through the air and crashed into Rojo. The cyborg skid across the concrete, grunting in pain from the fire blast.
"Stupid little-"
"Agilao!" Another fireball smashed down onto her body without a moment's hesitation. The searing flames began to melt through her body. Rojo screamed as her limbs felt like they were going to melt off, luckily enough for her the fire dissipated before any real damage could kill her. The cyborg climbed to her feet, completely pissed off.
"That's it you little bitch! I'm gonna tear you limb from limb before taking that Omnitrix!" Rojo used both shoulder blasters to fire at Yukiko.
"Amaterasu!" The Persona used her blade to reflect the laser beams, the energy beams explode against the rocky mountains around them.
"Don't get full of yourself!" Rojo charged at Yukiko, extending her sharp claws towards the girl's face. Before she could make contact another blast of fire nails her in the sides. The cyborg crashed into one of the Ambulances, she glared at the newcomer in the fight.
"I wanted Four Arms, not Heatblast!" Heatblast whined, lowering his hands. Gwen glared at him from behind her hiding spot.
"Quit complaining and help fight!" She yelled.
Rojo got to her feet and glared at Heatblast, infuriated at the new fire user. "I'm pretty sick and tired of fire already!" Rojo shot another wave of energy beams at the Tennysons, however her attack didn't hit them. Instead she shot the mountain above them.
"Ha! You missed!" Heatblast laughed.
"She wasn't aiming for us, Doofus!" Gwen pointed up at the oncoming avalanche. Rojo had shot the mountain, causing enough damage to force an avalanche upon them.
"Uh? Fire melts rock right?" He asked his cousins.
"No, Ben! Just melt the trucks enough to stop the rocks!" Yukiko instructed him. The fire boy nodded his head and did as instructed. The rocks crashed into the trucks, but due to them being hot and melted the rocks' momentum was stopped.
Yukiko turned her attention back to Rojo, but gasped when she noticed that the cyborg was no longer standing there. Yukiko growled in anger, knowing that her revenge would have to wait a little longer.
"Yukiko! There are still rocks falling towards the bottom of the canyon!" Gwen alerted her. The heiress and her cousins noticed that not all the rocks were stopped by Heatblast's move. They just bounced off the stopped rocks and changed direction.
"Aw man! Why can't anything ever be simple!" Heatblast raced towards the edge of the canyon. However, his rescue was stopped by Rojo crashing into him from above.
"I got you now-"
"AGIDYNE!" Rojo's pain-filled screams echoed loudly as she crashed into the ground. Yukiko sprinted forward, rage built into her eyes. "Ben, focus on the rescue! I'll handle her!"
"Got it!" Heatblast left to stop the avalanche.
Rojo winced and turned to Yukiko, launching another wave of lasers at her. The heiress used Amaterasu to block the blasts instead of reflecting them. The Persona raised its blade into the air and brought it down onto Rojo.
The cyborg didn't know what it was, but she could feel something dangerous coming towards her. She jumped back and flew into the air to dodge the sword's swipe. "What the hell are you!?" Rojo questioned.
Yukiko's icy hot glare bore into the cyborg's memory bank. "I'll explain it to your charred corpse. Agidyne!"
Rojo dodged the extra large fireball by the skin of her nose. She charged down at the heiress and fired off more blasts, forcing the heiress to dodge. Rojo used this chance to grab the heiress by the neck, lifting her into the air.
"Y-You-Ack!" Yukiko felt the claws constrict tightly around her neck. She began gasping for air as she watched Rojo smirk with glee.
"Don't worry, I'll send your little pissy party family to join-"
"LET HER GO!"
"Wha-"
Heatblast shot a giant torrent of fire into Rojo's back, forcing her to drop Yukiko. The heiress was lucky enough to fall into the stream of water below them and not the hard ground.
Rojo glared hatefully at the Omnitrix user below her. He lifted up one hand and made a 'come on' motion with it. "You want me, right? Then come on!" Heatblast pointed both of his hands to the ground and released a wave of fire. He shot off towards the city with Rojo hot on his tail.
Rojo repeatedly shot at him, destroying multiple construction vehicles in an effort to stop him. Heatblast changed direction and flipped over Rojo, forcing her to come to a complete stop in front of an oil truck. She gasped in shock when she realized she just got outplayed by a 10 year old.
"Oh no."
"Oh yeah! See ya!" Heatblast immediately launched a fireball at the truck, creating a powerful explosion that sent Rojo flying across the city.
After the battle the Tennyson trio sat inside of Max's hospital room. Yukiko dried herself off with a small Agi, thankful that she wasn't wearing a white dress this time. She stood to the side as she listened to Ben talk to their now awake Grandfather.
"When I was playing with the watch, I must've led her right to you," Ben explained.
"Since they moved me into a new room and you haven't gone alien since then, we're safe," Max said, his tired voice trying to reassure them.
"Yeah...just for this second, but what about tomorrow!? It's getting way too dangerous for you guys to be around me…" Ben said.
"Ben…" Yukiko muttered sadly. She was so focused on her own problems that she ignored just how much guilt he must've been feeling. "I'm a coward and pretty terrible sister figure too," Yukiko continued to beat herself up.
"If I just didn't have this watch, none of this would've happened," Ben finished.
"Yeah, but since it won't come off. There's nothing we can do," Gwen said, not wanting her usually energetic cousin to be upset.
"Maybe, maybe not," He said.
Ben placed a small note on his Grandfather's bed as the old man, Gwen, and Yukiko were asleep. "I'm doing this for you, Grandpa," Ben whispered before running off.
Yukiko opened one of her eyes as she heard Ben's footsteps get further away. She got off of her chair and opened the note that he left. She felt tears build up in her eyes, the boy was putting all of the weight and responsibility onto his own shoulders. He didn't want to endanger them, but he was putting himself in danger at the same time. "Of all the times for you to finally try and act responsible, you had to pick the worst way to do it," Yukiko placed the note back down and raced out of the room.
She knew exactly what this type of mindset could do to someone, she had seen just how much it almost crushed Yu during their time as the Investigation Team. She wasn't going to let Ben handle it alone, not now or ever.
"Wandering around a city looking for a 10 year old boy with an alien transforming watch is weirdly harder than I thought it would be," Yukiko stopped to rest her legs. The teenager had spent the whole evening trying to find her cousin, but she had no clue as to where he had run off to. "He could be anywhere…" Yukiko sighed.
Suddenly an explosion was heard going off a few blocks from where she was. "Huh? If that's not a coincidence then I don't know what is," Yukiko said to herself.
When she arrived at the police academy she found XLR8 and Rojo doing battle with one another. Yukiko was about to join in until a tank pulled into the scene. "A tank!?" She gasped.
It proved to be of no issue for XLR8 to out maneuver it, but she was shocked to see Rojo toss the tank aside like it was nothing. Yukiko stayed hidden until XLR8 began losing the fight against her. Her fear increased when she spotted Gwen getting out of the Ambulance that had just pulled up.
"Why can't that girl ever stay put!?" Yukiko sighed. "Agilao!" The fireball smacked Rojo aside before she could get her hands on Gwen.
"Yukiko!? Gwen!?" XLR8 quickly grabbed both of his cousins and pulled them both into an empty alleyway.
"What are you two doing here!?" XLR8 demanded to know.
"To stop you from handling everything on your own!" Yukiko answered.
"'It's better this way'. Sound familiar?" Gwen tossed the note back into Ben's face. Suddenly the Omnitrix began beeping, causing XLR8 to panic.
"So does that beeping!" He gasped before turning back to normal. "Aw, just great! Come on!" The trio began running away from Rojo.
"Maragi!" Yukiko shot multiple balls of fire at Rojo. The cyborg used her blasters to destroy each of the fireballs, when her sight was clear the trio were nowhere to be found.
The three were hiding behind some of the props in the sports area.
Gwen turned to Ben with a glare of her own. "Ben, you can't just run away from us!"
"Don't tell me what I can or can't do! This is my fight! My weird watch! Not yours!" Ben yelled at them both.
"And we're family, Ben! That means your problems are our problems! Yu-kun would always try to shoulder the responsibilities on his own and it almost broke him completely! Don't try to handle all of the responsibility on your own, we're here to help lighten that burder, Ben! You have to trust us!" Yukiko gave her speech.
Ben was completely floored by Yukiko's speech, he didn't know why but her words always managed to get to him.
"You're our weird cousin, Ben. That means we stick together," Gwen added her piece.
Once again the boy felt like an idiot, he kept trying to push people away in an effort to do things on his own. Maybe...maybe he should allow others to help lift his burdens.
Explosions increased behind them, alerting them that Rojo was still on their tail. Gwen spotted a way to escape. "In here!" She said, the three sprinted into the gym to hide from Rojo. Gwen's phone suddenly started to ring and she answered it. "It's for you," She handed the cellular device to Ben.
"Hey, Grandpa, can we talk later. I got an indestructible robot lady that none of my aliens or Yukiko can beat," Ben said.
"Ben, if you can't destroy it from the outside, take it down from the inside," Grandpa gave his advice.
Ben's eyes widened as an idea popped into his head. "That's it! Thanks!" Ben hung up the phone.
"So, is your head clear, Ben?" Yukiko giggled.
"Yeah, I think it's time we gave Robo-Lady an upgrade!" Ben activated the watch.
"But, we don't want to make her stronger," Yukiko tilted her head.
"No...Yukiko, that's not what he-" Before she could finish Rojo began blasting lasers through the roof of the gym.
"Run!" Yukiko yelled.
Ben ran behind a pillar and dialed up Upgrade, he slammed down the dial enveloping the room with a bright flash of green light. The liquid-like alien slipped up onto the ceiling just as Rojo finally broke in.
"Agidyne!" Rojo grunted from the heat of the attack, glaring directly at Yukiko.
"I'm getting sick and tired of dealing with your damn fire!" Rojo growled.
"Then how about an Upgrade?"
"Wha-"
Before she could even react, Upgrade jumped down from the ceiling and began merging with her. Yukiko and Gwen watched as Rojo attempted to fight Upgrade off of her, suddenly the two stopped moving. Yukiko slowly approached the two, concerned for her cousin. Suddenly Upgrade was flung off of the cyborg and was sent flying.
"Ben!" Yukiko shouted.
"Don't try that again!" Rojo yelled.
Yukiko twirled her fan and smashed the tarot card. "Agilao!" The fireball flew straight towards Rojo. The robot shot it down with her own laser and launched a few more at Yukiko.
The heiress rolled across the floor to dodge each shot and responded in kind. "Agilao!"
"Don't you have any other tricks!?" Rojo taunted as she blasted away the weaker fireball once more.
Yukiko smirked at the cyborg. "No, but he does," Yukiko pointed behind her.
Rojo turned around to see where Yukiko was pointing. "Wha-?"
POW!
Rojo went sailing through the air as a dumbbell smashed into her face. Upgrade had grabbed multiple dumbbells, fused with a treadmill, and began launching each one at the cyborg. Rojo was hit with another, before grabbing one with her hands. Using her increased strength, Rojo tossed it like a harpoon directly at Upgrade.
The mechamorph defused with the treadmill and slithered across the ground like a snake. Rojo attempted to shoot Upgrade dead, but the mechamorph dodged each one of her blasts.
"Stay still!" Rojo screamed.
"You first! AGIDYNE!" The massive wave of fire nailed Rojo in the face. The cyborg screamed in pain as she crashed into the floor. Upgrade grabbed a hold of her and smirked.
"This won't hurt a bit," He fused with her once more, undoing all of the cybernetic enhancements around her body.
"G-Get out of m-me!" Rojo grunted.
"Okay, I lied," Upgrade said as Rojo's body turned back to normal.
"I-I'm normal…" Rojo whispered.
"Abnormal is way more like it," Yukiko said.
Rojo approached Upgrade, no longer dangerous. "L-Look, I don't know what came over me, please you gotta help me!" She meant genuinely until her eyes saw the rifle from earlier sitting on the ground. "I-I'm just a girl," She said before kicking the rifle into her own hands, pointing it at Upgrade.
"And guess what!?"
Rojo looked over to see both Gwen and Yukiko sprinting towards her. "So are we!" Yukiko tossed her fan at the criminal, the air based weapon knocked the gun out of her hands before Gwen kicked her directly in the face. Rojo fell to the ground, down for the count.
"And that Gwen, is how we girls kick butt!" Yukiko and Gwen did a fist bump.
Upgrade picked up Rojo as they exited the destroyed gym. He handed her over to the police that had pulled up outside. "She's all yours!" He said.
"Have a good day officers!" Yukiko giggled.
The next morning Max was finally able to leave the Hospital, much to his Grandkids' relief. He still has to use crutches for a while, but it's better than a wheelchair.
"Ah, it's good to get out of here and get back on the road," Max said. As they walked back to the RV both Yukiko and Gwen turned to Ben.
"So, Ben, what happened back there in the gym? It's like you were possessed or something," Gwen asked.
"I-I don't know, it was like when I went Upgrade, I saw this alien. We were both floating through space and he was talking to me. He had this octopus head and he said 'I should be afraid'," Ben explained.
Yukiko noticed her Grandfather's hand tightening around the door handle as Ben described his merging with Rojo. Something felt weird, because what Ben said reminded her of something. A warning before the inevitable, the calm before the storm-
"Grandpa, you look afraid," Ben's words brought her out of her thoughts. She looked at her Grandfather's face, taking note of how quickly his face changed.
"I'm fine, and you'll be fine too. As long as we stick together," Max smiled.
Ben returned the smile. "Sounds good to me." The trio entered the RV, but the strange feeling in Yukiko's stomach didn't go away.
Something was coming and she didn't know what.
Chapter End
NOTE: Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Obviously Yukiko wasn't going to see Vilgax, but she has the feeling something bad will happen. Which is why I cannot wait to get to Secrets, because that will be really fun to write.
Also, Rojo is probably the only Ben 10 villain I can see cursing a storm if she wasn't in a Saturday morning cartoon.
Next chapter will be "Last Laugh"