Lieutenant Steel traversed the balls of the SACT base of operation, which was a giant, repurposed military facility that was altered for repurposing alien technology and imprisoning them. Taking notes of their strengths and weaknesses just in case they were to fight them one day.

Doors upon doors lined the halls, creatures hissing as he passed by their containment cells, only to be subdued by their countermeasures.

Steel would never admit it, day by day he gradually began to question his work. It pays well of course and he gets to help others in need... but meeting Alex changed everything, his eyes were opened to a new possibility of aliens just not being that bad.

No, that couldn't be, Steel remembered the alien threats only came here for destruction on a world wide scale. Brushing that thought off, he immediately began running as red lights illuminated the hallway.

["Security Alert. I repeat. Security Alert! Site wide power outage has occurred. All personnel report to the containment department and subdue any and all escaped extraterrestrial creatures!"]

Alex activated the Omnitrix and slammed down on the dial. "BLAZEMASH!", the alien exclaimed as he ignited the camp fire with a fire ball.

"Alex, that's overkill.", Gwen says as she roasted a hotdog over the flaming pit.

"That's not overkill, that's Blazemash.", Ben pointed out, completely missing the point of what she was trying to say. Ship simply sleeping next to the log they sat on.

"Why did you shout your name out again? You've never done that before.", Charmcaster questioned as this was just extremely sudden. She currently wore a grey crop top with blue jeans and white converse.

Blazemash shrugged in response to this. "Ben suggested I shout my aliens name out, it's okay. It'll get tiring though."

"Trust me, it'll strike fear into your enemies.", Ben said with a complete dead serious expression.

"You go right on believing that.", Gwen jested as she held Alex's hotdog on a stick, which Blazemash picked it from her hand.

"I'd buy it, imagine hearing EXTINCTION! and see this massive dinosaur charging at you.", Blazemash says as he erupted in a green flash. "Where's Max? This party was his idea.", Alex asked as he was wearing his usual black and white jacket, white shirt with blue jeans.

Max on the other hand was speaking with Oscar about the recent power outage. "So you're saying it didn't come from Undertown?", he spoke to his holographic projection originating from his badge.

{"As far as I know, yeah. I'll need to do some further digging before I can come to a solid conclusion. But Cooper suggested it might be some alien tech that unleashed a sort of pulse that caused a wide ranged power outage."}

"And how can you be sure?", Max asked curiously.

{"Despite the kids age, he's a prodigy when it comes to technology. But even he doesn't know what the hell it is. I need you to stop by the Special Alien Containment site, I need you to check something."}

"I'll be right-", Max heard someone coughed as he turned to the four adolescents. "We'll be right there."

{"Good, report back to me once you've done it."}

Ship flew through the night sky within his battle ship mode. Following the coordinates Max gave him once he merged with his badge, Ship took the group to the Special Alien Containment site. "Y'know, I could straight up steal a Plumber Ship, they got poor security sooo.", Alex shrugged as Hope chuckled.

"If you want one then we'll get you one for your birthday.", she says playfully. Ship morphed back into his default state before leaping onto Ben's back and transforming into a backpack.

The hatch opened and released the group as they were met with SACT soldiers lined up with Lieutenant Steel standing there as if he was waiting. "Max Tennyson. Pleasure to meet you officially.", Steel was caught up on who Max was and felt awful for his treatment back in San Francisco.

The two men shook hands. "Lieutenant, nice to meet you again.

"We were hoping you would shed some light in that power outage.", Steel said as he led them into the sites main building. Max and Alex immediately noticed all the weaponry they were studying as he led them through.

"Nice gear you got here, what would you say this would rank in Tech?", Alex asked the significantly more experienced Technician.

Max thought as he examined the technology throughly. "Some are level 3, some are above that. Where'd you get it? Not only that, you're developing countermeasures aren't you?"

"Classified information.", Steel coldly said as he didn't look back at them in the slightest.

"Then unclassify it.", Charmcaster responded in a similar manner, though a bit more aggressive as her eyes burned pink. "Unless you don't want our help."

"You gonna let her talk to me like that, Tennant?", Steel looked back to Alex.

Alex shrugged with a cocky grin on his face. "I'll let her know when to stop."

Steel didn't say anything at first, but the moment they turned he knew he had to give up classified information. "The main purpose of this site is to be a holding facility,"

Ben was the first to turn around. "Then what're you holding?", he asked.

"Alien Combatants who landed on earth over the years.", Steel said, his stomach dropped as he felt almost ashamed.

Gwen cocked her eyebrow. "For how long?"

"Four or five decades.", Steel said truthfully.

Alex narrowed his eyes at Steel. "You've had people down there for fifty years?"

"Not people, aliens. Held down there by suspicion of being a threat for planetary security.", Steel said as he looked at Alex, who was scrolling through his arsenal. "There's no way to break through those doors without proper security clearance."

"Okay, here's your clearance.", Alex said as he applies pressure to the faceplate and transformed. "COLD SOAR! So, when I shouted my name out did it strike fear into you?", he asked Charmcaster, who shook her head. "I rest my case.", he said as he dove through the floor, intangible.

"You haven't said much.", Steel said referring to Max.

"I'm trying my hardest not to throttle you. This holding facility of yours is nothing but a concentration camp.", Max said bluntly with anger overflowing him. "Earth is a Level 2 world and a previsionary signatory of the Kaesy-Ke'lly accords. You have no right-"

"You wanna talk to me about rights with all those alien terrorist you've fought. Or should I bring up that alien invasion plot you left us out on?", Steel knew about the Highbreed's plan to invade the moment he saw that giant tree monster. "You yourself have seen the danger they present. You should be thanking us."

"The difference between the Technicians and SACT is that the aliens we fight get turned over to the proper authorities.", Max stated as what he was doing was just... out of line. "What you're doing here is unlawful imprisonment without due process."

"With all due respect we do what needs to be done, Max, and I sleep better at night knowing my family is safe.", Steel felt anger boiling inside. The Technician's are just glorified cops, what's the difference between them?

"Max!", Cold Soar levitated out of the floor and turned tangible again. "You won't believe it. There's hundreds of aliens down there crammed into cells.", he said as he detransformed. "The security system was down but I rebooted it. Max... the conditions down there are inhuman."

"That's because they aren't humans, we ain't running a five star hotel here."

Max goated at Steel. "And you're not running a prison either, not anymore. You're going to turn each and every one of those prisoners to the Technician's, Lieutenant, for proper processing. They'll be freed when warranted or made to stand trial."

"All 774 of them.", Alex said crossing his arms. Disturbing the likes of Ben, Gwen and Charmcaster due to the sheer amount.

"That's not right... no, you're count's off. There should be 775 of them.", Steel said.

"That's not what your system said.", Alex said confused by this.

Steel scratched his chin. "One must've escaped during the power outage."

"Sir!", a SACT soldier approached him hastily. "One of the alien ships is on the runway."

The group managed to get out just in time for the ship to take flight. "I'll head after him.", Alex said as he activated the Omnitrix, he dialed in Mach Manta and transformed. "Whatever, Mean Streak's better anyways."

Mean Streak took a knee before rocketing himself high into the air with his incredible leg power and grabbed into the ship. "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT STOLEN SHIP?! CUZ MEAN STREAK'S GOT TONS MORE! IN FACT I SHOULD GIVE YOU SOME OF MINE TO MAKE IT A FAIR FIGHT! AND AFTER THAT, EVERYTHING I GAVE YOU, I CAN TAKE IT BACK AGAIN AND MAKE YOU LIKE IT!"

...

"Y'know, Mean Streak's the only alien that makes me want to grab a bucket of popcorn and just watch.", Ben says honestly since he found the giant tiger's anger management issues hilarious.

"Ben that's not-...", Gwen thought about it. "Me too."

"It's a great thing to watch honestly.", Charmcaster says bluntly since she was the first hand witness to this.

"GIVE UP STOLEN SHIP THAT WAS ALSO STOLEN BY THE SPECIAL ALIEN CONTAINMENT TEAM! YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FROM MEAN STREAK!", Mean Streak roared out as he popped his claw and tore through the ship, ripping out pipes and wires that caused the engine to sputter then began to dip downward. "That works!", he said with a smile as he retracted his claw, the weight he possessed was too much for the little piece he tore into, causing him to lose his grip.

As he fell from hundreds of feet, he was still going on his angry rants. "OH?! NOW YOU'RE USING GRAVITY!?! WELL FORGET IT! GIVE UP GRAVITY! YOU CANT BEAT MEAN STREAK!", Mean Streak dragged out the last two syllables in his name as crashed into the solid ground below.

Shortly after, Gwen, Charmcaster and a Battle Suit wearing Ben dropped down from the sky and landed near the hole. "Alex! Are you okay?!", Charmcaster yelled out worriedly as Mean Streak climbed his way out.

Besides being dizzy, Mean Streak was completely fine physically. Shaking it off he growled. "LEMME TELL YA SOMETHING, STUPID MEAN STREAK-SIZED HOLE! MEAN STREAK WILL DESTROY YOU!", he yelled out as he began stomping on it.

Ben and Charmcaster struggled to hold back a laugh. "Oh for crying out loud, Alex!"

Mean Streak looked at at Gwen, looked at the hole, back at Gwen then stomped down again. "WHAT?!", he stood straight as Charmcaster crossed her arms the moment he yelled at Gwen. "Sorry.", he says, he slouched as he detransformed. "Looks like the ship got away."

Ship peeled away from Ben's face as he pointed up. "Not like it'll be any problem finding it.", he referred to the streak of smoke lining the sky, pointing them in the direction of the ship.

Said ship was crashing through tree after tree, the unseen pilot. Tried to veer the ship back up so they wouldn't crash, thankfully they managed to land on the docks.

Ship in his battle ship mode had quickly caught up and landed just a bit behind the ship. The four quickly ran towards the ships open entrance. "Hey, can you two sense anybody?", Ben asked as the two sorceresses concentrated.

"Nothing, they must've escaped before we noticed them.", Charmcaster says as Gwen felt her heart dropped to her stomach as she heard a blaring alarm.

"Uh... what's that sound?"

Alex ran in first to check it out, quickly and easily finding his way into the control room with the transparent glass displaying strange symbols that looked different from each other. "Holy shit! It's a countdown!", he quickly sprinted out, grabbing Ben and Gwen by their collars as he sprinted past Charmcaster who quickly sped right next to him the moment he plopped them down.

"Extinction could handle it. Or maybe even Aux Cord?", Ben asked as he, nor anybody else, knew just how deadly the explosion would be if it were left alone.

"I've got a better idea.", Alex said as he activated the Omnitrix, scrolling through his arsenal and transforming into Magnexus.

"What're you gonna do?" Charmcaster asked as the ship began levitating.

"I'm gonna toss this hunk of junk a safe distance away.", Magnexus stated as he used his ability to magnetize metal to lift the ship off the ground. With one push he manage to propel the ship high into the air before it exploded. The sheer shockwave knocked them all backwards.

Thankfully, Ship took a gooey form to catch and cushion their falls. "Good boy!", Ben patted his pet's head as the creature's eye suggested it was happy to be praised.

The moment they recovered they went into the town, following the damage done before hearing a groan not too far away. They quickly ran towards the source, an unconscious police officer. "Are you okay sir?"

"Yeah...", the sherif said as he rubbed his neck, Alex and Ben helping the man up. "It came charging right at me, bullets didn't even slow it down, it just... moved too fast. It said it was gonna kill me so I... I..."

"What did you do?", Alex calmly asked the man.

"I begged.", the man finally mustered to spill it out. "I begged for my life, he looked at me for a long time and asked me if I had a family. I told him I had two daughters... and walked away. Don't tell anyone that I-"

"Had to say whatever you had to just do you can see your family again?", Alex cocked his eyebrow as he did the motion of zipping his lips. "You're fine.

"The town meanwhile? Not so much.", Ben pointed out the obvious as there were screams of terror not so far away.

The screams of terror originated from a strange looking humanoid. He was dark blue in color with the features of a Komodo Dragon mixed in with a salamander, and a black crest like that of a chameleon. With his back lined with sharp, black spikes. He possessed three different colored eyes, those being red, yellow and blue. He also wore a torn black and white stripped prison uniform wi

"Hey!", Ben, concealed within the Battle Armor to hide his identity. "If you're looking for a fight then it's your lucky day!", he energized his fist and threw a right hook, in which the creature disappeared and reappeared above him. Grabbing him by the head and suplexing him into the asphalt.

Ben angrily got up and blasted at him, he quickly dodged and disappeared for a moment again. Reappearing and drop kicking him into the ground, jumping back with a wide grin on his face.

"So, how'd that go for you?", Lucky Girl said as she floated above him, Charmcaster as well as she now donned her usual sorceress attire.

"Looks like it went well.", Charmcaster also commented with a smile.

"Okay, nobody has to get hurt now.", Muscle Bound says as he entered the scene, the alien quickly kicking down a car at him. In which he simply stood there, it had the same damage as a toy car ramming into him at slow speeds. "Wow. That hurts- ah shit.", he was then launched forward by a truck ramming into him.

"I'll never go back there! Never!", the alien spoke with a slight accent as he reappeared in front of him and attempted to claw at him but dodged a punch to his mid section. Vanishing into thin air, reappearing to punch the four armed alien who simply shrugged it off and caught him. "Years I spent in there! Years! I did nothing!", he hissed as he used his slippery body to slip out and vanish, only to reappear a few seconds later.

"It's gonna be okay, just come with me and I promise we'll get justice.", Extinction attempted to calm him down but this only made him angrier.

"NOTHING WILL EVER BE OKAY! NEVER AGAIN!", the escaped prisoner galloped forward on all fours only to be trapped by a metallic claw created by Ship's battle armor. He quickly slipped out and launched at Ben only to be restrained by icy blue tendrils and trapped within a blue mana bubble. Once this happen, the restraints vanished and resulted in him banging on the bubble.

"Not bad.", Charmcaster said as Gwen, or Lucky Girl, had gotten substantially better at mana constructs in a short amount of time.

"Thanks, I do a lot of practicing after school.", Gwen said as an excited exclamation mark made of energy appeared above her head for a brief second.

"How long can you hold him?"

"For a while, why?"

Ben created a large energy cannon thanks to Ship. "i need it to hold still."

"Hold on Ben.", Extinction turned to the prisoner. "First off. What's your name? Secondly, what do you mean by nothing being okay?"

"Lieutenant Steel told us you were a terrorist.", Ben said as he retracted the cannon to reform a hand.

"TERRORIST?! My name is Cridex, and I fought against an oppressive dictator on my home world. It was his forces who had exiled me to this pathetic ball of dirt and rock. I explained this to your Air Force a hundred times! They didn't believe me.", the now named Cridex explained.

"But the Plumber's will. They can send ya back home.", Muscle Bound says.

Cridex laughed, it sounded like he was near the point of breaking down. "I no longer have a home! While I rotted away in that damn prison, the revolution was lost. My mate... my children... gone. All gone. I have nothing to live for.", his voice gradually becoming weaker and weaker, his eyes squinted the more he explained.

"There's always something to live for, you could even the score.", Ben said as a green flash erupted.

Alex stood there and nodded. "Totally. You could seek justice."

"Justice...", Cridex thought on this before grinning widely. "Yes. Those who wrong me should die, beginning with Lieutenant Steel."

"Wait a minute-"

"But starting with his family? Even better! He will experience the same pain and despair I felt.", Cridex said as he vanished into thin air.

"Where'd he go?", Lucky Girl questioned as she dropped the barrier."

"Gwen! No-!", Charmcaster erected a barrier as soon as a metal beam was knocked down, which knocked down another beam, the building fell apart and was completely destroyed. "Even the score? Seriously?", she shook her head as Ben scratched his neck nervously.

"I mean I don't blame him for interpreting it like that. Just sayin.", Alex shrugged as it'd be wrong to admit he wouldn't think like that if the roles were reversed.

"Well now we got a new problem. Prisoner 77-er, Cridex isn't running anymore, he's hunting.", Gwen says.

A little while after, the teens regrouped back inside Ship, parking him somewhere more out of the way. {"He's going after Lieutenant Steel? He'a stationed down in Virginia with his family, so we'll have to assume Prisoner 775 is going there as well.}"

"We have to protect both Steel and his family.", Charmcaster says as Alex chimes in.

"Even if he has a head start, Ship could easily beat Lieutenant back to the base.", Alex says as Max nodded.

{"You four get going. I'll call ahead and give you clearance to enter"}, Max said as Alex sat in the pilot seat, Ship hovered in the air before rocketing into the night.

As Alex had stated, Ship was easily able to traverse the thousand miles with little effort. Arriving in the base and landing down in the runway. "Now we wait. Max radioed Steel, his plane will be here in 50 minutes at least.", Alex says as they exit Ship.

Charmcaster and Gwen stood still, the former nudged her protege and pointed to an oddly shaped shadow. "Say, would it be possible that the escaped prisoner has the ability to blend in with backgrounds to be invisible?"

"It could explain how he got out of Gwen's energy globe before.", Ben commented as Alex nodded in agreement.

"Just checkin.", Charmcaster nods as she fired out a bolt of energy, Cridex leapt into the air, dodging that. Easily slipping out of the way as a now transformed Crazy Diamond shot at him with crystals.

He drop kicked Charmcaster to the ground then utilized his tail to choke Gwen and throw her back towards ship. As Crazy Diamond charged at him he slipped underneath and ran off, backhanding Ben on his way as he turned invisible. "Great. We brought him here!", Ben exclaimed.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious.", Gwen says as she transformed into her Lucky Girl alter-ego.

"Prisoner 775 could be anywhere on the base.", Charmcaster says as she was pulled up by Crazy Diamond. "I could track him with-"

"Nah, I'll track his sent.", Crazy Diamond says as he transforms into Watchdog, he sniffed the ground besides Ben and saw foot prints leading away from them. He let out a series of unintelligible grunts and roars before running in that direction.

"I'm gonna assume he's that way.", Ben said as Ship crawled up his body and transformed into his battle suit.

Meanwhile, Cridex was traversing through a large neighborhood while still invisible. He peeled through bush after bush until he found a mailbox with the letters STEEL imprinted on it. "Ahhhh.", he grins as he quickly slithers forward, turning visible as he peeked through the window.

He saw a woman in her late thirties he'd assume, she had long, black hair and bright blue eyes. She was holding an infant in her arms as she rocked him the sleep. Cridex's heart ached as it didn't help but remind him of the family he lost.

That was when he was tackled through the fence by Watchdog, who attempted to bite his face off. Cridex kicked him in the air then slammed his head into the ground. "Begone! I intend to balance the scales."

"Then how about you go on a diet moron?", Ben punched Cridex, who immediately turned invisible only to reappear in front him with a stinger extended. He was suddenly slammed into the ground by Charmcaster.

He quickly turned invisible again and moved somewhere. "Since he's not teleporting, it's easy to track your mana.", Charmcaster said. "Gwen, on your right!"

Lucky Girl ducked underneath a jab from Cridex, with Ben trying to grapple him with his extended claw but only grasped at air. "Behind you!"

Ship immediately ejected spikes from the back of the suit, Cridex immediately jumped back in order to not be impaled as he turned invisible again. "Jesus Christ this fuckers fast.", Charmcaster commented.

That's when they looked over to see a jeep pull up, with Steel exiting with his gun. "Whatever you are, stay away from my family!", Steel exclaimed before he felt like he was being choked.

Cridex turned visible as he had wrapped himself around Steel's body, his stinger extended and was a little too close to his neck for comfort. "Oh you're going to live, Steel, just long enough to see what it's like to lose your family."

"They didn't do anything! They're innocent.", Steel struggled to release himself from his grasp which just tightened.

"Neither did mine.", Cridex whispered as Watchdog managed to pull his head out and roared at him. "Leash your overgrown pet! He's no match for me."

Watchdog looked at Charmcaster, who read his mind to hear: "Tell ya what, you can clean up what's left of him.", Watchdog's lips peeled back as he turned and fired out quills from his body.

They moved far to fast for Cridex to react, so he was pierced with two of them. Causing him to reel back in pain only to be tackled and held in Watchdog's powerful jaws. "Let go of me-! You stupid-", he was slammed into the ground before being thrown into the vehicle.

Watchdog pounced on him and unleashed a stomach churning roar as Cridex looked at him. "Do it! Finish me! Come on! Let me join my family! DO IT! DO IT!", Cridex yelled out... no, he begged. Alex backed away and detransformed as he slipped onto the ground. "PLEASE DO IT!... finish me... I've got nothing.", he says as he curled up into a ball and began sobbing.

Alex looked at Steel's wife then at the man himself who looked down at the creature. "Some threat huh?", he sarcastically stated.

Cridex was being led into a Plumber Ship by two of agents. However, before he could be escorted, Alex brushed the Omnitrix dial on him which made the green turned yellow. After this, the Technician's brought him into the ship.

The Omnitrix dial spun rapidly as the hourglass and the white protrusions turned a bright green, the core popping up and displaying a silhouette similar to Cridex. {{"Alien DNA Scanned and Analyzed. Merlinisapiens. Unlocked and available on Playlist 4."}}, the Omnitrix's automated voice said as Alex transformed into said creature.

Alex's Merlinisapien differed from his donor drastically. He was a slim, purple reptilian like alien. He possessed two arms and four legs, giving him the stance of a centaur. His body is long and slender like a snake with limbs and a crest like that of a chameleon. With webbed feet, hands and a long, dark purple fin that runs down his spine. Like Cridex however, he had a black crest that had his three eyes, which were red, green and a dark blue. He wore black and white wrist bands with matching black and white pants, the Omnitrix on his left shoulder.

"OVERKILL!!!", Ben exclaimed for Alex, who shook his head and scurried away. The two female sorceress's wordlessly walked away. "... too soon?", he says as he followed them.

"I'm sure he's behind the power outage. I want to be there for questioning.", Steel stated.

Max scoffed. "Why? Because you think we're gonna torture him and you don't wanna miss it? Well, I'm happy to disappoint you because that's not how the Plumber and by extent the entire Intergalactic Security Agency operate. You still don't understand do you, Lieutenant? Earth is in clear violation interstellar law. You don't seem to realize the enormity of what you've done."

"I realized it fine, Max.", Steel responded back with a scowl. "And under the same circumstances I'd do the exact same thing. When it comes to choosing a few hundred aliens and my planets safety... well that's an obvious answer."

Max shook his head, disappointed by his sheer hatred and prejudice for aliens and simply walked away.

Steel was left there, alone with his thoughts as he walked back to his jeep. Still questioning whether or not imprisoning them is the right thing to do... of course it is. It's stupid of Steel to even believe such.

But... what if?

/End/