Alex pushed Animo into the elevator to another underground Plumbers headquarters. Elevator music played as the two enemies stood there in silence, a slight cough here or there was heard. Through the small windows Alex could see the rest of the base.

The base itself was impossibly large with a small dome in the middle of a comparatively larger and long pillar in the center, walkways reached out of the various entrances and attached to platforms, ships of all shapes hovered in place as they were guided by the fellow Plumbers. The elevator doors finally open to the main hub, filled with stationed Plumbers as they went about their business.

It didn't take too long for Animo to be dragged away by a Plumber and to somewhere so they can take off that giant pole wrapped around him.

"Alex Tennant.", Alex looked over then looked up to see what you'd think to be impossible. The only thing human about this alien was its rough shape. It has a thin waist and narrow thighs, but the legs soon formed massive feet made of pale white rock. Its face was built into its neck, a pair of bright orange eyes above a large mouth full of white teeth. In its center was a swirling mass of red, shining and constantly moving around. The alien's body was pale on the inside, but its exterior was tough looking orange rock. Plates of the stuff lined its head, back, arms and hands, and the breaks in that armor revealed black skin. The only clothing it was wearing was a pair of pants with the Plumber's symbol and color scheme and a universal translator pinned to the waistband of the pants. "Great to see ya again!"

As the larger alien lifted his arm up, a small gust of wind was picked up as he gestured Alex to follow him. "Nice to see you too, Grixx. So, where ya taking me?" Alex asked with a confused expression.

"Magister Parry asked to see you whenever you showed up, so I decided to take that matter into my own hands.", Grixx flexed his powerful arms made of rock, it quivered for a brief few seconds before he let out a hearty laugh. "Something about a Pyroxovore or something."

"Or something? You don't know what it is?", Alex was confused since it sounded more like an off world issue to deal with.

"Have I ever told you your planet is weird? Like no offense but your planet's weather is crazy, the biomes you've got are literally the most I've seen in a long while, the... bears.", Grixx, despite his large size, shivered at the thought of bears. "The Pyroxovore problem is on this planet specifically, no surprise there."

"Considering we've got a mad scientist that's got technology to evolve animals at the genetic level? Yeah, I could see why you wouldn't be surprised.", Alex chuckled since despite all the alien things he's seen, Earth is just weird apparently.

After a short walk down a rather large hall to accommodate for larger species, Grixx gestured to a door. "He's in here, now if you'll excuse me.", Grixx wrapped himself around with his arms transforming it a literal planet then just hovering further down the hall.

Alex opened the door and walked in, only to be greeted by a rather burnt smell as he entered a room that was out of place in the cold metal of the Plumber base. It appeared to be similar to any kitchen you'd find in a middle class home with Oscar behind the counter, holding a blaster in hand while keeping a pot closed with his other. "Oh, Alex. Take a seat."

Alex nodded and just went to sit down at one of the chairs he had set up. "So, what's up, Gramps? And.. what're you making?"

"I'm making a Centurian Gumbo, but the nasty fucker just won't drown.", Oscar opened the pot to quickly fire at the creature but a small, green alien with a giant mouth was already on his face. "AHH! KILL IT! BURN IT WITH FIRE!", he ripped the Centurian Squid off his face which was now red with a large bite mark, then he just blasted it before tossing it back into the boiling pot. "... it's fresh!"

"Your face is a little... Ah whatever, so what's a Pyroxovore?", Alex asked as Oscar rubbed his face.

"Think of a cow on steroids that eats rocks, that's basically what it is.", Oscar says as he wrapped his face up with some thin plastic. "Beryllian Bovines as they're actually called are a type of subterranean cattle with strong gastric acids which lets them eat rocks."

"Okay... why call me? Shouldn't there be someone else to round them up if they escaped the farm?", Alex yawned as Oscar looked at him.

"That's the problem, they're subterranean. They never leave their underground farm unless they need to be transported somewhere else, meaning the Earths core is starting to heat up.", Oscar says as he pulled out a giant pitchfork like object and then stabbed it into the pot.

"Ohhh. Yeah, that does sound like a problem.", the teen says as he got up and went to the door. "I'll check it out then."

"I've assigned someone to help you out, and as far as I know Max is sending Ben to the same location.", Oscar says as he peeked into the pot. "He'll meet you in the street above ground."

Alex gave a quick thumbs up, he opened the door and just left. He passed by the agents who didn't seem to pay him any mind as he made it back to the elevator, which shot him back up at high speeds. He walked out of the employee exit of the diner it was hidden under and out to the street.

"Hurry up pipsqueak! We ain't got all day!", yelled out a familiar voice in front of a large truck. Alex recognized this as Manny but the person didn't match, he was tall of course but was an Afro-American young man with short black hair and brown eyes. He wore a leather jacket over a grey t shirt and black jeans. "Surprised to see this handsome face?"

"You're even more hard to look at normally.", Alex says as he walks over to him, Manny quickly boarded his truck as Alex opened the passenger sized door and jumped in. "So, how're the others?"

"Eh, could be better. Great to be back though, the Null Void was a fuckin nightmare, eugh.", Manny says with a shiver as the time he spent there was... less than pleasant. "Cooper left though."

"How come?"

"He just didn't feel the whole Plumber lifestyle, understandable since he's a kid n all.", Manny says as he drove off, using a small screen on his dashboard as he followed the directions he was sent. The drive was long and primarily silent until Manny started playing music to fill the silence.

Using the recently installed ram jets, Manny's large truck actually made it near the area where the Bovines were spotted. Manny stopped the truck as they finally arrived, he looked down at the dirt pathway that led to train tracks, one of them being occupied by empty train cars. "Wake up, we're here."

Manny used one of his dull arm spikes to jab Alex, which jolted him awake. The duo got out and looked at the massive carving in the desert filled with large creatures. "Hey guys.", Ben's voice called out as he dropped from the sky in his battle armor. "No need to fear because Safeguard is here!"

"I thought you went by Armory-"

"No I don't.", Ben says as the helmet retracted, showing his childish features, short brown hair and bright green eyes. "Woah... what're those.", he pointed his comically larger arm at the field of giant cows.

"Some overgrown naked mole rats.", Manny passed Alex a scope, which he used to zoom in on the field. The bovines were just that, large naked, grey skinned mole rats s with brown patches on their back and tail. They have a brown horn coming out of a patch on their forehead. They all possess two squinted red eyes. They have two brown claws on each of their feet. They have beaver-like teeth in the middle of their mouth.

The Pyroxovore's just went along with their business, eating rocks, bumping into each other and just sleeping in the sun. "Are they eating rocks?", Ben asked as Ship has covered his eyes with a visor to look closer as Alex handed Manny back the scope.

Manny took off his ID Mask, his body growing to its true size as he returned to his half Tetramand form. He now wore a similar Plumber outfit, this time it was actually sleeveless. "C'mon, let's round them up before they wander off.", Alex leapt forward, sliding down the slope as he activated the Omnitrix.

The selected alien showed Dunebug's silhouette as he slammed down with a smile, his eyes widened as he didn't transform. "Oh c'mon! Again?!", Alex looked forward as the Pyroxovore's began charging at him, he leapt up and landed on one of them as they kept charging ferociously.

"Oh yeah! It's go time!", Manny exclaimed as he leapt forward with his powerful legs pushing him forward as Ben's head was covered in the helmet again, he flew into the air and scanned the area. The moment Manny landed down he had drop kicked one of the monstrous cows in the face, using his surpassingly powerful arms to lift it up and slam it into another one. "Where the hell are you?!"

Ben, or Safeguard, landed down and used his large hands to swing them around as they tried biting him, Ship let out a frustrated growl as he moved his main eye to his back and blasted them with a green energy beam. "Alex!"

A green flash erupted as a black blur zipped into the air, what floated in the air was Magnexus who rubbed his abdomen. "Ugh, don't wanna do that again.", he looked around and smiled, this was actually the perfect area for him. Using his magnetic field manipulation he lifted up the train cars and tracks, surrounding the bovines with these metallic objects.

Noticing that they had no other way out, Ben flew over to Alex as Manny did the same, only this time he used his powerful legs to leap over to him. "Why aren't they escaping?", Manny asked as they seemed to still be aggressive towards them but didn't try eating their way out.

"Pyroxovore's only eat stone right? So I decided to use my magnetic personality against them.", Magnexus emphasized this by snapping his magnet shaped claws. "Thank god there's metal railings, not sure how they'd react to seeing Diamonds."

Ship's head emerged from the shoulder pad as he retracted the helmet from Ben's head. "Ship Ship!", he exclaimed much to their confusion.

"He's mad one of them bit him.", Ben translated as Ship nodded in agreement.

"My boy, you were swinging them around like rag dolls of course they're gonna bite you.", Magnexus says as he lightly tapped Ship's armored chest, who retracted his head back into the armor. "So, did you get anything up there?"

"Did I?", Ben asked rhetorically as he lifted his massive arm up, a panel slid back as a green screen rose up then projected a holographic image of above. "Or did I?"

The two older boys didn't know what they were looking at. "Oh, uh, Ship found some tunnels that lead underground. Plus the Earth's temperature is a bit hotter than usual, so.", Ben shrugged as the holographic display vanished.

"How come we've never heard of these guys?", Manny asked to no one in particular.

"My Grandpa Max told me things like those cow-freaks are where fairytales come from... except BigFoot. Which was just Uncle Manny wandering around.", Ben says as he slips his arm out of the sleeve and scratched his chin. "But why would they even leave underground? They're walking tanks!"

"Maybe they got uncomfortable, you said it yourself, the Earth is hotter than usual. I vote we check out underground.", Manny says as Alex nodded, he looked over to his truck and noticed it would be too big to fit in anywhere. "Hey Uh... does your little pet- OW!", he was suddenly stung by an energy blast by Ship. "What was that for?!"

"He doesn't like being called a pet.", Magnexus answers as he detransformed. Ship's single eye glares at him angrily.

"Okay... can Ship transform into something that can get us down there?", Manny reiterated as Ship seemed happy enough to transform the armor into a sleek car before Ben could even answer. "I'll take that as a yes."

The two older boys entered the newly formed car as it drove off to the exit the Pyroxovore's came from. Using the bright headlights along with the new tires Ship made they ventured deep down into the cave. "Jesus how far does this go?", was Manny's question.

"Beats me, looks like we're nearing our end pretty soon.", Alex pointed ahead as there was nothing ahead besides a stone wall, not even other pathways.

"What're we gonna do now?", Ben asked as he saw spider legs grow out of ship and dig their way into the stone as the stone floor he stood on cracked and fell into a seemingly bottomless pit. "Hmm... we can go down there."

"Sure, just don't juUUUMP!", Alex dragged his last word out as Ship did just that, retracting his spider legs and plummeting into the dark depths. The three held on for dear life as Ship seemed to snicker at this, two giant thrusters appeared underneath and caused slowed him down until he was close enough to the ground, to which he morphed back into his original shape.

"That was awesome!", Ben exclaimed as he picked up Ship, who seemed to hug him excitedly. The other two were... less than excited.

Alex pointed to a small opening ahead. "We can go through there.", he looked at Manny who stepped back. A snort from Ben was heard from behind.

"Are you claustrophobic?", Ben asked mockingly to which Manny didn't answer, just growled in response.

"Guess I'll go first.", Alex sighs as he enters the small opening, the other two following. Manny accidentally broke the small opening to his shape as he passed through. "Dark.", Alex remarked as it was completely pitch black.

"No problem.", Manny comments as he ignited a flame with some sort of rope, he narrowed his four eyes a crate. "TNT. Hmm.", he shrugged before his flame was blown out. "Hey! What was that for!", Manny exclaimed angrily as he lit the fire up again, only to have it blown out again by Alex. "Cut it out!"

"You cut it out dumbass! This place is full of dynamite, you could've blown us up!"

"How the hell was I supposed to know?!"

"Are you fucking developing dementia early? There's no way you don't know what TNT is.", Alex crosses his arms as the darkness was replaced by a powerful green light.

"I got it covered.", Ben says as Ship had transformed into a large backpack, extending out and pointing to the ceiling above like a giant flashlight. Alex looked up and yanked Ben aside as a boulder came from above, not as if it was just falling but like it was pushed almost.

Another one was pushed towards them from the same height, to which Manny used his incredible strength to catch it. "Find some cover!", Manny exclaimed as the falling boulders stopped quickly.

"There he goes!", Ben pointed above as he saw something run away. A green flash erupted from next to him as Cryptic ran by and seemed to vanish.

A creature that stood just a bit taller than Alex's human form with dark skin and wears a khaki shirt, jeans, and a belt and bandolier of dynamite sticks. He has a flat face with a sticking out nose and also has long white messy hair and two big bucked teeth. He does not wear shoes and has spots of dirt all over his clothes and on his face. He has pointed ears, four fingers and three toes on each hand and foot respectively.

He ran through the caves before being restrained by some unseen force, scales flipped as Cryptic looked at him with a his. "If you calm down, I'll release you."

"The moment you let me go I'm blowing you up!", the creature said in an almost stereotypical hillbilly accent. To which, Cryptic rolled his eyes before tossing him down to the others with Manny catching him. "Sure you will.", he says sarcastically as he landed in front of them, detransforming in a green flash. "What's your name old timer?"

Manny pushed the mole-like creature away as he just snarled at them. "Mouldywarp.", the now named Mouldywarp says.

"Is that a nickname your friends-", Ben was cut off by a hoarse laughter.

"Friends?! Sonny I ain't got nun!", Mouldywarp coughs before standing straight. "I ain't got no friends. And don't think I'm the last of my kind, cuz boy I wish I was let me tell you that! Underground is crawlin' with folks like me, I just don't like em."

"You don't say?", Manny muttered under his breath as Alex rolled his eyes.

"What're you doing with all these explosives?", Alex pointed his thumbs at one of the many many crates of TNT.

"Oh those? Hah! I've been stealing this shit from the surface dwellers for years.", Mouldywarp cackles as he presses a button, as a result, floodlights lit up the area finally. Ship let's out a sigh in relief as he returned to his backpack form.

"Some of this junk is some old school shit.", Manny says as it appears to be just that, old.

"Hah! It is.", Mouldywarp exclaimed proudly. "TNT, blast caps, nitroglycerin, mustard gas, the lot of it. It may be primitive but it sure does get the job done!"

Ben looked at the other two as they seemed just as confused. "Uh... what job is that?"

"Protecting my herd obviously!", Mouldywarp says as the three understood what his job was. "The Pyroxovores, real beauties ain't they?"

"They bit my boy.", Ben says as Ship lifted his head up in annoyance.

"They tend to do that when they feel threatened.", Mouldywarp stated as Ship just retracted back, glaring at him.

"I vote we should ditch!", Manny raised his hand up, completely unashamed by bluntly stating this. "What? We're all thinking it."

"Good point, but there's something I wanna know first.", Alex looks at Mouldywarp with a cocked eyebrow. "Why were you throwing boulders at us?"

"Well I couldn't get to my explosives, it's what I use on the other fella.", Mouldywarp walked past them and towards a door ahead.

"What other fella?", Ben asked as Mouldywarp rolled his eyes and muttered something about dealing with little vermin that don't know anything. The three young men followed the mole-like humanoid to the elevator which began to descend rapidly.

"Ugh, no wonder those cows escaped. It's like I'm in the middle of a hot Florida day.", Alex comments as he removes his blue jacket, wrapping it around his waist.

"Is it always this hot down here?", Ben asked as Ship had transformed a small piece of himself into a small fan that began blowing air at Ben.

"Naw. That's what I've been tryna fix, it wasn't usually this hot until that magma started building up.", Mouldywarp finally gathered the trio's concerned the moment he mentioned magma.

The mole-like humanoid led them to where the magma had been building up. The area itself was a expansive, carved in order to fit the need as multiple pipes lead to the ceiling and attached to a sort of device, magma traveling up said pipes. "Who dares intrude on the domain of- oh not you again.", a very familiar voice says from above annoyed.

"Howzit hanging Vulkanus? Aching for another ass kicking like last time?", Alex remembered the time he was beating him to a pulp as Mean Streak, good times those were.

"So you do know him?", Mouldywarp looked at him as Alex shrugged.

"Yeah but none of his like him.", Manny read up on Vulkanus' file and apparently, he was an extremely persistent criminal.

"The feelings mutual. Destroy them!", Vulkanus exclaimed as his pickaxe wielding minions let out an array of clicking noises before charging at them.

"Oh please, I whooped these losers to ground beef last time I saw them.", Alex says as Ship wrapped around Ben, becoming the hero Safeguard once again.

Vulkanus just smirked as he pressed a button, tractor-like vehicles came rolling up with massive drills attached to them. "By the way, why are you even here?", Alex asked completely unbothered, the only one nervous was Mouldywarp even if it was barely anything.

"I won a lottery, got me at least a hundred billion credits! I even got myself a gold credit cube, which I sold.", Vulkanus explained as only Manny knew what a gold credit cube was, it basically had no spending limit. "Apparently it was worth a fortune, so I decided to spend a good couple million on buying this planet."

A blue holographic projection appeared in front of them, it seemed to be just a certificate of ownership. "I filed a claim, paid the fees, the whole bit. Completely legally."

"Planetary Renovation?", Manny's eyes widened as he read this. "Don't tell me-"

"Yup! I can change the atmosphere, the terrain, the oceans in anyway I want. Which is why I have that bomb there.", Vulkanus pointed to a bomb that was now hanging above a large tunnel that went straight down. "I drop it down the shaft, it explodes at the magma in the center of the Earth and before y'know it, I've got all the comforts of home."

Alex had recalled searching up about Vulkanus' and Technorg's species when he first got their home and just paled at the thought of it. "Dude, where you come from 850 degrees is considered a cool day."

"And you thought I was crazy.", Mouldywarp whispered not so subtly to them.

"Yuh huh.", Vulkanus dismissed this without much of a care. "And since I legally own this planet, I can do what I want! Watch.", he pressed a rectangular button. A panel flipped open to show a yellow screen complimented with a time of 3 minutes.

"That's... kind of illegal.", Manny remarks as they dodged out of the way of one of the massive drills.

"Deal with these little shits, I'll handle Vulkanus.", Alex already had activated the Omnitrix, the alien selected was Cold Soar as he ran forward, dosing out of the way of the drills.

"Yeehaw! I was hoping we'd get to some fighting!", Mouldywarp says as Manny backhanded a large group of the pickaxe minions as he threw a grenade at them, blowing them back.

Safeguard flew above and grabbed the tractor-like vehicle with the drill attached before destroying it completely. His left arm had started to morph and contort before jutting out as a similar drill. "Ooo!", Ben looked at the aliens below before rocking towards them with his drill hand.

Alex on the other hand outright couldn't transform, not because of the heat but because he was getting swarmed and couldn't get any breathing room. Manny leapt down and swatted them away, he gave him a thumbs up as a green flash erupted, instead of Cold Soar, Watchdog leapt out and let out a powerful roar.

Watchdog quickly made it to the control console, swatting his way through the pickaxe aliens before leaping onto Vulkanus. "Hey! Get the hell off me!", the armored alien growled as Watchdog clawed at his armor, unhinging his jaw before chomping down on the shoulder pads. "Awh not the shoulders! You have any idea how hard it is to replace these?"

Watchdog let out a laugh before head butting Vulkanus back, his quills on his back stood up before he turned around and fired them at Vulkanus. He lifted his arm up in defense as the quills dug themselves into his armor. "Heh.", the Detrovite smirked before pressing a button.

Watchdog sat up as his enhanced hearing allowed him to tell the countdown was sped up. "There, now you have thirty seconds. Toodle loo!", Vulkanus laughs as he clicks his heels, his armored claves opening up to allow rockets to peel out. He flew up into the air as a hatch opened up, allowing him to fly out to safety.

An alarm started blaring violently, this signaled the pickaxe aliens to cease fighting and escape before the bomb could drop. "That doesn't sound good.", Safeguard says as he was sweating underneath his armor, Ship tried his best to ventilate the heat so he wouldn't suffocate in there.

"I got this.", Manny walks over the shaft as Watchdog leapt down, growling at him as if trying to communicate. Manny was confused at first as he well... couldn't understand snarling and barks before it clicked. "Ohhhhh.", he stepped back as a green flash erupted from Watchdog.

Sunburn stood there, his face in a deadpanned expression. "This looks nothing like Extinction, I really gotta get a manual for you.", he says annoyed as the bomb dropped into the shaft. Sunburn propelled himself into the air before flying down after it, boosting himself in order to catch up.

The moment the bomb was in arms reach he began to shoot out a condensed beam of fire. The metal of the bomb began to turn red at that specific spot, the yellow flames started to flicker before being replaced by substantially more powerful blue flames. "C'mon!", Sunburn held his breath as he pushed his blue flames further, which thankfully destroyed the bomb.

On the other hand, the bomb still exploded. To which, Sunburn quickly placed his palms forward before blasting himself back up the shaft with a wide eyed expression. Above the shaft the entire cave began shaking violently, Safeguard and Manny using their strength to bat away at the falling rocks and metal.

The shaking suddenly stopped as Sunburn came rocketing out of the shaft, which quickly blew up shortly after. A red flash erupted from above as Alex landed on Safeguard. "That worked!", Safeguard and Alex fist bumped each other as they were still very much alive.

"Where's that Mouldywarp guy- we should probably go.", Manny says as the other two nodded and ran to the elevator. They rode it back up for the cave where all the explosives were located, the moment they entered they were met with C4's and other blast caps attached to the crates of explosives.

"What the hell are you doin?!", Alex exclaimed in surprise as Mouldywarp just smiled.

"What's keeping Vulkanus from coming back and dropping another bomb down the shaft? I mean he did fill out the paper work!", as Mouldywarp explained this a green flash erupted in front of him.

"Lets get the fuck outta here then!", Cold Soar unfolded his wings grabbed a laughing Mouldywarp, flying back to where they fell from as Manny held onto Safeguard's arm the moment he started hovering. As they rushed to the surface, the explosives detonated, destroying the entire cave area as a powerful torrent of fire and smoke erupted from the entrance.

Cold Soar dropped Mouldywarp in front of the railing where the bovine just ate rocks, Manny dropping down as Ship returned to his backpack mode where Ben then landed on his feet. "Hah! Vulkanus spent a fortune filling fees and got jack shit in return! That and we saved the Earth from being turned into a wasteland of course.

Manny had sent out a message to Oscar a split second before the fight began and actually received a pleasant answer as he looked at a file that was sent to his Plumber Badge. "Apparently you can only renovate planets if there isn't any Intelligent life, that's another crime to add to his list."

"Now all we gotta do is drag these guys back underground.", Ben says with a yawn as he relished in the relatively colder temperature to catch his breath.

"I'll deal with that. But before that, how about a nice supper!", Moldywarp says with a large grin.

"What do you mean by that?", Alex, still transformed into Cold Soar, asked curiously. "Wait.. you eat them?"

"Yes, sirree, bob!", Mouldywarp patted one of the bigger Pyroxovore's. "This looks like a plump one. Now, who wants barbecue?"

"Gross, I'll pass.", Ben says with a disgusted face as a green flash erupted next to him, Cold Soar being replaced with Crazy Diamond who sharpened his arms into blades. "Dude."

"What? I haven't eaten anything all day.", Crazy Diamond says as Manny popped his knuckles.

"Been a while since I've had some good ol fashioned barbecue, I'm in!", Manny exclaimed with a smile.

"Help yourselves.", Ben says as Ship formed around him in the battle armor before flying off.

After a nice little barbecued Pyroxovore meat and some reporting to the Plumber Base underneath the diner. Alex had finally gotten home, he sat down on the living room couch with a satisfied look on his face as he turned on the TV to his favorite channel. "Oooh, This Again is on."

A pink flash erupted above him, Hope came plopping down right next to him. She took a big sniff of him as she noticed a smell. "Why do you smell like burnt toast?"

"Long story."

/End/