Author's Note: Hey again... Welcome back... to another... Latenightchapter...

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Chapter Ten - Know Your Enemy, Know Your Friend

"Why don't you just give us the blueprints and we can digistruct it, whole hog?"

Pearl and Bismuth swapped knowing glances, their rebel senses tingling, and then both crossed their arms, turning their gazes back to the Hinobi agent in charge of assisting them.

"No, the parts will be sufficient," Pearl said, once again nudging the clipboard towards the agent. It was laden with a long list of loose parts, tools, and other things that the gems believed they would need in order to create a drill capable of digging through the Earth's core.

Over the past few days, the two Gems, with minor assistance from the Glitch Techs, had easily dealt with the dented up warp pad, and thus a team had been assembled. Agent Miko, Agent Five, and Garnet were chosen for the mission. They had departed for the moon base yesterday. Meanwhile, Pearl and Bismuth had led the charge on repairing the damage XJ-9's laser had caused to the Hinobi base. Then, once that was finished, they had finally set their sights on the current task. The drill.

"It's just, we think we'd be able to hel-" The agent was quickly cut off by a loud crash. A bucket of bolts had fallen off of a nearby workbench. Just as everyone turned in confusion, the ground started to rumble and shake. People held onto things to avoid falling over, but several agents hit the ground. The tremor lasted for a few seconds, and then quickly receded as soon as it came.

As the quake subsided, Bismuth and Pearl looked to each other again, this time with grimaces on their face.

"So those tremors must be-" Bismuth said.

"The Cluster," Pearl finished her thought at the same time. "Yes, I think so too. I had been wondering what they were all summer… Guess we know now."

The Hinobi agent picked himself up off of the ground, and the two gems regarded him with a bit of distaste as he reiterated the same question he had been asking for the past 5 minutes.

"You sure you don't want us to just digistruct the drill?"

Pearl and Bismuth swapped glances for a final time, and then Bismuth picked up the clipboard and thrust it, forcefully, into the chest of the tech. The young man gulped, clutching the clipboard tightly. Bismuth gave him a broad toothed grin.

"I think you get the idea, Agent..." she squinted at his nameplate. "Bergy."

She snorted at the name, and then the two gems lowered their welding masks and continued to work on the husk of their drill. Sparks flew, and the sound drowned anything else that Bergy tried to say. With a sigh, the agent walked off with the clipboard.

Meanwhile, across the sprawling front yard of the Hinobi base, Jenny was hovering about 6 feet in the air. She had her head tilted to the side, and her twin-tails were swiveling around like antennae, trying to catch a signal. Using her long distance sensors, she was listening to the conversations going on between the Hammer Agents. She heard snippets about "quakes across the country" and "something weird in Minnesota".

From the ground, Jake squinted up at Jenny, using a hand to shield his eyes from the August sun. Gwen, Ben, and Steven stood nearby. They had come out to get some fresh air (and see what everyone was capable of with their powers) but had gotten sidetracked by the sudden earthquake.

Over the past few days, the group had slowly formed something of a bond. Steven served as the most-often mediator, and Gwen was usually agreeable. However, Ben was almost always the source of any spats that occurred, and Gwen was usually the one to egg him on. Jenny had taken up something of an older sister role to the group. A quiet, watchful presence who would occasionally give a snide remark or join in on a group activity.

"What do you think she's doing?" Jake asked.

"She's floating, stupid," Ben said. The last few days the boy had adopted an eternal look of annoyance, with dark circles growing under his eyes. Gwen snorted back laughter. When no scathing comment came with it, Ben looked to her suspiciously. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing," Gwen said. "You're doing it to yourself at this point."

"Obviously she's floating, but I mean with her hair. Or, her horns? What are those things on her head?" Jake asked. Steven gasped quietly.

"I totally just realized those could be her ears," he said. "Look, she doesn't have ears where ears would usually be."

"No way, that's totally hair," Gwen said. "It's supposed to be, like, pigtails right?"

"I can hear you," Jenny suddenly said, causing the younger teens to jump in surprise. Her twin-tails stopped swiveling and she rotated to face them, slowly floating down to the ground and powering off her jet boots. "All of your answers are sort of right, but none of them are actually correct."

Ben yawned.

"Whatever, who cares about your stupid hair," Ben said, raising his wrist and looking at his watch, which was glowing green again. "Let's get back to practice."

"Someone's cranky," Gwen said.

"Someone's annoying," Ben said bluntly.

"Besides, when did this become practice? What are you, a quarterback?" Jake said. Ben stuck a tongue out at him, and Steven smiled awkwardly, holding out his hands to quell their inevitable bickering.

"Hey, come on," Steven said. "Ben's got a decent idea. If this Vilgax guy is as dangerous as Jenny says, maybe we should be on top of our game."

"Yeah, OK, Coach," Gwen said, and she and Jake shared a snarky laugh.

Ben glowered at the two of them. His cousin and the newfound thorn in his side had been spending a lot of time together. For him, it was like salt and lemon juice. Annoying on their own, but he couldn't stand them together. He started to march forward and say something to them, but felt a heavy, metal hand on his shoulder. He turned, to his surprise, to find Jenny standing beside him.

"Just ignore them," she said seriously. "I didn't expect to hear myself say this, but you're right Ben. From what I've overheard from my mom and the other agents, whoever Vilgax is, he's the biggest threat we've faced in a very long time. Any of us. We may be the auxiliary troops, but we need to be ready to fight if we have to."

Ben had been ready to snap at the XJ-9, and throw her hand off of his shoulder. However, he had slowly softened towards the towering android. They had bonded over arcade games and a feeling of entrapment here on the Hinobi base. Her words got through to him, and he nodded. Then, Jenny turned to Gwen and Jake, who stood sort of awkwardly, like they had been caught bullying their younger sibling.

"I know that the idea of training doesn't sound glamorous, guys, but we're gonna be stuck on the base for a while anyway… Don't you wanna see what we're made of?" Steven said. Then, he quickly added: "Without actually trying to kill each other, this time… Obviously."

"It's the best way to bide our time. At least until Miko and Five get back," Jenny said.

"Yeah," Steven said, suddenly looking a bit deflated. "Garnet, too."

"Alright," Ben said. There was an audible chime as the Omnitrix's main interface popped into its active position. "Let's do this already. Who am I thrashing first?"

Laying flat on their stomachs against the surface of the moon, the trio of figures began to scope out the large structure in the distance. One of the smaller individuals, from a pouch in her form-fitting spacesuit, produced a pair of binoculars. She scanned the perimeter, and then turned to her two companions.

"Looks like there's nobody outside," she said, her voice coming in through the earpieces that they all wore.

"I don't buy it, Meeks," her partner said. "Look at that spaceship… It's huge! No way there isn't back up inside."

"I agree," the larger woman in the center said. "We should proceed with stealth."

"Wait. Five, did you just call me Meeks?"

Five glanced over to his partner.

"Uh, yeah," he said. "Just, like, trying it out. Don't like it?"

"I don't… not like it," Miko said diplomatically.

"Let's focus, you two," Garnet said, still locked onto the entrance to the moon base. "I say we stick to the perimeter and go in through the Pebble entrance."

"The 'pebble entrance'?" Five echoed.

Instead of responding, Garnet dashed off, sticking low to the surface and taking long, lunging steps. The two agents nodded, and took off after her with almost as much stealth. A few clouds of moon dust later, and the trio of spies had circled around to the far end of the structure. With Garnet taking point they made their way through shadows cast by craters and the bladed spaceship. As they were dashing from one crate of explosives to another, there was a loud CRASH!

Miko froze. Five and Garnet made it to the next palette, and crouched. Miko turned towards the sound; it had come from the ship. Five looked around frantically for Miko, and then saw her standing stock still in the open. His eyes nearly bugged out of his helmet as he started hissing into the comms.

"Miko! Move! What are you doing?"

Miko was staring at the gangplank that had just lowered from the stingray shaped spaceship. As she watched in horror, rows and rows of strange, humanoid things started to march down the gangplank. They seemed to be made of metal, with bits of orange tubing and strange helmets. Some of them had extra limbs. All of them toted alien weaponry. As Miko continued to ogle, one of the drones stopped marching. He seemed to sense something in the air. Then, it suddenly snapped its head in Miko's direction!

Luckily, seconds before, Miko was grabbed by the collar of her spacesuit by Five, and tugged to the cover of the explosives palette. The two of them crouched, panting, for a few moments, while Garnet peered out from the opposite side.

"That was close," the burgundy gem muttered.

"You're telling me!" Five said, looking to Miko reproachfully. "What were you doing?"

"What were those things, Garnet?" Miko asked, ignoring Five's looks.

"Not what," Garnet said, "who. It's Vilgax's elite guard. Satoraggian cyborgs enhanced with Vilgax's drone tech."

"That's horrible! Why would anyone want to be turned into a drone?" Miko asked.

"It's not exactly a choice," Garnet says. "Most of these elites have probably died many deaths by now. He brings them back. Animates them with machines and his strange psychic power."

"I'm gonna be sick," Five said. Garnet grimaced.

"I understand your disgust, Agent Five," she said. "That's just one of the reasons why we have to stop Vilgax. Now lets move. I have a feeling we're about to discover a few more."

Once Miko had coaxed Five's lunch back down, the two of them hurried to catch up with Garnet. Soon, she led them through a small hatch: the supposed 'pebble door.'

After sliding though, they climbed through something like air vents for a few moments. It was extremely cramped and dark, and several times Miko's butt accidently bumped into Five's face. At one such point, Miko had passed by a vent above a dimly lit room. Glancing in, she saw a large vat full of glowing goo. Inside of the vat was some kind of strange creature, with greenish tentacles and a ravished body. As she stopped, Five continued to walk, and she felt an impact on her rear end.

"Ah- Hey, watch it!" Five whispered into the comms.

"You watch it!" Miko hissed, breaking away from the vent and crawling forward. "How much farther, Garnet?"

"Quiet," Garnet muttered, putting a finger to her lips. She had stopped a few paces ahead, and was crouched behind a grate. Dim red light was cast up through the bars of the grate. The large alien seemed cramp in this vent, her spongey afro squished against the ceiling in a comical way. She pointed down through the grate.

"We're dropping on my count," Garnet said. "3… 2… 1…"

By the time the sun was reaching the golden hour, Pearl and Bismuth had put together a prototype drill, just to make sure that their model would function. Now, the entire Hinobi base was drowned by the sound of spinning metal and rupturing soil. The two gems had donned their welding masks once more, and Pearl was using a remote control to gently guide the massive arm the drill was mounted on further into the dirt. As she did, Bismuth scribbled on a clipboard, the pencil tiny in her massive grey hand. She inspected the drill, how it withstood pressure, and how efficiently it did its job.

"Director, erm, I don't know if they want to talk," the voice was almost completely drowned out by the sound of the drill. The agent was making quick, awkward strides as he struggled to keep up with the yellow tails of the billowing coat.

"Shut it, Bergy," Director Wakeman said, continuing to walk straight towards Pearl and Bismuth.

"But, Director," the agent, Bergy, said. "They told me to buzz off and leave them to their work."

"I don't care what they told you, Bergy," Wakeman said, as the two of them neared the dig site of the test drill.

Bismuth noticed them coming (Wakeman's coat was hard to miss), and she raised an eyebrow beneath her welding mask. She lifted the mask as the Director got closer, and tapped Pearl on the shoulder. The other gem turned towards Bismuth, and then followed her finger towards Wakeman and Bergy.

"How are the tests going?" Wakeman said.

Pearl lifted her welding mask.

"WHAT?" She shouted. Then, with a press of a button, she turned off the test drill, and its mighty engine rumbled to a halt.

"I was asking how it's going," Wakeman said, once the sound had gone and their ears were all ringing. The gems seemed unfazed by this.

"It's going." Pearl said. "We're pretty sure we'll be able to pierce the mantle, but its a matter of getting back up again. We'll need to make sure that the hull is made of a powerful alloy, and the treads should be sufficiently capable to haul the entire mass up a vertical-."

"Pearl." Bismuth said.

"Mm?"

"You're ramblin' in front of the human leader, baby."

"Oh, yes," Pearl said, clapping her hands together as best she could while clutching the remote. "Well, we should have the drill finished by the end of the wee-,"

"AAAAAAaaaahh!" CRASH!

A ball of flames came crashing into the hole dug by the prototype drill. Everyone stumbled back and coughed as smoke plumed up. Then, a humanoid creature made of solid magma broken up by glowing liquid lava crawled its way up and out of the pit. Seconds later, Steven came dashing across the grass and over to Ben's side. His shield was at his side.

"Woah, you OK?" He asked.

"Steven! Stay away from the test hole!" Pearl chirped in her mother-hen voice. Steven instantly took a couple steps away from the smoldering pit.

"My bad!" Jenny called out, as she came flying into view, dropping out of the air and landing in a kneel next to Ben. "Didn't mean to hit you so hard."

Then, a chorus of laughter came swooping into earshot. Jake landed, in his dragon's form, with Gwen riding on his back. Both of them were cracking up, and once then had landed, Jake transformed back. They continued to laugh for a moment, Gwen leaning on Jake for support, until Wakeman's sharp voice sobered them up.

"XJ-9," she said curtly. "You're supposed to be keeping watch over Ben, not play fighting with him."

Steven looked sympathetically over to Jenny, who quickly stood up and at attention, her head hung slightly. Jake and Gwen had stopped laughing at this point (though Gwen's hand remained on his shoulder), and the two of them looked on seriously. The tension in the air was sliced by a low, droning noise, radiating from the crackling pyronite. There was a flash, and Ben transformed back into his human form as well.

"We were training," he said, crossing his arms, "not playfighting."

"Sorry, mother," Jenny said. "It won't happen again."

"It's not just her fault, Director Wakeman," Steven tried to say. The woman turned her cold eyes onto the half-gem, and he shuddered and clammed up. Wakeman turned back to the XJ-9.

"You could have damaged the Omnitrix… Or it could have damaged you," she said. "No more 'training.' Understood?"

"Yes mother," Jenny said instantly.

Wakeman turned her eyes onto Gwen and Jake, who both jumped apart in surprise.

"Understood?"

"Y-yes, Director Wakeman," the two of them said in unison.

Finally, she turned to Ben. She didn't even say anything, but the scowling boy knew that she meant business, and made no open claim to challenge her. He only darkened his scowl, his baggy eyes giving him an edgy look. Wakeman just scoffed like a wolf does at a pup.

"Good," she said, turning on her heel. "I just came to check on the drill. I'll be in my office."

As soon as Wakeman started to walk away, Jenny called after her.

"Mom, wait," she said. Wakeman paused long enough for the android to catch up, and the two of them began to walk.

"What is it, XJ-9, I'm up to my ears in Hinobi paperwork. Ugh, when I signed up for this position I didn't realize how much faxing I was going to have to do."

"Has there been any word from Miko and Five?" Jenny asked.

The two of them had strolled into the main complex of the Hinobi base, and Wakeman sighed in relief as they entered air conditioned air. Jenny felt no difference. As to her question, Walkman hummed, and then flagged down a nearby agent.

"You, eh, Nix," Wakeman said, reading his self-assigned coding name and rolling her eyes. "Where do they come up with this stuff?

"Its just my last name, Director," the agent said.

"Whatever," Wakeman said. "What's the word on our reconnaissance team?"

"Miko's squad?" Nix said, tapping a few buttons on his wrist pad. His eyes skimmed over some data as he spoke. "Left base yesterday… Looks like they haven't touched back with us since noon or so."

"Noon?" Jenny echoed.

"Really?" Wakeman said. Nix nodded, and the Director sucked on her lip. "Hm… Try and get a call through from communications. They should have sent back intel by now."

"Yes, Director," the agent said, before running off.

As he left, Wakeman looked to Jenny, and noticed that she was a bit poutier than usual. In a rare moment of softness, a little half-smile tugged at her lips.

"I'm sure they're fine, XJ-9," the Director said. "The H.A.M.M.E.R. agents will get through to them soon."

XJ-9 slowly nodded.

"In the mean time," Wakeman said, "I need you to continue to keep an eye on Ben. Vilgax could be tracking that Omnitrix for all we know. For all we know, Ben could accidentally trip a homing device. We can't have that. OK?"

Jenny nodded again, and Wakeman gently squeezed her arm, before walking off with a sigh. She still had so much paperwork to do.

Garnet blinked, and pulled her fingers away from her forehead.

"No," she swore. Five froze.

"What? What is it?" He asked.

"Too late," Garnet said through gritted teeth. "Damn it… Hang on!"

The large gem dove forward, wrapping her arms around both of the humans and dragging them away just as a barrage of laser fire hit the wall behind where they had just been. The three of them tucked into combat rolls, and found cover just as a squadron of the elite drones filed into the larger chamber that they had been sneaking through. As the drones began to approach, Garnet turned to Miko.

"We've only got one chance. 9 times out of 10 they catch you both," she said. "You need to summon your bird and take it to the warp pad!"

"What? A bird?" Miko asked in complete confusion. The room was alive with laser fire. Five was crouched behind a nearby stone pillar, every so often leaning around and shooting something out of his digistruct cannon, trying to provide covering fire. There were too many.

"The chocobo!" Garnet said. Miko had to blink.

"How do- Wait, no, how do you know about Ally the Chocobo?"

"Wait a sec," Five said, shooting a heavy metal slug at one of the drones and sending it tumbling backwards. "Isn't that the thing from the Hinobi store you wanted? The mount!"

"Yes, but-!"

"No time!" Garnet cut her off, dashing out from behind cover. There was a loud distortion of air, and her gauntlets manifested on her hands. She smashed the face of one drone and then punched another so hard that it flew across the room and left cracks in the wall. Then, she turned back to Miko and pointed towards the exit. "Go!"

Miko hesitated, but then more drones started to file into the room. These ones were even bigger. She groaned loudly, looking from Garnet to her partner, Five, to her gauntlet. Then she quickly tapped in a series of numbers, until the right display showed up.

"Ah, man, here goes my next check!" She said, slamming her hand down on the purchase button. There was a little digitized cash register noise, and then her gauntlet started to vibrate. "Woahhh- Woah, woah!"

"What's going on?" Five called out frantically, dashing over to her. Then, a wave of digital energy came pouring out of Miko's cannon. "Ay dios mio!"

The swirling code quickly took shape, but more and more came pouring out of the gauntlet, all connecting together and spinning around, until with a final chime and what sounded like screeching, the code solidified and took form. Standing before them was a giant bird, with powerful legs, red feathers, and an empty look in its eyes. It had a saddle strapped it. It blinked. Five's eyes went wide. Miko squealed.

"Go, go, go!" Garnet shouted, grunting with exertion as she crossed her gauntlets to block a blow from a large drone.

Miko quickly jumped onto the bird's back, and hoisted Five up as well. She gently urged the bird forward, and it dashed off with surprising speed. As they swerved past the majority of the drones, Miko stopped the bird on a dime and turned back to face Garnet, who was getting overrun by enemies.

"Garnet, let's go!" She shouted. "We can't leave you!"

"Also, we don't know how to work the warp thingy!" Five chimed in, panicking somewhat.

Garnet, with a moment of cursing herself, realized that Five was right. With a grunt, she smashed another drone, and then disengaged, taking off towards the waiting duo. Both agents grinned as the gem vaulted after them, and Miko urged the digitally constructed bird to sprint off and down the halls of the moon base. They dashed through a few stone halls, at one point Garnet had to shoulder check a particularly massive drone that blocked their path, but soon, the exit was in sight. The huge, main door, which was held wide open from when the elite drones had come inside. They could see the barren surface of the moon.

However, as they neared their salvation, their path was swiftly blocked by orange metal. Drones of varying sizes suddenly deployed to stop them. Miko swore, rearing her bird so that it slowed to a stop. Both riders and Garnet panted, looking at the semi-circle of enemies between them and the exit. They knew that more were coming, and from behind. A decision had to be made, and fast.

"I'll clear a path," Garnet said. "You two go once its clear."

"What about you, Garnet?" Five asked. She gave him an easy smile.

"I'll catch up," she said.

Then, the gem gave a battle cry, charging forward and increasing the size of her gauntlets with a heavy, warbling noise. Then, she smashing a hole through the drones' defensive line. The robots quickly swarmed in to fill the breech, but for a few precious seconds there was an opening, and Miko took it. She urged Ally forward, and they tore away from the moon base at a breakneck pace, kicking up moon dust. Luckily, being a digitally manifested construct, Ally didn't need to breathe air, and could run in space.

As they rode, Five looked back over their shoulder. Miko kept her gaze focused on the distant white shape of the warp pad. As Five watched, Garnet smashed away wave after wave of drones, and inch by inch was getting closer to the door. However, it seemed like every time she smashed one drone, another appeared. She was getting overwhelmed. She had breached the doorway now, but the drones were swarming out of the base, clinging to her and trying to drag her back in like a mound of robot termites. Five gulped.

"She's not gonna make it," he said.

"She'll make it," Miko said harshly.

Seconds later, Garnet broke free! Five gave out a whoop of excitement, and Miko grinned, knowing she had been right. The gem came sprinting across the moon, taking huge, leaping strides, taking advantage of the low gravity. However, the drones were single minded killing machines. They kept a steady mechanical lope after her. They were gaining ground. However, the chase was drawing closer to the warp pad now. In seconds, Ally's talons skidded across the crystalline platform, and Miko whirled her around to watch Garnet as she ran.

"Come on, Garnet!" Miko called out.

"Come on!" Five called in unison. Garnet drew closer, closer, she was just about to touch the platform-

ka-SHEER!

An explosive bolt of energy came rocketing forward, fired by one of the drones. It blasted the moon stone around the warp pad, and send Ally, Miko, Five, and Garnet flying. With a sad dissolving noise, the digital bird vanished into pixels. The drones rushed in, firing more lasers. Five was hit by one and went down. Miko, who was already nursing several painful blows from the first blast, as well as nursing a concussion, was grazed by a blast. She panicked, glancing down at her now leaking spacesuit. Her heart was racing in her throat. She was going to die her.

"Hyyah!"

There was a sudden roar of exertion, and Miko was being carried in strong arms. She looked up blurrily as she lost oxygen and the world started to grow cold. She hazily made out the form of Garnet, sweating and running for her life. At some point, there was a flash of light, and the gem tripped, Miko rolling out of her arms and onto… the warp pad. With no strength to stand, Miko's final view was Garnet, reaching forward as the drones dogpiled on top of her. With just centimeters to spare, the gem tapped her fingertips on the edge of the warp pad. There was a chime, and Miko vanished into a beam of white light.

Then, Garnet disappeared beneath a sea of drones.