Author's Note: Hey again! Welcome back! I hope you're enjoying your read through. As we start to get into the final third of the book, I hope you guys will get excited for this epic installment of Danger Watch to reach its insane conclusion! Also, don't forget that this isn't the end! Phase 2 has been confirmed, as well as an anthology of side adventures called "Danger Shots", which will contain canon fluff and one shots that exist within the DWU!

Phew, anyway, that's enough from me. Let's get right into it. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Fourteen - The Rescue

As they approached the moon base, the team crouched at the lip of a crater, overlooking the main structure. Jenny's twin-tails swiveled, as she stared determinedly at the entrance. Jake, as the dragon, peered over the crater, using his powerful draconic vision to scan the front wall. There was a small patrol of robots, orange and black, but they were slow moving and obvious. Jake relayed this information to the group.

"Well, let's stop wasting time then. I could change back soon, and I'd rather not choke to death in outer space," Ben said.

"There appears to be oxygen inside of the moon base," Jenny pointed out.

"Then let's move in," Steven agreed. "Let's try to be sneaky. Fast and quiet, OK?"

"Fast. Got it." Ben said.

"And quiet!" Steven said.

He was too late. Steven blinked, and then his alien companion was a blue bur in the distance, kicking up moon dust. The alien that was XLR8 proved to be quite the speed demon. No sooner has Steven turned his head to catch up with where it had been than it was already in a new place. To be more specific, delivering a supersonic roundhouse kick to the side of a security drone, and sending it crashing to the ground. Steven groaned.

"So much for stealth," Jake said, stretching his bat-like wings and flying forward to catch up.

Jenny stood up, ready to join the action, but paused and turned to Steven, who had no means of travelling that fast. She offered her hand, and Steven smiled with relief. Then, seconds later, Jenny was rocketing through space, carrying Steven by the hands. They all touched down at the entrance to the moon base, where Ben was dusting his hands off after finishing the trio of sentinels.

"Piece of cake," he said.

"I just hope you didn't blow our cover," Steven said, somewhat passive aggressively.

Ben, through the strange face of XLR8, looked to Steven as if to ask: What did I do? The half-gem, however, was focused on the mission, and went to put his hands against the large, stone door. The entrance to the gem moon base. After silent encouragement from the rest of the team, Steven pushed against the door. It slid open with ease. The party walked into some kind of chamber, and as they did, the door quickly sealed shut behind them.

Then, another door opened, and they were met with a sudden rush of air. Air! None of them had realized it, but there had been a strange lack of air on the surface of the moon. Now, Jake and Steven breathed in thankful breaths. The potions had done their job, but the breaths they had taken were stale, and paled in comparison to the real thing. After they had caught their breath, the group began to move forward, sticking close to the walls in order to try and remain stealthy.

"Hey, so now probably ain't the best time to ask, but," Jake said as they moved along. "Aliens… There's like a lot of them, right?"

"Tons," Steven whispered. There was silence for a moment, as the group paused, waiting for a group of smaller, humanoid drones to pass. Then, once they were gone, Steven signaled for the group to move again.

"And this Vilgax guy… He has the power to like, control your mind?" Jake asked.

"Not quite," Ben said. "Is there a point to this?"

"I just ain't about it, bruh," Jake said. He was walking on all fours, wings pressed tight to his body, slithering through the corridors like an overgrown crocodile. "It's hard enough memorizing all of the different kinds of monsters and what they do. Now I gotta remember aliens too?"

"Quiet," Jenny said, holding out a hand to stop everyone. Her eyes were closed, her twin-tails doing rapid spins; she was sensing something. The teens waited with baited breath, until, her brow furrowed, the android opened her eyes. "I know where Five is."

ka-BOOM! ka-BOOM!

Several grenades went off, as the Hinobi Agents digistructed various items to defend themselves with. The stream of pastel horrors from the forest had not quelled. In fact, after another round of earthquakes, they had become to crawl up and out of the hole dug by the test drill as well. The Glitch Techs, acting quickly, had disgistructed a barricade around the entrance to the Hinobi base. It was proving a temporary success, and had bought the Techs time to tend to those who had been wounded in the first round of surprise attacks.

Now, several agents were working to keep the walls repaired and reinforced, while others were swapping out on the top of the wall, taking out any of the gem monsters that got too close to breaching or crawling over it. The coordinated defenses were holding, for now, but sweat and dirt caked the faces of the survivors, and they all knew it. They wouldn't last long.

However, some of their spirits were lifted as a bright yellow beacon caught their attention. The pristine coat of Director Wakeman, as she strode out from the building. This time, however, she was flanked by two creatures. They resembled canines, like wolves or hyenas, but assembled from sleek chrome and wiring. The robotic hounds stalked at her heels, perfectly obedient, as she made a bee line for one of the people coordinating the defense. Bismuth.

"Get more reinforcement on that flank! Might not look bad now, but if they rush us from the left we'll be caught off guard. We don't want that, now, do we?" Bismuth shouted out to her small force of engineer techs.

"No, ma'am!" They called out on instinct. Under Bismuth's expert leadership, they had become a well oiled machine. The agents ran off to secure the flank the gem had pointed out as Wakeman approached. Bismuth turned to regard her coolly.

"Director," she said.

"How are the defenses holding?" Wakeman said, cutting straight to the point.

"Fine for now," Bismuth said. "Your techs are doing good work… They won't last forever."

"Especially not if they keep pouring out at this rate," said Max, who had come over from where he had been resting. He had fought until he ran out of shells in the first wave, and had nearly been taken out by a five armed monster if it hadn't been for Bismuth's hammer fist. Now, he came over and clapped her on the shoulder, acknowledging again his respect for her.

"My thoughts exactly," Wakeman said in response to his remark. "When they started coming out of the pit… That's when they screwed us."

There was a chorus of shouts from the left flank, and the three of them turned to see that a few Hammer Agents were launched off of the side of the wall, landing hard on the grass behind the barricade. A particularly agile gem monster had scaled the side of the wall, and was now thrashing away at the techs who tried to subdue it. Then, before any of them could blink, something slashed across the creature not once, not twice, but three times. Then, there was a burst of white smoke, and it was replaced by a cluster of gem shards.

Pearl, who had slashed the creature open with her spear, strode apathetically forward, and booted the gem cluster off of the side of the wall with her spear. There had been too many of them to suffer through bubbling all of them. They had to focus on staying alive. As she turned away from the slaughter happening beyond the wall, she caught the gaze of Bismuth, and swiftly leapt down to join the generals meeting.

"Great, now that we're all here-" Wakeman began to say.

"Has anyone seen Master Lao Shi?" Pearl asked, cutting her off; much to Wakeman's annoyance.

"He's inside, protecting the injured Glitch Techs. And your granddaughter, Max," the Director said.

"Oh, you found her! Good. I'm just glad she didn't go up to the moon," Max said. Then, he gave her a sly look. "Oh, hey, you just called them Glitch Techs agai-"

"Well, anyway. What I was saying was-"

"Hey, guys!" Came a voice, cutting Wakeman off once more. It was Amethyst. Her normally white hair was covered in twigs and dirt and debris, and she had a huge grin on her face. "They stopped! They stopped coming out of the hole!"

Pearl and Bismuth both gained determined looks on their faces. That meant the enemy forces had become finite. They could start to strategize for the pushback. Max and Wakeman clearly understood this too, to their credit. Before they began to mobilize, however, Max turned to Wakeman.

"What were you going to say, Director?" He said. Wakeman rolled her eyes.

"Oh, it doesn't matter any more. Let's focus on getting these monsters off of my lawn!"

Jenny led the way down the hallway, the teens moving with as much stealth as they could muster. It wasn't long before her ineffable twin-tails led them to a closed door. Jenny paused there, and placed a metal hand on the door, closing her eyes once again. The other three stood behind her, waiting for something to happen. Then, she pushed the door open. It hissed silently.

The door opened up into a large chamber. As it was revealed, Ben and Steven gasped quietly in surprise. They recognized this chamber… This had been where they fought Vilgax in the dreamscape. Now, however, there was no towering suit of exo-armor, nor a hovering specter. Instead, there were three cages lined up against the far wall. Inside of one of them was the crumpled form of Agent Five. In the other two cages, to Steven's combined dismay and relief, were a Ruby and a Sapphire. His Ruby and Sapphire. They seemed to be unguarded.

"There they are," Steven whispered.

"What are we waiting for? Let's move!" Ben said.

"Wait," Jake said suspiciously. "Doesn't this seem too easy?"

He was right. Just as Ben was about to dash forward, a door hissed open on the far end of the chamber. Jenny quickly grabbed the blue alien by the back of the neck, and yanked him quickly to cover behind some crates of spare tech. The chamber was then filled with the sound of mechanical feet clunking against the stone floor, as well as someone's grumbling voice. Jenny and Steven poked their heads around the corner of their cover to get a closer look. Steven grimaced.

"Peridot," he murmured, mostly to himself.

If the green alien had heard him, she made no sign of it, instead walking over to the cages. She was carrying a baton in her right limb enhancer, and had a screen pulled up on her right wrist pad. As she came closer to the cage with the Sapphire in it, the caged Ruby began to rattle her own cell.

"Hey, what're you doin' with that? Get away from her!" She growled. Peridot regarded her coldly for a moment, and then looked back to her screen. Then, there was an electrical crackling sound, as yellow energy sparked from the end of the baton she held.

Steven clutched his fist. He recognized that energy. Jasper had a similar weapon to dispel Garnet's physical form, near the beginning of the summer. Now, his heart pounded as he imagined what she might do. However, as Peridot regarded Five, curled up in a ball on the floor, Steven almost thought he saw a flicker of guilt in her eyes. He had seen her make that expression before… At him.

"I… I should talk to her," Steven muttered.

"Dude, what?" Jake asked incredulously.

"She doesn't want to do this… I can tell," Steven said.

"How?" Jake asked further. He sighed, and continued to talk in a furious whisper. "I get it, man. Obviously you have history… But listen. I know what its like to get burned for being too trusting… She's working with the enemy."

"Dragon boy is right," Ben said, as quietly as his current form allowed. "We're better off taking her out and then dealing with it later. Remember, we're on the clock."

Steven frowned, and continued to watch Peridot. She was about to activate the lock on the Sapphire's cage, when the Ruby's cage began to rattle even further. Sparks and smoke were flying out of it, and leaving marks on the room. The commotion caused Peridot to turn to her in frustration.

"Nyergh, fine! You want to be dispelled first? Have it your way, clod!" She shouted, throwing up her hands and stomping over to the Ruby's cage.

"Are you sure she can be reasoned with?" Jenny asked, jerking a skeptical thumb at the fuming green gem.

"She's trapped here… She's been trapped for a long time. You'd be angry too,"

"Trapped? She looks like she's pretty cozy. You might want to reconsider who is actually trapped in this situation, homeboy," Jake said.

Then, another door to the chamber slid open. A troop of the more humanoid drones filed in, followed by a couple of the larger drones Ben had fought earlier that summer. Finally, a small squadron of red aliens, more Rubies, came into the chamber. Ben's fanged mouth made a surprised 'O'.

"Hey, I know these guys! They were after the Omnitrix!" He whispered.

"Technician," the seemingly lead Ruby said, her voice a dull monotone. "Lord Vilgax has sent us to make sure you complete your assigned task."

Peridot showed visible annoyance.

"Seriously? He's barely been gone half a Terran hour," she said.

"He's quite insistent that you prove your loyalty," the Ruby said.

Then, the drones formed a box around Peridot, the Rubies, and the prisoners. They had trapped the green gem in. She gulped.

"Th-This is unnecessary. My loyalty was never in question. I've done everything that Vilgax asked! I made his body, I upgraded his drones-"

"Then you should have no problems with your most assignment," the Ruby said curtly. She and her squadron were standing firm, not budging, not giving Peridot any room to hardly breathe. Peridot looked from the Ruby with her glazed eyes, to the merciless killing drones. Then, she gave a deep sigh, and began to walk towards the Ruby's cage once again.

"Wait! Stop!"

Steven's voice echoed across the stone chamber as he came charging out from behind their cover. Jake groaned and Ben smacked his palm into his own forehead. Jenny grimaced too. There went the stealthy approach. The drones immediately turned, and there was a high pitched whining noise as they armed their weapons. Steven quickly summoned his shield, but stood confidently, staring past the wall of drones. His focus was entirely on Peridot.

"Peridot… You don't have to do this."

As the fighting swelled outside, Gwen was sitting nervously in the Hinobi med bay. She, along with the weakest and most injured Glitch Techs, had been sent here for safety. The Dragon, Lao Shi, stood guard at the door. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be focusing intently on the sounds of battle. As the girl continued to look around nervously, she felt a calming hand on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Miko, who gave her a reassuring smile.

"Hey," she said. "We'll be OK."

Gwen sighed. Miko gave her shoulder a squeeze.

"We've got the best of the best working to protect you," the agent said. "Plus… Wakeman has beaten Vilgax before. She can do it again."

"I hope so…" Gwen said, still looking nervous.

Then, there was another heavy explosion, and this time, Lao Shi's eyes snapped open. He dashed off, moving startling fast for a man his age, and quickly disappeared down the hallway. Lao Shi had sensed the danger coming, and he knew that his allies were in need of his help. As the blue robed master pushed open the front door and looked into the sky, he found that his suspicions were correct.

"Master Dragon! Good to have you here!" Pearl called over to him. She noticed that he was looking up, and nodded grimly. "Things have just taken a turn for the worst."

There, hovering in the sky, was a large spaceship. Not just any spaceship, but a black, sleek, stingray shaped spaceship, bladed and deadly.

"Is that…" Lao Shi began to say.

"Vilgax's ship," Wakeman, who was now also on the scene, confirmed.

As they watched, small hatches began to pop open, lining up and down the sides of the spaceship like cannons on a pirate's vessel. One by one, the hatches gave off small explosions, and metal pods the size of refrigerating came flying out. The pods then dropped, like so many enormous chunks of hail, to the ground. Thwam!Thwam!Thwam! The sound of the legion of pods landing was deafening. Soon, the entire war-torn field was dotted with these pods. Then, one by one, they cracked open and small gouts of steam poured out. As the steam dispersed, things began to step out of the pod. The orange and black armor was unmistakable. Battle drones.

"Oh," Max said, having just blasted away the last of the gem mutants. "You gotta be shittin' me."