I teleport the three of us back to Galvan Prime, and remember that I have some 90 minutes to wait for the Tennysons to get here.
"So, what exactly are we looking for? Do I get to kick some butt?" Rainbow Dash asks me eagerly.
"Well, we need to search the area to see if there are any crevices or hidden areas where someone can hide a laboratory. I mean, you can't put pods of human children in a tiny hole, so it has to be somewhat visible." Twilight replies. She sends out a psionic blast of energy around us, trying to detect any lifeforms in the area. This usually works when trying to find someone. Luckily, she detected a beacon a few kilometers north of us.
"I found something, but it probably isn't this Albedo guy. It could be a Hybrid. I am not taking any chances, let's go see what it is." She says while flying quickly towards the beacon.
The two of us follow suit, wondering what could be waiting for us at our destination. I have to admit, this planet is kind of boring. I know the alien race that lives here is extremely emart, but the entire planet is green and grey. No color at all. Maybe I am just spoiled from being in Equestria, where vibrant color is to be expected? I don't know anymore. At least Rainbow's flying gives a colorful aftertrail.
"Um, Nathan, right? I just realized that I can pick up your energy signal from over here. Everything alright?" Gwen asks me from wherever they are in space.
"Woah, you can pick up my energy from where you are? That's sick!" I exclaim.
"That Gwen Earthling can sense you from all the way out there. Damn, you Earthlings are cool sometimes." Rainbow Dash exclaims.
"I sensed the beacon Twilight sent out, and we have adjusted our coordinates to that location. It seems to be a former base, since the signal is weak, but any information we can find will be essential for us. We will be there in 2 minutes. Tennyson out." The signal cut.
"Well, at least they know where we are going now. That is good, I guess?" I comment. I notice a cave a few hundred meters ahead of us, and fly ahead of the group and land to point out where it is. I think this is where the cave is supposed to be.
"The energy readings are too high for this to be a regular cave. You should land here, guys." I comment, as Twilight and Rainbow Dash land in front of the cave.
"Wonder what we will find here?" Twilight asks herself. Before we entered the cave, I noticed a ship landing in the background.
"That must be them. Should we wait?" I ask. Both ponies nod. The hatch opens, and the three Plumbers walk out, waiting for further instructions.
"That cave must be dark. Luckily, Swampfire will be able to show us the light!" Ben says jubilantly as he selects the Methanosian from his Omnitrix. Sadly, the transformation didn't work.
"Godamnit! I got Cannonbolt! What is that going to do to make the cave visible! Maybe I can roll around and break stuff?" Ben complained as the watch selected the Arburian Peralta sample instead.
"I guess the Omnitrix isn't a perfect invention, huh?" I comment snidely.
Cannonbolt is not impressed, he just shrugs and says "Nothing is perfect. I just go with it sometimes." Twilight goes into the cave and we all follow her. There doesn't seem to be anything in the cave except for a bunch of old, empty pods, which presumably held hybrids in cryogenics.
"Holy shit. There must be twenty or thirty of them. This is horrible. I wonder what Albedo wanted to do with them." Twilight says with disgust in her voice. She looks more carefully at one of the empty pods, and notices that there was a hair on the glass.
"Anyone here recognize this hair? It's not Equestrian, and I think it isn't human, right guys?" She asks while examining it with her magic, not entirely sure about the origin of the hair.
Gwen comes towards the pod, and examines the hair a bit more closely. "This seems like a hair from one of Ben's aliens. I am not sure which one. Maybe Rath or Wildmutt? What do you think, Ben?" She asks her cousin who rolls over to where Twilight and Gwen are and looks at the orange-red hair/
"I think it is from Rath. Anyone have anything to write this stuff down?" Ben asks the mages, before realizing that Twilight already had a notepad with a pen, and was writing this down.
"Nevermind, I wonder why Rath? I don't like using him that much, he has his own personality." Ben asks Gwen.
"Maybe because Rath is less concerned about the safety and wellbeing of others, which is important if you don't care about anyone, or want to conquer things." Kevin comments in regard to the Appoplexian hair discovered.
"What is an Appoplexian?" Rainbow Dash asks Ben. All this alien stuff is new to her, and she thinks it is rather cool.
"An Appoplexian is one of my aliens, who has his own personality, he's a weirdo." Ben says as he notices someone taps him on the shoulder.
"Huh, who was that?" Ben says as his transformation times out. It's his grandfather.
"How did you get here, Max?" I ask, since the ship was here, and I didn't see him come out with the other three Plumbers.
"I have my connections. Anyways, What were you saying about Appoplexian hair? Why do you think Albedo would use it?" Max asks as he puts the hair into a ziploc bag.
"I really care more about why Albedo wants to experiment on children with Foundation technology." I comment, while simultaneously looking for more clues about this decrepit base. I had an idea so crazy, it just might work.
"What would happen if I rewind time? Do you think we could see what happened here a week ago?" I ask everyone. Twilight had a feeling I would ask something like this. She knows me better than anyone here, and knows I like to flex my temporal manipulation.
"Uhh, why didn't you think of this when you got here, Kronos? What are you, stupid?" She says in an annoying, but friendly way.
I laugh a bit. "I didn't think of it till now. I won't alter anything in the past, I will only act as an observer, okay?" I say as I draw my time circle around me. "How far back do you think I should go, guys?"
Max takes out some weird device, and places it on the empty pod. "Well, I can sense that the liquid was drained exactly 1 week ago. Go back 7 days, and you will probably see what is going on, okay kid?" Max says.
I nod, plugging in the parameters. Exactly 7 days into the past. "Alright, before I go, does anyone want to time travel? I could use some help, since I don't know anything about this planet or Albedo." I wait for a moment, and two people enter the circle: Rainbow Dash, and Gwen.
"Alright, I have two volunteers. Last call?" Nobody else offers to come with. "Alright then. Quick warning for the uninitiated. Time travel is fun, but you can't alter anything in the past."
"I know, I went to the USSR with you in '77, dingus." Rainbow Dash comments sarcastically. Truth be told, I was giving the warning to Gwen, but it didn't hurt to give everyone a refresher.
I snap my fingers, and time begins to turn backwards for the three of us. Eventually, we have gone back seven days, and the time circle disappears. Before I rewinded time, I put a spell on the three of us to leave us in the 4th dimension, so nobody could see or hear us interacting with time.
Alright, showtime. Let's see what this Albedo guy wants to do with human DNA, and whether the false Omnitrix core was here.