Summary: The last time the heroes of Earth faced a collective ambush was a dark day, a day where they had to face their own mortality, and deal with the failure in the aftermath. While the world still recovers, another baleful threat looms ahead, but this time our heroes will be ready. Ben will make sure of it.
Disclaimer: I only own a couple characters, the rest belong to a passel of goated creatives.
Rating: R/Fiction M for language, gore, sexual hints, and strong themes.
II
Ben—or at least the eight-foot, four-eyed, red skinned alien he currently was—opened his mouth in a wide simper as the kids he carried above his head laughed giddily, two more older kids stood in-front of him beaming at the phone their mom primed for a picture, trying and failing to appear composed at Ben placing his other two hands on their shoulders.
Four Arms was always good for fan photos, especially families with multiple kids.
He let the younger kids down when their mom captured them and gave the four siblings simultaneous high fives.
One thing he liked about crime fighting in non-English speaking countries was the lack of press, he waved at a group of fans being blocked from him by the Swedish police officers, while a couple other cops made busy handcuffing the burglars he'd Upchuck'd against a wall.
A green glow enveloped him and dimmed down to reveal XLR8, and with one final wave at both the crowd and the thankful officers, he zoomed off in a blur.
He was back in the United States in about twelve seconds, his blue-black blur rapidly zipped through the country and only began to slow down once he approached the hidden, grass-rich, hilly outskirts of Bellwood. Where he zoomed up the hill before skidding to a halt on a marbled pathway that led to a gated house.
He was back to human with another glow and stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets as he sauntered towards the sliding proto-tech gate that shielded his house. He placed his hand in the scanner on the wall beside it and stepped back as the gate began to slide open upon his DNA recognition.
Ben had decided to live in seclusion ever since the Exonite attack, he could admit that he initially did it as a coping mechanism, but as time passed, he grew comfortable living alone, away from everything.
The house was too big though, he didn't need four rooms but with his parents insisting on visiting he didn't have much a choice in the matter. He exhaled as he stalked on the marble walkway, laned by vast flower beds.
His front door slid open vertically once he reached it, sometimes he found it funny how technologically buffed his place was, mostly because he couldn't remember a lick of it, he'd spent most of the time programming the house as Brainstorm.
He detoured to the kitchen and a couple of heated burgers later he was walking up the stairs to his room, plate in hand. A passive yawn escaped his throat as opened his bedroom door, he kicked it closed behind him and used his free hand to reach for light switch, what met him when he flicked it on was a surprise.
"You were noticeably slower in your global patrol today." said a nose-less, blue furred, white-faced alien one of the bean bags in-front of Ben's beds.
"What the fu—" Ben exclaimed, steadying himself just in time to catch the air borne burgers in his hands.
Rook chuckled.
"Are you serious man?" Ben said with a peeved frown. "What are you doing in my house?"
"It is nice to see you again as well," Rook said, ignoring his question. "I see you've begun to grow hair on your face, it suits you."
Ben deadpanned at him, before bending to pick up the fallen plate. "How the hell did you get in here?"
"Magister Max equipped me with a sample of your DNA." Rook answered as he got up, showing his tall form which stood three inches above Ben's six-foot form.
"Of-course," Ben sighed, dropping the snacks on the bed which he walked around to stand in-front of the ever proto-tech clad Rook. "And the reason why you were sitting here in the dark like a psychopath?"
"That was for the satisfaction of the hilarious expression on your face."
Ben continued to frown, Rook continued to smirk, and a second later, Ben's lips flipped over to mirror the latter.
They instinctively shared their secret handshake, closing it out with a fist bump.
"Fill me in on your off-world mission while I kick your ass at this new Sumo Slammers." Ben proffered, flopping down on the second bean bag as he reached for his TV remote somewhere behind his PS5.
"How does this game continue to have so many iterations? I do not understand what humans find pleasurable in battling as an overweight man in large infant clothing." Rook said in a genuinely muddled tone.
Ben shook his head in amusement as he started up the game. "Never change Rook."
SOMEWHERE IN SPACE, 1300 LIGHT YEARS AWAY FROM EARTH.
The term "strange" was definitely relative, with a universe that consisted of over a million species that was to be expected. But if you somehow managed to organize an intergalactic survey on how strange a beetle shaped spaceship would be, you'd get an agreement from near any species that wasn't insect-like.
Or perhaps that was too close-minded, considering the occupants of a very beetle-esque ship that floated pokily among the stars were not resemblant of insects in any form. Infact with how badly damaged the ship looked upon closer inspection, it would be actually hard to identify it as bug-looking.
What were the "legs" were all severely dented, with a couple not even present, one of the "antennae" broken off and chunks deep into the "thorax". The inside of the ship fared better if the control room was anything to go by, nothing seemed to be substantially damaged, perhaps besides the three beings who sat with defeated visages.
"This is what we get for flying a Sotoraggian's ship" said the only female present, a gender swapped Four Arms, with a circlet and short, white combat dress rather than the black pants and chest sashes Ben's Tetramand form donned.
"Tini." the figure to her left, sat in the middle of the three chided her.
"Sorry." Tini apologized, folding all her arms. "It's just that I know we'd have put a better fight in our own ship."
"It's easy to speak in hindsight, we had to escape with the closest ship to us." the one from before replied to her. He was smaller than she was, humanoid with what you just had to call textbook 'heroic' muscular frame, his steel-blue skin contrasted Tini's, he was equally nose-less but lacked a lock of hair on his head, and a domino mask was worn around his azure blue eyes.
Tini scoffed silently. "Enforcers... we're always running!"
"Tini!" the third figure finally spoke, beseeching her to calm down. Unlike the other two, he didn't sit, maybe in part because he didn't need to, but he couldn't even if he tried, seeing as he was quite literally a floating octopus with a large bowl for a head. A bowl that contained an equally large brain with a computized face projected in-front of it.
"We were both ambushed and severely outnumbered, we cannot blame ourselves." he finished.
"Synaptak is right Tini," said the masked one. "It is unproductive to self-blame at this moment. Besides, we managed to stall them, they won't be able to go into hyperspace immediately."
Tini grumped but seemed to visibly simmer down at her leader's words. "What would be the productive approach now then?" she inquired.
The leader inhaled. "That much is obvious... that madman said he was heading for the popular blue planet, he was surely referring to Earth."
"You want to inform Ben? You think that madman is that dangerous Ultimos?" Synaptak said from behind him.
Ultimos nodded without turning. "I could not outright overpower one of his so-called zenith soldiers, and there were two of them."
"He didn't even fight himself." Tini added, Utimos nodded again.
"Activate the ship's stationary defences Synaptak, Tini you release one of your transport discs, we are going to Earth briefly," Ultimos, staring at the continuous vastness of space beyond the control room's windshield. "We have to warn Ben of Zavgath."
"What?" Ben said, looking up at Ultimos in disbelief.
Him and Rook were outside his house, on the walkway leading to his front door, in-front of them stood the Galactic Enforcers, who were all visibly bruised and battered.
"Yes, an alien warlord who dubs himself 'The Outsider' ambushed Vexos only hours ago, claiming to be in search of one of the crystals of Hamatis." Ultimos repeated to Ben.
"Hamatis?"
"A deity believed to be the goddess of restoration in the delta quadrant of the Milky Way galaxy," Rook answered Ben. "It is believed that she scattered her four eyes across the galaxy to keep her power from falling into the wrong hands."
"And each eye represents a crystal?" Ben put forward, Rook nodded. "I know a lot about aliens, but gods and goddesses cross a little too far into fairy tale territory for me."
"It is not uncommon for ancient alien events to be retold in a religious context, many specie across the universe still operate in that manner." Synaptak pitched in.
"And whether or not you believe it to be true, the problem is that Zavgath does, and he believes one of the crystals is here on Earth." Tini followed.
"Precisely." Ultimos finished.
Ben's expression grew bothered, noticing the gravity with which the Enforcers spoke.
Ultimos took a step forward, so he was looking directly down into Ben's eyes. "Ben, he commands an entire fleet of aliens from different races and... they are brutal, vicious, they showed no hesitation to kill."
Ben looked back at him, absorbing Ultimos' words through the graveness in his eyes.
"What about this Zavgath persona himself? How was he in battle?" Rook asked tenderly, Ultimos simply turned to stare at him.
"He did not fight." Synaptak answered.
"What do you mean he didn't fight?" Ben said with an extremely incredulous tone.
"He just stood atop his ship and watched the battle unfold from above, he didn't lift a finger." Tini attested.
Ben's eyes floated over from her to Synaptak to Ultimos. "But you three look... did you fight alone?"
"We were aided by Vexian soldiers, but it mattered little. There were two special soldiers that stood by his side he referred to as his zenith soldiers, one of them was an Anodite. I fought the other one and could not win."
"And the Anodite?"
"She equally took no part in the battle." Ultimos confirmed what Ben was dreading.
The omnitrix-wielder stared at the team before him in disbelief. It was roughly a year ago when the omnitrix unlocked his Gultronian transformation, a.k.a, Ultimos' species. He had been aggressively training his alien morphs since the incident and one day in a training modulation the Gultronian DNA had been activated.
Now, the omnitrix instantly endowed him with comprehensive information on an alien the instant he turned into it, as well as gave him a version of the alien's physical peak. Long story short, within seconds of that transformation was the first time Ben truly understood how strong Ultimos was, that was easily one of his most powerful aliens, he hadn't ever even used it in battle, but he knew.
And if Ultimos was stalemated by one of Zavgath's underlings...
"It seems you understand the gravity of the situation now." Ultimos said, snapping Ben out of his musings. "We came here to warn you in time."
Ben blinked, then in a moment so rapid Ultimos almost didn't catch it, the look in Ben's eyes changed.
"Thank you." Ben said strongly.
"I wish we could help but—"
"You guys constantly have assignments all over the galaxy, plus you need to recover, I understand."
Ben's tone had changed, and Ultimos had noticed, the realization almost made him lift a knowing smile.
"We'll leave it to you then." he nodded, Ben nodded back.
Ultimos backtracked so he was standing among his teammates again, and both Ben and Rook watched with silent visages as Tini activated her transporter disc.
A blue swirl opened up beneath the Enforcers and they were gone in a flash of light in seconds.
Ben's hardened eyes stared at the empty space where they'd been a moment longer before turning to Rook. "I need you to go to base and fill my grandpa in on this"
"Of-course," Rook concurred. "What will you be doing?"
Ben lifted his gaze into the sky, watching it begin to darken as a formation of birds migrated to a resting location above his house.
"Getting some backup."
Blossom laughed fondly at Robin blowing her multiple kisses from the passenger seat of Harry's car as the latter reversed out of her driveway and onto the street.
The Puff continued to wave her friends until the car was out of sight. She shut her door with an exhale, taking her time to swallow as everything now tasted like ice-cream.
It's been just under ten minutes when she'd cleaned up both the living room and kitchen, she considered watching TV for a bit, partly to pass time until John got back home, but if recent occurrences were any indicator he'd be out for much longer.
She threw a dinky smile to Bubble's photo from behind the couch one last time before floating upstairs to her room.
However, she was still floating in the middle of said stairs when her doorbell rang.
Blossom arched a brow as she halted in the air, puzzled—to say the least—that she had a visitor by now.
Maybe they're here for dad, she thought, though remained at her position over the stairs.
The doorbell rang again, and she gave in, veering and floating over to the front door in curiosity. She looked through the peephole and felt herself pause, she drew her head back and stared at the door for a second, before planting her feet on the carpeted ground.
She found herself blinking at the door quietly, until another ring made her swing it open.
Her pink eyes met waiting green eyes, familiar green eyes.
"Hey Blossom." Ben greeted with a soft smile, dropping his hand that'd been primed for a fourth ring.
"Ben," Blossom breathed. "You... what are you doing here?"
"Kind of a long story, can I come in?"
"... sure." Blossom nodded slowly.
Ben stepped in, stopping when he'd walked far enough around her to face her as she closed the door.
"We haven't seen... or talked, in months." the redhead noted, still digesting his presence.
"Yeah, lots of months," Ben chuckled somewhat awkwardly as he stuffed his hands into his jacket. "What's good?"
She pokily wrapped her arms around her torso and looked off to the side, shrugging when a few seconds passed without her giving an answer.
Ben's eyes roamed over to her TV, and the frames that hung above it, his expression fell a little upon sighting Bubbles' frozen smile.
"How are you holding up?" he asked, turning back to Blossom.
The girl in question shrugged again but accompanied the action with words this time. "Probably how you're holding up."
"Yeah." Ben nodded in understanding, casting his eyes downwards.
He hadn't anticipated that it'd be this awkward to see her again after...
"Ben, I don't mean to be rude but... you could have just called if—"
"Earth's in danger." Ben cut her off, and Blossom's eyes widened.
"What?"
Ben nodded. "Some space cop friends of mine got attacked by an alien army on their resident planet, and they came to warn me that Earth is next."
Blossom knit her eyebrows as this information. "Elaborate."
And elaborate Ben did, by the time he was almost done Blossom's arms had dropped to her sides.
"I've never heard them so defeated, if their implications hold any water we're going to need to work together." Ben finished.
Blossom looked away from him momentarily, then she walked past him with her eyes staring forward yonderly.
Ben watched her retreating back in silence as she gathered her thoughts.
"How long do we have?" she asked, still backing him.
"No idea, the Enforcers' resident planet is about fifteen hundred light years away from here, but obviously—"
"Zavgath has technology that can accelerate interstellar travel at his disposal." Blossom finished for him.
"Exactly, anyone that needs to travel the galaxy needs to get around it quickly." Ben enunciated.
Blossom fell into silence again and Ben continued to stare at the back of her head, waiting. He didn't have to wait long, she soon turned to face him with a fiery look in her eyes, a look that'd filled his own orbs a while ago.
Her right wrist glowed brightly, and Ben smiled as the pink light reflected on his face. When it faded Blossom was fully clad in her super suit.
"You know I'm in, we can't let that... ever happen again." she said.
"We won't." Ben followed up. "We'll head to the plumber base to see if my grandpa knows anything about Zavgath, but first—"
Blossom arched a brow as Ben pulled out his phone.
"—I have to make a call."
Danny was careful not to choke himself with his mouth currently filled with chips as the ridiculousness of 'Jumanji' unfolded on his laptop. This was one of the few things that comforted him nowadays, and this was just one of the many times he'd be rewatching this movie despite his sisters hating it.
He was momentarily distracted by his phone buzzing to life, he swiped it from his nightstand without looking and brought it up to his face, his chuckles faded as he read the name on the screen.
Sam.
He stared at the name as it pulsated in his face, she was on tour now, so for her to have time to call him she was either on the road en-route to her next stop, or this was a rest day for her band.
And yet, he made no move to answer the call, instead letting it ring out until the 'missed call' notification popped up on the screen.
He placed the phone back on the stand before he could change his mind about calling back and refocused on the movie. That wasn't as easy as he'd have liked, as now that call was the only thing thrashing around his mind, but about fifteen minutes later Kevin Hart had done a good job of retaking his attention and had Danny near guffawing with laughter again.
So when his phone rang for the second time, he concluded that Sam was somehow doing this on purpose. A sigh escaped his throat as the ringing continued, he was going to have to talk to her at some point so maybe avoidance wasn't the best way to deal.
He paused the movie before grabbing the phone, but this time it was a different name that appeared on his screen. Danny sat up, a lick of shock overcoming his visage, he stared at his phone a moment longer, then answered the call.
["Ben?"]
["Nice to know you still have my number."]
Danny dumped the bag of chips on his stand. ["Of-course I still have your number... is everything good?"]
["By the way you asked that, I have a feeling already know the answer."] Ben replied on the other end of the line.
Danny went quiet for a moment before responding. ["How bad are we talking?"]
["Planetary threat level bad."] Ben answered.
The halfa went silent again.
["I know you haven't done the hero thing in a minute, but we need the strongest Earth has to offer... trust me."] Ben continued when he didn't get a reply.
It wasn't very often that Ben spoke with the tone he was using to talk to Danny right now. The latter shifted out of his bed, planting his feet on the floor as he sat at the edge.
["At least come here me out."] Ben finished, beseeching him.
Danny brought his free hand up to his face, and stared at it pointedly until a soft green glow of ecto energy swirled into a tiny sphere in his palm.
He closed his fist tight a second later. ["Where am I meeting you?"]
Jazz hummed to herself as she flipped some patties in a pan, she didn't bother to turn around when she heard someone shuffle into the kitchen behind her.
"I'm putting these in the fridge when I'm done, so you guys can have them whenever you're hungry." she said, reducing the heat a tad.
"I'm going to Townsville." Danny's voice replied.
"Townsville? What are you going across the country f—"
She already knew it'd be the sight of Danny that welcomed her when she turned around, but he looked a bit different than she expected...
That was due to his naturally black hair was now a snowy white, along with the glowing green orbs that'd replaced his blue eyes. His clothes had been totally overhauled by a familiar black jumpsuit with long white gloves and white boots, the cuffs of said gloves were lined with a green trimming, as were the top of the boots. His once-white collar that gripped his neck was now black like the rest of the jumpsuit, he donned a similar robotic white belt as his halfa sister, with his own thermos attached to it, and his signature 'D' symbol on his chest now more resembled a 'P' with ghostly trails.
Though perhaps the most noticeable change in the slight modifications in his ghost appearance was the way his hair slightly wisped like a flame while still roughly maintaining its shape.
"Danny," Jazz exhaled, turning away from the patties fully. "Wow... I'd almost forgotten what ghost-you looks like in person."
"Me too," Danny grinned, then his lips thinned just as fast. "Ben called, Earth could be in danger."
"What's going on?" Jazz inquired worriedly, walking around the counter to stand in-front of him.
"He didn't go into specifics but, he made it clear that I was going to want to hear it." he answered.
Jazz placed her hands on her waist. "Are you... ready?"
"I'm not that rusty," Danny jived. "It's just... I guess I've been able to afford staying out of the hero scene, nothing too crazy has happened in a while, but now that the whole planet could be under threat—"
"You feel like that requires your attention." Jazz completed the sentence just as he would have.
"Kinda egotistical right?" Danny only half-joked.
"You're one of the most powerful beings in the world Danny," Jazz said with conviction, making her brother mellow at her words. "I'm glad you haven't forgotten the responsibility that comes with that." she finished with a smile.
Danny smiled back.
"Go do your thing, I'll take care of Danielle." Jazz assured.
Danny nodded then looked over to the cooker. "You might want to take care of those patties first."
"Shit!" Jazz exclaimed and ran over to the smoky pan while Danny snickered.
A swift overhead scan of the city was all Danny needed to find the Town Square, the eleven-foot statues of the Powerpuff Girls in the middle of the vast emptied out space was also a pretty big indicator.
He dived down to said statues and already saw two figures standing at the feet before he landed.
Ben grinned as the halfa descended in-front of him. "Hm, that's weird." he said when Danny walked up to him.
"What's weird?" Danny arched a brow in question.
"I just could've sworn you'd have gone the emo route by now, you know torn cape, maybe a scythe?" Ben said, barely able to hold his grin.
"I'm surprised you actually got to six-foot, happy for you that can ride everything at Six Flags now." Danny retorted, grinning himself when Ben laughed.
His eyes roamed over to the second figure who was equally smiling at him.
"Hey Danny."
"Hey Blossom," he greeted back. "Nice to meet you off a red carpet."
"Likewise." Blossom chuckled.
"So, Ben called you too..." Danny said, lips slowly falling with realization as he turned back to Ben. "This is serious, isn't it?"
"I wouldn't call you guys if it wasn't." Ben answered, his expression growing staid as well.
"Where are we meeting your grandpa?" came Blossom's question.
"Up there." Ben pointed in a random direction upwards.
"Up there as in space?" Danny asked, Ben's grin returned.
A flash of green later and in Ben's place hovered a red, tailed, humanoid-manta ray like alien with yellow horns extending from its nose, equally yellow patagia wings and three-digited extremities.
"Hope you guys can keep up with Jetray." Ben spoke before launching himself vertically.
Blossom and Danny deadpanned in unison and flew up after him.
"Damn." Danny muttered under his breath as the three heroes neared the Plumber Headquarters, the orbiting structure three hundred miles above Earth, backdropped by the herculean black canvas of space, bedecked ubiquitously with the innumerous dots that were stars.
The Plumbers were no secret to the rest of the world anymore, most people simply referred to them as the "alien police" but having known Ben for the better part of seven years now, Danny knew they were much more than some regular space agency.
He didn't know they had the resources to build this kind of base though.
Blossom had seen the base a couple of times, she was no stranger to flying off Earth, but she'd never quite been this close to it.
It was massive, taking the shape of some sort of futuristic weapon—and that was really saying something considering the technological advancement humanity had achieved presently.
The top was resemblant of a line shaft that had suction-cup shaped pods protruding from its top half, varying in size with the two at the back being larger. The bottom of the shaft ended in a semi-sphere, the wide windows stretching over its circumference suggested it was probably a room. Multiple nodes shot out from the semi-sphere to connect to a horizontally built circular structure that looked to serve as a demarcation between the top and bottom of the base. Said bottom stretched down into a missile-shaped structure with large rectangular door-like frames on its body and closed out syringe lookalike where the combustion changer would naturally be.
"This is... quite impressive." Blossom externalized.
"Wait till you see inside." Ben said with a simper as he arced towards the right quadrant of the circular structure, which Blossom and Danny noticed was a docking port as they zoomed in on it.
The two followed Ben towards a protruding bulb-shaped containment pathway, which Blossom quickly deduced was an airlock. Ben stopped to hover in-front of the outer door that was visible to them, ray of green light projected from the middle of the door, scanned the omnitrix symbol on Ben's chest and instantly flipped open.
Ben pushed open the inner door and reverted back to human the instant he was inside, the inner door shut behind Danny as he was the last to come through. He walked up to join the other two and saw that there'd be someone waiting for them.
It was a short, teal-green skinned alien with a mohawk-style haircut and large, blank black eyes and pointy ears. He was suited up in the standard plumber uniform.
"What's up Tack." Ben greeted, walking forward and fist bumping the alien now known to be Tack.
"All's good man." Tack replied, looking over Ben's shoulder at the company he brought. "Whoa." he exclaimed, and Blossom wasn't quite prepared for the way his neck stretched out of his shoulders as he came face to face to her. "You're The Powerpuff, I'm a huge fan."
"Thank you." Blossom spurted, her head recoiled ever so slightly.
"And it's nice to meet you too, Mr. Phantom." Tack said, swivelling his outstretched head to the halfa.
"Pleasure's all mine." Danny said with the most non-awkward smile he could muster while slyly glancing at Tack's neck.
"Dial down the simping man, we're here to see grandpa Max." Ben called and Tack retracted his head.
"Right, sorry, he's in the communications centre, follow me." Tack said apologetically and ushered them over.
He led the trio out the pre-docking room and into the base proper, where Blossom and Danny continued to marvel at the otherworldly infrastructure, the base's interior had a green and black colour theme, just as the exterior did.
They also made sure to respond to the pleasantries they were treated with by the plumbers they sauntered past.
Blossom was an alien, more popularly—depending on how you define the word—an Exonite, it wasn't strange that she'd be known amongst an alien agency that operated close to Earth. Danny, however, was a bit surprised by the number of aliens who waved and or verbally hailed him, this was only his second ever voyage outside the planet.
He was extremely popular on Earth obviously, but if it wasn't fellow plumbers or aliens/alien-related beings the Plumbers didn't concern themselves to much with his home world. Maybe he was more popular than he thought.
It was mostly the labs, training area and communications rooms they encountered on their way to a cylindrical elevator-like pod, which indeed carried them upwards. They emerged in a room with what Danny would always exaggerate was filled with at least a thousand computers. He'd never seen so many aliens in one place until today, every computer had one sitting behind it.
There were holograms that seemed suspended in the air above the computers, reading information in languages Danny couldn't even fathom.
There was what look like a large pillar smack in the middle of the room, which went beyond the ceiling. Blossom thought it seemed... alive, with a dark surface and moving codes along it, highlighted with the signature glowing green hue of this base comprised of. She watched a short, troll-like alien with bat wings fly towards the pillar with something that resembled a cassette in hand, before slotting it into the pillar.
Seriously, he just put it on the surface and the wall swallowed it, he typed out something on figures that seemed to appear at his touch and flew back to his computer.
"This is the communications centre?" Danny thought out loud.
"Yup, here we keep tabs on any alien activity that involves Earth and keep open communication with other Plumber bases across the universe." Ben answered casually as he waved Tack goodbye.
"The Plumbers have achieved universal communication?" Blossom asked incredulously.
"For the most part, don't know how my grandpa hasn't gone insane running the Earth HQ."
"All my screws got loose a few years ago actually, I'm just good at hiding it."
The visiting trio turned to their lefts simultaneously to see an elderly, plumber-suit clad man walking towards them with a gleeful smile.
"Grandpa Max!" Ben exclaimed and ran up to him.
Max let out a hearty laugh as his grandson enveloped him in his arms, returning the hug just as warmly.
"It's been a while kiddo, how've you been?" Max asked they separated, roughing up Ben's hair as he did so.
"Enough with the kiddo stuff, you know I'm twenty-three, right?" Ben grumped as he swiped Max's hand off his head.
"You'll be 'kiddo' even when I'm in diapers." Max said, eliciting a tiny but fond grin from Ben.
Max looked behind him to the two he'd come with. "Blossom, it's good to see you again, how's your father?"
"He's great," she beamed. "It's nice to see you again Mr Tennyson." No point in telling him about dad, we're not here for that.
"I haven't seen that look on you in a while Danny, nice to see you're still up for this."
"Always sir." Danny answered smiling.
"No need to be so formal son," Max said before his expression grew serious as he cast his eyes down to Ben. "Rook filled me in on the message from the Galactic Enforcers."
"So, you know anything about him, about Zavgath?" Ben said, adopting a more serious tone as well.
Max's eyes grew grave. "Let's go to my chamber."
"We know that Zavgath is a conqueror, his goal seems to be to amass the strongest possible army in the galaxy, and likely beyond. Our database has not been able to identify what species he belongs to."
Max had taken the young heroes into his chamber, which Blossom realized was the semi-sphere structure she'd viewed from outside. They all stood around an opening in the floor, a few meters in-front of Max's tech-desk, a holographic image of who Max had identified as Zavgath shot up through said opening.
The hologram was fully green, making it hard to discern his features, but his general appearance was made obvious enough.
He was centaur-like, with his lower body resembling that of a strong horse and the upper body of a bulky human, well, the torso of a human. His head was hairless, sporting a pair of limber stalks that sprouted from the top of it, and what was weirder, was that these stalks had eyes on them. He had an extra pair of eyes on his actual face that were large and almond-shaped, there was an equally almond-shaped organ below them that seemed to be his nose, bearing three vertical slits on it. Pointed ears were mounted on the sides of his face and his tail resembled that of a scorpion's, tipped with double sided blades.
"Ultimos said he referred to himself as The Outsider. What do you think that means?" Ben inquired.
"I'm not sure, but if that in any way alludes to why we cannot identify him, that makes Zavgath all the more suspicious." Max answered.
"Because the Plumber database has information on every alien species in the known universe, doesn't it?"
Max nodded a confirmation at Blossom's assumption.
"He has monopolized the planet T.K, which is where he and his army usually reside when they're not attacking planets."
"T.K? Wasn't that one of—" Ben paused when it hit him.
Azmuth had told Ben that Vilgax had been killed about four years ago, but even he did not how or who had done the job. But nothing eluded Azmuth for long, and Ben hadn't asked him since then, so he imagined naturally that he would have that by now, and if it was what was he was thinking...
"Grandpa, is Zavgath the one who killed Vilgax?" Ben asked in a tone that was hard to read.
The look Max threw to him gave him all the answer he needed.
"So... what is he then, if not alien?" came Danny's question.
"The logical theory would be that he is maybe a supernatural being, after all we can't assume that demons only leak into the human realm." Max answered, turning away from Ben who's face still bespoke silent shock. "Can you say the same for ghosts?"
"Well, the Ghost Zone is basically a mirror world to Earth, but ghosts can survive in space, so it's possible that a few may have fled the planet." Danny answered Max.
"If he's a supernatural being though, why does he command an army of only aliens?" Ben said.
"You don't think it'd be possible for supernaturals and aliens to form an alliance?" Blossom offered.
"It would be difficult on the scale Zavgath has managed to achieve, unless he has made some powerful secret connections in the last thirty years." Max said
"Thirty years? Is that how long he's been amassing his army?" Danny asked.
"That was the first time we ever got a report on him, at the time it was treated as a secondary issue."
"Rules out him being a ghost then, ghosts only started slipping out of the zone when I opened it, and my... transformation kind of triggered open all the other ghost portals, that was only nine years ago."
"Forget identifying his species now, what do you know about his army? Or if he has any powers?" Blossom pressed on.
"We've received conflicting reports from surveys of his victims. What we do know is he has somehow gained the control of a Xenomorph army, one of the most savage and belligerent species in the universe."
"Xenomorphs? I thought they were extinct?" Ben said with widened eyes.
"You only one need one queen Xenomorph and enough host bodies to re-spawn a colony, Zavgath must have found one somehow," Max stated. "He has also taken complete rule over the Lowardians, a powerful warrior species. His army has been reported to be further made up of Appoplexians and the Hork Bajir, and there could possibly be more."
"Yeah, I'm not very conversant with identifying aliens, but I'm guessing that's a strong ensemble?" Danny said.
"More than strong, how did he even get Appoplexians to work together?" Ben said, muttering the second bit to himself.
"As for his abilities, we've been told that in the last seven years that he's begun searching for the crystals, when he attacks a planet he doesn't usually partake in the battle, so no one truly knows what he's capable of." Max said.
"So, he's powerful enough to let his soldiers do all the work." Danny added.
"What if he isn't?"
The three men in the room turned to Blossom.
"What if he does no fighting because he simply can't? What if he lacks combat capability? It's possible that he's controlling his army through another means." She elaborated.
"Well, we can rule out simple intimidation if we're assuming he's not battle capable." Ben offered.
"Manipulation?" Danny suggested.
"Appoplexians can't be manipulated to do anything, they would literally die before bowing to anyone." Ben dismissed instantly.
"If his army is made up of different species, he likely used different methods to recruit them." Blossom deduced.
"Regardless," Max interjected, and the three younger ones all turned to him. "He is either extremely powerful to be able to command the fear and respect of an army of that contingent."
"Or?" Danny voiced.
"We are potentially dealing with one of the strongest telepaths in the universe."
A daunting atmosphere washed over the room at the end of Max's sentence, and they all simultaneously looked at the hologram in silence, with Ben almost glaring at the holographic eyes that stared back at him.
SOMEWHERE IN SPACE, 1300 LIGHT YEARS AWAY FROM EARTH.
The ship that floated amongst the lifeless planets in this star system was different to the last one you saw, in that it was a much simpler design. As a matter of fact, it was conceptualized similar to what appears in your head when you think 'UFO'. Except instead of being 'egg-shaped', this ship was shaped like a diamond, with the engine thrusters circling round the 'girdle'. It was pitch black, illuminated only by the burning orange of the aforementioned thrusters and the wreathing light of the stars both far and near. It did however have one ingenious feature, which was the square shaped, spike mounted, crown-like structure on the diamond's 'table'.
There were naturally many rooms and compartments within the ship. Striding through a wide, crimson hued hallway was a mammoth of a what looked like a green skinned humanoid alien, with shoulder length hair maning his face. He bore large, red, indigenous looking tattoos all over his face and torso. He equally sported a golden pauldron, and three pairs of golden rings hugged his biceps, long black gloves followed just below them. Only a pair of black briefs covered anywhere below his torso, unless you counted the tattoos on his thighs and the near knee-high black boots on his feet.
Although, none of this would be visible if one were looking at him from behind, and that was due to the floor sweeping, fur trimmed cape hung over his shoulders.
He stalked further down the lofty hallway until he neared a high convex-shaped opening that served as a door to the next room, he tepidly nodded at the two Hork Bajir standing at either side of the opening before he walked through.
He emerged in a room with windows that went as high as twice his nine-foot frame, offering a three-sixty view of the embellished darkness of space within the room, while the seemingly ubiquitous scarlet tint of the ship's interior continued above the windows.
In the middle of the room was a triple-levelled circular elevation, of which stood on the second step a couple meters away from each other were two beings.
Floating on the left was humanoid who appeared to be a construct of pure mana, she had dark-purple skin and was devoid of clothing. She had no visible ears, nose, or lips, and slithering in the air above her head like medusa-esque tentacles were steams of bright pink energy that symbolized her hair. He recognized her as an Anodite.
On the right was another humanoid, this one was fully covered in what the green-skinned alien recognized as qanisium armour, dark grey in colour, which was in theme with the black, calf-length cape that hung at his back. An equally qanisium built helmet was worn over his head with a visor masking his face. He had his arms folded behind his back and he seemed to stare down at the visitor.
"Master," the mana being spoke. "The Lowardian is here to see you."
The hulking alien that had now been revealed as a Lowardian bent down on one knee instantly.
"The Great Blue." he hailed reverentially as he bowed his head.
The final presence in the room, and the only one at the top of the elevation, backed the rest of them. His skin all-through was a clear cobalt blue, his horse-like lower half laid casually on the artificially grown but organically mutated grass that covered the entirety of the floor space of the top elevation, his tail also fallen on the luscious grass. Only the sinewy back of his humanoid torso was visible to the Lowardian, as the 'Master' had his hands folded in-front of him. It was only the stalks on his head that turned to look down at the large bodied alien, the eyes on said stalks blinking at him.
~Warjin.~
The 'Master' had just spoke, but not in a verbal manner, rather, the three others in the room had heard his voice within the berth of their minds.
"Master Zavgath." Warjin replied with a bow.
The stalk eyes—that all of a sudden looked hair-raising—blinked at him again. ~What is your report?~
"The damage to the hyperspace ignitions has been partly repaired."
~Partly? For what reason are you reporting incompletion?~ Zavgath demanded.
"I would like to propose an adjustment in our procedure master, with your permission."
"You dare to question the master's stratification?!" The armour-clad one finally spoke with a bite.
~Wait,~ Zavgath said, using one stalk eye to look towards his caped soldier, whose shoulders rested in a simmering manner before the stalk eye returned to Warjin. ~What is your proposition?~
"The chief engineer says we would only be able to deploy one of the P-ships with the ignition's current capacity."
~And why is that relevant to me?~
"I am requesting permission to go to Earth with some of my men for a recon, master. You mentioned yourself of your uncertainty of Earth's defensive might, and the Galactic Enforcers must have surely informed the omnitrix wielder of your imminent arrival."
~Consummate, Warjin.~
"Allow me to locate the crystal and either bring it back to you or retrieve enough of its energy to make hiding it impossible for the Earth dwellers. You will not have to search for the crystal upon our arrival there, and I will have information on the ones who wait foolishly to oppose you." Warjin finished, head still bowed to the ground.
Zavgath's stalk eyes peered at the kneeling warrior for a stretch, revealing not even a lick of his possible thought process, but he revealed that himself a second later.
~And if you die on this operation?~ He said.
"Then you would still be provided with information on what awaits on Earth," Warjin replied without missing a beat. "And I would gladly die in your name if it came to such, master."
Zavgath's stalk eyes squinted a tad as he audibly hummed.
~There is no pride in failure Warjin.~ He spat. ~You may go, but return with something of tangibility, or face punishment.~
"I will not disappoint you, master." Warjin said, raising his head for the first time since he knelt. His eyes met the stalk pairs of Zavgath's before they turned back to the elevated windows.
Warjin stood, nodded at the zenith soldiers and veered, marching out of the room like a man truly on a mission.
The Anodite chuckled at his retreating form. "These Lowardians are so enthusiastic, aren't they? He's my favourite one among the squadron leaders." she said in an amused tone.
Her armoured counterpart simply grunted.
Above them, Zavgath continued to face the view through the windows, blinking all his four eyes simultaneously, which did nothing to edify the emotion he was expressing on his mouth-less face.
END.