All of me twisted, bent, and reorganized itself; every part changed, right down to the strands of my DNA. It was always a weird feeling, turning into an alien.. Sometimes painful. With a flash, I emerged in my new form and hovered over the ground with my oh-so-famous exclamation: "Jetray!" I was about to shoot off in the direction of our usual Mr. Smoothie hangout where they were bound to be (since, you know, I didn't actually ask) when something - someone - snagged onto my tail.

With a yelp, I looked down with widened eyes at Zeke, trying to slip from her grasp or at least remain airborne. "What are you doing?!" I urgently asked, "Let go of me, Zeke!"

"Take me with you!" she barked.

"Are you kidding me?! What if you get hurt!"

"If you don't take me, I'll go on my own!"

Had it been just standard DNAliens, I wouldn't have hesitated so much. But this was a Highbreed. Aka tall, powerful, and especially ugly. I wouldn't be able to protect her and keep up with the others at the same time... There was so much that would be at risk, but at the same, if she just ran in on her own I would have even less control. 'I can't be wasting time here..!' I snapped at myself, bringing down my feet and grabbing onto her shoulders with my bird-like grip. With that, I zoomed out of the neighborhood, racing towards the Mr. Smoothie's that was clearly getting wrecked.

I could feel Zeke stiffen up against the skin of my toes as we came into range of the small battle. Gwen could barely get an attack in, her beams of pink shooting out from behind her shield whenever her strategic gaze saw an opening. Kevin was getting tossed around like a doll, yet he kept trying to get back up again and was frequently re-strengthening the material that coated his body. And, of course, the Highbreed loomed over them all, his red eyes narrowed as he looked over his measly opponents. While my friends were running out of steam, he just kept looming like a darkened tower.

"Did you think all of your pathetic interference would go unpunished?" the alien demanded as he swung his heavy arms into Kevin, throwing the Osmosian into Gwen's shield. My cousin was quick to alter the sturdy properties of her current mana projection to something much more forgiving, cushioning Kevin's collision before easing him to the ground.

He sat up, the asphalt on his chest crumbling away into bits. "Kind of," Kevin responded sarcastically, tightly clenching his jaw as he tried to get to his feet again.

The Highbreed only chuckled in his deep, rumbling voice, shoulders bouncing with the laughter. "You are amusing," he commented, raising his arms over his head, "I'll give you that.."

I couldn't waste anymore time, diving in close to the ground to release Zeke and quickly swoop back up between my two friends to startle the Highbreed. He gave a roar of frustration rather than surprise, digging the prongs of his hands into his own flesh as I fired the bright beams from my eyes. They hit him square in the chest, breaking all the tension in his upper body and causing him to stagger away, smoke stemming off of the place of contact.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Gwen and Kevin regrouping not too far off. I hadn't taken very long to reach them, and I doubt they waited to call me in the first place, so it was a bit startling to see just how weakened they were from such a brief encounter with this Highbreed Commander-guy. We already knew that they were so undeniably strong; a lot of the times, we barely defeated one. Which was kind of disappointing for heroes. Something else I was grateful for was that Zeke was keeping her distance - for now.

Distracted with my assessment of everyone's position, I let the Highbreed's high endurance slip from my mind completely. His fists, tightly clasped together, swung in from the right, timed well enough that my wing-beats didn't even serve to be an obstacle before the full force of it came slamming into my side.

Pain splintered through my ribcage, through Jetray's gills, as I was sent sailing across the parking lot. The collision rattled my brain in my skull, the force of my impact breaking through concrete and asphalt so that it formed a mound by the time I came to a stop. My Omnitrix reverted me back with a display of green, my vision swimming as I let out a pained groan.

It hurt to breathe, each breath causing more and more pain than the last. Despite Jetray's own high endurance, I was almost positive that I had broken a rib. I heard Gwen call out to me through the buzz of my skull, turning my attention to the two as I tried to rise to my feet. The dial of the Omnitrix popped up with my alien of choice already presented to me: Swampfire.

The Highbreeds didn't exactly like the heat.

Before I could transform, I heard Kevin's shout of warning as a tall shadow loomed over me. The Highbreed grabbed me by the throat faster than I could evade, bringing me off my feet and into the air in front of him. "Your intereference only delays us, filthy vermin," he growled, his grip constricting over my windpipe, "You cannot hope to stop our plans."

Beyond his broad shoulders, I could see Kevin trying to get to his knees and Gwen struggling to push her battered and bruised self off of the ground. Despite the increasing dizziness I was beginning to feel, I wasn't too worried; it didn't take a lot to touch down on an already active dial. Just when I lifted my hand, however, the air grew hot and fire shrieked through the darkness, nailing the Highbreed directly against his side. What tongues of hot orange lapped at my legs didn't burn, barely giving off a warmth hotter than a mug of cocoa.

And though it didn't burn for me, it put the Highbreed in a world of hurt. He howled, flinging me back into the hard mound from where he had pulled me before and stumbled to the side, his white skin with the tan flecks shriveling around his body. The stream of fire didn't last for much longer afterwards, dissipating into the dark and leaving the Highbreed as a wheezing, steaming mess.

My widened eyes followed the initial path of the flames, tracing the heated remnants back to an outstretched fist. The wielder's face was considerably calm for a moment, before it inevitably broke out into a grin. "Oh, I'm sorry," she announced with a tone and attitude-to-match that didn't exactly seem like the same girl from a few minutes ago, snapping her arm back close to her side, "Was that a little too hot for you?"
Yeah, definitely not the same person.
Moss eyes burned with a very familiar life, but as chance would have it I wouldn't get to know how it had happened until the end of this. It was quite amazing, too, considering any fire-wielding I had seen Zeke use had been with her sword and very rarely did it extend beyond that. Now, she was standing there were a firm stance and posture, having created fire without any outside influence.

I rose to my feet, lifting up my left arm and the awaiting selection, the lead draining from my chest as I would swing my hand back down on top of the dial. There was a flash, my broken rib was mended by the life of this new body, and I could feel the heat that swelled in my chest. "Swampfire!" I shouted, a grin stretching across my face. My attention turned to the recovering Gwen and Kevin, both appearing to feel a lot better than they had before.

Zeke was back, amnesia not included. Seriously, no cold-toned expressionless version of her wpuldgrin like that - hadn't grinned like that - and wouldn't spit out such a witty one-liner. I was actually proud of it, well aware that the habit of having those moments was something I had brought to the table for her to learn from. Okay, maybe I was more relieved than I was proud, my mouth curling up into a smile.

"Let's bring this guy down," I declared.

The Highbreed whirled to face me, hissing threateningly with narrowed eyes. "You can't hope to defeat me," he boomed, "Your numbers are nothing, your flames are nothing!"

"It's still gonna get a little hot," Kevin commented, bringing the Highbreed's attention to him. Not without the intention of doing so, of course, the raven charging the Alien before he could finish his pivot. A massive mallet-shaped hand slammed up into the Highbreed's face, snapping his head back forcefully and causing him to just about fall back.

Kevin wailed on him, making up for all the wasted effort from earlier in the fight while he still had the chance. The opportunity was quick to pass, Gwen and myself stepping in from our respective sides. She threw up a shield in front of a soon disoriented Kevin, just in time to halt the claws of the Highbreed who growled in frustration and repeatedly slammed into the defense. Gwen shoved forward, the mana plate smacking and shattering against his broad chest.

Then I came in from behind, slamming my fist into the small of his back and knocking him forward. He was dazed, he was battered, but that didn't keep him from retaliating just as fast, swinging an arm back and slamming his elbow into the base of my jaw. Due to the sheer force of it and how it had easily caught me off guard, I found myself turning into the attack, staggering in disoriented circles at least a yard away from the Highbreed. My mouth hurt like hell, shaking the numbness from my roots before the Commander started to charge for me.

From beyond him in that brief moment, I watched as the blonde haired girl, who hadn't really intervened much outside of that one blast, took a new stance. It almost reminded me of Gwen's martial arts, but seemed a little more offensive. Zeke lurched forward a few steps, turned her body to the side and braced her arms with her fingers curled into fists; when her leading foot returned to the ground, a quick jet of fire burst up from the side of her shoe before searing into the Highbreed's back. Again, I couldn't help but to be amazed at the new firepower.
No pun intended.

The Highbreed was looking more crushed by the moment, his skin constricting even more tightly around his body even as he tried to fight more. I had to take the opportunity presented in front of me, falling into a barrage of heavy punches that forced the Alien back a foot each time. For the first time, it seemed like we would be able to defeat a frickin Highbreed Commander. The instant I thought that, though, the universe gave me a big ol' middle finger before giving the damn Highbreed a new burst of strength.

He caught my left hook before I could hit him, securing a grip onto my arm and swinging me in a wide circle. The other three had intended on helping, but they were all knocked away by a solid swing of my human-baseball-bat-self. The Highbreed released me at that exact moment as well, flinging me straight onto my companions like a bowling ball. My head smacked itself against the asphalt as we all came to a final stop; I could feel the others stuck underneath my larger weight.

There was a whoosh of motion and a final, slight tremor in the earth that hinted at someone's leaping takeoff. When I pushed myself up and looked back, the Highbreed was gone. "Because that was unpredictable," I complained nasally, rising to full height before reverting back to my human form in a flash of green. My ribs hurt like hell, but thanks to Swampfire's own regeneration and endurance, whatever could've been broken wasn't anymore.

Kevin's armor melted away when he stood up, rubbing his back like an old man. "I like how they're the ones who pick the fight," he noted, "and yet usually the ones that run away first."

"We couldn't have gone on forever," was Gwen's response as she gingerly rested her fingers on a tear that reached around the side of her shirt. "Even with Zeke's involvement, we would eventually...run...out..." She stopped. In fact, we all did.

All at once, we whirled around to face a very confused blonde, massive smiles of relief and joy stretching across our faces. "Ze!" Gwen and I practically tackled the girl to the ground, tightly entrapping her in our oh-so-loving embrace. It was only afterwards that I considered the possibility of her not fully being back to normal. However, my sudden concerns didn't last for very long.

"For the love of God!" she complained with a very light tone, arms coming to wrap around us, "Are you trying to crush me?!"

"You don't seem too upset about it," teased Kevin, reaching out to playful pat her head. "Besides, you're overdue for some broken bones."

My cousin and I finally released Zeke, whose eyes were alight with happiness. This was the emotion that had been missing - this was the Zeke that had disappeared. I put my hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "We missed you.." I found myself saying softly, a small, almost wavering smile coming to my face.

We had gotten lucky. While I could complain all I wanted about it "taking too long" or sulk about like I was the victim, I had no right. There were probably cases like this that littered the Plumber records, but in them, it was probably more common that the person who had forgotten never remembered. Even from the humanly normal side of things, someone remembering probably wasn't that common either. So we were fortunate that Zeke ended up remembering- Or, rather, returning.

She looked over at me with an apologetic expression, her lip trembling against her will. "I'm sorry, Ben," she said, "I'm sorry that I-"

"Don't worry about it," I quickly interrupted, "I'm just glad that you're back." Really glad.

Kevin feigned annoyance as he crossed his arms over his chest. "What?" he demanded, "We're not good enough for an apology?" It was obvious that neither he nor Gwen really wanted one to begin with, instead just playing back into the usual habit of teasing each other. And so soon, too.

However, I decided that the conversation needed to make a switch. Turning back towards the blonde, I watched her perk up to attention before speaking again. "Zeke," I started, "you don't have the scarf anymore, so what're you going to do now? Do you remember what you are?"

This smile came to her face then, bringing about a much lighter atmosphere to the conversation. "I'm, like, the tiniest fraction of an alien, right?" Zeke asked, clearly not needing a response, "Guess the 'Ninja' deal is done and over with. Which is good; that schtick was getting old anyways. It's funny, though, that the Ninja technically died with Addex.."

"Now you're a fire-controlling kungfu master," commented Kevin, eyebrow arching as he shook his head. "I swear, you've gone through more identity crises than stupid Nightwing."

We all looked at him.

"...I was bored, okay?"

Laughter was quick to break out again. The last couple of weeks seemed more like a distant memory by that point, as if Zeke had never left to begin with; and if she had, it had only been for two days at max. Sure, she seemed to know more about the Omnitrix, aliens, and space in general, but who wouldn't after hanging around Azmuth for an extended amount of time, right?

It was just that... A weird, voided shadow got burned up with Zeke's return. My emptiness was filled to it's usual level - it wouldn't go away unless Grandpa Max came back - and things felt right again. I was one of the lucky heroes, you see, because I had incredible friends that continued to persist. While I would hate to lose someone closer than Zeke, like Kevin or Julie, I had faith in them, that they'd come back too.

We started for Kevin's car, our steps as light as feathers.

Welp. It's about time. Finally, I've made the character I've always wanted. It's a shame she had so many flaws to begin with, and that she NEEDED to be changed, but now I'm proud of her.

Thanks for sticking through, and those of you who've been around since forever, I hope this beats the last one. My writing as improved (at least I think so).

There's more to come!

-ShockScythe