Chapter 24: The Big Red Button of Doom

"That movie was awesome!" Sam cheered as she threw her hands in the air. Kevin, on the other hand, was still green after seeing all those experiments done of those poor, stupid college students.

No wonder Ben was terrified.

As Kevin drove his car out of the movie theater's parking lot, Sam began to tease him. "I can't believe you thought that movie was scary."

"A bunch of college students got experimented on, and there was a lot of gore. How can not think it was scary?"

"You've never seen Carter's horror movie collection, have you?"

"No; is it really that bad?"

"Let me think." Sam began to count the list with her fingers. "She's got Stephen King's It, Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, Rear Window, The Birds, Halloween-"

"Okay, I believe you," Kevin said truthfully. "No wonder you've got nerves of steel."

"Not like Carter. Do you want to hear something interesting?"

"Sure."

"Evan's terrified of scary movies, even though he says he likes them."

"Really."

"Uh-huh."

"How bad does he get?"

Sam lips began to quiver as she tried to fight the laugh that was escaping. "W-well, whenever the music gets creepy he starts shouting at the characters to get the hell out of the haunted house, and he screams like a little girl whenever something bad happens-"

Kevin began to snicker.

"And right before the climax, he jumps behind the couch and stays there until the movie's over."

With this, Kevin began to laugh out loud, his shoulders shaking as he imagined Evan in a dark movie theater watching Autopsy.

A familiar beeping sound went off in Sam's little red purse. She fished out her phone and discovered a text message. "It's from Carter," she revealed.

Kevin, more of less calmed down, asked, "What's it say?"

"'Stop making fun of Evan.'"

"…You're kidding."

Sam showed Kevin the message, her face white. "It's freaky how she does that."

A frog-like alien wearing black and silver armor and with an arm in a sling rushed to his king to tell him the news. Instead, he got the commander, a strange metallic alien wearing long purple robes and whose head showed his large brain.

"You're from the Royal Guard Detail, right?" Commander Raff inquired politely.

The Royal Guard gave his commander a salute, just thrusting his arm out and puffing his chest. "Brook, of Princess Attea's personal escort. While scouting an enemy star system, we were ambushed by the bounty hunter SevenSeven. "

"Seriously?" asked Commander Raff.

"Seriously."

"Where's the princess?"

Brook held up a piece of torn purple fabric. "This is a piece of her garment from when we were attacked. Oh, the battle was glorious."

Raff took the cloth into his own hands and studied it. "How long can we keep the emperor from finding out?"

"Raff, to my throne room," said the emperor over the intercom.

Well, that answered Raff's question.

As the two entered the throne room, they bowed to their ruler, an obese frog alien with big yellow eyes and black and yellow robes over his giant paunch.

"Grand emperor Millius, light of the Incursion empire, destroyer of galaxies, keeper of the conquest way; all living creatures tremble in your-"

"Quickly!" the emperor ordered, his voice sounding like it belonged in the Roaring Twenties. "My daughter is missing!"

"Yes," Commander Raff acknowledged. "Don't worry, sir, we're working on it. SevenSeven probably took her alive, you know, for the ransom."

"Attea would never surrender!" Millius roared. "You're to blame for this!" He pointed an accusing finger at Brook, who looked terrified.

"Emperor Millius, have mercy!"

"MERCY?! For incompetence?" Millius mulled it over. "Very well." A slide projected out of the arm rest of the throne with a big red button on it.

"Your destruction shall be swift." The emperor pressed the button and a beam of red light shone on Brook from the ceiling. Brook quickly stood up and saluted his ruler right before he was vaporized.

Commander Raff looked at the spot where Brook was and gulped.

"And you, my supposed right hand," the emperor sneered, "find my daughter!"

"Uh, no problem, your highness," Raff said hesitantly.

"This SevenSeven is a tool for this empire's enemies," Emperor Millius thought out loud.

"But that could mean anybody sir," Raff reasoned. "Anybody you haven't enslaved or destroyed yet."

"True," Emperor Millius allowed. "Search the closest inhabited planet. Fix this! Or I'll show you mercy." He waved a hand over the big red button threateningly.

Raff quickly scanned his brain for anyone who might help who lived on such a backwater planet like Earth.

Ben's Team and the Pride were packed into Kevin's car, drinking smoothies in Mr. Smoothie's parking lot. Or they would have been if Gwen and Ben weren't arguing.

"The lake!" yelled Gwen.

"Auto show!" yelled Ben.

"We could always watch Autopsy," Carter offered, an evil little smirk on her face.

"NO!" yelled both Ben and Kevin.

"Can we please make a decision?" Evan pleaded from the backseat, his head resting on the left window.

"Last time I'm sayin' it: auto show," Kevin declared. Sam, who was in the passenger's seat, looked at the others.

"I'm still saying the lake," was Gwen's response.

"Haven't we done the lake?" Evan asked.

"Auto show it is," Sam told Kevin, who smirked. Gwen just sat back in her seat and sucked on her smoothie sulkily.

Suddenly, a bright, near-blinding light flashed before the car, making everyone stop and stare.

A bunch of frog-like aliens with silver and black armor surrounded the Dodge Challenger, all aiming their huge-ass alien lasers at the kids inside.

Ben rolled down the window and spoke to the nearest alien. "I don't suppose you want to go to the auto show."

Once all the teenagers were outside the vehicle with their hands up, Ben asked Kevin, "What are they?"

"Incursion warriors, packin' serious ordinance."

"What do they want?" Gwen asked him.

A blue light flashed over on the Incursion side, and Commander Raff appeared as if by teleportation. "Weapons down," he told his subordinates. The frog aliens put down their lasers.

Raff turned to Kevin and said, "Sorry, Kevin. You know Incursions."

Kevin immediately put on his salesman smile and said, "Raff! How you been?" He went over to the brain alien and put an on around his shoulders.

He turned to the others and explained. "Guys, this is Raff. He's the number two guy in, like, forty star systems." Kevin began to introduce his friends. "Raff, that's Evan, the drama queen-"

"Dude!"

"That's Gwen, the smart one, that's Carter, the horror movie expert-"

"Did Sam tell you?"

"And that's Sam." Kevin looked at Sam, his smile soft. Sam smirked and said, "What, no title for me?"

"Didn't think you need one."

Ben coughed quite audibly, making Kevin lose his happy smile. "Oh, and that's Ben Tennyson," he said flippantly, like he didn't particularly care about the brunette.

The Incursion warriors began to whisper among them and backed away from the group. Ben immediately got that cocky grin that Carter so disliked. She elbowed him viciously, making him lose it.

"He's Ben Tennyson?" Raff asked Kevin for confirmation.

He nodded and told Ben, "I used to talk about what I'd do to you."

"Right, back when you were a crook," Ben said as he eyed the Incursions to his left.

"Entrepreneur," Kevin retorted, breaking contact with Raff. "I kept Raff's whole empire in food and sandals. What brings you out here?" Kevin asked his old friend.

"SevenSeven snatched a little girl in the system and I really need your help to find her," Raff explained. "You're the only Earth fellow I know." Raff help up a piece of Attea's purple cloak. "This is her favorite color. Seen anybody like that?"

"Wait; SevenSeven?" Ben asked, confused. "You mean like that SixSix guy we used to fight?"

"He's the same race as SixSix, but far more dangerous," Raff said.

"Yeah, by eleven," Carter said sarcastically. She turned to Ben to hear his verdict.

"…We'll help you," he said confidently. Sure, there was a lot of danger, but a little kid was in trouble. How could he say no?

"Why should we?" Kevin asked. "He's more of a work friend."

A screeching sound of a transmission beginning sounded from Kevin's radio. Evan hurried to it and turned up the volume to hear Emperor Millius make his announcement.

"People of Earth; this is Lord Emperor Millius." At the sound of the name, all of the lowly Incursion warriors bowed down in respect for their ruler.

"You're errand boy SevenSeven has one deca-rotation to return Princess Attea to me, before I blow your pathetic planet to dust with the unstoppable Incursion Conquest Ray!"

As the transmission ended, Kevin sighed heavily. "Where do we start?"

"There's gonna be a panic," Ben started only to be cut off by Sam.

"Not possible. The emperor's most likely using a Tacheon burst transmission. Earth doesn't get faster than light transmissions."

"But the emperor doesn't know that," Gwen deduced.

"If you have a gizmo that can beat SevenSeven's cloaking tech, then we can track him," Raff said hopefully, since his life was on the line and all.

"We got something better than some gizmo," Evan said, turning to Gwen.

She grabbed the piece of purple fabric from Raff's hands and said, "If this was hers, and you can teleport, then we're practically done."

For a moment, Gwen's eyes glowed pink, and the fabric floated in the air above her hand like a ghost. And then Gwen opened her eyes, and the cloth fell back into her hands.

"She's at Grand Matray Dam. And she's fighting back."

When Raff teleported the Pride and Ben's team to the dam, they saw the princess jump kick SevenSeven in the head.

How did she get kidnapped again?

As Ben and his team ran down the dam to save Attea, the Pride just jumped off the bridge. Evan quickly grabbed hold of the girls by their waists and used his powers to soften the ground below them, creating a spongy target for them to land on.

SevenSeven and Princess Attea took a moment for fighting to look at these strange people before SevenSeven used his jetpack to fly up into the sky. He morphed the arm of his pink and black armor to create a laser cannon and aimed it at the Pride.

"Bitch, please!" Sam snorted as she willed a ball of fire in her hands. She flung it at SevenSeven with deadly accuracy, with SevenSeven narrowly getting out of the way.

But SevenSeven was already on the counterattack, shooting laser bolts out of his cannon at Princess Attea and the Pride. Evan grabbed the Incursion girl's hand and ran towards the edge of the dam to safety, even though Attea didn't want to leave the battle when it was starting to get good.

Yep, she was definitely Emperor Millius's daughter.

The blasts from SevenSeven's cannon hit the dam, breaking apart the stone and letting large quantities of water leak out. Carter left Sam to deal with the alien and ran up to the dam.

With a flick of her wrists, Carter willed the water down towards her, and she twisted her arms and body in a circular motion, making the water flow around her like a protective ring. With little difficulty, Carter morphed the growing water around her into a giant ball surrounding her, turning it into a protective shield.

Carter knew she was running out of time. The amount of water gushing out of the cracks in the dam was too much to control, and already Carter's arms felt like lead. There was pressure building up inside her head, and she could feel the flow of blood as it leaked out of her nose.

Gwen and Kevin noticed the water rushing out of the dam because the water was crashing up towards the top, threatening to flood the bridge above it. Kevin quickly bent down and absorbed the ground, encasing himself in dirt armor. Knowing Gwen and Ben could handle themselves, he leaned over the rail of the bridge and jumped down, tucking himself into a ball for impact.

He landed on the ground below with a loud BOOM, creating a small crater right near Sam. "Need backup?" Kevin asked her as the dust he unsettled began to fly away.

"Why not?" Sam shrugged as she launched another volley of fire at SevenSeven, who was still up in the air.

On top of the bridge, Ben and Raff-who had always been there-, had made it to the edge of the bridge. Only Gwen was stuck in the middle as the dam water began to crash over the top. Knowing she had only seconds before she drowned, Gwen used her powers to create a bubble around her. As the water crashed over her, the pink bubble flowed to the top of the water life a life preserver, carrying Gwen away with the tide.

And then the water completely flowed over the dam, a huge gushing river of anarchy that not even Carter was able to control. Using the ball of water she had created, Carter lifted herself off the ground and tightened the sphere so the air amount wouldn't deplete. As she floated with the tide, the amount of blood coming out of Carter's nose increased.

Sensing danger, Evan pulled Princess Attea to him and willed his funny green and brown spotted wings to appear. He flew up into the sky, away from the dam river and to safety. Attea didn't protest.

From his vantage point, Evan could see SevenSeven using his jetpack to escape danger. Sam had willed her pure red wings out and was lifting Kevin high up in the air, with some difficulty since the sixteen year old still had his armor on. Evan could vividly see a pink sphere flowing with the tide as it left the dam (Gwen, no doubt), and he could vaguely see a black blur in the middle of the river. Even though Evan had known Carter for years-knew what she was capable of-, he still couldn't help feel a little worried for her.

Ben, who was clinging onto the steel rail from the side of the dam, checked his Omnitrix for any aliens that could help. Chromastone, Echo Echo, Humungousaur- none of them would work. Why did Ben have to be useless now?

And then Ben spied a new alien, one that was always there but had never given a thought to try. It was a buff humanoid, with tar-black skin and big, glowing eyes. Now would be a good time to try it out. Ben slapped down the dial and felt the metamorphosis transform him.

Ben, now as Alien X-because that sounded so cool right now- lifted his left arm and moved it into a circular motion, creating a silver ring in midair. The ring grew larger, larger than Humungousaur even, and glided over the dam mess, stopping it.

No, seriously, time just stopped for the dam. The water stopped rushing out of the enclosed space, the bridge stopped cracking from the water pressure, and the Pride who were flying away from the scene stopped in midair, as if a tractor beam was ceasing their movements.

And just as suddenly, the water gushed back into the dam, the cracks in the large stone filling themselves. The cracks in the bridge stopped cracking and fixed themselves, and Gwen and Carter, who were stuck in the middle of the mess, were set safely down on their feet as the water stayed on the other side of the dam.

Alien X walked down to the bottom where everyone else was gathering, even Raff, who had mysteriously disappeared for a while. Carter, who was feeling fantastic all of a sudden, helped Gwen up as she spat out water.

"That was incredible!" Carter said to Ben when she and Gwen made it over to the others.

"No lie!" Kevin said, gazing up at Alien X. "Have you ever turned into that guy before?"

"I think we would remember a super powerful alien like that," Evan reasoned with him. He and Sam had retracted their wings the minute they had landed, and no had thought to ask them what was up with their freakish wings.

"With all that power, I think he's gotta be the go-to hero from now all," Gwen said, looking up at the alien.

A flash of red light, and SevenSeven flew over to the heroes and snatched up Princess Attea in all of her purple clad glory.

"No!" Raff cried as SevenSeven flew away with his life line.

Gwen immediately summoned some mana and tried to rope the kidnapper, while Carter willed the bow and arrow charms from her silver bracelet into her hands. She drew back the silver arrow and aimed at SevenSeven's back. Carter let the arrow fly, watching as it hit SevenSeven's jetpack.

SevenSeven fell to the ground with Princess Attea screaming in his grasp. Evan's eyes glowed green, and plants erupted from the earth and wrapped themselves around Attea, snatching her out of SevenSeven's hands and cushioning her fall. The fragrant plants calmed the girl down as the greenery quickly receded back into the earth, setting Attea down on solid ground. Gwen used her powers to ensnare SevenSeven and set him on the ground, far away from Attea.

"What the hell, Tennyson?" Kevin demanded from Alien X, who had just stood there while SevenSeven attacked Attea. Alien X didn't respond.

Sam snapped her fingers in front of the alien's face. "Say something," she ordered. When Alien X continued to just stand there, Sam became frustrated, smoke erupting comically from her flaming hair.

In an effort to divert her anger, Carter put a hand on her friend's shoulder and pointed at SevenSeven with the other. "He's trying to get away. Stop him."

Sam gave Carter a look that clearly conveyed a sarcastic Really? Carter huffed and said, "Go and beat him up." Sam shrugged her shoulders and ran over to SevenSeven, ready to knock his lights out.

Crisis diverted, Carter turned to Alien X. "What's going on in there?"

"This is awesome!" Ben cried as he found himself floating in space. He was in his human form, just hanging around in pitch-black nothing with only the stars for company. He probably should have been concerned about dying from asphyxiation, but he was having too much fun.

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, Ben," a motherly, ethereal voice sounded in the void. Ben turned to see two gigantic floating faces in front of him.

No, seriously, faces. They reminded Ben of those theater masks, the ones with eye holes that looked creepy against a dark backdrop. One of the faces was a smiling woman, her face heart-shaped and kind. The other was clearly male, his face set in a permanent frown.

Instead of asking who they were like a nice, polite boy, Ben asked, "Can I make something else happen?"

"Ben, you are one of three," the motherly face chided him. "We have to vote to make things happen."

"Okay, team Alien X, let's vote to make something else happen," Ben said jovially, his face looking like a kid on Christmas morning.

"I vote we do nothing," the male grumbled.

"I vote the same," the female said happily.

Ben stopped smiling. "But we can't just do nothing; someone needs our help!"

"We are the most powerful beings in the universe," the female explained.

"Because we are the most deliberative," the male continued.

"So, the Earth is safe?"

"No; where'd you get that?" the male asked Ben. Ben floated closer to the green faces, now really concerned.

"I am Serena, the voice of love and compassion," the female introduced herself.

"And I'm Bellicus, the voice of rage and aggression," the male said. "You're supposed to be the voice of reason."

"Bellicus and I have been locked in eternal argument," Serena continued.

Ben cut her off. "Yeah, that's great. Earth's going to be destroyed any minute!"

Serena finally lost her smile and began to frown. "I feel sorrow. Billions of lives will be lost." She turned to Bellicus.

"They probably got it coming," Bellicus said, not really caring. He glared at Ben. "Get it, genius? We deliberate. Now you try it."

"I wanna know what happened to my friends."

"Seconded," Serena said, smiling again.

"Motion carried," Bellicus said, allowing it. A bright light flashed before Ben's eyes, right in between Bellicus and Serena. It was a window, a circular thing that allowed Ben to see outside Alien X.

Kevin was trying to put Alien X in the backseat of the car, only Ben wouldn't budge. "Just bend or something!" Kevin pleaded. Alien X continued to do nothing.

"Just put him in the trunk or something," Carter said, totally annoyed now.

Kevin liked that idea.

"You can't just stuff him into your car!" Gwen cried as Kevin tried to put Ben feet first into the trunk. Since Alien X was too big, he was struggling with it.

"He hasn't moved since he fixed the dam," Evan pointed out. "He could be hurt or trapped in his own head or something."

"Why doesn't he just get out then?" Princess Attea asked. She was standing next to Evan and Raff, since no one wanted her to get kidnapped again. The kidnapper SevenSeven was unconscious and beat up thanks to Sam, who was watching over him.

"I don't think he can," Evan said as everyone began to glow blue and teleport.

The next thing everyone knew was that they were on a spaceship, outside the Earth's atmosphere. There were Incursion warriors everywhere in the yellow throne room, and the emperor himself was sitting comfortably on his throne, waiting for news.

"Attea!" Emperor Millius cried happily.

"Daddy!" Princess Attea cried, running up to her father and giving him a big hug.

"Aw, family reunions," Evan said, pretending to wipe a tear away.

"Here, we even got a present," Sam said, throwing the defeated SevenSeven at the emperor's feet.

"Now what are you going to do about Earth?" Carter asked.

Emperor Millius seemed to notice them for the first time. "Oh, yes. Well, technically you did save my daughter, so I should let your pathetic little planet go."

All the Earth inhabitants began to feel relieved at that.

"But you did send SevenSeven to kidnap my daughter in the first place!" Emperor Millius roared.

"WHAT?!" Sam roared back indignantly. "We had nothing to do with that!"

"Bring me the royal detonator!" Millius ordered, holding a hand out. An Incursion warrior handed him a gold hexagonal cylinder with a single red button on the top.

"Put Earth on the screen," Millius said, gesturing up to the hexagonal screen to the left. The picture fizzled with static right before it showed planet Earth in all its blue and green glory.

Emperor Millius's hand hovered threateningly above the red button.

"Don't do it!" Gwen warned him, now truly afraid.

Emperor Millius pressed the button, and everyone turned in horror to see if the Earth was truly destroyed.

...It wasn't.

"I didn't destroy your planet," Emperor Millius explained. "But I did activate the Conquest Ray. Put the little pretty one on the screen." The screen flickered to show Pluto, the tiny little dwarf planet that hovered in the Kuiper belt.

"How is Pluto the pretty one?" Carter asked, confused. "It's a barren, frozen wasteland."

They all saw a green ray hit Pluto in the center, and in half a second the planet exploded, turning into a million pieces and scattering all over the solar system.

"Was a barren, frozen wasteland," Emperor Millius corrected Carter, who was just staring at the screen with the others.

Ben watched the destruction of Pluto from inside Alien X. He turned to Bellicus and Serena. "He destroyed planet Pluto!"

"It wasn't a planet, it was a dwarf planet," Bellicus reminded him. Like it mattered.

"I think it should have been a planet," Serena said fondly. "Ben?"

"I don't care! That guy's going to blow up the Earth!"

"You're so called friends can take care of Earth," Bellicus scoffed. "Let them pull their own weight for once."

"Now you're just being contrary!" Serena scolded him lightly.

"Let's make a decision here," Ben said, because it was the only thing that could make these guys work with him.

"We're not finished deliberating," Serena reminded him.

"No, I need to help now!" Ben turned the dial on the Omnitrix and slammed it down, hoping it would change him back to human. Safe to say it didn't.

"Alien X doesn't do anything until it's been put to a vote," Bellicus reminded him. "We've already cut you slack 'cause you're new. But that's the procedure."

"Okay," Ben said, calming down. "I move that you let me use the Omnitrix."

"Is there a second?" Bellicus turned to Serena, who was stubbornly not saying anything. Bellicus turned to Ben. "Motion defeated!"

"Good vote!" Bellicus and Serena said in unison, which irritated Ben.

"You see, until you showed up, Alien X was always in a deadlock," Serena explained. "But now we've finally found a tiebreaker. How can we ever let you go?"

"Got that, genius?" Bellicus said. "You're never changing back."

Fun fact: when Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status, it was because it was in the asteroid belt the Kuiper belt (Kuiper rhymes with 'viper') which is full of remnants from the Solar System's formation. So that means Pluto was almost once a full-fledged planet. How about that?