"Ben, why again do you want to strap an infant Necrofriggian to the windshield?"
Ben, who was Astrodactyl at the time, pretended not to hear Rook's question. He picked up the cloth bag he had packed the larva in and some Plumber issue space tape, doing his best to ignore the smug look on Kevin's face.
"It's injured," Gwen explained. "We founded it outside of Ben's house. It feeds on solar radiation, so we needed to fly out here for it to eat."
And boy, was a meal overdue. The larva was asleep last they checked, but before it had been whining and throwing itself into every patch of sunlight it saw. It must have been starving.
Rook nodded, a lightbulb going off in his head. "Ah, I see."
Ben stepped out into the airlock, spreading his stiff wings. All he had to do was fly out and secure the larva to the windshield, then let it eat while Gwen worked on her solar radiation talisman.
"But my question is, why would a hatchling Necrofriggian ever fly down to a planet?" Rook asked. "It seems strange that one would venture all the way to Earth, and stranger still that it would end up at your residence. Do you think it's a message from someone?"
Kevin's eyebrows shot up. He leaned towards Rook, grinning. "You mean you don't know?"
"Kevin!" Ben was about to lunge at Kevin and shut him up, but the airlock doors closed before he could move. The air was sucked from the room and the door to the outside opened, which meant he couldn't bust down the door without killing everyone. He didn't hate Kevin that much. He sighed in defeat and flew out into the vacuum of space, trying to ignore the dread squeezing his stomach. He was never going to live this down.
He had never been outside so close to the sun before, and he hoped he never had to be again. The heat of the sun was sweltering, burning the thin membrane of his wings. He didn't know how long he could last out there.
Ben flew around to the other side of the ship, throwing himself into the full brunt of the sun's rays. Grimacing, he pulled the larva out of the bag. A chill went through him when he made contact with the baby. Even in this heat it remained ice cold, and just holding it made the situation a thousand times more bearable.
He wanted to hug it closer to cool himself down even more, but he suddenly became aware that his teammates in the ship were staring at him. Not only that, but Kevin was talking, probably recounting the night when Big Chill pumped out fourteen bouncing baby aliens. The embarrassed heat that rose in Ben's cheeks canceled out any benefit from the larva. He laid it out against the windshield and began taping it down.
Being Astrodactyl, it took Ben a bit longer to interpret the Necrofriggian's emotional state, but he soon realized that it was afraid of his current form. It struggled and squealed in fright, eyes locked on Astrodactyl's murderous beak. The reaction made him feel like his heart was cracking in half, both because it was so terrified, and because it didn't recognize him anymore. To top it all off, the larva's panic was making it next to impossible to secure it.
If only he had turned into Big Chill, then the heat wouldn't bother him and the larva would trust him enough to stay still. On the flip side, it would also mean completely giving into his instincts. He had a hunch that it was Big Chill's influence that was causing him to feel the way he did towards the larva, and he didn't want that to get any stronger. There was a villain on the loose. Once this was done with, he had to focus.
"Calm down, little guy," Ben muttered to it. "I'm not gonna hurt you."
It didn't understand him, but even if it did, it wouldn't have believed him. It continued to thrash.
Tentatively, Ben ran the side of his claw back and forth over its head, tracing the shape of its scalp markings. "It's alright, it's just me," he whispered to it. "It's just Ben."
The larva stopped flailing, and its eyelids began to droop. Once it was pacified, he fastened it to the windshield with a single piece of tape stretching over its belly. It ran its stubby arms over the tape in curious examination, but made no attempt to break free.
Ben realized that his shadow was blocking the sun from the larva, so he moved to the side. It squeaked in excitement and spread its limbs and wings out to catch as much radiation as it could. Seeing that it was content, Ben flew to the back of the ship and landed in the airlock, which closed and began refilling itself with air. His skin was still stinging from the harsh sunlight, but the pain subsided when he morphed back into human form.
He entered the cockpit with a satisfied smile on his face, though it was quickly killed when he saw a red-faced Kevin struggling to hold back a fit of laughter.
Rook turned to Ben, positively ecstatic. "Ben, I did not realize you were a mother! Congratulations!"
Ben slapped his forehead and groaned. "You just had to tell him, didn't you?" he growled at Kevin.
Kevin shrugged. "He was going to find out sooner or later."
"You know, Ben, I have much experience with small children," Rook said. "If you ever need any assistance caring for it, I would be happy to lend a hand."
"Sure, whatever. You almost done with that talisman, Gwen?" Ben asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject.
Gwen sat cross-legged in her chair, staring with glowing eyes at a piece of orange crystal levitating in front of her. "Almost, give me a minute."
"Where do you plan to house the child?" Rook asked, his excitement growing. "Do your parents know yet?"
"No, they don't, and we're not going to 'house' it." Ben tried not to look at the silhouette of the larva on the windshield as he spoke. "We're just taking care of it until its leg gets better, then we let it go."
Rook's ears drooped in disappointment. "We are not keeping it?"
"That's not how Necrofriggians work," Ben said, glowering at the wall. "You don't keep them. You release them, and then they fly out into space and eat solar radiation and you never see them again. That's their whole thing."
At least, that was what he understood from what Kevin had told him after Big Chill's eggs hatched, but he had a sinking feeling that he was wrong. Pushing the larva away again would be a horrible crime; in fact, he should have been out searching for the other larvae and bringing them home too. He shook the idea off with the excuse that it was just Big Chill talking, but then again, wouldn't Big Chill know better than anyone?
None of that changed the fact that keeping the larva wasn't an option. He didn't have any time to devote to a child, let alone 14 of them, and that wasn't going to be fixed any time soon.
"You do not seem very happy about that fact," Rook said. "Are you sure you wish to abandon it?"
Ben tried to keep a straight face, but Rook's accusation cause his face to twitch with incriminating sadness—no, he didn't want to abandon it, not at all. Kevin noticed the momentary expression and burst out laughing. "Oh my god," he wheezed, "this is too sweet, I'm gonna hurl!"
Ben balled his fists and grimaced at Kevin, seconds away from dislocating the other's jaw.
"Done!" Gwen's voice stopped Ben before he could do something he would regret. He looked over her shoulder and saw the talisman, which was glowing dimly like a muted miniature sun. "I just need a few minutes for this to charge up, then we can head out," she said.
Ben sighed with relief. "Awesome. Once we're done here, we're going to find Psyphon, alright guys?"
"Do you not think we should bring the larva back to Earth first?" Rook asked. "A Plumber mission is not the safest environment for a small child."
Kevin smirked. "Jeez, you're just as bad as Ben."
"Rook's right," Gwen said with a nod. "We should head back first." She lifted up her spellbook. "Besides, I have to trade this in for a textbook."
"Very well." Rook began entering the coordinates for Earth into his navigation system. "Once the talisman is charged, we will return home."
The conversation petered off, leaving the room in silence. Ben sat down in the chair behind Rook and across from Kevin. Eventually Rook began asking Gwen a few questions about how the talisman worked. Kevin poked Ben's shoulder.
"Hey," he whispered, all hints of joking gone, "I've got a serious question for you."
Ben raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
"Well, I was just wondering..." He leaned in, and his smirk returned. "Who's the father?"
That was the last straw. Ben shot to his feet and howled in rage. "Would you shut up already!"
Gwen whipped her head around and was about to berate the both of them, but she was cut off by a frantic thumping on the windshield. The larva was thrashing again, slamming its hands against the glass and jerking its head from side to side. Listening closely, Ben could have sworn he heard it screaming.
Before any of them could react, a crimson object came out of nowhere and slammed into the glass, shaking the whole ship and missing the larva by inches. It was some sort of vaguely humanoid robot, with four armor plated arms and a wide, skull-like face. With a sweep of its claws it ripped the larva off of the windshield and into its clutches.
Ben's heart started beating so fast, it felt like it was rattling to pieces. "No, no, no...!" He fumbled with the Omnitrix and tried to turn into something, anything, but all he got was the low battery warning noise.
The red robot blasted upwards and out of sight. Rook gaped in stunned silence, until Ben shoved his shoulder. "What are you waiting for?" He shouted. "Go after it!"
Rook snapped out of it and focused. "Right." He fired up the ship's engines and pulled on the steering wheel. The ship careened upward, bringing the robot back into view.
Ben continued to tap away on the Omnitrix, but no luck. "Come on, come on, you stupid watch!"
He only looked up when he heard the sound of laser blasts. Rook was firing the ship's cannons at the robot, and although he had yet to hit it as it swerved back and forth, he was getting close to locking on.
But the robot still had the larva. A thousand grotesque scenarios flashed through Ben's mind: a blast accidentally hitting the larva, the robot's fuel tank getting blown up and the larva being burnt to a crisp, a piece of shrapnel being shot off of the drone and burying itself in the larva's fleshy, unprotected chest...
Before Rook could fire another shot, Ben grabbed his hand and yanked it off of the cannon controls. "Don't! You'll hurt the baby!"
Rook sighed and deactivate the weapons. "You are right."
"Great, now what are we supposed to do?" Kevin asked, throwing his hands in the air.
Ben was too busy staring at the robot to respond. It had to have some sort of weak point, and preferably one far from where it was holding the larva... Before he could make any conclusions, a wormhole opened up close by, and the robot made a beeline for it.
"Cut it off!" Ben ordered.
Rook shifted the ship into high gear and rocketed past the robot. He spun until the broad side of the ship was parallel to the wormhole, then decelerated rapidly, causing the droid to crash into them. Ben flinched at the gruesome clanking that followed and hoped with everything he had that the larva hadn't been squished in the process.
"Be careful!" he hissed.
"I am sorry, there is only so much I can do," Rook snapped back.
"I think I have an idea," Gwen said, opening her spellbook. "Rook, try and get as close as you can, and make sure I can see it."
Rook steered until the robot was back into view, then tailed it as it jetted around. Keeping up was no easy task; the robot was smaller and far more agile than the Proto-TRUK, and as soon as it was in sight it would make a sharp turn and vanish from view. But Rook was catching on to its flight patterns, and soon was keeping it in sight consistently enough for Gwen to make her move.
Eyes narrowed and glowing, she pressed her palms against the windshield. Geometric paths of mana emanated from her hands and formed a complex circular pattern on the glass. There was a long pause as she gathered her focus. Despite the ship's swerving to remain behind the robot, everything felt like it had come to a standstill.
As soon as the robot was directly in Gwen's line of fire, the tendons in her hands tensed and the runic circles exploded to life. Long magenta tendrils rushed ahead of them faster than the human eye could sense. Ben blinked from the harsh light, and when he opened his eyes the robot was tied up with ropes of energy.
Gwen smiled. "Got 'em." She began making grand gestures towards herself, signaling for the tendrils to reel the robot in.
Ben leaned in next to her, heart still pounding hard. "Is the larva okay?"
"Lets see." Gwen twitched her fingers like a puppeteer controlling a marionette, and one of the mana tendrils began to dig through the tangled mess that trapped the robot. After a tense minute of searching, it pulled out a small bundle of blue. Ben sighed with relief when he saw the larva's wings twitching. It was alive.
Rook collapsed back in his chair. "Good work, team." He sounded like he hadn't taken a breath through that whole dogfight.
Gwen took everyone else's deflation as a signal to relax, but unfortunately her grip on the robot relaxed with the rest of her. In one mad, thrashing effort, the droid untangled itself and slipped away.
Ben was the first to notice. "It got out!" he shouted. The robot lunged for the larva.
Realizing what was happening, Gwen jerked her arm back, sending the larva flying far away from the robot. Instead of giving chase, it cut its loses and turned around, heading for the wormhole again.
The Omnitrix was finally at full charge. "You guys pull the larva in," Ben said, scrolling through the watch's playlist. "I'll get tinhead."
He slammed down on the watch and transformed into Ghostfreak, then phased through the roof. Only then did he realized that being an Ectonurite this close to the sun wasn't a good idea. The sunlight seared his outer skin, releasing a thin fog of destroyed cells that floated behind him as he flew. Luckily his skin would protect him for a while, hopefully long enough to finish this.
Ben barreled forward at full speed, barely managing to catch the droid before it slipped away through the portal. He phased through its body and swiped his arms through its central electrical systems, causing it to glitch out and spiral away.
Before it could get too far, he grabbed it by one of its arms and pulled it back. He pushed his hand though its chest and into the battery pack. The connecting wires shorted out, leaving the robot without an energy source. It powered down.
The zero gravity environment made the robot easy to pull, which Ben was endlessly thankful for. He just wanted to get out of the sun. He phased both himself and the robot through the back airlock, then turned back into human form. The burning faded.
There was something familiar about the machine. Ben bent over it, scrutinizing its features. He had definitely seen that skull pattern on the face before. It was identical to the ones on those R.E.D battle drones that Psyphon had sent after him a while back.
Ben entered the cockpit. "Guys, I think I know who sent that robot," he said.
"Psyphon?" Kevin guessed. "We know. It's got the R.E.D logo on its face. I recognize the model, too. Psyphon practically owns the company that manufactures those."
Blank faced, Ben collapsed into his chair, trying to decode what was happening. It made sense for Psyphon to send a battle robot after them, but why kidnap the larva? It didn't make sense. Although, if there had been another attempt earlier, it would explain how the larva ended up with that gash in its leg, and why it had been so terrified when it showed up.
"What do you think it wanted with the larva?" Gwen asked.
"No idea, but that's why we're going to hunt it down." Kevin took out his Plumber's badge. "If we dig though its memory storage, we'll probably be able to figure out where it was receiving its orders from. We'll track Psyphon down, lock him up, and get some answers. I'll call Blukic and Driba, tell them to get the lab set up."
Ben nodded. "Sounds good to me." He glanced around and noticed that the larva was nowhere to be seen. Concern rose up inside him. "Hey, where's..."
Rook pointed to Ben's seat. "The larva is under there. It hid as soon as we brought it inside. We have not been able to coax it out."
"I'm no expert on Necrofriggian psychology," Kevin said, "but I pretty sure it's gonna end up traumatized."
Ben leaned over to check, and sure enough the larva was cowering under the chair, covering its eyes with its wings and quivering in terror. He almost reached a hand in to try and comfort it, but it shuddered the moment it saw movement and retreated farther back into its hiding spot.
"We should stay vigilant, in case any more R. come after us," Rook said as he turned the ship back towards Earth.
The trip back home was filled with idle chatter, mostly revolving around Psyphon's potential motivations for the attack, although they couldn't seriously discuss anything due to the dearth of information at their disposal. While the others threw hypotheses back and forth, Ben remained silent, preoccupied by his thoughts. Psyphon was clearly after the larva, and was probably responsible for it's previous injury. But why? What made it so special that Psyphon had to have it?
He spent ten minutes flipping the problem over in his mind when something troubling occurred to him. Didn't Necrofriggian larva travel in packs? Where were the others? He tried to tell himself that they were probably somewhere else in space, but if Psyphon considered one of them to be worth kidnapping, he probably felt the same way about the rest of them...
He fixed his eyes on the back of Rook's seat and did whatever he could not to think about that.
Something cold pressed against his heel. The larva. He could feel it shaking as it wrapped itself around his ankle. He moved his other foot so that Kevin wouldn't see it, but allowed it to stay where it was. It just needed something to hold onto. At least, that was what Ben told himself, but it wasn't the whole truth; he wanted the contact just as much as the larva did. For him, was assurance that the baby was still there, and that it was still okay.
He smiled grimly at his own thoughts. He was just being paranoid. The others were probably doing their thing on the other side of the sun or something, no big deal. Everything was going to be just fine. Right?
As much as he tried to convince himself of this, he couldn't. The larva was still quaking with fear. Something was terribly wrong.
Whatever it was, he was going to get to the bottom of it.
Thanks everyone for all the reviews and support! I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Someone asked if I was going to address who the mother was going to be. I hope this doesn't drive anyone off, but I just want to set some expectations: this story will not include any shipping. (Except for maybe some sideline Gwevin stuff, but only because that's a canon part of how those two relate to each other.) That isn't to say I'll never address that. I might be writing sequels, and those could potentially involve some shipping. :D