Summary: It's been almost three years since Jack threw the Decepticons of the planet. In that time, Team Prime tracked down the members of Team Nadir and imprisoned them to keep them from harming civilians. Things went quiet after that, and Jack had the Omnitrix removed in an attempt to have a somewhat normal life. But the grand scheme of the universe has plans for Jack. A new threat emerges. The Highbreed. Their goal, unknown. All that is know, they are more dangerous then the Decepticons. So Jack has to put the Omnitrix on once more, but this time, there'll be no turning back. If things changed last time, than this time, well, in short, if you don't fight, you won't survive. So, as our hero says, "It's hero time!" *cracks knuckles* Let's go!
Unknown location...
In a chamber that had many structures that resembled the neurons of a brain, a humanoid alien that was sickly yellow and purple walked walked towards a web of the neuron like structures. The creature, known as a DNAlien had an exposed brain and a single tear drop shaped light green eye, which had a red pupil and a black iris.
The DNAlien bowed when it stood in front of a blue disk that had 'waves' on it. Seconds later, an alien appeared on the screen. It was mostly white with a purple face. It had four red eyes on its face as well as four eye like markings on its chest. Beneath the markings was what appeared to be an opening that had what appeared to be its internal organs. It had orange wings that were splayed open, although they were white on the other side. This is a Highbreed. It spoke to the DNAlien.
"You may speak to me, half-breed vermin." The Highbreed said, sounding as if it were superior to the DNAlien.
"Gratitude, Master." The DNAlien faced the Highbreed. "For months now, someone has been leaking the details of our secret operations to the authorities. I have new information of interest. We have found the source of the leak." The DNAlien held up a silver disk with a light blue lens. He/ it pressed a button on the side of the disk, displaying a hologram of Max Tennyson. "His name is Max Tennyson." The DNAlien explained. "We've had trouble with him before."
"Then let this be the final time he troubles us. Destroy him." The Highbreed ordered.
Bellwood...
It's been three years since Team Nadir was defeated by Team Prime. All's been peaceful. Two years ago, Jack took off the Omnitrix. We now find a nineteen year old Jack Tennyson playing on his high school's soccer team.
Currently, one of the players from the opposing team was dribbling the ball. He was dodging all the players that were on Jack's team, making sharp turns, and even jumping over one that tried to slide at him. He was blocked by three of the players that wore white and green. He saw that one of his teammates was waving his arms.
"Pass it to me! Pass it to me!" The guy that was waving his arms shouted. He looked kinda like Raf, but rest assured, this isn't Raf. This was JT, the one that had the ball at the moment was named Cash. "Come on! I'm open!"
Cash looked at the clock. There was only fifteen seconds left. Surrounded, he passed the ball to JT, who ran towards the goal. The current goalie for the white team was Jack(who didn't look that different from when he was sixteen and how he is now). Jack glared at JT as he got closer. When JT kicked the ball, it curved and was heading to one of the upper corners. However, Jack's reflexes were fast enough to catch the ball right as the clock hit zero. Jack's team won two to one.
The crowd cheered.
"Whoa!" Jack was taken off guard as his teammates lifted him up.
"All right, Jack! Way to go!" One of the people in the crowd, Jack's guardian Arcee, shouted. She was glad that with the 'cons gone, she, as well as the others, could take the time to learn about their human friends.
Later...
Jack was walking to Arcee's alt mode. He had a black t-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a green jacket with a white ten in a black circle on the left side.
Jack read what was on the medal that he had gotten. "MVP." Jack said to himself. "Most valuable player."
Arcee heard this and thought to herself: 'More like Most Valuable Partner.'
Jack looked up to see a japanese girl that was about Jack's age. She wore a white skirt and a pink hoodie. Her name was Julie.
Jack, caught off guard said awkwardly: Oh, um, I wasn't showing off." I mean, I am going to show it to my grandpa. I guess that is sort of showing off." Jack saw that Julie smiled. "Jack Tennyson. Hi." Jack held out his hand for Julie to shake.
"Julie. I know who you are." Julie shook Jack's hand. "Great game."
"Thanks." Jack got on Arcee's alt mode and put his helmet on. "I really do have to go, though. See you tomorrow?" Jack asked as Arcee back out of the parking lot.
"Okay." Julie answered. "Bye!" She said as she waved to Jack.
"Smooth." Arcee said as she and Jack got on the road. Her voice didn't have a hint of sarcasm. "Guess you really have changed over the years." Arcee inwardly smiled, she was glad Jack's life was now mostly alien free.
Little did she know that Jack's life was once again about to change, and this time, there would be no going back to the way things were before Jack got the Omnitrix that summer almost three and a half years ago.
Arcee drove into lot 4 of an RV lot. They drove over to the Rust Bucket, which June had given back to Max after the second one got trashed with Omega-1 three years ago.
Arcee parked under a tree and took a little nap.
Jack got off and knocked at the door to the Rust Bucket. "Grandpa Max?" Jack asked after he failed to get an answer. "Open up. It's me."
Jack was unaware of the man in the trenchcoat that watched him.
Jack looked into the window of the Rust Bucket to find that the lights were out. Jack looked under a fake rock and found the spare key that his grandfather kept hidden.
The door creaked open. Jack walked in. Her fumbled around looking for a light switch. The place was a mess.
"Hello? Grandpa?" Jack looked around at the items that were strewn about the floor. "What happened in here?" Jack heard a thud. He saw that the bathroom light was on. Jack walked over and found that there was nobody inside.
From behind a curtain, a DNAlien jumped out. It opened its torso and tried to grab Jack with its purple tentacles. Jack rolled to avoid them.
"Ha!" Jack said as he slammed down on his wrist. Seconds later, he realized that he no longer had the Omnitrix. "Oh, man."
The tentacles were propelled at Jack, which the young adult dodged. The DNAlien reformed its body. It lunged at Jack, but Jack opened one of the compartments in the Rust Bucket, causing the DNAlien's clawed hand to get stuck. Jack then hid under the table, which the DNAlien ripped out. It tried to claw Jack again, but Jack managed to get away yet again. The DNAlien pulled its hand out of the Rust Bucket's floor and saw a sneaker that resembled Jack's. It walked over to it. However, it was a lone sneaker, and not the human the DNAlien had been fighting. Jack tapped the DNAlien's shoulder.
"Peekaboo!" Jack sprayed a fire extinguisher at its face. The foam that was sprayed must've caused the DNAlien some sort of pain, which caused it to jump through the window of the Rust Bucket and then run off. Jack had managed to win the fight without going alien. He dropped the extinguisher on the floor.
"That thing was looking for something, grandpa." Jack said, half expecting Max to appear out of nowhere. "But what?" Jack sat in the driver seat and flipped three of the switches in a row of five red ones. It caused the motor to hum. The clock above the fridge went to 12:00. It extended out, revealing that the clock was the lid for a cylindrical container. There was an open area that had a hologram disk resting on it. Jack ran over to it and grabbed it. He pressed the activation button. A hologram of Max, or what Jack thought was Max appeared.
"Hello, Jack." The hologram of Max said.
Grandpa! What's -" Jack had questions for his grandfather, but he was interrupted.
"I left this recording where I knew only you would find it." Max explained. "I'm in a bit of a situation, but it's nothing I can't handle" He held up his hand to signal stop and looked away from Jack. "certainly nothing for you or the 'bots to worry about. There's renewed alien activity on Earth. I'm investigating." The hologram disappeared, only to reappear a few seconds later. "Oh, don't worry about the Omnitrix, either. I have it, and it's completely safe. They'll never get their hands on it." That really didn't sit well with Jack. "Say hello to your cousin Gwen for me.
Love you. Max out." The message ended. It happened too fast for Jack to notice, but right before the message ended, a DNAlien was in Max's place.
"You've got the Omnitrix?" Jack was confused. "That can't be right."
Jack exited the Rust Bucket. He woke Arcee from her nap. "Arcee, we gotta go to the base."
"Why? Your mom's expecting you at your house." Arcee replied as she and Jack drove off.
"I'm not going to be spending the night, I just need to get something."
Autobot base...
Jack and Arcee entered the hanger. Optimus, Ultra Magnus, and Ratchet were present.
"Hello Jackson, how did your soccer match go?" Optimus asked.
Jack got off Arcee and walked towards the fridge that was in the human area. "My team won. I got a medal." Jack then turned to Ratchet. "Ratch, where'd I put the safe?"
"Behind the microwave." Ratchet said. He realized what Jack was looking for. "Jack, remember what your time traveling friend said."
"I know. I know. The next time I put on the Omnitrix, there'll be no going back." Jack found the numerical keypad. He typed in the code 1-0-1-3-1-1(10-1-3-11 or J-A-C-K). In the safe was a key that had an Omnitrix dial where the hole to attach it to a key chain would be.
"Jackson, please reconsider this decision." Ultra Magnus said.
"Sir, if I didn't have to wear this, I wouldn't. But when I went to show grandpa Max the medal I won, I was attacked by an alien. But I'll talk to Gwen about this. She's one of the few people I trust more than you 'bots." Jack rushed down the steps and ran towards Arcee. "Come on 'cee, we have to hurry."
Later, Jack and June Tennyson's house...
Arcee drove into the driveway and into the garage. Jack ran into the house as fast as possible. His mom was in the kitchen washing the dishes.
"Jack, don't run in the house!" June, despite knowing that her son was both and ex-superhero and nineteen years old, to her, Jack was still her ten year old boy that needed to be told what to and not to do. And him running in the house was very much proof of that.
"Sorry, mom!" Jack apologized as he ran up the stairs and into his room, which had an Omnitrix dial painted on the door.
Jack went to his closet and looked around. "He says he's got the Omnitrix." Jack found a bunch of things that he had collected over the past three years. "I know it's in here somewhere." Jack found a plastic bin he opened it to find it full of what we know as ranger keys. "Rider keys from Kamen Rider Marvel. He dug around, hoping that the box he was looking for was in it. It wasn't. "Oh I remember you." Jack held up a rider key that looked like Heatblast. "Arcee helped me make this." He found another box, one that was smaller. He opened it and found it full of Zyudenchi. "Kingryu's Rider Cells. Nope." He moved onto the third box. It had Ressha in it, but the box was nowhere near full. "Here we go. Ri-xpress' Express Engines, and the Omnitrix." Jack grabbed the cubical container that held the Omnitrix. On the top of it was a key hole. Jack inserted the key. Both the key and the container disintegrated, leaving the Omnitrix in Jack's hand. "What are you trying to tell me, grandpa?" Jack had the suspicion that something was going on.
Later, at Bellwood Memorial High School...
A nineteen year old Gwen, who looked very much like her sixteen year old self, just a bit more 'developed'. She was in the middle of her taekwondo class. She stood facing her opponent, both of them bowing. Gwen wore a white Gi and had a black belt.
The two stood ready to spar. Gwen brought her fingers together so her hands were in a knife hand strike position. She held her arms to the left and were pointing to the floor. Her opponent balled his hands into fists. His right arm was extended and was pointing towards Gwen while his left arm was kept close to his torso. Gwen brought her fists up and had them in a way that was similar to the motion for 'hold up'.
"Hajime!" The instructor held up his hand. "Fight!" He lowered it.
Gwen's opponent charged at her, shouting: "Hey-yah!" He threw a punch at Gwen, which the teen, okay, young adult, blocked with little effort.
Gwen grabbed onto her opponent's Gi with both of her hands, and using a level of strength I haven't seen since Hina From OOO, she tossed her opponent over her head. "Ha!" She shouted as she slammed him on the ground. Gwen's fellow student didn't get up, but not that he was hurt, I hope. Gwen did a backflip and landed atop her opponent's chest, her legs on either side of his body. Gwen was the stronger fighter in this instance.
"Point" The instructor pointed at Gwen. "victory."
As the students who watched the rather short bout clapped, Gwen helped the one who she defeated back up. They bowed.
As the other students stopped clapping and left the gym, there was still one person left, Jack.
"So how's my favorite cousin?" Jack asked.
"Jack!" Gwen ran up to Jack and gave him a hug. "Still undefeated. Compliments, and you not being at home to watch the latest episode of Kamen Rider with Arcee - it means you want something." Gwen had gotten to know her cousin very well over the past three years. One could argue that she knows Jack better than Arcee, Jack's partner did.
"I got a problem." Jack said, glancing down and to the left. "I need advice."
"Okay, soon as I change." Gwen went to the locker room.
At least an hour later...
The sun had been setting when Jack arrived at the gym, and now it was nighttime. Damn. I know girls take longer to get ready, but this is ridiculous.
Jack was lying on the rubber mat that had yet to be rolled up. He had fallen asleep and was snoring.
The door opened and Gwen entered the gym. She walked over to Jack and looked down at him.
Jack heard Gwen's footsteps and woke up. "Huh?" There was a bit of drool coming from his mouth.
"Well, that's attractive." Gwen said sarcastically.
Jack stood up and wiped the drool off his sleeve. "What? I'm awake. What?"
"You needed help?" Asked Gwen.
"I need advice." Jack showed Gwen the Omnitrix.
Soon...
Jack was showing Gwen the message he found from their grandfather. "Oh, don't worry about the Omnitrix, either. I have it, and it's completely safe. They'll never get their hands on it. Say hello to your cousin Gwen for me. Love you. Max out." The message ended.
Gwen realized that there was something wrong with what the message."Grandpa doesn't have the Omnitrix. You do."
"Yeah. He's sending me some kind of message." Jack held the Omnitrix in his hand and looked at it. "I think he wants me to put it on again."
"Jack, just remember that he always said that was your choice. You don't have to do it if you don't want to." Gwen told her cousin.
"I used to love the Omnitrix." Jack closed his eyes and remembered the summer he found the Omnitrix. "It made me feel different, like I wasn't just some average teen from a small, now destroyed town in the middle of Nevada, it made me feel special in a good way."
Gwen could see that her cousin was conflicted on what to do. "You know what?" She asked. "It wasn't the watch that was special. It was you."
Jack turned his head and glanced at Gwen, who sat on the bleachers a few rows up from him. He smiled at her.
"And you earned the chance to have a normal life. You put that thing back on, and that's pretty much it for normal."
Jack was worrying about what to do. "But if grandpa needs my help-"
"He said he didn't." Gwen said, trying to assure Jack that all was fine. "Anyway, remember how much trouble we had getting it off the last time?"
The door opened. In it stood a man wearing a dark grey overcoat and fedora. "The Omnitrix ain't yours." He said with an accent I'm not even going to try to describe. "Give it up!"
"No way!" Jack and Gwen ran for the door. That led the main part of the school. They tried to open the door, but found that it was locked.
The mysterious stranger held out his hand. "Give it to me - now." He demanded.
"Or what?" The man grasped his face and pulled it off, revealing it to be an ID mask. "Or this!" His true form was that of some sort of humanoid sea creature. He had brownish pink skin, yellow eyes with black pupils. He wore armor similar to what Tsukasa wore during his visit to this universe.
Jack had never seen an alien that looked like this before his reaction was: "Oh, that's so creepy." Jack then tried to run, but his feet got shot at by the alien. Jack stumbled back to beside Gwen.
"Don't make me use it on you." The alien warned the two young adults.
"Who's making?" Jack asked.
Gwen, who walked up on several platforms of mana energy said: "Not fish face here, that's for sure."
The alien fired at Gwen. Gwen blocked his shots by swiping her hand. She flung a bolt of mana at the alien, hitting his blaster out of his hand. She then fired a stream of mana at the ground, which curved and flew towards the alien, grabbing onto him.
"You're getting really good at that stuff. No reading required." Jack complimented Gwen.
"Thanks."
Jack turned to the alien. "I want some answers right now. Otherwise -"
While struggling, the alien asked: "Yeah?"
Jack didn't know how to respond to that, so he just thought of something on the fly. "I don't know. I'll overfeed you."
"Do I look like somebody to joke with?"
Jack and Gwen looked at each other. Jack spoke up saying: "Do you want us to be honest?"
The alien let out a frustrated sigh. "I'm a duly deputized agent of the Plumbers, an intergalactic law-enforcement organization."
"I know what they are. My Grandpa Max and my mom June used to be Plumbers."
The alien knew those names. "Max Tennyson? He was helping me on a case when he went missing."
"We're looking for him." Gwen said calmly.
"Wait. He's your grandfather? And June is your mother?" It took the Plumber too long for the connections to be made as to who this nineteen year old was. "You're the legendary Jack Tennyson?"
"Guess so." Jack shrugged. He just brushed off the concept of him being legendary, which will be a rarity for Jack to do in the not too distant future.
"I thought you were just some kid who snatched it from the Rust Bucket." The Plumber admitted he made a mistake. "Guess I owe you an apology." The Plumber then pointed to the mana band that held him aloft. "If you get me out of this thing, maybe we can find your granddad together."
Jack glanced at Gwen and nodded. Gwen lowered the Plumber and released him.
Jack held the Omnitrix in his hand. Gwen saw that Jack was still uncertain as to what to do.
"Are you sure?" Gwen asked, knowing that if Jack put the Omnitrix back on, he would have to live with that decision for the rest of his life.
Jack's eyes narrowed. He took the Omnitrix and placed it upon his left wrist. "I'm sure." Jack turned to face Gwen and the Plumber. "Now, let's go." Jack then realized something. He didn't know this guy's name. "Um, what's your name?"
"Labrid, Magister Labrid." The Plumber responded.
Later, at a railroad loading yard...
"So, what are we doing here?" Gwen asked as she, Labrid, and Jack watched an currently deserted railroad yard.
"Stakeout." Labrid explained. "According to a tip from your grandfather and intel provided by agent Hopper, the Forever Knights, a group of criminals who -"
Jack knowing who the Forever Knight were, interrupted Labrid. "Trade in alien technology. Yeah, I know. We've run up against them before."
Labrid glared at Jack for interrupting him. "They're supposed to show up here tonight to receive a shipment of illegal alien tech."
"Who do they get it from?" Gwen asked.
Labrid shrugged. "Don't know. Max was going to tell me, but then he disappeared." The sound of an tires on gravel could be heard. "Someone's coming." Labrid placed his hand over the part of the dome on his armor that was in front of his mouth.
Two trucks pulled up, as did a green muscle car, which had been driving along side one of the trucks. It came to a stop in between the other cars. The engine was silenced and the door opened. Who the driver was shocked Gwen and Jack.
"That's Kevin!" Gwen whispered.
Labrid turned to face face Gwen. "You know him?" He asked.
"Kevin Levin" Jack explained. "He's got superpowers. Haven't seen him since after Tsukasa left. I heard he's done some less than legal stuff, but I never imagined he'd be playing the part of the gun runner."
A man wearing a red cloak handed Kevin a padded. The Osmosian opened it up and saw the money inside.
Kevin turned to one of his business partners and said: "Money's here."
The guys who Kevin arrived with unloaded a stack of three crates.
"Well, I don't know much about this 'Kevin', but he's brokering the deal." Labrid said.
"Why not? You said it was illegal."
Kevin handed the case of cash back to the helmet-less hooded Forever Knight. Kevin revealed what was inside the crates, each one had a silver carbine shaped blaster inside it. He then explained what it was he was selling. "As promised, four dozen factory-new laser lances."
Ether-point energy module, antenna-focus emitter it's good for 35 minutes of continuous fire at .06 terawatts. "Is that good?" Kevin targeted a train car and fired at it. It heated up, glowing red. After a few seconds of that, it was destroyed. "You tell me."
Labrid was outraged. "Those lances are level-5 technology!" He shouted, disregarding stealth. "Planet Earth has only level 2!"
"Hey, what happened to the whisper?" A frustrated Jack asked as Labrid got up. The alien drew his blaster and got out his Omnitrix dial shaped badge. He slid down the incline that he and the Tennysons were on, Jack and Gwen following him.
"Hands above your heads, air breathers." Labrid flashed his badge while pointing his gun at both the Forever Knights and Kevin and his co-workers. "By authority of the Plumbers, you're all busted."
All of the guys that had shown up with Kevin removed their faces, which were ID masks. Underneath, they were DNAliens.
"Oh, that's so creepy." Gwen sarcastically said.
"Isn't it?" Jack asked, not knowing that his cousin wasn't meant to be taken seriously.
The DNAliens were howl-grunting as they approached Jack, Gwen, and Labrid.
"Back off!" Labrid fired his blaster continuously, igniting a fire in front of the DNAliens, who cowered in fear, they don't handle the heat that well.[Oh my god, they're the opposite of Cybertronians]
"What now?" Jack asked, now that there was a blaze between the three of them and the cousins of the aliens that attacked him in the Rust Bucket.
"Standoff." Apparently they don't make the Art of War required reading at the Plumber Academy.
"Yeah, I don't think so. The other guys are behind us."
Gwen and Labrid turned around to see Forever Knights getting ready for battle. Based on their armor, there were the same knights that Starscream aligned himself with three years ago.
The Knights walked towards the three of them. To top it all off, the flames that Labrid created with his blaster were starting to die down, which allowed the DNAlien to get closer to them.
Realizing the pinch that they were in, Gwen summed up the kind of time they were having. "We are toast."
"No, we're not." Jack said. He raised up the tower of the Omnitrix. "It's hero time!" He slammed down on the dial, but instead of transforming Jack, the Omnitrix just beeped. The dial was blinking purplish blue.
"Jack!" Gwen was starting to panic.
Jack, not liking this situation any more that Gwen was responded with:"Watch!" And said it with the same frustration as Gwen used, but was mocking Gwen.
As the Forever Knights and DNAliens got closer, Jack was trying frantically to activated the Omnitrix by rotating the dial. It was making the least satisfying of all sound effects, lightly beeping.
"Jack, seriously." Gwen was freaking out.
Jack looked at Gwen as she said the previous sentence. He then said to himself: "This is a really bad time for a reboot."[Weird, those are my exact thoughts about the Ben 10 reboot that's coming out in october of 2016.]
"Uhg. I got nothin." Jack admitted defeat.
"Well then maybe I do." Gwen generated spheres of mana around her hands. She slammed them together at flung the manna bolts at three of the Forever Knights, tossing them back.
Labrid fired at the feet of the DNAliens, which seemed like a good idea on paper, but in practice, that was making them mad.
The Forever Knights took aim at the trio and fired at them. Gwen generated a rectangular shield that blocked the red blast bolts, but the lasers were starting to crack the shield. It took only three blasts before the shield was destroyed and Gwen had to make another.
A DNAlien ran at Jack and Labrid. As it raised up its fist to strike one of them, the heard its howl and got out of the way before it brought its arm down. Jack, not expecting the Omnitrix to not be working ran from the DNAlien as he had nothing to fight it with.
"Come on! Come on!" Jack shouted as he ran. [ beeping ]
One of the DNAliens grunted as it straighten out its back, the tentacles on its mouth opened up, and is spat a glob of goo at Labrid's right hand, covering his gun with a glob of brownish yellow green goo.
As Labrid tried to get the goo off, several DNAliens continued spitting at him until he was encased with the stuff.
The DNAlien that was chasing Jack spat goo at him, but Jack managed to avoid it. He turned to dodge a glob that hit a crate instead of him. He hopped onto a wooden box to avoid a glob that would've stuck him to the ground. He climbed up onto another and jumped off of it, rolling as he landed. He got up and continued to run.
Jack ran behind a tarp and knocked over dozen wood beams that then fell on the DNAlien, crushing it.
Jack tried to turn the Omnitrix dial. I beeped again.
The DNAliens had Labrid surrounded.
Gwen continued to bring up shield to block the blaster fire from the laser lances. However, after she fired two mana bolts at the Forever Knights' laser lances, which destroyed their weapons, she stepped in a puddle of the slime DNAliens spit out. She was stuck. The DNAliens continued to spit goo at her until she was restrained.
The Omnitrix beeped faster and faster. Ot sped up until the beeping stopped. The Omnitrix glowed green and reformed itself into its more watch like design.
"Oh yeah. It's finally back to normal. But shouldn't it- nah. Who'm I to argue with good fortune?" Jack said. He remembered how to use this design of the Omnitrix, even if it was a few years ago. He pressed down the two buttons. A hologram of an alien that would be known as Echo Echo popped up. He rotated the dial and found the one of Jetray(which he had only used once). "I don't recognize any of these guys, although under the circumstances, this one looks pretty good." He had found the hologram of Swampfire, which seemed familiar to him. He then slammed down on the dial.
Jack was transformed for the first time in a few years into his Methodasian form of: "Swampfire!" He smelled something. "Ew, what's that smell?" He sniffed his armpits. "Is that me?" He asked himself.
Swampfire ran over to the group of DNAliens that surrounded a restrained Gwen and Labrid. The two of them grunted as they struggled to get out.
"Get away from my friends!" Swampfire growled as he ran at the DNAliens. He punched one of them to the side as it jumped at him. Another one came from Swampfire's left. He kicked the DNAlien down. A DNAlien spat at Swampfire, but he sent it soaring into the air with a uppercut.
The remaining DNAliens saw that their buddies were being beaten and ran for the truck that they arrived in. They tried to drive away, but they made the mistake of driving in Swampfire's direction. The plant based alien ripped a metal post out of the ground and swung it at the passing truck, denting it and knocking it over.
Swampfire was having a blast. "I forgot how much fun this is." A laser bolt hit him, but instead of hurting him, Swampfire just laughed. "Cut it out. That tickles." He continued to be shot at by the Forever Knights until one of them aimed at his arm. That cut his arm clean off. "Hey!" Swampfire shouted.
Labrid and Gwen both gasped at Jack's sudden mutilation. However, all threat of being dismembered in this form as rendered moot as a tendril grew out of the severed arm and reattached itself. "You guys are in so much trouble." Swampfire clenched his fist.
Swampfire ran at the Forever Knights. He punched one of them into the side of at train car. He then punched another one to the side.
He was going to beat the rest of them, but Kevin jumped in front of him.
"Hey, Darby." Kevin said. That set of ginger alarms in Jack's head.
"What do you- wait. Kevin, you never called me Darby before. What's gotten into you? You're working with these aliens, one of which attacked me at my grandpa's RV, and you're selling weapons to the Forever Knights."
"Who says I'm Kevin?" 'Kevin removed his face, revealing that it was an ID mask. Underneath it was Vince. "Consider this payback for sending me into the null void."
"You did that to yourself."
"And for ruining my deal today."
"Hey, that's on Labrid."
"I'm thinking I want revenge." Vince turned into his massive mutated form. "The good news is, that even though your lame friend turned me back to normal, that was only temporary, now I can be Vince 11 whenever I want. Meaning I got more than enough power to take it."
"Okay. That's new."
Vince punched his Diamondhead fist right through Swampfire. However, he got his fist stuck. Swampfire took advantage of this and slammed his hands on Vince's head, making him groan in pain. He then kicked Vince away from him. The bit in his chest that was punched out grew back.
The Forever Knights had finished loading up the laser lances and had paid the DNAliens. They closed up the rear of the truck. Both parties used the fight between Swampfire and Vince as their opportunity to escape.
Vince flung a boxcar at Swampfire, who didn't have enough time to react. He was crushed by it. But Swampfire was immune to physical damage.
"And that's what happens when you mess with me." Vince said as he approached the boxcar.
Swampfire rose up from the ground behind Vince, surprising him.
"Hey! What?" Vince was caught off guard.
"Peekaboo!" Swampfire punched Vince, sending him back. The Omnitrix mutant was unsteady on his feet. He recovered and grabbed the boxcar that he was leaning up against. He was going to toss it at Swampfire, but it blasted apart by twin streams of flame that he fired from hole in his palms.
Vince groaned before he reverted back to his human state. He then passed out.
Later...
"Thanks for coming Sierra." Jack said to the redhead that he had a crush on at one point. She was wearing armor similar to Labrid's but her's had nothing covering her head.
"Don't mention it. I've been looking for Vince since he got out of the Null Void two years ago."
"And why were you?" Gwen asked, confused as to how Sierra, a girl her cousin had a crush on a few years ago knew about this.
"I joined up in the Plumbers back in the summer of 2010."
"But I thought-"
"Just because the Plumbers aren't currently stationed on a planet, it doesn't mean we're not accepting new recruits." Labrid explained. "Sierra would've been assigned to Optimus and his squad, but seeing as you dealt with Megatron, we decided to let Fowler stay, while we get some of our boys to do a bit of digging."
Gwen saw that Vince, who had handcuffs that glowed blue, was starting to come to. "Guys, Vince."
Vince groaned as he opened his eyes to see Jack, Gwen, Labrid, and Sierra looking down at him. He tried to assume his mutated form, but he found he couldn't he saw the cuffs that were on his wrists.
"Energy cuffs - you can't escape." Labrid explained. "Cancel out all biological abilities."
"You still got some of that stuff in your hair." Jack said to Gwen.
Gwen looked in her hair and saw nothing.
Sierra looked at Gwen with a shocked expression. "Other side." She said.
Gwen felt the back of her head. She felt something sticky. "Ew!" Gwen saw the massive amount of slime that was still on her.
"Time we had a talk, tough guy." Labrid said, holding up one of the laser lances. "These weapons run on ether-point energy cells, a dangerous technology way too advanced for humans."
"They shouldn't even be on this planet." Sierra continued.
"So? How's that my problem?"
"While we were fighting, the Forever Knights got away with a crate full of them." Jack explained, pointing to the direction the Forever Knights drove off in.
"You set up the deal. You're going to tell me where they are."
"Kevin, people could be hurt." Sierra said tenderly to Vince, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"You're in a lot of trouble, son." Labrid said. "I'm giving you a chance to help yourself here."
Vince scoffed. "It's not like I set the deel up."
"Say what now?" Jack was confused.
"I found this guy named Kevin Levin. Figure I make a few bucks impersonating him and selling these."
"Where is Kevin?"
"Last I checked, in the trunk."
"So we can add kidnapping to your list of charges. When this is done, we're going to lock you away for a long time."
Sierra hadn't joined the Plumbers to lock people away, she joined to make a difference, and what Labrid was proposing was the exact opposite of what she had intended. "Magister, Vince isn't bad, per say, he's just, troubled. I've known Vince longer than any of us."
"Ahem." Jack got Sierra's attention.
"Besides Jack." She continued. "Vince came from a broken household. His parents never had time for him."
"What're you asking?" Labrid was confused.
"All I'm saying is just let me try to get him to behave." She suggested. "I promise that in less than a year, I'll get him to the point where the worst he's capable of is failing to yield."
"Fine. You have four months."
"I could do it in two." Sierra boasted. "Everything I do, I do it quickly."
"Okay, but what about Kevin?" Gwen asked. She turned to Jack, but found that he was over by Kevin's muscle car. He opened up the trunk and found a bound and gagged Kevin who had energy cuffs on. A blindfold covered his eyes.
Jack removed the gag.
"Who's that! Get me out of here!" Kevin shouted.
"It's definitely him."
"Tennyson? Is that you?"
Jack removed the blindfold, allowing Kevin to see him.
"Took you long enough."
"I didn't even know you were kidnapped." Jack deactivated the energy cuffs and untied Kevin's legs.
"Kevin!" Gwen ran up to the osmosian. "What were you thinking selling weapons to the Forever Knights?!"
"Good to see you too." Kevin said sarcastically. "I wasn't going to sell them the real thing, I was just going to sell them a bunch of fakes."
"What?" Sierra asked as she, the handcuffed Vince, Labrid, and Jack approached Kevin's car.
"Ever since we took down the Forever King, I've been made a few deals with the Forever Knights, all of them ended badly for the people they used the stuff I sold them on." He explained. "I decided to undermine them in my own way, but while also profiting." Kevin then pointed at Vince. "But then your psychotic monster here jumped me and tossed me in the back of my car. Sold the Forever Knights the real stuff."
"So you'll help us?" Gwen asked.
"You don't have to convince me." Kevin said. "Those guys ran off before I got paid. I'm happy to help find those deadbeats."
"What about me?" Vince asked. Sierra grabbed Vince's ear. "Ow! Ow! Ow!"
"You're coming home with me." Sierra said. "We have a lot of work to do." She then stared at Vince with eyes filled with pure anger. "And if you dare try to take advantage of me, I will blow your goddamn brains out. Do I make myself clear?"
Vince gulped. "Crystal."
"Good." She then turned to Jack. "Bye Jack!"
Later...
Kevin's car was driving down an open road. Nobody was on it but him, and his three passengers of course.
"I still think I should drive." Labrid suggested.
Kevin, being possessive of his ride responded with: "Nobody drives the car but me."
"You were telling us about the aliens." Gwen said to Labrid, wanting an explanation as to what it was that they fought."
"I don't know anything about the ones we fought today." Labrid responded. "Never met that kind before."
Jack activated the Omnitrix and looked through the aliens that he had unlocked. "I don't see them in here - not that I know how to work this thing anymore." He found that he had only ten aliens unlocked; most of them were ones that he had used when he was sixteen, but had forgotten about them, those were Swampfire, Chromastone, Humungousaur, Spidermonkey, Goop, Jetray, Big Chill, and three that he hadn't used before, Brainstorm, Echo Echo, and Alien X. Basicly, Jack had some work to do in term of learning how to use his new alien forms.
"Maybe after you get your license, pee-wee." Kevin mocked in a non antagonistic way.
"Who won that fight between me and Vince? Oh, I remember - me." Jack responded.
"There's been a lot of alien activity on Earth lately." Labrid brought up the presence of the DNAliens. "Don't know why. However, your grandfather thought maybe the weapons deal would lead us to whatever's causing all the interest. Now he's missing."
"Knowing Grandpa Max, he's probably at a restaurant enjoying a roasted cockroach salad." Gwen said, about to strike a nerve with Jack. "It's a wonder that all that weird food didn't kill him." And with that, she struck nerve.
"He's not dead!" Jack, who hadn't seen Max as much as Gwen did, shouted. "Stop making jokes about him!"
The tires screeched as Kevin slammed on the brakes. "Don't talk to her like that." Kevin pointed an accusing finger at Jack.
"I'll talk to her anyway I -" Jack realized that we was the bad guy in this scenario. His expression of anger turned to one of sadness and depression. "You're right. I'm sorry, Gwen." He apologized.
"I know you're worried about grandpa." Gwen knew why Jack was so quick to anger.
"I just wish he were here." Jack hung his head. "He would know what to do. He always knows what to do."
Labrid knew there were more important things to worry about. He responded to Jack's sorrow of Max not being here as follows: "Well, he ain't. You're the one with the Omnitrix." He said. "You're going to have to figure out how to get things done on your own."
Kevin slammed on the gas pedal. His muscle car sped down the highway.
Later...
As they drove down the highway, a castle came into view. Wait, what?
"This is it." Kevin said, stating the obvious.
"Subtle - nobody would think to look for Knights in here." Jack said with high levels of sarcasm.
"You didn't." Kevin spat semi aggressively.
"How do we get in?" Labrid asked.
Jack came up with a plan. "Gwen?"
Soon...
Gwen had gotten out of the car, as did the others. Gwen's hands glowed with energy. She fired a beam at the drawbridge and pulled it down, groaning due to the effort that the act required.
Once it was down, the four of them entered the out of place castle.
It was dark inside, and it seemed that nobody was home. Gwen used her mana powers to make a lantern of sorts to provide light.
As they walked down the main hall, Kevin looked at the artefacts that the inhabitants of this castle had collected.
"There's no one here." Gwen said. "You sure this is the right place?"
"There's a hidden door. Keep looking." Kevin saw several pieces of jewelry that caught his eye. He went over to them and pocketed a few of them.
Jack went over to Kevin and said with a mocking tone: "Maybe you should have brought a shopping cart."
Kevin disregarded what Jack said and moved on.
Jack turned his attention to a few suits of armor, which to Jack looked cool, but the lack of light made them seem rather creepy. "I don't like the looks of this." Jack backed up into a suit of armor. He bumped into it and gasped. He had knocked it over. "Aah!" He gasped as the suit came falling down, the blade of the sword that the armor held heading right for him. He got out of the way, but the falling armor made a ton of noise.
"Come on, man! What are you doing?" A frustrated Kevin asked.
"Sorry." Jack had his back turned to a dragon that rose its head up. "Guess I'm just a little-" JAck saw the terrified expressions on his friends' faces. He turned around and saw the dragon. "Paranoid!" He shouted.
The dragon growled at them. Right now, Jack was having flashbacks to his encounter with the Predacon.
To be continued...
A.N. The new story has started. FWI, TFPOT The Next is gonna be shorter than Transformers Power of Ten(less than 40 chapters as opposed to 48).
And yes, the 'There'll be no going back' line that was said to Jack offscreen was intentional. When Jack got the Omnitrix removed by Azmuth, Paradox was there and told told him this: "Enjoy your normal life while you can Jackson, but the next time you wear the Omnitrix, what you do with the device shall define you for the rest of your life." And Paradox never kids around when it comes to destiny. He might crack a few jokes, but he never treats events that are certainly going to happen lightly.
And I know the whole off screen exchange between Jack and Paradox about the Omnitrix may come off as a bit of Paradox spoiling the future for Jack, but it's not. It's Paradox telling Jack to only put the Omnitrix back on when he absolutely has to. It's also about living with the consequences of your actions, which one could argue was a major theme in TFP, almost every episode affected the ones that came after it, there were very few, if any episodes that existed in a vacuum. The idea about living with consequences is also a part of growing up, which although Jack had dealt with that previously, this is where things change. He has a responsibility to save the world now. And in the coming battles, if he fails, millions, if not billions of people are going to die. The fate of not just the Earth, or Cybertron, but the entire galaxy will be resting on the shoulders of a nineteen year old human.
So when Jack starts acting like, well, as Tsukasa described, a discount Miko, he's kinda earned the right to act the way he will. He grew up as the only child in a single parent household, had to work at a dead end job to help his mom make ends meet, got caught up in an alien civil war on accident, and (this version of him) probably has had the following nightmares: his friends being eaten alive by scraplets, being possessed by Ghostfreak, Vilgax winning, Megatron winning(again), losing Arcee, his mom being killed by Airachnid, ones that are about Airachnid, him accidently destroying the Universe, losing the 'bots(as in they're dead, not they've gone home), and probably more. I mean come on, to top it all off, Jack's socially awkward(granted, he didn't embarrass himself in front of Julie, in fact Arcee mentioned the fact that Jack had gotten better at talking to girls). Basicly, Jack didn't have much support growing up. Sure, his mother loved him to the point where even when he's nineteen, Jack's still her little boy. But even when he's bragging about how he saved the whole entire universe, he never loses sight of what's important. Protecting people and saving the day. This is going to be a turning point for not just the history of this universe, but in Jack's life overall, much how at about this age, we begin to discover our true callings in life, find our way if you will.
But I bet you don't want to talk about maturation. You want to know what the 'bots have been up to over the past three years? Yeah, I think I owe you guys an explanation about that. Well, the Autobots stuck around because once again, they were stuck on Earth, and remember how Team Prime vs Team Nadir ended? Well, if you don't, the 'cons were forced to retreat after Jack(as Way Big) tossed the Nemesis as far as he could, so it's been three years since the the cons were scared off. So basicly, the 'bots have been taking it easy during this time of peace. And yes, Jack is still in highschool. As to why, he's one of those kids who didn't start going to school until he was a bit older than the other kids. BTW, in my highschool, there are seniors who are twenty. But as for how old Jack was when he started high school, he was sixteen as a freshman(which might not be correct, but we're never told what grades the kids are in, that or we're told, but not out right).
The collectibles for the riders that I made up(Marvel, Kingryu, and Ri-xpress) are all based on sentai collectables. Rider Keys are obviously based on Ranger Keys, Rider Cells are based on Zyudenchi, and Express Engines are based on the Ressha from Toqger. The riders are based on the red rangers from those series. Marvel is based on Marvelous(since in this universe, Kamen Rider Marvel was the 40th show), Kingryu is a portmanteau of Diago(king) and dragon(ryu), Kingryu was dinosaur based, which is a rider theme that we've never had as the main motif. Ri-xpress is a combination of Right(the leader of the Toqgers) and Express(the english word for Ressha). It was a train themed rider much like Den-O, but that show in contrast to Toqger and Den-O's light heartedness, Ri-express was fairly dark, but not as much as Gaim will be, since Gaim hasn't premiered yet.
Also, a bit of more on my style of writing. In my fanfictions, I leave two kinds of notes, (ones in parentheses), and [another in brackets]. Notes in parentheses represent comments made by the audience and The Storyteller. Their comments are things like logic errors. Notes in brackets are comments that I make as a writer, such as things that would break the fourth wall if the narrator were to mention. Things such as knowledge of things like similar voice actors, knowledge of other works on , other transformers series, bits of trivia, and other stuff like that. It's how I do my bits of obvious foreshadowing. Sometimes I put emphasis on certain words, like 'Surprise' and 'Drive' at the end of Jack vs Malware, other time, I insert things like this: [Me: *Laughing manically internally* *Smiling mischievously intensifies*]