Where we left off...

Jack, Gwen, Kevin, and Labrid were running from the dragon that they found in the Forever Knights' castle.

The dragon roared before slamming its front feet on the ground, cracking the floor. They managed to get into a room that the dragon couldn't get into, for the moment at least.

Labrid gasped when he and the others got cornered by a group of Forever Knights wielding laser lances. One of them pointed a sword at them.

"Nobody move." The sword wielding knight said. "Hands above your head!"

"Make me." Kevin touched a stone pillar and took on the properties of it. With a bit of effort on his part, he managed to lift up the floor. He then slammed it back down as if it were a bed sheet. The floor made waves that tossed around the knights.

More knights came from another room. They took aim at the group and fired their laser lances. Gwen brought up a barrier that she used to block some of their blasts. She made another barrier as her first one started to crack. Shattering the first shield, she grabbed Labrid's laser pistol and levitated it. She fired at the knights, taking them out one by one.

Jack was going to activated the Omnitrix and fight the Forever Knights, but he heard the growling of the dragon. "Whoops."

The Dragon broke into the room where the gun fight was going on.

Jack ran at the dragon. He activated the Omnitrix and slammed down on the first hologram that showed up, which was a Sonarian that he would call Echo Echo.

"Echo Echo!" The Sonarian announced. He split himself into five duplicates, but unlike Ditto, Echo Echo and his clones weren't linked in any way. The Echo Echos jumped at the Dragon, climbing on his face. "Got him!" They repeated once each. They somehow managed to knock over the dragon that was already T-rex sized when compared to Jack, but as Echo Echo, the Dragon was at least twice as Big.

In the cloud of dust that was thrown up by the falling dragon, Kevin managed to grab two of the knights. He held one in each of his hands.

One of the knights knew how this was going to end. "Oh, you're not gonna -"

"Yeah, I am." Kevin replied with a smirk. He slammed their helmets together, knocking them out. Kevin dodge several blaster bolts before three knights tried to gang up on him, but he tossed them to the side. He ran at a group of knights that were lined up. He punched them away. One of the knights stood behind Kevin and was about to fire at him.

As Gwen fired bolts of mana, labrid saw this and shouted: "Kevin!" He took aim at that knight, shooting him, which either knocked him out or killed him.

Regardless, the knight of unknown consciousness status managed to pull the trigger, causing a shoot the laser lance of one his comrades. That knight was knocked against a wall, but was still conscious. He glanced to his right and saw his laser lance, but it was sparking. Being an idiot, he picked it up and was going to use it to fight.

"Don't do it! It's busted!" The Magister warned.

When the Knight pulled the trigger, an orb of red energy built up around him. "Aah!" He howled in pain as he was ripped apart on the atomic level.

"Hit the deck!" Labrid shouted. He jumped at Kevin, tackling him and getting him to a safe distance. All that was left of the knight was a twenty foot wide crater. "That's why level-5 technology is illegal on Earth. Humans aren't ready for it." He explained.

"I owe you one." Kevin said as he stood back up.

"Yeah, you do." Labrid said before he and Kevin ran at the surviving Forever Knights, who were starting to overpower Gwen. They lifted up two of the knights and tossed them away.

Gwen fired a mana bolt at one of the knights. As two more ran at her. She jumped up and generated a platform that she used to get above them. She then jumped off the platform and came down, kicking the knights' helmets together, knocking them out. The then grabbed one of the knights with a beam of mana energy and slammed him into two others. As four more knights ran at her, Gwen created a bubble around her that she expanded, knocking the knights away. She then fired one more bolt to deal with the last stragglers.

The dragon was trying to shake the Echo Echos off of him. "Got him! Got him!" The dragon then tossed the three that were on his head off. "Don't got him!" Those three Echo Echos hit the wall. There were still three holding onto the dragon's tail. Flung off, they hit a wall before falling to the stone floor. Two of them ran up to the dragon, while one of them stood in place, inhaled and unleashed his signature attack, a sonic screech that was similar to the one Jack's Loboan form uses, but was a lot quieter, considering the one a Loboan uses is a howl. However, it was more destructive, as it caused the very foundation of the castle to shake and rumble. As all six Echo Echos directed their attacks at the dragon, Gwen, Labrid, and Kevin were all unintentionally affected by the attack. They were covering their ears, but even if they didn't they would suffer at worst, a ringing that would last at least half an hour. Eventually, the dragon fell apart, revealing it to be robotic. Eventually, the chunks began to crack then explode.

The Echo Echos merged back into one as the others approached him.

"You could warn somebody when you're gonna do that." Kevin groan in frustration.

Echo Echo looked behind him to see Gwen with her hands on her hips in an angered manner. "Seriously." Gwen said. "I've got earplugs in my purse."

"Sorry." Echo Echo apologized. He hung his head like a child who did something wrong.

Labrid meanwhile had piled up all the laser lances. He stood next the pile after tossing a couple of them on it.

"That's all of them." He said. "If you wouldn't mind."

Echo Echo inhaled. Gwen and Kevin covered their ears. The silicon alien unleashed a concentrated sonic piuse at the pile of illegal weapons. Seconds later, they exploded, but something went wrong.

Labrid's suit started to leak. The liquid that dripped out evaporated the second it hit the cold stone floor.

Echo Echo expressed his concern. "Hey, are you okay? There's-" Through sheer will power, Jack reverted back into a human. "-water leaking out of your suit."

Labrid held his hand up to the crack in his armor that showed something blue on the inside.

"That's not water." Then what is it?[Oh. Oh god. It's blood. This show got away with a character bleeding to death by having the blood blue and evaporating quickly.]

Labrid Groaned as he fell to his knees.

"You alright, man?" Kevin asked.

Labrid looked up a Jack. "Jack, listen to me." He said.

"I got a tire-patch kit in the car. Maybe we could -"

"No time for that." Labrid knew it was his time. He didn't try to stay alive, only to hold on for just a bit longer. "There's nothing anyone can do."

Gwen placed her hand on Labrid's shoulder as he started to shrivel up. "Let us help you."

"If you want to help me, finish the job." He explained. "You have to find out where the level-5 tech is coming from."

"I will." Jack was going to do exactly that.

With a voice that sounded dryer than before, Labrid said: "That's just the tip of the iceberg, kid." He explained. "Your grandpa was on the trail of something big - an alien conspiracy with Earth in the middle." He groaned. "He was working undercover. If you crack this case, maybe you can find Max and save both your planet, and your friends'."

Despite being nineteen, Jack was still unsure of what he could do. "I can't do it without grandpa. I don't know how."

Labrid placed a hand on Jack's shoulder. "You- you are Jack Tennyson. You can do anything." With his final words spoken, Labrid closed his eyes and in a cloud of steam, he shoved off his mortal coil. His body vaporized, all that was left was his empty suit. It fell to the ground, letting off a bang.

"No!" Gwen hugged Kevin in a helpless manner.

A moment of silence was observed for the fallen Plumber.

Jack broke the somber silence. "I'm gonna need help."

"You know I'm here for you." Gwen said.

"Kevin," Jack knew that he would need Kevin's help as well. "I know there's no money in this, and that you have more important things to do, but-"

Kevin removed the Omnitrix shaped badge that was on the empty suit's belt. "I'm in.

Later...

Kevin sat in the driver's seat of his car. Next to him was Jack. Gwen was outside of the car, floating above the ground.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Jack shouted after peering his head out of the opened window.

"No, I've never done this before." Gwen said while one of the laser lances rotated around in the air wildly. "But in theory I should be able to trace the vibrations from this laser lance back to the people who used to own it." She said to herself.

Jack then realized that something was up. "I thought I destroyed all those things."

"I kept one as a souvenir. Lucky, huh?" Kevin said.

Jack raised his eyebrow to express his mild frustration.

The laser lance stopped spinning and pointed west. It then proceeded to head in that direction.

"Hey, it's working." Gwen said as she floated in the direction the laser lance was going. "Follow me!" She shouted.

"I'll follow you anywhere." Kevin said as he followed Gwen. He would soon come to regret the wording of what he said when the direction that Gwen was going went down hill, and off road. "Except there! Come on, Gwen! Paint job!" Kevin shouted, sticking his head out of the side of his car.

Soon...

They had reached their destination, the entrance to a mine. It was being guarded by a human who wielded a twelve gauge shotgun. But is it ever that simple?

"This is it - down that mine shaft." Gwen said as she and Jack took cover.

"We'll have to get past the -" The guard groaned as Kevin knocked him out.

Jack and Gwen ran over to Kevin. "You hit him too hard!" Gwen bemoaned.

"Not him" Kevin removed the face of the guard to reveal that it was an ID mask. "it!"

Kevin handed Jack the mask. "It's like the mask the aliens at the train station were wearing." Gwen said.

"It's an ID mask. Arcee uses this all the time. Which means we're getting warmer." Jack and the other walked into the lift. He closed the gate and pressed the green button. The lift when down deep into the mine.

Kevin complained about the lack of light. "Not much to see down here."

Gwen gasped as the trio saw something big. "Don't think so?" Jack said. What they saw was a huge ship, not as big as the Nemesis mind you, but it was large in its own right. It looked like the combination of a classic rocket ship and the tower of a castle. But that wasn't all. Below the main part of the ship was a section that had dozens of DNAliens moving stuff into it.

"Big." Kevin said, apparently forgetting how big the- oh wait. At this point in time, he's never seen the Nemesis up close.

"It's the mother ship." Jack was both right and wrong about what this ship was. "Don't you get it? Grandpa Max has to be in there." Jack reasoned.

"So how do we get in?"

Jack took the ID mask out of his pocket. "How's this work again?" He asked.

Kevin explained how the ID mask worked. "Photonic displacement. You can set it to make you look like whatever you want."

Jack had a smirk on his face. He placed the ID mask on. His appearance changed to that of a DNAlien. He stood a foot above Kevin's head.

"How do I look?" The now DNAlien looking Jack asked.

"About the same taller."

Gwen brought over what looked like a minecart that could hover. "Get in." She said.

"Why?" Kevin asked. He honestly expected to get a reply out of Gwen, who just stared at him with a stern expression.

Soon...

Jack was making his way into the ship he was controlling the hovering minecart, which Gwen and Kevin were hiding in. However, he wasn't playing it cool. He was risking his cover by trying to make small talk.

"Hey, how's it going? What's up? I owe you a call." He said to various DNAliens who paid him little to no mind.

"End of the line." Jack said as the cart came to a stop and lowered to the ground. Kevin and Gwen stood up, their first reaction was to the temperature.

"Aah It's freezing in here." Kevin said, shivering as he did so. "'I owe you a call'?" He criticized what Jack had said.

"Don't be such a baby." Gwen said to Kevin. "What's next?"

"See if you can find out where grandpa is." Jack said after removing the ID mask. He was shivering a bit. "It is cold, though. I'll give you that."

"Okay, let me try something." Gwen. Her eyes glowed pink as her hair floated around as if she were floating in the near gravity-less void of space. She then telepathically searched the rooms of the entire ship for Max, but found nothing. "I'm sorry, Jack. Grandpa was here, maybe a couple of weeks ago, but he's not here now."

"So, now what? We just get out of here, right?" Kevin asked.

"Wrong." Jack responded. "When I was little, Grandpa Max taught me to ride my bike." Jack remembered one of the few times he remembered seeing his grandfather when he was a kid. "He ran alongside me, holding me up while I pedaled. By the time I realized he had let go, I'd already been riding by myself for a long time." Jack turned and headed down the hall. "Training wheels off, guys. We're gonna finish the mission."

In a bit...

A circular shaped door opened as they stepped into a room that had what resembled giant purple plant cells along the walls and a red cylinder that resembled a lava lamp in the center supported by several rings that were held up by the platforms that were along the walls.

Kevin touched a door, his arm taking on the properties of the material. He punched the door and ripped it open. There two longest walls were lined with laser lances.

"Weapons room." Gwen said.

Kevin clarified. "Yep."

Gwen raised her hands. Bolts of mana lightning filled the room, causing the laser lances to explode.

"A little louder, why don't you?" A sarcastic Jack complained.

"No big deal." Kevin said. "We'll be out of here before they even -" Kevin stopped mid sentence when the strange sounds that the DNAliens said was heard.

Jack and Kevin looked over their shoulders to see a DNAlien on one of the upper platforms. It was pointing at them and letting out a series of grunts as he did so. About ten others joined it.

"You were saying?"

Two of the DNAliens hacked up globs of goo and spat them at the trio. Gwen brought up a shield and used it to block them. As more of the DNAliens continued to spit goo at them, Gwen made the shield larger. "How about we fight them instead of each other?" She suggested.

Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected one of the aliens that he recognized.

He was transformed into... "Humungousaur! Yes!" The Vaxasaurian turned his attention to the DNAliens. "Guess what time it is?" When he didn't get a response, he gave the mooks the answer. "It's hero time!" Humungousaur jumped over the shield and body slammed the group of DNAliens, but most of them scattered before he landed. He roared as he ran after the others.

"Save some for me." Kevin said after turning his other arm into steel. "Those creeps cost me a major payday." After tying up one of the DNAliens with bands of manna, Gwen turned her attention towards Kevin after hearing what he said. "Also because they're evil, and we're against that."

Kevin stood up and punched the head off of one of the DNAliens. Whoops. Kevin then punched another one, this time knocking it over. When he ran at the group of DNAliens, he delivered an uppercut to two of them, sending those two DNAliens over his head and onto the ground where the lay unconscious.

Gwen fired mana bolts at all of the DNAliens that ran at her, knocking each one out with one shot.

As Humungousaur fought the DNAliens, a group of them tackled him and knocked him down. Another one spat at his wrist in an attempt to hold his arm down. "I can't believe you just did that." He clenched his fist and moved his arm, pulling it up. He didn't break the goo, but he did tear up a chunk of the floor that was attached to his arm. He then roared again before hitting another one of the DNAliens with his tail. Charging at the DNAliens, he ran at them, knocking them away. He then rammed one into the wall, KOing it and breaking the stone slab that was on his wrist.

Soon after that, Kevin and Gwen had finished off the rest of the DNAliens.

"We kicked butt!" Kevin proudly proclaimed.

"So far, but there could be hundreds of these guys in here." Humungousaur said, bringing up a valid point.

"We destroyed the weapons, why not just leave?" Gwen suggested.

"Good call. Let's - oh, man." Humungousaur saw a Highbreed enter the room.

"What are you creatures doing on my ship?" The Highbreed demanded. When he didn't get a response, he was furious. "I do not repeat myself to lower life-forms." He contradicted himself. "What are you doing on my ship?"

"Did you just call me a lower life-form?" An insulted Kevin asked.

"I'm pretty sure he did." Humungousaur nodded.

"And while he may have a point, it's rude to say so." Gwen continued.

"You vermin would dare mock a highbreed commander?!" The Highbreed was furious.

"I'd mock anybody who uses the word 'mock'." Humungousaur said.

Kevin ran at the Highbreed. The massive white alien swung his arm. Kevin ducked to dodge it, but when he got up and tried to punch the Highbreed, it struck him, sending the twenty year old flying into the wall.

"Kevin!" Gwen shouted. When the Highbreed jumped over her and Humungousaur, it ran at Kevin. Gwen used her powers to stop the highbreed by grabbing it's arms, but it was too strong. The highbreed saw that he was being restrained. He swung his restrained hands, flinging Gwen into a wall.

Kevin got up and ran to help Gwen up. "Did he hurt you?" He asked.

"No."

"Well, I'm gonna hurt him." Kevin made his fists larger, making them resemble boxing gloves.

Humungousaur ran over to get between Kevin and the Highbreed to prevent Kevin from getting himself killed. "He's too strong. I'll hold him off. You guys get outside."

"I'm not leaving you to fight that thing by yourself." Gwen said, refusing to listen to Jack.

"No time to argue. Kevin, get her out of here!"

Kevin grabbed Gwen and ran. "You heard the man."

"Let me go!" Gwen shouted.

"As soon as we're off the ship." Kevin responded.

When Kevin and Gwen exited the room, only Humungousaur and the Highbreed remained.

"Maggot! You would face me alone?"

"Uh-huh!" Humungousaur charged at the Highbreed. The two titans clashed.

"Vermin!" The Highbreed delivered a wide strike and struck Humungousaur, who was sent flying into a wall.

"Whoa!" Humungousaur was honestly impressed with how tough this alien was. When the Highbreed was about to punch Humungousaur, he dodged the blow.

"Filthy creature! Hold still!" The Highbreed groaned furiously as the Vaxasaurian continued to dodge his punches.

"Why would I do that?" Humungousaur then managed to get away, but he was caught by the Highbreed, who grabbed onto his tail and swung him, striking him against the walls. When the slamming stopped, the Highbreed dragged Humungousaur towards him and grabbed him by the back of the neck.

"You've ruined everything by discovering this location." The Highbreed groaned. "You've set our plans back months!" He tossed Humungousaur into a computer, destroying it. The Highbreed walked over to the Vaxasaurian and grabbed his head. Looking eye to eye, the Highbreed said: "Inferior scum, I have to move my ship, find a new hiding place, and have to sterilize the area."

"Sterilize?" Humungousaur didn't like the sound of that.

"Destroy all life within five miles of here." The Highbreed clarified. "No witnesses will live to tell the tale."

"You can't!" Humungousaur shouted, but got his throat grabbed by the Highbreed who now held him up.

"I can, and I will."

"Let me go!" Humungousaur said as he struggled to break the grip of the Highbreed. Unable to get away, he decided to do something a kid would do and bite the hand of his enemy.

"Aah!" The Highbreed yelled. "Filth!" The Highbreed dropped Humungousaur. "You've infected me!" He grabbed Humungousaur's sides and tossed him with what might've not even been all his might. "Get off my ship!"

Humungousaur was soaring. He was going to crash, but was caught by Gwen, who broght him down to the ground gently. He fell to his feet. Looking up, Humungousaur saw Kevin and Gwen.

"Guess you showed him." Kevin said.

"He's going to destroy the town."

"How?" Asked Gwen.

"I don't know, but he's going to do it now unless I stop him."

The lights on the side of the ship glowed red, each one turning on one at a time. There was a blast, which Gwen shielded the group from. When the blast cleared and the rocket in the air, Gwen lowered the shield. Humungousaur then grew to his full size.

"You've got yourself a big problem!" He shouted as he ran after the slowly ascending ship. He manage to grab onto the side of the ship as it emerged from below the surface of the earth. Humungousaur adjusted his grip as the booster engine cut out.

As the ship flew towards a nearby town, her DNAlien crew began to prepare to fire the main cannon.

The barrel of the ship telescoped out. Humungousaur knew what was next. The ship fired its laser at the city, hitting a parking lot and tore it up. The ship then proceeded to move towards a hospital.

"No!" Humungousaur started punching the ship in an attempt to at least stop the ship's beam. He managed to punch a hole in the ship. Without wasting any time, Humungousaur ripped out a series of wires that caused the beam on the Highbreed ship to turn off.

Humungousaur was beginning to lose his grip on the side of the ship. He was slipping off.

Kevin and Gwen had made their way to top of the crater that the Highbreed base was located in. They saw that the ship was beginning to crash, and that Humungousaur was still holding onto it.

"Oh! Come on! Come on! Come on!" He yelled as his hands slid off. He fell and when he hit the ground, a massive crater was formed where he landed. He reverted back into Jack when the dust cleared.

"Not fun." Jack groaned as he lay in the bottom of the hole that he made. His blue jacket was torn in more than a few places.

The Highbreed ship crashed. Seconds after that, Gwen and Kevin ran to the Humungousaur sized hole that Jack had made in the ground. Jack was crouched over, checking his injuries. His leg had a few cuts, was skinned, and had a bruise.

Jack used a piece of his torn jacket to cover up the wounds. He looked up and saw his friend running towards him. "How'd you find me?"

"Looked for the front end of the big trench you dug with your face." Kevin said synically.

Gwen however was more caring. "You okay?" She asked.

"Humungousaur skinned his knee, and it was still skinned when I turned back." Jack responded.

"So what happens now?" Kevin asked.

"We keep looking for Grandpa Max." Jack said. He then explained what he meant. "Guess the best way to do that is to solve the case he was working on."

"Easy as pie." Gwen said, smiling as she did so. "Anybody know how to make a pie?"

"Listen. Kevin, I know that the two of us barely know each other, but I just wanted to say thanks. We wouldn't have made it without you." Jack held out his hand.

"You still won't make it without me." Kevin said. Jack frowned and lowered his hand.

"Are you saying you want to help us?" A confused Gwen asked.

"I'm saying I made somebody a promise. I'm seeing this through to the end." Kevin explained.

"Then you can shake hands, right?" Jack asked. He held out his hand. Gwen placed hers atop her cousin's. Jack looked at Kevin. He smiled then nodded. Kevin smiled before placing his hand on Kevin's "It's hero time!" Jack said. He looked at his torn jacket. "Just let me get a new jacket first.

Where we began the last chapter...

A DNAlien was walking towards the circular screen. The image of a highbreed appeared.

"You may speak to me, half-breed vermin."

"The news isn't good." The DNAliens said. "Max Tennyson continues to evade us."

"This is unacceptable, insect!" The Highbreed groaned.

"If I may, master, the bad news doesn't stop there." The DNAlien explained. "A supply ship was destroyed in an altercation with Jack Tennyson. Master, witnesses say he has the Omnitrix."

The Highbreed knew what that meant. "Jack Ten is back." He groaned before responding. "But he has no idea what he's up against this time. No idea at all!"

The next day, Autobot base...

Jack had bought a new jacket to replace the one that'd been ruined by the fight last night. It was the same shade of green as the Omnitrix. Using red thread, Jack began sewing a red autobot insignia onto Jacket next to the white '1' that he sewed on.

Miko, Raf, and the 'bots were looking at Jack as he put the finishing touches on his jacket. But that wasn't what they were paying attention to, they were looking at the Omnitrix.

Whispering to Raf, Miko said: "I guess he's decided to do it."

Chapter end.

Author's note:vUpdates for The Next are gonna come much slower than ones for Power of Ten.