Billy got the Brachiostaff reassembled. It was the simplest thing that had to get done at that point.
"I can't find Ben anywhere." Doug said. He had taken to the sensors while the rest of the 'genius team'; Rose, Kendall, Billy, Hayley, Donnie, April and Dr. Rockwell continued to work on the command center itself. "I don't know if it's something that Chiron did or what but he's not showing up on sensors."
"How long do you think it will be before Sermaya strikes again?" Carlos wondered. He and Jane were not helping out, with bits of assistance from Jordan as well. "I mean this is the first time we've seen him since they attacked the school weeks ago."
Mal felt her stomach tighten at the thought they would go months without getting the chance to bring Ben back where he belonged. Right now they had elected not to tell Belle and Adam what had happened but if it he was gone for more than a day they would have no choice but to reveal to his parents what had happened. She briefly lowered the Praeleanthor sword, interrupting the practice she was putting into using the weapon with Jason.
"I'm sure it won't be that long M." Evie tried to reassure her first chosen sister as firmly as possible.
Carlos looked ready to debate that point but Jane quickly nudged him in the side to keep him quiet. The yellow ranger had a perfectly valid point but it wasn't going to help Mal feel better or raise morale in general to pursue that path.
"It might be a good thing that the beast can't access Ben's powers without the Praeleanthor sword." Jay tried to note somewhat brightly. "He'd be a bigger threat then."
"Does he even need it?" Audrey wondered as she looked to Mal. The only time she had been hit outside of battles was when Chad managed to isolate her and attack her. She had never been hit by Ben before thankfully.
Mal thought a moment. Beast Ben seemed stronger than normal Ben but not nearly as strong as most of enemies they faced. "It wouldn't hurt, from his perspective I mean." She answered.
"For what it's worth I'm not entirely sure the Praeleanthor sword would respond to the beast that is controlling Ben." Kat said. "The original artifact that the Praeleanthor sword seems to be based on wouldn't respond to just anyone, just a hero."
"It's responded to all of you so far." Ruby said with some laughter. "I guess that means you're all heroes. And that wherever the tech came from there weren't a lot of heroes." Kat giggled a little bit, but like Amber, Billy, Jason and Tommy her face showed just enough grimness that perhaps that comment struck closer to home than they would have liked. It made her wonder about the circumstances of the original artifact.
Near the torii, the same object that faced the ocean on the side where the Isle of the Lost could be seen, Chiron was setting up a ritual for the next thing they wanted. He had Green Baboon and Yellow Baboon helping him with the set up. On the side Sermaya and the new Ben was watching them. In the trees one could just make out Simorgh.
"What's the point of this again?" The beast Ben questioned Sermaya as he leaned against a tree.
"I've finally gotten you join us." Sermaya said with some pride. "I must say it was quite unexpected, thanks to the evil fairy from the isle." He looked to the Isle of the Lost though that was not Maleficent's current location, no one in Auradon outside of her group knew where she was now. "But we have had another unexpected opportunity placed in front of us that we cannot ignore."
"And we intend to make that work to our advantage right now." Chiron added. "But that is only the tip of the iceberg. Our attack on the school weeks ago lead us to one of our biggest and most important goals. Win or lose with this idea, the big games will begin soon enough."
"So Chiron casts this spell and we get what we want?" He asked Sermaya.
"It will help us out. We will have to make sure that your girlfriend and all of her little friends don't interfere before it's done." Sermaya corrected him.
"Well I'm sure as soon as they realize something is wrong they'll come running." He noted with amusement. "They always do."
"We are ready my lord." Chiron said to Sermaya.
"Good." He replied. "We will reach out to our new brother in arms. Make him see where his place is." He looked to Beast Ben. "But there is one more idea to this spell. Please, step into the circle as well and we shall guarantee your place among us."
Fairy Godmother was glad to see that the command center was slowly falling into place. Doug had just announced that they were ready to try to add more of the team's powers to the power network though at the moment it was up in the air as to whose powers would be going up next.
For what it was worth Mal seemed to have gotten a good handle on how to use a sword though they were all hoping Mal would be giving the Praeleanthor sword back to Ben sooner rather than later.
Amy sat next to her own friends Aquiella and Melody even as she watched her older twin sister. She couldn't entirely imagine what Mal was feeling right now. She had gotten kind of close to Alex but they were in no way near the same status as Mal and Ben were. She worried what would happen if this was dragged out too long.
Lonnie too watched Mal even as she helped Will and Jay to shift a console into place. She thought about how she felt when it was revealed that Will was supposed to be working with Gregory to take the Auradon Warzord from them. She was sure Mal had to feel as bad as she felt at that time…and it some ways she hated the fact that the person who was there for her when that happened was the same person who they were now worrying over.
"Perhaps if we were to scan for a genetic anomaly." Rockwell suggested to Jane as they messed with the sensors in an attempt to find Ben. "As far as we know there is no one else in Auradon that would have that kind of thing, except his father. And we know where he is now so we can easily exclude the castle."
The surprise of working with a giant psychic monkey had pretty much worn off and now it was a matter of colluding with a fellow brilliant mind. "I think the one thing that worries me about that is the unknown variable." Jane replied to him. "We didn't even know for a while that Ben had an anomaly like that. If we're wrong and others have something like it too, we might never find him that way."
"There's got to be some way to find Ben fast." Rose mused.
Work continued on in silence for a few minutes. Then all of a sudden April felt a tingling sensation at the back of her neck. She glanced around, uncertain of what it could be about. She was about to return to her console when she noticed Rockwell kind of tense up, but she wasn't sure why.
Rockwell on the other hand could hear it in his head clear as day. It's time. Join us, my brother. The voice sounded like Sermaya's, judging by the audio they had had when Mal and her team had found the Ben. It's time for you to take your rightful place within our brood. In some ways it was all too familiar.
Tyler Rockwell had once been a human neuro scientist partnered with another scientist named Victor Falco. Falco used mutagen from the Kraang and a sample of monkey DNA to transform Rockwell into his present mutant form so he could work on a psychic neuro chemical, though the results had been only temporary. However Falco had tried to duplicate it and become changed into a mutant himself, changing his name to the Rat King, which had not been Mikey's idea.
He had taken that name because he had gained a telepathic bond to the rats of New York, and that had included the turtle's father and sensei, Splinter. He had used that connection to try to force Splinter to act as his bodyguard and for a brief moment in time it had worked. Rockwell had discussed this with Splinter to get an idea of what it was like, but now he was starting to get a firsthand experience.
Join us brother. It is your destiny. Sermaya again insisted in his mind.
Now Amy caught the edge of something. She looked toward Rockwell. "Professor, are you okay?" She asked him. That drew everyone else's attention.
"I…" Rockwell started but again he heard Sermaya's voice. This time it was not spoken words but something more primal, like a howl of some kind. His assurance to the rose haired girl was lost, as was his other thoughts. He just turned around and started to levitate toward the exit of the command center.
"Professor Rockwell?" Donnie questioned as he tried to step up to his Mutanimals colleague. He turned to look at the purple masked turtle and the helmet glowed pinkish before Donnie was sent flying into Billy and Cam.
"What's going on?" Ally asked.
"I don't know." Jordan answered as she stood up to try to intercept the psychic monkey mutant. "But I don't like it." Before she could take more than a couple of steps one of the consoles slid rapidly from the corner of the room and blocked everyone's way long enough for him to leave.
"What is going on here?" Carlos asked. "Why did he just do that?"
"There was some kind of, of noise in the back of his mind." April told them all as she helped her boyfriend to his feet. "I just don't know what it was or who it was sent from."
Mal grimaced. "I think I know who." She said.
"Maleficent?" Miranda asked her.
She shook her head. "Not my mother. Sermaya." She answered. "Just like he was trying to get Ben to work with him because of that beast gene, he's now gotten to Professor Rockwell because he's a mutant primate."
"We have to get him back." April said.
"Agreed." Cam said. "But this might give us an opportunity here." When the others turned to look at him he continued his theory. "If they called Rockwell to their location, we can follow him and do whatever we need to do in order to bring Ben back.
"We just have to remember that Sermaya won't be alone." Rose commented. "He'll have his baboon defenders and Chiron with him, as well as hopefully Ben. That bird monster Sirmorgh might be there too."
"We'll find out when we get there." Amber said as the space rangers stood beside the Auradon rangers. Carlos gently patted Jane's arm as Lonnie leaned up to press her lips gently against Will's. Mal kissed Amy on the top of her head as each of her mermaid friends patted her hands softly in assurance before they all headed out.
Alex sat beside Amy. "Are you going to be okay?" He asked her as he took her hand now.
Amy nodded. "Yeah." She answered. "I just hate the fact my chosen siblings and two of my closest friends are going to fight and I can't help them." She shuddered just a bit. "That bird thing mentioned a taste for mermaids." She added softly.
"They'll be fine, don't worry." Alex tried to assure her.
The eight space rangers and the eight Auradon rangers did their best to follow Rockwell from a discreet distance. The last thing they wanted was to get attacked by their mind controlled friend. On top of that, it reduced the chances of him working to elude their attempts to track him and through him Sermaya and find Ben.
Lonnie found she was not surprised to find that the trail lead to the torii that had once protected Invader of Nightmares when he had tried to use his powers to bring down Mal, Evie and Audrey from their minds. They found of course that everyone was present as Rose had predicted.
For a moment it wasn't clear who should take the lead; Andros lead the space rangers and had more experience but Mal lead the Auradon rangers and they were in her native world after all. Then Andros cleared that one up. "How do you want to approach this Mal?" He asked her. It gave her the chance to give the orders while Andros could try to make any corrections he thought needed to be addressed.
"You guys take Simorgh." Mal said. She wanted to keep that flying menace away from Aquiella and Melody if at all possible, knowing the fact that he seemed to like mermaid probably made her twin very nervous. "I need to deal with Ben." She tightened her grip on the Praeleanthor sword. "The rest of my team will take on Sermaya and his goons. We just have to be careful not to hurt Rockwell."
Andros nodded. "Sounds like a good idea Mal." He agreed. "Let's rocket guys."
"Let's get to work." Mal stated.
As the space rangers input their codes on the astro morphers, Mal and her team took out their iPhones and input their numbers to transform. Then they stepped out in the open. "We've come for Ben and we're not leaving without him." Mal announced to Sermaya.
"Then you won't be leaving." Sermaya retorted with a laugh.
Simorgh took the skies and headed toward the two teams of rangers. Then they saw Rockwell turn around to face them as well. As the space rangers headed toward the bird monster Rockwell raised his arms and psychically entrapped the space rangers, tossing them against down in front of the torii.
"Guys." Audrey gasped.
"Don't worry about us." Amber said to them. "Get Ben. Free Rockwell from Sermaya's possession."
Sirmorgh dove at the Auradon rangers and they all rolled to avoid the attack. "Mal, you have your job." Audrey called over to her leader. She wasn't sure anyone else could get to Ben. "We have ours. We'll just have to add bird brain to it too."
"Be careful." Mal answered. "And if you need me, tell me. I won't pay with any of your lives to get Ben back." She was determined to make sure that she didn't lose her friends ever.
Evie also suspected that Amy would be worried about her mermaid friends. She looked to Audrey though it seemed as if the red ranger had thought about it too. "Melody, Aquiella. Keep the defenders off of our backs while we deal with the bird." She instructed them.
Mal approached Ben with the Praeleanthor sword in her hand. "Ben, I don't want to have to fight you." She said. In truth she was still trying to work out the fact that while the one in front of her was the boy she loved, inside it was the beast form that she hoped that Ben was finding a way to overpower.
I don't want to fight you Mal, but do you what you have to. The mind said even as the body growled in annoyance at the unbidden thought. "If you want any chance of keeping this world safe you don't have a choice." He replied and then let loose a predatory grin. "Of course the only way to make that happen will be to end this boy's life."
"Ben is still inside of you, I know he is." Mal stated as she started to pace her opponent. "He's fighting for control and I'm going to make sure he gets that control back."
He laughed again. "Are you delusional or just dumb?" He questioned. "What, you think if you let yourself get injured that he will suddenly break free in an effort to protect you? Or maybe you intend to try to beat me down enough that the mental anguish will be such a distraction that Ben will overpower me on principle?" It was clear he was being sarcastic.
Mal shook her head with a small amused laugh of her own. "I love Ben, and he knows it. But he also knows that I'm not stupid or selfless enough to let myself be injured when I have so many people relying on me keeping safe." She answered. "But I won't injure Ben either in what could very well be a vain attempt to weaken you either."
"Then a magic trick then?" He shot back, now feeling a bit more unsure now.
Mal shook her head. "No magic here." At least not yet, wonder if I can make one out of the blue. She thought to herself. She let herself sigh a bit. "I don't really have a plan." She found herself confessing as if she were talking to Ben in between fights as opposed to the enemy. "But I'll make one and bring my boyfriend back to me. Bring our king back to us." She thought briefly of Belle and Adam and added silently Bring their son home too.
"You know I have the advantage here." Beast Ben said casually. "You want the boy alive and whole. You can't or won't hurt me." He shrugged. "However I don't need your, your silly little friends or any of the people in this world." With that he jumped at Mal.
The purple ranger rolled out of the way and took up a defensive posture, the sword in front of her. "You need Ben's body if you want to stay alive." Mal reminded him, perhaps needlessly. "You can't afford for me to accidently kill or fatally injure you. You have no powers and I'm morphed and armed. I'd say we're on equal footing."
"Until I take that sword and shove it into your already dying heart." He growled with anger.
Mal worried for a moment that could be a problem. But she forced that from her mind. Right now she had to focus on how she was going to bring Ben back to them without a solid plan.
Simorgh spread his wings and then angled them upward so that feathers shot from his wings and slammed into the five rangers. The force of the impact knocked them down and the bird monster took the chance to dive down at the five of them.
Lonnie tossed one of her tessens at Simorgh and he barely dodged out of the way of the attack. It gave them the time to get up again though their feathered adversary was more than ready to take another dive at them.
Aquiella and Melody had been barely holding their own against the two defender baboons and the loud attack distracted both of the girls as worry for their team overtook their combat instincts. That allowed the two monsters to slam their fists hard into the chests of the two girls and to send them flying into the five rangers.
"This isn't working out too well." Melody noted. She looked to Audrey. "If those two stay out of it, the seven of us are going to have to help you with Simorgh."
Audrey grimaced. Like Mal she had thought about their safety after his comment of liking mermaids. "We should stop them before they do get involved." She tried to reason. "Cut them off at our leisure rather than theirs."
"Forget it Audrey." Jay now said to their leader since Mal was dealing with Ben. "We need them if we want to have any chance at stopping him. We should only worry about those two goons if we have too." It was unclear if he realized that Audrey and Mal were trying to protect them from a monster that had threatened them personally or if he simply knew that right now it wasn't going to happen.
"Look, it's my dinner." Simorgh said with a cackle. "I don't suppose you two came properly seasoned?" He asked with laughter.
Aquiella made a face. "That's disgusting." She said.
The bird monster laughed. "I suppose that would be your opinion, but I say you shouldn't knock it if you haven't tried it." He dived toward them again, this time aiming for the orange ranger but Carlos moved in front of her and slashed him across the face with his earthquake claw daggers.
"Maybe you two could try and drown him? Sort to speak?" Evie questioned the two of them.
Sermaya tried to drive his huge fist into Jay's head now but he ducked under the attack and then kicked him as hard as he could in the chest, making him stumbled just a little bit.
"It's worth a shot." Melody answered. She just hoped the bird monster would give them the time to implement that plan. Aquiella took out her tidal boomerangs and tried to charge up her weapons even as Melody placed her arms on her shoulders to lend her whatever power she could give her cousin.
But as Ariel's daughter had been afraid of Simorgh would not give them that time. He dove right at them. Jay and Audrey tried to knock him off course with their own weapons but the wings rose up and slashed the two backwards. The downward stroke of the wings struck out Lonnie and Carlos even as he hooked his beak around Evie's mirror force shield and tossed her aside hard. He ended by striking the two mermaid girls hard, making them land just as roughly.
Sermaya looked with amusement as he saw the seven Auradon rangers on the ground, struggling again to recover. He saw Mal and Beast Ben clashing which was even more amusing. Mal was trying her hardest without hurting him, but her opponent seemed to take great glee in trying to take the sword to critically injure or kill her.
He looked to the Defender of the Forest and Archer of the Forest. "Crush the space rangers." He ordered them. They both nodded and started over to them. They were still struggling but against Rockwell's psychic powers it was useless.
"This is not looking good." Ellie said softly. She looked to Doug and the others. "What can we do to help them?"
"There's nothing you can do your highness." Fairy Godmother reminded her gently. She was not a ruler of Auradon but she was the heir apparent to Arendelle when her mother Queen Elsa either stepped down or was no longer around.
"But Mal…" Amy said softly as she watched Beast Ben grab her arm and twist hard. She barely slipped out of the grip before he broke it. "She needs us…she needs me."
"Is there any way to disrupt Doctor Rockwell's psychic control?" Rose asked now. She hoped if they could free the space rangers that would turn the tide in the fight easily enough.
"Not from here." Cam said. "And it would probably have to be on a psychic level too. Physically those two baboon goons can keep him protected and he doesn't seem to have any control of his own."
"Hold on, that's it!" Donnie exclaimed. "It's so simple." He looked to them all. "Rockwell's most powerful psychic control comes from the helmet he took from the Kraang. If he's disarmed of the helmet he loses his psychic stranglehold on the space rangers."
"Grand." Jordan said with a roll of her eyes. "Except that our team mates are too busy getting beaten down by Simorgh, Sermaya and even our own king."
April bit her lip as she watched the screen. She heard Hayley comment, "We might be able to get a couple more powers up and running through the backup systems. It's a temporary solution though and I don't know how much that will help."
"They only need to stay on the backup systems for maybe two hours." Kendall interjected. "Rose and I should have access to the morphing grid for permanent integration by then." Alpha had to stay on the megaship to orchestrate that part of the reconstruction.
"Let's do it then." April suddenly announced. They all looked to the red head. "I have a plan on what we need to do." She looked to Doug. "This is who I need to get their powers restored for this to work…"
Mal flexed her arm, trying to ignore the pain in her arm from Beast Ben's strong hold on her. "Oh, Ben." She said softly. "You have to fight him before this turns into something that isn't so easy to reverse."
"There is no Ben!" He exclaimed and tried to kick Mal in the side of the head but she dodged under the attack. She knew she probably should have tackled him right then and there but was afraid that it would hurt him. "He's gone, and I'm all that's left!"
"I can't…I don't believe that." Mal said to him.
Ben moved fast and brought his hands in a chopping motion down hard on her shoulders. She let out a gasp of pain and fell to the ground, dropping the Praeleanthor sword. He knelt down and picked up the ancient weapon before turning looking down on a stunned Mal. "This is it, love. You and I just have our separate paths to take, and this is where you get off." With that he raised the sword high.