Ben 10 RWBY Volume 2: Ultimate Omniverse

by The Omni-Remnant

Having returned from a massive adventure in the world of Remnant, Ben, Team RWBY, and the rest of their friends find themselves faced with new challenges at every turn on Earth. Be it villains old and new… or even things that they never imagined to be real. It's going to be a challenge unlike any they've seen before, but they're up for it. It's Hero Time! (Cover Art credit inside)

72. Building Toward the Future

A/N: Hello one and all, and welcome back to Ben 10 RWBY, where—IT'S OUR FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY! …Kinda. Okay, so it's not EXACTLY the anniversary of when Dimension Twist went up, but it's fairly close. But yes, August 28th, the day Volume 1 premiered. Man, it's been FIVE years already. Almost hard to believe. That said, unlike years past, I don't exactly have anything BIG planned for this one. Just a casual chapter to give us a bit of a breather from everything else that's been going on.

But before we start the chapter proper, I have to give credit where it's due; special thanks goes out to ZeroTheOne for helping to provide some inspiration on the Vreedles' antics in the past couple of chapters. Namely them hitting on—and subsequently GETTING hit by—the ladies of the Omni-Hunters. Thanks again for the idea, my friend!

Now, with the preamble through, let's get on to the chapter, shall we? This is…

Chapter 71: Building Toward the Future

…..

Ben Tennyson wasn't sure if he should be relieved… or mortified at the moment. Taking stock of the positives, things had worked out fairly well without him! The Saturdays were all okay, the bad guy was nabbed, and his team managed to fend off a slew of bounty hunters rather well. And, furthermore, Julie's presence had actually been a benefit to the team as well, the girl having taken on a leadership role in his absence. Heck, the fact that she and Yang weren't at each other's throats—something that he had been secretly dreading—was also really awesome to hear. …But on the opposite end…

"Hehehe, and so then, when Ben suggested they play fetch, Ship transformed into a giant ball and then BOOF! Squashed him with one bounce!"

"Pfft—Hahaha! Get OUT! That did NOT happen!"

"It did, and I have photographic PROOF!"

…His ex-girlfriend and his current girlfriend were the exact opposite of what he was worried about. Not only were they now friends, they were fast friends, and they were keen on sharing funny stories about him. In full view of the entire team. WHILE he was there walking with all of them! It got even worse when Julie pulled up the photo in question and she showed it off, the whole group guffawing at the image of him with only his hands and feet visible while the giant sphere that was Ship laid on top of him in a massive crater.

Nora was unable to control herself as she wiped tears from her eyes. "BWAHAHA! Oh my freaking GOD, that is too good!"

"I-I—I CAN'T—HAHAHA!" Ruby fell to the sidewalk, literally rolling with laughter. "I-It's so rich! Hahaha!"

"Hmhmhm, y-you've gotta admit, Ben—srkt—that's a good look for you." Weiss tried desperately to hold back her snickers, while Blake next to her had to keep her hand firmly planted over her mouth.

With a polite nod, Penny concurred. "Indeed, it is quite humorous."

Pyrrha and Ren were also trying to be more polite, keeping it together with the corners of their mouths threatening to break their resolve. Jaune, however, gave the Omnitrix bearer a supportive pat on the back. "Don't worry, man. I know the feeling of what it's like to be on the end of this kinda stuff. It'll pass."

"Gee, thanks." Ben deadpanned as he zeroed in on Julie and Yang. "Ladies, while I AM very glad that you two are getting along really well, could you maybe save the embarrassing stories for when we're not in public? Or in front of my team?" He jerked his thumb over to Nora and Ruby, who were practically a pile of hysterics at the moment. "I'm losing their respect by the second here."

Julie and Yang both rolled their eyes, the former putting her phone away. "Oh please, Ben, don't be so dramatic. Sometimes, it's good to remind yourself that you're human and far from perfect. Nobody is, after all." Julie placed her hands on her hips. "You're not entirely fallible, you know, and you really shouldn't give your teammates that idea. …Or should I bring up the Echo Echo incident?"

All at once, Ben's eyes nearly bugged out of his head in absolute fear, only for him to put on a clearly nerve wracked smile and give a stiff laugh. "AH-HA-HA-HA! O-Of course not, Julie, w-why would we need to bring up the Echo Echo Incident?" he asked while wringing his wrists anxiously, all while the team stared at him in stunned silent. "I-I mean really, there's no need to mention the Echo Echo incident. WHAT Echo Echo incident, even?" By this point, Ben had broken out into a nervous sweat, and the rest of the team were staring at him with unimpressed gazes. "Who's Echo Echo?!" his right eye twitched.

Yang and Julie glanced at one another, the blonde stating; "Tell me about the Echo Echo incident."

"NO!" Ben fell to his knees in desperation. "Julie, please, I swear, I'll do anything—"

"Ben found a glitch in the Ultimatrix that allowed him to make copies of himself by transforming into Echo Echo and transforming back again." Julie explained, leaving Ben shellshocked. "He then used this exploit to be in three places at once without realizing that his personality had been split up in the process. As a result, I got a rude and crude version of him at my game, Kevin got an overly dramatic version of him to fight the Forever Knights, and SOME third version of him got to see the Sumo Slammers movie… which I was hoping we'd get to see together."

The area had gotten so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Ben was staring up at Julie, slack-jawed in disbelief as he suddenly felt very small under his teammates' collective stares. Yang's expression was unreadable, but he could just feel the disappointment coming from the others. "…Wow." Blake uttered. "That was way harsh."

"Yeah, Ben, like… wow." Ren agreed.

"I… honestly have no words." Pyrrha added, clearly not amused.

"…I know." Ben lowered himself to the ground, clenching his head as his eyes screwed shut with regret. "I was an idiot. A self-absorbed, jerk-wad of a STUPID idiot because I let saving the universe go to my GODDAMNED head. I thought I was invincible, able to get away with anything at the time." He slammed the sidewalk with his fists, not caring if his knuckles bled. "But I quickly figured out that wasn't the case. I learned a painful lesson that day, and it's a stunt I've vowed I'd never ever try again."

Julie raised a finger. "And he didn't. He apologized to me for what he did a long time ago and that glitch was removed when he got the new Omnitrix." Her eyes shifted between everyone, hoping they would let up on him. "So please, don't hold something that happened YEARS ago against him. He's learned, it won't happen again, we can move on."

Despite her words, Ben was about to unleash more verbal abuse on himself for his dumb stunt… but then Yang stopped him before he could say anything by grabbing a hold of his collar and yanking him to his feet. Not one word escaped his throat before Yang pulled him in for a kiss, one that was quite passionate and full of energy. It took the team aback, to the point where some had to look away sheepishly as Ben leaned in and pulled Yang into a thankful embrace. Eventually, the two separated, and once she caught her breath, Yang stared deep into Ben's eyes and spoke.

"I don't care what you've done in the past, Ben." she said plain and clearly. "What matters is what you do now and in the future. That's what's important to me." Yang put on a smile and leaned into his embrace. "You'll be good to me… I know you will."

Ben wasn't sure what to say at first. Not only was Yang not bothered by what he had done, but upon second glance, no one really seemed to be judgmental toward him about it. "I… I-I don't get it. You guys… aren't mad?"

"Why would we be?" Weiss asked. "That happened years ago, it's done, everybody's over it."

"Yeah, dude, we've all done stupid stuff we regret." Jaune added with a bit of a wince. "…Some of us more than others."

"B-But didn't Kevin—"

Ben was cut off when Yang pressed a finger to his lips. "Kevin's different. He led an alien warrior princess on for years thinking she'd get married to him. He ditched her, hid all of this from you guys for YEARS, tried to trick you into pawning her off on you, and ended up getting Manny a fiancé he doesn't want." She narrowed her eyes with distaste. "As far as I'm concerned, he deserves every ounce of comeuppance he gets from that. Your case is FAR less severe than his."

That made Julie's eyes widen in shock. "W-Wait, Kevin did WHAT now?!"

"Oh yeah, you should've been here for that mess." Blake said with an eye roll. "I think Manny might've beat Kevin within an inch of his life if we hadn't held him back."

Julie took a moment to let that sink in before shifting her eyes back to Ben with an apologetic stare. "…Yeah, Ben, I've gotta agree with them. Compared to all of that, you really shouldn't feel bad about that incident anymore." She lowered her head to him in remorse. "And I'm sorry for bringing it up. That's something that really SHOULD be forgotten."

"Hah… it's okay, Julie." Ben assured, his smile slowly returning. "Honestly, I'm just glad that we kinda cleared the air about all of that before any misunderstandings happened." Going back to Yang, he reached up and cupped her cheek, which she was more than happy to lean into. "And I'm incredibly relieved that you guys don't think any less of me for it."

"Of course not." Yang pulled herself up for one more quick peck on the lips and nudged her head down the street. "Now c'mon, let's get back home. …After all, we've got a lot to clean up before your parents get back home and the Saturdays get back with the Airship."

"Ugh, don't remind me." Ben groaned, already working on dialing up Clockwork. "I hate having to fix my house whenever bad guys come knocking. I'm at least glad mom and dad weren't around to see it." As they continued walking, though, Ben couldn't help but ask something that had been on his mind since they had left Undertown. "By the way…" He craned his head toward a certain Pink Dynamo. "Nora, what the HELL are you wearing?"

With a cheeky grin, Nora gave a bold snicker and lowered her sunglasses, striking a pose in her punk attire. "I call it; Hammer Girl chic. Ya like it?"

"I think Gwen's gonna freak out when she sees you like that." Ben deadpanned, making Nora fall flat on her face.

…..

After a short walk, the team found themselves back at Ben's house… and were met with a rather strange seen. There were Plumbers there, as expected, and they could see Rook helping the officers load Kraab and Sunder's beaten bodies into their prison transport vehicle. However, there were also several Plumbers gathered around one spot in particular; a bit of scorched earth on the sidewalk that seemed out of place amongst the carnage. There, they saw Gwen, Kevin, Team SN and Ilia all gathered, and they were speaking to Molly Gunther about something.

"Hm, I see." the tomboyish southern belle said as she jotted down some notes. "So that's what happened… well, we'll report this back to base, but I'm not sure if—oh!" Her head perked up when she saw the rest of the team walking toward them, which she pointed out to the others immediately. "Guys, they're back. Ya might wanna tell 'em what happened."

The other group spun around and smiled when they saw their friends, with Ilia rushing over first. "Guys! Oh, thank god, you're back! Something happened, I-I wasn't sure what to do, a-and—"

"Woah, woah, Ilia, slow down." Blake urged. "Let's take it from the top. What—"

"AAAAAH! Oh my gosh!" Their conversation was diverted when, surprisingly, Gwen let out an excited scream when she saw Julie, breaking out into a big, happy smile. "Julie! It really IS you!"

"Gwen! AH!" Wasting no time, the two young women went in and greeted each other with a hug, laughing and giggling all the while. "Hahaha! Oh my gosh, I missed you!"

"I missed you too." Gwen reciprocated, pulling away from the embrace to take in her best friend's appearance. "And I see you've got a bit of a new style going on, hm?"

Julie gave a small shrug. "Yeah, I decided to change things around a bit. Though I wouldn't say going from pink to a purple hoodie is a MAJOR change…" She trailed off when, from out of her backpack, Ship peaked his head out over her shoulder, the Mechamorph clearly eager to see Gwen himself. "Hmhm, and I'm not the only one who's happy to see you, it seems."

The Anodite smiled and reached up to give Ship a pat on the head. "Aw, Ship! It's good to see you, too. You guys have been missed around here, really."

Kevin nodded as he approached the girls… with Julie's expression souring while he didn't notice. "Heh, really? 'Cause last I checked, you two've barely ever stopped talking with one another over videochat, so—URK!" Without warning, Julie suddenly delivered a swift kick to Kevin's shin, which neither he or Gwen were prepared for. "GAH! What the hell?!"

"J-Julie!" Gwen exclaimed, aghast at her friend's actions. "W-Why did you—"

"Yang and the others told me everything about what happened the other day." Julie answered bluntly, her gaze full of disappointment as she glowered at Kevin. "Just thought Mr. Ding-Dong-Ditch over here needed another reminder NOT to mess with the heart of a woman, or to try and pawn off another woman's man onto said woman." She and Yang shared a fist bump.

"Hell yeah, girlfriend." the Blonde Brawler approved.

Kevin clenched his teeth in pain as he eyed his girlfriend desperately. "I… I-I thought you said this would pass." he squeaked.

Gwen winced apologetically. "I did… I didn't say how long it'd take."

"Dammit." Kevin hung his head low, knowing that he was now on the receiving end of several disappointed frowns. "Ladies, please, Gwen forgave me! We made up!"

Weiss scoffed and placed her hands on her hips. "Maybe. But until you've proved yourself to us that you're a decent human being, you'll be taking your lumps."

"Oh come on! What'd I do to deserve—" At those words, the ladies' glares all became much fierier and more intense, abruptly making the Osmosian feel very small. "…I won't finish that sentence." Kevin said as he balled up and turned away from the girls.

While in the fetal position, though, he heard Ruby come up to him and whisper in his ear; "If it helps, Penny and I don't hold anything against you."

"Indeed. Do not worry, Kevin. This will pass." Penny reassured, which helped alleviate some stress from the Osmosian.

Clearing her throat, Gwen was hoping to change the subject. "Ahem, on a completely different note…" She directed her attention straight to a certain darkly dressed Pink Dynamo. "Nora, what in the name of Olympus are you wearing?"

"Gwen, I am MAKING a STATEMENT and you cannot stop me!" Nora declared firmly.

"Is the statement; "I want to sweat myself to death in the middle of summer"? Because if so, you're doing a bang-up job."

Nora pumped her fists to the sky in defiance. "I WILL NOT BE SILENCED!"

Ilia deadpanned, feeling a bead of sweat drip down her forehead at the scene. She gave a forceful exhale of her own, hoping to return to the more important subject at hand. "Ahem, while I understand that driving the lesson home for Kevin is important, as is a proper summer dress code, we have more pressing concerns." Her eyes found Ben again, her lips tightening seriously. "Ben, it's about the Vreedles…"

The hero nodded down to her. "Hm, yeah, I saw that they weren't here. And I'm pretty sure they were when I left for Undertown…" His sights drifted down to the out-of-place scorch mark on the sidewalk, his mind connecting the dots. "I assume that must have something to do with it."

"Yeah…" Ilia scratched her neck sheepishly. "They kinda-sorta… blew themselves up. Sorry."

Rook came over and bowed his head to Ben as well. "Yes, my apologies, Ben. I had not noticed that they had a bomb on them. Thankfully, it was a rather contained explosion, but still…"

"They did WHAT?!" Jaune shouted, the others all stunned by the news. "They… they destroyed themselves just so they wouldn't have to go to prison?"

Blake shook her head in disbelief. "Th-That's terrible! Prison's bad, sure, but it's not worth—"

"Woah, woah, calm down, guys." Ben raised his hands, hoping to bring the situation down. "It's really not that big a deal."

That statement made the rest of the team stare at Ben as if he had a third head. The fact that he seemed so nonchalant about the matter was also both astonishing and concerning for the group. "N-No big deal?!" Ren repeated, his brow furrowing at the Omnitrix bearer. "Ben, you're the one who's always going on about how we shouldn't kill our enemies! I'm pretty sure that extends to not letting our enemies kill themselves!"

"Well, of course… but the Vreedles are different." Ben explained, putting on a slightly frustrated expression. "Getting blown up and dying is pretty par for the course for them, you see. And their parents—who're also criminals, by the way—use a DIY Home Cloning Kit to remake the Vreedles every time they die, with memories and all."

The whole group went slack-jawed at his explanation, which Ilia confirmed. "Yeah, Gwen explained that to us after it happened. The Vreedles just really wanted to not get caught and they pulled out their last resort."

"Apparently the most that'll happen to them is that they'll get reprimanded by their mom or something." Sun said with a slight laugh." Heh, can you believe it? Something as major as death can't stop these guys. Kinda impressive… if they weren't such idiots."

Yang was quick to wave all that off, though. "Beh, if they're gonna come back anyway, I say they kinda had it coming to 'em." She peered over to Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha and Nora, who were quick to agree with her. "Those dumbasses tried to hit on us, after all. And that is just NOT okay."

After hearing that, Ben's mood changed on a dime, going from indifferent to enraged. "They did WHAT to you?!"

"Oh, trust me, we thought it was disgusting, too." Weiss sneered. "We kicked the crap out of them for even trying."

"GAAAH!" Ben clenched his fist, roaring in rage while facing his girlfriend. "Yang, when I see those two next time, I am gonna make them regret even passing a glance at you!" The blonde's eyes widened at the wrathful claim, but she found herself beaming with joy nonetheless.

Neptune eyed the angry hero curiously. "Say Ben, that reminds me… do you have a Vreedle form in the Omnitrix?" The moment he asked the question, however, Ben's appearance darkened, his lips curling down into a deeper grimace than before as his bangs fell over his eyes. The group stared at him hesitantly only to be spooked when he whipped around and clasped Neptune hard by the shoulder, making the blue-haired boy shout; "EEP!"

Ben took in a deep breath, raising his head up so he could stare Neptune dead in the eye. "…His name is Decagon Vreedle. We do not talk about Decagon Vreedle." His grip tightened on his friend's shoulder, instilling even more fear into him. "Understand, Neptune?"

"Y-Yes sir." Neptune squeaked.

With a sardonic grin, Ben gave Neptune a firm pat on his shoulder. "Good. Glad we understand each other."

*WHAM*

The team were taken aback by the sound of the front door slamming open, and from inside, Fiskerton came charging out with Zon and Komodo right behind him. Then, from around the side of the house, Smokey came barreling forth as well, barking wildly while Fisk jabbered on worriedly. "Ajabeebah! ZAH-ZAH!" he shouted as he rushed up and started shaking Ben by the shoulders.

"Woah, woah, hold on, Fisk, slow down!" Ben took hold of the Lemurian by the wrists, pulling him off as he spoke in a firm tone to him. "Relax, everything's okay."

"Mmph! Mmph!" Fisk whined as he and his siblings whipped their heads around, searching for their family.

Ruby, wearing a soft smile, walked up and placed her hand on Fiskerton's arm, trying to calm him down. "Fisk, it's okay. We rescued Doc and Drew, and Zak just went with them to get the Airship. They're okay!"

That made the gorilla-cat break out into a wide grin, pumping his fists into the air and shouting; "WOOP-WOOP!" while his siblings all growled happily. Smokey in particular was so happy to hear the news that he pounced right onto Ruby, licking her in thanks.

"Gah! Agh! C-C'mon, stop it! Haha! Th-That tickles!"

Yang couldn't help but smirk and roll her eyes, thinking to herself; 'Yeah, it's no wonder they like her.' Right at that moment, though, off in the distance, she could see a certain orange aircraft approaching from high above, which she quickly drew everyone's attention toward. "Hah, well whaddya know! They got here pretty damn quick!"

Seeing this, Ben gave a heads up to Rook and the Plumbers; "You guys might wanna clear out. They're coming in for a hot landing."

"Of course." Rook gave a salute. "I will see you all later, then. And I will see to it personally that these bounty hunters are put away." The Revonnahgander then climbed into his Proto-Truk and lead the rest of the Plumber vehicles down the street, leaving room on the street for the Airship to temporarily land.

The Saturday Cryptids were all too eager to wait at the end of the ramp as it lowered down, and once they saw Doc, Drew and Zak, they all immediately charged to meet them halfway. "GAH! Oh god!" Doc exclaimed as he and his family were practically tackled to the floor by their children. "For the love of—haha, okay guys, we get the message." He reached up and pat Komodo's head, the dragon hissing happily. "We're glad to see you, too."

Zak pushed Fiskerton away lightly, laughing as well. "Hehe, yeah, everything's all good. Nobody's hurt, we made it out in one piece." He gave his Cryptid siblings a knowing wink. "AND Fuzen got his ass handed to him, too. Courtesy of Ruby, Penny and Julie." He prodded a finger down to the three girls. "So if you wanna thank anybody, thank them."

The trio's eyes widened as, all at once, they were confronted by the same stampede as before, only this time with MUCH more enthusiasm behind it. "AAAGGH! ZAK! You will pay for this!" Ruby screamed, thrusting a fist out from the mass of fur and scales.

"Heehee! Yes, thank you!" Penny, conversely, was more than happy to receive the affection. "You're all most welcome! Hehehe!"

"Agh! O-Okay, guys, please don't crowd!" Julie pleaded as Ship began to shake in her backpack. "Ship doesn't do very well when he feels cornered! He might—WAH!"

*Whrr-tschzz-tschzz-tschzz-chk*

"SHIIIIIIPPPP!"

All at once, the Cryptid's friendly onslaught stopped once Ship had transformed into his battleship mode, clearly unhappy. "Ship-ship-ship-SHIP!" he barked forcefully, making all four of them back away from his owner.

"Holy crap, o-okay guys, back up and back off!" Drew encouraged, with Fiskerton quickly hiding behind her and covering his eyes.

"I am SO sorry!" Julie apologized, giving her pet a stern expression. "No! Bad Ship! Down, boy!" *blorp* Thankfully, the little Mechamorph was quick to heed Julie's order and slinked back down to size, dutifully returning to her while keeping his head low. "Yes, that's that I thought. You know better than that." With a heavy sigh, she bowed her head to the Saturday family. "Again, very sorry for how Ship behaved."

Doc raised his hand, shaking his head. "No, no, we're partially to blame, too." He glanced back toward his children with a warning gaze. "Our kids should know better to control themselves." The Secret Scientist also gave a pointed look to Zak as well, who shrunk back immediately. "All of them."

"O-Okay, I riled 'em up a little bit." Zak admitted, raising his hands. "I'll own up to that. My bad."

"Uh-huh, yeah, a "bad" that almost made a sentient spaceship go out of control." Drew reminded, placing her hands on her hips. "Keep that up and we may not LET you have the package we received before we got here."

Zak recoiled in shock and a slight bit of fear. He knew how much his parents got on him for his… frequent and sometimes inadvisable purchases. So whenever a package arrived for him, it always sent a chill down his spine if his parents got to it before he did. "…P-Package? What package?" he stuttered. "I-I haven't ordered anything recently."

Without saying a word, Drew turned around and went straight back up the ramp into the Airship. When she reemerged about half a minute later, Zak's jaw dropped when he saw her carrying a rather large cardboard box, somewhat rectangular in shape and about as long as her torso. When she set it on the ground, it reached up to Drew's shin in terms of height, and width-wise, it must've been about a foot and a half. "…This one."

"I-I didn't order anything THAT big, mom!"

"I know you didn't, hon…" Drew said with an audible groan, her lips pursed in irritation. "…It's from your damn uncle."

And just like that, Zak's demeanor did a one-eighty, his eyes lighting up in excitement as he gasped; "It's from Uncle Doyle?!" Zak threw his hands up and shouted to the heavens. "SCORE!"

"Ah, you got one of them "cool uncles", huh?" Ruby guessed with a cheeky grin. "I've got one of those myself… though he's never given me any sorta gift THIS big."

Zak whipped his head to Ruby, his exhilaration not letting up for a second. "Oh, you've got NO idea, Ruby. Uncle Doyle is the freaking COOLEST. He used to be a bounty hunter back in the day, but he's since changed jobs." The young Cryptid Scientist walked up next to his mom, placing his hands on the big box. "Now, he's a repo man who goes after rich jerks who avoid paying their taxes or commit fraud, bringing them down and taking everything they're worth."

Ben gave a thumbs up in approval. "Hey, I like your uncle already from the sounds of it. It's like the song goes; "Eat the Rich"!"

Snapping his fingers, Zak pointed to Ben with a nod. "Exactly. And sometimes, Uncle Doyle sends me neat stuff that he finds in these people's collections!"

"Which we don't exactly approve of." Doc piped up, only to give a shrug. "But that said, it's better than letting things go to waste."

"Still not exactly a fan of how it ends up crowding our home." Drew grumbled.

Going up to the box herself, Nora tilted her head curiously at it. "Okay, so… what IS it?"

An inquisitive hum passed Zak's lips before he gave the box a light shake… and was immediately met by the sound of several plastic parts rattling around inside. "Woah! …Uh, whatever's in there, it's in lots and lots of pieces."

"Lemme take a listen." Kevin offered, having recovered from his brief dejection. He took hold of the box and gave it a slightly harder shake, all while being careful not to agitate it too violently. And with that shake, a lot more became clear, the Osmosian wearing an eager smile. "Oh, dude…" He glanced back to Zak. "This is definitely Lego."

A collective "ooh" rang through the crowd, with Ruby's eyes lighting up. "AH! Oh my gosh, I've been meaning to buy some Lego sets! I've been eyeing those Ninjago sets online for weeks!"

Sun was also quite excited as well. "Ooh! You think these could be those Monkie Kidd sets, too? I've been wanting to get my hands on those, personally."

"Well, there's only one way to find out, I suppose." Pyrrha shrugged. "We'll just have to open it. Preferably not out here, though." She trailed off when she looked back to Ben's house… and realized that the front of it was still absolutely destroyed by the Vreedles' attack. "…Um, Ben? Didn't you mention something about fixing your house before your parents—"

"Oh, shoot! That's right!" Ben rushed up to his home, dialing up Clockwork in the Omnitrix. "Give me one second!" Slamming the door behind him, the group didn't have to wait long before they saw a green flash come from inside… only for another, brighter green flash to come after. This one made everyone cover their eyes for the brief few seconds it was there, but once it was gone… the house was as good as new. Almost as if nothing happened to it in the first place. With another green flash, Ben opened the door with a proud grin, setting his hands on his hips. "Ah, and no one will be the wiser."

"…I need you to come over to our home and do that." Drew commented. "It'd save a fortune on cleaning and repairs."

That got a chuckle out of the hero, his hand rubbing his neck sheepishly. "Hehe, you're too kind, Drew, really…" *beep-beep* Ben's eyes widened and everyone's attention was drawn to the street, where they saw Sandra's mini-van pull up and enter the driveway. "Hah, right on time, too." He went up and greeted his parents as they got out of the car, though their attention seemed to be more drawn to the Airship than anything. "Hey, mom! Hey, dad! Welcome home."

"Th-Thank you, honey." Sandra said breathlessly, only to point up toward the aircraft. "B-But what is…"

Ben quickly took the two by their shoulders and led them closer to the Saturdays, who were already prepping themselves for introductions. "That would be the Saturdays' Airship. And on that note, mom, dad, I'd like you to meet Zak's parents." He looked to the Secret Scientists with a small nod. "Doc, Drew, these are my parents, Sandra and Carl."

"A pleasure to meet you." Doc said with an extended hand to Carl. "Thank you for letting our kids stay the night, it's much appreciated."

"Oh, i-it's no trouble at all, really." Carl returned the handshake, placing his hand to his head in shock. "I-I'm just trying to wrap my head around your… unique family vehicle."

That got a chuckle out of Drew, covering her mouth with her hand. "Haha! Oh yeah, well, when you deal with Cryptids, you kind of have to have a mobile headquarters. And we figured that having a flying lab instead of a lab on wheels would be more practical." She went over to Sandra and bowed her head gratefully. "But really, thanks for keeping an eye on our kids for the night."

Sandra shook her head as she took hold of Drew's hands in her own. "Oh, any time… Drew, was it? In fact, feel free to come over whenever you'd like! Any friend of our son's is a friend of ours."

"Aw, that's very sweet. Thank you."

"Would you like to stay for dinner? I'm planning veggieloaf and it's gonna be delicious."

Drew was about to say "yes" to the request… until she saw Ben over his mother's shoulder, the Omnitrix bearer shaking his head vehemently. Even Team RWBY were in on the action, all of them either doing the same as him… or pretending to be yacking. Seeing the message clear as day, Drew quickly flipped the switch on her answer. "O-Oh, sorry, but we can't. Doc and I have to get the Airship back to Plumber base and get settled in." She shot her husband a warning look over her shoulder. "Isn't that right, honey?"

"A-Ah, yes, right, of course!" Doc knew that face from his wife anywhere, and it was silent code for "get the hell outta dodge". "We've got a lot to take care of, that's for sure." He turned to his children and jerked his thumb back to their aircraft. "Kids, c'mon, we're headed out."

Zak, however, wasn't about to leave so easily. "Um, actually, if it's alright with you guys, I'd like to stay at Ben's place for just a bit longer." He pat the box next to him eagerly. "I wanna see if any of these guys wanna help me set up these Lego sets that Uncle Doyle sent."

That comment made Carl's eyebrows shoot up, his sights focused squarely on the box. "Hold the phone, did you say Lego? Haha, well why didn't you say so?" He puffed out his chest and placed a fist onto it with pride. "I don't know about you, but I'm actually a pro when it comes to Lego, and I'm sure the rest of these guys would love to help out, too. Am I right?!" The rest of the teens all cheered in approval, as expected.

…All aside from Gwen and Kevin, though. "Ah, if it's all the same to you guys, we've actually gotta get back to Plumber HQ ourselves."

"Yeah, now that Coop's machine is here, he's sendin' someone over from Remnant with a buncha Dust to test it out." Kevin furthered. "If it works, then we'll be movin' on to phase two of his big plan."

"Oh, yes, that mysterious project he has going on…" Penny pondered, scratching her chin. "I wonder what that could be…" However, the redhead suddenly remembered something else important. "Ah, but how did Charmcaster's parole hearing go? I nearly forgot about that!"

Ruby gasped and zipped up to Gwen in realization. "Oh, so did I! Well, Gwen? Did Hope get parole?"

The Anodite grinned happily and reached out, grasping Ruby by the shoulders. "Oh, did she ever. In fact, Hope got a FULL pardon by the Magistrata herself!"

"…The who-now?" Blake asked.

"The head of the entire Plumber organization." Ben muttered, folding his arms over his chest. "She didn't wanna risk a conflict with Ledgerdomain seeing as how Charmcaster is the reigning sovereign there. Granted, she still has to do a "community service" to meet the qualifications, but she's basically free." He huffed and gave a shrug. "Not exactly the biggest fan of the decision, but—"

"Oh, Ben, stop being a stick in the mud." Julie piped up, giving a jab to her ex's shoulder. "I get that you take your job seriously and all, but you should really give her a chance. If Charmcaster wants to prove she can change, then I say let her."

Her speaking took Sandra and Carl aback, having not noticed her until now. "O-Oh! Julie, you're… you're back." the blonde woman uttered.

Seeing this, Julie greeted them with a slightly awkward smile and wave. "Uh, hehe… h-hi Sandra. Hi Carl."

"Julie, didn't… didn't you leave for Europe?" Carl questioned, the man shifting uneasily. "When'd you come back?"

"About a day ago, actually." Julie replied. "I'm helping my parents get ready to move across the state…" She gave a slight eyeroll at that. "Though I guess I should be lucky that I talked them out of moving across the entire WORLD just so they could be in England with me."

Sandra couldn't help but sympathize with the poor girl. "Oh, sweetie, trust me, I know what you're going through. My parents worried about me when I was going through college, too." She raised a hand to the young girl in reassurance. "But don't worry, I'm sure it'll get better for you. But don't forget to check in at home every once and a while, just so your parents aren't too worried about you."

Julie sighed and approved of the advice. "Yeah, of course I will. But that said, I should probably get home. There's still a lot of packing to do." Her attention diverted back to the team, grinning to all of them. "That said, I'll be in Bellwood for a couple months, so if you guys need more help, don't be afraid to call me up." Reaching behind her head, Julie gave some scritches to Ship, who panted contently. "We'll be happy to help if we're available."

"Really? What ever happened to "trying to live a normal life", huh?" Yang questioned with a sly wink. "Don't tell me going all Samurai on that Fuzen dude got that inner hero jazzed up."

"Haha, no, it's not that." Julie shook her head. "Though that WAS pretty fun. But if the situation calls for it, I'll step up to the plate." She went over to Gwen and gave her another hug. "Ooh, I hope we get to meet up again soon, Gwen."

"Me too! We should schedule a Girl's Day date." Gwen resolved.

Yang peeked her head past the redhead's shoulder in intrigue. "Ooh, that sounds fun! Mind if I tag along on that?"

The duo were more than happy to accept the blonde's idea. "Oh, definitely, Yang." Julie voiced, with Gwen giving a nod. "You're more than welcome."

"Awesome! It's settled, then." The Blonde Brawler craned her head back to Ben, resting her chin on his shoulder. "I mean, YOU'RE okay with that, aren't you, Green Boy?"

In truth… Ben was somewhat fearful of the idea, specifically because he knew they'd continue to exchange embarrassing stories about him. 'Well… on the bright side, I probably won't BE there for any of that.' With a short breath, Ben bobbed his head in support. "Yeah, Goldie Locks, of course I'm good with it." Once more, he bowed his head to Julie in thanks. "And again Julie, thank you for helping out the guys while I wasn't around."

"Anytime, Ben." Julie reciprocated as Ship transformed into his spaceship mode. As Julie stepped onto the ramp, she gave the group one final wave. "I'll see you guys around!" With that, Ship closed up and he took Julie across town, disappearing over the rooftops within seconds.

With that, Doc sighed and went back to his own aircraft, with Drew not too far behind. "Well, I guess we should be getting a move on as well. Gwen, Kevin, you two want a ride back to base?"

"Oh, that'd be great, actually! Thank you, Doc." From there, the Saturday family—with the exception of Zak—all boarded the Airship, with Kevin driving his car into the craft shortly after. Gwen was about to step on the ramp, but sent a brief salute to the rest of her team beforehand. "We'll catch you all later, guys! Hope you have fun with that package!"

"We'll try." Weiss acknowledged. "Oh, and if Rex is awake when you get there, tell him I hope he had a nice nap."

"Haha, will do!" Gwen replied with a thumbs up. Soon enough, the Airship had closed up and became skybound once again, flying off toward the nearest docking bay for the Plumber base.

Once the craft was out of view, Ben clapped his hands together, his eyes darting toward the cardboard box with anticipation in his gaze. "Well, now that everything's been cleared up, shall we head inside and crack this baby open?"

Zak hefted the box up and started making his way toward the door, cackling with glee. "Hehehe, you don't gotta tell me twice! C'mon, let's see what's inside!" The rest of the Omni-Hunters all fell in line behind him and Ben, filing in one by one with Sandra and Carl bringing up the rear. Sandra moved past all of them to get to the kitchen, while Carl stayed behind in the living room to see what exactly was inside.

"So, Zak, is your uncle a Lego enthusiast?" Carl asked as he sat down on the couch.

"Nah, he's a repo man." the salt-and-pepper-haired boy explained. "He takes stuff that rich tax evaders own once he brings 'em in, and then he send some of that stuff to me if he thinks I'll get a kick out of it." He gave a knowing wink to the Omni-Hunters. "That's actually how I got into Kamen Rider, if you can believe it. Some guy just had a bunch of Rider toys that Uncle Doyle had no idea what to do with, so he sent 'em to me."

"Heh, talk about a happy accident." Neptune chuckled.

Sun tapped his fingers along the top of the box. "But what do you think kinda Legos a rich guy collects? Probably some old and valuable ones, right?"

The monkey boy's words left Zak feeling a bit more hesitant, eyeing the box warily. "Oh god… what if he just sent us some crappy castle or town sets from the 1970's as a joke? I wouldn't put it past Uncle Doyle to do that, now that I think about it."

"Oh, hold that thought, dude." Jaune halted, kneeling town next to the box to pull something off the side. He handed it over to Zak, revealing it to be a white envelope addressed to him inside a plastic seal. "You got a letter to go with it. Maybe your uncle put an explanation in it?"

Zak pulled the plastic seal open and took out the envelope, giving a shrug before he opened that proper as well. "We'll just have to see…" Tearing the packet open, Zak took out the letter and cleared his throat, ready to read it out loud to everyone;

"Hey kiddo, Favorite Uncle here…"

That managed to elicit a chuckle out of everyone, which made Zak roll his eyes. "Oh, sure, he can get away with that since he's my ONLY uncle…" He shook his head and continued on;

"Been a while, was meaning to stop by soon and deliver this in person, but another job came up at the last minute. Sorry I couldn't drop by, but I hope these make up for it. I was doing a job taking down this jerk-wad who earned his fortunes selling old Lego sets for WAY more than their worth on the black market. This guy had TONS of stuff, Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones, you name it. But while I did plan on sending some of those sets over at first… I found something ELSE in his collection that I thought you and your new pals would get a kick out of. He had the ENTIRE ten-year run of this Lego brand just sitting around, all sealed and in mint condition, so I figured you guys would wanna bust 'em open and actually use them. So, here's the deal; I'm gonna send 'em to you in waves by the year they were released, so you guys can have fun experiencing this stuff for the first time. Hell, I even included some supplementary reading material to go along with it. Happy Bricking!

Love, Doyle."

As Zak finished reading the letter, it only served to make everyone else more interested as to what could be within the large cardboard box. "Sounds like your uncle is giving us quite the gift, that's for sure." Pyrrha noted.

"Yeah, and honestly? This has GOTTA be something good." Zak concurred. "He doesn't hype something up this much unless he's serious about it. So…" Taking up his Claw, Zak used the sharp butt-end of the staff to slice open the top. Taking a deep breath, he took hold of the flaps and slowly parted them open. "Let's see what's insi—AH!" Quick as a flash, Zak closed the box, his eyes nearly bugging out in shock. "…Heh… hehehe… oh my god." His eyes darted between Ben and Carl. "You guys have GOT to see this."

The two Tennysons peered inside, leaving the others confused as they were also quite astonished at its contents. "OH-HOHO! Zak, no FREAKING WAY did your uncle just send us this!" Ben rejoiced, pumping his fists into the air. "Haha! I've always wanted some of these!"

"Not gonna lie… that's very exciting." Carl admitted. "I always saw ads for these back in the day, but I was never able to get them. Always felt like I missed out."

"…Uh, context, please?" Ilia spoke up, voicing everyone else's confusion. "What exactly is in there?"

Ruby folded her arms with a small pout. "Yeah, c'mon guys! Don't hog it all to yourselves!"

Carl gave a short laugh and waved his hand in apology. "Haha, sorry, sorry. It's just… not every day you get to see some of these, and in sealed condition, no less." He raised a finger to everyone, keeping a hand placed on the box. "But first, before you all dig into this, I think I should provide some context as the resident toy guy." Once he was sure everyone was listening, Carl went on; "Okay, so back in the mid-90's, Lego actually wasn't doing so hot. With stuff like Power Rangers and Pokemon bursting onto the scene, it's safe to say that stuff from Japan was kicking Denmark's ass. Sure, Lego eventually got the Star Wars brand to make new sets with, but the royalties they had to pay to Lucasfilm wasn't helping them break even. So, they decided to start creating their own brand, which they would be banking on their Technic line, which is a bit different from traditional Lego."

Weiss titled her head. "Really? How so?"

"Well, Lego Technic involves a lot of moving parts and sometimes even electronics, which allows for the creation of mechanical toys." Carl explained, tapping the top of the box. "And, after several failures, mainly due to bad distribution and marketing, Lego would finally hit the jackpot with an idea that had the concept name of…" He threw up his hands and declared; "The Boneheads of Voodoo Island." The Omni-Hunters all stared at Carl incredulously, which he nodded at. "Heh, yeah, they thought the name sucked too, so after a rename, a small concept change and taking inspiration from Polynesian culture—though that'd come back to bite them later—Lego was set to unleash their new brand onto the world!"

Blake scratched her chin, intrigued by the story. "I see… and you didn't get any of them at the time?"

"Ah, no… I was a broke and just graduating college at the time." Carl said with a deep sigh. "And then Ben would come about four years later and the rest is history. Thankfully, I'm not in destitute or paying back student loans anymore, but still, I ended up missing out on this toy line, so I'm clueless about the lore behind it. That being said…" He craned his head toward his son, passing the proverbial ball to him. "I think Ben knows a bit more about that. So, mind taking over, son?"

"Sure." Ben affirmed, clapping his hands together. "Of course, I wasn't really around to experience this toy line either, but I took a brief interest in the reboot of it that came later on… though I was forced to choose between it and Sumo Slammers, so that hurt a little." A small wince etched itself into the hero's features. "Still have a smidge of regret about that, but all the same, I ended up looking online about these toys and I discovered the entire previous generation that I'd missed out on… and let me tell ya, it's DENSE when it comes to its story."

Yang bobbed her head in understanding. "Gotcha, gotcha. Well, if that's the case, then I guess there's no better place to start than the beginning, right?"

The Omnitrix bearer agreed with his girlfriend rather quickly on that. "Indeed, Goldie Locks. So… gathered friends, listen well to this tale." Spotting his mother's decorative nesting dolls on the hutch, Ben grabbed for the largest one and set it on the coffee table as a place holder. "In the time before time, the Great Spirit descended from the heavens above…" He then proceeded to grab the other smaller ones, setting them around the big one. "Where he delivered his people to an island paradise to live in harmony. These people were biological yet also mechanical in nature, and they were known as… the Matoran. At first, the Matoran were separate, but the Great Spirit delivered unto them three virtues to live by; Unity, Duty and Destiny. Through these virtues, the Matoran were brought together, devoted to the teachings of the Great Spirit so much that they named their island home after him; Mata Nui…"

From there, Ben got up and took hold of a large, black stone that was on the hutch as well, which he quickly brought to the table. "However, unbeknownst to any of them, Mata Nui's brother, the evil Makuta, followed him to the paradise. Jealous of the praise his brother received and the virtues the Matoran followed, Makuta cast spell on Mata Nui, casting him into a deep slumber, and the island into a dark shadow. From there, the Makuta took over the native beasts of the island, the Rahi, and began to torment the Matoran, until once again, they were separated."

Penny couldn't help but gasp in horror. "Ah! Oh no, that is awful!"

"…Sounds a lot like what Salem's trying to do, if you ask me." Ruby muttered.

"Exactly, but hope was not lost on the island of Mata Nui." Ben continued… wherein he finally opened the flaps of the box once again. "For the legends tell of six new heroes who would descend from the sky, and wash up on the beaches of the island. These heroes would go on to find and master the fabled Masks of Power, before challenging Makuta to awaken Mata Nui from his slumber. So, with that said… allow us to introduce you to…" Ben reached into the box and pulled out a large, grey canister with a red top, which had an image of a red and orange robotic warrior holding a fiery sword while surfing on lava. "Tahu, the courageous Toa of Fire."

Zak reached in next, pulling out a canister with a green top which displayed a similarly green warrior swinging from a vine and holding an axe. "Lewa, the agile Toa of Air…" Then he reached in again, taking up a blue-topped canister with a blue warrior using hooks to climb a sheer cliff. "Gali, the noble Toa of Water."

It was Ben's turn to reach in again, grabbing a canister with a white top and—of course—displaying a white warrior with a sword in hand standing atop an icy mountain. "Kopaka, powerful Toa of Ice…" Going in once more, Ben got a black-topped canister which had a stout warrior on the front, pitch black and wielding massive claws inside a dark cavern. "Onua, wise Toa of Earth…"

"And finally…" Zak went to the well once again, producing a canister with a brown lid. On the front, the brown warrior on the label was actually rather hunch, and had very strong legs he was using to kick a rock. "Pohatu! The mighty Toa of Stone."

The boys placed the six sealed canisters around the black stone, showing the Toa confronting "the Makuta". "These six heroes all share one destiny." Ben spoke, reaching the conclusion of the tale. "They have several trials and tribulations ahead, but if they can learn to work together, they will be able to save Mata Nui from Makuta. And through their Unity, Duty and Destiny, their tale will forever be remembered as the Legend of… the Bionicle." From there, Ben reached into his back pocket… and pulled out a tiny knife. "So, who wants to devalue a bunch of sealed Bionicle sets and crack these suckers open?!"

The number of cheers that went through the room could not be understated.

…..

Meanwhile, in Remnant's Land of Darkness, Salem's castle had been a hotbed of activity over the past few days, namely due to the several new residents taking up temporary solace there. Of course, the key word had been "temporary", but at this point, a certain blue-mohawked Australian was starting to have her doubts. Dominique had been irritated the moment Fistrick and his crew had arrived, as had most of her girls. Granted, she was pretty sure Roxy had… rendezvoused with Vandal at least a couple times, but she wasn't about to get on her case for that. They were all rather frustrated and were keen to let off some steam… but not many of them were gonna try for those "bros".

'Specially not me.' Dominique said with an sneer. 'No matta' HOW many times they try hittin' on me.' These were the thoughts she has as she, Callisto, Roxy and Jetta—otherwise known as "The Street Sharks"—marched their way down to the workout area of Salem's castle to get some reps in. "Alright ladies, we all know the sets we wanna do, right?"

Roxy had more of a spring in her step compared to the others, even nodding her head enthusiastically. "Oh, hell yeah! Gonna get some work in on my triceps, gonna get some focus in on my calves and… you girls okay?" She tilted her head at the rather grim faces on her teammates. "You don't seem to jazzed about this."

"Hah, sorry, Rox." Callisto shook her head. "It's just… living with those boys for almost a week now has been SUCH a slog."

"I know, right?" Jetta said with an eyeroll. "They can be so dumb… well, except for the old man… Crush, I think his name was?"

Dominque gave a shrug. "Yeah, he's alright. He's definitely got more CLASS than those otha' hooligans, that's for damn sure." With a breathy grumble, Dom started forward to the double doors at the end of the hallway, mentally prepping herself to deal with whatever was on the other side. "Oy, well, 'ere goes…"

The very second she flung the doors open, though, she and her girls were blasted in the eardrums by loud, concussive heavy metal music. Which, while they all were fine with the type of music, they couldn't handle the sheer volume, which made them scream and cover their ears in pain. Dom had to clench her teeth to keep them from rattling in her head, and it took all of her willpower to open just a single eye to see what was going on. …And she really wish she didn't. The training room was absolutely littered with chip bags, burger wrappers and takeout bags as well, and the loud, ruckus laughter was all they needed to know who was responsible. "HAHAHA! Bro, check out these reps!" Hoodlum shouted before lifting a barbell that was absolutely stacked with weights, all while being spotted by no one.

"Hah-hah! Bro, seriously?!" Fistrick balked as he jumped off the treadmill he was running on, flipping over the front of it and landing on his feet, without even switching it off first. "C'mon man, I can rep at least TWICE that!"

"Oh-ho, nah, bro, you couldn't match these GAINS!"

"Wanna try me, bro?!" Fistrick challenged as he went behind Hoodlum, seemingly to spot him… only to then to lift the barbell up over his head with one hand. "Ha! Yeah, didn't THINK so!"

Hoodlum wore an indignant sneer as he stood up… and began fighting Fistrick for the barbell. "Bro! NOT COOL! Give it back!"

The only one who seemed even remotely practical at the moment was Vandal, who was going around trying to pick up all of the junk food wrappers. And once he spotted his two friends arguing over the barbell, he came to a sudden halt and dropped his garbage bag, trying to stop the conflict. "Bros! What the FUCK are you doing?!"

"Tryin' to show this bro how it's done, bro!" Fistrick boasted.

Hoodlum grit his teeth in anger. "What he's DOING is interrupting my reps, bro! And I ain't gonna—"

*CHOOM*

The three men hollered in fear as a massive arc of flame burst through the whole gym and slammed into the boombox on the other side of the room, toppling the stand it was on and destroying it entirely. As the speakers melted and distorted the heavy metal coming out of them, Fistrick, Vandal and Hoodlum all slowly turned their heads back around, only to be met with Dominique's death glare. "Excuse me… BUT WOT THA FUCK, MATE?!"

"As if you boys couldn't get ANY dumber, you go breaking ALL the rules of gym etiquette!" Calisto snapped

Fistrick's nostrils flared out and he dropped the barbell straight to the floor, cracking it in the process. "Uh, 'scuse me, dudettes, but last I checked, you don't have free reign on the gym yet." He thrust a hand to the clock on the wall. "You've still got at least five minutes before we bug outta here. Then you gals can have the gym."

"Oh-ho-OOOOH, no!" Jetta refused, getting right up in the skull-faced man's personal space. "We are NOT about to work out in this PIG STYE until YOU assholes clean this place up!" She jerked her thumb over to Vandal in particular. "And ya know what? I can see why Roxy hooked up with HIM now, because he's the most sensible asshole out of ALL you assholes!"

Vandal shifted his eyes back and forth with a slight blush on his cheeks, the white-haired man rubbing his neck sheepishly. "…Should I take that as a compliment?"

"You should. That's the first time I've heard her be genuinely nice to someone in a while." Roxy said with a bit of a flirtatious smile. "Also… hi."

"H-H-Hi…"

"Would you like some help cleaning up—woah!"

Before Roxy could even think of following through on that, Dominique pulled her back. "Oh no ya don't, Rox. Nice of ya to wanna help your boyfriend an' all that, but we're not liftin' a FINGER to clean up THESE bugga's messes!" Dom shoved a finger right on the tip of Fistrick's nose. "YOU can clean up ya own damn mess, ya THUG!"

Fistrick responded by reaching out his hand… and summoning his massive hand-held railgun to him from across the room. "Oh yeah?" Dom prepped her axe and the rest of her team took up their own weapons as well, ready for a fight as Roxy and Vandal backed away. "And who's gonna make us… bro?"

"I AM! RAAAUUUUUGGHH!"

All at once, across the entire room, every bit of glass shattered as Bashmouth came trudging through the doorway, with Crush right by his side. The pudgy, middle-aged man had his hands over his ears at first, but pulled them away as Bashmouth stomped his way over to his crew and the ladies. "I-I suggest ya do what he says, kid!" Crush warned. "Ya don't wanna spoil his good mood!"

"B-B-Boss! Haha, uh, w-whatcha doin' here—urk!" Fistrick was grabbed right by his throat and hauled up, so that he was directly eye-to-eye with Bashmouth.

"I came down here to tell all ya'll sorry slackers that I've come up with an idea fer some easy cash." the Metallikanine growled. "An' even better, I ran it by Salem an' she approves, so long as she gets a cut a' the profit a' course." He whipped his head around to the others, who all flinched with fear. "But what's this I find? Ya'll not gettin' along with yer new teammates?!" He scanned his eyes across the room, seeing the discarded food packages and the barbell that had cracked the floor. "…Oh. Now I see." With one swipe of his other arm, he took Vandal and Hoodlum in his grasp and howled at all three of them; "HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO RESPECT THE GYM?! NO MATTER WHERE YER AT?!"

"WE'RE SORRY, BASHMOUTH, SIR!" the trio screamed.

"IF YER SORRY, CLEAN IT THE HELL UP!" He tossed his underlings to the floor, where they all started scrambling to clean as he folded his arms expectantly. "An' I expect ya to fix the floor while yer at it, too!" With a husky huff, he glanced over to the biker girls apologetically. "I'm sorry, ladies, tryin' to teach these assholes is like gettin' a Panuncian to stop lickin' itself."

The four girls weren't so sure how to respond to that, but Dominique gulped and bowed her head to the Metallikanine in respect. "U-Um… thank ya, mate. I-I appreciate it." Just then, a sudden chill went down the woman's spine, and she craned her head back to the doors to see Salem herself stepping through. "O-Oh! Boss Lady! Afta'noon."

Salem nodded to the girls in greeting. "Good Afternoon, my Street Sharks. I see you've had to contend with… the riff-raff again."

Bashmouth lowered his head to the witch. "Gah, sorry 'bout them, Salem. These boys 're NOT right in the head, no matter how good they are at stealin' shit."

"So long as you keep them in line, Bashmouth, that is all I care about. For now, though, I would like to hear more about this plan of yours."

"Ahem, right, 'course…" Bashmouth reached into his back pocket and pulled out a holoviewer, which he pressed down on the center with one of his large claws. From there, the device began projecting an image of a… rather bulbous fruit, one that neither Salem or the Street Sharks had seen before. "This here… is Amber Ogia."

Roxy tilted her head at it. "It's a… fruit?"

"Not just any fruit, little lady, the ultimate fruit." Bashmouth pointed at the Amber Ogia and explained further. "This stuff is pretty much all-purpose. Of course, it's food, but it can also be made into clothes an' even be used as fuel." This managed to raise some eyebrows, with Salem especially intrigued. "Why, with enough a' these lil' suckers, ya'll could power an entire armada."

Salem nodded, her attention now completely garnered. "I see… and where does this Amber Ogia grow, exactly?"

"On a lil' planet called "Revonnah". It's in the Milky Way, so ya don't have to go far to get to it." Bashmouth raised a single claw. "BUT… ya gotta make sure ya harvest it when it's in season, otherwise ya end up with crap-all. Fuel don't last long, cloth's will fall to pieces… an' it just plain don't taste good when it ain't ripe."

A slew of nods went through the group, with Dominique placing a hand on her hip. "Alright, alright, so that means we gotta wait?"

"Yeah, but not fer long. The Amber Ogia's set to be ready fer harvest in just a couple weeks." Bashmouth tucked the holoviewer away before his fur hardened on his hands, which he then bashed together. "An' when it does, we'll be there to harvest it all!"

That elicited a cheer from Fistrick and his crew, who had just finished cleaning, but Jetta had some concerns. "Uh, question? What if Ben Tennyson gets wind of this? And what about the Plumbers?"

Salem hummed in contemplation. "Hm, all very good points. And I'm sure that the natives won't go down without a fight."

That made Bashmouth smirk and snicker. "Hehe, oh, I wouldn't worry 'bout them too much, ma'am. Revonnahganders ain't the most advanced race out there. All they do is eat, farm, an' eat what they farm." He placed his fists to his sides confidently. "That an' last I checked, there ain't no Plumbers stationed on that planet, so the chances of Tennyson findin' out are slim to none. And even if he did… he'd have to contend with these babies…"

With a swipe of his hand, the Metallikanine gestured to the doorway… where two familiar figures stepped in. "Oh-ho-ho, yes INDEED, baby!" Thunderhog exclaimed as he and Exo-Skull entered, both of them carrying disk-shaped devices in their hands. "Four new Gene Slammers hot off the presses! Courtesy a' Doctor Animo!" Hog tossed the two he was carrying over to Hoodlum and Vandal. "Here ya go, fellas!"

"Hehe, you boys are gonna LOVE this." Exo-Skull passed his pair of Gene Slammers off to Crush and Fistrick himself, the duo peering at the devices with intrigue. "Just don't go usin' 'em up in one place, 'kay?"

"Uh… what even ARE they?" Crush grumbled, twisting the device in front of his eye.

"They're Gene Slammers." Dominique pulled out her own Gene Slammer to show it off, the rest of her crew doing so as well. "They're what allows you to transform into a mutant temporarily, like us."

Almost immediately, Fistrick, Vandal and Hoodlum all lit up with excitement. "WOAH-HO, no way, bro!" the skull-faced leader of the group grinned excitedly toward the ladies, which put them off almost instantly. "You mean we get to mutate into gnarly animals?! Sweet!"

"Oh, bro, whaddya think I'm gonna turn into?!" Hoodlum shook with anticipation. "I hope it's somethin' wild!"

Vandal cackled with glee and held up his own Gene Slammer. "Haha! Tennyson and his chumps won't know what hit 'em!"

With an approving grin, Salem encouraged their eagerness. "I'm certain they won't. Bashmouth, I approve of this mission, and I'm eager to see it get underway. But for now, I would like to introduce you all to someone." Salem waved her hand back toward the hallway, where the group could see someone very tall and imposing approaching from the darkness. "He has been away for sometime now, but he has returned with what I'm told is very good news…"

Through the entrance stepped a very massive man, almost as tall as Thunderhog. He was broad-shouldered and barrel-chested, his skin deeply tanned by the rays of the sun. His brown hair was swept back, and he had a goatee that went along his jawline and went up into sideburns. He wore a sleeveless green jacket with a yellow collar, which showed off his scarred arms. A pair of belts were strapped across his waist—which were oddly worn OVER his jacket—and his forearms were wrapped up with sports bandages. His lower half was adorned with black boots and pants that had another set of belts… but these ones were strapped to his thighs.

"Everyone, I would like you to meet Hazel Rainart." Salem introduced. "He is one of my enforcers, and a reliable informant who I often send out to gather knowledge for our cause."

Hog and Skull were left awestruck and visibly hyped up the moment Hazel entered the room. "OH, SHOOT! He's BACK, man!" The two moved in and Hazel was quick to greet them with a grin, reaching out to grasp Hog's hand. "HAHA! Welcome back, brotha'!"

"Hah, Hog, Skull, it's good to see you two." Hazel reciprocated, shaking Skull's hand next. "It's been quite a while."

"I'll say. You've been gone almost a month!" Skull said with a hefty pat to the man's shoulder. "I'm guessing you've brought some good news, I hope?"

Hazel's grin increased and he gave a single nod. "Indeed, I have. I've met with Jax and Gillian Asturias as Salem requested, and they are fascinated by our cause." He shifted his gaze toward the witch, bowing his head. "They said they would be open to negotiating a partnership in the future, though they also have their own plans when it comes to Vacuo."

Salem didn't seem too bothered by that. "As I expected. If that is the case, then I will make it a point to reach out to them personally. I'm certain that we can provide some… reinforcements for these plans of theirs."

"There's more." Hazel continued, producing his scroll to show his mistress something. "I came across this man, who was recently incarcerated in the Vacuoan prison."

Showing Salem the image, Hazel was glad to see that her interest continued to be piqued. "Ah… one of Adam Taurus' followers." She glanced up at him with a quirked brow. "You believe he would be keen to align himself with our cause?"

"Perhaps… if we give him the right incentive." Hazel grinned knowingly.

At this, Salem smiled back. "I like the way you think, Hazel. Very well, I shall take him under consideration as well." Turning back to the rest of her audience, she held her head up high and spoke loud and clear to all of them; "As for the rest of you, you know your mission. Harvest the Amber Ogia and bring it to Remnant at once. I'm intrigued curious to see if it could be used as an alternative fuel for our cause… and perhaps even be used to enhance the Dust we already have. For now, you are all dismissed." From there, the entire group began to leave… until Salem stopped Dom in her tracks. "One moment, please, Dominique."

A soft blush came to the woman's cheeks, especially when Salem looked her straight in the eye. "O-Oh, um… y-yes, Boss Lady?"

"I have a… special mission coming up, one that I think you and your girls would be very useful for." Salem leaned in closer, knowing she had Dom's full attention. "Would you like to hear it?"

…..

Back on Earth, Rex let out a massive yawn as he shuffled his way through the halls of Plumber HQ, stretching his arms high and giving his muscles some satisfying pops. "Awww, man… I needed that." he muttered, rubbing the remainder of sleep away from his eyes. "Weiss was right, I was beat. Might have to sleep even more later on, now that I think about it." He approached an automatic door at the end of the hall, which opened up into the main hub of the base. There, much to his surprise, he was greeted by Six, Holiday, Bobo, Rook, Gwen, Kevin and… the Saturdays. Or at least, Doc and Drew, which managed to fully jostle his brain awake.

"Hah, well, well, would ya get a load a' that?" Bobo snarked with a toothy grin. "Sleepin' Beauty's finally decided to join us."

"Uh… hey guys." Rex waved, approaching the group. "So, uh… how long was I out?"

"About four hours." Holiday answered with an amused expression. "Hmhm, you were out like a light, Rex. Weiss, Blake and Sun had to carry you in here and to your room, you were so out of it."

The young EVO chuckled sheepishly, his hand rubbing the back of his head. "Uh, hehe… yeah, guess I really needed it…" *POP* "OOF!" Feeling another one of his muscles pop, Rex leaned against the nearest chair. "And I may need a bit more if that's any indication."

Kevin and Gwen both winced when they heard the sound. "Damn, man. Been there." the Osmosian sympathized.

Six went up to his pupil and rested a hand to his shoulder. "Maybe this'll also deter you from spending every waking moment obsessing over Van Kleiss as well." At this, he saw Rex's lips tighten, giving a curt nod in acknowledgement. "It's okay, Rex. We'll find him, free Breach, and then stop whatever it is he has planned. I promise, this is one loose end we WILL tie up."

"…Heh, thanks, Six." Rex raised a fist to his mentor, smiling back at him. "I appreciate that." After Six knocked his own fist against Rex's, the EVO took a deep breath and finally addressed the Saturdays. "But hey, welcome to our neck of the woods, Familia de Saturday! Guess I must've missed out on the welcome wagon, huh?"

Doc and Drew eyed one another knowingly, the former giving a breathy laugh. "Haha… oh, you don't know the half of it, Rex."

"Let's just say that our "welcome wagon" was a LOT more than we bargained for." Drew added. Seeing Rex's confusion, she began to explain; "Okay, you might wanna sit down for this…"

~5 Minutes Later~

By the time the tale was done being told, Rex was left utterly shellshocked. Between Drew and Rook's recounting of the events, he couldn't believe he had missed all of it. "You're telling me… that I missed out on a bounty hunter brawl and a dude in a samurai suit getting his ASS whupped by Ben's ex-girlfriend?!" Leaning back in his chair, Rex covered his eyes and let out a guttural yell of regret. "GAAAH! God damn it, I should've BEEN there!"

"Well, sorry Rex, but you kinda did all that to yourself by not getting much sleep." Gwen said with a smirk. "Maybe now you'll REALLY be incentivized to rest more."

Uncovering his eyes, Rex sat back forward. "Hah, yeah, you're darn right I am! And you're telling me that two of these bounty hunters actually blew themselves up to get away?"

Rook grimaced at the reminder. "Yes, indeed. And it maddens me to no end." He clenched a fist, taking Rex aback. "I swear, I WILL bring the Vreedle Brothers in for the abhorrent crimes they have committed against the Plumbers. This, I vow."

"…Wow, Rook, I don't think I've ever seen you this upset."

The Revonnahgander held his head up proudly. "I have every right to be. They are the reason why I could not take my final exams properly at the academy. It was an institution I highly respected and for them to desecrate it in such a way, it—it's making my blood boil just thinking about it!" Rook was breathing hard by that point… and it was only did he realize that everyone was staring at him in stunned silence did he realize… he swore. "A-Ahem, please forgive the contraction, I was out of line."

"Uh, I was more shocked to see you THAT upset, man." Rex admitted before what Rook said hit him. "…But come to think of it, I HAVEN'T heard you use many contractions. Why is that?"

"Because Revonnahganders hold proper grammar in MUCH higher regard than us humans." The group all turned around to see Max coming over, accompanied by Charmcaster and Hex, which took Rex off guard. Still, Max continued; "It's so respected to the point that they view contractions on their planet as a form of swearing. Fortunately, they don't make a fuss about other races using them, but be careful to mind your P's and Q's if you're ever on Revonnah, just in case."

Rex blinked at the information, but his focus was more set on the two magic users. "Uh… thanks for the advice. But um, who's the skinny skull guy?"

Hex reeled back at the EVO's remark, but Charmcaster gave a little snicker. "Pfft, see? I told you that you weren't eating enough."

"I-I… I just—ugh, I give up." Hex bemoaned with a facepalm, only to furrow his brow down to Rex. "Listen closely, young man. I am Hex, a powerful sorcerer from the world of Ledgerdomain. I am also Charmcaster's uncle, so you would do well to—"

"Oh, I remember you!" Rex cut off the sorcerer, pointing right at his nose. "Ben told me about you! Said you tried to take over the world with your weird voodoo. Guess ya must've reformed like your niece, eh?"

The entire group gawked at the young man's bluntness, with Hex's jaw now firmly fallen to the floor. Hope, meanwhile… was letting out some rather uproarious laughter. "Pfft—Hahahaha! O-Oh my gosh, stop, please, I can't take it!" She stopped her uncle short when he went to raise his voice to Rex, placing a hand on his shoulder. "U-Uncle Hex, please, we don't need to make a scene here, not after we were so graciously granted amnesty from the Magistrata."

Rex seemed to brighten up at that. "Oh hey, good for you guys! I'm guessing none of you gotta do any parole stuff either?"

"Well, not exactly." Hope clarified. "I still have to provide some form of community service as compensation, but Magister Tennyson is already working on that." The silver-haired mage then raised her brows as she remembered something. "Oh, that's right, I don't think we formally met. You're… Rex, right?"

"Yep, Rex Salazar, EVO hero extraordinaire, agent of Providence, man of action." Rex gave a bow. "At your service."

Charmcaster pursed her lips at the strange introduction, only to glance over to her redheaded friend. "Wow, you sure make some odd friends, Gwenny." Not a second later, Rex fell on his face.

Gwen shook her head and gave a light chortle. "Hehe, yeah, I've pretty much come to accept that." Shifting her sights back to Hex, she asked; "So, I take it you're leaving?"

"Indeed, I am. There is still much for me to prep for the upcoming Fall Semester." He sent Gwen an empathetic grin. "I would say I'm excited to see you there, but… I have a feeling that it will be a while before I see you in my classroom again."

The Anodite sent him an unfortunate shrug. "Yeah… gotta save the world and all that. …Well, actually TWO worlds."

"It's a big job, without a doubt." Hex affirmed, his gaze trailing between his student and his niece. "But I'm certain that the two of you will be able to accomplish great things together. I'll admit, I always thought that you two would make better friends than enemies." His smile widened at the two of them. "I'm very glad to know that I was not wrong in my assumption."

"Aw, thanks, Uncle Hex." Hope smiled back with a bow of her head. "I'm also really glad that's the case. And don't worry… I'll stop by and visit whenever I can."

Hex reciprocated the bow gladly. "I anticipate seeing you, dear Hope. Best of luck with everything—oof!" The sorcerer was taken aback when Charmcaster gave him a quick hug, only to then pull away a second later.

"…Stay safe, okay?" Charmcaster said bashfully. "And don't be afraid to call if you need help."

After taking a moment to let that sink in, Hex reached out, placing a hand on his niece's shoulder. "I will. Thank you, Hope. See you soon." With that, Hex made his way over to the elevator, the duo exchanging waves as he was lifted up into the hardware store above.

With a long sigh, Charmcaster collected herself and went back to Gwen and the others. "So, what happens now?"

"Now? Well, if everything's all set up…" Gwen's focus went to her grandfather. "Then I think we have a call to make."

"Heh, it's already been made, sweetie." Max assured. "Cooper and Caesar are already on the ID Comm and waiting down in the lab."

That made Rex shoot up out of his seat almost immediately. "Woah, hold up, mi hermano's on the line? I thought he was working on—" But he cut himself off when he realized that the Saturdays and everyone else was still in the room with them, causing him to switch gears and mutter; "…That secret project."

"Ooh, a secret project, eh?" Doc questioned, his curiosity piqued as he rubbed his chin. "Do tell. Maybe we could be of assistance."

Drew shook her head and took her husband by the shoulder, leading him away from the gathering. "Come on, honey, if it's a secret, we probably shouldn't get involved until it's ready to be PROPERLY unveiled." Doc huffed in disappointment, but followed her nonetheless.

"Hm, indeed, we'll stay out of this as well." Six added, with Holiday joining him. "We'll let you all have your privacy…" He craned his head down toward Bobo, giving him a threatening glare. "Right?"

The EVO chimp flung his hands up and retorted; "Oh, so now yer accusin' ME a' bein' nosy, huh?" He waved a finger up at Six and grumbled. "Well lemme let ya in on somethin', Six… yer absolutely right ta be concerned, I can't resist a good secret."

Rex couldn't help but smirk and roll his eyes. "Psh, yeah, tell us something we DON'T know, Bobo."

"Well, if this is a secret meeting, then I guess I'll be waiting for you in my room, Gwen." Charmcaster said as Rook came over to escort her away. "You remember where it is, right?"

But before Gwen could even reply, Max cut in. "Um, actually, Charmcaster, when they called earlier, I had mentioned your parole hearing to them and how you're essentially with us now… and they were interested in speaking with you." That made everyone do a double take as Max ushered them toward the door on the other side of the room. "So, would you please come with us? They're eager to meet with you."

…..

It didn't take long for them to make it to the lab, where, up on the monitor screen, Cooper and Caesar were patiently waiting for them. And when they saw the teens, the magister and the young mage enter, the duo of geniuses immediately brightened up. "Hey, hey, there they are!" Cooper threw his hands up in greeting. "How're you doin', guys?!"

Kevin sent the technopath a salute. "Doin' pretty good, Coop. Yourself?"

"Oh, Kev, I'm ECSTATIC." Cooper called back with a pumped fist. "I've been waiting for this day for WEEKS now!"

Rex raised his arms up at his sides and exclaimed; "Well, the wait's finally over, my man. Here's hoping it's work it." He made sure to give his brother a proper greeting as well. "Heya, bro. How's it hanging?"

"Hermano! Hah, didn't expect to see you here!" Ceasar laughed as well, though his demeanor took on a slightly more serious countenance. "Hey, uh… you doin' okay? You seemed pretty wiped out when you called late last night to tell me about… well…"

But Rex waved a hand up to his brother, putting on a smile. "Ah, it's okay, Caesar. I got some sleep, I got a bit of a pep talk from my teammates, and honestly, I'm doin' a lot better."

"Well, it was less a pep talk and more like an intervention, so I heard…" Gwen clarified with a cheeky grin. "But all the same, he IS doing a lot better." She saw Rex sending her a pointed glare out the corner of her eye, which she raised her hands defensively at. "Hey, I'm just going off of what Weiss and Blake said, nothing more!"

"Haha, well, I'm glad to hear it nonetheless." Caesar nodded in approval. "You needed the sleep, mijo." His gaze then drifted over toward the new face in the room, where he was greeted by a visage that almost floored him. The scientist absentmindedly fiddled with his hair, making sure that it wasn't messy or anything. "Oh… ho, aye-aye-aye. Cooper, mi amigo, I'm suddenly feeling very underdressed."

Cooper took notice of Charmcaster as well, though he was far less flustered than his compatriot. "Heh, I can certainly see why." He made sure to nudge Caesar in the arm, though. "But hey, control yourself, dude. Weren't you the one hitting on Jaune's sister the last time we were here? Here I thought you were holding out for her?"

The comment made Caesar blush, and several "oohs" were heard collectively through the room… namely from Kevin and Rex. "Oh-HO, you're being called out, bro!" Rex shouted.

"H-Hey, I haven't forgotten!" Caesar retorted, shooting his fellow genius a bit of a glare. "I've actually been in contact with Blanche SEVERAL times, for your information." He gestured over to Charmcaster. "But can you necessarily blame me for feeling a bit mediocre when someone like THAT enters a room?"

"Eh… okay, fair point. I'll get off your case." With a content huff, Caesar stepped off screen to go get something, leaving Cooper to address the silver-haired mage. "So, you must be Charmcaster. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm Cooper Daniels, a friend of Gwen and Kevin's."

Hope bowed her head to him in acknowledgment. "The pleasure's all mine. Also, please, call me Hope. I'm trying to use my real name a bit more often nowadays."

"Alright, Hope, very well." Cooper obliged. "First off, congratulations on your newfound freedom. I'm glad to know that you're on our side now. That said, you're probably wondering why I wanted you to be here in particular."

Crossing her arms, Hope affirmed his statement. "Yeah, because from the sounds of it, this "secret project" of yours has to do with science… which I'm basically not fluent in whatsoever." She twirled her finger in the air, creating a bit of pink sparkles with it. "In fact, you could probably say I'm an expert in the exact OPPOSITE of science."

Cooper snapped his fingers, pointing at her. "Exactly. This project is banking on both science AND magic to get working, and I think you can help Gwen with that half once we get that machine over there rolling." His finger redirected over to the massive machine that was situated in the middle of the room, which made Hope tilt her head. "That is a Lewodan Crystal Refinement machine. It's used in order to transmogrify solid power crystals into a liquid form, and our goal today is to see if Dust can be used inside of that machine."

"Hm, I see." Charmcaster's purple eyes trailed between the screen and the machine curiously. "And what exactly will that Dust liquid be used for exactly?"

From offscreen, Caesar's voice piped up once again. "For… THIS!" Popping back into frame, Caesar came carrying a… rather strange device. Charmcaster narrowed her eyes at the machine, which had visible gears and tubing going all throughout it. On the left side, there was a rather sizeable dynamo visible behind a glass casing, and next to it was a crank with a red handle. On the opposite side of the dynamo were two slots for… something to go into as well. The front faceplate had some red parts to it as well, with one directly under the slots while another was beneath the dynamo and had a white gear-like symbol on it.

All in all… Charmcaster had no idea what the heck it was. "…What exactly IS it?"

"This, Charmcaster, is the nearly completed Build Driver." Cooper said as he procured the machine from Caesar's grasp. "And once we complete it, it's guaranteed to change the game FOREVER." He set the driver down toward his waistline as he explained further. "You see, it's meant to be worn as a belt, and by slotting in bottles of liquid Dust into it, it will—in theory—be able to transform the wearer into… this!" Lifting up a holoviewer in his hand, Cooper activated it and displayed a half-red-half-blue-armored warrior, with eye pieces that were shaped like the head of a rabbit and an entire tank. The rabbit's ear and tank barrel of these pieces also happened to resemble a pair of antennae.

Charmcaster, however, scrunched her nose, even more baffled than before. "…A Power Ranger?"

Both Cooper and Caesar tumbled forward onto the ground, the former quick to pick himself back up and get right into the camera, shouting; "NO! It's BUILD! Kamen Rider Build!"

"Oh! I think I've heard of Kamen Rider, actually." Charmcaster recalled, only for her eyes to widen the very next second. "W-Wait, hold on, you're planning on taking what is a fictional type of power… and making it into reality?"

"Exactamundo!" Caesar proclaimed, stinking a finger straight up in the air from the floor. "And we are VERY close to it!"

Cooper lifted the driver up once again. "We've completed most of the inner workings of the Build Driver and they're working as they should. The only things that need to be completed are the hard-light pneumatic tubing that'll come out of the driver's faceplate, as well as the compressing rail system that the tubing has to attach to in order to actually snap the two halves of the suit together." He furrowed his brow seriously with a shake of his head. "But even then, we need to be sure that the refinement machine can actually break Dust down into a liquid form before we get too ahead of ourselves."

With her sights now on the machine, Hope raised her head to his skeptically. "I see… and what role does liquid Dust play in this whole process?"

Caesar was the one to answer that question. "Again, in theory, the Build Driver should be able to extract the essence of the liquid Dust from the Fullbottles that slot into it, and from there, the essence is pumped through the tubes Cooper mentioned, the hard light energy serving to solidify that essence into the Build suit." He leaned his head off screen to check up on something else. "On that note, our Dust courier should be popping into the lab in three… two… one."

A sudden loud noise signaled the opening of an inter-dimensional portal opening up right behind the group, which was enough to make Charmcaster whip around with a small yelp. A few moments later, they were all greeted with the sight of a large, wheeled cart being pushed through the portal, filled to the brim with glowing cyan Dust crystals. As for the one who was pushing it, the team heard forceful grunts come through the portal before it closed, and, peeking his head up from the back, was a familiar blonde man. "Hah… woo! Heya, kids! How's it going?"

"Tai!" Gwen, Kevin and Rex all called at once, the three going up to greet the Xiao Long patriarch. "Hah, how'd you get suckered into this, man?" Kevin asked as he shook the retired huntsman's hand.

"Ah, I was free after school today and Jim was busy taking care of other stuff around Vale, so I figured I'd drop on by for a little bit." Tai's gaze went over to Max and he offered a handshake to him. "Max, how're things?"

"Doing pretty well, Tai, all things considered." He nudged his head over to the teenagers. "Dealing with these kids all the time will really keep ya busy."

That made Tai throw his head back. "HA! Of course, why am I not surprised? Things have been pretty lively lately?"

Gwen sighed, shrugging as she replied. "Yeah, it's a LONG story, trust me. But what isn't a long story is…" The Anodite reached over and took Hope by the shoulder, steering her back to the group. "We have a new teammate! …Well, kind of." Seeing her sorceress friend giving her a side-eyed look, Gwen gestured toward Tai and introduced her. "Hope, this is Taiyang Xiao Long, Ruby and Yang's dad. And Tai, this is Hope, one of my friends."

"Ah, so YOU'RE the girl that Cooper was talking about." Tai greeted with a slight bow of his head. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Hope. I can only… hope that my daughters have been good to ya!"

Immediately, Charmcaster grimaced at the pun, but forced a polite response nonetheless. "Th-Thank you… I'm not sure about Yang, but Ruby HAS been pretty nice to me so far."

Tai clapped his hands together happily. "Now THAT'S what I was wanting to hear! If you can get Ruby's trust, it's only a matter of time before the rest of the team trusts you, too." He reached his hand over and knocked on the side of the cart full of Dust. "But enough with the chit-chat. We've got an experiment to run, don't we?"

"Indeed, we do." Cooper concurred, pointing over to the machine. "Tai, the Dust is gonna be fed into that device right over there. I'd say two crystals oughta be enough to fill the crucible I gave you."

Reaching into one of his belt pockets, Tai pulled out a rather large, metal cup, tossing it and catching it in an instant. "Gotcha, Coop. So… anybody have an idea on how to work this thing?"

"That'd be up to me, actually." a tiny voice piped up, seemingly from out of nowhere. The group whirled their heads around in shock, searching for the voice's source, only for it to speak up again. "Uh, down here." They all snapped their heads down and saw Luhley, the Galvan scientist standing in the middle of all of them. "You people really need to remember that I'm around, otherwise I might get stepped on."

"Oh, Luhley, sorry about that." Gwen apologized. "I honestly didn't know you were here."

Jerking her thumb over her shoulder, Luhley pointed at the refinement machine. "I've been working inside of that thing for a while, just to make sure it's all tuned up and in proper working order. It should be ready to go, so now, all that's left to do is to see if your Dust works on it." She waved Tai over, ushering him to follow. "Come with me, if you'd please."

"Uh, sure thing, little lady." Tai took two Dust crystals from the cart and tailed behind Luhley to the other side of the machine, where he saw a small set of steps. Walking up them, Tai was greeted with a small orifice in the machine which was sealed with a circular hatch, complete with a bolting mechanism to keep it shut. "So I'm guessing that this is where the crystals go?"

Activating her jetpack, Luhley flew up and began unlocking the hatch for him. "Yep, pretty much. Now, is this type of Dust easily volatile? We don't wanna risk blowing the whole place up, after all."

Tai shook his head. "Nope, this stuff's just your regular, run of the mill Hard Light Dust." He lifted the glowing cyan crystals to show her.

"Hm, good. This should work…" Opening the hatch, Luhley gestured down into the hole. "Just place them inside and we'll see." Nodding, Tai placed both crystals inside gently and backed away, going back to the front to place the crucible at the mouth of the machine. Luhely to shut and locked the hatch, signaling over to Kevin next. "Now, Kevin, you see that control panel?"

The Osmosian moved over to the controls, raising his hand to the Galvan. "Here! What do I do?"

"I've already pre-programed the specifications in. All you have to do is hit that green button."

Spotting the switch, Kevin pressed his finger down on it, saying; "Alright, here goes nothin'." The second he started the machine, it came online and began clanging and hissing with power, causing everyone to back off, just in case. Gwen even brought up a mana shield in front of everybody for further protection, all while Cooper and Caesar watched on with bated breath. However, after about thirty seconds… the machine went *ding* and stopped rumbling. At first, nothing else happened… but it didn't take long for the distinct sound of dribbling fluid to be heard. Several gasped as Gwen lowered the shield, allowing them to see the fruits of the machine's labor.

Tai approached the crucible once it was done being filled… and he beamed excitedly. "Ladies and gentlemen…" He faced to the group and held out the metal cup, showing off the glowing blue fluid. "We've got Liquid Dust!"

"AH-HAHAHA! YES!" Cooper shouted as the entire room erupted into victorious cheers, the blonde genius giving a double high-five to Caesar as they both held their hands up high. "HAHA! IT WORKED! It actually worked! Now Project Build can move on to Phase 2!"

"And not only that, but Remnant now has a new way to use Dust in general!" Caesar pumped a fist. "Haha, this is fantastico!"

Rex gave a thumbs up to his brother. "You can say that again, hermano. So, what DOES phase 2 involve, anyway?"

Gwen stepped forward and placed a hand over her chest, while also gesturing toward Charmcaster as well. "That's actually where we come in. That is… if you'd like to help out, Hope."

"…Honestly? Count me in." Hope affirmed, placing her hands to her hips. "I just watched a pretty major breakthrough happen, and I'm actually kind of excited to be a part of it. So, what DO we do for phase 2?"

Cooper clapped his hands together and pointed to the two magic-users. "I'm glad you asked, Hope. Tai? The list, please."

"Gotcha, gotcha." Tai obliged, pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handing it to the ladies.

"What I would like you two to do is infuse the Liquid Dust with the essence of several biotic lifeforms and abiotic objects" Cooper explained further, pointing to the list. "You'll find every type of specimen you need on that paper. I know some of the requests are a little outlandish, but I'm sure you girls can pull it off."

Taking the paper, Gwen unfurled it and scanned her eyes across the list, taking note of everything there. There definitely seemed to be some more… difficult items to procure, but she was confident that— "Wait just a second!" the redhead lifted the paper up to Cooper with an incredulous gaze. "You want us to find a Dragon Scale and a Pheonix Feather?!"

Charmcaster's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "Say WHAT now?!"

Raising his hands, Cooper tried to defend himself. "I-It's necessary for the experiment!"

"It's RARE as HELL is what it is!" Charmcaster countered, thrusting an accusing finger up at the genius. "These had better be the ONLY types of rare items on the list, otherwise we're gonna have a problem."

"I-I swear, those are probably the ONLY really rare things we need!" Caesar swore. "Honest!"

As the scientists and sorceresses argued with one another, Tai wisely backed away toward Max and the others, the elderly Plumber giving an amused chuckle. "Hehe… yeah, that's how it usually is around here. You get used to it after a while." Turning to the retired huntsman, Max quirked a brow at him. "Say, Tai, can I ask you something?"

Tilting his head, Tai allowed him to continue. "Uh, sure. What's up?"

"Well, a friend of mine and I were planning to go on a fishing trip tomorrow." Max explained. "I wanted to bring Ben along, but I wasn't sure how keen he'd be on going. That said… if you wanted to come along and bring your daughter, maybe he'd be more inclined." The old man winked knowingly. "Maybe we could even make a big surprise out of it?"

Tai considered the offer for a moment, tapping his chin in thought. "Hm, well… I do have the day off tomorrow. And it'd be nice to spend some time with Yang…" A small grin came to his features and he placed his fists onto his hips. "Ya know what? Sure! Why the hell not? Lemme just jump back to Remnant, get some gear and—"

"Oh, no need for all that, Tai." Max waved off, wearing an eager smile of his own. "I've got plenty to share. Let me just give Ben a call and we'll get everything set up. I've got a feeling that this is gonna be one fishing trip we won't soon forget."

…..

A/N: Oh, Grandpa Max, you don't know how RIGHT you are on that one. But that's something to be saved for next time. For now, let's take stock of everything that's happened in this chapter, eh?

First off, more bonding between Julie and Yang, as well as a reunion with Gwen and Kevin. And of course, Ben being apprehensive about the whole thing. But hey, at least the whole Echo Echo incident was mentioned and taken care of in record time. Yeah, as one of the more infamous episodes of Ultimate Alien that involves Julie and Ben's relationship troubles, I felt it at least deserved a mention so that it could be gotten out of the way quick. No sense dwelling on the past and all that, just as Yang said. Sure, Ben might've acted like a jerk back then, but it's evident that he's learned from his past mistakes.

Meanwhile, the Vreedles… blew themselves up to escape. Eh, typical. Time for another batch of clones, it seems. Thank goodness they all keep the same memories. That said, the Saturdays are all back together again, and that's cause for celebration… in the form of a certain package sent by one Uncle Doyle. We'll be seeing HIM at some point down the line, don't you fret. But for now, it's time to introduce the gang to yet another piece of Earth media… and this one's a doozy.

I'm gonna be upright and honest with this take, people; Bionicle is probably THE single greatest subline that Lego has ever created. A fleshed-out world with fantastic characters and a compelling story that spans multiple years and several forms of unique media. What's more to love? Oh, and not to mention that the figures themselves were fun as hell. I personally got into it with the Ignition Trilogy in 2006, but I've since gone back to reexperience the story and my god, I've gotten hooked back into it all over again. And considering that the brand has undergone a bit of a resurgence in the past year thanks to memes and just a general passion from the community, I felt there was no better time to introduce the gang to it than now. Heck, my last upload for this story happened ON Bionicle Day, so it's even MORE fitting. And don't worry, come next chapter, we WILL be seeing them actually building those 2001 sets.

But hoo boy, it seems as if Salem is preparing for something BIG. Giving Fistrick and his goons their own Gene Slammers, allowing Bashmouth to go through with his plans for Revonnah, and preparing the Street Sharks for a "special mission"? Something's afoot here… and the fact that Hazel is back with good news from Vacuo doesn't bode well either. With the Asturias Twins intrigued by Salem's proposal and one of Adam's followers in their sights, what move could they be making next?

And finally, Rex seems well rested now, just in time for his brother and Cooper to call up so they can test the new gizmo that was gifted to them! And thankfully, it seems to be a rousing success! Dust in liquid form is now a new asset at our heroes' disposal, and from the sounds of it, it's getting Cooper and Caesar ever closer to their goal; finishing Project Build. We could very well be seeing the birth of a new breed of masked hero soon, my friends… if Cooper can get everything just right.

But, with Tai now here for a while, we can look forward to… NEXT TIME! And this time around, I'm actually gonna be trying something a bit different. I'm taking two Omniverse episodes… and combining them. So, while Ben, Max, Yang, Tai and others are down in Undertown fishing (and getting a LOT more than they bargained for with it), the rest of our heroes will be heading off to… the Annual Bellwood Day celebration. And unfortunately for them, they'll ALSO be contending with dangerous sea life… ones that walk on dry land. Thanks for reading, everybody, and I'll catch you all next time! And of course, stay safe out there!