Ultimate Fairy

Chapter 67: Adaptation is Null and Void

Last time on Ultimate Fairy…

"I would never throw it away, it meant too much to me, it was part of me for so long and had done so much, it deserved more respect than that." Ben said as he loved the Omnitrix, it was part of him and to just throw it away felt like a betrayal not only to himself but to everything he's done with it.

"Azmuth's Greatest Invention." Azmuth said reading the title and the message written down below the Omnitrix "The Omnitrix, a tool meant to walk a mile in another's shoes, a device of peace and used for justice, this device has been used to help and save countless lives, Azmuth created this for Max Tennyson and instead, it found its way to Ben Tennyson, a mistake or destiny is still unconfirmed, this device and all that came after it will be used to protect the innocent and protect the universe." he read a bit impressed by Ben's wording as it was honest and pure.

"It's a bit early, but Merry Christmas Azmuth, thank you for being a part of my life and my family." Ben said wholeheartedly.

"Thank you, Ben Tennyson." Azmuth said to him with a smile that held much meaning.

"For what?" Ben asked, seeing the look in his eye.

"Getting me off that planet in the middle of nowhere, saving the universe countless times, and doing what I hoped the Omnitrix could achieve and more." Azmuth said to him placing his foot on the plaque and left.

Azmuth made it to his personal office and hung the plaque in full visibility quite proud and touched by the man who had given it to him, he went to his desk and looked at a picture frame of the only other sentimental thing his office had 'I am envious of you Ben, you moved on.' he thought as he looked at a picture of Zennith and now knew he had some choices he should've realized he had years ago 'Give her up, make one last attempt, or move on.' he thought as seeing Ben move on made him think he should as well, but he also knew he needed closure if he wanted that to happen.

"Ben I look ridiculous." Gray said as they were all at the mall at the moment getting clothing as they had none to change to minus Erza and she was still shopping, Ben had taken Gray and Natsu to the summer sale section as he and Natsu didn't need long sleeve clothing since both of them were immune to the cold with their unique magic.

"Speak for yourself." Natsu said as he found some clothing with fire on it and took to it immediately, he stuck with shorts as the pants he normally wore weren't long just barely going past the knee.

"I look like Loki." Laxus said as Freed got him dress shirts, while he had no problem looking good he felt the other dressy clothing was too much and Bickslow got him some more multicolored options.

"You don't see me complaining." Gajeel said as he found some very artistic shirts, some were based on music and bands, some were violent, and some were just interesting "Who the hell sells ripped-up jeans." he said as Ben told him it was a style 'I can rip up my own jeans if I wanted.' he thought to himself not seeing the point.

Wendy felt like she was being tortured in her own private hell for something she had to have done in a past life as she was currently in a lingerie shop with the other girls trying out various styles while the store didn't carry her size and to make the wound burn, even more, Gwen had forbidden her to try anything and wouldn't let her leave.

"I can't believe they sell the type of thing Lucy has in her closet." Erza said admiring herself in the changing room.

"I need a lock my windows." Lucy said in a whine but had to admit she loved the nightwear this place sold as it was soft and sexy.

"I should bring this back with me, I might make a fortune if I sold it to Sorcerer Weekly." Mira said as she saw the benefits of using clothing from another world.

"My darling Gray won't be able to resist me!" Juvia said admiring how the nighty she picked hugged her skin and her curves nicely.

"I suppose this will do." Ultear said as she liked what she saw in the mirror as this was a nice experience to do something normal for once.

"I have to ask the store clerk if this comes in any different shades." Evergreen said spinning around and looking at herself.

Wendy truly hated this moment of her life and felt like she was being tortured for some reason, she cursed whatever higher power was listening as she waited for them.

"It's been three hours where are they?" Elfman asked as it was nearly noon and the men had gone to many stores in order to get everything they needed and some places that interested them.

"Ben I love your world." Gajeel said as he was in paradise when he saw a guitar shop and nearly cried when Ben got him a top-of-the-line guitar, he even got him CDs of classic rock and blues.

Laxus was inclined to agree as he got a pair of nice headphones and Ben offered to get some alien tech to make them conductive and withstand his natural charge.

"The booze look good too." Gildarts said kicking back as ever since Verdona gave him the necklace he had on, he didn't have to focus so much on keeping his magic under control, he went to the nearest liquor store and had a bit of help from Max, Ben giving him the ok to order as much as he wanted knowing many of the Fairy Tail guild drank booze like water, so he ordered triple of everything the store had to be delivered to Tennyson Tower, Cana had cried when they found out the drinking age of this world was 21.

Ben smiled as his guild members enjoyed their stay, he was curious about Elfman's earlier question though, he pushed his thought aside seeing a gloomy Wendy and the girls approach "Hey Wendy how'd things go?" he asked her curious to what made her upset.

Wendy's answer was slamming her head on the table Ben was sitting at.

"Wanna give me some context as to what this means?" Ben asked Gwen wondering what this meant.

"We went to a few shops and not all of them were meant for Wendy, also we got her a few training bras." Gwen said to him as she understood where Wendy was coming from as most of the girls had figures she'd kill for and when they did reach a store meant for women of all ages they did Wendy's measurements and saw she needed a training bra.

Ben wasn't dense enough to miss that, he patted Wendy on the back and rubbed it a bit.

"Also your girlfriend bought basically one of everything in each shop we went to." Gwen said as she wasn't kidding as Erza was diverse in her style.

"Yeah, I expected that." Ben said as being in a new world would've sparked Erza's desire for more diversity in fashion "Well c'mon we gotta get Grandpa Max back the rustbucket." he said as Ben was borrowing it given it was a vehicle that could hold a lot of people, Gwen was currently the driver as he was taking Erza, Wendy, Carla, and Ship in his car "Oh Wendy I know something that'll make you feel better." he said seeing her tilt her head to look at him with one eye.

'I should've thought this through.' Ben thought as he took Wendy and Erza to a bakery and the minute the owner heard his order their eyes popped out as Wendy and Erza ordered basically everything blueberry and strawberry and a few items outside their usual tastes.

"What are you working on?" Gwen asked seeing Kevin focused and it wasn't on his car so that got red flags in her mind.

"Wendy gave me an inch the other day." Kevin said seeing Gwen raise an eyebrow "You know that tool Harangue?" he asked as she nodded "Well he did something illegal and I can't use it by itself I was wondering if Captain Nemesis had any old footage of something more illegal." he said to her.

Gwen had her interest peaked when she saw the footage of Harangue doing business "Find anything?" she asked wanting to bury this man for all he's done and said.

"Nope if Harangue did anything with Nemesis, it wasn't in the year Ben was outed." Kevin said to her as so far Nemesis was clean prior to that which he still doubted even now.

"Have you tried hacking where he works?" Gwen asked him curiously.

"Is it wrong that I think you're hot for wanting me to do something illegal?" Kevin asked her seeing her roll her eyes "Yeah his computer is surprisingly clean, I think he uses it for paperwork mostly." he said as that was one of the first things he tried.

"Did you try the news station server?" Gwen asked him seeing him shake his head.

"Private and secure network, I need to be connected to it to get in." Kevin said as he hit a dead end with that as he needed to be in the building.

Gwen sighed as she saw where he hit a dead end "What about someone that worked on Harangue's server?" she asked him curiously.

"What you know who made it?" Kevin asked as it'd take a Galvin to hack in without setting off any alarms or they'd have been caught and the evidence would be useless as it'd have been stolen.

"Yeah remember that guy from Ben's video game?" Gwen asked him.

"Wasn't he making a show with those two idiots Ben knows?" Kevin asked remembering both those idiots trashed his car in the past and didn't like them on principle.

Gwen snorted at that "Not anymore, he's actually looking for work at the moment." she said as she kept an eye on some of Ben's more local enemies.

It took Kevin a moment to follow her train of thought "He made that robot Ben fought and you wanna see if he has a backdoor key to Harangue's server." he said to her.

"More than that if we can get that footage we can blackmail him since he helped Harangue build it so he'll have to testify." Gwen said to him as he looked at her in awe "What, he attacked Ben and me, I want payback." she said remembering how he attacked her on her driver's test.

"Damn your beautiful." Kevin said as this was a side of his girlfriend he loved to see.

Ben was helping Erza unpack her clothes as they were sharing the room and wanted to make her feel as welcome as could be, it felt odd seeing as they were living together and they didn't have Wendy or Gajeel between them so it was just them.

Erza was blushing so much her face was practically glowing, she felt a bit exposed as while she and Ben were living together, she felt the distance was even shorter now with no one here.

Ship looked at them and decided to lighten the mood with his presence, he went over to Erza liking her for many things, but also since he felt machines in her.

Erza pet the dog version of her favorite alien thinking he was adorable, she took out a sword that had many dents on it and tossed it seeing him run to it like a dog would a bone, and to her amusement he chewed on it.

"Hey, do you know where Wendy is?" Ben asked not seeing her in a while.

"Max took her to Plumber HQ, he offered her some one-on-one time." Verdona said in the doorway.

"And why are you here Grandma?" Ben asked hoping she wasn't here to tease them.

"Relax Ben I just came back from Tenrou with Makarov and to our delight they are regaining magic there, it's slower, but still better than nothing." Verdona said as she assumed it had to be the Tenrou tree having so much ethernano soaked into its very being it was able to produce naturally like a tree produced oxygen.

"Well, Wendy can help restore it so that's a plus." Ben said as it would be tiring on Wendy, but it did offer them a way to help them with the people who couldn't restore their own magic.

"And how is the little dragon anodite?" Verdona asked as she wondered how Wendy was after her possession, wondering if there were any lingering side effects.

"She's fine learning proper manner and restraint from her other great grandparent." Ben said teasingly as Verdona huffed "Grandma why are you around so much?" he asked in a more serious tone seeing her eyes widen for a brief moment.

"You may act like me, but you take after Max so much." Verdona said with a smile "Ben I'm not immortal, Anodites live a good two to three centuries, less if we allow ourselves to age." she said to him seeing him catch on "No I'm not dying, I'm not going to keel over, it's just that when I first saw Max it was after my ninety years of training I was kidnapped." she said knowing he knew the story of how she and Max met "After a few years back on Anodyne I wanted to see him again and well let's just say your father and uncle came along shortly after." she said to him smiling at his discomfort.

"You gave up that much time to be with Max?" Erza asked as that seemed so romantic and tragic "Wait is Ben able to live longer than me?" she asked her curiously as to if she was doing something to Ben's age.

"You're fine, Ben chooses to keep his humanity, neither you nor I could stop him from living his life, he'll age and die as if he were still human." Verdona said as Ben had the potential to be immortal if he ever chose that route "Might I ask what gave me away?" she asked him curiously.

"You are still here and when we were on Tenrou you needed to recharge." Ben said as it was odd to him at first "So how much time do you have?" he asked feeling terrible about asking.

"Ben, me and your grandfather will die eventually but nowhere soon." Verdona said to him as she was too stubborn to die.

"I know." Ben said to her surprising both by his confidence "I've met myself in the future Grandma, I know Grandpa is still there, you have a long life ahead of you." he said as she laughed.

"So I have a lot to look forward to, which is why I want to impart my knowledge to you." Verdona said as she didn't mean just Ben "You, Wendy, and Gwen will be powerful in your own right with mana, however, you choose to use it." she said to him "But try not to drown in your own power, you are all progressing faster than I or any anodite ever has so please remember who you are and don't forget you are strong, power doesn't make you strong." she said as that was the greatest wisdom she could impart on her grandchild.

Ben nodded as he stared at the Omnitrix knowing that lesson well.

"So what is going on?" Wendy asked Max curiously seeing the Plumbers moving around.

"We're decommissioning old Plumber tech, we have some in storage that's outdated, but we kept it as an emergency." Max said as Plumbers often kept stores of old gear in the event of alien invasions and given the number this particular planet dealt with it was always smart to keep old things around and to update them when they could "We're upgrading our equipment so our storage will be more up to date." he said to her as she was more mature than Ben was at that age and had a keener eye so she wouldn't fall for the same vague answers he gave Ben and Gwen.

Wendy looked around at the old gear and spotted a small piece that seemed under more guard "What's that?" she asked wondering why something so small needed so much protection.

"An old Null Void projector, back in the day they had a tendency to break." Max said as those projectors had a tendency to be unreliable after a certain amount of use "With the newer more advanced one you can program your intended destination if you have the coordinates." he said as that was a much better feature as teleporting someone at random had a dangerous probability given what could be waiting on the other side for someone.

Wendy thought back and remembered Rex and her dad talking about this place as it was through it they were able to meet.

"Alright everyone lock and load!" Max said as the boxes were loaded into trucks "Wanna come along?" he asked seeing her beam in excitement.

"I am so jealous you can turn off security like that." Kevin said to Rex as they were outside a warehouse.

"It comes in handy, so what are we doing here?" Rex asked as Kevin and Gwen were vague about why they were there and the person with them seemed nervous "And who is this guy?" he asked as he seemed pretty ordinary to be with this group.

"A man who owes us and if he doesn't help, he'll be in a lot of trouble." Gwen said to him as her eyes glowed.

Rex looked around and saw the equipment "This all looks high-end, what is it?" he asked them.

"Scanners they're like the ones you see people use for video games to copy movement digitally." Kevin said as it was one of the reasons he thought Ben was actually having a game made.

"Oliver if you please." Gwen said to him as he activated a terminal.

"I could've done that why do you need this guy?" Rex asked as hacking was basically what he was known for with his nanites.

"This guy's name is Oliver Thompson, he worked for that ass Will Harangue, he helped him build a robot called a Stalker that was made to suppress Ben's alien powers." Kevin said as he was curious about that even more now.

"Something could actually do that?" Rex asked him as his machines could go toe to toe with Ben at best to actually suppress his aliens abilities was a frightening thought.

"Hey Kevin, come take a look at this." Gwen said as she was looking at the screen and the schematics Oliver pulled up for the Stalker.

Kevin looked it over 'AI, military weapons, high functioning trasmitter.' he thought listing what he was seeing "Am I missing something?" he asked her curiously.

"The metal look." Gwen said as she pointed to a line "Infinitum, it was low grade, but that's alien metal." she said to him.

Kevin looked at certain information more closely 'It also had Varsidium.' he thought as that was a high value metal and the more he looked he saw bits and pieces of alien microchips wiring and other things he shouldn't have "Speak up Oliver, how'd Harangue get his hands on alien tech?" he asked as Harangue was a lot of things, but to get this he'd need connections, his type of connections.

"I-I don't know honest." Oliver said as Kevin absorbed the floor and turned his hand into a stone mace "Harangue had a backer I don't know who." he said quickly.

"None of my contacts would work with Harangue, it's easier and more legal to sell to an alien hybrid than to a human which is illegal." Kevin said to her as no one he knew would pull that with the Plumbers and Ben on this planet.

"Ugh, guys?" Rex asked calling out as while they talked he looked around and found a closet and saw it was anti-alien propaganda, most of it was directed at Ben, but there was some directed toward the Plumbers.

"Harangue doesn't know about the Plumbers, does he?" Gwen said as she never heard of him debasing them before.

"Not from what I've seen." Kevin said as the Plumbers were known to global governments, a few people here and there might know, but Harangue was a different story "Do you find it weird he knows about the Plumbers but hasn't said anything?" he asked as that seemed odd for Harangue of all people to keep his mouth shut.

"We need more information." Rex said as they found something here, but in the end, they got more questions than answers.

"Magister Patelliday?" Ben said in surprise seeing him call him on his Plumber badge "Is there something you need?" he asked him curiously.

"Actually Ben we need your help, a giant frog is attacking the docks." Patelliday said to him.

"Let me guess Animo?" Ben asked him as giant frogs were kind of his signature move.

"Actually no it's Bubble Plexisteel Helmet." Patelliday said to him seeing Ben surprise.

"That's his name, seriously?" Ben asked as that sounded lame "So how'd he change the frog?" he asked as that still sounded like Animo to him.

"We believe he stole Animo's tech he has an antenna on his bubble." Patelliday said to him explaining it must be Animo's tech.

'Guess that makes sense.' Ben thought as it would hardly be the first time an enemy stole another's tricks to use against him.

"Be warned the frog is poisonous so physical means may not be the best approach." Patelliday said to him.

'And I am guessing that is the poison dart frog.' Ben thought to himself 'I make need back up.' he thought to himself "Hey Juvia Natsu you still here?" he asked over the comms as he knew Gray was spending time with Ur and Ultear so he had no ice wizard to put the amphibian to sleep.

Both answered and went up to his penthouse.

"Poison frog, isn't Wendy more suited for this?" Juvia asked knowing about her poison element.

"She's with Grandpa Max heading to DC." Ben said as he thought it'd be good for her to see the old Plumber base "C'mon you two can still generate magic." he said as it would be best for them to go instead of the others 'Plus these two are probably the only ones that can survive contact.' he thought knowing about Juvia's water body and after Natsu's fight with Cobra he would be more accustomed with poison enemy.

"I'm game it's a frog." Natsu said as he thought there wouldn't be much to it.

"We need to get there fast time for Jetray!" Ben said slamming down the Omnitrix and transformed.

"Dude!" Natsu said as he pinched his nose "You smell terrible!" he said as it was not Jetray, instead it was a giant bug.

"Stinkfly, been a while since I got this guy." Stinkfly said as he flapped his wings hovering grabbing Natsu and Juvia and flew off to the docs easily seeing a bright-colored frog attacking a warehouse.

"Ben, does it seem to be acting odd?" Juvia asked seeing the frog just destroying at random.

Stinkfly looked at it and saw the warehouse seemed nothing special "Yeah but we need to stop it, Natsu Juvia I'm dropping you." he said as both understood.

Natsu was dropped close to the creature while Juvia was dropped near the water.

The giant frog's many eyes locked onto Stinkfly and it croaked in excitement.

Stinkfly dodged a tongue that was aimed at him "Great it sees me as lunch." he said in annoyance firing good from his eyes "Natsu torch it!" he called out remembering this combo well.

"Oh yeah, Fire Dragon Roar!" Natsu said as he fired a torrent of flames and when they made contact with Stinkfly's goo they ignited.

"Hey, Juvia help me wash this thing." Stinkfly said slamming the dial "Water Hazard!" he said as he blasted the downed from.

Juvia drew water from the nearby ocean and blasted the frog "Water Nebula!" she said as the frog croaked in discomfort from both torrents.

Both of them soon stopped seeing the frog twitch.

"You were using salt water this thing is a freshwater animal." Water Hazard said spending enough time as his water aliens to know the difference between the two types often affected them differently.

"Listen, pal, we'll give you a chance to surrender or you can burn." Natsu said looking at the bubble alien and seeing him back away as he unleashed some flames.

"So spill Bubble, what was this about, that warehouse is empty." Water Hazard said as he changed back to normal as the giant warehouse was empty.

"I was hired to make a ruckus at the docks that's all." Bubble said to him seeing Natsu bring a flame to his face.

"We want a name." Natsu said as he had no love for hurting animals that were attacking against their will, he had spent enough time with Lisanna to know and respect animals.

"Ok ok, it was Psyphon!" Bubblehead said to them.

"Oh great that idiot." Ben said as he got odd looks from Natsu and Juvia "Psyphon was Vilgax's lackey and right hand, he's not that dangerous on his own, but he still has most if not all of Vilgax's resources." he said as that was Psyphon's main resource as Vilgax had many resources even before his demise.

Natsu remembered him now from Ben's memories.

"How dare you call me a lackey!" Psyphon's voice said coming from Bubble's helmet.

"What do you want, your master's gone." Ben said as he knew that'd get under his skin "You know you can't beat me." he said to him as he knew ever since Vilgax's demise many of his enemies feared him since they thought he was going to kill them if they crossed him and he knew for certain Psyphon was afraid of him.

"I wouldn't act all high and mighty Tennyson, after all you're not gonna be able to stop me when I attack the Plumber convoy." Psyphon said to him cockily.

"The convoy." Ben said as that had old Plumber tech that was going to be decommissioned "You wouldn't just give me that what's your game!" he said as this was where Psyphon differed from his master, he played mind games, but still lacked the overall drive Vilgax had.

"No game, a choice save your daughter or save your mother." Psyphon said ending the line.

Natsu and Juvia looked at Ben in slight fear almost able to feel the silent fury coming off him.

"Erza, listen close I need you to do something for me." Ben said over his Plumber badge.

Wendy had to admit the drive to DC was a bland one, but the scenery was nice.

"Magister we are picking something up on radar." a woman said over the comms.

"What do we got Molly?" Max asked his subordinate, he waited and all he got was static "All units if you can hear me, pull over!" he said slamming the brakes "Be on your guard." he said to Wendy who nodded.

"I thought this was old stuff going to be disassembled?" Wendy asked him curious as to why someone might be after this.

Max stepped outside and readied his blaster "It is, but we're also moving dangerous alien weaponry we salvaged or confiscated from prisoners and enemies." he said to her.

"Anything we can use?" Wendy asked as Max nodded opening his truck pulling out a large blue cannon "Whoa." she said as that was an intimidating-looking gun.

"Yeah, the show ends when this baby sings." Max said turning around and fired the weapon blasting a large bipedal boar.

Wendy followed his lead and blasted a torrent of wind behind her, hearing a clucking sound 'A chicken?' she thought soon recognizing it as Kickin Hawk's species.

"Come out Psyphon your stooges aren't enough to take me on!" Max said as there was one thing he learned from Ben after all these years, villains often had large egos and if you challenged them they usually answered.

"Max Tennyson." Psyphon said blasting Max's blaster "Such an inferior weapon to think this was supposed to hurt my master so long ago." he said as he chuckled "And you, you're Tennyson's bastard." he said looking at Wendy "Funny you have his eyes." he said to her as he looked over the girl carefully.

Max looked at Wendy and saw her eyes were now green 'What?' he thought as just moments ago they were brown.

"Hey you gonna tell me why you're here or are you gonna keep running your mouth." Wendy said not caring what he was going to say.

"Ah yes, I am here for what the Plumbers stole." Psyphon said to her as he opened Max's truck and pulled out a large case and opened it "My master's battle armor!" he said gleefully as Vilgax's armor was shown.

"Don't forget my payment Psyphon!" a loud annoying voice said as a human came out walking toward Psyphon.

"Hmmm oh yes, here is the Null Void projector as promised." Psyphon said giving Animo the relic.

"Surprised to see you two working together." Max said as this was an odd pair he never saw coming.

"Yes while the human has his uses, I now have my master's power!" Psyphon said loudly admiring each piece of Vilgax's armor.

"Keep your worthless scrap, I am now able to travel to the Null Void!" Animo said laughing maniaclly.

"Gonna try and be D'Void again?" Max asked with a smirk on his face as he loved how even after so many years and Animo was all powerful, all Ben needed was a day to beat him.

"Did you honestly think that was the only thing I did while in the Null Void you simpleton!" Animo said angrily "While there I collected DNA from all the species I imprisoned and stored them, but that's not all, while there I discovered the remains of beasts that were truly primal!" he said laughing maniacally.

'That won't be good.' Max thought as with animal DNA Animo was a moderate threat at best, with alien DNA he was a larger pain, he didn't want to even think about what he'd do with restored creature remains.

"Heaven's Wheel!" a familiar voice said loudly.

Wendy smiled seeing Erza arrive.

"Now where is Psyphon?" Erza asked her glare focused till she spotted one of the men "So this is Vilgax's pet?" she asked taking a page out of Ben's book.

"I am no one's pet!" Psyphon said angrily, seeing similarities to Ben and her.

"Boss this is BAWK Tennyson's woman." Liam said to Psyphon a bit scared of what she could do.

"I see so Tennyson chose his mother instead of his daughter." Psyphon said laughing a bit.

"No, he sent me to make sure Max and the other Plumbers were alright, he was afraid of what Wendy would do to you before he got here." Erza said as Ben was worried about Wendy, but not as much given who was in charge "Orders Max?" she asked not too familiar with the procedure for this.

"Stop Animo from using that gun!" Max said seeing Animo fiddle with it.

Erza understood and sliced off the lens.

"You fool without the focusing lens the energy blast will go off in three square miles!" Animo said as red energy began to spark up.

Erza felt like she had pulled a mistake only Natsu seemed capable of making "Is there anyway to stop it?" she asked Max quickly.

"No, but a mana energy field might disrupt the process." Max said ordering everyone to get clear and looked at Wendy "Can you do it?" he asked her curiously getting a confident nod.

"I will not be denied my destiny!" Animo said pulling the trigger off "I shall get to the Null Void even if I have to take you all with me!" he said pressing the trigger.

Time slowed down for everyone there as Animo pressed the trigger.

Psyphon and his goons ran as fast as they could.

The Plumbers hit the dirt.

Animo laughed like a lunatic as his palm was slowly encased in red energy.

Wendy saw how far everyone was scattered and knew she couldn't create a mana bubble around them in time to protect everyone from the blast, so Wendy took a quick breath and ran straight at Animo.

Erza saw this and chased after the girl seeing as how Wendy couldn't bubble everyone to save them, she ran as close to Animo with his increasing bubble and erected a shield around him minimizing the explosion.

Max saw the mana shield contain the explosive energy and saw Wendy, Erza, Animo, and a large part of the truck he had disappear.

"I'm sorry what happened!?" Kevin asked on the Plumber line "Wendy and Erza are in the Null Void!" he said as that sounded like the worst possible news ever.

"Can we backtrack the coordinates?" Gwen asked her grandfather.

"No, the old Null Void projectors didn't have programable coordinates like the models do now, The Null Void is parallel to this dimension whenever one of the old guns was used it opened a portal to the other side of wherever the gun opened the portal." Max said as he had called Azmuth already and despite the man's brilliance, he didn't have any of the discontinued and obsolete tech to make the old gun.

"What the hell does Animo want from there alien DNA, we have that here!?" Kevin asked as it seemed like a big venture for something so simple.

"Not as much as you think Kevin, The Null Void was used by a lot of Plumbers in the old days a lot of species are in there, some extinct even." Max said as Vulpimancers were chief amongst the species as back in the day it was illegal to take them off their home planet, but smugglers tried and uprooted them, the ones captured had spent such a time in the Null Void their biology shifted changing their pigments and development compared to the ones naturally on their home planet.

"Oh great Animo wants to splice up alien DNA." Kevin said hearing reports about what Animo did when he got the Omnitrix ring and Ditto's DNA.

"It might be worse than that Kevin Animo had an old device on him, I think he might be trying to revive something to." Max said as he still remembered the T-Rex and the giant parrot in DC.

"So what's the plan?" Gwen asked him wondering what they could do.

"Thankfully Wendy and Erza are somewhere between NY and DC so we have a mile range of about a less than a hundred miles in perimeter." Max said to them.

"That's the good news?" Kevin asked not seeing how that was good.

"The science isn't perfect, but that's what we have to work with." Max said to them.

Kevin sighed "Listen you keep working on Harangue, I need to make a call." he said to her.

"To who?" Gwen asked not getting an answer as he left.

Kevin walked far away from Gwen as he took out an old communicator "Argit it's me, Kevin, I need a favor." he said over the line "It's for Ben, if we don't do this he's not gonna be happy." he said as Argit was afraid of a lot, not helping Ben was not a smart move on his part.

"What's Benny need with me?" Argit said picking up.

"His kid is trapped in the Null Void, I need a map of our secret hide outs." Kevin said as comms didn't work in the Null Void barring the ones made in the prison meant to call the outside dimension.

"And what pray tell will be my compensation?" Argit asked sounding smug thinking he was in a position of power.

"Easy, Ben will be the least of your worries and if his kid and his girlfriend are hurt and you didn't help, well you saw what happened to Vilgax." Kevin said as he hated talking about his friend like this, but he needed to make a point.

"...I think I have a map here somewhere." Argit said in slight terror of an angry Ben coming for him.

Ben was furious Erza and Wendy were somewhere in the Null Void and he didn't have any kind of clue where they could be 'It'd take me hours and the Null Void has no set ground.' he thought to himself as he remembered up and down were relative as gravity was a bit of a misnumber there as asteroids floated, but falling was still an option.

Ben contemplated his options as he would have to run on the procedure given he couldn't look aimlessly and wondered how Erza and Wendy were fairing.

'I swear waking up in another dimension is not pleasant.' Erza thought as she looked at the red void and saw she was next to Wendy.

"Can we never do that again." Wendy said as she felt sore and had a headache "Where's that pasty-faced idiot?" she asked curiously not seeing Animo around.

Erza was curious not seeing Animo around them, but saw the truck and Vilgax's armor, she immediately began inspecting that, she saw the material was an alien metal, but what she was really after were the sword and the gems.

"What are you gonna do with the armor?" Wendy asked and saw Erza answer her question by kicking it off the asteroid they were on and saw the armor drop into a sun a good distance away "I swear you are too awesome sometimes." she said as Erza had her moments of being truly cool.

"Thank you." Erza said as she looked inside the truck deciding to requip all the boxes not knowing how dangerous some of these materials were, she felt relatively proud destroying that armor as while she respected craft she hated the owner very much for hurting Ben, so she felt it was appropriate to completely destroy it.

They were soon brought out of their thoughts when a purple Vulpimancer appeared.

"I forget are these things friendly?" Wendy asked as her father often acted like one giant dog when he was Wildmutt.

"I'd say no." Erza said seeing blood that didn't belong to the beast on its fur coat 'That's odd.' she thought to herself as she took in the Vulpimancer's body as instead of dog-like, they seemed more cat-like as comparing Wildmutt to this beast, it looked more like a lion or a tiger with how it acted and looked physically.

"Mira you can't come." Ben said as he got ready to leave.

"The hell I can't." Mira said to him not taking no for an answer.

"Mira this is a dimension filled with dangerous predators, killers, criminals, and to top it off you don't have refillable magic, you use it all and you're dead." he said reminding her of that one fact.

"Listen Natsu's a good bloodhound, but can he track in reality?" Mira asked him as she felt Ben would need a good tracker "Even if he is beneficial you're taking only him and Gajeel." she said to him as he knew he'd need more help.

"Ben she should come, we only have two trackers and Mira and her siblings didn't get their Take Overs through power alone." Makarov said as he was going as well slightly interested in an entire dimension built for criminals.

Ben sighed knowing he was against the wall "Fine, but when we get there if you are low on magic you are leaving." he said as the plumbers had their new Null Void projectors and each group was being assigned one.

"That blast put me off course." Animo said as he had a good idea where the asteroid was as he was able to mentally map out the very likely opposing side of Earth when he was still in the Null Void "I need fast transport." he said smiling as he saw a Null Guardian nearby.

"This is the Null Void?" Makarov asked seeing it as a strange place as few things made sense from what he saw.

"We use it to store criminals too deadly for the outside world, a good portion are in prisons, but a lot are outside and trapped in this dimension." Max said as it was a prison inside a prison and the safest places were in the jails.

"What's that?" Mira said seeing a grey flying creature.

"Null Guardians, they are a part of this dimension or at least co-exist with it." Ben said as the Galvans made them and he wasn't sure of their true purpose.

"Would it be a problem if I used my magic on one?" Mira asked curiously.

Ben thought that over for a minute "No, Animo was able to take control of these things, they possess a hive mind or something like that." he said to her as a Mira under Animo's control was not a fun idea.

Mira conceded to that as it wasn't wise to use a beast Animo would be familiar with.

"Alright we'll take off into teams, Natsu Gajeel, here is Animo's scent." Ben said pulling out fluff one would find in a stuffed animal, he got odd looks "Animo had a ton of them, I really didn't wanna know." he said as no one questioned that "Mira you take Natsu, Grandpa you take Makarov, and Gajeel you're with me." he said to them "We're here to save lives not trade them, if you get low on magic you go home that's an order." he said to everyone as he partnered everyone with a person who could help the other worst case.

"Why couldn't we bring more people?" Natsu asked curiously.

"Because it's a risk with taking who we are taking now Natsu." Max said to him "We need to be versatile in the Null Void and not everyone in your group was suited for this place and to top it off their powers don't recharge like yours." he said to him.

"I was brought along for my tracking abilities which are better for a place like this." Mira said to him as simple tracking may have been better here than for a person with senses like Natsu, in fact she thought that was the point given Ben's aliens had some form of advanced senses.

"And to top it off the people in our groups can fly." Gajeel said thinking it wouldn't be safe for Happy, Lily, and Carla, so Ben was gonna fly him, Max had a jetpack for him and Makarov, and Mira could fly Natsu.

"Grandpa Max will have help." Ben said as Ship jumped to the old man and transformed into his literal ship form "Everyone keep your comms open and call the minute you find someone friend or foe." he said to them.

"I feel like a hypocrite." Makarov said to himself.

"Why?" Max asked curious as to what he meant.

"The magic council in my world, they are a behind the books and pass judgment on certain topics and situations." Makarov said as they were a group that had control of Etherion and worked with the wizard saints closely "They would desire to use this place." he said as the magic council would maroon their criminals here just so they wouldn't have to deal with them, he would normally be against such things, but knowing what Ben faced, the fact he was with the group that governed it, he felt like he was seeing things from the other side, a rare perspective.

"I have felt the same way at times, I am a Magister, and I have run operations that work on a planetary scale about half of them with Ben." Max said to him "I've never done something underhanded, but I have been pushed to do things I didn't like." he said as Max never told Ben this, but he was sure he knew, he had blood on his hands as he had been at war, with other humans such as the Forever Knights, Vilgax's troops, and various other alien species.

Makarov fell into silence as after meeting Paradox he saw things in a new way.

"You just had to piss them off." Mira said as Natsu found a nest of fire-breathing reptiles and his loud voice caught their attention "You mind handling this?" she asked as she grabbed the nearest one and used her Take Over and while their fire was natural and reduced her magic usage.

"This fire taste delicious!" Natsu said having a meal.

Mira knew this would end badly.

"Man this place is endless." Gajeel said seeing how endless it was, there were stars in the distance and so much more.

"It's built that way, trust me it's a lot worse than you think, each plumber planet has something akin to this." Ben said to him as that was the sheer truth of it.

"Remind me to never get arrested in your universe." Gajeel said to him as he was not kidding this prison frightened him and that was no easy feat.

"This place is meant for big threats Gajeel." Ben said as it was for super-powered people and people who were great threats.

Gajeel kept walking till he stopped "Hey how long have you been throwing people here?" he asked finding something past a boulder.

"Not long and not many why?" Ben asked as besides Kevin and Vilgax he only started throwing people here for three years.

"Well someone has it out for you." Gajeel said as Ben saw 'Tennyson' carved into rocks aggressively, but the scary thing was the number of bones on the ground as there were many.

"Yeah." Ben said looking at the ground seeing a footprint, but it wasn't human 'I've seen this before.' he thought thinking he had seen it recently.

"I swear I can't tell up from down." Wendy said having no sense of direction.

Erza was inclined to agree "You know if you are going to track someone it would be a wiser idea to not make such a loud noise when you jump." she said looking back to a rock she and Wendy had leaped from moments ago, after a few moments they saw an elderly man appear holding a spear made of bone.

"Are you plumbers?" the man asked as he saw them carrying Plumber badges, but needed to be sure.

"Yes." Wendy said quickly sending Erza a look "I'm Wendy and this is Erza, we're looking for the closest Null Void projector." she said to him.

"Your best bet is Incarcecon, but that prison is a hell hole." the man said to her "They push drugs, force labor, and kill people." he said to them.

Both women had to take the man's state into consideration as he seemed to be wearing an old-fashioned Plumber suit.

"Can you take us there?" Erza asked curiously.

"Only if you get me out of here, I have been here nearly a decade." the man said to them.

"Fine deal." Wendy said as Erza sent her a look and Wendy sent her a look back.

The man looked at her for a minute then nodded "Give me a minute." he said needing to build up speed to jump.

"You are making deals you might not be able to keep Wendy." Erza said disapprovingly as it set a bad president.

"We don't have much of a choice Erza, plus worst case we have his sentence reduced and moved to a different jail." Wendy said as she didn't know about this man and it was very likely she knew her last name so it was best not to tempt fate and make more enemies.

Erza sighed knowing she made a point "You need to stop hanging out with Gajeel." she said knowing she was learning from him how to bend the rules rather than break them.

The man soon appeared.

"We never got your name?" Erza asked him.

"Phil." Phil said to them simply as he began walking with them following.

"I still think we should've gone." Gwen said to Kevin.

"I'm digitizing the maps Argit sent." Kevin said as Argit had horrible hand writing it was almost code "Plus Ben didn't call us, we're back up and to make even more complicated they only have three portable projectors." he said as Ben made the right call in his opinion.

"Any more luck with Harangue?" Gwen asked needing to be distracted "On his work life against Ben no, but his social life I think I may have found something." he said to her showing her something.

"Country clubs?" Gwen asked wondering what that was about.

"Yeah apparently Harangue is a member at each of them." Kevin said as that was odd in his books.

Gwen was curious about that and decided it was a lead worth investigating.

"Where'd Rex go?" Kevin asked as he would've liked the literal technological skeleton key.

"He went to track down his brother." Gwen said as apparently Rex hadn't heard from him in a while

"You know it's kinda insulting when a brother has to hunt his own brother down." Rex said as he was in the Amazon at Dr Rylander's old lab which was currently in use by the former nanite team.

"Rex!" a little girl said running to him.

"Sarah." Rex said in surprise seeing the Sarah Meechum, she had grown up since he saved her as a kid, she was now Wendy's age "How have you been?" he asked her politely.

"I'm fine my dad is making stuff with everyone in the lab and all I have are these drones." Sarah said as said drones walked to her before scanning Rex.

"They won't shoot me will they?" Rex asked clenching his fists and his signature blue circuit lines appeared.

"You're on the whitelist." Sarah said as it was how the robots knew who not to shoot "C'mon I'll show you the hole they dug themselves." she said bringing him to the lab.

Rex soon saw the lab and saw each scientist working.

"Rex?" Rylander said in surprise before running to him and pulled him into a hug "I never get tired of being solid." he said to him as he looked at Rex "I heard what happened with Van Kleiss." he said in a neutral tone as he was glad that monster was possibly dead, but what he did to Rex was saddening to hear.

"It's good to see you Rylander." Rex said with a smile "So where's my brother?" he asked not seeing him.

"He's taken a room over as his private lab." Rylander said to him.

Rex nodded and got directions to the lab, he opened the doors and saw his brother who looked and smelled like he hadn't showered in days.

"Rex good to see you, little brother, I would've come sooner, but I got a startling alert from my instruments, Alpha is back." Caesar said to him in slight worry.

'Oh right.' Rex thought as he remembered Erza had the nanite in her combined with Van Kleiss Omega nanite, he filled Caesar in on what happened.

"This is incredible." Caesar said to Rex "Nanites are adaptive to bio energy with humans from another world and are able to adapt to their unique energy signature!" he said shaking Rex a bit.

Rex rolled his eyes at his brother's crazy scientist eyes.

"Hello Rex welcome back." a feminine voice said causing Rex to feel a bit of terror as he saw Zag RS, he was a bit uncomfortable with it knowing it had his mother's voice and this program had tried to murder him and the entire plant more than once.

"Oh Rex before I forget you should be on the look out." Caesar said as while his mind drifted a lot, he did keep track of many things "Hunter Cain has been active lately." he said to him.

"That jerk, after the world cure I thought he was done." Rex said as after the worldwide cure and his rush to fame, Hunter Cain lost all his support against him and with EVOs in a shorter number no one paid him much attention.

"Apparently he upped his game, he's after aliens now too." Caesar said as it didn't matter how one varied life was important.

Rex decided he'd inform Ben as Hunter liked to make statements and what bigger one would there be than to go after Ben Tennyson, he was brought out of his thoughts when he felt his brother feel his right side.

"...We never wanted you to suffer hermano." Caesar said seeing Rex's scar, hating Van Kleiss on a new level of hate he never knew he had.

"This is my life bro, I gotta live it, happiness, pain, and all." Rex said a bit sadly "Hey can you look into something for me?" he asked him simply.

"Sure what's up?" Caesar asked him curious to what he was after.

"I was helping with an investigation and when you brought Hunter Cain up it clicked." Rex said to him pulling out a red mask with eye holes "Do you think you can make a connection to Hunter Cain and Will Harangue?" he asked him as he found this mask with Harangue's propaganda and didn't realize it belonged to Hunter's group till now.

"You're asking your brother for detective work?" Peter Meechum asked walking in "Wrong scientist Rex, I can keep an ear out." he said as he lived in the city and knew it well.

"I have to agree with Peter out of all of us he was the one that wasn't a recluse." Caesar said to Rex.

"Listen, Rex, Will Harangue is a bullshit journalist and sprouts lies and sells out pretty easily." Peter said as that was pure truth "If he was in bed with Hunter, he may be secretly funding or working with him in some ways." he said as Hunter was not a good person and the country knew it, he was a racist terrorist plain and simple, he hated people because he couldn't understand or accept them or some other dumb reason because he honestly thought the man was an ignorant moron.

"Tennyson." a voice rasped out pressing it's hand against a nearby wall clawing it "I sense you are near, hide under your silly name all you like, it will not matter, I will hunt you down for what you did to me!" the voice said angrily as it roared in unrestrained anger.

Author's Note-Hey Everyone sorry for the slow update, been a long 2 months had some writers block and slowly getting back up to speed, hope to be able to do more updates and hope you liked the chapter, a poll is up on my FF profile on possible girls Rex and Natsu can date I kept Natsu with Lisanna and Lucy if anyone has a pairing for Natsu and if it seems possible I may add it to the list, hope to get some support on P-A-T-R-E-O-N, link is on my profile like always.