They got out of the vehicle and looked around. Nearby was a sign that read 'Welcome to Sparksville'. Kevin said, "Sparksville? Is there even electricity here?"
"Last I heard, there were Nosdeenians nearby, but I'm not too sure," EightEight gurgled, beginning to walk towards the town.
"What's a Nosdeenian?" Ben asked, following her along with Kevin and Gwen.
"A small creature that can control electricity," EightEight explained.
"Huh," Ben hummed.
They were silent until they got to a plain-looking building. On the building was a sign that said 'Mayor's Building'. The quartet entered it, following EightEight.
A man with peach skin, blonde hair, and bored blue eyes looked up at them as they entered. He sat up, mayoral clothes wrinkled a bit before saying, "Hello, what do you need?"
EightEight took out a circular item, the item looking like a disk with the image of a simplified dragon on it. She showed it to the mayor, who stared blankly at it for a moment before sighing.
"Let me guess, that dragon dressed fellow sent you here?" the mayor groaned. EightEight nodded. "Mm. Entrance is next to the rubber ball barn."
"Rubber ball barn?" Kevin blinked.
"Mm. Don't touch it," the mayor added before slinking back down onto his desk. EightEight motioned for the trio to follow her and left.
"What's the rubber ball barn?" Kevin asked, looking at EightEight. She shrugged. She had no reason to see what that was.
She brought them to a square, grey building next to a large barn. Kevin observed it for a moment, stalling before continuing to follow. The quartet entered the building, the door closing behind them.
From first looks, it just seemed like a simple store that was decently stocked with random objects like canned food and souvenirs. A tall, buff human saw them before smiling and staring at them.
"Afri-mask. Didn't expect to see you here," the human mused. When EightEight didn't reply, the human added, "Don't be a stranger, EightEight. We're part of the same group after all." The human tapped something on its face, a costume of a pigeon now covering it.
"Who are you?" Gwen asked.
"Hey, name's Pigeon-mask, or just Pigeon if you want. The Sparksville base is pretty chill though, so you can call me by my actual name, Tai," the man replied.
"Erm, can we tell him?" Ben asked, looking at EightEight. After a few seconds she nodded. "I'm Ben."
"I'm Gwen," Gwen quickly added. "That's Kevin." Kevin nodded, but kept looking back.
"Cool," Tai nodded before putting three of the same disks EightEight had on the counter. "You'll need these for Dragoon bases. You'll have to enter your name and mask and stuff, but it's useful to have around."
"Didn't Mice-mask program some of them to hack into Plumber bases?" EightEight asked. Ben looked at her weirdly.
"Yea, but those actually look like Plumber badges," Tai answered.
"Context please?" Ben asked.
"Guess none of you heard of the Plumbers before?" Tai asked after a few silent seconds. When they nodded, Tai answered, "Galactic peace organization. They try to say peacekeepers, but most of the time they don't even have any say in a conflict. The last conflict I'm pretty sure they were in that didn't end with executions or assimilation was… the Kinet-Pyros Conflict? What is it with Pyros and wars, anyways?"
EightEight shrugged as Ben grabbed the disks and handed the other two theirs. She then nodded at Tai before going to a shelf. The trio followed as EightEight put her disk up against the side of the shelf. A beep happened before the shelf suddenly moved into the wall and the floor opened up. EightEight motioned from them to follow before going down. Ben was the first to follow, going down after her. Gwen went next, stalling slightly before doing the same. Kevin waited a bit longer, stealing a look from Tai before going over the other three.
They looked around the area, observing. The place was massive, almost like a hidden, underground village. There were different buildings around, some looking like wooden huts, others looking like a spiral pillar, but most appeared to be normal buildings. Some of the others saw them and waves, but EightEight just continued to guide them to wherever they were going.
They came to one of the buildings, but this one seemed to be in the center of the area. It was the only building that didn't seem earthy in nature, being more sleek and futuristic. It also seemed to be the busiest when they stepped inside, other creatures looking towards them. Most were humans, but there were also more alien creatures, like a humanoid rooster, a pile of sludge, and a big, rocky creature.
A Galvan, who was sitting on a counter near the back of the area looked up and asked, "Actual?"
"EightEight," the Sotoraggian gurgled, coming up to the counter and taking off her ID mask.
"Ah," the Galvan nodded. "You three, feel free to take off your mask. It's a lot more casual down here in the Sparksville Undertown than it is up top." The trio looked towards EightEight, who nodded, then they took off their masks.
The Galvan observed them before saying, "Kay, did you get your blank badge from Tai?" The trio got them out and showed them to the Galvan. "I'm going to program them now, stay here until I'm finished with yours."
EightEight walked away as the Galvan began to mess with the badges and asking the Wyrmlings questions. The Sotoraggian came to a table with a rocky giant, a human, and a small white/black humanoid.
"Wonder what those watches are," the rocky giant commented, motioning towards the trio.
"Don't ask me," the human shrugged. "I don't dabble much with news outside of Earth."
"The Omnitrix and the Predatrix," EightEight said. The other three stared at her in complete confusion.
"This is why we need someone who can translate Sotoraggian," the rocky giant stated.
"Tai knows Sotoraggian," the white and black creature squeaked.
"Do we count him, though?" the rocky giant shrugged. "He doesn't really come down here."
"Why does Tai know Sotoraggian, anyways? Last I checked, in Earth years, he was, like, ten," the human mentioned.
"Terradino rotates around its star a lot faster compared to other systems like Earth, but still considerably slower than Kinet," the rocky giant hummed. "In Earth years, they're fully mature by eight Earth rotations. Most Vaxasaurians, for what I know, do tend to leave their home cavern around…" The rocky giant became silent, trying to recall the information.
"Considering time translation, about five Earth years," the white and black one chirped.
"Time translations are so annoying, how did you figure it out so fast, Kacje?" the rocky giant asked.
"I mainly just remember what a soukro- or whatever the equivalent is for other planets- is in Fullmoons," the white and black one, Kacje, stated.
"… huh," the rocky giant mused. "Back to Tai, I heard he was a bounty hunter for a while until coming to Earth. I don't know why he stayed, but I'm not gonna pry."
"Speaking of that, I can't help but be curious as to why Earth is a place aliens like to hide from the world," the human stated.
"Well, we don't really pay attention to Earth due to still being at a level two tech level, so it's a good place to hide," Kacje shrugged. "Any other reason you remember, Jewir?"
The rocky giant, Jewir, was quiet for a moment before saying, "It's also a bit of a melting pot planet. Not as much as Omnium-Pourri, but still can be considered one by the ones who want to run from their homes. Course, that's not the only reason, there's a lot of them, that's just one of the more common ones."
"That feels oddly like human nature. If you don't like what's going on and you feel like you can't change it, go to a place where you can fit in," the human nodded.
"Yea, you'll get that perspective a lot when you go to melting pot planets," Jewir nodded.
"Kind of sad to think that creatures will just leave due to not conforming to social norms or terrible family life," Kacje sighed.
EightEight looked towards the Wyrmlings, seeing the trio nodding to the Galvan. She looked back at Kacje, Jewir, and the human, seeing them ignoring her. She went back over to the trio as they looked towards her.
"Are your badges set up?" EightEight gurgled. Ben nodded. She motioned to follow and the quartet stepped out of the building.
"Where are we going?" Gwen asked once they were out of the building.
"Where we will be staying here in the Sparksville Dragoon base," EightEight explained.
Ben relayed what she said to Gwen and Kevin.
They came to a building that looked like an earthy dome, made of cobblestone and random steel bits. EightEight went into the building, the Wyrmlings following into it. The inside of the dome was modest, having a fairly sized living area and the kitchen amounted to a fire pit and many baskets. Off to the side were odd shelf beds, though there were only two of them.
"Is this where we'll stay?" Kevin asked.
"We will mainly come here for food and rest. We will not stay here on most days, but I want you three to get used to the base," EightEight stated, signing the same thing. Ben and Gwen nodded, Kevin tilting his head. They ended up relaying the info to him. Once they did, Kevin nodded as well.
A few more seconds passed before Kevin questioned, "Can we also explore Sparksville?"
EightEight was quiet for a moment before saying, "Let me check something first."
"She basically said to give her a minute," Ben hummed in relay as EightEight got out her badge. She fiddled with it for a bit before staring at it.
"I'll allow it, but no going outside of Sparksville," EightEight replied.
"Just not going outside of Sparksville," Ben relayed.
"Cool," Kevin nodded. The trio left, leaving EightEight in the building. She let out a broken sigh, walking over and sitting down on one of the building's chairs, leaning back a bit.
"I'm sorry, SixSix… I… I just can't talk to you right now… I hope TwoTwo and SevenSeven are okay…" EightEight whispered to herself. She looked back at the badge, staring at its screen.
-()-
"So… I guess we just wander?" Gwen commented.
"I'm going back up if any of you want to join me," Kevin said before putting his mask back on and running off.
"… You gonna?" Gwen asked.
"Mm… nah. This is a good excuse for Styx and Belltail anyways," Ben replied.
"That's true," Gwen nodded before the two began searching.
They quickly found an empty storage building, the lights of it off. They transformed into the two forms and began. Though, Styx seemed to grin under the grey cloth as time went on.
-()-
Kevin walked by Tai, who had his mask off and looked like a t-rex with larger arms and more skin toned scales. Tai looked up briefly at him before making an odd, birdish sound and looking back at his book. Kevin stopped for a moment, but continued on.
He couldn't help but notice how quiet the town was. Thinking about it, Sparksville was pretty out of the way. Not many people would want to come here.
Kevin went over to the barn and slipped inside, noticing odd signs around. "Don't touch what?" Kevin muttered, walking through the oddly long hall. Do barns normally have halls? Well, it wasn't really a barn, it just looked like a barn.
He came to the main room and saw… a giant rubber band ball. Kevin stared blankly at it before tearing off his mask. The cloak disappeared as he approached the rubber ball, staring at it. It seemed to stare back at him and he felt eyes on him, but he didn't know why.
"Why shouldn't I touch it?" Kevin shrugged, staring at it. He touched the orb and felt something… odd. Like there was a generator under all of the rubber bands. He moved his hand around the orb and it seemed like whatever was inside was following.
Then, something seemed to flow out through his hand. Kevin stepped back just before something seemed to form in front of him. It looked like a small battery thing with big, electric yellow eyes and a startled frown. They stared at each other, the creature gaining a maniacal grin. It zapped away, leaving Kevin there. He stared at the rubber ball before slowly backing away and leaving.
He bit his tongue. Why was that thing there?
…
EightEight shot up as she felt a pulse of electricity croase through her. She looked around, seeing the Wyrmlings sleeping nearby and a small, black and yellow alien. The Sotoraggian glared at the little battery alien, taking out the two talons on her sides. She stared at the small creature, who was staring back with a wide, large grin. It zipped away, letting out a demented chuckle. The little alien went over to the Wyrmlings, specifically Ben, and began to tap the watch. When the watch didn't react, it went over to the Omnitrix and did the same.
The Nosedeenian zipped out of the way of a thrown talon, eyes looking towards EightEight. It laughed and zipped out of the room.
"Why in Hellscraper…" EightEight started before retrieving her talon and waking up the Wyrmlings.
Ben was the first to wake, muttering, "Mm… What is it, Sister EightEight?"
"There's a freaking Nosdeenian here," EightEight sighed. Ben lifted himself up.
"You mentioned something called Nosedeenian on the way here," Ben commented as the other two began to wake up as well.
"What's up?" Kevin asked, somewhat muttering.
"Nosedeenians, apparently. Little electric aliens. EightEight didn't explain them fully on the way here," Ben answered.
"Do they look like batteries or somethin?" Kevin muttered, sitting up. Gwen followed, but she didn't say anything.
"… what's a bat… whatever you just said?" EightEight asked, tilting her head. Gwen blinked at her.
"You don't know what a battery is?" Gwen asked.
"She's an alien, cous'. They might call it something else," Ben replied.
"That makes sense," Gwen nodded. "A battery is a small cylinder that stores electricity that's put into things like toys, remotes, and tools to power them."
"… why?" EightEight gurgled in a baffled tone.
"Entertainment," Ben deadpanned, causing Kevin to laugh a bit.
"If any of you want to join me, I'll be chasing it down," EightEight gurgled before moving towards the door.
"I'll help," Ben chirped, standing up fully and running towards EightEight.
"I'll join, too," Gwen said after a beat of putting it together, standing up as well. Kevin looked towards the wall, but otherwise didn't move.
The two exited, stopping to let an annoyed, humanoid tiger-like creature run by. It yelled, "LISTEN UP, IDIOT NOSEDEENIAN, MALICE IS GONNA CATCH YOU LIKE THE BUG YOU ARE AND STUFF YOU BACK IN THE RUBBER BALL WHERE YOU BELONG!"
"Please never find yourself on the end of an Appoplexian's wrath," EightEight randomly commented. Ben scoffed at the sentence.
"What in the world was that?" Gwen gawked.
"According to Sister EightEight, an Appoplexian," Ben answered. He focused on where the Appoplexian ran. "I'm guessing the Nosedeenian is down there somewhere?"
"That's our best option," EightEight nodded, shifting the talons in her hands before running after the tiger-like creature. Ben and Gwen followed after the Sotoraggian.
After a few seconds of running, Ben chirped, "Hey, uh, EightEight?"
"Yes?" EightEight gurgled.
"When you touched the watch, I got Shockwolf. Do you think if a Nosdeenian touches the watch, it'll unlock whatever hunts them?" Ben asked.
EightEight suddenly stopped and grabbed the arm with the Predatrix, quickly activating it.
"Woah!" Ben squawked as Gwen came to a stop next to them. The Sotoraggian turned the dial until it came upon a hologram that showed an odd looking butterfly. The cousins blinked at the form. "Wait, when then that-?"
"It touched the Predatrix and Omnitrix before I could chase it off," she explained before pressing down. A red light flashed and in Ben's place was a silvery butterfly with electric-made wings, big magenta eyes, six scythe-like legs, and antennas with odd star bits at the end of them. The Predatrix was like a collar around its 'neck'.
"Woah!" the butterfly-like buzzed.
"Draiaps hunt Nosedeenians," EightEight stated.
"Dray… apps? That's a weird name," the butterfly buzzed.
"You gonna name it?" Gwen asked.
"Yea, just not too sure what yet," it buzzed before its eyes seemed to become sharper and it zipped away.
EightEight looked at Gwen and signed, 'Follow him, his instincts will lead him to the prey.'
"Ignoring the fact you called those Nosedeenian things prey, ok," Gwen replied before running to follow Ben's new form. EightEight stalled slightly, hands in mid motion before she shook it off and followed the two Wyrmlings.
"Did I miss anything?" Kevin asked, coming up to them. Gwen turned her head back slightly.
"Ben has a new form and we're following him!" Gwen shouted. Kevin nodded.
-()-
To say he was annoyed would be an understatement. He preferred the word furious. Or enjoyment, as that Nosedeenian seemed to be interpreting it as.
Malice growled, the claw blades coming out of his wrists. He threw himself at the Nosedeenian, but it zipped out of the way of him. The Nosedeenian laughed at him before zipping off. He dashed after it before noticing a silvery creature with electrical wings.
Oh Celestialsapiens, but did the locals call a species like that…? Didn't matter, since the Nosedeenian freaked at seeing it before duplicating.
Malice twitched. "LISTEN UP, NOSEDEENIANS THAT MAKE MALICE ANNOYED, MALICE IS GONNA MUSH YOU BACK TOGETHER CUZ YOU BIT OFF MORE THAN YOUR STOMACH CAN CHEW!"
"… That doesn't make any sense," the silver insect thing commented.
A beat of silence.
"I wasn't talking to you," Malice deadpanned before going after the Nosedeenians. Two more Nosedeenians came out of the other two, the group of Nosedeenians now numbering four. Three of the Nosedeenians zipped off, leaving one behind.
The silvery butterfly- THAT'S WHAT IT WAS CALLED- suddenly zipped over to the leftover Nosedeenian and captured it in its… legs? Its antennas touched the Nosedeenian as it began to squirm in its grasp. The Nosedeenian screeched as the butterfly thing seemingly drained it.
"I think I got a name for this form now," the butterfly commented as it dropped the now very drained Nosedeenian on the ground. "Conductash!"
Does he want context for that?
Conductash dashed away after another Nosedeenian, leaving the drained Nosedeenian twitching and barely moving on the ground. Malice went over to it and picked up the creature, staring at it.
The Appoplexian looked over, seeing a Sotoraggian- oh hey, he didn't realize EightEight was here- and two humans.
"Where's Ben?" the smaller of the humans questioned. EightEight faced him and began to move her hands.
'Did you see where the butterfly hunter went?' EightEight signed.
"The Nosedeenian idiot duplicated and Conductash- I think that's what it's called- went after one of the dupes," Malice answered, dropping the small creature.
EightEight let out a gurgling hiss. The taller of the humans approached the Nosedeenian and tapped it with its covered foot. The human backed away as the Nosedeenian thrashed towards the human, seemingly trying to reach something on the human.
"Looks like Ben did name that form," the smaller human commented before staring at the Nosedeenian. "What happened to it?"
EightEight gurgled something. When the two humans just stared at her in confusion, Malice said, "Conductash drained it and left it here."
Said butterfly then showed up, another drained Nosedeenian in its legs. "Hey Gwen, Kevin," Counductash said before dropping the other Nosedeenian next to the first.
"What are you doing, Be- Conductash?" the smaller human asked as Malice grabbed both Nosedeenians.
"What do you think I'm doing?" Conductash countered as Malice clapped both Nosedeenians into each other. The reformed single Nosedeenian tried to shimmy out, but was quickly touched and drained by Conductash.
"How conductive is silver, again?" the smaller human asked, looking at the taller one.
"Either gold or silver is the most conductive metal, forget which one it is," the taller one supplied. Conductash zipped away, Malice dropping the Nosedeenian and following it.
-()-
Ignoring the fact that Malice was the only other one to notice the Nosedeenian problem and no one heard his screaming, EightEight would say that recapturing the Nosedeenians was so far going just swell. Swell, that's an odd and faded word.
She looked at Kevin who was now staring at the Nosedeenian from a distance. Gwen was messing with the Omnitrix before a green light surrounded her. "Selket!" a slimy, hissing voice said as the light faded. The Lepidopterran flew towards where Conductash ran off too, wings flickering like crazy.
She tapped Kevin on the shoulder, causing him to look at her. "Yea?" Kevin asked. EightEight pointed to his eyes, then the Nosedeenian. Kevin nodded slightly before EightEight ran to follow Conductash, Malice, and Selket.
The Sotoraggian found the trio quickly before freezing up. What was once just maybe one Nosedeenian was now a massive spark of around sixty. Conductash zipped around, quickly grabbing and draining them, before letting go and moving to the next. Selket flew around the spark, shooting her biological goo at whichever Nosedeenian dropped like a fly to the ground. Looking into Conductash's eyes, she just saw pure, unfiltered, hungry joy. Course, it still held back, this was Ben afterall, but it seemed as if he let the Draiap's instincts have more control. She then saw Malice, blinking slightly as he forced drained Nosedeenians to fuse with one he held with him. The Nosedeenian Malice held was wrapped in some odd, pale yellow sheet, along with dripping with goo.
EightEight stepped back slightly before noticing a Nosedeenian get kicked next to her. She turned around, seeing Kevin holding what seemed like a stick, she had no idea if it was a stick, it looked too pipe-ish to be a stick, yet too bendy to be a pipe.
He looked at her and said, "This thing kept trying to steal from me, so I decided to bring it to the mess to get it to stop."
"... Do I want to know how?" EightEight gurgled, glaring at the odd human. She heard Conductash let out a thrill of laughter, but the Sotoraggian ignored it. Kevin tilted his head, looking briefly at her before pushing the Nosedeenian with the pipe-stick thing. The small creature thrashed, trying to grab the pipe-stick, but Kevin pulled it away as soon as it began to fus.
Malice grabbed the thrashing Nosedeenian and stuffed it into the one he was holding. The Appoplexian looked at Kevin, then to EightEight, before jumping back to what he was doing before.
A shrill beep came from the spark of now roughly twenty before being followed by a harsh, green light. The Nosedeenians not drained cheered with high pitched screeches as Ben fell to the ground, landing on top of Malice. The screeching stopped when Selket knocked one down with a shot of goo, making it slam into a wall. The spark seemed to get riled up at Selket and began zipping around her, some crackling.
"Sorry," Ben muttered, getting off of Malice. The Appoplexian didn't say anything, but did growl at the Nosedeenians.
"What's going on…?" a voice droned, EightEight turning to see the Sparksville mayor.
"Nosedeenians/Nosedeeians," EightEight and Kevin chirped at the same time respectively.
The mayor blinked slightly before sighing, "Someone touched it. No one ever reads the signs."
"No clamshell, Doc," EightEight hissed. Ben looked over at her weirdly, head tilted slightly.
"I don't get that reference," the mayor chirped before lifting a hand to his face. He seemed to tear off his own face, revealing it to just be an ID mask. Under the ID mask was a Florauna, but was more humanoid and spring-ish in nature. "Not that I would care anyways."
".. How in the galaxy do you know Sotoraggian?" EightEight gurgled.
"Mm, blame those two halflings. The Fulmini-Cascan one and the Human-Appoplexian one," the mayor replied.
"That brings up more questions than answers," EightEight pointed out. The mayor shrugged.
"LISTEN UP, BIG SPARK FLUFFING MALICE'S FUR AND ANNOYING BOTH OF US! GET BACK IN YOUR BALL AND DON'T COME OUT!" Malice yelled.
"That sounds so weird out of context," Selket commented, who was near them. Ben ran towards them as Malice dropped the Nosedeenian he was holding and leapt after a different Nosedeenian.
"… Were you always an alien?" Kevin randomly asked the mayor.
"The old one? Nah. Programmed the ID mask and took his place. No idea where the actual one is," the 'mayor' commented.
"Of course Dragua did that," EightEight sighed.
"Mm… don't think it was him. Think it was those weird knights running around," the 'mayor' hummed.
"Hello, a group of angry Nosedeenians running around?" Ben pointed out, popping up next to them and doing a motion with his hands towards the spark.
The 'mayor' stepped towards the spark before lifting himself up with the vines on his back. "Hey!" the Florauna yelled, getting the little electric aliens' attention. "I'll give you an offer, but stop this madness!"
One of the Nosedeenians zipped towards the Florauna, this one being different in the way of having different marks across his stomach. "And what would that be?" the Nosedeenian questioned.
The Florauna stared directly at the Nosedeenian and answered, "If you help Sparksville- I don't care how, as long as it doesn't cause a mess- you don't have to go back into the rubber ball."
The Nosedeenians began to mutter and squeak amongst themselves. Malice scoffed, crossing his arms and glaring at the spark in front of them. Selket landed next to EightEight, Kevin and Ben standing nearby. The leader Nosedeenian went back into the horde during the chatter.
Eventually, the noise died down and the leader Nosedeenian popped back out. "We accept," it stated.
…
"That happened this morning?" Kacje gawked, staring at the Florauna.
"Hey, any chance to drop that stupid mayor persona I'll take, even if it means calming down a group of rightfully angry Nosedeenians," the Florauna said.
"Fair enough," Jewir laughed.
"I swear, you Spring Floraunas are freaking weird," a random nearby marshmallow-looking alien commented.
EightEight stared at the odd pole in the ground, the Nosedeenians zipping down it taking a bit to do so. Shockwolf laid on the ground nearby, some Nosedeenians laying on top of the fluffy electric creature. Kevin was holding one of the smaller Nosedeenians, who happily slept in his arms. Gwen stood next to her, observing the Nosedeenians as they zipped around.
Once all the Nosedeenians- save for the one Kevin held- were gone, the crowd that had formed split.
Ushindi: Only the Secret Saturdays and Generator Rex, though. Sticking close to cannon for any crossovers.
Matt (Guest): The Vladat transformation and the Vladats being dead I know. But so are whatever the Galvan predators I forget the name of and the cannon Nemetrix has that DNA.