I find it hilarious that both of the constant reviewers/commenters (Ushi here and Trinox on Ao3) both basically asked "Does EightEight know Max?" and I don't know why.
The massive bug thing made an unholy noise, shifting as its tentacles wiggled their way back inside of the unholy creature. The planet it was on was dead, drained of life. Small flakes of white stuff fell around it as three creatures on hover pads observed the creature.
"What does it say?" the smallest alien asked. The smallest appeared to be a tiny golden colored bug with a thorned mouth and a white cloth wrapped around its horn. It skittered slightly on the hover pad.
The medium one, with grey skin, blue eyes, and wearing a large white robe and gemstones, glanced at the bug. It then simply said, "This planet is not enough for the Great One. It must move on to another planet, to devour its resources."
The largest scoffed. It had pale purple skin with a mask-like face, piercing yellow eyes, and wore a white Mayan-like garb with golden bands around its wrists and ankles. "It's never enough, is it?" the largest stated, motioning a large hand towards the massive creature.
-(...)-
"Why are we going outside of Sparksville, Sister EightEight?" Ben asked, looking at the Sotoraggian.
"I believe some of the forms may be better suited out here than in the arena," EightEight answered, stopping near a rock. Ben nodded.
"What do you want us to do?" Gwen asked.
EightEight signed, 'Just transform into whoever you want.' Gwen nodded and activated the watch. Ben tilted his head slightly. She pressed down on the dial.
And promptly face planted as a creature that wasn't available before.
"A new alien?!" Ben chirped, practically jumping over while Kevin ran over.
As whatever Gwen transformed into pushed itself up, Kevin said, "It looks like a big yellow pillbug."
The new alien appeared to be a golden yellow colored pill bug with yellowish white skin, dark yellow markings, and near neon yellow eyes. The Omnitrix's symbol was on one of the dark yellow markings near the transformation's chest.
"What's this?" the form chirped, standing a bit before falling on its rum.
"An Arburian Pelarota?" EightEight questioned, coming over to them.
"What was that?" the Arburian Pelarota asked as EightEight and Ben helped the creature back up.
As the Pelarota's claw touched the Predatrix, Ben replied, "Sister EightEight said it was an Arburian Pelarota."
"Its color looks like the sun," Kevin commented.
Gwen grumbled a bit before saying, "You know what, Zorya. That's the first sun-based deity that comes to mind, so Zorya."
"Pelarotas aren't associated with stars," EightEight stated as Zorya gained her footing. Ben shrugged.
"Erm, what do Arburian Pelarotas do exactly?" Zorya asked.
EightEight signed, 'Curl up and roll, near indestructible shell, somewhat sharp claws.' Zorya nodded a bit when she was finished. Ben and Kevin backed away a bit as Zorya curled into an orb.
As Zorya began trying (and failing) to roll, Ben asked, "Do Arburian Pelarotas have predators?"
"Just say Pelarotas, it's easier, most creatures just drop the 'Arburian' part of any species from Arburia," EightEight started, causing Ben to nodd. Zorya began to roll a bit as EightEight continued, "There are quite a few known creatures that hunt Pelarotas. What comes to mind first are Carcharodons, massive sea dwelling creatures known as the Beasts with a Million Teeth. Other predators of the Pelarotas that come to mind are Melvespas, Harpies, Devouriboh, and Multistillo."
Kevin looked up as Zorya continued to make slow progress. In the cloudless sky was a streak, seemingly coming closer. "Any idea what that is?" Kevin decided to ask, pointing at the sky. Ben and EightEight looked towards Kevin before looking at where he pointed.
"Kinda looks like a shooting star," Ben said.
"But we can only see them at night, right?" Kevin added, with a tone of uncertainty in his voice.
EightEight suddenly, and rapidly, stepped back quite a distance back. The duo looked at her as Zorya uncurled and face planted once more. They looked back up as Zorya looked at the three in confusion. A few tense seconds passed before Ben dashed to join EightEight with Kevin following. Zorya looked up before panicking and curling up once more.
What was mistaken as the meteor crashed onto a spot that was near where they once were. Zorya was thrown by the impact towards the trio, crashing into the dusty ground. A massive cloud of dust surrounded the massive object, keeping it from view as it seemed to move.
"What is that?!" Kevin yelled, taking a step back. The dust finally began to settle, revealing the massive tick-looking creature with basically all of it covered by a pale yellow-grey shell.
"No…" EightEight hissed. "They're supposed to be extinct! The Skycontinentals said they wiped them out!"
"What's wrong?" Ben asked, arms near his chest. Zorya uncurled and sat on the ground.
"That's a Sky Eater," EightEight started, clenching a disguised fist. "They're native to the Skycontinent Galaxy and feed off of planet cores. How the pups one is still alive and outside of that galaxy is anyone's guess."
"Wait, so that Sky Eater thing is going to eat Earth's core?!" Ben chirped.
"WHAT?!" Kevin and Zorya exclaimed, looking towards them, though Zorya collapsed onto her back. EightEight nodded.
"What are we going to do?" Ben asked.
"Do you still have your Lifeform Data Pad on you?" EightEight asked. Ben paused for a second before taking on the odd stick and clicking it apart. He held it out, the Sotoraggian taking it and quickly picking up the creature.
Zorya curled into a ball before uncurling to be able to stand up. Kevin came over before Zorya face planted. She groaned before curling again and rolling over to them.
Zorya uncurled next to them and EightEight placed the data pad on the ground. On the screen was the same creature as before them, along with images of other stages and text.
"A Sky Eater's shell is extremely similar to a Pelarota's shell, just a bit weaker. The Skycontinentals got rid of them using these devices called Riftbombs, made of haphazard materials from an area of the Skycontinent Galaxy referred to as Riften. A Riftbomb has an explosion strong enough to destroy a Sky Eater, but they haven't been made since they were said to be extinct," EightEight explained, pointing to the text.
"Then… What do we do?" Ben asked.
"Did Zorya touch the Predatrix?" she asked, looking towards the Human. He promptly activated it, twisting the dial through the options.
He stopped when he came upon a hologram that looked like a spider but with six legs, a stinger, four wings, and antennas. "This one's new," Ben commented.
"Great, a Melvespa," EightEight sighed. She messed with the pad again, going to the page with the Arburian Melvespa. "They use their scythe-like legs to open up Pelarotas then tear apart the skin to turn the Pelarota into what amounts to honey."
"Do you think they'll be able to pry open that thing's shell to get to the inside?" Ben asked. EightEight shrugged. He looked and the Predatrix and pressed down.
In the red light, a yellow skin began to consume him. Once doing so, it began to change his body to that of a wasp. Four wings flickered out as antennas, legs, and the stinger grew out. The Predatrix formed on a collar around his neck as he opened his teal eyes.
The light disappeared. The Melvespa had a pure yellow body with teal eyes, greyish yellow wings, and dark yellow legs, antennas, and stinger. What were the forearms of the legs were more scythe-like in nature. He stood on the ground, antennas twitching as the trio looked at him.
"That's what is supposed to hunt Zorya's species?" Zorya said, blinking. EightEight nodded as Ben looked towards the Sky Eater.
"Any ideas on what you're gonna name this form?" Kevin asked, looking at Ben.
He thrilled, "I'm not too sur~re." The Melvespa walked over to the Sky Eater, looking for a place to start. He came to a spot that was more pink than yellow and began to tap.
The sound of footsteps caused Zorya, EightEight, and Kevin to look behind them, seeing Peregrine-mask and Dungbeetle-mask coming over. Dungbeetle stopped, pulled off his mask to reveal Jewir, before asking, "What happened?"
EightEight signed, 'Sky Eater'.
"That's a Sky Eater? But they're extinct?" Jewir said. EightEight shrugged.
"I guess they aren't," Kevin deadpanned.
"I'm guessing we should be worried about that thing?" Peregrine asked, motioning towards the giant tick. The Melvespa looked over slightly before flying to a better spot and pulling.
Jewir stared at the beast before saying, "If it's allowed to continue, it'll eat Earth's core." Peregrine winced.
"Sister EightEight? Do you think Zorya's shell is strong enough to break the Sky Eater's shell?" Zorya asked, gaining the three's attention. The Sotoraggian shrugged in reply.
"It hasn't been here for long, right?" Jewir started. "I might be able to pull it out if it hasn't gotten a good foothold in the planet yet."
That's when a pure white ship flew down, landing nearby. EightEight stepped towards the ship, taking out a talon as Peregrine, Kevin, and Zorya stared. The Melvespa paused and looked over.
Three aliens on floating disks came out of the ship. The first was a small bug thing, the second looked like a simplified deity in white clothing, and the third was a humanoid with a long white robe. The three stood in size order and observed the creatures staring at them.
A few seconds of silence followed before the third said, "Behold, the Great One."
"Paskanerie," Jewir snapped in his native tongue. The humanoid raised a brow while the bug muttered something under its breath and the deity-like scoffed.
The deity-like proclaimed, "I am Cich the Ciziah. My companions are Weevil the Astroscarab and Mael the Princeps."
"No need for a proper introduction, my friend," the humanoid began. "The Great One has already arrived on this planet. We need not bother with such things."
EightEight snapped something, with greater venom than what Jewir's curse held. The Melvespa recoiled slightly at the tone, word, or both.
A sudden, screeching beep came from Zorya before a red light overtook her. Gwen staggered slightly before coming up next to Kevin.
The humanoid raised a brow as the bug said, "Is… Mael, is that the fabled Omnitrix?"
"Omnitrix or no Omnitrix, a Mestaclodon figure either way," Cich commented.
"If the Great One has chosen this planet as its next meal, then so be it," Mael stated.
The Melvespa flew over and landed next to Kevin and Gwen, wings flickering. "What ar~re they doing?" he thrilled in question.
"You can't just allow this mindless beast to destroy Earth!" Jewir yelled. Peregrine looked at EightEight before the disguised imp took off her mask.
"Yea! This planet has a native sapient species!" Allie chirped, tail swishing angrily.
"I'm not surprised that the Planchakule has a strong opinion on planet dumping, but why in the name of Celestialsapiens would you follow a Sky Eater?!" EightEight added, following Allie with taking off the ID mask.
"… Do any of you understand Sotoraggian?" Weevil randomly asked, looking at the other two. Cich shook his head as Mael made no obvious reply.
"Once again, no matter. So be it if this planet has sapient species," Mael started. It then said darkly, "So did Arburia after all."
"Dear Celestialsapiens, that ate Arburia's core?!" Jewir growled, a small aura surrounding his hands.
"You're angering the Galilean," Cich deadpanned.
"I know, but why should we care?" Mael answered. He was promptly thrown back by a purple glow surrounding him.
Jewir growled as Cich deadpanned, "That's why."
"Dang," Kevin said, taking off his ID mask.
"What are we going to do?" Gwen asked, stalling slightly before following.
"I'm going to go back to pr~rying open the Sky Eater~r," the Melvespa thrilled. "Also, I have a name for~r this: Blyth Honey." Blyth Honey flew back over to the Sky Eater, followed by Kevin and Gwen.
"We'll help," Gwen said. Blyth Honey nodded in reply. That's when the Predatrix began to beep. Blyth Honey quickly landed before a green light surrounded him and he transformed back to normal. Ben stood up before the trio began to search.
An odd, tense silence passed between Mael's trio and the Dragoon trio. Mael got back onto his hover pad and floated back over to the other two, but no words were passed.
Eventually, Mael asked, "Why do you care for this planet so much?"
"Why wouldn't we care for a place we consider home?" Allie snapped.
"The Planchakule has a point," Cich commented.
"Cich! Why are you playing Galvan's Advocate?!" Weevil whined.
"Someone needs to," Cich shrugged.
"Shush," Mael commanded. Weevil followed, but Cich scoffed before doing so.
EightEight briefly looked over towards the Wyrmlings, who were talking amongst themselves, then towards Sparksville. There were some others watching, but they decided it was better not to get involved. She didn't blame them.
Jewir stepped forwards a bit. "Get the nairde off this planet," Jewir demanded. EightEight looked back, threw the mask to the side, took out the other talon, and stepped forward as well.
Mael stared at the Galilean before raising his hands to form a small triangle. EightEight and Allie scattered as Mael thrusted his hands forwards, sending a blue energy wave towards Jewir. Jewir made a motion with his hands, ripping pieces of rock from the ground to crash into the energy wave.
Weevil jumped off his hover pad as EightEight suddenly dashed and kicked Mael off his. Jewir made an odd noise before turning towards the small bug. The tiny thing form a small orb made of greenish goo and quickly skittered atop of it as Jewir lifted himself up into a boulder and began spinning dust and rocks around himself like a planetary ring. Weevil chirped, trying to stabilize the orb, but was easily pulled by Jewir's gravity.
Mael crashed to the ground, quickly using a motion of energy to get back on his feet. He brought his fists together, barely forming an energy shield just as EightEight struck it. The Sotoraggian growled something out as she continued trying to hit the Princeps. Mael winced as his concentration was breached by EightEight shattering the energy shield. She leapt at him, slicing down both talons. One stabbed and ripped through the skin on his head while the other snapped the ropes holding some of the gemstones he wore.
Cich simply watched on, crossing his arms. He scoffed before his hover pad lowered to the ground and he stepped off. The pad quickly transformed into a pocket sized disk, which he grabbed and put away. He looked towards Allie, who suddenly froze near the entrance of the ship the followers came from.
Cich said, "Ignore two intersections, turn right, go forward and that's an engine room." Allie gained a maniac grin and zipped onto the ship. Cich scoffed slightly, muttering, "Planchakules are insanity."
"I have no idea how we can find a place to pry it open," Ben muttered, running his fingers on the shell. Kevin quickly sent a small bolt to the Predatrix before he could go very far.
Gwen paused for a moment, allowing Kevin to give a bolt to the Omnitrix, before she suggested, "Do you think Radiowave will be able to detect an opening?"
Ben paused before he quickly activated the Predatrix and began turning the dial. He found the alien and pressed down, shifting into the Radioscaviger under the cover of the red light.
Radiowave put his paws on the ground before becoming still, single teal feather twitching like mad. A few odd seconds passed before Radiowave walked over to a part of the shell dug into the ground and tapped it with his beak. He squawked before his paws began to dig at the dirt a bit. Radiowave paused and looked over at Gwen and Kevin.
"We have to dig?" Kevin questioned. Radiowave squawked again.
Gwen added, "If it works, it works." She went to join Radiowave. Kevin sighed before following.
Cich looked over towards the Sky Eater, seeing the Radioscaviger, Human, and maybe-human. He hummed but quickly ignored that as the ship's left wing exploded in a cloud of ash. He completely froze up as the ash and smoke covered his back, some getting into his ears.
Mael and EightEight paused, looking over. Jewir suddenly dropped the debris, Weevil making a chirp as he was covered with rubble. The Galilean landed as Mael yelled, "What have you done?!"
"Logic, really," Cich replied, shrugging while lifting an arm to motion to the destroyed wing. Suddenly Allie jumped on said arm, before leaping off with a hammer-looking device in her hands. Cich stared at her, part in 'are you kidding me' and part in 'that just happened'. Mael began to freak slightly before Allie suddenly struck him with the hammer-like, causing an explosion of ash and gunpowder.
EightEight stepped back, looked at Allie, then hissed, "Celestials."
The trio looked over at Cich, who raised a brow. Cich then blinked and said, "Only really joined because Weevil did, but you saw how that's turning out. I'm just gonna get my stuff and find somewhere on this planet to stay. Won't be surprised at all if someone finds a way to kill it from the inside." With that, the Ciziah walked back into the ship.
The trio stared before Allie chirped, "Can we blow up the bug and whatever the mail dude was called?"
EightEight let out a Cheshire cat laugh as Jewir chirped, "No!" Allie let out a devil's cackle to go along with the laugh of the Sotoraggian. Jewir looked at both EightEight and Allie, pale purple eyes staring at the two.
The Sotoraggian recovered first, signing, 'In all seriousness, we need to find a way to get rid of the Sky Eater.' Jewir nodded before Allie stopped laughing and he looked over to the Wyrmlings.
"Looks like they already got a head start," Jewir said, causing Allie and EightEight to follow his gaze.
The trio came over to the Wyrmlings as Radiowave squawked again, turning his head towards the three. Kevin and Gwen followed suit, stopping in what they were doing.
"What are you guys planning?" Jewir asked.
Kevin replied, "Radiowave said he sensed a way into the Sky Eater from around here, it's just in the ground or something like that."
Radiowave hopped away as Allie said, "That's kinda convenient."
"Here," Jewir started, lifting up a hand. Kevin and Gwen quickly got out of the way as clumps of dirt were picked up by a purple aura. Jewir used his powers to move the rock and dirt in the way.
After a few seconds, Radiowave suddenly squawked and jumped in the way. Jewir paused as the Radioscaviger craned his neck down to poke at something revealed.
"That's a weak point?" Gwen asked. Radiowave cawed, seemingly staring at her.
EightEight approached and knelt down. She used a talon to touch the spot before suddenly striking it. A shrill, unholy screech filled the air, causing the six to back away.
"Well, I guess that answers that," Allie commented once they recovered from the sound.
"We should get rid of this quickly," EightEight gurgled and signed.
"You think fire will get rid of this quickly?" Jewir asked. EightEight shrugged.
"We can check," Gwen said, lifting the arm with the Omnitrix.
"Go right ahead," Jewir replied. Gwen lowered the arm and activated the Omnitrix. Quickly, a green light surrounded her and Pele stood. She came up to the spot and released a stream of fire from her hand. The unholy screech happened again, but Pele didn't move back.
"I feel like this will take awhile," Allie commented. Kevin came over, absorbed a bit from Pele, then joined her in the burning.
"Radiowave," EightEight started, causing the vulture-tiger hybrid to look at her. "When they're finished with killing the thing, go into Hexadeca. We need something strong to pull it out of the ground." Radiowave squawked and nodded.
…
The beast's screeching fell into a decrescendo until it was silent. Pele ended her fire stream and smacked her head against the Sky Eater's shell. "I don't want to do that again," Pele complained.
"Why can you transform into the same thing twelve times back to back when the Predatrix can only do ten before doing some failsafe thing," Ben muttered in complaint as well. Kevin scoffed, standing up and crossing his magma arms. Pele did nothing in reply.
Jewir suddenly grabbed Kevin and Pele with his powers, bringing them out of the way before the aura left them and surrounded the now dead Sky Eater. It began to lift up before he stopped it when it showed all the tentacles burrowed into the ground.
"I don't want to risk fracturing the Earth's surface. We may need to pull the tentacles up one at a time," Jewir said. A red flash of light and he glanced over to Hexadeca. Hexadeca walked over to one of the tentacles before digging around it slightly. He then grabbed a tentacle with his lower head's mouth and lifted himself to his back four legs, the tentacle being pulled out a bit. "That works," Jewir commented.
"I can help one Alke is available," Pele said from where she sat.
Hexadeca's upper head said, "This is going to be a pain if the Predatrix does the ten transformations of the same thing back to back failsafe thing."
"There's Rhinorush," Pele pointed out.
"Say times where I use Rhinorush," Hexadeca's upper head replied.
"That robot when we first got the watches, during the training sessions EightEight makes us do," Pele started before falling silent. She then commented, "You don't really use Starray or Rhinorush very much, huh?"
"In Starray's defense, it's a literal stingray, I don't think it'll survive out of water," Kevin commented.
"And Rhinorush is big and tough with basically nothing to show for it," both of Hexadeca's heads added before the lower head lowered to the ground. He bit the tentacles again and lifted up.
Pele groaned, "And if I say 'Rhinorush is immune to fire', you're going to bring up that Goowash exists." Hexadeca's top head scoffed.
"I think it depends on where the fire is," Kevin commented. "Yea, something like a city, go with Goowash. But if it's, like, near some sort of oil rig or something that easily catches fire, then Rhinorush would be better."
Hexadeca hummed before saying, "True."
"This is gonna be a mess," Allie commented.
"Agreed," EightEight gurgled.
…
Others finally decided to approach once they realized that the Sky Eater was dead. With the help, the Sky Eater was pulled out of the ground relatively quickly and quickly ripped into parts.
As Alke and Goowash helped break down the shell, Malice commented, "Good kids, those two are."
Ani whined something from where he was as Jewir replied, "Yea. If anything, I'm glad Dragua got to them before any of those Plumbers could."
Malice scoffed, lifting up a thick piece of tentacle meat. The Appoplexian then replied, "Imagine if they actually know a Plumber but said Plumber never made a move to recruit them."
"All the more reason we should be glad they're on our side and not the Plumbers," Jewir nodded.
"Also, that Plumber would be an idiot," Allie randomly added. Malice laughed, making a toothy grin while Jewir once again nodded.
Ushi: Nah, she just reacted hellishly poorly to what Max didn't do. As for the character that I didn't reveal the name of, for me to know and you to find out.